#this was well set up. there are probably problematic aspects but this was a bisexual experience. it was foreshadowed before the dream | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

time-to-write-and-suffer · 3 years

Note

I wouldn't mind that post on VNs!

So I was gonna write three different lists, but then after writing the first part I realized this is very long and takes a while to write and nobody cares anyway so I’ll just post my recommended list only. Well, I mean, you asked, but I doubt you wanted all this lol. Thank you for giving me an excuse to talk about this stuff, though. Hope you enjoy my ramblings!

An explanation for what this list is: Sometimes I know a game isn't perfect in many aspects but I still had a genuinely good time playing it, hence why I'm recommending it. Also I should mention that I could talk for hours about some of these games so if anyone’s curious about more of my thoughts, let me know.

Alright, now that that's out of the way ...

How to Take Off Your Mask / How to Fool a Liar King / How to Sing to Open Your Heart (f/m): This is a trilogy of smaller, single-RO games where you can take one of two routes depending on how you act, and they’re all interconnected where you get to meet and interact with the previous games’ characters in the sequel games. I went into this expecting very little but what I got blew me away with how funny, charming and cute the games were. They don’t take themselves too seriously, at one point an angsty male character monologues deeply about some shit, and another one just slides into frame and starts mocking him. It was so fucking funny, holy shit. Also, a central theme is literally racism against catgirls? Which is monumentally stupid, and probably the games’ main flaw, especially in the final game where it pairs up a catgirl with a catgirl racist, but that one still ends with a literal bisexual queen literally making a man her malewife because she fell in love with his cooking, so like ... It speaks for itself. My favorite game of the three is the second one, where you get to play a punchy fake catgirl and romance a pink-haired prince. And honestly, all the female protags in these games are lovely and a breath of fresh air, and the male characters are fun and not abusive assholes either. There’s full Japanese voice acting, and two out of three female protags are literal catgirls who pepper in “nya” and “mya” into their dialogue, and it’s just treated as a quirk of their catgirl race. I AM NOT KIDDING. Yet somehow it never comes off as cringe, because it doesn’t take it self too seriously. These games are just cozy. That’s the only way I can describe them. Cozy and hilarious. Play them yesterday. Dream Daddy (m/m): Man tumblr did this game dirty. This is just a cute, wholesome daddy dating simulator with gorgeous art. Coming out on Top (m/m): So you know Dream Daddy? What if it was EXTREMELY, MAJORLY NSFW? Though I realize how bad the comparison really is, the only thing these games have in common is that they’re gay dating sims and don’t have an anime art style and oh, yeah, they’re both really well-written. Or at least, extremely funny. COOT (heh) is DDADDS’ horny older cousin, and I first encountered the game on a lesbian letsplayer’s YouTube channel. Yes I watched a lesbian play a gay porn game and it was GOOD. I was there for the cringe and fun and got surprised by how genuinely funny and sometimes actually touching the game was. I can’t give it my universal endorsement because it’s not a game for everyone, as I said, it’s extremely NSFW and the menu theme literally includes the singers screaming “SEX SEX” at the top of their lungs. There’s more to this game than the porn, but there’s just so much porn. It can be censored in the settings but it’s unavoidable. However, I still think it’s worth a look just because of how funny it is and how charming the characters are. If you don’t want to play it yourself, at least watch Anima’s playthrough of it. It hasn’t aged super well in some spots but I still go back to it every now and then. Akash: Path of the Five (f/m): This game markets itself as a more “professionally produced” western dating sim, and that’s accurate in some superficial aspects. The game is pretty poorly written, but it’s absolutely gorgeous and has really good English voice acting by actual professional voice actors. The premise is quite self-indulgent, but I genuinely respect that about it. You play as the only female elemental in a village with only men, and all five of your classmates want a piece of you. It’s clear the writers have put some thought into the lore and worldbuilding of this world, but barely any of it comes through in the actual writing and plot, which is basically just a vehicle for you to get together with your boy of choice. The ROs aren’t very well-developed either, and the plot is the same in every route with only minor variations depending on which guy you pick, up to the point where the protag has the same voice lines in some parts regardless of which guy she’s talking about. It also has one extra half-route that’s so bad and pointless I genuinely wonder why they wasted resources on making it instead of spending a bit more on the writing/adding some variations to the main plot. So why am I recommending this game? Well, it’s pretty, and it sounds nice. This game is a himbo, gorgeous but dumb as rocks. Enjoy it for what it is. I know I did. Get it when it’s on sale, I think if I hadn’t gotten it at half-price I would’ve felt a bit more cranky about it. Also Rocco is bae. Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons (f/m): Yes that’s the full title, no I don’t know what it means either. You may have noticed how most of the games so far I’ve enjoyed because they don’t take themselves too seriously? Well, this one does. It takes itself SO FUCKING SERIOUSLY. Like, way too seriously. It’s a little embarrassing at points because baby, you’re an urban fantasy dating sim. Calm down. But the game has gorgeous art and 3 out of 5 routes are very good. The last route, the one with your teacher, is both the most problematic yet somehow the one that breaks down the very concept of a dating sim within its own narrative (yes, this shit gets fucking META) and it got so wild at the end that 1) I still listen to the soundtrack for that route and 2) I still remember it to this day despite finishing it ages ago. My favorite route is Shou, he’s a sweetheart, but the mindfuck route is so buckwild that I think the game is worth playing just for that. There’s also a route that’s like a neo-noir mystery? I Do Not Know. This game is many, many things and it does them so sincerely and tries so hard, you can’t help but respect it. It doesn’t always stick the landing but man, just let this thing take your hand and wax poetic at you for a bit. Also get this one at a sale because it’s very expensive to get the full version. I got it for 9 bucks on itch.io and I felt that was a fair enough price, I’d say I wouldn’t have minded paying more for it because there’s a lot of content to enjoy and/or be baffled by. Arcade Spirits: This one’s a bit more weird from what I recall, and I honestly couldn’t tell you much about it, but I remember having a very good time with it and recommending it to a friend when she was going through some tough times and she said it made her feel better. I remember it making me feel better, as well. This is a VN about an arcade and the ROs are wonderfully diverse, with very real human conflicts that get explored in each of their routes. It can get quite existential and heavy at times, but in the end it’s a kindhearted game that I think everyone can enjoy. The main character was also, how you say, mood. It’s a game about getting possessed by a video game and then learning self-love. Ebon Light (f/m): This one’s free/name your own price on itch.io so go play it. It’s a weird plot where you play as a girl who ate an elven relic? And then the elves kidnap you because you’re the relic now. All the ROs are extremely pasty (like, literally white, as in literally the color white) dark-haired elves, except for one, who’s an extremely pasty blond elf, so ... diversity? I honestly don’t know what this game is aside from unique. I used to be a bit put off by the art style but now I think it contributes to the general atmosphere. It’s a weird game that technically doesn’t do anything groundbreaking but still left an impression of “huh. weird” in my mind and I think more people should play it. The ROs are all pretty generic dating sim archetypes but done well, with bonus points to Duliae who’s just a massive creep and I love him, and also Vadeyn who’s the only bitch in this house I respect. The worldbuilding is honestly a bit buckwild and I can’t give enough credit for how unique the elves’ culture is in this game. Definitely give it a go. Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds / Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (f/m): These two are newer releases of an older Japanese visual novel. I wouldn’t call it a dating sim, it’s ... it’s more of a super depressing historical fantasy epic with some minor romance aspects awkwardly wedged in. It’s seriously some of the heaviest and most grimdark shit I’ve ever played in a VN/otome. I don’t understand why it’s a dating sim, it doesn’t read like one, it’s just historical fantasy based on real world events with characters based on real people, and they kill and they die and they grieve and they suffer. The games are literally about the downfall of the Shinsengumi, there’s no way of avoiding everything going to shit and you get to watch and be in the middle of it all as they struggle to stay alive and relevant in a world that doesn’t need them anymore. And there’s the protag in the middle of it all, being useless and submissive and bland just the way the usual otome protag is. I don’t think these games are necessarily fun, and the romance is certainly a lot more downplayed and deeply problematic just based on the age differences alone with some of the men, but the sheer amount of horror and sadness in these games make them stand out above its peers. It’s like watching a war movie. Since most of the characters are based on real people, they feel like real people instead of the usual otome archetypes, and they are so, SO flawed, it’s interesting to just watch them deal with the shit the world throws at them. It’s an Experience, and if you’re up for it, I think it’s worth the time. Cinderella Phenomenon (f/m): This game is free on Steam so go get it. You play as a really, genuinely shitty princess who gets cursed to be poor and forgotten and she has to help one of the ROs break his fairy tale curse so that she can learn about being a good person herself and return to her normal life. This game doesn’t look like much, but it has a genuinely well-written main character who’s actually at the center of each of the stories and in the overarching plot instead of just being around to make eyes at the real protagonists, aka the love interests. Aside from the main character, my favorite part of this game’s writing is how each route slowly but very smoothly expands upon the overarching intrigue. If you play them in a certain order, you get more and more info revealed to you that you didn’t see in other routes, gaps are filled in as you find out more about what actually happened and why, but every route also stands on its own as a full experience and none is more canon than the rest. There’s also some really heavy emotional parental abuse explored, which I found quite potent at times. The romances themselves were alright, I think Karma and Waltz were my faves.

#eff plays

9 notes · View notes

lesbatiddy · 4 years

Photo

The Boys: Frenchie, Terror the dog, M.M., Kimiko, Wee Hughie and Butcher

Wondering whether you should watch The Boys?

Here’s a list of reasons for and against to help you decide if you’re on the fence or have been hearing about it from friends or coworkers.

You may know it as the origin of the Invisible Cunt meme or from this scene.

Overall I feel the lazy problematic aspects are outweighed by how good the show is - this is mostly just to warn people about potential content that’s connected to past traumas, phobias, etc. that they’d want to avoid.

Potential mild spoilers and graphic content warning below

Why you might want to avoid it:

- VERY, VERY graphic. If you’re even a little squeamish, this show might not be you. I’m usually fine with gore, but even I felt it was excessive at times. There’s enough blood to make Carrie look like a fucking teletubbies episode. Heads explode and neck bits flop about. You will see internal organs exposed and people cut in half, piles of bodies and laser vision burns. A man’s face is torn off his skull. A bomb explodes in a man’s ass. Family friendly shit.

- Racially motivated violence against POC and racial slurs

- There’s a literal Nazi superhero who commits said violence and goes on a White Supremacist rant. If you join the fandom you may have to deal with fringe individuals simping for said Nazi superhero

- Rape/sexual assault, both onscreen and mentioned, in addition to workplace sexual harassment and a victim of rape having to deal with abuse and harassment from their rapist

- The woman in a relationship with the main character is Fridged (killed off immediately and used as motivation for revenge). Dead women are motivations for more than one character.

- Drug use, on-screen overdoses, violence against animals, child abuse, kidnapping, and endangerment, discussion and mention of suicide

- Depictions of homophobia; a bisexual women is outed against her will on live television (though this is rightfully portrayed as a bad thing)

- the most HORRIFICALLY DISTURBING FUCKING SEX SCENES

- The show may be setting up for a redemption arc for a rapist dipshit and a man who murders his girlfriend and remains unrepentant for manslaughter he committed. They’re also both being lured into a cult.

- You will feel physical, violent hatred for some of these characters

- You may end up watching the entire show just to watch said characters be graphically murdered to gain closure

- You have to deal with the anxiety of said reviled, hate-inducing characters being extremely dangerous and interact with characters you love and do not want to see die

- Holy FUCK they BETTER KILL THESE MOTHERFUCKERS

- Fucking Nazi shitbag

- /+ You may develop paranoia towards Fresca?

-/+ You may get Billy Joel’s Pressure stuck in your head for a week like I did

- It’s on Amazon Prime so you have to support Jeff Bezos and his shitfuck company, though the show is simultaneously a critic of people like him and corporations? How the fuck does he get away with this shit

Why you should watch it:

+ The premise is people with zero superpowers go around murdering terrible, horrible people with god-complexes in extremely violent ways like a group of homeless insane Batmen and it is very, very satisfying

+ Critiques and parodies how celebrity status and money make people immune to consequences and legal punishment, showcases systemic racism, systemic sexism, offers a not-unsubtle critic of capitalism, biphobia, general homophobia in society and the media, Scientology, corporations, the government’s inability and unwillingness to protect its people, the War on Terror, and politician’s greed and ineptitude - overall very, very relevant today

+ Not unsubtle depictions of how capitalism and nationalism go hand in hand with white supremacy

+ Fantastic writing, other than the flaws mentioned above, phenomenal acting, well-rounded characters you’ll love, the horribleness is broken up by wholesome moments and one-liners top notch soundtrack

+ People of colour in badass roles, disabled character representation, two whole bisexuals the bar is so low but

+ Antony Starr deserves an Oscar for playing the best fucked-up character I’ve ever had homicidal fantasies towards

+ Overall great take on the superhero genre as a whole

+ Karen Fukuhara is extremely attractive (and violent)

+ Karl Urban is extremely attractive (and violent)

+ Better than the comic its based on, don’t @ me

+ They gave “The Female” (Karen Fukuhara’s character), an actual name unlike in the fuckin’ comic

+ Makes fun of Joss Whedon’s bitch ass

+ You DEFINITELY, TOTALLY SHOULD NOT pirate it even if it’s probably easy to do, if you don’t support Am*zon

+ Black Noir

+ The Spice Girls

+ Family-sized lube

+ Billy Joel

+/- Love Sausage

#The Boys #VCU #the boys tv #the boys amazon #tv series #tw #cw #spoilers #tw racial violence #tw sex assault #tw r #tw r*pe #tw violence #tw graphic #tw gore #the spice girls

16 notes · View notes

fandomshatelgbtqpeople · 4 years

Text

mod a’s lgbt musicals

Hi there! I’m a big theatre kid so I thought for pride month I’d put together a list of LGBTQ musicals. Despite its association with queer people, musical theatre is not known for its amazing representation. I’ve put together a list here of musicals I know of with queer characters. I’ve tried to avoid those where the queer characters are incredibly minor roles or those where the representation is just not good enough to be salvageable (*side eyes Legally Blonde*) I know there are many musicals I will have missed out but these are the ones I am most aware of. Feel free to add more! So without further ado, here it is.

Fun Home

The big Tony winner of 2015! Based on Alison Bechdel, a butch lesbian cartoonist. At the age of 43, she looks for new material by trying to explore her past and her relationship with her closeted gay dad. Looks back at a version of herself when she was 10 and a “tomboy” and at 19 when she came out and got her first girlfriend. Has very cute lighthearted moments as well as very sad moments. Has a beautiful song where small Alison sees a butch deliverywoman. Problems in that since the original broadway cast, Alison’s costume has got less butch. Content warning for suicide.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAuesRJm1E

The Color Purple

Based on Alice Walker’s novel about black women in the 1930s. Follows Celie who has been abused by men her whole life who discovers she is a lesbian but also makes a journey of self discovery and learns to love herself. Her love interest is a bisexual woman. Won best revival at the Tonys in 2016. Content warning for discussion/implied sexual abuse.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k2xzQyT2bk

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

A teenage gay boy in Sheffield wants to be a drag queen and go to prom in a dress.Also a nice touch that is does not focus on him having a relationship (since he is sixteen) and him having to come out as he is already out. Focuses on his close relationship with his supportive mother. Has a diverse cast. Jamie is currently played by a black actor and his best friend wears a hijab and has a very diverse ensemble as well. Unfortunately has a part where Jamie responds to a homophobic bully by calling him a bunch of ableist and classist slurs.

Here’s a clip of the most popular song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7C3FuFWDdw

The Prom

Emma is a lesbian teenager in Indiana whose prom is cancelled by the PTA after she requests to bring her girlfriend to it. A group of Broadway actors come down to help her campaign to be allowed to attend prom, as well as styling her, helping her work on her confidence and educating the town’s people. What ensues is basically a two hour musical episode of Queer Eye. Cheesy and fun with so many musical theatre references crammed in. My one issue is that the show is rather harsh on people who are closeted since Emma has conflicted with her girlfriend Alyssa because she is not ready to come out.

Here’s a clip of their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcG_r5xv3E

Rent

Probably the most well known on this list. Artists in New York during the AIDS crisis. Two of the main couples featured are queer: Maureen is bisexual and in a relationship with Joanne who is a lesbian, and Angel is a transgender woman of color in a relationship with Collins, a presumably bisexual man. However, she tends to be played bi cis men and there are instances of her being misgendered by the main characters uncritically. In Rent Live (2019), all instances of her being misgendered were removed and her gender identity was confirmed. She was played in this by Valentina, an nb drag queen and has also been played by Pose’s MJ Rodriguez, a trans woman. Very diverse with Jewish characters and people of colour and in the live show, only 1 of the 8 main characters was white. Has been criticised over the years, mainly for its biphobic portrayal of Maureen who is promiscuous and implied to cheat, but in the 90s did a lot for the LGBTQ community and is more progressive than a lot of media even now.

Here’s a clip of Maureen and Joanne from Rent Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06oCfKYYPTY

And here’s some Angel and Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hl-M94o_x8

Falsettos

Marvin comes out as gay in the late 70s but decides to move his ex wife and son in with his boyfriend. Addresses AIDS crisis in Act 2. Has “lesbians from next door” in act 2. F Revived on Broadway in 2016. All of the characters are Jewish. Unfortunately, in revival casts, very few actors tend to be Jewish.

Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnAHOdMQVk

Come From Away

In the aftermath of 9/11, 38 planes are diverted to a small town in Canada called Gander. Shows people of different races and nationalities bonding in a scary time. Addresses Islamophobia. Has one song called Prayer where prayers from different religions overlap. Has an interracial gay couple called Kevin and Kevin. They break up in the end but are very important characters. Won best direction of a musical in 2017. The Broadway production starred Jenn Colella who has referred to herself as ‘mostly gay’.

Here’s a clip of Jenn Colella singing a song from the musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ukgH6U-d0

Head Over Heels

Honestly I don’t quite know what this musical is about, even by reading the plot summary and listening to the soundtrack. I know it’s set in a Tudor fantasy world and that there are wlw couples as well as an explicitly non binary character, played by Peppermint, a trans woman, and that there are interracial couples and plus sized actors. It is a jukebox musical using songs by the Go-Gos and yes the wlw anthem that is Heaven is a Place on Earth is one of them. The soundtrack is fantastic even if you can’t follow what is going on.

Here are some show clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx2qQ7QAPm0

Spring Awakening

German school kids in the 19th century discovering their sexuality. Two of the schoolboy supporting characters, Ernst and Hänschen, have a romance when they have a reprise of an earlier song in Act 2. A BIG content warning as it has graphic discussions of rape and songs about it and a sex scene with very dubious consent. However there was a very wonderful 2016 revival using deaf actors and sign language.

This is another one you can very easily find the full show of on YouTube which I won’t link. However here’s the Tony performance for the revival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSagsMcak4Q

If/Then

A woman named Elizabeth (originally played by Idina Menzel) moves to New York after a divorce and contemplated how different her life would be if she took two different paths. Four supporting queer characters. Her ex-boyfriend is bisexual and played by Anthony Rapp (who is bisexual in real life) and he gets a boyfriend in one timeline. Another of her friends is a lesbian called Kate who marries her girlfriend in the musical. Problems occur as in both timelines, cheating goes on in the lesbian relationship although they stay together in one. Elizabeth also says she doesn’t believe in bisexuals, a view no one ever challenges her on, however Lucas is very clearly bisexual which is some proof for the audience that she is wrong.

I’m not going to link it here but there are many very high quality bootlegs on it on YouTube if you want to watch,

Ghost Quartet

A bit of a weird one. This is more of a concept album. There are four performers who each play instruments and they tell the stories of many interconnected timelines. It is very hard to explain but there are souls travelling through time who keep being reincarnated as different people with different relationships to each other which usually end with one woman killing the other. In the song Soldier & Rose, the ghosts Rose and Pearl are lovers as Rose seduces the soldier for her honey. In the song Four Friends, for one chorus the men sing “I like to put my hand on a pretty girls’s knee” and the women sing “pretty boy’s knee” and then they switch for the next chorus so they’re all bisexual. In general, a lot of fun if you like weird musicals and I mean really weird.

The full show is online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJSaEJm8pCE

Mean Girls

Yes there’s a musical of it. I was not looking forward to it when it was announced but have actually grown to quite like it. It’s hardly lyrical genius but the songs are fun and a lot of the problematic aspects of the film have been fixed. Damian is more explicitly gay in the musical and sings about an ex boyfriend in one song. Janis is heavily implied to be a lesbian (confirmed by actress offstage) and she doesn’t end up with Kevin Gnapoor. She is played by a queer actress in the tour cast. Both queer characters are much bigger roles than in the movie and get several songs each. I’d consider the musical to be quite white feminist but it does address issues such as the sexualisation of teenage girls and the notion that to be ‘sexy’ is ‘empowering’.

Here’s a clip of one of Damian’s songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zM6QKkxEQ

& Juliet

An English jukebox musical about what might have happened to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet if she had not died at the end. I haven’t seen it but I’ve listened to the soundtrack and it is mainly comprised of 21st century songs by women. One of Juliet’s best friends is non binary although is played by a cis man as far as we know. Also I went to the same school as one of the actors which is a bonus for me. Very diverse cast.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm2k9nS3o20

In Transit

A capella musical about several people’s adventures on New York public transport. Two of the main characters in this ensemble cast are an interracial gay couple where both are pocs. They are engaged but one of them is having trouble coming out to his mother. I found it refreshing in that his fiance for the most part was not upset with him at his struggles in coming out and they were both able to live fulfilling lives despite this. I am always astonished by the talent of a cappella singers.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhvik6qoass Another one where the bootleg can be found very easily on YouTube

Firebringer

Remember A Very Potter Musical? Well, the company that did that are still putting out new pieces of theatre on their YouTube channel. In 2016, they put out their ridiculous comedy musical Firebringer, about a group of bisexual cavewomen. I won’t spoil the ending but trust me, it’s great. You may know it from the viral clip of one of the main characters singing ‘I don’t really wanna do the work today.’

You can watch the full musical here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmVuNlu0LCk

Special Mentions

Company

Musical by Stephen Sondheim about a man unable to commit to a relationship, surrounded by his friends who are all in couples. However, the award-winning 2018 West End revival chose to change the genders of some of the characters. The main character Robert became ‘Bobbie’ (although all of her love interests were gender-swapped as well). One of the originally M/F couples became an M/M couple. It opened on Broadway for about a week before the Covid outbreak so that will be one to look out for.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtDK03y4gT0

In the Heights

A musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the Latin American community living in Washington Heights in New York. The original theatre production has no explicitly queer characters. However, in the upcoming movie version (that was meant to be released this summer but has been pushed back to next summer) it has been confirmed that the characters of Daniela and Carla (Daphne Rubin-Vega and Stephanie Beatriz) will be explicitly a couple.

I absolutely love this musical and the trailer for the movie looks beautiful check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CL-ZSuCrQ

#mod a #musicals #theatre #lgbtq rep

35 notes · View notes

gastrobrack · 4 years

Text

Brave New World 2020 review from probably the biggest fan of the book you’ll meet in your life

(Mostly Spoiler Free) Okay so. I’ve been waiting for this show for a really long time because I absolutely love the book and it means a lot to me. My standards were admittedly pretty low because it can’t get worse than the 1998 movie, so I didn’t really mind when I saw the trailers and stuff where other people were complaining.

TL;DR I thought the show was actually pretty enjoyable, but you have to read the book first in my opinion, or else it seems like it would be hard to follow at times. Where the show really screwed up royally was Mond’s storyline, which felt completely out of place and confusing, and when it ended up dominating the end of the final episode it just kinda ruined the story for me. The show is definitely more focused on the setting and characters than the societal predictions and themes of the novel, and for me that’s okay because we have the book to tell it better anyways. I’d say watch it if you liked the book or are curious about it, but I don’t think it would really be enjoyable for the average viewer.

Side note: I watched this in the wee hours of the morning and some of the praise might just be the special interest talking, I’m just happy to be here and get more content

That being said, I think this show is like the Riverdale of Brave New World. However, in its defense it’s at least got the energy of the parts of Riverdale like the “epic highs and lows of high school football” and the “serial killer gene”, so it’s at least pretty funny. Personally, I knew that they would have to change a lot both to adjust for the longer runtime (around 9 hours) and to make the book enjoyable to a TV audience, because of course in the book you can have 2 chapters of exposition at the beginning and that’s not as enjoyable for a TV experience. So, let’s get into the pros and cons of the show!

PROS

-I really liked Bernard! In the book he means a lot to me personally (hell, I’m writing this while listening to my Bernard playlist) so I was of course kinda worried they might screw him up again like they did in the ‘98 movie, but I was pleasantly surprised! They did change him and divide his original personality between John and Lenina, but somehow they managed to create a new Bernard that both kept me on my toes and at the same time felt authentic and likeable!

-Honestly, almost all the characters were done very well. They were all expanded upon in an interesting way while also staying generally pretty accurate to their book counterparts. I generally felt the same about them as I did with the novel, so I think that means they did a job well done. I think that John and Lenina were very different, but they still ultimately had the same general motivations. A lot of the cast’s interactions felt very natural, and I liked that they expanded upon Lenina and Fanny’s (or Frannie as she’s called here) friendship.

-The show looked great, I know a lot of people really didn’t like the look of it because it wasn’t what they thought it would be when they read it, but for me that’s basically exactly what I imagined it would be. The costume designer clearly had fun making a bunch of outlandish outfits for everyone to wear and it’s all very pleasant to look at.

-I think they did a good job fixing some of the problematic elements of the book without actually damaging the integrity of the things they were changing. For example, in the book, the savage reservation is quite literally just a native reservation, written in a way that clearly suggests Huxley didn’t really put a lot of thought into his depiction of real people. In the show, it’s a theme park where British people get to immerse themselves in the cultures of the old world, with the savages themselves being poor theme park workers reenacting events to shock and mystify the Brits. Now, admittedly, I think this makes a lot more sense as it ties into the consumerism that runs deep within their society. I know some people are mad about this because they think it’s cancel culture or something but honestly it’s not a big deal to me.

-This one might not be as important to some people, but I liked that the cast was pretty diverse, and the fact that John is the only straight one honestly made sense to me considering it would be in the World State’s best interest to encourage bisexuality amongst its citizens. Some of the characters (Helmholtz and Mond) are being played by women, and some people are kinda upset about that but I don’t really think it changed too much, although to me it is funny to think the showrunner thought he was doing something by “casting women of color to play white male characters” considering everyone I know who read the book didn’t picture either of them as white.

-Honestly, I think the show did humor very well. It was very funny in a sort of dry way, and never felt forced or out of place. It all seemed like it naturally stemmed from the characters’ awkwardness and culture shock (on both sides) and it made me really happy as someone who loves all these characters to see them make me laugh.

CONS

-Now, I’m not usually one to complain about this too much, seeing as I love the book in a non thematic and academic context, but the message kinda got lost in all of it. I think the issues they brought up certainly were there, and could lend themselves very well to being good. The writers just focused on the entirely wrong things in the last episode, and that misguided focus completely changes the lens in which the rest of the show is retroactively viewed for me.

-Mustapha Mond was just, where do I even begin. In the book, Mond doesn’t show up much except to provide exposition, and his position as an authoritative figure ultimately moves the plot towards the end of the novel. In the show, Mond gets this weird AI plotline that makes no sense, as in this version they have a sort of internet contact lens type system that allows them to connect to everyone else, and it is powered by said AI. The system itself doesn’t bother me as much as how poorly handled this plotline was. Not only was it completely random and was the only plotline in the show not to have some sort of roots in the events of the book, but it was extremely confusing to me. This leads into my next point, which is:

-The ending. Oh my God the ending. Now, look. I’m not gonna say much because I want this to be as spoiler free as possible, but the ending just honestly was a dumpster fire. The writers chose to focus the whole ending on the aforementioned AI plotline, despite the book providing a much more solid framework for an ending that they already seemed to be setting up. This shift in focus comes very late into the final episode, and it honestly doesn’t make any sense why the writers would really want to go this route. It feels like they were just adding things that didn’t fit into the story, and I can’t really discern why except for the possibility of setting up an unnecessary second season. I love the book, it’s my special interest, but I think I speak for everyone when I say we do not need a second season especially if its gonna be full of plotlines that make no sense and serve no purpose. This heavily changed ending not only undermines the whole thematic purpose of the novel but honestly kind of goes actively against everything the book was trying to say in the first place.

-They really don’t set up any of the world building, and although I caught on very quickly due to my familiarity with the book, it seems like it might get confusing for unfamiliar watchers. In the book, they explain their process for birthing and then conditioning children into their social body very in depth before they get into the actual plot and characters, and I think this show could have used some of that. Here, they talk a lot about conditioning but don’t actually explain what the conditioning is or why they have the caste system in the first place.

-This is a minor disappointment more than anything and I didn’t actually notice till about the second episode, but there’s no more Ford talk, which is kinda disappointing cause it was pretty fun in the book.

-Obviously it goes without saying that there’s sex in this, I mean it IS Brave New World. However, in this one, it just feels excessive and kinda just like it’s there for shock value more than anything.

-This isn’t really a con so much as it is just a disclaimer, I know a lot of people are excited for Demi Moore as Linda and Joseph Morgan as the new character CJack60, but don’t get your hopes up too much, they don’t get to do much. If you read the book, you’d know that about Linda but I’ve seen reviewers get upset that she wasn’t in it more when she was one of the big names attached to the project. (FWIW she did a great job and I loved Linda in this whereas I didn’t in the book) As for CJack, he spends a lot of time just standing there and looking at things and doesn’t get to do much until the last 2 episodes or so.

CONCLUSION

As someone who really loves the book’s setting and characters sometimes even more than the actual messages and predictions, I’ve always wanted an adaptation that focuses more on those elements, especially since that would make for an easier transition to the screen. Seeing this was a very nice breath of fresh air, because it embraces the inherently satirical and dare I say funny aspect of the story, as well as the characters’ individual quirks and distinct personalities. Obviously it’s not as hard hitting and important as the book, but I think those messages were better left in book form anyway. For someone like me, who loves the book with all my heart, this show honestly gave me most everything I wanted and it felt the most true to the spirit of the book’s world and characters out of any of the adaptations. I would say check out the show if you’re interested in it or enjoyed the book, but you should definitely be familiar with the book before you watch this.

#brave new world #sorry this is so long #i pulled an all nighter to watch the show as soon as possible and im running on 2hrs of sleep #anyway stan bernard!

18 notes · View notes

holaafrica · 4 years

Photo

How to be a good LGBTIQ+ Ally https://holaafrica.org/how-to-be-an-lgbtq-ally/

How to be an LGBTQ-ally

These are some of the questions many ‘baby allies’ are burning to ask and, much as they are interesting, they aren’t always helpful. Being an ally can sometimes be tricky: knowing when to not cross a boundary, when to shut up, and when to step up can take time to learn.

‘Ally’ is a term used to describe someone who is supportive of LGBTQ people. This includes non-LGBTQ allies as well as those within the LGBTQ community who support each other, e.g. a lesbian who is an ally to the bisexual community.

How can you be an ally and support? Here are some dos and donts.

Dos

Understand that their entire life is not their sexuality

When people come out to others, often their entire identity starts to rotate around them being queer. Although this is an important aspect of their lives, it is not their entire life. They are still everything you knew them to be/everything they are. Someone doesn’t stop being a doctor/writer/dope dancer just because they are gay. It is important to engage with all facets of a person’s life.

Just think about yourself: who you are attracted to doesn’t affect how you treat your parents or how well you did in school.

Be honest about your limits

Knowing queer people doesn’t make you an expert. Often people are quick to think they know about/can speak on queer peoples’ behalf and get it so wrong, whilst not engaging with their own prejudices and biases.

Be open to learning about the unique and diverse experiences that make up the lives of queer people, especially those of people on the continent. This will often vary from country to country, from context to context. It will certainly be different from what is depicted in Western shows to quite a large extent.

Listen

This is probably the most important point. When, as a queer person, one discusses sexuality or LGBTIQ issues, one of the key things is to be seen and heard. Be it coming out to another person (or even dealing with sexuality themselves) or discussing issues focused it is important to centre their experience. As an ally, the first instinct will be to jump in and ask a whole bunch of questions (some of which can be intrusive) or make observations. However, listening to what they want and need to tell you should be top of your priority. Queer people are the ones ‘in the know’, so it is often best to let them lead the conversation about queer things. Take your conversational cues from them.

Also, those who listen learn more.

Be supportive

Although you may feel that saying things such as ‘I know one other gay person! Should I hook you up?’, ‘I love Janelle Monae so much more after she came out as queer’ or ‘I would totally hook up with a girl’ is a show of support but often it is not. If you are to be an effective ally, meet the queer person where they are at because being part of the LGBTIQ community is not simply partying, trying to find sex or pop culture references. There is so much more to engage with, as is the same with all lives, so show support for all of it. Find out about the intricacies of a person’s life, be it the activism they are passionate about, the personal issues they face or if they are interested in being ‘a super gay’.

Do your own research

Sometimes, the questions can get a little bit much, and although you want to find out everything from your friend/loved one/family member, it might be best to also use the blessing that is Google. Sometimes reading various sites that look at the queer experience gives a broader view, more information and also a starting point to have conversations.

Donts

Don’t be nosy about their sex life

Queer sex can seem strange and exciting and now having a queer person in your life can make you think you now have a sexy kinky Wikipedia at your fingertips. It is okay to speak about sex. It’s not okay to dissect someone’s sex life because it is ‘fascinating’ or ‘bizarre’. Chatting about coitus over some wine in a social setting where everybody is sharing and learning is fine but do not make someone a spectacle because they have sex that is different to yours. But on that note: it’s okay to get tips.

Don’t use their queerness for your entertainment

Some people often mistake being an ally as shouting ‘yaaaaaaaaaaassssssss queen’ at gay men and offering to make out with lesbian women. It’s not simply about having a fashion-forward friend or someone to give you tips on eating vagina right. Always remember that your queer friend/loved one is not a prop to add to your ‘woke’ starter kit but a whole human living a life that is not there simply to give your life a dash of glitter. Also, being an ally does not allow for homophobic/problematic jokes.

Being an ally is a constant process of learning, but this is the first step – often the most important one. But also remember you do not get a cookie for being an ally, yet it is really the decent thing to do.

*leave a comment on the post, you can write it under a different name and your email will not be published.*

To submit to HOLAA! email [email protected]

#Ally #IDAHOBIT #LGBT in Africa #Politics &amp; Lifestyle

3 notes · View notes

claire-de-macarune · 5 years

Text

Get ready kids because somebody called for all the Hayley Kiyoko asks

sleepover: have you ever liked a friend as more than a friend? did you tell them? if it was in the past, do you wish that you told them?

Ugghhhh yea. I’ve told some and not others. The current one is rough because she’s straight (?) and we talked about her boy problems and i just wanted her to be happy, so i worked some fairy gaymother magic and now they’re dating which is… yeah.

I just kinda sucked it up and made a playlist into which i deposit all my sad gay pining. It’s about three hours long and Sleepover is the first track.

curious: do you drink? what’s your favourite drink? what drink isn’t your thing?

I am a connoisseur of fine juices. ;)

I’m a big smoothie girl, so a mango smoothie bubble tea is probably my fave. I like sodas or bitter things, for the most part. I’m a wine mom type and definitely think that it will be my alcohol go-to once I’m of age,

girls like girls: what’s your sexuality? how did you discover it? or have you just always known?

I’m a lesbean. :)

My first crush was Daphne from Scooby-Doo (i’ve given you that information, now use it wisely. by which i mean, don’t use it. please god.), so that was a landmark. I kind of always subconsciously know, but growing up I didn’t actually know what being LGBT+ was because my parents never made a big deal about it. We have straight friends, we have gay friends, so I wasn’t aware that sexuality and discourse around it was even a thing until I was around twelve.

feelings: how do you think others perceive you? how do you perceive yourself?

People find me intimidating because I’m confident, intentional, verbose, and organized. That’s how I like it.

I alternate between between our class emotional support animal and class cryptid, and it’s the most fun thing ever. I am both mom and monster muahahaha

gravel to tempo: have you come out to anyone? if yes, who was the first person you told? if no, do you want to? who would you tell first?

I don’t actually remember first coming out to anyone in particular. There was one time when my group of friends (3 other girls) and i were having a sleepover and they were all like, “we’re bi” and i was like “what’s that” and they were like “we like girls too” and i was like “cool. i mean, personally i think boys suck and look like potatoes carved by a toddler and when i entertain the notion of kissing or marrying one i would literally rather eat sandpaper for the rest of my life, but cool” and they were like “how are you so comfortable with this? a lesbian GOD!” and i just went with it.

(for the record, it wasn’t a trendy thing and they were really scared and all felt really gross about it bc their religious families taught them that being gay was wrong and didn’t talk about bisexuality at all so i went out and did some research and came back and assured them that everything they were feelign was valid and okay and we were really safe spaces for each other in that shitty middle school time when everything is just awful. nothing but love and respect for my first priestesses and bi babes!)

pretty girl: who was the most recent crush you had? do you still like them? did you tell them/do you want to tell them?

(see sleepover. this song is also on the playlist.)

what i need: who are your favourite gay artists? what are your favourite gay songs?

Well, Hayley Kiyoko (obviously), Janelle Monae, and King Princess are the big ones. I’m always open to hearing more! Honorable mentions to “Know Your Name” by Mary Lambert, “Crimson and Clover” by Joan Jett, and the soundtrack of Fun Home (even though it’s got some problematic things with predatory gays) because I cry every time I listen to it, especially on “Changing My Major”, “Days and Days and Days”, and fuckin “Telephone Wire” (“Come to the Fun Home” is a whole bop. Only gay in that I, a certified gay, enjoy it.)

ease my mind: what makes you feel at peace? what is your perfect future like? what do you do at the end of a long day to unwind?

Reading, writing (in theory lol), drawing, and singing relax me (dance too, but I’m not allowed to do it anymore cuz I’m broken). I also recently started teaching myself the guitar.

I don’t really have a set perfect future, but honestly, I’d take one in which we avoid nuclear winter, world war III, and climate change. The more I think about growing up, the more skeptical I become about whether I’ll actually get to do it and that’s insanely scary.

let it be: who was your worst heartbreak? have you ever been in love? do you even believe in love?

TW: suicide

One of my best friends (⅓ of my nervous bi darlings) ended her life almost two years ago. So that fuckin’ messed me up.

I don’t know. Usually, I’d say I think I’m kind of young to really even know how, but that’s not quite true. I guess I’ll say that I have loved but I haven’t yet been in love. Theoretically speaking, there’s so much of my life ahead of me that the probability of having that experience so early, especially with a limited romantic pool (being a queer poc in the south), is low.

And I’ve just recently fallen in love with myself, thus heightening my standards. I’ve been awful about getting into relationships in the past because i was afraid of saying no and hurting that person’s feelings, but lately i value my own happiness above the appeasement of others to my detriment. I just feel like I’m still learning and getting comfortable in that space, and the opportunity hasn’t really presented itself yet. But i think that it’s possible, someday. I’m a hopeful hopeless romantic.

cliff’s edge: what’s on your bucket list? where would like to travel? what makes your heart race?

I want to try everything at least once. I want to learn how to be the truest, most fully-realized version of myself I can. I don’t have a set list of life, I just hope it will be some kind of spectacular.

I want to see the world. Everywhere. But beyond that, I want to be a part of it. I want to be a true global citizen, experience a life past myself every day. I dream of having the freedom to continuously explore and grow in hopes of doing some good, internally or externally, along the way.

he’ll never love you: were you ever in denial about your sexuality? were you ever in denial of a crush? do you like to talk about your crushes to your friends?

Not denial, per se, I just didn’t know what was going on. It was a pretty straightforward, comfortable call once I had the information I needed.

I’m able to employ logic in most situations and strip myself of an unwanted crush using that, but most i’m aware of and suffer in silence.

Yesss. I’m bad at making those kinds of decisions by myself and having people who genuinely care ask me questions or even just talk to me about it helps me process. Often, this results in being teased about said crush, but I don’t mind.

wanna be missed: how dependent or independent are you in a relationship? do you like a lot of space, or a lot of intimacy? how do you feel about electronic (vs face to face) communication?

Ummm, I kinda tend to lead, just because that’s what I’m accustomed to. It’s a role I fill because everyone else avoids it in the other arenas of my life, so I’ve mostly been independent and directing in my relationships. This last one actually threw me for a loop because the dynamic was flipped; they were so sweet and thoughtful and proactive in romancing me i didn’t really know what to do with myself. I’ve gotten over the initial shock (now, what, 5? 6 months later?) and found that I liked that too.

I like a healthy balance of distance and closeness. Fun fact: my love languages are quality time and physical touch, so when i’m with someone i pretty much just want to cuddle with them all the time. I don’t know, it really depends on the person and the relationship and whatever is going on with me individually.

I’m cool with digital communication, but i’m also a granny when it comes to technology so I can have a little trouble with more nuanced text/social media culture. Also, my phone is always on silent (not even vibrate, because i’m wacky like that) so if you want an immediate answer, face-to-face is better. Also the physical touch thing, also that way i can read expressions better.

Bonus: i can also hold your hand and kiss your cute face!

under the blue/take me in: are you happy where you are right now? if you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? what’s your favourite aspect of yourself?

I mean, I’d rather not be in constant debilitating pain, I (apparently) have some tangling with anxiety i need to do, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I’m a lot better than I have been, and I’m grateful for that. I don’t know if true happiness is a consistent, determinable state, but I take what I can get.

I don’t think there’s one big thing I would change. It’s more like a handful of small things. But if I had to choose, I’d fix whatever is wrong with my spine/neck/whatever. I feel like I’m on the cusp of my life finally beginning and I’m trapped by something as trivial as my body. It’s exhausting and I really need it to be over. It feels selfish, but I could do the most good for myself and others if I could put this behind me.

Favorite aspect of myself? That’s like asking me to pick a favorite book! Or child! Impossible: that’s a trick question. Sure, she’s a batshit, messy bitch, but I love myself. She and I are in it for the long run. ;)

palace: who is your favourite memory? what’s your favourite story with/about them? why don’t you two speak anymore?

The first girl I ever loved is mostly a memory now. It’s hard to pick a favorite story about her, but our first kiss story is pretty soft and gay, kind of like something out of a fairytale or a tropey fic, so I guess I’ll say that.

We had just finished seventh grade.

Some background: That April, we went to D.C. for our annual class trip. There were ten of us and only four girls, so we all shared a hotel room (and they were roommates!) We split the beds (we’d all known each other for seven years, it was just like sharing with a sister) and stayed up super late, intermittently playing truth or dare and talking about life. She and I philosophized into the early morning (there was only one bed!!), she told me she liked me, and I fell asleep before I could do anything about it. Apparently, we ended up cuddling, because when I woke up, i was warm because she’d wrapped around me (and drooled down my collarbone, but whatever).

Okay, so, every spring, after graduation, our school had a picnic at the park down by a shallow length of the river where the kids would swim after lunch. We hadn’t done anything about our feelings yet, and I was leaving for another school. She took me around the bend in the river and we swam into the basin there. She wasn’t as strong a swimmer as I was, so she put her arms around my neck, and I held us both up in water deeper than both of us were tall. She said she was going to miss me, and then she kissed me. For a while.

Then, we saw a snake and frantically flailed to shore, laughing until our lungs hurt.

We don’t talk anymore because she became mentally unstable soon after that, and it wasn’t safe for either of us to continue interacting. I’ve seen her a few times since, but I don’t anticipate that we’ll ever be that close again, and that’s okay.

mercy/gatekeeper: what was a difficult time in your life? what did you do/what are you doing to get through it? who has been the most helpful?

molecules: have you ever lost anyone close to you? if yes, how did it feel at the time and how does it feel now to talk about them? do you fear death?

TW: suicide

One of my childhood best friends killed herself in the first month of our freshman year. It was totally out of the blue, and the timing was absolutely horrible. I was just getting everything I wanted, I was having the time of my life and then everything just stopped in its tracks. Except it didn’t. The world kept turning and she was gone and I had lab reports due and she was gone and there were play rehearsal and holidays and deadlines and life incessantly barreling forward and she was gone. I woke every morning with a pit in my stomach, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat. It was like something had been cut open inside me and life was just pouring out behind me but I couldn’t feel any of it. And no one else around me seemed to care. Every day I felt like I was dying. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe, and everyone else had a smile on their face and laughed like it was nothing and complained about stubbing toes and bad grades and fighting with their parents.

I don’t really know how I got through it. I mean, I went to therapy, but it didn’t really help. I couldn’t talk to people about it, even when I wanted to. I couldn’t cry for the longest time. I wrote about it some. I left her voicemails. I raged through glass recycling. I guess I just trudged on, dragged myself onward because stopping wasn’t an option. Because if I did, even for a moment, I wouldn’t have enough strength to start again.

I’m better now, I guess. I can talk about it and her and I feel mostly human most days, but it’s still a presence in my life I wish I could escape. I still don’t know where they buried her.

I do not fear death.

one bad night: do you like casual or serious relationships? have you ever done anything illegal, wrong, or stupid for the sake of love?

Hoo boy, I’m bad at casual relationships. I get too attached (*feelings plays in the background*), and it becomes serious. Oddly enough, it doesn’t really scare people away. The older I get the further I’ll probably get from playful dalliances, but every once in a while, as the stakes are low, I’m down for just having fun and enjoying someone’s company.

palm dreams: do you like parties or quiet nights in? would you want to/did you stay in your hometown after moving out? what’s your ideal saturday night like?

I am an introverted smol, and big parties make me nervous. I can handle and even enjoy the odd bash here and there, but too many too often wears me out. Smaller groups are better, but my favorite size is a book or maybe one other human.

Nooooooo, man, I am going to college out of state, far away, and I am not moving back here. I love my city dearly, but I need to find my own corner of the sky. :)

I love a night at the theatre, preceded by a quiet dinner with a couple close friends and followed by something sweet, some tea, and reading a good book with my feline.

#answer #s #wow #that took a minute #here #have my life story and emotions #@cremlim #thank you thank you #this was fun #i may or may not have cried #in other news #i love hayley kiyoko #don't mind my inconsistent Capitalization

3 notes · View notes

askovertherainbowblog · 5 years

Text

Why Bi+ Isn’t Half-Gay and Why It Matters

For a while I jokingly called myself half-gay. First of all, it really doesn’t matter to me if someone wants to call themselves half-gay. Who knows, maybe I will use that term again one day. The goal of this post is more so to use this term to dive into the psyche of myself a few years ago and why, even though I was attracted to, sexually active with, and romantically involved with women, I considered myself more of an ally than an LGBTQ+ person.

The problem with the idea behind my use of the term half-gay, for what I now call bi+*, is really fundamental. There is nothing gay about being bi+. Wait, what?

Gay has evolved as a catch-all phrase for same-sex activities. “Gay rights” is a catch-all phrase for the rights of all sexual orientations that aren’t heterosexual. “Gay Straight Alliances” are used to describe clubs in schools that support students who aren’t heterosexual and their allies. Many lesbians I know use the term “gay” and “lesbian” interchangeably to describe their sexualities. I also freely use the term “gay” for my own inclinations or attractions when I’m feeling very attracted to women.

The problem with this for people who aren’t monosexual** is that their experiences are interpreted as a combination of heterosexuality and homosexuality. A half-gay, half-straight, so to speak. This ignores anything that makes the non-monosexual different from the gay and the straight. Solidarity has been a gift for many communities. You have probably experienced the feeling of “wait, you have experienced this too?!” when you learned about someone else who shares a similar experience. It can make you feel less alone, less ashamed, and more likely to speak up. Terms like mansplaining or manspreading have become commonplace because they describe the experience of many people –experiences that may have been hard to put a finger on before. Although they are criticized for being such minor issues in a sea of human-rights travesties, if you have heard these terms this speaks to the power of a large group of people having a shared experience and being able to communicate about it. Naming experiences is an incredibly powerful tool. So, back to the half-gay term. Well, isn’t a bi+ just half-gay? A friend of mine used the wonderful analogy of the werewolf. The werewolf is not a human, and she is not a wolf. The werewolf does not cease to be a werewolf regardless of which manifestation she has shape-shifted into. The werewolf is always a werewolf. So whether the bi+ is single, in a same-sex relationship or in an other-sex relationship – they don’t stop being bi+.

Here are a sampling of things that bi+ people experience that is unique to being bi+: not half-gay or half-straight. I have found myself in a conversation more than once where the people I’m talking to define their sexualities by the genders they’re not attracted to. For queer folks this can be a way to signal queerness. A lesbian might make a comment about not being into men, or a gay man will clarify that he isn’t into women. Depending on the circumstance it can be a way of signal to “your people” belonging and to potential love interests that you’re “batting for their team.” Heterosexual folks do the same thing. They will often establish their sexualities with anything from passive comments to more aggressive homophobic comments. For example, “he’s an attractive man, but I’m not saying I’m attracted to him, I’m not gay.” It’s an expression of our sexualities by showing the gender we are not attracted to. This is a bi+ unique experience. I simply can’t relate to not being attracted to someone based on their gender. I can’t signal to the queer folks that I belong by saying I’m not into men. I don’t have the gender-based distaste response I see in many monosexuals.

A potentially unique bi+ experience is my attraction to ambiguous gender expression. The more ambiguous the more likely I am to find them immediately attractive. There is something glorious about seeing someone, checking them out, and being like “wow you are HOT!” and not actually being sure where they fit on the gender spectrum. This could possibly be a shared bi+ experience.

Another unique aspect of being bi+ is that bi+ people mostly date people who don’t share our sexual orientation. Straight people will by definition date straight people, and lesbians/gays will by definition date lesbians/gays.*** Bi+ people can date straight people, lesbians/gays, and other bi+ people. There are much fewer bi+ people than monosexual people in the dating pool, so statistically speaking it’s not as likely for bi+ people to date bi+ people. This means even in a world of misunderstandings about sexuality, many monosexuals can trust they have a shared experience with their partners, this isn’t the same for bi+ people. This can be rewarding, because respectfully sharing differences is always an enriching experience, or it can be difficult as you navigate misconceptions or assumptions. Which brings me to my next point.

Bi+ people unfortunately also have the unique experience of being misunderstood or “othered” by both straights and gay/lesbians. This is one of the shared experiences us werewolves have. These are a sampling of experiences that make the bi+ experience distinct from just being “half-gay.”

The second problem with calling the bi+ person “half-gay” is the implication that the other part of the bi+ person is “half-straight”. This might seem like an innocent enough implication. Bi+ people are in different-gendered relationships all the time, right? The problem with using the heterosexual experience to explain the bi+ experience is, first of all, that bi+ people are not straight. It is generally understood in the queer community that the assumption of heterosexuality is problematic. Queer folks, particularly folks who do not necessarily set of people’s “gay-dar” will have a hard time being seen for who they are and especially seen as queer by other queer people. This is a common discussion point for femme lesbians who are not necessarily read as queer. If this assumption is problematic for lesbians and gays, then it is more than fair to ask that bi+ people are extended the same curtesy.

Secondly, bi+ people are often accused of “straight privilege.” Now, I am very happy to admit the areas of life in which I have privilege. My first post outlines some of the many ways I move through the world in a position of privilege. However, although bi+ identities experience different types of discrimination than homosexual identities, they do not experience straight privilege. This is because bi+ aren’t straight. Wait, what?

Here I would like to follow in the footsteps of a bi+ advocate I respect, Shiri Eisner, and point out the importance of the difference between privilege and passing. A comparison would be useful here. Transgender people often discuss the topic of passing. Passing generally refers to being perceived as a woman, if you’re MTF****, or man, if you’re FTM. The difficulty with passing is that once you are not seen as having the identity you have, i.e. in this case you aren’t seen as being transgendered, there are other risks. Maybe you have a new healthcare provider and they don’t give you all the information you need. Maybe you meet someone at a bar and really hit it off, but now you have to find a way to disclose your identity without knowing what kind of reaction you might receive in return. Maybe you’re in a conversation with other people who see you as “one of them,” and they start speaking poorly of sexual or gender minorities. Maybe you feel scared to speak up, scared to “out yourself.”

Acceptance can feel superficial when you don’t know how someone will actually react if they “find you out.” Of course I am not transgendered, so I can only speculate on the challenges of passing as it relates to gender. But I hope you can gather that passing is obviously not the same as privilege. Having male-privilege and being a trans who passes as male are two vastly different things. Certainly, the trans person who passes will have a different experience than the trans person who doesn’t pass, but again these are not questions of privilege. Similarly, bi+ people may have people assume they are straight, but this is not the same as having straight privilege. Because bi+ people are not straight. The statistics speak for themselves. In many studies, bi+ people fare the worst out of straights, gays and lesbians on many measures of mental health, addictions, and harassment.***** How is it that bi+ people are experiencing straight privilege if they are faring worse than straights, and also worse than gays and lesbians, on many measures related to physical and mental health?

So if bi+ people aren’t “half-gay” and they aren’t “half-straight,” what are they? Well, I’m glad you asked! We are bi+! We are similar: we also love people and want to find acceptance in community. But we are different: we aren’t straight or lesbian/gay, and our experiences are unique. So, call yourself what you like, maybe you’re feeling particularly gay today. But also know that regardless of how straight or gay you feel, you aren’t any less bi+.

Love,

Dorothy

xxoo

*I decided to use the term bi+ because although I use the term bisexual for myself, I want to include other non-monosexual identities. I do not mean to say that other non-monosexual identities are somehow under the umbrella (or below) the bisexual label. I think of it more like a cluster and I’m using “bi” as the primary label because that’s how I identify. Labels are hard, bear with me, and certainly let me know if you have a better idea!

**Monosexuality refers to when you are attracted to only one gender: so heterosexual or homosexual.

***With the exception of dating a bi+ person of course.

****MTF refers to male-to-female, and FTM refers to female-to-male transgendered people.

*****For example, check out the Bi-invisibility Report: Impacts and Recommendations by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission

#dorothy #LGBTQIA #LGBT #QUEER THEORY #QUEER IDENTITY #BISEXUAL #BI #BISEXUALITY #BISEXUAL COMMUNITY #QUEER #halfgay

5 notes · View notes

nightcoremoon · 5 years

Text

"Don't tell the stories of minorities if you're not a part of them" okay I guess

"Don't write soft effeminate trans men if you're a cis man" I mean you have a point there

"Don't write butch masculine trans women if you're a cis man" well yeah it could end badly if you do it wrong but

"Don't write academically inclined asian kids with a rough relationship with their parents" oh so now that race is a part of this if I disagree I'm a racist so yeah don't ever write characters parts of demographics you're not a part of even if you take precautions in order to not have an offensively godawful portrayal because it will always be harmful and problematic. got it. don't bother with diversity ever. in fact don't even write anything. give up on your dreams because it's bad to not write minorities so no matter what you do fuck you and eat a dick.

look I get the whole "don't be a bigoted fuck and stereotype demographics of people" thing. I've read way too much shitty f/f fic written by cishet men who have never spoken to a woman much less fucked one. but like. what the fuck. I've read some really good f/f fic written by cishet men. in fact I read one that had three f/f ships, two f/f/f ships replete with some serious discussion on polyamory, an f/f/m ship, and two m/f ships with all the same levels of quality, and the dude who wrote it is the most cishet human on the planet probably. he also wrote a lot of other fics with f/f ships that were also really good. I mean to be fair the fandom has like 600 female characters compared to like a dozen men but still. he shouldn't be dragged down into the filth and muck just because a lot of cishet white men are fucking idiots and bad writers.

the problem here seems to be that bad writing done by people in the same demographics isn't blatantly offensive, it's just bland garbage. if it's inaccurate or stereotypical portrayals of parts of demographics that are regularly victimized by antirerepredentation, then it's bland garbage and also racist or queerphobic or ableist or whatever. if men weren't allowed to write women because women are disenfranchised compared to men, there would never be any fucking women in media considering media is wrongfully dominated by men because sexism in every industry imaginable. granted women have always been at the forefront, pioneering literally every genre of every medium known, but like. middle easterners, africans, east asians, latin americans, and brown skinned people all over the world invented culture, but that doesn't negate the effects of colonialism (thanks for nothing you asshole british fucks). queer history has been erased countless times but we've been behind a lot of revolutions in history. neurodivergent people as well.

to avoid going on tangents, I totally understand the point being made in the first passages. it's usually a bad thing when cishet white men try to write characters who are not cishet white men. it's usually horribly racist, queerphobic, misogynist, ableist, culturally intolerant, and oh yeah TERRIBLE. but only some of it is done so on purpose. some of them aren't bad people, just bad writers, and literally don't understand other human's perspectives on life.

on the other hand it makes sense being tired of white people writting the same cookie cutter carbon copy stereotype everyone has seen a million times before. and there is the whole "you don't have to portray diversity as long as you fight to make way for authors belonging to underrepresented groups to forge their own creations" aspect, but like. I feel like it's up to people part of majorities to do more than that.

personally, I won't say that I'm a master at all foreign cultures or experiences. I know jack shit and fuck all about islam and hinduism. lesbian [as opposed to just bi/wlw] system of attraction eludes me. I'll never understand what it's like to grow up asian-american or black or latinx. I'm not even sure how a brain without depression and anxiety or autism ever thinks about things. but if I only ever wrote about depressed white bisexual christians, that would be pretty boring and... shit. you know, like most YA novels that are written nowadays. not to toot my own horn here but I wouldn't say that I'm a bad writer. I'm not the best and I wouldn't go so far as to say excellent or amazing but I'm pretty good. okay at least. a little put off by how simplistic and dry and boring as fuck at things that are way too fucking popular for what they are but whatever.

I'm also kind of okay at knowing what's bigoted and what's not. so I'd like to think that when I write about an irish-catholic punk bassist, a gay latina drummer with a degree in electrical engineering, a canadian guitarist, and a korean-american lesbian buddhist who discovered grunge through a google search on western concepts of nirvana, or a black trans man allied with a scottish bisexual, a chinese princess, and a token straight white dude to take down an imperial totalitarian state, or a pawtucket woman smuggling potential rape victims out of 18 century massachusetts, or a japanese time traveling assassin from 1940s america and the russian teenager he saved from sex traffickers joining forces with a bisexual muslim woman to fight french bioterrorists, or a small army of a dozen bulletproof brown skinned lesbians who set off to kill god's evil twin, I'd like to think I'm not being a racist asshole, being a dumb white girl, throwing a bunch of violent stereotypes at a dartboard for the sake of exploitation and fetishism, and just writing characters who I feel have interesting and probably not very often seen in media backgrounds in situations that are usually dominated by boring cishet white people.

but, you know... I'm not trustworthy because I have a character that follows a trope every now and then. guess I'll just throw away all of my notes on every single thing I'm working on and only write the characters that match me perfectly.

wow, this leftover mayonnaise stain sure does seem like it's fun to read.

holy shit literally the only oc I have that's left over is a dead elf... and she's fucking cis.

the end I guess

10 notes · View notes

melsmerleawe · 3 years

Text

I was reading a manga with a set of main characters that were "problematic". The male MC had a male lover while his wife, the FL (female lead) was unbothered and in fact encouraged their relations cause ***fujoshi***. And I just see all these comments upset about why the FL isn't upset at her husband having a lover.

Readers, dear fellow readers. The story already starts with both characters not wanting to be married. Both are nobles and it says (literally in the manga) this world is known for nobles to have lovers. She never expected her marriage to be monogamous (as she fucking says so in the fucking manga). Why would she be upset??? (Again, hadn't met before they got married, they were strangers.)

Instead of the clearly other problematic parts of the story line like torture, drugs, and r*pe that both the MC... and "shockingly enough" the FEMALE LEAD fully condoning this behavior by using these tactics to get what they want, commanding their troops to do these things to prisoners, so. many. comments. About why she's okay with him having a lover.

I'd applaud the writer. By using certain aspects of the characters (bisexual male MC, fujoshi transmigrated FL, comedic tones), they've honed in on exactly what majority of readers would focus on and escaped with the rest of the problematic shit they've shoved into this fantasy world.

This lingering feeling I have over reading these... comments, made me (stupidly) seek out another story that also had a problematic character (that had died). Female MC falls into this complicated relationship with the fiancee of her deceased sister. It's revealed he's been interested in MC the whole time he was (arranged) with the sister. As they are dealing with how they feel about their lives, grieving over the deceased sister, and really finding where they stand on in their relationship, new information appears.

The sister, as she slowly dies from cancer, finds out her fiancee likes MC. The sister was obsessed with her fiancee (even when it is ***obvious*** he had no feelings for her) convinced MC to commit suicide after her death to prevent them from being together.

(They get together even after knowing this info but after some deeeep soul searching.)

My fellow readers strike again in the comments section. "Oh, well. The sister would be happy for them in heaven. She didn't have a chance to change her mind. If she had grown up, she could have been more mature and learned."

...

This girl was 20. She grew up with her sister and knew her her entire life. She was so obsessed with this man she convinced her sister to commit suicide. Reader. Dear reader. If she had been alive and realized he liked someone else in the process of their engagement or marriage, she'd probably kill them. What the fuck do you mean she's in heaven supporting her ex fiancee and her sister getting together? What the fuck have you been reading this whole time??? Did you think her obsession would disappear if she had lived??

When readers want to see only the good in their characters, I... get pissed like now or I sigh and realize this is why so many people get played.

It's not like I don't want to help fellow people but like, caution? Not everyone in the world is good?

I get in moods where I need to read stories with good characters to feel hope and not psycho-analyze the shit like I am now. But both mangas are really honest about the problematic shit happening in their story and ppl still want to see only the good. These are problematic characters and ppls response to whitewash everything makes me dread that I am in a society with them like this. Imagine getting played and congratulating the person who played you. Ugh.

0 notes

smhdarcey-blog · 7 years

Text

lmao i’m gonna vomit i hATE HATE intros they make me feel so awkward??? anyways hey hi hello ~ i’m ally!! i’m 23 and from the eastern timezone. my preferred pronouns are she/her!! this is my lil bean, under the cut is some fun facts about her!! i’m still sort of setting up her blog and plot page and stuff, so i probs won’t be able to properly be on until tomorrow night?? i’ll reply to some starters then, but in the meantime if you wanna chitchat that would ~rock~

( josefine frida pettersen / 19 / cisfemale ) i hear darcey murray is known to be kind of warm hearted, but unfortunately, also head-strong. she is in her sophomore year of study, studying health science (pre-med). the aries is definitely going to make things interesting.

darcey murray-- she’s 19 years old and a sophomore currently!!

she’s studying health sciences with a pre-med concentration, she wants to be an eye doctor bc she thinks eyes are cool lmao fckin weirdo

v smart but also spends a lot of time in the library,, has to ~werk~ for those grades !!

for the most part she’s pretty nice?? but not like pushover kind of nice-- she’ll stand her ground if she needs to and doesn’t rly tolerate people trying to walk all over her

that being said she’s very opinionated and stubborn, and when she does get into a mood she can get a bit nasty :-) aye

a sinnamon bun, if u will

a go-getter in all aspects of life

this can kind of be problematic as she’s always taking on too many things at once and when she cracks, its a fckin mess

a daddy’s girl-- he’s a businessman for a big company and he’s v cutthroat when it comes to his work.. prob doesn’t have the ~greatest~ rep. despite that and him not being around as much as she would’ve liked, she adores him and he is where she gets most of her traits from, good and bad. bernard is his alma mater, hence why she’s here. her mom is the embodiment of a trophy wife, and while she means well, she’s everything darcey hopes to never be.

only child!!

prob has a few exes hmuuuuu if u want ur character to be one

probably a big fan of the chase,,, and by the chase i mean,,,, ppl chasing her

wouldn’t rly chase someone she was interested in bc she thinks she’s above that but i’d love for someone to give her a run for her money!!!

bisexual

trusts until there is a reason given not to, then it’s impossible to win it back

despite being really nice she has a small social circle

would be down 4 murder if u harm them tbh

enjoys memes but who doesn’t

talk to her about memes

send her ‘click for a surprise’ dog tweets she lives for that shit

catch her at a party drinking a fckin bottle of rose or something equally as boujee like why

had a shut out at beer pong one time and had to do a naked lap-- has not happened since bc #no

her style is p much noora’s from skam too, so that’s ideal !!! comfort, and if she can look cute at the same time that’s always a ~plus~

prob plays a sport for the school i haven’t decided what yet but i’ll add that later w/e

loves photography and is prob an instagram ho

tldr; child of a cutthroat business man. is a sourpatch kid-- sweet & sour. lookin for close friends/ride or dies!!!! (3-4 ppl), an ex (or 2 lmao)/hookups/fwb, party pals, some enemies would be cool too and roomies !!!!!!

this is getting long plEASE LOVE ME i’m leaving bye

#bernard:intro #i...hATE INTROS #BUT HELLO!!

4 notes · View notes

valntinemorgenstern · 7 years

Text

TDA theory: kierark

Kierark is gonna be endgame:

So, comparing these (x)(x) snippets that Cassie gave us the other day, and from the way that she’s characterised these ships -- I was suspicious before -- but now I think I’m certain.

When Mark says to Christina about her being one of the ‘kindest’ people he’s ever met; it just struck me as being, in many ways, the typical line delivered to the lover-who-never-really-has-a-chance. There’s an undertone of admiration and friendship, but nothing really of passion (more like this idea that a character knows they should and wants to feel that way, but possibly can’t make themselves). certainly not in comparison to this: ‘he returned the kiss with a fierceness [...] but there was more anger in it now. he gripped Kieran’s shoulders, his fingers digging in; the force of the kiss angled Kieran’s head back. He sucked at Kieran’s bottom lip, and bit it, and Kieran gasped.’

of course, there we also have an vibes of potentially, quite problematic aspects of their relationship (which is also clearly displayed in LM) -- but i think it’s clear that Mark’s affection for Christina is, although without the baggage, is lighter, softer, more ~innocent~; altogether less inflamed, less complex, and, it has to be said, less erotically charged. in the end, i think it will probably give way to kierark.

there’s also the very real possibility of polyamory, and cassie has flavoured this whole love (hexagon?) in lady midnight with very distinct overtones of this. (indeed we can see this even within that Kierark snippet itself, where we have Christina as the voyeur and tangentially feeling some echo of Mark’s arousal?) however, will this polyamorous relationship be endgame? I don’t know. i think, potentially, threesomes are one thing; setting up a long-term polyamorous relationship is another. for the kind of person she is and her background, i struggle to envisage Christina as being completely fine with the idea of being part of a three-way relationship. or even, four-way, with diego as well? no evidence for that specifically -- more just a general sense that i get of her character. (obviously, mark and kieran I think would approach it completely differently).

there’s also the consideration that, at the end of the day, kierark is a same-sex ship, whereas marktina isn’t -- and, representation-wise (and yes, i know this is controversial), i get the impression that cassie feels it is necessary for her bisexual characters to ultimately end up in a same-sex pairing (e.g. magnus in TMI and also, actually, in TID as well; also obvious i think that kitty will be, eventually, endgame) in order to avoid this idea of ‘passing for straight’ (i know, I KNOW). so, then, depicting both same+opposite sex relationships is necessary to...demonstrate their bisexuality for cassie? and yes, yes, I KNOW this is a v flawed and in some ways quite biphobic concept that pedals a lot of old stereotypes/inaccurate portrayals of what bisexuality is, but in the context of probability based on what i think i can see cassie believes...

#my thoughts #my theories #tda #tsc #kierark #prev. richardegansey

39 notes · View notes

knightofbalance-13 · 7 years

Text

A talk about Shipping, Aspects of it and “Queerbaiting”

http://invested-in-your-future.tumblr.com/post/158720729690/heres-something-that-has-been-lowkey-bugging-me

Sure it is cool to see a fandom that actively enjoys the setting enough to immerse themselves into it and create original characters, original pairings, original stories etc. Remnant is a world that relies on the community for it’s existence and Rooster Teeth’s main source of income is the community actually supporting them, so this speaks miles about the strength of the setting that is dear to so many people. Dozens upon dozens of people found it interesting enough to create and imagine things beyond the “canon” story. There are dozens of fanon pairings, pretty much every character with every character has ship name and some sort of fanon fiction - even if those characters never ever met. There are backstories and headcanons for almost every character.

And yet I have seen this person attack the fanbase directly and have seen this person directly attack the setting and environment in the show and not once say it’s their own personal opinion. And as well see, this seems more like their covering their own ass.

So get ready, I am about to delve into some very complex stuff here.

But there’s a downside to that. And the downside is that it is so damn easy to use the existence of fanon to discount the possibilities, implications and pairings within canon. And it does not take long to realize how that happens - after all the most common way to try to “downplay” a pairing is to question its canon status. Its a VERY common problem with homophobic people literally ignoring a pairing existing or claiming “people are just seeing things”.

Oh boy, this isn’t good. Okay, let’s dissect this and show off the problematic points:

A.) Canon is canon, it is fact. Implications are not canon until they are confirmed to be so and even then they just becomes fact. Implications are so wide and varied that accepting them all of as canon will cause a lot of confusion like the implication Raven gave a shit about her kid or the implication that Qrow’s Semblence was just shapeshifting.

B.) The only time a pairing exists is when they are canon, when they are in a committed relationship. There are only three canon ships: Taiyang X Raven, Taiyang X Summer and Ghira X Kali. That’s it. As heavy hinting that Blake Sun in going to become canon, it’s not canon. And that’s fine. Shippers shouldn’t be aiming for a ship to become canon because sometimes what we ship isn’t for the best, most of the time it’s wish fulfillment. Even I don’t ask for my ships to become canon and I ship people who I find to be healthy for each other (White Rose, Black Sun ect.)

C.) You are seeing things. You’ve admitted it in the past and you show all the signs of a rapid shipper: attacking people for miniute reasons, using buzzwords like “homophobia” misinterpreting friendly connections as shipping ect. I’ve seen ot all before in my previous experiences in the Pearlshipping community, minus the homophobia thing but I’m going to return to that. n truth, for someone who doesn’t give a shit who Blake or Yang end up with (or anyone: might be best for those two considering Blake’s abuse and Yang’s probable abandonment problems) let me say: I haven’t seen that much ship tease between them. No more than any other pairing in fiction: this isn’t Moka and Tsukune levels of ship tease-at best it’s Tsukune and Mizore. (Look them up with “Rosario Vampire manga” SPECIFICALLY the manga!)

D.) I don’t want to hear you talk about Homophobia when you have attacked Sun and Jaune and people who disagree with Bumbleby: In all reality, you display a case of Heterophobia than they do. people can dislike a homo pairing but not be homophobic. I don’t ship Bumbleby but I do ship White Rose so....what’s you’re answer to that?

And that is EXTREMELY easy to do in a community where fanon aspect is so big. Its so easy to discount RT baiting Blake and Yang(AKA the biggest ship in the fanbase), Weiss and Ruby(lately way less than usual, to be fair) or even Neptune and Sun(which the writers love to bait during interviews and stuff almost as much as Blake/Yang). Its so easy to NOT SEE the said baiting and write it off to all the fanon - to the idea that people “got tangled up” in all the fanon being created and mistook that fanon for canon. What’s worse - its easy for such a line of though to appear to those OUTSIDE of the RWBY fandom, which can easily lead to the issues present in the writing and RT behavior overall being downplayed or taken for “misunderstanding”.

Again, let’s dissect this:

A.) The reason why Bumbleby is so popular I the fandom isn’t due to them Ship Teasing Blake and Yang (I will go into why the concept of “queerbaiting” is an honestly counterproductive one later) but rather because Monty confirmed that there will be an LGBT character in the show which drew in that crowd and Yang and Blake are the most sexual characters in the show. Ruby is way to innocent to be shipped all that much as people have trouble thinking of her that way and Weiss was ahted for a while so people would gravitate to Yang and Bake. I also don’t find it that unusual that the two more attractive characters in the show are the ones shipped together. Again, wish fulfillment.

B.) You need to provide links to support these so called arguments because some of us don’t watch the interviews or anything of the such. Without them, your argument falls completely flat.

C.) Again, you have stated yourself that you are looking at things that aren’t there with the Korrasami and Bumbleby parallel and with all the symphtoms you’ve displayed, you are doing it for Bumbleby in general. They teased the shit out of Arkos despite Pyrrha’s fate because i9t was popular and ut got people watching the show. They would be doing the same for the other popular ships. yes, it is manipulative but it’s so common place now that you just have to accept it: Ship Tease is a athing, doesn’t confirm your ship to be canon.

D.) Here’s the thing about Queerbaiting: it definition is as follows: “when people in the media (usually television/movies) add homoerotic tension between two characters to attract more liberal and queer viewers with the indication of them not ever getting together for real in the show/book/movie“ Does this definition sound familiar? Change “Homoerotic” to “romantic”, “Liberal and queer” to “romatics” and you have Ship Tease. That’s all it is: Ship tease specific to the homosexual. What this tells me is that homosexual people believe that they belive their ships should become canon because they are queer or their ship is. Because there has been hetero-baiting before: Using Avatar, I have no doubt in my mind that the writers knew Zutarra was a huge ship so they kept hinting at it to get people who would like Zutarra to keep watching. Same thing with Rosario Vampire in which Kurumu X Mizore was hinted at a lot but they never got together, just as Tsukune never got with Kurumu or Mizore. It’s a common writing technique: put in some romance for romance fans. All writing by definition is emotionally manipulative. I see no difference between the two expect for sexuality and that should never be a factor in a ship becoming canon. Just as a hetero ship should become canon for the sake of it being a hetero ship. the same goes for homo ships as well. You want equality? Don’t go around demanding stuff beyond equality because of your sexuality.

Hell I already saw arguments in line with that and how “fandom is trying to force a pairing upon the writers”. Which is silly because in reality it is RWBY writers who added all those scenes and clues and subtext for Blake/Yang. Bumbleby fandom did not just somehow “will” it into existence via fanon. Beauty and the Beast references, interactions, THE WHOLE VOLUME 3 FINALE, etc - its all in the show. Its all there. Yet many will use the fanon argument to try to downplay the scenes that already are in the canon.

... Can’t believe I have to bust out this music but:

A.) People do force a ship on the writers. Just as I have seen people yell out “MAKE BUMBLEBY CANON ALREADY!” I have heard the same number yell out “MAKE BLACK SUN CANON ALREADY!” There is no difference between these two besides one partner.

Just because you have ship tease of your pairing that does NOT give it an absolute right to become canon. It never has and never will. Learn it, you’ll be much happier. I know for a fact.

“Beauty and the Beast” Yang is not beastly at all and it’s clear ADAM is the Beast of them all. Even if he isn’t, as a Fanaus, SUN is the next one in line for that.

“The WHOLE VOLUME 3 FINALE?” What, that one scene of Blake crying about yang losing her arm which is just her being said that someone she cares about (NOT loves, cares) is hurt because of her or that Yang is being abandoned yet again? Because that’s two scenes and only one is focused on Blake. It keeps sounding like you only watch RWBY for the ships and that’s just disgusting.

No, they are probably saying that is JUST ship tease and that DOES NOT make Bumbleby canon. Same for Black Sun, WHite Rose, Lanacaster ect.

And then again - whats wrong with writers accepting something fandom wants? What’s wrong with that? Narrative of any works is fluid. Things change, things develop, writers gain new ideas or change their minds all the time. Usually story is a fluid concept with only certain plotpoints set in stone. Unless there’s some huge plotpoint tied to a romance(which would be stupid in the first place), there’s literally no downside in writers capitalizing on what fandom likes. After all Korra and Asami chemistry was first noted by the FANS and then writers recognized it and made history.

Because it’s pandering in that Yanga nd Blake don’t have the best chemistry between them, Blake and Sun do; Blake could be a bisexual but attempting t tel me Yang isn’t straight and didn't hit on the four attractive females she was around all the time is dumb and there are people who DON’T want that thus you are excluding them. LGBT people were excluded for so long and now you want to exclude straight people? This is sounding suspiciously like the white Fang: Reverse discrimination....

yeah and their sexualities are pretty defined. Ruby is he only one who isn’t defined by her not being sexual yet. It makes sense for Weiss to hide that considering her jackass of a father and maybe Blake considering her abuse but Yang has no problems thus she should have been shown to be a bisexual early on. She doesn’t gaze over girls like she did guys so I have no reason to see that. You complain about retcons..then demand a retcon.

Yeah and here’s the thing: A LOT of people got pissed off by that. I didn’t watch Korra but a guy who did explained the feeling to me and explained the feeling. So unless it was hinted that Korra herself was bi and noyt straight, that was a terrible move.

Yet its so easy to use fanon as an argument, as a defense, as a shield, as a tool. Its so easy for Miles and Kerry(or less tolerant parts of fandom) to hide behind the huge existence of RWBY fanon - it gives fuel when one feels the need to defend against allegations of queerbaiting and it gives an extra defense from negative press due to reasons I outlined above.

.... SO the fandom is bad for tehw riters when they won’t do a homosexual ship but it’s good if that forces them to do it...

*Sigh* Fuck this bullshit. Also, I think queerbaiting is going to be one of my Berserk Buttons from now on.

Final Thoughts: this person needs to chill. there’s being dedicated to yoru ship and then there’s being obsessed. I have seen this person attack people with SUn Avatars for having SUn avatars, demands their ship become canon despite it being counter productive to equality and contradicts themselves. In essence: your average rabid shipper. Nothing more, nothing less.

#rwby #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #sun wukong #bumbleby rwby #bumbleby #black sun #shipping

27 notes · View notes

asfeedin · 4 years

Text

The 50 Best Shows on Hulu Right Now (April 2020)

Last update: April 25, 2020.

Streaming TV is not a new concept, but its popularity is at an all-time high. Thanks to the wonder of on-demand viewing, fans of most TV series need not worry about catching their favorite show when it airs, or even setting up their DVR. To help you sort through the massive vault that is Hulu’s library, we’ve put together a list of the best shows on the streaming service for April. From comedies to animated classics, we cover it all.

Further reading

Nathan for You

Life is tough for small business owners, but if your business is struggling, there’s one man you can turn to for help: Nathan Fielder (playing a fictional version of himself), a consultant with a metaphorical briefcase full of bizarre marketing ideas and social anxiety. When an ordinary business owner finds themselves in a tricky situation, Fielder strolls into their lives like an awkward Rumpelstiltskin, ready to solve their problem in some bizarre way. Nathan For You is a brilliant mockumentary, with Nathan’s outlandish marketing stunts confusing the ordinary folk entangled in them — his parody coffee shop Dumb Starbucks even made international news!

Watch now

Letterkenny

Set in the remote, rural town of Letterkenny (populated, the show tells us, entirely by hicks, skids, hockey players, and Christians), Jared Keeso’s comedy Letterkenny follows a group of hicks: Wayne (Keeso), his friend Daryl (Nathan Dales), Katy (Michelle Mylett), and Squirrelly Dan (K. Trevor Wilson), as well as a pair of hockey players, Reilly (Dylan Playfair) and Jonesy (Andrew Herr), with whom Katy has a three-way relationship. The show revolves around their lives and encounters with the other eccentrics in the town. It’s a show deeply rooted in Canadian culture, with heavy use of slang, but even those unfamiliar with the vernacular will quickly come to appreciate the show’s deadpan wit.

Watch now

Catch-22

Adapting a great work of literature, particularly one as stylish as Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, is a daunting task, but George Clooney and company managed to do it, more or less successfully, in this four-part miniseries. Set during World War II, Catch-22 follows Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), an American bombardier desperate to get out of the war. He wants to take advantage of the military’s policy of discharging any soldier on the basis of insanity. Unfortunately, Yossarian’s desire to get discharged for insanity is stifled by the military’s Catch-22 clause: Anyone who is crazy can ask to be discharged, but anyone asking to be discharged is clearly thinking rationally. So Yossarian keeps flying missions, and his superiors keep raising the number of missions required to end the war, and the war seems no closer to ending. Catch-22 is a darkly hilarious examination of the horrors of bureaucracy (and war), with a brilliant cast including — along with Abbott — George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, Hugh Laurie, and Julie Ann Emery.

Watch now

Ramy

The streaming world is awash in introspective, character-driven comedies, and while Ramy’s format will feel familiar, it adds a new wrinkle. The eponymous character (played by comedian Ramy Youssef) isn’t just a millennial dealing with the awkward ups and downs of work and dating in the 21st century. He’s also Muslim and trying to lead a moral life in amoral times. Ramy wades in ambiguities and its protagonist’s hypocrisies and hang-ups — he’s uncomfortable kissing a Muslim woman on their first date, but fine hooking up with non-Muslims, for which the former chews him out. It’s a show with a unique perspective and a willingness to present its characters in an unflattering light.

Watch now

The Venture Bros.

Adult Swim’s long-running (the series has been running off and on since 2003) dark comedy The Venture Bros. is a hilarious, occasionally depressing exploration of failure and legacies, set in a world full of colorful characters. Originally built as a parody of ‘60s adventure shows like Jonny Quest, The Venture Bros. focuses on Dr. Rusty Venture (James Urbaniak), a once-famous boy adventurer who grew up to be a failed scientist and owner of his father’s company, as well as his two sons, Hank (Christopher McCulloch) and Dean (Michael Sinterniklaas), and their bodyguard, secret agent/bulky murder machine Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton). The show follows the family through various adventures and schemes, flitting through various genres and story structures. The humor is weird but often brilliant — one particularly strange episode reimagines the Scooby gang as a bunch of drug-addled fiends — but what truly stands out about the show is how it has built a vast world full of recurring, oddball characters whose relationships evolve over time.

Watch now

Atlanta

Donald Glover is a modern Renaissance man: Since launching a comedy career via skits circulated on YouTube, he has since branched into rapping, acting, and even showrunning, with the remarkable, surreal comedy-drama Atlanta. The show follows a dogged college dropout named Earn (Glover), who sleeps at his on/off-again girlfriend’s place and struggles to provide for their child. When he learns that his cousin Alfred is starting to achieve success as a rapper — stage name: Paper Boi — Earn becomes his manager. There is not much of an overarching plot to Atlanta. Most episodes play out like short films, and the show experiments with a variety of stories and formats — one standout episode is presented entirely as an episode of a local interview show, complete with fake commercials. Daring and frequently poignant, Atlanta is one of the most exciting shows on TV today.

Watch now

The Bisexual

Desiree Akhavan’s The Bisexual is a character study of a bisexual woman, Leila (Akhavan), who breaks up with her older girlfriend after the latter proposes marriage. Leila moves in with a writer, Gabe (Brian Gleeson), and sets about trying to explore relationships with men, with sometimes awkward results. Leila must navigate not just relationships with men, but her friendships with the lesbian women she’s spent years associating with, who aren’t sure what to make of her now. It’s a complicated, emotionally honest examination of sexuality, with a complex cast of characters and a deft balance of humor of drama.

Watch now

PEN15

These days, coming-of-age stories are a dime a dozen, but few of them are as novel — or cringeworthy — as PEN15. Co-creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle star as 13-year-old versions of themselves, allowing the series to address topics and situations many would consider taboo if performed by younger lead actors. The two find their footing in hormone-fueled incidents involving masturbation and AOL Instant Messenger, not to mention everyday encounters with parents, principals, and the kind of insult-spewing preteens you can expect to find at any middle school. It’s all served with a heavy dose of ’90s-inspired nostalgia, meaning if the show’s no-holds-barred look at adolescence isn’t enough, perhaps the constant references to the Spice Girls will be.

Watch now

Better Things

The age of the subversive sitcom continues with Better Things, a dark, caustic comedy about growing older and raising kids. The show follows Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon), a struggling actress raising three kids by herself in Los Angeles. Sam juggles her attempts to advance her career and have fun with her responsibility to her daughters, each of whom presents their own unique difficulties. Adlon and co-creator Louis C.K. previously worked on the surreal comedy-drama Louie, and Better Things shows a similar mean streak, narrowing in on the grimy, depressing aspects of parenthood that other sitcoms gloss over.

Watch now

The Last Man on Earth

Most people probably don’t consider the end of the world to be a hilarious scenario; thankfully, the creators of The Last Man on Earth were not deterred. The show finds humor in the apocalypse, following a man named Phil Miller (Will Forte), who wanders the ghost town of Tuscon after a viral outbreak destroys civilization. He eventually finds a companion, Carol Pilbasian (Kristen Schaal), but their personality quirks make life together problematic, to say the least. The Last Man on Earth is a strange show, and also a sharply written one, rendering it the kind of ambitious sitcom that only rarely comes along.

Watch now

Shrill

Comedian Aidy Bryant is, arguably, one of the best things about the current crop of Saturday Night Live performers. As such, it was only a matter of time before she found herself a proper show, one that riffs on her particular skill set and brand of humor. Shrill is that show. It’s based on author Lindy West’s 2016 memoir of the same name and is a biting take on what it means to be overweight, awkward, and a woman in a society that doesn’t always take kindly to any of the aforementioned traits. Needless to say, Bryant’s on-screen career as a struggling journalist is just the springboard for the show’s larger commentary.

Watch now

Key & Peele

Great sketch shows have been in short supply for a while now, which makes it all the easier to appreciate the short but brilliant life of Key & Peele. Starring former MADtv members Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, the show is an adventurous collection of sketches that blend absurdist humor and social commentary. See, for example, a skit in which white news anchors complain about the dangers of “black ice” on the streets at night, to the indignation of their black colleagues. Not every sketch is political, however; sometimes they just freak out about the latest Liam Neeson film. Both hosts bring manic energy and throw themselves fully into a variety of roles.

Watch now

Man Seeking Woman

Following a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, Josh Greenberg (Jay Baruchel) needs to rebound … badly. Man Seeking Woman chronicles his adventures in dating, which involve, among other things, dating a troll, attending a wedding in Hell, and fiddling with the space-time continuum in an attempt to fix relationship mistakes. The show explores common aspects of life and dating through surreal scenes; an episode where Josh is tempted to cheat on a current girlfriend, for example, finds him taking a trip to “boyfriend court” in his mind. The show’s absurdist sense of humor at times makes it seem like a live-action cartoon, but the tone is balanced out by nuanced characters and some great performances. Baruchel is excellent as the somewhat charming, sometimes petulant Josh, and other characters — such as Josh’s best friend, Mike (Eric Andre), and sister, Liz (Britt Lower) — add memorable performances of their own.

Watch now

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

What South Park is to late-night animation, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is to sitcoms. Rob McElhenney, Glen Howerton, and Charlie Day — who also created and write the show — star as three best friends who kind of hate each other, while Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito round out the cast as the infamous Dee and Frank. The group often finds itself in some of the most absurd situations as the members push into the uncharted and irreverent comedic territory for which the show is well known, usually as a result of their own botched schemes.

Watch now

Community

Community has seen its fair share of ups and downs while on NBC but this Dan Harmon comedy is one of the funniest shows on TV — its first three seasons were, at least. The show centers around a group of newly acquainted friends who attend a blunder of a community college. Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, and Donald Glover headline this hilarious show while Jim Rash’s turn as the dean is as funny as any character on TV. It’s no longer on the airwaves, but Yahoo recently picked up the show for an online-only sixth season.

Watch now

Adventure Time

Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time has amassed a huge audience over its six-season run, one that crosses over into numerous demographics, making it a contemporary classic for adults and kids alike. The stories of best friends Jake and Finn in the magical Land of Ooo are a joy to watch. Whether the duo is protecting the land from the evil (and misunderstood) Ice King or helping a young Vampire navigate her family life, Adventure Time captures a sense of adventure and fun, while providing a subtle maturity that speaks to older audiences.

Watch now

Parks and Recreation

Fans of NBC’s other workplace comedy, The Office, will no doubt see some similarities in Parks and Recreation. Amy Poehler heads a hilarious cast comprised of comedian Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, and Chris Pratt. The show follows this cast of characters as they run the parks and recreation department in the small town of Pawnee, Indiana. The writing and comedic timing are superb as Parks is a bonafide hit and features some of modern television’s most memorable characters, such as the meat-loving Ron Swanson.

Watch now

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Parks and Recreation creators Michael Schur and Dan Goor struck comedy gold yet again with their action-comedy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Andy Samberg stars in the show, which focuses on a fictional police department precinct in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Andre Braugher plays the yin to Andy Samberg’s yang, providing dry, yet hilariously timed humor during each episode. In just its first season, Brooklyn Nine-Nine took home two Golden Globe trophies.

Watch now

Broad City

Ilana and her best friend Abbi are two 29-something women, living in New York. Abbi is a struggling artist, working at a fitness center while she attempts to get her career off the ground. Ilana, on the other hand, does everything in her power to avoid working, and instead pursues all manner of pleasurable distractions, including sexual escapades and consuming large amounts of marijuana. The two are often pulled into crazy scenarios, frequently as a consequence of one of Ilana’s ill-conceived plots. Broad City has received high praise from critics due to its clever writing and subtle-yet-effective message of female empowerment.

Watch now

Arrested Development

Despite getting canceled by Fox in 2006, Ron Howard and Mitchell Hurwitz’s Arrested Development saw critical success across the board. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Michael Cera star as family members of the very dysfunctional Bluth family living in Newport Beach, California. The show centers around Michael Bluth (Bateman) as he’s forced to assist his off-the-wall relatives after the family business comes under fire.

Watch now

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is a show that needs no introduction. Starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Julia-Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes, Jason Alexander as the neurotic George Costanza, and Michael Richards as the hilarious Kramer, each episode follows the group of friends as they endure the absurdities of life in the big city (along with their own foibles). Thankfully, the Emmy-winning sitcom has endured since its original run in the ’90s, further solidifying it as one of the most popular and important comedies to ever air on television.

Watch now

Rick and Morty

Creators Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland (House of Cosbys) teamed up to create one of the best animated comedies in years. The basic premise centers on Rick (Roiland), a scientist who employs the help of his grandson, Morty, to assist him with dangerous quests and various schemes across space and time. The Adult Swim series is chock full of biting satire and clever humor, and moreover, has garnered a cult following in the wake of its successful and highly-acclaimed first season.

Watch now

Drunk History

If you enjoy history, but find history shows to be a little dry, why not add liquor? Comedy Central’s Drunk History, which evolved from a Funny or Die web series, follows host Derek Waters and a revolving lineup of guests, who get drunk and recite stories from history, from big events like the revolutionary war to smaller ones like Edgar Allan Poe’s feud with publisher Rufus Griswold. For each lecture, actors — generally notable comic actors such as Kristen Wiig or Bob Odenkirk — re-enact the events, going so far as to incorporate the narrator’s mistakes or drunken tics. Watching Drunk History, you’ll probably get a few laughs, and maybe even learn something new.

Watch now

Black-ish

ABC’s Black-ish is one of many shows to have sprung up during the latest sitcom renaissance, which seems to emphasize distinct points of view not often seen on TV. This particular sitcom follows the Johnsons, an upper-middle-class family in America. Parents Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross) try to raise their children, whom they worry may be growing up in a vastly different milieu than they did. The show takes a critical look at issues of race and identity in contemporary America, balancing heavy social commentary with character-driven comedy.

Watch now

Futurama

Although it didn’t attain immortality like its unending older brother The Simpsons (which now has the most scripted episodes of any prime-time series), Matt Groening’s other cartoon, Futurama, established an identity of its own as a funny, often poignant vision of the future. The show follows Philip J. Fry (Billy West), a delivery boy who stumbles into a cryogenic pod and wakes up a thousand years in the future. He ends up working for an interplanetary delivery company, working with a variety of colorful characters, including steely cyclops Leela (Katey Sagal) and hard-drinking, sociopathic robot Bender (John DiMaggio). Futurama is an inventive comedy, with every episode going in some wild directions, and it has an incredible cast of oddballs to bounce off each other.

Watch now

Samurai Champloo

Although it lives in the shadow of Cowboy Bebop, director Shinichiro Watanabe’s follow-up, Samurai Champloo, is a terrific anime series, one that deserves to be considered on its own terms. Set in Edo-era Japan, the series follows an unlikely trio of travelers: A young waitress named Fuu, quiet ronin Jin, and wild swordsman Mugen. Fuu wants to find a samurai who smells like sunflowers, and after saving Jin and Mugen from execution, enlists them as bodyguards. The three wander Japan, encountering a variety of bizarre characters and scenarios (including a baseball game for the fate of Japan and a possible zombie apocalypse). Dynamic animation, vibrant art, and a chill hip-hop soundtrack are just a few of the reasons to watch this masterpiece.

Watch now

One-Punch Man

Superheroes can be a little boring, can’t they? Does anybody really doubt, when a bank robber comes face-to-face with Superman, that the ensuing fight can go any way but one? One-Punch Man takes the one-sided nature of superheroes to its extreme conclusion, following Saitama (Makoto Furukawa), a hero so powerful he can defeat any foe with a single punch. Being unstoppable leads Saitama to a profound sense of ennui, however, and he must seek out stronger and stronger opponents to feel alive. One-Punch Man is a hilarious parody for fans of superheroes or anime, and it doesn’t hurt that the action is rendered in smooth, colorful animation.

Watch now

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

The second adaptation of the popular manga, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood hews much more closely to the original story. The show, set in the fantasy setting of Amestris, follows the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, sons of a famed alchemist. After their father disappears and their mother dies, the boys take up the mystical art of alchemy, but a failed attempt at a forbidden ritual comes at a price: Edward loses an arm and a leg, while Alphonse loses his whole body, his soul trapped in a suit of armor. The boys seek work as military alchemists, hoping to use the government’s resources to research the legendary Philosopher’s Stone and find a way to restore their bodies. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood stands out in the vast field of anime thanks to its distinct setting, complex characters, and inventive action sequences.

Watch now

Vikings

History (the network) melds historic accuracy with epic action in Vikings, a dramatized recounting of a prolific figure in Scandinavian lore, Ragnar Lodbrok. Vikings follows the exploits of the cunning Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) as he becomes the most powerful ruler of Europe’s Viking Age, or at least, the one the history books and Nordic sagas remember him as. The show has received much acclaim during its run thus far — and without the gratuitous nudity common to most cable epics — earning it numerous Emmy nominations for both effects and design.

Watch now

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon’s horror/fantasy/comedy/coming-of-age series was one of the defining shows of the ’90s, a teen drama with a healthy dose of humor and also monsters. The show begins with teenager Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) starting school in her new hometown: Sunnydale, California. It’s a quaint town, a perfect place to raise a family — if you can look past all the vampires, demons, and other creatures haunting the town. Luckily for the people of Sunnydale, Buffy is no ordinary teen; she’s a “Slayer,” a demon-fighting warrior blessed with superhuman powers. Along with her friends Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan), as well as her mentor, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), Buffy hunts monsters and tries to pass her classes. Although the early episodes are rough, Buffy the Vampire Slayer grew into one of the smartest shows on television in its day, a series that used its fantasy elements as metaphors for the travails of growing up and finding one’s place in the world. It doesn’t hurt that it had a sharp, self-aware sense of humor.

Watch now

Firefly

FOX

Before he was the mastermind behind Marvel’s cinematic universe, Joss Whedon was known for creating memorable television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. While the latter only lasted for one season before it was ultimately canceled and later revived with the film Serenity, it has garnered a rabid cult following. The sci-fi series is set just after an interplanetary civil war between the populated inner system planets and the outer planets, where life resembles the American West. The series is well known for its cast of likable characters, including Nathan Fillion’s Mal Reynolds, who captains the titular ship and is arguably the coolest space criminal since Han Solo.

Watch now

Cowboy Bebop

Anime is often labeled as a niche genre, but like with all forms of media, there are breakout examples that transcend the genre, crossing over in appeal. Cowboy Bebop is a prime example. Set in the early era of humanity’s colonization of the solar system, a ragtag group of bounty hunters led by Spike Spiegel (Steven Blum) makes ends meet by taking in wanted criminals, while simultaneously trying to avoid the law and powerful criminal organizations. This space-western has been lauded as one of the best anime series ever made, with a memorable cast and compelling story, and featuring one of the most iconic final scenes ever.

Watch now

Preacher

Based on the acclaimed comic series by Garth Ennis, Preacher follows the story of Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), a former criminal working as a preacher in Texas. His faith shaky, Jesse’s life is changed when an otherworldly entity possesses him, granting him supernatural powers. Soon, Jesse teams up with his ex-girlfriend Tulip (Ruth Negga) and an Irish vampire named Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), as he tries to master his new powers and deal with a host of enemies, including a powerful and corrupt businessman, Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley). The show benefits from excellent direction, thanks to showrunner Sam Catlin (who previously worked on Breaking Bad). Bloody, violent, and set against the sun-parched backdrop of Texas, Preacher evokes classic Westerns, but the supernatural elements and bizarre characters will appeal to viewers of modern genre shows like Game of Thrones.

Watch now

Star Trek: The Original Series

Few franchises have grown such a massive fanbase as the Star Trek franchise. The Original Series features William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as the iconic Captain Kirk and officer Spock, respectively. Though dated — the show aired from 1966 to ’69 — it’s an appreciated blast from the past and one which created the foundation for so many TV spinoffs and movies. That, and few would argue that Captain Kirk and Spock are among television’s all-time best duos.

Watch now

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Perhaps the most popular of the Star Trek TV shows, The Next Generation ran for an impressive seven seasons from 1987 to 1994. Patrick Stewart takes the lead as Captain Jean-Luc Picard who guides the starship Enterprise across the galaxy in search of new life and civilizations. It built off the cult success of The Original Series and solidified the Star Trek franchise as one of the best science fiction universes across TV or film. Despite taking place within the boundaries of space — where no man had gone before —TNG drew allegories to our earthbound cultural issues that took place during its televised run.

Watch now

The Twilight Zone

Rod Serling’s science fiction/fantasy series The Twilight Zone remains one of the best-written shows ever to air on American television. The original series aired for five seasons from 1959 to 1964 with Serling serving as not just head writer but also host and narrator. Each episode’s new story sees the main character encounter paranormal or unusual events that lead to an eventual moral. Though it spawned two spinoff series, the original Twilight Zone is the best of the bunch.

Watch now

Killing Eve

For MI5 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), the life of a spy is more mundane than the movies make it out to be. She’s stuck working at a desk, and the most excitement she sees is late-night karaoke, rather than infiltrating high-tech facilities or something similar. Eve gets a shot at a much livelier case when someone murders a Russian politician and Eve correctly deduces the assassin was a woman. Soon, she is on the trail of the assassin, Villanelle (Jodie Comer), a highly-skilled killer with no conscience, who takes an interest in the woman hunting her. Blending drama, humor, and international spy antics, Killing Eve is an exceptional psychological thriller, built around a complicated cat-and-mouse relationship.

Watch now

Legion

Noah Hawley, the creator of FX’s Fargo, tries his hand at telling a superhero story with Legion, a visually dynamic series that isn’t your typical, man-in-a-cape origin story. The show follows David Haller (Dan Stevens), a man who, having heard voices in his head since a young age, starts the series in a psychiatric hospital. His official diagnosis is schizophrenia, but after meeting another patient, Syd Barrett (Rachel Keller), who can switch bodies with anyone she touches, he discovers that the voices in his head are a sign of his own latent powers. Fitting for a show about a man who may or may not be insane, Legion is a hallucinogenic show, with psychedelic visuals and format-breaking sequences that keep David — and the viewer — confused as to what is real.

Watch now

You’re the Worst

Although drama and comedy are often viewed separately in pop culture, they make for a splendid pairing — just ask Shakespeare! Or, if you want a more contemporary example, look to You’re the Worst, a show that weds character-based drama and absurd humor. It focuses on Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash), who start a casual relationship after meeting at a wedding. Both of them are dealing with problems personal and professional: Jimmy is a narcissistic writer struggling to get published, Gretchen is a clinically depressed PR agent representing a difficult rapper. Together, they try to enjoy life and figure out their careers, and You’re the Worst does not shy away from the dark side of either, exploring the toll of frequent partying and the conflicts inherent in every relationship. At times witty, at times woeful, You’re the Worst is one of the most intelligent and human shows on television right now.

Watch now

Fargo

Based on the Coen brothers’ beloved film of the same name, Fargo returns to the icy plains of Minnesota, a space where nefarious plots are conceived and enacted by otherwise seemingly normal folks. The TV adaptation features an all-star cast that includes Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman, not to mention Colin Hanks and Allison Tolman, and stays true to the same black comedy and deadly mishaps that made the original film so popular.

Watch now

Sons of Anarchy

The biker gang, the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original (aka SAMCRO), makes ends meet by trafficking guns and subverting the law at every turn. However, when the gang’s young Vice President Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) discovers the diary of his deceased father, he begins to question SAMCRO’s business decisions. This puts Jax at odds with his stepfather Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), who presides as the club’s president. The series tells the story of Jax’s efforts to keep the club together while balancing his complicated family life.

Watch now

The Handmaid’s Tale

In a not-too-distant future, after an environmental disaster causes widespread infertility, an extremist cult in the United States stages a coup, establishing the totalitarian state of Gilead. In this new society, women are relegated to subservient roles, and due to the low birth rate, a class of women called “handmaids” is conscripted to bear children for the leaders of Gilead. The protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred (Elisabeth Moss), is one such woman, forced to have ritualized sex with Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) to provide him and his wife a child. Living without any rights or power, Offred tries to survive each day, hoping to one day be free. The Handmaid’s Tale is a masterful adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s grim novel of the same name, with excellent performances and gorgeous, oft-disturbing scene composition.

Watch now

Harlots

This historical drama follows Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton), a madam running a brothel in 18th-century London. Eager to climb the social ladder — and dodge the authorities — Margaret moves into the territory of her former boss, high-class madam Lydia Quigley (Lesley Manville), sparking a war between the two. Caught up in Margaret’s schemes are her two daughters, Charlotte (Jessica Brown Findlay) and Lucy (Eloise Smyth), whom she has pushed into prostitution. Despite the lurid subject matter, Harlots is never merely titillating; this is a show with a keen eye for the power dynamics at work in its setting, and how hierarchy turns even sex into a cold transaction. A complicated drama with intriguing characters, Harlots is a great show for people who like their historical dramas on the seedier side.

Watch now

Castle Rock

Stephen King is one of modern America’s most prolific authors, with nearly 60 novels and 200 short stories, and that allows the creators of Castle Rock, a show that draws inspiration from a variety of King’s works, to create an eerie melange of the author’s stories. Castle Rock follows Henry Deaver (André Holland), a defense attorney and a pariah in his hometown of Castle Rock, who nevertheless returns after guards at Shawshank Penitentiary find a nameless man (Bill Skarsgård) locked in an abandoned cellblock. As Henry delves into the mystery behind this stranger known only as “The Kid,” he wades into a mystery that stretches back years. Castle Rock is loaded with Easter eggs for ardent King fans to grin at, but even those who haven’t read the author’s complete bibliography can enjoy the show, as it tells a creepy story that can stand on its own merits.

Watch now

The X-Files

Chris Carter’s science fiction drama, The X-Files, operated under one simple premise: The truth is out there. FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate unsolved mysteries called X-Files. These X-Files deal with paranormal activity, aliens, UFO sightings, and various phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of alien life while Scully offers scientific explanations for the mysterious happenings.

Watch now

Twin Peaks

In the quiet titular town of Twin Peaks, the sudden and tragic murder of high-school student Laura Palmer set off a chain of events that turns the town on its head. FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLaughlin) teams up with local sheriff Harry Truman (Michael Ontkean) to solve the murder, only to uncover a complicated mess of grisly truths that border on the supernatural. Twin Peaks is among director David Lynch’s most iconic works, yet the show only lasted two brief seasons. Despite this, it produced some timeless episodes. Those who have finished the original two seasons will be delighted to know that the show returned for its first new episodes after 25 years; there’s no better time to revisit this short-lived classic.

Watch now

American Horror Story

American Horror Story is an anthology series where each season centers on its own unique story, with a core cast whose role change from season to season. Each season provides scares and frightening psychological storylines, whether they take place within a troubled family home, amid a coven of witches, or inside a hotel of circus freaks. American Horror Story is a unique drama, one that capitalizes on the work of series creator Ryan Murphy.

Watch now

Survivor

Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Survivor‘s three main tenets have helped the show “survive” for an admirable 33 seasons, and the competition shows no signs of slowing down. Whether you’re a fan of the rugged early seasons, or you prefer “Fans vs. Favorites,” you can get your fill on Hulu. And if you weren’t already aware, the show follows two teams of contestants, both of which must survive for 40 days in a remote location while their teammates and opponents scheme to vote them “off the island.” Tiki torches also come standard.

Watch now

Catfish

Catfish follows hosts Nev Schulman and Max Joseph as they work to unravel the mysteries behind online-only relationships. Each episode details their investigation into a particular relationship and their ongoing effort to figure out if it’s actually real, or if one of the participants is merely being “catfished.” It’s an interesting — and questionably ethical — exploration into internet politics and people’s personal lives.

Watch now

Top Chef

In Top Chef, competitors are pitted against one another in a variety of themed challenges in attempts to find out who can create the better meal. Quickfire challenges force contestants to test their skills and finish a meal before the allotted time runs out, while Elimination challenges generally entail more detailed and difficult culinary undertakings. After 14 seasons, we only have one question: where can we sign up to judge?

Watch now

Editors’ Recommendations

Source link

Tags: 2020, 50, April, Hulu, shows

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2W1XYSS via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress #Asfeed.in #asfeed #asfeedin #asfeed blog

0 notes