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aroaceacacia · 3 years

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pokes dream smp fandom

hey can we stop making jokes about "all of the minors getting manipulated", "c!dream loves abusing children", etc. because it's going to (and already is) inevitably lead down a path that simultaneously infantilizes four 17 year old boys and makes c!dream look a lot worse than he already is.

so much of this fandom's common knowledge is dependent on the main conversation, and while tommy's exile arc has been made into some highlight videos, c!dream's interactions with the other teenagers havent really been in any official capacity, and when you make jokes about how "3/4 minors have been abused by dream /rp" its kind of... spreading misinformation?

don't get me wrong, what c!dream did to tommy was inexcusable and unjustifiable; however, we should prioritize doing research on events and understanding what actually happened so that we can hold c!dream accountable for the crimes that he has actually committed

c!dream and c!ranboo have an ambiguous relationship; when enderwalking, ranboo has interacted with him and worked together to achieve goals (like the community house explosion). enderwalking ranboo visited dream in prison several times, and at one point when dream had another visitor, he asked for ranboo instead. dream has taught enderwalking ranboo lessons, and waking ranboo has begun to remember them. this is all we know of their actual relationship, considering the manifestation of waking ranboo's brainweird is only voice acted by dream and not actually c!dream. I personally dont think we know enough about their actual relationship yet to claim that ranboo has been abused/manipulated by him. it is still a possibility, but it is not a certainty

and yes, c!dream did manipulate tubbo during the new lmanberg era, specifically in order to get tubbo to isolate tommy via exile, however manipulation does not always equal abuse. this manipulation of tubbo is not suddenly made worse by the fact he is a few months younger than jack manifold

lastly I dont think c!dream and c!purpled have ever interacted during c!dream's villain era

also, by painting c!dream's only victims as the four minors on the server it ends up erasing the struggles of everyone else he hurt - sapnap, george, eret, bad, puffy, sam, just to name a few. their pain because of what c!dream did to them isnt and shouldnt be given less weight just because they're not minors. to be clear, they werent abused the way tommy was, but if you're counting c!tubbo as one of c!dreams abuse victims, at LEAST include everyone else, too.

tl;dr please try to understand what a character has done before you condemn them; the dream smp is full of unreliable narrators and the fandom is one of them. the best source of information is always going to be the vods themselves!

#dream smp #bearvocalizations #tw abuse #tw manipulation #dreamsmp #to reiterate. c!dream is not off the hook for what he did to tommy.#but he is not a serial child abuser either #also like. age is not a factor in power dynamics on the dream smp and never has been #but thats for.another time

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dreamslesbian · 2 years

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can i ask why you're a c!dream apologist? /genq :0 bc last i checked hes done lots of. extremely questionable things canonically, and a lot of c!dream antis actually think ccdream is lovely :D!

- please don't misconstrue this as hate or anything! i do just genuinely want to know :00

ok this is late and got long so its going to have a read more but lets give this a go !

first of all: "he's done extremely questionable things" yes he has ! and so has more than half the server !!

listen this isn't whataboutism, im not saying you can't criticize c!dream for x bc this other character did y, criticize him ! analyze him and tear him a new one !!

however we probably are going to disagree on what his wrongdoings are and if they are justified/necessary/understandable/etc, and i suppose thats where the 'apologist' comes in right? like as much as people want to argue that it means a person excuses everything and anything the character has done, that is hardly ever the case. mostly bc for that to happen you have to be defending the stalest most boring piece of wonder bread character to have ever graced the earth, you are severely misinterpreting the character OR youre lying to yourself and everyone else.

that being said, in my case for example i think exile was inexcusable, morally reprehensible and a particular low point for c!dream's character, i don't defend or excuse this. on the other hand his opposition of l'manburg and the deaths that it resulted in? not so much.

now of course ppl are going to disagree with this pov and thats okay ! if you think everything hes ever done is unjustifiable and evil more power to you, i passionately disagree with you, but you are entitled to your opinion. its when ppl get sanctimonious and hypocritical that i get upset. bc they'll curse c!dream apologists out and harass us then turn around and be an apologist for another character with just as long a war crime history like, lets be consistent at least.

this is a long winded way of saying im a c!dream apologist bc 1) it probably doesnt mean to me what it means to you 2) i am very passionate about his character and truly find him an interesting sympathetic character.

also to your last point ! i am aware a lot of c!dream antis like or are at least perfectly civil with cc!dream but the fact that you have to clarify that lets me know you are at least aware that it is a problem with c!dream antis to some extent so yeah.

#kole answers #apologist discourse #negativity #fandom neg #also before u r like well if u dont apologize every action dont call yourself an apologist #tried that ! didnt really work #ppl have a problem with my opinions regardless #dreblr #should i have given this such a long and sincere answer? probably not but i really am banking on anon being sincerely curious #and willing to at least hear me out with an open mind ahsnd

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the-signs-of-two · 3 years

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Do you think there are still hopes for season 5? A lot of articles claim that there is no future for sherlock holmes and that we should give up our hopes of season 5. Thoughts?

Ouf.

Tough one. And a long one to answer. But I want to be truthful and thorough.

Based purely on advertising and how keen people are to keep audiences invested, I don’t think they’re allowing us much hope. It’s been almost four years and they’ve done very little to maintain any kind of hype or interest, perhaps with the exception of keeping the escape room going. The sad truth of it is that a show will rarely get picked up for a new series if the majority of viewers have moved on. And they’ve done very little to keep their viewers excited about the prospect of a series 5.

Then, of course, there’s the elephant in the room, whether you’re a hardcore TJLC’er or a casual viewer: the fact that series 4, on a surface level, was just... not very good. It looks and feels disjointed and very different from the previous series and casual viewers don’t want to spend hours and hours trying to figure out if it was actually better than its surface narrative. That sort of thing - taking a long hiatus, hyping a new series by saying it’ll be television history and then delivering a somewhat lukewarm product - drives viewers away. And like I said, if most viewers no longer care, chances are it won’t be picked up for a new series.

That’s one way to look at it. But what about the actual story?

The show is called Sherlock. And I think, putting my Johnlock-glasses to the side, you could actually argue that Sherlock does come full circle. In series 1, Sherlock is driven almost entirely by his logic. He’s arrogant, cocky and he makes a show of being disdainful and unfeeling, even if you get small glimpses showing that that isn’t actually who he is. With every series, Sherlock has moved further away from that and become a softer, more emphatic version of himself - a version of himself who cares more about making his close ones happy than about making himself look cool and mysterious. Series 4 does seem to complete that narrative. They made Eurus into the synthesis of everything Sherlock was and tried to be in the beginning of the show and turned that against Sherlock - and I actually really like that. I think it works. When Sherlock says that they’re “experiencing science from the perspective of lab rats”, we’re reminded of the time when he would do something similar: when he would pretend to be Ian Monkford’s friend to get information from his wife, when he would scare/traumatise the already traumatised headmistress to get information on two missing children, when he would compliment Molly’s hair to convince her to show him two bodies. In each instance, it was to do good, to get ahead in a case, but it was also a coldly calculated piece of manipulation, one which Sherlock showed zero regret for. The way he acted in first couple of series hurt other people - sometimes you wouldn’t feel any remorse for them, but sometimes it was Sherlock’s closest. Let’s take the most obvious example: locking John in a lab after (as far as he knew) drugging him, then providing him with sound effects and watching what would happen on the monitors. Don’t you think John experienced science from the perspective of a lab rat then? Sherlock is a different person now, but TFP also forces him to come to terms with the consequences of his previous behaviour. He has to confront logical problems - kill one man or three men, kill one man or two people will die, save Molly’s life etc. - but he has to face the emotional consequences of those logical decisions. He can’t just look away as he used to do. Seen in that way, I actually think TFP does provide a poignant culmination of Sherlock’s character arc. When Lestrade says that Sherlock is now a good man rather than a great man, it does feel earned.

However. Then there’s... well, everyone else. I’m pretty sure I could tell you what John’s character arc was all about in HLV. If this is the end, I no longer know what his character arc was. John makes horrible decision upon horrible decision in series 4. A cynical reading would be that he’s “stupid for the plot”. They needed to drive a wedge between Sherlock and John for TLD, so they didn’t care that John’s decision to blame Sherlock for Mary’s death in TST makes absolutely no sense. Then there’s the morgue scene, which... To be fair, it has actually been foreshadowed that John is a violent person. That he has very bad aggression issues and that he deals with a lot of anger in a physical manner. Sherlock isn’t perfect, but John certainly isn’t either. And I actually think the morgue scene could work in that light. Hear me out. Sherlock has done bad things to John, he really has, and all those things have been in line with his character and a reflection of his flaws. John beating Sherlock up could work in the same way. But it HAS TO BE ADDRESSED. When Sherlock does something morally reprehensible and psychologically scarring, it’s not presented as acceptable. When Sherlock locks John in the lab, you FEEL that what he did was unacceptable. John calls him out for it and it’s discussed. And this happens a number of times and each time, Sherlock shows more and more regret for his actions. He begins to apologise. He begins to try to change. If the morgue scene is going to work as a low point in John’s morality which prompts him to feel regret and try to change, it needs to be presented that way. It needs to be presented as bad (it is), it needs to be presented as a low point (it is), but it also needs to be presented as unjustified, unacceptable and inexcusable. No matter how you feel, beating up your best friend is never okay. Just as no matter how badly you need to solve a case, experimenting on your best friend by subjecting him to a terror-indusing drug and locking him up to examine the effects is never okay. But John isn’t called out for this and it’s never discussed. That leaves John with no incentive to change, no moment of remorse and regret, no need to make amends. So, in a way, the series leaves him at his absolute lowest. Which isn’t a character arc, friends.

Then there’s Molly. After the most heartbreaking betrayal of all time, the series just... ends. Like, she’s there at the end and it’s all fine. The part where the man she loved told her to tell him that she loved him FOR AN EXPERIMENT and then she took the opportunity to make him say it in return, clinging on to those three words like her life depended on it... yeah, that happened, but he presumably told her that he had to do it and it was all fine. No lasting emotional damage or mistrust there.

You could argue that Mycroft does come full circle too. In TAB, he decides to relinquish control over Sherlock and instead tells John to take care of him in his place. In TFP, he goes all the way and decides to die to let John live. In doing so, he acknowledges that Sherlock needs John more than he needs Mycroft, but also that John is better for Sherlock than Mycroft ever was. After a lifetime of controlling and watching over Sherlock against his will, he finally decides to let Sherlock go live his own life and make his own decisions. And he proves his love by being prepared to die to give Sherlock happiness with John.

So... yeah. I think some character arcs did actually come full circle, while others definitely didn’t. I just took the most obvious examples here.

As a background story for the Holmes family, I don’t really think it works. To me, it doesn’t explain why Sherlock and Mycroft are the way they are - and it certainly is weird that their parents seem so normal and unconcerned about the whole thing. Buried trauma is definitely a thing, but there doesn’t seem to be any obvious correlation between what happened with Eurus and who Sherlock was at the beginning of the series. As for Mycroft... I honestly don’t know how he feels about Eurus, apart from the fact that he’s scared of her.

Then there’s the part where John flat out tells Sherlock that a romantic relationship would complete him as a human being. This goes completely unresolved. Are we meant to assume that Sherlock called Irene after this conversation and they got together? 1) Why should we assume this? And 2) effing straight culture, let him be gay, because he is.

To summarise... I don’t think TFP works as a conclusion. Some things are resolved, some are not. I think there’s so much story and plot left unresolved that a series 5 would definitely have story points to work with. Also, once you’ve said that a character needs a romantic relationship, you need to go through with that or it turns into a major hole in said character arc.

Getting a little more tinfoil hat-y, I think the television history, gut-punch moment could be a recreation of the circumstances around The Final Problem. The Final Problem seemingly finished the Sherlock Holmes stories by having Sherlock die. People were outraged and deeply upset. It took ten years for ACD to undo it and reveal that Sherlock had actually survived. Trying to recreate the atmosphere surrounding a beloved piece of literature in 1893 - that sort of thing has never been attempted before and would be television history. And in that light, it would make sense that they aren’t encouraging the rumours surrounding series 5. They need to make people think that Sherlock is “dead” if they are going to resurrect him. That’s the tinfoil hat speaking, but I can’t help but find it an intriguing idea. And I would be DOWN.

Still, they didn’t need to make series 4 bad for this to work. They could have just made it end sadly. Series 4 being bad and difficult to understand lost them a lot of viewers. And sadly, viewers are what make shows happen. In that sense, I think it could backfire very severely if that is their plan.

So there you have it. I haven’t lost hope. I think there’s still story and plot and characters that would make series 5 worth making. And of course I’ve only discussed surface narratives in this post. If some of the theories proposed by us (EMP) should turn out to be correct, it could fix a lot of the problems with series 4 and make for a fantastic gut-punch moment in series 5. But I will admit that I’m concerned it won’t be greenlit because people have lost interest. If it’s no longer likely to have a large audience because series 4 was bad, they may not be able to make it even if that was their original intent. Or they may need to really amp up the hype when and if they make series 5.

I hope this long ramble answered your question.

#Sherlock #BBC Sherlock #S5 #my thoughts #anon asks

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thatdiabolicalfeminist · 5 years

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An individual being a bad person doesn’t mean you get to use slurs against them, misgender them, or otherwise invoke the violent oppression faced by their group!

(Or faced by other groups, as in the case of people making homophobic jokes targeting Putin, etc.)

Limiting your expressions of racism/transphobia/misogyny/homophobia/etc. to bad people doesn’t make that expression of bigotry acceptable.

You’re still reinforcing a system of violent oppression if you use that oppression to attack anyone. You’re still weaponizing a power over vulnerable people that you only have because they are targeted for oppression in a way you are not.

The effects of you invoking violent oppression against an individual do not end with that individual.

And it’s still a monstrous act no matter who the target is and no matter what that person has done. It is inexcusable and unjustifiable.

Tell your friends.

#thatdiabolicalfeminist #dynamics of oppression

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bopinion · 3 years

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2021 / 05 - Edition "M"

Aperçu of the Week:

"I never loose. I either win or learn." (Nelson Mandela)

Bad News of the Week:

Myanmar's elected democratic government was overthrown by the military. At the same time, a state of emergency was declared for one year (!). The head of state is now the military, of all people, who is considered responsible for the expulsion of the Rohingya Muslim minority. Even if one sometimes wondered whether Aung San Suu Kyi really deserved her Nobel Peace Prize, she was certainly the better alternative.

Merchandise from QAnon, Oath Keepers and other manifestations of conspiracy theorists has only now been removed from Amazon's product range. Let's see if the new CEO Andy Jassy shows more sensitivity than the old one.

Mediterranean fauna off the coast of Israel faces collapse of its biodiversity. The waters of Israel are among the warmest in the Mediterranean, having warmed by about three degrees between 1980 and 2013. The species that are actually native, e.g. mollusks, have declined by 95% (!), and the modest remainder will probably be displaced by tropical species that have migrated via the Suez Canal.

Mutilation is about the cruelest thing humans can do to each other. Injuries with intent based on crude values are inexcusable. And of course it mostly affects women. Female genital mutilation is rooted in gender inequalities, power imbalances and the social norms that uphold them. The United Nations call today the international #EndFGM day. Unbelievable that this is necessary....

Moore "Captain Tom" has passed away. Because of a Corona infection, of all things. But the 100-year-old veteran, who raised funds for the British healthcare system with his rollator tours that went viral, remains as a symbol of social solidarity. Every crisis has its silent heroes.

Good News of the Week:

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the wet dream of all mental SS officers, has been kicked out of the Committee on Education by the House of Representatives. On behalf of all U.S. students: thank you!

Munich has become the first major German city to achieve a 7-day incidence value of less than 50 positive test persons per 100,000 inhabitants. Now many will probably hope to be able to go to the hairdresser again soon.

Moscow expels EU diplomats. The reason is the ongoing complaints by European politicians against the arrest and conviction of prominent regime critic Alexei Navalny. These are seen - of course - as unjustified interference in internal affairs. The reaction, on the other hand, clearly shows that the Kremlin takes the issue seriously. You better do!

My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell has lost more distribution channels. Whether this is ultimately due to the poor "f"-rated quality of his products or his questionable consulting work for Donald Trump - oleander as a COVID 19 cure, bailing out Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, declaring martial law against the Biden inauguration, etc. - doesn't really matter. You're out!

Mac Miller put out a song last year called "Good News." If you like neo soul, here's a link:

https://youtu.be/aIHF7u9Wwiw

Personal happy Moment of the Week:

Meat is my vegetable - that's the slogan of "Tasty Gorilla," an excellent TexMex food and burger joint near Holzkirchen. Since a few days he has opened his kitchen again for pickup. Support local businesses! And so I enjoyed a pastrami burger yesterday: 48h sous-vide cooked beef, a culinaric poem! Served with wedges and sour cream. That counts as a vegetable again.

As I write this...

...I listen to Claudio Monteverdi's "L'Orfeo", known as the first opera ever.

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agoddamn · 5 years

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A lot of proposed fan fixes for Dany's fall--usually something like "if Rhaegal had died in the assault, if someone had attacked her after the bells sounded", etc--miss one thing that I do think is supposed to be important.

This is supposed to be completely inexcusable, unprovoked and inappropriate.

This is Daenerys's Stark BBQ moment.

It's almost certainly an intentional mirror to Aerys's also completely inexcusable torching of the Starks who were petitioning for Lyanna's return, the act that sparked Robert's Rebellion. We are supposed to be in the shoes of Aerys's advisers, who made excuses and looked away and told themselves they could manage this if they just played the game a little more cleverly, just held out a little longer until this final unambiguous, unjustifiable act blew away all the lies they'd been telling themselves.

Aerys did have an escalation, and that escalation was cloaked by circumstances that let onlookers explain away his actions. Of course he's paranoid after being kidnapped and tortured for half a year! Of course he destroyed every house responsible! Tywin did the same thing with the Reynes, didn't he? It's a brutal world, Aerys is just like everyone else.

I think that the intent (keyword being intent) with Daenerys is to build the same arc, where circumstantial justifications--her position is tenuous, of course she has to be brutal, she hatched dragons, of course she thinks she's hot shit--camouflage her state of mind until she goes over the line and no one can say "this is a normal reaction, she's just as upset as anyone else would be in this situation, Robb called his banners for less" any more.

Problem is! Execution.

Daenerys has certainly committed ambiguous acts, but due to several factors--direction, soundtrack, merchandising, adaptational tweaks--she has been played clearly as a hero, and not in the 'character willfully surrounds themselves with sycophants' sense. Doesn't help that the Essos/Mereen arc is where the books left off with Dany and the show writers had to start spinning original content. It remains one of the more reviled arcs in the show, considered boring and full of cardboard cutouts.

This is where the groundwork for Daenerys's instability should have started to get seriously built...and it didn't. Instead, we got a rushed, clumsy arc that everyone was tired of even as it was airing and nobody gave a shit when racist cardboard cutouts got torched. It all ended on another #HYPE moment of divine magic liberator Dany, not bothering to show any one of the khals she'd lit up as human beings that would be missed, or indeed any Dothraki having reasonable fears about her after she'd murdered dozens of people.

There is a difference between purposeful misdirection and simple poor storytelling. Daenerys's TV arc dearly wants to be the former, but it's the latter.

#game of thrones #daenerys targaryen

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catsnuggler · 5 years

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It really is embarrassing to admit I started on my journey to the left because of Bernie Sanders, though due to an interview on MSNBC a few years before the 2016 election. Even more to acknowledge that I still wasn’t necessarily a good person even after going to the actual left and becoming an anarchist and communist in my mid-teens. I hope I’ve changed as a person enough by this point, although it’s hard to say since I don’t even leave my dad’s house much anymore these days because, well, reasons having to do with surviving abuse by not pushing his buttons, ergo being around to serve, to lie about my beliefs so he doesn’t destroy me even more over it, etc; and still looking for a job so I can leave that environment and work on healing myself - therapy, a social life, finally being able to engage in/support the politics I’ve believed in for years, and definitely, definitely working on my strength as an individual and making damn sure I don’t capitulate to survive when it comes to politics. It’s one thing when it’s just abuse by a parent, and capitulation to survive only means lying to yourself. It’s another thing, and frankly inexcusable, to ever betray a comrade to a state official. Damned if I’ll do that. So I’ll need to learn how to exist with a backbone once I’m out.

Hard to acknowledge simultaneously that I’ve hurt people, but was a victim of a different person before I knew the people I hurt and before I hurt them, during that time, and long after. Which also doesn’t excuse it, of course not. I’m just wondering who and what I am because of that, similar to how I wondered in the past.

And this is why I want communism. So nobody repeats my mistakes, because nobody grows in a world where they suffer from another’s perceived entitlement to hurt innocent people, nor do they grow to feel they themselves have that unjustifiable privilege. Also a world where it’s all but mandatory that if a mother dies while her kids are still kids, that trusted caretakers take care of the kids ,instead of the father, for at least 2 years while the father gets seriously needed mental help, help which continues after he’s given back custody of his kids. Maybe that’s all it would have taken in my case. Maybe that’s all it would have taken...

#thorne vents

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dogramagrx-blog · 7 years

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5 10 15 20

If you could give your muse one gift, what would you give them?

This is a tough one, but probably a game of some sort. He’s a kid who sees cursing people and etc as a game, so I think it’d be safe to assume he would like actual game as well, so probably a gaming console of some sort.

What do you love about your muse?

Just about everything xDBut in all seriousness I love his design, personality wise, with his ability and all, and I would like to see more of him in the manga. As it states he doesn’t have the best state of mind, and attacks both friend or foe. We also see he has mostly a cheerful attitude, but then while he’s with Steinbeck we see a different side to him, one who doesn’t want to be this way, and it makes you think. Of course his actions are inexcusable and unjustifiable, but had he way to change, had he been offered mental support rather than locked away, what would he be like? Now I’m rambling and of course I look into characters and their personalities, but I love Yumeno’s and just find it hella interesting. I hope to see more about him.

Would you like your muse as a person if you met them in real life?

Would I like him? In all fairness I don’t think I would. He’s a dangerous kid, so while I’m not entirely sure I would hate him (though that is a possibility) I definitely would feel uneasy with him. Most certainly would pity him, though

[come up with your own question for the mun, regarding the muse]

You didn’t input a question here, but feel free to come up with one ^-^

#suicxedere #surprise box

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miamiartist305 · 7 years

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We Floridians for the most part (with the exception of the Keys and some other hard hit areas)... are fortunate and blessed compared to the suffering being experienced by the people of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Texas. We were basically inconvenienced for a few days due mainly to the loss of power and communications. That being said... in this age we live in with so many 'modern world' advances such as wireless, satellite, fiber optics, renewable energy, wind energy, solar energy, even underground utilities etc... it is inexcusable, unacceptable, unjustifiable and flat out wrong for FPL to continue charging us for providing us with basically the same 'technology' that has been in place since a little after the light bulb was created, and not expect the same catastrophic 'old world' failures and outcome! I have no idea where the supposed 'billions' they say they spent on improving the grid went... but obviously it was money wasted. We need to put pressure on our politicians especially those that are 'chummy' with FPL to address this issue in order to resolve it once and for all. The end. P. S. For a second the guy in the bottom photo looked like that old picture of Bigfoot! 😂 #hurricaneirma #hurricane #electricity #power #fpl #powerpole #failure #technology #outdated #florida #naturaldisaster #thekeys #puertorico #caribbean #texas (at Miami, Florida)

#power #thekeys #electricity #failure #hurricane #hurricaneirma #naturaldisaster #texas #caribbean #technology #puertorico #fpl #outdated #florida #powerpole

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nothingneverforever · 7 years

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Passengers (2016)

For every typecast lead, say Hugh Grant as the squinty spluttering English romantic or Cameron Diaz as the slightly detached but nonetheless sweet and alluring babe, there is also many a flick starring Jennifer Lawrence, as her annoyingass self, playing an annoyingass character. In so many moments of this film did her annoyingass off-screen nature shine through, only to reveal the many chinks in the screenplay’s armour in not crafting whole or believable enough a character.

I tried to search through Jade and my conversation to find what we had discussed when we first caught it early this January (hey Jadey, doesn’t it feel like years ago? Time flies </3), but I only found this selfie taken at her house before we left for the cinema on the day, and it’s cute, hehe, I remember being unhappy at how gray my skin looked but I’m glad I kept it anyway, and wtf my eyebrow piercing was so good >(

ANYWAY back to the point

Jennifer Lawrence

Is fucking annoying and stupid and possesses insultingly meagre acting skills

^ this scene reeked especially strongly of her usual flavour that we have seen in every single movie she has somehow still managed to land. Flavour as in crappy acting 101 – her furrowed brows contrived, her dead eyes widened in mock confusion, every quirk just adding up to an underwhelming, feigned, blah nothing

That being said, and also assuming everyone is on the same foot with understanding how unacceptably unjustifiable Jim Preston’s behaviour was, this film rocks. This is entirely me being an immoral hypocrite though – as Bill Graham writes succinctly for The Film Stage,

Jim Preston is a creep. There’s no getting around the fact that his actions are detrimental to one’s perception of the character and the film as a whole. The ultimate success — or failure — of Passengers will hinge on how offended one is by the premise, and whether the story ultimately makes up for it. What is on screen is absolutely gorgeous, albeit hollow because the production design is so far ahead of the two leads — Chris Pratt as Jim Preston and Jennifer Lawrence as Aurora Lane — and their chemistry.

And so my appreciation of the film and ability to be successfully moved by it is indeed absolutely hinged on my being able to excuse the inexcusable and swallow the unswalloable. Graham is right on every mark, especially that the production value was worth a hundred times what the lameass leads were able to carry off. I hate to say it but Pratt and Lawrence are both so clearly lacking in calibre as individuals that together they only amplify the on-screen empty vessel’s deafening silence; what should have been ruminative and desolate was heavy-handed and weightless.

So: does the story make up for it?

My main gripe is with the screenplay. In a setting so cold and foreign, what audiences should have to hold on to is a very familiar humanness, some form of everyday relatability, and this is sorely lacking. Jim and Aurora say dumbass things that further distance our reality from theirs, setting the entire film back.

^ “well I’m not ready to give up” , says Aurora, after having been awake for a whole entire day, to Jim who has been awake and trying for a mere year. Lame.

^ fuck, this was worse than I remembered. Already the first time Jade and I almost got obliterated by how offensively crappy a line it was, but today as I rewatched it it brought me to unchartered lands of grossness. How is it someone can intend to give a seemingly generous compliment while making it entirely about themselves? You kill me? Fuck, how is that an important sentiment to express at all? “Hey, look at what your beauty does to me! Because it’s all about me, and I appreciate you[r face] because I am so slayed by it!”

The idea of the colony the film presents is somehow never as romantic as it aspires to be, whether because it is too explicitly a selfish venture or because like Aurora points out, the commercial nature of it is too obvious, but still it reminds me of my favourite Crosby Stills Nash & Young song, Our House. I think at one point Jim says, while telling Aurora why he decided to leave earth, “I could build a house. Live in it.” Sad, nice, cute, etc. Our House too possesses an insidious never-to-be-achieved yearning under its beautifully content floral bouquet. And while I hate to make Jim and Aurora the poster couple for all that Our House offers, their story does fit the bill –

Come to me now and rest your head for just five minutes, everything is good Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated by the Sunshine through them, fiery gems for you, only for you Our house is a very, very, very fine house with two cats in the yard Life used to be so hard Now everything is easy 'cause of you

Sob this song is so niceeeeeeee :’ ( And again later when his tether has broken and he’s on the brink of floating-in-space-forever-with-no-oxygen death, he says “I wish we’d met in 90 years, I would’ve built you a house”, my mind immediately follows up with with two cats in the yard…

I guess one thing I really liked was Aurora’s reaction to the grand reveal of Jim’s selfish action, that at least felt realistic and I guess important to have before the romantic storyline normalised it and had us believing that maybe it was okay after all. This is the problem with any kind of romantic/sexual conquest, you see. It’s all inherently self-seeking and built on ideas we have of people that means there will be inevitable disappointment on either end before long. Also was it wrong that I enjoyed watching Aurora powerfully bash Jim up in his sleep? What is justifiable and what is not? Am I in any place to judge? Somewhere along the way I grew to enjoy one-on-one violence and I don’t know if this is alright? Anyway, Aurora doing her daily workout round the vessel and shouting at Jim to shut the fuck up was a nice scene too. Like… seriously…. Shut the fuck up.

^ I remember Jade and I warmed a lot to her from this moment onward, and it felt almost cathartically necessary. You know what I mean? Like suddenly everything had meaning – not just in terms of point-plot structure of the film as a production but every action of Jim’s, of Aurora’s, and served as explanation to why their romance of before felt so hollow. And so the catharsis was not just to cleanse the audience’s guilt at just almost buying into their love before this point, but for both characters to reflect on everything they had been before too – Aurora as a writer full of ego and promise and dreams, and Jim as the lost romantic he seems to remain.

And then, in predictable fashion, the film erases what progress was made here just a few scenes later. Aurora, in conversation with the android bartender aka Michael-Sheen-is-damn-cute, says this in response to his “Time heals all wounds”:

Ummmmmmm…… surely finding out that your romantic companion, who you thought gave meaning to your life that never before existed, had built your trust in him and the entire relationship by completely obscuring all truth would result in slightly more than a broken heart?

But, okay, let me be generous and say that there was one moment of slightly effective screenplay and direction, where script and visuals came together to form possibly one of my favourite scenes. Aurora’s best friend (voiceover) speaks through a video:

I promise that I will think of you every day. When you wake up, I'll be gone, but just know that I will never forget you. You're my best friend. You were never happy here. I know. Nothing was ever enough for you. You know, you don't have to go. You could do whatever it is you have to do right here. But... Since you're going, here's my wish. I hope you finally find someone who fills your heart, and I hope you let him in. I hope you realize you don't have to do something amazing to be happy. You know, have fun, take chances. Okay. I love you, Aurora.

I knowwww, it’s cheap and unsubtle and has absolutely nothing original or revolutionary or nuanced, but I’m lame and I love it :-)

^ Also I cried in both viewings of the film when Jim first went in his spacesuit into the open and when he cried, that was a nice scene, and reminded me of the first few lines of Daft Punk’s Contact with the Apollo 17 audio. Very huge, everything in this world, people, skies, me. Somewhat related, the film’s scoring was really nice and effective I thought!

Oh also lmao Laurence Fishburne’s character experiencing a hibernation pod failure just as the ship was showing visible signs of greater failure is the most cop-out dues ex machina ever, lame

^ this is fucking inappropriate – he’s been awake for what, 2 screen-minutes and it’s supposed to be natural for us to accept that he has already noticed Aurora’s beauty or whatever it is that would make Jim’s position enviable? FuCK

Final thoughts cos I’m too lazy to continue properly: Sigh somehow seeing this again just brought back that loneliness that has otherwise been dormant for a while. Not just because of the 二人世界-type companionship that assaults our every senses with every scene, but I think because I’m remembering watching it with Jade, and realising how more often than not it pays to experience something with someone. I remember sitting with her and crying and commenting on the scariness of the scary scenes and the beauty of the beautiful scenes and the cosmic loneliness of the cosmically lonely scenes, and I now see how all of a sudden it has become so important for me to do things not-alone. I don’t want to say with people, because I don’t like that either, I think I am just in constant craving for a one companion to have and be with. When Aurora reflected in her travel log (presented via voiceover) that “for once in [her] life [she] didn’t feel alone”, I remembered that Saturday night a few weeks ago when I drove to Lower Pierce Reservoir alone near midnight and felt nothing but an overwhelmingly unenjoyable seclusion and how in that moment everyone who has been a big and small part of my recent reality came to my mind and how I wished any one of them were there with me. I sent a picture of the gazebo to Harshvir and told him that I was going to combust from general dissatisfaction and loneliness and then a week later as I waited in the nice cool morning air for a friend who didn’t turn up after 105 minutes I realised what is now fact:

I don’t know why I’m bringing this up, I think I’m thinking of Harhsvir because I remember speaking to him about Passengers over my usual channa masala and him being outraged that I was actually moved by it… Miss him! But yes the point is that I can’t do shit alone anymore. I don’t think this means that I would go to Jim’s extent and take things into my own hands by choosing to alter the fate of another, but…………would I? :-( Do we all have a bit of Jim in us?

So in conclusion this film is great and is bad and made me feel many feels and helped concretize some newfound learnings of my new self and I am happy to have the people that I do in my life right now because everyone adds so much on their own independently and occasionally together and my loneliness is easily quelled and I am glad that I have the gall to take steps even if it is difficult or rejection-ridden initially

And of course, everything about the technical failures of the vessel and the sheer unstoppable enormity of the universe and its natural powers is unspeakably scary. I don’t know the space genre in film well, but dare I say this was the most effective in presenting that idea of human arrogance in conquering what is beyond, and the dangers of this?

Good night world :-)

^ me while watching Passengers with Jadey back in January, me while watching any movie with anyone ever, feeling content and comfortable and stable and warm and appreciative and blessed and in awe, except only a symbolic/metaphorical hug instead of a literal one because physical contact is not fun :~)

Umm also I think in the process of writing this rambly rubbish I have come to feel less averse to Jennifer Lawrence… So apologies for my extremely fiery hate at the beginning of this crappy review. But u gotta admit sometimes she’s really super gross………………..but not that gross. I guess :-)

Thanks for reading, love you all, bye!

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