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overtaken-stream · 2 months

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Thinking about Modern AU!King who is a police officer

This loses its plot... For a reason unclear to me. Also, rats and snitches although annoying are my guilty pleasure characters

Happy Valentine's Day My Pookie(s)!

Also, it's been a minute since I've last written smut, sorry if it's underwhelming and ooc for King, blame it on the stress of having to enforce laws all day.

Warnings: Choking, breeding.

King is an officer in his own right, wearing the black patrol uniform shirt that flexed with his moves, not exactly tight but enough to make the muscles under it visible, the lightweight body armor leaves his hidden underbelly to the imagination.

The officers at the station are jealous of his physique, while women fall over themselves at the sight the man brings. His sense of justice is firm, the way he speaks and treats the criminals he catches is enough for people to swiftly figure it out.

Alber doesn't complain about his job, even when his co-workers encourage it, with that scowl constantly on his face it's hard to differentiate enjoyment from irritation. He is a man of few words outside of work, is what every person thinks. It's what they assume.

They don't know about the bribes he accepts in the alleys when no one is watching, not when the criminal proposing it is shaking in their boots, afraid to say a word about Alber's betrayal of Just, they could never use the blackmail material even if they wanted to.

His co-workers don't know about the second face he puts up in front of them, a mask not much different from the real Alber, but distant, one that can be overshadowed if kept in one place too long.

They don't know about his connections to the underworld, his relation to the King, let alone the Emperor.

There's only one person aside from his Relations who knows of true him.

He arrives without a mask to uncover, a cozy place he calls home awaits for him with open arms.

Your face is bright as you greet him. Arms tight around his neck and your fragrance in his complexion is not enough to distract him from the fact that he can feel your breasts through the layers of clothes separating you two. Your whole body is hanging off of him, yet his muscles are unfazed.

He is home.

! !NSFW! !

The exhaustion in his gut is replaced by a pool of arousal and he can feel his pants tighten.

Only after grabbing your thighs and putting them around his abdomen, does he catch your gaze before firmly latching his lips with yours, tongues intertwined together as you gently cup his face, the soft temptation of your lips swings the craving in front of his face. The mess of saliva is nothing compared to what he wants to do after a frustrating day.

Getting to the bed and not fucking you in the middle of the living room is a hard task to accomplish considering all King wants to do is rip the clothes off and taste the sweet nectar already.

Your back meets the silky sheets and hands tug at King's shirt, eyes glazed over and lips covered in saliva. You are truly an apple of Kings' eyes. In seconds it comes off, leaving the fruits of your labor sprawled on the table as the shirt goes flying off. Not wasting a second, King leans over you, hands grasping at your attire until the nude figure lies before him.

The tips of his eyebrows turn down, framing an evil smirk on his lips, not a single malice could be felt.

You can feel the butterflies flutter in your stomach. Can feel your insides clench down on nothing. Flush rises on your face and in the moment your legs try to close around the hand now resting in front of your heat, but to no avail.

``Don't get shy on me now.``

His two fingers glide slowly on your clit before plunging swiftly inside, picturing your shivering walls is driving him to get on with it, your sweet wail does not help. His lips seal yours shut, stealing sharp hisses from you as he stretches out the fingers and drags them unhurriedly but with pressure out and in. His teeth clash along yours, lips eat away yours until he engulfs you, it's what you feel anyway. His furrowed brows are that much more handsome on his heated face. His passion takes your breath away and blows the air right in.

Digits are knuckle deep as he finally fastens his pace, thumb pressuring your clit and rubbing harshly on the button, you turn your face sideways, mouth agape and eyes shut, with no shame you let loose the sounds that'll make the neighbors turn red and King fall deep into perversion.

``Oh? You like that? Like how my fingers feel?``

Your hips have a mind of their own, chasing the height without your permission. King lets you hump his wrist, too busy shoving one more finger down the pleasure hole and spearing them into you, it touches every right place, pushes on every button, tightening every knot you have and making your eyes water from the ecstasy.

``O-oh-ugh—yesss! Fuck yes...♡``

You barely respond, the loud and wet sounds your pussy emits as his thumb finally pushes on the right angle and keeps it there, giving you the pleasure you've been wanting since you woke up. It snaps the rope holding your body together.

``G-good girl. Fuck...``

Mind blank, a whine emits from your bruised lips, thighs quivering around his wrist, holding him in place as your hips unexpectedly jerk forward, your pussy releases the orgasm with a cloudy hue, glistening around the fingers until King gets himself free and brings his face closer to your opening, it seeps the slick out like drool from your maw. King treasures every drip you produce.

Once you've calmed down you realize that it's rare for him to talk during sex but man should he do it often.

With quick work he gets free of his pants, finally feeling relief and getting unrestricted access to what he wants to do. The deep gulps of air you take are quickly forbidden when his fingers rest on your throat, wet and smelling of your sex. The gentle touch almost makes your eyes roll.

He is so impossibly close, resting his whole body on top of you, all the while holding himself up by the elbow as to not crush you.

The tip of his shaft rests between your pussy lips, rubbing your essence all over it while it beats against your clit, heavy and engorged.

Kings one arm clasps the bedding while another flexes against your neck, lightly tensing its grasp. You can only bring your digits to caress his abs built and maintained over the years. The sheen of sweat covers your body.

His hips jerk forward to push in his length carefully, it slides in with ease thanks to your previous orgasm. The stretch gives way to the burning pain at first, until it devolves into entirety. The way you feel around him steals small groans from King, the spikes of pleasure stab at his heart the longer he stills inside.

He can't hold himself back and you don't want him to.

The euphoric movement of his hips slamming against your cunt and his hand wandering closer to your chest, all the while struggling for breath is overwhelming in the most sinful of ways. The sound his body makes as he connects lights up your world which is already rocking with his actions. It's unbearable for you to contain all of it. Your face goes red and his grip is only making it angrier.

Your heavy eyelids close, legs shake, but he dares not to stop, a high pitched whines emit from you, who's grabbing at his hand that's squeezing and rolling your nipple in between his fingers.

He is nowhere near done with you.

How can you keep up with him?

You don't.

The next morning, a bouquet of bright red roses awaited on the bedside table, alongside angry blue and red marks littering your back and breasts, nipples sore and swollen, there's still cum dripping out of you, and a present lying on top of a love card reminding you of the special day.

You can't wait for him to get back so that you can show your gratitude.

#one piece #anime #king one piece #king the wildfire #king the conflagration #king the wildfire x reader #.my headcanon.#one piece x reader #.my writing.#valentines day #valentines special #one piece king #king headcanons

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watchmorecinema · 5 months

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Yukio Mishima has been trending this week for uh, reasons. He was a world renowned Japanese author and all of his work is overshadowed by his actions on November 25, 1970. You might not want to read more about this guy because he is horrible and disgusting, but he's utterly fascinating and the movie about him is brilliant.

He's a really interesting character, to the point that he sounds fictional. He's gay, obsessed with ritualistic death, a right wing lunatic, led a private militia that was halfway to a cult, and also was a legitimately great author. His life is covered in the film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and it's easily the most beautiful film I've seen in my life. Look at the stills I posted above; every frame of this movie looks like that. It's all just a series of beautiful paintings with people living in them.

The way the film is structured is that it tells the story of his life in three ways. His past is told in black and white flashbacks with static cameras. This is closer to how a movie from the 50's would look like (specifically ones directed by Yasujirō Ozu). The events of three of his books are told with this beautifully stylized look, with sets that look like stage plays. The events of November 25, 1970 is told in an almost normal fashion, with regular colors and competent camerawork. The past is nostalgic, the present is mundane and only in fantasy can you truly come alive.

Through this movie we see the ideology of Mishima coming through. His nationalism, his sexual feelings and his thoughts on beauty and death all come together. Death isn't just a violent and tragic end, it is in itself a beautiful act. Beauty is the only true goal of life and creating beauty brings honor. Growing old and ugly is an act of hate; to die at your peak is to give love back to the world. It is therefore treasonous to live long enough to die peacefully. He pities what heaven must look like now; when men died young and beautiful it was paradise, but now it is filled with old men.

This is an objectively insane way to view the world but it is also fascinating. How much of this was what he believed, and how much of it was just begging for attention? In one instance when asked why he moved to the right politically he said "because the left was full". It was a joke answer, but he clearly wanted to be in the spotlight. His shield society was a paramilitary group dedicated to living a virtuous life of beauty, honor and old ideals. It was also a group of good looking, athletic young men led by a (barely) closeted, conservative gay man. So much of his life could have gone differently but also he was pretty much in control the whole time; he was independently wealthy and revered on the world stage. He could do whatever he wanted, and apparently the way his life went *is* what he wanted.

What's special about Mishima, both in the film and in real life, is that he's a smart and eloquent guy. In films the guy with a crazy worldview is someone like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver or D-Fens from Falling Down. Travis couldn't understand the alienation and loneliness he felt and he couldn't find any healthy solutions. D-Fens was smart enough but not emotionally strong enough to confront his problems or deal with them maturely. These are people that could benefit greatly from therapy (other examples include Joker from Joker, Rupert Pupkin from the King of Comedy, Frank Murdoch from God Bless America, Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Tyler Durden from Fight Club and so, so many more).

These are either 20 something year olds that are lost in the world, alienated and lonely, or 40 something year olds with a mid life crisis when they realize that everything has fallen apart. People who don't know where to go, or realize it's too late to change things. Travis Bickle had basically no friends, no family, no charisma with women and a lot of rage and anger. D-Fens lost his job, his self respect and was estranged from his ex-wife and daughter. These are people who's lives are shit at best (Patrick Bateman is a bit of a subversion. He is rich and successful, but his life is completely hollow, his relationships are shallow and he personally is very, very pathetic. I need to write about American Psycho later that film is great too.).

Mishima is different. He's smart enough to understand his issues and how to find help. He's got the money and means to do so. He's famous and rich enough that he could basically get away with anything weird or eccentric so long as it was harmless. On the world stage he was a popular author, and at home he led a life of political activism. If he was unhappy he could easily find healthy ways to fix it. His self destruction was the most avoidable of any of them, yet he's the only one that existed in real life. You expect these people to have serious personality flaws and unfixable (or seemingly unfixable) problems, not to be poetic writers that adhere to healthy living and regularly journal about their emotions, while enjoying respect from their peers and fulfillment in their work.

It's a hell of a film. Paul Schrader has not written or directed anything better (he actually wrote Taxi Driver too, so he had some experience with this type of character before) and it stands out as an incredible experience to watch. Like, Mishima's life is public knowledge and you can probably guess how it went, but I've purposefully not said what happened on November 25, 1970 because I don't want to spoil it. It's an event that actually happened but it's better for you to find out via the film than some wikipedia page.

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gintokishairbrush · 19 days

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The Gojo Racism allegations

A lot of people have been looking at chapter 255 and have considered it a character assassination of gojo satoru. Let's start by saying that is violently incorrect!

From a narrative perspective, Gojo and Miguel's interaction was perfect. Jujustu Kaisen is set in Japan, with a mainly Japanese cast due to the nature of Jujustu sorcery. With introducing Miguel into this arc once again, Gege is helping to put into perspective the state of Jujustu society- its not a matter of making racist gojo canon, it's about realism. Gege was trying to make a point that Miguel wasn't added to simply have a "strong black guy" in the cast - it was about making the world of jjk inclusive, without being performative. Gege handles the issue of 'fetishising' black bodies in spaces like fighting, sports and in manga in general, and shows us that it's entirely possible to have conversations about race without it being a massive, explosive confrontation. Miguel's line "I'm special because I'm me" is so important - for both black readers and Gojo. It shows, without a doubt, that people are more than society's preconceived notions about them. It also probably helped Gojo with his inner conflict on what makes him the strongest.

Gojo apologising so swiftly also speaks volumes to his character. Before this, he has been characterised as pretty arrogant (still a cutie patootie idc), but this has shown that when it's something he's not familiar with, he's willing to learn and change. Which is beautiful. Gege may claim to hate Gojo but idk y'all this is a pretty good trait to give a character that you don't even like 🤭

This chapter was easily the best portrayal of POC solidarity I've ever seen in manga. Say what you want about Gege, but their ability to make characters that tend to be overshadowed by weird stereotypes into well rounded additions to the story, is honestly beautiful. Gege has done a lot for women and girls in shonen, and now they're simply extending that to other groups who are poorly represented.

But at the end of the day no lives matter to Gege so let's wish miguel a farewell LMFAOAO bro is cooked 😭

#jjk 255 #jjk #jjk spoilers #gojo satoru #gege akutami #gege when i catch you gege #thisisthemiguelkaisen

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raywritesthings · 2 years

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Won’t lie, I am incredibly disappointed in Doctor Who’s choice to make Yasmin Finney’s new character be named Rose. The fact that in his post about it RTD defines her as just “another Rose” - like did he really not learn his lesson already?

I don’t care if she’s from a parallel Earth. I don’t care if she’s Rose Temple-Noble, and therefore Donna’s daughter like some people are speculating. I don’t care if it’s just a random fluke (though I doubt that). The fact is, Russell already went down this road in series 3, when he constantly had characters compare Martha negatively to Rose, and in the specials, when he named the Next Doctor/Jackson Lake’s companion Rosita, and had Ten remark “good name”.

Stop. Comparing. Black Women. To. A White Woman.

All people are going to talk about is Rose Tyler, and how this new Rose is like her or not like her, how much they miss the old Rose, how much they hate this new Rose compared to Rose Tyler, why couldn’t the “real” Rose have just come back instead, etc. If she is actually Donna’s daughter as some theorize, then plenty of other fans will just be talking about Donna, and her sad ending, and how her friendship with Rose was so amazing and profound it got through the mindwipe and so on. The point is, they will be talking about two white characters who have already had their time to shine instead of the new Black character, just like in 2007 with Martha’s run. The show had finally gotten to the point where it didn’t need to reference Rose Tyler every five episodes, and now that RTD’s back he’s just swinging the pendulum completely the other way.

Freema did not go through so much racist, sexist abuse for him to just get away with repeating this on another actress. And Yasmin will have it worse, because she is trans. People out there on the internet are already going to be posting or sending disgusting, vile things her way, and reigniting the “Rose Tyler vs New Character/Companion” debate is just going to make it so, so much worse. The fact that in the show’s canon, Rose Tyler treated the only trans woman she ever met (Cassandra, who was an extremely transphobic caricature written by RTD and portrayed by a cis actress) with derision and disgust, calling her “not human” and saying she “would rather die than live like [her]” is either going to embolden some transphobic fans or be desperately swept under the rug by the production team. If I see anyone on tumblr making transphobic or racist commentary about Yasmin Finney, whether blatant or a thinly-veiled dog whistle, I will be blocking on sight.

Some people are speculating that this Rose is going to be the new companion to Fourteen. And as amazing an actress as she is and as awesome as it would be to have a duo of Black actors headline Doctor Who for the first time ever, it would be an awful idea to kick off this brand new era with a companion who shares the same name as a previous one. A lot of folks have said it already, but this obsession with RTD’s first era as showrunner is frankly putting the show’s forward momentum in a chokehold. If people can’t get over the past and enjoy new characters and stories and themes (and they don’t have to enjoy all of them! I certainly haven’t over the years), then the BBC may as well have just canceled the show again. It’s running on the fumes of nostalgia, and David Tennant isn’t going to save the ratings by coming back once a decade. If people refuse to care about any other Doctor, then I say just let the show die.

Yasmin Finney seems genuinely excited to be joining the show and working with RTD, whether it’s for this one 60th anniversary special or for something longer-term is yet to be announced. But she deserved so much better, and Black women and girls both cis and trans deserved so much better, than to be overshadowed by a white, cis woman yet again.

#anti rtd #rtd salt #doctor who criticism #rtd criticism #criticism #would you believe it’s already come to this #i was so excited by last week’s announcement #so hopefully optimistic #that he had learned and grown and was ready to move on #and to treat Black characters with the respect they deserve #i wasn’t bothered that dt and ct were coming back for the anniversary #it’s always been that way #but this has sent my hopes sinking and i am just bracing for the worst again #some people will probably come on this post and say i’m being alarmist #or judging before we know the full story #but i don’t trust him #i was willing to give him a chance to see if he’d learned #but this does not say he has #i wanted to be excited and now i just feel dread #so that’s great #also still waiting for an official apology for his transphobic episodes and not something just thrown out there at a con once #never to be mentioned again #probably be waiting my whole life for that one though #i’ll still give it a try for 14’s sake at least #but don’t be surprised if i quit on this era too #emerson rants #yasmin finney #doctor who spoilers #spoilers

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guardianspirits13 · 2 years

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Yeah I'm sorry but imo the best female marvel hero yet is Scarlet Scarab (aka Layla El Faouly) and it is precisely because she wasn't created to fit either of Marvel's two "woman hero" categories, those being a) sexy and b) feminist. I find this to be primarily because her character was not created to fill Disney's quota of empty "progressiveness" which more often than not overshadows any passion to tell a good story.

Her character is consistently a much-needed grounding presence for Marc and Steven and she keeps their mission on track throughout the series. I honestly think the complexity of her history with Marc and her curiosity about Steven give her more agency than having a strictly non-romantic female lead for the sole purpose of subverting stereotypical tropes.

As for the heroic side of her character, I think the nature of being an avatar in this story being one of self sacrifice and relinquishing an amount of control over your own life allows for a natural subversion of an empowered female hero trope. In this story, being an avatar is not 'fun' or 'cool'. It is incredibly taxing and often exploitative, and Layla's choice to accept Tawaret's offer to be an avatar is a much better show of empowerment and selfless heroicism than other Marvel shows/movies where these powers typically come with feelings of confidence (pride?) and social leverage.

The only female heroes I can think of who comes close to her in this regard are Valkyrie, Kate Bishop, and perhaps Wanda (although I have not seen Multiverse of Madness yet and since here her heroicism is in a grey area I am hesitant to include her). Shuri is also a bit of a grey area since I think she needs a bit more screen time for the 'heroing' thing. Pepper Pots also is a grounding figure for Tony, but her experience as a hero is not only limited, but also feels devoid of personal merit. While obviously the main contenders for criticism of Marvel's portrayal for female characters are Captain Marvel and Black Widow (especially in eariler movies), this little rant mostly derives from the She Hulk trailer.

Keep in mind that I am also specifically referring to "hero" type characters and Marvel's ability (or lack thereof) to balance women having normal lives and personalities with them having powers and being heroes. As far as non-heroes, Karen Page from Daredevil takes the cake for me.

#moon knight #layla el faouly #she hulk #many thoughts here today #mcu #getting controversial here?#perhaps #maybe i'm just a simple lesbian and Layla is the most dateable marvel woman #who knows #she's just the most levelheaded take i've seen on 'girl hero' in a while

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adarkrainbow · 6 months

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Spooky season fairytales (7)

And finally, my last "spooky season" post! With seven posts of movie (and series and books) recommandations, plus additional reblogs, you'll have plenty on your plate for this Halloween!

And for this final post, I will go into the world of horror movies. I am here speaking of pure horror movies - not fairytale movies, not dark fantasy movies... BUT! Horror movies that were inspired by or heavily references fairytales.

Let us begin with a classic of classics when it comes to fairytale horror:

The Night of the Hunter, the 1955 classic movie. While technically not a horror movie per se, as many call it a "thriller" or a "film noir", it is very close to the horror world, and it heavily draws from fairytales!

Everybody knows by now the plot of this famous masterpiece. Black-and-white, heavily drawing from the silent movie era, "The Night of the Hunter" tells the story of how a dangerous serial-killer pretending to be a preacher worms his way into the household of a widow and her two children, hoping to find the money the deceased husband had hidden... As he kills the mother, the two children have to escape his clutches and wander throughout the American countryside in search of a new hope, while being hunted down by the evil figure...

When Charles Laughton decided to adapt the novel this movie was based off, he called it a "nightmarish mother Goose story". And, faithful to this description, he made sure his movie would be a dark Mother Goose fairytale. A tragic family drama forcing children to flee through the wilderness... Young ones fleeing from their wicked step-father, and seeking comfort in a kind grandmother-figure... A dark story filled with threats and creepy sights that ultimately ends well... Most significantly, the antagonist of the story, Harry Powell, played by Robert Mitchum, is actually designed to be the fusion of all three most famous male antagonists in Perrault's fairytales.

As a sinister serial killer who murders his new wife in a story about greed, he is Bluebeard. As a monstrous father-figure who hunts down two children across the wilderness to kill them, he is the Ogre. And finally, he is the Big Bad Wolf - but in this case the references are more to the early 20th century cartoons involving the character, since some of the mannerism of the villain, coupled with dark-humor slapstick scenes, clearly evoke the cartoonish Big Bad Wolf one can see in pieces such as Disney's Little Pigs cartoons.

Overall, this movie would be best described as a "realistic take on Perrault's fairytales". Remove the magic and the intemporal nature, and you've got this story.

Psycho, the 1960 classic of Hitchcock, also deserves to be on this list. Just like "The Night of the Hunter", it is another black-and-white, stylized thriller-movie about a serial killer, adapted from a novel it overshadowed. But whereas Night of the Hunter was purposefully designed as a fairytale, Psycho has little to do with it.

So why is Psycho on this list? Because while it wasn't designed as a fairytale piece, it ended up being a "fairytale horror movie". You see, many before me have pointed it out and analyzed it, but "Psycho" reuses a setting, a plot and characters that are eerily similar if not completely parallel to fairytales. The most notorious example is that Psycho is usually called a "modern Bluebeard". Indeed, we are yet again dealing with a male figure murdering women in the context of romantic/erotic relationships, and a forbidden room (well, a forbidden house) hiding a female corpse... [Note: Given Psycho's huge success, I do not think I need to put spoilers warnings]. In a lesser way, Psycho can also be read as a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. A charming male figure seemingly harmless and playful charms women... only for them to end up being murdered. The erotic undertones and the fact the male murderer little dresses as an old woman accentuates the Little Red Riding Hood parallels.

But more generally, one can tie up this movie with a lot of fairytales that all share the similar canvas of - the seemingly sweet young man is a murderer killing women (for example Grimm's The Robber Bridegroom, which also has an elderly mother-ifugre), or the mother-in-law is a deadly antagonist (the second part of Sleeping Beauty where the prince's ogress-mother wants to kill Sleeping Beauty).

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sees us leave the world of more "quiet" and "suggestive" black and white movie for the gritty, disturbing, repulsive and yet morbidly poetic and nightmarishly oniric world of... what stood between the slasher-to-be-coded and the redneck-horror-yet-to-be-created.

Did you know that this movie began as a Hansel and Gretel project? Oh yes! It all started out with a project to make a movie out of Hansel and Gretel, a dark and adult movie. As this project was settled, the influence of "Night of the Living Dead" reshaped the creation, and an attempt at re-creating the feeling of this movie was worked on... Then it was just a question of adding disturbing real-life facts, from the social rot of the Rust Belt to the life of Ed Gein, and you've got this classic of horror. The Hansel and Gretel origins of the movie still remain - the heavy topics of food and cannibalism, the treatment of young adults as cattle, teenagers being lured into the depths of the woods to a seemingly peaceful but in fact deadly house... You can also read in it a dark retelling of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Youth enters an unknown house uninvited and must flee when the three beasts that inhabit it come home... Except the beasts are here human serial-killers.

But the thing that should be highlighted with this movie is that... Despite being a disturbingly realistic piece with no actual magic or fantasy in it - it is the story of disturbed, mentally-ill serial killers in the depths of the dying American South - this movie has something magical to it. Or maybe "eldritchian". Most people agree that this is an actual Southern Gothic movie, and there was a fascinating video essay on Youtube about the cosmic horror aspect of this movie, and some would even classify it as a "folk-horror" piece... And there's a reason to all that.

Once again, this is probably due to the original direction of the movie as an "Hansel and Gretel" story, but despite being a "realistic" piece, the movie makes itself oniric and unreal. It uses very simplified and thus symbolic presentations and framings of the world that evoke this dark fairytale feeling - the clear cut between night and day, the unfolding of the story between a sunset and a sunrise, the limited locations that are the road - the house - the woods. There is a true "passage into the Otherworld" as the characters leave the sane, rational, civilized and human side of Texas to enter the disturbed, insane, monstrous and nocturnal domain of the antagonists, where very human taboo is systematically broken. There is something very Lovecraftian in the madness and degenerescence presented here by the murderous family, which adds to the "cosmic horror/eldritch horror" feeling when you consider the ritualistic way the various murder and grave-robbings are performed, and the extremes nature imposes on the character (scorching hot sun, pitch-black night), and the astrological foreshadowings...

Finally, the antagonists themselves are just fairytale monsters. They are modern ogres, human yet monstrous dwellers of the desert woods, beast-like man-eaters all too disturbingly human. They are the robbers killing and eating people in the woods from the Robber Bridegroom. And while they are "realistic", as in they are just insane and (possibly) inbred serial-killers, there is so much mystery left around them that they become almost supernatural. We never know their names. We never know their exact relationships to one another. We never exactly know where they came from and how they came to be as such. Just like the monstrous families of trolls and giants in fairytales, they just happen to be here, and are just known by their role. And of course, the presence of the vampiric impossibly-still-alive grandpa adds the final touch to the nightmare that truly breaks off from reality into the full uncanny valley of the fantastic in its literary sense.

Two for the price of one! Dario Argento's duology of "Suspiria" and "Inferno". (Yes there is a third movie forming a trilogy, "Mother of Tears" or "The Third Mother", but we will NOT talk about it).

These movies are staples of Italian horror, of the supernatural side of the giallo genre, and of witch horror movies in general. Suspiria is now a well known classic : a young American girl gets enroled into a German dancing school, but strange events, mysterious disappearances and gruesome murders led her to invastigate strange, eerie and oniric conspiracies - with the final twist (now what the movie is famous for) being that a witch coven is located in the school and killing people in their occult rites. Inferno, the sequel, deepens the mythology brought in Suspiria: after his sister mysteriously disappears in a New-York building, a young man comes to investigate the reason she was so afraid recently. A book about the existence of three evil witches hiding their dark magic within three different buildings - and the one the young man's sister lived in might have been one of those buildings...

These two movies follow the typical codes of the giallo (bloody murders with intentionally-unrealistic effects perpetuated by masked assaillants with a whodunnit structure), while having Argento's typical touch (the use of unnatural red, blue, green and yellow lights giving the whole movie a surrealistic and oniric tone, very unique soundtrack choices), and ultimately delve into occult and esoteric horror as they are filled with a web of evil witches, human sacrifices, deadly curses and terrifying undeads, all inspired by the Three Mothers invented by Thomas de Quincey.

However another very important if not fundamental aspect of Suspiria should not be ignored: it is a Snow-White movie. One thing that tends to confuse people when watching Suspiria is why women in their 20s such as the protagonists are acting extremely childish. The answer: they were supposed to be children. The movie was originally written to have a child protagonist, and all the students in the dance school being children - but since the murder of children as a no-no in 70s Italy, it was decided to make them adult... However Argento wanted to make a horror version of Snow-White, about an old witch targetting and murdering young girls to gain more power. So what he did was keep the original dialogues, and then create a strange set where everything was of the wrong size - too great, too tall, too big, with for examples door handles at the level of people's chests rather than hands - to have the adult protagonist look and feel like a child inside this strange academy. More obviously, Argento heavily references Disney's Snow-White in his movie - from the use of heavily saturated colors and of extremely unique, colorful, almost surreal architecture, to the presence of a neon-glass peacock in the witch's lair designed after the peacock motif of Disney's Evil Queen.

Inferno, the sequel, as a continuation of Suspiria, also has a basis and roots in a fairytale - this time Hansel and Gretel. But the references are more sparse and trivial than in Suspiria, where the fairytale theme was very present. You have a sister and a brother lured into a witch's house ; it is strongly implied if not outright confirmed that the witch's coven are cannibals ; and the movie ends up with the witch burning down. But beyond that, Argento wanted to focus much more on the "Three Mothers" mythology than to make a true fairytal rewriting.

[A warning: if you want to watch Inferno there are depictions of animal abuse. So be warned, it isn't for animal-lovers. Well the guy who performs the animal abuse gets brutally murder as a consequence, but still.]

"The Shining" is one of my favorite horror stories, and I am the first to admit it isn't a fairytale story at all. It is a familial tragedy about alcohlism, isolation and domestic abuse, interwoven with the supernatural story of a little kid with powerful psychic abilities being targetted by the ghosts and demonic entities inhabiting an hotel symbolizing all that was corrupted and wrong with upper-class 20th century USA... And the movie is certainly one of the best horror movies of the second half of the 20th century.

But there is something in Stanley Kubrick's movie that is not present in Stephen King's novel. Or rather it is present in just a few lines of the entire novel, and Kubrick had the great idea of expanding it as a recurring underlying, secondary theme... Fairytale references.

People have already written articles about it, but Stanley Kubrick decided to insist and even add fairytale references across his movie, so that, when you decide to look at the story under a certain angle, you realize there is a "dark fairytale" undertone to it. Of course, the famous behavior of insane-Jack as the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs, with explicit references, comes to mind. But there's also the fact that The Shining is a familial tragedy about a parent figure becoming a monstrous threat - something very common of fairytales. The supernatural notably acting by having warning messages coming from nowhere and previous victims appear to the future ones recall of how in fairytales involving murderers (like Bluebeard variants, or The Robber Bridegroom, and other variants) there will always be disembodied voices, or ghost of previous victims, or talking trees warning the protagonist. And the line of Wendy evoking "breadcrumbs" to find her way through the kitchen is working with numerous other elements of the story: the labyrinthic Overlook Hotel works as the forest in which children or girls get lost ; there is the same clear rich vs poor plenty vs hunger dichotomy as in Hansel and Gretel, the woman in room 217 has been compared to a fairytale witch, and some even pointed out that the strange decoration of the Overlook rooms can evoke whimsical candy-buildings.

Of course, the movie also offers clear subversions of typical fairytale tropes - a wicked father figure rather than the wicked mother ; or how the benevolent helper called in the role of the typical "Woodsman" actually completely fails...

So, while not intended as a horror-fairytale, Kubrick's The Shining is a great horror movie which happens to have an underlying fairytale angle you can read the movie under.

And let us conclude with... The Visit! Another movie by the very controversial M. Night Shyamalan, who produces among the best and worst movies we saw recently.

I haven't watched The Visit yet, though I plan to - but I have to include this because of how obvous the fairytale references and the fairytale theme is. Two children at sent by their mother to live with their estrange grandparents. The grandparents are nice and kind, though a bit strange, with bizarre rules and a possible start of dementia. However, the longer they stay there, the more the children start noticing a much more disturbing and dangerous behavior from their grandparents...

This movie is basically a real-life take on two fairytales intertwined together - Hansel and Gretel (with explicit references such as the grandmother asking the children to climb inside the oven to clean it) and Little Red Riding Hood (the same feeling of arriving at your grandmother's house only to realize there is something WRONG with your grandmother). And the whole thing comes with a final twist that actually clearly set this movie in the line of so many American urban legends such as "The killer on the backseat", "The old woman with hairy legs" or "The clown statue".

Ad what's a urban legend if not a modern-day fairytale? Or rather a modern day orror fairytale...

#spooky season fairytales #spooky season #fairytale horror #horror movies #dark fairytales #suspiria #inferno #texas chainsaw massacre #the visit #shining #the night of the hunter #psycho

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sofiadragon · 2 years

Video

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"We want strong men, to stand beside women as equals and work as partners... We need to stop telling men that there is no difference between competence and misogyny.”

Yet another YouTube video essay that cuts to the core of Marvel’s problems. This one hits some great thematic points about Phase 4 being dominated by bait-and-switch protagonists, female or minority antagonists that are only bad because a white man is pulling their strings, and a strict black-and-white morality that comes off as preachy propaganda.

Highlights:

The bait and switch: Either we tune in to see a favorite character and that character is overshadowed by a new character until the title character is hardly even part of the show. And/or the title character is absolutely mangled by the film/show to become this weak, terrible parody of themselves so that the minority or female character looks better by comparison. The female character never suffers any great setback because she is already at the end of her power-up arc, which all happened off-screen in a cut or before the movie/show even began.

The Lecture: She-Hulk condescendingly explains to Hulk that she doesn’t need training because is better at controlling her emotions than he is even after all the effort he put into training himself because she has to deal with inexperienced men condescendingly explaining the things she is experienced in to her all the time. Not a hint of either of them seeing the hypocrisy there. I know I’ve ranted about this scene before, but Phase 4 is so preachy. Again and again, we see some character go on a moral rant not at the villain, but at a supporting character or co-star. Hulk randomly needs a lecture about feminism. Loki just wants to be king of something for no good reason, and never mind the first two acts of Thor 2011. Every protagonist in DS: MoM gets a lecture... except maybe Wong? That movie is so confusing I may have to watch it again, but I think Wong made it out without an after-school special. The end of Falcon and the Winter Soldier is just a moral lecture with no stated solutions to any of the problems while a female minority terrorist murderer suddenly gets treated like an innocent child caught in the crossfire.

It’s just too easy: The Asgardians have had the worst time in Phase 4 and with them being my favorite characters... that’s just who I care most about. I’ve called out Sylvie for being a Mary Sue adjacent author self-insert before, and by Loki I’ll say it again. Nothing is hard for her except that she’s got this bumbling, spastic idiot attached to her. She doesn’t fail except that The Variant trips and lands in her way. None of her faults matter at all to her personal goals and struggles, and her primary fault actively helps her achieve her goals. This isn’t a struggle, and if it is just that easy then why should we care that she did it? Jane Foster is just... Oh my goddess no. She doesn’t even get to earn her power based on some intrinsic quality of her character that lets her pick up Mjolnir. No, Thor cast a spell on his hammer accidentally with no effort and minimal intention (I know this is a soft magic system but come on, there are some basic established parameters.) That allows Jane to wield Mjolnir. The hammer just makes her awesome, she’s barely able to stand without it. It’s just so easy for her... and it isn’t earned at all. She just got sick after a magic ex-boyfriend cast a protection spell that kills her faster if she uses it. This could have been a decent story for Jane (while Thor’s character is unsalvageable in this film) if she had just earned Mjolnir on her own merits.

#youtube #mcu critical #marvel phase 4 criticism

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aegor-bamfsteel · 1 year

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You've talked about Daemon took Rhaenyra's role as protagonist but I also feel like he took Aegon's role in the text though not as clearly (maybe role isn't the right word. Space? Page time?). All I can think of is how Aegon left the narrative as quickly as he entered it only to return when Daemon dies. I honestly think Aegon was initially the antagonist of the war while Rhaenyra and Alicent were the protagonist and deuteragonist. That Aegon was meant to do more than getting disabled in his first battle and returning to kill his sister esp since I think the first dance is meant to foreshadow the second dance. And neither Aegon nor Daenerys are going to be overshadowed by a Daemon-like figure.

What could have been a tragic war within the self destructive Targaryen family ended up devolving to Daemon and people Daemon likes/sired having anime moments all over the map.

I think what you’re saying makes a lot of sense. As far back as Bran II AGOT he calls the conflict “when brother fought sister in the war the singers called the Dance of the Dragons”. The two most important characters in the conflict were Rhaenyra and Aegon, as the leaders of each faction; GRRM had developed their personalities as far back as 2006 and 2005 respectively as “proud, stubborn, pampered, temperamental, never forgot a slight” and “sullen, petulant, weak” and neither as warriors (both of which are canon) in character descriptions to artist Amok. Dæmon Targaryen’s absence in both SSMs and Amok’s art speaks volumes to how he wasn’t created at that time; Amok had created all portraits of all the House Targaryen members at the time—all of the kings, the Maidenvault Princesses, the most important Targaryen Queens, even Daemon Blackfyre and half-siblings—but not Dæmon Targaryen, which seems strange considering how important he’d be in the published material. However, I don’t think he’d fleshed out Alicent as a character in 2006; even though he did refer to Aegon’s mother as a Hightower in Rhaènyra’s SSM, he didn’t give her full name or a bit of her personality as he did the (far less relevant) non-Targaryen mothers of Aegon IV’s children. I don’t think Aegon’s siblings had names either at the time. I guess he figured that with Aegon a full decade younger than Rhænyra, it wouldn’t have been an equal or interesting conflict character-wise (though I don’t think it was anyway). GRRM also expressed disappointment that Cersei and Dæny POVs weren’t in the same book because they each represented “two different ways how medieval women could rule” (…badly?) and maybe he wanted the contrast between regnant Rhányra and a Queen Dowager Alicent to be at the forefront. He also titled the first published material of the Dance in 2013 with TPATQ under the anthology “Dangerous Women,” so maybe he wanted the women to be at the forefront.

I agree that Aegon was meant to do a lot more than what he did in canon (though considering what Rhaenyra did…maybe even then not much). Probably some of his original actions were given to Aemond, because of course the special Dæmon needs his own arch rival to fight, and that could partly explain why he reappears toward the end. But I agree, having him (and Alicent) be absent for large chunks of the action while Daemon is winning battles and Aemond is burning black settlements out of spite does take away from the evenness of the conflict. The Starks are the heart of the main series, but GRRM admits the Lannisters get nearly as much focus. I just wish he’d given half of the conflict presentation and characterization to the Dance as he does the main series.

#opinion #asoiaf #dance of the dragons #anti daemon targaryen

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celestemagnoliathewriter · 10 months

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The women in HP are so underrated and under loved it's a crime. I HATE how so many women with actual character in the books get overshadowed in favor of abusive, vindictive men who were canonically terrible people.

Narcissa? Fooled Voldemort in the forbidden forest and made a deal with a possible spy to keep her son alive, (and also fooling/defying Voldemort there too.)

Andromeda? Defies Her extremely murderous family by leaving and marrying a muggleborn. She hides Harry Potter in HER HOME and raises a child on her own after the Battle of Hogwarts. Fights in a war twice.

Bellatrix? Revered and feared witch who will not hesitate to kill you. Absolutely sadistic and we actually do see a character arc with her, however small.

Nymphadora? Auror, extremely powerful, fought in the order of the Phoenix, and married Remus despite him being a werewolf, ignoring literally all the social impressions/implications of that. Then she goes and fights in the battle of Hogwarts after just having a baby to be with her husband.

Lily? A muggle born witch who defied Voldemort three times and died for her son despite Voldemort being willing to spare her life. The absolute (and only) love of James's life, one of the best potioneers according to Slughorn. Assumed to have been recruited by death eaters according to Hagrid. How powerful must she have been for them to allow her, a muggleborn into their ranks?

Hermione? Literally the smartest witch of her age, constantly top of her class, ruthless and user of "cool logic" what most just turn to magic. Neither Ron or Harry would be alive without her. Literally trapped a woman in a glass jar and blackmailed her for an entire year.

Ginny? "Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve," was possessed by Voldemort and lived, fought at the battle of Hogwarts at 16 and dueled BELLATRIX LESTRANGE. Also dueled death eaters at the DofM at fifteen. She stole the sword of Gryffindor and defied the carrows for an entire year at risk to her life.

But do we hear about them? No. Instead we get to glorify the likes of freaking Regulus Black, Barty Crouch, and Draco Malfoy, all canonical racists and classists who joined Voldemort because they AGREED with him. Nine of them were forced. Regulus literally had newspaper clippings of Voldemort, Malfoy wished death on Hermione and other muggleborns more than once. Regulus literally tortured Neville's parents into insanity.

And then the fandom has the gall to ship characters with people who would (and did) HATE THEM. People would rather ship the mcs with their abusers and enemies who are male rather than the good, fearless, complex, and morally good female characters and that's awful.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk, sorry it was so long but that one post you reblogged about women of HP being overshadowed by terrible men reminded me of my anger about this subject. (And jegulus can go die in a hole.)

Anon, I'm loving the energy you're bringing to my inbox :D

This whole issue is what spurred me to start up the @ladiesofhpfest. I felt frustrated with the way male characters in the series get more attention than female ones. It's true that male characters get more page time because of the (misogynist) world JKR created.* Characters like Regulus, Barty Crouch Jr, Evan Rosier, Theodore Nott, etc. get a lot of development compared to minor female characters. Some minor female characters have gotten more development and attention, like Dorcas, Marlene, Pandora, Daphne, and so on, though nowhere near the level or popularity as some of the minor male characters.

I've heard before that the reason some people like the male characters and their stories is due to better development in canon. Essentially "X female character has a shitty story so I'm not interested, I'm only interested in characters with interesting stories." Tonks is a fabulous example of this. Her story arc from OotP to HBP and DH can come off as disheartening. She's introduced as this BAMF Auror, gets moody and depressed, and then "just" becomes a wife and mother.** Yet I find Tonks's story, while not fleshed out, to be super interesting. I was unsatisfied with the details we got in canon, so I've written Tonks out in a million ways. If we can provide whole backstories to characters named once - like Evan Rosier - why not beef up what we have with characters like Tonks?

Despite all this, I do understand why some male characters get more stories and redemption arcs. Think about Severus Snape for a minute. He gets a canonical redemption arc. He's also a massive dick and described repeatedly in unflattering terms. How come there isn't more uwu-baby-poor little meow meow Snape out there?

Because we have overwhelming evidence of him being a dick in the series. We have that with Draco too, but because he's "hot" he gets more attention. If Snape had been handsome he'd be a more popular character, I'm sure of it. Hotness somehow makes people better, like Regulus, or presumably Evan Rosier. What if Evan Rosier, canonically, looked like he was hit in the face with a hot shovel? Would we still be interested? Probably not.

I'd be remiss if I didn't add an important point. Fandom isn't activism or a moral measuring stick. As frustrating and annoying as I find some ships, fanon characterization, and fandom behaviors, it's all pretend. It's fictional fun. Fandom is a hobby for most of us, an outlet for our creativity and feelings.

It IS important, in my view, to point out the problems in canon and fanon, however, because these problems are symptomatic of a larger worldview. Misogyny is deeply ingrained in our world, which leads to violence against all those who identify as women (and in many cases, those who identify as nonbinary). I do think it's worth examining how we write and what we create to uncover the biases we're presenting. I'm not perfect at it. No one is. Fandom is fun and a part of the world we live in that will reflect the values and biases inside our psyches. The biases themselves do not make us morally good or bad; everyone was raised with biases or blind spots that can take lifetimes to undo, if ever. Write what you want, explore what you want, and perhaps do some self-reflection along the way to see what's happening underneath the words.

At the end of the day, sometimes you just want to see two hot blorbos kissing, and cool! Do that! Get your blorbos kissing! Fandom isn't activism, do what you want!

Simultaneously, fandom is a community effort that involves a lot of diverse people, and what we create and share with others can have a real-life impact on others' day to day, or mold their views. Fandom is a part of many of our daily, lived experiences, which means there can be some real-world implications. Think back to the hubbub over the (upcoming?) Harry Potter TV series; the way we talk about it absolutely impacts the way our trans neighbors might feel about their place in the fandom. Thus while I do want to say that fandom isn't activism, fandom is still real life in many ways. It's not ALL our lives, and we shouldn't be morally judging people on slices of online engagement we get, tempting as it may be.

For those like me who write and create for more than pure entertainment (I often ask "what is it that I want to say about the human experience with this piece?"), I do think it's important to reflect on what I'm presenting and why. Not everyone has to do this, though it's helpful in many ways to do so - this is classic metacognition, studying the way we think. It can only help us to think about our own thinking processes. No one is perfect at it, naturally, but it doesn't mean we can't try.

And, when you're feeling down about a fandom issue that frustrates you, help it spur you into action.

*I don't think she intentionally made it misogynist, but her views certainly colored the world she built. Think of how the antagonist women are described as manly, ugly, or heavy-set, like Millicent Bulstrode, Dolores Umbridge, Marge Dursley, Rita Skeeter, etc. These are biases that color the whole world. Barty Crouch Jr doesn't get the same treatment. Nor does Draco Malfoy. Severus Snape is the only one who comes close but he gets a redemption arc.

**This is another way we see JKR's misogyny playing out. The good girls get to be wives and mothers, with a couple exceptions. Women like Dolores, Marge, and Rita have no partners or children that we know of. Women like Minerva and Pomona are given noble teaching professions in lieu of family. Good girls get rewarded with families and noble careers, bad girls don't. JKR being a TERF should come as no surprise, given the way she writes women in such stark terms between the ones who get traditional femininity as a reward and masculine features as a punishment or indictment of their moral value. :(

***One more note re: anon's message. Regulus didn't torture the Longbottoms; he was dead by then.

#hp fandom #harry potter #hp fanfic #harry potter fandom #harry potter series #harry potter books #harry potter fanfiction #fandom #fanfic #ao3 #women in literature

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denisearef · 7 months

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Gender, Genre, and Excess: 'Don't Worry Darling'

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Plot:

Alice and Jack Chambers, a married couple, live in the 1950s-era town of Victory. Alice begins to uncover unsettling secrets about their seemingly perfect world. She learns that Victory is a simulated reality created by Frank, where the men lead ideal lives while the women are trapped in a 1950s simulation.

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In Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling," excess serves as a central narrative tool, creating a film that is both suspenseful and emotionally charged. At the heart of this lies the character of Alice (Florence Pugh), whose journey from a seemingly content housewife to a woman plagued by paranoia and fear is marked by intense emotional turmoil.

The film employs an excess of emotional distress to craft an atmosphere of psychological unease. Alice's life takes a dark and unsettling turn as she witnesses Margaret's (KiKi Layne) tragic death, experiences surreal visions, and becomes increasingly paranoid about the secrets of Victory (a 1950s Californian utopia). This emotional intensity heightens tension and sets the stage for a narrative that thrives on psychological horror.

Within the film, we can find an excess of sex (highlighting female pleasure), but those encounters become a diversionary tactic. Passionate, (arguably unnecessarily explicit), and seemingly consensual sexual moments between Alice and her husband, Jack (Harry Styles), serve as a smokescreen, deflecting Alice's attention from what's actually going on. The excessive focus on sexual distractions becomes a manipulative tool to control her perception of the world she's living in.

But, beneath the surface of these sexual distractions lies an excess of psychological violence. Alice is systematically gaslit and made to believe she is descending into madness. The film portrays an excess of psychological manipulation, gaslighting, and isolation tactics employed by characters like Jack and Frank (Chris Pine). This excessive portrayal of psychological violence contributes significantly to the film's overall atmosphere of psychological horror. Alice's experience of being questioned, isolated, and subjected to electroshock therapy underscores the extent of the psychological violence she endures.

In the context of gender roles, the film presents an excess of traditional expectations placed on women. Women in Victory are forces to serve men, and this theme is highlighted throughout the narrative. Their primary role, it seems, is to cater to the needs and desires of the men, often at the expense of their own autonomy. The excess of gender roles dictates that women are expected to serve men, regardless of the circumstances.

When examining the film's racial dynamics, you notice a lot of double standards. "Don't Worry Darling" features a predominantly white cast, and one main black character, Margaret. Margaret's character is marginalized within the narrative, ostracized by her community, and ultimately meets a tragic end. Her voice is largely dismissed, and she is perceived as unreliable. This treatment of Margaret highlights the racial imbalance in the film, where her concerns and experiences are not given the same weight as those of the white characters.

The racial disparity becomes even more pronounced when Alice, a white woman, starts raising similar concerns. Suddenly, her claims are taken more seriously, and the excess of disbelief directed at Margaret is replaced with an excess of attention and concern. This disparity in how the characters are treated underscores the film's racial imbalance, where the voices and experiences of black characters are marginalized and overshadowed.

In "Don't Worry Darling," excess is not confined to individual elements but is interwoven into the narrative, creating a gripping and suspenseful storyline. Alice's transformative journey, marked by emotional distress, sexual encounters, psychological violence, and racial dynamics, serves as a compelling exploration of the effects of these excesses.

Questions:

Would you say this film is feminist?

According to Wilde, she intended for the audience to “realize how rarely they see female hunger, and specifically this type of female pleasure.” do you think the reveal changes that statement?

How does the movie 'Don't Worry Darling' explore the dynamics of power, race, and desire within its seemingly perfect society?"

@theuncannyprofessoro

#oxyfilmidentity

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oreo102 · 2 days

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Please I'm so so curious to hear your thoughts on 10/14

Ok so my thoughts on 10 are less than 14 so let’s start with him lol. I have not watched 10, so my hatred of him is more hatred by proxy of how the fandom treats him and proxy of 14, but I still do have a few specific thoughts and this will be long and definitely rambly

A) when talking about him I usually refer to him as Fandom’s Favorite White Boy or Pathetic Wet Cat/Twink mostly because it’s funny but for now I’ll use 10. The most I know about 10 is that he is angsty and in love with rose and besties with Donna… also that he’s pathetic but that’s more vibes

So- my hate of 10 is less tangible than 14 but i still have a few points, the main one being the way i see ppl talk about how he treated Martha and how obsessed with rose he was. I don’t think it’s ever compelling to have someone’s main personality trait be loving someone a whole lot which also honestly is my problem with rose (don’t hate her but don’t care about her)

From what I have seen and heard of 10 it’s rather… boring, honestly? Like it’s mostly clips out of context but for 13 and 15 I saw clips out of context and was like “ok wth is happening? /pos” with 10 it’s more like “wtf?” Also pretty sure his episodes were some of the ones I saw when my parents had the show on that played a part in me swearing the show off so

Ok onto the more tangible hatred of 14. A lot of this, admittedly, is more about the writing and showrunner decisions than 14 but those things by proxy makes me hate him

So- I have a lot of feelings on him quite literally starting from his first appearance in power of the doctor. I am SO PETTY that he doesn’t wear 13’s silly little outfit. Like I have gone on full rants about that fact to my friends and family

I’ve seen something claim that rtd didn’t want 14 to wear her outfit because people might be transphobic and derogatory towards him (even tho Dhawan!master wore it, and it’s pretty gender neutral) but then did nothing about the shit ppl said about ruby’s actor or about ppl who would be a bitch about rose the second being nonbinary(also i remember seeing a post about their deadname being mentioned in an episode? Not totally sure that’s true tho)

The 60th anniversary specials themselves don’t really celebrate Dr who as a whole as much as 10’s run with a few old villains but that’s not really my main issue with that. My main issue with the specials is that the Doctor gets their happy ending. With Donna. And her family. When fucking 3-4 episodes prior, their happy ending would’ve been yaz. It would’ve been staying with yaz. But nope! Donna! Because that’s what 10 would’ve wanted.

And I don’t want 14 to be with yaz, btw, I mean I want them to meet and for yaz to hit him, but I don’t want them to be a thing or like be together because I believe yaz is a lesbian but that’s not the point of this so moving on

I also have very much big issues with the scene where 15 and 14 are (presumably, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the full scene) talking about women they love and mention who I assume to be River and rose but not yaz, who again, they wanted to spend forever with 3-4 episodes prior. It makes the doctor seem like a douchebag even if it’s a writing issue and not a character issue

Also 14 being David tenant overshadows 13’s departure and 15’s arrival and since he is most likely going to show up at least a little bit in s14 he’ll overshadow 15 in his own series. It’s icky at the very least.

There’s something inherently bad about having the fandoms Favorite White Boy be with a contentious casting decision (because I have no faith in the Dr who fandom not to be bigoted) and even if no one has an issue with 15 being black and maybe gay (is he gay? He gives gay vibes) it’s still setting him up for failure by pairing him with 14

Also bigeneration is so fucking dumb and I hate it

Also also stop giving the Dr 19 year old companions it’s getting kinda weird now

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mademoiselle-cookie · 7 days

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Let's talk about « The Princess's Jewels »

I saw a lot of people (rightfully) criticizing "The Princess's Jewels" but at no point did I see people WHY the young girls who read it love it (far too ready to insult them).

Do people really wonder why some people are able to look past the heroine's flaws?

She is not a shy and fragile little thing who allows herself to be mistreated and erased by the male characters. She knows what she wants and does everything to get it, she assumes her sexual desires without any shame, she is strong enough to beat the shit out of all her opponents while still being feminine...

Conversely, in how many fictions have you seen useless and/or weak female characters, completely overshadowed by the guys? Can we talk about Ochako, who, since realizing her feelings for Deku, sees her character revolve solely around him? About Sakura, the example of useless female characters? About the thousands of works where women are harassed or even sexually assaulted without it being questioned?

For once, it's a fiction where it's the girl who has the power. She is the one who uses, possesses and surpasses the male characters. For once, it's the men who are reduced to the status of objects and used to make women shine.

Even in reverse harems, men are not entitled to the same treatment as women in classic harems. I haven't read many, but I don't remember any panty shots about little boys or arguments about who has the biggest (boobs) dick. They're generally treated with a lot more respect and not just as boobs with legs (or in this case, abs with legs).

And it’s not just a story of “revenge” (big quotation mark, I don't have a better word). It is also (mostly?) a question of identification. Girls know that they are not potted plants, uninteresting holy of holies destined to have their lives revolved around a man.

In this webtoon, the heroine has desires without being demonized, she is manipulative and intelligent and is celebrated for that, she's physically strong and can talk a good game instead of being a dullard who can't put her feet up...

The representation problem can be very effective in hiding problems in a work. Some even use it intentionally, in order to have a fan base in desperate need of representation, and to be able to call the critics haters *cough* Little Mermaid live-action *cough* (not to say that haters will not indeed come after representation of minority).

A quick thought about this comment from a black reader who was so thrilled to see a black character in an important and positive position. The character in question is owned by a white woman and is the only one of the "Jewel" group to wear a dog collar (he is also a werewolf. The only werewolves depicted are members of his family, also black. No black people exist outside of this family).

So for those complaining that no one criticizes this webtoon, two things:

not true, people criticize it. I discovered its existence because of the numerous videos criticizing it on YouTube. Even in the comments, readers pointed out the flaws in the writing or the horrible behavior of the heroine (even in the advanced chapters where everyone who didn't like it has already left). Here an exemple

If more people criticize Redo of Healer, it may be because a manga popular enough to have an anime adaptation, thus making it even more famous, attracts more people likely to criticize it than a not very popular webtoon. known.

Of course, this does not prevent us from criticizing this work.

This obviously does not prevent the heroine from being a daddy's girl Mary-Sue, selfish, self-centered, hypocritical, fatphobic who has no respect for her poor fiancé and who succeeds in everything because she "is so beautiful” and that she “smells good” (no joke).

This does not prevent his half-brother (supposedly a villain), despised for no reason by his father, physically and psychologically abused by his mother, who is absolutely right about the MC and who does not get everything by snapping his fingers unlike her, is a character a thousand times more appreciable (the fiancé too).

But when you're an adult, you don't insult teenage girls for liking poor quality works.

#the princess's jewels #Is it obvious i'm pissed by grown ass man insulting teenagers?#they're bigger problem with this #webtoon #like how the MC treats her fiancé #or how she get her last jewel #by literally theatening him to destroy his kingdom if he didn't agree #or how much of an asshole the father is but never shown as a villain #unlike his sons who are currently abused by one of his wife #It will be funny to make an analyse of how much a Mary-Sue Ariana is but I don't want to read to entirely

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killervibe · 11 months

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I trust your opinion on The Flash most of all, so how did you feel about Cecile’s character trajectory? I was not a fan of what they did with her character, but I also thought the level of hate she ended up getting seemed unjustified? Everything from the way she was dealing with her grief over Joe’s death during Armageddon to her getting a super suit, she was torn apart for. I never understood the hyper-focus on her in later seasons, but I also think the hate the she gets is insane.

Thank you for asking me this. I'm actually excited to write another Flash essay-response. I missed this.

In short, yes, I found Cecile's meta arc frustrating and confusing but I do not hate her character nor do I have an issue with a middle-aged hero existing.

The problem and fandom obsession with Cecile is multifaceted. She was a doomed character of inherently flawed writing, but her fall from grace through fandom's eyes is nothing short of misogynoir.

The Seal ??? you're going to compare a black woman to an animal for your satisfaction? In a world where black women are constantly described as animalistic and primitive? There is only one character who gets just as much ceaseless vitriolic hate as Cecile and that is Iris.

First and foremost, I would like to raise that where I have seen the absolute worst treatment towards Cecile and Dani N is Twitter--I left Flash Twitter 5 years ago (though I was never truly fully on it) because of the sheer racial animosity I felt on there as a biracial person. I've read so much disgusting racialized hate towards Dani N (including from fans of Candice and Iris, no less and it saddens me to see the community disillusioned into believing that to be protective of a black lead means that any other black character is an enemy destined to be pitted against her) especially in terms of questioning or diminishing her blackness. It was disgusting and it still is.

The problem with empaths/telepaths/mind control powers is that they become limitless very quickly when no boundaries are set in place. Her powers were confusing and used for exceedingly expository purposes that felt like a cop-out the longer it went on. I cannot tell you how many times I have lost my understanding of the "science" plots in the last 3 and a half seasons and that is a good chunk of Cecile's meta problems.

Season 4 worked because Cecile's powers were bounded to her pregnancy. She served as an adequate neutralizer against The Thinker which was needed at the time. Her powers should've had an expiry date and ended when Jenna was born. Or, more accurately, her powers should've been Jenna's. Cecile's powers manifested upon Jenna's conception, it would've served that the source of her abilities came from the baby, not herself. Without going into too much detail, this could've nicely allowed Nora (and Bart) to have family closer in age to be a part of their eventual Flash Fam team roster. Of course, it didn't pan out that way. They needed to give Cecile's powers concrete limits without evolving or "levelling up" in a way that overshadows the titular character. This is a given! They gave her everything and it was ridiculous, empath/telepathy/mind possession/emotive projection - like yeah. It's too much. It's annoying and it's too much!

In Stargirl, the Brainwaves were eliminated early on in the series because they were OP. Those writers were cognizant of that fact and woven in a compelling story that served to ensure that the empath/mind control characters were set in their place without overthrowing the entire capacity of the main heroes of the show.

Cecile made a great lawyer, but she failed spectacularly at all of her crucial lawyering post s3.

And it's a writing problem. Lazy effort went into how to include any in-universe plausible legal processes in this show. S4 Barry trial and S7 KF trial are glaringly obvious examples like this. But we should have known that the majority of the responsibility of these flaws lays in the hands of the writers inability to do justice to ANY of their female characters, which goes exponentially for the black women. So of course I am not surprised that they blundered with Cecile as she was promoted from supporting to main cast.

Nora Allen? Murdered (x150). Tess Morgan, the founder of STAR LABS name? Murdered & never revived unlike the 500 Wells. Linda? Disappeared. Francine? Dead. Tina McGee? Disappeared. Jesse? Erased from existence. Caitlin/Killer Frost/Crystal Frost/Khione? Murdered three times, reduced to repetitive abusive love interest storylines and retconned storylines into oblivion. Cynthia? Murdered. Kamilla? Treated like dirt & disappeared. Marlize? Same. Sue? Disappeared. Joanie? Disappeared. Jenna? Disappeared. Carla and Cisco's mom? Both also awful. Meena? Disappeared. Alexa? Who? Esperanza? Murdered. Allegra was okay ish, and I know there are more (Ralph's mom, Becky Sharpe, but really, I think I've made my point...) but that literally leaves us with Cecile, Iris, and Nora I/II as our black female leads who had to face the brunt of the worst writing (and most hatred when it was their "time" to shine).

This show cannot execute motherhood properly. It refuses to. See: Iris s5 and literally every mother to ever mother on this show except for Nora Allen...

But also, both the creators and the fandom seem to hold this ideology that motherhood is the end all and be all of life and value? Show runners have said again and again that The Flash would have to end when Iris is pregnant because that's when it's "over" ??? I did not understand that when it was first said and I still do not understand that. This concept of femininity directly tied to the merit associated to motherhood is a good chunk of the reasoning behind people claim to hate Cecile--Because she is a superhero who has sacrificed as a single mother and now struggles with balancing her desires vs her obligations? Cecile, who has been written as a black woman who canonically struggled to society's standards of excellence causing her stress and anguish to the point of mental break? I appreciated the s7 psycho-pirate and mental health struggles she had - so I wasn't horrified to see that she struggled with grief in s8's plot. The type of mental health issues that these storylines explored is a real lived experience that many women have, and I find it fascinating that there is this double standard here. This is a superhero show. Like...we're hating her for, what, exactly? For being a superhero and wanting to help people?

I mourn Cecile's "downfall" because she was a great addition to the West family as a supportive cast. I mourn the fact that Iris and Cecile never really had a great relationship despite both being mains. I mourn the fact that she was given more weight than Iris in the last season instead of supporting and encouraging her. Because that's why her role was elevated in the last season, to replace Joe in his absence as Iris' number #1 cheerleader. But it never properly translated that way and that is a shame. That said, her role in the show shouldn't have been strictly reduced to "Mother" and "Grandmother" --That isn't fair. I adored the way she spoke to Nora I in s5 but she did deserve to go on adventures the same way Joe has since s1. Why shouldn't she? I think this is what Eric Wallace was trying to achieve and I applaud him for the idea but have to criticize the execution. The show has failed her in her area of expertise of being a successful lawyer, mocked her by putting her through a pregnancy for a child they couldn't commit to, and then kicked her character into the lion's den for death by turning her into an OP'd meta at the mercy of a prejudiced fanbase already notoriously well-known for mistreating black talent. This could've easily been avoided with more clever solutions that positions Barry--the creator of Gideon--as the focus and true mastermind behind Team Flash plans.

#the flash #cecile horton #s9 #9x13 #tkv rambles #ask #anon

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flansterthefilm · 5 months

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Wokeness

One of the most mind altering cringe things I've seen my entire life is a grown men, maybe in his thirties, losing his shit over the option to select your pronouns in Starfield. He yelled at the screen, he turned the game off, you could see the fires of rage in his eyes burn with the fury of a thousand suns. And one of the most captivating things that I saw said in response to this was that what he was facing mentally had to be some sort of cognitive illness. Holy shit, you're right.

I think that now more than ever there's a strong pushback against the inclusion of any type of marginalized group in media unless they submit to extremely tight standards: Women are fine as long as they're beautiful, black people are okay as long as they aren't too present and don't overshadow the white main character, and the LGBT community are tolerable permitted they aren't at all present. When media doesn't submit to this they face review bombing, unsuccessful boycotts, and even real world threats.

Most commonly we see that these aforementioned qualities not being stuck to birth Twitter rants made by people who paid $8 for a blue checkmark to appear next to their name. They'll write as much as the character limit permits about how whatever studio is responsible for the downfall of the West because some movie had a gay kiss scene or a video game let you play as a deaf black girl.

What you'll see as a pattern in a lot of cases of apparent "wokeness" is that the issue isn't so much what a character says or does but rather a character's inclusion in the first place. In a game like Horizon Forbidden West the main character, Aloy's, sexuality was met with harsh waves of criticism. She wasn't straight and that was an issue. The game didn't make a statement about gay validity vs straight validity, Aloy was just bi or lesbian, end of story. And in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 we have Hailey, a deaf black character who has an OPTIONAL side mission where things were as down to Earth as possible in a game like Spider-Man. She didn't save the day in the end, she didn't use her powers of being black and deaf to overpower the Spider-Men, she just existed. Both of these instances were met with controversy from former FASD babies who accidentally tricked themselves into thinking their opinion was worth hearing.

This criticism, however, goes beyond just dipshits on Twitter. A lot of the time we see major news outlets like Fox News take any given instance of non white, non straight, non male inclusion and turn it into a news story. Most common when Mr. Carlson was on the air, stories about the Little Mermaid being black or the Green M&M no longer being boner fuel because Mars doesn't want people to make their own salty M&Ms before they get their recipe right flooded the air. Tucker doing this unleashed the concept of wokeness unto his millions of fans, and from there conflation began.

Tucker's framing of wokeness made it seem as if any inclusion that didn't fit his ideal standards was inherently bad and worth fighting against. And his ideal standards often made it seem like marginalized groups aren't welcome when compared to straight white men when it comes to their involvement in media. Both are true. And when you have a man like him, the former most watched news personality in America, not only make it seem like the devilish concept of wokeness was just the inclusion of minorities but also validate those who already thought that way, disaster will and did strike.

(I don't believe Tucker is solely to blame however it stands to reason that he certainly didn't help the spread.)

So now we have the mere act of including and in some cases simply acknowledging these minority groups being framed as woke, and woke=bad if you haven't sumised by now.

This rather easily paves the way for any and all representation of marginalized people to be labeled as woke, and when it's labeled as such a pushback from a larger group of people is easy. Those who begin the pushback are simply angry that someone who doesn't look like them are in media they want to enjoy, that's what they see as woke. By using the word "woke" they enlist the help of the uninformed, those who think that the issue is the presence being forced or pandering, that is their version of woke. What they don't know is what they're rallying behind isn't a simple expression of proper inclusion, it's the erasure of inclusion.

From there and with repeated pushbacks the uninformed begin to conflate any inclusion with wokeness. They get mad that a gay person was on Sesame Street or The Simpsons is pro BLM. They think they're at war with pandering. This is not true, they've been radicalized.

Large, public, and vocal outcry leads to executives listening. If they believe that having a black main character is going to drop profits whereas a white one wouldn't, guess which path they'll take. And this will continue with two outcomes for each instance: the minority is replaced with future media or the minority stays and further radicalization happens.

With those who fall into the bigoted category of warriors against the "woke mob" in congress and various positions of power, fighting against what boils down to minorities being present in anything, with them being radicalized just as the uninformed had been or being radical to begin with, I hate to see what's on the horizon for my friends and I.

#lgbtqia #politics #wokeness #essay #personal essay #free write essay #civil rights

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