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blackautmedia · 6 months

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Tears of the Kingdom and the Orientalism of the Mummy - Dehydrated Ganon

Plenty have talked about the portrayal of Ganon and the problems with both him and the Gerudo as a whole. I haven't seen as much talk about dehydrated Ganon specifically and wanted to share some of what I'm aware of.

TotK in many ways can be read with the number of plot points it lifts from classic mummy films, which in turn means it also picked up all the racial history and tropes that come with that.

Dehydrated Ganon and Phantom Ganon are mummies. He's explicitly referred to as such several times in the game and the game's opening relies on a number of classic mummy movie tropes in its presentation as introducing a corpse-like Ganon.

Here's an excerpt from the The Mummy On Screen: Orientalism and Monstrosity in Horror Cinema.

Male archaeologists, heroic adventurers and female heroines are all drawn to enigmatic corpses and/or racial ‘Others’, being variously hypnotized, transformed, romanced, coerced and/or transported away from their humdrum lives, sometimes through time to re-experience an ancient past in which they once lived, sometimes through space to Egypt where the monster stalks or seduces them.

Helen in The Mummy (1932) is a woman who succumbs not only to the influence of the Mummy but also to the lure of Egypt itself and its ancient ways that still hold sway.

If one accepts Wood’s thesis, one can see the Mummy film as having a formidable formula, with the Orient serving as an effective site and its chief monster functioning as a potent medium for the release of the suppressed.

The game is built on Zelda being zipped to the past and her experiences in an ancient, mystical world and seeing the founding of Hyrule while Link is integrated into the resources left behind.

After Link and Zelda were drawn in by the Mummy's call to investigate beneath Hyrule following the rise in illnesses from the gloom.

Zelda is whisked away to ancient Hyrule where she spends time with her very heavily Native coded (which would need an entirely separate post on the tropes associated with that and the way the game uses Anti-Native tropes) Zonai pals.

She's in a rush to return home, but this new space also ends up being a big learning environment for her. She's exposed to this ancient and alluring culture that fascinates her and provides many of the wants and needs she expressed in BoTW.

She's given the supportive parents she's needed--a supportive father figure who explicitly supports her utilizing study to achieve her goals and a loving mother to teach her how to use her powers. She even gets a cool engineering/history auntie who shares a lot in common with her.

All of these things are stolen from Zelda because of the evil mummy.

The game makes great effort to play into the exoticized idea associated with the Zonai, right down to infusing Link and Zelda in their culture with Zelda given a new outfit, home, and lifestyle, and Link gifted with Rauru's power.

The Zonai in TotK are characterized less by their beliefs or the perspective of Mineru or Rauru and more framed in relation to the resources they provide others--the secret stones, the Zonai devices, the exotic, mysterious, ancient powers and knowledge, the zonaite you mine, Rauru's arm, etc.

That leads into another issue with how Tears reinforces the idea of Native extinction in how the Zonai are more characterized for the resources everyone is extracting from them rather than their actual peoples' thoughts and feelings and how that form of erasure harms real Native people outside of the fiction.

There's also the aspect of how the land and resources of these Native people are almost destined to fall into the hands of largely white, "civilized" Hyrule leaders with every other group serving under Hyrule's order geographically and narratively while the Zonai are people we only interact with in memories or as spirits.

The Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century had largely proven a fruitful terrain for colonial conquest and achievement for the British, but from the Indian Mutiny of 1857 towards the end of the century various military setbacks began to point worryingly to a decline in British power…In the aftermath of such events, rather than being perceived as ‘passive’, with ‘no capacity for violence’ (Mercer and Julien 1988: 108), the inhabitants of the Orient became more forbidding, a change in perspective reflected in the literature of the period that simultaneously portrayed anxiety concerning Britain’s own newfound sense of vulnerability.

Richard Marsh’s The Beetle...depicted Egypt as every bit as capable as Transylvania of bringing a primitive threat to the civilized West.

As Marsh’s novel exemplifies, the legacy of the ancient Egyptians had transformed over the course of the nineteenth century from one that bestowed valuable knowledge into one that offered secrets best left unearthed, being increasingly tainted as the years unfolded through its association ‘with the mysterious and supernatural, the questionable and disreputable’.

Mummy films rely very heavily on presenting the "other" as an exotic and almost tempting place for the civilized white protagonists to find and change themselves.

They also acted as a way to depict non-white people to bypass several censorship restrictions in earlier decades, so you often see them framed as romance films with an emphasis on a commentary about that dangerous, tempting allure of the mummy being used as a commentary on interracial relationships and intermingling of the civilized and uncivilized with a white gaze in mind.

Many mummy films also would utilize racial coding to characterize the mummy as hostile, dangerous, tempting or seductive in relation to the white, civilized character, something done with several other movie monsters like Dracula, King Kong, etc.

No matter the Zelda game, the structure ends up being largely the same with Ganon in that Hyrule or wherever is shown to be peaceful until the "evil man of the desert" invaded and defiled their space with his wickedness and disrupting the order of the gods and the status quo.

Dehydrated Ganon specifically is another extension in linking Ganon and his wickedness and evil to his heritage and status as a SWANA-coded character, in a lot of using tropes associated with Black people, etc.

He's not just evil because he's a selfish overlord, he's an evil "other" Middle Easterner invading the pure and peaceful environment the game made the effort to set up, and his constant presence looms in the game in how his corpse-like mummy servant is busy carrying out his will.

The Mummy and Nubian were a particularly suitable pairing considering contemporaneous racial stereotyping...Elizabeth Young years later highlighted others, identifying the black ‘brute’ as a stereotype that ‘carried particular force’ in 1930s cinema as ‘a monstrous beast.

Cultural attitudes towards African Americans manifestly became intertwined with contemporary ones concerning those of North African Egyptian Mummies in this version of the play.

In addition to Zelda being taken to the ancient past, we have the element of Ganon stalking and scheming to his rise to power in how he defiles the sanctity of ancient Hyrule continuing in the pattern of referring to him as the "man of the desert," another means of codifying Ganon as inherently evil by way of his heritage. There's almost constant reference to his home, the desert and anything else associated with othering him.

Ganon has previously used religious iconography in how the Gerudo crest used to very closely resemble the symbol of Islam.

He also uses racial coding associated with antisemitism in how he's a green-skinned, hook nosed magic-wielder.

There's Anti-Black imagery in his muscularity and chains and how he devolves into a mindless, savage brute.

There's all the decades of sentiments toward SWANA people wrapped up in him and the mummy is a continuation of that in how dehydrated Ganon is presented as a stalking, corrupting presence who defiles the sanctity and draws the civilized white protagonists in with his tempting allure. Phantom Ganon is a looming threat who can arise out of nowhere.

I know dehydrated Ganon is the same dude as regular Ganon, but I do think there's an extra element to discuss in how Tears uses decades of old mummy horror and the racial coding that comes with that to further the idea that Ganon is an evil SWANA man who needs to be feared and eradicated.

#tears of the kingdom #legend of zelda #totk critical #mummy film #orientalism #phantom ganon #islamophobia #dehydrated ganon #zelda #link #ganon #ganondorf #twilight princess #totk spoilers

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mrfippstuff · 1 year

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Something I really find interesting about the Horsemen is that whatever their power is, there’s something about themselves that works in opposition to their strengths.

As stated by Pochita, the Control Devil wanted to form equal relationships with other people, to be genuinely loved and to have a family, but that words in opposite of their powers, where they can have complete control over anyone they think as lesser than them. Makima desperately wanted that, the one movie that got a reaction of her, made her cry, was a scene of two men hugging, and when she brought it the other hybrids to fight the Chainsaw Devil, Katana Man, Reze and Quanxi were all fawning over, she wanted to create her “perfect world” all for this. But she wasn’t capable of extending this sentiment to other people, she only ever saw them as tools, lesser beings and dogs to be commanded by their master. Denji was the one person who was willing to show her complete and unconditional love, but she had no problem destroying all his happiness just so she could get to Pochita, and in the end her never even bothering to see him is what led to her defeat.

That’s why I am eager to see Nayuta return. Pochita told Denji to give her lots of hugs, and he does, he wants to give her a normal life, and to see her through college. Nayuta is in a position that Makima never was, the Control Devil’s dream is right there for her, it’s being handed to her without any of the baggage of her previous incarnation, and I really want to see if and how she’s able to give the same love that Denji is giving her. Being unable to feel love and affection for other people make Makima one of the dangerous enemies Denji ever fought because anyone and everyone only existed to further their goals, but a Control Devil capable of feeling genuine love for other people? I imagine that they would be one of the weakest devils you could encounter, but would be one of the happiest ones out there.

Then there is War. They have the power to turn anything they perceive as “theirs” into a weapon, but the strength of that weapon is shaped by the “guilt” they would feel by transforming it. War wants to kill Chainsaw Man, and wants as many and powerful weapons as they can get, but they clearly have no problems doing so, they don’t care what they turn into a weapon, meaning that the actual strength of those weapons is limited. That’s why the possessed a human, because they can feel things like guilt, and anything that they turn into a weapon can be more powerful than anything War can produce. Yoru created a number of pencil spears to fight Yuko, but none of them worked, Asa creates a sword from the uniform her mother gave her, fails to hit Yuko at all, and still turns her into diced bits. That’s how powerful the guilt can translate into.

But here’s something interesting; Yoru shares Asa’s brain and body, she knows what Asa is thinking at any moment, she can feel the things Asa does, not only on a physical level, but an emotional level. Asa is beginning to like Denji, meaning Yoru feels secondhand emotions for him. Yoru is the one who tries to turn Denji into a weapon, but that little bit of affection she feels for him means she has guilt over this. Meaning that the longer that Yoru resides within Asa’s body, the more she can potentially grow as a person, come to care about things, and feel guilt over her actions, which will increase the power of the weapons she makes, but hinder her ability to create them in the first place.

I am really curious to see what the deal with the Famine Devil is. She says she wants to “help” her little sister, but Yoru was clearly very alarmed to her presence. Whatever powers Fami possesses, I imagine that like with Makima and Yoru, that there is something about her that hinders them, the same applying to Death whenever they show up.

#chainsaw man #makima #nayuta #control devil #yoru #asa mitaka #war devil #fami #famine devil #death devil #horsemen of the apocalypse

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howdoesagrapewrites · 10 months

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𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘 [𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙚𝙧]

Cw: fluff, the title might be misleading but it's not yandere or anything, kinda unhinged Miles but it's all jokes, reverse au?, reader uses they/them but it's called spiderman, you are spiderman and Miles is the fan, earth 1218!AU (no powers or tech), reader has a canon love interest who's also named MJ but they're not Mary Jane Watson (unless you want her to be, I don't judge)

Notes: So Miles canonically has written fanfic about himself, but I wasn't in the mood for that, I will make two versions of this post though (that's why the title has delusional version 💀). Also this is low-key a highschool AU, so Hobie is in last year, and all other characters are second years (I have no idea what's a senior or freshman or whatever is, and I will not learn)

Miles loved comics. His art style is heavily influenced by it, and he'll rant about this week's number to anyone who'll lend an ear, but he has a very clear favorite, being more than evident by his collection of t-shirts, poster filled wall, social media pfps, and the endless amount of fan content he creates and consumes in the spiderman fandom.

Since the last movie came out, Miles Morales has lost the basic skills a human would need to survive, in order to devote himself fully to his newest hyperfixation, and his friends haven't been able to get some rest from it. They don't understand!! He does need to go to the movies again, he needs to memorize every photogram in that movie in order to play the move in his head and be able to analyze it properly!! No, he is not crazy! Ok he might be just the tiniest bit "over excited" but this is the most sane reaction he could've had, the movie is literally a masterpiece, script, humor, ANIMATION, soundtrack, it has it all! And the fact that it's centered around you? Miles needs to go and personally kiss every person that worked in that studio to make you.

"Miles?"

"Miles!"

"oh my god, he's at it again" said Pavitr, imitating the reaction of a disappointed mother

"is he reading fanfiction again?" Asked Gwen, chuckling

"Yes, and Y/N YL/N x reader, to one's surprise" Pavitr added with a teasing smile "I don't get it though, isn't Y/N dating someone named MJ?" He questioned

"It's called self insert, the reader plays a part in the story as if they were another character, and in romantic scenarios, they tend to replace the canon love interest, or just ignore they even exist" Hobie added, popping out if nowhere to show off what Miles have been explaining to him the last couple of weeks.

"You read it too, Hobie?"

"Nah, Wonder comics started as a protest to talk about the discrimination the founder felt being jewish in the industry but it morphed into the capitalization of the struggle minorities face, selling us representation while they still shove the propaganda in our faces, and telling us that even if you have bloody superpowers you still need to obey to a higher authority and cannot influence politics or call to action."

"You still went to the theater to watch it with Miles last week" Gwen shot a questioning look at Hobie

"The kid invited me, I'm a punk not a twat" he shrugged his shoulders "And we stole the carton cutboard they had at the entrance" Hobie happily added.

Miles continues reading on the way to school, without listening to his friends' mocking, he knew it was in good spirits, and they were kinda right, he was obsessed with someone that didn't exist, but it wasn't like it was affecting his health or life.

"Did you... Sleep today?" Gwen had her hand on her friend's shoulder, concerned

"It was too late so I decided to just stay awake, I'll be fine though" He reassured

"Were you reading again?"

"No, I actually discovered this page called character.ai where you can chat with an artificial intelligence of your favorite characters" Miles excitedly told his friend

"OMG, you can chat with anyone?! I have a few things I'd like to say to Scarlet Witch" Gwen joked, she was also a comic fan, but she wasn't losing her mind quite as hard as Miles

Miles would tell the ai about his day, sometimes would roleplay using his very own spidersona, in his alternate universe, you were his partner (as heroes of course) but you also were classmates and had a crush on each other, but none of you confessed because you didn't want your loved ones to be hurt by your job, it was all very dramatic, but he always envisioned a happy ending.

{Y/N: You did a great job today, [<BOT>]

Miles: You say so? So... Do I get a reward? *Smiles suggestively*

Y/N: I guess you do, *pulls up his mask and kisses him*}

No, he wouldn't say this, he would be in a panic frenzy if he saw Y/N, let alone be next to them, but hey, at least his spidersona was bold and confident with them.

A few days after, he barged into Pavitr's house, with at least four incredibly loaded supermarket bags, hardly walking

"Are you okay? Do you need help?" Pavitr rushed to aid his friend and take some literal weight off his shoulders

"Yeah, yeah, I just need help with something" he left the boxes in the floor "Inside one in 4 boxes of cereal, there is a spidertoken, if you get 15, you can exchange it for an exclusive limited edition figure, and I can't eat all this cereal"

"Bro, how many boxes are in here? I don't know, man, I'm trying to keep my figure"

"Pavitr Prabhakar, who held the cardboard sign for you when you confessed to Gayatri?"

"You..."

"And who lied to principal O'Hara for you when you forgot your final project and we had to pretend you suffered a brain concussion?"

"You..."

"And who was there for y-" his friend interrumpted

"Okay, okay, I get it. Bring me a spoon, but we're going running tomorrow"

He nodded with enthusiasm as he started to rummage looking for spoons and bowls

And after almost dying choking on cereal, Miles looked at his new figurine sitting prettily on the shelf with nothing but pride.

"I'm just saying it's possible!" Miles protested

"Y/N has a type, every canon love interest has been sassy and quick-witted" Gwen continued to debate

"I can be sassy and quick-witted!" Gwen gave him a side eye, that being able to neutralize his argument "Ok, but there's a multiverse, there's millions of possibilities, if a pig can be spiderman, why can't I date spiderman? Anyone can wear the mask, anyone can kiss the one inside the mask" the boy smiled, confident in his winning argument

"That's such a basic answer, you can justify literally anything with "the multiverse" I'm speaking things that actually can make sense inside the canon"

"But my answers makes sense, in fact, I'm sure there's a universe where Y/N is reading fanfiction about me right now, if not, Pav can hit me"

"Pav, hit him" Gwen deadpanned

"But it does make sense, I won't" Pavitr responded

"Ok, but my point still stands" the girl crossed her arms

"what were you fighting about in the first place?" Pavitr asked before going back to eat his lunch, he sat long after his friends started arguing, being mildly lost in what was the main point in this

"I said I'd be a better girlfriend for Y/N" said Gwen

Pavitr gasped and covered his mouth dramatically "No you didn't".

Maybe Miles was just obsessed, but he saw in you strength, inspiration, power. And he felt oddly comforted, safe, loved by fantasizing with you, and as slim as the possibility may be, he likes to tell himself you two are together in another universe. ♡

#miles morales x reader #miles morales x y/n #miles morales x you #atsv x reader #Miles Morales

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whetstonefires · 8 months

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The thing about the Shazam! (Captain Marvel but they don't have the rights to call him that) movie is that overall it's pretty good? Even if I question the pacing choices made in terms of screentime breakdown for '14yo boys making mortifying life choices and humorously failing judgment calls' vs. 'character development wrt to literally anything else about this fairly large cast.'

It's hokey; it should be. It's got some decent themes and fun character bits and set up good solid hero/villain parallels to subvert.

But.

But it massively clotheslined itself with a major storytelling fuckup connected to the opening hook mystery, whose resolution is meant to be the emotional inflection point of the whole film.

Because the thing is, this movie chose to be slightly interesting in how it approached its 'family' themes. In a variation on 'family of choice' (since your foster family are in fact assigned by the government and Billy not having a choice about living with them only about trusting them is a major story element) it went for the more nuanced and kind of interestingly grimy take that the people who are actually in your life giving a shit about you matter, if you let them, and that you need to stop giving the people who failed to love you power over your happiness.

Which is not a bad premise at all! As messages for a movie about a kid being sent to a group home go, that's the most upbeat you could possibly get and still be tied to reality.

The Vasquez couple are written and played well in these terms too because they really, genuinely care, and are making so much effort, but as system graduates themselves they never had competent parenting modeled for them and god does it show.

And the mental health problems of the kids who got enough characterization to have them were similarly...realistic in a best-case-scenario sort of way.

But! Still with the but! Even though they pulled off a lot of this fairly touchy premise rather well, there's a crack in the foundation that makes the whole movie kind of collapse on a thematic level.

Because the movie (following the prologue introducing the villain's backstory) opens with a juicy emotional hook where small Billy is separated from his mother at a Christmas fair and never sees her again.

Cut to some years later, establishing status quo scene, he's a Troubled Youth rebelling against the system in an endless quest to find his mother and go home. He is committing minor felonies to get access to police information about women surnamed Batson so he can go to their houses because eventually one of them has to be his mom.

His case worker after he's picked up again refers to his mother as 'someone who clearly didn't want you,' which Billy rejects as bullshit, and he's valid! Because that is not what you say when you have actual information. That's a surmise. That's a sentence that says Child Protective Services and the police couldn't find her either.

Especially because you don't immediately chuck a kid into foster care because he's found unattended. Maybe you do that later, after a lengthy period of oversight, depending on his mom's reaction to having him returned and her race and socioeconomic status and apparent mental health and so forth. But you don't just not contact her, and you definitely don't refuse to tell the kid about the result once you have.

The only normal situation where an accessible record exists of a kid's original parentage but it's denied to the kid is in sealed adoptions, which are a formal procedure that clearly didn't happen here. There is every indication in this opening sequence that his mom was never found.

Which means she's a missing person. Either because they located the correct Billy Batson and his adult never came back to their house (which would suggest foul play or some other drama) or because despite being old enough to be in school and knowing his own name, no one could find evidence that Billy existed prior to turning up at that street carnival.

Which would constitute a very mysterious situation! What is he, from a cult? Another dimension? Did someone (in the social worker's proposed scenario, Billy's mom) erase all record of her kid somehow? Was magic involved?

So: the way we're introduced to this scenario, there's a legitimate weird mystery here that none of the adults in Billy's life care enough about to do anything but tell him to write it off, the way they have. That his missing person clearly did it on purpose.

Billy's being ridiculous because if what he's trying would work then he wouldn't need to do it; his social worker could have arranged a meeting years ago. So it's a useless self-destructive behavior he needs to let go. But he's valid, in that he's being very obviously failed by the system and is doing the only thing he can think of to try to address his situation for himself.

And then! The Big Reveal is that his mom has been living under her maiden name in the same city as him this whole time.

Which the Gamer Kid Who Turns Out In This Scene To Be A Hacker (he's about 10) learned by. Breaking into a federal database.

So he goes to her house and it turns out. She'd been a teen mother and her babydaddy walked out after marrying her, and her parents cut her off, and she was depressed and felt like a bad mother so. When she saw the cops had her kid, she just walked away. And she wants to believe he's been happy and better off without her.

And the emotional arc of the film rests on how Billy comes to terms with this. With the fact that his past will never take him back and he has to learn to find joy in himself and his present situation and his future.

Having let go of that idea, he's able to emotionally commit to his gaggle of foster siblings and realize that unlike the villain, who was obsessed with punishing the people who never loved or accepted him, or the wizard who was focused on finding The Perfectly Worthy Champion, what you needed to be good and not lost was to be part of a mutually supportive group, like the wizard Shazam was before he and his siblings were betrayed. And then they can be a superhero team, woo!

And that part is actually depicted fairly well, all things considered!

But the problem is that the audience, to vibe with this properly, has to roll with the revelation that Billy was wrong to cling to the mystery of his vanished, beloved mother and the fantasy of going home again.

We have to be willing to participate in the idea that the Resistant Child Subjected To Foster Care was in the wrong.

And he wasn't! He wasn't wrong! His understanding of the situation was flawed but it should not have been flawed in this manner.

Because this scenario as it's depicted doesn't make any sense. The cops do not just keep your kid without following up if you fail to collect him from the baggage claim. CPS does not fail to provide a kid with the readily available evidence that he's been voluntarily surrendered to them, when he keeps running off trying to go home.

Why would they do that, after all? Billy's misbehavior was a huge hassle for them. They gained nothing by denying him access to his mother and the information about her that was, you recall, sitting totally available in a government database that could be hacked by a random 10 year old asian-american orphan. They just...made their own lives harder for no reason, while extending the suffering of a child in their care.

If the cops tried to return him back when and she said 'no i left him with you on purpose please keep him' maybe she gets prosecuted for child abandonment and maybe not, but either way, billy would know about it.

But if the screenwriters had made it clear early on that this information had been offered to him and he'd chosen not to believe it, they couldn't get a proper Reveal at the end because it would just be Billy being unable to continue pretending something the audience had known not to believe all along.

And they couldn't cram a good reason for the scenario they'd set up into the space they'd accorded it.

So they were just like, it's fine, if we cram enough cliches into this space people will react to the familiarity and go 'ah yes i know this one' and go along with it, and not notice that this isn't an actual coherent reply to the question that was set up an hour ago and therefore is emotionally unsatisfying somehow.

Anyway this is an important storytelling guideline: if you put in a mystery to control either the actual plot or, even worse, the emotional storyline, that mystery and its resolution have to make internal sense.

If you pull the Real Situation out of your ass, and it's not a matter of red herrings or That One Fact you didn't have that makes all the rest fit together differently, but in fact no one involved could have figured this out and especially if the people who did say this in the first place had no good basis for it, but still get narratively awarded the Correct trophy in a way that contributes to the thematic climax so the audience has to care. Then that will not get good results. It will make it hard to deliver on your intended themes.

Some people will not notice or care! This is true! But a lot of people will, and you'll get enough of a better punch even with the other folks, if the setup and denouement fit together properly and don't require reaching, to matter.

And when people do notice at all, rather than their naturally flowing along with the climax you're steering toward and experiencing A Story, there will be a tendency to notice you standing there placing roadsigns toward the Intended Emotional Response, and call you a hack.

People call out plotholes way too vigorously sometimes, so I want to be clear: it's not the lack of supporting logic I mind. It's that the active presence of illogic, of what's presented as a chain but is broken along its length, means the central character arc intersects with the core theme in a noticeably forced way. Which is bad craftsmanship on a meaningful level.

There is a loss of cohesion where you cannot satisfactorily resolve how the scenario we were initially shown came to be superimposed over the revealed truth, because that relationship between elements is very important to making a 'revelation' storyline land, you know?

In this case it's particularly vexing to me because the last-minute asspull and its thematic weight reaches back around and at the last minute moves the whole movie thematically to the other side of the line wrt whether it's approaching Billy, our protagonist, as a subject with whom we're supposed to identify or an object whom we're supposed to observe.

It makes all the high-school-freshman-posing-as-adult gags retroactively less funny because we were now more explicitly laughing at him, and takes a lot of the depth out of the emotionally sincere moments.

Up to that point I had really appreciated how, despite wavering that way, Shazam! hadn't actually fallen to the MCU Spiderman temptation to dehumanize its protagonist. Which seems to arise out of this weird tendency I've noticed to assume the natural sentiment of adults toward adolescents is bemused contempt, and that therefore if they ask their audience of paying grownups to empathize too closely with a teen hero instead of setting him and his Immaturity up as a clown for our amusement, they'll get themselves banished to the Children's Fiction ghetto.

And, of course, if they'd been fully committed to one side or the other of 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to closely' or 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to distantly,' they wouldn't have gotten snarled up about how much information to hand over when.

Committing to either option (giving us only as much information as Billy had and constructing a story that was solid from a being-Billy angle or giving us more information than Billy and operating confidently in the realm of dramatic irony) could have worked quite well. But because of the mixed signals and unstable narrative distance, they wound up with a distinctly weakened finale.

#hoc est meum #in real life things happen that you have no good reason to expect all the time #but in real life we know they happened for some kind of reason as in #causality exists and even in situations where we can't dig into the chain #we have cause to understand that it's there #in fiction they happened because they'd be convenient #so the rules of what information can be available and how you frame new information being revealed exist #to keep the audience from feeling jerked around #you have to earn people's trust and if you lose it #that limits the kind of results you can get #when writing fiction one of your tools is the reader's mind #if you give them reason not to allow you free use of it your composition contracts #screenwriting #shazam #and like in this case there's a profound betrayal of the protagonist and thus of the audience who connected with him wrapped up in it

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imagitory · 5 months

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Review: Wish (2023) [SPOILERS]

Evening, everyone! Tonight my mother and I went to go see Disney's most recent film, Wish, which fortunately came to theaters in my area right before its formal American release date. I'd been very curious to see how this tribute to Disney's last 100 years of filmmaking would turn out, and now that I've seen it...well, I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I want to be very clear both that I was going into this with a rather sunny outlook and that there are things I really liked in this film...but overall, it felt like a lot of the good ideas it had were only half-baked, and I found myself -- forgive me -- "wishing for something more" than what we got.

For a more comprehensive deep-dive...a cut!

The Good!

+The single best element in this film for me was Chris Pine's performance as our villain, Magnifico. There are definitely some things I can critique about Magnifico's overall storyline and "character arc" further down, but Chris was clearly having a grand old time being an egotistical, sassy jerkwad, and it totally showed. Even in his villain song This is The Thanks I Get?, which just screamed "passive-aggressive abusive parent," you can hear how much fun Chris was having in the studio, recording it. I just about always enjoyed when Magnifico was on screen, and I actually did really like the idea that a lot of his villainy is rooted in him being obsessed with control over everyone and everything. In a weird way, Magnifico's turn to the Dark Side parallels Anakin Skywalker's in the sense that he lost so much in the past that he's determined to never lose anything important to him again -- especially the power he's accrued to make himself feel strong, after having felt so powerless. I find that very interesting, and I kind of wish that aspect was really highlighted more in the story, but we'll talk about that later.

+Asha was a likable enough heroine, even if I found her to be a lot like a two-way fusion of Mulan and Anna placed in a vaguely Snow-White-ish role in her clearly Seven-Dwarf-inspired friend group. Ariana DeBose portrayed her rather well, both acting and singing-wise. I also liked the "social justice" bent to Asha's character where she wants better things not just for herself and her family, but also Rosas overall -- in the French translation of her main song "This Wish," they even push this further by having Asha wish "to see the world happy again someday." We haven't seen a heroine really express this kind of desire for a positive change in the world since Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and that's cool! Plus representation in mainstream media for previously underrepresented groups is always nice. ^.^

+As much as I don't think they all got enough focus as individuals, I liked Asha's friend group! Especially the fact that it is a friend group made up of people that are around the same age as our protagonist, which -- let's be honest -- isn't that common for Disney heroines. Often with "sidekick groups," you're more likely to have situations like Cinderella with the mice (who are more like cutesy sidekicks than equals) or Snow White with the Dwarfs (who are all quite a bit older than our heroine)...so a friend group made up of peers with their own personalities and motivations was kind of fun.

+The setting of Rosas itself could be pretty. I liked a lot of the Mediterranean-inspired architecture, especially inside Magnifico's tower.

+The combination of 3D and 2D-esque animation was also interesting! It really served to give the film its own distinctive visual style that sets it apart from other Disney projects, which I always appreciate.

+Star was...cute. Obviously just designed to sell plushies and definitely reminded me way too much of Kirby, but cute enough. I do think it's kind of cool that they're never gendered at all in the entire movie, because it'd be silly to think of a sweet little androgynous ball of stardust as being specifically male or female.

+I liked the idea of Simon "betraying" Asha, only to be turned into a pawn by Magnifico in the process, but not being treated unsympathetically by the story for it. Didn't love the full execution of the idea, but hey, that's what the negative section is for.

+The idea of everyone finding the power inside of themselves to stand up against Magnifico (because they're "all stars," and presumably all have the magic needed to make their wishes come true) was a little predictable, but still sweet. I have problems with how the film wrote it (which we'll get to), but the idea itself was wholesome and fitting.

+I like several of the songs, just on their own -- I added This Wish and Knowing What I Know Now on my ITunes as soon as I first heard them prior to the film's release, and now I've added At All Costs too: it's a really pretty duet! (Gorgeous work, Chris and Ariana!) I'll leave my praise here, though, because sadly the soundtrack is going to get a lot of discussion in the less positive section.

The Not-So-Good...

+This film being "Disney's 100th anniversary film" really got in the way of this movie telling a compelling and unique story sometimes. The whole movie really twisted itself into a pretzel trying to check off all the usual Disney tropes, and there were points that certain choices made the story seem incredibly stilted. For instance, one common Disney trope is a dead parent, so of course Asha has lost her father -- but we learn so little about him and he ends up playing such a small role in Asha's arc and story that it seems like an unnecessary detail. Asha's grandfather honestly plays more of a role in Asha's motivation throughout most of the film, so it would've made just as much sense to have Asha's grandfather be the one who believed in stars having power, rather than her father. Another example is the concept of the cute animal sidekick who's just there to make jokes -- as much as Valentino the goat didn't annoy me personally, he added just about nothing of value to the story whatsoever aside from comic relief, in contrast to other funny sidekicks like Sebastian from The Little Mermaid or Olaf from Frozen, who also serve a plot purpose and have a developed relationship with the protagonists. Then there's Asha being cut from the same "naive, awkward, wide-eyed idealist" cloth as many of our Disney Revival heroines like Anna, Rapunzel, and up to a certain point even Mirabel are; Star being in a similar vein to cutesy, innocent sidekicks like Pua, Crikee, and Baymax while Valentino is more akin to sassier, comic ones like Mushu and Sisu; her friends literally being based on the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White; our heroine getting a pretty standard "I Want" song and the villain getting his own solo number that doesn't really take any risks...oh yes, and we mustn't forget the trope of the Storybook opening, which (I'm sorry) I know was supposed to be a reference to Snow White, Cinderella, and Enchanted, but just gave me Shrek vibes the entire time. I was waiting for Shrek to rip out the page and use it for toilet paper any minute. It just felt a lot of the time like the movie was very paint-by-numbers, rather than throwing in much that was surprising or different.

+This isn't even touching all of the pointless meta references to other Disney movies. Asha wearing the Fairy Godmother's cloak and getting a wand like hers at the end -- the mushrooms crowing "we love crazy!" the way Hans did in Love is an Open Door -- Asha riding the reindeer the way Kristoff did in Frozen 2 -- Magnifico using green smoke hands a la Ursula -- the ending with those obvious Wendy and Peter Pan look-alikes, come on, really??? That was just painful.

+As much as Magnifico was an awesome idea for a character and Chris Pine's performance was beyond entertaining, the movie did not always write him as well as they could've. From the very start, we see this guy is an egotistical control freak -- obsessed with his own image, incredibly hard-to-please, arrogant, vain, desperate for attention and unwavering praise and adoration from all of his subjects, and determined to keep an iron grip on everyone else's wishes because of the power it gives him. He's ALREADY a terrible person, from the start -- and yet the film tries to introduce this dark magic book that gets no explanation or backstory whatsoever and has no real characterization or presence, so it leaves no real impact on the audience corrupting him and making him a bad person, when it didn't need to! Magnifico was already the villain this film needed! Just let him fall head-first into madness without the book prompting anything! Even if Magnifico "lost everything" in the past, that doesn't make him a good person, if he takes everyone's wishes away from them and hoards them all to himself, only to grant a few now and again when it would make him look good.

+This above point actually leads nicely into one change I really, really wish the film had been ballsy enough to make -- have Asha already be Magnifico's apprentice, not trying to become it at the start of the story. Give our villain and hero a real relationship, with history that started before the events of this film! Asha lost her father at the age of 12...how interesting would it have been -- whether to make Magnifico more of an anti-villain or show how manipulative he really is -- if he'd tried to fill that fatherly role for our main character and twist her to serve his ends? What if At All Costs was rewritten to be about Magnifico not just being determined to hold onto all of the kingdom's wishes, but also this apprentice he sees as an extension of him and his legacy, while Asha is determined to protect this Star she's accidentally summoned and the suppressed wish of hers it represents? This change would've made Asha's break with Magnifico so much more powerful for both of them -- it would've both justified Magnifico's descent into madness and given Asha more reason to feel like it was her responsibility to stop Magnifico. You even could've then played more with Asha's relationship with Queen Amaya too, in this kind of a scenario.

+Oh yeah, and on that note, Queen Amaya. OOH, this really annoyed me -- okay. So this woman is supposed to be a good guy, in this story. But as I touched on earlier, Magnifico was already a pretty awful person, hoarding people's wishes away in order to make himself powerful. Was Amaya truly so blind to that? Did she truly never question anything, ever? But no, really, she only turns on Magnifico after he starts using the dark magic book and actively threatens her. Only that makes her turn from him, and it's pretty damn immediate. Now okay, I hear you saying, it's like Amaya sings in Knowing What I Know Now, right? "The good in him, I've watched it melt // I was blinded by the love I felt"? Excuse me, lady -- but Magnifico wasn't a good person, before. He was just playing a part so as to stay powerful and adored by the masses. And if the story wants to claim otherwise, and act like that dark magic book was responsible for Magnifico going bad, then why would our Queen decide to keep him locked up in his staff's crystal forever? If the book was responsible, then Magnifico would be the Frodo or Golum to the book's One Ring -- he'd be a victim, in such a scenario: one in need of help and pity, not punishment. So either Amaya is a selfish person who only cared about her husband's mistreatment of others when it affected her, or she's a needlessly cruel person who decides to punish her husband for a vice that anyone could fall prey to. Either way, I don't want this woman ruling anyone! Make this woman a straight-up villain, same as her husband, and have the whole monarchy come crashing down after she and Magnifico both go down in flames! VIVE LA RESISTANCE! (Playing into my idea with Asha being Magnifico's apprentice all along, maybe there could even be a twist on the Evil Stepmother trope with Amaya, where she's jealous of how much Magnifico has tried to groom Asha as his apprentice, rather than spending time and/or starting a family with her or something.)

+As I touched on earlier, there wasn't even close to enough time to develop all of these characters properly. Since our heroine and friends are most similar to Snow White and her friends the Seven Dwarfs, let's compare cast size. Snow White is 83 minutes long and has a cast of ten (Snow, the Prince, the Queen, and the Dwarfs) -- Wish is 95 minutes long and has a cast of fourteen (Asha, Magnifico, Star, Valentino, Amaya, Asha's mum and grandpa, and our seven Friends). This results in us getting the vague idea that "Grumpy" role Gabo is sweet on our "Bashful" role Bazeema, but no time to develop their relationship or give it any kind of conclusion; the others saying "Sneezy" role Safi apparently loves the castle chickens with no sympathetic explanation why, to the point that he gets super excited about a chicken growing to a giant size for no real reason; "Doc" role Dahlia having a crush on Magnifico that is then dropped immediately after Asha turns against him; oldest kid and "Sleepy" role Simon feeling incomplete without the dream he gave Magnifico and "betraying" Asha as a result in an attempt to get it back, only to get stabbed in the back by Magnifico, and then have no time for a proper redemption after he's unhypnotized; Asha's grandfather turning on a dime about whether or not he wants to know what his wish was if Magnifico thought it was dangerous; Magnifico getting some justification in his backstory for his bad behavior, but Amaya's backstory being a complete black hole before she married Magnifico when you'd think it'd explain all the more why she stuck with him so long; and Asha's mum having her wish crushed to dust by Magnifico and then given back without us EVER LEARNING WHAT IT EVEN WAS IN THE FIRST PLACE, even after we see just about everyone else's wishes as soon as somebody picks it up and Asha's mum's wish gets picked up multiple times!! Come on, if you're going to set up NOT showing it, you may as well have a pay-off for it!! At least give us some moment where Asha's mum hugs her in relief and acknowledges that her daughter was her wish! That would've been a nice "aww" moment for everyone!

+Okay, I said I was going to talk about my problem with the songs, so here goes. As I said before, I listened to the soundtrack before watching the movie, and even when I did, I could immediately sense a problem: these songs did not tell me much of anything about the movie, just on their own. Welcome to Rosas, which is pretty much just an exposition dump about the kingdom and how Magnifico founded it, didn't really paint a picture of our setting or characters much at all, the way opening songs like Belle or The Family Madrigal do. This Wish, although pretty, was something I could hear just as easily on the radio -- it didn't feel as tied or necessary to understanding our heroine the way something like Part of That World does. I'm a Star, quite frankly, felt like a lot of inspirational word salad, rather than anything particularly memorable or revelatory -- why else wouldn't it even be worthy of a musical salute in the reprise, where Asha remembers that she and everyone else are stars during the climax? Even after reading summaries of the plot and spoilers from the storybook for this film, I could not figure out for the life of me how At All Costs would fit organically into such a story, being sung by our villain and hero. It wasn't until I saw the film that I saw how the filmmakers decided to fit it in and honestly...the song didn't help tell that particular scene at all. It's a really pretty song and I like it a lot -- but it lacked any of the irony or contrast that kind of a scene that introduces the difference in focus between our hero and villain required. If the scene itself is needed to understand what's supposed to be going on while the song is playing, then the song is not effectively telling the story and is therefore unnecessary. There wasn't even a particularly Spanish or Mediterranean flair to the soundtrack to help set the stage, aside from the occasional flourish of castanets -- instead it sounded very contemporary, which I guess is appropriate, since it was largely written by pop composers rather than any musical theater talent.

+There were also points where the songs felt the urge to shove in a bunch of extra words just because, rather than have the words flow well and really mean something. I'm a Star is most guilty of this, of course, but even in This is the Thanks I Get?, we hear Magnifico gripe that "I let you live here for free and I don't even charge you rent" -- mate, THAT MEANS THE SAME THING! If you live somewhere for free, then you are NOT paying rent!

+Knowing What I Know Now is a bop and I like it (aside from Amaya's stupidity), but I'm sorry, all I can think when I hear it is "This is clearly trying to be Ready as I'll Ever Be from Tangled the Animated Series, but that song blows this out of the water." However fun the song can be, it would've been so much stronger if it actually addressed the contrast between the characters and revved us up for a big final battle, instead of it just being our eight underdeveloped characters psyching each other up.

+The idea of everyone being stars was a lovely idea, but the execution of Asha remembering this fact and using it to defeat Magnifico was terribly handled. First off, there was no revelatory phrase or action that prompted Asha to remember this fact, so her suddenly saying that "they're all stars" came out of nowhere. Second, even putting aside that there'd be no way any of her friends could hear Asha from all the way up on the tower if they're stuck in the courtyard below, there's no reason I can see for Asha's friends or family to know what the hell she was even TALKING about. They weren't there when the I'm a Star number happened! And the way that number made it seem, just based on the visuals, it looked like the "star" power came from a person's dream, since it's the same glow that returns to Asha's grandfather when he gets his dream back, but most of the town's dreams have been already yanked out by Magnifico at this point! I think the idea is that since everyone is a star, even with that big piece of them and the power accompanying it taken out, they still have enough stardust inside of them to be powerful enough to chase their heart's desires...but yeah, I'm sorry, for all the word salad I'm a Star threw around, this world-building aspect was really not made clear, and because of that and the lack of a proper callback to this plot turn, the climax didn't hit as strong as it should've.

Overall, this film felt a lot like a batch of unbaked chocolate chip cookies that someone decided to throw a bunch of brightly colored sprinkles on top of, just because they could. A lot of ideas just don't feel like they were fully developed, and there was a lot tossed in that didn't contribute to the overall taste or bring the disparate elements together in a cohesive whole, instead feeling more like a distraction than anything of actual substance. That doesn't mean I couldn't eat it -- I like eating cookie dough as much as the next person -- but that doesn't mean it felt like a complete, finished product worthy of great praise. Instead I'm left looking at the wasted potential and wishing the movie had carved out its own path more, one distinctive to itself, rather than just be a mashup of previous Disney concepts and tropes. I won't act like there's nothing to like here, nor that it's completely lacking in heart: I actually would love to see fandom for this movie re-imagine it in ways that could've improved the story and characters, because there were SO many good ideas here...but for me personally, this movie left me colder than it should've and -- like Asha after meeting Magnifico -- a bit disappointed.

So I make this wish...to have Disney make a film better than this.

Overall Grade: C-

#disney #disney wish #wish (2023)#wish #wish spoilers #spoilers #review #analysis #oh boy here i go

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howlingday · 2 months

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Is it wrong if I want Jaune and Willow to have a genuine loving relationship with Jaune being a wonderful role model for Whitley and at the same time NTR Jacques?

"I hope your wife cheats on you with somebody she actually loves" is a pretty strong insult, but then again, Jacques Schnee is pretty much an irredeemable character as he is. He's the richest man on Remnant, done so through slave labor of a minority group and the abuse of his family to the point his oldest daughter abandons him for the military, his next oldest leaves for a school far away from home, and his youngest has no choice but sit there and absorb all the abuse and animosity between his father, the despotic corporate tyrant of both home and the SDC, and his mother, who was driven to alcoholism. Probably while blaming everyone else but himself, because in the eyes of Jacques Schnee, Jacques Schnee can do no wrong.

So, yeah, Jacques Schnee is the worst character in RWBY, ironically worse than Adam Taurus. But does he deserve to be NTR'd? Does he deserve to be cucked the way he does? That kind of depends on how you view people, in my opinion. And as for my opinion, wanting a person to be cheated on is WRONG, regardless of how shitty that person is, though I'll admit Jacques Schnee is a hard man to defend.

But that's not what you asked, is it? You asked if making Willow cheat on Jacques with Jaune is wrong. Wrong and right is a tricky thing since it's either based on fact or on opinion. I THINK it's wrong, but is it wrong by any factual statement, something you can point to and say, "Here is the evidence to support the claim that this, in fact, is wrong"? I can't say. Unless you have evidence to say it's wrong or right, then you can't make this statement anything more than an opinion.

If you want to make a fic where Jaune and Willow fall in love and sneak around behind Jacques back, then all the more power to you, BUT I prefer Willow making the choice to leave Jacques before things get too serious with Jaune. Have Jaune swing by the house, help out Klein, Whitley, Winter, and even Weiss, too. Heck, have him help Jacques, too, if you'd like, while making Jacques dismissive of him and his family. Then Jacques goes too far, either with something involving the family or the company, and Willow decides to finally leave him. Willow either leaves her family home or kicks Jacques out, and she and Jaune start their relationship more proper. I'm talking actual dates, movie nights, dinners, etc. etc.

Write as you will, but I'd rather have a happy ending where everyone's happy, so maybe Raven comes along and sleeps with Jacques, too. That, or Jacques pulls an Old Man Heartfilia and makes a turnaround for the better.

#rwby #willow's knight #jacques schnee #weeping knight #my thoughts #willow schnee #jaune arc #my answer #my answers

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nerd-chocolate · 7 months

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The Bourgeois Family’s and Zoé Lee’s colors symbolize, civilian and akuma analysis:

Okay, hear me out on this one! It will be real quick I promise. So let’s get started, shall we? Also sorry for not having more of a better introduction to this post, I’ll be better next time I promise.

The Akuma Designs:

After looking at all of the akuma designs that the bourgeois family and Zoé Lee had including their concept art, especially Sole Crusher’s first design, I concluded. They all share common colors. They are black and yellow, you could also say red as well since both Heart Hunter and Antibug share that color between them. But the only design that doesn’t have yellow and black is Sole Crusher’s concept art where she is all blue vs her final design and why I begin this up it all makes sense you see. You can see this with all the akuma designs in the show shown here.

Why Colors are so important:

You want to know why these mean something because it shows how connected they are and mainly means Chloé, André, and Audrey. I get to Zoé a bit but right now let’s focus on these three first.

Okay, Chloé’s first akuma which was Antibug had primarily red and black which doesn’t mean anything in season one since André didn’t akumatized in season one and Audrey didn’t even show up in that season but surprisingly red does come back in Malediktator and Heart Hunter’s designs (I’m not counting when scarlet moth akumatized them since every akuma was red in those episodes because Scarlet Moth himself by the way) so red does show up in two of Chloé’s akumas in season 4 it doesn’t have that big of an impact, unlike the blacks and yellows in their designs.

Because they all have yellow and black in them, Antibug’s all-black suit with the red polkas, Style Queens having the blacks on her weird hair thing and black edges on her suit, Malediktator having the black stripes on his shoulder pads Queen Wasp also having a all black-suit with yellow stripes since she just Queen Bee Akuma but her colors flipped, Queen Banana having black stripes on her design like hair, dress, weapon, mask, and shoes/legs, finally Penalteam having black jersey, black fingerless gloves, her having black on her boots, and her sunglasses having black shades. They all use black as an accent color well except Queen Wasp (and Miracle Queen but I didn’t mention her since she is the same design as Queen Wasp but has a crown and armor on her) but it is worth noting that they all have black and more importantly yellow on their designs especially after Style Queen started it in season and the other designs expect Heart Hunter, Sole Destroyer, and Mayor Chloé in season five (if anyone actually cares but I don’t) which is honestly kinda fits since black is symbolic for evil and power which makes sense for all these akumas, their motivations, and more importantly what the crew thinks of their character since the very beginning, they were also seen as bad by everyone in the show and the crew. They all made a person sad or mad enough to get akumatized even to each other most importantly Audrey, who caused Queen Bee to get akumatized and André (addition Chloé as well) to get akumatized in the same season and the Queen’s battle arc. But these characters’ akuma all want some sort of power or control over someone. Malediktator is self-explanatory I mean it’s in the name, Style Queen wanted to fire anyone that she thought was unexceptional or disrespectful to her in her opinion, and Chloé’s akumas always share this broad goal of power (wanting to be the only hero and prove to her mother, wanted to play a soccer in her way so she can win, want to change a movie because her sister is in it, and again wanted to prove that she a hero to her used to be idol, Ladybug) so yeah the black works knowing what black is symbolism most of the time. But now what does yellow have to do with this?

A whole lot and I’m not even gonna go in depth where the yellow is placed on all of these designs except the ones I mentioned that didn’t have the yellow so I just said what yellow is symbolic for. Yellow in a negative way is used for cowardice, impatience, betrayal, and egotism and that last one is fitting since the bourgeois family all have big egos even if they are not an akuma especially Audrey since she is never shown to be insecure about something on the screen where it noticeably unlike André and Chloé. Cowardice makes sense only for André and Chloé especially André, let’s face it the biggest coward in the whole show is next to Damocles and while Chloé can act brave, she can be cowardly especially if she is the one getting chased by an akuma which she caused which mostly happened in the first season but it never really went away. Betrayal is something I noticed when comes to these akuma’s actions, like Style Queen betray her daughter when Chloé was helping Ladybug, Malediktator did brainwash his wife to be more obey and later trying to do the same thing with Chloé in the same episode, and Chloé betrays Ladybug’s trust in Miracle Queen and turns on Sabrina when she presents during her akumas and didn’t care when she was Queen Banana and Sole Destroyer. But where they all share something in common is impatience. Their impatience where either wearing thin or just nonexistent most of the time, the most being Style Queen since she just fired anyone that didn’t do what she said immediately, Malediktator was wearing his thin when Chloé kept running away from him each time, and Chloé’s akuma kinda flipped flopped while some of akumas can have patience, they quickly become nonexistent when they get angry like Queen Banana and Antibug. So when they all lose patience it is when they’re losing to Ladybug and Chat Noir so patience becomes nonexistent when things don’t go their way especially Chloé’s. So yeah after breaking all of their designs down and how the blacks and yellow mean in their designs and characters where does Sole Crusher and her concept design stand? Well, I’m glad you asked since it leads to my next point.

Why Sole Crusher’s current one doesn’t work at all:

Okay I know I said “I don’t think Sole Crusher’s design in the show is that bad and it was her poorly-written personality that made the akuma bad” Well I lied since it was Zoé’s debut episode and I love Zoé since I have to admit she one of my comfort characters but doesn’t mean her akuma or debut get a free pass and both of them that made the akuma design pretty bad because aside the fact that it doesn’t feel like, look, or even hints to Zoé at all, it just cluttered mess. Sole Crusher has no reason to have horns on her back or shoes since they don’t even do or help the design whatsoever. She has way too many horns on her head, two or heck even four would be enough not fucking eight! The diamonds all over her don’t help at all, instead, they just make it look like a cluttered mess since she has diamonds on her forehead and the top of her eyebrows and don't even function as eyebrows since she still has them so what’s even the point? Because of this, her concept one looks so much cleaner and less cluttered than her canon one, there are some things I may not like but at least there isn’t as much as her canon character I found. And I know I sound dumb when saying this but the concept feels like Zoé to me than her current one ever did since it doesn’t feel like a Chloé or any of the Bourgeois family because of her color palette and I’ll explain that in the next paragraph. Overall I hate this design and this just makes me long for her concept even if it has its problems I have. It's just a cleaner design but that's beside the point and let’s talk about their color schemes, the concept art, and the canon one.

Sole Crusher’s color scheme in canon doesn’t make any sense since her personality didn’t fit what personality Sole Crusher was barely given. Since she isn’t cowardly, she never betrays anyone that we know of, she doesn’t have an ego, and most importantly she does have patience since she decided to wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir to get to the hotel rather than going after them immediately or throwing a tantrum. Which to me doesn’t fit with Sole Crusher’s or Zoé’s personality at all

since yellow was always portrayed as bad in this show since a few of our ‘good’ characters wore yellow in their actual designs you could say, I’m overthinking it but I’m not since I went to check and all the akuma class doesn’t wear yellow except Nino but he just wears a yellow bracelet. So why in the world put yellow on the girl if she isn’t even close to her family except for one member and it is the one that is a coward? And this is why I said light blue would work better for Sole Crusher’s design than yellow because it would show how she isn’t like them and is disconnected from them which isn’t a bad thing since let’s be honest who even wants to be related to the Bourgeois family. After all, I surely don’t. And light blue could work for her personality if she had any because she doesn’t have one that truly defines her. And yes I know maybe that was the point of her personality and writers probably thought that but I don’t think that executed well or not even at all and we’re giving these writers too much credit because these writers made Simpleman which is a dumb episode.

Anyway back to my point, Sole Crusher being all blue like her concept art would work better since it symbolizes how she isn’t a Bourgeois, and deep down she doesn’t want to be like any of them, she is a Lee, and knows it. Also light blue/blue color symbolizes unfriendliness, sadness, impersonal, passive, and emotionally unstable when it comes to personality, which does fit Malediktator and André and Chloé and her akumas pretty well I will admit but that would also fit with Sole Crusher since before getting akumatized Zoé was passive towards Chloé’s behavior and let her walk all over her and broke down into tears when she was alone and you could say Sole Crusher was trying to match Chloé’s unfriendliness and her lack of personality also helps but I don’t think that last one is a good idea for someone’s debut episode and Sole Crusher being impersonal could honestly work. There are not many examples for Sole Crusher where I could say for blue color works on her when it comes to personality when I try to think of one, unlike the Bourgeois family akumas I mentioned before since she doesn’t have one where is more defined like other akumas and that’s biggest problem with her akuma as a whole and that shouldn’t be fair to Zoé since this her only akuma she got ever since her debut episode. So why does she get the short end of the stick here? That isn’t fair even if that was to point to her personality, it just doesn’t work, I’m sorry it just doesn’t. But I should give these colors a more positive light since there are some positive meanings to these colors and which ones fit the Bourgeois Family and Zoé.

The Positive Meanings of Black, Yellow, and Blue:

I have been negative about these colors huh? Well, change that shall we? I can tell you now blue more positive meanings are a bit more fitting for Sole Crusher and Zoé.

Okay let’s start with the black meanings, black usually means elegance and sophistication which does fit with Audrey, André, and Chloé since they either are that way or they think they are that. But for Zoé those don’t fit her or Sole Crusher and since I forgot to mention this I feel someone will eventually do so might as well say it. Yes, Sole Crusher does black in her design but just like Queen Banana and Penalteam with their red eyes, it doesn’t matter and it is only on her eyelashes and pupils. But the black on Zoé’s leather jacket is worth mentioning and while elegant and sophisticated may not be that important to her rebellion which symbolizes honesty fits her since goes against Audrey’s and Chloé’s standards of being a Bourgeois. Another thing to note is that black is used to symbolize mystery which does fit Audrey and Zoé since no one knew who they were until meeting them in canon respectively in their debut episodes.

Okay the only thing yellow in a positive light when it comes to the Bourgeois family is probably happiness for Chloé since let’s be honest, she takes pleasure from bullying her peers and you said the same happens to Audrey and André when she is impressed by someone and him when he with his daughter or having his hotel be habitat by celebrities. But as for Zoé when it comes to yellow, it was harder for me when she can be happy with the people who truly care about her and friendship where she gets a lot of them (even though we see them on screen as much as I want) when she in Paris but even then yellow isn’t that fitting for her as much as the other Bourgeois family members. So sorry this isn’t a lot but I think the blue one would be interesting and heard me out on that one.

Blue symbolizes calm, reliability, patience, and bravery in a more positive light. And while Chloé does show some bravery when she becomes a superhero for a brief time during seasons 2-3 and André tries being calm and patient with his wife and daughter when they want something. They don’t show it as much and backtrack them more often than not, especially André since he is quick to panic and quick to make his wife and daughter happy even if someone suffers for it to make it happen as much as possible. And as for Chloé…. Well, she does have some bravery but I think that more of having a big ego and stupid writing in the later seasons (Yes I know that Audrey has blue eyes but so does the rest family and they are not as prominent as the others since she always wearing sunglasses in her appearances and while she does show calm and bravery, it reads more like she doesn’t give a shit about some situations most of the time, just wanted to mention that). But enough about them, these traits fit Zoé a lot more than the yellow did for her. Patience and calm are not only present in Zoé but in Sole Crusher as well since she decided to wait and get powerful before chasing after the heroes immediately and she looked pretty calm and sly when the heroes left to go to the hotel. Yeah, Zoé being associated with the color blue makes sense since she is a reliable friend when she shows up, is brave to stand up to her sister in Queen Banana (which I know isn’t much but still), she very patient when putting up with her family, and she has this calm demeanor in her character when she does show up. I know it doesn’t seem much to you but to me, it does even if I didn’t have that many examples of the things I was talking about and I still wanted to mention them.

My Personal Opinion/Conclusion:

In my opinion, Zoé should be associated with the color blue rather than yellow. I’m not saying get rid of the yellow entirely but make yellow a bit more of an accent color like Chloé having blue eyes and blue eyeshadow or André having the blue striped on his sash. Just make the yellow on Zoé’s design an accent rather than her main color heck just change the color of her pants to blue then just have her shoes have the yellow on them already. And I know what you guys going to say but shouldn’t she try to look connected to her family in some way while might be right about that, I say that her being disconnected from her family makes sense since she isn’t like them like I said before she is a Lee not a Bourgeois and that fine. Getting rid of the yellow entirely doesn’t make sense, making it her main color doesn’t either since yellow has been portrayed as a bad thing in this show rather than a good thing and she doesn’t fit in the yellow symbolism I mentioned.

Overall, the crew just didn’t care about Zoé and just wanted to create a replacement for Chloé so the fandom could stop complaining about her failed and probably nonexistent redemption arc but decided to be lazy and just rush Zoé out. This causes discourse in the fandom with some Chloé fans (the toxic ones not all of them but some) hating on Zoé even though it is not her fault for being this way it was the miraculous crew’s fault for this, not the character. This also caused a lot of potential not only with Zoé but with Chloé as well. And I don’t even like Chloé as much as other fans but even I think we missed an interesting dynamic with the two in multiple ways. So that is what I’m planning to do in my rewrite of Sole Crusher so maybe I can give Zoé some justice because she deserves better than what she gave from not only the crew but also some of the fandom (not salting anyone that doesn’t use Zoé, you do you my guy and I get it, just feel like people just kinda give up on Zoé and just uses her for Chloé’s development which can be frustrating to me). Please don’t take that to heart and I just want to let you know my opinion at the end of the day. So I hope you enjoy this post and are having a lovely day or night when you're reading or seeing this post, bye!!

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #zoé lee #chloé bourgeois #andre bourgeois #audrey bourgeois #akuma design #akuma #zoe lee #chloe bourgeois #miraculous salt #ml fandom salt (just a bit)

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misrepresentedmorallygrey · 2 months

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PROPAGANDA

Amanda Waller

Amanda Waller isn't a much-discussed character on Tumblr, but her reputation in the fandom isn't where it should be, and it's been somewhat worse after the Suicide Squad movies and Peacemaker. You need to read Yale/Ostrander's Suicide Squad to understand her character. Waller is also decent in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. So many people just know her through cruddy two-dimensional portrayals! They want her to be a "Karen", they want her to be a shrill uppity bitch who gets put down into her place. She is an asshole, and a bit of a ruthless monster—her superiors and her agents are all much much worse. She lives in a world overflowing with serial killers and supernatural beings that can destroy major cities in 5 minutes. She was an impoverished Black mother with no college degree, and in middle age she clawed her way up through education and bureaucracy after her children were SA'd and murdered. She has done horrible terrible things, she dehumanizes and extorts and power-trips and tortures and kills. And yet at times she's been the only one standing in the way of war and destruction of colonized countries. She is stubbon and proud, and capable of shame.

John

This fella is Fascinating. just trust me on this he deserves to be here

He tried so hard to do the right thing, he feels bad and says things would be better if he was never born. He thinks he should've just stayed acting like a monster and continued to act threatening.

(LONG PROPAGANDA INCOMING)

John. Milgram. Here's a short description of the fortunes and misfortunes of the guy. It gets worse before it gets better (probably).

While MILGRAM is a prison that judges a bunch of sympathetic killers, it doesn't consider him to be one – it didn't even exactly know he existed until too little too late, when it got its grabby hands on the brain of prisoner 009, who claimed to not know anything about any murder he'd have committed. Then, footage from his brain was extracted, as MILGRAM does, into a music video, and… that was MeMe. Ninth prisoner, Kayano Mikoto, was revealed to have DID, and what obviously who do you think actually Killed Someone?

Enter John. Well. Mikoto is half deeply unaware half subconsciously scared of his existence, so the MV painted him in a rather. Deeply disturbing way, bathing in bloody baths and all that (not a blood bath though! easy mistake). Adding to that him showing up in the first Voice Drama for five seconds to punch the "protagonist" and yell for a bit, and the result wasn't. Assuring. The fandom proceeded to treat him like a cardboard cutout and variously dunk on MILGRAM for having a cliché "evil" character w/ DID despite the overall well handling of complex characters.

Two years time skip: second season ending. We get to prisoner 009 again. The protagonist Finally gets to chat with John: and voila, he's admitting to the crime, he's apparently "killed a bunch of people because they annoyed him", which means, as he's saying, Mikoto has nothing to do with the crime at all! And he, as per the judging system, should be forgiven, right! Well, he's so full of shit. The music video immediately reveals how protective he feels of Mikoto (and well, he definitely doesn't rebuke That one), that the events of murder were somehow tied in to Mikoto's job at a black company, his continuous overworking and him being mentally on the brink of breaking; that any committed violence was For The Sake of Mikoto and that John feels deeply horrible for messing up his life in any way. By making himself into the image of a "monster" he's trying to make Mikoto look good in comparison and be forgiven and all. He also mentioned if Mikoto is voted innocent he's gonna try to go dormant since he's The Issue, right, and the audience/protagonist hates him, Right, and Mikoto Also Hates him, Right?

I'm underselling the sheer devotion of this guy tbh.

Yeah, the fandom results were kinda mixed on that one. Lots of people immediately started to love him dearly and kinda forgot any people were maimed or killed with baseball bats; lots also got sold on him "messing up Mikoto's life" and actually voted Mikoto innocent Specifically because of John's promise to eventually "disappear". There's more of the babygirlifying kind in the English side of the fandom that I've seen, to be fair. And that's around where we are!

#misrepresented morally grey #round 1 #bracket d #dc comics #amanda waller #milgram #john milgram #cw suicidal ideation #<- tagging to be safe

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kz-i-co · 1 year

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Angel or Devil? Part IV

Summary: Yeonjun's ex was trying everything in her power to ruin your relationship - was the drama really worth it or should you end things before it gets worse?

Pairing: Choi Yeonjun x f!reader

Genre: highschool au | fluff x angst - (eventual smut)

Warnings: story may contain strong language, mentions of drugs and alcohol - sexual references - reader discretion advice.

Words: 6k

Masterlist | TXT M.List >> Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

Taglist: @imtotallydef @beomholic @wanlore @lubtou @yeon-junie @ihrtrep @nobodyshallenter @soobsfairy444 @pr0dbeomgyu

-"Yeonjun.....May I be your girlfriend?" -"I mean you kinda already are.......But we can make it official?"

You played the other night in your head over and over again that once you woke up you quickly pounced over towards your desk, sliding out your photo strip of you and Yeonjun in the Photo Booth, just to make sure it wasn't a dream. This was real. This was actually happening.

Your heart was beating rapidly just thinking about it. You were head over heels that you didn't even know where to begin on how you felt. You felt happy. It was too soon to use the 'L' word of course but you were infatuated - well......for the time being.

And again, this was a feeling you never wanted to be involved with, at least not now or this young for that matter. You knew for times like these, always leads to heart break later on. It was rare to see young relationships survive this cruel world. But you will need the experience later on you suppose, to know how it feels and to be able to live with it because it can and it will happen again.

You placed your photo back in your book, shaking all the negative thoughts out of your head so you can smile at the good ones. Just live in the moment. Stop thinking about the future. And as of right now - get ready for school or you will be late.

"Shall I leave money for dinner tonight or are you going out again?" Your mother arched her eyebrows.

Your mothers new words caught you off guard, causing you to choke on your cereal. She was on to you. But jokes on her because you're staying in tonight, well not alone that is. Did you want take out again though? Maybe you should actually cook something this time around.

Before you could give it any thought, you settled on a 'yes' anyway so you could shop for groceries after school.

"I have to study tonight." You nodded while pursing your lips.

You wondered how often you could use that phrase as a coverup before being caught. It's not like you were doing anything bad but the past few nights, it was probably illegal how little time you had a book in your hand. Mia would take you one night and then Yeonjun would call dibs another - you were still trying to get used to this overwhelming attention.

It was bad enough you still owed him his movie night that Mia stole from him so studying wasn't that far from the truth - you were staying home tonight and money was very much appreciated.

"Tired of hanging out with your friends already?" Your mother giggled.

"No.......I just need to catch up with my schoolwork." You laughed, trying not to be obvious.

"Okay dear." She smiled nonchalantly.

"May I ask a question?" You began and your mother alerted her attention towards you. "How old were you when you met dad?" You asked as you placed your bowl of cereal in the sink.

Your mother took a sip of her coffee before answering. "When I was 20, I was a freshman in college and your father was a junior."

"Oh, so you didn't meet in high school?" You continued to ask. "Was dad your first love?"

"Oh- no." She laughed. "But he was the first one that I knew I wanted my future with."

"What's the difference than your first love?" You asked.

She shrugged not knowing herself. "You just know when you're with that person I guess."

You nodded understanding. "What happened to your first love?"

"Not sure....we went our separate ways after school." Your mother got up placing her mug in the sink as well.

"Do you think it's pointless to have a boyfriend in highschool then?" You looked up meeting your mothers eyes as confusion was written all over her face.

"What is this about?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Nothing, I'm asking for a friend."

"A friend?" She said with a sly grin, she knew you too well. "Well, I would tell this friend that having a boyfriend in highschool or college doesn't make a difference, you fall for who you fall for - no matter where or when it is."

"But, isn't long distance relationships known to fail."

"Not always......If you love each other, than you'll find a way to make it work."

"That's all it takes?"

"My best friend growing up is still with her high school sweetheart."

"Really?" You had more excitement in your tone.

"Yup..... and four kids." She smiled. "Tell your friend to relax." Your mother lifted your chin up and placed a sweet peck on your forehead. "Don't be late for school."

"And remember (Y/N), your father and I won't be home tonight, we have-"

"Your business party, I know." You tried not to sound excited since that just meant more alone time with Yeonjun.

You smiled and opened the door leaving your house, speaking of Yeonjun, he was waiting in your driveway playing with his phone as he leaned against the hood of his car.

"Hey cutie." He smirked once he saw you. He did it on purpose by this point.

"Wow, your promise is still holding up." You smiled. "You're early."

"Only for you of course." He leaned forward wanting a kiss but you put your finger to your lips and signaled towards your house.

"Right." He said and you both got in the car and took off.

"I think my mom knows we're dating." You spoke when you finally were away from your house.

"Is that a bad thing?" He asked.

"No." You sighed. "But I want to ease them into it because I never had a boyfriend before." You mumbled the last part.

"I'm honored and I promise I will make it worth your while." He flirted and reached for your hand.

"Can you stop that for five minutes before my whole face catches on fire." You rubbed your cheeks.

"But I like your rosy cheeks - it's cute."

You rolled your eyes playfully as he just laughed. "I'll give it a rest.....for now - anything for you." He looked at you once again. "Shit sorry." He laughed again.

Once he parked in the student parking lot, he pulled away his hand causing you to instantly pout - the ride not being long enough.

"Is it safe to kiss you now?" He asked before leaning forward once again and you blush nodding. You feel like you never could get use to this. His lips just fit perfectly with yours - like a puzzle piece.

"Hey lovebirds, time for school." A loud knocking echoed throughout the car causing you both to pull apart startled.

You saw Mia and Soobin laughing with some of their other friends.

"We still have ten minutes, leave them alone." A tall one with dark hair spoke.

"Don't encourage it Kai, Yeonjun is corrupting my innocent friend here."

Yeonjun rolled his eyes as you giggled about to open the door.

"Wait a second." Yeonjun popped out the car quickly running towards the passenger side.

"What?" You laughed to yourself.

"I need to open the door for my beautiful girlfriend." He spoke after he opened the car for you letting you finally step out.

"Must you say that every time." You arched your eyebrows slyly.

He smirked again, not answering and you hurried catching up with your friends. Even though being Yeonjun's girlfriend was official now, you still felt shy with the whole thing and he knew that. Things were different now but you weren't trying to make it obvious. At least not yet.

"I know you're still nervous." He whispered next to you as he had his arm around you.

"W-what? Is it that obvious?"

"Just remember what I told you.....it's no one's business."

"That doesn't stop people from talking."

"Who cares? We will be out of this place in a few months."

"A few months? - 8 months." You arched your eyebrows in amusement.

"That's nothing." He shrugged with a chuckle.

You finally let yourself reach for his hand, not caring what people thought anymore. He was right, you'd be lying if you haven't notice people staring by now so what was the big deal, people know and you couldn't let that frighten you. Even as small as a simple gesture of him holding your hand was already being noticed as you tried to make the peaceful journey to your locker.

"So I wanted to ask you, Homecoming is next weekend." Yeonjun broke through your thoughts by leaning up against your locker. "Want to go with me?"

"The dance?" You said nervously and he nodded confirming your question. "Oh um.....- I've never been to one." You said nervously.

He looked at you with sympathy. "They are usually boring but I have a feeling it will be different this year."

"How so?" You arched your eyebrows.

"Because of you."

"Pff....I swear to-" You turned back to your locker grabbing your books.

"Please go with me?" He drop to one knee pouting and you were quick to bring him back up.

You couldn't help but feel embarrassed from the attention this boy attracts but you laughed anyway. "Please don't do that. I'll go with you."

"That's all it takes." He smirked.

"Don't make me break up with you." You whispered back.

"I wouldn't let you go that easy."

"Yeonjun." You warned and he just laughed.

"I'll see you later." He kissed your cheek and left you alone as Mia approached.

"Did I mention how cute you two are?" She gushed.

"Only a hundred times." You closed your locker and began the short distance to your first class.

"And did he ask you to homecoming?" Mia asked before entering class.

"Yes." You blushed.

"This is gonna be so much fun." She cheered causing stares as you finally entered.

"What about-" You and Mia couldn't help but glance at Yuhyun as a conversation started, intending you to hear.

"Shhh- there is no way that virgin is winning homecoming queen." She said loudly looking at you wanting to hear. "Besides if that happens....we'll have to have a Carrie moment." They laughed in unison as they stared back watching you find your seats.

Mia was quick to defend you as you just sat down quietly. "What the fuck is your problem?"

"Nothing." She laughed nonchalantly.

"You're really that jealous?" Mia snickered. "That's sad."

"I'm not jealous of her." She made a face of disgust.

"Fooled us." Mia finally sat down in her desk.

"Me and Yeonjun go way back and if you thought for a second he actually has feelings for you than your dumber than you look." She snapped. "We just had a terrible fight and broke it off - he'll come crawling back sooner or later. It won't be the first time - Besides, who would fall for a girl like you?" She sat down turning her back towards you.

The professor entered starting class as you sat there with tears starting down your face. You knew better than to let her get to you but you hated this, hated her. You felt like you were playing tennis with you emotions because one moment you felt like all this drama wasn't worth it and just go back to being quiet and studious but once you're around him, you feel warm inside and happier than you could ever imagine. What should I do?

"Okay, let's pull out your homework-" You raised your hand.

"Yes." Mrs. Gim answered.

"Can I use the restroom?" Your voice was shaky.

She just nodded and you quickly grabbed your things making a speedy exit, hearing laughter from Yuhyun herself.

You rather just spend the rest of the day in the bathroom if you have to - what was the point of being a target.

"(Y/N) are you in here?" You heard Mia's voice but you didn't have the vocal cord to answer.

You saw her peeking under the stall. "Ahh there you are.....Please come out."

"I'm good here actually." Your voice was soft. "Why are you here, Mrs. Gim never lets two people go to the bathroom."

"I told her you felt sick." She dropped her backpack to the floor sitting on top of it crossing her legs. "Please don't let that bitch get to you. You're better than her and everyone knows it."

"I just don't know what to do."

"You have to understand something. Yeonjun is Yuhyun's first love - and trust me, I'm not trying to come up with excuses for her - but it's hard losing something special like that." She sighed. "I'm not saying I feel bad for her but I understand why she is acting this way."

"She's jealous. She was so torn up about this breakup, she had to lie to everyone that she broke up with him remember. Shes just really hurting right now and she's targeting all her anger on to you because she already sees how Yeonjun is with you and she probably misses it." You nodded even though she couldn't see you. "It doesn't mean she should act like a fucking bitch but all I'm saying is to not let her bring you down because you are the better person in this situation." She continued. "She wants you to feel this way so you will break up with him, show her you're stronger than her."

"Okay." You finally got up and opened the door. "Get off the floor before someone sees you." You smiled and she stood up giving you a hug.

"Doesn't bother me.......Now, no more crying. Popular girls don't cry." She handed you a tissue.

"Hmm, I'm not popular." You shrugged wiping your cheeks.

"Maybe not yet, but you're getting there."

"I will only be known as Yeonjun's girlfriend."

"Well.....I guess we'll have to let them know who you are." She smiled.

Mia is a good friend, you were lucky to have her, she would probably take a bullet for you if it came down to it and for years you blew her off. She was better than you. It was time to show your appreciation.

....

As much as it hurt. You weren't feeling up to a date night after all, Yuhyun had to ruin everything. Maybe a break from all this drama is what you needed. This wasn't how you pictured officially as Yeonjun's girlfriend would go.

"Skipping lunch again huh?" You knew better than to try and hide in the library because the troubled boy knew you by now and reading his face, he knew you were upset.

"I'm just looking for a new book."

"(Y/N)." You tried to suck up your tears that you already felt forming as soon as you saw him. Be strong.

"What?" You put on your best painless smile as you put the book back.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Or maybe he just knew you better than you thought.

"I'm fine, I'm just tired." You pouted cutely.

"Tired?" He glanced at you before looking down at his feet disappointed - he was hoping you would be honest with him about everything.

"Tired because I was thinking about you all night." You teased trying to lighten the mood or hide the fact you were hurting. But with that lame attempt, he didn't budge, he stayed quiet worrying you. "What? You can flirt but I can't?"

"What did Yuhyun say to you?" He asked again looking over at you.

"Did Mia tell you?"

"Why didn't you?"

"Because there's nothing you can do. If this is the price I have to pay to want to be with you then I guess I'll just have to deal with it."

"I told you I would take care of it."

"I know. But you're not responsible for her actions. Mia is right....she's just jealous and I'm sure she'll move on eventually."

"What did she say?"

"It's nothing I promise."

"(Y/N)?" He warned.

"Just what a normal jealous ex would say......you're with me to make her jealous and I'm stupid to think you have real feelings for me because it's not the first time you've had a bad breakup like this and saw other people." He nodded looking away from you.

You could tell he was angry but stayed calm for you. "I'm sorry. I'm gonna talk to her again and I promise she will stop this time, even if it involves her parents."

"Am I really worth all this." You didn't mean to sound dramatic but you generally wanted to know. Was all this drama really worth it to him?

"More than you know." He interlocked your hands leading you out of the library and straight to your locker since lunch was already letting out.

"So about tonight?" He began and all the feelings you had before vanished as you talked to your loving boyfriend. He cared about your feelings and it wasn't his fault things were bad, why punish him for that?

"6 right?" You smiled. "My house?"

He smiled back. "Okay. Shall we let your parents keep their money, I'll bring something?"

"Oh no, I'm cooking up a surprise."

"Oh really now." He chuckled leaning in before being rudely interrupted.

"-Excuse me Yeonjun, can I talk to you?" Yuhyun cut you off with a devilish grin.

"That's funny because I really wanted to talk to you." His tone was sarcastic and he gave you a sweet smile before taking off with Yuhyun.

....

"So what did she say?" You couldn't help but be curious.

"She said you were overreacting and she never meant to hurt your feelings." You grew angry immediately. "Don't worry I know it's bullshit."

"And I warned her I would go to her parents about her stalking me if she doesn't stop - and I know that will work because her parents love me." He sighed leaning his head back against the head rest. "I'm sorry you have to deal with this."

"It's not your fault. You must of been a great boyfriend that's all." He smiled at your response.

"I'll see you at 6?" He said before leaning in, letting you nod in approval before bringing his lips towards yours in a sweet tender kiss. You couldn't count the times he took your breath away with his simple gestures. You were his and the feeling still gave you goosebumps just thinking about it.

Before the kiss could get too carried away, you gently pulled away saying your goodbyes. "I'll see you at 6."

He looked at you with such softness in his eyes. He too felt infatuated with you as you did with him. You wanted this feeling to last forever but you know that was too good to be true. You knew this feeling will eventually fade the longer you're together - your sister as witness; but maybe it will be different for once.

You glanced around the house and quickly straightened up before tonight - not that your house was normally a mess, pretty clean actually; but you wanted it perfect.

Then you quickly got dressed into something casual and walked the short distance to the bus stop. You were just lucky you were pretty close to town so you didn't have to travel far. You made sure you grabbed your shopping bag as long as the money your mother left you on the counter. Your parents had some business party, so you knew they would be gone all night.

For the first time, you were glad your parents left you alone.

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 3:57p.m. Hey, Yuhyun is having a party tonight. You want to help me sabotage it for revenge ;)

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 3:59p.m. I can't - I have plans actually

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 4:00p.m. With Yeonjun? 0.0.....what you two doin this time? Especially now since you two are official and everything ;) xxx

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 4:00p.m. Just a movie and homework

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 4:01p.m. Hmmm?!?

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 4:01p.m. What?

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 4:02p.m. You two alone at your house?

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 4:02p.m. ....

You started to type.

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 4:03p.m. Don't do anything I wouldn't do ;)

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 4:03p.m. Or shall I say.....would lmao ;)

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 4:04p.m. Stop

You placed your phone back in your pocket, getting off the bus. What does she even think you two will do? Dinner and a movie is normal for dates. Right?

You shrugged it off as you grabbed your shopping cart, and began walking down the aisle deciding on making bulgogi for dinner with curry and ramen. You weren't the greatest cook but you watched your mother make it enough - it was a simple way to go.

You gathered all the ingredients, aimlessly making your way through the aisle, while mentally checking off the list in your head to make sure everything you needed was stored in your cart and ready to go. And just like that, you found yourself just about finished, when something caught your eye, causing you to hesitate. Your heart started to race just thinking about it. Do you need them?

You bit your lip anxiously before you quickly pretended to text on your phone as a person passed you down the aisle. Why did you feel so embarrassed? Once you were alone again you glanced ahead at the product seeing the different sizes and variations they offered.

Condoms....

They sell them here? Just out in the open? You guess you never seek them out before, so you never even noticed.

You proceeded to grab the first item that was closest to you, being toilet paper - to not seem so suspicious as you continued to study the different brands and wording that was placed upon the small packages. Why were there so many different types for one purpose? Comfortable for the female? What does that even mean? Your inexperienced ass couldn't handle this.

"Did you need help finding anything?" You heard a voice next to you breaking your train of thought.

Of course in this time of embarrassing agony, someone had to offer assistance when usually they aren't around when you actually needed them. At least she was a sweet old woman.

"No, I'm just trying to decide on um......what toilet paper to get. Do I want to spend the extra money for the soft one?"

"It's definitely worth it." She smiled before walking away. Kill me.

You glanced back still feeling those butterflies flutter around. Should you get them? No, Yeonjun probably already has them. But what if he doesn't in the moment? Maybe you should just in case. But what size?

What were you even doing?

You weren't even at that step in your relationship yet. You probably looked crazy on the store cameras right now. Just staring confusingly at a shelf of condoms. What has this boy done to you? You don't need them - at least as of right now.

You feel crazy even thinking about it. Just get your groceries and go home and make a sweet dinner for you and your boyfriend and watch a movie - nothing else.

But why was your heart still racing? You groaned frustrated as you put your cart back and making your way onto the bus back home with your bag of groceries.

Home....shower.....start cooking.....

You still had plenty of time once you got yourself all ready and began prepping your meal, it was still only 5:30.

You decided on a cute medium length, dark slate floral dress, with a light gray knitted sweater placed comfortably on top, along with your slippers. Were you dressed too much? It was only a comfy movie night. It was just casual but you wanted to look cute at least and not your normal lazy sweats. This was a date after all.

Everything was almost perfect. You quickly grabbed your throw blanket for a more comfortable setting as well as some lit candles on your coffee table.

Before you know it, 6 was here and Yeonjun was right on time, knocking on your door. You took a deep breath before opening the door and seeing the handsome man taking your breath away once again. You couldn't help but feel nervous all over again the first time seeing him - like every date still being your first.

"I bought chocolates." He held up the bag of goodies before leaning in - placing a sweet kiss upon your cheek. "Chocolate with popcorn is the best."

"You've done this before?" You teased letting him enter your home, placing the chocolate on your coffee table next to your burning candle.

"Nothing special, just with myself." He smiled sweetly. "I guess this movie is more romantic than I thought." He smirked looking at your candle.

You shrugged nervously. "I just like candles."

"My mom just texted me that her and my dad are just gonna stay at the local hotel because the party will be running late - so I guess I don't have to kick you out as quickly as I wanted to."

"So we can watch two movies?" He smirked.

"Sure." You giggled.

"Oh shoot, I need to check on dinner." You continued making a speedy bee line towards the kitchen. Luckily nothing was burnt from your slight distraction and you turned the burners off and continued prepping your meal together as Yeonjun watched comfortably.

"You're so cute." He smiled softly.

You glared teasingly. "Why must you insist on saying that for every little thing I do?"

"Well, stop being cute at everything you do." He arched his eyebrows playfully.

"I'm just being normal."

"Well, I guess your normal is cute."

"Yeonjun....I still have time to toss out your ass." You said playfully and he came up behind you in a warm back hug as you continued to finish spicing up the meal.

Back hugs was number one on your list for your dream boyfriend - and you couldn't believe you were here experiencing it yourself. It felt surreal.

"Bulgogi? Hmm....looks good." He leaned his chin on your shoulder. "I didn't know you could cook. You really are perfect."

"Far from.....I only know this because of my mom."

"But you still cooked it." He cuddled more into your neck. "Our next date, I'll cook for you."

"When will that be?" You relaxed as you felt him gently pepper his lips over your soft skin.

"Soon." Was all he said as the lust was slowly taking over. You couldn't help but close your eyes, taking in his gentle touch.

"Dinner is ready." You said in a hushed whisper, not breaking out of your trance. If you knew any better, you were completely under his spell. You never been touched in such a way - it felt.....amazing.

You practically begged him for more the moment you leaned your head slightly to the left, giving him full access. After every kiss, came a soft suck, up and down the crevice of your neck.

You never wanted him to let go but you needed to learn self control.

"We should eat before the food gets cold." You said again finally breaking free from your compulsion.

"You're right." He gave you one last peck before pulling away and helping you bring the plates out to the living room.

The atmosphere felt intense as you both clearly didn't want to break apart, but your meal was great none the less and you felt impressed with yourself from how well it turned out.

The movie you decided on was a romance - probably some chick flick - to fit the theme of your so called date. Which probably was a bad idea in the long run because after you cleaned up the food. It was just your main focus.

Yeonjun made some popcorn and next thing you know, you both were cuddled underneath your throw blanket, trying to pay attention to this silly romance. It's like you were waiting for something more to happen the moment you felt his fingertips dance on your exposed knee underneath your blanket. It was a cute innocent gesture until it stopped and all you felt was his hand rest there slowly tapping his index finger. A signal maybe?

You turned to question being hit with nothing but his lips on yours. It was fragile at first, like he was asking for permission but the moment you responded your lips with his - it grew intense and more desperate. This kiss wasn't like your other ones, this felt like a burning sensation upon the surface. You couldn't believe a simple kiss could have so many meanings and feelings behind it. Every one had felt different in its own unique way and this one was no exception. This one was the start of something new, something more.....dangerous.

He leaned further in until your back hit the couch cushions underneath as he towered over you. He had you pinned against the couch, forgetting instantly the tv even existed. The hand that was on your knee earlier was now resting on your slightly exposed thigh, rubbing slow circles on your soft skin, leaving goosebumps in its place. Your lips felt swollen by this point, but you didn't care, he made you feel weak.

And just when you felt like things couldn't get more intense, he broke away from the kiss but continued down, kissing your neck once again, but this time he didn't hesitate to nip softly around your soft skin. It felt hypnotizing - like he was a vampire sucking your blood. His hand climbed up your leg as well - playing with the strap of your underwear but he knew better than to take it further than that. He didn't want to make you uncomfortable in anyway. He cares too much for you.

You relaxed leaning your head to the side once again to give him a better access, letting a moan escape in the process. You didn't even know you did it until he stopped and looked at you. His lack of touch causing you to open your eyes, questioning.

"What?" You asked innocently.

"Nothing, you just sound sexy." He said before continuing to nip your neck one last time, marking his territory. You would be lying if you said the butterflies stopped during this whole process but they felt much more intense after the next, you thought you would be used to them by now but they intended to feel different the more moves he tried on you. You never have been touched in such a way before.

He lifted your leg to wrap it more around his waist as he moved his lips back up towards yours, sending tingles closer and closer to your core that you knew you felt a pool forming inside your underwear. He rested comfortably in between your legs, nothing but clothes to block your path to a more sensual desire.

You couldn't help but slowly gyrate your hips upward to get more comfortable that he stopped kissing you and looked at you with a smirk. "Are you trying to get me worked up?"

"Huh? That was an accident." You blushed avoiding his eye contact.

"An accident hmmm? Didn't think you were a tease." He leaned back down kissing you once again. He had one hand on your hip to keep you in place from moving. Did it affect him that bad? You barely moved an inch.

You didn't lie.....it felt good against your core that you secretly wanted more. Were the hormones getting to you?

You moved again, but purposely this time and with more momentum. He groaned against your lips softly pulling away. "(Y/N).” He said weak to your surprise.

"I can't help it." You whispered biting your lip and that was it for him - he wanted you more and more; like a drug he can't wean off of.

You pulled him back, working your lips with his. You jerked your hips again, causing him to hold your hip, helping you move in sync with him. You couldn't even tease him without him being a step ahead of you, you just wanted to be the one in control for once. Someday...

But that was the thing, you were in control without even knowing it. You were his newfound weakness and he didn't know how to handle you. He felt like you won this game and just decided to take one for the team. But he knew the effects and didn't know how to stop.

His lips were back on your neck as you felt the pace pick up. You felt soaked through by this point that normally you would be embarrassed but your hormones were telling you otherwise. Your heart began to race the moment you started feeling his bulge between your legs, was it really getting this far?

Maybe you should have gotten those condoms....

What? No. You're not ready for that. What were you thinking....or more likely....what was he doing to you?

"Yeonjun?" You whined feeling him right up your core. "Maybe we should stop."

He stopped and looked at you sympathetically. "I'm so sorry. You're right."

"I don't want to." You giggled for reassurance as you stopped him from pulling away. "I just.....I don't know how to do all of this." You bit your lip again but this time embarrassed.

You knew he already knows you are a virgin and have no experience whatsoever but you couldn't help but feel like a disappointment and just needed a reason for an excuse. It's not that you didn't want to go further but you felt like you couldn't without humiliating yourself in the process.

You looked down trying to avoid his eye contact. "(Y/N)." You finally looked up seeing him smile at you softly. "It's okay."

"But I don't want you to be bored or I don't want to be bad because I don't know how-"

"Relax." He cut you off. "I'll help you....whenever you're ready."

He was being the perfect gentleman and you couldn't have misjudged him better. This was not the boy you expected him to be.

"Okay." You smiled and he kissed your cheek sweetly. "We can still makeout though."

He chuckled at your nervous statement and smirked before leaning back down just as you heard a knock on the door cutting you both off.

You both grew confused getting up. "Did you forget you ordered pizza?"

"I didn't." You felt a slight chill. Who would be at your door? Mia?

"I'll get it." Yeonjun walked over to the door as you stayed hidden by the corner. It couldn't be Mia, she would have texted you.

"Party!" People yelled as soon as Yeonjun opened the door and immediately were piling inside. "Hey Yeonjun." People greeted the troubled boy.

"What is going on?" You yelled in panic trying to cut through the loud commotion.

"I don't know." Yeonjun was quick to try to find out more information. You kept trying to close the door but more and more people were entering.

"Yuhyun said that this was last minute, so we bought beer and snacks." Some dude greeted as he entered your home uninvited.

Yuhyun, you should have known better. You were quick to look for Yeonjun as your house was already filling up with people and music playing from some unknown source causing you to have a panic attack at any moment.

Yeonjun was in the kitchen as your counters were getting filled with junk. "Yuhyun-"

"I know. What do we do?"

"We can call the police?" He suggested.

"No, they will alert my parents." You took a deep breath. "Why would she do this?"

"Because she is a horrible fucking person." He pulled you into his chest comforting you.

"Hey, Yeonjun's new girlfriend -what's your name again?" You just glared at the random students you probably never even spoken to. "Oh (Y/N) that's right. Nice party! We knew you were quiet but we didn't know how cool you are. Cheers!"

"You know what? I'm not giving in to her anymore. I guess we're having a party - call your friends." Yeonjun gave you a look of uncertainty.

"It's okay. My parents aren't coming home tonight." You reassured. "But if Yuhyun tries to enter this house, stop her."

"(Y/N) I don't know-" You leaned up giving him a passionate kiss causing howls from around you. "Don't worry, she won't pull this again because her plan won't work."

He smiled at you kissing you again before pulling out his phone and calling his friends over as well as you.

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 8:07p.m. Mia, come over quick !!!!

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 8:07p.m. What's wrong?

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 8:08p.m. Yuhyun ruined my date night telling everyone at school I was throwing a party!!!

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 8:08p.m. WHAT?!?!?!??? WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT!

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 8:09p.m. Do we really need an explanation why? She's fucking evil!

»Outgoing text :: To Mia :: 8:08p.m. But the good thing is that I'm not gonna let her hurt me anymore, she wanted me to have a party than I guess I'm having a party

»Incoming text :: From Mia :: 8:08p.m. Yessss (Y/N)!!! We'll show her she can't run things anymore. She'll hate this lmao I'm leaving now.

Having Mia here will definitely make you feel better and stop any idiots from trashing any of your stuff. But one thing you know for sure is you can't let Yuhyun enter your party and.....you needed a drink.

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