#also the ‘it’s blue for boys that’s so problematic we can’t use it’ argument is so fucking dumb as long as we are here

[umbreeonic]

i literally don’t care about fucking pride flag discourse of all things but the phrase “gay men don’t need their own flag” is. incredibly wild no matter what context

#imagine saying that about any other subset of the community. the hell #if that’s ur argument then don’t use any identity specific flags cause of gay men don’t need their own flag no one else does either. #just use the rainbow flag if identity specific ones aren’t needed. #are u gonna say the same thing about the nonbinary flag? we have the trans flag we don’t need it? what abt flags for specific genders? #is the agender flag unnecessary? genderfluid flag? demigender flags? #or does your argument apply to gay men Only. #cause if you are making an argument that could apply to every single lgbt identity but you only mean it for gay men #then ur just homophobic really #i lied maybe i do care abt this discourse a little. in the sense that when u argue over colorful stripes you shouldn’t be homophobic #also the ‘it’s blue for boys that’s so problematic we can’t use it’ argument is so fucking dumb as long as we are here #name five pride flags that don’t use pink; blue; the combination of the two; or the exclusion of them entirely to mean something

[riacte]

hello hello, would you mind talking about spopera? Specifically, i saw a post a while ago about space twitter (which was hilarious) and... could you please tell me more about that side of the au :D

(also, what's your favourite little thing in spopera?)

YESS spopera!! And omg I LOVE space twitter. We have a #shitposting channel on the server and it’s my home <3 so thanks for the ask!!

(Coincidentally this is also my favourite thing lolol)

Buckle up because it’s gonna be wild 👀

First we have the genesis of all spacetwt discourse: the trans Lumians discourse. Basically some Twitter (the official name for the app is Twilight in this AU but I’m using Twitter because it’s funnier) users think Martyn is transgender False. Because they’re blonde, the same species, and stick with Ren. That’s literally their rationale. It’s a huge conspiracy with users going “prince of hearts 😍” and deeming it’s “transphobic to use f*lse because it’s martyn’s deadname”. Of course people with common sense go “🤨they look different and their freckles are literally different colours🤨” but the trans truthers don’t listen… it’s a huge argument online 😭

Then of course we have the fanfiction!! Exterra RPF!! Who could forget! We have Launchpad (Wattpad) and the Starchive (Ao3) <3 Someone found out Ren was seen as a delinquent when he visited False during their highschool years and boy you would not believe the EXPLOSION of Bad Boy RK content. It’s embarrassing. It’s funny. Bad Boy RK x Reader…. And of course the classic “got sold to RK and Queen of Hearts”. Because the kids would want that.

There is ALSO discourse on how Launchpad and Starchive characterise Bad Boy! RK. Starchive has those 10k delinquent befriending private school student Falseren fics with lowercase lyric titles. Launchpad just has a lot of X Reader fics.

BTW the most popular Exterra RPF fic is called Cold Spells— a parody of Heat Waves of course. It’s exactly what you imagine it is. The second most popular fic is a Medieval AU called a hand to hold until the end. Yes, it’s the 3rd Life AU. Yes, the author has the trafficpose url. (Check out the real owner of trafficpose here for more spopera content!! :D)

So that’s Starchive in a nutshell. However AO3 also exists… as a chemical compound. Someone (we’re thinking Cub) found AO3 and discovered it could be used in starship launchers. Essential, AO3 fuels ships. Yes it’s a pun.

Also the shipping discourse is insane in this universe. The whole “real people shipping is bad and invasive” thing aside, people just love arguing about the ships. The Falseren shippers fight with the Treebark shippers. People ship Ren x Skizz and Ren x Etho or whatever. And Doc. They also ship Ren with his crazy blue stalker (“😍 10k enemies to lovers 😍”). There are also genuine Treebark Truthers 😭 they call the Falseren shippers “comphet” or “heteronormative” or SOMETHING.

You think it can’t get worse. Well, it can! People ship the raceships. Shipshipping. Like, they humanise the freaking ships. The Dogwarts freighter is humanised into a dilf. People would unironically make tweets like “ // shipshipping idk i don’t like how the fandom portrayals falsewell as an old person it’s kinda ageist :( “

NOT TO MENTION THE SUBTWT DRAMA…. part of #hearttwt (False’s subtwt) don’t like Ren because they think he’s problematic and weird and a “Lumian fetishiser”. So we get tweets like “// red king neg DONT WORRY WE’LL SAVE FALSIE FROM THE STINKY MAN” the replies are like “???? They’re literally best friends???”. People also say shit like “my nyooms nyooms 🥺” “my poor glow glow” unironically.

Have some Space Twitter screenshots I made <3 not entirely canon but it’s funny <3

Also I made Space Gacha. This isn’t spoilers I promise—

yeah. so like. fictional discourse is the only part of world building ive contributed to 💀 also we borrowed a ton of stuff from f1 fandom which is just irl spopera BSBFHSBSA

I can imagine it’ll only get worse with time… anyways if you’ve read this far thanks for putting up with this LMAO

#????? #how do I begin to Tag #ask box #answered #space opera au #shipping #even tho it’s fictional rpf shipping #💀💀 #long post #yeah this is my fav part of spopera #trafficshipping

[riathedreamer]

Zero is Null

A discussion of Zero’s love-hate-relationship with RvB and struggling independence; including a hotdog too big for the bun, tragic backstories, a single bow-chicka-bow-wow, and a cookie at the very end.

Welcome to what will be a lot of text. Basically, it will explore why Zero fails as an RvB (with emphasis on RvB) season. I will not be the first one to bring forth some of the points, and I promise to be fair and civil and fun. This isn’t supposed to be a piece of hate – in fact, I’m writing this because I love Red vs. Blue.

Okay, first of all, to increase your fun – take a guess on just how much of Zero is spent on fight scenes. You see, I’ve calculated the exact amount, and I will reveal it later, but for now, take a guess and remember the number. Maybe you are the winner!

Alright, time to share my thoughts. Wait! Since I suffer from anxiety and have this one annoying voice pretending to be all those critical statements my opinion could be met with, let’s give it an actual voice and address the points throughout this review.

“Why would I care about your opinion, Ria?” – I don’t know, you’re the one who clicked Read More.

“Your opinion doesn’t matter!” – Of course, it doesn’t! Geez. Do you think your opinion matters, though? Listen, we’re on Tumblr, the actual equivalent of screaming into the void. And it’s fun, too!

“If you don’t like it, don’t watch!” - *activates Uno Reverse Card* “You can’t talk about something you haven’t watched!”

“You’re just a Hater” – Actually, this is a point I’ll come back to. Like a cliffhanger. Also, at the end of this, there’ll be a cookie. But this will also include me talking about the stuff I like, because, surprise, Zero is not without talent!

“You just don’t like it because the Reds and Blues aren’t in it!” – Actually, that’s a good point, so instead, this review will start with a sole focus on Zero and discuss the problem that lies within that story. Then we can address why the lack of OG cast is understandable and problematic and weird.

But first! Backstory.

When the first 5 second teaser dropped back in spring (you know, when we were young and innocent and the world didn’t feel like an apocalyptic movie yet), I held onto that one image of what I thought (hoped) to be Grif and Simmons in the sunset, hopefully addressing Grif’s hateglue arc, but boy was I wrong because a) that’s not Simmons, that’s Sarge, and b) the image was from a PSA since the Reds are not in Zero.

Actual face-reveal of me below:

Admittedly, when I heard that the Reds and Blues were not going to be the main characters (or even show up), it felt like a gut punch. However, I actually found myself getting excited due to the creators’ hype. I want to praise them for this. It’s been a while since an RvB season was talked so much ABOUT before its release; it had advertisements, it had creators and voice-actors talking about it. Please. More of that in the future. Their passion rubbed off on me, and that deserves recognition. So it pains me that this was clearly a passion-project, and then when I gave it a try, I didn’t want to touch it again for weeks.

Here’s the thing. I cannot whole-heartedly say that Zero is bad. It’s not gonna melt your eyes. It’s not even so-bad-it’s-good. For me, it’s meh. It’s a Saturday-morning-cartoon aimed for a younger audience with a rushed plot and clichéd characters. The problem is that it calls itself RvB, and with that title comes something to live up to – but more importantly, something to continue.

My main issue is that Zero forces its story into existence by ignoring established content rather than adjusting to it. Let’s call this for the hotdog-too-big-for-the-bun syndrome solely for the sake of the bow-chicka-bow-wow that’s coming now. Bow-chicka-bow-wow. Many of the separate issues I will dive into all add to this hotdog-issue, so I will scream “Hotdog!” whenever this is the case so we can all keep track of my argument.

You can continue the story of Red vs. Blue without the Reds and Blues. While that would personally crush my heart, it can be done. There’s a story of Red vs. Blue that can be continued. The world can be expanded, the previous actions of the Reds and Blues can be explored from another angle.

So.

How does Zero do this? It doesn’t.

I just want to make it clear that new elements can definitely be added when it comes to worldbuilding. That’s literally the point of sequels. But Zero’s settings are presented with so little grace and with no connection to previously established worldbuilding. We get Alliance of Defense and GLASS thrown in our face as very big important organizations – yet we’ve never heard of them before. A big central plot point of RvB is the UNSC and Project Freelancers, and those were introduced naturally with the plot. We already have big established intergalactic organizations. What is AOD’s connection with those? We aren’t told. We are just told they exist and expected to accept it, no questions asked. If this was a whole new world and story – fine. But when you need to build on an already established worldbuilding, you need more grace than this. Chorus was a whole new setting, but it was explained, and it was connected to the previous plot. Same with Iris. Same with Desert Gulch. In Zero, it feels lazy. It feels forced. These organizations are just there because the story is built around them (HOTDOG).

This vagueness when it comes to wordbuilding is also reflected in the settings - we have a desert, a training base, a lab, temples, Tucker’s workplace, and we do not know if all those are set place on the same planet. If that is the case, what is this planet’s relationship with Chorus? Is it Earth? And most importantly, what is the deal with the temples? Why are they connected to Tucker’s sword if it isn’t the same planet. Are they made by the same aliens? Are people okay with this? Why haven’t these temples been explored before? Chorus makes sure to establish this, while Zero doesn’t, adding to a growing amount of confusion.

Okay, so no connection with previous worldbuilding. What about characters? I mean, we got Wash and Carolina and Tucker! So we have RvB characters, it gotta be RvB! Technically – yeah. But it feels dirty. These three characters are not here to be characters. They are here to be props to the new cast. They are not given any development. Their presence isn’t even that important, and if this was a whole new show, they could easily have been replaced with an unknown face. Worst of all, they feel miswritten.

Carolina and Wash are working at a new military organization? Leaving the Reds and Blues behind? To help people? First of all, fucking bad idea, Carolina, the last time you left the Reds and Blues alone, they changed the timeline. But most importantly – Carolina and Wash just joined this new super elite military organization? After being mistreated and manipulated by such an organization in the past?

Carolina is there to introduce the characters. That’s it. We are force-fed their personality by having her literally read out loud their personality. There is no gentle introduction to the new cast. We are not allowed to get to know them naturally. Why show when you can tell, huh? That’s Carolina’s role. That’s why she is there. To introduce the cast and explain their story. That’s it. (HOTDOG).

How about Wash? He is there to get beat up and be a damsel in distress so that the new cast has a reason to explore the plot. Oh, and that brain damage that was the consequence of previous seasons – gone now. The guy who literally has trauma from having an AI explode inside his head is fine with having a computer inserted into it instead. Because that’s needed. To explore his brain damage wouldn’t work now when his role is to be a prop to lure the new cast for one episode and then be put onto the bench for the rest of the runtime (HOTDOG).

And Tucker – he is there to die for a second and have his sword taken from him. That’s literally it. And for the few moments he is there, he feels like old super flirty Tucker, which erases the character development he went through in previous seasons. Okay, so Tucker dies, and then not dies, and then he is put on the bench with Wash where they can sit and talk or whatever (‘cause holy shit, the new cast is not allowed to that), because he isn’t important. The sword is. Tucker is just a prop, even more than his sword is (HOTDOG).

Damn. Wash gets beat up. Tucker gets beat up. Dies. Gets his sword taken away. Almost seems like a Red’s wet dream. Sorry not sorry, Blues, you were done dirty.

So there are miswritten old characters. Even worse is the retconning. The plot needs a “normal” Wash, so, bam, magic computer solution. Never mind Wash’s trauma and character traits. Never mind the logic of the new worldbuilding which also includes a character suffering for years to heal an illness. But the brain damage that was such a big consequence that it became the main part of the plot of the last two seasons – gone. I mean, a gunshot to the head can be healed by CPR. That’s canon. But no one gave Wash CPR so it’s a big thing, okay. It was canonically a big thing, and Zero erased that. This is not me saying that a Cerebral Enhancer couldn’t work in the RvB universe. Imagine it being done right. Wash struggling with the choice of getting used to his disability or accepting the possibility of help - at the cost of reliving his trauma. The struggle between what to choose - what should he choose when he wants to help as many as possible, the sacrifices he thinks he has to make, the way it could have been used as a part of his character growth. But in Zero, the enhancer isn’t a part of Wash’s character. It’s there so the story can work without having to deal with the previous plot’s consequence (HOTDOG).

Same with the sword thing. They sorta explain it by having Tucker flatline, but it’s weak. Honestly, I find it sorta offensive. What about Locus’ sword as well? It’s twisting previous lore to make the new plot work (HOTDOG). (Also, are we not gonna talk about the ultimate power being Spencer Porkensenson’s helmet? Have the writers forgotten Spencer Porkensenson? Have we as a community forgotten Spencer Porkensenson?)

If you have Red vs. Blue in your title, you cannot ignore what you inherit from it. You need to respect the worldbuilding, the established characters, and the previous plot. Zero does not do this.

Let’s talk about the Triplets. No, really, let’s do it. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about them before, because season 14 was a mixed bag for me (that I have now learned to appreciate. Thank you, Zero.) because I have heart at the size of the Grinch and can only love a few characters at a time, and that did not include the Triplets. Can’t even remember their names. Well, I can, but I can’t for the love of me remember which state is which, and my tongue is twisted every time I try to say Ohio, Iowa, and Idaho, and I know it’s on purpose. I know it is. And it got me good. That being said, the fandom actually embraced them really, really well! Seriously, I’ve seen more content for the Triplets than for Zero as a whole.

Why talk about the Triplets? (Was Iowa the lesbian? Or was it Ohio? Fuck.) Because like Zero, they introduced new characters with a story of their own. The Reds and Blues didn’t play a role. But here’s what I feel like the Triplets got right. They didn’t change the settings to force their narrative. They used stuff already established (Project Freelancer), added their own story as a continuation of that. They even included old characters in the beginning (Wash and some other Freelancers) but it felt natural and it didn’t feel like it happened at the expense of the old characters. Wash’s writing felt natural, and his presence wasn’t needed to tell these new character’s stories. He wasn’t a prop to them. He was there to establish the setting and to establish the relationship with these new characters, and then he and the other familiar faces (helmets??) left, and we as the viewers were left with these new characters. And the new characters told their own story by themselves. It felt like, hey, here’s something you know – remember Mother of Invention, and remember Wash’ lower rank, but now, try to imagine being even lower rank than him, aren’t you curious about those fates? Now let’s hear their story! It was new, it was something else, but it didn’t wreck what came before it, and it stayed true to the classic vibes of RvB.

As I said before, the hotdog-issue is my biggest problem with Zero. It infuriates me. I will return to this. But there are more issues, even if we try to look past the title-related problems.

If we try to imagine Zero as its own story and universe (as it should be, in my opinion), it still earns the meh review from me.

These isolated issues include awkwardness, the writing, lack of self-awareness, and pacing. First of all, holy shit, this is a tell, don’t show. Nothing is subtle, nothing is allowed to develop. It’s like the show thinks you are six years old with an attention span of a goldfish. You are not just led by the hand – they have literally pulled off your arm by the end of the show. We are force-fed every bit of information, every bit of personality from these new characters.

The voice-acting is a mixed bag for me. Sometimes it’s pretty good, sometimes it’s not. Some of the problems can definitely be blamed on the dialogue that you can only do so much with. It’s not good. I can’t remember any good jokes (the one joke I really appreciate was the cast on armor, and that was freaking visual humor. That was so RvB. Kudos to that. It was fun. More of that, please.), and RvB is known for having memorably good lines. This is a show built on good, clever, funny dialogue. Zero does not deliver. You have to sit through clichéd lines – “You’re not my dad”, “I trusted you”, “Come with me”, “It can’t be!”, “She’s way too powerful”, and “We have to do this together” – performed unironically. I cringed more than I laughed. Worst thing is that Zero could be a good parody. Sometimes, it feels like it is. One-dimensional characters, a villain wanting ‘the ultimate power’, very overpowered characters, bad one-liners, etc. But Zero takes itself seriously, and I was one of the people rooting for Jax to show up at the end and yell “Cut”. That would have been a funny-as-fuck twist. A spin-off parody. If I can’t have “Sarge the Movie”, I would have taken that and loved it. I would have forgiven everything. “We put so much info into finding that power, but we had no idea what it was” is really a line in the finale, and I cannot believe this is real in a show that somehow still tries to present itself as serious. What a plot.

We have to talk about pacing. God, first of all it should be stated that RvB is a mess when it comes to pacing. I honestly get what they were going for. Sometimes, RvB has come across as a bit boring when you get three episodes stretched over three weeks without much going on. I know season 11 did not have the warmest welcome because it was seen as boring until the finale. But when you see season 11 as a whole, as a movie, as a part of a trilogy, it works so well. Zero is more focused on being episodic. They want something to happen all the time so we will stay tuned. The thing that will happen – a fight. Oh god. The fight scenes.

I have done the math. I have run the numbers. I deserve a freaking cookie for this. Are you ready?

If you put all the episodes together, you have a runtime of 106 minutes. HOWEVER, with the introduction of credits in every episode, you gotta account for this. Removing the credits, this gives us 94 minutes of actual runtime. Out of that, 45 minutes are dedicated to fight scenes. That means 48% of the show is fight scenes.

If I wanted that many fight scenes, I’d watch Death Battle. Except the actual RvB Death Battle episode has a runtime of 20 minutes, and out of that, 5 minutes is dedicated to the actual battle. For the people who hate math – that’s 25% of the actual runtime.

RvB Zero has more fight scenes than a show called Death Battle. Take that in.

The pace suffers from this. Where’s the time to explore the characters? Where’s the time for good dialogue? All I can think of is this:

I get that RvB is a show that’s literally making fun of itself by acknowledging all their characters do is stand around and talk. I get that you want characters to do more than that. But for the love of Church, would it kill the new characters to stand around and talk? For just a minute? Stop fighting, I am begging you, stop fighting! Am I a pacifist now? Am I purple? Have I joined Doc’s team? What has Zero done to me?!

The good thing though is that fight scenes are very good. They’re entertaining. However, they seem to deconstruct themselves when we need to get a fight scene in every episode. Usually, the few fight scenes in an RvB season were in some of the most climatic episodes. In Zero, I can hardly keep up with the pace because they won’t stop moving. Fight scenes aren’t plot. They aren’t character development. You need more than just fight scenes. They entertain, but there’s a limit to that.

Noël Wiggins, the co-writer, stated the inspiration was a Saturday-morning cartoon. They nailed that vibe. If that was their goal, hurray, they have accomplished something! Because of the poor plot and constant fight scenes, it feels like you could just switch on the TV and drop in at any moment and let yourself be entertained by the cool and colorful soldiers punching and kicking each other. I will admit that the fight scenes entertained me. But they don’t make it a good season.

If I were the six-year-old with the attention span of a goldfish that the show believes I am, I honestly would enjoy it. The stiff dialogue and the constant tell-don’t-show makes you feel like an audience that’s not supposed to do anything else but admire the flashy fight scenes. I miss the cleverness of RvB. I miss the characters I get to connect with as I see them grow.

I miss the tone of RvB. Because this isn’t RvB to me.

It’s not that RvB hasn’t changed its tone before. Holy shit, I sorta do want to experience the absolute shock the RvB fandom went through when s6 aired and they were given new characters and serious plot. I would have loved to experience that, but I was too busy being ten years old. The Freelancers seasons also introduced a new tone and more fight scenes with very talented fighters compared to the Blood Gulch gang, but a balance was kept by having half of the season still revolving around the Reds and Blues. But Zero – Zero is so much change. And it’s on purpose. At least this has been made very clear from the beginning.

They constantly seem to appeal to new fans, rather than be directed towards older fans of the show. If you want an entirely new audience with a season with a new cast, new worldbuilding, and new tone, I’m confused as to why they don’t just make a new show. The hotdog-problem begs for this solution. This story and environment and characters feel so out of touch with the original RvB, that with a few rewrites and lack of Halo-armor, it could just be a new show. Problem solved.

If not this, then present it as a spin-off. In all ways, it feels like a spin-off (again, see everything marked HOTDOG). But the creators refuse to do this, and I don’t understand why. I could forgive many of these issues, had they officially separated themselves from canon.

Ah, what’s the idiom? You can’t both swallow and blow? (You can hear the Bow-chicka-bow-wow in the distance). Something about eating cake and having it. Forgive me, English isn’t my native language. POINT IS why are you calling yourself RvB while actively fighting against the core essence of RvB? In my humble opinion, you can’t be both. Marketing it as a spin-off would have granted it some defense when changing, well, literally everything, and I just, would someone please properly describe why it isn’t a spin-off? Isn’t this season marked by its association with the plot of RvB rather than a continuation of it? Zero presenting itself as not a spinoff feels like a toddler clinging to the hem of its mother’s dress while forcefully running away from her, ripping the dress in the process.

When they do connect with the original RvB, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. When they let Carolina, Wash, and Tucker appear for a moment, it feels like luring viewers in with the RvB title. Look at me. Look at me! I’m not saying this is the case. I say that it gives me the annoying vibes of being lured, rather than letting the characters be a part of the show for their own development, rather than having RvB in the title to continue its story. I should not be getting these vibes at all. But I am.

If you want to use RvB in the title, something from the core of RvB needs to be embraced. Things can be changed. They should. Something new should be brought in. But there’s a limit to how much you can change and replace and twist until it would have been better with an original show. As a season of RvB, it should tell the story of Red vs. Blue.

From my perspective, Zero fails to do so.

It pains me that the old cast has been replaced, but as stated earlier, a season could have worked without them. However, I do not like the take that one should be excited about all the new characters. That it isn’t a big thing that the OG cast got replaced. That we should just deal with it. Just, try to imagine another show suddenly replacing the main characters with characters we’ve never met before. Imagine RWBY suddenly only focusing on a new team of huntresses with the previous main characters reduced to an Easter Egg presence, or Camp Camp suddenly being about a new team of campers, no warning given. Can you imagine the outcry? So maybe let’s agree that a replacement of the main cast is a big thing and should be addressed and it’s valid to be upset about this change.

Could Zero have worked? It’s hard to answer this. How can I accept something as RvB if the season actively pushes away the core of RvB aside for an isolated story that could have been told in any other media? As a spinoff, I could have ignored it. To enjoy Zero, I have to fully separate it from RvB in my mind, and then it’s alright. S’not good. But it’s not bad. It’s entertaining enough. I really ended up liking Raymond and Tiny, and there were a few good jokes, and the fight scenes were admirable (but too much) and I love the creators’ passion. But it’s not RvB. I also wish that the new characters had been attached to previous worldbuilding, for example soldiers on Chorus or agents from Project Freelancer. That way we could build on familiar lore which would have decreased the confusion and added a much needed connection with the previous seasons of RvB.

God, the anxious voice is back (by the way, it sounds like Tutter from “Bear in the Blue House”).

“You’re racist” – I hope not. Literally, I do not want to be. Tell me if I’ve ever crossed some lines, because I swear, that is not my intention, I will apologize and most of all, change and do better. I included this because I’ve seen this take thrown around in the big ugly mess that is the fandom clashes regarding Zero. And racism is problem within RT community (this includes AH and RvB, sorry, I just use RT as an umbrella term for the latter), and I’m not saying it hasn’t been a problem with this season. Writers should never be harassed, and never-fucking-ever because of their skin color, and voice actors shouldn’t be treated like they are responsible for the choices of the show. But I was legit nervous to post this review, and I hope it’s been factual without feeling like personal attacks on the creators because that has never been my intention. I was delighted to hear about the diversity behind this project, and Torrian’s passion legit blew me away because it’s been a while since I’ve seen that for an RvB project. I’d hoped for it to be good, and when I feel disappointed, it’s for the reasons stated in this analysis. That said, Zero is made by a diverse cast and it’s made with love, and both of those things are so, so great, but it does not mean that Zero cannot be criticized. It can, and it should. It’s a product, just like all the other seasons, and fans are allowed to discuss it – both what they loved, and both what they found troublesome. And to repeat previous points, and be respectful, always, fuck racists, and never-fucking-ever harass the staff behind a season, what the fuck is wrong with you if you do this.

“Don’t you get it, it’s different because it’s trying something new!” – Hey, remember the philosophical question: if you replace all the parts of a ship one-by-one, is it still the same ship when you’re done? If it doesn’t include the Reds and Blues, if it ignores previous plot, if the old characters feel miswritten, if it values animation over dialogue, if it values fight scenes over comedy, if it wants to be Fast and Furious instead of Red vs. Blue – is it still Red vs. Blue? Because it doesn’t feel like it to me.

“It's been 17 seasons, it’s time to let the Reds and Blues go so someone else can shine!” – I simply do not understand us having been with the Reds and Blues for 17 seasons should be an argument to let them go, rather than be an argument as to why their absence hurt like hell.

“The Reds and Blues ran out of things to do!” – Did- did they, though? I mean, if we were discussing pretty much any other show, I’d probably agree that they were running out of content. But for the Reds and Blues… I think the PSAs nailed it this year! I’m not kidding, I had more fun watching the Reds and Blues discuss how to do laundry than watching Zero. You could literally give me an hour of the Reds and Blues trying to bake a cake or clear a gutter or simply settling down with an ordinary life, and I would trust them to make it worth the watch.

“The flaws were due to the fact it’s only 8 episodes long!” – Look, I can only judge a product the way it’s presented to me. I cannot come up with excuses for it. If they had 8 episodes to work with, they need to come up with a plot that works with this runtime. Seriously, this excuse cannot work when 48% of the season is spent on fight scenes. They could have used more runtime, sure, but the show needs to be able to pace itself and be planned accordingly.

“The OG cast couldn’t be a part of this year, hence Zero!” – That might be true. But. Would one year without RvB kill it? Is Zero necessary? Again, I just can’t judge excuses for the show. But trouble with the cast has been an issue before. Season 15 solves Geoff’s sabbatical by actually making Grif’s absence a part of the plot. Zero’s lack of Reds and Blues just feels like this excuse to tell a story that needn’t be a part of RvB.

Am I a hater? I guess? I greatly dislike Zero for the critique stated above. I do, however, not harass the creators and no one should ever do that. However, I have to admit that I feel there’s been this weird rejection of any critique of Zero where everything’s been brushed off as haters gonna hate, including the critique stated above. And I think that’s a problem because critique, as hard as it can be to hear (and I know this. I’m an author of original works. Weird flex, I know), is valid and necessary and shouldn’t just be shrugged away. As always, both sides of the fandom should always be respectful, but my own opinion is that addressing the flaws of Zero should not be controversial.

Does this super long rant/critique/whatever mean you cannot enjoy Zero? Gods no! I almost envy you if you enjoy this season, but holy shit, feel free to love it and tell the creators that you love it! Me pointing out the issues I have with the season shouldn’t be stopping you. I loved (and still love) s15 when it came out, and it was majorly rejected by the fandom. There were many, many critical posts, people were going on about how RvB should have ended with s13, and it evolved into the writer receiving death threats (me, once again: never ever harass the creators, assholes). But I didn’t tell people to stop being negative. I actually agreed with many of the flaws that were pointed out, and I enjoyed the season despite this, because that is possible. We, as RvB fans, should agree that RvB, is... I mean, it’s not the greatest, most flawless of shows, but we love it nonetheless. So go ahead and love Zero. This is not a stop sign. This is my opinion that you chose to read.

Wait, I promised you a cookie, didn’t I? Well, you’re not getting one. Why? Because I’m a Red and this is my chance to piss off a Blue. As Caboose wisely said: “Well, at least I don't go around... knocking on people's non-doors... and promising them cookies... and then NOT. GIVING. THEM. COOKIES!”

Blue Team sucks.

End speech.

#rvb zero #rvb #rvb zero critical #rvb critical #rvb0 #my rvb stuff #pls dont hate me for this #this is my honest opinion that people apparantly wanted to hear #as a standalone story zero isnt totally bad #as an rvb season it is

[aclosetfan]

the pet peeve/pettiest opinion i have abt this fandom is how sometimes ppl portray the blues w/o any substance and/or any sort of depth like they do the greens and reds🤝

I don’t even think this is petty, it’s just true 🤷‍♀️ it seriously irks me to no end. I’m so glad you brought this up!!! lmaooo short response is I 100% agree with you.  unfortunately, I agree with you so much I wrote a whole freaking essay, which can be found under the cut. I could rant about this all day long. I don’t even care. The blues are such a disappointing couple :( I wish fic writers would cut out the cutesy pure bs that you find so often with these two.

I really think that the biggest problem with the blues (and Boomer) is all rooted in Bubbles’ characterization. I think she’s the most difficult for people to write because she’s the least “problematic.” And a lot of people don’t know what to do with her because no one can relate to unproblematic. She’s written as (excuse the annoying early 2010s expression, but it fits) the perfect cinnamon bun and there’s no conflict if a character doesn’t have some kind of internal conflict, they’re boring! They get tossed to the side!! Blossom is often written struggling with leadership and perfectionism. Buttercup is often written struggling with impulsiveness and aggression. People relate to them because they’ve “gone through things” most people have experienced themselves. Fic writers like writing Bloss and BC for the same reason because you can only write what you know! But shoot, writers still got to place Bubbles in somehow! So she’s either an airhead, or a crybaby, or too innocent/naïve, or the uwu character, which is good for a few laughs but 🤷‍♀️ it gets pretty 2D and old real quick. Her biggest issue in the show was people babying her, but usually, that conflict is written off in fics with one simple “OH so she’s actually a badass” scene and that’s like it?? It’s never visited again?? (Even though all her solo episodes focus on her accepting who she is despite what others think so idk if badass scenes actually do her justice. She’s a lover not a fighter at the end of the day tbh.) It’s understandable though. I struggle with Bubbles because I’m not as optimistic as her character, and I certainly don’t relate to being “the joy and laughter.” It’s hard writing someone whose fanon character is interpreted as practically flawless. In ppg fics you’re also juggling a big group of characters, so it’s advantageous to rely on the simpler archetype tropes. So, I think it’s easier for people to set Bubbles up in a relationship than explore her more thoroughly since she’s the sensitive one who would be into the lovey-dovey stuff. Further, if you want to give readers a break from the heavier themes of your main plot, having a cute side pairing is a good safe escape. Not a lot of thought is needed to make those relationships work. And since Boomer’s just there and also underdeveloped, they get paired together. And because people (rightly) want to stray from the predator/prey trope because Bubbles is just so Pure(tm) and the trope feels assault-y, writers make Boomer inherently good. But now you’re just stuck with two good, cute characters. That’s it. And because their plot in the story revolves around their romantic relationship, it's their relationship that is the only thing that aids in their character development. The blues make up the lighthearted B-plot (but probably more like C-plot because the greens are usually B-plot material) The blues seem to follow two tropes: 1. Pure childhood crushes—Boomer was always good and wants to do good by Bubbles and she wants to “protect” him from his “mean” brothers 2. Bubbles “fixes” Boomer, but he really doesn’t need any fixing in the first place because he was good all along, he just needed encouragement. (Weird side note, have you noticed how Bubbles is always like “Boomie you’re NOT stupid” and then all the sudden it’s like the boy has a PhD) And I'm not faulting anyone for having a b-plot relationship with the blues. If it’s done right, being in a relationship does wonders for people! But relationships are work and without the blues having their personalities developed OUTSIDE the relationship, there’s no “work” to be done. They’re just the Perfect Couple and it’s boring. Don’t get me wrong, I like the pairing (it’s v cute), but what’s nice about the greens and the reds is that each individual character has usually been personalized (Butch not so much, in my opinion, his character generally revolves around BC, but bear with me for argument's sake), which makes their relationships with other characters fun to read. The greens and the reds are flushed out because their most basic archetypes are the most relatable and easiest to write. The Blues, though, just seem to get together. Bubbles is a hard character to write, so by default, so is Boomer. They have no conflict outside each other that would trigger character development. They flirt, sometimes Bubbles resists, then they’re together. She’s the cutest thing ever and he’s a simp for it. Easy, fluffy, they fade to the background because now that they’re together what happens to them next?? Irl people either get married or they break up. Most of these fics are high school AUs, so they can’t get married, and no one wants the cute ones to break up, so they just start to enter and exit the story as convenient segues. And that’s disappointing because individually they could be so interesting. Bubbles has to struggle with the fact that people infantize her. Her ideas are often dismissed, people treat her like a ditz, and her ability to be a hero is often called into question because she’s the one who seeks peaceful alternatives, and when she DOESNT seek those alternatives, people in the show freak out and become scared. Like I said before, most bubbles centric episodes focus on her accepting her sensitive side and using it to overcome a conflict. Also, HIM’s like her main villain in all her episodes. and, shit, one of her nicknames is literally Chubbles. She’s been called fat a few times. There’s so much a writer can do with her conflict-wise. Optimism and sensitivity don’t equal naivety, we don’t have to make her Pure. In fact, it’d be way more fun to see her trying to show everyone that she’s no longer a child but a young woman. And Boomer has like 3 episodes, right? Maybe 4? Literally in all of them, he’s a bratty little boy. He carries slugs in his pockets. He’s bad at trash talking. Easily distracted. Fights with his brothers. Dumb and chaotic. Good at spitting. He doesn’t put Bubbles on a pedestal. He wants to beat her up. He’s not a good guy. Bubbles thinks he’s cute. That’s literally all we know about him lmao. He wouldn’t be soft so why would what we know translate into a boring unproblematic underdeveloped boy?? You can write him unfulfilled. You could write him stuck in his brothers’ shadows. You could write him as a weirdo who’s obsessed with bugs (to match bubbles animal obsession). In my head, if Brick’s the smart one and Butch is the strong one, I make Boomer the charming one. And charming boys are dangerous boys 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️he probably had to charm his way out of plenty of dumb situations. I also make him unluckily lucky since he gets captured by the girls in one episode, but he still makes it out just fine. Everything bad that could happen happens to him but Boomer’s like “eh 🤷‍♀️ It’ll blow over. Lol already died once. What can ya do?” So you've got a girl who is never taken seriously and a boy who takes nothing seriously and yall really think their relationship would be unproblematic??? Individually, these two characters could be fun to write if the fic author plans it out correctly! Idk why their relationship wouldn't be either. If you want a compelling romance, you’ve got to make compelling characters. 

#tell me your pet peeves and you'll get a thesis paper! #lmao im so sorry #ive just got a lot of feelings about the blues #ppg blues

[amelialincoln]

Notion

“Hey.” Link was breathless as he brought the final bits of outdoor furniture into the kitchen. It was supposed to rain tomorrow and Seattle had become covered in a thick layer of fog that seemed to cling to him as he closed the door to the backyard.

“Everyone headed out?” Amelia asked, scraping the last of the kid’s leftovers into the compost. Link nodded, placing a lingering, cold kiss on her forehead that made her shiver.

“Seemed kinda awkward between Jackson and Winston.”

“Well, it’s not Maggie’s fault that Jackson’s dated every person in a fifty mile radius,” she responded bitterly.

“This is true,” Link nodded.

“What’s going to make things worse is that she’s going to have to explain that all of us are mourning her other ex’s death,” she added grimly.

“No,” Link’s voice was soft. “I thought he pulled through.” 

“Richard just called me to see if I wanted to join a meeting on zoom tonight, everything fell apart and Teddy and Owen couldn’t save him.” Tears were starting to fill her eyes. Deluca hadn’t spent much time on her service recently but he and Sam were pivotal when she was working on Kimmie’s tumor. When it came to her own tumor, she was surprised how much Deluca had shown his support.

“So, he’s just gone?” Unlike Amelia, Link hadn’t experienced a whole lot of death.

“Yeah.” He pulled her into his chest and rocked gently. It almost hurt how nice it was to see the few people that had come over today. Despite the house they were living in being chaos, the couple had never felt more isolated and alone. “I had to tell Zola that Mer might possibly not wake up.” Amelia whimpered. “She was so strong. She doesn’t want to worry Bailey and Ellis so she told Maggie and I not to tell them. If anything happens to Mer, Derek made Kathleen their godmother, I can’t watch these kids get shipped off to New York, they’ve had it hard enough.” 

“I know, babe,” Link sighed, pulling her in closer.

“I have to go feed Scout, my boobs are gonna explode,” Amelia finally shed herself of Link’s arms after a couple of blissful moments. “Can you read to Zola and Bailey? I can handle Ellis because she’ll get like five stories out of you if I let you go in there.” Link chuckled.

“You’re probably right.”

 [][][]

“Auntie Amelia.” Amelia was relieved to be greeted with a sleepy voice as she stepped into the pink monstrosity that was Ellis’ room.

“Hi Elle belle.” She smiled in response to the little girl’s arms reaching towards her. “Come on sweetheart, let's pick some pjs.”

“Can you make it a surprise?” Ellis asked in a way that made Amelia’s ovaries explode and she found herself wondering what Link would think about trying for a girl. Hormones, Amelia, focus. “What about these?” She suggested, holding up a pair of pastel blue Moana pajamas. Ellie nodded happily, squealing as Amelia tugged them over her pudgy arms.

“Can we read the cookie mouse story?”

“Of course,” Amelia grinned. “It’s not like we haven’t read it every day this week.” She lowered herself gently down onto Ellis’ bed. Recovery hadn’t been the easiest when chasing three children around the house and caring for a newborn. Link had pulled out Amelia’s stitches the night before, using his phone’s flashlight, since neither of them wanted to go to the hospital and then go through the trouble of getting tested. She had tried to hide the pain for Link’s sake, tired of him expecting her to be constantly resting, but she hadn’t expected the pain. Link was an incredible ortho surgeon but when it came to the little details, he was sometimes a bit careless.

Amelia closed the door to Ellis’ bedroom as quietly as possible, trying not to chuckle at the little figure sprawled out across her twin bed. For such a small girl Ellis was notoriously known as the most impossible person to sleep with, taking up spaces three times her size. She walked past Zola and Bailey’s room, hearing Link’s animated voice through fits of giggles. He definitely outdid her in the storytelling department, and really in every department, which she tried to not think too much about. Scout was babbling as Amelia entered the familiar room.

“You hungry, big guy?” To Amelia’s relief, Scout had progressed past his grumpy and problematic eating phase. She hugged him into her chest, breathing in his sweet and comforting soft lavender smell from the bubble bath they’d used this afternoon. “My beautiful boy.” She was still in disbelief, even staring down at him in her arms, that he truly existed. As he’d gotten bigger, he’d started to become a perfect combination of his parents. With Link’s strong features, like his nose, and what Amelia could tell would be his jaw, along with her dimple and piercing blue eyes.

“Hey mommy,” Link’s amused voice came from the doorway. “You feeling better?” Amelia wasn’t sure whether he was referring to the soreness in her lower half or the news about Deluca.

“He makes everything better,” she sighed, fumbling with one of the buttons on Scout’s onesie.

“You going to go to that meeting?” Link asked, she could tell he knew something was bothering her. “I already missed it.” She shrugged, glancing at their bedside alarm clock. “I’ll probably just feed him and then pass out.”

“Do you want me to grab the baby wrap, you were lifting lots today already with the furniture.”

“Sure,” she nodded, not feeling like having a conversation about how perfectly fine her arms were. Link nodded, placing a soft hand on her back before rummaging through their closet for the wrap. She was happy to find that Scout latched on easily and without protest, feeling a little guilty about the lack of attention that he’d received today. She knew that people were suffering way more during this time and she couldn’t help but feel guilty for wishing that she, Scout and Link could be spending quality time in their apartment for their maternity leave like planned.

“Lift your arm a bit.” Link ran a soft hand along the side of her forearm as he tied the piece of fabric around her shoulder and managed to wiggle Scout into it, without removing him from her chest.

“Thank you,” she smiled tiredly.

“No problem,” he yawned, practically collapsing into bed beside her. “Fuck, Amelia I’m exhasuted.”

“Me too.” She ran a gentle hand through his hair, tugging out some of the frequent knots that had begun to form since his hair had begun to grow out.

“Is your incision site healing okay,” he groaned into the pillow, melting a bit as she massaged the root of his neck.

“I haven’t checked,” she admitted with a yawn.

“Want me to grab some polysporin?”

“It’s okay, babe, it feels fine.” She sighed slightly, playing with the idea of bringing up a topic that has been bugging her but not wanting to cause an argument that neither of them were up for. “You started drinking pretty early today.”

“Amelia,” Link groaned tiredly. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It was just unnecessary, no one wanted...I’m just worried.” She shifted Scout to the other side uncomfortably.

“It’s not my fault you see addiction everywhere. I had like two beers.” Silence hung thickly in the air and after a couple of minutes Link turned to face her. “I’m sorry. I know it makes you uncomfortable.” 

“You don’t really seem to care,” she answered honestly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He replied defensively, tiredness had seemed to leave his body momentarily. “I don’t--”

“The fridge is stocked, Link. It’s like a reminder every time I go to make food. There’s a cooler in the garage for a reason.”

“How am I supposed to know,” he sputtered. “Meredith downs tequila in front of you like this is a frat house. You hang out with our friends when they drink all the time.” 

“It’s different when you're surrounded by people. When I’m alone and just staring at a fridge filled with booze it’s hard to not want to take one.”

“Amelia, you haven’t relapsed in years, why would you even--”

“Because I’m an addict, Link!” The increase in volume of her voice caused Scout to shriek in protest. “Don’t you understand that? It doesn’t get easier. It’s a fight every fucking day. And when my boyfriend starts drinking every day at three o’clock in the afternoon, it makes that fight ten times harder.”

“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way,” he grumbled. 

“Are you serious right now?”

“About what,” he shot back.

“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way. I thought you’d be considerate enough to validate my feelings instead of acting like I’m being dramatic but instead you’re being a child.”

“Mia,” Link groaned, slamming his head back into the pillow, looking as childish as ever. “You’re--”

“What? Overreacting? The fact that you don’t see this as an issue is concerning.” Scout’s shrieking turned into a full on meltdown as their “perfect” son burst into tears. “Oh, baby, no. It’s okay.” Amelia sighed, finding tears of frustration begin to build at the sides of her own eyes and let out a tiny whimper as she held back any sobs that attempted to be heard. Of course Link noticed, as always, and rolled over to witness the upset state that both his girlfriend and baby were in.

“I am sorry,”

“Show me then,” Amelia hissed through a clenched jaw, wiping away some stubborn fallen tears. “Cause right now I don’t believe you.”

“I’ll put the packs in the cooler tomorrow,” he promised, with a hint of resentment. Amelia shrugged, finally giving up on feeding Scout and bringing him tightly into her chest.

“Hey, it’s okay, mommy and daddy fight sometimes, but everything’s going to be okay. Don’t cry Scout. We love you so much,” she murmured into the crown of his head, causing Link to melt a little inside.

“Are we going to be okay?” Link asked, receiving a teary glance from his girlfriend. 

“Not if you can’t get this sorted because I cannot be his mother and also be passed out in a ditch somewhere on opioids.” Link nodded, moving to tug her shirt back into place and took Scout into his own hands, marvelling slightly at the little miracle they had created. “I don’t want to screw him up.” 

“You won’t,” he promised her, pressing a kiss to her forehead before grazing her slightly chapped lips. “You’ve been a mother for a month and have already proved that. That’s the last thing we need to worry about right now.” He patted his chest. “Now come to sleep because if we stay up any longer I feel like I might end up on the couch,” he chuckled. 

“Don’t give me any ideas,” she replied with a yawn. 

“I love you,” he sighed.

“I love you too.” 

what did u guys think of 17x07? i did find the beers at like 12 a bit weird and with the upcoming episode’s synopsis “Jo, Jackson and Link play a drinking game” I wonder if Amelia and him will have a conversation about her addiction bc I feel like they haven't really talked about it. lmk what u think!

#amelia shepherd #AmeliaShepherd #amelinkfanfiction #amelink #amelink fanfiction #link #Atticus Lincoln #atticus link #greysanatomy

[pau-neko-chan]

Small details that make me ship karumana

Various fans have already contributed supplementary materials as fuel for the karumana ship but I’m here to talk about more minute details of their individual characters that make me believe in a supportive and refreshing relationship that can develop between these two. I plan to discuss details ranging from the start-up ship fuel from the main series to the supplementary material hints in order to  provide a more psychological perspective in their compatibility.

Anime: S1 Ep 8 - Karma expresses interest in Okuda when the boys in class asked him who he likes.

The foundations of this ship

Many may claim that their interactions in the series aren’t enough to support a ship but if you look into supplementary material and analyze their individual characters beyond the obvious spotlight ship in the series, you can see how much Matsui Yusei teases fans with karumana ship fuel. According to Okuda’s character profile, she’s someone that the ever-alert Karma has allowed to get close. While in Karma’s character profile, Okuda is said to be the girl he can talk to about anything and his cautious heart and distant nature faded away around her. They’re cited to be the most easy-going boy-girl relationship in the class. In a translated character relationship chart from the official fanbook, Matsui confirms that these two like each other for how comfortable they are with each other, Karma finds her to be the easiest person of the opposite sex to talk to, Okuda feels relaxed around Karma in general, and Karma thinks Okuda is cute.

With these foundational details in mind and by reading beyond what the series gives us, here are a few points that make me believe in Karma and Okuda’s chemistry.

Okuda is not spineless

While she appears to be helpless and shy, she can stand her ground on what she believes in. Much like others in 3-E, she is her own character and doesn’t exist to be that token straight ship for Karma. During the class civil war, she chose the “save” team because she believes that if science can destroy, it can also save.

Anime: S2 Ep 17; Manga: Ch 144 - Okuda chooses the Blue team to save Koro-sensei

They could have easily put her in Karma’s team because of friendship and loyalty but the choice to “kill” would simply be against Okuda’s caring and harmless nature, one of the main traits why Karma is so comfortable around her. Later into the game, Isogai and Maehara talk about who they think would win and Okuda yells out that she wants Karma to win, despite being in the “save” team. This shows her own resolve and ability to separate her personal principles from her relationship with Karma.

Manga: Ch 147 - Okuda states why she wants Karma to win

It’s not that she wants Koro-sensei to die, it's that she understood what killing Koro-sensei means for Karma. She, of all people, knew the hard work Karma put on behind the scenes. When others simply dismiss Karma’s achievements as “genius,” she (and Koro-sensei) knew that Karma works hard, no matter how much he tries to hide that side of him to the world. This comes with his resolve that he is not the best and he has to put in effort if he wants to be the most capable in reaching his goal. Okuda sees all that. Given the choice, Okuda would rather save Koro-sensei, yet if things don’t go her way, she trusts that Karma earned the chance to fulfill his goal. This duality illustrates that whether the class decides to save or kill, she can accept it wholeheartedly. She wouldn’t have regrets because she gave it her best shot from a decision she made herself.

Anime: S2 Ep 1 - Karma hides evidence of him studying hard on the last day of summer break

In relationships, it’s important to have set boundaries for what you share with your partner and the things that make you, you. Okuda’s character exemplifies this well as she is not shown to be a side character that follows Karma around, she’s a friend whom Karma can share his vulnerabilities with while being able to keep her individuality intact. While she is known to be lacking in the ability to communicate, in the end, she’s able to say what’s on her mind when it matters—without any filters. She is brave and strong in her own way and has the capability to provide a new perspective—a trait that can stimulate Karma’s intellect. I believe this would blend well in their relationship because Karma seems to be the type who would get bored hanging out with someone who can’t keep up with him. This shows that their relationship can be an equal exchange of support and trust rather than one being subservient or wary of the other.

Additionally, her pure honesty and lack of fear for Karma is a perfect example of how she can stand up on her own. Everyone is afraid of Karma to some extent which makes them avoid him, possibly right according to how Karma likes to push people away with his behavior. Having someone whose basic nature is to not get swept away by the norm, to be able to choose for herself in how she views Karma, and to be overall honest with her intents really paves the way for a mutual trusting relationship.

Anime: S1 Ep 8 - The girls in class find Karma attractive but scary but Okuda disagrees.

What I find interesting in Okuda’s lack of fear for Karma is that she says this even after seeing him directly start a fight with delinquents the day before. This is episode 8, 3 episodes after her debut in episode 5. Assuming that Karma only started approaching her after learning about her poison-making skills, that’s quite a short period to get to know Karma—a known violent delinquent and the most skilled fighter in class—and to claim that he is “not that scary.” This implies that by this time, they have started to get to know each other better, Karma probably treats her well, and that they’ve interacted enough off-screen to arrive at the conclusion that he is not scary. Much like how Karma’s interest in her comes from her chemistry skills rather than her looks, this girl knows Karma is more than his external features and she can speak her mind even though it’s contrary to the public opinion.

Karma’s character development

Manga: Ch 19 - The boys ask Karma who he’s interested in among the girls in class

From the key scene that fueled this ship, many may claim that Karma is just using her for personal gain. I personally believe this argument is made by people who stopped understanding character growth at season 1 or simply cannot grasp at all that humans change over time. As with a lot of relationships, the interest in other people has to start somewhere. For Karma, the interest starts here with the maturity level of a 15 year-old prankster. Being one of the main characters, Karma goes through character development in the way he views the world, himself, and the people surrounding him. He changes a lot in a span of one year so it wouldn’t be impossible to believe that his interest in Okuda grows beyond having a convenient drug dealer.

One common trait that makes Karma comfortable around people like Nagisa and Okuda is that they are seemingly harmless to him. The statement and intent sounds problematic as a standalone but it’s important to point out how Karma uses this information in his relationships. A typical toxic psychopath would prey on their harmlessness to bully them into taking advantage of them. Karma’s comfort hanging around harmless friends stems more from their inability to hurt him rather than his capability to hurt them. Although Karma is labeled as a violent delinquent, he isn’t a low-level scum-type delinquent that starts a fight for the sake of fighting. As far as I can remember, all cases of Karma’s problematic delinquent behavior is fighting with strangers who provoked him first or he was actually trying to defend someone weaker. His friendship with Nagisa started with a common interest and he was comfortable until he felt threatened by Nagisa’s dormant skill for assassination. Not once did he try to take advantage of Nagisa’s pacifist nature for his personal gains. The same applies for his friendship with Okuda—she piqued his interests with her chemistry skills, he learns that she is harmless and comfortable to be with, and a genuine friendship evolves from there. His interest in her skills may be mischievous but he never showed any aggression or intent to take advantage of Okuda. Neither did he force or threaten her to do those for her. She even wrote that she was able to experience challenging experiments because of his requests in her yearbook message to Karma, something that sounds like she actually enjoyed the fruit of his mischievous intents.

Anime: S1 Ep 8 - Karma tells why he’s interested in Okuda

For those who believe that this scene is a weak foundation for liking someone, well, at that point, Karma hasn’t really developed a romantic type of interest in her. As mentioned, this is how his interest in her begins, not the sole reason for him to be attracted to her. Playing around, making mischief happen, sharing fun times is something that develops friendships. A good friendship is the solid foundation for a comfortable romantic relationship later on. Character development is a real thing and these two won’t have the brain of mischievous middle-schoolers for the rest of their lives.

Anime: S2 Ep 6 - The Witch and The Knight used chloroform to save the day

Karma can feel at ease with Okuda

During the Test of Courage, Karma and Okuda were paired up which gave them time alone to talk about something that’s been bothering Karma. As we all know, Karma never shows his vulnerabilities to anyone at this point in time, not even around classmates who are known to get along with him. Koro-sensei had to earn it by looking out for him and it took time for him to warm up yet even then, he wouldn’t be caught casually sharing something as personal as his fear. The exception is Okuda. The series never explicitly shows how Okuda earned that trust but this scene paints something unusual in Karma’s well-guarded nature. It’s not impossible that they’ve shared enough moments off-screen—moments valuable enough for Okuda to earn Karma’s trust halfway through the school year. To note, it appears that Okuda never even initiated asking Karma what’s bothering him and yet, Karma simply shared what’s on his mind to her.

Anime: S2 Ep 1 - Karma talks about his fear to Okuda during the Test of Courage

We don’t actually see this kind of vulnerability display around friends that Karma spent a lot of fun times with on-screen such as Nakamura and Terasaka. During the civil war, Nakamura notices something unusual in Karma, as if something is bothering him but Karma immediately brushes it off and shows his usual face excusing it as having just woken up. Karma and Nakamura have been shown to get along well as fellow pranksters, possibly with more lines in scenes together than Okuda and Karma ever had in the entire series, yet for some reason, this friendship hasn’t reached the point where Karma can at least give a hint of what’s bothering him when he’s alone with Nakamura even after she asks him about his thoughts.

Manga: Ch 144 - Nakamura notices something unusual about Karma at the start of the class civil war

As for Terasaka, he seems to have earned a teasingly trusting friendship with Karma. Terasaka gives his trust in being manipulated by Karma’s wits and Karma seems to show acknowledgement for how this pseudo-Takaoka has grown. Yet the most Karma would show around him is a vague suggestion that he would like to see him in the real world again someday as colleagues. Perhaps this is simply how men communicate with each other but I guess with everything they’ve experienced, Karma acknowledges some sort of friendship with Terasaka, but not enough for him to expound or eloquently communicate why he would like to see Terasaka as a politician when he himself becomes a bureaucrat. Karma’s unsolicited suggestion for Terasaka hints at his vision for his future and how he sees someone like Terasaka in it but his language doesn’t scratch the surface of intimate vulnerability as it did around Okuda in the test of courage.

Anime: S2 Ep 9 - Karma tells Terasaka to become a politician after career counseling with Koro-sensei

Throughout the series, we see Karma come out of his small world and slowly connecting and caring for his classmates. He gets along quite well with them and appreciates their company and how this class allows him to be himself. All this is temporary as they will go their separate ways once they graduate. In addition, Karma also appears to be the type to value the quality friendships he has built. This would imply that in order to maintain a bond with him after graduation, Karma would have to actively show an interest in connecting with them. In the case of Okuda, he seems to be interested in her enough to look forward to spending more time with her after graduation, as shown in his yearbook message to her stating that his year was made more fun with her around and that he’s looking forward for more.

It seems in each relationship he has, there exists an aspect that makes one distinct from the others. The existence of shared interests and getting along, a sense of comfort and security without fear of being betrayed, the willingness to extend effort in seeing them again, and the extent of being able to express in detail his vulnerabilities and deeper musings seem to be some distinct factors that make up Karma’s quality relationships. While each notable friendship satisfies at least one or two categories, none of them have all four except Okuda. The presence of all these qualities in his relationship with Okuda makes her stand out and have the potential to grow from good mischievous friends to lifetime supportive partners.

In the case of battle compatibility, Okuda may be far from giving Karma direct assistance in the battlefield. However, there’s an angle I wish to discuss that makes me think of how it translates to their compatibility. One scene that oddly stood out for me was during their encounter with delinquents in their Kyoto trip. The delinquents attacked, leaving the boys unconscious, subsequently kidnapping Kayano and Kanzaki. Okuda managed to slip away and hide leaving her to check on the boys when the environment became safe.

Anime: S1 Ep 7 - Okuda reappears apologizing for hiding when the delinquents attacked.

What made this scene interesting is that Okuda could have been kidnapped along with Kayano and Kanzaki and the result would have been the same. The boys could have read the trip manual and called Koro-sensei. Sure enough, Koro-sensei could single-handedly save them once they got to the hideout. It didn’t matter whether one, two, or three unarmed girls got kidnapped. So why paint this scene with her being able to slip away without the delinquents getting a chance to grab her?

My interpretation for this small detail is that Karma doesn’t always have to worry about Okuda. Karma gets into a lot of fights. Even in his future career as a bureaucrat, he will surely get into dangerous situations involving politicians. He has always been the type to be on guard 24/7. Even back when he was comfortable around Nagisa who he believed to be harmless and a good friend, he couldn’t let his guard down. Imagine the stress that burdens his shoulders having to keep his guard up for himself and having to extend that to another person. Wouldn’t that be too much for him to sustain in the long run?

Anime: S2 Ep 18 - The feeling Karma got when Nagisa sneakily poked his back while looking for him in WcDonalds

Anime: S2 Ep 18 - Karma and Nagisa hanging out in the middle of their second year

For someone without exemplary combat abilities like Okuda, slipping away to safety is a smart move. Even at that moment, Karma acknowledged that she did the right thing. Of course we know this is not the type of running away in order to abandon a comrade. I believe it’s safe to claim that nobody in 3-E would truly go that route. What Okuda did was wise and if the scenario were a little different, slipping away could have given her the chance to send support, prepare weapons, and an overall better fighting chance than just standing there frozen or getting herself kidnapped. She slipped away using quick thinking and if you think about it, it takes skill to sneak away unnoticed when both ends of a narrow ally are surrounded by big, menacing delinquents. Her ability to act wisely by herself can definitely be a load off Karma’s chest knowing that the people he cares for can take care of themselves should he be rendered unable to protect them.

Additionally, Okuda’s nature is the type that Karma can trust to be capable enough to protect herself without feeling that she’s a threat to him, something rare among his relationships with other friends. This detail is small and subtle but it hints her potential supportive and reassuring dynamic with Karma wherein Okuda can safely lend background assistance without worrying a combat-ready Karma. As Karma mentions back at her later in the series, running away is also a battle strategy. Whether he learned this technique from Okuda or not is a mystery but I like to think that towards the end of the series and almost a year of trust and friendship, some of Okuda’s traits and mindsets have rubbed off on Karma enough for him to adopt it in his strategies.

Anime: S2 Ep 23 - Karma grabs Okuda’s wrist to get away from danger

For someone as cocky as Karma, being able to pull off a humble-yet-wise move is something noteworthy. This humility could be the mixed influence of Koro-sensei’s care and Okuda’s nature. Not only does Okuda provide a load off his shoulders, she is also capable of bringing new perspectives in solving problems for Karma.

In a long-term relationship, Karma deserves to feel at ease. Whether as a friend or a life partner, he deserves someone he can trust not just in opening up, but also at times when he’s vulnerable. For me, this is something that his dynamic with Okuda can provide. She may not be the best to fight alongside others in the frontline but she can provide background support so Karma can be guaranteed that he is not alone in a fight and he will not be coming home to a lonely place after a fight.

From being an approachable friend that he gets along with to a partner he can trust and be vulnerable around, all these seem to point at a special connection Karma feels around Okuda—enough for her to be just the right support he needs while being able to treat her right. Okuda may not talk or stand out much but Karma seems to see traits in her that make him gravitate towards her with ease. She doesn’t stand out in the general crowd but she stands out for Karma, where her traits are appreciated. 

____________________

Notes: I have the tendency to lean towards the less popular ships in Anime (such as Yukihira Souma x Tadakoro Megumi in Shokugeki no Souma) over the obvious ships in the spotlight. I believe it has something to do with my inclination to more mature and supportive relationships that appeal to people in their 20s rather than hormone-induced pairings that sound like high school flings targeted for 14 year old girls. To note, I was at that age once but once you hit your 20s, you realize that some ships are more problematic than you remember. This is my second time watching AC (first time was in 2016) and I honestly don’t recall shipping them back then. I don’t even recall picking up on karumana hints before. But now after rewatching it in my 20s, I find it quite intriguing how I find this couple so cute, while knowing that I’ve grown out of my shoujo manga days. These days, I don’t have tolerance for shoujo-esque ships that are practically “it’s not sexual harassment if he’s hot.” Looking back, a lot of shoujo mangas/anime were like that in my teenage years. While Karma started out with high Marty Stu potential like shoujo main boys, AC developed its characters well such that their characters and future career paths were more realistic—something you come to appreciate as someone who has already gone through their own 7-year timeskip.

#karumana #karmanami #manami okuda #okuda manami #karma x okuda #カル愛 #akabane karma #karma akabane x manami okuda #manami okuda x karma akabane #akabane karma x okuda manami #okuda manami x akabane karma #karma x manami #assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #korosensei #暗殺教室 #殺せんせい #赤羽業 #赤羽カルマ #奥田愛美 #Nakamura Rio #rio nakamura #shiota nagisa #nagisa shiota #terasaka ryoma #ryoma terasaka #koro-sensei #koro sensei #カルマ #karma akabane

[musette22]

Hi Minnie! First of all, thank you for being so sweet, reasonable and respectful, I can't even describe how much joy your blog gives me! You are a true pro in emotional support for Evanstan fandom, so I guess I kinda need some reassurance. [1]

The thing is, as you probably know, some Seb stans on Twitter take the whole Chris insta situation and turn it into smth embarassing, like making fun of Seb and Mackie ignoring Chris and calling the idea of the challenge stupid (even though Chris did donate, not just "asked fans for money", as they say). It's like they feel the need to attack the first before smb calls they fav out. [2]

I know there ARE good people in Seb fandom, it's just that the aggressive ones are so loud and spread their bs so fast, I end up seeing it on my TL. No matter how stupid it sounds, it keeps making me sad to see so much hate towards Chris and his fans not from some random locals but from Seb stans. It's like two halves of my heart are torn apart. Not even ship-wise, it just seems so hard to love them both and be present on twitter these days. [3]

And, since I'm whiney af today, one more twitter thing: the CW promo era was some kind of honeymoon for us, sure, but I've recently seen some opinions on how Chris was all lovey-dovey and Seb was stiff and bored and uncomfortable, how their interviews were unnatural and boring. I mean, in my part of fandom (non-English speaking country) there has always been a popular perception of boys' dynamic as these "over-excited puppy playing around a confused cat" vids, if you know what I mean. [4]

But it kinda seemed ok for me, and the way they acted a little awkward around each other etc. Well, you can tell I'm easily affected cause now it does feel more negative to me. Stuuupid, I know. Maybe it's my "let's feel sorry for Chris and his fans" phase, idk. Sorry for bringing it here, you just seem to reassure people so well. [5 and last, it was long lol]

Hello my lovely!! This was indeed long hahaha but that’s totally fine, I myself am also someone who also has trouble keeping things short to I feel you 😘 

This is a very long reply so I’m putting it under the cut so I don’t clog up people’s dashes!

Okay so first of all, let me say I was never a fan of Twitter, but everything I’ve heard lately has just lowered my opinion of it even further. I know there’s a lot of amazing stuff and brilliant folks on there as well, but it also seems to be where all the bitchy, hateful, entitled and inappropriate people congregate. So personally, I’m very happy with my little community on Tumblr when it comes to fandom, and for news and social media I prefer actual news outlets and instagram. The sad truth is that there are a lot of harmful and hateful opinions in the world, and as someone who struggles with anxiety, I try to find ways to avoid a lot of it. Especially the stuff I can’t do anything about (you can try to reason with most haters until you’re blue in the face, and 90% of the time it’s not going to make an ounce of difference). It’s much easier to curate your own experiences on platforms like Tumblr and even Instagram than it is on Twitter, or so I’ve gathered. So I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of helpful advice for you there apart from ‘maybe try and stay away from Twitter if you can’ which you probably don’t really want either...

As for the whole Seb vs Chris issue: it’s clearly completely ridiculous. There is no ground whatsoever to believe they’re at odds. At worst, they’re now just casual work friends, but there is no reason to believe there’s any bad blood. It’s interesting to consider that initially, the argument seemed to be they had fallen out and both disliked each other (no idea where that came from but sure), then it was that Chris didn’t like Sebastian (because he allegedly shaded him when he joked that Scarjo was the only one of his friends who came to see Lobby Hero), and then Chris got Instagram and tagged and followed Seb, but because Seb hasn’t responded to the challenge yet, he now apparently hates Chris. For what reason, god only knows, because only last year at MCM London (where I was present myself) Sebastian gushed about Chris and his experiences with him while filming the Cap movies, and lets not forget it was him who initiated the hug at the Endgame premiere. Long story short: they don’t dislike each other. They’re completely fine, people just like to make up drama for whatever reason.   

As for the Sebastian stans who hate Chris and vice vera: to be honest, I wasn’t even really aware it was an issue until recently, because I was under the naive impression that it was kind of impossible to love one but hate the other. Both of them are such amiable, sweet, thoughtful, funny, talented guys, and everyone who actually knows them adores them, so why on earth anyone could hate either of them is beyond me. But even if you do, I genuinely don’t understand this need to pit them against each other? Why? I think a lot of it is down to people just liking drama, or being actual 12 year-olds who still see the world in a kind of high school dynamic-way. I’m not saying Chris and Sebastian have never done anything wrong, but in my opinion, none of it warrants outright hate or being cancelled over. It’s such an immature and unreasonable take. I’m just sorry for the people who can’t love both of them, because man, are they missing out! I understand that it’s painful for you to see all those opinions when you love both of them so much, but that’s why I try to just avoid them. I know they exist, but not seeing them makes dealing with it a whole lot easier, I promise! ❤️

With regard to the challenge itself: if the celebrities who are taking part in it are not donating themselves, then yeah, that would be problematic. However, we know that Chris donates to a ton of different charities, so there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s donated to this cause as well. Asking people to buy tickets to try and win this “prize” is not in itself an issue, if you ask me. People can think for themselves, can’t they? If they think it’s worth it, they think it’s worth it. They’re not being forced to part with their money, and moreover said money is being used to help people in need. Of course fake and problematic charities exist, but there are still good ones out there as well, so let’s assume for the moment this one is actually doing all of this from a genuine desire to help people and it’s not some money grabbing scheme.

Furthermore, as I’ve said so many times before, I really don’t believe Sebastian and Mackie are “ignoring” Chris. If they’re choosing not to do the challenge (they still might do it at some point) then I’m sure they have a good reason for that and it isn’t that they’re holding a grudge and are thinking “screw this charity and that Chris Evans, I’m going to ghost him to get my revenge!” I mean, do these people even realize how ridiculous that sounds 🙄 I also believe they would have let Chris know about their decision privately. They do have each other’s phone numbers, you know... 

And lastly, about the CW press tour... I don’t know what footage these people have been watching to come to such conclusions, or what’s wrong with their eyes and ears, but that makes NO sense to me. I’ll tell you what; it was mostly the footage from the CW press tour that got me convinced there was something going in between the two of them! Both Chris and Sebastian acted in a way that screamed “smitten kittens” to me, and if there was ever any “stiffness” from Sebastian’s side, then that was no doubt just his slightly more reserved personality compared to Chris and Mackie’s. Chris and Sebastian’s videos together give me LIFE, so for anyone to call them boring is actually kind of insulting lol. To me, almost every interaction Chris and Seb had during that press tour showed that they were either low-key (in a friendship way) or high-key (in a romantic way) crushing on each other, and they clearly admire each other very much. Any awkwardness I’ve ever seen between them for me seemed to stem from that crush (is anyone not at least a little awkward around their crush sometimes?) and not from any dislike from either side. That’s actually such a ridiculous idea to me that it doesn’t even make me worried, it just makes me laugh. Some people really don’t have eyes, it seems. 

Anyway, that was a reeeeeeaaaaaallllyyyyy long reply lmao, I’m sorry! I hope this helps a little though, because I do know how shitty it is to feel like you do about things that are supposed to make you happy!! Tuning out the haters and focusing on people who feel the same way you do in my experience is the best way to get to feeling good again 🥰 Big hug, and hopefully you’ll feel better soon!

#evanstan #rpf #minnie answers #Anonymous

[cupofsorrows]

Howard Lovecraft 5: Yes, This Is The Last One

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Alright chums, let’s do this, home stretch!

- Alright everybody, welcome back to Eldritch Wipeout!

- We’ve had a pretty uneventful day so far, but that might turn around with our next contestant! Standing three feet tall and hailing from Rhode Island, let’s give it up for Howard “Hard R” Lovecraft! *air horns*

- He’s gonna need to keep a level head for this, Tim.

- That’s for sure, Jack. Always keep your wits about you!

- That is, if you haven’t already lost your mind from revelations no man should bear!

- Looks like he’s already running into some trouble with the first trial- And they’re past it already!

- But let’s see how well they do in the second trial!

- We pulled out all the stops on this one...

...and by “all the stops”, I mean ‘ripped the hell off of Indiana Jones’!

Don’t forget Howard...in the Aklo alphabet, ‘Jehovah’ begins with an ‘I’!

- Pretty straightforward, Bob, just gotta find the right tiles to step on --

- Ooh! Do you think he realizes that the words “my father” in that inscription DON’T refer to his father?

- I’m sure he does, John. If the inscription had meant that, it would have said “your father”!

- Appears he does NOT understand this, Rick.

- You know kids these days, Bill, they just don’t got the grammar too good.

- Wait, looks like he’s got another idea...could it be?

- I think it is!

- Looks like he’s spelling out ‘Azathoth’ which IS the correct answer!

- Terrible animation as always, of course.

- No argument there, Dick.

- Just the worst.

- Anyway, it’s on to the third and final trial! This one’s gonna require a lot of creative thinking...

- Looks like he’s planning on reflecting the light from his glowy blue friend, definitely an unconventional solution!

- I’m not sure that’s how physics works, Fred...

- Well, it’s working, Don!

- Well, fuck me in the ass with a Honda, Paul, so it is!

- Just goes to show you can’t trust physics in a place like this.

- No you can’t, Ron.

- I think our boy Howard might just be home free - OH! LOOK at that! A mob of Deep Ones!

- Copy-pasted, by the looks of it!

- Earl, this might be a pickle they’re in now.

waaait a minute...Deep Ones don’t blink!

- Actually, Mark, it seems like they’re cool! They’re just letting him walk out of there.

- Come to think of it, Ted, I think those might just be some set technicians. They’ve been waiting to start disassembling the course, I think.

- Well then, that’s our cue! We have a winner, ladies gents and assorted entities! Thanks for tuning in!

whew, doing those voices was murder on my throat. Now back to the hostage situation:

Nothing much to say here, badguy seemingly wins, activates the ritual, yadda yadda.

oola ooh couchez avec moi, c’est soi?

You can’t really tell from the screencap, but at the crucial moment the book stops working because...

...yeah. I’m not sure ‘deus ex machina’ is the right term for a situation involving actual elder gods, but it sure is a convenient development that in no way hinged on the protagonist’s actions, isn’t it? (also wow. They...just did not bother to give that book any texture here, did they?) Anyhoo, the evil plan fails, miserably,

(I think this was Pepsi’s slogan back in the ‘90s.)

Abdul has finally Outlived His Usefulness™, although he manages a few more lines after being set on fire so I wonder whether that dorky outfit was actually flame retardant.

And there’s Dagon, just standing there awkwardly because this is his place and he actually has people coming over tomorrow so if you all would please hurry up?

The goodguys actually left before Nyarlahotep had even begun soliloquizing back there, and now they’re back safe and sound (except for Ma Lovecraft who is still dying).

Oh, look who it is! Yeah, they’re safe, no thanks to you. Hope you had a nice cup of tea while everyone else was almost dying.

He binds the three journals together into The Necronomicon, which is the only thing that can save Howard’s mother (apparently that requires a higher level of magic than awakening freaking Cthulhu).

Speaking of Mark Hamill, that new Dark Crystal show has been pretty good so far (he’s one of the skeksis in that). Anyways sorry I called you useless, Doc.

lol that bitch is FADED!

*ding* Turkey’s done!

Howard reads from the book to save her. BUT WILL HE BE IN TIME?

My God, she looks like she’s made of vinyl! SHE’S BACK TO NORMAL, EVERYBODY!

There it is, the ONE GOOD BIT in this whole sordid affair. And I’ve capped and posted it, so now you can safely not watch the movie without missing anything.

So Spot (...is he Cthulhu for real now? I don’t think so but...) Must Go Back To His Home Planet Now, His People Need Him. By the way, I am increasingly sure that this is supposed to be R’lyeh:

(sorry, Ruh-LAY)

So the baddies didn’t kill these guys. Ah, too bad, I guess.

Howard shares some meaningful last words with Armitage:

- And they return (via portal) to their home. Yes, their quiet, peaceful home, with its cozy beds and its tranquil garden and their little cat, Ni-

...why, who could THAT be?

I will say this about the animation: it stayed shitty right up to the end.

...

So...not Nick Fury, then.

Right now, I feel, the joke is very specifically on me.

Roll credits, including this bit here about how this was actually adapted from a graphic novel:

Notice that director/producer/voice of Spot/father or husband of half the cast Sean O’Reilly is there, but notice how many other people there are who seem to have had little or nothing to do with this movie. Wonder what that’s about?

If it’s one of those guys that did this credit art - orders of magnitude better than the animation for most of the actual film - it’s nothing short of a travesty that not only were they not involved with the main project but also that we get to see their stuff now just to taunt us with what might have been.

I mean, LOOK at all that! Damn!

“Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental”, says the movie with the child version of a famous horror author as the main character. SURE, WHY NOT.

WELP THAT’S ALL SHE WROTE - well, all she wrote, maybe, but I still have a bit more to add. So yeah, this was on the whole pretty dismal. Not quite as bad as it could have been, I’ll grant, but it missed most of its major cues. I DID like some things - Doug Bradley played a decent Nyarlahotep, the stuff with Azathoth was neat, and Winfield Lovecraft’s character was actually kind of engaging - even funny - at times. AT TIMES. And I will say that, perversely, Abdul Alhazred’s lackluster character design actually kind of stood out - I don’t think you’ll find very many other depictions of him where he’s Just Some Guy (who happens to be a powerful sorcerer). If nothing else, they pretty diligently avoided racializing him (not even a turban!) - yeah, it’s still true that the one evil human is also the only one with any nonwhite identifiers whatsoever (really just the name, in this case) but considering the source material if that’s the most problematic it gets then we got off SUPER easy.

Bad news is, basically everything else about this blows. The animation only hurts if you have eyes, but even the blind can hold O’Reilly accountable for the decision to cast all his kids. Then there’s the fact that the movie tries to bait us with big names, even though two of the top-billed stars (Plummer and Perlman) have probably less than a minute’s worth of lines between them (and ‘lines’ is a bit charitable in Perlman’s case [no disrespect to Ron, you’ll always be my Hellboy]). Seriously, did you even remember Dr. West until I brought him up just now? Wait, no, don’t actually try to recallAAUGH

AAAAAAAHH!

And now the Nyquil’s kickin’ in so I’m gonna have to bow out - but fortunately I’ve said pretty much everything I could think of to say anyway. Perhaps one day, when the stars are right, I might recap the other movies, including Howard’s Mother Eats A Whole Chicken. The future is full of mysteries!

...OK, bye.

#hp lovecraft #HLatUK #shit i actually got this one done before 2 am for once

[fortunatelylori]

Why the Jon/D*any romance doesn’t work (Part 3)

When everyone and their mother has a different take on the same line of text

I must warn you in advance. In this 3rd post in the series (1, 2) we will go down the rabbit hole every woman has found herself in while reading her Tinder messages trying to extract some sort of meaning from a seemingly unrelated string of emojis.

Yes, boys and girls, now is the time to try and answer the all-important question that has plagued womanhood since the beginning of time: What does Jon mean when Jon says words?

Answering this question is extremely difficult since most of what he says can be interpreted in different ways. People have chalked it up to bad writing, rushed storyline and the actor’s limitations but is that really a fair assessment?

When analyzing the Jon/Dany scenes more closely, you begin to realize that they work on multiple levels both plotting wise and emotionally. It’s that both the direction of the scenes as well as the actor’s mannerisms aren’t what people expect them to be in that situation. The writers aren’t doing a bad job at presenting you a generic romance, they’re working overtime to both give you the basic structure of said romance while at the same time subverting every trope that they employ.

When trying to take things at face value and analyze the scenes as romantic in nature, the more I was hit with lines upon lines of dialogue that were vague, banal and impersonal. I started envisioning my scriptwriting editor taking out her red pen and cutting out these lines with notes like: what does that even mean?!? Because no editor in their right mind would’ve let this dialogue and these scenes as they are.

So why were these allowed to be filmed into a production of this level? My explanation for this is that these lines and scenes, while uninspired and unflattering to the character or the actor forced to speak them, do have the advantage of allowing the audience to read whatever they want into them, which they will because of how hotly anticipated this ship was. They’re simply allowing you to get tangled in the web so they can pull the rug from under your feet in season 8.

It might seem like I’m exalting the Ds writing abilities to extraordinary levels. But I’m not. It’s not that brilliant, to be honest. It’s a trick, nothing more. And they do it because they can. No other TV show could get away with inciting a ship this way only to annul everything put on screen later on. No show except Game of Thrones and no other ship except Jonerys. Why? Because Jonerys didn’t need to convince people to root for them, those people were already on board the ship long before Jon and Dany danced the devil’s tango. This has been one of the most hotly anticipated romances in TV history so the scenes only came to enforce what people wanted to see.

So do the writers really have anything to lose by trolling us? It doesn’t matter if Jonerys is real or fake, underdeveloped or the world’s most epic romance., everyone on planet Earth will still be tuning in to see every episode of the next season. If the Ds decide to confirm their fans dreams, then everyone who isn’t onboard will have to shrug off the inconsistencies and move on. If the political!jon theory is revealed in season 8, they will be hailed as the greatest twisters in the history of twisting. Every TV critic will write about it, will publish think pieces and then one day they will stumble on to Tumblr and discover my metas and I will become famous the world over …. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

So, let’s forget for a second that Dany and Jon were the ship that broke the internet and let’s look at the rest of the island scenes keeping in mind both the romance but also the possible subversion of said romance.

Scene 6:

Happy to report that Dany did not ask Jon to bend the knee in this scene.

Yay!

Progress!

Sort of …

There are 3 major things that are wrong with this scene in terms of the romance subplot:

1.       Jon’s reaction to Dany’s temper tantrum.

He looks like he’s about to send her to her room, with no supper. Btw, I hate it when people say that Kit Harrington is a bad actor. He might not be acting out what people want to see but his micro expressions are pretty on point.

Jon isn’t wrong in being frustrated by Dany’s public humiliation of her hand. However, it does undermine the romance, particularly since Jon’s reaction goes unnoticed by Dany. And the whole thing could have been avoided had the people behind the camera simply not shown us his reaction at all. These types of reaction shots are not filmed simultaneously with the rest of the scene so it’s actually a lot of extra camera work, positioning and actors doing the same scene over and over again just to show us that Jon is annoyed by Dany but chooses not to say anything. And they do this because the script, the blueprint of the story, told them to do it.

Alternatively, you could have these reaction shots take on a positive connotation by having Jon intervene and lecture her on her rudeness, for example. That would position him as the only person willing to tell her the truth, another romantic trope that pops up in couplings all the time. But the script doesn’t go there, instead planting this seed of Jon as being duplicitous in his interactions with the woman he’s supposed to have developed feelings for by now.  

Like I said, the writers don’t have a lot of time on their hands. They need to get us all on this ship as quickly as possible; there are only 3 episodes left. And yet they continue to torpedo our trust in this romance at every turn.

1.       Dany turning to Jon for help is unearned.

As we’ve already established they’ve spent the last 5 scenes talking about knee bendings, white walkers and little else. There is no common ground between the two of them that would make this request remotely romantic. So when Dany, out of the blue, decides to ask Jon what she should do, we can’t go: “Oh, look! They trust each other now. They’re a team.” On the contrary, we’re as taken aback by this as Jon is.

2.       He doesn’t actually help her.

The conversation goes like this:

Dany: what do you think I should do?

Jon: Don’t burn people alive.

Dany is moved by his speech, so moved in fact that she doesn’t notice he didn’t actually give her any advice on what to do, just a general rule of thumb on not turning people into torches.

This a pretty blatant subversion of what is a very useful trick writers use to build trust and intimacy in a romantic plot: have one of the partners help the other with a problem that they have.

By writing yet another general, non-committal response from Jon, they’re denying us, the audience, the reason to cheer for this romantic pairing and thus frustrating the momentum needed to credibly build up this relationship.

Scene 7: (or as I like to call it the “there’s a bridge I’d like to sell you” scene)

It doesn’t do this scene any favors that whenever Missandei starts talking about Dany, all I can think is “cult recruiter”.

It’s like she’s heading the welcome parade into Jonestown…

Leaving that disturbing imagery aside, why is this scene so deeply unsatisfying?

In order to answer that, what we really have to ask ourselves is what is the purpose of this scene? There are no useless scenes in scriptwriting. Every scene must serve a part in telling the story.

Is the purpose here to show that Missandei idolizes Dany? It can’t be. We already know that. Is it foreshadowing for Davos moving to Narth because it sounds like a “liberating” place? Doesn’t quite sound right.

It must be a scene that pays service to the Tyrion/Jon scene where Jon is advised to seek out people close to Dany. So the purpose of this scene is to see Jon learning some very positive things about Dany, from her number one fan. This feels like a very natural progression, because we’ve seen this done in stories a million times before. So I think most people will not really look very deep into this scene to really realize why by the end of it, the romantic plot hasn’t advanced at all.

The reason why this scene doesn’t serve its romantic purposel is because  the whole structure of it is wrong.

Let me explain. We start the scene with

Davos: What do you think about her?

Jon: I think she has a good heart.

This line is problematic to begin with because we have seen Dany do nothing that would indicate to Jon that she has a good heart. Since he’s been here, he’s been turned from King to Lord, to simply Jon Snow, he’s seen her humiliate Tyrion, refuse to help him fight the white walkers and develop a troubling bended knee fetish. So what is it that would prompt him to say that?

Well … what is the number one argument that Dany’s fans always bring up when people criticize her? I think it goes along the lines of: But she was doing it for the right reasons. She’s a good person … She has a good heart.

 I think this is the writers at their most trolliest giving people deeply invested in this ship something to cling onto when saying that this romance does actually exist, while simultaneously making people that dislike the ship tremble in their boots a little at the thought that it might be reciprocal.

 And just to make anti-Jonerys’ tremble even more, they double down with this little gem:

Davos: A good heart? I’ve noticed you starring at her good heart.

Yeah … sorry writers, I ain’t tremblin’. I’m a woman. I’ve developed a sixth sense for men checking out a girl’s … wolf bits. It looks a bit like this …

Nice try though!

How does Jon respond to Davos’ appraisal? Does he get flustered that he’s been found out? Does he reject it outright as a vile falsehood?

Jon: There’s no time for that.

And here I must ask again: what do the words that Jon ejects from his mouth mean?!? Does he use the excuse of the white walkers to hide his secret attraction? Does he mean it literally? Is Dany like the Flash, so quick there’s no time to look at her cleavage? Or is he letting out his frustration at having to play out this parody while the world is on the verge of annihilation, as the political!jon theory would support?

 The point is we don’t know. We can claw each other’s eyes out over this all we want. The line is left vague for a reason. We, unlike Jon for once, know nothing.

 Then we get to Missandei’s speech. She’s essentially the Pope of Daenerism. The main message of her speech is

Missandei: My queen has a good heart

Great. So why did we need this scene again?!? So Jon could find out what he already said he knew? Maybe he needed some reinforcement. What was his reaction to Missandei’s ode, you ask?

Can’t read my … can’t read my … nobody can read my poker face …

Followed by the old, faithful romantic classic

Jon: Is that a Greyjoy ship?!?

 So … a 2 min scene of writers trolling and an aerial shot of a ship … and absolutely no progress on the romance front. No wonder this scene is frustrating.

 Humor me for a moment and imagine this scene in a different sequence.Move Missandei’s speech in the beginning and end the scene with Jon saying Dany has a good heart. Eliminate the ship altogether. Doesn’t it feel like a better set-up and make the scene less repetitive and more romantic?

Scene 8:

The first part of this scene is breathtaking. Leaving aside everything else, it’s astounding to see how far television has gotten in terms of what they can present on screen. Everything from the CGI, to the scope of the shot, to the colors, music and scenery is stunning. It’s perhaps the most memorable moment of the entire season. Plot wise, it’s also extremely meaningful.

 Because of the stunning imagery, this has led people to interpret it as romantic in nature. But it isn’t. This is not about the Jon/Dany romance at all, but rather about R+L=J, about Jon himself and his nature. We’ve never seen another person apart from Dany get so close to Drogon before, let alone pet him. And all this is punctuated by Kit Harrington playing Jon as completely overwhelmed. As he should be. He’s doing something that people haven’t been able to do for 300 years and, more importantly than that, he’s doing something that feels strangely familiar to him.

 That’s why all those gif sets showing Jon as completely in awe that imply he’s looking at Dany are so frustrating. Watch this scene again and you’ll see that he’s holding eye contact with Drogon throughout, punctuated even by a close-up of the dragon’s eye looking at Jon. It’s only Dany that looks at him curiously, seeing him interact with her favorite pet/child.

 If you’re going to frame those looks as romantic in nature, you shouldn’t be shipping Jonerys at all but rather … Jonon? Drojon? Can’t decide …

 So, if we eliminate this first part, and concentrate solely on Jon and Dany’s conversation, what happens?

They disagree on whether fire breathing lizards are beautiful, gorgeous, beasts or children.

 Dany: They are not beasts to me. They are my children.

Jon’s face says it all really … (gif courtesy of @thelawyerthatwaspromised)

No resolution is reached on this front. So Jon abruptly changes the subject.

 Like I said in my previous post, romantic couples don’t reach this type of communicational impasses. They duke it out to the end or reach common ground. That’s what makes them work.

 But it gets worse. Not even the awkward transition to another subject leads to anything.

Jon: You weren’t gone long.

Dany: No.

Jon: And?

Dany: And I have fewer enemies today than I did yesterday.

Silence … Very awkward silence … Dany literally has to push the conversation forward and …

Dany: You don’t know how you feel about that

Jon: No, I don’t

…it still doesn’t go anywhere. The writers keep breaking the momentum of their dialogue over and over again and frustrating both Dany and the audience.

Just look at that face. That’s the face I pull every time I come back home from a bad date.

But Dany is a stubborn girl. She tries again, with another awkward change of subject.

Dany: When you first came here, Ser Davos said you took a knife to the heart for your people.

Jon: Ser Davos gets carried away.

This would have been the perfect time for Jon to open up, at least a little bit. He thinks she has a good heart after all, right? But no. He not only avoids the subject, he lies outright. Why? Why would he lie? And more importantly why do the writers want to keep Dany at arm’s length from Jon this far into their relationship?

Dany doesn’t completely believe him but have no fear!

 Luckily the plot intervenes before Jon is forced to answer. Heaven forbid that we get a meaningful conversation between 2 people that are about to have sex a few scenes from now. The less 2 people talk, share their feelings and experiences, the more impactful their romance is. Isn’t that how it goes?

 The introduction of Jorah in this scene is significant because the dreaded competitor for the maiden’s heart is a trope used to excess in romantic plots.

 No matter that the writers haven’t built up enough of a connection between Jon and Dany for us to feel the stakes of introducing this new element into their romance. Finally, now we have the opportunity to see Jon look jealous and feel that his bond to Dany is threatened by someone with whom she shares so much history. Sure he might be standoffish and cryptic when it’s just the two of them but surely he won’t be able to control himself when he sees his lady love hug another man. So what do you say, Jon?

P p p poker face, p p p poker face

Scene 9:

I won’t analyze this entire scene because most of it is not linked to the romantic subplot and also … it’s stupid. The whole hunt plot is stupid and Tyrion should lay off the bottle immediately. It’s affecting his intellectual skills.

 We will resume ourselved to the 3 romantic beats withing the scene.

 So, we start promisingly enough with Jon letting everyone know that Arya and Bran are alive. There’s no context as to why he decided to announce this in front of a room of strangers so read into that what you will. Perhaps he wanted to share the happy news with Dany …

Dany: I’m happy for you

 Silence

 Dany: You don’t look happy.

 Silence

 Perhaps we could tell from his expression?

Lady Gaga ran out of lyrics, you guys … sorry about that …

End of topic. No need to explore this momentous event for Jon or have the opportunity to see him sharing his happiness with the love of his life. That’s what fanfiction is for.

 Then there’s the part when Jorah offers to hunt down a zombie to bring back as trophy for his heart’s desire. This has, of course, prompted people to speculate that Jon decides to go on the hunt in order to one up him in Dany’s eyes. Which is not outlandish, per se. That’s what happens in a love triangle after all.

 However there are two issues with this.

 One - there is absolutely no one in the audience that thought Jon would not go on this hunt since the moment it was proposed. He was Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, he’s the only one in that room who has gone beyond the wall and the only one who has actually fought the army of the dead. Jorah or no Jorah, the scene would have ended with Jon going on the hunt. That sort of undercuts the whole jealousy angle.

 Secondly there’s this peculiar sequence of lines after Jorah says he’ll go:

Jon: The free folk will help us

Davos: They won’t follow Ser Jorah.

 Surely, if jealousy was what the writers were going for, those two lines should have been inversed. That could be construed as an attack on Jorah’s abilities by Jon and could lead to a starring context between the two, right before they’d take their shirts off and duke it out in the rain while Dany watches in rapture from the window.

 Does that sound like a ridiculous, over the top, infantile scenario? Sure … But let’s make one thing very clear. Writers do not introduce romantic triangles into stories because they want to keep it classy. They introduce it so that at some point we can end up here:

The last of the romantic plot in the scene comes right after Jon says he’ll go on the hunt.

Dany: I haven’t given you permission to leave.

This line pulls double duty in terms of plotting. It just does it in the wrong direction. On one hand, it torpedoes the love triangle because Dany clearly doesn’t want to let Jon go while she doesn’t have that many qualms about Jorah potentially freezing to death or getting killed. So with 8 words a triangle that started a scene ago has been turned back to a straight line for the audience. That’s no way to build up tension between your characters.

 The second thing it does is that it shows, once again, just how one sided this whole relationship is. Because Jon is not at all touched by Dany’s concern for his well-being.

 In fact he seems rather annoyed by her attempt.

Jon: With all due respect, your Grace, I don’t need your permission. I am a King.

This has been described as a ‘panty dropping’ line. Except that depending on where your alligencies lie, the interpretation for why it pulverizes underwear is different. People that are invested in this ship say that this is the moment Jon proved himself a good King to Dany. People that reject this ship see it as the moment when Jon regains his agency and status, after being humiliated by not only the queen, but also her servant when denied his rightful title.

 Again, this is a problem. Because you shouldn’t have two contradictory explanations for one line this late in the plot. By this point we should all agree on the basic meaning behind what Jon says, whether we like the pairing or not.

 Also:

Jon: I put my trust in you … a stranger […] Now I’m asking you to trust in a stranger.

 We end this scene with Jon calling the two of them ‘strangers’. It kind of feels like we’ve been through 9 scenes and three episodes of romantic build-up and we have nothing to show for it.

Scene 10:

This scene has been analyzed a lot so I won’t dwell too much on it. The reason why it’s gotten so much interest is because of the ‘look back’ trope.

Jon not looking back is not, in and of itself, a problem. In isolation, it can be seen as a missed opportunity on the writers’ part. Adding the fact that Dany does follow him with her eyes for quite a bit just like the lovely John Thornton does with Margaret Hale in the gif above, does put a blemish on the whole thing.

But then the writers for some reason double down on this motif by having Jorah look back at Dany. And then the camera also includes Jon pointedly NOT looking back.

Look at the boy go … It’s like he’s trying out for the Forest Gump remake. Run, Jon, run!

Once you put all of these elements together in one scene it becomes less of a frustrating lack of romantic fulfillment and more of an intentional message that is very hard to ignore.

But let’s leave that to the side and talk about their last words to each other.

Jon: If I don’t return, at least you won’t have to deal with the King in the North anymore

Dany: I’ve grown used to him

Jon: I wish you good fortune in the wars to come, Your Grace

I’ve already pointed out in my first post of the series how deeply unwise it would be to have Jon say good-bye to Dany by using Mance Rayder’s last words to Stannis if we were to look at this scene in a romantic way.

 It isn’t just the fact that Stannis and Mance were enemies. It’s also problematic because Mance was on his way to being burned alive for not bending the knee. Fire is something that the audience connects to Dany immediately. And what was the main bone of contention for these 2 characters throughout Jon’s stay on the island?

Aside from that, the dynamic between them is exactly the same. Dany’s attempt at warmth and intimacy is flanked by two general, formal statements by Jon, the first of which is actually a bit passive-aggressive if you remember that Dany requested he bend the knee so she could name him Warden of the North.

 Also, this is put in direct contrast with the way Jorah says good-bye to her.

Dany: We should be better at saying farewell by now.

Jorah: Your Grace, I …

Jorah’s line is interrupted by Dany grabbing his hands. This touch elicits such a powerful emotional response from him that he can’t continue his train of thought. He simply bends his head and kisses her hand.

 If you were saying good-bye to someone you love, which one of these two responses would feel more bitter-sweet and romantic? Which one would you like to receive?  

 If you say Jon’s …. Well then:

(source: @dreamofspring)

Thank you guys so much for all your great feed-back and a special thank you to @thelawyerthatwaspromised for supplying me with some of the gifs in this post. They were a life saver. The rest of the gifs and clips also do not belong to me. I picked them up from all over the place so if you recognize your work, let me know and I will add the source below the pic. Thank you!

Also: 

stay tuned for part 4 

#asoiaf #got #got7 #anti-jonerys #my got meta

[spearfeld]

So I just got done watching Alex Strangelove

I have really mixed opinions about this movie. I’m gonna give my full review under the cut, as well as address some of the arguments that this movie accomplishes what Love, Simon couldn’t. Beware of spoilers for both Alex Strangelove and Love, Simon.

This is a long one, so be warned.

Okay, first I’ll give me general overview of Alex Strangelove. This movie is a HUGE mixed bag for me so buckle up, I guess.

Basic plot synopsis: Alex and Claire have been dating for a while but haven’t had sex. They keep making plans to try and have sex, but Alex meets this boy named Elliot, who is gay. Alex and Elliot end up forming a connection that causes Alex to rethink his sexuality.

First off, let me start by saying that I actually enjoyed this movie. At least, I enjoyed the end of it. And I enjoyed a good chunk of the middle as well. But there was a lot in this movie that either just didn’t need to be there or shouldn’t have been there because it was straight up offensive.

But let’s start with the stuff that I did like. I liked the relationship between Alex and Elliot. A lot. It was cute. Like, Simon and Blue levels of cute at points. Elliot is such an interesting and fun character and he has a lot of chemistry with Alex. Every scene the two of them were on screen together I was smiling. I would have liked to have even more of them in the movie, because he kind of disappears after the first act and a half and doesn’t show up again until the end.

I also enjoyed a lot of the interactions between Alex and Claire. There were some that were kind of problematic but for the most part, they were pretty cute. And I liked their friendship by the end of the film.

There was also this one line that was handled really well. Claire’s mother has some sort of cancer (a fact that like...never really does anything for the plot of the story? but whatever) and while Claire and Alex are having a fight, she tells Claire, “You can stay mad. But what I do know is...We’re not gonna be on this earth forever. And being angry is an exhausting way to spend your day.” Which is already a pretty good line on its own, I guess. But this line has a lot more weight behind it because Claire’s mother is like, literally dying of cancer so she knows better than anybody that her time is limited. I just think that was handled really well.

Okay, before I address the things I liked about the ending, I want to talk about all of the stuff I didn’t like about this film. And let’s start with the big one. The grandaddy of all issues with this film.

The character of Dell.

Dell is the worst fucking character I have ever had the displeasure of watching on screen. He’s completely unsympathetic, he’s an asshole, lowkey homophobic, transphobic, self-centered, all around a terrible human being. Absolutely the worst. I would have given this movie 4 or 5 stars if this character did not exist. Straight up.

Let’s break down all of the terrible shit this character says and does in this movie:

When Claire tells Alex’s friends that they haven’t had sex yet, he tells Alex that he’s just “lost his dick.” Basically saying he’s not a man anymore because his girlfriend just, idk said a thing about them that’s true? I mean I guess it’s their private life and she shouldn’t have been blabbing about that but like for one is it really that big of a deal? Anyway, insinuating that he’s less of a man by saying that he no longer has a penis is INCREDIBLY transphobic. Because you have to have a penis to be a man, I guess.

He then transitions into homophobic comments, calling Alex gay because he hasn’t had sex with Claire yet. He tries to pass it of as an honest suggestion, but the tone in his voice, the delivery from the actor, it’s really clear that Dell is making fun of Alex for this. Which is beyond fucked up.

That’s not the only problematic stuff he says, either. This kid says a BUNCH of fucked up shit. Like SO much. I’m gonna do my best to try and summarize it but it’s a LOT:

He has this whole scene where he basically makes fun of trans and non-binary people, poking fun at this genderqueer character by calling them out and saying, “Hey, Sidney. Are you into vagina or dick?” “I’m attracted to the person.” Whatever the fuck that means.” 

In the same scene, when Alex tells him he might be bi, he decides to whip out his dick and show Alex, and when Alex reacts negatively to seeing the unsolicited penis of a person he does not consider himself attracted to, Dell insinuates that see he can’t be bi because he’s clearly not into dick. There are so many things wrong with that? First, you don’t just randomly whip your dick out to people, that’s just not a thing you do, Dell. That’s literally sexual harassment. Second, just because somebody is gay or bi or whatever doesn’t mean that they’re into fucking everybody of that gender. Third, genitals does not equal gender. Somebody who identifies as gay doesn’t necessarily have to be attracted to penis genitalia specifically. Because not everybody who is a boy has a penis, and not everybody who has a penis is a boy. It’s honestly just remarkable how homophobic and transphobic this movie about gay characters can really be. (And people think this is better representation than Love, Simon??? But I’ll come back to that.)

He also makes an offhand comment about the fucking NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association, aka a pedophile organization), but I’m not even going to get into that.

There’s also this really pointless and painfully unfunny subplot, I guess if you could call it that, where Alex’s friends get this exotic frog that acts as a psychedelic if you lick it. Dell licks it, and then promptly loses the frog, and spends the rest of the party tripping balls. And it just leads to interruptions of genuinely sweet scenes with Alex and Elliot with scenes of Dell tripping out and hallucinating and shit. It was kind of funny the first time when he made an offhand comment about a singing garden hose and then it showed a yodeling hose animatronic. But after that it’s just painful. Really painful.

There are some other smaller problems I had with the movie, just some weird awkward lines and things that I didn’t necessarily like their inclusion (Claire keeps telling Alex to shut up while they’re having sex; I think that’s supposed to be funny because he’s babbling but like? Clearly that’s the kind of sexual being that Alex is and she shouldn’t try to put that down???? Communication is important in sex and like it’s about having fun with your partner not these set expectations of what it’s supposed to be like stop watching porn and actually go out and experience something for once anyway I’m rambling) but they don’t really hinder the experience nearly as much as literally every second that Dell is on screen.

Anyway, let’s get into the ending. Because I honestly really liked the ending.

Spoiler alert, but Alex eventually settles on the label of gay. I understand the arguments against this, how he initially identified as bi in the movie and that a) this robs us of potential bi representation, which we are severely lacking and b) it reinforces the stereotype that bisexual is just a stepping stone label to straight or gay, lending to bisexual erasure as a whole. I totally agree with this arguments. But I also try to keep that in the back of my mind while watching it so I can actually just enjoy the gay representation we do get. Those arguments are totally valid, but I don’t think it ruins the movie for me.

Anyway, so the way the movie ends, is Alex falls into a pool chasing after the frog (this literally was so pointless oh my god) and has a flashback to a memory where he got a boner looking at other guys at summer camp and when he comes out of it he realizes he’s gay. Then Claire finds him and he tells her he’s gay. Claire is understandably upset by the fact that her boyfriend of three years was actually gay the entire time, and feels hurt and confused. Eventually, however, they talk about it and they come to an understanding. Claire accepts Alex and accepts the situation, Alex tells her that he does love her. They talk a little bit about attraction and how Alex had been lying to himself for a long time. It’s a really well done scene for the most part (Claire does suggest it’s a phase which aaaaa but like, overall the scene was well-handled).

After that, Claire and Alex stay friends, and form an actual genuine friendship which I think was really neat. Claire is honestly the MVP of this movie because of what she does at the end. So Alex and Claire decide to still go to Prom together, but Claire invites Elliot. And honestly, the movie could have ended there with him and Elliot dancing and I would have been happy, but it actually keeps going for a little bit. Alex kind of freaks out because everybody is staring at him. He runs off to the bathroom and Elliot comes and talks to him, eventually getting upset and hurt by the fact that Alex seems to be embarrassed to be seen with him in public and says he’s going to leave, but Alex ends up swallowing his fear and kissing him on the dance floor in front of everybody (a bit over dramatic but tbh so was the Ferris Wheel scene in Love, Simon so). It then cuts to a really heartwarming scene of Alex and Claire on their webshow where Alex starts to talk about his experiences understanding his sexuality and coming out, and it pans out, showing a bunch of other videos of other people talking about their experiences with their sexualities and coming out and such. (I’ll admit; I got pretty teary-eyed at the end there.)

And that’s Alex Strangelove. A pretty good movie that I feel gets completely and utterly ruined by that one character. Overall I think I liked the good things about the movie as much as I detested the bad, so I give the movie a 3/5 overall.

Now, to address the comparisons to Love, Simon.

There was a tumblr post circulating a little while ago, who I’m not going to name the OP because I don’t want them to get blasted with hate or anything (honestly they’ve probably already gotten a lot for that post even though they explicitly said that it wasn’t a hate on Love, Simon post. Don’t send people hate guys. It’s not cool.) This tumblr post had a few key arguments to it, with the thesis of it being that Alex Strangelove accomplished what Love, Simon couldn’t. What was Love, Simon trying to accomplish that it failed at? Well according to this tumblr post:

Love, Simon does not address sexualities other than “straight” and “gay” whereas Alex Strangelove talks openly about bi, pan, ace, etc.

Love, Simon is lacking in sexual content, taking, in their words “the sex out of sexuality,” whereas Alex Strangelove is a film that deals heavily with the concept of sex

Love, Simon is a very dated movie with how it handles certain things, and Alex Strangelove is a fresh and modern take on the concept of sexuality and discovery.

Okay, first things first. This person is comparing two completely different movies that are trying to accomplish completely different things. Love, Simon is a family movie. Alex Strangelove is most definitely not.

Alex Strangelove sets out to tell a story of discovery, of acceptance of ones self and of others. It is a film about coming to terms with one’s sexuality. Love, Simon is a film not about discovery and acceptance, but courage to speak the truth. Alex discovers more about himself and his sexuality as the film progresses; Simon already knows he’s gay, he accepts it, he just hasn’t felt any desire to actually come out and tell anybody about it.

And side note; but Love, Simon’s lack of sexual content I feel is a good thing. Not only because it’s a family film, but because gay people are often fetishized or sexualized in movies, even movies about gay people (see: the Eating Out series, Another Gay Movie, even indie art films like Shortbus and Call Me By Your Name.) They all deal with sexual relationships between gay characters, and while that’s find because gay people are sexual beings just like straight people are, it’s by no means all we are. And only showing those kinds of relationships as representation is harmful because it only reinforces the stereotype that homosexuality is inherently sexual. This is the reason why gay characters and relationships weren’t allowed on TV or movies, especially in kids programming, for the longest time. It’s why Legend of Korra had to stick an ambiguous confirmation in the last scene of its show, by Willow and Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer weren’t allowed to even kiss on screen or confirm that they were in a romantic relationship until they had been together for basically an entire season or two, and it’s why Love, Simon is the first mainstream romantic comedy featuring a gay lead ever. Gay people are too often sexualized by the media and saying that this was a point against Love, Simon is missing the point of the movie entirely, if you ask me.

I think that Alex Strangelove’s purpose is that of teaching teens more about exploring themselves sexually and discovering things about themselves and how that’s natural and okay and how you need to be honest with yourself if you want to truly be happy and free. Love, Simon, in contrast, is a story for people who already have gone through that process, already know who they are, and now just need to learn that it’s okay to be open about that, to tell others, to be your true self. Completely different messages, completely different movies. 

The argument that Love, Simon didn’t accomplish what Alex Strangelove did is inapplicable because they were never trying to accomplish the same task.

Also, the last argument that Love, Simon didn’t give us any lead POC roles, uhhhhh did you watch the movie? Nick and Abby, two of the main leads who appear in all of the promotional material, are black. Bram, the person that Simon ends up with at the end of the movie, is black, and Jewish, and gay. Then there’s also Ethan, another black and gay student at Creekwood, and Ms. Albright, the black drama teacher. And, it’s a very minor role I don’t think he actually even has any speaking lines but Martin’s friend Suraj is Indian. That’s like most of the main cast? But anyway.

Love, Simon and Alex Strangelove. Two good movies (though my preference still lies with Love, Simon) with different goals in mind. Two movies that really can not be compared past the fact that they both deal with gay characters and relationships. This is a similar issue with the seemingly popular comparison between Love, Simon and Call Me By Your Name, the last gay-led movie that became popular. Love, Simon is a romantic comedy about coming out, whereas Call Me By Your Name is a tragic drama about a boy who falls in love with a man and enters an intense, passionate, but not entirely healthy relationship with him. They both have gay leads, but they are by no means comparable otherwise. You wouldn’t compare Titanic to Star Wars, just because they both have straight lead characters, so why would you compare Love, Simon to Alex Strangelove, or Call Me By Your Name or whatever just because they both have gay lead characters. There’s a logical fallacy somewhere in there that I can’t exactly pinpoint because I’m running on three hours of sleep, but yeah.

So that’s my opinion. I know this is a fucking long post and I applaud any of you who read it all the way through. I just wanted to get my thoughts out and hopefully this helps somebody understand both of these movies better. :)

#mine #love simon #alex strangelove #simon spier #alex truelove #simon vs #svthsa #netflix #gay movies #queer film #meta #review #long post

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

An Interpretation of an Arc

A/N: I am very firm in “while we should be critical of media, sometimes also we should just have fun,” and I do not write this to challenge the common rhetoric I see about a certain someone in Dragon Age. Rather instead, I write this to offer an alternative viewpoint and how I have come to see a certain arc in D/ragon A/ge. I am not going to touch every little thing, but I will give a broad overview. anyway....

Ask me what comes to mind when I think of C/ullen and my mind may drift to the relationship I envision he has with my Inquisitor. I may also think of the wonderful fan art on here, or I may think about how much of a comfort his romance was back in 2016 when I was going through a very rough patch in college. I was so focused in asserting myself in my field that D/ragon A/ge, and by extension, C/ullen’s romance was something I could dive and indulge in, in a sense be my true romantic self. And while perhaps I started writing my longfic originally with an intellectual pursuit, (Can this relationship between a Circle Mage and former templar work?) The bigger truth was that I wanted to be swept away in a grand, emotional romance. In doing so I filled in gaps in canon and better got into C/ullen’s head space, and did some things that perhaps I wanted to see in canon, like an actual confrontation of his past. I wanted him to redeem himself better in my story than what was available in the base game. However, more than a year has passed, and my feelings on his “redemption arc,” have drastically changed. What I thought back then was that the game kind of touched on his redemption arc, but could have done it better. My thoughts now, however, are actually simpler: C/ullen has a recovery arc rather than a redemption arc, and this “essay,” will explain how it functions and why it hits with me more than a flat out redemption arc would have.

For a background, it’s important to mention what C/ullen did in canon that makes him “need” a redemption arc. he said problematic things, but his greatest sin was inaction. (Samson mentions he never played rough with mages if you talk to him in his cell at Skyhold.) We can talk about the evils of inaction all day long and i would probably agree with you, but there is also the added layer of Cullen being a trauma survivor. He had only a quick reprieve from the horrors of Kinloch before he was sent to Meredith, and the woman essentially took advantage of his trauma to fulfill her own ends. I have spoken about Cullen’s trauma before, but that’s not really the focus here. His inaction however, is what is important to bring up, and this will frame the rest of the piece:

So what is redemption anyway?

The dictionary defines redemption as “the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil,” If we go by this definition however, things get dicey. What exactly is needed to be saved? And what does “saved” even mean in our modern, much more secular world? I really dislike this definition when we apply it to redemption arcs, because it implies that there is an endgame in redemption. You screw up, you realize it, (”What have I done?!”)  you do something to make up for it...poof. Done. But I don’t think it’s that simple. Rather instead, redemption does not, and should never, have an endgame. Redemption is always something to work toward. B/lackwall’s arc in Inquisition exemplifies this. (And I will attest he has a better redemption arc than C/ullen.) He knows what he did was wrong, is willing to die for his act, but when the Quiz exonerates him, he strives toward a better future. 

However, T/hom R/ainier ran from his identity and what he did, he did under the guise of B/lackwall, and acted as the man the real B/lackwall thought he was. it was a mask. It is implied he’s only confronting his past just then when he’s in the cell with the Quiz, and that is why emotions are very high in that scene. After his exoneration he continues to help others, even during Tresspasser. He works towards no endgame, he simply knows he must consistently be a better person and not become the man he once was. 

But let’s talk about C/ullen. By the time Inquisition starts, a period of about four years has passed since the battle of Kirkwall. We know from supplemental information he helped rebuild the city. this was how C/assandra spotted him. She recognized his good works and offered him the position of Commander. While the game should do a better job in explaining what exactly he did and how he processed his inaction, if C/ullen helped rebuild, then he did not run from his past. He had to face it head on when he stayed in the city and helped rebuild. There’s arguments to be made that perhaps the Inquisitor should call him out on what he did...or others as well... and sure I might agree, (there’s a scene in my fic where this happens.) but at the end of the day, C/ullen is important to the game, but not really a focus character, and his arc goes elswhere. It’s an unfortunate oversight, but it’s not as though the Inquisitor can’t ever call him out at all. During Perseverance, this is something the Quiz can say: 

Quiz: The man you were. You can’t pretend he never existed. 

Cullen: Not even if I wanted to. But I am here now. I can make that mean something. 

Alternatively, quiz can say that C/ullen can put the past behind him. He says to that: “I can’t forget what happened., but it led me here. I can make that mean something.” So while yes, I think B/lackwall has a better redemption arc overall, simply because we actually see the full arc, there are a couple things in regards to C/ullen. One: because Inquisition begins a good time after K/irkwall, we don’t see C/ullen’s “oh my god, what have I done moment,” and sometimes fandom assumes he didn’t have one. (which dialogue above indicates to me he did.) Two: He still says some kind of problematic things, but is it realistic for him to do a one eighty...even after so long a time has passed and mental health programs don’t exist in Thedas? In my opinion it’s realistic, and to be honest I get his grievances with going after the rebel mages, because it’s not so much that they’re mages, but that they don’t know the status of the mage rebellion, and then when they find out, they find out they’ve aligned with a dangerous foreign power. (this though is a whole other spiel.) Three: he’s not a focus character. Sure this is probably a really shitty lack of foresight on the developer’s parts, but let me point out that V/arric, the only other person besides H/awke who would probably have some issues with C/ullen...doesn’t at all. In fact they seem pretty friendly during Wicked Grace. Four though, and most important, C/ullen has no clear endgame. Even moreso than J/osie or L/eliana, C/ullen pours himself into his work. It’s even joked that he needs a hobby. He acts, when before, his sin was inaction. In a way, this is a form of redemption: acting now when he didn’t before. 

But hey! You said in the beginning that this was a recovery arc! What gives?

While I argue that the overall “theme” of C/ullen’s story is recovery, I would also attest that recovery in itself is a form of redemption, and this all depends on whether or not you as the Inquisitor keep him on lyrium or not. Your choices depending, C/ullen recovers or he spirals and ends up a lot worse. So let’s dive into this now, shall we?

The Blue Vial and it’s Symbolism. 

We learn early on that C/ullen did something very very dangerous and unprecedented months before the Inquisition formally began: quit lyrium. he did something too that could very well kill him. Putting him back on it nets this dialogue: 

I thought if I removed the part that kept me chained I would find my own purpose again.

C/ullen wanted to be a templar to protect people, something he says. Hell, C/ole even says C/ullen is a “good” one, when asking about the templars because he wants to protect. After the Blight he “served out of fear,” and he was “compelled,” as he said, but as mentioned previously he didn’t receive proper help before he was sent to the queen of insanity. However, he ultimately came to the realization that M/eredith did not represent what the order was supposed to stand for. Too little too late? If you believe that I will not argue with you, but the point is, he came to a realization by himself that many would not have. And to seal the deal, he removes himself from the lyrium, removes the chains to “find my own purpose again.” He stopped the lyrium to remember that when he was a boy, it wasn’t about fear. It was protection. Stopping the lyrium is breaking the last hold the order and his past has over him, and his way of going back to protecting people. it is his recovery. Finding a path again, after treading the wrong one. Putting him back on lyrium is forcing him back into his old viewpoints,not allowing him to fully break the chain. If you do this, he does not recover. The chantry scene exemplifies this: either he’s more hopeful, saying a prayer and having a moment of reflection, or he remains bound to the order. Keeping C/ullen off of lyrium allows him to find a life after. 

There’s a poem Tennyson wrote called “Ulysses.” It’s a dramatic monologue delivered by Odyssues (or Ulysses as Tennyson uses his Roman name) sometime after the Odyssey where the man delivers this long epic speech about how bored he is after the Trojan War and his grand adventure, and wants to go out exploring again. to be honest the poem depresses me, because it’s the narrative I see often, even in my own family. It’s the narrative of the soldier who could not adjust to civilian life after the fighting was done. But C/ullen? romanced or not, he does find a life after. he succeeds, and that to me is very hopeful. perhaps it’s not outright said, but the ending slides, romanced or not, certainly indicate he found a life after the fighting. he recovered, and as the slides say he continues to help people and do good work. He continues to work toward a redemption. this is his arc. It is nuanced, symbolic, and while I have some issues, I think it is not only realistic, but effective, and hopeful. He is like many of us, many of us who did wrong. He doesn’t wallow in the past but he doesn’t forget, and he looks forward. that, to me, is very, very important.

Conclusion and Disclaimer 

I’m not going to pretend like I don’t understand why people have grievances with his arc, but I want to stress that this is my interpretation. I kind of didn’t want to publish this but I spent a huge chunk of time writing, so what the hell. All I ask is please, please, pleeeaaasssssssseeeeee do not be rude or vitriolic. I have thought this for a long time, and I finally wished to share. Now I need a nap.

#not sure if this should be reblogged? #???? #please do not be rude #that is all I ask #ah well #worst comes to worst I have a block buttomn #*button #ehhh maybe I should delete #ah whatever go ahead and reblog #i have a block button

[rosalyn51]

Matthew Goode: ‘Lord Snowdon was a nightmare: charming then disgusting’

The outspoken actor is rising in the world — from Downton Abbey to playing Princess Margaret’s husband in The Crown

The Times November 25, 2017

When I interviewed Lord Snowdon 11 years ago for this paper he was much offended by our photographer’s assistant wearing a cap inside his house. It was evidently a breach of etiquette and, I am pretty sure, of the respect he felt due one of Britain’s leading photographers — and a former husband of Princess Margaret. The encounter ended with a ticking-off and Snowdon sneeringly hanging his cap up for him.

Now I am sitting in a London hotel room in front of the actor playing Snowdon in season two of Netflix’s The Crown. And Matthew Goode is wearing a hat, probably the one he has in ITV’s The Wine Show, the programme in which he and his mate Matthew Rhys josh and gush over vintages brought to them in a “hilltop Italian villa” — a for-real version of Brydon and Coogan���s The Trip. The bibulous old rogue Snowdon would have appreciated the wine and the banter, but what would he have said about his future impersonator’s ever-on hat?

“He was a nightmare,” says Goode, who admits to rather liking Snowdon. “I spoke to one of the guys who used to help him when he was a photographer, and he said, ‘I can’t use the expletive, but it describes an area of a woman’s body — that’s who he was.’ It was so annoying. He could be charming and brilliant, then in two seconds’ time behave like the most disgusting person in the entire world.”

Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret in 1960 HULTON ARCHIVE /GETTY IMAGES

Snowdon was 76 when I met him and although he had been divorced from Margaret for nearly 30 years, he still behaved like minor royalty. His servants, I noted, called him m’lud. In the period depicted in The Crown, however, Snowdon was New Britain on the march, storming the palace gates to modernise the monarchy. That early model, the pre-peerage Tony Armstrong-Jones, might even have admired Goode’s hat.

Having once compared Margaret to a Jewish manicurist (he was part Jewish himself), he would certainly have enjoyed Goode’s outspokenness, a trait that has got the actor into trouble in interviews before — which may be why his publicist is sitting behind me. She keeps her counsel, however, probably having already realised that Goode’s chance of appearing in the next honours list is about as likely as The Crown ushering in a republic.

A file of background notes passed on by The Crown’s producers persuaded Goode that Snowdon’s faults were sourced in an unhappy childhood. His mother, Anne Messel, showed him little affection, referring to him as her “ugly son”, doling out her love instead to the two boys from her second, longer-lasting marriage to an earl. He was sent to boarding school at eight and at 16, while at Eton, contracted polio (there is a touching moment in The Crown when he hides his stick when Margaret turns up at his studio). Anne, rather than nurse him at home, packed him off to Liverpool Royal Infirmary, but she never visited him.

“Exactly what that kind of damage does to a child I have no idea, but emotionally and psychologically, quite a lot, I would imagine,” says Goode. “I think it’s why he married Princess Margaret. I think he did it to please his mother rather than himself.”

Demonstrating that he was good enough to marry into royalty? “It’s far more complicated than that, I’m sure, but it’s one of the solutions.”

The Snowdons were soon into an 18-year marriage notable for its private rowing and public putdowns. Yet, says Goode, the royal family loved their new recruit and always blamed Margaret for any trouble. “He was terribly funny as well. So with this incredibly acerbic, nasty, vitriolic, spiteful side comes this flamboyant, wonderfully debonair, extremely funny, witty man.”

The pair, he summarises, were “very charismatic, very smart and vile”, but what we can be sure of was that the sex between them was spectacularly good — although not good enough to dissuade their lusty libidos from straying beyond marriage. Soon both were having affairs. Within weeks of the marriage, another woman, Camilla Fry, had given birth to Snowdon’s illegitimate daughter, sired, the show suggests, during a three-in-a-bed encounter with her and her bisexual husband, Jeremy.

Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret in The Crown ALEX BAILEY /NETFLIX

“When I first met Noo,” Goode says, referring to Vanessa Kirby, who plays Margaret, by her nickname, “I was quite terrified because I was a fan of the first series. I was a little star-struck, I suppose, and I thought it might make for uncomfortable love scenes, but we ended up just finding it hilarious. It was a really good giggle. She’s brilliant. She’s really dynamic as an actress and really fun to work with because she’ll bat it back. She listens, really listens, and responds.”

Perhaps it is because of their rapport that they manage to convey how alike the princess and her parvenu husband were. They were control freaks (that cap business) and poisonous to those who would not be controlled. They were rebels, but also lovers of status. As Goode points out, Armstrong-Jones may have been the first commoner in 40 years to marry the daughter of a monarch, but he was also dead posh. In fact, Goode’s dialect coach encouraged him to “dial back” the vowels, lest people found them confusing.

Since his breakthrough role as wealthy Tom in Woody Allen’s Match Point in 2005, and certainly after his Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited three years later, Goode has played mainly posh boys. He was brought up in Devon the son of a geologist and his wife, a nurse, but did go to a private day school. Yet Goode is not quite acting aristocracy and since this cannot be because of his talent, or his looks — dark hair, blue eyes, 6ft 2in — this may be something to do with his habit of speaking his mind. In an interview in 2010 he complained about being left with “nowhere to go” by the director of Brideshead. When Tom Ford’s excellent A Single Man came out, he criticised the Weinsteins for featuring Julianne Moore rather than him with Colin Firth in the advertising, thus downplaying the central gay relationship. In 2013 he said he had been working “a lot of scale”, meaning the minimum rate.

Then, on This Morning last year, he said he did not think the modern Bond films were working as well as the old ones. The papers, which had tipped him as Daniel Craig’s successor, declared he had blown his chances.

“I’m way over the hill, darling, what are you talking about?” he responds, although he is 39 and only a few years older than Craig when he started. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” What he meant was that there could be two Bond franchises, one contemporary Bond and another set in the Sixties. “It’s just an idea. But apparently you can’t have an opinion.”

Recent years have been kinder to him professionally. In 2014 he joined Downton Abbey as Henry Talbot, the racing diver who sped off with Lady Mary. Around the same time he won a regular gig on The Good Wife in America. The Wine Show is about to return to ITV, with Goode joined by a new drinking buddy, James Purefoy. There are, of course, still disappointments. Cast as a morphine-addicted ex-public schoolboy in Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence, Goode now finds that the three-parter has been pulled from the BBC’s Christmas schedules after sexual allegations against his co-star Ed Westwick (who robustly denies them).

Matthew Goode LARRY BUSACCA /GETTY IMAGES

Goode says there are two ways of looking at it. The first is that the BBC has spared the cast some awkward interview questions. “But some would also say that they should have stood by Ed. Possibly. I mean, I don’t know. I’m not the controller of the BBC.”

So, is he in favour of the postponement? “I’m not really in favour of anything because I don’t have to make that decision. I believe you’re innocent until proven guilty.”

But has the BBC prejudged the matter by pulling the show? “No, not now, because there are three allegations now.”

Goode has lived with the mother of his three children, Sophie Dymoke, for 12 years. When she became pregnant with their first daughter, she gave up her life in the fashion industry in New York. He was thrilled to be able to return with her to film The Good Wife, but by then her heart was no longer in her career. Is he guilty about that?

“Of course I am. Of course I am. She has to put up with living with some f***wit who doesn’t really live in reality occasionally and has some slight psychological problems occasionally through work. She’s retrained as an interior designer and she’s so talented at it.”

What psychological problems? “Well, this [show] is part of it. If you tie all of your hopes to the net product of your work, then you’re going to get depressed because sometimes you feel like you’re working really well and then you watch it and you go, ‘I am terrible.’ I don’t watch my stuff any more.

I assure him he is excellent in The Crown, but it was a one-off gig. Series three will be recast with older actors (he thinks Paul Bettany would be a good choice). “Peter Morgan [the writer] said, ‘I’ve just written the most fantastic argument for Tony and Margaret in series three.’ I was, like, ‘Oh good. What a thrill for the next guy.’ ”

He got the part days after Lord Snowdon died in January this year, 15 years after Margaret. His death avoids any unpleasant collisions in restaurants and Goode hopes that none of his children will want to spit in his face. He reports that Matt Smith was introduced to Prince William at a function before the first series was shown. The prince said he had heard he was playing his grandfather, Prince Philip. “And Matt was, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, anything to say about that?’ And William just said, ‘LEGEND.’ ”

“I think as we come towards where we are now, it will be slightly uneasy and slightly problematic. I think it could open up a few wounds that people are still a little bit grieving over and feeling complicated about. Poor old Charles is probably going to get it in the neck. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m out of there already.”

In one way, however, Lord Snowdon did members of the royal family a favour. The show’s slogan is that “the crown always wins”. In the Snowdon case, monarchic tradition was unable to prevent Margaret and her husband from divorcing and pursuing happiness with others. Perhaps without their example, Charles, Anne and Andrew might still be all miserably married. The Snowdons were trailblazers!

“Were they the first? They were. Yes, they were! So, the trailblazers. Trailblazers is a word that suits them extremely well,” Goode says enthusiastically.

And for that, let us all take off our caps to Lord Snowdon. The Crown series two is available on Netflix from December 8

Updated Aug 7, 2018 - Matthew Goode is nominated for an Emmy Guest Actor Drama for his performance in The Crown season 2. He will be next seen as Matthew Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches premieres Sept 14 on Sky One. Also The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Aug 10 on Netflix, and Ordeal by Innocence Aug 10 on Amazon Prime.

#matthew goode #matthewgoode #lord snowdon #vanessa kirby #the crown

[renegadewangs]

Heya folks! Usually, I avoid doing posts like this, but for this particular matter I figured I might as well. You see, I play Sherlock Holmes (Dai Gyakuten Saiban version) in a Dreamwidth RP game, and I am in search of a certain castmate. Or, well, several castmates, but one in particular. Anyone who knows me well enough should know which one it is.

Have I caught your interest? Then keep reading!

So let's start off by giving you some more info! The game I'm referring to is called Empatheias and as I already inferred, it can be found on Dreamwidth, which is a sort of journal page. If you remember Livejournal, Dreamwidth is basically that, minus the spambots and advertising. In order to join the game, one has to fill out an application and post it at the appropriate time of the month. Doing a 'test drive' thread in that month's meme beforehand is also highly encouraged. While there are many different games on DW, this one in particular is panfandom and what some might refer to as a 'jamjar'. Characters are mysteriously drawn to this world through powers unknown and as they can't get home of their own volition, they can only make the best of their situation so long they're stranded there. Because characters can be 'apped' from different time points in canon, the theory that always goes around is that when they're in this other world, time stands still for them in their own world. Or rather, when they eventually return home, they will be at the exact point in time when they left and retain no memories of the weird other world they were in. For that reason, they can do their best to just... chill and not freak out about that world-destroying monster or important murder investigation they just left behind. What's special about Empatheias is that the world (as well as the story we're building together) is influenced by a character's emotions. While you can find more information here, the short version is that emotions affect surroundings. If a character is happy, light might shine brighter or bubbles might float around them. If they're sad, it might rain above their head. If they're scared, a tiny localized earthquake... You may come up with these sorts of effects on your own and be as creative as you want. Emotions on a larger scale also affect the 'emotion deities' known as Arehtei and even the world itself, which has been mostly ruined by toxic negativity and, aside from several small civilizations, is pretty much dead. There's locals (NPCs) living in the cities, though! Player Characters have eventually become known as Otherworlders, which is an easy enough term to throw around. Characters can move between the civilizations, which all have slightly different technology and cultural traits because they were separated from each other for many years. Verens, the main city for arrival, is mostly steampunky in aesthetic and advancements. You can find more details about all the locations here! There's also monsters to fight, weird plants, occasionally ghosts... It's great fun! Also, there's a special telepathy network which allows for Player Characters to get in touch with one another. In the practical sense, it means any telepathy post is submitted to the network community. This allows for serious discussions and also for shenanigans, because who doesn't like someone talking in their head in the middle of the night, right? They can also meet up in person anywhere in the city, for which we mostly use the log community But you want to know more hands-on stuff, don't you? You want to hear stories, right? Well. Let's talk about my Holmes... Since the 6th of April, he's been in the game for two years already. When I originally applied him, his canon point was the end of the first game (because that's where canon halted back then). During that time, I made sure to be as ambiguous as possible about loose plot threads from the DGS series and boy, was I glad that I did. At the end of November last year, I 'canon updated' him to a very particular moment at the beginning of case 2-4. Yes, he returned to Empatheias with blue hair. It was great. His one steadfast castmate is Naruhodou, who was apped by my buddy Taisa at the same time as Holmes and has been his housemate ever since. Naruhodou's canon point is still the end of the first game at the moment. We were joined by an Asougi (Kazuma) at the start of December last year. Now, Asougi's canon point is spoilery and problematic. I'll just cough something about the end of case 3, here, DGS2 buffs will know what I mean. I could tell many a story, but instead of doing that, I'll just post some of his finest threads! It'll give a nice impression of what the RP is like. - Holmes's first arrival, many moons ago - That time there was an earthquake and instead of coming to Naruhodou's rescue, Holmes started an argument about turtle ducks. - That time he discussed Father's Day with Trucy Wright. - That time Naruhodou became a crystal statue and Holmes decided to take advantage of the free reign to assemble an advanced chemistry kit. (also there are kittens.) - That time Holmes was introduced to Trucy's magic panties. - That time he received a steampunky violin for his birthday - And here we have Caster from the Fate verse speaking very casually about that time she killed Sherlock Holmes in her own universe. - Holmes sends out a telepathic query about dancing lessons without paying attention to his phrasing. - And that time Holmed discussed slang with Maya Fey. Then also spirit channeling and the internet. - Sherlock returns from his canon update and there were DGS2 spoilers and feelings everywhere. - Asougi insists on confronting Holmes after arriving a week later, serving to complicate everything further. - The actual truth about the four names is deduced another week or so later. - Naruhodou goes to ask about Holmes's partner because he is getting suspicious about that whole thing. The matters of Gregson and Van Zieks also come up briefly. If you're interested in joining us, feel free to ask me questions on anything and everything! I can help with setting up an account on Dreamwidth and finding source materials for icons! Give us Susato, give us Iris, give us Van Zieks, give us Holmes's precious partner-- Give us anyone!~ Don't want to commit to a huge game but still interested in playing? There's such a thing as a 'musebox' where one can just play out really casual scenarios without being part of a grander community. It's also perfect for testing your RP merit if you don't feel up to a game's Test Drive post. Let me know and I can set something up on my own musebox! Here's a few more interesting links: - The index page with all important Empatheias info pages. - The FAQ page for Empatheias. - A shortened guide to DW RP. - An elaborate guide written specifically for Tumblr Rpers.

#dgs #the RP life #Holmes is occasionally lonely #it is tragic #send an adult to keep him out of trouble

[drarrylovebot-blog]

Merlin, I Love Him.

Prompt: Drarry with Divorced!Hinny and little side of Scorbus.

(Yes, I finally write Scorbus. Please forgive me for making personal characterization on Scorpius and Albus as I haven’t read The Curse Child.)

Dedicated for @outtacuppa, hope you like this one.

Sometime around midnight, the Floo in the Manor is finally ablaze with green fire. Draco Malfoy makes his entrance inside the vast living room, while Scorpius and Albus sit before the chimney, curiously looking at him. Feeling a little bit vulnerable, Draco follows their action and sits before them to make a circle.

“So?” Scorp starts asking with a barely contained excitement. “Father, spill the whole story!” Draco smiles at him once before shaking his head.

“Mr. Malfoy?” Albus’ very familiar green eyes get very confused in a sudden.

“Well, we had a very lovely date, but he said no.” Draco sighs –huh, even his sigh sound small and sad. Potter has really done a number on him.

“HE SAID NO?!” Albus snaps; tsk, very much like his father. Albus once again starts pacing on the expensive rug, trying to wrap his mind on this piece of information. After a very long moment, he can’t conjure a single idea. “But why?” he finally asks softly. Scorp looks at the both of them with heavy concern.

“I don’t know, he didn’t explain.” Draco eyes fall to the hand that is holding his. Scorp squeezes once, telling his father that he’s here with him. Draco smiles at him.  “Hey, Al, it’s okay, yeah?” Draco tries to soothe the fuming boy in front of him. “It’s okay, he must have his reasons.” Albus only shakes his head sadly, which makes Draco stands up and hugs the boy. Huh, shouldn’t he be the one getting hugged?

“I can try to talk some sense into him?” Albus asks quietly and tightens his hug on Draco’s being.

“Hey, no, Al, there’s no need for that. It’s okay, let him sleep on it, maybe one day he’ll be ready to spill his reasons. Not today.” Albus steps back from the hug and turn his sad eyes to Scorp, which makes Draco chuckles. “Hey, none of that, either. Your friendship should not be tainted with whatever’s going on with your parents. Go keep being friends or whatever.” Albus smiles softly at Draco.

“What about you? What will happen after this?”

“Well, I think I’ll open one of my best bottles of wine tonight and enjoy that. Time will reveal the rest, Albus. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay, eventually.” Albus nods at that.

“Well then, I’ll bid you all adieu. For what it’s worth, I believe you deserved better, Mr. Malfoy. See you at Kingcross in two days, Scorp!”

“Send my birthday wishes to your father.”

“Will do.” And with that, Albus’ form is being consumed by the green fire.

“Need a company tonight, Dad?” Scorp asks his father innocently, which Draco laughs openly. It’s good to hear his laugh.

“There’s no way young man. You’re barely 14!” And then Draco feels the force of Scorpius hug.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” Scorp says quietly with heavy concern in his voice. Draco strokes his blond hair and smiles at him.

“I’ll be okay.”

Lie.

“It’s only a rejected proposal, Scorp.”

Blatant lie.

“Us, Malfoys, are much stronger than that.”

Absolute, total, downright bollocks.

*

“Morning, dad.” Albus runs down the stair before attacking his father in a big hug. Harry chuckles at that, but even then Albus can hear the tiredness in his voice. He steps back to examine his father condition –definitely not getting any sleep, judging by the dark circles under his eyes. He sighs softly and goes back to hugging his father in a gentler manner. “I have a lot of things I want to say to you in anger right now, but I believe you need a hug more. Happy birthday, dad. For all the right reason, I believe you just made your biggest mistake.” Albus only feels his father’s hug gets tighter and a soft, tired sigh fanning his hair.

*

The Kingcross Station is busy as ever, just like every other week days. Both Harry and Albus walk through the wall that will lead them to Platform 9 ¾. Harry was just finished loading Albus’ trunk into the train when someone pulls him to the side. He goes straight to hug the person when he sees who it is.

“I miss you so much! Why didn’t you visit this month?” he starts fussing James’ hair and face before pulling him back into his chest.

“I miss you too, Dad, sorry I’m seriously busy this month, but I swear I’ll write to you every weekend.” Harry pouts at that, which makes James laughs. “Okay, I’ll stay at yours two weeks before school starts again after Christmas holiday.” Harry’s face must be lit like a Christmas tree.

“Deal. Where’s Ginny? Will she be okay with that arrangement?”

“Oh, I have my way to sway her, don’t worry.”

“Do me a favor and look out for Al at school?”

“Don’t worry, Dad, he has a Malfoy for that. Like father like son, yeah?” James grins at him while playfully raising his brows. Harry’s mood instantly depleted, which makes James frowns. “Oh, trouble in paradise?” Harry only shakes his head with a smile.

“Nothing that concerns you. Have fun at school.”

“Okay.” James goes back for a last hug. “I really miss you.”

“I miss you too, go.” With that James runs to his friends. But there’s someone who suddenly hugs him again, when he turns his body, he’s being greeted with a bushy hair. He immediately hugs her back, but then received a smack on his head. “Ow! Nice to see you too, Hermione.”

“Oh, Harry, why would you even do that? I heard the news just before when I met Al and Scorp.” Harry frowns at her, but Hermione only hugs him again. “I believe you’ll do the right thing, but for whatever you choose, I also believe that he deserve an explanation at the very least.” Harry smiles at that. Hermione is always dependable.

“Rose and Hugh are inside already?”

“Yes, Ron is currently with Ginny and Dean, probably talking about Quidditch. I saw Teddy earlier, he’s looking for you. Go find him!” Hermione shoos him with her hands. It’s not long when Harry finally finds Teddy.

“Teddy!” Teddy’s blue hair is wild under the sun, but suddenly turns into Harry’s black hair, head searching for his Godfather, and then he runs toward Harry, enveloping him in a big hug. What’s with everyone and hugging today? “Hi, old man, ready for your last year?”

“As ready as I can be. Will it be hard?” Harry can see how nervous Teddy is.

“Dunno, never attend my seventh year.” Harry grins, which earns him a smack on his arm.

“I’m serious!”

“Hey, you’re gonna be fine. Seriously, just study hard for your NEWT and it will all be okay. You’re Head Boy, yeah? Put that badge on and show them Teddy Lupin can do anything, especially getting an O on his NEWTs. You’ll be fine.” Teddy smiles sadly at him.

“Will you though? I heard the news. Why Harry? I thought the both of you are happy? Well, at least I’ve never seen you happier than the last four years.” Harry only shakes his head.

“Don’t worry your head over it, it’s okay.” Then Teddy glares at him.

“Well, he’s not okay. Scorp comes to the station alone, Harry. Draco’s still my cousin, so please, fix whatever this is. Make it right even though you chose to break up with him.” Teddy scolds him in a sharp tone before hugging him once and disappears in the throng of students.

“Hi, Mr. Potter!” Harry looks at his right only to find Scorp’s head slips between the compartment’s windows.

“Scorp! You could come with us this morning, you know we won’t mind. Al will be ecstatic.” Scorpius only shakes his head and smiles softly.

“It’s okay, I’ll see Albus in here anyway.” Harry frowns.

“I’m sorry.” He finally says guiltily.

“Not to me, Mr. Potter, no to me.” Scorp only grins before his head is being replaced by Albus.

“Dad, you and I both know how you’re head over heels for him. So whatever the reason behind this spurt in the moment action to reject him, please fix it. We both have our eyes on our Malfoys, yeah? So go get him, and I’ll go get mine. Well, at least tell him why you deny the proposal. He deserves that much and even more for putting up to your shits for the last four years.” Albus honestly just yell at Harry. Many people look at their direction with amused smiles, but the blond hair boy that stands beside Albus in the compartment just stand in shock with his mouth slightly agape.

“Wh-what?” Albus can hear Scorp stutters beside him, so he looks at his poor friend. “What did you just say?” Albus smiles sheepishly, he hasn’t think about what would come out of his mouth before. The blush creeps through his neck to the tip of his ears.

“I said we both have our eyes on our Malfoys, so go get him, and I’ll go get mine.” Scorpius is looking at Albus with wide grey eyes. It cannot get anymore embarrassing than this, so he groans and pulls Scorpius towards him. Both of their lips meet in a hesitant kiss, Albus is giving Scorpius a wide berth to step back and run, but after a moment Scorp’s hands find their home on the nape of Albus’ neck. He takes a step forward and loses himself in the softness of Albus’ lips. They don’t stop, even after the train starts moving, and Harry’s form is out of sight, they don’t stop.

*

Harry understands that his relationship has never worked out before. First with Cho, then with Ginny. He and Ginny got back together about three years after the war, after Harry was certain that he has his mental in a healthy state. It worked for awhile, they had James just at the first years of marriage, and then they had Albus two years after James. At first it was alright, Harry was content and somehow he believed that their family was enough, until one day, it wasn’t. Ginny didn’t want him to be an Auror. Ginny wanted to resume her occupation on Quidditch. Harry didn’t want that because who’s gonna look after James and Albus if the both of them are always out on the field. So, Harry stopped working on the field, he gave up his job to work with high rank behind the desk. He didn’t regret that, he was glad he did that for his kids. But one argument became two, and suddenly there were two dozens of problematic issues inside their family, thus Ginny asked for a divorce. Harry regrets that –oh not the divorce, but how his children had to witness their parents being divorced when James was just starting at Hogwarts and Albus was 9.

Ginny continued her life as a Chaser –a really good one, and then two years after their divorce, she moved on with Dean. James is in her custody as Albus is in his. Albus went to Hogwarts, met with Scorp, and became best buddies. Stick at the hip those two, hence the forced friendship of their fathers. Forced friendship became comfortable company, and then they became each other safe harbour. Before Albus finished his first year, the once so called arch enemy had declared themselves as lovers. That relationship goes strong for four years, until two days ago, when Draco suddenly asked Harry to marry him and he refused.

He knows he’s a complete jerk because when people ask about his reasons, he can’t even conjure one. He didn’t explain anything to Draco. He didn’t explain anything to anyone as he doesn’t even know the answer himself. Does he love Draco? Oh Merlin, he’s worse than Albus’ adoration towards Scorp. Harry is seriously head over heels for the Malfoy Senior. So he’s still quite confused himself on why he rejected the proposal. Hence the reason on why he has been locking himself inside his house for the last two week, searching for those absurd reasons on why he refused the proposal from the only person he ever love that hard.

After two weeks, he finally collects enough courage to stand in front of the Manor grand door. He rings the bell couples of times but there’s no answer, so he lets himself in with the key Draco once gave him. Hunting for Draco Malfoy inside his Manor turns to be a frustrating job when the Manor is as silent as the Forbidden Forest. He almost leaves when he thinks that the house is empty, but he makes sure to check every single room first. Harry finally finds Draco inside one of the guests room, the room they always occupy when Draco and Harry is in the mood for more thorough exploration towards each other. Draco is sleeping, curled into a small ball on the mattress. At first, Harry is relieved to find him in a peaceful state, but then he notices that Draco’s breath is slow –too slow for a sleeping human. He immediately spots a couple of phials on the bedside drawer. Calming Draught –Harry decides after sniffing it.

Shit.

Drinking two phials of Calming Draught all at once is fucking suicide.

“Draco! Draco!” Harry turns the sleeping body to his back, noticing the dark circles under his eyes even as he sleeps. Oh Draco. Harry fishes his wand from the holder in his ribs before pointing it at Draco’s heart. “Ennervate!” Nothing, the heartbeats are still to slow. “Ennervate!” At that Draco jerks and gasps, his eyes opening in a shock manner. “Thank Merlin, oh Draco, thank Merlin!” Harry mutters under his breath. Draco’s eyes focus on the person before him.

“Harry?” he asks confusedly, which makes Harry’s blood boils in anger.

“What are you doing, Draco?! You of all people should know everything about potion! You git, what are you trying to achieve by downing two phials of Calming Draught?! Merlin, I have to hit you twice with Ennervate, fuck , Malfoy! You want to kill yourself, is that it?!” Draco only stares at Harry with wide eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

“I am here because I want to apologize for being an arsehole! I thought you’ll be here being sad, or angry beyond reason, or whatever, and I want to fix my mistakes, but no, Draco, I found you almost dead! Fuck, I can’t do this. Sort yourself, I’m downstairs if you want to talk.” With that he leaves Draco and goes downstairs, preparing tea for two. After a few moments, Harry finally calms down and Draco finally sits beside him on the sofa, looking more collected than before, but still not the usual Malfoy’s look. His long blond hair for once is free on his back, not being brushed or styled to perfection. Harry notices he has lost weight, face has become a bit pointier, high sharp cheekbones more pronounce than ever, but the dark circles under his eyes completed his haughty look. “You look like shit.”

“I have mirrors if you want to compare our looks.” Draco snaps sharply.

“How long did you sleep?”

“18 hours.”

“Oh Draco…” Harry’s common sense seems to run out of the window because he suddenly hugs Draco’s form without a care in the world. Draco goes rigid under Harry’s display of affection, but after a few seconds he turns around and melts himself inside Harry’s embrace. He feels like a lost little child, vulnerable and sad, but Harry’s embrace is warm and safe so he just melts a little deeper. Harry’s strokes on his long hair feel comforting. This is right. This is where Draco feels the safest. “I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.”

“Why?” Draco’s voice is small and wobbles a bit, which makes Harry hugs him a little bit tighter.

“Honestly, Draco, I don’t even know the exact reason, and I know that you won’t accept that kind of answer, but two weeks of searching and I still cannot figure out why I say no to you.”

“Harry, you do understand you fucking embarrassed me that night, don’t you? So you better have a very good reason on why you said no to me, or I can’t do this anymore.” Draco gets out of Harry’s warm embrace. Harry can see the tears in Draco’s eyes and it breaks his heart all over again. After a moment of silence from Harry’s part, Draco doesn’t actually know what to do. He feels played, embarrassed; he feels cheap. He gave everything of him to this man for three years, but even then he can’t get a solid reason on why he’s being rejected, over and over again –oh yeah, he did remember that this is not the first time he’s being rejected by the famous Harry Potter. Harry suddenly traps his face in his hands and stares deep into his eyes.

“I love you, Draco Malfoy, don’t you ever dare think otherwise even for a second. I fucking love you, so don’t you dare think that I don’t care about you. You’re there beside Albus, and James, and Scorpius on my number one priority. I’m sorry I was an arsehole, I don’t know why I don’t accept your proposal, and I’m not gonna give any excuses. Maybe you caught me off guard, maybe I’m not ready, maybe because I always fail on relationships, maybe I’m afraid you’ll be another Ginny and I don’t want you to be another person I divorced, maybe just because I lost my bloody mind that night. I don’t know, and I’m sorry that I can’t give you any solid reason, but I love you. I love you so very much, and I wanna stay with you until we’re grey and old. I have sorted my mind for the last two weeks, and here I am asking you to take me back, pleading for you to not let me go. And maybe… if you’re still willing, I would like it very much to say yes to your previous offer.” Harry says softly while his thumb keeps wiping the tears that come out of Draco’s eyes. “Please stop crying, Merlin, it breaks my heart to see you like this. I love you, okay? I love you very much, Draco, and I can’t even imagine having a life without you in it, so marry me, Draco Malfoy, marry me?” Draco laughs wetly at that, some twinkles seeps back into his grey eyes.

“Excuse me? No, I propose to you first, we’re not gonna turn this table around.” Draco chuckles again.

“Then, yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.” Harry smiles widely.

“You’re certain this time?” Draco asks as he takes the abandon ring in his pocket and slips it into Harry’s fourth finger when Harry nods with any hesitation. He examines the ring for a second before laughing in amazement and throwing himself into Harry’s embrace.

“I love you, God, I love you so much. Please don’t leave me at the altar?” Harry only tightens his hug.

“There’s no way I let you get snatched by other men, Draco Malfoy, God, I love you too.”

#drarry #drabble #divorced!hinny #scorbus #harry potter #draco malfoy #albus potter #scorpous malfoy #ron weasley #hermione granger #ginny weasley #dean thomas #i love scorbus! #i hate harry potter in the cursed child #ginafics

[sic-vita]

Addressing the misconceptions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Ok, so I’ve been scrolling through Tumblr and seeing posts bashing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and I just felt I wanted to address some of the reasons for why it’s deemed as awful and “not canon”.

FIRSTLY, it’s a script NOT a novel. I think many of the problems come with people reading it as a novel – but having said that, I can’t blame them because the play at the moment is accessible to less than 0.01% of Harry Potter fans. Still, it is A SCRIPT and words on the page might not translate the way they do on stage.

SECONDLY, “canon” is a term used to describe an officialised body of work ie. The canonical scriptures, the literary canon – with regards to the contemporary world, canon means the works created officially by the author, as opposed to works by fans. So to say a work created by the author and her aides themselves is “fanfiction” is just weird because it is linguistically not accurate, no matter how much the work feels like how fan works would normally read. Whether someone personally agrees with it as an addition to an existing series, it is canon because it is created by the author and people she has worked with, not fans.

Having said this, it is up to people if they want to see Cursed Child as the “eighth story”. As much as I like it, I prefer to keep the seven novels as an enclosed, definitive unit and see Cursed Child just as an exploration and extension of the Harry Potter world, rather than a concrete “eighth story”.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not saying the play is perfect – there are bizarre bits ie. The trolley witch becoming Wolverine etc. but that a lot of the accusations laid on the play are just unfair and unjustified because they aren’t thought through clearly – they’re random bits of information floating online that people jump on and then repeat WITHOUT CONTEXT

MISCONCEPTIONS AND DEBUNKING THEM:

1.       The Timeturner plot doesn’t make sense

In Prisoner of Azkaban, the timeturner only went back A FEW HOURS – here they are going back years. Even in POA, they were warned that timeturners run the risk of the user going back to accidentally kill themselves – which is impossible if it really works along the fixed timeline that POA purports. Cursed Child SPECIFICALLY states that these timeturners are different and hence so dangerous because of how they can go back decades ago to change things up.

What I LOVE about the timeturner plot is it addresses the very simple, basic question of whether we can bring someone back from the dead – so many fans have asked why doesn’t Harry go back in time to bring back his parents/Sirius/whoever else etc. – and this shows why:

The past belongs in the past – even if it’s painful and terrible, we have to accept the past and leave behind our regrets over it. And I think it’s a beautiful message.

2.       Why is Hugo/Neville/Teddy/xx character not in the play

Again, it is A PLAY – it isn’t a 500 page novel with a full range of characters to deal with – the play focuses mostly on two boys and it already runs over five hours. A play doesn’t cover every single thing especially in a very extensive world like JKR’s. It just goes with the format of the media. Yes, it would have been nice to see these characters but it would have been even weirder if they appeared on stage and then didn’t follow through by being the focal point of the plot.

3.       Why don’t they show in-between bits like: how the polyjuice potion was brewed, how xx learnt about xx etc etc.

This follows on from the previous question – which is that in a play there are time skips, jumps and montages because people are physically sitting in a theatre watching things unfold in real-time. If all the in-between bits were filled in, everyone would be there for days.

4.       How can Cedric ever be a death eater??

Yes, people are right. In the world JKR built Cedric would never be a death eater. But that’s precisely the point – in that segment of the play, they were in an ALTERNATE REALITY where even good, kind Scorpius could be someone that tortures his fellow students. This is an ALTERNATE REALITY CEDRIC – and I like how it shows everyone has light and dark in them and they choose which part to act on. Even the sweetest people like Cedric and Scorpius can be embittered and made dark if they chose to act on that part of themselves – and isn’t that an enlightening commentary on human nature itself?

5.       Harry’s parenting: “I wish you weren’t my son”

People quote this line as if Harry said it out of the blue to Albus. IN CONTEXT, Albus’ line before this is “I wish you weren’t my dad” – in the play, Albus has been provoking and pushing Harry before this by mocking his past and his heroism and Harry finally snaps. Parents aren’t perfect and Harry definitely isn’t. I love how they explore Harry’s issues in being a father and his own problematic father figures in his youth – that confrontation with Dumbledore was something I’ve always wanted.

6.       Harry being a douche and keeping Scorpius from Albus

IN CONTEXT, this happened during the first ALTERNATE REALITY where Harry is clearly a different person from the usual one. He’s rude and more bad-tempered than usual and he snaps at McGonagall and Ginny. Perhaps it isn’t so obvious on page, but on stage when the alternate realities occur and everyone is suddenly different and even the stage is set up differently, it’s very clear that this is NOT THE SAME – people are “out of character” PRECISELY BECAUSE it is an ALTERNATE REALITY 

7.       Harry is Out of Character

Not sure if these people remembered book 5 Harry – when that book came out I thought he was out of character too. Harry had a temper and he shouted and he sometimes was bad at communicating his feelings – it’s quintessential Harry – I don’t see what’s out of character about that.

8.       Queerbaiting

Yes I agree that Scorpius asking Rose out came as a surprise even in the theatre, but the way the actors played it was also so ambiguous. Rather than the scene being a straightforward rejection of an Albus-Scorpius relationship, I felt the acting left it very open. Scorpius asks out Rose, but then he hugs Albus and says he has a “new version” of them in his head. So clearly, it is more complex and ambiguous than people think.

9.       Voldemort has a daughter

Again, this does come out as a shocker but it isn’t as outrageous as it is on page. People say Voldemort can’t have children because he doesn’t know love – then again, sexual activity may take place without love, which it probably did in Voldemort’s case. It’s not something that is completely improbable but it does come as a twist in the plot which makes for very entertaining theatre.

10.   Snape is redeemed in a way that overlooks his previous character flaws

Two words: ALTERNATE REALITY – Scorpius met a Snape that saw Harry Potter die, a Snape that failed both Lily and Harry and was fighting a lost cause with hardly any support this time. There was no Order of Phoenix or guidance from Dumbledore. So it is clear that this Snape behaves differently. Also, I saw it as a way for someone to finally tell Snape that his sacrifice was acknowledged – in the main books, Snape’s work is never known until after he dies, but now he just gets to hear that people acknowledge his heroism (and he was heroic, though deeply flawed and a terrible teacher)

11.   Cursed Child erases the “all was well” from the last book

Yes. And I love it. “All was well” was so unrealistic. These were people who’ve been through so much, can they really live life normally and calmly with nothing else happening to them? At the very least, they have to deal with the trauma of battling as children and teenagers, and especially for Harry, all the baggage and tragedy he carries with him. And I LOVE that Cursed Child dealt with that unflinchingly.

If there are other questions and comments people have on the play, I’ll love to hear and discuss it and even add to this list. Just thought that since the same arguments were being rehashed again and again, I’d want to at least add my piece to it and give my thoughts.

#Harry Potter #Harry potter and the cursed child #the cursed child #hpcc #cursed child

[dyethil]

Gender is confusing

But i really want to try to explain it to myself and hopefully help others understand too...

Before reading; i would like to quickly state that i am supportive of all genders, you can be whatever you want to be, fuck the binary and gender stereotypes. be both, boy, girl or neither. and try not to be offended by my statements as it is not my intention, if you have a problem hmu:))

gender is such a vast and open concept that it is really hard for me to wrap my head around. i've seen many perspectives on gender but none of them seem to explain it so i can understand. and i'm sure there are many in the same position as i am. i have had friends tell me that gender is male female and non binary and that's all it simply is. but i don't think it is that simple. i have tried to argue my point but have either been shut down by them or by myself because i'm too confused about my own opinion.

so let's start with the definition of 'gender' that can be found on google:

the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones).

and now the first definition of gender found on the urban dictionary exemplifying  how individuals see gender themselves:

A reflection of one's self-image as relating to sexual nature. There are, in general, three genders...

in our modern world, we are changing the way that we see many thing. it is all completely based around acceptance. for example, countries around the world accept sexualities other than heterosexuality. and honestly i think this is amazing! i believe that all people should be treated equally no matter race, gender, ethnicity, religion... the list goes on.

but there are some issues with this, some people like to compare legalising "gay marriage" with things like pedophilia and beastiality which is completely disrespectful to compare homosexuality to, but they do provide a point; if we are letting homosexuals be together shouldn't everyone else be allowed to be together too (e.g incest)? which i know is a completely stupid question that shouldn't even be asked as it's because of our moral code and how we collectively view the circumstance in which we see relationships between two blood relatives gross because it simply is, relationships between a young child and adult is also completely disgusting and should not even be tolerated. but if we do not accept these relationships, why homo and hetero sexuality? (i do not intend to offend anyone with this comment about me believing that they provide a point, as i was not only dragging down homosexuality but also heterosexuality. my sincerest apologies if it did come off as if i was just dragging homosexuality.)

it is the same when it comes to gender; there are some people that compare it to completely different concepts but it does make you question the ideology of "non binary" for example in the comments of the video that i will link and discuss later;

"I'm white. Can I say I identify as black? I'm 27. Can I say I identify as 65? I can see. Can I say I identify as blind? When I cut myself I bleed, but I heal. Can I say I identify as a haemophiliac? I'm have breasts and a vagina. Can I say I identify as male?

These people are so detached from reality it's scary.”

This person has compared transgender to many different things which are… well completely different to transgender. But it’s comments like these which i cannot exactly argue because for the top ones, yes they are correct but they are not right to compare it to transgender.

this is the video i watched on youtube; but before you watch it let me warn you that there are some people with very controversial opinions that will make you want to scream. (the comment section is even worse)

the entire time i was watching this; i was cringing at most of the arguments. but my problem is that one side produce a very extreme opinion. the extreme binary side provided points about how people are born female and male and no in-between simply because thats what they are therefore they must stay that way. The woman in the blue dress refusing to refer to "this woman here, who is clearly a women, as they" is completely ridiculous and unfair. if someone were to ask you to refer/not refer to them as something, you should comply and do your best to treat them with this respect. the issue here is that the woman in the blue dress expects everyone to meet her expectations and beliefs, yet she will not budge when someone contradicts this and wishes for her to meet theirs.

"the suffragettes would be appalled"- correct me if i'm wrong but the suffragettes were fighting for equality in a time when people were strictly male or female and gender fluidity was unheard. this statement is completely irrelevant and the context is incorrect.

to summarise my opinion on this video; we need to respect people's pronouns, you can't expect people to treat you fairly if you don't treat them in the same way and respect people's pronouns.

but this does not really explain gender to me. if we see gender as something that people would like to be referred to, where does genitalia come into play? i do understand that whether you have a penis or a vagina should be completely out of the question but it just really confuses me. is genitalia just completely disregarded? i think it really depends on how the person views them self. they may see them self as male, who cares if they have a penis. yes they have a vagina but they see them self as non binary. the problem that i have with this is the fact that it still doesn't quite explain 'gender'... here i am simply referring to pronouns; but in most cases, this is gender. but to me it doesn't quit hit the nail of the head. there is still something missing.

when we see someone walking down the street, we don't pay much attention to what they are wearing, what their hair is like and what their gender is. but there are some cases when we do see someone and based on their build we immediately think "ah yes he" or "ah yes she". this is. based on their build. people originating in the 'male gender' have a particular build to them the most noticeable to me being broader shoulders. same goes with people originating from the 'female gender' having a smaller frame. this is consistent with every body type, in my opinion. the fact that non binary is not a familiar concept to most people, most of the time we immediately assume their gender being male or female. this is problematic to the gender fluidity ideology as it is hard to picture this concept when most people will see an individual as either male or female. but as soon as you say "wuddup i'm female/male/non-binary" i can assure you that people will see you that way, but of course it will take some time to get used to the pronouns. genitalia and build will no longer matter, they will see you as your preferred gender.

and i think i just answered my question. 

gender is how others see you. it may not be respectful to your preferred pronouns, but if you tell them what you would like to be referred to; this person will see you the way you see yourself, unless they are an asshole like blue dress lady.

**i am not claiming that this is the universal definition of gender, but it has helped me understand the concept and hopefully will help someone else understand this concept, just like the two definitions at the start probably helped someone have an understanding of gender.**

in the end; i think we are better off not questioning anything, we are also better off not trying to explain it as people have tried to do to me in the past. their explanations are too general, male, female, non binary. but it's far more complex than that. rather than explaining it, i think we just need to accept it. and by it i mean whatever it is that the individual wants you to refer to them as. yes you may say boobs, and you may see a dick, but in the end, they are what ever they want to be and we need to be supportive of it no matter what.

***i tried so hard not to be problematic so i'm extremely sorry if i offended you, if you are offended by something i said, please pm me because i'm trying to educate myself on this and i would love to know your opinion. just please don't shout at me!! so let me know if you have any conflicting thoughts, i would love to know your opinions and i might even make an updated 'corrected' version.***

#gender #gender fludity #gender fluid #nonbinary #pronouns #transgender