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licncourt · 8 months

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Have you read TVA and Blood and Gold? I would LOVE your rundown on all the historical inaccuracies in BaG.

Unfortunately yes, I have read those with my eyes :/

(the Marius/Armand pederasty conversation I've been meaning to have for like a year below the cut btw)

I wish I hadn't read B&G so young, I didn't have the breadth of knowledge or the foresight to mark anything for later when I was sixteen. I'd reread it for this exact analysis but really I don't think I have it in me so memory and ctrl + f to confirm will have to suffice.

Honestly, the biggest problem I had with it wasn't inaccuracies so much as the fact that the whole book reads like a Wikipedia entry. It's so clumsy and dry, it feels like AR just wants us to know how many Roman Facts she learned. It overshadows the story rather than adds to it. Fr, read this (if you can stand it).

There was not one reason in the world that she needed to explain the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in that level of detail, and that's coming from me. This sounds like a bad undergrad paper from a student who wants to prove they did the reading.

The whole book feels like this except when it detours into creepy and pedophilic, and I just don't need my vampire book to explain the Council of Nicaea AND the Edict of Milan AND the Parthian Wars AND the Vatican wall frescoes AND the Medici bank and a million other things to me like I'm in a survey lecture. It's mind-numbing for me and this is literally what I DO, so I can only imagine how other people must feel with no context or particular interest in this stuff.

It's not that she's WRONG per say, it's more that she clearly has no understanding of these subjects outside the rote recitation of facts. It's just regurgitated bullet points about Roman history and the Italian Renaissance. She also repeats some well known apocryphal stories in there, but I'm going to be generous and hope she doesn't think these are facts (like the Chi-Rho epiphany).

If anything seems sus and I don't remember it though, feel free to send it to me and I can yay or nay the information to the best of my ability!

*cw here for discussion of CSA*

With that said, I do think AR had a very skewed understanding of the pederastic dynamic or was choosing to ignore it, which is unfortunate considering how attached she was to the idea. A lot of my thesis research coincided with Greco-Roman pederastic tradition, so it's a pet peeve of mine when it's misapplied. It's not an uncommon problem (Call Me By Your Name has this going on too), but authors sending gay relationships with a rapey age gap through a "pederasty" funnel always pisses me off.

The history of pederasty is very long and complicated and ancient (we're talking Homer and Iliad kind of old here), but the bare bones explanation of the process and logic is this:

The ancient Greeks were deeply invested in turning their upper class boys into good citizens. To accomplish this, sometimes an established adult man would woo a younger male (most often starting at 14-19 years old) with gifts and attention over an extended period of time. Once the courtship was complete and the boy's self control had been proven, there were sexual relations between the two for a period of time.

The purpose of this relationship was ultimately to educate the boy, and the physical pleasure was used as a teaching tool to establish rapport and intimacy that could then be escalated to instruction on matters of philosophy and intellect in general. Essentially using the mastery and maturation of one's body as a stepping stone to the mastery and maturation of the mind. Once the boy was appropriately prepared to enter elite male society and/or had become physically developed as a man, the relationship ended.

It's pretty obvious that she's trying to do a whole pederastic erastes/eromenos thing with Marius and Armand, but she took an already very bad and gross practice from history and muddled it up with her own awful ideas about consent from minors and sexual fantasies of a kinky student/teacher savior relationship in her vampire books.

I hate the erotic and romanticized version of pederasty that's become weirdly popular in gay media, and AR was one of the first to really do this. It just picks up the historical thread of CSA under the guise of a kid's "consent" and continues to normalize it to modern readers with a new sexy twist. Using a bastardized version of a fucked up ancient practice to implicitly justify or downplay the severity of statutory rape is simply not the move, especially when gay and bisexual men already face stigma around being predatory and pedophilic. Just don't.

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aloeverawyvren · 1 year

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A Plague On Necromancy Review

( I was supposed to get it a few days from now, but it came early! This is surprising considering mail delivery services like to pretend I don't exist . Amazon Isn't letting me leave a review rn, I'll try again though) Tldr: I liked it alot and recommend you read it.

Spoilers? Maybe? I talk about Bucklers secrets, but not what exactly they are, just my vague thoughts on them. Also this is super long so buck-ler up we're going on a road trip ( See what I did there? Haha, why are you booing me off stage?)

Oh boy, where should I start?

The concepts of necromancy and plague doctors are interesting on there own to begin with, but the way this book joins them together is really cool.

The setting is London,in the 1700's. From what I can tell its pretty historically accurate, even if it wasn't I would still enjoy it, I'm chill with historic inaccuracies. I just think its neat when stories that take place in the past go that extra mile. The magic system was really neat, it was cool- sometimes literally haha- but not to overpowered, making it more ... Is 'believable' the right word? Like it never takes you out of the story is what I'm saying, it interacts seamlessly with the world in a way that isn't clunky, if that makes sense.

Barty ( who my auto correct keeps calling Barry lol ) is our protagonist, he's a little confused but he's got the spirit. Oh, poor Barty. The author is so mean to him :( /j . Not only did his bioparents die in a fire, his adopted brother also dies, his adopted parents basically shun him, the doctor he was working with gets the plague and dies. I could go on but spoilers ya know.

Tragedy aside, Barty is relatable at least for me, blushing /embarrass easily, wanting to help people but not knowing how, crying alot and choking on food. ( no seriously he chokes like two distinct times that I can remember. Its hilarious) he's human. He has faults, failures, and troubles along side his positive traits. Its how he deals with them though that's so great I think, I liked hearing his reasoning/train of thought. his dynamics with other characters are fun too. he's also new to the whole doctoring thing, (and magic) making him a good tool for exposition.

I think I'll talk about Buckler now, I had a feeling he was gonna be a favorite of mine and I was right. James Buckler is stern but not altogether unkind, he obviously cares and like Barty he's doing his best really. His dynamic with Barty and other characters was something I liked alot. (When he first met Barty he was a little grouchy for a bit, but Barty was being nosy so it was warranted lol)

I had only heard he had one big secret, I missed the memo that there was another one. I had guessed one of them off the bat, the other one however bitch slapped me as I was only expecting one secret. (I think he should've told Jessica sooner, like I know why but still)

I think its Fabian time, there's so much to unpack with Fabian. Complicated, smart, and very cool. My thoughts when he explained the plan where "ok, what's the catch though?" But there wasn't really a catch was there? he was set up to be the villain by others and ended up being not so much a villain but more of an anti-hero? (At least in this book, he does have the (REDACTED) now doesn't he? Who knows what could happen)

AND OH MY GOD, THE TRUE LOVES KISS THING CAUGHT ME SO OFF GUARD! I WAS LIKE ?!??! it just came out of left fucking field, like "wait, he do can that?" I questioned everything I thought I knew about his powers.

Oh my god , I wanna mention some side characters! I never see anyone mention them and its sad because they are cool too!

Jack the rat catcher is great, I enjoyed all her appearances and her dog (even if Barty didn't lol) .

Agnes, also gets a shout out from me for being a good person.

The zombie rats where oddly adorable too.

Fabian 's gang is extremely interesting aswell, I'm curious about them.

Three particular people are on my shitlist however for reasons. Plot reasons.

this post is getting very long isn't it? If you've read this far, here's a cookie 🍪.

I'm not entirely done though, let's talk about the book as a whole. Its pretty short, but the pacing is good it doesn't feel too rushed or too slow. I'm a fast reader though and finished it in like two-three hours, in one and a half sittings ( I got up to get coffee and my cat sat on the book until she got the required amount of attention and pets before she deemed I could continue, I call it the Cat Tax)

There was one punctuation error I found, a quotation mark was missing after Fabian was talking ( I forgot the specific page), it wasn't to big a deal though and other than it was all good. I also liked the writing style! I'm glad i 've finally read it, it gives the ask blogs lots of context.

I can easily see this as something I would get from a bookstore or library, I think it could get pretty popular if more word got around about it honestly.

(I actually don't have a tiktok, I learned about it through Tumblr)

I enjoyed reading it!

if your reading this and have not read the book, I recommend it! All encounters I've had with the author has been positive, there's also another book about Barty meeting a dragon.

You can find links to both books on Barty's ask blog, @drbarty. Fabian has one to: @lordfabian

(Was Fabian really the one who was assassinated or me? I almost died laughing at 'shite fish' , my favorite bit . I'm still giggling)

(Also I'm going to start using 'shite fish' out of context now, )

if I remember any other notes I'll put them here.

(Readers: How much trauma do your characters have?

The author: yES/j)

(the Author: *slaps roof of characters* this bad boy can fit so many horrible backstories/j)

(Are you even a creator if you don't torture your ocs tho? I dump my ocs in a blender and put them in the microwave on high for two hours and burn the house down then refrigerate for two days, so I'm not actually judging lmao)

#a plague on necromancy #dr barty #books and reading #This post isn't proof read #there's probably spelling mistakes #SHITE FISH FROM THE RIVER THAMES #plague doctor

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blackswaneuroparedux · 3 years

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Patton and Monty at War: Unbelieving the unbearable rivalry.

Monty is trying to steal the show and with the assistance of Divine Destiny [Eisenhower] he may do so.

- General George S. Patton, on the Sicily Campaign, private diaries 16 July 1943

So every week I play my usual game of chess over a glass of wine with one of my neighbours in my Parisian apartment building. He’s a retired army general but remains active as a military historian and speaker. He’s curmudgeonly but one warms to him quickly as he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. He’s not a fan of women in the military but reluctantly concedes he would make an exception for me (besides who else could he play chess with?). We get on really well now because of the Covid lockdown this past year. We often have long discussions about military history and current politics until the bottle of wine is completely drained.

On one occasion he invited me to watch the 1969 classic war film, Patton, about the life of one of America’s greatest iconic World War Two generals, George S. Patton. It’s been years since I’ve seen it and I almost had forgotten how great the movie is with George C. Scott as Patton and Karl Malden as General Omar Bradley. We watched it in English and then discussed many things that came out of the film.

Hollywood and history usually do not mix. It is quite common for filmmakers to take a historical subject and to distort it for their purposes and to dumb it down for entertainment purposes. In the case of the movie, Patton, there was no real attempt to distort the story of Patton. It was a fantastic and stirring Hollywood movie. Moreover it was an excellent study in character given Oscar worthy heft by the great George C. Scott as the crusty General George S. Patton. Francis Ford Coppola’s script was severely under-rated.

However there remain glaring inaccuracies such as Patton’s opening speech in the movie - admittedly a an iconic bit of cinema - but even this was based on his statements and captured the character of the man, something even acknowledged by the Generals’ family.

Much of the details of his role in the defeat of Germany are true. The only real omission was the lack of focus on Patton’s Lorraine Campaign, where he distinguished himself. There are some exaggerations in the movie and some minor distortions such as in the weather-prayer scene. In general, the movie managed to produce a great overview portrayal of the character and career of an extraordinary American leader.

The film does accurately relate the leading role played by Patton in the liberation of Sicily. His daring use of armour was crucial in the defeat of the German army on the island.

However long after the film had ended I did think about one thing that irked me. And this was how the movie seemed to linger on the belief Patton was motivated by the desire to do better than General Montgomery, the victor at El Alamein. Indeed the film probably reinforced the accepted conventional wisdom that these two driven and ambitious men hated each other.

There was a great personal rivalry between the two men. They were both driven and wildly ambitious. The movie suggests that the rivalry between Montgomery and Patton was the main feature of the Sicilian Allied campaign and was perhaps a factor in why it ended so quickly with a decisive Allied victory.

The rivalry was not as intense as the motion picture suggests and the two men worked together when needed for the good of the Allied cause.

Born two years apart, both were commissioned within a year of each other and both were wounded in France in the First World War. Both men encompassed very different but very valuable characteristics in combat: Monty-careful and meticulous, Patton-dashing and diplomatic. Despite the differences, both generals demonstrated striking similarities: commitment to their careers, a ruthless egotism, interesting when you consider neither held superior command. This did not impede their desire for the limelight and fame in warfare, arrogance and the manipulation of colleagues in high places to advance their careers. Both were machiavellian in their own affairs and self-interested in their own personal progression.

The great rivalries amongst the Allies that made a real imact were Marshall and Brooke over war policy, Nimitz and MacArthur over resources, Eisenhower and Montgomery over strategy; and then between Percival and MacArthur for incompetence, Patton and O'Connor for aggressiveness, MacArthur and Clarke for vainglory, (and possibly Clarke and Wavell for the stupidity of letting defeated enemies escape), were the issues that defined the war for the Western allies.

The idea that a competition between Patton and Montgomery was more important is cute, but naive. I am not even sure where the idea comes from.

Much is made of the bet between Patton and Montgomery over reaching Palermo in Sicily first, but in practical terms that was the only time in the war that Patton ever appeared on Montgomery's radar.

For the rest of the war Monty was so much higher up the food chain than Patton that he was unaware, or disinterested in Patton's opinions. Montgomery was, by 1944, an experienced general who very successfully fought extensively in both combat and staff roles for 4 years throughout World War One. (Patton got a combat command for a few weeks when the Germans were already collapsing.) Montgomery led a division very successfully through the Battle of France, and a corps through the crucial Battle of Britain training and rebuilding years. He led an army in combat for two years, through many successful battles both on defense and in attack.

By 1944 Patton had led a corps for a few months, and an army for a few weeks. For the very brief period of the Sicily compaign they were theoretically equals in command, but probably only in Patton's mind. Montgomery saw Patton as an enthusiastic if amateurish old man but respected his aggressive boldness. Montgomery saw his HQ 'betting book' as a bit of fun (and was delighted when bet a B17 by someone who should have known better).

When he and Patton met and co-ordinated the Sicilian campaign Alexander seemed not interested in co-ordinating, Monty saw Palermo as a similar bit of fun to pursue, no bigger or smaller than the hundreds of other bets in the book.

Patton saw it, as he saw anything relating to his persona, as the most vitally important challenge of his whole life...up until the next one. Montgomery lost a bet and moved on to the next challenge. Patton won but didn't. (Or at least that is what bad writers have tried to suggest. I think he moved straight on to the next challenge anyway.)

That was the last time Monty and Patton were in direct competition, no matter what revisionists or romantics would say.

The next time Patton was allowed in the field he was one of half a dozen army commanders in Monty's Normandy army group, and, familiarly, he did not arrive until the Germans in Normandy were already collapsing. Very soon afterwards Eisenhower split off Bradley's army group, and Monty had no control, nor much interest, in what Patton was up to thereafter.

The romantics like to suggest that thereafter Monty railed against Patton's supplies, and that Patton railed against Montgomery's caution. The truth is less foolish for both of them. In fact Montgomery railed against Eisenhower's broad front strategy regardless of which of the other sub-commanders was benifitting (to the point of Montgomery making an offer to serve under Bradley as long as someone got single control to pursue a single strategy). He railed against the diversion of resources anywhere not at the main point where a thrust might have achieved early victory.

Leaving aside whether that victory could have happened, Montgomery's beef was with Eisenhower first, his appalling chief of supply Lee second, fellow Army Group Commanders who couldn't control the excesses of their subordinates like Bradley (and to a lesser extent) Devers third, and only then with the several army commanders who each tried to do their own thing.

In practical terms Montgomery seemed more appalled by the negative effects of the incompetence of Hodges (1st US Army,) and the obnoxiousness of General De Gaulle's orders to 'his' army (French First Army), and perhaps even the ineffectiveness of his own subordinate Crerar (Canadian 1st army) , than he did by Patton's enthusiasms. There is hardly a mention of Patton in his diaries through this period, compared to several comments on Bradley and De Gualle, and endless ones on Eisenhower.

Patton too is being maligned by the pretense that his war was taken up with a vain competition with Montgomery. Patton, like Montgomery, was totally concerned with the main issue of defeating Germany. But unlike Montgomery, he did not have Brooke - the Chief of Imperial General Staff - to rely on for support against Eisenhower's broad front strategy.

Patton too was convinced that this was the wrong way to go, but to get his version of a thrust (with him at the front) happening, he had to be a bit more manipulative than Montgomery.

Every word Patton used to wheedle and manipulate support, or at least a blind eye to what he was doing, was designed to get more resources from his superiors. Indeed, if he couldn't get them from Eisenhower, he was willing to steal them wherever he could, and then get Bradley to pretend to not know what he was doing. In this he was quite willing to encourage Bradley's inferiority complex in relation to Montgomery, and to happily manipulate Bradley into tantrums to get what they both wanted, but it seems likely that Patton was more interested in getting his way by making his superiors compete with Montgomery, than in competing with Montgomery himself.

Patton is actually a more complex and clever character than the romantics give him credit for. His 'kill them even if they try to surrender' speeches in Sicily were part of his stage management of troops, not part of his innate personality. HIs 'us against the world' propaganda was more manipulative, not so much like Bradley's inferiority complex. He wanted to win, and he would use anything to get what he needed to win, even ramping up his superiors to distrust their allies. But his genuine competitiveness with Montgomery at this stage was less about him and Montgomery, and more about him and how he could maneouvre others to support him. He would have shown the same level of competitiveness, and the same willingness to undermine, any competitor at this point, British, French, Russian or even American.

Montgomery on the other hand only saw Patton as one more junior general syphoning supplies from an inadequate source. Montgomery was in competition with Eisenhower for control, and possibly with Bradley for resources. Minor army commanders in other people's army groups only registered on his horizon if he could get their armies assigned to his army group.

Just for amusement, it might be fun to consider how Montgomery and Patton might have worked together?

Montgomery was notoriously superb to serve under, no matter what your nationality. British, Australian, New Zealander, South African, Indian, Canadian, French, Polish, and American troops who served under him were all very happy to do so. So were their generals. Bradley certainly learned more about being a field commander from a few months of Montgomery's distant mentoring than from anything Eisenhower ever did for him in their much closer relationship.

There is no doubt that Montgomery preferred effective subordinates to ineffective ones, and it seems possible that Patton would have made a preferable subordinate to Crerar or Bradley in his mind.

As for Patton, he would have served anyone who got him what he wanted. Had Montgomery offered him the chance to spearhead the attack into Germany, there is virtually no doubt that Patton would have jumped at the chance.

Patton was not the racist that Bradley or Eisenhower were, and was happy to have black troops. He was not the American supremacist that Roosevelt or MacArthur were, and worked well with others (as long as they let him have enough lime light).

Had Montgomery been left as land forces commander, there is little doubt that he would have used Patton's aggression in a way that would have made Patton much happier than Eisenhower's broad front strategy ever allowed.

It is fun to imagine Montgomery as land forces commander using Patton's 3rd Army in conjunction with British 2nd to leapfrog ahead at top speed into Germany. The best British tactics were never the broad front strategy that the worst American's like Marshall and Eisenhower fancied. They were always the 'hold the enemy, crumble the enemy, breakthrough the enemy, and pursue with as much force as fast and far as possible' skills that had worked since the development of mechanised warfare in 1918. (As demonstrated by the Germans in Poland and France and Russia, the British and Germans in North Africa, the Japanese and British in Asia, and the Russians in Eastern Europe.)

Montgomery would have used his traditional two corps up, one back, one resting deployment, adapted to armies, to keep up the momentum. Patton's preferred tactics were almost exactly the same, and he and his 3rd Army would have fit it like a glove into Montgomery's thrust strategy.

Personally I think that the limited reality behind their competitiveness paid trumps in Sicily, and I wish that it had been repeated in France. Patton could not have been a worse Army group commander than Bradley was, and would almost certainly have been better.

It is amusing to think of Patton and Montgomery effectively conspiring to destroy the broad front strategy while they got on with winning the war in the best spirit of competition. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that one of Patton's biographers was right to suggest that by 1945 he had suffered a few too many hits on the head, there is little doubt that he would have been almost as valuable to the Allied cause in Bradley's place against Eisenhower's policies directly, as he would have under Montgomery's army group. That might have been a useful version of rivalry.

#field marshal bernard montgomery #montgomery #monty #general george patton #patton #us army #british army #second world war #war #warefare #leadership #history #generalship #tank #eisenhower #military history #general bradley #general eisenhower #personal

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straight-to-the-pain · 3 years

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Oh my god, who the fuck cares if writing torture is accurate or not? Sometimes I'm in the mood for accuracy, sometimes I'm in the mood for inaccuracies because I want specific things from my whump that accuracy sometimes can't provide. Whoever the fuck sent you those stupid anons are cowards, people who love to start drama for no other reason than they can. Don't pay them any mind, we, your actual friends, like you just the way you are, darling, never change. Love ya!

Thank you for your kind words! They mean a lot.

I should admit that what prompted the discussion in the first place was me reblogging a post and commenting that I generally strive to write accurate torture but I did also point out that I believe it’s important to understand reality if you want to break with it, so that’s what people are understandably responding to.

I do genuinely enjoy reading and learning about torture in a historical and political context, as well as how humans respond to pain and injury and I have to say that I know a lot more about bodies than minds, and I’m generally more interested in physical violence in my writing than complex emotions, especially in the aftermath of a traumatic event. I also feel that there’s a lot of whump that focuses on pain and trauma that isn’t the kind of outright torture that I know more about, and that feelings are a very personal thing so it’s hard to write them wrong. Different characters will react differently to different situations, and something I might not relate to might be accurate for someone else.

There’s also a certain joy in doing your research and using it, such as by adding specific historical details to a story or subverting a misconception or writing accurate medical treatment. I wrote a whole fic packed full of facts about the Colorado river delta and that was the most fun I’ve had in ages.

I also think it’s natural to have pet peeves in whump and specific tropes or concepts that bother us. I’m not trying to judge anyone for what they enjoy but I am passionate about clarifying certain pervasive misconceptions about torture that I hear often. It’s really easy to fall into certain ideas and myths because media is a powerful tool and I am also not immune to this, which is why I want to examine my own writing and consider where I’ve fallen into certain traps and where I am consciously choosing to stray from reality for the sake of whumperflies.

It is absolutely possible to enjoy something inaccurate and unrealistic and it is not my intention to make anyone feel judged for the whump they create. I’ve enjoyed a lot of films packed full of laughably unrealistic torture scenes but hey, we all have our guilty pleasures. What we enjoy in fiction absolutely does not have to reflect our morals and real life views, but there are tropes and stereotypes that can have a very real impact on how we consider reality and I believe that we should be aware of when we are knowingly discarding reality for fun.

I want to end by saying that I have never liked confessionals and I readily accept that I am not a perfect person, maybe not even a good person, but I haven’t committed any more wrongdoings than those who so desperately want to hold all of mine up to the light. I do enough introspection as it is, and advise you to do the same.

#asks answered #whump meta #nice stuff #I’m finally home after my night shift #and I’m looking forward to falling asleep to sweet sweet thoughts of violence

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freddiekluger · 4 years

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Do you think that if the ghosts sees period dramas set in their time, it will reignite memories of their life?

i think it definitely depends on the accuracy and style of the drama- if they're too poorly researched, any attempts at reverie would be totally disrupted by the historical and visual inaccuracies (think: thomas yelling about the 'roccoco legs' during the byron shoot). of course the other big thing is setting: it's all well and good to watch to a movie set in your time period, but if it's based in a country you've never been to (especially for the older/less privileged ghosts like mary and robin, who probably didn't have much knowledge of the world outside of their continent when they were alive), it's not going to feel particularly familiar.

working on the assumption that we have at least partial historical and geographical accuracy, here's how i think each of the ghosts would respond to

robin: considering how little we actually know about early human history, i don't think robin would be that fussed by any attempt to put that on film- he'd still appreciate a good caveman joke, although he's not a big fan of how stupid every movie assumes they would have been (it's not like they had omega-3 tablets back then!). robin's unspeakably old, and for the most part he seems to have processed through all the parts of his past that he possibly can, and is now committed to enjoying his time at button house as much as he can (a big part of this is his prankster spirit and frankly underrated friendliness), so it would have to take a lot more than a stone age movie to rake up serious conflict.

mary: given her incredibly traumatic death, mary avoids virtually anything that hints of fire or witchcraft which is where things become difficult. i think mary could really enjoy a film set in her time if it follows a working family not dissimilar to her own- it could help her remember some of the positive things from her life, and probably help her feel a lot more seen as she often ends up misunderstood or ignored by the other ghosts (pat initially dismissing mary's advice about the camera work because he didn't think she properly understood what was happening; the ghosts focusing on correcting her speech more than what she actually says). the problem is, almost all movies set in mary's time that follow people from her class end up focusing on the witch trials, which is a BIG no no for her.

humphrey: i think humphrey could really enjoy watching some tudor set films. like mary, he often gets ignored (and straight up left behind), so watching a period film absolutely gives him the opportunity to feel a bit more seen and stew on those long forgotten memories like post-meal games of cards with friends, or the occasional hunting trip when the king came to visit (the trips themselves were more stressful than anything, but mouthing off about them with the king's entourage after he went to bed was always a highlight). humphrey would definitely have a keen eye for inaccuracies, but i don't think they'd bother him. it's just nice to have things be about him for a change (if by him, we mean having all the ghosts watching something that is vaguely related to his alive-period and actually looking to him with questions instead of just using his head as their personal football/security camera/magic 8ball).

kitty: kitty is one of the ghosts who accesses her memories pretty easily- she has no problem with thinking about her life, even when the anecdotes are screamingly sad to anyone listening. so a period film would naturally bring some memories, but i don't know if they'd be anything radical or new- kitty's real growth and drama would come from her leaving behind the rationalisations of what clearly was severe neglect. actually on that note, while not quite kitty's environment, i think she might get a lot out of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. something about the themes of the loneliness that comes with growing up in high society and only being valued for what your status and your biology can give to your family and your husband (who you likely didn't choose), along with feeling like an outsider and being visibly othered, even by those you outrank, no matter how friendly and approachable and like them you make yourself (while not necessarily linked to the broader themes of familial neglect kitty's character touches on, i think her experiences as a georgian noblewoman of colour would have to have impacted her growing up and also socially- i'd love to hear any thoughts on this from fans of colour, as i'm white and so any theories i could come up with would likely be a poor approximation). and she'd definitely like the pretty dresses and stunning rooms of versailles, and for that i can't blame her.

thomas: most of thomas we sort of got to see in Free Pass- the detail nitpicking, the excitement until a specific trigger from his life (in this case, lord byron, the man thomas considers his greatest enemy, although i’d be curious to know whether byron acually had any idea of thomas thorne’s existence) causes him to go into a full thomas hissy-fit. sure, the emotion is real to him, but he absolutely plays it up, even trying to get humphrey’s body to fetch alison so she can see how ‘upset’ he is (thomas reminds me of a child in this respect). there’d probably be less of the tantruming for a movie that had already been made, although i’m not so sure about the memory point. The Thomas Thorne Affair sort of brought out thomas’s big Unresolved Life Mystery, and now i think all that’s left for him to work through has got to be a lot more internal. sure, he’d be reminded of a few good old parties, and maybe any romance scenes might trigger some of the sad isabelle/general lost love emotions, but i don’t think they’d be anything particularly spectacular.

fanny: now fanny would be a real stickler for accuracy. she would be calling out every makeup, decorative, hair, wardrobe, architectural, and lingual failure with the classic lady button judgement in her voice. this is probably half because she can't help herself, but half a measure to distract herself from actually having to pay proper attention and relive her life. i think fanny struggles a lot with no longer running her own household (along with the shifting morals, and fashions, of the modern world), and so to be reminded of everything she can no longer have would be tough. i'm not saying she would long for a time when women didn't have a lot of rights, but she went from a wealthy society woman who held a lot of power in her own sphere to a ghost, unable to touch anything or even be seen by the living (save for the photo glitch), and stuck spending her days with a motley crew of equally frustrating ghosts whom she doesn't always feel respected by (noting that 'respect' to fanny is much the same as deference). she could have it a lot worse, but i think fanny would much prefer to not have to think about her old life.

the captain: the captain is an interesting one. he's one of the few ghosts who actively seeks out media related to his time, although that's within the impersonal war documentary which focuses on facts and mechanics as opposed to day to day realities and feelings. on the one hand, any war film for the captain would be sure to rake up memories of wartime (even if he never made the front- that remains unconfirmed), and the immense grief that comes with watching the people around you slowly stop returning home. the captain is a war fanatic, and has no problem talking about the great battles, victories, and tactics, so i think the heightened emotional states that a film presents would be the key to unlocking the captain's inevitable wartime trauma and going beyond the surface level facts. for that reason, i'd really like the captain to see Peter Weir's Gallipoli. i know it's the wrong war and the wrong country (although the australian's were technically part of the British forces), but i think the overarching themes of the idolisation of the military, the deconstruction of the glory of war, and the intense (bordering on the homoerotic) although never quite realised relationship between Archy and Frank (which, spoiler alert, ends in tragedy), could give the captain a lot in terms of food for thought and unlocking some of those deeper experiences. on the other hand, the captain watching a period film set in the years before his war could be equally interesting- i think they'd play on some his is insecurities and general issues surrounding the difficulty he may have had fitting in with day-to-day life (not just due to his homosexuel répression, but due to his broader issues with fitting in socially which we see through his interactions with both the ghosts and his own forces- some particularly valid fans have used these to headcanon cap as autistic). in short, films would unlock a fair few memories for cap, but even more EMOTIONS.

pat: with pat and julian it gets interesting because while yes, technically any movie set in a non-current time period is a ‘period piece’, you also have to deal with the fact that they’re going to have less impact on their respective ghosts because you also have actual movies from those periods floating around. for this reason, my answers for pat and julian are relatively similar: they wouldnt have any more memories appear than for any film coming from while they were alive. for pat, this means he’d get pretty excited about ones that came from his childhood (pat would be a giant sci fi fan don’t @ me he loves technology), but i think anything that came with too strong a family attachmet, or that he watched in the weeks/months/year leading up to his death might bring out the angry pat we saw in Happy Death Day and Perfect Day. anger is how his inherent death trauma (and the additional loss that comes from the world moving on without you) manifests, so i definitely think that would come out here, even if he isn’t quite able to put his finger on why specific movies make him so angry/irritated. for pat, childhood memories would abound, but the closer we get to his death, there’s less memories but definitely more unresolved emotion.

julian: see my point above about the whole period-film-vs-regular-film thing. julian doesn’t really strike me as a movie person, and i definitely think he wouldn’t give much care to the influx of 80s/90s set british political media (think The Iron Lady etc). in his words, “i don’t really care for politics, and they’re all too busy trying to push their labor propaganda”. he just makes a captain-inspired noise when alison reminds him that he WAS a politician. julian is another character who accesses his memories pretty easily (although they’re usually either horny or at least slightly morally bankrupt), and i honestly find it hard to give a tory emotions so i’m very excited to see how the christmas special manages. julian is a self-centred bloke though, so i think only things that are directly about him could have the power to rake up buried memories and feelings. now i really want to see julian watching a documentary on himself and just getting outraged.

thanks for this one, sorry for the delay!!

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hotaruyy · 4 years

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Mulan (2020): A Scathing Review

Or, an extremely long rant by two extremely mad Chinese girls.

Before we (@hotaruyy and @meow3sensei) watched Mulan (2020), we didn’t expect too much, since the director and screenwriters aren’t Chinese (even though they claimed to want to be more culturally accurate). But holy shit, this film didn’t even fulfill our exceedingly low expectations (and we’re speaking as people who didn’t mind the loss of the musical aspect because look at the Beauty and the Beast live action). Our review will focus on our critiques of the presentation of different aspects of Chinese culture in Mulan (2020).

The Chinese Aspect of the film was especially infuriating to us as a Chinese audience. Disney emphasises that many of the changes made to the film in comparison to the animated film were to accommodate backlash regarding cultural and historical inaccuracies from Chinese audiences, but what we saw on the screen showed otherwise.

On Set Design (By a slightly irritated Architecture student)

Mix and match of architecture from multiple dynasties, which removes a lot of the sense of realism and authenticity from the film

Tang-style architecture is used (and if we’re being specific, Tang with hints of Song Dynasty) in the Imperial City’s set, which one would assume depicts the time period in which the movie is set in. Identified by the wooden balustrades, relatively simple and small dougong, vertical lattice windows, wooden piles for waterfront, organic shapes in landscape architecture etc. (fig. 1)

fig. 1 - Scene in film

Understandably, information on architecture before Tang (618-907AD) is scarce, so I do think there was an attempt at referencing the original poem that was written during the Southern and Northern Northern Wei Dynasty 南北朝北魏 (386-581AD). Taking creative liberty here makes sense.

That being said, the film didn’t care for retaining a consistent style of architecture, resulting in a wormhole of a set that somehow spans five different dynasties. Only two examples will be listed to avoid an entire essay :)

Exhibit A. Mulan’s home in Hakka Tulou 客家圍土樓 (fig. 2) (roughly translates to Hakka Mud Towers), which originated in the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368AD), and started maturing in the late Ming dynasty. (Why use something that didn’t even exist when the Ballad was written and by doing so, physically place Mulan in Fujian?? Just put her in an ambiguous village like how the animation did??). Somehow Tulou started existing before the Hakka clan migrated down south :) To put it simply the presence of Tulou is a locational and historical bug. The jump from the Hakka Tulou to the Tang-styled Imperial palace (fig. 3, which is strictly speaking a hybrid of different styles but I’d argue still mostly Tang) in the opening scenes is only a taste of the amount of inconsistencies later seen in the film.

fig. 2 Scene in film - Hakka Tulou

fig. 3 Scene in film - the Imperial Palace

Exhibit B. This scene (1:20:14) showing Qing Dynasty architecture in what is supposed to be a Tang Dynasty setting, identified by more elaborately decorated dougong 斗栱 (fig. 4 a key feature in the structural system in Chinese architecture, referring to the interlocking structure that sits on top of each column; at least three different kinds of dougong from three different dynasties have been spotted in the film).

fig. 4 Examples of different Dougong in Ancient Chinese architecture (top left being a good example of Tang-styled Dougong)

An insignificant building is not supposed to have more glamorous and larger dougong than the Imperial Palace, not to mention the lack of decorative dougong at all during the Tang Dynasty.

fig. 5 Scene in film that features a building with dougong

fig. 6 Shenyang Imperial Palace built in the Qing Dynasty

An actual Qing Dynasty Palace (fig. 6), for reference, and a random scene from the film (fig. 5). Note the larger dougong both fig. 5 and 6 (the ratio of dougong to column is significantly larger) with more layers of interlocking segments, as compared to the Tang-styled dougong that we pointed out earlier.

On Costume Design

Blue fabric on people who are NOT ROYALTY/NOBILITY. Soldiers guarding the imperial gate would not be wearing blue shirts under their armour. There wouldn’t be such a big supply of blue fabric in the first place; blue fabric would absolutely not be mass-produced for soldiers.

Ancient Chinese people made blue dye from crushed butterflies, did no one care enough to consider the sheer amount of wealth it takes to dye blue fabric organically? Soldiers would very simply not be wearing blue fabric because of how expensive these colours were at the time. Artistic liberty is fine but at least make it make sense in a clearly hierarchical society??

The painful inaccuracies in Mulan’s costume in the matchmaking scene (fig. 7). Ah, the scene that managed to translate breathtaking Hanfu (and there are plenty of resources to take inspiration from) into a Western caricature of a Chinese Halloween costume.

fig. 7 Scene in film featuring Mulan’s Hanfu from the matchmaking sequence

There’s nothing wrong with taking artistic liberties for costumes with a historical context. For instance, exaggerating certain characteristics of the era the story is in, or modernizing certain features so that they align with the character’s more modern way of thinking to contrast with the traditional setting. Good examples that come to mind are the costume designs in Marie Antoinette (2006), or Nirvana in Fire (2015), which also happens to be a Chinese period piece set in a fictional, historically ambiguous era. Inspiration for its costume design is taken from the Han Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, so its costumes combine clothing silhouettes from the two periods, and use different characteristics such as colour to reflect class and status, and to represent characters’ personalities. It does a really good job of creating a new style while still giving subtle visual cues to the audience.

But Mulan’s dress can hardly be called an interpretation of traditional Chinese clothing. This is something the animated film did poorly on as well, and this probably contributed to the costume design in this film as an adaptation of the cartoon. The fabric had a shiny sheen that cheapened the costume. Coupled with the strange silhouette of the Hanfu (especially the bottom part of the skirt), this further detaches the audience from any hint of authenticity. The pictures below can speak for themselves. If they’re aiming for ambiguity in terms of the dynasties as seen in the set, then at least make something that is visually pleasing??

fig. 8 Evolution of Hanfu

fig. 9 Tang Hanfu recreated with references from Tang artifacts (top: early Tang; bottom: golden era of the Tang period)

For whatever reason it seems like the extras in the background have more accurate costumes than the main character

And as a girl from a farming village why is she being trained like a noble lady??? A question I’ve had since the animated film…

The film wasn’t consistent when taking artistic liberties. Audiences subconsciously make visual connections to historical periods when watching a historical fiction film. It would be visually more cohesive if artistic liberties were taken on elements from one dynasty or by combining elements from dynasties with similar aesthetics, instead of jumping across centuries of very different stylistic approaches.

Basing the set design on the Tang Dynasty, but then including random shots of Qing Dynasty architecture of no particular importance (two very contrasting architectural styles); extras having Tang-style Hanfu, but Mulan not having one that's remotely close to any style of the multiple dynasties the film has taken inspiration from; alluding to the time period in which the ballad was written by painting Mulan’s forehead yellow 黃額妝 (which was poorly done but I digress), a style of makeup used by women of the Six dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (六朝女子), but everything else alludes to Tang or later. And finally, basing many things off the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang wasn’t in risk of invasion from the Huns or the Rouran??? We’re fucking confused :)

Small details like the ones we’ve listed above are visually off-putting; as an audience member I’m immediately thrown out of whatever universe the film is building due to the contradicting visual cues. If this was Disney’s and the director’s attempt at cultural accuracy, then it’s plainly insulting to the intelligence of their Chinese audience. (Respecting cultural concerns should not be Disney’s scapegoat for producing a bad movie.)

Ultimately, the film is based on a ballad and we wouldn’t say the points we’ve mentioned are considered common knowledge. So let’s treat it as a fictional era and put less significance on historical consistencies and authenticity. Let’s narrow it down to the crude representations (and misrepresentations) of general Chinese culture and society.

On Stereotypes

“Chi”: Why are soldiers receiving chi-related martial arts training, which takes years and years of elite, specialised training and experience? Ordinary soldiers don’t train their chi, they are not Wuxia 武俠 (roughly translates to martial arts chivalry). These people aren’t training for Jianghu martial art contests (江湖俠道的比武), they are training to kill for war, which does not require finesse at all. Even disregarding the lack of logic in training ordinary soldiers in martial arts (especially them teaching Taichi in the film), logistically it is simply not worth the economic and time cost of training entire regiments in martial arts only for them to be mostly killed off in battle. (Sorry, it’s difficult to explain wuxia and jianghu in a few words, but they’re super cool so please search them up if you’re interested!)

Many others on tumblr have commented on how chi itself is not the weird masculine "power" the film made it out to be, which is also very true (it's also actually very interesting so search it up if you want to!)

On Language as a Limitation

Clumsy translations of Chinese idioms and phrases that are just tragic comedy, e.g. 四兩撥千斤 being translated into “four ounces can move a thousand pounds”, which neglects the subtlety and gentle vibe of the original word choice while twisting the concept into something related to brute force or physics (but we guess this specific example is not entirely the screenwriters’ fault, since some English Taichi classes also translate it as that).

Replacing Chinese concepts and mythology directly with Western concepts such as witches, phoenixes rising from the ashes etc.

The single clumsy reference to the original “Ballad of Mulan” 雄兔腳撲朔，雌兔眼迷離；雙兔傍地走，安能辨我是雄雌？(translates to: when being held by the ears off the ground, male rabbits would have fidgeting front legs, while female rabbits close their eyes; who’s to tell male and female apart when the two rabbits are running side by side?) This line is an acknowledgement and compliment to Mulan’s intelligence and capabilities. It also challenges patriarchal beliefs of gender and women.

On Traditional Virtues (or the oversimplification of them, and a continuation of Language as a Limitation)

The film’s traditional values of 忠勇真 (translated as loyal, brave, and true in the film by using the most direct translations possible) and 孝 (translated as "devotion to family" in the film) seem to be a reference to the core values of Confucianism. We assume that the film is referencing these Confucian core values: 仁 (to be humane)、恕 (to forgive)、誠 (to be honest and sincere)、孝 (filial piety) and 尊王道 (to be loyal to the emperor). If the screenwriters were going to use traditional values, it is curious for them to choose only those three specifically, and to grossly simplify the actual values in their choice of Chinese characters (instead of using the conventional characters), then to grossly simplify them again in their English translations, and then to put them together in that order. The film also just briefly goes over the values by plainly listing them out in the form of an oath, thereby erasing the complexities of the values...

In a hilarious weibo post by 十四皮一下特别开心, they point out that the three values of 忠勇真 used in the film actually directly translate and correspond to the FBI motto of “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity” :)

Let’s talk about 孝, the fourth traditional virtue engraved in the sword gifted to Mulan by the emperor at the end of the film. Over everything else, this is the original ballad’s central moral, and what we believe the film is also trying to evoke, so the weak translation diminishes the story’s message. The animation was smart in not directly translating it and instead demonstrates what it entails through the progression of the plot. The film does the opposite and translates it as “devotion to family”, when they could have just referred to it as filial piety. Care, respect, thankfulness and giving back to one’s parents and elderly family members. While obedience and devotion are part of what the virtue teaches, it's not supposed to sound like an obligation, it’s not something ritualistic, it’s just something everyone does as a “good” human being.

(And if the director and screenwriters were trying to diminish the role and significance of filial piety in the film on purpose because they wanted Mulan to appear “stronger” and “individualistic”, then… I really have no words for how painfully insensitive that is in terms of how white feminism does not and should not apply to or be imposed on other cultures.)

And here’s our list of Things That Also Pissed Us Off that other people on tumblr have talked about already, which is why we’re mentioning them without much elaboration:

On Feminism

We get that Disney was trying to make a female empowerment movie but they really missed the mark? Even with a female director, somehow. Stepping back and ignoring the Chinese aspects of the film, as a female audience this film was equally, if not more, hurtful

Mulan is only seen as “strong” because of her extraordinarily powerful “gift” of chi that led to her being physically more powerful than the men, especially in that scene where she lugs the two buckets of water to the peak of the mountain (which is in sharp contrast to how Mulan in the animated film is strong because she’s intelligent and is able to utilise teamwork and her strengths properly, and doesn’t let her understandable disadvantage in terms of physical strength trip her up)

All female characters are one-dimensional as fuck and are mere caricatures (though to be fair, the male characters aren’t treated much better) BUT PEOPLE, MULAN IS THE MAIN CHARACTER!! Her name is literally the name of the film!!! Maybe give her some character??? And what happened to wanting to produce good Asian representation in Hollywood???

The character of the witch was slightly more complex than everyone else, which, good for her, but then the screenwriters had her killed when she could easily have not been written with that conclusion to her arc?? Seems to us like some bullshit where the witch had to be punished in a narrative sense because she “succumbed” to using her powers (which are again dubiously chi-related) for “evil”, when instead she was merely trying to achieve as much as she could for herself in a patriarchal system designed to punish her

Plus the implication of writing the sequence of the witch sacrificing herself for Mulan is that Mulan is inherently more worthy of protection because she’s more “noble”, which, again, we call bullshit. Mulan achieved (impossible) success and validation in a patriarchal system because she played by their rules of what it means to be a masculine “warrior” and excelled, while the witch is scorned and punished within the story and also in a narrative sense because she doesn’t. Is that really what it means to be noble and good???? Does that really make Mulan superior to the witch?? (Honestly this plot point might have worked if there was more complexity written into the script, but unfortunately there wasn't)

Can’t believe they just threw away what could have been a perfectly complex and compelling relationship between Mulan and the witch because of shitty writing

The way Mulan lets her hair down and dumps her armour as an indication of her female identity (which is irritating to us on so many levels, as explained by various tumblr users)

On Production

Plot and character arcs have no emotional tension; they’re super rushed and super shallow; emotional beats are not hit properly (e.g. Mulan’s loyalty and friendship towards the soldiers, built up with one line from Honghui “you can turn your back on me...but please don’t turn your back on them” kind of bullshit)

The screenwriters would not know character depth or development even if it were shoved in their face

Blatant symbolism and metaphors (e.g. the fucking phoenix, and thank fuck it doesn’t look like a western phoenix) that make the film feel very… low.

Cinematography and editing: some very beautiful and compositionally interesting shots, but the battle scenes lack tension. The jump cuts disrupt the rhythm and intensity of the fighting; in combination with the overuse of slow motion, they drag the pace of the choreography and further slow down the rhythm of the scene. Exaggerated colour toning make certain scenes more fantastical than others, resulting in a mix of realistic landscapes in some scenes and highly saturated unnatural colours in others, which draws the audience in and out of the film’s universe. This is a shame because they actually took the effort to film in real landscapes.

fig. 10 Scene in film

Special effects: lack of blood in battle scenes (which, fine, they want it to be family-friendly) and Mulan’s suddenly clean face after she returns to her female identity visually puts off the audience (and links back to the issues surrounding the visual representation of her femininity)

And here’s the extremely short list of Things That We Liked:

That first fight scene between the witch and mulan when the witch brushes mulan’s hair away from her face with her claw while restraining her because that was gay as fuck and I am but a weak bisexual!!!

Donnie Yen’s action sequences lmao (they’re not even among the better ones he’s done so everyone go watch Ip Man for actually good action sequences and choreography)

Just listening to the soundtrack itself was great, loved the Reflection variations but I was simply too distracted by the other shitty things in the film

All-asian cast (thank fuck) with impressive actors and actresses (who should not be blamed for a shitty script)

TL;DR: This film is not worth your time or money. Inferior to the animated film (which already has a few questionable aspects). If you’re somehow really interested in seeing how badly Disney butchered Chinese culture (and to a certain extent the animated film), then just pirate this film. If you want to know what happened but can’t be bothered to waste your time watching the film, read this amazing and hilarious twitter thread by @XiranJayZhao, which we found right before we posted this review, and pretty much sums up our viewing experience as well.

Disclaimer: At the end of the day we're two girls from a predominantly Chinese society who are used to Chinese period films and dramas, watching Mulan (2020), a film primarily meant for Chinese diaspora and audiences in the West, with the Chinese market in Asia being just a secondary economic opportunity for Disney. We do realise that we aren't this film's target audience, and that we're not at all experts in everything we've discussed in this review. A lot of this is just us nitpicking, and all of it is just our personal (and very emotive) opinions from watching this film. Mostly we're just disappointed that the film was advertised to be relatively realistic and culturally accurate, but… wasn't.

Sigh.

Btw please feel free to ask us for recs of actually good, actually Chinese films and shows lmao.

Finally, all the love to our beta @keekry, for her many suggestions and hilarious comments!!!

#mulan #mulan 2020 #mulan 1998 #mulan live action #chinese culture #chinese architecture #chinese clothes #chinese costumes #chinese fashion #hanfu #mulan spoilers #long post #film review #disney #as a side note i have no idea why everyone thinks it's pronounced xian lang when in fact it's xian niang

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thetypedwriter · 4 years

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The Ruin of Kings Book Review

The Ruin of Kings Book Review by Jenn Lyons

Boy, oh, boy, was this a wild ride.

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I occasionally delve into adult fiction here and there. I mainly stick to my vegetarian course of YA novels, but every once in a while I can’t help but pick up a slice of bacon, or in this case, an adult fiction book.

Or, even more specifically, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that it’s adult fantasy instead of fiction. High fantasy at that, which is characterized by a whole new world with fantastical elements and not just a novel in the known primary world with fantasy elements.

With that literary lesson out of the way, let me get started.

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons came recommended by one of my favorite book bloggers, Paperfury. She counted this as one of her most recent book obsessions she couldn’t stop thinking about and in general I trust her judgement (although she was way way off on The Queen of Nothing, yikes).

This massive installment is definitely not the short and sweet page length I’m used to with YA, and neither does it have the comforting and large font that makes me feel like an accomplished reader after just an hour of skimming.

No, this installment is large and beefy and could probably give someone a concussion if you threw it at them, so just keep that in mind.

The whole fantasy revolves around a boy named Khirin. Khirin is your typical fantasy hero, equipped with the luscious blonde hair and the sparkling blue eyes and most importantly, the wickedly sharp tongue reminiscent of a male character from the Cassandra Clare universe.

He’s sharp, he’s witty, he’s charming, and he also has terrible, terrible luck.

Or does he?

When you first meet Khirin he is being sold as a slave to the highest bidder. He’s cold, he’s injured, he’s starving, and he’s broken. You, as a reader at this point, are completely and irrevocably confused.

You’re thinking: Who is this boy? What is happening to him? Why are people betting so much money for him? What’s with this necklace around his neck? Where did he come from? Where are we? What world is this? Where is he going? What the hell is going on???

To say that Lyons starts out strong would be underhanded hyperbole. You are forcibly drop-kicked into the fantasy world of Qurr and its many raging empires and states, and putting them all together is frankly daunting and largely impossible until a good chunk of the book is devoured.

Frankly, I still have trouble figuring out all the locations and gods and god-kings and factions and lore and people and how they’re all related, Game of Thrones style. But that’s part of the fun.

One of my biggest complaints with YA is that the reader is generally treated like they’re pretty stupid.

Often a YA author feels the need to explain every single iteration and modicum of interaction between their characters or spend too much time describing things, and it leaves very little for interpretation or inference on the side of the reader. Lyons is almost the complete opposite, which is as refreshing as it is frustrating.

As you are introduced to Khirin and this gargantuan universe that Lyons has created, you will feel stupid. To be fair, I enjoyed it most of the time. I relished the challenge of learning to differentiate all the different families of the Court of Gems, of distinguishing the Goddess Thaena from the Goddess Tya.

I liked when I was finally able to smugly look at the map at the beginning and recognize all of the city states like Doltar or Kirpis or Manol. I liked when I understood the different races like the Thriss or the vané and the implications of what that meant.

If that was a whole load of word vomit for you, that’s okay.

Again, it’s part of the fun.

What I do want you to get out of this, however, is the knowledge that Lyons has created an expansive universe with multiple creatures, including dragons and witches, rivaling royal families, gods reminiscent of the Greek Gods and their interference with human affairs, a rivaling world split with so many seams that you’re not even sure who to root for, an emperor, magical jewelry, demons and even a dose of piracy and musical competition.

This book honestly has a little of everything — which, to be fair, it should, considering how damn long it takes to get through it’s never-ending pages.

To make this as simplified as possible, the plot goes like this:

Khirin is sold into slavery and finds himself in the hands of a group called the Black Brotherhood. Over time, Khirin learns about this group and their intentions, learns more about himself and the Stone of Shackles (the necklace he wears around his neck), divulges his past and how he got sold into slavery in the first place-his upbringing, his musical talent, his stay at the Blue Palace, his eventual betrayal at the hands of someone he loves.

You learn over the course of each chapter what brought Khirin to his current fate and more of what he is trying to do now,: which is to return home and save the world from the likes of the two main antagonists (although not all of them by any means), Gadrith and Darzin.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that is the most bare- bones summary I have ever written. But honestly, this book is about a hero named Khirin and his adventure to rid the world of evil as he learns about himself and his past.

Like many, many, other books before it, this book explores what it means to be a hero, what it means to be a god, what it means to be involved with the fight of good vs. evil. This book is not special in that sense regarding these themes.

However, there are some really cool aspects of this novel that I thoroughly enjoyed that I’ll relay now that the summary (as condensed as it is, sorry) is out of the way.

The two things I enjoyed most about this book were the writing itself and the POV. Most high fantasy novels that I’ve attempted to read have this ridiculous notion that every character must speak in some dead medieval language rife with historical inaccuracies and banal, clipped speech. Lyons does nothing of the sort.

Her characters are creative and crass and downright funny. The dialogue is immersive and natural and oftentimes, other than the backdrop of a dragon or lizard-people, it felt like two modern-day people were having a conversation, which I greatly appreciated.

Lyons is also a very big fan of building up her writing and then smacking you down at the pinnacle. For example:

“Before us lay the Mother of Trees.

I didn’t understand what I was seeing. I couldn’t comprehend. It just seemed like a humongous wall at first, one that had been built up with palaces and verandas, graceful pavilions, and stained-glass windows glittering like jewels. Only when I looked up could I perceive the sweep of branches, the distance velvet of green leaves. This was a tree to hold up the whole world, the sort of place where Galava must live, if any place were consecrated to her. It seemed ageless and immortal, a tree that had always and would always exist.

Naturally, we were setting it on fire.”

I personally found this style of writing hilarious. Lyons often built up the tension, beauty, or conflict, and then would deliver these one-liners that would leave me gasping with laughter. This creative juxtaposition was super enjoyable and one that made the book a big success for me.

Secondly, while this book is told almost entirely (keyword almost -there are some outlier chapters) from Khirin’s perspective, it technically oscillates between present Khirin and past Khirin.

The whole book switches from one timeline to another every other chapter, with the chapter starting with Khirin being sold into slavery being the “present” and told from Khirin’s first-person POV and then switching the next chapter to his “past” and being told from Khirin’s third-person POV.

I loved this. I thought this was so creative, and up to this point, I have never seen this done in another book. The subtle shift from first to third person every chapter, but still from the perspective of the same character, was so interesting and complex.

I loved that we were simultaneously getting current-day Khirin, but also Khirin from two years ago telling us the events that led up to the present. It was imaginative and intriguing, and I loved trying to fill in the holes before the book presented me with it (which even then was difficult).

In addition, throughout the whole book are also footnotes from another crucial character that offer information, clarification, and also humor. While I’ve primarily read footnotes in academic papers to cite sources or offer commentary, these footnotes were just as fictional as the rest of the story, but offered insight outside of Khirin that was often dripping in sarcasm, irony, or humor.

I thought it was another really creative way for Lyons to get across information without boring everyone half to death or releasing a 100- page guidebook to help you along.

Bottom line, people,: This book isn’t for everyone. High fantasy in general is not for everyone. That’s okay. It’s not usually my taste either, at least not the adult fictional kind, but something about this book really intrigued me.

Moreso than the actual plot, which is confusing, I enjoyed the writing, the suspense, and the act of playing detective. It’s been so long since I’ve read a book that’s made me think this hard, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That being said, the same praise is a double-edged sword.

If you don’t want to have to think and draw out charts and make graphs on Excel, then perhaps this is not the book for you.

If you don’t like high fantasy or made-up worlds, or very interconnected family dynamics, then this is not the book for you. This book also contains elements that can be triggering to some, like rape, drugs, character death, violence, imprisonment, slavery, etc.

When I say this book has everything, I mean it has everything. And that can be good or bad depending on the person. For me, I liked it. However, I did get frustrated at certain points at the lack of clarification more than once, just for full disclosure.

Recommendation: If you’ve been bereft ever since the Game of Thrones disaster-of-a-finale, then you are not alone. The Ruin of Kings has everything you’ve ever wanted in a high fantasy book: action, kings, queens, palaces, war, dragons, magic and so much more.

This book was creative and funny and complex, and if you’re willing to sink your teeth and time into a universe that demands attention then you’ll find yourself rewarded with a brand-new world to fall in love with and characters that you can’t seem to forget.

Score: 8/10

#the ruin of kings #jenn lyons #popular fiction #books #book blog #book review #fiction #Book Recommendations #booknerd #writing #fantasy #high fantasy

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arty-e · 4 years

Note

Hi I recently found your page and your YT videos and I LOVED it all. Since you are doing the Tudor Kids plus Mary, Queen of Scots and Jane Grey, would you ever consider make anything related to Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor Queen and the Grandmother to all the kids?

I might actually because I find her quite interesting and the whole war of the roses. I also watched that programme that was about her mother I think it was called the White Queen and really enjoyed (though it did have some historical inaccuracies in to but what can you really expect?)

So I might do them but it kind of depends if I feel inspired to do so but thank you for the suggestion!

And thank you for your kind words! I’m so glad you like the stuff I’ve made ☺️😊

#ask #answer #elizabeth of york #henry vii #the white queen #six #six the musical #war of the roses

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arethereanyoriginalusernames · 4 years

Text

Laughing Jack: When the joke gets old

A Creepypasta analysis and critique

Requested by @eclecticcoyote

//////

Disclaimer and Warning. This post will contain mentions of death and gore. Anyone sensitive to this subject matter may want to skip over this. Also, I will be writing this from the perspective that anyone reading this has already read the following stories: Laughing Jack, The Origin of Laughing Jack, and Mr. Widemouth. If you have not, I advise you read them first. The stories can all be found online. Finally, keep in mind that this post is opinion based. You are not obligated to agree with me, and this post should not be taken as an invitation to start conflicts over. Debate is fine, as long as you remain civil to everyone involved. Thank you.

//////////

Like most things involving creativity, writing a good story involves going through a learning curve. We will all make clunkers, and we can always be better. Even stories that you may adore may very well be disliked by their creator. Such is the case for Laughing Jack.

Laughing Jack (a name I'll replace with LJ for brevity's sake) has become a fan favorite since his conception, which an impressively large fanbase behind him. It might seem odd that the creator would go on to say that the LJ's titular Creepypasta stories weren't that good. Well, at least until you consider that the stories, in spite of their popularity, weren't actually that good.

To explain what I mean, let's look at both LJ stories individually, then at the character of LJ himself.

___

Let's start with Laughing Jack, the story that started it all.

If I were to name any positives about this story, it would be its concept. The idea of having this dangerous "imaginary friend " endanger the life of a mother and child, and having the be in the POV of the mother sounds like a decent idea on paper. However, what works in theory doesn't always work in execution.

The most dire problem this story has is a problem that drags down both LJ pastas, and is a fairly common issue in Creepypastas: unnecessary death and gore.

In this story, it's not enough that LJ kills the son, James, and the pet dog. Oh no, he has to go the extra mile and go over the top, pulling out organs, etc. I've seen some people even argue that the deaths were completely unnecessary, and I agree with that to some extent.

Unnecessary gore is something you'll usually find in lower quality Creepypastas. While I can't say for certain, if I had to guess, I think people use this in an attempt to scare people by disgusting them, or to show how powerful their monster is. The issue is that over the top gore can unfortunately become borderline cartoonish, and it can make the story unrealistic to the point where nobody's going to buy it.

The gore and death are especially unnecessary in this story. While you could argue that the death of the dog was meant to build some kind of suspense by letting us know what LJ was capable of, why did we need the death scenes we got? I understand that LJ, being a clown monster thing, will probably integrate circus related things into his kills, which could make for some "unique" deaths. But why does he need to kill people in such gruesome ways?

The gore also kills any ambiguity the story could have had. The mother is convicted for the death of her child, but what if the story itself made it seem possible that she could have actually done it? Was it really the gay nightmare clown, or is she actually insane? Wouldn't that be more interesting? But no, it's obviously the evil clown, and ambiguity can go fuck itself.

/////////

The Origin of Laughing Jack is so much worse in this regard.

Again, the concept of an innocent imaginary friend becoming corrupted sounds like a good idea, but the execution fucks over any potential it could have had.

The gore issue is even worse, as almost half the story is comprised of Issac murdering innocent people in terrible ways. Of course we couldn't just have one kill, and explain that he's a serial killer. Oh no, we need a drawn out scene of every. Single. Victim. Being. Killed. And I swear to the coffee overloards, the death scenes actually become boring. By the time LJ was killing Isaac, the scene dragged on and on. It was like if you were forced to watch the same scene in a movie again and again.

Once again, there's no need for the gruesome actions here. There's no reason for why Isaac has to kill people in such a way, much less LJ. Seriously, answer me this. Why couldn't Isaac just strangle someone, poison them, stab them, or bonk them on the head really hard? I mean, Isaac is given little to no motivation for what he does, so I really don't see why he couldn't. Oh, it wouldn't make it scary? We need the gore to be scared?

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Unnecessary gore is Creepypasta's version of jump scares in horror movies. You don't need it. If you don't believe me, let's talk about the character of LJ himself, and why he doesn't need to be this over the top when it comes to kills.

////////

Once again, the concept of LJ himself is a good one. An evil imaginary friend as an antagonist could make for a unique, creepy story. Unfortunately, LJ is turned into just another Jeff the Killer, a bland monster that just kills you.

You know what story does something similar to LJ, but better? Mr. Widemouth. Like LJ, Widemouth is an evil imaginary friend that kills children. But here's why Widemouth works;

Widemouth does not kill the children himself. Rather, he tries to trick and manipulate them into killing themselves. He tries to convince the protagonist to jump to their death, and potentially hurt themselves by playing with knives.

He's also a more believable imaginary friend. Remember how LJ looks like a fucking nightmare clown with razor sharp teeth and claws? What child is going to want to trust him or be around him? And while Widemouth has a... wide mouth, he looks like a furby. He's small, furry, and you could probably pick him up and yeet him if you wanted to.

Finally, you know how in LJ's stories, we apparently needed these long, drawn out death scenes?

Widemouth's tale still sends shivers up my spine to this day. At the end of the story, the protagonist, older and no longer a child, visits Widemouth's house (they had moved to another house a few years ago with their family). While wondering around, they find a path near the house that they've never seen before. Following it, they come across a graveyard. The protagonist notices the dates on the tombstones.

Everyone buried there was a child.

When they return to the house, they glance up at the uppermost window of the house. They spot Widemouth staring out at them, who then smiles, and waves at them, a knife clutched in his paw.

Nothing is outright stated. Nothing has to be. We don't need any more information. We don't need to be shown or told anything. We have a clear idea of what the story is implying.

Compare that to Laughing Jack. The gore feels like it's there in a desperate attempt to make itself look scary, like a child covering their Halloween costume with fake blood to impress their friends.

It doesn't help that LJ's motivations don't line up with the things he does. His supposed origin story tries to make it seem that his friend Isaac being a murderer was what twisted him, but does LJ have to murder people in such gruesome fashion? Does he need to murder at all?

Here's a suggestion. Since Isaac basically left LJ trapped in a box for years, upon being released, LJ could simply kidnap children, bringing them to his "Wonderland ", where they all can "play forever and ever". He could murder, sure, but perhaps it could be limited to anyone who gets in his way, or tries to save "his friends ". What is his Wonderland? What happens to the children there? That's up to the reader's imagination...

/////

Now, I realize that LJ's pastas have more issues in them than just the gore. My friend Coyote, who's pretty knowledgeable on history, would have a field day if I asked him to find every historical inaccuracy in the Origin of Laughing Jack. Nonetheless, the issue I talked about here is an issue that not only extends to many Creepypastas, but also stories outside of Creepypasta. This desperate attempt to seem edgy and interesting by throwing in something cheap that will get a reaction. Weather it be jumpscares in horror movies, contrived misunderstandings in romance stories, over dramatic and tragic deaths in adventure stories, this writing technique is cheap and not nearly as effective as one might think.

Laughing Jack and his stories are examples of instances where something such as gore is just turned into an expected staple. However, much like how a joke becomes less funny the more you hear it, frequent attempts to be edgy and shocking can reveal how lackluster your story really is.

I apologize for wasting your time

-Spooky S Skeletons

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akumadeshitsumon · 5 years

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Valentine’s day

[[This is a short story I wrote last year at the request of @cutiepeimei, who asked me to write about Sebastian’s experience of Valentine’s day. As I’ve been getting a lot of questions related to Valentine’s day I thought it would be a good occasion to post it, especially as I’ve based answers upon the assumptions made in this story. The fic is below the cut. I hope you enjoy! AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17784557]]

Valentine’s day

If there was anything remarkable about humans, it was the fact that they could find any excuse to turn a seemingly meaningless thing into a huge spectacle. Sebastian had always been impressed by this extraordinarily human pastime, but never more so than during his servitude to his current master. The young lord Phantomhive had a nose for business, that much had been clear from the start. Sebastian had been skeptical at first, but over time he had grudgingly come to admit that the child really knew how to turn a profit. In as little as three years, Funtom company had been transformed from a relatively minor company into a large and thriving enterprise. It would have been impressive for an adult human being, let alone a child.

The young master's methods were quite ingenious and modern. By targeting specific groups in his marketing campaigns the young lord always managed to draw in new customers, and by offering seasonal specials he ensured that these customers would come back. Thanks to these tactics the company's products sold like hot buns on a cold day. The latest marketing scheme was the most outlandish of all so far, and to Sebastian's mild surprise it had worked much better than even his master had anticipated.

The campaign was centered around the Catholic saint known to the general public as 'Valentine', who had been a symbol of courtly love since medieval times. Sebastian was only too aware of this connection, having been around when it was first established, but even in those days he was sure the man had never been as popular as he was in the United Kingdom right now.

The young master had found out about the saint during a lesson some time in November, and even before the start of the new year he had formulated a plan to make a profit off this piece of human history. Sebastian had not taken the plans very seriously, but soon came to realise that it was likely to become the young master's greatest scheme so far.

Shortly before Christmas, a new play became the talk of the town in London. The play was about the life of Saint Valentine, who had apparently been blessed with an unnaturally long lifespan, considering the fact that the man himself had most likely been born in the third century A.D. and the play was set in the middle ages. This historical inaccuracy notwithstanding, the play told a tragic story of love and loss, of betrayal and the power of love that triumphed over all. Above all, the play demonstrated how saint Valentine had been able to keep the love of his life by presenting her with the most precious gift of all - a rare and precious delicacy from faraway lands that he had gone to explore. It was quite a piece of work, and most people would have found it hard to believe that the basic premise of it had been cooked up by a thirteen-year-old with a business opportunity in mind.

Sebastian had been politely skeptical before the play went out, but to his surprise the British public seemed to love it. The play was the talk of the town in London, and saint Valentine himself gained an uncommon level of popularity among the women of high society. February 14th was already known as a day for lovers, but this renewed interest in the tradition elevated it to new heights. Funtom company's new Valentine's day confectionery sold out in a matter of days, and the mail orders came in such great numbers that the factories all had to run overtime in order to fulfill them. Furthermore, tables for Funtom Café's Valentine's day high tea had been fully booked several weeks in advance. It was rumoured that some members of high society were going to attend, and the young master had therefore decided to tighten security for the event.

Which was how Sebastian came to find himself arranging plates of nauseatingly sweet cakes and bite-sized cucumber sandwiches on a silver tray in the kitchen of Funtom Café. The young master had instructed him to keep an eye on the proceedings and to discreetly take care of any trouble that might arise, but he had not forewarned his butler about the uniform choices for this special event. Sebastian did not think the pink waistcoat suited him at all. He was even less enthusiastic about the apron with the big red hearts and the embroidered letter 'V' on the pocket, but there was little he could do about it. The young master had ordered him to be here, so this was where he had to be.

Sebastian picked up the tray and conjured up a smile, then headed into the lavishly decorated café. The entire space had been made over in pink and red hues from floor to ceiling. A lace pattern adorned the windows, forming intricate hearts with the letter 'V' at the center. In a corner of the room a string quartet was playing simpering romantic tunes which might cause a headache even in the most taciturn person on earth - a headache that would not be improved by the frankly unacceptable shade of pink of the tablecloths.

There was an overwhelming amount of chatter, mostly from emanating from excited women whose husbands looked as though they would rather be anywhere else but here right now. Sebastian sympathised with them a great deal. He too would rather be doing almost anything else - mucking out a three-hundred year old well seemed like a pleasant idea, or perhaps wrestling a family of bears off his master's property. But no. He was stuck in this place until closing time, which seemed further off than it had ever seemed before.

It was unbelievably busy all afternoon, and Sebastian did not get a single break. He hardly had time to marvel at the marketing genius of his master until almost six at night, the time when the cafe would close for the day. His final task was to count the money that had been made that day and see it safely to the bank. As he counted the money and added up the cheques, Sebastian's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline. The amount they had earned that day could have fed a small army for week or two, and it would certainly please his master to see that his scheme had worked beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

A few words, a few images, a few days' work, and suddenly an old tradition had been reborn, earning Funtom company it's biggest profit since the company was founded. Sebastian could not help but marvel at the genius of it all. Loathe as he was to acknowledge his master's brilliance, even he had to admit that this particular plan could not have turned out any better. It was all thanks to the gullibility of humans, and their desire to believe in whatever stories they were told. It was truly remarkable how easy it was to make them believe in something.

Sebastian smirked. It always pleased him to see humans dance around like puppets on strings, even if the strings were in someone else's hands. It was not rare to see a human willing to manipulate others, but to see it done so skillfully, so subtly that the humans in question didn't realise they were being had was quite the art, and the young master had all but perfected it. It was an admirable feat.

Still, Sebastian was going to make his master pay for the pink waistcoat. However much he respected his master's talents, certain standards had to be upheld. It would be good to remind the young Earl that there was still at least one being left in this world who would not bend to his every wish.

#akumadeshitsumon #Sebastian Michaelis #Kuroshitsuji #Black Butler #story time #my writing #OOC

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nekojitachan · 6 years

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AFTG Fic -Hang a Shining Star

This is my TFC-Net Secret Santa post for @twnyards - who wanted “I got u in an office secret santa and i no Nothing about u so now i have to get to know u so i can buy u a gift”. I hope this fits somewhat?

Andreil (well, pre-Andreil) secret Santa shenanigans, in NO WAY is Andrew low-key crushing on the new guy. Nope, nope, nope. Possible plotting Renee with a bit of Renison thrown in there.

*******

Andrew stared at the slip of paper which Renee had just handed him from the company’s annual ‘secret Santa’ exchange. “Not only don’t I care, but I don’t know who-“

“Ah,” she chided him before he could rattle off Josten’s name. “We’re not supposed to reveal who we have until the party next Friday.”

He gave her a flat look as he crumpled the slip of paper. “This is ridiculous. Why do we even bother?”

“Because it’s a nice tradition?” she tried before she sighed and went for the throat. “Because we spend half the day eating all the food Wymack buys for us and whatever anyone brings in while we exchange the gifts, so that means you don’t have to work for four hours while stuffing yourself with a lot of desserts.”

Renee knew him rather well, dammit. “You better bring your double chocolate cheesecake,” he warned as he barely resisted the urge to throw the slip of paper back in her smirking face.

“Of course! And lots of fudge, too.” She smiled at him, all too aware of his weak points after working together for the last few years. “I might even try this eggnog cake recipe, if I have the time.”

Sweets and alcohol, how could he resist. “Find the time if you expect me to buy something for this person,” he demanded before stalking away, done dealing with people for the day.

He should be used to the damn gift exchange after working for Fleet Foxes the last five years, it was just that he ‘somehow’ usually got Renee or Aaron or Nicky, whom he didn’t mind to buy something small for (the limit was twenty dollars). One year he got Kevin, which had been almost amusing to find the most historically incorrect DVD series he could find to gift the history fanatic, and then walk away whenever Kevin had ranted about the show’s many, many inaccuracies (or even better, to listen to his coworkers complain about being trapped in the breakroom during one of Kevin’s rants).

Except that year? He’d gotten stuck with one Neil Josten, which he remembered setting up access for the guy after running the basic background check (nothing out of the ordinary… in fact, almost suspiciously nothing at all in the guy’s background). No, the only thing that had stood out about one Neil Josten, hired to work on translating the company’s websites into a few different languages and assist in customer service in said languages was that he was only a couple of inches taller than Andrew’s five feet. That and the faded scars on his too-attractive face.

Andrew had never imagined that he’d one day be holding down a nine-to-five job… but he supposed that there was an exception somewhere for him to be working for a former guidance counselor who took on all the hard luck cases back in his old high school whom he’d fought for to get various scholarships to universities, only to quit his job upon finding out that he had a son of his own and go on to form a company which put together and sold sports equipment to children with special needs. David Wymack just didn’t know when to give up… but Andrew guessed that was in part why he held any amount of respect for the man, why Wymack had managed to not be driven away by a certain messed-up kid with more than enough anger issues after bouncing around various (abusive) foster homes before his ‘lovely’ mother had decided to take him back in.

All that really mattered in the end was that Wymack had hired him to put that criminal justice degree to good use on background checks to make sure that the employees he hired were on the up and up and that the various charities and organizations weren’t trying to pull a fast one on the company, and that his twin brother Aaron had a stable job while he worked on his pre-med degree, down in the free clinic which the company offered for the families which often couldn’t afford healthcare, let alone the fancy wheelchairs and bikes and other pieces of equipment that the Fleet Foxes (or FF, as most of the employees referred to the company), gave out to the poor kids in order to make their lives better.

Which was why he suffered through the stupid holiday parties and whatever else do-gooders like Renee organized, though the free food and generous plates of desserts always helped. That almost all of the employees had learned to leave him alone by then, with the exceptions of Bee and Renee and Wymack.

Except that now he had to figure out a gift for one Neil Josten, dammit. Part of Andrew was tempted to just throw together a bag of socks and a Starbucks gift card… but then he remembered a pair of icy blue eyes and auburn curls and high cheekbones and….

DAMMIT.

He blamed it all on the fact that his longstanding fuck-buddy, Roland, had found a boyfriend in the last few months, which meant that Andrew didn’t have a convenient means of release other than his own right hand. Which meant instead of creamy dark brown skin and honey colored eyes, lately he’d been imaging pale gold skin and fire-dipped curls and-

He needed to stop thinking about Neil Josten.

Except now he needed to get a damn present for the gorgeous enigma, it seemed.

He spent three days trying to figure out the quiet young man who came in early in the morning (too early for Andrew’s tastes), didn’t seem to talk much to the other employees and remained in his own little office before leaving hours before Andrew (who arrived well after 9am). Josten dressed as if he raided Goodwill for clothes, his outfits hanging from his slim frame.

Still, knowing that the redhead was an early riser and a loner wasn’t really much of anything, so Andrew braced himself for the worst and turned to his cousin Nicky, who also worked for Wymack in the marketing department, along with Aaron.

“Eh, Neil?” Nicky squealed during their shared ‘family’ coffee break on Thursday. “The cutie? The cutie with the gorgeous eyes and the tight ass?”

“The linguistic guy,” Andrew stressed as he gave his cousin a flat look. “Say anything else and you better have signed up for the high level insurance premium.”

Nicky laughed at that until he finally seemed to figure out that Andrew wasn’t kidding. “Okay, okay!” He held his hands up for a few seconds while smiling nervously. “Neil Josten, yeah!”

“The antisocial asshole,” Aaron murmured into his huge mug of coffee. “Wouldn’t take off his shirt while Katelyn did his physical.”

Andrew turned his flat look on his brother, unwilling to hear about the ‘girlfriend’ at the moment. “I like him better all of a sudden.”

Aaron gave him the finger for that comment while Nicky laughed again, just a nervous. “Neil, okay? He actually gets along with Matt, but I think it’s more because Matt doesn’t give him much of a choice,” Nicky confessed. “Matt seemed to latch on to him as someone who needed a buddy, and Neil will go out to lunch with him once or twice a week.” The more he spoke, the more Nicky calmed down and seemed interested in the topic. “He’s quiet and keeps to himself, but he seems to like tea and will eat a lot of different stuff for lunch, according to Matt, but no sweets. He never touches any of the donuts that anyone brings in or the birthday treats.”

In other words, the guy was a freak. “So bad taste in food, friends and clothes,” Andrew murmured as he put together a mental image of the new guy based on what Nicky had just said.

“You noticed, too?” Nicky perked up on that as he went to refill his mug with some more coffee. “He really needs some new clothes, he’s too hot to wear stuff that’s like, ten years old. At least? I mean, it’s all clean and everything, but he looks like he was dressed by his grandfather or something.”

“It’s work, not Eden’s,” Aaron said as he rolled his eyes as he mentioned the club where Roland bartended. “Who cares?”

“How are we related?” Nicky gasped. “Hot guys should always look hot!”

Andrew pushed away from the counter he’d been leaning against before the conversation degraded any further. “Anything else?” Checking his emails was more interesting than listing to Nicky’s inane prattle.

“Uhm… oh, yeah! Neil has a thing for cats,” Nicky offered up with a grin. “I overheard him say something about having to go out to buy cat food one day. Did that help?” He gave Andrew a hopeful smile, which Andrew ignored as he left the breakroom.

So, tea, something to do with cats, maybe a nice sweater or something – now Andrew had an idea of what to get the new guy. Yet instead of logging on to Amazon and finding something under the price limit, he spent the next few days lingering in the breakroom and outside of his office as much as possible, suffering Nicky and Renee and the others just so he could catch a glimpse of one Neil Josten.

The weather had taken a ‘cold’ turn for the end of the year (as much as it ever did in South Carolina), which meant that Josten showed up in overlarge sweatshirts and sweaters, all of them appearing old and faded and a few washes away from fraying – and none of them having anything to do with the holiday (that was one thing which Andrew approved of, considering how much grief he got over wearing black all through December). There was indeed traces of black and grey cat hair on his blue sweatshirt the one day, confirming that he had at least one cat, and Andrew watched him turn down a slice of Renee’s rather good coffee cake in the breakroom on Monday while he made himself a cup of what looked to be some sort of black tea. He was polite but distance, and seemed to miss her question about what he’d done over the weekend before he excused himself.

He was also quick on his feet, and quiet, too.

Andrew helped himself to an extra-large slice of the coffee cake since Josten hadn’t taken any. “Someone’s shy.”

Renee shrugged as she made herself some herbal tea. “He doesn’t like to be put on the spot, but if Matt’s around, he’ll open up a little. You should see the picture of his two cats, they’re adorable. He rescued them from a shelter.” She smiled at Andrew, the expression warm and inviting, which he knew better than to trust after digging into her background. “Said that it’s nice to have something to come home to each night.”

In other words, Josten was single, not that Andrew cared or anything. “I imagine the furballs are about as useful as Nicky,” Andrew drawled before he took a big bite of the slice of cake, his gaze locked with Renee’s.

“Maybe,” Renee answered with that damn knowing smile on her face. “You should talk to him at the party on Friday, I think you two have a lot in common.”

He didn’t answer that, he just ate the cake in steady bites before he topped off his mug with more coffee, sugar and milk and then left the room.

If he happened to eat lunch at the same Chinese place where Boyd took Josten on Tuesday? Pure coincidence. He sat at a table by himself and watched Boyd urge Josten to eat some more while the redhead poked at his noodle dish and nodded along with whatever his gregarious coworker said (the kids loved Boyd, who worked events with Wilds and Renee where they gave out the various pieces of equipment and made sure it met the kids’ needs and everything). Andrew noticed how Josten seemed to keep his head down, his hair falling onto his face and eyes, as if to avoid drawing attention to himself.

Yet he still drew looks, and not just because of the faded slashes on his left cheek and the burn on his right (which Andrew hadn’t found anything about, despite all of his digging), not when they failed to detract from the fact that he still was a very attractive young man.

… Andrew really needed to stop thinking things like that.

Still, he finally had an idea of what to get the guy (and if it went over the price limit a bit, who the hell cared?), and placed the order along with some more thick socks for himself and a new mug which read ‘I don’t like MORNING PEOPLE. Or mornings. Or people.’

The next couple of days he had to put up with Nicky babbling about the present he got for his secret Santa and Aaron whining about if his present for the annoying girlthing would be good enough (Andrew didn’t give a shit about either, but most especially the latter), and spent most of his time at work playing solitaire since there was so little to do now that the holiday rush was over. Friday finally came, and all he cared about was the one conference room on the second floor filled with food and the fact that they had the next week off, per Wymack’s ridiculously generous holiday package (something about spending time with loved ones and family – Andrew planned to be barricaded in his room as much as possible to avoid seeing Nicky and Aaron).

Most of the staff had shown up in horrendous holiday sweaters, Nicky included, which made Andrew want to grab some food and retreat back into his small office until it was time to leave for the day, but Wymack insisted on everyone spending some time together, the bastard. The old man wore a bright red and green sweater with the words ‘Oh Snap’ on the front and the image of a broken gingerman cookie, of all things, with Abby standing next to him with a sloth wearing a Santa’s hat on hers.

The worst part of it all? No real alcohol at the damn event. At least Renee had made the eggnog cake, so Andrew headed straight for it and cut himself a huge slice.

“I want to thank you all for another great year here at Fleet Foxes, for all the kids we made happy and the wishes we’ve fulfilled,” Wymack said as he smiled at everyone gathered in the conference room. “I couldn’t have done it without your hard work, and I look forward to another successful year.”

People cheered and clapped to that bit of trite nonsense, while Kevin glared at Andrew for eating cake through it all. Wilds was quick to take over and start calling out names so people could come and collect their gifts while everyone helped themselves to the food (Andrew remained by the cake since Renee had outdone herself on it), and Josten was one of the first few who went up to fetch his.

Andrew munched on the cake while Josten accepted the large bag and would have stepped away with it, except that Wilds made him show everyone what was inside. Clearly nervous with all of the attention, Josten pulled out the dark blue hooded sweatshirt with the saying ‘Carry On and Keep Ignoring Me’ across the front, which made him smile as he read it.

“That’s really cute,” Wilds said as she gave him a pat on the back. “You’ll look great in it, too!”

“Yes, something new for once, and not three sizes too large,” Reynolds called out from where she stood next to Renee.

Andrew had gotten it a little large, but not so much that it would swamp Josten’s lean runner’s figure. Josten gave Reynolds a bland look for her remark, but he took care to fold the gift before he put it back in the bag, and after reading the tag attached to it, he glanced around the room and gave Andrew a shy smile.

A few minutes later it was Andrew’s turn, and Wilds had a huge grin on her face when she handed him a small gift bag. Figuring that maybe Reynolds had gotten him again and it was another lump of coal inside, he opened it to find what was a small box of gourmet truffles from the one chocolate store downtown which he tended to patronize on a regular basis.

The only thing more surprising about the contents was the name on the bag’s tag, which informed him that his secret Santa for the year was one Neil Josten.

He walked away while Wilds was still talking about something, over to where Josten and Abby seemed to be discussing whatever dish Bee had brought to the potluck. Abby smiled at him as he drew near and nodded in greeting. “Have you tried Betsy’s new casserole yet? It’s pretty good.”

Andrew glanced at what looked to be some sort of cheesy potatoes and shook his head. “Not yet.” He held up the small gift bag while he gazed at Neil Josten. “Who told you?”

Neil set aside the small plate of food he held in his left hand and smiled, the expression slight but evident with that full bottom lip of his. “Well, everyone here talks about how much you like sweets, so a few people told me about that one shop.” The smile faded as he nodded over to Renee, who had her right arm wrapped around Reynolds. “Renee gave me ideas about some flavors in particular, though.”

Andrew had to wonder just how much ‘chance’ had to play in the two of them ending up as each other’s secret Santa that year. “You probably spent too much,” he argued since he knew that those truffles weren’t cheap.

“And you didn’t?” Neil nodded to the large bag near his feet. “That’s a nice sweatshirt. Thank you.”

Abby glanced at the two of them before murmuring something and walking away. Meanwhile, Andrew gave the new guy a flat look and clicked his tongue. “I was doing everyone here a favor. It’s time you showed up in something decent for once.”

“Ah, well… I guess I still appreciate it.” Neil’s expression was a little wistful as he swiped his right hand down the front of his worn grey sweatshirt.

“I know Wymack pays a decent salary, so why don’t you buy some new ones?” Andrew knew more than that, actually, considering the access he had.

Neil shrugged. “Old habit, I guess.” His pale blue eyes narrowed as he looked over Andrew. “Why do you always wear black?”

“Old habit, I guess,” Andrew shot back, and told himself that he didn’t feel anything when Josten’s smile strengthened at the retort.

“Hmm… so… how about this? It’s a new year, so if I show up in something new, you show up in something not black?” Neil offered with a slight tilt of his head. “A resolution for us both?”

Andrew considered that for a moment, about seeing Neil in something other than the baggy clothes he always seemed to wear. “It has to be something other than what I got you today.” Neil hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. “And I get to pick it out.”

Those blue eyes went wide and for a moment Andrew thought Neil would say ‘no’… but Neil looked him up and down again before he began to fuss with the hem of his grey shirt. “Uhm, okay? I guess you’ll just bring it to work and-“

“We’ll go shopping together.” Andrew told himself that it would get him out of the house and away from his brother and cousin and their ‘respective others’, not that he was trying to spend time with a cute coworker and… it was nothing. Nothing.

Just like it meant nothing when Neil peered at him through those overlong bangs with his big blue eyes then stuttered out a yes. They exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet up before New Year’s Eve, then Andrew watched Neil all but stumble over to Matt, who took to grinning while the much shorter young man talked while motioning about with his hands.

Renee waltzed all over a couple of minutes later with a large plate of her double chocolate cheesecake and a pleased smile on her face. “I told you that you had a lot in common.”

“I’m just doing everyone a favor and preventing an eyesore at the office.” Andrew was determined to stick with that story.

“I’m sure everyone will greatly appreciate it, whatever it is you’re doing,” Renee agreed as he snatched away the dessert. “That blue will go very well with his eyes.”

“It was the only color available,” Andrew said. Well, the only acceptable color available.

“Hmm.” He hadn’t thought it possible, but her smile grew even brighter. “Merry Christmas, Andrew. I wish you all the peace and happiness possible for the new year, which you truly deserve.”

“Yeah, well, it’s too late to wish you anything good, Reynolds already has her claws sunk in you,” he told her, which made her laugh as she walked away.

Besides, Andrew didn’t believe in things like nice wishes or holiday spirit or ‘goodwill to mankind’, not after everything that had happened to him as a child. He was responsible for his own happiness and future from now on, and that wasn’t going to change any time soon.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t wait to see what role a certain quiet, mysterious redhead played in that future, though, right?

*******

I hope you enjoyed your holiday gift fic and it’s a wonderful holiday for you!

#andreil #aftg fic #nekojitachanfics #tfcnet #holiday gift

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ad-ciu · 7 years

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Of Gods and Dice

I have never used my Tumblr account for much asides from following others, but I think I am going to give a crack at this.

Over the last two months of starting my Masters, I have been fiddling with a lot of ideas for papers. While I have been slumming my way around JSTOR, and listening to the Undergraduates of the program, I have come to the realization that Celtic Studies absolutely sucks at getting information out into the general public. Not only has it struggled with making things such as the Saga texts approachable to the public, it has failed to counter the absolute abundance of entirely counter-factual information out there on topics related to the field. You will find books on “The Secrets of the Druids,” or books talking about how the Fir Bolg are totally just Neanderthals, just floating around, even in University libraries.

As I am a big Tabletop RPG player, a Tabletop game actually got me interested in Irish mythology to start with, this failure of Celtic Studies to communicate with the public has stood out to me through the depictions of Irish Saga texts, and pre-Christian ‘Celtic’ religious entities in these games. I have decided that I am going to spend some time looking at the ways in which the figures of various 'Celtic’ peoples have been misunderstood, above and beyond other mythologies, in various forms of Geeky media.

I don’t hold anything against the developers of these games, in fact, I am considering reaching out to try to interview several of them to discuss why they made the choices that they did when presenting the ‘Celtic’ figures. I don’t find these inaccuracies failures on their part in the slightest, but a great example of how Celtic Studies is failing to present its information in a way accessible to the public.

To start, I want to look at Dungeons and Dragons, Fifth Edition, specifically the ‘Celtic Pantheon’ presented in the Player’s Handbook from 2014. The book specifically states that these are “fantasy interpretations of historical religions” and that the deities are “divorced from their historical context,” to explain discrepancies. What I find, however, is that of the four Pantheons presented (Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Celtic) is that the Celtic Pantheon is the most heavily divergent, and I expect the reason for this being that Celtic Mythology is difficult for the general public to access.

To start with, the Celtic Pantheon did not exist. There never was a single unified Pantheon across all Celtic Regions, let alone a unified Pantheon in a single region, everything was likely rather regionalized, with a few larger entities reaching across larger geographic regions. From the Pantheon roster, we can pick out figures from Medieval Irish, and Welsh literature, Gaulish, and Brythonic inscriptions, and one Roman Deity for some reason. Ignoring the random Roman Deity for the moment, this is grouping together figures from a large geographic area, across a time span of pre-Imperial Rome to the 13th century in the very least. While these peoples were all speaking Celtic-family languages, and had big cultural connections with each other, they were not the same people as each other.

This choice to clump together Gaul, Wales, Ireland, and Brythonic England, from pre-Imperial Rome to well into the European medieval period, is really interesting. The Greek Pantheon doesn’t include the Roman-faces of the Greek Gods, or any of the native Italian figures. The Egyptian Pantheon spans a larger timeline than the Celtic, but the Egyptians tended to agree they were ‘on the same page’ as each other through the several millennium their religious practices continued, unlike the ‘Celts’.

Entirely ignoring the accuracy of the figures presented, and the inclusion of the Roman God (it’s Silvanus if you are curious) the way in which the ‘Celtic’ entities are presented is a fascinating insight into the way the public understands this piece of history. It would be preposterous to present a ‘First Nation’s Pantheon’ or a ‘West African Pantheon,’ it would be insane to group multiple cultures together in that way (let alone being super offensive) but something vaguely similar is done with the ‘Celtic’ peoples here. It is fascinating that this is how the developers chose to present these figures, presenting a unified image of the ‘Celts’ (plus Silvanus) when they were not that in the slightest.

Now, of course, the Developers were not striving for accuracy as they say in their initial disclaimer of the section. But, compared to the other three Pantheons, this choice to merge four distinct cultural regions, and at least twelve thousand years, is fascinating in what it says about how the authors understand this piece of history. I have not tried to reach out to them as of yet, though as I write this I feel as though it may actually be an interesting avenue for an actual paper or something. But, I feel that this choice is rooted in a failure of Celtic Studies to present approachable resources to the general public, and combat the nonsense that is more easily accessible. The idea of a ‘Celtic Pantheon’ is far from limited just to this book, and I expect that potentially the resource they used to write this was... let’s say, striving for less than accuracy.

Next Time on I Complain About Games: How the actual details of these ‘Celtic’ Gods (and Silvanus) doesn’t make much sense.

#mythology #dnd 5e #rpg #ancient celts #celtic #irish mythology #welsh mythology #gaulish mythology

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fishylife · 5 years

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Thoughts on biopics

I think I’m getting closer to figuring out why biopics grind my gears.

Originally, I thought that memoirs and biopics annoyed me because I didn’t believe that any one person would have a story that would be more interesting than the culmination of many different people’s contributions towards a single thing or event. In other words, I felt that I enjoyed stories about events more than I enjoyed stories that were centered on one person. Perhaps it’s because I thought it was kind of egotistical.

Real events as entertainment

Today, the thought came to me that we are now consuming the truth as entertainment.

Documentaries are becoming more mainstream, especially on Youtube, where anybody can put together a set of facts or opinions and present them as truth, and audiences will accept them without question (Myself included. In the modern age of convenience, despite acknowledging the importance of checking sources, I often do not when consuming these documentary pieces in large quantities.).

In addition, politics has turned into another form of entertainment. Politicians are turning into celebrities, and it kind of feels like political debates are turning into dramatized versions of themselves.

Publishing

Before I go on about biopics, let me first talk about memoirs and other similar mainstream non-fiction books. In recent years, a lot of celebrities and widely adored public figures have started publishing their own memoirs. I assume there is demand for this kind of literature, firstly fueled by fans of those figures. However, the act of publishing literature for these mainstream audiences in itself lends to the fact that the literature itself must be entertaining.

In theory, non-fiction should be true first and foremost. Any other qualities of that literature should come secondary to the truth. Perhaps there is no demand for that kind of reading other than by archivists and record keepers, people whose aim is to preserve the truth.

As for memoirs, there are some people who have very unique life experiences and so there is merit to them sharing them because there are commoners like me who would never be able to dream of them, whether it’s something traumatic, or a rags to riches story. I acknowledge this.

However, there are also cases of people who don’t have lives that are that different from many people’s, and I would think that those people have pressure to spice up their autobiographies to be more entertaining.

An author would write about things that happened in their life as they were. However, an editor would review the work. If the editor asked them to omit some things, or expand on others, I would consider that still to be within the realm of truth. However, if the editor asked the author to exaggerate or to change details, that is already on the path of distorting the truth. And the editor technically is doing their job. They are trying to help the author write a book that well be interesting to the masses, not an encyclopedic record of events. I was surprised to find Wikipedia had a page on fake memoirs but it goes to show that some people are not above altering the truth to sell a book.

That being said, biographies and accounts of events written by an “independent” party are not free from bias. It’s just that it’s harder to challenge the lens that those authors are looking through. Since those authors are not the first-hand resources for the content they are writing about, the quality of their research is also a factor, and can also be used as a shield when accused of incorrect facts (though likely not a very strong one).

Controlling your own voice

Recently, I was listening to a segment on The Green Room podcast, which is the podcast hosted by Danny Green from the Toronto Raptors. The guest on that day was Jeremy Lin, who has a production company. What he said really interested me. He realized that if he didn’t use his own voice, someone else would make one for him (relating a lot to him being one a trailblazer as an Asian-American in the NBA). That really sat with me for a while because nowadays, everything is about marketing, or an image, or a brand. There’s no such thing as a completely blank state because apparently everyone has an image or a reputation, regardless of whether it’s one that they created for themselves or one that was imposed on them.

Biopics

Now back to biopics. I do think that my initial thought stands, that no one person’s story is as interesting as seeing how many people have an effect on a particular event. I always find myself more invested in a story than I do in a main character, so I will stand by that.

I do think there is a difference between biopics about historical figures who died long ago, and biopics about people who are still alive or only recently died. Let’s say someone like Julius Caesar. If someone were to make a movie about him, I think there would be more acceptance and acknowledgment that the movie would be an interpretation of him, rather than historical fact. As well, there are enough historians who’d be quick to point out inaccuracies, I would think.

The first film based on true events that really made me think was the Social Network. As a movie, it’s entertaining enough. However, every single character in the film is a real person who is alive today. I don’t know how happy they are with the script or the actors that played them. I also don’t know the legalities of doing this, and I have to wonder whether all of them agreed to have themselves portrayed in a film like this. I know that the truth is the ultimate defense to libel or slander lawsuits, but how do you draw the line when it comes to things like movies, where it is supposed to be an entertaining dramatization of true events, but many don’t consider that and take it as fact.

Now, when we consider writing about people in a “non-fiction” book, the author is sort of taking away the person’s voice from them, adding to their reputation, whether it’s positive or negative. When it comes to biopics, not only does the movie take away the real person’s voice, but also their appearance. I guess it’s stripping someone of their identity in more ways than one. It’s a little disturbing I guess.

Glorification or villainizing

Recently there was debate about the upcoming Ted B*ndy film (I don’t want this post to show up in that tag). It is a movie based on the memoir written by B*ndy’s girlfriend at the time. Of course, it is a very strange and probably frightening experience and I understand why this memoir can both be true and be interesting to some. But for those who read it, I imagine it is important that they first acknowledge that it is truth, before they decide to judge it based on entertainment value (provided that of course the memoir is accurate).

There were concerns that they were casting a good looking actor and glorifying the killer. That is a side effect of the memoir, which was supposed to be an account of true events, being turned into a movie (not a documentary) for mainstream audiences. The reason a good-looking person was cast as this terrible serial killer is because good-looking people are what sell in the entertainment industry. I’m not sure what the producers’ reasons were for turning this memoir into a movie, but that is my comment on the reactions I’ve heard.

Ending

I know I’ve kind of been all over the place here, but this has been nagging at me for a while.

I usually avoid biopics because I just find a lot of them uninteresting. For a lot of the biopics I’ve watched, the tone is positive, and I suppose that annoyed me because no one in real life is perfect that way. If it was a fictional character being portrayed as perfect, I could live with that and maybe even enjoy it because that is a fictional character. But a lot of biopics might either omit negative information or glorify it.

I admit I’ve never liked reading memoirs, autobiographies, or biographies. One of my favourite podcasters recently released a memoir and despite me being a big fan, I have no interest in reading or buying it. It all comes down to authenticity I suppose. I feel like the book is a packaged version of who he is, whereas the podcast is a more authentic version of the kind of person he is.

I guess that’s a way I could put it. I like authenticity and fiction separate, and dramatized versions of real events toe the line way too much for my comfort, without acknowledging that they do. For example, a lot of movies might say “based on the true story” or “based on the real events.” Many people will assume that means it’s mostly true but literally all it means is that the screenwriters were inspired by something that happened in real life and wrote a story; they didn’t set out to record what happened in real life, they set out to write an entertaining story that just happened to be kickstarted by a spark that the screenwriters got that came from real life. Is that convoluted? I hope not.

Anyway, it’s late, but I just wanted to get this all out.

#thinking out loud #thoughts #movies #literature

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orphanicstararchive-blog · 7 years

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excessively long discussion of observations i made after watching dmtnt for a second time, mostly about carina but a little about the other characters as well. a briefer version to follow just highlighting my takeaways from the rewatch. keep in mind that as of my second rewatch, i still have not read ‘the adventures of carina smyth’, so please excuse if anything explored below contradicts the book.

historically, witch trials largely ended by the early 17th century, partly due to past tragedies that had occurred due to witch hysteria and because of advancing scientific discoveries. dmtnt takes place in the 1750s; this might seem like a historical inaccuracy, but considering that in the alternate universe of the potc series, 1. witches are real and 2. people KNOW witches are real, then it makes sense that witch trials would have continued.

everything about carina’s scene in the observatory is fantastic. the look of sheer wonder when she walks inside for the first time, the annoyance when she realizes that all of this belongs to a man who can’t even properly position his telescope ( and yet she is denied the same equipment and education, solely because she is a woman ), and her stealing the chronometer ( which i didn’t notice she’d done until this rewatch )

i don’t think carina was afraid when she was first arrested for witchcraft. i don’t think she truly believed she might be executed until her second arrest and upon being carted away with the other women accused of witchcraft. yes she stills gets in her quips, but when she’s quiet, there’s this look on her face that we didn’t see during her initial imprisonment or pursuit. she looks truly afraid and disappointed, thinking that henry abandoned her after she risked her life to save him, and that she really would die.

henry and carina held hands while ‘the dying gull’ was pushed into the water. i have no further remarks to make other than it was cute as hell.

the choices they made for carina’s wardrobe is fascinating to me. she wears an aquamarine blue dress for the majority of the movie, which is first notable in that it’s a color we haven’t seen in the series before. characters have been dressed in blue, but not in that particular light and green-ish shade. not hard to draw a parallel between the new color and carina serving as a new character in the series. blue is also associated with the protagonist, and it’s interesting to note that (other than his initial appearance as a child) both henry and carina are introduced while wearing blue. other than carina and henry, the only other major character to be dressed predominantly in blue is barbossa, thus implying carina having a connection with henry and barbossa. now on to the wedding party dress. the outfit looks pure orange initially, but having seen the actual dress on display in disneyland, it actually isn’t; it has a subtle purple pattern as well. i don’t really have a comment on the pattern, other than both it and the shape of the dress are so different from the style of dress seen in the original trilogy, that it reflects the passage of time. it also brings to mind elizabeth’s red dress from cotbp. they have a somewhat similar design and certainly a similar way of coming into their owners’ possesions (both women were given/forced to wear it).

while the characters never interact onscreen, i did initially assume that should carina ever meet shansa, she would dislike her. however, i don’t believe that true, given a closer look at shansa’s scenes. shansa is trapped by the same system that prevents carina from attending university. both women are punished for their pursuits, a punishment which has a noticeable sexist undertone to it. so while i’m still not certain exactly how carina would react to her, i do believe she would notice the parallels between them, and would not immediately dislike her as i initially assumed.

shansa claimed that the price for crossing her door was blood, yet barbossa never paid. shansa comments that all pay in the end. in seeking her help and not paying the blood price, he doomed himself to death

as for reconciling carina’s scientific beliefs with her apparently illogical search for the trident, i think she was able to verify that the diary (and thus the trident) were real prior to setting out for it. she also hoped to fulfill what she saw as her father’s last wish, for her to find the trident. and if she were to find it, she could potentially have proven herself, not only to her missing father but perhaps to the scientific community as well. so yes, she believed in the trident and that it had personal and scientific value, but not necessarily in it’s ability to break curses and definitely not in it’s relation to ghosts.

carina can potentially believe in curses and minor supernatural elements because they don’t break scientific laws. magic may simply be a science they haven’t yet discovered. ghosts, however, explicitly contradict the most basic law of science, and thus she refuses to believe in them, instead thinking captain salazar was a living human, until confronted by him on the beach.

carina is extremely resilient to pain and she isn’t frightened by threats against her life. that’s why jack did not threaten her, but instead threatened henry. he knew any threat against her wouldn’t work. not to mention he never truly intended to hurt either of them and that the entire encounter was obviously planned ahead by the crew, given they knew exactly where to throw henry overboard. jack is good at reading people; he likely understood that carina felt some attachment to henry, and that by threatening him, he might get her to talk without truly hurting either one of them.

i’ve already discussed carina’s unrealistic vision of her unknown father so i won’t do so here, but just carina believing so strongly in this image of her father she conjured up that she slapped the fiercest pirate in the world because he insulted that idea.

while in possession of barbossa, the compass was never actually pointing to jack. it was always pointing to carina.

as shown by her refusal to sell the diary’s ruby and her fascination with the trident island purely for academic purposes rather than for the gems’ value, carina truly does not care about living an easy or wealthy life. she grew up with so little, and yet money doesn’t mean much to her. she chooses her own path and pursues knowledge over comfort.

in my own opinion, carina was only truly frightened four times in the film: on the gallows, when henry was ‘keel-hauled’, when she saw salazar’s crew for the first time, and when henry was taken by salazar.

carina is fiercely protective over the few people she cares about. i could go on about this, but i think i’ll make a separate post for it later instead.

#▓ ▌▌ beyond the edges of the map ( ooc. )#▓ ▌▌ filling in the blank spaces on the map ( headcanons. )#analysis tag tba

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