#but honestly she's not like. really seeing the appeal of any of the martial classes

[jewishsuperfam]

and what if i wrote a fic where the unsinkable 8 play d&d on the island

like. they don't have any source books but rachel remembers enough from nora's books, and dot has played enough video games that she can help suggest class abilities and stuff, so between the two of them they can basically homebrew classes for everyone

leah probably played once or twice with ian and i doubt she remembers much but i'd also bet she's ITCHING to write, and this is the first writing-adjacent creative outlet she's had on the island (taking notes on her observations of everyone not included), so she helps with the worldbuilding and coming up with an adventure and winds up getting way more into it than she expected, until they hit a point where she actually volunteers to DM (which no one was expecting; dot was definitely convinced it was gonna have to be her and was kind of dreading it)

(also, once leah winds up kind of taking over and spearheading the creative aspect, which dot and rachel are pretty happy to let her do, dot and rachel wind up deciding to make dice or dice-equivalents out of like. carved bits of wood, probably. or maybe they invent a new system using cards or smt)

shelby is cautiously optimistic; she doesn't really know anything about the game and has probably had some of the more satanic panic opinions on d&d crammed into her head, but from how the other girls describe it it sounds like fun to her. toni's more skeptical, but shelby and martha are both pretty enthusiastic, so she winds up agreeing just for them

fatin's not remotely interested in the game to begin with, and only agrees bc leah's been putting so much time + energy + heart into this and she wants to be supportive (and also bc she doesn't want to be the only one who refuses to play), but she winds up getting really into it, in a way that genuinely surprises her

#anyway: leah is dm like i said already #dot already knows off the bat that she wants to play a cleric #rachel decides to play a rogue just for the skill proficiencies and bc insane amounts of damage #martha's 1000% a druid no question abt it #i think toni probably plays a paladin tbh? #at first she just wants to play a character that doesn't have too much going on mechanically--just a good simple beginner character #but rachel makes the mistake of suggesting that barbarian might be a good class for that #and toni's feelings get hurt and they have a fight and later rachel is like #'u know....there are other characters that also like to hit things with swords but don't have a rage mechanic......' #and toni likes the idea of the aura of protection so. she goes with that #shelby wants to play a character pretty far removed from religion and also cast spells and help her friends #but she doesn't want to play a damage-focused character or do too much direct healing #so she winds up playing a bard #fatin tho. fatin's tricky #she doesn't really know much about the game so she asks leah to pick for her #and leah won't do that but she DOES give fatin a rundown of the options and what she thinks fatin would have fun with #after the explanations i think she thinks about playing a charisma caster like a sorcerer or warlock #but finds that she's not really into the idea of not knowing where her powers come from or how to control them #similarly she thinks abt being a barbarian and having an opportunity to vent some bottled up anger #but honestly she's not like. really seeing the appeal of any of the martial classes #shes like 'if i have to play this dumb game i want to have magic or what's even the point' #so to her absolute horror and self-disgust i think she winds up playing a wizard and LOVING it #anyway this got long but. i cant stop thinking abt it sooooo #the wilds

[fiftysevenacademics]

Warrior

By chance, I learned about a show called “Warrior,” originally on Cinemax and now streaming on HBOMax. The basic premise is that a martial arts prodigy immigrates to San Francisco Chinatown in 1878 and is quickly sold to a tong that is on the verge of going to war with a rival tong. The dearth of movies or TV shows set in pre-earthquake (1906) San Francisco always baffles me, given how incredibly socially diverse, violent, raunchy, crime-ridden, wealthy, and often lawless the city was. Portions of the waterfront were even built in abandoned ships. Imagine the amazing sets you could design! I’ll watch anything set in pre-quake San Francisco, especially if it’s going to tell the story of characters, such as Chinese immigrants, that we almost never see in Westerns or other films set in this era.

So I was already in before I saw that the show is based on an 8-page treatment by Bruce Lee and related notes his daughter, Shannon Lee, found. She is also an executive producer, along with Justin Lin. I’m not a huge fan of martial arts movies in general, but this one had a lot of potential so I checked it out and got immediately sucked in.

I’m not going to spoil the plot but it gets convoluted quickly. Probably about 2/3 of the scenes end up with fighting and there is plenty of sex, too. Is it a little trashy with all that sex and violence? Yes, but GOOD trashy, with characters that are multi-dimensional, well-written, directed, and acted, though the costuming leaves a lot to be desired and, somewhat stereotypically for the Western genre, most scenes occur in brothels or barrooms and there are a few historically improbable relationships. But OK, this is borderline pulp fiction and the story is exciting so whatever.

What I love most about the show, however, is how well it portrays a totally neglected aspect of California and American history: How virulent anti-Chinese racism shaped white working class politics in the West. It is the only show I’ve ever seen that directly addresses the cultural climate and politics leading up to the Chinese Exclusion Act from a Chinese point of view. One of the central conflicts in the show depicts how white laborers brutally intimidated and assaulted Chinese workers and their white employers, and how politicians used the “they’re taking our jobs” rhetoric for political gain. One of the main antagonists is a ruthless Irish labor boss called Dylan Leary, who is obviously a fictionalized version of Denis Kearney. 

The show mostly accurately depicts how Chinese were sequestered in Chinatown by a combination of laws that prevented them from owning property or becoming citizens and a campaign of terror led by white vigilantes, making it easy for white business owners to extract grueling labor for hardly any pay. The combination of exploitation and exclusion the Chinese immigrants face in American society intensifies a “get rich quick and get out” mentality among some Chinese immigrants, who are more than willing to do anything they must to their own people in order to send money home, make enough money to go home, or to become the most powerful people in Chinatown. Limited opportunities for economic and social advancement outside of Chinatown drive some to organized crime gangs called tongs that have turned this ethnic enclave into a haven for opium, gambling, and prostitution. While the show is set in this sensationalistic criminal underworld, it’s clearly contextualized-- If these guys had the same opportunities as white people, they’d become industrialist tycoons, too. You just don’t see stuff like this on TV!

The ghost of the Civil War is never far from the action, either. The irony of people who held strong views and fought against slavery going West and then oppressing Chinese workers, many of whom were also enslaved by debt bondage, is not lost on this show. 

It’s tempting to think that the show is retroactively putting contemporary anti-immigrant policies into the past to make a point. But the point is actually that things really were like this in the 1870s and remain to this day at the heart of American politics. As a show that fits into TVs “Western” genre, it is unique in its point of view and how much detail it goes into about actual racial politics of the era as well as the hopes, dreams, and disappointments of people who have to build their own community in a society that hates everything about them except their strong arms and backs.

Speaking of which, part of the show’s appeal is how generous it is to viewers of its many very hot actors and actresses! It manages to have sweaty, shirtless martial arts sequences and exotic, langorous, opium-enhanced brothel sequences that don’t feel exploitative or one-dimensional because they are just parts of a much bigger, well-rounded world the characters inhabit.

And I totally lost my shit when there was a scene set inside a business inside an abandoned ship in San Francisco’s infamous, utterly lawless Barbary Coast. I don’t honestly know how many businesses continued to be operated out of abandoned ships in the 1870s but surely there were some and I don’t even really care because I was just so excited to see something like that come to life.

One review wrote, The vibe is very much “What if Peaky Blinders was racially diverse and half the characters could roundhouse kick you in the face?”

Another review wrote: There’s a lot about the show that will be recognizable to fans of today’s dark antihero dramas: The gangster storyline feels like a plot from Boardwalk Empire or Peaky Blinders, the frontier fable of capitalism resembles Deadwood, and warring factions vying for power recall similar conflicts on Game of Thrones. But what sets Warrior apart is its focus on a fascinating chapter in the American story that’s often treated like an afterthought in history books. And it wraps that history lesson in an enticing action-thriller package with nods to spaghetti Westerns, the kung fu cinema of Hong Kong, gangster flicks, and exploitation films, as well as other grindhouse genres.

I discovered Warrior thanks to this essay by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Here’s a quote: The real issue here isn’t just adding more Asian American characters, it’s about the kind of characters portrayed. Two important areas that are deliberately overlooked by Hollywood are Asian Americans as romantic leads and as heroic leads. Few series dare to have an Asian American man as the object of romantic desire, especially by a white woman (are you listening, Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise?). Fewer have Asian American women as leads prized for their intelligence and outspoken strength rather than their svelte figure and flirty smile. There are exceptions: the wonderful Cinemax series Warrior, based on a Bruce Lee treatment, focuses mostly on tough and sexy Chinese men and women fighting for survival in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1870s. 

“Warrior” currently has two seasons. It was canceled when Cinemax ceased producing original content. But Shannon Lee and Justin Lin are hoping that with enough fan support, HBOMax will agree to make more seasons. Check it out!

#warrior #warrior cinemax #i also recognized two of the actors from Vikings #Dianne Doan is great in this and she also played a slave girl that bewitched Ragnar in Vikings #i might switch teams for Chao #and Jason Tobin steals the show as Young Jun #Ah Toy is a great character based on a real-life woman #so many good characters

[cookie-gal]

Okay but Ranma 1/2 modern au. The original story takes place in the late 1980s, that is over 30 years ago, nothing wrong with that time period but just imagine the story just taking place in 2020, but 2020 that isn't insane and just chill. 2019 but it's just 2020

This au is also inspired by @incorrectranmaquotes concept of modern au Ranma using his female form to be a gamer girl twitch streamer.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

• Ranma and Akane are now in their late teens, maybe 19, and are college students rather than 16 year old high schoolers

• Arranged marriages have now become a rarity, and it would be very odd to be in one, let alone two young college students. But here is Akane and Ranma being in one. This results in their betrothal becoming a skeptical by others for various reasons. Those reasons being: Akane never shows interest in relationships and has turned down ever suitor, they are so young, and they hate each other

• Ranma is actually a professional martial artist. Since we was a kid he was trained to be one and has participated around the world in tournaments which resulted in him being home schooled for a good chunk of his life and then did online school. Though he does wants to study to become a physical therapist in college.

• Ranma secretly hopes that when he goes to a tournament, he'll see his mom there. He knows that his parents had a falling out and he knows his mom travels around with a circus as an acrobat. He hopes that during one of his tournaments, the circus his mom works at happens to be in town. Unfortunately, there have been times where he found out his mother's circus is going to be in the same town but it always arrives before his tournament and by the time he arrives it's gone or after the tournament when he already left so he never gets to see her.

• Ranma doesn't hold resent towards either of his parents over their divorce and his mother having very little contact with him, he just wants to see his mom again since the last time he saw her was when he was 4.

• Akane knows on day she will take over her father's dojo, that's why she's majoring in business. However she's also double majoring with psychology because she always wanted to be a some sort of school teacher.

• Akane is definitely a workaholic. This woman not only is double majoring, but she is an assistant at her dad's dojo to help him teach new students and she works at a local ice cream shop.

• Ranma is just baffled that Akane works herself to the bone while he's taking a more passive work load. That starts a number of their arguments since Ranma is much more lax while Akane is going sicko mode and getting coin.

• Akane complains that Ranma has a lot of free time and he should at least get a part time job. Little does she know this man moonlights at night as a female twitch streamer, using his female form.

• Ramna is your e girl, gamer girl, twitch Goddess. You can't tell me otherwise since it's the modern equivalent to Ranma using his female form to get free food. He absolutely purposely unbutton his shirts as he streams just to appear more appealing to her viewers to get that coin.

• His twitch streamer username is Red_Dragon_Gaming. He just goes by Red and he calls his fans his dragons.

• He probably just streams himself playing PC games and sometimes Nintendo games.

• Akane blows a casket when she finds out he is that infamous twitch streamer since so many of her classmates basically worship that streamer. Doesn't help that Ranma sometimes shows up to college in his female form by accident. People start bothering her if she can get Red's signature or can get them something that Red's owns since she knows their gamer girl goddess.

• Kuno is absolutely one of Red's subscribers and white knights. But now he's torn between Akane and Red even thought both and 100% not interested in him. No doubt he pesters Akane, all while flirting with her, if she can obtain something from Red like a shirt or a sock. He leaves with a bruise on his arm.

• Kuno definitely is a secret, not secret, neckbeard on reddit but at least he's hygienic. He honestly just needs to drink more respect women juice and he'll be fine. He's a Business major as well which makes Akane dread her classes sometimes because he pesters her in class.

• Even though Ranma doesn't like the idea of getting help, he appreciates Akane helping him fend off people when he happens to go to a public place as a girl.

• Also Ranma and Mr. Saotome absolutely could gave avoided getting cursed if they actually read the full article about Jusenkyo. They probably read like the first few paragraphs and then said, "it's free real estate" and went to train there. The rest of the article discussed the curses in great detail. This all happened when Ranma was 16.

• Ranma actually ran into Shampoo, in his girl form, shortly after he got cursed and she challenged him to a duel since she saw him training. By then she was cursed but Ranma didn't know that.

• Course Ranma beats her and she gave him the kiss of death. When Shampoo came swinging with a blade, he dipped. Shampoo has been hunting down Ranma ever since. She would always be a few days late to his new location and by then he already left.

• She finally finds him when he and Akane are actually doing laundry together and for once aren't arguing. And the scene plays out just like in canon and now Shampoo is dead set on being his wife much to everyone's dismay.

• Shampoo definitely transfers to their college in order to get closer to Ranma. She's actually a Business major like Akane and is a Communication minor.

• Her grandmother lives in town and she was always planning to move in with her, even before she got engaged to Ranma. She plans to continue working at her grandmother's shop and will own it in the future. So Shampoo sees all of this as destiny.

• Shortly after Shampoo settles in, Mousse follows. This dude is in love with Shampoo and thought they were going to get married before Shampoo sent him a text that their engagement is off since she's now engaged with Ranma.

• Before her engagement to Ranma, Shampoo and Mousse actually had a happy healthy relationship and are super supportive of one another. They were waiting til they got older to officially get married, probably around age 23, since they both wanted to get stable careers and a home together first.

• They constantly texted each other while she was hunting down Ranma and he would also help her track Ranma down. Shampoo's contact name for Mousse was "My Honeybun 💕" and his contact name for her was "My Queen 💖"

• Rip Mousse because after she sent him that text, she blocked him.

• Now he transferred to that same college as a Chemistry major, he wants to be a chemist, and is trying his best to challenge Shampoo to a duel to win her back. Though Shampoo won't give him the time of day. Again rip Mousse since it makes hin feel as if their several year long relationship meant nothing to her.

• Ryoga is pretty much the same as in cannon. He was home schooled his whole life and does online college. He's a huge traveler and loves visiting different locations. He even has a YouTube channel dedicated to his vlogs around the world.

• His youtube channel's name is Travel Grump. Since he loves pigs, he calls his subscribers piglets. A lot of his merch is centered around pigs.

• Though this clown was hunting down Ranma and just like in cannon fell into the lake. He didn't read the right article and assumed Jusenkyo was like any other training ground.

• He's studying in college to be a journalist and he double majors in Communications and English.

• He starts to fall for Akane after getting to know how more and also the fact she's a martial artist that can kick his ass just sets his heart a blaze. Though he's pissed that Akane and Ranma are fiances and he is secretly, not really, trying to break off their engagement.

• Akane actually struggles a lot with her identity and sexuality. She identities as a cis woman however her struggles lies in her femininity and masculinity. She is caught between wanting to be a traditional, feminine woman like her late mother and her masculine, rash, and aggressive behavior and activities. She feels like she can't stray away from the reputation she build up for many years that she's this strong, aggressive bold tomboy. She feels that because of this she can't enjoy feminine things. It doesn't help that when she attempts to do something that is a gender norm for girls like cooking or knitting, she fails at it. She is trying to find that balance. And about her sexuality, she started debating in college if she might be asexual considering she finds herself having no sexual interest yet does want to have a kid in the future. She is going through a lot of self discovery and questioning.

• Doesn't help that she secretly has low self esteem, body image issues, and is super self conscious. All that is masked under her temper.

• Ranma actually can relate to her since he struggles to understand himself, trying to get comfortable with his own sexuality, and understanding how to live with his curse if he can't find the cure for it. This actually leads to Ranma and Akane establishing an understanding between each other and starts to develop their relationship.

• Though Ranma always screws any attempt of friendship or romance by doing something dumb.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

I will expand more about this au later and feel free to leave your own headcanons and ideas for this au.

#ranma 1/2 #ranma #ranma au #ranma 1/2 au #modern au #college au #kinda #ranma saotome #akane tendo #shampoo #ryoga hibiki #mousse

[stay-funky-ponyboy]

Campaign 3 predictions/desires

Alright this will be totally self indulgent so here we go.

Travis: druid or rogue. I feel like he might try a more dexterous character this time. Also it would be cool to see him be really sneaky, he's very good at shifty characters isn't he? Yes I want to see him perhaps be evil/dark because he would be great at that characterization. 

Laura: barbarian would be fun. blood hunter would be awesome. warlock perhaps?? If she still wants to play it. At any rate, whatever class she wants to play, she better get the first dibs on it. third times a charm!! 

Marisha: paladin!! warlock!!! Any kind of high charisma character would be neat. I do hope to see paladin or warlock for her though. I think she fits well for those.

Ashley: bard. honestly really any kind of spellcaster class. bard is my secret wish because I know she will make it awesome, and put her own unique twist on it. If she prefers martial classes I hope she goes rogue.

Taliesin: this one is really hard tbh. I can see him going warlock or sorcerer, but he might also go back to one of Matt's homebrews. I also wouldn't mind seeing him play a ranger (gloom stalker ofc for goth vibes). His characters always fascinate me so I won't complain either way. 

Liam: bard or druid for sure. I could also see him going fighter. Druid is a special hope of mine. We know he loves the animal roleplay so maybe??? I would love to see what he does as a druid or bard. 

Sam: now we know Liam is making Sam's character so this does make it trickier... I have a hope for a wizard, sorcerer or cleric. Sam seems to enjoy spells a lot and is fantastic at it. Sorcerer (especially wild magic) would be appealing to Sam’s penchant for chaos. Also, as a cleric I think Sam could make it a very hilarious role.

this is getting long but there are some things (like race, party dynamic or characterization) that would be awesome to see imo:

bonus points for....

if someone plays an elf, which I imagine is likely at this point. (Extra points if it's a drow!)

tabaxi or aarakocra (or both) are played. Both of these are neat and I would love to see more races that are outside the PHB.

no clerics, I love the class but it'd be cool to see how the party handles not having any around. No I don't absolutely want character deaths but I wouldn't mind some high stakes.

having two characters be exes. I really want to see that dynamic tbh. Give me that drama! 

an evil character being in the party. Or maybe someone who turns evil throughout the campaign. 

exploring the moon (ruidus) somehow. 

Liam playing a woman because hello have you seen the women he plays? Jayne and Lieve'tel? I told you all this was self indulgent! I realize it is unlikely but I can hope haha.

#critical role #cr campaign 3 #campaign 3 predictions #not going to bother predicting the area or time of the setting #the moon will come back... im sure of it #a character like jayne coming up again would be like a cherry on a sundae

[vanessakirbyfans]

Ask Vanessa Kirby if, as a little girl living in London’s middle-class neighborhood of Wimbledon, she dreamed of punching people in the face. You might hear a giggle on the other end of the phone line. Inquire about the endless hours she must have spent during her formative years wishing she could throw a toaster at someone in the middle of a fight or choke someone out with her thighs — that inspires a heartier baritone chuckle from her. Suggest that Kirby must have grown up filled with a burning desire to drive a 360-degree rotating jeep out of a warehouse window. Now the 31-year-old actress makes a sort of pffft sound before laughing uproariously.

“I’m so not an action-movie type,” she says. “I’m a theater nerd from London! But you want a lot of different experiences as an actor. As many as possible.” A pause. “Which is how you find yourself hanging on the edge of a cliff and a helicopter is spinning around you and you’re thinking, ‘What the hell is going on?!’ ”

The helicopter scene comes near the end of Hobbs & Shaw, the Fast & Furious spin-off that Kirby stars in alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham. By the time we get to that visceral, climactic stunt, however, we’ve already watched her character Hattie Shaw — a rogue MI6 agent and the sister to Statham’s bad-guy-turned-good-guy Deckard Shaw — do every one of those aforementioned activities. We’ve also seen her hop and sprint across the tops of storage containers, slide across a concrete floor to take out two thugs at once, drive a truck sideways through a wall, display an affinity for heavy artillery, ride shotgun in roughly a half dozen high-speed car chases, and kick a chair into a guy’s midsection before slamming his head into a table. Kirby more than holds her own against her rough-and-tumble costars. “Dwayne and Jason have been doing stuff like this for years,” director David Leitch says. “Vanessa is new to all of this, and she immediately gave as good as she got.” Plus, like Ginger Rogers, she occasionally has to do what they do backwards and in heels.

For an actor whose breakthrough role was playing Princess Margaret in Netflix’s award-winning series The Crown — a part whose biggest physical requirement, she points out, was stubbing a cigarette into a sandwich — Kirby’s coronation as a bona fide running, jumping, ass-kicking action hero may be the best surprise of the summer movie season. Her brief but memorable turn in Mission: Impossible — Fallout proved that she could handle herself in a melee and was handy with a knife. But what she’s doing in this F&F franchise standout is some next-level, close-contact, roll-up-your-sleeves kind of work. It suggests that, in addition to playing rebellious royalty and femme fatales, Kirby may very well be the female Bond we deserve.

“Yeah, I don’t quite know how this happened, yet here we are,” she says. “When they came to me with this, I suddenly felt like: Ok, well, here’s this opportunity to introduce another strong, female character into this series. I mean, you have Michelle Rodriguez and these other wonderful actresses who’ve been a part of these films in the past. But this is a story where you have these two men, and a woman who’s an equal part of their team. She’s not being objectified. She’s not the weak link. She doesn’t need them to fight on her behalf. She doesn’t need to be saved.

“I knew it’d be hard, and I knew it’d be fun to do,” she continues. “But what drove me was the idea that somewhere out there, some 13-year-old girl would go to the movies, and while her brothers are freaking out over the Rock, she gets someone to relate to. That girl gets to see herself up there. She gets to have the same experience her brothers or her male friends have when they go to an action movie. It suddenly seemed like this was an important thing to do as well.”

Growing up in London, Kirby was more likely to be buried in a book than catching a blockbuster, claiming she “preferred Chekhov to action movies, really,” before groaning, “That sounds sopretentious. God, so sorry. What a wanker!” She was “not what you’d call sporty” and caught the theater bug early on, as an outlet and an escape; Kirby has talked about being severely bullied at school and suffering from giardiasis as a teen. After years of doing plays in the U.K., she nabbed the Crown role. One of the show’s fans, Tom Cruise, recruited her for M:I duty, and Kirby claims she wanted to make her character “kind of weird, a little strange…I liked the idea of subverting the usual stereotype of the femme fatale.” (The stare her mystery woman fixes on Cruise before planting a violent kiss on him is as intense as any of the action sequences not involving extreme skydiving.)

But it wasn’t until she found herself watching the star on set that she gleaned the appeal of a D.I.Y approach to action filmmaking. “Honestly, I didn’t understand the whole notion of doing stunts until I saw Tom do what he did. You have to be part athlete, part dancer. A fight sequence is like learning a ballet.” And Leitch, a former stuntman and fight co-ordinator who co-directed the first John Wick movie and Atomic Blonde, had a reputation for staging sequences which relied on his performers to be in the middle of things as much as possible. “If you can train the actor to stay in 90-percent of the action, it’s just that much more compelling for the audience,” he notes, citing Charlize Theron’s one-shot shootout in Blonde as a prime example. “So to observe Vanessa get to the point where judo-throwing guys on the ground looks like it’s no big thing…it was a blast to see her take to it.”

Getting to that point, however, required a lot of training: three days a week, three hours a day, for six weeks. “Lots of fighting, lots of parkour, lots of martial arts drills — which I was pretty crap at initially, if we’re being honest,” Kirby says. “Then once I started to get the basics down, we could add things, take things away, create combinations of moves. I was doing a play at the time [Julie, a riff on August Strindberg’s Miss Julie at the National Theatre], sometimes two shows a day — I’d get up at 7am, train for three hours, rehearse, do a performance at night. So, lots of soreness as well. But I ended up loving it. “

Then there were the more complicated stunts — the ones involving, say, Kirby being inside a car as it was rotated 360-degrees on a gimbal, with the actress strapped into her seat but still flying about every which way. Or one in which the actor was wired to the outside of car that Statham is driving and “drifting” at some impressive speeds. (“You need a willing participant to make these types of things work,” Leitch says. “But there were a few things where even we were going, ‘So Vanessa, you really want to do this?'”) Mention that last one to Kirby, and she replies, “Maybe it’s crazy to say this, but after a while on this shoot, these dangerous stunts…you kind of get immune to it. You know, ‘Strap myself to a moving car?'” She adopts a singsong voice. “‘Just ano-ther daaaaay on the job!'” It eventually got to the point where I’d go, ‘Oh, today I just have to repeatedly punch someone? Easy!'”

And while neither of Kirby’s next few projects — an untitled low-budget collaboration with Gimme the Loot director Adam Leon; The World to Come, a character study about two women in love set in the 1800s — will require her to flip a man by the neck using only her coat, she is now ready, willing and able to employ her new skill set on demand. “It’s funny, I was thinking about Princess Margaret,” she says, referencing her Crown character. “I look back on her now, and think, well, half of the time, all she really wanted to do was fight! And she never could. With Hattie, I finally got to do that. So in that way, the role was cathartic.” Kirby drops her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I’m in a movie where I get to fight the Rock. And I get to win.”

#Vanessa Kirby #Hobbs and Shaw #Articles #Interview

[moistwithgender]

Monthly Media Roundup (April 2019)

April was a bit of a disaster month for me, and as such I didn’t get much of anything finished. Old wounds got reopened, I was sick all month, I had an unavoidably bad birthday, and a lifelong pet died. I didn’t engage with a lot of things, and mostly slept. I did play a lot of Breath of the Wild, but seeing as I didn’t finish that, I’m not including it yet. Here’s the things I did finish:

Games:

Blaster Master Zero (Switch): I actually first bought and finished this two years ago, and since the sequel has come out I decided to replay it with the Shovel Knight DLC character. While I genuinely like this game (I 100%’d it both times), I was not really in a good spot to enjoy this playthrough, and just kinda mindlessly pushed through it for nine consecutive hours, beating it in that single sitting. Playing as a DLC character removes the story, which is fine since they’re intended for replays, though I wonder if it added to my emotional disconnect. SK doesn’t receive fall damage, and so the precariousness of navigating the world outside of the highly-mobile tank doesn’t exist nearly as much, though the trade-off is that SK’s combat abilities in dungeons are hindered by an overall lack of range. The game is still rather easy, though, so I can’t say any particular level cadences or combat scenarios carved their way into my memory.

To the game’s credit, though, the things that are good about it are still good. If you have an attachment to the original NES game, or an interest in retro properties, or just want a nice, breezy platformer, it’s very good. It’s interesting in how it repurposes the altered plot of the US version of the original game (where it was its most popular), including even the plot of the little novelization that came out because Gotta Get Those Video Game Kids to Read Something. It has a fake out ending, and if you 100% the maps it unlocks a final map that is genuinely surreal enough to be the highlight of the game. Despite my sighing, it is a genuinely good time, and I’m very curious to play the new game, somewhat hilariously titled Blaster Master Zero 2.

Anime:

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: I chewed through the last four episodes of this so that I could say I finally finished the season. I didn’t watch the post-season recap episode. TenSura (the abbreviation of the Japanese title, which I will use to refer to it because satisfyingly abbreviating the english title is impossible) is not a very good show, but for about half the length of the 24-episode first season, it fascinates due to how it functions at all. TenSura is an isekai show, much like the other isekai shows, where a person dissatisfied with their life is brutally murdered (usually by a truck. USUALLY by a truck) and is reborn in a fantasy world that coincidentally gives them an absurd advantage over other people, allowing them to live out all the decadence they felt they deserved in the real world. If this sounds like the most boring kind of wish fulfillment possible to you, that’s because it is. It’s also extremely popular with consumers. Which is interesting! I think the isekai boom is indicative of how late-stage capitalism everyday people the world over, that we envision or escape to worlds where your efforts actually return appropriate reward. A bonkers concept, to be sure.

In TenSura, the formula doesn’t stray much. The main character is a man in his 30s (?) who has never fucked and gets knifed to death while HEROICALLY saving a coworker from a plot-irrelevant stabber dude who was running down the sidewalk with his knife out for no reason besides Main Character Needs an Inciting Incident Now. It’s actually pretty weirdly violent for the start to a show that is almost entirely light-hearted. Dude dies, his coworker dumps his hard drive in the bath out of respect (lol), and he wakes up in a fantasy world that works on videogame logic, including loot, skill trees, and class upgrades. He is reborn as an adorable slime a la Dragon Quest, but the personality traits he had in his previous life (and I guess his choice of dying words) scan to obscenely convenient passive abilities that ensure he’s not only invincible, but will never stop experiencing exponential power growth. Also he immediately makes friends with a final boss-level dragon and then eats him. That’s how he makes friends in this sometimes.

I’m being very cynical here, but the core narrative loop (and it IS a loop) of the series kept my interest for longer than I expected. Rimuru (the name of the reborn protagonist) goes somewhere he hasn’t been, astonishes the nearby (sometimes violent) inhabitants with his overpowered abilities, makes friends with them, and then improves their lives with community. Goblins, direwolves, orcs, demon lords. It stacks and builds upon itself to absurd degrees but it’s interesting that in a genre loaded with very problematic stories of disenchanted dudes finally getting the underage harem they’ve always wanted (aaaaAAAAAAAAA) that the main concept of this series is improving the lives of others and giving them closure for the ways life has hurt them. Even if. Sometimes that hurt was the main character’s doing? Like Rimuru absolutely decapitates a direwolf leader and then adopts the pack who from then on absolutely LOVE the dude. Also one of Rimuru’s abilities is that if he gives a monster a name, it class upgrades, which is generally and reasonably seen as a life improvement. Though, these class upgrades are almost always decidedly “less-tribal” or outright human, which smacks of some imperialist thinking. It’s also something I’m sure I never questioned in old videogames growing up. Meanwhile, there’s also a bit with a woman who came from Japan during that one really bad war, you know the one, and the closure she’s given as she’s dying is handled with actual delicacy. It’s a weird series! It’s only a shame to me that after most of the first season, there was less to talk about. Sometime after the halfway mark, you realize the show is never going to maintain tension for more than half an episode, that all problems are solvable (yes, even terminally ill children), and that the show isn’t going anywhere you can’t predict. It’s a checklist show, and the plot points are a list of achievements being checked off one episode at a time.

I don’t think I would actually recommend the show to most people, despite how popular it is. It’s not a great show, but it does weird enough things for a while that it generates conversations. Which is honestly pretty okay. It’s a pretty okay show. Also, Rimuru is effectively nonbinary (with he pronouns), and that’s… somethin’! (24 episodes, finished 4/17/19, Crunchyroll (Funimation also now has the dub I think? Clips I saw were pretty weird, Rimuru seemed to be characterized differently.))

Manga:

Nejimaki Kagyu Vol 1: You would think a manga that immediately starts with a reference to Phantom Blood would be, well, at least interesting.

Okay maybe invoking a beloved work doesn’t actually mean anything. I just wanted to share this blatant callback. Nejimaki Kagyu is a seinen manga about a highschool teacher whose tragically cursed to, uh, have all teenage girls fall in love with him. And the highschool-age childhood friend of his who has spent her whole life obsessed with him and learning super martial arts to defend his chastity. Her supers make her clothes explode.

…

I take no joy in this travesty.

Anyway, uh. The biggest tragedy here is that the art is actually really good, though the paneling is regularly squished around to hilarious degree. Let’s look at some pages and then forget this manga exists forever.

That horror face is how I feel the entire series should be portraying itself. The manga has a distinct lack of self-awareness.

The fan translation for this series appears to have dropped off halfway through and hasn’t been picked up for years, and based on reviews I saw on MAL talking about the directionlessness of the later volumes, I wonder if the translator got fed up with the series. Oh well!

Kyou no Asuka Show Vol 1: Oh god damn it I just got done with talking about a series about ogling the youth.

BLEASE STOP

Okay so. Kyou no Asuka Show, or “Today’s Asuka Show” is an older slice of life manga by the same author I mentioned previously who is doing an edutainment series about people working in a condom factory. Innocently-minded women in comedically lewdish situations appears to be his whole bag. I think Asuka is pretty charming, but I also know she’s designed to appeal to my monkey male gaze. Obliviously sexy is very much a mood, and in a more adult context I would be all for it. There have been a few chapters where I find myself at odds with the wisdom the author is attempting to impart, sometimes through Asuka’s father, who works as an adult photographer, and doesn’t want his daughter involved in anything that could cause her to be ogled. Like, that’s already something that requires a lot of unpacking in the modern day. Aforementioned wisdom sometimes takes the form of Asuka doing something stupid and innocent and ripe for objectifying, like wearing a school swimsuit in a rainstorm. Or she’ll work a job as a cute girl courier and inadvertently turn a shut-ins life around. Situations where, if it were in real life, I’d think “wow that’s weird and charming,” but by being a work of intentional authorship, it inherently loses some of that innocence, and becomes something well-meaning but problematic. Is that the second time I’ve used the word “problematic” in this post? Is this 2014?

I may continue reading this, but I really can’t recommend it to most people I know in 2019 without several disclaimers and also without probably getting some side eye. I think it’s worth a couple chapters to feel out what its doing before you decide whether you can siphon the charm from it, or would rather move on to something else.

Me enjoying myself when this manga tries to suddenly get up to some shit.

Blue Period Vol 1: This is the last thing on my list, because I don’t want to expand this list beyond the three mediums I’ve already assigned to it. Also, I actually finished this May 1st, but I wanted to talk about it now.

If I had the power to actually get people to engage with a specific work once per month, Blue Period would easily be the one I pick. That doesn’t mean as much when all the other things I finished this month were conflicted experiences, but I really think everyone would benefit from this series. Or at least anyone with even a passing interest in visual arts.

Blue Period (named for Picasso’s Blue Period) is about a highschool delinquent who has a knack for studying, a safe social life, and no interests in pretty much anything. He’s on the road to do fine in his life, and he doesn’t question it much, but that’s it, until he discovers art and realizes it’s the only way he’s ever been able to truly communicate his feelings. It changes everything about him, for more emotionally satisfying reasons, but also riskier ones. He only has one year of highschool to go to decide what he’s doing with his life, and Japan has a very strict education system. You’re not really allowed to just “get around” to things.

Apologies in advance if you’re tired of me spamming full pages but I really do wanna show this off. This is another series with an educational angle to it, though the emphasis is definitely more rooted in a personal narrative of growth. The explanations of art practice and the functionality of exercises and tools are both very informative and relevant to the characters, never feeling like the story is taking a backseat to explain. The characters are, hilariously, everyone I’ve ever met in an art class. There’s the kid who would rather exclusively draw the things they like, there’s the kid who likes art as a hobby but haaaates being given a project, etc etc. There are students who have an innate grasp on how to draw but haven’t internalized the Why of the exercises, and students who are receptive to the lessons but don’t have the ability to match. The narrative is extremely even-handed towards all of these different levels of skills, and places a lot more importance on why, emotionally, you should totally care about drawing apples and water pitchers for five hours at a time. It’s GREAT and I want to force it on every creative I’ve ever known.

Another thing I appreciate about this series so far is that while there has been something resembling sexual/romantic tension, it’s kind of not like that at all? In the first volume I haven’t been able to pinpoint where a potential relationship subplot would go, if at all. Two possibilities are this girl:

...who is a very likable character but surprisingly doesn’t fit into that box of “standard love interest”. The protag’s interactions with her have been exclusively respectful and admiring, which doesn’t even necessarily imply a romantic subplot, but would be pretty cool if it did? And the other girl:

...who is featured in decidedly more sexual tension-y contexts, is actually TRANS. The manga actually portrays them so uncompromisingly feminine that I didn’t realize they were crossdressing (the term used in the text) until the author’s notes at the end of the volume. I will partially blame this on me being out of it this month, since I just went back to their introduction and yep, they got misgendered and contested it. Given how the character is regularly framed (confident, attractive, skilled, nonstereotypical), I’m… pretty okay with this! If a romance blooms between a delinquent boy and a trans girl, that’s amazing.

I hope y’all understand where I’m coming from in expecting a shoehorned romantic subplot. I’m not hoping for one, I just know the product by now. And if it happens, the options are considerably more interesting than usual.

These are pretty good kids.

Manga licensing is a lot better nowadays than it ever was before, with lots of obscure series being picked up, old series getting re-localized, and translations being better than ever. I really really want this series to get licensed so someone can be compensated for it, and so more people might read it. Until then, I think you should look up the fan work.

---

So that’s all for April. If these posts included live-action movies, I’d have talked about Endgame, but I also don’t want to go spoiling anything for someone who still wants to go see that (it’s probably one of my favorite MCU movies, though). I read most of 1970-71 in Marvel comics, or at least most of the issues on my reading list, but I semi-liveblog about those, so you can just search my “curry reads comics” tag for that. Here’s hoping I have more interesting, more positive things to say about May in a month. I expect to finish Breath of the Wild by then, so I’ll finally talk about that. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Go check out Blue Period.

#curry reads manga #curry watches anime #curry plays games

[arkus-rhapsode]

Why do some people hate Erza from FT?

Okay, wow. Loaded question right there. I’m going to assume you’ve read the entire series of FT because explaining this is kinda hard. In fact, describing how one feels about characters is difficult in the sense we all have varying reactions. Like there’s no checkbox list for good character that everyone has and abides by, but I will try and give you the general reasoning. I use a general reasoning because there is literally no way for me to send a survey to potentially millions who have read FT and ask “what is your opinion on Erza and why?”

Now to describe the reason why one might not like Erza it goes back to her introduction. Erza came in the series and was much beloved by almost every reader: she had a badass looking ability and attitude, she had a very appealing design, and in critical sense she brought something to the table of FT and that was she was conflicting to the guild. Her personality and way of doing things conflicted with the others and it made her more memorable in how she handled herself and in guild interaction. It also helped that she was a strong female because FT came out around this golden age of manga: age of One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto all running, Toriko, etc. FT was the only one to introduce a female character that seemed to be treated as on the same level as the males in a mainstream shounen series.

She then proceeded to have one of, if not the best, arc in FT, the tower of heaven arc. At this moment, Erza is at her pinnacle of character and we the audience are ready to see here it goes and it goes… Nowhere.

Yeah the first, and probably the biggest thing with Erza that people hate, and something that a lot of other characters with FT had, was she never developed post her time to shine. She has no goal, so there was journey. She doesn’t make like an endearing vow post tower of heaven. What she ends up getting is Jellal. Like in terms of character, the thing that only actually seems to change and effect her is whatever long distance relationship she had with Jellal. Another was in terms of character she just kinda stopped being consistent.

Now some would cite that they still lover her. “So what if her personality doesn’t change. I like her like that.” Well there isn’t anything wrong with a character like that, but as I said, no development (Beyond Jellel). When a character doesn’t seem to be changing then it actually causes the story to meander and causes one to question why is she even around. Eventually at the last arc Erza meets her mother and they have a big,confrontation and it result in nothing for her character. Like after the fight Erza isn’t changed on her opinion of like Dragon Slayers or Alvarez. During the fight she doesn’t say anything the is new, “You might be my biological parent, but my real family is Fairy Tail!” Yeah, no one saw that coming. And then the revelation of Wendy and Erza having a close, sisterly bond of Wendy wanting to protect Erza, not only comes out of nowhere (seriously, I think Wendy would be saying this to Natsu, but hey then we couldn’t have naked Wendy hugging naked Erza) which is referenced before the war, is not a focus until the fight with Irene, which is then dropped.

But hey, some don’t even care about the story, some just care about the Jerza ship. Fair enough, you like your ship to want more moments for it gives you an excuse to keep looking for new material. But then at the end Jellal and Erza don’t get together. That’s right, all this time spent on Erza being her most relevant thing to the plot aside from being, the strong one, which was her romance, didn’t get together. Oh I remember the day that happened. Tumblr filled with rage.

So that goes for character development. Well what about power? She’s still a badass female anime character? Wellllll… Erza came onto the scene strong with a few cool fights and even somewhat lost to Jose early on. She also probably has one of the best fights in the series when she faced Midnight. But a lot of that was early on and as more time went on people began noticing a certain pattern to how Hiro wrote not only her fights, but a lot of characters fights. Eventually I’d like to say around Tenrou (I honestly have no cool about fan reception around edolas) people notice Erza stopped winning fights because she was just that bass or she came up with a unique strategy using what skills she’s had at her disposal. No, she won by nakama power.

Now power of friendship can be a tricky thing. When done well it can convey a strong emotional bond that pushes one to push past their limits. But with Erza and Hiro, it literally became a tangible power. Her power increased and she made her way through combat situations with no actual strategy or reason, just having friends made her feel really strong inside and then plow through opponents. It didn’t help that in context that all these fights she had and extreme issue of being so thoroughly trounced that when she gave the patterned friendship speech it actually seemed like reality warpped to give her the win.

Erza vs Azuma? After he matched her blow for blow then detonates a massive tree bomb on her while she has no protection, she gets up cause she thinks of her friends and the symbolism of drawing energy from them manifest literally as now it so strong to cleave through Azuma and a massive tree root with no issue. Erza vs Minerva? First has a fight with Kagura, then proceeds to lose to a persona who has all of space at her beckoning and then new armor out of nowhere (and don’t second origin. why does she even own it in requip if she never had the strength to use it). Erza vs Kyoka? Kyoka is growing perpetually more powerful and then robs Erza of all five of her senses and increases her sense to pain. Erza wins with just her bare fists and the reason this is all possible is because, as Happy, says, “She’s Erza!”

“She’s Erza” quickly became a meme and go to phrase for an undeserving victory that seems to defy logic and only makes sense of why the character won was just because “she’s Erza” and nothing else. This would describe other anime characters to, even if they didn’t actually power of friendship their way through. I remember reading Tokyo Ghoul re and around the time Arima had fought against Sachi, a martial artist ghouls who when introduced beat the shit out of kaneki. And in their fight, Arima kills Sachi almost like its nothing.

It did help that with this friendship speech power Erza really stopped using her moveset to its fullest and uniqueness. Now, I’ve made a whole post on Erza’s powers before and I implore you to check it out. But in short, what happened was basically, Erza’s moveset involved her mixing and matching of different armors. But then eventually she just started to use the clear heart clothing or Samurai Pants more and more. And armor  who’s sole purpose is to raise only attack and sacrifice all defense. I was then no surprise when it seem Erza got beaten up or wounded because for a mage whose magic was armor she seemed to completely forgo it and use a more whose whole thing is higher attack. She also seemed to use it with this cherry blossom katanna that is suppose to be more powerful the more magic a user pours into it, but there is never any indication of that. (Like nothing visually to symbolize her putting magic in it. Nothing like a glow or aura. Not even the handle starting crouch up on her arm to symbolize how it eating her magic. Nothing.)

Now Erza was S-class, so of course she is suppose to be strong. But in this world your power comes from your magic. Like Laxus is S-Class and he isn’t going in and fighting bosses with just his bare fists, no lightning. SO watching her not utilize her powers became inheriting when more and more villains she fought had these insane gaps in magic power to her. It seemed like this shift to clear heart clothing was more of a way to retroactively make Erza come off as this swordfighter similar to Kagura, but we were both introduced to her as, and for a while I might add, her weapon was also her armor and what power extended from it. All this was then compounded in her last real fight of the series where a samurai pants Erza is swapped by Irene’s dragon paw and breaks all of the bones in her body minus her arm, then value herself in to sky while proclaiming friendship, radiating magic that who’s origin is never explained, and cutting a meteor in half with only her clear heart power. Then falling to the ground where she fought with a still completely shatter body for a bit.

Now I’ve heard the defense of many for Erza fights. A lot of Erza fans will try and justify any of her wins, with the reveal of Irene being a dragon being what is sited as why Erza is so powerful, because genetically she’s the descendant of a dragon. But we have two problems with that, the first being Irene stress that thanks to her enchantment, Erza is still in her womb as still a “human child.” The second being, Erza never shows any indication beforehand that her strength is similar to a dragon. Like she doesn’t grow like scales or something dragonic like during a fight, but we’re suppose to take her as being this powerful and just looking completely natural.

But then there’s the fan who is like, “Pfft, what do I care about fights? I read FT for the story and character. All y’all getting to hung up on the wrong thing.” Well that is a fine stance to take, I mean a lot of FT fans love the characters of the series. Well as I pointed out the issues one might have with how Erza developed. Then there’s the excuse, “Rhapsode, stop holding her to the standard of males. As a man you have no right to judge the development of a female character.” (I’m serious, someone used this argument on me) Well first off, Mashima is a man, and he created and is writing Erza. Second, for this strong female, she then got really really demeaned in fanservice.

Look, there isn’t anything wrong with fanserivce or ecchi. I’ve defended it a great number of times and can be seen as the just a necessary of the industry trying to appeal to young boys. The problem with Fanservice is when it starts to demean a character or ruin the weight of a moment. Erza became hugely fanserviced in scene like her torture scene where an emphasis was put on titillation than actual horror of the scene. But you can combine strong and sexy in a character. Like Erza’s Heaven’s Wheel against Eisenwald. Sure it was was cleave exposing a maybe not the most practical looking thing, but attention wasn’t draawn to that. Attention was drawn to how she cleaned house against the thugs. But then it became progressively less so, not just in terms of the armor’s appearance, but also how Mashima laid out panels seemed to exist more to heighten the sexy even if they didn’t actually make sense. Erza’s armor against Irene was literally a bunny girl suit and with the instances of her fighting there are scenes of her downward slashes that literally are angled so the audience can see less of the action and more Erza’s thonged behind.

Like for a female character put on the same level of males, she sure does seem to get exploited more than the males. But again, people will still not have a problem with this and will hide behind the excuse of something like “Its ecchi!”

It also doesn’t help that around the time of the GMG, many turned on FT and by extension Erza. It was then in Tartaros with the she’s Erza moments, many high followed reviewers and internet critics of anime basically blasted her and that earned her a spot on the not liked characters list. With many following that same feeling.

But as you can see, my running point is that all of the examples  I give for why people might dislike Erza, there is still numerous people who will find a way to defend Erza and love her. Whether its through conjecture of her personality and feelings, whether its justifying how she wins her fights, or whether its claiming that fanservice doesn’t detract to them.

And then there are some who are like, “I know Erza’s flawed, but I still like her in other people’s head canons.” Which nothing is wrong with that. And then there are those who have opinions of her that won’t change because they are holding on to their love for the Erza at the beginning, or Erza in a way had an effect on their life. But all and all, if there is one thing to take away from this is its that Erza is flawed. Not a flawed character like Shaiapouf from Hunter x Hunter or Oedipus from Oedipus. And its because of those flaws that some do not like Erza and if we are being honest, even my enjoyment of the character became stifled thanks to a lot of the writing for it.

#erza scarlet #hiro mashima #fairy tail #jerza #jellal fernandes #tenrou island arc #gmg arc #grand magic games #tartaros #grimoire heart #azuma #wendy marvell

[jinjojess]

Could you elaborate on what you dislike about Death Note? If you feel like doing it, of course! I always enjoy your unpopular opinions so I would like to hear more about this. I personally liked many aspects of it, but I can also see many flaws, and the second part of the story is way less fun. Also: "Remember how I can't stand characters transparently designed to appeal to a certain kind of fan" PLEASE GO ON. I need a serious critique of the characters!

Oof, I don’t know if I have that in me, but here’s a semi-short version.

Death Note has a lot of objective stumbles, but honestly the thing about it is that it’s very much Not For Me and that’s where I have the most issues.

Spoilers for the entire series, just in case.

Edit: This got really fucking long, I’m so sorry mobile users…

Note: This will be manga-based since I read the entire manga, but have only seen a few of the anime episodes.

So I was very on board with the series in the early chapters of the manga, because I liked how it was exploring the way that Light starts off as this really eager do-gooder who gets corrupted by power. In the early chapters he looks younger and adorable, and you can see a physical change in the way he carries and presents himself as he becomes more Kira than Light. Loved the idea of presenting a protagonist and then turning him into the villain and testing the reader to see if they would still side with him or not. That was cool.

I probably would have enjoyed his rivalry with L more if I didn’t find L so personally obnoxious. A lot of people like him (to the point where I feel like I am the sole dissenter) and I don’t think he’s necessarily the worst character, but just like…I dunno. Something about him and the way he’s treated in the series just feels so…I don’t know how to put this…wish fulfillment-y? Like he’s this dude who really shouldn’t be attractive because he’s gaunt and pale and clearly doesn’t take care of himself at all, plus he’s got all these nervous tics that would probably be at best politely tolerated while everyone talks about how awkward he is behind his back but like…I don’t remember that ever happening really.

Like if the police force were like “Jesus, dude, just sit like a normal human being for once,” I’d have found him more believable as an actual character instead of this guy conspicuously being weird to show off how “different” and “special” he is. Plus he’s also athletic, despite not ever being shown practicing or going to the gym or anything–he’s just super good at martial arts and a tennis champ, guys. Like sorry, but for those of us in the real world, we have to adhere to social codes and actually work for that kind of shit, and while some people find comfort in this sort of idealized escapism, it’s always just pissed me off from a personal standpoint.

Basically L feels like he was created to appeal to socially awkward fangirls who could squee over him and be like “he’s weird and socially awkward just like me! but everyone would be jealous of me if he was my boyfriend because unlike me everyone loves him!” Which in and of itself is not inherently Bad or anything, but it gives me a sense of unbearable second-hand embarrassment so I just cannot deal with that.

Let me be clear here: those kinds of fangirls completely deserve to have media aimed at them, and Death Note fills that niche pretty well. Again, this complaint is from a place of personal preference, and is just to get you to understand why Death Note turned out to not really be my cup of tea.

(Plus also where is the storyline where L gains weight or gets type 2 diabetes from surviving on sweets? Oh, it’s because his brain burns too many calories. Fuck that guy.)

Misa is similar in that she’s basically Yamato Nadeshiko: Goth Edition and that just ain’t my thing. Like don’t get me wrong–I love me some tragically loyal people, but I usually prefer that they also be capable in some other way (Pekoyama can swordfight like a badass, Sakakura is a world-class boxer, Mukuro is…well, Mukuro, etc.). MisaMisa is kind of a fuck up. Plus iirc she’s an idol and sorry, if you are not part of Maizono’s posse I have zero time for you.

Anyway, the fact that the reader is supposed to feel less sympathy for Light because of his treatment of Misa is interesting, but it’s kind of clouded by the fact that Misa is so annoying to me personally that I just wanted her to fucking die already and get out of the narrative. Rem, you are too good for this shit.

I did find the police force itself pretty charming, though. I was rooting for them for most of the story.

Ryuk was great too. A nice provider of very needed levity, and probably the most consistently good point of the series, at least until the very end which I’ll get into in a second.

Anyway, the more technical issues I have with Death Note are with its pointless meandering. There’s that famous tennis scene where it’s supposed to be really exciting because Light and L are trying to figure each other’s psychology out, but the things they’re thinking aren’t at all realistic. Like trying to win a tennis match proves you’re competitive ergo you must be Kira? What? It’s overthinking very mundane things that would have too many variables to ever be conclusive proof of anything, and it turns out to be pointless since they both reach that conclusion at the end of the game anyway.

So yeah, my biggest issue with Death Note was that it wasted so much of my time. It feels a little like the V3 trials, where you’d be purposefully led down this boring, clearly incorrect route so that the reader could be “surprised” when it turned out that something could be Occam’s Razor’d. There are entire volumes where nothing happens. And I don’t mean like, nothing physically happens, but the characters are having intense debates or whatever. I remember reading volumes where only two real conversations were had, and the rest of the time was everyone imagining and mentally preparing for said conversations.

Maybe my memory of the series is too patchy, since I read the manga over a decade ago in 2005, but I remember a LOT of padding.

Something I did think was handled well was how Light defeats L. That was pretty great because at heart I do love super smart villains with stupidly complicated plans, and that one was pretty great, especially since I figured that L wouldn’t be going anywhere.

However, the series should have ended here. It should have ended with Kira winning out over L, but the law being closer to figuring out who Kira is, leaving the reader in a state of uncertainty about the future of this world and Light as a character.

Would that have wrapped up all the loose ends? No. But it would be way better than what we got in the second half of the series, I think most people would agree.

So let’s talk for a second about Near and Mello.

To touch again on the “this was clearly for a certain kind of fan” subject, how hard do you think the publishers shit themselves when they realized that L was going to die but the series wasn’t over? L was and still is by far the most popular character from the series, and the fangirls were probably not going to be pleased that their husbando got ejected from the narrative.

So what do we do?

Replace him with more of the same!

While L was annoyingly teetering on Gary Studom, Near is basically that just with an added dose of “precocious child” which doesn’t really help the situation. I hesitate to call him Shouta L, even if that’s how it feels sometimes, but I just felt like Near was way too similar to L to be his own character. He felt more like L was reborn as a kid for the Death Note Babies spin-off.

Mello was a lot more interesting, with the inferiority complex and his tendency to, you know, actually do things. The only part of the latter half of the series I remember liking was when Mello kidnapped Light’s sister and there was this tiny glimmer of humanity left in him where he didn’t want her to die. However this was always offset for me by the fact that he was running around with an exposed midriff because yeah we need to have fanservice somewhere man. (Again, not inherently Bad and fangirls deserve their fanservice too, but like…not my thing, at all.) It just felt very…calculated, if that makes sense.

What would have been way more interesting to me would be Light finding out about these orphans being groomed to take over for L and there being some kind of commentary on how the side of “good” is using these really dubious and unethical methods to catch Kira, bringing up the question of whether or not they’re actually any better. Like let’s talk about that.

Okay so. The only thing left to talk about is the ending. And holy shit, that fucking ending.

I was still trying to be on board with Death Note even in the second half where I had very little desire to finish it but felt like I’d already invested the time and money so I might as well. I was trying so damn hard, and I was still kind of enjoying the ridiculous lengths Kira was going to get a one-up on his pursuers, with the fake out girlfriends and the cult, and the fucking pieces of Death Note pages inside the secret compartment of his watch and shit…it was so dumb but in like a fun way.

And to be clear, I’m fine with Light losing in the end, and being undone by his own hubris.

But to only have it happen because Ryuk decides to conveniently help the police? Like, that’s dumb. The entire thing hinges on Ryuk deciding at that very moment to fuck Light over–sure, whatever, he’s not on a side, sure. I don’t expect him to actually pull a Rem, but he must have fucking known that the lackey’s book was fake (who, by the way, should have planned to do away with everyone one at a time, using the power to determine how people die to make it look like an accident, and then he would have noticed that his notebook wasn’t a real one). At least hint toward Ryuk getting fed up, or bored, or something so that this doesn’t seem so frustratingly convenient.

Though Ohba apparently once said that L was the smartest character because “the plot needs him to be” so there you go. That’s his approach. Plot contrivances are the order of the day.

So yeah, anyway.

That’s why I’m not that fond of Death Note. Part of it is because of personal biases against certain kinds of characters that are not appealing to me, and part of it is because the entire story feels like it’s taking itself too seriously and is trying to be more clever than it is. As a more compact narrative I think it would probably get a pass, but the fact that it’s so bloated and sprawling really makes it hard for me to consider it objectively good.

…Turns out I did have it in me.

#ask #anon #opinions #long post #criticism #Death Note #no seriously it's long #you've been warned

[sffbookclub]

A Girl Stumbles on SF Written for Her

I don’t think Fahrenheit 451 ever had a chance.

I read The Giver by Lois Lowry in my youth and honestly any dystopia is going to be measured by the level of mind-blowing that happened as I read that book. (None has measured up so far.)

Though for years I’ve sought out fantasy and hardly ever science fiction, I’ve recently discovered a certain streak of SF that does appeal to me greatly. It considers angles of humanity that I usually think of as the territory of fantasy: personhood, cultures, colonialism.

This discovery is all @ninjaeyecandy‘s fault.

It Started With a Murderbot

When @ninjaeyecandy started promoting All Systems Red, she naturally zeroed in on the appeal for her mutuals like me--a drama-bingeing socially anxious AI? It’s like a space-opera about me.

I’m not often drawn to science fiction (the bleakness, the military stuff, the horror of space) but this was a perfect compliment of things I like--a character I strongly identify with but also get to watch come from a totally different state of mind. A gripping situation in an unfamiliar world. Seeing someone try to be good and do the job they are really good at, despite incredible odds.

It was incredibly human, though the POV was unhuman, with an emotional core that made the premise work.

It was brief and good. And I had quite a wait before I could read any more. But I could now see the possibilities for SF to really speak to me. Luckily, another book had been lurking on my TBR for way too long....

The Imperial Radch is Having Personnel Issues

I bought Ancillary Justice at the Sirens conference last year, having heard a ton of buzz about it. (Sirens is a conference dedicated to women in fantasy: writers and characters. It is great. Yes, the topic wanders to SF, too.) 

Despite even reading Tumblr fandom stuff about it, I feel I came to the pretty fresh. I was surprised that the MC was a sentient ship, for instance, when I finally read the back copy. Though there were certain thematic similarities with All Systems Red, because of their MCs both being persons but not humans, the stories themselves had different directions.

Breq is signally different from Murderbot in that her memories are crystal clear, and she is angry. I don’t often read books where I enjoy a character being full of rage, but as a very old being in a very inadequate body, there was a sense of patience and calculation most vengeance-fueled characters are missing.

I immediately got the next two books out from the library. And the series did not disappoint. The personhood of Artificial Intelligence emerges as a major theme, which made me super-happy. Any SF where you have sentient beings in service to others because of their very natures is fraught ground--and I loved that Leckie took Breq from a very narrow focus, to fulfilling greater potential despite the crippling blow of losing everything but one sub-par body.

Miles Is Having An Interesting Year

I’ve heard a lot about Miles Vorkosigan, especially listed in collections of heroes with a certain flexible morality and reliance on their minds for derring-do.

I have been hesitant to pick up these books partly because of age and that sensation that if I didn’t like it I would probably be disappointing several friends. However, though there were bits I found a little rough going, overall Warrior’s Apprentice shared a lot of the attributes of my previous reads: a sense of humanity beyond just commerce, culture deeper than just politics, and the understandable concerns of specific people to ground a much broader scope of issues.

One of the blogposts that circulated recently talked about Lois McMaster Bujold neatly doing away with the problem of contraception in the first few pages, and another rebutted this with the fact that it is given consideration in several lights. Several cultures with different traditions and mores, including around sexuality, come up. This is the kind of deft touch that often is missing in futuristic or speculative worlds of various types.

Despite the fact that the hero of this book is a male of privilege from an imperialist heritage, he is also caught between two worlds, in his own way. His disability and upbringing give him insight that unfolds as he maneuvers his way into (and eventually out of) all his predicaments. Warrior’s Apprentice showed its age a little, especially set next to the two contemporary books, but it held up as a venerable ancestress of those novels.

The Male Touch

In a way, it’s unfair to compare Fahrenheit 451 to these books. It’s more an ancestor to Hunger Games than Ancillary Justice. Still, it was assigned in my Comp I class late into this reading spurt, and I couldn’t help but notice the comparative weaknesses. Not all of them excused by the fact that it is also significantly older than even Warrior’s Apprentice.

There is, of course, literary merit to F451. It has style that underscores the dehumanization of the characters, and the personification of things. I can see this working beautifully as a serialized men’s magazine story of speculative fiction.

The factors missing from its discussion are what makes me realize why I find the SF written by women so much more compelling.

(spoilers follow. you can skip to my summary if you want to read it for yourself.)

Montag Is Feeling A Little Nervy

The set-up of this book should be pretty familiar: books are banned, firemen are civil servants devoted to burning them (and the houses they find them in) and our hero is one of these.

An old woman dies in her house, burning herself with her books on purpose, and this rocks Our Hero Montag. There is an undercurrent of violence in his society, to suggest the barbaric nature of a culture without literature and free thought. But when Montag hits his wife, there is no inquiry into it, in the text. When he kills his boss (and coworkers, if my prof had the right idea: it’s not explicitly said) he notes that his boss wanted to die. But still, Montag KILLS him. And then he goes on to be warmly accepted into the arms of a circle of professors.

His wife tries to commit suicide, and then the next day is in denial she would ever do that. It’s clear their relationship is distant at best, and that this kind of isolation is normal in this culture, that everyone is leveled out, either by medication or cultural norms.

But this book never asks if Montag has any part in his wife’s depression. If he’s violent and dangerous. It’s very concerned with censorship and mass media, without entering into questions about community and relationship.

Who Owns The Planet? Who Owns The Bots?

The asking of these questions is the exact strength I find in Leckie, Wells, and Bujold’s work. While similar themes are explored by Max Gladstone in his fantasy series The Craft Sequence, but he is (in my somewhat greater experience of fantasy) the exception, not the norm, in considering these sorts of themes as a white American man.

Colonization is not morally neutral in any of the three former works. (F451 is so US-centric we don’t know if there’s just a civil war on or if another country exists outside this society.) 

The personhood of AI is a question in both Murderbot Chronicles and Imperial Radch. 

Leckie has brilliantly integrated the personhood of colonized cultures. The tendency of cultural imperialism to consider itself as having a higher being is literalized in the language of that culture. This is a lead-in to the question of whether the created beings of AI ships (who were programmed with a certain emotional range and independence of thought) can ever attain identity.

Wells is working in novella form, so in her first installment she has a tighter focus. What is the status of a “security” robot with artificial intelligence when its programming can betray it? If it has enough emotion to be emotionally detaching, is it a real person? If the people around it are startled by reminders of its vulnerability, when they bond with it, is it then a person?

The questions of ethics in rivalries on planets with resources and artifacts are in the background, but I fully expect them to be developed at some point in the future installments.

Bujold is writing in the 80s, more playfully engaging with the idea of feudal martial-culture planets, alongside bohemian neighbors who think war is barbaric, with clashes raising hackles around sex, gender, and bloodshed. Her hero has a feudal chivalry lurking in his treatment of the woman he’s in love with, but the influence of his mother’s culture makes him accept her desire to be involved in the fighting, and then choose her own partner. I do look forward to seeing what else she explored in the series, even if I don’t expect an interrogation of the premise of colonizing planets.

Reading these made me realized that what I want from SF is not see worlds built that are wholly bad, but to see characters who from the start are part of the struggle against injustice. Not to check out futures in which AI are sexy, and the world sleek, but where those AI are also questioning their place in the world. I’m excited to see women writers of SF rising to the occasion, and I’m excited to keep looking for this kind of literature with @sffbookclub.

There’s a lot more to discuss about these books together! I’d love to hear replies or even be tagged in response posts. :)

#SF #Anne Leckie #Martha Wells #Lois McMaster Bujold #sffbookclub

[thestickchick]

My friends +Kai Morgan and +Brian Johns both wrote excellent, thought-provoking pieces on the state of the martial arts industry, with Brian's focus on our little corner of it (the Filipino Martial Arts). You can read Kai's piece HERE and Brian's HERE. I've been thinking hard about Kai's piece ever since she wrote it - about my own future in the martial arts, where the "industry" (and it is an industry, friends, like it or not) is going, and what I hope to accomplish in the long term. Brian's post digs deeper into the subject, down into the details, and goes along with what I am also seeing in my own research and my own experience. So what's to be done about this issue of declining interest in the traditional martial arts?  Does this mean we have to teach MMA?  Does this mean that the traditional martial arts are dying off and irrelevant? I don't think MMA will drive out traditional arts, but we do have to re-think how we present what we do and what we know to modern audiences. That means looking at everything we do with a critical eye and deciding if we want to do a martial art that is growing and changing to meet modern needs, or we are doing a historical preservation of a no-longer-relevant martial art system. It might mean that we have to chuck out some things we've come to believe are important - cultural things we do, the way that we were taught our art, and some of the trappings - the "brand", if you will.

Oh yes, I went there.

Before you recoil at this idea... Do you think that Samurai, back in the day, didn't learn and innovate to changes on the battlefield when new things were introduced and conditions changed?  Do you imagine that sumo is the same today as it was 100 years ago (or any fighting sport for that matter that's been around for a while)? Of course they changed.  We can, and do, and should also, unless our purpose is preservation.  Nothing wrong with preservation but keep in mind that it appeals to a very tiny fraction of the small percentage of people in the world interested in the martial arts in the first place. So let's assume for now that you want your martial art system to stay alive and relevant to modern times, and is not a preservation. I know, I know, tradition!  What your teacher taught you!  Lineage!  Learning a foreign language! It just isn't "martial arts" without all those things!  You're watering down your art without that stuff, right?

Weeellll... maybe.  And maybe not. How is MMA and its "feeder" arts - typically Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and other closely related systems such as western boxing and catch wrestling - seen by people outside of the martial arts world? Well, there's two camps. There's the people who think it's one step away from the old Gladiator days and is nothing but a dumb and brutal combat sport. And there's the perception that MMA fighters are the most effective, fit, and pressure-tested martial artists on the planet. Combine that second perception with very good marketing and you get why MMA is blowing traditional arts out of the water.

Boom.

If you teach traditional arts, I challenge you, as a thought exercise, to consider how you'd present what you do and know in a modern context.  Would you ditch the gi and belts (not required - BJJ is popular and has those, y'know) and the foreign words?  Are you up-to-date on the latest in best practice for fitness and health in your exercise-oriented warm-ups?  Do you spar enough and apply enough pressure testing to what you do?  Do you hit the bags often enough? Just think about that, and see what you could do to shift the perception of that your traditional martial art system is only good for teaching kids focus and discipline and irrelevant to people over the age of 16. So let's shift to my corner of the martial arts world, the Filipino Martial Arts.  I've written about this before (Filipino Martial Arts - Why We Don't Make the List) and I agree with much of Brian's diagnosis.  We are TERRIBLE at marketing ourselves, many of us have no idea how to run a school outside of a small training group no bigger than what we'd do in a park and we do a bad job in communicating that FMA's are fine for kids (yes, kids can learn sticks really well - they take to it naturally and they're fun). We've been experimenting and honestly, we haven't hit upon our home run yet.  We shifted away from the sticks-and-knives traditional marketing approach of FMA's and instead we're branded as "Filipino Karate" for our kids program (we still use sticks but it isn't every class), and a self-defense oriented adults program based on +W. Hock Hochheim Combatives  "Force Necessary".  We haven't seen a big difference in that change, just yet, but now that we are past the holidays we have a small uptick in our attendance. I think that aiming at a niche market will be the way to go.  We also tend to draw adults in their late 30's and older here in our neck of the woods. Some have martial arts experience, some don't. Perhaps, at least in North America, that's our sweet spot in terms of age?  People who don't want to or can't compete at a high level in things like BJJ or Muay Thai or MMA, but still want to learn something perceived as effective, which is where we definitely have an advantage? Maybe.  I'm interested in what other FMA folks have to say on this. I do know this FMA's are going to go by the wayside, at least in North America, if we don't do something about it, and soon.

#IFTTT #Blogger #Budoblr #Martial Arts