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esther-dot · 4 months

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I sent the show!Jonsa ask! Yeah, I was toying with it because one of the sticking points for me is figuring out why the show did or didn't do Jonsa and why that may or may not happen in the books. That to me is really some of the most damning stuff, and I can't point to Dany's arc in the show or Stannis' etc. (many of the examples you use) as argumentation for what makes sense in the books but have yet to have happened without, too, including Jonsa.

Anon asks are limited by length (and I would not want to waste your time with adding caveat after caveat lol) but I do also have complicated feelings about D&D; on the one hand I think there were serious problems on set and I have a lot of capital F feminist problems with them, but that doesn't belie all the creative work they put into the show (I do think there are Choices they made about how to portray romance without the source material at hand, and even before that honestly, but I already wrote that ask lol).

You're definitely right about the heaping of romantic parallels; one or two of those relationships alone could be written off, but the Sam/Gilly one is very weird, and Kit's acting choices are... very weird lol. Re: Sansa's jealousy, I had read that more as Dark Sansa foreshadowing as opposed to Jonsa jealousy, so I don't know???? When it comes to show!Jonsa I mostly only like the S6 dynamic anyway, so that might be down to some of my bias.

Basically I'm trying to entertain alternative ideas that might explain things as opposed to genuinely arguing for show!Jonsa being an accident, and I was thinking about this as well because it is an issue I've encountered with shipping/romance/fandom in general before. The male-gazey tropey dynamic ends up feeling off, but by virtue of the romance goggles of the author not being applied to another dynamic, it ends up feeling more mutual and less objectified and more interesting lol. A good example off the top of my head, given you've just watched the MCU films, is that I shipped Steve/Natasha (yes...) because the dynamic in Winter Soldier was above and beyond any other M/F pairing in the films. Naturally everybody goes on about ~platonic soulmates~ but I love good guys with sad/evil/redeemed ladies so I can't help it. Not saying it's at all canon though, I think they absolutely stumbled into that one.

I'm glad your nephew enjoyed the MCU films! I remember when I rewatched Endgame with my best friend, her dad came in and we had to keep explaining who the 'blue one and the green one' were. It made the film much better.

Anyway, thank you so much for entertaining my ask, and as always, being such a good sport. 🥰💝

(continuation of this convo)

You have no idea how much I sympathize with the caveat issue. I write answers and then delete entire paragraphs because I have such a tendency to try to clarify everything that it makes things less clear because I bury the point, but then I regret it when the vague blogs start. We all have limited time though, and every answer can't be thousands of rambling words! Sometimes I've literally just said "insert caveat" lmao!

I do also have complicated feelings about D&D; on the one hand I think there were serious problems on set and I have a lot of capital F feminist problems with them

I read this article about Emilia's experience on set for GoT (I have not been able to relocate it, but I did actually read an article with her quotes--it wasn't just a tumblr post), and I felt that she was taken advantage of when it came to the nudity/sex scenes. I actually think she meant for some of the stories to be amusing, but I felt sick reading it. She didn't say it was D&D, but apparently when she wanted to do less nudity going forward, she was told her fans expected it and it became a fight trying to move away from it, and....I just worry about the power dynamics with all these young actresses and what they're told they "need" to do. The fact that even if they ultimately agree to certain things, it still may be a result of coercion or they aren't actually being taken care of/feel safe when doing it...it left a very bad taste in my mouth regarding the behind the scenes stuff. And obviously, we all noticed the changes they made to the story, what they did to Sansa...plenty of things we can take exception to purely on what made it to our screens.

Basically I'm trying to entertain alternative ideas that might explain things as opposed to genuinely arguing for show!Jonsa being an accident

I enjoy doing that too! Groupthink is boring! I don't expect everyone to think the same way/come to the same conclusion, and I've changed my mind on a few things which only happens if we're willing to entertain different ideas instead of shutting people down. I mean, I'm not easily persuaded to a different way of thinking, but I try to be open to it. With the condition that someone interprets Sansa in a way I can live with which excludes most of the fandom/their theories tbh.

I basically work myself to one position and then back to where I started when it comes to show Jonsa. If it was an accident, I don't love it any less, if it wasn't, I'm curious what the hell happened. I didn't get what I wanted there, so it really doesn't matter to me what people conclude. I genuinely thought it was amusing when Kit acted surprised when he was asked about Jonsa because it was his face that was saying "not normal sibling feelings here." Silly man. 😂 And, D&D fucked up enough I don't like to take them too seriously, so I can't say, "this doesn't make sense therefore it was an accident" because, uh, a lot of their choices ultimately made no sense.

it is an issue I've encountered with shipping/romance/fandom in general before. The male-gazey tropey dynamic ends up feeling off, but by virtue of the romance goggles of the author not being applied to another dynamic, it ends up feeling more mutual and less objectified and more interesting lol.

I certainly agree about the general male v female view of romance. I found that a problem when I said that they didn't write a romance for Jonerys, and the guy I was talking to was like, "they had sex tho???" There was just...a massive gap between what we were looking for when talking about the characters/relationships. Although, he did know what I meant when I said "well, they filmed Jon and Sansa like a ruling couple." He immediately understood that. And, considering what they did to the sandsnakes (I'm not saying the line), I do understand the argument that if they meant for there to be a romance, they would have done it in such a way that we would have objected.

I think part of the reason I believed Jonsa was intentional was because I don't ship non canon pairings. My brain isn't one to think, "oh but what about those two" as I wasn't even involved in fandom before, and I generally just took what a story was and reacted to it, rather than re-configuring it. Obvy, having been in the fandom for so long now, that's changed somewhat, but for me, s7 was a total puzzlement, and Jonsa / some variation of poljon was the only way it connected to everything we had established before. In a bizarre twist, we didn't get the story that would make it coherent, but we still got the endpoint: Jon betraying Dany for Sansa. It's still weird to me, all these years later. Now I'm mainly bemused rather than angry though.

#dot chat

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wisismydumpstat · 9 months

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How many times did u cry in shadowbringers ((if applicable)) 😭

What were your fav moments?

What moments were you not so wild about!?

I’m so excited to see your journey in endwalker tooo 😭❤️

How many times did u cry in shadowbringers ((if applicable))

I'm not one to cry a lot, but I did get emotional way too many times! Mostly every time Seto was on screen, but also with the scene of Lyna lamenting her failure after the attack on Lakeland (she has an amazing voice actress) , the whole "Thancred learns how to be a dad" arc, Runar's reaction to Y'shtola "death", Dula-Chai's goodbyes to Alphinaud, the quest after you're told you are going to become a Sin Eater and there's nothing to do except rest and wait, the quest with Elidibus punching you into nostalgia city with all the important NPCs and the music...

I AM A VERY SOFT BOI EVEN IF I HAVE TROUBLE SHOWING IT EMOTIONS ATTACK ME VERY EASILY HELP

What were your fav moments?

Well, most of them are already mentioned above, but I can keep mentioning because it turns out I really like Shadowbringers! Feo Ul, as a concept, all by themselves, the whole Tesleen scene, the Lightwarden battles, all the Ascian lore, Amaurot, the Hades battle (and the pre-battle soul merging), Elidibus' backstory and fight, Krile finally having relevance, the Eulmore arc and the revelation of what Meol is, the "surprise, Hydaelyn is a primal!" thing, Thancred vs Ran'jit,

What moments were you not so wild about!?

I've written a bit about all this before, but I don't like the main arc having" Urianger is lying to everybody again" as the base for the whole thing, and I was a bit disappointed about the Exarch's identiy being the obvious answer, mostly because I don't get the point of being shady as shit instead of saying "hey, it's me, someone you already trust, I come from the future and we're all fucked, would you help me save two whole worlds?". It's clear it's written more for THE REVEAL and to give feels to the players instead of making narrative sense and I'm not a fan.

Also, as much as I like my Ascian shit, I really don't like how hard it tries to make us sympathize with Emet-Selch. I get what it's trying to do, but it doesn't do it well, and the whole thing ends up being basically "I'm sad so fuck the world(s)". I sincerely think Elidibus' whole thing is way better written and easier to sympathize with.

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #shadowbringers #shadowbringers spoilers

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lotr-fanatic-1 · 1 year

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A Tale of Sacrifice

Chapter One: Welcome to Bag End

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Warnings: None

Word Count: 2621

Synopsis: Finding themselves in a world beyond imagination was not what the two strangers thought was going to take place today. Especially as it is the calm before the storm.

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"Who might you be?" Called out a voice, welcoming and small, but alarmed nonetheless. "I've never seen your kind around here before. Well, other than Gandalf I suppose."

Taking in the newest addition to their little patch of grass, (y/n) and her boyfriend of many years stared into the crystalline eyes of Frodo Baggins. He was just as cute, if not more adorable, than in the movies, but she'd never admit that.

"We're from a far off village!" The woman began while covering her less modest clothes. "We have been looking for a safe place to stay and ended up here late last night. We must've fallen asleep without realizing it."

Her boyfriend stood up, his alien clothes earning a strange look from the far smaller hobbit. "I am (Bf/n), and this is my girlfriend, (y/n). Uh, we could use your help, we've been traveling for so long without rest."

"Orcs!" (Y/n) quickly brought up. "Our village was attacked by orcs and we were the only survivors."

Frodo's brows creased with worry and suspicion. Though, the two strangers did not blame his intuition. Their clothes were like nothing ever seen in Middle-Earth, both wore jeans and a printed t-shirt and a jacket. Their shoes were strange, their appearances were clean and unchanged. In all honesty, they themselves did not believe Frodo would trust them.

But fate is strange, and it must have been fate that led the kind little hobbit to the two strangers.

"Alright, I will believe you." The hobbit lifted his hands, which held a book and pen, above his head in defeat. "You two must be hungry, how about we go visit my uncle. If anyone would sympathize with an orc attack it would be him." His cheeks reddened and creased his gentle eyes with a smile. "Come now, I'm sure Bilbo would be happy to hear some of your adventures past The Shire! I am curious myself!"

In utter disbelief the two strangers of Middle-Earth looked questioningly at each other, but (Bf/n) shrugged knowing there was no danger in The Shire. At least, not yet. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe." He winked and followed the hobbit down the grassy hill.

The woman huffed out a laugh. "I'm more worried about you. If anyone is going to give anything away it would be you."

He feigned hurt. "Me? How could you say that?"

The path had quickly become rough from the cobblestone staircase, the uneven rocks perfect for slipping and landing on your bum. "You know more than I do about this universe, besides, I'm an amazing actress." She smiled and stepped onto the path after her boyfriend.

He smiled proudly. "I guess, but I'll do my best not to slip up. And you, a good actor? You can't keep a straight face even if your life depended on it."

"I can!" She whispered with a playful aggressiveness. "And unlike you-" halfway into her sentence she noticed a wet rock under his foot and snatched onto his arm to pull him to safety. "I'm not as clumsy."

(Bf/n)'s cheeks flared red with embarrassment. "Not my fault I have big feet."

Ah, the excuse he would use before. He wasn't exactly wrong, she guessed, compared to her he was much taller and she assumed he just couldn't quite get used to it. At least that was something he mentioned before. Still, the woman couldn't help but giggle a little too loud. "You can't quite say that anymore." Her hands motioned to the hobbits around them.

He huffed playfully. "They're used to it."

"I'm sure they are."

Frodo, aware of the banter or not, announced their arrival at his uncle's abode. "This is Bag End, my uncle's residence." The gentle hobbit knocked on the door and called out his name to the hermit on the other side. "Bilbo is not exactly fond of visitors, so just let me do the talk-."

"Frodo! Come in, come in." Bilbo furrowed his scraggly brows upon resting his forest green gaze on the two strangers. "And who might you two be?"

His tone was not exactly rude, but it was not kind either. Something in between curious and defensive, if (y/n) were to place it.

Frodo intervened before unnecessary miscommunication occurred. "Travelers. They fled from an attack upon their village, they have nowhere else to go." The pleading tone was a good move on Frodo's part, she thought to herself.

"I see... where did you say you hail from?"

The couple went wide eyed and quickly stared at each other with the same nervous expression. "America." They both blurted, looked back to Bilbo and feverishly nodded. "Yup, America."

Now it was the hobbits turn to look at each other in confusion. "America, and where might that be?" The elder hobbit's hands smoothed out his vest slowly, methodically. Calloused and old hands stopped at his waist and while one slipped into his pants pocket another snaked into his vest pocket. The woman might only have so much knowledge with this new world, but she knew what rested within his pocket.

(Bf/n) took the lead. "It is south of here, east of Enedwaith. It was a small village, and I have never seen it on a map other than the ones at home. It's not surprising that it doesn't ring a bell."

Bilbo glanced at his nephew with a quizzical expression which was returned with a shrug. "Alrighty then, no point in staying outside when you are welcome inside."

The woman smiled. "Thank you! We really appreciate the help."

"Bah! No need to thank me, it is a pleasure to help fellow adventurers." He laughed and smiled, hands waving around in a welcoming gesture. Bilbo's personality was a stark contrast to his earlier actions, something that frightened (y/n). After all, she was one of the few people who knew what was in his pocket.

~~~

Time had passed without much excitement. (Y/n) found worth in sewing articles of clothing for herself and her significant other, as well as fixing a few coats and shirts for Bilbo in appreciation.

(Bf/n), strong and intelligent, helped around the village in preparation for Bilbo's hundred and eleventh birthday. It was a turning point in the story, far too soon for (y/n) to properly process everything that had happened in these last few hours.

She had normal clothes on when she got here, so she did not just fall asleep. All the happenings so far has been shared with (Bf/n) too, so being here is not an isolated incident. Not to mention, she had all her jewelry she usually wore out, some trinkets, and even a useless phone. She was not the only one with otherworldly items.

Just what would be the reason as to why the two of them ended up in Middle-Earth of all places? Especially during the time when The One Ring would be passed down and eventually destroyed.

Furthermore, if she was stuck here, what of everything she had worked towards? Was everything for nothing? All the schools and grades, hardships and successes, was it all for nothing?

"Ow!" The woman winced when the needle pierced deep into her skin. A crimson bead already growing on the tip.

"Are you alright, miss (y/n)?"

"Hm? Oh yes, I'm fine. Just pricked myself." She smiled at the older hobbit and wiped away the blood. At this moment it was only the two of them in Bag End.

The smell of tea and warm milk filled the living room with a sense of comfort, the warm sunlight seeping through the windows adding the finishing touches. A song of turning pages and scribbles echoed throughout the space along with the shuffling of fine fabrics.

(Y/n) sucked lightly on her finger to rid the blood and wiped it on the skirt of her dress with little regard. She was going to return to sewing Bilbo's favorite vest but something told her to bring her attention elsewhere.

Her concerned gaze found the old hobbit resting in his mighty writing chair and slowly it moved towards the weapon she feared. A new tune filled the room, it was alluring and seductive and inviting her to come closer.

She almost fell into curiosity for what was calling her, but a knock on the door brought her back to reality before she acted upon such thoughts.

~~~ Sometime Before ~~~

(Bf/n) gave a nervous grin as he twisted and weaved past the far smaller than himself hobbits. In his arms rested a barrel of rich mead in which he was assigned to deliver to the party area, but no one told him where to go.

Now the lost giant was stuck in a crowd of small hobbits bustling about and ignoring his obvious distress.

By some miracle, a blessing from god or fate he did not know, a familiar face tugged at his shirt to grab his attention. Frodo with a grin as bright as the sun stared up at the man. "Go ahead and put that down, (Bf/n), I'd like you to meet someone. He is an old friend of my uncle." The curly haired hobbit tugged a little harder. "Come on now, we shouldn't keep him waiting too long!"

The man smiled down and scurried to put down the barrel with an apologetic smile. The other workers gave strange glances when he scurried after the Baggins. "Who is it?" He asked, despite knowing exactly who was destined to show up around this time. The biggest clue was not the setting of Bilbo's party, as one might have guessed, but the distant sound of fireworks echoing throughout The Shire.

"Gandalf, a great wizard from afar! He is a little late, but I have already excused him." The goofy grin stretched from ear to ear on the hobbit, and the farther they traveled the closer they became to the wizard in question.

It was a dream come true for the man to meet Gandalf the Grey.

Though, the face the wizard had did not reflect the same excitement, instead it was of a strange amazement. His bushy, grey brows were furrowed over his muted blue eyes in question... or maybe recognition? The fan could not quite tell.

"Who might you have brought me, my dear Frodo?" The quizzical wizard shook as the young hobbit jumped back into the cart's seat with a chuckle.

"This is one of the strangers I was talking about earlier."

"Is he now? Well it is a pleasure to meet you, (Bf/n). How about you join us on our journey to Bag End?" The wizard eyed Frodo with a mischievous look.

The hobbit, knowing clearly what he had done, took the front seat and doomed the man into the back with the fireworks. Not exactly the most comfortable place, but whoever claims the seat first, the wizard supposed. "Frodo has told me of your predicament, I would love to hear more about it, if you wouldn't mind?"

"Oh, sure!" Replied the clumsy man, who struggled to find a place to settle in the back of the cart. Frodo and Gandalf chuckled at the sight.

"Alrighty then, let us continue on our way."

Light banter and small conversation trailed down the path they traveled upon. Warm rays of light and chirping birds set the tone for a wonderful rest of the day. The three of them got along like old friends and time passed far faster than it should have, for when they looked up they had already arrived at the house in the hill.

The old wizard tapped his staff against the cart as he descended onto the gravel road. "Time to meet a dear old friend. Shall we?"

No words needed to be said as the three of them knocked on the door and awaited the elder hobbit on the other side.

"No thank you! We don't want any more visitors, well wishers or distant relations!"

(Y/n) on the other side of the door and no longer taken by the seductive song of the ring, perked up once hearing those familiar words.

"And what about very old friends?"

Ah, that was the line that usually made her boyfriend smile. A kind sentence with a kind feeling, reminiscent of a childhood comfort food in the bottom of one's belly.

"Gandalf!" Exclaimed the hobbit with a clap of his old hands. "Get the door, my dear! Go on now."

"R-right." The woman moved all the materials off her lap and brushed off the small threads sticking to her cream colored dress. Swiftly she made her way to the circular door, and after a deep breath to collect her thoughts she turned the metal knob and smiled at the wizard on the other side. "Hello."

Surprise met the smaller woman from the grey haired man. Something deep within his eyes sparking to life in amazement... or was it alarm? Either way the flickering flame hid itself as soon as it came. "Hello, my lady, it is a pleasure to finally meet you." He took off his pointy hat and gave a light bow before entering the abode with the two goofballs behind him. "A wonderful time it is, to meet new faces."

"Welcome, welcome! Come on in, here we are!" The old hobbit shuffled past the newcomers and towards his old friend and gave him the biggest hug his little body could muster. "Tea or maybe something a little stronger? I've got a few bottles of the Old Winyard left, 1296, a very good year, almost as old as I am."

"No thank you, just tea will do." Gandalf released the hobbit that ran off into the kitchen after taking the staff and hat. "One hundred and eleven years old, you haven't aged a day, Bilbo." His tone reflected concern, not missed by Frodo or the strangers.

Strangers, now turned guests.

Frodo joined in. "Yes, amazing isn't it?" He laughed wholeheartedly and placed his book down onto the chair once used for sewing. "The Sack-Ville's are still at large though, bothering and irritating poor Bilbo. You would think they would have given up by now."

"In time, I hope." The wizard mumbled the last part knowing fully well how persistent the Sack-Ville's are. "Though I'm more curious about your new friends Bilbo, you have never been the most sociable of hobbits." He teased.

The older gentleman huffed and glanced slyly over to the bearded man. "Frodo brought them over, the sweet boy, and I just couldn't leave them without a home."

Gandalf smiled, knowing fully well that despite his age and hermit-like tendencies, he couldn't stop his kind heart from winning over his head. It was something the wizard loved about Bilbo.

The couple glanced at each other warily for they knew events that would happen in the near future, none of which were particularly good. Soon there would be a party which would lead to a terrible turn of events. And sooner rather than later it came time for the party.

Flickering flames, fireworks, mead and ale and foods fresher than anything back home welcomed the guests. Hobbits screeched with joy, ate beyond humanly possible, drank even more and told stories of trolls. The amount of love and life in the air sang in harmony.

Though when silence took hold of the field the two knew those songs were at their end. A new tune would play, growing darker and darker until nothing but a small bit of light remained.

Then again, one light is all that is needed to spark hope in the lives of many.

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mitochondriaandbunnies · 11 months

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While doing other things, I’m half-watching a 60′s cowboy show that I have deeply, deeply mixed feelings about-- under the cut for length and for my unstructured babbling about racism in 60′s TV.

As with many 60′s cowboy shows, it asks you to sympathize with a character who was once a confederate soldier and plantation owner... but also one of the main characters is the literal first ever Black lead in a western, and he’s really fantastic? And the whole premise is that they team up as bounty hunters, which is an exceptionally uncomfortable concept, but they also don’t exactly just hand-wave their partnership as easy or comfortable, either? It’s a very odd mixture of 60′s “racism can be solved easily through contact between races” naivete, total obliviousness to the rancidity of its concept, and very earnest attempts to punch above its weight emotionally and thematically.

Like. Frankly, the central “former slave and former confederate become partners” conceit damns the entire show from conception. It *wants* to be a treatise on how even the worst kind of racist can change (and therefore YOU, WHITE VIEWER AT HOME IN 1968, CAN *TOO*), but how well it succeeds at that kind of depends on whether one can believe the main white character in any way at all deserves an opportunity at redemption. (Is it better to believe anyone can change and attempt to atone, or are some things-- like owning a fucking person-- sins so abhorrent that the only absolution is death? Or, to put it differently-- is there a good reason to tell this story and not a story about someone who wasn’t a confederate?)

Both of the lead actors are excellent, and you do genuinely get the sense they felt they were doing something really positive. They have excellent chemistry (which... in and of itself is kind of. Hmm. Should they have excellent chemistry??) The writing is surprisingly thoughtful and consistently willing to bluntly address racism without perpetuating it (and doesn’t shy away from pointing out that the main white character is still racist because he lives in a racist society even though he likes the main Black character and has chosen to change and learn to be a decent person.) The episode I’m currently watching gets into how the “states’ rights” clause in the Emancipation Proclamation kneecapped any so-called countrywide emancipation, and has a long and serious conversation between two former slaves about how things have and haven’t changed for Black people in the United States. They connect over shared traditions, their mutual attraction is treated as beautiful and important, they’re given the bulk of the plot and important dialogue in the episode, and their romance is treated with gravitas. The lead actress in the episode has a whole speech about how it’s incredibly difficult to learn how to be a whole person when your life hasn’t ever belonged to you before. I can’t think of a lot of other shows from 1968 that did that...?

And yet! I can see why this has never been released on home media, and why it was cancelled after one season. It’s a fascinating piece of television history, but not really a show I can heartily recommend.

#my personal assessment is: despite the premise less racist than the vast majority of 60's tv so far #i like the writing and the two leads #i'm consistently surprised by how it doesn't pull punches #but every time the two leads pal around and make each other laugh and smile i'm like 😬#because. SHOULD they be friends? should this story have been written?#deeply. deeply mixed feelings #the outcasts 1968 #don murray #otis young

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thevindicativevordan · 2 years

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Superman & Lois S2 Review

Let's check back in to see how the only current Superman media project has performed.

Right so straight off the bat: this was a step down from S1. Not the total collapse I've seen others view it as, but nowhere near as good.

Pros

Hoechlin, Tulloch, and Parks are still just as enjoyable as they were in S1, despite the material not giving them as much to work with. Hoechlin still shines when he's playing dorky Clark Kent such as when he celebrates Jordan's first flight, and when he's playing Superman like when he reprimands Sam and Irons for wanting to just leave Bizarro World to Ally's mercy. Getting to see Hoechlin play Bizarro was entertaining, he sold the hell out of Bizarro's descent into drug addiction and the disintegration of the Bizarro Kents hit hard.

Tal-Rho's actor continued to be a joy to watch and has fantastic chemistry with everyone else. Props to him on making a character concept that I would normally hate (hey Superman has a secret brother and we're playing it completely straight!), and making me enjoy him despite that. Sending him to Bizarro World was what I expected them to do, now he can be the "Superman" of that Earth.

Anderson was the better antagonist/villain of the season

Jon's actor finally got more to do, and he wrung the maximum pathos from every line he got, really forcing Clark to acknowledge how he's been favoring Jordan over Jon because Jordan got powers. Outside of the core trio listed above he is one of the best actors on the show. From a lesser actor Bizarro Jon's fall would come across as him being entitled and whiney, but instead it's hard not to sympathize with him given how Clark neglected him. Hopefully him getting access to Kryptonian tech means he'll be more active next season since the writers can't seem to give the nonpowered cast members anything to do

Loved the Irons Family and how they dealt with adapting to a new world. Natalie's actress was really entertaining when she got to do more than just whine at her dad. Happy as hell to see her suit up alongside her father, and her burgeoning relationship with her half-brothers was cute.

The finale was fun, and yeah I enjoyed the fanservice with sun dipped Superman punching the Earths so hard they separate. Looking forward to Clark getting a new Fortress that will hopefully be more in line with my own preferences for what the Fortress should be. Less realistic and more cool basically.

Cons

What the fuck was the idea behind the Jordan/Sarah plotline this season? Are we meant to view Jordan's hurt over Sarah cheating on him as a character flaw on his part? Because I don't, it just makes me dislike Sarah. Sarah discovering her sexuality was handled about as terribly as it could have been, her pushing Jordan to be friends with the girl she cheated on him with made me stare in utter bewilderment. How the hell did the writers not foresee that the audience would not be on Sarah's side over stuff like that? Pure cringeworthy CW drama, especially since Jordan's inability to get over Sarah just made him look annoying and pathetic. Showrunner says they've broken up and I hope they stay apart, I'm so done with that relationship

Ally Allston is so... paper-thin. Her actress does a believable job of selling herself as a charismatic cult leader, but why was so little screen time afforded to fleshing Ally out? How come we didn't get more of her backstory, how she learned about the pendant, or about the other world, and all the other bits of background info we got on her? Why not have Lois and Chrissy investigate Ally's background instead of having Lois play support for Lana and get yelled at by Lucy?

Natalie reprimanding her father for wanting to move on and stop obsessing over their Lois seemed to be set up for her to come around to his point of view. Instead they went in the opposite direction and basically had Irons say he was never going to move on and would just wallow in sadness with Nat because that was the right thing to do? What? Such an odd resolution to that conflict, one that didn't resonate with me.

I don't care that much about the Cushings. They're like Jon's girlfriend, it's cool when they show up, but I'm not here for them and I dislike them getting the spotlight over Lois and Jon. Especially when the most likeable member is Sophie!

Speaking of Jon, do they seriously not get that we LIKE Jon? That Clark clearly preferring his powered son over his nonpowered son makes him look bad? That Jon keeps trying to let Clark know how he feels and Clark keeps brushing him off? I thought Clark losing his powers would finally be what lets the two of them connect, as Clark finally understands how useless Jon felt, but no that didn't happen. Big misstep there.

Jesus the hiatuses are killers!

Multiple plot lines go nowhere. Remember Irons having memory problems? This show keeps trying to juggle way too many storylines and it simply can’t handle them all. Bizarro Lois showing up in the finale only to just stand around awkwardly and have zero meaningful interactions with anyone else is probably THE perfect example of the writers flat out not knowing how to deliver payoff to stuff they set up before. The Bizarro Kents just vanish in the end without anyone bringing them up at all, we don’t know what happened to Jon-El for example, did he blip back to Bizarro World? Can’t say. They need to cut back on the number of plot lines moving forward.

Setting the show in Smallville is starting to look like a bad call. There just simply doesn't seem to be enough story for everyone, and they got rid of the one element that could've helped provide an organic source of drama for everyone: Smallville's decline. After S1 apparently the Edge Corp payouts were enough to completely alleviate that problem and instead Lana is running for mayor mostly as a vendetta for how the mayor scapegoated the Cushings. My hope for the usage of Smallville was that while Clark would be able to bring his family together and train his successor(s), he wouldn't be able to save Smallville. The town's slow inexorable decline could not be reversed even by Superman, we'd get a bittersweet ending of Clark selling the farm at the end of the series, and moving back to Metropolis with Lois while the boys went off to college. Instead they resolved that at the end of S1 with the EdgeCorp payouts, leaving them scrambling to give the nonpowered cast members a hook ever since.

Overall I think I rate S2 as a 6/10, a big step down from S1 like I said. Still there's enough here that I like that I will be back for S3. But it's time to face facts: this show may be slightly above the quality of other CW shows, but it's still a CW show. There's still cheap drama and baffling creative decisions dragging it down, and that's not likely going to change. You either are willing to sit through the boring drama for the good Superman moments, or you're not, and I think S2 will be a stepping off point for many which is fine. I think this show has 4-5 seasons in it max, so I'm willing to keep watching for what I like since I can't see it lasting beyond that. S3 might even be the last season given Zaslav is cancelling shows left and right, wants to sell off the CW, and is determined to cut costs.

One big revelation in the finale was that the show has been established to exist on a different Earth from the "Earth-Prime" of the other shows, guess that gives them the freedom to cast whoever they want going forward. Intergang is also set up to be the main S3 bad guys, which could be good, they're not powered by X-K and Lois could do some investigative journalism to root out their operations. Intergang also has a history being a front for a "big" villain, Darkseid originally and usually in adaptions, but no way are they using Darkseid here so I'll hope either Brainiac or Lex are behind them. Let's hope S3 is a step up from S2.

#superman #superman and lois #steel #jon kent #jordan kent

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ecargmura · 1 year

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Because of Winn-Dixie Book Review

This is the first book review I have posted on Tumblr. I have a blog where I mainly write reviews for books, games, anime and manga.

Here is the link to my blog post if you want to read it.

Let me know what you think and I'll post more of my past writings on Tumblr.

If not, keep reading this post for the review on Tumblr.

I’m a huge dog lover, so any story that involves a dog is instantly good to me. I remembered reading Because of Winn-Dixie as a child, but I didn’t remember the contents. As an adult, I decided to traverse back into this story and see what it was that I had forgotten. What I got was a story about a lonely girl meeting a dog who changes her life for the better. It’s a boy-meets-girl story, but the boy is a dog.

The story is about India Opal Buloni who moves to Naomi, Florida with her preacher father. One day, while she was grocery shopping at a supermarket, she meets a stray dog wreaking havoc in the building. Intrigued by the dog, she claims him and names him Winn-Dixie. Before meeting Winn-Dixie, she had a lot of emotional baggage due to her mother leaving her family behind. The loneliness she felt soon goes away as she meets Winn-Dixie who becomes the light of her life.

The story is very wholesome. It’s a story that overcomes loneliness and sadness. Dicamillo did a wonderful job showing Opal’s rougher side before she mellows out towards the end where she’s having fun with her friends and neighbors. India did not want to do anything with another person before, but knowing that she warms up to them if they liked Winn-Dixie was nice to see.

I do think this story does give an insight on what having a pet, or a companion, does for someone. I can relate. While I had several pets in the past, they do ease the loneliness. I have two dogs right now and they keep me happy every day. I understand what Opal feels when Winn-Dixie heals her troubled young soul. He makes her understand that everything will be okay and that it’s okay to miss her mother even if she’s not coming back.

Opal’s main issues are her inability to make human friends and her missing her mother. Her inability to make friends causes her to act cold and blunt towards other kids. She’s nice to some kids like Sweetie Pie, but she’s a lot meaner to Amanda, Steven and Dunlap. She later sympathizes with them later on. She also gets along well with adults like Frannie Block, Gloria Dump and Otis. She even rekindles her distant relationship with her father. The fact that everyone comes together for a party at the end shows Opal has changed positively. Everything about this is because of Winn-Dixie.

What I really liked above all else is that Opal’s mother did not make an appearance in the story. Yes, Mrs. Buloni is mentioned throughout the story, but she never actually makes a physical appearance. I find that good. The story is about Opal overcoming the loneliness over her mother leaving her behind and it also helps her become closer to her father. If her mother had shown up, it would’ve ruined the flow of the entire story.

There’s nothing much I disliked about this story, honestly. It’s a wholesome story that is perfect for children. While I am an adult, the struggles that Opal deals with and how she overcomes them with Winn-Dixie warms my heart.

I want to try watching the movie. I heard it’s good. Also, it stars AnnaSophia Robb, who is an actress that I am familiar with. I’ve watched Bridge to Terabithia and the 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Would I read this story again? Maybe. I totally recommend this for any children wanting to read something eventful. What are your thoughts about this book? Please let me know.

#books #book review #because of winn dixie #wholesome story #dog story #kate dicamillo #children's literature #ecargmura #arum journal #arum lee #review

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greensaplinggrace · 3 years

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So you mentioned in another post that you have some strong thoughts on Baghra, especially about how the story frames her as one of the good guys. I would love to hear about it.

@youremotionallystablefriend: I would love to hear you rant about Baghra if you feel like it (and haven’t already)! Personally I don’t think she gets enough constructive critique in the fandom for being the one that brought Aleks up and for the way she treated her pupils and especially Alina :/

Anon: Hello! I love your thoughts on the grisha books. I'm actually interested to hear your take on Baghra

@misku-nimfa: If you are up for it, I would love to read your thoughts on Baghra or your full critique of society in the Grishaverse. Your analysis is really well structured and interesting! ^.^

Anon: Hi! I saw your recent post and was wondering if you'd share more of your thoughts on Baghra?

---

Hello everyone! I was honestly very surprised to see so many people interested in my thoughts on Baghra? I'll share what I can, but please know that this is by no means a full breakdown of her character! It’s just some Thoughts I’ve had, and they’re mostly centered around show Baghra because that’s how I was first introduced to her character. Although IMO book Baghra might actually be even worse.

I’d like to preface this by saying that many of my issues with the treatment of Baghra as a character in fandom come from the wild double standard there seems to be regarding her and the Darkling. Darkling Antis and a vast majority of the people in this fandom who don’t like his character have a disturbing habit of absolutely ripping into the Darkling for all of his faults and then turning around and treating Baghra as some sort of pristine mother figure for the exact same shit.

They’ll talk about how badass she is, how strong she is, how they sympathize with her past (although they’ll continue to dehumanize the Darkling and refuse to sympathize with his own past) and sympathize with the fact that she has to deal with the Darkling (who’s always referred to as a monster she must corral or control, as if he is inhumane and beastly. These particular comments always take on the very distinct tone of victim blaming as well). They’ll laud her for all of these “powerful girlboss” moments as if they aren’t carbon copies of the Darkling’s own behavior - as if they aren’t things Baghra herself taught him. Which is why this is the wildest double standard of all to me, because every horrible action they praise Baghra for is something she taught the Darkling, and something they cannot stand to see in him as well.

It’s as if there’s a disconnect between their consumption of the literature when it comes to the two characters, and I’m of the opinion that it’s largely because Baghra is a woman and a mother and therefore infantilized in the fandom quite a bit. In fact, Bardugo herself often infantilizes many of her female characters in her writing. This is mostly through the process of excusing their terrible deeds, not allowing them to do anything remotely dark, or brushing any morally grey actions under the rug without ever touching upon them. Which puts me in the strange position of knowing I’m supposed to sympathize with Baghra for having to deal with the monster she’s created, and instead feeling resentful of the fact that this bitter woman is held up as this wise old strict teacher instead of the abusive mentor/mother she should have been.

Now, here’s what I said to make so many of you send me asks:

Last note, in reference to your first line, and also probably a pretty unpopular opinion. I do not like Baghra. And it legit has nothing to do with the Darkling or with Alina, I just don't like her "I'm going to hit you and berate you and emotionally abuse you and manipulate you and act like the good guy at the end of it" vibe she's got going on. At least Aleksander is acknowledged as the villain within the narrative. Idk wtf Baghra is on but it's absolutely wild to me that people aren't more critical of her actions. Which is, rather fortunately for you, another rant I will save for another post if anybody ever wants to hear it lol. (but like kudos to Baghra's actress. I loved the character as a character, I just don't like the way she's framed as a good guy. Weird. Uncomfortable. She literally set bees on the kids she was teaching).

This basically summarizes most of my thoughts on Baghra as a character and how she’s portrayed. I touched on it a bit above, but the way she’s able to get away with so much and not suffer under heavier critique is honestly baffling to me. There should be a lot more criticism of her out there in the fandom. This is the woman who abused her students and neglected her son. Although to be honest I don’t even know how to quite describe the emotionally neglectful yet unhealthily codependent bond she fostered in him from a young age. IMO, Baghra’s behavior around Aleksander is creepy, and I know she has a history that makes it more understandable, but it’s still incredibly disconcerting to witness.

But let’s get back on track! First of all, her students. Whom she physically, emotionally, and mentally abuses. She’s derisive, she’s insulting, she’s belittling. She works hard to strip them of any self confidence they may have. She uses pain as a means of triggering powers. And the strict teacher excuse doesn’t fly. The “it’s only a training method!” excuse is even worse. This is literal abuse she’s heaping on her students and it’s wretched.

The first thing she does to Alina when they first meet is insult her. Then she hits her. Then she kicks her out.

Second time they interact is a montage. Baghra hits Alina multiple times. She shames her. And then when Alina actually calls a light she tells her it’s not nearly enough, effectively wiping the smile off of her face and every sign of self confidence that had been building. Then we see the door to Baghra’s hut shut in Alina’s face. So now she has been bruised, battered, berated, stripped of all self confidence, and then banished again. As training methods go, this is not only entirely ineffective, but it’s also just abusive.

Then we get this interaction between Alina and her friends:

Marie: One time, Baghra released a hive of bees on me. Nadia: Worst part is, it worked. Marie: It really did. I could summon at will after that.

Which is fucking horrifying and not talked about nearly enough. That goes beyond hitting your students. Baghra used a fear tactic on a young girl to activate her powers. She literally tortured Marie to make her powers work.

Alina throughout this conversation is looking very disheartened. She’s lacking in any self confidence and the comment about the bees has clearly affected her. For someone who’s first words to Alina were “Everyone believes that you are the one. Come back when you believe it too,” Baghra doesn’t exactly seem keen on Alina actually believing she’s the one. If she did, she wouldn’t be stripping her of every positive emotion associated with sun summoning.

Let’s not forget that Baghra demeans Alina multiple times for her status as an orphan. How she utilizes what she knows of Alina’s emotional weaknesses to provoke her and discourage her and make her angry.

And then Baghra drugs her without consent. To take advantage of any information Alina gives her in that state. To use the way Alina reacts for her own ends.

Because why else would she say this?:

Alina: We planned to run away together. Baghra: You had plans. Perhaps he never did, because where is he now?

Which is, strangely enough, the same sense of isolation and separation from Mal and her past that Aleksander is attempting to foster. Weird how mother and son are both using the same manipulation tactics.

In fact, why does Baghra never tell Alina about the letters until she’s already engaged with Aleksander? Baghra must have known he was taking them. Alina talks about it enough. Baghra must have known he was isolating her from Mal. How could she not, when it’s revealed later that she has spies in the Little Palace collecting information on him? How could she not, when she knows he’s the villain from the beginning - when she knows he’s manipulating Alina?

Baghra knows, and yet she keeps the same lies Aleksander does and furthermore uses that information to make Alina feel even more isolated and weak. Baghra literally just piggy-backs on Aleksander’s manipulation and then exacerbates it. She wants Alina to feel no attachments to her past because she wants to use Alina as well. But for some reason, because this manipulation and treatment of Alina as some sort of tool is done by the woman who opposes the Darkling, it’s suddenly okay. As if it still isn’t the same terrible shit but with a different perpetrator. I mean damn, at least Aleksander feels something for Alina. Baghra’s just cold.

So, point by point. Baghra mentions how Mal doesn’t care for Alina, she mentions Alina’s failings constantly, she mentions Alina being an orphan, she constantly hits her, she guilts Alina about orphans dying, she works to instill a sense of isolation from her friends and her family.

And when Alina finally comes to Baghra, having decided to abandon her attachments to her past and her attachments to Mal, the words that ring in her head are Baghra's words - “needing anyone else is weak.” Which is honestly just a horrible sentiment in general, but an even worse one when considering how hard these people are working to detach Alina from anybody who can help her or give her an outside perspective.

Strangely, it’s also similar to this line:

The problem with wanting, is that it makes us weak.

...which is spoken by Baghra’s son. You know, the Darkling? Our big bad villain? The one Baghra raised?

Which gives me the impression that Baghra’s teaching methods with her students are really not that far off from the teaching methods she used on him as he was growing up. It’s a horrifying thought, and leads into my problems with her relationship with Aleksander.

First of all, show wise. What the fuck.

Aleksander: They’re punishing us for being Grisha. Baghra: Punishing you. You made him afraid. Now he wants you to fear him. Aleksander: I won a war for him. Baghra: And in doing so, started a war on us.

I get that she’s trying to convey how the king feels here, but it still feels incredibly victim blamey from a narrative standpoint. It isn’t Aleksander’s fault the king fears him when he used his powers under the King’s banner to help him win a war. Aleksander trusted this man who betrayed him and then betrayed his people, and we get a line from his mother, entirely unsympathetic, talking about how it’s his fault all of these people are dying.

Baghra: Where’s the girl, your healer? Aleksander: Dead. She died because of me. Baghra: She died because they always do. They’re not as strong as you and me.

Baghra’s use of the term ‘girl’ and ‘healer' here instead of Luda is pretty telling. She either doesn’t like Luda or doesn’t care for her. Either way, this is the woman her son loves, and Baghra talks about her so dispassionately. Then he comments on Luda’s death and there’s no reaction except to say that they always do.

Like, her son is literally broken up over here. Grieving. Desperate. Run ragged. Caged and hunted. Feeling guilty as hell. Mind running through a million different ways he could possibly save all of these people. And Baghra offers him nothing except a paltry “people die, get over it, we’re better than that, she didn’t matter anyway.”

Honestly, how is Aleksander even still functioning at this point? He has no support system and he’s working against a king and his army to protect a group of civilians he could easily abandon to save himself. The sheer amount of responsibility and mental strain keeping track of a group alone entails is already monstrous, but adding in every other factor? The recent death of Luda, the fact that they’re cornered and they’ve been hunted down while fleeing across the land, the fact that he was just a couple hours ago forced to his knees and entirely at these men’s mercy, begging for Luda’s life. And here his mother is, if anything a negative support system. Offering no other ideas, telling him to give up hope, not even offering the barest smidgeon of emotional support as he grieves, putting everything on his shoulders.

It pisses me the fuck off.

Aleksander: You’re the one who taught me how to kill, mother. Their blood is on your hands as much as mine. Baghra: I taught you so you could protect yourself. Not them.

Once more, Baghra highlights how he needs to protect himself. How he should abandon the people he’s protecting. How he shouldn't help others and only ever himself. Once more, she says it’s my way or the high way. There’s zero effort to work with him. Zero effort to sympathize or compromise. She’s constantly pushing him to take the one option she knows he won’t take. The hell did she think was going to happen?

Also, Baghra taught him how to kill. Not necessarily great parenting, but understandable given the circumstances of his upbringing. But the level to which she takes it is honestly concerning. Like, look no further than this woman to see where Aleksander got it from lol.

Baghra also forbids him from using Merzost. Which is great and all, she gets to claim the moral high ground. But she doesn’t offer a single alternative except to flee and let everybody die. There was legitimately no other option to Merzost except for torture and death. If there was, Baghra sure as hell didn’t help Aleksander come up with one. Aleksander, who - by the way - is in no fit emotional state to be making any kind of decision right now.

So anyways, that’s just my tv show grief regarding Baghra, and it’s not even really all of it. I don’t want to make this an hour long read though lmao. But I’ll go over a few other things.

First of all, Baghra’s whole “We’re the only two that matter. We have to do whatever we can to protect ourselves,” mentality is one that she actively touts to Aleksander on a regular basis when he’s incredibly young. It’s honestly a wonder he grows up to care about other people at all. But the mentality itself is something Aleksander still heavily internalized in regards to protecting himself and those he deems worthy at any cost.

There’s a moment in the books when Aleksander is attacked and nearly drowned by some kids who wanted his bones (one of which was a close friend of his). He uses the cut in self defense and then blames the nearby Otkazat’sya village. Baghra knows he’s lying, and yet she allows an entire village to get slaughtered for harming him. This is a disproportionately violent act that Baghra approves of, and Aleksander as a kid is definitely internalizing that mindset.

Also, Baghra’s behavior around Aleksander has always been weirdly possessive and controlling. Especially when it comes to the people he loves. Her actions often come across as her trying to isolate him in order to keep him by her side, even when the relationships he has are clearly intimate. Which... is especially strange for a mother to be doing to her son.

She was also an extremely emotionally neglectful mother. Based on the show and what I gathered from her actions there, I’m actually half convinced she was physically abusive as well, in that “I think I’m being a stern, good parent figure when in reality I’m actually harming my child” kind of way. She fosters codependence with her son and then refuses to provide for any of his emotional needs. She drives it into his head that everybody dies, that he’ll always be alone, that love is useless and power is everything. She denies him the opportunity to be soft and works to harden him at a young age. She tells him he must never allow people to touch him, except she doesn’t work to supplement those physical needs in any way. She essentially abuses him.

Honestly, I could go on. But in reality the simple fact is that I just don’t like her. I think she’s a hypocrite. I think she’s abusive. I think she’s a terrible mentor and an even worse mother. And I think the fandom and the books are willing to brush aside so many of her faults simply because she opposes the Darkling.

I’m sorry if this isn’t what you guys were looking for! It sounds like a lot of you wanted a more of a sophisticated breakdown, but my thoughts on Baghra come with a heap of emotional baggage lol. It feels weird to say this now, but I actually do like the character as a character, I just,,, don’t like her in every other aspect. My feelings on Baghra are just a bit personal, to be honest. But hopefully this was at least comprehensible??

#shadow and bone #sab #grishaverse #anti leigh bardugo #anti baghra #baghra critical #sab spoilers #demon in the wood spoilers #aleksander morozova #sab meta #the darkling #fandomcourse #myramblings #leigh bardugo critical #mymetas #anti darklina bs #please dont hate me for this #aaahhhh now im worried #Yikes

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finleyforevermore · 2 years

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My Starlight Express Movie: Part Five - Rough Plot Outline (Act Two)

(A.k.a. Rough draft of song list part two)

Note: This was made before I came with the song with Rusty and C.B., I'm just posting later.

Entr'acte / Hymn to Victory:

Argument - After an orchestral introduction, we get dropped smack dab in the middle of an argument. Electra is teasing Greaseball about Dinah, Greaseball is boasting of course; Rusty laments about Pearl, but C.B. offers his help.

Hymn to Victory - The engines let the anticipation flow through them, as they vocalize their excitement for victory.

Control - Control intervenes to remind everyone what they are fighting for, the title of the World's Fastest Locomotive, and that without a partner, you can't dance.

Pearl Whirl - Greaseball, without a partner, turns to Pearl and asks if she wants to "go for a whirl" with him. Pearl happily agrees, and tells Dinah to "quit crying", ignoring Dinah’s feelings. Control, then, tells Dinah to "Snap it up", or she'll be "late for dinner."

U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D - Dinah pitifully laments to her friends, Ashley and Buffy, about her situation. And she makes sure to say that if GB comes crawling back to her, she'll flat out call him a "B.A.S.T.A.R.D." Remember this, it'll be important later.

You Got You - Belle overhears the conversation, and encourages Dinah to just quit racing, and do what she wants, but what Dinah wants is to race. The song is reimagined and rewritten to fit the context, but the poppy, more upbeat version takes place later.

Girls' Rolling Stock - Essentially the same, with lyric tweaks. Instead of Ashley and Buffy encouraging Dinah to make GB jealous, A and B encourage Dinah to find someone else to race with.

Invitation Dinah - A little longer than the original version. Conveniently, Purse arrives and tells Dinah that Electra wants her to be their partner. Dinah doesn't say the "If Greaseball changes his mind" part. Purse tells Dinah that he sympathizes with her situation, and Dinah thanks him.

C.B. (Wide Smile, High Style) - CB meets up with GB and his gang, and explains that he's gonna wipe Rusty out of the race, and explains his history of crashing trains to them. Electra and Components are absent.

Uphill Final - Rusty races with C.B. in the uphill Final, but under Greaseball’s orders, he brakes Rusty, and sends him crashing into the middle of the track.

I Was Robbed / Pearl Finds Out - Control cancels the race and sends the Marshals to check on Rusty. But even the Marshals are biased, and don't listen to Rusty, who is complaining about how he was robbed by GB and CB. As the Marshals leave, Pearl interrupts the confrontation and threatens to tell the Marshals, but Greaseball bites back and tells her that she's technically in it as well now for intervening. As Pearl hitches herself back to GB, he whispers "Sic 'im".

Sic 'im / You're No Engine - Rusty is beaten and bloodied by Greaseball’s gang, and then when it can't get any worse, it does. C.B. appears, stomps on his hand, and gleefully says he's no engine. Flat-Top desperately begs for Rusty's forgiveness, but Rusty, traumatized, is stunned into silence. The Rockies come by and try to comfort Rusty, albeit depressingly. This dialogue/recit scene takes the place of "Right Place, Right Time".

The Starlight Sequence (I Am The Starlight) - Quite different. It's full on reprise of the title song, with Rusty reflecting on everything's that's happened and giving up. Rusty hears someone singing from above and whispers, "Starlight Express?" to the sky. The humming stops. After instrumental silence, Rusty lets out all of the emotions he has been bottling up and releases it in one single scream for the Starlight Express.

...It hears him this time.

Note: In this version the Starlight Express is a separate entity. And a concept I've tossed around is having Belle's actress double as the Starlight Express, rather than Poppa. Again, it's just a concept.

The scene has gorgeous visuals with the Starlight Express and Rusty being surrounded by the stars and constellations. And though in this version, Rusty is metaphorically the Starlight, the Starlight gives him a costume change like on Broadway, but of course without the dark, muted colors. Afterwards, Rusty, with newfound confidence, promises "I won't let you down."

"Rusty and Dustin" is replaced with dialogue.

I Got Me (Reprise) - Dinah has had enough with being neglected, and this time, she does the uncoupling.

Electra and C.B. - Electra, desperate, calls for C.B., who they call by his technical term, "Red Caboose". I made this change because in "Dinah’s Disco", I think Electra singing "Red Caboose" fits better with the melody than "C.B." C.B. agrees, and Electra, like Greaseball earlier, says "Just remember who's side you are on". C.B. comments, after Electra leaves, "Now where have I heard that before?"

C.B. (Wide Smile, High Style) (Reprise) - C.B. sings the Broadway reprise of his song, plotting to cause even more chaos

Hymn to Victory (short Reprise) / Pre-Race Four - Rusty re-enters for the race and after being inspired by the Starlight and though Control doesn't want him to Enter, the trains rally against Control and he is forced to oblige.

Downhill Final - The race immediately starts chaotically. C.B. is switching between GB and Electra, Electra is shooting lightning every where, throwing everyone off track, and Pearl nearly dies after GB uncouples her for slowing him down. Rusty rescues her, and Pearl skates off somewhere. C.B. has enough and tries to speed past GB and Electra to at least get 2nd place since Rusty is in the lead, but he gets caught in the middle of a fight between GB and Electra. As the scuffle continues, G.B., C.B., and Electra enter the the Tunnel with Rusty and Dustin..

...and only Electra comes out.

Rusty and Dustin emerge from the tunnel, and the former is declared the winner. Control insists that Rusty takes his lap of honor, but Rusty leaves to find Pearl. Control warns that if he isn't back soon, his lap of honor will be canceled.

No Comeback - Electra is enraged that they have gotten second place in the race, and leaves the yard. They try to leave with their components, but they break free of Electra's control and abandon them.

Where's Rusty Gone? - Before the rest can follow Rusty, C.B. and GB merge from the tunnel, smushed together because of the wreck. Poppa forces GB and C.B. to help them find Pearl and Rusty

Only He, Only You - Pearl reflects on everything that has happened, and how terrible she's been to the person who deserved her love and care. Eventually, Rusty finds Pearl, and she begs for his forgiveness. Rusty forgives her, and calls her his "Starlight". They symbolically connect hands with each other, and share a hug.

Long Live Rusty, King of the Track - Poppa and Co. finally find Rusty and Pearl, and bring the lap of honor to him! Like Dinah expects, Greaseball comes crawling back to her. She calls him a B.A.S.T.A.R.D and skates back to Ashley and Buffy, who are very proud of her. Greaseball is sulking, but Poppa is there to comfort him, but doesn't sweep GB's actions under the rug. After this, Dinah sits by C.B., who feels like he shouldn't be forgiven. Dinah promises that she will give him the love, support, and most importantly, help, that he needs in a reprise of "There's Me". Flat-Top apologizes to the Freights, Belle, and Poppa, and C.B. and GB apologize to Rusty.

Light At the End of the Tunnel - Rewritten lyrics. Less focused on James' Watt, and more on how the trains have all become closer as a family.

Megamix - The Megamix takes place during the credits before the long and usually boring ones.

Order of songs:

Tunnel

Rolling Stock

Tunnel

Locomotion

Whistle motif

Freight

Tunnel

AC/DC

Pumping Iron

Tunnel (There's a light, there's a light, we can see the light!)

No Comeback

One Rock n' Roll Too Many

Belle and Poppa Scat

Short Dustin harmonica solo (replaces Crazy, hints of Crazy are in it.)

You Got You/I Got Me

Tunnel

Starlight motif (instrumental)

Only He, Only You

Tunnel

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anghraine · 3 years

Text

While I’m thinking of dream adaptations, some details about my ideal adaptation of Pride and Prejudice:

The tone is lighthearted, with an undercurrent of seriousness.

The 20-something characters are all played by 20-something actors, the teen characters by mid-to-late-teen actors, and Mrs Gardiner by a 30-something actress; the others should be in their 40s or 50s, depending.

Jane is noticeably heavier and more beautiful than Elizabeth, who in turn is mildly pretty; Wickham is staggeringly pretty, and Darcy is very classically handsome and tall.

It’s set in the mid- to late-1790s. Some concessions to modern sensibilities are fine, but that’s the general aesthetic.

Elizabeth’s demeanour is usually lively and courteous, with a slight sweetness that makes it easy to see why she’s so generally liked.

LET. DARCY. SMILE.

(not tight polite little smiles, either; Elizabeth identifies the smile in his painting, done when his beloved father was alive, as the same one he used to direct at her—we should be able to tell that he likes being around her)

coffee scene coffee scene coffee scene

Georgiana a) is not small and delicate, b) is deeply shy and anxious, and c) is aware that Darcy likes Elizabeth, but no more than that. Her manner towards Darcy is both deferential and affectionate, while he’s both protective and encouraging towards her.

Mrs Bennet is neither the lone voice of reason nor a shrieking caricature.

Lady Catherine is also not a caricature (there might be a touch of sympathize-able bitterness to her saying that daughters never matter much to their fathers), though very funny at points.

We feel Mr Bennet’s quirky charm, but it also doesn’t shy away from his essential failures.

Pemberley should be grand and idyllic but not ornate—a very clear step up from Longbourn and Netherfield, but not a palace by any means. We see that Darcy has Georgiana’s crayon drawings stuck with his art collections.

We’d get some of the moments when Darcy talks affectionately of Georgiana, as Elizabeth remembers later.

It would focus on Elizabeth’s character arc above all else, with the central turning point being her response to Darcy’s proposal and then to his letter. We rarely if ever see Darcy where he doesn’t appear in the novel, though Darcy/Elizabeth remains the core dynamic of the story.

Bingley isn’t an intellectual giant, but he’s not stupid or vacuous, and has a lot of personal charm.

The Bingley sisters can be catty, but when they have their good manners on, they seem pleasant enough—not saccharine.

Jane is very sweetly and graciously stubborn.

Justice for Elizabeth’s parasol and watch!!

It’s my dream adaptation, so we actually get some of the engagement scenes (with Elizabeth writing her ‘Jane only smiles, I laugh’ letter) and conclude with the Darcys and Gardiners at Pemberley.

Consequently, the Gardiners would need to be fairly important characters—we’d build up to them actually appearing.

tbh it would be hilarious if we got whatever random people went on to Mrs Gardiner about how hot Darcy is.

It’s not necessary, but I would be really entertained by inclusion of Darcy’s smug gardener + Darcy and Mr Gardiner geeking out over a plant.

Darcy is fully dressed at all times. He is neither shy nor brooding.

Mary’s obnoxiousness isn’t dialed down—she’s not just a tragically underappreciated geek.

We wouldn’t soft-coat Lydia’s personality (she’s still grating, short-sighted, and selfish), but we’d definitely feel how screwed-up her fate is.

Charlotte’s is appalling in its own way, but not a grand tragedy, and Charlotte herself is clearly intelligent and perceptive.

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wlwocprincess · 3 years

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On Lemar Hoskins, I do wanna say that 100% y’all were never supposed to care about him as a person or a character in his own right and it’s evident w the way this fandom be acting that most of y’all never did. First of all, I’ve seen a lot of “explanations” about how Lemar is supposed to be a parallel to Sam or Bucky or he’s supposed to be a subversion of the Black Sidekick. He’s not a subversion of nothing. He’s a Black Sidekick and a Fridged One At That, All Played Straight. None of the racial themes of this show tried to portray are safe from being absolutely shafted by this instance of this colorist (because he is one of the darkest characters on the show, if not, the darkest) and anti black moment.

These writers never wanted you to care about him more than you sympathized with his killer and her cause, not more than you hated (or loved, if you’re one of those people) John Walker, than you rooted for the heroes.

Y’all don’t know nor acknowledge how absolutely traumatic it was for many black viewers to see a dark skinned black man brutally murdered before his eyes and to have the notion of wanting justice for his death (because that /is/ what they did whether you hate John Walker or not) being demonized as shown to be unrelenting violence.

Or to show his killer, another black person, but one significantly lighter in a sympathetic light to the point where she is the one given all sympathy by making it “an accident” therefore “not really her fault” or “her cause is good because it’s okay” or the fact that we, as an audience, even if she is a leftist villain portrayed as evil (she is) because of propaganda doesn’t mean she herself isn’t leveraged above the dark skinned black man that when she “accidentally” kills him, she is framed as this traumatized hapless victim who is allowed to get away while her ally is killed to show “How Far Gone” Walker is, even though, once again, it’s the demonization of wanting justice for a dead black friend.

Only for her to say that his life did not matter. . . (Which is FUCKED to make your character say when she’s played by a black actress) But she has a tragic backstory and she’s a leftist portrayed wrong. . So it’s fine!

And sometimes, he’s woobified and made into the perfect black boyfriend/sidekick/best friend to Walker bc of course he did, that’s a what fandom does with black characters with white best friends! because he can’t escape being a trope even in death.

We’re not supposed to remember his quotes, what he did, what he felt, how he was shown to us onscreen and we are never showed him onscreen if not next to Walker, even his parents’ grief is given to Walker. We can’t see his parents grieve independently because he was not a main character. Not in the way Walker is, Karli is, Sam is, Bucky is. These characters like Sam and Bucky don’t mention Lemar after his death in ways that are supposed to be remembered by the viewer, and Karli is somehow allowed to just say his life didn’t matter. In the end, we were supposed to watch him die and then watch this dark turn.

Even if people expressed criticism of the scene or outrage, it still manages to somehow tie back to other characters. “John Walker could’ve gone dark another way!” Should not be the first response to that scene. John Walker going dark shouldn’t even in be in mind.

It should be “Lemar Hoskins should’ve been allowed to live. Lemar Hoskins should’ve gotten screentime, agency, and the chance to be a character in his own right.”

#it’s hard for me to properly criticize or praise this show because everything is filled with multiple meanings and tropes and propaganda #like I want to hate Karli because she is a lighter skinned woc portrayed w sympathy even when murdering a darker skinned man #but I know she is a demonizationof leftism #and I want to like John Walker because he’s the only one who cares about Lemar enough to do something #but there’s also. . everything else about him #this isn’t pro or anti any character really but lmk if it should be tagged as such #anti blackness #lemar hoskins #anti tfatws #tfwats criticism #this is more of a rant so if you wanna disagree lmk respectfully I’m not looking for a fight

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usergreenpixel · 3 years

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Frev writing prompts, Part 5! Seriously, I have no idea how I keep coming up with these. 😅

36. The protagonist was born and raised by a troupe of traveling performers. For as long as they can remember, they have been traveling from place to place, never staying anywhere for a few days at most.

The protagonist’s father is the troupe’s flutist and singer while their mother is a puppeteer so the youth has always had a passion for the performing arts and dreams of traveling all over Europe with their big happy family.

Nicknamed “L’œillet rouge” (The Red Carnation) by the troupe as an homage to their father’s favorite flower, the protagonist enjoys playing the flute and singing with their father, as well as putting on puppet shows with their mother.

With a song in their heart, a smile on their face and their father’s precious flute in their hands, the protagonist travels all over the country with their family, entertaining the people of France but never settling down and they like it that way.

But one day, while the troupe is staying in Paris and putting on a rather satirical puppet show which mocks the current regime, the protagonist’s parents are suddenly arrested by the police. Apparently, the father is a dangerous rebel while the mother is guilty of having sheltered said rebel years ago.

The protagonist is convinced that there must be a mistake and decides to rescue their parents with the help of all the other troupe members, including the protagonist’s older maternal half-brother and their maternal grandparents, all of whom are eager to help.

The time is limited and the rescue will be far from easy, but the protagonist will be damned if they don’t at least try to succeed. So, with that in mind, the young flutist and their family start to concoct the rescue plan...

37. Rumors have it that people who have been murdered tend to become vengeful ghosts and haunt their killers to exact revenge.

This is certainly true for Robespierre and his supporters. Unable to find peace, their souls are brought back to the realm of the living, seeking revenge on the Thermidorians.

This particular circumstance is quite convenient for the protagonist, a spirit medium who summons these ghosts and intends to use them as tools in their plan to torment the Thermidorians and avenge their family that got massacred in Lyon, skillfully using the revolutionaries’ restlessness and anger to achieve their goal.

However, soon certain events make the protagonist question the morality of using these spirits. Perhaps the protagonist is no better than their enemies if they are not above manipulating others. Perhaps there’s another way… Nonsense! It’s not manipulation if the other people also want revenge and are dead anyway...right?

38. The heroine of the story, like many other girls of the noble class, grew up and got her education in a convent in her hometown of Caen, France.

As a result of this upbringing, the young woman is rather used to a sheltered life, her idealism is through the roof and she is rather nostalgic about her life in the convent and her friendship with another noble girl, Charlotte Corday, who is the heroine’s closest friend and confidant.

At first the noblewoman wants to stay out of the events of the revolution, dreaming of taking her vows as a nun and living a quiet life in the convent, but those plans are abruptly thwarted by Corday, whose influence slowly gets the naïve heroine deeper and deeper into the mess that is the French Revolution.

Being idealistic, easily trusting, quiet, pacifistic and devoutly Catholic, the heroine initially follows her best friend’s lead and trusts her judgement since Corday is the closest thing to a big sister that the young woman has.

However, when Corday tries to convince her to kill Jean-Paul Marat and end the revolution, the heroine starts having mixed feelings about her friend’s decisions, despite being angry with Marat for her own personal reasons. After all, her faith teaches to forgive, not to judge and take revenge, so now the heroine must make a choice.

Will she betray her best friend and ruin the plan or will she cast aside her morals to help Corday and, presumably, the rest of the country? Is Marat really the bloodthirsty monster that Corday says he is? Is there another way to deal with the situation at hand without any casualties? And what consequences will the main character face for the choice she makes?

39. The main character is an illegitimate son of a Russian noble and a serf (yes, serfs were still a thing in Russia) who got taken in by his father as a “ward” and sent to France to get a good education, as everything French was very fashionable in the Russian Empire at the time.

There, in Paris of 1789, the young man absorbs all the knowledge he can, learning languages, reading the prominent books written in the Enlightenment era and even befriends a man by the name of Maximilien de Robespierre, a lawyer from Arras and the representative of Artois.

Considering that Robespierre was almost born illegitimate, he is the first person in a long time who doesn’t judge the protagonist for the circumstances of his birth and accepts him for him. Excited to be accepted at long last, the young man begins to look up to Robespierre as a mentor and an older brother of sorts, quickly absorbing his ideas and supporting him.

So, naturally, when the revolution begins and the young man finds himself trapped in Paris, he joins the revolutionaries to fight alongside his mentor.

Thus begin his adventures.

40. The protagonist is a child of criminals forced to survive on the streets after losing their parents until they’re eventually taken in by a seemingly sympathetic Jacobin, given a new name, a home and a fresh start in life. The protagonist essentially becomes the revolutionary’s ward and their guardian even takes them to the Convention so the youth can observe the meetings.

All seems good for the protagonist...almost too good to be true. But eventually certain events force the protagonist to wonder if their new guardian truly cares about them.

Could it be that their Jacobin guardian has some sinister motives? And will the protagonist be able to move away from their “bad” heritage and live an honest life at last?

41. Barras is in love. Again.

Head over heels over a pretty servant he recently hired and she even seems to like her employer back. Even her suspiciously strong resemblance to a certain Jacobin who got executed in 1794 isn’t a dealbreaker for Barras and the smitten man writes said resemblance off as a coincidence.

The other Thermidorians, especially Fouché, are not that blind and they fear that a relative of that particular executed man is here to seek revenge. Fouché decides to investigate this seemingly ordinary and harmless young servant, suspecting that she has quite a few skeletons in her closet.

Are these suspicions going to be confirmed or is Fouché simply being paranoid?

42. Thermidor has just taken place. The Jacobins are imprisoned and it seems like the traitors are going to win. All hope is lost for the Jacobins and their enemies rejoice.

But little do the Thermidorians know that by betraying and imprisoning all the men who stand in their way, they have just acquired new enemies - women.

Revolutionary women.

Wives, daughters, sisters, nieces, goddaughters, lovers, wards, friends and sympathizers of the captured Jacobins who are not going to sit back and give up.

Seeing how bleak things are, these women, led by a mysterious woman who conceals her face behind a mask and calls herself “Citoyenne Liberté” (Citizen Liberty), decide to rescue their imprisoned loved ones from the clutches of the Thermidorians.

They’re running out of time, they’re outnumbered and not equipped with proper weapons, but that is hardly a problem they can’t solve and they’re willing to fight against the odds regardless of the obstacles.

After all, Heaven hath no fury like a woman scorned, which is what the Thermidorians are about to learn the hard way.

43. A singer and actress who used to perform in Venice flees to France after a scandal demolishes her reputation. Having only her voice and her acting to make ends meet, for a while she tries to find work in Paris but barely makes enough money for her and her son to survive.

Her only friend and confidant in this bleak situation is a future revolutionary who happens to admire the heroine’s singing and strongly believes that she deserves better. He even bonds with the actress’s toddler son and is willing to step up and become a proper father figure for the child.

Thanks to said revolutionary, the heroine’s life begins to change for the better and she decides to settle down in Paris. Even when she learns about the approaching revolution, she chooses to stay in the only place where she feels like she can belong.

What’s more, the actress finally finds her new purpose in life. She too can fight for the cause of her new partner and his friends, in her own way.

How is a woman whose main talents are acting and singing supposed to be able fight, you may ask? Why, by becoming a spy for the Jacobins and the singing voice of the revolution of course!

And she might just be able to prove that anyone can be a revolutionary and one doesn’t need to be a fighter nor an orator to help a noble cause.

44. A female servant working for Georges Danton has to practically flee the house of her employer after the latter crosses all the possible boundaries while drunk.

Fearing for her safety and profoundly traumatized by the event, the servant is found and taken in by a seemingly sympathetic man who sees Danton as a sworn enemy for his own reasons. Considering that both have a grudge against Danton and the man is a journalist, he and the servant team up to bring Danton down.

Will they succeed? Why does the journalist hate Danton? And is his desire to aid the heroine genuine?

45. Paris, France. The revolution is in full swing.

The Committee of Public Safety has to deal with multiple issues, the ongoing war is depleting France’s resources and the situation seems dire.

What’s more, a new newspaper, “La Voix de la Justice” (The Voice of Justice), began to circulate in the city. While this particular fact isn’t that surprising by itself, the thing that sets this newspaper apart from the rest is the fact that its author is anonymous.

Nobody knows who writes this newspaper but the articles are quite good and this mysterious person has already exposed several people who were using the Reign of Terror as an excuse for their atrocities.

Naturally, all these details catch the attention of Jean-Paul Marat and Camille Desmoulins, two of the most prominent journalists of that time. Intrigued by this new newspaper and its author, the two revolutionaries team up to track that person down, if only to find out who they are and thank them for helping their cause.

46. The protagonist grew up believing that Robespierre is single handedly responsible for the execution of their beloved aunt and uncle and, as a result, believes that the man deserved to be executed for that betrayal.

However, the protagonist is soon forced to question their judgment when their older cousin, Horace Desmoulins, reaches out to them in a letter, inviting them to Paris and claiming that he found evidence proving that in actuality Robespierre attempted to save Camille and Lucile Desmoulins, Horace’s parents.

Although the protagonist is skeptical at first, since Horace has always defended his godfather, they are still intrigued by their cousin’s invitation and leaves Guise to join Horace in his investigation.

Together, the two cousins are both determined to clear the names of Horace’s parents and figure out what role Robespierre actually played in the family tragedy.

47. The five protagonists are all members of a heavy metal band whose name and songs are an homage to the French Revolution.

Previously little more than a quintet of college misfits determined to rehabilitate this particular event and tell the real story through music, the band finally starts gaining popularity after a successful concert at a music festival in Marseille.

And then things take a turn for the unexpected when the band gets into an accident on their way home, only to wake up in Revolutionary France. Naturally, they now must survive and return home but this adventure might just become the inspiration they needed so much...

48. After the protagonist’s father leaves them and their blind mother behind to move to Paris, the protagonist is naturally upset. Year after year, they wait for their father to return but he never does.

In 1789, after losing their mother to an illness, the protagonist decides that enough is enough and travels to Paris to confront their father. To their disgust, they soon find out that their father is now remarried, with a new family and quite rich while the protagonist is basically a pauper. Moreover, the father seems to have joined the revolutionaries, which is something that the protagonist cannot approve of either.

Now the protagonist wants to make sure that their father faces the music for his betrayal so they contact a journalist who is about to expose said father in an article.

A story of one of his enemies leaving behind his first family will be a nice addition to the already existing accusations of corruption, but the protagonist and the journalist soon realize that they are not immune to the consequences of their actions either and this article might cause more damage than they think it will.

49. (A reimagining of Aladdin) After their flute is broken beyond repair, the protagonist goes to a pawn shop to find a replacement for their practice.

It is there that an old ivory flute catches their attention so the protagonist purchases it, has it professionally restored and decides to keep it, ignoring the warning of the shopkeeper that it’s cursed and the suspiciously low price.

The protagonist is a skeptic and never believed in magic, curses and other occult things.

That is until they play the flute for the first time and a man poofs into existence like a genie from a lamp. Introducing himself as Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, he informs the protagonist that he used to be the owner of the flute but is now trapped in it because of black magic.

Despite their skepticism, the protagonist cannot logically explain anything that’s going on but wants to help so they strike a deal with Saint-Just - he is going to help the protagonist win over their love interest in exchange for freedom.

As for how the spell is supposed to be broken, the protagonist is completely clueless but their mysterious neighbor with a knack for alchemy and the occult might be able to help…

50. Lyon, France.

The future Thermidorians mercilessly massacre innocent people and rule with an iron fist. Just today they massacred several prominent noble families of the city for defying them.

However, what the tyrants do not know is that they didn’t massacre everyone, for the daughters of the executed nobles are currently living at a convent to get education, as was common back then.

Upon receiving the tragic news and fearing that these young girls are going to end up on the death list, two nuns, the heroines of the story, come up with a plan to escort the girls out of the city and get them to a different location where they would be safe.

The plan is daring but the risk is too high to sit there and do nothing. Will the nuns be able to keep their students safe?

Let me know in the comments or DMs if any of my prompts interest you! I can help you with certain prompts if you want! 😊

#louis antoine de saint just #french revolution #writing #writing prompts #frev #paul barras #I still refuse to make a fouche tag #charlotte corday #jean paul marat #camille desmoulins #lucile desmoulins

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gizkasparadise · 4 years

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cdrama rec/review: go ahead

KDRAMA AND CDRAMA MASTER LIST OF REVIEWS

Series: go ahead Episodes: 40 Genres: family, healing/melodrama, slice of life, romance Spoilers in the Rec: for the first 20% ish/set-up If You Like, You’ll Like: reply 1988, le coup de foudre, find yourself (same production company/main male actor), rain or shine/just between lovers, found family stories, meet again stories

Rank: 10/10** (see Drawbacks section)

PREMISE

widower hai chao and his 6 year old daughter jian jian live happily above his noodle restaurant despite the recent, tragic death of his wife. one day, dysfunction junction a married couple (he ping, a police officer, and chen ting, a real piece of work) move into the same building with their 7 year old son, ling xiao. immediately, jian jian attaches herself to ling xiao, who is unexpectedly grim for a small child.

because ling xiao’s family is less-than-healthily grieving the loss of their youngest child, ling xiao’s sister who died in a terrible accident. The Apartment of Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms eventually implodes, ending with chen ting abandoning her husband and son. he ping, suddenly a single father, and hai chao come to a friendly partnership that is clearly alluding to gay marriage where they co-raise both of their kids--hai chao as the primary caregiver, and he ping supporting them financially through his job as a policeman.

meanwhile, the neighborhood busybody is dead-set on getting hia chao remarried. eventually she introduces him to a divorced single mother, he mei, and her son zi qiu, who is ling xiao’s age. they sort of start to date, but it culminates in he mei skipping town and leaving zi qiu behind. hai chao, man with a heart of gold, informally adopts him and zi qiu becomes jianjian’s foster brother.

from there, the trio grow up happily and become inseparable. but once zi qiu and ling xiao graduate high school, the bullshit parade their respective childhood skeletons reappear in their lives. circumstances lead to the boys moving overseas, leaving jianjian and their fathers behind.

they reunite after 9 years, when the boys return to a home where they hope to pick things back up from where they left off. things are more complicated than that, as jianjian finds herself in a new life and surrounded by new people.

MAIN CHARACTERS

li jian jian

hai chao’s daughter and the only girl in the family. she attended the required short-hair-low-grades training program required of all cdrama youth female leads. super positive and outgoing, as well as the youngest of the three pseudo-siblings, jian jian grows up spoiled and over protected by her father and brothers, and as a result is completely devastated once her family falls apart. it’s so sad.

after the time skip, she’s an on-the-verge successful artist who makes woodcarvings, and exudes big art bro energy. inhales sugar like it’s nobody’s business. she inherited her father’s disease called caring too much, and it’s incurable!!

ling xiao

the eldest brother and resident fun police. ling xiao comes from a seriously toxic home that finally seems to improve once his mother leaves. but then she comes back. fucking great. introverted to the point of being withdrawn to anyone but his chosen family, ling xiao’s had to carry a lot of emotional weight that takes a larger and larger toll on him as the series progresses. please get this boy some therapy.

becomes a dentist because jian jian needs one. wears a lot of monochromatic outfits with low necklines because heavy angst but make it fashion. has been in love with jian jian since high school and is still carrying that torch 9 years later.

he zi qiu

the middle child who grows up in hai chao and jian jian’s home, and is her foster brother in all but paperwork. hotheaded, zi qiu and jian jian basically share two brain cells that ling xiao routinely takes from them for safekeeping. he spoils jian jian, sneaking her snacks and junk food and wants to become a pastry chef so he can open a sweet shop for her!!

my favorite character. just wants to be wanted 8( him and hai chao’s relationship is my favorite dynamic in the series. will sob while driving a pink moped. is too proud to beg

li hai chao (left) and ling he ping (right)

the greatest (hai chao) and okayest (he ping) dads in the world! noodle dad/hai chao has never done anything wrong in his life, ever, and we know this and we love him. he ping isn’t a bad person, but demonstrates pretty classic absentee parenting/isn’t as emotionally present in his son’s life as hai chao. hai chao is the heart of the family, and would do anything for his kids 8(

SOME SUPPORT CHARACTERS

tang can (left) and qiu ming yue (right)

jian jian’s #GirlGang and roommates. they, like literally everyone in this drama, have some severe mom issue hang-ups. tang can (left) is a former child actress who is struggling with her lack of success as an adult and gives well-meaning but absolutely terrible advice on the regular.

ming yue (right) is jian jian’s best friend since childhood and as an adult is trying to break free from her mother’s controlling nature--she’s also had a thing for ling xiao for the last 9 years. raises fish for symbolism purposes.

chen ting

ling xiao’s mom and certified garbage human. unable to cope with the death of her daughter that was her fault lbr, she abandons her family and disappears for ten years. she forces her way back into ling xiao’s life when he turns 18, where it’s revealed that she’s remarried and ling xiao has a younger half-sister chengzi (”little orange”). shit goes down, and soon ling xiao is forced to move back to singapore to serve as primary caregiver to both his mother who abandoned him and the half sister he barely knows.

emotionally abusive and basically hits every single square on the toxic parent bingo card. i just. i just hate her. even typing this out is making me mad.

he mei

zi qiu’s mother. after a few dates with hai chao, she ends up ditching her kid and disappearing for unknown reasons. is a slightly better parent than chen ting but that’s like saying some poison kills you slower. the show tries to bring us around on her but it didnt work for me.

SOME OTHERS

zhuang bei, zi qiu’s best friend growing up who i would like a lot less if he wasn’t played by the same actor who played my beloved dachuan

zheng shuran, jian jian’s first boyfriend and fellow artist who’s got a weird thing for women’s waists and pretentious artists’ statements

du juan, jian jian’s friend who co-owns their woodworking studio. has absolute trash taste in men

chengzi, ling xiao’s half-sister who can be a brat but dear god does she need to be protected/saved

**DRAWBACKS

so this is a weird one for me. what i didn’t like i really didn’t like, but what i loved i really loved. ultimately, the factors/uniqueness of this show and the loveability of the main characters outweighed the negatives and it’s one of my favorite dramas.

THAT SAID. i got some #thoughts on this one.

first, there are literally no positive mother figures in this show. not a damn one. they are all negligent or controlling at best or down right abusive at worst. no woman over 30 is portrayed positively and that’s a big No from me.

the last 10 eps have some pacing issues and focus on the wrong people. spending the remaining episodes focused on one of the most universally hated characters vs. the main family was a bad move

the show tried to redeem or make us sympathize with characters that were, to me, completely irredeemable. one case is worse than the other, but both of them were terrible people that deserved to be cut out of the main family’s lives.

REASONS TO WATCH

the main family. the characters are so wonderful and nuanced, and their dynamics with one another were amazing. you’ll fall in love with hai chao aka noodle dad and the trio. they go through so many trials but they still stick together and it’s ultimately a healing drama and i loved it very much.

the central romance was less in focus, but the pining is enough to make jane austen emerge from the grave. i loved the leads together, and while LOL ling xiao’s attachment to jian jian was not always healthy, they supported each other and it made me smile. i love me a tortured pining dude.

#Acting. everyone played their parts to perfection. the child actors in particular were so well-cast (esp baby zi qiu)

the soundtrack lmao. you watch the opening credits and know you’ll need to buckle up

idk it’s a very unique show, and i haven’t seen one like it. reply 1988 comes close, but it doesn’t tackle the same issues and it was all just very real and earnest.

Final Thoughts.

GOODNIGHT, GOOODBYYYYYE MY CHILDREEEEEEEN

#go ahead #song weilong #zhang xincheng #tan songyun #cdrama #gizka does kdrama

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mc-critical · 3 years

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Asking because I’ve seen you say it on here: What is it that you disliked about Mahifiruze and Aysë as characters (writing or otherwise?)

It's not a problem of sympathy alone, because while these characters have quite a few offputting qualities and have certainly done some heinous deeds, it would be unfair to judge them only by that. There are way worse people in the franchise, which turn me off way more, after all. (*cough* MCK Turhan *cough*) Sympathy-wise, I'm overally ambivalent towards both Ayşe and Mahfiruze and if we only take that into account, I can take or leave them. It's their writing, however, where things take a different turn. Almost everything went wrong there.

The critical problem I find with both of the characters is that they're engrained in one and the same character archetype the writers refuse to get them out of. That brings harm not only to their characterization and the way they're built up, but also to the sympathy we're supposed to feel for them, because, more often than not, it didn't have a ground to stand on. It's true that archetypes often risk to make a character bland and one-dimensional, but the way they went with it is strange and unfortunate, because this all could've been averted quickly.

Magnificent Century's character core is mostly built on archetypes of a soapy drama and Magnificent Century: Kösem seemed to be following that trend. I understand that choice, in a way, because well, it could've just been easier for them, they could've thought they would win their former MC audience once again, playing it "familiar" and "safe". Thing is, the whole franchise overally does pretty well with archetypes: they either subvert them, deconstruct them or break them entirely later, either (in the case of MCK where we saw many previously established MC archetypes) use them with some core conceptual changes and a different theme in mind, which, as far as writing goes, worked very well with many characters. (see: Dervish - Ibrahim; Dilruba - Mihrimah; Atike - Mihrimah; Davud - Rustem, etc.) The thing is though, the writers didn't give Ayşe and Mahfiruze any of that and their archetypes felt like they only were in the beggining line, going almost nowhere beyond that and making the characters feel very often as cardboard cutouts as a result. They're going with archetypes, but they somehow give only a single fraction of these archetypes to figures that play a relatively big role in the story.

Comparisons to other usages of the character archetype of Mahfiruze and Ayşe's help even less, because everything now not only turned out to be a bad concept, but and a shaky, underdeveloped attempt at something done way better before. Mahfiruze and Ayşe both fit in Mahidevran's early season 1 archetype - the rejected, jealous woman, previously valued and loved by the Sultan, which loses everything quickly, planning and ready to do anything to take the rival down, including petty sneers, irrational decisions and will for murder. But even at its worst, Mahidevran's characterization was balanced overall, having moments where we could sympathize or condemn her respectively and had character fleshing out come to the surface as often as the reducement to this one sole archetype, which was lacking severely in Ayşe and Mahfiruze. I'll talk about the similarities they share with Mahidevran only briefly when I analyze them, because I'm admittedly very biased when it comes to this (especially with the double standarts I encounter with the YT comments, where the same people judge Mahidevran and Ayşe by the exact same metric and yet, they love one and can trash the other all day, eh.) and I don't want that to take over the topic at hand so much.

Mahfiruze has the problems I listed above to a much lesser extent than Ayşe, but that doesn't mean they're not present at all. She has a very familiar character role and personality - she is a mother to the eldest heir of the throne and gives jabs and insults to her rival. And.. that's all there is. It's undeniable than Dilara Aksuek's Mahfiruze definetly had a tough act to follow, since the former Mahfiruz screamed potential and promise the latter character was expected to fulfill, but they did the barest possible minimum. (and I don't think Dilara's a bad actress by any means: she acted amazingly in the show Istambullu Gelin as Ipek, an arguably similar and much better written character.) It definitely felt as more of a regression than a progression, because Mahfiruze had no fleshing out or development at all. Her meanness to Kösem seemed central to her character, she barely had any interactions with the rest of the cast and what is worse, used her as a plot device for a plot-line with Ahmet's enemies and then when her role was fulfilled, they.. killed her off just like that without any warning or elaboration. She was the very definition of a one-dimensional obstacle to Kösem that seemed to exist only for the sake to be an obstacle to Kösem. It was as if she didn't matter. And when she did, it was only as a narrative instrument to stir the conflict between Kösem and Osman (which I find very interesting, but I feel it would've been way more impactful if Mahfiruze wasn't only... this.) It was as if the writers ran out of stuff to do with her, which is a very lazy copout for me, because she could've had interesting storylines, if only they just wished to "shake up" the traits of her archetype for a bit.

Ayşe's character is where this repetitive problem shines through the brightest. We can argue that the love triangle plot and Farya's Mary Sue stance ruined it all for her from the get go, but for me, the foundation of her character is what truly did. Ayşe wasn't used simply as a plot device as much, she wasn't even underutilized at all, she was put into an archetype which undermines how different she is as a character in practice and the greatly dissimilar circumstances she's under. They tried to fit Mahidevran's S01 archetype in an environment it would never do in the first place. It not only becomes a stagnant, more over exaggerated repetition of a concept and forces unnecessary drama to prop another character up, it way too often puts a sole angle of Ayşe's character into focus, making Farya the center of her writing. Not to mention that for long, we didn't have a cohesive reason to root for her, her early love for Murat being the thing that was the least fleshed out about her and could make her too obsessive and yandere at times. Her interactions are criminally underdeveloped, as well, and unlike Mahfiruze, that could honestly be cut shorter except for Osman, they were something Ayşe desperately needed. We got only hints of her relationship with Kösem, Silahtar and Gevherhan and that was far from enough. Most of her scenes were either with her maid or Farya. Her alliances with Gülbahar and Sinan respectively were... fine interarion-wise, to be honest, but writing-wise, they only enforced the fairly consistent endorsement of the soapy aspect of her character beyond any measure.

Now, I can't doubt the development in her later episodes, where the writing admittedly improved. I'll always love her scene before the death of Gevherhan and her message to Murat, because that's the Ayşe I wish I saw more often. The self-awareness she gained of how Murat screwed her over was amazing and something I wish happened more gradually and over the span of more episodes. But it was all somehow "too little, too late" for me and it didn't completely save her messy writing. And it's a crime, because Ayşe played a much bigger role than Mahfiruze in the narrative, she was basically a main character and she got robbed of a good, organic fleshing out and arc.

Ayşe was the most egregious example of the severe flawed writing of repetitive archetypes and catch me forever mad about it, because she could've been much more. It's a mistake that had no business being there at all. And it was anyway.

#magnificent century #magnificent century kosem #magnificent century kösem #ayse sultan #mahfiruze sultan #ask #stuffandthangs

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ventus-rogue · 3 years

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23456 and 7

2.Favorite house leader, and why?

Definitely Edelgard, while I don’t 100% approve of all her methods, I understand why she takes such drastic measures. Her major flaw is that she does not really trust others, which honestly makes a lot of sense. Her life is filled with betrayals, manipulation, and exploitation. I empathize with her ideals and desire to dismantle the system that has ruined the lives of so many. I admire her drive to succeed in whatever she sets her mind to. Her route is by far my favorite in Three Houses, and I always feel guilty whenever I play a different route and oppose her.

3. Favorite Black Eagles student, and why?

I’m going to automatically exclude Edelgard from the running, since she my previous choice. Which leads me to Dorothea, who was my first S-support. I was kind of surprised by how much I ended up liking her. My initial impression was that she was simply a gold digger, but my opinion quickly changed. I could sympathize with her desire to have the financial stability that would come with marrying a noble. I appreciate the layers of her concern with returning to poverty as what uplifted her out of it (her voice and looks) are things that are likely to fade with time. I also appreciate that while she does want to marry a noble, love comes first, not just any noble will do. Also I love her adorable little hat in part 1 and am always sad to see it go. lol

4. Favorite Blue Lions student, and why?

Even though I don’t use him much as a unit, I’m going to say Dedue. The man is a sweetheart. I respect his loyalty to Dimitri, even if I’m not a fan of Dimitri myself. He tolerates a lot of discrimination, even from some of his close allies. Yet not only does he persevere, he even extends kindness to those people. It always makes me sad when I play through Crimson Flower, knowing that I can’t save him.

5. Favorite Golden Deer student and, why?

Claude, without a doubt, Claude. He is second to Edelgard by a very small margin when it comes to House Leaders, and that is more about their respective routes than them as characters. Claude is just so charming, though I was a little disappointed with his portrayal. When he is first introduce, we are given the impression that he’s a shady guy, but he just is not like that at all. He’s a pretty straight forward, nice, and sincere guy. Does he have secrets? Yes, but they’re nothing bad. He’s distrustful of the Church, but not on the level of Edelgard, and he hides that he’s the prince of a foreign nation in a country that is pretty discriminatory. Honestly he and Edelgard want a lot of the same things and always thought that had they talked more in part 1 they would have allied together.

6. Favorite Ashen Wolves student, and why?

Yuri, first and foremost because he is what they tried to imply that Claude was. Yuri, while well intentioned, is 100% one hella shady dude. That aside, I would probably say he and Balthus are tied, but this small detail sets Yuri above for me.

7. Favorite Church character, and why?

Shamir, cause apparently I have a secret thing for Allegra Clark. Shamir was my second S-support, and I did not realize it at the time that she shares Dorothea’s voice actress. Shamir is just neat, I always have a thing for stoic, badass women. She’s an excellent unit and I like her perspective as a foreign-soldier-turned-merc. I also appreciate that she is primarily loyal to herself, rather than an ideal or individual like most characters in the Church. Besides, she looks so adorable in her S-support.

Thanks for the ask, my dude!

FE3H Asks

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #ask me stuff #my rambly rambles #gytech

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daresplaining · 4 years

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[ID: Excerpt from Bendis’s Daredevil run. Matt Murdock and Milla Donovan are alone in Matt’s office at Nelson & Murdock, talking.]

Milla: “I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable. But I-- I just couldn’t think of any way to approach you other than this.”

Matt: “It’s just that you are mistaken about my being Daredevil. That story just isn’t--”

Milla: “I can’t stop thinking about what happened the other day. When you saved me from that truck-- it really... I mean, I know you are in situations like that... every day... but I am not. Nothing like that has ever-- This is hard to say out loud... The whole situation-- It-- it had an effect on me that I can’t describe. I can’t describe to you why I came down here. I have never done anything like this before and I certainly have never spoken to someone-- Someone I don’t know-- Like this before... In fact, even with you pretending that it wasn’t you as Daredevil who saved my life... this is as intimate a conversation I have had with a man since college. ...I just need to speak with you again. To-- Thank you for saving me. Hmm... This-- this is very embarrassing. I’m going to go.”

Matt: “What do you do, Milla?”

Milla: “What do I do?”

Matt: “For a living.”

Milla: “I work at the Hell’s Kitchen Housing Commission.”

Matt: “You find poor people a place to live...”

Milla: “And we do a lot of environmental testing. Lead and soil. You wouldn’t believe how some people have to live.”

Matt: “Milla... Do you see a logic in that even if, let’s say, I had been the one that [...] tossed you into that clothing store-- Do you see how I wouldn’t be able to tell you that? Do you see how admitting something like that would be very... dangerous for me and for you.”

Milla: “Do you eat food? [...] Would you like to... have dinner with me tonight?”

Matt: “Milla, I can’t take responsibility for you."

Milla: “I’m sorry?”

Matt: “This tabloid mess I’m in. With everyone thinking I’m Daredevil. It’s created a situation around me where no one is really, truly safe. Everyone who works in this office. Everyone in my life-- as long as there’s this feeling that I might be Daredevil... There are people-- vulgar people who could-- I just can’t take responsibility for you.”

Milla: “Hmm, well... Are we still talking hypothetically?”

Matt: “Oh, yes.”

Milla: “Well, hypothetically, can you imagine a situation where a girl, like myself, might have known all about this before sucking up the courage to walk in here and approach someone, like you, like this? The way I see it-- a girl doing all that is clearly taking responsibility for herself. I don’t live in fear. It is funny how you immediately took my responsibility on yourself... But I guess that’s a topic we could talk about over dinner.”

Matt: “Can I think about it?”

Milla: “Sure. But just for the record... I never mentioned anything about a clothing store.”

Daredevil vol. 2 #43 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Matt Hollingsworth

I hesitated about posting this whole scene because it’s long, particularly when transcribed (Bendis really loves dialogue), but I decided that cutting it up or condensing it would be doing it too much of a disservice. It’s a great scene, and there’s a lot going on, and I wanted to include all of it.

Part of what I like so much about Milla is how ordinary she is. This is true of many other Daredevil side characters as well, but always only to a certain degree. Karen Page is a successful and glamorous actress for a while. Heather Glenn is a wealthy heiress. Glori O’Breen is a revolutionary. Dakota North is a supermodel-turned-private eye. Rosalind Sharpe is... Rosalind Sharpe. Kirsten McDuffie comes close, but there is still something polished about her-- her effortless snark, her ability to kick butt when needed. There’s nothing wrong with this-- I love it, in fact (see my thoughts on Glori’s character development in particular), but it is the nature of many non-superhero characters in superhero media to still feel slightly larger than life, and so it’s nice to find one who is more down-to-earth.

Another major factor in this is the use of perspective. Matt is the protagonist, and thus we see (“see”) most of his co-stars from his point-of-view. We are in his head, experiencing their behavior. This is particularly true of his romantic interests-- yes, we see scenes of them doing things on their own, but for the most part, the lens of Matt’s perspective and knowledge is always present. But Milla is engaging because-- while we do spend a good amount of time in Matt’s head when she is around-- there are some very hefty scenes in which we are made clearly aware of Milla’s perspective too. Her introductory scene takes place before she has even met Matt (thus, we know her better than he does), and their first meeting is much more from her point-of-view that it is from his. We watch her experience that encounter, and we see the effect it has on her even though Matt does not. This is followed up by a very candid scene of Milla awkwardly discussing her interest in Daredevil with a friend, who laughingly teases her about it. Again, we are getting to know Milla on her own, separate from Matt. Bendis excels at crafting characters who feel real-- partly through, yes, his dialogue, which breaks many of the dialogue-writing conventions but does so in a way that, when it works, makes his characters sound extra genuine. We see Milla’s infatuation, her discomfort, and that makes it very easy to feel for her and identify with her, because even if we haven’t all had a crush, or tried to ask a superhero out on a date, we have all had embarrassing interactions with people, and this leads us to root for her.

All of this carries over into the pivotal above scene, in which Milla insinuates herself into Matt’s office and asks him if he eats food out on a date. I love this scene for a whole list of reasons.

1. It’s super awkward. I mean, it gets better, but a person walking up to someone they’ve never officially met and thanking them for saving their life while the other person repeatedly insists that they did no such thing is going to be awkward no matter what, and Bendis makes the excellent decision of leaning into that reality rather than trying to soften it. It says a lot about Milla’s personality that in spite of this awkwardness, she still goes through with this and says what she came to say, and I then love her extra-humanizing “Hmm... this is very embarrassing. I’m going to go” when Matt just wordlessly stands there. (I also love “What do you do?” “What do I do?” Bendis is a master of this style of conversational humor.) They are both super uncomfortable, which causes us to sympathize with them, places them on equal footing, and makes the rest of the scene-- when they manage to work through the awkwardness-- all the more satisfying.

2. It undercuts Matt’s secret identity angst. We all (I assume) love Kirsten McDuffie’s playful handwaving of Matt’s insistence that he isn’t Daredevil, and this scene is the spiritual predecessor to all of that. Milla is convinced that Matt is Daredevil-- so convinced that she has put herself in this uncomfortable position to talk to him about it-- and so she has no interest in even acknowledging his denials. She just ignores them. And it’s really funny. It has been said before (on this blog, and elsewhere) that Milla exists in this arc as the anti-Daily Globe. She figures out his secret identity and the results are positive. Matt has spent issues denying, arguing, scrambling to defend himself against prying journalists eager to lay his secrets bare, and then in strolls Milla with “I know you’re Daredevil, and I’m taking you out to dinner.” And then she gets that smooth calling of his bluff on her way out the door, which is just... fantastic.

3. “I don’t live in fear”. And of course, we get one of Milla’s biggest character-defining pieces of dialogue. In some ways, it’s fairly standard-- Milla has a backbone, she isn’t frightened by the idea of hanging out with a superhero, and “I don’t live in fear” is an obvious reference to Matt’s own “Man Without Fear” epithet. But it’s a great, empowering speech, and it feels important. It gives Milla control in this conversation, and more than that, it gives her control in the relationship. She has chosen to seek Matt out, she has chosen to ask him out, and she has done it with the knowledge that it might not be safe. As the story goes on, we get the sense that whatever understanding she might have thought she had wasn’t quite accurate-- that she has definitely gotten in over her head. But in this moment, in this scene, it’s a powerful statement of intent and a comment on her character-- as a civilian, as a blind woman, and as a Daredevil love interest who is stepping into a legacy that’s drenched in blood. And I appreciate the facial expressions that Maleev gives Matt. You can tell that he is completely smitten with her, and that this speech has floored him. It’s fun to see him in this position, and it builds a strong grounding for the rest of their relationship.

I could go on. The artistic choice of placing a flowy, sensual painting behind Milla versus a closed window behind Matt was clearly intentional. I love the implication in the last panel that Foggy and Jessica were listening through the door. “Do you eat food?” always makes me laugh. This is one of my favorite Milla scenes, and with this creative team there’s always more to dissect.

#Daredevil vol. 2 #Daredevil #Milla Donovan #Matt Murdock #Commentary #Milla Appreciation Day #Looong post. Dammit Bendis.

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