#in hindsight sure! maybe! she could've acted differently! but WHY WOULD SHE HAVE

[baby-prince-oppa]

The Skewed Dynamic Between Jake Sully and Neytiri Tskaha.

I've seen a few people within the fandom also pointing out this decision of Jake moving his family out of the clan which should've been seen as odd and irresponsible, and to a certain extent, individualistic behavior which I assume would be out of place in a Na'vi society.

Did nobody in the Omatikaya clan oppose to this? Not even Mo'at? Sure his family is now being targeted by Quaritch and there's Jake not wanting to attract the enemy to wipe out the clan and their allies but then due to poor hindsight, Jake brought trouble over to the Metkayina as well (calling Norm & Max over is completely unnecessary when Ronal can heal Kiri just fine). It took him suffering a devastating loss of his first son to realize that running away is not the solution.

Like…sure man. You could've just listened to Neytiri in the first place. 🤦🏻‍♀️

And don't get me wrong, I ADORE Jaytiri/Jeytiri and the good moments with their kids, but it's Jake that needs to get his shit together and rely even less on his patriarchal tendencies.

This is a YouTube comment under the Cinema Therapy video on ATWOW .

From @/kathymills3737

Wow, I had a very different interpretation of Neytiri and Jake's interactions in this movie.

I thought she was 100% correct in saying, "You cannot ask this". He should have respected not only her feelings, but responsibilities to the [Forest] People and back down from that plan. He might have asked about her thoughts and feelings [on the matter], but he never treated her as an equal partner with equal input.

Instead he acted like a child in a "but I really REALLY want this more than you" way. It's total arrogance that he thought he knew how to care for his family better away from the safety of their home and people. The [Forest] People live in a warrior society. They could've had help from their own people [so] why was Jake the only one making decisions?

I understand needing a plot change for the movie but if we're focusing on relationships, Neytiri was completely bulldozed by Jake throughout this entire movie and the repercussions of his decisions led to his child getting killed.

He should have relied on her [intuition] and opinions more and made decisions together. She was trying to show him love and trust by going along with all of these crazy bad decisions she clearly didn't agree with, but HE WAS WRONG and that was never addressed in the movie, and I'm surprised that never got recognized here.

From @/Sevoris on Kelutral Discord

[….] Jake has problems really acknowledging Neytiri‘s experiences and her agency within the writing A2 gives us.

Others have also pointed out (and as a Force Recon marine Jake should have understood this) that the western policy for [….] centuries isn't to leave enemy leadership of unconventional combatant groups alone. The military keeps on hunting them.

Displace to a new position maybe, but few chances he'd actually quell the threat by running and Neytiri understood this and what it meant.

And like, yes this is Jake's character arc, he is a flawed character, and in of itself that's fine - but it centers his agency and the consequences to his choices and denies other characters the same.

#avatar the way of water #avatar: the way of water #atwow #james cameron avatar #james cameron's avatar #jake sully #neytiri #neytiri te tskaha mo'at'ite #jeytiri #jaytiri

[fillingthescrapbook]

Rewriting The CW's Kung Fu, Part 9: Reflections and Moving Forward

And we have reached the end of our Kung Fu journey. If you haven't seen where we began, here's a handy guide to the previous posts:

Part 1: The Characters

Part 2: The Pilot

Part 3: The Mythology

Part 4: The Story Map

Part 5: Act I

Part 6: Act II

Part 7: Act III

Part 8: The Finale

Before I start with the lessons I learned and my other reflections, I want to thank @flailingbloo for all of her help and support in this endeavor. Without her to talk to and commiserate with, I would probably have gotten stuck in Act II forever and everything I've written would've been riddled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. So my eternal gratitude to flailingbloo. And now, we begin:

Lessons.

Going into this writing exercise, I already knew it was going to be hard. Writing stories is time-consuming, it's nerve-wracking, and it takes a lot of research...and patience. Writing, especially for television, is also not a solitary task. I mean, sure, the writing itself needs to be done alone--but everything that comes before, during, and after the writing needs input from so many people.

Although I have a lot (and I mean A LOT) of complaints about how The CW's Kung Fu was handled and written, I do have a lot of respect for the work that the writers put into their scripts. And I do appreciate all that they have done to have a show like this produced.

Doing this rewrite, I learned that it's really important to make the main character likeable. Like, every episode I broke down, I had to ask myself: is Nicky likeable here? Is she someone who viewers would want to root for? Like, for me she is, but only people who read what I wrote can say for sure. My perspective is now a bit skewered because I have bias.

Second, story maps are very helpful. There were times, especially during Part 6 (where I wrote breakdowns for Episodes 6 to 9) where I kept getting road-blocked by where I want the story to go. So I went back to the story map over and over again, to remind myself--where does the story itself need to go? How do I help the characters get to the point where they're ready for what needs to happen? (This is also where flailingbloo helped the most for me. Like, she really reminded me why I was doing this rewrite in the first place. Because I care about Nicky and the show. I wouldn't have funneled so much of my time and effort into this if I didn't.)

Another thing I learned, or rather re-learned, is the art of letting go. I created the character of Stanley to recur throughout the series as a reminder of who Nicky was and who she is becoming. And then I finished writing the first act without even mentioning him. By the second act, I was ready to use him finally--but, after multiple false starts, I realized Stanley was one of the reasons why I was having a hard time pushing Nicky's story forward. Because I kept trying to go back to the past. So I decided in the writing of the second act to shelve Stanley completely, only to find him popping up in the second to last episode in a, at least I hope, more organic way.

The last thing I learned in this exercise was that, whenever a new character needs to come in, I have to look at my existing characters first to see if any one of them can fulfill the role I needed for the story. Like, creating new villains for Nicky was fun, sure--but, at the same time, I realized that there were already existing villains that could recur. Like the Triad, who played villains in two more episodes after the pilot; and Henry's martial arts class at the community center became the source of two existing storylines from the actual show.

Reflections.

Do I think what my rewrite is better than the show? To me, yes. But, again, I am very biased. That said, I am proud of how I utilized the characters that the show created and didn't really give much importance to. Dennis, when he was introduced, felt like a rich character that could provide a very different point-of-view from the Shen siblings--but he was mostly relegated to being eye-candy. And I thought I gave him more meat by making him more involved in Althea's sexual harassment storyline, while also involving him in Nicky's stories.

That said, I also realize that I wasn't able to play up Nicky and Evan's past relationship as I was writing the episodic breakdowns. I was able to give them a lot of opportunities to explore their chemistry together, as I did with Nicky and Henry, but I kind of dropped the ball as a writer on guiding those planted moments into something more significant. Granted, I only wrote breakdowns and not actual scripts. Maybe I could've explored the romance angle more with a little sprinkle of direction and dialogue.

As I went deeper into the rewrite, I do see how easy it is to fall in love with characters as you write them. It's very easy to trap yourself into wanting villains to be more well-rounded. I keep having to remind myself that I don't have to redeem everyone. Just Nicky. Which became harder and harder as I went further and further into the story.

Another thing that became difficult as I went on? Keeping the mythology from just bursting open. That's how Henry, as I wrote him, evolved into becoming the son of a guardian--just so there's a reason for him to be so invested in Nicky's quest, while also having someone who can explain things to our main character. I'm actually really proud of that evolution.

All that said, I also have to recognize that I rewrote the show with the benefit of hindsight and the lack of budget constraints. In the real show, there's a group of writers who each have their own ideas of what the show should be. (This is where a head writer--not a show runner--would come in handy, so they could reel in the story to what needs to be told.) With more writers comes more chances for inconsistencies to happen. (And this is where a script supervisor, or a writing assistant, could come in handy.) And then there's production notes and budget. Not to mention, you know, the whole pandemic that's still happening. I didn't have to think about those things while doing this rewrite.

So, again, I want to give the writers kudos to actually producing scripts. I hope they haven't lost their minds--or their will to write--just because there are people like me who nitpick at everything. That's what people who love things do. We nitpick because we care.

Moving forward.

I do plan to stick with the real show for Season 2. I hope it's planned better. I hope they get researchers (plural!) and a writing assistant to help in the writing room. I hope the writers would sit down with the cast to discuss and develop the characters more. And I really hope they hire a better fight choreographer and fight director for the second season. (Like, rehire the people who choreographed and filmed the flashback scene in... Episode 11? The one with Nicky's maternal grandmother and Pei-Ling's own mother?)

I hope that the Nicky-Henry relationship gets explored realistically, and if a potential new love interest is ordered, they get introduced in a way that isn't antagonistic. Make them more well-rounded characters too, please. Make us want to root for their success. And while I think Nicky doesn't have an iota of chemistry with Evan, I do like Evan himself as a character. So I hope they get him more involved in future storylines--as an outsider looking in, sure, but also as an honorary member of the Shen family.

With regards to the Shen family, I do hope that we get to explore their relationships and dreams more before the show drops the reveal about Mei-Xue's daughter. I want Althea to have a cohesive storyline that doesn't pause for no reason. I want Ryan to explore being Asian AND gay as a first-generation Asian-American. And give the Shen siblings some recurring friends. They don't have to be semi-regulars (unless there's a story that can be explored) but let's not keep the Shens in a bubble. It was weird in the first season. Especially for Althea whose friends only showed up for her bachelorette party and never again. Not even when she was panicking about wedding preparations, which, considering how rich Dennis's parents were? They wouldn't let Althea be in charge of anything. They would hire a Chinese wedding coordinator. And an expensive and hard-to-book one at that. They donated an entire hospital wing, for crying out loud.

I want Jin to have an actual character, and not just be the supportive dad who loves his kids very much (admittedly my own rewrite also made this same mistake). And I want Mei-Li to be consistent as a character. Like, no more surprise twists about being the descendant of a legendary warrior without proper foreshadowing and plot-planting please.

Dennis shouldn't just be eye-candy. The same applies to Kerwin. Sure, I get that shirtless men are a must in a CW series, but please give their characters some meat too. Dennis's nerd-side was never showcased in the show, and Kerwin had that poor little rich boy background that didn't get explored either. Because the show was too busy keeping him and Zhi-Lan tearing each others' clothes off--when they're not tearing other people down.

Also, don't drop the ball on the tease that Bian-Ge is now everywhere. If I understood correctly, Bian-Ge is Kung Fu's version of Qi. If yes, then I hope they treat it respectfully as a force of nature--and not just the source of magic. The flowers from Bian-Ge itself can be magical, sure, I have no problem with a fictional flower being a McGuffin.

Finally, I hope the show also explores other Asian communities and cultures. Like, Kung Fu is great--but imagine if Nicky had to face someone who is versed in Silat Melayu? Or someone who uses Arnis? Someone who practices Kalaripayattu or Lathi Khela? Or Kuntao? Imagine Nicky having to use Wing Chun against someone who uses Karate or Krav-Maga? Asia is a big continent and there are so many different types of martial arts found from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Kung-Fu is an umbrella term, so it'll be great to see the different styles found under it.

... This went long again. Sorry about that. Funny thing is, when I started this whole rewriting plan? I thought it would take three posts, tops. And look at us now. Nine posts deep, and it seems I still haven't run out of things to say. So I'm cutting myself off before I completely wear out my welcome.

But if you've read all my Kung Fu posts, please do reach out. Let's discuss the show and what it can do to produce a better second season.

#Kung Fu CW #tv talk #my words

[hallucxnating]

Ah sorry should've clarified, this is my way of seeing if I actually wanna get back into it or not, sorry to make you answer these. So, he acts younger and he was manipulated? That's why it's okay? Really sorry if I'm sounding rude, again, I don't mean to. It's just he's lived a thousand years and she's lived 16, that's real bad, the author could've made her a collage student, so she wasn't a teenager but? Aang was frozen, didn't age or mature, real different than living.

It's alright :)

Please let me elaborate more on this. (It's gonna be long sorry not sorry)

First of all, you're actually right about that last part regarding Aang. The example I used didn't really apply here after thinking about it.

Still,

Despite the fact that the gods are hundreds or maybe even thousands of years old, none of them show that maturity per se. Yato behaves as a rambunctious teen most of the time. Bishamon has the maturity of someone in her twenties. Kofuku literally behaves like a young teenage girl. Tenjin is the only one who shows some maturity but it's mostly because he was human before becoming god and died when he was old. The time they've existed absolutely does NOT reflect upon their psyche, simply because I believe they choose not to. Yato does not 'act' immature. Yato IS immature. He wasn't brought up properly by his father and then he pretty much alienated every shinki uptil Yukine.

The other gods have had the pleasure of having their shinki raise them up if something untoward happened to them (eg: Takemikazuchi and Ebisu) and they'd have a parental figure to guide them to a state of maturity.

So therefore, biologically and mentally Yato couldn't be older than an 18-20 year old. Despite the fact that he's been alive for hundreds of years.

I genuinely believe that immortality does not equate to wisdom beyond the years. Especially if someone is stuck at a certain bodily age. Because their mind sort of locks at that age too? I hope I'm making sense. Sure they might collect memories, but if life is a slog of just godly duties, there isn't much there to make the god grow as a person, right?

Meeting Hiyori was the start of a shifting worldview for Yato, and getting Yukine was the start of Yato accepting even an inkling of responsibility.

If you've read the manga, you can see how Yato was in the first chapter. In my opinion he was essentially just a man child parading around as if he was much more important than he actually was. He'd actively throw tantrums at people if they said something he didn't like. All his actions in hindsight just showed how he was still fixated with what happened to Sakura even after several hundred years.

Probably because he CHOSE to keep that secret burning inside him. He couldn't tell his shinki because that would kill them and he didn't have anyone else to tell that.

So when Hiyori accidentally found out about that incident, it was probably the first time he "told" anyone about that AND have them empathise with him.

Hiyori's beauty is that she's the first person to treat Yato with empathy. Not sympathy and certainly not scorn. (Kazuma had come dangerously close but that's another essay I can write)

And the fact that she's so empathetic to him is what draws them both to each other.

Unlike how it is in the anime (because of how Studio Bones decided to frame some scenes to make Yato a MUCH more likable character than he initially was in the manga) Hiyori actually has much more agency. If Yato was being a bitch boy she'd be like fuck it I'm gonna do that thing on my own and MOSTLY succeed.

Unlike so many shows where the female character keeps getting into trouble from which the guy has to save her (*cough* jshk *cough*), Hiyori actively saved Yato AND Yukine's life when Yukine had blighted Yato to almost death.

If it weren't for Hiyori we wouldn't have had Yato.

People give a lot of importance to numbers. Which are most CERTAINLY important because you can individually analyse every case. But Hiyori being sixteen rarely affects her doings with the far world. Hiyori is the main character of this story, and she's a girl with so much love and empathy to give that she's almost wiser for her age. I wouldn't ship yatori at their initial phase. Hiyori has suffered through stuff and being with yato has exposed her to death and so many more dark topics. They've both helped each other grow and also comforted each other. Yato adds adventure to Hiyoris mundane life, something she'd been craving since forever. Hiyori is Yato's rock. She's his support and always there for him to come back whenever he might go too far. Gods don't have a sense of moral, so Yato decided that it will be Hiyori and Yukine who he will follow to do godly duties with justice.

And frankly speaking it's that kind of co-dependence that makes their relationship very beautiful. And it is the appreciation for THAT aspect of their relationship that makes me ship them. Not because "meh meh girl and guy could I make it more obvious"

Since you're an anime only I highly suggest you read the manga. Because it is SO much better.

Here's the one who manifested my thoughts into words because I do be kinda illiterate on my own. Thank you Nani

#yatori #noragami #if you read the whole thing congratulations #here's the actual thesis #anonymous #hallu asks

[ma-gic-gay]

"If it was up to me, we'd figure out a way to make our marriage real, build a life together. We'd stay together. But that's not what she deserves. She deserves to be with someone she loves," Michael says to Dante one afternoon. "And I don't think she's in love with me."

"Have you told Willow any of this? You keep talking about everything she deserves, how you're not it for some reason you manipulate yourself into thinking, but you don't think she deserves to know how you feel about her?" Dante asks.

"If I tell her this, she stays in this marriage out of feeling like she has to. If I don't, then she gets to go be with someone who she's in love with!" Michael tells him.

"You're an idiot, Michael. Stop deluding yourself into thinking she doesn't have feelings for you too, or that everything would go to hell if you tell her you love her. The worst thing to come out of that is she doesn't feel the same, or even worse, you never tell her how you feel. Don't go down that path."

"Why not? What if Willow doesn't love me back, Dante? For all I know, she's still in love with Chase! She thought he was the love of her life, who the hell am I to tell her I'm in love with her? The worst it is a regret."

Dante sighs, looking at his little brother. "The biggest regret of my life is leaving Lulu and the kids. Sending her divorce papers, trying to forget about them while I was away. You want to live with the fact that you had the woman of your dreams right in front of you this whole time and a million opportunities to tell her how you felt, but didn't take a single one? Do you think, honestly, you'll be able to look her in the eye in 10 years when she's married to some guy who's half as good as you are, but you're both Wiley's parents and never became anything more than that?"

"I don't know! We're getting an annulment for gods sakes, Dante, I don't know how to tell her I love her. She- she's perfect, she's everything I've ever wanted and more." Michael tells him honestly, sitting down. "I don't want her with someone else, but I do want her to be happy with whoever she's with. That's all I ever want for Willow, that she's happy."

"You're terrified of losing her, aren't you?"

"Yes," Michael admits.

"That's how I knew Lulu was the one, Michael. One day, we were just hanging out, and I thought to myself, I can't lose this woman. If I lose her... I don't know what I'll do," Dante tells his little brother, sitting next to him. "It's how Sonny knew Carly was the one, it's how my mother knew Ned was the one. The fear of losing the person made all of us more scared than we were of anything else, except maybe something happening to our children."

"How is this supposed to help me, exactly?"

"Think, right now. Think of all the things you love about Willow," Dante instructs a confused Michael.

His thoughts run wild. Her smile, the way she is with Wiley, how kind she is, their kiss, that look she had on her face when they'd won sole custody of Wiley, everything. How quick she was to help Kristina get out of DOD, the way she looked in her wedding dress, her empathy, her compassion, everything. There wasn't enough space in his head for him to think of everything. "I am," Michael says. "Am I supposed to be having an epiphany or something?"

Chuckling, Dante says, "Nope. I just wanted to see you smile like an absolute idiot. Which, by the way, you are in general."

"Shut up and get to the point, Dante," Michael rolls his eyes at his older brother. "There is a point here, right? Because if there's not, I don't know why you're acting like this."

"Your smile when you're thinking of her, Michael, it's different than when you were thinking about Abby, or Sabrina, or Sasha from what I saw. And when the two of you are together, it's like you have to force your eyes off of each other when there's other people there. Trust me, your mother has been harassing me about this for weeks. It's getting annoying for everyone, watching you incredibly oblivious people who are clearly in love with each other not say you are. You were ready to propose marriage to Sabrina for gods sakes and still, you didn't look this happy all the time. Sure, you and Willow haven't really fought yet, but whenever the two of you are together, it's like you've got the biggest smile ever on your face even if that's not exactly there."

Michael smiles thinking of how similar Willow and Sabrina are, but also how vastly different they are at the same time. "And the point of telling me about how I look when I'm with her is..."

"You are impossible to work with. Michael, tell her you're in love with her before it's too late and you're thinking all the time about how different your life could've been if you'd just told her you loved her. Don't live your life with that as a regret," Dante says. "Either you tell her or I do."

"I am fine with living a life with regret, Dante. We all have regrets," Michael says. "I couldn't deal with myself if I hurt Willow or pressured her into doing something she didn't want to do."

"Michael Corinthos, you were not raised by Sonny, Carly, AJ, and Jason to be such a wimp who stands by and let's the woman he loves get away because he's in his head," Dante lectures him, putting on his big brother lecture voice. "You're being so annoyingly stupid because you don't think she could love you back, but you're not unlovable! People love you, and Willow would be a damned fool if she wasn't."

Michael lets what Dante said sink in for a moment, smiling. "Alright, well you're not entirely wrong. Maybe it wouldn't kill me to tell her how I feel."

"Progress! And perfect timing, considering that she's here," Dante smirks as Willow walks in the door. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I've got to go do something so you two have fun."

When he leaves, Willow glances at Michael. "Is it just me or is he acting weird, even for Dante?"

"He's acting weird. Can we talk for a second about the annulment?" Michael asks, gesturing for her to sit next to him.

"Yeah, is there an issue with it?" Willow asks, sounding almost hopeful as she sits next to him.

"The issue with it is that I don't want one. I know I suggested it, but honestly, Willow, you're everything I could've wanted and more. I suggested an annulment because I thought you needed to hear it. In hindsight, I set you up to think an annulment was what I wanted and to think it was the right thing to do, which I'm sorry for. But the truth is, I'm in love with you. I want this marriage to work, if you do too," Michael says. He's careful with his words and makes sure he's not doing anything to pressure her into anything. "Of course, if you want to still get annulled, we will, and if you don't reciprocate my feelings, that's fine."

Willow smiles at him for a minute before saying, "I love you too."

words