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mirageofadesert · 6 months

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On a heartless path of his own: A character study of Tantai Jin from TTEOTM

aka: an excuse to talk about Tantai Jin, as well as Luo Yunxi's acting, excessively

For some reason all media in these posts were taken down due to acopy right claim. You can still see them on reddit!

Born into tragedy, living out someone else's script, destined to suffer all the hardships of humanity, only to rise above it all and ascend to godhood - Tantai Jin's journey is one of epic proportions. It's a story of struggling to control your own destiny, learning to love and grow, but ultimately sacrificing everything for the greater good. And while the story is larger than life, Luo Yunxi's excellent acting grounds it in humanity - drawing the audience into the tragedy that is the life and death of Tantai Jin, Ye Xiwu's husband.

The empowerment of embracing powerlessness

“Dignity? It means nothing to me. For me, personally, this bowl of rice matters more. I can’t survive without food. But I had had dignity would have died long ago.” (TTJ in E02)

As a devil's fetus, Tantai Jin is born without love strings and therefore without the ability to process emotions. This is exacerbated by the loveless and harsh conditions in which he grows up. Struggling to survive from an early age, Tantai Jin lacks any form of control or agency in his own life. The audience pities him, easily excusing his psychotic tendencies on the unfortunate circumstances of his life. And while this is true to an extent, in the context of Till The End Of The Moon's literary and poetic approach to storytelling, I would argue that he is also a "Kunstfigur" - a symbol of humanity, rather than the representation of a real person.

In this sense, Tantai Jin is a stylistic device to tell a story about humanity and fate. The term "Kunstfigur" comes from German literature and theater, and describes a character who stands at a certain distance from reality, i.e. reflects it in some way. Tantai Jin did not become evil, he was born with something evil. The people around him abused him, not just because it's human nature to do so, but because they noticed that there was something wrong with him, something unsettling. We see this best in his two maids who witnessed his birth and childhood. The actions of all these characters are not meant to be realistic, they are a comment on the reality of humanity. This is what makes Till The End Of The Moon such a compelling (and controversial) drama.

What makes Tantai Jin's suffering so special is that even when he reaches a new low, he never seems truly weak. There is so much emotion in his expression that even when he is deliberately schools his face to look indifferent, you can always see a hint of underlying emotion, often some kind of deviance, burning in his eyes.

Saving face, avoiding humiliation and embarrassment are powerful incentives for behavior. Pride or ego make us try to avoid these negative experiences. But what if these negative experiences determined our entire lives? Tantai Jin fears neither humiliation nor belittlement, only hunger and betrayal. He has not only become accustomed to them, he is unable to process them properly. More than that, he has understood how accepting humiliation can be empowering in itself. There is power in being seen as weak. There is power in making others think they have power over you. There is power in letting go of pride. There is power in not fighting back, in not giving others the satisfaction of seeing you struggle and suffer. And it's not just that he lacks the threads of love and doesn't understand human emotion. It's the way he accepts his fate that makes him feel powerful.

This is unique for a character in fiction. Such a role is usually reserved for the court jester or a concubine. Tantai Jin is neither. I think what makes these characters so different is also Luo Yunxi's subtle but excellent acting skills. He is able to portray weakness without ever feeling weak. His approach to acting allows him to express many complex emotions in every single scene. It's not just in his facial expressions, but also in the way he immerses himself in a character, studying it beforehand and pushing himself to his physical limits when necessary. I don't think many actors would be able to create such a convincing character as Tantai Jin.

This last scene is fascinating not only because of the excellent acting, which makes the special effects seem almost real because of the convincing way Luo Yunxi interacts with them. It's also interesting for other reasons: After Tantai Jin feels real (magical) power the first few times, it's implied that he will succumb to it, become hungry and greedy for more - but he never does. These episodes (e.g. the nightmare demon and the crow attack during the wedding) are meant to give the audience a glimpse of a possible future in which Tantai Jin becomes fully evil, which never materialises. When Tantai Jin comes to power, he's nothing like the Devil God.

He does feed excessively on demons, but this is either never shown on screen or presented as a necessity of war. He gains his throne not in a great battle, but through small acts of power rather than great ones - fending off rodents, sharing soup with the court officials, showing humility and wit with the scholars, and making positive changes to social policy so that his people don't have to suffer hunger and hardship as they once did. On the battlefield, Tantai Jin's power is great, and no opponent stands a chance against him. But being a king is not just about the power of one man - it's about the lives of the soldiers he leads, the lives of his people, the safety of his tribe and the happiness of the woman he loves.

Setting on a path of love

“The immortals say, body, heart, and mind are three different parts. When the three parts are unified, the internal elixir is formed. Empty thy heart to unite soul and character. Calm thy body to silent energy and mood. Steady thy mind then all three merge into one. Destroy your desire for romantic love, and then you can understand the universe and all lives. This is the one and only way of the Hearless Way. (LSS in E06)

At the beginning of the story, Tantai Jin is on the opposite path to the Heartless Way. He has no real desire for romantic love, until Li Susu as Ye Xiwu awakens those feelings. Moreover, her kindness takes root in his heart and begins to blossom. Quite literally, as you can see in the scene below:

Through Li Susu's acts of care and love, as well as her determination to protect his life, Tantai Jin slowly falls in love with her. Even without her, he was never cold-hearted. He was compassionate towards animals, never unnecessarily cruel - at least not on purpose or before he was pushed too far. So his newfound ability to process emotions and experience love is not limited to Li Susu/Ye Xiwu.

He shows it to his mother's tribe, in his negotiating skills with Ye Quingyu, in his relationships with Pianran and Nian Baiyu, and in his ability to lead a country. He is a natural leader and a good ruler. Tantai Jin proves to be tenacious and hardworking, loyal, intelligent and even dignified.

in certain mannerisms, or in the elaborate way Tantai Jin dresses now that he has access to proper clothing. Or in the way he personally leads his army, just as Mingye did. (Mingye's influence may be most visible when Tantai Jin becomes Cang Jiumin). It may even have influenced his views on Ye Bingchang. Most importantly, however, is his shared experience of the tragic but deep love between Mingye and Sangjiu. He slowly begins to face and accept his feelings for Ye Xiwu and tries to win her over - while still learning to process feelings of love, jealousy and rejection. His love for Ye Xiwu becomes obsessive and suffocating. His insecurity and jealousy become blinding to a degree that costs Xian Lin his life and Ye Xiwu her freedom.

The battle for Tantai Jin's heart has always been both emotional and magical, as the evil bone resides within it, leaving Li Susu no choice but to pierce it with nails manifested from the love the same heart felt for her.

After Ye Xiwu's death and sacrifice, Tantai Jin loses his mind in grief. His morbid obsession with Ye Xiwu leads him to hold onto her corpse, and later drives him to take his own life in an attempt to be reunited. After failing, Tantai Jin spends the next 500 years single-mindedly searching for his beloved's soul, experiencing excruciating pain on a daily basis. The tragedy of this event is that he is searching for the wrong soul. He still doesn't know when someone else took over Ye Xiwu's body, or what the flashback Ye Xiwu showed him in her last moment really means.

His love for Ye Xiwu has blinded him to everyone around him: His friends, his subordinates, and his people. He no longer cares about anything but his dead wife, not even his own life.

The Heartless Way

There is a misconception about the Heartless Way, especially among international audiences who lack cultural context. It's rooted in Buddhist and Daoist ideas that "heaven and earth are heartless" or "heaven and earth are not partial". What this means is that the Heartless Way is not devoid of emotion, it's quite the opposite: It is about overcoming personal attachments so that one can love and have deep compassion for every living being. It's about equality, not putting one life above another. The idea of the Way itself is probably linked to the concept of wuxin, which is achieved when a person's mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear or ego during combat or everyday life.

While it is Li Susu, who has decided to peruse this way in order to seal the evil bone within her body, I think Tantai Jin has, unbeknownst to him, set on the same path – and even if it’s just within the meta story-telling of the drama.

As Cang Jiumin, Tantai Jin’s love grows. At first, he is still focused on reviving his long death wife and therefore tries to stay in the Xiaoyao sect. However, his time there has subtle but far-reaching consequences. The first task, Cang Jiumin is entrusted with, is to help an old, blind woman trapped by her inability to accept the death of her only son. For this mission, he is given a sword by his master:

This sword is called South Branch. Forged by my Master when he was still alive. It was transformed from plum blossoms. It has the heart of spring and the soul of the frost. It carries no killing intent. If you see the world with kindness, you’ll have no obsession and see true freedom. I’ll give it to you as a witness. When you can awaken it, you can understand it. (E30, Master Zhao You to TTJ)

Tantai Jin witnesses how obsession, even when it's the all-consuming love of a mother, can destroy a person. The old women's story mirrors Tantai Jin's own inability to come to terms with Ye Xiu's death. He tells the women about his beloved wife and how she taught him to be a good person, something he is no longer sure he is. His need for Ye Xiwu was inherently selfish, and he never really thought about what she would have wanted. When the old women ask him if he would turn into an evil person to get his wife back, he briefly considers the possibility of using the power of the Devil God, but decides against it because it's not what Ye Xiwu would have wanted. In the end, Tantai Jin uses a lie to redeem the old woman. He, who never had a mother, embraces her as she dies in his arms. When he returns to his master, something has been set in motion: Tantai Jin lets go of his obsessive love for Ye Xiwu.

Most of the following scenes in the third arc, which are not directly related to the rebirth of the Devil God or Li Susu, are related to this theme. For example, the secret technique of the Xiaoyao sect, the Xiaoyao Swordplay, requires him to "follow and practise his heart". From this point on, Cang Jiumin gains power through diligent practice and kindness. Tantai Jin's ability to love begins to grow, soon encompassing his master and sect brothers. Another example is that the symbolism of food, which had always been a symbol of his relationship with Li Susu, is now used in relation to his sect brothers and master. Tantai Ji begins to care more and more about other people's lives, as shown when he tries to protect everyone in Jiang from Si Ying and Jing Mie (even a tyrant like Cen Mi).

When he transforms the Heart Guard Scale, he has a vision, an epiphany. He sees all the important people from his past living happily in another reality. I'm still not quite sure what it means. But in that moment he understands that he doesn't have to fear the power of the Devil God, that he is in control of his fate.

Having all the power, while having none

Tantai Jin started out with no power, control or agency over his life. He has gained all of this only to reach a point where none of it matters, none of it is enough. He is powerless against his destiny to become the Devil God, but that doesn't stop him. He goes from accepting his fate as a hostage prince to fighting fate itself.

He attempts to trick the Devil God and his minions before using the Xiaoyao Sect's Incarnation-Abandoning Array to trap and kill their army. This technique requires him to sacrifice his own life - and he is willing to do so:

So he gives in and surrenders to fate and the unimaginable powers of the Devil God he once feared. This leads him to face the echo/essence of the Ancient Devil God in a battle for dominance. It's here that he finally realises that he has always been surrounded by love and kindness. He acknowledges the love of his parents, his maids, his subordinates, his sect and his friends, and most of all, Li Susu. She taught him to love and to feel emotions, breaking through the darkness that was his life under the thumb of the Devil God. It is this realisation that leads him not only to fully embrace his fate, but also to ascend to godhood.

However, even with the power of the Devil God and his own godly powers, he is still powerless when it comes to the most important thing: stopping the activated All-in-Distress Way from destroying the three realms and the living beings within them. All his powers are pretty much useless. Tantai Jin has gone from being powerless to having all the power imaginable, and it's still not enough. There is only one way to save the world, and that is for Li Susu herself to ascend to godhood, kill him and thus destroy the All-in-Distress Way.

Therefore, Tantai Jin sees no choice but to free Li Susu from her romantic love for him, so that she can attain the Heartless Way. In doing so, he reinforces his own by embarking on a Heartless Way of his own. As previously quoted, "Heaven and Earth are heartless", and in this sense Tantai Jin is trying to be partial to her pain. And even though we know he's not, he's still trying to sacrifice his love and his remaining obsession for the sake of everyone, for the greater good. Not only does he have to destroy Li Susu's love for him, he has to kill his own by acting against his own desires. This is the heartless way.

In these scenes, the two newly ascended gods are in Tantai Jin's mind and heart. We have already seen these inner places symbolised by space and sky. It visualises how Tantai Jin has achieved inner peace, embraced by light and tranquillity.

I think that even as gods, Tantai Jin and Li Susu were still deeply in love, but they don't put each other above anyone else. In a final sacrifice, Tantai Jin rejects Li Susu's wish to be reincarnated together, destroying his immortal essence and thus himself for eternity (or so it seems).

In this post, I tried to approach Tantai Jin as a character in TTEOTM through two theme present in the story: The metaphor of the Heartless Way and motive of embracing power and powerlessness. Tantai Jin’s hero's story has led him from being without power and agency, a mere pawn of more powerful men and gods, to gain power and love before losing it. He was born without love, appearing heartless, only to gain the ability to feel emotion before having his heart broken (literally). Eventually, he gives up his worldly obsessions, emotions and ego, while developing a deep compassion for every living creature. In the end, his ultimate power lies in his sacrifice and his ability to love.

We have reached the end of this post. I warned you that it was going to be excessive… if you've made it this far, thank you for your time and patience! I hope I haven't made too many spelling mistakes! I originally wanted to highlight more of Luo Yunxi's acting, but I ran out of space. I think I will make a separate post about that.

I would like to thank my Twitter friend ~NPY~, with whom I have been discussing this show for weeks now, and who has helped me with many of these thoughts and ideas. Also a shout out to the reddit user who explained the misunderstanding of the "heartless" path!

#luo yunxi #cdrama #till the end of the moon #tteotm #tantai jin

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art · 1 year

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Creator Spotlight: @kevinbparry

Kevin Parry is a stop-motion animator and visual effects artist in Toronto, Canada, who creates magical and mind-bending content for brands. Prior to working in social media full-time, he animated a number of stop-motion feature films at Portland-based LAIKA.

Check out our interview with Kevin below!

How did you get your start in stop motion and animation in general?

I was always very interested in moviemaking (monster makeup and visual effects), and that led to me studying animation in college, where I specialized in stop-motion.

How has technology changed the way you approach your work?

The shift to shorter content through social media feeds has made me approach storytelling in a more concise way. When I first started my career, ‘short form’ meant a story maybe 4 minutes in length. Now, I make videos that are as short as 4 seconds!

Over the years as an animator, who/what were your biggest inspirations behind your creativity?

I’m a big fan of directors and artists who have a bit more texture to their work - blending old-school, handcrafted techniques with modern technology. Filmmakers like Michel Gondry and Wes Anderson. And, of course, magicians! The surprise and delight of magic is something I try to capture in my work.

If there is one thing you want your audience to remember about your work, what would it be?

That I left them feeling stumped and curious about how I made it! It’s the best feeling when someone tells me they watched my video a dozen times and still can’t figure it out.

As we’re wrapping up with the year, what is one thing you learnt about yourself as a creator in 2022? Any goals for 2023?

This year, I’ve been focusing on making my work less polished. Meaning ditching green screens and doing a lot more of my stop-motion and visual effects in camera. It’s a bit of a battle with the perfectionist in me, but I think my work can have a lot more charm to it if I embrace mistakes and the rougher edges.

How did you transition from working for a company to working freelance?

I was working on stop-motion animated feature films at LAIKA and then eventually left to pursue social media full-time. There were a few years of overlap where I built up an audience and had already started to get offers from companies before finally making the leap. I’m thankful for all the years spent doing studio work because it prepared me for the business side of freelance—stuff like pitching concepts and understanding when work needs to serve the client and not myself.

Do you have any tips for creators out there looking to make the same move?

My two tips are:

Be as unique as possible. You want to give companies a reason to come to you, and not someone else.

Find a balance in your work between Hollywood and homemade. You want it to be professional enough that companies trust you with their brand but approachable enough that it blends in well on social media.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

To be honest, I’m new to Tumblr! I signed up a few weeks ago and have just begun to explore the fantastic content. If people can leave a comment with who I should check out, that would be fantastic!

Thank you for stopping by, Kevin! Be sure to check out more of their work over at @kevinbparry, and drop a comment below with who Kevin should check out on Tumblr!

#creator spotlight #artists on tumblr #animators on tumblr #stop motion #kevin parry #laika studios

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swordfright · 17 days

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Tell me about how the structure of the medium impacts the story 🔫

My brother in Christ, prepare yourself for the most boring essay you could possibly imagine. I'm going to over-simplify a few things here for the sake of Getting To The Point, so bear with me.

I think a good starting place is that DSMP is an example of New Media. The go-to definition most folks use is this one: that New Media are stories told via "communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content." In other words, NM is basically this category of stories made up of convergent elements, which satisfy a multimedia requirement, and are heavily reliant on both participatory fan culture and recent advances in technology that allow creators/audiences to communicate with one another instantly.

There's a couple ways you can understand DSMP as a New Media, but as far as I'm concerned, one of the most interesting is prosumption. The term "prosumption" describes a creative situation where a piece of art is being produced (at least in part) by the same people that consume it; they're both audience and creator. DSMP is a really great example of this phenomenon, because A) it's serial and therefore the CCs had ample opportunity to respond to and engage with the audience's reception of their story; and B) because the chat feature allows CCs to interact directly with their audience during roleplay rather than after the fact. These features, among others, kinda set the stage for DSMP to function as a highly prosumptive piece of media.

In particular, the stuff that interests me is the stuff to do with storytelling convention (genre, perspective, etc) and how prosumption turns all that on its head. There are a number of altercations in DSMP canon where the course of the story is altered because of real-time interactions between the CCs and their chat - particularly times when a CC's chat warns them about events happening at the same time elsewhere in the server. In this kind of scenario, the CCs are static, they can't really leave their own stream. Their viewers, on the other hand, are able to jump between streams and talk to each other to figure out what's happening in the overarching story. When this happens, viewers have choices to make: are they going to tell a CC what's going down on the other side of the server? If so, how are viewers going to communicate those events? Viewers are biased, they directly inform CCs, and the information they divulge (as well as how they divulge that info) goes on to influence CCs' actions and thus the events of the story, to some degree. In my opinion, this is a pretty new and exciting way to prosumptively construct a narrative! Media has always been interactive to some extent (especially serial works), but the interaction being live and in real-time is pretty significant in my view because it can exert unique pressures on a narrative.

Speaking of audience choice, that brings me to the next thing I want to yap about: ergodic storytelling, a term that refers to stories “negotiated by processes of choice, discernment, and decision-making.” For reference, a good non-MCYT example of this would be hypertext fiction, because it's generally characterized by the ability of the interactant (that's the reader, in this hypothetical example) to explore material provided by someone else, either as a kind of conceptual landscape (think setting in a video game), or as puzzle pieces that must be put together in order to give the interaction the "big picture" of the story. Basically, with hypertext fiction, there is a core text (the main document that forms the skeleton of the story) and there are multiple hypertexts branching off of the core text - and whether the reader ends up reading those branches, and in what order, inevitably shapes that reader's perception of the whole story.

So here's where it gets tricky. In the case of DSMP, where is the core text located? Is there any one identifiable core text at all? Or is it more appropriate to consider each individual stream or VOD as its own singular core text, with the related Twitch channels and Youtube recommended in the sidebar being "branches"? Alternatively, if the streams and recordings distributed on the server members’ official channels are the central text in the grand hypertext fiction that is DSMP, then can adjacent spaces where audiences do the work of creating and archiving lore be considered their own story branches? I don't have answers to these questions. No one does. That's part of what makes DSMP exciting.

To translate the above quote out of Academia Hellspeak: in an ergodic story, the audience has agency, but the agency enabled and allowed by the text varies in its intensity and mode. Yes, stories told ergodically necessitate choice — and therefore enable agency, turning the reader or viewer into interactant — but that element of choice doesn't always look the same. Some hypertexts are more choice-reliant than others, or are choice-reliant in different ways. So, rather than being a choose-your-own-adventure story, DSMP is more closely analogous to a story where the audience chooses the perspective through which they view plot developments, in addition to having some influence over how plot developments unfold.

(☝️From a 2021 Polygon article, if you think I sound crazy☝️)

The web of choices DSMP presents to viewers is very complex, even compared to other forms of choose-your-own-adventure game. Because each CC approaches the task of story-creation from their own angle (bringing their own narrative baggage to the writers’ room, so to speak), those shifts in perspective this Polygon article describes often also constitute shifts in genre. For instance, cc!Wilbur brought his music production experience and interest in musical theater to the server, cited operas and stage musicals as some of his main inspirations; and accordingly, much of c!Wilbur's most crucial arcs observably draw from those sources. When you watch a c!Wilbur stream, you’re watching a story about statecraft, about revolution, about the triumphs and tragedies of ego that play out during the process of nation-building. On the other hand, cc!Quackity has repeatedly identified Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul as his primary influences; accordingly, his RP character’s story is closer to a piece of gritty prestige television in some places (especially LN series). Unlike with c!Wilbur, a lot of c!Quackity's tension does not revolve around a romanticized fantasy of revolution but around more personal conflicts: securing your place in a new regime, navigating exploitation as both exploited and exploiter, etc. In terms of both plot beats and character arcs, Wilbur and Quackity’s respective storylines embody many of the genre conventions the content creators are working within.

Moreover, a shift in genre often entails a shift in style or mode. Because cc!Wilbur was heavily inspired by musical theater, the presentation style of his character’s storyline is correspondingly both theatrical (i.e. only loosely scripted, nearly always televised live, and improv-heavy) and musical (featuring multiple instances of Wilbur singing in-character ballads and anthems.) On the flipside, Quackity’s streams (especially the later ones, since I'm mostly focusing on Las Nevadas era here) demonstrably mimic the prestige TV shows the CC draws his inspiration from, with lore sessions being pre-recorded rather than televised live, featuring distinctive sonic and visual aesthetics popularized by neo-Western thriller dramas. So, where a piece of media like DSMP is concerned, shifts in perspective entail shifts in genre, which in turn entail pronounced shifts in style. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's an entirely new story depending on which character the viewer decides to follow. In that regard, what initially appears to be a single choice (whose perspective to watch a plot event through) has the power to determine a wide array of other elements, as viewers’ responses to the options presented to them will decide the overall tone of the section of the story they're about to watch.

While I think the genre-switching is genuinely super cool, lately I'm a lot more interested in perspective-switching and how it's related to viewer empathy. One side-effect of DSMP being televised live is that yes, you can watch a plot event from 30+ different POVs, but you can't watch every POV live. Typically, you either have to switch between multiple streams, or you need to pick one streamer to watch live and maybe later you'll watch other characters' POVs as you see fit. This has an impact on your perception of how that plot point went down because watching something live feels very different from watching something after-the-fact. I haven't done study on this, so what I'm about to say is mostly conjecture, but I wouldn't be surprised if viewers felt greater empathy for (and greater degrees of kinship with) characters whose POVs they watched live.

The choice of which character to follow also has observable impacts on other kinds of narrative conventions (who is the main character of DSMP? the boring answer is c!Dream because the server's named after him, but the real answer is the protagonist is whoever's POV you watched most of the major plot events through) but to be honest, those questions don't interest me as much.

So, going back to perspective and empathy. I think viewers' reactions to Exile are a really solid way of exemplifying the thing I'm trying to say, so this is the part of the yapping where we gotta bring up the dreaded Exile discourse.

Even though the Exile VODs are available and new viewers can go back and watch them, those viewers experience the Exile arc in a way that is fundamentally different from the experience had by viewers who had to wait in between updates as the videos were being streamed serially in real-time. I would argue that viewers who were “present” during the whole arc noticeably felt the brutality of c!Tommy’s treatment to a greater degree, because the audience was effectively forced to sit in exile alongside Tommy’s character - stewing in anxiety, looking forward to the possibility of appearances from other characters, and living in fear of Dream’s next visit, etc etc. Obviously you could also make this point using c!Dream's time in Pandora as an example, but I'm using Exile here because I've actually seen a lot of fans bring this up when discussing the arc: "people who didn't watch live Don't Get It," "the reason newer fans don't see Exile as scary is because they didn't have to watch it live," that sort of thing. And while I have certain qualms with some of the implications here, I do think these are really fascinating responses! These sorts of responses show that viewers consciously perceive their viewing experience as having been fundamentally different from others' based on a temporal element that's unique to serial fiction!

This instance of a divergence in collective fan experience is an example of choice being rendered unavailable to viewers by virtue of the story’s structure and means of distribution; audience members who happen to accidentally miss streams or who begin following the story after major events have occurred will never be able to engage with and witness those events as LIVE viewers, merely as retrospective ones. They don’t get to make that choice, but they do get to make choices about which perspective (and therefore genre) they get to experience the story through. So it follows that each aspect of DSMP, a semi-ergodic story, can be categorized as either ergodic or non-ergodic, and whether a particular storytelling element is ergodic can change depending on WHEN the viewer began tuning in to the story.

I have a lot more shit to say (shocker) but I'm gonna cap it here for now. Though I do want to add that this is kinda why I have a lot of patience for the crazy diversity of interpretation you tend to get in DSMP fandom. If you took a random sample of fans and asked them what they think of various arcs, characters, and plot events, chances are they would all have fairly different things to say. To me, that's a feature, not a bug. Obviously I have my own opinions, and obviously I do think it's possible for a given interpretation to be "bad," i.e. not grounded in the text - but I have a lot more patience for it here, in a fandom where agreeing on what "the text" EVEN IS presents a challenge. We can't all agree on who the main character is, so I don't ever expect us to agree on more nuanced questions of theme and conflict resolution in the narrative. Again, that's a feature, not a bug. I don't think it was ever possible to reach a consensus with a piece of media like DSMP because of how inextricable the audience is from the story.

#dream smp #tw cc!Wilbur mention #in case anyone wants to avoid that right now for obvious reasons #sorry for yapping for so long but I did warn you #also sorry for letting this sit in my inbox for ages #I got so busy and it was hard finding a spare moment to sit down and collect my thoughts #dsmp exile arc #asks #long post

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jasminewalkerauthor · 1 month

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Trope talks: Mary sue vs not like other girls

In the intricate landscape of storytelling, character archetypes play a pivotal role in shaping narratives and reflecting societal norms. Two such tropes, the 'Mary Sue' and the 'Not Like Other Girls' archetype, have left an indelible mark on how women are portrayed in media. This exploration delves into the rise, fall, and societal implications of these tropes, drawing connections to feminist discourse and the evolution of women's representation in popular culture.

The 'Mary Sue' trope originated in fan fiction, characterizing an idealized and often flawless female character who becomes a focal point, overshadowing the narrative. Originally coined as a parody, the term found its way into mainstream discussions as a critique of poorly developed and overly perfect female characters.

The 'Mary Sue' trope has faced criticism for perpetuating unrealistic standards for female characters. These characters often lack depth and complexity, overshadowing other narrative elements. The trope can contribute to a limited and one-dimensional representation of women in media, reinforcing harmful stereotypes and expectations.

The prevalence of 'Mary Sue' characters has influenced audience expectations and perceptions of female protagonists. As audiences demand more authentic and relatable representations of women, media creators have faced the challenge of redefining female characters beyond the constraints of perfection.

Contrastingly, the 'Not Like Other Girls' archetype emerged as a response to traditional feminine stereotypes. Characters embodying this trope often distance themselves from stereotypically feminine qualities, emphasizing their uniqueness and independence. While intended as a form of empowerment, it can inadvertently perpetuate the devaluation of traditionally feminine traits.

The 'Not Like Other Girls' trope risks reinforcing harmful stereotypes about femininity by implying that conforming to certain standards makes one inferior. This undermines the diversity of female experiences and reinforces a binary view of femininity, pitting 'special' women against those who adhere to more traditional roles.

Feminist discourse has played a crucial role in challenging and deconstructing these tropes. The call for diverse and authentic representations of women in media has led to a reevaluation of character development, pushing creators to move beyond simplistic and limiting portrayals.

The evolution of women's portrayal in media reflects changing societal attitudes. Audiences increasingly demand nuanced and authentic characters who break free from restrictive tropes. The recognition of the limitations posed by the 'Mary Sue' and 'Not Like Other Girls' archetypes signals a broader cultural shift towards more inclusive and empowering narratives for women.

As we navigate the complexities of storytelling, the rise and fall of the 'Mary Sue' and 'Not Like Other Girls' tropes stand as milestones in the ongoing evolution of women's representation in media. The pitfalls of these archetypes underscore the importance of nuanced and diverse portrayals that reflect the multifaceted nature of women's experiences. In the realm of feminist discourse, the journey towards more authentic narratives continues, shaping the future of storytelling and challenging the narratives that have limited the potential of female characters for far too long.

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sillypiratelife · 3 months

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You need to read the live action, the manga and the anime as different canons. It's healthier to the fandom's brains AND it's also better for analyzing properly what is going on.

One Piece is the type of story that relies heavily on the medium it is presented on. Hm actually, let me correct myself: One Piece is the type of story that celebrates and understands and was born to be told in that specific medium. The form and the content don't exist as separate entities, but are rather intertwined to elevate the narrative. That the characters are soooo cartoonish is not a mere style choice— it holds meaning, it complements what the author is trying to transmit.

One of the first things that I learned in college while studying storytelling was that there's a max point for tension in any story. There's a top to how tense you can keep the audience. If you reach that point, you won't be able to intensify the emotions; that's it, you need to introduce a breather or you'd end up with a stagnant narrative.

In manga/comics and cartoons/anime it's easier to walk that line. The power to make some silly joke or have the characters acting stupid is in the hands of the mangaka. I bet any manga reader or anime watcher can think of a moment in their fav series when the characters were in the middle of a seriously important moment, just to be involved in something ridiculous that breaks the tension.

It's fantastic. Mangas and animes love to make fun of their mediums, introducing satire to allow the audience some laughs. It's not until later when the reader/watcher sits and realizes how fucked up the whole situation was. A delayed punch to the gut, something to keep the mind working and thinking of their series until they wait for the next chapter/episode.

How to make the audience feel the impact of a character? Well, you can allow the audience to empathize with the character by explaining their reasons or backstories, you can show the world through their eyes. You can also show them all goofy and happy, so when the hammer strikes the readers/watchers will be nostalgic for the good times, mourning the fact they will not get more of that and becoming nostalgic. There are so many ways to keep a character haunting a story...

Oda is aware of all the manga medium can and cannot do. For people like him, the limitations are actually just more tools to play with. If you want to double check what I'm saying, go reread the panels where Luffy awakened Gear 5. Only manga could offer what went down in those panels; when the very nature of Luffy's powers are revealed to the audience and the characters, the manga gets self-aware and voices it out: "hey, this is the type of thing that only happens in comics, right?"

The anime allows a different range of tropes and shapes the story, correctly translating it. It's true that the best translations mind the public and the medium, adapting the jokes and references. It's also true that every translation is a little betrayal to the original, a unique creation in its own right. A good example of that is the way that the fillers shape the perspective of the watchers when it comes to the characters' dynamics. If the anime has a filler arc where the fight, a new tension will be present in the next manga canon arc. If the anime shows a filler where characters are close friends, it's gonna be weird when they start acting all distance back at the manga canon events. Not all fillers are meant to be considered part of the main storyline, of course. You have OVAs and you have movies and fillers and all types of media that are considered separated.

On the other hand, you have the visual changes: imagine that the anime changes the angle of a scene where two characters used to stand close and put more distance between them. What the manga could mean as a subtle implication that those characters cared about each other could turn into cold tolerance of the other's presence. Even the best of animes have those changes!!!!

In One Piece's case, turning the story into a live action series must change almost everything. It'd be impossible to maintain the cartoonist aspects of the story (unless they decided to go full Looney Tunes in that movie with Brendan Fraser lol). The choice was the following: we can try to keep the original elements even when they translate poorly to the new medium so we can please the original fans that are used to the story —OR we can try to translate the essence of the story and change all that needs to be changed, so that we keep the storyline and storytelling coherent and cohesive, at the cost of creating something not necessarily alien, but still new.

Violence in OPLA is way more serious.

You know how in the manga/anime characters would get fatally wounded and come back like it was just a minor injury? Or how they'd heal with no major medical intervention? That's a liberty of the medium. Your brain doesn't process the same way when you see a drawing wounded and when you see a real life person wounded. In OPLA, the suspension of disbelief is harder to achieve. Even and because the story was already introducing Luffy's powers and other fantastic elements, they needed to be careful to not overdo it. One option was to make people actually die— to know that in the live action not everything is so silly? It raises the stakes. OPLA discards some elements that are natural of a manga and in consequence, the story turns out to be darker. You have no fillers or little stripes of silly drawings or author comments or openings and endings. You'll have to do with what you do have and tell a story worthy of being told in that new medium.

That's a good translation right there, made by someone who understands that you cannot copy and paste things recklessly. That's the formula that made so many live actions fail, in fact.

You'll see many fans complaining because they don't understand any of what I just explained. For them it's easier to justify their opinions by saying that "they did this bad and that's why I don't like it" than admit that "they did this correctly but it's not my thing anyway".

One big example? Fanservice cannot be carried out from manga/anime to a live action. It's not the same to exaggerate the proportions of a body in a drawing (we can discuss the morals of this later) than ask of it from a human person. It's not the same to use some sexual traits in fiction as a way to appeal to the audience than to carry out those implications to a live action (again, I'm not saying it's good or bad because that's a discussion for another time).

Actors are humans. They will never have the same characteristics as an animation or a drawing, no matter how advanced technology is. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you appreciate art for what it is in its medium.

So really, what's the healthiest option? It'd be to approach each version as exactly that, a version of the story. As foreign as it can sound to some fandoms, the audience doesn't have to justify their opinions on something. Opinions are not professional reviews or art analysis. You can be as subjective as you want! To perceive each version as its own little world is easier: you can say "I like this better" without invalidating the opinion of anyone else. There's also the fun in exploring the different implications (they look like friends in this version but like lovers in this other) and playing with the divergences. Fans do that all the time in their art (literature, visual art, music, etc)

You can also analyze different versions of what is going on and contrast them. Do the differences change the form and content of the story or just one of those things? How does this new element change the dynamic between these characters? Are the characters written well but get thrown into a new setting? Is the setting the same but the characters feels more like ocs than the characters from the original story?

Knowing how much One Piece values symbolism, it'd be interesting to see how they could translate the constant influx of symbols in the manga or in the anime to the live action. The live action might show just the most important parts, cutting all the rest for lack of both space, time and budget. What does the author consider to be vital to the story and what can be cut down?

To have three parallel Luffy's in different stages of the story is fascinating to me, more so than the idea of trying to mix three formats that won't even match, mind you.

#shan blogs about one piece!#one piece anime #one piece live action #one piece manga

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ceasarslegion · 14 days

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From what i know about WW2 history as well as film history i do wonder if the "giant monsters, big mechs, advanced tech, existential threats to the whole of mankind, and the children will save the world" trope that is so ubiquitous in anime has anything to do with shifting social polarities in post-war Japan. I never really noticed it until a Kingdom Hearts boss guide pointed it out to me, but you don't really see that trope much in western media, unless it's media clearly inspired by anime like how Pacific Rim is basically a third culture kid director's live action take on Neon Genesis Evangelion. Meanwhile, that kind of larger-than-life existential sci-fi is in absolutely everything in Japanese pop culture.

Anime culture really came about in post-war Japan. You can see a lot of proto-anime in their cinema before and during the war, but anime really became ANIME afterwards, with all the unique forms of storytelling and artistry that is specific to anime. It's not like other forms of animation, it's really it's own beast, right down to the art style that isn't used anywhere else.

And I mean, it makes a weird sort of sense, if you think about it. You don't come out of what Japan went through without some serious nation-wide intergenerational... something. Isolationism, imperialist fascism, 2 atomic bombs, realizing they need to change with the world or it will leave them behind, thrusting themselves into the tech sector to try to get away from that sordid past, but the foundations that created that sordid past are still there in their grind culture that is somewhat reflective of the old samurai. There is undoubtedly a weird pull there, where one side is pulling them towards the future, while the other towards tradition, meanwhile if you live in modern Japan your grandparents probably remember being A-bombed.

Technology is rarely if ever portrayed as anything less than positive progress in anime. It's always a tool to destroy this organic monstrous enemy homegrown in Japan. Even if there's some really bad caveat to its use (like in, again... Neon Genesis Evangelion. I wish I could turn my shitty coworkers into LCL), it's the ONLY way to defeat it. It's a necessary evil, and therefore a public good. Technology usually represents the future in sci fi, and the fact it's usually teenage and young adult heroes who wield it I don't think is a coincidence.

And then you grow this media presence that becomes known for its use of giant monsters and fighting robots and kid heroes who spit in the face of tradition to rip them apart with laser beams. The jokes about Dragon Ball Z super saiyan fire balls are funny, but I wonder how much those things come from this desire among the younger post-war generations to break from this isolated traditionalism that led to their role in the axis atrocities of WW2, and how much they've been uncritically looking to the future to do so, by any means necessary?

Godzilla is the personification of both the Nazism and the bombings it led to, after all. Like he wasn't just a big scary lizard, he was the monster they had to defeat to preserve themselves from destruction.

#some thoughts

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garpond · 3 months

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if i had a great skill for making music and writing songs, i would endeavor to work myself into a position where i could create a piece of work that went viral on tiktok via a hit breakthrough track and garnered a large cult following of people who appreciate my 'singer songwriter aesthetic' and flair for thought provoking and unique lyrics. when said album came out it would be presented as a concept album with minimal information from me, but despite this, people would launch into it with their own interpretations; it would sell a lot of vinyl, people would start using the songs as sad audios about stuff like their best friend drifting away from them or their grandma dying or etc, there would be a trend of making OC or fandom animatics with one of the more popular audios that ffans of the music found absolutely obnoxious, people who'd listened since my humble beginnings would lament my sudden popularity, etc. but this album would endure, it would still be widely listened to and talked about among certain genres of human for many years. lots of speculation online about what the plot of the so called concept album is. i dont give them a lot of information to work with. i kinda dance around the question in interviews, i'm like, "oh you know i was just testing my storytelling skills here, i was just spinning yarns, it's personal to me but it's also not about me at all, use your imagination <3 i love hearing what you guys have to say about my work." so after a while it's taken for granted that we'll never know what I meant, and that's intentional. it's for the audience to interpret, to fit into the mold of their own lives. ten years later, i release an anniversary edition, to much social media celebration; i'm mentioned in hundreds of posts of people sharing their very personal connection with it. and a few ask me what my inspiration was, but i don't answer. nobody can answer. it's about everything and it's about nothing, and they will never, ever know that it's a long-form piece of RPF about Neil Young and Stephen Stills in musical form

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sillymints · 29 days

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guys, this is my persuasive speech for ian flynn (which i had to do in english class)

Some people only see the violence in video games. Some people view it as a waste of time and intelligence. And some people only look at their comics as a bed example of storytelling through art. They are just saying the negatives. Video games are a major source of entertainment, offering a diverse range of experiences. But, most importantly, video games opens up a world of possibilities for narrative and a unique powerful medium for messages, both simple and emotional. Some even life is changing, thanks to the writers behind the screens. Although it is not clear, if we take a deep dive, there are some role models who admire and inspire many to follow their same footsteps to write an amazing masterpiece through words, to overcome obstacles and have the passion for everything video game. Let us welcome Ian Flynn.

Without characters, who is going to drive the plot? Ian Flynn is a freelance writer and a concept artist for all forms of media (mostly video games and comics) but is mostly known for writing Sonic the Hedgehog. From playing on the Sega Genisis as a kid to submitting scripts, he knows all major and minor characters by heart. He has the ability to create original and fun characters (examples include Dr. Starline, Tangle, Whisper, Surge and Kit) as well as fixing familiar faces to make them interesting and likeable for the targeted audience. Let us take an example, Miles “Tails” Prower (Sonic’s sidekick, close friend, and a tech genius). On both Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Tails was written exceptionally well in his character arc as he learnt to believe in himself and step out of his comfort zone. He thrived from once an anxious and lonely kid to a confident and determined hero. Yet, in the 2010’s, new writers were hired without any knowledge of these characters which ruined everything that made Sonic… well Sonic! And poor Tails had it the hardest. His character development was inconsistent, his only usefulness was his inventions and always stood by the sidelines (like Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces). Fortunately, James Ian Flynn (or “that Sonic guy”) changed things for the better. In Sonic Frontiers, his character was renewed yet still acknowledge his past mistakes and now is on his way to find his clarity. Characterization from Ian Flynn’s perspective is vital for the narrative and wanted many more to understand the importance, including video games. This is because if a video game has engaging characters, the player can be fully immersed and entertained during gaming. And I even agree with his statement. Characters, even fictional ones, can change someone’s life, like mine. Tails made me realize that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and believe in myself that I can do anything. Plus, what is funnier is that an eight-year-old fox has 300IQ and being the smartest one in the group (aka Tails).

Get your eyes peeled and make sure you are sitting up straighter because this next sentence is going to blow your mind! …Ian Flynn was actually a really bad writer. The hardest challenge was not actually his job but about getting the job. He first applied to Archie Comics in late 2001 but, it was a ‘laughable bad attempt’ as he describes in his website, The BumbleKing. The script were rough and embarrassing in retrospect; material thrown together with little to no thought behind the creation and it was not self-addressed. But he had hope and was determined. In 2003, he made a truly focused attempt, getting an English degree and his scripts improved drastically. During this time, the Archie Comics team were shifting and replacing their roles including their editors, artists, and writers so, he was lucky enough to get a spot in 2004. Quickly, he became one of the most talented members of the team, submitting scripts in 2005 and by March 2006, he was the head writer for the Sonic Archie Comics. Though his hardships was not insane or dramatic, it was life-changing since it shifted his perspective. Resilience and patience is key to being a writer.

2010’s was the worst decade for Sonic the Hedgehog as fans were left unsatisfied due to the poorly written characterization (as mentioned earlier) bland storyline and “trying to be funny” dialogue. Once known as a hedgehog for a like of adventures, a cool chill back attitude and the heart of a hero was suddenly demolished, and it is glory ripped into pieces. There was no hope left for this famous blue icon, no idea how to change it from junk to a wonderful masterpiece again. Until Sonic IDW comics. Sadly, Archie Comics was out of business in 2017 due to lawsuits (and had to cancel Issue 290 for the Sonic Archie Comics, which still holds the record of the longest video game comic series) so, where was “that Sonic guy” going to go next? Well, of course he had to take part in the Sonic IDW comics! Yet, since this took place after Sonic Forces (the worst Sonic game due to the storyline by reviews), he had only one goal. To revive the franchise. Issue after issue, fans eyes widened as Sonic was beginning to take back his place, especially since he became the head writer on April 9, 2018. New and old characters were now cool and interesting, storylines hooked the readers, especially in their intense situations and professionally written dialogue tied all together. I even fell in love with the comics when I first got into fandom. The passion for the fastest thing alive was alive. And as Sonic Frontiers was released on the 8th of November 2022, everyone joined hands with Ian Flynn for flawlessly saving the fandom. And all it took was dedication and passion. Let us draw it all back together. Video games is an escape to brilliant storytelling and characters and can actually benefit you. The ability to change points of view in games has changed everything. And a lot of people are actually heavily inspired by people like Ian Flynn to join the gaming industry to write a script that can positively impact everyone and everything around. With passion, determination, hope, resilience, patience, talent and a bit of good luck, game writers make themselves fairly good role models for future generations. Ian Flynn is a good role model. And so can you. Because if tv shows, movies, novels, why cannot video games and their comics do the same? That is your chance and your time to show the world what video games can do. What you can do. Because everyone can be just like Ian Flynn. I even tried to write a comic about Sonic the Hedgehog, and it is not easy as what meets the eye. But again, and again I tried and completed a short, simple yet cool comic and now banging my head on the desk, paying respect for this guy’s hard work. So, if you cannot do anything else… play Sonic the Hedgehog. I am begging you.

#sonic the hedgehog #tails #sonic #tails the fox #ian flynn #sth #shitpost #funny shit #school #lol #haha #lolz

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trivalentlinks · 1 year

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quora (a q&a social media site, like yahoo answers, but higher quality) used to have a lot of questions of the form "how would you explain X to your grandmother?" Where X was usually some mathematics or physics concept. Things like:

How would you explain quantum mechanics to your grandma?

Category theory?

General relativity/space-time?

Bayesian statistics?

(this was before quora made it so that you got paid for asking questions that generated engagement, thus inundating the site with troll questions; back then quora had decent questions)

One of my friends, who had a fairly large following on quora, had two grandmothers (out of four, including step-grandmas) who had PhDs in mathematics. He used to love answering these questions like,

"I would say [extremely abstract explanation with analogies to far more esoteric concepts than the question was asking],

But my grandma's an algebraic topologist, so your mileage may vary."

One time some fellow quora users we knew irl asked him about this, since he's generally very sweet and opposed to trolling/being needlessly rude to people online, and someone asked him why he didn't feel bad about ignoring the spirit of the questions, and essentially poking fun at them in front of his large following,

And he said, "well the thing is that these questions are actually kind of rude to grandmas. they act like all grandmas are the same, just some blank slate for you to explain things to, when in fact grandmas can have quite varied interests and knowledge. I'm just responding to the questions' offensiveness in kind"

And then he mentioned how nobody asks "how would you explain [science concept] to your dad?", right?

Because society thinks of fathers as diverse and varied, so why aren't grandmas viewed as a similarly diverse group, when they actually are, and as someone with four grandmas (through divorce and remarriage), he would know (even though two of his grandmas apparently had very similar interests to each other, lol)

And I just. Those questions always left a bad taste in my mouth, too, but I had never thought to explain it this way (which I guess is why he was a quora influencer and I wasn't, lol)

I also had more than the normal number of grandmas (grandpa was double married (poly marriage was legal back then)) and like, yeah, each of my three grandmas had a very unique and interesting story.

Two of my grandmas ran away from home to go to university when their families didn't approve of women getting educations. One of these became an electrical engineer.

The other studied law (fully funded on government merit scholarship) and became an understudy to the equivalent of a justice of the supreme court (under the nationalist government, which unfortunately led to her being subject to denunciation rallies later on). She was also into martial arts and knew some gorgeous forms with a sword. (She was the grandma I was closest to because she raised me for a few years when I was a kid)

The other grandma (the one who didn't go to university, grandpa's first wife) was an avid storyteller who could keep all the neighbourhood kids entertained for hours from stories told from memory (her language had no writing system), and also a master at embroidery. She also easily won over my mother and my aunt's love even though they only met her in their early teens (my grandpa had hidden her from their mom, his second wife) and she didn't speak any Chinese, and my mom and aunt only spoke Chinese.

Like, yeah, grandmas are a diverse group and it does suck that society generally doesn't regard them as such

#grandmothers #grandmas #long post #math #physics #diversity of grandmas #for some reason readmore/the keep reading thing isn't working for me atm

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cryptovalid · 13 days

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'Remember it' should not be retconned

I'm serious, the lack of stakes is what's killing superhero media. People don't have 'superhero fatigue' they have 'status quo fatigue'. Characters are resurrected at the drop of a hat and it does not make for good storytelling. Spoilers ahead for episode 5 of X-men '97.

'Remember it' genuinely affected me on an emotional level precisely because it didn't shy away from how senseless, traumatic and terrible genocide is. Reversing it would recontextualize genocide as something less urgent, less tragic. In the real world where genocide happens, this is irresponsible and callous, particularly given the roll our own governments play in it.

In a good story, characters are changed by what happens to them. In long form series like Marvel Comics, this rarely sticks because people become attached to characters and view their status quo as comforting and profitable. Over time, this leads to convoluted stories without meaningful tension. We know everything will be alright

Adaptations have a unique opportunity to actually make meaningful character growth happen and say something with it. If a character dies, they can still exist in other continuities.

Something like this is probably the best ending for a character like Magneto. In his last moments, as tragic as they are, he does what only he can, to stave off a genocide he has been fighting tooth and nail since childhood.

In the end, even Erik Magnus Lensherr, the Master of Magnetism, is just a man in the face of extinction. And when he speaks his final words, I can't help but realize that they were spoken millions of times in similar circumstances, to this day. What can anyone say in the face of death on such a massive scale? Not 'never again', sadly. It never stopped. Untold millions have told children 'Don't be afraid' in the moments before they died.

This sickens me. We all wish that brute force could solve this problem, that there's a magic wand to turn back time. And this is what superhero stories have always boiled down to: wish fulfillment.

I'm not mad at anyone for whom this was too traumatic, who would turn the clock back to a time where Gambit, the Morlocks, Magneto and the other casualties are alive. This would obviously be a better world to believe in.

I just think it is not good storytelling. We can't view real world genocide through that lens. Honestly, I don't know how the show will progress, or even who the villain is.

It could be Trask, Guyrich, Mastermold, Nimrod, Bastion, Cassandra Nova, Onslaught or Apocalypse, to name just a couple of options. The show could end with Bishop destroying the Kaiju-sentinel before E-day.

All I know is, we need reminders that there are real stakes in real life, and that tragedy just happens. When Remy says 'Remember it', he's not just talking about his name. He's talking about this massacre, about the martyrs.

Remember the dead. Fight like hell for the living.

#Remember it #x men 97 #genocide cw #murder cw #magneto was right #gambit #E is for Extinction

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johannestevans · 9 months

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Also on my Patreon.

A close reading is what we call an in-depth analysis of a piece of text, which might be in the case of fiction a short story, or for novels and novellas might be a portion or an extract from the text.

A “text” can refer to virtually anything — this piece is going to focus on reading and interpreting written fiction, particularly short stories and extracts from novels, but a “text” can be anything: a photograph or a painting, an essay or an article, a television show or a film, a videogame, a news bulletin, a play, etc.

Your skills in interpreting meaning of a text will be transferable, but different forms of media might require learning different forms of language and communication — text is text in different languages, of course, but paintings and still images employ visual language; film and television will employ similar visual language, but might also rely on the movement of cameras, music, actors’ subtle choices, etc; videogames will use forms of environmental storytelling to build a larger meaning in the text, such as codices or in-game books, etc.

As a writer, these skills can be vital to building on your own skills in the craft — we often talk about how writers should read to build up their skills, but reading passively only brings you part of the way there. Reading actively and analysing the techniques used by your favourite authors and used in your favourite texts will better allow you to learn from them, and to incorporate those techniques and effects into your own work.

This guide is not about how to write an essay or how to write up and present your close reading of a given text — essays and any other form of meta-writing are a response to a text, and occur in conversation with them: the text has communicated something to you, you’ve read and considered that communication, and then you’re presenting that interpretation to be read and responded to by others. This guide is merely on how to perform your close or in-depth reading of the text, mining it for evidence to use in one of those essays or conversations later on, or simply to allow you to recognise details you wouldn’t with a more cursory reading of it.

Texts can be read and interpreted in a variety of ways, and every person’s reading and interpretation of a text will be unique to them, affected by their own background and perspective — they bring their own unique skills, their own skill sets or areas of knowledge and expertise, their own preferences, biases, even their own emotional state at the time they read the text for the first and subsequent times.

A lot of people are taught how to approach a close reading at school — this might be in Language and Literature classes, in History and Geography, in Classics or other Humanities; it might be as part of a debate module or class. With that said, because a lot of class sizes are pretty big and because a lot of classes are pretty focused on exam and test results these days, with little individual focus, I know a lot of people don’t feel they internalised skills like these as much as they wish they did, or don’t feel confident in them.

Or they feel comfortable in their skills despite what they were taught in their classes, and because they’ve learned to do this intuitively, they feel comfortable in one medium, but not applying their skills to others.

Performing a close reading, or multiple close readings, is foundational to beginning an essay or presentation on a text, sure, but your ability to explore and interpret meanings in a text is valuable in far more situations than that.

Your skills in reading a text might elevate your enjoyment of them, allowing you to see further details or implications; they might aid your ability to draw parallels between comparative texts, and see those connections.

When you see these details and become used to them, you can recognise foreshadowing when it’s first introduced, and sometimes that means you’ll see plot twists or certain beats in a character arc coming — other times, it means you’ll expect certain things to happen, but then be more surprised when those expectations or tropes are subverted.

You might also recognise certain biases or implications in the text that you weren’t cognizant of on your first or cursory readings — you might notice specific pieces of language, notice and keep track of broader patterns, see parallels, et cetera.

It’s important to note that like… Regardless of whether you follow a guide like this or some other guide, simply by existing and going through life, you will gain new skills, you will gain new experiences, you will read and be impacted by new pieces of media, and you will take those experiences with you.

A favourite bit of mine in Transylvania 6–5000 (1985) is when Jack (Jeff Goldblum) chokes out Gil (Ed Begley Jnr) in a very homoerotic fashion while they argue about whether Gil loves Jack or not —

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Very gay. You don’t need a comparative to read a gay undertone in this clip, right? The physical intimacy between Goldblum and Begley Jnr, the pushing him away then pulling him close again, the (barely) plausible deniability of it, etc.

It had been years since I watched Fiddler on the Roof (1971), not since I was a kid, and I laughed my head off when I got to Tevye and Golde’s Do you love me? because I realised in retrospect that Jack was quoting it in this scene — and not just quoting the scene, but quoting and putting himself in Golde’s position, not Tevye’s!

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And that’s just a silly example, but there are so many things that might wholly change your interpretation of and your perception of a text — a conversation you have in a bar, a Simpsons episode that parodies it, someone’s joke or TikTok, a personal relationship or experience you’ve had that’s similar to the text, etc.

When you read the same book at fifteen, at twenty, at thirty, it can feel like you’re reading a wholly different text, because you’ll be a very different person. You’ll see different details, notice different things, and you’ll be responding as you read not only to the text itself, but to your own recollections of and past relationships with that same text.

You might hold multiple, conflicting opinions about that text, for example — and to do that is honestly a good sign, because if you can have one dominant opinion but see the way(s) someone else might interpret that text while you read it, you’ll have a better ability to understand and respond to other people’s responses to the text in conversation, and get why their perspective is so different to yours.

A reading isn’t just something we do alone in the dark, and that’s then discussed in a lecture hall or a class room, or some other academic setting. These skills are vital for academia, yes, but apart from being useful to any author who wishes to work on and improve their own craft, they’re used in everyday situations too.

When people have arguments in pubs or on Twitter about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, they are arguing about their interpretations and readings of the text, and whether the text therefore meets the genre conventions of a Christmas movie.

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Super excited about this guide! This is a 10k deep-dive into doing close readings of texts - I'm actually working on other pieces to go with this one, and the next one is going to be about doing close readings of television and film, which I know is even less covered in schools than close reading text!

Please comment and share and let me know what you think, especially if it's helpful! <3

#musings #essays #meta #close reading #Youtube

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soob1nn · 6 months

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PREMIERES AND EVENTS - ADULT FAME DR

REMINDER! I haven’t shifted yet, so all these is just my imagination 🤍

Premieres, in the world of entertainment, are truly a grand spectacle, a moment when a new work of art is unveiled to the world. These events mark the culmination of countless hours of creativity, hard work, and dedication by filmmakers, actors, and production teams. Premieres are where the magic of cinema, theater, music, or any other artistic creation comes to life on the big stage, captivating audiences and leaving a lasting impact. They are a celebration of storytelling and a platform for artists to share their craft with the world, making premieres an essential and thrilling element of the entertainment industry.

LITTLE WOMEN PREMIERE

Attending the premiere of "Little Women" was a night to remember. I decided to don a stunning long dress, a unique creation that combined the elegance of pink on top with the vibrancy of green in the skirt. Walking the red carpet hand in hand with my recent husband, Penn Badgley, we made quite the entrance, and the buzz around us was unmistakable.

The premiere turned into an unexpected revelation as the news of our recent marriage broke out. It was a pleasant surprise to share this personal milestone with the world, and the warm wishes from the fans and media made the night even more special.

The cast, with whom I had formed a deep bond during the filming of "Little Women," gathered for photos, exuding a sense of unity and camaraderie. We were a family, celebrating not only the film but also our shared journey.

Amid the glitz and glamour, interviews were a chance to reflect on the film's significance and our roles in bringing these beloved characters to life. It was a moment of pride and nostalgia, looking back on the hard work and dedication that had gone into the production.

The screening of "Little Women" was a true delight, shared with esteemed guests, friends, and fellow cast members. The collective emotions in the theater, the laughter, and the tears, added to the film's impact.

The night ended with a lively party, where we all let loose and celebrated the success of the film. Laughter, music, and heartfelt conversations filled the room as we celebrated not only the movie but also the bonds we had forged. It was a night where we all ended up a little drunk but had an enormous amount of fun, creating memories to cherish for a lifetime.

KNIVES OUT PREMIERE

On the unforgettable night of the "Knives Out" film premiere, I was filled with a mixture of excitement and nerves. Stepping onto the red carpet, I wore a stunning purple dress with elegant sleeves and paired it with high purple heels. The ensemble made me feel like a true Hollywood star, and the cameras flashing in all directions only added to the thrill.

Adding to the specialness of the evening was the fact that my companion for the night was none other than Penn Badgley, my husband at that time. Our smiles were contagious as we interacted with fans and reporters, sharing our enthusiasm for the film.

Amidst the flashing lights and the buzz of the premiere, the cast and crew gathered for photographs, creating lasting memories of the evening. The camaraderie we had developed on set was evident as we posed for pictures, and the sense of unity among us was palpable.

Later, Chris Evans, who played Ransom, and I found ourselves in interviews, discussing the intricacies of our characters and the joy of being a part of this talented ensemble. It was a moment to reflect on the hard work and dedication that had brought "Knives Out" to life.

The film screening was a highlight of the night. We watched the movie alongside the esteemed guests and colleagues who had contributed to this cinematic masterpiece. The reactions of the audience were exhilarating, and the applause at the end of the film was a testament to the collective effort we had put into making it a success.

After the screening, we let our hair down and celebrated at a lively party. Laughter, music, and spirited conversations filled the room as we all relished the success of the film. It was a night to remember, one where we all let loose and reveled in the joy of the moment, toasting to the magic of storytelling and the bond we had formed as the "Knives Out" cast.

OSCARS 2020

At the Oscars in 2020, I made quite the statement with my attire, wearing a half-red dress on top and a light baby red skirt on the bottom. The striking combination exuded confidence and style, as I had recently gone through a divorce from Penn and wanted to showcase my independence and strength, looking both sexy and savage on the red carpet.

My presence at the Oscars that year was as a presenter for the "Best Director" category, which turned out to be a historic moment when Bong Joon-ho won for his exceptional film, "Parasite."

Interestingly, I attended the event by myself, walking down the iconic red carpet, making a statement not just with my attire but also with my confident solo appearance.

The night was bittersweet, with interviews that focused more on my recent divorce than my upcoming projects, which I was eager to discuss. Despite the distractions, I managed a few interviews, trying to steer the conversation towards my professional endeavors.

The evening culminated in a grand Oscar party, where attendees indulged in revelry. We all celebrated, unwinding with a bit too much to drink, and had a lot of fun, forging new connections and celebrating the artistry of the film industry.

EMMYS 2021

At the 2021 Emmys, I graced the event in a stunning blue marble dress, accentuated with elegant long sleeves, signifying a fresh start as the quarantine had recently come to an end.

What made the evening even more special was attending alongside my boyfriend at that time, Robert Pattinson. Although we weren't nominated for any awards, we had the privilege of being invited to the show, making it a memorable night for both of us.

Rob and I seized the opportunity to capture some beautiful photos on the red carpet, basking in the attention from the cameras and the shared experience of the event.

During interviews, we candidly discussed our exciting future projects and offered glimpses into our relationship, sparking interest and admiration from our fans and the media.

The night concluded with a lively Emmy after-party, where we mingled with industry colleagues and friends. As the night went on, laughter, music, and a few too many drinks added to the festive atmosphere, creating lasting memories of a night filled with fun and celebration.

OSCARS 2022

At the Oscars in 2022, I graced the event in a beautiful, voluminous, long cream dress, exuding elegance and style as I walked down the red carpet.

I had the pleasure of attending the Oscars with my father, Hugh Jackman, making it a memorable family affair. Together, we celebrated the magic of cinema and the incredible talents of the evening.

My role that night was as a presenter for the "Best Original Screenplay" category, and I had the honor of announcing Kenneth Branagh's "Belfast" as the winner. It was a moment filled with pride and excitement.

Hugh and I took the time to capture some cherished photos on the red carpet, relishing the moment together. We also engaged in interviews, sharing our thoughts on the event and the joy of being part of the Oscars.

The night concluded with a grand Oscar after-party, where we joined fellow industry colleagues and friends in celebration. As the evening went on, laughter, music, and a few drinks added to the festivities, creating enduring memories of a night filled with joy and camaraderie.

TOP GUN MAVERICK PREMIERE

At the premiere of "Top Gun Maverick," I wore a stunning blue dress, which perfectly complemented the theme of the evening. To add an extra touch of glamour, I adorned myself with a very expensive Tiffany necklace featuring a captivating blue jewel. My intention was to exude sophistication and make a lasting impression on the red carpet.

Interestingly, I attended the premiere alone, which allowed me to focus on the excitement surrounding the event and the film.

Things got quite wild when Miles and I, who had shared a past romantic connection, took pictures together on the red carpet. The paparazzi frenzy was fueled by the fact that our characters in the film had a relationship, leading to a flurry of rumors and speculations.

The interviews that followed were indeed awkward, with interviewers consistently bringing up the topic of our past relationship and delving into personal details that weren't rooted in reality. The persistent questioning about whether we had rekindled our romance or if Miles was getting divorced added to the discomfort.

Rumors and speculations began to swirl, and both Miles and I found it challenging to deal with the unwanted attention. While we shared a mutual respect and affection, it was important to clarify that we had moved on and maintained separate lives.

After the screening of "Top Gun Maverick," we joined the other guests for a grand premiere party. As the night unfolded, we all indulged in the festivities, including a few too many drinks, and enjoyed a night filled with laughter and camaraderie, putting the rumors aside and focusing on the celebration of the film.

THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO PREMIERE

As I graced the premiere of "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo," my choice of attire was nothing short of remarkable. I opted for an attention-grabbing white dress that perfectly accentuated certain features, and it was elegantly adorned with long black sleeves and other black accessories. The ensemble not only added a touch of sophistication but also ensured I stood out on the red carpet. With each step, I aimed to exude a sense of luxury and make a lasting impression on this extraordinary occasion.

Adding to the evening's grandeur, my current boyfriend, Taron, accompanied me to the premiere. We walked the red carpet together, turning heads and sharing the joy of the night as we posed for photos, basking in the attention.

What made this night even more remarkable was the fact that, in many ways, I felt like I was channeling Evelyn Hugo herself. The character I portrayed in the film had become a part of me, and walking the red carpet, adorned in my elegant attire, I couldn't help but embrace the essence of Evelyn's charm and charisma.

The premiere proved to be a resounding success on multiple fronts. Everyone in attendance couldn't help but appreciate not only my stunning appearance but also the outstanding performance I delivered in the film. It was a night filled with admiration and celebration, where the hard work and dedication that went into the project were recognized and celebrated.

The screening of "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" with the guests in attendance was a true highlight. The room was filled with anticipation as the lights dimmed and the film unfolded on the big screen. The collective emotions, the laughter, and the occasional tear made it clear that the film had left an indelible mark on its audience.

Following the screening, we all gathered for a grand premiere party. As the night unfolded, we embraced the lively atmosphere, mingling with industry colleagues and friends, and enjoying a few too many drinks. Laughter and music filled the air, creating a warm and welcoming environment for all. The night was one to remember, marking not only the success of "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" but also the camaraderie and joy that comes with celebrating a creative endeavor of this magnitude.

OSCARS 2023

The Oscars in 2023 was a night I'll cherish forever, as I had the honor of being nominated for "Best Actress" for my portrayal of Evelyn Hugo. For this momentous occasion, I chose to wear a stunning black dress adorned with glitter in the short sleeves, paying homage to the timeless elegance of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Adding to the allure, I accessorized with exquisite jewelry from Tiffany and Co., making sure to capture the essence of classic Hollywood glamour.

Accompanying me to the Oscars were two of the most important people in my life: my current boyfriend, Taron Egerton, and my father, Hugh Jackman. The red carpet was a family affair, filled with love, support, and shared anticipation.

The competition in the "Best Actress" category was nothing short of legendary. I found myself in the company of renowned actresses like Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Emily Blunt, and Cate Blanchett. The nomination alone was an incredible achievement, but little did I know that the night held something even more extraordinary in store.

As the awards ceremony unfolded, my heart raced with anticipation, and when my name was called as the winner of the Oscar for Best Actress, it was a moment of sheer elation. The recognition of my performance as Evelyn Hugo was a culmination of hard work, passion, and dedication to the craft of acting.

Following the awards, we all came together for a grand Oscar after-party, where we indulged in lively celebrations. Laughter, music, and perhaps a few too many drinks defined the night, making it a memorable and joyous occasion for all. It was an evening where we, the nominees and winners, set aside competition to come together and share the magic of the film industry, celebrating our collective achievements and the timeless art of storytelling.

#adult fame dr #fame desire reality #shifting fame dr #fame dr shifting #fame dr #desire reality #shifting #shifting realities

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