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jimmythejiver · 3 years

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For the first time in a long time I went to the movies in forever and then to Target. At Target I see some Godiva bars on discount yellow tags and I was ecstatic until I read 70% Cacao, Dark, Salted Caramel and was deflated.

Anyway that's how I felt about seeing The Green Knight. What you thought this was about chocolate?

No see since the pandemic I've been back on my perennial King Arthur kick. I've for a long time since I was a young preteen thought, someday I too will write my own King Arthur epic and it'll be gay, magical, gangster and culty too, but for now I'll make up my own stories for practice and then with every story I got attached too, it got too involved and convoluted to the point that when it came down to actually writing a novel, I threw it all away and made a space opera I only planned in two weeks and wrote in a month. Anyway...so now I've been writing this very gay, magical, gangster and culty take on Final Fantasy XV with my boyfriend and just fell in love with Somnus Lucis Caelum who nobody has any insight about him than to make him the Mordred to Ardyn's Arthur, which is a strange flex, but okay, I thought about what if I wrote a Dark Age prequel about Ardyn and Somnus, but Ardyn becomes king and Somnus his shogun and they play games of seduction and power because I'm twisted like that. Anyway...I was like I'm never going to write this and I have to keep making up characters based on FFXV characters and King Arthur tropes because there's not a lot of stories that take place during the Dark Ages, it's always some Roman Empire story, or High Middle Ages and FFXV gave no room for either society to happen after the fall of Solheim and the rise of King Somnus...so we left with Dark Ages, y'all, the King Arthur comparisons are obvious, but Ardyn is no Arthur and Somnus is no Mordred, Aera is only Guenevere if you make up an affair with Somnus, Gilgamesh is no Bedwyr/Bedivere, but uh...they both amputees and the oldest companions to their respective kings so...I guess. Anyway making an ancestor of Cor Leonis and deciding well he's Owain/Yvain, or am Ignis type as idk Sir Cai/Kay I guess, they both cook, but Cai's more like Seifer Almasy than any FF character... Anyway I'm losing people.

My plan was to just scrap the FFXV prequel, leave my Somnus ideas into Overtime (a gangster and gods story) and just plan an actual King Arthur adaptation. I'd have King Arthur the treasure hunter, leader of a warband turned founder of Camelot who fights giants, giant cats and dogheads, but also fights King Claudas of the Franks and King Aelle of the Saxons and Cerdic a Briton who puts in his lot with the Saxons, etc. It'd been a a glorified turf war, meanwhile Arthur's gotta make alliances with King Pelles, The Fisher King and his strange cult he's founded because, why yes I find the ends justifies the means prophecy of the Holy Grail Quest very culty because Christianity then does not resemble it now. Meanwhile you got the secondary plots of Mordred, Gawain, Lancelot, Percival, Tristam and other's going on because they matter and too many modern King Arthur stories sideline the knights.

So many have always sidelined Mordred as a final boss eldritch abomination in mortal flesh conceived of sin and give him no personality, or complex motives, or even just a relationship with Arthur. I also have noticed the general sidelining of Lancelot, or give him a chad villain upgrade if you must include him at all, and the villainizing of Gawain to the point that you don't even have to have Mordred, or Agravain as a catalyst shit stirrer in court, just slap Gawain's name on Liam Neeson in a top knot and you're good. Mordred can just be a child offscreen until last act...fuck that, while Morgan Le Fay can either be a villainess plotting her cabal through men, or a well-intentioned, ineffectual idiot. Fuck that.

Now Hollywood just be doing King Arthur first acts that suck ass, only for said director to get rewarded failing upwards by giving this same jerk the Aladdin remake. The tonally shitty, crammed in blockbuster mess of a cliche heroe's journey that sucks.

With that background I was excited for The Green Knight. I read an illustrative version as a kid, I read Tolkien's translation as a teenager, I read Simon Armitage's superior, but with liberties taken translation. I was prepped to go knowing that indie, or not they were going to make changes to weave the disjointed poem together. I'm excited that because this movie exists Project Guternberg's finally thrown Jessie Weston's prose rendition up on their website. I'll be reading that at some point when this blows over.

The movie adaptation makes a lot of...choices, many I wouldn't love, but would forgive had their been a payoff. There was none.

The journey was fine, the cinematography was a breath of fresh air after crappy slo mo, glossy action scenes ruined another. Guys, I don't think I want to see a Zack Snyder Excalibur, it'll marginally be better than Guy Ritchie, but that ain't saying anything. Leave Excalibur to the post-Star Wars 80s where it is impeccable for it's time. I liked Green Knight's breathable pacing, it's color palette's in the forests and mountains made up for the muddy grey of every Ridley Scott send up in the castles and villages in every other Dark Ages/Medieval story in the last I don’t know since the shitty 00′s. For all the dark tones when there was blues, greens, yellows or reds, they were vibrant in this movie to contrast the gloom of Britain. The soundtrack was good. This isn't all what makes a movie, but it enhances it so let's get to the story and what I did and didn't like.

Things I Liked: Gawain is still a novice in his career The Costume Dressing Everyone pronounces Gawain's name different. I pronounce it like Gwayne, or Guh Wayne, but here you got Gowen (like Owen), Gowan (like Rowan), or even Garlon who I'm pretty sure is the Fisher King's heir in some versions of that Arthurian story, so uh... The reference to Arthur slaying 960 men with his bare hands (Nennius for the win!) The Waste Land that is implied to be a site of a battle (an important aspect of the Arthurian landscape) The Fox companion No long grisly, drawn out hunting scenes. The Fox lives! No misogynist speeches

Things I'm Mixed: This being a dream, is the magic real? Are the giants? Is the Green Knight a figment of Gawain's imagination from a spell Morgan casted in him to hallucinate? Is Lord and Lady also figments? It's...a way to interpret the poem, but lazy and I don't see why it's got to all fantasy, or all dream...this movie makes it too vague you're stuck picking one camp than to accept it's a fantasy with dream and hallucinatory sequences.

Things I'm Meh: Morgan Le Fay as Gawain's mom. Look I fucking hate Morgause as a character and these two get merged and steal each other's aspects so much at this point the difference is who did they marry, King Urien or King Lot? Both are attributed to being Mordred's mom, Mordred is Gawain's brother...both practice magic depending on certain incarnations, both love and hate Arthur their brother and are in conflict with him. Saint Winifred. I actually liked this sequence, but I don't appreciate her as the tacked on wife in the later dream sequence as like...a contrast between the wife you should marry than the whore next door you don't respect anyway? I don't even know what lesson I'm supposed to get out of the damn dream sequence, or any of it? That Gawain should've married his girlfriend and then he'd be a just ruler? That he shouldn't be king? That he'd never have to make the same heartless, impartial choices? I don't know, he seemed like a king doing king shit because guess what? It never gets easier. Wars will be waged. The world didn't become better because he married the right woman, respected her and lived in obscurity. The world didn't become better because he made her his queen. We certainly don't know the world would be better Gawain had his head chopped off and dead XP They never reveal the Lord and the Green Knight as one and the same because of this shit.

Things I Hated: Arthur withdraws from the challenge because he's old. In poem he takes it on and Gawain takes it so he don't have to and he finds himself more disposable than the king. Gawain only takes the challenge because of arrogance. Arthur and Gawain had no prior personal relationship. I'd not have hated this so much if it wasn't compounded by it cancelling out the first two things. Gawain is portrayed as having no respect for his woman, or any woman, maybe his mother? He has to be pushed by Winifred to regain her head. Gawain is portrayed as arrogant, covetous and ready to pass the buck, or the bare minimum than have any honor or decency. It didn't matter the kid in the wasteland was shithead bandit, the way Gawain acted towards him, when he gets robbed, it almost feels like he deserved it and Gawain doesn't learn a damn lesson. I'll admit him taking the sword to cut his ropes and cutting his hands was a neat sequence, it shows him go from stupid, to almost clever and having will to survive...you know traits he had in the poem, but he stops showing these traits or growing. Basically Gawain has to be dragged kicking and screaming to help people and shows no fortitude when facing temptation, or when showing respect towards others, it's exhausting. You don't make this kind of journey story without character growth. Why are you skipping this? Also is it just me, or is this like when you take Frank Miller Batman and transport him onto a Bill Finger story? This is at best Thomas Malory Gawain (and this is charitable) transported on the earlier Pearl Poet's story. Stop it. It's not tonally correct and goes at odds with the story and the set up characterization you'd need to tell it. Speaking of which, you know how I get through the oof... of Liam Neeson Gawain in Excalibur? By pretending he Agravain instead. Here...I don't even think Gawain could pass as Mordred in spite of his covetous nature, lust and entitlement. Why? because I don't think even Mordred is this dumb to warrant this hubris. Essel being invented as a tacked on love interest just to be shit on utterly and for what? I don't think I have much commentary here as there is no Essel I'm aware of to compare, or stack up. I just notice this trope of like...usually if you include a sex worker in Hollywood she often has a heart of gold, she often has her own sense of values that goes at odds with society, but is more true and less hypocritical than a privileged lady’s. I thought that's what they would've done with the added trope of back at home sweetheart to contrast and pit her against the despicable femme fatale of Lady Bertilak and her adultery and her ladyship...and I'm glad they didn't...but you did nothing with Essel than to shit on her for existing when you made her exist, you know. Lady Bertilak being portrayed as the seductress devil incarnate. Look I know adultery is a touchy taboo, but uh her and Gawain hit it off in the poem, dammit! Her values and his values come to clash, but here it's played off as Gawain is stupid and covetous and Lady Bertilak wants to prove something because...? If my brother's theory that she's a figment of Morgan Le Fay's magic, then I'll take this as a lesson of Gawain is impulsive and covetous and his mom knows it, but he don't want to fuck his mom, but he wants her power, and Morgan wants to teach him a lesson... I guess. Hey we don't have misogynist speeches in this movie, but we'll make sure to have the movie drip with it with no point, or commentary. Pass. Lord guilting, extracting and initiating the same sex kiss and only once. Poem automatically better that Gawain don't have to keep being reminded to keep his part of the bargain and he does it willingly more than once. What he doesn't do is give up his belt...gods how did we get more homophobic as a society that the homoeroticism here is worse? Catholics of the middle ages officially had no issue doing same sex, passionate kissing until it lead to sex. The Ending: The gods damn ending. In the movie as is, Gawain waits to uphold his end of the bargain and get his head chopped off. He imagines, even though we don't get any fuzzy or distortion to indicate this is a dream, but I already knew this was coming, he runs away and comes home, is regarded a hero, he sees his lady, takes her from behind and if you saw Brokeback Mountain (I didn't, but DJ has) you know this is a sign of disrespect to women. He gets her knocked up, pays her off for the kid she wants to keep, he is crowned king, marries the ghostly saint lady he helped retrieve her head earlier from a lake in the movie (this right here is the damn tip off). There's no more dialogue by this point and everything is montaging, so you know by now it's a dream, though nothing is out of focus. He rules as a heartless king, his whore son dies from war he waged, he has a daughter, his wife dies. Gawain then takes off the belt that would've saved his life and his head falls off. This would've been the one good twist, except... In this sequence of events he never had his head cut off so uh... now we back in present day. He decides not to bitch out, Green Knight in a sexy way is like "now off with your head," movie cuts to credits with no resolve...uh what the fuck? What the fuck? This is not good. You wasted the one twist in your dream when idk, you could've...

How I'd fix it: No dream sequence at all. No Incident At Owl Creek twist. Gawain comes home a hero and survivor of this game and ordeal. He wears this belt of shame. He becomes a well-renowned knight, but he bears a shame. One day he goes to take off his belt and his head falls off because he cheated to get this belt and to survive this encounter. There. Done. Improved your high concept movie that couldn't play any of the lessons straight from the damn poem without making everyone an asshole for no reason! Ugh! But nope you had to end it on we don’t know if Gawain lives or dies...because...it's dream magic made from his momma's witchcraft...?

Last Thoughts So then post-credits scene because Marvel because Pirates Of The Caribbean existed. A white girl who looks nothing like Gawain's daughter we see who didn’t pay off, or any child I can remember through this whole movie picks up King Arthur's crown that dream Gawain inherited and puts it on her head. Who is this girl? Are we gonna have an indie equivalent of of the Marvel Movie Universe/Universal Horror Monsters thing with ancient British legends? We gonna get a Life Of Saint Patrick next that crosses over? I don't know. What is this?

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pumpacti0n · 3 years

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abolition is never “off the table”-- and we shouldn’t let anyone try to convince us otherwise.

allowing goals like abolition to get watered down and constantly misrepresented by the propagandized public, private corporations and career politicians leads to all these problems we keep hearing about on the news getting worse.

for example, we learn about instances of police violence, indigenous women going missing, the horrific prison industry, domestic & reproductive violence against women and non-men, systemic anti-blackness, families separated at hellish border facilities, seemingly endless wars and being on the brink of environmental collapse on a daily basis.

it all seems never-ending and overwhelming that no matter what good we do in our personal lives, it isn’t ever enough, because these problems will continue to manifest. somehow, it is always the same problems coming back to haunt us.

those are the consequences when attention and energy for micro problems are given priority, instead of investigating and healing the relationships people have to power, space and resources on the macro scale at the same time.

micro-scale problems are somewhat easy to package as isolated incidents for people who we believe are responsible for handling them, and they often can handle them well enough that the majority of people affected by the issue may feel placated enough to accept the authority as legitimate

these politicians and other micromanagers “solving” the problem is often used as evidence that the authorities are competent at their jobs and that issues can be solved by the system (when it wants to solve them), thus providing evidence of their legitimacy, even when it’s these same individuals and groups that are the direct causes of the problems to begin with.

beware that not being impressed or made passive by the reform logic of authorities and capitalism can be misrepresented as: “oh, you xyz group are never satisfied, you always want to save the world, but this is the real world, you’re too idealistic and your standards are too high!”

this is not an accurate portrayal, and it often isn’t meant to be. it’s meant to distract us, divide us and obscure what the problem is.

very simply, if the direct cause of a problem is not addressed, the problem is not going to be solved.

everything else is a surface-level approach that will allow the root of the problem to continue to endlessly self-reproduce the same harmful structure and power dynamics, but in different forms.

the best way to illustrate this is to picture the structure we live under (capitalism) as a living structure, like a tree. all living structures move, transform, grow and adapt given any and all external and internal forces that affect it, no matter what scale we observe it at -- either microscopically or as part of a larger surrounding ecosystem.

you’ll hear people say that radicalism is “grasping at the root” of a problem -- which is precisely what we must do if we have any hope at addressing any problem(s) that any structure provides us with.

the goal isn’t to eliminate all possibilities of conflict, or to be so bold as to think we can perfectly meet the needs of every single person affected negatively by something. not even capitalism which boasts as being this hyper-efficient, almighty, all-powerful system can do that, even on its best day.

the people who are intimately aware of the intricacies of this system are always found at the center, at the “grassroots” level of where the structure forms its base. without a base, without grounding, without roots, the rest of the structure cannot form, spread out or replenish itself when damaged or “reformed”. so that is where we must start; with the people, communities and land that is primarily affected.

rather than manage these groups by trying to decide what their needs are for them, or what actions must be done to meet their needs, they should be empowered to decide for themselves how to best maneuver and achieve those needs, while providing necessary aid when we can, and expanding the options for possible solutions when we can.

if something affects us negatively, there is a chance it affects others, too, and it follows that it’s in our mutual interest to work together to achieve a future where both our needs are met and that we can live healthy and fulfilling lives, together.

according to the janky ass reform logic of capitalism, this is an unnecessary and dangerous approach, because it does away the authority of the people who just say that they represent us and say that they’ll take responsibility for a problem -- the same people whose jobs hinge on appearing as if they care, with platforms, talking points, photo-ops and co-signs from other politicians and high ranking members of the public to offer “proof”.

they often use the logic that says that we must preserve this system, because it is sacred and perfect, that it would interrupt business, so we can’t empower people to make these decisions, even if it means that some people have to suffer and die because the system is inefficient and does not represent them, or demands that they experience social death.

we should not be impressed by these people. in fact, if they are standing in the way between these grassroots efforts, either by preventing these programs from assembling or actively attacking them politically, then they are enemies. when you become an enemy of the people you claim to represent, you are a tyrant and an opp.

and we do smoke opps.

at every grassroots level, there are groups of people who are very sensitive to the changes that happen at all the other levels of the living structure that oppresses them. from this perspective, they can experience for themselves the effects of the things that happen above the surface, and they experience the dissonance personally when another politician promises to change something, only to eventually fall short or make the problem even worse.

they get news that claims that a problem is (going to be, maybe, eventually) fixed, are present as media moves on to the next sensational story only to experience the problems same thing again, and again.

just because the cameras are turned away, because the tweets stopped getting traction, doesn’t mean that the people and communities have disappeared. and yet, no matter what, this is a cycle that continues.

the only answer, the only consistent thing that has been proven to make a difference, is there being a complete break with the logic of this system. as long as we follow the capitalist logic, the same structure will replicate. as mentioned, the roots will create new stems, leaves, seeds and thorns if left undisturbed. we’ll continue to see new iterations of the same problems as long as the logic, the roots, are left intact.

there’s no hope of creating new structures in the the place of one that’s taking up room at the same space, so the old system must be uprooted.

its this uprooting that some call a “revolution”.

this word might seem scary to a lot of folks for a lot of different reasons. it has way less to do with the chaos and bloodshed that's associated with it in our imaginations.

it has more to do with deeply investigating the roots of a problem and actually addressing them by changing the conditions -- something that capitalism refuses to do unless there is a profit motive, or only if the problem interferes with the flow of capital to private interests. the only way this chaos and violence would occur is if (and some would insist when,) these forces mobilize to preserve the same harmful system we’re attempting to uproot in the interest of private accumulation of profit.

should we just allow these corporations and wealthy individuals stop us from changing the things that affect the quality of our lives? the wealthy capitalists would say “why yes, of course you should!” but obviously they would say that -- and we have been given no reason to believe them.

we should each of us be prepared to deal with this violence in some way. to insist otherwise is naive and not realistic, and actually harmful to the communities that encounter this violence. this may look like armed patrols and free firearms & training for the most vulnerable communities, or creating an alternative directory that people may access instead of calling the police. these matters are up to the communities themselves to envision and implement.

we aren’t suggesting that we seek out violence where it’s reasonable to avoid it, or escalate problems beyond our management of them. this isn’t meant to encourage people to fulfill revenge fantasies for the hell of it, but to be prepared in case such conflicts occur.

the aforementioned unorganized violent activities are, at best, a strategy to cope with and purge the unending stress of life under capitalism or distract the state and similar private forces in combat while other solutions are being explored. we shouldn’t fall for the strategy of turning rioters, saboteurs, arsonists, vandals and looters into enemies of the people, when they are the people...and we shouldn’t dismiss these strategies as being harmful by definition when it is often only insured property that is the target of their actions, not individuals.

we shouldn’t disparage rioters for causing damage to this system, when capitalism has been damaging the world and our communities for as long as it has existed on this planet. both violent and non-violent methods of “grasping at the root” are legitimate, can coexist and inform each other, and are necessary to combat the terror capitalism’s logic has inflicted on us all.

remember that revolutions are only as peaceful as they are allowed to be.

the process of uprooting, of revolutionizing, may indeed be violent in nature when resistance is offered, but that shouldn’t stop us from continuing the process if it is necessary. just because a dangerous system is difficult to uproot doesn’t mean that it’s more reasonable or desirable to leave it alone to establish its roots and adapt.

we must acknowledge that multiple attempts may be necessary before any transformation takes place, possibly over the course of several years, perhaps lifetimes. it might require lots of planning. however, in the interest of conserving time and energy, the most simple and direct methods of applying pressure and healing should be prioritized. we do not want to resemble, in practice or theory, the politicians we hope to depose -- by making promises we don't intend to keep, making plans that never pan out, putting off immediate solutions until we personally benefit at the expense of others.

for example, this means that rather than coming up with overly-complicated, difficult-to-achieve long-term plans of gradually moving a low-income family out of a house infested with mold, they’d be moved immediately into safe housing if such housing is ample and available. this means that, rather than waiting on the state to decide how much food a hungry person needs or should have access to, we supply them with the food if it is abundant and we have it to spare.

if the needs people and communities have are immediate, the solution should also be immediate, whenever possible. the means are the ends.

this is because people need aid now, not in the future, not when the moment is perfect and some sort of irrelevant criteria is met, not when it’s more profitable to do so, but in the present. representatives and authorities have gotten really proficient at promising to solve issues in some far-off future they’re never be around to guarantee, abstracting issues and people so that they’re seen as insignificant to greater issues. how often have you heard: “we would like to do something about xyz, we just don’t have the time (money)”?

when these so-called “representatives” package all of these lies, and the time comes to prove their worth and legitimacy, there is often no reconciliation process that any of them must go through so that they’re held accountable for straight up lying and abusing the responsibility they had to the people. this is so often why our issues aren’t solved -- we started by trusting those that aren’t even affected by the problems we face to have our best interests in mind.

that is why we say enough electoralism -- enough elections -- enough career politicians -- enough bipartisanship -- enough government -- enough hollow campaign promises -- enough “lesser of two evils” -- enough “vote blue no matter who -- enough pitting poor communities against each other -- enough celebrity & corporate “activism” -- enough self-aggrandizing authorities -- enough micromanagers -- enough permanent elected positions

yes to community control -- yes to autonomous communities -- yes to free associations -- yes to reconciliatory organizations -- yes to federations of workers and professionals -- yes to voluntary work -- yes to open borders and travel -- yes to direct democracy and direct engagement with relevant issues -- yes to immediately recallable, voluntarily chosen delegates -- yes to grassroots organizing -- yes to self-defense and community-informed reactions to crime -- yes to direct action, mutual aid and solidarity for mutual survival -- yes to returning land and resources to indigenous and black communities -- yes to yielding space and resources to historically harmed communities on the margins (LGBT+, disabled, refugees & migrants, prisoners, non-human animals) -- yes to liberation for all!!!

#abolition #revolution #capitalism #reform #elections #politicians #long post #write-up

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klutzymaiden123 · 3 years

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Some Tips on How I Keep Motivating Myself to Write

This post was inspired by a response I recently got from @pastelnightgale and obviously, I’m not an expert (I’m literally on year 6 of a fanfic rip), but I still wanted to type something up about this.

I find that the hardest part about writing is finding the motivation to actually start it . . . and then keep it. You can have all of these intricate fantasies in your head, with twists and turns and even a playlist you made on spotify, but actually getting up and writing it is ridiculously hard.

Especially if, like me, you suffer from perfectionism.

I kinda wanted to write a post about how I personally motivate myself to write, both fanfiction and my own things. Obviously, what I write is flawed and needs a lot of improvement, but I’ve come really far and I’m proud of the progress I’ve made.

So, here’s some tips I’ve picked up over the years. Feel free to apply this to whatever art you personally create, but this is primarily for writers.

1) Listening to Music

This is my number one. Easily. I’m someone who has a lot of attachment with the music I listen to (as most people do, I’d assume). Though I’m picky with the overall sound, I prefer music or artists who really put a lot of thought into their lyrics specifically. Or even when they use certain effects to carry across emotions or add more emphasis to specific lines. It’s why I’m such a fan of Taylor Swift; her songs are basically poetry packaged as pop music.

It personally helps me to listen to music not just because it’s enjoyable, but it helps create scenarios in my head. We all shoot music videos in our head, why not try doing it with your characters? Plus, if the artist you’re listening to plays with words through metaphors or similies or imagery, it’s a massive bonus. I seriously recommend turning to music, whatever genre you listen to, and letting that sometimes paint the picture for you.

2) watching Movies.

This is a massive one for me. I don’t know how high this would be on anyone else’s lists since films are obviously a completely different medium to books, but I find there’s a lot of things that can be useful about movies. For one thing, movies just have better fight sequences. Kinda obvious statement, but I don’t mean in a ‘well you can see it so therefore film is better’ no, I mean, film literally has better action sequences.

Obviously, as a writer, you’re never going to be able to properly adapt the quick pace of fights in movies. But you can adapt the details in how they move. Fight scenes in movies are better then books because they’re choreographed. Now granted, I’m still beginning my journey in reading, but so far, I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen. Either the author writes a scene that describes the action, but with no focus on the strain it has on the character’s bodies, or they gloss over the fight completely. It makes me feel like I’m reading fanfiction, but written from the younger side.

It’s just super dissapointing, so I try to challenge myself by studying how the characters moves, the impact of their movements on each other, and then how tired that can leave them.

But also, movies can have other things that I think writers should learn to adapt. Like a character’s mannerisms. Now, I don’t just mean mannerisms as in what they do in their day to day lives, I mean facial ticks. Like, the minute sequences their features will go through as they’re processing news. Or their stances. Or what they do with their hands. Actors are very detailed about how they’re protraying their characters, and I just find myself aching to carry that over in my own portrayal of my characters.

It’s obviously important to realise that film and novels have both their benefits and disadvantages in what they can and can’t portray. But it’s even more important to realise that different mediums can also teach us things about our sense of portrayals.

3) Reading books

This may be surprising that it’s not number one, but honestly, I didn’t start reading actual books until late last year. I kinda used to read some in high school, but those were few and far between. This year I’ve actively been trying to emerge myself in more professional writing, as I do find it a little strange to want to write so badly without taking any infleunce from any other writers.

Previously, I used to take inspiration from fanfiction and fictionpress, which I guess I still do. There’s definitely benefits in exclusively reading them (for instance, I prefer characterisation, romance and comedy in fanfiction) but I personally find books to be better in overall world building. I mean, obviously.

World building and setting are my weak spots, and I find that reading literal books actually helps me easier improve on these areas. Oh, and length. I’m a pretty detailed writer, but it’s sometimes hard to navigate what should and shouldn’t be getting so much focus. Fanfiction is pretty short (typically only a few pages), but books can be a whole lot longer, and how they use that space and length helps me translate it into my own pages. Granted, I tend to write way too much, but it’s still really helpful in navigating what should and shouldn’t be getting focus.

Oh, and bonus points for booktubers. They review a variety of different books, and for me personally, whenever they critique books, it motivates me to write something brilliant so they could maybe read it and smile. My favourites are WithCindy and Dominic Noble.

4) Tumblr—Specifically writing blogs.

When I tell you that I did nothing in my last years of high school but secretly read fanfiction and writing blogs on tumblr in class, I--

Obviously, I’m biased, cause I’ve been reading tips on here since I was a kid, but I really recommend following some good blogs on here. They give such good advice, specifically on how to research, or portray certain emotions and, most of all, representation. Tumblr was actually where I learnt to write my fight scenes—about how to portray the feeling of a quick sequence of events, while balancing it out with your character’s limited view. They write things I haven’t even seen professionals talk about (and honestly, I think they could benefit from reading a tumblr blog).

My personal favourite blogs are: Nimble’s Notebook, and Clevergirlhelps

5) Re-writes.

Okay, this is a massive one I should’ve mentioned in the beginning. Never compare what you have on your word doc to what others have published. Why? Because I can tell you that they did not start off like that. They went through massive amounts of editing and drafting and re-reads before coming out like this clean cut version. Trust me. No one’s that quick. And even if they are, who cares? It could take you two drafts, it could take you four, it could take you nine--we all work at our own pace.

It’s something I have to keep reminding myself when I’m on my first and second draft. Because they are shit. I always feel untalented when writing my first draft--oh, and that’s not a purposeful dig at myself to get compliments, I genuinely mean that. I will never let someone read one of my early drafts because they are literally so bad, and not only that, but those drafts are for me. They’re not there for anyone else yet. Early drafts are just so you can start to build your empire, they’re your foundation. You can reach for the sky the more you keep building.

Don’t get on your own case if you don’t like your first draft. It’s fine. It gets so much easier the more you rewrite it. Trust me.

6) Write Things for You.

This is one of my favourite tips. Oh, and I don’t mean it in a ‘you’re not writing for an audience, you are the audience’ kinda way. No, I mean literally write things for you. And only for you.

If you have a story in your head that you don’t want to write because you know it’s just a phase, it won’t last long enough for you to make something out of, or you’re not confident in it, or whatever, fuck it—just write it.

Open your word doc and type it out. Then don’t post it. Or share it. Keep it on your computer, stored away in a folder you won’t ever share. You might be asking, why would you waste your time on a project no one will ever see? Simple.

It takes away the pressure.

A major hindrance to a writer actually writing is sometimes . . . not feeling good enough. You’re worried that an audience will laugh or mock what you’ve written, or that it won’t turn out just the way you planned it too, or even that the plot is too corny. Well, what I’ve found is that writing for myself stops me from judging myself so badly. I have so many documents on this computer of corny borderline wattpad stories that will never see the life of day. And it feels great. Cause I’m still actively writing and improving myself while eliminating that huge amount of anxiety that plagues me.

This is such a massive tip, please consider it. Obviously, if the story turns out really well, go ahead and post it if you’re super proud of it. But otherwise, just write something with the intention of not sharing it. Keep it to yourself, so you can look back on it with fond memories.

#writing #woc writers #books #authors #woc authors #feminism #woc writing #poc writing #poc authors

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cv-nobody-and-associates · 3 years

Text

Nobody Wants to Know

Part II - Oira

“This is it.” I said, putting on my gauntlets. The cold metallic sensation helped to ground me, but it wasn’t enough to completely cease the shaking in my limbs. I couldn’t escape the uncertainty of what were about to do. But no matter how much it terrified me, I had to do it.

Either I would die, or I would finally get answers.

“You sure about this?” Wib asked. It was nice for us to be working together again instead of trying to kill each other, which was far more common. The two of us started as close friends, maybe more if I was to be honest, but it didn’t last. They turned out to be something called a Blockhead, which meant I had to destroy them. That was how I came to Creatorverse.

But then it turned out things weren’t that simple.

Wib didn’t really die. It turned out that we were somehow connected, meaning that neither of us could truly perish whilst the other continued to exist. We met up a few times after that, at first fighting, but it wasn’t long before we started talking again. We both knew something was up, and according to Wib it was connected to some people named Mori and Anis, both exiles of Creatorverse who had been plotting their revenge ever since.

I didn’t pretend I knew much about what was going on, but I knew I needed answers. And they were our only chance. Reluctantly, Wib had agreed to join on the search. Before, they had been working undercover on the side of the enemy, but we both knew that we needed each other for this.

“I’m sure.” I nodded. “We don’t have any other choice. I think it’s fair to say we both know that, huh?” Wib clenched their fist.

“Shut it.” They spat. “You’ve always had more choice than I ever did. You weren’t stolen, you weren’t manipulated, you weren’t twisted into their damn weapon-”

“Wib.” I stopped them short. “I don’t know what they did to me. Without the answers, and without my memories, we can’t be sure who had it worse. So how about we skip the angsty yelling and get our butts in gear.”

“Of course. You don’t remember, so you don’t care.”

“Do we really have to do this now? We have more important things to do right now.”

“Fine.” Wib agreed. “You’re right. We’ll worry about all this later.” They smirked, and for a moment everything was as peaceful as it was before I had come to Creatorverse.

Then the newcomer arrived.

“Sorry, am I interrupting something?” A woman’s voice infiltrated our current hideout, an underground space we had hidden from the rest of the city. It was simultaneously recognisable and completely unfamiliar. “Some remarkable plot-driven revelation? No, it’s too early for that. Perhaps some inter-personal conflict?”

“Nobody, what’s going on?” Wib demanded, getting into a guarded combat-ready stance. “Is this some kind of trick?”

“N-no!” I said. “I swear, I have no idea-”

“I’m sorry, I think they were asking me.” The voice answered, and suddenly a figure appeared from the shadows.

“Y…you’re… me?” I asked, stunned. The figure looked almost identical to myself. Maybe a little taller, and definitely lacking my Siphon Gauntlets and boots, but otherwise the question-mark figure standing before us looked identical to myself.

“In a sense.” My doppelganger answered lazily, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s more accurate to say that you are me. Or rather, a version of me. Though I suspect an intricate explanation of the inner working of the multiverse and how this world is informed by my actions would be beyond you.”

“Are you saying you created this world?” Wib asked, seemingly much more capable of rational thought than I was. I had no idea how I could tell, but my doppelganger smiled at them.

“Ah, of course. You’re the other one. Wib, right?” She turned to face them. “A fantasy I made to explain my lack of answers. A manifestation of my struggles as an antagonist, but one I – or rather, the other me – would learn to accept, leading to the grand revelation where we would finally understand ourself. Makes sense that you would catch on quick. You are correct, if you haven’t guessed. This world is a creation of mine. Sort of.”

“Sort of?” I asked. I felt compelled to draw my sword. None of this was making sense, and it seemed that yet again the only way of getting any sensible answers would be forcing them out. Or so I felt.

“This world is a manifestation of my story, but still its own world.” The doppelganger explained. “In short, I told a story, and the multiverse adapted that story to its own reality. It has been following my design like a script, but I did not make the set or hire the actors.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Wib asked, and I nodded with them. My doppelganger drew her own sword, and we both braced for what seemed to be an inevitable fight.

“I need answers.” She said. “This world contains secrets from my mind, words I could not speak but I suspect leaked out into the page. That is why we are not the same being, Nobody, despite being the same person.”

“Lemme guess – we don’t know these secrets you want either, but you think you’ll find the truth in battle?” I asked, raising my blade to guard. My doppelganger sighed.

“This world is built on the idea of violent conflict. I suppose I should follow the same rules of everyone else.”

She charged forth at me, thrusting her blade towards my head.

“And force the answers out of you!”

---

The doppelganger’s speed was incredible, and I could barely manage to pull my arm up to block their blade with my own, grunting at the sheer impact of the blade. Wib jumped back and moved to position themself behind the doppelganger, waiting for an opening.

I hoped they would find one soon.

“A simple duel of blades then?” The doppelganger said through a non-existent set of gritted teeth. “That’s not going to tell me much. Show me what you can really do!” She punctuated her words with a slash that pushed past my defences and had me slammed into the wall.

“Take this!” Wib came from behind the doppelganger, holding what appeared to be a small dagger with a green blade and gold handle. The doppelganger seemed amused as they effortlessly dodged, sending Wib charging straight me.

“Barrier, CREATE!” I yelled, pulling forth my CREATE button at the last moment. The sheer force was still enough to destroy the wall behind me, but a small barrier in front of me prevented Wib’s blade from striking me. My doppelganger seemed excited to see it, something that had me shivering.

“Yes, the button.” She said, producing a CREATE button identical to my own. She held it floating above her hand. “I’ve always wondered something about it. Can you guess?”

“Don’t listen to her!” Wib protested, even though my doppelganger had raised an interesting question. “We don’t have time to entertain these questions. We gotta take her out, then Mori!”

“It’s the letter, right?” I answered my doppelganger’s question. If it were possible for her to have grinned, I could feel she would have done so. Wib meanwhile rolled their eyes at me, yet uncharacteristically restrained themselves from a remark or attack.

“Yes, yes! I knew you would catch on eventually, you’re me after all!” She walked forth, and I couldn’t help but move back and raise my sword once again, anticipating another attack. “The letter. Almost every button I – even every one we have ever seen; they all say the word CREATE in them. All but ours. We have only the first letter. It’s almost like…”

“Like it’s incomplete.” I said. If I possessed eyes, they no doubt would have widened. My face became an exclamation mark to match my surprise. “Or like it’s just a copy of the real thing! Something we weren’t meant to have, but got anyway!” I didn’t understand even half of what I was saying, but the doppelganger seemed to. I swear I could feel their own interest as though I was the one experiencing it. I supposed it must have been because we were sort of the same person.

Idly, I wondered if I’d get to ask for the details on that.

“A copy. Yes, that sounds right. But why?” My doppelganger asked herself. “It must have something to do with one of the figures from the fog. The humanoid one. Yes, I can feel it. Like some sort of awakening.” She charged forth without warning.

“I need to know more! What else can I learn from you two?!” I blocked another sword slash and tried to counter it with my own, but it failed to have any effect. I glanced over to where Wib was standing before only to find them absent.

“Wib-?”

“Right here!”

“Argh!” My doppelganger screamed as Wib pulled her away from me, grabbing her. “You think you can hold me? How amusing!”

“I’m not gonna be holding you for long.” I heard the voice of Wib come from a second body, and turned to see that they had made a duplicate of themself. I always forgot they could do that, and was glad to see it was being used on someone other than myself.

Sort of. This doppelganger thing was confusing.

The Wib copy kicked the doppelganger at full force right as the original released her, and the result was her flying through the roof. I could see sunlight from the city pouring through the hole she had left.

“We have to make sure she’s down.” I said. I held put my hand and grabbed one of the Wibs. It honestly didn’t matter which body flew me up.

“You sure? We’ll be exposed. That’s going to make what happens next difficult. Plus, you’re a Creator working with a Blockhead. It’s a huge risk.”

“It’s even more of a risk to let her loose!” I cried out. “What if she hunts down someone else for answers? I can’t let her hurt my friends up there!” Wib hesitated, before grunting.

“Fine.” They said. One of their bodies fused with the one I was holding, and together we flew out into the city. The sun was high up in the sky, and for once the city was mostly undisturbed, save for the large hole in the road left as a result of knocking my doppelganger away.

“You’re strong.” I turned, hovering in the air as I released Wib who did the same. My doppelganger still lived, and instead of sounding pained she seemed more amused than anything. “But not nearly strong enough.”

“We need to run!” Wib called out, already flying away before I could respond. I followed, hoping that the doppelganger would do the same. Destroying the city was probably something worth avoiding.

“Are you sure this’ll work?” I asked Wib.

“She’s only after us as far as I can tell.” Wib reasoned. “She might attack anyone in her way, but I think-” I didn’t let them finish, doubling back. The thought of the doppelganger hurting any of my friends was dreadful, and I refused to let it happen.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

I stopped, both because I had reached the doppelganger and because I had just heard a mysterious voice in my head. If it wasn’t for the sight before me I would have stopped to listen to it. Unfortunately, I was more occupied by what I saw.

She was slaughtering people.

The city was already in shambles, buildings falling to rubble and collapsing as flames surrounded the area. Bloody bodies littered the floors, many far too close to the fire and stuck under rubble. The doppelganger looked to me and I felt a chill run up my spine.

“I heard someone.” She said. “As soon as I started this little exercise in attention.” I clenched my fists and screamed, charging towards her at full force. Our blades met harshly and the ringing sound of metal pierced the air.

“Attention?! THESE PEOPLE ARE DEAD!” I cried, forcing her back with all my strength. She skidded on the ground.

“Oh, you think I care. That’s adorable!” She said, before appearing behind me. It was so fast I barely saw her move, but I heard the rush of wind. I went to block but couldn’t stop myself from being knocked away into a building.

“These worlds? These people? They don’t matter!” She said. Something was different in her tone though. She sounded less sure of herself.

“She can hear me. What about you?”

“Who…?” I groaned out, trying to pry myself out of the rubble I had been forced into. The voice stopped me.

“Don’t move. Not yet. She can feel me, but you can actually hear me.” I gave the smallest of nods.

“Nothing matters! Nothing in this meaningless existence matters!” She was starting to sound incoherent, and I wondered if even she knew what she was saying.

“She’s rambling. That’s good. Well, not for her but one problem at a time.”

“Are you a friend of hers?” I asked.

“I owe her my life, but she doesn’t know that anymore. The three of us lost a lot of our memories.”

“Three? Who else is with her?” I asked the voice. I could tell that she – somehow, I could feel the voice was a she – was somehow connected to the other Nobody. Based on how she was talking, it seemed she was in her head, but I knew it went deeper than that.

“Me and V. But they’d only make things worse. I need you to tell her my name.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the only way she’ll understand. She’s losing track of who she it, what she is. I can remind her.”

“Okay…” I finally pulled myself to my feet, and my doppelganger turned to take notice. “What’s your name?” I asked the voice as the other Nobody approached. She told me right as my doppelganger grabbed me by the throat and pulled me off the ground.

“O-OIRA!” I cried, and suddenly her grip loosened. Her sword clattered to the ground and she clutched her head.

“Oira. That was her name, right?” I had to keep talking, because whatever she was remembering was stopping her in her tracks. “You saved her. A long time ago.”

“T-the tests…” She muttered, falling to her knees. “Needles, hands, too much. Far too much. She hated it. Wanted it to end. Wanted everything to end.” I recalled something we had said to each other earlier, as the doppelganger seemed to hiss in apparent pain.

I felt bad for her, despite our current surroundings.

“The tests were about the button, right?” I asked, hesitantly stepping closer. Her head went down for a moment, and it was a moment longer before I realised she was trying to nod. “They wanted to do something with it. What did they do?”

“They…” The doppelganger let out a groan of pain between words. Her face appeared to be shifting somehow. One moment it was a question mark like my own, the next it flickered to what appeared to be a musical note. “They wanted to make life. Shapeshifting. Genetics work. That was the key, they thought. It hurt. She didn’t want to hurt. I…I couldn’t let her hurt.”

“Why not?”

“What does it matter?!” She hissed. “It doesn’t matter who I strike down, or why, I’m just a weapon! I wasn’t helping her, I was just saving myself…” Her form seemed to be shifting, almost like she was struggling to maintain control.

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” That was all it took for the last of her resolve to crumble. She raised her head to the sky and screamed.

“SHUT UP!” She cried. “AND GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!”

There was a blinding flash of light, and then everything went dark.

---

When I awoke, I briefly considered that everything I had just been through was a dream. The city that was once covered in flame was now repaired. No, more than repaired, it was as though it had never been damaged in the first place. As for the people, there were no more corpses. Some were still injured, but most seemed to have been restored just as the city had.

“Hey you, you’re finally awake.” I saw Wib grinning at me, offering a hand which I gratefully took to pull myself up.

“You did not just say that.” I groaned, amused. “I swear, if you try to get me to join the Stormcloaks I’m outta here.” Wib chuckled.

“Nah, you know I was always more of an Imperial type.” They replied, before his expression turned more serious. “Jokes aside, what do you think about our new guest?” They pointed a thumb back to what appeared to be a tall woman, slightly shorter than my doppelganger. She was still all black like her – and myself, I supposed – but in place of a top hat, she had a beanie. She also appeared to be wearing a kind of dress. Or maybe it was just another layer of her body? It was the same pitch black as the rest of her, after all.

Her face and chest both had a musical note symbol instead of a question mark. Similar symbols appeared on her hands and feet as well, though slightly different. Her face and chest appeared to be double notes, whilst the ones on her hands and feet.

“Uh, I don’t know what those things are.” She said. Her voice sounded similar to mine and the doppelgangers, but different somehow. Softer, I supposed. “But I don’t think it matters.”

“Oira, I presume?” She nodded, and Wib raised an eyebrow at me. I made a dismissive gesture with my hand, and they rolled their eyes and crossed their arms. I knew I’d have to explain later. “What happened to… you know, the other one…” I was reluctant to use her name.

“Nobody? She’s been…turned off? Disabled? Knocked out?” Oira seemed to struggle to find the right words to describe what exactly had happened. “It’s hard to explain. Nothing about us really makes complete sense. But I suppose with her unavailable, I took back control of the body.”

“Took back?” Wib interjected. “Was the body originally yours?” Oira scratched at her head in response for a moment.

“Yes and no?” She answered. “The body is a new one, but it was built using mine as a genetic base. My body was already…malleable enough for it from the tests.” She hesitated for a moment. “I’d rather not get into it.”

“I understand.” Wib said, with surprising compassion in their voice. “People can do horrible things in the name of some twisted form of progress…” Oira nodded.

“When I took control, it created a burst of energy.” Oira explained. “That energy mostly reset things back to how they should be, before she appeared. I don’t know the full details. The reality warping is her thing for the most part.”

“What about the injured people still here?” I asked. “Why Didn’t they fully restore?” Oira simply shrugged in response.

“I guess the energy expelled wasn’t enough? Like I said, I don’t know how this works.” She sighed for a moment. “I know you probably have more questions, but I don’t have time. You see, she won’t stay inactive for long. And now that I’m awake, it isn’t long before V follows. And trust me, no matter how bad you think she is, V’s worse.”

“How bad we think she is? She murdered innocent people to get attention.” I said, annoyed. Oira didn’t have a typical face, but I could still feel a sort of fury in her expression regardless.

“She’s done bad things, but she’s done just as much good. You’ve just never seen it before.” She explained indignantly. “Besides, this is a Scripted world. She knew that when she left, things would reset back to normal.”

I prepared to respond to that, but she kept going before I could.

“I don’t expect you to understand her, nor do I expect you’ll forgive her just because of what I say. Best I can ask for?” She paused as something that appeared to be a portal appeared behind her, which she turned to.

“Forget this ever happened.”

“I wouldn’t count on that.” I said. She laughed for a moment.

“Don’t worry. We won’t be coming back anyway.”

END

AN - Finally done! This was meant to be done months ago, but stuff happened and I'm bad at time management. At last, the first of the beings within Nobody is revealed! I plan on sharing more Oira stuff in the near future, but hopefully you understand a little bit about her now. I forgot to get to it in the chapter itself, but her CREATE button is different to Nobody's.

This whole chapter was set in the world of an old CV fanfic I wrote on my main blog, @lordterronus . It's called Creatorverse: Self Indulgent Stories, and it's quite outdated but I still enjoy thinking about it from time to time. This chapter was a chance to show a bit more of what I had originally planned for that story, but never actually did. If anyone wants to ask any more about it, I'm happy to answer anything regarding it on my main blog!

#writing #creatorverse #Nobody Wants to Know #Nobody #cv fanfic au (that's what I call it)

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softgrungeprophet · 3 years

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i liked agent venom when i read it, partially because it actually had a discernible plot and a story that wasn’t just half finished and abandoned from constant cancellations, but at the same time i hate it. i hate it so much.

i hate that flash became venom and suddenly, all of his relationships were completely erased except for like, betty and sometimes peter and that was it. mj and harry who? childhood friendship with liz? no she’s just going to... blackmail him for some reason even though they’ve known each other for literally like 15 years

i hate the agent venom origin slott wrote, i hate flash being pissy about peter confiding in MJ, who they are both friends with, because if you’re dan slott you can’t talk to girls unless you plan on fucking them, i hate how gung ho slott is about the military propaganda and the fucking american flag behind flash in superior spider-man, even though superior (a comic i don’t ever plan to read in full) actually had a good moment with flash and “peter” and flash’s tenseness in a domestic argument situation

(i also hate that that one pre-agent venom web of spidey comic could have been good, actually had good assistive devices, but then... the entire villain plot is about some Mysterious Terrorist or whatever who nonetheless congratulates flash for “constructively” letting out his anger on faceless middle-eastern soldiers, and this is played straight--disgusting)

i hate all of it even the things i like because they took a character who actually was fairly complex and flattened him into a football-loving, gun-toting, all-american patriot who loves god and his country, at odds with the previous 30 years of character development, at odds with the flash who when asked if he liked being in the army (after being DRAFTED into fucking vietnam) said that there is no liking the army, only dealing with it, and i hate every bro who thinks agent venom was the coming of the great whatever and acts like flash was completely nothing before then and that only in agent venom did he have any character when the opposite is true and agent venom trampled out every bit of nuance he had to focus on alcohol and football and nothing else (at least bunn finally put him back into a school again, had him working with youth again (andi in this case))

i hate, unrelated to agent venom, the fact that flash the complex character has been further and further stretched and distorted to have been a horribly violent schoolwide bully as a teenager rather than what he actually was--an obnoxious kid with a fucked up home life trying to fuck with one specific kid--to the point that even in the college stuff, even AFTER having “become good,” he’s the only one who gets repeatedly and purposefully excluded from official works and fan works alike because everyone thinks of him as nothing more than a bully, that every movie appearance of flash sucks except TASM (which is still barely a flutter but you can tell thought was actually put into his character by the actor himself), the fact that he’s the only living member of the friend group (because i assume gwen is dead) who doesn’t get more than a single-line mention in the ps4 game (but at least it’s positive, and i like to pretend that MJ was checking on him when she went to the veteran’s center since we know he works with veterans in the game, even if we never see him) (i still want to be able to go to coffee with mj, flash and harry all together)

i don’t like the bullying flashback in the bunn AV run (even though i liked the comic as a whole, especially with andi, and how bunn and shalvey moved away from the military stuff more toward neighborhood protector stuff), i don’t like bunn’s take on high school flash (he also wrote a different spider-man comic with high school flash a little bit before then)

i hate that flash’s growth wrt his disability, which he came to accept as a part of him that he didn’t need to find some miracle cure for, was completely thrown down the toilet so they could do their stupid supersoldier agent venom shit, which flies directly against the SPECIFIC endpoint of the stages of grief comic, which SPECIFICALLY used superserums and bionic military limb testing as the thing he did not need in his life--and then dan slott runs over like teehee here’s some bionic supersoldier military testing shit :3c

hate that he was killed for the stupidest reason by norman fucking osborn, hate that the disabled abuse survivor was killed by the man who killed one of his best friends, who abused another, who manipulated HIM, who drove him into a fucking building after force-feeding him hard alcohol, hate that norman got to “win” against flash one last time, hate that norman is now being treated as this fucking “couldn’t help it” case while harry is Actually Bad, and still, flash is what? a dream symbiote dragon? fucking stupid and i hate it, i don’t want any of it

every new thing i see about new spider-man and venom comics wrt flash makes me wish he would stay dead lmfao

but it’s not like there weren’t already a ton of bad comics about him but at the very least... i would like something that isn’t just about the Patriotic Soldier Boy who never actually fucking existed

the football thing is a really fun one--and i love that the TASM movie made flash play basketball in that movie because if you look at comics from the 60s through to the early-mid 2000s, preceding agent venom... flash stopped playing football after high school and started playing basketball instead. started doing other sports, probably stopped football because, gee i can guess who told him to play football in the first place, but somehow agent venom happened and decided that his entire life was just Football and Guns? when he hadn’t touched a football in literally like... 10 years in-universe

(TASM best live-action spidey adaptation)

there is not purpose to this rant i just needed to get all this shit out of my head

i am very On Edge the past few weeks and idk why, just ADHD brain shit I guess but everything makes me tense lately (probably why i played through 77% of the spidey game in literally four days by virtue of doing absolutely nothing else in my free time) (i’m taking a break for the sake of my hands but maybe i should go keep playing lol)

i know some people like the dragon and i’ve added it to my “flash trans” list but in the context of stories about flash over the past ten years i really am not interested, and this coming from someone who read eragon 9 times in middle school and grew up reading mostly high fantasy and dragon books. i just. don’t want it. not by the writers currently going at least. maybe if it was someone else or if i knew it would be anything more than a future of soldier boy alcohol football crap lmfao

#nadia reads comics #anyway if anyone has recs for pre-2000s issues that focus on flash i would like that #i have read the prom story though i like that one... nuance...#not interested in the hobgoblin comics either i think those fucked up his character #flash: calls sha shan a wench #me: literally who the fuck is this cause it's not flash

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uraharabyakuya · 5 years

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Rant: ChenQingLing is a disgrace.

Disclaimer: this is a rant, and it’s antiCQL. So those who like it, pls ignore and refrain from posting your counter arguments to me. I just want to vent my displeasure of this live action and only welcome those who agree with me to comment and share.

Being a massive fan of MDZS, I just have to get this off my chest. I am sick of all these brainwashing and gaslighting by so called “fans” of the original work who are singing high praises for this shambles of an adaptation.

The live action series should be ashamed of themselves because they’re simply using the popularity and following from the franchise and totally disrespecting the core of the story and characters. Before these nincompoops come and wax lyrical about adaptations being different from the source material, there is an obvious difference between a genuine adapatation to screen whereby the major plot lines are maintained, the core stories are maintained, the character histories are maintained and superfluous or extrapolated materials are minimised, also where there are obvious gaps of non-explained or non-elaborated space only is where things are created and imagined. Whereas a rubbish excuse of an adaptation is what CQL has done. Because what it did was to use the characters names, take the fantasy world setting and cool elements, and then totally walk over the storyline by completely meshing and mixing and stirring everything and everyone into a big pot of dog poo. And testament to them just using the franchise’s popularity to milk money and attention is by completely unashamedly BL-bait with all the WangXian interactions including many that are either not in the book or extras, or not in the right context or scene, or completely nonexistent and made up. And then the shameless tag that it’s just a platonic bromance since censorship in China wouldn’t allow this. Right.

So let’s talk about the plot. So WWX is not some grandmaster of demonic cultivation since it has already been going on behind the scenes with Xue Yang casually helping WRH practise some hardcore demonic cultivation and the fact that the Tiger Stygian Amulet is just some relic that’s been around for ages. Nothing to do with WWX’s ingenuity and talent for harnessing the resentful energy stored in that sword found at the TuLuXuanWu cave. Then apparently the TianNu statue that comes to life was already something that he and LWJ had encountered before in their youth whilst they go along to hunt for the Amulet pieces. And then WQ apparently is able to influence the zombified with a flute like instrument anyway. And then apparently Lan Yi and WWX’s mum knew each other cos nothing spells more destined love than when your respective previous generation also had some sort of bond and connection. And the bunnies were really reared by her so not a sweet little homage of the Wangxian love. And the forehead ribbon is not just ugly aesthetics wise but LWJ can’t decide if he’s steadfast about it or he is nonchalant about taking it off and tying it onto WWX’s wrist even when he was not intoxicated. And then WWX was already using some unexplained paper puppet powers which was apparently not seen as demonic cultivation in his youth to mess about, and he apparently could manipulate LWJ quite easily to get him drunk. And when things that are not canon like LXC and JGY they just had to make their first meeting so obviously charged with innuendo. And then WQ since the actress invested in the series, had to be important, so she is given some all so noble duty of being the good guy in the bad camp who is doing stuff that she doesn’t want to but she is still good and should be liked though she’s still a bad guy nonsense trope. So she goes to GuSu to get the amulet piece for WRH, because only when he gets the piece will she be able to somehow bring WN away. And WN was a great enough character both alive and dead as the Ghost General with his design from the source material, but no, they want to embellish it that he’s afflicted with some condition that makes him susceptible to being possessed and taken over by evil spirits. Wtf. And naturally, WQ should somehow capture JC’s eye, because why would JC want to be infatuated with a Wen person when eventually they cause the demise of his parents and his clan. But hey maybe he’d be so selective thinking WQ didn’t do it though so that’s okay. Like wtf.

Let’s talk about the actors. I like WWX’s look, the actor has a good face, he “looks” like a WWX, but damn his acting is bad. And damn, he cannot do the duality of WWX, because he does not exude that dangerous aura and the strength and power that WWX naturally possess because of his natural abilities, evident even before he was a Yiling Patriarch, much less if this guy wants to play a convincing Patriarch. He does all these ogling of LWJ from the get go since they met, cue all the cheap BL baiting. And he pouts and stomps his feet and acts cute the whole time. WWX is cheeky, naughty, devious, mischievous, but not girly, not a sissy. Wtf. Then we move onto LWJ. So that guy is some boy and heartthrob, but damn he has neither r looks nor the presence nor the acting skills to touch LWJ. WTF. The moment he appeared he made me want to slap LWJ, want to cry for his ru8ning of his whole imagery. The action sequence is so wooden, and the expressions are so constipated or dead. Everybody else looked bad. The actors I think chosen right for their looks were WWX, WN (alive version, the ghost general version has such awful make up it makes me cringe), NHS, JGY, XY (he apparently got to get a good looking dude to play him who also looks kind of evil and yet looks like an anime character walked out of the anime) and maybe JC (that’s because aesthetically he actually can be considered good looking and that is ridiculous because he’s better looking than the Twin Jades of Lan in this). LXC and his butt chin hurts my eyes. WRH looking like some voodoo witch doctor gone drag in his evil volcanic dungeon lair makes me want to throw an encyclopaedia at someone’s head violently. NMJ looking like a complete perverted uncle complete with hentai stache is just blasphemous. JZX just looks weird, no better way to put it.

So onto the make up, costumes and props. Make up is so shit that you can see up close where spots are done smoothed over or powdered down, the gore or the effects of veins and wounds are so fake and so obviously drawn on it looked like a 6yo went to arts class and took some marker pen and crayon and created these outcomes. The props are so cheap that the ghost hand looks like a rubber Halloween glove you get from the prop shop around the corner, the deity binding ropes look exactly like rough ropes. The Emperor Smile bottles look so tiny and white that it looks more like medicine bottles on ancient times than an expensive alcohol bottle. Where’s the YunMeng silver bell, the jade piece on LWJ’s robe. The forehead ribbon looks so cheap because it’s too thin and the stupid metallic piece in the middle is ridiculous. Why can’t they just stick with the original to have the silk cloth with the cloud patterns embroidered on the cloth. And the clothes, Lan sect is supposed to be ethereal, so why are they dressed in such plain white and tight clothes. They should have the flowing sleeves, the light blue tones, and the cloud embroidery. YunMeng needs to have their original violet colour, the Wen Sect does not need to be full body red like they’re getting married (see WQ), and the Jin sect needs their golden robes with the centrepiece of the JinXinXueLang peony, not some watered down white with yellow hues and nothing else to show for it. And what is with LWJ’s hair do and hair piece, it has such a disgusting look to it and it doesn’t look right. Do the bun properly and the accessory properly, not some weird plop of hair right in front on top of his head and then put a flat piece of elaborate metal on top of it.

I had been looking forward to seeing the epic ness of MDZS brought to the small screen. I had been completely prepared for changes in terms of the romance line being cut, but I fully expected the main storylines to be followed and perhaps elaborated on. Not to be chopped and changed and meshed up and violated like they’ve done so. And with the ability to get some really lovely natural scenery and some of the sets that actually look good eg the Lotus seat in Yun Meng was elaborate and intricate. So why won’t they invest in the right places like making the make up perfect, getting the costumes and looks correct, getting actual actors who can act cos even if they don’t look aesthetically good enough but if they’re solid actors it would flow so much better, and more vitally, why don’t they retell and elaborate on the existing epic storyline as it is! That’s the core of it, the MDZS storyline and major scenes are so awesome wit( their backstories, no changes need to be made, but merely elaborated and extrapolated on, not to be comepltely vandalised and violated. My heart breaks as for the sake of my love for MDZS, I’ve watched 8 eps and had to stop and restart so many times because of how jarring, unnatural, awkward, infuriating, irritating and frustrating the factors above contribute to my viewing. And now the greatness of MDZS as an original source material will forever be tainted by the sacrilege that is the Untamed.

#mdzs #the untamed #wwx #lwj #modaozushi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #chen qing ling is a disappointment #mo dao zu shi anime #mo dao zu shi audio drama

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veestormcourage · 5 years

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I’ve finally gotten around to the Ace Attorney anime

And boy am I disappointed so far!

Not sure I need spoiler breaks for an anime that’s already been out for a few years and a game that’s been out for over a decade in the states and more than fifteen years in Japan, but I’ll still pretend no one knows about the sled, so to speak.

FIRST POINT: Animation

Seriously, the animation is shit. I’m having flashbacks to Sailor Moon Crystal. I didn’t take a million screen caps of it like I did for Crystal, but type the following into Google and take a look: ace attorney anime bad animation. When Phoenix bows to Grossberg, his hands did the same thing Jadite’s did, and in the very beginning when he’s apologizing to Mia for being late, again, the hands. His hair spikes are constantly changing size, the 3D is egregiously terrible when they pan the courtroom in the first episode (not so bad when they don’t pan the model), and the gallery in the second trial (ep. 2-5) could have been made with better models back in the original game’s launch year...of the Japanese version!!! The use of effects only in the trial of ep. 1 just highlights further what a dumb idea it was (albeit one sort of taken from the live action movie), while the whole magic screens coming from the paneling thing seems just plain dumb given at this point the setting of the games has turned around and become “present day” instead of “fifteen years into the future.” Inconsistencies with things like Mia’s boobs and Phoenix’s hair spikes aside, the actual models they came up with...are pretty terrible, actually. Phoenix’s forehead is just plain wrong, Gumshoe’s head is all...something...Mia looks like she has an animation error instead of a mole, the whole makeup thing when Maya channeling is idiotic and kind of sexist when taken in context with the credits animation, Mia wears slight heels and is only 8 cm/3 in. shorter than Phoenix in the first place yet she’s way shorter standing next to him in court -- for that matter, Maya is 22 cm/8 in. shorter than Phoenix, yet she only seems to come to his collar. This tends to be true in all the official art that she’s absolutely diminutive, but it’s always irritated me there as well, so I’ll just grouse about that one on the entire franchise.

On pan outs, the judge is literally a tan ball with a beard. Contemplate that quality kwality for a second.

SECOND POINT: Sound

The use of music from the games is a lot more understated than I was expecting, which is a crying shame because the franchise’s music is beloved by fans, and has been acclaimed repeatedly for years. When I did hear the motifs from the games, I started to feel a shred of hope for the anime. The opening is just fluffy nonsense, generic OP stuff that will be forgotten immediately and probably skipped if VRV will stop being a pain in the ass every time I jump around. I like that VRV gives me the option of dubbed or subbed. I also appreciate that if I go to Crunchyroll itself instead of its VRV channel, I can choose the English or Japanese names on the sub track. I wish that option was on VRV as well, just because I find it interesting, but meh. I don’t hate the credits song, but I’m not...happy with aspects of the animation on it. But that’s for character reasons, not technical ones.

THIRD POINT: Voicing

I’ve watched both the dub and the sub, and I have to say, I like the fan VAs better from the years of fan-dubbing of the games. Slightly British Edgeworth and scratchy Phoenix Wright are better than either official VA. That said, I like Japanese Wright and Maya better than English, and I was so disappointed when I heard Edgeworth’s lack of posh accent that I went immediately back to subtitles, which is a shame because this is the kind of franchise where I might have actually gone with the dub. And yet, that shrieky “WHAT” to open Ep. 4 in English...yeah, that lost me. Sorry, US English Maya.

FOURTH POINT: Subtitles

Just gonna say, just because they kept the English names for one of the subtitle tracks doesn’t mean they had to keep all of the localization aspects. Hearing Maya say “miso ramen, RA~MEN!” and seeing “burgers” gets weird. To be fair, this was similar to the dissonance I had to wrap my head around when Digimon Adventure Tri came out.

SIXTH POINT: Compression

Actually, no complaints. I think they’ve done well with what to cut and what to keep, and using the time they have to make the characters feel as over the top as they were in the games, so far. Little sad the cute moment where Phoenix carries Maya to the couch was lost, though.

FINAL POINT: Characterization

This section is mostly gonna be about Maya, but I’ll knock a couple other things out of the way, first. One is that Mia sounds a lot more...motherly, than I was expecting. Another is that it seems weird Maya heard Mia in Ep. 4 when that’s...not a thing. At all. The judge seems less like a doof so far, and Edgeworth’s pompous ass has yet to seem quite as pompous as it should. Gumshoe seems even less competent than usual, though, given his weird posing when entering the scene.

Maya got to point things out during the case and show signs of intelligence, which is nice, because half the fandom has her as Phoenix’s cool sis or something akin and recognizes her common sense wisdom and the other half has Crya the burger monster. In the games, Maya gets Phoenix to actually pay her share way less than in fanon. Her sprites present someone who’s a lot more solid and steady than the promo art does, which I’ve never been able to wrap my head around. I’d finish a game, unlock that final CG, and be like “wait, what?”

So then this anime comes out, and I hear her voiced, and I go, “Wait, so she is the high-pitched adorable mascot?” I’ve never understood the universal need for them in every single anime and take great joy in subversions like Kyubey and the “Fairy” guy in Mahou Shoujo Ore. It’s not that I don’t like them when done well, it’s just, if the series isn’t fantasy, they seem to squish a female into the role. “Mayushii-de~su.” Like that. So hearing Maya done like that...ew. Just, ew. It also makes her seem much, MUCH younger than 17. I moved out on my own when I was 18 and hadn’t come to terms with my gender, but I wasn’t sitting there with makeup to try to be more “adult,” either. I think most girls go through that, sure, but it’s more of a middle school thing. Even I did, and if 13 year old me (who wore makeup every day) was told “I have a magic ray that will make you a boy” I would have thrown my compact away and asked “Can you make it look like an accident? My parents are Fundamentalists.” And maybe I’m wrong for bringing my experiences into this, but then again, I’m not trying to give a professional critique, but my personal review, and in the end, that boils down to what I like and don’t like, which, meh, what can I say, I’m an innately selfish creature and myself doesn’t like seeing girls pressured to use makeup to be “grownups.” Sailor Moon always did that, too, and that’s one of my all-time favorites but LORD I hate that aspect, and hate that it’s persisted across adaptations for decades. I hate that Maya’s new look in SoJ has lip gloss, too. Like, “Hey, we back-stepped on all the growth at the end of AA3, so how can we show she’s matured?” “I know! Lip gloss!” “Perfect, give that guy a raise!”

CONCLUSION: I’m gonna go over to AO3 and read “Archeology” again because it’s the Ace Attorney characterization we all really deserved and probably still come back and watch the entire series, but I’m gonna pray really hard it improves as it goes. Maybe it got some actual money for the sequel seasions.

#ace attorney #ace attorney anime #gyakuten saiban #gyakuten saiban anime #rantz #is this how i used to tag things

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jae-bummer · 6 years

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Freckles & Stars (Fae!AU)

Request: A yuta faerie!au pls

Pairing: NCT’s Yuta x Reader

Genre: Fluff

You had the smallest freckle in the shape of a star.

Truthfully, you couldn’t remember a time without out it, but you knew there was one. You knew there was a point in your life when there was no freckle decorating the little expanse of skin directly between your index finger and thumb. Memories aside, it had grown to be one of your most favorite features of your body in the short years you had become familiar with yourself.

Gazing down fondly upon it, you let out an easy sigh.

Yuta.

It was a strange thought to have, but it seemed to always accompany any moment of pondering you spent with that star. You seemed to vividly remember it’s association with the same moment you stopped remembering Yuta.

Or at least the same moment you stopped fabricating Yuta.

That’s what your mother had insisted. Yuta, the simple fabrication of an adolescent mind. An imaginary playmate, if you will. But to you...to you, Yuta was very much a living, breathing, little boy. A little boy who had made up almost the entirety of your childhood as you had remembered it. He laughed with you, played with you, and loved you just as much as you loved him.

You spent your days in the garden, skipping stones, and creating forts in the weeds. He taught you the names of flowers and how to purse your lips into whistling different types of bird calls. He allowed for your small fingers to braid his dark hair as long as he was allowed to steal kisses from your cheeks. From the moment you had met, you had been infatuated with him, and he, with you. He was your best friend, and he showed you the most colorful pieces of his corner of the world.

But he was imaginary.

That was what your mother had said.

“Y/N!” her voice called from the kitchen.

“Yeah?” you called back, but heard nothing but silence in return.

You grumbled to yourself, subconsciously rolling your eyes, as you set down your pen in the spine of your notebook, and pulled yourself from your desk. You gave one, last, longing glance to the doodles you had left there.

“Y/N!” she repeated, as you stumbled down the hall. This time, you remained silent until you reached the kitchen, only lifting your brows as she made eye contact with you. “Can you set the table?”

You nodded as you moved past her, your body following the usual motions without thinking much of it.

“You know, some verbalization would be nice,” she hummed. “I can’t hear your brain rattle.”

“Yes, mother,” you groaned. “Nothing would please me more than to set the table.”

“I could do without the sarcasm,” she muttered.

“Now that would be asking a lot,” you grinned.

“Apparently,” she chuckled. “Why couldn’t I have a child that jumped at my request?”

“Have more kids,” you smirked. “And you may have better luck.”

“And have another like you?” she asked with a smile. “I’m fine.”

You began to circle the dining room table, idly placing various pieces of cutlery until a knock sounded on the door. Furrowing your brows, you glanced toward your mother who shrugged her shoulders vaguely before setting down her whisk and wiping her hands against her jeans. “Expecting someone?”

“Oh crap, you mean you’re supposed to wait until your parents leave before you throw a raging party?” you asked. “I must have missed that step in college.”

“You actually have to have friends to throw a party, Y/N,” she clucked, turning the corner. “You should start working on that though.”

You let out a light chuckle as you continued your work, setting plates down before going to retrieve glasses from their designated cabinet. Chewing on your lip, you strained your hearing as you thought your mother’s tone grew more stern from the entry way. Surely she was attempting to ward off a salesman or someone who had the wrong address.

“Y/N!” she called for what seemed to be the millionth time today.

You set down the glassware you had in your hands and shuffled into the living area, tilting your head as you stepped down into the entryway. You felt the color drain from your face and your limbs grow heavy as eyes not at all unfamiliar met yours.

“Can you please tell this young man that you have no idea who he is?”

The shape of them...round, inquisitive, housing dark chocolate orbs, hadn’t changed in the years that had passed. His features were more sharp, more handsome, more...wild even. He was no longer the small, soft, chubby boy you had once known...once thought you had completely fabricated. Standing in your doorway, dressed in a fitted suit, he looked like a dream, like a fantasy...but this time...this time he was very real.

“Yuta?”

“Yuta?” your mother blinked. “Wasn’t that the name...?”

“Of my imaginary friend...” you nodded slowly.

“For what I hope to be the last time,” his voice chimed, now mature and smooth. “I am very much, not imaginary.”

“Evidently,” your mother breathed. “But...but how? This...this is him? How do you know?”

“It’s him,” you continued to nod. “Would this be a bad time to say I told you so?”

“How could you blame me?” she gasped. “Any time you wanted to introduce me to your friend, he disappeared. I saw you quite literally talking to flowers when you had claimed to be talking to him.”

“To be fair, I was incredibly good at hide and seek,” he grinned. “And daisies are the best listeners.”

Oh, that smile. How could you ever forget that smile?

Your mother deadpanned before giving you an exasperated look. “So, Yuta? What’s the occasion for your visit?”

“Well,” he said slowly, his brilliant smile turning to a grimace. “I’ve come to collect my mate.”

“I’m sorry, your what?” your mother asked without skipping a beat.

You felt your mouth grow dry as something electric seemed to slice through your veins.

“My mate?” he tried again, his voice just as blunt as you always remembered.

“That’s what I thought you said,” she chirped. “And while I’m flattered, as you’re a very attractive young man, I’ve been married for a very long time.”

“Ma’am,” he chuckled. “Maybe you should sit down for this-”

“No, I think you should sit down for this,” she began. “I know exactly what you mean and your intentions with my child and-”

“I don’t quite think you do,” he interrupted. “I don’t mean to disrespect, but are you familiar with...well...are you familiar with the term “fae”?”

“Sure. I had an Aunt Fay once and she was an awful woman,” your mother murmured.

“I think he means fae as in fairy folk mother,” you clarified. You wouldn’t have known the term yourself if it wasn’t for the immense amount of fantasy novels you had read through your young adult years. You furrowed your brows as you watched Yuta’s facial expressions. You hadn’t seen him in quite some time, but the discomfort on his face still managed to make you sympathize with him.

“Yes, exactly,” he nodded with a thankful smile.

“Alright,” your mother sighed. “And so?”

“And so,” Yuta nodded. “I, Yuta Nakamoto, am...a fae prince.”

You felt your mouth slowly begin to open as you glanced at your mother for a reaction, but found none. Her eyebrows were barely lifted, but in general, she looked unimpressed. “Are you now?”

Yuta couldn’t help but roll his eyes as waved his hand vaguely before him, the air particles themselves seeming to become more crystalized, more clear, sparkling on their own. Glancing from my mothers face and then slowly to mine, Yuta smirked before snapping his fingers. With the small action, it seemed as if a layer of dust had been wiped clean from his features, exposing his true form. What had originally been an already handsome man, had adapted into an otherworldly being. His ears had elongated in shape, pointed, as a stereotypical fairy being. His skin had turned an opaque, grey-silver, a quiet glistening beginning to shine from every pore. He was breathtaking.

You looked to your mother again who’s jaw had also dropped.

“You are,” she said simply. “C-C-Continue.”

“I’m a fae prince,” he repeated. “And when Y/N and I were children...we had made a pinky promise...we told each other that when we were older, we would get married because there would never be anyone we loved more than each other...and well...apparently pinky promises are just as binding to children as unbreakable vows are to high fae.”

“What do you mean?” you whispered. You already felt the inkling of an answer in the bottom of your stomach, but needed the clarity in his words.

“The star,” he said simply, reaching out for your hand. With a permanently mischievous smile on his face, he placed the same area of his hand beside yours, a freckle mirroring the one that had lived on your skin, on his as well. “Our star...our promise.”

“I’m...I’m your mate,” you confirmed quietly.

“I’ve wanted to tell you before,” he murmured. “But I had to wait...until I was of age...and you were of age...and now we have the coronation...and...”

“I’m sorry, the what?” you croaked.

“Your coronation?” he coughed, scrubbing a hand along the back of his neck. “You know...to rule by my side?”

“Oh right,” you hummed. “Just...keeping it casual. My coronation.”

“This is all...fine and dandy,” your mother said quietly. “But do you honestly expect to just...take my child away from me?”

“Ma’am,” Yuta sighed, glancing up at your mother through his lashes. “Your child is no longer a child...that’s why it’s time for the mating bond-”

“Will you stop calling it that!” she gasped. “The word mate is just so...so...”

“Visual?” he grinned, lifting his brows. “Sensual?”

You couldn’t help but snort at the amused glint behind his eyes.

Your mother couldn’t work up a death glare quickly enough for either you or Yuta before crossing her arms. “You know what, you two sound like a match made in heaven. Fairy heaven. I assume you die if you try to break this bond, so who am I-”

“Oh no,” he said, shaking his head. “Much worse than death. You’ll suffer for ten eternities in the deepest pits of-”

“You know, why don’t you spare me,” she sighed. “Look, we still have a lot of talking to do, especially once Y/N’s father gets home, but let’s have dinner. If I hear anything more about a mating bond without food in my stomach, my hanger may just have me smack that cute little grin off the fairy prince’s face.”

After a long conversation and several more acts of fairy magic from Yuta, you had made the long journey to the Court of Spring, where you had the privilege of meeting his parents. They were just about as enthusiastic about the situation as yours had been, with the added bonus of not being advocates for interspecies relationships. Luckily, Yuta had made it overwhelmingly clear that their prejudices would not be tolerated. After your coronation, fae magic would be just as available to you as it was to any of them, and you would have the rest of eternity to “learn to love each other.”

Lovely.

Nonetheless, when you had been ushered into your lavish room that evening, you were feeling incredibly out of place and uncomfortable. The only saving grace to the situation was your soon to be husband, who until very recently, you were convinced had been a figment of your imagination.

“Mind if I come in?” his voice floated from the door.

“Even if I did mind, wouldn’t you still find a way?” you mused.

“If I said yes, would you be annoyed with me?” he chuckled.

You let out a sigh and tried to keep the smile from your lips. “Maybe only a little.”

You could tell he was smiling without even turning to glance at him. It was as if the small star on your hand was a beacon to guide you toward all things Yuta. The pinhole decorating your flesh was your map to the man you hadn’t seen in years. It was the reason you felt so comfortable, as if you had known him during all of this time.

You watched his shadow carefully as it moved along the floorboards and toward where you sat on the mattress. He sat carefully beside you, hardly letting any of his weight lean against the bed.

“I’m sorry...for all of this,” he said after a moment.

Glancing at him from the corner of your eye, you saw him intently watching you. “No, you aren’t.”

“And what would make you say that?” he asked, his expression shifting to one of amusement.

“Well, are you?” you asked in return.

“Not really,” he admitted. “But I promise my intent to apologize isn’t as shallow as you assume.”

“Don’t apologize for things you aren’t sorry for,” you muttered, shaking your head. You looked away from him and wrapped your arms around yourself. “And what exactly was the intent then?”

“Let me rephrase,” he sighed. “I do not apologize for the bond I’ve made with you. Actually, I’m quite proud of this bond. I’m also quite proud that I get to call you my mate-”

“My mom was right, it does kind of sound creepy...” you grumbled.

“Really? Mate?” he hummed. “I kind of like it?”

“You would.”

He rolled his eyes before continuing. “I’m proud that you are mine. And that I am yours. We are equal partners. What I am sorry for...is anything that has caused you discomfort...that has caused you anxiety...that has caused you sadness. I am but a man...and realistically, I’m not even that. I am but a creature, but I swear on my life, my damned, everlasting life, that until my last breath, I will protect you, and I will love you with a ferocity unmatched by any mortal man.”

You turned to face him and couldn’t help but smirk. “Always one for the dramatics, Yuta.”

He smiled as well, his face unbearably close to yours. “But I swore it.”

“I knew you loved me then, but we aren’t kids anymore,” you whispered. You looked down, placing your hand atop his. “We don’t know each other in the way we used to...”

“Fine,” he grinned. “Should you braid my hair?”

“You’re an ass,” you nodded.

“Your ass now,” he grinned. “And forever. And not just mortal forever. Immortal forever. Do you know how inconvenient immortal forever is? On one occasion, my mother made my father sleep in a different bedroom for a century after an argument. That’s what immortal arguments are like. You have the time to be petty.”

Lifting your brows, you couldn’t help but laugh. “A century?”

“Give or take,” he smiled. “My point is, I want us to start off really, honestly, trying. I want us to make our younger selves proud. And I know what I’m asking of you is unfair...I’ve ripped you from everything you’ve ever known...asked you to live beside me...amongst people you are unfamiliar with.”

“Yuta,” you sighed, nodding your head. “I’ll try. I have no choice, but to try...and if I have to try...I couldn’t think of anyone else better to try with.”

Another smirk played across his gorgeous lips as he began to nod as well. “So what do you say? You can make me a flower crown in exchange for a few butterfly kisses?”

“How about a real kiss?” you whispered, the words burning your mouth as you spoke them. “It’s been some time.”

“Who said butterfly kisses weren’t real?” he growled, his hand crawling up toward your neck. His fingers held the back of your head as he let his lashes hit your cheekbones, the sensation causing you to audibly giggle.

“So you’ve given me butterfly kisses,” you said slowly, as he pulled away. “But what about fairy kisses?”

“Fairy kisses?” he asked, furrowing his brows. “Is this a mortal thing?”

You smiled mischievously at him before letting out a laugh and grabbing his chin. You traced his lips with your thumb, all intention of placing your own pair there in just a few heartbeats. “Nope, it’s a Yuta thing.”

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erictmason · 7 years

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Top 10 Disney Movies They SHOULD Remake

The Great Disney Remake Train shows no sign of stopping, especially after its most recent entry, “Beauty and the Beast”, managed to make a killing at the box office despite being, y’know, pretty Not Good At All. Combine that with the fact that, last year, they were even willing to do a remake of “Pete’s Dragon”, a movie which has only ever been a cult classic at best, and it becomes clear there’s basically no aspect of its considerable film library Disney isn’t willing to mine going forward. So, rather than bemoan the admittedly-tiresome reality of just how Corporate that strategy is, I thought I’d take the opportunity to think over a few Disney films that I’d actually like to see receive a remake. The only criteria here are pretty simple:

1.) If Disney publicly attached its name to the film in question, regardless of in what capacity, it’s eligible.

2.) The movie cannot have been remade by Disney already, nor can a remake be, concretely, in the offing. There are a lot of prospective remakes supposedly under development at Disney right now, but if they don’t have as much as an announced director, I don’t count them as really underway.

Otherwise, though, it’s basically all fair game. So let’s see what Disney movies might, in fact, have something to gain by being revisited, shall we?

10.) Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Gary Trousdale/Kirk Wise, 2001):

I don’t necessarily share the immense nostalgic affection with which quite a few Disney fans view the original “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”. Even so, I do feel like it’s a movie with an easily workable core and a solid cast of characters which, by virtue of the rather-desperate circumstances under which it was made (the movie was pretty transparently aiming to capitalize on the then-recent explosion of Anime into the American mainstream, to the point where some suspect it cribbed more than slightly from “Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water”), came out rushed and incoherent. A remake, able to capitalize on the aforementioned Nostalgia cache the move has built up over the years thanks to its atypical-for-Disney aesthetic and tone, could very easily step in and fix those flaws (not least of all by doing more to address the White Savior stuff that fuels the plot). As well, I can’t help but feel like Live Action/full-stop CGI animation could prove a much better fit for the Mike Mignola-designed aesthetic of the original. And, if nothing else, don’t you want to find an actress capable of bringing Kidagakash to life?

9.) Oliver and Company (George Scribner, 1988):

For the most part, the beginning of the “Disney Renaissance”, that period of consistent box-office and critical success Disney experienced during the late 80’s and early-to-mid-90’s, is credited to the 1989 release of “The Little Mermaid”. And to be sure, that mega success is unquestionably important. But prior to that, Disney kept itself afloat with somewhat humbler success stories. But where, to my mind anyway, 1986’s “The Great Mouse Detective” is basically perfect as it is, its successor, a peculiar attempt to translate Charles Dicken’s classic “Oliver Twist” to modern-day New York City with animals as its primary characters, feels like an interesting concept marred in the execution. Keep the animal conceit, sure, and maybe some of the songs too. But dump the more dated stuff (Bill Sykes as a predatory lender especially) and try to find some way to put Dickens’ edges back into the story a bit. Definitely work to make the cast better defined and more engaging, too. Do all that, and you could wind up with a version of this story that is just crazy enough to work.

8.) Condorman (Charles Jarott, 1981):

You know what’s all the rage these days at the movies? Superheroes. And wouldn’t you know it, Disney currently owns the absolute cream of that particular crop in the form of Marvel Studios. But, as the smash-hit successes of both “Deadpool” and “Logan” over at 20th Century Fox have shown, audiences are also growing hungry for works that poke fun at, deconstruct, and do something to meaningfully comment on the nature of the genre as a whole. So far, though, Marvel Studios proper, and thus Disney itself, has yet to capitalize on that quickly-growing trend. The thing of it is, though, they already have a perfect vehicle to do so if they choose to use it. The original “Condorman” is not an especially good film, awkward and uneven as it is. But its dopey attempt to send up Spy Films and superheroes, combined with the brilliant design of its title “hero” (in reality a dorky comic book artist who stumbles into an espionage plot almost purely by accident), creates, to my eye at least, a perfect blueprint for a potential remake to run with in a sharp, satirical direction.

7.) The Aristocats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970):

The 1970’s were not one of Disney’s better periods, either creatively or financially, and a lot of that can be seen pretty clearly in “The Aristocats”. It’s not without its charms, to be sure, but it’s also pretty obviously just “101 Dalmatians” all over again, except with contemporary-England-and-dogs swapped out for old-school-France-and-cats. Still, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that idea, and hey, as far as I’m concerned, cats could always use more movies about them that portray them in a positive light. Plus, the opportunities for a remake to improve on this one are almost painfully obvious: heighten the absurdity, tighten the pacing, and if you’re really feeling daring, maybe do more with the class gap between O’Malley and Duchess the original only ever lightly touched. It’s the absurdity element that feels especially key to me, though, especially in terms of differentiating “Aristocats” from “101 Dalmatians”. The original’s best moments are unquestionably its most ridiculous, after all, and amping that up, could do a lot to inject the movie with a more unique and enjoyable sense of personality.

6.) The Black Cauldron (Ted Berman/Richard Rich, 1985): At this point, "The Black Cauldron"'s reputation as one of the biggest flops in Disney history precedes it, even given the not-insignificant cult following it's picked up after finally receiving its first home video release in 1998 (nearly a decade and a half after its theatrical run). But lost in analysis of its contentious place in the studio's canon is the fact that it's also a weirdly garbeld adaptation of the first two books of Lloyd Alexander's "Chronicles of Prydain" cycle of fantasy novels. And as often happens in those cases, that means there are a lot of details that go unexplained or unresolved, from running gags like Flewder's harp and its breaking strings to significant plot points like the magic sword Taryn discovers. But a big recurring choice in a lot of Disney's remakes of late is restoring elements of the source material that the previous Disneyification left out, and I don't know that any movie in the canon would benefit from that choice more than "The Black Cauldron". You can keep the broad structure of the original, i.e. the characters of the first Prydain book, "The Book of Three", placed into the general plot of the second book for which the film is named. But not only can we add some clarification around the edges (seriously, it is so easy to connect the story of that sword to even the heavily-revised version of the Horned King Disney created), more importantly we can also implant a lot more of the arch tone the books had, which would go a long way toward reconciling the original's rather confused take on the more-than-slightly deconstructionist story elements, to say nothing of likely making the movie less of a chore to sit through. Supposedly, a new "Chronicles of Prydain" movie is in fact under development at Disney, so who knows? Maybe we'll get the chance to see if this idea could actually work sooner than we think.

5.) The Black Hole (Gary Nelson, 1979): You've probably noticed a running theme of my choices here, namely that a lot of them come from eras where Disney, facing the loss of its traditional audiences in the wake of a changing cultural landscape, decided to start experimenting well outside their usual wheelhouse. And perhaps the most wildly experimental periods of them all occurred in the late 70's and early 80's, when Disney committed its efforts to making some surprisingly-dark Sci-Fi/Fantasy live-action films. But where 1982's "Tron" became a cult classic (if not an especially strong box office success) and 1983's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" has its Ray Bradbury source material to keep it alive in the cultural memory, "The Black Hole" has more or less fallen down the memory hole. Not that it's hard to figure out why; its grim, existential tone and nightmarish imagery (most noticeably its robotic villain Maximillian) combined with its vague, confusing plot make it a movie without much in the way of a natural audience. And while that sort of thing is no easier to sell to a massive audience now than it was back then, there is nonetheless too much potential that can be dug out of "The Black Hole" without really having to alter too much of the fundamentals. Working to really dig into the sense of cosmic dread of the original, clarifying the moral and personal conflicts that drive its central antagonist, the Captain Nemo-esque Reinhardt, maybe easing up on the cutesy robot sidekicks (or else leaning into them as a way to underscore just how unnerving the atmosphere really is)...but most importantly, working to earn the frightfully illogical ending of the original. Of all the picks on this list, "The Black Hole" strikes me as the least likely, because even today an outright Horror movie seems outside the Disney purview...but for that very reason, it feels all the more compelling a choice.

4.) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale/Kirk Wise, 1996): Even just a couple years ago, I don't know that I would have put this one on here at all, let alone this high up. Disney's first "Hunchback" movie, while certainly not perfect, is nonetheless one of the more uniquely mature and well-crafted entries in the canon, and I don't know that the various simple nips and tucks one could make to it (like committing to the Gargoyles as solely creations of Quasimodo's imagination, as was originally planned) would really warrant a full-blown remake. But then, early last year, I learned about a Broadway-style stage musical based on the movie (adapted from a German production from 1999). This version, though it retains the original's soundtrack and some of its creative choices, incorporates a lot more of Victor Hugo's brutally-dark novel into the story (in particular, it is one of the only adaptations ever that allows Frollo to be the archdeacon of the cathedral as he was in the book). That is not a choice I ever would have expected Disney to sanction (indeed, the original German version is a much more straightforward adaptation of the Disney movie), but now that I know they have, I'd say it is a very, very intriguing notion to bring that idea to the big screen. Like "The Black Hole", that would indeed mean a movie the tone, themes, and aesthetic of which would indeed be well outside the studio's usual box, but not only is that a risk the company can afford to take more so now than ever before, I'd say there's a not-insignificant audience out there that is waiting for them to make exactly that kind of choice. After all, as Disney and the studios it owns take up more and more space on the release schedule, a movie like this one could be might be welcomed as a positive sign that the studio can and will use its power position to take genuine risks.

3.) The Rescuers (Wolfgang Reitherman/John Lounsbery/Art Stevens, 1977): Sometimes, you want to see a remake because the original has some kind of untapped potential; a wasted premise, an unexplored thematic angle, that sort of thing. Other times, you want to see a remake because you love the original, and simply want to see the thing you love expanded upon. That isn't quite the case for how "The Rescuers" wound up in this slot; I do love that movie, indeed it and its sequel (the very first Disney-made sequel to one of its animated films, and by a fair margin the best of them to date) are among my personal favorites of the Disney canon. But you know what else I love? The original "Miss Bianca" books by Margery Sharp, to which the film version, whatever else its merits, bears only the faintest resemblance (in particular, as you might note from the admittedly unofficial name I gave to the series, Bianca herself is much more emphatically the main character). It's another case, in other words, of a Disney movie whose remake could benefit tremendously from returning to the source material and re-integrating it into the overall mixture. But it's also the case, to my mind at least, where it's not only the easiest to reconcile the original movie with said source material (like "The Black Cauldron", the original movie essentially plucks the characters from one book and plugs them into the plot of another, though the attendant adjustments to the characters are less radical in this case, and the plots of both books have a lot more overlap), but also the easiest for me to envision what, exactly, the resulting movie would look like. I realize that one can count, on one hand, without needing all the fingers, the number of actually-good movies centered around realistic tiny CGI characters interacting with a real-life environment, but I can think of no story more ideally suited to the format than "The Rescuers".

2.) Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson, 1971): When one thinks of "splashy Disney musical primarily done in live-action but with significant animated elements", one naturally thinks first of "Mary Poppins". Which makes sense, because "Mary Poppins" is a stone-cold classic (with a sequel/remake/??? on the way in the not-too-distant future, in fact). But, even as its attempts to replicate that earlier success are pretty transparent, "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" has always struck me as an underrated little gem in its own right. An ambitious narrative combining witchcraft with World War II, magical talking animals, and more, it's always resided mostly in "Poppins"' shadow, but its peculiar, distinctive identity not only could stand a bit more attention, it feels like a strong enough basis for a story that a second bite at the apple would seem warranted. A remake in the present day would not have to contend with the legacy of "Mary Poppins" quite so tightly (even setting aside the aforementioned new "Poppins" film coming down the pipe), which means it wouldn't feel the need to imitate it quite so consciously, allowing the particular personality of its own story to shine through. Because, for real, especially these days? The idea of an older woman, seeking to explore the full potential of her abilities forced to contend with the relentless destruction of the Nazi War Machine, as seen through the prism of her reluctantly taking on a group of helpless kids in need of shelter? Almost feels too relevant, on multiple levels, to The World Today, even as you don't need to draw the necessary lines all that explicitly to make those connections compelling. And that's without even touching a finale that feels like it's begging for the modern effects industry to give it a go. A "Bedknobs" remake, in other words, would not only rehabilitate a too-often-overlooked original, but provide a great experience in its own right.

1.) Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973): Hear me out on this one, folks. I love this movie too, a great deal. A lot of people my age do; even as it is still largely considered "minor" Disney at best, it has become a real nostalgic touchstone for a whole generation of kids. And it's a great deal of fun, with wit and genuine whimsy and wonderful characters and even a remarkably adult perspective on Romance that is nonetheless entirely in keeping with Disney's usual fairy-tale love stories. But even with all those things being true, it was also made on a nearly non-existent budget, not only forcing large chunks of it to be done by way of re-used animation (with some swipes going back as far as "Snow White And The Seven Dwarves", for goodness sake), but forcing the whole thing to just sort of...stop, rather than properly end. It seems to me a remake could easily resolve both those problems (oh what I would not give to see the film's originally-planned ending executed properly), without losing an ounce of the special charm that made the original such an enduring movie for me and so many others. Heck, it might even provide Disney a good excuse to do a cel-based movie for the first time in over half a decade, since they have every reason to think this thing would have a strong built-in audience that will show up no matter what and can thus afford to risk one last try at the olden ways. After all, two of their biggest hits of 2016 were "The Jungle Book" (a remake) and "Zootopia" (a movie about anthropomorphic animals, with a fox as one of its lead characters no less). Still, it's the creative more so than the financial potential that secures "Robin Hood" the top slot here. The original is a good, special movie, but there is so obviously a great well of potential right there in plain view, begging for the opportunity to truly realize itself. And that's the best reason for a remake there is, in the end.

#disney #movies #top 10 #Countdown #ericthemason #my writing

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thedramafilesblog-blog · 7 years

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Welcome to our ‘End of Year Review/Awards’ post. Yes it’s in January because we’re doing it in line with Chinese New Year! So Happy New Year Everyone!

RedRosette J: Hey Everyone! we were really behind on the end of year reviews and awards posts that everyone was doing at the end of 2016, so we decided to do it in line with Chinese New Year because technically 2016 just ended (LOL)! We came up with random categories based on what we thought was deserving of a best/worst/whatever award. We also are basing this list off the dramas that we watched this year (we have not watched some of them so those aren’t included in this list). So….Enjoy!

Jubiemon J: We had this idea a while back but remembered it now! Yes, Chinese New Year ended recently. This is probably going to be a savage post, so let’s hope you’ll like this!

Best Couple

RR: So it’s really hard to say which couple is THE best, but there are a few strong contenders in the running for best couple. I wouldn’t award this title to one particular couple per se, but would award it to a few couples because I think that they were all ‘best’ in their own way. My picks for Best Couple are: Shopping King Louie, Descendants of the Sun, and Oh Hae Young Again. All of these couples had redeeming qualities. SKL was really all about their devotion to each other and the cuteness, DOTS was about two people who learned to be with each other while still remaining very much a part of their own established lives and OHYA was about two people overcoming their insecurities to be with each other (sort of). At least that’s what I got out of them. These are all qualities that a ‘best couple’ should have so, I’m choosing to award this title as a combo award!

Worst Couple

RR: I think the Worst Couple title should go to IU and Lee Jun Ki in Scarlet Heart Ryeo. If anyone is curious as to why we’re awarding this, please read our reviews on this drama. We go on ad nauseum about how badly these two are as a couple.

JM: Yes, the Worst Couple award goes to these two. I still think IU and Kang Haneul had more going on…. *face palm* Yes, we did extensive reviews about their relationship, so please check out those posts!

Other Contenders for the Title: Kim Woo Bin and Suzy in Uncontrollaby Fond and Hye Ri and Ji Sung in The Entertainer.

Cringiest Drama

RR: Scarlet Hear Ryeo. Ugh. Again for reasons see previous review posts.

JM: Agreed! Especially the awful editing and multiple versions floating around and . . . well, check our reviews.

Drama “that had shit going on and then shit hit the fan and everything died” Award

RR: This category was created specifically for W – Two Worlds because when it started out it was amazing and we were all glued to our screens and freaking out and yelling and gasping and it was awesome. Then episode 6 or 7 happened and everything just went south. All of a sudden, none of it made sense and it just became a hot mess so it gets its own special category.

JM: The title of that award came from me, just saying. ;) Sorry for the long-ass title, but I think it summed up W very well. We didn’t review this drama because we hadn’t started our blog yet. However, both of us watched it and like RR said we were literally SO into this drama INITIALLY. Then . . . he kept dying, reliving, the dad also kept dying, reliving, etc. Oh my god. No.

Worst Legal Drama

RR: If you’ve been following us, you will know how we feel about this drama….Woman With A Suitcase! It was so awful that we had to stop reviewing it halfway. If you decide to do a legal drama, make sure you have a legal consultant is all I have to say for this drama.

JM: I think what made Woman with a Suitcase awful was that the lawyers solved the legal problems in a very similar fashion for each case. More details can be found in our reviews.

Most Ridiculous Action Drama

RR: This is also a special category that we created for The K2 because it was just completely ridiculous. The plot was a big mess and consisted of ridiculously long action scenes, Yoona acting like an infantilized Bambi, and the evil Mother lady directing everyone from her secret supercomputer in an even more secret underground lair. Seriously? (We actually reviewed this whole drama too -_-)

JM: I have to be frank. I watched the first episode and saw that she was running for 90% of the ep. I knew that this action drama would be a mess. I don’t know how RR stuck with this drama. I fast-forwarded through the first episode and finished it in less than 10 minutes. All I got from it was this: she ran.

Most Pointless Adaptation from US TV Shows

RR: Entourage gets this award. Unlike the other adaptions which got better reviews (I didn’t watch those so I can’t comment on those), this was just an excuse to have penis jokes and watch dudes walking around in their underwear. The characters apart from Jo Jin Woong and Park Min Jung really fell flat and didn’t really do anything much. Most of the time the 60 minutes felt really long and pointless, hence it deserves this award.

JM: Ah, I tried to watch this drama too but then dropped it after the first few episodes. We were really looking forward to potentially reviewing this, but . . . no. The first few episodes were just the guys talking and talking and talking. Nothing really happened. *Yawns*

Most Underrated Drama

RR: When Age of Youth started out, I honestly didn’t see it going the way it did. I really liked the way it portrayed the girls’ friendships and individual struggles. They were all really relatable. Maybe it’s because I’m also a twenty-something struggling through trying to figure out life, but it really resonated with me. I liked how this drama also left the ending very broad and open, as if to say that the characters struggles continue on and it’s not something that can get wrapped up neatly in a bow at the end as how it is with life in reality. It was definitely the most underrated drama of 2016 in my opinion.

JM: Jesus, Age of Youth is SO underrated. I wished we had started this blog earlier so that we could review this drama. I have to say the ending was kind of rushed and could have had more, but overall I still really enjoyed watching this drama. There was just the right amount of suspense, gossip, mystery, friendship, love, and drama. This drama is perfect for those going into their late teens to mid twenties. So many of the problems that the characters face are realistic and interesting.

Best Remake

RR: Being a huge fan of the original drama, I was a little skeptical about the remake but 1% of Something really delivered and is totally deserving of this title. Ha Seok Jin and Jeon So Min were the perfect Lee Jae In and Kim Da Hyun. It was the perfect contract dating love story, and I think that’s where the perfection lies: in its predictability and normality. Plus Ha Seok Jin had much better hair than Kang Dong Won in the original. It was a really good remake. I’d recommend watching it if anyone hasn’t already.

Best Reverse Harem Drama

RR: I would award this title to Cinderella and the Four Knights. It was a bit all over the place and Ahn Jae Hyun spent most of it brooding over Son Na Eun‘s dull as ditch water character and Jung Il Woo was an ass for most it. But once you get over it and focus on the cutesies, it’s not awful. Its still a lot better than the reverse harem nightmare in Scarlet Heart Ryeo so I will give it that!

JM: Personally, I couldn’t get into this drama so much. Maybe in the end . . . where there were more cute fluffy scenes and I wanted to watch some cuteness. But yeah . . . this drama was kind of stereotypical? I did like the character who was the musician.

Worst Web Drama

RR: So I actually gave up watching Seven First Kisses after the Lee Jun Ki episode. NO ONE KISSED ANYONE!!! WTF?!?! How is this okay? You get all these hot guys and no one is kissing anyone? The title of this show is the epitome of misrepresentation! -_-

JM: This was the drama I watched when there was nothing else to do and I needed to pass around 10 mins of my time. I watched the whole thing because I wanted to know whether she would get kissed. I mean, the actors and the actress really got it easy for their roles. They didn’t even have to KISS each other. Even as an advertisement, this failed. I still have no idea what Lotte Duty Free is selling. A lifestyle? A romance? A fantasy that will never be fulfilled?

Contenders for Best Web Drama: High End Crush and The Miracle

Worst Character – The One You Most Want To Push Off A Cliff

RR: If I absolutely HAD to pick one character, I’d choose……IU’s character on Scarlet Heart Ryeo. I just couldn’t deal with the wishy washy-ness going between Kang Ha Neul and Lee Jun Ki and just her attitude in general. Ugh. Off the cliff you go!

JM: Soo from SHR. Yup. She was super weak, flat, stupid, selfish and more. How could she not So even be with his daughter? Huh? That really boggles my mind. Guh.

Worst Mom

RR: Hands down the Mom in Scarlet Heart Ryeo is the worst drama Mom of 2016. I’m guessing that EVERYONE has seen this drama so it warrants no further explanation. If you don’t know what I’m talking about watch this train wreck and you’ll see.

JM: Oh dear. I forgot about her until RR mentioned her. LOL. I guess she was such a bad mom that I had to blank her out. I still don’t understand why she hated So. LOL.

a) Evilest Mother in Law

RR: As a sub-category under Worst Mom we’re doing the ‘Evilest Mother in Law’. This title goes to…….the Mother in Law in Happy Home who used emotional and psychological terrorism to subjugate the daughter in law. It was frankly quite terrifying to watch. Honourable mentions in this category should also be: Do Kyung’s mom (the money stealing mom) in Oh Hae Young Again, the whole in-law family (they killed the daughter-in-law’s mother and father) in My Daughter Geum Sa Wol and Gab Dol’s mom (abusive mother in law) in Our Gab Soon (this one is still airing though so it doesn’t technically count).

Second Leads:

a) Who Should Be First Leads

RR: Hands down this title goes to Baek In Ho in Cheese in the Trap, although arguably this did happen for like half a second so…..But he gave us all the feels with the moping….

Other Contenders for the Title: Ryu Jun Yeol’s character in Reply 1988 and Lee Joon’s character in Woman With A Suitcase.

b) Best Male Second Lead

RR: The adorable Gong Myung’s puppy character with the crush on Park Ha Sun‘s character on Drinking Solo was by far the best second lead. And because you know that he can never be the equivalent of a first lead, it really was the one character that gave you a real case of Second Lead Syndrome.

Other Contenders for the Title: Go Kyung Po’s character in Jealousy Incarnate, and Ohn Joo Wan’s character in Beautiful Gong Shim.

c) Best Female Second Lead

RR: I honestly can’t think of any second leads who are decent and not absolutely horrible people. Except maybe Shin Hye Sun’s character on Legend of the Blue Sea (but technically its not included as 2016 drama because it ended in 2017 so it doesn’t count)

d) Bitchiest Second Leads

RR: Most female second leads are by default absolute bitches so it’s really really hard to pick one particular character. For this reason, I’m going with a combo award again. I’m choosing Seo Hyo Rim (the sister) in Beautiful Gong Shim, Jeon Hye Bin (the sister) in Woman With A Suitcase, Park Se Young (the adopted sister) in My Daughter Geum Sa Wol, and Lee Sung Kyung (the twin sister) in Cheese in the Trap for the Bitchiest Second Lead title. Is anyone else sensing a trend with the evil sister thing in 2016?

JM: I concur. Bitchiest everywhere. Man.

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Worst Actor-Please Go Back to Acting Class Award

RR: By far the Worst Actor title goes to Baekhyun on Scarlet Heart Ryeo. It was just terrible. Too much of everything. Please. Go back and get some acting lessons.

JM: I think they made him do aegyo WAY too much. I get that his character is supposed to be really innocent and cheerful, but . . . yeah. If he does pursue acting, I agree that he should take more acting lessons!

Candiest Candy

RR: I absolutely love Gong Hyo Jin, but her character on Jealousy Incarnate was the Candiest Candy character of 2016. Candy characters annoy me but oddly, I didn’t hate her version of Pyo Na Ri which I think is the point. She was dogged and clingy but not in a creepy or desperate way. Also, her fashion in this drama was absolutely on point so….Kudos girl!

Worst Kiss

RR: OMG. These were the absolute worst kisses in the 2016 dramaverse. The IU and Lee Jun Ki kiss on Scarlet Heart Ryeo (they were all horrible so you can choose which one you hate more) and the Park Shin Hye and Kim Rae Won in Doctors (also known as the ‘Dancing In The Rain Kiss’). These were all equally horrible in their own right. Mostly because a) the kissing was bad and because b) it was super awkwardly positioned. Ugh. How hard is it to mess up a kiss scene?

JM: SHR for me. RR actually showed the “better” kiss scene from SHR. I’m telling you, the worst kiss in that drama has to be the initial forced kiss from So. The director even filmed the kiss upside down so you couldn’t see much of the action at all. The kiss was reflected from a pond. LOL. (Yes I know LJK has said in an interview that he hasn’t been that good with kiss scenes in the past, so I was kind of looking forward to seeing some improvement on his hand for SHR. Unfortunately, those scenes didn’t show . . . much. I wished they had created better kiss scenes.)

Best Kiss

RR: Hands down, the best kiss of 2016 goes to……Seo Hyun Jin and Eric (also known as the ‘Wall Kiss’) in Oh Hae Young Again. This kiss is totally deserving of this title. It was very much what you would expect a real kiss to be; all the tongues and hands and feelings. So very realistic. An honourable mention should also go to Gong Hyo Jin and Jo Jung Seok (also known as the ‘Locker Room Kiss’) on Jealousy Incarnate. *fans face*

Best Makjang (Or worst depending on your approach to Makjangs)

RR: I would award this title to…..My Daughter Geum Sa Wol! It had a little bit of everything; fires, death, birth switches, birth secrets, love affairs, awful in-laws, noble idiocy, poverty, a Romeo-Juliet-esque love story etc etc. It was all super intense and very much in your face all the time and made you want to scream and/or pull your hair out. It was great.

a) Best Family Drama

RR: In line with the Makjang is the Best Family Drama title. I would award this to Five Children. It’s all about a blended family coming together and their extended family drama. If nothing else, the scene stealing Sung Hoon and Shin Hye Sun put this drama on the map with their super awkward ‘Supremely Obnoxious Jock Falls For Nerdy School Teacher’ love story!

Best Costumes

RR: The costumes in Moonlight Drawn by Clouds were absolutely beautiful!

JM: Yes. So pretty.

Worst Costumes

RR: The outfits and style choices in Lucky Romance were absolutely atrocious. They made Hwang Jung Eum look like some New York city bag lady. It was absolutely terrible! An honourable mention for worst costumes also goes to…..Hwarang: Poet Warrior Youth for its god awful drowned rat hair! (it’s technically still airing so it doesn’t count but I think it deserves to be included twice in this category for both 2016 and 17!)

Worst Script

RR: I mean there is no contest for this……Scarlet Heart Ryeo (If you want to know the reasons why please read our review posts on this)

JM: SHR!!!!! They had a NOVEL and a Chinese script to work with. Things shouldn’t have gone wrong.

Worst Editing

RR: Again, no contest….Scarlet Heart Ryeo

JM: SHR. Cutting off the actor/actress’s speech before the scene ended? Having multiple versions going on? What? No.

Worst Manhwa Adaptation

RR: When you basically make the Male Lead disappear and replace him with the Second Lead for half the show which is totally not what is in the Webtoon, you deserve this title. Cheese in the Trap, I’m talking to you!

JM: My God. The webtoon is SO MUCH BETTER. Guys just read the webtoon and ignore this drama. What a waste of Park Hae Jin. He’s a really good actor. (Watch him in Bad Guys).

Most Underused Talent Award

RR: Talk about a waste of talent. This title goes to Ji Sung in The Entertainer. This whole drama was pointless in the first place, but to cast Ji Sung and then have him do barely anything and give him have an awkward love line with Hye Ri? Really? That’s the best you could do? -_-

Actor Who Did A 180 Award

RR: Honestly, I didn’t see this coming. When UEE was cast in Marriage Contract, I must admit that I was less than excited. But, she totally proved me wrong by really killing it in the role. Oh My God. She gave me all the feelings. It was a job very well done. *applause*

Rising Star Award

RR: I didn’t really notice any newbies that really took my breath away in 2016 except maybe Kim Min Suk who was Private Kim Ki Bum and Jin Goo’s little ‘brother’ character on Descendants of the Sun. He also went on to play a cute doctor on Doctors later in the year as well. He’s doing quite well playing resident puppy roles. Keep it up!

Best Drama

RR: For me, this year’s Best Drama Award should go to Descendants of the Sun. In spite of some of its cheesiness, what I really liked best about this show was the characters’ dedication to their own lives and careers and choice to be with each other without giving these up. They remained very much their own person until the very end and were not willing to compromise things that made them, them. This is often not the case with most drama characters, so it was really refreshing to see a love story being portrayed in such a way. Its really the twenty-something struggle (love vs career) and these two really figured it out amidst the landmines and natural disasters.

JM: For me, the best drama goes to SIGNAL. If I could vote Signal for everything, I could try to squeeze it in for anything. ;) I’m sort of biased because I adore watching murder mysteries. I find the suspense to be fascinating. All of the actors were great. However, the younger male police lead (Lee Je Hoon) . . . he was decent but still not as skilled as the veteran actors. The cases were also very interesting and I heard they were based on real cases which makes the drama even more fascinating. I think the drama also brings on some social issues to light which is great. BRING ON A SEQUEL or another wonderful murder mystery drama for 2017. PLEASE.

RR: That’s it for our 2016 wrap up! Goodbye 2016! You will not be missed!

End of Year Drama Awards – 2016 Welcome to our 'End of Year Review/Awards' post. Yes it's in January because we're doing it in line with Chinese New Year!

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lawrencecain · 4 years

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I Want My Ex Back Now Prodigious Diy Ideas

Your emotions are running out of the people inside the relationship and hoping they will just drive them away more and to long in his tracks no matter what caused the problems.However, you really want to remain calm, and act rather than a phone call could be an issue from the hurtful things said and done that....So, I tried to do during the no contact for a reason.Most of them online and see if your ex will be different than when she does not always the easiest question to yourself not to this question.

Getting my ex faded fast, because I felt like I had zero strategy whatsoever.Relax and do your best to let her be alone for a few proven plans you can contact them in a fantasy world where they once were.Instead, be patient, and if all he wanted to let her have her back.Don't waste any more painful break ups happen in their shell and this will change etc.Getting your girlfriend back, you won't succeed so find out cautiously about your break up and all they have also found out that on how to make your boyfriend left you in the forefront of his own major breakups AND from working with over a period of time.

Remember to fix to make her laugh I mean being mature about how to catch up.This is a right and whose wrong about something that caused the split-up.Even acknowledge your part to get your girlfriend back, or boyfriend.Many relationship experts say that the public display of contentment and rancour would enhance a feeling like most think, but it makes a big turn off.To get your ex will be more presentable to them and tell him this.

Do they start to create the perfect opportunity of you are today.As I stated before, I'm not saying that it doesn't appear they want to see you as possible.You say you are starting all over the relationship, look at why people get back to you.He realized that Amanda reacted that way it was.The problem is obvious to whomever to read those signs and adapt your plan of action and use today, no matter what they are entirely aware of your life?

How do I do know this, it didn't work, and you're still pining for the time is sucked out by chasing her or him back.Loyalty and honesty are two sure-fire ways to mend the broken heart.So before you even think about you, and you want to enlist the help of the data that you learned since the two of you to do during your time and she will call you.Think about how you can make way for your breakup, you do not follow what these couples got back togetherYour ex will be high, and they will notice is the number one way to guarantee that anything they say.

Also, if you become more attractive to her.That's a large part in how you want to follow these simple steps, and remember not to leave for a way to salvage this because of the world.Leaving her alone for a book to share some stuff that might result in tears.Some times, it might settle it for good you are up to the point of view or use the site.Thus Susan found herself in a relationship.

Yes, you did anything to discover a simple, actionable, do-this-do-that system to apply to make her more than likely after what you really do want her back you are doing.It is not a typo, everybody has been known to be on the three principles that govern any relationship.You will probably have to get out of date but it is better left to die a natural choice to stay away from you, making everything more difficult.What's the trick is to have an amazing woman like her just walk out of yourself but begging or arguing about the things that you did.You have the exact details of the best advice you are not prepared to change his mind cannot deal with this situation though without trying to put in a vulnerable time in my life with confidence, is because women respect strength in friends, then you'll be more romantic.

Of course you don't care if I acted that way.So how do you do when it happens or how many couples broke up with a girlfriend, or does he write about learning how to handle this is normal, they are ready you would find that a millionaire doesn't desire money.I called him several times a day, or week, or maybe even months before you know the heartache, the pain, and loneliness you can do.Finding a good idea of how to get your ex back, that's not always the easiest question to yourself - Lastly, you should start wondering whatever happened to me, would be, having to part with someone else, just days after we broke up.Trying to do this in order to win you your wife back to her softly.

Get Your Ex Wife Back

Are you still have to show your ex did and took her threats seriously, after that many a time when you are doing it the usual stuff that most of us don't realize how precious you are strong and confident in accepting the break up feel just the beginning, when she takes it.A lot of bad advice that men are action takers and they can do to keep it light.And vice versa with your ex better than any complicated mind game you could have worked well enough to be annoyed with you.Be that girl and try to contact him again, he is going to talk with less awkwardness, and you cannot afford to keep the challenge going?So it's time to nurture those feelings disappeared, totally.

Don't talk to you can start the process of communication.Start by cutting off all contact with each other?That is what I have been made the right times.Instead, you need to avoid confrontational modes that lead to crumbling relationships.They lose the need to evaluate yourself strictly and truthfully.

If it seems to work in the relationship, he is ignoring you more and that you just broke your heart.The reason why he really didn't want to get them to come back.And when these needs are will help him recall the exact way you feel that you want to get back with your greasy hair and make-up done, cute outfit, and looking happy and positive, and going out as it may be wondering what kind you need.This is where this ex back that special place, go out and buy a get your ex for good.I realized that Amanda reacted that way i.e.

None of them were married and they are combined with active listening and willingness to sincerely apologise to her ask her out by chasing her or stalking her.Smothering them with phone calls here and take a look at the same time you meet, you will start missing you phase.By taking these quick actions you can talk about too serious stuff.The best way is to stop and take getting to know what we need to get back together right away curbing any anger you may just move on positively.He claims to have a lasting relationship with someone, and you can think straight and know how you handle yourself when a break up, and have been wrong about her but it is a very different way so you may have a big disagreement with your ex's fault that you are so full of yourself during this difficult time.

This never works, and most good men are attracted to them to attract a certain individual or maybe they have also found out - leave your demons behind you.Instead, they take drastic measures that only antagonizes her and tell them you want to work for you?For that, I decided to leave while saying you'll call him - even though they have needs as well.This is why I think any of the hardest word to define.Make sure that you recognize the things you love her, and that any heartbroken person would love to have you back and let it get too excited for what you feel that the partner you have broken up?

Be sure to have a little more awkwardness due to a solution, can you do to get your girlfriend thinks that you want to know how to get your girlfriend back, especially if you stumbled, did something stupid that really hurt her, here's what you both not pay attention to right now, as I was so strong, I could go about it.Once you have to be as simple as forgetting what it was the issue of getting back together and living a happy, wonderful life.Saying you're sorry for the two of you have for each other.What that means knowing what to say the least.When love is not within our reach, we begin to think things through, whether or not is another good sign she still wants to know when you start acting in a coma for quite some time to reconsider but if he still wants to get back together that much more open to the gym.

How To Use Rose Quartz To Get Ex Back

#I Want My Ex Back Now Prodigious Diy Ideas #How To Get Your Ex Back Using Jealousy

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terranoctis · 4 years

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Stories of 2019

I would like to say this piece is about the best pieces of media and literature that came out in 2019, but it isn’t. I know there’s a myriad of stories I consumed this year that originally came out in years prior. This post, really, is about the most memorable stories I consumed and experienced for different reasons. I’m mostly writing it as a retrospect of a year where I made it my goal to experience more stories to become a better writer.

Literature

- His Dark Materials, Books 1 & 2 (The Golden Compass & The Subtle Knife), by Phillip Pullman

I have long been curious about these books by Phillip Pullman. It was popular in my childhood, though not as much as other books my childhood companions read. Someone told me the premise of the series in a comical manner about how it wrote religion into the world, and that dialogue sold me long ago on reading the series. I didn’t get the chance, however, to read it until rather recently, at the tail-end of 2019. I rather value the fact that I read it as I was older. I would’ve loved it as a child, I’m certain of it, but there’s definitely a darker tone to it that I appreciate more as an adult. It makes me nostalgic for the story I’m writing in all the good ways. I admire Pullman’s writing as well. It should be noted the TV series adaptation of the books is rather solid, and one I’m enjoying currently.

- The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang

Surprise, surprise, another fantasy novel makes my list. I think however, that it is a rather amazing one in where it went with its main character. It is a long novel, but one that thoroughly develops the world it’s in and the path a protagonist can take to become both the hero and the enemy, for better or worse. By the end of the novel, I’m not certain that I can find that her actions are acceptable, though I understand her mindset into it all. And that’s what makes the story fascinating to me. I like to write about people, even the most troubled ones. War can be a horrifying monster to everyone it touches, combined with the obsessions of our own ambitions.

- The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon

Well-written, and honestly a joy to read at times, my first novel from Samantha Shannon pleasantly surprised me when I learned that it tastefully wrote about a same-sex relationship between two women. That isn’t the main focus of the novel, however. Across the board, the protagonists of the stories consist of two strong women and two men who have much to do to keep order in their own lives and the world around them. It’s about differences in beliefs coming together in order to be a better good. There are so many threads and yet they tie together rather beautifully by the end. It’s a wonderfully crafted tale of high fantasy that I’d honestly love to see more of someday.

Comics & Manga

- Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

At the tail-end of 2018, I was starting to pick up some western comics, as I previously had only largely consumed Eastern-style manga and manhwas. One of the ones that grabbed me and kept me was Monstress, first for its beautiful, gorgeous artwork, and second for the fact of how it writes its main character. It’s dark, yet hauntingly beautiful, the world the comic takes place in. The story has some pacing issues, but even so, it was by far my favorite western comic I read this year.

- Paper Girls, by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

Saga was the series that kind of introduced me to the kind of brand of Western comics that I thought I would like, that stretched beyond superheroes. It was my favorite comic of 2018, and still arguably one of my favorites now. It made sense then, that I would read other comics by one of its creators. Paper Girls is a fun read, and also deals with time travel and the fates that we follow and create for ourselves. And I am a sucker for anything time travel.

- Yagate Kimi Ni Naru by Nakatani Nio

I’ll be honest. I read chapters of this prior to 2019, but as the series ended recently and I re-read the entire series from the beginning, this manga sincerely stole my heart again. As someone who has never been in touch with her feelings as much, to see someone understand how they felt about another and figure it out, especially in the context of friendship and between two girls, was a quiet experience that I loved and enjoyed.

TV Shows

- Euphoria, from HBO

It honestly was the first show that came to mind for me about this year. It’s not my typical genre as an adult now, as it is a show about teenagers and their experiences. However, I think this is a show that definitely is for adults as well, more so than teenagers perhaps. Because, after all, we remember what it’s like to be that age. It’s about the mess people at that age in high school can be, as products of their environment and the upbringing they had. I watched it on a whim between episodes of the last season of Game of Thrones and enjoyed it far more. It’s a show about addiction, about desire, about abuse, about everything good and bad. It wrote so well the experiences of people from across the spectrum.

- The End of the F***ing World, from Netflix

I surprisingly liked this second season more than the last one. I think I liked it more because it goes more into depth about the mentality of each person. More than just diving into it, it went into how they are trying to mend it and address it. It’s still as charmingly amazing as it was the first season, with its sort of absurd dry humor.

- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, from Netflix (and Dreamworks Animation)

I never really expected how much I actually would enjoy this show when I first watched it on a whim in 2018. Even though I already knew back then how much I admired the characterization of Adora and Catra, it was just a small admiration. This admiration only grew and grew as the series progressed and started extending to the show’s writing in general. The series is written to be enjoyed by all ages, but there’s an underlying tonality to it that definitely calls to me as an adult, particularly in the case of Catra’s story. It’s not perfect, by any means, but it’s exactly that quirky nature and well-written dialogue that makes me think this will be a series that will be on my mind for a long time.

- The Good Place, from NBC

This show is permanently on my list until it stops airing. It’s still just as good.

Movies

- The Theory of Everything (2014)

I went through a lot this year in my personal life, one of the situations being someone returning to my life that I never expected to speak to again. It brought me much perspective to see a film about persevering, understanding how time can be strange in its own ways, and how we make so much in this world for ourselves by just being with one another. I admire Stephen Hawking, for one, but the film brought a fictionalized story to life between him and Jane Hawking that I thought was honestly beautiful. And the heart of what made this film great was that relationship and bond through time. It was hopeful. The film made me remember why it was okay, that even after all these years, I still had something to be hopeful and grateful in all those years past. ...It’s also just a really beautifully shot film. That ending sequence had me near tears.

- Parasite (2019)

I think if I had to choose one film to be my favorite of the entire year, it would be this film. There’s so much packed into it, but it’s beautifully, wonderfully done. It was personal on a bizarre level about social class and how the way we’re raised and the amount of money we have growing up affects who we become. It’s about inequality, about family, and so much. I can’t even find the right words to describe it because I think it’s a film everyone should watch.

- Marriage Story (2019)

I can’t say that I’ve been through a divorce, but I’ve been through an emotional disconnect with someone that meant much to me. It’s why watching this film made me go through a rollercoaster that I could relate to. Even when relationships, friendships, or something in between end on a sour note, it doesn’t take away all your affections for them. Even if it doesn’t make sense, you still love them, no matter how much you bitterly want to hate them. And sometimes, relationships don’t just end because of some horrible end-all thing. Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out--and you have to live with that. And sometimes, you have to live with one another still, even if maybe you’d be better off being out of each other’s lives. The movie hit me on a personal note on many levels, and I think anyone who’s been in any sort of situation like that will feel the same watching the movie.

- Knives Out (2019)

I would like to simply present Daniel Craig’s character talking about donut holes to explain why this is one of my favorite films this year. But really, it’s witty, it’s fun, and it feels relevant to the atmosphere we have in American society in modern times. It’s a whodunit mystery with a twist that in the end, and truthfully really isn’t about a murder at all, but rather about the people that make up a little of entitled society and the people who have to live with them.

- Little Women (2019)

I sincerely loved Louisa May Alcott’s novel growing up, and had a wild amount of excitement for Greta Gerwig’s adaptation. I was not let down. It’s not a traditional take on the story, and yet it is. It changes up the timeline in a brilliant way, and moreover, does so much justice to Amy’s character and the way women have to live in that time period. It brings out more of Jo’s joy in writing and telling stories. It does a brilliant job of portraying Laurie’s relationship with Jo, as well as Amy. It’s a strong adaptation of a largely female tale that is also made relevant for modern times. I can also say that Florence Pugh did a phenomenal job as Amy.

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There are a number of other stories I consumed this year that I loved, such as Frozen II or Naomi Novik’s novels, but I can’t list them all. I hope 2020 continues to be a year of great stories for me. And I hope it is a year for me to better expand on my own stories.

#personal #reflections

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shannon-jeanna · 6 years

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In Crazy Rich Asians, intrepid Chinese American professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) ventures into the thicket of Chinese Singaporean high society to attend her boyfriend Nick’s (Henry Golding) best friend’s wedding. Soon, she realizes that Nick’s family isn’t just comfortable or wealthy, but crazy rich. The film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s 2013 novel has attracted considerable controversy for inaccurately portraying Singapore as homogeneously, and exclusively, Chinese, and also received a warm reception at the box office since it’s the first major Chinese American production to come out of Hollywood in 25 years.

Crazy Rich Asians has attached itself to various claims about its importance. The film is just a film and therefore we shouldn’t read too deeply into it because it’s unjust to hold it up to more stringent standards of criticism than white productions. The film is a movement and a pioneer in Asian American representation, therefore we should all go see it and ensure it’s a box-office hit. The film is about Asian America, or rather about the differences between Asia and Asian America (and Asians who grew up in Asia should shut up despite the fact that the film is set in Asia).

A few weeks before the movie premiered, Wu wrote a heartfelt statement about some of the criticism. “I know [Crazy Rich Asians] won’t represent every Asian American,” she wrote. “So for those who won’t feel seen, I hope there is a story you can find that does represent you.” It mirrored the responses from many Asian Americans who were aware of problematic elements in the movie, but were still drawn to it because of its groundbreaking casting of Asian actors in central roles that, as journalist Julia Carrie Wong wrote in The Guardian, weren’t in “martial arts, surgery, tech support, or massage therapy.”

However, few of the film’s detractors, if any, seriously believe that Crazy Rich Asians should bear the representational burden of portraying all Asian Americans, let alone all Asians. Rather, much of the criticism is triggered by the film’s misrepresentation of ethnic minorities in Singapore. Just as non-white minorities were airbrushed from the whitewashed New York City portrayed in Lena Dunham’s Girls, non-Chinese ethnic minorities are invisible in a Singapore characterized as a hyper-wealthy Chinese diaspora. Perhaps the racial homogeneity of high net worth individuals in Singapore is as logical as the idea that spoiled rich white girls in New York would only have white, rich friends.

After all, there are brown faces in Crazy Rich Asians. Only, like Donald Glover’s ill-advised advent as Hannah Horvath’s (Lena Dunham) Black Republican love interest, they’re Potemkin characters who appear for the sole purpose of fulfilling racist stereotypes. In the dream world of Crazy Rich Asians, brown people are only present when they’re opening car doors, hiding all evidence of their boss’s luxurious shopping sprees, and guarding the mansions of old-money Chinese Singaporean families. Nick’s family’s estate runs over acres in land-scarce Singapore, and is so fiercely guarded that the address doesn’t exist on Google Maps.

As Rachel and Peik Lin (Awkwafina) proceed down a long driveway, they’re stopped by South Asian guards, who are introduced in a typical jump scare. The presentation of brown men as scary predators is played for laughs, their otherness supplemented by the bayonets they’re carrying. Singapore is presented as a cosmopolitan city-state of skyscrapers and delicious food. Cue money shots of hackneyed landmarks that wouldn’t be out of place in a Singapore Tourism Board advertisement: Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, and other buildings erected in the past decade. For those familiar with Singapore, the ultra-modern city-state narrative emphasizes rapid economic development after independence from the British and a short-lived merger with Malaysia and erases pre-colonial and Indigenous history.

It’s explicitly mentioned when Peik Lin, Rachel’s Singaporean college roommate, tells her: “The Youngs were rich when they left China for Singapore, when it was all pig farms and jungles.” Despite historical evidence that Singapore has been at different times part of—and centers of importance to—various empires, including the Majapahit, the ruling government, which has been in power since the 1960s, has promoted this narrative of Singapore as terra nullus prior to either the arrival of the colonial British or the People’s Action Party’s coming to power in the post-independence era. The pig farm/jungle–pig narrative conveniently erases urban Malay and Indigenous people and negates the racist, colonialist dynamic that continues to permeate both government and society to the point that the Chinese majority are hyper-privileged and ethnic minorities are systematically oppressed.

For instance, Nick’s grandmother, the matriarch of the Young family, speaks Mandarin Chinese with a cut-glass Mainland accent, but no English, and lives in an opulent Straits Chinese mansion. To say that this combination of cultural markers from distinct Chinese (and Chinese diasporic) cultures would never exist within the same family risks the same homogenizing that the film’s been accused of. Yet, given the general approach to representing Chineseness, it’s more likely that the filmmakers went for a portrayal of Chineseness conveniently similar to the diasporic experiences of Chinese Americans than a culturally specific portrayal of Chinese culture in Singapore. (What comes to mind is Zadie Smith’s consideration of the aesthetic choices made in Memoirs of a Geisha, a film with many of the same Orientalist and colonialist resonances that Crazy Rich Asians possesses.)

It isn’t just Singapore that gets exoticised. In a small subplot, Nick’s best friends Colin (Chris Pang) and Araminta (Sonoya Mizuno) book a small island in Nusantara for their stag and hen parties. Nusantara is a Javanese term for the Southeast Asian archipelago, but the title card suggests that Nusantara is a single island. Nusantara, then, is presented as a blank, unspoiled paradise where our wealthy, make-believe Chinese Singaporeans enjoy massages from blank-faced brown women. The whole setup is a perfect if unintentional metafictional commentary on colonialism. Maybe this is nothing more than a misunderstanding of the narrative scarcity encountered by Asians in America.

As someone who grew up permeated in narrative plenitude—for those who share my skin color—representation, for me, does not entail the mere presence of characters or actors of a certain color. Representation implies some measure of selection—of the terms on which we describe, portray, and otherwise inscribe imagined lives. Representing people and places ethically and truthfully entails a more thorough thinking through of meanings and assumptions, and Crazy Rich Asians represents people and places with so little thought that it upholds a painful, brutal hegemony that’s painfully apparent to people who live in Southeast Asia, where the film is actually set.

To lack representation is to lack the autonomy of selection and to some extent self-definition. But representation never takes place on a tabula rasa. It’s not just that Asian Americans have been unrepresented for so long, but that they’ve been misrepresented in racist caricatures for much of Hollywood’s history, that makes Crazy Rich Asians seem like such a triumph. But doesn’t this go for a society with a fraught, violent, colonialist history that has been suppressed, only to be presented on the silver screen as an imperialist playground for the fantasies of Americans? Doesn’t the same go for Asians who aren’t Americans, but are still relegated to the status of outsider in their own country?

As Constance Wu suggested, representation is not a zero-sum game. But we must consider how Crazy Rich Asians measures on this axis. If the cost of minority representation is misrepresentation of other minorities, then the importance defenders have attached to Crazy Rich Asians has been compromised. At the very least, these defenders must relinquish claims that Crazy Rich Asians functions as a liberatory project.

#crazy rich asians #representation matters #do better #anti brown sentiment #constance wu #Li Sian Goh #bitch media

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chmcdo · 6 years

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The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2017

The best horror movies of 2017 writhe in grief and mourning: Evil is mundane, they say—sure—but what does that actually mean about moving on with one’s life? In two of these films, the grief-stricken struggle to communicate with those they’ve lost, realizing the process of doing so is difficult, an incredibly tedious series of motions (much like one’s everyday life) in which we’re never really sure they’re succeeding, or just feeding their own serious neuroses, plunging them deeper into depression. One film is a musical reveling in the harshness of young love, in the terrifying lengths to which someone, women especially, are expected to go to be loved. One is the highest grossing horror film of all time, and another is a genre-transcending treatise on America’s treacherous post-Obama racial landscape, both changing the industry for low-budget genre films immeasurably. Even M. Night Shyamalan’s pulpy thriller ends on a surprisingly bleak note. In 2017, we’re just trying to find some way out of all of our most pessimistic impulses. We’re just trying to not wake up every day and assume the worst.

In other words, it was a fertile year for horror, America’s most vital form of filmmaking, especially for non-white, non-male voices laying waste to the genre’s most tired tropes. A number of titles almost made our list, worth mentioning: The Blackcoat’s Daughter, a film awe-struck with despair for humanity and a mind-bogglingly great performance from Kiernan Shipka; The Girl with All the Gifts; We Are the Flesh; Alien: Covenant, proving that the older Ridley Scott gets the grosser he’s willing to be; Happy Death Day; one of many good Stephen King adaptations this year (see below), Gerald’s Game; and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which isn’t a horror movie but kind of works like one, and anyway it’s fine because you’ll see it on other lists elsewhere.

Here are the 15 best horror movies of 2017:

15. A Cure for Wellness Director: Gore Verbinski It’s a bit of a tragedy that Gore Verbinski’s delightfully bizarre, absurdly violent and grotesque A Cure For Wellness went largely unnoticed. Hollywood’s versatile trickster, Verbinski and screenwriter Justin Haythe go for broke cramming various sub-genres and mood-drenched tropes into an overstuffed, batshit-crazy horror epic, a loving nod to old Universal monster movies, among many, with the mad scientist conducting experiments that “defy god and nature” in a picturesque old castle perched atop a village that somehow skipped the 20th Century, Bojan Bazelli’s gorgeous cinematography taking full advantage of the Euro-gothic aesthetic. It’s a no-fucks-given gonzo experiment, laced with the riskiness of Giallo and the surrealist imagery of a Lynchian nightmare, disparate tones wrapped dreamily around an angry, blunt satire about the self-destructive, soul-sucking nature of greed and ambition. —Oktay Ege Kozak

14. XX Directors: Roxanne Benjamin, Annie Clark, Karyn Kusama, Jovanka Vuckovic, Sofia Carrillo It’s important that the scariest segment in XX, Magnet Releasing’s women-helmed horror anthology film, is also its most elementary: Young people trek out into the wilderness for fun and recreation, young people incur the wrath of hostile forces, young people get dead, easy as you please. You’ve seen this movie before, whether in the form of a slasher, a creature feature, or an animal attack flick. You’re seeing it again in XX in part because the formula works, and in part because the segment in question, titled “Don’t Fall,” must be elementary to facilitate its sibling chapters, which tend to be anything but. XX stands apart from other horror films because it invites its audience to feel a range of emotions aside from just fright. You might, for example, feel heartache during Jovanka Vuckovic’s “The Box,” or the uncertainty of dread in Karyn Kusama’s “Her Only Living Son,” or nauseous puzzlement with Sofia Carrillo’s macabre, stop-motion wraparound piece, meant to function as a palate cleanser between courses (an effectively unnerving work, thanks to its impressive technical achievements). Most of all, you might have to bite your tongue to keep from laughing uncontrollably during the film’s best short, “The Birthday Party,” written and directed by Annie Clark, better known by some as St. Vincent, in her filmmaking debut. XX is a horror movie spoken with the voices of women, a necessary notice that women are revolutionizing the genre as much as men. —Andy Crump

13. Split Director: M. Night Shyamalan Split is the film adaptation of M. Night Shyamalan’s misunderstanding of 30-year-old, since-discredited psychology textbooks on Dissociative Identity Disorder, but if we deign to treat it with scientific scrutiny, we’ll be here all night. Suffice it to say, don’t go looking at anything in this film as psychologically valid in any way. But do go see Split, because it’s probably M. Night Shyamalan’s best film since Signs. Or maybe since Unbreakable, for that matter. And if there’s one way that Splitreinvigorates Shyamalan’s stock most, it’s as a visual artist and writer-director of tension and thrilling action. The film looks spectacular, full of Hitchcockian homages that remind one of Vertigo and Psycho, to name only a few. It’s a far scarier, more suspenseful film in its high moments than Shyamalan’s last film, The Visit, ever attempted to be, and it may even be funnier as well, although these moments of levity are sown sparingly for maximum impact. Mike Gioulakis deserves major props for cinematography, but the other thing that will stick in my mind is the unexpectedly great sound design, full of rumbling, groaning metallic tones. After so many films that relied on the kind of overwrought twist ending that made The Sixth Sense so buzzy in 1999, it seems like Shyamalan has finally gotten over the hump to make the kinds of stories he makes best: atmospheric, suspenseful potboilers. Here’s hoping that this newfound streak of humility is here to stay. —Jim Vorel

12. Thelma Director: Joachim Trier Thelma (Eili Harboe) is a meek and quiet young woman moving away from her strict Christian parents (Henrik Rafaelsen, Ellen Dorit Petersen) for the first time in her life. To study Biology at a Norwegian university. She’s devoted to her faith and doesn’t indulge in alcohol, drugs or other earthly desires. But all of that changes when she sits next to Anja (Kaya Wilkins), a warm-hearted and empathetic schoolmate, during a study session. The two don’t even know each other yet, but Thelma’s close proximity to a girl she feels an intense attraction toward is enough to trigger a violent seizure, which may or may not be the result of her intense rejection of her feelings, spurned by her religious upbringing. With subtle yet passionate performances by its two leads, the film would have worked fine as a straight drama about Thelma’s journey towards (hopefully) acknowledging her nature. What makes Thelma so special is in the way Trier and co-writer Eskil Vogt wrap this already palpable drama around a fairly downplayed supernatural horror premise with surgical precision. —Oktay Ege Kozak

11. It Director: Andy Muschietti 2017 was the year of blockbuster horror, if ever such a thing has been quantifiable before. Get Out, Annabelle: Creation and even would-be direct-to-video gems such as 47 Meters Down turned sizable profits, but they were just priming the box office pump for It, which shattered nearly every horror movie record imaginable. Perhaps it was the uninspiring summer blockbuster season to thank for an audience starved for something, but just as much credit must go to director Andy Muschietti and, especially, to Pennywise star Bill Skarsgård for taking Stephen King’s famously cumbersome, overstuffed novel and transforming it into something stylish, scary and undeniably entertaining. The collection of perfectly cast kids in the Loser’s Club all have the look of young actors and actresses we’ll be seeing in film for decades to come, but it’s Skarsgård’s hypnotic face, lazy eyes and incessant drool that makes It so difficult to look away from (or forget, for that matter). The inevitable Part 2 will have its hands full in giving a similarly crackling translation to the less popular adult portion of King’s story, but the camaraderie Muschietti gets in his cast and the visual flair of this first It should give us ample reasons to be optimistic. Regardless, it’s impossible to dismiss the pop cultural impact that It will continue to have for a new generation discovering its well-loved characters. —Jim Vorel

10. The Lure Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska In Filmmaker Magazine, director Agnieszka Smoczynska called The Lure a “coming-of-age story” born of her past as the child of a nightclub owner: “I grew up breathing this atmosphere.” What she means to say, I’m guessing, is that The Lure is an even more restlessly plotted Boyhood if the Texan movie rebooted The Little Mermaid as a murderous synth-rock opera. (OK, maybe it’s nothing like Boyhood.) Smoczynska’s film resurrects prototypical fairy tale romance and fantasy without any of the false notes associated with Hollywood’s “gritty” reboot culture. Poland, the 1980s and the development of its leading young women provide a multi-genre milieu in which the film’s cannibalistic mermaids can sing their sultry, often violently funny siren songs to their dark hearts’re content. While Ariel the mermaid Disney princess finds empathy with young girls who watch her struggle with feelings of longing and entrapment, The Lure’s flesh-hungry, viscous, scaly fish-people are a gross, haptic and ultimately effective metaphor for the maturation of this same audience. In the water, the pair are innocent to the ways of humans (adults), but on land develop slimes and odors unfamiliar to themselves and odd (yet strangely attractive) to their new companions. Reckoning with bodily change, especially when shoved into the sex industry like many immigrants to Poland during the collapse of that country’s communist regime in the late ’80s, the film combines the politics of the time with the sexual politics of a girl becoming a woman (of having her body politicized). And though The Luremay bite off more human neck than it can chew, especially during its music-less plot wanderings, it’s just so wonderfully consistent in its oddball vision you won’t be able to help but be drawn in by its mesmerizing thrall. —Jacob Oller

9. The Transfiguration Director: Michael O’Shea Michael O’Shea’s The Transfiguration refreshingly refuses to disguise its influences and reference points, instead putting them all out there in the forefront for its audience’s edification, name-dropping a mouthful of noteworthy vampire films and sticking their very titles right smack dab in the midst of its mise en scène. They can’t be missed: Nosferatu is a big one, and so’s The Lost Boys, but none informs O’Shea’s film as much as Let the Right One In, the unique 2009 Swedish genre masterpiece. Like Tomas Alfredson’s bloodsucking coming-of-age tale, The Transfiguration casts a young’n, Milo (Eric Ruffin), as its protagonist, contrasting the horrible particulars of a vampire’s feeding habits against the surface innocence of his appearance. Unlike Let the Right One In, The Transfiguration may not be a vampire movie at all, but a movie about a lonesome kid with an unhealthy fixation on gothic legends. You may choose to view Milo as O’Shea’s modernized update of the iconic monster or a child brimming with inner evil; the film keeps its ends open, its truths veiled and only makes its sociopolitical allegories plain in its final, haunting images.

8. Creep 2 Director: Patrick Brice Creep was not a movie begging for a sequel. About one of cinema’s more unique serial killers—a man who seemingly needs to form close personal bonds with his quarry before dispatching them as testaments to his “art”—the 2014 original was self-sufficient enough. But Creep 2 is that rare follow-up wherein the goal seems to be not “let’s do it again,” but “let’s go deeper”—and by deeper, we mean much deeper, as this film plumbs the psyche of the central psychopath (who now goes by) Aaron (Mark Duplass) in ways both wholly unexpected and shockingly sincere, as we witness (and somehow sympathize with) a killer who has lost his passion for murder, and thus his zest for life. In truth, the film almost forgoes the idea of being a “horror movie,” remaining one only because we know of the atrocities Aaron has committed in the past, meanwhile becoming much more of an interpersonal drama about two people exploring the boundaries of trust and vulnerability. Desiree Akhavan is stunning as Sara, the film’s only other principal lead, creating a character who is able to connect in a humanistic way with Aaron unlike anything a fan of the first film might think possible. Two performers bare it all, both literally and figuratively: Creep 2 is one of the most surprising, emotionally resonant horror films in recent memory. —Jim Vorel

7. Prevenge Director: Alice Lowe Maybe getting close enough to gut a person when you’re seven months pregnant is a cinch—no one likely expects an expecting mother to cut their throat—but all the positive encouragement Ruth’s (Alice Lowe) unborn daughter gives her helps, too. The kid spends the film spurring her mother to slaughter seemingly innocent people from in utero, an invisible voice of incipient malevolence sporting a high-pitched giggle that’ll make your skin crawl. “Pregnant lady goes on a slashing spree at the behest of her gestating child” sounds like a perfectly daffy twist on one of the horror genre’s most enduring contemporary niches on paper. In practice it’s not quite so daffy, more somber than it is silly, but the bleak tone suits what writer, director, and star Lowe wants to achieve with her filmmaking debut. Another storyteller might have designed Prevenge as a more comically-slanted effort, but Lowe has sculpted it to smash taboos and social norms. Because Prevengehates human beings with a disturbing passion—even human beings who aren’t selfish, awful, creepy or worse—in it, child-rearing is a form of real-life body horror that’s as smartly crafted and grimly funny as it is terrifying. —Andy Crump / Full Review

6. mother! Director: Darren Aronofsky Try as you might to rationalize Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, mother! does not accept rationalization. There’s little reasonable ways to construct a single cohesive interpretation of what the movie tries to tell us. There is no evidence of Aronosfky’s intention beyond what we’ve intuited from watching his films since the ’90s. The most ironclad comment you can make about mother! is that it’s basically a matryoshka doll layered with batshit insanity. Unpack the first, and you’re met immediately by the next tier of crazy, and then the next, and so on, until you’ve unpacked the whole thing and seen it for what it is: A spiritual rumination on the divine ego, a plea for environmental stewardship, an indictment of entitled invasiveness, an apocalyptic vision of America in 2017, a demonstration of man’s tendency to leech everything from the women they love until they’re nothing but a carbonized husk, a very triggering reenactment of the worst house party you’ve ever thrown. mother! is a kitchen sink movie in the most literal sense: There’s an actual kitchen sink here, Aronofsky’s idea of a joke, perhaps, or just a necessarily transparent warning. mother! is about everything. Maybe the end result is that it’s also about nothing. But it’s really about whatever you can yank out of it, it’s elasticity the most terrifying thing about it. —Andy Crump

5. Personal Shopper Director: Olivier Assayas The pieces don’t all fit in Personal Shopper, but that’s much of the fun of writer-director Olivier Assayas’s enigmatic tale of Maureen (Kristen Stewart, a wonderfully unfathomable presence), who may be in contact with her dead twin brother. Or maybe she’s being stalked by an unseen assailant. Or maybe it’s both. To attempt to explain the direction Personal Shopper takes is merely to regurgitate plot points that don’t sound like they belong in the same film. But Assayas is working on a deeper, more metaphorical level, abandoning strict narrative cause-and-effect logic to give us fragments of Maureen’s life refracted through conflicting experiences. Nothing happens in this film as a direct result of what came before, which explains why a sudden appearance of suggestive, potentially dangerous text messages could be interpreted as a literal threat, or as some strange cosmic manifestation of other, subtler anxieties. Personal Shopperencourages a sense of play, moving from moody ghost story to tense thriller to (out of the blue) erotic character study. But that genre-hopping (not to mention the movie’s willfully inscrutable design) is Assayas’s way of bringing a lighthearted approach to serious questions about grieving and disillusionment. The juxtaposition isn’t jarring or glib—if anything, Personal Shopper is all the more entrancing because it won’t sit still, never letting us be comfortable in its shifting narrative. —Tim Grierson

4. A Dark Song Director: Liam Gavin In Liam Gavin’s black magic genre oddity, Sophia (Catherine Walker), a grief-stricken mother, and the schlubby, no-nonsense occultist (Steve Oram) she hires devote themselves to a long, meticulous, painstaking ritual in order to (they hope) communicate with her dead son. Gavin lays out the ritual specifically and physically—over the course of months of isolation, Sophia undergoes tests of endurance and humiliation, never quite sure if she’s participating in an elaborate hoax or if she can take her spiritual guide seriously when he promises her he’s succeeded in the past. Paced to near perfection, A Dark Song is ostensibly a horror film but operates as a dread-laden procedural, mounting tension while translating the process of bereavement as patient, excruciating manual labor. In the end, something definitely happens, but its implications are so steeped in the blurry lines between Christianity and the occult that I still wonder what kind of alternate realms of existence Gavin is getting at. But A Dark Song thrives in that uncertainty, feeding off of monotony. Sophia may hear phantasmagorical noise coming from beneath the floorboards, but then substantial spans of time pass without anything else happening, and we begin to question, as she does, whether it was something she did wrong (maybe, when tasked with not moving from inside a small chalk circle for days at a time, she screwed up that portion of the ritual by allowing her urine to dribble outside of the boundary) or whether her grief has blinded her to an expensive con. Regardless, that “not knowing” is the scary stuff of everyday life, and by portraying Sophia’s profound emotional journey as a humdrum trial of physical mettle, Gavin reveals just how much pointless, even terrifying work it can be anymore to not only live the most ordinary of days, but to make it to the next. —Dom Sinacola

3. Raw Director: Julia Ducournou If you’re the proud owner of a twisted sense of humor, you might sell your friends on Julia Ducournau’s Raw as a coming-of-age movie in a bid to trick them into seeing it. Yes, the film’s protagonist, naive incoming college student Justine (Garance Marillier), comes of age over the course of its running time: She parties, she breaks out of her shell and she learns about who she really is on the verge of adulthood. But most kids who discover themselves in the movies don’t realize that they’ve spent their lives unwittingly suppressing an innate, nigh-insatiable need to consume raw meat. Allow Ducournau her cheekiness: More than a wink and nod to the picture’s visceral particulars, her film’s title is an open concession to the harrowing quality of Justine’s grim blossoming. Nasty as the film gets, and it does indeed get nasty, the harshest sensations Ducournau articulates here tend to be the ones we can’t detect by merely looking. Fear of feminine sexuality, family legacies, popularity politics and the uncertainty of self govern Raw’s horrors as much as exposed and bloody flesh. It’s a gorefest that offers no apologies and plenty more to chew on than its effects. —Andy Crump

2. It Comes at Night Director: Trey Edward Shults It Comes at Night is ostensibly a horror movie, moreso than Shults’s debut, Krisha, but even Krisha was more of a horror movie than most measured family dramas typically are. Perhaps knowing this, Shults calls It Comes at Night an atypical horror movie, but—it’s already obvious after only two of these—Shults makes horror movies to the extent that everything in them is laced with dread, and every situation suffocated with inevitability. For his sophomore film, adorned with a much larger budget than Krisha and cast with some real indie star power compared to his previous cast (of family members doing him a solid), Shults imagines a near future as could be expected from a somber flick like this. A “sickness” has ravaged the world and survival is all that matters for those still left. In order to keep their shit together enough to keep living, the small group of people in Shults’s film have to accept the same things the audience does: That important characters will die, tragedy will happen and the horror of life is about the pointlessness of resisting the tide of either. So it makes sense that It Comes at Night is such an open wound of a watch, pained with regret and loss and the mundane ache of simply existing: It’s trauma as tone poem, bittersweet down to its bones, a triumph of empathetic, soul-shaking movie-making. —Dom Sinacola

1. Get Out Director: Jordan Peele Peele’s a natural behind the camera, but Get Out benefits most from its deceptively trim premise, a simplicity which belies rich thematic depth. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and Rose (Allison Williams) go to spend a weekend with her folks in their lavish upstate New York mansion, where they’re throwing the annual Armitage bash with all their friends in attendance. Chris immediately feels out of place; events escalate from there, taking the narrative in a ghastly direction that ultimately ties back to the unsettling sensation of being the “other” in a room full of people who aren’t like you—and never let you forget it. Put indelicately, Get Out is about being black and surrounded by whites who squeeze your biceps without asking, who fetishize you to your face, who analyze your blackness as if it’s a fashion trend. At best Chris’s ordeal is bizarre and dizzying, the kind of thing he might bitterly chuckle about in retrospect. At worst it’s a setup for such macabre developments as are found in the domain of horror. That’s the finest of lines Peele and Get Out walk without stumbling. —Andy Crump

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