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wordsnstuff · 3 years

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Guide to Creating Magic Systems

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Decide What is “Good” and “Evil”

This is a big decision, because it’s going to impact the way your characters use magic, and the overall theme/tone of the story. You must decide where the moral limitations of magic stand, in addition to the practical limitations. You must also decide who can/does overstep those moral or societal boundaries. This is a great place where you can find conflict and establish the themes of your story.

Establish Clear Limits

All quality magic systems have clear limits in their reality. Sometimes time travel is possible, sometimes it isn’t. More “powerful” spells, or spells with greater physical implications, will require greater sacrifices, like death, loss, or pain. Deciding these limits are a key task you must accomplish early in the process of designing a magic system, because it can impact the conflict, plot points, character motivations, and more.

Establish Consequences

Arguably, magic systems aren’t interesting or engaging unless the reader is aware that any use of magic will have some consequence. Not always an epic consequence, because some magic systems are designed to be fun and full of wonder, and therefore some magic should be available to serve that purpose without being overshadowed by impending consequence. However, if magic plays a major part in your conflict or conflict resolution, it would benefit your story to establish a system of consequences or effects that come as a result of using various amounts or levels or types of magic that exist in your universe.

Diversity in Magic (Powers & Users)

One of the more contemporary grievances about magic systems is that it’s very one-size-fits-all, or bland in terms of who can/does use magic and how they do so. It’s worth your time to explore the idea of including multiple groups or species who can use magic and determining how the way they use it can differ. Regional characteristics of magic users and habits/idiosyncrasies that differ depending on class/race/social status/location. It can also be an interesting point of contention in your story/world to think about how different groups or individuals influence the methodology or views on magic. Do some view it as a sacred gift that is only to be used according to ancient tradition? Does this conflict with more modern views of younger users who view it as a tool that should be used whenever to make life easier?

Establish a Source & Theory

On a lot of occasions, this development is mostly for your own sake as the writer. However, it’s immensely helpful to know where magic came from or how it came to be available/wielded, and how that affects its value or role in your world. This is typically the kind of information authors put a lot of thought into and then end up stuffing as much of it into the preliminary drafts as possible, only to cut 90% of it out later, but even if it’s never explicitly stated in the text, writing the story with that context in mind can considerably enrich the story.

Common Struggles

~ How do I establish magic is a thematic element as well as a world building one?... Make your magic mean something. Using magic systems as a decoration is a staple of the fantasy genre, so you must establish the intrigue of your magic system through who uses it, and how they choose to do so. Use magic as a tool to explore the themes of the story. It doesn’t have to be a metaphor itself, but it can do wonders in delivering subtle nudges toward the overall point of the story. Think of it as a thematic tool, instead of a plot ornament.

~ How do I depict the use of magic in an engaging way?... Big magic and small magic. Sure, there will probably be some epic battles or intense displays of incredible power, but if this ability is widespread and considered typical, show the little things as well. Characters usually have “stage business”, or mundane actions they accomplish to break up dialogue or make scenes more dynamic, and this stage business is a great opportunity to show everyday magic. Doing laundry, getting coffee, catching a bus, sorting paperwork, etc. are all tasks that would be more convenient with magic, so show it. Use these little moments to periodically inform/remind the reader of the breadth/limitations of magic and the diversity in who uses it and how.

~ How do I convey the intricacies of the magic system without info-dumping periodically throughout my story?... Find places in scenes that you wouldn’t necessarily assume magic would be a necessary part of and ask yourself how a character who has magic (and perhaps always has) would live that moment differently from you (a person who does not and never has had that ability). If they’re doing the dishes in this scene, would they be doing it manually or directing the objects to move with magic because they don’t like getting their hands wet? A lot of the charm in magical stories is the escapism; the idea that life could be so different, and probably more convenient, if one had magic. So, lean into this, use opportunities you find to inject some context or information about the rules/limitations/history/etc., and the magic will naturally integrate itself.

~ How do I achieve a magic system that adds to a reader’s enjoyment, rather than simply acting as a story garnish?... A lot of writers try to recapture the fascination readers have with magic systems in stories like Harry Potter, and it’s important to denote that what sets that magic system apart from the others is that it was built using various source materials that weren’t inherently magical. If you try to build a magic system based on one in another story, it’s unlikely you’ll come up with any original ideas. The magic in Harry Potter was constructed using Latin roots, global mythology, and various references to popular tropes in literature about witches, wizards, fictional creatures, etc. Additionally, a lot of the conflict regarding magic was derived from real world issues, such as prejudice. Magic for the sake of magic does little to interest a reader who is well versed in the genre, but magic created from scratch to serve a unique purpose will intrigue and entertain them.

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#writing #writeblr #writing advice #writing tips #writing resources #resources for writers #writing reference #writing help #writespo #writing inspiration #writing motivation #inspiration #motivation #magic #magic systems

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number5theboy · 4 years

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Please elaborate on how Five could've turned into the most insufferable character to watch

Thanks for asking me to elaborate on this text post:

@tessapercygranger, @waywardd1 and @margarita-umbrella also wanted to see a more detailed version of it, and I ended up writing an essay that’s longer than some of my actual academic essays. So buckle up.

WHY NUMBER FIVE SHOULD BE THE MOST OBNOXIOUS CHARACTER IN TV HISTORY, AND HOW HE MANAGES NOT TO BE

Number Five: The Concept That Could Go Horribly Wrong

Alright, let’s first look at Five in theory in an overarching way, without taking into account the execution of the show. The basic set-up of the character, of course, is being a 58-year-old consciousness in a teenager’s body, due to a miscalculation in time travel. Right off the bat, Five is bar none the most overpowered of the siblings; by the end of Season 2, no one has yet been able to defeat him in a fight. He is a master assassin – and not just any master assassin, but the best one there is – and a survival expert, able to do complex maths and physics without the aid of a calculator, shown to have knowledge of half a dozen languages, has very developed observational skills and, to top that all off, he can manipulate time and space to the point where he can literally erase events that happened and change the course of history. And Five knows how skilled he is; he is arrogant, self-assured and sarcastic, and his streak of goodness is buried deep inside. David Castañeda once described Five in an interview as 90% chocolate with a cherry in the middle, meaning that you have to get through a lot of darkness and bitterness before knowing there is a good core, and I think it’s an excellent metaphor. However, Five is also incredibly, fundamentally terrible at communicating with anyone, and, because he is the only one with time travel abilities, the character a lot of the actual plot - and the moving forward of it - centres around. Also he’s earnestly in love with a mannequin, who is pretty much a projection of his own consciousness that functions as a coping mechanism for all the trauma he has endured. All in all, this gives you a character who looks like a teenager, but with the smug superiority of a fifty-something, who a) is extremely skilled in many different things, b) has a superiority complex, is arrogant and vocal about it, and most of the superiority is expressed through cutting sarcasm, c) has one very hidden ounce of goodness that he is literally the worst at communicating to other human beings, d) is what moves the plot along but is also bad at talking to anyone else, meaning that the plot largely remains with him, and e) his love interest is essentially a projection of himself. Tell me that’s not a character who is destined to be just…obnoxious, annoying, egocentric, a necessary evil that one has to put up with to get through this show. There are so many elements of this characterisation that can and should easily make Five beyond insufferable, but the show manages to avoid it, and I’m putting this down to three aspects.

That Trick of Age and Appearance

Bluntly put, Five as a character would not work if he was anything else than an old man in a 13-year-old body. Imagine this character and all his skills and knowledge, but actually just…a teenager. Immediately insufferable. Same goes for him being around 30, like his siblings, all of which are stunted and traumatised by their father’s abuse. If Five, being comparatively unscathed by Reginald to the point where he explicitly does not want to be defined by his association with his father, were 30 like his siblings, it would just take the bite out of that plot point and also give him a lot less time in the apocalypse, reducing the impact it had on him as a person. And making Five his actual 58-year-old self would make him very similar to Reginald, at least on surface level, with the appearance and attitude. Five and Reginald are two fundamentally different people, but having one of the siblings being a senior citizen that’s dressed to the nines and bosses his siblings around in a relatively self-centred way does open up that parallel, and would take away from Five’s charm as a character. Because pairing the life experience of a 58-year-old with the appearance of a teenager gives you the best of both worlds. You get the other siblings (and a lot of the audience, from a glance in the tags of my gifsets) feeling protective and paternal about Five, but his age and experience also give the justifications for his many skills, his arrogance, in a way, and his ability to decimate a room full of people. It’s the very interesting and not new concept of someone dangerous with the appearance of something harmless, a child. This is also where Five’s singular outfit comes in. I know we like to clown on Five to get a new outfit, but I think what gets forgotten often is how effective this outfit is at making the viewer take him seriously. The preppy school uniform is the perfect encapsulation of the tension between old man in spirit and young teenager in appearance. The blazer, vest and especially the shirt and tie are quite formal, relatively grown up. They’re not something we, the audience, usually associate with a teenage boy wearing; it makes Five just a little bit more grown up. But there is also a reason characters in this show keep bringing up Five’s shorts and his socks, because those are not things that we associate with grown men wearing; they’re the unmistakably childish part of his school uniform. Take a moment and imagine Five wearing a hoodie or a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers; would that outfit work for him as well as the uniform does? Would he be able to command the same kind of respect or seriousness as a character? I don’t think so; the outfit is a lot more pivotal in making Five believable than a lot of people give it credit for.

Writing Nuance

The other big building block in not making Five incredibly insufferable is the writing. Objectively speaking, I think Five is the most well-written, and, more importantly, most coherently written character on the show (which does have to do with the fact that the show’s events are all sequential for him), and his arc and personality remain relatively intact over the course of the two seasons. More to the point, a giant part of what makes Five bearable as a character is that he is allowed to fail. He is written to have high highs and low lows, big victories through his skills and his intelligence, but also catastrophic failures and the freedom to be wrong. His superior intellect and skillset are not the be-all end-all of the plot or his character, just something that influences both. His inability for communication has not (yet) been used to fabricate a contrived misunderstanding that derails the plot and left all of us seething; instead, it’s a characteristic that makes him fail to reconnect with the people he loves. This is a bit simplified, as he does find common ground with Luther, for example, but in general, a lot of the rift between Five and his siblings is that they can’t relate to his traumas and he does not understand the depth of Reginald’s abuse, which is an interesting conflict worth exploring. Another thing that really works in Five’s favour is that he is definitely written to be mean and sarcastic, but it is never driven to the point of complete unlikability, and a lot of the time, the context makes it understandable why he reacts the way he does. Most of the sarcastic lines he gets are actually funny, that certainly helps, but in general, Five is a good example of a bearable character whose default personality is sharp and relatively cold, because it is balanced out with many moments of vulnerability. Delores is incredibly important for this in the first season, she is the main focus of Five’s humanising moments, and well-written as she totes the line between clearly being a coping mechanism for an extremely traumatised man and still coming across to the viewer as the human contact Five needs her to be. In the second season, the vulnerability is about his guilt for his siblings, it’s about Five connecting a little bit better to them. There’s also his relationship with the Commission and the Handler specifically – which honestly could be an essay on its own – that deserves a mention, because the Handler is why Five became the man he is, and this dynamic between creator and creation is explored in a very interesting way – their scenes are some of the most well-written in the entire show. And TUA never falls into the trap of making Five a hero, he is always morally ambiguous at best, and it just makes for an interesting, multi-faceted character, well-written character, and none of the characteristics that should make him unlikeable are allowed to take centre-stage for long enough to be defining on their own. I know a lot of people especially champion the scenes where Five goes apeshit, but without his more nuanced characterisation, if he was like that all the time, those scenes would not hit as hard.

Aidan Gallagher’s Performance is Underrated

But honestly, none of the above would matter that much if the Umbrella Academy didn’t luck out hard with the casting of Aidan Gallagher. I think what he achieves as an actor in this show is genuinely underappreciated. Like, the first season set out to cast six adults having to deal with various ramifications of childhood trauma, and a literal child that had to be able to act smart and wise beyond his years, seamlessly integrate into a family of adults while seeming like an adult, traumatised by the literal end of the world, AND had to be able to create the romantic chemistry of a thirty-year-long marriage with a lifeless department store doll. The only role I could think of to compare is Kirsten Dunst in Interview with a Vampire, where she plays a vampire child who, because she is undead, doesn’t age physically, but does mentally, so she’s 400 in a child’s body. And Kirsten Dunst had to do that for a two-hour movie. Five is a main character in a show that spans 20 episodes now. That’s insane, and it’s a risk. Five is a character that can’t be allowed to go wrong; if you don’t buy Five as a character, the entire first season loses believability. And they found someone who could do that not only convincingly, but also likeably. As I said, he is incredibly helped by the costuming department and the script, but Aidan Gallager’s Five has so much personality, he’s threatening and funny and charming and arrogant and heartbreaking. He has the range to be convincing in the quiet moments where Five’s humanity comes to show and in the moments where Five goes completely off the rails. Most child actors act with other children, but he is the only child in the main cast, and holds his own in scenes with adults not as a child, but as an adult on equal footing with the other adult characters. That’s not something to be taken for granted. But even apart from the fact that it’s a child actor who carries a lot of the plot and the drama of a series for adults, Aidan Gallagher’s portrayal of Five is also just so much fun. The comedic timing is on point, he has the dramatic chops for the serious scenes, the mannerisms and visual ticks add to the character rather than distract from him, and his line deliveries, paired with his physical acting, make Five arrogant and smug but never outright malicious and unlikeable. It’s just some terrific acting that really does justice to the character as he is written, but the writing would not be as strong if it wasn’t delivered and acted out the way Aidan Gallagher does. He is an incredible asset for this show.

Alright, onto concluding this rambling. If you made it this far, I commend you, and thank you for it. The point of all of this is that Five, as a character, could have been an unmitigated disaster of a TV character. He is overpowered, arrogant, uncommunicative and could so easily have been either unconvincing or completely unlikeable, but he turned out to be neither. It’s a combination of choices in the costume department, decisions in the writing room, and Aidan Gallagher’s acting skills that make the things that should make him obnoxious and annoying incredibly entertaining, and I hope you liked my long-winded exploration of these. Some nuance was lost along the way, but if I had not stopped myself, this would’ve become a full-blown thesis.

#thanks for the ask again #TUA #The Umbrella Academy #Five Hargreeves #tua s2 spoilers #my meta #i guess #Replies #Anonymous

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ackermanshoe · 3 years

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March comes in like a lion, it's Portrayal of toxic & healthy relationship and how to compares rivamika + Ereh

Que the longest title everr 😌✨

So before I start on the actual analysis, I recently started watching March comes in like a lion instead of doing my assignments and I half way through season 2. For those of you who haven't watched it, it might be a spoilers so beware of that.

In this analysis I'll be comparing the similarities I found between Rei, Hina and Kyoko.

So watching any anime after being do emotionally attached to rivamika it's only natural that I compare them to the characters with even the tiniest bit similarities in their dynamic but Rei and hina's relationship jump in episode 4 of season 2 really caught me off guard and I was like omg?? Rivamika?? How do I make this about them 😩

Anyway so a little background on Rei's relationship with both girls Kyoko and Hina ( Hinata ). Firstly, i subconsciously placed Rei has Mikasa, kyoko has Eren and Hina as Levi, why? You will know on a minute. Rei is a depressed kid who has known only one way of life and that's through shogi games and after his parents death ( cough cough ) he was taken in by a old friend ( I think ) of his dad's who was also obsessed with shogi. Kyoko is the biological daughter of this man who has "adopted" Rei and later on Rei was came to know Hina and her sisters, they were super supportive of him from the start and having lost family members themselves they related to him on a personal level.

So you see why Eren and mikasa's dynamic matches with Rei and Kyoko and not only as "step siblings" it's also the fact that Rei became somewhat obsessed with her through the time he had spent over at their house, it's toxic and it's been showcased that way ever since kyoko was introduced into the series. Rei thought of her when he heard the word "love" and he even admitted to the fact that having her around is toxic and yet he can't push her away. He said he does not want to stop hearing her voice even tho she , herself is in love with a much older man who is married. Everytime she showed up to his bedroom uninvited and slept next to him my mind went "he is in love with her and their relationship is so toxic why does the author keep bringing her into his life?" Or "girl get the fuck away from him".

Without even thinking too much deep into their physical connection I already knew I would be able to related this dynamic to Eren and Mikasa. Although this series gives us much more depth into the main characters views since it's narrated from his own perspective, and the fact that he metaphorically compared his feelings of being lost and sadness helps me as an audience to understand what's happening much much easier than attack on titan. I personally feel like this kind of series are usually short ( idk how long this is) because it feels like the author knows exactly what he is going for, everything is set in stone.

Going back to Rei's ( mikasa's) relationship with kyoko ( Eren ) it's much much clear how toxic it had become for him in more than just one way. And the show isn't denying Rei of his feelings towards Kyoko and it's not even attempting to distant him from her and yet you just knew there had to be someone better right? That's when they introduced Hina and Kyoko in the same episode, meeting each other and a sense of invisible rivalry gushed over them, especially Hina. She is a happy go lucky girl and extremely sensitive to things to the point it kinda annoys me everytime she bursts out crying ( but hey you can't hate a genuinely good character ).

That's where things get interesting for me maybe because I am on that Levi X Mikasa agenda all the time but just like rivamika their relationship has been portrayed as platonic for the longest time in the seaosns. If I didn't go out of way to search up who Rei falls in love with and it didn't say hina's name I probably wouldn't be making this comparison right now because who wants to have their heart broken for the 2nd time in the same fucking month 🙄.

Anyway so in this one episode Hina comes home crying because of bullying issue at school and as she runs off into the dark streets Rei chases her and eventually catching up to her takes her hand and being able to relate to her problems, comparing his younger self to her present Rei reaches out his hand and God fucking damn it he says "you saved my life..I promise I'll stay with you" ofc I'm making this post now you know the real reason 🤡.

The unseen build up that happen between them reminds me of rivamika, the Portrayal of healthy relationship is rivamika. Hina (in our case Levi ) to Rei is the voice of emotion, she speaks out the feelings that Rei has been surpassing all these years inside of him. Just like how we talked about Levi is the voice of reason, while Mikasa has the impulsive urge to act up. Just like how Levi became the perosn who reasonably always took mikasa's side, he gave her personal reasons to take Erens side everytime have an actual meaning towards the scouts / everyone , he then became someone Mikasa was able to object & voice out her opinion towards because she knew that he would response and guide her the right way and finally he became someone she was able to fully trust.

Much like Hina and Rei, when Hina cried out her heart and Rei couldn't help but go back to his past self and imagine Hina coming to him and giving him a hand, being his saviour. It's much like how Levi saw his past self in Mikasa present ( S1 ), Levi gave Mikasa the hand she needed when she didn't know she needed.

Hina despite being much younger than him, was able to make him realise that he too was shutting out his emotions and was able to let himself be free through Hina when she cried, expressing her frustrations and very human like emotions. In the forest of the giant trees when Mikasa and Levi saved Eren for the first time he told her " we got your precious friend, didn't we?" A slight wake up call he had given her for the very first time, an attack on Mikasa's ego and evoking a different emotions within her. Like telling her it's not only about Eren and getting revenge, risking your life so easily, Levi had lost his entire squad in order to protect Eren so now that he is safe they better leave now.

So the question is did Levi and Mikasa save each other?

What can I say that I haven't said already in here about these two?

"you saved my life" Rei says to Hina as he reached out her hand and the beauty of that scene was the fact that it was delicate and soft despite it not being anything romantic. Remind me of that panel of Mikasa touching Levi's shoulder. How ironic is the fact that I'm comparing Hina, a openly emotional character to Levi who is said to be the most emotional inside?

Levi physically saved Mikasa a lot of the time however emotionally Levi saved Mikasa from being selfish and from herself. What if I said and ignoring 139, that Levi was one of of the biggest reasons Mikasa took the initiative and decapitated Eren that day?

Wait why does it feel like I already said it before lol

Through Levi, Mikasa learnt to trust more, learnt that even though they gave difference not only in height, age and in how they treat Eren ( Levi with force and Mikasa with care ), Mikasa still came in terms with Levi and relied on him, shared her burden with him. I think that's the biggest character twist Mikasa had, the fact that she was ready to draw sword at anyone who treated Eren wrong and everyone was scared of her and then came the grumpy shorty who beat her beloved brother right in front of her but eventually he became the biggest form of support she had in the end. I just can not help but laugh at all the unseen development this ship has had and all the implication of Futher interaction after season 3 between them, it's really obvious they had something going on because imagine you don't talk to someone for like 3 years and suddenly when you engage in battle against , paired up with them suddenly you become the strongest duo known to humanity. +?)!#)# make it make sense.

Sooo now you see the that having toxic relationship with a partner is only natural and inevitable but growing from that, opening your eyes to those who actually care there for you is rather healthy. So moral of the story is guys make sure stick with those who tells you to stay with them, the end.

Omg guys this turned out so much longer than I intended, anyway hopefully y'all liked it. I know it's not the strongest comparison or analysis but I feel like I'm running out of words for what I want to say about rivamika it feels like I'm recycling my sentences from previous analysis over and over again because ✨ lack of content ✨ and my inability to think of something new.

Please ignore all my spelling mistakes I have decided to embrace my mistakes instead of fixing them simply because I'm too lazy 😉

💜💜💜

#rivamika #rivamikacanon #levimika #rivamika analysis #BurnTheScarfMikasa

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misseffect · 3 years

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Writing Tag ✍️

Thanks for the tag @otemporanerys :DD

Tagging @shudder-shock, @shretl and @skjeter

How many works do you have on AO3?

Seven, but four of those are from the Normandy Detective Agency series

What’s your total AO3 word count?

27,839 which is wwaaaaay more than I thought actually

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Can You Feel This? - post-destroy ending, Garrus POV ft. Castis and a very pissed-off Joker. Fun fact: I've never played the end of ME3 so didn't realise when I wrote this that the Normandy doesn't stay on Earth lmao

Different - ME2-ish one shot about the first time Garrus gets Shepard's clothes off. Tragically non-explicit. Probably made the no.2 spot by virtue of being the oldest.

Third Time's A Charm (tNDA) - definitely made the no.3 spot by virtue of being the horniest you dirty, dirty dogs

Flux (tNDA) - the first and probably my favourite in the Normandy Detective Agency series so far. The grey morality. The trust. The totally-platonic slow-dancing. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Tinderbox (tNDA) - WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I think it's good manners. If I leave a comment and don't get a reply then I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have bothered, unless they've got hundreds of comments in which case, fair play. And I just really fucking love talking about Mass Effect.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oooff I don't think I've ever really written one. CYFT probably comes closest, just because it's mixed in with uncertainty about how much Shepard will ever be able to recover.

The next installment of The Normandy Detective Agency is angst-central though, which is partly why it's taking so ffffffucking long to write.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I know how roughly how tNDA is going to end and it's happy because god damnit they deserve it

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

No, never had much interested in them

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. The kind that never uses the phrase bundle of nerves. We have the right to use proper anatomy words and I wish to God we'd exercise it.

idk what the second part means really, but I like to read sex that feels grown-up and intimate and believable so that's what I try to write.

Sometimes I think smut can feel a bit too fanfic-y. It's hard to explain without sounding like a snob, but fic sometimes has quite a specific style of writing (I saw a post a while ago which was a PERFECT illustration and now I can't find it for the life of me - it was part of an article from CNN about, I think, Biden and Obama? Anyway, it was exactly that kind of very fanfic-y style except it was in a news article lmao) and I feel like smut is where that style sometimes becomes really concentrated. There's inherently nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't do anything for me.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also no

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but basically everything I've ever written has been co-brainstormed with @shepgarrus c:

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Guess lmao

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Looking For Ilos. Writing a really nasty Shepard was a lot of fun and I think the shakarian dynamic had potential, but the AU concept just wasn't rich and engaging enough to carry the story in between. tNDA really benefits from having the historical setting to anchor it and in hindsight that's definitely what LFI was missing.

What are your writing strengths?

Pacing. I can't stand stories that dawdle (I just finished reading LotR and MY GOD was it a slog) so I try to keep my own writing moving along. Unless there's specific value in watching a conversation play out, a thing that would take pages and pages of dialogue to talk through can usually be zoomed through in a few paragraphs.

And for AU specifically, I think I'm good at adapting from canon - especially keeping the themes, characters and key story elements recognisable in a new setting - and that's definitely the bit of tNDA I'm having the most fun with.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Change. CYFT suffers from this a bit in the sense that Garrus doesn't really develop much from the start of the fic to the end. Shepard is awake and he's talking to his dad more and he's on good terms with Joker, but this is all stuff that just kind of happens to him; he's not really any different in himself. And maybe that's not always necessary but I think it can make a story feel like it's just spinning its wheels. You get to the end and think 'ok but what was the POINT?'

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I have sections of dialogue in the next tNDA installment which are being spoken in German, but I've just written them in English and italicised them lmao

The only context I like foreign-language dialogue is for pet names. That's the cutest shit I've ever seen.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Published? Mass Effect. Otherwise, when I was a kid I used to make up what were - in hindsight - Harry Potter self-insert stories. If I'd known about livejournal and FF.net back in the day, I definitely would've been into HP fic in a big way.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

tNDA. It's just so. much. fun.

I've got a soft spot for Different too, partly because it's my first published fic but honestly some of the metaphor is just so 🤌✨🤌 I can't believe it came out of me.

#tag post #itsa me #fanfic tag #shakarian fic #mass effect fic #i'll talk about tNDA until everybody wants to kill me tbh

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jocia92 · 3 years

Link

Maria Schrader's I’m Your Man: Dan Stevens on Being a Robot.

Warning: this interview contains some minor spoilers. (ending spoilers)

Science & Film: Did you do any technical research about what it would be like to be an A.I. robot?

Dan Stevens: What I liked about the film’s premise is that it doesn’t actually go too deeply into the technical ins and outs. We see the institute in which [my character has] been created, but in this modern building they have a traditional dance hall and bar—they’re trying to make everything as human as possible for their clients. The idea is that this technology slips quite easily into our world. I think you briefly see Tom uploading, downloading, and recharging in his room, but other than that, the technical details are not of great interest to the writers. They just want to get into the human reaction and interaction.

With A.I. and android characters, you have a blank slate, and it was quite fun to strip everything away and to play with Maren, who gives a wonderful and very human, naturalistic performance. To spar off that in an unusual way that was tricky for both of us, because the usual call and response you get with a scene partner, we had to deliberately erase. We looked at: what would be the human response here and what’s Tom’s response?

I like that near-future science fiction where it’s not 1,000 years in the future, it’s like two weeks in the future and one thing is different about our world.

S&F: Yes, it allows this film to get to the root of some of the more philosophical or moral questions about what counts as life. Can you say a little more about working with Maren and the dynamic between your characters?

DS: It is one of the charms of the film and of the screenplay, how wittily it dealt with big philosophical questions. It doesn’t get too bogged down in them, yet they are the bedrock of the film. That’s a peculiarly German thing to me; the ability to tackle those questions but in a very fluent way. Maren’s character Alma, her mind and preoccupation is thousands of years in the past [because she researches ancient forms of expression]. She’s researching cuneiform. She’s thinking about lyric and metaphor and poetry from then. Then there’s Tom, who has literally just arrived on planet Earth and is trying to figure out what the hell is going on. They couldn’t be further opposed. We talked a lot about screwball comedy and those odd-couple stories: Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant kind of stories. The process those films take is almost like machine learning: these two things don’t work, put them together and that’s not working, then you keep going until they’re together. Taking that pattern and playing with that a bit was what Maria [Schrader] was going for in this film.

S&F: It’s also distinct that in the case of your movie, there’s a caretaking element to the relationship because one character has responsibility for the other.

DS: Tom feels like he’s there for that. Eventually, Alma is there for that too. The sexual element is different than a traditional romantic comedy in that Tom’s desire is not really a factor. It’s much more focused on Alma and the female gaze. That for me was a refreshing perspective.

S&F: What drew you to the project?

DS: I got to read this very much in isolation. I normally have a couple of people who would have read it and have their opinions. This was a German script that very few people I knew had read. I got to sit with it and its themes on my own. It’s always nice when you see a film in its final state that it approximates what you imagined it to be, and I was so happy that the playfulness and wit, but also the themes and big questions, seem to have been preserved. The sweetness and the weirdness are very much my thing.

S&F: The film doesn’t try to wrap up those big questions too neatly either, which I appreciated.

DS: For Maren, her theory is that [Tom] is not actually there [at the end of the film]. It had never really occurred to me because I was there [laughs], and then I saw the film and I think that’s an amazing question to be left with at the end. Is the ending just a construct of her romantic fantasy?

S&F: Or does he have his own will?

DS: Has he found someone else?! [laughs]

#ich bin dein mensch #i'm your man #dan stevens #maren eggert #maria schrader #sloan science and film #interview

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nightswithkookmin · 3 years

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Memories 2019 was jikook fest. I think memories 2020(if we even get one due to covid) will be very tk focused, because they’ve been spending a lot of time together since September, growing close again after their friendship started to grow distance. Idk, I just feel like Jungkook is focusing a lot on Tae recently compared to Jimin, this isn’t me over reacting, there’s so much tk content than usual. Run 116 for example, anyone with eyes can see jikook was off. LGO comeback vlive. Grammys reaction

Uhmmm....

I get these kinds of questions a lot, and often when I do, I find I usually do not know how to go about answering it...

These concerns you raise are shipper problems lol and honestly I'm not that kind of shipper? Lmho. I'm more into alt shipping which means I place more value on the quality of Jikook's interactions, as little as those moments may be, than who BigHit decides on as their star ship for a season.

And often when I get into another ship, it's mostly because I am interested in how that ship affects the dynamics of Jikook.

I am curious to know what BigHit does with memories 2020 as well. Mostly because I believe they dumped all their Jikook 'intimate' moments on us in memories 2019 to try and neutralize the alleged brewing scandal revolving around Jikook since Rosebowl and the me too movement that hit the Kpop industry which set of this whole chain reaction with the impromptu vacation and the subsequent Jikook -involved with girls scandal' -allegedly. Bighit don't sue me please. Lol.

But ever since those moments happened, I had a feeling BigHit was moving to normalize Jikook's intimacy to throw sniffers off Jikook's metaphorical queer butts while simultaneously putting a leash around their necks in order to control and prevent any future such occurrence where Jikook's secret could be outed resulting in a potential scandal.

It is why I said I felt BigHit had been moving to mangae Jikook, presenting them as more of a brand than a ship within BTS.

I don't think they would want to go out of their way to specifically highlight Tae kook in memories 2020 simply because they are not trying to cover up any Tae Kook secrets or to normalize Tae kook's intimacy- because Tae kook isn't real. If we see more of Taekook or any other ship in memories it would be because they gave BigHit moments- memorable moments, which is what Memories is about no?

The objective of memories is to showcase moments that BigHit feels is iconic, memorable, beautiful and a reflection of the bond between BTS. That's what memories is.

And the fact they kept highlighting Jikook in Rosebowl should tell you the kinds of moments they consider iconic- JK nibbling Jimin"s ear believe it or not is super Iconic.

I keep saying BigHit bangs on the intimacy of the boys. Which means very often they are where the intimacy is. If Jikook is giving them beautiful iconic moments they can cash they will serve us Jikook. If Taekook, VMin, Sope, or Namjin does that too they will serve us them- it's business nothing personal really.

So it's not a question of whether they are showcasing Taekook over Jikook or Jikook over any other ship.

BigHit values the quality of the interactions between these boys which is why they invest so much in it and go through so much trouble to produce content like Soop or Rookie king which focuses on healing and repairing the boys' bond from time to time.

I mean have you seen Tiny Tan or BT21? Have you seen the level of animated love and connection they generate between these fictional versions of the boys? That's the level of love and closeness they want from the boys in real time for their own marketing agenda.

Jikook is often their go to because their intimacy and bond is not contrived or convoluted or riddled with high tensions and Jikook themselves are more than happy to perform and display their bond and give us iconic moments for the cameras. But where Jikook for whatever reason cannot give them those moments they would look to other pairs for it. I think I have talked extensively about BigHit and BTS ships already. Kindly check that out for a better understanding of my point of view on this topic.

And you are right about Tae and Kook spending a lot of time together this year- but how does that affect the quality of Jikook's relationship? I think I would be more interested in discussing that than worrying about a DVD slated for a near future where I might not even be alive to witness lol- chilee this Corona Virus has me moving scared lately. Pray for me, my moma and my cat. Lol

Listen, Jikook is real in spite of all of these things you mention honestly. Jungkook and Jimin are having bomb sex and doing the gay whether BigHit highlights another ship over them or not, whether come December JK wishes Jin or Tae a happy birthday, whether JK kisses another member's calf or sits on Tae's laps and bounce up and down, and whether Jimin throws himself at RM or not.

I really do not have a problem with the way they both choose to interact with the other members within the group. I just observe those interactions and allow it to inform me on their individual personalities, their state of mind, their emotional maturity levels, whether or not they are growing as individuals, whether or not they are both expressing themselves the way they want to within their dynamic etc. It's their love journey not my fantasy. I support them, I don't ship them.

And I gotta ask, what is it to you if BigHit highlights Taekook in the next DVD? Would that hurt you? Taekook are a part of BTS too and talents within the agency that BigHit have a moral and legal obligation to promote and market just as they promote and market Jikook you know?

It's their shippers isn't it? Fucking psychopaths! Lol. I feel you. I'm not a fan of shippers in general. I think you have to try and move past their annoying, braggadocious, anti Jimin, anti JK, anti Tae, toxic shopping tendencies shopping men for their biases, stealing other ships dynamics and superimposing the faces of their bias onto Jimin or JK' moments- Tae and JK deserve better supporters. Hashtag free Taekook. Lol.

I think you should try to understand Tae kook's dynamics for what it is because believe me Tae Kook give better insight into Jikook in the Vminkook's dynamics.

As for the Run episode, I think I have already put up an analysis of it in a recent post? Chilee. I am waiting for the behind the scenes of episode 117 because I think I spotted a bit of Jeonlous there when Suga and JM were wilin there for a second.

These two episodes were shot sometime during the On era when Jikook were not together together as I've been saying since the onset of my blogs. These episodes are not proof that something is wrong with Jikook now. They just show that something was wrong with Jikook then...

Whatever happened with them in the On era, they moved past it and got back together- like they always do. They always do. They are whipped on God I swear! Lmho. I want to talk about them in this era- yea yea I know I already put up a blog on that but it focused on their MV and roles in the music video and I want to talk about their relationship dynamics 😥

Somebody ask me about that!😭

And it's funny you say with episode 116, 'everyone with eyes could see there was something off between them...' my question is why didn't y'all see that in February when it happened??

You don't need loud moments like these to finally notice when the ship you support is having issues honestly. Chileee. You is 10 months late I think. They moved on, we moved on. This is a new Jikook era baby and Jikook are back with their shenanigans. Lol

This dismissiveness, bigotry, skepticism, treating a ship as a fantasy and not as individuals and the human that they are is how Taekookers and every ship in BTS think their ship is real lol. They will ignore and dismiss all the questionable moments that happen between Tae and Kook and run with the few seconds of skinship they see Taekook do- it doesn't work like that you know? But I guess these are shipper problems and I can't relate.

Oh and when you say there is so much Taekook content than usual..... I want to talk more about this too👀

I want to talk about VMinkook's dynamics next- in a separate blog perhaps? But y'all keep asking me about Minimoni and Yoonmin😒

Should I?

Signed,

GOLDY

#jikook #kookmin #jikook analysis #kookmin analysis #jikook scenarios #jikooktheories #kookmintheories #goldy #goldy blogs #goldy analysis #goldy theory #ask response #ask goldy #goldy response #nightswithkookmin #alt shipping #alternative shipping

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skullsandwineglasses · 3 years

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The Legends (2019) - Halfway Review (first 30 episodes)

So far, this is a drama that I skim-watched, and I have only watched the first half. I keep hearing how the second half is even worse and goes downhill, so I’m bracing myself for it. But here are my thoughts about what worked for me and what didn’t.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Plot Summary (this is kinda long, so skip to the next section if you’ve already watched it)

I actually really like the premise of the plot and think it’s different from your typical xianxia/wuxia/xuanhuan romance drama. The plot opens with a naive and innocent girl, Lu Zhao yao, who lives in a remote mountain forest with her grandfather. Their ancestral duty is to guard the seal of the Demon King’s son. Lu Zhao yao, our bubbly FL, is lonely. She wants a companion because it has always just been her and her grandfather in this empty and lonely mountain forest.

One day, Luo Mingxuan from the Immortal sect breaks into cave in the forest and attempts to attack the Demon King’s son, but the son escapes and Luo Mingxuan is injured. The FL finds him, heals him, and falls for him. Luo Mingxuan is intrigued by her too. He tells her to be a good person and to be a keeper of peace of harmony in the world. He leaves, and she is determined to be a good person who saves people and helps the weak.

Meanwhile, the Demon King’s son is bullied by the villagers and is soon captured by the Immortal sect who wants to execute to prevent him from becoming a harbinger of evil. Zhao yao saves him as her first good deed, defeats all the sect leaders, and proves herself to be far more superior than any of them. She is unbeatable, and therefore makes an enemy out of all of them.

The Demon King’s son cares for her wounds, and she teaches him to stand up for himself and protect himself. She names him Mo Qing. She tells him her dream of wanting to build her own sect to help keep the peace in the world. He takes in everything she says with rapt attention. But she then tells him that she needs to leave him to find Luo Mingxuan, the person who inspired her to be a good person. She tells Mo Qing not to wait for her because she won’t come back. Mo Qing watches her leaves. Despite her telling him to start a new life, he never leaves the encampment that they’ve created because he has nowhere else to go.

A month later, Zhao yao returns to the encampment, bloodied and jaded. When Zhao yao had gone to the Immortal sect to find Luo Mingxuan, he chained her up, tortured her, and forced her to reveal the location of the Demon King’s son. She refused to surrender because she’s adamant that she did the right thing in protecting an innocent boy who did no wrong. Luo Mingxuan says that she’s going down the path of evil and prepares to kill her. Her grandfather shows up to save her, but is killed by Luo Mingxuan. She then realizes that everything that Luo Mingxuan had said about being a good person and upholding peace and justice is a lie. Out of spite, she reasons that if everyone thinks she’s an evil person, then she’ll show them what it means to be truly devil and despicable. She sets out to become the most evil person they have yet to see. She’s hellbent on revenge, and no longer believes in love and in the goodness of people. I just love her petty attitude because I can relate to it so much. You think this is bad? Okay, I’ll show you bad.

For the next 5 years, she builds her fearsome sect. She recruits a group of loyal followers, and is now known as a cruel and devilish conqueror. Mo Qing stays by her side as a quiet guard and gatekeeper of the sect’s entrance, watching her from the sidelines. On the day when Zhao yao tries to take the Wan Jun Sword, she tries to take advantage of his feelings for her and tells him to distract the people from the Immortal sect so that she can take the sword. But the sword instead calls out for him and wants him as its master. This causes the cave to collapse, and Zhao yao is buried in the rubbles, her last words accusing Mo Qing of betraying her.

We then have another time skip of 5 years. Zhao yao is resurrected when her body comes into the contact with the blood of Qin Zhiyan, a disciple from the Immortal sect. Their bodies are now connected; whenever Zhiyan is hurt or injured, the same injuries are manifested on Zhao yao’s body. To other people, they both have Zhiyan’s face, and only Zhiyan can see Zhao yao’s true face. Zhiyan’s personality is the exact opposite of our FL. Zhiyan is meek, clumsy, kind, and not clever, which means that Zhao yao becomes the bossy half of this blood-connected duo. Zhao yao is determined to return to her sect and get revenge on Mo Qing whom she not only mistakenly thinks killed and betrayed her 5 years ago, but whom has now taken over as the leader of her sect. She wants to reclaim her position and restore her clan to its prior glory as a sect to be feared.

Pacing

All of this happened within the first 4 opening episodes. To be honest, the first 2 episodes were slow. Episodes 3 and 4 were when the deaths, time skips, and Zhao yao’s rise and fall happened.

Despite a slow first 2 episodes, the drama overall had a strong opening. We got to see a reversal of power dynamics where the FL is evil and powerful, while the ML is the quiet and demure “damsel in distress” who secretly crushes on the FL. It’s different from the usual underdog storyline.

But after Zhao yao’s “death”, the plot slows down. The power dynamics reverts back to what we typically see in xianxia dramas: the ML becomes the almighty powerful sect leader, while the FL has lost her powers and her identity, and has to now pretend to want to be his disciple in order to slowly regain her power so that she can kill him and get her revenge.

From episode 5 onwards, the FL’s arc is about how she and Zhiyan have to pretend to be the same person. This means that sometimes one of them has to hide (usually Zhiyan) so that no one sees both of them. However, this also means that we see more of the actress who plays Zhiyan than Bai Lu. While the second lead actress is good and is able to pull off playing both roles, I didn’t choose to watch the drama because of her. I had just started to get used to Bai Lu as the FL, and now suddenly, I’m forced to see the face of another actress as the FL. I imagine that this is when the drama loses most of its audience. It really tests your patience. In the comment section of these episodes, I saw a lot of people asking when the FL gets her face back because if the switch doesn’t happen soon, they’ll drop the drama.

I was also *this* close to dropping the drama. It felt the Bai Lu barely had any screen time, and the SFL had very little chemistry with Xu Kai (which I guess was the point). And speaking of screen time, Xu Kai only appears for like 10 minutes per episode.

The leads also felt very removed from all the plotting and scheming that was happening amongst the sects around them. So not even 10 episodes into the drama, the plot felt like a drag.

When you realize that Zhao yao won’t get her face back anytime soon, you begin to wonder how the romance between her and Mo Qing will progress. Will he fall for her personality even though she has Zhiyan’s face? Does this mean that he’ll fall in love with both Zhiyan and Zhao yao because he thinks they’re the same person and doesn’t know that there’s 2 of them? Is this going to turn into some kind of moral/philosophical dilemma about what is means to love someone’s soul? Is this going to turn into some messed up love triangle?

Thankfully, Mo Qing figures out what’s happening pretty soon (around episode 11), so he knows that Zhao yao and Zhiyan are distinct people. We don’t really see his thought process for how he is able to figure things out, but we just assume that he’s able to put the clues together. It seems that at first, he might have assumed that they inhabit the same body (like a Stephanie Meyer’s The Host kind of situation), where Zhao yao takes over at night, but then soon he figures out that Zhao yao is actually just invisible during the day, and appears at night with Zhiyan’s face. But then he gives Zhao yao her old necklace, which allows him to see her in her true form during the day and night, even though she doesn’t know it.

The Good

This brings to me to talk about what I do like about the drama. Both the ML and FL are clever people. They’re able to see through people’s schemes and are always one step ahead. We also see that Zhao yao, the fearless conqueror/demonness, has met her match, which makes their interactions really cute to watch. Zhao yao used to be his hero that he could only admire from afar. She was the haughty sect leader that he could barely talk to because she her attention was always occupied by other things. But now, he’s her superior and the one giving out orders, while she has to put on an act to please him because she’s now his disciple. But at the same time, she keeps trying to kill him, and he knows it, and he’s always amused by her attempts because it’s a reminder that Zhao yao has really come back to him. He simultaneously enjoys and is hurt by her hate for him. Talk about being masochistic.

I’m also a sucker for reincarnation/ghost plots. While Zhao yao isn’t exactly reincarnated (but more like reawakened), and she isn’t exactly a ghost but is invisible, the way that the plot plays out is similar. Both the ML and FL metaphorically have a new life: he’s a sect leader when he was once someone who was bullied and persecuted and couldn’t protect himself, and she’s now just a disciple who needs his help from time to time. It’s always funny when he respectfully refers to Zhao yao in the third person to other people as the previous sect leader, even though she’s in the same room with them. And it’s also funny how she calls him that weird ugly kid, her first nickname for him when they first met, whenever he’s not in the room with her. The way they talk about each other in reference to their “previous life” is such as contrast from how they currently treat other when face to face.

The invisibility plot point is also fun, especially in episode 21 when he follows her around town. It’s also the first time when we’re explicitly shown what he sees from his point of view. Zhao yao is like a hologram, and with a bit of magic and concentration, Mo Qing is able to lift the invisible “mask” that covers her to see her in her true form. Zhao yao is always startled when Mo Qing seems to be looking right at her.

But between episodes 12 and 20, the plot stagnates. It’s not until episode 21 when it picks up again because all the subplots and backstories finally start to come together. And so far, episodes 21-30 have been good. The leads are finally getting involved with the larger plot. They actually make things happen. There are important consequences to their actions and decisions. Zhao yao still doesn’t get her face back, but everyone finally knows that there are two of them, so Zhao yao and Zhiyan don’t have to keep playing the hiding/switching game. Luo mingxuan finally wakes up from his slumber, so the original villain of the drama has returned. It turns out that Jiang Wu is just a manifestation of Qin Qianxuan’s lust for Zhao yao. Lu Shiqi, a teenager(?) raised by Zhao yao, reppears again for the first time since episode 4. Mo Qing’s inner demon is starting to come out. Zhao yao finally finds out that Mo Qing already knew that she had come back from the dead and that she is invisible during the day all along. She also finally starts to accept that he has feelings for her and her for him (That line in episode 30 though: “If you fight, I’ll be your sword, if you retreat, I’ll be your shield”). The plot is finally getting good. But I’m just worried about how it’s going to be handled from here since I keep hearing how weak the second half is.

I also like Zhao yao and Zhiyan’s relationship. Yes, they’re blood-bonded so they’re forced to look out for each other, but I just really like how wholesome their relationship is and how much they do care for one another. They have to share their secrets with each other because it’s them against the world. They’re a unit, and their survival depends on them cooperating and trusting each other.

The Meh

The villains haven’t really been a threat to the leads, and they’re not that interesting tbh. I always skip the scenes when they’re scheming (which are a lot of scenes), and I’m still able to follow the gist. Like I already mentioned, up until episode 21, the leads felt so removed from what was happening in the other sects. Despite being a sect leader, it doesn’t feel like Mo Qing really does much besides interact with the FL, and the FL doesn’t do much besides stir up antics. She doesn’t actively try to figure out how to get her face back. She just thinks that if she gets Zhiyan to do more good deeds in her name, then she’ll wrack up more underworld credits, and she’ll be able to buy the pill that will help her restore her powers. But it’s also a little odd that her credit count is increasing so slowly when she’s done a lot to help Zhiyan.

Mo Qing and Zhao yao have a really cute romantic arc, but Mo Qing is a very typically ML who unconditionally loves the FL and sacrifices everything for her. He doesn’t really stand out from the other xianxia MLs, and his character isn’t given much to work with (especially with so little screen time). Compare him with Sifeng from Love and Redemption or Ye Hua from Eternal Love who had to express so much pain and suffering. Maybe the angst just hasn’t happened yet in this drama.

Mo Qing’s love and devotion to Zhao yao was also a little hard to believe at first. They only really interacted with each other closely for a handful of scenes over a period of a few days, but I guess when you take into consideration that he was abused and abandoned as a child, and then bullied and nearly executed, then the fact that Zhao yao was the first person to care for him, be his friend, and give him a name, it’s no wonder that he’d go to the ends of the earth for her.

There is a very little character development, and the world building stagnated after the first few episodes. I guess we start to see some growth in Zhao yao and Zhiyan in the 20s episodes, where Zhao yao learns to be more caring and tender, and Zhiyan learns to be a bit more confrontational, but for the most part, it feels like things are happening to them and they’re just reacting to it. Zhao yao may seem assertive, but she doesn’t cause things to happen. Her being invisible does hinder her agency and makes her more of an observer in the drama. It feels like she’s been laying low for so long now, so I’m looking forward to seeing what she does in the next episodes now that Luo Mingxuan has awakened.

I remember when this drama first came out in 2019, I had just finished Fuyao a few months prior, so I didn’t want to watch what seemed like a second-rate version of Fuyao. But this drama has a completely different premise, so I guess it goes to show not to judge a drama by its name.

I also wasn’t in the mood to watch a drama where the leads are my age. I’m still getting used to the idea of people my age on screen, while I’m watching them at home, still having no idea what I want to do with my life.

In terms of plot, it’s hard to compare Fuyao and Zhao yao since they’re so different. Fuyao works her way to becoming a powerful general, while Zhao yao starts as a powerful general and then loses everything.

Overall halfway impression

People say that you should watch this drama for the romance between the leads, and while yes, the romance is watchable, I don’t know if that’s enough to carry you through this drama since the romance progresses very slowly. The leads only have a few scenes together in each episode, so you’re skipping most of it. Essentially, this is a very skimmable drama. I’m hoping that I’ll skim less as the leads become more involved in the sect politics, and I wonder if I’ll still be invested in the romance when Zhao yao and Mo Qing officially get together. Stay tuned.

Update: So I’m on episode 35 now, and it seems like a good place to end things. Is this where things start to go downhill because they’re going to drag it out to 55 episodes?

#the legends #招摇 #zhao yao #bai lu #xu kai #许凯 #白鹿 #cdrama #cdramanet #cdrama impressions #cdrama review

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arlingtonpark · 3 years

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SNK 134 Review

Thank you. Thank you so much. This means so much to me.

(Ofc this chapter is called “In the Depths of Despair.”)

Sigh.

So, I guess I have to have an opinion on this chapter now.

For a while there, it looked like SNK had made the right choice.

Eren was the asshole. He was insubordinate, ungrateful, uncooperative, and above all else, a fucking sociopath. Cool, got it. One and done.

But then his friends started talking about how it was really their fault he’s doing this.

Ok, that’s fine. They’re desperate to stop him, so they’re just saying whatever they think will ingratiate themselves with Eren and help talk him down. Dynamics like that are very common in abusive relationships.

Now we arrive at this chapter, where even random people are saying Eren is a victim *as he is murdering them!*

It is patently absurd that Eren is having a warranted or natural or reasonable reaction to what he’s been through.

If Eren were a better person, he would have known that mass murder against the Eldians was wrong because mass murder is wrong. Unfortunately, Eren is a fundamentally amoral person. The only moral compass he has to guide him is a childish belief in “you hit me, so I get to hit you.”

He’s said as much on multiple occasions. He has said, “If someone tries to take my freedom away, I will take their freedom away.”

Instead of being the better man and ending the killing, his solution was to kill more people than them, faster and on a larger scale.

I think the clearest picture of Eren’s worldview was given when he spoke to Historia. He said the only way to end the cycle of violence was to destroy the whole world.

That is Eren’s deeply felt belief: there can be no peace or coexistence; the only way to win is to be the last man standing.

This mindset is so natural to him that he will even kill his friends for opposing him.

He told them that they were free to oppose him, and he was free to fight back. That’s how he justifies killing them to himself. They have the choice to oppose him, so if he fights back and kills them, it’s their fault they died, not his, because they could have made the choice to flee and live, but decided to stand and die.

In reality, the alliance is fulfilling a moral duty to protect life, while Eren is an asshole who has killed billions.

The series wasn’t kind to Eren about that. He was depicted as a cheering child as he murdered everyone. The Rumbling was not white washed either. The take away was obviously that Eren’s decision was not the product of a sound mind.

And yet.

Now I have to wonder if the series is seriously trying to say the Rumbling embodies some form of justice.

There are multiple layers to this issue, so let’s start at the surface level.

So in what is obviously a ham-fisted attempt by Isayama to lecture the audience about morality, a Random Commander Guy filibusters about the ills cast by the Marleyans on the Eldians and how this has rebounded back at them.

It is generally considered good writing for characters to get their just desserts. If someone sells drugs to kids, you expect something bad to happen to them. If someone helps a kid cross the street, you expect something good to happen to them.

What’s different between a generic case of just desserts in a story and this chapter in SNK is that the dessert is typically delivered through some nebulous, karmic force, rather than a vengeful twerp with God-like powers.

When the drug dealer’s car blows up, it’s karmic fate, not revenge.

The car doesn’t blow up because one of the kids devoted his life to exacting revenge, it’s because the car just blows up for no reason, or because something completely unrelated to the dealer causes a bomb to be planted in the car, or the dealer brought it on themselves by getting caught up with terrorists.

People may or may not deserve to suffer, but it’s fine to show people suffering if you’re just trying to make a point about how people should act.

Eren’s a different case. For several reasons.

To help untangle why, let’s think about the death penalty.

The death penalty is an example of retributive justice. Put simply, it’s the idea that retribution can be morally just.

The Rumbling is immoral precisely because it is something a supporter of retributive justice would emphatically NOT support.

Most supporters of the death penalty would justify it as an act by a legitimate societal authority. Eren is not that.

Eren is not an authority figure. He does not speak for the Eldian people and has no right to exact this genocide on their behalf. No one made him King of the Eldians. It’s not his place to decide what’s in the Eldian’s best interest.

Also, killing people because “it’s what the scumbag deserves” is usually justified because it’s a sentence for a crime handed down in a legal process.

Rights can be taken away, but not arbitrarily. Transparency is an important part of this. Acts that are a crime are public knowledge, as well as the prescribed punishments. The criminal law is also supposed to apply to everyone equally, not selectively. To say nothing of the law itself being duly enacted by a legitimate governmental authority.

The same principles apply to the process by which a right is taken away. The process must be laid out in a law that was duly enacted by a legitimate government authority, applies to everyone, and is publicly known.

Eren’s process, of *fucking* course, is nothing like this. Eren has no legitimate authority. He’s a Guy With an Opinion who bumbled into attaining absolute power, and now he’s acting on that Opinion.

He not the government punishing a convict. He’s a guy with a gun shooting people he doesn’t like. The Rumbling is not just retribution, it’s just murder.

Commander Guy says that if they knew this would happen, they would have acted differently.

That’s a good point.

Why the fuck do they deserve to die, then?

To some extent, everyone’s worse impulses are kept in check by the knowledge that there will be consequences if they act rashly.

But it’s not just that.

Laws are public knowledge for a reason: it’s fair. If you know your act is a crime and that performing said act will result in a certain punishment, then by committing the act anyway you have tacitly accepted whatever punishment will be meted out.

The moral onus is placed on you.

This is why knowledge that you are committing a crime is necessary to be convicted of a crime.

In principle, the case with the Marleyans is the same. Is it fair to punish someone for an act they did not know would carry that punishment? No.

They may know the act was immoral, but that is not the same thing as knowing it will lead directly to their death.

And needless to say, but you only deserve to be punished for an act if you deserve to be punished for that act. The Marleyans do not deserve to be punished for that act.

There are multiple ways a wrong can be righted. There are punitive ways, in which the perpetrator is harmed outright. There are also restorative ways, in which the victim is compensated for the harm done to them, usually at the expense of the perpetrator.

I have already explained why Eren lacks the authority to pass judgement on the world, and that the process by which he made his decision was completely illegitimate, but it needs to be said that this punishment is totally improper in itself.

Wiping out humanity is purely punitive. To use the obvious analogy, I don’t think any sane person would argue white people deserve to be punished for racism. Supporters of racial justice usually talk about restorative, rather than punitive, forms of justice, like reparations.

The Rumbling does not make the Eldians whole again. It does not restore their trampled dignity. It is purely an act of vengeance.

Casting it as some kind of deserving retribution is crazy.

Oh, and, you know, suffering is bad, so retributive justice is wrong even disregarding everything I just said.

You could theoretically believe life is a miracle, but that people forfeit that right if they act wrongly…it’s not something many people would support.

If Dino!Eren had been depicted as a random force of nature that visited ruination upon humanity, we could have potentially gotten a good story about how hatred leads to no good outcomes. Like how Godzilla is a metaphor for the ills of nuclear weapons.

Instead we get a nihilistic tale about two sides punching each other until one keels over dead. And somehow the one that keels over deserved it.

What makes it nihilistic is that you could easily reverse it. What if right before Eren destroys Fort Salta, aliens invade the Earth and help the Marleyans.

Now the Eldians are on the verge of annihilation and *Eldian* Commander Guy gets his turn to say “Woe is us who surrendered to hate. We deserve this.”

There is no right side or wrong side. No deserving side or innocent side. The Eldians were cheering for genocide the same as the Marleyans. The difference is the Eldians had a God on their side.

The morality of this series is just all over the place.

The Alliance and Eren are equally sinful, but now Eren is an agent of karmic destiny and his victims “deserve it.”

There isn’t much to talk about this chapter besides that.

Armin still hopes to take Eren alive, but good luck with that.

Eren can manifest other titans from his body, which is cool I guess, though it’s pretty clear this power only exists to give the Alliance things to fight.

There were a lot of allusions to parenthood this chapter. The baby and the cliff. Reiner’s mom realizing how shitty she’s been. Historia’s pregnancy. The Commander Guy saying it’s the fault of “us adults.” The numerous shots emphasizing the kids at Fort Salta.

Child abuse is a common theme of SNK. And not just parental abuse, but societal abuse, too. Children are the victims of individual foibles and broader social ills, like racism and police brutality.

The cycle of violence at the heart of the series’ conflict is bad for everyone, but the story emphasizes that it is bad for children in particular. It harms them, and leads to a world that is worse off for them.

If there’s one takeaway from SNK, it’s that we should think of the children. Adults shouldn’t just take care of their kids, they should fix broader social issues, if not for themselves then for the children’s sake.

It’s a fucking insult.

Historia’s pregnancy is all but confirmed here. There’s no way it’s fake. There may have been motive to fake being pregnant, but there is no fucking way she’d have a reason to fake *birth*.

I always leaned towards the pregnancy being real, so that didn’t get to me. What gets me is that Historia is just…there. On Paradis. On the sidelines.

Not only was Historia, who is the only likable female character in this show now, impregnated, she’s also been MIA most the last two story arcs.

I had thought Isayama was saving her for the finale. Surely, Isayama understands that if you sideline a major character for no reason, they have to come into play at some point, I thought. Surely.

Characters are tools; they exist to be used. So use them.

But no, it seems Historia is legit not going to be a thing in this final battle. My dreams of the domineering boss saving the day are dashed.

But what really messes with me is how shafted Historia has been since basically the end of the Uprising Arc.

Historia’s only contribution to the plot after Uprising, but before the pregnancy was making the disastrous decision to make the truth of the world public, which paved the way for Paradis society to become radicalized and back Eren’s coup.

She has done nothing other than that.

Obviously her pregnancy will have thematic importance, but at this point the best Historia stans can hope for is that she’s the main character in the epilogue.

I’ve always assumed the pregnancy was the product of a loving relationship. For all his incompetence with Historia, I was willing to assume Isayama would not force her to carry a forcibly impregnated child to term.

And you know that even if the child is the product of rape, Historia will still have to say she loves and accepts them as her child and will raise them lovingly, with no regard or acknowledgement of the trauma of having to raise a child born out of her being raped.

Because the theme of the story.

All life is a miracle.

All children deserve to be loved.

Even if it was rape.

Except it’s more complicated than that, and I’m terrified to think that Isayama may not understand that.

So for now, I choose to presume that Historia is pregnant because she loves someone, decided to have a family with them, and we’re being led to believe she was raped for shock value.

But arguably more important is what this means for the queer audience.

Historia’s first love interest was another woman.

She’s queer. A lesbian. A dyke. What have you.

Now you’re telling me she either loves a man, or was not only raped, but has to love and accept the child that results from that trauma?

And for what?

So we can end the manga on a speech by Historia moralizing about the value of posterity?

Historia stands at the nexus of two subjects in this manga: the value of posterity and the denigration of queer people.

It is very homophobic of this series to pair a queer character with a dude to affirm a message about the value of children and motherhood.

As if queer people can’t have children.

We seem to be headed down that path.

It didn’t have to be like this.

Queer people can have children through artificial insemination. And artificial insemination is conceivable with Paradis’ current level of technological development.

Isayama is choosing to do this because queer people are not a part of his vision of a world where people, especially children, are able to live free.

That’s very sad, because it shows how empty SNK’s morals are.

So who’s the slave here?

Who here is truly free?

The ones who are free are the ones who aren’t reading Attack on Titan anymore.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #snk 134 #snk chapter 134 #spoilers

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tortoisesshells · 3 years

Note

Questions for fanfic writers: 3, 15

3. If you had to direct a scene from your fic, what would you chose? Why? What would it look like? What techniques would you use to convey certain emotions? What would the set look like?

I'm sure I'd make a lousy director, because just managing "the script" is nearly too much for me! If I was going to just direct the one, I think I'd pick the staircase scene/scene v. from her eye discourses, because (1) I love it & (2) I'm weirdly attached to stairwell scenes as a filming location. Maybe I imprinted too hard on The West Wing's eternal walk-and-talks. Are they dynamic? Is it a bustling space or is it a quiet, shut-off one? Up, or down? Plus, it's still my favorite Phoster banter I've ever written.

It's late in the evening, so it's dark - after last regular checks of the night; really, the only visible light sources should be from Jed & Mary's lanterns (I don't think that's good enough to light the whole of the stairs set, but I don't particularly care about the set itself; Honestly, if the non-diagetic lighting faded over the course of the shot, so that while the staircase environs is dimly visible to start, but by the end Jed and Mary are isolated in their own little bubble of oil-lamp-light? SO MUCH THE BETTER.)

(come to think of it, I'd also dampen the hospital sounds - footfalls, pacing, snoring, groaning, etc. - as the scene went on.)

I suppose I'd start with a long tracking shot from behind of them heading up, until switching to facing them around "“We can at least rely on them to watch each other,” he replied, perhaps too quickly or too glibly, for Mary stopped and shook her head." - at which point they argued for a bit, stationary? I'm not sure what I'd do to keep it interesting, but I'm very confident the last shot should be over Jed's shoulder, as he watched Mary walk up to the next landing.

It's about the isolation & their mutual (occasionally aggravated) rapport, anyway. :D

15. Pick a previous relationship (or multiple) of your character's. Explain how that/those impact the way they navigate their way through relationships now.

Off the usual track with this one: Nellie's relationship with her brother John (the wrecker in Nassau) was the most important relationship she had from the time she was born until the point at which their father kicked John out of the house and struck him from the family Bible - they lost their mother young, and were the only children from her to survive past age five; they had plenty of step-siblings, but John & Nellie(/Nora, since no one called her Nellie until her late husband Samuel) were partners, conspirators, and pretty well inseparable - sort of a sub-unit, within the larger Coggeshall household.

Nellie tends to look close to home/within her own family for her support - she has a sense that the people she can trust the most are the people she's tied to by blood or matrimonial bonds; she's slow to trust, generally, but good luck if you're an outsider! (Hendricks is something of an exception to this, but for two factors: (1) Daniel Hendricks & Samuel Treat were pretty well good as/ as close as brothers, & (2) he resembles John Coggeshall pretty strongly in some respects - pragmatic morality, distaste for imperial law, and delight in winding people up, chiefly) - at any road, this is something she learned from her relationship with her brother.

John was really the only person in her family Nellie trusted, so she ended up fairly early on with a tendency to invest most of her time and effort in one main relationship (familial, in this case) - which, in some ways, set the pattern for how she dealt with the relationship part of her marriage. Samuel was the most important person in the world to her - her confidant, her comforter, her co-conspirator; his loss, like John's less-lethal loss, left Nellie feeling completely bereft and invisible - she's has a tendency to be a one-person person ... kinda like a Doberman or a German Shepherd? Bad metaphor, moving on. That's not to say that she isn't capable of having warm, affectionate relationships with others (other family members, friends) - it's only that Nellie has One (1) designated person who she's completely honest with, and feels comfortable asking for support, particularly emotional.

Too, Nellie learned to deal with absence as an expected part of life - by the time she was in her teens, John was gone for significant parts of the year at sea.

One of the hard/material effects of her relationship with John was that, as soon as he was gone, with a family of his own in Nassau, Nellie tried to get out of Newport - which, fortunately for her, didn't take long - she married Samuel Treat very shortly thereafter.

Questions for Fanfic Writers!

#ask meme #polkaknox talks #thirsty thursday #customs and duties

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flying-elliska · 3 years

Text

Shadow and Bone Season 1 Review

Ok so I got distracted by a need to watch all of Ben Barnes' filmography (lmao) but here is my review : It was really fun to watch and it was clearly made with love which is already the main thing with YA fantasy, which is often turned into a soulless moneygrab when put on screen. The actors were GREAT. I did think that the Crows suffered from being mashed up with the Shadow and Bone story, but they were still a highlight. I also think it was a bit rushed, esp. when it came to Alina's training. The costumes were beautiful, I want a kefta now. Plus the crossover fanfic interactions btw the SaB characters and the Crows were just pure joy. Also Milo, obviously <3 I'm in hyperfixation mode so here, have an essay :

The "Shadow and Bone" Characters :

- Jessie Mei Li !!!!!! She really made me like Alina so much more than in the books, she absolutely is the 'human embodiment of literal sunshine' and she was a joy to watch. Her character's arc is cliché but her acting is so expressive and endearing, I really felt for her all the way through. (maybe I'm biased bc Jessie talking about her ADHD and seeing her thrive at the same time is like!!! i love them they deserve all the best.) I like that they made Alina more proactive - even though she does make some stupid decisions... but I just don't understand people who put that down as bad writing, like ??? have you ever met a real person who only makes wise, good decisions ?? a character like that would either be at the end of their story or just in the background because that makes them static. The things with the maps in the beginning does a good job of illustrating how she is just this one girl making rash, erratic decisions out of fear and loyalty and doesn't have a sense of the bigger picture, caught in the tide of bigger events. It works for her character. When it comes to the choice of making her half-Shu, I do think it really makes sense re: her character feeling like an outsider but I do understand the criticisms that the microaggressions felt too relentless and one-note. I am really looking forward to them introducing Tamar and Tolya and hopefully connecting to them over her heritage in a more positive way.

- Mal in the books was one of the most annoying YA characters I've ever come across, so I really liked that they made him much more of a loyal, devoted friend. I found his relationship with Alina cute, it really gives us the sense that these are two orphans who found a home in each other, childhood best friends (and potential sweethearts) separated by war, two army grunts and ordinary people caught up in the wheels of power and war that usually crushes people like them, it's a great way to introduce the dynamics of their world and it's a trope that always makes me emo. It felt a bit too one note to me, though, and too heavily on the nose, like Mal's only personality was his attachment to Alina (and his resentment towards the Grisha) and too much of her emotional arc also relied on him. Them hitting us over the head with the meadow scenes felt like pure telling instead of showing and it ended up being super repetitive and kind of annoying. I am willing to like this pairing, but I wanted more scenes of them just having conversations about things and really understanding why they like each other beyond the whole childhood friends bond that we're asked to accept exists at the beginning. So I hope there's more depth there in next seasons.

- Ben Barnes!!!! Just jksdfhgkdjghdf. I'm not a big villain stan usually and I hated the Darkling in the books but DAMN his performance is just amazing. They managed to make him more sympathetic and human while at the same time making clear the stuff he does is deeply horrible. There's the Magneto-aspect of 'well clearly his methods are fucked up but he's addressing a terrible injustice nobody is doing anything about' that makes it very tempting to root for him ; and again, well, like, Ben Barnes is so hot and charismatic it feels uncomfortable (which I guess is part of the point lol). His loss of humanity is, up to a point, understandable, brought about by despair, loneliness, grief and a sense of powerlessness - living so long he starts to see other people as disposable, losing so many people he stops caring, seeing over and over how hate never seems to stop, etc. It's a logical explanation for going insane.

But the hunger for power is also very much present as a motivation and this ambiguity is there constantly. Does he maybe come to genuinely care for Alina or is it totally bullshit ? I think he does, he's just so fucked up that it comes out as possessiveness and a need to control her. He wants Alina to be his equal but he's incapable of treating her that way. It's tragic, in a sense, but the show doesn't excuse his actions either. Like his monstrosity is a product of this world full of injustice, yes, and that warrants some compassion, monsters are always a symptom of their environment in some ways and dehumanizing them completely is an excuse ; but at the same time, he sabotaged his own cause anyway the moment he started to treat other people like things, as he does with Alina, because that just perpetuates the cycle of violence and hate. At some point he started feeling like he was the only solution and he was owed power for his sacrifices, and he's using his cause as an excuse. When Alina came to him, there was a possibility for redemption, taking down the Fold, and it's a test because there is finally someone on his level of power. But instead of seeking to remedy the power imbalance between them, he made it worse, by lying to her, manipulating her, etc, and the antler collar is the ultimate sign of this.

I love those scenes towards the end (the antler-based body horror has big Hannibal vibes, so messed up). I like Alina telling him they could have had this, that she had compassion for him and his cause, that they could have worked together, and he's the one responsible for screwing it up and this time his claim that he's the misunderstood victim ("Make me your villain") appears delusional and self-serving instead of somewhat justified. The almost-lovers to enemies vibes, the sense of lost potential, and the angst of the whole 'oh you could finally have been loved by people, too bad you fucked it up !', very juicy. There is this fundamental idea that power/respect/love is not something you are owed no matter how good your intentions are or because you're strong or you have suffered or you're willing to commit horrible drastic actions, you have to keep proving you deserve it, and trying to claim power without responsibility of care turns you into a monster. The thing with the stag was an excellent metaphor of the fact that there's things you can't take, they have to be given to you, and the wonderful power there is in understanding that is what allows Alina to harness the stag amplifier's power. This is really when she escapes his grim utilitarian outlook and a different way forward and owns her own power fully on her own terms.

Anyway I hope Alina gets to beat the shit out of him at some point that would be very sexy but I'm also looking forward to see how their arcs parallel and diverge from each other as Alina starts to grapple more with the implications of her power and the harsh dilemmas of war and her own dark side. I want to see him become scared of her, and I feel it will be more visible than in the books where he just has this cold aggressive facade all the time. This one feels a lot more openly emotional which is just a lot more interesting.

- As for the other characters ; Zoya mostly made me sad. The actress has the perfect vibes but I'm not sure I love their take on her character so far, it does make sense in terms of the later books - that she has internalized prejudice regarding her mixed-race heritage, that she is jealous of Alina because of how hard she's fought to get where she is and Alina kind of takes it away from her, etc. But I would have liked to see a bit more of her being badass and sharp-tongued in a clever (even if mean) way instead of spending most of her time being rejected by men and being racist towards Alina. I did like the ending though, of her actually seeing the monstrosity of the Darkling in action and the mention of her aunt. And her brief bonding with Inej was great, just because it was badass but also maybe because it could be a part of Zoya learning to accept her Suli heritage in turn, maybe not right away but in time, when thinking of that part of herself, she won't only think of her parents' ruined marriage and all the pain it caused, but also of that badass and brave acrobat girl who went toe to toe with these really scary monsters without even having any powers and !!!!!

- Also Leigh's cameo was so cute and as an aspiring writer this is just such wish fulfillment

- I honestly think that having the Crows there actually made the S&B story better ? Not only in terms of the much needed levity breaks but also in terms of themes. For instance, Matthias and Nina's story gave us a really raw and visceral view of how the Grisha are hunted. And Inej's relationship to Alina really gave us a sense of what Alina actually means to people who believe in the Saints in a way that doesn't feel just like 'ugh those superstitious people' because we know that Inej's faith is part of what makes her who she is and a person with morals, and something that saw her through the worst moments of her life. It feels so special that she got to meet Alina and given a sign that maybe the world is not completely shitty. And Alina's kindness towards Inej really gives you a sense that she might be, or become worthy of that belief in time, or at least that she wants to, that she's figuring out her power to really touch people's lives might be a good thing, and that she's starting to accept this responsibility more fully. And her arming Inej is a nice parallel to that. I'm very emotional about this scene, because one of the first things we see of young Alina is her taking out a knife to defend Mal from the bullies, because she's protective and brave, but she's also aware the world is a shitty place, and so her giving that knife to Inej is a sort of spiritual transmission and recognition of sorts, that she trusts Inej with that fighting power, that she'll use this knife to defend herself and her loved ones and not abuse it. It's so interesting. And a counter point to the Darkling's fucked up relationship to power that Alina might at some point get afraid she'll replicate. That you could see Alina trying to gather followers and using people's admiration for her like he did but instead she sets them free and empowers them. It's great. And I feel that when Inej takes to the seas, she'll think about Alina. (I do hope somebody tells her Alina's not dead at some point though god). Girls giving each other knives is my spirituality, honestly.

- And I also noticed an interesting parallel between Kaz and the Darkling in terms of being two emo dudes who like to wear black, are prone to violence and have a thing for two very powerful women they think are special and want to have at their side, but of course, they go about it in very different ways. The Darkling comes at it from a place of power while Kaz comes from a place of utter powerlessness, first of all, and he understands why it's important to set Inej free. Him spending the entire season trying to earn enough money to pay off Inej's indenture is the opposite to the Darkling putting that collar on Alina and while I do have issues with how the show portrays him, I do love that. Love is about setting the person you love free !!!! And that confrontation scene was so powerful, when Kaz tells the Darkling Alina was tired of being a captive ! Drag him !

- As for Genya, I liked the actress and her chemistry with Alina, but I'm not sure they did a great job of making her arc very clear, for instance what it means for her to get that red kefta, her relationship with the other Grisha, etc. Her and David are already very cute though. Also very much looking forward to see where that goes.

So yeah I think they did a great job with this bit actually, I enjoyed a lot more than I think I would and even though it is a very tropey story, there's plenty of depth there too.

The Crows :

- I'm a bit more nitpicky about this because I care about these characters so much. I think overall the problem is that the SaB story in the books happens on this massive scale with enormous stakes, and that next to that the Crows' issues feel less important ; it's like their impact is distorted by the gravity of the much larger story. Like for instance, Kaz in the books is very much at the center of everything, this larger than life trickster figure who knows and controls almost everything by sheer cleverness, and he has this sense of allure and mystique that can't happen here, and so his aura just shrinks. On top of that they're not on their home turf. Being introduced to these characters before they've reached their full levels of badass is weird - there is a reason why prequels generally happen after the main stuff, because they count on the love you have for these characters at their full potential to make you interested in their story when they were less badass and interesting. So I had several moments where I was like 'oh this feels wrong'. Tbh the idea that they would even volunteer to kidnap Alina in the first place, what with Inej's backstory, feels kind of wrong, esp since they had no idea of what would happen to her if they succeeded.

- But I still enjoyed a lot of it though, especially the fact that they were this force of chaos in the midst of this bigger narrative that's a lot more self-serious. The bits with the train, or the circus acts were very clever. A lot of the best moments in the show happen when they come to disturb the other plot in unexpected ways. I'm still dead over the whole 'Alina jumps into their carriage' scene, that was fucking gold. The team up at the end !!!! Alina and Kaz making a deal ! Inej stabbing the Darkling !!!! Them stealing the Darkling's carriage !!! They don't give a shit that the story is supposed to be super dramatic it's great.

- Jesper is the one character they completely nailed from start to finish and he's probably my favorite part of the whole show. He's very funny without being reduced to the role of comic relief ; he's just so! damn! cool!!!!!!! I honestly feel this is a thing they actually did even better than in the books, or at least Six of Crows where I felt Jasper kind of disappeared behind Kaz and they insist a lot on his flaws and issues. So before we dig more into those problems I love that they gave him time to be this ultra badass who saves the day several times ; while at the same time, hinting at further developments like his powers or his gambling issues. Kit Young is just perfect, confident without being arrogant, a bit cold when it comes to crime while at the same time being so obviously caring with Inej - I loved their friendship, that was so sweet. My main criticism is that they should have made it clearer he was bi because there are already people calling him gay and that's very annoying. I know some people had a problem with his hookup and like...I can see it's a bit of a cliché...the charming badass bisexual adventurer....it's a trope I kind of love though lmao and the scene itself felt kind of cute and fun. He's not the only person who is shown to have an active sexuality and he's also not the only queer person around and we know he's going to have a more substantial romantic arc later so eh. On a larger note I loved the little casual hints of completely normalized queerness - Nadia thirsting over Zoya, Fedyor and Ivan, Poppy, etc. Having grown up with fantasy where queerness was either completely erased or very tormented and problematic, this was refreshing as hell.

- Inej and Kaz...my faves... They have a kind of relationship which feels so rare and unique in terms of what exists on TV and while I don't feel they entirely replicated it, the core is still there - the mutual respect and building of trust, the longing, the repression, the trauma, etc. One thing I really like is their arc around faith - in the books, Kaz is dismissive of Inej's faith in ways that often feel really shitty and I like that he learns to be more respectful of it. It's very much linked to hope/survival ; Inej keeps this token from her parents and she hopes to find them again ; Kaz tells her it's no use and she'll survive better if she gives up. He believes Alina is a fake, while Inej wants to believe that myths can come true and there is hope for good things in the world. Kaz comes to accept that Alina is the real deal and, out of respect for Inej's faith, to stop pursuing her. I loved the bit about Inej struggling to kill as well - it's the dilemma of what her survival and that of the people she really cares about are worth in such a shitty world - her compassion is a good part of her but so is her survival instinct, and that's the part Kaz represents - that even after she's been through hell, broken in unfathomable ways, even if she gave up all hope and faith in the world, even she becomes dangerous and ruthless to survive, she will still deserve dignity, and to be treated better. And meanwhile she is willing to break her principles, which she holds so dearly, to save him, when he's never had anyone who cared for him like that - enough to keep him alive. That bit in the church !!!!! God !!!!!! Bye !!!!!!! And then him basically calling her his own version of a Saint, that he doesn't believe in miracles but he does believe in her !!! It's very emblematic of their whole arc ; he empowers her to survive in a ruthless world and loves her at her most dangerous ; but he loves her laugh too, he finds her a ship and her parents, he honors her capacity for love and hope even when he can't share it. And she sees that he's capable of doing better, that he's worth caring for. This whole thing kills me honestly and I can't wait to see where they take this next. I'm not mad they're a bit more soft and obvious than in the books, Kaz would just have come across as an an asshole otherwise.

- That said, there are bits of how they introduced their backstories I don't like. I get that making it so Inej was still tied to the Menagerie gave them a very powerful reason to want to kidnap Alina beyond greed so that they wouldn't look like very shitty people. But in the books Inej is terrified by the idea of simply seeing Heleen or the Menagerie and the way they have her interact with her feels weirdly casual and dismissive of her trauma. Also, in the books, the fact that Kaz had to convince Per Haskell to buy Inej's contract through a lot of effort, that he wasn't the one holding that above her head either, made the power dynamics more palatable. I especially disliked the scene where Kaz says he won't free other girls because just Inej is special, it makes him look like he has the power but he's just too much of a callous asshole to do it, and that he just freed Inej because he liked her which is absolutely not what their relationship is about at the start, it's a lot more about seeing Inej's dangerous side behind a facade of powerlessness and relating to her, in a sense, and this scene made it all feel cheap.

- Also, what was that about Inej having a brother ? Not a fan of that either. I'm afraid they're going to make her story all about finding what happened to him, and that's 1) too on the nose similar to Kaz's story and 2) it kind of cheapens her own arc, a female character realizing that what was done to her was wrong, reclaiming her own power and dignity and then making sure it doesn't happen to anybody else, harnessing her personal experience to save strangers, that's so powerful - making it about a family member at first, especially if it's about revenge, it's so much more simplistic and unoriginal and the perspective really annoys me.

- Also not a fan of Per Haskell not being there because he's a very important part of Kaz's evolution, so I hope he shows up eventually - and the way they introduced Pekka Rollins was kind of like...weird and out of place. I just found the Crows' introduction scenes stilted and not as cool as they should have been - well, Jesper and Inej were very cool, but we needed to see Kaz in action first, we needed to see why he's such a menace before we see him flounder later, and I just...I don't know exactly but it didn't work for me. Also this is a very petty thing but I wasn't crazy about the Ketterdam sets, I know this is probably a budget thing but in my head it looked like this incredible mix of Amsterdam and Venice - specific locations in the book directly remind me of parts of Amsterdam I know very well - and instead what we got felt like this very generic London-ish fantasy setting....so boring. Also a lot of scenes that felt to exposition-y. I don't mind that Kaz was a bit softer than in the books, like many people have said some things work in books and don't work on a screen, and you need to make the character's inner dynamics more explicit. But I do agree that, at the same time, he should have been more ruthless towards people outside of his group. Loved that scene where he faces the Inferni though, and how well they illustrated his disability and aversion to touch.

- I don't have that much to say about Nina and Matthias ; I'm still not super sold on the whole 'haha misogyny!' thing and I dislike that so much of Matthias' change of heart relies on the fact that he finds Nina hot. But I did think that the actors had enough chemistry to make their scenes together interesting and cute ; I loved the waffle scene. Even though it's disappointing that they didn't find an actress who was more clearly plus size for Nina, I still think Danielle does a good job bringing her bold, unapologetic energy. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Crows as a whole team.

So yeah, even though the season didn't feel like a perfect, coherent whole, it was just a lot of fun and I really hope they get renewed. In particular I feel like tying the first trilogy to the Crows' story could create such interesting parallels in terms of themes, about power, the cost of survival, hope, trauma, etc etc

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #grishaverse #six of crows #leigh bardugo

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katiejaynefilms · 3 years

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THE FILM STILL: (SELECTING A SHOT)

Film: 10 Things I hate About You

Genre: Coming of Age

Coming of age films focus on the personal growth of young protagonists as they move into adulthood. They usually overcome an issue or personal struggle, learning about themselves and their morals. Personally, with this genre, I think there is a clear distinction between a primarily ‘Coming of Age film’ and a film that better fits other genres but has coming of age themes within it.

I chose this still, because it includes multiple conventions that appear within the genre. The protagonists are centered within the frame, putting the focus on them and their interaction with each other, rather than the wider world. We can tell that the narrative is driven by their emotions and relationship, rather than relying on action. Dialogue and inner thoughts often progress the narrative. Like in this still, there is usually there is a love interest who is pursued, causing drama and escalating the protagonists self-growth. In this scene we see both characters genuinely happy, as they have ended up with the ‘right person’ as a result of their personal growth. The scene is pretty equally balanced with no visual power dynamic created. These films display young love, and the light touch between the characters tells us that the situation is emotionally intense, but in a sweet way, as teenage love often is. It lacks the heaviness that can come with other types of dramas.

The clothing and styling choices also tell us this is a coming of age, as the outfits purposely go unnoticed to the general audience. Clothing is chosen to be accurate of the fashion and trends of the time the film is made. This helps make the film feel relatable and eventually nostalgic. The lighting in this still is also very natural and hasn't been obviously graded, which enhances the realism and once again relatability.

Behind the characters is the car. Cars feature heavily within the genre, representing the newfound freedom and independence of the characters as they become adults. Often reckless or bad driving is included or scenes of them learning to drive highlight their emotional state. In this still the door is open, which fits into the how the characters have finally managed to open up. Cars do literally give independence, but they also metaphorically work with the idea of leaving childhood, making the journey from one place to another. These films tend to date themselves quite quickly because they heavily feature the latest or trendy technology of the time. This particular still doesn’t have any electronics in it but the car in isolation tells us the decade this was set.

Another aspect of this still that is important in distinguishing it from a standard romance is the high school. The most common setting used in the genre, high schools act as the background of the story. More so, the people in the background leaving the school are divided into two groups surrounding the protagonists. Many of the problems characters face are do to with high school cliques, stereotypes and choosing whether or not to conform. The division of the background groups in comparison to the protagonists shows how they have overcome the social barriers that high school has enforced.

#film genre

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strokingtheego · 4 years

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No Skirting Around

Pairing: Logic|Logan/Morality|Patton. NSFS, Minors DNI

"It really isn't like Patton to skip out on movie night," Roman picked at the chocolate on his popcorn, inspecting it almost suspiciously, as though it might be the most recent victim of a certain, crasser part of Creativity. (He'd be wrong. All Remus had done was let it sit open on the counter, and now half the kernels under the surface had the consistency of day-old jerky.)

"Usually he's the one to be all about treasuring family bonding time, if we could opt out from the beginning, I would have! Not to slander the collection of titles, but one's evenings might be better put to use planning the world's next great musical."

Virgil bit back a cough-laugh. "Your 'What's In A Name', right, I can see the headlines now." His own popcorn had been left mostly alone, but the feeling of the bag felt a little off. "Well, he did make sure we all got our 'Popcorn from Pops', so he probably still wants us to go, even if he can't."

"And the passion for a healthy, well-oiled dynamic between all of us truly admirable, it is- but I would much rather continue moving my works in progress into the works of art category."

Virgil squeezed his bag a little tighter. "He's.. working through his own thing, remember? And with everything going on, he deserves a night off to process, at least."

By the time they reached the living room, onesie-d and cast in the bright orange opening of The Sixth Sense, Roman was quiet.

Virgil popped a kernel into his mouth.

"...there's hidden marshmallows in mine."

A loud, distraught gasp from the prince ("Share?") as they settled into the couch, but not before peering curiously over at the blanketed mass of fabric that spilled onto the floor.

"Love the skirt, Mindmeister."

____________________________

Logan was going to die. Tap, tap, over his parted knees, the feeling of soft curls over his thighs. Quiet, now. Only the trained instinct of keeping a straight face through difficult interactions could keep him from jolting out of his seat at just the feeling of fingers stroking circles under his thighs, creeping up over the softer fabric over his waist. They weren't even through the first few scenes, they hadn't even started- Logan was glad the room was dark, or he'd be scarlet, despite his best efforts. Why did he ever agree to this. It was completely unnecessary, if it was for this reason that Patton wanted to be exempt from the movie screening, then he might as well have stayed in his room as well, waited for him there, and whatever happens would really be no one else's business but their own. There was no reason for him to come out at his request, in a floor-length skirt, thighs spread expectantly in the dark of the living room. He could leave, at any time, right now, if he really wanted to.

But you don't want to, those infuriating fingers seemed to coo, trailing warmth over his ankles. Do you, baby? Logan waved the memory of that word away almost frantically, definitely burning up now, at the recollection of the first time the metaphorical heart had murmured it into his throat, and all the other, just as humiliating moments involving- that.

Different problem, instantly, because now the hands had changed course, pushing the folds of cloth higher, over his knees, and all Logan could remember was a breath against his ear, careful instructions and warmth over his throat and he couldn't move, as the skirt lifted high on his bare hips, hands admiring the test of obedience with every gentle squeeze to his ass. Flying colours. Good boy, Logan. They moved, back down to his knees and Logan exhaled, the odd bit of pride joining the heart hammering in his chest, trying to focus on the movie, on Virgil fighting Roman for his marshmallows back, on anything else besides the warm weight of arms over his lap, the feeling of fingers gliding close, much too close to the inside of his thighs and he set the popcorn he'd been crushing silently between his hands down as he took a breath. He choked.

Patton pumped his cock again, seemingly delighted, as the heavy fall of his hands against the couch turned into a vice grip on the cushions. The stroke that followed was thankfully slower, thumb kneading under the head, careful pumps up and down, with one hand on his hips and he took it, eyes shut and shivering, trying, in vain, to bring air back to his lungs. The movement stopped, resting instead at the base of his now unmistakable need, a bittersweet kind of reprieve. Or so he thought, because the warm wet of a laughing mouth pressed to the tip and parted-

"Logan? You good, bud?"

The two other sides in the room were looking right at him, Virgil with concern, Roman with squirrel-cheeked curiosity. Haley Joel was crying onscreen. The room felt like a tangible space, finally, for the first time since he stepped into it.

Patton wasn't as forgiving. Another, long lick upward had him shift, shrug noncommittally at the other two as the warmth sucked gently around the head. Logan was fairly sure he wasn't surviving the night with his dignity intact.

"Hm? Oh, I'm- fine. Why wouldn't I be?" That should not have sounded as breathless as it had.

"We-ell, for one-" Roman had somehow swallowed all the marshmallows back to gesture grandly around the room- don't take that idea- fuck, f uck- the imagined cotton was beginning to tear under his nails. He could feel the shoulders shaking from underneath the blanket. "-you've been giving Bruce Willis bedroom eyes since the movie began, which- I don't blame you for, but-"

"If you're tired," Virgil cut in, maybe a little too forcefully, but ultimately ignored the look Roman shot him to turn back, "You should go to bed. Patton's not here either, I'm sure he'll understand if you need a break."

Oh, he's here, he bit back, if only out of frustration as Patton gripped his hips, swallowing him down and Logan felt a little like crying himself, squashing down moans before they could rise and he shook his head, forcing himself to pop a few kernels into his own mouth.

"No. I'll be okay."

"Are you sure."

"Of course. I apologize for worrying you two."

Roman snickered, "Oh, I wasn't-" Virgil shoved a marshmallow though his teeth.

"Okay. Don't push yourself."

After what felt like hours, Virgil turned away, and the shuddering gasp that followed was more than a little embarrassing. Still, the relief coursed through his chest, even as laughter ran vibrations over his hips, into his spine and the mouth moved from the twitch of his dick to kiss teasingly over his hips. I'm sorry, I had to. Logan didn't particularly feel like dignifying that with an answer. The lips nudged apologetically just under his navel, planting kisses over his thighs before they disappeared completely, the imprint of them still warm and Logan was allowed to breathe, release the tension in his shoulders, let his chest rise a little higher as his eyes closed, at least for a minute.

A click of a bottle shut.

The shock of the realization came before the shock of a slick forefinger pressing into him, a hand raising his knee over a shoulder, a high noise of instinctual delight rising in his throat. Logan could not have clamped that hand over his mouth quicker.

Pat- Patto-n! The heart didn't respond, pushing a second finger further in, spiraling leisurely into that one, tiny spot of vulnerability and it was all Logan could do not to just splay out then and there, hot breath fogging his glasses as he ground his heels into the carpet.

"Patto-nn-" came the urgent whisper, barely audible over the gasp that shoved past it. "This- this is not what was discussed-"

Patton shut him up with a hard suck to the head, ecstatic with mischief as he stroked that spot inside him with incredible dexterity, kissing idly down the underside as Logan peeled the blanket back in desperation, just enough to watch bright blue flicker open.

Patton looked starved.

His glasses were askew, curls pushed back from his face and precome shone on his bottom lip like the world's crudest form of gloss, mouth red and parted in a laugh that once was welcoming, trustworthy, not at all as predatory, dark and consuming. The blue in those eyes burned- and Logan was frozen.

Morality nudged his nose into the neatly trimmed nest at the base of him, and Logan watched him inhale, dragging utterly indecent lips back up to the head.

Quiet, Logan. You promised.

The fingers curled in deep, pulsed white-hot to his toes, the tight warmth of a mouth engulfing him to the hilt, and the cushion ripped as Logan convulsed.

Call my name, Lo.

Patton hadn't pulled the blanket down all the way, just under his eyes and Logan watched the silhouette of a soft mouth drink him down, rocking a third finger into him as the bottle clicked shut. His hips shook, knuckles white against the couch as he gripped the tartan and his knees had long since gelatinized, whimper after whine punching out of his throat as the pace picked up on his prostate.

Patton-

His back had arched off the couch at this point, wracked with exhaustion, eyes lidded behind his glasses and his mind had gone blank, unsure if he was watching Virgil and Roman squabble over caramel or Bruce Willis playing with soldiers or the bob of Morality's throat as come dribbled past his chin.

Pat- Patton-

Shaking. He can't stop shaking. His arms were numb, The slow, purposeful torture continued, urging every muffled noise out of him as flashes sparked behind his eyes and how many minutes were left- seconds till it was over-

P a t t o n-

The credits. Virgil- Roman- they were packing up. Virgil was saying something he didn't hear, and Logan could hardly care whether or not what he had replied was a coherent thought or not. The living room was dark.

The fingers found his face, warm, comforting, "There's my baby."

My good boy. You did so well, Logan.

Please. The only word he could think, to beg and part of him didn't even really know what he was begging for- "Pat- Patton please-"

Hands tore the blanket off his lap, rending the seams of the skirt along with it, a darkened silhouette of want and gleaming blue leaning over his spent, shaking form, and whatever was left of his conscious mind left him about the same time Patton took him by the thighs and fucked all the way in.

Logan had always stood a good few inches over Patton. Now, watching the embodiment of the human heart loom over him, he thinks, maybe this is how it was always meant to be.

The couch slammed back into the wall.

"Fuck-!"

Patton- Patton Patton Patton-

The mouth met him halfway, kissing his cries away, calm and sweet and almost everything he could ask for.

Fuck me like you promised.

You promised, Pat.

Patton shoved his legs apart.

The pace was unrelenting, Logan spread the width of the couch and still keening, gasping, grasping for anything that might anchor him to the present as his entire system struggled to keep up, garbled fuck-blissed noise and soft, murmuring words that shot shivers through his nervous system as Patton nailed him deeper and deeper into the back of the seat and so good, so good for me, Lo, you did such a good job-

"Ple-pl-ease-! Ff-fuck-"

Yes God harder yes-

Down- onto the seat itself, knees to ears and the shirt was unsummoned- neither of them had the particular state of mind to take it off in any way calmly and the sound that tore from his throat could barely be human, Morality jackhammering down into that tight, desperate spot with a laugh just as breathless and Logan screamed- streaks painting as high as his shoulder and clawing- begging- splotches of white under his eyelids blinking in and out of focus and all he could see was blue-

"P-Pa-ah! Pat'n- Pa-"

Beg, Lo.

"Ple-ple-eease-ples-"

Hot. Hot- Hot- liquid heat washed down below his spine- Morality had his thighs trapped behind him- fucking in so deep he choked from the sheer feeling of being full and Logan could care less what position they were in now, sinking on and off with every harsh slap of skin against his thigh and hands, over the damp of his chest as slick and come dripped down his taint and balls.

"Pleas-e, pl-pl-uhn-"

"Louder."

"Please! Patton-"

His back hit the cushions and Logan keened, whining at the sudden emptiness before hands hauled his hips up- and the cock thrust into him so hard his forearms smacked into the armrest, stars blinding him a good split second as Patton gasped into his ear and he shook violently- God, he could feel everything, feel Patton shudder as heat welled rapidly in his lower belly and the dry orgasm rocked him against the form above him, had him claw at the tartan as his spine snapped rigid against Morality's slow pace in, legs kicking out involuntarily, voice fuck-blissed and broken and warm-

A warm pair of lips, by the time his consciousness drifted back into him, pressed carefully to his forehead. The world spun, blurred- and settled on the smiling face inches from him, freckled and waiting, concern lining the tired slant of bright blue eyes. They were still on the couch, from what he could gather, long past their set sleep schedule, sticky and sated and the world should be coming back into focus by now.

"I'm sorry I broke your glasses."

Ah. Logan exhaled carefully, chest still slightly strained from holding everything in.

"You have also torn one of my better skirts."

Patton shrugged, the beginnings of a familiar grin tugging at the corners of his mouth and Logan shut his eyes, headache welling, "Well, you know I'm not the type to skirt around the main point."

Breathe, Logan, breathe.

"You were okay the whole time, though, right?"

Third post-coital sigh of the night. "Of course. I would have told you if I ran into any trouble."

"Did you?"

Bright blue watched him from his shoulder, slightly unfocused, quiet as he waited before he managed a grin as Logan shifted to face him, brows furrowed in gentle reminder.

"Of course not. You were wonderful, Patton."

The smile faltered, and for a moment Logan thought he'd said the wrong thing, before it curved into something much more genuine, eyes crinkling at the corners, into the familiar laugh lines as warmth crept slowly into speckled skin and Logan's stomach flipped several times in that instant.

"I'm pleats-ed to hear that."

"You're reaching."

"For the skirt?"

"Zip it."

"I can't- the skirt's torn."

Fourth. Fourth post-coital sigh of the night.

"We should probably take this somewhere with more curtains, though."

"Because there are more drapes there, I got it-"

"Because I'm not done fucking you into every surface I can find, that's right."

Logan's mouth was suddenly dry.

"Okay."

In the farther reaches of the imagination, Roman gingerly lifted the pillow off his head from where he'd tried to bury himself face first into his mattress.

"Are-? Are they done? Please tell me they're done? Please tell me they've realized we can also hear their telepathic messages?"

Virgil, at the foot of the bed, refused to remove the pillows duct taped over his headphones, turned up to max volume.

Oh- h f-!

Back into the burying hole, we go, and Roman didn't hear Virgil scream.

#not safe for sanders #nsfs logicality #nsfs logan sanders #nsfs patton sanders

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hamatoclan76 · 4 years

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My favourite TMNT 2012 episodes (part 1)

I have been thinking writing about my favourite episodes for quite while now.Keep in mind this is not supposed to be a list of ¨ top best episodes¨ from tmnt 2012. There are many episodes that i think that are amazing but they don´t enter in my favourite list episodes for different reasons.

Most of the episodes i included in this list are the ones i often find myself rewatching and are the first that pop up in my mind when thinking about the series.

I'm going to write two parts about this because i don't want to make the post so long.

Let´s start!:

Slash and Destroy

When tmnt 2012 fans and non- fans talk about the best episodes of the series, most of the time they mention Slash and Destroy and it´s easy to see why:

The episode itself plays like a psychological horror movie, with Slash as a physical manifestation of Raphael´s darkest desires. He represents everything that Raph could become if he let the most toxic parts of his personality take control him.

Slash himself it´s very good antagonist, he isn´t just some random mutant that appears to destroy Raph´s brothers. He´s Raphael´s best friend and he knows many things that the rest of the Hamato family doesn´t. His uses this at his advantage to make Raph join his side and leave his brothers.

Raph in this episode is fantastic as well. We get to see a lot of his character, from his bad temper and how he thinks the team is ¨holding him back¨ to how far he willing to go to protect his family, even if that means fighting his friend.

Despite it´s tone Slash and Destroy has some of the funniest moments in the season: The subplot about Leo trying to get the mutantgen canister from other humans it´s hilarious. It doesn´t feel forced and doesn´t interrupt the drama, it´s nicely connected to the rest of the story.

I could write a lot about what makes this episode work so well, but i would like to keep that for other post.

New Girl In Town

This episode serves as introduction for Karai´s character and it´s one of my favourite for many reasons:

1) It´s excellent for Raphael´s and Leonardo´s character arcs. Leonardo tired of how his brother doesn´t respect him as leader, decides to leave the role to Raph since he thinks it would be better if he was the one in charge.

Later, Raph finds out that being the leader isn´t as easy as it seems, when he's forced to give an order that would put the life of his brothers at risk he completely freezes up. He learns he can´t handle the burden of making difficult decisions as he cares for his family so much he´s afraid of accidentatly hurting them.

As for Leonardo, he tries doing things his own way for once, he decides to take a break from the team and ¨have fun¨. In this episode he acts more like a "rebel" than his typical "good boy", which is quite refreshing to see.

He also learns that he shouldn't expect getting praise for being the leader. Splinter explains to him that the important part of being the one giving the orders is choosing to carry the burden. That's why Leo is the leader because he knows he has to be responsible in making decisions.

2) Karai is very interesting character that completely changes the dynamic of the main protagonists. She usually likes playing Leo and tries pursuing to join the bad side in this episode.

Her exchanges between Leo are very entertaing as well. They acts as friendly rivals and we get to see that she's actually not that bad in the end since she helps the turtles fighting Snakeweed.

"New girl in the town" it's a wonderful introduction for her, as it shows her as someone who it's morally gray instead of just evil.

3) The fight at the end is awesome. I really like how Leo and Raph work together to defeat Snakeweed. Raph decides to trust Leo's orders and follow his commands.

I think it's good way of showing they both have learned their lessons and how their relationships is changing.

Metalhead rewired

One thing i really like of tmnt 2012 it when two character fight, there isn't always one side who it's "right" and other who is "wrong". Sometimes they both make good points and "Metalhead rewired" is a good example of that.

This one is great for Donnie since he really wants to help the team with his inventions but.. as Leo tells him, they can be a bit dangerous and Donnie can lose control of them.

Here we get to see how Donnie's passion for science and technology can put his brothers at risk and how Leonardo also can be stubborn at times and struggles with being open to new ideas.

It's one of those rare instances in the series in which we see Leo and Donnie fight. They usually get on well since Donnie has no problem with following orders. He sometimes sarcastic with Leo but he rarely tries to an argument the same way that Raph does.

The thing it's that Donnie's and Leo's arguments are usually more about strategy than personal problems. While Raph's and Leo's fight are related to their slibing rivaliry and how their personalities clash with each other.

This episode deals with loss as well: Metalhead sacrifices himself to help the turtles escaping from the Kraang prision. While it's true that he can be rebuild it, i think it's still a pretty sad moment that it shows that Metalhead was a robot with good intentions in the end.

Vengeance is Mine

This another very memorable episode that tons of fans remember. The plot and the dialogue it's very well written and much like "Slash and Destroy" has tons of metaphors that worth of analyzing.

This episode it's mainly about Karai and her relationship with Shredder. It how revenge often being doing more harm than good and end up hurting everyone involved.

It starts with great action scene about the turtles helping Karai escape from Shredder's prision. Overall it's very intense scene due to being surronded by very dangerous enemies and they in Shredder's lair.

The scene in which Karai reunites with Splinter is really heartwarning. She doesn't say any word, she just.. hugs him, happy that she finally able to be with her real father. It's a very memorable scene.

And i really love how she later hangs out with the turtles during their training. It's such a cute scene.

The problem is that Karai really wants to make Shredder pay for what he had done to her family. Splinter tells her it's not really worth of her time, that all that matters is that they are now finally able to be together.

Karai sneaks out anyways and she gets captured by Shredder.

This forces the turtles and Splinter to go rescue her. While they are fighting, Oroku Saki accidentantly cuts the chain that holds Karai, making her fall into the mutagen and transforming her into giant snake.

I think i really like how the episode ends in a tragedy, showing how blinded Saki has become for getting his revenge that he even hurt someone he considered her daughter in the process. The scene is acts as a parallel to death, who died exactly in the same way.

Buried Secrets

I really enjoyed April the first time watching the series. It's was very interesting to me to see this girl that used to have a normal life have it completely changed because of the Kraang and "Buried Secrets" was not the exeption.

I really like the amount of psychological horror this episode has: April just wants to be with her lost mother who really turns out a defective monsters that shares her mother's memories and devours each one of the turtles.

On one hand April is finally able to learn more about her backstory and why she has Kraang powers. It was something that wasn't completely necessary for the series to explore but i really like the writers took the time to explain how O' Neil family was being experimented on.

On the other hand it's a really sad since her "mother" wasn't real in first place. It's has to be desvasting to find out your mother/father is really just a monster who is hurting your friends.

And like i said, this is one of the scariest enemies in tmnt 2012. It's very creepy how she just goes hunting each turtles one by one and no one know what's happening.

Mikey was great here too. He was the one that first suspected that April's mother wasn't what she appeared to be. It shows that while he sometimes he's a bit naive, he knows when something is seems off and take things more seriously.

------

Okay, i leave the list here for know. I would probably be posting the other half during the weekend.

I hope you enjoyed my post! Feel free to talk about your favourite episodes in the comments (or by reblog). I would like to see which ones you like.

#tmnt 2012 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage muntant ninja turtles 2012 #Leonardo tmnt 2012 #karai 2012 #raph tmnt 2012 #April o'neil 2012 #slash and destroy #buried secrets #vengeance is mine #metalhead rewired #A new girl in the town

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