#she's the real comedic genius in this relationship
Note
What's the deal with fanon Tim bc I read some comics with Tim and I've seen him in cartoons but all I see people talk about is "haha coffee addicted nerd who doesn't sleep!" and that just seems weird and wrong. Like my view of Tim has always been "he's a nice and extremely smart guy who sometimes pushes things a bit too far and maybe a bit set in his own ways/Batman's ways" but now I'm not even sure of that because I really haven't read THAT much (mostly seen him in other series) lol
No you're right!! Anon you're so right!!!
What the heck is up with fanon Tim Drake??
The thing about him not sleeping is actually true though
Detective Comics (2016) Issue #937
Batman: Contagion Issue #11
(I agree with Catwoman, Tim is so cute)
So I understand where the coffee addiction in fanon comes from but Tim's not actually addicted to coffee in the comics. I actually don't recall him mentioning coffee at all. At some point he might have but if he did, then those instances are so little in the grand scheme of things it might as well be called negligible if it's trying to be called an addiction.
But more importantly, Tim is so much more than that!! My favorite Tim Drake aspect of him is how sassy and sarcastic he is, it makes him so endearing!!
UGH NO ONE APPRECIATES HOW MUCH OF A LITTLE SHIT HE IS!!
Robin (1993) Issue #58
CMON CMON CMON LETS TALK MORE ABOUT THIS!!
Tim, you little shit, you know exactly what they say - cause you did it!!
HIS SELF-SATISFIED SMILE!!!
In all honesty I find Tim the funniest of the entire batfamily to read because he's so-he's so wholesomely quirky in a mean way. That's such as awkward way to describe it but reading his comics, you just can't get enough of them because he's just too funny!
At one point he has a massive fever and stuck underground with a bunch of weird kids and one of the girls is just like "please get better, please get some rest!" as she's wiping away his sweat and Tim has like no breath or energy at this point. But with the last remains of will power, he uses his breath to push one last question between lips.
Robin (1993) Issue #70
And as the audience waits in baited anticipation we get this-
Robin (1993) Issue #70
It's actually a very valid question and shows his detective thinking and yada yada yada but THE COMEDIC GOLD OF HIS TIMING!!
Like his situation and his question there's a massive gap that's almost incomprehensible about it all which is why it's so fantastic!!
The way he sasses batman is top 5 fav moments with him.
Azrael: Agent of the Bat Issue #91
Thanks @paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 for finding it again <33
But Tim overall is just like a normal kid. He's what authors tried to do with Stephanie but failed. They were able to make him relatable to the audience because the way he acts, it's so quirky but funny. Yes, he's a boy detective genius but he likes messing with people, he likes solving crime, he likes hanging out with his big brother, he asks for relationship advice, he can get insecure, he can get upset without acting cold, he gets tired, he gets anxious, he's determined, and he's super dorky.
Robin (1993) Issue #25
Like really dorky.
But what I think really defines him is this panel
Robin (1993) Issue #48
This scene is probably what explains him best. Tim is someone who ponders a lot. He thinks constantly all the time whether it's about cases or his personal life, he just goes over the choices he makes constantly because he's just soul-searching alot.
He always means well even if he's awkward about it and he's just a diverse personality overall. The fanon interpretation of his character doesn't really do him any justice because it doesn't address how funny he is or confused or just a likeable, real person in general.
170 notes
·
View notes
Note
I hope Courtney knows that she doesn't have to pretend to be part of the lgbt community to be interesting. She's never had any relationships with any girls and most of the people she's dated and were attracted with are men. I think she was so desperate to be as interesting as Damien, Shayne, and Ian that she decided to adopt being queer as her "thing"
hey, what an absolutely despicable ask to send me, a bisexual woman!
this kind of biphobia (although 'bisexual' isn't the official term courtney uses to label herself, biphobia is the most fitting descriptor here and so i'll be using that throughout) in my ask box is disappointing and disheartening. it is not courtney's job to be in (what is perceived as) a same-sex relationship to be queer. they don't have to be in such a relationship to get your approval, or to prove herself as a "real" lgbt person. some bi/pan/queer people will never have same-sex relationships. just like some will never have straight relationships, and some will never have any relationships at all. that doesn't mean the attraction isn't real or isn't there. no matter what their relationship status is, that attraction doesn't fade. she will continue to be attracted to women and to be queer their entire life. liking more than one gender is valid. being queer is valid. courtney's feelings, although they're none of our fucking business even if she's been gracious enough to share them with us, are valid. just because they're in a 'heterosexual' relationship right now doesn't mean she stops being queer - not to mention, it isn't a heterosexual relationship, it's inherently a queer relationship because they are in it. they're nonbinary and lgbt. any relationship they're in will be a queer one.
i'm just honestly... so affronted and disgusted by this whole idea. what on gods earth makes you think they're pretending? why would she drag herself through that mental anguish? if you'll remember, courtney grew up in a religious mormon household. why put herself through that? for 'clout'? to be 'different'? i'll tell you what, as someone who grew up 'different' in a religious family, it is not fucking fun. it is ignorant and disrespectful of you to assume anyone has the comfort to "pretend" they're queer to "stand out." i did not spend years at my bedside trying to pray away the gay just for someone like you to come in and say someone in my community is pretending. i did not go through my formative years lamenting how different i was from everyone around me for you to come in and accuse another queer person of faking it.
and another thing - it is fucking BAFFLING to me that you would say courtney was 'desperate' to be as interesting as shayne, damien, and ian. you named three white straight men. hello???? are you fucking blind to what you just wrote? courtney has been out here BEING different, being unique and interesting and genuinely herself. for as long as i've been watching smosh, they have been the core of that company. as of this moment, they are the only current non-male main cast member and the second-longest-running main cast member overall. she's an accomplished writer, actor, producer, and director. without her, there's no funeral roasts, no reunions, no 'our leaked dms.' without her, there's simply no smosh, because they're a major part of the reason that company even lived through the defy collapse and the pandemic. they're also just objectively one of the funniest cast members there (can you imagine not having boneless. or pov you're a lobster. i honestly wish i could be half the comedic genius courtney is and that's not an exaggeration or a joke). they are interesting because of who they are, not because they're 'pretending' to be anything. courtney would be just as popular and beloved as she currently is even if she had never come out, which they only did because they were brave and trying to be their most authentic version of herself.
this ask left my stomach rolling. i am absolutely appalled. the smoshblr community we've created here is meant to be a safe haven, as smosh the company has become, for outcasts and oddballs, and that is supposed to include the lgbt community. i have praised smoshblr again and again for being the place i've felt most comfortable and accepted, but this is extremely hurtful. as a bisexual woman who has constantly struggled with being 'queer' enough, i take this kind of thing personally. and you may be thinking that this isn't about me, but it is. this is about every queer person who has been accused of 'faking it' by one biphobe or another. if a person says they're queer - they're fucking queer. end of story.
#courtney#idk what you wanted from this ask but if it was to piss me off congrats job well done#anyway. going back to my hidey hole now i just could not let this ask stand.#long post#discourse#biphobia#ask#asks#anon#anonymous
67 notes
·
View notes
Text
New Releases June 20, 2023
Assorted Entanglements vol. 2 by Mikanuji
After meeting through an online game, Heke and Lala have become close enough that they can gripe to each other about work—but it turns out the boss Heke’s always griping about is actually Lala...!? This is the love story of two awkward girls who have nothing but complaints for each other in the real world and can only convey their true feelings online...
Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! vol. 7 by Yuu Toyota
Adachi’s job transfer to Nagasaki hangs over his relationship with Kurosawa like a harbinger of doom! But true to form, the pair reaffirm their feelings for each other and come to the decision that they can make it through anything, long distance included! Will absence make Kurosawa’s and Adachi’s hearts grow still fonder? Is that even possible?!
Meanwhile, Adachi’s novelist friend Tsuge continues to nurse his feelings for part-time deliveryman and aspiring dancer Minato. Can Tsuge’s support get Minato through his big audition with his dream on the line?!
Eiji and Shiro: From Zeroes to Heroes by Kaya Azuma
A collection of fantasy and supernatural shorts with a heavy comedic tone from one of the Boys Love world's most infamous comedic writers.
Mobuyama “Eiji” A-Ji and Mobuyama “Shiro” C-ro have lived their entire lives as nothing more than “extras” to other people’s stories. It can’t end like this, right? There must be a way out! Both sharing a common goal will try anything that allows them to change their destiny, ANYTHING.
Happy Crappy Life vol. 2 by Harada
Former elite banker is now living in the boonies with a full-time NEET and these days the two mostly spend their time drinking heavily and being very kinky with each other.
Kasuya's future looks seriously in doubt as he has been demoted to the boonies. His social life is also looking poor given how there are not many people his age in the area who are single, his age or even remotely share his interests. ...Outside of maybe his neighbor, Kuzuya. But while they both share the same kinks and both enjoy drinking heavily, they'd both rather make it big in the capital (hopefully in the arms of a strong dominating lady!!) Well, at least in Kasuya's case, that "dream gal" has come searching for him! His ex is back and she's about to discover his secrets.
Happy of the End vol. 2 by Ogeretsu Tanaka
After constant moving, Chihiro and Haoran may have settled down, which means a house-warming party. This sudden sense of "normalcy" is a little strange for the two of them as their lives are far from it. Whether it's the scars all over Haoran's body or the violent people in their past, finding moments of peace is their only solace in life today.
A Hero in the Demon's Castle by Inutoki and Syohei
A modern take on a classic trope, Syohei and Inutoki's DEMON'S CASTLE challenges the Boys Love genre with western inspired art and a relationship that can only be described as heroic.
To an immortal, all-powerful Demon Lord like Wisped, fending off heroes is a daily occurence. However, as he was not born to be in battle, Wisped's heart was filled with nothing but loneliness, until one day when he met with a hero named True. Thinking that the guffawing, unarmed man had come to defeat him, the boy instead asked him an absurd question... "Could I live in your castle?"
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady vol. 4 (manga) by Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi
In slaying a dragon, Princess Anis received its curse—the transplantation of the dragon’s knowledge into her own mind. Now, in order to put the curse to use for “a certain goal,” Anis and the others must set off to find Anis’s old friend, a woman known for her cruel and inhumane ways…the abominable Marquise Tilty Claret.
Monster and the Beast vol. 4 by Renji
The journey of the hideous monster Cavo and his dapper companion, Liam, continues. When Liam’s murky past is finally revealed, will Cavo be able to guide him out of the darkness? The fate of two lost souls comes to an end in this stunning conclusion!
OTUS vol. 2 by BitterSweet and Kei
Under the SOTUS system, where freshmen undergo hazing from their seniors, Arthit continues his harsh instruction as the head hazer of the Engineering Department. But Kongpob is starting to figure out that it's all just Arthit's awkward way of showing kindness, and he's charmed by it. Meanwhile, the hazers’ final task, "The Scramble for the Flag," is soon approaching…
Until I Love Myself: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist vol. 1 by Poppy Pesuyama
A bravely blunt autobiography about confronting the tangled traumas of gender dysphoria and workplace sexual harassment.
Nonbinary manga artist Poppy Pesuyama is excited when forms offer the option to choose “neither” for gender and thrilled about their new job working as an assistant for manga artist X!
But then he sexually harasses them, treating them first like a girl and then like something less than human.
It only lasts a few months, but in some ways it never ends.
Born into a body they hate and still reeling from the abuse they faced seven years ago, Pesuyama begins to rail at their past, their friends, and even their mother as they try to come to terms with who they are and what happened to them.
30 notes
·
View notes
Text
dudes i started watching trigun stampede and having seen like half of the og trigun I have many thoughts!!!
unfortunately i am Bad at articulating my thoughts so I will try to list a couple:
The animation feels like what the og show was supposed to feel, yknow??? like the crusty 90s animation was a huge reason I decided to tap out halfway through bc it feels like they wanted a lot of movement but due to budget or just technological limits they weren't able to and it just looked. not good sometimes. I'm not trying to bash the animation and I'm also not an animator so i have no real idea of what the original production was like or what limits they may or may not have had. However! Putting studio orange on the job was a fuckin stroke of genius bc they know their 3d. and what with the frenetic energy the show should have had, the freedom that 3d animation allows for camera movement and whatnot is what the story deserved. Vash's bugs-bunny style character movements look so much more convincing and energetic (listen i love the of ep 1 crab walk too it was delightfully animated but i think the 3d lets them fully encapsulate that scrambling, frantic energy he carries in action scenes). once again i am not an animator and i have not outlined this at all and I'm absolutely not trying to be some credited critic i am just a Guy.
Subpoint!! the depiction of violence/death/destruction works way better. Once again I'm not going to go after the animators for not having the time/budget/whatever to give the violence and death in the story the weight they should have had. However, it is way more convincing and striking and works better with the tone etc etc i put this in after writing the next two points and my root-beer-fueled sugar high is starting to fade rip
I do miss milly, shes a delight, but i think replacing her character with a more jaded and serious one was the right move for this remake. already the tone is diving into the darker themes of the story and having someone like roberto be the voice of reason between him and Meryl matches the tone of the show better than having the more lighthearted dynamic milly and Meryl had in the original. The original took f o r e v e r to touch on the darker themes of vash's backstory and the overall tone was absolutely more on the quirky, comedic side. This worked well for the dynamic-duo-insurance-girls thing but stampede changing both milly's character AND their careers works way better for what the show is going for. like. if meryl and Roberto were still insurance agents trying to keep a handle on vash, that comedic value would have been totally undermined and had to have been scrapped after episode 3. The tonal dissonace would have been too strong and would have totally killed the mood. Milly is still my girl tho i love her with all my being
I do prefer the slower worldbuilding of the original. I understand with the focus on vash's relationship with his brother instead of the story the original focused on means we need more context for his character and the world the characters live in. But i liked vash being a mystery to both the characters and the watchers! it felt cool to see this goofball of a dude just. let down the facade and make us want to wonder who this guy really is, yknow? but again! as i have said many times! stampede is focused on the darkness in vash's story and the world of trigun so it makes total sense that they introduce vash as a tragic character first! and i love it! i love me a good dark story and instead of the "silly dude with a dark backstory who changes tone at the drop of a hat" character the "guy who has seen some shit and still tries to do good and be kind and funny in spite of it" character just works better there.
Anyway as previously stated i am kind of flagging so ill stop there and I'm sure ill have more thoughts later because I just cant be normal about these things
I think both versions have their merits and drawbacks and I'm not trying to say one is objectively better than the other (even if I do prefer stampede bc I'm a hoe for good animation and dark storytelling) so please do not kill me
i wrote this mess instead of studying for midterms pray 4 me
#long post#what can be generously described as media analysis#trigun stampede#i am also a big dummy and my brain is fried from school and school-related stuff so like if I said anything stupid uh#sorry lol
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
SLOCG Season 2 thoughts and opinions with Spoilers
First of all, I just wanna say that all 4 of them are very funny, lovable and precious. <3
As much as i love this show, it’s hard for me to recommend it to others without sounding weird.
They need more episodes! I’m ok with like 30 mins per ep coz it feels like a sitcom-ish, but waiting a year for 10 episodes??? TORTURE. They need at least 20 since the eps are short.
Aside from my main lesbian girl Leighton, Kimberly is my favorite until she did that thing in the finale.
Pauline Chalamet is an underrated actress! She’s amazing even before i found out she’s Timothee’s sister. It means, she’s great on her own. Comedic timing = 10/10
So Leighton is a rich, math genius lesbian like she really won the lottery. Also, how can she be so good at math when she’s gay???? That’s unfair.
GRACIE DZIENNY!!!!!! If you’re a First kill fan, you would understand the happiness when she first appeared on SLOCG. WLW crossover!
Why you keep pairing Whitney with mediocre white men???? I’m so tired. Also, please give her a stronger storyline and make her bi, thanks. I don’t know if i’m in the position to say this, but i feel like the writers are being too safe and scared (?) about Whitney’s arc.
Canaan is the only man i can tolerate for Whitney, but they didn’t have that much chemistry, they just look good together.
LeighTum is sooooo hot. I know them looking and acting alike is so funny, but they are hot.
I’m so happy that there’s no problem with Leighton’s coming out to her friends and family. I know it’s a reality for most to receive a bad reaction, but i’m glad the writers didn’t go that way coz we are tired. We deserve to see a happy lesbian on screen.
Sorry, but i have to defend Bela with the cheating issue. Eric is not an amazing man like Bela said. He f*cking stole the opportunity when we all know that it’s 100x harder for a brown woman to be in that industry. He has connections w/c he revealed during the argument, but he still did that. Bela cheating on him was nothing compared to what he did.
Leightum x Leighcia issue: First of all, I love them both so i really don’t know where to side, but i feel like Alicia is getting hate too much? They all said horrible things including Leighton, but Alicia is the only one who’s getting massive hate and that’s unfair. I don’t think Leightum’s breakup was forced at all. What Tatum said was a big deal and them being a twincest ship was an obvious metaphor on Leighton’s old habits. I thought we only like “mean girls” for fun, but some are starting to glorify rude behavior.
Let’s move on to the real enemy w/c is Kimberly x Canaan coz WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUk. Ok i mean we cannot choose who we love, but BOTH OF THEM didn’t think it through. Lila was right, Kimberly shouldn’t have acted on it. Or at least for a while? She didn’t even wait for a longer time and talk to Whitney about it. Same with Canaaan. Whitney asked her to give her a chance to talk and explain, but she blew it. I was rooting for you Kimberly! We were all rooting for you! How dare you???!
So with these last episodes, we would wait a year to know what will happen to the dynamics of the 4 girls now that Bela is transferring and Whitney wanted to move to the Kappa house. Faaaaaaaak. Leighton is the only who has a real happy ending. Their friendship is my favorite part of the show so i hope things will get better for Season 3. Also, i know it's unrealistic for roommates to have a perfect relationship, but i just don't like that it will be ruined for a man. :\
#SLOCG#The sex lives of college girls#Leighton Murray#Whitney Chase#Bela Malhotra#Kimberly Finkle#Renee Rapp#Alyah Scott#Amrit Kaur#Pauline Chalamet#Leightum#Leighcia#Leighlicia#Midori Francis#Gracie Dzienny#First Kill#Mindy Kaling#WLW#Sapphic#Lesbian#Bisexual#HBO max#Timothee Chalamet#Leighton x Alicia#Leighton x Tatum
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 Kdrama - A Fan's Journey (with spoilers!)
Ep 1-4
My mom and I were laughing our heads off! Oh my God it was amazing. I expected it to have loads of comedy and even if I did I was still surprised at the comedic scenes. But when it does get serious it gets serious real good so watch out for seriously cool characters (ehem Lee Yeon) hahahaha.
And I'm really excited for Lee Rang's love life I was literally squealing the whole time it was shown. The sibling relationship was hands-down a nail in the head and everytime Lee Yeon teases Rang on his 'relationship', I just wanna say, "Mhmm, felt" HAHAHAHAHA.
Everything's been going really great that I'm seriously scared of what's gonna happen in the next few episodes. Nothing's going to go wrong til the 30 days were up... right?
Ep 5-6
It was brilliant! Hahahahaha. Ep 6 ended amazingly, it was a stroke of genius really. The corner game was so creepy though, I'm totally in with the squad on this—like why do humans play with creepy games like corner games and ouija boards so much??? Like?? Whyy?? Doesn't make any sense I don't see anything good happening from it either.
Anyway, Shin-ju's fight for their independence was so heartwarming it really healed my soul. That secret meeting at the boutique has my heart.
And Rang's love life continues to be really cuteeee oh my God, I wouldn't stop gushing over how cute it is. He's so clueless (but I could be wrong hmmmm??) so every moment they have feels so hilariously fresh. And I love the mermaid's little povs, because she shows an ideal version to people (esp Rang cos she likes him) so when we hear it, it definitely adds so much to her charm.
I'm curious to what Mu-young's real intentions are really, and I couldn't wait for the next episodes 😭
Ep 7-8
Ep 7 was a continuation of ep 6 and I'm so overwhelmed with feelings for the trio's friendship (Yeon, Mu-yeong, and Hong-ju). I always knew there's much more to Mu-yeong's brother being killed and I can't say I'm surprised but I probably still am.
Lee Rang's whole character is very well executed in this episode and I couldn't stop commending his love for his brother, I was crying freaking out when the villain thingies kept on slashing him and beating him up to get him to let go of the thread that leads his brother out of that realm—but he didn't let go no matter what 😭 He's such a good kid I want to put him in my pocket. And his lovelife (I keep mentioning it cos it's so cuteee!!) is so heart warming my mom and I keep gushing over it. I'm so happy for Ms. Mermaid and Rang, seriously they deserve all the happiness in the world.
Mu-yeong is going full on villain energy and I can't wait to see it but at the same time I know how much this would hurt Lee Yeon so I'm torn 😭
Ep 9-10
Ugh. Ep 10 was such an annoying episode. Ms. Mermaid was bitten by the yacha?? Rang was bitten by the yacha?? Yeon lost both of the treasures?? He switched bodies with Nyudo?? I hate it so much??? Nobody from the protagonist's sides were winning and it feels like throughout both of the episodes, they were just milking it on and trying to delay the inevitable. If somebody's gonna die, just die already! Jeez!
Anyway, I'm not hating it, just really really upset with how things are panning out. But I know there's gotta be a reason for all these experiences and I know they're gonna help the main characters with their charac dev. Hoping it'll happen soon though, cos I'll annihilate everyone if my bb boy Rang ever dies in the next episode.
Finale Episodes (11-12)
OH MY GOD IT WAS BRILLIANT 😭 There was a twist even towards the end and I was at the edge of my seat all throughout.
First of all, Rang was brilliant, I was screamingcryingthrowingup the whole time his fight scene with the 2 Japanese mercenaries were shown. I was so proud, I couldn't even 😭😭 This precious boy had totally grown up, he can protect his loved ones now, my affection points for him just went up by a thousand.
Yeon showing his tails towards the end while fighting the commander-general (?) was sooo freaking satisfying. The whole fight scene was so satisfying, I was punching the air the whole time. And I couldn't be more glad that both Jindo (iforgothisnamei'msosorryhahaha) and Little Mermaid was safe from the mercenaries. Everybody got their happy endings and I feel relieved.
So many things happened in a month and it makes sense since it's 1938. They were almost always on the verge of dying and there were loads of lessons learned but I was thankful for the whole ride.
To the pd-nims and writers of the show, I'm not even sure if you could read this but, I still want to thank you for this amazing drama. I enjoyed the rollercoaster ride and I hope you all would continue making these masterpieces.
(lowkey hoping for season 3!!! cos I think the ending was open enough for another season, don't you think??)
I FINISHED THIS ONE!! IT WAS BRILLIANT!! 1000/10
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
please let us know if you have any thoughts on the dan harmon sex doll show
i'm gonna outline my thoughts in bullet points bc idk how else to even begin to address everything going on here
there are three separate extremely violent scenes that feel like they come out of nowhere and are very hard to watch. because the entire thing is so short, fastpaced, and otherwise comedic in tone, it felt extremely jarring, and if anyone does choose to watch it out of the same morbid curiosity that possessed me last night, i would feel obligated to include a trigger warning
the only non-white characters in this entire thing is cody's (anna kendrick) stereotypical black woman therapist and cody's fourteen year old neighbor who she basically does a pedophilia to in one of the aforementioned deeply uncomfortable scenes. she also makes a racist joke about japanese women, but then later gets called out by barbara (the sex doll) for being racist, so at least she's self-aware about it...?
meredith hagner's delivery as barbara the sex doll is actually great throughout. she is hilarious as always.
cousin joel makes a brief cameo wherein he plays a fictional character, and it is the closest the show gets to acknowledging the existence of community, whereas they reference rick and morty constantly
dan harmon is apparently not ashamed of the fact that he has a sex doll, and cody never thinks to shame him, because kinkshaming is not their mo; they are very open (to each other, and to the world, apparently) about all their fucked up little kinks and fetishes. i think we should kinkshame them actually
anna kendrick has 10x more chemistry with the doll than she does with "dan" and i actually think this fact works tremendously in the show's favor, but does not reflect well on cody heller's continued relationship with dan harmon in real life (also btw if anyone was not aware, yes they are still together)
as you would expect, this show is extremely meta. it's not only a commentary on feminism in the media, but a commentary on itself. the show ends with them pitching the show (the show we are currently watching) to execs, one of whom says "ohhh, you're dan harmon's girlfriend, right? that guy is such a genius" cut to black the end
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
You know one common criticism against shows with big casts is "why don't we ever see x and z interact?" And variations of that? I love that one piece actually takes time to show the cast spending time with one another and show many different character dynamics. And not just the Straw Hats. You really get a feel of the relationship between any two characters or inside a group, and you get combinations that don't seem obvious right away but then make a lot of sense.
Just off the top of my head, I think of Mihawk, Perona and Zoro forming some sort of familial bond, and how it seems quite random but not really because ofc Perona, the pink goth silly teenager, would like Mihawks whole goth vampire swordman deal, and she works perfectly as a comedic relief to the very tense atmosphere surrounding the events of Zoro asking Mihawk for help. And you get to actually see their relationship grow over small scenes scattered here and there, it feels organic without taking a lot of time.
And Oda could have left that out. Cutting Perona from the story wouldn't really affect the plot. But I think this attention to the smaller details is a fundamental aspect of what makes One Piece so beloved. Oda could take away all these details, all this smaller relationships, but by choosing not to do so, he makes his world feel more real and his characters stop being just props for the plot. You get to see all this people *live* in this world, even after they stop being relevant to the story, because people don't just disappear when you aren't looking at them.
This is just one example thought. I could talk about Garp & Koby & Helmeppo, the last one could be dropped entirely but its fun to see him around and its a nice to see a throwaway villain grow into something more, and Koby is a well liked regular character with a sweet relationship to Luffy, and joining them with Garp is just pure genius. I could talk about Sengoku looking after Law, and their common love for Corazon, which didn't have to be a thing (theres no need for Sengoku to give a fuck about Law, but it makes sense). I could talk about Vivi meeting and becoming friends with the other princesses, and Garp being friendly with the Fish Men royals. And SO SO SO MANY more examples, but this could go on forever.
Compare this to other series. Like the MCU, where fans spend years trying to make up a "found family" dynamic that just isnt there. Or Naruto, where you get a very basic idea of what the other teams are like, but a lot is just speculation.
Yes, One Piece is long. But its long purposefully. Oda could save time and pages if he cut and streamlined his cast, but he chooses not to. And that's one of the reasons One Piece is great.
32 notes
·
View notes
Text
i'm feeling really salty today so just... i really dislike dustin & suzie. i feel nothing about their dynamic whatsoever and while i do think it is partly the fault of the writers for introducing suzie in s3 as a joke — because, let's be honest, the only reason she was introduced was for the comic factor between dustin, the party & steve of 'his new girlfriend doesn't even sound real' and then as a deux ex machina at the end of the season with the code that hopper needed. compared to every single other "romantic" ( and i use this lightly because i strongly dislike the kid ships just in general ) dynamic within the party ( including will's currently unrequited crush on mike ), dustin's dynamic with suzie is always relegated to the comedic value. plus we've barely even seen them interact. it's just. baffling to me that we're expected to be invested in their dynamic when, by this point, suzie has had more meaningful interaction with the cali crew than with dustin
the other issue i have is that they are both super genius nerds. at least in terms of how they are both presented to us in canon, there is nothing about their relationship that implies that they would grow or meaningfully change together ( and even more so considering that it's a long distance relationship ). suzie is presented to us by dustin as perfect, and if they are both the same brand of genius, then what is there to really learn from each other? it just makes the relationship one note and really exposes the fact that she was written into s3 primarily as a plot device. if you compare this to dustin's dynamic with erica in s3 ( which, y'know, platonic or eventually romantic once they both grow up, those two are a much more compelling pairing imo ), they actually learn from each other. dustin shows erica that she is a nerd and can embrace it, as well as encouraging her to be a little less selfish and a bit more of a team player, while erica continues what steve started in helping dustin become fearless ( seeing as they both went back for steve & robin in the underground bunker ). there's actually a push and pull to their dynamic which is much more interesting than dustin & suzie, who are immediately presented to us as some ideal couple, and due to them being long distance we have to be told how much they like each other rather than seeing it for ourselves.
i think the other thing that bothers me is the way that dustin's relationship with suzie follows on from the snow ball scene at the end of s2. that moment would have been such a blow to dustin's confidence ( and i'm also not even sure whether steve would have ever learned about what happened ), so how he goes from that blow to suddenly meeting the girl of his dreams at summer camp... i just don't buy it. i would have liked dustin's insecurities to be explored more rather than just giving him the "perfect girlfriend" for no other reason than the comic moments it created with steve and the rest of the scoops troop
#&. which star wars? / the one with the teddy bears duh ( ooc. )#&. meta ( dustin henderson. )#i've been meaning to get this out of my system so here i am#it is my eventual hc that they do split up#particularly because i do hate the way st pairing up the kids pushes the idea that people meet their lifelong partner at the age of like 13#like no thank u#dustin deserves to go to mit and then maybe eventually work in silicon valley and get to actually experience life#without it all being dependent on what suzie is doing#they can meet again at adults sure#but i just. find it baffling that the fandom cares so much about these 14 year olds' love lives
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
Still don't believe this is real at all. Like her last relationship was suuuuuper private and now this? Yeah no.
She has "new" shit to promote and wants an even bigger fan base. Everyone's talking about her more than usual, right before she goes back on tour. That's all a little too convenient. Nothing she does happens without her team's planning.
He might be hooked for real but it seems to me that she (her team) heard him talking about her on the podcast and uses this to her advantage.
I believe this is real when we get a cringe inducing birthday post this week. Which will then also mark the end of my Travis phase. Because I cannot handle this crap on a regular basis.
Don't give up on Trav yet... he knows not what he does. 🤣
But I agree. Tay is nothing if not a PR/business genius. For reals.
There is also a lot of talk about how this also benefits Trav....it introduces him to a larger circle. Supposedly he's moving toward entertainment/acting after football. He's recently.aigned with CAA. And his SNL stint and recent commercials shows that he has acting and comedic chops. So it benefits both of them
Plus her movie, music releasing and the world tour....impeccable timing.
0 notes
Text
👀 Shocking: 30 Celebs Who Totally Lost Their Fan Respect 😱
#CelebCrashAndBurn: A Comedic Look at Fallen Stars 😅
You know what they say, folks: the celebrity lifestyle is like a rollercoaster made of admiration and respect, but it seems like the only way down is through a trapdoor labeled "canceled." Let's take a look at some former darlings who've been knocked off their pedestals and left clutching their metaphorical canceling blankets. 🎢
Chris Brown: Remember when Chris Brown was known for his hits, not for hitting Rihanna? 🎵 It was 2009, the Grammy Awards were just around the corner, and Chris decided it was the perfect time to introduce the world to his impressive array of fists. 👊 Now, some folks might argue that his punishment – probation, community service, and counseling – was about as effective as using a feather to stop a hurricane. 🌪️
Ellen DeGeneres: Ellen, Ellen, Ellen. For years, we thought she was the friendliest talk show host since Mr. Rogers. But guess what? Behind the scenes, she was more like the Grinch on a power trip. 👀 Apparently, she was running a workplace more toxic than a laboratory experiment gone wrong. ☢️ Don't worry, though – we still have reruns of "Finding Nemo" to remind us of her better days.
Kanye West: Just when you thought Kanye had exhausted his ability to shock, he unleashed a barrage of anti-Semitic tweets that left us all scratching our heads. 🤯 It's like he went to the "How to Ruin Your Reputation in 140 Characters or Less" school of social media. But hey, at least Adidas saved us from ever having to worry about Yeezy fashion again.
Roman Polanski: Roman Polanski has mastered the art of being the poster child for bad decisions. Accused of everything from non-consensual sexual intercourse to perversion (yes, perversion – as if the other stuff wasn't enough), he somehow found a way to make things worse. During his trial, he decided it was a great idea to pose with young girls, as if the court were auditioning for his next horror film. 🎥
Jussie Smollett: Remember Jussie Smollett's grand performance? No, not on "Empire," but in the world's most bizarre self-inflicted PR nightmare. He hired actors to play his attackers, staged a hate crime, and then seemed genuinely shocked when the police figured it out. 🕵️♂️ It's like he took the saying "fake it till you make it" a little too literally.
Amber Heard: Amber Heard's got a lot of nerve. She went from accusing Johnny Depp of abuse to being accused of it herself. Talk about a plot twist. 🎬 It's like a poorly written daytime soap opera, except with real-life consequences.
Deitrick Haddon: Deitrick Haddon, the gospel singer turned relationship expert – oh wait, wrong kind of expert. Turns out he's an expert at marital infidelity. 👼 Just when you thought his choir singing was impressive, he added cheating to his repertoire. 🎤
R. Kelly: Ah, R. Kelly – the man who managed to turn "I Believe I Can Fly" into a song about escaping jail. If only he'd put that energy into making better life choices. From sex trafficking to child pornography, he managed to hit every bad note imaginable. 🎵
J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling took a magical dive into the realm of controversy when she shared some controversial views about transgender individuals. 🧙♂️ Suddenly, the author who brought us the enchanting world of Harry Potter was waving around a wand of divisiveness. Expelliarmus, indeed!
Oprah Winfrey: Oprah may have the Midas touch, but she also has a knack for questionable associations. First, she boosted Dr. Oz's profile, a man who's as reliable as a diet pill sold out of the back of a van. Then she threw her support behind a politician who was facing off against someone she'd previously promoted. 🎙️ It's like she's using her talk show powers for political puppetry.
Elon Musk: Elon Musk has gone from the genius behind Tesla to the guy who tweets like he's composing haikus while sleepwalking. 👾 His support for certain political figures and his online escapades have us all wondering if he's building rockets to space or just trying to escape Earth's collective facepalm.
Kylie Jenner: Kylie Jenner, once a billionaire, now accused of not paying her factory workers. It's like her financial sense is inversely proportional to the number of zeroes in her net worth. Maybe she's just preparing for her next reality show: "Kylie's Quest for Basic Human Decency."
Bill Cosby: And finally, there's Bill Cosby – once the beloved "America's Dad," now the poster child for lost legacies. With more allegations of sexual misconduct than a soap opera has plot twists, he went from pudding pops to prison bars. 🍮
So there you have it, folks. Celebrities: they're just like us, except with more money and more public humiliation. Just remember, the next time someone's star crashes, they're probably just one tweet away from becoming a cautionary tale in the annals of pop culture history. ✨#CelebCrashAndBurn: A Comedic Look at Fallen Stars 😅
You know what they say, folks: the celebrity lifestyle is like a rollercoaster made of admiration and respect, but it seems like the only way down is through a trapdoor labeled "canceled." Let's take a look at some former darlings who've been knocked off their pedestals and left clutching their metaphorical canceling blankets. 🎢
Chris Brown: Remember when Chris Brown was known for his hits, not for hitting Rihanna? 🎵 It was 2009, the Grammy Awards were just around the corner, and Chris decided it was the perfect time to introduce the world to his impressive array of fists. 👊 Now, some folks might argue that his punishment – probation, community service, and counseling – was about as effective as using a feather to stop a hurricane. 🌪️
Ellen DeGeneres: Ellen, Ellen, Ellen. For years, we thought she was the friendliest talk show host since Mr. Rogers. But guess what? Behind the scenes, she was more like the Grinch on a power trip. 👀 Apparently, she was running a workplace more toxic than a laboratory experiment gone wrong. ☢️ Don't worry, though – we still have reruns of "Finding Nemo" to remind us of her better days.
Kanye West: Just when you thought Kanye had exhausted his ability to shock, he unleashed a barrage of anti-Semitic tweets that left us all scratching our heads. 🤯 It's like he went to the "How to Ruin Your Reputation in 140 Characters or Less" school of social media. But hey, at least Adidas saved us from ever having to worry about Yeezy fashion again.
Roman Polanski: Roman Polanski has mastered the art of being the poster child for bad decisions. Accused of everything from non-consensual sexual intercourse to perversion (yes, perversion – as if the other stuff wasn't enough), he somehow found a way to make things worse. During his trial, he decided it was a great idea to pose with young girls, as if the court were auditioning for his next horror film. 🎥
Jussie Smollett: Remember Jussie Smollett's grand performance? No, not on "Empire," but in the world's most bizarre self-inflicted PR nightmare. He hired actors to play his attackers, staged a hate crime, and then seemed genuinely shocked when the police figured it out. 🕵️♂️ It's like he took the saying "fake it till you make it" a little too literally.
Amber Heard: Amber Heard's got a lot of nerve. She went from accusing Johnny Depp of abuse to being accused of it herself. Talk about a plot twist. 🎬 It's like a poorly written daytime soap opera, except with real-life consequences.
Deitrick Haddon: Deitrick Haddon, the gospel singer turned relationship expert – oh wait, wrong kind of expert. Turns out he's an expert at marital infidelity. 👼 Just when you thought his choir singing was impressive, he added cheating to his repertoire. 🎤
R. Kelly: Ah, R. Kelly – the man who managed to turn "I Believe I Can Fly" into a song about escaping jail. If only he'd put that energy into making better life choices. From sex trafficking to child pornography, he managed to hit every bad note imaginable. 🎵
J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling took a magical dive into the realm of controversy when she shared some controversial views about transgender individuals. 🧙♂️ Suddenly, the author who brought us the enchanting world of Harry Potter was waving around a wand of divisiveness. Expelliarmus, indeed!
Oprah Winfrey: Oprah may have the Midas touch, but she also has a knack for questionable associations. First, she boosted Dr. Oz's profile, a man who's as reliable as a diet pill sold out of the back of a van. Then she threw her support behind a politician who was facing off against someone she'd previously promoted. 🎙️ It's like she's using her talk show powers for political puppetry.
Elon Musk: Elon Musk has gone from the genius behind Tesla to the guy who tweets like he's composing haikus while sleepwalking. 👾 His support for certain political figures and his online escapades have us all wondering if he's building rockets to space or just trying to escape Earth's collective facepalm.
Kylie Jenner: Kylie Jenner, once a billionaire, now accused of not paying her factory workers. It's like her financial sense is inversely proportional to the number of zeroes in her net worth. Maybe she's just preparing for her next reality show: "Kylie's Quest for Basic Human Decency."
Bill Cosby: And finally, there's Bill Cosby – once the beloved "America's Dad," now the poster child for lost legacies. With more allegations of sexual misconduct than a soap opera has plot twists, he went from pudding pops to prison bars. 🍮
So there you have it, folks. Celebrities: they're just like us, except with more money and more public humiliation. Just remember, the next time someone's star crashes, they're probably just one tweet away from becoming a cautionary tale in the annals of pop culture history. ✨
Read the full article
0 notes
Note
I really liked it too. It’s really well cast and the outfits are to die for. Which bits were you disappointed they changed because I was thinking the same thing
ok so first i finished reading the book this week so now im fully prepared for the full experience!! i missed the show so much i couldn’t wait for today and after i finish typing that i will run to see the new episodes!!
so first the thing i was disappointed they changed was the five instead of six, like i can understand it meant having an actor less to pay and pete wasn’t a big big part of the book etc but it doesn’t make any sense with the title you know?? even tho they tried to explained it (and even make fun of it) in the show i really doubt in real life this would have made sense lol
also chuck going to college instead of dying during the vietnam war… it’s sad they removed that bc the war was a big part of the culture at the time so not talking about it is weird but i like the aspect of showing that it is be hard to pursue your dreams when you know you could have a more secure career by going to college and pleasing your parents.. so i’m not against the representation either
also at first i didn’t like that camila already knew who billy was when she met him like i liked how they met in the book but then i read some people’s opinions about it and actually that’s genius bc it means that she was a whole mastermind since the beginning and it really fits her personality i think, of her always being in control and always being a step ahead!!
some things i miss from the book are the miscommunications they had in the interviews where they were saying the opposite of what the others were saying.. it was very interesting seeing how everyone was interpreting things differently i wish they put more of that in the show, also for more comedic relief, but i appreciated the comedy in the third episode !!
im sad they didn’t include the karen karen thing :’)
also the fact that they cut the powerful line of camilla saying "who do you think you are, cheating on me?"
also im confused on how they are portraying daisy in the first three episodes like she’s way too clean and polish, in the book she was a drug addict and a mess most of the time while still slaying and being a girlboss… so im waiting to see how they’re gonna make her evolve in the next episodes
And not showing billy going to rehab is a weird move bc for me it’s such an important part of the book… i feel like they passed too quickly on billy and his relationship to drugs knowing how it’s affecting the rest of his life and how tortured he is to stay sober..
now things i really like about the show:
i liked that they’re hinting at graham and karen relationship from the beginning, graham being all over karen since day 1 is so cute i love that
i loved how they portrayed teddy, very paternal i love this!!
i love warren funny unbothered king, i love graham, i love karen, i looove camila they did such a great job with the casting!!
i loved the touch of gaynest with simone
also camila being a photographer that’s a smart move
Now we can talk about the biggest change :
eddie and camila…. honestly maybe it’s an unpopular opinion but i love it!!! like i think that’s genius!! it’s adding such a thing idk im curious about what they’re gonna do with that but like now it almost makes me want to like eddie while in the book he was insufferable now at least he has a reason to be insufferable!! the jealousy the tension i love it!! it’s giving something very interesting and im excited to watch more
0 notes
Text
The Exact Opposite of Okay
This is the best book I've read all year. And I've read sooooo many books.
It's about Izzy, who is poor, orphaned, a comedic genius and kind of dumb about anything else. It's all in 1st Person POV which normally I hate, but like...OHMYFREAKINGGODITWASSOGOOD
She sleeps with two guys in the same night and then someone makes a revenge porn blog about her. Fun! She then proceeds to try and fight the internet trolls, win a screenwriting competition, salvage her relationships with her friends, figure out if her best friend is gay (her gaydar is so shit and I'm humbly putting out a request for Ajita to consider marrying me)
This book was 50% dick jokes, 50% social commentary and I ADORED it. I'm desperate to read the sequel.
I can't find a fandom or ANYTHING, so if anyone else has read it please come and obsess over it with me.
If the whole world read this book the patriarchy may just disappear. You know how the movies that deal with trauma the best deal with it by having a character have an anxiety attack in the middle of the street and then make a snippy comment. That's this book. It is gut wrenching but you will be almost pissing yourself laughing through the fictional but deeply real pain.
I'll just shut up now.
#the exact opposite of okay#laura steven#dick jokes#all of a sudden it gets super angsty#and political#which is basically just me in my English class#mostly its funny though#i have no words#book review#all my feminists out there#this ones for you
0 notes
Note
What do you think are the good and bad aspects of each season of ST?
ok 1. thank u for this question omg and 2. this answer may or may not be a mess, but either way it’s long (almost 7k words lmao) bc i’m insane, which is why it’s under a cut. it’s still by no means an exhaustive list but these are the things that just kinda came to mind.
also i realize you asked “good and bad” and i wrote this whole post as “strengths and weaknesses” which um. is not Exactly what you asked. but close enough <3 i also ended up including a lot of au ideas ksjdckmn bc like i personally hate when people say a certain plot or whatever was bad without suggesting anything that could have improved it yknow so whenever possible i tried to provide Some idea for fixing the issues i had with the show!!
season 1
strengths (this is probably gonna be the longest section but that’s because a lot of these strengths also apply to s2/s3 by default)
nostalgia and authenticity
this one’s pretty simple, but i think that season one did a good job of blending classic eighties media homages (such as the many many e.t./el parallels) with explicit pop culture references (such as mike’s yoda impression, mentions of the x-men, etc) to create a show that’s essentially dripping in early eighties nostalgia without it feeling too forced. before st, i think the most popular depiction of the eighties in mainstream media was that overly exaggerated neon scrunchie aesthetic from the mid to late eighties, and it was usually done in a comedic sense first and foremost. st took a different approach, instead focusing on the early eighties, a time that’s often ignored in favor of going either Full Seventies or Full Eighties, and i think that this choice likely resonated with adults who lived through the eighties and hadn’t yet seen something that felt quite so accurate to their own adolescence. a lot of young people who watched st were totally unfamiliar with this period of time, unfamiliar with books/movies like “stand by me” that st borrows from heavily, and i think st lent more seriousness to the eighties than most young people had experienced so far, and this was refreshing and interesting!
the use of dnd in the show is also quite genius in a way i’m not sure i can articulate?? it isn’t something Everyone would have played at the time, but it’s something that existed within a different context back in the eighties than it does today, and it really lent a sort of authenticity to the naming of the show’s sci-fi elements. like, of course these kids would name parallel dimensions and monsters and superpowers after these similar things in their favorite game! it just feels so real and it grounds st in our reality moreso than you might expect from the typical sci-fi or horror universe.
utilization of existing tropes
almost every single character in st clearly originates from some popular trope. the plot itself is riddled with classic eighties movie tropes. almost every single element of stranger things can be clearly traced back to some iconic eighties film or just to, like, overused horror/sci-fi/mystery/coming-of-age movie tropes in general. this might sound like a bad thing, but it really works in st’s favor! starting off with familiar tropes gives st the ability to easily create a lot of complexity and make a big impact by selectively deviating from those familiar, comfortable tropes!! while el’s whole plot, hopper’s character, etc, are all examples of this in action, i think the steve/nancy/jonathan plot is the greatest example. even from the start, the fact that good girl barb dies while nancy is off having sex with her asshole boyfriend is an incredibly thorough inversion of the most well-known horror movie trope in the book. how often do girls in horror movies have sex for the first time, walk home alone in the dark of night, and live to tell the tale? nancy and jonathan’s dynamic at first glance is a sort of classic “good girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, discovers he’s actually got a heart of gold” thing, but instead of following this well-trodden path, st diverged. nancy is brash, impulsive, and at times downright insensitive. jonathan is angry, bitter, and actually a bit of a creep at first. while they have the capacity to emotionally connect and support one another, they can also bring out each other’s darker side, which is not what we’ve come to expect from that initial tropey dynamic.
in addition, steve, the popular rich asshole boyfriend, is actually... a human being! unlike the cartoonishly evil jocks that we’ve come to expect (especially from eighties movies), steve has complexity. despite his initial immaturity and selfishness, he’s also kind to barb, he backs off when nancy says no, he’s gentle and sweet when they sleep together, his first big Dick Move of the season is in defense of nancy, he realizes the error of his ways after the fight and does what he can to fix it, he’s worried about nancy when he sees that she’s hurt at jonathan’s house, and to top it all off, he ends up saving both nancy and jonathan’s lives when he could have just walked away, and the three of them all work together to fight the demogorgon. like... steve began as the most stereotypical character of all time, and by the end of the season, he had one of the most compelling and unique arcs among the whole cast!
finally, at the very end of the season, instead of dumping steve for jonathan as expected, nancy ends up getting back together with steve, and they’re both on friendly terms with jonathan. i realize that i just kinda. summarized s1. but my POINT is that i don’t think the dynamics between the monster hunting trio would be nearly as fun and interesting had the characters of nancy, steve, and jonathan not been set up to follow certain paths that we already had charted in our own heads. like, within the first couple episodes of s1, it’s pretty obvious that nancy and steve are gonna break up, nancy will get with jonathan, and steve will either die or go full evil or just never be seen again. like, duh! you’ve seen this story a million times! you know that’s how it’s gonna go! so, when the story DOESN’T go that way, the impact of each character’s arc and the relationship dynamics become stronger due to their unexpected complexity and authenticity.
distinct plotlines separated by age group
this one’s rather obvious, but the way that the adults in s1 were essentially in a conspiracy thriller while the teens were in a horror flick and the kids were in a sci fi power-of-friendship story and all three converged at the end... wow. brilliant showstopping etc. not only was it just really well done and unique, it also gave stranger things near-universal appeal. like, there’s genuinely something for pretty much everyone in season one!
casting
obviously this applies to every season sorta by default, but when i think about what made season one So successful, i always think about the cast, and not just winona ryder. yes, she’s absolutely amazing in the show and it’s very doubtful that st would be as big as it is today without her name being attached to it from the start!! however, i think the greatest determining factor in st’s success is the casting of the kids, particularly millie bobby brown. like... el is just absolutely incredible. she’s amazing. this has all been said many times before so i won’t harp on it, but millie and the other kids are all So talented and charismatic and i think their casting has been instrumental to the show’s success.
strong visuals
the way that multicolored christmas lights which have been around for decades are now kinda like. a Stranger Things thing. jesus christ. those lights are probably the biggest stroke of stylistic genius on the show.
atmosphere and setting
this is probably like. the least important one here for me sdjncdsc because i think s2 and s3 both had like Even Better atmospheres and shit but s1 was good too and it laid the groundwork!! i know a lot of people would have preferred st be set somewhere more Spooky with lots of fog or giant forests or whatnot, and while i do enjoy thinking about alternate st settings and how they might alter the vibe, i think hawkins indiana was a good choice. as the duffers have said, placing stranger things in a fictional town allows them more flexibility than if they’d gone with their original plan of using montauk, new york. besides that, i think the plainness and like... flatness... of small-town indiana just Works. like, the fact that hawkins is never really scary on the surface is a big part of the horror in the lab’s actions and their impact. hawkins isn’t somewhere that people just disappear all the time. it isn’t somewhere known for strange occurrences (prior to s1, that is). it isn’t somewhere shrouded in mist and secrecy. hawkins on its surface seems like the sort of place with no secrets and nothing to fear, and that’s the point! the lab is out in the open! it’s right there! everything is so close to the surface, yet so far out of the public eye, and i think that really works.
the byers family’s whole deal (specifically the joyce/jonathan dynamic)
this is going here bc i miss it so bad in s2 and s3. i’m not one of those people who believe The Byers Are The Whole Point of the show, because st is and always has been an ensemble, and el, hopper, and the wheelers are just as instrumental to the plot as the byers, but ANYWAY, i do think the byers were one of the most interesting aspects of s1. joyce’s difficulties with supporting her sons as a poor and (implied mentally ill) single mother, jonathan’s stress as a result of having to earn money, care for his brother, and keep the house in order when his mother is unable to do so, and the resulting tension between them when will’s disappearance and supposed “death” brings the situation to a tipping point? holy shit! it’s so good! that argument after they see will’s “body” is just incredible and gut-wrenching. their relationship feels so real and messy and i think it’s just... good. also winona ryder REALLY acted her heart out and she carried a lot of s1 which i think people often forget to mention so i’m saying it here.
weaknesses
pacing/timing
ok so pacing is probably going to go in each season’s weaknesses, to be honest, because i think they all had a blend of some good and some bad pacing. good pacing is invisible pacing, though, so i probably won’t be putting it in any of the strengths sections and will only be focusing on it in the weaknesses. i’m also probably not going to talk about weird day/night cycle things, just because i don’t want to get nitpicky on timelines because that would require going back and rewatching things to double check timing which i don’t wanna do at the moment lmao. anyway, when i think of bad pacing in season one, i primarily think of two things: nancy’s little trip into the upside down and subsequent sleepover with jonathan, and the sort of staggered nature of the climax in the final episode. the latter is simple so i’ll explain it first: while i understand that each group’s respective climax is like part of a chain reaction and that’s why each big moment happens separately and at different times, i think that st is strongest when the whole group is together, and i think that makes the stakes feel higher too, so i’m not In Love with the way s1 separated everyone and gave each group their own climax.
okay, now on to the nancy/upside down thing! idk if i’ve ever talked about it before, but i think the worst decision made in s1 by far is the inclusion of nancy’s brief trip into the upside down, wherein she dives headfirst into another dimension with absolutely no backup, watches the demogorgon chow down, freaks out and runs around for a minute, and then leaves. like... what the fuck? even putting aside what an idiotic decision this was (because i do think nancy’s tendency to rush into things headfirst is an intentional and consistent character trait), it just kind of destroys any remaining suspense surrounding the demogorgon and the upside down, and it accomplishes basically nothing besides scaring nancy enough to have jonathan sleep over, which is lame. i will break it down.
like, first of all, nancy just getting to waltz in and out of the upside down and get a good, long look at the demogorgon makes the entire thing far less mysterious, and by extension far less scary. like... before this scene, we the audience haven’t got a good look at the demogorgon. we’ve seen its silhouette briefly and we’ve seen a blurry picture of it, but nothing more, and i think that is far more effective at building fear than this jaunt nancy goes on which gives us a full view of the thing and makes it into less of a horrifying nightmare and into more of a humanoid animal. like, maybe this is just me, but i found the demogorgon far less intimidating after that scene than before. it also lets nancy and jonathan know For Sure that they’re right without providing any crucial information that they need to fight the demogorgon (aka it’s unnecessary to the plot), which removes a very compelling story element (the faith nancy and jonathan need to have in order to keep going against a vague and poorly understood enemy, the doubt they might have about each other and their own sanity, the possibility that they might be wrong, the trust they need to have in each other) a bit earlier in the plot than i believe is ideal. at the end of episode 5, nancy goes into the upside down and jonathan doesn’t know where she is and it’s intense!!! you’re thinking like, oh fuck, not only is nancy missing and fighting for her life now too, jonathan might be implicated in her disappearance!! some people already think he’s the one who killed will and people know that he took creepy pictures of barb and nancy before they both disappeared, maybe this is gonna cause some serious problems for him!! maybe nancy will find will in the upside down and she’ll help him survive!! fuck, maybe she’ll actually die!! this is huge!! and then episode 6 starts and they’re immediately like oh nevermind jonathan found the tree and got nancy out and she’s fine. my point with all of this is that nancy entering the upside down could have done A Lot in the grand scheme of the plot, but all it did was just... get jonathan to sleep over so he and nancy could have some awkward romance moments and steve could see them together and pick a fight. which could have honestly happened at Any point while nancy and jonathan were working together to hunt down the demogorgon, without ruining the demogorgon’s and the upside down’s mystique. so yeah <3
weird behavior and dumbass decisions that make no sense (aka the whole camera thing)
gonna go off about the teen plot again sorry but: why was nancy so unbothered and quick to forgive jonathan for taking those pictures? girl what the fuck are you doing? why wasn’t that a bigger deal? why was jonathan’s motivation for doing it so weak and why did they just kind of forget about the whole thing? why did nancy TRACK HIM DOWN AT THE FUNERAL HOME while he was PICKING OUT HIS BABY BROTHER’S CASKET to be like hey can you tell me what’s in this creepshot you took? it’s insane. it’s so insane. i mean i think the funeral home thing is hilarious and i don’t mind it being in the show necessarily but like my point here is that i think a lot of character decisions in s1 just kind of.. happened because they Needed to happen for the plot. like, they wrote this plot that required jonathan to be secretly taking pictures of the party and required him and nancy to work together after seeing something odd in the pictures, but they didn’t like... really consider what that event would mean for their characterization and relationship. the whole thing was sort of just dropped with minimal discussion and i think it did both nancy and jonathan’s characters a disservice and was really mishandled.
lighting and saturation/color grading
i am literally begging horror/sci-fi shows to let me see shit. i GET IT okay i understand that when you’re doing cgi effects it helps to keep the lights down and i’m not mad at any of the lighting in the demogorgon/upside down scenes!! i’m really not i think the demogorgon scenes in s1 all look sick!! but like... dude. the colors. where are they. why does everyone look like a vampire. i know blah blah this was probably an intentional stylistic choice intended to mimic film at the time blah blah but dude a lot of old movies are very colorful!! please just let people have color in their faces so everyone doesn’t look like a sheet of paper!!! also i’m white and not a professional lighting designer so yknow grain of salt but i think lucas was kinda poorly served by the lighting sometimes in s1. not Hugely so, not to the degree that i’ve seen poc be poorly served by lighting in other shows, but there were some times where it felt kinda like the lighting setup was just not designed with darker skin in mind.
horror
i just personally don’t find s1 very scary like... ever. i don’t think they were really Trying to be extremely scary yknow so i’m not counting this as a big deal, but i do think that each season has improved on the horror aspects. i think s1′s horror lies more in the mystery and the unknown than in what’s seen onscreen, and as i’ve said already, i think s1 kind of fumbled that suspense ball.
season 2
strengths
the possession plot
i’ll warn u rn this whole s2 strengths section is probably gonna be really short bc idk like. how much there is to really say i feel like it’s all so self-explanatory skjncmn. anyway yeah the possession plot!! eerie as fuck, and noah OWNED. so did winona tbh and finn and sean etc but like. noah. wow! i think the possession plot helped the show maintain a good amount of tension and suspense throughout the season, and a lot of scenes with possessed!will are flatout disturbing to watch. in a good way. i think the mindflayer and will’s possession were far more genuinely frightening than s1′s demogorgon, and it provided a new layer of depth and intrigue to the antagonist besides just “bad monster want eat people.”
tone and aesthetics
halloween season... literally halloween season. halloween season. that is all.
actually i will elaborate a bit and just say that i think s2 did a good job of having the sort of foreboding vibe that s1 was often going for, but without the annoying darkness and desaturation. so points for that.
also st2 is like one of the best Autumn pieces of media ever like it just. like steve and dustin on those train tracks with the fallen leaves all around them.... god. god the vibes are unparalleled. all of the halloween stuff also really contributes to the nostalgia st runs on yknow it makes you think about childhood and trick-or-treating and you kind of get transported like damn... i remember going to the rich neighborhoods to score the good candy..... idk i just think the whole thing is incredibly effective.
“babysitter” steve
by sending nancy and jonathan off together, the show created a problem: what to do with steve? this problem pushed them to create the unconventional and unexpected duo of steve and dustin, and the world is so much brighter for it. seriously though we all know steve and dustin are great i don’t need to argue that point. all i’ll add is that i think allowing steve to grow in this way, serving as a mentor figure and becoming genuine friends with someone so unexpected, really took the originality of his character to the next level. no longer content just to defy his archetype, in s2 steve begins branching out in ways that never would have been considered in s1, creating an incredibly complex and interesting person from the sort of character that most shows would have simply written out or killed off for convenience’s sake. and it works and steve and dustin are such a joy to watch and i love them. <3
the lucas/max plot
so first of all max mayfield is the most perfect baby girl on god’s green earth and idk what i would do without her but anyway. i think lumax is the best romantic relationship in the show and not just because they’re the only ones with like an age-appropriate approach to the whole thing. it’s also because their relationship accomplishes more than just putting the two of them in a relationship!! lucas and max spending time together motivates billy to do his evil shit, providing more conflict in the narrative, and it also helps establish max as part of the group in a relatively natural way while giving both her and lucas a great subplot. lucas (and dustin) has a crush on the new girl, they start spending some time together, and lucas ends up needing to decide whether he’ll keep the secret of the upside down and lose her, or risk both of their lives by telling her the truth. that’s a pretty big, character-defining decision that he gets to make!! max has to choose whether to trust this boy she barely knows and endanger herself, or to walk away and stay safe, yet another great character-defining choice that also contributes to the sense we get as an audience of max as somebody who’s incredibly lonely and desperate for love and connection. this post is way too long already and i have a ton more to say so i’ll stop now but yeah i think lumax really Works in the show without ever distracting or detracting from the overall plot and narrative in the way that some other ships (coughjancycough) often do.
balance between the normal and abnormal
s2 i think did a pretty solid job of melding daily life with more fantastical sci-fi horror elements. i enjoyed seeing so much of the kids at school in the first few episodes!! you really get a strong sense of where they’re at in life, what their daily lives are like, and you get a sort of gradual shift into madness that makes everything feel more grounded than i think it would if they had just leapt straight into the horror shit, yknow?
the el and hopper dynamic
go back and rewatch s2 and tell me that’s not one of the most moving portrayals of parenthood and trauma and growing up that you’ve ever seen. you can’t. or well you can but i won’t listen. i really can’t imagine stranger things without el and hopper’s relationship, and it’s my absolute favorite part of s2. their whole dynamic is so beautiful and complex, and gives them each amazing personal arcs in addition! the black hole scene is literally one of the show’s greatest moments of all time. any given scene between the two of them in s2 is just guaranteed to be heartwarming as well as heartbreaking, and i think that makes for an incredible show.
weaknesses
flashbacks
okay this applies to Every season they All have too many flashbacks but in s2 specifically... please stop showing me shit from season one. i watched it. i know what happened. you don’t need to spoon feed everything to me!! flashbacks can be a really helpful way of delivering information to an audience, but st has a bad habit of not only being kinda demeaning in how often they flash back to shit that the audience already knows, but they also have a bad habit of using flashbacks almost as a crutch to avoid having to deliver information subtly and naturally.
you know i gotta say it... the lost sister
this is so sad. the lost sister really is like a great concept for an st episode, and i’m not mad about the idea of st taking a break from the normal action to focus on one story for a full episode, but the execution of it was just dreadful. kali and her crew feel very over-the-top and stereotypical, and its placement in the season totally kills the tension and excitement that was built in “the spy.”
i think the lost sister honestly could have gone over far better, even with the stereotypical fake-feeling gang kali has, if they had just swapped it with “the spy” like... ok, the end of episode five has el setting off to find kali and will collapsing on the ground seizing. right? imagine if, instead of immediately following will to the lab, we’d followed el. we don’t know what’s happening with will, but it’s a very simple cliffhanger that leaves us on edge without making us feel cheated by the show cutting away. we follow el on her little journey, everything happens much the same as canon, and then at the end, el sees hopper in scrubs. she sees mike, screaming, sees that they’re both in danger. holy shit!!! what the fuck!!! what’s happened since we left will seizing on the ground??? we feel el’s fear and confusion. she decides to go home. and then... boom. “the lost sister” is over. now, we rewind, right back to will seizing on the ground, and “the spy” commences. we learn how they got into the danger that el saw in the end of “the lost sister,” and we sit on the edge of our seats all through “the spy” and “the mind flayer,” KNOWING that el is on her way back to save them but not knowing when she’ll arrive!! idk i don’t think that would have necessarily saved lost sister but i think it may have alleviated some of the issues that i and many others have with it, timing-wise.
the nancy/jonathan sidequest
once again, the idea of nancy going off on her own little mission to find justice for barb after s1 is like. amazing. genuinely i love that plot for her and i can’t imagine anything better for her to have focused on in s2. unfortunately though i think her and jonathan’s little trip to see murray was just kind of... lame. the whole thing just felt like an excuse to get the two of them alone together, yknow? which is fine i guess people contrive all sorts of situations to get characters alone together for romance reasons but in this case i think it just really doesn’t work for me because of what it’s juxtaposed with. like, will is POSSESSED, and jonathan is just off on a mini road trip and sleeping with his bestie, and jonathan never seems to communicate to joyce/will that he left town, and joyce never like... thinks to tell him that will is like sick and fucked up and they’re looking at him in the lab??? like it’s so weird i know joyce always forgets about jonathan when shit’s happening with will but jfc you’d think at some point in that like... 72-ish-hour period where jonathan was out of town she would have thought about him. like at least once. maybe i’m forgetting something and she mentioned him sometime and i missed it but even still, i hate the juxtaposition of nancy and jonathan just like cheers-ing at murray’s place and sleeping together and whatnot while everyone else is dealing with possession or trying to hunt down dart yknow? it feels really boring in comparison and i think it could have been done far better. like it was SO insanely easy for them to get into the lab and get an admission of guilt and escape with it!! i think it might have been a lot more engaging if maybe someone from the lab tailed them to murray’s place and they had to like lose the tail and race to get the recording out to as many news outlets as possible before they got caught, or something like that. the tension in their plotline is completely resolved in episode four!! episodes five and six are just them screwing around and addressing envelopes. while there were a lot of strong ideas in this plotline (i really enjoy nancy going out of her way to get justice, and the fact that they have to water down the story to make it believable), i just think the focus on nancy and jonathan getting together hindered it a lot without adding a ton to the plot or their individual characters.
season 3
strengths
starcourt mall as a setting
while i don’t think the mall was utilized quite to its full potential (something i could make a separate post about if anyone’s interested), i do think that starcourt was a genius addition to the series. i’ve said this before, but building a new mall is a literal Perfect in-universe justification for a significant leap forward in fashion and aesthetics, and it provides a great location for characters to just... be characters. idk how else to articulate this i just think that the mall is a great setting to let people interact with each other and to bring people together who may not have been otherwise (i.e. scoops troop). not to mention how sick it was to see the mall get wrecked toward the end kdjncdkm like they were able to do so much more with the mall in terms of like The Finale than they could with just the byers house or the cabin or the school or even the lab. i love all the back tunnels they run through it’s such a fun like acknowledgement of how this glitzy eighties mall is just a real place where employees get shipments and take out the trash and shit idk it’s all about the perfect facade and what’s hidden what’s underneath what’s hiding in plain sight etc etc i’m just saying words now. anyway.
willingness to experiment and go against expectations
gay robin. neon aesthetics. giant fucking meat monster. i know some people hate both the neon and the meat monster but i personally think they were kind of amazing and like. yknow regardless of personal tastes i think it’s impossible to deny that s3 had a lot of incredible visuals, and they’re all visuals that just wouldn’t have been possible if the show were too afraid to stray from its s1 aesthetic. robin being canonically gay (and her resulting friendship with steve) and the season’s striking visuals are two things that most everyone (besides like homophobes skjncdknm) can agree were great, right? and they were both departures from where the show began and what we all expected!! so yeah i think while some of the experimentation in s3 wasn’t ideal it was also that experimentation that allowed for some of the season’s strongest elements to come about.
the hospital sequence (and the season’s action/horror scenes in general)
this one is fairly self-explanatory. while they may have underutilized the “body snatching” element of the season, the hospital sequence with nancy and jonathan fighting off their possessed bosses did an amazing job of building tension and creating a genuine sense of really intense and personal danger.
in general i think that s3 melded action and horror rather well, particularly in the sauna test, the hospital, and when the mindflayer busts through the roof of hop’s cabin. horror can come from many things, and in this case, st elicited horror largely from the feeling of helplessness, and it was really effective for me personally. i think it worked better for me than s1′s brand of horror because it doesn’t rely so much on a lack of knowledge or a sense of suspense that inevitable disappears upon a second viewing.
the body horror we got in s3 was also really fun! that’s it i just think all the blood and guts and slime were fun and i would like more of them. once again, the impacts of body horror are less dependent upon the viewer being in the dark or unsure as to what’s happening, and as such i think it tends to be a little more effective at eliciting reaction in the long term.
timing and mechanics of the battle of starcourt/finale
i think the battle of starcourt is just fucking awesome, and beyond that personal opinion, i think it’s the most high-stakes and intense finale of all three seasons, and this is for two main reasons! 1. el is out of commission, and 2. (almost) everyone is in the same cental location. this means that (almost) everyone is in danger all at once, and they are all working together at the same time to fight the same threat. s1/s2 have their groups more fragmented for the finales, and while i understand why in each case and i wouldn’t call either season’s finale necessarily weak, i do think the centralized nature of the s3 finale just Works on another level. in s1 and s2, large segments of the cast are already perfectly safe by the time el dispatches the primary threat. in s3, however, everybody save for dustin and erica is still in danger up until the last moment, and el is seemingly (you can def debate how much power she still had in her when she peeked into billy’s mind and whether the memory broke the mindflayer’s hold on him or if she was actually controlling him to some degree) completely vulnerable. this increases the tension and raises the stakes, making the finale a real crescendo to fortissimo as opposed to a series of little mezzo forte moments. i hope everyone reading this knows music idk how else to phrase that my brain is stupid.
emphasis on friendship and adolescence (but in a different way than s1/2)
this is definitely a controversial one but i think that s3 really did like... show a side of friendship that had been more or less unexplored thus far in the show. el and max were amazing, and i think it’s really nice that we got an opportunity to see the kids have some growing pains as well as see them support each other through Normal Adolescent Stuff like boyfriends and breakups instead of just like. death and trauma. this is maybe just a personal preference, but i think it can be really enlightening and provide a lot of depth when you get to see how characters respond to normal everyday conflict and not just how they respond to giant world-ending conflict!! letting el use her powers for goofy teenage shit like spying on boys and messing with mean girls at the mall is not only fun for her and the audience, but it also really emphasizes just how much those powers are a part of el, making it that much more devastating when she loses them at the end of the season.
weaknesses
tonal dissonance
so this is like. obvious. but it must still be said! i won’t go on and on about it since we all know this so i’ll try to like talk about it from an angle people don’t usually? anyway. it seems to me like they were maybe a little worried about s3 being too dark. while the choice to really lean into humor was definitely driven by the sorts of eighties teen films from which s3 drew inspiration (like fast times at ridgemont high), i think it was also done in an attempt to alleviate the more troubling implications of some events in the season, particularly the russian bunker plot. like, yeah, st can be incredibly dark, but if they’d played the whole “children being stuck inside of a foreign military base, tied up, tortured, and drugged” thing completely straight without the humorous elements that exist in canon, it had the potential to be like... disturbing on a new level. steve and robin don’t have powers like el yknow their kidnapping/torture doesn’t have any sci-fi elements to sorta soften the blow. they’re just innocent teenagers being brutalized and traumatized by grown men. so anyway yeah i think maybe the writers were concerned about this storyline coming off as too dark and they wanted it to be a little more whimsical but they ended up pushing way too hard in that direction and creating extreme dissonance at times. this goes for joyce/hopper/murray/alexei too, but to a lesser extent. i think the ridiculousness in that group felt a lot more like... realistic. but still.
newspaper plot
once again i feel like i don’t even need to say this skjdncmn we all know it was insane how the show basically ended up delivering the message “while misogyny is a serious problem poverty and classism are not” and i’ve said it on this blog a million times so i don’t need to repeat myself. i’ll focus on another weak point of this plot: the fact that it completely separates nancy and jonathan from everyone else. once again, the show’s preoccupation with j/ancy held them back! like... can you imagine a version of s3 where nancy and jonathan both worked in the mall? i have a lot of ideas about this possible au and like how the plot could play out differently if they worked in the mall but first of all it’s just more realistic, second of all it further utilizes the mall as a central setting, and third of all, it would bring everyone together. as it is in canon, nancy and jonathan were unnecessarily isolated from the rest of the group, and this isolation was detrimental to both of their characters. like, they only ever get to interact with each other! if they’d gotten summer jobs in the mall, they could have had more interactions with the kids/steve/robin, and they absolutely still could have had a similar argument! maybe in this case, nancy notices the rat thing (or something else odd) herself when taking out the trash behind the mall, and she wants jonathan to ditch work with her to check it out bc she thinks it may be related to the lab. jonathan doesn’t want to ditch work because he needs his job, nancy argues that they’re working shitty mall jobs anyway and who cares if they get fired, and we get more or less the same thing as s3 without the cartoonishly over-the-top misogyny. i mean honestly i think the rat shit could have been cut entirely it didn’t rly... accomplish much of anything. in my opinion. like imagine s3 without the rat plot you literally would not be missing anything except it would be more surprising when the dudes melted into goo at the hospital. so yeah i think it would have been better if nancy and jonathan had jobs at the mall, weren’t isolated from everybody else, and were maybe absorbed into the party’s plot or the scoops troop’s plot from very early on, allowing them to interact with more characters and have a less... dumb.... plot. like god splitting up nancy and jonathan between the party/scoops troop would have been So Much better i just. sdkjcnksdmn anyway yeah.
briefness of group reunion/separation of groups
remember in s2 at the beginning of “the gate,” where mike and hopper had a confrontation and max and el met for the first time and el hugged everyone and steve and nancy had their sad little moment together outside... where’s that energy? obviously the s2 reunion wasn’t that long either, but it made space for some significant emotional moments to take place. s3′s reunion had some hopper/el/mike resolution, but besides that... there was nothing, really. i just think that the whole group getting together in s3 was SO exciting and powerful the way they did it (with both the scoops troop and the adults having their own Big Moment reconnecting with team griswold family), but the emotional potential was more or less squandered.
i also think in s3 at times they were really stretching to keep everybody separated even though it made no sense. and like... in s1 the separation worked bc nobody else knew that (x group) was experiencing weird shit too, and beyond that, each group (as i mentioned in the s1 section) was sort of operating within their own genre and bringing something unique to the season. they’ve stopped doing that though! now, the groups aren’t separate bc each plot is tonally/structurally different, the groups are just separate bc... they need to be, because it’s a big ensemble cast and you can’t just have them all be together for a whole season or it would be way too difficult to coordinate things and keep the show dynamic. all this is to say that i’m excited for s4 because the location differences make it so there’s a Reason for each plot to be separate at the beginning, and i think that’ll work better.
general ridiculousness
i dont mean like i think it’s bad that they made jokes this is just me lumping in all the dumb shit like hopper not worrying about el and not wanting to check on the kids, him and joyce bickering long after they both know they and their children are in danger, max seemingly forgetting that billy is a racist abuser, etc etc. i think many of these are just a symptom of the show 1. trying desperately to keep the groups split up a certain way even though it may not make any sense, and 2. trying to fit into a certain genre/trope mold when their actual characters are more complex than the tropes they’re imitating. this is so fucking long already i am not gonna elaborate further rn but i trust u all know what i mean.
soooo... yeah, that’s about all! i mean it’s not all there are definitely many more things i could talk about and i know i focused sorta disproportionately on the teens which is my bad :/ but i’m done for now. thank you for asking, and apologies for the delay in responding!! i’m sure some people reading (if anyone read this far) will disagree with some of what i’ve said and that’s alright like i’m not The Authority on st or anything i’m just trying to talk about like my own thoughts yknow? so yeah luv u all i hope someone enjoyed reading this!!
#asks#em talks#lesbianrobin.canon#stranger things#if u actually read all this i love u and im sorry#these r just my opinions!! and im sure i misremembered some shit my brain is swiss cheese#i did my best tho
84 notes
·
View notes
Note
I would like some shoujo recs! I haven't read any in a longtime. I don't mind if they have love triangles or love quadrangles as long as the dynamics are good.
i’m sorry for getting to this late! and i hope it’s okay to rec some josei as well, the only difference between shoujo and josei strictly speaking is the age demographic, otherwise both traditionally cater towards women (not that other ppl can’t read these obv!)
princess tutu (anime) - this is one of the greatest pieces of shoujo i’ve ever been exposed to. it centers on a rly clever and cathartic adaptation of the swan lake mythos, and what’s most interesting about it is its focus on storytelling. the primary tag line of the show is “may those who accept their fate be granted happiness. may those who defy their fate be granted glory”. it’s all about the characters making choices and realizing their own ability to write the story that follows, rather than remaining shackled to the insidious story penned by the primary villain, drosselmeyer. the relationships are complex and dark but also rly healing in the long run, and the ballet aesthetics are exquisite!
kanata kara (manga) - this isekai manga centers on noriko, a girl suddenly dropped into an alternate world where she’s referred to as “the awakening”, fated to awaken the monstrous sky demon. everyone in this world is bent on getting “the awakening” first to use it to their own benefit, but noriko is actually found by the sky demon, a boy named izark, and they start to travel together through various countries while on the run. the rly charming point of kanata kara is that noriko doesn’t magically know the language of the world, she has to learn it entirely from scratch. she’s also someone who works rly hard to be useful and a source of solid support for izark and the friends she makes, and i think that coupled with the narrative message of each person having their part to play in the betterment of the world is rly inspiring to read about
akagami no shirayukihime (anime/manga) - shirayuki is a girl with rly vibrant red hair, and the prince of her country wants her as his concubine bc of it, so she decides to run away to the neighboring country. there she meets the country’s second prince, zen, along with his friends at the palace, and she makes a new living for herself as a palace pharmacist. it’s a rly sweet manga that i appreciate for delving into the behind the scenes part of court politics, particularly bc we tend to think that fantasies imply battles, but that’s not necessarily the end all, be all of relations between countries. there’s also a wonderful focus on shirayuki’s work as a pharmacist, and how her knowledge of plants and medicinal herbs helps her support zen as he works to become a prince more involved with his people
legend of basara (manga) - this series focuses on a post apocalyptic japan ruled by an oppressive emperor. a child of prophecy is fated to be born into a village and save the country, and when twins are born, the villagers assume the brother is the fated savior. when they grow up, however, one of the emperor’s sons, the red king, kills the brother, and so his sister, sarasa, has to pretend she’s the one who died so she can carry on the revolution as her brother, else all hope is lost. all of this is tied in with the fact that in her rare free time, sarasa happens to meet a boy named shuri, who is actually the red king! neither of them know each other’s real identities or that they’re the ones facing each other on the battlefield, so it makes for a rly angty romance, coupled in with excellent political commentary on privilege and oppression. shuri has one of the best antagonist to protagonist developments i’ve ever seen, and sarasa is a great example of a character vested with so much responsibility, who wants to bring her people to freedom but also be just a normal girl
honey and clover (anime/manga) - this is one of my all time favorites! it follows some university students attending art school and their day-to-day life as they struggle to create, maintain relationships with each other, graduate, etc. i think chica umino’s works in general can be exemplified by her portrayal of every day life, and how it’s not so mundane and actually carries a lot of emotion. there’s so much catharsis present in this work for me bc it really reaches out to people who feel lost of purposeless or alone in their lives and feel like they have no reason to continue creating or moving forward. i think it also has a rly realistic portrayal of romance in the sense that its focus is on how characters grow through romance rather than whether they end up with a certain person. esp if you’re a college student, i think it’ll rly resonate with you
kobato (manga) - this was serialized in a seinen magazine for some reason but i think most ppl agree it feels shoujo in delivery. it’s probably my personal favorite clamp work. the floral aesthetics and artwork of angels is absolutely gorgeous, and it features a rly endearing story about a girl, kobato, who must collect “healed hearts” in a bottle in order to return to a certain place. i can’t really reveal what i most enjoy about it without giving away serious spoilers, but there’s that classic clamp execution of the binding nature of contracts and weighing the things we want against the things we must do, which makes for some rly heartfelt, angsty progressions. mostly i just love seeing the narrative unfold kobato, as she starts off as is this seemingly naive girl who we come to realize is actually hurting deeply inside
lovely complex (anime) - this is a classic so if you’ve already heard of it i wouldn’t be surprised but nonetheless it’s probably my favorite in that area of early 00s shoujo romcoms. the story follows risa and otani, who are known as a comedic duo in their high school bc she’s unusually tall and he’s unusually short. there’s lots of gags and kidding around, but ultimately the story delves into how both of them subconsciously fall for each other despite treating each other like gag men at first. there’s comedic love triangles and plenty of miscommunication galore, but i think it takes these shoujo tropes and puts a rly refreshing twist on them that drives you crazy in a way that’s actually very entertaining. the infamous bear curry gag has practically been immortalized in shoujo fandom
yumeiro patissiere (manga) - this is another one most people have probably heard of BUT, that’s usually bc of the anime. the manga is actually much shorter and different in some ways, and at the end of the day i think i prefer it, esp art wise as the charm in matsumoto’s art style is just impossible to replicate anywhere else. it follows a girl named ichigo, who has a very sensitive taste palate and is spontaneously selected to attend a patissieres academy, despite the fact that she can’t cook for shit! she’s placed in the a-level class alongside the academy’s three genius students, commonly called the “sweets princes”, and they befriend and gradually help her hone her skills until she’s at a level where she can compete with them on a team. all in all it’s a rly endearing story about perseverance, hard work, and the desire to make ppl happy with the food you make for them (kitchen princess is also a predecessor to this series that i think may even have heavily inspired it and i would recommend it, too! it’s just a little on the darker side in terms of dramatics)
this is just the start of a list tbh but these are some of my all time favorites that came to mind! do let me know if you try out and enjoy any of them, i would love to hear about it ❤️
#princess tutu#kanata kara#akagami no shirayukihime#legend of basara#honey and clover#lovely complex#yumeiro patissiere#not really but that's the only tag i can think to put it in#mine:recs
468 notes
·
View notes
Text
KIETA HATSUKOI
(series)
Japan 2021
RANK: S
A-pairing: Aoki x Ida
B-pairing: Hashimoto x Aida
Other character(s) i enjoyed: N/A
Overall review:
This show hits incredible heights of earnestness with good acting and production quality, and the character-focused writing and compact length of the series makes the fairly small core cast really shine. I need nothing more. Get into it.
Let's start with Aoki and Hashimoto, the most perfect relationship in the show. I love the centrality of this friendship to the early episodes and the way it plays out through the rest of the series. The way they communicate (and don't communicate!) their complex high school feelings, the way Aoki wants to help Hashimoto when she's feeling anxious or stuck, the way she returns the favor when he's sad or lonely. (And lest we believe they are too perfect: the way they both completely fail at physical challenges and survival skills.) These two have excellent characterization and very good comedy when they play off of one another.
Speaking of their friendship, the inciting incident of the plot leads to an exquisite unravelling of several tropes in just the first few episodes. The "Ida <3" eraser Aoki borrows from Hashimoto reveals that his crush on her is going nowhere and immediately establishes Ida as the third (very puzzled) member of a love triangle, who now believes Aoki has a crush on him. (A proper love triangle with all three legs represented is a rare thing already!) Of course, i was worried that these two disasters were going to ruin her life in order to get together, but this surprisingly doesn't happen either. First of all, Aoki develops his rapid onset crush on Ida while trying to be a good wingman and see if Ida has feelings for Hashimoto, which is already incredible care given to a girl character in a BL series. But THEN in a stroke of comedic genius, Hashimoto reveals later that she had used up the front of an eraser that originally said "Aida <3" which is so funny that i had to pause the show and cackle. The dramatic irony of these two panicking that they might have to fight over their mutual crush, the sudden blowing-up of the love triangle into a love square that includes Aoki's only other friend, the fact that Aoki's bisexual awakening was caused by a mistake…it has layers! I love a well-written comedic plot beat.
The (non-interchangeable) Ida and Aida are fun characters in their own rights. Ida is defined primarily by his cool (read: stoic) hypercompetence and his gentle bafflement at the concept of puppy love and possibly friendship, which initially makes him difficult to read, but he's fun actually and i don't think we appreciate him enough. He's literally serving neurodivergent-and-a-minor realness. Aida is cool (read: charming in a very high school way) and kind of a goofy slacker archetype, but the writing and acting elevate what could have been an empty shell of traits in a serviceable heterosexual B-plot into a dynamic and caring friend/love interest who grows in his own right.
A detour to a point that cannot be overstated: Adult actors who more or less pass as young enough to be in high school, aka the Ben Platt Test. Between this and the remarkably unremarkable hair and makeup, we've come a long way since Seven Days (2015). The character who comes closest to looking like an adult man in a sea of children is the stoic and serious Ida, whose actor nevertheless injects enough naïveté and adolescent self-doubt into the performance to make a believer out of me.
The romantic relationships are chaste and sweet, and the central conflicts of Kieta Hatsukoi are almost entirely internal. For Aoki and Ida, the struggle is to figure out what each of them want from their relationship, and they navigate their stark differences in personality in fun and sometimes painful ways. Aoki, who is suddenly aware of his latent bisexuality and Big Feelings, is such a sweetheart and strikes a fine balance between comically pathetic and sympathetic. Ida, for his part, seems to have a handle on everything except for the way Aoki's feelings make him feel, and there are good moments when we see his less guarded side break through in ways that conflict with or complement Aoki's vulnerability. Hashimoto and Aida are the rare chaos heterosexuals that i am rooting for 100%. She learns to be vocal about what she wants and stand up for herself and her emotions, and he learns how to drink respect women juice and think about the feelings of other people. Their interactions are more farcical and lighthearted than our main couple, but the actors bring no less energy to their characters.
A central theme of this series that i think gets overlooked is the idea of kindness as aspirational masculinity, and all three of our male leads embody this to varying degrees at times. The scene i think most clearly exemplifies this is when Aoki volunteers to take the role of Cinderella in the school play to protect the stage-shy Hashimoto, opposite Prince Ida. (IT'S A PLAY WITHIN A PLAY!) In lesser shows this would be played as a joke about his sexual proclivities or gender in some way, and there is an extent to which men crossdressing is inherently kind of a comedic trope in film, but just when Aoki feels he's been made the object of a joke he doesn't fully understand, Kieta Hatsukoi affirms that there is nothing wrong with what he did, that his queer feelings and feminine performance do not make him lesser than Ida, and that the reason he went onstage in the first place was noble. Selflessness and empathy are an integral part of Aoki's character, and those qualities are also important to the character arcs of Ida and Aida as the show progresses. It feels good to see our boy protagonists be lauded for their kindnesses and not punished for showing what are too often gendered vulnerabilities. (And on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Hashimoto praised for her apeshit outbursts of righteous anger, which are more directly framed as jokes but are also encouraged by the narrative as positive for her character. Debatable, but it's there!)
Finally, this show typifies (what i like to call) the soft gaze in its camerawork and overall visual design, which is very apropos for a such a gentle high school comedy. This gaze, with its lingering but unobtrusive shots of tender moments and refusal to objectify the characters, supplements the themes of kindness as aspirational masculinity and all forms of love, romantic or platonic, as worthy of cherishing.
I had a good time, but:
Aoki and Ida (and the whole friend group really) could have had like 3% more time being cute together in the finale, even if it were just a mid-credits montage. I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters so quickly!
Character(s) entitled to financial compensation: N/A. Go forth safe in the knowledge that no fictional high schoolers were harmed in the making of this series.
Conclusion: There is not a hint of cynicism in the writing of this show. Kieta Hatsukoi is almost indulgently sentimental, with just enough comedy and surprising thoughtfulness to keep it interesting. Often, the series feels like a nostalgic love letter to the concept of the high school crush, but it also updates its narrative to revamp tired tropes and center the feelings of bi boys and shy girls, two of our most important natural resources. Neither too understated nor totally over-the-top, Kieta Hatsukoi is an earnest and refreshing take on the Japanese BL genre. And we stan.
Come back soon to see if i can say anything interesting about See You After Quarantine? (2021)
#kieta hatsukoi#S tier#japanese drama#mine#reviews#my love mix up#vanishing my first love#aoki x ida#hashimoto x aida#trying to do these in the order i watched them#and realizing i'm remembering more than i thought i would#MINOR EDIT FOR PLAY WITHIN A PLAY
10 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
ghstmsk
its pronounced ghast mask
batbyrne
Aussie nerd with a very random blog.
jjjjjessielllee-blog
Untitled
tacosransi
i am neither the dead nor the ass
