#the things they did change didn't detract from the show at all

[tragicclownwrites]

🤡

#i just finished watching the atla live action #as an avatar fan #I thought it was a wonderful adaptation! #the original is still the best #but this live action was still great #(esp when compared to that... OTHER live action) #i only had two real complaints #1. i didn't like how Bumi's intro was handled #it would've been way better if they stuck to revealing him as Aang's friend AFTER the fight tbh #like they did in the original #they didn't take advantage of the foreshadowing #instead he was just kinda like “yep i'm your childhood friend Bumi btw you're an asshole” right off the bat #2. it was too short 😭 #c'mon i binged that shit in two days #even though they were ~1hr long #8 episodes wasn't enough #bonus mini complaint: I needed more Momo and Appa #but all in all #i was very impressed with how much ground they were still able to cover in such a condensed format #the casting was A+++ #the references were done very tastefully #the things they did change didn't detract from the show at all #and in some ways added to it #it made me just as emotional as the original #anyways... eagerly waiting for season 2 #(it's happening... right??) #def excited to see my girl Toph #tragic clowning #avatar the last airbender #atla live action

[fuyuesu]

attempting to explain why mahiru did some things wrong actually

the "mahiru and her boyfriend were equally toxic" theory makes me want to become the real life joker so im going to talk about why i think it's Not the case and why i actually think it detracts from her character!

first of all, i think there's a massive difference in the way her boyfriend's affection is portrayed and how mahiru's affection is portrayed.

people cite the fact that he was feeding mahiru cake at the beginning (which later turn into rats when mahiru feeds him) as proof that he was also toxic. but i don't think the cake was Always rats and thus does not inherently represent toxicity - i believe it represents attention and/or affection. the way that the two scenes are portrayed are COMPLETELY different, in my opinion.

here, mahiru's boyfriend takes a small portion of the cake and holds it out for her to accept. he's waiting for mahiru to take the cake, and is not forcing it upon her. he tilts the fork towards her, and she happily moves towards him to eat it. he's fairly reserved compared to mahiru, but the portrayal clearly shows like.. a fairly balanced and loving relationship? he's waiting for her to reciprocate, and doesn't force anything upon her.

now, look at mahiru's portion of cake! it's big, it's got lots of frosting, it's got a nice strawberry on top - you can barely even see the fork! would this not fit mahiru's overwhelming style of love? if the cake is meant to be affection, then you could argue that her boyfriend was reserved in his affection, while mahiru (in true mahiru fashion) was overwhelming and indulgent. she's also making the move to feed her boyfriend the cake in the last shot when he is... very obviously Not reciprocating, unlike in the first shot where she is moving in to meet his fork.

i think the infamous rats are just a portrayal of how mahiru's love has become actively toxic. the fact that he looks sunken and is actively backing away from her does NOT change even when the scene flickers to the idealized version where mahiru is just feeding him cake. there is no reciprocation here, nor any illusion of reciprocation. he wants out, and mahiru is not letting him take that out. he cannot leave in this situation.

secondly, from a storytelling standpoint: what does mahiru being in a mutually toxic relationship add to her character? what purpose does it serve other than to make her seem less at fault for her crime? what does it add to the narrative?

mahiru's character is built up in a way to contrast her actions and her behavior. just look at the way she's portrayed in both trials! she's the ditzy lovable big sister in the first trial whose even described as someone "pure", and in the second trial they pull out ALL the stops to make you pity her as much as possible. they make her frail, on the verge of death, still clinging to her reason to living even as it's been crushed helplessly. they are doing EVERYTHING to make you see her as innocently and as pitifully as possible.

so, what's the point of that framing if mahiru didn't actually do anything wrong? if mahiru was a victim in her relationship as well, and if her boyfriend was treating her badly the whole time, then like... what, is she just meant to be a punching bag, or something?

mahiru is sweet and naive, and she is ALSO a person who did horrible things. she is kind, she is loving, but she drove someone else to suicide. those two aspects of her are not mutually exclusive, and the contrast is in fact what makes up the core of her character and conflict. if you shift the blame off of her, then what is mahiru's story meant to tell us? there's no intriguing dissonance between her behavior and her actions anymore! which conflict sounds more thought provoking to you: "can you forgive an otherwise kind and loving person for leading an innocent person to their death?" or "can you forgive this poor woman who was being abused without even realizing it for loving her abuser too much?"

thirdly, the theory just reeks of victim blaming . dear LORD i know her boyfriend was mid as hell but that doesn't mean he deserved what he went through somehow!! he is DEAD because of mahiru's actions !!!! "he was toxic too, so mahiru wasn't fully to blame!" mahiru is not the one who is dead here! mahiru is not the one who thought death was the only way out of the relationship! he didnt deserve this!!

in conclusion: i just think that, mainly from a storytelling standpoint, it simply doesn't make sense. it robs mahiru of all of her interesting and complex traits to make her seem more palatable and innocent. mahiru was flawed and toxic and did horrible things? nope, actually she was always a good person she was just mimicking her horrible boyfriend's behavior and he simply couldn't handle that! so glad that she is now the character equivalent of Plain Oatmeal and we can all rest easy knowing that she's never done anything wrong in her life ever ^_^

also don't even get me started on her views on kotoko. its soooo interesting how she views her but people just boil it down to "wow, she's a saint, she even forgives kotoko for attacking her!" when it's sooo much more fascinating than that but ive rambled on enough . That is not what this post is about . goodbye o7 never ask me for anything ever again

(disclaimer though, if you want more milgram analysis im Not the right person to follow for it . im an enstarrie who reblogs propaganda for my fave character 48 times a day. i dont even like mahiru at all shes my least favorite milgram character i just like analyzing her so dont follow me for more posts like this o7)

#melty rambles #milgramposting #milgram #milgram meta #mahiru shiina #sorry . I unwillingly rotate her in my brain because the fan perception of her makes me so so mad

[vocallywritten]

Season 2 of Play It By Ear is even better than the first season, and I will stand by that.

I liked the first season, but it honestly didn't have the same magic as the Mountport episode. That's not super surprising, since Welcome to Mountport was a lightning in a bottle kind of success and that's really hard to reproduce.

None of this to say that the first season wasn't good. It absolutely was. But you could tell they hadn't quite figured out the best format yet. Since Jess and Zach had their podcast with the same conceite as Play It By Ear, I'm sure that the folks at Dropout wanted to differentiate their own show from the podcast in some way. It seems like in the first season, they did that by having a more rigid set of prompts.

The prompts in the first season were a lot like the Mountport episode in that they were designed to guide the story. And of course they upped the ante by asking the actors to include certain changes to the music, or funny choices, which is kind of a natural progression from the "include this phrase" that Game Changer did.

But they also seemed to want to let the actors have more freedom to improv on Play It By Ear as well, which would sometimes clash with the more rigid directions Mano was given.

I imagine Sam decided not to host this show even though he did chose to host Game Changer's other spin off, Make Some Noise, in part because he wanted to make room for other talent on the dropout platform. (And also because hosting three shows is a lot.) But that's also a tricky situation because I think part of the appeal of the Welcome to Mountport episode WAS Sam's presence. His enthusiasm and the way he hyped up the cast was part of the charm of the episode.

So when Play It By Ear premiered, I'm sure there were people who were disappointed Sam wasn't there. However I think Mano was an excellent choice for host. He has a very similar energy to Sam's (in that he seems super happy to be there and hypes up his fellow cast members) without needing to act like Sam. They didn't get a Dollar Store Sam Reich to host this show, but found someone who brought the appropriate energy to the hosting role, is what I'm saying.

In season one, I kinda got the sense that Mano, on occasion, struggled with how rigid the format was because it put him in the position of needing to police the narrative a little bit. And it kinda sucks that him just doing his job and trying to keep things on track also kind of detracted from the quality of the show a little bit. I maintain that this was not his fault, or anyone's really. Again, I think the show just needed time to find it's footing and get the format down.

Which brings me to season two. This season it looks like the prompts are a little more general, or will suggest styles of music, rather than dictating a lot of story beats. I think this was absolutely 100% the right move.

Jess, Zach, and their costars all have a lot of experience doing exactly this, so giving them more freedom to take the story where ever they want is the best direction to take the show.

I think that this slight change to the format has also done wonders for Mano's dynamic with the rest of the cast.

Again, I think a huge part of the appeal of Mountport was how genuinely wholesome it was. Like everyone seemed very supportive of each other and like they were all having a blast being there. So I think Play It By Ear should have a similar, wholesome dynamic to be a true spin off. Last season, though it wasn't /too/ often, there were moments when Mano, as host, had to play up a little playful antagonism with the cast. But the whole cast vs host, Drew Carey-esque dynamic is already pretty well represented by Sam and his collegehumor cast. Dropout didn't need another, similar situation there, especially when the pilot episode very much did not feature that cast vs host relationship at all.

I think season two lends itself to a much more natural dynamic. One where Mano is guiding the story, rather than dictating it.

I did genuinely enjoy season one, but this season has really had a consistent spark that I haven't really seen since that first game changer episode.

The cast, crew, and of course the band are all doing such a marvelous job and I can't wait to see what happens next!

#play it by ear #mano agapion #jess mckenna #zach reino #dropout #dropout tv

[kitkatt0430]

For the AU headcanon game, AU in which Savitar is someone other than Barry? 👀

So I do remember various theories about Savitar's identity and one of them was Eddie. Which... I did not like that theory, so I'm not gonna go that way.

If it was someone the team knew already, then Eobard is the obvious candidate. In the comics, he's made himself look like Barry a few different ways and so there could be a convoluted plot going on that way, but... they've had enough Eobard Thawne as the bad guy on the show, I wanna speculate on someone new.

So the comics Savitar - New Earth version - was a Cold War pilot whose real identity was never discovered. While at top speed in his fighter plane, he was struck by lightning and survived the crash in hostile territory. This could be updated to him being an air force test pilot for an experimental craft using Dominator tech - foreshadowing the Dominator attack xover event later that season - that gets struck by lightning mid test. The test is classed a failure and the craft is unrecoverable - the man who becomes Savitar is assumed dead but of course he isn't.

Savitar therefor isn't obsessed with killing Iris - his existence doesn't depend on her. Instead perhaps Iris' investigation into Savitar's origins puts her in danger as he doesn't want anyone to know who he used to be - maybe he doesn't even remember and having his identity revealed would detract from the story he's selling the cult he's been creating.

Perhaps Alchemy as a stage one/first half of season boss with Savitar being hinted at until he's revealed at the mid season finale. Savitar could still be the man behind Alchemy, with Julian being unaware that he's been brainwashed to take on the persona of Alchemy under specific triggers. To de brainwash Julian, they bring in Hartley who - in this timeline - used a hypnotic flute in addition to his gloves. Julian thus has to come to terms both with what he did under the brainwashing and with the fact that he is a meta... that it was his rejection and self-hatred over being a meta that gave Savitar the in he needed to control Julian in the first place.

Part of the season's focus is on Barry having to accept that he has no idea how much the changes to the timeline are his fault and how much is stuff that was already gonna happen and he just... didn't know things were leading that way behind the scenes.

Revealing Frost's real origins in this season. Caitlin, panicking, goes to her mom for help and things with Carla eventually unravel to the reveal of Icicle. Frost has to choose between teaming up with Icicle or siding with Caitlin's friends... and chooses Icicle. Only to quickly realize she's in over her head and she turns to Caitlin for advice. The two of them form a truce to defeat Icicle and rejoin Team Flash by surprise!!! during the final Savitar vs Flash fight at the end of the season, which would also include Jesse and Wally as well as Savitar's cult.

Savitar would definitely try to recruit Icicle and Frost into his cult, but I don't see them having any of it. Icicle has his own god complex of a sort going on and Killer Frost just doesn't like him or trust him after Caitlin's experiences with Zoom and the Reverse Flash. If you've met one evil Speedster, you've met them all.

One of the things I did like about show!Savitar was that he was a fallen hero - I'm a Tales game series fan, i love fallen heroes as villains, that's basically the main villain of every Tales game and I eat it up every time. So I think part of the investigation into Savitar would be the reveal that he was a highly decorated hero and he saved a lot of lives. That's why he was tapped for the project. But after being essentially left for dead and his amnesia, Savitar grew to feel he was owed the accolades and devotion and it all warped into the god complex he has now. Forcing him to face his past isn't exactly a tomato in the mirror moment but he's torn between horror over who he's become and his desire for security and safety through the power he's accumulated.

#thanks for asking :D #kitkatt0430 answers #the flash #au headcanon game #fic ideas #season 3 au #savitar au

[nakanotamu]

Alright so I finished watching a Stardom show and I had a lot of thoughts about it and stuff I wanted to say and normally I would dump this all in my discord server but rn I'd feel weird about spamming this in there bc of brain reasons so tumblr gets it instead. So here are my probably needlessly long thoughts about Stardom's 2023.09.09 5 Star GP show from Korakuen Hall:

Alright so just right off the bat I'll say that this show was pretty packed (~1300 people) and the crowd was very hot and that... did nothing for me. Moments that make me feel very alienated from what is apparently the average wrestling fan, let me tell you. People make such a big deal out of loud active crowds and idk I mostly just found this one annoying. There's something about them being so audibly almost exclusively men that is really not fun. Rossy spent 10 years being so bad at appealing to women that I think it's fair to say it just wasn't a concern of his at any point, and Harada was absolutely gunning for a product in that same vein and it SUCKS. Oh my god it sucks. idk why it bothered me so much on this show, it's not like it's anything new, but it was really getting to me. I'm looking forward to getting to the show from, I think late November, when Kid specifically commented on how many women were there and seeing if it feels any different. Shout out to the one very loud woman who was a huge Komomo stan though, mood.

This show was originally billed as the Generational Struggle Part 3, the culmination of the Generational Struggle stuff from earlier in the Summer, a storyline that nobody ever understood and none of the wrestlers had any interest in, ultimately just completely dropped by the time this show actually happened, really emblematic of Harada's era of booking. I think this show stands out in a similar way, a peak of popularity and hype during a period where the quality was already starting to steeply decline, but before people had really noticed in numbers and before things had really cratered, with the wrestlers still mostly able to cover up the increasingly obvious holes. As such I think it's worth talking about as a shining example of this incredibly weird and bad period for Stardom.

Lady C & Hina vs Miyu Amasaki & Hanako - I like the sort of QQ vs QQ feeling to this match, but iirc it was one of those matches that were frequent at the time that had to be changed at the last minute bc someone was hurt or sick. So idk it was a fine opener though, no strong feelings but like it's the first match it's fine.

Mariah May & Waka Tsukiyama vs Mei Seira & Megan Bayne - Okay I hate to say it but Megan is kind of growing on me. I still think the way they brought her in was all wrong, and trying to push her for singles matches again later was still a mistake, but I do think she found a pretty entertaining niche in these less important tag matches. A lot of it is everyone else figuring out how to play off of her, and I don't really think it's a *good* thing when one wrestler warps an entire match around her every single time like she does, but in a match that's not all that important so there's less to detract from, yeah it's actually pretty fun. I just like seeing Mei Seira get thrown you know? Or when Mariah tries to knock her off the apron and she just doesn't move. It's annoying as hell when it gets her title shots, but in contexts like this, it's a pretty good bit.

Natsupoi & Yuna Mizumori vs Syuri & Saki Kashima - I'll talk more about it later but this whole undercard felt really disposable to me, which is always disappointing, especially given how much character Stardom packed into even their smaller matches before this period. Yunamon was in the middle of her joining CA story (still, somehow) and Poi and Syuri are always entertaining together, and they still are here with some fun spots and stuff, but I just didn't care. Like I said though, broader issues going on during this period so we do know why it was like that and I'll get to it later.

Mayu Iwatani, Koguma, & Momo Kohgo vs Natsuko Tora, Fukigen Death, & Rina - Again, perfectly servicable undercard match that doesn't really have anything fun or interesting going on under the hood, but we know why now so I'm not trying to like, criticize, just saying yeah wow it was bad huh. This was Komomo's second last match before she got injured iirc which is incredibly depressing, I don't think she even tagged in once during this match so she was probably already hurt and I hate it.

Mirai vs Saori Anou - God, okay, this match was kind of the one that made me think about typing up my thoughts about this show. I did not like this match anywhere near as much as I expected to. It just was not clicking for me, like, at all. This felt like a very clear "first time singles match", especially between two wrestlers who I guess don't really know each other outside of wrestling and haven't trained together or anything. There's a reason first time singles matches are rarely actually all that good and I really felt that awkwardness and lack of chemistry here. Mirai and Anou are both good so it was like, fine, but I was really taken out of it and unimpressed after I had assumed this would be really good. I do like Anou winning the white belt, and I do think Mirai's run needed to end bc it was not... working, but man I would not have devoted like Mirai's entire Fall to this feud after watching this match. Shining example of why you should put wrestlers together with people they want to work with and not just whichever names you think sound good against each other.

Hazuki vs Starlight Kid - This match on the other hand totally lived up to expectations. Hazuki and Kid obviously know each other super well and are both freaks, it was great. Brawling through the crowd always gives me kind of, idk, a sort of secondhand embarassment feeling? It just feels wrong my brain doesn't like it but I still appreciated what they were doing with it, with Kid angry and desperate and trying to prove herself more intense and bad than Hazuki. Hazuki always looks amazing getting tortured in submissions, and Kid's whole gameplan being trying to build to the Black Tiger Leg Killer makes sense. I couldn't actually remember who won this so I was even biting on the near falls at the end and liked Hazuki's quick, desperate win. They're both so great and I liked this a lot.

Tam Nakano vs Suzu Suzuki - This was like, the exact opposite of Mirai vs Anou to me. It still had a little bit of that first singles match awkwardness I think, but the amount you would expect given that's what it was, and they both brought enough to compensate for that. Tam really does have the same chemistry with "mini Giulia" as she does with the big sis herself and this match was really great for it. Again exactly opposite to Anou vs Mirai, this match totally would have left me excited for a title match program between these two - which ofc unfortunately never actually happened. I think the booking was incredibly stupid though, because of course it was, but why give Suzu the win over the champ to build to her winning the tournament and... earning a title match she already earned with this match? I guess there is the possibility that as people seem to believe Utami was meant to win and Suzu was an audible when Utami got hurt, which would make some sense booking wise. I still think Utami winning would have been extremely nonsensical from a story standpoint, but all the rest of Harada's booking was disjointed and very obviously ignored story too, so it would be consistent in that way at least. But anyway, I really enjoyed this match.

Giulia vs Maika - Wow, man, I liked this match so so much more than I was expecting to. Idk why it quite feels like this because I haven't skipped any of these shows, but if 2023 was the Maika starmaking year, this was the match where her popularity really felt like it exploded basically overnight. Like she was already liked, but this match out of nowhere was where it was suddenly like, oh my god Maika is SUPER popular, god damn. I think all of Giulia's singles matches have some holes, like, I wouldn't exactly say she is "good" at "selling" even at the best of times, but Maika is really good at compensating for her weaknesses, and most importantly the match really really excels at her strengths, namely intensity and homoeroticism. Given the things I've heard or seen I think this might be the last Giulia singles match I really enjoy, uh, either in her time in Stardom or possibly ever, but still if it does turn out that way for me, what a note to go out on. Really really fantastic, I thought this match was great, even if the story stuff and the booking around it was extremely inconsistent and stop and go with a whole Giulia vs Maika storyline they teased repeatedly and clearly wanted to do and never actually got to. At least they got to do this one.

Which I guess brings me to how weird this period of Stardom was. There have definitely been times I've wondered myself why I'm so dedicated to not skipping anything even when I don't exactly think it's fantastic, but I don't know, I still want to see what it was like, you know? I want to see what the wrestlers cared about even when there was no guarantee at all the booker would pay attention to any of it. There are definitely still good moments, even if there are a lot of bad and a lot of it is disjointed and weird around it. I just want to see it for myself.

I did improv in high school, and I remember after regionals one year we tried to do our regular weekly practice the next week, and it was terrible. Everyone was just creatively tapped and needed to recharge too badly, but we didn't realize that at first, and there was just this feeling of like, "we're doing the same things we always do, why isn't this working?" A lot of stuff from this period gives me the impression that that's how the wrestlers were feeling during this time.

The next show, on September 10th, was Dream Tag Fes, which seems to me to sort of be when this era of Stardom jumped the shark. (And I say that as someone who used to be way too much of a nerd about sitcoms and is extremely specific about what that term means.) The one last truly top to bottom great show for this era of Stardom, amidst some decline already starting to show, before the management issues and terrible schedule would become too much to ignore and they wouldn't be able to reach those heights again. I mean I think they're already on their way back up, I'm glad Harada has already been fired and Rossy being gone too is a bonus, but for this period at least. I might skip some stuff in the future, I know at least the Money Ball Scramble that was a mess where they didn't even run by the wrestlers what was in the boxes for sure, but I don't know, I still worry about missing out on the good stuff too, you know? That's my problem with wrestling, I'm so quick to tell others there's no actual obligation to watch everything, and yet I feel it myself. But even if it was another one that was all over the place, I'm still glad I watched this show.

#kind of been missing talking about wrestling and blogging so ig this is a little bit to scratch that itch

[daylighteclipsed]

Your post is so right, truly. I recently replayed kh3 and the paopu scene was just so awkward. I don't know, Sora just looked so dejected the whole time. Why would he look like that if it was supposed to be romantic? Why does he only agree after her reassurance that it isn't meant like that. For me he looked the same way with pooh bear, just idk sadness in his eyes if that makes sense. The funniest thing is that she didn't even took a bite out of it? Like he did, but hers was still whole after they shared the fruits. Like they probably forgot, but still.

My thing is if So/kai is going to be or supposed to be canon, there’s no reason to have Sora hesitate here, obviously uncomfortable with Kairi’s romantic advance. Whether he has feelings for her, doesn’t anymore, or never exactly did — if we are supposed to take the last chunk of KH3 + ReMind as confirmation that Sora/Kairi are a couple (as many people do), there is No Reason to write Sora hesitating in the Paopu Scene before that. If Sora/Kairi are just going to get together a couple scenes later, there is no reason for Sora not to confess his feelings then or at least show any happiness or excitement over Kairi wanting to share paopu with him…

I feel like the Paopu Scene’s a moment of truth. For many, this should be (and in most any other story probably would be) the moment Sora (and us, the audience) realize he is indisputably in love with Kairi. But instead it feels like the opposite. While I do think Sora is still confused about his feelings, the sight of the paopu fruit in Kairi’s hand seems to make Sora realize he might actually not be in love with her… And sometimes that’s how it works, you know? Sometimes you get what you thought you wanted only to realize you don’t want it. You don’t feel it in your heart. Sora’s heart is just not in it, and it’s written all over his little frowny face. In the stiffness of his body. In his uncharacteristic, total silence.

And in the sadness in his eyes that reminds you of when he’s with Pooh Bear… Sora recognizes that he doesn’t quite feel the same as when he added the paopu to their cave drawing years ago. I think much the way he feels that his connection with Pooh is weaker even as he’s reassuring Pooh that they’ll always remain close… Sora loves Kairi, and he cherishes their friendship. But as odd and painful as it is to admit, a lot has changed… and he’s just not sure if he wants to be with Kairi the way that she wants to be with him. Again, much the way Sora doesn’t ever promise to stay with Pooh in the 100 Acre Woods forever like Pooh wants him to.

There are honestly a lot of parallels between Pooh and Kairi and their relationships with Sora — not just in KH3 but the other games as well… Maybe I’ll make a separate post about that later because I do find them very poignant and interesting. But for the sake of this post, let’s not get too off topic.

Now, one could counter-argue, if the Paopu Scene is a rejection, why doesn’t Sora verbally reject Kairi then? Why not make it an indisputable romantic rejection? To which I have several possibilities:

As I said before, Sora is still confused about his feelings. He’s not sure what being in love is supposed to feel like, and he sure hasn’t had much time to think about it or figure it out in the last two years. He doesn’t say yes or no because he doesn’t know. He doesn’t have an answer… But we can see that he’s not happy. He doesn’t want this, and that makes a legitimate Sora/Kairi romance unlikely. Actions speak louder than words, after all.

Blatantly removing Kairi as a love interest detracts from her being a red herring after Riku’s sacrifice. As much as I loathe that she’s in this position. The audience has to be unsure, has to be reasonably convinced, and… well it would be pretty absurd if Sora went from saying ‘Sorry, Kairi, I don’t want to be your boyfriend’ to, you know, holding her hand and looking like he might be in love with her after he thinks that she saved him. It would be too obvious that something’s up. ‘But, Gi, why would Kairi be a red herring in the Keyblade Graveyard/Tunnel of light?’ You tell me. Why IS Kairi mistaken as Sora’s savior/light in the darkness here? It’s clearly Riku. There are plenty of visual and audio cues suggesting it is Riku. We literally see Riku’s act of true love. Why WOULDN’T Sora say it’s Riku? Why WOULDN’T the game indisputably confirm Riku is Sora’s savior/light in the darkness here? Why would Nomura choose to mask this using Sora and Kairi’s relationship… I mean, if this act of true love is so platonic — if Sora and Riku’s feelings are so platonic and familial. After all, there’s nothing controversial about love between brothers.

Which leads to my next point. Kairi is Sora’s only hetero romantic option atp, so completely, blatantly taking that off the table when more games are still in the works would… probably not sit very well with some people.

There’s also the fact that when it comes to the non-Disney characters, this series has always been lowkey when it comes to romance. Addressing what these feelings are, in any romantic context, may not ever be in the cards. (But with Sora beginning to wonder about romance in KH3, it’s not outside the realm of possibility.)

The Paopu Scene is so maddening. I’ve never come across a scene like this that thousands of people can walk away from with completely opposite interpretations. It’s wild. But I hope this drama doesn’t go on for too much longer. I hope we get some answers soon, one way or another.

#and by soon i mean in the next game as opposed to two or three plus games from now #kingdom hearts #kairi is in the tunnel for the same reason riku is sitting nearby in the paopu scene #for the same reason the sora/riku meteor shower is hidden with namine #like. you tell me. why would a writer make these decisions

[sayruq]

So, I just finished watching episode 10 of HoTD and I swear I was so bored for like 55 minutes of the whole ride, the only moment I was actually paying attention was when Aemond was on screen and the only emotion I had was me cackling at Aemond's tectonic "OH SHIT" face when Grandma Vhagar did her war crime.

I cannot believe that this is meant to be a challenger to the brilliance that is RoP, which had me at the edge of my seat from start to finish at every episode. Like, miss me with this failed Targ shit, the writers are so clearly not getting it.

Rings of Power writers care so much about their characters and they committ to the story they're telling, nothing is half assed. They want us to be attached to the characters and they work hard to make sure that we do and that hard work paid off. Look at how well received their finale is compared to this one. Ep 6 brought several characters together and not only did it feel like a big deal, the episode itself was tense, heartbreaking, dark and filled with more morally grey characters than HOTD. Adar>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Daemon. RoP was not scared to have Galadriel promise genocide nor did it ignore what that says about her. HOTD won't even let Rhaenyra express murderous intent after she was usurped and her son killed. She just stares into the camera.

I read the leaks so I knew what was coming and that usually doesn't detract from my enjoyment of a show because I love spoilers but even I was counting down the minutes to Aemond. It felt like an ordinary filler episode. Things happen without urgency or tension and not once did I feel like I couldn't wait to see how other characters will react to the new plot developments except Aemond's scene (he really is the MVP of the show). It didn't feel like the beginning of a new catastrophic war.

This show doesn't understand how to pick it's scenes. Instead of a very long miscarriage and body preparation scene, we could have spent more time on Rhaenyra's anger at being usurped, her fear of what it means for her children and her grief at her father's death because she barely reacted to that. There should have been only one Black Council scene after her coronation where we get

Team Black talking about their allies and Team Green's allies and you know strategizing

Rhaenys and Corlys slowly changing their minds about Rhaenyra (the show given reason why they chose her is very stupid because even the Greens want peace but whatever) as they watch her handle herself

Daemon trying to wrest control from Rhaenyra. You can even have him start the Council without her to show his eagerness for war. Instead of him standing around the table talking about the island's defenses, we should see him attending to that, ignoring her while she's in pain

Rhaenyra resisting it because of the prophecy which she doesn't talks about just yet. We should see people constantly pushing her to declare war and attack King's Landing and Rhaenyra standing her ground

Plans are made to send Jace and Luke to act as messengers

Instead of war, Rhaenyra plans on gaining enough allies to back the Greens into a corner without a single person dying

Then Otto Hightower comes. Instead of the dumb dragon scene, show Rhaenyra struggling to walk there but being determined because she's now queen and this is her duty but also because of the prophecy. She listens to the terms offered, trades insults with Otto, Daemon is Daemon. The page is offered, Rhaenyra cries and she decides to give her answer the following day.

Daemon thinks her attachment to Alicent is problem but she tells him about the prophecy. He strangles her. Rhaenyra spends the night thinking about how unpopular her decision is, she doesn't want to waver despite all the pressure she's facing.

Luke dies and Rhaenyra finds out right before she tells Otto her terms for peace. Instead of Emma staring at the camera, we can have the iconic line

Tell my half brother that I will have my throne, or I will have his head,” she said, sending the envoys on their way.

Now we see how Rhaenyra has been transformed by her son's death and we don't have to spend the entire last episode spinning the wheel until Aemond enters the picture.

#dr-doomsduck #rings of power #anti hotd #rhaenyra targaryen #lotr

[monsterkissed]

You said you liked to share BNGN trivia, so you got any tidbits?

some assorted trivialities (spoilers for a fanfic up to the latest chapter):

the fic was originally envisioned (and partly written) as a series of drabbles! if i had kept that going, it would currently be 5,376 drabbles long.

tiramisu was written into the outline entirely as bait/tribute to my partners, who are big siamese fans. she is now the most popular oc i have ever made for anything. i considered writing an origin story fic for her back when there was a jjba oc zine in the works, but it fell thru and now it only lives in my head. it involves multiple murders : )

bngn is not phf-compliant bc i did not want to read it. to make up for this i promise to find other horrible things for fugo to go through instead <3

probably not news to anyone by this point but here is some explicit confirmation: the first prologue that opens the fic is not about doppio

there are so many cases of foreshadowing in the form of jokes or joke-adjacent statements at this point that i cannot actually remember them all. if you see me make a silly comment in this fic there is at least a 20% chance it's actually a very sneaky mean comment hiding behind the linear progression of time

when i first drafted the outline act 3 was much much shorter and had a few drastic differences. one of these was that polnareff (or at least one of him) would have survived to support the gang much as he does in the original VA, but i could not think of anything fun for him to do that didn't detract from everything else, or at least nothing more fun than the inexplicable spectacle of two dead polnareffs after all of the build-up towards him. rip, rip.

speaking of fun: i wanted to have every major character get at least one really cool moment, regardless of how central they were to the story. i didn't want anyone to feel like you could cut them out completely and it wouldn't matter, i wanted to keep that ensemble feel of VA and give everyone room to affect the story in important ways, even if the fic still obviously has its focusses. of the ones i've published so far, i think i like mista's intervention in the Trish & Dop vs Fugo fight best out of those moments because i just had so much fun writing and visualising it and he felt like a natural fit to provoke fugo's own position in the story as a person fixated on the objective facts (which he was canonically Not Wrong about, in terms of sticking with bruno being a dubious plan for anyone fond of staying alive) to face off against someone who operates more on vibes and rolling the dice.

way back in the depths of drabble-draft the flashbacks were going to occur chronologically, followed by the present day stuff. but as i became aware that this was growing into something i realised that this would be stitching two pretty drastically different fics together back to back, and decided instead to use the current format. in theory this was purely going to allow me to show doppio's relationship with diavolo alongside his absence from him, so we can see simultaneously why he values and misses him so much and what he's becoming without him. in practice it led to a bunch of smaller changes that built up into, among other things, the premise of the entire canon divergence. technically, all of the flashbacks in act 1 and 2 "take place" during ch. 30. there is an implication to this that so far nobody has commented on ;)

i spent an amount of time researching macdonalds in italy that i will never ever get back

speaking of researching things that don't matter to anyone but me: everywhere a major scene happens is based on a specific spot i hand-picked on google maps. i roamed a lot of italian countryside via satellite trying to find the Exact kind of big, ugly, concrete-floored farm i had in mind for the first secco fight

technically this fic (or at least the extended universe around it) has sorbet and gelato VA-style origin stories to go with their fanstands (which i had a lot of fun with, workshopping around ideas for things that would make for excellent and suitably juicy assassination tools but vulnerable in a stand vs stand battle). much like tiramisu, so does my second stand-using oc brodo (who also cameos in 'I Think We're Alone Now', because skulking around trying not to be noticed is his speciality) the third, katarina, is only mostly goncharov-inspired, and Heart of Glass was originally going to be one of the chapter titles for this fic. another song with a very similar title still will be!

i had no intention of narancia being as big a presence in the fic as he was, but the longer i wrote the more i realised that he's just too fun to put in a room with doppio. the scene where he accepts the truth made me feel genuinely like a bit of a horrible person because i'd enjoyed building up their friendship so much and it was one of those chapters where i knew Exactly what the character would want to do and exactly why it would be the thing that would hurt them the most.

when i was hammering out the outline for what would become this fic an artist i had been following released a song that i put on in the background while i wrote, and then stopped writing and went back to listen to it properly twelve or thirteen times because it was eerily vibing perfectly with some of the themes i had been kicking around in my head trying to make something out of. it put a few seeds in my head in the way that some things serendipitously do, so much so that i almost named the whole fic after it. in the end, i decided to affix it to just one chapter where i felt it would best set the tone for the imminent descent to come. that chapter would be chapter thirty-eight.

[gillianthecat]

For the asks game: 1 (Kieta Hatsukoi and Theory of Love), 9 (Cherry Magic and The Untamed) and it seems you already answered the majority of the others but I hope no one asked 14 yet? 💌

hi! @midnight-sun16! Thanks for these asks!

1. name a drama and I’ll pick my favourite scene in that drama:

Kieta Hatsukoi - I'll go with the scene on the swing set (apparently I have a thing for scenes on swing sets?) where Aoki and his friend Hashimoto realize that they don't actually have a crush on the same person. I just thought it was very cute how they had resignedly agreed that they were love rivals and then when they finally said the names of crushes out loud they figured out that the eraser had erased part of the name. It was funny and cute and a good depiction of a sweet friendship.

In my drafts there's a gif of the scene where Aoki spill juice on Ida; that one is also very cute, so maybe this is a good excuse to post it. Honestly, while I enjoyed Kieta Hatsukoi a lot, the details didn't really stick in my mind. Perhaps if I rewatched a different scene would stand out.

Theory of Love - There's a scene in a train station in episode 11. I don't want to give spoilers so I won't say more, but... yeah.

9. name a drama and I’ll pick my favourite character oh, these two are both hard ones. I could have so many favorites from each, for so many different reasons. 

Cherry Magic - ok. I've decided I'm going to use this opportunity to go on a mini version of my rant about Cherry Magic that I've been meaning to write. So I will pick Kurosawa, for who he was and who the story wouldn't let him be. He had so much interesting potential - this "perfect" guy who had a crush on the awkward one, the guy who thought he always had to be perfect and please other people... It's such an interesting character, but the show never allowed him to change. We got a glimpse at his own struggles in that flashback about the dinner where he was being sexually harassed, and where Adachi helps him catches Kurosawa's eye. But then it felt like that thread just got dropped, and Kurosawa never got to have his own story, it was all about Adachi.

I mean, it's also possible that Kurosawa was less static than I thought and I just missed some stuff. If so, please let me know!

Basically I wanted to this aspect of Cherry Magic to be more like Blueming. I loved Blueming for subverting this idea of the "perfect" love interest. Da-woon was very similar - someone commonly considered perfect, crush on an awkward guy, feels pressure to please other people - but the story allowed him to be flawed and change and grow. I loved Kurosawa enough to want to give him the same chance!

(The longer version of the still unwritten rant includes stuff about virginity, the title and the lack of focus on sexuality, Kurosawa's thoughts as heard by Adachi, stories as fantasies vs. stories as stories... probably some other stuff too. I did like the show! It just also frustrated me in ways that detracted from my enjoyment. I possibly went into it with expectations too high.)

And if I was just going to pick a pure favorite, it would be Fujisaki, their aromantic colleague. I liked how here they subverted expectations of her being a love rival, or a overinvested gossip or something, and had her be a sweetly supportive friend, but also with her own story happening so that her world did not revolve around the main characters.

The Untamed - Look this is really hard. I'm basically throwing a mental dart at a mental dart board to choose.

Wei Wuxian. His whole... everything. Self-sacrificing, arrogant, loving, brilliant, teasing, playful, clever... I honestly don't know how to write about him or The Untamed right now. I watched it just this spring and was obsessed with it for a time, but in many ways that seems forever ago. I feel like it's sunk into my psyche in the place before words. Perhaps someday I'll have more to say.

14. drama you dropped within the first 2 episodes (we’ve all been there)  There have been several, but I'm going to say 2gether. This world, where everyone's approach to getting what they want seemed to be stalking other people and everyone ignores the word "no," just does not appeal to me. (Interestingly, this meant that the depiction of Green as a predatory femme didn't bother me as much as I expected, because a lot of people in the show seemed predatory.)

I ended up dropping it at the scene where Tine somehow manages to play porn on his classroom's projector; the secondhand embarrassment was too much for me on top of everything else. I had intended to pick it up again, and maybe I will someday since it seems to be one of the foundational Thai BLs, but it doesn't feel like a priority.

And yes! You were the first to ask for 14 :-)

List of Drama Asks

#kieta hatsukoi #my love mix up #theory of love #cherry magic #the untamed #2gether #2gether the series #drama asks #ask games #asks answered #midnight-sun16

[tsukiyadori]

Fansub Translation Quality of Fukou-kun wa Kiss suru shika nai Episode 1

Since I got asked about that one. Technically I was meaning to look at episodes beyond just the first (I did watch up to episode 4), but later on it got incredibly hard to actually still pay attention to the subs at all. Even with rewinding a few times for the purpose I still wound up not to be watching out for them too attentively. The reason?

......... I completely forgot this was the penguin show I was planning to avoid for the time being. And then it even comes to serve up a penguin plush dakimura on the regular? Argh!!

... anyway, that was supposed to be about translations.

The TL;DR: They are very solidly competent.

I wouldn't say they are god tier or master class translations, because they clearly still feel like translations (brilliant translations for me are those that make you forget that you are reading a translation). But that's perfectly fair here, since this isn't professional nor official translation and there is also a disclaimer on their site already informing you beforehand of what is to be expected. Punctually, there were a few lines I liked better from the Viki version of episode 1, but on the whole these subs win by a landslide.

Some things that picked my attention in order of appearance:

Much more English sounding English. The phrasings in general read much more rounded. There are still some spots that felt awkward to me, but they weren't far less numerous than the Viki version. In some cases, it ditches some nuances of the source in favor of it. Knowing when to how best cut your losses to preserve a smoother, natural reading flow is a skill in translation I very much respect. (As that's also the department I'm worst in myself.)

Sign translations: Not only are there more than Viki had, they are ON the signs. I've heard this is very much a headache to actually sub, which is why official streams in anime ditch it on the regular. That's a nice to have since the show does have a few plays with typography and showing line chat convos. It does cut costs by not subbing signs when they are being read out loud. That might be a bit confusing potentially, but is also nice to not overplaster the actual frames unnecessarily.

I liked the Viki translation better for the register change of boku->ore in episode 1 ("Dropping the sweet act, here’s my actual introduction") directly after the fake more as a localization. The fansubs goes the route of simply dodging it altogether. ("I... no my real profile) Which reads a little bit awkward, but still not as awkward as the weirdest the Viki offered far more often.

It uses last name usages as spoken and honorifics. Personally I don't rank the preservation of these as highly as many (since they detract from the invisibility of the translation itself), but if you don't have the skills to replace the flavors with local means, I do like preservation more than a clusterfuck of an inconsistent mess. Here, unlike Viki person references are consistent.

Otherwise, register changes in speech (specifically mostly Kouta's pronouns and rude/polite speech) are generally dodged or ignored. The loss here seems not huge to me, tho, since almost all talks are among same age peers and is mostly marking a difference for Kouta. This show is full of overacting, so the shifts of his modes are very obvious with the actor's grimaces and voice intonation, even without the grammar.

One that is also ditched are the anglicisms within Japanese (like how the Professor uses some of them for the introduction game) which make him kinda try sound more hip). But Viki didn't do that either, it's just more noticeable here because it attempts more in terms of preserving. It's pretty minor nuance and not plot relevant, so whatever.

The puppy/whiny (?) speeches that stretch vowels get preserved by getting translated with the ~ to indicate the prolongation. This is usually not something you ever learn in school to use, so it usually won't show up in any more official translations. It (I think) stems mostly from comics/manga, but using it here is pretty clever. (The show is a manga adaption to begin with, audacious enough to even have them literally read about themselves in the drama and the show style itself is also very cartoonish.)

"Keeping my interactions shallow" (fansub) vs. "I don't get close to people" (Viki), the fansubs are more literal here. But also manage to put the phrasing still sound rounded English.

"It's not laughing matter" nicely English sounding localization of that very Japanese expression (シャレにならない). The Viki one went more a dodging route that is okay, but this one is definitely more pretty and displays knowledge about local witty expressions.

what a drag (Viki), vs. boring (fansubs) about the party. A bit nitpicking, but Kouta sounds annoyed and rude/condescending in his intonation and even dropping the i of 怠い (tarui, dull, bothersome, pain in the ass) so I prefer the Viki one.

Just make some small talk and bounce (Viki) vs. get through it safely (fansubs), the latter is more accurate to the meaning and focuses on the safety aspect, the more free take of Viki's preserves more of the rude way of Kouta looking at other people, so both are kind of nice. Take your preferred flavor.

It feels like as if the fansub translator does not like the わけない (wake nai) expression. It gets dodgy in both cases that show up in episode 1 (right after the fake intro implodes and before the girl comes to sap him for being a presumed stalker), and I think the Viki's "Yeah as if" and "Of course, I still got it" are more pointed in how it's preserving this sarcastic salty tone. (This is more in the nitpicking realm, tho, the fansubs versions lose nothing essentially important.)

how well you anull my bad luck (Viki) vs. testing the effectiveness of your misfortune wards (fansub), the latter is more literal and sounds a bit more like a mouthful, so I like the Viki one better.

This guy is unaware of his own nature is decidedly better than Viki's ladykiller that just sounds weird for Kouta being in a BL to say that with effects to himself. It does lose out on the triple serving nuance of the deprecating tone, but this is where you better cut your loses before it becomes something just weird. (I still think it's just a compromise though, since it's such a mouthful and in a later episode the term gets mentions again and there the sentence sounds awkward. But I don't really have any better idea either. If it was a pedestrian shoujo "obtuse ladykiller" would have actually worked pretty great.)

This one also went for formidable for osoroshii like Viki. Now I'm kind of low key starting to question my own English. (osoroshii literally means dreadful. In this context. You say that when somebody is way too good in something, and you are expressing that you have to be very much on alert around them. The word formidable in English struck me more like a showcase of respect?)

I want you to go out with me~ screws even attempting the ambiguity of the Japanese expression and goes straight for the kill. (Also additional ~ for the girlyness.) I was actually surprised how well that works even being that clear. The camera angle for that line is in PoV from Naoya, so just going for what he's perceiving at that moment works out perfectly fine.

If you're his lover, you'd kiss him right? sounds a bit awkward third person. I liked the more concise factual sounding "Couples normally kiss, right?" from Viki better.

On a side note, in case somebody's interested. (Because PENGUINS, damn it.)

ペンギン (pengin)

is the Japanese word for them. The pen usually gets pronounced like the English pen (as in pen and paper). Kouta stresses the e more like as in PENG-gin (peng as in like the sound of a gunshoot peng), which is his puppy bubbly overly too happy kinda girlish mode.

And also since it has come to penguins, me feels very much compelled to point any penguin-inclined reader that can stomach anime over to Mawaru Penguindrum with its absolute overload of penguins. (And the origin of penguins being able to make me this silly.)

(Am I whining that I am back to waiting for the upcoming Re:Cycle movies I had successfully pushed out of my mind so far? I probably am.)

#drama #jdrama #fukou kun wa kiss suru shikanai! #mr unlucky has no choice but to kiss #japanese drama #japanese translation #english translation #anime #mawaru penguindrum #ramblings

[noblechaton]

honestly I'd been thinking about the 50th and the retcon within for so long especially more so during this rewatch

on one hand I understand that Moffat (and surely others) probably weren't huge on the idea of the Doctor effectively killing his own planet but it was never framed as if he'd done it out of violence or anger so much as just like. a desperate final act to preserve what was left of the universe. a necessity for the greater good

which is why on the other I think it's a shame they retconned it at least as they did bc it means that conflict that lingered and loomed over the show since the revival started was basically useless. the Time Lords lived, the Daleks lived, and the Doctor who carried so much guilt and darkness Erm Actually didn't really have any of that he just forgot

like I see it both ways - not wanting your favorite hero to have actually committed an atrocity is perfectly understandable, but doing so as they do in the 50th feels really weak and honestly doesn't even really lead anywhere until series 9 and only briefly then, and then never again since Gallifrey just blows up again a few years later

and sure one can say he did some stuff during the war itself but. they never talk about that stuff. there's vague allusions and references that exist for the audience to sorta fill in on their own and he's surely got trauma from things he'd seen but the Time War's biggest impact on him and the show is just. null and void now. cheapens things a bit

don't really know what the alternative could have been beyond leaving it alone tho. maybe the Doctor seals his fate at Trenzalore but changing such a massive event, only for the Time Lords to later pay him back in TOTD with the new regen set? like frame this as him actually altering history with his past selves, rather than being what happened all along? which it kind of sort of is in the 50th for all of like two lines but then feels very much as if it was what was meant to have happened all along

ultimately I think my issue with the retcon is that it's just too....lame? it softens things and while the writing of RTD's first era is strong enough that even knowing what comes in the 50th doesn't really detract or deter it still feels kinda. shameless? going into detail on a moment we didn't truly need to see, just to undo what's arguably the best decision made in the revival, for almost no real payoff. which is kinda the issue with Moffat's run - at least with 11 - as a whole. a lot of built up and intensity for some ultimately meager payoff that doesn't feel very thought out

it also kinda begs the question as to why they made the War Doctor at all since like. 8 would have been perfect in the role War is in within the 50th. really love John Hurt tho so this bothers me infinitely less

#noble (not donna) #ive been thinking about this for so long lmao

[courseclear]

netflix atla opinion

i just don't understand the specific pushback against the new avatar show for removing sokka's overt sexist comments. i see it as a good change to make to the retelling of the story. imo, i think it's the job of remakes and adaptions to find ways to improve upon the existing material even if it means removing some aspects.

personally, i don't like stories of "boy says sexist things, so girl has to prove her worth to him before he can respect her, then he learns his lesson." i think it's more beneficial for all audiences to see a boy learn from a girl because he comes to admire her rather than a boy being "proven wrong" after the girl earns his respect in spite of being a girl, if that makes sense. i appreciate the efforts of the original writers but i don't think it necessarily had to be included in the exact same way for the adaption.

the struggles of sexism and showing how girls navigate it was a big part of the original show, and it was very clever how the writers used the avatar universe to reflect real life struggles. i don't think we've lost that because the new writers removed a few sexist lines from a main character's dialogue. and i don't think it has detracted from sokka's development.

in the adaption, sokka arrives on kyoshi island and instantly tries to compare himself to suki, believing that he is better or just as good as her. when she shows him up, he storms away. his anger and bitterness is communicated in a way that doesn't degrade suki or girls in general, and i think that's a step in the right direction. instead of the audience hearing a boy loudly proclaim that he believes girls are inherently weaker than him, the adaption presents us with sokka's insecurities in a much more genuine way.

a lot of people have the impression that it was all "toned down" in order to make sokka more "morally correct," but he is still flawed in his thinking and has to change that. he does it in regard to katara as well. he spends a lot of the show belittling her and ignoring her until he finally sees things in her perspective. the message of reevaluating sexist beliefs is not lost, it's just being done without the dumb comments. and honestly, you all know that if everything had happened in the exact same way as the cartoon, people would still have a problem. it would be all "ooohh of course sokka has to be put in his place by a girl. of course they'd portray him as a sexist boy who has to be proven wrong. everything is so woke now." would you rather have that?

--

why did we need to hear it? again, personally, i don't like to hear those comments in media at all — even if it's for the eventual character development. i didn't like it as a kid in the original, and i wouldn't have liked it now lol. i would rather the writers get smarter at conveying a story about a boy's insecurities and character development without relying on overt sexist comments to do it. because really, we all still live in a sexist world. we don't need to actually hear it out loud in media. it's enough to see a boy believe he's inherently better than a girl or think he has all the right answers to know what is being communicated.

what really was the lesson in the "warriors of kyoshi" episode? rewatching it, i don't think it had a stronger message than what we got in the adaption like some people seem to believe. at best, it was pretty shallow. in summary, sokka is sexist, gets teased about losing to girls, humiliated, and then shown up again. even though he apologizes "if" he ever insulted suki, it's still a pretty hollow message overall. before they train, suki dresses him in a traditional kyoshi warrior uniform, and he only becomes confident in it after she explains the meaning of the outfit. however, his pride in the uniform is short-lived — aang teases him about his "dress," and he's embarrassed once more. that never... gets resolved?? then, zuko attacks kyoshi island, sokka saves suki, and suki contrasts being a warrior with being a girl and kisses his cheek (because that's what girls do, obvi).

i guess that the audience could derive "sexism is bad" from that episode, but it really didn't do a whole lot narratively in comparison to the other moral lessons from the show. it ends up being more of a "you hit like a girl," "well, i am a girl!" type of message rather than a genuine exploration of dismantling sokka's sexist attitude. not to say that the episode was exactly that, but like i said, it was pretty shallow considering other messages from the original show (and how girls were portrayed in the rest of that episode).

so what is the actual value of hearing sokka being sexist? i honestly don't think it's necessary for any media to make one of its main characters say shit like "women should be in the kitchen" with its own in-universe spin. i don't need to hear a main character make sexism into little quips. it's tired, old, and unfunny. i think it's enough for us to see sokka's change of heart. to me, it's much more valuable for all audiences to watch sokka and suki form a mutually beneficial relationship than it ever was to watch them constantly try to one-up each other. and you have to admit, it was very funny seeing sokka try to show off to suki and watching her misunderstand the situation and using her skills in an attempt to flirt with him.

to be clear, i'm not saying that sexist beliefs can't be used as a narrative tool for character development. but i am glad to see how the adaption made improvements. i think it works better this way, both narratively and for sokka's character. by letting the audience eventually see the northern water tribe's sexist traditions, the writers were connecting those beliefs to sokka's previous attitudes. and then it makes sense that, once sokka hears about how master pakku is treating his sister, he finally makes that connection for himself (which allows the audience do so as well). it's a different style of communication from the cartoon, but just because it isn't as overt doesn't mean it isn't there.

i just think it's time for media to start showing audiences characters of all genders on equal footing and letting them come to their own conclusions about the characters without obnoxious comments. a message about sexism can be communicated without a "go make me a sandwich" type of character getting "proven wrong."

#the last airbender

[lu6721]

Hi o(*￣▽￣*)ブ

Here is the blog of task 1 of CAEL2041

Preconceptions

After reading the requirements for this assignment, I had an initial idea of the sounds I wanted to make. Since I was recording some nature and environmental sounds, I thought it would be better to fill in the background of the story. So I thought I'd record my "day in the life". Of course, I didn't record from morning to night, but I mixed in specific sounds that corresponded to the things I did during the day. The style of this sound recording is everyday life. I will roughly divide it into three parts, the first part corresponds to when I am at home, the second part corresponds to when I go out, and the third part corresponds to when I come back to my home again.

How it works

Use different sounds to correspond to different things, with the recorded sound of the wider environment. (The tune is typeset below)

Detail adjustment

I didn't make too many adjustments because I was recording natural sound, and that's what I needed to hear as much as possible, and I only made a few changes to the EQ for that purpose. the EQ adjustments were made to bring the sound more in line with what I wanted, to make the sound clearer, and to get rid of some of the noise that would detract from the overall sound.

The change here is to make the sound here a little more "distant". Because the scenario here is that I am in the room and I hear the sound from outside through the window.

Here's to make the sound clearer, because here it's happening right in front of me.

Here it corresponds to me going out and being in the environment, so the ambient sound here should be more clear and in the ear.

Here too, the sound is made clearer.

Here is to make the sound clearer and remove some of the noise.

Here's to show the sound "closer", because it's right in front of me.

Here again, it's the background sound that corresponds to me coming home, so it should be a bit more subdued.

I also have a little bit of tweaking to do with the volume, some fading in and out, as well as which sounds need to be louder and which ones need to be quieter when the sounds overlap. This will make the overall articulation more natural.

Difficulties encountered Some difficulties were encountered in the production of the articulation, as well as the adjustment of the overlapping parts. However, the desired effect has been achieved after several trials.

New Discoveries It was the first time that I did this kind of arrangement that was realized with natural sounds, and it was a very novel experience, and it also helped me to understand the diversity of music. It was also the first time for me to use the recording equipment, and I thought it was a good way to record sounds.

That all┏(＾0＾)┛

#music

[southfarthing]

i really enjoy reading your thoughts on lotr!! esp what you've said/reblogged about the films' characterisations of faramir, denethor and gimli. that made me really curious so i wanted to ask along the same lines, what do you think the films did well in adapting the books vs what do you think they did badly?

thank you so much! that really means a lot 🥺 I'll start with things I think they could've done better and then do things they did well to end it on a more positive note <3

things the lotr films didn't do so well when adapting the book

as already mentioned, several characters were changed for the worse

faramir was portrayed as much more downtrodden and useless than he is in the book

denethor was made stupid and selfish and incompetent

gimli was stripped of his wonder and passion and played for comic relief

there are also things to be said for the adaptations of legolas, boromir, frodo (the way the film has him distrust sam and send him away?), and others

the pacing of the two towers. fotr is brilliant, rotk is great, but the two towers feels bloated, which makes sense seeing as they crammed in the whole shelob plot into rotk instead. this then meant they made the battle of helm's deep a lot bigger than it needed to be (which I feel detracted a bit from the battle of the pelennor fields - like some things were repeated e.g. motivational theoden speech, and mounted rohirrim charging in at dawn to save the day). and they also added a load of other side plots like aragorn flying off a cliff? and elves of lothlorien - of lothlorien! - coming to help men of rohan?! when the films could have been focusing on eomer (gimli and eomer! aragorn and eomer!), faramir, and frodo and sam in shelob's lair

cut out some very valuable plots and characters. I understand some things, like getting rid of tom bombadil and gildor, and the way they absorbed beregond's character into faramir's and halarad's into haldir's (though I would've done anything to have the grey company my BELOVED). but some should not have been cut.

the scouring of the shire

the nazgul attack at crickhollow and fatty bolger raising the alarm (sorry this is one of my absolute favourite scenes in the book and it would've been so easy to include it alongside the scene of the nazgul at the prancing pony)

they could have kept at least one out of the old forest and the barrow downs

more scenes from the houses of healing!!!!!!!!!! faramir and eowyn get a whole chapter in the book! we deserved to see a nice, healing end to both their arcs!

and it would've been nice to see gondorian reinforcements arriving at minas tirith, both to show a little more diversity and to show that gondor hadn't just completely given up?

and on the topic of diversity... yeah. sam is described as having brown skin, and some of the other hobbits may well have been less white than they were shown to be. gondorians are meant to have black hair, not brown/blond. many gondorians not of numenorian descent would have been darker skinned (so showing the reinforcements from lossarnach would've been great). like it's not much, but what little positive diversity tolkien did give was removed by the films, and that stuck in people's heads, and now we have people claiming that middle earth was all white or whatever.......

things the lotr films did well when adapting the book

brought middle earth to life with so much love. you can tell this was a passion project, and not just for the actors. the score, the cinematograpy, the costumes, the architecture - all of it. it all has such a genuine quality to it, and it shows onscreen. so much meticulous planning and crafting in all areas. the authenticity of the armour and weapons, the elvish in the music, the grainy & rugged aesthetic... any screenshot from those films will fill me with such yearning. it all just feels both so magical and so real.

some characters were changed for the better! book aragorn starts off great and then disappoints me more and more as the story progresses. film aragorn is incredible, and they definitely gave him more of an arc

did a wonderful job of helping us visualise this new world. I grew up watching the films and only read lotr when I was older. I read the hobbit when I was 8, and then immediately went on to lotr but found it tricky. I kept trying every year or so, and I'd usually get through fotr, but I'd run out of steam in ttt. I was 16 when I finally read the whole thing + appendices, and I loved it so much. and having the films playing in the back of my mind really helped me bring middle earth to life in my head as I read. the locations in particular - rivendell, khazad-dum, minas tirith, minas morgul, the shire...

the way they switched between all the different characters and plots. in each volume of the novel, there's one book for frodo and sam, and then one book for all the others. the way the films seamlessly transition between these is great storytelling

I know this seems like a much shorter list but the first point in this section could have been twenty points. I am SO grateful they went into making these films heart first. the current climate of fantasy and film/tv is... dark. yes of course there are wonderful exceptions, but what seems to sell these days is cynicism and sex and gratuitous violence and suave, cool characters. I'm so grateful to have these films passionately made to uphold earnestness, compassion, friendship and courage (even when it's lonely and doesn't look stereotypically cool or impressive). yes there are silly moments of humour (and I wish these wouldn't all have come from gimli and pippin), but there's no laughing at the story itself. that is adapted with full heart and soul

and thanks to the films, there's so much more to be enjoyed! video games and board games and fan films and more! and they have given us a way to create more fan content! without the lotr films we wouldn't be sitting around here on tumblr making and reblogging gifsets and edits! and there would be much less fanfiction and meta! the films further popularised the novel and brought it even more into mainstream knowledge, and I cannot be thankful enough <3

#sorry this took so long I just wanted to be thorough! <333 #lotr #mabarri #replies #i'm sure i missed a lot but this is what comes to mind for now!

[fangirleaconmigo]

Hey Des I was wondering your opinion about something. I know your a big fan of Geralt and Yennefers book cannon relationship but I was wondering if you ever thought it might be more impactful of the family dynamics if they weren’t together. Personally in a found family dynamic like the witcher I think it’s be so interesting to show someone with two parents that aren’t in love. Rather what connects them would be friendship and love of the child but wouldn’t detract from their parenting at all

Hi Nonnie!

Thank you for the question! You've stumbled on something that I feel strongly about, so you'll probably get more answer than you wanted. (typical of me)

When we're talking about romantic vs platonic, neither kind of relationship is inherently more or less impactful. What matters is how it is written. So, on one hand, my answer is no. It wouldn't be inherently more impactful if Yen and Geralt weren't romantically involved.

That being said, I PERSONALLY write them as loving exes and coparents in my fics. That is the family arrangement in my stories. Here is why. I do that because I see and feel such a lack of this story in media anywhere. I'll get a little personal here (I always get deep in these answers. People are gonna stop asking me questions because I get in my feels and end up writing a novel).

There is a bond that is so profound between people who are parents of the same child. It is anchored by a shared commitment that is like none other. The commitment to your child. That child didn't get any choice about being born or about who they were born to. You are their only lifeline and their only connection to the world. They literally can't eat or have basic hygiene or survive without you.

It is your your only job now to help them make their way in the world. To help them grow into the strongest, most healthy, vibrant version of themselves they can be. That duty is the closest thing to sacred that I know. You arrange your entire life and being around it for at least a few decades. You both do. (Ideally, obviously. My parents didn't lol sob)

You also both love the same person so much you feel like you will break apart if you think about it too much. (again, ideally)

So, the bond between two people who are a part of that same covenant and who are driven by the same foundational love, is like nothing else. It doesn't matter if you are married or not, that doesn't change.

But you never see exes who love and support each other in fiction!!!! I am divorced and I love support and hype my ex every chance I get. People think it is weird as fuck!!! They always ask us why we just aren't together. And I find it SO FUCKING SAD that there doesn't seem to be any template anywhere that tells you that you can do this! When you divorce, you can remain a family in every sense of the word without the marriage.

So, I do love that arrangement of found family because it reflects mine. I don't ever see it in fiction, and I think that's a real shame.

AND that is the arrangement that I personally write Yenralt in fic. Though it's not right for The Witcher canon, (Geralt and Yen is a romantic relationship and should stay so in any official adaptation) it is a relationship that fits very well with that arrangement of found family in fanon. Ciri is the catalyst that changes everything between them in the books.

Yennefer didn't decide to be vulnerable and give everything up for Geralt. They keep breaking up because they are both so traumatized and have such self worth issues. But she did it for Ciri. When she saw a little girl being pursued by a whole world of people trying to take her choice and bodily autonomy from her, Yen reached deeper. And then, the personal growth she gained from being brave and walking away from the lodge, from throwing her body into mortal danger for another human, from cuddling and loving a little girl, that new capacity for vulnerability and strengthened self worth and everything she gained from that, opened up new possibilities in her relationship with Geralt. So I think that fits very well for a relationship bonded by a shared love for a child.

I think, especially in Posada Remix, that people can tell I put my heart into that "loving exes" relationship between Geralt and Yen. It might confuse people (why aren't they just together then) but that's ok. That's the point. Sometimes you can love someone, sometimes they are your family, and the fact that it isn't romantic doesn't take away from it. When you have a nice dough, you can make a cookie, or a pie, or a tart. They are all sweet. It all boils down to love, and isn't that beautiful?

#asks

[lovecolibri]

Remember when we were all 'an entire episode focused on M*ria? No thank you!' thinking that it's going to be just one Episode centered around her and not the entire Season?? 🤡Hollier and RNM writers sure dont know how to read a room. Like even if this is still a leftover from C*rina - after all she did start out writing s3 and gave the outline for it - it has to be what Hollier and the rest of the writers want or at the very least are not terribly opposed to. Once again this is Roswell NM: White Guilt & Wasted Potential.

You said it! And I think they mentioned changing some of the outline for the season and we all thought after episode 1 that meant getting rid of f*rlex early and not dragging that out forever but at this point I'm betting it has something to do with them thinking if they wedge m*ria, or her bar, or mention her in every scene, and have everyone only showing concern for her at all times above everything else, that it will make up for her character being entirely superfluous. Instead of, you know, actually addressing her character's flaws and using that to move the story forward and giving her storylines that make sense for her character. And at this point, even the people who didn't like her last season but were hopeful for her getting some redemption under a new showrunner are getting frustrated with everything centering on her to the detriment of other characters and storylines. And since they haven't dealt with even the most basic of her issues from last season, all the other characters falling all over themselves for her makes no sense, and it's keeping Malex from being able to move forward. Alex and Michael are going to HAVE to address the m*luca elephant at some point as they address their other issues in order to build a foundation and progress the Malex storyline but because the writers are refusing to hold m*ria accountable or address any of her issues, it's forcing Malex to stagnate even more which has been one of the major frustrations about this season. Wedging m*ria into the middle of everything and shoving the idea down our throats that all the characters love her because she's absolutely perfect while also showing her being pretty darn awful (has anyone told Liz that her supposed BFF was going to kill Max or die herself trying? I'd have loved to see how that conversation went down) is detracting so much and causing so many issues for a season that is otherwise really fun and interesting but is impossible to watch without getting smacked in the face with the "m*ria is perfect" agenda. Which is a shame because as I said, this season IS interesting and fun but watching storylines that should be going to Liz, or Isobel, or Rosa, and watching characters twist themselves up and ignore important things for their characters in order to prop her up just make it even more glaring that they have no idea what to do with m*ria's character because she isn't actually needed, because c*rina never though her character though past being someone to give info to Liz about Rosa in season 1 and to be an obstacle to Malex.

#my sweet nonnie friends #roswell nm #season 3 spoilers #anti maria deluca #carina wrote them into a corner and they have yet to successfully figure out how to get out of it #so instead of backing up and calling her character out and then shifting direction #they just keep digging further into the corner