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decolonizationxabolition · 3 years

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Neocolonialism and Indigenous Communities in the Americas

Through the lens of neocolonialism, it is important to point out that this form of colonialism is mostly dependent on cultural forces and ideas in order to maintain the power and influence of white settlers (or even non-white settlers that have access to a lot of power, money, and influence; corporate capitalists, basically).

neocolonialism: a variant of colonialism which does not rely on physical force. Rather, it uses cultural and market influences to create resistances against decolonization and enforce integration into a core imperialist economy (globalization); the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies. (The Red Nation, Oxford Languages) [for a more expansive definition of neocolonialism and it's characteristics, please check out my other blog post here]

I would say that some of the largest of neocolonial influences are the systems and/or institutions that embrace capitalism (specifically racial capitalism), resource exploitation, labor exploitation (that happen as a result of racial capitalism), and the persisting influence of the Christian religion via religious institutions (like the Catholic Church and other religious schools). Neocolonialism intersects quite literally with the structure of the prison industrial complex (but I will talk about that a bit at the end of this blog post and write a whole blog post dedicated to those specific intersections). It is also important to note that neocolonialism argues that the systems of the colonial era are internalized in our bodies. In order for these systems to continue to function, these institutions must work to internalize these cultural forces/ideas (like basically low key brain-washing to be honest) that affect our self-concept, the relationship with our bodies, and our access to resources.

Capitalism, labor exploitation, and parallels today from the "Colonial" era

There is a connection between how labor exploitation plays out today and the exploitative history of slavery during the colonial era, a lot of it is apparent in various industries (like the fashion/textile industry, prison labor, etc.) But in this blog post I'm going to mostly talk about the exploitative labor practices of the Hollywood/film industry and how they exploit indigenous communities through labor and the use of their land. I will also be talking about the capitalization of other natural resources such as water, which is a huge problem indigenous communities are facing today.

An example of the exploitative labor practices in the film industry can be found through the analysis of the film Even the Rain. In Fabrizio Cilento's article "Even the Rain: A Confluence of Cinematic and Historical Temporalities, Cilento breaks down how the film "takes a metacinematic approach to the the story of a Mexican film crew in Bolivia shooting an historic drama on Christopher Columbus's conquest. With the water riots as a background, Bollaín uses different cinematic styles to establish disturbing parallels between old European imperialism, the recent waves of corporate exploitation,... and the exploitation of Bolivian actors for the benefit of the global film industry.... Bollaín warns that these productions can fall into a colonialist dynamic by reproducing the imbalances between the 'visible' countries in the global film market, and 'invisible' countries whose native actors and visually appealing locations are exploited...." It is important to note how the persistence of capitalism and the exploitation of resources (whether that be land or labor) continue to work against decolonization and creates similar power imbalances between indigenous communities and corporate capitalists that allude to the colonial era. This is also a prime example of how there is a continued rift between the indigenous people's relationship to the land, especially through the limited access to water.

(Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz)

So, I would like to make the point that capitalism and corporate interests play a huge role in working against decolonization. We do not live in a "Postcolonial" world, but rather, a neocolonial world that continues to exploit indigenous communities for their (quite frankly already limited) resources. Today, many Native Americans/Indigenous people have trouble accessing water like the First Nations in Canada, the indigenous tribes in the United States, and indigenous communities in Latin America and the Caribbean (whom are 10 to 25 percent less likely to have access to piped water than the region’s Non-Indigenous populations according to this page/report).

For more in depth discussion about the water and land crises indigenous communities are currently facing. All My Relations podcast, which is a podcast run by Matika Wilbur (a visual storyteller/photographer from the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington) and Adrienne Keene (a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and blogger that discusses cultural appropriation and stereotypes of Native peoples in fashion, film, music, and other forms of pop culture, and a faculty member in American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University.), have done an episode about this topic named Healing The Land IS Healing Ourselves in which they discuss with Kim Smith (a Diné woman, community organizer, citizen scientist, activist, water protector, entrepreneur, and writer) about indigenous' communities relationship with the land, how it relates to the current environmental and water crisis, and the relationship it has with healing our bodies, in which Smith discusses that "violence on the land is violence on our bodies".

The Catholic Church, colonialism, sexuality, and it's influence today

When we're talking about colonialism in the Americas and the remnants of the colonial era today, the conquest of indigenous sexuality/eroticism via the Catholic Church and the repression of indigenous sexuality has played a huge part in colonialism and is still an issue today that perpetuates the erasure of indigenous identity.

In Sylvia Marcos's article "Indigenous Eroticism and Colonial Morality in Mexico: The Confession Manuals of New Spain" Marcos explains that "....By condemning indigenous erotic practices and imposing unprecedented restraints on them, the missionaries altered the roots of ancient Mexican perceptions of the body and the cosmos...." Marcos further unpacks this through probes of confession manuals from the colonial era "....The confession manuals of Molina, Baptista, Serra, and others seem to indicate the missionaries' uneasiness over the diversity of sexual pleasures enjoyed by the souls in their charge. The priests had to repeatedly describe their limited idea of sexuality so that the vital Indians could understand that what for them was often a link with the gods was, in their new religion, always a sin, fault, or aberration.... The morality of negation and abstinence propagated by the missionaries became one more weapon used in the violent process of violent acculturation...." It's important to point out that the repression of the sexual pleasures of indigenous peoples has contributed to the erasure of indigenous identity, especially since they considered it as a means of connecting to their gods. This was used as a weapon to conquer indigenous people's bodies through shame and disconnection from their bodies and spiritual practices.

This is still an issue that persists today, this article by the Washington Post, talks about how transgender Native Americans experienced disproportionately higher rates of rejection by immediate family. It also talks about the state-sponsored Christian schools that have affected indigenous for generations in the United States. So, basically the expansion of Christianity/Catholicism culturally and institutionally and the repression of indigenous sexuality has contributed to the erasure of indigenous identity. And indigenous people that fall outside of the gender binary experience stigma still to this day, which perpetuates colonialism.

To further build upon this point and how to begin explaining the intersection of this with prison abolition and the experience of being Black and/or BIPOC in an imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchal society, Estelle Ellison, a Black Trans disabled writer and transformative justice practitioner, in their essay "Gender, Time, and Other Methods of Policing the Body", Ellison unpacks the intersections between exploitative racial capitalism and how it connects to gender, time, and sexuality, and also explains how it is connected to being policed through our bodies by stating that "By design, each of us is expected to participate in gendering other people's bodies...." and that "....of all the possible ways that a person may live their life at any given moment, the infinite combinations of features, experiences, aspirations, and expressions; gender attempts to reduce our possible identities by half. But half of infinity is still infinity..." Ellison also talks about how time has been colonized (via capitalism through wage labor) and is "made possible by overlapping systems of white supremacy, anti-blackness, patriarchy, ableism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, exploitation, and countless other forms of oppression..."

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Ellison's analysis of the intersecting systems of neocolonialism explains how these systems are internalized in our bodies and how it is connected to exploitation (whether that be from our bodies some other form under these systems) and that we are being policed through our bodies due to societal, cultural, or institutional pressures, such as the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex, or I would argue through religious beliefs.

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#neocolonialism #capitalism #Indigenous Communities #religion #water crisis #education

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toomanytentacles · 5 years

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JON BON BRADY, an essay

This is the text of the recorded essay presented by Elbee Bargeron on Episode 43 of the Splathouse Podcast. Click below to hear the episode https://soundcloud.com/user-616846084/splathouse43-double-feature-suburban-commando-1991-the-brady-bunch-movie-1995

Has anyone given much thought to actor Jack Noseworthy lately? Back in the 90s, he was kinda a big deal breaking out in a starring role on MTV’s teen sci-fi series DEAD AT 21 — but what many critics can agree on is there was another role that solidified him as a bonafide movie star: his turn as angry grunge rocker Eric Dittmeyer in 1995’s THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE. It was a role that, to some, may seem static or insignificant, but in reality, directly led him to probably the most noteworthy Noseworthy appearance of the decade. So, as much of a cinematic masterpiece as THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE so obviously is, we don't dare stop there. Because within the same year, Jack actually reprised the role with a sinister twist in the most unlikely of places, the music video for Bon Jovi’s single, “Always.”

Caution: all of what I’m about to tell you is true.

Now we all know the story of Bon Jovi — after the success of two studio albums and extensive touring, the boys found themselves fatigued by being so beloved by everyone all over the world, and took a bit of a hiatus in the late 1980s — only to come back triumphantly a few years later with newsworthy short haircuts and a much more “mature” sound — and acting as inspiration for MTV’s “Unplugged” series along the way. They released one more studio album followed by a greatest hits record which featured a lot of their hits and a new single they would soon call a hit, the song “Always.”

Jon Bon Jovi knew he had a hit song on his hands with “Always,” and as such, knew he needed a hit music video to go along with it. He wanted something...edgy. Hot. And Sexy. Jon conceived a video so steamy that his band mates cautioned against it. After all, MTV had previously banned their video “Living in Sin” for being too explicit. But, Jon argued, after he basically invented the highly successful “Unplugged” for MTV, they pretty much were obligated to show anything he wanted, and production went forward.

So Jon was a big fan of The Brady Bunch, and you can read all about that in his memoir ROCKY ROAD: THE JON BON JOVI STORY AS TOLD BY ME, JON BON JOVI that I’ve so kindly provided for you in the footnotes (footnotes have been lost). So when THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE debuted, Jon was taken aback. He, like everyone else who saw the film, became immediately enamored with it, and recognized the brilliance of its one true star, the incomparable Jack Noseworthy. Jon saw a bit of himself in the character of Eric Dittmeyer, and thought him a perfect fit for the message he was trying to convey with “Always” — that love is passionate and violent, and the crazy things we do for it could potentially haunt us. Essentially, this was the logical progression of the character — Jon knew this, and now he wanted the rest of us to know it.

The premise of the “Always” music video is cut and dry. Our bad boy hero Noseworthy aka Dittmeyer is sulking alone in his room remembering a lost love. He holds a photograph of her in his hands, and we can see from his forlorn gaze that he is heartbroken. But -- there’s more to it than that. The nuance displayed in the first 25 seconds of this video is crucial; not only is Dittmeyer sad, he seems stricken by grief -- a grief that is possibly (probably) brought on by guilt. We’re transported from his bedroom to his memories, starting with the day the photo was taken.

At this point, we would be remiss to mention the rest of the now legendary cast featured in this now legendary music video. Carla Gugino, fresh from her role in a film as equally great and universally adored as THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE, the Pauly Shore vehicle SON IN LAW, plays Dittmeyer’s girlfriend; and newcomer Keri Russell -- who up until this time had only been cast as adolescent girls in projects like HONEY I BLEW UP THE KIDS and BOY MEETS WORLD, and who was looking for a way to break out into more sophisticated entertainment -- is Carla’s roommate. Rounding out the cast is indie darling Jason Wiles, who -- hipsters, take note -- also starred in projects by both Robert Rodriguez and Noah Baumbach during this time, making him the perfect choice for Dittmeyer’s baby-faced rival. Clearly, Jon Bon Jovi’s casting choices were -- as many critics agreed -- inspired.

But, back to the video. Here we are in Dittmeyer’s memories, reminded of what a rebel he is as we see he and Carla making out in his classic Oldsmobile 88 convertible while speeding away into oncoming traffic. Both of them fit the cliche of “young and free,” a love that makes everything else in the world irrelevant. But a love so hot can burn out fast, so we know we must be in for a tumultuous ride with this couple. Dittmeyer enjoys photographing his girlfriend, but what he really loves is taking video of her. Carla is an attractive and empowered young woman, so she has no problems dancing and acting sexy for her boyfriend, and no doubt does she find this kind of play enticing. They fall into bed together with the video camera still recording -- a fact cleverly made apparent to us with a full zoom to the camera lens sitting idle on the arm of a chair.

The story progresses quickly as we are now treated to a memory of the couple attending a rave party together, both of them dressed in scandalous outfits and moussed hair; they get down and dirty with each other on the dancefloor, and when they return home -- still fueled by the drugs they have undoubtedly consumed -- they unknowingly awaken Keri who had fallen asleep on the couch. The couple retreat to Carla’s bedroom as Keri stretches and flips on the television. And here’s where Bon Jovi decided to make it interesting: Dittmeyer’s video camera, still running, is connected to the living room TV. So when Keri sleepily turns on the television, she is shocked fully awake as she sees her roommate initiate sloppy sex with her boyfriend.

We can pause for a moment and reflect a bit more about Jon Bon Jovi’s vision for Eric Dittmeyer. According to his memoir ROCKY ROAD THE STORY OF JON BON JOVI AS TOLD BY ME JON BON JOVI, Jon knew Dittmeyer was a sleaze, and wanted to echo that in this video. We noted before that Jon had seen a bit of himself in the character, which means that Jon definitely had some demons he needed to deal with. Dittmeyer, as it turns out, had been, and seemingly always would be a two-timer. We can support this with the following evidence: Dittmeyer didn’t “accidentally” leave his video camera running. There had always been sexual tension between he and Keri -- we know Dittmeyer’s type has to be women with long curly hair, proven by his interest in Marissa Ribisi’s character in THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE, so no doubt could he resist the allure of Keri “soon-to-be Felicity” Russell. He knew that if Keri saw how great he was in bed with Carla that she wouldn’t be able to turn down a future tryst with him. And ya know, it worked.

Carla is outraged when she returns from the grocery store and sees a live display of the two of them canoodling, again, on the living room TV. She throws the bag of groceries at them in the bedroom and runs out, leaving the apartment and running down the street. Enter Jason, an artist friend of theirs -- and just maybe one of Carla’s old flames -- who sees her on the street and invites her up to his loft. He has her pose for a painting, they both remove their shirts, and we cut to the next morning when Carla wakes up alone in his bed. She’s feeling guilty and calls Dittmeyer to pick her up, but when he arrives all hell breaks loose when he realizes she’s slept with Jason: he throws a tantrum of gigantic proportion, throwing furniture and destroying the painting, but the worst is still yet to come. Carla tells him, effectively, to talk to her hand, and tries to leave the building. But Dittmeyer has already tritely made up his mind that if he can’t have her no one will, and uses what we can only assume is paint thinner to set off a fiery explosion that kills Carla but he’s able to walk away from entirely unscathed.

We now leave Dittmeyer’s memories and return to the beginning of the video where he is staring at Carla’s photograph. He’s missing her greatly, and his guilt manifests as he hallucinates her standing in his doorway. He reaches to her but she fades away, a literal ghost that lives only in his mind.

Jon Bon Jovi married his high school sweetheart Dorothea in 1989, and although they share a love that won’t ever die, we can’t help but wonder who Jon modeled this destructive love story after. Why would Jon feel such a connection to a sleaze like Eric Dittmeyer? Frankly, it’s a love tryst with himself. Jon laid out an entire chapter in his memoir ROCKY ROAD THE JON BON JOVI STORY AS TOLD BY ME JON BON JOVI on how he had been secretly obsessed with Shakespearean tragedy in his youth, but had to cover that with a tuff persona to remain cool to his New Jersey heavy metal friends. He loved those tragic characters because they had flaws, and he respected them for that. So, along came THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE -- a Shakespearean tragedy in its own right -- and the character of Dittmeyer spoke to him on a whole other level. He was a rocker, just like him. He drove a convertible and had a bad attitude, just like him. He was into girls with long curly hair, definitely just like him. And Jon felt none of his Jersey friends ever understood him or his passion for art and culture, just as Dittmeyer’s friends never fully understood him.

When Jon asked Jack Noseworthy to meet with him about the role, he was nervous and excited. He didn’t want to let on how much he needed Jack to be this character again, to act out his own youthful grief and regret using Jack as a surrogate. Jon wanted validation after so many years hiding his love for high art beneath tight pants, superfluous scarves, and feathered locks -- and besides, he had already hinted at a more sensitive side of himself when originating the intimate acoustic concert series “Unplugged” for MTV all on his own and by the way, gave it away for free -- so when Noseworthy agreed to reprise this character, Jon was ecstatic. They conceptualized the character together -- it was actually Jack who came up with the idea for Dittmeyer to destroy Jason’s painting of Carla, a symbol of Jon’s regret of hiding all of his delicate emotions from his more macho friends. It was, in a word, cathartic.

So, thanks to forgotten actor Jack Noseworthy, THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE, and the video for “Always,” Jon Bon Jovi was finally given the intellectual credit he always wanted and deserved. Rest in peace, Jon. We’ll always love you, forever and a day.

#bradybunch #bradybunchmovie #jonbonjovi #bonjovi #jacknoseworthy

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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WandaVision: What Big Marvel Cameos Could Happen?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains spoilers for WandaVision and the broader MCU.

During a recent interview, WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen teased that we’re about to see a Mandalorian-level cameo happen in the Marvel series. Without fully spoiling the cameo she was referencing, it was a fan favorite from the Star Wars franchise who emerged in Mando’s Season 2 finale.

WandaVision featuring some notable guest stars hasn’t been a massive secret up until now, and a report that arrived way, way ahead of the premiere suggested that Evan Peters was about to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though it wasn’t known if the actor would play the X-Men version of Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver or not in the Disney+ show.

Olsen’s WandaVision co-star Paul Bettany built yet more hype around one particular addition to the series – possibly someone different to who Olsen was thinking of – and it didn’t really seem like he was talking about Peters.

“I work with this actor that I’ve always wanted to work with and we have fireworks together, the scenes are great and I think people are going to be really excited,” Bettany told the Lights Camera Barstool podcast. “I’ve always wanted to work with this guy and the scenes are pretty intense.”

Bettany also acknowledged some surprises from WandaVision had already leaked, but that the series was building up to a massive finale. “There were more special effects requirements for our TV show than there were for Endgame.”

WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer wasn’t keen to reveal who either Bettany or Olsen were referring to, but confirmed to TVLine that “there are so many surprises left in store” and that fans should settle in “because there’s more coming.”

Let’s have a look at some big potential cameos that could happen in WandaVision’s second half. Judging by Bettany and Olsen’s comments, they could be brand-new to the MCU or returning stars.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver

Though Evan Peters’ inclusion in WandaVision is practically a dead cert at this stage, the opportunity to bring Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s MCU version of Pietro Maximoff back for a cameo in the series could result in a much deeper connection to Wanda herself. The seeds of a potential Pietro return were sown in episode 3 of the Marvel spinoff series when Monica Rambeau – posing as ‘Geraldine’ – accidentally jolted Wanda out of her sitcom daze and back to reality by mentioning that her twin brother had previously been killed by Tony Stark’s villainous murder-bot, Ultron.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange

We’ve been told that the events of WandaVision and Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are directly connected, so the most reasonable assumption when it comes to a big upcoming cameo is that Stephen Strange will arrive at some point to tackle the mystical wildness going on in Westview.

But since there’s been chatter about Cumberbatch appearing in the show for some time, Strange being part of the proceedings wouldn’t be either a massive surprise or a particularly thrilling reveal at the end of the day, would it?

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Logan was confirmed to be Hugh Jackman’s swansong as his iconic X-Men character, but how hard would Marvel Studios have to push to get him back in action as Wolverine in the MCU? Kevin Feige hasn’t really shown any signs of tackling the X-Men again just yet, nor in fact mutants in general as part of the MCU’s reality, so Jackman reprising his role here would be firmly placed in the “unlikely” column.

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool

Could Ryan Reynolds make a tongue-in-cheek cameo as Deadpool? It does seem like a longshot. The meta setup of WandaVision is arguably the perfect place for Wade Wilson’s antihero to pop up and deliver a few fourth wall-breaking lines to camera, but the chances of Deadpool appearing so far in advance of his own MCU sequel feel fairly slim. Still, we’d love to see the Merc with a Mouth take stock of these strange sitcom scenes – where would he even start?

Michael Fassbender/ Ian McKellen as Magneto

For quite a while in Marvel Comics, Wanda Maximoff was thought to be the daughter of on-off X-Men villain Magneto, played by both Michael Fassbender and Sir Ian McKellen in Fox’s movie franchise. Wanda’s backstory has since been retconned, but there’s a sly joke about Evan Peters’ Pietro Maximoff being Erik’s son in the X-Men films. Could they re(re)retcon Scarlet Witch’s origins to bring back Magneto in WandaVision?

Er, we can likely put this on the Probably Not pile.

Mads Mikkelsen as Kaecilius

Kaecilius bid the world an unhappy farewell during the climax of Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange solo movie. The former Master of the Mystic Arts accidentally got his wish granted to live out the rest of eternity as part of Dormammu’s non-stop torment party in the Dark Dimension thanks to Doctor Strange’s time loop shenanigans, but fans of the actor who played the villain – Mads Mikkelsen – thought that dispatching him so early on in Strange’s evolution was a bit of a mistake. After all, why have just one injection of beloved Hannibal star Mikkelsen on screen when you can have, well, a lot more than one?

So, could Wanda messing with reality give Kaecilius an opportunity to escape Dormammu’s clutches and finally have his revenge? Hmm.

Patrick Stewart/James McAvoy as Charles Xavier

Much like Magneto, Charles Xavier has ties to Scarlet Witch in the comics, and if Wanda breaks down the walls between realities too far, we could start to see them bleed into each other, paving the way for an X-Men introduction in WandaVision. It’d be delightful to see either of these Professor X actors make a cameo during the show’s final episodes, but much like Magneto it could be quite far-fetched.

Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr appeared confident that he was completely done playing Iron Man in the MCU when Phase 3 wrapped up in 2019, but there could surely be no bigger surprise cameo in Disney+’s first Marvel spinoff series than an unlikely return by Tony Stark.

The question is, how could Iron Man possibly come back in WandaVision after he sacrificed his life at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and would it conceivably lead to more appearances by Downer Jr down the road?

Speaking of further appearances from someone we thought had left the MCU for good…

Chris Evans as Captain America

Deadline had some surprising news back in January when it published an exclusive report that claimed Chris Evans was in talks to reprise his role as Captain America in the MCU. It was teased that Steve Rogers could return in various future Marvel movies and shows as a sort of mentor for some of the other characters going forward.

It’s arguably way too early for Evans to show his face in WandaVision, and since Olsen and Bettany indicate that their show’s big cameos have yet to leak, Evans being “the one” should be put on the furthest backburner for now.

Keanu Reeves as Take Your Pick

We don’t yet know if WandaVision’s huge cameo will be from an already-established MCU character, though reports likening it to that of The Mandalorian’s season finale showstopper certainly indicate that it could be. This could all be a little sprinkle of distraction from Olsen and co., however, and a way to keep our minds off the introduction of a new villain who will connect the series to Doctor Strange 2.

Mephisto, Grim Reaper and Nightmare could all be nefarious additions to the MCU in Phase 4, and who better to play one of them than everyone’s favorite puppy avenger, Keanu Reeves? Reeves was close to joining the MCU in 2019’s Captain Marvel as Yon-Rogg before Jude Law landed the part. Has the in-demand actor continued to hold out for a meatier villain role?

Tom Cruise as Iron Man

Rumors that Tom Cruise has been desperate to join the MCU have been circulating for what seems like aeons. We doubt the man’s hurting for cash, but he did have designs on the Iron Man role before Downey Jr laid his claim, and there were definitely whisperings around the time of production on WandaVision that Marvel was trying to tempt Cruise aboard as an alternate reality version of Tony Stark for an appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Since WandaVision sets up the events of the now-filming sequel, could it be Cruise’s brief appearance that Olsen and Bettany are excited about us seeing? Bettany did describe filming with the actor in question as “intense” and that certainly lines up with the experiences other people working with Cruise have had to date.

Have you thought of any other potential suspects who aren’t listed here? Let us know in the comments.

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clamydomona · 3 years

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Thoughts on Riverdale Seasons 1-3

Preface: I picked up the first two seasons on DVD in my local library, otherwise I never would have watched a single second of this show. But I kept seeing the DVDs and thought, why the hell not? (That was the main reason I watched Game of Thrones, my library had the DVDs and I’m a sucker for the special features and making offs.)

I’ve never read a comic book in my life and had absolutely no idea who these characters were. I was only marginally aware that something like “Archie and Veronica” and “Betty and Veronica” exist, but what kind of relationship they had with each other or what characters they were supposed to be … no idea.

The only comic stuff I was somewhat aware of are superheroes (I watched a lot of Marvel movies and TV shows and really enjoy listening to the podcast Cinematic Universe), so I started off believing there would be characters with superpowers here as well. It took me about three episodes to really catch on that there would probably be no one suddenly developing any superpowers. That was kinda disappointing, to be honest. Then I got on bord that this would be something noir like Veronica Mars and started enjoying what I was seeing. And then I started watching the second season and … what?

Also, I spend a lot of time doing arts and crafts for Christmas while I was watching, so I wasn’t always paying super close attention, but I didn’t feel like that was such a great loss, especially during the many many many scenes between Archie and Hiram that I didn’t care about in the slightest.

Parents:

· In season 1, I liked that the parents play a bigger role in the lives of their children, that just seems more realistic than whatever went on in One Tree Hill and the Vampire Diaries for example, where most parents got killed off after a while (though it seems like Riverdale is heading in a similar direction). That’s what I liked in The O.C., the parents were important. Like it usually is in the life of teenaged High School students.

· I started of liking Fred and emphasizing with Hermione, having no clue about the Blossoms, despising Alice and thinking F.P. was super shady. Plus Sherriff Keller seemed like a good Dad but not very good Sherriff, but how could he be when it’s the children’s task to solve the cases?

· One thing I was aware of before the show started was that Luke Perry died somewhere in the middle of the show, so I spent a lot of season 3 thinking he was already dead, because HE JUST DIDN’T SHOW UP, and was surprised more than once that he was still alive when he popped up in an episode.

· After season 3 I don’t even know what to say anymore. WTF? More than one parent is a serial killer, a lot more are willing to commit murder or at least serious crimes left and right, the former Sherriff didn’t seem to care that his son got involved with a cult that TOOK HIS KIDNEY (wouldn’t Kevin need parental consent to join something like that?), Mayor McCoy just disappeared, they completely turned F.P. around and I’m not sure what they want to do with Alice.

· After three seasons, the only parents I care about in the slightest are F.P. and Alice because you at least understand some of their actions. In the first season you got a lot of time with Hermione, one on one, so you could understand her actions and feelings, and she and Fred were kind of cute. But in the second season they shot Fred and any storyline he had, Hermione became the mob boss wife fully on board with every crime possible, and Hiram swallowed up anything that was interesting about her. Alice at least had some nuances and was not just the abusive and controlling mother she was in season 1. However, the whole cult thing … I just don’t know what to say. But I haven’t watched season 4 yet, so I’m at least excited to see what they’ll do with Alice. Hal … I don’t even know what to say, I just don’t think the actor can really pull of menacing, so all these Hannibal-esque scenes in season 3 seemed just ridiculous to me.

· It seems extremely weird to me that all the parents are supposed to be the same age, but the episode where the young actors played their parents was one of the most enjoyable ones so I’m willing enough to suspend my disbelief.

· I don’t care about Hiram. At all. The actor looks great and has a very pleasing voice, but I don’t care about his storylines, his relationships and I’m glad I’m mostly doing other stuff during his scenes so I don’t have to pay too close attention to him. Also I’m mad that he destroyed any interest I had in Hermione, because I enjoyed the actress a lot in the one episode of Charmed she was in.

Kids:

· I started the first episode already annoyed by the concept of Betty pining for Archie who falls in love at first sight with Veronica. I watched enough shows with love triangles to despise the very concept. Especially since I know how it turns out most of the time, the pining girl will always and forever be the second choice of the guy, even if they end up together later on. That was the first time I considered to stop watching, but since I took home both the first and the second season from the library I wanted to give it a little more time.

· The second time I considered to stop watching was when it was revealed that Archie had an affair with the music teacher. That’s just not a trope I enjoy in any way, shape or form. And I was annoyed that Betty stared with heart eyes at Archie while he was a little torn between his immediate attraction to Veronica and his supposed love for the music teacher. But I got curious enough how it would turn out so I kept watching.

· I was so relieved that they resolved Archie and Betty this early on and didn’t throw Veronica in the mix immediately. I really liked Betty and I’m glad that they gave her another storyline far far away from Archie.

· I also enjoyed Veronica a lot and found her storyline interesting enough as the new girl wanting to start over as a better person and friend and coming to terms with her criminal father. Just, how the hell can they afford their lifestyle while Hermione was working as a waitress? (At this point I was still a little concerned with logic in that show, now I know that’s just not something worth thinking about.)

· I was immensely surprised that little Ben from Friends looked like this grown up (I never watched Disney Channel shows here in Germany and had no idea how he looked older) and that he could actually act. (I always thought he was terrible as Ben, but that could also be the bad dubbing in German, who knows. I just know I never enjoyed episodes with Ben, so at the same time I was torn between thinking Ross was a bad father and glad that his son wasn’t more on screen.) But I only started to pay attention to Jughead once he got put in the same storyline as Betty, because I liked her and that the murder solving was the only thing I found really interesting. Though I really liked that he was the voice of reason with the music teacher affair before Betty took it upon herself to “save” Archie.

· I enjoy the four main characters together but I’m very disappointed that they have so few scenes together. The episode where they went to the lodge in the woods was great because it was just those four. (That was one of the things I really liked about The O.C., the four main teenagers spent a lot of time together.) I really liked Archie and Jughead together and that was so reduced in later seasons, not to mention Betty and Veronica who are supposedly BFFs and had maybe ten scenes in season 3 together? I’d guess that Betty spent more time with every other female character other than Veronica. At this point I’d buy Betty and Cheryl as BFFs more. What I also would like is exploration of Jughead and Veronica’s relationship, but I doubt that’s going to happen.

· I’m especially disappointed what they did with every other teenaged character. I hate that they never show Kevin’s perspective and mostly use him for shock value in Betty’s storylines. (Also, once again, where the hell was his father, THE FORMER SHERRIFF, during the cult storyline? I get that Cheryl’s and Toni’s families probably don’t give a shit, but him?!?!) Also, looking at the cover pictures on the DVD case I was continuously surprised that they deemed Josie important enough to picture her. She constantly felt like such an afterthought in every storyline she was put in. Same with Reggie who was important in the beginning of season 3 only to disappear halfway through and be resurrected as a minimal obstacle for Veronica and Archie.

· Also, what happened to the Pussycats? In the first season, they had something to do, in the second they at least sang once or twice but then they just disappeared? I wouldn’t actually have noticed were it not for the comic con panel they put on the season 2 DVD extras where all the actresses were there and I was confused why, because I couldn’t think of a single storyline they were involved in after beating the guy up who tried to rape Cheryl. The way they were talking on the panel you’d assume that they had massive screentime and great storylines and none of that happened.

· That brings me to the next point I’m bothered about, they scrapped almost everything that was typically High School after the first season. Next to nothing with the cheerleaders, no football, the newspaper office is only treated as a backdrop and no one does anything with the newspaper anymore. Instead you have vigilantes, owning businesses and having a seventeen-year-old as the leader of a large gang (???). The only thing that is at least slightly consistent is Betty and Jughead trying to solve murders and other criminal stuff in between everything else; with the occasional musical thrown in for the cast to show off their voices, since they dropped music more or less in every other context.

· Also, I have no idea what to make of the Serpents. First they were these criminals you had to be wary off, then Jughead joined them and you were supposed to feel better about them because there were other worse gangs, then these old dudes accept a teenager as their leader (that seemed the most unrealistic to me) and now they are helping the Sherriff’s office? Just … what?

· I don’t even want to get into what they did with Archie. I just know I preferred it when he struggled between his music and football instead of becoming a vigilante, temporarily joining the mafia, getting sent to prison and starting up boxing in a gym he owned. Jesus Christ, just let him play guitar.

· Additionally, every storyline in season 3 felt insane. The role playing game, the cult, the criminal stuff in between … Though I did find it funny that every person Betty recruited to help her with the Farm ended up in the Farm. I guess that sometimes is how it works with cults.

· Also, what was that scene with Betty, Jughead and their FBI brother Charles in the season 3 finale? First, I doubt that it was planned that Alice was undercover at the Farm, based on the way she threw all her money out (though maybe she’ll get it back, who knows), and then the reveal … what kind of awkward writing was that? “Betty, I’m your brother.” “Yes, Jughead, we are brothers, too.” I don’t think I have seen many scenes that were more awkward, and I watched The Secret Life of the American Teenager years ago.

· I think at the end I only stuck around because I liked some of the characters’ relationships enough to see how it will turn out. I was surprised that I enjoyed Betty and Jughead so much, even though I don’t really care about Archie and Veronica at all. (They have good chemistry, but … eh.) Plus, WTF was the writing of the season 3 finale, when Archie’s mom didn’t care at all that Archie was given ownership of A WHOLE GYM?!?! “Hmm, that’s nice, but I’m more interested where you two stand romantically.”

· It took me a while to warm to Betty and Jughead as well because I expected her to be more hung up on Archie. It took me until the last scene of episode 13 to really get on board with those two, but that’s a common occurrence with me. I can watch a show and enjoy a couple pretty lowkey and then there is one scene with great chemistry and suddenly I have to intensely rewatch every scene they ever had together. (Same thing happened with Barney and Robin (HIMYM) when they suddenly kissed in a cab in season 7, Jeremy and Anna of the Vampire Diaries when they were in bed together, the first kiss of Tyler and Caroline from the same show…) But since none of those couples had their happily ever after and some where more traumatic than others (I will never be over the finale of HIMYM, I’m still getting enraged just thinking about it), I’m really weary of how it will turn out. They certainly dragged them out long enough to make it seem like Veronica/Archie, Betty/Jughead will be endgame, but who knows what kind of drama they will throw to them to make it “interesting”. Though, honestly, I enjoy Betty and Jughead as a stable couple that gets all their drama through crime solving. Just let them have their ten near-death experiences a season and let them be happy together otherwise.

· I don’t have any particular feelings toward Cheryl and Toni. They are cute and I’m glad that they have at least some scenes that are about them without being pushed aside as much as Kevin. In parts I was just very annoyed how they interrupted scenes with Cheryl’s dramatic entrances because she felt like such an enormous afterthought, like “Oh, crap, we wanted to do something with Cheryl but we already wrote the scene. Whatever, just put her in there somewhere to disrupt the conversation between the four and let it go on exactly as written once she disappears again.”

· And once again, the plots … just … whatever. I care enough about the characters and their relationships to keep watching, but the plots … ugh. I mainly wish they’d be more High School-y and less criminal and business focused. But I highly doubt that’s a realistic expectation, so, you know, just enjoy the kissing scenes and sometimes friendship scenes in between all the criming and crime solving and fighting. It’s still interesting enough in the background while doing other stuff.

#Riverdale #thoughts #spoilers #riverdale season 1-3 #does it still count as spoilers if the season is out for more than a year?

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caladblog · 6 years

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2017 The Year in Review

jesus h. fuck, we’re still doing this whole... “the passage of time” thing? really? ugh. okay. give me a moment.

*drags hands down face*

*sighs*

okay! it’s been another year! goddamn look at us go! welcome to my Second Annual Recap of New Fiction Stuff!!

(hark! a disclaimer: this features things that i experienced for the first time in 2017, not necessarily things that were released in 2017, because i live literally underneath a rock and it’s a bit out of step with the zeitgeist down here)

Books

Nominations: Neuromancer by William Gibson, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Winner: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Neuromancer was good but this fic did it better. The Fifth Season was excellent and beautiful-- if you’ve read Jemisin’s previous trilogy about gods, there were aspects and elements from those stories that were really brought into perfect focus here; it’s a testament to her growth as a writer and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next two books in the series.

But The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet takes home the title because it is pretty much everything I want in a space opera. Everything. A galactic civilization that isn’t just an echo of European colonization. Interspecies conflict that isn’t a thinly-veiled allegory for racism. Aliens that are truly alien, different from humans and different from each other, with societies and cultures and values that logically follow from these differences. Lush worldbuilding (universebuilding?) that never sacrifices the plot or the characters. An artificial intelligence who sidesteps or directly refutes every frustrating AI trope in the book. Three-dimensional characters! Found family! ‘Xe’ being used as the linguistically-normal gender-neutral pronoun! A lesbian relationship between a human and a reptilian!

it’s good is what i’m sayin

Movies

Nominations: Rogue One, Thor: Ragnarok, And Then There Were None

Winner: Thor: Ragnarok. Stop the fucking presses, I saw a movie less than a month after it was released. This has only happened, like... twice in the last decade. Literally.

Anyway. Rogue One was good, but I’m not a huge fan of the war stars universe. I’m even less a fan of the marvel cinematic universe, especially what it’s become since cap2, but Thor: Ragnarok just fucken blows everything out of the water. No contest. It’s hilarious, it’s epic, it’s the first movie to get Thor’s characterization right. It loses points for including B******t C*********h, but it gains more points for everything described in this post, especially the way it specifically called out the way that societies built on imperialism try to cover up or whitewash the shameful bloody parts of their history. (“Proud to HAVE it. Ashamed of how he GOT it!!”)

Video Games

Nominations: Space Pilgrim Saga, VA-11 Hall-A, Fallen London

Winner: Fallen London. Confession time: I played a lot of video james this year, kind of went wild at the steam summer sale, and it was really hard to narrow it down to three nominations. Ultimately, though, Space Pilgrim Saga was nominated for humor and space and an endgame relationship between a gray-ace woman and a bisexual woman. VA-11 Hall-A was nominated for design and good music and queer representation and me being super gay for Dana.

But Fallen London wins because I’ve never played something that so naturally and regularly validates my gender identity and queerness. Not only do you get to choose a nonbinary option when creating your character, you also get to choose how the game addresses you and change it whenever you want, however many times you want. It’s always there (being referred to as a ‘gentleperson’ or any one of several non-gendered titles) but it’s never the defining aspect of your character or the subject of scrutiny/ridicule/whatever by any NPCs. Similarly, every point at which a romance is ‘required’* provides you with a male and a female option (and, as far as I’ve seen, the option to romance them both at once, too) and your choice of these is never determined or impacted by your character’s gender. Despite the ‘historical’ setting.

*in scare quotes because it’s needed to advance some stories and unlock others, but you do have the option of just. not doing them. or seducing the character for money or social status or some other personal gain, and not love. i'd like it if there was a non-romance option to advance these storylines, but eh.

It’s also just really well-written and interesting and funny and free to play-- there are storylines that cost money, and I’ve got my eye on several, but you never have to spend anything to advance. Even just keeping to the free storylines, there’s a ridiculous variety of things to do for whatever sort of person you want to play as. Go sign up now! Beware of wells! Don’t go North!!

Comics

Nominations: Harrow County vol. 3 “Snake Doctor”, Bitch Planet vol. 2 “President Bitch”, Ms. Marvel arc “Mecca”

Winner: “Mecca”

Okay.

I don’t remember if I ever posted it anywhere, but when this arc was being released earlier this year I had a Debate(TM) with myself about escapist storytelling vs. storytelling that holds up a mirror during rough times--how can you write escapism when hiding from problems does nothing? how can you write realism when the world already does so much to grind us down?--and I eventually settled that we need both, to read and to be written. Realism to show us how to fight. Escapism to help us rest so we can get back up.

This arc is so real it hurts, especially when you can only read it in monthly installments, but it’s the same hurt as pressing on a sore muscle. It’s necessary. There’s not a single aspect of this story that isn’t directly related to what’s happened this year, and what will go on happening next year, and the difficulty of resisting it, and the importance of continuing to do so anyway.

Also G. Willow Wilson appears to be the only Marvel writer who remembers that hydra is literally a splinter group of fuckng nazis so like

Podcasts

Nominations: Archive 81, Wolf 359, The Magnus Archives

Winner: Archive 81. What can I say? It’s precisely my shit. In fact, it’s so much my shit that it’s kind of hard to believe I’ve only known about it for a few months. Time is fake? I’ve already written in depth about how much I like this podcast over here, so I’m not gonna repeat myself.

Has to be said though that The Magnus Archives was a very close second. Like, when I started writing this post a few weeks ago, I had most of the winners already chosen, but this one was a last-minute decision. Especially when episode 81 (*EXTREMELY LOUD TWILIGHT ZONE THEME SONG*) was released and marked the first time in my life I’ve ever related to a male main character. Maybe a main character, period? At some point I’ll post a list of sampler episodes you can listen to without being too spoiled for the main plot to see if you wanna invest in a thing that’s got 86 installments so far.

so there we go! that’s been a sample of my year’s experience in fiction. see you all on the other side of this arbitrary dividing line that’s only marginally related to physical reality!

#text posts #state of the caladblog #the year in review #long post #general fandom

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