#watch me sexualise this old man in real time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crisp-nightime-air · 1 year

Text

Here are me and my gf favourite dndaddies quotes. (Up until season 2 episode 23)

**spoilers to come

“I’m hungry and I kinda wanna fuck”

“He is my seed!!!”

“I burned down my first school!!”

“Who wants grape nuts?”

“No one!!!”

“Now two sad bags of bones that used to be people with hopes and dreams”

“Natures orgasm”

“Jizz likely”

“I’m wearing the condoms Ron!!!”

“ the Birkenstock’s were in you all along”

“If we all get into the fanny pack then the bear can get into the van”

“Daryl what do your dilf eyes see”

“Is that a d4 in your pocket or are you just that poorly endowed”

“It’s like watching a man chase down his very specific kink through tabletop role play”

“It’s role play masturbation”

“I can’t respect your choices when you don’t make good ones”

“You find more knives than not knives”

“Look at my butt hole dad”

“Yea look at his butthole”

“Balfazar drop me a fat ass poem”

“So your edging your cat??!???”

“Get yourself together the snake is dying”

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me”

“Dick daddy”

“My cat has never nutted and will never nut”

“We don’t need seat belts where we’re going”

“The horse doesn’t get the money, Glenn”

“Mountain don’t think, mountain do”

“It’s like a bra for your penis”

“A bunch of sexualised but private part not having felines”

“Do they have BUTTHOLES??”

“I’m hard rock big huge”

“Eldritch candy emergency”

“The entire episode is spent inside Darrell's butt”

“The curious case of the poop in the bathroom”

“John the Baptist flipping through the Old Testament “ain’t no rules says it can’t happen””

“A homunculus made of confidence and urine”

“Trapped in a piss boy”

“Frankly my dear I don’t have a frank”

“You do the hokey pokey and you turn into an eight year old”

“Don’t you ,forget about yeet”

“Human sized bird on a tiny pony”

“I’m fully cocked”

“I hate it when I go to the grocery store looking for Tapatío and they’re like “We only have Old Assblower” and I’m like “Okay, fine.”

“A brief encounter with a problematic vampire”

“Father! The after life…it is dark”

“Because Glenn could not stop for Death, we kindly killed Glenn”

“I’m burnt out from caring”

“Tell me it’s comic sans and I will cum”

“Never send a Matt to do a Glenn’s work”

“Why don’t you come down here and punish me daddy”

“I’m not that easily penetrated”

“That’s the last time you gonna see anybody come”

“I don’t have to be nice I’m aerodynamic”

“A Real man belongs in a mouth”

“It’s like my dick, my ass, and my balls have all seen a ghost”

“Does your butt look like house md now”

“Down with the immigrant”

“Matt nipple play Arnold”

“I’m Beth miracle nip May”

“You can finger something without touching the sharp end”

“Goblin? On deez nuts??!!????!?”

“Women are friends not cubes”

“You can’t really do a battle cry on resolving conflict”

“Tomorrow might be m for mature but today is for e for everyone”

“You couldn’t do 30 seconds of childhood”

“FOMO fire opportunity murder other thing”

“I turn to my directionless hippie family”

“Disenfranchised acolytes of oakvale”

“My daddy is god! My daddy is god!”

“I am willing to psychically dominate your father”

“If it’s a private school…..how do you know about it?”

“Say something racist William campos”

“Have you ever watched a porn?????? No one wants to see the guys face!!!!!”

“I got a detention in my pants”

“You see in order…..the same man twice and a boy that’s wrong”

“My husband is an heiress”

“The Apple doesn’t fall far from the weeb”

“Goth the friend zone iguana”

“We clocked the teen boy at 30 miles an hour”

“Coming out of my mom and I was feeling just fine”

“Scorpion slut”

“I have never pleasures a woman in my life and I don’t plan on starting now”

“Dick Spencer’s the name dick pleasures the game”

“It’s time for centrist vegan ice cream”

“I don’t think the fbi can help with this growth”

“My one dad left because he saw how gross the growth is”

“That means they’ve listened to me jerkoff 67 times”

“A routeeny”

“I’m not the smartest kid in the shed”

“This hole was made for me”

“I’m gonna wrap my vajay around your neck”

“You hit him directly with your vagina”

“Let the yeast do its thing”

“I love to please when I get head to…damn”

“The raccoons name is laaannhehahheh”

“Can you order calzone people?

Oh yea like a stripper”

“Jsut order party calzones!!”

“Does he want sentient or none sentient calzones?

He said he doesn’t want feet on them”

“You see the price on the recipe after we charge you”

“The sensual ghost Italian music playing in the back”

“A woman shat in the bathroom”

“You wanna slide inside a calzone with dad”

“To old to share a calzone with your papa”

“It’s not gonna be pleasant in that calzone”

“I have returned to the woomussy”

“Deep inside your pizzussy”

“Hi my name is Matt Arnold known misogynist”

Hi I’m will campos known woman lover”

“Hi I’m Beth may known woman”

“My first kiss was a threesome”

“You hear the sphincter of the cat open”

“Guys act like calzones!!”

“There’s a nipple on the bus hot shot”

“My neck, my back, MY PUSSY BUS!!”

“New you would pussy out you would pussy in”

“Don’t get cocky kid this is the only pussy you’re ever getting in”

“The dick kids don’t fall far from the dick tree”

“It’s been two days since you last jerked”

“She Johnny on my Apple tell I seed”

“What ever revs your engine as long as I get to drive the car”

“Come here baby and hold your body against mine and rub it around a little bit”

“”We‘ll talk about in a second” is the Wilson fucking family crest”

#dungeons and daddies #dndaddies #dndads #dnd #long post

114 notes · View notes

thebarefootking · 3 months

Note

Minoru Suzuki please!

First and foremost, let's get it out of the way -- Cass absolutely had this one right. Favorite old man to sexualise. Far and away.

But you're not here to hear about [REDACTED FOR THE SAKE OF MOOSE'S DIGNITY]. That's what Ao3 is for.

Minoru Suzuki was the first wrestler to, as a character, really capture me -- and he did it before I ever watched a single wrestling match. My first meaningful exposure to wrestling came in the form of SuperEyepatchWolf's vidseries (then-trilogy) on the topic, which featured many wrestlers, but the first one of them to truly engage my imagination, to make me want more, was Suzuki.

SEW didn't even have much of a story to tell about Suzuki -- not compared to his much longer spiel about the Golden Lovers, for example. But the reverence with which he told it, combined with what he did choose to tell (and, quite importantly, show) was a real flag to my attention. And when Suzuki entered the frame, I couldn't look away.

The sheer complexity and depth of character (one that didn't rely on flashy gear or a heavy-handed gimmick to clarify itself) was so immediately apparent. I actually wasn't able to retain a whole lot of the information presented in those videos -- they were too factually dense, and I have a mind like a sieve. By the time I decided that wrestling was something I needed in my life, I had forgotten which promotion Suzuki was a part of. It was plain luck that I ended up picking the one where I get to see him all the time.

I'm going to sob when that man retires.

#wrestlebloggin #wrestling asks #minoru suzuki #tbh i have more thoughts on him than will fit here or than i can properly organise #but this part seemed important #thanks for the ask!

9 notes · View notes

adderess · 8 months

Text

I have complicated thoughts about barbie. I initially didn’t like the movie. While writing this post, i realised i have mixed feelings about the movie.

I might need to watch it again. I didn’t feel too good, physically and emotionally (i was pretty intensely distressed, actually), on the day i watched it, plus my memory is really bad lately.

Anyway, here goes.

Things that initially made me decide i disliked the movie:

1. The feminism was sometimes naive and shallow. To be specific, the moments that were preachy and expressed directly. It wasn’t the feminism of someone who has been a feminist for long and has read insightful articles and literature about it. It wasn’t the feminism of someone who deeply understands the problems women face. It was the feminism of 17 year old me just discovering feminism on tumblr, reblogging posts about how makeup is war paint. When the woman who brought barbie to the real world started ranting about how women expected to be mutually exclusive things… it made me actually roll my eyes. I don’t feel it was a powerful monologue. I don’t feel it was insightful or profound. I think it was extremely superficial. It’s nowhere near close to simone de beauvoir’s quotes about womanhood:

Man is defined as a human being and woman as a female – whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male

Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. The housewife wears herself out marking time: she makes nothing, simply perpetuates the present … Eating, sleeping, cleaning – the years no longer rise up towards heaven, they lie spread out ahead, grey and identical. The battle against dust and dirt is never won

I didn’t finish reading “The Second Sex”, I’m somewhere at the beginning and i am aware of potentially problematic takes simone had (like about homosexuality being limiting) but when i read this passage, it shook me to my core.

The monologue in barbie? It sounded like a tumblr post written by a 17 year old.

2. I felt preached at. It was unsubtle and inelegant. It was like an election rally. It was like a sermon. I don’t like being preached at. Show, don’t tell. It annoyed me a lot. I understand it was also a movie for kids so they needed to make the message accessible but it doesn’t change my annoyance.

3. It was extremely anti-feminist at times. Blaming women for internalising the patriarchal socialisation in that monologue. And the way they beat the Kens was reminiscent of those faux feminist ideas that being sexualised is power, that playing into the patriarchal standards is empowering. That makeup is warpaint. I feel like it reinforces the idea that we can reach emancipation if we play into the patriarchy. Play into male fantasies and they will become distracted and you will be liberated. Not to sound like a radfem but this is the problem with liberal feminism. I feel it’s really incredibly ironic that the movie was criticising liberal feminism (“you have to be a leader”, “you have to be a boss”, etc) while perpetuating liberal feminism.

4. The scene in which barbie tells the elderly lady she is beautiful didn’t move me. I don’t like the “all women are beautiful”, “all bodies are beautiful” narrative. I believe it’s problematic. Like i said before, it plays into the patriarchy. It is a shackle. We say “all women/bodies are beautiful” because the patriarchy taught us that to be worthwhile as human beings, we have to be beautiful. Beauty = worth. To paraphrase a famous quote, prettiness is not a rent you pay for existing in this world as a woman. Upholding the idea that we have to be beautiful just leaves room for thoughts such as “but am i really beautiful? I don’t feel beautiful. I hate myself.” You don’t have to be beautiful. You have inherent worth as a human being. You are inherently deserving of respect.

I feel like this scene could be set-up as barbie seeing all the suffering humans go through, all the ups and downs and the beautiful moments and to live this long, to experience all of this, to survive all of this makes you beautiful. Not on the surface. But on a deep, profound level. Perhaps this is what this scene was meant as but I don’t think kids will quite grasp it. And “beautiful” is such a problematic word when used towards women because of the things i already talked about that i would not use it at all.

What i liked:

1. That barbie started out wanting to stay perfect and oblivious but, in the end, chose to become a human. That’s a great message.

2. The metaphor about not wanting to be put into a box, actually running away from people who wanted to do it. Gaining awareness that this is what has been done to her all her life: she was boxed, limited, stereotypical, assigned roles, her life was (literally and metaphorically) fake. Everyone in the barbieworld played a role that limited them. Ken couldn’t even surf because he wasn’t a surfer ken. It really makes me think about how we go through life playing roles someone put us in, how we go through motions, how we follow a script. What is my purpose — something we often think about but don’t have time to explore because we work (school, jobs), because we are tired, because children take up some people’s time. We also define ourselves through other people like ken defined himself through barbie (though idk, i think that happens to women more often — we define ourselves as wives and mothers and girlfriends). We are put into boxes as women and denied complexity. Just like the barbies were labelled “lawyer barbie” or “doctor barbie”, we are labelled “mother”, “career woman”, etc, and assigned traits based on those labels and denied individuality. It was SUCH a great thing to explore.

Personal reasons: It also really resonated with me as someone who has bpd and hpd traits. I don’t know who i am, i don’t know what my purpose is, like barbie and ken didn’t know, and i define myself through other people — like ken did. Ken was such a relatable character for me. He craved attention because he felt purposeless and meaningless, he wanted to fill that void, he existed only when barbie paid attention to him. That’s so intimately familiar to me.

Worth saying, I didn’t realise the box was a metaphor at first because i watched the movie in my native language (polish) and didn’t think of the expression. There is a similar polish expression, though, “szufladkować”, i.e. put in a drawer.

3. The opening scene was really relatable to me as a childfree woman who, as a girl, never played with dolls that portrayed children. I realise the opening scene made fun of barbie but it still deeply resonated with me. I also really liked it was set up as an obnoxious barbie commercial precisely to make fun of barbie.

4. The closing scene was among my favourite in the movie. Actually, the closing scenes were my favourite.

“You don’t need my permission to be human” (don’t remember the actual quote) was SO good. Barbie, boxed and stereotyped and literally controlled, had all the power to make herself free and choose her own destiny. It’s also really important to me as a daughter of an abusive mum that controls me: i do not need my mother’s permission to be human and be myself. She created me but i am not her creation. I am my own creation.

She embraced death and it’s so. Amazing. She accepted that humans die and if she chooses to become human, so will she. Again, that’s important to me on a personal level but it’s also an important message to send to kids.

The ending scene was a masterpiece. It was set up so that we expected her to go to a job interview for an executive position at a corporation. But no, she is going to the gyn. This is still something that is hush-hush in our society and shameful so to have a movie explicitly make a character go to the gyn and make it seem as important as going to a job interview AND have her say “gynaecologist” aloud AND AND make that the movie’s closing scene is just. Masterful. Amazing.

5. The fact it showed us women need to work together to destroy the patriarchy (and establish a matriarchy :P hehe jk). It’s not a groundbreaking, never heard before, etc message but i still like that they included that. There were two men helping, Allan and the unnamed Ken and that’s it. It was a bit wishful-thinky that, in the end, men will understand that the patriarchy shouldn’t exist or that it hurts them, too (it benefits cishet way more than it hurts them — or it wouldn’t exist, they wouldn’t have created it if it didn’t benefit them) but well.

6. Barbie didn’t end up with ken. Fucking thank you! Women don’t owe men love. Women don’t need to “just realise” that the man of their dreams was right under their noses. Women don’t need to be in a relationship at all and films about women don’t need to focus on romantic relationships.

All in all, i think barbie is an important film even though it’s not super groundbreaking and has some things i don’t like.

#barbie spoilers #barbie

4 notes · View notes

vivienne-writter · 3 months

Text

hello all of tumblr users,today i want to share my opinion about men in these times,so..lets start. at first i want to say that im not saying it about ALL men,but about those who are like this. as you know,in our times men doesnt have respect for women (talking especially about 12 yo boys who had just watched american psycho and they think they are sigma's). but my question is - why men are so disrespectful to women? many women were mathematics,writers and inventors etc. and i've heard about female inventor who found out something about DNA (idk what was that about DNA especially). but then i heard that men stole her discovery and took credit for it, even though they didn't invent it themselves. it shows how men were jealous of her,or just wanted to be seen,but at her expense. men literally disrespected women for centuries,thinking females are worser,not strong enough,that they cant rule country and many things! im just so pissed off by that,cause human is human,and one person cam be good at something,while someone doesnt have to be either. men saying that women belong to kitchen are showing that they are dependent and immature honestly. its like you dont have 2 legs and 2 hands to cook for yourself,but woman does? i have one boy at school,who is/were saying that women do belong to kitchen,and when a girl would argue with them,they would say like "youre woman,you have no rights" bro WTF is wrong with you? or when in history class was topic about feminism,most of boys started laugh. women fights for their rights for ages,maybe even decades. i bet that if men would have to fight for their rights,it would be easier for them. oh sorry,i forgot that they would never experience,how it feels like,how it feels like to be Arabic woman,and have to cover your whole self under hijab and many clothes,and you can only see. imagine its summer and you have to dress like that. thats humiliating in some senses and very uncomfortable i think. the same is about empathy, maybe women are more "emotional" than most men,but they at least have a heart,to help someone,to put yourself in someone elses situation (not all women idk,it depends on personality). and not to be seen as man hater - most fathers are telling to their sons after they example: fall on the ground and little son start crying cause it hurts him,father would say like "real men doesnt cry" i hate it. everyone can show their emotions,not matter if its a boy,a girl,adult,or old person. everyone should show it,cause in 20 years after hearing things like "dont cry,are you a p***y?" they became hard to show emotions to someone,even to be ashamed of them. and about feminism also: men like to manipulate women,and have fun with them,but tell me why? i know that manipulators cant love theirselfs,and nobody else,but its just..really sick and hurting..same thing about sexualising women from men who are 40+ (but it can be every age) i have seen many catcalling situations on tik tok and im honestly disgusted,cause how dare you say it to a teenager or just to any woman?! do you think that "compliment" like "nice ti*s" or "nice ass" is something cool that someone can hear? i had situations like this in my life too,guy smirking at me,and i was already disgusted by him. thats why sometimes i dont understand the second gender. ofcourse anything can work on two sides,woman can got sexualized like men too,so read whole post before judging and typing mean stuff.

#feminism #opinion #catcalling #disgusting #stop sexualizing #post #first post #writers on tumblr #sigma #thoughts #manipulators #manipulation

1 note · View note

repressionrepresentation · 3 years

Text

if they didn't want me to sexualise doc ock why did they make him so girlfriendable

#watch me sexualise this old man in real time #me.txt #doc ock #spider-man #i will single handedly woobify this man

174 notes · View notes

lorei-writes · 3 years

Text

Basic Guide on How Not To: Slavic Characters

Well, as most of you have probably realised by now, I’m Polish. Truthfully, I am quite upset now. I generally tend to avoid most content involving Slavic people, because well, stereotypes are plentiful and I have only one stomach - there is only so much anger I can fit inside of it. However, this time I was merrily watching an episode of a series, for goodnight sleep, and got smacked in the face with just that... So, I suppose, let’s use my anger towards something - hopefully - productive. This is a very hard post for me to write. It may be closer to my personal experience, although I did try to be more general.

Contents:

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Few basic issues with languages & names

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Grey buildings, empty plazas, ominous blocks of flats with walls up to the very sky. Snow. Gloom faces. Dark nights. Red. Gold.

To start with, be aware that this sort of image is oftentimes not only written into stories or presented in picture-based media, but that I had the displeasure of seeing it being used for cover art for several books.

What I jokingly call sad Slav filter is presenting the reality of Eastern Europe* through, well, pessimistic glasses. The architecture speaks of terror, of being post-communist state, of never having recovered. The streets portrayed in such fashion are gloom, unwelcoming, threatening in a way. Winter is oftentimes the season of choice, to add an extra layer of depressive atmosphere and cold. Nobody smiles. One may say that usage of gold and red brightens the image - however, those connect directly to the communist flag, thus locking the entire space in a rather obvious context.

The reality?

Yes, old blocks of flats built in 60s or so still exist. Some are even grey and in dire need of being re-painted! However... Many are not in such a state. In Poland, the common colours for elevation of such buildings are white, pastel orange, pastel yellow and pastel green, oftentimes put together in combination of stripes or other geometric shapes. What also should be noted is that such estates were designed with plenty trees and other plants around them in mind, as to accommodate for a development of a community - especially for older blocks of flats, those are most likely situated nearby a primary school and a kindergarten, not to mention stores and other services. It is not uncommon for playgrounds to be present as well. You could also expect small flower gardens.

Parks exist here. Architecture does not begin and end at the blocks of flats, especially not in the major cities - most, if not all, have old towns or historical representative streets. Buildings dating back to medieval still do exist in plenty of places. Churches & Tserkovs - those are oftentimes tourists sites for a reason!

It may happen that the side of a building will be decorated with a mural. It is not very common, but does happen. Here are some examples (from Poland). The designs sometimes relate to other works of art, or to some forms of traditional art.

mural by NeSpoon, a street artist who incorporates motives of koronka ludowa [a type of lace] into her artwork

Overall, I come from a poorer region of Poland, from a small town to add to that. The one thing I would list about it? Flower gardens. All of my neighbours had flower gardens in front of their houses. In the recent years, I’ve seen plenty of new houses being built, plenty of renovations being made. Especially in spring and summer, it is all far from grey. Some major cities started investing in fields of wild flowers, as to aid pollinators. And winters? Well, the way it should be (as climate change shows and I have not seen a proper winter in a while), they should be snowy. Yes, it may involve a rather depressing image, at least in places where snow cannot just rest over the ground and glitter... But I do think it may be the case in plenty parts of Europe, as winter days are overall shorter as well, which hardly helps :”) Eastern Europe as a region is not locked in an eternal winter.

People may not be smiling, but they are not frowning either - it is the... Neutral resting face.

*- that being said, Eastern Europe is not inhabited only by Slavic people, even if it is often presented like so

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

List of common stereotypical jobs/professions usually performed by characters of Slavic descent:

a member of a mafia (Russian mafia)

a drug dealer

a spy

a prostitute

a maid / a cleaner

As you can see, nearly all of those involve crime, the only exception being a maid / a cleaner (which, I’d argue, speaks of a lower socio-economic status). If you do not plan to have more than one Slavic character in your work, I advise you to avoid those - especially if you wanted to make your character Russian. I do not think I have to explain why representing a group of people nearly exclusively as criminals is hurtful.

Certain stereotypes exist in media. They do influence the reality. I have seen covers of books about spy programs (non-fiction, referencing an issue from 2000s) which involved clear references to communism (+ used the most hideous Sad Slav Filter I have ever seen). The title suggested all Russians are spies. This is not okay.

If you want to have a character who is performing any of the above, and want to make them Slavic, but then never have their heritage influence anything about them - ask yourself why.

EDIT: Do allow me to also add that being a sex-worker may not be a choice for all Slavic women. Sex-trafficking of Eastern Europeans is a real issue. You should be mindful of that when writing a story - even more so as it affects some countries more than others. Research is due.

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Common hurtful characteristics in depicting slavic characters:

uneducated or otherwise stupid

rude, loud, uncultured, violent

an alcoholic / addicted to drugs

extremely conservative / religious

Do I have to explain it? Yes, alcoholism is a social issue, same as addiction to drugs. Yes, some people are conservative and / or religious. However! We are not a monolith! Social issues are not the general rule!

Scale of conservativeness and religiousness also differs greatly by age group and region. In Poland we have an entire category of practising atheists - non-believers, usually from smaller communities, who appear in church once or twice a year, despite not believing. Due to social pressure. What religion? This differs greatly too! Roman catholic, Greek orthodox, Muslim? Slavic people are not a monolith.

(about women specifically):

beautiful (must put plenty effort in her physical appearance)

looks for a rich (western) husband

submissive

obedient

Well. This ties into the greater issue of objectification and sexualisation of Slavic and Eastern European women. Admittedly, such portrayal [including all of those] is more so present in online spaces, if you turn a few wrong corners down the roads of the internet :) It is dehumanising.

If your Slavic character happens to be a woman and must be extremely sexy femme fatal spy - this reeks of stereotypes.

Few basic issues with languages & names

As I’ve hinted already, it appears that oftentimes Slavic = Russian. This, however, is not true, both language-wise and culture-wise. Despite sharing some common elements, Slavic cultures do differ. Polish characters, unless they are 50+ years old, won’t generally speak Russian. Czech and Ukrainian are different. Ukrainian is not just another version of Russian.

I decided to single out this paragraph for one reason: authors oftentimes do not bother to check for appropriate names and just use whatever seems right. If you want to write a Slavic character, do make some research.

The common mess-ups I’ve seen:

inappropriate form of the surname (about Russian surnames in particular; giving a woman a male version of the surname, giving a man the female version of the surname - Slavic languages are heavily gendered!)

claiming a character is of nationality B, while giving them a surname which is most definitely speaking of nationality A (e.g: Polish character with a clearly Hungarian name & surname)

wrong spelling

using very rare forms of names for all the characters written into the story (it sounds very unnatural - in one particular case it seemed to have been done on purpose, as I’ve had to google whether some names were even names. They were used as code names for few organisations during WWII. That sort of uncommon).

nicknames derived from the actual names that would not work at all (Żegota -> Zeg; It just would not work like this. It would be literally more likely for a character named Żegota to be nicknamed/renamed Staszek than for somebody to call him Zeg. It does not only not include the ż sound, but it also ends with g - which a Polish person would simplify to k when speaking. In other words Zeg -> zek. This, meanwhile, is not only not exactly pleasant to say, but it also sounds like a grammatical form of another word, albeit pronounced with a heavy lisp - “river”; It is possible to find appropriate nicknames online).

Also, unless you want for some character to be a dick, do not make them purposefully mispronounce the name of a Slavic character or have them name them after an object/thing. (Calling “Maciej” by “Magic” because they can’t be bothered to learn to pronounce the name or at least try to get it close is not nice).

#lorei spoke #honestly i had to take a couple breaks while writing this #because some of those affected my family living abroad directly and </3 #i was completely not in a mood for any stereotypes today </3

1K notes · View notes

innovativestruggles · 3 years

Text

Extra thoughts on Daisuke x Suzue (Anime and Novel)

I was prompted to write this when a friend asked me several prodding questions on Daizue’s relationship and feminism several days ago. Obviously my friend knew where to hit the right nerve LOL

So I thought about it and I’d like to share my thoughts. I don’t know whether my DaiSuzu followers are still hanging around, but if you see this, then this is for you. This post is very opinionated of course so you may not agree with what I have to say.

I took the initiative to go back and watch some of the FKBU episodes, and then top it off with the novel. As I mentioned in numerous older posts, the novel is the original and was written sometime in the 1970s. If you can read Japanese, I strongly recommend you grab a copy and read it for yourself. It goes into a lot more depth with regards to Daizue’s relationship and there is a lot more development between the two.

Novel and anime are different yet there are similarities. What I am going to write here is purely about DaiSuzu and because there are only minute differences in their interactions in both novel and anime, I will combine the two elements together. But before I do that, I want to talk a little about Suzue.

Suzue

I absolutely love Suzue’s character - in almost every single aspect. She is strong, clever, independent and defies all odds. Her personality and interests are definitely more pronounced in the anime in terms of strength and defying the odds. She does the hard yard - a mechanic, an engineer, a creator, a pilot, a spy, an intelligence operator - she is a one stop shop and she is not just a pretty face. Then we have her novel counterpart, who shares similar traits that concerns intelligence and independence. She does intelligence and spy work for Daisuke as well, and the only thing that was absent would be her ‘mechanics and gadget development role.’ Given that the book was written in the 70s by a misogynistic piece of shit, I am surprised the author gave Suzue that level of prominence.

When I saw the promotional materials and then the second episode of FKBU, I was so excited! Finally, a strong female character who has all the ‘male dominated’ traits! I was looking forward to what the anime had to offer her, considering the creators were talking about giving Suzue an ‘important’ role in the anime. And throughout the series, her character in that sense did not disappointment. She did a lot of work for Daisuke and she was the backbone of everything. She even had to rescue him at times. What an incredible woman.

In comparison, novel Suzue, although a prominent, intelligent character, still had some level of submissiveness to her that screamed ‘I need a man to save me and do things for me’ kind of way. Unsurprising of course being written by an old fashioned man in the 70s. So the anime in a sense was a breath of fresh air.

Then we see the lack of screen time. Although Suzue was just a supporting character, she was quite prominent in the novel. The anime went through all this trouble to create such an incredibly strong female character, but gave her such little screen time. Disappointment doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’m just frustrated that it is always the bloody male characters that gets a lot of screen time. I don’t give two fucks about your need for a fanservice or to appease fujos, we need more female characters who are strong, clever, independent, does not need a man to save her, is not overly sexualised and gets plenty of screen time. If it’s not one, it’s another. Can’t they just bloody do it all together? Also, have three main characters, Daisuke, Suzue and Haru ffs.

Feminism & Anime

If you trawl through my blog, there are a lot of posts about women, feminism, misogyny, toxic fandoms and a lot of het ships. Although I do absolutely love my M/M and F/F ships, there is a reason for my interest in anime het ships. I am a social worker who specialises in working with victim/survivors of family/domestic violence and sexual assault (DVSA), and complex trauma. Considering the majority of perpetrators are men, and the majority of victim/survivors are women, it is important to emphasise the need for a healthy and respectful relationship. I enjoy bringing my feminist perspective to film and fiction because they are an extension of society. Film and fiction (including anime and manga) are based on societal perceptions, and characters are still, unfortunately, heavily gendered.

The anime fandom consists of real people and if you look all over social media, people talk about the characters all the time and their thoughts on them. It comes from somewhere. So when I watch anime, and when I see a male and female character get together in a manner that is healthy and respectful, they get a standing ovation from me. In particular, is when a male character treats his female partner in a way that empowers her or if he abstains from using his male entitlement to demean her. Because in society, there is still a large proportion of men who continues to abuse women in every way possible. If fans are constantly viewing content (yes, even ‘cartoons’) where women are objectified and disrespected comparatively to men, that rigid stereotype is reinforced and ingrained.

I just want to add a note here that the LGBTQIA+ community do experience DVSA as well and this post does not disregard or invalidate them in any way. The focus of this discussion however, pertains to men, who make up the majority of perpetrators and, women, who are the majority of victim/survivors.

Daisuke and Suzue

I answered an ask sometime ago about why I ship DaiSuzu and although that has not changed, I have given a lot more thought to the reasoning behind it. The one thing I dislike about Suzue is her obsession with Daisuke, both in the novel and anime. It does take away her cool, independent like character, and submit her to the idea that she is nothing without first appeasing a man (Daisuke in this case). I don’t want to put too much dislike into her character in the anime, because we never got to see what her history was like with Daisuke. In the novel, I do see elements as to why she can be a bit obsessive, and that was most likely to do with her being ‘adopted’ and given a second chance. It was her way of showing appreciation. Yet she does have romantic feelings for Daisuke, so in essence, her character was emphasised as a typical lovestruck woman 😒

Again, she was incredibly loyal and forgiving towards Daisuke in the anime, despite his shitty attitude towards her at times. You’re probably wondering, after all that I wrote about feminism, why I would still ship DaiSuzu? In the anime, that comes down to Daisuke’s trauma. It added an extra layer of complexity. Daisuke’s standoffish, cold behaviour towards Suzue was not out of a sense of male entitlement and disrespect towards Suzue being a woman, rather, it was a manifestation of his trauma. Of course, it does not excuse his behaviour, but this is the reason why I really enjoyed watching their relationship. There was a lot of mutual trust going on (which I wrote about), covert appreciation of Suzue’s skills and abilities and Daisuke’s own way of making amends with her.

In the novel, however, Daisuke does not have a history of any traumatic experiences. His personality was a lot more animated and though he does exhibit some weird behaviour towards Suzue, he does not do it out of male privilege or misogyny. He was just dense (and an idiot).

Regardless, DaiSuzu’s relationship isn’t just as simple as black and white. There are elements of feminism that intertwines the anime and what I love a lot about Daisuke was that he never put Suzue down, felt intimidated, or tried to make her feel inadequate for being more clever and more intelligent than him. He relied on her knowledge, her skills and her expertise to guide him through his missions, because not only did he trust her with his life, he believed in her skills. He quietly allowed her to do her job without questioning her abilities or intervening.

I won’t discuss how shit the anime was and how much they shat on Suzue’s character by making her Daisuke’s relative, but like I said, I was pretty impressed with the way they turned Suzue into a strong character, and Daisuke’s perception of Suzue as a woman.

And yes, Daisuke doesn’t deserve Queen Suzue. And if you were again to ask me about Daisuke’s true feelings for Suzue? I am pretty damn certain that he loves her to death - in both novel AND anime.

#if onlyyyyyyy there was a season 2 #i doubt it though #i still want to know more about suzue #beautiful precious girl #she deserved soo much more #i'm so advocating for more good strong female characters #i still do love daisuzu #even though i don't think daisuke deserves suzue lmao #i'm just biased #and i love my suzue #she queen #daisuzu #daizue #daisuke kambe #suzue kambe #balance unlimited #fugou keiji balance: unlimited #fkbu #anime feminism

34 notes · View notes

yououghtaknow · 3 years

Text

skam brighton season 5 music analysis

hello :) i’ve gone through all the songs on previous seasons of skam brighton and explained why i used them and i thought i would do it for season 5 now that it’s over.

tw for disucssion of addiction, racism, pedophilia, transphobia and homophobia

trailer

we begin with a bang with “don’t blame me” by taylor swift. now it has been said about me that i am a swiftie and it is true. and nick braxton is a reputation era bitch. this song has quite literally it all for nick’s character - we got christian themes, reference to drug addiction and an unhealthy devotion to someone. this trailer has gone through many songs to find the perfect one, but i decided on this one because of the themes, and also because of the line “they say she’s gone too far this time” - which, in regards to nick, can be read in many ways. we got the nick going “too far” with his love for james in subtly trying to break liz and james up, nick and their drug addiction, and nick and their relationship with their gender identity - going too far in both the masculine and feminine directions. also it bangs your honour.

episode one

we!! begin!! with!! saturday night’s alright for fighting by sir elton john!!! because it is saturday night and, as we’vee seen, nick isn’t afraid to get into a fight or two. this song specifically was chosen because of the movie rocketman, which i drew a lot of inspiration from, with the themes of drug addiction and sexuality. also, once again, it simply slaps.

we then get “ymca” by the village people playing in the background over the rest of the party scene. i chose this song because it is a very stereotypically gay song, and a lot of what i wanted nick to deal with was self-perception in regards to stereotypes. he is very stereotypically flamboyant because it’s both the way he is and a defensive mechanism - leading to his bisexuality being erased and being seen as gay a lot of the time. he ‘s pretty much the opposite in regards to his asian identity, with him not being academically intelligent and outspoken and being very british in their speaking patterns. it’s about the balance and duality and all that stuff.

then, as we are formally introduced to nick’s devotion to james, we get “where dreams go to die” by john grant. thank you to my friend katya for recommeding this song as a nick song because it is just. crazy. every line makes me want to scream. especially “this is like a well-oiled machine / could i please see that smile again? / it's all that makes me feel like i am living in this world”. like that just shows the extent of nick’s love - because sometimes you’re just in love with the idea of being saved rather than seeking help. is that poetic or am i just pretentiously talking about my trauma? who knows.

we then get “overprotected” by britney spears - because britney has been a nick staple the whole series. i first heard the song in the musical & juliet and i was immediately like “oh nick core”. the song opens with: “ i need time (time) / love (love), joy (joy) / i need space (love) / i need me (action!) / say hello to the girl that i am / you're gonna have to see through my perspective”. because we are literally seeing from nick’s perspective. i also wanted to introduce the gender dynamics early - including in the trailer, where nick refers to themself with she/her pronouns - and her nick is referred to in the text of the song as a girl. it’s also a very sad song about not having any control over your life with a fun pop backing track, which is very nick braxton.

we then get another party scene, that opens with “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” (by ariana grande) covered by sam fender. i chose this song because 1) i love the cover and 2) god is it a nick song. literally nick has so many wants (to be loved by their family, to get sober, to succeed in school, to explore their gender freely) but he focuses on wanting james and wanting james to leave liz because there are less achievable and thus safer. also the song fucking slaps.

we close with “happy little pill” by troye sivan, a mlm classic. a staple of 2014. i chose this song because 1) drug in title, easy get, and 2) it’s actually a really good song???? it’s about the dissociation. it’s very similar to the scene with bree in season 4 episode 1 where “chandelier” plays as she’s clearly not doing well but she’s pretending for the sake of her friends. nick and bree are narrative foils and i love them.

episode two

the first song of episode 2 is “be great” by lolandre and jeremy pope after we see nick and his dad’s dynamic for the first time. and it’s really something huh. it’s about how christian does want nick to be great, but christian has a very narrow idea of what success and happiness looks like.

the next bit of media we get in this episode is nick watching the first episode of euphoria. when preparing to write various seasons of skam brighton, i watched a lot of teen dramas to get a good feel for the vibe i was going for. euphoria was one of them and it’s a show i have a lot of mixed feelings for - i think it’s very well crafted and extremely interesting but i also do have issues with the sexualisation of teenagers on screen, even if it is mostly realistic. i chose this scene specifically because nick and rue are very similar characters, in regards to their relationships with their parents (i believe nick is more of a jules kinnie but more on that later). they both just want to be a good kid and make them happy, but they can never seem to do it. gia, rue’s younger sister, is also a parallel to nick’s brothers.

we then get “old eden” by honeywater which is just simply a song i like very much that had the vibes of the scene. also the lines “i want love / but i don't just want love, i want you / i see the beach house, your sweet mouth / but the terrible news / is that love is not how it seems on the screen / yeah, real love has problems / but it's what's in-between that's the best” is simply just nick braxton huh. ambiguous disorder.

we then get “generation why” by conan gray as nick storms out of their house after a fight with their parents. i chose it very simply for the vibes because i only listened to this song once and thought “i do not wish to listen to this in my free time but it is a nick braxton time”. it’s just the angsty indie pop main character walking down the street vibes.

we!!! end!!! with!!! a song i love very much - “sex drive” by austin mckenzie of dwsa fame. this song plays over nick getting “rejected” by james and resorting to grindr to feed their want for human affection - which is where the parallels to ms jules euphoria come from. i chose this song specifically because it begins with the lines “who’s driving?” on repeat, which calls into question who is in control in the scenario. as seen on screen, nick is the one who initiates the “date” but, at the end of the day, nick is an underage teenager and the person he’s on a date with is an adult man. also the song is simply a fun bisexual time.

episode three

we open with “hurricane drunk” by florence and the machine, a song that has been decidedly nick core since 2018. like “i’m in the grip of a hurricane / i’m going to blow myself away”...... nick braxton you crazy little person

“yours” by greyson chance plays over nick and james driving out to the woods to skip school together….. it is quite insane. “no matter who i'm with, it's you that i adore / if you're not sure / baby, i'm yours” like i scream and shout nick braxton has always been in love with the concept of james cohen

“myrtle ave.” by mxmtoon plays as nick is feeling isolated from his friends…. like they just vibe with the song and the lyrics so hard. nick is just. i have no words other than i love them.

we close with “st jimmy” by green day because. goddammit isn’t he. like james just comes out as bisexual (just like st jimmy in american idiot the broadway musical) and nick is like “you are like a saint to me, i worship you, i will do anything for you”. like it’s a song about drug addiction but it’s also about being bisexual but it’s also about the performance of masculinity and the performance of being a “rebel” that james and nick both do i love them so much.

episode four

we begin with “lucy in the sky with diamonds” by the beatles. i do not listen to the beatles but i think the song is about drugs and the beatles is a james cohen band in canon so it has the connotations babey.

we then get “seventeen” by troye sivan as nick goes on grindr to seek out adult men. it’s genuinely such a nick song - once again, the fun poppy music in the background and the deeply upsetting lyrics. also, as in season 4, i chose this song to emphasise the fact that nick is seventeen and a minor and should not be doing these activities.

we then get “dancing on my own” by robyn as we’re at the vaguely halloween-esque party. it’s once again about the boppy music and sad lyrics and like. nick voice i’m in the corner watching you kiss her ohhhhhh i’m right over here why can’t you see me ohhhhhhh i’m giving it my all but i’m not the guy you’re taking home ooooh i keep dancing on my own. like he’s fucking insane (he is both me and nick)

and then!!!! we get a scene very personal to me. nick watching rocky horror for the first time at a shadowcast showing and watching “the time warp”. i first saw rocky horror when i was about 10/11 because i saw it on glee and wanted to watch the real movie and it made me so so transgender and homosexual. it is such a non-binary little movie and the time warp is just an absolute bop.

it’s followed by a brief showing of “sweet transvestite” because tim curry in that movie is such an experience for anyone involved. like oh to be gender questioning nick braxton and to see that. what a fucking experience. and also to be gender questioning 11 year old me and to see that and then find out my school is doing a kidz bop version of rocky horror. fucking insane transgender times.

we close with “cecily smith” by will connolly as milo and nick walk home together because. it is just such a sweet song. like life is not the things that we do it’s who we’re doing them with. and it is a very nickmilo song and i am the president of nickmilo nation. i love a non-binary romance i do i do i do.

episode five

we open with “halloween” by phoebe bridgers because it is literally halloween. insane. but it is also such a nick braxton song like come on man we can be anything…… nick braxton voice i’ll be whatever you want…… it’s about the people pleasing and the desire to be wanted and needed loved and goodness gracious. also nick braxton fig faeth kinnie for this song specifically.

and then!!!!! we get nick dramatically singing “girl crush” by the harry styles version in his bathroom mirror. because goddammit they do have a girl crush. it’s about the gender and the desire to both be with james and to be liz becausenick is non-binary babey……..

and then!!!!! in such a parallel!!!!! we get milo singing “inner white girl” from a strange loop on their instagram live. “a strange loop” was a big inspiration for this season, with very similar themes fo it (you should listen to it right now) and this song….. quite genuinely we have nick singing a song about wanting to be a white girl and then they hear this song….. like nick does cling to his inner white girl as a way of staying safe - they cling to the safe idea of mlm flamboyancy and humour to hide from their genuine emotions and gender……. like it is insane to me. also white girls can do anything can’t they!!!!!!!

we then get “the people who raised me” by gregory and the hawks after nick has a fight with their parents…. “but i won't mind no time spent to save me / just trying to be good to the people who raised me” literally nick is trying his best to be good but he can’t be and that makes him angry!!!!!! but that anger is born out of a deep, deep sadness that nick has no emotional language to express, but anger is a language he can speak and it is. insane. like it’s about masculinity, it’s about femininity, it’s about everything. fuck.

we then get "search your heart" by george feeny as nick sadly vibes at school…. also this scene does parallel with the liz/mary scene in season 2 where their parents fight. like liz is shitty to her friends but stays for her sister and nick is great to his friends but leaves his brothers behind….. the range.

and then!!!! we get phoebe bridgers’ cover of “friday i’m in love” because it is friday and nick is in love huh.

and then!!!!!!!!!! a moment i have been building up to!!!!! we get “back to black” by ms amy winehouse after nick finds out james has a crush on alistair thee fletcher. and just like. god. this song has everything for nick. it’s a song about depression, addiction, leaving your lover, anger, bitterness, second choice ness….. and also he is literally going back to black with his hair colour!!!!! because he thinks being more masculine is what will make people love him and he views pink hair as un-masculine!!!!! and he’s also going back to his family, so he’s going back to trying to hide himself to fit into their expectations….. like god it is an insane little time.

episode six

we open with “idk if i’m a boy” by blue foster - a song i got on my discover weekly and it was a deeply personal attack. like nick voice i don’t know if i’m a reject i don’t know if i’m a loser but i know that i’ve been feeling feminine since i’ve been teething…. and how the song uses humour as a way to cope with gender dysphoria like it’s nick bay bee.

we then get “green light” by lorde because god it is such a james/nick song i feel insane. like “did it frighten you / how we kissed when we danced on the light up floor?” because james and nick have canonically kissed many times before….. also lorde as an artist just has such intense nick vibes it’s so much fun

we then get "fluorescent adolescent" by arctic monkeys over a party scene because i’ve been told on the internet that it is a british teen party classic. unfortunately the rowdiest party i’ve ever been to is my cousin’s christening so i do not know if it is factual, but it does slap.

we then get vérité’s cover of somebody else by the 1975 because i just simply prefer this version. but like. oh nick braxton. oh it’s about the rori and the james and the nick being afraid of being open and committing to someone but still wanting to feel the sense of being wanted by someone and being the sole person they want….. literally it is very crazy.

and then we end with “sugar we’re going down” by fall out boy!!!!! like it it such a good song nick voice am i more than you bargained for yet!!! i’ve been dying to tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to hear!!!! because that’s just who i am this week!!!!! like it fits so well with his character but also it is so funny that sugar we’re going down plays as they faint at the party……. i am a comedian sometimes.

episode seven

the first song we get in this ep is “demi moore” by phoebe bridgers as nick is detoxing in the hospital. like quite genuinely “i don’t wanna be stoned anymore!!!!!!!!” they don’t want to be alone anymore!!!!!!!!!

then we get “bite the hand” by boygenius. just. like. “i can’t love you the way you want me to” is just. such a statement for nick’s season. like he can’t love james the way james wants to be loved by nick, they can’t love their parents, their parents can’t love them…… it’s all about learning how to love in a way that is felt by all parties involved in the relationship be it romantic, platonic, familial or otherwise. like. it’s so insane it’s all about love

and then we get “relay” by fiona apple - which was a contender for the trailer song at some point. like nick @ alistair is very “i resent you for being raised right etc.” because he knows liz is fucked up and has flaws, he’s seen them, but alistair is easy to project all of his hatred onto. also just like evil is a relay sport thank you ms apple.

we then get “girls just wanna have fun” by cyndi lauper and “dancing queen” and “mamma mia” by abba sung at the lgbt youth club karaoke night because. i mean of course they are. also they are very fun gender songs and i enjoy them :)

and then. my friends. the moment you’ve been waiting for. nick braxton singing alanis morrissette’s “you oughta know”. now this is gonna be a long one.

the you oughta know analysis

first things first, i got the jagged little pill broadway behind the scenes book for christmas and there’s a whole chapter about you oughta know being a song about the queer struggle of being unseen and unheard and i feel so validated like that is exactly what the song is about.

but for nick. oh baby. it is them singing to james, to rori, to al, to liz, to bree, to his parents, to his teachers, to everyone who perceives them wrong. it’s their moment of standing up and saying i am angry and i am serious about this and i deserve to be listened to as a young person. i will now give an in depth analysis of every line i want to.

“the perfect version of me” - bree and nick have had so many parallels throughout the series, which bree can be described as a “better” version of nick. they’re in therapy, she’s taking care of herself, they’re bisexual and it’s accepted by everyone, she’s a good partner to rori, she has parents who love her, and she can be gender non-conforming in a safe way. but this line also applies to al - because nick and al have also been compared this season, with al talking about how he’s comfortable with his femininity and james liking al, who, despite claiming to be more feminine, is still more traditionally masculine than nick. al, bree and liz are all very academically smart. they are all very creatively gifted. liz doesn’t struggle for money. nick, in their mind, compared to all of these people, is a failure.

“so she speaks eloquently / and she could have your baby / i'm sure she'd make a really excellent mother” - this applied to both liz and bree, who both try to be seen as very eloquent speakers, and who are both afab, so therefore can have james’s baby - something nick wouldn’t be able to do. but we have seen in liz and bree’s seasons that they both have sexual trauma, and bree especially is uncomfortable with having children. it’s nick having this idea of womanhood and femininity being something so unattainable and required for james - that it kind of segways into al. because al is also assigned female at birth and could, as he is pre-t, hypothetically have a child, which is playing into some transphobic notions, but nick sees al as both more feminine and more masculine than him - making al just perfect for james.

“and every time you speak his name / does he know why you told me / you'd be there until you died / 'til you died, but you're still alive” - nick changes to he pronouns here, now directly talking about al. we’ve seen james flirting with nick and we know they’ve kissed in the past, and james and nick are incredibly close friends. but james still, in nick’s mind at this point, chose al over him.

“it was a slap in the face / how quickly i was replaced / and are you thinking of me when she fucks you?” - the conversation about how all the skam brighton characters relate to the line between sex and love is so interesting to me. it is also the reason i do not allow my parents to read this show. but anyways - nick does feel so genuinely replaced by everyone in his life, like there’s always a newer, better version waiting just around the corner. what nick doesn’t know is that that is how everyone else around him feels as well. and the line “are you thinking of me when she fucks you” is such a pointed line because it’s not a line of confidence or a joke. nick knows that no one thinks about them like that because they feel repulsive but try to play it off as a joke.

then we get the “i” section, which is, in the script, more “ayes” and “nahs”, but i wanted to change it to be the word “i” specifically because so much of the season is nick existing for other people. for their parents, for their friends, for their clients, for james. in this moment, they are choosing themself. they are standing up and saying “what i feel is important and i fucking matter”

“'cause the joke that you laid in the bed, that was me / and i'm not gonna fade as soon as you close your eyes / and you know it” - because nick’s sexuality and nick as a romantic partner is treated as such a joke throughout the show’s run, and james has been trying to turn every time he kissed nick into a joke that will go away, but it’s not going to go away because nick remembers it. even if james tries to deny his sexuality to nick’s face, nick is always going to remember that james was, at some point, attracted to men enough to kiss him.

“and every time i scratch my nails / down someone else's back, i hope you feel it / well, can you feel it?” - every time nick has sought out sex with strangers it’s because they feel rejected and insecure in themself. they seek out this sexual validation as a way to feed their want to be loved and noticed by people and he wants james and rori to feel hurt by it - he wants to have the power, he wants to have the control.

“and i’m here” - this line is just. so powerful to me. because it’s a line of defeat - after all this time, nick’s ended up at some crappy youth group with his little brother babysitting him, and he’s been dumped and cheated on and overdosed and everything is so awful. but then it becomes a line of celebration. of “yeah, all that shit happened to me, but i’m still here, i’m still standing, and no one can take away the fact that i am here and i am alive and i deserve to be respected” - something milo taught them when they talked about their tattoo

“to remind you of the mess you left when you went away” - nick himself is the mess they all left - because they feel so abandoned and alone and like they are just a mess to be discarded, but he’s here to remind everyone that he’s here. it’s a call for help.

“it's not fair, to deny me / of the cross i bear that you gave to me” - this line i always saw as directed at his parents - they gave him this cross of being the perfect eldest sibling that ended up crushing him, and they deny that it ever happened. but nick knows it did. the same way he knows james like guys. the same way he knows rori didn’t like only him. the same way he’s been denying himself of the cross he bears of being non-binary, the cross of being an addict, the cross of being a mentally ill neurodivergent person. this song is him finally letting go of that denial.

“you oughta know” - he’s talking to everyone with that line. everyone should know about his pain, about his emotions, about what he’s gone through, because he’s kept it so bottled up for years. it’s not fair for him not to share it because he deserve to.

they don’t call me isaac tumblr user yououghtaknowmp3 for nothing.

episode eight

we open with “seven” by taylor swift as nick reads a letter they wrote to their younger self. like. “i used to scream ferociously any time i wanted” is such a line about being neurodivergent as a child and then being forced to mask as you grow up….. also the bridge is just james and nick core…. you should come live with me and we could be pirates…..

we then get “nonbinary” by arca because i feel like at this point nick would be trying to listen to more nonbinary artists because they want to see themself reflected rather than running from it!!!!

we then get “heather” by conan gray as nick and liz accidentally meet at the local mentally ill teen zone. because i am just fucking crazy like that. and yes, i chose that song before it got big on tiktok. but i think it’s funnier because it is a famous song.

we then get “falling” by harry styles as nick is being emo in their bedroom because nick is just the type of person who will dramatically listen to harry styles in their bedroom whilst being sad. it also completes the full circle of sad taylor swift to sad harry styles, but with no vehicular manslaughter.

we then get “400 lux” by lorde after james and nick have their big conversation because like it is just a them song. like you buy me orange juice. it’s also about the james/nick having a gansey/ronan dynamic in the way that nick is devotedly in love with him and james is just being homoerotic for the jokes. but not most other ways. honestly i haven’t thought about the skam brighton versions of these characters in trc….. many thoughts head full

episode nine

we open with “pink rabbits” by the national as nick redyes their hair back to pink. and i’ll be honest. i only chose this song because it has pink in the title. but it does still vibe with nick though.

we then get “be your own 3am” by adult mom as nick is dealing with some bad cravings. it’s just a very pretty song for listening to alone at night in your bed in that weird space between sleep and awake. i love it.

we then get “i am not a robot” by marina as nick walks down the street because nick is a marina bitch!!!!!!! and “you've been acting awful tough lately / smoking a lot of cigarettes lately / but inside, you're just a little baby / it's okay to say you've got a weak spot” is such a nick @ james line it makes me insane

also rich’s entire character and backstory is directly lifted from skins gen 3 because i am niche and make content just for me

we then end with “rager teenager!” by troye sivan because i have listened to that song exactly once, decided it had nick vibes, and just stuck it in an episode somewhere.

episode ten

we open with “strange torpedo” by lucy dacus because it is just. such a nick song. it is insane. i am insane. like it is about nick wanting someone but not being sure who or what it is because he just wants to be loved and discovers that sometimes being liked is better than being loved…….

we then get “used to you” by mxmtoon and like….. “tell me what i can say / and i can say it / tell me what i can do / and i can do my best / tell me who i should be / and i can change it” is such a nick early s5 lyric…… and how the song is kind of a love song but the line “now i’m just kind of used to you” is very nick about his feelings towards james

we then get “gay street fighter” by keiynan lonsdale as milo gets their sexy slow mo that all of the love interests get at some point. they deserve it.

and then “to be alone with you” by sufjan stevens plays as milo and nick have their first kiss in the pool because i always wanted to include that scene and thought “hey here is good”. and like. they are alone with each other a lot and they like spending time with each other….. they are friends, they are teens, they are falling in love a little <3

we then get “creep” by lena hall as nick has a little gender moment at school. lena hall played yitzhak in the broadway revival of hedwig and the angry inch and she just has so much gender. creep has always been a nick song and this cover just…. it’s them.

we then get some ambient guitar music during the nick/rori scene and i chose some songs from “your city gave me asthma” by wilbur soot because it is a fucking great album and nick is canonically a mcyt stan so i simply had to. we end with “your new boyfriend”, which is a funnier, happier wilbur soot song and it is simply a fun time.

episode eleven

we open with “gender is boring” by she/her/hers which is just an absolute banger. like “gender never really meant that much to me / til' people started telling me how it was supposed to be” is such a great line and it is very nick braxton because. like. it’s just gender babey everything is about gender except for gender which is about having fun.

“dorothea” by taylor swift plays as james and nick have their final big scene together and like. it is such a homoerotic and fun song i love it so much thank you taylor friend of the show swift. “and if you're ever tired of being known / for who you know / you know, you'll always know me” is just……. god.

we then get “i do (end credits)” by kevin abstract as we open on the final scene of the season because a) it has end credits in the title and b) it is just another song i think nick would enjoy listening to.

we then get “they/them/theirs” by worriers as we get another little party montage because it’s a vibe time and like. i do love a they/them pronoun moment. it’s a very good and fun pronoun to use.

and finally we get “prelude” from next to normal as al comes in late to the party and awkwardly stands at the back. i chose this song because. well. you’ll see :)

thank you for reading my analysis that no one asked for, i just love having fun and talking about my silly little show :)

#skam brighton #skam brighton spoilers #isaac speaks #who wants my two page long essay on you oughta know but specifically for MY nonbinary comic relief character with christian trauma #i am fucking crazy BUT i am free :)

4 notes · View notes

unseelie-bitch · 3 years

Text

Season 1 Episode 1: To the Waters and the Wild [Part One]

[I recognise I've written season 1 but please god don't let there be a season 2]

Dem SHEEPS

Cannot believe for the opening two lines they really thought repeating "fecking sheep" was the way to go

Oop magical barrier time okay

And there's a murdered sheep. Such winx vibes

And the man's getting murdered. Well. That happened.

That better not be a fucking werewolf because that's the vibes I got

Also maybe don't go through the magic barrier. Just a thought

The most winx thing about it so far is the lil title bit. I acc liked that

Sorry does Bloom just know about magic?????? WHY IS SHE JUST ROCKING UP WTF

Oh look. It's Terra. Give me Flora

Aisha just mysteriously walking. Fair enough

Stella is immediately popular and has a very deliberate shot to give us "popular bitch" vibes. A joke

There's Not Musa

There's a man and Bloom is IMMEDIATELY staring at him

Also Bloom looks way too old I'm sorry she just does I hate it

I don't know who any of these men are but they are clearly important

I think this man is Sky and I'm so thrown off by his accent. He's english but like... if you want the prince to be english he shouldn't be like... ordinary english. Where's the RP

Also Bloom is supposed to be an extrovert why is she so not into the conversation

Okay time skip because Bloom found out 3 months ago. I'll accept it but I'm not happy about it

And Stella's watching them from afar

That is NOT what mansplaining is clearly this writer is trying to be """"feminist"""" and ENTIRELY missed the fucking point

Bloom was looking for Stella alright

So um how the fuck would Stella know about American stereotypes

Also you IMMEDIATELY made her a bitch excuse you my girl is a ray of sunshine. LITERALLY

Sorry did they say "Miss Darling"? "Dalling"?? Why not Faragonda or Griselda????

THEY REPLACED FARAGONDA???????

At least Stella still has her ring

I'm going to pretend she was offering Bloom help instead of the obvious "if you can't make it" challenge

Okay Stella's kind of a babe but she ISN'T STELLA

Why the FUCK is Alfea in Solaria

#NotMyFaragonda

YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE DISSAPPOINTED IN THE LACK OF WINGS BLOOM

Oh they had wings in the past and lost them? Bullshit I hate it

TINKERBELL IS FUCKING REAL WHAT THE FUCK

Also they just all know about Bloom's magic. Really feel we need some backstory lads

I'm really hung up on "Tink was an air fairy" like WHAT

What's the tea lads who did Bloom burn

She's facetiming her parents, fair enough

Please fuck off with the narrative that girls can't live together without fighting like wtf. "Five girls in an enclosed space" are not going to "decend into a lord of the flies situation" NO REAL WOMAN WOULD SAY THAT. ESPECIALLY NOT WHEN EVERYONE ELSE IS RIGHT THERE

Bloom is not fucking anti-social what the FUCK

So her parents solidly don't know where she is. Right

Okay Aisha is a BABE she saw Bloom floudering and was like COMING IN TO DEFEND YOUR LIE

Oh so Bloom is no longer adopted. She has dormant fairy blood. Right. Why.

Bloom is NOT a Ravenclaw OR Slytherin she should be the most Griffindor Griffindor to ever Griffindor what the FUCK

Now watch them not write her as a Ravenclaw OR Slytherin

Why must you write Stella as a bitch. She could have simply been Baby

You've just turned Flora into Aunt Hilda from Sabrina. But like, written as the joke. What the fuck

...but also Terra you shouldn't take over a shared space

Why the fuck are they writing Terra as the outcast

MUSA I LIKED YOU UNTIL YOU WERE MEAN WHY

Also can they please make Terra less annoying

Hope Musa's okay

That better not be Riven he looks like such a dweeb

OH A RIVEN'S A MASSIVE DICK SUPRISE SUPRISE

The real question is why would a "nice" person like Sky have a misogynistc friend like Riven

Loving the shot of the singular woman they said is a specialist

OH THERE'S A SECOND WOMAN. THE FEMINISTS ARE TAKING OVER (🎶I'm an adult virgin🎶)

Sorry is Sky's dad dead??? Surely Sky is now... king??

Sky is good bean. I like it

Sorry can people get CONSCRIPTED to be specialists??? That sounded like they were getting conscripted

Ah the not werewolf was a Burned One

Some moronic specialist just went through the barrier and he's gonna get attacked isn't he

Oh they're magic zombies. Of course

He gonna die

Oh they found the sheep guy's corpse. Yikes

Ah so imma say Bloom is supposed to be 16 and that was how long ago the last sighting was

Is Rosalind going to be fake Daphne

Does that mean sheep man was the Alfea Shepard?? Why does Alfea have sheep???

"Before gossip starts" bro a student found the body. Gossip has started

"That old age decapitation really sneaks up on you" Musa BABE

"Happened to my nan right in the middle of bingo" AISHA BAAAAABE

Also Musa clearly has a thing for Aisha. Take this somewhere.

Why are they making Terra the joke AGAIN. Stop it. Stop it. Stop. It.

Why are Terra's only personality traits "nice" and "awkward"

Has the writer ever met a human women. Serious question. Because this is NOT how women act

"Happens a lot around me" this is the FIRST DAY oh my god it happened ONCE. I'm trying so hard to find any of the redeemable qualities that any half decent writer could have written in for Terra but they just. Aren't. There.

Musa is doing her best and I don't blame her

Is her dad the replacement for Palladium because that's a joke

Oh look it's the one girl who actually looks like a child because her actor actually was!! And I know they sexualised her and I am NOT looking forward to it

Beatrix is doing her best and is also clearly putting it on. I like her

Also NotFaragonda is a fucking joke

Also wtf was the office I thought this was supposed to be high fantasy. You took out the sci-fi for THAT backstreet office??

Why do Bloom's notes look like a 12 year old's diary wtf

Oop flashback

Who did Bloom set on fire?? This is probs in between The Incident and Alfea so... did she burn someone alive

Why can this man not write ANY female interactions??? Even mother/daugher interactions are bullshit because Vanessa was a GOOD MOTHER and this woman is NOT

Whom the fuck talks like that?? 0/10 unrealistic dialogue

Oop Bloom's eyes are g l o w i n g

Aww Sky is doing His Best

That really isn't what mansplaining is. Is the writer actually trying to mansplain mansplaining??

Stella and Sky clearly have history and Sky made a backhanded comment while Stella was being a bitch

Prediction time: last year Stella and Sky dated, Stella had a magic emotion blowup resulting in her having to repeat first year, hence why everyone's so preoccupied with what she says, does and looks like

Aisha is seeing Bloom leave like "oh shit"

I like the weird lightsnake

I love Bloom's outfit but Bloom should not be wearing it

Oh she's going to practise her magic in the middle of the forest. Excellent

It's going about as well as you'd expect

Why does she have so many pictures of her on her own, clearly taken by another person on her own phone, if she has no friends??? Sus writing

Oh did she burn their house down?

You should not be trying this with long sleeved, flamable clothes on and no control. In the middle of a likely very flamable forest. Just saying

Maybe instead of making them bigger, focus on putting a small flame out?

Oh and she can't. Shocker.

YES AISHA

And I'm writing way too much so imma split this into two parts

#fate: the winx saga #fate watch #fate spoilers

3 notes · View notes

mymusicalnostalgia · 4 years

Text

We Need To Talk About t.A.T.u.

Right off the bat, I want to say that for a long time it has been very hard for me to find a joyful nostalgia in the band t.A.T.u. as when I found out the truth about them it made me deeply uncomfortable.

Even at the time, seeing their music video for “All The Things She Said” was a bit uncomfortable for me at the age of 8 because why were all these people watching them? Why were they locked up behind a fence? Why were they so sad? Why did they look like they were in danger?

For some seeing these girls project a lesbian relationship may have been a sexual awakening finally realizing they aren’t straight (and that is totally ok), but for me (who didn’t realise I was a bisexual until my early 20s), it was close to finding someone’s hidden bondage kink zines at too early of an age. The way their management framed lesbianism was far from what being in a same sex relationship is. For this band, it has always been through the male gaze, it has always been for the male lense. It also was all extremely pedophilic which is a major concern. These girls were put through that.

A Bit of Information On Their First Two Albums

In 2001 they released their first album “200 Po Vstrechnoy’’ which was sung entirely in Russian and was heavily themed on teenage lesbian sex and love. The album cover and booklet was stylized to look like a criminal case file, with mug shots of both girls featured on it. Perhaps to correlate with homosexuality being a such a frowned upon thing in Russia, to make it seem sexy.

In 2002 their second album “200 km/h in the Wrong Lane” was released. It was sung in English, a first for the band. This album continued on with the same themes are before but also incorporated sadness, independence and social rebellion. You know, the regular things teenage girls get up to except through a pornographic lense. The usual...

This album gave us the well know singles “All The Things She Said”, "Not Gonna Get Us" and "How Soon Is Now?" which every single video featured Lena and Julia in either running away from somebody, standing in the rain wet (no doubt, a nod from management to those wet fetishists), or featuring them live on stage wearing next to nothing exhibiting themselves. These are the videos that are still on Youtube, and they are mainly UK or alternative versions.

Attempting to Unpack the Faux Lesbianism and "Paedophilic Pop"

In 1999 Ivan Shapovalov created the band t.A.T.u. to deliberately market them as a school-girl lesbian music project that was made with men in mind as he knew that men have fantasies about these merged themes.

Lena Katina and Julia Volkova were only 14 years old when they had auditioned for the band and were put into the care and management of this man.

According to Wikipedia “The girls prepared in 2000 where they wanted the choreography "precise", to a point where one segment featured the girls stripping off their clothes; this was scrapped from the original plan.” These girls were under 16 years old at the time.

They had many tours during their second album that were cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Who would buy tickets for their teenage children to watch these two perform? Homophobic parents aside here- any concerned parent about taking their teenage girl to go see a band setting the example that they must be lusted after by males at such a young age... Well that is just terrible parenting. Any straight male older than 19 should had known better than to go see them live in concert, too.

This band was barely about the music and mostly to do with exhibitionism and the male gaze. Again, according to Wikipedia “Many musical journalists, publications and music critics had branded the group's music as "paedophilic pop".

In the late 90s to early 2000s there was this fascination with seeing two girls kiss and it was a pretty homophobic obsession. TV hosts obviously loved it because they no doubt saw it as a “side show” tactic to boost ratings and controversy.

undefined

youtube

This video is of the girls (at just 19 years old) featuring in an episode of British show Top Of The Pops, hand-cuffed to each other with the promise of doing something controversial.

The male host unashamedly announces “next up, a controversial russian duo who have shared a great amount of success and saliva, topping charts all over the world...”. This host just tells me that there was no respect for these two girls as human beings and he was just as eager as the audience to gawk at them. They close in on each other at the end of the song but turn their heads away as soon as the crowd begin cheering. A female host wraps up the performance by saying “they either set tongues wagging, or hanging out, that's t.A.T.u!” Glad to see feminism was alive and well in the noughties.

How Has Being In This Band Affected The Members?

Julia got into a bit of strife for saying homophobic things about gay men in 2014 on the TV show Lie Detector when asked how she would react if her son came out to her. Despite being bisexual herself, she stated “Yes, I would condemn him because I believe that a real man must be a real man...a man has no right to be a fag.” She followed up with “Two girls together—not the same thing as the two men together. It seems to me that lesbians look aesthetically much nicer...", which tells me everything I need to know about the negativity from her experience that she must have held onto for so long. She was taught from a very young age that people want to see lesbianism, that they lusted after it. But she lives in a country that is very conservative to real homosexuality.

And for being so sexualised at such a young age, where was the concern for their well being? Where were their parents? Why were they under management of people with no concern for their welfare?

In 2007 Lena boldy participated in a LGBTQ+ Pride Festival and in 2012 her solo band played at Queerfest. From Wikipedia: "We all are very different people and we should celebrate our differences. We should not be silent when we see this intolerant aggression towards LGBT-community"

So on one hand, Julia has displayed very negative values that she has come to live by, whereas Lena has shown growth and aliship towards those in the LGBTQ+ community.

In 2004 the girls legally broke their contract with Ivan Shapovalov and their label Neformat. Katina stated in an interview with Ananova, "He made us out to BE lesbians when we were just singing FOR lesbians. We wanted people to understand them and not judge them. That they are as free as anyone else.”

The band t.A.T.u has a very murky past and were forced to display a lesbian relationship marketed towards men while they were at a very inappropriate age which makes feeling nostalgia for the band a very convoluted experience.

#t.A.T.u.#tatu #all the things she said #not gonna get us #200 km/h in the Wrong Lane

5 notes · View notes

we-oaks · 3 years

Text

Part 7- Back to the real world

The early mornings came, welcome to the real world i would tell myself. My father would always moan about his sixteen hour days, fair enough.

My return to education was needed, it is important with my conditions to keep the mind busy and remain happy. The small interest towards music that I had in hospital had transformed into a passion, even if I'm not studying music I'm usually partaking in something musical, unless I'm watching Netflix of course. But we all need some Netflix in our lives.

I am officially the first on my mum's side of the family to go to university, but she did grow up on the moss side. They say you learn something new everyday, but at university you really do.

So if your in a dark place, and trust me i've been there there is always hope, if you haven't got hope your not aiming for anything, just waiting for it to land in your lap won't get you anywhere

Trust me.

Part 8- that's my brother

My brother has always been in my life from a very early age, he's the strongest man i know and has been through things many people would struggle to comprehend or process. So I thought I would let him have a say...

“For years my mind has been a battleground of personal exploits of what man can do to man be it every day life or some conflict in some foreign land fighting illegal wars I think we can mention a few in the last 20 years or so, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Music has played a somewhat glorification of war and conflict and we’ve all seen the movies haven’t we well trust me it’s nothing like what we see in them, music is guilty of sexualising war, it’s ugly and leaves a lasting stain on your soul, it questions your whole morality.

The music I’ll talk of is that of a sound that’s echoed with time itself music that has fuelled our mortal identity ancient sounds of a simple drum, a beat that runs in tune with your heart and drowns out any element of fear, gets the blood pumping and makes you fearless almost god like.

Slavic, Norse, Celtic, Gypsy, Mongal nomadic wanderers who are connected with the earth and every spice of existence their sound was meaningful it can make you feel connected to the very core of the earth, they didn’t create music for profit their music was free and selfless.

What’s the connection between modern conflict and the sounds of the ancients well it’s simple the very core of war hasn’t changed from the spear to the rifle it’s still flesh and bone it’s still taking life it’s still savage there’s no victor just survival. And that’s when the real battle starts the battle within.

The Crusaders had a long journey home to Europe; they had time to reflect on what they had done and experienced; they were able to reconnect with society by paying penance to their faith and seek forgiveness for the devilish acts they had committed in the name of their god. For some it would take them years before they could return home and integrate with society and have a meaningful life and a sense of purpose and identity. They had time to recover and process their experiences and had some chance of peace.

The last twenty years has seen some of the most horrific intense fighting since WW2 the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has laid witness to countless acts of unflinching bravery and some what fearlessness “I’m not a hero but I served with a few” these men are still my brothers they know me and I know them we know what we did and who we did it for, each other.

Music for me is a way of escaping what I hear and see every day witch is a constant reminder of what was and is no longer the here and now but is very fucking real, smells and sounds of every day life remind me, fumes from a car, a child crying a dog barking a door slamming a door slamming is a simple bang yes but it’s not, these few simple sounds can trigger involuntary thoughts and the deeper the thoughts the darker you go you disappear from a conscious world.

So the music to escape is of old, simple drum beats and other instruments I am clueless to name make a sound for me that is simple and rhythmic and puts you into a subconscious trance like state, it brings calm to the soul it brings peace, there is peace with this music for me.

I suffer from PTSD. It's made me homeless, it has taken away my identity and stripped me of any purpose or reason to live. It has nearly defeated me countless times, I have self harmed, I have turned to alcohol and drugs and I have even tried to end my life.

The therapy helped to an extent but I was still missing something and I had to find it because I was emotionless. I was dead inside and I knew I needed to find my happiness again. I have daughters that depended on me to find my heart, soul and life.

A simple drum beat helped save me.”

By Paul Levins

1 note · View note

eyebright-iris · 4 years

Text

Review: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

“I’m the one they should be scared of. Not you, not Mr. J – me. ’Cause I’m Harley-fuckin’-Quinn.”

A triumphant riot of not just girl-power, but the true indomitable spirit of women who have been wronged their entire lives kicking back at the ones who have tried to ruin them.

Birds of Prey is truly one of the greatest movies I have seen in a long time, and this is after having seen some fantastic competition. Finally, a Harley movie that actually cares about her as a character, as a person, that shows off all the things that makes her great and somehow doesn’t have to make her the film’s sole lead to give her the space she needs to perform. She’s naïve, excitable, an emotional rollercoaster in a pair of rollerblades and the most delightful not-quite-villain to watch on screen. Harley has broken up with the Joker and set out on her own, but she never forgets the clown look she is so known and loved for. Where so many Joker depictions try to show of the madness of clowns, the scary side to make the Joker a formidable villain, Harley Quinn is joyous. She’s a jack-in-the-box with a rocket launcher, pigtails and smiley-face mallet and maniacal glee in every bit of mayhem she causes. Yeah, in her own words, she’s not a good person – but you want to be her best friend anyway because you can’t help but love her. Every outfit was sexy but not sexualised, all about Harley’s wild self-expression and not about how much of her ass could fit into each shot; you can feel that this was directed and produced by women; created by women, a project loved by the women behind it. There’s enough emotion to make you really feel for the characters despite the comedy, but manages to flip effortlessly between genuine emotion and humour without cheapening the authentic feelings like other films have done in the past (looking at you, Deadpool).

The film also makes brilliant use of its 15 rating with an explosion of foul language and violence – but none of it gratuitous. The fights are gritty, lively, and feature none of the signature lady-fighting technique synonymous with Black Widow that involves bringing a man down with her thighs around his face. The women in this movie punch, brass-knuckle or bare-knuckle; they swing bats and break limbs, they smash windows and noses and get punched back themselves because they aren’t reduced to something pretty for the time of the fight; the fights are fun, but never feel fake. There’s enough weight behind the combat scenes to carry each of them without losing the fun of watching them. The Booby-Trap fight scene is the obvious standout, the title scene of the movie where we finally have everything the movie promised us delivered on perfectly, but there are so many others – Harley’s raid on the police station with the shotgun is another personal favourite. And good news – rumours of Harley having an ex-girlfriend are in fact true! Bisexual badass Harley Quinn takes centre-stage.

But speaking of Harley, this isn’t just her movie: I couldn’t review this film without paying proper homage to the other characters. Renee Montoya, a detective overshadowed when her partner took credit for her career-making case, watching him be captain while she never gets the respect she deserves. For a movie with a cop as one of its leads I was surprised (very pleasantly) at the general tone the film takes towards the police (in colloquial terms, BoP said “fuck blue lives!” and I love it). Renee’s a force to be reckoned with, a good heart in a bad city and she knows it. The film openly makes fun of how she speaks like an 80s cop movie, but only for the cheese of it all, because the intention behind the cheese, the desire to do good despite the rules, is what this film is all about and while I won’t spoil Montoya’s ending, I was ecstatic for her. Oh, and did I mention she has an ex-girlfriend who appears multiple times in the movie? Dinah Lance, Black Canary, is an iconic heroine of DC. A crime lord’s club songbird with a bite, she clearly has a rough history with police and a lot of mistrust, but there’s a heart of gold beneath it all and she breaks all the rules she’s set for herself to save an innocent life. Dinah also gets to show off her powers in a fight and it does not disappoint. Lastly of the Birds, we have Huntress. A mystery for much of the movie, she’s a lot of motorcycling around and mysteriously killing people for reasons unknown. However, when she does join the gang and come into the light, she’s incredible. A ruthless assassin with not great people skills which make her formidable but adorably awkward as well, her character realistically reminds the audience that childhood trauma can indeed make superheroes – but that doesn’t magically undo the fact that it is, in fact, trauma. Her interactions with Cassandra Cain are touching and she’s a fascinating case of someone with no real stake in the affairs that all the other characters are caught up in but takes a stand regardless because it’s the right thing to do. Also, all these ladies are in fact very beautiful and powerful and kickass and I am very gay.

Cassandra makes the last of the protagonists and she doesn’t let her young age or small stature make her seem any smaller against her co-stars. Fabulously cast and brilliantly acted, Cassandra is a little shit that people can’t help but take a liking to, but also very much a child in a frightening world who has no idea what she’s gotten mixed up in. I can’t lie, it’s also very refreshing to see a kid being played and acted like a damn kid, not a thirty-year-old in a schoolgirl skirt. The Booby-Trap fight where the Birds and Harley are furiously fighting dozens of goons whilst working to protect Cassandra is a really powerful scene, not just for the technicolour girl-power but also because the sight of women working together to protect a young girl in ways they themselves could not be protected is…*chef’s kiss*.

I don’t want to spoil any more than I may already have done, but the villains are phenomenal. Ewan McGregor does an amazing job with Black Mask, terrifyingly unstable and violent, yet so entertaining at the same time. Also, queer-coded (or canon, if you take McGregor’s own words on the matter) villains are absolutely no issue with me when at least two of our main cast of incredible ladies are queer on screen in this movie (and yes, imo, the bad guys are gay your honour).

Conclusion:

A supernova of harlequin madness and an absolute resounding triumph. Birds of Prey is everything we needed when Suicide Squad’s own neon-painted violence failed to live up to its potential. The movie is vividly coloured and non-stop fun. It’s lurid, violent, and perfectly Harley.

10/10

#review #movie review #birds of prey #bop #bophq #dc #dc movies #harley quinn #harleen quinzel #dinah lance #renee montoya #helena bertinelli #black canary #huntress

14 notes · View notes

astra-writes · 4 years

Text

Harry Styles.

Just my opinion.

So last week, I was reminded that Harry Styles put out a new album...Last Year. Yes, I’m late to the party. But here I am, to talk about it.

The Talent

This man was born to perform. That’s all.

Whether it be acting, writing lyrics, composing music, singing or executive producing, it seems he puts his all into it, and does it in his own way. In this commercial world, where a follower is easier than being an individual, Harry Styles is one hell of an individual.

Is what he is doing completely new? No. He draws influence from those who have come before, and if you’re a k-pop fan, his style is nothing new either (but the western media will always act like he was the first to do this). Despite this, I think he is stil a completely new entity, and I can’t wait to see what his future holds.

The Music

Note, I will only be touching upon his solo work.

Self Titled:

Let me start with his self-titled album. I enjoyed this, especially Sign of the Times. I’m not a fan of when singers just write about love songs, mostly because I don’t think romance is the only thing about life to write about. This means that most of his songs on this album were a miss for me. However, thanks to Sign of the Times, Carolina and Kiwi, I stuck around. If there’s something I learnt from listening to this album, it’s that I like his style, and I like his voice.

Fine Line:

Remember that part where I said I can’t stand too many love songs? I meant it. This album didn’t do it for me. It seemed basic, and was very much a breakup album. Which is fine, but for me, it wasn’t necessarily what I needed or wanted at the time.

That being said, Harry Styles is a phenomenal musician and singer. The production quality of both albums is off the charts, the songs are memorable, even the ones I didn’t love, I still enjoyed listening to them. What I’m trying to say, is that from a completely objective perspective, his work is top of the range, from a subjetive perspective, it’s not my jam.

My Observations

The Drugs:

Now when I did a deep dive into Style’s work, I noticed something very interesting. The first thing was, if you watch a video of the artist from 2017, he looks much younger and less weary than he does now (in 2020). I know for a fact three years don’t do that to a man. Mmy immediate thought was worry, then I remembered I read where I was told that Styles did drugs to get the feel fo the album. To me, it seemed like the easy way out. Isn’t it an artist’s role to explore themselves to get the most out of thier album and themselves?

Alternatively, this might just be a media ploy...I wouldn’t put it past PR. The article I read my have put more emphasis on the ‘sex, drugs, rock and roll’ thing.

Social Media:

Of course, it’s entirely up to an artist as to how much they do or do not use thier social media platforms. But when an artists jumps on socials just to tell you to buy an album or tickets to a convert, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I even heard that he uploaded and delted something on his Instagram Story. That doesn’t sit right with me. I think there is a definite lack of authenticism there, and I understand keeping your privacy, but there is a way to do that, and still keep your fans in the loop, and let them know you care.

Personality:

If you google “Harry Styles” and you don’t get the words ‘womanizer’ you’re google is nicer than mine. The truth is, it doesn’t seem accurate to me. I think Harry Styles is one of the few, rich, white men, who has his feet planted firmly on the ground. This might be too much of a leap, he could be a dick in real life, but this doesn’t seem the case. I think he’s gotten a bad reputation from a very young age.

The media has been sexualising him from when he was sixteen years old, and that would ruin most people, but yet, has left him humble and down to earth.

If you’re reading this, and you think Harry Styles is a womaniser, go and find the nearest good looking guy you know and ask him how many girls he’s slept with, it’s probably double what the tabloids are saying about Styles. What i’m saying is, that there is a definite lack of empathy in the media about him. We, as consumers, should probably be more empathetic.

POC Footnote:

Another thing I noticed while googling is that Harry Styles seems not to have many POC close friends, none of the girls he’s ‘dated’ seem to be POC, and it’s not up to me to say whether that’s right or wrong, that his preference and for all I know he could be well educated about other cultures, what I’m saying to my fellow POC’s is that, he doesn’t culturally appropriate us, and that gives him bonus points in my mind.

Conclusion

Reading this, it may be obvious to you that my thoughts are not just on his music, but him as a whole. That’s mostly because celebrities aren’t just selling themselves but thier brand. I think highly of Harry Styles, and if you haven’t seen his latest track, Watermelon Sugar, you should check it out, it will chase your pandemic blues away.

One last footnote. I think it’s important to say, that when I googled Harry, I got a lot of information about ships and things, that are crossing some lines. If he says he felt a certain way about someone, I’m inclined to beleive him.

-Astra.x

#harry styles #fine line #adore you #sign of the times #opinion #just my opinion #watermelon sugar

1 note · View note

doomedzagreus · 5 years

Text

rules:

always repost the rules

answer the questions given to you by the one who tagged you!

give 11 questions

tag 11 people

i was tagged by @davenziv ty!!❤️

1. favourite crack ship

it has to be abdi and carlos. carlos has canonically seen his ass. i rest my case

2. least favourite character from each remake excluding williams and his brothers (or equivalent)

druck: oh god idk for a laugh id say stefan but....i don't dislike anyone,,,, hmmm it doesn't have to mean dislike.....so id have to say other sam (where did he go?) yes this is 100% a cop out

españa: hugo,,,, sorry man you're great but i love everyone else a bit more

nl: he's pretty but it has to be kes, sorry

baguette: daphné and basile i can't pick just one wow i don't like this remake as a whole but those two whew

ita: wana.

haven't seen the other two remakes!!!

3. rank the remakes in order of best to worst boy squad

druck

españa

nl (tbf theirs is p bad but i can't bare to rate ita any higher)

ita

4. rank the remakes in order of best to worst girl squad

españa

druck

ita

fr (can u tell i just hate this remake)

like i said i haven't seen the other two but i feel like they definitely rank higher than ita + fr

5. your favourite headcanon that is not at all supported by canon

BALLET. DANCER. MATTEO. like michi can do ballet and just imagine david walking into the wg to see matteo dancing and he's fucking flawed cause he didn't know his clumsy gremlin had this in him, he's so beautiful too whew

6. one thing og did better than the remakes

well shit i ....this is super difficult since as u all know im up drucks arse, but i think the relationship between isak and jonas was amazing, and only druck has come to rest on that level to me. i also think their general feel, it feels so "everyday"? like you're actually watching day to day life, and not something overly dramatised for the sake of it ??? like obviously it's dramatic it's a show, but it's not *three car crashes and someone drowns* u know?

7. one thing each remake did better than the og

druck: boy squad. trans moc (even holds a special place in my heart but.....david u know). integration of the squads. teens feeling like they're real teens, being dumb. arguably bearable william (only due to the new content which lbr it's just chris) IK THIS ISNT ONE THING BUT IM DRUCKS BITCH OK

nl: G I R L. S Q U A D. diversity!!!!!!!! arguably better william even tho that went right to shit in the second half of s2.

españa: the pacing and the girl squad. like the conflict in s2 only ever lasted a few clips max, as cris and joana would fix it just after it started. i loved that so much.

ita: well shit uh. uhhhhhhhhhhhh.

fr: nope

8. a popular opinion that (almost) everyone shares but you don't

(nobody i follow thinks this but let me open up anon hate for myself a sec) that fr is a good remake in general. like even without the big obvious issues they have, the remake in general just isn't well done. don't come for my throat, i used to love it when it was the only one airing S3, but then i took a look at it and realised i was settling, cause it just ISN'T good, without the fucking blatant sexualisation of teenagers played by 30 year old men, and the sheer levels of fucking racism. it's overly dramatic, it's badly written, everything is stated too obviously and nobody actually feels like a real teenager which has a lot to do with casting people in their mid to late 20s

9. your headcanon for lucas vdh's love interest

definitely not white, not model-hot, maybe with a disability. idk, probably cause i was hard of hearing as a child, but id like to see a hard of hearing even

10. your headcanon for shays love interest

well i haven't seen austin, but once again her love interest will hopefully be a woman of colour, maybe plus size, since the skams lack a lot of body diversity (idk the right wording but im plus size myself so)

11. character you look up to the most

it was between david and matteo, and it says only one so to try to stick to the question, im gonna say david. he was so afraid, and he didn't wanna get close to anyone for fear he would lose everything again, but he let matteo in and he came out and he once again went through hell and he fell in love and found a support system and now he has an amazing set of friends and a wonderful, supportive, caring boyfriend. yeah im emotional about david. for the first time in my life i don't actually hate myself, so yeah, i look up to david for inspiring that. and now im crying lmao

RIGHT you will most likely all have been tagged already, but either way you DON'T have to do this (im tagging some people i usually wouldn't hence me saying this) @akefalosthea @8102-druck @killyourdarlingsx @darkdodielove @distastefullyqueer @driftovertheedge @schreibnersfriday @softamira @davidfors5 @waterbottle79 (ik u can't but idk 11 people asjfjjdkskl) @manthastop (ik u have only seen nl but see the comment before this)

1. which remake would you most like to be a part of?

2. if you could be best friends with someone from each remake, who would it be?

3. what changes would you make to each remake?

4. what was your favourite scene from each remake?

5. if you could make your own season, who would it be about and what would happen?

6. is there a country you think would make a brilliant remake? if so, which and why?

7. what is your favourite quote from each remake

8. what is your favourite headcanon?

9. what is your opinion of the nl boy squad?

10. rank most bearable to most despicable william

11. what thing from og do you wish a remake would change, and if one already has, what was it and do you prefer the change?

(these questions are shite and by each remake i mean the ones you've seen lmao. also ik some of the people i tagged i don't actually talk to i hope u don't mind asfjgjdk)

#long post #ask game #alex shut up #mutuals #vale #mine

8 notes · View notes

dangerliesbeforeyou · 5 years

Text

dan made me do it

(lol jk, but like i have Feelings(tm) about my sexuality and everything & figure this is the best time and place to do it...)

So I figured out I was bisexual a little over 5 years ago, after discovering it was a legitimate thing I could call myself whilst being on tumblr (2014 was a big time for lgbt discourse, especially in terms of the various terms and labels, most of which I hadn’t been familiar with...)... but tbh, I’d been trying to come to terms with who I was in terms of my sexuality for a long time

I grew up in a religious house (my parents were jehovah’s witnesses), but I never really remember anything vaguely homophobic being thrown around? And even if it did exist, I wouldn’t have been aware of it since I never had any question or doubt in my mind about the fact I was attracted to boys (I’d had a rly intense crush on this one boy for about 5 years through primary and secondary school... I still sometimes see his pics on facebook & u know what? I still would lol anyway...) my early days in school were mostly taken up by trying to get friends not be a total recluse (I’ve always had trouble making friends and connecting to people it’s no biggie it’ ss fineee........ ok carry on>>)

So going into secondary school I never felt that I was anything other than straight? But one thing I vividly remember was the way people in my year treated girls that were suspected to be gay... in short? they were seen as ‘dirty’... it was something perverted, and highly sexualised... (as in: being a lesbian meant masturbating a lot... (i mean: this says something about wider misogyny & demonising of female pleasure but like.. another time, another time) & also making out loads with other girls)... like no one ever came up and said ‘being gay is wrong’, but whenever rumours spread about a girl being suspected as gay and they didn’t deny them, people would suddenly start whispering about them... & it’s super strange to me that this was the same culture that if two female friends were really close and got labelled as gay, but came out and were like ‘oh no we’re straight ha ha we just kiss at parties and touch each others boobs’ or whatever, people would be completely ok with it?

So I never really gave myself the opportunity to go into this... I was never comfortable enough to be super ‘close’ to any of my female friends (intimacy issues: we don’t have to to get into all THAT right now though lol ahahaha....ha...) & I knew I wasn’t so called ‘skanky’ like all the girls who were labelled as being actually gay...

& this was all happening as I found myself actually being interested in looking at girls... (like what can I say? boobs are friggin nice to look at lol...) But i always saw it as innocent intrigue, since I was only 11/12 at the time so hadn’t grown into my own at the time... and the fact I felt more comfortable being touched by or talking to or like literally doing anything with girls? it’s just cos boys are gross there’s no other reason behind it!!.... right?

I think a big thing is that a lot of girls are so open with each other... like they’ll compliment each other’s boobs or asses, or comment on how pretty they are or their makeup skills or whatever.. you’ll be hard pressed to find a girl that goes all ‘no homo’ on her friend except.... I feel like that was me lol? I remember getting compliments from other girls about my appearance (didn’t happen often though pffft) or anything really and feeling all mushy inside, and giving the compliments back felt like a big deal to me? idk I suppose all the warning signs were there that hidden under layers of introverted awkwardness was a lil bi demon just waiting to come out lol!

So yadyyada, 2014 happens and I finally realise I’m bi... I just remember reading something on here about bisexuality and being like ‘oh damn yeh... dat me??’... like it felt amazing to be able to finally accept that I actually like girls too?? & one of the first people I told was this guy I became friends with when I first went to college... & he told me he was also bi and I remember thinking ‘wow!!!!! so it’s actually real?! it’s not just something you see on tumblr from random strangers, it’s an actual thing people I know irl experience wowwowowow’... I also came out to another online friend who I was close to, and it felt really amazing... but I could never translate that into actually coming out in real life (not to mention life was kinda shit at this time and I had like 0 friends but hEY, that’s not for now kiddos lol)...

So yeh, I’ve never actually come out to anyone... not properly anyway... I’ve always been very open about my sexuality online, but in real life I’ve never really discussed it with ... anyone? & it’s not because I’m ashamed in anyway, and it’s not even as if I’m that scared I just... I’ve never felt the need to? But after seeing Dan’s video, plus it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, this is something I really wanna do... see; I was so ready to live life just being ‘straight until I maybe get a girlfriend one day’, so ready to only tell people if they ask me but I just realised... isn’t that partly living a lie? who I’m with doesn’t change my sexuality, so why is it something I’m seemingly so scared of declaring to the world??

I vividly have this memory, before I realised I was bi, and I have no idea of why or when or any of the details, but me and my mum were watching something, and bisexuality was mentioned, and either my mum agreed with, or she said something along the lines of ‘bisexuals are more likely to cheat’, and that’s really stuck with me.... it’s something that’s always nagging in the back of my mind, and it... really fucking hurts lol... I know for a fact my mum will love my regardless of who I end up sleeping with or whatever, she may be pretty conservative in her mindset of things but she’s always willing to be open minded which I really love about her... but knowing this inbuilt stereotype of bisexuality is something she both acknowledges and somewhat agrees with is really... sad...

I’m 21 years old, I’ve been in one relationship in my life which only last a few months and involved no kissing and only occasional hand holding because I was too terrified to do any more (again: subject for aNOTHER day lol), and I know for a goddamn FACT that my sexuality would never make me more likely to be unfaithful to someone I claim to love...I really hate that this is associated with the label, but it’s something I know that I am... why on earth would I change that or try to be something else when I know that /this/ is me!

I think one of the biggest things putting me off ‘coming out’ is having to explain yourself... like dan howell made a 45 minute long video discussing his own sexuality and experiences cos he knew people wouldn’t just accept it if he just tweeted ‘yo dawgs imma queer lol #swag’ one day, and it feels kinda annoying that queer people/lgbtq+ people feel like we can’t just...... be ourselves without having to justify or explain it?! (even me making this post is solidifying that factor lol... it’s a mess lol)... like I just wanna live my life being bi, is that so much to ask for lol?

I am so so SO grateful we have so much more bi, and lgbtq+ in general, representation in media these days.... it’s goddamn beautiful to see our stories, and the stories of our community being told and cherished by millions, and that’s really gotta be something to rejoice in this pride month!!!

(side note: dan also talks about gender identity & I have literally never related to anything more lol... like 90% of the time I don’t feel like what people classify as ‘womanly’ things... but also I am a woman? idk man lol just call me a formless blob or whatever it was he said lol as a baby no one really knew if I was a girl or boy since my mum mainly dressed me in yellow & I had like 2 strands of hairs on my head lol... damn I miss those days lol)

In conclusion (or tl;dr as I’ve seen the Cool people write on their long posts (yes I had to google what it meant shhhh)):

Hi, my name is Xanthe, my username is ‘dangerliesbeforeyou’ here on tumblr because I made it 7 years ago and I wanted to use a cool sounding harry potter quote so I could come across as sophisticated but also nerdy, I’m a 21 year old female (mostly?) and I am a proud Bisexual...

I’m also single and very ready to mingle if anyone is interested ;;;;;;;;;)

(that’s only half a joke lol... plz romance me I’m v lonely)

#personal #lgbtq #pride month #idk what to tag lol #thank u for giving me the confidence to do this daniel lol...#maybe i'll b able to come out to my family who knowsss

3 notes · View notes