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sometimesrosy · 3 years

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Hey. It's been a long time since I had a question. Maybe the 100's demise was the reason.

Now coming to my actual query. This past year I have binged numerous shows ranging from American to korean dramas or Turkish dizis. There is certain thing that I have felt and noticed throughout i.e., the woman characters aren't given even a slight leeway by the audience. If the even make a slight mistake, the audience remembers it always to stand against that character. Whereas if there is a male villain, people gets cheerful seeing even a slight bit of humanity in him. They even wait for its redemption.

Let me take an example of a Turkish show "kara sevda(black love)". A one line synopsis can be put like- two leads who love each other endlessly but can never be together. So, the villain in that show is beyond redemption. That character has fallen so far off that there is no coming back. But still when he is playing with a baby, people's comments are like 'best moment of the show.' 'see he is such a good person'. 'the female lead should accept his love'. Am like what?

And if I tell you about the female lead. She is a good person at heart who is sacrificing love for family. And she is labelled "selfish" by audience. 'She doesn't deserve the male lead' etc. And you know I too felt like that for the majority of the show until I reached the point of self reflect.

Even Clarke from the 100 faced so much hate that there wasn't any visible backlash when in the end the makers made her a villain. The backlash was for Bellamy death and stupid end instead.

Looking through tv series, it's so easy to see why tv or films doesn't have female anti heroes. Male anti heroes are so easy to find and also widely successful like Damon from tvd or Klaus.

What is your take?

Yup!

Yes.

Definitely.

You are absolutely correct. The leeway for female characters to show human imperfection is very, very thin. Meanwhile, a guy can literally blow up a planet, kill his beloved father, have temper tantrums with kicking and screaming and torture the female main characters and fandom-- and the creators-- think that makes him a hero. And the requirements for his redemption, if there are any at all amounts to:

WOOPSIE! I'M SOWWY.

I simply do NOT understand that phenomenon.

I mean, I get the need to relate to darker characters, morally gray characters, to explore our own negative impulses...but the whole tendency is, for me anyway, given a more sinister light when you compare how the audience tends to treat these outright villainous male characters compared to even SLIGHTLY morally gray female characters. Maybe just flawed.

It also interferes with satisfying redemption arcs. Because YES watching someone face their dark past and attempt to become better and be redeemed is a great story... but if male characters only have to wear a cape and be hot to be redeemed.... then that's not a satisfying redemption arc. And if women can't do ANYTHING to be redeemed because they are considered irredeemably selfish or whatever for the same flaws someone's Hot Dark Badboy smirks about and isn't even sorry for? Then we barely even get redemption stories for women.

And that's part of the problem, isn't it? Women aren't allowed the same representation as men... even as flawed characters.

The point of good representation is not to represent only the best, most perfect, most desirable, most successful type of people. The point is to allow everyone of any sex, race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, ability, etc to take part in the full spectrum of humanity in our stories, good and bad and mediocre. A female Mary Sue is just the female version your general male hero. One is considered bad storytelling the other is taken as The Way It Should Be.

Women are not allowed to have flaws in most of our pop culture, or women are ghettoized into only women's fic or romance or YA, or women take backseat to male villains, or whatever.

I'm writing a book where the woman abandoned her child, and she sleeps around and cons people and avoids commitment. I purposely wrote her to be unlikable.... or rather, she's not unlikable, she's clever and funny and weird, but she has characteristics that women aren't supposed to have. She essentially acts like a male anti-hero, until her call to action and she is forced to face her past mistakes. But I know that these are things that audiences say are irredeemable for women. Abandon her own child?? No. Not allowed. Even though plenty of male characters go off on adventures leaving wife and child behind and it isn't even considered a character flaw, just... a male adventurer. Or honestly, just a guy. Sure one who's imperfect, but that old ball and chain was probably the worst, right? He had to move on and now he has a tragic backstory and complexity and oh the audience will probably either want to be him or want to be with him, because, that's how these things work.

Not saying that characters shouldn't be dark, do bad things, have flaws, be anti-heroes, have redemption arcs, or have a deep, multilayered villainy.

But I am saying we might want to be a little more critical about what we consider irredeemable for certain people and what war crimes and abuse we let some characters get away with in the name of bold (white) masculinity.

IS the nature of being a (white) man we look up to someone who destroys other people?

I think that toxic masculinity IS seen as sexy. Unfortunately, that's one of the reasons it's seeped into our culture. Manly (white) men who abandon kids and kill without remorse, but with muscles. Manly (white) men who murder whole regions because bad things happened to them, and smolder while doing it. Manly (white) men who commit genocide regularly, but fall for the heroine and save her once. Manly (white) men who are serial killers but with an intriguing depth.

tbh there's lots more to say on the topic, some of it very controversial. These are the stories we like to hear and the characters we love. And it might be rooted in the toxic masculinity that our society has been selling to us as propaganda for decades, if not centuries-- but we don't like to be told to examine our biases, our tastes, our preferences, or our beliefs. It's threatening to our sense of self.

However, that is how you unravel all sorts of toxic belief systems, from misogyny to racism to homophobia to bigotry of all kinds. I added the (white) to this post after I read through it, because I realized non white male characters are not allowed this leeway, either. So this phenomenon is generally (not always) limited to white men. Why?????

my theory? we're still making the colonialists the heroes of the story, friends.

#misogyny #toxic masculinity #media #anti heroes and villains #colonialism #pop culture #fandom #redemption arcs

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rosereview · 3 years

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Favourite Webtoons Part 2

Okay so since the first part didn’t have every single one that I loved, I decided to make another part and I’m sure I’ll do more in the future. So here again are my favourite Webtoons and if you’re interested in more, here is my part 1 of the list.

KillMax by Kennycomics & SilentMaru

KillMax has such a cool concept and beautiful visuals that I instantly loved it. Sadly it was slow going for the creators getting pages out and now they are on hiatus getting ready for season 3, but I really think it is worth the read. It was hard to remember certain things because of the large gaps between getting pages out but I reread it multiple times and that in itself was very enjoyable so I do recommend. It’s about a witch girl who gets famous on the internet which grabs the attention of witch hunters and I love the badass-ness of the main female character and also male lead as well. So if you like strong female characters, then definitely give this a read because you will not be disappointed.

Siren’s Lament by instantmiso

This was the first completed Webtoon I’ve read and I loved it so much it’s crazy. The only problem is that I am so sad it’s done! I wish I had more because I loved the characters so much and the art style is so beautiful (like all of the Webtoons I’ve talked about so far). This story is a romance with a love triangle where somehow you are always rooting for all three of them to be together because as a group they are just absolutely adorable. The concept is that the main lead is turned into a siren but only gets half of the “curse” from the siren guy she kissed so they have to figure out why it happened that way. The whole plot was beautifully done and like I already said, all of the characters are so likeable and all of their relationships are adorable but still complex, so I highly recommend.

To Love Your Enemy by Jungyoon & Taegeon

This one I recently started and it is very cute and fun to read. I don’t think it’s my favourite Webtoon ever, but it updates twice a week which is wonderful, and the beginning for me was very solid. It’s also a romance with the trope of fake relationship + hate to love, and I think that was my favourite part— the two characters falling in love with each other. But now that the story has progressed so much I don’t really know how I feel about the whole romance aspect of it. I think now it’s just that I’m anxious for the characters because (SPOILER, although it’s a romance so not really a spoiler because we all know what happens) they are together and I want them to stay together. Once romances get to the point of the two leads getting together, the next big storylines and plot points are the drama of them trying to stay together and that’s a little nerve racking further in this Webtoon. But I still do enjoy it very much. Also forgot to say what it’s about, but it’s about a girl that worked in a pyramid scheme (I think) finally gets out of it and goes to university where a guy there knows who she is and hates her for what she’s done, but then she starts a rumor that they’re together and it goes from there.

Men of the Harem by Alphatart & Yeongbin

Another one that I started recently and which doesn’t actually have a lot of pages out is Men of the Harem, which I am loving so much! This one was recently started so a lot of the story foundation is still being made and the real drama hasn’t started yet, but the potential for this story is very promising. It’s a fantasy that has our lead becoming the Emperor for her kingdom and she surprises everyone by wanting to create a harem of men instead of being a normal female emperor and having only one male consort. Honestly I just love that concept in and of itself and the story so far has been delivering in the best way possible. I love that we have a strong female ruler that breaks the rules of being the stereotypical girl and makes the power move of having her own harem. So if you’re into that then you’ll love this Webtoon.

The Advanced Player of the Tutorial Tower by Bangguseok Gimssi & Omagam

This one was also started recently so there aren't many pages out but it is really good so far. It’s about our modern world being overrun by monsters and people have to start fighting them to stay alive. But there is also this tower that randomly selects people to complete it where they either die or defeat all the monsters inside alive and become monster fighters/hunters in the real world to protect the normal citizens. There is a lot more to it than that but that’s the bare bones, and the main character was put into the tower when it first appeared and completed it but was never let out until 12 years later, so he’s now the most powerful monster hunter guy in the world. I love having a main character that is all powerful because I always love seeing the bad guys underestimate them and then get destroyed because they’re so cocky. So if you like action (and I think this is actually the only non-romance Webtoon on either of my lists) then you’ll love this one.

The Remarried Empress by Alphatart & Sumpul

Another strong female lead in a patriarchal fantasy setting with romance and drama created by the same creator as Men of the Harem. This one updates twice a week and is so good it’s crazy! The main character is the Empress of this kingdom because she had an arranged marriage with the Emperor, but they were always good friends growing up so it’s supposed to be all good. But then dummy Emperor dude goes out and gets himself a stupid mistress who ruins everyone’s day and who has an agenda of her own. This one does get you really angry at certain characters but you also fall in love with the lead so much it’s worth it. Also her new love interest is absolutely great, so read it for that reason too! But yeah, if you like fantasy, fantasy politics, drama, romance, and magic then check this one out.

Unholy Blood by Lina Im & Jeonghyeon Kim

The last one I want to mention is this one, Unholy Blood, which is a vampire Webtoon that is such well developed plot/world building-wise that I think it’s worth it just for that reason. The main character lives in a world where there is a vampire disease that is running wild in the form of crazy vampires turning humans and killing them on the streets. Because of that the world lives in fear with a curfew and the police are doing all they can to destroy the vampires, but they have their claws in every part of society. The main character has some traumatic stuff happen to her which makes her have to go find all these evil vampires responsible and kill them. It’s very action packed with a tiny bit of romance later on, but like I mentioned already, it’s the whole world, concept, and plot that makes me love it coupled with awesome badass characters as well.

The concludes my second list of recommendations and favourite Webtoons. I hope some of these interest people and make them want to read them or just get on the Webtoon app and check out some other stuff because these creators really deserve the support.

Until next time!

~Rose Reviews

#siren's lament #instantmiso #the remarried empress #alphatart #sumpul #killmax #kennycomics #silentmaru #to love your enemy #jungyoon #taegeon #men of the harem #yeongbin #the advanced player of the tutorial tower #bangguseok gimssi #omagam #unholy blood #lina im #jeonghyeon kim

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luciehercndale · 4 years

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Alastair Carstairs and Charles Fairchild: Uneven Love

In this essay I will try to be as brief as I can about what it meant to be part of the LGBTQ+ community at the beginning of the XX century and a few points on why Charles and Alastair were an uneven/unbalanced couple. Have a nice read!

Being gay in Victorian/Edwardian London

Legality of Charlastair’s relationship

Uneven relationship

Before I start delving into this topic, I just wanted to tell you a few things about what it meant being part of the LGBTQ+ community at the beginning of the XX century. I will briefly tell you about Great Britain specifically because the story is set in London, but you have to understand each country has its movements of emancipation and its laws, so there are a few things which may differ. I will also just mention about homosexual relationships at this time.

Being a gay man in London at the beginning of XX century wasn’t easy, because if two men were caught together in compromising positions, they could be arrested and detained and accused of buggery or attempted buggery. There was a law passed in 1885 which condemned public indecency between males, and such law won’t be abolished until the 60’s of the XX century. The only places gay men were allowed to be themselves were the Molly Houses. Those places were like modern taverns, pubs, coffeehouses where they could meet and engage in sexual activities with other gay men. Speaking of Charles and Alastair, I do wonder if they met in such a place, although since the former is so obsessed with keeping the appearances, maybe not. Or maybe he went in secret, but let’s not forget that in 1902 Alastair was 17.

Why is Charles so obsessed with his image?

For one, homosexuality was the opposite of the idea of “manliness” in Victorian/Edwardian age. During this period, what counted the most to British people was their image, how they appeared in public, and being gay was considered as a deviant act, an immortal act which was the evidence of a corrupt morality. A Victorian family had to be presentable, impeccable - the public sphere had to be pristine even if the private sphere was not. Charles Fairchild is a man of the public sphere because he’s sort of a politician’s figure who was born during the highest point Victorian mentality. It’s no wonder he is concerned with how others perceive him, and he sees his sexuality as a threat to his preferred career, which is all about “manliness”. Remember before Charlotte became Consul? Even there we saw the sexism of the Inquisitor and other members solely because Charlotte was not a man, hence, she couldn’t be “manly”. Charles would be regarded the same way, this is why he decided not to be openly gay. But mark my words, sooner or later he will because that is an inner conflict he has which is at war with his outer goal.

I’ve seen people say that one of the first reasons why Alastair and Charles’ relationship was not appropriate is because Alastair was 16 and Charles was 22. Of course I agree. I wanted to check whether it was legal or not in the XX century, and I discovered that after the Criminal Law Amendment Act passed in 1885, the age of consent was 16, which meant that as much as I find it repulsing, Alastair and Charles could have a relationship and they wouldn’t be breaking the law except for the not so little detail that they were homosexual. Like I said above, homosexuals could risk a prison sentence.

I want to tell you more about this topic but I don’t want to derail from the purpose of this essay.

First and foremost, from the interactions we had of them, you could tell Charles seemed to have promised things to Alastair, because when they speak in Chapter 11 of CoG, the latter is pained and all of his hopes are destroyed. “But you said - I thought” that is what Alastair says. That is the realization that he believed in Charles and what they shared in Paris. Charles says he doesn’t make “false promises”, which means that he may have already thought that their relationship could not be more than what it was - a secret affair. Secret because the act was illegal at the time, and affair because it’s clear Charles might have used Alastair’s affection to fuel his own ego.

I’m convinced that Charles may have an inferiority complex. His mother Charlotte is Consul, the first female Consul. I believe he admires her because despite being a woman, she could get this post because she is also very able with her job. Charlotte is someone Charles looks up to and wants to emulate, but as we see through CoG, Charles’ regent job is laughable. He slanders James, he seems to side with Tatiana whenever he is concerned without having evidence (you see, Tatiana may have manipulated Charles into doing what she wants). This is not what a promising Consul does, and Charles probably knows it.

Then why Alastair?

Why, you say? For one, Alastair also likes politics. I hope he likes politics because he wasn’t influenced by Charles, but I’m convinced that is what Charles and Alastair bonded on; politics. I could see Alastair also getting into politics, by the way, but this is a chat for another time.

Alastair, 17 year old Alastair, felt confident of baring his soul to Charles when they started getting acquainted. He was also very young, I think Charles was the first person that he recognized also loved men like he did. He lived in an age were homosexuality was punished, the majority of gay men tried to hide their sexuality not to be deemed immoral and deviant. I think Alastair was ecstatic that he had found someone he could like and who could like him back, and this is why he decided to be with Charles. We don’t know when this relationship started, but probably after 1899 and the Academy. Maybe Paris in 1902 was the first encounter they had because they couldn’t see each other all the time, maybe they had been together longer… I don’t know. I hate that we don’t know the exact timeline, but we may get it in the future.

I was saying. In Chapter 11 of CoG when Charles goes to Alastair’s house, he reveals that he loves him. “I have loved you since Paris,” Alastair says, which, like I said above, makes it impossible to define if they just had Paris and Alastair fell for him from that only moment of connection (because they might have had sexual interactions there, maybe Alastair lost his virginity to Charles - these are just my assumptions, I have no idea if I’m right).

The Paris affair also makes me think about: “We’ll always have Paris”, which is a famous line from Casablanca. What does it mean? The only thing the protagonists of that movie can hold onto is Paris, since WWII broke and they can only have the memory of what happened in Paris because they can’t be together/won’t be reunited. Rings a bell?

Before I also add how prophetic it was for Alastair to find Thomas in Paris at the same moment he was waiting to spend time with Charles - because it was indeed a coincidence, but also how tricky fate is. Alastair was probably already attracted to Thomas in Paris, but he was loyal to Charles, otherwise… but this is also a chat for another essay.

Then Alastair and Charles kiss. The way Charles treats Alastair is very controlling: he doesn’t just reply “You know I do” when A tells him he loves him, he leads the moment and draws Alastair towards him for a kiss. Then they end up on the sofa, Charles on top and Alastair under him - which isn’t very casual, is also a way for Charles to control everything, because he knows fine well Alastair loves him and he’s indulging into the moment because he doesn’t dislike A, but he also doesn’t love him. Alastair gives Charles the validation he isn’t getting in his political sphere. (See a few paragraphs above).

Sex is also a way to exert power. We don’t know Alastair’s and Charles’s private lives in detail, but from the ways this scene is written, I can tell Alastair is the type who bares himself for the one he loves. Now that his heart was broken I don’t know what to expect.

Then they stop. Alastair is in pain because he longed for Charles. Of all the things he could ask Charles, what does he ask?

“What is wrong, Charles?” he said, his voice husky and rough. “If this is not what you came for, then why are you here?”

I mean, what? Do you know the heaviness of this sentence? It means that most of Alastair and Charles’ interactions as a couple might have been lead by sex or by making out. Why do I think this? Because otherwise Alastair wouldn’t say that - he’s basically implying that most of the occurrences between them started because of something sexual…

“IF THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU CAME FOR…”

It makes me so mad. So mad. Because it is clear to me that after the Academy, Alastair was devastated and also regretful of his actions towards the other guys. He also had to take care of his family. He also points out how he managed his household when his father was “sick”, how Alastair has been a brother and a father and the head of the Carstairs family for longer than we can imagine. I understand why meeting Charles could have changed his life, but Alastair is a giver, he gives a lot to those he cares about, meanwhile Charles is a seeker, he also wants to feel loved but he can’t exchange the affection the same way.

We can consider Charles and Alastair’s relationship dead and gone, anyway. Not only because Alastair said he was done and understood that Charles just wanted to matter (his words, not mine) and that he only cares about his career. In the scene I mentioned above, we also know that the reason why Charles came to Alastair’s was to inform him that Barbara Lightwood had died. Metaphorically speaking, her death could also signify the death of Charlastair and the moment in which Thomastair’s door was truly open to explore.

Now to conclude my thoughts - which I hope weren’t too jumbled - I’ll just say that as much as he unnerves me, I do think Charles could have a nice arc if played well. But, my dears, without Alastair. This is for sure.

Footnote: If you want to know more this, especially concerning gender, you can read What is Gender History? By Sonya O. Rose which treats different topics.

#alastair carstairs #charles fairchild #thomas lightwood #the last hours #gender history #chain of gold #chain of iron #chain of thorns #charles and alastair #thomastair #alastair and thomas #tlh #tsc #the shadowhunter chronicles #tales from the shadowhunter academy #my edits

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terramythos · 3 years

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TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 6 of 26

Title: The Killing Moon (Dreamblood #1) (2012)

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, First-Person, Third-Person, Female Protagonist, LGBT Protagonist, Asexual Protagonist.

Rating: 8/10

Date Began: 2/07/2021

Date Finished: 2/13/2021

Peace is sacred in the walled city-state of Gujaareh, and must be maintained at any cost. The Gatherers are a priesthood tasked with maintaining this goal. In the name of Hananja, Goddess of the moon, they walk the city at night and harvest Dreamblood-- the magic of dreams-- from Gujaareh's denizens. They bring the peace of death to those who need it... and to those judged criminal or corrupt.

But something else haunts Gujaareh's streets. A Reaper, a rogue Gatherer driven to endless madness and hunger from Dreamblood, is preying on the innocent, casting their souls into an eternal nightmare. Ehiru, one of the elder Gatherers, finds himself caught in the middle of a political conspiracy between his priesthood, the holy Prince, and the monstrous Reaper. An insidious corruption runs deeper than Ehiru knows-- and it may be too late to stop.

The Gatherer’s eyes glittered in her memory, so dark, so cold--but compassionate, too. That had been the truly terrifying thing. A killer with no malice in his heart: it was unnatural. With nothing in his heart, really, except the absolute conviction that murder could be right and true and holy.

Full review, major spoilers, and content warnings under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Graphic depictions of violence, gore, death, warfare, and murder-- including death of children and mass murder. Discussions of p*dophilia/grooming (nothing graphic). Brief reference to r*pe. One character is a minor infatuated with a much older character-- not reciprocated. Rigid gender and social roles, including slavery. Magic-induced addiction and withdrawal. Loss of sanity/altered mental states/mind control/gaslighting.

Last year I read N. K. Jemisin's short story collection How Long 'Til Black Future Month? One of my favorite stories was The Narcomancer, which explored a vibrant, ancient Egypt-inspired world with themes of faith, dreams, violence, and duty. I wanted to read more from the universe, and finally got to do so with The Killing Moon, the first book in the Dreamblood duology.

Jemisin's creativity in worldbuilding is, in my opinion, unmatched in the fantasy genre. I thought Gujaareh was super interesting and fleshed out. While the ancient Egypt inspiration is obvious, it's also clearly an original fantasy culture in its own right. Everything from religious practices to social castes to gender roles to the fucking architecture felt methodical and thought out. The base premise of assassin priests compassionately harvesting magic from people is a fascinating idea and totally gripping. The pacing is a little slow, but I didn't mind so much because learning about the world was so fun.

While there's a hefty amount of worldbuilding exposition in the story, Jemisin doles out information gradually. Bits and pieces of Gujaareen law, etc are introduced at the beginning of each chapter, and usually have a thematic connection to the events of the story. Information is sparing at times, meaning that one doesn't have a full picture of how everything ties together until pretty far into the story. Even something as crucial as the dream-based magic system isn't fully realized until near the end. I like the mystery of this approach, and I can appreciate how difficult it must be to keep the reader invested vs frustrating them with a lack of info. Jemisin consistently does a great job with this in everything I've read by her.

I did want a little bit more from the narcomancy aspect of the story, since dream worlds are such a huge part of Gujaareen religion and culture. In The Killing Moon we see just a few dreamscapes, and then only briefly. There's so much potential with narcomancy as a magic system, yet most of what we see is an outside, "real-world" perspective, which isn't terribly unique compared to other kinds of magic. Dreamblood being a narcotic (heh) with some Extra Fantasy Stuff is interesting, but I wanted more. Perhaps The Shadowed Sun expands on this.

Characterization is the other Big Thing with this book, as it's very much a character-driven story. Overall I'm torn. There's some things I really liked, and others that felt underdeveloped. I'll go over my favorite things first.

Ehiru is probably the strongest of the main cast, and I really enjoyed his character arc. Here's a guy who is completely devoted to his faith, regardless of what others may think of it. Yet he's not a self-righteous dick. He sees Gathering as a loving and holy thing, so when he errs in the line of duty, it totally consumes him. And things just get worse and worse for him as the story progresses. Say what you will about the Gatherers and the belief system of Gujaareh; Ehiru comes off as intensely caring, devoted, and compassionate, and I genuinely felt bad for him throughout the novel. I'm not religious but these kinds of faith narratives are super interesting to me.

Looking at characterization as a whole, I appreciate The Killing Moon's gray morality. No one in the story is wholly good or evil. The Gatherers are an obvious example, considering they murder people in the dead of night in the name of their Goddess-- but do so to help those in need. Despite being a megalomaniacal mass-murderer, the Prince has believable reasons for his horrific actions, and they’re not wholly selfish. Even the Reaper is a clear victim of Dreamblood's addictive and mind-altering nature; it sometimes regresses into the person it used to be, which is sad and disturbing. There's a lot of moral complexity in the characters and the laws and belief systems they follow. This kind of nuanced writing is much more interesting to read than a black and white approach.

Beyond this, though, I struggled to connect with the other leads. Nijiri's utter devotion to Ehiru is basically his whole character, and while the tragedy of that is interesting for its own reasons, I kept wanting more from him. Sunandi is a good "outsider perspective" character but I had a hard time understanding her at times. For example, the two most important people in her life, Kinja and Lin, die in quick succession. Yet besides a brief outburst when Lin dies, this barely seems to affect her. I get people mourn in all kinds of ways but it seems odd. Her sexual tension with Ehiru is also weird and underdeveloped. Perhaps this is meant to be a callback to The Narcomancer, but it doesn't accomplish much in this narrative.

Another issue I had was emotional connection to minor-yet-important characters. Kinja dies offscreen before the story, yet is supposed to be a big part of Sunandi's past (and thus emotional arc). But he's never even in a flashback, so I never felt WHY he mattered to her. Una-une is the big one, though. It's pretty easy to figure out he's the Reaper by process of elimination, but he's barely in the story outside of a few early mentions. There's this part near the end that's clearly meant to be an emotional moment; Ehiru realizes his (apparently beloved) mentor Una-une is the horrific monster, and thus a foil to the situation between himself and Nijiri. But we never saw the relationship between Ehiru and Una-une, and nothing really established this prior... so there's no emotional payoff. It felt at times like this book was part of a much longer story that for whatever reason we never got to see. In some ways that can be useful to make the world and history seem vast, but here it made me feel emotionally distant from several characters. Perhaps flashbacks with these important characters would have helped bridge the gap.

Credit where it's due, though; it's clear a lot of the dark, often brutal tone and stylistic flair in The Killing Moon was adapted into Jemisin's fantastic Broken Earth trilogy. Probably the most notable are the cryptic interlude chapters told from the perspective of a mysterious character whose identity is unknown until the end. We learn bits and pieces of the beliefs and lore of the world through excerpts of common laws and wisdom. I also liked the occasional stream-of-consciousness writing during tense or surreal moments. The Broken Earth is an improvement overall, but I can appreciate The Killing Moon for establishing some of these techniques early.

I enjoyed this book overall and am planning to read The Shadowed Sun. While I have some criticisms about The Killing Moon, I think it just suffers in comparison to other works I've read by Jemisin. It was still an entertaining and intense read, with a captivating and original world. It's not a story for the faint of heart, though, so please mind the content warnings.

#taylor reads #8/10 #2021 reading challenge

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rebelbyrdie · 3 years

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Swan Queen AU Fic Idea

I had a wierd dream and after some thinking, thought I would share it.

Regina is desperate to preserve her family’s entertainment business. Emma is a washed-up stunt woman hired to help. Sparks fly...sometimes literally.

The Mills Midevil Experience was a hold-over from the heyday of travelling circuses and sideshows. When Henry Mills took it over from his father in 1975, they were in debt and struggling to survive. Henry had a business degree and a passion for history. Toss in his then-girlfriend Cora’s flair for the dramatic and a new idea was born.

The show settled down and created a home-base just outside of Boston. They were a circus no more; they were an experience. Knights in shining armor, horses, kings and princesses, bards and acrobats dressed in motley. They had dinners and wine, courtesy of their own farm and vineyard. It wasn’t an immediate hit, but it was easier and more profitable than travelling. Their people could settle down and build more stable lives while still doing what they loved.

Now they have five locations nationwide and are a household name. But the modern ease of streaming tv and smart phones have made The Midevil Experience boring and less profitable.

When Henry passes from a heart attack, Cora is ready to sell the business to a corporation and retire. Her daughters, Regina and Zelena, refuse to let their father’s dream die.

So they spice things up. They look to things like Las Vegas-style shows and popular TV for new ideas and themes.

“We have to make ourselves more interesting then sitting on the couch and watching Netflix, Mother.” Zelena pointed out. “I want us to pass this company on to Robyn and Henry one day.”

Henry, ten, looked up from the comic book he was reading. “The show is really boring. It's the same thing as its always been since, like, forever.”

Regina sighed. “Thank you for your input, Darling, but-”

Henry didn’t let his mother deter him. “I mean, the whole tournament for the Princess’s hand in marriage thing is old and kind of sexist.” He twisted his face. “And boring. All the knights are inter-changable, and it doesn’t actually matter who wins. Its been the same since you and Grandpa wrote it like in the stone ages.”

Cora looked at her grandson over her glass of wine. They were gathered in the living room for the evening, trying to relax.

“Junior.”

Henry scowled at being called that.

“What do you think would be interesting?”

Cora was no fool. She may have never became the Hollywood Superstar she wanted to be, but she was a businesswoman. Henry was their target audience, after all.

“We need better villains.” He held up his comic book. “The bad guys always make the story better. The good guys have to have a reason to fight. We need-” He shrugged. “An Evil Queen or a Wicked Witch or something. Like the Queen of Hearts in Alice, Off with Their Heads. People love to hate bad guys.”

He went back to his comic. “Some explosions would be cool too.”

Cora looked to her granddaughter, three years old and cute as a button. She didn’t have many opinions on things that weren’t related to her current obsession of Minnie Mouse. Cora decided to ask her, anyway.

“And what do you think, Little Bean?” Robyn, Zelena’s daughter, smiled and held up an oversized wooden piece that she’d been trying to smash into a jumbled mess of a floor puzzle. “Fix.”

Cora took a sip of her wine and regarded her little family. If her daughters wanted to fix things, they would have to figure out how.

***

Regina worked with the horses and their riders. She bred, trained and babied the horses. She was a demanding and perfectionist bitch with the riders. She refused to let the horses, the real stars of the show, get hurt because the riders were incompetent.

Zelena, who directed and occasionally acted in the performances, found her in the stables, mucking out the stalls with a vengeance.

“Are you done being angry with me yet?”

Regina looked up from her work with narrowed eyes. Her mouth was twisted into a scowl. “Maybe.”

“With Mother?”

Regina straitened up and wiped sweat from her brow. “Definitely not.”

Zelena sighed. Her baby sister could be so hard-headed.

“It isn’t the end of the world, Gina. It’s just a trial run. You know damn well we don’t have enough female actors and hiring one is just going to further drain our budget.”

Regina bared her teeth. “We would have had the budget if you and mother hadn’t hired this stunt person. An outsider! This Swan is supposed to fix our show? We can fix our show, Z.”

Zelena had to disagree. If they wanted to do everything, to revolutionize the show, then they needed the help.

“And why do I” Regina continued “Have to be the Evil Queen anyway! You’re the actress. I never did well in the shows. You should do it.”

Zelena was playing opposite of her sister, as the Good Queen. It was a limited role but that meant that she could direct and manage too.

“Because you’re the only woman who can ride and lets face it, you are a little scary sometimes. Phillip is still afraid of you.”

Phillip was their lead-actor in the Orlando location.

“He’s an idiot. Thank God for Mulan.”

Mulan ran the Orlando show and did it well.

“Never the less. I know you can do it. Dad would have loved to see you.”

It was an underhanded move, and Zelena knew it. While she had always been partial to her mother, Regina was a Daddy’s girl through and through. She had even named her son after him.

“Give it a try. For me? For Dad?”

Regina sighed. “Fine.”

***

Emma Swan had fallen and fallen hard. Both physically and metaphorically. She had gone from doubling for A List actresses and having her name in the credits of every action movie to a freaking tourist trap dinner theatre.

She should have never gone on freaking American Ninja Warrior. She’d made it to Stage 3 then fallen, hit several things on the way down and destroyed her knee, shoulder and career. Worst of all, the universe had watched it live and could do so again and again on Youtube. She’d gone viral as the American Ninja Failure.

Now she was here, back in Boston, to try to scratch up some money to pay off her medical bills by teaching a bunch of Cirque Rejects and Drama-School Drop-Outs how to use make their hoaky stunts look better.

She was going to kill her agent.

It was Monday morning and the Midevil Experience’s parking lot was empty. She parked the Bug and went in, trying to hide her limp the best she could. She’d caught one of these shows out in Frisco years ago. It was like a Ren Fair, but for kids. There was jousting and swords and a dumb storyline. The food was mediocre and the acting even worse.

She wandered around the back of the sprawling complex and found an employee’s entrance that was unlocked. She let herself in and had not been ready for the change. The parking lot was empty, but the building was a bustling hive of activity.

People, horses and props were all around. There was, she assumed, a method to the madness. She knew better then to touch anything. Stage Managers and Prop Masters could (and she had seen it more than once) maim someone for touching props that they weren’t supposed to.

“What a shit show.” Emma mumbled to herself.”

“Miss Swan, I presume.”

Emma winced because there was no way that her remark hadn’t been heard and turned around. “Um hey.”

She was met by a glare from dark brown eyes and a scowl. They eyes and scowl were attached to the most beautiful woman Emma had ever seen.

“I’m looking for one of the Mills?”

The woman (Emma assumed she was an actress or something) continued to glare at her. “I am Regina Mills. Animal and Technical Manager.”

And also, according to Emma’s agent, one of the three owners of the entire shebang.

Damn. It.

She might as well just walk back out to her yellow bug.

#ficlet #fic ideas #swanqueen

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beneaththetangles · 3 years

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Review: Call of the Night, Vol. 1

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? No? Well, have you ever had your veins violated by a vampire in the Tokyo star light?

Hey guys, Josh here! Now typically when it comes to reviews, I tend to stay on the anime side of the Beneath the Tangles street. The reason being is that I don’t tend to read or collect a lot of manga. I can pretty much count on one hand how many manga series I actively follow or have followed. It has to be a special kind of series for me to keep up for volumes upon volumes at a time and hold my attention as, admittedly, I have the attention span of a spaniel. But, as we are in springtime, the season of change and new beginnings, I figured I would stretch my legs a bit and check out more manga for review. So when Twwk offered up this manga for us to review, and I had the chance to read through it, I figured, “Yeah, this could be a good way to expand my writing prowess.” So, with all that being said, I’m Josh, the Cajun Samurai, and this is my review of Call of the Night, Vol. 1.

Our story starts with our main protagonist, a fourteen-year-old boy named Ko Yamori, who like many junior high boys his age, doesn’t quite know how to deal with girls, finding the stress of dealing with them so overwhelming to the point that he skips school everyday. Dude, I was awkward around girls all through middle school…and high school…but I never had the idea, or the outright boldness to completely SKIP school! I just hung out with the other nerds and kept it moving. But I digress. With no place to focus his energy, no one he can trust or confide in, and with no real ambitions in life, Ko ends up developing insomnia and spends night after night sneaking out the house and wondering around the streets of Tokyo, enjoying the whole new world that comes out when the sun goes down.

During one of these night walks, he encounters a girl named Nazuna Nanakusa, a very flirty, very lewd girl who also enjoys the simple pleasures of the night. After a bit of conversation, she reveals that she is in the business of helping people who can’t sleep and fixes whatever problems they may have. She convinces our bro Ko to come back to her place with the promise that she can help him with his insomnia. How does she do this? Simple really; she gets him to lay down and drift off to sleep, and then, when she thinks he’s out, she bites his neck and drink his blood. Now, I’m no doctor, but I’m 99.999% certain that the FDA does not approve of this method of curing insomnia. However, Ko was faking the sleepy funk and wakes up startled; brother man did not think that losing a couple CC’s of blood would be in the treatment plan. It’s then when Nazuna admits that she is, in fact, a vampire.

Later that night, Ko and Nazuna discuss the intricacies of being a vampire in this modern day. Contrary to popular opinion, vampires don’t just suck blood just to make more vampires; sometimes they just want to have a good meal. Hey, I don’t judge. However, if a human falls in love with one, that’s a different story as a human can only become a vampire if they fall in love with the one sucking their blood. Upon hearing this, Ko think that this sounds really prodigious and makes the rather drastic request that Nazuna drink his blood and turn him into a vampire as he has nothing going for him in life right now. However, Nazuna declines, stating that she only likes to drink blood and not make more vampires. She’s about that r/VampireChildFree lifestyle, yo. Nonetheless, she does offer him a compromise; in exchange for letting her drink his blood, Nazuna will let Ko hang out with her and have some fun in the night. Ko accepts this and the two begin hanging out every night, learning about each other and learning about what love is, and what is entailed in it as they explore the tantalizing world of Japan when the sun goes down.

Later in the volume, we meet one of Ko’s classmates, a girl named Akira. She tends to get up REALLY early in the morning to head off to school like the responsible student she is. And I mean REALLY early in the morning. When she meets up with Ko, it’s four in the freaking morning. I’m sorry, but I once had a job that required I be awake for 4AM, and THAT got old really freaking fast. Never again. Anyway, Akira encounters Ko one morning and the two have a conversation. It seems that Akira might in fact have some feelings for our little nightwalker in potentia, much to the chagrin of Nazuna, who seems to act a little weird when she encounters the two talking about him coming back to school. Could this be…jealousy? I guess we’ll find out in volume two.

I have to admit, this is a pretty intriguing first volume. It sets up everything pretty well, and leaves just enough questions that you want to come back and get answers for. Where are Ko’s parents in all this? What was the breaking point for him not wanting to go to school? Where did Nazuna come from? Does she really just like drinking Ko’s blood, or are there deeper, more complex feelings buried underneath the big talk and lewd snark? Why exactly is Akira so insistent that Ko come back to school? Does she have a crush on him? And the most important question of all: What in the world would this young boy willing to throw his past daytime life away and MAKE himself fall in love with a vampire to become one and live in the night? There’s just so much here to dive into, and this first volume does a great job of using it all to draw us in.

I also love that this manga takes the time to celebrate nighttime in Japan, and I feel the creator really captures the feelings of wonder and giddy delight of being out on your own during this time—the feeling of being in a whole new world so different than the one in the day. Thankfully the creator does not dwell on more social aspects of nightlife like bars and clubs, but instead focuses on the simplicity of everyday things like glowing vending machines, the lack of kids and families, the random salarymen who may have had one too many to drink and now sleeping it off on a park bench. All this is done expertly through the eyes of a middle school kid who is just trying to figure everything out.

Years back, I took a road trip by myself to Texas, one of my first ever long-distance road trips. I made it to my hotel in Houston, got some dinner, took a shower, and checked in with my mom, letting her know that I was all locked up for the night like a good boy. However, around midnight, I got the urge to get up and drive around for a little bit. I wanted to see Houston at night, and how often was I going to have the opportunity to drive alone by myself with nobody to answer to? So I grabbed my keys, jumped in my little rental Kia Soul, and set out in the night towards downtown Houston. It was such a thrill being one of the only cars out and about, zipping down the empty road, the streetlights illuminating the bare blacktop and empty sidewalks, my little 4 cylinder hamster-mobile revving up and down through gear ratios as I flew down the road, feeling the thrill of being out on the town by myself. That rush, that thrill, that feeling of being all by yourself in a new world at night is something you just have to experience, and thankfully this manga does a great job of capturing that feeling. And for those of you wondering, no, I didn’t just go out all night cruising. In fact, I didn’t really stay out all that late. Adult Swim was on and I wanted to get back. Don’t judge me.

I do have to note that this first volume reminds me a lot of Kotoyama’s earlier work, Dagashi Kashi; a young male lead with a conflict about what he wants to do with his life and a propensity to wear baggy clothes meets up with a loud, eccentric female who turns his entire life upside down and makes him reevaluate everything, including his own feelings regarding love. Meanwhile, the childhood friend, who may or may not have a crush on him, watches as the male lead gets swept up in the excitement and confusion this new girl brings to their quiet world, all the while coming to grips with her possible feelings towards him. In fact, one could argue that Call of the Night is just a retelling of Dagashi Kashi told at nighttime without snacks. Well, unless you count drinking blood a snack, in which case EVALUATE YOUR LIFE DECISIONS IMMEDIATELY. Ahem. But I digress.

All that being said, where does that leave us? Simple. Call of the Night Volume one is a nice setup for what looks to be a very interesting story. While it could be argued that this is a rehash of Dagashi Kashi, I think this story will develop its own narrative with each subsequent volume to separate it from its snack laden predecessor. I look forward to seeing how this manga will tackle the questions about what love really means, and seeing who falls in love first…under the light of the moon. Have a good one guys!

=====

Call of the Night Vol. 1 is available for purchase through Viz Media.

#Manga #Call of the Night #Yofukashi no Uta #Reviews #Manga Reviews #Viz #Articles #Author: The Cajun Samurai

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dopescotlandwarrior · 4 years

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Bluegrass-Chapter Fourteen

Thank you @statell for all your help and wisdom

Previous chapter at AO3

Chapter Fourteen

Claire turned her back on the chaos around the stalls at Churchill Downs as she studied the stats of the horses she would race against. She had tremendous anxiety and Runner was crashing into her consciousness pestering her to race him, telling her he was the winner, asking where Sham was. Something in Claire broke;

“Goddammit Runner, stop it, I need to concentrate!”

Every head on her team turned to look at the woman who never raises her voice. It was an oddity and registered in their minds as only that, an oddity. Jason looked from Runner to Claire and wondered what he was supposed to stop doing to her since they were ten feet apart.

Jamie ran his hand down her back and looked closely at her, “are ye alright lass?”

“I’m okay, sorry Jamie, I am so tense like I’m having an anxiety attack.”

“Will ye walk wi’ me?” He took the program from her and pulled her off the corral bars. I think ye need to see this lass.”

She was still trying to read the program as Jamie pulled her outside where the sun blinded her. She saw nothing but a black blob in front of her eyes, but she could hear the crowd calling her name, yelling Midnight Runner. As her vision cleared, she saw so many fans. There had to be hundreds of them, waving to her and trying to get her to autograph something. One fan stuck a magazine into her hands and held out a pen, pointing to the pictures of her last race and many others before that. She signed as many as she could, noticing the picture of her and Runner in Florida with the ray of sun coming out of the cloud lighting up her embrace. She was stunned at the signs and banners for Midnight Runner. She looked up at Jamie with astonishment and he smiled at her.

Jason came out with Runner looking fancy in his matching Fuchsia checked hood and the crowd went crazy seeing the superstar horse. Jamie gave her a leg into the saddle and waited for that smile. This was the end of the prep races. If she won today, she was a contender for the Triple Crown nomination but more importantly to Jamie, one race away from quitting.

Claire watched Jamie fade into the crowd feeling a strange disconnection from his expression. She wondered what he was thinking about to look that way.

Runner was the last horse to load and was coming out next to the rail, a coveted starting position. He reared coming up to the gate and tried to buck as well. He refused to load, and the deafening crowd was starting to unravel Claire. The handler forced him in and now he was pissed off. Claire tried to get his attention, but he ignored her banging into the sides of the gate and trying to rear. Claire grabbed a handful of mane and suggested he use that energy beating the other horses.

When the gate slammed open Runner jumped out, ahead of the other horses surprising Claire. He turned on the speed right from the start and Claire tried to hold him back fearing he would have nothing left as the race went on. She felt him accelerate about every quarter mile running alone, several lengths ahead of the next horse. Claire tucked in and remained quiet with an empty mind. This was Runner's decision and she felt him accelerate again on the home stretch. He won easily staying ahead of the other horses who never caught him.

“Good job Runner.”

The rest of their time at the track was like walking through a fog. After the winner’s circle picture, Michael ran up behind her and threw her back up in the saddle telling her to ride up and down the home stretch, remove her helmet and wave to the crowd. She did as he said with a plastered-on smile. When she finally was led into the stall area she dismounted again, Jason took Runner, and Jamie steered her to a bench and made her sit.

He looked closely at her face, dirt-covered every inch except where her goggles were pressed against her head. With her elbows on her knees, it looked like she might fall over. Jamie flagged Michael down and talked a bit before taking her hand and pulling her to Michael’s car.

Claire said nothing during the drive. Jamie kept his hand on her knee and kept talking about the remarkable race feeling more and more worried about her. She didn’t seem to comprehend everything he was saying. When they stopped at a traffic light Jamie noticed her hands were shaking quite hard. He pulled a U-turn right there and took her to emergency. People aren’t used to seeing a female jockey in silks, looking like she just stepped off the track. They got a lot of looks from those in the hospital waiting room.

A woman passed by on her way out and stopped to talk to Claire asking if she raced today. Claire had a vague smile but otherwise did not respond or comprehend that a question had been asked.

Jamie was frantic now and ran to the nurse's station describing her symptoms. A wheelchair was brought out and Claire was taken directly to an examination room. The soft-spoken doctor asked Claire a dozen questions to which she answered none.

“Excuse me for stating the obvious Claire, but you are a jockey and you raced today, is that right?”

Claire looked at him with wide eyes and then she tried to lay down. Jamie was ready to lose his mind as he stood next to her and spoke softly reminding her that she won today. He looked at the doctor with complete helplessness.

“She has some mental confusion that will clear up quickly if I’m right about blood sugar being the cause. Someone will be in soon to take blood and then we’ll give her some juice.” He pulled a pamphlet out of the wall holder and handed it to Jamie and then left them alone.

“Whatever’s made ye sick lass, we’re gonna fix it, I promise.”

It seemed like an eternity that Jamie waited for the return of the doctor. Claire slept quietly and Jamie paced until he thought he would explode into a million pieces. The pamphlet described a condition where blood sugar dips below the level where the body can function normally. Easily treated with high sugar foods like juice followed by complex carbohydrates like pasta. On his third reading, the doctor came and woke Claire. She sat up and Jamie noticed her color was better and she seemed more alert. The doctor asked her several questions like her name, age, where she was born, looking to Jamie for confirmation now and then.

“Tell me about the race today.”

“We won, easily.”

“I am releasing you to a big pasta dinner eaten as soon as possible and before you are released, another juice box, please. Going forward you must eat throughout the day, small meals every two hours and always have something in your purse to eat or drink that will raise your blood sugar quickly. A nurse will go over all of this before you leave.”

Jamie dropped into a chair feeling relieved. The instructions for Claire’s condition sounded easy, she just had to include juice boxes when she was away from home. It was possible this was an isolated episode and it was possible there were underlying reasons for her blood sugar to crash. They would wait and see.

Jamie turned on his cell phone and there were numerous messages from Michael and Jason. Something must have happened to Runner! Jamie excused himself to run outside to call.

“Jamie, thank God. We are stuck at the racetrack. Something is wrong with Runner. When we loaded him in the trailer he freaked out and we barely got him out before he bashed his brain from rearing. He trashed the trailer, but I think it will get him home.

“I will see if I can speed up Claire’s release and we’ll get there right away.”

Jamie talked to the front desk about an emergency and Claire was released in twenty minutes. Jaime filled her in as they left and watched for cops on the road while he sped back to Churchill Downs.

They could hear Michael yelling at Runner when they walked into the stall area. He sounded stressed. They could hear vicious kicks to the walls on the stall and Claire started running.

“Runner!”

The colt stopped in his tracks and whinnied low in his throat. He walked to Claire as she opened the stall door and entered. He dropped his head for a scratch before he smelled her all over. He was sending images of him running with an empty saddle and then the same with her in the saddle. She cradled his head and hummed to him.

“Now I’ve seen everything.” Michael shook his head side to side with a scowl on his face. “What the hell Claire? He travels without you all the time so why turn into Diablo today?”

“I wasn’t feeling well during the race, he must have sensed it. Maybe that’s why he broke out early and ran for his life. Maybe he ran for mine. Let’s get you home to your girlfriend big guy.”

Claire snapped a lead on the colt and walked him outside and then into the trailer without incident. She snapped him into the cross ties and hugged him, “thank you for worrying about me Runner.”

Jamie looked at the dents in the trailer from one huge pissed off horse. He could do the work himself especially with three months of rest coming up. When he looked inside the trailer, he saw a very passive stallion ready for transport. He shook his head.

Jason went over the colt's legs inch by inch looking for cuts or welts from kicking just about everything in sight. He thought about how different his race was today, busting out ahead of the other horses and ran lengths ahead for the whole race. Claire didn’t stand in her stirrups when they won, she didn’t point at them with her crop and she was irritable all morning like Jason had never seen her. He looked at Runner, now docile in his stall. It happened the moment he saw her..the kicking and rearing stopped that second and he put his head in her arms. Jason shook his head and snapped out of it reminding himself that horses don’t talk or listen, and they certainly can’t diagnose health problems.

“Goodnight Runner.”

Jamie left Runner in Jason’s capable hands for his post-race routine and feeding. He was anxious to get Claire home and make pasta for her while she scrubbed off the hours-old dirt from the race. He was trying to relax about hypoglycemia but the change in her was so profound it was difficult. He poured the pasta into bubbling water and took out a jar of sauce to warm in the microwave. Things would get better now with a long break ahead and if she had another episode, he would pull Runner from the super-six and retire him to stud, letting Claire go back to her life as a veterinarian.

Claire peered at the pot and smiled at Jamie. She looked fresh and clean and smelled like heaven. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him and was scooped up into his arms and laid on the couch where he devoured her in kisses. When he finally stopped, Claire was breathless and her eyes asked for more.

“It’s time to eat Sassenach. It’s what the doctor ordered and will most likely taste like garbage because I canna cook. You be a good lass and eat as much as you can, aye?”

They ate in silence for a while, made small talk, and discussed the race while Jamie did the dishes.

“It’s still early, would you give me a tour of your customization's? And start with how you found the time.”

Jamie was thrilled she was interested as he took great pride in his work and Isobel always hated it.

“In the beginning, it was a shell of a house really. Someplace to sleep and get out of the rain while I worked on the compound and buying stock. The broodmares and the stallions were young when I bought them, I had one mare of breeding age but that didn’t require a lot of my time. So I worked on the house. I hired local artisans to create the mantel and second banister up to the office. I bought wood for the office furniture, the steps, and the sun on the ceiling. Another artist for the shower in the guest bathroom upstairs. She set all the tiles out, painted the picture on them, and then cured them somehow to stand up to water. I love that picture of the Kentucky sunrise.

Jamie kissed her, “bored yet?”

“The chess table in the living room is Black Walnut inlay, how did you find a piece to fit so perfectly with your wood?”

“I made it, and my desk upstairs.”

Claire watched him while he talked and fantasized about his wide soft mouth on her. The kissing before dinner had a lingering effect.

“Sassenach?”

When she looked up her eyes were smoldering and her cheeks were flushed. Jamie picked her up and carried her upstairs where he kissed her with a purpose that thrilled both of them. Claire was starving for him and tried to remember the last time they had sex. She couldn’t remember and stopped trying. She lavished her love on him so sweetly at first, but her arousal was making her needy and she clutched at Jamie pulling him to cover her.

“I’m afraid I am a bit far gone for dalliance at the moment.”

Claire lifted her knees at Jamie’s side and made it clear she wanted him inside her. He watched her eyes as he moved slowly deeper into the wet warmth of her body. Each stroke pulled long, low moans from them both. Jamie flipped his body under hers without separating and he pushed Claire’s upper body against his raised thighs and spread her knees wide. When she found her rhythm, he touched her bud and stroked it lightly until she was ready to explode. She pitched forward with hands on his chest and let him drill her before sending her into orbit.

Jamie pulled Claire to his side and covered her face with kisses. Before he left to lock up the house, he pulled the quilt up. By the time he returned she was fast asleep. It had been a long and trying day.

Later in the week, Jamie made two trips to the airport, one for Michael and one for Jason. Both were excited to go home for the holidays. The following day, he was going stir crazy from the silence of his missing team. He was amazed he was done with his work by mid-afternoon. He thought about what mischief he could talk Claire into as he sifted quickly through the mail. He opened a large manila envelope from Nosh, a name he didn’t remember and out came three volumes of Sports Illustrated magazine and a handwritten note from the reporter to enjoy. Jamie thumbed through until he found the articles and pictures of Runner, the Superstar.

He grabbed the magazines intending to run up to the house and show Claire when he saw an official envelope from the Eclipse Award. He opened the letter and started reading as his smile creased his cheeks and his feet started running.

Claire was overjoyed to see him home, especially when he picked her up and spun her around before dropping her into a chair at the breakfast bar. He spread the magazines out and helped her find the pages of pictures and articles about Runner’s races and wins. She was over the moon until Jamie dropped the letter in front of her.

“Runner has won the Eclipse award mo chridhe, its the highest honor in horse racing and he is the second two-year-old in history to win! He is Horse of The Year! And it's all your fault.”

Jamie kissed her passionately and pressed his forehead to hers.

“Thank ye Claire. What ye’ve done has placed yer names in annals of racing history. I am grateful to ye both.”

He kissed her again and invited her for an early walk with the horses to enjoy a peaceful end to this amazing day.

“You never told me about how you fell in love with me. I would like to hear it.”

Jamie looked at his boots and smiled at the memory. “It started the day of the poisoning when ye fell into me and cried yer eyes out. In the middle of a huge chaotic effort to save horses ye just collapsed against me and sobbed. Ye were so small when I held ye to me. Ye were such a miracle to me. I decided right then if my whole life purpose was to be in that spot, at that time, so ye could cry into me I was okay with that.”

“The next incident I canna forget was watching ye set up a race against Runner. So patient ye were cause he kept trampling your line in the dirt. Watchin ye run and him dashing off to pass ye was so funny! I can’t remember how many days or weeks I had to hide when ye came to work with the colt but most of the time I was watchin ye not him.”

“We talked a bit at the rail one night with no one else around. I knew ye were different from other lasses I had known because ye were so calm, comfortable in yer own skin, my equal. There is nothin like a confident, beautiful woman. Once ye started ridin Runner I would help you with his bath and we would walk the fields and talk, remember? Ye knocked my socks off lass.”

“That’s the clean version but I’d be happy to share the fantasies I had while I was fallin for ye. C’mon Sassenach, let me tell ye in detail what we did in my head.”

Jamie was mauling her while he talked making Claire giggle uncontrollably and push him away. She reached for Runners halter and unsnapped the lead Jamie was holding, then did the same to Porcelain, slapping them both on the rump to get the party started.

It was like watching poetry in motion, the two of them galloping through the bluegrass. They sat on the fence and watched them as the sun was setting. When they walked toward the fence to leave the pasture two galloping horses stopped dead a few feet from them and gladly accepted the leads snapped to their halters again. It was dinner time.

Claire asked Jamie if he put up a tree for Christmas and he looked quite confused for a moment. He had been nearly isolated with Isobel for four years and she did not celebrate Christmas, at least not the decorating part. She would give him socks and a tie each year, unwrapped, and he would give her a gift certificate to her favorite store in town. It was all very sterile and emotionless. He would have stood on his head and spit nickels if she asked him to, so it wasn’t hard to convince him. The next night they picked out a twelve-foot, beauty of a tree. Claire seemed so happy with it and the next day she went into town and bought lights, ornaments, and a variety of other special things to put on the tree.

Claire had purchased a small living tree for Runner and Porcelain as well. She filled it with colored sugar cubes and candy canes and placed it on the shelf directly across from their stalls. Runner was stretching his neck to reach it and started kicking his corral bars in protest.

“You can’t eat it Runner. It’s a holiday decoration. You can stop trying, you can’t eat it.”

Claire pulled several sugar cubes for each horse and moved the tree to Jamie’s office.

“Sassenach, what is the purpose of the tree?”

“It’s for putting presents around underneath. When you wake up Christmas morning you open them.”

Jamie seemed completely unimpressed with such a tradition and went back to his work. Inside, he was delighted to watch the Sassenach’s joy. She was childlike in her Christmas happiness and it was infectious as he could feel it seeping into him. Life with this girl was an adventure every day and the kaleidoscope of emotions, love, joy, pride, anticipation, concern, were always with him. Not to mention crazy hot sex. He watched her move about his office making the tree look pretty and was overcome with a need to hold onto her, just for a minute.

Ten minutes of hot kissing later Claire called a time-out and escaped so Jamie could finish working. She laughed at his pout and went back to her project of hanging lights on the tree at home.

Through the next two weeks, Claire hunted for the right gifts for Jamie, Molly, and Lulu. She decided an engraved stethoscope for Dustin would be perfect and as she wrote it on her list, she suddenly scratched it out and spent the next several hours in a funk. How could she give a present to someone that wouldn’t speak to her?

On Christmas eve she made a delicious smelling roast with roasted vegetables and tiny lobster crackers to keep Jamie fed during her surprise. She filled the bathtub and set about creating a treat just for him.

Jamie could smell the roast from outside and smiled with delight. When he walked into the house, he blinked several times to adjust to the candlelight all over the lower floor. Then he saw Claire with a tiny flared skirt, tight sweater that revealed an inch of skin, amazing white stockings, and high heels. He was speechless watching her approach him. She kissed him warmly and handed him a whisky. He was trying to talk but the words were getting twisted in his mouth, so he just smiled and looked at every inch of her.

“I was hoping you would make a blazing fire.”

“Done. Then a shower so I don’t accidentally rub this horse smell on those clothes. God lass, yer beautiful.”

Claire busied herself with setting out the whisky and lobster crackers and Jamie was back with fresh clothes and the permanent smile. He could not remember a single time in his life when someone troubled themselves to make him happy like this. He felt very important to this spit of a girl and that filled him with love for her. They talked as Claire passed him crackers and whisky. When he declined another cracker, she sat on his lap and kissed him from collar bone to mouth and lingered there. Jamie’s hand ran up her leg loving the feel of the silk stockings. When he reached the lace band that held them up, he ran his fingers around it and under it while he kissed her passionately.

The fire was so gorgeous Claire didn’t want to leave the living room, ablaze with tiny lights on the tree, a dozen candles lit, and the roaring fire.

“I want room to move around this incredible body. Can we take this to the floor?”

Jamie looked like he was in a trance and jumped to lay the couch pillows on the floor and pour more whisky.

“Come here Sassenach. I want to show you how grateful I am for what you’ve done.”

Claire laid next to him and waited for him to find her surprise. It didn’t take long for his big warm hand to find its way under her skirt and his fingers played with the tiny beaded thong. When he ran his fingers underneath, he gasped with wide eyes.

“Sassenach.”

She pulled him back to her mouth as Jamie tried to compose himself. He wanted only one thing at that moment, to look under her skirt.

“We dinna want to ruin yer new skirt mo chridhe. Here, I’ll help ye take it off.”

Claire allowed him to remove her skirt and sweater before pulling his own shirt off. His mind had practically shut down except for his need to see under her thong. He kissed and sucked her breasts kissing down her stomach and abdomen until he could lick inside the thong driving Claire out of her mind. He pulled the thong slowly off her and stared at the sexiest image he had ever seen. She was bare except for a racing stripe that stopped right above her bud. He licked it and tried to pull back and look again but Claire pulled him to her begging for her release. Jamie pulled her legs over his shoulders and sent her to erotic oblivion. While she was gone, he looked at her until she opened her eyes again.

“If you get out of those pants, I have another surprise for you, if it works.” She giggled with her heavy speech and received his now naked kisses that we very intense.

During Claire’s shopping, she purchased a Cosmopolitan magazine that promised to heighten sexual pleasure and tone up on the inside at the same time. She bought it feeling adventurous and practiced all afternoon.

Jamie pushed into her slowly and let out a squeaky moan holding perfectly still. The next stroke was even better, and he growled with the sensation he was feeling. Continuing slowly was not an option and Claire’s body sent him reeling as he pounded into her.

When he could breathe again, he gathered Claire up in his arms feeling like he just went ten rounds with a sex goddess.

“I love ye, lassie.”

Claire was quite happy with her surprises for Jamie. The Kegel flexing seemed to add a new dimension to his feeling inside of her, just like the magazine promised. She heard him dozing behind her and slipped out to dress and finish dinner. She was very happy.

She looked at him sleeping, naked on the floor and admired his body for a few minutes. There were many times she would see him walk by or watch him with the horses and he took her breath away. His warm hand on her leg pulled her from her thoughts and she smiled down at him.

“Are you hungry handsome?”

Claire bounded down the stairs the next morning enjoying the scent of the tree with all the sparkling ornaments. She decided at that moment her life couldn’t get any better and bounced into the kitchen where Jamie was reading the paper.

“Merry Christmas Jamie!”

She pounded her coffee down and looked at him with a big smile.

“Are you ready to open presents? C’mon!”

She handed him her present and waited for him to open it.

“A fishing pole lass?”

“Yes, you will teach me to fish and we’ll rent a rowboat and hang out in the middle of the lake while we catch them. And this one is a tackle box! Oh, probably shouldn’t have told you.”

He stared at her for a moment too long making her nervous it was the wrong gift. She looked around the room and her stomach twisted in knots. What if he didn’t get me a present she thought? Well, this is awkward.

“Ye came out of nowhere and dropped into my life like a sparkler that never ends Sassenach.” His voice was reverent and his eyes studied her for several minutes.

“I have a present for ye lass.” Jamie stood up and walked her to the couch, but he couldn’t sit still so he paced.

“I hope I’m not wrong about what’s in yer heart mo chridhe. My heart is full of love for ye, more than I’ve ever felt in my life. I want to keep you with me forever and grow old with ye. I canna be happy with anything less mo chridhe.”

With that he bent one knee and opened a tiny box in front of her.

“Will ye marry me Claire?”

Jamie was very pleased with how wide her eyes got, then a little nervous because she hadn’t said anything. When the silence got uncomfortable Jamie dropped his head and prepared to fix this tragic mess.

“Stop!” Big tears were rolling down her cheeks and her eyes sparkled at him. “Are you kidding me, Jamie? I can’t live without you anymore, of course, I will marry you.”

She dropped into his arms and kissed him at least one hundred times as he slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her with earnest.

Jamie lit a fire to chase the cold off the morning and pulled Claire onto his lap. They talked about belonging to each other, heart, body, and soul. He had put much thought into what he said next and the magnitude of the offer made her tears start again.

“I’ll not start the only marriage I’ll ever have hedging my bet. No contracts about what is mine and what is yours Sassenach. We come to the marriage devoted to each other for life, equal partners in everything. Do you agree?”

Claire was too emotional to speak so she nodded her head yes as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Do ye like the ring love?”

“I love the ring Jamie, it’s what I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid. Having the man I love ask me to marry him. It was just perfect.”

Wrapped in towels after a shower, Claire looked at her ring and felt ready to burst with happiness. She could hardly take her eyes off it to start cooking for their guests. She remembered thinking she was as happy as she could ever be walking downstairs this morning. Then Jamie pushed the bar so high it would never be touched.

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medea10 · 4 years

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My Review of Magical Girl Site

How did I get into this anime? I…huh…Good question! I don’t recall. Probably some other anime reviewers mentioned it and I put it on the Amazon/Netflix list hoping I won’t have to watch it any time soon. Two years later and here we are!

Aya Asagiri’s life is a living hell. She is constantly bullied at school and no one does a thing to stop it. Her teachers don’t care about her well-being. Her father barely notices she exists. And to top it off, her brother beats the crap out of her just for him to relieve stress! Is it any wonder that she wants to commit suicide? One night, her computer mysteriously turns on to a website, promoting Aya to become a magical girl. She brushed it off and thought nothing of it…

That is until the next morning when she finds a note and a gun in her shoe locker. After being tortured by her bullies and almost raped, she finds herself at the end of her ropes and pulls out the mysterious gun. When she pulled the trigger, her bullies disappeared. Turns out, the targets are transported to another place. In the case of some of her bullies, they were transported to in front of a moving train.

Karma, bitches!

It’s unknown why Aya was specifically chosen to become a magical girl, but fellow magical girl Yatsumura feels she could use Aya’s magic to combat a looming threat to other magical girls. But they must not overuse their magic, otherwise they will die.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: As of this moment, this anime seems to be in the capable hands of Amazon Prime. And we all know how well they treat animes, right?! Hahaha! Funny! Anyways, don’t expect a dub! The cast seems to be comprised of many female seiyuus I’m not particularly familiar with. I mean with the exception of Aina Suzuki, I hear her sounds every day thanks to the Love Live game apps! Add to that the creepy, raspy voice of Frieza playing the site administrator! One voice actor however I heard the second he let out a creepy, hygena-like laugh, I knew exactly who this crazy bastard was! Nobuhiko Okamoto plays a great psychopath. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Aya is played by Yuuko Oono

*Yatsumura is played by Himika Akaneya

*Sarina is played by Haruka Yamazaki (known for Ruka on Hayate the Combat Butler, Mero on Monster Musume, Aika on High School DxD, and Natsumi on Danganronpa 3)

*Nijimi is played by Yuu Serizawa (known for Shera on How Not to Summon a Demon Lord)

*Shioi is played by Aina Suzuki (known for Mari on Love Live Sunshine)

AUTOMATICLY THROWN ON DISLIKED LIST: Okay children, who automatically ends up on my hate list for life?

Fuckers who commit rape and fuckers who kill animals for fun!

Damn right! Give this anime some credit for not showing Aya’s bullies throwing a cat in front of a moving train. If this were 10 years ago, they probably would have animated it and I would have been puking afterward. I’m not sure which of Aya’s bullies threw a cat in front of a moving train, but for the time being, I’m throwing them all on the list.

And while I’m here, Sarina! She was like the ring-leader in the bullying of Aya. I’m almost certain she’s the bitch that killed the stray cat but I have no proof of that. With my history with horrible people like that, I have no sympathy for bullies in the slightest and feel she got what was coming to her. Bitch, you got that big, ugly scar on your neck for a reason. You got what was coming!

DEFINITELY BELONGS IN DISLIKE HISTORY: Now that I got the usual gripe off my chest, gotta add Aya’s onii-chan, Kaname! Sweet merciful crap, do I love hearing Nobuhiko Okamoto play a psychopath, but this is going way too far. And Kaname is just irredeemable! He has this complex that makes him think he’s on God-tier and everyone else is beneth him. Now I do have to hate Kaname and Aya’s father for placing this kind of pressure on Kaname and beating the shit out of him if he gets bad grades. But good fuck, this guy just pushes past the line of no return when he tries to manipulate little girls, steal their power, and lose control. And this wasn’t like he had no control over his own body and wants to stop this from happening! Kaname meant every thing he did to his sister and her friends. OH…and that one guy he forced to off himself! I just can’t even with this guy!

SHIPPING: I know a lot of people ship the hell out of Aya and Yatsumura and yeah, I can see that and I would ship them too. But for reals, I just want these two girls to live a life of peace together for as long as they’re around. For fuck’s sake, did you see the shit they put up with in their lives? Aya was bullied relentlessly at home and school. Yatsumura watched her whole family be slaughtered by a creep. These girls deserve some sort of peace! I know this is the shipping category, but I felt the need to say this.

STICKS: Okay anime, what are you doing? Aya uses a magical gun! Sarina uses a magical yo-yo! Nijimi uses magical panties (insert immature laugh here)! Yatsumura uses a magical remote! How hard is it to have them say that! And I probably shouldn’t put blame on the anime and holler at the manga! But calling magical items “Sticks”, that feels…I don’t want to say stupid, but I can’t think of any other word to go along with that. I just feel like the manga was on some deadline and they were frantically finishing what to call their magical items and just went “FUCK IT, IT’S STICKS”.

COULD HAVE FOOLED ME: In the “Could have fooled me” category we have a boy who identifies as a girl magical girl! Man, 2018 definitely was the progressive AF year! I mean, we had Lily from Zombieland Saga, we had the girls who transformed into magical buff men in Magical Girl Ore, and now THIS! So we have Kiyo! An openly transgendered magical girl that’s not a token joke! Okay, well done guys! Pearl points all around!

ENDING: Early in the series, we learned about a moment called “The Tempest”. A catastrophic even set to take place once enough negative energy is caught. There are a lot of Magical Girl Site administrators that take advantage of “POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS”. They pick the most unfortunate girls as pawns in their game. And once “The Tempest” hits, everyone will die and the world will start over anew. Aya and Yatsumura end up meeting new magical girl allies and even a few that were coersed by different administrators. Not to mention one of Aya’s bullies is a magical girl too with a score to settle! What could be worse?

How about we add Aya’s disgusting brother to this mix?! As I’ve mentioned before, Aya’s brother Kaname would use Aya as a personal punching bag in order to get rid of stress. When Aya became a magical girl, she would spend more time with Yatsumura or the other girls, leaving Kaname to go without slugging his sister. So fuckface over here manipulates another magical girl, Nijimi to do what he says. This leads to him stealing Nijimi’s underwear and gaining her magical power of mind control. I never thought I would have to say a sentence like that, but here we are.

Kaname went out of control with this power as he managed to injure all of the girls and give a fatal blow to Nijimi. But another possible enemy dropped a bomb on us when they kidnapped Kaname. THEN, these girls are targeted at Nijimi’s funeral and they almost died. Add another plot-twist, a police officer that’s been seen from time to time in a lot of the tragedies in the show is in cahoots with one of the magical girl site administrators. This keeps getting fuckier by the minute! Well, the girls felt it was time to take action and try to take out the administrators that screwed them with this doomed fate. But once they took out one of the administrators, they came across an ugly truth.

Sight administrators are magical girls who died previously!

Yeah, not that big of a shock! Madoka Magica gave us magical girls who end up so corrupt that they become witches they’re supposed to fight. While some of the administrators ended up falling to these girls, Nana (the creepy one we’ve been watching since ep 1) is the hardest one to take out. She ends up killing Yatsumura (because she used up too much of her power), but then manipulates her to become an administrator.

Once she manipulated Yatsumura, she ends up going after Aya. And after a lot of back-and-forth between the two girls, Yatsumura was able to snap out of Nana’s control and they managed to take out Nana. And we end the series with a brighter future for Aya and Yatsumura as their lives become a little less unfortunate.

Yeah, few issues here!

1.) There are still a butt-load of site administrators. Isn’t there still a “Tempest” going to happen? 2.) Aya and Yatsumura’s lives aren’t in danger anymore after using fuck-tons of their power? WTF?! 3.) What was the point of Aya shooting herself to get Yatsumura back? I am not following you. Is this some sort of Insception shit?! 4.) That detective! Misumi was his name? Why was he just casually talking to Nana a few episodes back? 5.) Why don’t we see him until the final few moments in the finale? 6.) WHY DID HE RAPE KANAME?! 7.) WHY WAS THIS SCENE A THING? 8.) I don’t want to say Kaname deserved it, buuuuuut… Uuuggghhh…Mumble, mumble. I can’t finish that thought. 9.) These site administrators are probably pissed and are going to want revenge on these magical girls. What’s going on here?

…Let me guess, I need to read the manga to get all my questions answered…

FUCKING FIGURES!

Seriously...what Misumi did. That scene is forever etched in my brain forever. Next to that scene of Kaname wiggling his junk in front of a guy.

This anime was pretty bad. No wait...

This anime was way too edgy for me! Episode 1 was just absolute torture porn involving Aya. The first episode managed to combine the bully scene in Vivid Strike, the puppy killing scene in Elfen Lied, and every bullying episode of Hell Girl all into one single episode. As for the rest of this series, they go above and beyond to grab some of the worst aspects of other animes and implement them here. Aya’s older brother almost has a God-complex that rivals that of Light Yagami of Death Note. Nijimi has a devoted fan that’s almost crossing over from the movie Perfect Blue. Body mutilation scenes on levels not seen since Higurashi! And fill this world up with the worst kinds of humans imaginable like in Elfen Lied! This was just too much hatred! Too much!

Add to that, there’s absolutely no resolution to this story. Yes, Aya and Yatsumura are alive and together. But guys, there are still some other-worldly strong site administrators looming! Tempest is still happening. KANAME IS STILL FUCKING ALIVE…literally and figuratively speaking! And with how much this anime has been panned by anime fans across the board, I doubt if this anime will ever receive a sequel. Guys, if you want a really good 12-episode anime about magical girls with an edge, just watch Madoka Magica. But if you’re a curious idiot like me, whatever, you do you!

As this anime is an Amazon Prime exclusive, I’m afraid that’s the only legal outlet for this.

Now that this is over, my next Amazon/Netflix/Crunchyroll anime is…

Grand Blue!

Oh, it’s set in a cute ocean town. Am I going to enjoy some cute absurdity like I did with Tsuritama?

Sort of!

OH GOOD FUCK, WHAT FRAT HOUSE WAS THIS BIRTHED FROM?!

#anime review #magical girl site #mahou shoujo site #aya asagiri #tsuyuno yatsumura #kaname asagiri #sarina shizukume

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notthefilmreview · 4 years

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Reacting to THE HALF OF IT TRAILER on Netflix

Hey, it’s Dana!

As you can tell from the title I’m going to watch the trailer to THE HALF OF IT and deliver my thoughts and predictions while going through the trailer.

So read on for more!

https://youtu.be/B-yhF7IScUE (here’s the link to the trailer if you’re interested).

Just from the first bit of the trailer, we can obviously tell that this is going to be one of those nerdy-girl tropes which have been played out many many times before.

Another main highlight (which is also the main reason why I wanted to review this trailer) is that Ellie is ASIAN! I do love how Netflix has started introducing more diverse main characters in teenage movies like these because it just shows that, yes, we too experience the same romances and struggles just like every other white teen in the universe.

(However, she does fit into the nerdy-Asian-girl trope which is a bit offputting, especially with the stereotypical glasses and all, but I guess it doesn’t matter *that* much).

Squahamish? SQUAHAMISH?

Who would name a town Squahamish, let alone decide to *live* in a town called Squahamish?

Is it even a real place?

Well, it turns out no - but there are many places called Squamish, particularly in Canada.

Okay, kind of unrelated, but the actress who plays Ellie (Leah Lewis) has a lovely talking voice. It’s really calming, almost velvety and caramelly. I actually advise you to go and watch the trailer just to listen to her voice.

Also, I like that in sync eating with her dad because just by looks and mannerisms you can tell that she and her dad seem alike reflecting how close their relationship may be.

However, this does bring up the question: where’s Ellie’s mum? She might either be dead (to be blunt) or her parents are divorced. I’m leaning towards the former more because that’s such a trope to give a character more depth and add in a little emotional scene.

Ooooooo okay, my girl’s an entrepreneur at the age of 17 - you go, girl!

Here it is, our designated love interest to come and swoop nerdy Ellie away *YAWNNNNNNN*

He’s probably going to ask her to write an essay for him and then they’ll fall in love and kiss and break social boundaries and live *happily ever after!*

DisGuSTaNggGg

This is such a beautiful wide shot.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder how far in the countryside is this Squahamish??? Because the town looks quite lonely.

Only 10???? Ummmm...Ellie, honey, essays take *effort* and if you’re doing multiple different essays at once then I would definitely charge A LOT more. Seriously, I can barely do my own essays so I don’t know how she’s getting through her own work and all those other essays from other people.

I am wondering if Ellie might get caught by the school for helping other people to cheat because she obviously has written about the same essay topic multiple times for different people and thinking about good points are hard to come up with. There are also other factors like the tone of voice while writing because certain people write in a certain type of way.

Also, this is a teen movie so there should be some aspect of a “moral to the story” and Netflix can’t promote cheating so Ellie may get caught during the climax of the movie.

So here it is, the guy wants Ellie to write this letter to Aster and then he and Ellie are going to fall in love in the process. GENERIC!

But, on a side note, Aster is very pretty so if she’s available at the end of the movie I’m available too so...

HIT ME UP, GIRL?

I hope they don’t make Aster a bitch but I know that if they go through with the generic storyline of the guy realising he wants Ellie instead of Aster then they need to make her unlikable.

I mean, who names their child Aster Flores????

Wait -

WAIT!

Is that a...meet-cute? Between Aster and Ellie? Are they going to fall in love? Is Ellie going to be gay? Are we getting a gay Asian?

Omgomgomgomgomgomg - YES!

I really didn’t want this movie to be generic and it looked as though it was going through that path but 44 seconds into the trailer and this movie is *definitely* anything but.

So now, after seeing this interaction, my prediction is that Ellie and Aster are going to bond just as Ellie’s friendship with The Guy (who I still don’t know the name of) blossoms so she’ll have that big conflict between helping him out with helping Aster fall in love with him and her own feelings for Aster.

If they actually make this a thing then I will be so happy; omg they just look so cute together.

BUT I do hope they don’t make The Guy the main kind of “villain” of the movie because we do need some solid male-female friendships in movies just to show guys and girls can be purely platonic without it turning into something more.

Okay, now I’m really excited!

Awkwardddddd...

Okay, so what I’m thinking is that Ellie’s love letters are going to help The Guy and Aster go on a date but when they actually go on the date, The Guy realises he has zero in common with Aster and says “hey, Ellie, I think I just liked the idea of dating Aster - but it’s you who she actually really likes and has stuff in common with!”

Or something like that.

(Basically, I’m just trying to save The Guy’s friendship with Ellie as much as possible because he does look pretty sweet).

(Also, another side note, I love the colours of the film; they just look very simple and pleasing to the eyes).

So I’m thinking that maybe at the end of the movie, Ellie might leave Squahamish to go and explore the world (possibly with The Guy or with Aster, or both!)

Why do all these blonde girls look just a tad bit *too old* to be in High School?

Not to be rude or anything but it’s just a tad offputting to have Leah Lewis look like an ACTUAL 17-year-old and then have these side characters who look like mums they’ve decided to take their daughter to school to meet all her friends.

Seriously, look at that look on Aster’s face - she looks like her 4 mums are strutting into school, holding her hand, and completely embarrassing her!

But back to the review: Aster seems to be a popular girl (and her friends seem to be stereotypical popular bitches). But it seems as though Aster doesn’t like her popularity so she might just ditch her friends to hang out with Ellie and The Guy, then by the end of the movie they become a friendship trio (with Aster and Ellie dating because duh).

The trailer does end up revealing that The Guy finds out Ellie likes Aster (as we were all waiting for).

He does look quite betrayed but at the same time, I think he’s also angry at himself for not actually realising Ellie’s feelings before.

This might come after they become good friends so it looks as though The Guy seems (possibly) willing to give up his crush on Aster for the sake of their friendship (I hope).

Awwwww FRIENDSHIP!

OMG yes, Netflix! I am proud of you!

This little phrase is kind of changing my thoughts on the end of the movie because I don’t think Ellie would actually go and date Aster right after The Guy tried to date her because - BRO CODE.

So, the movie might just focus on the development of their friendship and then Aster might join them to make them a trio, leading up to the possibility of Ellie and Aster getting together in the future.

Is this making sense???

DisGuSTaNggGg

Well, I don’t think The Guy got the message about bro code...

So this will probably be the height of the conflict where Ellie and The Guy fight over the fact that he knew she likes Aster yet carried on dating her.

This seems like a really cute moment but also a bit dangerous because, like, that’s a *train*. I don’t know about Squahamish but if I decided to walk across the train tracks in the UK, I would get crushed by a train, or (if I don’t die) get arrested or something.

Awwwwww he’s a JOCK!

Jock-nerd friendship goals omg that’s too cute.

Netflix do not mess up this friendship! They are too pure!

So overall I am super excited to watch the movie for the male-female friendship and the lesbian love story.

My initial reaction, as you read above, was that it was just going to be a generic heterosexual love story between this nerdy Asian girl and this white jock.

HOWEVER (and this is a big however), when I watched the rest of the trailer, the story became anything but generic. The story seems complex, interesting, and really fitting to the lives of teenagers now.

So I urge you all to watch THE HALF OF IT on the 1st May 2020 on Netflix (and I’ll make a reaction post to the movie).

But as for now, keep binging - bye!

#the half of it #ellie chu #netflix #movie #movie commentary #movie trailer #films #filmcommunity #coming of age #teen movie #romance #friendship

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valkerymillenia · 4 years

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Now that I've finished season 3 of Young Justice, I'm adding on to my previous thoughts/review.

Anyway...

There's a criminal lack of Spoiler and Orphan, for starters but it's understandable why, this isn't a BatFam show after all (but I'd sooooooo watch a BatFam spin-off of this universe).

Got to see a hint of Suicide Squad! That was a surprise (not really but it's awesome).

Vandal Savage's backstory and development? Literal gold if you like villains (I never liked Savage and yet this interpretation of him just has so much potential!). I do wonder if they will ever approach the "Roy Harper is Savage's descendant" detail...

Thank you, Lord, for all the Klarion! Boy needs to show up more in DC media.

So Halo is bisexual and non-binary? That's pretty awesome but it sucks that nobody in the show seems to get the NB part and everyone codes her as female throughout the whole season, kinda defeats the purpose of having a NB character.

Still annoyed that they used the hijab for hype but removed her actual faith from the character (she literally says "I'm not Muslim", they could have at least left it undefined), you can't bank on a character's traits for "representation" and ignore the meaning behind them, otherwise it's pointless and insulting.

Also, making the Muslim girl the immortal? Badass (and works well with the character). Making it so you can repeatedly kill her to very graphically highlight the seriousness of the situation? A little fucked up, dude.

Still, she's powerful as hell and saved everyone in an amazing display of power.

So yeah, I totally love Halo and her concept is awesome but she was a bit disrespected by the writer and deserves better on some aspects. Oh, and I like the whole "Halo and Cyborg are now related" thing more than I anticipated.

Really happy to get bi Harper Row in the story! Bluebird is such an underappreciated character of the BatFam. The abuse subplot was also very good because it's a topic that needs to be approached in media, victims need to see positive representation.

The Bumblebee baby subplot was... Tricky. It really messes with an important ethical conundrum (yikes, eugenics) that is definitely too complex for younger audiences but I think the goal was to create another future super-kid for the next seasons (still a little icky though but at least they tried to frame it as controversial even to Karen's own feelings). I guess we'll find out.

Granny Goodness has always been a brutal villain and I hope we see more of her. Also, MORE BIG BARDA, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!

Wyynde and Kaldur are SO CUTE! GAH! I need more of them! I just love their relationship so much.

"Who is Dick's family anyway? Is Grayson's father Bruce Wayne-...?" *cue someone immediately redirecting the conversation*

I'm sorry but that what AWESOME and kinda hilarious too. (Yes, Brion, Dick is one of Bruce Wayne's several children, get with the BatFam).

The Anti-Life Equation thing was very well done, I didn't expect it to go so well but every player involved played a great role and the idea of a world with no free will? Shivers, man. Now, it just needs to be readressed in the future because no way would any villain give that up so easily with Halo still alive.

The Geranium City subplot was quite sweet, it brought back some intriguing questions and finally touched a piece of Conner's story that has been hanging since season 1.

Will x Artemis is NOT a thing, thank God! They made such a big deal about it that I was scared and I get the appeal but they are in-laws, it would be so messed up.

I mean, I want Artemis to heal in a healthy way and move on as much as any fan (that limbo sequence made me cry my eyes out, so heartbreaking) but there's no need to force a thing with Will, so I'm glad for the way things got resolved.

Luthor's Infinity Inc reminds me waaaay too much of the Seven in "The Boys"... Still, a smart move. Kinda wondering where it's gonna lead in the future now that they basically belong to Brion.

Terra actually choosing redemption and the Outsiders before trying to kill them was surprising (as was everyone knowing she was a mole), I expected a big fight against her and Deathstroke because that's always been the Terra schtick but instead we got a power crazed Brion, which was a beautifully executed plot twist and as much as it hurts me to see Brion fall (and break Violet's heart) I have to give kudos to the writers, that was well played to wrench our hearts to pieces.

And that new psychic asshole manipulating Brion and making Markocvia into the Light's puppet? Interesting addition.

I really hope Brion gets his own redemption in the next season (orrr maybe he degenerates further into full blown villain? I don't think he has it in him and by the very end he seems to be depressed, lonely and disgruntled with his position already so there might be hope for him yet, but it would be interesting to see him fall further and further beyond redemption and I don't see him infiltrating the Light for the good guys because that would just be a rehash of Kaldur in season 2).

Loved how Lex Luthor got taken down from that bullshit UN position. He's a brilliant villain but he was soooo getting on my nerves in that particular position and it was such a relief to see him fall (which is a sign of how well written it was).

Black Lighting as boss!!!!! Ahhh, that was such a goddamn good choice in this particular universe, especially after he spent the whole season being a voice of reason while going through some growth himself. Still, feels a bit odd merely because he was barely in the bg in previous seasons.

Funny how Conner and M'gann never speak out loud even at home, damn I love this ship (miss my classic timkon though).

That little Robin laugh at the end of the season was such a nice touch, really nostalgic.

What's with the Legion Flight ring on the waitress?

What's with Lobo's finger? So messed up.

Oh boy, now I need Jason and Damian in future seasons (hell, Jon too, give us the Super Sons!!!).

All in all, the third season seems to bring a lot of things full circle at last but also feels like the beginning of something completely new, opening doors and raising questions for a lot of possibilities. It was a very intriguing subversion of a lot of DC plotlines and mythology.

Still... Can we just call the Outsiders the alternate Teen Titans? because that's basically what they are.

CAN'T WAIT FOR SEASON 4!!!!!!

#yj #yj outsiders #young Justice outsiders #young Justice season 3 #SPOILERS #yj spoilers #can we just get gay Bart like we all want already?

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ficstogo · 4 years

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Somebody Else Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Go With Your Gut

Summary: Sandra looks back on the beginning of the end.

Word Count: 3,650

Fic Masterlist

“Hey, Harold. Something big came up and I gotta go take care of it. I’ll call you when I get there, or you’ll call me. Whichever.” Shoving her phone back into her pocket, Sandra rushed her and her belongings into her car, preparing to take the long trip to the airport and complete an even longer trip to LS. She was completely livid. The news that Trevor brought had changed her mood from depressed to wanting to blast something in the face with a nailed baseball bat. Thinking back to the phone call the other night only made her fury even more potent than before. Sandra immediately went to find the earliest plane ticket there, buying it as she now had a mission to destroy Michael Townley at all costs. She would have loved it if the night had ended completely different. She would have wanted to keep on the gig of being mad at Trevor and then begin the process of getting to know each other all over again. Just like starting over. Pretend that they were long lost friends of better conditions. Either way, she would’ve continued on with chatting the night away with him with beer and laughter, pretending that he was in the same room as she was.

The night ended much differently though. After getting her things to fit in her suitcase, Sandra called Dr. Harvey about her mother being deathly ill, and having to visit her back home. She brought the rest of the leftover beers from her fridge to her bedroom and drank away. For a small while, the feeling of wanting to cry left her after that phone call. All she felt was anger, but it all came back to her at once when her angry thoughts turned sour once more. These were the circumstances that lead to Trevor calling her. If not this, she more than likely wouldn’t hear from him for another ten years or never at all and it broke her. She really had no friends. She really didn’t mean much to Trevor, except for the fact that she only helped to fuel the idea that he was in the right side of things for once. Sandra enabled that his feelings justified what he wanted to do because another person felt the same. Then thoughts led to her other friend. Her “dead” friend. Why? Why in the hell would he do something so god awful like that? For so long she blamed herself for what happened back at North Yankton. She remembered how nice Michael had been when Trevor freaked on her on not being on that last heist. How nice he was when she snapped at them. Because of that, she hated herself for so long. For letting her anger and pettiness be the reason that she never saw her friends again.

.~.~.~.~.~.

Sandra laid on her worn out couch staring at the ceiling with the television filling in the silence. She was waiting for a call to hear where the next race would take place and when. It was an easy way of making money, although at the moment, she had enough to make life easy for at least four more months, give or take. But that was far from her mind. She needed something to do, something to keep her occupied and racing was a productive way of doing that. Having enough of the noise, she turned off the small, shitty television and continued to lose herself in her thoughts. Although she would have loved to ring up the boys and see if they could go out for a night of drinking, they all had to lay low for another week. By then, Michael would be busy playing house and Trevor would be too busy hanging out with his best friend. A friend that seemed to overshadow her. Sandra didn’t mind Brad, but she couldn’t help but feel that as each day passes, she was slowly losing Trevor to him. He was a handful and she knew it, but Trevor was her mess of a man to deal with since the beginning. As for Michael, he had a family to look after as strange as that sounded. He was no family man, but when the news about Amanda’s pregnancy came out, the idea of abandoning his children was unbearable. He did not want to be like his father and so the decision to stay had stuck.

Thinking about Amanda led a frown to form on Sandra’s face. It was understandable that Amanda wouldn’t want the crew around Michael anymore, she got that. If she had a family, she would try to drop that life as soon as she could, but what grinds her gears was the way Amanda is. She acted so...privileged, so uppity, so above everyone as though she was queen bee. She knew Amanda viewed them as scum level, trailer trash, as though she had the right to say what’s proper living. She was a goddamn stripper-turned-prostitute who had a boob job and suddenly had a god complex. Then again, maybe she always had that. She lived in a trailer too for god sakes! Sandra’s way of making a living wasn’t honest, but she sure as hell was smart enough to avoid selling herself to strange men. That was something she made sure of. She has no right to treat any of them like shit. What was worse was that she always came after Sandra. She only assumed it was to assert her dominance in Michael's life like some small feeble minded animal. Maybe it was because she was one of Michaels female friends that he might have a thing for. As if. Either way, it was a classic girl-on-girl hate game that played on and she really really hated it. Sandra imagined clawing her eyes out and throwing a few punches here and there while saying things to ruin what little self-esteem she had left. The only reason she hadn’t gone full swing was because it was her friend's wife and she did not want to risk that relationship. At this moment, all her relationships were dwindling.

The sudden ring from the coffee table startled her away from her thoughts. Sitting up to see which phone was ringing, she knew it was the small black one informing her that this was a business call that needed to be answered. “Hello?” She said groggily to the other end.

“L’s, tonight, eight a’clock.” And the line went dead. Feeling buzzed from the call, she was happy that there was going to be new work to do.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Tying up her long dark hair into a ponytail, Sandra took a look at her bright brown eyes in the rearview mirror. They had bags under them from the lack of sleep the weeks previous provided her. She prepped herself for the excitement that this meeting would bring. She was happy that after this hiatus, she could finally get off her ass and do something to ease the boredom once more. Tugging on her jacket, she exited her car and walked towards the small, mobile trailer. With the light from the trailer blanketing her, she knocked a steady rhythm. Sandra took a look around her as the snow kept falling to make the bare area look like a winter wonderland. The sound of the creaking door in front took her attention as she now laid her eyes on a small, weak-looking man, with the iciest blue eyes she’s seen in her life.

“Glad you could make it.” Lester said as he moved to the side for Sandra to walk through. Peeking his head through the door, he takes a few seconds to look around outside as his paranoid self does whenever guests come over.

“Couldn’t possibly skip out on a chance to win some big bucks.” There in the room stood Michael, focused and out of touch with what was going on at the moment. He was more than likely thinking in great detail of the events that would unfold. Trevor stood with his god awful mullet and stache, having a frown to go with the threatening look that he’s pulling off so well. And then Brad, who sat on one of the small raggedy sofas with a bored look, a look that wasn’t new whenever he attended these meetings.

“So boys, what's the score?” Her voice projected in an amused yet confident tone. They all turned to look after her, happy to get this meeting started.

“North Yankton State Bank.” Michael said with eagerness in his voice.

“You’re serious!?” Sandra chuckled out with a quirked brow as she sat at the small table in the room.

“As serious as I can be. It may not be much but it’ll sure as hell cover us for a good while.”

“No complaints here.”

.~.~.~.~.~.

As Lester finished up with his presentation, there was the question that always came to mind when discussing any heist. “What are the chances we make it out clean?” With her hands clasped on top of the table, her eyes focused on the blueprint in front of her.

“Do you want the answer that feeds into doing this job or do you want my actual god honest opinion?”

“The answer that won’t send me to my grave early.”

Lester looked at each of the thieves with a nervous expression risen on his face and hesitated only for a second to answer. “...I don't think that this job is something you guys can go through.”

“Oh come on Lest! What do you mean we cant? We got the best the of the best here! We're gonna make it through it and we're gonna make it through it rich.” Trevor exclaimed. He wanted so bad to go through with this score and he wanted everyone to be apart of it. He’d cut Lester’s tongue out if this was going to change Sandra’s mind.

“And then we can finally end it here.” Michael calmly said with what sounded as if he let out a welcomed sigh.

“What do you mean “end it”?” Her head slowly turned to Michael as her eyes squinted in skepticism.

“You didn’t tell her?” Lester said in surprise, looking between his companions once more.

“Shut it, mole man!” Trevor yelled, only to see Lester squirm back from his outburst.

“Uh, Me and Trev have been talkin’-”

“We decided to end the partnership after this job. Sorry for you to be the last to know Sandy.” Trevor said as he looked away from her. He knew how much they meant to her because he felt the same with them. It killed him when Michael opened up about how he wanted to leave them and it murdered him when he decided for it. He was going to tell Sandra but for some reason, he always found something to distract him from doing that. He realized now how that could go wrong.

“Wait wait wait wait. I know that this job would cover us for a good while but are you guys seriously deciding on not doing this anymore?” Her dirt eyes looked back and forth between the two as her chest felt constriction.

“You know I got a family S, I can't keep doing this.” Michael said as he looked to the floor, not wanting to look at her. He couldn’t risk their lives because of him. He didn’t want his children to visit him in prison and know their father to be a pitiful loser who couldn’t do any better in providing for them. He didn’t want to be absent in their lives, let alone because he was six feet underground. Michael just couldn’t find himself doing that to them. He wanted to be better. For them.

“And I never said I was done. Me and Brad, we’re gonna go places.”

“Oh really? And where does that leave me, huh? Where am I in all of this? All four of you decided to have this chat and leave me out! Do I really not count in anything?”

“No! Sandy that’s not why-”

“Cut the shit! I noticed how I've been the last in anything nowadays. And you told Lester instead of the person who’s gotten your backs since the start! The person that almost slept her way to make extra cash when we needed it bad! The person who drives your asses out the heat before the cops could get on to us!?”

“San-”

“What’ll screw us over on this?” Sandra said in a firm tone as she turned her attention instantly to Lester.

“Uh, right of course. Our main problem is security and the time frame. I'm afraid that it's too short for any of you to make it to the van on time.” Lester flustered out. Even though Michael gave hints about it being the last job, he honestly thought that Sandra would be the first he talked to about it. They always seemed to be more connected but then again it was hard when all three of them were so close to each other. When Lester met them, it was like high school. The new kid meeting the clique and how it was hard to break through their barrier that they’ve built up together. Although this is all business, he did feel like the outsider with their group. Eventually, he turned to the person they always praised and respect. Well two of the three, he should say.

“Fuck security! They can’t do shit to us! And we’ll be fast! As long as we know the plan like clockwork, we’ll be home free!” Brad said with confidence.

“For once, Brad’s right. We’ll do this and we’ll do this with no repercussions. Sandy, this job will be like any other job we’ve done. There’s no way we can fuck this up!” Michael said. He could see that she wasn’t convinced and he needed her to see it his way. He needed this and he needed her on this job.

Only thoughts battled within her head. It was a good score but the fact that Lester wasn’t a hundred percent behind it like he usually is is what was really breaking the tie on what she should do. “I trust that you guys can’t fuck it up but I trust Lester more on this. You know I don’t go full on without Lester’s approval on it.”

“Oh come on Sandra-D!” There it was. The stupid nickname they used whenever they wanted her to do something that she was stubborn on. How Marty McFly hated being called a chicken, she hated being called Sandra-D. It had the same punch of being called a pussy and it always worked in their favor. She had too much of an ego and pride to back out, but she knew that nickname wouldn’t work this time. “You use to go into jobs head-on before we ever met Lester! Whatever it was, you never hesitated! What happened to the old Sandy!?” Trevor said in a passion with his hands slammed on the table, looking straight at Sandra, a desperate fire burning in his eyes.

“That old Sandy was stupid and almost got herself killed and caught more times than she can count because she thought it was a good idea to listen to you two fuck heads!” She said as she rose herself in the same position as Trevor. “Fuck you guys! I ain’t doing this job!” She yelled as she grabbed her jacket from the back of her seat and headed to the door.

“Are you fucking serious!? Are you fucking with me right now!? This is our last Goddamn heist together and you can’t help but fuck this up for us!? You’re a real bitch, you know that, Sandra!? You can’t even do this one thing for us without that stick up your ass!”

“Trevor!” Michael yelled.

“How about I get that stick that’s in my ass and fucking beat the living shit out of you, you fucking psychotic good for nothing piece of shit!” She yelled stalking towards him as a force that couldn’t be stopped. “If you wanna talk about who fucks up what, let’s talk about your fucking star moments, huh! At least I don’t fucking kill any of the goddamn hostages because they looked at me funny! At least I’m not the one that drives everyone into hiding because the cops are onto us for a fucking murder case! At least I’m not the one who tries to start shit up while we’re trying to lay low!” She continued on at his face. Everytime they were on a job, she always had to worry about him doing just that and it always made her more anxious than what she should be. She already had to worry about making sure she didn’t mess up. She had to make sure that the everything was going to plan. She had to worry about not getting in a wreck whenever they drove off. Sandra did not need that extra weight on her.

As she walked past the men, she felt a grip on her arm like their life depended on it and it did. “Sandra! Wait! We need you. I can’t get another driver as good as you! You’re the only one that I trust on anything and this is big! We’ll be fucked without you.” Michael was pleading with her. There was a desperate look in his eyes and damn, did she nearly gave into it but she needed to show them her ground and she needed to show how true his words were. They would be fucked without her. It was petty but she didn’t give a damn at the moment.

Yanking her arm out of his hand, she looked him straight into his true blue eyes and said, “Good.”

As she walked out the door, all that was left behind was Trevor yelling “I don’t wanna hear you begging for money from us, you hear!? You don’t get any of the damn cut! You don’t deserve shit!”

.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Sandra found herself staring at the ceiling once more as the anger still coursed through her body. This was complete bullshit. The feeling of being left out was just that. A feeling. Then being the last to know of some news that would change her life only made her feel even more distant from them than before. What happened? What suddenly changed their dynamic from sticking together like the family they were to not even speaking to each other like the way they use to, she didn’t know.

The sudden ring from her phone startled her. Rolling her eyes at her jumpy self, she picked it up and answered the call. “Yeah?”

“Hey…” Great. It was this smooth talking bastard calling. Probably to try and convince me into this job.

“What?” Sandra said with her attitude giving a hint about how she was feeling.

“I just called to...I just wanna know if you’re alright. After everything, especially what Trevor said, I just needed to know if you were alright.” That wasn’t what she was expecting.

Taking her anger down a notch she sighed and responded. “Um, yeah. I mean, I’ll be alright. I’m a little pissed but I’ll get over it.” Closing her eyes, Sandra tried to waver off the remainder of her anger so as to continue having a calm conversation with Michael.

“You got every right to be. Look, I wanted to call and say I’m sorry for being an asshole. I should’ve told ya what I was planning and I’m sorry about the shit Trevor said. You know how he can get.”

“Yeah, I know. I wasn’t expecting anything different from him.” She rubbed her forehead as she thought back about earlier in the night. She hated it. Hated how bad it got. “But he’s right. I shouldn’t be such a bitch and back off from what we got planned. It’s our last job and I can-”

“No, don’t worry about what Trevor said. Don’t let him guilt you into doing anything you don’t wanna do.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“...To be honest, I really want you to be apart of this. It is our last. But we’ve always gone with our gut feelings. Mine’s telling me we can do this, yours is tellin’ you we can’t. It’s better if we went with how we feel. No hesitation.” That thought only made her want to laugh. The last time she went with how she felt things began to feel different between the two of them and when they finally fixed what was bothering them, it only left her a bit hurt.

“I’m sorry Mikey. I just...I can’t shake off this bad feeling I got. We always went with what Lester says and it always saves our skins but I get why you’re doing this. Just be safe.”

“Hey! Don’t worry about nothin’! We got this covered. And forget about what T said. I’ll slip you a couple grand under your door when we get back.” Michael said in a confident yet hushed tone. Probably didn’t want Amanda to overhear him.

“You always spoil me, you know that?” She chuckled. It always felt like playing house with those two. When one said no, the other said yes.

“Anything for you, Sandy.” She could only imagine him winking at her as he said that, like the smooth bastard he is. With their moment of laughing, Sandra’s ears perked at the faint sound of someone calling his name in the background. Of course. Typical. “I gotta go, Sandy. Just wait till I’m knockin’ on your front door. You’d wish you came along.”

“Anything you say, M.” She sarcastically laughed. “Prove me wrong.” and there, she hung up and stared at the ceiling once more but this time with a small smile on her face.

#fic #my fic #gta #gta v #gta 5 #grand theft auto #grand theft auto v #grand theft auto 5 #michael townley #michael de santa #trevor philips #franklin clinton #lamar davis #jimmy de santa #jimmy townley #tracey de santa #tracey townley #amanda de santa #amanda townley

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thepunktheory · 5 years

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Why GoT Season 8 sucked - Welcome to my TED Talk

I hadn't been a GoT fan from the first minute. However, once I had watched my first episode, I was all in. I binged all season, devoured the books. Needless to say, I was both excited and anxious about the final season. We could clearly see a decline in quality once the show had left the charted territory marked by George R. R. Martin's books. So, I had dialed down my expectation for the final season. Nevertheless, Benioff and Weiss managed to fuck it up beyond my wildest imaginations. About three episodes in, all I wanted was for the show to be over. It was almost painful to watch! So, what did Benioff and Weiss do to ruin it all?

What has Game of Thrones always been known for? Unforeseen plot twists, cleverly crafted stories, impressive characters along with intense character development, epic battles and (very important) strong female characters who seriously kick ass. Let me tell you in detail how all of that went down the drain with season 8.

I'll begin with the amazing female characters as that is what pissed me off the most. I have thoughts on Dany, Arya, Brienne, Sansa, Yara, and Cersei so prepare for a longer rant.

Brienne had always been one of my favorites in the show. She was strong, smart, stood up for herself and others. I was cheering for her when she finally got to be a knight in this season. Well, my joy was short-lived. After the big battle, Jamie, Brienne, Tyrion, and Podrick play a drinking game and Tyrion assumes that Brienne is a virgin. She stalks off into the night only to be followed by Jamie who ends up sleeping with her. The next he leaves a weeping Brienne behind as he heads for King's Landing (and Cersei). Let dissect everything that is wrong here. First of all, the fact that Brienne is a virgin is presented as something that appears to be a problem. Problems need fixing. So, of course, good guy Jamie is there to help her out. Seeing her cry because of some dude is jab the character that was built over 7 seasons. Don't try to tell me it was to make her human. We already know that. Brienne isn't perfect, she's also had her share of heartbreak. This scene only served one purpose: to remind us that in the end Brienne is a woman, weak and governed by emotions. No matter how amazing she is on the battlefield, she's still just a weeping girl. The scenes I mentioned have absolutely no relevance to the bigger story, don't do anything in terms of character development and were altogether simply unnecessary. Also, I was rooting for Tormund and was really sad to see him cast aside.

Next, some quick thoughts on Yara. Well, where was she this season? We get to see her for half a heartbeat before she's shipped off to the Iron Islands, never to be seen again. The fact that she was there in the final episodes, to say just about one sentence, felt more like a concession to fans than anything else. Her story arc doesn't really get any form of closure. It's like Benioff and Weiss had completely forgotten about her this season.

Just like Brienne, Arya had also been one of my favorites. I cheered when she killed the Night King (more on that later) but was somewhat flabbergasted during the penultimate episode. For the last 7 seasons, she trained to become this badass assassin and now she was headed to King's Landing. Killing Cersei had been one of the main driving forces that have kept her going and in the penultimate episode of season 8, she was closer to her goal than ever. Anyhow, once she and Sandor get to the capital he basically tells her to skedaddle as there's only death to be found here. Arya is like "K, bye." Her whole story was building up to this and now she just turns to leave. One could argue that she finally overcame the hate inside her, her thirst for revenge or whatever. But this is not the way it's presented here. A man tells her it's too dangerous for her and ever the good and obedient little girl, Arya decides to leave. Something sound off here?

With Sansa, I think I get what Benioff and Weiss wanted to say but their writing is just terrible, so it comes across the wrong way. I love that she ended up as Queen in the North but before that, we have one scene that really irked me. She’s talking with Sandor and kinds of says "well, it's really good that all this shit has happened to me. Otherwise, I'd still be a little bird." So, I guess, what writers were going for was for her to come to terms with her past and embrace who she is now. How it came across: being a little bird is a terrible thing, (There's nothing wrong with living a sheltered life, are you arguing that the only good way to live is to be mistreated?) ultimately all the shit that happened to her was okay anyways (it was not okay).

Now what you all have been waiting for: Dany. Benioff and Weiss really murdered her for good. She's always been an intricate and complex character, not without flaws but with a desire to become a better person. Writers decided to take all that, wrap it up real nice with a bow and throw it out the window. What we get in season 8 is a mad Queen with no feelings and no remorse. I was so angry when Benioff and Weiss claimed it was foreshadowed that she'd go mad. Why? Just because the Gods toss a coin when a Targaryen child is born? It wasn't foreshadowed that she'd go batshit crazy within the blink of an eye. We knew she struggled with her heritage, but in the past seasons, Dany always made a point to distance herself from her father's actions, made a point to not be like him. Remember when she was heartbroken because her dragons had grilled an innocent child? Over my dead body is that the same character who burns down an entire city without thinking twice or without the slightest hint of internal conflict.

When it comes to Cersei Lannister, I was equally disappointed. We barely get to see her this season, she has just about 6 sentences and isn't quite herself. I was already pissed during the first episode. Euron Greyjoy (don't even get me started on that twat) wants to bed her. And Cersei holds a more or less elaborate speech, basically telling him to go fuck himself. However, he cocks his head to the side and claims that he'd rather have a go with her. So, of course, Cersei gives in without further discussion and sleeps with him. That is not the Cersei we know. I talked with some people about it and they argued that she had to in order to convince him that the child in her belly was his. Well, I beg to differ. It's just written terrible and out of character. Cersei has always been a strong character, she doesn't bow to no-one. In this season she's but a shadow of herself. Especially the penultimate episode was a letdown. Her life ends with Jamie holding her and Cersei keeps muttering that she doesn't want to die and she doesn't want her baby to die. Well, Cersei had faced death before and we know this is not the way she deals with it. She's always held her head high, unwilling to give, strong to the very end. The Cersei Martin created never would have cowered like that.

As we were talking about foreshadowing with Dany. Does anybody remember the prophecy Cersei got back in the day before she was married? It stated that she'd have three children with golden crowns (Joeffrey, Tommen, and Myrcella) but Cersei would have to watch them all die. Thus I am convinced that however much she wanted the baby in her belly to live, Cersei knew that it wouldn't happen. That's another reason I am convinced her final scene is absolutely out of character. I won't even talk about the rest of the prophecy as Benioff and Weiss really fucked up that front. This leads me to one thought that was also expressed by Martin himself.

Writers nowadays try so damn hard to surprise the audience, they don't even care that the stories often don't make sense anymore. The fact that somebody might have guessed the correct ending isn't a bad thing. It means that what you wrote/produced so far paints a picture of the characters it's coherent. You can't build a story, fill it with clues and then just take another route because you feel like. What you get from that is endings like GoT Season 8 (or Captain Rogers in Avengers: Endgame).

So, what else did I hate in season 8? The battle of Winterfell. Sure, the battle scenes were rather epic but there were just so many things wrong in that episode. The first 20 minutes were almost black, meaning most viewers weren't able to see a thing. I heard the explanation that you simply need a super expensive TV, then the episode looks fine, that's what the colors were calibrated for. If that's not a big fuck you to all the fans than I don't know what is. Next, there were so many strategic mistakes in there. We don't have time to unpack all of that, but who had the brilliant idea to put all the women and children in the crypts? With the dead people. When the Night King is coming, whose best trick is to resurrect the dead. Also, killing the Night King didn't seem that big of a deal. After 7 seasons build-up for that battle, I expected him to be a bigger problem. I mean, I love that Arya was the one to take him down. But one dagger was really all that was needed? Somebody could have sent a sharpshooter in season 1 and the problem would have been dealt with

Finally, let me give you some examples for the lazy ass writing done by Benioff and Weiss. Do you remember that in the past seasons it was actually hard to kill a dragon? Well, in season 8 Euron Greyjoy kills a dragon with a single freaking bolt. Why does that happen? Because Danaerys forgot about his fleet (According to Benioff and Weis). Are those guys seriously trying to convince me that nobody in Dany's council remembered that Greyjoy is still alive and kicking? What the fuck?! Another example is the scene were Missandei gets executed. Had it been written by Martin, Tyrion would have held a smart speech and pleaded with his sister (nope). More importantly, Missandei would have had some inspiring last words for Dany. All she says is Dracarys. You know how that felt to me? I bet this was Benioff's and Weiss' thought process: "Well, we could let her do a speech. But then we have to come up with a speech. Let's just make her say Dracary and the audience can come up with the rest."

I’m sorry to say that it's obvious how overwhelmed Benioff and Weiss were with writing season 8. They clearly lacked the skills to bring the show to a worthy end and I'm sad to see so much money being wasted on that. Honestly, it felt like they didn't even care anymore and just wanted it all to be over. HBO should have just hired some fanfiction authors to do the job. They would have done infinitely better. I don't even think that all the decisions made in this season were bad. They were just terribly executed. You know, I can imagine Dany going nuts even in Martin's version, just not the way Benioff and Weiss portrayed it. It's the kind of story arc you can only pull off if you are an excellent writer, otherwise, you just slaughter your characters. You need internal conflict, development - more than CGI effect and dragons. As we are speaking of dragons: I had hoped the dragon would turn Jon into a piece of steak and grill him instead of the Iron Throne. But of course, the golden boy had to survive...

Season 8 is a really unworthy end to a show that had once been great. My only hope is that now George R. R. Martin has some motivation to finish his books. Hopefully, he'll show us soon how it was meant to be and how you get the job done properly.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

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pass-the-bechdel · 5 years

Text

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

No.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Six (31.57% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Thirteen.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

Entertaining, but overrated.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Though Nebula and Gamora trade a couple of lines on a few occasions, they invariably speak about either Thanos, or Ronan.

Female characters:

Meredith Quill.

Bereet.

Nebula.

Gamora.

Carina.

Nova Prime.

Male characters:

Mr Quill.

Peter Quill.

Yondu Udonta.

Ronan.

Korath.

Rocket.

Groot.

The Broker.

Drax.

Thanos.

The Collector.

Denarian Saal.

Denarian Dey.

OTHER NOTES:

Seatbelts on spaceships should really be mandatory.

Aahahahaha Peter has a woman on his ship whose name he can’t remember and whom he forgot was even there! Oh, it’s so funny and charming! What a classic misogynistic cliche intro! Garbage.

Rocket chastises Groot to ‘learn genders’, and I don’t think the irony of a raccoon (a species with almost no visually-evident sexual dimorphism) saying that to a tree-person (whose species - if sexually dimorphic at all - certainly has no reason to adhere to the humanoid/mammalian model) is deliberate. The other alien higher-life-forms they encounter in the film are pretty uniformly human in appearance (not much effort going on in the ‘alien’ department besides just painting people in bright colours), but lack of imagination from the creative team doesn’t mean that the binary gender system we’re accustomed to on Earth has any broad bearing on the galaxy at large.

Aaahh, and now Peter is explaining his scars to Drax, with lovely stories of women he cheated on in the past because he’s ~such a stud~.

Thanos tells Ronan off for his dull political raging and whiny behaviour, but he’s sitting on a shiny floating throne himself, so I’m not sure he’s earned the right to criticise what other people have got going on.

Rocket suggests that Gamora trade sexual favours to get things from other prisoners, because we’re being Like That with this movie.

The Collector keeps female slave ‘assistants’, whom he evidently treats so nicely that Carina commits suicide by infinity stone at the first opportunity in order to escape him. We’re just doing so well for the ladies in this film.

As a great comedic beat, Drax calls Gamora a “green whore”. It’s both a shitty line, and nonsensical, since Drax isn’t supposed to comprehend metaphors and he has no reason to believe Gamora is a literal ‘whore’ (nor is he likely to use such a colloquial term, considering the calibre of his standard vocabulary). Basically, it’s a rubbish line from every angle, and all in service of a misogynistic joke.

This film is a terrible waste of Djimon Hounsou.

Ronan is very theatrically over-the-top in his pronouncements, but Lee Pace does his damnedest to make it work on delivery.

Why does Ronan’s flashy purple infinity stone weapon not kill people when he shoots them with its energy blast? Obviously it would be terribly inconvenient to the story if he just casually killed all the good guys, but honestly. It doesn’t make much sense. They coulda at least pretended there was a reason.

The part of me that is susceptible to acts of heroism is affected by the guardians all joining hands to share the stone’s power. Not enough to feel that the film or the character relationships actually connected on an emotional level, but enough that this ending doesn’t feel totally unearned.

Drax patting Rocket’s head while he’s crying over Groot is a lovely touch. THAT is the strongest character interaction of the film.

So. I’ll be honest: I don’t like this movie. I don’t think it works. I think it’s essentially just a string of gimmicks, loosely attached, entertaining enough on the surface but with no meaningful depth to hold in the mind or keep the audience engaged once the credits kick in (it’s also much heavier on the sexist tropes than any other MCU film previous). I don’t hate it, but it doesn’t give me anything that I value in a viewing experience, it just happens and then ends and that’s it. And the reason it doesn’t work is, frankly, the writing is lazy as shit. It makes a sub-par effort at establishing character and thus relies heavily on cliches, it rarely bothers to incorporate relevant plot and motivations and such into the story at early points in order to generate narrative pay-off, and the world-building is hazy at best and, like the characterisation, trades predominantly on expectation of stereotypes rather than actually creating anything original.

Let’s start in the obvious place: with our lead character. I’m tempted to just say ‘Peter Quill is garbage’ and then move on, because it’s true and also, he’s just not complex or interesting at all, which is ridiculous because he’s got that whole ‘alien abduction’ origin story and there should be like, literally any layers at all to his story instead of him just being an obnoxious Lothario who makes pop culture references like that counts as having a personality. But, here we are. I’m not familiar with the comics so I don’t know if this is a common complaint from fans who can’t believe their boy got all his nuances deleted in favour of such an inane cliche, but if this is exactly what Quill is like in the comics too? That’s no excuse. Part of the magic of adaptation is the opportunity to improve upon things the source material did wrongly or badly. The Quill we’ve got here in this movie is such a bland template he’s almost functionally useless; he barely impacts the story at all, especially in any way that is relevant to his personality or skills and necessitates his presence (the dance-off distraction is the only good Quill moment, and it’s also one of the few inspired choices in the whole film). At the end of the day, Quill exists so that the story has a Main Guy, being a straight white American male (and making sure we all, excessively, know about it), because God forbid we be expected to identify with anyone else. I have heard people sing the praises of the film for ‘subverting cliche’ by not having Quill and Gamora actively hook up by the end, as if that somehow makes it better that every single other aspect of that tedious forced romance plot is still squarely in place and set to play out in future films (pro tip: if the main guy still ‘gets the girl’, only it doesn’t happen in the first film, that’s not subversive. That’s still playing the trope dead-straight). Quill not immediately being shown to be rewarded with sex is not some incredible feat of original storytelling, and it certainly doesn’t absolve him of being a dime-a-dozen pig of a character. If that’s the most ‘unexpected’ character element you can cite, you’re in dire straits.

Now, I’m not gonna talk about every character individually, because in most cases there’s not much to talk about; Drax is the big warrior guy with the Fridged Family backstory we’ve seen so many times before it elicits zero (0) emotions now; Groot - though an interesting idea on paper - is basically just a Deus Ex Machina of whatever ability is most useful at any given moment, too ill-defined to have boundaries to his powers and conveniently not using his full potential whenever it would allow the characters to win too easily; and Rocket, well, Rocket is actually the only one of the leads who manages any meaningful nuance, which is unfortunate because most of the time he’s just used for sarcastic comic relief. The other character I am going to talk about is Gamora, and it’s because she’s a prime example of how this movie fails to establish things so that they feel like they actually matter or the character’s motivations are understandable, etc. We are introduced to Gamora when she overrides Ronan’s order for Nebula to retrieve the orb from Xandar; as it turns out, Gamora’s introductory moment (literally the first time we see her or hear her speak) is also her act of rebellion when she puts into action her plan to escape Thanos’ clutches and go her own way. The problem, obviously, is this is her introduction. We’ve never seen this character before, we’ve only just met Ronan and Nebula as well, Thanos is barely more than a concept, as is the planet Xandar and the politics around it. Nothing has been established yet about the life that Gamora occupies, so her ploy to escape it? Meaningless. We don’t even find out that Gamora was not planning to retrieve the orb for Ronan until she tells us so after she’s been arrested, and we have literally no reason to believe her because we don’t know her yet because her character has not been established at all. The traditional way to do this would be to show her in her old life, doing as she’s told and/or witnessing terrible things being done by her compatriots, and showing the audience that she has clear misgivings so that when she turns, we understand the context and can believe that’s a logical character decision based on established personality and morals (think of Finn’s introduction in The Force Awakens for a textbook example). Because no time or effort is ever invested in establishing who or how Gamora is, everything we know is delivered to us directly in dialogue, all tell, no show, and what could easily have been the film’s most dynamic character is instead hampered by having her development choked off to avoid spending time on letting her origins matter (despite the fact that those origins are essential to the plot).

On which note, lets talk bad guys. Thanos first, because there’s not much to say, and that’s not a good thing: Thanos is actually pointless to this film, the only reason he’s there is so that the MCU can use him to actual purpose in later films and his relation to Gamora and Nebula and the hunt for the Infinity Stones needs to be established first, but as with everything else this movie is terrible at establishing things effectively. Consequently, Thanos...just floats around on a chair, and then Ronan tells him to piss off and we don’t see or hear from him again in the rest of the film, and there’s no real effort made to integrate Thanos into the story so that he seems like anything other than a dead-end subplot cluttering up the movie for no reason. The closest Thanos gets to anything notable is when he chides Ronan for his boring politics, but even that is symptomatic of the wider problem with this movie’s lazy writing: Ronan’s whole character is essentially just another dull archetype - in this case, the extremist villain - and a solid nothing at all is done to establish his politics or what they mean, other than death for the people we’re told are the innocents. This is a problem with the world-building of the film as a whole, because none of the galaxy’s politics is fleshed out, there’s no context to why the Kree have a problem with Xandar or why we should care, and Xandar kinda gets treated like the centre of the universe but it also seems that’s just for convenience sake so that the plot can return to a previous location for the final act. Hell, I haven’t the faintest fucking idea where Earth is supposed to fit in to all of this, other characters talk about it so it’s clearly a known quantity to the rest of the galaxy, and yet no one knows any details about it and Quill never bothered to go back there for reasons which really SHOULD be explored and yet are not even mentioned (that would seem like some of that characterisation he doesn’t have), so I don’t know what we’re supposed to interpret from that. I’m not confident that the creative powers bothered to think about it, considering how much they didn’t think about anything else. This is a movie where ‘human, but painted’ passes for ‘alien’ and society apparently functions exactly like Earth, tedious misogyny and all, despite the absence of cultural sharing to explain the Earthlike similarities (and boy oh boy do I HATE the laziness of science fiction where everything being identical to Western culture on Earth is treated like it’s ‘just the natural order’ that should be expected to develop in any sentient species, instead of a complex system shaped by unique and varied influences over thousands of years and dependent upon environment, religion, philosophy, and a myriad of other factors not replicated in these poorly-drawn ‘alien’ cultures. I get that you’ve gotta employ at least some shorthand in order to get on and tell your story within time constraints, but come on. If you’re not gonna think about world-building at all, don’t set the story on an alien planet). Above all else, we know that Ronan is the villain because he’s painted (literally) as one; he’s the bad guy through visually-indicated othering, because we all know good guys don’t look like that (whereas most of Ronan’s enemies on Xandar are just regular-looking white folks. Curious...). Sure, Ronan is also introduced spouting rhetoric and then smashing a dude with a hammer, and that seems like villain behaviour, but that only reinforces the point: Ronan’s role is made unmistakable through age-old tropes, and it’s never explored or subverted or made dynamic from there. Like Quill as the ‘hero’, Ronan is a dime-a-dozen cliche.

So anyway. Lets talk plot. This one goes like so: Quill collects the orb from Morag, where he coincidentally runs into Korath and company who just-so-happen to be after the orb at the same time (how it is that multiple interested parties only just found out that one of the most powerful destructive forces in the universe is just chillin’ on this abandoned planet, they don’t bother to explain). Quill runs into both Gamora, and Rocket and Groot, the other parties happening to be after him for different reasons and coincidentally converging on Xandar at the same point. Everyone gets arrested and sent to prison, where they meet Drax and promptly escape and fly to Knowhere so that The Collector can exposition-dump about Infinity Stones. Drax calls Ronan up, just literally straight-up calls the bad guy to come and find them because I guess figuring out a normal plot reason for the villain to catch up with the good guys was too hard, so we had to go for extreme stupidity instead. Ronan gets the orb and goes back to Xandar to destroy it, and our main characters figure they should stop that, so they do. Roll credits. Now, you can make pretty much any story sound basic and stupid by breaking it down into its component pieces, but the important thing to note about this layout is how many convenient or just plain stupid aspects there are. There are almost no character meetings or story developments that come about logically through the sensible development of plot driven by character’s motivations springing from established narrative, etc, and part of that problem is absolutely because there’s so little established character/world-building to begin with, but it’s also because whatever there is tends to apparate when it is needed without any sign of existing beforehand; that is, very little of the story is seeded early on so that it can come to fruition later in a narratively satisfying fashion. The Nova Corps sentence the characters to the Kyln prison as if it’s a big scary concept, but we’ve never heard of it before so we have no reason to consider it trouble. Drax appears and other characters literally tell us why we should pay attention to him, instead of him being, say, pre-established (SUCH AS by having his family tragedy shown on screen as a dual-establishing event for him and Ronan, or something to which Gamora was privy in some way in order to intro her misgivings as discussed above, or even just having someone reference the legend of Drax the Destroyer BEFORE getting to the Kyln (you could also, y’know, establish the Kyln itself in talking about how Drax was sent there. Just saying)). Intro the idea of Knowhere and/or The Collector BEFORE heading there so that it’s less convenient for Gamora to just-happen to have a buyer already set up for the item we didn’t even know she had planned to steal as part of the escape plot we didn’t know she was hatching. For the love of everything, establish some actual REASON for Ronan to follow our characters to Knowhere, instead of just ‘Drax got drunk and called him’. Link the pieces of your story together with concepts and developments that build upon each other in a narrative progression. That’s the difference between having a plot, and having a string of chronological set pieces (some of which - like Morag and the Kyln - don’t even have a purpose anyway beyond providing some action-scene opportunities).

Before I close this out, I just want to run through a little exercise to demonstrate something that you never, ever want to happen in a story. You never want to have a lead character who can be deleted from the plot without leaving a hole too big to be easily filled by the rest of the cast. But what happens if Peter Quill is removed from this story? Well, pretty much all of the misogyny disappears, so that’s a plus. Someone else is gonna have to retrieve the orb from Morag, but we could easily send Rocket and Groot to do that. Gamora can still fight with them on Xandar exactly as it happens in the actual movie, only this time it’s not just pure coincidence that they conflict. We saved vital time that the film spent on Quill’s inconsequential childhood abduction (and we could save more on trimming the pointless action on Morag), which is time that could be better spent on all that other establishing crap I was talking about earlier, tightening up the narrative. Quill doesn’t serve any important purpose in the Kyln, so we can remove him from that no problem, nor does he matter on Knowhere other than a frankly stupid and ultimately pointless moment when he saves Gamora (definitely unnecessary when we’re removing the romantic subplot bullshit along with Quill). And then what? The characters agree that not letting Ronan destroy the galaxy is probably a good call (not Quill-relevant), they head back to Xandar, fight some bad guys, hold hands, win the day. We lose Quill’s only good moment in the form of the dance-off, but it’s an acceptable loss in order to strengthen the entire rest of the film by deleting the most meaningless character: the lead. We also arguably lose the Ravagers in the process, but as much fun as Yondu is, the plot can also survive completely intact without him (the only time the Ravagers matter is for the previously-identified useless damsel contrivance with Quill saving Gamora, and then they do help out on Xandar in the end, but they aren’t necessary for that - the Nova Corps could have been expanded just a smidge and taken care of everything). On the other hand, if you remove Gamora, you lose the connection to Ronan/Thanos as well as the moral compass of the Guardians; some other character would have to be significantly altered to fill the gap. You lose major Deus Ex Machina skills without Groot, and without Rocket someone else’s narrative has to change in order for Groot to have a buddy (plus you need a new mastermind for various plans, though that’s an easier hole to fill). You skip Drax and you do lose a major plot development in the form of him drunk-dialling Ronan, but admittedly that’s one of the worst things in this whole dumb waste of a movie, so maybe it’s not such a loss. You could ditch Drax. But, that’s not important, because Drax isn’t packaged as the leading man: Quill is. If you delete Drax, you don’t really streamline or improve the story (you could fix the one big flaw in his character very easily, he doesn’t have to disappear for that). You delete Quill...I know, comic book adaptation, dropping the main character is not considered an acceptable alteration when you’re improving the story for the screen. But come on. The least they could do is make him actually matter, not just be a perfunctory inclusion for the sake of sticking this ‘weird sci-fi’ as firmly in the centre of over-done cliche as a lazy gimmick story ever could be. There are a few chuckles to be had with this film, and it’s not entirely boring, but it’s not half as endearing nor even an eighth as inspired as it thinks it is. I’m not impressed by any of it.

#Guardians of the Galaxy #Bechdel Test #female representation #Marvel Cinematic Universe #MCU

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lokikingofasgardslover713 · 5 years

Text

The Valkyries Men: 1

Masterlist

The Valkyries Men Masterlist

Bucky Barnes X Plus!Size Reader X Steve Rogers

Warnings: Nothing major, cursing

A/N: This is just the first chapter getting introductions out of the way! The reader is a Valkyrie that was brought to earth by her mothers to protect her, reader doesn't know her father but it isn't Thor or Loki! Once again I make no promises on chapter length or how many they will be! Or when I will post more!

Words: +3,300

June 1943

It was bouncy over the rutted out muddy roads, the entire unit that sat in the back of the convoy van was trying to sleep, but it was obvious the driver wasn’t going easy on them. The snappy special forces agent as they had been calling the man, regarding him with more authority than the others reached up to the front through the small port between driver& passengers. Calloused, bare hand smacking the shit out of the back of the driver’s head for the last rut that he had purposefully hit.

“What the fuck,” the driver yelled out, slamming on the brakes to lurch the truck to a stop, the one bent through the small window holding tight & glaring at the driver as he snapped back to begin chewing the man’s ass that had hit him.

“Goddamn it! I know you hit that one on purpose shit head! These men are trying to get some rest back here,” the Y/H/C ‘man’ snarled out apparent that the drivers rank meant nothing.

“Who the fuck are you…,” the young driver began to snarl out at least until he seen the glittering special forces insignia with the eagle, SHIELD, which meant this officer out ranked them all.

“Special Forces Gunnrdottir. Now, by my watch,” the agent began looking to the futuristic watch that had a golden Stark insignia in cursive across it's face, “we will still arrive on time even if you miss all the pot holes in Germany is that understood?”

“Uh… yes sir… it's no problem,” the man stammered the officer shooting him a smirk before patting him on the head.

“Good, now let’s go,” Y/N laughed to herself thinking if the men knew a female officer had just reamed the drivers ass that would make it twice as funny, but these Midgardians were funny about their woman.

A thing Y/N & her mothers had to get used to when banished here before she was born a few weeks shy of 26 years ago, gods only knew who the young Valkyries father was. Y/N’ sire was Aesir but neither mother would tell her just who they were, citing it was a danger to know the man.

Plopping back into the cramped seat she occupied next to a guy her age that introduced himself as Sgt. Barnes of the 107th , the agent not meaning to jar the poor guy who had been trying to sleep, arms folded across his chest, hat pulled over azure eyes in attempts to rest. The pistols she carried knocking into him from how haphazardly they were strapped against ample curves but then again they were all packed like sardines.

“Sorry bout that,” the officer apologized for hitting the sergeant who let out a huff at the inconvenience but once he peaked out to the special forces agent he thought the hateful remark wasn’t worth the risk of being reprimanded.

“S’okay, thanks for speaking up for my men,” he began, deciding the guy couldn’t be all that bad if he went up to bat for the troops that had been dropped off mere minutes ago & suffering jet lag.

“No problem, we could all use the rest,” the agent sighed out, relaxing back to do the same as him, but shocked as the man formally extended a hand to shake as the truck started out slowly & not hitting every hole possible.

“James Buchanan Barnes, friends call be Bucky,” he smiled watching the agent extend his own calloused hand to take it.

“Bjorn Ivar Gunnrdottir, um don’t really have any friends so call me Bjorn,” the agent laughed with a hardy hand shake before taking it back with a smirk.

“Where you from? I'm just asking because that is a very complex name,” Bucky laughed finding the agents moves mesmerizing now that he was awake from the sudden jerk of the convoy that was thankfully avoiding the ruts.

“My mom is from Norway, very old fashioned, but they moved to the Appalachian mountains when I was 5. What about you,” Y/N asked quietly, obvious some of the others were getting back to sleep.

“Brooklyn,” Bucky smiled with pride Y/E/C orbs looking him over quickly thankful he didn’t notice, he was a fine specimen of a man, even if men weren’t her type she could see him in her bed.

“Well that explains the attitude,” Y/N laughed out making the Sargent realize the agent was trying to lessen the tension between them.

“So, what brings special forces to camp,” the soldier smiled at the agent it seemed he was awake now & needed someone to talk to.

“Besides the obvious? I have battle plans for the Col. Philips, new maps that I have been drawing to show where hidden bunkers are & all the other intel that comes with spy work,” Y/N smirked, leaving the sergeant to guess if she told the truth of if she was pulling his leg.

“Sniper,” Bucky asked hinting to the riffle case that had banged against their legs but now thankfully rested under the seat with little movement, Y/N smirking back to the one he had slung over his shoulder.

“I should ask you the same, but yeah, when I need to,” Y/N smiled, both finally relaxing back to enjoy the quiet & smoother ride.

“Good to know,” the soldier smirked as they both attempted a bit of sleep before they made it to camp, Bucky quick to steal one last glimpse, in awe at how the agent sat & relaxed back, actions that told him this was more than just any man.

July 1943

Spine cracking as she stretched, letting out an exasperated sigh the binder had to be worn to bed to hide ample breast & cursing the Midgardians for their backwards ways. Gaze snapping to the entrance of the entrance of the large tent as the flap snapped back to reveal a drenched Sgt. Barnes that looked over the now shaggy haired Agent Bjorn as they had taken to calling the special forces officer that took up for their company.

“Fuck me Sgt Barnes! Your mom not teach you to knock,” Y/N snapped out at the drenched man that looked more troubled than usual, a harsh grip on the riffle sling that laid across his shoulder.

“Your mommas teach you to talk like that Agent,” Bucky shot back hotly drawing back to their private conversation about ‘him’ being raised by two women, the fowl mouthed agent laughing out as he jerked the shirt off of the foot of the bed & pulled it on over the t-shirt, having slept in the pants being they were wrinkled.

“As a matter of fact, Sgt, they did, so bite me,” Y/N sneered, buttoning the shirt to tuck it into the pants, noting it was still dark & the trumpet hadn’t sounded, thankful she kept a small lamp burning for emergencies like this.

“You're a feisty little fucker you know that,” Barnes laughed out before stepping forward as the agent laced up the boots & began throwing on numerous belts & straps that held an array of weaponry.

“Sure am, what’s wrong,” Y/N looked worriedly at the sergeant, despite how hard Bucky tried to hide his feelings she knew.

“Col. Philips said he needs two snipers to watch for the supply convoy that is headed this way & I don’t trust any of the newest recruits to have my back so the only other in camp is you,” he tried to joke but this was more than a supply run that was coming in this was some of Howard Stark's things that were due to come in ahead of Peggy Carter & the billionaire.

“No problem, you aright Barnes,” Y/N began looking at him running fingers through shaggy Y/H/C locks that needed a cut before pulling the hat on, throwing the coat on & riffle over her shoulder.

“Yeah…,” he breathed out following the agents every move, a habit he had taken to, studying Agent Bjorn the last month & a half unable to pinpoint why his were so different.

“No actually, haven’t heard from my mom about my sister being sick, letters haven’t been getting through,” he admitted to the agent that stepped forward handing an extra belt of ammo he usually carried to Bucky.

“Well that is supposed to be coming in on this convoy so good news, don’t worry,” the agent smiled, wanting to do more than just a pat on soaked shoulder before they both stepped out into the drizzling rain.

“Two,” Bucky began looking through the binoculars over at the opposite ridges spotting enemy that was waiting for the convoy like them.

“No, there are more, there down in the valley,” Y/N hinted to the road that looked clear from where they were positioned, watching over their men that were on the ground about 200 or so feet from them.

“How… you don’t have the binoculars…,” Bucky huffed out, moving to look where the agent hinted, Bjorn hadn’t been wrong before.

“The tree that is moving slightly, that aint wind,” the agent spoke Bucky finally finding what Bjorn spoke of barely able to make out the slightest shake before spotting several more that outnumbered them.

“We should move…,” Y/N began before the sounds of a convoy reached their ears.

“Fuck me… we should move,” Bucky began, both hurrying to their feet before it turned to chaos.

Each taking out what they could, both looking on in horror as one of the enemy soldiers threw a grenade in front of the lead truck, guts knotting painfully. Y/N cussing under fogging breath & rushing for it so it wouldn’t destroy troops or supplies. The sergeant at her back screaming for the agent to stop but it was too late grenade in hand, pulling it close to her chest & blowing body back into the muddy bank.

The impact of explosive & body into the earth blowing the entire convoy with bits of mud as it barreled through, ordered not to stop & thankfully they didn’t. Bucky running into the crater that should have been littered with bits of agent but only showed a smirking Y/N caked in mud & debris, gaze shooting down to realize the reason Bucky froze, boobs.

“Ohhh, fuck me, coat Barnes! Hurry,” Y/N hollered out to the stunned sergeant that slowly fell to his knees refusing to jerk the coat off, Y/N struggling forward quick to remove it herself tossing it on as others of the 107th approached.

“Get up Sergeant & keep your mouth shut. We will talk later,” Y/N hushed as she jerked the stunned Bucky to stumbling feet & pulling him with her out of the crater.

“Holy shit! You're alive,” one of the privates shouted as they neared the two, Y/N smirking while Bucky looked HER over for a moment before doing as she suggested.

“Sleight of hand boys,” Y/N laughed out, running muddy hand through slicked back shaggy hair the stunned sergeant just going through the motions to follow numbly, he no SHE should be dead, the one getting congratulated, the one that he was numbly handing a riffle to.

“It's alright Barnes, let’s get back,” Y/N smiled at him, the group beginning to walk the road back, Bucky not about to let the WOMAN out of his sight.

He was nervous holy shit why was he nervous, SHE had lied that she was a woman, he had paled along with Agent Bjorn for an entire month, catching himself studying how HE moved & realized that he moved like a woman. Though Bjorn wasn’t just any woman, SHE was one that could take a fucking grenade to the chest & live. The one he had been purposefully avoiding since they had made it back to camp thankful that as soon as they entered the muddy encampment she was pulled away to deal with the crates from stark.

Sitting in the mess hall Bucky kept to himself, still replaying the days events as he stared into the cup of coffee, motion at the door making azure eyes train on the MP stepping in & scanning the hall over before starting for him with letters in hand. Sitting back to puzzle at the older MP because he wasn’t the mail delivery kid but taking it & realizing it was all addressed to him.

“Agent Bjorn told me to bring these directly to you instead of the mail tent,” he explained Bucky noting they were mostly form his mom & looking relieved to find several in his sisters hand writing.

“Tell him thanks,” was all he could mutter as he downed the coffee & left for the barrack.

Hurrying through the driving rain into the semi-crowded barrack apparent he wasn’t the only one that was there hiding from the rain & mud. Kicking mud caked boots off before jumping to the top bunk to read the letters wanting to make sure everyone was alright & there wasn’t a letter telling him Steve got his ass handed to him. Pausing as he realized the jacket Bjorn had taken was hung neatly & cleaned.

“Agent Bjorn brought that by just before you came back from mess,” the one that shared his bunk under him, Dum Dum is what they called him.

“Um yeah, he had the MP bring me my mail to, guess he’s glad he’s alive,” Bucky began, hoping onto the bunk still in shock.

“Bjorn has to be a tough bastard to have been blown back into the bank like that & not blowing his hand off,” Dum Dum laughed.

The soldier putting on the bowler hat to head out with the others to mess this time, leaving th sergeant alone in the barrack to go through the letters, filling relief wash over him as he recognized his sister’ hand writing & everyone was doing ok. Grabbing his pen & paper that he kept under his pillow, quickly writing letters back to his mom & sister along with his pain in the ass friend.

Several hours later found Bucky hurrying through the cold night with his own letters to the mail tent the MP catching up with him.

“Finally,” the man blurted this one was different from the one from earlier. “Agent Bjorn needs you to meet in his tent. I’ve been trying to find you all evening didn’t realize you were hiding out in the barracks.”

“Yeah lot on my mind, say what it was,” he huffed out, still not sure if he was up to talking to her still filling a tinge of betrayal that he… fuck she never told him or was able to keep it hidden.

“No, said either you go meet with him or I'm to escort you there under threat of court martial,” the MP admitted with a nervous smile, Bucky’ brow furrowing for a moment, apparent Y/N anticipated his leeriness of her.

“Then let me drop these off & I will be on my way,” he smiled warily heading into the tent then doing as ordered.

A soft knock getting the young Valkyries attention from the newest map that needed going over, having scouted out another HYDRA base a few days . The agent wanted to make sure that its size & location had been marked properly before turning to the sergeant to find out just how he truly felt about HER now.

“Come in,” she called out, pen moving swiftly over the paper to write a few notes before rolling it up & shoving it into a leather document roll.

Shit! How could he not realize that a plump ass like that belonged to a woman, agent… whatever… bent over the table that was lit by a bright light overhead, brighter than a torch. The sergeant recognizing the curves from the back through the tank top she sported was tight over a binder that held what he saw as ample breast back to keep her identity.

“You get your letters,” Y/N began as she turned, grabbing the shirt that was on the single bed & threw it one before turning around to hide the binder.

“Yeah thanks,” Bucky nervously spoke, noting Y/E/C orbs look over the bloody gash on furrowed brow received when the two of them had toppled from the dirt bank to stop the convoy from hitting the grenade that was tossed.

“Have a seat, I need to explain & you need something on that wound other than whatever that nurse put on it,” she hinted to the chair next to the bed, the sergeant hesitating as Y/N stopped her movements, pausing the reach for the vile that was on the table next to the wash basin.

“Is that an order,” he spoke apprehension in his voice as he looked at the agent nervously for the first time.

“Yes it is, regardless of recent… developments I am still your superior & yes Philips knows so sit,” Y/N ordered, the soldier sitting in the seat as she gathered the glass vile that had some sort of paste in it.

“I lied to you… you have every right to be pissed,” Y/N began, taking a clean warm cloth from the steaming wash basin, brows furrowing more & making the gash open slightly, pondering how she had hot water.

“Names Y/N Gunnrdottir, I am an agent with SHIELD & no I am not human, I am a Valkyrie,” Y/N explained.

The proud woman stepping up to the soldier who remained still, leaning back to look up & make it easy to clean the wound. Motions gentle to be careful to not hurt him as she cleaned the dried blood & whatever it was the nurse had put on the wound.

“What’s a…,” he interrupted flinching a little as nimble fingers gingerly applied the paste that stung for a moment but instantly felt 10 times better.

“Valkyrie? A woman warrior that comes from Asgard, straight out of Norse mythology, takes a lot to harm us & as you can tell a grenade want do it,” she smiled backing away to look down at him taking a seat on the bed to continue the conversation if he didn’t get up & walk out.

“Woman warriors? Like amazons…,” Bucky countered making Y/N snort at the comparison but shake Y/H/C head in agreement.

“Yeah, like that but we live longer & are more resilient,” she smiled, still obvious the sergeant was still at a loss for what to say or do, azure eyes raking over the form before him, thinking that… holy shit it was hot in the tent & his pants were tight.

“You really have two moms…,” he counters back, poor guy looked so bumfuzzled he hadn’t a clue where to start.

“Yeah, you see, all our, meaning Valkyries, partners, mates, lovers are women, we don’t sleep with men at all unless it is for reproductive purposes that’s why I'm here. I'm 26 just like you so no need to ask how old I am,” Y/N smiled at the still stunned Bucky who looked to.

“Sapphics,” Bucky blurted bringing name to the women that loved women, making Y/N laugh out, “so no wonder you’re good with the girls.”

“All I just told you & that is your take,” Y/N laughed out, the tension in the room finally fading.

“Sorry doll,” he laughed, freezing as he called her doll, looking worriedly as if she may rip his throat out.

“Sorry… I didn’t… don’t take it the wrong way… fuck I'm usually better with women than this… goddamn it Barnes shit up…,” Bucky rambled out Y/N eyeing him with a smirk, watching the sergeant shift in the seat & catching a glimpse of the bugle in the pants, one that made heat flood her lower half.

“It's ok… I like the pet name… but just not in front of the guys,” Y/N smiled, meeting sapphire orbs as he nodded in agreement.

“So, you still ok with working with me,” Y/N hesitated to ask but needed to know not wanting to admit she was finding herself more attracted to him than any woman lately, swearing the crotch of her pants were becoming saturated with arousal.

“Yeah, believe I am,” he smiled, both sitting up to finish having the long overdue conversation.

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darkspellmaster · 6 years

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Fantastic Beasts Theory: Nagini, Credence, and Tom Riddle...

llWith all the hoopla going around over Nagini the more I read the more I have to wonder about the situation that is really happening in regard to the character. Now bare in mind, if you don’t like this character that’s up to you. I’m not going to sit here and tell people what they should or should not like.

However I have been seeing some misinformation being spread, so along with this theory I want to clear a few things up...

1. Regarding the character’s name.

Now most are positing that the name Nagini is strictly from the Sanskrit. However that is not 100% true. The word for a female snake is Nagi. Which, much like with the romantic languages (French, Spanish and Italian for instance), the word for snake has a male and female version. The name Nagini is actually a full name, and probably stems from the name Nagiana, created by R. Kipling, author of the Jungle book, who created the name for a female Cobra for his story Riki Tiki Tavi. Now the term Nag or Nagi is more connected with a King Cobra, over what Nagini is.

So while the name Nagi is Sanskrit, Nagini, probably is not. As for the reason she has the name. Well, it probably stems from the fact that it’s probably not her real name to begin with.

During the time period, namely the 20s and 30s, the idea of the orient was a big deal. Because, after WWI people were traveling again, and a number of people would travel to places like Japan, Hong Kong, India, etc, and collect items of decor, and the east was quiet the thing at the time because it was vastly different and had not been touched by the war as much as the west had.

The name Nagini, is probably her stage name, coined, more than likely, by the Empressario, (or boss) of the Freak show of the Circus she works for. Or she created the name herself, so as to seem exotic in nature as part of drawing in the customers. Keep this in mind for the second bit here.

2. Regarding her role in the circus Freak show. Okay this is a bit complex so bear with me here people. So to understand the idea of these shows and the reason for their existence we have to go way way back to the time of the courts. The Earliest known shows were back during the 1600s, and one of them was of conjoined twin brothers Lazarus and Joannes Colloredo. These shows tended to be of people (Including some that were fake) who had various disabilities or issues with them that gave them either an appearance of a “freak” or there was something to them that they could physically do, or their height, etc, and were actually well attended by the populace. The thing is that most of the people that were a part of these shows were there of their own volition. Now there were some where either a relation (parent or spouse) revived a payment for allowing the show to take the person in and exhibit them. But a large number of people that were involved in these enterprises actually gained a fair bit of celebrity. To the point that some actually got to meet the Queen. Most that signed up for this job typically had the goal of being able to be free to be themselves, travel and probably find a way to earn money and freedom. In addition most members of the show were friendly with one another for the most part and, as most in a circus would say, they became family. Now we don’t know a lot about Nagini as of yet, but we do know based on the ticket from above that she is one of the featured attractions. This usually indicates that the performer is probably a well paid member of the group and, more than likely, is known and probably a major reason for people to come to the show, so she would be treated with a lot of respect and care by the owner of the show. On top of that we know that Credence is someone that is moving around of his own choice, so we can assume that, given both are seen together and we later see her with the team, she probably has more freedom than we are assuming.

Also, as a point of reference for the character, one can look at the Phantom of the Opera novel, to see Erik, the main bad guy in that story, as someone that willingly signed up to be part of the show for both the pleasure of scaring people, as well as showing off his skills as a magician. And with Nagini, much like others who had a number of talents, (Magicians, music players, singers, poets etc.), it seems like her trick of changing probably isn’t the only thing she can do. 3. The actress playing her.

So about Claudia, and the role. I hear people saying that it’s not a good thing for this person to play this part. However, I will point out that not only are Snake women a thing in western tropes, they actually probably mostly originated from the Eastern stories of Snake women monsters. This is important in that, while in the west we’ve seen Asian characters be used in less than stellar ways, in China, Korea, Japan, India, and other east Asian territories, the idea of the Snake woman is a long, and I do mean, long, tradition in story telling.

Japan has at least one well known Yokai that matches Nagini’s looks save for a human head rather than a snake head, from the first series of books. So I have to wonder if the revulsion about having a Asian actress play a character that is probably seeped in lore far older than what we, as an English and American, have connection too is something that comes from our own issues regarding not having lore that we can connect to on that level? Honestly I think it actually makes more sense for Nagini to be Asian over say Indian, since in the case of snakes there’s more of a religious connotation to it and that would lead into a harder story to tell in 2 hours, vs. a character that has some connection to East Asian lore in regard to monsters that can be seen as both sympathetic and also vicious.

So now I want to quickly jump into a few theories on this character. If you got down here, yay. Good on you for reading this so far.

So Theory number 1.

Nagini’s curse and it’s connection to the real world issue of MS.

I do not know how many readers of JK’s works have sat down and read about her past? But, if you jump on Wikipedia and peruse about her early life before writing there are some clues as to why certain aspects of her books are the way they are.

Years prior during OotP and even PoA she mentioned that the dementors were a take on her own depression. If we also look at her situation with her own father and glance at her past relationship with her first husband, there’s some clues that Snape’s home life may be based around her own personal issues with her dad and husband, along with probably some connection to James Potter’s own less than stellar behavior in the later books.

With this in mind I’d like to draw attention to her late mother, whom I have a feeling Nagini’s Maladictious (did I spell that right?) curse may be connected to. So, apparently, Jo’s mother suffered, until her death (while she was writing the first books), with MS.

Now for those that don’t know, MS is a illness that over time makes it hard to move and can eventually kill you. This illness is something that tends to affect more women due, as far as studies have shown, to the higher protein found in our bodies. (While it can affect men, it’s known for hitting women more.)

So how is this tied to Nagini’s curse? Well, if I’m right on this, then a lot of the issues that Nagini’s going to suffer in regard to her curse, probably are going to be a lot like the symptoms of MS. Which takes away your limbs and your ability to use them. (Keep in mind I’m simplifying a lot of this.) My guess is that Jo probably is basing a lot of the issues that Nagini has physically with her curse on what happened with her mother and how that affected her and her work as a scientist, and probably how she tried to keep herself as free as possible while dealing with the limited time she had.

2. Her relationship with Credence and how that’s going to tie into her becoming a death eater and working for Voldemort.

Here’s the thing, I think Nagini’s going to be gray. Unlike Remus who had Severus giving him the potions and having people who had his back for the most part, Nagini strikes me as someone who probably has been on her own for a while.

She’s going to lose her battle with her curse eventually so I get the sense that she’s trying to live her life as long as she can, and with Credence having his own affliction, I get the feeling she sees a kindred spirit in him. Credence’s issues should have killed him, they hurt him, and I have to wonder if on the one hand she genuinely does care for him, and he’s falling in love with her, and on the other hand, she wants to manipulate him to see if there’s a way to free herself. We know that at one point they are on the roof and she gets him to let out his powers over the city. We know that this is a bad idea. The question is why? Why does she get him to do that? I don’t think she’s working with Grindlewald, as we see her with the good guy team in the end. But I don’t think she’s morally on the right. Given how other’s probably treat her at the show, even if she’s the one that is the most well know, there could be a issue regarding how she views the wizarding world in general that leads her to feel that non pure wizards need to pay a price.

I have to wonder if part of that might be due to the fact that Credence isn’t a pureblood, so she may see that as part of the reason why he may end up dead. Honestly I don’t see him living past the end of this series.

So for me, I’m guessing puppy love for him, friendship for her, with a sense that maybe she thinks he can fix or help her, and then that doesn’t happen. Or if he dies due to the half bloods, then probably that makes her lose her mind. Or Credence rejects her due to her actions, or thoughts, or even turning full snake on him. This could all lead up to her eventually meeting Tom.

3. Speaking of...Tom and her relationship.

Honestly, this is going to sound weird, but I get the feeling that this is not a case of control for him. Tom Riddle is many things, a monster, a killer, a destroyer. But the one thing I noticed is that he doesn’t cage people. What I mean is that, yes fear keeps those who are not loyal to him as part of his group. But no one is kidnapped or put in a cage to be a death eater. This is something you freely choose to be.

That brings me to Nagini. We’ve seen that Tom is a great manipulator, no doubt, especially when he’s older. But we’ve also seen that he’s someone that, while he has no love in his heart, has his own twisted affection for people. We know he’s the type that would have happily killed those that were annoying to him, but yet he let Haggrid live for example. So there’s some weird moral compass running the man. I don’t think he’s manipulating her, I don’t even think he sees her as a pet. The term could easily be one of endearment, especially considering that in all likelihood Tom may have learned of Nagini during his time at Hogwarts. Given that Fantastic beasts is supposed to cover up until probably the 1945 incident between Grindy and Albus, it’s not that hard to believe that Tom would have gleened info about her since he would be in school during the era when the last part of the story is going to take place.

If we assume by the time they meet she’s still mostly human or can turn human, a 19 year old boy that can probably understand her, since he has that skill regarding speaking snake and all, and probably is a charming SOB to boot, wouldn’t be to big of a leap of logic to see him connecting with her.

On the other hand, if she is a snake by then, it could be that he did still connect with her because he saw her human side in the snake and, while he couldn’t connect with humans he could connect with her. Given that, if she has reason to dislike people like Newt for possibly causing something to happen to Credence, it’s not that hard to see her becoming involved or loyal to Tom. What always bugged me about him was that he kept going more and more snake like, and now I have to wonder if there was some sort of connection between them. I’ll be it not in the romantic way that say McGonagall had for her husband, but more like something that’s a mix of lust and understanding maybe. I get the feeling that she may have become one of his first death eaters and probably the symbol that they have is based on her and her appearance.

Remember, with Nagini, this is a character who willingly ate a person whole. Who was sent out on a mission to Goderic’s hollow on her own, something no other death eater was allowed to do, to kill Bathilda, and she wore her skin. Nagini by that point had become as twisted and cruel as Tom was, and, given how protective she was of him, there was probably something deeply going on between them.

#harry potter #fantastic beasts movie #fbtcog #fantastic beasts the crimes of grindelwald #nagini #credence barebone #voldemort #lord voldemort #tom riddle #fantastic beasts theory

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