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roostertuftart · 1 year

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I know you're the Kyle expert, but I knew a guy who thought Stan would be an incel. Thoughts?

Hmmm. Idk, I've seen that float around and I don't really get it?? Like, I can sorta get it more than when people seriously say it about Kyle. Stan definitely seems to fall into more... Viewing girls sort of in that perhaps lightly internally sexist way than Kyle seems to, of having some sort of unintentional separation between boys and girls that makes him kind of view girls as very different types of people friendwise, if that makes sense. Like, say he was dating a guy- I don't think much would change in terms of the guy being an extremely close friend who's been elevated up an extra level to romantic. But Wendy isn't really like that. She's not Stan's friend outside of their relationship.

And okay, that's not to say Kyle is a bastion of anti sexism himself, ESPECIALLY noting earlier seasons, but Kyle doesn't really seem to act the same way Stan does when interacting with girls?? His early season sexism felt more innocent and childish, something he's definitely grown out of now. It was less built on this deep internalized toxic masculinity and more like the "eww cooties" ideas that happen a lot with young kids. Obviously division based on traits like sex is not good under any circumstance, but it doesn't seem to have carried on much in his modern view of girls. Nowadays Kyle just seems to view girls far more equally even when divided from them, and cares more about listening or hearing out where they're coming from and understanding their frustration with sexism, for example. While he doesn't really have many close female friends (and really none of the boys actually do besides Stan), his behavior doesn't really shift at all to trying to be gentlemen-y or something around women, denoting a very equal level view of them.

But, in Stan's defense, we see him interacting with the girls way more than Kyle, and I think him having dated Wendy, interacting with her friends, etc etc over the series gives us way more to work with in that area than we get to with the more or less far in between hints we're given with Kyle. One thing that I think may impact this for me is also kind of that the few times we HAVE seen Kyle's attraction to girls play out, putting aside Leslie bc oh boy was Kyle blindly simping there, he doesn't seem to be as quick to focus on like... I guess vaguely sexual aspects like the other boys, which leads to him just seeming to objectify women less (Not to say that being sexually attracted to someone is inherently objectifying, but there is more of an overlap with people who are drawn by looks and engagement in objectifying behavior).

And then there's how Kyle has reacted to being rejected, and I know the big one is Super Hard PCness that everyone likes to point out as Kyle being a "nice guy", but in actuality, he was extremely graceful in how their relationship ended, moreso than he needed to be with the horrible things Heidi said to him, and only flipped out after being bullied and teased and harassed by virtually the whole school, Cartman and Heidi especially. It was definitely not anger purely because he didn't get a girl he liked, it was anger that someone he'd trusted and tried to help so swiftly turned on him and humiliated him for no reason at all, that once again he was being put down by Cartman, and that everyone else treated him poorly as well, Stan included. There's also Rebecca who Kyle just... Kinda let go. Like, we don't really see much of his reaction but there's nothing to tell us Kyle was angry their relationship was broken off, so I'm counting it at least a little. There's Nichole too, who once again we don't really straight up see Kyle's reaction to her breaking up with him. But we do see how he treats her, how much he tries to find stuff they have in common to talk about, how his only anger of their relationship not working is Cartman's blatant racism and lies about him purposely made to sabotage any chances he does get with this girl that he likes. It's not anger towards whatever choice Nichole makes here, it's anger about Cartman's needless and morally egregious interference. I know this is a low bar to pass in whether a character is decent to women, but Kyle just repeatedly not behaving badly over his breakups is a big tell to me. So often we see male characters act like assholes just because a girl doesn't like them or a girl broke up with them or something. Even with Stan, in fact, we've seen this play out. I mean. He's pretty okay too but we did see him tell Wendy she was a bitch for dating someone else. This is from early seasons, that I wouldn't solely use as evidence Stan is a crazy sexist even now, but it plays a part in this conversation on whether or not you can more accurately call Stan Marsh the incel-ish one of the two.

Okay, but like. Why am I even talking so much about Kyle here when you're asking about Stan? Well, I honestly think that the duality of them as characters reinforces the ideas of what the other is like to the audience, and this leads into a LOT of the extremes the fandom will push them into (the fem/masc debate, the nerd/jock debate, etc etc) and likewise it does so here. When we see Kyle being kinda more normal around girls, even though it's rare we see him like that at all, it makes Stan seem all the more awkward when in reality, he kind of isn't that bad at all?? He's pretty normal with girls for a boy his age, though he could be a bit less of a dick sometimes. I do think he sometimes has this huge focus on looks, and that can be... Not great, but it's not to a horrible evil incel-ish degree by any means, and I'd argue for his age he's a pretty good guy to, say, Wendy- Not that he can't improve a LOT but Idk, his shittiness comes off more as "dumb little boy is sometimes a jerk to his friends" to me than "secretly hates and disrespects women".

But y'know, at the end of the day, Kyle and Stan are more alike than people think about many of these things, this being one of them. Whether or not Kyle or Stan are better with how they act to women is hard to say. I can see why people would be able to twist Kyle into being incel-ish even if I don't really personally think it's based accurately on the information we've been given. I can see even moreso how someone might be able to with Stan, and while I do think there's at least a bit more of a leg to stand on him having some issues with internalized sexism, I don't think it's accurate with the information we've been given either. Neither of them are really incel-ish to me.

Honestly, if they were dealing with the issue of not being able to find a partner, they'd probably mostly internalize it into self blame and feel bad about themselves but not really broadly blame other people. Stan might slump into a depression or put his focus elsewhere, Kyle, if wanting a partner badly enough (I don't think it's ever been his first priority and I doubt it ever will be) would make efforts to fix the problem by figuring out what's putting people off about himself and try to figure out how he can fix it rather than lashing out. (Also I already lightly touched on why I don't think Kyle would redo his actions in The List right here over not being able to get a girlfriend lol)

#devastatingly kyle has fallen into behavior that on the surface can be incel-ish looking if you don't read that deep into the show TWICE #which i think is also part of why he gets the incel/nice guy treatment from the fandom sometimes #though not too much so I think other ppl can agree Kyle just FEELS very normal around girls and i think that's bc he simply IS #even if ppl can't figure out exactly why he feels to them that way as a character #and then we have stan who rly hasn't fed into any surface level incel ideas but idk I've been seeing it a lot with him #it could be in part though just bc he shows so much attraction and interest in ppl he likes #he is so desperate about his love life sometimes that ig that can feel vaguely incel-y if ppl want it to be bad enough?#idk #sorry irambled about kyle so much it felt relevant #hope this all makes sense #also ty for calling me the kyle expertSDKFSDF aw #south park meta #me talking #ask #anon #kyle broflovski #stan marsh #have i made enough kyle defense meta posts about how he's not an incel to redeem myself from my incel kyle arc guys

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xiexiecaptain · 1 year

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Shadow & Bone rewatch live-commenting that was started on twitter and is being moved/continued here!

This is the post for EP 03: The Making at the Heart of the World

[Episode 01 post] [Rewatch Commentary Links Masterpost]

((There WILL be spoilers mentioned for the books in the Grishaverse including the Crows duology & King of Scars duology! This is basically from the perspective of watching the show as someone who knows the books well.))

I like that we're getting to hear her letters to Mal in voice over because it returns some of the interiority we've lost through the translation from 1st person narrative to screen

bUT immediately my brain supplied the hilarious AU that Mal runs one of those Dear Abby advice columns

*sob laughs in Book 2*

GENYA!!! SHE'S HERE!

God I love Genya

And the way Daisy Head carries herself here, the polished demeanor, all of it is so Genya

This was such a great moment between them

And even though Genya had to do what she does later on, you can tell she's really earnest about how quickly she warms to Alina

THESE TWO BICKER LIKE AN OLD MARRIED COUPLE AND IM LIVING FOR IT

["Good to know Van Eck didn't cure you of sentiment."

"Glad to be back, Kaz."]

SHE'S HERE, THE GLORIOUS, THE INCOMPERABLE NINA ZENIK

Lmao right "despises"

As in "the two people I'll fall in love with in my life will both be Fjerdans"

That fight scene !!!!!!!

What a fckin badass I absolutely adore Nina

Everyone needs a Nina Zenik in their life tbh

This is the SECOND time I've noticed Jesper randomly helping himself to food/drink from other people's tables/houses and I fucking love it (he also did it in Dreesen’s basement)

Kit Young is a gift

Wraith mode: activated

The way his gaze lingers and he stays turned toward the window for a solid few seconds after she's gone-!!!

He tries to stop himself, he really does!!!

Can we just appreciate in general the nuanced and compassionate, yet realistic way addiction is portrayed with Jesper's character???

(Not to mention the fact we see TWO portrayals of addiction in this series--psychological addiction with Jesper and physical addiction with Nina)

Like, it's not a comic relief bit--it legitimately has life-altering consequences for both Jesper, all his loved ones, and those he works with.

We see Jesper both deny to himself and others he has a Problem, yet also struggle against it

["Why didn't you just stop?" Jesper wanted to laugh. He had pleaded with himself, screamed at himself to stop.]

He fucks up and hurts people he (and we the readers) love because of it. Yet the narrative remains continuous in its portrayal of Jesper as someone with steadfastly good intentions and a good heart who is struggling with unhealed issues

["There's a wound in you, and the tables, the dice, the cards--they feel like medicine. They soothe you, for a time. But they're poison, Jesper."]

Listen, I just have a lot of Feelings about Jesper Fahey

Alina Starkov is truly a woman of the people

SA mention////

"Ah, our shitty monarchs: The rapist king, the queen whose focus on appearance trumps any real issues, and the vapid entitled weasel of a prince. The only decent one among them, I've disguised so he could go play pirate to help Ravka by doing Ocean Crimes."

Yes, I hate him

Yes, he is occasionally funny

Yeah this was fckin shitty of her and I’m definitely not excusing it ever

But its interesting seeing this understanding where it’s coming from re: Zoya’s heritage.

Zoya's got so much internalized racism and fear around being mixed race herself because of her upbringing, seeing how not only just her father was treated but Suli in general

She's lashing out because she's afraid and conflicted

And she's also feeling jealous and uncertain about her place being favored by the Darkling (which he has fostered because he's a manipulator of the worst kind)

Kaz carrying Milo the goat and looking absolutely Done will never not be funny to me

More show-added worldbuilding appreciation from me

The posters styled after Bolshevik revolution/soviet propaganda posters is such a wonderful touch by the props/set folks

And again, the invented script for written Ravkan (and all the languages, but we’ve mostly just seen Ravkan and Kerch written so far) makes my linguist nerd heart sing

Kaz: initiate mastermind scanners for useful information and/or potential blackmail

Kaz: BEEP BEEP impending betrayal detected

Kaz: initiate 5-D chess-level planning consisting of labyrinthine layers upon layers of traps, feints, and manipulation

I love that they gave her a physical object for Inej related to her family.

In the books (again, because of interiority) we get literal flashbacks of them, as well as many phrases from her parents she repeats or hears internally ("The heart is an arrow...", "Climb, Inej")

But that’s not easily translated to a visual medium. So instead we get this great little physical/visual token of that.

It does such heavy lifting not only in that it shows us how deeply Inej's faith directs her morals (like how torn she was when Arken connected over their faith), but also shows how much she still holds the memory/hope of her family close to her; that she's never accepted that her life in Ketterdam was just it now.

Good, good storytelling work

ARE YOU TALKING TO HER OR TO YOURSELF, KAZ??????

That little glance down and then away-!!!

And then immediately he's harsh and cruel about it to try and push her away from him--to push hIMSELF away from her!!!

Fucking helllll

I'm so glad they basically got to keep Nina's and Matthias' story the same (aside from minor details obv) down to exact lines

Danielle Galligan and Calahan Skogman breathe such life into the cores of these characters and all their nuances

[Matthias had always fought his own decency. To become a drüskelle, he’d had to kill the good things inside him.]

All through this episode, even in this first scene, you can see Nina's words start to scratch away at him

He's gonna have her in his head for the rest of the night

Jesper Fahey, everyone

LOVE THE WHOLE CONCEPT!

Love this addition to the world, love how it's not finished/is kinda ramshackle with sliding between the two tracks, love the weird systems set up he's developed to cross multiple times with the sound of hitting the metal, love it all

I'm so happy Nadia is a black woman!!!

We get so many queer characters of color! I can't wait until we get Tamar (and Tolya ofc) introduced in the show so we can have the badass wlw couple we deserve

BOTKIN!! So glad he makes an appearance!!

I could so easily him being cut from another version of an adaption so this makes me so happy

Part of what endeared Botkin to me in the book was how, even though he is a harsh teacher, he always treated Alina like every other student and demanded her best work

Like "idc you're the sun summoner, your right hook is pathetic!"

ALINA KNOWING HOW TO THROW A PROPER PUNCH BC MAL TAUGHT HER IS 🙏🙏🙏

Like I know this is supposed to establish character dynamics and how Zoya has this social position she's defending and how Alina is gaining credibility

But me & my gay-ass brain just went like "Ok but I would let Zoya punch me in the face and I would say THANK YOU"

If only I were so lucky 😔💦

Somewhere, King of Scars!Nikolai getting shackled to his bed by Zoya every night for his own safety just liked this^^^ as a tweet

See, Nadia gets me

She's pickin' up what I'm puttin' down

This also establishes Nadia’s type is women who can knock your lights out and smirk, which is good news for future Tamar

And we here see in Alina's face the echoed experiences of women, femmes, and assumed-women everywhere having forced unwanted interactions with creepy dudes

Zoë Wanamaker is soooooo good as Baghra, hot damn

A fellow Zoë out there making us proud

Another character I can’t wait to see interact with Nikolai on screen because their relationship is hilarious to me

I've mentioned it before, but the show more heavily leaning into the idea that Grisha power can sort of be drawn out or kicked on by sudden pain and/or fear is such an interesting one

Because it implies about the nature of Grisha power that it developed similar to other unconscious survival mechanisms--like adrenaline numbs out bad injuries or allows muscles to surpass normal limits, its something that helps keep Grisha stay alive in a life or death situation

"I WISH I WERE WITH Y- ...WITH THE FIRST ARMY"

I'M-!!!!!

SEE? THIS IS THE SHIT I LOVE

The worldbuilding always contains all these tiny details that realistically reflect how humans build clever systems over time to address issues and get what/where they want to

Alina's fuckign face-

I CANT GET OVER THIS

Yes, the emotional support goat was Absolutely Mission Critical

I'M FUCKIN EMOTIONAL BC I just noticed when Arken says the situation is dire, please take note of how Kaz isn't even looking at him, he's staring diRECTLY AT INEJ sitting across from him?????

[That sound--the swift, shocking report of gunfire--called the scattered, irascible, permanently seeking part of his mind into focus like nothing else.]

[...Jesper could feel himself coming alive, the worry that had been dogging his steps ... falling away. He felt free, dangerous, like lightning rolling over the prairie.]

[He'd knew his guns better than he knew the rules of Makker's Wheel. Jesper focused on the bullet, sensed the smallest parts of it. Maybe he was the same. A bullet in a chamber, spending his whole life waiting for the moment he would have direction.]

So I just want to examine the Crows' "we were pretty sure we were going to die but we actually pulled through and are somehow still alive???" reactions for a minute:

1) Inej, ofc, her first reaction is prayer which makes me emotional

And then, she looks over at Kaz because she wants to see if this finally shook something loose from that cold exterior (because tbh, at this point, it's probably the first time she's ever witnessed Kaz escape death first-hand)

2) How fucking beautiful Jesper looks?? 😍😍

[Jesper's hair was mussed, his pupils dilated. He seemed almost drunk, or like he’d just rolled out of someone’s bed. He always had that look after a fight.]

3) And Kaz, of course as always, is looking at Inej (and then looking away from it all)

It's gonna get you in big trouble one day, Kaz

AND how Inej and Kaz hold eye contact for a moment before they both look away???

And I feel Malina in this chili's tonight

Oh! Something I forgot to add I noticed during the train fight scene, Arken has these depictions of saints hung up on the walls!!!!

Again, major major ups to the prop/set people for adding all these small details!! It makes the world feel so full and lived in!

So that's the end of episode 3!

Wheee I fuckin' love the Grishaverse and my beloved Crows and we're so lucky to have this cast

[Rewatch Commentary Links Masterpost]

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #six of crows #alina starkov #mal oretsev #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #genya safin #nina zenik #matthias helvar #zoya nazyalensky

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uten4 · 1 year

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ask game: wagner, chaos, & strix unib!! what ARE your favorite lines of theirs

MY THREE FAVES YAY!! But oh god... what ARE my favorite lines of theirs... this is going to be tough, but I'm up for the challenge. Thank you again for the asks beloved :3

Wagner

– Overall opinion of them: Screwed up kid who I love so much. Her dichotomy of being a vulnerable, sheltered girl who struggles with buying food or staying awake in class, and a completely ruthless killer... it's very interesting. She's so interesting. I'm hungry for her to have even more experiences and situations and develop from them. It was cool that they showed her opening up to new social situations and everyday independence, but I want the series to veer even deeper into her psyche. And ideally, to us, she would let go of her [internalized] racism :P

– Gender/sexuality headcanons: Lesbian :)

– Favorite moment in canon: Hmm... even though parts of it are kind of overplayed dialogue, the gist of which Wagner has a tendency to repeat, I think my favorite moment of hers might still be her monologues at the end of her arcade mode. The main reason is because you can see her shed a tear under her crumbling helmet, showing her humanity.

But looking back on it, it's super interesting in other ways... I want to look into the Japanese for this line later, but she seems to refer to all the people she has killed as friends, and hopes that their loneliness will be over now that she has released them, and will wield her blade in their honor...?! Definitely will need to think about that more.

Then, honestly, if it weren't for some of the confident voice-acting, I would say that all of Wagner's lines seem to show that she's losing mental stability here. I know it's necessary for writing purposes for a lot of the characters to talk to themselves, but in these scenes she addresses just SOOOO many people who aren't there. Especially Adelheid... oh my god. Now I'm remembering other parts of this game where Wagner directly addresses Adelheid, questioning her, appealing to her, when Adelheid presumably is in Germany and cannot hear her. And if she can hear her somehow then that's even worse maybe. Oh my god. I'm getting sad now just thinking about what a tremendous grip Adelheid must have on Wagner's psyche.

In these monologues Wagner insists that Licht Kreis needs her, Adelheid needs her. Her last line is "Show yourself to me. Re-birth of eternity, wielder of the ultimate manifestation. My existence as the sword is undeniable proof that you need me..." At first I wondered if she was addressing Kuon, since he's also on her hitlist, and he's associated so strongly with the word "eternity." But well... Adelheid also lives forever, is also a Re-birth. Wagner already insisted that Adelheid needs her. And now she is saying it again. She's so extremely desperate for recognition. UNDER NIGHTTTTTT. WHAT DID ADELHEID FREAKING DO TO WAGNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT DID LICHT KREIS DO TO HER!!!!!!!!!

– Favorite moment in a fanwork: I do not remember :'3

– Favorite line, in canon or otherwise: That one round-win line she has that's like "get up. Next I'll turn you to ash." Also every time she calls people dogs.

– Characters I love seeing them interact with: Orie!!!!!!!!!!! Their dynamic is so funky. It really brings out so many emotions in Wagner. And it says a lot about both of them. Love themmmm <333

– Sleeping headcanons: She sleeps on her stomach and snores.

– Favorite locations headcanon: This is so random but maybe pet stores. Maybe she likes petting the puppies. And if it's a rare pet store that has shrimp or snails I think she could like them.

Chaos

– Overall opinion of them: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. WHAT CAN I SAY. Like ok. I know he just seems like an average nerd character. And he's arrogant sure. And looks down on people all the time BUT he's so freaking funny and only gets funnier the more you think about him. The way he tries to seem logical but makes rash decisions ALL THE TIME just because he feels like it, and will also accept that just any supernatural thing is real. The way he's so cordial with insane and/or very dangerous people like MERKAVA and SETH. The way he casually implores Seth and Enkidu and anyone else to Please Not Fight Him. The way he tries so hard to not seem gay but is in fact so gay. He's constantly trying to get people to join Amnesia. He gave himself a dramatic villain name and decided he hated it like a month later. He's just so quietly and casually A CERTIFIED LITTLE WEIRDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

His casual attitude in general is unironically so cool sometimes. Like I repeat he will go talk to the scariest people in this game like it's nothing to him. And often I do enjoy hearing him talk about his various intellectual interests and how much they mean to him ;~; It's a really good motivation also, you know? And I love his other major motivation... Gordeauuuuuuuu... it just really humanizes him to see him genuinely care so much about another person.

Also he is appearance-wise so so so so so so adorable *unhinges my jaw and bites him* And he pats his giant lizard dog on the head and speaks to him in the sweetest voice ever :)

I could say so many more things about Chaos lol I'm so happy that the writers for some reason decided to make sure he was showing up EVERYWHERE and waist-deep in the plot at all times and not just an accessory for Gordeau or Hilda he's so important and special <3 But he's also so irritating and annoying and unfair and evil and WHY DOES HE HOLD HIS GLASSES IN PLACE WHEN HE'S JUST WALKING AROUND????? UGHHHHHH

– Gender/sexuality headcanons: Cis bisexual man! ☀️💖💜💙☀️

– Favorite moment in canon: I CAN'T PICK AT ALL ACTUALLY I'M SORY. I'M WEAK. THERE ARE TOO MANY GOOD MOMENTS.

– Favorite moment in a fanwork: This art

– Favorite line, in canon or otherwise: Frick....... I'm obsessed with everything this man says that isn't just him insulting people. Sometimes the insults too. UMMM. Maybe it really is "But I digress, this lowly accoutrement to the beast is called Chaos," the beast being Azhi. I think that was the first line of his I saw that made me like "okay maybe I kinda love this character" LOL... not only did he actually humble himself, but he did it in the most pleasantly-phrased way possible. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH ;v;

– Characters I love seeing them interact with: HILDAAAAAA. And GORDEAUUUUU. And Enkidu and Seth <3

– Sleeping headcanons: Cuddle Gordeau often :') They also take turns waking each other up in the middle of the night with the dumbest randomest questions/comments/actions ever and getting annoyed at each other about it. Chaos started it.

– Favorite locations headcanon: HOME.

Strix

– Overall opinion of them: I'll copy-paste parts of something I told you one time bc I think it's a good summary of my feelings on her :)

STRIIIIIIIIIX…. She's so epic to me idk 💜 She's WAYYY deeper than she seems because average UNIB player will just see her and think of her as That Girl Who Follows Byakuya Around and maybe also conclude that she is his sister if they pay attention. BUT THEN YOU LOOK INTO THEIR STORY MODES AND REALIZE THERE'S A LOTTTT MORE TO HER SHE HAS HER OWN BACKSTORY AND MOTIVES COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM BYAKUYA… tbh UNIB writing team kind of popped off on that one 😔 In fact as you once said, they popped off harder on her story-wise than they did on MANY OF THEIR ACTUAL PLAYABLE CHARACTERS LOL.

I love Strix's feelings, her motivation to save Zohar ;-; And I like her attitude. Elegant and stoic but quietly stubborn, determined, sarcastic, full of restrained anger.

– Gender/sexuality headcanons: LESBIANNN 💖💖

– Favorite moment in canon: When she recklessly stands up to Hilda during the fight between Bankikai and Amnesia.

– Favorite moment in a fanwork: This art!

– Favorite line, in canon or otherwise: "I don't really care about my power. I can lose it for all I care. The only reason why I'm in Bankikai is because of Zohar. If Zohar went to Amnesia, I would have went there too."

Also "...That was pathetic, even for you. I hope that soft brain of yours doesn't cost us both our lives." And so many other sassy things she says. She's a veritable fountain of contempt.

– Characters I love seeing them interact with: ZOHAR. And BYAKUYA (except when it's creepy).

– Sleeping headcanons: I got nothing :')

– Favorite locations headcanon: A grassy hill somewhere ^_^

#i didnt get to share any trans headcanons during this whole ask game! well shoutout to trans icons Hyde and Orie and Nanase right now :D #op #unib #asks #under night

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watching-pictures-move · 1 year

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Movie Review | Rush Hour 2 (Ratner, 2001)

Having managed to enjoy the work of both Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan on the big screen within the past week, I knew it was time to see them reunite. Time to see them once again join forces for the greater good. Time to revisit... Rush Hour...2. Why not the first Rush Hour, a movie I actually enjoy? Two reasons. One, I've often wheeled out this one and the third in other reviews to illustrate the decline of the average level of filmmaking within the period of a few years, and there's no way in hell I'm willingly rewatching the third. Second, the first one seemed to have left Netflix, and there's no way in hell I'm willingly rewatching the third, so Rush Hour 2 it is.

I think Air gave me an appreciation of how Chris Tucker can be well used in a movie. For example, when he slows the fuck down, lowers his voice, speaks in a soothing tone and stays offscreen for large chunks of the movie, as in Air, he can be pretty enjoyable for the few minutes of well chosen screentime he actually appears, and also the many minutes during which he is nowhere to be seen. (Okay, I'm being a bit mean, he's actually quite good in the movie.) But even in the first Rush Hour, when he's given an actual arc and given some semblance of humility by the story, going from the biggest joke of his department to gaining the respect of his colleagues and himself, you can see how his motormouthed style can be amusing. Here, he's totally unleashed, refusing to shut the fuck up for even an instant, yammering his way with his high-pitched squeal through the movie with total indifference to the needs of the plot. I wanted to tear my head off and roll it away like a bowling ball.

If anything that came out of his mouth was funny, it would be one thing. But for the first half of the movie, his dialogue consists of nothing but relentless racism against the entire Hong Kong population, who somehow resist the urge to cast him off into the sea. And when we foolishly think he might have dialed things down, he comes roaring back during the climax, when he accuses Saul Rubinek of discriminating against him, and then in the spirit of reconciliation, gambles for racial unity, dedicating at least one throw of the dice to Nelson Mandela. Who is more racist, the man being racist to everyone he meets, or the man falsely accusing others of racism? Trick question: it's the same person. (I guess in most instances the first one would be more racist, although the second one is definitely craftier.)

But Tucker at least provides the movie with some noxious lowlights, because the comedy in this otherwise is nothing but tepid callbacks to the original, only played with much less conviction. (Once more without feeling.) There's also the skeevy scene where the boys spy on a scantily clad Roselyn Sanchez through a zoom lens, which anticipates the vile, strangely confessional humour in the third entry, where Tucker graduates to sexual harassment and Roman Polanski performs a cavity search on the heroes. (Apologies if I ruined Rush Hour 3 for anybody just now, but the movie kind of ruined itself by being total dogshit anyway.) I do think you can frame these movies interestingly in the context post-handover international context they came from. The original, aside from its optimism about America-China relations, offers a rebuke to colonial rule. The sequel, with its ugly American run amok, shows the condescension with which Hollywood met the Hong Kong stars who tried to cross over. It's a metaphor for itself.

On that note, I do want to spare a moment to lament John Lone's work in this movie. Imagine going from major roles in The Last Emperor and Year of the Dragon, two of the most acclaimed movies of the '80s, to getting only fifteen or so minutes of screentime in this, around half of which has him subject to anti-Asian racism from Chris Tucker. At least when that happened to him in Year of the Dragon, it was from Mickey Rourke, and he got to play a cool character to compensate. I will however say that Zhang Ziyi holds her own pretty well here. It is not a complex role, but she imbues her character with enough screen presence and ferocity that she's one of the few things in this movie that isn't embarrassing. Also, if you can keep a secret, I thought the part where she said she was gonna blow up Jackie's head was kinda hot.

Seeing this a day after I saw Rumble in the Bronx on the big screen, the action scenes felt as if they were playing at half speed. Sure, it's shot cleanly enough, and the performers are clearly very capable, but the framing is indifferent, the choreography uninspired and the cutting arhythmic. Jackie's talents for physical comedy are used much less than even the original, which at least gave him fun stuff like the bit where he climbs over the wall. Here, he mostly makes the same few funny faces while beating up bad guys. You look at the big climactic stunt, something which should knock your socks off, and instead of presenting it to you in a handful of clean, awe-struck shots, it cuts relentlessly, emphasizing the obvious greenscreen during the unnecessary closeups. But still, the fact that this is all coherent makes it play favourably compared to much of American studio action cinema in the years since. Time has been kind to anything shot on film and anything made before the mid-2000s, and I do think the Hong Kong scenes have some pretty handsome cinematography. And the scaffolding scene is pretty neat, even if the movie cuts too often. There's at least conceptual creativity there. Compared to the desaturated, greenscreened, cut-to-shreds, rubbery CGI hellscape of the third, this looks like a masterpiece.

#film #movie review #rush hour 2 #brett ratner

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Vader Tries to Help

People encouraged me to share the dead dove concept! Yay! It’s a horrible concept with an undertone of comedic absurdity in the sense that you keep waiting to see what awful, incredibly stupid thing Vader is going to do next. Like it’s horrifying but it’s also very dumb.

By moving forward into the fic, you acknowledge that this is intended to be dark and liable to be upsetting, and that you are taking responsibility for your own engagement with the material.

This AU was helped along on discord by several parties but tbh I’m not sure how many of them actually want to be named.

Warnings: Mutual Extremely Dubious Consent (forced by a third party), drugging, irrational behavior (Vader), nonconsensual body modification, forced pregnancy, imprisonment, threatened torture of a child (not followed through on)

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Vader captures Obi-Wan a few years into the Empire. Because Vader is Anakin, but even worse on the emotional bullshit, he decides that he needs to keep Obi-Wan safe but harmless. Vader also got Luke in the whole 'capturing Kenobi' situation, so part of what Vader's thinking about all this is that Obi-Wan tried to protect The Baby and so Vader kind of owes him, obviously.

Palpatine lets him keep Obi-Wan "safe," because threatening Obi-Wan is a convenient way to make Vader shut up and do what he's told. Palpatine can kind of tell that threatening the toddler would make Vader lose his shit and attempt to kill good ol' Palps, so threatening the middle-aged depressed alcoholic being kept in Vader's guest room with Force-nullifying cuffs is pretty good. It's an additional layer of emotional torture on top of the electrocution of Vader himself!

Vader has Obi-Wan taking care of Luke, mostly, because Vader has Obligations and A Job, and Obi-Wan wouldn't hurt Luke, duh. He might try to escape with the kid, but he won't be successful, and Obi-Wan will definitely put Luke's safety first, so that probably won't happen.

This is all fairly normal for a variety of AUs, granted, and not very dark.

But see, Obi-Wan behaves. He's aware of how tenuous the situation is for him and his charge, so he plays nice. And Vader decides to reward that.

By giving him Cody.

There's an implied thought process there that Obi-Wan was fond of Cody, and Cody was fond back, and now that the Jedi aren't around, they can follow through instead of worrying about some silly Code. Vader's nullified the orders to kill all the Jedi, of course, possibly dosed their food with an aphrodisiac so they don't try to talk themselves out of What They Obviously Want.

Now, we’re going to make it a little darker, because why not make things worse by having Vader try to make things better?

Vader somehow twisted himself around to encouraging them to have a baby. This is accomplished through a combination of Sith Magic and nonconsensual surgery, and lots of questionable drugs.

Obi-Wan just wakes up in a hospital bed with a womb one morning, and is informed of the surgery then and there, after it’s already happened. The droid telling him about it is just like "in the Lord Vader's infinite kindness--" and Obi-Wan just.

Anakin.

What the fuck.

What in the actual fuck made you think this was a good idea.

(The Sith Chemicals, probably.)

I feel like Palpatine would maybe even order the pregnancy induction just to torture them by proxy because that's like eight levels of Fuck No and he barely has to do anything except tell Vader that he'd like to see what kind of children a Jedi Master like Obi-Wan has.

Luke needs friends, doesn't he?

Obi-Wan is having some very complicated emotions about all of this because Vader is, in his own absolutely insane way, trying to help.

Anakin wanted babies and Padme wanted babies so clearly, if Obi-Wan and Cody are in love, then they also want babies!

Cody and Obi-Wan very well might not be in love. Anakin definitely could have misinterpreted. It’s probably more angsty if they're just friends who ended up in this bullshit together.

(He's taking baby fever to new and somewhat horrifying heights, because... he would adore Obi's kids.)

(His family button is suprisingly large for a mass murderer.)

Vader Kindly Informs Bail That Obi-Wan Is Alive And Unharmed. Bail was a friend of Obi-Wan's, telling him this is only helpful and will keep Alderaan from getting more rebellious out of personal insult. Obviously.

Vader is almost offended when Bail implies he might hurt Obi-Wan. He kept his son safe, he owes him. Speaking of, don’t you have a child? How old is she, again? It would be Good for her to make friends, wouldn’t it? :)

Palpatine is just like... sitting back and eating evil popcorn as Vader runs around, ruining people's lives by trying to be less of The Worst than before.

Palps barely has to do anything, Anakin's fucking it up on his own!

Could have been just a sly "Kenobi is so attached to young Luke, but now that you've been reunited with your son, perhaps he'd be happier with a child of his own?" Come at it from both "make Obi-Wan happy" and "protect your relationship with Luke" angles.

Vader: I can't have babies anymore due to what you did to me on Mustafar. Obi-Wan: So you're punishing me by forcing me to have them instead? Vader: No! Children are a gift that you have been cruelly denied by the Order that held us in its chains! Obi-Wan: ...oh, right, you're insane. Forgot about that. Somehow.

Big dramatic speech about how the Jedi Order spent so long making them take lives, he’s giving Obi-Wan a chance to create it! To put something good and bright into the world!

Poor Cody is like. "General, I am very fond of you but I'm having a million panic attacks at the same time because of the mind control, and also Vader is under the impression that we're in love and I need to be your stud? I wasn't aware you could have children--" "I can't. Or at least, I couldn't, but Anakin is... creative." "...what."

I don't want to actually objectify Cody in the narrative past the point that Obi-Wan himself is, because nnnnngh racism and clone stuff, so I'm going to say Cody was in love with Obi-Wan, and would have been okay with at least discussing the whole baby schtick if not for the absolutely horrible circumstances.

Like if the war had ended normally, and Obi-Wan had expressed a desire to retire, unlikely as that was, then Cody may have suggested a dinner, and they could have gotten married and then eventually adoption...

(Cody had a lot of fantasies he didn’t let himself think about too hard.)

But no. It's this... weird Vader-inspired bullshit.

I'm just so invested in Vader trying to help but making things legitimately a million times worse.

He wants to help :) Oh god, he wants to help.

Why aren't people more appreciative of how hard I'm helping them? - the Anakin Skywalker story

With less time to stew and also getting handed what he wants, Vader could absolutely flip on a dime the second he saw Luke being protected, and go from “I hate you” to remembering that Obi-Wan said he loved him, and now he must keep Obi-Wan safe out of debt and he just... he’s playing house.

Vader throws Obi-Wan a baby shower after the pregnancy is confirmed. Bail is invited, because Obi-Wan doesn't have a lot of friends still alive. Vader decides Bail is top of the Obi-Wan’s Friends List.

This is the first time they've seen each other in two years. Obi-Wan is heavily pregnant despite Bail knowing full well he didn't have the plumbing for that before the Empire rose. Cody is there and emotionally exhausted but more lucid than most troopers. Luke is running up to Leia because New Friend!!!

....there may be MORE of the 212th and 501st at the baby shower, with “kill all Jedi” orders revoked, of course. But it will keep the children safe!! And Cody and Obi-Wan can see their surviving friends!!

Cody: I'd be much happier to see my surviving troopers if they didn't all still have chips in their heads. Obi-Wan: I feel much the same. Vader: [404 error]

Bail and his family might be there at blaster point, but aren't you happy to see them, Obi-Wan??

Obi-Wan's endless trauma is honestly somewhat curtailed by the incessant need to facepalm at Vader’s bullshit

Obi-Wan and Cody both outwardly have a very "there are much worse people I could be stuck with in this situation but obviously I wish I'd had a choice, no hard feelings" attitude at each other.

Internally, Cody is suffering because this is NOT how he wanted his crush to be realized, and Obi-Wan is just suffering, period.

Cody: How did he even choose which of us ends up pregnant? Obi-Wan: He thinks I need to be protected, and that he needs to keep me safe. Cody: ...he does realize that you're better at-- Obi-Wan: Cody, he's completely lost it. No! He doesn't realize!

I feel like over the course of the year or two this plot unravels towards Palpatine getting murder-deposed and Anakin getting locked down, part of the driving force to Vader not being Vader anymore is that Luke actually really loves Uncle Obi and always starts fussing and going "Ben's sad" whenever Vader dismisses what Obi-Wan wants in favor of what Vader thinks Obi-Wan wants, and Vader can't deny his child anything.

Luke cries because Palpatine Feels Wrong like, once or twice, and Anakin goes “oh, okay, assassination time.”

#Obi Wan Kenobi #Anakin Skywalker #Luke Skywalker #Commander Cody #Codywan #Darth Vader #Bail Organa #star wars #dubcon #situational dubcon #nonconsensual surgery #medical abuse tw #forced pregnancy tw #nonconsensual body modification #Vader Tries to Help AU #Phoenix Posts #dead dove do not read #dead dove

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imhaitusncarnate · 3 years

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I have very mixed feelings on that aot ending

Ok so the politics of Attack on Titan have been discussed by a lot of people, some of whom have a very surface- level understanding of the story. I would like to start by giving my disclaimer that Attack on Tiatan ABSOLUTELY isn’t fascist, its anti racism, anti bigotry and anti discrimination themes are extremely apparent in it’s examination of the Eldians inside Marley, and fascist views held by characters such as Gabi are explicitly condemned in the text and made clear to be misguided and false.

I would now like to draw everyone’s attention to the openings of seasons 1 and 2.

Images like these combined with lyrics like these:

You pigs who sneer at our will to step over corpses and march onwards Enjoy the peace of livestock false prosperity "freedom" of the dying wolves that hunger

We dedicate and sacrifice our hearts

And also the use of german lyrics:

Sie sind das Essen und Wir sind die Jaeger! (they are the food and we are the hunters)

O, mein Freund! Jetzt hier ist ein Sieg. Dies ist der erste Glorie. O, mein Freund! Feiern wir diesen Sieg, für den nächsten Kampf!

(O, my friend! Now, here is a victory. This is the first glory. O, my friend! Let us celebrate this victory for the next battle!)

This is the stuff that lead me to believe that this is a deliberate use of fascist imagery. If the show just wanted to go for a militaristic vibe for the aesthetic of it, references this explicit to fascist propaganda and the use of German lyrics was not necessary. Also, lines like this:

And plenty of evidence that things were not what they seemed it the world of aot and that the overly simplistic view of good vs evil (humans vs the titans) was incorrect led me to believe that Attack on Titan was a deliberate deconstruction. That it was putting the audience into the mindset of the fascists to pull the rug from under their feet later. And I was right. Sort of.

As the story progresses, the world becomes a more and more complex political landscape and we are led to believe that this black and white mentality is wrong. We are also informed that the people who can transform into titans, the Eldians, are an opressed minority, explicitly paralleled to the Jews during nazi Germany, from their living in internment camps, to them being called devils, to their armbands, to a large number of them (our heroes) being confined in an island with walls circling them, which is revealed by Isayama to be Madagascar. The island that the nazis originally meant to confine the Jewish population in before arriving at the conclusion that that would be too costly, and that genocide was preferable.

This is the first of the story’s mixed metaphors. While the show’s heart is in the right place, being sympathetic to the Eldians and showing their plight under marleyan opression and persecution, there is one problem. The reason for the opression of the Eldians is because the world is afraid of their power, as they are a race with the ability to transform into titans. There is, therefore, a tangible, justification for their internment. The Jews were not in any conceivable way a danger to anyone, they were simply scapegoated for the complex socioeconomic problems of Germany in the time period. Also, if we take a look at those openings again, we observe that the Eldians (our main characters) who wish to free themselves from their shackles are framed as fascists. So... what is that saying?

The idea, as I see it, is that the story is condemning fanaticism in general, as a biproduct of a militaristic black and white worldview. The monstrous titans that our (framed as fascist) heroes fight against are revealed to be human, just like them.

The same is the case for the Eldian “devils” that the Marleyans fight against. Gabi, the character who is most fanatically against Eldians (despite being an Eldian herself) is comfronted with the humanity of the people she hates once she gets to know them.

Again, Isayama’s heart is on the right place here, trying to condemn bigotry, however the explicit referencing of history is the imagery is kind of misplaced, for the reasons I previously mentioned. Now let’s have a look at Eren Yeager.

Eren starts the story as a kind of messed up kid. He kills the human traffickers who kidnapped Mikasa while screaming:

I mean, in this case he is certainly justified, but his rage and anger are definitely not normal for a child his age.

This is Eren. He can’t stand injustice when he sees it. And injustice is what happens to him when the titans attack. His already fiery attitude and mindset is what leads him to this declaration of revenge:

That side of Eren is visible throughout the story and it’s foreshadowing for what he will later become

Eren, however, is a natural product of his environment. Ravaged by socioconomic inequality, with the rich living in the centre of the walls and the poor living in the outskirts, constantly under the threat of the titans and unable to obtain any kind of freedom, Eren’s philosophy of the need to be strong to overcome one’s enemies makes sense. The mantra “the strong prey on the weak”, that he ends up teaching Mikasa (another allusion to fascist ideology) is a biproduct of the world he lives in. He does not know of the political intricasies outside the walls. All he knows is he must kill the titans.

Eren’s titan is described as the “manifestation of humanity’s rage. It is huge and monstrous, and could be seen as a metaphor for vengeful hatred in general. Keep that in mind, it’s relevant for the ending.

This manufactured and false black and white worldview shapes him as a character, and it’s what eventually, after the arrival at the much desired ocean, leads him to this:

“Will we finally be free?”

In the continuation of the story, Eren falls toward the dark side more and more, to the point of committing atrocities and war crimes that are explicitly framed as being similar to what he suffered as a child (see his actions in Liberio). He even acknowledges that, telling Reiner, the person who committed said war crimes against him, that he essentially has no hard feelings and understands that the two of them are similar, doing what “needs to be done”. The character of Gabi, who, after what happens in Liberio, becomes obsessed with revenge against the Eldian “devils” is meant to be a foil for Eren, and his obsession with killing the titans after what happened to him.

Extremely interesting is the way in which certain ideas and images are flipped in the later seasons. Namely, in season 4, we see a character who idolizes Mikasa and supports Eren’s plans in a scene where she spouts the same mantra of “the strong prey on the weak” and says that Mikasa saving her is what showed her that only with strength she can defeat her enemies. Mikasa tells her to shut up, and she proceeds to do the salute, that has been so glamorized by the show’s openings thus far. Now, it is done by a person from a military faction with a fanatic worldview. The direction doesn’t glamorize it at all. It is a nuanced, almost masterful deconstruction.

Levi, who has always looked for reasons for why his comrades had t die, justifying their heroism and convincing himself that their deaths were not pointless, ends up here:

At this point, I was in love with Attack on Titan. From here, it only figures that Eren ends up attempting a genocide of the people outside the walls. He has essentally become what he hated the most, and he’s a natural result of the world that created him. Despite his noble intentions, he has turned into a monster. Mikasa, the prerson who loved him the most, completes her character arc by killing him, thus rejecting her blind devotion to him and being free, while at the same time continuing to love the person he once was. It’s a sad and tragic ending, painting Eren as a tragic character and making a pretty strong political point, despite having a few mixed metaphors.

And then, chapter 139 came out...

And Eren apparently pulled a Lelouch. This is a “I purposfully turned myself into a monster to save the world and make my friends into heroes for killing me” kind of thing. It is important to state that the manga makes it clear that Eren would have trampled the world even if they didn’t stop him, because of his urge to be free. However, that urge, that fighting spirit, end up being a good thing. The death of our heroes in battle apparently wasn’t pointless after all. They say goodbye with a salute

The Yeagerists, who were previously framed as fanatics, end up in charge of the government

It is important to state that the real event, the catalyst of the ending, is that killing Eren, who has turned himself literally into the manifestation of humanity’s rage (which has now, through the intricacies of the story, taken the political meaning of hatred and intergenerational trauma), eliminates the power of the titans. The titans are no more. This, in of itself, is good, and in keeping with the spirit of the political commentary thus far. However, the war, is still not over, and Eren’s mantra ends up being correct

So the only way for the war to end is one of the races to be wiped out?

Also, despite Eren’s genocide being wrong, it is, in the end, justified, as a necessary evil by the story. An Ozymandias kind of moment in which the ends justify the means, but Eren himself has to die, because his crime was too great for him not to suffer punishment. Essentially, this chapter undoes all of the insightful commentary the story had made so far, by proving the ideology of its main character right. Story- wise this isn’t a bad ending, but if we take into account the political references the series has made, and its desire to explicitly tie itself with such imagery makes the ending leave a really bad taste in my mouth. What it essentally says, is that, yes, bigotry and racism are bad, yes, blind hatred is bad, but the general idea of might makes right and the impossibility of reconciliation are true. Armin, who has, throughuout the story, been Eren’s opposite, in terms of looking for peaceful solutions to conflict is rendered meaningless in the end, because him alongside with the other characters were all playing into Eren’s plans. The hearts of our main characters as recruits were in the right place, their fighting spirit admirable, and the overall worldview we are presented with in the beginning of the story remains more or less unchallenged.

So where does that leave this imagery?

The conclusion is that one must think very carefully before including allegory in their work. I am not accusing Isayama for fascism, and I appreciate the efforts at deconstructing it throughout the story. However, in the end he did an oops I accidentally justified the mentality I was trying to condemn. I still like Attack on Titan, I believe it has artistic value and is overall a pretty good anime, I even agree with its politics to an extent. However, it is very important to critically examine the things we like, and see where they may have gone south. And this ending is that for me.

#attack on titan #aot #snk #shingeki no kyojin #snk spoilers #snk meta #aot meta #politics #anime

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safflowerseason · 3 years

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i'm struck by bilson's repeated comments about summer always being top less - it clearly bothers her on some level yet she never articulates the follow-up trains of thought. it leaves the statement feeling perfunctory, a lot like the '[mischa] was SO young' comments. but i can't tell how much is her holding back vs simply being unaware. i presume a bit of both.

Yeah, I noticed that too (I managed to listen to part of the Peter Gallagher episode today...I think they need to shorten the episodes a bit, who has time to listen to a 90 minute podcast??). Rachel seems pretty ambivalent about early-era Summer--she called her a bitch!--and I can't tell if it's, like, internalized misogyny (like "early Summer was so slutty") or if she's trying to process some long-buried discomfort or frustration with how the character was presented and what she was asked to do. This is the kind of thing you could have a really interesting discussion about--I've written before about the differences in the way the female characters of The OC are styled and the sexist implications of those differences, and I'm sure both Melinda Clarke and Rachel Bilson have feelings about how costuming and character and sexism. But I feel like it's never going to happen on this podcast, or at least not until they're desperate for material in S3 or whatever, lol. (And I agree with you that RB doesn't seem like a very analytical thinker...she really responds to the show as an emotional product, which is fine, but it’s only one thing). It's definitely frustrating how they land on interesting ideas and just blow past them to talk about how fantastic and funny and profound everything is. This is the problem with having a host who is so close to Josh Schwartz--RB is hardly going to call him out for sexism or ask him to explain why Summer wears skimpier clothes for the first seven episodes and then is immediately more covered up the second she's made a regular. But it's not like Schwartz was unique in this period either as a white dude with internalized misogyny that affected how he wrote female characters--again, I'm sure both the female hosts of this podcast would have a lot to say about this topic, if asked to think about it. We can look at The OC as a cultural product of its time and dissect the sexism, classism, and racism as such, while still talking about how much fun it is to watch.

An anon wrote in earlier that the podcast was nice if you want to hear the cast/crew reminisce with one another, but so far as a rewatch podcast it's kind of a failure, which is 100% true (thanks, other Anon!) Maybe they'll get better at structuring and balancing the segments over time.

The "Mischa was SO young" comments from RB are genuinely starting to annoy me. I think she's hyper-aware of how her and MB's experiences with fame were different, obviously feels bad about what happened, and is looking for some kind of concrete, logical "explanation" when there isn't really one--just that they were different people have different experiences on the same show at the same time. And Josh Schwartz liked RB more than he liked MB 🙃

#welcome to the oc bitches #the oc #mischa barton #rachel bilson #marissa cooper #summer roberts

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scintillatingshortgirl19 · 3 years

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Loki Episode 5 Response Pt 1 - The Negative

I decided to split my response to this episode into a negative post and a positive post. I actually liked this episode a lot, but I definitely had some issues as well. My positive post is in the works but I wanted to get the negative out of the way first (putting this one under a cut):

This is probably the thing on this list I care the least about, but I think it's kind of ridiculous to say that Loki would have stayed away from Thor for literal centuries? A Loki from any point in time really, but especially Loki Prime? A Loki who had just barely started rebuilding his relationship with Thor, Loki "Odinson," just the Loki we saw in Infinity War in general? Lol, I don't think so.

I'm really frustrated about how they handled the genderfluidity. Did they - did they just straight-up try to contradict the idea that Loki is genderfluid? After everything they said?? I mean, if for some reason they didn't want more female Lokis to appear in the show, the male Lokis did not have to confirm that! They could have had the Lokis say literally anything else! They could have said "ah yes, of course there are other female Lokis" or even simply not acted all surprised. Or, hell, if the creators really wanted Sylvie to be the only female both on and offscreen, the Lokis could've confirmed that there weren't more females but expressed confusion about it - "Huh, a female Loki? Surprised there aren't more of those." My personal favorite idea for how that scene could’ve gone is in this post. OR, GUYS, Loki could have asked if they had ever seen a BLOND Loki variant - that would have been actually funny, they could've still used a response line with a similar vibe to "sounds terrifying," and they wouldn't have had to even mention the genderfluid thing! There were a million ways for that scene to be set up slightly differently or for the Lokis to respond that wouldn't have involved contradicting the genderfluidity. They seemed so proud of Loki being genderfluid in interviews so I'm completely at a loss as to what the fuck happened here.

Also, still no Jotun Loki. I can’t fault them too much for not including a blue Loki specifically, because that’s more just something I personally want, but I'm pretty sure they're not going to touch the internalized racism aspect of Loki's identity at all. Which is a shame, because it's pretty damn crucial.

And this is something I also said at the end of episode 4, and is really more of an overall show criticism than an episode 5 criticism (I guess the last point is too), but the thing I can't get over at this point is the lack of acknowledgment of Loki's trauma in general. And the line about Loki having betrayed everyone who's ever loved him - end of sentence, nope not going to explore the possible reasons or if some of that is even true, there it is, plain and simple - made that even worse. I think that line has great in-universe explanations, and I’m not anywhere near as upset about it as when I first watched the episode, but I wish the writers wouldn’t have oversimplified things so much and would just acknowledge the role of Loki’s family in...everything. (I have a lot to say about that line so I recently made a separate post about it)

I didn't love that Loki, while he at least had a plan in this episode, turned out to have the "bad" plan and Sylvie had the plan that actually worked. While it wasn't as bad as before, it still felt like he was being overshadowed by her. Although - the fact that they needed each other to enchant Alioth did make me feel better about it. I just really hope he gets to have an actual solo heroic moment in episode 6 that isn't directly tied to Sylvie.

I'm kind of bummed that the flaming sword ended up being what it was - literally just a distraction, and not even a distraction that worked? I hope he gets that epic hero moment in episode 6, otherwise I feel pretty cheated by what we were shown in that trailer. But anyway, given he still has the sword, hopefully that means he'll get to actually use it at some point.

While the pacing was nowhere near as messed up as the last episode, the show in general is continuing to feel pretty rushed. This thing just absolutely should have been more than 6 episodes long. I don't see how they could possibly tie everything up in just one more episode.

This isn't as negative because I'm actually feeling pretty ok about it (more on that in my positive post) but I still wish they weren't doing the romance thing. When I first watched this episode, I thought that were still being fairly ambiguous about the romance, and they kind of are, but on the second watch I feel like it's most likely happening? Which is fine, honestly, I just think the narrative and the self-love metaphor would be a lot stronger if it was platonic. And given how much the creators have talked about subverting expectations, a really great way to actually do that would have been to allow the two attractive leads to form a close bond without it becoming romantic (because that basically never happens in films/TV).

@iamanartichoke @delyth88

#loki spoilers #loki series negativity #loki tv series #journey into mystery

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serialreblogger · 4 years

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Hey! I'm thinking of reading Dracula, and knowing that's your eternal hyperfixation, I wanted to ask your thoughts, if you had any comments, suggestions, ect.

HEY WHY DIDN’T I SEE THIS SOONER I’M SO SORRY FRIEND

okay okay okay okay (...several people are typing...) SO

the first thing you should be aware of when reading Dracula is that it’s quite Victorian, so you might find it easier, especially on a first read, to get an annotated version (the Norton Critical Edition version is quite good) that puts footnotes in to explain all the outdated references to like, London penny-meat merchants and stuff. I would say it’s significantly easier to read than Lord of the Rings, but because it was written 200 years ago the difference in language means it’s not a simple read. (However, if you have absolutely any attraction to the Gothic aesthetic, Dracula is so very much worth the brainpower to slog through the rougher sentences. Like. “...the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky.” The whole book is like that. A bit stilted to contemporary readers, but also breathtakingly spot-on in its Spooky Factor.)

the second thing you should be aware of is that Dracula is extremely gay, but in a Tormented Victorian Closeted way. There’s a part where Jonathan climbs out a window that just. It’s uh. The descriptions are very,, metaphorical-sounding. Again, the whole book is like that, and sometimes it’s very fun and sometimes (lookin at Lucy’s whole thing) it’s significantly more unsettling if you pay attention to the weirdly sexy descriptions of how the protagonists interact with the vampires, but I think that’s part of what I find so fascinating about Dracula--it’s unsettling and strange and the pieces don’t fit together clearly, and I still don’t know quite what to make of it, but all the same the feeling of what Stoker’s saying comes through quite clearly. There’s a reason why so many Dracula adaptations have this narrative of a protagonist falling in forbidden love with the tormented Vampyre, yknow? There’s something so unmistakeably sympathetic about the character of Dracula, even when the narrative of the story goes out of its way to establish that he has no redeeming qualities or even proper personhood, that he’s just a monster. Because there’s something about the story (even without getting into the whole “Mina and Jon murked their boss” thing) that makes a reader wonder if that’s really the whole truth. If there isn’t something tragic about Dracula. If there isn’t something in him, if not of goodness, then at least of sorrow, instead of only fear.

Anyway I digress but I think we all knew that was gonna happen; point is: Jonathan and Dracula definitely had sex, Mina and Lucy were definitely in love, Seward’s got something weird goin on with the old professor (and also he’s just very weird, full stop. sir. sir please stop experimenting on your asylum inmates. sir i know this is victorian england but please Do Not), and Quincey, well, Quincey is an American cowboy with a bowie knife, and I think that’s all we really need to know.

ok and! the third thing you should be aware of is The Racism. Imperialist Britain, yo. Bram Stoker was Irish so like, it isn’t half as bad as some other authors of his time period (Rudyard Kipling anyone), but the racism is real and I don’t wanna gloss over that. The g**sy slur is used with abandon for a huge assortment of people groups, there’s a tacit as well as overt acceptance of the idea that West is superior to East, and because the educational system where I grew up is a joke and I can only learn things if I accidentally fall down the wikipedia hole of researching the insect genus hemiptera, i genuinely still don’t know how accurate the extensive history of Romania recounted in the first third of the book actually is. Oh also casual and blatant anti-blackness is verbalized by a character at least once. I’m pretty sure the racism has a metaphorical place in the framework of Dracula’s storytelling, but I couldn’t tell you what it is because I am not going to bother putting myself in the mindset of a racist white Victorian man. This is the mindset I am trying to unlearn. So: read with caution, critical thinking, and the double knowledge that even as the narrators are meant to be unreliable, so too is the author himself.

Finally, regarding interpretation: so personally I’m running with the opinion that Dracula is, at least partly, a metaphor for Stoker’s own queerness and internal conflict re: being queer, being closeted, and watching the torture his friend Wilde went through when the wealthy father of Wilde’s lover set out to ruin his life for daring to love his son. Whether this is true or not (I think it’s true, but hey, that’s analysis, baby), you can’t understand Dracula without knowing the social context for it (as with all literature--the author isn’t dead, not if you want to know what they were saying), and the social context for it is:

- Stoker was friends with Wilde, growing only closer after Wilde was outed

- Wilde was outed, as I said, because the father of his lover was wealthy and powerful and full of the most virulent kind of hatred. This is especially interesting because of how many rich, powerful parents just straight up die in Dracula and leave the main characters with no legal issues and a ridiculous amount of money, which is the diametrical opposite of what happened to Wilde

- Stoker idolized his mentor Henry Irving. Irving was a paradigm of unconventional relationships and self-built family, in a world where divorcees and children born out of wedlock were things to be whispered about in scandalized tones, not people to love and embrace. Irving was also famous for thriving off of manipulating those close to him and pitting friends against each other. Given the painstakingly vivid description Stoker provides for his titular vampire and how closely it matches Irving’s own appearance and demeanor, Irving was widely understood even at the time of writing to be the chief inspiration for the character of Dracula

- the book is dedicated to Stoker’s close friend, Hall Caine, a fellow writer whose stories centered around love triangles and accumulation of sins which threaten to ruin everything, only to be redeemed by the simple act of human goodness

- Stoker was Irish, but not Catholic (he was a Protestant of the Church of Ireland, a division of the Anglican Church). This may come as a surprise when you read the book and see All The Catholicism, Just Everywhere. Religion is actually a key theme in Dracula--most of the main characters start out your typical Good Victorian Anglican Skeptics, and need to learn through a trial-by-fire to trust in the rituals and relics of the Catholic Church to save them from Dracula’s evilness. Which is interesting. Because not only do these characters start off as dismissive towards these “superstitions” (in the same way they dismiss the “superstitions” of the peasant class on the outskirts of Dracula’s domain), but the narrative telling us “these superstitions are actually true!” cannot be trusted, when you know the author’s own beliefs.

(Bram Stoker is not saying what his characters are saying. This is the first and most important rule to remember, if you want to figure out Dracula.)

- The second-most famous character in the novel, after Dracula himself, is Van Helsing, whose first name is Abraham. Note that “Bram” is a declension of Abraham. What does this mean? I legitimately have no idea. But it’d be a weird coincidence, right? Like what even is the thought process there? “Oh, yeah, what should I name this character that comes in, makes overtly homoerotic statements willy nilly, and encourages everyone to throw rationality out the window and stake some vampires using the Eucharist? hmmmm how about ‘Me’”

ok wait FINAL final note: you legitimately do not have to care about any of this. I love Dracula because it has gay vibes and I love trying to figure it out, like an archaeologist sifting through sentence structure to find fragments that match the patterns I already know from historical research; but that’s not why you should love Dracula. The book itself is just straight up fun to read. Like I said, Stoker absolutely nails the exact vibe of spookiness that I love, the eerieness and elegance and vague but vivid fear of a full moon crossed by clouds at midnight. The characters are intriguing, especially Quincey gosh I love Quincey Morris but they’re very,, sweet? if i can say that about people i, personally, suspect of murder? They come together and protect each other against the terrible threat that is Dracula, and you don’t get that half as often as I’d like in horror media. I don’t even know if Dracula could qualify as “horror” proper, because it’s not about the squeamish creeping discomfort that “horror” is meant to evoke, it’s not the appeal of staring at a train wreck--it’s not horrifying. It’s eerie. It’s Gothic. It has spires and vampires and found family and cowboys, and to be honest, I don’t know what could be better than that.

#dracula #linden writes an essay #linden's originals #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK FRIEND I WILL ALWAYS WANT TO INFODUMP ABOUT DRACULA #ask linden

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

Note

That post about "I'll keep reading a fic that mischaracterizes Dick even if it angers me because the plot is interesting" but with Scott McCall. I'll come across genuinely interesting concepts and plots and power through for that even when Scott is portrayed negatively in the story, he's there at least and it's either that or wading through 99% of fic which centers Stiles/Sterek and the most common Scott tag being "Scott's a bad friend" ya know?

Honestly, what is it about Scott McCall and Dick Grayson that gets them (mis)treated so similarly by their respective fandoms?

Oh yeah, definitely. Tbh, part of why I’m so loud and obnoxious in Batfandom is because in TW fandom it eventually got to the point where I just had to stop reading fic completely, because I wasn’t finding anything that was Scott-friendly outside of the handful of writers I was already friends with and I just got fed up. And I’m too stubborn to do the same thing twice in two separate fandoms so I just....refuse to give up on DG fic by way of a rousing morning “Not today Satan” pep talk. fhslakhfkal

But honestly, the parallels, there are more than a few:

1) Obviously I do think the racism element has plenty to do with it. Especially in the way “is Scott really even Latino on the show though, I mean did they ever actually SAY it” arguments could be swapped out almost word for word with the “is Dick really even Romani in the comics though, I mean it was just a retcon” arguments. With the primary aim of arguments against this being a factor focusing on just invalidating the idea that either are characters of color in the first place, rather than examining the way people engage with these characters for signs of racism. Instead of trying to refute that there’s anything wrong with certain ways people interact with these characters, people jump right into “well there can’t be racism if the character in question isn’t even REALLY a character of color, y’know not like, a board-certified one with proper accreditation and everything.”

But its definitely interesting when you look at how Dick Grayson’s been perceived by fandom overall, like, in terms of looking back over the years. As someone who’s been in and out of DC fandoms to various degrees since the late 90s, as in before Dick was retconned as being Romani in the first place, and as I’ve said before, he used to be a LOT more popular and forgiven for stuff in the past in fandom.....like, I maintain that if you look back at the early 2000s-2010, aka when that retcon was not just written, but gradually and more fully spread into the fandom’s overall awareness and perception of the character....you can almost like, SEE the empathy gap suddenly click into place once he was more fully solidified as a character of color in a lot of fans’ minds. Even if they won’t admit it because that would require admitting to the racism that then began to seep into how they interacted with this character now, compared to how they’d interacted with this character in the past.

And I think the empathy gap - and the complete refusal to admit that’s even a thing, because its not like these are REALLY characters of color so why would it even apply - like, I think that goes a long way to explaining the way both Scott and Dick consistently have their traumas invalidated and ignored by large parts of their fandoms, with the focus always being shifted to how bad things that happen to them are really MORE bad for how they affect the people around them, etc.

2) It also I think has a lot to do with their personalities and the archetypes they both embody as empathetic caregiver types. I think I described it pretty well here in my BUABS fic:

“What do you know about Impostor Syndrome?"

"It's a term sometimes used to describe over-achievers who have trouble internalizing their accomplishments. Perfectionists who think they're frauds because they don't know how to take credit for their own achievements and say its because of luck or timing or something other people did," Dick frowned, puzzling through both the question and the aim of it. He raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't sound like something that applies to someone as arrogant as me."

"Don't be a little shit, Dick," Dinah said with small smirk. "And you're right, I don't think any of that applies to you. However, it's also used in another capacity, to describe trauma survivors who are unable to internalize their own trauma. Who deflect from it, or mitigate it, treat it as less than it is on the basis that it wasn't as bad as what's happened to someone else. It's especially common in trauma survivors who are noted for being especially empathetic or who have caregiver personality types. People who are so used to self-identifying as someone whose role or purpose is in helping others, that they find themselves unable to identify as traumatized because it might shift the focus to themselves instead of people they feel need it more. Does that behavior sound a little more familiar?"

(For the record, that fic is set in the YJ universe, not the comics, and I go with the approach that Dick and Bruce have a much better relationship there than they do in the comics, and thus overall Dick’s mental health and self-esteem are better than in the comics, generally speaking. I only mention this as a tangent, but like....I think Impostor Syndrome as an issue for perfectionists and over-achievers with low self-esteem DOES pertain to comic book Dick Grayson as well as its trauma interpretation. But anyway).

But point is, I think that describes both Dick and Scott, and their respective approaches to dealing (or not dealing) with their personal traumas. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, as its a valid survivor reaction and issue plenty of people deal with....the problem lies in the willingness of fans to capitalize on the OPPORTUNITIES this presents, as fans of other characters, to keep the focus trained on the characters around these two, and THEIR issues, even at the expense of these two.

Basically, its not in either of their natures to ASK for help and forcefully DRAG focus and awareness to themselves and their issues, for a number of reasons including the fact that I don’t think either character feels they ‘deserve’ that focus or need that help more than other people need theirs.

And because these characters are the empathetic caregiver archetypes in their respective ensembles, ie the ones who usually take the lead in reaching out to even characters who don’t normally ask for help themselves....there’s often no one else immediately popping up in reader awareness as like, a likely candidate to extend that same awareness and offer of aid to Dick and Scott even without them actually asking for it.

(Which, is a large part of my commitment to the theme “Stop assembling your ensembles with just ONE of each archetype, mix and match more, or like....use more hybrid archetypes so you don’t HAVE this problem, and also, stop limiting characters to JUST their archetypes, three-dimensional people aren’t confined to only acting upon a limited menu of actions and impulses, and neither should three-dimensional characters be.”)

And then of course there’s the additional component, linked to point #1, that a lot of people refuse to write other characters seeing their need for help or support or offering it even when they do see it, simply because like....they don’t WANT these characters to HAVE help or support.

3) The Intelligence Factor - as in, do they really have it? Both Scott McCall and Dick Grayson are repeatedly and consistently established in their respective canons as being extremely intelligent, and no, not JUST in emotional intelligence. I don’t like sounding like I’m undervaluing that particular form of intelligence, I’m just really irritated by the way people go about saying “oh I do admit they have very high emotional intelligence” like they’re throwing them some kind of a bone. LMAO. No. They both have high emotional intelligence, true, but they’re also extremely intelligent across the board in all other ways. Both are excellent strategists, quick-thinking and repeatedly out-maneuvering even other noted strategists, both display a quick grasp of new information and an ability to see how and where and when to PUT that information to use in practical applications, etc. These are not dumb characters, at ALL.

But fandoms have this weird committment to the idea that only the Smartest Person In The Room REALLY matters, and like, there can only be one of those per room, or like, at most two, so that they can be a matched pair and make kissing noises and then very smart babies, or like, they can be the doting (smart) father and his adored (smartest) son, all others can go home now.

Like, no, that’s not how that works. A room full of geniuses does not suddenly become a room full of ONE genius and a bunch of random and irrelevant cuz they’re dumb non-geniuses the second someone deemed King of the Smarties enters the room. That’s not a thing. Stop acting like that’s a thing, fandoms. Nobody’s intelligence is actually threatened by the presence of more than one character with notable intelligence. Also fuck off with the adoration of notable intelligence like people have more value the more decimal points of pi they can recite off the top of their head. That’s not a more evolved human being, that’s just a nerd. Nerds have value but no more than people who like, chose other life pursuits aside from nerddom.

(Not actually intended as a slight against nerds, just for the record. I say that as both a self-described nerd and also a self-loathing nerd and also lol I’m not a nerd. Look, I’m a very nuanced person okay. I put the complex in complex organism).

But the point here is not just that people are weird about there only being one true genius allowed per ensemble, its that people are WEIRD about how in order to ACTUALLY be smart, you need to like.....accurately match the factory specs for “this is how a smart person looks and behaves.”

And Scott and Dick do not look and behave that way. The sheer number of times - and similar ways - people try to completely discredit the idea they have more than one brain cell by pointing to times they’re being INTENTIONALLY goofy and being like “oh yeah, would a smart person do THAT, hmmmm”.....

Its like...yes? LOL. There is no law that says that a smart person can not be a goofball, or that they are no longer smart if they fulfill a certain quota of actions deemed ‘dopey’ by the official arbiters of smartness.

Similarly the way people like to point at stuff like “my mom buys the groceries” when the writers BEHIND the characters were intentionally trying to play up a comedic moment rather than make a sealed declaration of IQ, and be like, “see, would a smart person be THAT dumb, hmmm?”

First of all, yes, even going off the same canon people try and cite as proof Scott and Dick are too dumb to actually be smart.....you can literally find similarly ‘dumb’ moments for every other TW character....the Sheriff expressed incredulity that Stiles didn’t know what a pendant was, and Lydia was like wtf how are you this dumb at Stiles when he asked if she read the movie the Little Mermaid because he didn’t know there was also a book.....Allison made the same mistake about bestiary as Scott did because the writers were so impressed by that joke they literally had to do it twice....and do not get me STARTED on the number of moments I can point to in comics AND movies AND cartoons where everyone from Bruce to Tim to Jason to Damian and more, like, make utter bonehead moves or utter completely bonehead sentences.

Despite what rumors of my being an ancient eldritch being might have some believe, I did not actually know Albert Einstein personally, but I can still with complete confidence say I GUARANTEE that at more than one point in his life, even he did things that might have been pointed at by time-travelers on vacay as evidence that geez, old-timey smart people were really dumb, huh.

And I think we would all agree that Albert Einstein was actually a very smart man.

But yeah, point is, both Scott and Dick are very smart characters who for a lot of reasons - including personal choice, as in, they don’t really see the appeal in conforming to standards of what a smart person is SUPPOSED to be like (especially when those standards have a weird amount in common with tendencies often described as elitist or condescending or like, having or pertaining to the qualities of an asshole) - like, they just don’t typically behave or conduct themselves in ways that match up with a lot of the assumptions people have for what ‘makes’ a genius or what that’s supposed to look or sound like.

And because they don’t SEEM like they’re that smart, a lot of effort then gets put into insisting that they’re definitely not, and they can’t be, because see look how dumb here and here and here.....which then leeches over into other aspects of the characters and their stories and dynamics, and then combines with the issues resulting from Point 1 and Point 2 and probably two more I’m not thinking of at the moment but are definitely there so that by their powers combined.....fandom summons Captain Dumbass to take over most interactions with these particular characters. And thus repeatedly and insistently engages with these two and their stories only in very dumb, very limited, and VERY annoying ways.

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the-lightning-strikes-again · 4 years

Note

Yeah I never understood why people say Allura is racist she's perfectly fine with Keith AND Krolia who is in fact FULL Galra

Hi, anon! Thanks for your note. Yeah, that’s a good point! Honestly, I think some people pick up on the show’s implicit narrative biases, which are largely unsympathetic to genocide survivors while sweeping under the rug the visceral level of brutality that a significant number of Galra enacted point-blank against so many civilizations. The narrative and visual “lens,” if you will, even in s3 flashbacks, focuses more on the instigators and their motives than it does the victims and their traumatic experiences. And the narrative lens throughout the show continuously demands that genocide victims unquestionably forgive and accept oppressors into their lives without said oppressors/groups vocalizing empathy. But we see Allura going above and beyond with accepting Galra!

Regarding specifically season 2′s initial plot twist with Keith—I suppose it helps to look at Allura’s sudden suspicion from the lens of season 3. Galrans and Alteans had a great relationship between them—the official VLD book “Allura’s Story” even calls Zarkon Alfor’s “best friend.” So in this past, you have a strong Galtean alliance, you have Alfor saving the entire Galra people after Zarkon destabilized their planet and endangered the entire solar system with a widening rift, thus forcing Alfor to blow Daibazaal up to save every other civilization too. You have Alfor hosting the Galran people/Zonerva’s allies while giving Zarkon and Honerva an honorable state funeral. But the instant Zarkon wakes up and demands his people massacre the entire solar system (not just Altea—in s3, the Galra extinguished their entire galaxy planet by planet until only Altea was left)….the Galra people at large accept that order? Without question? Despite all the deep friendship and bonds that came before? Literally, a single order from an undead emperor of their own kind overturned this solid interracial alliance and launched an unstoppable, galaxy-level bloodbath?

But of course, we don’t get this history until another season later, so Allura’s initial reactions to even Keith for example, feel left-field to some who hadn’t already emotionally connected to the trauma of genocide/omnicide. Specifically, Allura’s trauma was triggered with Keith because she’s 100% experienced having mass allies and treasured friends suddenly betray you in the name of pure loyalty to someone of their own race. But we don’t get that additional history until later.

So while clearly the racism accusation is not justified and Keith and Allura reconcile anyway in season 2, I think the seeds of “Allura is racist” were planted at large during this time, while waiting for season 3.

And notice as well that in the show, it’s Allura who comes to Keith and apologizes. There is zero narrative attempt to understand the “why” behind Allura’s reaction during this plot twist, and no other character (including Keith) makes an attempt to reach out to her either. They all turn into a bunch of passive aggressives. So narratively, the show champions an imbalance—you feel sympathy for Keith and are asked to join the paladins in demonizing Allura (or seeing her as the “other” for suddenly having suspicions, per her experiences). And the show champions the paladins for such riveting high school diplomacy while Allura takes full responsibility on herself to open up the conversation, make herself vulnerable by explaining her own trauma, and then begging for Keith’s forgiveness and even hugging him. She does all of this, by the way, upon seeing that—unlike the s3 Galra in the past—Keith’s revelation didn’t mean he felt an automatic loyalty-tie to the Galra, and that he was just as true and good as he always had been. And kudos to Keith, he confirms his nature again by accepting her apology and the both of them moving on together, with Allura even ultimately accepting Keith’s authority over her as Black Paladin.

So for all the trauma Allura has from actively experiencing the Galra wipe out her entire galaxy and planet, we see Keith and Allura reconcile—and we see her move onto accepting the Blade of Marmora and Krolia. She admonishes Lotor for not protecting his own Galran subjects from attack. And despite the romance and alliance with Lotor going south over his activities with an Altean colony, she still pursues alliances with other Galrans and even tries to emotionally connect with them. She’s the one who first offers an alliance with Zarkon himself into s8, ultimately resurrecting Daibazaal as equal to her own resurrected Altea. And she does all of this while fighting against an Altean who is the ultimate big bad of the series. So even if someone wanted to totally ignore Allura’s past as an omnicide victim and just wanted to crucify her point-blank for her season 2 actions, we see her acting in incredibly dynamic ways to preserve and obtain peace for the Galran people.

I think, in looking at Allura’s development arc from season 1 to season 8, it becomes clear to me that people holding onto the “Allura is racist” card are doing so for one or several of the following reasons:

They haven’t watched the show entirely to see her interactions with a wide myriad of other Galrans, so they’re cherry-picking based on a few uncontextualized scenes.

They view Allura as an antagonist to their favored character, so they hate her anyway and are looking for any reason possible to hate her.

They view her as romantic competition for their favored ship (that old fandom internalized misogynism where gosh darn if a female character dare exist to unsettle their own personal romantic headcanons or self-ship needs, which means we gotta find a way to get rid of her and her fans).

And thanks to purity police corruption of fandom, militant antis using the “racism” card recognize that they can inappropriately hijack a social buzz word to manipulate fandom interests and obtain supremacy over other fans by de-legitimizing their voice. Because no one wants to stan a racist, right???

Either way, “Allura is racist” is definitely an inaccurate use of the word, yeah. If people want to hate on Allura, which is their right to do if they so desperately want, they just really need to find other reasons to do it.

Thank you for your note, anon! Sorry, I guess I rambled after I got to thinking about “why,” haha.

#Allura #Voltron #VLD

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melias-cimitiere · 3 years

Text

MINORITY REPORT

People who are interested in being honest, true to themselves and to others, eager to learn truth about things (scientific, historical, etc) and acquire knowledge, please keep reading. Everyone else, carry on with your daily activities; this article will clearly not impact on you in any positive way.

There has been a growing concern during the last few years that people have a tendency to “save the tree and burn the forest”; this is a mentality of gross generalizations, over-simplistic attitudes towards right and wrong, and superficial ideological bubbles that do not take into account reality. When historical truth is no longer convenient, when people forget the right use of words and terms and come up with the trendy, politically correct speech while disregarding the established definitions, then watch out: Big Brother is about (the 1984 George Orwell concept).

Minorities’ rights

There is a large number of people who tend to be sympathetic towards any groups, just because they are labelled as a minority. Instead of examining what they stand for and who they truly are (given a historical perspective), they moralize on their behalf and fiercely try to protect them, with a simplistic and gullible attitude. Let’s try and ask some basic questions:

Are their rights more/less important than anyone else’s?

We should be talking about human rights, and not minorities’ rights. If these groups are human groups, then they have some rights; these rights are protected by United Nations and various Constitutions, and political assemblies worldwide, and any proven violation is condemned. Why should any human group have more (or less) rights than any other group?

Are the minorities always correct?

Of course not. Whoever believes this tends to be extremely naïve. For example, amidst the minorities hide some rather loathsome groups (or individuals), such as Nazis, KKK, international terrorists (like Isil/Isis/Daesh, Al-Qaeda etc). And what about the minority groups of suicide cults, slavery rings, drug-dealers, “black market” merchants (of weapons, substances, toxins, organs etc)? What about serial killers or pedophiles? As you can see, membership in a minority group doesn’t automatically make you correct in all things.

Issue of historical guilt

What is trendy or fashionable doesn’t make it necessarily better or right. Nowadays it is not trendy or fashionable to expose certain historical facts because certain groups feel discomfort. This is not new; in fact, it has been an issue with history and with science since the very beginning. When Galileo showed the Earth is round and spins around itself, it caused certain “waves”; people even demanded his death. We still have the Flat Earth Society despite scientific evidence of the contrary. With regards to history and warfare, you will not find any parties that are not guilty. In fact, nearly every nation in the world has committed atrocities, vandalism, slavery, aggressive occupation and its army/warriors raping innocent victims etc. In the history of Mankind there are very few true innocents.

If we do not acknowledge such occurrences as inherent in human nature and as potential threats for everyone, we are doomed to repeat them in the future. Fascism and Nazism is not only a German thing; Slavery isn’t just a “white thing”; Colonialism isn’t just a British thing. We need to address the issues, recognize and study what makes these happen, and confront them. We must all stand united against this, and not devolve into group mentality and us against the others. We need to challenge our own mindset and free ourselves from pre-conceived ideas. Minorities get overly sensitive when people criticize certain behaviors or the past. And yet, how can one hope to be free from prejudice, when one refuses to see the truth, opting to be part of the herd?

What is Racism?

“Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.”

“The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.”

[Oxford Dictionary]

“policies, behaviours, rules, etc. that result in a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race”.

Also:

“harmful or unfair things that people say, do, or think based on the belief that their own race makes them more intelligent, good, moral, etc. than people of other races”.

[Cambridge University]

So as you can see, racism doesn’t have to do with minorities specifically. Minority groups can also be racist to majority groups, or some nations/people claim to be superior or “God’s chosen” while this is blatantly racist and, by definition, a harmful and unfair behavior. On a final note, just because certain groups have been persecuted historically, this doesn’t justify them to persecute others while claiming to be victims of racism, as this would be hypocrisy.

What is Discrimination? How is it different to Prejudice?

1. “The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability.”

2. “Recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another”.

Usually people tend to forget the second definition, and over time, discrimination becomes something negative. What about, “a discriminative mind is a mark of wisdom?” Should you not pick and choose according to preference? Are all things the same? Obviously not. Prejudice, on the other hand, is always negative. It is wrong in so many ways to be prejudiced against people of any group; this doesn’t just apply to minorities. However, that doesn’t mean that a person cannot choose what he/she prefers. Preference is an act of freedom.

Some groups seem to imply that if a person says that he/she is heterosexual, that it means that they are homophobic. I hate prejudice; I support equal rights. I also fully support the second definition of discrimination; I do this all the time. I choose what I like to eat, where to hang out and who to have sex with. I have specific gender preferences; my choices don’t make me phobic of the other minority groups (another wrong use of the word phobic, meaning fear of something. Not wanting to have sex with specific types of peoples doesn’t mean I fear them, it simply means that I don’t like it and I prefer something else). I also choose what to read, what to reject, what kinds of music or movies to watch and so on. I’m sure you do all that too. So remember to use the words correctly.

What is antisemitism?

Semitic groups have been known to spread to a vast region in the Eastern Mediterranean all the way down to the Persian Gulf. Examples are: the Canaanites, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, and the Chaldeans that settled the Mesopotamian South where the Euphrates empties into the Gulf (from the tribe Kaldu – a Semitic tribe from the Amorites), the Jebusites, the Jewish tribes, the Arameans, and many more. So to pick just one of them and say it is the only Semitic group is doing disservice to the rest and is also appropriating people’s ethnic background.

Also, just because several of these groups were historically persecuted (Jews, Palestinians, small minorities in Iraq and Syria, etc) doesn’t give them immunity from blame when they are the ones committing crimes of racism or persecution. It has become a common thing in certain places from the Levant that one cannot bring about anything in discussion relating history or politics, from fear of offending their sensibilities. This has to stop. People should be freely discussing their opinions, and with the right evidence, they should be able to accept new data. Believing that people from minorities have indemnity from scrutiny is a naïve and socially dangerous stance.

Stereotyping and Reverse Pendulum Mentality

Protect battered mothers / women (but not battered fathers / men?)

Protect raped females (but what about raped males?)

Protect a specific group of a certain ethnic background while turning a blind eye towards other groups of different backgrounds whose rights are violated.

A child goes first (but what about elderly, mentally ill etc which are categories often neglected?)

Homophobic is a bad thing (and not heterophobic?)

A group or groups of different gender definitions must be protected (but shouldn’t all people’s choices on this matter be protected, no matter what?)

It is common, when society realizes that the rights of a certain minority have been violated (ie in the case of persecution, slavery, racist hostility and even killings because of that like the pogroms against Jews and other races), that society goes overboard and through overprotecting, refuse even the slightest of blame, even in documented cases. And yet, there have been plenty of people belonging to minority groups who were guilty of various crimes, including slavery, discrimination or collaborating with the enemy (and all these have been documented also). Minorities can easily become oppressors and they have done so, from ancient to modern times, as any student of history can testify.

Politically correct

We need to see some definitions of this; in the past, I used to pay a lot of notice and try to accommodate to that standard. Not so much now, and I will explain why.

“The avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.” [Oxford dictionary]

“Conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated” [Merriam-Webster]

“Someone who is politically correct believes that language and actions that could be offensive to others, especially those relating to sex and race, should be avoided.” [Cambridge University]

So look again the above definitions and note the words ‘perceived’ in the first, ‘conforming to a belief’ in the second, and ‘believes’ in the third. All these are subjective, thus arbitrary. If one wishes to be well-behaved, then by all means, one should take into account the sensibilities of others over various issues. However, in matters of spirituality, philosophy, history or science, one should care more about the objective truth and less about how people feel about certain aspects of the truth.

Examples include some of the following:

How many people died in a genocide (numbers differ according to which side you ask);

Is a certain behavior sign/symptom of mental illness (again, the psychiatrists will often tell a different story compared to members of various groups);

Are all people equal? (This often gets mistranslated as an inflammatory comment, aiming to annoy others meaning that they don’t deserve equal opportunities and rights. I am talking about people being equal in skills, IQ, innate abilities etc. Anyone who believes they are equal, must believe in that the humans are a race of robots coming from the same factory and production line.)

Thought Police vs Right to Free Speech

Seeking to prevent possible injustices before they even occur… seems pro-active and good, doesn’t it? Has anyone watched the film, Minority Report? If no, watch it. What about, Fahrenheit 451? Another excellent film (a bit old but a masterpiece). Do you believe in freedom? Can you say what you think without fear? Ask yourself if you should double-guess yourself every time you need to say or write something. People around you are a varied lot; many will not agree with what you say or do. Should you be made to feel intimidated by that? I don’t think so. You have a right to believe what you want and also your freedom of speech is safeguarded by the constitution.

Cultural Appropriation

A touchy subject for a lot of people. “Closed religions”? Kabbalah, deities, voodoo, Hindu beliefs, Native Indian spirit animals etc… the list goes on and on. Are we serious here? I mean, who makes these things up? Wake up people! There is NO closed religion. If a spiritual person or a person with respect approaches a concept or a deity/spirit and that deity/spirit accepts them, then it’s not up to the people to judge badly and condemn this approach! I can (and do) use whatever I want; my judgement is all I need, and that makes me a free man. Please, do not bend to such criticism; learn to think for yourselves. Learn, and experience things directly, if possible. You are born Free, like me. Do not bend to slave mentalities.

Constitutional Rights

Lastly, a bit of the obvious. Surely you are aware that any constitution of a country where there’s democracy and not a totalitarian regime safeguards certain freedoms. One of them is the right to think, speak, write and believe freely. Read up on your rights! Don’t take for granted what other people want you to believe; research yourself and then put them in their place. Protect those rights. People died to establish and to protect them in the past; now you got the ball, it’s your call.

#rights #minorities #stereotypes #appropriation #free speech #thought police #discrimination #prejudice #racism #constitutional freedom

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naturallysuperbullshit · 4 years

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S3 E13: Ghostfacers!

First || Previous || Next

GHOST! GHOSTFACERS! WE FACE THE GHOSTS WHEN OTHERS WILL NOT!

God I love these idiots

Ah there's the writer's strike callout that @marvel-and-moor told me about lmao

"Horrible horrors" jsjajajsjsj

I do love that Sam and Dean got put into the intro montage

THE FAKE SLOW-MO IM CACKLING

More unashamed racism during Spruce's intro, because we expect nothing less from the show at this point

Corbett just say you like geeky bears and move on

JFHHDDJHD THE GARAGE DOOR

So the boys really just drive around a haunted house that the cops apparently know people break into absolutely BLASTING music at top volume huh

"Not cops, just hicks" sjskdjkwkdndj what the fuck do you think hicks are what sort of definition are you going off of here

I love Corbett in full camo that's hilarious he really is doing THE most

Spruce said like a minute ago that hes mostly Jewish and then he makes a Hitler joke?????????? I'm not Jewish myself so I can't comment on if that's realistic or not but it seems really weird

I hate to say it but I really do believe that Ryan Bergara would get along famously with the Ghostfacers (Shane, on the other hand, would just be doing his best to fuck with Harry as much as possible, likely with Spruce's help)

Is Harry's EMF meter also made of a busted walkman? It's about the right size lmao

"Rats are like the rats of the world" sheer poetry

"Let's see some identification" sjdjsksjhs SAM

This episode really does prove that Sam and Dean swear exactly as much as you would expect them to. LET THE WINCHESTERS SAY FUCK!

"chisel chest" djkslakdjdn

The Ghostfacers have 0.5 of a braincell and it belongs exclusively to Spruce bc he's the only one paying attention to Sam and Dean

Corbett really is a "head empty, heart full" kind of twink huh

I do like this episode for the comedic value but damn SPN just cannot let go of "bury your gays" huh

"You got two months left" okay so it's been 8 months since Sam was shivved. Can we PLEASE show the passage of time on this show a little better!!!!!

"Does looking at this nightmare through that camera make you feel better or something?" "Um, well, I, um, yeah, I think so." "...oh." Jdjsjsks

STOP! SPLITTING! UP!!!!! MAGGIE COME ON YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE MOST RATIONAL ONE AFTER SPRUCE!!!!!!!

It's always Sammy -shakes head sadly-

Aaaand now we see Dean's "im gonna MURDER" face

I don't need this weird C Plot of Maggie/Harry actually can we not

Dean is thisclose to just shooting Harry and Ed i think lmao

So the Ghostfacers really were planning to try and televise a brutal murder huh

Jdhdhdhdghs the party hat I cant get over Sam, bleeding and furious, but wearing a party hat

"Inside your duffel bag?????" I told you Spruce has the braincell

Ed is a misogynistic asshole but like we been knew

"I'm not gonna whine about my fucking problems to some fucking reality show. I'm gonna do my fucking job." This is what Dean is SUPPOSED to sound like and i thank this episode for giving us a glimpse of it

"Wow, you're strong" "-flips bird-" you know I almost had this exact same exchange a couple days ago, but i was at work and didn't wanna get fired

"How do you know this?" "'cause he told me." "Oh." Gotta love a mologuing ghost

"Aw hell guys, get in your ghost-role thing, something's coming." He sounds so bored jsjsjsnsnsn

"YOU GOTTA GO BE GAY FOR THAT POOR DEAD INTERN" Iconique

Why is Ed asking Corbett to help? I thought they were just trying to put hin to rest?

GHOST FIGHT GHOST FIGHT

Can we get Sam a moist towelette for his face pls

I like to think the paper Sam and Dean handed Ed wasn't a phone number, it just said "fuck off and stop looking for ghosts you absolute ASSHOLE"

"GAY LOVE CAN PIERCE THROUGH THE VEIL OF DEATH AND SAVE THE DAY" i👏con👏ic👏

"Its bizarre how y'all are able to uh, to honor Corbett's memory while grossly exploiting the manner of his death, well done." Not only is this hilarious just bc it's true, but also Sam saying y'all sounds so weird for some reason

"Ghostfacers!" final thoughts: while this episode has its fair share of issues (outlined above), I do enjoy it. It's so different from all the other episodes, and it is genuinely funny. Plus, I'm one of those people who watches "ghost hunting shows" for shits and giggles, so this is right up my alley lmao.

#s3e13 #ghostfacers!#ghostfacers #spn s3 #supernatural #supernatural notes #fav

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thegreatestofheck · 4 years

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The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars ✯Prince Zuko✯

warnings - i’m not really sure how to say it, but she’s a water tribe girl in the fire nation, so there definitely is some racism/mocking of culture at a few points, but I tried to keep it to a minimum. if you think I portrayed something inaccurately please let me know. I don’t want to be putting out harmful material. synopsis - She is a non-bender from the Northern Water Tribe who somehow found herself smack in the middle of Fire Nation central, where a young prince is fighting an internal battle she hopes to help him win. a/n - So, uh, I have so many obx requests in my inbox and I have so many chapters to update of all my fics but instead, I decided to write an atla fic because I have no self control. thanks that’s all.

***

How you ended up working as a servant in the Fire Nation palace, you had no idea. One day, you and your mom were spending the day in your canoe, and the next, you were on one of the smog machines that the Fire Nation called “ships”. You thought you were going to die. Somehow, you wound up serving the princess instead.

She liked to pinch your cheeks and poke fun at your brown eyes. Hers were amber colored, like the flames that flickered from the bronze sconces that were the only source of light at night in the palace. She liked to make fun of the way your hair looped and how you were always too hot, too uncomfortable in the revealing red clothing that they forced you to wear. Azula was her name, but she made you call her Highness.

You were two years older than her but you were always at her beck and call. Her friends were hardly better. While they didn’t pick fun at you or insult your culture, they sure did nothing to stop her torture of you. But you couldn’t fight back. All you could do was sit there and smile and do what she said, praying that your complacency would keep your mother, wherever she was, alive.

The prince, however, he was different. Even before his banishment, he was always kind to you. As much as the Fire Nation royals had done to you, your family, and your tribe, you couldn’t bring yourself to hate him.

He would smile when you passed by him in the corridor and never called for a guard when you accidentally ran into him. On the rare occasions you had to serve him, he would ask how your day was and he would help you where he could before his sister intervened. You once asked him why he treated you with respect. He told you it was because his mom taught him that everything that breathed was important and deserving of the same respect given to him.

And on the day you told him that you hadn’t spoken to your mother in over a year, he promised that he would find her and find a way to reunite you with her. In spite of your better judgement, you felt a glimmer of hope.

The next day, the young prince was banished after he lost an Agni Kai with his father.

You never got to say goodbye.

Three years passed. Three years of living at Princess Azula’s beck and call. Without the Prince and without her mother, she was nearly unstoppable. Her taunts grew more frequent, her hatred more vile. And then her friends left, Mai to live with her family and Ty Lee to join the circus. That left Azula bored with nothing to do but make your life misery. For three years you waited and suffered in silence.

But then she left and you were all alone. There was no one to serve, no one to scream at you, no one to tug on your braids that you worked so hard to put in every morning. You spent your days wandering the halls of the palace you were never allowed to leave, hoping beyond reason to find your mother.

But you never did.

You were surprised with the Princess returned because she was no longer alone. Not only were Mai and Ty Lee by her side once again, but her brother, the exiled prince, trailed behind them. His chest was puffed, his chin was held high, the permanent reminder of his father’s hatred toward him worn proudly on his face. He looked defeated.

When he saw you, standing there, breathless at the sight of him, he almost smiled and that look of defeat was almost like a victory.

Three years ago, he had been just a scared boy who had shown a little bit of kindness to a girl he didn’t even know. He was older now, grown. His hair was longer and his eyes were a thousand times more haunted. You watched him walk into the palace, his eyes almost glued to you until he was out of sight.

Life seemed to return to normal for all of an hour. Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula were lounging in the garden, ordering you back and forth for things they just kept laying by their side.

“You wanna know what I heard about your dearest tribe?” Azula teased, her high pitched voice an unpleasent sound to your ears. You knew better than to respond head on and you knew better than to say no. She sounded too happy for it to be anything good. Still, you missed your home. You nodded your head slowly. Azula snickered to her friends just as Prince Zuko walked in, his eyes downcast.

“That princess of yours died in our raid,” Azula sneered. Your heart started to pound against your rib cage, breathing going ragged. It couldn’t be true. Yue was blessed by the moon spirit. There was no way she would just...die. She was your friend, even if you had been nothing more than a fisherman’s daughter. You looked up toward Zuko, who had gone suddenly rigid, his face dangerously still.

“And you’ll never guess who got her killed.” Azula stood up, walking toward you as you stood frozen. “Do you wanna know who got your precious princess killed?”

“Azula.” Zuko’s words were a warning, but Azula just giggled by your ear.

“Ask me who got her killed, y/n.”

“Azula, that’s enough.”

“Go on, ask me.”

“Who got Princess Yue killed?” The sound of your own voice was foreign to you, never using it often, but you hoped there was some semblance of strength behind what you said.

She traced a delicate finger across your shoulder before flicking it off toward her brother. Your eyes followed her movement, landing on Zuko. For a moment, you desperately wanted to believe it wasn’t true. The boy who had helped you clean up the messes Azula left behind would never kill your princess. The boy who had taken you to the Healers because his sister had burned you in her fury would never do something so horrible.

“That’s not what happened-”

“Ah, Zuzu, don’t be humble!” Azula’s laugh was trill as she plopped back into the grass beside her friends. But you didn’t care what she did anymore. Your gaze was fixed on Zuko, trying to figure out where you had gone wrong judging his character. “Don’t forget, you also killed the Avatar.”

If you had thought your heart had been shattered before, this was the final blow. You had heard the rumors of the Avatar’s return. Knowing he was the only thing that stood between the Fire Nation and the safety of your home, you had relied on him, often dreaming that he would come to rescue you and your mother. With him dead, all hope of standing against the Fire Nation was dashed.

You had often wished you were a bender, thinking that it may have spared you from living under the cruelty of the Fire Nation leaders. But there was never a time that you wished you were a bender so much as now, hoping nothing more than to be able to evaporate the shameful tears that fell from your eyes.

“Aw, look,” Azula cooed as her friends watched on. “The little servant girl is crying for her dear princess and that Avatar. How sweet.”

You didn’t care about the repercussions. You didn’t care what would happen to you. You needed to leave. You needed to get away from her, from them, from him. As far away as you possible could.

Dropping the silver platter that was in your hands, you turned away and ran as fast as your trembling legs would take you.

“y/n, wait!”

“Don’t go after her, Zuko,” Mai’s dull and apathetic voice said.

“y/n!” He didn’t appear to be listening.

“I think you may have gone too far that time, Azula,” Ty Lee said, her voice quiet and timid. You didn’t hear much after that, turning to corner and making your way down the corridor. You could hear Prince Zuko’s pounding footsteps following after you, but you ignore him every time he called your name.

Just as you turned a corner, you found yourself with a face full of red robes. Sucking in a gasp, you stepped back. You blinked away tears to find yourself standing before the Fire Lord himself and you froze in place, eyes wide.

You had only met the Fire Lord once. It was a moment you would never forget and the most reoccurring nightmare you had.

“Why are you crying?” He asked. You swallowed a lump in your throat and quickly wiped away your tears.

“I wasn’t, sire,” you said, straightening your back.

“Don’t lie to me.” He didn’t raise his voice, but you flinched anyway.

“I, oh, I-”

“Father!” Prince Zuko ran up beside you, struggling for breath as he bowed before the Fire Lord. “It was Azula, Father.”

“My daughter made you cry?” The Fire Lord looked down at you with fury in his eyes.

“No, Your Highness-”

“So, you’re calling my son a liar?”

“No, no! I just-”

“Just what? Spit it out, girl!”

“It’s been a long day, Father,” Prince Zuko interrupted, putting a hand on your shoulder. “I would like your permission to give y/n the day off. Azula has been working her like a dog and she needs a break.”

The Fire Lord looked down at you, raising an eyebrow. You nodded slowly, confirming Prince Zuko’s story. You had barely slept since Azula had returned, running errands for her at every time of the night and the day. It was easier at night, sure, but when the sun rose, the exhaustion hit you all over again.

“For you success at the Northern Water Tribe and in Ba Sing Se, I will grant you this,” the Fire Lord said. You suddenly remembered why you had been crying, why you had been trying so hard to get away from the Prince to begin with.

“Thank you, Father.”

Lost somewhere in your own grief, you almost forgot to bow to the Fire Lord before he walked away. As soon as he was out of sight, you made a break for it once again. This time, Prince Zuko was prepared and caught you by the wrist.

“Azula always lies,” he said once you were facing him again. You tried to pull your wrist from his grip, but he was strong.

“I know what breed your sister is,” you seethed, never before having spoken to a royal in the way you were now. “You and her are cut from the same cloth.”

“No,” Prince Zuko said, his grip on your wrist tightening for just a moment before he relaxed it again. “No, we’re not. I didn’t kill your princess and I didn’t....” He lowered his voice and took a step closer to you, making you recoil. “I didn’t kill the Avatar.”

“Then what happened?”

Prince Zuko looked around, as if trying to see if anyone was listening in. He then let your wrist go and beckoned for you to follow him. For a moment, you thought about running again, but as Prince Zuko started to walk away, your only chance at answers walked with him.

Tiptoeing after him, you followed as he led you back toward his chambers. Sending one last glance around to check for guards, he guided you inside.

“If this is some long ploy to get me into your bed....” You weren’t sure where your sudden boldness was coming from. Maybe it was the deep rooted anger finally bubbling forth. Maybe it was the fact that, despite everything, you somehow trusted the boy in front of you.

Your bitter words earned you an amused smile from the Prince, which you hadn’t expected in the slightest.

“No, y/n. I want to explain myself to you.”

“Why?”

“Because it would be nice to know that there was one person alive who didn’t hate me.”

His words caught you off guard. The anger in your stomach dissipated and you dropped your hands to your sides. There was a smile on his face, but grief in his eyes.

“Tell me what happened.”

He brought you over to a table and sat in front of you. He started shakily, stumbling over his words, backtracking, trying to find the right place to really begin his story. But once he got there, the words flowed from his mouth and never stopped. Not until he told you about the battle at the Northern Water Tribe and Princess Yue’s fate, not until he told you about defecting with his Uncle and living in Ba Sing Se as Lee, not until he told you about the sickness his body went through after making one good choice, not until he told you about how he betrayed everyone who trusted him and let his sister kill the Avatar.

You were crying again by the time he finished. Part of it was hearing all of the things that happened to your people, to the Water Tribe siblings who were helping the Avatar, but the other part was watching the boy in front of you cry too. He had been a boy when he left and you thought he had come back like his father. But you realized as you watched him now, face buried in his hands, that Prince Zuko was four times the man his father could ever be.

“And none of that excuses what I’ve done,” he said, his voice haggard as he looked back up at you. “I know that.”

“Have you...have you spoken to your uncle?” You asked, clearing your throat of the thick emotion that choked you.

“A few times. He won’t even speak to me. He hates me.”

“From what you told me about him, I doubt he could ever hate you.”

His amber eyes met yours and for a brief moment, you felt your stomach twist. You should hate him. You should hate him for everything his nation had done to your people, for the way his sister treated you, for the way his father had separated you and your mother. But you didn’t. You couldn’t.

“I don’t deserve your kindness,” he said. His voice went quiet. “After everything we have done to you-”

“I get to decide who is deserving of my kindness,” you told him firmly. “Your family has torn mine apart. They have brutalized my people, murdered my kin, and your sister has made the last years of my life a living hell.”

Prince Zuko hung his head. You breathed out a calming breath and leaned forward, putting a gentle hand against his shoulder.

“But you are not your sister.” You spoke just above a whisper. He looked back up at you suddenly. “And you are not your father. You are not the crimes of your people. I believe that you can still make things right.”

“How?” He asked, voice breaking. “The Avatar is dead. What hope does the world have against the wrath of my father?”

“I can’t tell you how to fix your own problems,” you said. “I can only tell you that if there’s a will, there’s a way.”

You were shocked to see him almost smile.

“You sound like my uncle.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

He stood then, his chest puffed out, his chin held high, the scar on his face worn like a badge of honor. He looked triumphant. You stood as well, knowing it was rude to sit while someone else was standing. Prince Zuko took your hands in his and gave them a tight squeeze. You felt the urge to tug your hands away as your stomach tumbled again.

“I made you a promise long ago that I would find your mother. I haven’t forgotten it.”

“Your Highness, you don’t have to-”

“Please.” His hands tightened around yours again. “After all of your kindness despite the hatred in this place, it’s the least I could do. I will find your mother and then I will find a way to get you both out of here and back home.”

Tears shimmered in your eyes and you struggled to keep them at bay.

“I- Thank you, Your Highness.”

“There’s no need for formalities. Just call me Zuko.”

Zuko. Your lips twitched into a small smile, the familiar feeling of hope bursting into your chest. Your hope had seemed to die many times, but like a flame, it always smoldered. It was the only thing that kept you alive, the only thing that kept your spirit burning.

“Zuko,” you said and he smiled, a toothy smile that any normal boy would give any normal girl in any normal situation.

“y/n.”

He leaned forward quickly and pressed his lips gently against your cheek. It was a brief kiss, more like the sealing of a promise than anything else, but it was enough to send bolts of lightning through your body and into your toes. When he pulled away, you knew your cheeks were flushed with heat, but you found that his were too.

“I should....” You pulled your hands from his, trying not to wipe the sweat your palms accumulated on your skirt. “I should go find Azula.”

“You have the day off, remember?”

You shook your head.

“I should get back to her.” You stepped around him and started for the door.

“I’ll find your mother,” he called after you, as if you still needed convincing that he was serious. “Whatever it takes.”

“I trust you, Zuko,” you said, standing half way through the door. “I don’t know why, but I trust you.”

~~~

So, I guess I’ll make a separate taglist for atla things just in case any obx people don’t want to be tagged in it.

also, part 2 potentially?

#atla #zuko #avatar the last airbender #zuko x yn #zuko imagine #avatar imagine #zuko x non bender #i don't know what else to tag this as #ive never written atla fics before #who knows #i hope yall are having a good day #my day was pretty good #my best friend got engaged so that super duper exciting #there was going to be a long winded explanation for the title but if I do a second part I guess I could explain it there #zuko x reader #forgot about that tag whoops

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alexsfictionaddiction · 3 years

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Review: The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

A deadly virus that only affects and kills men? Women finally being given the chance to save the world? Speculative fiction tends to be very hit and miss for me but the concept of this one spoke to me and I’m so glad I got the chance to read it.

It’s 2025 and a mysterious virus only affecting men has broken out in a Glasgow hospital. Dr Amanda MacLean is the whistleblower but her higher-ups dismiss her claims as hysterical ravings. This leads to the virus evolving into a global pandemic that is killing men of all ages and backgrounds at an alarming rate. It’s down to women to keep the world running and find a vaccine while dealing with intense fear and grief for their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers.

The End of Men is told through the perspectives of women all over the world. Of course, one of these is Amanda who treated Patient Zero and discovered the nature and severity of the virus. Her bosses and the government believe that she is simply blowing things out of proportion and so delay doing anything that could stop the spread beyond Glasgow. It’s highly believable that had Amanda been male, she would have been taken a lot more seriously and the pandemic could have been avoided. The catastrophic consequences of institutional misogyny are touched on several times in the novel and naturally, the uncontrollable spiraling of the virus is strong evidence that women need to be listened to and believed.

There are a lot of parallels to real life, especially real life in the midst of a pandemic. Namely the conspiracy theorists. Of course, in the case of the Male Plague, all of the conspiracists are men, adamant that the virus was created by militant feminists to eliminate them. I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head while reading this fantastically dramatic but realistic blog post. These men definitely exist!

Catherine is an anthropologist, whose life has been dogged with fertility issues. She has a wonderful marriage to Anthony and they have a lovely little boy called Theodore. Naturally, when the virus explodes, Catherine’s life revolves around shielding both of them from it. Her thread is truly heartbreaking and leads her to want to document the human stories from the pandemic, interviewing the widow of Patient Zero and trying to find some kind of positive outcome from it. I cried several times during Catherine’s story, so beware of that!

We also hear from Elizabeth, an American virologist who travels to London to help with the vaccine and amazingly finds love. The increased racism is another parallel to our recent reality. Of course, nothing is the fault of white people. These reflections give the book a degree of credibility. Yes, it’s fiction but it often felt like I was reading snippets of COVID-19 memoirs.

When international travel and trade stops, the UK is forced to adapt. For example, there is a tea shortage which to a Brit seems horrific. Dawn is one of the only Black women working in British Intelligence. She has a fantastic sense of humour and her thread gives us a lot of information about the political upheaval caused by the Plague. The book is set in 2025 (only four years away) and yet Scotland is independent and China has been broken into individual states, following the fall of the Communists. These fascinating insights into a world that isn’t too far away almost act as a warning that humans need to be kinder -to each other, to ourselves and to the planet.

Other characters include; Helen, a mother of daughters whose husband leaves her in search of a ‘better life’ in what he thinks are his final days, Rosamie, a Filipina nanny working in Singapore for a wealthy family who are blighted by Plague tragedy and Toby, a man in his 60s, stranded on a boat off the coast of Iceland, desperately writing letters to his wife in the UK. There is also Maria Ferreira, a Latina journalist, Lisa, a Canadian Virology professor whose team develops the first effective vaccine and Morven, a Scottish hostel owner, who is forced to take in a group of orphaned boys with nowhere else to go. So, there are a LOT of characters to keep up with, which can get confusing at times because not of all of them have particularly distinctive voices. They do each provide an individual view on the devastation but I’m not sure we needed all of them!

Of course with 90% of men gone, women have had to adapt in a plethora of ways. Female sexuality is openly much more fluid with women dating women having risen significantly. There is also a chapter from a transgender nurse who talks about the effects of a virus that only kills biologically male bodies. I would have loved to have had this expanded on because I think it could have been a very thought-provoking discussion on gender and what that really means.

There are some benefits from the Plague and of course, it’s women that are enjoying them. Better health care, better fitting clothes, more stock put into their words and emotions. This illustrates how much better the world could be for women when their issues are forced to be society’s focus.

The End of Men is a unique dystopian that reads like a warning of a world that isn’t very far away. The writing is very sharp and factual, so if you love beautifully written books, this may not be for you. There is a lot of heart in it though and ultimately, it deals with a world forever changed but with a permanent trail of grief and heartache in its wake. An incredibly timely novel.

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird will be published by Borough Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, on 29th April 2021.

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