I've Got a Serious Diet Coke Issue

There’s no stated reason. They just pretend to not be alive. We usually can suspend our suspension of disbelief here because when it’s something like a video game or an emoji because any odd occurrences is perceived as a glitch or something similar but the actual reason why they aren’t too hung up on this kinda shitty lot in life isn’t said

They get something out of their current relationship with humans (like in toy story)

They have some specific reason to hide that they’re alive, like they die if they’re seen (like in the christmas toy)

They perceive themselves as sentient, talking creatures, but humans can’t understand them. They just see a squeaking mouse or an inanimate hot dog or whatever. 

and the last one is what most animal movies do, and it’s like, not devoid of weird implications but you can see where it mostly works.

but barnyard is the outlier here: it goes with tier one: the animals can talk and walk on two legs but just pretend that they can’t for unstated reasons. 

in the history of the barnyard world non human animals, at some point, decided to just pretend to be unable to speak. a “cow” or a “coyote” or a “hen” do not exist as we know it in the barnyard universe. the baa of the sheep is false; the ewe doesn’t understand it either. they only made up that noise to hide the fact that they speak human languages. a dog barking and running on all fours is a facade. animals naturally walk on their hind legs and made up whole postures just to appear non sentient.

and for what? what do they gain from this? they have no rights and no voice by their own choice. at one point a donkey claims the farmer is a good person because he’s vegan and a pig mentions bacon - this is not a fantasy universe devoid of death and misery and meat. do animals, in hushed whispers, remind their children not to sob in their real voice as they’re taken away? do the dogs not beg for kindness when they’re tied up and hit? do cows and chickens not cry for their life in the slaughterhouses? does a rat not scream a human scream when the trap misses their neck and only breaks their spine? Why? what is the point? They loose so much and have everything to gain.

anyways does everyone remember this really awful cat. it only appears in one scene but i can just sense the porn of it that would pop up if i googled it’s name

1) i am from bumfuckville south pennsylbumfuckia, you of course know this great city

Rules: you can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to! Put your favorite playlist on shuffle and list the first 10 songs, then tag 10 people. No skipping!

Okay I couldn’t choose a playlist so tbh I just put all my liked music on Spotify on shuffle

Siboney- Connie Francis

What is this feeling?- from “Wicked”

The night before- the Beatles

O fole roncou- Luiz Gonzaga

Magneto- Nick Cave and the bad seeds

Bubblegum Bitch- MARINA

Dá 1like- Banda uó, Karol Conká

Osse Shalom- The Jewish Starlight Orchestra

Assombrações - Maria Bethânia

Gentleman Jack- O’Hooley & Tidow

Du hast by Rammstein (learning German currently)

Shake That by Eminem

Olha A Explosão by MC Kevinho, feel free to judge me @raskolnikovatthebarricade

BAAM by Momoland

Cold Cold Cold by Cage the Elephant

Made in China (remix) by the Higher Bros

DNA by BTS

Cheguei by Ludmilla

Judas by Lady Gaga

So far so good right?

Except the year was 2012. It was a songfic.

And the song I chose? The chorus to Nicky Minaj’s STARSHIPS.

Things like -- it would be so easy to turn Yennefer into a villain. She's got a classic Femme Fatale backstory, she hits every point, she's powerful and ambitious and ruthless... but she isn't evil. In the end, she doesn't put her ambition over doing the right thing. She doesn't let her recklessness get in the way of the Battle at Sodden Hill; she registers some displeasure at being put up in the tower to observe and report, but she does it, and she does it without reserve or bitterness, to the best of her ability. She went through hell to find the power that she thought would give her what she wanted, only to discover that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be -- on her own. She didn't get this revelation from a lover, or from some great tragic descent into madness and fall from grace. She came to this realization over time, without someone else's opinion.

Queen Calanthe -- jfc, Queen Calanthe is how Daenerys Targaryen should have been handled. She's a powerful woman, an unapologetically ambitious warrior woman, who falls and loses her throne and country -- exactly the same way a King would have. Her flaws -- her hubris, her selfishness, her unwillingness to let go of her granddaughter -- lead to her downfall, but they do so rationally. She doesn't go mad, or start making stupid irrational decisions, or have to be otherwise softened -- she loses the battle. She was out-maneuvered, and her support was blocked, and she just failed. She just lost. Queens -- any poweful woman, really -- always go mad and have to be put down For The Greater Good, they never get to be a Tragic Hero in the classical sense -- always Lady Macbeth, never Hamlet.

Calanthe is a fucking Greek Tragedy. She hits all the high points of an Aristotelean Tragic Hero: she evokes pity and the fear that the viewer could have made all the same mistakes; her fortunes change from prosperity to adversity, not through vice or depravity but through error of judgment; that error is made through a fundamental character flaw, something that the character could have stopped, but also couldn't because of who they are as a person.

I cannot think of another Queen treated this way in fiction.

There's one single mention of rape, and that character does imply that this in part led to her not being a princess anymore -- followed almost-immediately by the main character explicitly and pointedly calling her Princess, pointing out that it isn't what was done to her that makes her monstrous, it's what she herself does. Even so, it's simply part of her backstory, she's the one who brings it up, and there's no gruesome flashback to "evoke sympathy" or whatever bullshit excuse to show women suffering.

It's just. It's so obvious that this showrunner is a woman. The comparisons to GoT are all over the place, and obviously -- they're both dark, gritty fantasies with a heavy political aspect -- but the way this show treats its characters, and particularly its women, is just so refreshing. It's not without its flaws, and while I'll admit that there were a few moments where I was like, "did she really need to be naked here?" none of those moments were tasteless or predatory, and there was none of that gratuitous degradation of women that was such a hallmark (and turnoff) of Game of Thrones.

(There's more, too, about how the Witcher differs from GoT in how sometimes, some people are just decent and kind. Sometimes, people really are all right, and do the right thing regardless of their own self-interest. And while, yes, it would be unrealistic if everyone or even most people were that way -- it's just as unrealistic to have no one be. There's this element of human compassion in the Witcher that's far too rare, if it exists at all, in Westeros, that makes the world so much less heavy. There's plenty of darkness and bleakness, but there's also kindness and compassion to balance it out. But that's a whole other post.)