Just some dumb blog

Oh boy!

I was referring to when the CW's attempt at a dark and edgy Powerpuff Girls reboot series.

It was. A trainwreck. Like this is the sort of thing we're joking about when we talk about the 'dark and edgy reboots'. Just the adult humor and dark plotlines and kinda making jokes of big issues and all that.

/On paper/ I do like the idea that was presented. Maybe not with a property like PPG make something original rather than ruining a childhood icon. But Like. The basic idea was taking the whole child Hero thing seriously in that it being kinda fucked up, and then treating the girls plotlines like irl child stars in Hollywood. Blossom as the one who up and quit after something traumatizing and found her own direction in life, Buttercup missing the life and trying to find something similar to fill the void but not really landing anything, and Bubbles banking on the nostalgia factor to keep bringing back the old days and continuing to market herself as that original 'star'.

But then all of it was kinda mocked. Like okay yeah realistic that someone would develop substance abuse issues but it's used as comedy? And not even the 'haha this childhood icon is an alcoholic now' joke but just a general mocking of the entire concept of alcoholics? Or things like 'hey you're going back to where a major trauma happened? Lmao #Triggered!'.

It got scrapped but the pilot script was leaked so you can find that

And her stans calling her smart and Batman of miraculous for this. Though, considering how Batman paranoid ah is written and how often the writers did other characters dirty to up Batman I guess they're right.

They can't shine unless the writers made other characters incompetent. It's specially jarring when they pass the idiot ball to other supposed to be smart character like Adrichat and Superman. Man I hate them both.

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Batman has two rules, 1) no killing and 2) no other heroes in Gotham. I have NO IDEA where people are getting this comparison point from. Never mind the whole thing where Batman provably doesn't have half as tight of a leash on his team as Marinette has on hers, never mind how Batman doesn't order around the Justice League to begin with.

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Well, in the case of the TADC fandom, I can say, for a FACT, that the part where Jax was confirmed to be a closeted trans woman plays a role in this reading of her relationship with her mom having Jax as the abuser and her mom as the “innocent victim”, when we actually don’t know JACK SHIT about what went down between them. Tumblr can be kinda transphobic at times, is all I’m saying.

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Medb had seven sons, but when asking a druid which of her sons would kill Conchobar, the druid said “Maine”

Given their personalities and how t

Would you say Marinette and Kawai form Koe no Katachi are similar to each other?

I swear, Given how infuriating Marinette is especially about Chloe and Adrien, It's similar to how Kawai refuse to give Shoya a Chance despite how the latter is doing everything he could to atone for his bullying of Shoka as well)

Heck, Marinette may try to paint herself to be like Tohru form Fruit Basket but I say she's actually more like Kawai in hindsight as well (A Person who tries to paint themselves better their Bully but actually no better then them in hindsight and love to deflect the blame away form their own actions as well)

But what do you think?

Do you think Marinette and Kawai would get along if they meet? (And if they're in the other's role (Marinette in Kawai's role in Katachi and via versa for Kawai in Marinette's) How long would Shoya and Chloe last if they have to deal with Marinette and Kawai respectively?

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It's been a while since I saw Koe no Katachi, but, I would assume Marinette wouldn't get along with Kawai if she figured her out or likewise. Kawai and Marinette both act like they're better people than they are, so being forced to see their behavior from the outside would go against that.

example: what do del toro's elizabeth and the creature have that is actually, genuinely gothic, even remotely comparable to other classic or more recent pairs of this genre (i’m talking heathcliff/cathy, erik/christine, dracula/mina, orlok/ellen etc.)? imo, in gothic romances, even when the male "suitor" (i’m speaking of het pairings because it's what i read the most, and so what i'm most well-versed in) is not expressly a villain or an antagonist (see rochester, just to give a famous example), there's a clear undercurrent of danger to the character. he may even be — and often is — harmful to the heroine. this love either turns into a destructive force or a redemptive one, or more rarely both, like in le fantôme de l’opéra. that’s not the case for elizabeth/the creature: she’s kind and compassionate and a bit weird (complimentary), clearly an outsider but still in a conventionally pretty and feminine way; he’s deformed but still hot, kind (“a good man”), a victim of ~evil abusive victor, and turns to violence mostly out of self-defence. he’s not a threat to her in any way, and most importantly, she never even thinks he may be. they meet like, three times (the third time, she gets accidentally murdered by ~evil abusive victor and dies), and they’re already soulmates according to Voice of God.

this has almost nothing of the gothic or of what is associated with the gothic, except the setting and the creature’s nature; their dynamic is mostly batb/star-crossed almost-lovers, which is a compelling trope per se, with sumptuous, beautiful, sometimes slightly pretentious visuals and dialogues. they’re sweet and pure and tragic – the world is the real antagonist here, and victor in particular is both the film’s real (anti?)villain and his own worst enemy, though it takes him a long time to understand that.

and yet, they lack what imo is the most essential, classical quality of batb romance, aka metamorphosis. i don’t mean a physical transformation (i’ve read stories where the beast/ugly character doesn’t turn into a human being or beautiful – hell, i’ve read iterations where the beauty turns into a beast, angela carter docet!), but an inner transformation, happening in the souls and minds of the characters. the beauty is almost always terrified, suspicious, often angry or unable to even look at the beast; but something happens, or there’s a gradual shift, and she understands his inner kindness/value, or witnesses his transformation into a better human being than most “normal” people. still, both change. for elizabeth and the creature, there’s no need for that – it’s the world that must change. which i understand is the whole point, but it’s something GDT has been portraying for many years in his movies (and imo more subversively in the shape of water). it’s nothing new or particularly groundbreaking – and it doesn’t have to be, of course. but then… what do they actually share with most gothic romance pairings we can think of? is really it that grandiose, if it's the usual minestra riscaldata in a different coat...?

what i'm getting at is: when you flatten the whole genre into a catchy mix of tropes/alluring visuals, all couples become interchangeable, and you lose sight of the themes, the whys and hows, the build-up and development of dark romantic dynamics in favour of – what, essentially? hashtag aesthetic? that's an obnoxious pet peeve of mine, of course, but i'm nothing if not cerebral or maybe i'm getting old. now, book!elizabeth/the creature would be real gothic. GDT made almost a (albeit bloody and tragic) fairy-tale of it all, which obviously was the intention from the start; note the conveniently cast-aside symbolism of the creature as both adam and the fallen angel. i'm not saying that if you're into actual darker stuff you can't be into them too (there are no rules!), but i like to state what things are and what they aren’t. heathcliff and cathy are defined by their shared childhood/abusive environment/they’re both cunts (complimentary/derogatory); jane/rochester is a very different kind of story, and so is erik and christine's etc.

it's important, or else you find yourself surrounded by (i can't stress this enough) generic Tall Monster/Villainous Guy x Petite Pretty Pure but Plucky White Woman pairings, lacking any depth or real artistry in their writing. it’s as if this kind of pairings wear a small tinkling bell and when they appear people latch onto them, regardless of characterisation, themes, execution, roles in the story etc. and no, again, idt they’re as subversive as they appear, or we wouldn’t be inundated with dark romance/enemies-to-lovers romantasy books. and it's a shame, really, because at its best this genre is a compelling challenging of gender norms, social roles etc.

Sigma never knows his mother. Not her name or anything else save for one fact that she died in the Fourth Holy Grail War. He was a product of rape and was taken away from her as soon as he was born. Then he was experimented on and raised as magus-weapon for some government. He is what's called an orphan all his life.

Meanwhile Tsubaki has parents, but they never care about her as their child. They see her as their prized product. They do experiments on her in the name of love, and that's what's registered on Tsubaki (perhaps as a way to cope), but really that's in the name of magecraft and the glory that comes from it. The fact that all they care about once Tsubaki fall into coma is her intact reproductive system is disgustingly clear in itself of where their intention and heart lie. So if the definition of an orphan is someone who does not have parents, then Tsubaki is also one.

As a viewer familiar with Fate series, the similarity and contrast between these two images from the flashback is heartwrenching in hindsight. Both Sigma and Tsubaki weren't born in a blessed house, neither do they have good relationship with their parents. But Maiya did remember her lost child and did see him as her own even though she only saw him once. Though she knew nothing else about him, she considered Irisviel's urging to find him if she came out alive. Whereas the Kuruoka couple, despite living in the same house as Tsubaki, never acknowledges her existence as their blood-and-flesh child in the sense of family that they should love. This is where their difference lies.

Later, the motive of each party saving Tsubaki is one of central focus in the anime. Some does it because they believe it's the good and right thing to do. Some does it because Tsubaki's servant is simply too dangerous and wild to be left alone. Some does it because of other's moral compass.

As for Sigma as the guy who has no wish or belief, he expresses a slight dislike over the concept of killing a comatose little girl. After being around people with high level of motivation such as No Name Asssassin and Richard, I guess that triggers him into doing whatever he likes. In a way, I feel like it's him doing 'well, I have this gut feeling, let's try that.' 

Being surrounded by such people, meeting Tsubaki himself and hearing how her parents have treated her through her father's own (brainwashed) mouth eventually let him formed conviction to protect her. But in the end, he fails, since how her servant works is out of control and doing-her-best-even-if-it-pains-her is the only thing Tsubaki knows about, she sacrifices herself in the end.

Once everyone's outside the Reality Marble, Sigma immediately hears Tsubaki's now-concious parents talking of how they'd cut her hand to save the Command Spells to prolong their participantion in the HGW and preserve her reproductive system. Their daughter just sacrifices herself, and all they talk about is their business as if they're cleaning up after the mess she left behind. He might not remember anything but his mother's face looking at him, but for sure Kuruoka couple never looks at their daughter as her own person.

So when Sigma turns his gun on them, I was so happy but also afraid that nothing's gonna be shown or there would be prolonged fight. But when it's later cut to the clear image of their mangled corpses as Sigma walks away, I fucking cheered. Both for vengeance for Tsubaki and for Sigma's own growth. I think combined with what Faldeus did to Flat, Sigma's declaring he wants to destroy the Snowfield Holy Grail War is an apt way to close the curtain of the first stage.