waking up in dreams

This phrase has already entered my vocabulary re: media criticism where like. The viewer has a concrete view of what they expect a story to be based on the tropes and cliches they're used to seeing together, and when that doesn't happen, they judge it as a failed depiction of what they assumed it was going to be instead of judging it as what it actually is.

Dragon tiles

“And when they speak of Troy, they speak of Helen who fled with Paris for love, and this inspires verse. Not Briseis, who lost all, all she ever loved and was used as barter in a war that wasn’t hers. Not Cassandra, who tried to warn them but was called liar because of a Gods curse. Not Hecuba, who was forced to give all her children to this cruel beast she knew would never be satisfied. Not Andromache, who lost her beloved husband Hector to a battle he should not have had to fight, and her baby to the ruthlessness of the victors and their spite. I suppose as a woman your value in war is simply casualty if your face isn’t synonymous with devastating beauty, that powerful men wish to possess and claim so much, that they will launch a thousand ships in their own misplaced honour, yet blame it on your name.”