Character Discussion - Blog Posts
I was listening to "No One Mourns The Wicked". I thought of something. Malleus would be a good fit for Elphaba character wise in a fandom fusion for obvious reasons. But someone else who fits the "No One Mourns The Wicked" song specifically is Kalim.
I genuinely believe that Kalim is an unreliable narrator and his family is rotten to the core. There are various instances in the main story, the events and vignettes where Kalim is shown to either flat out deny or overlook the more troubling aspects of his family. The references to poison attempts, frequent kidnappings, use of child labour, highly questionable treatment of their employees (like the Vipers), rampant animal abuse (since Kalim said during the Playful Land event that they keep animals like elephants, orcas and dolphins caged up or in small tanks on property, which is well documented to harm them both psychically and psychologically), his father bribing Crowley to allow his son to attend NRC and the strongly implied presence of a harem in the JP version are massive red flags that something far darker is at play behind Kalim’s idealized image of his family.
The fact that Kalim’s father is involved in politics makes him even more suspect. It's completely possible that he's manipulating the Sultan to make his family richer like Jafar in the movie. Or, worse yet, like Muskrat is right now.
Due to these factors, I think the average person from the country views the Asims like how people view evil American politicians. They see them as evil and the source of trouble and discord in their lives, being out of touch due to their wealth and power. I imagine that there could be a large subsect of people who would CELEBRATE if one of them died, including Kalim himself.
Deep down, I think that's something Kalim actually fears. That hardly anyone would care if one of those poison attempts did him in and would be glad that he died. It would explain why he's so generous. He's doing that because he's trying to win other's favour in order to prevent that from happening.
I was following up until the last sentence.
Kalim doesn't help people to curry favor. He helps people because he wants to be the kind of person he wishes everyone was. He's even said that he doesn't care if people are taking advantage of his kindness, it's the idea of making people happy that he values. So while the rest of this read is spot on, I do have to set the record straight here.
Corrupt family? Yep. Fear for his life? Debatable. Desire to help people and willingness to give everything to everyone on a whim? Geniune.
He's sheltered and privileged and naive so his goodness can come across in bad faith sometimes, but Kalim has no ulterior motives for being a good person and I will die on that hill.
Thank you for your take.
What would Whitley’s semblance be? There is the family glyphs which could lead to a training scene with Winter and/or Willow. The glyphs are valid, it’s just that it would also be cool for it to be something else you know?
There are the Elsa like powers I’ve described poorly in a past blog a long time ago, but what if it’s something a bit more miscellaneous?
Like being able to see, literally or figuratively, through smoke and mirrors. Imagine if he could perceive things clearly despite there being a sandstorm or heavy fog. It could even work against Semblances that work to undermine the perception of reality.
In the same vein, what if he could tell if people were telling the truth, but unlike Robin there was no way to demonstrate it to other people. Though that does seem kinda “weak” narratively in a way I can’t describe. The same way Ironwood’s Semblance is. Almost like a cop-out
Perhaps something similar though? A semblance where he can know how much something is worth to some, whether it be by itself or in comparison to something else would be neat. It would also be neat if he could appraise how much something is worth. I can just see him look at a patch of sand or dirt and say “There Dust/Gold/Platinum/Iron/Copper/whatever in them hills”
To be clear, I don’t want him to have the x-ray vision of Superman. I want him to know this kinda of intrinsically, and he has to prove it. I want to become trusted, for him to eventually be able to go, “it came to me a dream” and for people to go along with it.
Perhaps, “seeing” wouldn’t be the best description of this semblance, but rather a Gut Feeling(tm) premium for commercial enterprise. It would certainly fit somewhat thematically because he is a son of an oligarch/capitalist. (I say somewhat because it’s been ages since I’ve watched RWBY, and I’m not that confident in my assertions of character traits and such)
they’re not actually that big of plot holes if you consider just how bigoted this society is against supers.
Firstly, tony didn’t have a plan. I don’t believe either side when they say he was thinking about killing or capturing Bucky because that man was not thinking. From his lines and the way he’s brutally lashing out against both Steve and Bucky (his fighting here is reminiscent of how he fought against Killian in Iron man 3) tony is simply acting off of grief. Even the line “do you even remember them?” is indicative that he isn’t thinking properly because he doesn’t even respond to Bucky’s line: “I remember them all.” And the ending line of “My dad made that shield” / “You don’t deserve it” is just him lashing out. Tony didn’t have a plan, he was just lashing out at the people he blamed for his parents’ deaths.
To your point about Bucky being assumed guilty.
They were not in the United States. Not all justice systems operate on “innocent until proven guilty”, especially when there’s a Photo Of You Doing The Crime. And the photo of Zemo dressed up as Bucky made it pretty clear who probably did it
Because Nat dumped the files online, everyone knows about Winter Soldier’s kill streak. They know that he worked for Hydra, and he’s proven himself to be dangerous. Pretty much nobody but Steve and his circle would know that Bucky was brainwashed, the governments only knew he worked for Hydra.
The us government was freshly hydra-free. That manipulation and thinking would still be present in how they operate. Think about it like this
These countries just put the Accords in place, only to be attacked immediately by a superhuman threat. What would be a better way to show how beneficial these accords are, than to apprehend this threat with your non-super armies. The UN had something to prove in front of the entire world.
Not even mentioning the fact that everyone automatically believed the video mysterio made, proving that these people turn on their beloved heroes in a second. It might be Disney-etic writing but it could also be a way to bring a watered-down version of anti-Mutant bigotry into the movies. Most of these aren’t plot holes, they’re just signs of a corrupt people.
Team Iron man fans saying that Steve was wrong for not telling Tony that Bucky killed his parents but honestly, seeing how Tony handled finding out about it, I wouldn't have told him either. Tony was already willing to throw bucky into prison or an institution IMAGINE what he would've done if he found out bucky killed his parents while they still had him in custody. Steve was doing what he always has done, protect Bucky.
People openly supporting the revenge killing of a man who had NO control over his life for the past 70 years and wasn't even conscious for the majority of it because of something he did WHILE BRAINWASHED is insane to me.
(also please don't attack me I'm just stating my opinion TwT)
Ok so definitely this type of thing regarding the show has been talked about before I don’t doubt BUT I still wanna put in my two cents regarding it so let’s get this going.
So Bob’s Burgers. Great show, adult cartoons done right (once they got their footing since I believe their early seasons felt more Family Guy/Simpsons which considering it was coming out a little late to the game so I assume it believed it needed to be like them but thankfully they’ve grown more confident not saying early seasons are bad their still hilarious ANYWAY OFF TRACK-)
And I really love their character cast. Bob, Linda, Teddy, and of course the Belcher kids (Gene is my favorite but not the topic of discussion).
The two I wanted to point out were Tina and Louise and an interesting thing I noticed regarding the two.
Not so much their relationship (though that itself is would be fun to dissect) but the way they seem to be on complete opposite sides of femininity.
Now to be clear I don’t think anyone, fictional or real, should need to abide by gender norms, but with how engrained it is societally, it’s hard to ignore, especially in television.
Regarding the two girls, Tina seems to be what I think most people would assume a thirteen year old girl would be into at that age. Horses, boys, writing, boys, girlscouts, did I mention boys? (though I feel her level for boys kinda goes a step further which we will get into).
I’m no historical expert in regards to feminine normalities, being a male myself, but I wouldn’t be pressed to see advertising primarily push horses, dolls, and boy crushing onto girls at a young age, which Tina seems to enjoy, and that itself is fine of course, no harm done.
Now all of that?
Throw it out the window for Louise because this girl is here to bring gender norms to the back ally and murder it with a bat.
Louise LOVES fire, knives, basically anything remotely adventurous, risky, or dangerous. Literally she wanted to go out in a hurricane storm in hopes to have some fun (and did! But it was boring so they went home). When she got a crush on a Boy band member? She went through a ton of effort to meet them, all to just fucking bitch slap the guy.
She also knows how to lock pick and is a creature of chaos.
She technically does have dolls, but all of them are alien like creatures and her favorite, Kuchi Kopi, is a Japanese figure (which would be less weird if it weren’t for her being in America).
All of these things, plus more, make her very not feminine and I love her for it. Literally her gender in this case doesn’t define her, it’s her personality.
This isn’t to say she can’t or doesn’t like predominantly female things, but the ratio def leans toward more neutral or masculine things throughout the shows time on air.
And it stands out even more when we have Tina, who immerses herself in it, to compare to Louise, who barely even interacts with it.
The reason I enjoy this is because it’s such a simple way to easily ignore gender norms by having two characters, siblings mind you, be on completely different sides of the idea (And Gene is just Gene, he is his own norm).
I’d pull out episode specific examples but what I’m doing right now doesn’t allow me that kind of time but I assure you dear reader that if you just read this cause you were bored and don’t know a lick of this show that just watching a Louise-centric and then Tina-centric episode you will see my point (hell even when they aren’t the focus you could probably see it).
Also even though Tina does fit into the more feminine side she isn’t completely locked to it either. Her love for boys would be seen as kinda obsessive (which let’s be honest if gender swapped would not be nearly as loved from the internet), and she’s willing to help her siblings in their own things of interest (though not without giving her own concerns).
Anyway please watch Bob’s Burgers it’s a great series ok BYEEEE
