wayne67
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Posts posted by wayne67
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This show does not exist in a vacuum -- it exists in a society with deep and pervasive institutional racism. It's always a good idea to remember that.
But isn't Kendra already getting the primary role in the mission? She's the only one on the Ship that is able to kill the villain. She's essentially the Harry Potter of this show. How is that sexist or racist or whatever? She has to be sidelined so they can drag out the storyline longer.
I always find holding art to a quota kind of disrespectful to the artist. It's like saying LOTR should have had met some quota for how many female main characters it had and how many minorities and so forth and so on. Shouldn't the main focus be the quality of execution and originality?
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Wow, that wasn't good. I think I will call this Hogwarts Sr. 90210.
First, we have the emotional cripple as the lead.
His friend who he had a secret crush on also has emotional problems and has resorted to back alley magic school.
The nerdy friend. The sexy magic girl. The magic guy with an attitude who is special.
The overtly gay friend.
These are all clichés and I have seen them before in many shows. This is 90210 type characters with a backdrop of a magic school.
And the school has no real purpose.
The magic with no seeming real purpose.
And then we add in a former student who is depressed from her experience there.
Well, I'm going to be if I watch any more of this.
There is just really nothing compelling or interesting about any of this.
I'm guessing you're not a fan ? You going to hate watch or just give up and move on to the next show ?
It is a problem with the fantasy genre where you have a super special bunch of people and all they ever really seem to do is fight other super special people. They never really seem to do anything particularly novel with their powers just fight crime and perpertrate crimes. No one seems to use magic/power for anything else like making money, getting laid or making a difference to the world around them.
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I guess I'm sick of the following pattern:
1. Rebecca does something shitty and self-destructive.
2. Rebecca is either caught out or suffers the negative consequences of her actions.
3. Rebecca mopes about what a terrible, unlovable person she is.
4. Rebecca receives unearned forgiveness.
5. Repeat Step 1.
Which is why I found it hilarious that Valencia's evil plan for inviting Rebecca along to the beach was because she's smart enough to know that given enough rope Rebecca will inevitably embarrass herself with one of her crazy attention seeking antics that blows up in her face.
I really do hope they eventually progress from this formula soon otherwise it'll get repetitive and annoying.
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I loved Sloan saving herself. She is tough as nails. She went to get herself a gun illegally. I hope that Oscar gets taken out in prison.
Unfortunately it lacked a lot since I was wondering the entire time, is he alone at that place? Why isn't she handcuffed to the chair? Is there a toilet ? Why would the bad guy tell her she was going to kill herself ? Why not just tell her to write a retraction then shoot her? Towards the end he didn't even have a weapon visible.
Also why was that guy main weapon a knife of all things ? Has he not heard of guns ? Such a lame villain for hire.
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On a random note how many people are invested at this point of the series ? I usually give a series 3 episodes to wow me and then decide but I'm unsure as to how I feel about this show.
I'm curious in the mythos and magic but I'm not really sold on 90% of the characters. I like the Dean and Elliot for the most part. Most of the other characters I keep forgetting their names.
Did anyone else wonder if the Dean was lying about the students surviving the fountain attack? Or was that just me? It seemed like they made a big point about that hat still floating in the fountain.
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But we have already seen that Julia IS special, and a seriously talented magician. Julia was specifically denied Brakebills because they believed that the test showed she had no magical ability. They were wrong.
Well as an unspoiled audience member I have no idea if she's supposed to be special because the only person who said she was impressive was the guy that was all rapey with her in a bathroom and I'm not conditioned to give those kind of people much credit.
Julia displayed magic AFTER her test. It's not much use to the Brakebill staff if she displays magic after they've tested her. It'd be like a football star failing to impress during a game when the football scout is watching then making some impressive play in the next game.
She may have magical aptitude but if Brakebills didn't see it, they can't be held to fault for not seeing it. Unless you're suggesting they should fake a rape during the exams just to provoke a magical reaction.
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Yeah, I don't get why Terrence and Jelena are so worried about either. Zero's leverage is gone the minute they own the team, so why should they care what he demands? Just agree to whatever he wants and then they could ship him off to another team or something once they own it. I do kind of want more of Zero and Jelena butting heads and duking it out with one another, so I hope it continues for a bit. But that said, I still mostly can't stand Jelena and I don't want her to be rewarded for all of her stupid machinations over the years, so I hope they don't get up getting control of the team.
Going back to Jude and Zero, the back and forth over whether or not Zero can be with Jude publicly could get old if they keep rehashing the same thing, but it's an interesting situation that they're in - Zero obviously has commitment issues and issues with opening up, but beyond that, being in an open relationship with another man would seriously affect his career, likely negatively, so it's really not as simple as Zero just getting over his insecurities. I hope they actually address that and talk about it at some point, that what Jude is asking for is understandable, but is also a pretty huge ask.
Yeah Zero's blackmail scheme doesn't really have much bite or logic. He'd be better off trying to get more money/perks from Lionel by selling them out.
Sadly I don't think are many openly gay/bi male basketballers out there so Zero could suffer from serious blowback. He's already had one major publicity fail with his hooker nights being exposed. Being outed or coming out could make his situation in the team even more awkward. Or at the very least cost him some endorsements.
That said I wouldn't mind if Jude and Zero both bailed from basketball drama and settled down in a nice condo and had lots of sweet hot gay loving.
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He died. And even if, he would likely have been too old to join the team. Their son looked like he was in his 50s, I think. But you are right, the team will likely meet lots of hawkmans during their travels (past and future), but still many of them won't be Carter. Not just in name but some other things. He would be someone born in a different time, with a different background etc.
I'm fairly sure his Hawkmom and dad died when he was still a child so there could be a Hawkman in his early 20's just learning he's a Hawkman.
Back onto the subject of Kendra. I'm really hoping she starts adding something more interesting to the group soon. In the latest episode she spent most of the episode asleep. Hopefully Sara will start training Kendra in the art of fighting soon and Snart will let her borrow his cold gun so she can freeze then stab Savage.
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As opposed to Quentin, who was simply given it which in this instance means she was asking for equal treatment.
She didn't get special treatment because she's not special. It'd be like an average joe asking for the same treatment a celebrity gets.
Harvard doesn't want average people, they want the best of the best. Quentin is supposedly special because he's one of two people who get interactions with the Fillory people. The other being the specialist he met.
Also Julia doesn't know that Quentin got any special treatment so she doesn't even know she's asking for supposedly equal treatment. So far all Quentin got was a convoluted invitation to the school involving a dead body and a preppy boy giving him the white rabbit you're late treatment.
She keeps harassing Quentin trying to make him feel guilty for getting in when she didn't and trying to end run the whole admissions process. She got tested, she failed. It happens to lots of people. Admittedly Quentin could have asked Elliot about the admission process but considering Julia's attitude I don't know why he'd want to spend any more time around her type A personality.
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I never got the impression that Quentin was the recipient of Male Privilege. More he's The Chosen One. But as I don't keep up with this sort of thing, do the two go hand in hand? Are Chose Ones always male and thus it's another Male Privilege?
Nine Lives of Chloe King has a female chosen one who drips with special treatment. The Circle and the Craft could all be argued to feature heavily female protagonists. Most books with a female protagonist tends to have super special abilities which is kind of how it works with protagonists. Most of the Game of Throne females are nobles for instance, Khaleesi is an albino girl with dragon magic . Kate Durran has super special blood magic. Elena is the first female werewolf. So on and so on.
Quentin is an example of male privilege because he was:
- Literally invited in (the "college advisor meeting" with the guy who died was supposed to invite him to Brakebills)
- Given a gift (by Eliza) that led him directly to the magical portal
- Allowed to enter a sunlit Brakebills where he is greeted by Eliot by name (complete with a printed card)
- Eliot then (1) assures Quentin he's not crazy, (2) tells him about the upcoming test, and (3) personally escorts him to the testing room
Compare that with Julia, who:
- Unexpectedly ends up in a Brakebills hallway after a creepy elevator ride at night
- Is not greeted, spoken to, or given any information or instruction
- Literally wanders into the testing hall like your worst nightmare from high school, completely in shock and unprepared
- Is not allowed to ask even one question when she tries as testing starts
- And is treated with fairly visible contempt by the advisor who fails her (and again by Quentin later on, not once but twice)
Or compare that with Alice who:
- Wasn't invited even as a magical prodigy in a family of magicians
- Stole her parents' 'magical key cards' to Brakebills (and had to figure out a new enchantment) -- she wasn't "given" a key
- Then she literally broke into Brakebills -- forcing her way in -- only then was she allowed to study there.
I definitely don't think these are accidental and do think that Grossman and the show are exploring a certain amount of irony and privilege in Quentin's situation. That's where the gender bias comes in. I definitely think it's deliberate.
It's a bit of a reach to say all males have it easier since the only male we follow is the Male Chosen One and is of course given preferential treatment over everyone. If we saw another male get the sort of treatment Quentin does... Maybe we could infer Male privilege then because we would have two data points.
Quentin is not the norm for anything. He's the chosen one, the presumably super special one who'll prove himself in the last act.
Quentin got headhunted. Julia tagged along. He supposedly has a great destiny. She may chase one down.
As for Alice being a magical prodigy. We've seen her display great skill in ONE spell. Which she was taught an unknown amount of years ago by her brother. We have no idea if she is a magical prodigy, she's just good at the ONE spell she knows. The reason she probably didn't get an invite from Brakebills has probably more to do with her dead brother than her gender. Brakebills has already allowed one member of that family to die at that school and if her parents survived a Darwinian stay at Brakebills they might not be eager to let their last offspring go off to die.
Julia got treated with contempt by Quentin and the advisor because she's asking/demanding special treatment. She wants a retest and while that might be a thing you can ask of faculty. It's a stupid thing to ask of a new student. It's like saying a Harvard Student has any pull with Harvard admissions board.
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I'm liking this show. Is it the best ever, no. However I like the character interactions. The plot can be stupid as long the characters are interesting when they interact together. I've loved all the pair ups they've done so far.
Plus Sara being an awesome badass is my biggest draw to this show and she hasn't disappointed me. I could just watch Sara take different characters on adventures every week and be happy.
One thing that may help is if we don't see Vandal every week and just know the team is trying to do something to stop his rise to power.
I'd have to disagree. Nitpicking is pointing out that someone changed clothes in between scenes which is fairly irrelevant. Pointing out giant gaping plot holes involved in their major plot arc is a way for writers to improve their craft.
You pointed out a perfectly feasible way to correct one of the major problems of this episode. A bunch of cops/new thugs could have shown up while Rip stood over Vandal Savage and they needed to bail. They didn't even need to show it. They could have had a couple lines of dialogue saying they had to run.
Instead they chose the lazy option of having the character who ditched his job and is on a vengeance quest to kill this guy, not even try.
I want characters to try. They don't have to succeed. They just have to do stuff that makes some sort of narrative sense. The whole it would fail is a lousy reason not to try. As evidenced by the Atom being all afraid to fail. Which was stupid because even if she died they could just pick up another couple of Hawk's.
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Miller is in love with Julie. There's not really anything on screen to suggest Miller is capable of love or even wants it, but there was a famous old movie called Laura where a detective falls in love with a murder victim's portrait. I think that's where Miller comes from.
Chairman Mao is responsible for everything, it is supposed to be a wonderful science experiment cultivating the "protomolecule." As to why the dude would want asteroids crashing into Earth, your guess is as good as mine. It may be that the authors of the book never wondered why.
Miller's basic position is that it's stupid to care about what happens to other people. This makes his carping at Holden pointless, hence dreary (except for the people who want to dis Holden.) Holden's arguments about what to do next should be with Naomi but her character doesn't have an interior mental life,hence no opinions to argue for.
I'll watch the second season though.
See I can get that it's easy to fall in love with someone in your mind but it doesn't make him a very interesting person to me. Just sad and delusional and obsessive.
If it's a science experiment shouldn't they go the traditional route and harvest/experiment on the homeless/death row prisoners ? Not do something incredibly high profile like infect a whole space station with their ships and personnel obviously involved. Also when did they figure out Julie was there to be available to be harvested so they could set up all the thug cops and cameras ?
Every motivation seems hopelessly convoluted.
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I started "watching" this episode, realized I was barely paying attention & that I wasn't interested at all, & decided that was enough. I deleted the episode & canceled the series recording. This show wasn't interesting enough to hold my attention.
Yeah the elves seem too stupid to survive and I just don't care.
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Why couldn't they take Savages body and finish him off right then and there?
That was the part that super bugged me. Even if he got resurrected/escaped/got broken out later. It would have shown that the heroes aren't completely stupid/lazy.
Just because we know they can't succeed now doesn't mean they shouldn't try something. They could stick him in a box and he could escape and run around the ship causing more havoc and they can have a bottle episode.
Also can we not have him in an episode. He's not really threatening or intimidating. He comes off more hammy than a season long villain. Also less of a villain is better. The more we see of him, the less impressed I am by his immortality. Which compared to super healing, speed, strength or fireballs is kind of mediocre.
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The elves are useless at internal and external security.
It's sad that I'm already sort of rooting for the demons because at least they're semi competent except for the inevitable plot contrived stupidity at the finale from the bad guys.
I'm already bored of Princess and her constant snarking about Will's sex life. Also I'm bored of Rogue girl and her complete nonsense with her non bio dad. If you want to earn your freedom. Leave.
As for Rogue Father/non father. Someone just put a sword in him already. He's already kidnapped the princess 2 to 3 times already. It's getting old.
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Male Privilege isn't interchangeable with perfection, it just means fewer challenges than those faced by women and often people of color. What may be difficult for a white male, is far, fare more difficult for women or POC. Not effortless, just much easier.
Quentin and Julia both had the same test (from what I could gather) and were presumably judged on their results not their gender. If Quentin is given preferable treatment which I'm not sure he has it's because he dreams of Filory not because he's male. That specialist also had a potential to live up to for the same reason and she was female. So I don't see any particular gender bias.
Julia failed the test. She didn't get in. Quentin passed he got in.
There's been no indication that male magicians are preferred over females. We had 4 potential magicians casts a spell and there was equal numbers of boys and girls.
The only person that could possibly be said to have a leg up over everyone else is Alice because she had parents that were magical alumns and a brother that taught her magic. She got magic keys that bypassed the normal process of admission and she was a legacy. So I'd say of what we've seen so far the system is rigged in lots of different ways and none appear to be gender biased.
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Well I stopped watching at episode 7 then binge watched the last 3... I'm still not sure what the point of this season was.
This was all a very convoluted bio weapon test ?
Miller is obsessed about Julie ? because ? something something ?
So a 4th party is responsible for this and it was for science? profit ? the salvation of humanity ?
I spent a lot of the time when Holden and Miller were fighting hoping that they'd die so they'd shut up about mysteries and all their blah blah about what to do next.
I don't know if I want to watch a season 2 if there is one. I guess it'll depend what else is on. This show didn't do it for me. Maybe it was too grim dark or just that I didn't really like any of the characters enough to remember their names from one episode to the next.
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Quentin and Julia -- I agree with whoever said that they are both whiny and annoying. They are and it's hard to like either of them. Julia robbing ATMs and lying to her caring boyfriend; Quentin being mean about the fact he's in Brakebills and she's not, and just generally acting like a passive loser. The only good thing he did was saving Alice and himself from Crazy Charlie.
Probably me. I find them both aggravating. Quentin's too passive and sullen most of the time and Julia comes off as obsessed about proving Brakebills wrong for rejecting her which comes across as more her being aggravated at being rejected than a deep down desire to use magic for any particular purpose. Though the second part may just be a failure to portray her inner world effectively or her backstory. It'd be useful if she told her boyfriend about the magic or confided in another hedge witch so that her inner world was a bit more fleshed out...
Personally I'm giving this show one more episode to pull me in and then I'll just wait till someone posts an Elliot or Penny montage of their awesomeness. So far I find both protagonists annoying and a quick glance at a wiki about the book series makes me dubious about the long term prospects of this show.
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I don't understand the question. Harry didn't want to do magic because of his parents. It was a part of him. It's a part of Quentin. It's a part of Julia. It helps them to express who they are. It isn't a means to an end. For them, magic IS the end. I understand this really well.
If you could do magic, wouldn't you want to keep on doing it? How is the desire to do magic not an understandable motivator? For one thing, magic is about power, about understanding, about potential freedom on levels beyond those in our current world, which can certainly be dreary and difficult. While magic has its dangers as we quickly learn, it also seems pretty irresistible. Most clearly, it offers an escape from a difficult and sad current world and into one that is more complex, vibrant and interesting -- a whole other society and level of understanding. I know I'd explore the heck out of even the tiniest flicker of power if I had it.
Didn't Harry accidentally display magic and get an invite to join a magical school and get told he was the chosen one destined to kill Voldemort? That sounds like a motivation to do magic to me.
As for whether I would do magic, it would really depend on the type of magic and the cost. As an adult I think about risk vs reward. Is the magic I'm using like the covenant magic where the magic you use hastens your own death? Is it the type of genie type magic, flashy but with horribly ironic consequences based on word choices ? Is it the Discworld magic where if you use too much of it you disrupt the fabric of reality and unleash Dungeon Dimension creatures on everyone.
So far doing magic for magics sake doesn't really explore the characters inner world much. The price tag for this magic seems a mix between draining your life force and unpredictable results. It'd be nice to get more motivation for these adults wanting to learn all this magic other than "OMG magic is real, look how cool I am, I can make a dove appear from my hands". Especially since this magic comes with the caveat that it will probably kill you during training. Only 2 survivors of the 3rd year class would make me question whether to limit myself to parlor tricks instead of learning higher magic.
There's also no indication about whether they're allowed to use it in the outside world or what the difference between being a trained magician and a hedge witch.
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I hate Chuck. She's selfish and perky and gets away with everything because she bats her eyelashes and Ned is a stupid sap.
I spent the first two seasons wishing Ned would touch her again so she'd shut up and stop inserting herself into everything.
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Part of me wants Rebecca to succeed at getting Josh so Rebecca can finally ditch this obsession once she realises that she can't use Josh as a bandaid for her myriad of issues. On the other hand I want the female protagonist to be shut down hard by the object of her stalking so that trope isn't played out again on tv because it's so not healthy to pretend that chasing and plotting and scheming to get someone to love you is healthy or romantic because it's not. It's weird and creepy and stupid.
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Yeah, for all that the acting is generally pretty bad on this show, there's definitely a clear difference in Zero's demeanor when he's with Jude than when he's with anyone else that I think is really nicely done. His breathy, laughing "that's fine" when Jude said he was wearing Zero's underwear was very endearing, especially since he's never seemed that chill or normal at any other time before.
When they're together they're much happier and carefree until the real world imposes. They're a good couple if only they could work through their last issue. That and they're so cute...
None of the other plots really appeal to me.
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Yeah, see they kept a lot of the interactions from the books, a lot of the fighting, but they aged the characters by ten years. It's jarring at times.
Well ageing up the characters a decade from the book to the tv would explain why the characters act like immature teenagers. How old are they supposed to be in this tv show ? episode ? early 20's ? Probably why I dislike most of the characters. I kept expecting them to be less aggravating and reckless.
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Quentin and Alice still don't have chemistry so it makes their scenes a little weird to me, but his friendship with Eliot is really lovely (despite making zero sense to me from Eliot's side).
I didn't get the impression they needed to have chemistry. I thought she just needed him for whatever spell she was casting because she needed to share the load of the spell or whatever. I really hope they don't go romance angle with them. They're both wet blankets.
As for Elliot's interest in Quentin I just assumed he liked the cute new boy that would come to him for advice so he could feel smarter in comparison. Also he was assigned to look after him so I just guessed he felt some residual responsibility to show him around/ keep him from making him look bad.
S01.E03: Blood Ties
in Legends Of Tomorrow
· Edited by wayne67
So what about family sitcoms based on a writers life ? Like Everybody Loves Raymond. Do you think that show should have had more POC's simply to meet a minority quotient even though there would probably be no POC's to base them on in that writers life so they'd be tertiary characters which would get the show abuse for not having enough screen time and plot lines for their liking.
For some people being white is the norm because that's their reality. As would being primarily around people with similar beliefs if you were of a particular religion. People tend to group with people of their own ethnic/religious/sexual identities. Like I hang out primarily with gay atheists :p So I can avoid debates on religions and discussions of women, sports and cars.
As for Hollywood and tv, their main objective is to make money, not make the world a better place. Hence the horrors of Twilight and 50 shades of Grey which portray really strange unhealthy relationship dynamics.
On topic though. It's nice to get further character background as I stopped watching Flash by season 2 Arrow by season 3 so I'm not really up to date on all the latest drama in this shared universe. I really hope Savage becomes harder to find in following episodes because it makes it harder to suspend disbelief as to his continued existence if he's battling these guys every episode.
ETA to make more sense.