K-Pop: Idols Are Allowed to Have Boundaries

Promotional image of Kim Taehyung, Kim Seokjin, Jeon Jungkook, Park Jimin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, and Kim Namjoon for the 2021 FESTA. Copyright goes to BTS and Hybe Entertainment.

Hey! Hallie here!

There are several things to celebrate in the K-Pop world right now. Speaking for ARMY, we recently got some incredibly attractive concept photos for “Butter”, several weeks in a row on the Billboard Top 100, and we still have the promise of more content coming out this month. But now more than ever it’s important to recognize that BTS, and all K-pop idols, are humans with boundaries. It feels like every time I go on social media I see more and more K-pop fans feeling as though they’re entitled to an uncomfortable closeness with idols who they don’t even know. And with infuriatingly frequent incidents like that of the group of fans showing up to Justin Bieber’s house last week, I can’t help but feel that large fan groups need to keep their relationships with the people they follow in check. So let’s go over some of the incidents I’ve seen being talked about in the community and why some fan reactions have been problematic. As usual, my focus will be on BTS because that is my main fandom.

J-Hope’s Bodyguard:

Past footage of the members of BTS is bound to come back up on TikTok. Most recently, footage of J-Hope walking with his bodyguard in an airport caused a lot of debate. In the video, a woman can be seen quickly approaching J-Hope. In a very swift move, his bodyguard shoves her out of the way and, in the process, causes her to fall into a trashcan. A lot of people criticized the bodyguard for the perceived violence of this action. Some even suggested that J-Hope should be held accountable. This reaction to the footage is an issue. The bodyguard’s purpose is to keep everyone away from J-Hope. Not only is his public status reason for him to be attacked, but it is incredibly common for fans to approach and harass idols while they’re busy or seeking privacy. The bodyguard was simply doing his job. I doubt he intended to push the woman into a trash can, but it wasn’t appropriate to approach J-Hope at that time. There’s been a serious debate on whether or not the woman was even intending to interact with J-Hope, and I do admit that the video leaves that unclear. The woman comes out of nowhere and it isn’t clear which direction she’s heading. But even if her intention wasn’t to bother J-Hope, it’s somewhat frightening to me how many people are angry at the bodyguard for pushing someone who, accident or not, was approaching J-Hope at a rapid pace. And while it might have been nice if he had checked whether or not she was ok afterwards, he is probably taught to keep moving for the safety of the idol he’s protecting. All in all, it makes sense to feel bad for the woman who ended up on the floor. But the reality of the situation is that so many fans approach J-Hope with no recognition of his privacy or boundaries, that it’s necessary for the bodyguard to react this way. Instead of criticizing the bodyguard, maybe we should criticize the type of fan he was obviously expecting when he pushed that woman.

Important Business:

Here’s another J-Hope example! (Can you tell I’m a J-Hope bias?) In any case, most ARMYs are aware of “Important Business”. This is the phrase J-Hope says to anyone who approaches himself or the other members when the group is out, enjoying themselves. Often he has to use it most when the group is traveling out of country. Most fans find his use of this phrase funny. And in a way, it is! He has an adorable accent and often times he himself laughs after he uses it. He knows that he isn’t actually in the middle of important business and his trick using some of the English he knows is amusing. But I would argue that his use of the phrase isn’t “savage” even though a lot of fans describe it this way. It’s actually extremely polite. The people who approach BTS while they’re attempting to enjoy themselves are absolutely in the wrong. Unless an idol indicates to you that it’s alright to approach them, there is no excuse for interrupting an idol out of nowhere when they are clearly on their time off. They hardly ever get time to themselves. They spend most of their time creating new content for their fans or doing performances for their fans. And while BTS is very vocal about their love for the fans, it doesn’t mean the fans are entitled to ALL of their time. They should be allowed to live their lives in the privacy every human has a right to. Interrupting their privacy without consent denies them this opportunity. And while it would make complete sense for Hobi to be more firm when dealing with fans who don’t respect this, he makes up a polite excuse. So yes, I will laugh at Hobi every time he says “Important Business”. But I don’t think it in any way makes him seem impolite.

The Shipping:

Shipping has become a huge topic of debate recently. And I hate to say it, especially because shipping is really popular in fandoms like this. But shipping too often gets to the point where it breaches idol boundaries. There are a few levels of problematic with this one, though. First there is the obviously problematic fans. These are the fans who try to force a member to talk about their “potential relationship” with another member on a V-Live or in a fan interaction. These fans are also the type of fans to harass a company for not putting the two members they ship together in interviews or music videos. These are the easiest to critique. This behavior is obviously possessive and very clearly makes idols uncomfortable. It also is most often the type of behavior that can ruin friendships within K-pop groups. However, this isn’t the only problematic behavior. Searching for hand touches or “intimate contact” that might “prove” your ship is real can also be extremely toxic behavior. Even if you aren’t directly confronting the members with your theories. This is because the behavior shows a disconnect from reality. Even though you don’t know the members and have no insight into their real lives or relationships, you are making assumptions about them and their actions to prove that the fantasy you made up is accurate. Once again, you don’t personally know any of the members. You don’t have a right to make assumptions about them. And the more you make up fantasies about them that you actually believe, the further you get from acknowledging that idols are human beings whose lives aren’t purely for your entertainment.

These are just some of the topics I’ve seen floating around recently. There are too many examples of fans ignoring idols’ boundaries for me to be able to fit them all in one post. To be clear, this post wasn’t made to put anyone down. I simply want it to give some insights into recent issues that you maybe haven’t considered. It’s always good to check in with your behavior when you’re in a fandom that surrounds real individuals. When you’re obsessing over something like Marvel with fictional characters, it does no harm to anyone to theorize about their personal lives or ship characters together. But K-pop groups aren’t characters. They’re real people. And we should be cautious of that in every situation.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

International Dramas: Imitation Episode 9

Promotional image of Jeong Yunho in ‘Imitation’. Copyright goes to KBS and ATEEZ.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’m still not completely sure what keeps making me want to watch this show, other than I’m in it now and it’s difficult to stop. After all, there are only a few episodes left now before it’s over. And I’m not against watching this show; I am kind of enjoying it. I always do find something to enjoy when it comes to watching this show. But, like always, this episode seemed to have more issues with writing than things to enjoy. This isn’t even a case of it’s better if you turn your brain off. There’s nothing really for you to turn you brain off for. I still can’t see much of a plot here, and every episode there’s a new direction with a character that confuses me. So, I’m going to got through my regular review, obviously complete with MAJOR SPOILERS. And hopefully some of the storylines that I’m liking will at least be ok by the time the show ends.

The Good:
Riah- Finally! She’s back! I was worried she was just going to be a bad character for a while, and I can’t tell you how happy I am that she’s different in this episode. She’s much less angry and protective in this episode and much more understanding than she has been. The downside of her being that much better here is that it made some of her actions previously seem out of character. When it comes to her grudge against Shax, that’s entirely still in tact. She mentions in this episode that she still has a grudge and her relationship with LeeHyun is mainly softening because of their love of music and the song they are both working on. But what doesn’t make sense here is her specific vendetta against Ryok and Maha dating. Because she’s immediately sad and consoling when Maha admits that they broke up. Once again Riah was a supportive and badass friend this episode rather than being too over the top with anger, and it was nice to see her this way again.

Yujin- Another character that I am very happy to write about in the good list again. After everything that happened last episode and this show’s track record with character development, I was half afraid that Yujin wasn’t going to learn his lesson after Hyunji yelled at him. Fortunately, this was not the case. Hyunji yelling at him seemed to remind him of telling Maha that he was free from her after he confessed his feelings toward her a couple episodes back. He took the opportunity to talk to Hyunji and honestly apologize for how he acted and then ask her on a date. Or was it a date? I’m honestly not sure. It was the most awkward product placement I’ve ever seen in my life, that’s for sure. But I do think that it’s important to note that Yujin was back to his kind self that we saw at the very beginning of this drama. I can only hope that this is a trend that continues. Especially because the end of this episode made a huge deal about Ryok being on the same show as Yujin and everyone in Tea Party but Hyunji. So I’m not expecting any of this to last very long.

The Acting- I will never not mention this. Because I really want people to know that everyone acting in this show is talented. Even the people who haven’t acted before have some real talent. The faults in this show go in their entirety to the plot and writers.

Sub-Plot Romance Two- The sub-plot romance between Riah and LeeHyun is probably moving too slowly. But at least it’s moving. And it’s cute. The less we see of Riah’s grudge and the more time they are allowed to spend together, the more this becomes one of the major things I look forward to every episode. The way it took them forever to open the door because they were getting so into the music was cute, and admittedly a little cheesy, but still cute. The only roadblock here is how much screen time they’ve been getting. But they have at least been making some use of that screen time to make this couple look plausible.

The Bad:

Hyunji- Remember when I commended her character in my last review and said that I was afraid they would do nothing with her character development? That’s exactly what happened. Which is exactly what happens with this show in general, but I’ll get back to that later. Hyunji has one semi-strong moment at the beginning of this episode where she yells at Maha for breaking up with Ryok after everything the two had put everyone else through. It was a valid point and I’m glad someone said it. But it is immediately revealed that she only does this because she’s still hurt over what happened with Yujin. She did not say this because it was a concern of hers. This outburst was entirely male driven. And then once Yujin apologizes to her, she’s back to the way she was before. No agency and not much development to go off of. She doesn’t even say anything or tell Yujin how much he hurt her when she’s being apologized to. She just stands there, accepts it, and then becomes super happy because she believes she has a chance with him again. It was almost like last episode never happened.

The Plot and Development- I think I’m finally able to at least pinpoint some of what’s going wrong with this plot. And it has to do with the dropped development I was talking about earlier. The show has a tendency to start good development which gives the audience hope, and then drop it immediately for the sake of another plot point. And then they drop the development for that plot point and start another one. And this happens so much over and over again that all the characters are half-baked and all the plot points only feel half formed. No clear plot, no nothing. Just a lot of things that could have been that the writers didn’t move forward on because I’m not sure they knew how to.

Sub-Plot Romance One- From what you’ve already read about what I had to say about these characters individually, you can probably tell that they don’t work at all. Yujin is sweet, but he needs someone who will call him out on his bullshit. And Hyunji seems to dodge any possible character development that she’s given to the point that I can’t tell what her personality even is beyond her crush on Yujin. At this point in time, these characters are definitely wrong for each other. The scene where Yujin apologized to her was cute, but it only served the character of Yujin. Hyunji barely spoke or even reacted, so it wasn’t a scene that served their relationship as a whole. And the chemistry between them just isn’t there either. I know that this show is sponsored by a specific chicken place, because we see the characters order it at least twice an episode. So when Yujin and Hyunji went to this place on their date, I was already expecting to cringe. But it was made even worse by the fact that the scene was less than a minute long and they didn’t even speak to each other for most of it. It was, by far, the most awkward date I’ve ever seen in a K-Drama. I do not buy these two as a couple even for a second.

The Romance- Maha and Ryok both mainly operate under the banner of the main romance, which is sometimes frustrating and sometimes works for this plot because it is mainly a romance show. With this in mind, their break up was awkward and, as soon as they broke up, they spent most of the episode doing absolutely nothing. Especially Maha. Ryok was involved in a weird plot point that I’ll get to in a second. But most of the episode they both sulked and Maha told everyone that she was the one who broke up with Ryok so that people wouldn’t get mad at him. I’m assuming. They never really confirmed or denied that though.

HyunOh- I definitely thought they were abandoning his character, but apparently that’s not the case. Instead they decided that Ryok would overhear HyunOh treating his girlfriend awfully and then get offended and punch him so that they could shoehorn in a jealousy storyline with Maha. Now it seems like they are going to deal with the fact that HyunOh might be fired from Sparkling when Shax’s company overtakes theirs. This was nowhere where they were hinting about going with this character and this plot doesn’t seem to serve the story over-all either. In fact, when this plot started I thought they were going to explore some form of connection and rivalry between Yujin and HyunOh. And it’s very odd that they’ve gotten rid of Yujin completely in favor of throwing Ryok into the mix instead.

Sparkling and Shax- The members of these groups did nothing this episode excepting a few. Including Hyuk, unfortunately. These are the characters that I wish we could see more of, but we never get anything for them. I think this show overdid it when it comes to characters. The writers can’t balance this many.

La Lima- I’m so confused. So now she wants Maha and Ryok together? Then what was the point of that line that suggested she would fight anyone who tried to date Ryok? I seriously have no clue what’s going on here.

This show is mostly made up of confused writing. I, once again, have no idea what’s happening. But that’s usual for this. I don’t hate watching it, but I wish it was better. I’m at least glad that Yunho got something good to act out again! Yujin got some pretty emotional moments that caught my attention right away! As long as there’s more of that, watching this won’t have been a waste of time.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Star Wars: ‘The Bad Batch’ Episode 10 Review

Screenshot of Hunter, Tech, GS-8, and Echo from episode ten of ‘The Bad Batch’ on Disney+. Copyright goes to the Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm.

Hey! Hallie here!

I usually wait to review episodes of ‘The Bad Batch’ until I have two to talk about. Unfortunately, ‘The Bad Batch’ has done so little with what it set up that sometimes it feels as though there isn’t enough to write about after viewing just one episode. This week’s episode didn’t really make me regret that decision. I’ll get into that in a second. But for the next week, possibly two, we’ll be on vacation! We’ll still be posting regularly for the first week. We pre-wrote posts for every day of next week for you to enjoy! The week after might be silent for a while, though. I don’t want to get too behind on this series, so let’s get into this week’s episode! SPOILERS ahead!

The Good:

The Other Side of the Separatists: In most ‘Star Wars’ content the Separatists are mustache twirling villains. On occasion we’ve seen things like ‘Clone Wars’ make attempts at explaining some of the motivations for the groups that joined the Separatists, but nothing that could help us truly empathize with any of them. This episode tasked the entire Bad Batch, as well as the viewers, with withholding judgement from a Separatist party. And it was understandably difficult for them. Especially for Echo, who was nearly stripped of his humanity by Separatists. To be honest, I especially liked Echo’s reaction to the entire situation. His hesitancy and even outright anger towards them gave us a deeper look into his character. In any case, GS-8 was a fun droid presence and you can’t argue that she and her master care deeply about the people they were forced to abandon towards the end of the episode. In the very least, you could leave the episode with the knowledge that the Separatists are a very diverse group of people and not all of their ideologies lead them to side with the Empire.

Cid: Cid hasn’t done much in this series beyond introducing the plot of each episode while looking extremely annoyed in the process. As the audience, we know she really likes money and that’s about it. But this episode forces her to take a more prominent role when Hunter sticks her with Omega. Omega is basically our main character at this point, so there was no way we wouldn’t have spent at least half the episode with these two. And sure enough, this episode includes an entire storyline where Omega and Cid attempt to figure out exactly how to interact with each other. At first Cid is practically disgusted by the idea of being a babysitter. She makes Omega do chores, berates her for trying to interact with her in any meaningful way, and outright tells Omega that she’s useless. Omega is already frustrated that Hunter left her behind for no particular reason and she’s even more frustrated by Cid’s bad attitude. But Omega is kind by nature, so she attempts to connect with Cid despite it. Until Cid takes it a step too far and causes Omega to face the reality that Hunter doesn’t actually see her as helpful. When Omega becomes distraught, Cid sees that she crossed a line but doesn’t know what to do about it. It isn’t until Omega shows promise in Dejarik that Cid comes to fully appreciate Omega. When the Batch return, she even goes so far as to berate Hunter for mistreating Omega because of how much Omega proved herself to Cid. (Also because of how much money Omega made her.) In any case, we saw some actual emotions and development from Cid this episode and I appreciated it.

The Bad (Batch):

Hunter: How many times do we have to do this? In nearly every single episode we see Hunter showing his overprotective nature by telling Omega to stay behind. We also see a genuine disbelief from him that Omega is capable of helping out at all. Then Omega proves herself more competent than most, if not all, of the Batch. And then Hunter apologizes and promises he’ll never do it again. This has happened so many times in this series that I’m really starting to dislike Hunter as a character. Hunter’s overprotectiveness has become outright insulting to Omega and her personal growth. And his refusal to learn from his past treatment of Omega turns all of his promises to empty lies. He also decides to order her, like he would a soldier, to stay behind. Despite the fact that he constantly berates Wrecker for treating her like a peer rather than a child. And then he yells at her at the end of the episode for actually doing something while she stayed behind instead of sitting in a corner. I understand he’s worried about her, and this episode did show him missing her during the mission. But I can’t feel sympathy for him when he has to spend every episode relearning the same lesson about Omega.

Ideologies: This episode description said it would challenge the Batch’s ideologies. But none of them ever expressed their opinions of the Separatists. The only reason why we know Echo’s is because of ‘Clone Wars’. None of the other members of the group showed any sort of strong reaction to their mission. And similarly, the Separatist leader in this episode didn’t get to discuss his own beliefs. We never figured out why he sided with the Separatists or even if his reasoning was understandable. We only know that he’s a better guy than most of the ones we’ve seen from the Separatist side. They did some nice surface work, but they could have gone so much deeper. And for the sake of character development, they probably should have gone deeper.

This episode didn’t progress much of the plot. There were some interesting ideas thrown around here and there, but nothing that was done extremely successfully. This and the continued lack of character development for most of the main characters made me extremely unsatisfied with this episode. As of now, Omega and Echo are the only saving graces of this series for me. I was really hoping for more.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Superheroes: The Black Widow Conversation

Promotional image of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow for the new ‘Black Widow’ movie. Copyright goes to Marvel Entertainment and Disney.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Most people at this point know about the new ‘Black Widow’ movie that is coming out soon after it was pushed back for almost an entire year. To be honest, I wasn’t super thrilled when the announcement for this movie first came out. Did I want it? Yes. But I wanted it years ago. The timing of this coming out now, especially after they fridged Natasha in the last Avengers flick, felt like Marvel was scrambling to have some semblance of the female representation that DC does. When Florence Pugh was brought onto the project, I was admittedly a little less skeptical. I have loved Florence Pugh in so many of her projects, and I am still hoping that I will like her character in this film. But a lot of my skepticism for this film is because I haven’t been the biggest fan of Black Widow as a character. And this entirely has to do with the over sexualization of her character every time Joss Whedon had too much of a hand in her writing. I wrote in depth about the over sexualization of Padme from Star Wars and Black Widow in a previous post if you want to see more of what I said there. But my perception of Black Widow has changed slightly, and that’s entirely to do with the conversation about her character that is preceding this movie. So, in the interest of being up to date, I want to make a continuation of what I previously said about Black Widow.

Scarlett Johansson Interview:

The main thing that I’ve seen change the conversation about Black Widow as a character, is actually Scarlett Johansson herself. In a recent interview, Scarlett Johansson talked at length about the over sexualization of her character over the years. And to see that the woman behind Black Widow was fully aware of it and how this affected her, made me reflect on some of my own opinions. In the interview she starts out referencing ‘Iron Man 2’ and how she was glad to have the job, but she did notice right away how the male characters were talking about her character in the script. Johansson immediately notes that Tony and Happy Hogan talk about Natasha as if she’s a piece of something or a piece of meat. She notes that Tony even says in the movie; “I want some of that.” She then talks about how the dehumanizing language did have an affect on her and by the time ‘Avengers’ came out and she was working with Joss Whedon, she fully knew that her character was over sexualized. Johansson then went on to talk about how playing the character even made her feel guilty at times. And it’s because of the exact same reasons I have mentioned in other posts. Men in the industry try to teach women that any representation is good representation because we see so little of it already. Especially in action films. She noted that this new movie felt like a way to make things right. She essentially felt like she could reclaim the character, and that’s an incredible way to look at things.

Black Widow and Progress:

Looking back, it is incredibly easy to judge and look down on the character of Black Widow because she was the first. The first female superhero to be seen as an equal to male superheroes in a major blockbuster film. And, as it goes with most forms of representation, the first try is generally not the best one. But I think there is always something to be said about the representation that paved the way, regardless of whether or not it was perfect. Because while Joss Whedon was involved with much of Black Widow’s character, it’s important to note that Scarlett Johansson was playing her. While some of the lines were written in a way that absolutely didn’t have women in mind, Johansson did not play Natasha with that specifically in mind. While the scripts focused on giving her sexy fight scenes and having all the men stare at her, Johansson focused intently on delivering good emotional and vulnerable scenes. While I really don’t want to see a female character sexualized like this ever again, it is still important to note that there were hints of what is now great female character development. Like vulnerability and not being stuck as the love interest all the time (until ‘Age of Ultron’). It was a start and we should give her character credit for that. Little girls saw ‘Avengers’ and thought that they could be superheroes too because there was finally a female character in the lineup. And that’s pretty powerful.

The Timing:

I agree with most people when they say that the timing is off. We should have gotten this movie years ago and that’s a given. But I also agree with Scarlett Johansson when she says that they couldn’t have made a vulnerable movie for her character around the time of ‘Avengers’. Disney has just become comfortable with giving female superheroes their own movies. If we had gotten this movie a while ago we would not have had the mindset that people do now. We most certainly wouldn’t have had women behind the scenes. So, while it was messed up that the movie didn’t come out when all of the other male superheroes were getting their own flicks, maybe it’s better that we get something with more accurate representation. It’s definitely worth it for Johansson to have played her character one last time in a way that she massively respects without the outside influence of masses of male scriptwriters and directors.

I have not been shy about my disappointment when it comes to Black Widow, but especially with this new movie I’m looking to go into it with an open mind. While I’m not sure I will ever fully gravitate towards her character, I have an appreciation for her that I didn’t used to. And I don’t blame myself for not having it before. It’s completely natural to get angry when you are told that you should accept representation as it is when it isn’t enough. But it’s also good to acknowledge the good people who were trying to give the best representation that they could while being blocked by Hollywood and majority standards. The work that Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow put in to make female superheroes heard is exponential. And it definitely wasn’t easy for her to do. So while Black Widow doesn’t have to be your favorite character, it’s good to look back at her and realize all that she accomplished. Even if what we’re getting now is better than what she had then.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Marvel: ‘Loki’ Episode 4 Review

Screenshot of Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki from ‘Loki’. Copyright goes to Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Company.

Hey! Hallie here!

Episode four of ‘Loki’ was just released and I have…erm a lot of thoughts. I’m going to forewarn you, I’m a bit angry. And that’s not to say I disliked this episode. There was a lot about this episode to like. But there are several issues with it that, with time, have made me angrier and angrier as I think about them. So this will be the first episode where I’m bringing back my ‘What I Disliked’ section. Yeah. I can’t say much else without spoiling the episode so let’s jump into this. SPOILERS ahead!

What I Liked:

Loki and Mobius: Honestly, this was one of two major saving graces of this episode for me. Loki gets recaptured by the TVA early in this episode, reuniting him with Mobius. This alone made me happy because I, along with most other Loki viewers, missed Mobius a heck of a lot last episode. Mobius is just a comforting presence and his banter with Loki is second to none. Mobius is snarky about the fact that he doesn’t trust Loki after Loki abandoned him to follow Sylvie. But Loki immediately shows how much he cares about Mobius the minute Mobius takes him back to interrogate him. Loki is attempting to talk himself out of his interrogation (Right before he gets thrown in to be kicked in the nuts by Sif a bunch of times), but when Mobius allows him a last trick, Loki tells Mobius that the TVA has been lying to him. No more lies or tricks. A truth that he delivers with such sincerity and concern for Mobius, that Mobius actually pauses. Mobius briefly pulls Loki out of the Sif time loop to make him elaborate. I actually liked the little moment that occurred right when Mobius appeared in the time loop, as well. Mobius knew Loki was ready to talk only after Loki comes to another realization about his own loneliness. The scene was heartbreaking, but it always seems that Loki comes closer to understanding himself when Mobius is around to point things out.

That aside, Loki spends his time in this interrogation lying about his apparent “master plan” in order to protect Sylvie. However, Loki once again becomes very sincerely concerned when he tells Mobius that he’s a variant who was kidnapped by the TVA. He even seems to mourn the life Mobius might have had before his kidnapping. Mobius uses this sudden change from Loki to seek out answers for himself. Which is relatively easy because Ravonna is a terrible liar and already set off warning bells in Mobius’ head when she revealed Hunter C-20 died for no apparent reason. Mobius quickly figures out that Loki is right and returns to rescue him. Within his rescue we learn a few things. Loki tells Mobius that he genuinely views him as a friend. Mobius hints that maybe a jet ski was part of his former life. And finally, when Mobius is “pruned”, we get to see how much Loki has come to care about a human. Loki cries not for another god, but a person of a species he felt was beneath him. Loki is changing. And Mobius is a major reason for that.

Sylvie and Hunter B-15: I was curious as to why Sylvie was being guarded so heavily as opposed to Loki. The both of them seem to pose a similar threat to the TVA. It wasn’t until Ravonna made the very purposeful decision to keep Mobius away from Sylvie’s interrogation that I realized what the problem was. Not only is Sylvie a good fighter, which we also got a good look at in this episode, but she’s evidently used her abilities to unlock the memories of TVA agents before Hunter C-20. Anyone who comes into contact with her is at risk of being “compromised”. And Hunter B-15, who was already taken over by Sylvie back in episode two, has definitely been feeling the effects of Sylvie’s influence. Throughout this episode we get to see Hunter B-15 waver on her loyalty to the TVA because of the things Sylvie’s magic made her see. When she goes in to interrogate Sylvie, she caves and asks Sylvie to completely unlock her memories. It’s emotional to see Hunter B-15 cry over the happy life that was wrongfully taken from her. Especially because Sylvie can also relate to being forced out of a happy life by the TVA. Afterwards, B-15 makes the intelligent move to leave immediately after her memories are unlocked. This decision gives her the ability to stay hidden until she sees that Sylvie and Loki are in trouble. At which point she swoops in to save the day like a badass. While Loki and Mobius were going through their own trauma, it was nice to see Sylvie and Hunter B-15 come together to deal with theirs. These two really stepped up in this episode.

The After Credits Scene: For one thing, Loki and Mobius aren’t dead! It’s pretty clear that Loki wakes up in a place where all of the things the TVA attempted to erase from the timeline have ended up. For another thing, that’s a lot of Lokis! We saw classic Loki, kid Loki, a Loki I’m not completely familiar with that appears to be holding a hammer (Is he worthy?), and alligator Loki! I already love this concept! Bring on the Lokis!

What I Disliked:

Loki and Sylvie: This is going to be a long one, folks. Tell me you didn’t see this coming. You can’t. Because I haven’t seen anyone who actually liked this development. People are calling it self-cest. And they’re completely right. To start, their genetic similarities as a result of, you know, being the same person, make this disturbing no matter which way you look at it. And though I’ve seen a few people attempting to defend this by saying they technically aren’t brother and sister, these similarities made a bunch of us instantly view them as at least something similar to it. You can’t just expect people to go from this line of thought to suddenly thinking that a romantic relationship between these characters is okay. Putting this aside, there are other aspects to this that make me genuinely angry. The first is the interview that came out with the writer and the director detailing why we shouldn’t think this relationship is weird. In it they explain that, in a story of self love, it only makes sense to have Loki fall in love with a version of himself. This sentiment is so incredibly stupid on so many levels I actually had to sit for a while to calm myself down. Self love and romantic love are not the same thing. Ask anyone in the LGBTQ+ community who has spent YEARS trying to grapple with both of these things. Romantic love is an incredibly complicated concept that involves the way you emotionally react to another person. It can also involve your needs or the qualities you value. Self love, on the other hand, is a personal issue. Outside help can, and in many cases should, be sought. But in the end, self love is a personal journey into caring about your own happiness and being proud of your own accomplishments and accepting yourself for the way that you are.

Coming back to Loki and Sylvie, I see some very contradictory statements coming from the series creators. The creators say one second that this relationship isn’t weird because Sylvie is actually quite different from Loki. But then they claim that this relationship is all part of the self love narrative. These two ARE different. Their backgrounds have turned them into very different people. Which means that there is no possible way for Loki to explore his own self love through Sylvie. We’ve seen Loki begin to accept himself for who he is at points in this series, but none of that has anything to do with his empathy for Sylvie. Moving on from this is my biggest issue with this relationship. It’s the bisexual reveal from last episode. Loki is bisexual, which means he can absolutely be in a straight-passing relationship. (He’s also gender-fluid, but he’s still identifying as male currently as the series has refused to explore this further.) But I’m so tired of seeing places like Disney think that it’s ok to praise themselves for one progressive line and then wipe away the part that society finds unacceptable. Yes, it was nice that Loki got to confirm his bisexuality. But did we actually get to see him in a relationship with one of those princes before he nearly confessed his feelings for Sylvie? No. Because Disney feels that the part of bisexuality where you could be in a same-sex relationship is taboo, so they’ll put him in a heteronormative relationship to ignore potential progress. I know there are plenty of bisexual people who feel they’re being erased because they’re in straight-passing relationships, and that isn’t fair. But at the moment, we are severely lacking same-sex relationships onscreen. Marvel has plenty of relationships between men and women. There is no shortage of them. There is absolutely NO representation for same-sex couples. And I stupidly thought ‘Loki’ might change it all. The exploration that has been done into his gender and sexuality in the comics has made him a queer icon to many, and I hoped that would translate over to the show. But no. We’re stuck with one crumb for the LGBTQ+ community while Disney and the director and the writers pat themselves on the back. I’m disappointed in this show.

So those are my thoughts on this episode. A lot of it was a large rant, and I apologize for that. But it all needed to be said. I’m excited to see what’s actually going on with the TVA now that we know the Timekeepers aren’t really pulling the strings. I’m excited to see more of Mobius and Loki’s interactions. I’m excited to see Hunter B-15 continue to kick ass. But today I find myself severely disappointed in this show. My heart hurts for the LGBTQ+ community after what ‘Loki’ chose to do on the last day of Pride. I sincerely wish they had set Loki up with Mobius instead of the grossness they gave us.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop: No Mercy?

Screenshot of Heo Yoorim (Aisha) from the ‘Dun Dun’ MV. Copyright goes to YeHua Entertainment and Everglow.

Hi! It’s Annie!

For those of you who didn’t catch my title reference, that is a reference to the Starship Entertainment show ‘No Mercy’ that formed the group Monsta X. And this is a show I am going to bring up in this post, because I don’t think I’ve seen anything that so clearly shows how idols are treated. Yes, I know that it is a reality television show where much of it is dramatized, but a lot of it isn’t. And the show was called ‘No Mercy’ for a reason. I’ve been edging around this topic for a while because I was unsure of how to approach it with so much material. But now that the way idols are treated was brought back into the limelight because of a situation with ‘Everglow’, I feel like I need to tackle this topic now more than ever. Because we’ve talked about the messed up ways fans and haters have treated idols on this blog, but we haven’t as much talked about the way their companies treat them. So this will be a deep dive on several things, from the Everglow situation this morning to the show ‘No Mercy’, that really show us how idols are treated sometimes.

Aisha and Everglow:

This morning I woke up to Everglow trending pretty much everywhere, which doesn’t happen often. Everglow is still a pretty new group and is still gaining a fandom, so trending on multiple platforms, unfortunately, doesn’t happen for them much yet. I was hoping that it would be something good, but my expectations sunk when I saw that Aisha was trending singularly. Mostly because the last two times a singular member of Everglow started trending, it was because Yiren caught Covid and Aisha got caught up in a bullying scandal. Yiren put out a voice only V-Live that seemed to be innocent in the beginning, but part way through in the background fans could hear what sounded like a man shouting and a woman sounding scared. Most people felt that the woman’s voice was Aisha, but no one really knows for certain. No one really knows for certain what happened at all. And maybe it was nothing, but the way that YeHua Entertainment responded to the fans concern makes it not sound like nothing. YeHua Entertainment assured fans that the sound of the man shouting was a sneeze (what?) and then took down the Live Chat Replay for the video immediately afterwards. I have no idea whether or not it was a sneeze, but this is not looking good for YeHua Entertainment. And I sincerely hope that someone wasn’t yelling like that at Aisha because it really makes me fear for the safety of the girls. Something that was brought up several times in the Twitter discourse was the fact that this isn’t out of character for what we know about how idols are treated. In fact, this is one of the reasons why more and more people have started boycotting bigger companies in this industry in mass.

‘No Mercy’:

I’ve started getting really into Monsta X lately, which I haven’t really been discreet about (sorry), so I decided to watch ‘No Mercy’. All of the episodes are on YouTube and I was actually pretty interested in seeing how they formed. I was, in fact, warned about this show by my Monbebe friend who dragged me into this fandom. She did inform me that the title ‘No Mercy’ was no joke and that the show was intense from what she had seen of it. But with all of the episodes so easily accessible, I really couldn’t help myself. While I started out with the intention of fully watching all ten episodes, I ended up massively skipping through the entire series. And, of course, it had nothing to do with the boys. But I couldn’t stand to see any of them treated that way. And I am definitely also including the trainees who didn’t end up in Monsta X in that statement. People think that some of the judges on American singing shows are harsh (I’m looking at you Simon), but this was an entirely new level. Some of the criticism seemed like it had the intention to humiliate and embarrass them. They were given mixed signals by judges who told them to both view the other contestants as a team while also telling them that they should hate each other. I.M came in more than halfway through the series and had an awful time because nobody could bear to talk to him after everything that had happened. In the short amount I could bring myself to watch, I cried several times because it was tough to see them put in those situations. I honestly can’t imagine what it would have been like to live it. And one of the judges even told Kihyun at one point that her debut was harder so if he found this too difficult then he should just quit. I don’t think whose experience was worse than whose is a justification for how this show treated them or how idols are treated in general. It all has to stop.

BTS and HYBE:

One of the reasons that BigHit formed was because the founder thought the way idols were treated was downright evil. Bang PD wanted to create a company that both gave the idols a say in the songs they created and would consistently treat them like human beings. Many people are convinced that this nurturing environment is one of the reasons BTS became as successful as they are now. I would definitely add that in as a factor to their success. Treating people unkindly does not ensure they will work harder, it just makes them afraid. While BTS still saw some hardships, I do think that many companies should take inspiration from the way BTS is treated by their company.

In general, there is not an excuse to treat someone as less than human. Ever. I understand that training is difficult and it would still be difficult without this treatment, but this treatment doesn’t make it any better. Idols should not be treated as machines to churn out the next big hit for their company. Everyone should always be aware that these people are human. Their fans and their companies. We don’t know what happened with Aisha, but I hope that this reaction from the fans made it clear to companies that the fans won’t stand to see artists treated this way. But I’m glad that it seems like BTS is paving the way for this to get better. With the bigger companies starting to die out, we’re seeing artists being treated better by their companies right off the bat. Part of this is the success of BTS, but part of this is also because fans have stood up to say that we won’t condone this behavior any longer. So, while this is still really upsetting, don’t discount the progress that’s being made either. This isn’t a hopeless cause. Even looking at how Monsta X is now compared to where they started in ‘No Mercy’ is proof that things have improved exponentially for artists. But we aren’t there quite yet.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Book Adaptations: ‘Good Omens’ is Getting a Season 2!

Screenshot of Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley in the ‘Good Omens’ series streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Copyright goes to BBC Studios, Narrativia, The Blank Corporation, and Amazon Studios.

Hey! Hallie here!

Well, this was the last news I was expecting when I woke up this morning. Neil Gaiman has said plenty of times that a season two wasn’t his priority for ‘Good Omens’. After the release of the first season, he was clear that he missed writing books and he wanted to go back to that. And while he had thrown a few ideas around with Terry Pratchett when they discussed creating a sequel to the original book, a sequel was never made. Because of this, Gaiman was understandably hesitant to move forward with the story of Aziraphale and Crowley without his close friend and collaborator. But it seems that Gaiman has decided on a new story for the angel and demon based on his discussions with Pratchett. He’s officially working on season two of the series! We don’t know much about it so far, but let’s go through what we do know.

Terry Pratchett:

The first thing we should talk about is the full letter Neil Gaiman released along with the announcement that season two is on the way. This letter talks a lot about Terry Pratchett, which is good because there are many ‘Good Omens’ fans who are wary of a potential story without his influence. After all, Terry Pratchett was co-writer of the original book and his passing largely affected many. But for those who are worried about a lack of Pratchett’s influence in season two, know that that very much won’t be the case. Neil Gaiman starts out his letter by talking about a convention he and Pratchett attended right after selling ‘Good Omens’ to publishers and before the book was actually published. They both had to share a hotel room because neither had a lot of money at the time, and jet lag caused the both of them to lay awake in their beds for the entirety of their first night. While they lay awake, they planned a potential sequel to ‘Good Omens’. Neil Gaiman noted that the both of them were very satisfied with what they planned that night and had every intention to write it. But their major successes that came right after ‘Good Omens’ gave them both incredibly busy schedules. So busy that they never ended up putting the sequel on paper. However, Neil Gaiman admits in the letter that he’s using those plans now for season two. Some of the plans were already used for season one, such as the appearance of angels like Gabriel. But a lot has remained unused. Meaning there’s plenty to pull from for this upcoming season. On top of all of this, Neil also put in his letter that, when he and Pratchett had discussed making the book a television series, Pratchett had said he wanted the story to continue if the initial story went over well. Not only is Terry Pratchett’s hand in this upcoming season, but his wishes are being honored.

Who’s Involved and What We’ll See:

From what Neil Gaiman has said we know a few things. We know Neil Gaiman is working with John Finnemore, a good friend of his and a comedic writer, to write season two. We know that he will be heading the project with Douglas Mackinnon, who is returning to direct this season. We also know that everyone is incredibly enthusiastic about it. This includes Michael Sheen and David Tennant, who are obviously returning to the series as well. We’re sure to see some new faces and surprises along the way. Possibly sooner rather than later considering the fact that sets are already going up and filming is just around the corner. Neil Gaiman was nice enough to give us a little bit of a synopsis for season two to end off all of this information. According to him we’ll be back in Soho, though time and space will also be explored in the new season. There, a mystery will begin with an angel walking through a Soho street market without any memory of who they are. This angel winds up in Aziraphale’s bookshop. As for the very beginning of this story, we’ll be going back to the very beginning of the universe. And there’s a cardboard box involved. What is there not to be excited about?

What I Hope For:

‘Good Omens’ is a major love of mine. There isn’t much I don’t love about the first season of this show. But there are a few things I’m hoping for. For one, I want to see Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship further explored. With the amount of times those who have worked on the show have admitted that Aziraphale and Crowley do love each other in a romantic way, I want to see that. I’m not saying it isn’t present in season one. It is. But I want it to be more blatant. In other words, I don’t want them to leave season two without fully admitting that Aziraphale and Crowley are part of the LGBTQ+ community. There isn’t any reason for them to be vague about Aziraphale and Crowley’s identities. Representation is important and ‘Good Omens’ has done all but make it official. I’m not asking for anything big. But I don’t want to see queer baiting here. And yes, maybe their genders aren’t exact considering they’re both spiritual beings. But isn’t that even more of a reason to explore LGBTQ+ themes? Along with this, I want to see more female representation. Season one had strong characters like Anathema, Pepper, and even God. But they were still outnumbered amongst the main characters. Just as important is a more diverse cast. There was some diversity in season one, but not nearly enough. There’s so much potential for better representation here.

I’m so excited for the next season of this show! The first season was so incredibly good that I watched it about three times in a row when it was first released. And though I know that the content from the first book was used up in season one, I trust Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s ideas for the continuation of the story. And Michael Sheen and David Tennant are some of my favorite actors of all time. It’s a joy to see them come together for this project once again. I hope the new season addresses the representation it should address and gives us something just as hilariously thoughtful as we’ve come to expect from ‘Good Omens’!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Superheroes: Psyduck

Screenshot close-up capture of Psyduck from ‘Detective Pikachu’. Copyright of The Pokemon Company and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’m going to go a little off the rails today and talk about what was definitely the best part of ‘Detective Pikachu’. Yes, I’m serious (mostly), and nobody can convince me that he wasn’t. I’m not sure if people would count any of the Pokemon as superheroes necessarily, but Psyduck saved me from thinking that this movie was bad. So he’s a hero in my eyes. I just watched ‘Detective Pikachu’ yesterday and, admittedly, I did not grow up watching anything Pokemon related. I know, weird right? I watched a lot more things like ‘Power Rangers’, ‘Winx’, or ‘Sonic X’ and for some reason missed out on this giant cultural phenomenon. I always knew what Pokemon was and I knew some of the characters from things like ‘Super Smash Bros.’, but not much beyond that. My family is, in general, pretty big fans of Ryan Reynolds so we finally caved and decided to watch this movie last night. It was weird. And not because the Pokemon were weird. But because the plot was just strange. So I will be addressing MAJOR SPOILERS. for those of you who haven’t seen the movie and maybe still want to. But I will mostly address these in the way that Psyduck related to it or could have made it better. Because I love Psyduck.

Good Psyduck:

Stressed Psyduck- Psyduck releases what is essentially the force of a bomb from his head when he gets too stressed. Honestly, me too. Because of this, it is important for the characters to make sure that Psyduck is calm throughout the film. This results in his human partner, Lucy, constantly playing spa music in her car in order to keep him from blowing up. And while Psyduck may look cute and cuddly (or confused and bug-eyed), he’s not above threatening others to keep calm. For example, threatening the life of Tim so that Pikachu will massage his flippers. Psyduck is a cold-blooded killer.

Human Partners with Psyduck- The movie attempting to show the audience Pokemon and humans living in harmony is supposed to be through the connection between Tim and Pikachu. But the movie has so much trouble with character development of any sort that it never really develops that bond to something the audience can see well. The good thing about Lucy and Psyduck is that the audience is being shown a relationship that already exists. Because of that, the movie doesn’t need as much development to already show the audience that Lucy and Psyduck have a close bond. They are always together and seem to care for each other immensely. After the entire fiasco where humans take over their Pokemon during the parade, it is clear that Lucy is more concerned about Psyduck than herself. Afterwards she hugs Psyduck immediately and tells him that they should never do that again. Though it is a little odd that an easily stressed Psyduck ended up being partners with a journalist.

Hugging Psyduck- One of the cutest scenes in the movie is Psyduck’s determination to hug Pikachu at the end of it. Pikachu doesn’t seem to like it too much and I really can’t understand. Who wouldn’t want to hug Psyduck? I mean, unless he’s stressed.

Screaming Psyduck- My favorite scene in the movie occurred when they were all escaping the government lab, purely because of Psyduck. I have watched that scene at least twice since I saw the movie last night, just to hear Psyduck’s muffled “Psyduck” before they run out of the facility and then the repeated screams of “Psyduck” as they’re all running away. It’s the funniest scene in the movie, and I will once again not be accepting any criticism at this time.

No Psyduck:

Dad Friends with Psyduck- If you haven’t seen the movie, I’m about to reveal the biggest plot twist in it. You have been warned. When Tim is introduced to Pikachu it’s because Tim is looking for his father and Pikachu is his father’s Pokemon partner. Tim’s father is presumed dead after getting too involved in an investigation and then being involved in a violent car crash. The end of the movie reveals that his father’s Pikachu gave his body for a short time so that the father could survive the car crash. So the father is Ryan Reynolds and detective Pikachu is actually Tim’s father. This has to be one of the weirdest plot twists I’ve seen in a while and not in a good way. The fact that Pikachu was not actually Pikachu for all of this movie was kind of disturbing in itself without the knowledge that he’s also Tim’s dad. Psyduck deserves a Pokemon friend, not just Tim’s dad.

No More Psyduck- The main villain’s motive in this movie is to merge his brain with a Pokemon so that he can walk, because he is paralyzed in his current human state. And this itself as a motive would have been understandable. Still weird, because I find the entire human and Pokemon merging storyline to be disturbing, but still understandable. But it goes beyond that. Instead of treating this new development as a way to cure all human ills, the villain just makes a broad statement about how all humans would be better off as Pokemon. Even though there’s really nothing that leads up to this statement in the story or makes it make any sense. And let’s be honest, Psyduck is far too cute to have his mind overtaken by a human.

No Character Development Except Psyduck- Not one character is focused on over the course of this movie. Tim only gets about one emotional scene throughout it and he’s the main character. The movie really didn’t know if it wanted to focus on the characters or the Pokemon references or their weird convoluted plot, so it didn’t have enough time for any of that. There’s supposed to be a romance between Tim and Lucy that completely gets lost in the plot. There’s barely anything that leads up to Tim declaring that he’s attracted to Lucy. And all of this is even worse when you look at the connection between Tim and Pikachu. Yes Pikachu is cute, but I would have liked to spend a little less time on the cute quips and a little more time on bonding between the two characters. There’s also a character in power that saves the day at the end of the story in a deus ex machina type of way, but he only speaks about one sentence in one scene before he saves everyone. He’s barely even a character. Psyduck feels more developed and all he ever says is his own name. I think Psyduck should have saved everyone at the end, just like he saved this movie.

Long story short, I like Psyduck now. He is truly a superior Pokemon and the source of most of my enjoyment watching this movie. I don’t necessarily recommend this movie as a whole, but I do absolutely recommend Psyduck compilations on Youtube. PSYDUCK!!! (No, I am not ok.)

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: The Problem with Kaidan

Screenshot of Kaidan Alenko from ‘Mass Effect’. Copyright goes to EA and Bioware.

Hey! Hallie here!

Back before ‘Mass Effect: Legendary Edition’ was released, I made a post to celebrate the game. The post detailed my thoughts on the four main romance options that are men. That is, I ranked Jacob, Garrus, Thane, and Kaidan. I, unsurprisingly, ranked Kaidan low on that list. (He would have been last if not for Jacob and his…umm…commitment issues.) But in that post I didn’t quite hit on what exactly frustrated me about Kaidan. So now that the legendary edition has been out for a while, let’s discuss where Kaidan goes wrong.

Mass Effect 1:

This game really suffers from the issue of characters info dumping on you rather than getting you involved in their stories. Because of this, most of your interactions with Kaidan will just be him talking about his backstory. Kaidan’s backstory starts with his mother’s tragic death and his own development of biotics. He glosses over this, though, and speaks mostly about his time in “Brain Camp”, a facility where he learned to use his biotics. Kaidan was taken to the camp at a young age and considers it somewhat miraculous that he survived it due to its brutality. Kaidan was also instantly disliked by the commander sent to teach them, a Turian named Vyrnnus. However, Kaidan also describes a girl named Rahna who he considers the only positive part of his experience there. Kaidan’s main recollection of his time at “Brain Camp” is traumatizing. Rhana attempted to reach for a glass of water without her biotics and, as punishment, had her arm broken by Vyrnnus. Kaidan attempted to protect her but Vyrnnus took the opportunity to punish Kaidan as well. When Vyrnnus took out a knife, Kaidan instinctively defended himself with his abilities and killed Vyrnnus in the process. The act got him removed from the program and Rahna remained too afraid of him to keep in contact. It’s an interesting story and one that makes you sympathetic towards the character. Except you’re half asleep listening to it because he drones on about it for far too long. And with no emotion on top of it. He doesn’t even seem mildly upset that he accidentally killed a guy. Actually, none of his trauma affects him at all. There are very few occasions where he mentions his past again in the following games, and when he does he only uses it to thank Shepard for being there for him. As for this game, what time he doesn’t spend talking about his backstory is spent either advertising the Alliance or talking about what little family he has left in Canada. Which doesn’t give him a lot. At least he isn’t space racist (Looking at you, Ashley).

Mass Effect 2:

This is where most people REALLY start disliking Kaidan. Kaidan isn’t in a lot of this game. Because of his extreme loyalty to the Alliance, he sticks with them even after Shepard is assumed dead. When Shepard finds him on an Alliance mission to a planet being attacked by the horrifying Collectors, he’s initially happy to see Shepard. Until he discovers that Shepard is working for Cerberus. Cerberus is one of the established villains in the first game, so, naturally, Kaidan is suspicious of you. Except he goes off on you for “betraying” him and refuses to listen to any sort of explanation you may have. He even says “you changed” like he spent any sort of time talking to you instead of screaming at you the minute he figured out Cerberus was involved. I’ve seen some people argue that this is actually good characterization because it shows Kaidan won’t always side with Shepard. But it doesn’t make any sense. Kaidan wasn’t the type to jump straight to anger in the first game. And though he is loyal to the Alliance, he is also loyal to Shepard. He would at least show more care for Shepard after finding out they’re alive after years of believing them dead. But this out-of-character interaction makes more sense when you consider that Ashley gets the exact same scene if she survives. Some of Kaidan’s actions align much more nicely to Ashley’s short temper and natural suspicion. Plus, she never doted on Shepard as much as Kaidan did, even if you romanced her. The fact that these completely different characters share most, if not all, of their dialogue in this scene makes for an out-of-character interaction with both of them. But at least Ashley’s attitude in the first game makes it make more sense for her.

Mass Effect 3:

This is where Kaidan completely returns as a major side character. And it’s rough. Kaidan comes back early on in the game and starts off your whole relationship with continuing to be suspicious of your connections to Cerberus. Even though Shepard cut all ties to the group immediately after the events of the second game. After he makes you explain yourself, he apologizes for all of it and claims that he trusted you the entire time. But then he sees a husk, basically a space zombie horrifically stripped of its humanity, and asks if you have become something similar. What the hell, Kaidan? He spends the entire game going between majorly insulting you for joining Cerberus several years ago, and apologizing or swearing his undying loyalty to you. Another good example of this is when he gets himself severely injured for a good chunk of the game. When he wakes up, he talks to you about how much he cares about you. If you’re romancing him, this is where he mentions that he wants to continue your relationship. But afterwards, when you discover that Udina is a traitor, Kaidan threatens to shoot you for going after Udina. Even after the other Councilors, who have a historically terrible track record of trusting Shepard, step aside and admit that Shepard might be right about Udina. Kaidan’s entire story revolves around Shepard. Any character growth for him tends to come from yet another occasion where he returns to Shepard after doubting them. But none of it is ever consistent. When Kaidan’s on your side he’s like a needy puppy. He would follow you everywhere if he could and he can’t stop talking about how amazing you are. But then he turns around and compares you to a space zombie. It would be tiring if he was throwing himself over you for the entirety of all the games, but I’d consider his constant insults flying at you out of nowhere to be even more frustrating.

In theory, Kaidan could have been an amazing character. He has an interesting backstory. He’s a nice guy with a personality you can gravitate to. He’s loyal to the main character, but he goes off to make his own decisions. In most media, the moments where he stands against the hero might even be the most interesting parts of his character. But Kaidan fails with all of it. His backstory has no bearing on his character and takes up all of his dialogue in the first game. In the next games he spends way too much time praising or criticizing you, never sharing his own interests. When he turns against you he does it irrationally and without warning. Some of this definitely has to do with the fact that he shares a storyline, and some dialogue, with Ashley. Their opposite personalities make for some poor characterization for the two of them as individuals. But all of it is inconsistent no matter which way you look at it.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: Imitation Episode 8

Promotional photo of (from left) Lim Nayoung, Kim Minseo, and Jung Jiso. Copyright goes to KBS and Kakao Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Another Friday has passed which means another episode of ‘Imitation’ came out. Yes, I am surprisingly still watching them. I feel like each episode has one moment where it actually tries to focus on the reality of being an idol, but for the most part it all remains the same. As usual, there are always some developments. But they always move at the speed of slow. Anyways, if you’re still here wondering what happens in this idol drama, I am here to deliver the SPOILERS. So, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!!

The Good:

Hyunji- Somehow, Hyunji managed to rise from the absolute rubble that her character development has been in and carve some form of a plot for herself. Even more surprisingly, she had agency in this episode! I know, insane right? In this episode the members of Tea Party find out that they are being sued by their original company for breach of contract which seriously threatens their careers. Hyunji immediately steps up to comfort the other members of her group and put on a brave face. It was actually a really good depiction of the contradiction of feeling horrible but not showing it for the benefit of others. But her struggles were only made worse when Yujin calls her later in this episode to briefly give her sympathy and then ask only about Maha’s well being and not ask about Hyunji or Riah. Even though they were just as much affected by everything. With what we’ve gotten from Hyunji so far, I was absolutely certain that she was going to politely tell him how Maha was and then sulk afterwards. Imagine my surprise when she actually went off on Yujin for calling her and then only asking about Maha. She even interrupted him mid-sentence and then basically told him not to call her anymore. It was well deserved and such a powerful character moment for her. When she cried afterwards it didn’t feel weak, it felt understandable. I mean, how would you feel if someone who was your crush and your friend only seemed to care about you because you were a device to give information about another friend of yours? Seeing Hyunji be brave in this episode in so many ways was amazing. I only hope they can actually keep this character development going.

Fans- The real moment that I was talking about at the beginning of this post actually came from a scene depicting fans of Ryok and Shax. At the beginning of this episode a couple of actors are involved in a scandal that reveals that the two are dating. The show takes the time to show fans of Shax reacting to the news, which is simply them stating that they don’t care. Of course, neither of these actors are involved with Shax so they all repeat the sentiment that it doesn’t matter who these actors are dating. And then when one of them asks what might happen if Ryok was the one in those pictures, they all freak out and agree that Ryok dating would be an exception to that rule. Sadly, there are plenty of fans like this. People who say that they don’t mind who celebrities date, but when it comes to their idols they don’t want to see them dating ever if they aren’t dating them. This act of jealousy and selfishness is awful. They don’t realize that they aren’t allowing these human beings to be human. I was very glad that this show addressed how ridiculous fans like that are.

The Acting- Everyone is great and it only gets better by the episode.

Ji Hak- The manager of Tea Party actually got some pretty good character moments in this episode. Mainly to do with advising the members of several groups and fighting for Tea Party. Some of his plot I do feel takes away from time that should go to more central characters, but I thought this episode knew perfectly well how to utilize this character. His face off with giant corporate conglomerates was punctuated by some pretty cheesy dramatic music, but the point came across well in the end.

The Bad:

Yujin- I love Yunho so much and seeing him play this character is starting to cause me pain. I am at least glad that this episode acknowledges that Yujin is being cruel because of his near obsession with Maha. But none of this is earned. When Yujin is introduced to the audience we see him as a great friend and an over-all kind guy. The way that this show has continued his character development is not that at all. Yujin only seems to be kind to Maha and no one else. I honestly can’t think of one other character that Yujin has shown true kindness to unless it was for the benefit of Maha. And more often than not, he’ll actually be unkind to a character for the supposed benefit of Maha. I don’t know if he’s starting to seem like a cruel character or a character that suffers from being a puppet for Maha, or both. Probably both. Has he even gotten any character development beyond Maha? Not really and not enough. I guess that answers that question. Yujin has fallen so far on my favorites list and it hurts. I’m only hoping that we see true kindness from this character again. Preferably towards someone who isn’t Maha. I don’t mind a flawed character, but so far his only asset has become his only flaw and that does not make for a well rounded character.

Sparkling- They’re here again. Did they do anything in this episode? Nope. Moving on.

Shax- Unfortunately, we barely got anything from anyone in this group that isn’t Ryok. Not even Hyuk. He was only in about two scenes and he got maybe one line per scene. Considering Hyuk is my favorite character now, this definitely put a damper on my watch of this episode.

The Romance- I seriously just can’t get behind it at all. And this episode made everything even more confusing. The way they were acting in this episode, it seemed like they’ve been a couple for months now even though they just got together. And then there were a couple of scenes where Maha would be too shy to kiss Ryok and then you would kind of see that they had just stared dating. But it went back and forth so much that the signals were completely mixed. Ryok, who is an actor, also had a moment this episode where he got jealous of a kiss scene that Maha had to do. That also didn’t make any sense. Their romance feels unearned and they spend so little time in this episode actually together that there’s really no development of it either. By the end of the episode Maha and Ryok find out that pictures have been taken of them that could be leaked and Ryok proposes that the best course of action might be for them to break up. This was supposed to be an emotional moment, but I didn’t feel it because their entire relationship lacks so much development.

The Fans- As much as I love this show for calling out toxic fan behavior, I wish it would do something to highlight the masses of fans who are actually supportive and don’t engage in toxic behavior. Most fandoms actually have pretty close communities involving their idols, and many of these communities are overwhelmingly positive. It would be nice if they took at least one scene in any one of these episodes to highlight non-toxic fans.

Riah- She has no personality anymore other than vaguely angry.

La Lima- She appeared briefly in this episode to support Maha for some reason. Not only was this confusing, but it still didn’t add any reason for her to be in the show.

The Villain- I wish we didn’t have a face for the corporate conglomerates, because let’s be honest, most of the time we don’t in reality. The mustache twirling is really trope-y and feels unrealistic. There are other ways to show fighting against bigger companies without having to resort to a cardboard cutout character.

Reality- The show promised to tackle realistic idol problems, but it’s not doing that well. We maybe get one realistic scene per episode and then the show defaults back to the slow moving romance. I wish the show would emphasize this more. I have a feeling they are having trouble trying to balance the lightheartedness with the realistic views and keep defaulting on lighthearted because it feels safer.

Every episode of this show has at least one moment where you feel like there’s a little bit of hope buried under everything else. But ‘Imitation’ has so much trouble finding its footing that it never has been able to really get going. Really my favorite part of this episode was when Yunho posted the picture of him dancing as a cute little kid before the release of the episode on Twitter. Maybe if they can start focusing on the development they did with Hyunji they can at least save the sub-plot romance. It’s a small thing. I’m definitely trying to lower my expectations at this point. I feel like I’m too far in to give up. I know that there are more idol based dramas coming soon that hopefully will handle this concept a little bit better, including one that’s set to star Hyungwon of Monsta X. We’ll see what I end up watching! But the failings of this show have nothing to do with the acting or ATEEZ or anyone else involved in that way. They’re all great! It’s entirely the writing that’s bad, unfortunately.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie