Blanchechic - Percy Blinders

Reblog or your mom will die in 928 seconds.

I love my mom.

I am risking nothing

I AM SORRY FOLLOWERS, I LOVE MY MOMMY

Will not risk.

sorry followers :(

The Female Gaze in 2521: On Empowered Female Characters and Healthy Masculinity

Y’all I’m so excited to dive into this!

If you’re a kdrama fan, then by now you’ve probably caught on that kdramas often incorporate “the female gaze”. While it’s debated what’s considered the female gaze, we can all conclude that it is different from the omnipresent male gaze in media.

The male gaze describes the visual or aesthetic presentation of women in a way that depicts them as sexual objects, with personalities that tend to center towards men or their fantasies of how women "should" behave. That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but if you watch literally any popular show or movie, you’ll quickly notice the male gaze because it’s woven into the camerawork, the characterization, or body language of the characters on screen. See if you can catch it here.

Not so subtle, right? Kdramas are not free from it, either, but it is worth noting that kdramas do tend to pull an opposing card, namely the female gaze.

This tends to center female characters as being a spectator rather than an object, and typically holding more agency, meaning they lead their lives and choices. The male characters are often characterized as charming, sweet, polite, and romantic.

I see two forms of the female gaze in 2521: first, the empowered female characters and their depiction on screen; second, the portrayal of healthy masculinity in the leading male characters. 

Since this would actually become a literal essay if I tried to encompass every instance or relevant detail, I’m limiting it to just a few observations. But trust me, this show is abundant with many more. If you want to discuss it more, feel free to message me - I’m a nerd for this shit haha

Anyway, leggo~

Let’s start with our empowered protagonists (abbreviated to FC for Female Character from here on)!

Hee Do’s character is a take on the classic “I’m not like other girls” trope but thankfully the writers have spun it into a refreshingly animated and enlivened perspective. She is loud, sometimes adorably obnoxious, a little childish, and passionate. Contrary to the typical loud kdrama FC, she is innocent but not naive. Also contrary to other FCs, she does not seek a love interest. Her main goal is to improve her fencing and transfer to the school where her idol trains.

I like how Yi Jin’s presence in Hee Do’s life lifts her up and helps her accomplish her goals, but he’s not an absolute necessity. This kdrama could very well have orbited around the high school friend group and Hee Do would still succeed. This is pretty poignant, since Yi Jin being there merely enriches her life. She still ultimately has agency over her choices and dreams.

Also, let’s highlight how none of these FC are sexualized, be it their school uniforms, fencing gear, or the beach scene. Yes, Korea is much more conservative with these things, and yes, I think the writers and directors were cognizant of the thin line they were treading with the age gap and Hee Do being a minor for a while. But still! I think it’s worth celebrating and pointing out that they often show her wearing her red tracksuit pants under her skirt while no one else does. 

Seungwan is another FC who shines so well with the female gaze. She’s the one who makes an active effort to call out the abuse of the teachers at her school. She is an active participant in her life - she makes a clear stand that she will no longer tolerate witnessing abuse. Her agency is clear: she’s not backing down, and not stooping down to threats of being expelled.

Instead, she whips a reverse uno card and goes fuck this place, I’m leaving. That’s not to say empowerment comes without vulnerability and emotion. I think that’s what I enjoy so much about FCs done well in kdramas contrary to western media lately, because western media female empowerment these days seems to be “see, I’m a heartless bitch, watch me stand up for my beliefs and not even cry”. So when Seungwan explains the situation to her mom and says she’s sorry and starts crying in her mother’s embrace, it makes her moment of courage to leave and stand for her values that much stronger.

It’s brave because it has a toll. It’s brave because it’s an unfair situation to be put into. Crying about it makes that reality crash down on us much harder. Also, can we celebrate how this drama doesn’t attempt to give us beautiful crying scenes? A lot of male gaze centric media will make even women’s suffering an aesthetic viewing experience. But this? Not at all. We got runny noses, snot, creased eyebrows and sobbing breaths and shaking shoulders. Beauty isn’t the focus. It’s the feeling. 

This feels like a good transition into part 2: healthy masculinity! Because! Let me tell you!! We have plenty of kdramas with men crying, sure. But I’ve never seen performances like this where 1) male crying is filmed in such an intimate way and 2) where the female lead is framed as the dominant comfort - but not an emotionless hero, either.

Let’s talk about Jiwoong’s crying scene on the rooftop when he found out Seungwan was leaving.

The camerawork doesn’t shy away from showing the growing hurt and welling tears in his eyes. She comes over to hug him, swooping her arms over his shoulders even though he’s the taller one. We see him cover his face but not shy away from letting it out. She pats him on the back. It’s refreshing to see a male character cry without him having to throw things or break shit lmao like men can just stand there and cry and allow women to see them like this. 

Transition into Yi Jin’s crying scenes (oh man, Nam Joo Hyuk is my favorite actor for a reason: you can read his face so perfectly without him needing to speak). Yi Jin’s crying scenes are also devoid of being overly dramatic while still encompassing the intensity of his feelings and the weight of the moment. The scene that stands out the most to me is in episode 8 when he’s doing the live reporting via the hotel room but his computer crashes.

The deafening silence hits the audience hard. It’s meant to feel like a slap in the face because we’re meant to sit in his shock for a bit. The shock, denial, anger, and sadness washes over him as the camera centers a closeup of his face. He shakily puts down the phone, gets up, collapses next to the hotel bed, lifts up the sheets, and shouts - and I mean fucking shouts - into the duvet. This happens as the camera pans out so we all go from feeling caught up in his emotional turmoil to feeling the spaciousness of the room around him; how he’s so alone, how he has no one to rely on in this moment.

I fucking held my breath man. Because this felt so intimate. We don't normally see male characters on screen break down like this. And if so, it might be framed in an aesthetic or artistic way or even sexual way, like crying in the shower. This was just...plain hard truth. That shit was intense. Can I just say? Oscar worthy, my dude. 

The second moment that stands out combines the two observations! We get an empowered FC and a representation of healthy masculinity all in one! That’s right peeps, I’m talking the tunnel crying scene.

God, what a performance. Note how the camerawork highlights that he is collapsed and lower than her.

Hee Do is the one holding his face. She’s the one who caresses his tears away. And mind you, even though we’re talking the Very Handsome Baek Yi Jin here, he is still a snotty crying mess. In traditional media, this visual is very much a male-dominant gaze: a helpless woman being saved by a heroic male protagonist in her moment of vulnerability, held in his arms, her tears being wiped away. This scene flipped the script, though. It’s beautiful to see a female character in this role. And again, just like with Seungwan, it’s not to say that she, being the hero in this moment, is devoid of emotion either. No, she cries too. She cries because she sees him, sees his pain. She doesn’t let it eat away at her and let her spiral. It isn’t an overly dramatic moment of hysteria and tears. It’s an acknowledgement: I see you. I understand you. Which is why their romance is all the more special. These are two people who have now seen each other at their worst. And they still choose to be gentle and soft and caring because the world around them is cruel enough.

What are your thoughts? Overall, I keep finding ways to celebrate this kdrama. Be it the writing, the visual directing and color theory, the character development and character arcs…….there’s just nothing quite like it. And I don’t think there will be something like it for a while. Hopefully this sets the new standard.

Love you fam :) Thanks for reading!

Peace out~

Pov: we are sitting together talking about random things, having chai and healing

Rick Riordan’s response to the racism and hatred directed at Leah after she was cast as Annabeth:

“Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase”

“This post is specifically for those who have a problem with the casting of Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase. It’s a shame such posts need to be written, but they do. First, let me be clear I am speaking here only for myself. These thoughts are mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect or represent the opinions of any part of Disney, the TV show, the production team, or the Jeffries family.

The response to the casting of Leah has been overwhelmingly positive and joyous, as it should be. Leah brings so much energy and enthusiasm to this role, so much of Annabeth’s strength. She will be a role model for new generations of girls who will see in her the kind hero they want to be.

If you have a problem with this casting, however, take it up with me. You have no one else to blame. Whatever else you take from this post, we should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong. As strong as Leah is, as much as we have discussed the potential for this kind of reaction and the intense pressure this role will bring, the negative comments she has received online are out of line. They need to stop. Now.

I was quite clear a year ago, when we announced our first open casting, that we would be following Disney’s company policy on nondiscrimination: We are committed to diverse, inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to disability, gender, race and ethnicity, age, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other basis prohibited by law. We did that. The casting process was long, intense, massive and exhaustive.

I have been clear, as the author, that I was looking for the best actors to inhabit and bring to life the personalities of these characters, and that physical appearance was secondary for me. We did that.  We took a year to do this process thoroughly and find the best of the best. This trio is the best. Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase.

Some of you have apparently felt offended or exasperated when your objections are called out online as racist. “But I am not racist,” you say. “It is not racist to want an actor who is accurate to the book’s description of the character!”

Let’s examine that statement.

You are upset/disappointed/frustrated/angry because a Black actor has been cast to play a character who was described as white in the books. “She doesn’t look the way I always imagined.”

You either are not aware, or have dismissed, Leah’s years of hard work honing her craft, her talent, her tenacity, her focus, her screen presence. You refuse to believe her selection could have been based on merit. Without having seen her play the part, you have pre-judged her (pre + judge = prejudice) and decided she must have been hired simply to fill a quota or tick a diversity box. And by the way, these criticisms have come from across the political spectrum, right and left.

You have decided that I couldn’t possibly mean what I have always said: That the true nature of the character lies in their personality. You feel I must have been coerced, brainwashed, bribed, threatened, whatever, or I as a white male author never would have chosen a Black actor for the part of this canonically white girl.

You refuse to believe me, the guy who wrote the books and created these characters, when I say that these actors are perfect for the roles because of the talent they bring and the way they used their auditions to expand, improve and electrify the lines they were given. Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true.

You are judging her appropriateness for this role solely and exclusively on how she looks. She is a Black girl playing someone who was described in the books as white.

Friends, that is racism.

And before you resort to the old kneejerk reaction — “I am not racist!” — let’s examine that statement too.

If I may quote from an excellent recent article in the Boston Globe about Dr. Khama Ennis, who created a program on implicit bias for the Massachusetts Board of Registration for Medicine in Boston: “To say a person doesn’t have bias is to say that person isn’t human. It’s how we navigate the world … based on what we’re taught and our own personal histories.”

Racism/colorism isn’t something we have or don’t have. I have it. You have it. We all do. And not just white people like me. All people. It’s either something we recognize and try to work on, or it’s something we deny. Saying “I am not racist!” is simply declaring that you deny your own biases and refuse to work on them.

The core message of Percy Jackson has always been that difference is strength. There is power in plurality. The things that distinguish us from one another are often our marks of individual greatness. You should never judge someone by how well they fit your preconceived notions. That neurodivergent kid who has failed out of six schools, for instance, may well be the son of Poseidon. Anyone can be a hero.

If you don’t get that, if you’re still upset about the casting of this marvelous trio, then it doesn’t matter how many times you have read the books. You didn’t learn anything from them.

Watch the show or don’t. That’s your call. But this will be an adaptation that I am proud of, and which fully honors the spirit of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, taking the bedtime story I told my son twenty years ago to make him feel better about being neurodivergent, and improving on it so that kids all over the world can continue to see themselves as heroes at Camp Half-Blood.”

(x)

Goth woman in old paintings.

Hoping,praying,manifesting pls they better give them a happy ending

i'm not sure if you're aware that fans have discovered that yijin's stuffs are in heedo's old room, but do you think this is just a hint that they *will* be endgame in the end?

ppl thought that he might've died and gave his belongings to heedo. although that'd be kinda weird bcs shouldnt they be given to his family instead?

honestly i think there's no way this show won't make baekdo endgame... but all the theories and speculations i see on twitter make me anxious. 🥲

another anon said:

Have you seen on Twitter that apparently in Heedo's bedroom in the present timeline her and Yijin's casset players are together? The post I saw if from Twitter user lovebkyjn. I'll try sending a link and see if it works: https://twitter.com/lovebkyjn/status/1506302553545666565?t=OP5zxkuq99eMO6y9v3HVJg&s=19 From another tweet in that thread apparently Heedo also has a tiny skateboard from Yijin's apartment.

thank you to both anons!!! i decided to collate both asks because they refer to the same topic 💕

so, to answer the first question: yes, i’ve seen both posts! in fact i had a little celebratory dance afterwards and went to scream in my bestie’s dms about how it made the endgame all the more likely.

to answer the second question:

as of now, both interpretations of the pictures are equally likely when taken out of context. of course the show can still screw us over, because everything is possible. but i discussed this at length with my friend, and here are some of the observations we came up, including further theories of hee do and yi jin’s future:

as you said, there is little reason for yi jin’s belongings to go to hee do in the event of his death, especially a cassette player, unless she asks for it explicitly. while there is a technical possibility for this to happen, i don’t believe that it would.

the belongings are all collected in hee do’s old room, where we’ve also seen other objects connected to yi jin, such as a telescope and two bicycle toys. this got me thinking: why would hee do have toys connected to yi jin that she brought into her old room as early as her twenties? my theory is that when yi jin and hee do had min chae, she often came to stay in hee do’s old room and be watched by hee do’s mom, which is why they bought min chae the toys and arranged them for her.

the photo yi jin has ended up in an album with hee do’s photos, which i strongly believe proves that the album was made by the two of them.

hee do takes a long time to fall in love with someone. me and my friend were discussing that she could be demisexual, because the only people she’s had a strong emotional bond with are people she knew for a long time: yu rim and yi jin. she’s never had real crushes on people she met briefly, which led us both to believe that it would be very difficult for her to move on in the case of yi jin’s death.

hee do had min chae when she was 26, leaving her only four years from being with yi jin to having a child in the case of him dying when she was 21. given that it took her four years (18 to 21) to even date yi jin as per the premise, it seems unlikely to both me and my friend that hee do would have been able to move on from this loss and fall genuinely in love in time to get married at 25 and have a child at 26.

min chae is the child of a healthy marriage filled with love. she exhibits all the qualities of the “spoiled” only child, including a healthy amount of rebelliousness towards her parents, and none of the burden and sadness that yu rim and yi jin exhibit from having to bear their parents’ burdens too early. this means that hee do did not experience divorce and remarriage, so there’s no way she could be with someone other than yi jin.

so many details of hee do’s present life symbolize yi jin and their relationship. her workshop is called 25, 21, and a name for a lifelong business is always chosen with a positive emotion, because you want that positive energy to fuel you in your daily work. there are five rainbow chairs displayed where she works, items symbolizing or belonging to yi jin in hee do’s old room, and the photo album.

so here’s a quandary: if hee do has moved on from yi jin, why would she surround herself with symbols of him? and if hee do is stuck in the past while yi jin is gone from her life, why would she forget about the beach trip and the photo album, if she idealizes and cherishes the memories of him? none of these assumptions make sense when we take the full picture into account. this leads me and my friend to think that the show is messing with us for fun, that yi jin and hee do are happily married, and that she forgot the beach trip because she has many more memories with him to remember.

let’s take a final look at “sad ending evidence”: jaurim's song twenty five, twenty one as an inspiration for the show. for those unaware, the song is played over the ending of episode two and is based on the singer’s life; in it, she reminisces about her first love, who died when they were young. the point i want to make here is about how writers approach influences and retellings: we always want to change something. when we approach a source text, we never want to replicate it exactly, because we need to keep surprising ourselves and our audience. we want to tell a story different from the story we heard, but with enough elements remaining to remind of the source.

hence, the show constantly plays with our expectations of a sad or happy ending, but its ultimate choice depends on the way it develops the relationship. if yi jin was going to die, we would have seen him and hee do have a long and acknowledged romantic relationship, a happy time that was tragically cut short. but twenty five, twenty one isn’t the journey: it’s the destination. it’s not a golden age we watch the characters be happy in: it’s an event we keep waiting and waiting and waiting for along with them, the moment where they will start the relationship that will warm them for the rest of their lives.

SHE FUCKING HUGGED HIM AND TOOK THE-

WHAT THE FUCK

MAX YOU ARE HEARING FROM MY THERAPIST AND MY LAWYER