Adam Driver On The Set Of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

Do people really not see the appeal of enemies-to-lovers? I keep seeing these ridiculous posts about how Problematic it is that people are shipping people who *gasp* have fought in canon *clutches pearls*. It’s totally fine to not enjoy the trope, but to pretend like it’s some ridiculous new idea that “silly 14 y/o fangirls” have made up and it has no appeal outside of a “bad boy kink” (which is very patronizing and sudetly misogynistic phrase) is extremely disingenuous. ‪Enemies-to-lovers is one of the oldest and most enduring fictional stories of all time, and for good reason. Because many, many people enjoy it for many, many different reasons. I’m going to focus on het enemies-to-lovers and the female gaze because that’s where I see the most controversy happening. Although there certainly is a lot to be said about slash/femslash enemies-to-lovers, especially how it can be used to explore internalized homophobia and the gay experience, and I may make a follow-up post about that.

What baffles me the most is people that accuse enemies-to-lovers of being inherently abusive or abusive when there’s any actual conflict (like, you know, stories have) beyond something boring that no one would write like they stepped on each other’s toes in a movie theater. This extreme purity police attitude shows a lack of any understanding about storytelling and what like...fiction is. But diving even deeper into this claim, enemies-to-lovers is in dynamically the exact opposite of an abusive relationship, and that in of itself is a large part of its appeal for a lot of people. No intimate abuser will announce themselves as your sworn enemy, they will present themselves as everything you have ever wanted and the most perfect partner you could imagine. Instalove, the exact opposite of enemies-to-lovers, is actually the trope that resembles love bombing aka how most abusive relationships start. One of the reasons enemies-to-lovers can be so appealing, especially to women and people who have been in toxic relationships, is because when the enemy becomes your lover - you know they mean it. You know how they behave with their enemies, you know the darkest part of them and you don’t need to worry about what is lurking beneath the surface because you’ve already seen it and battled it and gotten past it.

As far as being misogynistic, enemies-to-lovers is literally a power fantasy for the female gaze. It’s the idea of someone who once opposed you being so enamored by you in your most unfiltered, non-seductive form that they listen to you, see things from your perspective, and ultimately align their strength with yours. Women are told that we need to make ourselves small and inoffensive and perfect to attract men or anyone or anything positive, so of course the idea that someone could become deeply enamored, almost against their will, with you when you are actively fighting them, arguing with them, challenging them etc. that those qualities, that being opinionated and angry and passionate and strong, could be the very thing that attracts them to you is a subversion of that idea. And enemies are equals, for a woman to be considered a worthy adversary to a man (and not by becoming a man to him or a sexual “temptress”) means the woman is being respected as his equal. This is a dynamic entirely based on equality, it relies on both characters being of equal strength, much more so than most romance tropes.

This is not exclusive to the female gaze though, in general it’s a fantasy that many can appreciate. Everyone has insecurities and bad moods, and intimacy is difficult for everyone (to varying degrees). In an enemies-to-lovers ship, the lovers have already seen each other in their most unromantic state. They have seen each other screaming with the rage of battle, have seen each other’s scorn and sneer, have seen each other so intimately that once they enter “lovers” and even “to”, there is nothing new to discover except the good parts. Imagine if you could get into a relationship where you don’t have to worry about what your partner’s hiding or if they will reject you because you always know the worst of each other, have already accepted it, and now get to fall in love discovering only the good parts. It creates a very intimate and intense dynamic.

On the other hand, there’s the appeal from the perceptive of the antagonist. Some people prefer to identify their trauma or pain or insecurities with antagonists rather than protagonists because they don’t see that part of themselves as the hero and/or they don’t want to have to hold that part of themselves up to some pristine standard. Some people want to see the dark part of themselves go full dark and then be loved anyways. The idea that you can always change for the better, that you are always worthy of love no matter how damaged you think you are. The idea that someone bright and good could see the most angry, hurt, ugly part of you and still love you. That is a very hopeful and positive message to a lot of people. I will never understand these types of people’s hateful opposition to redemption and healing, because I truly think that’s one of the most beautiful and powerful messages a story can have when it’s done right. The obsession some people have with punishment and condemnation simply is not healthy or productive.

Also, if people could stop infantalizing women as if we can’t differentiate reality from fiction with our silly girl brains, and also stop demonizing girls/women for exploring their sexuality in fiction by calling every goddamn thing “fetishization” - basically just stop being misogynistic af, yeah that’d be great thanks.

So I realized something last night...

You know the scene at the end of TROS where Ben falls and Rey lowers him down…

You know, this one:

Something has always bugged me about their movements and I finally put my finger on what it is.  They played the clip backwards and possibly sped it up some.

And I can prove it:

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Just think of it...Ben...with FRIENDS.

Bonus:

R.I.P. Game of Thrones 2011-2019

Meowrpheus :3

Edit: I made some extras!

Hey Virgilius. What’re your opinions on the popular SPOP episode Save The Cat and the very cool VLD episode The Black Paladins? Also can I kiss you directly on the mouth??

I’m so glad you asked >:) and yes you may receive a kissy.

SO I have many, many emotions about Save The Cat and The Black Paladins (and catradora/sheith parallels overall) and many, many screenshots to go with it ASDLKJH

Listen, if your best friend who you may or may not be yearning for hasn’t been captured by the leader of a genocidal alien empire leading you to fly across the universe in an ancient-tech alien ship to get them back, and then be forced to fight them while they’re being mind controlled because said leader of genocidal alien empire knows how much you mean to one another is it even really love?

Okok actually infodumping, I’m putting this under a cut because I KNOW it’s gonna get long (spoiler: it did, and I spent hours going over this).

So from that description alone you Probably have an idea of what the fuck is going on for both eps. There’s a lot of similarities, even down to the lines between the characters.

Okok small things, maybe not that big of a deal, right? But they just keep coming.

They both take a route of trying to get the other to give in as to end the pain–

Even the parts where Catra and Shiro break out of the mind control for a bit hurts me.

Shit, man, they even both get electrocuted,,,

And that part when Catra falls to her (presumable) death and Adora jumps after her? Keith chooses to fall with Shiro after realizing he can’t save them both, even if it means dying and risking the safety of the universe.

Both pairs also have their own little things about not giving up on each other (which is also where I have to start bringing up more episodes for this discussion).

Right at the start of season 3 after Shiro’s gone missing and presumed dead, Keith tells the rest of the team that "Shiro is the one person who never gave up on me, I won't give up on him." Later, at the start of season 7, he begs Shiro to stay alive because he can’t bare to lose him again. Meanwhile when Adora is dying, Catra begs her to live and says: "You can't give up. You have never given up on anything in your life. Not even on me." And it’s this love that’s able to give the other the will to survive. As Adora is dying, Catra tells her she loves her, and when Adora survives she tells Catra she loves her too, and they kiss. When Shiro wakes up, he tells Keith that he was dreaming and that he saved him, to which Keith responds telling Shiro “We saved each other.” and he leans in before pulling Shiro into a hug.

It’s also worth noting that before these scenes, Adora is dreaming of a future with Catra while Shiro is dreaming of his past with Keith. It’s during all these flashbacks that we meet Shiro’s ex-boyfriend, Adam, who the producers admitted was meant to parallel Shiro’s relationship with Keith. Where Adam failed to support Shiro and was willing to give up on him, Keith supported him the whole way through.

At some point, Adora did have to give up on Catra – at least in terms of trying to make her change. I don’t think Adora ever doubted that Catra was capable of being good, but I do think she was right to not make it her responsibility to see that through. Either way, the reunion after Catra and Shiro are both revived after their battles are very sweet (and bonus points for Keith and Adora both having the “we’re going home” line during their scenes).

There are other little things too, like how Keith gets Kosmo, a cosmic wolf that can teleport, and Catra gets Melog, a magic cat that responds to her emotions and can turn invisible that I just think are neat.

“All she ever wanted was you.” from the original Save The Cat script and “Your friend desperately wants to see you right now.” in The Blade of Marmora hit me right in the chest every time I think of them. Also the way other characters perceive their relationships and try to use it as a weakness, like how Horde Prime states that Adora means something to Catra, and Haggar points out that Keith’s connection to Shiro is deeper than any of the other paladin’s.

 Anyway, they both mean a fuck-ton to me in terms of representation (even if Voltron’s writing got fucked over in the end). That said, thank you for coming to my TED Talk, I had fun with this KSJDCH I leave you with two of my favorite moments:

This is a crossover AU from one of my favourite movie A Chinese Odyssey, this famous sad ending gets me cry like a baby every time. If you haven’t seen this movie, do please check it out!

The ending scene clip you all can watch here, it’s more painful to me with the theme song.

And once again, please leave a comment+reblog! If you can, support me with a coffee! Love you all oxox!

Further exploration of Captain Octavius as a Davy Jones type figure arrrrrrrr

Click on images for higher res!

Zutara critique but it progressively gets worse

It’s not my thing but I can see the appeal

Personally I don’t get it at all but whatever it’s not gonna ruin my day

It’s not canon tho

But what about poor Aang?

I dunno it’s seems kind of questionable to me

Zuko and Katara would only fight and be miserable together they hate each other

After all what he did Aang earned Katara

Zutara is only liked by girls who are hot for Zuko and use Katara as a self-insert

Zutara is a racist and misogynistic ship

Zuko is an oppressor and colonizer to Katara Note: this does not apply to Sokka and Zukka is a good ship actually

Zutara is a racist and fetishistic ship and anyone who likes it approves of awful heinous misdeeds

Zutara shippers deserve to be *insert awful heinous misdeed* 

Bonus:

AlL wOmEn WhO sHiP zUtArA wIlL hAvE dOoMeD rElAtIoNsHiPs