Mini-Review: Cherry Magic

 

I haven't done a review in a long time so why not with Cherry Magic?

For all that it looks like with the virginity concept front and center, you would think toxic concepts would be all over it. 

I feel I should discuss the history of the ongoing manga. I’m shocked that it’s still ongoing. You would think it’ll end by their wedding but nope. I’m shocked that it’s still ongoing. 

It was originally a Twitter one-shot that was picked up for publishing and was supposed to end when Adachi loses his virginity but extended due to the success of the Jdrama and now it’s just going. Now the story is so beloved that it would up creating a whole new trope for fanfiction. 

The manga is by far the best one obviously. I scoff whenever I see the Thai version get praised as the superior version. Read the damn manga. The Jdrama is influential just for its success and its virality but it stood on its own feet when it had to deal with anime are forced to make things as they go when they don’t have the source material. At least the anime is giving the manga direct attention. 

So if you want to go, read manga first and foremost, and go to Chinese radio drama. then Jdrama, then anime. The Thai version should be your last priority if you can't find a way to watch the 2.5D version aka the musical. At the time of writing, not until people and fans see the play itself, the 2.5D stage play is in a nebulous position. At the very least, we're going to get a proshot which is hilarious to me because Broadways refused to get their proshots out there out of fear of money even though so many film successes have shown that people are willing to buy tickets to see the actual damn play. I know many animanga fans who want to experience a 2.5D musical for real instead of just seeing the proshot. At the least, the 2.5D people knew where the money was. The problem is that the plays unless made for an international audience are only sold in Japan and relatively Asia as a whole. Once I have enough information, I will edit to see what the general fan reactions are and the placement. 

From what I heard from people who was actually crazy enough to get livestream tickets, it’s campy fun. Apparently, this Kurosawa have been pining for six months and their first date went perfectly fine in comparison to their counterparts. Kurosawa of course get love songs to his name ala first date song.  

Ultimately, it’s actually the concept that is a conduit for a character-driven story. The only remaining one who has not popped his cherry is Tsuge in the manga. Cherry Magic is just an artifact and is used as magic realism for character development. And it's not like it's hurting what is in the end relationship hurdles of a committed gay relationship. 

Adachi, a bitter (because let’s be honest, his assumptions and judgments about others are very bitter and toxic) 30-year-old virgin, found he had telepathic powers and quite accidentally found out his most popular coworker’s deep crush on him going on a year or seven years depending on the adaptation. 

Adachi’s boring life was very eventful as these powers gave him the courage to speak up and take up space. Even after he lost his powers, a point of the series was his character development. I really like the edge of the original Adachi. Snarky and an ass, in the beginning, he’s brutal. No other adaptation came close to that. The Thai version of Adachi is the worst, being the stereotypical BL uke with nothing much at all. What was changed did little favors. We see Adachi grow in confidence and even take the initiative several times canonically with his relationship with Kurosawa both romantically and sexually. Fuck, their first time together was a result of Adachi kissing Kurosawa first out of passionate love he’s finally communicating in words. Adachi even denied sex when he saw Kurosawa having problems of his refusal to rely on others at work. Where was the bite in the Thai Adachi? It’s the same way that I feel anime Eiji didn’t have enough teeth for him in comparison to his flawed manga original self in Banana Fish. Is it bad that I want teeth for characters? I’m grateful BF got an anime adaptation because anime is the promo for the manga and what BF fought so hard for to get their name out there. It’s just I want the biting depths that might not even be called good. 

An otherwise invisible introverted guy who prefers not to talk back but in his head turned into a quiet steely man. He still has his self-esteem issues and sometimes fails to speak up but he’s not a pushover anymore. 

Kurosawa is hilariously unhinged. Outward placid, his thoughts can run racy and absolutely normal. Godoka, I love how unhinged he is. Even before he becomes friends with his love interest, his imagination goes wild. That imagination did not tone down upon marriage because marriage made it worse. Even when Adachi doesn’t know the exact thoughts, he can tell what kind of unhinged thoughts his insane placid husband is thinking. If he had to deal with the fantasies and whatever gifts he had for Adachi, he knew just how insane Kurosawa would go. The gap moe is also a factor too. Kurosawa is genuinely in love but for all of his obsession, he’s a sweetie who wants Adachi to experience everything. 

Kurosawa does want himself to be the man for Adachi but he seems willing to acquiesce if it comes to women for Adachi as long as he makes sure there are no advances. He’s otherwise a gentleman even when there are chances to sneak a full-on mouth kiss. Considering he’s been pining for so long, Kurosawa probably believed even after Adachi made it clear he doesn’t exactly hate it that Adachi sees him as a friend. He confessed, not expecting a reciprocation, only as a way to finally get over him. For as long as he knew him, Adachi had never shown interest in men so it’s pretty obvious it would shock him of the reciprocity. 

Kurosawa wants to know everything about Adachi. His virtues and his flaws are equally ensnaring to him. 

Each iteration often characterizes the jdrama first because that’s the popular version that utterly overshadows the original piece. The Chinese radio drama is the closest I can get to the unhinged Kurosawa and snarky ass Adachi. We do have to give the jdrama thanks for helping the manga not end shortly but we really need to give the original manga its flowers. 

Still, regardless of adaptation, all were made of love. The Thai version never even picked up the manga or even the original jdrama, probably watched the trailer and that’s it. I want to be kind to it but it just didn’t display anything that I like about the original in the first place. I have my misgivings for the weaker adaptations but I do like the better parts of the Thai iteration such as the localization (house, transport to work, etc) which is only up to a point, unfortunately. But the Thai version was made of love regardless of quality. 

I really like the jdrama fleshing out the side characters more due to its slower pacing. The jdrama might not done well when branching on its own stuff well that isn’t the side characters except Minato but it’s adequate. While the original Fujisaki inhabits the Yaoi fangirl shipper, the jdrama iteration is her own fleshed-out character who is firmly AroAce. 

The friendships Adachi has been fleshed out beyond just Rakakou and a little bit of Fujisaki. It’s about the relationships Adachi makes beyond just his romance. The point is to live life and there is nothing wrong with experiencing all of that in their quarter-life. 

I’ve been drawn to protagonists in their late twenties to thirties lately because they show there is nothing wrong with experiencing the life you supposedly have at a young age and don’t carry it into the quarter life. The story of ORV is ultimately about love written with love. Any kind of love is written with romance being ambiguous. ORV isn’t BL but the ambiguity of it as well as the queer subtext seems almost text. It got to the point that the queer subtext was outright erased on the ebook version. 

As someone who has trouble socializing but wants to reach out to the rest of the world, Cherry Magic and ORV and their themes are always comforting that life is still going for me and there is nothing wrong with experiencing love of all kinds at this age. 

People have written Cherry Magic off both in the BL and at large in general due to the title alone and what they feel is a dime a dozen. 

BL has so much denigration and is under fire even though the topic of discussion is more nuanced than that a blanket statement the entire genre is entirely rape. Not to mention, there is always a popular mxm ship in every single fandom 

If Cherry Magic retold the story so many times including a fucking musical version, there has to be something special to Cherry Magic, don't you think? More than just being a relatively mature shounen-ai at best? There has to be something special that created a fanfic trope. 

I don't think dismissing it alone when fans are willing to experience the story over and over again. 

I believe the character development, that the story is well past the main character in the main romance losing his virginity and thus his powers, and that it's about the love of all sorts and the building of relationships to experience the world is what made Cherry Magic a standout in the crowd. 

Yes, these things exist in other BLs too. Whatever Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, language there is for BL, it is still BL. And in BL, you must stand out lest there wouldn't be adaptations in other mediums. However, Cherry Magic isn't even the most popular thing ever even the Jdrama had done a lot for the manga but it's still not even some of the most popular danmeis' level of popularity. Sure they are translated and have a big fanbase but whereas MDZS is a deconstruction of xianxia with BL, Cherry Magic is essentially a slice of life BL that explores love in all its forms as well as the hurdles of a committed relationship that does deal with the societal homophobia. 

There are many different BLs including affectionate parodies. Like any other romance, there are many different kinds of romances that tackle all kinds of things. Cherry Magic's magic is its gentleness in depicting the love of all kinds and that no matter what the brain thinks those who care for you do care for you. 

The BL and the LGBT stories that do stick out in the crowd deserve to have eyes on them, the ones that are good anyway. 

At the moment, I’m in deep with Blue Flag and Gambare Nakamara. 

The likes of Emilia Perez, a supposedly LGBT story that does not showcase any topical subjects meaningfully, failed hard in their performative activism and was safe enough for elites to get behind. Oh, so the song is about political corruption even though the movie never acknowledged that Rita is colluding with corrupt figureheads nor was the subject of the song ever brought up before the song. That’s not even the worst thing regarding the writing. If anything, that’s a minor footnote to the list of misdeeds. The movie was already rotten to the core but to know just how putrid it was through each rot in the lead-up to the Oscars 

The Death Note US live-action is just horrid because when the original Japanese series criticize the Japanese justice system, this one doesn't do shit about the American justice system and how it impacts the BIPOC community. Just nope. L being black could be a thing to connect the dots from there but nope. Of course not. The thing for the guys behind this adaptation is not the themes or even attempting to emulate the cat-and-mouse play in a good way, it's about the imagery of Kira the cult, and the grandeur of the death. No fun for the cast and crew will ever wipe away the loss of potential. I can't even enjoy that much when everything else was horrendously written so flat. 

That's the process I feel with the worst of performative LGBT media that are hailed as legendary when it's not. For every Moonlight or I Saw the TV Glow, there is always an Emilia Perez or Girl. 

While the story is officially a BL, there are LGBT themes present. The author supports gay marriage in Japan. 

I’m happy that it exists happily. The series itself is not as groundbreaking as YOI and Utena; or in the mainstream where there definitely be more thought put into it like FMA. However, not all art is supposed to be high art to be enjoyed. There is a heart there with a power of connection that allowed its staying power in so many iterations. It’s powerful enough to get a fanfic trope. The last I remember was Seven Days. 

Transformers One (and the Wild Robot)

 

This isn't a review or anything like that. I could say this is a fun post, more than anything else. 

Speaking of the movie itself, it's not anything groundbreaking but it does its job being a prequel taking a lot of inspiration throughout history. Considering that it's the anniversary, the movie does celebrate that. 

On an aside note, due to the fact that the movie is an origins story, one of the many, it's a foregone conclusion on what we knows how it's going to go: Optimus and Megatron's friendship will shatter and it will lead to millions of years of civil war that unintentionally brought the war to Earth for its resources. How the war will end depends but it's often at Optimus' death to restore Cybertron to the livable world.

Maybe this iteration won't happen but Optimus could probably pass down the Matrix with Primus' issuing the coronation of the newest Prime to lead not a war but a peaceful war where there is no more civil war. 

Transformers as a whole is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The movie shows why the franchise wouldn't have survived this long because as the franchise says, more than meets the eye. 

The movie is a gateway for newcomers, as the movie itself takes inspiration from its predecessors to create its own continuity. 

For new fans, each piece of media is its own universe, so you can pick and choose which one. Please note that each piece of media takes inspiration from each other, so there are things that are originators, so keep that in mind. Each new piece of Transformers media will always influence new future media. Whatever new lore material that somehow makes sense would carry over. 

The lore by itself and its continuous transformations across the decades of influence is pretty much why Transformers have their 40th anniversary. 

In sheer contrast, Winx Club for all its years doesn't seem to have the same staying power as each iteration since doesn't do much to build upon the other. I mean they try but they are poorly thought out in terms of fashion alone if that's any indication of the poor thought process. 

Even Scooby-Doo, bumpy road aside in the recent decade, has some showing of why it has staying power and does build upon each other. 

The ones that survive this long surely built on top of each other. 

TF1 will definitely implement new ideas in future media soon enough. I don't know which, but I can guess. 

The fandom itself has multiple continuities or mashups into a consistent universe of elements they like across the franchise. I have seen them pick one universe and cherry-pick whatever they like in other media. 

For example, this Orion Pax would've definitely been an archivist had he had his t-cog and we see that in this Orion with his love for history and education in general. 

While I enjoyed Orion as an archivist (and I know others who enjoyed that he's essentially a librarian), there are others that he's still higher on the food chain, mostly because he's Alpha Trion's protege or has an in with the council. 

These jobs are still interesting to explore but to have Orion go back to his roots on the bottom of the food chain or at least a laborer job that has a passion for learning and history will do the job better in understanding. 

I have seen Megatron typically placed at the lowest rung with the miner coming from the IDW and the gladiator from the Aligned. The TF1 continuity did have the concept of gladiator D-16 as a side job hence his fighting capability (just like this Orion has a passion for history) but only alluded to it. 

Also I see a lot of Megop newbies as well as just newbies in general who want to do things correctly all for their doomed yaoi ship. 

Yeah, I've been there. I dove into the fandom one time I was just in a Transformers mood. I say I’m not particularly too deep into Transformers but TFWiki will always remain on top of everything and I wholly recommend it to any newcomer. The snarky tone is entertaining. 

I am at least that Orion Pax, the past version of Optimus Prime, is now somewhat known to the wider public at least as well as D-16. 

Poor marketing aside, Transformers One’s audience is specifically aimed at the Pixar and DreamWorks crowd. The initial poor trailers outright stated what kind of audience they are aiming at, even if it seems like Illumination’s audience if we go by that generously. 

The director used to work at Pixar for the love of Arceus. They have an audience in mind even if the marketing team was so piss poor at their jobs or Hasbro just didn't care even though there are plans for a trilogy from the creative team. 

Transformers have always aimed at kids whereas the transmedia franchise is aimed at teens and young adults and even long-time fans. I doubt kids are reading the novels. 

Again, we wouldn't have fandom without adult fans who have time in their schedule to tell stories they want to tell and fanart. 

Transformers would have survived this long by building onto each other and understanding where the maturity lies. 

Heck, from how they are building on to each other, there are deep cuts. 

Deep cuts don't necessarily mean that it'll be good. Clumsily put-together messes like Disney's Wish are so poor that they degrade the overall final movie. The deep cuts there if there are even any that can hold up to scrutiny just make it clear that they aren't building their own identity. 

Each consecutive Transformers series in each medium it has ever been in has always been unique from one another. The references can range from light to deep but it's reflective of how Transformers will keep on building on each other to make each continuity their own. 

Fuck, Transformers even ones that are so kid-friendly are by far more mature than Power Rangers of the past decade who went back to their roots to their detriment. Instead of understanding which part of great, Power Rangers just went full 90s without the substance of the later arcs of MMPR, simply season 1 and that's it and even the better part of said season is still relegated to second best to not at all in terms of writing. 

Yeah, my disappointment with the Neo-Saban era and onward is still pretty much there. While stuff slightly got better in later seasons, they still aren't displaying the level of maturity that later PR seasons displayed and heck even later MMPR. It's as if season 1 is the only one that mattered to them without taking into consideration what made it work. Just in tiny bits. 

The Wild Robot demonstrates that animation is a medium. A medium that isn't designated entirely for kids. 

While Oscars are slowly getting better, it's by no means perfect as animated features have no chance outside of music, and in the era of remakes, we are not getting any better. We really have to wait till Disney runs out of things to remake for them to even consider making new fairy tale adaptations 

Godoka, since John Powell is returning for the live-action HTTYD, I wonder how he will expand the magnificent soundtrack. 

At this point, the HTTYD remake was the last straw for people who didn't even want live-action remakes. 

Considering that I know just how bad the first ORV live-action will go even with the plans of having a series of movies for it, I'll take what I can get so my favorite book of recent years gets the respect that it deserves and sits beside the danmei. Honestly, a bad adaptation of ORV will bring some flavor considering what ORV as a whole is. It’s one of the books I’m desperate to own in print but for now, I’ll wait to see it on bookshelves so I can physically grab it and buy it at the register, holding it in awe as I walk out. I think I would be holding back tears if one of my fave pieces of literature is finally in my possession. Admittedly, a part of it was reading the English summary so I’m putting it off till it’s in stores. The feeling of serotonin I receive whenever I have something I love in my hands is just a hit. You can imagine once pin mail came in, the same feeling of excitement and joy came through every time. My ORV collection is so slow-going but that's the case for all my collections really. Unlike most pin collectors I see, I'm way too picky and cautious with my money so I often research and don't give away my money willy-nilly. Heck, I don't even follow over 1000 accounts at this point. I didn’t even follow one apparent scammer assuming another identity because the art I saw on their account just doesn’t jive with me. I don't know whether that is good because I've been so stingy by comparison that I haven't been scammed by the pin community's biggest scammers and those who just couldn't keep up the business aspect. 

Hey, I haven’t bought anything from Nakamapin or Hunterflowerpin, but at least I know they're reliable. Nakamapin had been cutting back on effects and now seemed to be better, considering the larger pins they have are still priced less than any aftermarket 3.5-inch pop pin. 

I prefer to buy my books physically as the hit I get from having them is the best. Seriously, the best hit I received was when I received my Dragonair Mamo AX exclusive. I wish I could buy Mamobot in person. 

Like I knew about the HTTYD books way before I knew Dreamworks picked up the rights for it. My dad randomly selected it from audiobooks as in my childhood my brother and I were lulled to sleep via audio books and classical music hence our appreciation for music scores and audiobooks. We have a great appreciation for the books read aloud to us. I listened to the OST of the first movie before seeing it in the theatre. I read the entire book series well before the release of the first movie. 

Animation and therefore kids media have strived and grown to be mature. Kids are passive about any romance, focusing cool aspects like sparkles and monsters. Do you really think my little niece care about the awful writing of Frozen? Heck no but she loves the sparkles. My toddler nephew loves cars but I don’t think he cares about the mediocrity of Pixar Cars. 

I love my morally ambiguous gray protagonists. It’s why I can stand the gray protagonists whereas Western audiences seem to want pure heroes. Well, forgive me for wanting feral KDJ and government assassin Hawks. Listen, love Hiccup and all those pure-hearted heroes but gray morality is my preference, given my shipping tendencies that Tokyo Babylon started. 

The reading comprehension is so goddamn low with the reading of Megatron and the absolutely terrible reading of politics. Sure, go with pathos when mecha anime displays more political know-how as they are anti-war through and through. Even Code Geass as part of the genre is obstinately anti-war. People think that’s it’s pro-war but it’s really not. VLD is pro-war and I can prove that. 

People have the right to their emotions but being ruled by emotions and that emotions are the only thing that matters in this current world is not good. Megatron has the right to his anger but he has no right when the due process of Sentinel’s trial where a civilization needs to have their say, not a single terrorist. Fuck, the whole city has no idea of their beloved benevolent leader’s treachery. Megatron was going to kill them all and rule tyrannously more so than their previous dictator. 

I know reading comprehension is so goddamn low that people seem to think Glinda is the bad one without taking into consideration that she’s flawed and grew from her mistakes just like her foil. It’s the same thing with Optimus, saying that he’s a hypocrite for exiling Megatron and the High Guard when expressively the latter were planning a hostile takeover for a new dictatorship with their philosophy and definite vindictive executions. 

Godoka, I feel my brain breaks at the intentional almost bad-faith reading (given these people, it’s genuine) instead of considering things like flaws and character development. Heck, even noted moments of dialogue and shown in detail seemed to be outright missed. 

Forgive me for just knowing reading comprehension is so goddamn poor that these readings are somehow valid even though the text and basic media literacy are on the floor. 

Apparently, there are no such things as flaws and character development, positive and negative. Apparently, these are now indicators that they’re the true villains or the cause of future conflict even though what we’d just seen indicated the other party is just as much to blame or simply not comprehending the larger picture or nuance. 

Stories have always been a thing for me. I made it a point that for my ORV collection, it’s story based and featuring every character. It hurts to see so bad reading comprehension. It’s one thing to have hot takes that aren’t really controversial and is a matter of opinion but it’s another to disregard stories and their nuance. 

While Princess Tutu is in my top three favorite magical girls anime with Shugo Chara at 4th, it was a threefer hit with stories, fairy tales, and ballet. How can I not love it?! Having great meta writing with stories is a good way to shoot your way to the top or near the top of my favorite pieces of literature. How else did ORV win that honor so quickly? 

Madoka is nice and all but it's nowhere near my top faves. I like it well enough that I'm open to a Godoka pin. I use Godoka's name so often that I might as well get a merch of her, preferably with Godoka with her bow in a dynamic action. 

Even the most cliched storms that Dubois and Sanders think of are full of rhymes like the OG Star Wars before Disney got their grubby hands on it. If people like the ST, whatever. I ignore them and stay on my lane, brushing off Reylo and their individual characters especially the white boy neo-Nazi like flies they are. At least they don’t induce brain breakage like EndHawks I avoid like the plague and ignore to oblivion. You really don’t see me wasting any energy on ship hate because seriously, seeing ship hate makes me roll my eyes. I really don't like Endhawks and that's putting it lightly but you don't see me invade the spaces of those shippers. You would see me scrub any trace of the ship in my fandom curation than spew out hate. 

It's understandable why TOne wasn't in the nominations at all. With its poor marketing and doubtful Oscar hopeful nomination, no way will that happen. With Hasbro going all about Transformers and Power Rangers, I don’t know what Power Rangers is doing right now in its indefinite hiatus with the auction of so many props and costumes. 

Unlike Wild Robot’s Oscar race hopeful, there’s no chance in hell that’s happening even with a crew that has Pixar experience with TOne. Hasbro as a whole didn’t think they’d profit from it and let it fail. I mean the shows are doing fine. The movies are not. TOne’s performance was their own and Hasbro didn’t give a shit. 

I don't know at this point that TOne will get the trilogy going when Hasbro themselves are backing out of all film projects. 

For the sake of all animation and film in general, look at the lesser-known titles. Fuck, even with anime gaining ground, only Ghibli films ever made the nominations. I don't even think the Look Back crew even attempted to go for a nomination hopeful at all. 

It is funny looking at the K-pop industry's desperate attempts to get into any of the Western Big 3 music award shows. I don't think Blackpink was even placed in any other categories than just TSA and more than just the K-pop-created categories designed entirely to other them since the removal of the category no less whereas BTS was able to be nominated in other categories at the BBMAs. 

There were groups who were there just to be on the carpet and quickly left the premises because they weren’t even nominated. There are groups like the aforementioned Blackpink never asked to make their TV debut or to perform their hit singles continuously as an established act on the Western music scene. BP performed only at the VMAs, a fucking attendance award show. 

Oh, I’m sure the groups who were nominated and knew they would lose basically watch BTS just win in categories they’ll never get in and perform to a loud ecstatic crowd at these award shows. We don’t know their thoughts but they have to know they’ll never win or get into the categories BTS was able to get. They’ll never perform there too. 

I know BTS opened the doors to a Grammy nomination but I repeat that they haven’t been able to get any of the Big 3 western music awards that would make them stick out from the pack other than their popular name and still arrogant enough to submit. BTS has 5 Grammy nominations yet BP has none. 

Oh sure, Rose was able to get Apt out there but would it be enough to sustain? 

The Western music scene and especially the award shows are notoriously racist. There are so many people of color who were nominated for a Grammy but never able to win. Why does the K-pop industry think they can even achieve a Grammy nod? It was an uphill battle for BTS to even achieve a stage of their own on Grammy much less their own nominations. These groups are fighting an uphill battle surely but almost they never realize they would need to get the awards BTS were at least nominated in to get a peek of recognition from the voting base or even get the numbers to get there. 

Fuck, when BTS was first nominated for Best Duo/Group, ARMY wasn’t expecting the win because it just seemed so unlikely. Heck, the nomination by itself was already a win. BTS and ARMY are graceful losers. They would’ve accepted the loss had any other person won. 

ARMY knew the likelihood of winning a Grammy which is nil but they knew the Butter stage was very important. They are always conservative in their predictions and always forewarned they might not even win.

BP’s MMAs won’t matter here to get the awards BTS were in. 

Even the 4th gen groups who appreciate BTS opening the doors for them to get a Grammy nomination are deluded in thinking they can even do that one easily. Listen TXT, you’re a good group but you haven’t won shit in the American music awards. You are at least able to get the Kpop categories that I repeat are designed to other you but you are never to get into the best group with your sunbaes. 

Ya haven’t scored even just below the BB100 in American charts. I know that, unlike others, you are aware that as long as BTS is there, they'll win the Daesang. 

However, those who haven't even won a single Korean award much less a music show award are outright delusional about aiming for Billboard. I want those guys to be realistic and just focus on building up their fanbase to get even a single music show award. That’s manageable, right?! If BTS doesn’t release something, there’ll be a chance you win something. Ya already know that your labels are pushing to not fight against BTS on their release dates as I know that infamous one where they piled on TXT whereas BTS dominated November but still releases on Fridays. BTS can still get enough points to get the simple music show award but you guys can't. Just get a single music show award and stay and grow musically rather than focus on the hardest music market to break into even if the barrier have been broken. Just because BTS was able to achieve that and a following to boot, does not mean you can't achieve at least a sizeable fandom. Just get enough points to score a win with the full tracking week rather than BTS who can still compete with the western artists. They need Friday releases to even chart at all while BTS scored a top 10 in their first Friday release. That is not the same when DNA definitely would’ve scored higher on the charts had it released Friday as well. BTS sees a chance of success in the west with the Friday releases. The other groups follow suit because of course the stagnancy of the industry follows. 

I roll my eyes whenever I see that ‘K-pop groups never needed Western validation!’ from K-pop stans. This is why your group will never ever achieve higher than BTS. ARMY never wanted that, just to make it clear to the Western music industry that BTS is here to stay and their music deserves analysis and a place in music history that the racist Western music industry cannot ignore, snub sure but cannot ignore their presence. Oh, the general public loves BTS but not the Western music industry which decides who gets to be big. They can light up landmarks in purple and have a festival during their concerts. 

Western validation yet these groups are desperate to get a Western music award. SB19 wanted the damn TSA award yet BBMAs scraped it due to BTS winning again breaking Justin Beiber’s record which they refuse to see. GMA turned into another music show without the weekly award yet these groups never even achieved a high debut on the Hot 100 without collabs. BP never achieved a top 10 on their own with a Korean song without collabs. 

All their attempts to be BTS because that's the difference in the end, isn't it? They want to be BTS and have that level of success. I roll my eyes at this argument because once again, it shows a lack of understanding towards the American music market. Do not expect BTS’ popularity for your groups even BP. BTS will be a towering presence but to say BTS closed the way is to demean simply because they ain’t achieving BTS’ popularity and better yet numbers that they should help for their groups but no. They are already hating on BTS for achieving these groundbreaking things, why the fuck are they defeatists on something they could help their groups with? 

America knows Adele, Justin Bieber, and Ed Sheeran but they do not know the fuck whoever this popular in France they have no idea whose this guy is. This is the American music market. It's not K-pop where one gets into one group and falls in love with an entire industry. 

Of fucking course K-pop overall isn't that popular. It's only a slice. Sure there might be hits now and then with BTS being the only consistent one with once a blue moon hit like Rose's Apt but K-pop, while still globally recognized for the most part, is still just a slice of popularity. BTS is the popular one, not K-pop. BTS gives rise to K-pop but BTS is big despite it. 

The K-pop groups and their big agencies want BTS' popularity when they should've just carved out their identity and made themselves stand out. 

American artists have individuality or at least a facade of one. 

BTS has individuality even when they aren't a powerhouse. Fuck, nobody said Taylor Swift is a good singer but she has individuality in her writing that created fans. Musicians promote their music first whenever they can, not promote their features more than themselves. K-pop groups, fuck even BP, are guilty of being manufactured because they don't control their music and attempt to promote themselves as the ones who paved the way. 

That and the overinflation of their numbers that the K-pop industry and stans tried to pump up are utterly baseless because they ain’t performing in stadiums and hitting the top 10s. Mediaplay and hyping up BB200 and BB100 when they couldn’t even out chart BTS’ first Friday release that debuted at no. I0, Fake Love. When I say BTS has the numbers to compete with Western artists, I and the ARMYs do mean that. 

This is BTS' success just as it's Adele and One Direction's success in the West. America knows them but they don't recognize every K-pop group ever because that's not American music. Don't make me laugh harder at these stupid K-pop stans because of their ignorance. If their ignorance hasn't already been shown via stupid accusations of plagiarism and copyright. I don't care much about the music industry and I feel I know more than them through basic common sense. 

BTS already dealt with so much BS with double standards of both industries they upended. BTS didn't even attempt to promote themselves during the Wings era until their next album with the LY albums. BTS arrived due to their fans and growing demand. 

BTS didn't even want an exemption from military enlistment. I know they would've done it anyway even early into their career. Yes, Jin took the extension but he was always going to go into the military anyway. It's the big companies who wanted the exemption, not BTS. BTS is always proud of their country and culture and displays it in their songs and performances. They were always going to go despite people wanting to take advantage of the BTS Law for their own gains. 

There's a difference between them and YJH. YJH is an orphan who needs to take care of his little sister who is basically a minor so he has to be exempted because Yoo Mia doesn't have any other relatives to take care of her and even if YJH sends money from the military, it won't be enough. He’s a famous gamer but unlike Faker, he is utterly exempted due to his orphan status with parents who died before he became a tween, and taking care of his sister who is a minor, and not because of whatever achievements he did for the nation. I’m sure the nation as grateful as they are for KimCom just do not want to deal with their terrorist who they can’t even arrest and don’t want to think of giving this strong dude more ammo. Luckily, YJH just wants to be a househusband who would give his star all the love he deserves. 

KDJ went to the military because even though he was orphaned essentially with his mom in jail to take the fall for his kill, he still lives with relatives and eventually lives in his own apartment somewhere else because he's not welcomed by his other relatives after high school graduation. 

BTS are able-bodied and are proud of their Korean heritage. They will serve their country. 

The BTS Law only affects BTS and the Korean people who don't know any better look down on them for even thinking of exemption when they're able-bodied despite BTS not even wanting that. It was pushed upon them by others who wanted them to continue succeeding for the country's pride and bigger companies' selfish means for their own groups. 

BTS didn't attempt to break into the other music industries because it wasn't ever the plan. Heck, their social media promotion was their only way of getting themselves out there while remaining true to themselves. 

K-pop stans with their deeply embedded biases against BTS failed to see and vastly underestimated BTS’ success in the US. They said their groups don’t want Western validation yet try to demean BTS for their achievements just because they aren’t winning it. They fail to see ARMY’s perspective and just how hard they have to work to even get into the main categories with an unwelcoming Western industry that hates them for breaking their facade. Oh, the Western music industry is still hard to break into but make no question ARMY research into the music industry so that they can make damn sure BTS get what they deserve showing it’s a facade of power and racism. ARMY have been aware of how unfair it is to BIPOC artists in the West already but BTS with its powerful fandom made it clear just how bad it really is for foreign artists when they made it in the West. 

DNA would’ve achieved a higher debut had it been released on a Friday, just like Fake Love did. One year after its US debut with a Korean song with no collaboration, Blackpink will never achieve that. BP can pump up that they made it to the Top 40, but they never reached a single top 10. 

Oh, K-pop stans are fine with buying albums but longevity is a nope. When BTS songs freefalled to send a message, BTS’ numbers can level with it to achieve the higher main categories as they never made it on the year-end charts. BTS has more than just longevity as a band, they have longevity to stay as they were not forced by the Western industry to not ignore them but still snub them. The other groups including BP do not have the numbers to compete. 

Again, only a slice of the music is part of Hallyu. No media play will ever make up for the numbers that backed up BTS. No numbers have ever backed up BP. Fuck, if it weren’t for the numbers, BTS wouldn’t be able to attend. 

At least with Kdramas as the apolitical and idealistic version of what Korea is still dramas and don’t have to worry about playing to industry rules. At least with K-beauty products don’t have to worry about anything but what can be sold. K-movies even with their criticism towards Korean culture are still pretty great. I think that it’s ironic that things that criticize society are often the things that stick out. Even BTS stuck their heads out for the LGBT community. 

Again for my sake, even though a terrible adaptation of ORV will have some flavor given everything about ORV, it's still some kind of flavor. Listen, ORV is one of my favorite pieces of literature ever and I would love to see it given the dignity that it deserves. Even without a trailer, the live-action adaptation seems to be coming off a bad start with the casting and the movie poster, especially the movie poster. The trailer for it was just bad… WTF is with those guns and not with the right characters?? No ORV fans are looking forward to this even those who want to be cautiously optimistic. 

Again there is some flavor with abysmal ORV adaptation given ORV is ORV. I am still gonna watch it out of duty to see it through. There might be fodder to be used. I have already seen ideas thrown around. It's already hilarious to see the memes. Why swords on the poster but guns in the trailer when fans know those characters do not use guns in those scenarios? I’m still not looking forward to it because a character been aged up when that wasn’t the point of her character and worse yet I saw shipping already. 

If BCD returning was enough of a warning of just how insufferable ARMY will be upon the reunion in June, then I don't know what is. I didn't know about his return considering I can't enter Twitter again without an account. Even in the main pin Discord server that I go to as my main hub, the few ARMYs in there already accepted their fates of a bloodbath upon their concert in 2025. 

Final Review: Titanic 1997

Ah, Titanic, the infamous maritime disaster. By far the most recognizable but not the deadliest tragedy in the world. 

The stories of the Titanic are well-known even to those who just have the gist. The debated last song, the breakup theories, interest in the passengers, and so on remain in discussion. 

The films cemented the foundation of a disaster film. The 1997 film was the culmination of all the Titanic films that came before it including references to dialogue.

Titanic is a fascinating topic as it’s a tragic accident that didn’t deserve its fate. For everything done wrong, there are still things done right to save as many lives as possible. 

The tragedy is so well-known a permanent exhibit was set up in a fake pyramid in Las Vegas. On an aside note, the recreation of the famous scenes from the movie takes me out of the otherwise somber exhibit. I understand why but it’s hard. Compared to other Titanic museums (looking at you, Branson), it’s so small out of the entire exhibit whereas Branson has events in the museum that are just so why??? A valentines and business dinner??? Sure why not give the Titanic the Christmas decor she never had but why??? On the outside seeing a replica of the infamous iceberg scraping scene was alarming and should be a red flag because everyone knows the Titanic but to see it like that just for attraction's sake is just alarming. Just imagine the Word Trade Center with the airplane inches from the diorama/attraction. 

We are so divorced from the Titanic tragedy regardless it wasn’t the deadliest disaster in history that people can take a museum attracting attention by building a replica of the infamous iceberg scraping scene outside of films and television. It’s best that any scenes of the iceberg are in that medium than the horrid attraction for a museum just for attention. 

You know it's bad when the musical version is not the animated version which largely used minimal sets and either hydraulics or actually setting it on a lake. 

Everyone knows the scene, it just… we’re craving a visual Titanic museum. Titanic Honor and Glory were trying to be this had it not been under the ambitions and arrogance of its former leader and face. I don’t think AAA studios want to touch it. 

I’m digressing. 

The 1997 film is the culmination of everything that came before it, a melodramatic love story and all. Seriously, if you just look at the Titanic on film, a star-crossed love story is not out of place. Fuck, fictional love stories were told, it’s just in 1997 one featured one of third and first class as the lovers. So anyone decrying the love story and melodrama is just not educated on the film history of the Titanic. 

I mean one of the maids fell in love with a steward in the real-life Titanic. Telling a romance story on the Titanic is not new. 

Titanic's overall story even with all the myths associated with it made it a Greek myth or a fable or a morality play. Ignoring the complexity of humanity, archetypes were seemingly at play during the voyage and the sinking. 

For better or worse, the Titanic fascination will remain just based on so many factors. 

And well, time to discuss them as objectively as possible with the movie.

Plot

Now everyone knows the plot. The first half is dedicated to the love story of Rose and Jack, the second half is dedicated to the sinking, and the present-day scenes are largely about Brock Lovett. 

The romance and the characters are often criticized for their simplicity and cliches but it doesn't mean that it's bad. Really, for all the thin plot and characters that aren't that explored outside of Satine Moulin Rouge had been criticized, it's a tongue-in-cheek melodrama of Bollywood influence. 

I was a child when I first saw the movie on VHS as my cousin originally had it on the shelf. I was far more interested in the ship and only rewatched the movie as a teen with a more appreciation of what the romance and characters are supposed to represent. 

Honestly, the criticism of the melodrama is just stupid. The Titanic disaster have been romanticized long before Cameron came around. The idea of a touted unsinkable ship sinking on her maiden voyage with the captain intending to retire is melodrama and that’s not taking the band’s final number and class stratification and inequality into consideration. Yeah, it’s melodrama but on the other hand, it was a melodramatic historical event hence its romanticism.  

Seriously, did you see the 1953 version?

Please when we got a real-life story of a husband kidnapping his two sons in a bitter custody battle from his wife and dying in the sinking. His body was recovered! The reason I even knew about this was that I researched. 

If people just know the inherent melodrama, a star-crossed lovers' story is nothing. 

The romance itself had been derided and nowadays I see a small minority saying that Cal is the better choice because of money and protection. 

...Buddy, Cal at the end of the story may have been more regretful when he tried to search for Rose but recall how much Cal acted Rose was a possession than a woman of her own right. He literally tried to kill Jack for fuck's sake, someone as I will point out again represents the loved ones lost. 

Cal does not offer Rose the happiness she desired, the need she sees in falling in love with someone who is indeed penniless. 

Seriously, just because Jack does not offer much does not mean he is the bad choice in the love triangle that is obviously going to have Jack be chosen. Jack is literally the Manic Pixie Dream Guy in this situation with his flaws being in the periphery and the memory messing things up. I’m pretty sure Jack knows he doesn’t offer much to a rich girl who had everything but he sees the fire in her. 

If we also think in the same black and white of Christian and the Duke in Moulin Rouge, then the Duke by that same thought process should be the better choice. 

Fuck, the musical version of the romance seemed to be written by the Duke as the Duke is seemingly the better choice while Christian will try to kill himself just so Satine can say she loves him. Unlike the movie, Satine slept with him and the Duke basically wanted her as his wife lest he will not invest whereas the movie threatened the pull out of the investment after Satine refused to sleep with him and he tried to rape her. Satine had the choice to break up lest the Duke kills Christian or be the Duke's wife and remain her short life as a trophy wife with all the luxury she can imagine in exchange for her loved ones' safety in the new Moulin Rouge. The Duke had implied to be violent in business matters before but that was apparently getting out of agreements rather than forcing into one. Here, the Duke gave her agency on top of them sleeping together. In the musical, Christian represents the romantic love that Satine feels she cannot return as the Moulin Rouge had been her home longer than the movie Satine's. The star-crossed lovers' aspect of a prostitute who cannot fall in love and a penniless writer is still there just done badly in the musical version. In the stage musical, Satine kept her TB a secret from her loved ones but in the movie, Satine didn’t know until the day of her death because movie Satine was the golden goose of the money squeezing her talents out of just as Christian wasn’t informed because he’s the writer to make the play as successful as they can. 

Whereas Christian humiliated and throws the profession that he knows Satine only used to keep herself off the streets but still rather leave her life than do anything else than that whereas the Duke actively tried to kill Christian regardless of Satine breaking up with Christian and even after he didn't bother further investing to keep Satine's memory alive. 

It was only because Satine saw that Christian, the man who loves her for her, was about to leave her life forever and she does want him, willing to die for love. In the last few minutes of her life, she was happy with her love. To Satine, Christian represents freedom from her cage; she did really want to run away with him before she learned she was gonna die that night and that she had to break his heart to save him from the Duke. She could choose to see Christian gone from her life or she would die shortly after the play alone and she chose love. The only choice she could make at the end of her short life. 

The musical still had the break his heart to save him trope but that was quickly dented by Christian threatening to kill himself just so Satine can say she does love him. No Orpheus and Eurydice here, folks, no walking away and turning back. Just straight-up abusive behavior from the man she loves. Again if you thought Christian was bad in the movie, the musical just made him even worse than our supposed villain.

It's even right there in the visuals with her costume in the Tango de Roxanne scene where she was given that expensive necklace that stranded her to the Duke's mercy. 

The Heart of the Ocean was as much as a prison chain to Rose as that necklace was to Satine. 

Rose never wanted to be with Cal who had that outburst when they were in their private promenade. She obviously never wanted to be with Cal who while never cartoony emphasized the negative traits of the first class on the Titanic disaster. Come on the bribing and using a child to save his own life, are negative traits associated with the men who supposedly survive that way, particularly the first-class men. 

I’m honestly thinking that people thinking that Cal is the better choice forget about Rose’s character development, why the story was written the way it is, and the sheer symbolism of certain characters fitting roles in the tragedy. By saying Cal is the better choice because of money and protection, it denied Jack’s sacrifice for Rose and his role as the loved one lost for Rose in the tragedy where so many lost their loved ones. It also denied that Jack should be fully aware of his class and let Rose choose including that kiss. Rose knew he was a bohemian so his records are lost. Really, did these people forget the scene where Rose try to say she loves Cal in front of Jack and that Jack likes the fire in her scenes or what?

The historical accuracy outside of the ship itself has been broadly noted. I'm not picky about history despite being a history lover. 

Honestly, I was so fascinated with the ship that I didn't care the lights were everywhere in order to let the viewers and crew see the ship while shooting. The blue shading when the lights were turned off permanently 

The ship itself was so beautiful with its framing and sweeping shots to indicate the grandiose beauty. With the exception of some parts of the boat including second class which we don’t see outside of a few real historical people (Thomas Byles and the band), there is no denying we are appreciating the ship. The way we were able to get into the mindset that tragedy was so far away as we witness so much hope and optimism from the beginning of the boarding and the days in a freaking flashback and just hoping the ship will dodge the iceberg even though we know from the present day scenes where we look back at the science and physics (how the boat sinks, Lovett commenting the ship was too big to turn) is a testament. That is a flashback, we were able to push the ship’s inevitable sinking to the back as we want to see these characters get their happy ending. 

Even though we know they aren’t.

The second half, the disaster film sequence, was just so great. 

Normally, other disaster films focus on the disaster entombing the world but not the people. The rare clips I do see of disaster films that don't focus on the apocalypse were the people running away with all the panic and fear permeating everything. 

Titanic's approach was just so humanist. We do not just see Jack, Rose, and the other fictional characters' experiences in the overall terror of the dark desperate night. We see the historical characters and the minor characters who don't even follow but their panic and fear pervade the screen. Even as a child, I was frightened for everyone even though I know that only a few will come out of the ship alive. It was enough for me to not seek out other disaster movies until high school because that's how bad Titanic scared yet fascinated me. 

I remember watching The Day After Tomorrow in my high school science class. While the teacher was showing it just to show the science albeit far more escalated than normal that it would've been in real life, I distinctly remember forgetting a group of people that left one of the main cast of character groups because they didn't listen and suffered a horrid icy death as the other group of main cast stumbled across their dead bodies. It was that bad because the disaster did not see the deaths of those people as we do see the deaths or even the implied deaths of those on the Titanic. At this point, I know the ship carried people with dreams even as a kid and to see the dreams destroyed alongside the people’s desperate terror it feels human that other disaster movies failed to capture. Even to this day, I actively seek out the sinking scenes and then the grandeur. I feel the people and the event in the movie more than any other disaster movie I have seen. I feel the fear and terror than I do other disaster flicks that focused primarily on the disasters than the actual people trying to escape death. 

Coupled with the grand choral music, we see the deaths of people screaming and running in terror as the water rise and floods and the ship breaks. In the movie when we saw the Grand Staircase before the dome imploded, the Honor and Glory Crowning Time clock was 2:15 aka only five minutes of Titanic's life were left. Godoka and then the floods that destroyed the skylight dome and the hallway was just as tragically magnificent as the scene where the sweeping shot was used to show the souls on deck running for the stern. 

We know it was a cold desperate night full of panic and fear. As much as people try to paint that there are people who bravely remained on board, there are those who were trapped. I want to emphasize that, there were trapped people who want to get off the death ship. 

Cameron wanted to show the disaster was exactly that. There’s no gentle pool of water enveloping the gentlemen. It was a flood of water destroying everything on its path. 

I’m pretty sure the men left behind died horrible deaths. It’s not a gentle rush. Funnels fell and the ship broke. How was it elegant? Oh I'm sure the men who dressed up in their best romanticized the inevitable but it didn't have to be 

If you know the basic percentages of death via class, you know the fictional third-class passengers will die. Trudy, unfortunately, has to die because she’s a connection with Rose’s old life. Because Ruth obviously won't die in the sinking given only four 1st class women die and it fits her character to be on the lifeboat with Molly Brown, it just made sense. Likewise, Cal would prove himself a coward with his attempted bribe only to barely survive when he climbed onto a lifeboat safely somehow with a child. 

As a kid, I cared more for the ship and did feel half of the intended impact as we saw the sinking from so many angles. However, with the love story and other fictional characters we have grown to care about, the impact is even stronger growing up. The love story enhanced the disaster as the disaster enhanced the love story. 

I also have to talk about the ending. People said that Rose is selfish for not selling the diamond when selling the damn thing would say that she's alive to her mom and ex-fiance both of which she did not want in her life. Her ex-fiance filed an accidental insurance fraud but it's still the point that Cal's family will notice the diamond circulating around in the US after being known it was lost to the sea. How did the diamond come to the land when the Titanic sank to the deepest darkest depths of the ocean? 

Also, Rose valued her life with her husband and kids. She lived her life how she knew Jack would've wanted her to have. Jack fucking gave her his blessing to marry another man prior to his death. Jack knew he isn't likely to survive as made evident in the text. 

Jack was the Manic Pixie Dream Jack and does not deserve his fate. Jack changed her life just as the most traumatic memory of her young life happened. She made peace with her tragedy and Jack which she passed on the memory of to her granddaughter, Brock Lovett, and his crew. 

Whether or not she died at the end should be a matter of discussion. Just because she seemingly reunited with Jack and all those who died in the disaster does not mean she neglected her husband and children for a fling. A 'fling' that changed her life. 

Characters

Rose is the only fully realized character in this whole movie. The historical people are from popular legends whereas the original fictional characters are archetypes but still have a fleeting gleam of life to them. 

The other fictional characters marred the most from Rose’s memory. They are usually archetypes we see by now including the Manic Pixie Dream Jack. Minor nitpicks like Jack’s origins can be seen as Rose not knowing enough or her memory failing her. 

Jack at the end of the day was a free spirit who didn’t have a character arc. He’s a static character meant to represent those loved ones lost in the disaster. He’s likable hence why people reacted so strongly to his death. 

On an aside note, I was just frustrated by Leonardo Dicaprio’s need to get out of being a teen girl’s star as if it damaged his career. Yeah, go out and take manly man jobs including getting mauled by a bear. Thank god for people still in the industry making you half of a love story equation. Just look at MovieBob’s review. Honestly, I’m just frustrated that women’s interests are denigrated that the lead actor went so far because he wanted to get a serious job yet still highlighted the serious problem of seeing feminine interests as lesser and invalidating to the overall film field. Really, Baz Luhrmann who made unrepentant romances never gave him pause? He never gave a shit that his films get mixed responses, why should he care ultimately women are more likely to like him because of his focus on romance?

Ruth’s actor attempted to make Ruth more three-dimensional but Cameron refused. To his credit, Cameron didn’t want a cartoonish villain so he rid the scene of Fabrizio being bludgeoned to death by Cal from one of the lifeboats to Fabrizio being one of the victims of the funnel’s collapse. 

Just as Jack represented those loved ones lost to those who had been saved, Cora represented the children lost. 

The minor fictional characters originally had larger roles such as Helga being Rose’s foil by being the dutiful daughter who stayed with her parents till death and fell in love with someone in the same class but nope. Cameron was apparently adamant the movie ends with the two hours and forty minutes spent exactly in the past.

The historical characters need much more attention and it’s hit or miss. 

On the one hand, EJ Smith did stay on the ship and died. On the other hand, he was just so complacent and did little to help the situation. He tried his best but he knew that over a thousand will die.

The regulations were what truly killed Titanic in the end. Smith and the officers did the usual speeding because that was the usual thing to get the hell out of the way of hazards; the Marconi operators are from the company, not the officers hence the priority of private messages over warnings; the lifeboats wasn't filled to capacity for multiple factors such as unwillingness to head out into the cold, unease about the lifeboats when they had already been tested in Belfast, and the whole ferry thing; 

I am of two minds about Ismay. While it is true that his scapegoating was cruelly spearheaded by an enemy of his and didn't deserve the level of infamy as he did help women and children escape, he also still did not go down with the ship, only there at the right time on the right place and rightfully feared for his life. We still cannot forget that hundreds of White Star employees were still on board including Ismay's personal staff died a dreadful death. Why did so many employees were left to die a horrible watery death when their rich boss lived? 

Even though Thomas Andrews has been martyred, we know that he had been helping people until the last time he was with EJ Smith. 

I have so many mixed feelings about EJ Smith. I don't want to speak ill of a captain who did go down with the ship with passengers stranded with no way out and no help to come. He did cancel a lifeboat drill on the day of the sinking which would've greatly helped the evacuation. 

The evacuation was botched when they should've evacuated as soon as possible. 

The Murdoch thing had already been said. The fact he was seemingly villainized was just not good, accepting Cal and accidentally killing Tommy was just not good. However, there is a possibility he could have committed suicide because he, Wilde, or any other officer had a gun. We can still say that he saved the most lives while saying that he could've still committed suicide due to the stress. Lightoller saw Murdoch crushed by the first funnel though so really who knows who really killed himself that night? 

I would be hard-pressed not to mention Titanic itself is a character. We first saw her as a gray ghost then transitioned into the beautiful ship brought to life by a proud crew and passengers in awe of her grandeur. We knew the ship sunk, heck, it's in the present-day scenes where we learn the forensic science of how she will sink. But we were taken to many of her decks including sweeping shots and even down below in the boilers in her voyage and her eventual death. Now the sweeping shots that used to show her majesty are now used to helplessly watch the people running in terror from the rising waters. 

When she sank, we are not only watching the sinking of the Ship of Dreams but also the death of the dreams of many. There was so much hope and optimism imbued into her that nobody on the damn ship in 1912 thought her to lead them to their deaths. In the final ten minutes of her life that we saw onscreen at least (the entire flashback takes place in the time it takes Titanic to sink), we see Titanic as a dying beast taking down 1500 lives with her to the depths of the cold North Atlantic. 

Even though Rose initially saw Titanic as a prison, she came to see Titanic as a place where she met Jack and a place she dreamt often as the Ship of Dreams in all its glory. That was how survivors eventually came to see Titanic even though her twin sister was right there. Yeah, she got a Parisian cafe later on but Olympic was effectively still her twin. Titanic just got changes that Brittanic later got and would've gotten a longer career than her eldest sister had it not been for the mine. 

By the end of the movie where we see the submersibles going up leaving her in the dark alone and that final shot before she slowly regained her former glory in the dream/heaven, Titanic did not deserve her final fate to be alone at the bottom of the cold Atlantic. 

Themes

Making every day count for you never knowing when your day is your last is the driving theme. 

That pairs well with Titanic’s own stories of sacrifice, heroism, and cowardice. The stories of the band playing till the last thirty minutes, the priests staying to comfort, the engineers and stokers staying till near the last, Thomas Andrews and Smith helping the passengers till the last few minutes, Murdoch and Moody trying to get the collapsible lifeboat on the still intact davit but running out of time but washed away and Murdoch ended up crushed by the funnel, and other stories. 

Rose was trapped in her life and only began living in her time with Jack. She made a promise to Jack and lived a fulfilling life and died an old lady of natural causes in her warm bed. That is how Jack always wanted her to live her life and fully support her in finding someone else to start a family. He knew he was gonna die and knew he wouldn't keep his side of the promise to her but the fact that he met her and sacrificed himself for her safety is more than enough for him in his short life. 

The ship was full of promises of hope for a better future. The sinking was so unthinkable for these people because just days before they could reach New York, they died tragically. 

It's understandable why Jack has to die. This was a tragedy. Not only are people divorced from the tragedy generations apart who cannot comprehend that this was the Edwardian 9/11, everyone who had survived lost someone on that ship. To empathize with those survivors, we have to get into the headspace therefore Jack has to die. Jack symbolized the many loved ones who were lost. 

Killing characters off for the themes is not unusual. MHA's Twice was killed off for the themes too as well as the deaths in Persona 3 and The Great Gatsby. Not that these characters can't be saved in fanfiction. Go off and save them from the hands of the themes while still keeping the themes intact. 

It’s essential to the story Jack must die. In fanworks, save him if you can because there are alternate ways than just attempting to switch. It made no sense for the period and the situation for Jack to think he has a chance of living but he can save a loved one.

Costumes/Visuals

The fashion deservedly won the Oscar. Rose's intro suit was on point. Her dresses remained icons today. 

Course, it’s not always perfect as Cameron admitted to taking liberties with the fashion to tell a story. For example, Rose walks out of the cafe after rebelling without a hat despite the conduct where women wouldn’t go out without a hat. I understand the story standpoint as well as the historical standpoint.

Cameron placed lighting fixtures for both the cameras, actors, and the audience to see what was going on including places where the lights didn’t exist. The makeup was far more pronounced as at that time lipstick was worn by prostitutes and other women like actors I think, don’t take my word for it. 

I do have to give credit to James Cameron. For more or less accuracy to how the ship would've been built, the sets became a control test in how we understand our understanding of the disaster. 

The most obvious (ie the first-class dining saloon was all set up for breakfast the next morning. Of course when that room floods, everything will float) to the surprising (ie the Grand Staircase breaking away from a steel-reinforced structure, pinning stuntpeople unexpectedly, reinforcing the theory that Grand Staircase simply broke away from being submerged as the dome imploded and caused a suction. Archibald Gracie was the one who was the closest to the Grand Staircase as he said suction and gave that testimony with many survivors noticing the amount of wood that came to the surface. Perhaps it broke away piece by piece but regardless we know that the entire staircase didn't come out of the dome implosion, just pieces.) is a goldmine for researchers. Historians were surprised to learn such details that gave volume to theories thrown around but now the possibility it did happen was all the more conceivable. 

Even though the davits are built to specificities, the lifeboats aren't and even then those lifeboats are just as precarious that no wonder passengers who weren't aware of the danger won't go on there, not helped they want to stay in their warm cabins when their warm cabins won't be warm much longer. It gave insight to historians into the mindset of the passengers who refused to get into safety. 

In fact, as they play out the events like one lifeboat nearly toppling another while seamen frantically cut the ropes, I bet it was like reliving what happened. 

Even though the sinking and the breakup were based on the nineties' understanding of the disaster, it turned out that in the end, it was only half right and half wrong. To this day, we likely won't know what happened to the ship. Not just the listing and the direction of the stern in its final moments but the band's final number and the final places where many famous victims were at the time of their deaths. While it was agreed upon that Thomas Andrews was in the First Class Smoking room, evidence has proven that he stayed trying to help people before he jumped with Edward Smith. 

Outside of liberties with history and using the popular legends to tell the story where we know Rose didn't see happen, the science was fascinating to learn as it gives a glimpse into the sinking. 

We aren't likely to know the truth of how the ship sank and all of that sort. We really don't know as we only have only a third of the story. The rest are dead and nobody can speak to the dead. 

While A Night to Remember is best for its accurate portrayal of the sinking with this movie coming a close second, this movie is best for accurately portraying the ship and its interiors because Titanic itself is a character. 

Overall

It’s a well-made movie. It deserved its accolades. The flaws are heavy but it doesn’t detract that much as we can see the intention why certain foils are cut from the final piece. It's in the end Rose's story and memory of a traumatic event. 

Romance epics aren’t a thing. Not just because feminine interests are trashed even more so when romances that get big and make lots of money are seen as not true filmmaking, and other movies that followed cliches of romances are disregarded. 

While I don't think this movie is anything bad, a modernization of A Night to Remember with all the known survivor accounts that can at least align where they once stood and not have Lightoller be the protagonist who did the duties that his fellow crew did. Just a thought, yeah, because at the same time knowing that we will never know what truly happened that night, the details that we do know should've been the elevation. Also keep the replica that was destined to sink and break up, keep that and use it as a museum. 

While I really don't like Julian Fellowes' Titanic 2012, the only good thing that came out of the whole mess was a survivor's perspective from the last ten minutes of Titanic's life. It's far more accurate as from far away, the breakup occurred at a much lower angle and the stern still sank upward. Even though it's horribly written with Downton Abbey rejects and dereliction of duties, the sinking sequence from a survivor's perspective from the water and onto a capsized lifeboat is the best thing. 

Ah, Julian Fellowes, what an upper-class twit. His classism and that the gentry liked the servants and vice versa even though the maltreatment was historical evidence and his Shakespeare comment can only be understood by Cambridge. Never mind that in America, Romeo and Juliet are taught in the high school curriculum and much of the language is much closer to our language with so much of our language coming from him (the words had dwindled because it's because Shakespeare heard the way women speak at the time and utilized the language for his plays). 

Honestly, I don't know who is worse. James Cameron colonized his own fictional world when his colleagues literally created something alien in both music and fauna and not something heard from Oklahoma to South Dakota and not analogs of our animals or Julian Fellowes, an elitist twit who is unwilling to see the servants won't like the aristocrats and likewise, aristocrats cared more about themselves even in the last gasps of the aristocracy.  

*sighs* It comes to this. It was so unexpected that somehow Titanic claimed 5 more lives with the Titan submersible. 

On one hand, it’s hard to feel pity for billionaires who have so little oversight on the safety precautions that the Titanic - the Titanic, infamous for the disastrous dominoes of disaster in which after the disaster inquiries about the safety at sea were at its utmost discussion - was basically spit in the face of. 

On the other hand, the 19-year-old didn’t deserve that. The wife who was the descendant of the Strauss couple didn't deserve that. The loved ones did not deserve that. 

However, my point of contention was how the Titan submersible destruction spit on the face of the Titanic disaster. That just grinds my gears of the arrogance of the rich to flout safety while in the past, Titanic did what they always did while not considering the worst possible thing that could happen to them as they botch the evacuation. There is a damn good reason why the Titanic myths exist. 

The Titan really spat on its face with its name and its flouting of safety. Its name, the fact there was nothing about it that could be considered safe, the prices to pay, its construction… 

It’s not a repeat of history but more so a flouting of history. Titanic was built with safety and comfort in mind while so many conditions drove the ship to its grave because the worst possible outcome fatefully killed the beautiful ship and her passengers. In fact, the Olympic class truly was strong, just that Titanic simply didn’t have high and attached bulkheads that killed it. That’s one of the very few flaws, not the damn fire or poor steel or poor shipbuilding. Titan was not built with safety in mind hence its implosion. 

Unlike Titanic, there were no inquiries but like Titanic, more attention to the 1% took attention away from the poor immigrants as seen with the Greek ship disaster with the immigrants drowning while the Coast Guard did not bother for an illegal ship. 

There should be rescue for the illegal ships too as well as saving lives because Titanic’s legacy should be reduced to this. The prevalence of the Titanic disaster and its lessons have ever been more needed. 

Titanic will never ever go away as it lasted over a century of fascination. 

Yet for the rich, the fascination turned deadly if they don’t take in the lessons their ancestors learned from the disaster. 

Is it so hard for the lessons that people took from the Titanic to learn and expand? We got the Ice Patrol and ship advances to make safety the priority. 

But ships and submersibles are just not even with the recent advances with the kites, not masts. Safety precautions and life-saving protocols are needed at this time more than anything. 

I’m just shocked. I just can’t believe this. I thought nobody was sane enough to not think about safety but nope, arrogance led to death here. A combo of ignorance and arrogance led Titanic to doom but here, all arrogance killed them all. 

Just to be clear, James Cameron was not asked for interviews because he made Titanic. He’s an expert on undersea engineering and made contributions to oceanography. He dove into the Mariana Trench solo and proved himself in the field of ocean science. 

Award Shows

 

I never cared about award shows. When I was a kid watching them, my interest is mainly the celebrity dresses and shiny trophies. 

There are award shows for a bunch of things, even porn. I was admittedly mildly fascinated by gay porn award shows. 

You wouldn’t see me catching any news on any award shows. 

That happened solely because of the Oscars' category of Best Animated Feature. They made that because Beauty and the Beast should be the only one-time incident but even then, Up and TS3 occurred their nominations in that category too but it shows that it's only Disney Pixar, no anime or Dreamworks or Laika or anybody. It must not happen again and they continue to denigrate animation again and again. The last time I ever watched that category was when Frozen won. Frozen won by the Disney name alone. This didn't even have to do with my feelings with Frozen shouldn't win even though they definitely shouldn't. The anonymous voters said they were dragged there by their kids and animation is basically suffering for them. They won't even watch any of the nominees or see animation as a medium. Just a slog because adults can never understand them. 

Wow, no wonder the live-action Disney remakes blossomed so much when animation was so derided. Even though they know the live-action sucked out whatever the animation had, it's still in their superior mind the better medium or genre altogether. They don't give a shit that animation is a medium that the animation community and whoever uses what kind of animation, 2D or 3D or both, sees animation as something more to tell a story best told in that medium. 

Guillermo del Toro won and let him say that animation is for everybody and a medium. Because the years with animation on the guillotine for tax write-offs and adult animated comedies showing their relative lack of creativity despite the animators basically carrying them, the release of so many good movies and shows showed that animation is still thriving and would not back down to be known as only the kids' stuff. 

The award shows regarding BTS even in their home country exempting the KMAs have always been weird. The Kpop idol industry has been seriously affected by BTS’s success so much that it’s funny. SMA split the main daesang with digital and album until going back the next year, MAMA got the Worldwide Icon daesang, Brits (this one was bad, really bad since I know about the Rina situation and I vaguely heard about the treatment with female artists) took away the international group category, Grammys up in their usual shit, and Oscars only dealing out awards to who knows even when these nominations are deserved. 

The only award show portion that I even bother to watch was the Best Animated Feature. After Frozen's 'win' and the revelation that voters only chose Frozen for brand name power and disdain for animation, I was furious. I vowed to never watch that section again even when Into the Spider-verse won deservingly.

Ugh, Moulin Rouge Broadway shouldn’t have won Best Orchestration. It’s an insult to the movie’s transformation of the music. Going backward to making straight-up covers for belting instead of the timeless songs the movie used and still transforms is an insult. Fuck those belting showcases. Just give me what the movie has done instead of the piss poor Broadway. Outside of a few gems, Broadway was a disappointment. 

No award shows ever receive a full watch from me. Even when award shows deservingly gave awards and a spotlight to people who finally got it after who knows how long for recognition, these award shows still need to catch up on the uptake. 

They were supposed to be the best of the best and even then it's not recognized. Seriously, BTS won again and again but still did not receive the recognition they deserved from the Korean media which had been nasty to them before their rise but even during their rise, and now the nastiness remains because they didn't help BTS. 

But when the Grammys used their name for the viewing power of ARMYs, the Grammys are the villains. Sending back their filmed performance to a later time just for the views because they know after the fiasco with the pre-show award showing, they have nothing, not even Beyonce who was shown. Seriously, after looking like they could win even staying up just for their award nomination, there is not much the Grammys have as after the entire thing showed they want to have their cake and eat it. Seriously, the Grammys is nothing more than what looks like they are the best when they are not. Hence why I couldn’t take the optimistic takes on fanfics that depict the Grammys as this great thing, knowing many deserving artists never got their dues until they submit to the corrupt practices or never had a chance in the first place. Godoka, I want to laugh at the Kpop peers who submit their work without scoring anything on the Top 100 or having enough streams even when they did payola on Spotify but they still have their grimy paws on US attendance award shows. 

These accolades are when they are deserved showed what the award shows could be at their best. 

But when there are negligent and vague rules that can be changed on a whim with the company in charge of the show wanting name power and designate attendance awards to people who came, yeah, they deserve no respect even when putting on a great show. 

The VMAs are a huge example of this. They aren't part of the Big 3 music award shows in the USA. Instead, they make do with wild performances and attendance awards. They don’t give a crap about respectability, just attendance. 

Award shows already have below-average or worse views. These attendance awards no matter how insane the performances are have nothing going for it. 

Hence taking advantage of ARMYs because other music awards saw a huge showing. Not enough to save them but still the largest since. 

I mean with award shows nominations right now aren’t showing anything that is deemed rightful. Snubs have always been painful but what about the nominations that are certainly deserved but the chance of winning is slim? Yeah, I’m not looking forward to any of the ceremonies. 

I won’t even discuss the current nominations. There is enough about them. 

These award shows at face value looked prestigious. 

Because these award shows look prestigious with all the rules to look fair when it’s never been, they maintain the impression of the arbiter of good media they are overseeing. While I’m not expecting them to see greatness or about the future, I do think they should’ve granted recognition to others for achievements than rewarding white performers or whoever owns them or bribing them. I mean Moulin Rouge is still talked about to this day as opposed to some movie crusty white male Academy sees as something that’s up their alley. 

On one hand, it's understandable that most people never heard about the movies. Even to this day, Crash is well-regarded as one of the worst wins over the well-deserved Brokeback Mountain. Despite my misgivings about Brokeback Mountain, I at least know how important it is. At the same time, what the Oscars see as Best Picture is often not what they think not to say that played into it too but often the cultural trend at that time. 

No award show is ever going to reward the flowers to those who broke new ground and proved themselves. That's probably never going to happen but only rarely it does. It's only when they are forced to according to their rules. 

Just imagine having a Grammy in the BTS museum at Hybe would be amazing. 

BTS has a lot of deserving awards. Yeah, they blocked off many of their peers but have a fighting chance against the soloists and bands that aren’t Kpop. Because Kpop is the equivalent of Disney Channel stars over there. Then again those Korean award shows prior to BTS’ wins have always been given to the Big 3 groups with the occasional small groups. I’m not even apologetic remembering that fact. Those award shows are for idols with the occasional soloists and bands who are actually popular on Melon. 

If you think the Korean award shows are myopic, just see the Tonys. I mean Aaron Tveit won against literally no one. It set up a precedent. 

The Tonys are all about Broadway, a very tiny slice of musical theater that only exists in New York. The Great White Way that advertised as the best of the best musical theatre the American musical theatre had to offer. That is a sheer lie. 

The Tonys don't give a fuck about any off-Broadway and any shows that aren't even staged off-Broadway either. Any plays or musicals not produced by the big companies and if they are luckily managed to stage there. Lin-Manuel Miranda got a friend who made sure Into the Heights was staged there making his name easier to get out. 

Sure there are previews outside of Broadway but it's just previewing, not the opening night wherein that night is eligible for the Tonys. 

The Tonys gave away awards to people who didn't have that performance as one of their top fives or just the only viable person or don't have enough eligible nominees for certain categories on a regular basis. Getting awards on people's hands is a far more tangible result than just having a separate category that has only 2 or 20 nominees. 

Besides, as much as the Tonys are myopic, there are good results when they do things right. 

I firmly believe Moulin Rouge Broadway shouldn't have won those awards because outside of the good performances, it's still a bad book and has bad orchestration of its music usage outside of just sounding musically great but in no way transform or keeping the focus on the damn story and characters. Moulin Rouge Broadway only won due to the poor season at Broadway and Moulin Rouge does deserve some but not a lot of it especially Best Musical and Best Orchestration. I wanted to wretch the Best Musical and Best Orchestration out of their hands onto the Moulin Rouge movie's hands. 

Avenue Q deserved the Best Musical than Wicked and Moulin Rouge at the Tonys any day of the week. 

At the end of the day, even when awards at the Tonys can be deserving, at most it's a self-promotion marketing tool afterward. Most Broadway people either stay at theatres or go on to Hollywood. There's a possibility Gaten might've always wanted to be a theatre actor but when he auditioned for Stranger Things, he became famous for the world to know and have doors open for him in both the theatre and screen acting. 

Anyway, as much as Andrea Riseborough does deserve at least an Oscar nod, there’s just too much there as the Oscars are going to keep her nomination anyway. There’s not much that anyone can do but talk. What I would say is that she's a white woman and BIPOC actresses won't even have a chance on doing what they could just to garner it on a grassroots scale. Well, as grassroots as a rich kid using connections than an actual grassroots because a BIPOC grassroots would not be enough. It’s telling white actors and actresses rally for Riseborough when none of these guys spoke about the nuances or even supportive of how Davis and Deadwyler put in so much effort with an Oscar-favorite historical drama with black lead roles only to show it means nothing, just David and Goliath the big bad white male industry. I see Riseborough's reputation taking a hit because of this, regardless of her talent. 

EEAAO is a surprise hit involving Yeoh as the big name. Yeoh deserves the Best Actress award for so long. 

I mean there’s Al Walser who ended up scamming the Grammys. 

I mean even the Razzies are getting criticized now for their mean-spirited categories that are only there for that one movie to be laughed at more. At least the Tonys know that it’s myopic even by award show standards by just not having categories regularly due to not having enough nominees. 

Like, do the Tonys want to end up like the BRITs? Because in combining two categories, they showed their true colors the following year with more male nominees over female and heck even nonbinary nominees because it's a system they like and only changes on a superficial level. 

I mean is the Oscars any better at addressing BIPOC actresses? 

Yeah, award shows are trying desperately to be relevant with all the comedy. Regular PR celebrity interviews are boring enough. It has gotten to a point where I know BTS US interviews are less about their artistry or about them as people but about RM learning English from Friends for example that they brought up constantly. BTS isn’t doing that kind of interview anymore, just ARMY, not the audience at the US interviews, seeing the interview experience they choose as the quiet and introspective ones. 

Hot Ones have been a source of envy for talk show hosts who went to great lengths to make their show exciting. I don’t think BTS wants to do any interviews there anymore. Oh, they’ll submit to more Grammy categories that their peers will follow, but make no question that they are jaded years after going into the US with wide eyes after their US debut in 2017. 

Like talk shows trying to be relevant, award shows have shown they are dinosaurs in a world that sees them as archaic. Sure it is great to see people rightfully awarded and given the time to shine but it’s an award show that heavily favored campaigning and neglected certain genres. 

I love musicals but I don’t like biopics. The rare biopics I prefer are from my high school days. Musical biopics vary in quality but saving graces are the performance. Rocketman is different because at least that one made the songs fun. Movie biomusicals are a different breed from jukebox biomusicals though there are overlaps. When BoRap and Elvis are just bad with the only saving grace being the performances, Rocketman sticks out like a sore thumb for not straight-washing Elton John and his troubles. It was produced by Elton John so that's a plus rather than the clean makeover of BoRap or the irreverent reverence of Elvis because the only way I could take Elvis is that it's in the view of whoever telling the story. 

It’s a hard trek for proper recognition in award shows, not when they are still embroiled with incest with loads of companies in the system they perpetuate. They might look like they could include queer and BIPOC communities but it’s only the slimmest chance. 

There is a chance BIPOC people, particularly women, can get their dues. Seeing how the system still favors white people no matter what, they can't afford to subvert the system, knowing that, unlike Risborough's kept nomination, their nominations would be punished. I don't see Riseborough's nomination process will make things any better moving forward, especially if white women and men will rally for other white leads in indie films than for BIPOC indies with BIPOC leads. Fuck, if they can't even understand the nuance of what happened with studio lead BIPOC leads who done everything right according to their rules and a white woman subverted it so easily and they can't, then what on earth are they going to do?

Who knows what will happen moving forward for these award shows? Some might as well try but others just don't care and reveal their true colors in incidental ways that showcase how much they don't like anybody but the white privilege and those tastes among themselves.