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lb_lee asked:
How did you get into Avatar, originally? What did you love most about it?
I first watched the show in 2010, a couple of years after it ended.(1) My then-boyfriend Mark got me into it by telling me it was a cool show with Asian-style cultures and protagonists, and after I watched the show on any online source I could find I married Mark so I could get my hands on his DVDs.(2)
( DS9 parallels, moral clarity and complexity, mild Trek & LotR criticism )
Ways I relate to Finn
Feb. 28th, 2019 03:39 amAn incomplete list of the ways I relate to Finn, movies and Before the Awakening canon:
Finn as a cult survivor
Feb. 7th, 2019 12:19 amOne of the criticisms Finn's writing has received is that he recovers too quickly from a lifetime of brainwashing by the First Order, and is overall written as too well-adjusted to be a victim of lifelong abuse.
It would take too much space to go into all of the ways Finn is still visibly traumatized in TFA and also TLJ, but I'd like to focus on one way that Finn has emphatically not recovered with lightning speed from brainwashing: The major moment in TFA that can be interpreted as Finn showing cult survivor behavior, that is, his speech to Maz and the others that there is no fighting back against the First Order and they all have to run.
( Finn and the damage from mind control )
These reactions and lines of dialogue strengthen the case that Finn's pivot from a kind of calm despair back to a willingness to fight isn't inconsistent writing, but rather symptomatic of his being a survivor of the mind control cult that First Order indoctrination was for Stormtroopers like him.
It would take too much space to go into all of the ways Finn is still visibly traumatized in TFA and also TLJ, but I'd like to focus on one way that Finn has emphatically not recovered with lightning speed from brainwashing: The major moment in TFA that can be interpreted as Finn showing cult survivor behavior, that is, his speech to Maz and the others that there is no fighting back against the First Order and they all have to run.
( Finn and the damage from mind control )
These reactions and lines of dialogue strengthen the case that Finn's pivot from a kind of calm despair back to a willingness to fight isn't inconsistent writing, but rather symptomatic of his being a survivor of the mind control cult that First Order indoctrination was for Stormtroopers like him.
The extended version of The Handmaiden was amazing. It wasn’t always easy to watch, particularly when the story moved to Hideko’s viewpoint, but it was a beautifully crafted story with a happy ending and I loved it. Here are thoughts that I had on first viewing about what heteronormative patriarchy does to female sexuality, and what the character of Count Fujiwara said to me about marginalization and misogyny.
Both sections have heavy spoilers for The Handmaiden with warnings for content including trauma, suicide, and sexual violence. Most of it is about Fujiwara; discussing Sook-Hee and Hideko's intertwined story required much more thought and work, and will be in a separate post.
( Brief thoughts on the reclaiming of female sexuality in Hideko's story )
( The tragedy of Count Fujiwara )
(The original version of this post appeared on my Tumblr on April 8, 2018. This version, among other changes, incorporates an addition I made on August 6, 2018 about Fujiwara's name.)
Both sections have heavy spoilers for The Handmaiden with warnings for content including trauma, suicide, and sexual violence. Most of it is about Fujiwara; discussing Sook-Hee and Hideko's intertwined story required much more thought and work, and will be in a separate post.
( Brief thoughts on the reclaiming of female sexuality in Hideko's story )
( The tragedy of Count Fujiwara )
(The original version of this post appeared on my Tumblr on April 8, 2018. This version, among other changes, incorporates an addition I made on August 6, 2018 about Fujiwara's name.)
