15 July 2015-21 July 2015
Notices
If you have meta to submit or rec, please comment to this post or to the screened Submissions Post. If you'd like to give us blanket permission to link your meta please comment to the Blanket Permissions Post. If you have feedback or questions, check out our FAQ, Contact the Mods, or PM/email. If you'd like to volunteer to link-find or mod, please comment to the Volunteers Post.
General Fandom
Kingsman and the Maybe-Genius of Non-Winking Satire: Film Crit Hulk (blog) - "SO HERE IS WHY HULK THINKS MATTHEW VAUGHN IS SO INTERESTING: HE IS TOEING A RAZOR-THIN LINE OF MAKING JET-BLACK NON-WINKING SATIRES, THAT BOTH TOTALLY BACK-UP THE FACT THAT THEY'RE SATIRES ON THE SEMIOTIC LEVEL WITH PRETTY RESPONSIBLE CONTEXTUALIZATION, BUT DO SO WITHOUT ANY FORM OF GENRE TRANSCENDENCE."
topic:satire, topic:humor
Zorro’s Firm and Blood-Straightened Vein: Chris Gavaler (blog) - "This is the erotic subtext to a surprising range of superhero tales. The hero dons his manly disguise not fight crime and uphold justice, but to woo the girl."
topic:superheroes, topic:sex
"Orlando Jones needs to GTFO of our fandom": Supernatural conventions and gate-keeping: Bertha Chin (blog) - "His "star text of convergence", Scott argues, opens a space in which the intersectional construction of the fan identity, usually centred around gender and race, can be addressed; something which, Scott reminds, fan studies has yet to critically engage with. As such, Jones’s intersectionality, including the intersection of his role as both industry insider and fan, calls for a way to think and talk about notions of "plus/and" rather than "either/or"."
topic:fandom, topic:shipping, topic:celebrities, topic:canon, topic:fanon
Trans Formation: Remembering Comics’ Fantastical Gender-Fluid Characters: Elle Collins (blog) - "What did exist, and what I was paying no small amount of attention to, were characters who changed gender through science fiction and fantasy means. These stories rarely bore any resemblance to the lives of actual trans people (not that I was in a position to understand the difference at the time), but when done well they could still have something to say about the fragility of binary concepts of gender, or about the differences in men and women’s lives."
fandom:comics, topic:comics, topic:gender, topic:lgbt
Exclusionary Geek Culture Misunderstands Diversity on a Fundamental Level: Sheva (blog) - "Gaming is in the midst of a very big and frequently painful transition from an almost-exclusively white hetero cis male space into something that caters a little more to-well, everyone else. It’s gotten to the point where I expect to see a few EOPs in the comment thread of anything that mentions this transition, decrying it as uncomfortable and awful and oppressive to them specifically, as gamers."
fandom:gaming, topic:diversity
Untitled: beccaleizabeth (DW) - "That's the big. That's what I'm utterly done with. That assumption, that women were actually sitting around being pretty all day every day with not a thought in their head, except for Our Heroine, Not Like Other Girls, who has secretly acquired an education and earned money!"
topic:feminism, topic:sexism, topic:history
Later: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "Because you know what happens later. They look back and say, look, women just aren't popular, nobody's heard of them, you know who the audiences are asking for, more of the same, more of these white men."
topic:canon, topic:sexism
Specific Fandoms
Agents of SHIELD/Marvel Cinematic Universe
Hypothetical: Would it be right to outlaw Terrigenesis?: Menocchio (forum) - "But there's a big difference between mutants and Inhuman: Inhumans are made, not born. They have to be exposed to a very specific crystal, and that doesn't just happen by accident.* Indeed, even the Inhumans are highly selective about which members of their bloodline actually get a lungful of the good stuff. You don't need mass murder by purple robots or a chaos magician with daddy issue to get rid of the powers. You can just get rid of the Terrigen, and they'll be no new Inhumans."
fandom:agentsofshield, fandom:mcu, topic:law
Angel Beats
Hysteria!: Existential Panic in the Storytelling of Angel Beats: Mage in a Barrel (blog) - "And perhaps it’s a bit silly to take a story as patently juvenile as Angel Beats! [P.A. Works, 2010] as a microcosm for the full breadth of human life, but as TK might say, "Get chance and luck!""
fandom:angelbeats, fandom:anime
Ant-Man
Ant-Man: Robbery vs Burglary vs Theft: James Daily (blog) - " So let’s take a closer look at a fine legal distinctions that the protagonist, Scott Lang, makes a few times in the movie: robbery versus burglary."
fandom:mcu, topic:law, warning:spoilers
Declassified: Ant-Man - Analysis, Explanations, Set-Ups & Secrets Revealed: The Insightful Panda (blog) - "Good things come to those who wait, and this is especially true of Ant-Man. So let’s examine some of the amazing complexities of this film so that we can not only enjoy it more; but also honor ALL those who put so much time and effort into making it."
fandom:mcu, warning:spoilers
An Ode To Ant-Man’s Most Triumphant Scene: Devin Faraci (blog) - "That’s why Ant-Man’s best scene isn’t an action sequence or even one of the comedic training montages."
fandom:mcu, warning:spoilers
’Ant-Man’ and the Sad State of Marvel’s Female Characters: Matt Singer (blog) - "And while Hope spends the film hoping for an opportunity to prove her value, the audience does the same, hoping that Marvel will finally give its fans the super-powered superheroine they’ve been waiting for."
fandom:mcu, topic:femalecharacter, warning:spoilers
The Ant-Man Movie We Could Have Had: MadameAce (blog) - "I cannot believe that anyone at Marvel actually thought doing this movie the way they did was a good idea. And I also have a hard time believing that this was done for any reason other than that Wasp is a woman."
fandom:mcu, warning:spoilers
Why isn’t Hope Van Dyne the star of ‘Ant-Man’?: Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (blog) - "Marvel Studios movies are often praised for their complex female characters, to the point where studio president Kevin Feige used this to excuse their lack of a female-led franchise. His argument was that with characters like Black Widow in major supporting roles, did it really matter if none of them are leading their own movies?"
fandom:mcu, topic:femalecharacter, warning:spoilers
Ballers
Ballin’ on Ballers: S1E03 and S1E04 Reviews: Rafael Gaitan and Mark Stack (blog) - "It was a welcome surprise- it was possibly the most organic episode yet, and I know I am saying this about a show that is about artifice and the true value of fat butts and big money. I never thought I would say this legitimately, but to its credit it felt like an episode of Entourage."
fandom:ballers, warning:spoilers
Ballin’ on Ballers: Ricky Don’t Lose That Number - Loser City: Rafael Gaitan and Mark Stack (blog) - "I don’t know how to feel about this episode of Ballers. In a lot of ways, it feels like we’ve just taken two steps forward but I can’t help but see this episode as a backwards step."
fandom:ballers, warning:spoilers
Big Significant Things
On the Road Yet Again: Big Significant Things is Bleak, But Not Bleak Enough to Say Something New: Kayleigh Hughes (blog) - "The film’s goal, then, is to undermine Craig at every turn and to highlight the misguided nature of such fantasies, which are often only afforded to the very privileged, like Craig."
fandom:bigsignificantthings
Cosmere
Let’s Talk About Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere: Martin Cahill (blog) - "The Cosmere of Brandon Sanderson is a huge, overarching concept driving the narrative structure of his work, and while it may seem fairly straightforward on the surface, the deeper ramifications of these connections are going to be felt all across his books, especially going forward with the rest of his series."
fandom:cosmere
Dragon Star
Rereading Melanie Rawn: Stronghold, Part One: Judith Tarr (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:dragonstar
Dragonlance
Dragonlance Reread: Dragons of Autumn Twilight Part 2, Chapters 7 and 8: Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:dragonlance
Empire Trilogy
Rereading the Empire Trilogy: Mistress of the Empire, Part 19: Tansy Rayner Roberts (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:empiretrilogy
Ex Machina
Ex-Machina Abuses Women to Show that Abuse is Sick: Junko (blog) - "If the scene disgusts you, that’s exactly what that scene was for: to create a sense of disgust from the audience… not against the entire movie, but pinpointed at Nathan."
fandom:exmachina
Game of Thrones
A Brief Treatise on the Rules of Thrones 2.09: Blackwater: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "The entire season has been about Tyrion’s sudden ascension to a position of overt power on the board instead of the inadvertent power he wielded in the first season, and about how Stannis presents a growing threat to that power."
fandom:gameofthrones
Season 5: The False Hero: Stefan (blog) - "In the following, I will have a look at the different arcs in the season and try to submit them to a coherent analysis."
fandom:gameofthrones
Go Set a Watchman
Atticus Was Always a Racist; Why Go Set a Watchman Is No Surprise: Catherine Nichols (blog) - "I used to think Mockingbird was a shameful book to hand out in a high school classroom, all things considered, given that it’s a race story that scarcely passes the black-person version of the Bechdel test. It’s about white people within white culture making Tom Robinson’s life and death about themselves."
fandom:gosetawatchman, fandom:tokillamockingbird, topic:racism
H.P. Lovecraft
The Lovecraft Reread: Avoiding Angles is Harder Than It Sounds: "The Hounds of Tindalos": Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the story in question.
fandom:lovecraft
Harry Potter
The Harry Potter Reread: The Order of the Phoenix, Chapters 25 and 26: Emily Asher-Perrin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:harrypotter
Hawkeye
Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye Works Because It’s Written Like Great Fan Fiction: Emily Asher-Perrin (blog) - "People are probably going to read the title above and get really mad at me or take offense, when I honestly mean it as a gigantic compliment. Because despite what many areas of the internet (and culture at large) would have you believe, there is a lot of wonderful fan fiction in the world. And like all forms of art, there are certain tropes that a large portion of fanfic adheres to."
fandom:marvelcomics, topic:tropes
Inside Out
In Brightest Day: Struggling with Depression in Inside Out: MadameAce (blog) - "One of the reasons I like this movie so much is because it has one of the most accurate portrayals of depression that I have ever seen. And not only does Inside Out portray depression realistically, it also presents it in a way that’s easy to understand."
fandom:insideout
Inside Out And Maturity: Sumana (blog) - "Leonard and I walked out of Inside Out wanting to know more about how accurate its metaphors for emotion and cognition are. I'd still like to know more, and look forward to more making-of commentary. A Fresh Air interview with the movie's director discusses how, for instance, memory realllllly doesn't work like that. But it's refreshing to think about the purpose of disgust, of anger, of fear, or of sadness, and I'm pleased that a mainstream Hollywood movie is telling people -- especially girls -- that each of these emotions has a legitimate role in our personalities and our lives."
fandom:insideout
James Bond
Bond Girl: Re-Watching and Re-Evaluating A View To A Kill: Zina Hutton (blog) - "The thing about A View To A Kill though is that of all the Moore movies, it’s my ultimate problematic fave. There are parts of the film that I loved but at the heart of it there are some serious issues that I hated."
fandom:jamesbond
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: Magic as Academics: Steven Attewell (blog) - "This conflict is familiar to anyone who’s ever been to an academic conference where some up-and-coming scholar takes a swing at established orthodoxy, and to anyone who’s ever read Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. However, the Regency period adds a sharper class critique: as Dr. Foxcastle (Martyn Ellis) explains, "practical magic is not a thing for the gentlemen of this society, nor any gentleman," because it associated with working-class street performers like Vinculus (Paul Kaye). Only by making magic strictly theoretical rather than applied can it be made safe for aristocratic society."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange, Mr. Norrell, and the Napoleonic Wars: Steven Attewell (blog) - "One of the more interesting things about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is the choice of period - whereas the overwhelming majority of fantasy works are set in a medieval period (something I wrote about way back when I was but a neophyte blogger), Susanna Clarke puts her novel in the Georgian and Regency period. This allows for new themes and new literacy styles that don’t really fit with the medieval, but it also means that Clarke (and her adapters) has to grapple with the Napoleonic Wars."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, topic:history
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell podcast: Episode 1 - "The Friends of English Magic": Lawyers, Guns & Money (podcast) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell podcast: Episode 2 - "How Is Lady Pole?": Lawyers, Guns & Money (podcast) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell podcast - Episode 3 - "The Education of a Magician" Lawyers, Guns & Money (podcast) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Episode 6: The Black Tower: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "You can see it in the conclusion - the Restoration of English Magic itself - which is ever so slightly too naturalist. To my mind, what’s Very Interesting In Prestige Television right now is the the sort of artifice-heavy subjective trickery that people like Nick Hurran and Paul Wilmshurst have been bringing to the style - the sort of thing that’s even more embraced by Hannibal and Mr. Robot right now."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, warning:spoilers
Legend of Zelda
Zelda Theory: Malon’s Secret Crush: Dr Willy (video) - "One of the characters that has been heavily debated about is Malon; more specifically could she actually harbor secret feelings for our hero? What if they have a relationship that extends beyond what we have seen within the games? These questions are the basis of some of the theories that You Tube channel, Dr. Willy discusses in his latest Zelda Theory video."
fandom:legendofzelda
Zelda Theory: Link’s Darkest Secret: M. Productions (video) - "What our your thoughts on our Hero of Time, could he really have been the catalyst to all the death and destruction that ensued?"
fandom:legendofzelda
Women of Legend: Marin: Alexis Anderson (blog) - "Even though her environment refuses to change and allow her to grow, Marin’s mind has matured far beyond her body. She appears to be this carefree young girl, but deep down she knows that her whole world is a sham."
fandom:legendofzelda
Mad Max
The Mad Max Comics’ Half-Assed Female Characters: Jess Zimmerman (blog) - "But the problem with the Furiosa comic isn't that it's exceptionally anti-woman. It's that it's so, so very NON-exceptionally anti-woman."
fandom:madmax, warning:rape
Untitled: tfuriosa (Tumblr) - "I need to talk about Rictus. I have seen him mentioned a few times here and there, and I have come across some fanfiction as well, so I think I am not alone. But I have some thoughts that need to come out. Not even necessarily headcanon, but just… pondering/thinking."
fandom:madmax
Water Your Eyes Doing: bonehandledknife (Tumblr) - "But lets get to the most controversial scene in Mad Max in terms of feminist theory, the infamous Water scene. I’ve been frankly putting this off because if you get into the larger visual, narrative, and thematic context of this scene, this post will never end."
fandom:madmax
Max’s Violation: A Substitute for The Prisoners’ Pain: redshoesnblueskies and thoughtfulfangirling (Tumblr) - "We experienced the violence and degradation of the Revolutionaries through Max."
fandom:madmax, warning:rape
Untitled: slitthelizardking and flamethrowing-hurdy-gurdy (Tumblr) - "This scene is so interesting in terms of character exposure for a war boy (like I said before I really hold with the idea that Nux is never really an individual character in the film but rather remains a symbol of all war boys.)"
fandom:madmax
Magic Mike
Exploring Women's Pleasure In Magic Mike XXL: Kristen Warner and Chelsea Bullock (blog) - "Facts about Magic Mike XXL: While there is a narrative structure, the exposition moves at the speed of light and is primarily embedded in passing conversation between two key transition scenes. There’s neither a dramatic beat nor realistic stakes. XXL is, as the character Richie (Joe Manganiello) repeatedly asserts, "the last ride.""
fandom:magicmike
Orphan Black
What Orphan Black Can Teach Other Shows About Writing Women (Part 1): Alenka Figa (blog) - "In this moment, Orphan Black’s creators signaled their intention to do something powerful and radical: in the midst of a media culture that gratuitously uses rape as plot points and character development for men, Orphan Black has put sexual power in the hands of women."
fandom:orphanblack, topic:sexuality
Saga
Book Club: Saga, Week 3: Overthinking It Book Club (podcast) - "We are Overthinking the comic book series "Saga," and this is Week 1, covering Chapters 7-9 of the series. Join Pete, Richard, Jordan, and Matt as we discuss family, memory, credibility, and whether all acts of goodness are pointless."
fandom:saga
Sense8
Untitled: fatima_failte (LJ comment) - "I'm writing a fic that needed such a thing and tried to do it (using neuron strength as the qualitative dimension rather than order of occurrence) and very quickly got neuron pasta, even after I excluded the orgy as an outlier event."
fandom:sense8
A Song of Ice and Fire
Top Characters #4 Jon Snow: zvansice (blog) - "Jon Snow is without a doubt one of the most popular characters in A Song of Ice and Fire."
fandom:asoiaf
Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Catelyn V, ACOK: Steven Attewell (blog) - "Catelyn V is a bit of an odd chapter - on the one hand, it’s something of a beginning to Catelyn’s passive phase, when rather than being a sleuth or a kidnapper or a diplomat, she sits in Riverrun and acts as a rather depressed camerawoman."
fandom:asoiaf
7 Reasons Why the Dragons Have to Die: Game of Thrones Academy (video and text) - "If you think about it, the dragons cannot survive this story. They can't win or be part of this world once it's all said and done."
fandom:asoiaf, fandom:gameofthrones
Top Characters #3 Jaime Lannister: Alerie Corbray (blog) - "Jaime may now appear cast in the steel of heroes, but he was better known from the start for two unheroic deeds: he was the Kingslayer who slew King Aerys II rather than protect him, and he threw a seven-year-old boy out the window of a high tower; his only solution to the child's spying was to send him flying to his death with a bitter quip"
fandom:asoiaf
Star Wars
Taylor Gray and Ray Park Join Fangirls Going Rogue: Fangirls Going Rogue (podcast) - "Lessons learned in the ‘shipper wars in the Prequel Trilogy and Expanded Universe eras spur a discussion on how to be passionate about our favorite characters without making enemies of fandom friends. Parents, Parents, this is the podcast conversation to help guide you and your younglings through the social media era."
fandom:starwars
Steven Universe
What a children’s show can teach us about sex and healthy relationships: Carli Velocci (blog) - "In the recent episode "Keeping it Together," which clocks in at a brief 11 minutes, we see a better discussion about healthy sexual relationships and the repercussions of forced mingling than in any show currently on TV."
fandom:stevenuniverse, warning:rape, warning:spoilers
Trainwreck
Trainwreck and the New Coming of Age: Devin Faraci (blog) - "Why this movie isn't slut-shaming anybody."
fandom:trainwreck, warning:spoilers
Review: Does Trainwreck Live Up to Its Own Feminist Standards?: Carolyn Cox (blog) - "In many ways Trainwreck is wholly different from most mainstream romantic movies, but that’s not to say it’s as surprising, funny, or even as feminist as I’d hoped it would be."
fandom:trainwreck, warning:spoilers
True Detective
True Detective Review: "Other Lives": Scott Wampler, Phil Nobile Jr, Britt Hayes (blog) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:truedetective, warning:spoilers
Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time Reread Redux: The Great Hunt, Part 9: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:wheeloftime
If you have meta to submit or rec, please comment to this post or to the screened Submissions Post. If you'd like to give us blanket permission to link your meta please comment to the Blanket Permissions Post. If you have feedback or questions, check out our FAQ, Contact the Mods, or PM/email. If you'd like to volunteer to link-find or mod, please comment to the Volunteers Post.
General Fandom
Kingsman and the Maybe-Genius of Non-Winking Satire: Film Crit Hulk (blog) - "SO HERE IS WHY HULK THINKS MATTHEW VAUGHN IS SO INTERESTING: HE IS TOEING A RAZOR-THIN LINE OF MAKING JET-BLACK NON-WINKING SATIRES, THAT BOTH TOTALLY BACK-UP THE FACT THAT THEY'RE SATIRES ON THE SEMIOTIC LEVEL WITH PRETTY RESPONSIBLE CONTEXTUALIZATION, BUT DO SO WITHOUT ANY FORM OF GENRE TRANSCENDENCE."
topic:satire, topic:humor
Zorro’s Firm and Blood-Straightened Vein: Chris Gavaler (blog) - "This is the erotic subtext to a surprising range of superhero tales. The hero dons his manly disguise not fight crime and uphold justice, but to woo the girl."
topic:superheroes, topic:sex
"Orlando Jones needs to GTFO of our fandom": Supernatural conventions and gate-keeping: Bertha Chin (blog) - "His "star text of convergence", Scott argues, opens a space in which the intersectional construction of the fan identity, usually centred around gender and race, can be addressed; something which, Scott reminds, fan studies has yet to critically engage with. As such, Jones’s intersectionality, including the intersection of his role as both industry insider and fan, calls for a way to think and talk about notions of "plus/and" rather than "either/or"."
topic:fandom, topic:shipping, topic:celebrities, topic:canon, topic:fanon
Trans Formation: Remembering Comics’ Fantastical Gender-Fluid Characters: Elle Collins (blog) - "What did exist, and what I was paying no small amount of attention to, were characters who changed gender through science fiction and fantasy means. These stories rarely bore any resemblance to the lives of actual trans people (not that I was in a position to understand the difference at the time), but when done well they could still have something to say about the fragility of binary concepts of gender, or about the differences in men and women’s lives."
fandom:comics, topic:comics, topic:gender, topic:lgbt
Exclusionary Geek Culture Misunderstands Diversity on a Fundamental Level: Sheva (blog) - "Gaming is in the midst of a very big and frequently painful transition from an almost-exclusively white hetero cis male space into something that caters a little more to-well, everyone else. It’s gotten to the point where I expect to see a few EOPs in the comment thread of anything that mentions this transition, decrying it as uncomfortable and awful and oppressive to them specifically, as gamers."
fandom:gaming, topic:diversity
Untitled: beccaleizabeth (DW) - "That's the big. That's what I'm utterly done with. That assumption, that women were actually sitting around being pretty all day every day with not a thought in their head, except for Our Heroine, Not Like Other Girls, who has secretly acquired an education and earned money!"
topic:feminism, topic:sexism, topic:history
Later: beccaelizabeth (DW) - "Because you know what happens later. They look back and say, look, women just aren't popular, nobody's heard of them, you know who the audiences are asking for, more of the same, more of these white men."
topic:canon, topic:sexism
Specific Fandoms
Agents of SHIELD/Marvel Cinematic Universe
Hypothetical: Would it be right to outlaw Terrigenesis?: Menocchio (forum) - "But there's a big difference between mutants and Inhuman: Inhumans are made, not born. They have to be exposed to a very specific crystal, and that doesn't just happen by accident.* Indeed, even the Inhumans are highly selective about which members of their bloodline actually get a lungful of the good stuff. You don't need mass murder by purple robots or a chaos magician with daddy issue to get rid of the powers. You can just get rid of the Terrigen, and they'll be no new Inhumans."
fandom:agentsofshield, fandom:mcu, topic:law
Angel Beats
Hysteria!: Existential Panic in the Storytelling of Angel Beats: Mage in a Barrel (blog) - "And perhaps it’s a bit silly to take a story as patently juvenile as Angel Beats! [P.A. Works, 2010] as a microcosm for the full breadth of human life, but as TK might say, "Get chance and luck!""
fandom:angelbeats, fandom:anime
Ant-Man
Ant-Man: Robbery vs Burglary vs Theft: James Daily (blog) - " So let’s take a closer look at a fine legal distinctions that the protagonist, Scott Lang, makes a few times in the movie: robbery versus burglary."
fandom:mcu, topic:law, warning:spoilers
Declassified: Ant-Man - Analysis, Explanations, Set-Ups & Secrets Revealed: The Insightful Panda (blog) - "Good things come to those who wait, and this is especially true of Ant-Man. So let’s examine some of the amazing complexities of this film so that we can not only enjoy it more; but also honor ALL those who put so much time and effort into making it."
fandom:mcu, warning:spoilers
An Ode To Ant-Man’s Most Triumphant Scene: Devin Faraci (blog) - "That’s why Ant-Man’s best scene isn’t an action sequence or even one of the comedic training montages."
fandom:mcu, warning:spoilers
’Ant-Man’ and the Sad State of Marvel’s Female Characters: Matt Singer (blog) - "And while Hope spends the film hoping for an opportunity to prove her value, the audience does the same, hoping that Marvel will finally give its fans the super-powered superheroine they’ve been waiting for."
fandom:mcu, topic:femalecharacter, warning:spoilers
The Ant-Man Movie We Could Have Had: MadameAce (blog) - "I cannot believe that anyone at Marvel actually thought doing this movie the way they did was a good idea. And I also have a hard time believing that this was done for any reason other than that Wasp is a woman."
fandom:mcu, warning:spoilers
Why isn’t Hope Van Dyne the star of ‘Ant-Man’?: Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (blog) - "Marvel Studios movies are often praised for their complex female characters, to the point where studio president Kevin Feige used this to excuse their lack of a female-led franchise. His argument was that with characters like Black Widow in major supporting roles, did it really matter if none of them are leading their own movies?"
fandom:mcu, topic:femalecharacter, warning:spoilers
Ballers
Ballin’ on Ballers: S1E03 and S1E04 Reviews: Rafael Gaitan and Mark Stack (blog) - "It was a welcome surprise- it was possibly the most organic episode yet, and I know I am saying this about a show that is about artifice and the true value of fat butts and big money. I never thought I would say this legitimately, but to its credit it felt like an episode of Entourage."
fandom:ballers, warning:spoilers
Ballin’ on Ballers: Ricky Don’t Lose That Number - Loser City: Rafael Gaitan and Mark Stack (blog) - "I don’t know how to feel about this episode of Ballers. In a lot of ways, it feels like we’ve just taken two steps forward but I can’t help but see this episode as a backwards step."
fandom:ballers, warning:spoilers
Big Significant Things
On the Road Yet Again: Big Significant Things is Bleak, But Not Bleak Enough to Say Something New: Kayleigh Hughes (blog) - "The film’s goal, then, is to undermine Craig at every turn and to highlight the misguided nature of such fantasies, which are often only afforded to the very privileged, like Craig."
fandom:bigsignificantthings
Cosmere
Let’s Talk About Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere: Martin Cahill (blog) - "The Cosmere of Brandon Sanderson is a huge, overarching concept driving the narrative structure of his work, and while it may seem fairly straightforward on the surface, the deeper ramifications of these connections are going to be felt all across his books, especially going forward with the rest of his series."
fandom:cosmere
Dragon Star
Rereading Melanie Rawn: Stronghold, Part One: Judith Tarr (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:dragonstar
Dragonlance
Dragonlance Reread: Dragons of Autumn Twilight Part 2, Chapters 7 and 8: Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:dragonlance
Empire Trilogy
Rereading the Empire Trilogy: Mistress of the Empire, Part 19: Tansy Rayner Roberts (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:empiretrilogy
Ex Machina
Ex-Machina Abuses Women to Show that Abuse is Sick: Junko (blog) - "If the scene disgusts you, that’s exactly what that scene was for: to create a sense of disgust from the audience… not against the entire movie, but pinpointed at Nathan."
fandom:exmachina
Game of Thrones
A Brief Treatise on the Rules of Thrones 2.09: Blackwater: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "The entire season has been about Tyrion’s sudden ascension to a position of overt power on the board instead of the inadvertent power he wielded in the first season, and about how Stannis presents a growing threat to that power."
fandom:gameofthrones
Season 5: The False Hero: Stefan (blog) - "In the following, I will have a look at the different arcs in the season and try to submit them to a coherent analysis."
fandom:gameofthrones
Go Set a Watchman
Atticus Was Always a Racist; Why Go Set a Watchman Is No Surprise: Catherine Nichols (blog) - "I used to think Mockingbird was a shameful book to hand out in a high school classroom, all things considered, given that it’s a race story that scarcely passes the black-person version of the Bechdel test. It’s about white people within white culture making Tom Robinson’s life and death about themselves."
fandom:gosetawatchman, fandom:tokillamockingbird, topic:racism
H.P. Lovecraft
The Lovecraft Reread: Avoiding Angles is Harder Than It Sounds: "The Hounds of Tindalos": Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the story in question.
fandom:lovecraft
Harry Potter
The Harry Potter Reread: The Order of the Phoenix, Chapters 25 and 26: Emily Asher-Perrin (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the chapters in question.
fandom:harrypotter
Hawkeye
Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye Works Because It’s Written Like Great Fan Fiction: Emily Asher-Perrin (blog) - "People are probably going to read the title above and get really mad at me or take offense, when I honestly mean it as a gigantic compliment. Because despite what many areas of the internet (and culture at large) would have you believe, there is a lot of wonderful fan fiction in the world. And like all forms of art, there are certain tropes that a large portion of fanfic adheres to."
fandom:marvelcomics, topic:tropes
Inside Out
In Brightest Day: Struggling with Depression in Inside Out: MadameAce (blog) - "One of the reasons I like this movie so much is because it has one of the most accurate portrayals of depression that I have ever seen. And not only does Inside Out portray depression realistically, it also presents it in a way that’s easy to understand."
fandom:insideout
Inside Out And Maturity: Sumana (blog) - "Leonard and I walked out of Inside Out wanting to know more about how accurate its metaphors for emotion and cognition are. I'd still like to know more, and look forward to more making-of commentary. A Fresh Air interview with the movie's director discusses how, for instance, memory realllllly doesn't work like that. But it's refreshing to think about the purpose of disgust, of anger, of fear, or of sadness, and I'm pleased that a mainstream Hollywood movie is telling people -- especially girls -- that each of these emotions has a legitimate role in our personalities and our lives."
fandom:insideout
James Bond
Bond Girl: Re-Watching and Re-Evaluating A View To A Kill: Zina Hutton (blog) - "The thing about A View To A Kill though is that of all the Moore movies, it’s my ultimate problematic fave. There are parts of the film that I loved but at the heart of it there are some serious issues that I hated."
fandom:jamesbond
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: Magic as Academics: Steven Attewell (blog) - "This conflict is familiar to anyone who’s ever been to an academic conference where some up-and-coming scholar takes a swing at established orthodoxy, and to anyone who’s ever read Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. However, the Regency period adds a sharper class critique: as Dr. Foxcastle (Martyn Ellis) explains, "practical magic is not a thing for the gentlemen of this society, nor any gentleman," because it associated with working-class street performers like Vinculus (Paul Kaye). Only by making magic strictly theoretical rather than applied can it be made safe for aristocratic society."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange, Mr. Norrell, and the Napoleonic Wars: Steven Attewell (blog) - "One of the more interesting things about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is the choice of period - whereas the overwhelming majority of fantasy works are set in a medieval period (something I wrote about way back when I was but a neophyte blogger), Susanna Clarke puts her novel in the Georgian and Regency period. This allows for new themes and new literacy styles that don’t really fit with the medieval, but it also means that Clarke (and her adapters) has to grapple with the Napoleonic Wars."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, topic:history
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell podcast: Episode 1 - "The Friends of English Magic": Lawyers, Guns & Money (podcast) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell podcast: Episode 2 - "How Is Lady Pole?": Lawyers, Guns & Money (podcast) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell podcast - Episode 3 - "The Education of a Magician" Lawyers, Guns & Money (podcast) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Episode 6: The Black Tower: Philip Sandifer (blog) - "You can see it in the conclusion - the Restoration of English Magic itself - which is ever so slightly too naturalist. To my mind, what’s Very Interesting In Prestige Television right now is the the sort of artifice-heavy subjective trickery that people like Nick Hurran and Paul Wilmshurst have been bringing to the style - the sort of thing that’s even more embraced by Hannibal and Mr. Robot right now."
fandom:jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell, warning:spoilers
Legend of Zelda
Zelda Theory: Malon’s Secret Crush: Dr Willy (video) - "One of the characters that has been heavily debated about is Malon; more specifically could she actually harbor secret feelings for our hero? What if they have a relationship that extends beyond what we have seen within the games? These questions are the basis of some of the theories that You Tube channel, Dr. Willy discusses in his latest Zelda Theory video."
fandom:legendofzelda
Zelda Theory: Link’s Darkest Secret: M. Productions (video) - "What our your thoughts on our Hero of Time, could he really have been the catalyst to all the death and destruction that ensued?"
fandom:legendofzelda
Women of Legend: Marin: Alexis Anderson (blog) - "Even though her environment refuses to change and allow her to grow, Marin’s mind has matured far beyond her body. She appears to be this carefree young girl, but deep down she knows that her whole world is a sham."
fandom:legendofzelda
Mad Max
The Mad Max Comics’ Half-Assed Female Characters: Jess Zimmerman (blog) - "But the problem with the Furiosa comic isn't that it's exceptionally anti-woman. It's that it's so, so very NON-exceptionally anti-woman."
fandom:madmax, warning:rape
Untitled: tfuriosa (Tumblr) - "I need to talk about Rictus. I have seen him mentioned a few times here and there, and I have come across some fanfiction as well, so I think I am not alone. But I have some thoughts that need to come out. Not even necessarily headcanon, but just… pondering/thinking."
fandom:madmax
Water Your Eyes Doing: bonehandledknife (Tumblr) - "But lets get to the most controversial scene in Mad Max in terms of feminist theory, the infamous Water scene. I’ve been frankly putting this off because if you get into the larger visual, narrative, and thematic context of this scene, this post will never end."
fandom:madmax
Max’s Violation: A Substitute for The Prisoners’ Pain: redshoesnblueskies and thoughtfulfangirling (Tumblr) - "We experienced the violence and degradation of the Revolutionaries through Max."
fandom:madmax, warning:rape
Untitled: slitthelizardking and flamethrowing-hurdy-gurdy (Tumblr) - "This scene is so interesting in terms of character exposure for a war boy (like I said before I really hold with the idea that Nux is never really an individual character in the film but rather remains a symbol of all war boys.)"
fandom:madmax
Magic Mike
Exploring Women's Pleasure In Magic Mike XXL: Kristen Warner and Chelsea Bullock (blog) - "Facts about Magic Mike XXL: While there is a narrative structure, the exposition moves at the speed of light and is primarily embedded in passing conversation between two key transition scenes. There’s neither a dramatic beat nor realistic stakes. XXL is, as the character Richie (Joe Manganiello) repeatedly asserts, "the last ride.""
fandom:magicmike
Orphan Black
What Orphan Black Can Teach Other Shows About Writing Women (Part 1): Alenka Figa (blog) - "In this moment, Orphan Black’s creators signaled their intention to do something powerful and radical: in the midst of a media culture that gratuitously uses rape as plot points and character development for men, Orphan Black has put sexual power in the hands of women."
fandom:orphanblack, topic:sexuality
Saga
Book Club: Saga, Week 3: Overthinking It Book Club (podcast) - "We are Overthinking the comic book series "Saga," and this is Week 1, covering Chapters 7-9 of the series. Join Pete, Richard, Jordan, and Matt as we discuss family, memory, credibility, and whether all acts of goodness are pointless."
fandom:saga
Sense8
Untitled: fatima_failte (LJ comment) - "I'm writing a fic that needed such a thing and tried to do it (using neuron strength as the qualitative dimension rather than order of occurrence) and very quickly got neuron pasta, even after I excluded the orgy as an outlier event."
fandom:sense8
A Song of Ice and Fire
Top Characters #4 Jon Snow: zvansice (blog) - "Jon Snow is without a doubt one of the most popular characters in A Song of Ice and Fire."
fandom:asoiaf
Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Catelyn V, ACOK: Steven Attewell (blog) - "Catelyn V is a bit of an odd chapter - on the one hand, it’s something of a beginning to Catelyn’s passive phase, when rather than being a sleuth or a kidnapper or a diplomat, she sits in Riverrun and acts as a rather depressed camerawoman."
fandom:asoiaf
7 Reasons Why the Dragons Have to Die: Game of Thrones Academy (video and text) - "If you think about it, the dragons cannot survive this story. They can't win or be part of this world once it's all said and done."
fandom:asoiaf, fandom:gameofthrones
Top Characters #3 Jaime Lannister: Alerie Corbray (blog) - "Jaime may now appear cast in the steel of heroes, but he was better known from the start for two unheroic deeds: he was the Kingslayer who slew King Aerys II rather than protect him, and he threw a seven-year-old boy out the window of a high tower; his only solution to the child's spying was to send him flying to his death with a bitter quip"
fandom:asoiaf
Star Wars
Taylor Gray and Ray Park Join Fangirls Going Rogue: Fangirls Going Rogue (podcast) - "Lessons learned in the ‘shipper wars in the Prequel Trilogy and Expanded Universe eras spur a discussion on how to be passionate about our favorite characters without making enemies of fandom friends. Parents, Parents, this is the podcast conversation to help guide you and your younglings through the social media era."
fandom:starwars
Steven Universe
What a children’s show can teach us about sex and healthy relationships: Carli Velocci (blog) - "In the recent episode "Keeping it Together," which clocks in at a brief 11 minutes, we see a better discussion about healthy sexual relationships and the repercussions of forced mingling than in any show currently on TV."
fandom:stevenuniverse, warning:rape, warning:spoilers
Trainwreck
Trainwreck and the New Coming of Age: Devin Faraci (blog) - "Why this movie isn't slut-shaming anybody."
fandom:trainwreck, warning:spoilers
Review: Does Trainwreck Live Up to Its Own Feminist Standards?: Carolyn Cox (blog) - "In many ways Trainwreck is wholly different from most mainstream romantic movies, but that’s not to say it’s as surprising, funny, or even as feminist as I’d hoped it would be."
fandom:trainwreck, warning:spoilers
True Detective
True Detective Review: "Other Lives": Scott Wampler, Phil Nobile Jr, Britt Hayes (blog) - Discussion and analysis of the episode.
fandom:truedetective, warning:spoilers
Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time Reread Redux: The Great Hunt, Part 9: Leigh Butler (blog) - Summary, discussion and analysis of the section in question.
fandom:wheeloftime