this is a "today Betsy rambled at Tumblr" compilation
Betsy rambles at Tumblr about how I Am Number Four could have been a way more interesting story with some crucial changes, and then gets wrought-up in general about sexism and racism in books/movies.
so I just watched I Am Number Four
and came away feeling like they made the wrong movie
like okay, yeah, Alex Pettyfer’s face. I love it too, guys. I could stare at it for ridiculous amounts of time. and I mean the movie wasn’t bad?
but even though I have no idea what was up with her accent and part of me is like “really you had to make her a biker chick so you could be all look how tough she is?” a movie about Number Six would have been like three trillion times better. I mean, come on. same epic hero journey after death of mentor, except she was like a hundred times more competent than him and way more fun and in control.
guys I think they should let me write the sequel. it would be a story about how Four and Six find their four remaining brothers and sisters and their guardians and after cleaning Earth of the bad dudes (yeah I can’t be bothered to even try to remember their names at fucking five in the morning) they are like “dude we have a space ship now! LET’S GO TAKE THE FIGHT EVEN FURTHER TO THEM.”
and basically it would just be them kicking ass and taking their planet back. Four … honestly wouldn’t matter to the plot that much but he would be really pretty and have become a super competent fighter because Six taught him. He and Six would be the best tag team in the history of ever. Eight would be played by Grace Fucking Park and turn out to be a good fighter but an even better negotiator, and after a bunch of kicking ass they would manage to talk the bad dudes off their planet. Five would be played by Nathan Stewart-Jarett and be ridiculously brilliant at battle strategies. His guardian would be dead I think. Seven would be Dev Patel, the oldest and the only one who remembers Lorien, probably the first one to suggest they return and I think the most skilled with any sort of psychic abilities. His guardian would be Matthew Gray Gubler. Nine would be Deborah Ann Woll, guardian-ed by Maggie Q, and she would form a tag team of unending awesome, high spirits, hijinx and badassery with Seven which makes everyone do a WTF doubletake but works out weirdly well.
guys it would be a really good movie
I’m just saying
I tried to cut this but tumblr hates me and I’m too tired to make it work *keysmash*
i’m going to sleep some now i hope
i have left my “i am a mature adult” card outside the door for when they come to take it
reply:
"The sequel book is is called “The Power of Six” and has been out in the UK for a couple of months. You are aware that the film is based off the book by Pittacus Lore, right?"
reading the summary, the sequel looks - marginally better?
but still eh.
I don’t know too much about the book series other than that there was a rather large controversy surrounding its authors and that I’ve determined never to give any money to the guy because EW that was kind of really unethical of him if it’s even halfway true.
book or movie, I still find it really irritating that people default to a male POV so often. I’m partially feeling this so strongly right now because I’ve been hanging out on the NaNo forums a lot recently and have seen so many people say oh my MC is a guy on a hero quest and have seen people actually saying I don’t write ladies because it’s just Too Hard with the Feminists and all
and it makes me want to smash things
reply:
"Anonymous asked:
but the movie is based on a book, so we can't blame the movie for telling the wrong story-line."
the book clearly told the wrong story too!
Mostly I’m just irritated that I live in a society where the story about Four is the right story to tell instead of the story about Six.
because seriously the story about Six would a) have more explosions, b) have more competence, c) have more fighting, d) have more ladies, e) have less sad moping. ALL THINGS I AM INVESTED IN.
but the book’s writers (and I am not even going into the weird stuff that happened with that whole thing) defaulted to a male POV because that’s what so many people do (and I’m seeing it again and again on the NaNoWriMo boards right now) because of society
and that is so fucking stupid.
later post:
oh man guys I am being kind of serious and text-y today. uh, sorry?
But see here is my problem. I love action movies. I love superhero movies especially! I love watching people be kickass and competent and having exceptional abilities that they use for good. It’s pretty sweet.
this current anger is kind of a culmination of a lot of things.
1) the Avengers trailer. I am going to love that movie, I’m pretty sure. I LOVE love love team movies, and team superhero movies/shows are just a;sdkhgdlghs;dg sd for me. but there are still - oh, wait, there’s like two women in it. TWO. in a cast of like ten?
2) I wanted to watch superhero movies last night. I have a total of one superhero movie in my possession that is not primarily about males, I’m pretty sure (and that one is Wonder Woman the animated movie, which as much as I love it has some issues of its own). I think they are all about white people though there may be one with a PoC as a main character. I really like most of these movies, or I would not have them! I feel like they are well done movies. it’s just kind of tiring not seeing myself anywhere in them.
3) like stated, the NaNo forums. all these people writing, and it’s awesome, but I look at how many people have male POV’s or are like “I know I have to have a lady somewhere in it” and it seems to always end up being a total stereotype or they say how hard it is to write ladies because Those Feminists or they sit around dissing feminine women or women who don’t fight or aren’t Good Enough or other stuff like that.
and then I have to look at all this shit, this completely sucky picture, and I’m still one of the lucky ones. PoC are in the same situation. WoC? In the world of superhero and action movies it feels like they might as well not exist sometimes. Transgender men and women? Yeah, they’re lucky if they get so much as a bit character in an animated show.
and that just makes me so. angry. and I guess I have hit a point where I’m sort of tired of just sitting on that anger and not saying anything. it’ll pass, probably. I’m not by nature a confrontational person. in a day or two I’ll go back to just writing and making plans to make TV shows that toss out all this shit out on its ass and reblogging happy fandom things.
but right now I’m fucking angry and I’m saying something about it.
I would also like to add that I am fucking pissed that I live in a society that tries to tell me that because I am a woman it is weird that I like superheroes and action movies. (DOCTOR PEPPER I AM LOOKING AT YOU ASSHOLES) I think I just have a lot of rage today. most of the time I can acknowledge how fucked up society is without getting this angry about it. not today I guess.
also I'm doing lady superheroes for NaNo! They will be awesome. :D
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. There are
comments there.
so I just watched I Am Number Four
and came away feeling like they made the wrong movie
like okay, yeah, Alex Pettyfer’s face. I love it too, guys. I could stare at it for ridiculous amounts of time. and I mean the movie wasn’t bad?
but even though I have no idea what was up with her accent and part of me is like “really you had to make her a biker chick so you could be all look how tough she is?” a movie about Number Six would have been like three trillion times better. I mean, come on. same epic hero journey after death of mentor, except she was like a hundred times more competent than him and way more fun and in control.
guys I think they should let me write the sequel. it would be a story about how Four and Six find their four remaining brothers and sisters and their guardians and after cleaning Earth of the bad dudes (yeah I can’t be bothered to even try to remember their names at fucking five in the morning) they are like “dude we have a space ship now! LET’S GO TAKE THE FIGHT EVEN FURTHER TO THEM.”
and basically it would just be them kicking ass and taking their planet back. Four … honestly wouldn’t matter to the plot that much but he would be really pretty and have become a super competent fighter because Six taught him. He and Six would be the best tag team in the history of ever. Eight would be played by Grace Fucking Park and turn out to be a good fighter but an even better negotiator, and after a bunch of kicking ass they would manage to talk the bad dudes off their planet. Five would be played by Nathan Stewart-Jarett and be ridiculously brilliant at battle strategies. His guardian would be dead I think. Seven would be Dev Patel, the oldest and the only one who remembers Lorien, probably the first one to suggest they return and I think the most skilled with any sort of psychic abilities. His guardian would be Matthew Gray Gubler. Nine would be Deborah Ann Woll, guardian-ed by Maggie Q, and she would form a tag team of unending awesome, high spirits, hijinx and badassery with Seven which makes everyone do a WTF doubletake but works out weirdly well.
guys it would be a really good movie
I’m just saying
I tried to cut this but tumblr hates me and I’m too tired to make it work *keysmash*
i’m going to sleep some now i hope
i have left my “i am a mature adult” card outside the door for when they come to take it
reply:
"The sequel book is is called “The Power of Six” and has been out in the UK for a couple of months. You are aware that the film is based off the book by Pittacus Lore, right?"
reading the summary, the sequel looks - marginally better?
but still eh.
I don’t know too much about the book series other than that there was a rather large controversy surrounding its authors and that I’ve determined never to give any money to the guy because EW that was kind of really unethical of him if it’s even halfway true.
book or movie, I still find it really irritating that people default to a male POV so often. I’m partially feeling this so strongly right now because I’ve been hanging out on the NaNo forums a lot recently and have seen so many people say oh my MC is a guy on a hero quest and have seen people actually saying I don’t write ladies because it’s just Too Hard with the Feminists and all
and it makes me want to smash things
reply:
"Anonymous asked:
but the movie is based on a book, so we can't blame the movie for telling the wrong story-line."
the book clearly told the wrong story too!
Mostly I’m just irritated that I live in a society where the story about Four is the right story to tell instead of the story about Six.
because seriously the story about Six would a) have more explosions, b) have more competence, c) have more fighting, d) have more ladies, e) have less sad moping. ALL THINGS I AM INVESTED IN.
but the book’s writers (and I am not even going into the weird stuff that happened with that whole thing) defaulted to a male POV because that’s what so many people do (and I’m seeing it again and again on the NaNoWriMo boards right now) because of society
and that is so fucking stupid.
later post:
oh man guys I am being kind of serious and text-y today. uh, sorry?
But see here is my problem. I love action movies. I love superhero movies especially! I love watching people be kickass and competent and having exceptional abilities that they use for good. It’s pretty sweet.
this current anger is kind of a culmination of a lot of things.
1) the Avengers trailer. I am going to love that movie, I’m pretty sure. I LOVE love love team movies, and team superhero movies/shows are just a;sdkhgdlghs;dg sd for me. but there are still - oh, wait, there’s like two women in it. TWO. in a cast of like ten?
2) I wanted to watch superhero movies last night. I have a total of one superhero movie in my possession that is not primarily about males, I’m pretty sure (and that one is Wonder Woman the animated movie, which as much as I love it has some issues of its own). I think they are all about white people though there may be one with a PoC as a main character. I really like most of these movies, or I would not have them! I feel like they are well done movies. it’s just kind of tiring not seeing myself anywhere in them.
3) like stated, the NaNo forums. all these people writing, and it’s awesome, but I look at how many people have male POV’s or are like “I know I have to have a lady somewhere in it” and it seems to always end up being a total stereotype or they say how hard it is to write ladies because Those Feminists or they sit around dissing feminine women or women who don’t fight or aren’t Good Enough or other stuff like that.
and then I have to look at all this shit, this completely sucky picture, and I’m still one of the lucky ones. PoC are in the same situation. WoC? In the world of superhero and action movies it feels like they might as well not exist sometimes. Transgender men and women? Yeah, they’re lucky if they get so much as a bit character in an animated show.
and that just makes me so. angry. and I guess I have hit a point where I’m sort of tired of just sitting on that anger and not saying anything. it’ll pass, probably. I’m not by nature a confrontational person. in a day or two I’ll go back to just writing and making plans to make TV shows that toss out all this shit out on its ass and reblogging happy fandom things.
but right now I’m fucking angry and I’m saying something about it.
I would also like to add that I am fucking pissed that I live in a society that tries to tell me that because I am a woman it is weird that I like superheroes and action movies. (DOCTOR PEPPER I AM LOOKING AT YOU ASSHOLES) I think I just have a lot of rage today. most of the time I can acknowledge how fucked up society is without getting this angry about it. not today I guess.
also I'm doing lady superheroes for NaNo! They will be awesome. :D
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. There are
comments there.