Jane Austen really said ‘I respect the “I can fix him” movement but that’s just not me. He’ll fix himself if knows what’s good for him’ and that’s why her works are still calling the shots today.
Meanwhile Emily Brönte just said “We can make each other worse.”
Mary Shelley said, "I can make him
what the fuck was wrong with people that Labyrinth was originally a flop. How could they take any aspect of it so for granted. How could they fucking do that to Jim Henson. Newspapers were calling it boring and even ugly. I want to go back in time and beat their asses.
One of the problems with Labyrinth, despite Bowie, despite the puppetry, despite how well it’s acted or how good it looks, is that the main character does not have a character arc. There is no growth or change in her throughout the entire movie.
Sarah starts off disliking her brother, and feeling like she’s being put upon because of him. She goes to rescue him not because she cares so much about him, but to avoid trouble for herself. At the end she rescues him, but there is no joy for her. She doesn’t appreciate or love him any more than she did at the start. She maybe tolerates him a bit more, but she’s in no way grateful he’s still around.
I watched it both as a kid of about 10 when in came out, and also as an adult a few years back. As a child I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t like Sarah that much, until I rewatched it as an adult and realized she just has no character growth to her.
Let’s analyze!
1) In the start of the film, Sarah is very possessive over her toys, specifically the stuffed bear, Lancelot. She becomes furious to see that the bear was taken from her collection, declaring “I hate it! I hate you!” when she finds the bear in Toby’s room. She cares more about her things than her little brother.
While in the Labyrinth, Sarah is repeatedly tempted to abandon her quest. When she is dropped in a garbage dump after eating a poisoned peach, the trash goblin there gives Sarah a re-creation of her beloved stuffed bear, Lancelot, and the option to stay inside a perfect copy of her bedroom. She can have all her beautiful things forever, as long as she gives up Toby. Sarah, forgetful from the peach, is swayed at first, but soon realizes it’s a trick, shouting “it’s all junk! I have to save Toby!”
At the end of the film, she tucks Lancelot in next to the sleeping Toby, reinforcing that she has realized her brother is more important than her things.
2) When first entering the Labyrinth, Sarah has many presumptions about how things were supposed to work; fairies are sweet and kind and grant wishes, walls don’t move, door are obvious, and there’s no need to ask questions.
However, as the adventure goes on, Sarah chooses to approach things with an open mind. When she hears Ludo roaring, she says “things aren’t what they seem” and takes the risk to approach what sounds like a terrible monster. In the end, she gets a dear friend.
(This can be argued as tying back to her behavior with her father, stepmother, and little brother, all of whom she assumed the worst of.)
3) Relating to the above, Sarah spends much of the early film declaring “that’s not fair!” to life’s inconveniences, Jareth’s challenges, and the Labyrinth’s weirdness.
When she takes Hoggle’s jewels in retaliation for tricking her, he yells “thems my rightful property! It’s not fair!” She says “no, it isn’t” and you can see understanding hit her as she continues “but that’s the way it is”. The world isn’t always going to conform to her needs and expectations, and she’s been making things harder on herself by refusing to accept that.
4) When we’re first introduced to Sarah’s room we’re given a long, slow pan of her many fantasy-themed belongings. This shot serves two purposes.
The first is to hint at the fantastical things coming; many of the creature and events in the Labyrinth are reflected in Sarah’s books, toys, and pictures.
The second is to establish how Sarah retreats into fantasy to avoid her problems; a point emphasized when the camera swings to Sarah and we see her doing her makeup while quoting from a fairytale, despite having just had an argument with her stepmother.
In the ending scenes of the film, Sarah is putting away her books and makeup and toys. She’s experienced an actual fantasy world and found it not a haven, but even more perilous than the real world. She’s become disillusioned. After a bit, though, the images of the friends she made in that world come to her and remind her that they’re still there, if she needs them. She’s matured and learned to face her problems better, but she doesn’t have to give up all her fantasies in the process.
saying ‘sarah doesn’t have a character arc’ is probably coming from the exact same place as the people who snubbed the movie forty years ago: female characters are often considered boring and static because *viewers don’t care to understand their inner motivations or take their emotional development seriously*
is the character actually flat or did you see a girl shaped shadow on the wall and stop looking any further?
Well shit, Henry Jenkins, out here in 1997 dropping truth bombs
Oh hey I need this for a research paper I'm writing, thank you!
i mean he had been out here since 1988 dropping such bombs:
"'fandom' is a vehicle of marginalized subcultural groups (women, the young, gays, etc.) to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations; it is a way of appropriating media texts and rereading them in a way that serves different interests, a way of transforming mass culture into a popular culture"
Jenkins, Henry. “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5, no. 2 (1988): 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038809366691.
there are even some earlier works in fan studies but that’s what i have ready to hand.
Henry's been amazing for a long time.
AO3 Top Relationships Bracket- Round 2 Side 1
Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet (Our Flag Means Death) vs James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (Marvel)
Blackbeard/Stede
Bucky/Steve
See ResultsThis poll is a celebration of fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with many of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement, and refrain from harassment.
#not reading the tags is selfcare btw #tbh im genuinely surprised to see stucky fans being incredibly volatile & dismissive of ofmd's incredible impact on queer/trans folks & POC
#like you've never known such pure fucking relief as watching ed & stede kiss for the first time after decades of queerbaiting
#like the writers could have left them as the subtext and tropes featured in eps 1-8 that queer fans are used to identifying #but this show actually takes care of and respects its fans and even if you don't like this ship/show we gotta show some respect to that
#like what other show has a middle aged indigenous jewish man and a middled aged autistic man finding their first loves in their late 40s??
#and not just has them as an irrefutably canon couple but their relationship is the entire A plot of the show?? literally revolutionary
#like I'm genuinely confused by stucky fans saying their fan fic is gonna override OFMD's insane impact on the future of queer media??
#OFMD shows studios that you can have a wildly successful show centred around an mlm ship AND still appeal to mainstream audiences
#THAT is what influences and builds more queer media for us to enjoy folks
#and tbc this is just addressing comments I've seen in the replies btw I know the poll itself has nothing to do with media impact or whatever
#like i 100% voted for stucky in the poll bc i don't really care for stede so I don't read fic involving him #but CHRIST y'all
#you can like one ship/media better and not tear down another ship/media entirely #these tags are not it
tags from @dorian-they-ao3
These are excellent tags. But as someone who used to be deeply into the shipping culture of the MCU, this is not surprising considering the treatment of people of color by the mcu fandom.
we talk a lot about how terrified and angry crowley was when heaven tried to execute aziraphale via hellfire and gabriel told him to shut his mouth and die already, and how aziraphale seemed to be having the time of his life in the holy water bathtub down in hell, asking for rubber ducks and making michael miracle him a towel. we know that crowley was traumatized by the whole appearance-swapping experience by how he reacts to gabriel in the bookshop. and while i wholeheartedly agree with everyone's thoughts about crowley, i'm wondering if we haven't gotten it a bit wrong on az's end. we know that aziraphale tends to shove things under the rug when he's nervous or afraid. he puts on a brave face and tries his best to soldier on through whatever difficulty he's facing (see the whole bit with the metatron at the end of S2). don't let them see your fear. but we also know (per neil) that when crowley's pupils go full yellow it's a sign of extreme stress. and throughout the bathtub scene, aziraphale-crowley's eyes are blown wide to yellow. i feel like aziraphale was much more terrified (for both himself and crowley) during this scene than he let on during his later recounting of the events to crowley in the park. just something to consider.
(the nose scrunch clearly says 'i'm fine, this is fine' to all but the most attuned observer)
I so agree with this. I think that it's also important to remember Aziraphale is acting as he believes Crowley would.
To Aziraphale, Crowley is cool and brave. Crowley wouldn't show an ounce of fear, they'd be suave and confident, Crowley Would put on a bit of a show.
And Aziraphale isn't one to go back and Talk about how he felt. We only know about Crowley's reaction as in depth as we do, not because they Talk about it with Aziraphale, but because the story confronts Crowley dead on with Gabriel. Crowley uses the description of events as a persuasion tactic with Aziraphale and then we see them spell it out for Jimbriel later. But it isn't like Aziraphale gets a chance to tell off Beelzebub
And as OP says, Aziraphale sweeps his feelings under the rug, he isn't about to Revisit anything unpleasant!
they were talking past each other. crowley was saying come with me, be with me stay with me. aziraphale was saying come with me, be with me, stay with me. and the only thing the other one heard is: "with me is not enough"
if you are gonna do a woman presenting aziraphale you MUST keep in mind that she must either be a) butch, b) ms frizzle levels of clockable fem, or c) some other manner of Extremely Obvious Lesbian. if the first thing anyone thinks about man shaped aziraphale is that he's gay you MUST keep this principle for when she is woman shaped
come on now. make an effort. images from the digital transgender archive and the lesbian herstory archive
