Magical Mondays: Using Magic to Make Drama

Pretty much all shows have some drama, because drama means conflict, and conflict means an interesting story, but drama for the sake of drama aggravates me. For example, if you kill a character and give them a big emotional send off that makes sense with the plot, then great. However, if you then somehow magically bring that character back so that the other characters have to go through the drama of killing them again, that is just drama for the sake of drama and it’s pretty stupid.

“Everything’s Coming Up Lucifer”: A Lucifer Season Premiere Review

Season 2 of Lucifer is here and I’m so excited! I love this trash show. Despite many problematic issues and some stereotyped writing, this show is remarkably entertaining and Season 2 looks set up to be better than the last one. I’m actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the latest episode and by how excited I am for the rest of the season. I was also pleased to find that certain issues with the show have been fixed and that the overall plot for Season 2 involving Lucifer’s mother actually seems like it might be really interesting.

Spoilers for first episode of Lucifer Season 2.

Trailer Tuesdays: Channel Zero: Candle Cove

With the end of September not too long in the future, Halloween is practically just around the corner. Whether you’re waiting for those creepy final days of October or have been celebrating the spooktacular since the Fourth of July ended, for scare aficionados and average people who trawl the internet, one of the easiest ways to catch a scare these days is to read up on some creepypasta. We’ve slightly discussed creepypasta before, but as a refresher, “creepypasta” is typically the name given to scary stories written on the internet, especially by the anonymous hordes who frequent 4Chan. While many of these stories typically devolve into “there was this lost episode of [insert cartoon show] where some character died. Between that there were one frame pictures of various gory scenes, and something about bleeding hyperrealistic eyes,” SyFy seems to have latched onto one of the beloved oldies in hopes of making something truly terrifying for the holiday season. Me? I’m not so sure they can pull it off.

Throwback Thursdays: Batman: The Animated Series, “Harley and Ivy”, and Feminism

Occasionally in the 90s we’d get a cartoon that would dedicate at least one episode to feminism or at least some vague notion of female empowerment. Batman: The Animated Series is no exception, and the episode “Harley and Ivy” is definitely one of my all-time favorites—after all, it introduced me to my absolute favorite femslash pairing. The episode in general does some great things, but it’s also still pretty problematic. At the heart of these problems is how we get feminism promoted to us through two female villains, causing it to look more like straw feminism than actual feminism. Despite that, though, this episode addresses everything from sexism to abusive relationships, street harassment, and female friendships.

Fanfiction Fridays: Little Rebellions by CompletelyDifferent

Our Pearl is (relatively) happy, but what about the others?

So… Steven Universe, am I right?

This “Summer of Steven” has been a wild ride, opening audiences’ eyes further to the injustices going on on Homeworld, the internal struggles of the Crystal Gems, the increasing grey morality of everything, and how Earth and its inhabitants keep moving on through all of this. While the Crystal Gems are focused on the immediate problems on Earth—allowing Jasper to run around is probably not great for gemkind or mankind alike—today’s fic takes a look at the current situation from another point of view: the view of Homeworld’s Pearls.

Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: Women, Sexuality, and the Devil

Nothing bothers me more than the fact that religion has such a bad relationship with sex. In my particular experience, I am sick and tired of Christians having so many hangups about sex. I don’t necessarily have an issue with some Christians wanting to wait to have sex until marriage—I don’t agree with it, but as long as Christians don’t judge people who chose to do something different with their sexuality, then I’m fine with it. But that tends to not be the case. Individual Christians might be fine with it, but many Christian institutions tend not to be. I can’t tell you how many times as a kid I attended events that said “sex is a gift from God” but then proceed to say things like “but if you ever masturbate you’re sinning, if you think about sex you’re sinning, if you have sex ever then not only are you sinning but you’ll probably get a sexually transmitted disease, get pregnant, and even (especially if you’re a woman) you’ll be used up and broken.” This might not always be the intentional message, but I have seen and talked with enough teens to know this is the message that often gets through. The constant push from Christians to avoid any sort of sex or even exploration of sexuality certainly diminishes the belief that sex is a gift from God. But these modern problems aren’t the only thing that makes it seem like sex isn’t a gift from God. It’s Christianity’s long history of portraying sex as evil. Christianity has long listed numerous demons whose whole purpose was to tempt humans into some sort of “sexual perversion”, from Satan to Lilith and many others. There is also an obsession in Christian history with regulating peoples’ sex lives. There was a time when even married sex was considered lustful if it wasn’t done for procreation. Anything beyond married procreative sex was seen as the temptation of the devil.

Unfortunately, that’s not all. According to many religious teachings, this temptation into sexual sin was often seen to manifest itself primarily through women. Women were often thought to be more susceptible to lustful urges and temptation. Women were furthermore thought to have a closer connection to the devil because of this and because of their connection to Eve, the first woman, who was believed to have caused the downfall of man. And this is even reflected in our pop culture. I’m more than a little annoyed that more often than not in our pop culture, any and all sexuality is connected to the devil or demons, and that is all often wrapped in a nice sexist bow. While it’s understandable that our pop culture gets these ideas from religious sources, it’s certainly not healthy or helpful.

Hopes and Dreams for a Xena: Warrior Princess Reboot

If you’re a Xena: Warrior Princess fan like myself, then you have probably heard that a reboot is in the works. Sadly, it is a reboot and not a continuation, which means Lucy Lawless and Renée O’Connor will not be reprising their roles as Xena and Gabrielle. That’s a little sad, but I guess I get the direction the Powers That Be are pursuing.

That being said, if this is going to be a reboot, I have a couple of suggestions and requests for how to make a Xena reboot successful today while still being true to the spirit of the show.

The Mists of Avalon: An Attempt at a Feminist Retelling of the Arthurian Legends

The Mists of Avalon started out as a novel that was published in 1983 by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and in 2001 it was adapted into a TNT mini-series. I have sadly never read the book, but I did watch the mini-series when I was younger and recently got the opportunity to see it again. As a child I was enchanted by the mini-series, but now as an adult I have some criticisms for what is meant to be a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legends.

Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: The Lucifer Season Finale & Feminist Theology

Almost a month ago the Lucifer season finale premiered and I enjoyed the heck out of the episode. I loved everything from seeing Lucifer pray to getting a glimpse of hell, but the show really threw me a curve ball with Lucifer’s final line in the episode and the feminist theologian in me isn’t sure how to feel about it.

gif via dailyluciferonfox

Major spoilers for the Lucifer season finale after the jump.

Lucifer Perpetuating Rape Culture Despite Itself

Lucifer is one of my current favorite shows on television. It’s not exactly progressive, but it is entertaining as heck and has a ton of fun theology that I can sink my teeth into. However, Lucifer isn’t without faults, and while Lucifer as the devil is always somewhat problematic (it’s basically a part of his character at this point), I have had very few issues with how the show discussed sex and consent—until recently.

Trigger warning for discussions of rape culture, and spoilers for Lucifer Episodes 10 and 11 after the jump.