Ben Pounds

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

2 hours ago

I might as well say it. For me the more interesting comparison with Raya isn’t ATLA. It’s She Kills Monsters. Which has one of the same writers. It illustrates the difference between a personal project and a studio film. At some point I want to rewatch both to write more at length on this.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

2 hours ago

You know what? Might as well say it. In the play “She Kills Monsters” the slangy tone combined with the epic setting makes sense as a posthumous D&D campaign written by a dead sister. Also the lesbian characters are allowed to just be lesbian rather than hinting. Among other things.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

2 hours ago

You know what? Might as well say it. In the play “She Kills Monsters” the slangy tone combined with the epic setting makes sense as a posthumous D&D campaign written by a dead sister. Also the lesbian characters are allowed to just be lesbian rather than hinting. Among other things.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

2 hours ago

This really seems like a discussion about a specific video and its thumbnail in the context of a return from (supposed but not really) exile and I guess my question is “what would be better?” I’ll try to organize my own point better later. I apologize.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

2 hours ago

My own views on Ellis’s work are mixed as they would be for anyone with as long a career as hers that I’m actually familiar with. I like her work more than you but for the reasons I outlined, am opposed to putting it on a pedestal. But I was trying not to get into those specifics too much because…

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

3 hours ago

Honestly my thing with Raya is that it felt like a neutered version of “She Kills Monsters” whose writer worked on it and a lot of the elements of which are better realized there. But I’ve probably confused you enough on this thread unless you’re interested to hear more of my thoughts on that.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

3 hours ago

Except maybe the whole thing of the video being wrong for being “self serving” or “calculated.” I mean all public videos are those things to some extent. I guess unless there’s some alternative thing that would be better for her to do, I don’t really get the point of this specific criticism.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

3 hours ago

I wasn’t trying to challenge your base points at all. I think that’s the source of confusion.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

3 hours ago

Or is it “what does this say about society?” which is the direction I was trying and probably failing to take it.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

3 hours ago

Is the context “what should she do better to redeem herself?” or is it “what should someone else do to avoid being like her?” or is it “we’re just shooting the breeze on how we feel.” None are wrong per se, but they’re different.

Ben Pounds @wildlystrollingben.bsky.social

3 hours ago

My main points are that there are more interesting broader questions, to me at least, than whether Lindsay Ellis is good or bad as an individual and even if that is sorta the focus, there are multiple ways to approach what we do about that and how valuable each approach is…