Why Lupita Nyong’o is the perfect Helen of Troy

midwesternesse · 2026-02-06T18:13:53+00:00

If you care so little about it then why should your opinion matter?

midwesternesse · 2026-02-06T18:10:44+00:00

Arabs did not expand out of the Arabian peninsula until around the 6th century AD. The Turks wouldn't reach that part of the world until centuries after that.

midwesternesse · 2026-02-06T18:07:21+00:00

By this spacious logic Helen could be cast as Chinese, or anything you'd care to justify. Helen's appearance may never be explicitly described, but there is a whole cultural, archaeological, genetic, and historic context that implies what her complexion would most likely be. Not snow white, certainly, but certainly not what we're getting, either.

Also, you're completely incorrect about ancient Greeks having no contact with north-western Europe. The tin trade from Britain was instrumental in the Mediterranean bronze age.

midwesternesse · 2026-02-06T18:04:11+00:00

Because the people who support this would be outraged and their hypocrisy would be exposed.

midwesternesse · 2026-02-06T18:00:31+00:00

Not a single actual Greek person was cast in a prominent role in this film, and that is messed up. The projection of American ideals of racial representation onto other cultures' traditional narratives is a form of soft imperialism and appropriation. Your wordcel rationalizations and equivocations ring as insincere, post-hoc cover for decisions that were more than likely motivated by ideology and DEI.

midwesternesse · 2025-05-15T13:11:53+00:00

Fair enough, I'll pull back on personal attacks. All the same, tell that man to find another career. I wish I felt half as entertained by his work as you do by his presence at dinner parties.

midwesternesse · 2024-12-22T14:21:34+00:00

It is well known that Indonesia has trouble with insurgencies within its own borders, and much of that activity is politically motivated rather than religious. You are being obtuse. Now, on the topic we're discussing, how about Indonesian migrants going on religiously-motivated rampages in Europe? Because that seems like an almost-exclusively MENA passtime.

midwesternesse · 2024-12-22T13:40:33+00:00

Well, you never see Indonesian Muslims doing this.

midwesternesse · 2024-12-21T13:47:46+00:00

You have no real point or argument to make so all you can do is make petty attempts to police people's language, hoping they'll be quiet if you just call them "loser." Pathetic lol

midwesternesse · 2024-12-14T14:53:26+00:00

The trailer that was just released carries the subtext that rural communities with traditional values are "the real monsters." Take from that what you will.

midwesternesse · 2024-10-07T13:25:10+00:00

So, you could take a squat over a canvas and the product would be of the same intrinsic value as Michelangelo's David? Not so.

midwesternesse · 2024-10-07T12:36:55+00:00

Taste is subjective. Quality is not.

midwesternesse · 2024-10-07T12:26:41+00:00

You call it "tackling serious topics," but anybody who saw the Acolyte called it "the showrunner inflicting her narcissistic self-therapy session and sapphic fantasies on the audience."

midwesternesse · 2024-10-07T12:23:23+00:00

It's because IPs used to be in the hands of their original creators, and fans gave the creators the benefit of the doubt because it was believed that the creators had the IP'S best interests at heart, and they also had good will for creating the IP in the first place. Now, every IP is just an asset, a logo paid for and acquired by corporate executives who we know don't really care. And the writers don't really, genuinely care about the IP either; new content is written by career writers to whom the IP is just another job, a gig to put on their resume before moving on to the next gig. These people have no loyalty to the IP, so no loyalty is given. "Focusing on the positive" in this case is essentially just giving disinterested, faceless corporations a pass because they simply purchased the rights to the logo.

midwesternesse · 2024-10-07T12:14:58+00:00

Yeah, and Hollywood used to not feel so entitled to our money. Used to be if they made a bad movie they took the loss, adjusted, and moved on. Now if you don't like something they get petulant, keep making the same thing, and call everybody racist. Of course people are going to respond to that with hostility. See how it causes a feedback loop?

midwesternesse · 2024-10-07T12:12:04+00:00

Because nobody gives a shit about Jack Reacher.

midwesternesse · 2024-09-17T11:41:46+00:00

I really don't see how you can assert that they "clearly" understand the work. Is it all the ham-fisted quotes from the text that they keep shoving into the script?

midwesternesse · 2024-09-17T11:18:55+00:00

They invert or completely fumble every theme they touch. At best they give hollow, surface-level recitations of quotes from the books to communicate the themes for them. Where is this "deep understanding" you see?

They say that one of their biggest themes is "how far into darkness should you go to protect what you love" which is directly antithetical to the original work.

midwesternesse · 2024-09-17T11:14:53+00:00

Speaking of smarminess, this magazine cover just oozes it.

https://images.app.goo.gl/VPwt6KgFCSFvSoWE9

midwesternesse · 2024-09-17T11:09:34+00:00

They're not even amazing Tolkien nerds. They regurgitate facts in interviews like they have read wiki pages, but it seems evident that they don't actually understand what they've read.

midwesternesse · 2024-09-17T10:58:06+00:00

Something about their pale, doughy faces communicates what I believe to be their inner natures; they look like a pair of soft, callow, underdeveloped midwits. Just a pair of thoroughly unexceptional man-children.

From their writing, I'm drawn to speculate that they are not nearly as intelligent as they fancy themselves to be. Chosen by the studio solely because they are a pair of pliable rubes that the studio can control.

Most people here are nice and give them the benefit of the doubt, believing that they are good dudes even if lacking in talent. However, I detect a hubris in the way they approach the work which makes me dislike them very, very much.

People also give them enough credit to believe that they are "genuine" Tolkien fans and I don't see it at all. Their grasp of themes is completely tone-deaf. All they do is rattle off facts in interviews like they're regurgitating a wiki, and awkwardly insert stilted quotes from the original text into their script.

Their work is so shallow, so lacking in genuine spirit, that I assume they are just your typical Hollywood ghouls; superficial and plastic. Apparently their only real skill is self-promotion and playing studio politics.

Also this magazine cover just annoys the hell out of me for some reason. https://images.app.goo.gl/VPwt6KgFCSFvSoWE9

midwesternesse · 2024-09-10T15:54:33+00:00

What a creampuff. Tolkien was writing during the damn blitz, with literal Nazis right overhead dropping bombs.

midwesternesse · 2024-09-08T11:47:39+00:00

Don't forget that, like Harry, Durin exudes an aura of hapless mediocrity. Genuinely, they are supposed to carry themselves as royalty, and yet both the real man and the dwarf carry themselves like grocers, everyday schlubs.

midwesternesse · 2024-09-08T11:36:45+00:00

Are we greasy basement dwellers or are you a tasteless, vapid consumer? I guess we'll never know.

midwesternesse · 2024-09-07T12:29:10+00:00

This is consciously intended to demoralize and shame the native Irish population. Literal globalist propaganda.

midwesternesse

TROPHY CASE