Notice how I don’t have to dishonestly erase and ignore the actual context of Finn and Rey’s interactions in order to make these? That’s because these are the beats of an actual meet-cute and not disingenuous distortions of canon. I am critical of how violently Finn was struck in the face and how it was played comedically, but it is part of a common pattern with these stories.
Yes, the Rey and Kyle visuals could look similar if you took their scenes out of all context while disregarding the characters and stories–and that’s the point. These shitty “parallel” posts are attempts to sanitize the context of the originals, as though kidnap, torture, and manipulation constitute a normal meet-cute.
Also isn’t it interesting how these posts disregard an actual “Reylow” parallel where the Light Fury is trapped and terrified, then appears to be borne away against her will? For all that shippers insist the abduction was romantic as hell, it seems they don’t like actually acknowledging Rey’s pain and fear…
…or the fact that this means Kyle’s actual parallel in HTTYD 3 is this wavy-haired douche dressed in black.
Also saying “they’re kid’s movies” to discourage critique is an ass move. Do you think children are immune to issues like abuse and violence in real life? You don’t think children, like the rest of us, use stories to understand and cope with their lives? I know I relied on fiction as a child to deal with things I couldn’t tell people and didn’t even have the vocabulary to express. If anything children’s media need to be scrutinized more, not less, for the ways they’re framing these and other issues.
You’re also a raging hypocrite if you’re fine with kidnap, torture, and manipulation being disguised as a cute and harmless romance and being deliberately put in the tags for a children’s movie (especially when many of the shippers openly admit the ship is a kink for them), but think the people who criticize that practice need to “chill a little.” Fuck. Off.
Rebloging this because of the damn good quality of content and editing
Aww, thank you kindly! While I did make the edits frame-accurate to get side-by-side gifs, the footage did most of the work for me and even I was surprised by how good the match was. The facial expressions, the angles, right down to Finn and Toothless’s swagger in their “mating dances” sequences (literal for Toothless, more sublimated for Finn). Just look at the way they shake their bodies side to side while they try to impress and the way Rey and the lady Fury look at them, from “d’awww you are the most adorable thing ever and I could eat you up” to “should have quit while you were ahead, pal.”
It just goes to show what old and common tropes TFA was drawing from, and demonstrates that the Finnrey scenes were by no means subtle. It’s just fandom swearing up and down that these scenes can’t possibly be romantic for Reasons.
L.J.'s Obsessions 