There's an awesome documentary that follows Icelandic band Hatari in the run-up to and during their 2019 Eurovision performance in Tel Aviv, that shows how and why they decided to go to Eurovision (despite the boycott) and show their support for Palestine while in Tel Aviv against the Eurovision rules and the Israelis' best efforts to stop them.
It goes more in-depth in to their history and their politics in general, their visit to Palestine and their working together with Palestinian artist Bashar Murad and their consulting with lots of Palestinians for this event, its really great. Also is full of scenes with Israelis being terrible power-tripping pathetic assholes, of course.
You can watch/download the documentary here: [A Song Called Hate]
I don't feel like turning this into a huge essay, as there's not much for me to talk about. The show is only 8 episodes long so far and Kinger doesn't play a huge role in most of them.
But if I can be honest, I find it kind of... really distasteful how Kinger's presence in the narrative is handled.
To sum it up, it basically feels like this:
Kinger to Pomni in Episode 3: The worst thing you can do to someone in the circus is make them feel unwanted and unloved.
Literally everyone except for Ragatha and sometimes Pomni but only when he's 'his real self': Okay but why would I ever give a shit about Kinger?
I feel like I almost never see anyone who criticizes this show address how weird it is that Pomni's relationship with Kinger, a mentally ill man with what is implied to be some form of dementia, is basically "I literally couldn't care less about him unless he's lucid, which is when 'the real Kinger' is here and when he actually matters to me."
I know that's very uncharitable towards Pomni but, considering they only had one moment of bonding in Episode 3, followed by very little interaction between them, the fact that she doesn't push back even a little on the way Jax talks about Kinger in Episode 6, the fact that she mentally debated giving Kinger an access pass in Episode 7 and based her decision on whether or not it would be dark in the console room, and the fact that she reacts to Kinger becoming lucid in Episode 8 as if "the real Kinger" was gone this whole time, It Feels Bad.
I think Kinger could've been an eccentric sillyguy with memory issues without the implication that his presence in the narrative only actually ever matters when the "real Kinger" is present.
Also, the show uses Kinger's presence for inconsequential comedy 95% of the time, and the remaining 5% for angsty moments or exposition dumps, and expects those moments to hit as hard as they would have if this character wasn't played for laughs everywhere else.
Outside of Pomni and Ragatha's interactions with him, he's barely treated like he even exists by the other characters, and when they do acknowledge his existence they have no serious care for him at all. It's not just Jax who writes him off as "the crazy one", Gangle and Zooble don't seem to care too much about him either.
The only person who is consistently nice and close to him even while he's not lucid is Ragatha. But that then begs the question of why Ragatha doesn't know Kinger becomes lucid in darkness? She's been here, with him and Caine as constant presences, for nine years.
And on that note, why doesn't anyone ever hang out with Kinger in his fort? The fort where he's in the darkness? Because the fact that no one else knew Kinger becomes lucid in darkness genuinely just seems to imply no one cares enough about him to get to know him or spend time with him. Like, for instance, Zooble.
Zooble, who is emotionally mature and compassionate enough to tell Gangle that she needs to learn to love herself despite it all, is like "uhh what? Kinger gets sane in darkness? Thats crazyyyy I didnt know that (implication: my care for others only goes so far and I never really gave a shit about him before)."
It just... it puts a bad taste in my mouth when I put it all together.
Pomnangle's design came after Ragazooble's because I wanted to try my hand at putting those two characters together in my own way. It's not based on anyone else's design of a similar idea, and any resemblances are coincidental.
In-universe, I don't actually think her name is Pomnangle. To distinguish them from her component characters, I think a good alternate universe name for her would be Kefi, which means 'joy' in Greek.
Pomnangle or Kefi (she/her) is a compassionate but emotionally fragile jester with shifting moods represented by theatre masks. She tries to keep herself together for everyone else, to not be a bother. She feels the same overwhelming dread as Pomni and the same emotional sensitivity as Gangle, but her main survival strategy is holding everything inside until the cracks start to show.
Prior to joining the digital circus, Kefi was a retail clerk with abandoned artistic aspirations and a deep, unrelenting depression that sank deeper and deeper until eventually, she came to the C&A building with suicidal intentions. Instead, she ended up putting on a strange VR headset.
She is a frequent target of Jax's antics due to being an emotionally sensitive newcomer to the circus. At first, Caine frightens her, Kinger unsettles her, and Jax antagonizes her... so, even though she started out distrustful of them, the only friend she can really find in the circus is Poppetina (Ragatha+Zooble fusion).
Despite everything, Kefi genuinely wants the others to feel supported in ways she never has been. Helping people gives her a sense of purpose in a place where she otherwise feels powerless.
he forgit it at home @digitalr0t - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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