enduringenthusiast

[enduringenthusiast]

Somebody on Twitter pointed out that almost all of the netflix Avatar show was filmed so that the focus of the action would be at the center, so it could be viewed vertically, like on tiktok

[enduringenthusiast]

There's a lot of this going around in NATLA but Bumi is the worst character assisnation to me (Suki and katara were also very hard to watch but at least they had some things going for them). I had to go back and watch the original episode to make sure I didn't have some wild false memory of it. I don't understand why the creators hated Bumi so much to make him this neglectful venegeful person?

Knowing it's bumi right away ruins everything. Yes, it takes away the suspense, but it makes their interactions so confusing. In the original sure bumi is doing this crazy stuff but at the end, Aang isn't even mad he's just so happy to see his friend and it makes the audience give it all a pass. Combining all the problems into omashu makes Bumi horrible, which they know and have several comments that he's not fit to lead, but also ends up addressing Bumis hate and not his role in how bad the city is. In the original omashu is... kind of the perfect city? Things are going well, people seem happy, they're taking an active effort in the war, Bumi even has a line that the people are too well fed. He's a good king, which makes the craziness fun and esoteric instead of a irredeemable danger to those around him! Even if the creators thought "what kind of friend does this, lets make him evil" another thing to pay attention to is that Aang actually isnt in very much danger, it just feels like he is. The gemstone surrounding them was candy, the beast chasing him was a pet, the man fighting him was his friend. They took all of that and said but what if he was actually bloodthirsty. In NATLA, Bumi resents aang and is doing this out of anger rather than wanting to impart wisdom in his own funny way, but that change doesn't translate to the other changes. If your gonna rewrite things you at least have to make those rewrites consistent. In the original he ran away, but bumi was just happy to see him again. In the new one, he doesn't run away... but bumi resents him for running away? Most ironic of all is that I imagine they made these changes to be more dramatic or have more narrative impact but the effect is the opposite. The og is pretty silly and could definitely be labeled more on the filler side, and yet Bumis lesson to Aang to think outside the box is relevant in the finale of the whole show - he finds his own way to handle Ozai. Here with Bumi being angry and venegeful, we get Aang learning his own lesson about... friendship? Relying on people? Feel like we learned that one already. With your very limited run time, what do we earn by having Bumi act this way, more guilt on Aang? We learned that already too. When you cut out 2/3 of the episodes and only keep the ones that fit your "tight" narrative, you sure do end up repeating the same lesson 8 times in a row. I don't hate NATLA there were parts I even liked, but everything in Omashu was so rushed and confusing and ruined that I started hoping they'd include less so they didn't mess it up rather than being excited for my favorites moments. But I will say his costume was incredible.

[enduringenthusiast]

Ah yes

[enduringenthusiast]

I need to talk about Gwen's arc and the beautiful growth and regression and change she goes through all around the idea that she is a danger to the people she loves. When we officially meet her in Itsv a crucial part of her backstory is that "she doesn't do friends anymore." She blames herself for Peter's death and doesn't let herself get close to anyone because being spiderman makes her a hazard. The only person who knew is dead. Then she meets the spidergang and they win and she thinks maybe I can do this after all, but she can never see those people again. And I think part of that newfound trust that she can be loved is part of why she tells her dad she's spiderman, sure shes backed up against the wall, but theres a sense that telling him will work, i.e. she can trust another person to know. Of course it doesn't go well and she runs away. And she learns that that feeling she's had? The belief that she's a danger to others just by being? The idea that she cant get close to anyone? It's not a feeling, it is irrefutable true in every multiverse. Repairing things with her dad means he dies. The other friend she has? Well he's a hazard to her, if they get close she dies. And she accepts that and internalizes it and fights against her dad and fights against miles. But she's sent home and she either has to face her dad and condemn him or continue to stay away. But something magical happens instead. Her confessing her identity, her love for her dad and her dad's love of her, saves him. It's because of Gwen he quits being captain. It because he knows and loves her and chose her that he won't die in a canon event. And that's the turning point where Gwen learns being close to another person isn't how you hurt them, it's how you save them. So she let's herself get close to her team she recruits, and she let's herself believe that Miles could be right.

[enduringenthusiast]

One of my absolutely favourite things about Across the Spiderverse, other than the amazing sound and visuals, is the small little metaphorical forshadowing we get.

My person favourite is the cakes. When Jefferson and Rio are talking to Miles's teacher, she tells them that Miles "wants to have his cake and eat it too" which is impossible and Miles bursts in and says "unless you have two cakes." And it's such a subtle way to hint that Miles has conflicting intreasts, and that's his biggest issue. He wants to be Spider-man, but he doesn't want to sacrifice the people he cares about. And in case you think I'm grasping at straws here, they do more with the cake when Miles literally decides to buy two cakes for his dad because he cannot fit the writing on one, but by the time he gets home after doing all his Spider-manning both cakes are destoryed. It's forshadowing not only to the fact that Miles desperately wants both things equally, but by trying to have both of them, he's going to cause detrimental damage.

The idea of having things in double is a general reoccurring theme in ATPV. We see it with the cakes, and we see it when Miles and Pav talk about Chai-tea, and Miles tells the spot not to call it an "ATM Machine" because M means Machine. The constant reference to the unnecessary repetition is almost representing the duality of being Spider-man and how taking on that role means making sacrifices and potentially harming your normal life, but it's also forshadowing to the fact that in the end, we have two Miles's. We have Spider-man Miles and Prowler Miles.

Things in this movie come in doubles and I absolutely fucking love it 😭

[enduringenthusiast]

Okay yeah I wanna talk about the old lady on the bench bc I can’t stop thinking about that scene. When Barbie sees this older woman sitting alone reading on the bench, her first thought is that she’s beautiful, but of course, she’s not just a person, she’s Barbie, and Barbie has a purpose. As a toy, Barbie existed for the purpose of inspiring confidence in girls, and telling them that they can be anything. When she tells the woman “you’re so beautiful” she’s telling her, partially bc she knows it to be true, but partially bc that’s her job as Barbie, to make the woman with her feel good about herself.

This is why it’s so freeing to her when the woman replies “I know it” with a laugh. Barbie’s job is to inspire girls, but this is a woman who’s lived her life and shaped her identity almost completely divorced from Barbie’s influence. She doesn’t need Barbie to tell her she’s beautiful, she knows. But unlike Sasha, who’s still v young and feels the need to actively reject Barbie’s influence, the woman on the bench is content to share space and time with Barbie; she just doesn’t need anything from her. This moment is one of the first times that Barbie is allowed to experience existence & connection for their own sake and not as a conduit for her own commodification and that is why it’s the most important part of the movie

[enduringenthusiast]

your honour their married and thats their child

[enduringenthusiast]

I heard complaints about the Barbie movie being made just to sell toys, little did they know this movie was actually made to sell "I am kenough" sweaters

[enduringenthusiast]

When I was watching it my first reaction especially to America Ferrara's monologue was "woah this is layering it on a little thick." And then I stopped and thought about why that was my reaction. If you've come to a magical land of imagination all about women in power and it has been forcibly taken over by men and finally, finally you are able to say your piece about the state of feminism, wouldn't you go off to? Maybe it wasn't "subtle" but... nothing in the movie was subtle, it was all about authenticity and letting yourself feel and finding worth and humanity in those feelings. Doesn't rage at a system that oppresses you count in those feelings.

i can understand why people think the activism plot of barbie was too “heavyhanded” but OF COURSE the barbie movie was going to have a feminist message! the whole point of barbieland is that the women run everything! we see barbie getting catcalled in the trailer and punch the guy who does it! personally, i felt seen when america ferrara’s character was going into how hard it is to be a woman and it’s still important to go into that in depth because it REALLY IS hard to be a woman! and men don’t understand that and they need to see this movie, and understand it, and maybe the treatment of the kens will help them see how they treat women.

[enduringenthusiast]

Okay I don't have the spoons for an in-depth essay about the Barbie movie so here's my loose thoughts:

The transition from despising Barbie, not for the idea she represents but the ideas that are forced upon her to being a fierce supporter of Barbie is such the quintessential teenage experience.

The beauty of human creativity, how our ideas can change and grow and become even more than we could have imagined.

The themes of motherhood and its beauties and hardships

The depression Barbie came for everyone's necks?? I just know that's getting a meme 😭

I love that Ken had a character arc too, going from an accessory to a perpetrator of the patriarchy. Then unlearning misogyny as he realizes, when he places his value in himself, in his being instead of Barbie's, the fragility of his ego goes away. Great message!

Weird Barbie becoming more butch and the Sugar's Daddy and Magic Earring Kens living in her weird house, I know what yall are 😏

The mom was so me every time she freaked out about understanding the references of the different Barbies.

I loved the dismantling the Barbieland patriarchy scene, especially the jokes about the Godfather 😭

Will Ferrell's character was so goofy, I loved that he wasn't super evil, just a weird guy.

The overall idea of how wonderful it is to be human! The growth, change, joy, sadness, the existentialism! It's all so wonderful, it's all new every day all day. It really gave me a renewed sense of being :,)

[enduringenthusiast]

🌟 Barbie spoilers 🌟

Obsesses with the fact that by the end of the movie, even as the Ken's gain relevance, where they live in Barbieland is never resolved.

[enduringenthusiast]

Saw Barbie. Whatever you think it's going to be it is 10x that and also nothing like that at all

[enduringenthusiast]

Very true, but it does mean the odds of them fucking in the closet were high enough that it was the major simulation just saying. Church wrote multiple seasons of fanfiction about his friends send tweet.

Though I am actually a little disappointed too, I know I'm in the minority but I loved a lot of what came out after chorus especially s15. The episode where they catch up on what they've doing (previously on) is one of my favorite and the grimmons that season is *chefs kiss*

I'm not kidding they're really bringing him back

This means seasons 14(?)-zero never happened. They were simulations run by Church. And do you know what that means?

Grif and Simmons never fucked in a closet.

[enduringenthusiast]

I am OBSESSED with what a bold fucking fan service move it is to say "people think this shows been declining since this episode? Fuck it, IT WAS ALL THAT EPISODE" which is the kind of wack ass retconning only this show can pull off.

[enduringenthusiast]

Lots of comparisons between comic and movie Nimona and ND's journey, but I wanna talk about the meta between the journeys of Nimona the movie character and Nimona the movie. I know the movie was basically finished when it first got axed, so I'm sure any relation is incidental, but it's powerful to me to see Nimona the project rise up from the ashes like Character Nimona. I know the comic ended grittier and more ambiguous, but it's beautiful to me that a movie that got killed after a bigger corporate brand took control, one that doesn't often support the themes and characters present in Nimona, could have a happy ending with new life, reuniting with its fans, saved by people who believed in it, just like Character Nimona does.

[enduringenthusiast]

Adrien sure. had. a day. huh.

bonus:

[enduringenthusiast]

i’m staying with my parents a couple weeks until my new apartment is ready so they sit and watch me play zelda whenever they have a minute. and they always say stuff like “doesn’t link get lonely?” and “don’t you think he’s tired from running everywhere?” and “does he have a home?” like exactly exactly thats what i’m always saying. they have got to get on tumblr