#[ original for the flashback; remake for the present :) ]

[nightmarecountry]

🦷 🦷 🦷 {traumatic flashback tiem} -Cabal

Dream's hand is on his jaw.

He knows that hand better than his own. Knows to expect an adjustment of some kind; to feel his lord's will pass through him and change something they've found wanting, whether it's the depth of his hungers, the set of his jaw, or some strange unnameable thing only Dream can feel. None of those this time: my teeth, the Corinthian thinks, knows, by the way Dream's hand drifts upwards towards his right eye. He starts to open it wider, playing at being docile because he's not allowed to bite and it'll go faster if he doesn't struggle, but--

A metallic clink: pliers in a bowl of teeth, HIS teeth, pried from one eye socket with surgical precision while he thrashed and roared and wept like an animal, which he wasn't and had never been. Cabal knew as much as he did that the thing on the table (himself, though he tried desperately to pretend it was something else, that he was somewhere else, that this wasn't happening) wasn't a person. He told it as much, very casually, and ignored the Corinthian's agonised snarl of protest when another tooth was pulled loose. Whatever was streaming from his mouth wasn't blood, and he wanted to push it back in along with the teeth Cabal had taken, but he couldn't MOVE.

He came back to himself in a slow, strange wave, and was appalled to find that two things had happened without his permission. The first was that his teeth were clamped around Dream's knuckles, desperately trying to sever his fingers, which hadn't bled so much as a drop in response. That was bad enough, but the second--the second was that his whole body was shaking, heaving with frantic breaths and sobs like an animal with an actual nervous system, which wasn't a reaction he could remember ever having to anything before, and Dream wasn't bleeding but the Corinthian's eyes were definitely wet with something.

Horrified, he did the only thing his instincts would let him: he bit down harder.

[centrally-unplanned]

I watched the Scott Pilgrim anime! I was deeply ambivalent, which I am sure is a shock to no one who knows me and saw it lol. I think I have a sequence of thoughts, so I will tackle the obvious one first to get it out of the way: Marketing, Adaptation, & Genre Drift in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Starting from top, if you don’t know, the Scott Pilgrim anime is not an adaptation of the original source material, but an alternate history version of the events where the titular Scott isn’t present for the majority of the episodes and Ramona Flowers is the main character. Which has been controversial! Not…amazingly controversial or anything, this is an extremely low stakes scenario and from my analysis the majority of people liked it. But controversial enough to get insufferable Kotaku articles “explaining the backlash” which don’t explain the backlash well. Let me see if I can do a better job - its fun to set low bars for yourself to clear after all.

The backlash starts with the marketing; really just the professional drama-trolls would have objected beyond an initial reaction to Netflix announcing Ramona Flowers vs the World; as a concept it makes a ton of sense, and it is essentially what they actually did (well, we will get into that). But that is not how it was sold:

“Join Scott in his fight for love, life, and rock!” I’d love to, still waiting for the invite! This is the first teaser for the show, and if you do a quick “frame count” it pretty equally privileges Scott & Ramona both, but Scott is still on top and it deliberately hides any sense that it is an alternate timeline. It even has this screenshot as one of its final moments:

Which I am pretty sure does not appear in the actual anime! If it does its in some flashback alt-timeline scene in a later episode, not its implied context (in the actual episode Scott ‘loses’ this fight). I can show more evidence - casting the original cast of the movie to make it seem like a ‘recreation’, statements by O’Malley where he plays deliberately coy with the idea of how similar it's going to be, and so on - but I think I don’t have to, because it was intentional, you don’t have to read the tea leaves on this. The bait-and-switch is part of the marketing, not an accident from it.

That is the step 1: people are thrown about being deceived. The step 2 is simple - this is a deception about an adaptation. I am someone who constantly complains about shows sacrificing cohesion & storytelling for “the twist”, but its too common these days to be that mad over it in a mass way. My designated punching bag over at Kotaku points this out:

This is a recurring theme for metatextual work like Final Fantasy VII Remake and the Rebuild of Evangelion films: initially they’re presented as retellings of beloved stories, only for it to become clear at some later point that they’re going to take more than a few liberties and tell a different story entirely.

The difference here is that FFVII and Evangelion are remakes, not adaptations. FFVII is a video game being made into a video game again; Evangelion is a tv show + movie being made into a movie series. The FFVII decision was controversial, but fundamentally you can just go back and play the original game; fucking everyone hated the idea of the Evangelion rebuilds being remakes because that is pointless, the originals have aged amazingly, and they had to deviate to justify their existence (they failed at that, but a story for another time). Meanwhile, Scott Pilgrim is a comic, that has never been a TV series, or an anime. There is the movie, but did you know a bunch of comic fans hate the movie? You see a lot of comments like these all the time (from a discourse reddit thread debating the new show):

Personally, I thought it was fun. I agree with a lot of your complaints honestly, but I don’t understand how you liked the movie? I can’t stand the movie because I feel like the characters are all flat, especially Ramona who has absolutely no personality at all.

I disagree btw, the movie is great, but it is a loose adaptation - hell it was released before the final volume of the graphic novels was finished, it has a different ending! A short, cohesive movie could never adapt a long-form, episodic graphic novel. And its live action, stylistically very different. So this TV show was both branded as, and was expected to fulfill a demand for, a first “real” adaptation of the comic, that people wanted. The fact that Evangelion deviated in its remake is a poor comparison. Questioning that people want full adaptations of works they enjoy isn’t really worth our time.

Now I personally don’t care about the above two - I am explaining the debate, but they aren’t problems for me. Step 3 is where I start caring - I think Ramona Flowers vs the World is a great idea. They thought they made that, and I wish they had. But in the process of telling the bait-and-switch of the story, they also bait-and-switched the genre. There is this great quote from O’Malley about the original graphic novel’s story from an interview (whose headline we will revisit in another post, don’t you worry):

Yeah, I mean, when I was writing Scott Pilgrim the first time, I just wanted to come up with a very simple story engine: fight, fight, fight, get to the end. That gave me something to hang all this other stuff on, all this slice of life hanging out in Toronto.

Its such a nice summation of what Scott Pilgrim is - the fighting against the evil exes? Its all sizzle and jokes, none of it matters. Its a plot device to structure the real story, which is a slice-of-life romance drama, coming-of-age narrative, and extremely intimate portrait of Toronto’s scene of indie music venues and hipster coffee shops. The joke is that Scott is dealing with all this crazy video game/anime shenanigans on top of actually having to navigate very grounded past emotional damage and present challenges of adulthood. The heart of the comic is not the fight scenes, some of which literally happen in the background while other characters are talking, but scenes of a group of friends hanging out at 11:00 PM at a dive Korean restaurant:

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off meanwhile is not built around this cast. Its built around a mystery plot and Ramona Flower’s evil exes, who she is investigating, and Scott Pilgrim, uh, checks notes travelling to the future and fighting his …aged enraged alternate self from the original timeline…? Anyway, Ramona’s evil exes are mainly joke characters, comic reliefs who engage in crazy shenanigans. Half of the episodes are structured around them, and their episodes are filled with extended comedy bits and very-long fight scenes. Episode two has a 13 minutes long fight scene between two of them, including build-up, over control of the League of Evil Exes. Hell, they don’t even live in Toronto - a ton of the new anime takes place in New York City and a bit in California. The comic meanwhile has panels just…explaining locations in Toronto sometimes:

Listing the hours of operation, its so cute! The anime has no time for this in between its sci-fi plots and fight scenes, and its far cheaper for it.

The decision to focus on shallow characters like Ramona’s exes is downstream of the decision to focus on Ramona without Scott -besides the exes the rest of the characters are Scott’s friends, who Ramona gets to know through him. Which is the final point here - who are the characters people love from Scott Pilgrim?

All of Scott’s friends ofc. Characters like Lucas Lee are memes, not people. Obviously Kim Pine, Young Neil, Knives Chau and so on appear in the anime. Sometimes they have great scenes - like the adorable scene of Knives & Kim playing music together, Knives’s first time really trying to jam:

Which goes absolutely nowhere from a character perspective - Knives & Kim barely interact after this. It sets up Knives doing a comedy-meta musical for the plot, sure…but that’s boring in comparison to real emotional connections, Knives doesn't have an arc. But they can’t have more, because our main character Ramona Flowers doesn’t know these people; she wouldn’t just hang out with them, and she is busy with her mystery investigation. She sees them when she needs them for plot reasons. Kim and Knives and Stephen Stills are much flatter this time around (Julie, to her credit, kicks ass in this one).

Obviously I could point out that Scott & Ramona’s relationship in the anime, given that they have literally one date before Scott vanishes, has no depth to it, but that is easy. The funniest way to summarize this character issue is if you check the tags on Tumblr right now, you are going to be awash in Scott/Wallace shipping posts. Like I swear, at times its straight(?)-up 50% of the posts going on, its a rabid gay horde out there lusting for this sugar daddy/baby dynamic. Which makes sense, they have so much sexual tension & emotional depth as friends…in the comic. In the anime they barely know each other! Wallace hates Scott and interacts with him maybe a half dozen times, primarily to tell him to move out, then does his own shit. This is all people projecting comic!Scott/Wallace onto the current show.

There are more downstream consequences of these decisions & other issues (like the overdone meta elements, or abandoning most of the indie-music aesthetic) but this has gone on long enough. The point is that telling a different version of the story would actually be fine. It would disappoint some fans, sure, but if done well you would likely win them around. Hell, the original comic’s ending kind of sucks, good time to polish some things. But if you change the main character and the genre and the cast focus and all the character dynamics…at a certain point its just its own new story now. A story irrevocably tied to the old one, but not about any of the things the old one cared about. I think you can see why that would be a harder sell than Ramona Flowers vs the World, even if it was a good zany action comedy anime in its own right. You will get backlash from this level of drift - and you will deserve it.

Also fuck Lisa am I right? Jeez, 0 out of 2 for moving picture adaptations. What you get for being blonde I guess.

[thenightling]

Someone finally asked me the golden question. How would I have handled Universal's Dark Universe.

Disclaimer: If someone sees this and likes my ideas, you may use them for free. No consultation or acknowledgement required. Just do justice to my boo boys.

Well, I would stop so blatantly trying to make it the MCU. It's not the MCU. And don't be afraid of a little camp. These are the classic monsters after all.

Time period. Start in the past and then WORK your way to the present. Don't force all of it to be set in the present from the get go. Let the audience feel and understand these are immortal beings. You can even make it a surreal, timeless, fairy tale-like setting that just resembles the nineteenth century. Most people use generic medieval for fantasy settings but Gaslamp fantasy is a thing.

2. Start with the most well-known of the monsters. Do Dracula. It can be a book faithful adaptation, or something along the lines of Bela Lugosi or Frank Langella. I think general audiences like Dracula to be fierce and predatory but also somewhat romantic, that's why the Mina / Dracula romance has endured even though it deviates heavily from the novel. So let Dracula be romantic but do something unexpected and fresh with it.

Honestly I'd love an adaptation of Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape (Dracula retold from Dracula's point of view). But I know they'd want to stick with the public domain version.

Let Dracula have his literary powers to take wolf, bat, and mist form, and conjure storms. Let him be able to walk by day but not able to shapeshift by day. Bela Lugosi's version didn't actually burn in the sun until the sequels anyway and that was only from mimicking Nosferatu (1922).

Either leave out the reincarnated wife concept all together or let the reincarnation be someone other than Mina. Dr. Van Helsing (a male or female version) or even Jonathan Harker could make for an interesting twist. Lots of depictions of Dracula are bisexual now and this would be something fresh for the universal version.

3. When doing Frankenstein stop trying to recreate the Karloff version "for modern audiences." Let's try the literary version for a change. Long black hair, no neck-bolts or green skin, let him be articulate. And don't go for "steampunk action figure. " (I'm looking at you, Van Helsing.)

Let each classic monster have their own setting and time period. Dracula gets 1891 since that's when his novel takes place, unless you do a fifteenth century origin or fifteenth century flashbacks in the nineteenth century. Frankenstein is late eighteenth century or very early nineteenth century.

You can get more free with the concept if you do a Frankenstein sequel. Think 1985's The Bride but the male creature is intelligent and articulate too.

4. With Wolfman go old school. Practical effects in the style of Rick Baker. Get Guerrero del Toro involved with these somehow. That man knows how to handle classic monsters. Remember the rules, and acknowledge that he's mostly immortal and can regenerate. Everyone forgets this.

5. Have Danny Elfman do the music. I know he's already doing the Dark Universe park music but let him do ALL the music. Trust the man. Have you heard his score to Sleepy Hollow? Just let him do his thing.

6. Don't treat each film like a commercial for the next or hinted team up. Just let the films be able to stand on their own at first. That's how the Uniersal Monster movies started originally. You can let one or two characters turn up in multiple films but don't be ham fisted about it like with some of what was in 2017's The Mummy.

7. When you finally do allow the team up go watch the Asylum's Monster Mash (2024) first.

I'm serious. Hell, buy the movie from The Asylum to do a high budget remake but add about twenty minutes to it so The Creature from the Black Lagoon can be added too. It's cheesy but its fun. Let them be dysfunctional would-be heroes. Let have What we do in the Shadows-like moments without being too cynical and insulting and mocking the very idea.

By this point you already made the monsters scary but with some potential for redemption, compassion, and tenderness. Let them organically evolve from brooding villains and anti-heroes to surprisingly competent heroes but let it happen organically.

You can even get organic diversity. The mummy is from Egypt (North Africa), the witch is Roma (and possibly a previous lover of Dracula's daughter), The Creature from the Black Lagoon is from South America, etc. Again, get Guillermo del Toro involved. The Shape of Water was pretty much Creature from the Black Lagoon with a happy ending for The Creature anyway. An Abe Sapien-esque version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon would be great.

I forgot to say who the main antagonist would be in my version of The Dark Universe. Possibly a mad scientist like Doctor Moreau, Doctor Pretorius, or a faction of vampires who want to dethrone Dracula from his self-appointed title as king of the vampires. There's nothing in Stoker's novel or the Universal movies that claim he's the first vampire but he's commonly depicted as king of the vampires simply because no one had thought to unite and lead all of them until him.

[watchingblsnowandforever]

Let's Talk BL: My Love Mix Up Th

Ep. 1

Hello!! =D

Welcome to my other version of crack posts! This doesn't have any screenshots sorry 😅

Also, a little spoiler warning for those who haven't watched the original Kieta Hatsukoi, I might reference it a little, but it won't be any great big reveals, just small comparisons here and there. This is for the show only, since I haven't read the manga.

I know I shouldn't be putting this right at the top (and honestly, feel free to ignore this particular point, it's entirely a personal opinion), but it's bugging me a little. In the special eps, the director as well as GemFourth have said how their characters are completely opposite to their own personalities, and how the roles were very challenging for them. They are both incredible actors, especially for their age. But, they're young, and suppressing their very personalities is hard. And it shows a bit. Not much, but sometimes, Kongthap has to frown to remain serious, Atom has to actively be hyper etc etc. It doesn't hamper the show in anyway, but it does make my eye twitch because if only they had switched roles, the boys would have soared. This is no way a criticism, I just think it would have been easier for them and the result could have been a bit more finely tuned. I do fear a little for them during the harder scenes.

Pahn is very cute and amazing and portrays Mudmee so well. (Will I have a smol crush on Mudmee just as I did on Hashimoto-chan? Yeah, probably)

The veggies scene was absolutely hilarious. They probably had to shoot that so many times 😭

This version is a little more fast-paced, me thinks, but I don't really mind

The colours are as obvious (and probably the same) as the original. (Kieta was so colour coded, even a rookie like me could see them vividly 😭👍🏼) For more about colours, I'd recommend visiting @respectthepetty

I liked how they showed the origin story of the cat (like in Cherry Magic Th).

Speaking of Cherry Magic. To be very honest, the original Japanese version of Cherry Magic wasn't very high on my favorites list, so I was a bit skeptical about the Thai remake. I was pleasantly surprised, and the Th version will always be one of my top 8 BLs. I was skeptical about MLMU for the exact opposite reason. I adore Kieta Hatsukoi. And that charm would be very hard to recreate, but I decided to wait and see. Till now, my hope remains that this'll be another Cherry Magic 😌 (maybe not that perfect, but still)

Atom is such a dork I love him 😭

Also, my cluless babie Kongthap 😭

WE ARE GETTING THE DANCE SCENE IN EP 2 ITSELF WHAT-

I have nothing to say about character chemistry (it's GemFourth duh); I do have a teeny problem with the lighting/filter (I think the rooftop scenes might have been overexposed so they had to filter it or something), but after reading through the tags I realized that's not just me; the cinematography is so far so good and the characters are - it's just ep 1, mind you - well portrayed.

The unique friendship between Atom and Half is also nicely done.

HOW COULD I FORGET. The ads *vice versa war flashbacks*. It's just so hilarious. At this point, I'm just looking forward to all the ad placements. It's even more funny because GemFourth are the presenters for like 4 of them 😭😭👍🏼

That's all for now! See you next week. And as always thank you for reading! 😊

Here, have a slice of (vanilla) cake 🍰

[pen-and-umbra]

SE appears to be intent on slightly expanding Jenova lore, which was not present in previous installments. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the remake, particularly in the Nibelheim flashback. 

The remake portrays Jenova as a master of illusions, citing her abilities to create visions during the Jenova Dreamweaver battle. The enemy's description posits the entity induces hallucinations, while FF7R Ultimania suggests that it messes with the minds of those who come into close proximity to it. Sephiroth elaborates on this in the first Rebirth trailer:

They say she's a monster. That she can peer inside you into the very depths of your soul. That she can become those you hate, those you fear, those you love.

The implication is clear: Jenova somehow probes an individual's mind, scans memories, and chooses an appropriate illusion to weave. Given that this predatory behavior was used on the Cetra, I assume that being injected by Jenova cells is not a prerequisite in and of itself, but it may serve as an amplifier, making an individual more susceptible to mind-reading and later indoctrination.

In light of this and the released Ever Crisis information, does this imply that Sephiroth experienced the same pattern when he came into contact with the Jenova vault in Nibelheim? With all the turmoil of looking for his mother/origins brought to the surface by Genesis' intervention, his mind may have presented an easy target to hijack. Could Jenova have created the illusion of Lucrecia in a tube — „become…those you love“? Sephiroth's onset of insanity aside, a woven illusion and mind manipulation could explain a seemingly absurd course of action, such as cutting off your supposed beloved mother's head and dragging it with you: he could have been seeing something else that a player — via Zack or Cloud POV — could not. Something woven by Jenova's hallucinogenic effects. Furthermore, his body language during the breakdown is not too dissimilar to that of Cloud in the Remake, when the latter experiences hallucinations. Gripping head, shaking, nearly doubling over, etc.

If Jenova remained in a vegetative state — bodily faculties disabled but brain/mind function intact, in whatever measure it applies to the entity — then coming into contact with a perfect live host, essentially a hybrid, such as Sephiroth, could have triggered a sort of awakening (in which case, a dormant state is a better description). Its next logical step would be to break free from confinement. Given Jenova cells' longevity and corruption abilities, it stands to reason that the entity could regenerate/reassemble its body if the "brain" remained intact. From that perspective, it makes sense that the only thing that truly needed escaping was her head. And sure enough, the deed was carried out.

If SE chooses to emphasize Jenova's importance as this lurking eldritch horror in Rebirth, the scenes provided by Ever Crisis could add a new and interesting angle to Nibelheim events. If her meddling with Sephiroth's head is brought into light, the Nibelheim slaughter may be mixed with Rhadoran or Wutai war scenes, with Sephiroth hallucinating himself back on the war-torn battlefield among enemies and "traitors". Could be a nice touch to show his mind slipping completely. In fact, it could fit in with the glitched fire sequence from Sephiroth's story announcement teaser, where his adult and teen selves intermixed and overlapped each other.

[livingwithhorrors]

Probably unpopular opinion.... but I like the new Crow... but not everything.

There are certain things that could have been written better and or altered to give a better understanding of time and given more action. SPOILERS FOR ORIGINAL, TV SERIES AND REMAKE

They give no information how long Eric and Shelly are together before dying. All we know is they meet in rehab, fall completely and utterly in love with each other and then end up dead. In the original we see how they met in flashbacks, but in the present we can tell they've been together a long time from the clues. They're utterly in love and engaged, planning a wedding. They're looking after a girl who's mother is an absent drug addict. They're known and loved by people around them and they talk about how much they loved each other.

Shelly get's Eric killed, which is a bold way to play this version, adding to the how long have they known each other that they're this in love that they are still living in the area where Shelly is being looked for as a wanted woman and he doesn't know more about her. In the original movie they die for not selling their loft to the criminals who want to make money as well as doing evil things like burning down homes, businesses and so on, killing people, incest and more.

This one we got a guy selling innocent souls to the devil or something of the like, to not go to hell himself. It's in the same realm, but all we see him do with it is kill people and not really show what deal he made. My best guess it was to be super rich and have young good looking woman around him.

The original villains were brother and sister and did it for power and showed what they did to keep that power through out the movie. The sister had visions and was sadistic as her brother. Both sleeping together and with others before killing them.

The remake has many unnamed victims and henchmen that help keep the main villains actions secret. I couldn't name a single one of them if I tried. We just get to see Eric kill them all in interesting ways at the end in one big battle, but never as personal as the original. The original we see and get to know the main villain and the henchmen through out the movie and get to enjoy and watch as Eric hunts down every single one. Leaving them as calling cards to invoke fear for the next on the list and they don't know who that will be.

Another thing that fails is who are Shelly and Eric’s friends. I don’t remember anyone in the remake.

The original we have mainly Sarah, but she makes us feel in on what’s happening and puts stakes in to what’s going on.

She and the friendly cop are missing.

I missed the buddy cop so much in this remake. It seems they are trying to make one of Eric’s friends that, but it doesn’t really work that well. He’s there and gone.

With the original we had a cop fed up with the way the city is and wanting to stop it but doesn’t have the power. He’s not corrupted and he even cares when he sees what happened to Eric and Shelly. Trying to be there for Shelly in the end.

We don’t have that in the remake, and it really shows. We get less than 10 mins of Eric fighting the main villain at the end of the movie and it feels fast.

The original takes it’s time and we feel it. He’s weakened and he ends up needing help.

The reverse happens, we here he is week and then strong, but we do see the reasoning behind it is to set up for sequels.

Which I wouldn’t mind if it means we see more of him fighting like the last part of the movie.

In the end this all feels similar to how they set up The Crow Stairway to Heaven.

They leave it open for Eric to be a superhero for those in need. To see more crazy supernatural villains and the sort.

Even the part were they mention Shelly and Eric meeting again in another life and being soulmates.

That is heavily played on in the tv series to the point that there are episodes where Eric and Shelly were together in past lives. Though Eric has been a Crow as well as both met tragic ends in past lives as well.

They also introduced the idea of other animals bringing souls back and being their source of power to the returned person.

One villain pretending he is paralyzed and tormenting his wife while also doing other evil things when he can walk and his pet snake is his power.

I haven’t had the chance to read the novels/comics, but I can understand upset to those diehard to the material.

But for myself I don’t mind the changes to a great degree. Only a few things like the relationship building taking up much of the run time and not knowing the amount of time together bugs me the most.

If they had cut that down, played it as she’s been on the run for years and in another city and they had to go back for a reason, I’d have bought that more.

The ending as well is confusing, but supposedly it’s universe resetting as balance returns sort of thing.

Bill is amazing as Eric and I could watch him for hours.

I’m not really a fan of the actress chosen for Shelly, but whatever.

This makes two clowns I’d watch Bill play every chance I’d get. Gots me excited for his IT return.

Make the sequel better in the end and I’d watch it.

[synergysilhouette]

Remaking X-Men: Evolution (Season 3)

(Note: If this looks familiar, that's because this is a reupload. I've rewritten all 4 seasons, plus my own original season. Make sure to check them out!)

Continuing on with my X-Men: Evolution series remake, I decided to put all of the Apocalypse arc into this season rather than spreading it out through seasons 2-4. Take a look:

Day of Recovery--A chef’s kiss episode for me, so it’s mostly minor changes. It’s noted during the rescue mission that Daken, Polaris, and Colossus are not present, leading the teams to believe that Magneto is alive and has saved them, though the X-Men are still suspicious of the Brotherhood. Prodigy and Bobby are a duo (as Kitty has went with the Morlocks along with the rest of the New Mutants), and it’s Magik who rescues Wolverine instead of Spyke. Nightcrawler and Mystique have a brief bonding moment. Nightcrawler is disappointed that Cyclops left Mystique behind, though Destiny warns Scott that he will pay for his actions, and Havok supports him, despite having some misgivings. During her investigation with Toad, Wanda finds Psylocke and uses her abilities to revive her. While she awakens from her coma, Psylocke seems to feel more hesitant on being the Brotherhood’s side, but still uses her telepathy in order to allow the Brotherhood to live in Mystique’s house undetected by the police.

2. The Stuff of Heroes--Again we take some influence from my version of “Survival of the Fittest.” First off, Gambit goes with Rogue and Logan to the store, making out with Rogue to prevent her from being recognized and seriously injuring himself. However, they’re found out anyway. Magik accompanies Beast (who does most of the speech, being the only adult) and Storm to the summit. However, while the mutants watch, Iceman, Magik, Prodigy, Rogue, and Jean are transported into the Mojoverse and forced to battle Juggernaut and prevent him from destroying a dam–but they don’t realize they’re being televised on Earth and the dam is in their area. The rest of the X-Men are forced to defend themselves against the military. In the end, when the X-Men are transported back to Earth, Longshot attempts a failed rebellion against Mojo, who sends him and Shatterstar to Earth, though Longshot now has amnesia and the two are separated.

3. Mainstream--A few changes; Kitty is one of the students taken home, and being away from the X-Men allows her and Lance to still maintain a relationship. Bobby, like Kurt, is also unrecognized because he was in his ice form at the time he was on camera. Graydon works together with Principal Kelly (who doesn’t know about his heritage) and invites the Brotherhood back to school in place of Kelly, claiming he’s working for Mystique and has reconciled with her. Amanda becomes disillusioned with Kurt not sticking by his friends and threatens to break up with him if he doesn’t stick up for them, and Bobby decides to reveal himself as a mutant. Both Jean and David are accused by Kelly of using their powers to get achievements (which David did sometimes on tests, something he inadvertently reveals that gets him expelled, making him go to school online for the rest of the season). During the Brotherhood’s rampage, Nightcrawler tries to reconcile with Graydon, who only outs him as a mutant.

4. The Stuff of Villains--Combines elements of season 2’s “Mindbender” so that the Apocalypse saga fully occurs in season 3. Wanda is searching for Pietro, giving us flashbacks into her, his, and Polaris’ childhoods. Psylocke is trying to locate Daken, Polaris, and Colossus, but finds something blocking her. Destiny discovers Jean, Nightcrawler, Magik, and Gambit have been brainwashed to commit crimes, and Psylocke goes to the X-Men to see if there is a connection. The remaining X-Men and Psylocke rescue Quicksilver that evening before turning their attention to the brainwashed X-Men. After defeating them (but not before Mesmero gets the key), Psylocke is invited to join the X-Men, but the stress she’s experienced has her hesitant to engage in more battles. Xavier instead offers her a room at the institute with no obligation to join the X-Men (as long as she keeps going to school), to which she agrees to. She notes that for a second, she sensed the missing Acolytes and Brotherhood members, along with a powerful man she never met.

5. Blind Alley--Another great episode. In this case, Alex is kidnapped and Scott goes to find him. However, Scott is ambushed by Mystique, who steals his visor and abandons him in Mexico. Jean discovers both of the brothers are gone and a note from Scott. She rescues Alex first, during which time a man scares off Mystique, revealing himself as Mr. Sinister. He attempts to acquire a DNA sample, but is unable to do some before Mystique returns. When Mystique returns to finish Cyclops off, Jean and Havok rescue him from her. I know the episode is supposed to focus solely on Scott and Jean becoming a couple, but I thought it’d be a waste not to include Alex since he’s on the main roster in my version and he’s Scott’s brother.

6. The Toad, the Witch, and the Wardrobe--This is where everyone will hate me. First off, the Pyro that burns the bridge is actually Simon Lasker, kidnapped by Magneto and brainwashed by Mastermind to be a “fill-in” Pyro for the Brotherhood while the OG Pyro remains an Acolyte. Bobby attempts to break though to him by referencing their brief romantic relationship, allowing time for Storm to douse the flames before any major damage is done. Psylocke stays out of the fight mostly, but attempts to read Pyro’s mind, only to find the brainwashing has left his mind a fortress. Pyro II tries to escape, but Wanda captures him and finds a card. She angrily questions him about it, but unlike Pietro in the original version, is unafraid of her, goading her to visit the ski resort. After getting pep talks from Storm, Iceman, and Beast about being comfortable in his own skin, Nightcrawler and Amanda’s evening with her parents goes as well as it did originally–which is not at all. Pyro II wilingly tells Wanda where to go, only for her to be captured by Magneto. Toad enlists the help of Nightcrawler, who brings Storm, Iceman, and Prodigy with him. They all chastise Toad, who angrily accepts blame and sadly says he doesn’t care about what happens to him, but wants to save Wanda. When they enter Magneto’s sanctum, they notice how empty it is, and ponder if Magneto didn’t rescue Daken, Polaris, and Colossus. Bobby attempts to break through to Simon again, but both of the Pyros outdo him and Storm subdues them with snow. Prodigy helps Toad and Nightcrawler rescue Wanda, who has been conditioned to let her hate of Magneto go. Toad apologizes for being a nuisance to everyone and almost deceiving Wanda into kissing him, and Wanda says that she was cruel to say he had to be someone else and has to learn to care about himself more–something she was going to work on. Amanda and Nightcrawler officially break up, with Nightcrawler realizing he’s not secure enough with himself to date a non-mutant and reveal himself to the world, and that he doesn’t want Amanda to suffer because of him. They part amicably, and Storm and Iceman join them for ice cream.

7. Self Possessed--One of my favorite episodes. While Rogue flirts with Scott, it’s purely platonic, as Gambit and Rogue are on the cusp of an official relationship. A lot of Rogue’s anxieties are quelled in this version–except for the obvious split personality. Gambit is weary of Risty, but doesn’t mention it to Rogue since he sees how well they get along. Gambit and Rogue go to the concert with Risty, as well as Scott and Jean, Storm and Nightcrawler (hinting at a romantic relationship), and Havok, Magik, and Iceman. In my version, Jean and Scott are a bit more comfortable about the concert being a date. After Rogue absorbs Mystique again, she has flashbacks once more of her childhood, albeit seeing it from her adoptive mother’s eyes. She realizes that Mystique is her adoptive mother, and criticizes her for always using and manipulating Rogue, Nightcrawler, and even Graydon. Mystique acknowledges that at certain times she was driven by selfish goals (saying the whole thing in “Blind Alley” with Scott was personal, albeit reckless). She says that being friends with Graydon and Rogue was something she wanted to do because she knew they wanted nothing to do with her–in contrast to Nightcrawler, who she planned to pick up the pieces with later, knowing he’d be more forgiving. Rogue runs away, memories of her childhood flashing around her. When she uses her ability to fly, she finds Jean taking over. While Gambit and Nightcrawler try to soothe her, it is still Jean and Professor X who quell her raging mind. Psylocke visits her out of sympathy while she’s healing, while Gambit kisses her forehead. In the end, Rogue notes a conversation Mystique had with Destiny, something about “Apocalypse.”

8. X-Treme Measures--A freebie episode. It premiered earlier, but I moved it around for narrative purposes. With Spyke gone, this episode still focuses on the Morlocks–specifically taking from “Uncanny X-Men #169-170”. Making Callisto a bit more comic-accurate, she finds Angel saving humans, and invites him to join the Morlocks. When he refuses, she captures him, intent on breaking his spirit (I do want some of the “he’ll be my mate” vibes, but it could be weird since he’s a teen in my version and Callisto is still an adult). Prodigy sees this and attempts to save him, but is struck ill doing so. Storm battles Callisto in order to save both Angel and Prodigy, coming out victorious. There is a brief moment where Storm is almost overcome with hatred, and Nightcrawler talks her down from it, sharing a brief kiss with her. The X-Men invite Angel to join them, and he says he will consider it.

9. Under Lock and Key--Essentially follows the same beat, except Mesmero uses Quicksilver to get the relic instead of Gambit, Beast goes with Wolverine to track down Mystique, and the bonding scene between Rogue and Nightcrawler lasts a little longer, with Mystique’s memories giving Rogue flashbacks to her and Kurt’s childhood and discussing it with him. Gambit quietly listens in the doorway, not wanting to ruin their moment. It’s hinted that Mesmero knows the whereabouts of Magneto’s missing members, making Magneto almost kill him. Banshee also appears, and while not officially joining the X-Men, tells them that they have his number. At the end of the episode, Angel joins the New Mutants.

10. Cruise Control--Occurs in a similar way, but switching up the characters; Beast takes Storm’s role as chaperone, Storm takes Kitty’s role in having fun with Nightcrawler, and Magik takes Boom-Boom’s role, which includes making a woman’s food come to life and exposing the group as mutants (Somnus attempts to make them think they dreamt it, but very few passengers believe that). Kurt also mentions he wishes Rogue could’ve been there to enjoy the cruise. Both Magma and Rictor feel the volcanic eruption, and they team up to save the day.

11. X23--I don’t have a lot of changes for this. Obviously make Laura look more like Wolverine like she does in the comics, and give Wolverine a cathartic moment where X-23 reminds him of Daken, and he ponders if he only exists to cause pain and how he could help them. Psylocke also recalls her time in the Mojoverse and that she was an assassin while under his control.

12. Dark Horizon (Part 1)--Happens similarly, with a few changes: it’s Magik at the beginning of the episode, Graydon taunts Scott and Jean with Principal Kelly, Rogue using her powers on Wanda inadvertently loosens some of Mastermind’s brainwashing on Wanda (which also happens when Rogue uses her powers on Pyro II), it is up to Magik and Nightcrawler to find Apocalypse’s hidden room. During the investigation, Iceman attempts to break through to Pyro II, who vaguely recalls Magneto’s imprisonment.

13. Dark Horizon (Part 2)--The teams split up differently: Magik, Nightcrawler, and Prodigy; Cyclops, Pyro, and Havok; Quicksilver, Pyro II, and Iceman; Beast, Magneto, and Professor X; and Storm and Jean. During their investigation, Prodigy suspects the missing mutants are somewhere in the pyramid, and Mr. Sinister appears briefly when Scott and Jean reunite. Other than that, the episode plays out pretty similar to the OG episode.

14. Impact--It's so emotional as-is! Though I do have changes: Wanda’s hypnosis is wearing off (which explains why she’s sympathetic to Rogue and Nightcrawler’s situation) though she doesn’t remember all the painful memories yet; Magneto doesn’t disappear and is just repelled by Apocalypse; and Nightcrawler has an angry “how could you?!” With Rogue before they both break down into tears, comforted by Storm and Gambit. But neither of them see Mystique’s statue repairing itself, slowly turning her back into flesh and blood (protected by the bargain she had made to help Apocalypse).

15. Cajun Spice--Deals more with the pain Kurt and Rogue feel, having them jumping between screaming matches and depressed interactions. Nightcrawler, being who he is, attempts to find some wisdom in the experience while Rogue goes with Remy to New Orleans. The rest of the episode virtually plays out the same, but now Gambit and Rogue become an official couple while Rogue and Nightcrawler reconcile. Kurt apologizes for making Rogue feel as though her pain wasn’t justified, and Rogue apologizes for demeaning his wish to bond with his birth mother and taking away the chance. They agree that Mystique is easy to despise and love, and they wonder if she has the same feelings about them. Mystique secretly listens to this conversation.

16. Ascension (Part 1)--Remove Storm and Professor X being taken away by Apocalypse, instead they're only injured. The Four Horsemen are revealed: Daken as Death, Colossus as War, Polaris as Pestilence, and a new mutant known as Vulcan becomes famine. Mr. Sinister reveals that Vulcan is the brother of Havok and Cyclops, who he saved following the airplane crash that happened to the Summers family. Mystique reveals she’s alive to the X-Men and states that she will assist them take down Apocalypse. Everything else is the same.

17. Ascension (Part 2)--The teams in different corners of the world: Storm, Magma, Jean Grey, Multiple, Somnus, and Rictor face Death (Daken) in Egypt; Prodigy, Beast, Havok, and Cyclops face Famine (Vulcan) in China; Magik, Sunspot, Wolverine, Psylocke, and Angel face off against War (Colossus) in Mexico; and Magneto, Professor X, Gambit, Scarlet Witch, Nightcrawler and Mystique go to face Pestilence (Polaris) at the Sphinx. There’s A LOT going on–like 1 hour of stuff going on. I’d want there to be brief “Dance with Death” and “War of Swords” sequences (inspired by “X of Swords” parts 3 and 13), Magneto and Wanda trying to break through to Polaris, flashbacks to Vulcan’s (who almost wins before running out of energy) manipulation under Sinister’s tutelage and descent into madness, and a real apology from Mystique to Nightcrawler and Kurt about how awful she’s been to them. In the wake of saving the world, attitudes towards mutantkind shift a bit more positive, allowing for Jubilee, Shadowcat, and Wolfsbane to return to the New Mutants, and Prodigy being allowed to return to school. Along with this, Psylocke and Colossus join the New Mutants. It should be noted that Mr. Sinister and Vulcan survive, with Vulcan flying into space to escape Mr. Sinister.

Lemme know what you think! Be sure to tell me what your favorite episode(s) is!

[foxgirltail]

My gf and I watched the first episode of the atla remake and it is. Not good.

It's an hour long but felt longer. Around the halfway point we both remarked that we'd rather be watching the original series

The show starts by showing the genocide of the air nation. Besides feeling in bad taste considering the current state of the world, I think it was less impactful than the way the original series does it - where we don't actually see what happened, and only hear about it and see the aftermath several episodes in

The show is rated tv-pg and we see numerous people burned to death

Characters regularly talk in the "I'm going to get a good grade in therapy" manner. It's annoying

Towards the end, we get a flashback to a scene we saw towards the middle of the episode? We just saw this, it felt so unnecessary

Aang told katara like a single sentence about bending and her ability increased 10-fold. I don't remember if something similar happened in the original but it seems silly

Aang can basically straight up fly unassisted. But only sometimes

Zuko's scar is smaller and on the wrong side and less... Vibrant? Under different lightings it's more difficult to see. it looks more like warpaint than a scar when viewed from the side, isn't shaped like a handprint, and doesn't appear to have any effect on his eye's functionality

The opening sequence is different (it still gets the point across), but there's a scene where grangran repeats the original lines verbatim for some reason? We literally saw the history behind those lines 30 minutes ago, why are we being told them verbally now?

How I think I would have done it is: keep the first scene, this also happens 100 years ago, an earth bender tries to send a warning that the fire nation is going to attack the earth kingdom. Sozin later explains to the captured earth bender that his success was intentional, as he lays out his plan to kill the avatar. Then do the title sequence. Then cut to 100 years later with katara and sokka. Proceed as normal from there (this would also cut out at least one instance of therapy-speak)

This removes the redundancy of the flashbacks, makes it so that when grangran says "...then everything changed when the fire nation attacked..." We don't already know everything about it. It makes everything a little less hand-holdy while still presenting all the necessary staging information. Also the episode is around 20 minutes shorter

Or, if knowing how aang got into the iceberg is so important, do more scenes from the past than what I laid out here, but don't have a focus on the actual attack on the air temple. Do a more scaled out perspective - more buildings burning and collapsing, and less individual fights between air and fire benders.

All in all: why was this made? I think it's a pale imitation of the original, I have zero interest to keep watching, and if I do want to watch more avatar, the original series is just right there?? The bending and appa look good I guess

[ihavedonenothingright]

So thus far into TOTK (I haven't finished the game, but I got the instruction to go beat the final boss), it really does seem like TOTK and BOTW are completely separate lore-wise from most every other game in the series except for maybe Skyward Sword. Zelda travels all the way back to Hyrule's "founding," which she is fairly familiar with, and there's a comment one of the researchers makes about mentions of a "Zelda" in the ancient past confirming that perhaps the name doesn't originate from their princess. He's unaware it's the same Zelda, which means naming every princess of Hyrule "Zelda" is not a thing. This Zelda is, as far as she knows, the first (though that doesn't eliminate the chance others existed).

This (and some other stuff) leads me to believe that the founding of Hyrule in TOTK takes place after all the old games. I highly doubt that all historical records of the name Zelda would have completely disappeared between the ancient past of TOTK and TOTK's present if that space was occupied by all the other games. And that is ignoring the weird time stuff and the required presence of two Ganondorfs simultaneously. On top of that, Sonia, the only Hylian we see much of in the past, resembles Skyward Sword's Impa more than Zelda and Gaepora. We don't know for sure that that Zelda founded Hyrule, but the reincarnated spirit of Hylia is blood-related. So I'm solidly shunting aside the idea that this is the first founding of Hyrule.

Now because the name Zelda has apparently been forgotten, even by TOTK's ancient past (Rauru and Sonia don't exactly go "Oh! Zelda! That's a famous name"), and no one seems aware that Hyrule existed before, I'm going to say that pre (or post...) the arrival of the Zonai, Hyrule goes through something like a Dark Age. Their history is no longer preserved and retold like in older games, and so eventually, you end up in a place where there is no Hyrule, and no one knows about the Triforce and the cycle. But that's really odd, right? Like, scarily odd. How do you forget the Triforce exists? It's the big war-causer in Hyrule's history, this thing that grants you the power to completely remake the world. And no knowledge of Zelda or Link or Ganon? No knowledge of the epic cycle? Clearly Zelda is still inheriting the memories of her prior reincarnations since she recognizes the name "Ganondorf" in a flashback, so what gives?

It seems awfully convenient that no one knows about the Triforce, especially since there's evidence Zelda carries it. The symbol shows up when she uses her sealing powers, and it's definitely still associated with the royal family's crest. Now the second part is really weird since we're at a second founding of Hyrule and no one seems to know what it is. But just focusing on Zelda's powers: for the Triforce to be the source of them, that would have to mean it somehow ended up in Zelda's bloodline. How would it do that?

They mention that she seems to have inherited Rauru's light power and Sonia's time power (which implies they had kids, I know people are skeptical and I am too, but it seems like they did). So, does Rauru's power also derive from the Triforce? Did she get it from him?

Well if he did have it, founding a Hyrule where no one remembers the Triforce, the cycle, or old Hyrule would be much easier.

There's a lot of problems with this theory: namely, Rauru isn't technically dead (I think) until the beginning of TOTK, so wouldn't the Triforce have stayed with him that entire time if he had it? But there's also evidence in the games that the Triforce is a one-use kind of thing, so I can see him getting one shot with it and then passing it along via bloodline like a lot of Zeldas have done with the Triforce of Wisdom. Something about Rauru strikes me as very sinister, and some other people have done a really good job looking at that in more detail (check out @golvio and @betterbemeta's posts), but yeah the vibe of Rauru's inner circle and his Hyrule overall is strange. The representatives of all four races (though we never see the Sheikah in the past, so we can't verify what's going on with them at this point; they might not be Hylians yet) cover their faces with these large, clearly Zonai masks to signal their fealty to Rauru. Practically, they serve the same purpose as the champions' blue clothes, but it's so much more uncomfortable. They don't have faces! They aren't individuals! The only people in the past whose faces we see (who aren't Sonia, Rauru, Zelda, or Mineru because even the ancient Hylians in Rauru's employ wear masks) is Ganondorf and some of his Gerudo. Rauru, Sonia, and the royal line get to walk uncovered, but everyone else depicted as loyal and righteous is faceless.

So I would hazard that the reason BOTW and TOTK are so cut off from the other games lore-wise is not just distance, but because Rauru, when he came down to become king, used the Triforce to completely reforge Hyrule in his own image. It's possible he was told to do this by Hylia, and sent down by the gods as a representative of theirs, but I think it's also possible he was sent for another job (fixing the chaos that is the three way timeline split) and chose to stay and set himself up as a king. He doesn't seem to have been a particularly notable figure among the Zonai; Mineru notes how well he's done for himself on the surface which leads me to believe he had far less power where he came from. Whether or not his intentions were benevolent is a "who knows?" sort of question. Maybe they were! But I think Rauru is a good case for the idea that Ganondorf's reincarnation cycle isn't some cosmic punishment, but rather a natural reaction of balance. Rauru builds all his shrines of light, doesn't appoint a Sage of Shadow (no Sage of Shadow is weird, right? I'm not the only one), forces hegemony on Hyrule, and in the process of trying to make a completely clean society, births an opposite of chaos to his order. TOTK Ganondorf is a little obscure in terms of motive, but in his first few cutscenes in the past, he's fairly composed. He wants Hyrule to bow at his feet; he wants to humiliate Rauru. All the comments he makes towards him are pointed. This is a Ganondorf who resents the idea of becoming another faceless mask. Eventually he morphs into a being of pure chaos, perhaps in response to Rauru's more frantic attempts at control. But if the objective was balance, Hyrule does end up there: by the time of BOTW, the races that were faceless under Rauru seem to be mostly independent. Zelda doesn't exactly force the champions into their divine beasts, and their positions aren't predestined or divine in nature like the sages.

And this isn't even touching on the Sheikah (though their forced assimilation into Hylians might be completely separate from Rauru) and the idea that the Rito, Gorons, Zora, and Gerudo exist solely to aide Link and Zelda. There is a lot of stuff in this game that is absolutely fascinating (and a little frightening) from a world perspective. Most of it isn't new to Zelda either, just more explicit.

(Also I've seen some people say that the masks might've been because Nintendo was lazy with the modeling, but regardless, it's fair to analyze a work as it exists and leave the creators' intents out of the picture.)

[ollieoliver910]

First Impressions of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door On Switch

I want to start off by saying if you preordered TTYD, I am so so sorry! I went to GameStop to just pick up the game normally and the guy that worked there told me not everyone got their preorders day one because Nintendo didn't make enough copies. It was something to do with Amazon, I'm not entirely sure as part of what he was saying went over my head and I don't know how true this is, this is just what he told me, but I am having severe Fire Emblem Awakening flashbacks, ironically, another Intelligent Systems game that didn't have enough copies when it launched years ago.

I guess I just got really lucky with my copy because I just went into the store to buy one, I never preordered it, but the truth is I never preorder my stuff anyway. I have only ever done that once in my life for the special edition of Fire Emblem Echos. So I guess I'm old school and I'd rather go and grab the game myself then rely on a service to make sure my copy is there on time.

Anyway, with that out of the way. I am having a great time with TTYD so far! There are some issues, some that might be a me thing while others I feel need to be tweaked (I'll explain momentarily) but I have already put a few hours into the game and I am completely invested.

With that being said, here are a few of my issues thus far.

Firstly, The 30 FPS.

I am one of the ones that wished it was 60 FPS as when I first started the game, It did feel very sluggish compared to the original. However, I did adjust to it overtime and because I am enjoying the game so much. I did forget about it after a while. I just kind of wish Mario's running speed was a little faster. It could be me miss remembering since I haven't played the game in fifteen years, but he feels super slow. If they sped him up just a tad, it would be perfect.

Next, the music.

I turned that shit off and switched it back to the original as soon as I was able. None of them hit me as being better than the original tracks (at least for me anyway), and I became immediately turned off by them. If it's your first time playing the game, the new tracks probably won't bother you at all, but for me. The new tracks were super annoying to listen to. Some of them, especially the new Roughport theme, reminded me a lot of Yoshi's Island 3DS. The blaring trumpets were obnoxious and some of the very first tracks felt tacky. Worst too is the fact that when you do switch over to the GameCube tracks, not all of them are present! When you get a new partner, for example, that specific track is missing from the main game no matter if you switch to the old music tracks. Also, switching to the GameCube version does not apply to the new character themes, which I am ok with as I do like the change! It makes your partners feel more important and I do like them a lot!

Ok, now for the biggest issue I found so far.

The reaction times when it comes to your attacks, specifically, Koop's Shell Toss is...not the best if you catch my drift. In the original, I am pretty confident in saying that when you let go of the stick, the light needs to be red when you do, which is what the remake also tells you to do as well. HOWEVER, that's not how it works. In this version, you need to release the left stick BEFORE the light turns red because if you do when it lights up. The bar will almost ALWAYS pass the red indicator, which means you will not get the extra damage. I hope this situation is only specific to Koop's since, fortunately, you will probably be using Goombella more for single enemy focused attacks then Koop's, but this is something that does legitimately bother me and even when I delay it. I can't hit it every time like I did in the original.

Edit: I put two more hours in after writing this and I did get used to the shell toss imput command over time. I think the description is just misleading, and I don't remember exactly if it was worded the same in the original. If it was, the description needed to be changed here.

Other than that, I am in love with everything else! When I beat the game, I will post a proper review, but these are just my initial thoughts during the first couple of hours. I hope everyone gets there preorders as soon as possible.

[denimbex1986]

'***

It's always a risk to make another version of a well-loved story. Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley was a hit upon its publication and has remained one since, and the 1999 film adaptation is well-regarded in its own right. When Netflix announced Ripley, both anticipation and trepidation emerged in equal measure. Would it live up to its predecessors, or become just another remake that gets lost in the neverending river of regurgitated IP that seems to dominate both the big and small screens?

The show looked promising. A stellar cast, a characterful black-and-white style and, of course, a good story. It had all the makings of a mega-hit — but the sum of its parts doesn't add up to much at all.

One of Ripley's biggest problems is that it gets lost in its own style. The aesthetically engaged production and indulgent architectural shots, initially striking and unusual, lose their charm by the final episode, and seem to be favoured above movement of plot or character development from about halfway through. This isn't helped by the several pacing issues that make some episodes seem interminable and others' timeframes difficult to follow. There's a tendency among some recent shows to try to exploit the watch-on-demand format to make what is essentially an eight-plus hour film chopped into 60-minute segments rather than consider the actual enjoyability of the watching experience; Ripley, sadly, teeters on the edge of this flaw.

When it comes to the story itself, despite the strength of the original narrative Ripley decides to put its own spin on the tale. Art plays a prominent role in this interpretation of Highsmith's novel, with Tom besotted with an original Picasso hanging in Dickie's (Johnny Flynn) Atrani villa and, later, by an obsession with Cavarggio. The tie between the two characters is tenuous at best, and the nuance of the first few episodes is completely lost by the oblique signposts to the ‘parallels' in their stories later on. Particularly egregious is the inclusion of a hammy flashback sequence to a murder Caravaggio supposedly committed in 1606. Not only is this entirely unnecessary, it's inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the series and obliterates the narrative's tension.

A similar diversion from the original plot sees Tom meeting a fellow career criminal (John Malkovich in a nudge-nudge wink-wink cameo), the two recognising each other's nature based on some psychic criminal connection. This too is unnecessary, and is used as something of a deus ex machina to give this story a more conclusive ending than Highsmith's.

Andrew Scott, true to form, is excellent as the titular Tom Ripley. He plays the sociopathic social-climbing con man with an intriguing complexity, weaving humour and complexity into what could be a cliche, surface-level psycho. That complexity is limited, though, as the show never allows us to understand Tom's motivations, either overtly or subtextually. Despite being a textbook homoerotic tale, his relationship with Dickie has no sense of romance or lust to it. It comes across that his interest in him is purely financial, a desire for material goods and social status pushing him towards murder.

Although the majority of the show features strong, compelling performances, casting choices don't quite ring true. When the first promotional photos of Scott as Ripley were released, although there was inevitable excitement, there were also concerns that he had been miscast when it came to age. In presenting Tom and Dickie as significantly older than Highsmith's original characters, the glow and beauty of youth is a theme entirely removed from the narrative. Their actions feel less like the impulsive decisions of young men and more like those of established adults, who understand (in their own ways) how the world works.

This could be used as an interesting twist, but no further changes are made to the story to accommodate for this striking difference. The somewhat age-blind casting doesn't work, especially when we're introduced to Freddie (Eliot Sumner), who looks considerably younger than his peers. Although at first glance Ripley appears to be sleek and polished, just like its titular antihero, it can never quite be what it wants to be. By forgoing a compelling narrative in lieu of incomplete thematic ideas and a focus on aesthetic charm, and in spite of Scott's undeniable prowess, the show never gets its claws into you.'

[bronzewool]

The marketing surrounding Ever Crisis is starting to concern me.

"We still don't know Sephiroth"

Good. Despite what remake thinks, I don't need to know every tiny detail about these characters.

That was my main complaint with Traces of Two Pasts. It was just a cheap cash grab to sell a book about Tifa and Aerith's backstories, where there was nothing in the pages that changed our perspective of the two as characters or altered our experience playing the game on a second playthrough.

The fact that game begins after the Wutai War was a deliberate move by the creators. As a kid Cloud fantasies about becoming a hero just like Sephiroth but by the time he's old enough to join Shinra, the war is already over and the world doesn't need heroes right now. We never see the war through flashbacks but we hear enough from second-hand accounts and how history is already being written by the winners.

Shinra now controls all corners of Gaia and is presented as a force of good towards the stubborn Wutai who couldn't see reason by just giving up their land so they could make more mako reactors and free clean energy for everyone :D

The planet is dying and Wutai was the final sprint to ensure Shinra's monopoly on a now desolate planet where flowers can't grow.

Wutai is so scarred by this loss it becomes a tourist attraction and gets it's own sideplot in the form of Yuffie who joins Cloud's party in hopes of returning her homeland to it's former glory.

There is so much left unsaid about the Wutai War but the aftermath is felt throughout the game, which is why I'm not interested in a prequel where Sephirith feels sad for conquering said territory and murdering its people, or possibly changing the circumstances in order to rid him of any responsibility.

Because the original game did an amazing job highlighting Sephirith's best and worst qualities. He is a powerful warrior and skilled tactician who can lead his troops to victory but does not question the destruction he brings in his wake. He was even given the name "The Demon of Wutai" for his role in single handling conquering it and had his face plastered on every poster to sell this false image of him to further Shinra's own agenda (which worked because Cloud, Zack, Genesis and Angeal all recruited to become just like Sephiroth).

We know very little about Sephiroth but he is complex enough to get the point across. He cares for his men and puts the wellbeing of others first, but he is still a tool of Shinra and if ordered to do something then he will do it most efficiently with the least amount of bloodshed.

I don't want this to be a Crisis Core situation, where we take all these well-established scenes and ruin them by shoving more characters who don't need to be there, or pull an Anakin Skywalker where we muddy Sephiroth's character by over-explaining everything to the point it destroys the reputation of the original source material.

[silver-wield]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review Chapter 11

Okay, this collection of posts will be filled with spoilers, including clips and screenshots, so if you don't wanna see things, then don't look. Some of the things I'm gonna highlight will include references to Remake and other sources to link with the overarching plot. This is a straight path playthrough with no sidequests or extra content.

To Nibelheim!

Right from the off we have Sephiroth upping his gaslighting campaign, but Tifa's on hand to pull Cloud out of it despite her own trauma from being back home.

Once we're at the town gate, and they're trying to get over their shock at the rebuilt town, we find out Shinra is behind it and they've taken control of all the property licenses to turn it into a treatment centre for the black cloaks. This is slightly different from OG where the townspeople denied everything they said.

Cloud takes a wander around town while Cait Sith accesses the terminal in the town hall. He spots the ghost of Zack in the inn and it's here that he finally starts to remember, although his recollection is still skewed by jenova.

It's worth noting that Cloud literally describes Zack as being "head over heels for Aerith", so all those people who think he'd fuck over his friend after remembering this are off their heads. This doesn't exist for no reason.

After that, Cloud goes round the town talking to everyone for more relationship building. On top of the fake water tower, Cloud sits in the same spot as during the promise and Kalm flashback so he can see Tifa's house. Aerith asks if he ever hoped Tifa would wave and the subsequent conversation after this Aerith admits again she's jealous of Cloud and Tifa's relationship and past together.

Tifa's conversation with Cloud after the relationship development one has her bringing up the fact he was always looking at her (still does) and that no matter how often she asked him to join her and the others, he refused. Cloud admits he was a lil shit as a kid, so this conversation is yet another nail in the "you never let me in the group" bs lie. Tifa asked, but Cloud refused.

After the convos are done, Cait reappears telling us we need to go to the manor and use that terminal instead for better access. The man with the key card for the gate has gone up to the reactor, so they decide to go find him. Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie are your party for this part.

Thanks to a new bridge, we cross to a point where the Gunthra river basin meets the village. Cloud recalls Zack again, but jenova messes with his memory. The result is he thinks Zack is dead and they should tell Aerith since Zack was "head over heels for Aerith" and she told Cloud several times that Zack is her first love and she had no reason not to still like him.

Tifa suggests she break the news, which she does later, but without saying Zack is dead because she knows what Cloud recalled at the river isn't correct. She doesn't know where Zack is but she knows he was alive five years ago. This is what prompts Aerith to write No Promises to Keep.

After following the path we took during the flashback, we reach the mako spring. Cloud does a very good Sephiroth cosplay, which alarms Tifa. Not only is Cloud glitching out, but he's word perfect for an event he was never present at as far as she knows.

The original path diverges at this point and we climb up to a new path that leads us to the tubes! It doesn't matter which of these you take. You can even unlock the gate after leaping over at the bottom and reset the elevator to go back up and pick a different tube for different rewards. There's no materia keeper, we already killed it in the past.

Cloud and Yuffie have a bit of dialogue about how people from Wutai emigrated to their continent. This could maybe be a hint about Tifa's mother's origin in the future? We also had Yuffie offer Tifa a da chao bean but she declined. The devs know we're waiting for that moment whether she can bite one or not 🤣

The boss in the reactor is some amalgamation monster that's escaped from the pods. It looks like the big brother of the one Sephiroth killed previously.

Once we're inside the reactor properly, Tifa has a panic attack recalling what happened to her and her dad, Cloud comforts her and they finally find the key card they need.

Back in town, Red leaves the party to act as escort to the others when they come back from the reactor, while Barret, Cait and Aerith go look for the terminal.

A hologram of Hojo is waiting for them and drops them in a hole. And that's the start of Cait Sith's level. As Cait, we roll through ducts and climb on the moogle to throw boxes at things and advance through the underground lab back to the entrance where the others are waiting.

Solo, Cait battles a sub boss, then we get to input a familiar code to leave the area, but first, Hojo wants us to clean up a failed experiment before finally reuniting with our buds.

And then it's time to meet a different kind of security. Vincent lets us off for not being Murasaki, and while Cait hits up the terminal, Cloud has another blast from the past and we hear the elements that went into his mako tank. Cloud is an S grade soldier. This is important info. S grade soldiers don't degrade. It's the reason Genesis wanted Zack's hair or cells in CC, even though they weren't compatible because they didn't mutate.

Tifa finds Cloud in a state and helps him out while Vincent throws a tantrum and goes full Galian beast on our asses. This was such a surprise because nobody had mentioned this among all the spoilers and leaks, but it's something I floated during the long wait for Rebirth as a cool way to introduce Vincent.

Once the battle with Vincent is done and he's back in his coffin, we head outside where Cait tells us we need to find the keystone.

Before we can head off, Roche pops up for one final fight. He's suffering heavily from degradation and is going against orders to have this "dance" with Cloud. Gotta wonder what his orders were and what exactly makes him different to the previous numbered soldiers.

What did Hojo do to make him an SC? And who are the three that came before him?

So Cloud and Roche have their bout, with Sephiroth popping in to encourage Cloud to get the black materia. Roche eventually falls and becomes a black cloak, which adds to Cloud's fear of becoming one too.

We have a quick hop back to Midgar for an address by Glenn to introduce the mysterious Sarruf and rally the people to rise up against Shinra.

This is all in line with Sephiroth's plans. For him to weaken the planet, which Tifa already said was winning against him, he wants people who died in pain, fear and anger to "feed the planet". Those emotions are absorbed by the planet with the souls of the dead and make it sick, which makes him stronger.

Back with our main party, they're heading to the GS to talk to Dio.

Cid asks Aerith about her mother. Turns out when he was a young mechanic working for Shinra, he saw Ifalna in the Shinra building and got some kinda crush on her or something. This is why he's eager to help out and joins the party, and even explains why he wears a ribbon for her when he barely knew her.

Then the chapter ends with the iconic crash landing and everybody giving Cid evils.

Nibelheim is full of lore and such a massive chapter for Cloud and Tifa. Cloud varies from Sephiroth's mouthpiece to as close to his real self as he could get. He almost recalls what happened in the reactor after Tifa got hurt. Nibelheim manor definitely still has a lot of secrets to give up, and that's before we explore the mountain properly. Why can't we climb it? Why can the black cloaks climb it? What's up with that?

[strfe]

RE: IDENTITY.

after spending hours watching a video (source) @speedchasing sent me i'm going to make it everyone's problem cover a little regarding how i've always written cloud's personality and overall 'identity' from the happenings of crisis core (post-nibelheim) and note how i've always perceived it, as well as some new developments, some of which are unique to vii remake (meaning his personality will differ to an extent between his og / viir verse(s), etc).

i still believe that cloud has never really thought of himself as 'being zack'. the closest example of this being true is in the flashbacks cloud has, where he inserts himself where zack would be in reality, because zack had been the only SOLDIER present at that point in time (other than sephiroth, in most instances, and he at least knows he is not sephiroth) and it's reasonable for him to therefore have been that (other) SOLDIER, since if he knew anything of his past — it was that he was a 1st class SOLDIER. the identity that cloud takes on at the beginning of ffvii is one comprised of his memories and desires, as well as tifa, and also zack's memories. from the moment cloud regains consciousness at the end of crisis core, the jenova 'mimic' ability present within him begins to shape the personality that he will eventually take upon himself in ffvii. the idea of zack: the hero that cloud had always admired & wished to be ever since he was a child, as well as the legacy of memories that zack leaves with him upon passing the buster sword along, imprints itself onto his consciousness and begins to formulate when he meets tifa at the train station just prior to the beginning of ffvii.

the jenova cells rewrite his memories and come together to formulate the idea of all of cloud's memories (namely prior to the nibelheim incident), zack's ideals and behaviourisms, tifa's memories of him, and the dream of becoming a hero he clung to so desperately as a child (and even into adulthood).

the mimicry is intertwined with his very consciousness to project a reality to him that he wished to be true, and that protected him from the reality of zack's loss & his perception that he was a failure in every aspect of the word: he hadn't made SOLDIER / hadn't proven the kids that bullied him wrong / couldn't fulfil his promise to tifa to get her to notice him, and he was unable to do anything but watch as his closest friend (the one person who still embodied 'the hero' that he aspired to be but never was, and didn't believe he would ever become) laid down his life for him. he was 'too weak to save anyone': a sentiment sephiroth reminds him of in remake, but one he desperately tries to avoid.

something this video made me consider more-so (especially with regards to the events later in the game, then from 'on the way to a smile' onwards) is the idea that zack, aerith & sephiroth are all a fundamental part of cloud's consciousness. while zack and aerith guide him towards recovery and salvation (something it has been noted he couldn't otherwise do alone), sephiroth guides him towards destruction and embodies his pain and regret. in remake, sephiroth seems to purposefully be trying to disconnect cloud from that which makes up his consciousness, and / or become the domineering presence in his consciousness, and is shown on multiple occasions to have a stronger hold on him (cloud) than even in the original game. moments such as cloud stepping towards johnny to kill him, and not hesitating to strike down reno (even resulting in the whispers intervening) aren't entirely out of character for someone who has killed in the past, but they are moments that are definitively not present in the original game, and there is emphasis on cloud's behaviour scaring others and / or being especially violent, even for an 'ex-SOLDIER'. this is likely also due to his connection with sephiroth during remake being more prevalent. his consciousness is gravitating slightly more towards 'destruction' than it does in the og. while i can't say for certain, i do expect the disparity to grow as time passes and the story continues in remake, especially if the theory that zack has become detached from his consciousness in some way(s) is true, and increasingly more-so if sephiroth accomplishes this same feat for the other memories that shape cloud and his bond with others.

the main thing to note is: cloud in remake is not only an amalgamation of his past memories (among other things), but also of future memories that sephiroth has been feeding into his subconscious.

while this isn't a staggering change at the moment, it is a slight one, and i expect it may be key to certain elements of ffvii changing so i'm tentative to write too far into the vii:r verse outside of what story has already been revealed to us. for example, i would be reluctant to write as far as the north crater knowing that by that point in remake our expectations may have been completely subverted / characters may be acting differently or have taken different paths, etc. i think it has been long enough now to say quite confidently that vii: remake is not a remake, it is more of a convoluted sequel, and as such (while i'm happy to merge elements of remake/rebirth + with the og for fleshing out the world / its characters / character dynamics), i'd prefer not to write specifically in the remake verse too much further than is 'current'.

[321spongebolt]

Ideas for spiritual sequels to "Frosty the Snowman" by DreamWorks Animation

With three more weeks left until Christmas, I wanted to share not one idea, but two ideas for spiritual sequels to one of the most iconic Rankin/Bass Christmas franchises, "Frosty the Snowman". Both of these ideas revolve around two supporting characters from the original special (which will have an anniversary next year). I don't know if they should be TV specials like the rest, or if they should be adapted as theatrical films, but these are my ideas down below.

IDEA #1: "Frosty the Snowman and Karen" (AKA, "Frosty and Karen")

The premise for this movie focuses on Karen, one of the children responsible for creating Frosty long ago. Karen would've been all grown up in this film, having forgotten all about Frosty and her adventure to the North Pole. I was thinking about if this film should take the same approach to how Disney adapted "Winnie the Pooh" as a live action remake with "Christopher Robin". Only, this would be completely animated, and I would still want this to follow the events of the original Rankin/Bass specials special more closely (Unlike "Frosty Returns" and "The Legend of Frosty the Snowman", which I don't plan on watching, but I have heard about them.). You can read more about my idea by clicking here.

IDEA #2: "Frosty the Snowman and Professor Hinkle"

Following the events of "Frosty the Snowman", I wanted this film to focus on the main antagonist, who really isn't considered "evil" (at least, looking back), just misunderstood. Hocus Pocus would still be a mute character, but from his thoughts, I wanted him to narrate the events of the film, including flashbacks that drove Professor Hinkle to chase after Frosty in the first place. In the present, everyone will have heard Professor Hinkle melting Frosty in the greenhouse, and the once evil magician would now be at his lowest point. Fortunately, Frosty would easily forgive his former enemy and help him be a better person.

One idea I thought of for an ending would be if Frosty's hat flew off his head, making Frosty lifeless. The hat would've landed in a wood shredder and everyone will mourn for Frosty. And for once in his entire life, Professor Hinkle would perform his selfless act of sacrificing his new hat so Frosty can live another day, which results in the crowd cheering and praising him. The movie would end on a high note where Frosty and Professor Hinkle now become closer friends. This ending would be open-ended allowing the viewers to interpret if this takes place before the credits of the original special (considering Professor Hinkle and the traffic cop do follow Hocus Pocus and march in line with his new hat.) or if it's an original new ending all its own.

[terra-fatalis]

FFVII Remake Easter Eggs and compilation continuity - Part 7: OG FINAL FANTASY VII

ELEMENTS ORIGINALLY SHOWED AFTER THE MIDGAR SECTION & VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

CAIT SITH

This character didn’t show up until the group reached the Gold Saucer. In the Remake he witnesses the plate fall.

YUFFIE

In the OG Yuffie could only be recruited after visiting the Mythril Mines and nothing hints she had ever been in Midgar before. Now she is the protagonist of Intermission, spending a whole day in Midgar, getting to see Barret’s cell and infiltrating in Shinra HQ thanks to Avalanche. Some main points of this character have already been shown like the rivalry between her and her father, some details of the Wutai war and even her motion sickness.

ROMANTIC RUDE

In the OG Rude confessed Reno that he liked Tifa. In the Remake, when he spotted her on the Sector 7 pillar, he deviated the chopper to prevent Reno from killing her.

Reno: Dammit! You wanna explain yourself, partner?

Rude: Uh... Hand slipped.

PALMER’S TEA

In the original, at Cid’s house, Palmer asked for some tea with “sugar, honey and lard”. In the Remake he walks in the corridor of Shinra HQ with a cup of tea, complaining that he ran out of butter (though in Japanese it’s still “lard”).

Oh dear, oh dear... A man of my refined tastes running out of butter! Shorn of its proper accompainment, this tea...might as well be boiled pond water!

BLACK-CAPED MEN

In the original there was just one clone in Midgar, in Sector 5, and he wasn’t wearing the black cape yet, while in the Remake they can be met also in Midgar. 

The Remake also confirms that also some former SOLDIERs can turn into caped men, something that the OG revealed only in an optional scene in Junon.

OG: I used to be in SOLDIER. Lately I’ve felt like dressing up like this...

Remake: My dad told me that that man, he used to be a SOLDIER when he was younger. I heard he came back because he got sick or something. Isn't that kinda weird? Can SOLDIERs even get sick?

This concept is further - more openly - reiterated also in Intermission:

Nayo: Mako poisoning. That's what happens if you don't make the grade as a SOLDIER...or when the military's done using you.

REUNION

When Cloud attacks Marco believing he’s Sephiroth he has a vision of the Reunion at Whirlwind Maze.

BARRET’S PAST

In the Remake Barret mentions the day he survived from the destruction of his home town, while in the original this happened one the group arrived in Corel.

Wouldn't be the first time I spit in destiny's eye. Whether you can see the seams or you can't...doesn't change that she's always trying to have it her way.

JENOVA

In the original game the first fight against Jenova took place on the Cargo ship, while in the Remake the group fights it in Chapter 17. 

Note: the first form of Jenova in the original was called Jenova∙BIRTH (followed later by Jenova∙LIFE, Jenova∙DEATH and Jenova∙SYNTHESIS). In Remake it is called Dreamweaver, referring to its ability to project illusions, while the Japanese sticks to the original calling it Jenova Beat, hinting to the prenatal heartbeat of fetuses. 

LIFESTREAM

During the presentation at Cosmo theatre (an allusion itself to Cosmo Canyion) the group can see a depiction of the Lifestream flowing throughout the Planet. In the original this only happened at the very end when Aerith summoned it. 

MATERIA

During the aforementioned presentation it was explained how the Ancients were able to create Materia with condensed Lifestream, while in the original it was explained during the flashback in Kalm.

7R: In the distant past, our planet was home to a people we call the Ancients. Many millennia before we discovered mako, these precursors were already pioneering its use. Somehow they learned of the great reservoir of energy pulsing beneath their feet. And once they had...the Ancients developed the means to harness this bountiful energy and bend it to their will. The fruits of their labors have survived to this very day in the form of certain kinds of materia.

OG: Materia. When you condense Mako energy, materia is produced. It’s very rare to be able to see materia in its natural state. (...)...the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the Materia.

PROUD CLOD

During intermission Yuffie can see the Proud Clod still under construction stored in Shinra underground. Moreover, the Pride and Joy Prototype (in Japanese: Proud Clad Unit Zero) is a boss that can be fought in Shinra battle simulator.

MIND READER

During the second bombing mission Tifa jokingly asks Cloud if he could read her mind. This is a hint to Jenova’s ability to read minds.

7R:  I swear, your timing was perfect. It's almost like...you could read my mind. SOLDIERs can't do that, can they?

OG: Inside of you, Jenova has merged with Tifa’s memories, creating you.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

In the Remake Cloud "remembers” two episodes of his childhood in Nibelheim, scenes that originally were included in the Lifestream sequence in Mideel.

BURNING TOWN

During the first vision of Sephiroth in Chapter 2, Cloud re-experiences the distruction of NIbelheim. This info wasn’t revealed in the OG until the flashback in Kalm.

TEST SUBJECT

When Cloud, Barret and Tifa discover the secret underground lab with specimen detained in mako tanks, Cloud starts remembering his captivity in the basement of Shinra Mansion. This was originally revealed only in the optional cutscene in the basement of the Mansion, after the Lifestream sequence.

MAKO POISONING

Mako poisoning is an element that in the OG was explained just in Mideel, while in the Remake Jessie’s father suffers of the same condition. A sector 7 NPC also witnesses one of Cloud’s Jenova headaches and suggests he may be Mako poisonesd (before the whispers intervene).

7R: [Chapter 3] What the—You okay, buddy? Mako junkie, huh? Figures...

[Chapter 4] Jessie's got a theory about it. Thinks her dad's spirit is stuck now—between his body and the heart of the planet.

OG: He probably has no idea who or where he is now... Poor fellow, his voice doesn’t even work. He is literally miles away from us. Some place far away where no one’s ever been... All alone...

UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH

Discovering that in reality Cloud never made it in SLDIER was a pivotal plot twist of the OG. In the Remake that’s hinted more than once, until Hojo openly reveals it. 

No, not quite. Oh, now I recall. My memory was mistaken. My boy, you weren't a SOLDIER...

SEPHIROTH’S DEATH

In Chapter 2 Cloud remembers he killed Sephiroth. This is surprising as in the OG, during Kalm flashback, he told the group that he didn’t know what happened to Sephiroth after Nibelheim incident, even pointing out that, in terms of strength, he couldn’t have killed him.

AERITH’S DEATH

Cloud has some visions of Aerith’s death: after falling in her church in Chapter 8 (pics 2 and 3) and at the beginning of Chapter 9 (pics 1 and 4). Moreover he and the rest of the group have a blurred vision of her death in Chapter 18, Aerith’s refers to death in her resolution scene and Sephiroth tells him he’s unable to protect people in Chapter 2 (while seeing Aerith for the first time) and in Chapter 13 (after she’s been kidnapped). 

METEOR

Cloud, and the others have visions of Meteor and the storm that destroyed Midgar at the end of the OG in Chapters 16 and 18.