#1. Understand Your Target Audience

[panaromicinoftechs]

Mastering Mobile App Localization: The Ultimate Guide

[spaghettioverdose]

Also I'm sorry but do you genuinely think Trump is a fascist or that uniquely bad compared to other US presidents? Literally none of his policies are that particularly fucked up in the grand scheme of US politics. Not even in recent years. He is more blatant about being racist, and his target audience is fascists, but as far as his actions, he is very much a liberal. Also deeply annoying that many of you have an understanding of "liberal" as meaning vaguely civil and progressive, and therefore call liberal or even feudal systems fascist when they do genocide or slavery.

I get hating Trump, I get not wanting that guy to be your president, but the way people talk about Trump is like if he's about to set up a military junta and somehow voting will stop it.

A lot of people also bring up the "coup attempt" as proof that he will end democracy in the US or whatever and like two things:

1. Very notably, that happened after Trump DIDN'T win. Like he was not in power. There was no requirement for him to win to do that. Kinda how the whole thing started is some people were mad that he lost. He wasn't the president when it happened.

2. Do you think a bunch of idiots storming a building is how coups happen? Are you dumb? Do you think it's like capture the flag or control points or something? If shit was that easy, there would be a coup every other day.

The whole thing even only went as far as it did because the local police had sympathy for the those guys. If there's a point where there is popular support for a fascist coup within the military, you're fucked either way. If there isn't, and a bunch of disorganised idiots with only small arms try it, they're probably just gonna get killed by the national guard.

Like ok whatever you wanna vote for genocide Joe but at least stop having just a purely vibes based understanding of politics. 💀💀💀

[csuitebitches]

Things I Have to do for My Sanity

1. Wake up at the first alarm - no snoozing and no going lying around in bed. Getting up straight away and head to the bathroom. It’s going to suck initially but you’ll get used to it in a few days.

2. Mental self care: 30 minute meditation, brain games mental math, reading, news. Knowledge is sexy and don’t deny yourself sexiness.

3. Daily review in my diary at the beginning and end of my day: what went well, what didn’t, what I need to accomplish to achieve my goals. This has tremendously helped my goals and keeping my motivation more consistent, especially at work. Analysing and correcting incremental changes creates long term success.

4. Cleaning up before bed - clothes, shoes, organising my bag, etc. I set a timer for 5 minutes and try to get as much done as possible.

5. Pick out my clothes the night before and steam iron them for the next day.

6. Face masks twice a week, a hair mask once a week, I scrub the soles of my feet with that foot scrubbing thingy once a week. Manicures every month because my nail beds are too sensitive to do it biweekly, iron supplements so that I’m not a moody bitch. Matching underwear to feel good about myself. Lavender spray on my pillow before sleeping so that I don’t get weird dreams.

7. Reading biographies and autobiographies. My mentor had suggested this to me and it’s amazing how literally I don’t have a single original experience - everything I’ve felt or mistakes I’ve made have already been done by someone else.

I’m going to curate a list of business books that I feel that have helped me the most recently.

8. I write a short essay everyday in the language I’m currently learning. I also end my day by talking about my day for at least 2 minutes in that language and I record it in voice memos to keep a track of my progress. I want to be fluent to a level where I can think in this language.

✨

I don’t generally share a lot about my personal life - none of you know my name or where I’m based and I feel comfortable doing that. But I do want to start giving out more insights to what I’m doing personally in my career - the good, the bad, the ugly.

Being self aware and honest to myself has helped me improve a lot. I know that shame is my Achilles heel, so now I’m reading books to combat that. I’ve caved in and decided to try therapy for a bit to see if what I’m doing is useful or not. My first session is tomorrow. Staying disciplined was my initial hurdle but the systems I’ve set (waking up early + habit stacking) have helped me slowly overcome that.

Work side, I’ve started establishing myself publicly more. I don’t want to reveal too much about what I do exactly but the good news is that our biggest competitor has noticed my progress (a former employee of that company came to us for an interview and directly asked our top management about me). It’s been 4 months that I’ve been working here but I know that next year I really have to swing the bat and hit a home run. I’ve decided to work on the field more and less in the office to really understand people’s needs and create unique solutions.

The daily/weekly/quarterly diary is definitely credited to my recent wins. That’s the biggest change I’ve made in my routine and i can already see that it’s working well. I’m going to continue refining and implementing that method.

Recent work methods I’ve decided to start working on (I’m not required to do these but I do it for my growth):

1. I’ve started studying popular companies’ business and revenue models in detail. Everything is adoptable and adaptable, you just have to figure out how to tweak something for your company’s clients and needs. Now I’ve decided that I want to keep a track of our competitors, their business models, their owners names, pricing strategy, their target audience etc etc on an excel sheet so that I’m aware with what’s happening in the market. 

2. I’ve started making client profiles. Every time I meet a client, I note down their name, the company name, what they were like, anything specific they seemed to like or want, how much they had paid us for a service, what their paying capacity could be, etc. 

[luna-azzurra]

Some tips to help you improve your writing style:

1. Read widely: Reading a variety of genres and authors exposes you to different writing styles and helps you develop a broader vocabulary and an understanding of various sentence structures. For example, if you want to improve your descriptive writing, read books by authors known for their vivid imagery like J.R.R. Tolkien or Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

2. Write regularly: Like any skill, writing improves with practice. Set aside dedicated time for writing, whether it's a journal entry, a short story, or an essay. Consistency is key. By writing regularly, you'll become more comfortable expressing your ideas and develop your unique voice.

3. Be mindful of your audience: Tailor your writing style to suit your target audience. Consider their level of familiarity with the subject matter, their interests, and their expectations. For instance, if you're writing a scientific paper for experts in the field, use technical language and provide in-depth analysis. On the other hand, if you're writing a blog post for a general audience, use accessible language and relatable examples.

4. Use active voice and strong verbs: Active voice makes your writing more direct and engaging. It emphasizes the subject performing the action rather than the action itself. For example, instead of saying "The ball was thrown by John," use "John threw the ball." Strong verbs also add clarity and power to your writing. Compare "He walked slowly" with "He sauntered" or "He ambled."

5. Vary sentence structure: Experiment with different sentence lengths and structures to maintain reader interest. A mix of short, medium, and long sentences can create rhythm and flow. For example, a series of short, punchy sentences can build tension or convey urgency, while longer sentences can provide detailed explanations or set a contemplative tone.

6. Use precise and vivid language: Choose words that convey your meaning precisely and evoke vivid imagery. Instead of saying "The flower looked pretty," you could say "The delicate blossom bloomed in vibrant shades of crimson and gold." Specific and descriptive language brings your writing to life and engages the reader's senses.

7. Edit and revise: Good writing often requires multiple rounds of editing. After you finish a draft, take the time to review and revise your work. Look for clarity, coherence, and grammar errors. Consider whether each sentence contributes to the overall message and whether the organization of your ideas flows logically. Don't be afraid to make significant changes if they improve your writing.

8. Seek feedback: Share your work with trusted friends, colleagues, or writing groups. Constructive feedback can help you identify blind spots and areas for improvement. Consider their suggestions while maintaining your unique voice and style.

[cygnahime]

Chronological order (that is, the order in which events allegedly happen) is almost never the best order to start a new fan on a series, if it differs significantly from publication order.

It doesn't matter whether the series is overall good or bad - it doesn't even matter if the first published work is worse than the prequels. Because the difference between a first work and a prequel is not unlike the difference between original and fan work: the prequel, like the fan work, assumes you already know and care about something here.

Box sets of the Chronicles of Narnia that list The Magician's Nephew as book 1 are wrong: a key appeal of that book is finding out that this is how Narnia came to be, a thing that doesn't matter unless you know what Narnia is. The callbackfores like the lamppost growing don't make sense unless you know the lamppost. (Not to mention that reading Narnia in chronological order would involve stopping before the last chapter of LWW to read all of Horse and His Boy.)

Doomed prequels have the double-failure if read first that they are fundamentally classical tragedies: if you don't know the characters are doomed, everything hits differently than it was designed to. Which may still be a good experience! But admit to yourself that you want to study your friend's reactions for science, because you can never feel that way again.

There's also the high chance that the prequels spoil a significant plot twist from the original due to being the story of how that plot twist came about. The potential existence of Crisis Core is a major revelation of Final Fantasy VII (original flavor). (FFVII is a fascinating case study, because the Remake has to reckon with how much of their target audience knows the original.) (And reckon they do!)

Kingdom Hearts Chronological Order is a fun activity to play with your fellow fans, but unless you're filming reactions For The Bit, why would you do that to a friend? Trying to explain the KH series in chronological order is why it has the reputation for being super hard to understand. Do not do this.

[writers-potion]

this is a little hyper specific lmao but i was wondering if you have any advice on writing a pov character being mysterious? tyyy

Writing A Mysterious POV Character

Thanks for the question!

Here are some characteristics that I think makes a POV character "mysterious"

The reader is not meant to understand everything the POV character says, describes or alludes to.

The POV character actively holds off information from the readers either because (1) it's hard for them to talk about it or (2) they don't think it's important, somehow.

They reconstruct the narrative in the way they perceive it, not following the chronological order of events and often providing piecemeal information that only (if ever) comes together at the end.

The POV character simply has a wholly different perspective that a human reader will have difficulties understanding (i.e. story told from an animal or alien's POV)

I think the best way to portray this is to provide examples, which I think qualify as mysterious narrators. Note that not all mysterious narrators are unreliable narrators, although they could be. Here are the selected narrators and a few extracts for illustration purposes, divided by loosely defined subcategories (there can be overlaps!):

Incomprehensive Jargon & Allusions

Given that you can do this without boring or genuinely pissing off the reader, using lots of jargon, making allusions to things your target audience will probably not know to create atmosphere can be effective.

I recommend having a strong thematic core to justify all that jargon and reference, though.

Richard Papen from <The Secret History> by Donna Tartt

The characters talk and make references to Greek/the Classics. Arguably, it is not "incomprehensible", but the entire book is tirelessly full of them and unless you are a scholar in a related field, very unlikely to know all the Greek/ancient works being referenced all the time.

by M.L.Rio

Interesting style where the characters talk and even think in Shakespeare. They literally quote lines from Shakespeare to talk to each other. Not as difficult to follow as <The Secret History>, given that these are q famous plays (Hamlet, Macbeth, etc.) but it certainly adds well to the mystery at the heart of the book's plot.

---

Witholding Information

Have your narrator subtely refer to a large event in their past (a murder, a traumatic memory, etc) but never telling the reader upfront, making them only make implied guesses.

The only reservation I would have for this option is to not annoy the reader by letting them know the narrator has information, but is somehow not telling them. It would help to have a clear reason for them to not talk about it: e.g. they haven't accepted the past themselves, they're too scared to talk about it, etc.

by Eliza Clark

In here, the narrator has killed someone in the past - a fact that only becomes kind of clear at the end. Even then, the murder is never referenced because this narrator has some serious mental issues, but when you look back with this knowledge at the end of the book, her behavior starts making more sense.

---

Reconstructing the Narrative

Don't go in chronological order. Use time skips, or invent a new system for the narrator to arrange their memories and thus, retell the story. This gives the narrator power over the narrative because they've seen the whole thing play out, but the readers are getting bits and pieces, trying to get the puzzle pieces to fall together.

Other options:

POV character has amnesia

POV character has dementia

Using narrative interruptions that are in a completely different style (can work for 3rd person, look at Olivie Blake's work referenced below)

Olivie Black's <Alone With You in the Ether>

Using screenplay-like interruptions to the narrative that limits the reader's access to the characters' minds. Also creates interesting tone.

Kim Youngha's <Diary of the Murderer>

[I don't have pictures for this because I only have the Korean version....but really worth mentioning]

Here, the narrator has dementia and cannot fully remember the murders he has committed in the past. He is also an unreliable narrator who can only remember things in bits and pieces - thus the typical chronological order is interrupted.

---

"Non-Human" Perspectives

Give yourself a narrator that is not human, or is "dehumanized" in some way (lack of emotion, inability to relate to others, etc.) to view the entire world from a perspective not often experienced by the average human.

Death as a narrator from <The Book Thief> by Marcus Zusak.

Zusak inserts these little "pronouncements" or "interruptions" to the narrative and the calm but transcending tone constantly raises questions.

---

Do note that the overall tone of the novel contributes significantly to how the narrator comes across to the readers. Many of the works above also deal with "reality vs. unreality" as a theme, which is augmented by the use of a mysterious narrator that prompts the reader to challenge

Hope this helps, Happy writing :)

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💎Before you ask, check out my masterpost part 1 and part 2 

[a-d-nox]

web of wyrd: how to spot a reliable matrix post

i have been seeing a lot of matrix posts lately that have made me question if people are posting without actually understanding what the arcanas mean, what the orbs mean, how the matrix is calculated, etc. the biggest offender right now is not knowing that certain energies can only exist is certain places. so here is how to spot a questionable post...

let's talk math!

1 (magician) energy can only exist in the primary higher self or the public persona orbs.

2 or high priestess energy can only exist in the primary higher self, primary masculine high energy, primary monetary karma, or the public persona orbs.

persona energies can be 1-22 in this orb and this orb only.

1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 can only occur once a month.

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 can occur twice a month.

primary higher self energy can only be 1-12.

the primary monetary karma orb...

...is as follows 1970-1979 (17-8), 1980-1989 (18-9), 1990-1999 (19-10), 2000-2009 (2-11), 2010-2019 (3-12), 2020-2029 (4-13), etc. i saw a post the other day about energies 13-22 and i was like homeslice half of your target audience isn't on social media any more or isn't born yet.

you can never have 1, 2, 15, 17, 19, or 21 as your primary core energy.

5, 6, and 8 are the most common cores.

13, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22 are considered rare.

like what you read? leave a tip and state what post it is for! please use my "suggest a post topic." button if you want to see a specific topic or theme next!

click here for the masterlist

click here for more web of wyrd related posts

want a personal reading? click here to check out my reading options and prices.

© a-d-nox 2024 all rights reserved

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: On Food

A compilation of notes on how to describe food in writing.

How to Describe Food: Flavour & Texture

1. Write about the flavour.

Rich -> full, heavier foods. Often used to describe foods containing cream (e.g., potatoes & garlic, soup, and chocolate cake).

Bland -> has little or no flavour.

Bitter -> a tart, sharp, and sometimes harsh flavour (e.g., coffee).

Citrusy -> a bright flavour (e.g., lemons, limes, oranges, and other citrus fruits).

Fresh -> a light and crisp taste. Often used to describe produce or herbs. (e.g., apples, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, etc. Or bakery items like breads, muffins, etc.)

Fruity -> any taste reminiscent of sweet fruit flavours (e.g., grapes, blueberries, peaches, etc.).

Smoky -> a taste reminiscent of the smell of smoke (e.g., BBQ).

Sour -> a biting, tangy, tart flavour (e.g., lemons, Sour Patch Kids, and other sour candies).

Sweet -> a sugary flavour (e.g., candies, ice creams, desserts, etc.).

Zesty -> a fresh, vivid, or invigorating flavour (e.g., tacos, Italian pasta salad, etc.).

2. Write about the texture:

Mushy -> soft, but in an unpleasant way (e.g., if you cook vegetables too long, they’ll get mushy).

Tough and chewy -> are similar. Both describe foods which are difficult to eat because you have to chew them for a long time (e.g., meat can be tough or chewy, especially if it’s cooked too long and it gets dry).

Tender -> similar to ‘soft’, but it’s mostly used to describe meat which is cooked well, so it’s soft and juicy.

Crunchy -> food that makes a lot of noise when you’re eating them (e.g., dry food – like potato chips, or hard cookies – can be crunchy).

Words to Describe Different Flavours

For rich, spicy, or savoury flavours. The following words represent complex, spicy, or flavourful seasonings and dishes: buttery, caramelized, peppery, piquant, salty, sapid, saporous, savoury, smoky, spicy.

For sweet or fresh flavours. These descriptors characterize fresh or sugary dishes: ambrosial, bittersweet, bright, fruity, honeyed, minty, nectarous, saccharine, sharp-tasting, sweet, syrupy, treacly, zesty.

For subtle flavours. Some dishes are on the milder side. You can use one of these words to describe the taste: bland, mellow, tasteless.

For sour flavours. A sour or complex taste can be challenging to articulate. Here are some descriptive words to help: astringent, briny, citrusy, fermented, sour, tart, vinegary.

For hard or crunchy textures. Use these words to describe a crispy or chewy texture: broiled, caramelized, crusty, flaky, leathery, sizzling, thick, thin, toasted, toothsome.

For soft or fluid textures. These words can help you describe drinks, desserts, or other soft items: crumbly, doughy, fizzy, gooey, juicy, luscious, mashed, mushy, rubbery, runny, simmered, smothered, spongy, sticky, tender, velvety, waxy.

For the smell of food. Here are common food adjectives you can use to describe smells: acrid, astringent, bright, citrusy, fermented, heady, honeyed, minty, nutty, peppery, pungent, rancid, rotten, smoky, sour, vinegary.

Tips for Describing Food in Writing

Be specific. There are a lot of food words that are vague or general, like “delicious,” “yummy,” “succulent,” “delectable,” “mouth-watering,” or “finger-licking.” Avoid these overused phrases. Focus on the food's particular flavour, texture, or smell to make your writing more evocative and precise. Rather than describing a soup as “tasty” or “scrumptious,” try more specific words like “buttery,” “chunky,” or “minty.”

Consider your purpose. Decide if your goal is to explain a culinary experience or make the food sound appetizing. A clear understanding of your intention and target audience can help you shape your writing to be the most compelling.

Evoke all the senses. While you lean heavily on taste to describe food, remember to explore the texture, smell, sight, and sound of a dining experience as well. Including sensory language that incorporates the other senses creates a more robust experience for readers.

Sometimes less is more. Food writing is most effective when it’s focused, allowing readers to zero in on the essential details of the dish. If you include too many descriptors or attach multiple adjectives to each noun, you can overwhelm or confuse readers.

Sources: 1 2 3 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ 100 Sensory Words

If these writing notes helped with your poem/story, please tag me. Or leave a link in the replies. I'd love to read them!

[thearchercore]

As a film major undergrad and then entertainment business major post grad. The artistic elements of the F1 movie drive me insane AND THEN THE FINANCIAL AND MARKETING ASPECTS TOO!!

Apple is pretty notorious for just blowing huge amounts of money on shows and films that no one watches. So, it’s not even the $300 million budget that surprises me . It’s how little anyone seems to understand what this film is about or who it’s even for!! AND I CANT EVEN TELL WHERE THE MONEY FOR THIS FILM HAS GONE EXCEPT ON BRAD PITTS PAYCHECK BECAUSE THE TRAILERS COLOUR GRADING IS SO BAD IT CANT POSSIBLY BE ON POST

Maybe it was just a terrible trailer but the reason films like Rush and Le Mans 66 (Ford v Ferrari in some countries) is that they had something for both racing and non racing fans. 

Both based on true stories, with a compelling emotional core, recognisable actors (appeals to non racing fans mainly). Beautiful cinematic shots of cars going fast appeal to racing fans because those are views that you don’t usually get watching an actual race. 

the fixed cam shots of the drivers in the cars do nothing!! Because non racing fans will find them boring and racing fans would just rather watch a real race. Not Brad Pitt fucking about in an F2 car (which racing fans on Twitter have picked up on already!) The jet shots in top gun maverick (same director) worked because, hey people don’t usually see that sort of stuff, especially not from a pilots POV,  but we see fixed cam POV shots from car races all the time!! AND HOW ARE YOU DOING AUDIO FOR THAT??? is just going to be Brad Pitt breathing heavily the entire time??  

The exaggerated noises and car movements are fun to watch because F1 cars don’t move like that anymore! We don’t get to hear that classic WHOOOSHHH. hell even Michael manns terrible Ferrari movie was FUN because the story was interesting and the shots of the cars driving very fast around very scenic parts of Europe is entertaining. 

F1 (2025) is not based on a true story and the trailer was way more focused on the cringe “car for combat” line rather than what might actually make for an emotionally compelling story. An old racer thrown aside by the sport being dragged back to help an up and coming racer because that’s the only way he’s able to get back in a car. For the first time in his career He’s now the number 2 driver.

But it seems like we will get none of that and if we do the writing will be…uh bad!

ALSO THE TWITTER MARKETING!!! Who is that for!!! The only people who are interacting with that are already your target audience (F1 fans) they know the movie exists, they’ve already made up their minds about whether they are going to see it or not. And if non f1 fans see it they’d just be confused about it being a real f1 team and likely just ignore it. If this is your early marketing what on earth are you going to do next!! You can’t get Brad Pitt to do stunt drives for promotions cause he’ll probably die!! You are relying on name recognition to get non f1 fans to go the theatre and sign up to Apple TV for this and you didn’t even say FROM THE DIRECTOR OF TOP GUN MAVERICK in your trailer when that was the second highest grossing film of 2022 and had pretty much universal critical acclaim!!!! 

Brad Pitts old ass was also a terrible choice for this movie. Micheal Fassbender was right there!!! He’s literally done Le Mans, had an entire Porsche YouTube doc about his training and hypercar race attempts. And at 47, is a very believable age to play “retired driver but still young enough to come back” and he’d likely have been able to a lot of drives/stunts himself. 

I also dread to think how the real drivers are being included in this. I get wanting authenticity but these boys may look like models and actors but they are not!!! If anything I feel like it’d just ruin the emersion of the film because how jarring it’ll be to see real drivers, with their real names in a fictional movie!! 

This movie makes me crazy, it’s only been 1 trailed and some BTS info and I’m already like this. Watching the actual film ( which I do encourage people to pirate btw don’t give Brad Pitt money) is going to kill me 

i will be very surprised if they do pull it off because every move they've done so far was just objectively bad. naming it f1? awful. the ip will get lost in search engine tools because Real F1 will overshadow it. the trailer? no plot. brother is building a car for combat as if the FIA would allow anything like that. the closest we got was mclaren putting spikes on their car this year.

the trailer showed us zero plot, introduced zero stakes in the story. okay you're building a car, why? why do you want to win? what is the driving force of the story? the emotional core? why do i want to root for brad pitt's character if my driver is an actual character in the story??

so far the only people excited for it are real f1 fans that are going to see it to see max verstappen walk in the background in IMAX for 4 seconds. and those people take it as a joke, a hatewatch even.

they all know the f1 drivers can't act... like this whole thing seems so insane to me i cant believe how its an actual thing that's being filmed lol

and dont get me started on how the filming is taking two years (also bc of the strikes last year). two teams have completely different name. cars look different. suits look different...... like if they're fixing all in post god bless that team bc they'll be using more VFX than marvel

[outrunningthedark]

Buck could have apologized to Eddie and tried to make things right with him in 7x05 after he and Tommy got together instead of the dumb “Buck trying to hide the fact that he’s dating Tommy from Eddie” they gave them which was also ooc because Buck had no issue coming out to anybody else in his life and he knows Eddie’s not homophobic so why is Eddie different

Plus in 7x04 Buck didn’t need to try and break Eddie’s ankle, if Buck would have broke down crying or had a panic attack on the basketball court that would have been more then enough for Tommy to go to bucks loft to see if he’s ok and try to clear the air

"...if Buck would have broke down crying or had a panic attack on the basketball court that would have been more then enough..." I'm sorry to see that you've fallen into the trap of thinking Buck needs to have a breakdown every single season for his story lines to be good, but that's not how this works. Buck is an adult male. In his 30s. No canon mental illnesses. And the ADHD Oliver co-signed? Still fanon. The show didn't adopt it as part of the character. Having a "panic attack" or CRYING (over what?) wouldn't have made sense to the general audience. It would have made him look like (sorry to say!) a child. Aggression? That's expected. When men get overwhelmed, they get aggressive. When men get overwhelmed on 9-1-1? They also get aggressive. Bobby shoving Buck up against the wall. Eddie fighting arc. Chim punching Buck. A shove on a basketball court was only "OOC" because 1) fandom sees Buck as the little boy from the Begins flashbacks who must be protected and 2) his aggression was targeted towards Eddie. ALTHOUGH! I would argue that Buck's shove is no different than Eddie calling Buck exhausting when he was pissed off. One incident was verbal. One was physical. Same intent. To lash out. As for the second part of your ask... Yes! Buck could have apologized to Eddie in 7x05! If 7x05 was a direct continuation of 7x04. If 7x04 didn't have Tommy telling Buck to call Eddie and apologize. You, as the viewer, are supposed to be able to understand that the days between the two episodes are reflected in canon. Buck called Eddie to apologize. Off screen. They didn't have to bring it up again during 7x05 when 7x05 established that Eddie was already over what had happened. Just because Tim didn't write the scenes fandom wanted to see doesn't mean the scenes he actually wrote aren't easy to connect.

[suhmingo]

I, uh, don’t know how to actually preface this. It’s really just a mini rant/pseudo-analysis of chapter 167. Which was pretty crazy. But, I loved this chapter, and yes I’m typing this with two hands.

But first let me try and do some housekeeping.

It’s perfectly fine to have an emotional, even visceral reaction to 167. That’s the point

If you feel grossed out, betrayed, unnerved, dumbstruck, or any form of bamboozled by today’s chapter then good! That means the emotional weight of the scene is working, and that you are a proper, feeling human. The

The whole point of fiction is to explore themes that would be difficult, even dangerous to experience from a place of safety. To me that’s, like the entire reason I ever wanted to become a writer, one of the most unsung broke boy jobs in the history of the world. My desire for Denji to get better in a world that is dead set on making him fail is the entire reason I have an emotional investment in the first place. Stories are inherently about conflict and the struggle with resolving conflict, that should make you uncomfortable.

Say what you want about Chainsaw Man. I can take it, I’m a big boy. But one thing that it has always had since Chapter one is a well-defined through line about the complexity of our innate desire to find some type of love fighting against the pain-wrought pathway that it leads us down. In a good story, every chapter should have some way of showing the highs and lows of that theme, and I’m pretty confident when I say that 167 perfectly shows us that.

It’s bad. Don’t let people who brag about their trauma tolerance tell you otherwise. You are well within your right to feel. But I think it would behoove people to 1. Realize that this is fiction, and its effects, though evocatory, are ultimately abstract, and 2. Realize that exploring dark themes allows people, especially a 16-25 (Or whatever the target audience for CSM is) to grapple with and think on human concepts as all encompassing as love.

From a writing standpoint, one chapter has escalated the tension of the entire story more than anything that has happened in Part 2 so far. It’s admittedly a bit early to call it peak. But looking at it as a simple story beat, that’s a fantastic chapter as far as the medium goes.

Listen, the whole point of stories since, like, Mesopotamian times was the tension between wanting a character to achieve happiness vs the hardships and trauma that life happens in life. They’re supposed to put you in a sensitive state emulative of a tense environment. I’d argue that the prevalence of escapist fiction and fandom has changed how we emotionally digest fiction. But that’s a whole nother essay.

The events of 167 aren’t some horny non-sequitur. Everything that happened is entirely a logical, if graven, extension of how we know characters.

Denji is at the lowest point we have ever seen him at. He was literally dismembered and put back together less than 10 chapters ago. The last chapter literally had him groveling on his knees at a cauldron’s brew of his own weakness, immaturity, stupidity, and horniness. I think we can all understand why he would not be in a good mental state to just lose himself in the moment. You can’t even blame Denji in this situation. He was in an entirely vulnerable state that was exploited entirely by

Yoru. Who is the literal embodiment of war. If you think that someone who represents the human fear of war is going to play fair. Turn on the news for five minutes. Yoru is a character we are not supposed to like. She’s fun, because she’s a work of fiction, but she’s arguably less trustworthy than Fami. She’s a violent, exploitative being who possesses a dead teenager. There is no “too far” for her if it’s the fastest way on the road to conquest. Reminder that before she caught feelings, her plan was literally just to castrate Denji because she thought that would further her goals. The fact that it turned into kissing was actually sparing a worse fate. IMO that savior was all in the actions of Asa.

Asa. I genuinely believe that, subconsciously, Asa wanted to kiss Chainsaw Man. Not like how it happened. Never like how it happened, but her desire for Denji/Chainsaw Man's affection has always been evident. She gets irreparably upset when she’s stood up, she makes cringe poetry for Chainsaw Man, and her entire goal as of now is in some misguided desire to make him happy. I also don’t think Asa is actually demisexual, or averse to sex. She is afraid of intimacy, which stops her from ever acting on her urges. Notice that both times Yoru has kissed Denji, it was after the idea of sex and intimacy was explicitly brought to the conversation. To me that screams that Yoru is spurred on by her host’s innate desires. Hell, it’s been shown that in the same way that Yoru has made Asa more proactive of a human being, Asa has made her feel emotions. I don’t think it's a coincidence that Yoru is blushing while kissing Denji. None of that was part of her plan. That’s Asa’s emotional influence getting the better of her in what I predict to be a fantastic role reversal of their initial contract.

This is thematically in line with how Chainsaw Man presents love and sets up deeper themes.



Remember way back in Part One when Denji was just an initial horndog and everybody kinda hated him? I hated Denji back then! When I first heard of Chainsaw Man I genuinely thought it was going to be a mommy-kink fuelled power fantasy. But I was wrong. Wonderfully wrong. Fujimoto used the allure of that idea in Makima to present a story about how dangerous and manipulative the very idea of grooming is, and how damaging that can be to a person. The same way Denji’s desire to get the approval of Makima was poisonous to him is mirrored in his desire for vapid, instantly gratifying sex is being portrayed here. I genuinely think this chapter is going to age like fine wine, and I am absolutely willing to take egg on my face if I’m wrong.

[spirit-meets-the-b0ne]

I actually had someone say to me yesterday that watching House of the Dragon as a book reader is a bias and the fact that it’s an adaptation means it can go “any direction” from the source material and if this is a sentiment shared by others Jesus Christ are we in trouble

I understand an adaptation is never going to be 1:1 but can we collectively as a society agree on what the fuck an adaptation is? Through different mediums things are going to have to be reworked. To discount the majority or the original intended fan base however, is insane. This was my same issue with ATLA adaptations - you can’t tell me to abandon what I know and love about that story/characters and see it warped in an unrecognizable way and still applaud. The reason these adaptations even get made and get funding is because there is a TARGET audience and your fundamental basis for this are those who were invested in the source material. This happened with Witcher, ATLA, every Disney live-action remake, etc.

We can either commit to adaptations that are faithful to the source material, ergo faithful to the fans or we can just fuckin quit adaptations all together. It’s wild to purport that an invested audience member is inherently bias and should have their opinion discounted simply because they had knowledge and investment in characters from the source material which was abandoned or altered by a sub-par writer trying to “shock” audiences or reinvent the wheel.

[bulkyphrase]

2012 Avengers Tower: a fic rec list

I think we all sometimes yearn for the days when we thought Marvel would let the Avengers be friends who all lived together and fought supervillains in between movie nights.

Though these stories weren't all written or set in 2012 post-Avengers 1 era, but they all feature that team hanging out, having fun, and supporting each other through difficulties.

The list is in chronological order, with fic published from 2012 to 2024.

Amateur Theatrics by galaxysoup (@galaxystew-zombie) (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 26,586 words | Published April 01, 2012)

Summary: In which Thor’s primary problem-solving method (a mighty blow from Mjolnir) fails to have the desired effect on a magical artifact, and his secondary method (a mightier blow from Mjolnir) proves to be actively disastrous.

Big in Japan by gunboots (@gunboots) (Loki/Thor, Stucky | Teen And Up Audiences | 6,203 words | Published May 01, 2012)

Summary: Steve hesitantly reaches out and takes the object in Tony’s arms to survey it. 'It' being a pillow upon which was an almost frighteningly accurate illustration of Loki, their on-and-off again nemesis. "I don't--how did you even get this? Who would MAKE this?" Clearly Steve doesn't find the attention-to-detail on Loki's costume as hilarious as Tony does, which whatever. Like he said. Killjoy. A.K.A The one time Tony buys Thor the world's worst souvenir and it somehow worked out in the end anyway.

The rest are below the cut!

Soft Skills by Lady_Ganesh (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 4,154 words | Published May 31, 2012)

Summary: "So," Bruce said carefully. "You're saying that your tower became a big target for an alien army, so you're going to rebuild it as an even bigger target?" "Well, when you put it like that, it sounds stupid," Tony said. The team tries to bring Steve Rogers into the 21st Century. It mostly works. As my beta CaptainBlue said: Also I love how you did a fic about Avengers team building and still managed to make it 100% about Cap. You have a gift. This is why I love her. Any remaining mistakes are mine.

Without the Usual Cost of Labor by vain_glorious (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 6,387 words | Published June 15, 2012)

Summary: "Someone just reported to SHIELD that whatever was stolen produced “viable offspring,” and we’re hoping that doesn’t mean what we think it does,” Bruce says, evidently deciding to take over for Tony after only one masturbation joke. Also available as a podfic read by blackglass

The Great Avengers Body Swap by vain_glorious (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 3,712 words | Published July 23, 2012)

Summary: Loki and the Avengers spend a month in SHIELD's detention cells, because Loki cast a bodyswapping spell against them and got himself with it, too. Also available as a podfic read by blackglass

The Ice in Windless Cold by Isagel (@isagelc) (OT6 | Explicit | 11,883 words | Published August 19, 2012)

Summary: "I dream about the ice," Steve says. "About being in the ice." Also available as a podfic read by susan_voight

Private Bookmark? by storiesfortravellers (Gen | Mature | 2,638 words | Published August 24, 2012)

Summary: The Avengers discover that there are fans who write explicit RPF fic about them. Some of them are very confused. Some are proud. Some don't understand why everyone writes the pairings who aren't together but hardly anyone writes the couple who actually is together. Much silliness ensues. Also available as a podfic read by analise010, AshesandGhost, dapatty, fire_juggler, lorcalon (uniquepov), Opalsong, Weebs813

The Goat's Back by arsenicarcher (Arsenic) (Gen | Mature | 10,155 words | Published November 30, 2012)

Summary: An AU where Steve's essentially a failed experiment, corporal punishment is the predominant form of discipline and team leaders take the punishments for those under them.

Dear Clint Barton (circa age 7) by pollyrepeat (@pollyrepeat) (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 4,221 words | Published March 31, 2013)

Summary: The most annoying parts of being de-aged (and then re-aged) are your friends. Also available as a podfic read by RsCreighton (@rosecreighton)

What We Pretend To Be by ifitwasribald (Gen, Bruce Banner/Tony Stark | Explicit | 100,697 words | Published July 14, 2013)

Summary: Good becomes great, bad becomes worse. But people are a hell of a lot more complicated than good and bad. When half of the team is dosed with the super soldier serum, they all have to grapple with their own pasts and futures. But for better or for worse, they’re all in it together.

Speak So We Can Hear Your Heart Beat by Jaune_Chat (@jaune-chat) (Gen, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Jane Foster/Thor | Mature | 15,402 words | Published November 10, 2014)

Summary: The Avengers are rendered mute by Amora the Enchantress. As a search for a cure grows more and more dim every day, the Avengers have to deal with the reality of learning to communicate with each other in a whole different way. Uncertain if they'll be able to fight again, they enlist the help of their friends, and learn some surprising things about each other as they struggle to hold onto their identities as the World's Greatest Heroes.

The Health Benefits of Knitting by Niobium (@niobiumao3) (Gen | General Audiences | 1,179 words | Published January 15, 2015)

Summary: Clint isn't sure what's really relieving Natasha's stress—the knitting, or the part where she foists the horrible results off on other people. Also available as a podfic read by reena_jenkins (@reena-jenkins)

Clint Barton's Guide to Friends and Ceiling Vents by NoliteTimereEos (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 6,488 words | Published July 11, 2015)

Summary: In which Clint Barton meets a missing assassin in the vents and somehow becomes friends with him. Things don't go as bad as they could have. Also available as a podfic read by babbling_bedlamite

How to Train Your Superheroes by StuckySituation (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 3,150 words | Published March 05, 2019)

Summary: “But of course, no matter how much we practice on schedule, we will need to learn constant vigilance and manage to get our reaction times down to the minimum,” Steve continues and takes the last burger beef from the grill and puts it onto the table next to him. Natasha has a brief millisecond to frown and think “Constant vigilance?”, before Steve kicks the grill so hard that the coals rain on top of the flammable carpet feet away. “What the hell-!?” “STEVE!?” Steve is already sprinting towards the ledge. “First training session started! Wanda, Sam, Tony - someone CATCH ME!” Then he jumps off the Tower. Also available as a podfic read by vassalady (@vassalady)

Do You Remember Being Happy? ('Cause I Sure Don't) by GalaxyThreads (@galaxythreads) (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 11,022 words | Published April 25, 2020)

Summary: "Dragr," Thor called them. "Demons" Clint had said. "Thieves" is what Steve labels them as. AKA, the one where Steve is captured by creatures that feed off of happy memories, and the team is left to pick up the pieces. Post-Avengers.

5 Times Steve Dealt with His Team's Sleeping Habits... by The67ImpalaDragonChild (@dragonimpal67) (Gen | Teen And Up Audiences | 29,606 words | Published November 08, 2020)

Summary: ...and one time they dealt with his. Steve didn't think anything of it when he moved into the Avengers tower. He didn't think about how much the people he's living with would affect him. He's thinking about it NOW! Who knew a bunch of super heroes could be so weird about something as basic as the need to sleep?

on the mend by meidui (@meidui) (Gen | General Audiences | 1,438 words | Published February 03, 2024)

Summary: Steve rarely feels this awful after a fight, but then again, he hasn’t been on a solo mission in months.

[peachyfnaf]

I'm sorry but "MY BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS WITH A DISORDER<3" really made my day and I needed you to know

🤣🤣🤣

I can't believe Nexus is bullying peepaw war criminal.

Do you think Nexus is going to be stopped by big bro Sun or do you think the lil guy is going beyond the point of no return?

(Please talk about baby cringe Lord Nexus, I want to hear about your blorbo 🙏)

That's because Nexus IS my beautiful princess with a disorder, I'll have you know <3 they're diseased but it's okay I can give them their tetanus and flu shots and it'll all be better I GOT THIS

But. ahem, okay, blorbo yapping time. I'm not even gonna say "I'll try to keep this short" because I know it wont end up that way HAHAHAHAHA

"Do you think Nexus is going to be stopped by big bro Sun or do you think the lil guy is going beyond the point of no return?"

I... have absolutely no idea!!!1! (and also it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize peepaw war criminal was Ruin KJDFHSDF)

The most frustrating thing about canon Nexus is how his morals, motivations, and goals seem to see-saw back and forth all the time. at first, he became how he is now due to Solar's death. he spiraled in his grief, identity-issues, and abandonment. but... now his motivation is to become an all powerful god??? while it's most likely that NSP is at play and affecting his thought process, it's... well, it's really hard to take him seriously as a villain because of it, lol. for an audience to enjoy, and even sympathize in some cases, with a villain, their goals and motivations have to be concrete. they have to be relatable, or at least understandable, but Nexus' whole thing is... not, Imho. and I know I'm not the only person who feels this way!!!

I see a lot of people calling Nexus "cringe", and the thing is, when it comes to canon Nexus, they're not really... wrong??? The worst thing Nexus has done so far is make Old Moon see his past victims, which is fucked up of him to do, but.. so far, that's kind of it??? other than that, his "villainy" consists of saying empty threats and cheesy evil one-liners. hell, he was supposed to kidnap Sun yesterday but instead spent the whole episode yapping and venting to him, chasing Sun around in the worlds darkest game of tag before getting some lead right in the face dkfjhsdfsd

Also, notice how he's only targeted Old Moon when it comes to actual physical violence? not Lunar, Earth, Solar, or Sun, but Old Moon? yeah, I did too. we already know that Nexus does everything because he's lashing out, but as of rn the only target he's gotten his hands on physically being O.M...? well. I think it says a lot. cause' yeah, he sure as shit scared the life out of the other Celestials, but he's never put his hands on them!! the only other one of them he harmed physically was Earth- and not only was he not aiming for her, she was just in the way- he felt immediate regret for his actions once in space, and has yet to even see Earth ever since that day.

So, I really have no idea if he's going to be "redeemed" or not. one second he's showing signs he might be, and the next he's falling further down the "pretty badly written villain" rabbit-hole. if he does get something akin to a redemption arc, he'll prolly mostly be accepted in the eyes of the viewers, considering a lot of peeps sympathize or at least understand where he's coming from, but I seriously doubt the other Celestials would take him back. the only one's who might see him as family/a close friend again are Sun and Solar, but even then, nothing would ever be the same.

I hope he gets redeemed, or at least freed from the hold Dark Sun has on him and he's able to live his own life, I really do. at his core, Nexus is a good person. a good person who was crushed under the weight of the shadow of the man he was born under. and we know this because he used to be New Moon. sweet, dorky New Moon.

New Moon, who made inventions like sentient knives and whoopee cushions. New Moon, who had matching My Little Pony stickers with his best friend. New Moon, who bought a whole ass island-luxury-house for Sun because he wanted to make him feel better and give him the proper space to heal. and New Moon- the poor freshly-baked A.I who gave his all to make sure he could do everything that Old Moon could, but it just wasn't enough. he tried and tried and tried, but it wasn't enough.

So yeah, idk if he's getting one in canon, but to me, he more than deserves a good ending, for the life he was given. let him be at peace.

[corellianhounds]

The Acolyte Criticisms, with Suggested Changes

Part 1

Word Count: 7.5k. whatever.

(I should mention that these mostly came from episodes 1 and 2, with minor details up to episode 4. Nothing’s been changed despite having seen episodes 5 and 6 since most of this was written)

My complaints so far with The Acolyte are as follows:

The script is weak and boring to listen to

The show tells the audience exposition, character emotions, and backstory instead of showing us characters and history through actions that develop and unfold naturally on screen as they do things to drive the plot

Characters don’t have significant character flaws or depth and are content to go with the flow without taking actions contrary to what others on their side are doing. Any disagreement is solved with a conversation. If it’s supposed to be a mystery, it’s to be expected that people are going to lie, to snoop, to evade the truth, go digging into questions where they’re not supposed to, and not get along with each other: characters (especially and including ones you’re setting up for a redemption arc) don’t have to be nice

The acting itself is boring to watch because most of the scenes are sitting and talking or standing/walking and talking without building the tension or taking action as they speak, which could also be because—

The settings feel like sets, not lived-in environments

Every obstacle is barely an inconvenience and is easily resolved

Issues with pacing in writing, direction, and editing

Missed opportunities for more interesting, dynamic choices

They’ve already answered a lot of the questions they set up. If you’re going to bill your show as a crime drama/murder mystery, you can’t immediately show all your cards in the beginning, meaning—

There’s no rising tension. Events are simply set up and then they immediately happen. There’s no connective tissue or resistance or compounding storytelling taking us from one place to the next, making it feel like a collection of individual scenes that exist just to tell us the exposition we need, instead of showing us how the characters act and interact within the environment with the other people there

There’s not always a logical cause and effect between the characters, actions, and/or actual dialogue/lines of thought

There are inconsistencies with genre and tone, often leading to failed attempts at both humor and drama

The writers attempts at misdirection are sloppy because the dialogue or actions they do or don’t give are either telegraphed too obviously, or they fall into the category of not having a sense of logical cause and effect within that scene itself regardless of if there’s supposed to be a reveal later. Scenes have to be cohesive on their own.

I’ve had similar criticisms of Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett. I went into The Acolyte in good faith! The story itself at the core of these characters had potential! I was looking forward to seeing a mystery! But if this is what half of the season is, I don’t have high expectations going forward.

Here are some specifics for episodes 1 and 2 with references to episode 3 below (spoilers abound):

They billed the show as a mystery but they’ve already answered a bunch of questions that were set up in the first two episodes, sometimes within the same scene the question is asked. The characters (and by extension the audience) have a pretty wide understanding of who both Osha and Mae are and where they come from, even if we don’t have the exact details of what happened the night of the fire. Osha and Mae both know the other is alive, we already know who the assassin is without there being another possibility or explanation for them, we know who all of the targets are and where they’re located, we have the motive, and each conflict or scenario they introduce is resolved almost immediately. There’s no rising tension in the story or significant interpersonal conflict between the characters on each side, the characters aren’t that complex, and people too readily accept the answers they’re given with little protest or reactions based on a unique perspective that would make them feel more like people.

Even if who the assassin is, what their motive is, who their targets are, and where those targets are located apparently isn’t the main mystery we’re supposed to be following with the show, all of those questions are put forth and then immediately solved, meaning there’s not really a whole lot of mystery in a storytelling sense. If the main mystery is supposed to actually be about Mae and her master, not the crime drama about the assassinations that the marketing team billed the show as, then they should either have had Mae commit all three assassinations in the first episode while Osha is having to contend with the core cast being suspicious of and finding her, or made those the inciting incidents that happen prior to the show that cause the rest of the story, cutting out most of Mae’s appearances in the episodes to keep her character a mystery and focusing on Osha figuring things out. That gets a lot of things out of the way and opens up a lot more time in the show to explore the characters and move forward with Osha discovering and driving the story herself

I have some criticisms of their choice of technical production and design, but most of them come down to uninteresting camerawork on uninteresting and ineffectual set designs and environments. It feels like they plopped cameras onto singular sets they built to represent the entirety of that location without creating the connective tissue used to show characters going from one place to the next. Characters are in one place before we see them already in the next plot relevant location they need to be in with little travel time. We don’t see them arrive or depart or enter anywhere, they’re simply there. The temple had Sol’s one classroom, and later the jail cell. We didn’t get to see Vernestra following Sol to his office where they could talk about the assassin in private, we didn’t see Sol and Jecki walking out into the halls of the Temple during their discussion of Sol’s connection to Osha, we don’t see Osha traversing the ship and climbing up to the hatch to the outer hull of the freighter, we don’t see Yord and his padawan getting to Osha’s quarters, we don’t see much of the trio on Sol’s ship, we don’t see the escaped prisoners being found or taken to Coruscant, we see Torbin’s room from the same angles every time people are there, etc. etc.

The camerawork doesn’t help either. It feels like it’s being shot by people accustomed to doing theater on a proscenium stage, mid shots for conversations and wide shots for walking and rarely any tracking cameras following movement or pulling back to show travel from one location to another or following characters as they walk away, let alone anything more complex than that. Both the sets and cameras feel stationary, not dynamic and interesting, and it doesn’t help that a lot of the script consists of conversations that take place sitting and talking, or standing and talking. People aren’t DOING anything during these scenes and it’s hard to walk and chew gum at the same time when there doesn’t seem like any action is needed to get from one location to the next, or any obstacles (physical or emotional) forcing them to double back or change trajectory or pursue objectives other than get to the location that character needs to go next for the main plot to happen. It’s just not interesting or dynamic, and while you can tell the actors did what they could with the scripts they were given, the writing is weak and there’s only so much you can do with a bad script.

Character and Plot: Mae

I don’t know what a good alternative would be but I would have liked a different means of provoking the Jedi into a fight outside of Mae intentionally causing havoc and killing/maiming a bunch of people first. It was only after she assaulted the bystanders that they started to fight her back, and she was willing to presumably kill a bunch of other bystanders first as a means of distracting or provoking the Jedi when the Jedi already had engaged her in her fight.

I think Mae’s focus needed to stay on the Jedi because otherwise Mae garnered a lot more attention from local authorities and put a price on her head for drawing the wrong kind of attention (senseless killing of innocent people, causing mayhem and collateral damage and picking fights with everybody, not just the specific person she had beef with), making her overall objective more difficult since assassinations are supposed to be done in stealth, which seems to be how the writers intended for her to be interpreted. If anything, sparing bystanders in order to have them witness a fight where the Jedi attacked first seems like it would support her case after a declaration that the Jedi do attack the unarmed. Is she intended to be seen as a ruthless killer, or are her attacks purposeful, calculated, and premeditated?

If all it took was one small blade to kill Indara, I’m not inclined to believe she’s that good of a Jedi Master. We the audience have seen hundreds of examples of Jedi being trained to combat multiple assailants while experiencing numerous distractions, and we’re supposed to believe Indara couldn’t stop two blades she had time to see and knew were both coming? One of which Mae doesn’t even throw until after Indara has already stopped the other one? What it tells me is that Indara isn’t really that aware of her surroundings and isn’t a seasoned Jedi

That moment would have played better if Mae had thrown both at once, and if we’d seen the evidence of the blade going clean through Indara’s chest to the other side. If Mae is angry and if her use of the Force gave her enough physical strength to kick the four-hundred pound table at ground level earlier, there should be enough force and emotion behind the blade that it drives through Indara’s chest into the post behind her and splinters the wood, buckling the support beam. The showrunners made a Jedi assassination show, so show us what level of ability— Force-powered or otherwise— it takes to assassinate a Jedi. Make it bloody, make it vicious, and convince me this assassin is a legitimate danger.

If they didn’t want to show enough bloodshed to warrant the right audience reaction, my alternate suggestion would have been to have Mae level the building. We could still have Mae choosing to allow the barkeep and his kid to escape, with him being able to act as witness later. If she’s been practicing the Force in secret like the opening lines say, show her using the Force more impressively, or using skills we and the people within the show haven’t seen before. I don’t know if bringing the building down would count as not using a weapon to kill the Jedi, but it would have been a better way to show how someone not formally trained by the Jedi was able to take down a master.

Even if Mae isn’t supposed to have mastery of the Force yet, we need to see her do more than small-scale telekinesis and heightened agility, acrobatics, and strength. Her master can (we assume) be withholding even more impressive dark-side Force powers from her until she completes the mission to kill a Jedi without a weapon, but I don’t quite believe she’s strong enough to evade or defeat the numerous trained Jedi in those first two episodes. It felt like the showrunners were dampening the Jedi’s capabilities in order to make her seem like she could be on their level, when what they should’ve done was elevate Mae to theirs.

I want to see proof she’s being trained by a Dark Force user, and right now she reads as a pretty good infiltrator, but not all that impressive of a killer. All of her skills right now are no different than ones the Jedi already use. Giving her some kind of Dark Force powers would make her more impressive and feel more like a threat, something like a Force lightning whip, or blades of pure energy, or puppeteering bystanders to fight her targets/act as human shields against their will, or pyrokinesis (which tbh would be very cool thematically, especially when it’ll probably later be revealed she didn’t intend to set fire to the coven’s headquarters). Redemption arcs will always be stronger when a character has done some legitimately terrible or horrific things before they change.

—

One of the criticisms I mentioned is the script. There’s frequently unnecessary dialogue; in this opening fight when Indara asks “What are you doing here,” Mae doesn’t have to say “I’m here to kill you” because it’s already obvious by Mae’s actions that’s what she’s there to do. Indara’s real question is either “How did you survive?” if she knows it’s Mae despite all odds, or it’s “Why are you trying to kill me?” if her part in Mae’s past truly is innocent and/or she believes Mae to be Osha (forehead tattoo notwithstanding; Osha left the Order and for all Indara knows there could have been other witches like their coven).

Mae could have simply gone on the offensive without saying anything. If Mae does respond, it shouldn’t be to state the obvious when both Indara and the audience can see what’s happening. Her response could simply be “Retribution,” or “Justice.” That gives the audience motive and intent and tells us more succinctly than anything that there is an established history or past connection between the two characters.

Indara extinguishing her saber in response to “A Jedi doesn’t pull her weapon unless she’s prepared to kill,” seems foolish because even if Mae’s bias is confirmed if Indara keeps her blade ignited, the logical response from a seasoned fighter and defender of the people should have been “If that proves the only way to stop you I will do what I must,” because Mae’s the instigator who made it clear she’s there to kill Indara anyway, we know the Jedi will obviously fight in the name of self defense, and Mae made it a point to hurt a bunch of other people unprovoked in the fight leading up to this line first; how is she any better than the person she’s challenged with that accusation?

If Mae does have a genuine reason to believe what she says, then covertly drawing another blade with the audience knowing her intent results in said audience NOT believing she has a genuine reason to say it and is only using it as a means of getting Indara to lower her defenses. That combined with her instigating an assault on bystanders won’t make the audience see her as a sympathetic character, even if/when her motives against the Jedi are later revealed to be justified. She’s already proven to be deceptive so there isn’t really a reason to believe anything she says regarding her justifications/motive after this 🤷‍♂️

(Unrelated: Though I’m sure it’ll probably be revealed later, I’m not exactly sure why Mae left Indara’s lightsaber if she made it a point to go after it in their fight.)

(A note on the technical side of things: If the story hadn’t immediately revealed and confirmed for the audience in the first two episodes that the assassin is an entirely separate person, part of the mystery as to who the assassin really was could have been the clue that the assassin’s hair is longer than Osha’s. That detail is irrelevant since the reveal happens in episode two though, but if they’d wanted to build the mystery for longer and have us looking for clues and wondering if Osha is the assassin or later wondering which of the two it could be, it would have been good if they gave the assassin the short hair and Osha the longer hair. The first episode already made us suspicious (Is Osha an assassin and a very good liar in the face of questioning, or is she actually innocent because everything she says on the freighter is true and it just happens to be suspicious? Or is Osha being possessed or mind-controlled against her will and without her knowledge into being an assassin for a time, blacking out entirely and waking up with her regular life and lack of memories as the perfect cover? Or is Mae’s spirit inhabiting/controlling the same body as Osha with Osha entirely unawares? If that’s the case, does Mae know that she’s also Osha in that scenario or are both twins kept in the dark?) If it was the case of two separate identical people, on rewatching the episode the audience would have been looking for the clues that would lead to the reveal; an assassin can cut her hair upon returning to her regular life in an attempt to blend back in and cast suspicions of her appearance on Ueda elsewhere, but you can’t grow eighteen inches of hair overnight.)

(But like I said, once you’ve already revealed who the assassin is in this mystery, there’s no reason to rewatch the story in an attempt to see how they set that mystery up, so those suggestions are irrelevant anyway)

—

Exposition, Character Building, and Poor Scripts: Osha and the freighter sequence

The dialogue with Fillik sounds kind of boring because it’s too generic. It could have been made more specific to those people to really show her relationships and history on the freighter, building up suspicions and lack of alibi. An example that comes to mind is Cassian’s introduction back on Ferrix as he’s going through the town, making points of contact with a dozen different people. We really get a sense of who those people are and what they want in just a few lines of dialogue, whereas Osha and Fillik sound like surface-level coworkers; “What I do with my time off is none of your business.” “No rest for the wicked, huh?” “Well the wicked rest, but when they do they usually don’t brag about it.” None of that really gives us anything besides the normal water cooler talk you could get at any office, regardless of whether your coworker may secretly be an assassin.

Since Fillik doesn’t come back in the freighter sequence after their work on the hull, it seems like he’s only there to establish that Osha doesn’t have an alibi for the previous night and Indara’s murder, but if you’re just going to reveal with pretty damning evidence that she didn’t do it in the beginning of the next episode, why set her up to be suspicious in the first place with that dialogue? Either swap it out for something more interesting, or if you want to keep the line because you do intend to keep her a suspect for longer, have Fillik come back towards the end when she’s being questioned.

In that scenario we see this: The door to her bunk is open, he hears her getting upset and goes to investigate, he can vouch for her character to Yord and the padawan, and/or Yord asks him specifically if he was with her the previous night. If Fillik is a close friend and can see Osha’s in trouble he can come up with a lie and cover for her. It can complicate things for Yord and possibly give Osha some time/evidence on her side with an alibi, considering she’s being accused of murder, or Fillik could even be angling to give Osha a chance to escape. If Fillik hesitates because he recalls their first conversation of the day, it could be enough evidence for Yord to conclude that Osha needs to be taken in for questioning.

Either way you do it, you’re using more characters who have already been established as a means of organically complicating the plot and interactions in the next few scenes, weaving these people together and opening up more opportunities for organic exposition so we don’t have to hear the same things being said twice

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Exposition: Telling vs. Showing

I mentioned above that there doesn’t seem to be a logical cause and effect happening within the show. If they suspect someone of killing a Jedi Master, why are they sending a knight and a padawan to apprehend them? It doesn’t matter if Yord knows Osha: the fact a Jedi was killed should have told the council that 1. The assassin obviously has an issue with them, so any prior history between them is negligible and 2. The assassin is powerful enough to kill a Master, therefore two people of lower ranks with less experience and capabilities are not likely to succeed where a Master failed, and the council is putting them in danger by doing so.

Moving on to exposition: Audiences shouldn’t be hearing exposition through one character telling somebody’s entire backstory out loud, especially when the person they’re saying it to is the one they’re talking about. The entire questioning scene with Tasi and Yord is telling the audience who Osha is and how Osha came to the temple and the tragic circumstances under which she got there. It’s boring to listen to and it’s bad, lazy storytelling. It seems like the writers had a bunch of information to get out in order to move to the next plot point, and it won’t be the last time it happens. Osha’s backstory should have been revealed in relevant bits and pieces as circumstances developed.

Within the scene, Osha should have had a much stronger reaction to Yord bringing up the topic of grief (especially if they both know it’s not something she was able to reconcile). He’s the one who showed up out of the blue and brought it up and forced her to talk about something personal in front of a stranger.

In my opinion, I don’t think Yord should’ve known anything prior to Osha’s arrival at the temple. It leaves no questions to be answered for later; mysteries (and stories in general) are supposed to start with a lot of unanswered questions.

A way to change the scene on the freighter is to instead have first had a scene on Yord’s ship before he and the padawan arrive. We see Yord deep in thought, conflicted about having to arrest an old friend especially given the crime that’s been committed, and Tasi Lowa is introduced by listing the mission details on a datapad, going through it again before they dock but realizing Yord’s acting uncharacteristically quiet or somber, and asking Yord why it’s significant that he was sent to apprehend this person in the first place. Yord is reluctant to answer, Tasi presses for more information, Yord eventually reveals that the target is somebody he knows.

“… How do you know an accused murderer?” Tasi says carefully.

Yord’s expression remains conflicted as he docks the ship, not meeting his padawan’s eye. “Because we trained together at the Temple.���

This creates intrigue regarding Osha, tells the audience the council chose Yord specifically, that silence and somberness is out of character for Yord, and that Tasi is forward thinking and inexperienced, hence her need to ask questions.

I think I would have liked for Yord to at least attempt to compel Osha to tell the truth since that’s what he did to the Nemoidian officer on the bridge. Osha resists because he didn’t ask. Her being able to resist further establishes that she had training at the temple, showing rather than telling us more about her character. How she responds to that compulsion would inform Yord (by extension the audience) of her character, and regardless of her emotional response it raises suspicions around her.

On the other side, Yord could ask her if he could search her mind for the truth and if she says no -> suspicious, but if she says yes and he can’t find anything, it gives his character reason to doubt she did it, furthering the mystery, though his padawan could then point out “Unless she really is powerful enough to have killed a Jedi Master, which means she’s powerful enough to hide it from you.” Everything can be used to further the conflict and give it more complexities while still feeling like the natural progression the story would take. Yord will ultimately decide during the span of questioning, given what else they glean from her responses and Fillik’s possible interruption, that even if he could sense she was telling the truth they should still bring her in. Maybe a Jedi Master will be able to tell if she’s lying.

Having Yord be quiet, observing Osha’s responses while Tasi questions her on her whereabouts and opinions on the Order and Indara would have also built up his character as intelligent/capable of deductive reasoning and cautious/prepared in the face of danger, thus being the right choice to send on a mission to apprehend somebody who they believe capable of killing a Jedi Master. He shouldn’t have been revealing all of his cards while he was there in the first place— People will reveal themselves as they talk the longer you stay quiet.

Now the questioning scene is open to them asking specific questions regarding Osha’s recent activity without being bogged down by the past. The padawan goes in understanding why they doubly need to remain on guard, she’s able to ask questions specific to Osha’s whereabouts and see if she has an alibi with witnesses for the night before, Yord is able to ask questions specific to the Temple without having to spell everything out, and Osha can gather from their questioning that a crime has been committed and that she’s considered a suspect. Yord asks Osha questions specific to Osha’s past relationship with Master Indara, tensions rise between them as Osha starts to ask her own questions, piecing things together and asking what happened to Indara, Fillik could come in and the questioning broadens to him like above, and the four of them are interrupted by the witness being escorted in and saying “That’s her, she’s the one that killed the Jedi!”

The scene has its own building tension, we get exposition in the form of forward momentum, characters discovering things as they happen, and it would logically (like it should have in the canon scene) result in Osha having a much stronger response and protestations at being wrongfully accused of a pretty heinous crime against somebody she had no reason to kill. She should have been either verbally or physically fighting back/resisting being dragged away, the revelation as much a surprise to her as it would have been to the Jedi including Yord and Tasi when they heard it at the temple. Her protests can still be followed up with her vehement denial of such a thing, fiercely stating that she knows the council will believe her. Depending on how you want character relationships to develop, Yord can either try and fail to remain neutral as he’s cuffing Osha as she pleads and we can see that it’s a genuine struggle for him, or he manages to control his emotions to the point he can appeal to hers, telling her not to fight, that they’ll take it up with the council

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Always Be Introducing Your Characters

I have to say I don’t really care about Jecki Lon, and indifference to a character is almost worse than active dislike. There are really no strong opinions to be had one way or another because she’s not really that interesting and there’s nothing that really ties her to the plot other than to be someone to ask Sol questions he can give exposition to. She doesn’t have any flaws, she doesn’t have her own objectives, and she’s kind of dull to listen to like the rest of the side characters.

Considering her introduction is with the “Doomed to repeat the past if we don’t learn from it” conversation with Sol, I thought Jecki, Sol’s current padawan, was going to be a mirror to Osha, Sol’s past padawan, but there hasn’t been enough significant development on her part with (or without) Sol for there to be any strong correlations or parallels.

To establish some sense of objective and character flaw it would have been good for her to go digging into Osha’s past and information the Jedi temple would have on her so that 1. The audience receives exposition in a more natural way than her and Yord just straight up asking Sol a bunch of (potentially painful) questions for the audience’s sake on the ship, and 2. So we see more of her character and she’s given a proactive goal and interest of her own in the story. Right now she still feels like she’s tacked on to be an extra set of hands and act as a mouthpiece for exposition. I don’t really get much of a sense of individuality or character from her outside of “follows rules,” which isn’t enough to interest me.

A way to improve the exposition and tell us more about both her and Yord’s characters is if Jecki started digging through Sol’s personal effects on the ship or was shown to have stolen a temple dossier or files from Sol’s office to look through and get some more background on Osha since Sol should have been more evasive about answering questions about Osha, reserving his thoughts for when he’s able to track her down. Sol has already shown resistance to her questioning his past with Osha, so it would be only natural for her to continue investigating.

Jecki could have been established with the rule-following characterization but then shown starting to bend the rules after Sol evades some (better-written) more pointed questions, going against what her own character would prefer, because she sees her master not abiding by the rules they both should already know to be true (not allowing one’s attachments to interfere with what needs to be done for the greater good). It gives her enough internal justification to satisfy her curiosity, since investigation is part and parcel to how mysteries as a genre work in the first place.

With the change of Yord only knowing about Osha’s past at the temple, he wouldn’t think to go digging into anything prior to her time there since he’d have no reason to think it had a bearing on the current investigation. When Jecki’s curiosity compels her to snoop, the scene on the ship becomes more interesting because Yord could’ve caught her and started to reprimand her (also being a stickler for the rules) before she asks him if he knew anything about Osha’s past. Osha’s homeworld, details about the coven, the fire, how it was started, or the fact Osha had a twin who didn’t survive are all possible pieces of exposition Jecki and by extension Yord could find that feel more natural under these circumstances, and it gives those two characters reason to be suspicious of any leeway Sol grants Osha when they find her. Any or all of it reveals something to Sol’s current padawan about his past one, setting up how Jecki (and Yord) will interact with Osha and Sol down the road.

As the two of them discuss what they’ve found, drawing conclusions and debating in whispers, neither realize their absences were noticed, and ultimately that’s when Sol catches them both

Sol either closes off their line of questioning (their specific questions revealing more of what either character prioritizes, Sol’s responses revealing more of his own character), or he could give a cryptic, heavy answer that tells them enough to realize something bad went down that night, shutting the both of them up. It leaves questions unanswered to come up later, it reveals more of the characters, and it sets up Yord and Jecki to have their own perspectives that develop over the course of the story. They get the same information as in canon in a more interesting way, and it keeps Sol from flat out stating something he then immediately goes back on when he meets Osha again at the end of the episode. Jecki now has to wonder what it is about the past Sol doesn’t want to repeat, and at the end of this episode when Jecki and Yord see Sol save Osha and refuse to handcuff her, the two of them could then share a look of trepidation after Sol and Osha pass, both thinking the same thing: Sol may already be too emotionally compromised to make clear calls regarding the alleged murderer in their midst, and they need to watch/listen to him carefully moving forward. That creates a source of interpersonal conflict that will keep the characters (and by extent the audience) asking the right questions as the mystery unfolds.

The Jedi rule warning against attachments is meant to be a self-imposed accountability measure against caring about any singular person or thing above doing what is best for the greater good. Because the Jedi were a specific order of people dedicated to protecting others, it wasn’t just a belief system but a lifestyle combined with a martial art and specific training in the Force. A Jedi’s relationships with other people, regardless of how good and selfless they are, cannot take precedence above doing what is necessary to save or protect the most amount of people. They knew if they allowed their emotions to cloud their judgment, they were capable of harm (either directly or through negligence) greater than that of the average person because they had been specifically trained with those abilities.

Depending on how you wanted Jecki’s character to evolve throughout the season, her curiosity could either lead to jealousy, if Sol genuinely does start to neglect her in favor of Osha (even if its not purposeful on his part, Osha just happens to be who the story/mission is centered around), or it could lead to a more mature response of seeing Sol more of a peer to be held accountable and less of a mentor to be admired and followed with few questions as she nears the end of her time as a padawan, meaning she’s concerned his own perspective will be compromised because he loves Osha too much to remain objective.

Either of those could result in a more severe fight with Sol later on when he inevitably does make a bad call, and regardless of Jecki’s progress leading to that point, even righteous anger directed towards holding him accountable can be interesting and still done in a way that audiences haven’t seen before. Holding one’s mentor accountable and saying the hard things that need to be done without involving one’s own emotional attachment to the relationship creates plenty of opportunities for drama, hard decisions/discussions, and character development, furthering Jecki’s standing as someone committed to following the rules because the rules are there for a reason. That response from somebody younger and less experienced would be harder for Sol to take as opposed to people higher than him on the council. Jecki wouldn’t even have to take issue with Osha personally for that to develop, which gives her own character inner conflict as well. Any or all of that would have been a unique perspective and character we haven’t seen yet from Star Wars, and it gives the characters actionable objectives to pursue or work around the rest of the story.

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Humor/Tone Falling Flat, Undermining Characterizations and Tension

A lot of the humor doesn’t land for me because the jokes either feel like ones we’ve heard before that are now overdone, or they feel out of place within the progression of the scene, story, or characterizations, as though the writers came up with a bunch of jokes and tried to write the scenes around setting those jokes up. I’m not sure if it’s been done in an attempt to keep the show from being “too dark,” or if the target audience is younger than I initially thought, but to me they really just aren’t working.

The one that immediately comes to mind in these early episodes is Jecki’s attempt at conveying what kind of person Yord is (or what she thinks of him) by her tone, leading into a gratuitous shirtless scene with Yord that… doesn’t really tell us anything about his character. If you’re going to have a shirtless scene it has to mean something, but he’s just. Idk, deodorizing his robe for some reason. Leading right into a scene with him after the padawan’s complaint should convey to the audience something indicative of his character since the padawan’s delivery of “he’s just… Yord,” implies there’s no other explanation needed for whatever annoying thing he does that is supposedly consistent with his personality

I don’t care that it’s a shirtless scene, my complaint is that it’s unfunny, tonally out of sync, and doesn’t tell us anything besides that Jecki finds him annoying for some unspecified reason. Shirtless scenes have to say something about the character and/or the story or they’re just eye candy for the audience, which in this story feels cheap, confusing, and out of place.

Anakin’s shirtless scene while having/waking up after a nightmare in Revenge of the Sith tells us that not only does that character feel vulnerable, but that he’s there in Padme’s bed next to her and there’s a clear reason why he was there in the first place.

Princess Leia being forced into a slave girl outfit tells us a lot about her situation in Jabba’s Palace, and it tells us a lot about Jabba the Hutt and the denizens of the court. While she is also pretty obvious eye candy for the audience, it also highlights that the one person she loves romantically, who also loves her, is blind the entire time and never sees her at all, which is important for Han Solo’s characterization later when he makes his feelings clear to her, showing the audience it was never just a physical thing for them.

Yord’s not not showing off/flirting with anybody in say, a sparring arena where he’s justified in not wearing a shirt, so he’s not showing off either his appearance or skill in an attempt to impress people. He’s not lifting weights or preening in front of a mirror or fixing his hair, something that would tell us he’s concerned about his appearance, which means it’s not a case of vanity either, and nothing up to that point (or past that, seeing Episode 4, therefore half the season) tells us either of those things are part of his character.

That leads me to think the scene was supposed to be a way for the directors to tell the audience the padawan (and possibly by extent other people at the temple?) finds Yord insufferable or vain or shallow in some way, and that that’s supposed to suffice as the source of conflict/disagreement between those characters moving forward. However, that character attribute isn’t consistent with what we’ve seen of Yord so far, and nothing following that scene reinforces those ideas at all. If anything, Yord’s got the most objective eye and all of his suggestions and protests are reasonable. I think his plan in Episode 2 regarding Qimir in the apothecary was better as opposed to just blindly sending Osha in not knowing anything about this guy or the nature of his and Mae’s relationship or even what she’s supposed to say once she’s in there. For all they know these two covert assassins could speak with each other in an entirely different language in order to cover their tracks.

All of that ends up making that scene feel gratuitous and out of sync with the characterizations up to and at the end of the episode. It doesn’t serve any purpose other than to make Yord eye candy for the audience, which feels cheap, distracting, and a little insulting to the actor in my opinion, and if it was an attempt at humor, it falls flat because it wasn’t really anything to begin with. I don’t care if you as the writer/director think it’s a fun moment. If it detracts from or doesn’t add to the story, cut it out or make it better and have it mean something.

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Environmental Storytelling: Technical Design and Production

Neither Osha or Fillik feel like they’re in the vacuum of space because their tethers float, but they look like they’re moving with regular gravity. If the boots are supposed to give them traction and keep them grounded, it should take more effort to lift them to walk. Their torsos and arms would move differently regardless.

I bring it up because if employed mekneks aren’t supposed to be human because it’s too dangerous of a job, prove to me that the danger is real just by virtue of the fact they ARE outside in space.

This would be a minor thing I’d be willing to overlook if technical and design flaws didn’t keep coming up and taking me out of the story. These environments are supposed to feel lived in and in doing so the action would feel more like it was happening to characters rather than actors. It’s the difference between the practical effects of Jurassic Park still holding up today because there are actual sets and tangible puppets and animatronics to move around and respond to, versus the almost exclusively CGI dinosaurs and parts of the sets used for Jurassic World (or to use a Star Wars example, the difference between the acting in the original trilogy vs the prequels). You can tell when actors don’t have a physical set to work with— Their performances are going to feel more genuine if they’re not just backdropped by blue screens, green screens, or in this case, the computer-generated Volume.

There doesn’t feel like there’s as much of a sense of danger, which keeps the story from building background tension or feeling complicated on an environmental level. Hoth looks and feels and affects the actors as if it’s freezing in Empire Strikes Back because they were shooting on a glacier. They made the Tauntaun feel like a creature because even after the puppet froze, even after the bellows to make it breathe froze, the props master had everyone grab a bunch of cigarettes and blow smoke into a bag specifically so they could get a shot of the Tauntaun’s breath fogging the air.

Conversely, the ice planet in the first episode of The Acolyte doesn’t feel dangerous because we don't see the environment affect the characters. None of the actors act like they’re in sub-zero temperatures, save for the second time we see Osha wake up (though that doesn’t carry through to her going out in the blizzard and being in the cave); even if you argue that the Jedi have some supernatural way of keeping themselves warm without wearing extra layers, that’s still a conscious choice they’d have to make and we need to see it happen or acknowledged, and Osha should still have been affected regardless. There’s never a single moment we see any of the characters’ breath fog the air.

It’s the kind of practical effect you notice because it’s missing. Osha should have had ice stuck to her hair and over her skin, her lips chapped and changing color, we should have been able to see her breath, and she should have been shivering violently at having crash landed on a snow planet and been unconscious long enough for the snow to pile up in drifts. I’d argue there’s even a pretty notable example of what it looks like for a main Star Wars character to wake up after being knocked unconscious and exposed to the ice and snow for hours on end. If you feel that’s an unfair comparison, I direct you to episode 3 of this same show when the coven is out on the mountain and you CAN see their breath in the air. If you have enough money to CGI a starship, you have enough money to add that in post.

Another example of the set not effectively telling the story is the apothecary in the second episode. It looked like a bar, nothing’s labeled or has a sense of organization or specificity the way a lab or pharmacy would have, Qimir is passed out as if he’d been drinking, and the dialogue of “sampling the merchandise” has been used before in a lot of other media to reference drugs or alcohol, so the audience isn’t going to conclude that it’s an apothecary. The scene where Qimir makes the poison feels too convenient and a little odd since they made it look and sound like he’s easily mixing up a cocktail, and he's not even hunting around the shop for specific ingredients, explaining what he’s doing when she asks him to make something on the fly, instead just grabbing a couple unmarked bottles within arm’s length.

(A side note: If Mae grew up using bunta for hunting, how does she not know how to make the poison for master Torbin herself?)

The end scene of episode two is another standout example of both the bad script and ineffective set design. The scrappers trekking through the forest are shot on a well defined path clear of brush with an obvious view of the ship they “stumble upon,” which makes the line “Hey look a ship! I bet we can scrap it for parts!” seem silly since it’s pretty openly and conveniently placed within their path and line of sight. The dialogue is pretty sparse and cliché (“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this!”) before they walk right onto the next set location we need them to get to for plot reasons all “Oh look, I wonder what that could be 🤔.” If these two are lost in the woods, give us a view of them in profile obscured by trees and actively wading through brush at chest height while they bicker, and then make them stumble out into the clearing or notice the ship through the trees and go to investigate. If the showrunners are trying to tell us the Wookiee Jedi is in a hard-to-reach remote location in the middle of nowhere, they failed to do that because it looks pretty easy to just walk right into this guy’s front yard. If he’s in self-exile or hiding on purpose, have him shoot a warning shot from inside or on top of the ship, or have the scrappers fall into some traps or something. Do something more specific to tell us about the world or characters

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Most of the above complaints stem from a poorly written story, and what results means it’s not interesting to watch even as a layman or passive viewer. They have some really interesting ideas, but without good scripts, you can’t come up with interesting characters or actions for those characters to do because you haven’t written those characters with enough specificity or conflicting goals. Combine that with minimalist sets that don’t create enough of an environment to interact with and you can’t do any interesting camerawork. Having exposition given almost entirely through dialogue leaves no room for visual or environmental storytelling and missed opportunities for places where characters’ past and relationships could be furthered through the expressions they have and the actions we see them take. There’s no building upon the scenes we’ve already seen, there’s no layers or nuance to peel away, and the characters telling each other everything— often including those characters feelings— means the audience doesn’t have to work to piece anything together. At best the story feels like a simple junior high novel with little narrative tension or understanding of how complicated socio-political issues interconnect and the characters have little depth and aren’t strong enough to even compel me to go along for the ride.

The show has some really talented actors who I’ve seen do good work before and I wish they’d gotten the chance to have a better story. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed 🤷‍♂️

[alexblue2424]

Honestly, I'm so done with all the beef about Descendants: The Rise of Red, it being disrespectful, what the OG cast thinks and the conflicts it brought between them... Not to say I don't care, I love all of them, but I'm done. I'm aware I might get criticized for this, but whether it's morally right or wrong, Disney is a mega corporation, and the truth is that the Descendants franchise makes them money. Y'all really think they wouldn't continue to milk a franchise that gets them money? I won't pretend to know what the OG cast is going through, and I won't be arrogant to say what they should and shouldn't do or feel. They feel like it's disrespectful, don't agree with it, and don't wanna do it? Completely fine and understandable. Some of them are willing to do it? Fine too, people's grief and ways to deal with it is different. The cast enjoying themselves? Also fine! They're living a dream, who am I to judge?

The moment I accepted that Disney will make money however the freak it wants, it's the moment I allowed myself to enjoy it.

Also, while I'm here. I get that many Descendants fans won't even give a change to the new movie. Whatever your motives are, they're valid too. If you feel it's wrong to watch it, then don't watch it. Just don't be mean to the new cast. They don't deserve hate for this.

If you're refusing to watch Descendants: RoR, than maybe it's because that movie is not for you. I'll admit, I'm not the target audience. This movie was made for a new generation. We have Descendants 1, 2 and 3, and no one will take those movies away from us, you can watch those instead. If you don't wanna give Disney the views, pirate them.

Do whatever you want, just don't be mean online.