#And it was literally the plot of the fourth movie- You know- Turned into an impossible fantasy made by those two

[triple-pupil]

Hi, look who I got in silly Disney Mobile Game.

Don't ask how I got them...

Also it's beautiful how their little storyline and missions aknowledge the existence of the first movie's events, makes it worth all the money I wasted- I mean, all the troubles to get them.

So have the little I got of it till now below

"... All right, stop! Halt! ¡Alto! I'm making an executive decision, and that decision is... We're all making camp for the night!"

Look at the shoutout to the trio's and the first movie creatures' nomadic lifestyle... Brings a tear to my eye. And it seems it is just the three of them, Ice Age 1 style from the little other dialogue I saw.

"Now, why don't you and Diego just sit back and let the ✨Fire King✨ work his magic..."

Gotta impress the bfs, go King.

Diego didn't even give him a chance but Sid is trying his best.

Must mention, almost all character animations are exclusive of the first movie, as well as their designs, if I dare say.

Anyways, look at my baby eeping.

Almost all his personal missions are related to Patrol/security, baby, it's safe, you can stop working. Yes, take a nap before the journey, have happy dreams.

"Remember Someone Special"

This already got me. They aknowledge Manny's former family in an object that's a cave painting of him and his dead son, so seeing this has me in shambles, a mission dedicated to think of his previous herd-

IS THAT ROSHAN'S NECKLACE????????

HOLY FUCK???????

ROSHAN AKNOWLEDGEMENT POG???????????

Anyways, best investment I've done today, do not reccomend.

[zeropro]

What are your thoughts on transformers prime and transformers one?

TL:DR I liked both! TFP was my first Transformers show that I watched all the way through and TF1 was a lot of fun! Opinions on Starscream under the break pfpfpfpfpfpf

Prime was literally my first Transformers experience (Okay that's not true, I did see the first Bay movie when it came out but lets not talk about that). It's really good! My favorite character was Ratchet, I loved that he's just a tired, grumpy, racist old man and he's a doctor. Knock Out was the best thing to come out of TFP and he really should be in more stuff. Really would have loved a fourth season but it wouldn't have been the same without the children around. I liked what we got!

Prime has an excellent Starscream, Steve Blume does an amazing performance with both his deep conniving gravel and his high pitched terrified sputtering. So much character in his animation too, especially in later seasons, and an incredibly compelling character arc. Prime Starscream is not a good person, but I would burn the world for him, and I like the small moments in the show that hint at something in his character that could be turned to good, but circumstance always works against him in that regard. He's just so pathetic, but also competent and dangerous, all the best qualities of a Starscream and a very unique design!

Transformers One was quite good, I was worried because of the trailers but I was surprised by how well executed it all was. None of the characters were annoying, and making Optimus Prime originally one of the oppressed class alongside Megatron was a good move. The scene where Orion gives Dee the sticker is so cute, I simply cannot. The ending felt a bit rushed but what can you do, it wasnt so bad that it's a problem for me.

I would have loved just a little more Starscream in the movie! Like, I knew he wasn't really gonna be in the movie much so i was prepared for it to be little more than a glorified cameo, but I loved a lot of what we did get and I feel like it was missing just a little bit more! Like, the whole High Guard turned rogue backstory he has is great, implies some honor to his character since he didnt keep serving Sentinal when the guy turned Cybertron over to the Quintissance. I think it's hilarious that Starscream is so much older than Megatron. Like, they gave us a lot of food to make headcanons out of, but then the rushed ending kind of left me with no real reason given for him and the rest of the High Guard to go with Megatron without a fight. Like, I think the reason given was that, because Megatron beat him up that one time, and then killed Sentinal, and since the High Guard became a might makes right society and hates Sentinal, I guess thats why they are loyal to him now. And I guess the one line where Starscream is like "all hail megatron" is supposed to indicate he's 100% behind Megatron now and not just a spur of the moment thing. And I guess them following his command to destroy the city is why theyre being banished. But like...idk, every other plot point was well established and properly played out, and the whole decepticons thing just didnt really feel like enough, and i kind of feel like it should have been more clearly communicated considering its an entire one side of a two sided war? I feel like we werent shown the high guard doing anything egregiously bad besides attacking people because megatron told them to.

Like, there's nothing in the movie to suggest that Starscream and the High Guard arent still loyal to the Primes. So when Orion comes back as a prime, like a proper prime, with the matrix and everything, which everyone knows will make the energon flow again, I'm surprised Starscream didnt at least try to make excuses or worm his way into avoiding banishment? My headcanon is he wanted to kill Sentinal as bad as Megatron and so when Megatron finally does what he failed to do for 50 cycles, he's like aite im ride or die for this guy. Maybe 50 cycles of living in the wilderness doing nothing but scout and pit fight all day changes a guy and they dont wanna live in a society anymore. Why dont they accept Optimus as the new prime? They helped him and Elita save their friends, and unlike Sentinal Optimus has the actual Matrix this time. Idk mang. Woulda liked a bit more.

Transformers One, not my favorite design for Starscream. The head vents going wide at the bottom look weird to me, and his legs are so long and flat.

Thems my opinions!

[wadewnstonwilson]

deadpool & wolverine reimagine;

(part one: only you)

authors note: As much as I love Deadpool & Wolverine, I really wanted to do a full rewrite in my own style, and as my own chaotic version of Wade would allow. I also just really love having an excuse to write Wade as the little psychopath fourth wall breaker I know he really wants to be. I plan on posting these in parts, and as frequently as time allows! Each chapter will be based on a song from the movie.

word count: 2.2k

part two

The sky hung heavy with a quilt of grey clouds, their ominous presence casting a cold, muted light over the pristine blanket of snow that stretched out across the frozen landscape. Snowflakes drifted lazily to the ground, swirling and dancing on a whim of the biting winter breeze. Each flake added to the soft layer of white that coated the earth, muffling sound and creating an eerie stillness that blanketed the world.

The crunch of boots shattered the silence. Black and red, they pressed into the snow with a deliberate weight, leaving behind deep impressions that revealed the frozen earth below. Attached to the boots was a figure cloaked in shadow, but the glint of steel betrayed the weapons strapped to his back. Familiar swords caught the sparse winter light, their polished hilts gleaming with a promise of violence and irreverence.

The figure halted, the air around him thick with tension as he gazed at the scene before him. His breath puffed in clouds of condensation, but it was not the cold that caused the long pause. He was standing before a solitary gravesite, marked by a crude wooden crucifix tilted at a precise forty-five-degree angle to form an ‘X.’ Perched atop a rough, weathered rock was a mug that read, in comically bold lettering, "I LIKE ME." It was the kind of detail that would feel absurd in any other setting, but here, it felt almost reverent—albeit in a distinctly offbeat way.

Then, as if to shatter the somber atmosphere, the silence was broken—not by an external sound, but by a voice. Disembodied yet familiar, it cut through the still air with all the subtlety of a freight train.

“You know,” the voice began, rich with a snarky charm that dripped sarcasm and defiance, “for a long time, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be back.”

The figure turned his head slightly, as though acknowledging the unseen audience. It was clear now that he wasn’t just any figure—Deadpool. The mask, red and black, hid his face, but not his personality. That could never be contained.

“Disney bought Fox,” he continued, his tone incredulous and mockingly dramatic. “There was this whole boring rights issue, blahbity-blahbity-blah. Lawyers in suits arguing over which billionaire mouse gets to own my ass. Classic capitalism, right? But then—plot twist—they actually wanted me. Me! The one guy who shouldn’t even have his own movie, much less a franchise. Marvel’s so stupid.”

Deadpool turned to face the gravesite fully now, the backdrop of snow and winter trees framing him in stark contrast. He gestured wildly, the exaggerated movements making his point seem even more absurd.

“Look, we all saw the trailer. You clicked on this fanfic, so you know the title. You know what’s coming. And now I bet you’re sitting there, scrolling, thinking, ‘How are we gonna do this without dishonoring Logan’s memory?’ Well, I’ll tell you how.”

He took a deliberate step forward, snow crunching beneath his boots, and crouched down slightly, resting his hands on his knees like a coach about to deliver an important speech. The silence stretched, his body language dripping with theatrical tension.

“We’re not.”

The words hung in the air, delivered with a perfect blend of irreverence and solemnity. Deadpool rose to his full height, adjusting the swords on his back and tilting his head in mock seriousness.

“Logan’s memory? That dude literally got impaled saving a feral child. I’m doing him a favor by starring in this little novel. Call it a memorial. A written eulogy, if you will. But you’re here for the action, the laughs, the gratuitous swearing, and maybe—just maybe—a chance to see Wolverine’s claws again. No pressure, though.”

He reached out to brush some snow off the tilted wooden cross. His gloved fingers traced the shape of the 'X,' and for a moment, his voice softened.

“Miss you, buddy.”

And then, with a sharp inhale and a clap of his hands, the moment was over. Deadpool spun on his heel, muttering to himself as he walked away from the gravesite.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” he said to no one in particular, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “I’ve got a franchise to save, a fourth wall to destroy, and—if the budget allows—Hugh Jackman’s phone number to steal.”

The muted stillness of the North Dakota wilderness was shattered by the dull thud of soil being violently displaced. Clumps of frozen dirt and tangled roots were flung skyward, raining back down like a gritty hailstorm around a freshly dug grave. The bleak landscape, painted in shades of grey and brown, was eerily quiet save for the relentless scraping of a shovel. Snow swirled in lazy spirals, its chill ignored by the lone figure waist-deep in a hole of his own making.

Deadpool’s voice rang out, clear and cutting through the cold air, breaking not only the quiet but also the fourth wall with practiced ease.

“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret,” he began, his tone conversational, like he was sharing gossip over coffee rather than defiling a grave in the middle of nowhere. “Wolverine? Yeah, not dead. Nope. Nada. Zilch. Sure, it looked like the perfect ending to his little melodrama—impaled, tragic, tears, the whole shebang. But c’mon, people! Regenerative healing factors don’t work like that.”

He paused his digging, leaning on the handle of his battered shovel, his masked head tilted in mock disbelief as if expecting someone to argue.

“Seriously, it’s science,” he added, gesturing vaguely with one gloved hand. “And you think I want to be out here in Butt-Fuck Nowhere, North Dakota, desecrating the grave of the one and only Wolverine? Hell no. I’ve got Netflix to binge and chimichangas to microwave. But—” He hefted his shovel again, jabbing it into the soil with a dramatic flourish. “—the fate of my entire world is at stake. So here I am, freezing my perfectly sculpted ass off, playing Bob the Builder with claws over here. He may not be living his best life, but he sure as hell ain’t dead.”

Deadpool drove the shovel deep into the ground with one final, forceful jab. The satisfying shunk sound of metal meeting resistance echoed from the depths of the hole. He froze, head snapping downward.

“Well, well, well, there you are,” he said, his voice dripping with faux reverence. “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”

He straightened for the first time since beginning his excavation, revealing his full, vibrant suit—sleek and unmistakably new. He twirled the shovel in one hand like a baton, its edges dented and worn despite his crisp appearance. Squatting down with the grace of a gymnast, he poked at the dirt below with the blade, testing the ground, confirming his discovery.

Then he disappeared again, vanishing waist-deep into the hole like a demented gopher. His movements became more frantic, hands now clawing at the dirt, sending fistfuls of soil and shredded roots flying in every direction. His breathing grew heavier, grunts of exertion mingling with muttered complaints and occasional curse words. He was nothing if not determined.

Suddenly, the frantic digging stopped. The silence was deafening, heavy with expectation. Deadpool shifted, his posture tense as he brushed away the last stubborn layer of earth, revealing—

“Son of a BITCH!” he roared, the words ricocheting through the empty expanse. His helmeted head shot up, his body rigid with disbelief. “AGHHH, MOTHER-FUCKER—MY WORLD IS FUCKED!”

The explosion of frustration was instantaneous. Deadpool erupted like a volcano, leaping out of the hole and launching into a full-blown tantrum. He swung his shovel like a baseball bat, smashing the wooden grave marker shaped like an ‘X’ into splinters. He stomped the pile of dirt he’d so carefully excavated, kicking clumps back into the hole. The shovel’s handle snapped across his thigh with a resounding crack, and he hurled the broken pieces into the grave. The metallic tip bounced back out, ricocheting off the edge of the hole and narrowly missing his head.

“WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?!” he bellowed to the heavens, flailing his arms like a petulant child. Snowflakes stuck to his mask, melting into wet streaks that only added to the pathetic tableau.

The forest was quiet, save for the occasional rustle of leaves in the crisp breeze. It was the same tree, the same ground where Logan had taken his last breath. But now, years later, the scene had been transformed into something entirely surreal, almost comically macabre. Against the base of the tree sat Deadpool, beside him, propped up as if casually lounging, was Logan—or at least, what was left of him.

Logan’s adamantium skeleton, legs folded elegantly at the knees, like Cary Grant casually awaiting dessert at a dinner party. The bones, polished and glinting faintly in the filtered sunlight, were held together by a few stubborn, rotting tendons that clung to the framework of what was once the Wolverine. If it weren’t for the grotesque remnants of decay, it might almost look like two old friends hanging out in the woods.

Deadpool shifted, adjusting his position as he spoke to his silent companion. His voice, uncharacteristically subdued, carried a strange mix of wistfulness.

“That was weird. I’m much calmer now,” he said, his head tilted slightly as if Logan’s skeleton could respond. “Look, I’m not a man of science—hell, I barely passed high school biology—but you seem incredibly... uh, how do I put this delicately? Passed away. Deader than disco. But hey, it’s still good to see ya.”

He sighed, leaning back against the tree. The skeleton remained in its poised, lifeless position, its empty eye sockets fixed on the horizon. Deadpool glanced sideways at it and then continued, his tone brightening with an almost childlike enthusiasm.

“I gotta be honest, Logan. I’ve always wanted to ride with you, y’know? You and me, a couple of anti-heroes tearing it up. Deadpool and Wolverine just fucking shit up—can you imagine the fun? The chaos? The residuals?”

He leaned in closer to the skeleton, his voice dropping conspiratorially. “Picture it, Log’: us, side by side, slicing and dicing our way through bad guys. A bloody ballet of carnage and quips. The fanboys would eat it up.” He paused, his expression thoughtful. “Although, if we’re being real, I’d probably be the one carrying the humor department. You’d just brood and growl a lot. Balance, right?”

Deadpool straightened up, suddenly adopting a terrible Australian accent as he toyed with the skeleton's jaw.

“G’day, mate. There’s nothing that’ll bring me back to life faster than a big bag of Marvel cash,” he said, imitating Hugh with exaggerated gestures. Then, dropping the accent, he continued with his usual snarky tone. “Me too, Hugh. But nooooo. No, no, no. You had to go and get all noble and die for real. What was it? ‘Saving the kids’? ‘Redeeming yourself’? Goddamn it, Logan. Now I’m stuck here talking to your literal skeleton when I could really use your help right now.”

As if the universe had been waiting for its cue, the air around them began to hum with an unnatural energy. A faint shimmer appeared in the space just beyond the tree, growing brighter and more defined with each passing second. Deadpool froze, his masked head swiveling toward the glowing anomaly.

“What the—?” he started, but the words were swallowed by the low whoosh of a time door materializing before them.

With a mechanical clank, the door slid open, spilling out an army of figures in coordinated precision. These were the Minutemen of the Time Variance Authority, but they weren’t the same as the slightly bumbling crew seen in Loki. These Minutemen were decked out in upgraded, fully armored suits, their helmets sleek and intimidating. Each held a timestick, the glowing ends buzzing ominously as they fanned out into an aggressive formation.

Deadpool’s head popped up over the hill like a curious gopher, his wide eyes taking in the scene. He immediately ducked back down, disappearing behind the knoll as he yelled in a panic, his voice echoing through the clearing.

“WAIT! I’m warning you! I’m not alone!”

The Minutemen paused, their time sticks held at the ready, clearly unamused by the declaration. Deadpool, meanwhile, was frantically whispering to himself behind the knoll.

“Okay, Wade. Think. Think. You’re charming, you’re resourceful, you’re practically immortal—oh shit, no, you’re totally screwed.” He peeked out again, only to quickly retreat when the Minutemen advanced a step.

Deadpool ducked back behind the knoll, pressing his back against the dirt as he gripped his katanas. “Okay, so I know what you’re thinking,” he whispered, glancing up at you. “You’re like, ‘Ooooh, what’s gonna happen next? Does Wade take down the TVA Minutemen with a dazzling display of blood, guts, and banter? Or does he screw it up spectacularly and make things worse?’”

He tilted his head thoughtfully, the faint sound of footsteps getting closer. “Here’s the thing, dear reader. Writing action scenes is hArD. Like, seriously, have you ever tried to make ‘and then he stabbed the guy’ sound exciting more than once? No? Thought so.”

A grin crept into his voice as he added, “So yeah, you’ll have to wait. Cliffhanger, baby! You hate me, I know, but trust me, you’ll hate me even more next time. Stay tuned!” With that, he slapped the side of his mask, winked dramatically, and disappeared below the ridge as the scene faded to black.

[reneesghostinthelivingroom]

First: I want to say that I LOVE your writing. Like when I requested something before and I saw you actually did it, I squealed. Reading your fics literally makes me some happy when I'm down.

Second: I was wondering if I could request another poly!Plastics fic with a Janis best friend reader. R was a bad home life (it can be abuse, neglect, detailed, or glossed over. Whatever you're comfortable with) and the girls, plastics and janis, start to notice it (Like R's behavior or clothe change or something). The girls team up and coast R into telling the truth. R ends up living with Janis (or regina if you want) and they all have a big sleepover at the end.

Now I did read your request rules and I know that you don't write abuse relationships and if family also falls under that category that's completely fine. You don't have to write this fic if it makes you uncomfy and if anything you can take the poly!Plastics fic with a Janis best friend reader idea and have a completely different plot.

Hope you have a good day.

Bruises and Cuddles

|| poly!plastics x fem!reader

(i myself am poly)

|| Warnings; swearing, hinted at abuse, injured reader

|| Summary; reader doesn't have the best home life in the world. As the girls and Janis begin to notice, they take matters into their own hands.

Requests open!

Started; August 31st

Finished; September 9th

slowly getting back into the posting grind 🫡

~~~

You had just walked into school, shoulders slumped and exhaustion etched in your features as you made your way to your locker. Which was right next to Janis', your best friend.

As you approached your locker Janis noticed your state right away with a grimace," you look like shit." Leave it to Janis to compliment you. Right?

Opening your locker, you sighed as you heard her words. It wasn't exactly the reminder you needed, you knew how you looked. You had pulled your hair into a messy bun, tried to cover the bags under your eyes with makeup but you weren't as skilled at that as your girlfriends so parts peaked out. Even your clothes looked sloppy.

"Gee, thanks, Jan." You responded, Janis had been noticing stuff like this from you for the last while now. Since the beginning of grade 10 you'd been coming to school looking like you had just escaped hell. She was starting to get suspicious, wondering about what your home life was really like behind whatever facade your parents put up whenever your friends were over.

"We hanging out later? Damian pirated some movies," Janis gave you a playful nudge as she smirked, pushing her worries to the side for now. Hoping that maybe at the least she could get you out of your house for a while.

You hadn't been listening until she nudged you, getting your attention. You blinked and looked at her," huh- what?"

"Movie night." Janis simplified, a frown on her face as she realized you really weren't doing well. Maybe this wasn't something she could just push aside for now.

"Oh, I can't tonight. Sorry." You replied, its not that you didn't want to. You really, really did. But your mom's been getting on your ass about being out late so often and grounded you over it. Honestly, a stupid reason for getting grounded. But you weren't about to argue with her. You knew better than to do that because of how she reacts whenever you do. Let's just say, she isn't winning the 'mother of the year' award anytime soon.

Janis watched you with studying eyes, a plan forming in the back of her mind. She had to get your girlfriends involved, as much as she wasn't the biggest fans of the plastics. She was sure that having them on her side for whatever this was would be better than going about it alone. "Right."

The bell rang.

"Well, see you when we see you." Janis gave a mock salute ad she walked off to class, you frowned as you watched her leave. Feeling bad for having turned down her offer. For the fourth time in a row that week. You haven't said why, you didn't want her to be concerned or take some reckless action. You knew Janis would try to sneak you out of your house or some shit and didn't need that.

Throughout the week, more instances like that would come up. It would either be one of your girlfriends who found you in an exhausted state, sometimes with a few bruises or Janis would be the one to see it.

One day, Regina had been the one to find you first and had enough of seeing you so beaten up and exhausted. Janis happened to be near by so she rounded her up first, then Gretchen and Karen.

Working together (shockingly) the plastics and Janis pulled you off to the bathroom after making sure no one was in there. They had briefly discussed a game plan beforehand, knowing this was a situation that needed a more gentler approach compared to how they (mostly Regina and Janis) normally handle things

"We gotta talk about.. this." Janis gestured to you with a frown, she didn't know how else to word it without being extremely blunt.

You looked beyond confused.

"But you just gestured to all of me?" Your arms folded across your chest as you glanced at Karen, who was watching you with a sad look. You tried having a silent conversation with her but she didn't pick up on any of your social cues. Maybe not the best one to get information from about whatever this was.

"We're worried you're not getting the right- parental care at home." Gretchen blurted out, Regina gave her a side eye and Gretchen looked at her apologetically. You sighed.

You should have guessed they would notice. It's not like you hid it that well either though. Should you lie? One look at Regina's gaze told you no. It's like she could read exactly what you were thinking. Swallowing thickly, you decided to go with the truth. Your eyes met Gretchen's, being too nervous to look at either Regina or Janis. They could get intense with things like this. And Karen just didn't understand.

"It's my mother." Simple. To the point. Confirmed everything the girls had suspected.

Gretchen's expression softened and she held her arms out to you, you easily went into her hold and relaxed as you felt her arms wrap around you. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Didn't want you guys to worry." Your words were muffled as your face buried into Gretchen's neck, holding her tight.

Regina and Janis shared a look. Almost as if having a silent conversation.

"That's it." Janis said, then both Regina and Janis said at the same time; "You're living with me."

They paused and narrowed their eyes at each other. You looked up at them in slight confusion as you saw them doing a very aggressive and intense game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who you would stay with. You were silently thankful they didn't make you pick.

"Ha! Suck it, bitch!" Janis threw her hands into the air. You assumed Janis won. Regina rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. You could just tell that she wasn't pleased in the slightest. Janis turned to look at you with a smile," You're gonna come live with me. No arguments."

You sighed but nodded, grateful for your friend.

And that's exactly what you did. You moved in with Janis' family, they welcomed you in much to your mom's distaste. She didn't approve of you leaving but your dad helped get you out. He didn't like how his wife treated you, so he gladly helped you leave.

The times after that were good. You were finally getting the proper rest you needed and your bruises healed. Whenever you weren't at Janis', you'd be with your girlfriends. Who always made sure to give you cuddles and comfort.

Despite your past, your future looked good. And you couldn't be happier with how things played out in the end.

~~~

Hoping to get back into my usual flow of writing. I think it sounds kind of close to it? I just haven't written in so long that it might be different and a little rushed. So apologies of it isn't as good as it could have been 🙏

[moltengoldveins]

So while discussing the grand trifecta of Weirdly Good Animated Films From The 2000s (El Dorado, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Treasure Planet) was uh. Was anyone gonna tell me that there was a fourth? A lost sibling. A prodigal son, if you will???? was anyone gonna tell me about Titan AE or was I going to have to find out about it from a RANDOM PINTEREST PIN??

Listen to me. YALL. It’s so good. What the heck. It’s so good?! The plot is surprisingly decent, the animation slaps, theres significantly more violence than I expected and it honestly makes the film better. Animated films usually suffer from the ‘we want this to make it past the censors and be good for kids’ mentality and this one, despite being pg somehow, doesn’t. Several people are shot (yes including blood) and someone gets their neck broken ON SCREEN. The ship fights are incredible and there are a few sequences I genuinely don’t think could have been done in any other medium. The romance is definitely simple, based largely on mutual attraction, but they go out of their way to show them growing as friends and working together. The side characters are fun and the WORLDBUILDING??? The number of times something happened in the film and I thought ‘holy crap, I can’t believe they thought of that’ was insane. Character’s remembering in a panic to exhale before spending a few seconds in the vaccine of space, blood floating around in zero-gravity, characters navigating spaces sideways because they’re designed for use when thrust is coming from a different direction, the main character slowly figuring out how the bad guys worked and using that knowledge to defeat them, some of the music in the film being diagetic in-world music played over comms, surprisingly respectful racial diversity for a movie made in 2000, literally everything was incredible.

Also everyone is hot. That’s definitely a plus. It’s like if you took the aesthetic of Treasure Planet and crossed it with Atlantis’s plot. I know there’s a better comparison here but I’m unfortunately not very well versed in sci-fi media. I’m genuinely impressed. I usually don’t immediately turn around and want to rewatch stuff like that but I’d absolutely watch that again. 10/10 everyone should watch this movie; I’m infuriated that it flopped even worse than the other three and I only just now watched it.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

every once in a while, i have an urge to sit down and write an entire essay about The Purge franchise, specifically through the frame of reactions from people who either have not watched the movies or watched them while pissing on the poor.

because oh my fucking god do those reactions send me into a violent tailspin of irrational anger.

"the purge doesn't make logistical sense"

okay so have you ever heard of fiction? the train in snowpiercer doesnt make logistical sense either. it doesnt have to because its a vehicle in which to tell a story.

"people wouldnt just commit violent crimes because its legal now."

no they wouldnt. do you know that the first movie takes place on the 6th purge? do you know that story about frogs and boiling water?

"no one would ever agree to this. politicians couldnt implement this."

yeah so the fourth movie - The First Purge - is actually a prequel that explains how and why it got implemented.

see as a result of a general economic crisis, a new political party called the NFFA (new founding fathers of america) came to power, and two years into their political term, they ran "an experiment" and that experiment was the purge. the first purge took place on staten island; residents were offered $5000 to participate which comprised staying on staten island and letting the government put a tracking chip in your arm. there was also the opportunity of making more money if they "participated further."

people didnt all agree with this. thats a whole ass thing in the movie and the protagonist literally leads protests against it. it is a controversial thing. the NFFA literally have a sociologist as the face of it, one who talks to news reporters and assures people she and the experiment are apolitical.

the experiment is also fucking rigged. the government really send in roves of neo-nazis to kill citizens as a way of showing how "successful" the experiment is. it was never an experiment.

"but why would people believe that the purge is a good policy?

have you ever heard of propaganda?

throughout the films, there are constant displays of the propaganda the NFFA use to keep the citizens believing in the purge.

the NFFA are constantly lying to the citizens about the actual truth about the country. they often talk about how the stock market is doing great as evidence of a stable economy. there are fake experts in white lab coats lying to you about the purge being a good idea.

these movies are not subtle. they tell you outright that the government is lying to the people.

jesus fucking christ, in the third movie, part of the plot is the fact that in response to corruption being revealed, people are turning against the purge and protesting. dante bishop is a goddamn anti-purge activist.

"crime rate year round wouldnt go down because of the purge, that doesnt make sense "

yeah no shit sherlock. thats literally a defining theme in the entireass franchise. the government is lying. they actually use the purge as population control because theyre fascists.

in the first movie, the NFFA claim the country is basically crime-free and that the unemployment rate is 1%. do you think james demonaco wrote that with the intention of you believing it to be true? have you considered that maybe you were meant to be like huh, thats suspicious?

the first movie is the least overtly political, but one of the defining themes is in regards to the performative nature of the purge and the way it is mythologised.

"all crime is legal. so what, can i commit tax fraud?"

the rules of the purge are made up of. the entire idea is performative. the NFFA are not beholden to these rules; if it benefits them (or if not doing so poses risk to them), they will arrest you for "crimes" you committed during the purge.

in the third movie, The Purge: Election Year, they change the rules because of the risk charlie roan poses to them. roan is a senator running for president on an explicitly anti-purge platform and there is a very good chance that she will win the election, so they revoke the immunity (its still illegal to murder them) granted to government officials during the purge because they plan to kill her.

the NFFA do not care what citizens do during the purge, as long as it is not threatening to them.

"how would they even know if you killed someone an hour after the purge ended?"

they wouldnt. they also wouldnt care.

see above.

"the purge is stupid. people arent inherently violent."

no. no theyre not. thats the fucking point of these films.

they are not subtle films. they come with a free portable toilet so you can watch them without pissing on the poor.

what did you think the plots of these movies were? if the movies were not directly engaging with the concept of the purge and what it actually means, what the fuck do you think the movies are about? do you think the movies are just 90 minutes of indiscriminate violence?

[noturlondonboy]

An open letter to Kevin Fiege

Note: please do not take this too seriously chat, I was assigned with writing an open letter for my English class, and I decided I needed to diss on Kevin to my English professor for a little while.

————

Dear Kevin Fiegi, (I know I spelled your name wrong, it is intentional.)

I’d just like to start off with a very sincere screw you. And if this wasn’t a school assignment that my professor is going to read, I would be using some choosier words.

Second, kindly go to Hell. Emily, my apologies. Moving on.

Let’s start with one of the most glaringly obvious problems you created and let happen in the MCU- the confusing and unnecessary death of Natalia Alianova Romanova, otherwise known as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow.

I can understand Natasha insisting that she be the one to sacrifice herself instead of Clint- it fits her character archetype and offers a solid way for her character to die with dignity. If it weren’t such a stupid idea to kill her off in the first place.

Might I offer an alternative to keeping one of the arguably most important characters in the Marvel Universe dead in the cinematic adaptations? Did we even think about Tony Stark bringing her back with the Infinity Gauntlet when he revived half the world’s population? Did we consider at all that maybe when Steve Rogers made the (horrible) decision to stay behind in the 40’s, he could have warned the team about the dangers in Endgame? Maybe he could have prevented the Snap in the first place.

Maybe, maybe, maybe… so many options, and yet, here we are, onto Phase 5 of the MCU and Natasha Romanoff-less.

More on Steve in a second.

Natasha’s death felt unnecessary, shallow, and forced in order to create a narrative with enough drama and angst to soothe the most particular crowds. While we already had very few strong, main female characters, the loss of the Black Widow only adds the problematic misogyny in the MCU. This is aided by the fact that we received only one Black Widow movie (after she had canonically died, mind you) and have three Iron Man movies, four Thor movies, and three Captain America movies with a fourth on the way.

I’m sensing a pattern here, Kevin. A pattern I do not like.

If we wanted to stay on the topic related to misogyny, we could talk about Wanda Maximoff, and the injustice served to her character in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. The show Wandavision gave us a beautiful narrative of how Wanda reacted to her immeasurable grief, and wove together an exciting story that provided us with intriguing lore and storyline options. However, in the absolute dookie bomb of Multiverse of Madness, almost every single point of conflict and character development that Wanda experienced was completely trashed and ignored in favor of turning her into a villain for the sake of villainy.

A terrible reason, by the way. Literally what the hell. Kevin. I am so incredibly upset with you.

Back to Steve Rogers, as promised.

Steve in himself is an incredibly in-depth character that absolutely lives up to the hype. He’s Captain-freaking-America. His actions are purposeful, his morals and strong and set in doing what is right, not what is expected. *cough cough* When Steve decided to stay in the 40’s when returning the Infinity Stones, he disrupted several important plot points. In Agent Carter, Peggy Carter moves on from Steve when he’s lost to the ice and finds love and peace and happiness with someone else. Steve ultimately steals back her affection from that life she had built for herself, and the importance she completed in her life with that man.

Have you ever watched Agent Carter, Kevin? Have you read any of the comics that you’re adapting for the screen? Have you seen the movies? The shows? Do you understand the plot lines you’re supposedly in charge of?

Secondly, we cannot forget about Bucky Barnes, even though Steve most certainly did. Remember Bucky, Kevin? Remember Steve’s best and closest friend? The man he promised to always stick with, “to the end of the line”?

No, Kevin. Clearly, you do not remember. Steve absconding Bucky was entirely out of character and makes no sense. What are we even doing here?

Thank you, but no thank you, Kevin. Please hand the MCU reigns over to someone who actually cares about the characters and what the fans want (in a reasonable sense.)

-London, aka the one you should hand them to.

[yuliasolsystem]

Behold my craziest theory about the Plants in manga.

Everything below is not my take on the actual canon, but rather just a fun theory I came up with based on some plot holes.

Okay, so listen: people in Trigan didn't just become incapable of obtaining food and energy naturally, without the Plants. They're probably genetically altered in such a way that they are unable to use food and energy that doesn't come from the Plants.

That's why they don't use solar panels on the No Man Land, even though it would seem like an obvious solution. And that's why the townsfolk in Chapter 47 all died out in a few days.

Soldiers speculated that it could have been up to two months after the city was cut off from the world.

But in such a period of time, the Ark would have time to fly over the horizon and it was seen on the fifth day of the soldiers' stay in this area. And the day before, that is on the fourth day, there were still people alive in the town and they still had the strength to make riots.

But on the 7th day, when soldiers reached the town, there was no one alive (except for one man).

"Exposure" in the original was "burns" ( implying sunburns). That is, people not only managed to die of hunger and thirst before the Ark had time to disappear beyond the horizon, but sunburns also were mentioned among the causes of death. So, the Plants not only provided food and water, but also somehow protected against solar radiation, which is probably why there are so few suntanned people on the NML.

This means that the bodies of the humans in Trigan are completely changed and die in a matter of days without a Plant presence anywhere near them and without consuming food containing Plant biomass (since even the cannibals in that town didn't survive). They are literally completely dependent on the Plants, just as the Plants are dependent on the life support terminals they are connected to.

And we also have mutated humans and humans with Plant-like abilities, like Elendira, who can create matter from nothing (her nails literally appear in her suitcase out of nowhere, they are neither stored in it nor teleported from somewhere else by some device)

and Legato, who can manipulate electricity and take control of other people's bodies, which is reminiscent of Knives' ability to control the merged being. When Knives "connected" to Domina with a thin feeler, it looked very similar to Legato's technique.

(It's not impossible, however, that Knives intentionally copied Legato's trick. )

What's my point? You know, there's this trope in horror stories: an alien ship/meteorite falls from the sky and infects the land and living things all around so that people, who lived there, become unable to live outside the ship/meteorite radiation zone or eat normal food. And they, these people, gradually turning into aliens or mutants. So, what if the same thing happens in Trigan, it's just that in this universe humans, unlike in all these movies and stories, didn't avoid the " impact zone", but rather took the alien DNA and spread it all over the Earth. So Trigun humans are no longer 100% humans, but part of the Plants' biosystem, which is why dependent Plants forgave them so easily and don't really mind to be "used".

This could also be related to the presence of ghosts, which can be both human's (like Conrad and Wolfwood) and independent's (like Tessla). The existence of ghosts is not revealed to public, most likely so that people won't find out that after death they will spend eternity in a gloomy black void.

What are independent plants for then? Most likely they are some sort of walking weapons. From the conversations of the Earthlings we can conclude that Knives is not the only aggressive independent (he was just the strongest of the known ones) and that independents on Earth have their abilities blocked for humans' safety ( so most likely all independents have weapons built into their bodies).

What's the need for weapons against humans if the dependent plants don't mind their position and "humans" are in some sense part of them? Maybe to regulate their numbers, or to stimulate their reproduction and further mutation, maybe the Plants need not humans but their souls (ghosts), or maybe independents are something like immune cells that get rid of improperly developing body cells.

[alllthebadpartss]

Thank you @transthadymacdermot for this wip questionnaire tag game! answering with my wip Wolverine Frogs

What's the first part of your wip you created?

The first part of my wip that I created was one random, really cool scene that I had to desperately cobble a whole story together for. (Which is how most of my wips start lmao)

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

Uhhh come to think of it, I don't really know. Maybe Love Me Forever by Motörhead or something. I feel like it suits the story really well.

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

My favorite character is one that features in this story. Joey. And I know that he's supposed to be evil, but I did kind of base him off of David from The Lost Boys (who I am low-key attracted to) so that's probably why I like him so much lol.

What other pieces of media do you think your fan base would share?

Probably a lot of old, 80s, 90s and 2000s monster movies like Ginger Snaps or The Lost Boys and stuff like Mad Max or The Last of Us.

What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

The biggest struggle I've had with this wip is actually finding the motivation to finish. I'm writing it's fourth draft now, so I've gotten a fair way into the project, but there have definitely been times when I couldn't have been bothered to work on it, and other times when I felt like deleting the whole document and never having to think about it again.

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

The most notable creatures in the story are obviously the monsters, The Baneman. Of course, since it's set in Australia, you will see the odd kangaroo hopping about, and maybe a cockatoo or two!

How do your characters get around?

Since it's a road trip story, the characters spend most of their time in a car.

What part of your wip are you working on right now?

I'm up to the fourth draft (gasp) and I'm mostly just working through some minor changes to the overall character arcs and plot.

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw audience in?

→ hot villians

→ lots of banter between characters.

→ female rage. female rage. female rage.

→ people turn into monsters (literally and figuratively) when they suffer some type of physical/emotional trauma.

→ the apocalypse.

→ Aussie pub rock aesthetic.

Tagging @winterandwords @northernrosewritings @lordascapelion @authoralexharvey @authoraemoseley and anyone else who wants to have a go!

[nikithagonch81]

Sunset Shimmer is one of the central characters in My little pony: Equestria girls, getting a redemption arc in the second movie (and at the end of the first when she was forgiven).

I like the character for her design (it just screams her cutiemark), her story, and her personality.

It's a story about a human (or should I say pony) who earned her trust through honest labor. And, as is usually the case in children's cartoons (not a rebuke, I'm just stating the fact that this is usually the case in children's cartoons), such characters are quickly forgiven and treated better already. But! As many people saw in the second EG movie, Shimmer was prejudiced in school. Even the main six, although they accepted the fact that the girl corrected herself, still did not really communicate with her, even joked at her sometimes. And they turned to her for help only when they couldn't cope themselves (google The Dazzling - welcome to the show and see for yourself).

Sunset's motivations in the first movie are quite clear, which is good for a cartoon. Shimmer was Celestia's apprentice long before Sparkle (Twilight) showed up, studying quite diligently until the girl got the thing she wanted. Eventually, Shimmer decided to find her own way and fled through a portal to the human world. There she began to literally "rule" the school. All the students feared and shunned her, and Sunset enjoyed her power. And the plot of the first movie began with her act: she stole Sparkle's crown in order to rule the entire human world. But, after she realized she knew nothing about friendship, Sparkle and her friends in the EG universe forgave her. Since then, she becomes a central character in the following movies and Sparkle's apprentice.

In all the other movies, Sunset learned friendship and then started teaching friendship to Sparkle from EG.

Sunset is pretty honest to her friends, tolerant and loyal. Often comes up with interesting ideas that work.

Sunset is quite smart, but not smarter than Sparkle (logically, both were apprentices of Princess Celestia).

Sunset Shimmer is a very important character because she teaches us that if you lose trust once, it can be earned again, but the hard way. She teaches us that it's okay to make mistakes. Sunset shows us by example that even if a person has corrected themselves, they will still be prejudiced against them (because people already know that they have done bad things before and are likely to continue to do them). Sunset teaches us that trust is the kind of thing that is hard to earn but easy to lose.

And some interesting facts about this character:

1) Sunset Shimmer is one of a kind, she has no counterpart in EG, her cutiemark literally means that she is native to both the pony world and the human world.

2) Based her design on the third generation pony, Sun Shimmer.

3) Flash's ex-girlfriend Sentry. In the recent EG movies/series they start their relationship again (already as friends).

4) Very good friends with Twilight from EG.

5) Sunset Shimmer and Mighty Trixie have one thing in common: the two had the same sidekicks, Snips and Snale.

6) Although it was said in the movies and in the show that Sunset Shimmer often visits Equestria, you won't see her in the MLP: FIM series itself, only in the final episode of season 9.

7) Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer are pupils of Sparkle, as well as reformed antagonists (by the way, they will meet each other in one of the series).

8) Sunset Shimmer's design was already known in 2013 because of the dolls' release.

9) Sunset Shimmer has her own element of harmony in the human world, "forgiveness".

10) In the fourth movie, Sunset gains the ability to read people's minds and their pasts (with the help of an artifact - a bracelet representing her element).

11) Sunset has the same problem as Rainbow - they both had no pets and their friends helped them find them (Rainbow eventually got a turtle as a pet and Sunset got a salamander).

12) Sunset Shimmer and Princess Celestia make up after a long fight.

13) Sunset Shimmer is one of the most well-described characters in EG.

14) In the Forgotten Friendship series, she regains the trust of her friends.

15) Many people dislike her.

Now, my opinion on the character.

I like Sunset a lot. I consider her on par with Twilight as the most well-described of the mlp characters. Not only does she have a deep meaning in the series (she was literally born to live in the world of EG and the ponies), but she teaches us, the viewers, a lot. She has her downsides, especially in the first movie, but she makes up for it in the end. Like Sparkle, she learns from her mistakes. And, most importantly, she's fun to follow, which is the most important thing.

P.S. Sorry for any mistakes, my native language is not English.

[mixtapedoh]

Here me out: gunshot, cast bts as movie tropes?

come join my autumn celebration!

ꨄ — gunshot one shot, two shot, three shot, four, 더 견뎌낼 수 없어 나를 위해서라도 너의 gunshot

namjoon as opening a film with a poem (if you know what i mean it makes sense and if you don't it feel self explanatory nonetheless. either narration or text across a screen, if you're opening a film with ~related aesthetic poetry~ those are the vibes. think the opening to wind river. or even just a poetry reading in film in general. that's kim namjoon inspired, bby. if he were to direct a film, he'd start out with a related poem, you cannot convince me otherwise.)

jin as breaking the fourth wall (imo this works better when it's a tv trope and it's paired alongside confessional type humor, or the existence of the camera is baked into the plot so characters know they're being filmed and thus occasionally play to the camera, but i love a silly little self aware moment.)

yoongi as someone playing an instrument matched alongside Intense Plot and Intrigue (you know what i mean!!!!!!!!!!!! when there's something Intense and Plot Heavy happening, and we keep seeing short shots of the High Stakes right alongside a character absolutely pouring their heart and stress into playing the piano or violin (or usually some other string instrument) and the tension crescendos in the most beautiful and delectable batshit insane way, only for our character to abruptly end the song and we hear their laboured breathing and Oh Shit, The Tables Have Turned.)

j-hope as Intentional VHS quality film (sometimes utilized in flashbacks or ~indie films~, you know how sometimes movies will specifically use different quality of film to give something a nostalgic feeling? it doesn't always have to be VHS quality, lol, though i see that one used more, but they specifically go for a more grainy and subdued look for ~vibes~.)

jimin as prophetic dreams (different from a simply psychic character, it's when a character dreams of something vague that actually happens later in the plot and it carries more deja vu vibes than it does "oh, i saw this before and now i am #prepared'. do you get me?)

taehyung as nostalgic memory montage of someone now gone (a classic version is 'dead wife laughing while in bed or at the sea,' lol, but it can literally be anyone either dead or ambiguously gone. bonus points if it's because our main character is visiting home after having left at a young age, or because they're specifically Traveling™)

jungkook as funny one liners (listen,,,,,,,,,,, marvel studios abused this kind of humor, it is true, but occasionally a sarcastic and silly one liner is precisely what the situation calls for. timing is everything, and confidence is the other half of the equation.)

[munchflix]

MUNCHFLIX - INDIANA JONES & THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

IMDB BLURB:  In 1957, Indiana Jones becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.

WARNINGS: Adventure violence and scary imagery

RATING: One Shia LaBeouf orange juice commercial

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: All reviews are done solely for humor and should not be taken seriously ever. If you cannot handle cursing, crude humor and probably some offensive things, pls do not read this.

Munch: Okay here we are, gonna watch Indiana Jones and the crystal skulls. The fourth and arguably the worst of the series, but I actually like it. I don't think its any worse or campier than the other movies.

Biscuits: Dib is joining us. We saw this in the theater! I actually remember this one better than the other ones, which we've been rewatching, but we wanted to review this one because it’s bad. We might’ve reviewed the new new one but it’s only in theaters right now. Also, my tumbler makes very nice asmr sounds :)

Dib: I don't remember anything but Shia LeBeouf and aliens.

B: I forgot Harrison Ford was like, hot in the old Indiana Jones movies. ‘Adventure violence and scary imagery’, I love that for us. Harrison Ford is in this as an old man.

M: He still kicks ass as an old man so... We open on a rousing car chase.

B: This movie happens in the 50's, they have to make sure we know that by having Elvis music and these kids in their very obvious 50′s getup.

M: The kids are trying to get the Nazi dudes to race them and they do for some reason.

B: No those are U.S. dudes.

M: My bad, they're racing our dudes right to a nuclear test site! No, those are definitely Nazi guys.

D: Does this movie just look this crusty?

B: I don't know why they went through all the trouble of disguising themselves as Americans when they just straight-up shoot the army guys. They’ve got a guy in their trunk, it's Indiana Jones. And some other guy.

M: They're actually Russians apparently. I can't keep track of all these bad guys.

B: Cate Blanchett is in this movie too! She's the main bad guy. These guys have really great Russian accents.

M: They need Indy to go into the really special American warehouse where they keep all the really important artifacts and find the alien.

D: Cate's hair is giving serious Edna Mode vibes.

B: You right, you right.

No capes!

M: Her accent is...awful. She thinks she's psychic or something. Or wants to be.

D: This IS area 51. In a big warehouse in Nevada.

B: Where they put the ark of the covenant in the first movie!

M: I didn't think area 51 existed then but okay. (we googled it and yes it did, it just wasn’t really known as like the ‘alien place’ back then)

B: He doesn't remember anything! He's 85! Also, the ark of the fucking covenant is in here! You could take literally anything else and it would probably be a pretty effective superweapon! Why do you need the alien???

M: Indy needs gunpowder to find the alien so he throws it in the air and it floats straight to the alien and doesn't need to obey gravity or anything.

B: The lamps or guns or swords aren't affected though.

D: Maybe it's stainless steel.

B: Who makes a fucking sword out of non-ferrous metal???

M: The magnetic field is very picky. They found the box tho and suddenly the crowbars are affected but not guns or anything.

D: Non-ferrous guns. Or pins or buttons or anything.

B: But now her sword is magnetic, and their dog tags, and their guns...

D: They're gonna put that in a car? Engines and magnets don't really get along.

M: So they get it open and it's an alien, no spoilers though. Irina (cate blanchett) is really excited. Indy tries to take out the Russians but his sidekick guy Mac turns on him and is apparently working for the Russians because money.

B: Why is she sometimes British?? Oh it’s because Cate Blanchett is British. Indy manages to drop the gun so perfectly that it shoots a guy in the foot and creates instant panic. The Soviets kinda suck at their jobs.

D: They did suck at their jobs!

B: They're just gonna drive around destroying all these priceless artifacts! All those boxes were empty apparently. I'm gonna have to go on a aliens rant at some point. I remember seeing this as a child and thinking...that's dumb.

D: That's the ark of the covenant!

B: To quote Griffin McElroy - I don't get a dinosaur. I know they found like crazy shit like the holy grail but that's at least grounded in some sort of real-world mythology or theology but aliens??

D: I think the Dial of Destiny is just something they made up. The second movie took a pretty hard left turn too with the stones.

B: But to connect all this to crystal skulls?

M: I don't think that's that weird tbh. They've always been a source of weirdo mysticism.

B: But they're not...real. I mean like, they’re real things that exist, but they’re not actual Mesoamerican artifacts. Whatever, Ancient Aliens type vibe.

M: Anyway....Indiana Jones got thrown through a window, and he landed on some nuclear control panel with a giant Russian guy.

D: He's mostly getting his ass beat.

M: He does that a lot.

B: One thing you gotta give Indy, he can take a beating!

M: Indy and the Russian get sent on a rocket test thinger and now they're all dizzy and trying to kick each other's asses still.

D: That was a lot of g force, to be fair.

B: And Indy hides behind a dune and the Russian guys just can't find him. Indiana is very sweaty already. The sweatiest man alive.

M: Indy is hiding out in a nuclear test site which he thinks is a real town initially until he realizes everyone is mannequins. Oh that's bad.

D: I don't think people knew what these were back in the day - but they did know what an air raid siren was.

M: Indy at least knows it's not good! The Russians do too though and they are outski.

B: And he survives by a hiding in a fridge.

M: They were lead lined back then!

D: There goes the entire budget. Also Indiana Jones is dead as shit. If he survived the blast he would not have survived the radiation.

B: Don't run towards the mushroom cloud! Didn't you ever watch Duck and Cover?? Wasn’t that like mandatory viewing back in the day??

Damn the intro to Fallout 4 looking different than I remember.

M: They do treat him for radiation, he's getting a good scrub down in an American....place... where he's being interrogated about his two timing buddy Mac.

B: Aliens, nuclear warfare, it does fit the vibe of the 1950's.

M: Indy somehow, despite having been there (at fucking Roswell btw) doesn't know what was in the box.

B: This is my favorite episode of X files.

M: The FBI or CIA or whatever think Indy is a spy, because we need more drama. Indy is back at college teaching his classes which he's been doing for 800 years.

B: This is exactly that scene from the first movie.

M: Except he's about to get fired, but Jim Broadbent is gonna try and talk him down though. Charlie is his name in the movie. I don't see how him resigning is gonna help Indy tho. Indy is gonna go to somewhere and get another job. Charlie bemoans the state of society.

D: What's happening?

B: His dad was Sean Connery, was he dead by the time this came out?

M: Yes. (Editor’s note: No he wasn’t. He died in 2020. Please don’t ever listen to anything Munch says.)

B: Oh yeah Shia LeBeouf is in this movie -  an even bigger leap than aliens. Also he looks like James Dean. Dib is right about the lighting, it makes the movie look so cheap. This whole scene looks like a goddamn orange juice commercial.

M: Mutt (Shia) runs down Indy and is like HEY DO YOU KNOW ABOUT OXLEY HE HAD A CRYSTAL SKULL AND HE'S MISSING. And Indy is like, oh shit Akator?

B: The Mitchell-Hedges skull is fake af but I guess we didn't know that in the 50's.

D: This movie is boring.

B: I think Indy is making things up at this point. Akator, city of gold, all this nonsense. He doesn’t believe in any of it but come on man, you found the ark of the covenant!!! Shia LaBeouf is...not a very good actor.

M: Mutt seems kinda put down that Indy is just a teacher because he needs someone to rescue his Mom but now there's KGB agents coming for them. They want the letter with all the important stuff on it that Mutt gave Indy because somehow they know about all this already. Mutt and Indy start a fight.

When in doubt, punch a guy!

B: That's his solution to everything, start a fight.

M: To be fair, it seems to work every time.

B: We gotta have another rousing vehicle chase, these movies love a car chase.

M: Bring me a sugar cookie.

D: Indy just got dragged like hell into the backseat there. Nobody calls the police, I guess they didn't have cell phones and shit but nobody alerts the authorities?

M: I don't know, they're busy. Indy and Mutt drive through an anti-communist rally and the KGB dudes run into a statue. Now they're gonna drive through a library because it looks cool and so Indy can deliver a one liner. Are you drinking more margarita?

B: I don't want it to go to waste! The amount of sugar in it is probably worse for me than the alcohol.

M: Indy is now deciphering the letter which is written in Koihoma, because Indy knows like 8000 languages. Indy says it's a riddle from Oxley.

B: The lines in the earth only gods can read would be the Nazca lines.

M: You get an A.

D: Only gods can read. Or planes. I guess the KGB guys left them alone so they could get to Peru.

B: I like how they stopped over in Cuba.

M: They land over in Peru I guess, and find out Oxley was there but they thought he was bonkers so they locked him up. Indy apparently rode with Pancho Villa.

B: Mutt's mom thinks he's a goof! Sorry ma, I goofed up!

D: There's a bad guy, you can tell he's bad because he's smoking

M: They go visit Oxley's uh... cell in the sanitarium and find a lot of scrawl about abliens and Akator and Mutt is sad

D; Why does Shia look like he's gonna cry?

M: He's sad! Ox was like his dad.

B: He just looks like he got maced.

M: Indy does a quick sweepy and finds a map on the floor that Ox left leading to the cradle of Orellana where he died, or whatever...?

B: They really are throwing in any sort of myth or weird thing they can think of related to Mesoamerica or South America. Not a lot of action so far, mostly like solving puzzles.

D; You can infer all of that from some scrawl? I guess so because here we are at this Dark Souls location all of the sudden.

M: Indy and Mutt transition to the death place of the conquistador that nobody has ever found except apparently Oxley.

B: There's some spooky guys in Party City skeleton masks, and Shia falls down a ladder.

D: I need a gif of that in my life. Here comes the screaming skeleton dude, he knows kung fu apparently. They have magic holes they can crawl through apparently.

B: Indy reverse blow darts a guy, brutal.

D: You're a teacher? Not anymore! He just got fired!

M: I guess they're all gone now so on with the looting.

D: Crit success on the perception check for Indy.

B: These movies are basically Dnd campaigns anyway. Oh no, scorpions!

D: Here I am.....

B: *laughs* Rock you like a hurricane!

M: Indy and Mutt find some elongated head skulls and Indy is like well they did head binding which is true. Indy makes another amazing perception check and lucks into a secret passage that leads directly to the perfectly preserved conquistadors.

D: What class is Indiana jones?

M: Rogue

D: Can rogues use whips?

B: I think so?

M: Indy tears open a wrapping and finds a perfectly preserved dude who immediately disintegrates, but then Mutt finds one that's open already and omfg its got THE CRYSTAL SKULL which looks like it's full of saran wrap. I love how random the magnetic effect of the skull is. It just works whenever it wants on whatever it wants to work on.

D: Indy drops the skull and it shatters into a million pieces, movie over. Thanks for the exposition, Mutt

So nice of the crystal show to finally show up in its own movie.

M: Indy thinks this must be the skull from Akator that Ox found and then brought back but he doesn't know WHY he brought it back.

B: Ox was like, oh shit crystal skulls are fake, back to the hole!

M: As per usual, the second Indy finds something, someone is there to take it from him. In this case, Mac and his Russian friends who take Indy and mutt back to their Russian torture camp and tie Indy to a chair to mess with his brains.

B: The conkwisstadors found a city of gold that Mac wants to find because he just wants money.

M: Cate Blanchett and her accent have returned

D: And just as quickly, it leaves!

B: Oppenheimer didn't make up that line, he quoted it - but Indy knows that! Because he's smart and cool

D: Stop assaulting Indiana jones here man, she's like groping him

Please send all your hot Indiana Jones x Irina Spalko fanfics to munchflower.tumblr.com ( please do, I’m really bored. - Munch )

B: Even Indiana Jones doesn't believe this alien bullshit, he's like oh come on. The aliens have crystal skeletons.

D: What makes them think if they find the alien city that the aliens are gonna be like - hey it's cool, you want a prize?

M: But here's Oxley played by John Hurt but he's not okay in the head. Just a little bananas. The Russians blame the skull for Ox's condition and want to use it on Indy so he can interpret Ox's madness. No really.

B: This is...a lot. I know the other movies were a lot but just being like, anyways aliens and psychic channels and it opens up an undeveloped part of the human mind and fucking WHAT? Am I actually watching Ancient Aliens right now?

D: There's been no action, this is dragging on forever.

B: This is also taking itself waaaay too seriously.

D: This was 2008, they weren't allowed to be campy anymore.

M: True, sadly. Anyway, here's some alien brainwashing with Indiana Jones.

B: The Russians want alien bones to control people's minds. I guess it's not that much weirder than Nazis wanting the ark of the covenant to take over the world. That's a fucking polygraph machine!

Tbf all a polygraph machine does is monitor your heart rate and shit

D: You ARE the father!

M: Cate gives a rousing speech about taking over the world.

D; Guided meditation with Cate Blanchett and an alien skull.

B: What direction did they give Harrison ford?? “Look like you’re being controlled by aliens and just kinda jiggle around for a while?” This movie is...worse than I remember.

M: Mutt tries to step in and Indy is like, go ahead and kill him idgaf - but now here’s Marion from the first movie!

B: Half this movie is just references to the first movie!

M: Indy is like, this is your fucking kid?? But Marion still kicks ass and she's not having it. Indy then goes and sits with Oxley and he's like, oh hey he's doing automatic writing which is obvious to literally nobody but Indy.

B: Ox is literally speaking in riddles. This movie is 90 percent solving riddles

M: Indy of course can magically decipher these automatic writing pictographs because he's just that smart.

B: Mutt has an "emotional" moment with Ox but it's not very good. Acting.

M: Indy is too excited about solving the riddles to realize he's helping the enemy. But Mutt has a plan, and it’s the classic indiana jones plan: start a fight.

B: He's learning. Also setting things on fire, they do that a lot in these movies too.

M: Indy and Marion and Ox all run away but quicksand.

B: Oh dude, oh fuck, quicksand! I don't know why I'm so excited about that. Actually it’s not quicksand, it's dry sand. Indy tells Ox to get help. From who, the Russians??

M: that's literally what Ox does tho. Marion tells Indy Mutt is his kid while they're slowly sinking into a sand pit and Mutt comes back with a giant snake instead of like...a vine or something and Indy is like uh...no I'll die.

B: Snakes aren’t slimy. That poor snake :(

D: It's not a real snake.

B: I know but....

What do you need alien skulls for? Just annihilate all your enemies with this fucking thing!

M: Ox shows back up with the Russians! And now they're driving through the fucking jungle in a car with a cowcatcher with blades on the front. Mutt and Marion have a bit of a fallout over the dad thing.

B: But Marion and Indy are gonna spend this whole time arguing which is honestly pretty in character.

M: Indy starts another fight because why not, and again it works and he and Mutt somehow get free to go start kicking Russian ass

B: That's a damn sharp switchblade Mutt has, cuts right through everything.

D: *laughs* The car is just jiggling while Indy beats people up

M: This car chase goes on forever.

D: That didn't destroy the engine?

M: They're Russian cars, they're built different. Indy doesn't ever get shot despite guns going off one foot away from him.

D; Cate might be psychic but she has terrible aim

M: Mutt finds one of Cate's swords so he can fence.

D: Indiana can take down a whole cavalcade of cars but then he can't punch out one guy?

M: Mac tries to tell Indy that he's actually a double or triple agent and he’s on Indy's side now but come on, why would you trust this guy?

B: They had that whole conversation about how Mutt used to fence, that's like a, y’know, Cosgrove's fish. Chekov's gun!

M: Biscuits is a little tipsy. Mutt is holding his own against Cate somehow while his mom gives him pointers. The skull makes a hollow ‘boing’ noise when it hits someone. People have changed cars like 30 times at this point.

B: A little goofy.

M: We haven't even gotten to the ants yet. Shia gets caught in some vines and then he literally Tarzans this shit back to the convoy. No really.

Shia LaBeouf has returned to monke

D: You can't kill them! The Russians need Oxley or they can't find the thing!! They need him!

B: Doctor Joanes. That was straight up British.

D: Monkeys! Get em monkeys! Monkeys are ruthless.

M: Now the ants. Giant killer ants, like you have in wherever they are in South America.

B: That's a really big ant.

M: I did say giant. Now Russian and American alike are about to be devoured by ants.

B: Ants are doggedly pursuing them, a literal fucking wave of ants. But then they get tackled as they’re fleeing the ants.

D: It's the part where Indy has to fight a huge guy and nearly lose but then not.

M: It's a staple.

B: But apparently the skulls psychic powers work on...ants....so ox is gonna keep them away.

D: PROTECTIVE SHIELD!

Activate alarm! Cannot approach!

M: The giant Russian is down! And it's ant time for him as they file into his face hole and carry him into their giant ant hill. and they're all gone now and no longer interested in anyone else. Back to the car chase!

D: So they're gonna rappel down the cliff

B: Marion is gonna drive off the cliff.

M: She does tho and lands perfectly on a branch that allows them to drive into the river and the branch snaps back up and kills like four Russians, because movie.

D: Good thing those vehicles are amphibious. I wanna go on this Disneyland ride.

M: They go over a waterfall but there's actually three fucking waterfalls and somehow they keep landing in the boat and not losing the skull or their lives.

D: How many licks does it take to get to the center of Akator??

B: Good thing the water they landed in is also shallow enough for them to stand up in.

M: Indy is like, I'll take the skull the rest of the way because the skull told me to but I guess you guys can come too. Now they're inside the fucking stone skull cave at the bottom of the waterfalls and there's a giant temple full of weird paintings.

B: For real, Ancient Aliens type beat. The aliens taught them irrigation and farming and shit.

M: I understand Ox...someone came. *no comment*

B: All of the aliens will...come

M: Why do they assume those are aliens?? They found skeletons with elongated skulls earlier that were human so why are these definitely not human?

B: Because they're in the alien place?

D: Wait, where did these people come from??? How did they get there??? HOW?

B: they were just hanging out, waiting for people to come so they could attack them and it would look cool for the movie.

M: The random natives are kicking everyone's ass but then Ox does the skull thing he did to the ants and they all are like oh shit and they leave.

B: The Russians are like - a tracking bug! We should go to the conspicuously skull shaped cave in the waterfall!

D: How does Cate even find these tracking devices? She doesn’t have a tracker, she’s just finding them on the ground?

M: How does Ox know how to get into the obelisk, he didn't do this part before.

B: The skull told him I guess. Saaaaaand.

M: They start breaking the faces off the obelisk and letting the sand out so it will go down and open the secret passage to the aliens?

B: This whole movie is a mcguffin. I know the other movies were all about mcguffins but this one is getting ridiculous.

D: Good thing they're all clean and dry still.

M: Why did the aliens put a spike trap inside the obelisk that leads to the aliens?

B: The people who worshipped them built it I guess, in case someone was trying to steal their artifacts, but they're actually trying to return one so....

M: Mac starts immediately stealing stuff because he's never been in an Indiana Jones movie before and doesn't realize that's BAD. Also mac is leaving more tracking devices because he's a quadruple agent.

D: He's a double triple quarter pound agent. The Russians just shot the natives.

B: There are artifacts from every early culture in here because the ALIENS WERE ARCHEOLOGISTS!

M: The skull starts humming, like you do, and Indy is like, I gotta press it into this hole and whammo the door will open.

B: The aliens just bonk their noggin into it to open it.

M: And now the alien room with the alien skeletons.

B: We built this city...they built it so they could sit around and just look cool in this room forever or fuck I don't know. They're aliens, god knows what they're doing. They're not dead, they're just like dormant.

Return the slab or suffer my curse...

M: But here's Cate and her accent again and she’s like, they're a hive mind!

B: How does she know this?

M: Who knows. She's gonna take the skull though and stick it back on the alien skeleton and it just shwoomps back on because magnets.

B: Look, Indy has seen things you have not seen, he's seen people get melted by artifacts, he's not gonna gamble with the aliens.

M: But Cate is! She demands to know everything the aliens know and well...she's gonna. The eye sockets of the skeletons start....smoking a little.

B: Oh yeah by the way...the temple is like...a fucking SPACESHIP or something, Oh my god.

M: Mac is still stealing stuff while the temple crumbles and the c-gen aliens start forming into a singular hive mind alien thinger.

B: ‘Inter-dimensional beings’, yeah whatever, they’re fucking aliens.

M: And there's a portal to another dimension

B: Back to their fucking home dimension or whatever, because we couldn't suspend our disbelief for SPACE aliens but if they’re just from another dimension it all makes sense.

M: Indy and the gang all get out and run away while Cate sees the universe through the eyes of the aliens until her head explodes. Indy tries to save Mac but alas...his greed kills him.

D: You asked for it, Cate

B: The alien looks kinda angy.

*dib and biscuits laugh*

B: And she disintegrates! Not in a cool gory way, her eyes just burn and she turns into dust. Get knowledged.

M: Indy and the gang somehow get propelled out of the temple by rising water and into the jungle.

D: God this movie looks so bad! The lighting and the c-gen looks so bad. and now the aliens are just gonna fuck off, I guess. Adios!

B: I must go, my planet needs me. Back to alien town. Indy just watches. Ox says some cryptic shit, ‘to the space between spaces’, what the fuck does that mean?? Their treasure wasn't gold, it was KNOWLEDGE!

M: Shia and Indy are like, WHY DIDN'T YOU LOVE ME DAD? Ox has also apparently been cured of his indefinite madness now.

B: I guess everything turned out alright in the end!

D: And he's fine and he's cleared with the CIA! Indy got his job back! I melted the KGB with science so it's all good.

M: Indy and Marion get married because of course they do,

B: Things didn't work out so well the first time but why not.

D: Lookit this happy little family.

M: They set it up like Shia is gonna take over the mantle but he doesn't. I'm tired of typing.This movie is stinky but I still like it. It’s very silly.

B:I forgor that this movie came out at a time when 3D movies were EVERYWHERE, like literally every movie was in 3D even if it didn’t need to be, and sometimes they tried so hard to shoehorn 'cool 3D moments’ into a movie so hard it was to the detriment of the movie. And so many of those exact scenes are in this movie, and they haven’t aged well.

D: Movie bad.

M: You don’t get much more concise than that. Munch and Biscuits (and sometimes Dib out, yo)

[the-cat-chat]

January 4, 2025

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

At the start of the New Year, 32-year-old Bridget decides it's time to take control of her life--and start keeping a diary. With a taste for adventure, and an opinion on every subject - from exercise to men to food to sex and everything in between - she's turning the page on a whole new life.

Warning: Review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

JayBell: It's a new year, and I thought we were starting off pretty safe with a rom-com with overall positive reviews. Oh how wrong I was.

At first, I felt bad for our main character Bridget. She's kind of a disaster. She goes from embarrassing moment to embarrassing moment. And yes, I think that's a crucial plot point of the movie. Here is a woman who is still figuring out her life, she's very imperfect, she makes a lot of mistakes, yet she's still deserving of love. In fact, that speech to Colin Firth about her imperfectness is perhaps my favorite part of the whole movie. Actually, Colin Firth was the only saving grace for me throughout this whole experience.

I know her behavior is supposed to humanize her and make her more sympathetic to a viewer. But it's frustrating. After a while, you just want to shake some sense into her. In the end, I don't know if I felt that she matured or grew at all from her experiences.

Speaking of the end, it's so stupid. The movie doesn't even disguise its blatant shallow manipulation of the viewer's expectations. Like no way Colin Firth reads the diary and then immediately leaves without telling her to buy her a new diary when they're literally about to sleep together. Thus prompting a half naked run through the snow leading to dramatic kiss scene. It's just stupid.

Also we reviewed the synopsis's of the sequels, and my god, you could not pay me enough money to suffer through them. I'm trying not to judge this movie on the plot of sequels that I haven't even watched, but seriously? It's hard not to.

Rating: 4/10 cats 🐈

Anzie: Honestly. I have to do bullet points or I won’t make it through. This review would probably never end. And a disclaimer: I really wish I had a time machine bc I hate starting off 2025 like this.

- First off, to say I hate Bridget Jones is too kind. I loathe her. She’s dumb and honestly all her problems are caused by her own self.

- Second - let’s fast forward to the end. She has to change her underwear. And he finds her diary. #1 my mother told me never put anything in writing. alsooooo hide that thing like you’d be mortified foooorrr the rat in your apartment to read it!!!? And she runs out in the snow in nothing but a tank top and zebra underwear - no bra- oh but wait she comes back for a size too small sweater and running shoes.

- Another issue. Hugh Grant. Listen. I get it. I’ve seen Two Weeks Notice plenty of times so I know he typically plays a jerk but also get he was somewhat attractive back in the day. But please. This character and thaaaat hair.

- The weird fight?? The whole oh he was my best man cheating scandal. There’s too much happening.

- And my final brain cell will fight to scream that I knoooow for a fact that in the fourth movie coming out this February that that young guy that was the too suspiciously attractive guy from White Lotus is definitely the love child of Hugh Grant’s character and the lady from NY- bccccc that’s the audacity this movie franchise has.

I spent sooo long wanting to see these movies and the first one made me want to claw my own liver out to beat myself senseless. And I know that’s harsh but can’t a girl ask for some minimum standards?? Bc obviously Bridget Jones can’t. And maybe that’s the lesson don’t be Bridget Jones.

Rating: 2/10 Cats 🐈 (and that’s just for Colin Firth)

[bykalopsia]

faiz 41-50 notes + final thoughts

(also like w/ ryuki i'll watch the supplementary movies when i feel like it i'm faized out)

faiz is a Show.

surprisingly came out of this show as a Kusaka Understander. not apologist i think he's a fucking asshole but if i think like any amount of hard about the ryusei kids and kusaka's specific position within that whole mess i get a bit Miserable. so tbh i get it.

also when i sincerely look at myself this is actually not surprising. it's actually more surprising i like takumi so much i legitimately can't remember the last time my favorite character in anything was the actual protagonist. like i'm the master of Glup Shitto-ism this is terrible for my rep.

so far both of the inoue shows i've watched have followed a similar-ish pattern of slow start, really strong middle episodes that do a lot for character building but don't fit within a conflict structure that is conducive to a finale (ex. agito sticking to either fighting regular lords or each other while the overlord and the apostle piddle around in his hospital room / while lucky clover throwing Every Orphnoch In Tokyo at faiz and co is funny it's not really great for the whole Orphnochs Aren't Ontologically Evil thesis), and then rushed back fifth with hurried plot drops / shit that really should have been seeded beforehand / (ex. Prettyboy Jesus killing massive swathes of humans / the orphnoch king introducing the concept of a higher threat than orphnochs / the idea of orphnochs being terminal)

anyway tldr i think it has pretty much the same structural issues as agito but with a stronger cast / funner general premise for me personally.

the only thing i can think of that doesn't necessarily happen in agito is the large amount of back-fourth focus given to absolute Nothing Characters. given though that faiz (at least seemingly) has a larger cast than agito... it's still bad idk why i'm thinking of making excuses. kaido had potential when he was introduced and was turned into a complete joke for thirty episodes and i'm supposed to take his weird plot with teruo seriously. (notably this plot got better once teruo actually started interacting with characters that didn't have a one-dimensional personality. but it still needed more time in the oven either way whatever). on top of this mihara is such a dogshit tertiary i felt insulted as a viewer whenever the show expected me to give a fuck. his entire deal is "i don't want to fight :( but i guess i will anyways :( even though i'm not providing any new depth or value to the ryusei plot whatsoever :( someone needs to somehow make delta look like a terrible suit... :(" if you don't give that shit back to kitazaki right now djfjfgdfgkd. like it would have been so easy to like give him a plot that introduces hanagata's whole Deal earlier but he literally does NOTHING!!!!!!! how we go from ryou to this i have no clue. like the closest we get to this in agito is omuro being hojo's lackey when he's on his anti-agito bullshit

the stuff with smart brain and the police's orphnoch lab was really interesting. I Wish It Was A Bit Earlier. bc it comes and goes very quick and thus yuka's death and yuji's rejection of humanity also seem very quick because of this.

i'm not going into detail about yuka's death btw all i'm going to say is that inoue should hope we never cross paths. Ever. GET HER AWAY FROM THESE BUMS. ohhhhhh yuka i'm sorry inoue can only handle at maximum two women per series................. (and even then saeko is really a stock-standard femme fatale archetype and mari is arbitrarily limited from using the belts so even then.... lol.... lmao.....)

also i feel i should note this is really the first season where the cgi usage passed the point of "i know its the early 2000s i know it'll look bad" like i fundamentally couldn't understand whether or not people thought stuff like the jetsliger looked good. like at least the cgi hoverbike in agito they had some shame about it. where did that go...

also yuji's death.... i mean it didn't take a rocket scientist to intuit that it was going to happen but like ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH. i get its supposed to be tragic but COME ONNNNNNNN HE CROSSED OVER TO THE SIDE OF HUMANITY.............. AND THEN THEY FRAME THE ENDING SCENE THROUGH THAT HOLE IN THE NET AND HE CAN'T BE THERE AND OUGHHHHHHHHHHH ITS HORRIBLE. i wasn't even that crazy about yuji i'm pissed that this makes me this mad.

okay i feel like i need to talk about the good parts. i'm really bad at talking about the good parts. um. kusaka funny.... takumi and yuji made me want to die..... mari was really cool....lucky clover were really fun..... orphnochs were really cool conceptually even if i think some aspects really needed some more time to cook.... idk. ultimately i think faiz has a lot of really strong building blocks that sometimes aren't in the right order..... or that it just needs better connective tissue...... idk man.

but yeah. i think i enjoyed faiz more than agito. like there are certainly Problems (as you might be able to tell) but overall i had fun even with the stuff that annoyed me. and i was never bored!

now onto blade! i know the general contextless things most people know (bench, various tachibana screencaps, etc) but i am excited!!!

[arkadiaasks]

How is Season 3 of GX trash? This is literally the TVTropes description: Season 3 is considered by many fans to be the series' start of its true highest point owing it to Jaden's Character Development, better pacing, and an overall darker tone with much more dire situations.

It's basically a bad action movie, or at least devolves into one. Or a phoned-in sequel where the author is writing for the check.

I have an extremely low opinion of Director Tsuji due to how his run of Cardfight!! Vanguard (it follows his impersonal space force villain fetish to its logical conclusion and it basically killed Vanguard as a meaningful competitor to Yu-Gi-Oh!) and a lot of the second half of GX Season 3. But basically? It's style over substance, especially as you move into the second half.

The first half is good and has decent set-up and general follow through and escalation, resulting in some really fun intense climatic Duels.

But. Basically?

The second half of the season has the writers more or less stumbling over each other's feet with regards to writing decisions. If you've ever actually watched it, the tone just gets really off kilter and doesn't even work as well as the tone for the first half of Season 3. And basically plot points (namely who or what The Supreme King exactly is changes from week to week).

Jim's sacrifice really doesn't get well built up because the Orichalcum Eye comes out of left field without build up from earlier in the season.

O'Brien's character basically gets shot to hell.

Amon and Echo basically get their heads blown out spontaneously with no real meaningful clarification that "Yes, they're dead for reals, holmes."

Shou, Edo Phoenix and Kaiser basically act in really weirdly out of character ways (yes I know why Shou does but it just comes off as edge for the sake of edge).

The show tries to clean itself up in the fourth quarter but you have a lot of 'but the damage was already done' problems, and it adds a heavily unnecessary twists of past lives I've never seen defended in a meaningful way.

GX's pacing was generally fine as it ran on "we do this for 11-13 episodes and then we complicate the plot in a new way", which is how a good production does its story for syndicated TV in Japanese animated long runners.

I'm also suspect of people who only really got into GX with Season 3 as "The real GX" as anecdotally, those types were basically bullies, transphobes, or gaslighting manipulative sexual abusers or all three combined. (But I will acknowledge this is a personal bias)

Or the types so fucking insecure about their media they need it to be Grimdark so their friends don't judge them for watching a kid's show. (At which point, my dude, drop your friends if they're gonna be shitbags to you)

And honestly, Judai's character development only works with Season 4 to contextualize the trainwreck Season 3 became (which itself was an attempt by the writers to try and get the show back to the more dramedy setting they had been shooting for for Season 1 but got shot down for reasons similar to why the Dark Signers arc turned into Kiddy Nobody Did Nuffin Wrong Town)

Season 3 is honestly just a mess, especially with Cour 3. Takegami and Yoshida and the rest of the writers were given an idea by Takahashi (the Supreme King concept) and could not figure out what they wanted to do with it.

He was simultaneously an extra dimensional ruler that already existed. A past life. Judai's trauma giving him a Batman of Zur-En-Arrh autopilot fugue state. It just wanders around in circles, and doesn't figure out what it wants to be until meaningfully at the end.

And.

Yoshida clearly not interested in the past life baggage. Or a forced / phoned-in addition of The Light of Destruction again.

Basically tosses Season 3's events into a trash can outside of broad strokes, in favor of addressing plot points from Season 1 and 2 about the main cast, and using loose ends from the first season to construct the story's endgame.

It's basically treated as a failure by the staff themselves except for it as a vehicle to do cool stuff in Season 4.

[teenageread]

Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Synopsis:

Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, differences can be deadly.

Plot:

 The Dursleys have a decision to make. To get rid of Harry a week earlier than they had hoped for would equal Harry being able to go to the International Quidditch Cup game. This would make him happy, something they tried to avoid at every opportunity. With the threat of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, whom Harry decided not to tell them that Sirius was innocent, the Dursleys allowed Harry to go. Seeing Bulgaria vs. Ireland, next to his best friends, Ron and Hermione, was only the second two best things in his life behind finding out he was a wizard. But all fun and games cannot last forever, as after the game was when the Death Eaters (the name given to Voldemort’s followers) attacked. Fleeing for their lives, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and a house elf was found in the woods under the Dark Mark (Voldemort’s symbol). Knowing this is all connected to a weird dream that left his scar burning, Harry could not dwell on this matter for long as something exciting was happening at Hogwarts. Come October, the school will host the Triwizard Tournament, featuring the other wizarding schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. To make this tournament safer than in previous years, as students died while competing, the headmasters set an age limit at sixteen, and made sure each of the three tasks had a way to get the champions out of danger. With the goblet of fire drawing the names, everyone was shocked when the goblet pulled forth a fourth name to compete in the competition: Harry Potter. Underage, and an unwanted champion, the rules stayed, causing Harry to compete against the other champions for the prize. Whoever put his name in the goblet wanted Harry dead, and as new and old enemies come to surface, Harry must literally fight  to survive his three most deadliest challenges yet. 

Thoughts:

This would be my favourite Harry Potter book. Full of action and adventure, J.K Rowling really put the limits to her world at the test as this book introduces us to wizarding school systems, their politics, magical creatures’ rights, some romance that you did not see coming, and the test of friendship. This book also takes a turn at the plotline for the series, advancing it much further than the previous books have done so. With being halfway through the series, the ending events for this book will set the stage for the rest of the series. Besides that, Rowling made a lot of side plots of the stories that did not make it into the 2005 movie, that advance the world that Rowling made. The fact that Hagrid is a half-giant, and what that meant, Hermione and her House-Elf Liberation Front, and Hermione's extra fun battle against Rita Skeeter; all had a story arc within the book that did not make the film. Rolwing also started including wizarding jobs that people have, from more information on the Ministry of Magic and how that works, Fred and George joke shop plan, and Auror, the wizarding idea of being a police, whose job is to track and capture wizards who practice the dark arts. Then there are the three challenges that Rowling made for the tournament that you read about Harry avoiding planning his strategy for them, the last minute panic, and then finally doing the challenge. Overall, if the previous three books made you feel bored, and that Harry Potter may not be for you, this book changes that as the adventure grows and the real plot for the series begins.

Read more reviews: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon