#But I had to rant a little

[little-bunny-with-purple-stinger]

I just watched Kung Fu Panda 4, and I feel that it was so close to being a really good movie with a satisfying end to the series, but there were just too many little things holding it back, as well as some inconsistencies during the movie that made no sense for why some characters should've been where they were at certain times and it just felt slightly rushed and a touch too compressed, especially near the end of it all. I'm fine with the idea of passing on the title of Dragon Warrior and stuff, but I feel that it could've been handled better. But you best bet I am agreeing with anyone who says that Li and Mr. Ping are a couple and have gone on at least one date where they kept fumbling around, but that's not why I'm here. The Chameleon. Great design. Great power. Brilliant visuals. But not being able to get into any Kung Fu schools because she's too small? Then what's this little green stick bug here for then?! And this fangless snake that everyone kept making fun of? Or the bird built like a twig?! Literally Tigress is the only one who was really strong from the get go and fit the description The Chameleon was saying could be the only ones who could learn Kung Fu. And where was Oogway? Where was he when spirits kept getting yoinked? And shouldn't Kai be, like, not there? Like, I'm pretty sure he got turned into universe dust by Po, unless I remembered something wrong. Tai Lung was cool though, though I feel like his battle scene was a bit underwhelming for who he is. Made into disappointment when I realized that the lizards were still alive at the end of it. Like, Tai Lung doesn't show mercy. He's more than capable and has killed any who stood in the way of his goal. Of course, I am okay where at the end of the movie he accepted Po as being the right choice in the end. AND WHY ARE THE CRIME LORDS THERE?! THIS IMPLIES THAT THEY DIED AT SOME POINT, BUT WHY WOULD THE CHAMELEON BRING THEM BACK FOR THIS?! WHAT MANNER OF KUNG FU WOULD MAKE THAT WORTH IT?! And also, the thieves guild, what are they doing. They don't act like thieves except when showing that they are, in fact, supposed to be thieves. They're just a bunch of psychopaths that live in the sewers with how much they talk about and show how much they enjoy violence. I would've loved to see more interactions and reconciliations between Zhen(I only learned that was her name from the credits) and the pangolin dude(forgot his name). Like, that would've been so nice to see rather than "Hey there, we're going to kill you now" "Oh no, don't do that. Why kill now when you can do that later" "Oh, darn, you make a good point there. I shall leave you alone now and help you even though I want to kill you." Like, come on! The soundtrack was also kinda crazy at times, the last song felt really out of place with what was happening and the montage felt a touch unnecessary, which left a slightly bad taste in my mouth to wrap the movie up with. But for as much as I am complaining about it, it had a really solid concept and idea that was perfect for wrapping the series up. Po passing on the torch to someone else while becoming the new leader for his people, Zhen learning to trust and rely on another person was a beautiful thing to see that I feel was done pretty good. I loved the pangolin's design, and The Chameleon's transformation animations were so fluid and disturbing each time until the ultimate form one that felt kinda weird when you saw it moving and like just a dragon, but the Po form and execution was so scary and well done. And Mr. Ping and Li were a joy to watch bond and talk and bicker like a married couple(which they definitely are). Overall, it was so close to being a great movie with just too many small things bogging it down.

When I tried to talk to my brother about this we spent two hours complaining about the Project Monarch universe and how a lot of stuff that happens in it is dumb and how so many ideas and things are thrown out of the window. And where's Mothra? Where's my girl Mothera? Godzilla in that universe is nature's wrath, and apparently Mothera is supposed to be the nice part of nature or something like that it's been a while since I watched the movies okay, but like, where is she? I know she died or something, but a big part of what makes Mothera Mothera is that she is constantly being reborn, so where the freak is she?! My brother had a lot of other complaints that I forgot already, but I have to agree with him. The Monarch universe, while interesting concepts and other things that it started out with were good, has thrown far too many things out of the second story window and rewritten so many facets of itself and only ever implied, never saying or showing many things, implied so much that you would need a bulletin board to explain everything. And I only just learned tonight that there is an official Monarch series that has so much freaking stuff in it that explains so much that they never really advertised. And who is this angry red monkey playing with bones? I haven't yet seen the new Godzilla vs Kong movie, and I don't plan to, but who is he and why is he there?

AND WHERE IS MOTHERA?!

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Please let me know your thoughts and feelings in the comments and tags and whatever else I may not know of since I am still new to this land of Tumblair, and have a lovely rest of your day.

[linterteatime]

Slugcat distribution system gave them an explosive rabid raccoon and a overpowered sewer rat ❤️

[dapper-lil-arts]

and somehow, that only makes her fall in love more

[hajihiko]

💕

[snarkspawn]

I really enjoy playing through tnp again like hi it's been a while

[baejax-the-great]

One of the things missing in Veilguard is any sort of meaningful power struggle. By keeping to the poorer parts of the city-settings, we don't really deal with corrupt or powerful nobles. By defanging the Crows, an organization who famously has lethal squabbles between factions, they turned them into some weird, benevolent family organization. Even the assassin trying to make "evil" power plays doesn't actually manage to kill any of his targets, and his ruthless relatives? Also don't kill him in revenge. In the end, the status quo is maintained. Nothing has changed.

In Tevinter, we have the Threads, an organized crime unit who we know runs "protection" rackets on the locals and is involved in some kind of smuggling (it's Tevinter--so presumably this would involve slavery and dangerous artifacts, but it's Veilguard, so I guess not). Instead of them beefing with the Shadow Dragons, who presumably ruin some of their deals with their pesky "freeing the slaves" thing, and instead of their main issue being with any sort of law enforcement, something which doesn't exist in Veilguard beyond one singular templar who does all of jack shit the entire game, their main power struggle is with the Venatori, who are evil just to be evil.

And instead of the Veilguard siding with law enforcement or the threads and enlisting their help to, idk, unseat the corrupt head of the templars or otherwise deal with the venatori shit, the threads are highly favored by the storyline, and in the end the only real choice is to make Neve a thread or to make her... idk, the same Neve? The game calls her an "inspiration", but it's not like she's part of any organization, so we can't call her a figurehead. It's just like, see that random citizen right there? She rules. And I don't really see how that increases the power of the rule of law, because even if one good person is working within rule of law to get things done, she's not part of the system, and everyone already know the system is corrupt in Minrathous. Random citizens in fucking Ferelden know the system is corrupt in Minrathous, or they would if they weren't all dead. Neve is now just playing on hard mode to appear righteous, which, good for her, but I'm sorry, won't inspire all that many people who are still paying "protection" money to the local mafia.

(Putting Neve in charge of the Threads is an absolutely whackadoodle decision by the devs that I don't even know how to respond to. She has a single Thread contact. Presumably the Threads have a hierarchy. She has never demonstrated interest in being a smuggler. Being a detective really has no overlap with being a crime boss. Telling a group of criminals that they are all detective's helpers now is sure to go over like a lead balloon. What the fuck was that. Why did that happen.)

Maevaris and Dorian arguing came out of nowhere and lasted a fairly long time, which was interesting, but after the most recent election in the states, Maevaris's position sounds unbearably naive and trite, and this hardly counts as a power struggle as they both say they will support the other depending on what some random outsider thinks should happen. (That is soooo not a basis for a system of government. Why would Maevaris OR Dorian cede their power to Rook, someone they don't know and who doesn't matter)

The power struggle within the Wardens is also very stupid and easily solved. The First Warden is a moron. He dies (kind of). For some reason the extremely hot and competent couple who we first encounter in the middle of nowhere are next in command, so, phew. Problem solved there. A question of what the Wardens will do now that the Blights are over would have been interesting. Do they keep recruiting lest the Blight somehow reoccur and nobody remembers the Warden secrets? Or do they disband? Do they set themselves to seeking a cure and nothing else?

The closest you get to that is deciding what the griffons will do, which, again, why the fuck is Rook deciding that, but also there are 13 of them, in two or three more generations they will be dead unless a lot of mages bone up on genetics real fast.

Who is left? We have Rivain, which is just pointless in this game. I played as a Lord of Fortune, but you could drop that faction and not a single thing changes in the game. Pirates who don't loot valuable artifacts because they are elvhen? Give me a fucking break.

Same for the Mourn Watch. There is pretty much nothing going on in that region. You could excise it from the game and nothing changes in the slightest. There is not a single excuse for them not using the Eluvians to help the Veilguard earlier in the game, given just how little they have going on.

The Veiljumpers are just missed opportunities all over the place. They could have had factions debating whether to join the god of vengeance in fucking up the human civilizations as payback for, you know, everything. They could have had people joining Cyrion in thinking that a Forgotten One might be the best way to face down the gods, given they'd done it before. There could have been a HUGE cultural impact on "what do we do now that we know our gods are evil fuckfaces--what do we keep and what do we throw away," but Veilguard ain't that deep. They could have had knowledge of a super-weapon or some elvhen bullshit that would help the Veilguard fight the gods... but nah.

In DAO, your decisions not only affected the political futures of the various regions, but they decided who would help you and how. Did the dwarves have golems? Did you have templars or mages? That whole wolf thing with the Dalish that I no longer remember that well? And the Dalish deciding to help changed how they were viewed in Ferelden. The mages helping you meant the monarch would treat them favorably. It fucking mattered.

In Veilguard, the only situation remotely close to that is the dragon decision at the beginning, which was one of the fucking dumbest plot points in a video game I have ever played. It was the first thing that made me set my controller down and go... what? What the fuck? The idea that Rook, a nobody, is the only person singularly capable of driving back a dragon in the entire north is laughable. What the fuck was Dorian up to that day? How is Rook more capable than every single Crow? How is it the two companions you sent to the other city were absolutely useless? If Lucanis/Neve + two companions were unable to drive a dragon away, what makes them think Rook would be the deciding factor? What makes them blame Rook when they themselves couldn't fucking do it? Neve in particular was a big part of fucking up that ritual and releasing the gods, so why is Rook taking all the fire for this?

AND WHY IS THEIR RESPONSE TO A BLIGHT TO FIND A SINGLE DRAGON HUNTER? HEY DIPSHITS, THE DRAGON IS HUNTING YOU. YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT PART. YOU NEED AN ARMY.

But Treviso or Minrathous being spared doesn't change the global political situation at all. It would have been really interesting if it did. Tevinter hobbled? How many kingdoms would be salivating to take a bite out of their territory? With the trade princes of Antiva being absolutely fucked over by the Blight, who is taking over that trade? Who is getting rich?

Nobody, I guess, because why would Rook know or care about that, because, as previously mentioned, they are a nobody who doesn't matter and honestly shouldn't be listened to.

The stakes in this game are nothing because the bad guys are all so obviously bad that you know, as a video game player, that you are going to defeat them. Oh, the Antaam are just mindless, faceless brutes fucking up Treviso? Okay, let's kill them. Venatori again? I'm pretty sure they aren't the heroes of this game. There's no power struggle, and in the end all we've done is revert to the status quo, (except i guess Treviso is no longer occupied).

Except for the south. The south is dead. but we didn't have anything to do with that for some reason. Couldn't even be bothered to house some refugees in our safehouse that was built specifically to house refugees. The Inquisitor, who has access to the eluvians, couldn't figure out how to get other people through them or something so... sorry, every single Orlesian, Fereldan, and Marcher.

[pucksandpower]

You know what? Let’s talk about this, because as a medical student and as a fan of multiple sports in which athletes get head injuries, I have quite a bit to say.

First of all, using anyone’s health issues as a “gotcha” is not making the point you think it is. From everything I know about Lewis Hamilton in years and years of following the sport, he would be ashamed to see one of his fans trying to make such a ridiculous and frankly apathetic argument.

Professional sports have a long history of letting athletes’ health fall by the wayside in pursuit of wins — blaming the people suffering health issues really is not the way to go about fixing a systemic problem that extends beyond Formula 1.

Blame Formula 1 and the FIA for not having stringent concussion protocols in place. Blame Red Bull and the medical personnel for not being as through as they probably should have. But do not blame Max Verstappen who was very much the victim in this.

I really hope that one day all fans (and especially fans with huge social media platforms) can learn to be more empathetic and remember that all drivers are people too.

[sharkylad]

Thinking about the fact that Mabel and Dipper didn't know they had two great uncles.

Yeah they are 12 and at 12 I had a shotty understanding of my family tree- But really? Nobody brought up their great uncle? Stanley? Especially since they'll be staying with his twin brother, Stanford?

Shermie never went to Stan's fake funeral, which to me means the twos relationship was strained on some level. If Shermie is older that means his view of Stan was poisoned in some way, that even as kids they weren't close. If the Shermie is younger then he never even got to meet Stan and all he knew about him was how he failed his family. Hell, people probably barely mentioned Stanley TO Shermie.

The fact that Stan had become a black stain upon the Pines family name makes me so vividly upset. Stanley faked his death and the family just- seemingly decided to strike him from the record. To pretend he didn't existed to spare themselves the sadness and shame.

Stanford and Shermie Pines. The only children worth mentioning of Filbrick and Caryn Pines.

It was never Stanford that was lost to the world. It was Stanley, ever since he had to leave New Jersy- it was always him that had to be struck from the record. Change his name, change his state, change his affiliations, destroy the remains of ghost that was Stanley Pines. Kill him so the family doesn't bring him up, doesn't ask questions, stops asking "Stanford" about his twin.

I just keep thinking about the fact that since the day he made one single mistake all the way up until Ford walks out of that machine- Stanley Pines was killed and did not exist. And Stan himself had no one to blame, he had to play the part in his own demise- He is the only one who ever knew Stanley was alive and has been for decades.

He lives in the multitudes of every personality he's ever taken, all in the hope that he himself can stop being Stanley Pines.

[tazzertopia]

why are people so abnormal about female body hair…. i’m aware body hair isn’t the most pressing feminist issue at the moment but the amount of times i will see a video of a women online and go to the comments, just to see everyone telling her she’s gross or to shave? most of the time i don’t even notice she has body hair and 99% of the time it’s completely irrelevant to the topic of the video 🙄 only wanting a woman who is completely hairless is weirdo behaviour idc

[featheredadora]

[bubbarnes]

“... and I almost wish that we would have explored more because there's that whole situation where Bucky is having memory lapses, some of his old memories coming back. I thought it would have been interesting to go, you know, what it would have been like for him to wake up after that fall and missing the one arm, doesn't know where he is.”

[fl00mie]

istg it hurts to be an ink lover/fan/enjoyer in the eyes of those outside the fandom

ink might seem like an op sans for no reason at first impression and i can understand why people think that.. he travels through universes, he's the only character in his world (the one who's known as the most overrated character in the game which makes it even more repellent, i guess), among other reasons

i haven't seen almost any direct hate towards him (referring to canon, the genuine hate i've seen so far has been based on underverse, that although it's quite likely his image has been tarnished by the series, i want to refer more to those who aren't familiar with AUs in general) but, since i returned to this community i notice how he's not referred to as a fan favorite (anymore?), at least in the popular videos i find on youtube and on twitter it's even worse, i've seen them call him overrated multiple times

it's the fact that i manage to empathize a lot with him that makes me feel.. a bit sad maybe? because he's more than just another meaningless sans, his story and personality are really good and the fact that he's a sans is just a preference of his creator, that may have aged poorly but it doesn't take away how good and complex the character still is

[theclownghoul]

It seems like the writers were scared of the complexity that they set up in many of the relationships and themes in Arcane S1 so they tried to walk things back in various ways. Here’s some examples:

Cait is losing herself to her grief and is making questionable decisions that hurt Vi and the undercity? Do they contend with the tensions in their relationship and have Cait and Vi go through satisfying arcs and tackle the issues between them and the cities? No they tease each other a little and get to fuck so they’re def fine now.

The sister’s relationship is unrecognizable and they have both changed so much and borderline hate what the other has become? Do they have to build something new and work through all the problems… No they use Warwick to bring them together and basically “just get along” when he could have been a good catalyst to start building back.

Ekko and Jinx have been enemies for years but still harbour some feelings for each other? Are we going to see them grit their teeth and work together for the sake of Zaun and get to know each other again and build back their trust? No the AU shows “what the potential of this relationship could be” and our Ekko and Jinx get put in a dire and traumatic situation to bypass all their conflict.

They couldn’t handle the complicated ideas they set up. It would have been fun and devastating to see all of these dynamics play out. It was going to take drastic work or drastic measures for the characters to reconcile and the writers chose drastic measures because they were scared.

This thing is most of us were in it for these messy ideas and relationships and now we feel cheated.

[sophiasrant]

The batfam aren't allowed to play hide and seek with each other bc it will get dangerous and life threatening very quickly.

They aren't allowed to play with other people bc the one time they did, all of the bats went missing for a week. The supers ended up having to be called in so they could track heartbeats.

[remuspenus]

also I hate people implying that Patton somehow changed Janus or is the first side Janus actually cares about and is friends with. as if Janus’s love for the other dark sides isn't deeply important to the story as a whole. The fact that Janus’s role as Thomas self care/preservation leads him to care about EVERY aspect of Thomas, including the most unloved parts of himself, the parts that Thomas was desperate to deny and accept. Thomas wasn't ready to accept them yet, but Janus WAS. It's so obvious that the reason Patton and Janus get along is because of the deep care they have towards Thomas and the rest of the sides, not because Patton changed Janus to be more caring or something

[madzthemenace]

the only reason Katniss pays attention to Gale in Mockingjay is because Peeta isn’t there LOL