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onthevirgeofdestruction · 4 years ago

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35 Q’s for Fanfic Writers

From this post

I’m having a shitty, rude alter-y, crap night so I’m just going to answer all of these to distract myself and focus and to not bother anybody just making my own post and putting it under the cut btw, notice to anyone not aware: since I’m moving I won’t likely be updating anything until I’m done doing so.

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing? (No downplaying yourself!) 3/5? Could use more editing and description and can be weirdly paced.

2. Why do you write fanfiction? Because it’s better than focusing on pain 24/7.

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? I don’t seem to have a specific narrative voice that people recognize but I’m pretty proud of mostly organic dialogue.

4. Are there any writers that inspire you? as a rule i never look up to anybody for inspiration but there’s some stuff in my ao3 bookmarks I fawn over.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? Right now, none of them. It changes normally, anyway. If get too proud then I’d get my ass kicked by RSD if someone didn’t like it so it’s safer this way

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Dialogue.

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Organic description, poetic language kind of stuff. I can paint a scene but I’m not so great with bring out out a feeling with description alone.

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write? Janus and Virgil are probably tied. They both have things I struggle with but I don’t have to go back and do much adjusting of language and tone with them. Though admittedly my Virgil is signifigantly more foul-mouthed than canon and I tend to prefer pre-AA feral asshole Virgil.

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write? Patton. I write him the least, so people can probably tell. I love Patton, I really do, but it’s so hard to keep away from fanon Patton.

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for? Angst w/ H/C obviously. Or if you’re talking about regular book genres, Fantasy. I fucking love fantasy world building.

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most? Trauma. I blame Daeram. As if Ayri isn’t a giant Angst Demon.

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Slopes. I’m really into it. I’ve got three one shots running right now. Patrons can read the first part of the unnamed cat remus one, there’s also a coffeeshop au tropey nonsense one like eglantine & lycoris, but Slopes is addiction angst. Mmmmm. Virgil is addicted to coke and alcohol and will listening to his friends even be in time? Who knows, especially not me, but there’s already over 30k.

13. First fandom you ever wrote for? InuYasha. Or was it Harry Potter? Or shit, The Blue Sword? Fuck, I’ve been writing for a long time, I really have no idea.

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for? Sanders Sides. The characters are the perfect dynamic for writing since they exist in balance of each other and the popular, easy to project on archetypes featured are incredibly fun to do basically any scenario with.

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for? Weird storywise? Kingdom Hearts? I can’t even follow the plot anymore. Weird Fandomwise? Sanders Sides. Its simultainiously the fluffiest and angstiest nonsense at the same time.

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)? Vampires. Gay ones. Gay Vampires. I also love calm tol and angy smol.

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for. Any tropes that normalize incredibly toxic behaviour or tropes that are inherantly ableist, but I can’t think of any.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written? Incorrigible continues to be complete nonsense.

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between? AUs. I mean closest I even have is canon-divergence other than a single short.

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff? I like it when there is gay nonsense along with a plot that is treated as more important than the relationship the most. But I like both. There’s more shippy stuff in tss so i read more shipping action by default.

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!) Anxceit/Sleepxiety, but in general, give me darksides or give me death/j

22. Do you listen to anything while you write? Almost everything I write has a special playlist I listen to to help me write it, but otherwise I listen to my Nyan playlist, an alter is picking the tunes, or a voidfam playlist. I never have music off. When my internet is down I just listen to the songs I own or Anxiety’s theme on loop.

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I’m fine with all of them. I love working with prompts but I tend to deviate. And I’ve never done a challenge since I can’t do deadlines and bad things happen bingo never sent me a card and I applied three times.

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works? I am generally multi-chaptered stuff, but I’ve been working on a few one-shots lately that are much longer than most one shots.

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them! I was originally thinking of doing some little 13-year-old Dreaming!Roman (y’know, the one with a job) shorts but it turns out I just had an alter of that little bastard and that’s why I inexplicably know more about him then I ever even considered. I still might do them after Dreaming is done. But that’s paced so slowly who knows when that might happen. Otherwise I put stuff in my notes and just do shorts of it if I’m like “oh you know what’s cool???” but since I can’t daydream maybe this question doesn’t apply to me.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try? I want to do more autism stuff, and I’ve had it demanded a few times, but I’m scared of being that explict about it for some reason. Possibly because I might be, possibly because I’m scared of doing it wrong even though I’ve accidentally coded multiple characters autistic. I’m scared of explictly tagging them as such, too.

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received? That I can remember off the top of my head? I’m going with one from @a-genz-with-trauma-and-kins. It really helped me out and was just so kind and literally the best christmas gift I got in 2020.

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing? I can handle it alright but Daeram is a little fucking pissbaby about it. Constructive criticism helps people get better, so I appreciate it. I can’t handle critism that is incomplete, though. “i just don’t get it” or “I don’t know I don’t like it” kind of things. If I can’t understand the why to fix it then things get out of control. And then I spiral and RSD for like four days minimum. If it came from an anon or a troll, too, It might not bother me for as long. Things that are just like “this is shit and you should feel bad” just make me laugh. Couldn’t even bother to read it long enough to insult me proper? I don’t care.

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? I have a few times. Mostly in shorts and prompts, I think. I think they turned out okay. They’re not particularly inspired or anything.

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst? Depends on my mood. Am I triggered? give me the fluff. Am I vibin? Angst.

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! Fuck, fam, no, I can’t, I have so many. I have multiple original stories and some of them have very large casts and like holy fuck. Or do you mean in Sanders Sides fandom? Um, Morgan and Thorn in PD. The lesbian and her himbo dynamic. I love them. They’re dorks. Morgan is strong person with sharp tongue and soft romantic heart and Thorn is just so kind and so dumb and so exciteable he’s like a puppy. They were just filler characters and I got attached to them. Felton even gets redemption for being an ass later in PD, like oof i never intended to include so much OC content, especially for names I just picked randomly.

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less. nope I’m doing all of them because these are fun plea for my new self: 2 gay vampires, 4 humans, 1 braincell dreaming while I wake: trauma child needs therapy and so do you break: big oof, oh dragons, oh why, go virgil go rebuild: virgil is so not okay there’s more virgil to deal painful death: gay teens drink themselves into a new religion stargazing: whoops we didn’t realize people actually cared whole castle: everyone will throw down for kid!patton, even you incorrigible: found family with a shot of psychological horror and crack dangerous instincts: wholesome crime syndacite action slopes: addict gets mugged and thinks that’s just fine with him conflagration: logan avoids everything ever like a champ cat!remus: bored fae shifts gay pining from one person to another caffeine cyptids: caffinated gay panic goes faster than regular gay panic eglantine & lycoris: more tropes than you can toss a shoe at storytime: overpowered virgil also overreacts literally always

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? an alter and I write together and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, what I’m writing about, or even what year it is. I often don’t even remember what I wrote. There’s no outline. I have an idea and I pick things at random for it. There’s just notes and an evil gleam in a demon’s eye. The only reason I know more than readers is because I take a long time to edit and some of these stories have fucking alters up in my head who can tell me things. Daeram tells me nothing. The writing demon supposedly has all this knowledge but I have absolutely no clue because he does not talk to me, he just fronts and slams out 9k in a few hours or we cofront to write and I’m like “oh no she didn’t” while typing

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of. i’m fond of the entire painful death series and I tried to find something I really liked without spoilers in stargazing and I couldn’t so here’s a random thing from incorrigble: “So, what do you do with your friends?” Patton continued on with a megawatt smile. “Grand larceny,” Virgil deadpanned and glared at Patton, who was taken aback. Remy and Andy just broke out laughing while Virgil tentatively sipped his still-too-hot-cocoa.

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want! slopes my dudes slopes i have learned so much about cocaine! like wow! I thought for a minute it was going to end with MCD around 30k but it swtiched from whump to hurt/comfort and I still don’t know if it’s going to be MCD but look at that funky little coke/alcohol addict go, it’s a medical wonder he’s alive! It’s not like there’s what seems to be a little talked about interaction between alcohol and cocaine that causes a toxic chemical to build up in the liver which can result in liver failure and sudden death at basically any moment! Which is part of why it may result in MCD but this time no ghosts! maybe it’ll be h/c with whump elements or maybe it’ll be whump with h/c elements we can’t know for sure

#ayri writes #tw drug mention

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stereogeekspodcast · 4 years ago

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[Transcript] Season 1, Episode 3. What’s New – The New Mutants

We had thoughts about The New Mutants, few of them good. There were some enjoyable moments, which we discuss, along with sharing our thoughts on what could have been better.

Spoiler alert: we will be talking about the entire film.

Content warning: some of the content in the film can be triggering, please proceed with caution.

Listen to the episode on Anchor.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Ron: Hello and welcome to Episode Three of Stereo Geeks. Today we'll be talking about what’s new in pop culture.

Mon: I’m Mon.

Ron: I'm Ron.

Mon: And this week we’re talking about The New Mutants.

Ron: This is a spoiler alert because we’ll be talking about the entire film, including the ending, so if you haven’t watched it yet, please watch the whole thing and then come back and listen to our podcast.

Please note, we will be discussing some triggering topics as contained within the film so, proceed with caution.

Ron: This film was initially intended for release in 2018, having been filmed in 2017, but it languished in production hell till 2020.

Mon: This year, it finally hit theaters, but because it was in the middle of the pandemic, most of us didn't go and watch it. Now that it's out on digital, we have some thoughts.

The film begins with Danielle Moonstar, played by Blu Hunt escaping the decimation of her village. She wakes up in a rehabilitation center, which is for mutants.

She is one of five students being supervised by Dr Cecilia Reyes, played by Alice Braga. The other students are Illyana Rasputin, played by Anya Taylor Joy; Rahne Sinclair by, played by Maisie Williams, Roberto Da Costa, played by Henry Zaga, and Sam Guthrie, played by Charlie Heaton. Let's talk about plot!

The film follows Dani as she gets to know these other mutants around her, tries to figure out what her power is, and tries to survive Dr Reyes’ experiments. Ron: There isn't much plot to speak of. It's very much a setup film, though there isn't any reason for us to believe that there's going to be a New Mutants 2. The majority of the film is spent with Danielle getting to know her fellow mutants and exploring their relationships. Though I would say that even there, the film doesn't really do a great job.

Mon: Yeah, there's a huge focus on the central relationship between Dani and Rahne. But the other characters, they're more antagonistic or just in the background. So it doesn't really develop her relation with them.

Ron: Yes, it comes across very much like the new girl being bullied, especially by Illyana though, that really doesn't do justice to the character as she appears in the comics. So, that was a bit of a surprise. Speaking of the backstories of these characters, we would say that really Rahne is the only one who has a similar backstory to the one that she has in the comics.

Mon: In the comics, Rahne comes from a small, very rigid, very religious community, and they freak out when she turns into a werewolf, because of her mutation. That backstory remains the same in the film, except now she’s been branded as a witch.

Ron: I didn't mind that particular inclusion. I think that made sense within the scope of the story. The other characters, there is no similarity between their stories in the film, and how we got to know them in the comic books.

Mon: Let's start with Dani herself. Why is there no mother in the picture? Ron: In the ‘Demon Bear’ storyline, which this movie is based on, Dani loses both her parents, and that actually does play a very large part in the conclusion. But the film only focuses on her father in the very opening scene, which was not edited very well, and we see him later on as well. Mon: Let's talk about Roberto.

Ron: I have to say I was so, so disappointed in Roberto Da Costa in this film. Sunspot was my favorite new mutant and the character in the film doesn't resemble the comic book character at all. Especially not his backstory which plays such an important part in not only his mutant powers, but the way he engages with the world.

Mon: I think the first warning that they wouldn't be doing ‘Berto correctly was the casting of Henry Zaga.

Ron: I'm sure Zaga is a very good actor. I haven't seen him in anything else, but I'm sure he's very talented. Unfortunately, he doesn't look anything like Sunspot in the comics. There is one integral part of his character arc that is completely missing from this film because Zaga has been cast in it.

Let me explain. In the comics, Roberto Da Costa belongs to a very rich family. He doesn't really understand his privilege. But he is also very dark skinned. Because of this, despite his privilege, he is bullied. It is while being bullied by fellow classmates that his powers activate.

Mon: ‘Berto in the comics is Afro-Latino, but they refused to cast character an actor who reflected the same heritage in the film, and that really does him a great disservice. Because race is an important part of ‘Berto’s characterization in the comics, but it's completely forgotten and the backstory that Berto is given in the film is boring. It is staid and it is another example of fridging.

Ron: In the film, Sunspot’s powers activate when he is having a romantic moment with his girlfriend, thus killing her in the most awful way possible. So, not only do they erase an extremely important part of his characterization, but they fridge his girlfriend who is then used as horror movie-material later on. Mon: Let's move on to Sam Guthrie. So, Sam is kind of the pseudo-leader in the comics. He's conveniently the leader because, I feel like the writers, at the time, weren't sure who they could give it to so they gave it to the southern white guy.

In the comics, he's very happy, he's a very positive guy. He's had hardships in his life, but he never lets it bring him down. He struggles with his powers, he's a cannonball, quite literally, and it's a difficult power to master. The film touches on the fact that Sam still struggles with mastering his power, but he's given this broody, overly dark backstory, which doesn't do the character any justice. Sam's storyline in the film really should have come with some kind of warning. Because Sam is essentially self-harming throughout. He's in a cast constantly, he is seen punching himself. Basically, it's quite disturbing to watch what happens. And it comes without context, and we'll come to the fact that a lot of what happens in the film is without context.

What we learn is that Sam was working in the mines with his father and several other men, and his powers accidentally activated and he killed, not only the other men, but also his father, and he's obviously struggling with what happened. And, and he's taking it out on himself. He's not able to grow, learn, or attach himself to anybody. So, this was a huge departure, again, from the comics.

Ron: And then finally we come to Illyana, whose backstory is also extremely different from the comics. When we first meet her, she is a very small child, who ends up in limbo and spends her formative years in that hellhole. But when she's rescued which is a few seconds after her disappearance, she's a teenager.

None of that, obviously made it into this film, understandably, because the budgets would not have allowed for it, though we do get glimpses of limbo. However, Illyana’s backstory appears to be about her being trapped somewhere and being abused. What did you think about her backstory?

Mon: I didn't feel like it was necessary to have that kind of backstory. What I will say is that this is the subtlest way of suggesting any kind of assault or abuse on any kind of character. They really worked hard to be sensitive to the topic, but at the same time I have to ask, why did Illyana need that backstory in the first place? Why can’t she just come from a poor Russian home? Why couldn't it be like a Dostoyevsky story? She didn't need that kind of background.

And I also felt like there were maybe one too many hints about what happened to her. I understand the need to pare down Illyana’s rather complicated, fantastical comic book origins, but they went the other extreme by making it a little too realistic.

Ron: They tried to marry some of the realistic elements of childhood abuse that we see in real life with the fantastical elements of her childish imagination of what these monsters were. I think that worked for them. But to keep coming back and for us to keep seeing small Illyana in that room, there were one too many moments that would have been triggering for anybody who has been in that situation in their life. So, basically there are two instances in this film where they should have added content warnings, and they had three years to do that, but they didn't.

Mon: And that's not the only thing they didn't fix in the three years. The CGI is terrible! When you're talking about a comic book adaptation, especially with the New Mutants, who are more fantastical, and have more imaginative powers, that requires a lot of special effects. I was disappointed with what we saw. We didn't actually see their powers in action as much as we saw some of the horror elements, and I'm sorry but that is the worst CGI I've seen.

After people have been shouting about how hard they've been working to make this product the best that they can, it honestly feels like this movie was made and somebody forgot about what to do with it. And then they just kept playing hot potato with it. They didn't embellish it, nothing. It's not like they tried very hard to make it the best story possible.

Ron: And I think the other problem is that from the very first previews, people had strong reactions to Zaga, to Heaton. There were a lot of people who were upset that an Afro-Latino character had been replaced by somebody who was lighter skinned. This is colorism and 2020 may have put colorism in the spotlight, but, in 2017, this was definitely something that people knew about.

There were also a lot of concern about Heaton’s casting. He was hot off the success of Stranger Things; it made sense to cast him in a movie like this. But he doesn't fit Sam Guthrie at all! I was extremely disappointed in Zaga and Heaton in this film. Not only did they not look like the characters, they had so little to do.

The burden of carrying this film really fell on Blu Hunt and Maisie Williams. They did a good job. But there were also a lot of problematic elements around them. So, whatever they were doing was undone. For instance, Illyana is unnecessarily antagonistic towards Dani. She's also racist. She keeps calling her Pocahontas!

They did a good job. But there were also a lot of problematic elements around them. So, whatever they were doing was undone. For instance, Illyana is unnecessarily antagonistic towards Dani. She's also racist. She keeps calling her Pocahontas!

Mon: Yeah, I found that very disturbing and I didn't see any need for that.

Ron: Absolutely not. And 2017 was one year after Trump was elected. He made a lot of Pocahontas comments soon after coming into power. And a lot of people were very, very upset about that, and they were very vocal about that. Why would they put this into the film?

Mon: I think the whole ‘Pocahontas’ thing in the film is kind of reflective of how the director seems quite blinkered in his view? We have the Zaga issue. We have the racist comments against Dani Moonstar, as well. But there's a character missing in this film from the comics and she's integral!

Xi’an Coy Manh, who is the mutant Karma, is a Vietnamese immigrant who becomes the leader of the group. She is conspicuously missing from this film. Why is the Asian mutant, who was such an important part of the comics missing from the film?

Ron: I understand that for the majority of the ‘Demon Bear’ storyline, Xi’an was not there. But if you're making a film which introduces this particular group, you've got to have her.

Mon: I completely agree with you on that. It makes no sense. We were talking about how Heaton and Zaga really don't do much in film. I have to say, this is probably the first time I've seen a genre film where the two boys spend most of the time cleaning dishes and washing clothes, whereas the girls seem to be driving the story forward. It's hinted at that ‘Berto and Sam are becoming close friends, but you don't really see much of the relationship; it's just one montage where they're having a little bit of fun, but the three girls, there's a lot more to their relationship, especially between Blue Hunt’s Dani Moonstar and Maisie Williams’ Rahne Sinclair.

Ron: I was pleasantly surprised that from nowhere, we got this queer relationship. And it comes off the fact that Blu and Maisie obviously have a lot of chemistry. So, the film just went with it. From the very first time that Dani and Rahne see each other, there's this connection. And it just grows throughout the film, and they become a couple.

Mon: I couldn't believe it because, in the books, they're pretty much written as straight. Romance isn't a huge part of their storylines. But in this film, it's there from the very beginning. There's a scene soon after Danny wakes up, and she's struggling to cope with the death of her father, the death of her entire village, and Rahne really talks her down. It's really sweet, this interaction between two young people who are struggling to find themselves in a world that doesn't make sense. And it’s also a little bit funny.

Ron: In any other film, one of the characters would have been a man. But here, it's two girls. And it's one of the nicest moments in the entire film. Once again, a trigger warning is required. But it's a great moment. Because we have seen so many superhero films, and we're still waiting for those queer characters. And it didn't feel forced at all.

Mon: It definitely because, as you mentioned, the actors had so much chemistry between them. It's a friendly chemistry, and the story doesn't try too hard. It makes sure that they come together because they understand each other. Because Rahne is such a kindly character and Dani needs that at that point, she needs somebody who can just understand. And she also needs to know that other people are also suffering in some way, they have their own pain, so that she can open up herself.

Ron: I also liked was there were no salacious comments, no maliciousness towards that relationship.

Mon: They were no gratuitous scenes.

Ron: Exactly, especially when the characters are young, you know, it would have been very disturbing to watch that. We anyway had the whole thing with Illyana’s backstory. One of the things that we really get to see in genre cinema, that even if you have queer characters, if everybody around them is like, ‘oh, you're queer, or gay or trans’, that ruins the moment, because that is again singling out the marginalized character. We also need to talk about how them being a couple isn't the only driving force behind their characterizations. It is a part of what makes them grow and brings them closer. But it also plays a part in resolving some of the issues in the plot.

Mon: So, here's the problem. While this beautiful little love story is fleshed out throughout the film, everything else got left behind. There isn't really anything else. Even if this was supposed to be a character driven story, or a relationship building story, those are also left by the wayside. Because Illyana is antagonistic, when she comes to Dani aide, it's supposed to be seen as she's coming to help Dani out of a newfound-love for Dani, but it's not true. And I couldn't actually read it that way.

Mon: When I was watching the film, I couldn't understand why Illyana suddenly had this change of heart. She'd managed to fight the monsters from her childhood that had come to come to life. But why did that make her feel like she had to fight for Dani? It seemed more like all the other characters, barring Rahne, were fighting for survival. Ron: I agree. Even Sunspot. When he's in the church, it doesn't seem like he's trying to save Dani, or he's trying to help the others. He's just trying to protect himself. And Sam seems to have so little control over his powers that whatever he does do is always by accident.

What I also feel is that we've been skirting around the issue of the plot. And the problem is that there isn't much plot here. The structure of the story goes something like this. Dani meets her fellow mutants. They try to get to know each other. Mysterious things seem to be happening, and they all seem to be related to everybody's worst fears. As the film continues, we realized that those manifestations have a connection with Dani. And then we finally learn that Dani’s greatest fear is the demon bear.

Mon: The final arc of the film is the demon bear attacking the facility and Dani is incapacitated, which leaves the rest of the team to fight off the demon bear and protect her at the same time. This brings the team together, but it brings them together more for their own survival than for the protection of Dani or for any emotional connection that they have to her.

Ron: Also, the stakes in some ways aren't very high. We are used to seeing the very formulaic superhero ending on this huge battleground, so many faceless people in danger having to be protected. And this is much smaller. The new mutants are fighting their own inner demons. And that works in some ways, but it's also not earned. Mon: I think the lack of payoff in this film comes from the fact that there is no context to what we've seen. The context always comes after the fact. We see Sam self-harming but why? We don't find out until several scenes later. We see Illyana being haunted by these scary creatures. But who are they? Why do they look like that? We don't get an answer to that. Most of the other manifestations, they do become more realistic. Whereas with Illyana’s, for some reason, it remains these otherworldly creatures.

Ron: I kept thinking that at some point, especially in the third act, that the monsters would transform into people we would see that the people who were harming her were actually real men.

Mon: Either that, or it was all in limbo, and that’s why they looked like that. But we don't know because limbo is just hinted at during the last section of the film. We get glimpses of a lot of hellfire but not much else.

Ron: The only remaining aspect of limbo in the real world is Lockheed. For the longest time, he’s just a stuffed toy and then randomly in one scene, he turns into a real dragon.

Mon: As real as bad CGI can make it, anyway.

Ron: It’s sad honestly. We love Lockheed in the comics, but also Lockheed belongs to Kitty. So, why is Lockheed here with Illyana? I don't know.

Mon: I'd argue that that was an Easter egg that didn't belong.

Ron: Yes, and seeing Lockheed look like that was super disappointing. They had three years to get this film on our screens, they couldn't fix Lockheed? They didn't actually do anything once it was filmed once it was packaged, once that first preview came out. They just put it on a shelf and waited for it to be released in theaters.

Mon: Disappointing indeed. What are the other comic book elements that you spotted in the film?

Ron: Well, when we saw Dr Reyes’ screen, we could see Essex Corp. It took me a second before I realized that Essex Corp meant Nathaniel Essex, aka Mr. Sinister.

Mon: And throughout, Dr Reyes kept hinting at how her supervisor was in charge and we knew that she was basically following his orders. Since this mysterious character is such a fan-favourite and a huge part of the X-Men comics, we were expecting, at the end, perhaps a little glimpse of the man himself?

Ron: There have been X-Men stories where Nathaniel Essex has been part of the background and then right in the very last panel, there he is standing there in all his glory. We were kind of hoping for that to happen and we waited till the end of the credits. Nothing.

Mon: The film is connected to the main X-Men film universe. There are glimpses of where these young mutants are going to be taken, and these are scenes from Logan. The corporation from which Logan rescues X-23. They were obviously hoping for a larger universe which would include the new mutants, but it never came to fruition.

Ron: Which is again making me wonder, what was the point of this film? It doesn't really give us an hoped for New Mutants 2. In fact, once they have defeated the demon bear, and they've managed to get rid of Dr Reyes, they're leaving the facility, but they have no idea where they're going. As far as they know, there's nothing around them for miles. So, what is the point?

Mon: My biggest struggle with this film is that the new mutants do not lend themselves to a film or a film trilogy. The new mutants should be a TV series.

Ron: Especially since it has a large cast of characters. And if you had added the other characters, you would have had a good number of people to follow. That'll make for great television. I'm thinking about The Gifted, which was an X-Men spinoff. Unfortunately, it was canceled after two seasons but I enjoyed it. Not everybody else did, but I did. And that showed how an X-Men story in television form could work.

Mon: The thing with the X-Men universe is that it's an expansive universe and new characters are constantly being added to it. So, you can't reproduce that universe in just a few films. While the X-Men films, some of them have been very successful, but several of the characters were underserved. Cyclops is the leader in the comics; he got short shrift in the films. Jean Grey is a very powerful character in the comics, and she spends most of her time standing and waving her arms.

While the main X-Men series can still be carried by a handful of actors, with The New Mutants, they are a group, they're a band of youngsters who spend a lot of time getting to know each other and build their friendships together. The whole point of these characters is not just that they have to explore their powers, they also have to explore their own youth. They are young people that are growing up; they need to find out who they are as people. For these characters, the film being a one off, or even if it was supposed to be a trilogy, it doesn't work. The new mutants need to have episodic stories, which were the central theme of the comics.

Ron: It shouldn't be a horror story. I understand where they were going with that. Even within the comic books, the ‘Demon Bear’ storyline does lend itself to suspense but it's also very tragic. I think we need to move away from instilling fear in the viewer, and more about instilling some hope.

Mon: I also feel like the final product didn't quite live up to the anticipation of the original previews. The first trailer that we saw, it really made it look like the classic horror stories that we are so used to seeing. They're stuck in an asylum and scary creatures are coming at them. That's not what we got.

Ron: This was ‘Jumpscares: The Mutant Movie’. Especially that Sunspot scene in the swimming pool, with him and Illyana, which never happens in the comics, and it came off as super gross.

Mon: I still can't figure out whether that was Illyana or that was his imagination.

Ron: That's what I'm saying! ;Jumpscares: The Mutant Movie’. Look, in a horror film, you can have your own kind of logic, but that logic needs to follow a certain pattern. That scene didn't follow any pattern. It seemed like just an excuse for Henry Zaga to take his clothes off, which is not necessary in this film at all. And to put him and Illyana together as a potential couple, which also didn't work because the two characters had no chemistry. And there was no reason for them to want to be together. Mon: Yes, it is just one of the many, many missteps. Surprisingly, I don't feel like this film was the worst film ever made. I would say that it was a poor choice of subject matter and poor execution.

Ron: It's not a bad film. It's just boring. It doesn't try to push any boundaries. The only area where they did something different was with the relationship between Dani and Rahne and but aside from that, the story is very limited in its scope. And for that reason, having just seen The New Mutants, we are struggling to remember parts of it. Mon: So, let us know, what did you think about the New Mutants?

Ron: You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email [email protected]

Ron: We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!

Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Transcription by Otter.ai and Ron.

#new mutants #x-men #marvel #stereo geeks #podcast #transcript

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tomeandflickcorner · 5 years ago

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Star Wars: Episode 9- The Rise of Skywalker

Some of you may remember the project I did last year, in which I reviewed all of the official Star Wars movies. At the time, I couldn’t review Rise of Skywalker, on account of how it wasn’t out yet. But now that it is, I can finally complete my Star Wars review project. Obviously, there will be spoilers under the cut. So if you haven’t seen it yet, proceed at your own risk.

The movie opens with the iconic text crawl. It informs us that, sometime after Snoke was killed and Kylo Ren took control of the First Order, a mysterious broadcast began being sent out through the galaxy, which vowed that the Resistance would pay dearly. The main issue, though, is that the broadcast seemed to have been made by Emperor Palpatine himself. Which obviously causes a lot of alarm among the Resistance, as the Emperor was believed to have died decades earlier, during the battle of the second Death Star, the battle that pretty much ended the Galactic Civil War. (Yeah, the war technically did continue for a while after that, as shown by the countless wreckage on Jakku, but I think the Battle of Endor was what secured victory for the Rebel Alliance.) But they’re not the only ones who have taken notice of this broadcast, as Kylo Ren is also trying to track down where the broadcast originated. After he slaughters a bunch of random people on the planet Mustafar, the former home of Darth Vader, he manages to locate what appears to be a Holocron, which were basically information storage devices typically used by both the Jedi and the Sith in times long past. (I remember them being a thing in the Star Wars MMO I used to play.) With this Holocron thing, which the movie refers to as a Sith Wayfinder, Kylo is able to pinpoint the source of the mysterious transmission on some secret uncharted planet called Exegol. Upon reaching the planet, he finds that Emperor Palpatine did indeed somehow survive the events of Return of the Jedi. But only barely, as he’s essentially bedridden and attached to some sort of life support system that’s kept maintained by what I gather were Palpatine’s Disciples. Yeah, Palpatine apparently has some manner of cult following now. And, through a bit of exposition, we are able to gather that Palpatine has actually been pulling the strings of the First Order all this time. For instance, Snoke was apparently an artificially grown person that Palpatine’s Disciples manufactured, as indicated by what appears to be cloned copies of Snoke inside large glass tanks, and his main purpose was to act as Palpatine’s puppet. (So that explains where Snoke came from.) And those voices that have been whispering in Kylo’s head for years, seemingly guiding him through his path towards the Dark Side, was pretty much Palpatine talking to him telepathically while making Kylo believe it was the voice of Vader speaking to him. While I still find it questionable that Palpatine managed to survive falling into that large pit AND was successfully smuggled off the second Death Star before it went boom, if Darth Maul was able to survive getting sliced in half followed by falling down a seemingly bottomless pit, I guess anything is possible. Maybe Boba Fett survived the sarlacc pit. And perhaps Mace Windu is still alive somewhere, too. Whatever. Anyway, Palpatine proceeds to reveal to Kylo that he has an entire fleet of Star Destroyers that are primed to launch and assist the First Order in completely overthrowing the galaxy. He also instructs him to locate and kill Rey, as there’s more to her than meets the eye.

We then cut to Poe, Finn and Chewbacca, who are on the Millennium Falcon. They’re apparently in the middle of some mission for Leia and the Resistance. A Resistance informant called Boolio has managed to obtain a special message that needs to be passed onto Leia, and the best way to get it to her is by transferring the message into R2’s databanks. But there’s still a little time for levity as Chewbacca is currently in the middle of a holographic chess match with Finn and Poe, the latter of whom accuses Chewbacca of always cheating on account of how long Chewbacca takes to make a move. The chess match is interrupted when a random member of the Resistance pokes his head into the room to inform them that they’ve reached the pickup location. And Poe, despite Chewbacca’s instructions to not disrupt their game, switches off the holographic chessboard.

So Finn, Poe and Chewbacca meet up with Boolio, and they get to work on downloading the message into R2. But right when they’re finishing up the transfer, First Order TIE Fighters appear on the scene. So they only just manage to finish downloading the message in time before they have to fly the Millennium Falcon out of there on the double. And Boolio urgently passes on one final message to Poe. He informs him that the information that was transferred into R2 actually came from a mole within the First Order. When Poe asks how they can repay Boolio for all his help, Boolio simply tells them to win the war. It’s strongly implied that both Poe and Boolio realize that he is as good as dead now, what with the First Order’s sudden arrival. And if that was true, they weren’t wrong, as we’ll later see Kylo Ren placing Boolio’s severed head on the table during a meeting with other First Order generals, in which they discuss how Palpatine is still alive and has the armada ready to assist them in their efforts to crush the Resistance for good. This scene also shows that Kylo’s mask is back, as a welder has put the broken pieces back together, as well as introduces us to Enric Pryde, a top general in the First Order.

Poe manages to escape the First Order TIE Fighters through a multitude of consecutive Light Speed jumps. Which he’s apparently not supposed to do since it’s extremely reckless and foolhardy. And I can see why, as each time they come out of a jump, they’re in a completely different location. And, if you’re not immediately on your game when you first emerge in a given location, you could easily fly headlong into a tree or building. Finn even points out that Leia would not approve of Poe taking such a rash action. To which Poe points out that Leia is not there. Eventually, Poe’s crazy plan works, and they reach the jungle planet of Ajan Kloss, where the Resistance base currently resides. It’s here where we see Rey his been continuing her Jedi training under Leia’s supervision. Which does make sense, as Leia is the only Force Sensitive person left who can help oversee Rey’s Jedi training. It’s nice that the movie is now acknowledging that Leia is Force Sensitive. Better late than never. And it’s made very clear that Rey has grown much stronger in the Force in the year since the Battle of Crait. (The whole visual of her meditating while floating in the air while a bunch of rocks orbit around her was particularly stunning.) However, during a rigorous training exercise, we see that the whole Force Telepathy thing that connected Rey and Kylo in the last movie hasn’t completely gone away. Because Rey suddenly gets plagued by some disturbing visions as a result of Kylo meditating in front of Vader’s melted mask. These visions include Palpatine’s fleet of Star Destroyers, her memory of being left behind by her parents on Jakku, Han’s death and one of Rey herself as a Sith. The visions shake Rey to the core, but she does not confide in Leia about them, simply stating that perhaps she’s just tired.

When the Millennium Falcon returns to Ajan Kloss, Rey immediately heads over to the landing bay to meet her friends, where we finally get to see all three of the New Trilogy’s trio together. Rey and Poe get into a brief argument, with Rey upset over seeing the Millennium Falcon caught fire because of Poe’s Light Speed jumps and Poe was likewise aghast at seeing that BB-8 got banged up as well during his absence. (Rey accidentally felled a tree right over the little droid when her visions started to interfere with her training regimen.) Overall, this was an amusingly entertaining moment that not only showcased Rey’s attachment to the Falcon matched Poe’s bond with his little Droid, but also indicated what the dynamic between these two was like. The argument comes to a hold when Rey sees Finn, and she goes over to hug her dear friend in greeting.

Anyway, our heroes then get to work in deciphering the message inside R2, which basically informs the Resistance of what Kylo had already found out- Palpatine is indeed alive on Exegol and has enough Star Destroyers at the ready to complete the First Order’s goals of conquering the galaxy. But as 3PO points out, there is no record of Exegol on any known starchart, on account of it being a hidden Sith planet, so the Resistance have no way to combat the renewed threat of Palpatine, who intends to begin his final attack on the worlds not already under First Order control in roughly 16 hours. However, Rey has found something in the Ancient Jedi Texts that she managed to salvage on Ahch-To. It turns out that Luke added his own edits to the texts or something, because Rey finds that they make mentions of Exegol, and indicate that it is possible to find Exegol with the use of a Sith Wayfinder. Upon sharing her discovery with Leia, Rey volunteers to set out to find a Sith Wayfinder so they could use it to track down Exegol and put an end to Palpatine’s scheme. At first. Leia refuses to allow this, stating that it would be too dangerous. But she quickly relents when Rey states that she will go with or without her blessing, as Leia would have done the same thing in her place. As such, Leia directs Rey to head to a dessert planet called Pasaana, as there is an old contact of hers there who might be able to help Rey in her quest. So Rey heads off to the Millennium Falcon to make the journey to Pasanna. But she’s intercepted by Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, 3PO and BB-8, who, in spite of Rey’s insistence on doing this alone, state that they’re in this together. Before the group leaves for Pasaana, we get a small moment of 3PO bidding goodbye to R2, with the former stating that, in the event that something were to happen that would prevent them from meeting again, he wants the Astromech Droid to know that he considers R2 his best friend. Which I suppose could be argued is a little forced foreshadowing of something that happens during the course of the movie. Also, Leia returns the Skywalker Lightsaber to Rey before she leaves. Surprisingly, they were able to repair it, even though it looked damaged beyond the point of repair in the last movie. Which slightly bummed me out a bit, as I thought we’d see Rey beginning this adventure with a lightsaber of her own. Especially with the last movie’s emphasis on letting go of the past. But I guess I can live with this.

When Rey and the others arrive on Pasaana, they find that they’ve arrived on the day the Aki Aki, an Alien species native to the planet, are holding their sacred holiday meant to honor their ancestors, a festival 3PO states they are very lucky to be able to witness, as they only hold this celebration every 42 years. (Was this a reference to how A New Hope came out 42 years prior to this final instalment of the Star Wars trilogies?) Trying to keep a low profile, they proceed make their way through the crowd of celebrators. But Rey’s attention is briefly caught by a small group of Aki Aki children, who are watching some sort of puppet show. As she watches, one of the younger Aki Aki approaches her to give her a necklace before asking Rey about her family name. Which makes sense, as this sacred holiday is about celebrating your ancestors. However, Rey has to admit she doesn’t have a family name. Yeah, despite the last movie trying to say that Rey’s parents were nobody more than backwater folks who sold her for drinking money, it looks like Rey’s parentage is still going to be a plot point in this movie.

Out of nowhere, Kylo triggers one of those Force Telepathy sessions with Rey, who is clearly not happy about it. Kylo, after informing her that Palpatine wants her dead, goes off on his whole thing about how he still intends to turn her to the Dark Side, yadda yadda yadda. But then, he snatches the necklace Rey got from the Aki Aki kid. Because this Force Telepathy thing can allow you to do that. (Remember how the rain from Ahch-To appeared on Kylo’s glove in the last movie?) Rey immediately realizes that Kylo getting her necklace is a bad thing, as him having it means that he’s now able to trace the necklace’s origin, and therefore will be able to figure out where they are. She immediately goes to warn her friends of this. But before they could escape, a First Order Stormtrooper appears and holds them at gunpoint.

At that moment, they are saved from the First Order Stormtrooper by a masked figure, who instructs Rey and the others to follow him onto a nearby transport. Deciding that they have little choice but to trust this stranger, especially since he did just save their lives, they comply with the request. And a good thing, too. Because as soon as the transport begins to get our heroes out of there, the masked figure reveals himself as Lando. It turns out that he is the contact Leia sent them to find, as he, upon hearing what brought them to Pasaana, reveals that he and Luke once teamed up to try and track down someone called Ochi, who was believed to have located one of the only two known remaining Sith Wayfinders that could reveal the location of Exegol. However, the trail went cold here on Pasaana, as he and Luke had only found Ochi’s ship, which was left abandoned in the desert. And they never found out where Ochi went. Lando agrees to take Rey and company to Ochi’s ship, since perhaps there’s a clue there that Lando and Luke overlooked. But first, they have to evade a legion of First Order Stormtroopers. Which triggers a whole action sequence that also contains a touch of humor when it’s revealed the Stormtroopers have jetpacks now. You have to feel bad for Finn here. He just seems so offended that the Stormtroopers can fly now. After all, he’d been with the Stormtroopers for practically his whole life. And just one year after he defected, that’s when they decide to hand out the jetpacks?

As our heroes are still trying to evade the First Order Stormtroopers, they get their first glimpse of Ochi’s ship, lying on the top of a rocky outcrop. Right away, Rey realizes she recognizes the ship. It’s the same one we’ve seen in her vision/memory of the day her parents left her on Jakku. However, mere moments after Rey makes that realization, their speeders are hit with a direct blast from the pursuing Stormtroopers, which sends everyone in the group to go flying right into a nearby patch of sinking fields. Which act in a similar manner to Hollywood’s interpretation of quicksand. Despite their best efforts, our heroes sink below the surface. (Here, Finn admits to Rey that there’s something he’d been wanting to tell her, but they sink below the surface before he could complete his statement.)

Fortunately, this doesn’t result our heroes’ deaths by suffocation. Rather, they come out on the other side of the sinking fields, right into an underground cavern hidden below the surface of the desert. They proceed to try and locate a way out. In doing so, they stumble across the skeletal remains of Ochi. This leads to them determining that Ochi must have fallen into the sinking fields as well. And, upon being unable to find a way out, eventually died of hunger/thirst/whatever. Of course, this presents Rey and the others with a problem. If Ochi couldn’t find a way out of this underground cavern, how are they supposed to do any better?

Before they can come up with a solution to that, they find themselves face-to-face with an Alien beast called a Vexis snake. Initially, the group is ready to fight the creature. But then Rey notices that the Vexis snake is injured. Taking pity on the beast, she slowly approaches the Vexis snake and heals the injury through a new ability called Force Healing. The Vexis snake, out of gratitude for Rey’s gesture, reveals an opening in the side of the cavern wall, which allows our heroes to escape. But before they leave the cavern, they locate a dagger that belonged to Ochi. Ochi’s dagger, they notice, has an inscription on the blade. But it’s written in an ancient Sith language. 3PO announces that he can easily translate the writing, on account of him being programmed in over six million forms of communication. However, he admits he is unable to actually tell the others what the writing says. Because he has been specifically programmed to never translate anything Sith related. While this is obviously frustrating for Rey and company to hear, I’m wondering who programmed that restriction into 3PO’s circuitry. I can’t see little boy Anakin doing that, since he had no idea what the Sith even were when he lived on Tatooine. Same with the Lars family. Did Captain Antilles do the honor under the request of Bail Organa when ownership of 3PO passed to him following the events of Revenge of the Sith?

Getting back to the actual story, they head back to Ochi’s ship to resume their search for clues to the location of the Sith Wayfinder, as well as try to repair the ship so it would be flightworthy again. Because they know it’s too risky to risk returning to the Millennium Falcon, as the First Order would most likely be waiting for them back there. As they’re searching, Rey senses Kylo’s presence and, without telling her friends, she heads out to confront him. When they notice she’s missing, Finn and Poe end up sending Chewbacca out to find her. Which seems a bit silly, since they were working on ship repairs. Why exactly would you send the one who is the seasoned expert on repairing ships to do the menial task of fetching Rey? Although, Chewbacca doesn’t get a chance to find Rey. Kylo’s followers, the Knights of Rey, are lying in wait and manage to get the jump on Chewbacca off camera. (About time they remembered these guys in the new trilogy. I’d been wondering if they’d actually be featured beyond a passing mention in The Force Awakens.) Finn and Poe soon discover Chewbacca has been captured when they see TIE Fighters approaching on radar and head out to warn him.

Meanwhile, Rey has spotted Kylo’s TIE Whisperer approaching the area. Which leads to that moment I’m sure we’ve all seen on the trailer, with Rey performing that epic backflip over the TIE Whisperer as it flies towards her. In the process, Rey effortlessly slices through the Tie Whisperer’s wing, resulting in the ship to crash land. At that moment, Finn runs over to inform Rey that Chewbacca was captured, gesturing to a transport ship that’s currently taking off nearby. Without hesitation, Rey attempts to stop the transport ship from leaving the planet by holding it back with the Force. But Kylo, who survived the crash, also tries to use the Force to pull the transport ship out of her grasp. This results in the pair having what amounts to a tug-of-war over the transport ship. For a few moments, it looks as if Rey and Kylo are evenly matched. Until Rey, without warning, suddenly unleashes a blast of Force Lightning from her hand. This results in the transport ship to blow up, much to the horror of Rey, Finn and Poe, as Chewbacca was on the transport ship, and there’s no way anyone could have survived that.

Unfortunately, there’s no time to grieve the death of their friend, as our heroes have to escape on Ochi’s ship before First Order reinforcements can arrive. Once they’re off the planet, though, they’re able to let the development sink in. Chewbacca is gone. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he’d had Ochi’s dagger on him when he’d been captured. Without it, their hopes of finding Exegol and stopping Palpatine’s fleet of Star Destroyers are dashed. That’s when 3PO lets slip that he remembers exactly what the dagger’s inscription said. But like he said before, he cannot tell them what it said on account of his programming preventing him from doing so. However, Poe has an idea on how to work around that hurtle. He knows someone on a planet called Kijimi that can help them hack into 3PO’s circuits and override that programming restriction. So it’s off to Kijimi they go.

During this time, we also see Rey trying to wrap her head around how she was able to generate Force Lightning. As it’s doubtful she would have learned such a thing from Leia. Not only did Leia, unlike Luke, never witness Force Lightning being used (at least, not to our knowledge), Force Lightning was apparently a Dark Side power. Hardly something you would teach a Jedi. So how would Rey have been able to utilize that herself? Also, BB-8 discovers a deactivated little Droid called D-O in a secluded corner of the ship. I guess D-O was originally supposed to belong to Ochi before his death, though D-O is not a bad Droid himself. BB-8 ends up reactivating D-O, giving Star Wars fans a new little Droid to fawn over. (D-O is basically a bullhorn mounted on a single wheel.)

Upon reaching Kijimi, the heroes find the planet is pretty much under First Order control, with Stormtroopers keeping the residents under house arrest. As the Resistance group tries to navigate along while evading being discovered by the Stormtroopers, they end up running into a woman called Zorii Bliss, who is revealed to be an old friend of Poe, from the days before he joined the resistance. From her, we learn a bit of Poe’s backstory. Prior to joining the Resistance, he’d earned a living as a spice runner, which is basically the Star Wars equivalent of a drug dealer or something along those lines. (The movie spends a few seconds with Finn and Rey making a big deal of this, which is a bit odd. Like, does it really matter what Poe did before he joined the resistance? Poe even points out the hypocrisy of his friends’ reactions, pointing out that Finn used to be a Stormtrooper and Rey was a scavenger.) But the point is that Poe apparently still owes Zorii money from his spice runner days. Though Zorii is eventually convinced to forget about the debt and she agrees to bring them to Babu Frik, an expert Droidsmith who can help hack past 3PO’s programming restrictions so he can reveal what the inscription on Ochi’s dagger says. When they reach Babu Frik’s place, the little Alien states that he can do what they want, but there’s a catch. If Babu Frik performs the hack, it would completely wipe 3PO’s memory banks. Meaning 3PO would forget everything and everyone. Finn, Rey and Poe briefly argue against this, as they’re still hurting from losing Chewbacca and aren’t willing to lose another friend. But 3PO, showing a surprising amount of courage, announces he’s willing to consent to the procedure, as it’s imperative that they locate a Sith Wayfinder and stop Palpatine’s Star Destroyer fleet. If they don’t, then everyone they’ve lost, including Chewbacca, will have died in vain.

So Babu Frik performs the hack, resulting in 3PO being able to reveal that there’s a Sith Wayfinder on Kef Bir, an ocean moon orbiting around the planet Endor. The moment 3PO is able to get that information out, he briefly shuts down automatically as his memory banks begin to be wiped out, with the Protocol Droid resorting to his default mode. At that moment, though, Rey and the others find out that the Knights of Ren somehow tracked them down to Kijimi. When the First Order ships appear overhead, Rey is able to sense Chewbacca’s presence on board one of the ships, thus informing them that Chewbacca is alive. It turns out that Chewbacca had been on a different transport ship from the one Rey unwittingly blew up. So of course, she, Finn and Poe decide they have to rescue Chewbacca. In order to assist them, Zorii gives the trio a First Order Captain’s Medallion, which she had previously swiped off a First Order officer or something. She’d previously explained during an earlier scene with her and Poe that she had been planning to use it in order to get off Kijimi. But she decides that they need it more, as the life of their friend is undoubtedly on the line.

With the use of the Captain’s Medallion, Rey, Finn and Poe manage to sneak aboard the Star Destroyer where Chewbacca is being held. After Rey manages to thwart a couple of Stormtroopers in their way via a Jedi Mind Trick, they begin to search for Chewbacca. However, Rey ends up splitting up from the group when her Jedi Senses lead her elsewhere. Her Jedi Senses end up leading her to Kylo’s quarters, where she locates Ochi’s dagger. Upon reclaiming it, she is hit by another vision. This one is of Ochi using the dagger to murder her parents. Because Ochi was apparently looking for Rey, and her parents ultimately gave their lives in their efforts to protect her. (I suppose that means that Ochi’s ship was originally the property of Rey’s parents, and Ochi claimed it as his own after murdering them.)

As Rey’s vision comes to an end, her newfound questions end up triggering another Force Telepathy moment between her and Kylo, who confirms that Rey’s parents were nobodies because they had to become nobodies in order to keep her safe from Ochi, and whoever hired him to find her. But whoever hired Ochi still wants to find Rey because of the potential for Darkness inside her. A lightsaber duel soon begins between the pair, but during the battle, the pedestal that displays Vader’s melted helmet is destroyed. This results in the melted helmet to be seen by Kylo, allowing him to figure out that Rey is in his living quarters aboard the Star Destroyer. So Rey has to quickly rejoin her friends and make sure they all get away before Kylo can arrive and tip off the other First Order members that they’ve been infiltrated.

Meanwhile, Finn and Poe have successfully located Chewbacca. But despite their best efforts, they soon find themselves surrounded by Stormtroopers. They are brought before General Hux and Enric Pryde, with the latter ordering their immediate execution. But after Pryde leaves, Hux requests the Stromtroopers tasked with performing the execution if he could do the honors. And, after a bit of a fake-out, Poe, Finn and Chewbacca are amazed to see that Hux has instead killed the two Stormtroopers. Because Hux was the First Order mole who Boolio told them about at the start of the movie. (How’s that for a twist?) Hux then proceeds to help Finn, Poe and Chewbacca find their way to the hanger where the Millennium Falcon is being kept. He then tells Finn to shoot him in the arm. Because he obviously doesn’t want to be exposed as a traitor to the First Order. Finn does indeed shoot him, but in the leg instead of the arm. He then demands to know why Hux would help them in the first place. Hux then pretty much states he doesn’t care if the Resistance wins or loses. He just wants to see Kylo lose. Because the animosity between the two is still as strong as ever. Okay, fair enough. I can get behind that.

As Finn, Poe and Chewbacca ready the Falcon to escape the Star Destroyer, Rey ends up running into Kylo in the flesh. Because he got there incredibly fast. As they confront each other, Kylo finally gives Rey the final piece of the puzzle involving her parents and Ochi by revealing that Rey is the long-lost granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.

And thus, we reach the first major question mark moment of the movie. Rey’s father was Palpatine’s son?! Palpatine had a kid? How did that happen? I mean, did Palpatine get some woman drunk? Who did he impregnate? Was it even consensual? Confusing elements of a revealed backstory aside, I guess Palaptine sensed that Rey was particularly strong in the Force and feared her power the way he feared Luke’s back in the day. So he hired Ochi to track down Rey, but her parents, Palpatine’s son and daughter-in-law, did their best to keep her safe from him. And they were killed for their efforts.

Kylo once again offers Rey the chance to join him, but Rey rejects the offer, jumping onto the Millennium Falcon as it flies past the open hanger where the confrontation was taking place. After they escape, however, Pryde shoots Hux dead, on account of him somehow figuring out that Hux was a traitor. Pryde then accepts a direct call from Palpatine, who orders Pryde to destroy Kijimi utilizing a Planet Killer style canon that has been installed on one of the Star Destroyers, an order that Pryde follows without blinking.

Now, the thing about Pryde. I admit I found myself slightly confused by his character. In the scene where he’s informed that Finn, Poe and Chewbacca were apprehended during the rescue attempt, the way the camera shot was set up seemed to be trying to put an emphasis on Pryde’s eyes. Which made me briefly suspect that he was the mole instead of Hux. But of course, that wasn’t the case. So what was up with the way they made the lighting practically place a spotlight on his eyes? Was Pryde supposed to be a clone of Tarkin or something? Were we supposed to realize Pryde had Tarkin’s eyes? The way we saw Pryde telling Palpatine state that he has served him for a long time seemed to suggest that Pryde wasn’t just one of the random characters this final movie introduced us to and that he had been around in some way for a long time. So who is this guy, anyway?

Anyway, the Resistance group, following the information they got from 3PO’s translation of the dagger, arrive on Kef Bir, where they soon locate some of the wreckage from the second Death Star. Because, again, they’re on a moon in the Endor system. As they look out at the wreckage, Rey discovers Ochi’s dagger contains a treasure map pointer of some sort, which leads to her figuring out the Sith Wayfinder is located in a specific piece of the wreckage. (It’s a pretty big Goonies moment here.) But to reach the indicated bit of wreckage, they have to swim out to it. Before they could attempt to swim out, though, a group of people appear out of nowhere, riding atop these horse-like creatures. Their leader is a young woman called Jannah, who informs them that she was notified by Babu Frik that they were coming there. Which pretty much indicates that Jannah is an alley. But she tells them that the current of the ocean on Kef Bir is too strong for anyone to swim out to the wreckage, and it’s only accessible by skimmer. However, while Jannah says she’s willing to loan them one of their skimmers, they’ll have to wait until morning because of the nature of the tides or something.

During their down time, there’s a bonding moment between Finn and Jannah, who reveals that she is a former First Order Stormtrooper. TZ-1719, to be exact. In fact, everyone in her tribe used to be a Stormtrooper, until they all mutinied after being ordered to open fire on civilians. Finn is both stunned and ecstatic to learn that he wasn’t the only Stormtrooper who developed a conscience and defected from the First Order. All this time, he thought he was alone in that regard.

But that’s when they all realize that they haven’t seen Rey in a while. Because, despite Jannah’s warnings, she decided she wasn’t willing to wait until morning and commandeered a skimmer to venture out to the Death Star wreckage. Upon reaching it, she soon locates the Sith Wayfinder they set out to find. When she picks it up, she is briefly confronted by a vision of herself as a Sith Lord. Which I guess is supposed to mirror Luke’s encounter with the vision of Vader in the Dagobah cave back in Empire Strikes Back. After Rey fights with the vision of Dark Rey, Kylo suddenly shows up. It turns out that Pryde analyzed Ochi’s dagger before Rey reclaimed it, resulting in the First Order figuring out where they were going. Kylo promptly destroys the Sith Wayfinder in order to try and force Rey to give into hate, and the two began an epic lightsaber battle atop the Death Star wreckage.

But this is when things get a bit confusing. We briefly cut back to Ajan Klos, where Leia, I guess, can sense that Rey and Kylo are dueling. She proceeds to slowly walk off, with one of her attendants saying that Leia knows what she has to do to get through to her son. And then, as the duel between Rey and Kylo continues, Leia reaches out to Kylo through the Force, which causes him to pause long enough for Rey to impale him with the Skywalker Lightsaber. And them, we see Leia fall back onto her bed as she dies.

Okay. What caused Leia to die like that? Was she secretly ill? Did she reach out to Kylo utilizing a similar method to the one Luke used to project himself onto Crait in The Last Jedi, thereby draining all of her life energy? Are we supposed to assume she somehow committed suicide in the hopes that Kylo sensing her death would be enough to force some sense into him? I realize that they probably had to kill off Leia in this movie due to Carrie Fisher’s untimely death, since they only had so much archived footage of her to work with. But still, a little clarification of what exactly caused Leia to die so suddenly would have been greatly appreciated.

ANYWAY, Rey also senses Leia’s death through the Force and is visibly shaken by it. In what I guess was meant as a last favor to her fallen mentor, as well as the knowledge that she briefly let her anger get the better of her, Rey chooses to save the injured Kylo with Force Healing. But once she ensures that Kylo won’t die from the injury she inflicted, Rey retreats from the scene, hijacking Kylo’s TIE Whisperer and taking off, despite Finn (who had been watching the fight from nearby) calling after her. Rey makes her way back to Ahch-To, where she decides to impose exile on herself on account of her mounting fears. She is shaken to the core upon learning of her identity as Palpatine’s granddaughter. Especially since she’s now fearing that she is pretty much destined to turn out to be just like him. After all, she was able to generate Force Lightning without even meaning to. And there’s the fact that she came close to killing Kylo out of sheer hatred. Not only that, she has lost Leia, who was the one person who could offer her guidance and whatnot. As a result of her despair, Rey proceeds to burn the TIE Whisperer, thereby ensuring that she’d be effectively be stranded on the planet. But when she tries to throw the Skywalker Lightsaber into the fire as well in order to destroy it, someone catches it before it could come in contact with the flames. That someone is revealed to be Luke, who has returned as a Force Ghost. Luke offers Rey some much-needed guidance by revealing that he and Leia had known that she was Palpatine’s granddaughter from the very start. But they still chose to help train her because they could see her spirit and knew that, just because she was a Palpatine by birth, she was still her own person. As such, she was free to choose her own path.

Luke then reveals that, years ago, he had helped Leia train as a Jedi. In fact, Leia had owned a lightsaber of her own. (So Leia DID get training as a Force User. That explains how she knew how to perform that Superman Flight through space.) However, during her training, Leia received a vision that her son would turn to the Dark Side. And that it would have fallen to her to kill him. Understandably, Leia balked at the notion that she would have to kill her own son. To try to avoid that fate, she not only decided to send Ben to Luke for training in the hopes that he’d be able to stop Ben from turning to the Dark Side (a plan that clearly failed), she also chose to forsake her Jedi heritage, giving her lightsaber to Luke for safekeeping, in the hopes that someone else would come forward to do what she couldn’t. Luke proceeds to tell Rey that he knows he was wrong to try and impose exile on himself for failing to reach Ben Solo and losing him to Snoke. And that Rey should face Palpatine the way he once faced Vader years ago. Because it’s now up to her to finish what Luke and Leia could not. In the end, Luke’s pep talk does the trick, and she agrees to go back and journey to Exegol to confront Palpatine. Before she parts, Luke gifts Rey with Leia’s old lightsaber, which had been hidden in the wall of Luke’s old hut. And, to give Rey a way off the planet, Luke manages to levitate his abandoned X-Wing out of the water. (Which probably was meant to be a callback to how Luke failed to do so in Empire Strikes Back, which shows how much Luke has grown since then.) Not sure how the X-Wing was still flightworthy, though. How many years was that thing submerged beneath the waves? One would think that the water damage would have left the X-Wing permanently grounded. Also, I’m still wondering what happened to Luke’s green-bladed lightsaber. We saw him using it in the brief flashback with him training with Leia. What exactly did he do with it?

Meanwhile, back on Kef Bir, Kylo is still standing alone atop the wreckage of the Death Star, shaken by the knowledge of his mother’s death. At that moment, he comes face to face with the image of Han. No, Han’s not a Force Ghost, but that would have been interesting, as it would have confirmed my theory that Han possessed some Force Sensitivity himself. Rather, it’s more of Kylo’s memory of Han taking physical form. Anyway, the memory of Han is able to convince Kylo that, even though Leia is gone, what she stood for still remained. So it still wasn’t too late for him to come home. In the end, Kylo turns and throws away his cross-hilted lightsaber, which was meant to signify that he was forsaking his identity as Kylo Ren and choosing to become Ben Solo again. (Personally, I felt that was a bit forced that Kylo would get redeemed that easily. But I guess the same could be said of how Vader got redeemed simply because of the innate love for his son.)

Quick question. Was anyone else a bit shocked to see Han come back in this movie? I always got the impression that Harrison Ford seriously disliked his role as Han Solo. (At least he never seems happy when people ask him about it.) And that he only agreed to come back for the new trilogy if they agreed to kill him off in the first installment. After that, I’d thought he’d have completely divorced himself from the Star Wars franchise. So I wonder what they had to do to convince him to come back for this final cameo.

Back on Ajan Kloss, Poe, Finn and Chewbacca have returned to the Resistance base to tell Leia of what happened on Kef Bir, only to be informed of Leia’s death, the news of which devastates them all to the core. Chewbacca’s reaction alone is particularly heartbreaking. You really feel bad for him. Especially since, with Leia gone, he’s lost all of his closest friends. However, in the mist of their grief, they know they have to press on, in honor of Leia’s memory. Because to do otherwise would mean turning their backs on everything Leia fought for. And she’d previously effectively chosen Poe to be her successor in leading the Resistance. (Because again, Poe is the new Leia.) As they’re working to figure out what to do now, they receive a transmission they realize is coming from Rey. It turns out that, even though Kylo destroyed the Sith Wayfinder they found on Kef Bir, there was still one left- the one that Kylo had previously found on Mustafar. And Rey had found it inside the burning remains of Kylo’s TIE Whisperer. So now Rey is using it to head to Exegol while leaving a trail of breadcrumbs so her friends in the Resistance can also find Exegol and take out Palpatine’s fleet of Star Destroyers.

And so begins the final battle of the movie, as well as the new trilogy. Rey, upon arriving on Exegol, finds her way into Palpatine’s inner sanctum, where she not only finds Palpatine, but all of Palpatine’s Disciples, who have all congregated in the room to observe the confrontation. It turns out that, even though Palpatine had previously ordered Kylo to kill Rey, he now wants Rey to kill him. Because if she does strike him down in anger, some dark ritual will be performed that will allow Palpatine’s spirit to take over Rey’s body, thereby allowing him to live again through her. (So, if that was his plan, why was he previously so determined to have Rey killed?) To try and rile Rey up to the point where she would want to kill him in vengeance, Palpatine not only taunts her over how her parents were murdered by his orders, but, much like how he did with Luke in Return of the Jedi, shows her the spaceship battle that’s currently occurring above the planet’s surface, with the Resistance fighters battling against the Star Destroyer fleet. It’s clear that the odds are against the Resistance, as the Resistance is vastly outnumbered and are seemingly dropping like flies. (Also, I believe that, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, we can see that Wedge Antilles, the old veteran from both Death Star battles, can be seen among the Resistance fighters. Which probably left long-time Star Wars fans tickled pink.)

However, the newly reborn Ben Solo has also made his way to Exegol, using a TIE Fighter he somehow managed to obtain. Although, when he tries to make his way into Palpatine’s inner sanctum, his way is blocked by the Knights of Rey. Rey, seemingly sensing his presence, ends up deciding to pull a fast one on Palpatine, who is insisting that he has foreseen her using the Skywalker Lightsaber to strike him down. Utilizing the Force Telepathy trick that links her to Ben, she covertly passes the Skywalker Lightsaber over to him, which enabled him to defeat the Knights of Rey and make it to her side. Upon seeing the two together, Palpanine reveals that the pair of them are Dyads, which I guess pretty much means they’re the Force equivalent of Yin and Yang or something. Which explains why they have such a strong mental link. In other words, they’re kinda twins. Not by blood, but through the Force. Unfortunately, Palpatine can use this to his advantage, as Force Dyads possess a unique kind of energy. One he can absorb in order to rejuvenate himself. And that’s exactly what he does, forcibly draining Ben and Rey of their life essence. This act results in him being returned to his full strength again. To demonstrate this, he fires off a powerful blast of Force Lightning up at the Resistance ships, effectively disabling them. Palpatine then shoves Ben down a smoke-filled chasm that just happens to be nearby. Because there’s ALWAYS a gaping hole or chasm in Star Wars films.

Meanwhile, what’s left of the Resistance fighters are left reeling from the rejuvenated Palpatine’s Force Lightning attack. That, combined with how their best efforts at dismantling the Star Destroyer fleet by destroying the radio antenna thing that controls the fleet’s movements haven’t produced the desired results results (which was a pretty cool sequence when they even brought in those horse creatures Jannah and her tribe had to traverse along the exterior of the lead Star Destroyer on foot), leads to Poe nearly giving into despair. It turns out he hasn’t quite gotten over the memories of what happened on Crait, with how nobody seemed to respond to their pleas for help. He’s now feeling that the same thing will happen now, and that nobody will arrive to assist them in this final fight. And thus, all their efforts at stopping the First Order from taking over have been for nothing.

But at that moment, the Calvary arrives! Lando and Chewbacca, who had headed off on the Millennium Falcon earlier to help spread the word of what the Resistance was doing, have returned, accompanied by a number of ships from each of the remaining Free Worlds. Unlike the last movie, they’ve finally decided to join the fight in time for the final stand. With the help of the surprise reinforcements, which include Zorri and Babu Frik (who have managed to survive the destruction of Kijimi), the Resistance manages to take out the Star Destroyers, with Finn and Jannah managing to blow up the radio antenna. But since Finn and Jannah had hung back to achieve that task by hand, in spite of Rose’s protests (because Rose was in this movie, too, but her role was significantly reduced, no doubt a result of the number of so-called ‘fans’ who directed personal attacks against the actress who portrayed her for arbitrary and possibly racist reasons after The Last Jedi came out), Lando has to maneuver the Falcon close enough for them to hitch a ride before the lead Star Destroyer blows up. Which kills Pryde in the process.

However, there’s still the matter of Palpatine. Because even though his fleet has been destroyed, he still remains. But Rey, while she is lying weakened on the ground, is also still alive. As she lies there, she is finally able to break through the mental block that had been holding her back at the start of the movie, enabling her to hear the voices of Jedi Masters of the past, which apparently incudes Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Luke, the redeemed Anakin, Yoda, Mace Windu, Ahsoka (from the Clone Wars series) and others I didn’t recognize. However, I did notice that the voice of Obi-Wan told Rey ‘these are your final steps.’ Which brings us full-circle to The Force Awakens, when Obi-Wan’s voice is heard saying ‘these are your first steps’ when Rey first finds the Skywalker Lightsaber. Drawing strength from the Jedi of the Past, Rey gets back to her feet to face down Palpatine, who tries to strike her down with Force Lightning. Rey manages to deflect the attack with Leia’s Lightsaber, but it seems like she won’t be able to keep it up forever. Until she manages to produce the Skywalker Lightsaber again. With the combined strength of the Skywalker Lightsaber and Leia’s Lightsaber, Rey is able to produce a complete rebound of the Force Lightning attack, sending it right back at Palpatine, destroying him once and for all.

Unfortunately, the effort involved seemed to have been too much of a strain on Rey’s already weakened body, as she collapses to the ground and ends up dying. However, Ben somehow survived falling into the chasm and he is able to pull himself back out. Though it’s clear that he’d been severely injured, with a pronounced limp. He staggers over to Rey’s body and, like she did with him, utilizes Force Healing in order to resurrect her.

And, yeah, when Rey opens her eyes, they end up kissing. Because I guess the writing and directing crew just had to throw in some fanservice for the Reylo shippers. And yes, that’s exactly what it was- fanservice. Look, if you shipped these two, more power to you. But there was nothing remotely romantic about their interactions throughout this trilogy. At least, none that I could see. Rey seemed to want nothing to do with him from the start. Well, outside of her apparent desire to save Ben Solo, but that had probably more to do with her great respect for Han, Leia and Luke, and her desire to honor their memories. Even Daisy Ridley herself said that the relationship between these two was toxic and abusive. And I dare say Daisy Ridley knows Rey’s character better than anyone. For those reasons, I don’t understand why they would have them kiss here. Unless it was more of a ‘hooray, we did it!’ sort of kiss. But if that was the case, wouldn’t a hug have sufficed? Just saying, having them kiss like that suggests there were romantic feelings between them. I don’t understand why the people who created this movie would have wanted people to be left with that message. Besides, suggesting that they were in love or something is kinda pointless, as Ben dies immediately afterwards anyway, with his body fading from sight as he becomes one with the Force. With the same thing happening to Leia’s body. (Wonder why Leia’s body didn’t fade away immediately after she died. With all the other Jedi who have become one with Force, they faded away immediately after dying. Why was Leia different?) Then again, this is the same movie franchise where George Lucas had Leia kiss Luke in a non-sisterly way on more than one occasion, despite him probably knowing that they were long-lost siblings all along. So I guess I should expect this kind of thing these movies, anyway.

But still, I’m rather bugged by the Reylo kiss. Because not only was it completely pointless, what with Ben dying right afterwards and Rey never seeming to give another thought to him again (so it’s not as if they were implying that this was meant to be a tragic love story with Rey ending up alone), they also deliberately bated us Finrey shippers, too. Yeah, remember the bit with Finn stating that there was something he’d been wanting to tell Rey? Well, apart from a few additional moments with Poe grilling Finn over what it was he wanted to tell her and never getting an answer, that doesn’t go anywhere. For crying out loud, they couldn’t even give us Stormpilot (the ship name for Finn and Poe). Which stinks, as Oscar Isaac repeatedly said that he was completely on board with having a romance between the two. But Disney apparently wasn’t willing to do that, as they wanted this film to do well in countries where same-sex couples are virtually outlawed in media. So of course they couldn’t let a main character be involved in a same-sex relationship. Instead, they simply had two random female Resistance members kissing in the background while everyone was celebrating the Victory at Exegol in an obvious attempt at ensuring they could claim LGBT representation while making it easy for anti-LGBT countries to censor it out. Of course, this is just an indication of how far we still have to go. Still, I admit that these were just my thoughts on the matter. Other moviegoers might have a completely different opinion on the matter.

Personal disappointments aside, Palpatine is gone for good now, and his Star Destroyer fleet has been destroyed. Which means it’s the end of the First Order and everything that remained of the Imperial Empire. So celebrations erupt throughout the galaxy. During the montage that follows, we even get a brief glimpse of the Forest Moon of Endor, where two Ewoks look down over one of the downed Star Destroyers. End credits confirm this was a full-grown Wicket and his son. Which was a nice touch, I must say.

As for our main heroes, Finn, Poe and Rey are reunited on Ajan Kloss, where they have a big group hug. Chewbacca is approached by Maz Kanata, who gives him the metal that Han was given at the end of A New Hope, stating that he’s more than earned it. (Yay for Chewbacca finally getting the credit he deserves!) But we also get a rather confusing moment. There’s a short scene where we see Lando sitting next to Jannah, with him asking her where she’s from. When Jannah states she doesn’t know, Lando smiles and offers to help her find out. Really, was there a point to that brief conversation? Were they suggesting that there was a possible romance between the two? Are we supposed to suspect that Jannah is Lando’s long-lost daughter? If it’s the latter, then that was really random. Especially since there was nothing to really base that assumption on. Other than the fact that they’re both Black. But you could have just as easily have said Finn was Lando’s son with that logic. Maybe there’ll be a deleted scene to further explain what that was about. I guess time will tell.

Also, was it just me, or was Finn supposed to have been showing signs of being Force Sensitive in this movie? Because I was kinda getting that vibe at select points in this film, but it was never made very clear. And oh, yeah. 3PO’s memory was restored by R2, as the Astromech Droid happened to have a backup of 3PO’s memory stored on his harddrive or something. Which seemed like a bit of a cop-out, as it really negated the weight of 3PO’s personal sacrifice, which was quite possibly the first time he really served a purpose beyond comedy relief. (Although, does this mean that 3PO also regained his memories of everything that happened in the Prequel Trilogy? Hmmm.)

Finally, we reach the movie’s epilogue scene. An undetermined amount of time after the Victory at Exegol, Rey travels to Tatoointe with BB-8 at her side. Together, they make their way to what once was the home of Owen and Beru Lars, which I guess has been sitting abandoned since their deaths. (Did nobody ever come forward to claim the place? Granted I don’t know much about land ownership and whatnot on Tatooine, but wasn’t it implied that Luke sold the place before he left the planet with Obi-Wan way back when?) Upon reaching the place where it all began, Rey takes out the Skywalker Lightsaber and Leia’s Lightsaber, burying them in the sand outside the Lars Homestead. (Insert obvious joke about how Anakin would feel about his old lightsaber being buried in the sand.) Rey then reveals to the audience that she managed to construct a lightsaber of her very own, which has a yellow blade. Needless to say, if it turns out that the sales of yellow Kyber crystals over at Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge skyrocketed after this movie, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

At that moment, Rey is approached by a resident of Tatooine, who voices her surprise at seeing Rey there. Because it’s been a very long time since she’d seen anyone near the abandoned homestead. She asks Rey for her name. Rey, after a brief pause in which she looks over at the spirits of Luke and Leia watching over her, identifies herself as Rey Skywalker, in honor of the Skywalker twins who helped her become a Jedi. She and BB-8 then look out into the distance, where the iconic twin suns of Tatooine are setting. Because it’s fitting that the story ends on that shot.

So, is Rey going to live on Tatooine now? Will she open up a Jedi training school there? Is BB-8 going to stay with Rey from now on? Is Poe okay with that? Also, what became of that little boy from The Last Jedi? Temeri, wasn’t it? It was heavily implied that he was Force Sensitive, but we didn’t even see him make a brief cameo in this final chapter. Yeah, clearly I still have a lot of questions that I’ll probably never get answers to. But despite that, I really felt that this was a decent send-off to the saga of Star Wars Trilogies. Obviously, there’s going to be a lot more material pertaining to the Star Wars universe. Not only do we have The Mandalorian, which has clearly taken the world by storm, but I’ve heard rumors for a while now that Ewan McGregor plans to reprise his role as Young Obi-Wan in another series at some point. And I’m sure they’ll come out with more of those anthology movies that brought us Rouge One and Solo. But unless something changes in the future, this is supposed to be the final instalment of the classic Star Wars trilogies. And all things considered, it was a good place to end it.

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#star wars #star wars episode 9 #star wars: the rise of skywalker #star wars review #star wars franchise

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cheion-writes · 6 years ago

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Post-Heartbreak fanfic, n!Ortega POV

Because I feel guilty for sending @depressed-sock an angsty ask, I have decided to hop onto the angst bandwagon as well so we can all cry together.

Very small spoiler for Fallen Hero: Retribution (at least I think it’s a spoiler? The prompt is a kind-of spoiler, the story is not).

One more thing: I’m open to writing prompts for Fallen Hero so feel free to send me any ideas you have :) And if you haven't yet, do check out @fallenhero-rebirth. The story and characters are amazing!

Self-prompt: The cup Sidestep gave Ortega is no longer at the Ranger’s base. What happened to it?

Hints of n!Sidestep/n!Ortega. Set a few weeks after Heartbreak, with second perspective Ortega.

You thought that returning to the Ranger’s base was a good idea, but it turns out to be the worst decision you’ve ever made. Everywhere you look, you see them. Everywhere you look, you’re reminded of your failure.

You see them leaning against the wall, their classic frown on their face. You see them staring into the fridge, scowling as they grumble about how you always eat all the food. You see them glaring at you, complaining that you take things too lightly as the both of you spar. You hear their snippy voice calling you ‘Idiot’, making the intended insult sound more like a fond nickname in a way only they could.

You shake your head to clear the memories, and reach for the Cup they'd given you to make yourself some coffee.

A part of you wants to blame what happens after on your exhaustion, fate, or even Chen— but in the end, you know you can only blame yourself.

“Ortega?” Chen’s voice cuts into your thoughts suddenly.

As distracted as you are, you accidentally scald yourself as the hot coffee pours over your hand. Your fingers release their grip involuntarily, and you watch as if in slow-motion as the Cup falls and shatters onto the ground. The puddle of spilt coffee grows and licks your feet, but you only have eyes for the fractured ceramic strewn all around.

The Cup is broken.

Broken, just like how Sidestep’s body would have been when it hit the ground.

You fight the urge to throw up.

“I’m…sorry,” Chen says softly. “I didn’t mean…” his voice trails off as he searches for the right words to say. He knows how much the Cup means to you.

“It’s fine, Wei,” you hear yourself reply as you take a cloth to wipe up the coffee. You see him hesitate in the doorway, and you know he is fighting an internal battle whether to come to you, or to leave you to your thoughts.

You are relieved when he chooses the latter.

When he vanishes from your line of sight, you exhale deeply as you stare at the ceramic fragments that litter the ground. Gingerly, you reach out with a shaking hand. As your fingers brush the broken ceramic, an unbidden memory assaults you, and you can hear their voice again as clear as day, as if their consciousness had somehow manifested itself in the broken pieces that lie scattered before you.

..........

“Wow…isn’t this the ‘limited-edition lightning-blue Ortega-inspired cup’ that was sold out everywhere hours after it came out? Where’d you get it?”

“I queued for it and bought it. Obviously.”

“May I ask why?”

“…because you needed a cup?”

“And you actually took the trouble to get this? I... don’t know what to say. Thank you, Sidestep. I’m really touched.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

“See, I knew Steel was so wrong about you. You really do care. I can’t wait to see his face when I tell-”

“Breathe one word about this to him— or anyone— and I’ll punch you in the face so hard you can’t use that cup even if you want to.”

..........

The memory, so simple and yet so ordinary, hits you hard. The tears are flowing now, silently at first like hot beads of glass, but they soon transform into shudders and sobs that wrack your form. You feel your fingers close around the ceramic, their jagged edges digging into your palm, but you can’t bring yourself to care.

In the hours to come, you will pull yourself together. You will sweep the broken pieces up and store them in a bag. You will bring it out to the dumpster, but hesitate before you discard it all. Then, you will turn around and take it home instead, where you will spend hours using superglue to meld it back together. It takes a painstakingly long time, but when the deed is done, the Cup lives once more.

In the years to come, you will keep it in your home where it remains closest to you, in the safest place it can be. Because while Sidestep never really was a part of the Ranger’s world, they are— and will always be— a part of yours.

#fallen hero: rebirth #fanfiction #angst #my writing #sidestep #ortega #heartbreak

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sieben9 · 7 years ago

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“lily” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

::sigh:: Show. Show, why do we have to do this again? It's been two episodes, show, and you just keep digging.

OK, I will not be commenting further on the cliffhanger in this post. I may write up a separate thing if necessary, but I'll just assume that everyone with an intact human soul agrees that this is a horrible turn of events, and the fact that it was used as a shock-cliffhanger the height of tastelessness. Everyone else is welcome to keep that opinion away from my blog, thank you very much.

have some sparkles in celebration

And now that I'm done with being cranky for this post... on to the good bits! Under the cut, obviously.

First things first... the Plot Wolf is back!

i missed you, buddy

And it's got it out for Emma's bug again, too. I really liked the Lily-part of the episode (and aptly named it was)--though I'm not 100% sure if Emma isn't giving herself too much credit when she says that she "ruined Lily's life". Like... your parents did that. Alternatively, she did that herself. You did little except stand beside her when you could and avoid her after she hurt you. Twice.

also someone will have to explain to me again how this ISN'T meant as a tragic love story. because it so is one.

It feels like the episode was trying to show more of what additional "darkness" can do to a person. I'm not 100% sure how well it worked, but it was definitely interesting to see. Also makes me speculate about future events this season. Currently, I have the following three corner stones: 1) Emma has very little intrinsic darkness. 2) Everyone keeps insisting that it's absolutely impossible to transfer the extra darkness back out of Lily (sorry, show, if you want me to take your "that's impossible!"s seriously, maybe you shouldn't keep breaking them left, right and centre) and 3) ...we do have another person with quite a lot of "excess darkness" running around, don't we?

I have no idea how to combine those pieces, but they sure look like they all belong to the same puzzle. Maybe I need a corner. Or a bit of sky at the top.

Speaking of Emma and darkness...

Yeah. That was... uhm... intense is a word.

Apropos of nothing, someone should have a word with the casting people to find out what happened there. Because while they are usually phenomenal and magical and all good things, adult Lily does so not look like her younger self. (Different ethnicity, for one thing... EDIT: I was told the show runner apologised for that one, admitting he’d made a mistake with the casting)

Back to the almost-murder... I have to say, I am not a huge fan of the way the writing muddles the water with all that "oooh, the Dark Side is calling~" stuff, because "people keep trying to kill Emma and those she loves and now she (semi-accidentally) murdered someone and didn't have any time to deal with that" seems like a pretty solid reason why she would snap and almost shoot Lily. After all, that's one less threat to her family, isn't it?

That said, I loved, loved, loved the way Regina talked her down. Desperate and slightly out of her depth, because it's a hell of a thing to go "don't kill this defenseless woman" when you have quite a lot of innocent lives on your own conscience. I loved how she opened up to Emma, how she basically said "don't go there, I did and it sucked, and I'm still trying to find my way back". It was pretty much the moment I didn't want to hope for too loudly, in case I might jinx it. (And, without wanting to Start Stuff, it also occurred to me that this is the much better-written version of that barn scene in season 3.)

note to all writers out there: reaction scenes are important!

Also, apart from all the drama, I'll just ... leave this here.

the name of this file was “GAYROADTRIP.png”, by the way

Very noble of Regina to help Emma find her old flame, but then again, Emma did agree to help her find Robin and make sure he's safe. Quid pro quo, I guess.

And speaking of my ships...

::inarticulate flailing:: FINALLY! A decent subplot that doesn't leave me with an intense wish to rip out my heart and bury it in the woods. (Terrible allusions fully intended) Just... yes. Thank you, Rumple, for finally getting your shit together. Only took Belle being in mortal danger for that one. (Then again, considering that he's literally running on the fumes of his own human decency, that's still pretty darn impressive) And while I'm still of the opinion that Will really didn't need to be in this season, I am very glad that Rumple went to him for this, because there isn't much that could send a clearer message of "this isn't about either of us, this is about Belle". ::happy sigh::

And the whole scene where he gave her back her heart? Yeah, please imagine more inarticulate happy-wailing. Also, I'll just leave this here...

yup. totally over him.

I am more than a little worried about the next episode, because, frankly, I am in no mood to tolerate certain characters for any extended amount of time, but it looks like that one is on the agenda. Let's see how it goes.

#ouat #once upon a time #lily #sieben watches ouat #does it still count as #anti zelena #if i never mention her name?#also #ouat writing critical #veeeeeery mildly except for that first bit #i liked this episode a lot #and not just because of all the gay #(mind you that bit didn't hurt)#sieben talks

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drizzitwrites · 6 years ago

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Football RPF Challenge: Day 4 - Arguing

Today's prompt is arguing, which is good because in this fic I've been trying to get done since July I have to write a lot of scenes where there's an undercurrent of tension between Christian and Vincent which eventually culminates into a pretty serious argument. I've never really written them so much as disagreeing let alone actually angry at one another, so this fic has been a challenge for me to complete because I think I'm worried it will either not come off strong enough OR it will come to a head too early OR it will be over-the-top and completely overblown, so I've been creeping along in fear that I'll somehow not execute it the way I want to.

That's ridiculous, of course, because as long as I write it out it can be as overblown (or underwhelming, I suppose) as it wants to be and I can edit it when I'm done to give it the right resonance. It's a pretty important argument and this fic is sort of a turning-point/lynch pin in their relationship and how things will be in the future, so I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to get it exactly right on the first try, which is honestly just a recipe for never actually finishing anything.

So...I'm going to write the scene out here and let it progress how it progresses and do my best to not worry about how it's coming off and trust that I can fix it later. We'll see how that goes. Wish me luck, I suppose.

Also...SPOILER ALERT! There is no way I can write this scene without giving away A LOT of what happens in this fic I'm writing (which will hopefully be out sometime this year still) so if you don't want to spoil that fic and read what will essentially be the turning point and climax of that entire work (and everything that I've set up so far) then probably don't read this since I'm not planning on holding anything back.

Also...I’ve been working on this for three hours now and the end of it keeps not going where I want it to go, so I’m admitting surrender for now and I’ll leave it where it is and fix it sometime later. So...I didn’t get to the MAJOR blowout part of the argument and probably this still needs context even within the scene, but it’s what I’ve got for today.

Laaten we gaan...

"I'm off to bed," Christian said, sticking his head around the corner into his spare room where Vincent was still curled on his sofa, laptop open and resting on his thighs.

Vincent shifted, angling the screen away from the door so Christian wouldn't accidentally catch a glimpse of what he was doing.

"I'll...sleep in here again if you don't mind," he responded, not lifting his gaze from the screen.

Christian said nothing, still lingering in the doorway, and it was all Vincent could do to not look up and meet his eyes.

Maybe he should give in. Ask Christian if they could somehow rewind the past two days and start over. Vincent still had no idea what he'd done to prompt Christian into keeping his distance and pushing Vincent away, but if Christian wasn't ready to give him more than short answers and vague gestures on top of his pointed looks and intentionally hurtful words, then why should Vincent try?

He'd been trying for two days, and all he seemed to be doing was making things worse somehow.

Christian stayed there for long moments, and Vincent swore he could feel his eyes boring holes into the top of his head, but he held his ground. If Christian could be stubborn and hurtful then Vincent could too. It was childish, he knew, and, honestly, he was a grown adult, but he had no idea what to do any more and the most Christian had given him to go on was a heavily implied "I wish I hadn't come back to London." Sadly, at this point Vincent couldn't say he didn't feel the same.

If Christian wanted a holiday, a break from London and Vincent--wanted to hide himself away somewhere else while Vincent bounced around Christian's too big house waiting for someone else to decide where his life would go from here--well, Vincent couldn't say he understood, but...

Without warning, Christian shifted around the doorway in a soft rustle of fabric and the swish of socks against the bare floorboards, then dropped down onto the sofa. He still kept a careful distance, lingering closer to the side nearest the door than the side Vincent was curled into, but it was the closest he'd voluntarily gotten to Vincent for at least a day, which was something, Vincent supposed.

Still, he said nothing.

And if he was waiting for Vincent to speak, well...what was there to say, really.

Silence. Threatening to fill up the space and crush them beneath its weight and Vincent couldn't stand it any longer.

"Maybe you're right," he said.

Christian spoke at the same time, his voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry for earlier."

Vincent jerked his head up from the screen.

Christian was tucked in tightly to the opposite corner of the sofa, his shoulders narrow, his entire body curled into itself. He wasn't looking at Vincent, instead focusing on the sofa cushion's worth of space between them.

"You're...oh," Vincent said. "That's...oh."

He could have let everything go with that--nodded and accepted Christian's apology just like that. Maybe that was all it would take for them to move forward and forget whatever had been driving a rift between them ever since Christian had arrived back in London. Then again, maybe it would just be more days or weeks or even months if the club dragged their feet in the transfer window and for whatever reason Christian would just keep pulling farther and farther away until Vincent decided to look for somewhere else to stay until he could be on his way across the world once more.

Or, maybe, if he opened up the distance between them on his own terms he and Christian would at least go back to the way they were before all of this started. It wasn't what Vincent wanted, of course, but he'd rather be able to call Christian a friend rather than...whatever this was. A former teammate who he'd fallen out of touch with once he left the club. Someone he used to know way back in a different lifetime.

"I've been thinking," he said, shifting around on the sofa to angle his screen towards Christian, although still careful to keep his distance. Christian was still drawn and tight like a nervous cat ready to flee at the slightest movement, and Vincent didn't want to scare him away before he could pitch his idea.

Christian didn't speak, but he did at least raise his eyes to look towards Vincent and slide the tiniest bit closer to his side of the sofa.

Vincent slid his computer off his lap, thankful immediately for the loss of heat and the feel of seemingly cooler air rushing over his skin. He set it on the sofa and nudged it towards Christian, motioning for him to take it.

He flicked a questioning look at Vincent, but pulled the laptop towards him and moved another few centimetres towards Vincent.

"What is...?" Christian asked, staring down at the screen and clicking through the multitude of open browser tabs before once again turning questioning eyes to Vincent.

"You wanted a holiday," Vincent said. "So...I don't know. I thought of some places you might like to go and I thought I'd look into them for you. I didn't know if you'd do it on your own and I thought..."

Questioning eyes now narrowed, Christian slid back away from Vincent, shoving at the laptop and nearly sending it toppling off the edge of the sofa. Vincent only just managed to hook his hand under it in time to save it from crashing to the floor.

"What?" Vincent asked, and the word came out harsher than he'd intended, filled with forty-eight hours of tiptoeing around and holding himself in check and wondering exactly what the hell he'd done that made Christian resent his very presence from the moment he'd stepped through the door.

Christian had invited Vincent into his home. He'd given him a space in his life physically as well as emotionally and the second Vincent turned up to claim that space, Christian had begun shoving him out of it.

"What do you want from me, Christian? Honestly? Tell me what you want and I'll do it, I just...I don't know what to do. I've spent days now trying to make you happy and nothing I've tried has done that and I don't know what else there is so please just tell me and I will do it because right now I just do not know."

He dropped his forehead and rested it against his closed fist, his elbow propped up on the arm of the sofa. His face burned hot and the corners of his eyes stung. Blood pounded in his temples and he could feel a headache threatening to linger at the corners. He forced himself to close his eyes and relax his jaw and at least try to breathe.

Christian, of course, said nothing.

Vincent didn't know why he'd expected anything different.

He concentrated on his breath, doing his best to ignore the fact that Christian sat a metre away staring over at him after he'd finally let out a fraction of the thoughts that had been spiraling around in his mind all weekend and had nothing to say in response.

Breathing under control, heartbeat slowed to a dull thud instead of a roaring in his ears, he shifted around to wipe discreetly at the corners of his eyes and sat up.

Deep breath in, hold it, and let it out slowly.

Once more.

Then again.

On the final out breath, he turned back towards Christian.

"I don't...know what to say. I was thinking about what you said earlier. To Ben. About taking a trip. And I thought maybe that might be good. If you went away somewhere and you could relax and regroup before the season."

"Why would you think that?" Christian asked, his voice measured and flat, that carefully controlled tone he used when he didn't want anyone to know he actually had emotions.

Vincent shook his head. "Maybe because you've clearly been unhappy ever since you arrived home. I don't know why. I thought it was just that I sort of sprung a surprise party on you and you were tired but then today at Ben's...it just seemed like you wanted to be anywhere but here."

Christian huffed out a sharp breath of laughter. "So you thought the solution was, what...to plan me a surprise holiday? Sure, Vincent, that's clearly the solution here."

"Well...you're not exactly being clear on what the solution is, so..."

"There's no solution, Vincent. I told you, it's fine." Christian shrugged before looking away from Vincent once more, eyes now focused on the floorboards at his feet, a telltale sign that he was pulling back and closing up once more--stuffing his emotions back down into the box of repression he stored them in.

Other people might fall for that act, and on another day Vincent might have let it go--shaken it off and let things go and taken whatever Christian was willing to give. If Christian was willing to pretend everything was fine, then Vincent would pretend right along side him and they could go on forever and ever never talking about anything important.

"Sure, Christian," Vincent said. "Clearly everything is fine and no one is having any feelings."

"Flikker op," Christian said, shaking his head and shoving off the sofa. "You sound like Toby. And I don't mean that in a good way."

"Is there a good way to mean that?" Vincent said under his breath. He must not have been as quiet about it as he'd thought he was because Christian spun around to face him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Oh. I see. Who's keeping things from people now?" Christian asked.

"I was trying to help," Vincent said, holding both hands up in front of his face in a gesture of resigned surrender. "You won't actually speak with me about things so I have to go off of what I can hear from other people. You told Ben you'd think about a holiday, so I thought--"

"You thought you'd just plan me a trip to Amsterdam so I can reunite with my ex? We can shop for a flat together and pick out furnishings and do all those things we never got to do the first time around in our relationship. Hey Daley, now that I don't utterly loathe you anymore, why don't we give this another try?"

"No. I just...you said you wanted to go, so...if that's what you want."

"Is it what you want?"

"Since when does anyone care about what I want?"

They both went silent at that, neither of them daring to move, Vincent's words hanging heavy in the air between them. They stared at one another, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Christian spoke first, his voice back to measured, controlled calm. "What do you want, Vincent?"

And there it was. Serves you right, Vinny. You set yourself up to get asked an impossible question that you don't have an answer for.

What did he want?

#football rpf #football rpf challenge #30-day challenge #30-day writing challenge #christian eriksen x vincent janssen #writing #november writing #drizzit writes #thoughts on writing and life

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spotlightsaga · 7 years ago

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Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews… GLOW (S01E07) Live Studio Audience Airdate: June 23, 2017 Ratings: @netflix original/Privatized Ratings Score: 9.5/10 TVTime/FB/Twitter/Tumblr/Path: @SpotlightSaga

**********SPOILERS BELOW**********

The greatest thing about pro-wrestling is that it’s literally a live show, anything can go wrong (or horribly right). Even shows like NXT, Lucha Underground, ROH, PWG specials, shows that are filmed, then edited, then sent out as a television series or a digital copy (since DVD’s & even BluRays are becoming obsolete) can go way off script. When improvisation is introduced into the wrestling show, that’s when the magic begins. Recently a troll on FB attacked one of our articles on A&E’s ‘60 Days In’. After a well pieced together article that covered what we thought were 'producer pushed situations’ vs what was occurring naturally in the series (it’s kinda hard to fake an entire REAL jail, considering they need the space), he simply skipped over everything I had written from the heart and wrote one little line, “You know this is fake, right?” He clearly didn’t read it. After my retort, he brought up pro-wrestling… Ah, he done did it now! Any tried & true fan of professional wrestling will defend their sport or 'Sports Entertainment’ (whatever you want to call it) to the death. Of course everything is planned in advance; the moves, the winners, the storylines… But it’s the pageantry, the training, the real risk of physical injury, the freedom that some wrestlers have in their promos, and an array of other variables, that make pro-wrestling so damn great and have seen it survive for well over a century.

'Live Studio Audience’ captures all of that AND MORE. As a matter of fact, we want to go ahead and nominate this very episode as one of the best of the year for a 30 Minute Comedy or Drama. We get it all… The thrill and excitement of the very first GLOW Live Show ever, the anxiety & stage fright that comes with it as we see Machu Picchu (Britney Young) run for the hills without even getting inside the 20x20, a overworked and panicked Bash (Chris Lowell) abandoning the possible financial future of the show to console Carmen in her 'emotional distress’, two women taking a chance - Cherry Bang (Sydelle Noel) & Tammé the Welfare Queen (Kia Stevens) instinctively changing the direction & storyline of their match without anyone else aware of their scheme besides the newly 'white sheet wearing’, transformed 'Beatdown Biddies’, Stacey (Kimmy Gatewood) & Dawn (Rebekka Johnson) - who’s main concern is if Bill Cosby will be mad at them… Literally changing the match from the uber-cliché, women of color beating up on the elderly to two bad ass, strong Black Queens taking on two racist KKK members, signifying the ongoing battle of racism in the United States! The latter had to be one of the best, most outrageous scenes of GLOW to date. And like Sam said, 'I guess you’re never too young to know about this country’s racial history’.

Sam (Marc Maron) was apprehensive of Cherry & Tammé’s surprise changes at first… But by the end of the match he had gained confidence in the women after hearing the crowd of 30 or so erupt into roars the likes of a full house in the broken down gym would sound like. He even hilariously referred to them as 'The Black Panthers’ in what was ironically riveting commentary. All of it accompanied by the same solemn keyboard tune for the entire show thanks to Sheila the She-Wolf (Gayle Rankin), as it was the only song she knew. Suddenly a show that was hitting every pitfall and taking every wrong turn was lighting up all the faces of the rather 'eclectic’ crowd that had turned up for GLOW’s free show. Suddenly everyone from Sam to all the women in the locker room knew that this crazy idea, one that felt like it would never work, could and WOULD come together. They could actually succeed at what they had set out to do!

By 'Main Event’ time, the crowd was literally eating out of the amateurish palm of GLOW’s outstretched hand. The electricity and excitement running through the building that connected the women with their audience was not only palpable, it can literally be seen worn on the faces and demeanor of everyone in the building. Even all of us at home could feel the tv radiating with the GLOW! Truly!!! It all came down to Liberty Belle, the 100% 'sweet as American Apple Pie’, confident and poised symbol of the 'American Way’, Miss Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin) vs 'Zoya The Destroya’, the 'Dirty Russian’, who wants to drain your swimming pools and fill them with Borscht, 'Accidental Homewrecker’, Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie). And yes, if any of you are wondering, I totally said that last line out loud as I wrote it in my best Russian 'Zoya The Destroya’ voice. I can’t help but ponder if Alison Brie was inspired by not only the real GLOW Girl she is portraying, Colonel Ninotchka (Lori Palmer), but also WWE’s own modern version, Lana (CJ Perry)… And that just maybe, Lana is inspired by Palmer herself! It fits, that’s for sure… Even on the heels of Rusev, The Bulgarian Brute.

The match is going well, unexpectedly well. Unbeknownst to the other women, Carmen had taken Ruth & Debbie to visit her brothers… Big Kurt (Carlos Colon Jr aka WWE’s Carlito) & Mighty Tom Jackson (George Murdoch aka WWE’s Brodus Clay, TNA’s Tyrus, and even a part-time, humorous, FOX News anchor). The two headlining women had gone to the brothers for help. They wanted to dazzle the crowd and give them more than just basic moves and the great wrestling tradition of Heel vs Babyface, Good vs Evil… They wanted a match that would elevate both GLOW as a show and themselves as performers. After some hilarious misfires, they were ready… And they ran that ring just like they had intended to, just like they had practiced so hard for. Unfortunately, just as 'the unexpected’ can elevate a wrestling program, it can also add unwanted chaos and ruin. Suddenly, Debbie’s soon to be ex-husband and Ruth’s casual, shameful partner in a secret affair, Mark (Rich Sommer) peaked his head out of the crowd and into Debbie’s field of vision. Debbie freezes and runs off into the back to allow Mark to browbeat her while she misses one of the biggest and best opportunities of her career. Obviously, there’s going to be more for Debbie, but this is going to hurt. Dump the douche already, Debbie!

In an attempt to save the main event, or at least stall until Debbie possibly made her triumphant return (which she never did), Ruth continued on in character yelling out hilarious, typical Russian stereotypes at the audience, who actually ate it up for awhile. As it was bound to happen, the audience started to turn on Ruth. They rightfully wanted a big finish to the show that had unexpectedly turned them from bored passerby’s that were sucked into the building in promise of a free show, to GLOW’s first diverse group of fans. Rhonda (Kate Nash) saw her moment to shine. She had been practicing a 'GLOW Rap’ with Sam’s stolen camera that a jealous, vindictive (yet somehow still relatable and sympathetic), Justine (Britt Baron) had stuffed in her locker in an attempt to set her up and get her fired, all for sleeping with the boss. Rhonda climbed in the ring and started to do GLOW’s now infamous pre-show rap that they were notorious for on their real life tv show. First Ruth followed suit, then the rest of the women stormed the ring and joined in… And GLOW was officially born!

I know I’ve taken a lot of your time and should probably end there, but it’s important for me to give credit where credit is due. Not only did Director Jesse Peretz (thank you so much for HBO’s 'Divorce’, Jesse, and btw 'Our Idiot Brother’ is criminally underrated), but 'new-to-the-game’ writer Rachel Shukert was flawless in her writing, dialogue, and scene transitions… You too, Emma Rathbone! Also, this episode was dedicated to the memory of Chavo Guerrero Sr, the father of Armando Guerrero, the man who trained the wrestlers of the original GLOW as well as the world famous Chavo Guerrero Jr, who trained all the actresses of the series… Except for Kia Stevens, y'all. You think WWE’s Kharma or Independent Scene & TNA Knockout Wrestler 'Awesome Kong’ needed training by the great Chavo Guerrero Jr?! Psssh, that woman is talent personified! Thank you, Liz Flahive & Carly Mensch, on behalf of Spotlight Saga and the French-born, now worldwide, burgeoning community of TVTime.com, we LOVE GLOW!

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term3itmedia · 6 years ago

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Complications and Additions - Week 23/30

Boy, it has been an exhausting week. So much so that I start to wonder if this is even going to get finished. Luckily though, it will be if I play my cards absolutely right.

What I did during the week was making assets in Cinema 4D and then importing them into Unity with their intended behaviour.

What you’re looking at in the picture above is the start of an asset crucial to map design, Stairs.

If you don’t know what stairs are... you need to get out of your house. They are a structure that is used to cross a vertical distance, such as from the bottom floor of a house to a higher one, or to an extremely high area unreachable by other means.

In video games, stairs are often seen in buildings and some outside map design which is used to get from one level to another. If you’re a game designer, they are very easy to forget about them if your game mainly involves not being able to jump.

In my game, they play a primary role in a tower, to get the player up to a higher level.

Here is a later picture I have taken of said stairs. I have added more treads (which is the part that you step on), as well as a handrail. The handrail is the part that people (who have trouble going up stairs) use for support. If you press too hard on them, you will start to slide, so be careful.

Stairways are often seen with two handrails, but if one is situated against a wall, there may only be one on the opposite side.

At the top of the stairway, I have added two connecting ends that make it look like two stairways are joined together on either end. If you are lost, see this picture:

In this picture, you can see that the stairway turns in a different direction halfway up, but is made safe with a barrier on the right side. At the very top, barrier are put all around the edges of the upper layer, making it difficult to accidentally fall off and cause injury.

And to make my stairs more futuristic (even though some stairway designs have this trait already), I have put glass into them with a slit halfway up.

So I did a Stairs asset for my game. What next?

Reactor asset

This is the base of the reactor design, which comprises of two pancake-flat and a super thin cylinder.

For those who don’t know, reactors are mechanical devices that control and contain reactions. I’ll explore them a bit more in a later post.

At one side of my reactor, I put a stand. This stand is what will harness energy in the game. In the second picture, you can see what I call “the energy absorber”, which will power everything else. In the third picture, I’ve added a bit more realism to the stand by giving it supports. I’ve also added one near the top as well to prevent the entire thing from collapsing.

And so, with a copy-paste and 180-degree turn, we have this. Why have I chosen to make my reactor like this? Because when I looked at images, they were complicated and I didn’t want to invest the time in making one. So I decided to give with my imagination and make one completely from scratch.

And I wanted to test how well an Energy Cube (the main no-no in the game) would fit. I put it in, did a 360-degree turn with it and I’m happy with the results.

Now we have stairs and a reactor. Are we done? Not yet.

This next asset was tricky to come up with a design for, so I took to Google Images and gathered info from there. Six out of the eight images show the right kind of turret I was looking for. I wasn’t going to have a castle in my game, so that wasn’t going to work. And so I began work on my mechanical turret:

Following my memory of what a defensive turret looks like (because I have played a game involving them, cannot remember which), I have started off with a lot of cylinders to make a base for it.

Then I added two long cannons on the end by using two cuboids and a very thin tube. It’s not the best look, but I’m quite happy with the result.

So now I have 3 different assets made in one day. BUT we’re not done yet!

The fourth and possibly most tricky of them all was a sniper rifle. I actually had to “trace” this since the design is too complex for me to learn from memory. I put quotations marks on ‘trace’ because this is a 3D asset. 3D objects cannot be traced, but it is possible to get close if you know most of the real object very well. Since I have never seen a sniper rifle, I had to trace it.

At this point, I have spent over an hour on it. The tracing was merely made out of cubes, which I could then turn into cylinders and other shapes later on.

Because it would take too long to make enough detail, and due to the fact you won’t be able to see the back end of the gun in-game anyway, I stuck with what I had.

FOUR assets in only one day. At this point, I needed a rest. So I wrote lore (backstories) for the game.

SPOILER ALERT

This lore all comes from imagination and is written in a way to give a sense of life to the game. If you have played a game that doesn’t include any backstories, chances are that game didn’t sell/do well.

Below the lore, I wrote down a bullet point list of what ideas I could put into the game, such as litter or maybe even radiation particles. These are just ideas though, I have yet to decide on whether I want them in my game or not.

It continued on Tuesday, so I don’t have to explain that.

On Wednesday, I sprung into action. What you’re seeing here is software known as Adobe Audition, which is an audio editing program. I used it to cut an audio clip short that will be suitable for looping. For now, this is a placeholder sound effect to get me used to how the Unity sound system works. If you’re curious, this is what the sound is:

youtube

I might go to Freesound for a sound effect in the near future, but for now, this stays.

OK, time for me to announce the name of the game: Chaos Uprising - The Last Stand. I chose this name because I couldn’t think of a better one, and it ties in with the gameplay aspect.

What you see in the picture above is a list of different details for each object. The first column is the object name, the second column is how many hitpoints it has (I will look at hitpoints/HP in another post), the third column is where it will be located, the fourth column determines if it can be damaged (yes highlighted in green and no highlighted in red, conditional highlighted in cream (I was lazy, OK?)), the fifth column determines if it can be destroyed (damage doesn’t matter in this case) and the sixth column is how much damage it deals to the player in the game.

In the game, I was adding in the stuff I had made earlier in the week using Cinema 4D. What you see in the picture above is a giant red disc. This disc is actually meant to be inside the scope of a sniper rifle. However, after doing this and willing to implement the other objects accordingly, I had problems. I don’t have any screenshots of the process, so bear with me while I try to explain in words.

In the game, there will be an option where you can choose the gun you want to use. Making this actually work correctly was a NIGHTMARE. I have added in the gun to layer on top of what was the placeholder gun (which has been kept for selection purposes and good use), and then I went into the script that handles the guns.

Following that, I have written code into the script that allowed the player to switch weapons. When I went to test it, the code did work, but not in the way I intended. What happened was that after I pressed the hotkey that makes it happen, the gun just disappeared and could never be seen again. The other gun didn’t even show up.

I went back to the script and wrote another method that involves the usage of other assets and scripts, but this time, BOTH guns could be seen and not switched. At this point, I’m pulling my hair out a little, and it has been one hour.

For 50 minutes after that, I was trying to get some help via the Internet and tutors, but nothing was successful, even the expert tutorials.

But then, I have realised. What the script does is that when the gun disappears, the other one doesn’t appear since the object isn’t active for long enough to tell it to be visible, hence the endless onslaught of headbanging fury.

So I took to a different asset that was visible all the time and ran some tests with the same script methods. After over two hours and losing count of the amount of times I wanted to cease the project entirely, it FINALLY worked. The guns were swapping perfectly. I followed my victory by loudly shouting “YES!” and having some time out to calm myself down. All I’m doing now is praying that I NEVER have to deal with a problem like that ever again.

From what you can tell, I have been working my hair out. These coming weeks will have a lot of energy sucked out of me faster than a vacuum cleaner sucks up a speck of dust.

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incurableweeabootrash · 8 years ago

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Top 10 Anime That Doesn’t Shamelessly Sexualise Women With Fanservice

The most awkward and annoying thing about anime is that little thing known as ‘fanservice’, moreso fanservice that creeps it’s way into shows otherwise focused on other things. It’s what I like to call ‘doing a Game of Thrones’.

In my experience there are honestly quite a few shows that actually have confidence in their own writing, and don’t feel the need to add softcore erotic moments disguised as jokes in order to desperately snag viewers and make their money back. But unfortunately, the shows that do have fanservice are now the predominant preconception of anime to outsiders, and female viewers especially can be turned off by this.

I’ll admit I’ve been guilty in the past of developing a ‘fanservice filter’ for shows like Kill La Kill, where I taught myself to tune out at certain moments until the show got back to showing the things I liked about it (The fights, the crazy fun tone, the characters, the intensity, and even the story eventually. It’s not my favourite show, but I cite it as an example of me overlooking and ignoring awkward bits because there were other aspects of the show that I liked). But not everyone is willing to do that, and it really puts a barrier up to new anime watchers who understandibly just aren’t comfortable with that. So with this unfortunate blight potentially lurking in any show to a new viewer, I thought I’d make this list to make sailing these uncharted waters a little easier. I'm going by memory, so apologies if any of these shows have something in them I've forgotten about. But here’s the top 10 anime that doesn’t have panty shots, breast-orientated ‘gag’ moments, or other ‘male gaze’ unneccesary sexual content. I’m also excluding shows that had a moment that made me uncomfortable with any attempted ‘funny’ moments that crossed boundaries, e.g. Meliodas’s inability to keep his hands to himself in ‘Seven Deadly Sins’. (Needless to say, I hated that character).

In no particular order:

1. Princess Jellyfish / Kuragahime

“Instead of becoming a princess, I became a freak.”

…Yes, that title sounds a tad dumb in English. But Princess Jellyfish is great character driven show about a young woman named Tsukimi with a passion for drawing and marine wildlife, specifically jellyfish, who feels that she hasn’t really blossomed into the beautiful woman she was told she would grow up to. Living in the fashionable Tokyo district of Harajuku, Tsukimi sees people more beautiful than her everyday. But her life starts to be shaken up a little when she befriends a beautiful woman who isn’t all that they seem.

Princess Jellyfish has the advantage of being written by a woman for a grown female audience, so there’s no sexual pandering to teenage male viewers to be found at all here. It’s also only 12 episodes, although the manga continues the story further. I really do recommend it for it’s likable characters and it’s simple but effective narrative.

2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

“In order for something to be obtained, something of equal value must be lost.”

FMA:Brotherhood is the story of two brothers living with the consequences of their failed attempt to bring their mother back to life with alchemy. Seeking to gain back what they lost from that attempt, Edward and Alphonse Elric join the military as State Alchemists, becoming a tool for whatever purpose the military desires in exchange for access to their expansive library on alchemy. However, they soon discover alot more than they intended to, along with some things they never wanted to discover.

Probably one of the most popular anime out there, with an exciting and twisting plotline that carries you through to the end of it’s 62 episode run. Now, that’s admittedly a lot of episodes, but I can safely say that the story is worth it. Be warned that you actually have to skip episode 1 due it being a filler episode designed only for fans of the original 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist. Yes, really. The very first episode is a filler, and it even contains a subtle spoiler. So yeah, skip it, as well the recap episode halfway through. It’s all on Netflix btw.

One slight flaw is how it occasionally jumps into a jarring cartoony art style whenever it tries to be funny, which doesn’t really fit with the rest of the show, but it depends on your sense of humour whether this is a problem or not.

I recommend this show if you like adventure, action, a bit of fantasy, and suspense and mystery.

3. Death Note

“This world is rotten, and those who are making it rot deserve to die. Someone has to do it, so why not me?”

Another popular and well known anime within the community, Death Note is the story of an overachieving high school boy named Light (it probably sounds less pretentious if you’re not English) who discovers a notebook that will cause anyone who’s name is written in it to die. With such power in his hands, Light decides to use it to reshape the world and rid it of criminals and injustice. But what he holds in his hands is a murder weapon, and prodigal young detective L is soon on his case in the hunt to find the cause of all these mysterious new killings.

Death Note is very much a psychological thriller. In fact, there’s basically no action scenes at all in it. The tension instead comes from the cat-and-mouse battle of wits between Light and L as they constantly try to outsmart each other. But what makes it interesting is the fact that you’re following the story of a protagonists who is pretty much a serial killer, and you actually weirdly kind of root for him. This show is also all on netflix, and is 37 episodes.

EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that the character of Misa, who works as a model, could be considered as sexualised at a few certain moments, although I would say she’s in control of her own sexuality. You’re welcome to your own opinions on this. But nevertheless, it’s a show that isn’t riddled with fanservice shoved in your face.

4. Golden Time

“Accident or amnesia, you can’t rewind your life and start again. If you struggle, you’ll just hurt yourself, and the people around you.”

Due to a tragic accident, Banri Tada is struck with amnesia, dissolving the memories of his hometown and past. However, after befriending Mitsuo Yanagisawa, he decides to move on and begin a new life at law school in Tokyo. But just as he is beginning to adjust to his college life, Mitsuo’s ex-girlfriend Kouko Kaga dramatically barges into Banri’s life, and their chance meeting marks the beginning of an unforgettable year. However, the buried memories of the Banri before the accident sometimes resurface, transforming him into the person he was before with none of the memories of his current self.

Golden Time is a great mix of drama and romance, with the drama not neccesarily revolving around the romance. What I also like is that the romance isn’t just a ‘will they, won’t they?’, as it actually shows how the relationship plays out and how it copes under the pressure of Banri’s problems with amnesia. Plus it’s just another good story set in real life. It’s 24 episodes

5. Attack On Titan

“And just like that, everything changed. At that terrible moment, in our hearts, we knew. Home was a pen. Humanity, cattle.“

Living in a walled city hiding from giant strange humanoid monsters known as Titans isn’t the cushiest of lives, but the struggle and fight to survive in this show is a thrilling ride. Honestly, it has some of the best action scenes that visual media has to offer, all brilliantly directed and animated. It’s 24 episodes, though most will tell you to get to episode 5 before you write it off.

6. Madoka Magica

“Remember this… and take it to heart: kindness sometimes leads to even greater tragedy.”

I literally can’t say anything about this without spoiling it, but make sure you watch until the end of episode 4 before judging it. It’s also only 12 episodes in length. The best part about watching this show is that you can then show it to other people and grin evilly as you watch their reaction to it…

As per the theme of this list, it doesn’t have anything awkward, sexual, or immoral. All you need to know is that it’s really quite a good story, and it’s a fun cute show about magical girls. Honest!…

7. Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions

"I am the eye of the wicked lord, member number zero, Rikka Takanashi!“

An entertaining show about high schoolers who’ve watched too much anime and now think they have superpowers, and have invented characters and backstories for themselves. This phase is known as ‘chunibyo’ in Japan. Also along for the ride is our protagonist Yuuta, who’s already grown out of that phase but still finds himself roped into the ‘Far East Magical Society’.

It all starts off silly, but there is actually a bit meat to the story as it goes along. Best of all, it eventually leads to a really sweet relationship in the second season that actually shows a very good demonstration of consent. Yuuta won’t do anything his girlfriend isn’t ready for, even if it means they can’t kiss or even hold hands initially. Her delusional ‘chunibyo’ state also adds an interesting element to the relationship. Basically, I came out of this show all ‘OTP’ for them xD

Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions is 24 episodes long in total, including both seasons.

8. Ouran High School Host Club

“Listen, Senpai, I don’t really care whether you guys recognize me as a boy or a girl. In my opinion it’s more important for a person to be recognized for who they are rather than for what sex they are. “

As the only lower class student in a school for the incredibly wealthy, Haruhi has nowhere near the money to pay for the vase they accidentally breaks in the schools ‘Host Club’. (a service unique to Japan where you can basically hire time with an attractive man at a cafe and have him treat you like a lady. Yes, really.) As such, Haruhi is contracted to work off their debt at the host club and is given the job of making the female customers swoon over them. However it’s only after Haruhi is hired that the rest of the men at the host club realise that Haruhi is biologically a girl. Nevertheless, the customers don’t seem to notice.

Ouran Highschool Host Club is a fun entertaining show with great likable characters, and Haruhi is the perfect neutral foil to all the personalities in the show. It’s actually kind of funny as well, though of course humour is highly subjective. The show seems to be quite popular with female audiences, but I would say that anyone can find enjoyment from this show. This anime is 26 episodes long.

9. Wolf Children

"You might think this sounds like a fairy tale. You might even laugh at my story. You probably think that stuff like this just doesn’t happen. But everything I tell you is true. This is the story about my mother, and the wolf man she fell in love with."

An excellent film that’s great to just get lost in for the duration of it’s admittedly lengthy runtime. Wolf Children is the story of a woman raising two rather different children after a romantic encounter with a werewolf in human form. Unsure as to whether to raise these children as wolves or humans, the mother does her best to support them no matter the challenges. Honestly a really enjoyable movie. Recommended if you like Studio Ghibli.

10. Clannad

“I was only living because it was too much trouble to die. I got up in the morning, went to work, I ate dinner, and then I went to sleep at night. It’s like my body was doing it out of habit.”

Clannad is probably most well known for being most anime fans first experience with the ‘feels train’. The first season of delinquent student Tomoya’s adventures in helping out anyone he comes across in school while ditching class, and it’s all good slice of life stuff with the occasional good moments of drama. But most people will tell you that the second season, Clannad: After Story, is where it gets into the real meat of it.

Clannad is another character driven story, with drama, romance, and a slight hint of the supernatural.

And there we have it. Overall, it was an interesting challenge making this list. There are a lot more than 10 anime that fit this criteria, but I only wanted to include the ones I thought were in the top 10. The challenge came from the fact that I chose to exclude any show that had even one instance of an uncomfortable moment. By that logic, I had to exclude Future Diary even though I love it, as well as Steins;Gate despite it’s eventually thrilling story. I even had to exclude ‘Love Live! School Idol Project’ in spite of it mostly being the most innocent thing ever, all thanks to Nozomi’s imfamous ‘washi washi’ scene that was basically sexual harrassment disguised a ‘mischievious’ joke. (Fans actually complained about that and in response, she didn’t do it at all in season 2).

However, I still recommend those shows, especially Future Diary and Steins;Gate for their plotlines, but you have to be willing to overlook just a single awkward moment in each. (maybe 3 moments for Future Diary) Anyway, I hope this was helpful :)

#anime #top ten list #feminism #kuragehime #princess jellyfish #fullmetal alchemist #golden time #death note #attack on titan #puella magi madoka magica #love chuunibyou and other delusions #clannad #wolf children #ouran high school host club

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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The Best Geek TV Deep Dives on YouTube

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From the heyday of Television Without Pity to niche podcasts that cover every small screen angle you can think of, TV show deep dives have always thrived online, and popular platforms like YouTube and Vimeo provide opportunities for talented creators to add a visual angle that can often make a well-edited analysis of your favorite series even more compelling.

YouTube is positively teeming with potential rabbit holes for TV obsessives to fall down. Sometimes at 3 a.m. Sometimes after a few beers. Sometimes when you should be working (couldn’t be us) but whether you’re drawn in by a near-obligatory shocked reaction thumbnail or you accidentally stumble across an interesting take on something you’re passionate about, there’s usually a rabbit hole waiting that feels like it could have been made just for you.

With any luck, falling down one of those rabbit holes ends with you landing far away from the world of destructive opinions, of which there are many, and not just on YouTube. Most of us have probably seen a clip floating around of someone spouting the most harmful, misinformed nonsense at one time or another, and asked ourselves whether giving that person a platform was really the best idea.

Well, this isn’t that. Instead, we’ve pulled together some weighty YouTube-accessible examples of what happens when someone loves a TV series or franchise so much, they can’t stop talking about it – even decades later. Most of these deep dives are a labor of love, which is not to say that they always have a happy ending.

The Retrospective

Ian Martin, who runs the YouTube channel Passion of the Nerd, says his journey began rather accidentally in his early 30s when he found himself feeling a little lost in life. He admits he tried a variety of ways to rid himself of the sensation, including “too much alcohol,” but after deciding on a career change and fruitlessly looking for ways into the voiceover industry, he decided the best course of action was to go ahead and just …make stuff. After all, this course of action didn’t require anyone else to give him a break, and made him the master of his own destiny.

“I sat down and wrote a script about a show I’d become consumed by and edited it into a video called Why You Should Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” he wrote. “In that video, I mentioned that Buffy’s first season was a little rough and, for people who just wanted to get into the show, I would create a short little episode guide just to get them through the first season.”

Six years later, Martin is still at it, and his audience has grown into a supportive community that includes over sixty thousand subscribers, propped up by funding from Patreon. Not only is he still covering Joss Whedon’s first series in depth, episode-by-episode, he’s now delving into spin-off show Angel and Firefly.

Martin’s videos don’t pore over every aspect of these shows, and rarely does an instalment hit the 30-minute mark. Rather, they tend to examine the philosophy behind their themes, citing absurdist and existentialist influences. The host himself doesn’t push these ideas on his audience, but if you don’t end up buying a copy of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea by the time you get to the end of Season 3, it may be that you’ve missed out on a pretty essential element of Buffy’s enduring appeal.

“It took me a long time to figure out what Passion of the Nerd was but I started to find its shape through the journey it was taking ME on,” he explained. “On any average day it’s a chance to make someone laugh over our shared interests. But my favorite experience of art is the one in which we find ourselves. That movie, piece of music, performance, or show that makes us feel like its creator opened up our heart to take a picture of its inner depths. And I love talking about why media MATTERS and finding those moments in popular culture. Sometimes I get to distil those moments for other people and when I do, I hope it does for them what the channel has done for me.”

Martin’s coverage of the very first episode of Buffy lies below. If you continue watching his series of videos after that, it’s unlikely you’ll want that time back. They’re incredibly thoughtful and, frankly, an absolute joy.

The Deconstruction

Ah, Twin Peaks. The show that changed television forever, and one that has been hard to forget ever since. You’ve not been able to throw a golden shovel without hitting a Twin Peaks deep dive online in the last three decades, but occasionally one arrives and threatens to pull apart the backbone of its dreamscape for good.

Twin Perfect’s Rosseter turned in a Twin Peaks deep dive last October with a running time not for the faint of heart. His deconstruction of David Lynch’s endlessly puzzling mystery, supported by myriad quotes from its beloved co-creator, is over four-and-a-half hours long, but its length certainly hasn’t put off curious viewers – over a million people have already chosen to hear what Rosseter has to say about the real meaning behind Twin Peaks.

“Garmonbozia, the Black and White Lodges, Mike, Bob and the Little Man, Judy, Audrey and Charlie, Season 3’s ending… The mystery of Twin Peaks has survived for nearly 30 years… until now,” the video promises, which is a tease that even casual fans of the series can’t possibly resist. Their mileage may vary with the host’s loud impression of Lynch throughout the video, however, even as he produces what feels like a fairly accurate interpretation of Twin Peaks’ initial intentions, its ongoing message in the prequel film Fire Walk with Me, and a gut-punching look at 2017’s The Return.

Rosseter starts out by warning his audience that if they haven’t consumed all three Twin Peaks seasons and the film, they should consider stepping back until they have, which stands to reason: he’s about to spoil most of their various twists and turns. But he then goes on to say that die-hard Twin Peaks junkies should also reconsider watching the video, because after they’ve heard him out, they might never be able to look at Twin Peaks the same way again.

For many, the temptation to potentially peek behind the red curtain has been too great to ignore, and the comment section is filled with people who sat through the whole thing, having felt truly changed by the experience.

“David Lynch didn’t even know what this show was about until he saw this video,” someone joked, while another added more solemnly “I just feel regret. I appreciate the show on a whole other level but the haunting magic that it had for me is gone.”

One viewer thought that Rosseter’s comprehensive offering “may legitimately and unironically be one of the most intelligent and well-constructed videos ever put on YouTube,” but others hit the nail on the head when they realised that unwrapping Twin Peaks’ clues over the years had only led to one significant discovery: “we were controlling Twin Peaks the entire time.”

So, what’s at the heart of Rosseter’s theory? You may want to find out for yourself, and he certainly makes an incredibly detailed case for it. In this event, a brief explanation in the next paragraph will be a SPOILER.

While it’s common knowledge that David Lynch didn’t want to reveal who was responsible for killing Twin Peaks’ central victim, Laura Palmer, and that he was forced by TV bigwigs to wrap up the storyline and the investigation into her murder during Season 2 in late 1990, Rosseter posits that the reason we were never supposed to uncover the mystery of who ended her life and get closure on her death is because Lynch fundamentally believes that consumable TV violence is rotting our brains, and that’s why he created the series in the first place.

Still intrigued? Take a look…

The Discussion

Two-time Shorty Award winner Kristen Maldonado launched her YouTube channel in 2014 as a place where pop culture meets community, and she has the kind of drive, ambition and fast turnaround skills that make other creators look like they’re napping on the job, frankly.

While working as a social media manager for MTV, she’s used her YouTube platform to support women, diversity, and LGBTQ+ representation, discussing everything from the acknowledgement of Kat’s identity on The Bold Type, to the highs and lows of TV’s YA-skewed failures, emphasising the importance of why representation matters “on screen, behind the scenes, and critically.”

Along the way, she’s become a notable queen of deep dives, and not just where TV or movies are concerned – at one point she was even documenting her own musical journey on Spotify, where she was keen to bring attention to emerging artists. Discussing TV still feels like Maldonado’s reigning passion, though, and she usually explores her favorite shows in bite-sized segments that add up to a comprehensive look at their subjects.

One show she’s been extremely passionate about is the Charmed reboot, which she was beyond excited to see come to fruition on The CW. The fantasy drama series originally ran for eight seasons between 1998 and 2006, and CBS had tried and failed to reboot it before, but this time The CW intended to get the job done, bringing the story of magic and sisterhood back to TV and hoping to entice both fans of the old series and a new, younger audience.

The reboot was initially touted across industry trades as a project that would star three Latinx actresses, and that casting choice meant a lot to Maldonado. When news later emerged that only one of the new Charmed sisters would be played by a Latina actress, she posted a video addressing her feelings of confusion about how the show was originally announced, her disappointment that the roles wouldn’t be filled by three Latinx performers, and why series creators need to start using valuable representation opportunities properly.

Maldonado has covered the Charmed reboot comprehensively since it began in 2018, and this year has moved into livestreaming her reviews, switching from shorter videos to longer discussions about the episodes. If you’re a fan of Charmed, or any of the other series she covers (and there are quite a few) you might well find her channel to be an insightful addition to your subscription list.

The Takedown

Chances are, a TV show has pissed you off or upset you before. That Game of Thrones ending? Probably. Bobby Ewing stepping out of the shower? Sure. Quantum Leap? We’re not over it. Only a few of us take the time to make a video detailing just how upset we are about a show and upload it to YouTube, though.

Mike Stoklasa is likely to be a pretty familiar face to some of the Very Online movie and TV addicts reading these words. He’s the founder of production company RedLetterMedia, through which he’s been creating content and offering his desert-dry opinion on various facets of pop culture for well over a decade.

On YouTube, Stoklasa is regularly accompanied by cohorts Jay Bauman and Rich Evans as they take a hard look at some of their favorite films from the past, some of the worst straight-to-video movies of all time, and some of the bigger releases, too. He also voices a character called Mr. Plinkett, and when he does, viewers know that they’re about to peer screaming into the void, because ‘Mr. Plinkett’ does not hold back, especially when it comes to Star Wars or Star Trek.

Stoklasa is one of the most vocal Star Trek fans alive, and is known to consistently derail otherwise unconnected discussions with his Trek references, often explaining how Star Trek may have influenced the subject’s storytelling, and how it might have been – or should have been – a positive lesson from TV past.

To say that he’s not a fan of Star Trek’s fairly recent resurgence under the eye of executive producer Alex Kurtzman is probably an understatement. He covered CBS All-Access’ Star Trek: Discovery, a series that has, for the most part, chosen to abandon Trek’s previous lean towards standalone stories and episodes in favor of season-long arcs, and he seemed interested but trepidatious ahead of Star Trek: Picard’s arrival on the streaming service. But after the show had run its course, he uploaded a 94-minute takedown called ‘Mr. Plinkett’s Star Trek Picard Review’.

The broader world of YouTube takedowns is, objectively, a cesspool – misogyny, racism and homophobia have often run rampant – but Stoklasa has been in the business of keeping more of a constructive balance going for a long time, so when ‘Mr Plinkett’s’ review of Picard appeared online towards the end of May, anyone with even a little backstory on his recent problems with Trek’s TV universe suspected that the fresh adventures of the aging ex-Enterprise captain had finally pushed him over the edge …but they weren’t quite prepared for the ‘Dear John’ letter that ultimately arrived.

Whether you enjoyed Picard or not, Stoklasa makes some constructive points in his video review, and his breakup with the current Star Trek TV world is one for the ages.

The Art of More

If it’s the visual element of a TV show deep dive you’re into, YouTube has plenty to offer.

Art meets skill as Skip Intro takes a fascinating look at the editing behind David E. Kelley’s Big Little Lies, Ladyknightthebrave spends the best part of an hour pondering how Fleabag’s gimmick of breaking the fourth wall serves the show’s characters and story, and balancing ‘point of view’ vs ‘the big picture’ becomes the focus of Lost Thoughts’ It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Island.

Here, Thomas Flight explores how HBO’s award-guzzling Chernobyl became a masterclass in perspective…

We hope you found something worth your time in this piece, and writing it up wasn’t really an excuse to discover more of them, but it also wasn’t NOT an excuse to discover more of them. So, if you’ve found any notable examples to keep us busy, please direct our attention to them in the comments, thank you.

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