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popculturebuffet · 3 years ago

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Animal Crossing: The Movie aka Gekijoban Dobutsu No Mori: Digging up a Lost Treasure (Comissioned by Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy villagers and islanders out there! We’re almost at the end of the year. For those of you just joining the blog, i’m Jake I review comics and animation. And as we approach the new year, I have a special treat for all of ya’s to commemorate one year of me playing new horizons and finally discovering the magic of Animal Crossing. (A few days off but I had christmas stuff to finish). Since I had an open comission slot, my friend Emma decided to have me take a look at one of the franchises’ only adaptations and to date one of the only major non nintendo pokemon movies: Gekijoban Dobtusu No Mori, known as Animal Crossing the Movie by translators.

And I say translators because weirdly this movie has NEVER been dubbed. You’d think Nintendo would smell the license to print money or, with the film being reaired on tv in japan to celebrate New Horizons, see that a blu ray would be a big money maker, especially with New Horizons having only ratched up the series popularity to new heights. But so far the movie hasn’t gone past a dvd release over a decade ago. Still it’s fairly easy to find subbed online, so we all can still enjoy it till Nintendo gets their head out of their ass... and since that happens like once a year it’s probably the only way we’re going to get this flim for some time. So what kind of movie magic results when one of Nintendo’s Premiere franchises hits the big screen? Find out under the cut!

Unlike most films I review, I won’t be going through the whole plot beat by beat as the film, like the games, is a relaxed slice of life of piece. As such there’s some ongoing plot threads, running gags with the villagers and mayor, but the stakes are fairly low as they are in the games. And that.. is easily the film’s charm. By not trying to shoehorn some plot about say , Redd trying to close down the local rec center or beat Tortimer for mayor and turn it from Animal Villiage to Animal Condominiums or something, the film NAILS the feeling of the games perfectly: just a peaceful stroll through life, hanging with certain villagers if you want, barely knowing others if you want, and doing what you feel like. Things sure do happen but they happen slowly, over weeks and certain days, starting around spring or fall and ending in Winter, with the credits filling in the gaps till the epilogue one year after the story began. It nails things perfectly down to having the same number of villagers you can in Wild World, 8, with a boy and girl human to fill in for the player characters since this was back when people thought “Gender really is binary!”. There are touches here and there from the games with the bugs being lifted and what liberties are taken are purely for the sake of making a good narrative, i.e. having a giant underwater cavern our heroes explore in two scenes and the local pengy fisherman pulling out various sight gags over the film. Things like the villagers changing costumes for events, the villagers changing close period, the little star’s over buired objects, i’ts all there man it’s great.

So since there’s only a handful of ongoing plots i’m going to tackle each one by one: Starting off we have our main plot thread, the one which our main character Ai’s character arc rests on.

As for who Ai is she’s a little girl who for some reason is moving to a village of what seems to be grown adults and a few children alone. That’d be weird if this weren’t animal crossing where anyone from 5 to 100 can move to a new town or island and start over and stuff their island with alligators. Well three isn’t quite stuffed but it is notable you gotta give me that.

Ai has two arcs in fact. The smaller one is that while on deliveres for Tom Nook, who sold her her house then put her to work because he has no concept of child labor laws. Then again the fact the general store is taken over in later games by his young wards should’ve been a tipoff there. Anyways while at her forced labor, Ai accidently falls in some roses and after getting shouted at by a mole...

Finds out their the roses of the Neighbor she was delivering to who wasn’t home, Apollo, who the devs clearly love as he was not only in this film but on the offical poster for New Horizons. Why? I have no idea, there are far better old men style villagers. I’d say “cranky” but their less cranky and more “lovable old coot”. Just call them Coot’s nintendo. You’ve added an entire pokemon type and banished Donkey Kong Jr to the void between worlds you can change one word.

The resolution to this.. is she feels awkard around him, it’s abrubtly brought up after the climax. What a waste of loveable old man. Should’ve gone with Rasher. I know he wasn’t in Wild World but he also would’ve had a better subplot. Maybe he motorcyle jumps over the mayor’s house I don’t know.

The main plot though is Ai’s friendship with Margie, an adorable elephant. Another point of accuracy: All these villagers come directly from the games and aside from one champ, all have carried over to New Horizons. I even sold one of them a vacation home and saw Margie at the resort in the DLC! So you can still get most of them right now if your lucky enough. I was not but i’m familiar enough with the types. Like my faviorite villager Gale, Margie is a normal type, becoming a big sister to Ai. They also have a third friend in their group, an excitable cat named Rosie, who Emma once had as a villager. Lucky. They spend the first half of the film hanging out, having fun shenanigans such as a beach visit, a picnic and visting the fireworks festival, which was a weekly thing in the original game and wild world but somehow NOT new horizons.

Margie soon finds she has a talent and dream to be a designer, inspiring Ai to find her own. She does so by planting Cherry Trees, thinking about making a pie and planting pine trees because aliens asked her too.

We’ll crop circle back to that. Point is the two have an adorable sister-sister relationship. But given Margie has other ambitions and Villagers can say, LEAVE if they choose to.. you probably see where this goes. And since his is pre new horizons, instead of running into Margie with a squiggle over her head and begging her not to leave Ai wakes up one morning to find Margie left, even had a good bye party and didn’t say goodbye. It’s a devistating scene, not helped by Rosie blaming the poor girl for it. We also get a great bit where the poor child just walks into a pit and isn’t phased by it. It’s good stuff. The best part of it though is her going into the Roost afterword, at her lowest and most depressed and getting comforted by Whitney, aka the only villager here i’ve interacted with as I built her a vacation home. Earlier standoffish and a bit teasy thanks to being a snooty villager here she consoles the girl by asking her to think if Margie is hearing the same song they are right now. It’s a great scene, as Ai thinks of that and slowly gets better. It’s good stuff. She also reconciles with the cat because of course she does.

The Margie thing ends up cleared up twice over: Margie didn’t tell Ai not out of callousness but because she couldn’t stand hurting the girl and knew if she did tell her, she might not go through with leaving, which Margie needed to for her career. It’s a great way to use how villagers leave for storytelling and easily the highlight of the film. I was puzzled as to why a new villager didn’t move in after that.. until the climax where Margie returns. HORAY LESSON UNLEARNED! Still it’s the core of the movie and for good reason, taking the more melancholy possibliteis of animal crosisng and using them to great effect.

The other major running characters in the piece are are comic relief duo: Yu, a boy who wears various full costume sets, a fun way to show those off, and his sidekick and best friend Alfonso. Alfonso is an alligator and as I have three of those, he’s easily my second faviorite part of the film despite just sorta being there. It helps his catchphrase is itsame. And the subs, and presumibly the film itself, did keep that trait from the games.

And the itsame is 100% intentional as Alphonso wore a mario tee for most of the games, only switching to a red hoodie in new horizons for some reason. Sadly he was not given the mario costume when that update dropped

The two mostly just get into antics and wear silly costumes for the entire film. I’d also like to take this moment to say the Human Deisgns.. don’t work for me. I get they wanted the kids to come off smaller, so they’d be telegraphed as children since the regular villager is specifically designed so it can be projected to be whatever age the player is. But the resulting designs just.. don’t fit with the animal crossing art style that well. Look i’ll show you here’s Ai, our heroine

And here’s Margie

I really don’t get why they didn’t just shrink the villager designs for these characters instead of slapping a kawaii polly pocket in there and hopping it’d work. Otherwise Yu is just kind of there with most of his bits not being all that funny. The one exception is him and Al digging a bunch of holes for fossils. The funny part is that, like in the games, buried things have that star shape to tell you there’s something there. I checked with Emma as I didn’t know if this wasn’t a thing at first or not. It always has been. So it makes the gag into a nice subtle one as their just digging with abandon despite it being horribly obvious when there’s a fossil. Also Ressetti yells at them because apparently all he can do is yell at children...and is RIGHT to yell at Children in this case as seriously they could just fill those holes behind them, it’s not that hard. Good job child yellin Mr. R.

Their main goal is to get a fossil for blathers. They nearly find one in an awesome underground cave while wearing pirate costumes, because of course, finding an in tact skeleton, but cause a cave in. Can relate given I just finished Radiant Pearl on Christmas Eve. They later find it again in the climax and Yu nearly dies. Which brings me to the drawback of the costume thing: it kinda.. kills the drama in most of his scnees. Even when the kids being sincere, he’s always wearing some sort of goofy costume wether it’s a ninja, a pirate or for the climax rabbit pajamas that make him look like Ralphie Parker, just you know without looking like he’s dying inside every minute. It wrecks the drama when his best friend is shouting for him to come back while also wearing a bunny suit because reasons. Yu overall feels like an uncessary part of the thing, like one of the other villagers could’ve had his roll.

So with the main plots out of the way, i’ll be saving said climax for last don’t you worry, let’s talk about the rest of the villagers we haven’t gotten to yet. The other four are far less relevant and just there more for running gags or what not but there probably someone’s faviorite so first we have those two guys, Cyrano, an ant eater pretty standard though I like AC ant eaters fluffy peacock like tails, their cute, and ... Ceaser. Dear god Ceaser. Okay brace yourself if you’ve never seen this villager before.

I don’t know WHY the character designers chose to make this

Look like Waluigi and Donkey Kong’s long lost son they handed to Tom Nook and said “it’s your problem now bitch” and then drove off, but it’s certainly.. A Choice.

The two of them mostly bicker and get stuck in pits. That’s the result of their characters.

Next we have Champ who WEIRDLY is NOT in New Horizons and is in fact the ONLY villager in this film who never made the jump. The reason that baffles me is simple: there are 413 villagers avaliable in game, not counting the sanrio ones, out of 486 over all of them. For Champ whose merley an adorable tiny chimp to get removed just.. boggles the mind. You have so many characters, why didn’t you add this one? he’s a chimp! Who dosent love chimps?! LOOK AT HIM YOU HEARTLESS BASTARDS

LOOK AT HIMMMMM

Anyways he’s a jock who runs around a lot. He doesn’t do much in this movie but still when you have THIS MANY VILLAGERS, not programming yet another one whose this simple boggles the mind. I ask you.

Finally we have my boy Hopper. Hopper is a penguin who looks like this

And spends the whole flim fishing and pulling out hliarious thngs that aren’t fish from a bike to a moai. Naturally the payoff is he gets a runt. Being a fat fellow who also fishes all the time in animal crossing and who already loves penguins, I love this fucking guy.

So that wraps up the villagers but what about the NPC’s what about them? Out of them only Tortimer really gets a sizeable roll, along with his assitant Pelly, a pretty pelican lady I have no prior experince with because her and her sister Phyllis are not in New Horizons in any way shape or form that I have avaliable to me. Still she’s nice, the isabelle before isabelle as it were. Tortimer’s gag is he’s running for mayor.. and he DOES have a bitching poster that sadly isn’t anywhere on the internet. He’s running for relection against no one with everyone forgetting to vote

It’s harmless though.

The rest of the NPC”s though.. get about a major scene a piece and feel kinda wasted. Tom Nook especially is jarring for me as he goes from the driving force of the game I played, New Horizons.. to a guy who does one thing very early on and mostly shows up to help lead crowds after that. I get he wasn’t basically mayor in all but name yet but still. It feels off given he’s the series mascot. It’s like if they had a pokemon movie where Pikachu just waved in the background while ash and his other pokemon did stuff.

But yes yes, most of the cast are reduced to just one scene. My beloved able sisters get no devleopment, a shame given Sable has an arc that’s in every game: being shy at first btu slowly opening up to the player as they talk to her. it was one of my faviorite parts of new horizon and it seems weird to omit here. It would’ve been nice to give HER Whitney’s roll instead or have her also comfort AI instead of just.. smilling and stuff. It’s a waste of one of my faviorite characters.

The other ones who get at least one scene though do make something of it: Kappn’s his usual charming self as he drives Ai to the villager and Pascal gets one of the funniest scnes of the movie as he randomly shows up, says some things while clearly on something and then dives back into the sea from wence he came, aka what he always does but funnier here because it confuses the hell out of tortimer. Redd also gets a scene ripping of Yu. There’s also a walrus character i’d never heard of before who just.. shows up. I thought he was a new villager at first. He apparently sold patterns. LIke most phased out characters he’s sadly just.. vanished. Hopefully he gets a cameo in a future game or something. God bless you Wendell. Why he’s not in New Horizons selling something else.. I have no idea. The staff really needs to get better at repurposing older characters, even with the update only a handful returned.

Blathers gets a decent amount of time at least, my boy. Though he weridly sounds like he’s.. 20. He strikes me as 40 or 50 like his coffee boyfriend. Otherwise his personaities in tact though weirdly not only does Celeste hang around the museum (as she was apparently part of it in wild world, go fig) but hse’s drawn and va’d as a child. Despite being heavily implied to be an adult, simply a younger one than her brother. It’s werid and throws me off a lot. And it’s not like her design’s changed or anything. She’s always been drawn to be youthful but like, still an adult. And she runs a part of a buisness. This is all just.. werid to me. I don’t get this decision at all but let’s be fair here: if the weirdest a movie gets in adapting a game is just “this character’s suddenly younger”... it’s clear this adaptatoin dosen’t have THAT MANY problems.

Then there’s KK. He’s used well, singing a song which hilarously has to be subtitled because it’s still sung like he always does.. and had to be DOUBLE subtitlted since those subtitles were in japanese. There’s also the fact he looks like this.

I don’t know who decided “distractingly handsome with a chisled jaw” was the right call for re-designing guitar snoopy but I can’t say I mind.

So we have one more.. who just so happens to bring us our climax. At the Winter Festival, where someone wins a trophy for.. some reason, Guillver crashes out of the sky in his UFO.

Yeah for those less familiar with Guillver Pre-New Horizons for some reason, for Wild World and the next few games... he was an astronaut instead of a sailor.. though he still wore the hat underneath his helmet. I knew this going in so it wasn’t too suprising for me but still. And they use him well, having the search for his parts so he can go back up be the climax, as our main friend group find them in the cave and Yu nearly died. The saddest part of that is the nearly. Margie returns and slides on ice it all works, being dramatic, but not too overdrmatic> Also Ai finds Yu cute once she finally see shis face without a mask or something on it.

So then we get..... the finale. In which a cgi alien descends from AN ENTIRE STARSHIP FLEET WORTH OF SHIPS THAT ARRIVED THANKS TO AI’S STAR PATTERN TREES GULLIVER HAD HER PLANT AND THE ALIEN TAKES THE SHAPE OF HER FACE. Then they fly off, leave some stars in tehs hape of her face and that’s the end of the main plot.. oh and the roses thing. Can’t forget the roses thing after an INTERSTELLAR FLEET SHOWS UP NO SIREEE BOB. I swear to god i’m half convinced I halluicnated the whole thing. We also get an ending montage and Ai sending a letter to her mom.. with some of those nice “your island or village is super cool now bro” flowers growing.

Overall ACTM is pretty damn good. While it’s nothing groundbreaking or truly amazing, it’s still a fun, beauitfully animated, wonderfull to watch adaptaion. With the bad rap Video Game Movies get, if not unearned, it’s easy to forget just how many gems are out there like this one. A film that gets the tone of a game, only changes things for good reason (aside from the aliens thing seriously what the actual fuck was that. Send me an ask if you can answer that. ), and clearly loves and respects the source material. Hopefully nintendo will open their hearts and let some other people make some movies.

I said people not Satan on the orders of some exec at illumination. That said still want to see this oddly enough, if nothing else than for Charlie Day as Luigi. Same reason I want to see Sing 2. Weird coincidence.

Thanks for Reading

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wits-writing · 4 years ago

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What’s so Funny About Vengeance, the Night, and Batman? – Two Superhero Parodies in Conversation

Back in 2016, the first trailers for Director Chris McKay’s The Lego Batman Movie hit. A spinoff of the take on the iconic hero, voiced by Will Arnett, from 2014’s The Lego Movie. Those trailers spelled out a plot covering how Batman’s life of crimefighting is turned upside down when Robin unexpectedly enters the picture. It was a funny trailer, promising another insightful comedy from the crew behind The Lego Movie. A promise it handily delivered on when it came out in February 2017 with an animated feature steeped wall-to-wall jokes for the sake of mocking Bruce Wayne’s angst filled crusade that can only come from understanding what’s made the character withstand the test of time.

But there was a thought I and others had from seeing that trailer up to watching the actual movie:

“This seems… familiar.”

Holy Musical B@man! is a 2012 fan-made stage production parody of DC Comics’ biggest cash cow. It was produced as the fifth musical from YouTube-based cult phenomenon Starkid Productions, from a book by Matt and Nick Lang, music by Nick Gage and Scott Lamp with lyrics by Gage. The story of the musical details how Robin’s unexpected entrance ends up turning Batman’s (Joe Walker) life of crimefighting upside down. Among Starkids’ fandom derived projects in their early existence, as they’ve mainly moved on to well-received original material in recent years, Holy Musical B@man! is my personal favorite. I go back to it frequently, appreciating it as a fan of both superheroes and musicals. (Especially since good material that touches on both of those isn’t exactly easy to come by. Right, Spider-Man?)

While I glibly summarized the similarities between them by oversimplifying their plots, there’s a lot in the details, both major and minor, that separates how they explore themes like solitude, friendship, love, and what superhero stories mean. It’s something I’ve wanted to dig into for a while and I found a lot in both of them I hadn’t considered before by putting them in conversation. I definitely recommend watching both of them, because of how in-depth this piece goes including discussing their endings. However, nothing I can say will replace the experience of watching them and if I had included everything I could’ve commented on in both of them, this already massive piece would easily be twice as long minimum.

Up front, I want to say this isn’t about comparing The Lego Batman Movie and Holy Musical B@man in terms of quality. Not only are they shaped for vastly different mediums with different needs/expectations, animation versus stagecraft, but they also had different resources at their disposal. Even if both are in some ways riffing on the aesthetic of the 1990s Batman movies and the Adam West TV show, Lego Batman does it with the ability to make gorgeously animated frames packed to the brim with detail while Holy Musical often leans into its low-fi aesthetic of characters miming props and sets to add extra humor. They’re also for different audiences, Lego Batman clearly for all-ages while Holy Musical has the characters cursing for emphasis on a regular basis. On top of those factors, after picking through each of these for everything worth commenting on that I could find, I can’t say which I wholly prefer thanks in part to these fundamental differences.

This piece is more about digging through the details to explore the commonalities, differences, and what makes them effective mocking love letters to one of the biggest superheroes in existence.

(Also, since I’m going to be using the word “Batman” a lot, I’ll be calling Lego Batman just “Batman” and referring to the version from Holy Musical as “B@man”, with the exception of quoted dialogue.)

[Full Piece Under the Cut]

Setting the Tone

The beginning is, in fact, a very good place to start when discussing how these parodies frame their versions of the caped crusader. Each one uses a song about lavishing their respective Batmen with praise about how they are the best superheroes ever and play over sequences of the title hero kicking wholesale ass. A key distinction comes in who’s singing each song. Holy Musical B@man’s self-titled opening number is sung from the perspective of an omniscient narrator recounting B@man’s origin and later a chorus made up of the Gotham citizenry. Meanwhile, “Who’s the (Bat) Man” from Lego Batman is a brag-tacular song written by Batman about himself, even playing diegetically for all his villains to hear as he beats them up.

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Holy Musical opens on a quick recap of Batman’s origin:

“One shot, Two shots in the night and they’re gone And he’s all left alone He’s just one boy Two dead at his feet and their blood stains the street And there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can do!”

We then get a Bat-dance break as the music goes from slow and moody to energetic to reflect Batman turning that tragedy into the driving force behind his one-man war on crime. Assured by the narrator that he’s “the baddest man that there’s ever been!” and “Now there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can’t do!” flipping the last lyric of the first verse. For the rest of the opening scene the lyrics matter less than what’s happening to establish both this fan-parody’s version of Batman and how the people of Gotham (“he’ll never refuse ‘em”) view him.

Lego Batman skips the origin recap, and in general talks around the death of the Waynes to keep the light tone going since it’s still a kids movie about a popular toy even if there are deeper themes at play. Instead, it continues a trend The Lego Movie began for this version of the character writing music about how he’s an edgy, dark, awesome, cool guy. While that movie kept it to Batman angry-whiteboy-rapping about “Darkness! NO PARENTS!”, this one expands to more elaborate boasts in the song “Who’s the (Bat) Man” by Patrick Stump:

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“In the darkest night I make the bad guys fall There’s a million heroes But I’m the best of them all!”

Batman singing this song about himself, as opposed to having it sung by others aims the crosshairs of parody squarely on the hero’s ego. His abilities make fighting his villains effortless, like this opening battle is more an opportunity to perform the song than a life-or-death struggle. Even Joker’s aware of that as he shouts, “Stop him before he starts singing!” This Batman doesn’t see himself as missing out on anything in life, even if he still feels that deep down. Being Batman is the coolest thing in the world that anyone would envy. He’s Batman, therefore everyone should envy him.

The songs aren’t only part of the equation for how these two works’ opening scenes establish their leading hero. While both songs are about Batman being cool, they’re separated by the accompanying scenes. Lego Batman keep the opening within the Joker’s perspective until Batman shows up and the action kicks in. Once it does, we’re shown a Batman at the top of his solo-hero game. Meanwhile, Holy Musical’s opening is about B@man building his reputation and by the end of the song he has all the citizens of Gotham singing his praises with the titular lyrics. Both are about being in awe of the title hero, one framed by Joker’s frustration at Batman’s ease in foiling his schemes yet again and the other about the people of Gotham growing to love their city’s hero (probably against their better judgement.)

That’s woven into the fabric of what kind of schemes Batman is foiling in each of these. Joker’s plan to bomb Gotham with the help of every supervillain in Batman’s Rogues Gallery is hilariously high stakes and the type of plan most Batman stories, even parodies, would save for the climax. Neatly exemplified by how that’s almost the exact structure of Holy Musical’s final showdown. Starting with these stakes works as an extension of this Batman’s nature as a living children’s toy and therefore the embodiment of a child’s idea of what makes Batman cool, his ability to wipe the floor with anyone that gets in his way “because he’s Batman.” It also emphasizes Joker as the only member of the Rogues Gallery that matters to Lego Batman’s story, every other Bat-villain is either a purely visual cameo or only gets a couple lines maximum.

The crime’s being stopped by B@man are more in the “Year One” gangster/organized crime category rather than anything spectacle heavy. Though said crimes are comically exaggerated:

Gangster 1: Take these here drugs, put ‘em into them there guns, and then hand ‘em out to those gamblin’ prostitutes! Gangster 2: Should we really be doing these illegal activities? In a children’s hospital for orphans?

These fit into that model of crime the Dark Knight fights in his early days and add tiny humanizing moments between the crooks (“Oh, Matches! You make me laugh like nobody else!”) in turn making the arrival of B@man and the violence he deals out a stronger punchline. Further emphasized by the hero calling out the exact physical damage he does with each hit before warning them to never do crime again saying, “Support your families like the rest of us! Be born billionaires!” Later in the song his techniques get more extreme and violence more indiscriminate, as he uses his Bat-plane to patrol and gun down whoever he sees as a criminal, including a storeowner accidentally taking a single dollar from his own register. (“God’s not up here! Only Batman!”)

A commonality between these two openings is how Commissioner Jim Gordon gets portrayed. Both are hapless goofs at their core, playing more on the portrayal of the character in the 60s TV show and 90s Burton/Schumacher movies than the serious-minded character present in comics, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, and other adaptations. Lauren Lopez’s portrayal in Holy Musical gets overwhelmed by everything thrown at him, eventually giving up and getting out of B@man’s way (“I’m not gonna tell Batman what to do! He’s Batman!”) Hector Elizondo’s Gordon in Lego Batman clearly reached the “stay out of Batman’s way” point a long time ago, happy to have “the guy who flips on the Bat-signal” be his sole defining trait. While the characterizations are close, their roles do end up differing. Lopez’s Gordon sticks around to have a few more comedic scenes as the play goes on, where Elizondo’s exist to set up a contrast with his daughter Barbara and her way of approaching Batman when she becomes Police Commissioner.

These opening sequences both end in similar manners as well; the citizens of Gotham lavishing praise on their respective Batmen and a confrontation between Batman and the Joker. Praise from the citizenry in Holy Musical comes on the heels of a letter from B@man read out on the news about how much they and the city of Gotham suck. They praise B@man for his angsty nature as a “dark hero” and how they “wouldn’t want him any other way!”, establishing the motif of Gotham’s citizens in Holy Musical as stand-ins for the Batman fandom. Lego Batman uses the praise of the Gotham citizens after Batman’s victory in the opening scene as a lead in to contrast their certainty that Batman must have an exciting private life with the reality we’re shown. Which makes sense since Lego-Batman’s relationship to the people of Gotham is never presented as something at stake.

Greater contrast comes in how the confrontations with the Joker are handled, Lego Batman has an argument between the hero and villain that’s intentionally coded as relationship drama, Batman saying “There is no ‘us’” when Joker declares himself Batman’s greatest enemy. The confrontation in Holy Musical gets purposefully underplayed as an offstage encounter narrated to the audience as a Vicki Vale news report. This takes Joker off the board for the rest of the play in contrast to the Batman/Joker relationship drama that forms one of Lego Batman’s key pillars. While they take different forms, the respective citizenry praise and villain confrontation parts of these openings lead directly into the number one common thematic element between these Bat-parodies: Batman’s loneliness.

One is the Darkest, Saddest, Loneliest Number

Batman as an isolated hero forms one of the core tenants of the most popular understanding of the character. Each of these parodies picks at that beyond the broody posturing. There’s no dedicated segment in this piece about how these works’ versions of the title character function bleeds into every other aspect of them, but each starts from the idea of Batman as a man-child with trouble communicating his emotions. Time’s taken to give the audience a view of where their attitudes have left them early in the story.

Both heroes show their loneliness through interactions with their respective Alfreds. Holy Musical has the stalwart butler, played by Chris Allen, try to comfort B@man by asking if he has any friends he enjoys being around. When B@man cites Lucius Fox as a friend he calls him right away, only to discover Lucius Fox is Alfred’s true identity and Alfred Pennyworth was an elaborate ruse he came up with to protect Bruce on his father’s wishes. Ironically, finding out his closest friend was living a double life causes Bruce to push Alfred away (the play keeps referring to him as Alfred after this, so that’s what I’m going to do as well.) After he’s fired he immediately comes back in a new disguise as “O’Malley the Irish Butler” (same outfit he wore before but with a Party City Leprechaun hat.) That’s unfortunately the start of a running gag in Holy Musical that ends up at the worst joke in the play, when Alfred disguises himself as “Quon Li the Chinese Butler” doing an incredibly cringeworthy “substituting L’s for R’s” bit with his voice. It’s been my least favorite bit in the play since I first saw it in 2012 and legitimately makes me hesitate at times to recommend it. Even if it’s relatively small bit and the rest holds ups.

That disclaimer out of the way, that conversation between B@man and Alfred leads into the title hero reflecting on his sadness through the musical’s I Want Song, “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight.” The song’s split into two halves, the first Alfred reflecting on whether he played a part in Bruce’s current condition and the second B@man longing for a connection. The song does a good job balancing between the sincerity over the hero’s sadness and getting good laughs out of it:

“Think of the children Next time you gun down the mama and papa Their only mama and papa Because they probably don’t have another mama and papa!”

The “I Want” portion of the song coming in the end with the repetition of the lryics “I want to be somebody’s buddy.”

Rather than another song number, Lego Batman covers Batman’s sadness through a pair of montages and visual humor. The first comes after the opening battle, where we see Batman taking off all his costume except for the mask hanging out alone in Wayne Manor, showing how little separation he puts between identities. Compared to Holy Musical where the equivalent scene is the first we see of Bruce without the mask on, which may come down to practicality since anyone who’s worn a mask like that knows they get hot and sweaty fast. Batman is constantly made to appear small among the giant empty rooms of his estate as he eats dinner, jams on his guitar, and watches romantic movies alone.

Ralph Fienne’s Alfred coming in at the end of this sequence witnessing Batman looking at a photo of himself as a boy with his parents for the last time. Alfred outlines Batman’s fear of being part of a family again only to be met with Batman denying he has any feelings ever. Pennyworth’s role as a surrogate father gets put into greater focus here than in Holy Musical, as we get glimpses of Alfred reading a book titled “How to Deal with Your Out-of-Control Child.” Also shown in smaller scenes of Alfred dealing with Batman’s insistent terminology for his crime fighting equipment, like calling his cowl an “armored face disguise.”

Batman’s denial of his pain contrasts how B@man wallows in it. Though he’s forced to confront it a little as the Joker’s plan ends up leaving him with no crimefighting to fall back on to ignore his issues. This montage gets set to the song “One” by Harry Nilsson and details Batman, unable to express his true feelings, eventually letting them out in the form of tempter tantrums. There’s also some humor through juxtaposition as Batman walks solemnly through the streets of Gotham City, rendered black and white, as the citizens chant “No more crime!” in celebration, while flipping over cars and firing guns into the air.

A disruption to their loneliness eventually comes in the form of a sensational character find.

Robin – The Son/BFF Wonder

Between both Bat-parodies, the two Robins’ characterizations are as close as anyone’s between them. Each is nominally Dick Grayson but are ultimately more representative of the idea of Robin as the original superhero sidekick and his influence on Batman’s life. The play and movie also both make the obvious jokes about Dick’s name and the classic Robin costume’s lack of pants at different points. Dick’s origin also gets sidestepped in each version to skip ahead to the part where he starts being an influence in Batman’s life.

Robin’s introduction to the comics in Detective Comics #38 in 1940, marking the start of Batman’s literal “Year Two” as a character, predating the introduction of Joker, Catwoman, and Alfred, among others. Making him Batman’s longest lasting ally in the character’s history. His presence and acrobatics shift the tone by adding a dash of swashbuckling to Batman’s adventures, inspired by the character’s namesake Robin Hood, though both parodies take a page out of Batman Forever and associate the name with the bird for the sake of a joke. Robin is as core to Batman as his origin, but more self-serious adaptations (i.e., the mainstream cinematic ones that were happening around the times both Holy Musical and Lego Batman came out) tend to avoid the character’s inclusion. These two works being parody, therefore anything but self-serious, give themselves permission to examine why Robin matters and how different characters react to his presence. Rejection of Robin as a character and concept comes out in some form in each of these works, from Batman himself in Lego Batman and the Gotham citizens in Holy Musical.

The chain of events that lead to Dick becoming Robin in Lego Batman are a string of consequences for Batman’s self-absorption. A scene of Bruce barely listening as Dick asks for advice on getting adopted escalating to absentmindedly signing the adoption paperwork. Batman doesn’t realize he has a son until after his sadness montage. Alfred forces Batman to start interacting with Dick against his will. The broody loner wanting nothing to do with the cheery kid, played to “golly gee gosh” perfection by Michael Cera, until he sees the utility of him. Batman doesn’t even have the idea to give Robin a costume or codename because he clearly views the sidekick’s presence as a temporary measure for breaking into Superman’s fortress, made clear by how he lists “expendable” as a quality Dick needs if he wants to go on a mission.

This makes Robin the catalyst for Batman’s shifting perspective throughout Lego Batman. When Robin succeeds in his first mission, the Dark Knight is hesitant to truly compliment him and chalks up his ward’s feats to “unbelievable obeying.” Other moments have Robin’s presence poke holes in Batman’s tough guy demeanor, like the first time Batman and Robin ride in the Bat-mobile together, Robin asks where the seatbelts are and Batman growls “Life doesn’t give you seatbelts!”, only for Batman to make a sudden stop causing Robin to hit his head on the windshield and Batman genuinely apologizes. They share more genuine moments together as the film goes, like Batman suggesting they beatbox together to keeps their spirits up after they’ve been imprisoned for breaking into Arkham Asylum. Robin’s representative of Batman gradually letting people in throughout these moments.

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, B@man needs zero extra prompting to let Robin into his life. Nick Lang’s Robin (henceforth called “Rob!n” to keep with this arbitrary naming scheme I’ve concocted) does get brought into his life by Alfred thanks to a personal ad (“‘Dog for sale’? No… ‘Orphan for sale’! Even better!”) but it’s a short path to B@man deciding to let Dick fight alongside him. The briefest hesitance on the hero’s part, “To be Batman… is to be alone”, is quelled by Rob!n saying “We could be alone… together.” Their first scene together quickly establishing the absurd sincerity exemplified by this incarnation of the Dynamic Duo. An energy carried directly into the Act 1 closing number, “The Dynamic Duet”, a joyful ode between the heroes about how they’re “Long lost brothers who found each other” sung as they beat up supervillains (and the occasional random civilian.)

That song also ties into the contrast between the Batman/Robin dynamic and the B@man/Rob!n one. While Holy Musical is portraying a brotherly/BFF bond between the two heroes, Lego Batman leans into the surrogate son angle. While both are mainly about their stories’ Batman being able to connect with others, the son angle of Lego Batman adds an additional layer of “Batman needs to take responsibility for himself and others” and a parallel to Alfred as Batman’s own surrogate father. It also adds to the queer-coding of Batman in Lego Batman as Batman’s excuse to Robin for why he can go on missions is that Bruce and he are sharing custody, Robin even calling Batman’s dual identities “dads” before he knows the truth.

In the absence of the accepting personal responsibility through fatherhood element, the conflict Rob!n brings out in Holy Musical forms between B@man and the citizens of Gotham. “Citizens as stand-ins for fandom” is at it’s clearest here as the Act 2 opener is called “Robin Sucks!” featuring the citizens singing about how… well, you read the title. Their objections to Rob!n’s existence has nothing to do with what the young hero has done or failed to do, but come from arguments purely about the aesthetic of Rob!n fighting alongside B@man. Most blatantly shown by one of the citizens wearing a Heath Ledger Joker t-shirt saying Rob!n’s presence “ruins the gritty realism of a man who fights crime dressed as a bat.” It works as the Act 2 opener by establishing that B@man and the citizens conflicting opinions on his sidekick end up driving that half of the story, exemplified in B@man’s complete confusion about why people hate Rob!n (“Robin ruined Batman? But that’s not true… Robin make Batman happy.”)

Both Robins play into the internal conflict their respective mentors are going through, but what would a superhero story, even a parody, be without some colorful characters to provide that sweet external conflict.

Going Rogue

Both works have the threat comes from an army of villains assembled under a ringleader, Zach Galifianakis’s Joker in Lego Batman and Jeff Blim as Sweet Tooth in Holy Musical. Both lead the full ensemble of Batman’s classic (and not so classic) Rogues at different points. As mentioned before Joker starts Lego Batman with “assemble the Rogues, blow up Gotham” as his plan, while Sweet Tooth with his candy prop comedy becoming the ringleader of Gotham’s villains is a key turning point in Act 1 of the play. Part of this comes down to how their connections to their respective heroes and environments are framed, Sweet Tooth as a new player on the scene and Joker as Batman’s romantic foil.

Lego Batman demonstrates Batman and Joker are on “finishing each other’s sentences” levels of intimate that Batman refuses to acknowledge. Shown best in how Joker’s plan only works because he can predict exactly how Batman will act once he starts playing hard to get. When he surrenders the entire Rogues Gallery (without telling them) and himself to police custody, he describes it as him being “off the market.” He knows Batman won’t settle for things ending on these terms and tricks the hero into stealing Superman’s Phantom Zone projector so he can recruit a new, better team of villains for a take two of his masterplan from the start. Going through all this trouble to get Batman to say those three magic words; “I love hate you.” Joker as the significant other wanting his partner to finally reciprocate his feelings and commit works both as a play on how the Batman/Joker relationship often gets approached and an extension of the central theme. Batman is so closed off to interpersonal connections he can’t even properly hate his villains.

Sweet Tooth, while clearly being a riff Heath Ledger and Caesar Romero’s Jokers fused with a dash of Willy Wonka, doesn’t have that kind of connection with B@man. Though there are hints that B@man and his recently deceased Joker may have had one on that level. He laments “[Joker]’s in heaven with mom and dad. Making them laugh, I know it!” when recalling how the Clown Prince of Crime was the one person he enjoyed being around. This makes Joker’s death one of the key triggers to B@man reflecting on his solitude at the start of the play.

What Sweet Tooth provides the story is a threat to B@man’s new bond with Rob!n. Disrupting that connection forms the delicious center of the Candy King of Crime’s plan in Act 2. He holds Rob!n and Gotham’s people hostage and asks the citizens to decide via Facebook poll if the sidekick lives or dies (in reference to the infamous phone hotline vote from the comic book story A Death in the Family where readers could decide the Jason Todd Robin’s fate.)

With the rest of the villains under the leadership of the respective works’ main antagonists, there’s commentary on their perceived quality as threats. When Holy Musical has Superman talking to Green Lantern about how much B@man’s popularity frustrates him, he comes down especially hard on the Caped Crusader’s villains. Talking about how they all coast by on simple gimmicks with especially harsh attention given to Two Face’s being “the number two.” Saying they’re only famous because B@man screws up and they get to do more damage. Which he compares to his own relationship with his villains:

Superman: You ever heard of Mr. Mxyzptlk? Green Lantern: No. Superman: No, that’s right! That’s because I do my job!

Lego Batman has commentary on the other villains come from Joker, recognizing that even all together they can never beat Batman, because that’s how a Batman story goes. The other villains get portrayed as generally buffoonish, struggling to even build a couch together and described by Joker as “losers dressed in cosplay.” Tricking Batman into sending him to the Phantom Zone provides him the opportunity to gather villains from outside Batman’s mythos and outside DC Comics in general. Recruiting the likes of Sauron, King Kong, Daleks, Agent Smith from The Matrix, and the Wicked Witch of the West, among others. When I first saw and reviewed The Lego Batman Movie, this bugged me because it felt like a missed opportunity to feature lesser-known villains from other DC heroes’ Rogues Galleries. Now, considering the whole movie as meta-commentary on the status of this Batman as a children’s toy, it makes perfect sense that Joker would need to go outside of comics to break the rules of a typical Batman story and have a shot at winning.

The Rogues of Holy Musical get slightly more of a chance to shine, if only because their song “Rogues are We” is one of the catchier tracks from the play. They’re all still more cameo than character when all’s said and done, but Sweet Tooth entering the picture is about him recognizing their potential to operate as a unit, takeover Gotham, and kill B@man. The candy-pun flinging villain wants all of them together, no matter their perceived quality.

Sweet Tooth: “We need every villain in Gotham. Cool themes, lame themes, themes that don’t match their powers, even the villains that take their names from public domain stories.” (Two Face’s “broke ass” still being the exception.)

Both Joker and Sweet Tooth provide extensions of the shared theme of Batman dealing with the new connections in his life, especially with regards to Robin. However, Robin isn’t the only other ally (or potential ally) these Dark Knights have on their side.

Super Friends(?)

The internal crisis of these Caped Crusaders come as much from how they react to other heroic figures as it does from supervillainous machinations. In both cases how Batman views and is viewed by fellow heroes gets centered on a specific figure, Superman in Holy Musical and Commissioner Barbara Gordon (later Batgirl) in Lego Batman. Each serves a vastly different purpose in the larger picture of their stories and relationship to their respective Batmen. Superman reflecting B@man’s loneliness and Barbara symbolizing a new path forward for Batman’s hero work.

Superman’s role in Holy Musical runs more parallel to Lego Batman’s Joker than Barbara. Brian Holden’s performance as the Man of Tomorrow plays into a projected confidence covering anxiety that nobody likes him. Besting the Bat-plane in a race during B@man’s Key to the City ceremony establishes a one upmanship between the two heroes, like Joker’s description of his relationship with Batman at the end of Lego Batman’s opening battle. Though instead of that romantically coded relationship from Lego Batman, this relationship is more connected to childish jealousy. (But if you do want to read the former into Holy Musical B@man, neither hero has an onstage relationship with any woman and part of their eventual fight consist of spanking each other.)

B@man and Superman’s first real interaction is arguing over who’s the cooler hero until it degrades into yelling “Fuck you!” at each other. B@man storming off in the aftermath of that gets topped off by Superman suggesting he should get the Key to the City instead, citing his strength and longer tenure as a hero (“The first hero, by the way”) as justifications. This only results in the Gotham citizens turning on him for suggesting their city’s hero is anything less than the best, which serves both as a Sam Raimi Spider-Man reference (“You mess with one of us! You mess with all of us!”) and another example of the citizens as stand-ins for fandom. Superman’s veil of cocksureness comes off quickly after that and stays off for the rest of the play. Starting with his conversation with Green Lantern where a civilian comes across them, but barely acts like Superman’s there.

One of the play’s running gags is Superman calling B@man’s number and leaving messages, showing a desperation to reach out and connect with his fellow hero despite initial smugness. Even before the first phone call scene, we see Superman joining B@man to sing “I want to be somebody’s buddy” during “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight” hinting at what’s to come. The note it consistently comes back to is that Superman’s jealousy stems from Batman’s popularity over him. This is a complete flip of what Lego Batman does with the glimpse at a Batman/Superman dynamic we see when Batman goes to the Superman’s fortress to steal the Phantom Zone projector. The rivalry dynamic there exists solely in Batman’s head, Lego-Superman quickly saying “I would crush you” when Batman suggests the idea of them fighting. Superman’s status among the other DC heroes is also night and day between these works. Where Lego-Superman’s only scene in the movie shows him hosting the Justice League Anniversary Party and explaining he “forgot” to invite Batman, Superman in Holy Musical consistently lies about having friends over (“All night long I’m busy partying with my friends at the Fortress… of Solitude.”)

Superman’s relationship to B@man in Holy Musical develops into larger antagonism thanks to lack of communication with B@man brushing off Supes’ invitations to hang out and fight bad guys (“Where were you for the Solomon Grundy thing? Ended up smaller than I thought, just a couple of cool guys. Me and… Solomon Grundy.”) His own loneliness gets put into stronger focus when he sees the news of Rob!n’s debut as a crimefighter, which makes him reflect on how he misses having Krypto the Super-Dog around. (The explanation for why he doesn’t have his dog anymore is one of my favorite jokes in the play and I won’t ruin it here.)

Where Superman’s a reflection of B@man’s loneliness, Rosario Dawson as Barbara in Lego Batman is a confrontation of Batman’s go it alone attitude. Her job in the story is to be the one poking holes in the foundation of Batman as an idea, starting with her speech at Jim Gordon’s retirement banquet and her instatement as commissioner. She has a by-the-book outlook on crimefighting with the omnicompetence to back it up, thanks to her training at “Harvard for Police.” Babs sees Batman’s current way of operating as ineffectual and wants him to be an official agent of the law. An idea that dumps a bucket of cold water on Batman’s crush he developed immediately upon seeing her, though that never fully goes away.

Her main point is that Batman “karate chopping poor people” hasn’t made Gotham better in his 80 years of operating. A contrast to Holy Musical’s Jim Gordon announcing that B@man has brought Gotham’s crime rates to an all-time low (“Still the highest in the world, but we’re working on it.”) She wants to see a Batman willing to work with other people. A hope dashed constantly dealing with his childish stubbornness as he tries to foil Joker’s schemes on his own, culminating in her arresting Batman and Robin for breaking into Arkham to send Joker to the Phantom Zone.

Barbara’s role as the one bringing grown-up attitudes and reality into Batman’s world does leave her in the role of comedic straight woman. Humor in her scenes comes from how she reacts to everyone else’s absurdity rather than anything she does to be funny. This works for the role she plays in Lego Batman, since she’s not there to have an arc the way Superman does in Holy Musical. She’s another catalyst for Batman’s to start letting people in as another character he grows to care about. Which starts after she lets the Dynamic Duo out of prison to fight Joker’s new army of Phantom Zone villains on the condition that he plays it by her rules. Leading to a stronger bond between Batman, Robin, Alfred, and her as they start working together.

The two Batmen’s relationships to other heroes, their villains, Robin, and their own solitude each culminate in their own way as their stories reach their conclusions.

Dark Knights & Dawning Realizations

As everything comes down to the final showdowns in these Bat-parodies, the two Caped Crusaders each confront their failures to be there for others and allow themselves to be vulnerable to someone they’ve been antagonizing throughout the story. Each climax has all of Gotham threatened by a bomb and the main villains’ plans coming to fruition only to come undone.

Holy Musical has Sweet Tooth’s kidnapping of Rob!n and forcing Gotham to choose themselves or the sidekick they hate sends B@man into his most exaggerated state in the entire play. It’s the classic superhero movie climax conundrum, duty as a hero versus personal attachment. Alfred, having revealed himself as the “other butlers”, even lampshades how these stories usually go only for that possibility to get shot down by Bruce:

Alfred: A true hero, Master Wayne, finds a way to choose both. B@man: You’re right, Alfred. I know what I have to do… Fuck Gotham, I’m saving Robin!

B@man’s selfishness effectively makes him the real villain of Holy Musical’s second act. Lego Batman has shades of that aspect as well, where Batman gets sent to the Phantom Zone by Joker for his repeated refusal to acknowledge their relationship. Where the AI running the interdimensional prison, Phyllis voiced by Ellie Kemper, confronts him with the way he’s treated Robin, Alfred, Barbara, and even Joker:

Phyllis: You’re not a traditional bad guy, but you’re not exactly a good guy either. You even abandoned your friends. Batman: No! I was trying to protect them! Phyllis: By pushing them away? Batman: Well… yeah. Phyllis: Are they really the ones you’re protecting?

Batman watches what’s happening back in Gotham and sees Robin emulate his grim and gritty tendencies to save the day in his absence makes him desperately scream, “Don’t do what I would do!” It’s the universe rubbing what a jerk he’s been in his face. He’s forced to take a look at himself and make a change. B@man’s not made to do that kind of self-reflection until after he’s defeated Sweet Tooth but failed to stop the villain’s bomb. He’s ready to give up on Gotham forever and leave with Rob!n, until his sidekick pulls up Sweet Tooth’s poll and it shows the unanimous result in favor of saving the Boy Wonder. Despite everything they said at the start of Act 2, the people want to help their hero in return for all the times he helped them. All of them calling back to the Raimi Spider-Man reference from Act 1, “You mess with one of us. You mess with all of us.”

Both heroes’ chance at redemption and self-improvement comes from opening themselves up to the people they pushed out and dismissed earlier in their stories. Batman takes on the role he reduced the Commissioner down to at the beginning of the movie and flips on signals for Barbara, Alfred, and Robin to show how he’s truly prepared to work as a team, not just with his friends and family but with the villains of Gotham the Joker pushed aside as well. Teamwork makes the dream work and they’re all able to work together to get Joker’s army back into the Phantom Zone but like in Holy Musical they fail to stop the bomb threatening Gotham. Which he can only prevent from destroying the city by confessing his true feeling to Joker

Batman: If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have learned how connected I am with all of these people and you. So, if you help me save Gotham, you’ll help me save us. Joker: You just said “us?” Batman: Yeah, Batman and the Joker. So, what do you say? Joker: You had me at “shut up!”

The equivalent moment from Holy Musical comes from B@man needing to put aside his pride and encourage a disheartened Superman to save Gotham for him. This happens in the aftermath of a fight the two heroes had where Superman tried to stop B@man before he faced Sweet Tooth, B@man winning out through use of kryptonite. That fight doesn’t fit into any direct parallel with Lego Batman, but it is important context for how Superman’s feeling about B@man before Superman finally gets his long-awaited phone call from the Dark Knight. Also, the song accompanying the fight, “To Be a Man”, is one of the funniest scenes in the play. What this speech from B@man does is bring the idea of Holy Musical B@man as a commentary on fandom full circle:

B@man: I forgot what it means to be a superhero. But we’re really not that different, you and me, at our heart. I mean really all superheroes are pretty much the same… Something bad happened to us once when we were young, so we dedicated our whole lives to doing a little bit of good. That’s why we got into this crazy superhero business. Not to be the most popular, or even the most powerful. Because if that were the case, hell, you’d have the rest of us put out of a job!

This speech extends into an exchange between the heroes about how superheroes are cool, not despite anything superficially silly but because of it. Bringing it back to the “Robin Sucks!” theme that started Act 2, saying “Some people think Robin is stupid. But those people are pretentious douchebags. Because, literally, the only difference between Robin and me is our costumes.” The speech culminates in what I genuinely think is one of the best Batman lines ever written, as B@man’s final plea to Superman is “Where’s that man who’s faster than a gun?” calling back to the trauma that created Batman across all versions and what he can see in someone like Superman. So, B@man sacrificing his pride and fully trusting in another hero saves Gotham, the way Batman letting Joker know what their relationship means to him did in Lego Batman.

Each of these parodies ends by delivering a Batman willing to open himself up to a new team of heroes fighting at his side, the newly minted Bat-Family in Lego Batman and the league for justice known as the Super Friends in Holy Musical. Putting them side by side like this shows how creators don’t need the resources of a Hollywood studio to make something exactly as meaningful and how the best parodies come from love of the material no matter who’s behind them.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

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ofhoneyandrosepetals · 4 years ago

Text

Summer Roads - Chapter 5

Pairing: Sean x Fem! reader

Description: You’ve always been Lyla’s best friend, but since Sean moved you became an inseparable trio. But who could say that, after all these years together, you would start growing feelings for Sean?

Warning: swearings only.

Word count: 2,207

A/N: it just came to me that I never put Chapter 4 in my masterlist, but that error is already corrected! Have fun <3

You woke up with the sunlight on your face, making your eyelids tremble. The first thing you noticed was that Sean’s sleeping bag was empty. Lyla was still asleep. Once you get up you head for the kitchen, where the smell of toasts and coffee filled the air. Lyla’s mom had a cup of steaming coffee on her hands as she talked with Sean, who devoured the toasts.

“Wasn’t the night chilly?” Lyla’s mom asked.

“It was alright, the sleeping bags are warm,” Sean answered, a toast midway to his mouth when he saw you. “Ah, you up.”

“Good morning, Y/N,” Yu-jin said. “Make yourself at home, of course,” she gestured for the kitchen, meaning that you could serve yourself as you pleased.

“I sure did that,” Sean mumbled, mouth full of toast.

“Don’t do that, Sean,” you whispered at him, meaning his lack of manners in front of Lyla’s mom.

“Well, I’ll leave you two alone. If you need anything, I’ll be upstairs.”

“Okay, thanks,” you and Sean said at the same time.

“Plans for today?” The boy asked you. You shrugged.

“I don’t know, I guess Lyla actually made a list of things she wanted us to do, but I don’t know what’s there and I’m a bit afraid to ask.”

“She’ll probably keep us busy the whole summer.”

You took notice of Sean’s hands as he cleaned the crumbles of toast from the counter. His index finger was still coloured from the spray paint. You looked at your own, still pink.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, one shower and it’s clean,” you heard Sean saying about the spray paint.

“I’m not worried about that.”

“What is it, then? That troubles you? I know there’s something, you’ve been acting all weird yesterday, zoning out and whatever.”

You could never, not in a thousand years, tell Sean what really troubled you, so you decided to lie, which wasn’t much of an easy decision - you hated lying. But in that situation it was perfectly acceptable.

“It’s just my brother,” you said with a wave of your hand, as if dismissing the subject. “I don’t think he’s coming this summer and, well, that kinda sucks.”

“Oh,” Sean raised his eyebrows. “That’s awful, yeah. Why do you think he’s not coming? He didn’t say anything yet?”

“Yep.”

“Don’t worry about it, Y/N,” Sean got up from the stool he was sitting on. “I’m sure he will come,” and Sean hugged you.

It wasn’t supposed to be or to feel weird, since you always hugged Sean, but now it was a delicate situation, since you weren't looking at him with the same eyes. You tried to think as fast as you could to relax your body and hug him back, passing your arms around him. The texture of the fabric of his shirt felt soft under your fingertips. You hugged him tight.

“Thanks,” it was all you could manage.

“Hey, hey - don’t get all sentimental,” Sean tapped your shoulders, a little smile on his face. “You know I’m always willing to trade Daniel.”

That comment made you laugh out loud. “I’d love to keep Daniel just for me for a couple days. We would play so much you’d be jealous!”

“You don’t need to play with Daniel to get me jealous.”

The volume of his voice was so low that at first you doubted he even said anything. Sean was going out through the back door, so you couldn’t ask him if he’d say anything, and those words stuck to your brain like glue.

In the end, Lyla’s mom needed her to help clean the house, so the second day of summer vacation wasn’t going to be spent by the three of you together. Sean asked if you wanted to go over his house and kill some time, but you were so scared of spending time alone with him that you declined.

“Dude, you can’t be sad over something you don’t even know it’s gonna happen,” he said, sounding worried.

“I know, I know, but I need to clean my room, you saw how the situation is.”

“Your room is not even slightly different from what it usually is.”

“Ouch,” you mimicked a stake going through your heart.

“Silly,” Sean said as he shook his head. “Well, if you feel like doing something, anything, don’t hesitate to hit me up.”

“You got it, boss,” you saluted him and jogged to your house without looking back.

What you didn’t know was that Sean was the one who actually looked back.

Of course you didn’t clean your room - not because you didn’t think it wasn’t necessary, because it clearly was, but simply because you were the type of person who never cleared their rooms. Simple as that. Instead, you spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon eating chips, watching TV and occasionally flipping a comic - doing whatever that came to you was the very key of keeping Sean out of your mind.

Your mom was at work, so when the bell rang it was up to you to go and open the door - checking before who it was, of course.

Your heart beat increased what it felt like a thousand percent.

Sean was at your front door.

Keep it cool, keep it cool, you kept repeating to yourself in thoughts as you opened the door to see the whole Diaz family.

“Hi, Y/N!” Greeted an excited Daniel, a Power Bear doll on his left hand as he waved his right one.

“Hello, Diaz. What can I do for you?” You propped one shoulder against the doorframe, trying to look cool and relaxed, and not someone who would probably pop and fly high into the sky.

“Your mom called my dad to say that she’s going to be back home late, so you’re supposed to have dinner with us.”

“And I asked dad if we could get some pizza, since it’s summer vacation!” Daniel was excited as far as a 7 year old could get - meaning: at full speed.

“Why didn’t she tell me that?” You asked. “I knew nothing about it.”

Sean only shrugged.

“Go put on some shoes, Y/N.”

“Is it dinner time already?” You looked behind you, at the clock hanging in the kitchen wall.

“Y/N, shooooooooes,” Sean begged. “I’m starving.”

“Okay, okay, gimme a sec,” you raised your palms and, leaving the front door open so the Diaz family could come in, you went for your room to quickly change your clothes and put on some shoes.

Once you stepped outside your bedroom, Daniel went directly towards you, pretending that his toy was flying, circling around you.

“Let’s go let’s go let’s go!”

“Isn’t Lyla coming?” You asked Sean.

“I called her, but she said she would stay home tonight.”

“Stay home tonight?” That sentence was odd, coming from Lyla. “Is she alright?”

“She seemed fine - I guess she’s just tired from all the cleaning up. A thing you ended up not doing, right?” Sean flicked a look at your room, your door cracked open. You shrugged, embarrassed. “Please tell me you didn’t get your ass all sad the whole day.”

“I didn’t!” You assured him. “I just watched TV and read some comics.”

“Y/N,” Sean said as you locked the front door - Esteban and Daniel were already in the car, waiting for you. “You don’t need to lie to me, you do know that, right? I’d never judge you.”

“I didn’t lie to you,” you quickly grabbed the key back and tossed it in your jeans pocket. Sean narrowed his eyes.

“Well, my message was received. I hope you listen to it.”

“I did. I will,” you shook your head, confused. “Whatever, Diaz. Let’s go.”

Sean smiled and went to open the car door for you. Your heart skipped a bit and you had to take a deep, silent breath to recover yourself.

Daniel seemed to command the whole show - he chose the table, he demanded to sit beside you and he also had a pick on one of the pizza toppings. Sean heavily sighed most of the time, especially when Daniel basically screamed that he’d be the one to sit by your side. Sean sat across you and you tried to look as what you thought you always did.

You wanted to be and act normal around him after the new discovery of your feelings, but it was hard to do so - you always had the idea that Sean might pick up on the hints, that he would discover somehow and, consequently, step back and not be your friend anymore.

You two agreed on pepperoni topping.

“Aww, pepperoni is awful,” Daniel complained.

“What are you whining about? You chose your own topping, Daniel,” Sean said.

“I know, but I want Y/N to eat my pizza too.”

“I’ll eat whatever’s on the table, Dani,” you told him.

“Just don’t eat the napkins,” Esteban said.

“They’re paper napkins, I think they’re edible enough,” you said.

“Ewww,” the Diaz brothers expressed at the same time, making you and Esteban laugh at them.

Dinner with the Diaz was always a fun thing - you loved to see Daniel picking at Sean and the boy getting angry, but not really angry -, so tonight was no exception. Daniel snorted soda through his nose, making you and Sean laugh like two idiots while Esteban tried to pose as a “father who had control over his children,” even though he was holding his own laugh. It was easy to forget that Sean had changed over your eyes, and as soon as that thought occurred to you, the feelings all came back in a flow.

Esteban dropped you at your house, Daniel waving and screaming bye to you until you stepped inside the living room. Your mom was in the kitchen snacking on something. “Hey,” she said. “Had fun tonight?”

“Yeah,” you said giggling, remembering some of the hilarious things that could happen in a pizza restaurant.

“You seem different, sweetie.”

You stood still.

“Different how?”

“I don’t know, just… different. I guess tonight was fun for you. Oh, I almost forgot.”

But different how?, you thought. Am I looking too tortured or what?

“Your brother called - he’s coming next week.”

Those news enlightened you in a whole new way that you didn’t think was possible. Your brother here meant that you could take your mind off of what’s troubling you, besides the fact that you could always count on your brother for advice - especially the kind you needed.

“That’s awesome!” You shouted and your mom smiled. “Oh, I’ve been waiting for that call. I gotta tell the others! Lyla needs to update her to-do list.”

You ran to your room, opening your laptop and checking if both your best friends were online. They happened to be. You immediately called them.

“Wadduuuup,” Lyla said as soon as all of you were on the call.

“Is it an emergency? I just dropped Y/N at her house,” Sean said and you could hear Daniel’s loud voice in the background.

“I think Daniel had too much soda,” you said.

“Daniel’s excited about something at his friend’s house this weekend - I don’t intend to find out what it is.”

“Well, I happen to have great news,” you said, placing your hand on your chest.

“How great are we talking about?” Lyla asked.

“The kind of great that will require an update to your to-do list,” you answered.

“Oh, that only means one thing,” Sean said.

“Your brother’s coming!” Lyla jumped on her chair. “That’s so awesome!”

If you loved your brother that much, just imagine your friends - he felt like an older brother to all of them as well.

“Okay, I’ll see where I can include mr. Peter and think of new things we can do.”

“Now that Y/N just told us the news, are you two down for some gaming?” Sean suggested.

“Sorry, Seanie, I’m tired of all the cleaning, I don’t think I can function well enough to play through the night.”

“Yeah, me neither,” you said.

“What did you do the whole day to feel tired?” Sean asked, suspicious.

“I just wanna go to bed early, that’s all,” you shrugged off.

“Sometimes it sucks being the only guy in this group.”

“This has nothing to do with you being a boy,” you stated.

“He knows that, he just likes to be a drama queen,” Lyla said. “Well, I’m off. Kisses and hugs,” and Lyla went offline.

“I’m going too,” you said.

“Yeah, I know,” Sean rolled his eyes.

“Just play with Daniel,” you teased him.

“Oh, no way. He’s too on, I don’t wanna increase the situation.”

“Good luck with the goofball. Good night, Sean.”

“Good night, Y/N.”

You finally went to bed, staring at your ceiling, a swirl of thoughts running through your mind. Sean’s phrase at the Park’s kitchen earlier that day came back to you, making your heart go wild. “You don’t need to play with Daniel to get me jealous.”

It’s nothing, it’s nothing, it means anything, it’s nothing, you repeat it like a mantra until you fall asleep, having a dreamless sleep.

A/N: please let me know if you wanna be tagged in the future chapters so you’ll always know when the fic is updated!

#sean diaz #sean diaz x reader #sean diaz fic #life is strange 2 #life is strange 2 fic #lis 2 #lis 2 fic

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eddycurrents · 6 years ago

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For the week of 25 March 2019

Quick Bits:

Action Comics #1009 takes a moment to assess the damage caused by Leviathan as Superman, Lois, Jimmy, and Waller try to put the pieces together in the Fortress of Solitude. More inventive use of Superman’s x-ray vision from Steve Epting and Brad Anderson.

| Published by DC Comics

Amazing Spider-Man #18 continues “Hunted” unveiling the Kraven-bots and plan for rich folks to hunt the animal-themed villains (and Spider-Man), but not exactly why. This one also falls into the clichéd trap of bringing back obscure z-list characters only to kill them in order to show the stakes. I’m kind of getting tired of that, but otherwise this is still entertaining. Great art from Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, Edgar Delgado, and Erick Arciniega.

| Published by Marvel

Avengers: No Road Home #7 takes us inside Spectrum’s worries and fears about what she’s becoming as the team tries to prevent Nyx from reclaiming the shards. It really feels like the entire creative team have been stepping up their game these past few issues, but as Paco Medina and Jesus Aburtov take over the art reins again this issue, it feels like the bar has been raised again. Beautiful artwork.

| Published by Marvel

Bad Luck Chuck #1 is an entertaining and unique debut from Lela Gwenn, Matthew Dow Smith, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Frank Cvetkovic. It stars Charlene Manchester, a seeming walking disaster, who has started up a business for the chaos her mere presence causes. It’s different, there’s some nice incidental humour and a hook for a broader story involving an insurance investigator tailing her, all with some wonderful art from Smith and Fitzpatrick.

| Published by Dark Horse

Batgirl #33 is pretty heavy as Babs deals with James being released. Great work all around from Mairghread Scott, Elena Casagrande, Scott Godlewski, John Kalisz, and Andworld Design really delivering on the heightened emotions Babs is going through with the release of her serial killer brother. Particularly the switch between blue and red washes Kalisz uses when Babs confronts her father.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Hammer: Age of Doom #9 continues through this bleak new world where almost everyone has forgotten who they were and there’s apparently a lot of gay panic, on Earth and Mars. It’s rather disturbing. Dean Ormston and Dave Stewart deliver some great moody art.

| Published by Dark Horse

Black Science #39 gives us a heartfelt and humorous reunion, possibly one of the final good moments before the series is going to pivot to the end. I get the feeling that Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, Moreno Dinisio, and Rus Wooton are going to put us through hell reading the final arc, so this bit of happiness with some funny stories and at least a bit of retribution, is great to see.

| Published by Image / Giant Generator

Coda #10 is huge as Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara, Michael Doig, and Jim Campbell work through some of the truth of what’s been driving this entire story. It’s damn good, with some of the best storytelling in comics right now.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Crimson Lotus #5 is one of two finales this week for a Hellboy universe mini-series, seeing the end to John Arcudi, Mindy Lee, Michelle Madsen, and Clem Robins’ tale of Crimson Lotus’ early days. I’ve loved the set up for Dai and Shengli in this series and definitely would not be averse to seeing more, there’s a nice feel of pulp action and mystery from a different perspective than what we’ve seen in Lobster Johnson. Also, there’s a great surprise appearance.

| Published by Dark Horse

Daredevil #3 is proving that Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles’ excellent first two issues are no fluke, “Know Fear” is easily shaping up to be one of the best Daredevil stories in decades. There’s a wonderful depth and complexity to the characters, the tension of a broken and beaten Daredevil coming into conflict with the police is taut, there are some amazing surprises, and the art is phenomenal.

| Published by Marvel

Dial H for Hero #1 is some ridiculous fun from Sam Humphries, Joe Quinones, and Dave Sharpe. We’re introduced to the new guardian of the H Dial, Miguel, an average boy forced to work his Uncle’s Mayo Madness food truck after what’s possibly the death of his parents (it’s not made explicit, so something else could have happened), searching for another thrill after being saved by Superman. Quinones’ art is one of the main drawing factors, with an incredible shift in style during the hero portion, both he and Humphries do an incredible job poking fun at the approach.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Doctor Strange #12 reunites Mark Waid and Barry Kitson for part one of “Herald Supreme” as a pushy, obnoxious alien steamrolls Strange in an attempt to stop Galactus from destroying his homeworld. It’s weird to see Strange brought low again so soon after the first arc, along with the destruction of all of the magic his artifacts house, but it is an interesting predicament he finds himself in struggling to stop Galactus from devouring the mystic planes.

| Published by Marvel

The Flash #67 builds off of last issue’s Rogues spotlight on the Trickster and the previous sub-plot of Commander Cold’s investigation as Joshua Williamson, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero, and Steve Wands kick off part one of “The Greatest Trick of All”. Kolins reminds us why he’s one of the best Flash artists of the past few decades amidst a story that is bizarrely happy.

| Published by DC Comics

The Forgotten Queen #2 reveals more of War-Monger’s history, as she navigates the possibility of feelings of love for what seems to be the first time. Really intriguing character-building here from Tini Howard, Amilcar Pinna, Ulises Arreola, and Jeff Powell.

| Published by Valiant

Friendo #5 concludes with what feels like one of the weirdest interpretations of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas I’ve ever read. The horror story of rampant consumerism mixed with reality television comes to a head as Leo finally gets his Action Joe action figure in possibly the most extreme way. Alex Paknadel, Martin Simmonds, Dee Cunniffe, and Taylor Esposito end this wild ride on a high note.

| Published by Vault

Go-Bots #5 is the incredible end to what has been an excellent series reinterpreting the Go-Bots by Tom Scioli. It started as a relatively normal interpretation of the property, working well with nostalgia while still presenting a unique rumination on free will and robot ethics, then elevated into all out insanity pushing the Go-Bots in new and frightening directions as the bots took over. This final issue explores that post-apocalypse further and cleverly seeds the idea that the Go-Bots were the progenitors to the Transformers.

| Published by IDW

Hellboy and the BPRD: 1956 #5 is the other conclusion in the Hellboy universe this week, detailing a bit more of Hellboy’s time in Mexico, particular after Esteban’s death and he was filming wrestling movies. There’s some wonderful character moments as he laments Esteban’s loss and the even more personal loss of his best friend and dog, Mac. It also underlines Bruttenholm’s lack of soft skills and empathy, not noticing either Margaret and Archie’s romance or how bad Hellboy is hurting emotionally right now. Great work from Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, Mike Norton, Michael Avon Oeming, Yishan Li, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robins.

| Published by Dark Horse

Invaders #3 adds more fuel to the fire with an uncaring American military moving forward on a perceived and actual threat from Atlantis and more questions about Namor’s past and possible mental instability. Chip Zdarsky is doing some very interesting things with plot threads spilling out of Secret Empire and acting as essentially a bridge between Avengers and Captain America.

| Published by Marvel

Isola #7 sees our duo come across a quarry town full of women who’ve had their children and men snatched up by the war or worse. It’s an interesting development of the real human cost of war, but it also opens up a mystery as to what or who is really taking the kids, and what they’re possibly becoming. Brenden Fletcher, Karl Kerschl, Msassyk, and Aditya Bidikar continue to produce one of the most beautiful, intriguing, and entertaining comics on the shelves right now.

| Published by Image

The Lollipop Kids #4 has some absolutely stunning artwork from Diego Yapur and DC Alonso. Previous issues have been incredibly impressive, but some of the compositions in this one take it to a whole other level.

| Published by AfterShock

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #3 reveals just how thoroughly insane the Ozymandias-styled, world-“saving”, alternate Cannon is as Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard, Mary Safro, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou continue to push this story in intriguing directions. It’s funny, because the conflict, the superhero battles, feel like window-dressing for something else still. Especially as the “good” Cannon traverses panels.

| Published by Dynamite

Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 is another entertaining debut under the new “Archie Forever” initiative, from Kelly Thompson, Veronica Fish, Andy Fish, and Jack Morelli. Like the previous titles, it appears as though there isn’t a lot (or possibly any) of overlap with the other series, introducing us to this rebooted Sabrina’s family. It’s off to a good start, familiar faces in play, humour abounding, Salem being a little bellend, and the mystery of a wendigo.

| Published by Archie

Sharkey: The Bounty Hunter #2 is worth it for Simone Bianchi’s gorgeous artwork alone. Bianchi has always been an interesting artist, with inventive layouts and character designs, rich colour choices, and a beautiful soft-focus, painted style, all of that on display here for this story.

| Published by Image

The Silencer #15 is a bit bittersweet since we know that it’s ending now, I would have hoped given how tied to Leviathan that it is that the series would at least see a tie-in to the forthcoming Event Leviathan, but sadly no. In the mean time, we’re still getting an excellent action comic from Dan Abnett, V. Ken Marion, Sandu Florea, Mike Spicer, and Tom Napolitano.

| Published by DC Comics

Star Wars: Vader - Dark Visions #2 is another excellent self-contained story exploring Darth Vader’s effect on others, from Dennis Hallum, Brian Level, Jordan Boyd, and Joe Caramagna. This one takes a look at the desperation and recklessness that fear of Vader’s wrath can have on someone. The layouts from Level are phenomenal.

| Published by Marvel

Stone Star #1 is a great digital original debut from Jim Zub, Max Dunbar, Espen Grundetjern, and Marshall Dillon. It introduces us to a pair of scavengers on a planet being visited by a travelling battle arena ship, kind of taking its cue from hero shooters like Overwatch and more traditional fighting games like Mortal Kombat. There’s an interesting hook of human (or alien) trafficking to go along with the coming-of-age tale that’s set up as one of the scavengers, Dail, is offered a chance to possibly study and train with the gladiators. Great art and character designs from Dunbar and Grundetjern.

| Published by Swords & Sassery

Transformers #2 engaged me a bit more than the first issue. It’s still very methodical and slow in its pacing and revelations, but there are some interesting hooks in the mystery of who murdered Brainstorm and in who was taking potshots at the Ascenticon rally. The mix of politics and self-determination through will to power is certainly an interesting concept from Brian Ruckley.

| Published by IDW

William Gibson’s Alien 3 #5 concludes what has been an excellent adaptation of Gibson’s screenplay by Johnnie Christmas, Tamra Bonvillain, and Nate Piekos. This final chapter ramps up the action and the stakes as the remaining survivors try to flee the station before blowing it and the aliens inside up. Tons of great horrific art from Christmas and Bonvillain.

| Published by Dark Horse

Wonder Woman #67 continues “Giants War”, with G. Willow Wilson doing a decent job of further rehabilitating Giganta. Also some interesting developments regarding the titans that may not be titans.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: 30 Days of Night 100 Page Giant, The Avant-Guards #3, Beyonders #5, Black Panther #10, Black Widow #3, Bone Parish #8, Books of Magic #6, Breakneck #4, Cinema Purgatorio #17, Detective Comics #1000, DuckTales #19, Fantastic Four #8, Femme Magnifique: 10 Magnificent Women who Changed the World, Fight Club 3 #3, Freedom Fighters #4, GI Joe: Sierra Muerte #2, GLOW #1, Goddess Mode #4, Hardcore #4, Hex Wives #6, Ice Cream Man #11, Invader Zim #41, Ironheart #4, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #8, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #12, Jughead: The Hunger #13, Justice League Odyssey #7, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Tempest #5, Martian Manhunter #4, Marvel Comics Presents #3, Marvel Rising #1, Mera: Tidebreaker, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #37, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #41, Outcast #40, Punks Not Dead: London Calling #2, Quincredible #5, The Realm #12, Rick & Morty #48, Rick & Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Director’s Cut #1, Sabrina: The Teenage Witch #1, These Savage Shores #1 - Black & White Edition, Spawn #295, Spider-Man/Deadpool #48, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #30, Star Wars Adventures #19, Super Sons: The Polarshield Project, Superior Spider-Man #4, TMNT: Urban Legends #11, The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #5, Viking Queen, Wasted Space #8

Recommended Collections: Animosity: Evolution - Volume 2: Lex Machina, Asgardians of the Galaxy - Volume 1: Infinity Armada, The Ballad of Sang, Barrier - Limited Edition Slipcase Set, Charlie’s Angels - Volume 1, Cloak & Dagger: Negative Exposure, Coda - Volume 1, Flash - Volume 9: Reckoning of the Forces, Mind MGMT Omnibus - Volume 1, Ms. Marvel - Volume 10: Time and Again, Regression - Volume 3, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle - Volume 2, TMNT: Rise of the TMNT - Volume 1, War Bears

d. emerson eddy is just a worthless liar. He is just an imbecile. He will only complicate you. Trust in him and fall as well.

#This Week in Comics

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moriganstrongheart · 6 years ago

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The Dragon Prince: Season One – Review

Created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond 2018, Netflix 9 episodes, 25-27 minutes

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Good: Character writing and designs Bad: Animation style, narrative, pacing, tone

[ ! ] Spoiler Warning

I went into The Dragon Prince with low expectations. I had heard that some of the creative minds behind Avatar: The Last Airbender were the showrunners, but something about the look and feel of the show put me off. My fears were realized when I loaded up the first episode and got turned me off immediately by the terrible opening prologue. I also thought I could forgive the animation style if I gave it a chance, but I just couldn’t get past it. So I set The Dragon Prince aside and didn’t come back to it for a few weeks. Unfortunately, my opinion of the animation style didn’t improve, and the prologue became indicative what the quality of the writing would be for the majority of the season. These issues made my overall experience of The Dragon Prince a negative one, but I did end up being fond of the characters, even though the world and plot were ultimately uninspiring.

The characters of The Dragon Prince surprised me on multiple levels, beginning with how gradual their personality emerged. I was also surprised by how well developed a lot of them were. The difference in quality between character and plot writing is staggering; it never felt like the characters were ever part of the world—or had any real stakes in the story—despite standing as examples of great character writing. Everyone feels fleshed out and real, with a few exceptions. I think it’s worth breaking down the characters and my opinion on each.

Callum

While annoying at times, Callum is simultaneously an awkward teenager and a great older brother, balancing the two roles perfectly. He is confident but at the same time not, leading to some interesting conflicts. I was a bit put off by his voice (I could sometimes hear Sokka in him), but I don’t think that should be taken into consideration when evaluating him as a character. The only issue I had with Callum was how the writers seemed to pick him most often for their plot contrivances, wherein he does things out of character to move the plot along—like having a “we need to argue so we can learn something” argument with his brother. Even if almost all of the characters suffer similarly throughout the season, it seems to happen more frequently with him.

Rayla

Of all the protagonists, Rayla feels the most developed. She has a particular way of life and grew up believing a specific ideal, but has not yet decided who she is. Her actions mirror this at every turn, as she struggles with her own values and the duties put on her by her people. She responds to a lot of her problems with sarcastic remarks in an attempt to hide her insecurities about her own capabilities. It was her introduction and subsequent development that had me hooked. I doubt I would have continued watching if not for my investment in her character arc.

Ezran

When talking about the quality of the character writing in The Dragon Prince, I mentioned a few exceptions, and Ezran is one such exception. Perhaps his lack of complexity could be explained away since he’s a child, but considering the work put into the other characters—and the fact that he and his pet Bait are the source for too many plot contrivances—I don’t believe that’s the case. Still, his character is solid, but I found myself disliking any scene where he had a prominent role.

Claudia

Of all the characters, Claudia is the one that surprised me the most. What started as a “crush” love interest for Callum, turned into a multi-faceted character. She’s characterized as quirky, but she displays much more complexity as time goes on, being intelligent, inventive and decisive. It’s one of the few times I enjoyed a character that fills this trope. I particularly enjoyed the playful banter between her and her brother Soren. She’s also never used in any of the plot contrivances that I remember, which made her one of my favourite characters.

Soren

Soren is the bully character done right. In a modern setting, he’d be the high school jock with a football jacket, giving nerds wedgies and hitting on girls. But like most of the characters in The Dragon Prince, his character writing is superb. He’s kind of a jerk, but he has heart and does what he thinks is best, even if he’s not always sure what to do. He’s not one of my favourites, but I enjoyed his interactions with other characters, be it Callum, his sister or his father.

Viren

It can be difficult to create a sympathetic villain, especially when writing stories for children. It’s often easier to make the villain evil instead of just villainous; capable of heinous acts that no sane person would do, but ultimately unrelatable. Viren engages in all the activities we would expect from a villainous, treacherous royal advisor. However, all his actions are believable, making sense within the political climate of Katolis. He’s conniving and scheming, but it never feels as though he does anything with ill intent or for the sake of evil. He’s just doing what he thinks is best, regardless of the cost to himself or the ones around him. That makes him a much more compelling villain in the long run; one that blurs the lines of morality while making it clear that what he does is wrong.

King Harrow

I’m sad that we don’t get to see much of King Harrow, since he quickly became one of my favourite characters. He is level-headed, principled but swept up in his duties. For a fantasy setting, he’s quite relatable. Even his attitude towards Viren can be seen as rational; Viren appears to be deluded as to the nature of their relationship, and Harrow wants to draw clear boundaries in response to Viren’s behaviour. I also enjoyed his relationship with Callum, though I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t get to see him interact with Ezran (which may contribute to my dislike of him). I’m not totally convinced we’ve seen the last of Harrow. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part, as I felt the quality of the narrative quickly dropped after his assassination.

General Amaya

Amaya was at the centre of many of the discussions around the show at release, due to the fact that she is deaf. She uses ASL and has an interpreter, showing the commitment the showrunners had in properly representing those with hearing impairments. She also has—hands down—the best character design, which surely contributed to her initial popularity. I was consistently surprised with how intelligently she was written, from her earnest demeanor to her absolute conviction in doing what’s morally right. She became my favourite character as soon as she was introduced, helped by the amazing fight scene between her and Rayla shortly thereafter, which had me exclaiming audibly in astonishment at how well the fight was choreographed.

I don’t really have an opinion of the rest of the cast. I liked Gren, but he turned into comedic relief once separated from Amaya. The rest of the cast were either bland, annoying or used purely for plot purposes and, as such, were underutilized.

All of the characters had consistently great character designs. I’ve mentioned some of my favourites already—namely Amaya and Rayla—but I have no issues with the design of any of the characters. I also appreciated the amount of diversity among the characters. Of course, the humans in The Dragon Prince don’t share our history or cultures, but it’s nice to see different skin colours, even if they’re not attached to specific ethnicities. I also really enjoyed the design of the moonshadow elves, even though they’re basically just Night Elves from World of Warcraft. Their voices in particular were a welcome change from the normally pompous or breathy way elves tend to speak in fantasy settings. Overall, the voice actors delivered a great performance, being able to convey emotions and concealed intentions through speech, which—along with great character writing and designs—made the characters of The Dragon Prince complex, interesting and deserving of a more well-written narrative. I have to mention, though, that creature designs were subpar by comparison, childish in their design or unappealing to look at.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the writers and maybe the showrunners behind The Dragon Prince created and then developed the characters and premise long before ever writing a narrative for them. The signs are all there: the characters are incredibly well developed, but don’t really feel like they belong in the world. The story is strong at the beginning of the season, but then meanders and feels disjointed right up until the end. There are some great moments here and there: Amaya’s fight with Rayla, the elven dagger, interactions between Viren and King Harrow...These moments teased at what could have been, but I’m convinced that the writers had little to go on beyond extensive character profiles and an intricate political struggle. Any time the story focuses on anything substantial, it falters. The stakes never feel like they matter, and the tone shifts from dark to light-hearted from one scene to the next. A character might be afraid to lose their arm, and within seconds be comically afraid of the water. There’s no consistency in the tone, so it’s difficult to care about what happens to the characters, regardless of how appealing they are.

The tipping point for me was when Ezran fell into sub-zero water for way longer than a child should, and yet he came out feeling only slightly uncomfortable instead of dying from exposure. I’m not one to judge realism in fiction, but when their father was just murdered and there’s a chance that Rayla might lose a hand, I just couldn’t buy into the story anymore. Things just got even more nonsensical from there. Thankfully, I had already checked out of the story at this point, so I didn’t have to suspend my disbelief any longer. It was clear to me that the narrative was just a means to an end—a way for the writers to get from:

Point A – King Harrow’s death and the discovery of the egg, to

Point B – the egg hatching and Viren’s intentions made bare.

Everything else is just moments in time, sequences without any reason to be there except padding, strung together loosely to form a weak narrative. It’s a shame because the script is at times brilliant, normally when characters interact in meaningful ways. I’ll always remember when Amaya goes to visit her sister’s grave and Viren comes to reconcile with her, as well as the conversations between Callum and his step-father. There’s just nothing to support these moments, nothing to invest myself in beyond the quality of the characters themselves. As such, I have little interest in seeing where the story goes next, nor do I think it’s worth recommending the series.

Finally, I don’t know if I’m just getting out of touch with animation, but I personally don’t understand the use of reduced frame-rates in 3D animation. I can’t decide if it’s a budgetary decision or a stylistic one, but I don’t like it either way. It reminds me of stop-motion animation, but without the inherent charm that kind of animation possesses. Or maybe it’s the lack of exaggeration as I don’t remember a single instance where animation principles like squash and stretch were applied to exaggerate actions or emotions. The animators seemed more concerned with keeping the characters on model rather than in creating a visually engrossing work of animation. I think part of the reason I judge the animation so severely is that I attribute this style of animation with amateur video game machinima, especially films made in applications like Garry’s Mod. It feels unprofessional and underdeveloped. It doesn’t help that everything except the character designs is bland and uninteresting. Characters stood out like actors on a poorly designed community stage, never really feeling a part of the world they inhabit. The only exception might be the magic effects, which were creative and fun to look at. Of course, my opinion on the visuals is highly subjective, so I can’t fault the show for it.

However, I have no issue with criticizing its writing. I hope that the next season fares better in that department than the first. With its well developed characters, The Dragon Prince has the chance to break through popular culture to reach the same heights as Avatar: The Last Airbender, maybe even defining an entirely new generation of children. But they can’t expect their characters to bear the full weight of that burden. These characters deserve an engrossing narrative, one which allows them to shine and interact in meaningful ways, to shape the world and to be shaped by the world around them. The Dragon Prince has a great foundation, but it has failed so far build on it. If the writers can expand on the political struggles that impressed so many within the first half of the season, I can only imagine what kind of show The Dragon Prince might become.

Official Show Website

#my reviews #review #television review #the dragon prince #tdp #the dragon prince season one review #fantasy #worldbuilding #world building #world-building #aaron ehasz #justin richmond #netflix #bardel entertainment

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builder051 · 6 years ago

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Best of 2018: other stuff

I’ve posted lists of my most popular posts and my favorite pieces of my own writing, but I want to take a second to plug some my favorite other stuff. I’m a pretty big media consumer, despite being a little out of touch with what’s popular and newsworthy. But since I tend to hyperfocus and perseverate, you can rest assured that everything on this list has been tested to the limits and truly loved.

Podcasts

The Adventure Zone

Yes, I’m extremely late to the game. If you’re not familiar, this is a live-play fantasy gaming podcast (it started out as D&D, but they’ve expanded) where 3 brothers and their father create amazing adventures with hilarious and relatable characters, perfectly balancing drama with humor and action. It may sound boring, but they’ve created DragonQuest (Balance arc) and Scooby-Doo (Amnesty arc) esque worlds that are easy to get lost in. There’s approximately 100 hours of content so far, so it’s a commitment to catch up, but entirely worth the time.

Books

Sharp Objects and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I read Gone Girl years ago, but I was unaware that the author had more books to her name. These are as good as Gone Girl, and arguably creepier. Sharp Objects is beautifully written, with the power of angry words as a central plot point. Dark Places is more suspenseful, and it has more characters, tackling the way in which small actions create ripples in our own lives and those of others. HUGE trigger warnings for both of these. The TWs are spoilers, though, so think of them this way: If you’re a fan of Criminal Minds, you’ll love these books. If you’re not, you probably won’t. Both have emeto in them (and so does Gone Girl). I have a feeling that the author might be a fan of whump. :)

The Adventure Zone graphic novel

See above. They made the podcast into a comic book. It’s genius.

American Vandal

This is a Netflix show that I feel like is simultaneously very popular and something nobody knows exists. It’s been a long time since I lost sleep over a TV show, but I couldn’t rest until I finished the first season. It’s a reality series/documentary following a 15-year-old boy’s quest to investigate a tagging incident for which his classmate has been (wrongfully?) accused. It sounds low-stakes, and it is, compared to something like Serial that investigated a murder, but it rides the line of seriousness and humor that perfectly captures the gravity of teenage life. It’s crass, it’s disgusting, it takes an inordinate amount of time to lay out the details of summer camp hookups and phone pranks, and yet it also shows a boy’s deep-seeded worries about how his actions will affect his college and career choices. The series is amazingly well produced, considering that it’s the product of high school sophomores working out of their school’s media center. It’s the kind of show you’ll watch on the edge of your seat the first time, then continue to giggle at it for weeks afterward.

The Vietnam War

Yes, one of those PBS Ken Burns documentaries. If it’s not your cup of tea, I understand. It didn’t used to be mine. But this isn’t the kind of film you fell asleep to in history class. The narration balances geography, history, and government lessons with real-life anecdotes, all presented with original footage of the most-photographed war. I’m a nut for the era, but it’s an incredibly poignant viewing experience that brings a lot to the table. Segments on music, pop culture, protesting, and the perspectives of various cohorts (African Americans, Viet Cong, those who fled to Canada, nurses, children of refugees, etc.) combine into a patchwork story that’s well worth the viewing time.

Sharp Objects

As discussed above, this is a thriller/mystery adapted from the page to a miniseries for HBO (but google it and you can stream for free). Amy Adams portrays the main character, and it’s about 75% true to the book. It’s not as good as the book, as most of these things turn out to be, but it is good. Lots of angst, illness/injury, emeto, etc. But, as I said, it’s like Criminal Minds in terms of content. TWs abound.

Films

First Man

This is a perfect film. It’s a biopic, and there’s not a lot of action, but it’s thought provoking. It’s exceptionally well-written, the acting is spot-on, and the music and visuals are beautiful. It makes a man’s extraordinary experiences into something intimate and relatable by de-mystifying it. Fight with the wife, swim with the kids, go to the moon, ho hum. Tis the rhythm of life. It’s all presented at the same pace, with much gravity (pun intended) given to body language and well-placed symbolism. It’s definitely a shoe-in for awards, and it’s my pic for Best Picture.

Isle of Dogs

This is a bizarre piece, but it’s genius. A bit like American Vandal in its way of being simultaneously sincere and off the wall, this animated film occupies an awkward collegiate space--it’s not for kids, yet not really geared for adults. It’s funny, cynical, and very sad, though it’s not that kind of sad dog movie (again, spoilers, but I’ll say that it’s ok to get attached to your favorite characters). This film is art, for sure, and it’s also extremely enjoyable.

Boy Erased

This is a tough watch, because the TWs are the plot: A boy struggles to come to terms with his sexuality and recover from the trauma of sexual assault while participating in an abusive conversion therapy course. There are no plot twists. It’s exactly what it sounds like. But the acting is gorgeous, especially Lucas Heges as the main character and Nicole Kidman as his mother. It’s a beautifully angsty movie. It has a largely hopeful ending, but there are almost no lighthearted moments. All the same, it has a satisfying feel, and didn’t make me feel down when I left the theater.

Colette

This is the ceiling-shatterer of this awards cycle. As promised in glimpses of the trailer, it’s ground breaking in its portrayal of female agency and LGBT characters in a historical context. The beginning is a bit slow and Jane Austen-ish, but from the midpoint to the end, there are multiple mind-blowing revelations and shocking lines that take the story from a little known page of history to a spectacle representative of the Parisian salon culture from whence it came.

Cam

I know this is a strange choice. It’s a second-rate, made-for-Netflix pseudo-thriller about camgirls and the horrors of modern technology. The reason it’s on my list, though, is because it’s very obviously meant to compete with Assassination Nation (even using some of the same actors), and, unlike its big-budget counterpart, it actually hits its mark. It forces the viewer to think about the lines between respect and abuse, exploitation and sex work, and the meaning of privacy in an increasingly digitized world,

Art

Artsnacks

Subscription boxes are nothing new, but I’m especially pleased with this one. Instead of just sending stuff, it cultivates a community. You receive a box of 4 to 6 art products (typically a pencil, a couple pens and markers, and a paint and/or brush--things that are expendable, so you don’t accumulate junk even as a long-time subscriber) and a piece of candy. The game is to use all the products in the box to create a piece and post it on social media, then connect with other artists. Artsnacks also releases collections and pushes additional challenges (such as Inktober) that encourage skill development and interaction among participants.

#best of 2018 #laur talks #laur recommends

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libraryleopard · 3 years ago

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thank you for answering my comics questions!! i dont know anyone else who is into these and i really wanted to hear opinions from someone who was really passionate about it. i also am a big young avengers fan and was pretty much only reading x-factor for prodigy (ok it was actually bc i saw the scene where speed meets northstar scene and thought well guess i have to read this now) and i felt pretty weird about how prodigy's arc was wrapped up. it felt kind of anticlimactic to me, and then obviously everything spiraled off into trials of magneto.....

i'm interested to see where trials of magneto goes just because i'm very invested in the magneto family tree, but i feel like the stakes are kind of low just because like. i don't think magneto killed her because it would be too obvious, and the comic previews have already said that she's not totally dead.

also i'm kind of confused about tommy calling wanda "mommy" when they found her body?? like hello didn't you meet her for the first time when you were like 16???? you haven't even interacted on panel since like, children's crusade. what is this. when did you have time to build any relationship with her

I'm just gonna start putting comic thoughts under a cut because they keep getting too long haha

Oh, I'm always willing to talk about comics lately! Yeah, I'm In the same boat a bit, I'm a Young Avengers fan who got into X-Men comics partially to follow those characters which means a lot of my investment is in the Maximoff family and Prodigy. I understand that the resolution of the mystery of Prodigy's death was kind rushed because of X-Factor's cancellation and editorial meddling, two things out of Leah Williams' hands but yeah, still didn't love it and I think writing about a Black bi character dying because of a hate crime would be a tricky or maybe even impossible plot line for a white writer to pull off sensitively even without squishing a number of other things into the same issue. (Especially because before the reveal I'd been seeing the theory that the weirdness around David's death was that it hadn't been properly verified and the original powerless David was still out there, which would have fascinating implications regarding the resurrection protocols and cloning, but I digress.)

I think stakes are kind of tricky for this era of X-Men because death is so cheap–for instance, during X of Swords they tried to pull something about how dying in the Otherworld meant it would be impossible to resurrect people with their original personalities and memories intact because of multiverse weirdness, but even that felt kind of forced. Honestly, even though I do have issues with Leah Williams' writing, the time in X-Factor when Akihiro loses the memory of one of his teammates caring enough to come to save him because he dies is the one really good moment I've encountered where a writer has managed to figure out how to make dying have stakes when it's so easy to come back to life. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens with Wanda–like because she wasn't considered a mutant when she died, they can't bring her back fully intact or there are different versions of her for different eras or something like that. It's pretty much a given that Magneto didn't kill her (it would be a pretty dumb for a murder mystery to have the killer be the original suspect, TBH), so I guess the stakes are supposed to be more about whether Wanda will become a mutant again and whether Krakoans can accept her even after she caused the Decimation.

Wanda is also tricky in regards to X-Men comics because she's been a scapegoat for the Decimation for so long-and yes it was bad but like…she was having a mental breakdown and has tried to atone for a long time and is still vilified in-universe and out, meanwhile the Krakoan council is letting Mister Sinister and other villains who have been totally in control of their faculties while doing terrible things without regret hang around so like…bit of a double standard there on the island! I know Leah Williams is sympathetic to Wanda and I wouldn't be surprised if this event is partially about trying to find Wanda a place among the X-Men again, but I do feel like it might have been more interesting to acknowledge Wanda's gradual growth and attempts to atone since Avengers Dissembled/the Decimation rather than doing a weird murder mystery but eh, I guess we'll see how it goes down at the end of the trial. (Calling it the Trial of Magneto is wild to me though, like I know it's an editorial/higher-up decision but you really want to try and compete with Chris Claremont's original Trial of Magneto in Uncanny X-Men #200, one of the most iconic single issues of X-Men ever?)

Tommy's role also felt kinda random to me too–I think Leah Williams likes him as a character which is why he got to hang around with Northstar (I did love that) and pop up in X-Factor, but he and Wanda have just never gotten any significant development as a family unit since they realized they were related. There's certainly a lot of fandom interest in Tommy, but his canon development is just not all that deep. I mean, ideally the Trial's going to conclude with Magneto being reinstated as the Maximoff's father and that family solving at least a few of their issues so maybe they can interact more in the coming years, but that did have me a little "okay……"

Wanda and the Maximoff family are kind of a tangled web of comic continuity and relationships even without the whole background of a kind-of-fucked-up mutant paradise island and a murder mystery so it definitely wouldn't be an easy story to write under any circumstances, I guess we'll just have to see how it pans out.

GEEZ that was long, oh well.

#asks #answered #anon #lulu reads comics #lulu reads marvel comics #lulu talks marvel #lulu talks xmen #lulu reads #comics #marvel comics #marvel #xmen

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thearabkhaleesi · 7 years ago

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AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR SPOILER REVIEW

I wrote most of my opinions on the movie in general in my NO SPOILER review, so I won’t be repeating myself, but instead will discuss in depth, the story and plot.

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still can’t wrap my head around Gamora’s death. She was such an awesome, strong female character in the MCU and I’m so sad to see her go. I wished she lived long enough to see the end of, and have a hand in, her father’s demise.

Doctor Strange blew my freaking mind. MAN. I always said I liked his character more than his movie, and this is what I’M TALKING ABOUT. HE’S SO COOL AND AWESOME. I’m so happy we FINALLY see Doctor Strange this way. He kicked a** in the movie and definitely stood out, amongst a large number of amazing characters, which is such an amazing feat. & to anyone thinking: “But he’s so stupid, why would he give the Time Stone away so easily?!” You’re forgetting something. Doctor Strange KNOWS what’s going to happen. He looked at their futures. He knows he has to give up the Time Stone to win in the long run. He said earlier on in the film he would let Tony & Peter die for the Time Stone, and with his stubborn personality, he wouldn’t have a change of heart that fast. As he said himself, “It was the only way…” (to defeat Thanos in the long run)

To say I love the Thor would be an understatement. In Ragnarok and especially in Infinity War, we finally see him at the height of his powers. I’ve also I’ve always been fascinated with the idea how Mjölnir was made, and to see the making of STORMBREAKER, with GROOT, ROCKET, AND TYRION LANNISTER by his side, it was incredible (also: how GOOD WAS HIS CHEMISTRY WITH THE GUARDIANS?! I loved it.)

And, I don’t care what Tony thinks, Thor is the strongest Avenger, and he KILLED IT.

I also loved Scarlet Witch in this movie. In my opinion, she doesn’t get enough appreciation and people underestimate her & her powers, but the fact that she was able to destroy the Mind Stone proved how powerful she is, I thought she was awesome (even though I don’t really like her relationship with Vision).

Now, Star Lord, Oh Star Lord.. what did you do? I have to be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Star Lord (and Chris Pratt tbh), and I loved & hated him in Infinity War more than ever. He was bad***, cool, exciting, funny… and then he decided to punch Thanos. While it really angered me at first, someone pointed out that it was most probably meant to be in order for them to defeat Thanos in the long run. But seeing the Gauntlet slip out of Spiderman’s hand at the last second made me wince. Damn it, Quill.

One thing I loved without a shadow of a doubt in this movie was the separate, but connected storylines, and the dynamic/relationship between the characters who are meeting for the first time. All of the groups had GREAT chemistry! Tony, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and Star Lord, Thor, Rocket, and Groot (HOW CUTE AND PERFECT!). Cap, Black Widow, Hulk, T’Challa, Bucky, Scarlet Witch, Vision. It was all so perfect, seeing two narcissist Sherlocks with big egos quarreling, a mighty Norse god with a raccoon and a tree, and super soldiers and assassins with the King of Wakanda, his army, and Bruce role-playing as Iron Man. It was a perfect blend and unity of our beloved characters.

Captain America is a character that will always have a place in my heart, and I literally squealed and clapped at his entrance. However, I needed more on Captain America / Black Widow. and their time post Civil War. Cap especially is a very important character in the MCU and to me, and I was upset that we didn’t see more of what he was up to. His sudden appearance to help defend Vision and Wanda just felt rushed for plot convenience, which I didn’t appreciate. Maybe they’ll expand on what he was up to in Avengers 4, but I love Cap so much that I just needed more.

Some of my of my favorite comic book characters of all time, Iron Man, Hulk, and Spider-Man, were just as great in this movie. I got so emotional when we discovered Tony and Pepper were engaged, because this is FINALLY where he deserves to be, and yet Infinity War comes along and Marvel loves to torture us. Seeing Thanos stab him made my heart stop, but I’m happy he’s safe (for noe). Seeing Science Bros reuniting and Bruce hugging Tony made me so emotional and reminded me of happier times. Spider-Man is literally one of my childhood heroes, and I LOVE Tom Holland’s version of him, which is arguably the best. He was so fun and brilliant in this movie, and I can’t express my love for his relationship with Tony; they both look at each other as father/son, and the way he calls Tony “Mr. Stark” and always wants to impress him. Gah my heart.

Though I have a few personal issues and bones to pick with Thanos, I can’t deny that I thought he was a great villain. Yes, his intentions can seem stereotypical, and he isn’t my favorite MCU antagonist (Loki & Killmonger), but I can’t deny he was great. He was unstoppable, ruthless, and showed no mercy. Plus, he was scary because you know your faves aren’t safe against him. He was so frightening that on my second screening of the film, there was a little kid a few seats away that sat trembling in fear when Thanos collected all the Infinity Stones. THIS is a great villain.

Something I really didn’t like in the film was Loki’s death. Loki’s death was TOO FAST, AND TOO SOON. If you know me, you know I went through a Loki phase & he’s a character I actually really love. I low-key (lol) expected him to die, but the way it happened kinda angered me. The Loki we’ve seen before wouldn’t be that stupid to try and stab Thanos like that. I AT LEAST expected him to make it really seem like he was betraying Thor (again) but had a bigger plan, and was going to betray Thanos for Thor. + The scene was too fast. Did we REALLY have to see Drax eating snacks instead of more Loki? It was very disappointing. In my opinion, he was the greatest villain in the MCU and deserved better. However, I do have to say it was amazing to hear him say “We have a Hulk”.

Another thing, Thanos’ children were lame. I hoped for characters similar to Captain Phasma - even though they wouldn’t be the villain in the film, but rather a minor antagonist, I at least expected them to be somewhat cool. But alas, I don’t really care about them, they didn’t have that big of an impact, and at least we got that hilarious Squidward joke.

So let’s talk about that ending. I’m going to be honest here, don’t worry about the safety of those that died at the end. Most of them have contracts for future movies past Avengers 4. I would say most of them are safe in the long run. Worry about those who are still alive, as it seems THEY are the ones facing Thanos in Avengers 4 next year. Even though I was very emotional, I was actually satisfied with the ending because I love a good cliffhanger, I can theorize a bit, and yet I still don’t know what to expect! I loved it. And I don’t care what Kevin Feige says, those characters will come back somehow…

In conclusion, I loved Infinity War. The Russo brothers took huge risks, but I’ve always wanted to see stakes this high in the MCU. Even though many of my beloved characters “died” at the end, it was emotional, epic and exciting.

9.5

#avengers #infinity war #avengers infinity war #mcu #marvel

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skele-bones · 7 years ago

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Ana and the Sleepover

This is the seventeenth chapter of Everyday Heroes.

If you like what I do and want to support me, why not buy me a coffee?

Ana loved her family. It was made of an array of individuals who brought various shades and hues of color to her life. And for someone who lived in the bleakness of self-imposed exile for years, such a thing was a blessing. Her family was broken up in many ways and it took them a lot time to come back together. However, she wouldn’t have changed a thing because this was her definition of a perfect life.

Stepping over toys and making her way into the Shimada-McCree quarters, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder and amused glint in her eyes at the mess strewn about. Dishes were in the sink, toys in the living room, and the television was left on with a paused game. Snack wrappers were stuffed in a spilling trash can and piles of books were organized into a makeshift fort. Blankets, toy wooden swords, and a few band-aids were left on the couch alongside a group of sleeping children.

The door swooped shut behind Ana and she sighed, shaking her head and setting the duffle bag down. Her grandmother’s intuition (as Reinhardt called it) told her that leaving the kids on their own for a night would result in disaster. But from the content smile on their faces, and the state of the room, it seemed like they had a monumental amount of fun. Ana pulled off her poncho and hung it up next to one of Jesse’s many hats, tossing her braid over her shoulder and going to kneel down next to them.

Shingen was caught in the middle of the pile-up, with Mariam and Gabriel on either side of him, Kai lying comfortably on the left of Mariam. Ana smiled softly as she ran her fingers through Mariam’s thick black hair. The little girl scrunched her nose in response and turned over, dragging most of the blankets with her as she did. Shingen’s arm twitched and he tightened his hold on Gabriel who seemed completely dead to the world. Kai was the first one to open his eyes and blearily look up at Ana.

“Granny,” he mumbled. “Is that you?”

Ana chuckled, soft and low. “That it is, habibi.” Her fingers brushed through his spiky hair, and she was briefly in awe of how soft it was. More than likely a testament to Lucio’s skill with hair than Genji’s, especially considering that Zenyatta had no hair to speak of. Amused by her own joke, Ana shifted into a sitting position and hummed a soft lullaby.

“Is dad back?”

“Not yet, I’m afraid.”

Kai slowly nodded his head, struggling to keep his eyes open and failing as he drifted back into sleep. The other children continued to snooze and Ana was almost content with letting them sleep the morning away. However, one glance at her duffle bag reminded her of the morning’s tasks which had yet to be done. Rolling up her sleeves, she cupped her hands around her mouth and took in a deep breath.

“Time to get up!”

With varying degrees of shock, each child shot up out of their sleep or twisted around to look at her. Gabriel threw his hands in the air and subsequently knocked Shingen in the jaw making his teeth clack together.

“Ow!” Shingen held his jaw and curled up in a ball.

Gabriel winced, rubbing his older brother’s head. “Sorry, sorry..”

“The sky isn’t awake so I’m not awake,” Mariam grumbled, pushing herself deeper into the pile of blankets.

Kai crawled from underneath the blankets and stretched his arms up as far as they could go, standing on his tip toes. After a satisfied yawn, he bounced from one foot to the other. “C’mon guys, we gotta get up.”

“No thanks,” Mariam replied.

Shingen waved a hand dismissively, “Pass.”

Ana sat and watched the four of them as they tried to either get up or stay down for a little while longer. Once Gabriel finished apologizing to Shingen, he surveyed the room and stopped when his gaze fell on Ana. Eyes widened comically, he scrambled to his feet and flung himself into her arms.

“Granny!”

He didn’t knock her over and wasn’t very heavy to hold thanks to his small size. Though it also helped that he was cute with a large sunny smile, big brown eyes, and hair practically everywhere.

“Good morning, Gabriel.”

It should have been impossible for someone’s smile to get even brighter but somehow he achieved it. Gabriel kissed her cheek noisily then tucked his head against her shoulder. After that, it only took a matter of seconds for Mariam to rouse from sleep and join him in hugging Ana. Both children were rather small and fit easily on her lap but their ability to talk a mile a minute made it difficult for her to follow along. She caught bits and pieces of their “exciting” tales from last night; something to do with a dragon, three monkeys, and a game with high stakes.

I should probably ask their parents what they’ve been watching on television.

Looking up, she had to hold back laughter as Kai tried to drag Shingen up to his feet. Both boys were around the same size which should’ve made the task a lot easier. Alas, Shingen didn’t take kindly to being woken up and allowed gravity to weigh him down regardless of Kai’s insistence that he use his legs.

“Oh no, gravity is increasing on me,” Shingen said.

Kai grunted and tried to push him up further. “No, it’s not! You’re just not using your legs!”

“Yes it is, Kai, the same thing happened yesterday.”

Both boys went down in a heap with Shingen laying on Kai’s back, the latter having his face pressed against the floor. Mariam laughed and Gabriel nodded his head sagely. Ana figured he must’ve been on the other side of Shingen’s “gravity-increase” before.

Shaking her head, she ushered both children off her lap and stood up.

“Alright, Shingen. It is time to get up.”

He slowly stood up with a “yes ma’am” and Kai scrambled to his feet, shaking his fist at him for “treachery most foul”. Though Ana doubted that Shingen heard him over the loud yawn he emitted after stretching. From there, she sat back and watched them.

Sunlight filtered through the open blinds silhouetting them in golden rays. Shingen and Kai play fought as they gathered up the blankets, folding them from either side. Gabriel cheered on his brother while Mariam cheered on Kai, sometimes throwing themselves into the folding blankets or running underneath them. Ana propped her arm up on her knee, hunched over and pressed her cheek against her open palm.

This was her family.

This was her future.

And though it took time and effort to get to where they were, she wouldn’t trade these children for anything in the world.

“Perhaps after we’re doing picking up in here,” Ana announced, trying to hide her amusement at the sudden attention of four sets of eyes. “We can go into town to pick up ingredients for dinner.”

Mariam and Gabriel’s running came to a halt. They turned to one another with twin looks of excitement and cheered, scrambling to pick up their toys and other objects strewn about. Ana didn’t know what to think about Mariam shoving band-aids back into a first aid kit. Nonetheless, the younger children were like tornadoes running from one corner of the room to the next. While the older children took to making sure they didn’t trip over themselves or smack into something. Gabriel was tugged back by his t-shirt one too many times after he almost collided into the couch or a wall, attempting to run past or through it.

That’s odd.

“Granny, what are we eating tonight?”

Ana tapped her chin and hummed thoughtfully. “I was thinking curry.”

“Curry?!”

If it wasn’t for her years on the battlefield and being in a relationship with Reinhardt, she might have jumped as they all yelled at once. Gabriel grabbed Shingen by his t-shirt and shook him back and forth.

“We’re eating curry!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

Shingen pried his hands off, “Get off me!”

“Curry!” Kai leapt onto Shingen’s back, prompting Gabriel to cling to his front.

If it wasn’t for Shingen’s balance, he might have fallen over but instead just looked like a very tired and resigned climbing post. Mariam giggled behind her hands and went to save him by poking both Gabriel and Kai in the sides. Both boys leapt a foot away from Shingen and he seemed pleased, ruffling Mariam’s hair afterwards.

Ana shook her head, slowly standing up and rolling her joints along with the cricks and cracks of age. Mariam went to help her when she was halfway up and Gabriel was hot on her heels, both staring at Ana worriedly.

“I’m fine,” she reassured them. “But would one of you be a dear and bring my bag over here?”

Shingen nodded, passing the blanket over to Kai and going to pick up the bag. He slung it over his shoulder, turning around with a confused expression at the burst of applause behind him.

“You’ve gotten stronger, haven’t you?” Ana asked, taking the bag from him once he was close enough.

Shingen’s cheeks colored with pink and he bowed his head, grumbling. Gabriel making muscle flexing motions behind his brother while Mariam clung to his arm, laughing. Ana shook her head, leaving them to their bickering and playing as she pulled out several outfits and a few hair supplies.

“Gabriel, do you want to wear your hair up or down today?” She called over her shoulder.

“Down please!” Gabriel replied.

“Shingen?” She called.

“Up please!” Shingen replied.

“Kai? Mariam?”

“Up,” said Kai.

“Down,” said Mariam.

Ana nodded and stood up, handing Gabriel and Mariam their clothes. “You two go take a shower, okay?” Both children lit up like the sun and took their clothes, close to running off to the shower faster than a hyper train. “Wait one second,” she called, making them stop in their tracks. “What’s the rule?”

Mariam shifted her clothes carefully to one arm and stood tall, her head up and shoulders back in a rather small imitation of Fareeha.

“No playing around because it’s wet and we might fall.”

Gabriel mimicked her but he folded his arms across his chest, making a serious expression that reminded her of his grandpa Gabriel.

“Keep a towel close by and don’t drop water everywhere, if you do, clean it up.”

Ana raised a brow at both of them.

“If you need help, call for grandma Ana!”

She smiled and nodded. “Now off you go,” Ana said and watched them as they disappeared into the bathroom. “I’m taking it that you two already washed?”

Kai and Shingen were halfway through cleaning the rest of the house when they looked up at her. It was strange how two boys who looked so much like Hanzo and Genji could be complete angels.

“Yes,” Kai said.

“Yes ma’am,” Shingen replied, nudging Kai.

“Oh, right. Yes ma’am,” Kai rubbed his side and stuck his tongue out at Shingen. The older boy stuck his tongue out at him and they glared at one another with the ferocity of dragons. At that moment, Ana thought it was wise to put herself between the two. Squealing came from the bathroom and she narrowed her eyes.

“You two better not be playing in there!”

The squealing came to a stop and two voices called out apologies. Ana smiled exasperatedly, shaking her head and leading both Kai and Shingen to the couch. Kai picked up the brushes, combs and hair bands while Shingen sat down between Ana’s legs, his back facing her.

“Thank you, habibi,” she said when Kai put the items down on the couch.

He sat across from Shingen and the two engaged in a game of Rock Paper Scissors. Though every time one or the other won, they’d flick each other on the forehead. After the twentieth flick and a growing red bruise on Kai’s forehead, Ana stopped the game.

“So what did you two do last night?”

Shingen looked back and thought about it, “We practiced sword fighting and Mariam patched us up. And we played—-“

“Wait, what do you mean… Mariam patched you up?”

Kai shrugged. “If we got hit pretty hard, we yelled ‘I need healing’ and she would heal us up. But we didn’t really get hard. It just made her smile to help us.”

Ana stared blankly. That had to be one of the cutest things she ever heard. Shingen nodded along. “I even let Kai beat me so Gabriel could ‘defend my honor’.”

“What do you mean you let me beat you?”

Kai glowered at Shingen, poking him in the chest.

“I beat your fair and square!”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

Ana shook her head and finished putting Shingen’s hair in a high ponytail. By the time she was done, he was nose o nose with Kai debating who really won. That above all else reminded her how close they were to Genji and Hanzo. Especially when Shingen stood up and turned around to look at her, the gold scarf moving with every turn of his head.

“Feels good?” She asked.

Shingen brushed his fingers along his hairline, momentarily forgetting the argument with Kai.

“Yep,” he replied and moved to sit beside her as Kai sat between her legs.

“So what else did you do?”

Shingen kicked his legs back and forth. “Played Battlefield With Uncle Rat and Uncle Hog,” he said. “We built forts out of books and completely demolished Uncle Rat And his team.”

Ana hummed. Junkrat and Roadhog being around did make sense. The two of them were stellar with the children aside from the occasional explosion or two. It also explained the forts and the smell of barbecue.

“I’ll take it they fed you as well,” Ana asked.

Both boys winced. “Something like that,” Kai muttered. “We might of had an incident with the smoke alarm.”

Yes, that made a lot of sense.

“We’re done!”

Ana tilted her head back and saw two children running in with fluffy white towels wrapped around them. They were soaking from head to toe, damp curly hair plastered to their foreheads and infectious grins on their faces. Their clothes were nowhere in sight and Ana almost asked before remembering.

She asked them to bathe. Not put on their clothes.

“Mariam! Gabriel!”

Both kids laughed, running down the hall and Ana finished with Kai’s headband letting him get up. She brushed the hair off her pants and called out to them.

“You better run, Granny is going to get you!”

#anahardt #mchanzo #fanfiction #overwatch #r76 #everyday heroes

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raterabbit1-blog · 5 years ago

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Mental Illness in Horror: My Friend Dahmer & Suicide Club

Previously: Blumhouse's Halloween.

I love Horror, but too much of it views mental illness as a bottomless well of origin stories for killers. It's disappointing that Horror still views "crazy" as a synonym "villain" when we live in a world where so many people with mental illness are abused, evicted, and killed.

Today I want to look at two very powerful films that have different angles on mental illness. The first actually asks us to sympathize with the notorious Jeffrey Dahmer.

My Friend Dahmer (2017)

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This is almost the prologue to a Horror movie. Based on the comic of the same name, My Friend Dahmer is about the years of Jeffrey Dahmer’s life right before he became a serial killer. It’s seldom merely morbid, offering a profoundly human vision of a confused, neuroatypical young man who had a brief chance to change. It focuses on the group of prankster friends Dahmer fell in with, jocular but not cruel.

At the start of the movie, Dahmer collects road kill and other dead animals in his shack, where he dissects them and reduces them to bones. It looks like he’s on the path to becoming a serial killer already, although he hasn’t made the typical jump to harming animals yet. But his father discovers the shack and demolishes it. Dahmer is infuriated, but his father sits him down and says he sees himself in the boy. There’s deep irony in this heart-to-heart chat about the importance of making friends and not isolating yourself, because his father thinks he’s just on the road to being an unhappy middle-aged man like himself.

That irony is lost on Dahmer, who then tries to fit in with the goofballs he knows at school, creating an incredibly unlikely friendship that sublimates his darker impulses. He’s willing to embarrass himself publicly in ways the other boys aren’t. That makes him a legend to them, and gives him an outlet he needs as the rest of his life starts to fall apart.

It could have been a straightforward movie about the descent into violence, especially with how uncomfortable and natural Ross Lynch’s performance is. He portrays someone who doesn’t understand many social norms, and feels compelled to break them without understand why he’s supposed to enjoy the transgression.

There’s an amazing struggle at the heart of this movie. Typically movies about serial killers invite you root for someone to escape, or to bring a killer to justice. Here Dahmer hasn’t hurt anyone yet, and you find yourself rooting for him not to do things. There’s a particularly rare and rewarding scene where Dahmer takes a dog into the woods and finds he can’t bring himself to hurt it. He doesn’t want that life -- yet.

No one person is blamed for what Dahmer became. His mother was emotionally unavailable, bordering on mean; his father had an affair and moved out; his friends normalized misbehaving in public; his physician recognized he was gay but offered no guidance. Nobody here has blood on their hands. Rather, we get to see how if a couple of these factors had been different, someone with Dahmer’s exact mental make-up could live a constructive life. In this way the movie benefits from never turning into a Slasher flick. It manages to normalize a mental condition plenty of other people have without becoming violent, showing you that even the worst cases are avoidable if we take the time to care.

Suicide Club, AKA Suicide Circle (2001)

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Suicide Club is one of those Japanese movies I always heard about in college but never got to see. It got its buzz from gray markets in the early 2000s, back when my fellow students were learning how to import region-free DVDs. It’s how we got Battle Royale, Versus, and High Tension. That period still has a powerful charm over me, because for the first time I was seeing American film norms shattered over and over. But Suicide Club was one of the few that no one ever actually had a copy of, despite everyone talking about how disturbing it was supposed to be.

It has a killer hook: groups of teens have begun committing suicide without leaving so much as a note, and authorities scramble to figure out how this is happening. They incorporate dozens of actual teen actors who look totally normal and behave with preternatural cheer given what they’re about to do. It’s partially filmed on handheld cameras where the director tries to do sweeping shots that encompass morbid and tense scenes. When it works, it feels like a voyeuristic window into teen life that is about to go terribly wrong.

After the first mass suicide, teens start joking about joining in. The eerie thing is that we don’t know who among them is joking to demean it, and who is about to jump in front of a train. The movie never nods. The absence of clues leaves you paranoid that something awful could happen to anyone you see, and neither you nor the detectives will be able to catch them in time. In this way it becomes a sort of plague movie, about a plague of self-harm.

The most affecting scene in the movie is mostly one continuous shot of a rooftop party for a dozen teens. They’re singing, dancing, and joking about forming their own suicide club. They start egging each other to stand on the edge of the roof. I leaned all the way forward in my chair, rapt by how bad this could go, especially when they started holding hands. It’s as tense a scene as I’ve seen all October, in no small part because everyone is treating this as a game and I didn’t trust the movie to do the same.

That drama is at odds with laughably bad production values. The suspense in key scenes is amazing, only for the victims to explode like water balloons full of cherry juice. The production is at odds with how wildly powerful the tone can get. The same low budget that made the producers recruit so many real kids and shoot on real locations smashes into how poorly lit the movie is, and how poorly edited it winds up being. Several times it felt like a Troma movie, except one that was wrestling with far more serious stakes.

Unfortunately, the movie turns out to be a dog chasing a car. That premise is gripping. The ultimate explanation for why it’s all happening? It’s one part bad satire, one part bad soap opera, all presented like they think they’ve outdone the finale Evangelion. Maybe something so ridiculous will calm some of us, who otherwise couldn’t finish a movie like this without feeling sick. I’m still not sure that was worth the trade-off.

Ever since watching it, I’ve contrasted it with Battle Royale. Battle Royale is a story of teens forced into violence told from their perspectives. The terror is theirs, shown through their vulnerability. I wonder if Suicide Club wouldn’t have wound up with a better conclusion if it hadn’t been told from the distant perspective of detectives. There’s tension to being stuck with adults who don’t understand and can’t stop what’s happening to children, yet it moves our sympathies away. If someone were to remake a movie this dark and controversial, might there be more justice to the subject matter if it was told from the point of view of the teenagers?

Coming up tomorrow: Classic Black and White Horror! The Haunting and Kwaidan.

Source: http://johnwiswell.blogspot.com/2018/10/mental-illness-in-horror-my-friend.html

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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justonestraightshot-blog · 6 years ago

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★彡 𝙈𝘾𝙐 𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙀 彡★

OVERALL BACKSTORY

Clint’s story follows his comic version up until the events of meeting Natasha. Those events are as followed.

He was raised in Waverly, Iowa. His home life wasn’t especially forgiving considering his father and his relentless abuse due to alcoholism. Between he and his older brother, Barney, Clint had to learn to fight for himself. After his mother and father perished in a car crash, Barney and Clint were given to a foster family who didn’t treat them much better. When he and his brother finally decided to runaway, they came upon a group of carnies in a traveling circus. He and his brother began traveling with them. During this time, Clint trained with tricksters, Swordsman and Trick Shot, who both developed his sense of aim and his fighting abilities. When one night he witnessed Swordsman embezzling money from the circus, Clint tried to stop him, only to be beaten and left for dead allowing the Swordsman to escape. After this, he dedicated all his time into mastering his craft.

Divergence - pre movies.

He ditched the circus when he was around 14. He did odd jobs here and there to make ends meet, gaining a reputation as a street performer and sometimes an act in Tiboldt’s Circus. His act? World’s Greatest Marksman: HAWKEYE. When those odd jobs just weren’t cutting it, Hawkeye turned to assassination, a ruse to try and make his abilities out to be more heroic. He took it upon himself to stake out despicable targets that dipped their toes into dirty business. He was 18 when he was caught on SHIELD’s radar, and Phil Coulson was sent to recruit him or kill him. Being young, Hawkeye chose the former, and chose to join SHIELD, working under Coulson. 2 years later he was sent to Russia to stake out a target that was assumed to be under the Red Room. His target was the Black Widow, and after the chase, the fight and her defeat, Clint hesitated. He let her live, giving her the same two options he was given.

After Recruiting Natasha, and many many years, the team of Strike Team Delta was formed. Coulson as the handler with Clint and “Nat” as she was now called, as the two-man battalion. It was also during this time he met another young agent Bobbi Morse, and had a relationship with her. While Brief, Clint still holds her in high regards, resigning himself to the fact that she was much too dedicated to the job and her strict set of following all the rules no questions asked interfered with his style of things. He still greatly respects her and considers her a close companion.

Thor.

Hawkeye’s involvement with the first Thor stays the same as the movies. He was sent out with Coulson to investigate an 084. This led to the discovery of Thor and the Asgardians.

Avengers.

This movie also features no divergence. Under the influence of Loki’s staff, Hawkeye betrayed SHIELD and helped Loki get his hands on the Tesseract in order to save the world. He gains consciousness again after a fight with Nat. He still holds the guilt of what he did. This included carrying the weight of his mentor’s death: Phil Coulson.

CA:TWS.

Clint was on a separate mission in Romania during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It was during this mission, SHIELD members were revealed to be HYDRA all along. Some of them included the ones running his mission. Hawkeye was gravely injured and left for dead once again. Coulson, knowing Hawkeye was out there, sent an extraction team with what little manpower he had at the time. Without wanting to reveal to the young Hawk that he was still alive, he elected to have Clint delivered to a house back in Iowa where an inactive SHIELD agent by the alias of Laura Barton and her two children lived. It was on this farm Clint went undercover in order to rehabilitate himself and learn how to cope with losing 80% of his hearing.

TA: AOU.

After reuniting with Natasha and the rest of the Avengers, the movie plays out like normal. His farm was a safehouse for the team to go to when they needed it.

CA:CW.

After the events of Age of Ultron and suffering another loss of the young hero, Pietro Maximoff, Clint turned away from the hero life to start a new path. He left the farm in better health and got a small apartment in Brooklyn. It was here he was approached by the young Kate Bishop, asking for him to train her. After a lot of pestering, Clint agreed. When he got the call about the Sokovia Accords, Clint knew the situation would end up messy. The rest of the story follows the movie: He goes to avengers tower to rescue Wanda, takes part in the battle at the airport and ends up in the Raft until Captain America breaks him out.

TA:IW.

After this, Clint lays low to avoid the government and people looking for him. He takes on a new persona: Ronin, a rogue samurai.

TA:EG.

Can I rewrite all of this? Anyway, uh, of course he is concerned for Laura and the kids, even though they aren’t biologically his, he still cares for the family. After losing Tash, he’s really messed up, but something inside him is spurred to believe she’s alive. He wanders the galaxy searching for her or a way to bring her back.

#marvel rp #avengers rp #marvel roleplay #avengers roleplay #clint barton #clint barton roleplay #hawkeye #hawkeye roleplay #please #need interactions #muse #mun #{ Technical Shiz

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icy-obsession · 5 years ago

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I know right. I think what's so dark about this comic (well there are lots of things) is that like it's depicting them being happy and okay in this incredibly abusive and fucked up situation. Like no that's not cute, it's sick.

And yeah the northuldra thing is problematic on lots of levels. One of which being why couldn't they just have done the right thing and righted the wrongs of the past without having to have a personal investment in it? It's always the responsibility of indigenous peoples to fix the past. Why can't they just stay white and take responsibility?

Also as a mixed white passing Indigenous person it's like....that's not a normal reaction to finding out your heritage. They were just like oh okay cool. No internal conflict. No trying to reconcile that sudden upheaval to their identity. Just like proud and happy straight away. Mate it doesn't work like that.

But back to the original point I refuse to believe the parents couldn't have worked through the trauma with Elsa and taught her some emotional regulation techniques and idk self esteem? It was a one time incident and did not have to turn into a thirteen year trauma. Like I work with children with trauma and honestly this would be a relatively easy case to help her heal from. That's not even accounting for Anna who DIDNT HAVE TO spend all those years lonely and honestly if she's still thinking she's done something to upset Elsa at the start of F1 it really implies their parents didn't bother to give her any explanation or correct that incredibly damaging belief....her low self esteem came from her parents too.

But obviously they were also living in a time when people were superstitious and probably burning witches at the stake and there's no way Elsa wouldn't have internalised this societal marginalisation despite being royal and whatever especially considering she's locked in her room for a mistake she made at 8 years old. They really ought to have worked through this with her and ugh the more I think about it the more their nice devoted loving on screen characters just make no sense which is why I headcannon Ruenard being alive and driving the abusive situation. It's the only thing that makes sense. I'm glad they gave us Ruenard just for this reason.

Sorry I just got way too worked up lol.

The pic is small, but it’s Anna celebrating Elsa’s eleventh birthday by throwing confetti under her door. Adorable.

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nerdynformed-blog · 8 years ago

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Logan is a superhero movie - Part II: the ‘superheroism’ in Logan

I am going to try to be more concise this time around, I promise. This is going to take more parts than I originally planned. I am currently looking at 4 parts total: Part I was about what a superhero movie is. Now in Part II I will try to show that Logan is a superhero and the movie actually concentrates on that more than we might have noticed. Part III is going to be about how the movie uses that and to what effect. Finally, Part IV will be why superhero movies matter and why we need more good ones.

Even if you have not read Part I (and why would you), what I am going to talk about here is not hard to follow. Basically, you just have to know three things:

A) Superhero is not a movie genre. It is a subject and a kind of character that movies of any genre can and should explore to different effects.

B) A superhero movie is therefore a movie of any genre that centers itself on a character endowed by the traits that define a superhero.

C) The way the movie explores the subject defines the kind of movie it is.

(now that I am writing this, I see that I really could’ve been more concise in Part I - if you still whant to read it, you can click this link: https://nerdynformed.tumblr.com/post/158824439050/loganisasuperheromoviepart1).

With that in mind, le me just talk about how the superhero traits not only appear, but also are prevalent in Logan. They are in fact the main subject. The movie is a drama about the redemption of a fallen superhero: how it happens and why it is important.

So if you think that Logan is not a superhero movie, read own.

Lets talk about justice, secret identities, superpowers, uniforms and the ‘X’ factor.

Motivation

As I said before, a superhero (like the cowboys and detectives) fights for what is right not in service of (and sometimes despite) a higher authority, but following his own moral instincts.

It is not a behavior that he has to perform since the beginning of the story – some of the best stories are about the learning of that behavior through example, empowerment or even trauma.

Now, in the beginning, Logan only agrees to help Laura in exchange of money. Many American hero (see Part I) stories actually begin like that. Towards the end of the movie, however, his motivations change to the point that he refuses to take the money. His motivation becomes helping her and her friends/family. In the final showdown, he even dies doing that.

The entire internal journey of the character in this movie is the rediscovering of this motivation – heroism. It is not the first “superhero return story” movie out there, but it might be the best one we have so far. He begins jaded, cynic and having given up, but ends up living his most super-heroic moment right before dying. He reembraces the most important part of himself.

He is not just fighting for a group, but protecting innocent children from evil doers – just look at the people he is facing. They are your typical super-villains: immoral mercenaries working with an evil scientist that creates evil clones and does experiments in children.

In the end of the day, that is what the movie is on its surface: a lone man, fighting to protect innocent people against the actions of evil agents.

Plus, the fact that this is not another “will he save the world” superhero movie is GREAT. Fewer movies should do that scenario. A superhero doesn’t have to save the world, just save someone. But I digress.

Double identity

Logan not only has a double identity, he has a secret one.

It is just a very badly kept secret. He is flying low so people don’t recognize him as the Wolverine, as an X-Men (X-Man? Ex-X-Me? Ex-X-Man?). Not only that, but there is a clear distinction between his “human” and super personas.

One is a limousine driver down on his luck and just trying to survive and getting a way out. He has some very human worries. He doesn’t have money, he needs to keep his father figure medicated, he wants to buy a way out of it.

During the movie he alternates between fighting “the bad guys” and pretending to be just a normal person – he even dines with a family at their farm pretending to be Charles’ son and Laura’s father. In that moment, he is living a fake identity and giving excuses to cover up his superheroic quest. That is what most superheroes do.

He is not just someone pretending to be someone else. Sure, he hides his superhero side, but his “normal” persona is not even that fabricated: there are references to his past as a bad student and his relationship with Xavier is actually an honest depiction of the real thing. It is a real part of him.

His super persona is also present and important throughout the movie. “Wolverine” doesn’t just reemerges in the end, but is constantly haunting him, since before the movie even begun. He tries to keep it in the past, but it is such a big part of him that he can’t. Again, the return of this super persona in the last minute is what the movie is all about.

I have to mention something. The theme of a superhero trying to keep his identity in the past but ultimately failing to do so is reminiscent of my favorite graphic novel of all times – The Dark Knight Returns.

Superpowers

Now let’s talk about the superpowers. One of my favorite thing is how they dealt with that in the movie. His powers are not only showed in an array of ways and functions in the movie, but they play a more than significant role in the narrative and character development.

First we see them failing: his claws jam and his healing factor is too slow. His powers are older and more tired. That does not keep him from using them time and time again – in almost every fight, honestly.

Near the end of the movie, he takes some drugs and we see him in his old powerful self – clawing, fighting and healing violently fast. Finally, right before the movie ends, his powers scale down again so we can see him face the odds without the enhancement.

The powers demonstrate how much of who and what he is he cannot avoid. Using his powers is an instinct. It is part of him. They show his innate violence, the decrease of his resilience and, ironically, how weaker he feels now.

Not only that, his powers play other roles. The adamantium in his bones (kind of a superpower if you ask me) is maybe what is killing him. His strongest and scariest antagonist has the same powers and in a much better shape. And the enemy is only defeated with his personal break-the-glass-to-commit-suicide kryptonite: the adamantium bullet.

His powers are what initially connect him to Laura – the first evidence that they are related. Laura plays a commentary in the figure of the sidekick and the powers help the movie do that.

On that note, when they fight Evilverine, they do it together. Sure, the other kids help, but is the cooperation between the two that becomes the high point of the fight.

You have three people with the same powers: a kid, a tired Old Man and an evil terminator. That kind of conflict between similar powers has appeared sometimes in movies and is a common trope in comic books – and for a good reason.

It brings more risk and raises stakes so we can be worried about a character that seemed so powerful. It inverts the feeling of security the superpowers bring when we see the hero wield them, especially when the villain is more able with them.

This scene also shows how cooperation can be the defining factor in a conflict, once Laura and Logan are weaker than the villain.

Almost every character is affected by their superpowers, some in very original way. It is why the kids were created and are being persecuted. Caliban is captured and tortured so he will use his powers and track Logan. Xavier has become an impossible to calculate liability because of the combination of his superpowers with something that is very human: mental disease.

Superpowers are not some superficial decoration: they are the most important character elements, and they all say something about the human condition. But that is for Part III.

Uniform

Finally, the uniform. Oh, you got me there, right? Wolverine doesn’t wear a uniform. Yeah, we have the yellow uniform shown in the comics they read, but he never wears it. And we don’t even see the black uniforms from the previous movies.

Well… what if I tell you that he does use an uniform in this movie? What if I tell you, that the uniform he uses is the same he uses most of the time in his other movies? It’s not yellow nor is it black.

Think about it: what are his most famous, cosplayed and recognizable garments? Well, two things.

First of all: the beard and the hair. That is a look that should look ridiculous in any actor by any standards and the guy still pulls it off every time. Only Wolverine wears that. I most movies and even comics, that is the constant in his appearance.

And yeah, it is not a mask, but think about how many superheroes do not wear masks, even if they have secret identities. You can see this hairstyle in anyone and it will be the Wolverine hairstyle.

Ok, but it is just half of it.

The second part is of the uniform: a pair of jeans and white sleeveless shirt.

Yes, everyone remembers that look. It appears in so many important moments to the character, although not always in the best movies. Since the yellow uniform doesn’t appear in the movies, what do you think is more recognizable? The shirt and jeans or the black bodysuit?

Before you say that doesn’t count, think about it: the Punisher and America Chaves wear apparently civil clothes and no masks. However, they do that so consistently that it works like a uniform.

Now, this “uniform” doesn’t just appear in the movie, but it has a very specific function.

To understand it, look at how the movie shows the look to us. It doesn’t appear in the trailers, so we don’t expect it going in. Most of the movie, he doesn’t wear it. His hair and beard are different, just as his clothes.

It is because then he is not a hero again yet. He is hiding and, most of all, suppressing his heroic identity. So Clark Kent puts on the glasses and never takes them off again. That is a uniform not being used.

In a similar way, some superhero movies and series wait until the hero is fully realized or the final fight to show him or her in uniform. We have some movies and series in which they do that and it works for the best – the Netflix Daredevil is a good example.

It is only after his motivations change that he starts to wear both parts of his. The kids shave him and mess with his hair exactly because they know how the Wolverine should look like.

Finally, he wears this uniform only to the last and most important conflict. Then, he is juiced up and doing the same moves we recognize from previous movies, filmed in a way that reminds us of some old Wolverine action sequences.

That is when he is Wolverine again. Same hair, beard, shirt and powers. He is still wearing it when he faces Evilverine and he dies. That is his final “suit”, and it dresses him well.

Bonus: the X marks the spot

Finally, we have one of the most impactful moments in the movie, that had many people crying and I will not tell you if I did. It was surprisingly unexpected and, against all odds, it was done in a very dramatic motion and in very good taste.

Laura picks up the improvised cross on his grave and turns it into a X.

That is the last piece, the final confirmation. Only X-Men wear that X. It is the iconic, unmistakable symbol of a superhero. And he has earned it back.

In his final rest, he will forever wear the sign that marks: here lies a superhero.

So, I hope you liked that.

As you can see, this is not just a movie with superhero tropes tossed here and there. The superhero figure defines the narrative and permeates the emotional response the movie gets.

Part III will be about how this movie uses those traits to create drama, emotion, tell a story about redemption and all that stuff – so we can begin to understand why superheroes are a great material for that. Hope you like it. Hope someone reads it, actually…

And remember, stay nerdly informed.

#logan #logan movie #superhero #superheroes #superhero movies

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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Bookshelf Briefs 5/21/19

Anne Happy, Vol. 9 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – This is the second-to-last volume, but while there are a few hints of plot (Hibari’s family is lampshaded a bit), for the most part it’s devoted to another test of “happiness,” this time by a VR environment that causes everyone to resemble children. Given our main cast already know each other and are pretty good friends, the stakes are honestly pretty low, and there’s a bit less “everyone is useless” here—I don’t even think Botan coughed up blood once. It does make it feel like this is a series that needs to come to an end, though, which is why it’s good that it’s about to. If you’ve been following Anne Happy, this is a pleasant enough volume, and there’s no reason to stop just before the end. – Sean Gaffney

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey, Vol. 1 | By Akiko Higashimura | Seven Seas – I’d loved everything by Higashimura that I’d previously read—Princess Jellyfish and Tokyo Tarareba Girls—so I was looking forward to the release of the award-winning Blank Canvas a great deal. After reading the first volume I can confidently declare that I’m still enamored with Higashimura’s work. Blank Canvas is an autobiographical series in which Higashimura, now a successful manga creator, reflects back upon her early days as an artist. The first volume shows her in high school as she’s preparing to apply for art school, a somewhat daunting challenge since up until that point she’d largely been coasting through her clubs and classes. Determined to become a famous shojo creator, she enrolls in a community art program, the teacher of which isn’t about to let her get away with slacking off. Told with Higashimura’s characteristic mix of humor, heart, and honesty, Blank Canvas is a tremendously engaging manga. – Ash Brown

Dr. STONE, Vol. 5 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – Tempted as I am to just copy/paste my review of the fourth volume here, I will try to say something new. It’s hard, though, as the same two things I spoke about last time are focused on this time. Senku is very invested in science, but it’s a ridiculous shonen kind of science. Also, ridiculous is the order of the day elsewhere, as this series really goes over the top in everything it does. Thankfully, the tournament arc doesn’t last too long. The winner may surprise you, unless you’ve read any other shonen manga ever. I admit I laughed at Ruri’s sprint across the village. But we’re getting a backstory flashback as well, as Ruri knows Senku’s last name. How? We’ll find out next time. – Sean Gaffney

Eve and Eve | By Nagashiro Rouge | Seven Seas – Between Seven Seas and Yen Press, we’re getting quite a few yuri anthologies in 2019. This one is a collection of yuri-themed stories by the same artist, and the title comes from the first of these. They’re fairly explicit—Seven Seas actually labeled the title Mature, something they rarely do—and a few of them range towards science fiction. Two of them also involve getting pregnant in a handwavey sort of way, and in fact those ran in “Yuri Pregnancies” in Japan, which I assume is an anthology and not a magazine. There was nothing earth-shaking in here, but nothing truly bad either. If you like yuri, and don’t mind that it gets sexual (or the magical pregnancies), it’s a good volume to pick up. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 32 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – Karasuno’s game against Inarizaki continues in (and beyond) this volume. The plot = “volleyball,” but that allows Furudate’s artistry to shine. Getting caught up in the drama of who will win is unavoidable, but I also marvel at the skill with which Furudate fleshes out the opposing team and imbues moments of individual victory with significance. For example, I loved when terminal bench-warmer Kinoshita thinks he’s missed his chance at heroism only to be credited by Nishinoya for helping him practice a move that pays off on the court. And I especially loved when Hinata not only manages to perfectly return an intimidating serve but proves so defensively competent that even Tsukushima comes to rely on him. That’s major progress! I love this series so much. – Michelle Smith

Hitorijime My Hero, Vol. 3 | By Memeco Arii | Kodansha Comics – I’m happy to report that Hitorijime My Hero has improved a lot since its first volume, which left me with some trepidations. In this volume, Masahiro’s friends find out about his relationship with Kousuke and one reacts badly, though it’s mostly coming from a place of feeling like he was the last to know something so important. Starting with volume two, Kousuke has been worried that Masahiro might focus on him instead of his “youth,” so he gives some good advice that helps them sort things out. I also appreciated that Kousuke’s friends are really concerned about his choices and grill Masahiro a bit to find out how much of a threat he poses. No, Kousuke doesn’t actually get arrested—although one of his friends is a cop, he’s an absolutely useless cretin—but it’s nice that it’s acknowledged that he could be. I’ll keep reading. – Michelle Smith

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 8 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – After the plot-filled seventh volume, we’re back to wacky gag chapters in this book. Which is good, as this series does comedy well. It’s still working Ino into the fun, but even when the humor is based around a Japanese concept (one chapter talks about collecting bellmarks, which helpfully is so old in Japan that it’s explained in the text) there’s still laughs. My favorite chapter might be the one where Chika tries to tell Kaguya about the one she likes, and paranoia makes everything so much worse (and also reveals Chika is well aware of Kaguya’s ambiguity towards her). As for our lead couple, well, even Kaguya literally collapsing and going to the hospital can’t stop the laughs—or get them together. Great fun. – Sean Gaffney

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 6 | By Afro | Yen Press – There’s some actual character development here, though for the most part the series still runs on ‘cuties camping’ for all its attention. Nadeshiko has been sort of the airhead of the group for most of the series, and I was expecting her desire to own the camping lantern to be blown up in some way, but no—she gets a part-time job, is decent at it, and buys the lamp. The author even toys with us, having her trip and almost break the lamp, but then catching it. What’s more, she wants to try solo camping. Hopefully her camping goes better than Inuko, Aki and Ena, who try a cold-weather campout and thankfully don’t die—though they need a little help to avoid it. This is getting better as it goes on. – Sean Gaffney

Murcielago, Vol. 10 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – I never thought I’d say this, but this is actually a pretty sedate volume of Murcielago. Oh sure, Kuroko finds a new girl she wants to seduce, and there’s some naked bathing, but there’s no sex in this one. Even the violence is relatively behind-the-scenes here, though I have a feeling the volume after this will take things up a notch. We’re at a fishing village with a dark secret at the local church, one that’s led to an awful lot of dead people being eaten by sharks. And, of course, Kuroko’s new girl turns out to be the key to it all—or rather, the rosary left to her by her late father is. Will Kuroko and Hinako save the day? Can Suiren avoid getting seduced? Likely no to that second one, but that’s what makes Murcielago what it is. – Sean Gaffney

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 1 | By Yuhki Kamatani | Seven Seas – Tasuku Kaname has recently transferred to a new high school. His classmates are friendly enough, but soon a rumor starts circulating that he’s gay. Tasuku is quick to deny it, though the truth is he’s struggling to come to terms with his sexuality since it carries such a large social stigma. It’s only after he meets and learns the stories of several other people who are likewise not straight that Tasuku starts to feel less isolated and is able begin to accept himself. The fear, anxiety, and agony that results from not being able to freely live true to oneself both inwardly and outwardly is exceptionally well-conveyed by Kamatani in Our Dreams at Dusk. But while the first volume is at times heartbreaking, it’s also not without hope. Emotionally intense and tear-inducing for both sorrowful and joyful reasons, Our Dreams at Dusk is off to an incredibly compelling start. – Ash Brown

A Strange & Mystifying Story, Vol. 7 | By Tsuta Suzuki | SuBLime – And so, A Strange & Mystifying Story comes to an end. I could quibble with some aspects of this finale, like how Tsumugi convinced grief-stricken Magawa to give up on his destructive quest with ease to spare, but since it led to a happy ending for all concerned, I’m not going to argue with it. There are some great moments between Tsumugi and Kurayori, especially a tearful and relieved two-page hug once the effect of Magawa’s spell is reversed, and I adored their first love scene. It’s fumbling and awkward and loving and entirely about the characters. It felt necessary and not gratuitous. This series stumbled a little in the beginning but I’m glad I kept with it because from the third volume on, it became something special. I recommend it highly. – Michelle Smith

By: Ash Brown

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