#I am 100% pro choice
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
m4ndysk4nkovich · 10 months ago
Text
was reading a fic that i thought was good and then debbie got an abortion. sigh
8 notes · View notes
everything-is-spaghetti · 1 year ago
Text
Ppl really fail at pissing me off or upsetting me in regards to being pro choice (aka correct)
“Oh so you’re in the baby killing fandom?” Sure. Idgaf. Honestly that’s funny as hell sounding bc uhhh abortion would mean that more babies could be born into healthy circumstances and therefore have happier lives. And you fucks don’t care about fully realized children getting slaughtered every day by gun violence, so if I’m pro baby killing, so are you
“I’ve worked at an abortion clinic and saw the guts of a six week old fetus” no you didn’t. A fetus that young doesn’t have guts. And SO?! I don’t wanna see someone get a lung transplant either because it’s gruesome but that doesn’t mean I think they should never happen. Have you ever watched a surgery? It’s horrific. But if it’s gotta happen, it’s gotta happen.
Honestly idgaf about whether something is alive or not. It’s not my fucking responsibility to keep another thing alive if I don’t want it. “So don’t have sex” okay what about rape, then? Or birth control fucking up? In any case, no one can force you to donate a kidney or even your fucking corpse, therefore you shouldn’t have to donate 9 months of hell, at least 18 years, hundreds of thousands of dollars, emotional turmoil, countless lost opportunities, sleepless nights, etc to a life you don’t want or care about.
5 notes · View notes
prismit · 1 year ago
Text
<- their ass has NOT been shiny hunting mew (23 days remain)
#ghost town... 2!#pokemon#or i guess it should be an up arrow now? idk i'm not doing that. i have dashboard-unfucker installed so my icons are where they belong#anyways#look ok i've switched to using 8 emulators simultaneously#which i consider to be fair since i'm on a time limit and this is theoretically possible to do with real hardware i don't have#and it doesn't change the actual shiny odds at all. so it's just speeding up the process#except it doesn't FEEL like it does because it takes SO LONG to boot up the 8 emulators#even though i made a keyboard macro to automize the process (this keyboard was the best $100 i've ever spent btw corsair is my bestie now)#(i also feel like a genius every time i make a macro to streamline anything. it feels so cool)#also i use a switch pro controller as my pc controller of choice but it's HELL#because nintendo and/or microsoft has made it barely compatible with windows#though i actually think i can use it wired now? it just needs to be configured in mgba through bluetooth connection first#then any time you use it wired afterwards it reads the inputs properly?#idk man. this controller is Comfy and the lack of support for it across many games and programs upsets me lol#funny that monster hunter rise originally came out on switch and yet the pc version requires external config for the switch controller#anyways i'm getting off topic here. I NEED TO GET THIS BLUE CAT. I WILL GET THIS BLUE CAT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE#PLEASE.#(oh btw in case anyone's worried: yes i did copy my save file and modify it so each emulator is running a different TID and SID)#(i am aware of the emerald rng bug and i have accounted for it :) each game is definitely encountering different mews)#(this is also why loading up all the emulators takes so long and why i had to set up a macro)#(i have the rom shortcut on my desktop and the macro launches it; loads the proper save; minimizes it; and repeats with the next save)#(it's actually very satisfying to watch. i should record it lol)#also if anyone thinks this is cheating: idc this is my house and i'm only doing this because of the time limit on the unrivaled mewtwo even#i'll probably hunt another fully legit mew if they ever come out with a game where it can be shiny hunted again :)#which they probably won't but whatever! i hope they do#btw if you clicked “see more” to read the rest of the tags: sorry for increasing your dashboard length by 20%#it will happen again. i love rambling in here#[scrolls through this giant block of rambling thoughts] ah ok yeah good i did in fact remember to take my meds this morning. awesome
0 notes
frownyalfred · 22 days ago
Text
fandom etiquette
my hot take of the week (that absolutely no one asked for) is that there’s a crap ton of ao3 “etiquette” touted on here that’s actually 100% optional.
really. if it’s not in the TOS and it’s not required by the tagging system, there is no right or wrong “etiquette.”
yes, people sometimes use that flexibility to be dicks, but most of the time I see “etiquette” being enforced on authors who 1) used the tagging system correctly and 2) have inadvertently done something that readers don’t “like.”
examples of this I’ve seen: using the “creator chose not to warn” tag and then not tagging MCD, underage, etc. i.e., things that are absolutely allowed to not be tagged under that broader tag.
another example: writing a fic with a sad ending and not tagging the sad ending ahead of time. absolutely permissible, but if you do this people get pissed.
and another example: using archive warnings and zero additional tags.
all of these are examples of 100% valid and compliant usage of the ao3 tag system. and yet, we tend to penalize fics that follow this tagging style. I’ve seen people rate them, rec them with poorly concealed disgust, or even suggest that they should be reported.
“etiquette” is highly subjective and fandom-dependent. if you ask 10 different ao3 users, you’ll get different answers. pressuring newbie writers to follow your etiquette can make the whole process overwhelming when it doesn’t need to be.
now. there’s complying with ao3 TOS, there’s “etiquette,” and there’s marketing. the reason fics that follow general “etiquette” tend to do better is because they’re easier to find, easier to predict, and easier to filter in/out depending on certain tags and events. easier to sell, essentially.
users who choose not to warn, or use auxiliary tags, tend to see a hit in readership. it’s a known risk. but if the author is making that choice knowingly, that’s the end of the discussion.
etiquette is expected or implied conduct, but it is not required. as a writer, you get to weigh the pros and cons of following fandom “etiquette.” some find it beneficial, others stifling. sometimes it changes fic to fic.
I am wary of a lot of anti-shipping and fandom purity that is starting to masquerade as “etiquette” on here. we need to check ourselves, and remember how highly subjective our wants and desires for content can be sometimes.
397 notes · View notes
Text
Astarion prefers monogamy.
Again, simply my cup of thought tea steeped from my game experience. Its not everyone's drink. No shame, no blame, it's your game. Warning for triggers and spoilers.
Tumblr media
*added note due to misunderstandings.
Please notice I said "prefers monogamy" not "is monogamous". He may be up for added partners later on down the line. But definitely not any time before the epilogue in my world.
So, why do I think he prefers monogamy?
Take..
"Iv never had anyone. Not really. Nothing that compares to you."
And mix that with...
"I had nothing for so very long. NOTHING! Not even my own body!"
And add..
"You're you. Nobody is like that."
Plus countless other comments and actions and you get a bowl full of elf who just wants something for himself only for a change.
Centuries of being forced to give up or share everything. His possessions, his person, his own thoughts. Nothing to claim as own that no one else could take or touch at any moment. I'm sure if anything was given to him, he had to fight to keep it.
I think, he would be a bit possessive of anything he could claim as his own.
You are a gift to him. Something rare and special beyond words. I highly doubt he would be willing to share anything you are sharing with him outside of friendship. I could even see him getting fussy about strangers touching you. Moving you away or putting himself physically between you and whomever just touched you without asking.
Hells, even ascended Astarion isn't 100% game to share.
"As much as I wish to sequester you in a deep chamber of my palace and keep you all to myself...there is much to be done."
But, what about Halsin? He says he's fine with it.
Is he? Or is he people pleasing?
If he had said something along the lines of,
"Oh? He wants to share does he? Of course he does. I'm not up for such activities just yet, but you are free to have as much Halsin as you wish. "
I would have gone on that bear hunt, but he doesn't.
He askes you if you are wanting to sleep with Halsin because he has not been able to meet your sexual needs. And I interpreted that as he's vulnerable and worried he's being replaced for not putting out.
Imagine you had asked your lover to not to look to you for sex for reasons you are working out. They agree and you are just relieved as hell about it.
"You were patient. You cared."
Then they come along later down the line and say they are thinking about having sex with a friend. Where would your mind go?
I would bet hard gold he weighed the options in his head. "If I don't let them do this, they might leave me for good. But if I allow it, they wont have an immediate reason to leave. Halsin is the safest option given his experience."
And what's the best way to feel less awful about a situation we cant control? Create a counter situation where we gaslight ourselves into thinking its fine.
Wheeee!
I'm not saying Halsin's offer was bad, it was perfectly fine, it was just poorly placed in the grand scheme of things. If you and Astarion were having fun again before he suggested being an extra, then it would have been easier to believe he was really fine with it.
If they wanted Astarion to be a poly partner they needed to write it better. Shadowheart makes more sense as pro poly than he does.
So for me, Astarion is a one on one elf.
I am not against polyamory. I am not trying to take representation away. I am not shaming anybody for their choices. There is just not enough specific content to support it fully FOR ME. I was actually excited at the idea of having two partners in my fantasy world. Halsin was very clear and very specific about being on board. Astarion was not. And the choice did not feel right. Add a line somewhere for Astarion where he says "Im perfectly fine with sharing, darling. As long as it is discussed and we are in agreement of course." I will happily be on board with it.
189 notes · View notes
artssslut2 · 4 months ago
Text
Unexpected: Part 1
Art Donaldson x Pregnant!Reader
Prologue
Possible Warnings: talk of abortion
Disclaimer: I am 100% pro choice and the charectors I write are as well.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
You sat on the floor of the bathroom in your dorm looking down at the pregnancy test you held in your hands. Positive. No way. You couldn’t be, you missed one pill like a month ago. You set the test down on the sink along with the five other ones you took that also said positive. You were hoping it was a false positive but it didn’t seem like it now.
“Fuck.” You whispered to yourself. You had no idea what you were going to do. You were eighteen, you were in college you were at the top of your class at Stanford’s nursing school. This cannot be happening to you. Then you thought about Art, you wanted to hate him because he did this to you. But you were the one who missed a pill, and you were certainly not resisting him. Not only was Art the best tennis player at school, he was your friend. Your best friend. You knew him forever, this would totally ruin your friendship. You laughed to yourself because your friendship was probably ruined the first time you hooked up. Surprisingly you weren’t panicked, not yet. You were a nurse failed positives happen, maybe something was wrong, you weren’t going to panic until you knew you were 100% pregnant.
You called one of your closest friends who was also in the nursing program, you needed an ultrasound.
“You think you’re pregnant?” She gasped, you nodded shamefully as she looked at you “what are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know okay. Get rid of it. I have too. I don’t even know if I am pregnant though so do the damn ultrasound.” You whisper yelled while getting on the table and lifting your shirt. Your friend nodded with this look in her eye like she felt bad for you, you hated it. She moved the wand around slowly until you saw it
“There.” You said pointing at the grey dot on the screen “shit.” You let your head fall back on the bed. You saw it, now this was real. There was a baby inside of you. A baby that you made with your best friend. Your eyes filled with tears there were so many emotions going through you right now.
“Listen I think there’s a heartbeat” your friend said to you turning the volume up on the machine.
Thud…Thud…Thud
You listened to the sound of your baby’s heartbeat and you knew there was no way you could “get rid of it”.
“I’ll give you a minute” your friend said as you still stared at the screen.
Once you left, you went straight to Arts dorm room. Since he was a student athlete his room was much bigger than yours. It was also private, he didn’t have to share a room.
“Oh hey y/n. I didn’t know you were coming.” Art said opening the door looking happily surprised.
“We have to talk Art.” You came in looking serious
“Of course what’s up?” He asked sitting across from you. You suddenly forgot everything you were going to say. It was like everything was hitting you all at once. You broke down in tears and couldn’t get any words out
“Hey hey what’s wrong y/n?” Art rushed to you wrapping his big arms around you pushing some hair from your face, he kissed your forehead until you calmed down “whatever it is you can tell me I promise” he told you. You felt bad knowing the two words you were about to say would change the course of his entire life completely.
“I’m pregnant.” There was immediate silence, Arts mouth was open and his arms slowly dropped to his sides. It felt like a lifetime before he responded.
“I-Is it mine?” He stuttered going completely pale. You felt offended by his question, of course it was his, there was no one else and he knew that.
“Yes it’s yours.” You scoffed standing up clearly annoyed.
“I’m sorry it’s just… but… you said you were on the pill!” He panicked standing up, his voice came out sounding accusatory
“I am! I missed one! It was forever ago okay I didn’t-“ Art interrupted you before you could finish
“What?! How could you miss one? And not say anything? Oh my god y/n!” He said not yelling but getting close to it. Art had never yelled at you. You didn’t even think he could yell. It brought tears to your eyes again, you felt horrible and angry and just about every other emotion
“I’m sorry okay?! Do you think I wanted this Art! Fuck!” You cried sliding down his wall putting your head in your arms. Art was quiet. He felt guilt come over him for losing his cool. He knew that this wasn’t your fault it was just a mistake, and now your life was changing. He collected himself, he told himself he could think about his feelings later. Right now he had to be there for you, his best friend. He walked to you and sat next to you
“Come here, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry y/n/n” you fell into him, his arm came to your hair . You cried into his chest for a long time before looking up at him.
“This isn’t your fault y/n. It’s going to be okay. Whatever you decide.” He told you holding your face with one hand. He knew that you would think it was your own fault because that’s just how you were. But he was very equally to blame and he knew that.
“I saw it.” You blurted out between sobs
“What?” He questioned
“I saw the baby… I heard the heartbeat. I thought I could get rid of it but I can’t. I just I -I “
“Stop y/n. You don’t have to explain yourself. I’m going to support you no matter what okay? This isn’t just on you. If you wanna have the baby, then… we’re gonna be parents.” He slightly smiled looking at you. “We can figure it out together okay, I got you I promise” he whispered kissing your head. You didn’t say anything. You leaned into him again as a thank you, he knew what you meant. You were so thankful that he didn’t hate you or abandon you. This is why you loved him, this is why he is your person.
You and art sat on the floor for a while. You didn’t talk you both sat there in thought. Art carried you to his bed and layed you down, he brushed hair from your face and wrapped his arms around you spooning you. He would do anything for you. Just then he wanted to say it. He wanted to say that he loves you, that he has forever. But that wouldn’t have been fair to you, you were to stressed out. Secretly art was happy about the baby. Mabye now you two would finally become a couple. Art thought about what this could mean
“I got you. It’s okay.” He whispered, settling for that instead of I love you. For now at least.
246 notes · View notes
thehaberdasheress · 1 month ago
Text
Breaking down the sewing kit
This required the most work of all the notions up on the shop, since I got and assembled all the pieces individually. I've got six of them to sell right now.
Tumblr media
Included:
The tin: It's compact, roughly the size of a playing card, with a hinged lid that fits on snugly.
Seam ripper: Compact enough to fit into the tin, sharp, and nimble. (Pro tip: Keep the clear cap around to fit onto the butt end of the tool when you use it, and make life easier on your hands!)
Needles: 5 assorted sewing needles, sharps with different thicknesses and eye sizes.
Needle threader: I went on a quest to find decent ones, since the little tin ones in your average sewing kits break easily and drive me wild. The plastic flower is easy to grasp, and it makes threading your needle (especially when working with crewel wool or embroidery floss) SO much easier.
Thread: 5 metres/5.5 yds of glazed cotton quilting thread. Choice of white or black. I am SO sick of crappy sewing-kit thread, which is usually flimsy AND a nightmare to sew with, so I've spun up spools of my favourite handsewing thread instead. It's smooth and sturdy, and less likely to snarl or knot as you're working.
Pins and pincushion: The secret ingredient is a strong and tiny magnet, which sticks to the tin but can also be taken out. It keeps all 20 of these sharp glass-headed pins in line without breaking a sweat. Once I discovered magnetic pincushions, I never turned back. You just have to throw your pins at them to make them stick.
The sewing kit on Etsy
There are also three things I think are good accompaniments to the kit, but kept them separate to keep the kit's price down.
Thread wax: 100% beeswax thread conditioner. Running your sewing thread through the wax will make it much tamer and easier to deal with. It saves SO many headaches if you do a lot of sewing by hand.
Leather thimble: The handsewer's best friend. Comes in small adult and large adult sizes. I use these myself to keep handsewing from causing inflammation and nerve issues when I have a lot of embroidery to do. Leather thimbles allow sensitivity and freedom of movement I find hard to achieve with metal or plastic ones.
October 2024 special offer: If you buy kit, wax, and thimble all together, you get 20% off. That's a $20 CAD value, and a $16 CAD price.
181 notes · View notes
suckerforblondeathletes · 4 months ago
Text
The Call Up - Leah Williamson HIWTHI
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Steph Catley x Fem!Reader (Platonic)
Universe Masterlist! (Home Is Where The Heart Is)
Summary: You start to question your next season and what club you will continue your career at, your fellow Aussie teammates help you out. But the discussion isn't long when you get a call.
Warnings: None!
Authors Note: Hey guys! This is short but I haven't posted in a while so here you go!
Tumblr media
Living in Australia was amazing. Being so close to home all the time was even better. You never left Australia, your home country, to play for another team.
Playing for Melbourne was life changing. It was like being playing on a team, but the entire team was your close friends and family. You never really thought about going anywhere else, when the time came for your contract to be up, another one was made and you stayed.
But lately you were getting a little bored at Melbourne, it was fun and all but it was just the same thing over and over again. You where thinking about a change of scenery, or a change of teams?
You started talking about it when you were on camp with the Matildas, in the hotel room with Steph, Kyra, harper, and Mini. You were laying on the bed on your side, watching Kyra and Steph make a stupid tiktok while mini was playing with Harper.
"Guys I think I want to leave Melbourne." You blurt out loudly, staring at the women in the room for a response.
They all turn towards you, both Steph and Kyra stopping their dance at the same time and turning their heads to you.
Mini and was also looking at you while harper was pulling at her hair.
"Why? Has something happened?" Mini asks with concern in her voice, both Steph and Kyra walk over to the bed you are siting on.
"No, I mean, I don't know. I just kinda want a change in my daily life." Mini nods at that, wincing as Harper pulled her hair a little too hard.
"Where do you want to go? You know Arsenal is a great club-" Kyra starts talking but is cut off my Mini.
"So is West Ham." She adds causing both Kyra, Steph, and Mini to start arguing about their clubs.
Rolling their eyes you speak up to end the fight.
"Arsenal sent me a email saying they want me, I just don't know if its the right choice." Steph and Kyra give each other high fives at the sound of arsenal, stopping mid way when you finish your sentence.
"I feel like you should take some time and think about it, its a big change and you should make the decision when you know that 100% what you want." Katrinas words make you start to think about it, maybe you didn't want to leave is what you told yourself. But you knew deep down you did want to leave, you just couldn't bring yourself to accept it.
Melbourne practically raised you. Spending your childhood on the youth team and young adult hood on the pro level.
Leaving would result in leaving that all behind, the friends and memories would stay on that field, but not you.
--
You were working out with the Matildas, in the training room with Caitlin and Steph at your sides as you three do weights.
Laughing and talking about the upcoming season made the questioning of a new club arise once more.
"Have you decided?' Steph asked as she put down a 20 pound dumbbell.
"No, well I have been thinking about arsenal, but I haven't got a call yet." You saw spark in both of their eyes at the mention of their club, and the thought of you going and joining them.
"You should soon, your a great player and they have asked for you before." Caitlin says as she goes to grab a weight.
You nod and go back to thinking about the call.
Yeah they called for you before, but will they want you again?
--
It was 10:24 am exactly when you got a call from an unknown number.
You were sitting in the lobby of the hotel eating breakfast with Kyra, Steph, Caitlin, and Alanna. Laughing at Steph and Kyra using funny snapchat filters of each other.
"Oh hang on guys someone is calling me." You don't look at them while you speak, staring at the phone wondering who this could be.
"Hello?" You answer the phone and a man responds back.
"Hey is this Y/n Y/L/N?" Your heart drops, what in the world is going on, how does this person know your name?
"Umm yes it is why, has something happened." Everyone at the table looked up at you with confusion on their face.
"Well we called from the Arsenal and we have looked at your stats and your season history at Melbourne and we would like for you to sign with us." You start smiling and look up at Kyra and Steph.
They continue to look at you in concern and you whisper, "Its arsenal" and they start yelling and cheering, causing weird looks from your teammates.
"Shhhhh" You hush them and go back to the phone. "Yes! Yes I would love to."
"Great news! We will meet you in a month when the new season starts up! Can't wait to have you!"
Tumblr media
Likes and reblogs are appreciated!
221 notes · View notes
olderthannetfic · 2 months ago
Note
Someone recently left a comment on one of my fics that they were disappointed I wasn't addressing any of the criticism or comments I got on Goodreads. After all, I reply to comments on the actual fic. Why am I ignoring the Goodreads commenters?
Well, 1. I didn't know there was a Goodreads page for my fanfic 2. I think if they wanted a reply they'd say it where I'm known to reply to every single comment without fail and 3. the kind of dumbass who treats 800k of free fanfics in a series like something they paid for is not the sort of person I want to engage with. If 800k of stories, with main stories, tie-ins, prequel asides, missing scenes, etc. for free wasn't to your liking, just... go read another? We have stories in this fandom whose whole series clock in at over a million words. We have stories where people have done fan songs and fanart and fancomics tying into their main work. We have stories with multiple timelines. You have so many options, all of them totally free and easy to access. If my stories, which I fully admit ares flawed and show some of my weaknesses as an author, don't do it for you, you have options. You have wonderful options.
If I had an editor and a publisher and my stories were actual books, I wouldn't have this reaction to this comment. But these stories have one person working on them total. I'm not making income off of this. This is what I write while working two jobs, for fun. As much as I do view writing fanfic as something that helps me learn the ins and outs of writing and put my all into it, it's going to be rougher than if I'd had help with it or had time to do more drafts than the three I normally do.
And if I was known for ducking criticism, I would get having comments on another site. There are authors in my fandom who delete anything that's not praise. But I have had long conversations with my haters in which I take everything in good faith and explain my writing choices, word choices and ideas. I have my tumblr which is just about my fandom stuff listed in the AN of every chapter. DMs are open and anon is on. My Dreamwidth account, also under the same name, also has DMs open. I have publicly stated when I have made shit narrative choices and owned that yes, sometimes I have genuinely dropped the ball. This has influenced later chapters where things go off of the original outline in order for the shit choice to have consequences in a way that makes sense and feels true to the characters in the story.
So "why are you hiding from the Goodreads commenters?!" feels like the most baffling thing I've ever been asked. I tried to be nice about it, but all I could think was, "why didn't the Goodreads commenters who wanted a reply post their comments where they know I 100% would've responded to it?"
--
Madness!
(Also, lol, half the pro shit with a lot of comments on Goodreads is barely edited. Maybe they were bitching about content? But if it was whining about craft, the bar is in the floor and they have nothing to complain about.)
88 notes · View notes
revyn-moonfox · 3 months ago
Text
My personal Halsin headcanons. Bear with me here.
Sfw
Werebear!!! 🐻
Could grow a beard if he wanted to (I don't care that elves don't have beards... elves also usually don't have chest hair and aren't 7 feet tall)
Can Hypernate and likes it (if he doesn't have to be a leader for 100 years)
Therapy! (Meaning, he would go to therapy, read a bunch about Therapy, and would be an awesome Therapist)
Would totally found an orphanage animal shelter combo (carebear)
Furry
...
Nsfw
Primal kink (hunting kink, prey kink... I need more fanfictions with this.)
Breeding kink
But also knows a lot about birth control!
He would never babytrap you
Actually not breeding kink in the sense of "that's what nature intended", because nature also intended plants as natural birth control an made sex pleasureable instead of just beeing for reproducing. He just realy wants children. Our carebear.
So hard pro-choice (am I kinda repeating myself? Yes, but it's important to me)
Switch
Pleasure Dom
Slept with humanoids and animals
...
I will edit and expand this list the more I learn about our hunk. Reposts are still appreciated. Also, what are your opinions and headcanons? ^^
Thank you for coming to my ted(dybear)talk
116 notes · View notes
Text
We Are The Series: Why I Didn't Like It
I am writing this for the 3 people on this website who completed this but didn't love it.
@automaticpenguincreation tagging you because we talked about this and I said I would. Also chatting with you is what made me want to finally say something.
Disclaimers (Please Read Them):
I am going to be critical in this post, not hateful, I don't hate this show, but critical. Engage in good faith if you can, If you can't don't.
I do not want my criticism to be dismissed saying I must not be getting it. I spend weeks making sure I got it. Read all the praise and even reblogged the occasional post because I see the value this show has for people. All I am saying is that I don't like this.
Again some of my later critics are about the choices that were made in this series. I understand that a lot of what I am about to critique was made on porpouse and is indeed part of the appeal.
I have seen maybe 1 post on tumblr being overly critical (@bengiyo post and I guess mine) I don't know where people got the impression that this show is being hated. But If you geniuly want to know why some people might have not liked this show you can read my thoughts and see for yourself.
I have watched and enjoyed stuff like this before. I am not making any moral judgement on you. Just because I don't like this doesn't mean you can't like it.
Part One: Pros
I am going to start with the good things. My honest review of this show is: It's a Mid University BL that is doing something different with the friendship and quietly subverting a couple of of classical Uni BL tropes.
I can see how that would have valued for people that watched all the Uni BL. I get that part of the appeal.
The friendships in this show are very good, they are framed as just as important if not more important then the romances. And I appriciate that. It's also one of the only two realtionships the show set up writing wise and spend any ammount of writing effort making you want to root for. Chain and Pun being the other one.
Pon being added to the cast late and them having to reshoot things were handled beautifully, you can't actually tell there was ever any issues at all and it feels like Pon was always meant to be there.
PondPhuwin story with the you must be my slave bit was handled pretty well. It certantly could have done worse. I think the story does a pretty good job writing the resolution in a satisfying manner.
I can tell that this meant a lot to people both fans and the cast and crew. All art is subjective. Just because I don't feel any value from this doesn't mean it doesn't have it.
The story is escapism, it deliberately downplays all the negative bits of life and of queer life to make a fluffy cute show. It is a similar appeal to My School President. I can't find the post that talked about that anymore, but indeed the appeal of My School President is that for the majority of the story they just get to be normal high schoolers and this is treated like a normal romance.
I have always seen the homophobia at the end of MSP not as a break in the format but a sign our boys were growing up, almost out of the protective halls of high school (in the specific bubble version of high school the story set up) and into the real world.
That is the appeal of We Are the series. Which is why in my personal opinion it's not a pure slice of life series (which wasn't ever said in the negative at least by me), it certentaly might have slice of life inspirations, and it might be using a similar structure (see @shortpplfedup post's comparing this to Hospital Playlist a show I didn't see but I have seen called Slice of Life by multiple other people). I don't personally feel like a show can be slife of life and escapism at the same time. You are 100% free to have a different opinion on this.
I am not going to give it more praise simply because the website is full of praise for this show and because those are the main points that i enjoyed.
Part Two: Cons
Let's start with the big one the plot has no throughline (I first encounter this term on this website which I highly reccomend the TLDR is: A throughline is the core "problem" of a show, the part of the structure that ties all the events together).
Exemples of throughline from a slice of life ql I watched recentely (and I am simplying to use this as an exemple). She Loves To Cook and She Loves to eat: Our main girls are alone, they go through life missing a connection, they both have needs that could be met by another person. During the course of the story they form a connect to each other and other people. They form a bond. The story ends with them moving in together, permanentely affirming that they are a unit now, and therefor will never go through life alone again. The "problem" of the start is resolved.
We Are the Series doesn't have that. And it doesn't have that by desing. Uni BL usual throughline is main relationship but they can do that here. What I would have put as the throughline is the friendships. Making the "problem" is the friendship group of long time friends going to survive Uni and various romantic relationships.
But the show doesn't that, because that would mean having arcs, and conflict and that is something the show doesn't want to do to not hurt the escapism.
It is a stylistic choice I don't like but it doesn't I understand why it wasn't made.
This is why to some people it feels like We Are the Series doesn't have a story. It is very common for story with no throughline to give that feeling to people.
Events happen, characters made decision, they talk to each other. But it doesn't feel like it has a narrative plot.
It is also why it doesn't have a classical climax. I know we clown a lot on episodes 11 and penultimate episodes of BLs and some of them are not well handled and too dramtic, or too high stakes for the resolution we are going to get. But the reason we get those it's because it's a climax, the highest point of tension in the story.
She Loves To Cook and She Loves to Eat climax is the problems with finding a place to go, because that is the highest point of tension of the throughline. We Are the series had no conflicts in the penultimate episodes because it doesn't have anything to raise, the story has no tension what so over.
Conflict and Tension don't just mean break up and fight scenes, a low key slice of life story can have both tension and conflict the exemple GL I have given has both.
As I mention before the only thing this show had any interesting in setting up and writing with any sort of effort was the friendships and ChainPun.
The reason why I feel like ChainPun were the best written ship is because all the other ships assume your engagement instead of writing reasons to make us care.
Tangent to explain what I mean: Back when playbooy was airing I exchanged a couple of mgs with @my-rose-tinted-glasses talking about not being able to get attached to any of the character. In my answear I said I started the series already attached because I was keeping up with the characters and plot and got pre-excited about it. So my investment was already high.
I think something similar is happening with We Are the series and the known ships. What I mean is most of the people watching this have already seen at least one show with almost all the main pair. We know what their deal is, what their chemestry is, what their dynamic will be like. The details might be different but we already know them. And I feel like the writing of the series relyed on this fact too much. I don't think there was any effort being made into making you root for them. Maybe PondPhuwin having to write the resolution to you must be my slave plotline. But that is it.
AouBoom get together at episode 5. We barely know anything about either of them, Fang is such a non character at the point I could maybe tell you three things about him. I am not sure how I am supposed to care about them except for the fact that it is AouBoom and I have seen and loved them in other shows and like many people desperately want them to be mains.
ChainPun was the only expeption, they had to use crumbs and a slow writing and only making them get together at the end because they are the only ship we never saw before. The only ships the writer couldn't assume you the audience already be invested in from the get go. (Also why I was at this point near the end only invested in them much like @respectthepetty)
I want to be super clear about something: I AM NOT CRITICISING YOU THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS RESPONSE. I am criticising the writing for relying on that response and not writing any extra stuff that would help with engement. God knows that I will be guilt of the same thing in other shows. I get pre-invested in shows with Cooheart or Fluke Natouch just because I love those two actors. And If I ever get my Fluke Natouch criminal fucked up character of my dreams in a modern bl that show will be my forever fave are you kidding, they could mess up everything but that character and it would be a 10 out of 10. I am not immune to investing in something just because you love a ship or the actors. I am just saying the writing could have done more to support the ships and assume that would be a small % of the viewers that needed more time and proper writing to get attached to the other ships.
Another big problem for me was something that actually happened to me before with playboyy. See at some point my the middle of Playboyy I realized that the show was never going to have the time to actually go has deep into characters and relationship dynamic they set up as much as I wanted them to. So my emotional engement wained a bit. I still had a lot of fun with it. But I wasn't as much into it as I was in the beggining emotionally speaking. With We Are the Series I realized that pretty much at the begging and got confirmation at episode 5 when AouBoom's character just got together like that. With no arc, no story, no effort. And I know that a story was there, We were told that. But I would have liked to have seen the story instead of it being told to us later.
And I know I am not the only one that found the WinnySatang resolution to be lacking and a little off. You can see @heretherebedork post x x x x about it, I agree with them.
Part Three: Conclusion
Ultimately this show is mid. It's value comes from escapism and the fact that it came out right now, amongs other more plot heavy bls and experimental genre dips. That it does something a little different then all the other Uni BL that came before. And that is actors we already know and love.
It's average for me. But it obviosly meant something for people and that matters.
I want to leave this review but again point out, critiques are not hate, a person not liking a show you like is not an attack on you or your judgement. I know it can be upsetting I have been there. I make a lot of effort to understand different POVs of shows and trying to see what the other person saw in this media, and what kind of life biases (bias as in we all have them, art is subjective and we all look at it according to who we are as people) could make them feel the way they do.
If you do like this show and have read this full post thank you, even if you disagree with me.
I want to leave you with this Italian Idiom: Il mondo è bello perchè è vario. The world is beautiful because its varied.
81 notes · View notes
stevelieber · 1 year ago
Text
Thoughts on giving critiques to comics artists.
Seeing lots of discussion from students about sour experiences with an unhelpful art teacher, so here's a long, long post about giving critiques.
NB: I have no formal training as a teacher, but I was a student, and I've spent decades giving artists feedback on their work.
When someone brings me a portfolio, I like to establish my limitations & clarify my perspective. My work is firmly rooted in traditional US comics storytelling (i.e., not manga or art-comics.) I can give feedback on other approaches but they should know where I’m coming from.
“We've only got a little time for this, so I'm going to spend that time focusing on things to correct. That doesn't mean you're doing everything wrong, or that there’s nothing good here, but it’ll be more helpful if I identify some problems and show you how to fix them.”
Why? Because for many young artists their entire sense of self worth is wrapped up in being good at what they do. (It was for me!) In school they were probably the best artist in their peer group. But now if they're hoping to turn pro, they’re at the bottom.
Sometimes you know what’s up when you see page 1, but try to keep an open mind. Some build their portfolios by sticking new pages at the back & don’t weed out the old stuff up front, so the work gets better as you go. When it’s like that I ask: “Show me your best 8 pages.”
I ask questions: "What's the goal? Do you want to be hired to work on someone else's project, or to get the story you're showing me here published?"
If 1, I steer towards a portfolio that'll showcase hirable skills. If 2, I look for what tweaks will make that particular story more effective.
"Do you have teachers giving you regular feedback? What are they telling you?" Sometimes a student is getting bad advice. In cases like that, I'll do my best to be extra clear WHY I'm giving them advice that's 180 degrees from what they've been hearing.
“What artists are you looking at? Is there someone you admire or try to emulate?” This often helps me understand choices they're making, and I can sometimes incorporate things those artists do into my suggestions.
I ask myself questions about what I’m seeing. First: Is there a narrative? If not, I make it 100% clear I'm not speaking as any sort of expert. I'm good at critiquing storytelling, but don't have anywhere near as much to offer illustrators or designers.
Can I follow the story? Or am I confused about what's going on? Are the characters and settings drawn consistently? If not, is the artist at least making use of tags (distinctive clothing, hair etc.) to keep the characters recognizable?
Does the artist demonstrate a good command of basic academic drawing? If not, Do I think they need it? Do I focus on "how to draw" or on "what to do when you can't draw?" Is the artist putting the viewer’s eye where it needs to be to tell the story effectively?
(At this point I’m usually doing little doodles to go with my instructions. I scribble out ugly little 5 second diagrams that I hope will clarify what I’m talking about. Or they might make me seem demented. Hard to say!)
Is the artist making choices that are creating more work than necessary? Is there a particular weakness? I once spoke to an artist with a portfolio full of great work when he was drawing animals and monsters, but his humans were amateurish in comparison. I spent that critique talking about drawing people.
A crit can be a grab bag. In addition to big-picture advice, I'll point out tangencies, violations of the 180-degree rule, wonky anatomy, weird perspective, places where the artist neglected to do important research, odd choices in how they spotted black, whatever catches my eye.
I also try to make a point of defining the terms, so that jargon like “tangency,” “180-degree rule,” and “spotting black” don't go over their heads. Find simple, concrete ways to talk about these things, & clarify why it's a problem when they aren't done correctly. Draw diagrams!
Recognize that even a perfectly phrased explanation might not sink in. Some lessons can only be learned when a student is ready, and it might take a year or two of work before they can understand what you were saying. It's good to plant seeds.
Are there other artists who are particularly good at solving the problems the student is trying to solve? I steer them towards that artist's work. And I always recommend life drawing & the use of reference to give work specificity, variety, and authority.
Despite what I said earlier about focusing on what's wrong, I try at the end to find something encouraging to say. And if I’ve really piled on the criticism, I emphasize that I only spent the time and energy to do so because I take their efforts seriously.
If I've done my job right, they'll leave my table with tools to make their work better. And maybe in a few years they'll be looking at some younger artist's work, surprised to discover just how much you can learn when you're asked to teach.
499 notes · View notes
brucewaynehater101 · 5 months ago
Note
I was wondering what Tim's racial traits are? Because I know that Bruce is Jewish, Dick is Romani, Jason is possibly Latino (I don't know if it's canon but his own traits wouldn't change because Latinos are very diverse, some may be white… The Latina who lives in Latam speaks uwu) , Cass is Asian, I think Chinese?, Babs is possibly white, Duke is Afro-American, Alfred is obviously British, Steph is white and Damian is mixed Arab-Jewish.
This is because I have seen him portrayed as white, Jewish or Asian, specifically Chinese, Japanese or Cambodian. I also love the possibility that the Batfam is a target of the Pro American (Damian would be a frequent victim) and Neo Nazis (Here they put everyone in the bag , even Tim if he were a white man the Nazis also persecuted homosexuals) and I feel that it would be something that would unite them as a family because it would be them against the world sjfshsaj and DC is a coward, possibly they put those things. and i lov your work uwu
Hello! I've seen a ton of cool AUs that portray him (and more specifically his mom) from different backgrounds, but I believe he is canonically white.
For Tim, I've seen some posts mentioning that some comic book creator was going to make him Jewish. They never quite added that into canon (his dad is atheist and his mom is implied to be Catholic), but that might be another reason why he's been portrayed as Jewish or other cultural backgrounds in AUs. Personally, it's rad to see how his storyline, characterization, or choices may or may not change or be affected by changing his upbringing, cultural background, or race. I've seen some cool AUs with Red Room or Russian decent Tim Drake.
I'm honestly not positive on Jason. I don't think DC quite confirmed a specific ethnicity for him, but he's implied to be white. I was trying to find anything that mentioned it, and someone talked about how, when he was researching who his bio mom is, he seriously considered Lady Shiva. This could indicate that he's racially ambiguous.
I personally hc him to be a third or fourth generation immigrant on his dad's side. This, in the hc, could be examined for how his dad may face social and structural barriers to obtaining work. Combined with his dad becoming a father at a young age (anywhere from 18 to 23), Willis was forced to find illegal work just to pay his bills for his family. At least, that's my hc if we're going with a good parent Willis.
You are correct that the Waynes, due to their mixed backgrounds, may face hate or be targeted by hate groups. Barbara may also be included with this due to her visible disability (I hc that some of the Waynes have, at the very least, some invisible disabilities). If we're going strictly off of canonically proven backgrounds/traits, Tim would face hate for being openly bisexual.
I am not aware of any hate groups residing within Gotham. I could 100% be wrong about that. There is the possibility of eugenicists, anti-meta groups, and supremacists (especially in positions of power) existing in Gotham. On the other hand, some of the Rogues would probably decimate those groups if they tried to root themselves in Gotham. That city is chaotic, but I love the hc that the Bats and some rogues (like Harley, Riddler, and Ivy) protect Pride events and other such gatherings. I find it more healing to think about the Rogues, despite being mass murders, drawing the line at being a bigot.
I've seen some fics that chat about the Waynes coming to Damian's defense when he's being racially targeted at school or galas. I haven't seen any for the Waynes as a whole being targeted by hate groups, but that is a possibility to explore. At the very least, there may be some awful shit online that Barbara stumbles across (even if the users aren't based in Gotham due to the Waynes being famous).
I'm glad that you enjoy my work! Stay safe, everyone, and fuck the pieces of shits that hate folks for being themselves.
71 notes · View notes
kinokoshoujoart · 7 months ago
Text
is it really toxic yuri if she doesn’t demand you cut off your fingers for her happiness???
Tumblr media
”You have given me gifts over 10,000 times. Congratulations!” haha happy wife happy life…. (my fingers are stumps)
as some of you may or may not have realized i am powerless to the siren call of the ultimate devilish blond Harvest Moon Scum Man, and given that the Japanese version of DS Cute gives you TWO saveslots and TWO hands and the ability to to be in a literal toxic lesbian best friendrriage with ultimate devilish mischievous blonde Harvest Moon Scum Woman i have no choice but to meet all of the Witch Princess’s super reasonable honey do list!!
so one of those fun little non negotiable requests from majo-sama is that you need to give her presents 10,000 times before she’ll even consider marrying you, even if you meet all the marriage requirements!
i don’t mean 10,000 items total— even if you give her a stack of 99 items, it only counts as +1 towards the “items given to witch” counter. you have to give her 10,000 items individually…
in normal gameplay (giving her 1 gift a day, accounting for the holidays when her house is closed) you’ll eventually reach 10,000 gifts!…in your 95th year!
you COULD give her 100 gifts a day every day and knock it out in less than a year, and this was my strategy at first! i quickly realized adding another tedious daily chore to a pile of tedious daily chores slowed the game loop to a crawl and splitting items out was really fucking annoying actually
on the other hand, in 5 IRL hours, you can just get it all done in one visit to her house and never worry about it ever again.
“wow, that sounds like a really great use of my limited time on god’s green earth! how can i too win my future wife’s heart through button mashing my fingers into a pulp?” you ask?
˚✧₊⁎optimized pro gamer technique for breaking your fingers yuri style!!٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶⁎⁺˳✧༚
you will need
dog (each time you show your pet, this adds +1 to the gift counter the same way a gift would)
the bottom screen should be the map screen (reduces loading time between conversations compared to having your rucksack open)
cast endurance on fingers (wait this is redundant, you saw yuri in the title…)
ideal but not required
sometimes when you enter her house, she’s facing the side and her walk cycle never starts. it’s great if you get this glitch because then you can just stand in place for the entire duration without having to look at the screen, and even like watch a movie or whatever while you do all this, instead of accidentally dropping your dog every time she walks to the other bookshelf
if you’re wondering “wait, doesn’t Witch Princess hate dogs and love cats? why are you showing her your dog?” you are absolutely correct! she yells at you to get that stupid beast away from her every time you show your dog to her! her FP goes down by 3 each time! however, since her response to the dog is shorter than her response to the cat, you end up saving like .6 seconds per conversation, saving over 1.5 hours total, so the dog is what she gets
anyway, in true Karen HM64 tradition, after being repeatedly harassed by having a dog she isn’t fond of shoved in her face ten thousand times in a row for like five hours straight, naturally this makes her want to marry you! who said good old fashioned courtly love is dead?!
* as a small note, if you care enough to keep track and give her an actual gift at the 10th, 100th, 1000th, and 10000th mark, you’ll get 4 of the limited Witch Photos early on, which each give you +1 sweet sweet farm degree points every day… honestly that’s not much, but the pain of being told “your hands are full soooo no reward for you lmaoooo sucks to be you” was too much to bear, so i kept track and used a normal present for the 10th, 100th, 1000th, and 10000th…
84 notes · View notes
ponett · 1 year ago
Text
I have now finally seen the Mario movie. It was Pretty Good. Here are my wordy thoughts on it. (I am going to spoil the entire movie. Duh.)
In many ways, the Mario movie does what I wish the first Sonic movie had done. They just took the characters and the premise and the world from the games, and made it a straightforward animated adventure movie. It's bright and colorful and remixes things JUST enough to include fun elements from multiple games, and it doesn't make Mario get adopted by James Marsden or whatever. It even has the music!
That's all you really need, right? Right...?
Tumblr media
I'll get this out of the way up front. Chris Pratt was fine. He's fine
If anything, it really feels like they did the movie a disservice by letting us hear so little of the Mario voice in the previews. It took one scene for Pratt to disappear into the role for me. It was totally fine. If anything, I found Charlie Day's normal voice coming out of Luigi WAY more distracting, even if I did like him in the role.
Everyone else was pretty good, for the most part. Jack Black was obviously very good as Bowser, but I'm biased. Seth Rogen does the Seth Rogen laughs as Donkey Kong, but I thought DK was fun, too. (I liked his little rivalry with Mario where he was just constantly giving him shit.) The only casting choice I truly hated was Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. I hated every line that came out of his mouth. He sounds atrocious. Just the worst. I swear to fucking god if they do a DKC movie and we have to hear him for 90 minutes
I did think Peach was lacking, but that was on the script, not Anya Taylor-Joy's performance. It's cool to see Peach fight, but it's one of those all too common instances where the writers put so much effort into making the main girl kick ass and be an effortlessly confident girlboss that they forgot to give her an actual personality. Not that I'd point to Super Princess Peach and its mood swing superpowers as positive representation or anything, but there's a happy middle ground, surely. Shrek was 22 years ago, just having the princess do flying kung fu kicks isn't enough.
Okay. With the voices out of the way, let's talk about the big picture:
It's way better than the words "Illumination Mario movie" implied, and I mostly enjoyed my time with it. The spirit of Mario is there 100%. But I'd also describe it as "ruthlessly efficient."
This was perhaps the main complaint critics had, and they were absolutely right. People have responded to these totally average reviews with "Well, what did you expect? Shakespeare?! It's MARIO!!" Like, yes, I would prefer it if the movie I paid to see had writing that was good instead of bad. What a shocker. My issue isn't that it's not "high-brow" enough. The problem is that it feels mercenary. It feels like an editor went through and deleted almost every line of dialogue that isn't some form of exposition, at the expense of the pacing. Any scene that's not a montage or some sort of action is kept as short as they could make it, with barely any room for embellishment, character interaction, or anything other than the bare minimum word count to hit all the typical Save the Cat Hollywood screenwriting 101 story beats to the letter. There aren't even as many jokes as you might think (and the ones that are there are extremely hit or miss, including a lot of the slapstick with Mario himself).
Tumblr media
Mario and Peach's little arc together in the front half of the film is probably the worst example of this pacing. Even having read reviews that complained about how fast Peach goes from meeting Mario (by her admission the first other human she's ever met) to deciding to train him as the new savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, I was SHOCKED at how fast it was. They don't even lampshade it.
Peach takes Mario straight into the big training sequence where he learns how to use mushrooms and jump over platforming obstacles. Peach is apparently already a hypercompetent platforming pro and a great fighter, so there's no clear reason why she's taking the time to train this random guy to be half as good as her when the world is in danger. Then they set off on their adventure, Toad joins them, and we get a VERY brief travel montage. It's about thirty seconds total - just long enough to give Peach a line about how she wants to protect this beautiful world of hers to try and give her some stakes. We get the genre-mandated nighttime campfire heart to heart, which is exactly long enough to have Mario say he misses Luigi and to have Peach give the two sentence summary of her origin story and not a second longer. Then they reach the Kongs, and their big journey is complete. (They barely interact for the rest of the movie.) So much of the movie is like this - always ready to get on to the next scene as soon as a new one starts.
I'm not criticizing the script because I expect The Super Mario Bros. Movie to be a prestige drama - although there are certainly halfhearted attempts at a dramatic arc. The stuff with Mario's family was a fun enough idea, but again, ruthless efficiency. We get one quick scene with them at the start to give Mario some pathos, because I guess Save the Cat said he's gotta have some pathos. And then Mario gets his dad's approval amidst the action of the final battle in Brooklyn to resolve his arc, just so the movie can end as quickly as possible once Bowser is defeated. (Despite now having the approval of their family and their community back in Brooklyn, Mario and Luigi move to the Mushroom Kingdom off-screen without a single word dedicated to this decision, because that's where they live in the games.)
Look. I am not comparing it to The Godfather. Don't give me that shit. I am not asking for an extra half hour to explore Mario and Luigi's childhood trauma. I am not asking for the complex inner workings of the Mushroom Kingdom monarchy. I know this is gonna be a basic Hero's Journey adventure for kids. It just feels like it's turning down so many opportunities to have a little fun with the characters, to let them interact and play off of each other, to let there be some adventure on this adventure. This is the first time we've gotten to see these characters interact with fully voiced dialogue in a very, very long time! "Yeah, it's not High Art, but it's FUN!" Stories are fun! Character interactions are fun! The script could be having so much more fun!! It is adamantly against making the Story parts of this story-driven movie any more Fun than they functionally need to be!!!
Mario, Peach, and Toad's journey to find the Kongs is shorter than the training montage that precedes it. After the opening, Bowser mostly just sits in his castle and waits for the third act to start. Luigi's there, too, but he only gets one scene with Bowser and then the movie mostly forgets he exists until the climax. He doesn't even get to try and sneak out of Bowser's castle and get up to hijinx. He's just there to be a motivation for Mario, so he sits in a cage for half the movie. It's the bare outline of a script with action scenes added in.
Tumblr media
Aside from the fact that it's Jack Black singing as Bowser, I feel like this overly-efficient script might be part of the reason why the "Peaches" scene stands out so much. It's a moment that didn't strictly need to be there to keep the plot moving or to provide an action setpiece. It's not even a reference to another Mario thing. It's just a fun and memorable little character moment that's there for its own sake. That's what the movie needed more of. To stop and smell the roses more often. To play in the space.
To be clear, this isn't a unique problem with this movie. Critics have been noting for years that second acts are disappearing from big Hollywood movies in favor of the Act I plot setup and the Act III action, even though Act II is supposed to be where you get to explore your actual premise. And lots of animated movies give me this exact same vibe of being too "screenwriterly," or feeling like they had an executive breathing down their necks and demanding changes based on focus testing. But these common issues are why I come away mostly feeling like the movie is on the better end of "average," rather than totally blowing my mind. You have seen this movie many times before, just not with Mario in it.
And, of course, there's the music. The score by Brian Tyler based on various classic Mario and Donkey Kong tunes (frustratingly all attributed to Koji Kondo) is absolutely beautiful, but it's unfortunately frequently overshadowed by the licensed music. Everyone already complained about things like the use of Take On Me in place of a lovingly arranged DKC medley, but it feels illustrative of the tug of war the movie is caught in the middle of, between wanting to be a lavishly faithful Mario movie and wanting to be a generic tentpole animated adventure movie. Every single licensed song used is the most obvious, overused song they could have picked for the scene. It reeks of cynical executive meddling and it took me out of the movie every time.
Tumblr media
But there really was a lot of care and love put into this movie - more than probably any other video game movie ever made, not that that's a high bar. I don't want to underplay that too much amidst all my complaints spurred by the absolutely insane response to the reviews.
Aside from the countless background references that people will be picking apart for years, touches like the Captain Toad tune playing in the background of Toad's introduction or the Mario Kart 8 menu music playing in the kart garage really help bring it to another level of authenticity. I also enjoyed seeing some more obscure Mario enemies that felt like they were picked more for being fun to animate than for being nostalgic and marketable. No matter how many times I sarcastically pointed to the screen and deadpanned "reference. reference." I am not immune to noticing these things and smiling. I am not immune to the DK Rap. These alone don't make the movie good, but it's nice to have a video game movie that feels like it was made by people who like video games.
Most importantly, the animation is great throughout. It's leaps and bounds ahead of other Illumination work, and it's the best the Mario cast has ever looked. They even made Donkey Kong handsome, somehow. They're all so squishy and expressive, and they move so fluidly - especially in the action scenes. I particularly liked the more kinetic ones like the aerial Banzai Bill chase and the Mario Kart sequence. Truly, the Mad Max-inspired car battle on Rainbow Road where Mario literally does the speedrun shortcut is this movie firing on all cylinders.
Other, more hand-to-hand fights nail the Popeye-esque vibe Mario should be going for. He's an underdog who gets the shit kicked out of him by bigger, stronger opponents until he gets his signature powerup and turns the tables on them. My favorite animation of all probably came from the use of Cat Mario to turn the tide in the DK fight. They had so much fun making Mario move like a cat. Again, it feels like a choice made because it'd be fun to animate rather than just a nostalgia move.
It's that animation and that attention to detail that carry the film, really. They elevate it from mediocrity into being a fun watch for a fan like me, albeit one I couldn't help but pick apart with Anthony as we watched it at home. I'm glad I saw it, but there's a lot of room to improve with the inevitable sequel. I hope they do. I can't deny that I had fun with the movie, but I hope next time that fun is partially because of the script instead of in spite of it.
Stray thoughts:
Overall, I would say I enjoyed the movie a lot more than Sonic 1, but probably not as much as Sonic 2. Not that these movies need to be pitted against each other.
I hated the Luma. I hated how hilarious they clearly thought the Luma was. They have the fucking Luma break the fourth wall to end the movie and start the credits. This is going to be a deep cut for fans of bad animated films, but the whole time I was just thinking of the little fish from Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss who's just the director's kid saying random nonsense. You know I'm right
I rolled my eyes at the "our princess is in another castle" joke and several other jokes that would have been dated in a gamer webcomic 20 years ago but I guess they had to be there
How much of Brooklyn did Bowser's giant floating castle take out? We know 9/11 happened in this universe because the Freedom Tower is there, hasn't New York been through enough
I can't believe there's a Diskun easter egg
The dog is the most Illumination character design in the movie. It felt like it wandered on set from The Secret Life of Pets
Mario being a gamer and playing Kid Icarus of all things just made me remember this tweet:
Tumblr media
Yes Anthony did get mad at me for being thirsty for Bowser
297 notes · View notes
anamericangirl · 8 months ago
Note
So your argument is that the person chose sex and thus chose the responsibility of a possible pregnancy…but what about rape??? You can get pregnant from that too, and it’s not a choice.
Less than 1% of abortions are due to rape so yeah in almost 100% of abortion cases the woman chose to have sex.
However, in cases of rape I still don't think getting an abortion is a good thing to do. You have to understand that the foundation of my pro-life position is that the unborn child is a living human being from the moment of conception. I hold a very firm view that killing children is a bad thing to do. I'm not ok with it under any circumstances. I am against killing children even if they were conceived through rape. If you wouldn't kill a three year old for being conceived through rape you shouldn't be ok with killing that same girl just because she's still in her mother's womb.
Killing a child is not ok. Period.
Rape is a very serious crime that needs to be dealt with but you don't deal with crime by killing an innocent child. We don't need to continue the cycle of violence. The baby is just as innocent as the mother. We don't even kill the rapist, but you want to give the death penalty to the baby?
No, the woman did not choose to have sex in this situation and she has been the victim of a brutal crime and she needs a lot of help and support. She needs counseling, medical care, emotional and even financial support. All of those things help rape victims more than abortion does.
Abortion doesn't help rape victims at all, honestly. It doesn't erase the trauma of rape and in many cases it just adds more. It's not safe for women and it doesn't become safe just because a woman was raped.
There is no benefit to a rape victim getting an abortion other than the emotional appeal.
But for the sake of argument, I'm ok with abortion being legal for rape victims if we can agree all other abortions should be illegal.
So is the rape victim really your concern here or are you just using them to argue for all abortions?
80 notes · View notes