#I feel like this is a bit too major to be just a minor plothole

[markantonys]

I came across a Twitter thread that said the set up for the docks when it comes to the Warder bond between Lan and Moiraine was handled much better in the books cause in the show they feel like the mechanics of the Warder bond was too vague/not explained well in the show that they weren't able to connect with Moiraine and Lan's emotional conflict in s2 because of it. And I am a bit confused cause honestly I don't think the books explain how the Warder bond works at all from what I remember. Just making a lot of wild claims about how everything about the books are better and how the show is fumbling when they haven't even read half the series yet (show first to book reader). Just this trend to shit talk every choice the show makes when you don't even know the full complete story is wild to me

haters: the show hasn't done enough to explain how the bond works

all the screentime across 2 seasons the show has dedicated to showing how the bond works which the haters kept complaining was a waste of time better spent on rand having swordfights:

like literally what do they want lmao some people will never be satisfied!

but the mention of the "mechanics" of the bond is interesting to me because i think we may be hitting upon 2 different types of viewers here: the minority of lore enthusiasts who need to understand every single detail about how things work or else they will be upset and lose immersion, and the majority of audiences who are content with a general understanding of how things work and don't get hung up on details, or will at most go "hmmm i'm not sure if this makes sense, but it's a cool story beat so i'm happy to shrug and move on".

the former category were going "but what weaves is moiraine doing now? did they actually unbond and now she's remaking it from scratch? i thought the bond was only masked? this is such a plothole, it doesn't make sense, i can't concentrate on anything else about the scene" during the 2x08 moiraine & lan beach scene, and the latter category were thinking "what a beautiful and emotionally satisfying moment of seeing them come back together!" and that's it. and probably similar for the rest of the season. if somebody felt unable to connect with the emotional aspects of that storyline, i would bet it's because they felt too unclear about the mechanics of the state of the bond and couldn't let go of that confusion enough to sink into the emotional aspects. (which is really more of a personal thing; my show-only mom was definitely keyed into the emotional aspects of this storyline and didn't get bothered about some mechanics being left vague. in fact, i think she would've just gotten confused if they'd tried to explain the mechanics in more detail djkfjg bless her.)

undeniably, the show does not explain magic mechanics in as much depth as the books do. but that is because it's banking on the very fair assumption that the majority of audiences don't need to have this level of detail in order to enjoy and understand the story (and may get more confused than they need to be if they ARE given this level of detail). i'll admit that s2 was a bit muddled on What Exactly Is Going On with moiraine and lan's bond, and i found myself a bit confused by the mechanics at times, but that never impeded my appreciation or understanding of the emotional aspects of the storyline because i'm someone who is happy to shrug and move on if the mechanics of how something is functioning in a fantasy story aren't making total sense to me.

also, moiraine & lan at the docks won't happen until the end of s3 and it's very very possible we might learn even more about bond mechanics earlier in s3 via elayne and birgitte (who will be good candidates for explaining some New Bond Basics that it wouldn't make sense for moiraine and lan to talk about since they've had theirs for 20 years), so like..........maybe they should just Watch And Find Out.

it's also very interesting that this is coming from someone in the show-to-book pipeline because i honestly would not be surprised if a lot of their base knowledge for how warder bonds works was absorbed..........from the show. and they just don't realize it. granted, if they started with new spring it might be different because i'm assuming new spring goes into a lot of depth about how warder bonds work (though i don't know for sure, i haven't read it). but if they only read EOTW-TFOH, they sure as shit are not gonna have gotten much info about bonds *from the books* because we barely spend any time with characters who are part of a bond during those books. we get, what, maybe a couple chapters total of moiraine or lan pov and then start diving into it a tiny bit more in TFOH with elayne and birgitte, but it's really not that much from what i can remember - and i can't remember very well, because i went into the books already having a very solid understanding of the concept of the bond thanks to all the work s1 put into showing it. i do not remember learning anything significant about the bond in the first 5 books that i didn't already know from s1.

it's also so strange to me in general to see people start with the show, then go to the books, and then start hating on the show because as a show-to-book pipeline person myself, all going to the books did was make me go "wow thank fuck for the show, it will fix X, it will fix Y, it's already fixed Z" basically constantly. it made me 10000x more grateful for and appreciative of the show and the way it's choosing to tell the story!

[crusherthedoctor]

Unpopular opinion: Lost World's story is better than most people think, and it didn't deserve to be the turning point in the fandom from "hoho I love that now Sonic doesn't take himself too seriously like in '06" to "Pontaff are a bitch ass motherfucker and they pissed on my fucking wife".

The D6 aren't winning any Best Villain award any time soon but they're harmless (and I still say that Zor is unironically very entertaining). Sonic and Eggman teaming up since the beginning of the game lead to some pretty interesting scenes like the one where they discuss about destroying Lost Hex. Eggman using Sonic and Tails to claw back to his final boss position shows how quick he is at planning and how ready to manipulate others he is (and his scene where he destroys the ice wall by punching it is raw). Sonic has some believable emotional moments, such as getting furious when Tails gets kidnapped or feeling alone and guilty when he believes everyone died. Hell, I will even defend Tails' behavior, because it makes sense that he'd irrationally feel insecure that Sonic (in his mind) would rather team up with Eggman than leave everything to him. (I don't like the resolution of that conflict though)

It's not Best Story in the franchise, but you know what? It is more solid than many stories in the franchise.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

While we're on this subject, let me add a second controversial opinion on top of this one: all the 3D Sonic stories have flaws. All of them. "But what about-" Yes, even that one.

That's not to say they're all bad - some of them are good, some of them are much better than others, and it goes without saying that I happen to enjoy some of them personally - but putting on my objective lens, I wouldn't say any of them are truly S-tier. There's always something pretty major holding it back, and not just of the minor nitpick variety. Like the non-Sonic characters that make an appearance not being used as well as they could have been, or too many plotholes to ignore, or tonal issues, or certain trends that desperately need to die out. Among other things, depending on the game.

This does NOT mean I think they shouldn't bother with stories period. That wouldn't make sense coming from someone who takes his Sonic universe know-how fairly seriously, and the Classics still had a story anyway despite their lack of dialogue. I also don't demand literal perfection, since that's always going to be subjective. It just means they need to try a little bit harder, so that I can praise a story without having to add a noteworthy "but" or "despite" anywhere in the sentence.

[zetalial]

Ling + Lan Fan’s escape from Wrath doesn’t make sense to me

Hey guys, I couldn’t resist a bit of critique of this memorable scene from FMAB. Sorry! Purely from a logistical standpoint - any character issues would be a separate issue. So, episode 24-25 of Brotherhood has Ed and Al decide to attack Scar in order to lure the homunculi out and Ling volunteers to help them with capturing a homunculus. It’s a fun sequence but it’s also one I have a few issues with. This is only based on the anime adaptation so if the Manga fills in these plot holes, feel free to tell me! I’m going to be more detailed than I probably really need to be. 

Their plan works in that they attract the attention of Wrath and Gluttony (Not Envy for some unknown reason.) So while Ed and Al are busy with Scar, Ling and Lan Fan fight Wrath and Gluttony. 

Their first exchange goes interestingly, as we briefly see more of Lan Fan’s impressive fighting tactics where she’s willing to take an injury in order to deal damage, as she breaks one of Wrath’s swords with her kunai but he strikes her and she falls down and can’t fight anymore - her left arm is badly injured. 

Ling grabs her and picks her up over the shoulder, unwilling to leave her behind and... here’s where my issues start to arise. Alright, Ling has two powerful bodyguards who generally fight for him but it turns out he’s also a really impressive fighter in his own right - not too surprising but his skills in this encounter suggest he’s just as good or better than them as he fends off Wrath while holding Lan Fan over one shoulder. 

This annoys me as Lan Fan is the trained professional where Ling is a prince. Granted Wrath has only one and a half swords now - (though sidenote I can’t believe one broke at all given how unbreakable they’ve been until now) and Gluttony doesn’t actually contribute too much, with Ling easily slashing him up. Ling isn’t winning but it’s still pretty ridiculous to me - especially when juxtaposed with how easily Lan Fan was taken out.

Either way, Ling gets punched into a nearby house and gets followed by Wrath and he looks to be cornered - Wrath taunts him a bit suggesting he could get away if he dropped Lan Fan whom he is still carrying over one shoulder. Lan Fan intervenes though by letting off a flash bomb to blind Wrath and Ling take sthis chance to try and escape the room. 

...But then Wrath reveals he can still see fine as he unveils his other eye beneath his eye patch and Ling’s hopes are dashed. How will he get out of this one???

...There’s another explosion and he jumps out the window. Ling has escaped the building and is running away, still carrying Lan Fan over one shoulder. We only get an outsider perspective so we don’t see the details.

Wrath just watches before giving chase. So I have to imagine what happened a bit - obviously Lan Fan let off another bomb and they really got past Wrath while cornered that easily? Oh well. And just another reminder that Wrath is extremely fast and Ling is carrying Lan Fan so he must be slowed down. And he’s literally just jumped out of a building. There are people about but Wrath was fighting them right outside a few minutes before so why would he suddenly care about appearances now? If jumping out of a building is unnatural then I’ll remind you that Ling just jumped out of the building with little problem.

He even runs into a dead end before forced to turn around with Wrath still tracking him. (and he deliberately went to a deserted part of town for some reason) Wrath isn’t exactly hurrying now though, I suppose. Anyway, so Lan Fan’s asking him to leave her so he can get away and Ling’s refusing, still running away and so Lan Fan grabs another kunai...

We get another cut away here. Next time we’re in Wrath’s perspective and he follows the blood and... it’s a decoy! Lan Fan has cut off her arm and used it as false bait allowing them both to escape. 

That super cool but- you’re seriously telling me that Ling got far enough away that they had time to tie up a bloody arm to a random dog and then run away before Wrath caught them? And it all happened off-screen? (Gosh that would have been such a cool and emotional scene to see too. Far better than the reveal without the how.)

...

I cannot imagine this. 

...

I’ll try though: Lan Fan cuts her arm off, and presumably Ling freezes in horror briefly and I’d imagine they might have made some noise as she slices her own arm off. And then Lan Fan is bleeding like crazy and I don’t know - would Ling rip off his shirt to use to bandage the wound first or would he pick up the freshly severed arm first and start attempting to tie it to a dog that just happens to be there? A very cooperative dog. So, he ties the arm on and convinces the dog to start running before picking up Lan Fan and heading directly into the sewer to hide. 

Frankly, I bet they could have hid in the sewer without Lan fan needing to cut off her arm - Wrath was following their blood trail which will still be visible and lead straight to their sewer entrance if he backtracks just a little. (And she just cut off her arm and Ling tied it in a hurry - I think she’d still be dripping blood - see how much blood she dripped when it was a more minor injury... actually why didn’t they just tie that injury better in the first place if all they really need to do to hide is stop dripping blood. The false trail wastes way more time -and blood- than just hiding better!) 

All the while Wrath is giving chase but was apparently far enough away that they had time to do this. It’s just I can’t imagine this would be that fast - they shouldn’t be more than a minute ahead of Wrath and even that’s a stretch - it’s a stretch that they escaped from his immediate vicinity in the first place. At the start of this sequence Ling was literally in viewing range of him and was burdened by carrying Lan Fan. 

After this, Ling leaves Lan Fan in the sewers and jumps out to help Ed and Al capture Gluttony. At this point, Ling’s feats seem OP to me but anyway we get to see him obliterate Gluttony while shirtless. (And, wow, he can jump high.)

Wrath chuckles about how he’s been outsmarted by this clever girl, having taken great enjoyment in this fight. And it’s thankfully over so I don’t have to think about it any more. 

If I’ve missed anything or got it wrong, please tell me! This is a very important sequence both for plot and character and if there’s something I’m missing, I’d love to know. I love Lan Fan in this part and think she’s great but basically everything else annoys me.

[mysaldate]

About chapter 183...

Manga spoilers for KnY under the cut, just need to rant for a bit.

And so the time has come for KnY to fall down the rabbit hole so many other shonen series did. And it’s a damn shame. Up until the current arc, while there were a few slip-ups, Kimetsu no Yaiba was an amazing series that had cunning and powerful villains, realistic (within limits of man-eating demons and magical fighting styles) obstacles to overcome, one that paid attention to injuries of its characters and made a great deal about showing us the limits to human power.

HOWEVER

Ever since the Infinity train arc, something has been a little... different. The Infinity train arc was what started the very very annoying trend of downplaying a villain that was accidentally made too strong rather than actually dealing with his power and coming up with clever ways to overcome them. Enmu is estabilished early on as an excellent strategist. He came up with a way to use his blood demon art so subtly not even a demon slayer hashira suspected a thing, he made human lackeys since he knew the slayers would never kill a human and he even fused with the train to be  hard to kill. All of this is excellent set-up for what could be an incredibly interesting fight. Except... it was not. Because rather than having to work out his plan, Enmu simply... made a slip of tongue? Let Tanjiro in on his plan? And completely forgot about Nezuko and didn’t notice when the other slayers woke up? A character smart enough to come up with such an amazing and smart plan? Yeah, something is off.

And let me tell you, it did NOT get better overall.

There were minor highlights. The Red-light district arc was beautifully crafted and the fight was won on a relativelly reasonable conditions (except for Uzui being totally overpowered but that’s something less irritating than what they’re doing now). The fight with Hantengu and Gyokko had several Mary-Sue moments but no downplaying on the villains’ side. The Pillar Training arc had no major fight but it was a really good way to show the growth of our characters. Even in the current arc, there were good moments. The fight with Akaza was very satisfying and enjoyable even and the conclusion to it was perfect. Sadly, everything else about this arc is not.

The premise here, again, is outrageously good. Being trapped in the Infinity Fortress with Muzan and all his Upper Moons is a beautiful concept that could’ve made for SO. DAMN. MUCH. of interesting fights, character-building moments and terrifyingly epic power show-downs. And instead, it just rings hollow.

The main issue with this arc is how awfully downplayed Muzan and most of his demons were. The author suddenly decided to ignore a lot of what has been estabilished about Muzan, Nakime and their abilities in particular. Of course, Douma, Kaigaku and Kokushibou also got downplayed horribly but really, what pissed me off the most was Muzan and Nakime suddenly losing or forgetting about their abilities.

Look, I love KnY and I love the good side – or parts of it anyway. Tanjiro is a near perfect character, the first protagonist ever to actually pull me in and get me to cheer for him. Nezuko is, after Makai ouji’s Sitri, first character meant to be cute and actually striking me as such. I even came to like Inosuke to a certain extent. Yushiro and Tamayo were one of my favourites the moment they first walked on screen. The hashiras are a little wacky and I still think some of them are just completely unneccesary or wasted potential and I still find Zenitsu horribly cringy and annoying but if there ever was a series where I wanted the protagonist to achieve their goal, it’s this one. And that’s another reason why I’m so dissatisfied with what I’m getting.

And chapter 183 is exceptionally bad for such a huge multitude of reasons.

First of all, there’s Yushiro making up a plan against Nakime. Nakime, as we’ve been shown multiple times, knows of everything that happens in the Infinity Fortress. She can transfer people she doesn’t even see and she can send multiple people to various locations at once. Yet, Yushiro was somehow able to come up with a plan, share it with Mitsuri and actually go through with it, all without her noticing. At all. Because she suddenly turned blind for that one spot of the Fortress or something. And even if Yushiro used his illussionary ability, he still had to share the plan with Mitsuri. So there should be no way she wasn’t aware.

That’s another thing as well. As far as we are aware, it was Nakime’s job to keep the slayers separated. Again, she knows of everything happening in there. She knew about the other Upper Moons getting to a disadvantage. She knew about them being close to dying. And yet, she did nothing to get them away or to move the slayers out of their presence, she couldn’t move her hand and play a note on her biwa and just send them all anywhere else? Anyone else feeling cheated yet? Well buckle up because it gets even worse.

Because now we get to Muzan. And, yeah, remember the Demon Moons meetings? Remember that he can just snatch anyone’s head off, both lethally and non-lethally? Yeah, good thing you do because he doesn’t! Does this affect only demons? He still could’ve killed Yushiro ON THE SPOT. Does it only affect demons created by him? Still cool, he could’ve snatched Nakime’s head off without killing her and take Yushiro’s seal off her eye. But no, instead he’s not gonna do anything of that. He’s gonna mind-fight Yushiro inside her head and then he’s gonna kill her. And not even immediatelly kill like he killed Mukago or Kamanue or Rokuro, no, he will let her die slowly so Yushiro can keep using her power.

Remember when he pumped his blood into people by shoving a finger or a hand through their head? Well, good thing you do, because, yes you guessed it, HE DOESN’T. He scratched Tanjiro’s eye out and he that’s it. This is the demon who’s supposedly the most powerful demon EVER. And the most damage he’s done so far is scratch Tanjiro’s eye.

Remember when he could grab anyone from anywhere in the Fortress like he did with Wakuraba? Well, he doesn’t remember that either. He doesn’t NEED Nakime to access any place in the Fortress. He can get in and out as he pleases without needing her biwa AT ALL. He has more control over the place than Nakime herself. But guess what, we’re going to ignore all of that because if we actually stuck with the abilities estabilished for him, our heroes might need to think before they act and come up with clever plans and maybe there might even be some ACTUAL loss!

You know, not just a supporting character-type of loss! You know, like a loss of a character we really, whole-heartedly care about! A character we were given enough time to come to like and enjoy and support! A character we saw grow and get developed! How horrible!

Let it be known now that while the Infinity Fortress arc blessed me with countless (actually there’s somewhere below 500, I counted) pictures of my sweetheart Douma and gave me the TamaYushi angst I longed for, I still find it to be the worst arc KnY has had so far.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe all of this is a part of Muzan’s masterplan. Maybe he’s actually far more cunning and terrifying that we thought and we’re yet to see his true potential. But I seriously doubt that.

If anything like this is revealed, if we get to see any sort of reasoning for why nobody seems to have a brain anymore, I will gladly take this rant back and apologize but I kind of don’t feel like that will happen. This whole arc feels incredibly rushed and like the author just wants to be done with this series. It’s no longer the gem it was when it started and you can’t feel the love poured into every frame like it used to be. It’s just meeting the similar end as DGM.

How ironic that when I saw the first episode, my first initial thought was “Oh, this is just DGM for the new generation!” Now it seems KnY will meet the same fate, downplaying its villains, disregarding the rules it estabilished in its own universe, boring its creator and disappointing the more demanding parts of its audience.

To put it as simply as possible, there is no way the Demon Slayer Corps should be getting off this easily and there is no way Muzan and all his demons would be this stupid if they have already survived for long long centuries. Muzan doesn’t need Nakime and he doesn’t need his twelve demon Moons, he did just fine before he got them. So him suddenly forgetting about his powers and options is especially disheartening and irritating. At this point, we can only hope the creator realizes this and makes SOME effort to fix these mistakes otherwise, well, there goes another great series, ruined and corrupted by nothing but the bad writing and the author not knowing how to (or not bothering to, pick your favourite) make smart plans without disregarding their own characters’ abilities and parts of what makes them what they are. Muzan was written as an extremely powerful enemy, a cunning master of all things evil, a nightmare in human (or demon) form, something ancient and terrifying and able to spawn centuries of troubles for everyone around without ever – except for the one time – losing the upper hand. And that one time, he was STILL able to make it out alive and well.

Well, this was one extremely long rant and if you’ve read this far, kudos and a cookie to you. I may be expecting too much of a shonen series but am I really? Is it too much to ask for keeping some damn consistency at least in your characters if you can’t even be bothered to research for your timeline properly? The more I look into the Infinity Fortress arc, the more sudden plotholes and mistakes I find and the sadder it all gets. It’s like the author no longer has the strength to keep up the high quality series they started and if that’s actually the case, maybe a hiatus would be a better option than forcing themselves to continue and possibly ruin their entire franchise with a rushed and plothole-filled event.

On a slightly related note, you know what would be the one thing that would make me drop my jaw to the floor? A plottwist of unseen scale. Something on par with literally everything since the Infinity Train arc being STILL just a dream. Something on par with “Muzan” as he is now being actually the new Upper Five while the real Muzan stands back and enjoys the show. Something on par with this “Muzan” being just an illussion or a projection of something, or someone, who’s been in the Fortress this whole time while the real Muzan heads over to Urokodaki’s place to devour Nezuko. Or something even crazier. If you have any ideas, damn hit me with them, I want to hear all you have to say and feed this little flame of hope that this series is not yet entirely lost!

[yesterdanereviews]

Gila! (2012)

Film review #516

Director: Jim Wynorski

SYNOPSIS: Residents of a remote mid-western town are mysteriously disappearing, which turns out to be the work of a giant lizard. Chase Winstead is a tow truck mechanic in town, and teams up with the residents of the town in order to try and stop the monster before it eats everyone...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Gila! is a 2012 film, and a remake of the 1959 film The Giant Gila Monster. A b-movie is a strange choice for a remake, but The Giant Gilla Monster had some brand recognition, as it was one of the first double-feature films for drive-in theatres, and was fairly popular upon release. The story is essentially the same as the original, with a small American town being terrorised by a giant lizard, and Chase Winstead, a local tow truck mechanic, works with the rest of the town to try and uncover the mystery and put a stop to it. Usually with these sorts of remakes, the story is at least updated to the present day to make it more relevant, but here, they have kept it set in the 50′s like the original, which really does beg the question what the purpose of this remake is. There are are only two big differences in the story: one is that the location is a mid-west town, rather than a southern U.S. one, and the inclusion of Waco Bob, a rebellious teen who sort of serves as Chase’s nemesis and a villain role. Neither of these really add in anything interesting, and there’s just an overall feeling that the whole remake is pointless: it changes nothing, it doesn’t have a bigger budget or production to make it a more significant and serious film, and it clearly stretches itself to over ninety minutes by padding out scenes needlessly. There’s also a rather big plothole where the mayor’s daughter Betty is clearly eaten by the lizard at the start of the film, but is found alive later on. Maybe this is due to the film having three writers and little communication, and why a remake that just copies it’s original needs three writers is a bit of a mystery.

The cast of characters is fairly large, and there is some effort in trying to give them all a bit of character, but ultimately they’re still all a little flat. Don Cheadle, who played Chase in the original 1959 film, has a minor role here, which is a nice bit of trivia. You feel like you get to know the residents of the town, but they’re about as interesting as you might expect a remote mid-west town to be. Combined with the sub-par acting, 

As mentioned, one of the reasons to remake a film might be to produce a film using a larger budget, but this is about as low-budget as the original. The money clearly went on two things: the first is renting some 1950′s era cars, which do look authentic, but they look way too clean, and they obviously can’t do any stunts or anything risky with them, meaning we simply see them driving up the same straight road for the majority of the time they’re on screen. Secondly, the lizard is pure CGI, and even by 2012 standards, it looks absolutely terrible. It’s running animation is so comically bad as it lifts each foot up into the air I don’t know how anyone thought it looked good. There’s at least a few 50′s era songs to help set the scene, and some “new” songs of the era made for the film too. Overall, Gila! feels like a pointless remake that barely changes anything from the original. The story is all over the place and has plenty of plotholes, the characters don’t stand out too much, and any attempts to flesh out their characters are often marred by poor acting. The atrocious CGI for the lizard means that you won’t be taking this too seriously. It may be good for a laugh, but Gila! is pretty bad, especially when you consider it mostly just copies the original with no attempt to innovate.

[khantipode]

The Year Between: Final Mix Changelog

Recently, I went back and updated The Year Between in preparation of getting Antipode rolling again and for the sake of my own satisfaction. In hindsight, there was just a lot that didn’t age well. Plotholes, characterization oddities, and pacing problems that ultimately worked to the story's detriment. So, I have begun going through the fic to tighten and refine elements for the sake of my own personal catharsis. This final footnote will be where I keep a log of what has changed, so those who want to know may look if they so desire. For those who want to see the original versions, I will be working to get a backup uploaded in some way or form. Perhaps some google docs? For now, you can find older versions of Antipode chapters here!

You don't need to read the re-edits to enjoy the current fic, as the core story is the same. This is just a heads up for the curious. :)  As of 2/8/19, I have gone over all the major story chapters and made changes where needed. Disney worlds will see some fine-tuning in the future. The Pocahontas climax will likely be the most significant, upping the stakes and delivering a more satisfying conclusion for Kairi's first adventure as Keybearer. The other worlds will feature smaller changes simply to provide another layer of polish (and in the case of Gargoyles, an additional scene with Xanatos is coming!)  So, without further ado, here is the current list of changes...

Chapters 2 - 4: DiZ is much more practical with how he treats Xion. He gives her clearer directions on what to do and how to proceed rather than throwing her to the dogs. She is also much more innately competent with fighting, while her lack of social awareness remains. Kairi also has a bit more of a bonding moment with the girl to better establish their friendship to come. In chapter 3, I have upped the overall competence of the folks in Hollow Bastion. Scrooge shows more of his talents in tricky situations befitting his status as adventurer, and the nature of the conversation between Kairi/Donald/Goofy and the Restoration Crew is more in line with the Fragmented Truths re-edits. Overall, I just wanted to make the characterization smoother and better explain certain decisions (like why they'd take an incomplete cloaking chip). Additionally, the Organization scene in Chapter 3 has seen edits as well- they now know Kairi has a Keyblade, as Axel confirmed this during the interrogation scene added to Fragmented Truth's epilogue. Some minor dialogue refinements to the scene as well. Additionally, there is a more extended scene with Xion, Pinocchio, and Geppetto in Traverse Town. Aqua, Sora, and Ven's conversation regarding all that has transpired has also been changed a bit, though they still touch on similar subjects- the worlds, Maleficent, Sora's actions, and the Organization. I just felt Aqua's characterization could use some refining. Chapter 9: I edited the Xion scene to better reflect the changes in previous chapters. DiZ now allows her to mingle with other people across the worlds for the sake of information gathering but asserts that she is not to be distracted.

Chapter 12: There were some minor edits to the Organization scene at the end of the chapter to reflect previous edits (mostly regarding the situation with Kairi, as previously mentioned). I do plan to polish the climax here a bit at a later date to make the monsters Inc. cast a bit more involved and add a bit more tension for both the heroes and Saix, but that will come at a later date. Chapter 13 - 14: Edited to keep consistency with the Fragmented Truths edits in light of Rep's new reasons for fighting Riku (direct blackmail from Xemnas with threats of a killswitch being flipped on his friends.) Chapters 18 - 19: For Chapter 18, I wanted to keep the consistency with the Fragmented Truths re-edits, so Roxas now brings up Xemnas' threat from the previous fic and is a touch more distrusting as a result. In Chapter 19's case, it was more edits to keep in line with Xion's previously edited scenes. Since DiZ has granted her permission to do a limited amount of mingling, this is reflected in her initial Agrabah scene.

Chapters 20 - 25: These will be edited at a later date. For now, I have added a small edit to Chapter 23 to keep consistency with previous edits- namely, Merlin being more direct of the nature of Keyblade Inheritance in the edited Chapter 3. This world on the whole is due for some edits in the future- namely, a more exciting introduction to Hudson, trimming down the exposition dumps, and a new scene at the end with Xanatos and Zexion. I plan to roll out these updates within the coming weeks, so stay tuned! Chapter 26: Consistency with previous edits and the new Fragmented Truths ending. Since Riku was contained in the simulation for his darkness issues as well as his memories, this is reflected here, giving a greater reason for Riku's continued containment. Chapter 27: Similar edit here. It's pretty minor, tbh.

Chapter 30: Just a minor edit to reflect the edits to Chapter 4- since Xion did have tea with Geppetto and Pinocchio, I needed to reflect that here.

Chapter 35: Since the Replica and Kairi parted on more positive terms in the Fragmented Truths re-edits, it's reflected here. Rep is less nervous around Kairi, and the two also have a bit more lighthearted banter before they part ways.

Chapters 40 - 45: Disney Town's arc received minor overhauls, chief among them being a clearer reason for Rep and Namine to stay in Disney Town- not just to evade the Organization, but to give Namine a safe place to continue work on Riku's memories. Additionally, Kairi and co. have a clearer reason to have arrived than just vacation; a "note from Mickey" was planted to urge them to go to Disney Town. Kairi and Namine briefly discuss Riku's heart and the darkness that went wild during FT's climax, with a throwback to CoM where Nami mentions that she could suppress Riku's darkness, but it'd rob him of memories. So she naturally is opposed. In the climax, the heroes do not use their Keyblades but continue to use their replacement weapons so to make a statement to the Organization, and in the end, they agree to attempt a siege on TWTNW even though Riku isn't ready because they still have numbers on their side. Chapter 46: Two significant changes occur here, both to address plotholes. The first is a flashback scene showing the heroes attempting to siege TWTNW and discovering the barrier surrounding the castle as well as getting overwhelmed by Heartless and forced to retreat. As the heroes retreat, the Heartless abruptly stop moving and lightning strikes. Xion hesitates as if she sees something there, but Xiruk pulls her through the corridor. The second new scene reveals that Xemnas and Xigbar have used the fake Kingdom Hearts to draw the Door to Darkness to them, better explaining why the heroes didn't close the darn thing. Rather than flimsy reasoning (no more easy Gummi travel when KH2 proves this is not the case), the heroes simply can't. And the Org now has a good source of darkness to justify the attack on Twilight Town. The DiZ scene also sees new additions. Kairi lets slip that she has a Keyblade, the heroes reveal that Namine is safe and Xion technically did succeed to a degree and even joined them in their failed siege. He is much more reasonable as a result but remains stern and suspicious to a degree. On the whole, this helps smooth out DiZ's arc. He's no longer in a constant state of judgmental assholery.

Chapter 47: I trimmed some of the exposition here and made this chapter more consistent with the new scenes. Sora and Aqua learn of the failed siege, that they can't corridor straight into the castle, and this further motivates Sora to try and wake Ventus. Overall events are the same otherwise.

Chapter 49: Namine is much more helpful toward Xion, at least trying to look into her memories to figure out why she's experiencing so much of Riku's life. The results are inconclusive, but she promises to keep looking into it.

Chapter 50: Xion finally snaps at DiZ, standing her ground and airing her true feelings toward him over the course of the story. After she storms off, the meeting with Marluxia reveals that he was there at the failed siege and assisted in thwarting the Heartless to let the heroes escape. This gives Xion more of a reason to trust him, and he also reveals where she can find him later.

Chapter 51: This is, by far, the most significant change in the entire remaster. While Xemnas still goes to meet with Aqua, he brings Zexion with him. The confrontation between Xemnas and Aqua is more tense, with Aqua showing much more of a backbone and Xemnas dropping some... dubious hints. Midway through, Xemnas seems to ripple/distort ever so slightly, but it's too brief for Aqua to worry about it. The confrontation then escalates to a battle, but Aqua is struck down by a surprise attack from Xigbar, who had been eavesdropping on the entire ordeal. It's revealed that midway through the confrontation, Zexion had taken Xemnas' place, partly as a precaution, and partly to utilize his powers of mimicry if negotiations failed. Xemnas heals Aqua and bluffs that he's going to send her to the Realm of Darkness, but in reality he plans to send her to the Chamber of Repose. Before this can happen, DiZ appears and threatens Aqua's life (Xemnas sees through the lie). Things escalate further as the rest of the heroes arrive, Kairi nearly kills Xemnas, and Aqua defies expectations by healing him. As the Nobodies flee, the heroes try and fail to reason with DiZ, who storms off in fury. Aqua is taken to Mysterious Tower to heal.

Chapter 52: The beginning is altered to reflect the changes to Chapter 51. Aqua awakes in bed, still sore from the battle. The heroes and Aqua are forced to grapple with the fact that they nearly killed Xemnas, but Aqua's lapse in judgment spared his life. Roxas is pissed. Everyone contemplates how to proceed going forward, especially since Zexion and Xigbar were there as well. Aqua admits that her sentimentality toward Terra was the cause for her actions and that, for a moment, she thought she saw a sliver of Terra within Xemnas. Chapter 53: Minor edits to tie into the edits to Chapter 46. The heroes talk about the DTD situation with the new reason for their inaction and there are minor edits to the Xemnas scene at the end. Chapter 54: Further consistency with previous edits. Namine is more direct with her concerns about fixing Xion and there's follow up to their conversation in Chapter 49. DiZ also apologizes for his outburst in the new Chapter 51.

Chapter 56: The opening narration addresses the fact that the heroes had failed to adequately warn Twilight Town in light of the presence of Xemnas, Zex, and Xigbar. Additionally, the Xion and Roxas confrontation with DiZ has become much more heated. Consistent with Xion's growth to this point, she is much more assertive, and now she is the one who attacks DiZ. This gives DiZ a stronger reason to open a corridor, and to better justify her slow return, she hits her head as she lands in the Realm of Darkness and is knocked unconscious. Additionally, she remembers Marluxia's words form before, which lead to her landing in the Dark Margin.

Chapter 57: Mostly minor edits. Worth noting is that Xion's reasons for staying in the dark margin differ now- she contemplates if Marluxia will find her, and he does.

Chapter 58: Unlike the original version, Kairi doesn't merely stand outside a closed door while talking to Ansem. Instead, she uses her Keyblade to open it, only to get attacked by a digital version of the Demon Tower. She fights her way through it while speaking to Ansem SoD but ultimately rushes into the digital DTD to make her way to Riku.

Chapter 59: Kairi manages to fight her way to Riku toward the end of the final battle. The two work side by side (with some support from the digital Twilight Town kids), and Riku's final confrontation with Ansem on his Station of Awakening has been refined to be more reflective of Riku's struggles thus far, how his friends have at this point surpassed him, and how he isn't really the hero anymore. He ultimately doesn't care, however, hoping to do his best to aid his friends, even if it means using the full force of Ansem's darkness to do it. After all, it's his heart, and he's taking it back! Riku and Kairi work together to finish Ansem, though Riku delivers the final blow.

Chapter 60: Minor changes here. Axel has been punished for his wishy washy behavior over the course of the fic and been branded with a Sigil (though he doesn't yet realize what this means). Xion and Marluxia's scene has also been refined due to the previous smaller changes leading up to her trust in the Nobody.

[firstpuffin]

“It’s just a movie”: Does quality of writing matter?

-Note= minor Avengers: Infinity War spoilers.

As an aspiring creative writer who really cares about writing something fun, internally consistent and plausible, the one phrase that irritates me the most is “It’s just a movie” or some equivalent. It’s dismissive of the efforts of everyone involved, and of fiction in general and it is being said by people who spend money to consume this, for lack of a better word, service. Don’t people want quality in their product?

   I’ll try not to be too serious, or rant and whatnot, but this is a concerning subject matter for me. After all, who wants to spend money on something sub-par?

   I have a friend who watches some of the same stuff as I do and he once responded to my criticisms of a character with “well she’s hot”. I was watching one of the Hobbit movies, doesn’t matter which as I found them all terribly boring, with my mother and when I pointed out some flaws that really grated on me, she responded with “it’s just a movie”. I’m pretty sure I was lost for words and it kinda hurt; given all of her support for my own writing, what does she actually think of my chosen path?

  An uncomfortable amount of television that I watch is honestly quite poor and I justify continuing this by saying that I’m learning from the mistakes being made but when I see a fellow aspiring author who loves a series that is pretty terrible, I become concerned. Let’s take The Flash as an example: in the television series that follows the titular super-powered runner, major plot points are also often major contrivances. The events of the second season only happen because the main character goes back on a promise and lashes out at the villain who was about to leave forever, and earns his eternal hatred. This screws things up, killing one of the teammates (which conveniently leaves his wife free to pursue a new love interest for the next series) and allowing for a new villain.

  But okay, he was new to the hero scene and it was an emotional situation so I’ll let that slide. But then he does something equally stupid at the end of the next series. You see The Flash has had time to mature and has discovered both time-travel and its dangers, so naturally when he gets the girl that he has been chasing from the beginning, he proceeds to go back in time to do what he deliberately chose not to do at the end of the last series, potentially losing everything. But you know what? He had just lost his father who had finally been cleared of murder so I’ll, reluctantly, let this slide too. Even if it, conveniently, sets up the events of the next season.

  So we can’t blame The Flash for the events of series four because he nobly sacrifices himself in series 3. Instead, his friends decide to stumble all over his sacrifice and bring him back at the beginning of series 4. This is getting old. All I can say is that at least season 5 isn’t going to be his fault.

  It’s going to be his daughter’s. I guess bad decisions are genetic?

  So let’s change things up and talk about less forgivable contrivances. It is established repeatedly and early on that The Flash can move so fast that he can have an entire one-sided conversation with somebody who won’t have the faintest idea that it has happened due to the speed with which it happened. So how does anyone stand a chance fighting against someone so incredibly fast? Urm… ice guns? No. I mean yes, but that’s because the hero apparently just isn’t as fast for some reason, not because it’s a legitimate weakness. They don’t give a reason why.

  So once these absurd levels of speed have been established and he’s supposedly gotten multiple times faster since, he is framed for murder in series 4 when he finds a body in his apartment with one of his knives stabbing it and armed police at his door. We know that he could 100% clean up the body, have a bath and probably even read a newspaper on the toilet before the police enter his apartment and find nothing there. Does he? No. Because earlier in the episode he told his wife that he wouldn’t run away.

  Do you know what’s not running away? Cleaning up evidence of a false murder of someone who isn’t actually dead so that you are free to save lives and not rot in prison.

  So why is The Flash such a popular show? And it’s not just people like me who watch it because it’s bad, the show actually gets praise.

  This is my question: what actually matters in fiction? Should I write a screenplay for attractive actors and flashy fight scenes and just ignore character development, motivations and dialogue? Or should I continue writing in the hope that people will appreciate the effort I put into making a complex character involved in an internally consistent narrative?

  So I’ve given examples from a series that I feel is particularly bad, so where do I go from here? I could mention how when I was a child I loved the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies purely because it was my favourite superhero, but I was a dumb kid who honestly got a lot smarter after I left school and had to learn things for myself and so that particular anecdote would go nowhere. I could find more examples, particularly from the Arrowverse that spawned The Flash, but what is the point?

I’m not very good at online research, I can’t google to save my life, and nobody thinks that the poor television that they watch is low quality because that reflects badly on them. This means that I am going to have to form my own counter arguments. One, people don’t realise that what they are watching is badly thought out and contradictory and if I am to be honest, why should they? I only do because I am looking for it. Two, they are more forgiving than I am of flaws which is… fair. I can be way too unforgiving. And three, most people aren’t nitpicky bastards like I am.

-Note= I’ve been working on this piece for a couple of weeks now, unsatisfied with my one-sided tirade, and as I often find, time has given me an answer. I googled “do plot holes matter”. A simple solution that took far far too long for me to think of. Still, this gave me some rather useful, and sometimes distressing, opinions on the subject of plot holes and thus quality of writing.

  So, what is a “plot hole”? One of the sources I found took this definition from Google:

“In fiction, a plot hole, plothole or plot error is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story’s plot, or constitutes a blatant omission of relevant information regarding the plot.”

To summarise, those moments where you go “that don’t make sense” are plot holes. As I have complained a lot already, I might as well continue for a bit longer. The very first source that I found, and the same one that gave the above definition, provided a list of times where a plot hole doesn’t matter and would you believe it, I disagree vehemently with the first one. The author says that a plot hole doesn’t matter if there wouldn’t be a story without it, which I can accept only in those action films where the action is what is important.

  They use The Matrix as an example: why have a matrix at all? It seems the machines don’t need people to be conscious or something. Unfortunately it has been far too long since I watched it for me to comment, but like an uncomfortable number of the points made in their article, their argument is basically “it’s not real so don’t think about it”. The trouble is that while some “plot holes” are merely people taking things too seriously, an inconsistency in the story itself is worth pointing out. A personal example of this came from when Infinity War came out and people asked “why is Thanos trying to destroy half of the universe when he can just make more resources?” and this could fit into “there wouldn’t be a movie without it”. But this is complete balderdash.

  Ignoring the fact that the makers were trying to stay true to the source material, I always have to ask “when did we see Thanos create anything?” We didn’t. Well, there were illusions, but even if those were physical, they were also temporary. We didn’t see him create and we didn’t hear anyone say that he could. And if those don’t appear in the movie, then we have to assume that he can’t. It doesn’t matter what the source material was (y’know, those comic books where Thanos wanted to date the anthropomorphised Death), but instead it is what the movie itself has established.

  A Quora user called Sam Morris posted an answer to this question which kinda hurt my pride as a writer, but it made sense. He pointed out how it depends on the medium: novels and such need to be consistent because the reader will be paying more attention to the story and events, while television intends to serve a different goal; he describes watching television being like zen meditation, where the watcher clears their mind while the television stimulates the more excitable parts of their brain. On top of this, a television writer has to be able to work with what the producers want and sometimes cannot account for the inevitable holes that appear. This might well explain my problems that I mentioned with The Flash, although I am loathe to admit it.

  Finally, a writer for screencraft.org tried to categorise five different types of plot holes. His first type can basically be summarised with what I said earlier: we can only know what we have been told, with a slice of “roll with it”. His second type covers holes that are inconsistent within the story so again, we only know what we are told, although a better way of saying it in this case could be: rules are made within a story, so anything that goes against those rules is a plot hole.

I could keep going and explain all of his five types, but that isn’t the point of this article. Instead, I will try to summarise everything I have found so far: quality of writing does matter, to different people. An unsatisfying answer, right? One source basically doesn’t care, while another obviously does and has categorised why. I think that it was Mr Morris who really got it right. As an aspiring novelist, I should definitely be concerned about quality because readers will be paying attention; they will notice and be brought out of the moment by a glaring mistake. But should I delve into screenwriting, I should be prepared to deal with temperamental producers and try to write with as few obvious flaws as possible.

  On a more personal note, I feel motivated to keep the quality of my own writing, whatever the medium, as high as my skill level allows. Of course I wanted to anyway, I have long intended to write for children and I feel that anything relating to children should be top quality; high expectation results in high results, and quality writing has been shown to have various benefits on children. Regardless of what you think of The Guardian newspaper, their article on this study provides links on how reading effects children, increasing empathy and is not alone in their findings. There has also been talk of there being other benefits, such as improved critical thinking and can help to deal with serious themes such as coming of age etc.

  So while I was always intending on aiming for quality, my findings from this brief search are reassuring. People do care about quality, and yet are willing to let some flaws slide under the right circumstances, although this does not mean that they do not care in general.

-Note= What with a review of the first two Predator movies in the works, I feel like this blog has been quite negative, so I’m going to try and put something positive out soon. Maybe an Alien review; I watched it for the first time recently and I loved it.