#I hate how they butchered their friendships in the comics

[starboysbrainrot]

i need more content of the gaang being platonic soulmates, my aromantic ass NEEDS more content of them raising all their kids together, just being silly billies together, living their best life together.

like I’m tired of “[insert atla ship] invented soulmatism” yes but no !! the gaang, my favorite knuckleheads, bond by trauma, love and affection, forced to be adults and repair the mistakes of others, THOSE 6 INVENTED SOULMATISM !!!

[mal3vol3nt]

hello!! I randomly spent like 30 minutes stalking your blog and!! 2 thing!!

bro I just got into atla and WHAT IS WITH THE FANDOM DUUUDE.. what’s with all the discourse it’s literally not that serious damn and how could people misinterpret literally every character so bad 😭😭 why are people so mean to my boy aang. he’s literally just a little guy. sunshine personified literally HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO HATE HIM WHAT!! and just. everyone misinterprets everyone so bad, zuko too, also it is kind of annoying how most of the fanworks are about him, I love him too, both he and aang are my favourite characters, but it would be nice to see stuff focused on other characters too.. also people in the fandom woobify him so bad and it’s just like. why. his flaws are what make him interesting!!! also I have no strong feelings on z/k, I think it’s a pretty mid ship but it can be done well (one of my favourite fics does it really well and the reason I really liked it there is bc IT WASNT EVEN THE FOCUS THE FOCUS OF THE FIC WAS AANG AND ZUKO’S FRIENDSHIP, and the author wasn’t even planning for it in the first place it sorta just happened with the way they wrote it, so it actually made sense in that context, so it can be done well but imo it doesn’t work within the context of the show and kataang is objectively so much cuter cmon y’all have bad taste smh) anyways yeah. atla fandom is wack as hell and I will not be joining it lol a lot of people here need to go rewatch the show bc they seemingly completely forgot what it’s about and also touch some grass (but tbh aaaall the sequels will never be canon. to me. lok and most of the comics butchers the gaang so bad and it makes me so upset so I refuse to acknowledge them as canon. there are no atla sequels in ba sing se :)

ok wow sorry for the random long ass rant in your inbox I hope you don’t mind!! have been thinking about that and I guess reading a lot of your posts sorta made me want to get that out somehwre

anyways what I ACTUALLY wanted to ask is if you read fanfiction, do you know of any good aang centric fics? since. it should not be that hard to find them he’s the MAIN CHARACTER why is he so unpopular in his own show he’s literally the little guy ever <//3 more aang appreciation pls

AH sorry for taking so long to answer! i haven’t peeped my inbox in quite some time lol

BUT THANK YOUU and i agree 100%!! joining the atla fandom is like being dropped in the middle of a war zone so i’d definitely recommend staying away and just sticking to the actual show and fanfics lmao

now as for aang-centric fics i’m so glad you asked. lemme put yall on (a lot of this is aangst sorry)

1. 🧡

Aang's 18th birthday stirs up a lot of unprocessed grief and with the inauguration of the United Republic just around the corner and increasing expectations the pressure of it all is becoming too much

Republic City shenanigans, drunken truth or dares, complicated visits home and a semi-arranged marriage inbound!

Complete — 24 Chapters

Part 1 of the finding our way series

⭐️ now this is by FAR my favorite aang-centric fics of all time. it goes into aang’s repressed anger and grief in a way that is so well done i can’t believe it’s free to read. if you’re someone who loves aang, you will love this fic that is a guarantee. i seriously can’t recommend it enough

⭐️ this brilliant author also has another fic uploaded to the same series titled “beautiful boy” that is bumi ii and cloud family-centric. i’m currently reading it and it is a masterpiece so i’d highly recommend that as well

2. 🧡

A sound carried on the winds lead Aang and Katara to hope for something seeming long lost.

Complete — 3 Chapters

3. 🧡

Aang meets one of the firebenders who took part in the original Air Nomad genocide, and Suki deals with the aftermath.

One Shot

4. 🧡

Hakoda and Aang have both lost too much in the war. Together, they learn what it means to live.

One Shot

5. 🧡

In which, Aang still suffers from the guilt and shame after having abandoned his duties as the Avatar resulting in the Airnomad genocide and his friends, remind him that he isn't alone, not in this fight.

Incomplete — 4/6 Chapters

6. 🧡

A collection of ficlets written for Aang Week 2021, hosted by @ aangweek on Tumblr.

Complete — 7 Chapters

7. 🧡

Being the Avatar is a burden as heavy as the weight of the world. But as long as Katara is alive, she swears that Aang will never have to carry it alone. Written for Kataang Week 2023 Day 2: Injured.

One Shot

8. 🧡

Aang goes to Kyoshi for advice, and learns that they might have more in common than he imagined.

One Shot

9. 🧡

Raava was ancient. The spirit of order and light, created to serve as a peacekeeper among the spirits. That was her purpose. When she had fused with Wan, she had fully anticipated the years of strife and war.

What she had not anticipated, however, was the feelings. The feelings of love, joy, fear. The feelings of humanity.

And no such feelings were stronger than the love she experienced the first time she looked into the eyes of her newest incarnation. The first time she met Aang.

One Shot

10. 🧡

“I want you to make me a promise, Avatar Aang,” Katara whispered. This time, when she placed her hand on top of his, he didn’t pull away. “When this is all over, when the war is won… Promise me that you’ll grieve.”

(alternatively: grieving is hard. aang’s friends work harder. a series of missing/expanded scenes from a:tla exploring aang’s grief through his friends’ eyes.)

One Shot

(continuation in reblogs)

[sans-guy]

(explosion) butch info masterpost (explosion) I’ve been asked a few things a couple of times and i just wanna lay some stuff out about butch that doesn’t get asked just so u guys know. i'll update as needed (if i can remember) <3

I can’t say everything because sooner or later I want to create some kind of comic or fic, but can’t right now cus my brain sucks and i'm pretty busy irl

Here is his updated ref sheet How old: 30-ish How tall: 6'8"

He kills people???!?!?!? D: Yes. only people that really deserve it, he's not a mindless killer. Even though he's a butcher, killing isn't something he enjoys doing.

AND HE EATS THEM??! D: No. but he sells the meat to monsters that do, in an effort to get rid of evidence. he's not friendly with the monsters he does business with, and he does not sell to humans. The selling of human meat is a drug trade of sorts; and it is by no means an easy business to get out of.

lore and loreposts; -He needs glasses -How he lost his fingers

-He isn't too fond of humans.

-despite everything, he is goofy.

-extra info about relationships/"clients".

-he is not too socially inept, but prefers to keep to himself and not say too much, just the way he was raised. -he is a workaholic, preferring to stay either busy or asleep, despite occasionally getting sick from all the stress he's under.

-he is technologically illiterate, hates newer technology, but will still use a landline (for his friends or for work) and the library computers with help (to check emails cus the modern age is horrible and requires you to have an email) -he is very slow to make friends, but when he does, theyre very good friends, going as far to consider them his family. -he LOVES knives, and has a collection of unique knives (culinary/pocket knives/hunting knives etc) he's found or obtained from flea markets.

-because of the state of his right hand, he's technically ambidextrous, since he's had enough time to learn how to use his other hand, but still writes better with his right hand. he could use ecto fingers if he really wanted to, but he doesn't care either way.

-he lost a tooth rough housing with his brothers when he was younger (he has many siblings ((and his older brothers picked on him becus thats what loving siblings do <3 )) )

-his arms and hands are riddled with scars and cuts because thats what a lifetime of physical labor and 10 years working with sharp objects will do to u

-the gloves he wears are cutting gloves here's some fluffy small character stuff for him ive thought about, i'll update this list when i . remember what i posted lovers/trust/friendship can i draw butch (or any of your characters)??

can i draw butch kissing me/my insert?

i'm ok with most fanart, I love everything everyone makes of my guys!! but if ur not sure if i'll be comfortable with it, please just shoot me a message. i dont bite i promise *bats eyelashes* also its a given but no fanart or ships can be inserted into the canon sorry

edit; pls pls check out the #fanart tag, so many beautiful ppl have drawn/written so many beautiful things of my boy and they must be seen

[unfortunately-obsessed]

Saying that I hate Nolan's Batman in a room full of man just to feel something

But here's a random list of my rating of different Batman that nobody asked because I love giving my opinion

The Dark Knight Trilogy: Solid Batman, hate the Bruce Wayne. Brucie, the public persona, is supposed to be a bimbo that cares for the city, not a rude arrogant prick that sinks the Wayne name. It completely butchered his relationship with Harvey too for... *checks notes* Rachel? Nahhh 2/10, a male fantasy movie but it gets one point for showing his training years and another for some cool one-liners

The Batman (2022) – I love the movie and that's top Batman to me, especially the last scene. Batman is a symbol of hope, compassion. I had the same problem as the Nolan's one for the larger portion of the movie: instead of using the Wayne Inc. to do good, he doesn't care about his parent's heirloom and drowns into being Batman. HOWEVER, it's pretty clear how raw and wounded he still is, and after the whole Riddler deal, I can see him turning this around and doing good as Bruce Wayne too. My fav live action movie but it gets a 8.5/10 on characterization

The Long Halloween, Comic – classic Batman, I like his personality and how he lets Batman and Bruce work together to do better to the city. A inspiration for the 2022 movie too. 9/10

The Long Halloween, Tomorrowverse – butchered the storyline and I shit you not Bruce says "I never thought I would need to do detective work to be Batman". Made him all muscle and no brain. Cool art but it doesn't even get a point for it, couldn't bring myself to watch more than 20 minutes of the part two. I kinda liked how he acts with Selina though. Yet, keeps it at -10/0

The Arkham Games – I watched the Arkham Knight gameplay like it was a movie and then watched scenes from other games on yt. That's the ideal way Batman operates to me. Thing dreams are made of. Also balanced on his public facade. 9/10

Batman The Animated Series, Timmverse – can't ask for better. Always offering rehabilitation to villains? Showing empathy for freeze and ivy and Harley!? and his friendship with Harvey? 10/10

Justice League: Unlimited – The timmverse gets him right and I love to notice how he progressed as a character. Love how they write Bruce's friendship with Clark and true partnership with other Leaguers. Also love his relationship with Diana, wonderbat forever. 10/10

Batman, Tv animation (2004) – The story is tailored to be palatable to kids so they changed some elements. It's fun to watch tho, 7/10

Batman Vs. Superman – guilt-ridden, PTSD older Batman? Pretty solid on the premise and I could see any Batman acting that way with enough groundwork. I just don't like the whole marking criminal and sending them to prison to die. Bruce wouldn't, doesn't matter how grief stricken he is. 8.8/10

Gotham (Tv Series) – Eh. Young chaotic Bruce. The focus of the series is on the villains and I didn't even pay too much attention to him tbh. I love a disaster teenager Bruce tho, 7.6/10

Young Justice – Gets points for bonding with Dick earlier in the series and for later showing him operating with a larger Batfam. Also accurate on the way Batman operates. He would leave the League because he's not about being part of a society or the status that come with it. The League had a purpose, which was facilitating saving people. Than he couldn't save people with it? He left. 9/10

Superhero Girls – exploring him being Kardashian-level celebrity?? Hilarious. But I don't like the other implications the show makes about him as Batman. 3/10

The Killing Joke, animated movie – something about how he acts throws me off. Older Batman but done badly. I think they don't work enough to drive him to murder. Should have left him kill Joker when Jason died. 2/10

Ninja Batman – The writers had LSD to write it. Insane. Hilarious. Didn't like that he was "oooh I don't have tech what will I do? :(" Batman is a survivalist so be for real. 4/10

Year Zero (comic) – hate that buzz cut. He wouldn't. Otherwise solid. Also another inspo to 2022 movie. 6/10

Year One (comic) – classic backstory, can't ask for anything else on personality matter. The fact he hallucinated a bat while he was concussed and thus made himself Batman because he thought it was rad? Peak characterization. 10/10

Harleen (comic) – He's not the focus of the story but I do love when they show how much sheer power the Wayne name carries. He has a steady hand over Gotham, a background influence constant and unwavering. Also that dialogue on the end where he's blaming himself for everything that happened even though it's not his fault? Yeah, it tracks. 9/10

Turning Points (comic) – the way he acts... He's such a theater kid. Also accurate on how Robin happened and I love he doesn't try to fight Gordon but humbly accepts Jim is going to hunt him if something happens to Robin. 9/10

There's a black and white one shot comic that Dan Mora made that I can't rember the name but?? Bruce adopting Jason, Dick and Tim in one go?? Can't go wrong for me. I am also not immune to how Mr. Mora draws Bruce. 100/10

The goal of this year is to watch more timmverse and read more comics with the batkids

[laufire]

september reading meme!

(better late than never etc.)

BOOKS

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. I only have one Sherlock novel left after this one. I think this is the most famous one? One of the cases I've seen actually adapted. I think Watson's POV is quite well done in this one, with his limitations ~forcing the reader to look further if we want to deduce... anything lol.

We Will Devour the Night by Camilla Andrews. I posted a longer review here, so I'll only say that I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Emma by Jane Austen. I first read this novel over a decade ago; story-wise (and, especially, romance-wise), I prefer "Pride and Prejudice" or "Persuasion", but Emma remains THEE Austen heroine for me. The template for many beloved characters of mine lol. And boy, I already paid Close Attention to Emma/Jane Fairfax as a baby gay, imagine now... is there good fic out there in the Austen fandom trenches...

COMICS

The Boy Wonder. This comic was a let down. That'll teach me to have even the tiniest expectatives on anything lmao. The art was cute, but it was like each issue got progressively... meh. Talia's characterisation in particular annoyed me. Yeah, yeah, we all hate Morrison's butchering. I don't think mommifying her is the solution.

JLA: The Queen of Fables (#47-49). I just suddenly felt like rereading this arc LOL. The Queen of Fables is one of my favourite dc villains, as minimally as she appears, because of how delightfully meta this arc is. I want to do something with her at some point...

Stephanie Brown (New Earth). I finished her appearances! (barring some blink-and-you-miss-it cameos, ig). Her Batgirl run was quite a fun romp; maybe not where I would've gone for her character if it'd been in my hands, but MUCH appreciated after fucking War Games, or way too much Dixon writing. I also liked how Lewis wrote her on his Robin run, which was quite good in general. Other highlights were Gotham Knights #22 (which inspired this excerpt!), her appearances in Cass's run (before and after death!) and her friendship with Kara. Unfortunately, I closed with "Convergence: Batgirl" and I have Issues where the places that comic took her journey lmao. That is NOT the future for my new earth!Steph.

Death and Return of Superman. I had read some issues here and there, but this time I sat down and read the whole thing over the course of a few months. Lois is definitely the MVP, the Kents break my fucking heart, and John Henry Irons an interesting character (who I lowkey ship her with after watching a few episodes of the mid CW show, but let's not get into that now xD). I still don't quite get the appeal of Kon as a character lmfao, but he was fun to read here. Also LMFAOOOO at whatever is going on with Lex here. He transplanted his BRAIN into another body?? And is pretending to be his own son??? Wtffffff.

Year One: Batman/Ra's al Ghul. A nice gem I stumbled upon during my Leslie-read. Beautifully written by Devin Grayson. This story is set after Ra's death, and shows his ~revenge from beyond the grave lmao.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight: Cold Case (#202-204). Another gem in Leslie's appearances list! I'm including it here because a) I guessed the mystery IMMEDIATELY and okay, it wasn't that hard, there were clues, but I AM A WAY BETTER DETECTIVE THAN U, BRUCE, and b) it includes a plot about Thomas Wayne being unmasked as a suspected serial killer and now I'm having Batman x Prodigal Son thoughts lmfaoooo. Now I want a story where Bruce finds out his late father was a murderer añlsdfjasd.

Villains United. This was in my list of Talia appearances and I'm literally only including it to say a big FUCK YOUUUUUU to Gail Simone for how she writes Jade in Villains United (and in general, from what I know). Literally having her being "well it's fine if this guy blackmailing me kills my daughter because I fucked this guy to get pregnant so I have a replacement child" FUCK YOU GAIL FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU.

Ram V's 'Tec (#1062-1089). Given the current state of comics (not to mention who's the author after this...) I doubt this run will have much impact, but I quite liked it. It added new players but it balanced them out with established characters I'm actually interested about, it had GORGEOUS art (I am fucking OBSESSED with the covers, how some of them mirrored each other to show Bruce's evolution... insane), and good writing. I'll be on the lookout for Ram V's New Gods run, as I want to read more about those characters anyway.

Devin Grayson's Catwoman (vol. 2 Annual #4, #54-62, #1000000, #63-71). This is THEE quintaessential Catwoman, for me. I love love love my Selina as a loner thief with serious commitment issues lmfao. It also got me thinking about doylist influences because I read somewhere that Devin wasn't sure yet about how you went about including cameos, so she didn't really include Batman*, and boy was that fucking great for Selina's character lmfao. She got to have really fun arcs where SHE is showed off. My favourite was the arc with Scarecrow, but in general it was all so great and SO fun.

(*Bruce does appears in one or two issues, in a specific arc which gets a bit meta about the ship lol. The Joker targets her because he considers her Batman's Girl. The story ends with Selina making the Joker believe she killed Batman, knowing how much that'd fuck him up xDD)

[bthump]

i dont know if you have talked about this before... but whats your opinion on Pucks character? I think he used to be a really good contrast for Guts, a reminder that there IS light in the darkness and that no matter how harsh and cruel life can be, there are still good things, maybe as little and small as Puck, but that can genuienly help you through lifes journey.

But then, he got absolutely butchered when he started to be lumped with isidro it pissed me off sm. Puck had a great lesson, and was an intresting add (the fact Guts is "friends" with a lil fairy is cute to me lol) but i hate how they downplayed his character in the future:(

Yeah I pretty much agree. I think Puck was great when he was one of the only sources of levity in the story, and his friendship with Guts was cute and heartwarming right when it needed to be. The scene where Guts invites Puck to stay with him is one of my faves lol. But yeah like, it doesn't work when the story is no longer 90% dark. Now Puck is one of many comic relief characters and rays of hope in Guts' life, and he's lost in the shuffle. He barely interacts with Guts anymore, which is a shame and a loss imo, and I find his dynamic with Isidro about as annoying as it's possible to be lol.

Thanks for the ask.

[malewifehenrycooldown]

Really annoyed by people focusing on the shipping side/ship content of The Boys and not the actual substance of the show :/

[sleeping-lilies]

If you dont mind me asking why is Roy's character butchered with jayroy? And the same with changing Jason's character? I'm not a shipper I'm just getting into comics after watching young justice and have seen people shipping them.

i am so mad because i went through ALL of my tags and i couldn’t find that one post detailing roy’s character pre 52, so if you want that then send another ask and i will try to find it out in the wild wild west of tumblr and and send it to you!

anyways, jayroy. basically what you need to know is pre 52 roy’s character was vastly different from rhato, he was way more competent, more mature (not saying he didn’t have his immature moments but ya) and he had LIAN. so basically with rhato roy’s entire character... was just not his character. it was someone completely different just with the same name as him. he was made incompetent and used as more comic relief than anything. he was essentially just jason’s sidekick at this point, and jason would have to babysit him which. uh. ya. also they made him into a mercenary which. huh?

jason’s character was made into someone more mature than what he really was in rhato and part of that was because of roy’s character and how it had been totally destroyed. jason was (i hate using this word but) broken, came back from the dead and completely heartbroken. he would not have been in the right state of mind or nearly mature enough to babysit roy of all people, roy who is his older brother’s friend who is 7 years older than him. ages get really weird because roy is older than dick so that makes roy way older than jason, but new 52 deaged him so he was in... mid 20s? somewhere around there but on the younger side, which just does not coincide with the timeline at all. jason would not have been older than 19 or 20 i have no idea (i think he’s either 19 or 20 current day so??? hello??? what’s going on cjdnxjsjs) WHAT I WENT OFF TRACK OK ANYWAYS THE POINT IS jason is a lot younger than roy even with age changes and roy still has way more experience in the field than jay, especially considering jason became robin when roy had years of experience already AND THEN MORE during that time between when jason died and when he was came back from the league of assassins (jason would have fighting experience with the league but not experience out in the field). jason was also written to have helped roy with his addiction and everything here is wrong because 1) the addiction was swapped from heroin addiction to alcohol, which is super insulting and disgraceful writing. heroin and alcohol addiction are not the same in the slightest and are NOT INTERCHANGEABLE!!! roy having a heroin addiction was a part of a drug awareness thing at the time it was written, which adds more salt to the wound in my opinion. 2) jason wasn’t even there for roy’s addiction and it was dick and dinah that helped him with it, but roy’s relationship with dick (and the rest of the titans but i’ll focus on dick here). dick and roy’s relationship was so great omg, it also really shows how good of a friend roy was, like making the outsiders and making dick join so dick could have another family after donna’s death 🥺 (or something like that i don’t remember how it was written in the comics) ANYWAYS ANYWAYS erasing roy’s relationship with the titans and his friendships AND LIAN just takes away a lot of his character and how good of a friend he was, leaving him as a shell of his character filled with something completely different, completely changing the way he and jason would interact.... wait i feel like i got really off track. right, erasing his relationship with the titans in the regard and making jason his ✨one true friend✨ villainizes the titans (AND DICK PARTICULARLY BECAUSE THATS WHO THEY FOCUS ON?!?!) especially with the fanon thingy where dick was a bad brother or whatever before jason died (the titans and dick actually loved jason 🗿) but ya, jayroy completely makes them both ooc and villainizes other character in the process.

ANYWAYS AND WITH LIAN!!!! lian was what made roy mature. not saying he wasn’t mature before, but a major part of roy’s development was getting lian and becoming a father. new 52 just got rid of lian (and we haven’t seen if her until recently... so we are ignoring that lmao) but rhato was when roy didn’t have lian, he just doesn’t have that development :( so jayroy dynamic is really different and then these JACKASSES MAKE AUS WHERE JASON RAISES LIAN WITH ROY 😡😡😡 like roy’s character would NOT be completely different and then jason is just... made into a more competent father 🗿 huh. anyways—

[movedthechangingman]

included a panel from JLI and a few from death of the new gods as well but like i feel crazy knowing tom king claims hes a big fan of the Orion solo. how do you read that and get the takeaway that Orion is a brat (how do you read Kirby’s New Gods and get that takeaway?) and Scott hates him? Even if you argue he based it on Starlin’s butchered characterization, Starlin also wrote Death of the New Gods, even he acknowledges their friendship! IMO They’ve got one of the most interesting sibling relationships in DC and I would really like a comic to acknowledge it again. Although also not because I dont want to even bother w Orions new personality

[walkwithheroes84]

The Boys: Season 2 Thoughts

I had to wait eight weeks (though I’ve been checking out the tags and reposting gif sets), but I was finally able to sit down and binge season two of The Boys. I have to be honest: I’m not sure I loved - or even liked - the directions they went with certain characters/stories. However, it was a solid season and it felt like the closing on an arc in a comic. It felt complete enough that we could end there - at least for a year or so - and still have plenty to come back to in 2022/2023.

Spoilers for Season Two Follow!

The Seven:

-I have to start with Stormfront. I have never read the comics, but I have read the Wikipedia, so I went in knowing that - despite the changes - Stormfront is a Nazi in the comics. And, she was a Nazi in the show. She (smartly) changed with the times - building social media followers, playing on the weakness of others, using an ‘us vs. them’ story for almost everything. She was savvy. I’m 100% sure she was using Homelander and that her plan was to use Ryan and all her lab!Supes to form a new Nazi party. When Maeve (a bi woman), Kimiko (a WOC), and Annie (a woman whose assault she mocked) ganged up to beat the shit out of her? Poetic Justice. Only made better by the fact that it was Ryan, her “White Savior” who basically destroyed her. (I don’t want to say kill, because I think she could be alive.) The only thing that would have made it better is if someone in that group was Jewish. (Side note: The fact that Aya Cash is Jewish, but played such a convincing Nazi - that speaks to her talent.)

-We can’t talk about Stormfront without bringing in Homelander. We know he craves love above all else. He wants to be worshipped. He feels he deserves it. In many ways he is a spoiled child. Stormfront played him like a fiddle, in my opinion. Do I think he cared for Ryan? Uh, only because Ryan is his son and appears to have his powers - Ryan is someone he could have molded to be a Homelander 2.0. But, I don’t think Homelander is capable of real - selfless - love. I just don’t. 

- I can be totally honest. . . as much as I love Antony Starr and Aya Cash - there was just way too much Homelander and Stormfront this season. I understand why their stories took up so much screen time, but I didn’t care for their characters and I actually am starting to find Homelander a little one note. He wants to be loved and will do anything to be loved. He also feels that he can do anything he wants. Again, he’s a child. I feel they will need to do something fresh with him in season three or give him less screen time to keep him from getting stale.  

-Let me briefly touch on  the Church of the Collective. I suppose, in the end, it was a season-long set up to explain how the Boys got the Nazi information on Stormfront. Though, woman is keeping her memorable and photos in her room...so, it didn’t really seem like she was trying super hard to hide her past. I thought they might be being set up to be some kind of major player in season three - they do have dirt on Supes and they work with Vought International  and the government - but,  Alastair Adana is dead and the Deep is there. . .so, unless the plan is for the Deep to take over the church...? 

-Speaking of The Deep, in my overview/review of last season, I mentioned that the show could either try to redeem him or have him go fully dark. And, the show surprised me by having him go in-between. Like, he still knows he’s a screwup and he still wants back in The Seven. He’ll do anything to get back in. However, I don’t seem him redeemed in any major way nor do I think he’s intelligent enough to be considered a dark character. Guy is just a mess. I have to be honest - I do wonder if the writers know what to do with the character. 

-A-Train may have only helped Annie and Hughie for selfish reasons, but he still helped. . . so, okay. I’ll give it a bit of a pass. As he said: Hugh saved him in season 1 and he gave them information in season 2 - they are even and it goes back to square one. They aren’t enemies, but they aren’t friends. I liked A-Train more during this season, but he really wasn’t given too much to do. 

- Maeve got more screen time! Her relationship with Elena was explored! She, as a person, was explored!  I understand that she isn’t going to suddenly become a true hero. She’s become too jaded for that. However, she will still try and do the right thing and I love that about her. 

-I really grew to love Annie this season. That is all. I still am not a huge shipper of Annie/Hugh, but they are very sweet together. 

- Lamplighter should not have been killed off so soon. I would have liked to his his guilt and his character explored more. 

-This truly was the season of The Seven with Homelander, Stormfront, Maeve, and Annie being moved to the front of the storylines. I liked it, but I REALLY missed....

The Boys:

-I’m sorry, but  Marvin T. "Mother's" Milk (MM) is a wonderful human being. He still needs more screen time and a bit more development, but I love that they used him a bit more this season. When he went home to his daughter? Please let him be with his family until the end of 3.01/middle of 3.02. Just let the man watch his shows and make his dollhouses and be happy. 

- Hugh came into his own this season, and that was wonderful. I am interested to see where his working for his working for Victoria Neuman will go. Especially as he is trying to take down Vought in a legal way, but his new boss is secretly exploding heads.

-Kimiko! My heart ached for her so much this season. She found her brother and found that he had become so brainwashed and full of hate and than she lost him. She pushed Frenchie away and became an assassin for the mob. Her truest friend, Frenchie, pulled away from her. But, in the end she helped take down Stormfront and she and Frenchie literally danced off together. Kimiko didn’t get that much screen time after 2.03, but what she did get -  Karen Fukuhara used. 

-Frenchie also got some great development this season. I’m still going to call him Frenchie, even if his name is  Serge. It was great that he realized that a part of the reason he focused in on protecting Kimiko was because he has failed to protect others. When he told her he would leave her alone? Aw, no - just back off a bit. And he did, and she taught him her language! 

-Frenchie x Kimiko are my couple on this show and they need to dive into that “It’s not sexual and it’s not quite romantic, but it’s way more than friendship/family” thing they have going on. 

-Let’s talk Butcher. He’s selfish. He is. He was willing to give up Ryan to get Becca back. But, he’s not heartless. He couldn’t separate his wife from her son. And, while I think he might have killed Ryan if Homelander hadn’t shown up - he gave Ryan to people who will try and keep him safe and shape him into a good person. Do I think he’ll go dark because of Becca’s death? Probably. If they follow the comics (which they aren’t anymore, but they may want to follow overall character stories), he’ll have to go dark.  I’m sad they killed Becca - she could have just gone with Ryan. But, it will be interesting to see if Butcher takes up the offer to work secretly for the government. 

Season Three Predictions/Hopes:

- I think the show will fast forward a bit. We’ll see The Seven as heroes in public, but all facing their own issues in private. We may see other Supe teams. 

- I think The Boys will be separated for a bit: Hughie working for Neuman, MM with his family, Frenchie and Kimiko off on their own, Butcher doing his own thing. And something will happen that will cause them all to come back together. 

[levitatingbiscuits]

Are woman actually reading the comics and lok. Besides Korrasami i wish the comics will stop. Katara's character has gone down the drain. Toph as a cop is wrong. Zuko has a dragon just because. His mother chose to forget her children and start over. His new sister firebends and is like azula replacement. Azula's friends call her lunitic and zuko has her tied up and her bending color is different. Wtf is writing and reading this. And why does everyone suddenly look white

Yeah it’s really annoying. Everyone blames Gene Yang for them sucking but bryke had a shitton of creative control too. 

What really pisses me off is how it absolutely butchers almost every female character, but ESPECIALLY katara. katara suddenly cares about nothing but aang, to the point that fans complained so much that they just wrote out aang altogether in north and south just to give her a semblance of a character arc, which STILL SUCKS because it’s just hakoda and sokka telling her to stop clinging to the past when she objects to *checks notes* IMPERIALISM AND COLONIZATION. she spends all her time either clinging to aang and talking about their relationship, backing up literally every single decision he makes and only caring about its possible repercussions for “what it means for ~us~” instead of the rest of the entire world, sitting sadly in a corner because she’s getting bullied by aang’s fangirls and he’s too busy showing off to them to notice, and then APOLOGIZING TO HIM because she’s JUST SO SELFISH for BEING SAD WHILE HER BOYFRIEND IS ENJOYING HIMSELF.

her friendship with zuko and bonding over their mothers? gone, because she’s the avatar’s girl and she can’t be ALONE with men she’s not related to, she’s aang’s forever girl after all! (but it’s okay to ship tease zuko and SOKKA’S GIRLFRIEND???) her friendship with toph and bonding over their shared femininity? suddenly toph hates being a girl. when katara says “but you’re a girl” toph responds by saying “NOBODY’S PERFECT.” jesus fucking christ. 

so toph’s a misogynist, suki is just a bodyguard for another nation’s ruler, azula is evil and crazy and will never heal or be happy and gets called various ableist insults (which is at least on brand for the show because her entire family really treated her like shit tbh), mai HELPS HER FATHER TRY TO ASSASSINATE ZUKO, and katara only has any sort of agency at all if her boyfriend’s not around. gotta love girl power.

[mythoughtsxxblog]

A Toxic Mess of Entertainment - Secret Life of the American Teenager

Quarantine Update: I've started rewatching this mess of a show for the 100th time (its so infuriating, I can never not rewatch it 💀). And I've decided to rate the characters on this show because they're just all so......interesting.

Ricky Underwood: A precious angel. His character development was fucking amazing. He deserved the absolute world and was the best parent to his child. Despite his tragic childhood and his lifestyle choices/inner struggles, he really turned his life around for his son and honestly became my favorite character on this show. His relationship with John was the cutest and I absolutely adored him and Amy (when she wasn't being annoying/immature).

Amy Juergens: Oh Amy.....so damn annoying, but likable at times. Honestly after rewatching this show so many times I've come to the conclusion that she may have had postpartum depression. She had the signs and seemed to resent her own child at times. I will say though, she had her good moments. Like when she actually acted like an adult and not a little kid. Also her cute moments with Ricky. And honestly, Shailene playing her made me dislike the character less lol

Ben Boykewich: Where the hell do I start with this piece of shit. He was slightly decent the first season, but my God wtf happened...I mean he is honestly creepy as hell. So obsessive, compulsive, and manipulative. I don't understand how the hell Amy went back and forth with him when the better man, her baby daddy, was right there the whole time. Although he's a little bitch, the storyline with Adrian and their baby killed me. It hurt me the first time I watched it and every other time I've seen it. Other than that though, he can fall in a sewer.

Adrian Lee: When I watched the show as a young teenager, I couldn't stand her, but being older now, I grew to like her. I loved her growth throughout the series, but I'll admit she did have her shitty moments. She made dumb ass mistakes (sleeping with Ben, going back to Ricky all the damn time, etc.), but I'm happy she got her happy ending. After everything she went through, she deserved it. I also loved the way her friendship with Grace evolved.

Grace Bowman: God, this bitch was annoying as hell for a good 3 seasons. She had her good moments, but she was so insufferable. Especially when it came to Jack. The storyline where she thought her having sex killed her dad will forever be the dumbest yet funniest shit ever 💀

Jack Pappus: He was alright I guess. I'm very indifferent on him. He had good and bad moments. His obsession with Grace was extremely annoying.

Ashley Juergens: I had a love/hate relationship with Ashley. I loved when she'd drag Amy when she was acting dumb, but Ashley herself acted dumb at times. She was a know-it-all and that annoyed me because it lowkey reminded me of myself 💀 at times I forgot she was the younger sister cause she was more mature than Amy lol.

George Juergens: Though he has his obvious flaws, I freaking love him. He's hilarious and I honestly think we need a reboot of this show with him and Moose 💀 also I loved his father/daughter relationship with Ashley.

Anne Juergens: Molly Ringwald is an icon. I didn't care for the character, but I love her lol. "Everybody forgot my 16th birthday" ICONIC.

Betty Boykewich: A character that had me dying of laughter most of the time. She honestly gave the show the light hearted humor it needed. Jennifer Coolidge is a legend.

Leo Boykewich: One of the more likeable parents on this show. I loved when he'd tell off Ben for how dumb he was acting which was almost 24/7. I also loved his relationship with Ricky. He treated him like a second son and it was sweet to watch.

Henry and Alice: I absolutely love them. They were the perfect duo that offered comic relief.

Bunny: LOVE HER. I would have loved to work in a butcher shop with her lol.

Lauren and Madison: Annoying as hell and honestly were never true friends to Amy. They couldn't keep shit to themselves and honestly the show would have been just fine without them. They were irrelevant characters to me 🤷‍♀️

Tom Bowman: I really liked his character. He brought a different feel to the show. I love that he wasn't treated differently despite him having down syndrome. I also love when actors with down syndrome are given a chance to shine and the actor really shined.

Some Thoughts:

With how the show ended horribly, I'm happy knowing the producer came out and said that in the end Ricky and John follow Amy to NY and ultimately they get married. I still cannot believe I watched this show for 5 years and the finale happened the way it did. But knowing this little fact keeps me at peace lol

Despite my obvious hatred for Ben, I lowkey wish he and Adrian had worked out. Yes they were, at times, extremely toxic, but I thought they had great chemistry.

Nora was awesome. I wish her character had been around since the first season. Her dynamic with George was entertaining af

Even though I didn't really care for Jack, I loved his and Tom's friendship.

[marybeatriceofmodena]

Ben Solo’s Story Arc - An Autopsy

This will be the second post before I publish the full TROS review, mainly because it’s yet another thing I want to get out of the way first. After which, I’ll be posting an announcement about the future of this blog, but no worries – I’ll be sticking around.

After Rey and her parentage, I’ll be talking about Ben here specifically – mainly because I have a pretty big inkling that his plotline for TROS was mutilated, and that he initially actually had an arc.

Except, somewhere in the executive meddling, for reasons I myself am not sure of (okay, I got some theories but it’s pointless to share them here), it got cut.

The Rise of Kylo Ren might be an inkling that there was something more in the works, also that when it comes to its take on Snoke, it directly contradicts things TROS sets up. The simplest explanation is that the Lucasfilm Story Group had a hand in TRoKR, and not for TROS. But even then… the comic reveals things that make me BAFFLED they didn’t put that in the films. I don’t want to be that person who thinks 30 minutes of TLJ should have been dedicated to Snoke’s origins, but stuff like how Ben didn’t even destroy Luke’s Jedi Camp? THAT’S the kind of thing you need to include in your film.

Also, I 110% believe the rumors that JJ Abrams just ignored the Story Group’s existence entirely. Wanna know why? Just the fact that Exogol is established as the Sith world… when we know thanks to The Clone Wars that it’s Moraband – which would have been super easy to use. But fuck continuity I guess.

I will say though, I am NOT surprised it’s leaking out that the movie was severely tempered with and was constantly changing during production, simply because from my first (and only) viewing… I could tell something was wrong. Namely, I could tell that Ben’s arc had been mutilated – and the more I think about it, the more glaring it gets. It’s not even that I’m mad that Adam Driver (aka Golden Globe/Academy Award nominee Adam Driver) gets relegated to playing Darth Exposition for 75% of the film (and godawful exposition at that), it’s literally that so much of what remains of his arc makes no sense, and it affects Palpatine and Rey by extension.

I explained why Rey’s character arc was butchered here, and I’ve also talked about how Palpatine’s implication in her arc didn’t work either, so I won’t talk about it too much here, nor do you need to have read it prior in order to understand this post. I will also point out that a lot of what will be my speculation – so for all I know, I could be wrong, but I’m trying to fill in the holes here.

So, for starters… somehow, Ben knows that Palpatine is still alive. Somehow, he knows how to get to him. AND SOMEHOW, THE WRITERS DECIDED NOT EXPLAINING SHIT WAS THE WAY TO GO. This is not even on the level of not explaining who the fuck Snoke is in the two previous films – while I do think there could have been a throwaway line in TLJ, it didn’t “hinder” the story.

HOWEVER, not explaining how Palpatine is still around and kicking (well, he’s on life support so kicking might be a little too flattering), why he decided to reveal himself right there, right then, and how the hell Ben knows he’s around, how he figured out how to get to Exogol using the holocrons… THAT IS A BIG PROBLEM. This is the triggering element of the rising action in your story. But before you do that, YOU. NEED. EXPOSITION. TO. SET. UP. THE. CONTEXT. OF. YOUR. STORY.

What TROS did would be like skipping Finn’s intro when he’s with his Stormtrooper squad on Jakku, removing the interrogation with Poe and Kylo entirely, and just start TFA with him escaping with Poe without any explanation given. Oh, and also cut out Rey’s introduction as well, and we first meet her when she kicks Finn’s ass in Niima Outpost. You’d just have a bunch of characters coming out of nowhere, and you’d have no frigging clue what they’re doing, and what they want. And that’s what TROS does with Ben and Palpatine.

Take the handling of Snoke, for instance. I’d be a lot more mad about the Snoke retconning if it wasn’t for… what I’m going to call the “Snoke Stew” (and I’d crack a joke about how it was probably made with the DNA of a guy called Stu, which is not funny but still funnier than most of the jokes in TROS). That’s pretty much the one thing that stops me from being mad, because of how STUPID it is.

But the explanation for Snoke’s origins just… retcons so much that has been established before, INCLUDING INFO FROM A COMIC THAT CAME OUT AFTER TROS. We knew Snoke had a past, even if we weren’t privy to it yet. We did kind of know that he was a rich guy, like all the shitty rich people we saw in Canto Bight, who happened to be a Dark Sider and was seemingly smart enough to kill his way to the top. Considering how exploitative the First Order is when it comes to resources and that a rich patron would be welcomed with open arms, it makes sense.

With the explanation given by TROS, it just provides a fuck ton of plotholes to the fact he took over the First Order while killing off old Imperial higher-ups to establish himself as Supreme Leader. Do you really think a guy in a golden bathrobe would just be able to take over out of fucking nowhere because he killed all the higher-ups? No. And even if some of the higher-ups knew that Snoke was a Palps plant (like Pryde seems to), I doubt Ben would have stayed Supreme Leader for as long as a year.

But that’s not even the biggest problem! Seriously, I don’t know if Palps is senile in this film, because we got an ENTIRE trilogy explaining how the guy is one of the worst evil masterminds to have ever lived, in the Galaxy Far Far Away and even in today’s culture. Here, you don’t even understand what the fuck he even wants! I’m “guessing” he fucked with Ben to get his revenge on Anakin, because he uses Ben as his lackey while being seemingly totally oblivious that Ben is working against him (what happened to “every voice in your head”???). He wants Ben to kill Rey… while knowing Rey is his granddaughter, and while telling her when she shows up that he wants to use her as a new host or some shit. Seriously, MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY.

This said… I honestly wonder if Ben was initially meant to be the new host, and not Rey. Because not only that was an actual theory I had pre-TROS, but it would make a shit ton more sense than having Rey be the host – not to mention it’d be the ultimate revenge against Anakin (and if you want to get REAL yucky, he may have planned to have Rey be his new consort, but I’ll spare you more speculation about that aspect). But nah, I guess.

The most damning thing in all this is that there’s no difference in Ben’s overall behavior and actions AFTER Snoke has been killed, when it’s clear Snoke was the biggest influence on him. Saying that Palpatine just kept messing with him makes no sense because with Snoke dead, any voice Ben would still hear would make him go “NOPE” and do exactly the opposite of what said voice tells him to do.

Like, for real, with Snoke dead, unless he’s REALLY stupid (I mean… Ben is reckless, but not stupid), why would Ben do anything a now Random Voice would tell him to do?

The thing is, there have been hints in previous material that Ben isn’t exactly 110% on board with what the First Order does. He’s clearly against blowing up planets, he snarks about how Stormtroopers should be clones instead – which could just be a throwaway snarky line, but considering Ben’s past… I can see him not being too fuzzy about the Stormtrooper program. Like, I’m not saying he’d start a Galactic Free Donut Day, but there would be a change. It wouldn’t be Business as Usual – especially that Ben wasn’t that young (23) when he joined Snoke, and it’s a little hard to go from “My uncle tried to kill me in my sleep and I’m going towards the one figure I think can protect me” to “Blowing up planets and enslaving people is the way to go”. It would have worked if Ben had been brainwashed from his teens, but not so much as an adult – hence you need a little more nuance with Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

Oh yeah, and the Knights of Ren? They’re just there to look cool. “But they kidnapped Chewie!” Yeah, what was the fucking point of them kidnapping Chewie apart from giving a reason for the Beautiful Friendship Gang to get on the Star Destroyer and give us fake suspense because we all know how it’s gonna end, just end my suffering already. Also, NO INTERRACTION WITH BEN? DID YA FORGET CHEWIE IS LIKE, HIS UNCLE? DID YALL FORGET BEN WAS PART OF YOUR FAMILY OR…

Seriously, that sequence on Pasaana where they’re just standing there on top of a fucking mountain? I called that part the Backdesert Boys. That tells ya how much I hated it.

Oh yeah, and they’re fighting fodder for Benny Boy in the end, because of course they were Palps’ lackeys all along, can’t think of anything else that’s more imaginative.

So what could they possibly add to Ben’s arc, that would explain so much, like how Ben finds Palpatine, or how he’s always one step ahead from the Beautiful Friendship Gang in their Wild Goose Chase no one fucking cares about?

This is where I got into speculation/conspiracy theory territory. Brace yourselves. 

*

So, the film has Lando reveal that he and Luke “knew” about Palps being around thanks to snooping around… except that makes no bloody sense. Lando was never involved in a Force plot of any kind, and he was never that close to Luke anyway. I mean, Lando’s a nice guy and all, but he’s not really besties with Luke – he’s Han’s friend.

So that research should have taken place either before Ben joined Luke at Jedi Camp, either after. Then again, before would make no sense, because why would Luke leave that critical of a search on the ice for 10 to 15 years? The only place where I can place it in time, where it would make logical sense… would be when Ben was around, and it’d make WAY more sense to have him be Luke’s sidekick in that search.

It would have totally explained why Luke freaked the fuck out reading Ben’s mind, because only Palpatine can give her that severe of a PTSD-like reaction. It would have totally explained why Ben would run to Snoke, grooming and desperation set aside, under the promise that they’d associate to defeat Palps, because if you ignore the plot hole extravaganza of TROS, you’d bet Snoke wouldn’t want Palps anywhere near his throne – mainly because Snoke is a wannabe Palpatine who targeted Ben to get his own Vader. It would have totally explained why Ben thought becoming Supreme Leader is a good idea – even if it’s morally wrong, it makes logical sense. It would have totally explained why Kylo was collecting Sith artefacts in the year gap while keeping in mind he made his distaste for the Sith clear in TLJ. It would have totally provided the audience (and Rey) a good reason to forgive Ben, because even if he had godawful methods, he wanted to do the right thing and save the galaxy from the person who came this close to destroying them, as well as his family. That would have provided for him the means to realize that he cannot defeat Palpatine using Palpatine’s means – as Rose said, he’ll win by saving what he loves, and not destroying what he hates. That would have made Rey the glitch in the matrix, who must join forces with Ben because without her, he would have been doomed despite his best efforts.

And before you tell me that would have been unnecessary… let me put it to you this way. Ben keeps saying it's too late, and if it was just that, it could be interpreted as him thinking he went too far to come back. But he also adds that he has "something to do", and I'm here waving my arms like "WHAT? WHY? FUCK, YOU DIDN'T EVEN KILL YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS!!! THEY'RE NOT EVEN BOTHERED TO SAY THAT IN THE ACTUAL FILM!!!"

Hence why my theory is the simplest way to just tie it all neatly together, without retconning anything. There.

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SUPER SIMPLE TO DO. Except that, as I mentioned earlier, they mutilated Ben’s arc, and left him to play the part of Darth Exposition, until the very end, when they have Ben save what he loves… but even then, I can’t even appreciate that either, because it happens in a way that makes EVERYONE look horrible, while Ben is, from a storytelling perspective, a saint… a saint everyone ultimately forgot about.

[vampirewalterskinner]

The fact that no one talks about Monk makes me so, SO sad because this show is amazing and genius for so many reasons.

A long list of reasons why I adore this show so damn much.

The show is centered around a man (guy with the super curly hair) with OCD who also has a shit ton of phobias (heights, germs, death, naked people, milk—and those aren’t in order btw he has a list) and the writers treat it with so much respect. Yes, his condition is sometimes used for jokes, but it’s not used to make people with OCD or phobias a joke. Like, they’ll put Monk in a dangerous situation where he’s about to be killed (for instance, held up at gunpoint in a car dealership), but he can’t help himself and has to fix a flaw that’s bothering him (literally takes his time to fix a peeling sticker on a car and uses the butt of the villain’s gun to push out air bubbles). That shit is funny, but it in no way makes fun of people with OCD. Plus, this boy is a genius and I love him.

OTHER MAIN CHARACTERS DONT MAKE FUN OF HIM FOR HIS CONDITION. Yes, they get irritated, but they never berate him for his condition and usually let him fix what’s bothering him unless they’re in a serious situation. (One time, Monk accidentally stepped on an unraveled roll of bubble wrap and popped a few bubbles and he had to pop the rest. His friend Leland [blonde w/ a mustache] started to help him pop them and ordered two other officers to help—and they were at a crime scene lmao) They actually usually help him??? Monk has a phobia of people being naked and in one episode someone was killed on a nude beach. They tried so hard to keep him distracted and focused on the dead body so he wouldn’t notice 😂

There’s multiple instances where he’s shown to overcome or brave his phobias to save his friends when they’re in trouble.

They also normalize seeing a therapist who often encourages Monk to try new things and advises him on what’s healthy for him and what isn’t and NEVER berates him for his issues or for relapses. (I can really relate to when they speak of Monk’s depression. They handle that stuff really well.)

Contains the best romance story I have ever seen????? Which is a big deal for me to say because I HATE romance. Monk used to be on the police force but was kicked out on psychological discharge after his wife passed and his condition worsened. So, this is a bittersweet romance, obviously, because his wife has passed, but holy shit is he in love. The way he speaks of her is so beautiful. She was his life. Years keep passing and he still wears his wedding ring and he stills thinks of himself as being married. Like, oh my god you guys don’t understand how much I love his love for Trudy. This show makes me bawl my eyes out when Trudy is involved. He’s dedicated the rest of his life to find out who killed Trudy. Believe me, when Monk is angry and it’s about his wife, he’s not to be messed with.

The dynamic Monk has with his assistants (Sharona was season 1-half of 3. Natalie was half of 3-8) is so great. They get annoyed with him and put up with his cheap, stubborn ass but love the shit out of him. These two women by themselves are amazing, too. Sharona was a divorced, single mother raising her son Benjamin (who Monk stated many times he was proud of and loved him like he was his own son), and was nursing—which is how she met Monk, being hired by Leland to take care of him after Trudy died. Her past is a bit dicey, bringing up how she used to pose for dirty pictures among other things—and it’s all treated with respect. Not once is she mocked for doing what she had to so she could take care of her son. Natalie is also a single mother to Julie, and unlike Sharona she isn’t devorced, but the widow of a Navy pilot. Despite having the same essential role in the show they made their personalities and characteristics very different from one another, except they both complain about Monk being cheap and not paying them enough lmao.

Monk and his assistant(s) have a normal ass relationship without any romantic possibility and zero awareness of their sexes. Natalie hugs, cuddles, and kisses Monk (as often as she’s able to catched him off his guard) and it’s shown simply as a wonderful friendship. Monk protects her (and Sharona), buys her flowers, and fed her cake, but they’re still shown as friends. I adore this for so many reasons. Monk is still deathly in love with his wife. Of course he can get a crush or two (which he does) but lasting any longer than an episode would be odd and uncomfortable for Monk’s character. Not to mention they don’t fit each other’s tastes at all. And how often are male and female relationships presented in media without it being romantic or turning romantic? Chicks and dudes can be friends, guys, it’s not a big deal.

LELAND 👏🏻 AND 👏🏻 MONK’S 👏🏻 RELATIONSHIP 👏🏻 IS 👏🏻 MY 👏🏻 LIFE 👏🏻 Those two have a super long history. They’ve known each other since Monk graduated college and fuck their relationship just gets better and better. Leland knows more about Monk than anyone else, except for Trudy, naturally. He was Monk’s partner while on the force. He was there when Monk got the call about Trudy. Leland hired Sharona to help Monk get back on his feet. Leland has ON MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS threaten to resign (he’s the captain of the homicide division btw) if the higher ups tried to get rid of Monk or installed a highering freeze which would keep Monk from getting back on the force. Monk is always willing to help Leland. Monk was his best man and was PROUD AF. Monk also freaked tf out and rushed to help Leland when he was shot. Like, I could go on and on about their relationship. Leland is the ONLY person that gets away with touching Monk. Usually Monk flinches or eveades or wipes his hands when people touch him or shake his hand, but he doesn’t really do that with Leland. He’s really comfortable with him. Their friendship means so much to me.

They never pulled the “no homo” shit. Leland has told others and told Monk to his face many times that he loves him. No “as a friend” or making a joke out of him saying those words. They let his character be a normal fucking person who can tell his best friend he loves him. Randy (the other guy in the picture) tells both Monk and Leland that he loves them and still no jokes are made about it, even while Randy is usually comic relief.

This show is honestly just so damn good. I seriously cannot remember a single, bad episode. I highly recommend taking a look into Monk because it’s such a great story, and the finale will butcher you and you’ll end up saying “thank you” I promise.

[sonicfanj]

Why do you prefer Amy over Sally?

I’ve taken to long to answer this question and would like to first thank you for your patience Anon.

So, I suppose a bit of an explanation for why I took so long is due as well. Mostly, it was a lack of time but also trying to find a way to define ‘why’. There are an awful lot of ways I could go about it as I am the type of person who is heavily invested in the details. Unfortunately the more I thought about it the harder it was going to get for me to really actually break it down. Fortunately, something recently reminded me of the role the Uncle Chuck plays in it and I can fortunately use him to transition into my history with the characters.

Now, I’ve been a Sonic fan for a long time, all the way back to 1991 actually with the original. As a US citizen naturally I saw SatAM and AoStH on TV as well. Where I get strange from what I see though is that I was quite the picky kid. I couldn’t understand why Sonic did not match his in game design, and had no idea what was wrong with Eggman. And yes, even back in the early 90s I was one of the few kids who knew the Japanese name was his original name, though I used them interchangeably back then. The thing is though, neither show ever looked like the games and that bothered me to no end. I recall that my older siblings and I preferred SatAM to AoStH for the more serious story and atmosphere, even likening it to the bad futures of Sonic CD. There in though is where the divide begins.

I was one of the very few kids who played Sonic CD back in 1993 and to this day it is still my favorite Sonic game, no less video game of all time. I actually did not play the higher praised by the fanbase Death Egg Saga games until Sonic Jam on the SEGA Saturn and that little collection did something for me that Sonic CD had also done. They showed me with the OVA trailer that Sonic and Eggman could be drawn properly. It showed me that Tails could be colored properly. They showed me that the wonder of the games could be captured in animation. It was glorious and to this day still leaves me yearning for a Sonic anime that actually captures it. Sonic CD on it’s own though was already killing SatAM for me.

A lot of people praise the Freedom Fighters. That quirky crew of rebels has brought so many people so much joy and I have nothing but respect for them for that. The thing is though, they were forgettable to me. When I turned my back on pretty much anything that was not the games that I knew I completely forgot about them until I finally got involved in the fanbase after Sonic Generations was announced and I had to do some major research to know what anyone was talking about. A game centric upbringing with only really main games as those I played will do that.

Amy meanwhile, despite CD being the only game I played that she was in until Adventure just struck me right. Her design, her on screen personality. These things just filled me with joy and it was very rare that I would not interreact with her in Palm Tree Panic as much as I could. I was actually so disappointed her design was changed for Adventure but her personality was exactly what I was expecting; a sweet bubbly girl with a lot of spunk and a love for Sonic.

So at this point I should come back around to Uncle Chuck as he will be necessary to explain why it took so long for me to even find anything in Sally worth enjoying, no less actually liking her come the 252 reboot. As I mentioned above, Sonic CD is my favorite game all time, but for as much as I loved Amy even back in 1993, Metal Sonic was my favorite character. Getting to Stardust Speedway and spending hours trying to beat him were the highlights with my playing back the until I finally beat him and cleared the game. That difficulty endeared Metal Sonic to me and left a very strong impression on me that still persists to this day. The thing is, Metal Sonic was my childhood and Uncle Chuck was a slap in the face.

You may recall that back in SatAM and a lot of early Archie, Uncle Chuck spent a lot of time roboticized. Now I know I did not see SatAM regularly because TV stations are questionable in their practices and I have parents who wanted the TV for their own shows. As a result I was unprepared for his introduction and in the cliffhanger where they simply showed a pair of red glowing eyes, little Metal Sonic fan that I was thought they were introducing Metal Sonic. When the next episode revealed it was a roboticized Uncle Chuck and not Metal Sonic, it was the last straw for the kid that was into Sonic for the games, and I only had access to two of them. Yet I turned my back on SatAM and everything made in the US that was not directly related to the games.

So because of Uncle Chuck my primary exposure to the cast were the main games and Sonic CD. Adventure finally let me play as Amy and the Freedom Fighters were a shoved aside memory from a wasted opportunity who never impressed themselves onto me. All of that changed come Generations as X showed me that even the Japanese could butcher the games I love and not draw Sonic right and as I joined the fandom through the US Sally should have had the chance to impress herself upon me. Unfortunately she was not given that opportunity because of her fans.

As is obvious, I’m an Amy fan. When I joined the fandom being an Amy fan in the US was not seen as a good thing and the war of hatred between Sally fans and Amy fans still has scars left over today throughout the Sonic community. When presented with Sally through the fans I interacted with, Sally was simply perfection incarnate and Amy should die in a fire while Sonic worships her for killing the hellspawn. It was not a good experience and offered no support for the games and the adventures I enjoyed and came to Sonic for. I also for a time came to despise the character solely for her fans which happened to me in recent years with the Tales of Franchise and the character Alisha. Unpleasant fans make it difficult to enjoy a character or even come to at least understand them. Fortunately I was willing to do some research of my own because I still felt like I needed the knowledge, and maybe the character could speak for herself. I was in for quite a bit of disappointment.

What my research turned up at the time was a character who was simultaneously useless, nothing more but an object of power for Sonic to worship like an indoctrinated thrall, and managed to match Tails in point of view at the time of dumbing Sonic down to where I felt in their presences he couldn’t figure out he was supposed to open his own mouth to eat if they weren’t there. This may be hard to believe but I actually disliked Tails quite a bit for several years as Sonic seemed to be constantly dumbed down so Tails could be useful rather than the kid who could keep up if he gave his all. Yet the OVA (subbed) saved Tails for me. Sally meanwhile continued to undermine Sonic with the Genesis Story during the events of Sonic 1 via the first Genesis Wave where she “helped” Sonic find the courage to enter the water in Labyrinth Zone and he found it not so bad because of her. It was one of the few times I found why people called her a Mary Sue.

What finally saved Sally for me was actually Amy. Though I never liked how aggressive and violent Amy had become compared to playful and mischievous from Sonic X on, and a coming reexamination of her character after learning she addressed Sonic a certain way in the Japanese manuals leading me to fully fall for Kazuyuki Hoshino’s vision of her, her conversations with Mecha Sally would turn the tide for Sally. Amy being Amy spoke of friendship and the friendship they had. While I never read the comics and could not examine their relationship, come the reboot in 252, from the get go the two were shown as good friends and I could finally see Sally’s character. She was wise tactically and cared for her friends, bit was also highly responsible and took her duties seriously. In Amy and her friends she found the comfort to unwind and just be another person no matter what was going on. Her and Amy’s chats while going around the world during the lead up to and during the Unleashed adaption made her fun and enjoyable, no less relatable. She was finally a character, a person, and not just an object that Sonic was chained to like a slobbering cartoon dog with their bone. It was refreshing and I enjoy the friendship between Sally and Amy so much that I still feel if the Freedom Fighters were to have been adapted to IDW for just a cameo that Sally would have been the perfect friend to hand the Restoration off to as she finally returned to her own adventuring ways. And that right there is the big difference point.

I come to Sonic for adventure, whimsy, and wonder. The sense of discover of meeting new people and seeing wonderous new locations. I love characters full of life and the love for adventure. Sally, unfortunately for her, does not represent that. Her role for years kept Sonic away from those adventures. Instead of supporting whimsy and constant new discovery, she supported stability and staying forever at home. By the nature of her role as a character and in universe, she just can’t be that type of character and that is not her fault. Amy meanwhile is a character designed to follow Sonic no matter where he goes. That she also is a girly-tomboy, one of my favorite character archetypes, but also bubbly and silly, playful and mischievous, and generally full of good cheer and limitless positivity (or used to be at lease) just always entertains me. That she also has the courage to open wear and express her emotions, including her love, is both entertaining on one hand, but also inspiring on another when you are raised in a society that hates honesty, emotions, and expressing that you love someone. Amy was refreshing, whereas Sally when I first looked into her, and her fans that I interacted with, represented oppression and that being you was the worst thing that could ever happen to the human race, something that Sonic and Amy both stand against. Fortunately Amy showed me there is plenty to like with Sally, and it’s a real shame her character was vaulted before that potential could finally be perceived. And yet, in the end, as I grew up on the main games and had my expectations born of them and further refined as I learned more and more of the Japanese lore for the games, Sally and the role she has could never provide me with what I come to Sonic for. Adventure, the whimsy that gives rise to it, the discovers that come from it, and the heroics at it’s climax. Sally by nature is not a whimsical character, nor should she be. It isn’t who she is and she deserves to be respected for that. And it’s thanks to her friendship with Amy that I finally saw that and can enjoy her character. But like Amy, I want to follow Sonic on his adventures, and her bubbly, playful, cheerful, optimistic, and mischievous personality makes following Sonic that much more enjoyable to me.

To simplify it here at the end, my love of Metal Sonic and Uncle Chuck prevented me from ever learning who Sally was. It was Amy’s friendship with her that finally changed that and I found a character who has a lot of potential and is quite enjoyable on her own. But Amy’s personality, whimsy, and propensity for adventure, or the the trouble that will take her on one, makes her the more enjoyable character for me. I know the whole explanation was a little long, but I hope it helps explains my preference for you Anon. Thanks for asking.

[ty-talks-comics]

The Boys Season 1 Review and Comparison

This was so cathartic.

In an age where we’re inundated with superhero media on all fronts with their bright colors, cheery jokes and positive outlooks, it’s easy to slowly become sick of it, feel the “superhero fatigue” as it were. Where Marvel ruins some stories with far too many jokes (looking at you Thor: Ragnarok) and DC is far too dreary and serious for its own good with a lack of levity, where can one turn to for a GOOD happy medium?

Well, in comes Seth Rogan and Evan Gold, the brilliant minds behind the amazing adaptation of Preacher with yet another brutal and slightly more cynical series. The Boys absolutely stuns not only by being a genuinely compelling series, but also by being one of the few adaptations that improves on the original medium in a few aspects.

Story

The story centers around Hughie Campbell and the titular Boys as they work to expose the horrific deeds of The Seven, a collective of the world's greatest superheroes, and the company that sponsors them, Vought American.

In this world, superheroes are everywhere. They're on breakfast cereals, TV shows, movies, pretty much every piece of media and entertainment imaginable while also protecting America from crime. Sounds familiar, huh? The kicker here is that, much like every asshole celebrity that lets the fame and fortune go to their heads, these heroes are massive cunts. They take performance enhancing drugs, routinely cause accidents that hurt or kill people, sexually harass people left and right and just lie to their adoring public like they’re children.

Unlike the books, however, The Boys team isn’t the well oiled machine that’s been taking down and blackmailing superheroes for years and the first four episodes are spent introducing the different team members.This is likely due to wanting to give people time to care about them individually and the limited number of episodes in the season. This definitely works in also retooling the characters themselves for TV since they may not have seventy-two issues of character development ahead of them

For the most part, the show follows the initial story beats of the comics with a few select differences before splintering off in an entirely new direction. Hughie’s girlfriend still gets blown apart by A-Train, he denies Vought America’s hush money which draws the attention of Billy Butcher and Starlight joins the Seven after the “death” of the hero Lamplighter. 

This also means that there's less time to focus on smaller plotlines and teams that are referenced to in passing dialogue like the Teenage Kix, a pastiche on the Teen Titans, or Payback, the number two group of superheroes to The Seven. While seeing the team take these guys down on the small screen would have been fun, I like the idea of keeping the plot focused on just the core group of antagonists. This way, we don’t have to slog through three or four seasons of small fry and get the big bads in the last few.

After the first half, fans of the comic may start to feel a little bit of the familiar, but then things start to take a drastic turn when Billy's pride and the rest of the teams sloppiness gets them all burned and branded wanted criminals. This never happens in the books because The Boys are funded and protected by the CIA, but here they’re just another group of concerned citizens that are completely in over their heads, adding to the tension and keeping everyone guessing as to what will happen for the rest of the season and in Season 2.

Themes

The original series was written during the latter years of the Bush Administration. Tensions were high and America was still embroiled in the Iraq War. The president was a simpering fool and companies were fucking people over left and right in the name of patriotism. Reality TV and the awful personalities on our screens were on nearly every channel and all of this only fueled the anger that is Garth Ennis’ pen and Darick Robertson’s pencils. It was a product of its time and it was perfect.

We’re now in the Information Age where superheroes and social media are the only things that matter in everyone’s mind, where women’s empowerment is stronger than ever and our leaders speak bombastically with shit eating grins full of lies. Rogen and Goldberg have kept the series modern and take everything to task.

Media. Marvel and DC are everywhere nowadays with some indie companies managing to scrape up their own part of the pie. The Boys makes fun of the seemingly endless cycle of sequels and the goody-two-shoes images of America’s favorite heroes. Everything is carefully managed and curated by a media team, similar to how Disney micromanages even the smallest details of their properties to make everything so sickeningly squeaky clean. 

Not only do the heroes stop crime, but they star in their own movies about themselves as well, some have sponsorships for shoes and have to compete with each other for everything. Almost everything is done for the cameras, even intimate moments whenever Vought can find a way to make it work. The heroes are never too far from the spotlight even when they want to be and oftentimes their acts can go viral without them knowing.

Sexual Assault. In the comics, Starlight is sexually assaulted by Homelander, Black Noir and A-Train in a gross scene to establish that there’s nothing good in that world. It was good for its time in its own dark way, but today there are absolutely consequences to such things as there should have been back then. In the show, Starlight is assaulted by The Deep, her childhood crush, alone. 

It’s dark and makes use of the imbalance of power as The Deep threatens to have her kicked off of the team. Soon after, Starlight comes forward with what happens to her, not allowing herself to let what happened stand and unlike in the books, The Deep gets his comeuppance. Though this also unfortunately leading to him getting assaulted as well. It’s powerful and allows for Starlight to move what could have been an image of weakness, though Vought uses this to their advantage as well, painting her a feminist icon. Best for business right?

Politics. While not everything has to be an allegory for Trump, it’s hard to say that Homelander isn’t just that. He’s what the president thinks he is, a strong, blonde haired man that the entire country loves. Homelander has the people eating out of the palm of his hands and he’s only feeding them shit. He hates the common man and will just as easily let many die if it can somehow serve his interests. He’s not above a little sexual harassment himself and he is just an evil bastard.

There’s also a subplot of military application of superheroes that I feel mirrors the discussion on the use of drones in war. Drones are absolutely deadly and have caused the deaths of hundreds, even innocents when things have gone really wrong. Even President Obama was criticized for how reckless and dangerous their use could be. The world could only imagine the hell that would rain down if superheroes were allowed to duke it out over national security.

Characters

The Boys as a comic series was an unrepentantly cynical take on the superhero genre in an established universe of heroes. The creator, Garth Ennis, didn’t grow up with many superheroes and actually felt disrespected by a few of them, like Captain America. He brought on the amazing Darick Robertson and other artists to realize this horrid world of drugs, hardcore sex and brutal violence. Many of the stories are fun and hilarious, but with the unfortunate feeling of a lot of them feeling one note due to the one dimensional nature of a lot of the “heroes” and the ever escalating level of black humor to the point of being cartoonish.

Our main character cast is absolutely fantastic. Jack Quiad’s Hughie is much like his comic counterpart, aside from being like six feet tall and not Scottish. He’s surprisingly smart with a lot of awkwardness about him. He has a good heart and doesn’t see ALL superheroes as being evil, but does have a slight sense of justice that wants to see The Seven and Vought taken down. 

Karl Urban’s Butcher was the absolute perfect casting choice. He’s got that wry British wit, the fury to capture Butcher’s rage against supes and can play a manipulator like nobody's business. His character arc is one of the few regressions that I can actually appreciate for how it's done, especially as things become more fucked because of him and how he chooses to blame everyone else.

Everyone else is a slight bit of an improvement over the comics versions. The Frenchman, played by Tomer Capon, is similar to his comics counterpart, but we’re given reason to care about him and The Female. In the comics, Frenchie and the Female knew each other prior, but I don’t think it’s ever revealed how they met or became close. In the show Frenchie frees The Female, played by Karen Fukuhara, from thugs that had been keeping her prisoner and he slowly gains her trust over the course of the next few episodes after her introduction. We see their friendship grow, learn a little bit of her backstory and get a better understanding of what she wants versus just following Frenchie around and being terrifyingly adorable.

Annie January aka Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty, is probably the second best change in character in the series. She starts out as a bright eyed, bushy tailed hero looking to do good, but after being sexually assaulted on her first day in The Seven, decides that it will never happen again. In the comics, Annie stays around in The Seven and takes the abuse for a little while before speaking out and fighting back against the rest of them. What makes things even better, not only does she challenge her uber Christian beliefs during an event sponsored by Vought, but she does so while also getting Vought to force her abuser into giving a public apology at the mere thought of her causing their stock prices to crash.

Consequently, Mother’s Milk, portrayed by Laz Alonso, one of the most layered characters in the comics isn’t made better, but the more ridiculous aspects of is character have been toned down. We don’t hear of his disabled mother and his addiction to her breast milk that fuels his own superpowers, nor is his wife a crack addict that makes pornos with their daughter. He’s simply a reliable member of the team that loves his wife and will give Butcher the truth when he’s acting like an asshole.

The series actually brings a lot of grey to most of these characters. A-Train never once shows remorse for his actions in the books, but in the show he's painted as kind of sympathetic, while still being seen as a monster for what he does and the reasons behind them. The Deep could go either way after his actions with a redemption arc or a full turn to villain, but is shown to be knowingly aware of how little regard there is for him. He calls himself a "diversity hire" and acknowledges his own ineptitude, but he's still an absolutely terrible person.

Queen Maeve may be one of my favorite changes that manages to be even more sympathetic than her already pretty great comic counterpart. She, much like Starlight, did want to change the world, but she let the apathy and jaded nature of the job take her over. She's an alcoholic that sees a bit of herself in Starlight. The change comes in how she reacts to what I think might be Homelander's most heinous act in the show. She shows far more remorse and guilt over what happens than she does in the comic, showing us a side of her makes you want to root for her and to see her get better.

The best character… dear Lord, is Homelander, played by Anthony Starr. Homelander is a bastard. The worst thing imaginable because of his sheer strength and power. He’s a sociopath with all of the powers of Superman and none of the goodness. In the comics he’s simply just another asshole. 

He’s the most powerful of the Seven and absolutely revels in the hedonistic lifestyle that he’s accustomed to while also hating being under the rule of Vought. In the show, he’s shown as being supportive to Vought, especially it’s current Senior VP of Hero Management, Madelyn Stillwell. He has something of a mommy fetish as shown with his interactions with her and later in the series actually expresses emotions over learning of his own tragedies, but instead of trying to change for the better, he doubles down on his hatred and anger to become an even bigger monster than before. 

In the comic he just wants all of the superheroes to conquer the world, but here, he just wants to hurt everyone who hurts him. He plays games like a child, threatening and revealing secrets to toy with people before absolutely breaking them. He's horrible in a very personal way and his sneering smile only makes him so much more hateable. He knows there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop him and he revels in that fact, I love it.

Pacing and Direction

Coming in at an hour for each episode, the first two to three can feel a bit slow. Getting all of the story elements to sit just right can take time, especially as new things are introduced every few minutes. This slow burn approach easily helps to build the tension before things get really crazy by episode four. By that point, the story is unfolding at a perfect rhythm, the team is mostly together, they’ve made their plans of action and it’s all so smooth.

Thankfully each episode is directed by different people to avoid each feeling so similar. The common humor and tone is kept the same, but some episodes are very hopeful almost before being met with one that absolutely makes you hate certain characters and the actions that they take. In particular, the episode where Hughie and Butcher visit a group therapy session and Butcher flies off into a rage about the weakness of the attendees as they basically lick the balls of the heroes that have maimed them was amazing. The director pulls so much emotion out of that scene and continues on as the episode moves along in a far more dramatic fashion than some of the others.

Some others lean heavier on the debauchery such as the episode where Hughie and Butcher venture into a superhero sex club and watch as these guys do some pretty amazing feats with their abilities in some really gross ways. There’s a good balance of levity and drama that makes neither feel too overwhelming.

Overall

With a great cast, impeccable acting and an unpredictability that I actually enjoyed, The Boys absolutely blew me away. I was wholly prepared to rip it apart if I felt like it didn’t do the story justice, but Rogen and Goldberg are fans and knew what we all wanted. It’s unabashedly a comic book show, but still has enough to it that people who have never heard of the series will be floored by how much they can find to enjoy.

It’s for the nihilistic and jaded comic book fan. It’s for the casual watcher who’s gotten enough of Marvel’s colorful displays of happiness and it’s absolutely for the happy person who just wants to have some fun with what they watch. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this season of The Boys. So much so that I’m aching with anticipation to re-read the comic series in preparation for Season Two. It’s unlikely that it’ll follow the plot much, if at all after the ending, but with Stormfront (as a woman) being announced as the new Hero joining the Seven in the next season, I’m excited as to who else they might pull. This first season absolutely earns a high recommendation from me.