#I just have so many feelings about this franchise.

[jukashi]

"What, you think Sonic's a cop?" is a pretty good succinct way to sum up the question of Sonic's morality and responsibility, I think. See, Sonic has always been kind of an asshole. This is a guy who, way back when, only made friends with Tails because Tails figured out how to kinda keep up with him. I know it wasn't intentional, but since most media even now goes with it, it kinda says something that Sonic didn't have any friends before that, either, and most of his friends in the games can also Go reasonably Fast.

So, right down, deep at the core of his character, Sonic Likes His Freedom. I think that's the thing that, if you changed it, he wouldn't be Sonic. All his values are extensions of that - he helps people because he likes them to have their freedom, too. Like, he literally breaks animals free from robots when he defeats them? That's a distinct element of Sonic's games specifically, that's a statement, right there. Eggman represents absolute subjugation under one man's will and whims, an as such he and Sonic are like, ontologically enemies, narratively.

So, Sonic's morality and motivations are based mostly on being a freedom maximizer. The consequence of this is that he doesn't take responsibility for jack shit. He saves you from being killed or subjugated but then that's it, buddy, you're on your own. He's not a leader, he's not making any commitments. Do you think he has some duty to you? An obligation? Sounds like not-freedom to me, pal. You think Sonic wants to become the police?

You think Sonic's a cop?

So, when they want to give Sonic some conflict that actually makes him feel conflicted, and it's not some smaller scale thing like two friends falling out or something like that, then it's pretty much got to be about freedom vs. freedom. By sparing his enemies, Sonic is making a bet - risking long-term chance of great loss of freedom, if the threat returns and succeeds next time, or ensuring minimal risk but definitely reducing someone's freedom right now? Do you take the idealistic hopeful route or the cynical sensible one?

Do you take the higher, faster, riskier route through the level, or the lower, slower, certain one? What do you think?

But the idealistic, hopeful route is also the self-centered one. He wants to take the gamble that he can get the theoretical best option. That risk is being taken with other people's lives.

This isn't a terribly new idea. How many idealistic hero characters go "no I refuse the dilemma I will take the long shot to save everyone!"? But it's not so common to actually interrogate its drawbacks properly, inside a story that's overall generally aligned with that sentiment, so I appreciate it. I think part of the reason they can do that, with Sonic, is because he's been established as kind of an asshole. Other idealistic heroes, drawing attention to that would kind of break things down - if they really took it in, then most idealistic characters would actually have to go with the sensible option or come off as assholes. With Sonic, he already is one, so they can put it in front of him, really rotate it in everyone's view, and still have the reasonable possibility that Sonic can just say 'yeah well I'm still gonna do it my own way'.

That or it's just that Sonic is a long-running media franchise, and someone would have had to run into this idea for story material sooner or later.

There's definitely been more Sonic stuff in recent years that's shown him from an outside perspective, and consistently the conclusion seems to be "hey. this guy's kind of an asshole"

like. bro just doesn't care

sonic there are tears in her eyes you can't be acting like this

[the-ninjago-historian]

Who’s your favourite Ninjago character(s)?

Oooooo! Good question! I have a lot, so this is gonna be tricky.

My top fav is obviously Cole. Lol. He's all over my blog. I could ramble about him for HOURS.

Same for Vania! She's been WAY under used in the franchise! Give my princess some love LEGO!!!

I also love Zane and Pixal! Their relationship is wonderful and love how connected they are. Easily one of the best Ninjago couples! I also enjoy them individually as characters! They both so compelling!

And I love Prince Benthomaar! Gosh, his backstory though. Really tragic. He was pushed away by his adopted sibling and the that siblings kills his father? The one person in his family that actually loved him?! OUCH.

Lord knows he needs therapy after that.💔

Also Ronin... I feel like I don't need to say much about him. He's just awesome. I love me a morally grey bounty hunter and treasure seeker. Lol.

There's probably more I could list, but that's as many I have energy for right now.😂 Thanks so much for the ask! I love getting these!

[ihopesocomic]

I haven’t read the Clouded moon book so I don’t really have any opinions to share on it but I just wanted to add to the convo that I think the only reason they switched all their wording around (leader to captain etc) is because WC started striking down some people with copyright strikes or smth. So the main reason they changed it was to avoid that.

Not an excuse, they should have really sat back and rethought their world building if they planned to make something like a book, but just some context I wasn’t sure if many people knew about.

Oh, yes, thanks: we're both aware of this. And that's part of the problem, I think. It just feels like this is a case of changing things around just because you don't wanna get sued vs. because you want to make it your own thing and tell a story you want to tell without the limitations that come with it being tied to an existing franchise and the rules it governs.

I can appreciate not wanting to get sued, of course, but it seems like the opportunity to make something new and fresh wasn't explored in its entirety beyond that. Or it wasn't explored well at all because it ultimately doesn't read all that different from the source material. - RJ

[frumfrumfroo]

A few years ago, I was discussing The Last Jedi with a classmate and he said something like “It was a good movie, just not a good Star Wars movie”. At the time, I chalked it up to the fact that he was a teenage boy who was probably parroting the vague and irritating criticism that the movie faced at the time. Years later, I began to think about that moment more and more. Despite hearing that critique so many times, hearing it from him made me reflect on the concept of “getting” Star Wars and what fans perceive as “getting” Star Wars.

What the last few years (and the stream of post-TROS shows) have taught me, is that a large portion of fans don’t actually get what Star Wars is. The same is true for those who are currently planning the future of the franchise. They don’t see the value in the mythical framework of the series or care to understand it, it seems like they overlook it entirely. They’re so consumed by the fidelity to “the lore” that they can’t take step back and see the (mythical) elements that drew them to the story in the first place. It feels a bit arrogant of me to say that, but it’s a feeling that’s been bothering me.

Yes, part of the core of the problem is that even the people who actually like SW that DLF hired seem to be mostly fans of the old EU who are fundamentally unconcerned with what SW is actually about. People who prioritise 'lore' and minutiae, who think trivia is worldbuilding or that 'worldbuilding' is what defines the GFFA.

Whereas what actually defines the GFFA is the themes ('love people, that's all Star Wars is' -George Lucas). The universe exists to tell the story and the story exists to communicate the themes. It is character-driven, not plot or setting driven. Things making emotional sense is the only thing that matters in the OT, the logistics are irrelevant and incidental. It's not sci-fi and never has been, there is no interest in explaining the rules of the technology or codifying the Force into a structured system. There is no exploration of the relationship of society with technology because this is an epic fantasy story focussing on the conflict going on in the human spirit between selfishness and love; it's about the coming of age of an individual where the entire setting is established to facilitate that. SW is a story about individuals and their journey to ethical adulthood.

TLJ is written to the mythic archetype and themes of SW, its basic narrative shape is absolutely textbook exactly what anyone who understands literary criticism should have expected. It is exactly what a SW sequel to TFA should and needed to be. Which is why so many people doing that kind of analysis were able to accurately predict its main story beats.

The lore fans who want 'realism', video game power system Force magic, and the kind of moral ambiguity which is foundationally incompatible with SW are not fans of the story, they are fans of the trappings. These are the people who dismiss Vader's redemption as a unforunate incidental that 'everyone' can ignore because the rest of RotJ is good (paraphrase of an actual post I saw).

THE moral victory, the protagonist's moment of vindication, the entire POINT of the story and this dude thinks it's like, an accidental blooper that just kinda snuck into the edit because he wants Luke to be a standard American hero and not to have his worldview challenged.

I am totally comfortable saying they don't get SW no matter how much trivia they've memorised and merch they've collected.

[villain-byteniwoha]

i love this take and i agree with anon like. on their own, diana, selina, and/or talia all fascinate me and i'd love to explore more of their characters but when paired with bruce, it suddenly feels off? and while i blame this on the general (often shit) quality of writing when it comes to female characters, there's also the underlying fact that superbat just feels more consistent

because they're meant to parallel one another, right? they're on opposite ends of cliche tropes (rich city boy/humble country boy, orphaned at a young age/grew up with doting parents, night and day, sun and moon, etc.) those core motifs and traits rarely get lost, and even if their characters get butchered in some series or other, at the end of the day, we all know what batman and superman stand for.

and while they're painted to be polar opposites, they still stand together.

something i absolutely despise when it comes to any franchise is when the narrative so obviously, desperately wants to push a romance that it often neglects the context it exists within to pursue that romantic aspect, and it's usually at the woman's expense. knowing this trend disillusions me from most m/f writing altogether tbh

so for superbat, who've been developing this relationship (which is varied, complex, with so many ups and downs) for literal decades, it almost seems natural for them to end up together, in a way.

op brought up a point at the end there about them being similar and it reminded me of these pages (don't ask me where i got these, i just have them downloaded)

and again, it's this selfless thing between them. they motivate each other to be better, they see one another for their flaws, they see good. it's so uniquely them!! it's interesting, it's touching, it's fucking insane ngl and it's just one of the many facets of their relationship

The thing is... I understand Clark/Lois and Clark/Lana, and Superbat feels coherent to that.

I do not tend to understand Bruce's canon-y ships. I don't quite get WonderBat (which is sweet, but why do they fascinate each other?) or BatCat (Catwoman feels like a sexual icon. I don't get why Bruce Wayne, expert at making himself a sexual icon just as well, would be taken in by that) or Talia/Bruce (She seems a bit... square minded for Bruce?? She's a heir to a legacy, like he is, but she doesn't... need to search for what that means. Ras tells her what to do.) Superbat makes more sense to me than all of Bruce's actual ships.

Am I tripping? What are your thoughts on this?

you come to me, a superbat blog, to ask me if I think it's better than the other Bruce ships? 🤣

in all seriousness, superbat works because their canon friendship is so deep and varied. they are often written in contrast or comparison to each other. they work together nearly 24/7. they hang out together outside of work. even their private lives intersect, despite best efforts. if you write a romantic relationship for the two of them, you're really just building on an already-built foundation. and that foundation is so much more rich and complex than any other relationships the two will have, save maybe Clark and Lois.

the reason they work, in my mind, is that they think they're different, but when those differences are thrown in relief, they're really more similar than they think. they're both good men trying to be something beyond one person, one human or alien. and they both share the belief that the other is a better person, deep down, than they are.

[drivinmeinsane]

Would you wanna expand on Anna and K being siblings in all ways that matter? I agree, I'd just like to hesr your thoughts on the matter too :]

Oh man, you've opened a can of worms. 👀 Here's some of my rambling threads of thoughts complete with my mauled digital copy of the script and screencaps galore.

Spoilers for Blade Runner 2049 under the cut.

From the moment Ana is introduced, even before we meet her face to face, she is a mirror of K. They are copies of one another. Two people can't have the exact same genetic code, but the closest one can get is twins. They shared their defining memory and splintered off later in life as siblings do.

There was always meant to be two of them. The files say that one died from an illness and the other lived. We find out that Ana was stuck on-world from an illness that she developed. Only, she didn't die. She was left behind and abandoned to work for Wallace and other corporations needing her memory making services. Ana is the real girl and K is her ghost.

A life of freedom as long as it's behind glass. K has the same as long as he obeys the rigid system that keeps him tethered. Neither are truly living. It's escapism. They both dream of realities where they are loved. By illegally putting her memory into K, Ana created a family member. He's her copy—a sibling, a twin—someone who shared her life experience and could relate. Two children, protecting the only item they have left from a father who they had never met. As one, they had stowed it away in a furnace and enduring being beaten. They lived this. Together. Ana's last name of Stelline. Little stars. It beings to mind the Gemini zodiac sign. The twins. Castor and Pollux and their horses. K was the invisible companion of Ana, an unborn ghost. Maybe she imagined him when things got too dismal. Maybe she thought about having a brother or a sister. When the time came, she offered up the memory to the Wallace corporation so the burden of that childhood could be shared, understood. A sibling made reality. A ghost was made solid, living flesh. Who would have thought that replicant would come looking? Who would have thought Officer K would break every shred of genetic modification and careful conditioning to find her, his sister, while searching for answers because he cared, because he was part of Ana's scattered family and didn't know it.

Again, they mirror each other. In the same moment that Ana is looking at the snow falling on her hand, K is doing the same. Even in the end, they are connected. Left hand and right hand—two parts of a whole.

No one had ever come for K. He makes sure someone comes for Ana. He knows what it's like to want family so badly that your very bones ache, that you would kill another one of your kind for the first time for it. He found their father and brought him home. He was a good brother, a good son.

There is a void over Ana's right shoulder where K should be. Her ghost—her copy—has died even if she does not know it yet. His death in a roundabout way fulfills the prophecy of the DNA database findings. Two siblings, a boy and a girl. One dies. He haunted her before his inception and he haunts her still after his body is found on the stairs of the upgrade center. If only she had spoken up. If only K had told Deckard the truth. If only there had been another way to love someone without remaining a stranger.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record because I've honestly lost count of how many times I've said this, I genuinely believe Deckard would have shrugged and accepted the fact that he and Rachael had had two kids.

I think the three of them could have been happy together, but Blade Runner 2049 is a modern Greek tragedy seeped in the lore from thousands of years ago. There are no joyous endings here.

[hyperfixationtimego]

I love you fucked up tv shows I love you gorey movies I love you traumatized characters who perpetuate the cyclical nature of abuse while still managing to remain sympathetic I love you intentionally morally ambiguous media that exists specifically to pose questions about psychology, ethics, and human nature I love you unflinching examinations of what it means to dance the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors I love you I love you I love you

[deadpoetsandlivinglegends]

Feel like Neil couldn’t have been any other kind of actor than one in theatre. If he was a movie actor or on social media or whatnot, it would not be the same. Theatre by nature is fleeting. Recorded mediums can be rewatched over and over, creating a time loop of sorts. We the audience can keep going back to a time when Neil is still alive. Theatre however is live and once the play is over, there is no going back except in our memories. It is much like life. We are forced to live in the moment in a theater lest we miss it altogether. It’s not that the poets choose to live in a world where Neil is dead, it’s that they must because the only other option is to die themselves. I feel like Keatings teachings could only be reflected in stage theatre because that’s the only way there can be no time loop of grief. I think dead poets society itself isn’t about overcoming the authority in your life to do what you want but rather about grief, about allowing oneself to feel grief and all one’s emotions without letting it consume you and to keep living after, to live every day in the moment lest you fall into grief and regret that will destroy you or force you into a miserable life

[rintinningvt]

Started watching the Bayverse movies with my besties and... Are we just too gay for these movies??? Admittedly we only finished the first two and got through a quarter of the third, but the second one was such a drag to sit through at times and it probably doesn't help that we do NOT care about Sam that much. I hope that there is a character arc for him in the rest of the third movie. Because so far he has not been fun to watch in that one. He just comes off as a slight manchild to me, like... I can see why he would be frustrated with where he is in life but the way he acts with others and lashes out does not help him in the slightest. I do have to admit though that seeing him go to Cybertronian Heaven in the second movie was the funniest part for me and my besties lol.

I'll just hope that the other guy in the next movies will be at least a bit more interesting. Doesn't even have to be a good guy, just an interesting guy for me lol

[silusvesuius]

i legit love when a character's gender is so integral to their personality (and perception obviously.) like so concrete that if genderbent their whole shtick would just be absolute dookie. anyways i'm just writing this text so i can talk in the tags (My beautiful safe haven)

this 14 minute song is soooooooooooo FYRE

[thepatronsaintoffilth]

I love FNAF because even once you take out all the lore, the supernatural or sci fi elements, the dead kids, robots, etc. there's still so much horror left in because of bad business practices, corporate greed, cut corners wrt safety measures, and the ways kid's entertainment can be warped and weaponized by callous profit-chasing

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

Does anyone wanna talk about horror movies? I wanna talk about horror movies!

[msfbgraves]

Let it stand alone

Saw "Wonka" with the nieces way too late, because I thought it was a cash grab franchise milking faux nostalgic manipulation move, and I guess it was, and I still had a good time.

Now, if I were Roald Dahl, I'd likely object to this sweetheart of a Wonka. Wonka's a mad borderline dangerous maverick in Charlie. But this isn't the book, it's an adaption. If you don't know Wonka isn't a sweetheart, him being one doesn't ring false in the film. And books get adapted all the time - various adaptions aren't necessarily a commentary on one another.

So why tie this so deliberately to the Gene Wilder version? It isn't the same Wonka, and that's OK! It isn't Dahl's Wonka, and that's OK! It's another take on Wonka that works fine for what it is. Do they really think audiences would not have gone to watch a lovely romp about a sweet chocolatier anyway? That Oompa Loompas aren't fun without green hair? Look, this setup could have worked as "The Corruption of Willy Wonka" too, but that isn't what it wanted to be. Tying it too closely to another film for the parents' sake is the only thing that suddenly creates plotholes and ooc moments when there weren't any before.

[the-hellbound-heart]

Saw X Spoilers - John Kramer's Fallibility

I've been thinking about this ever since my first viewing, but one of my favorite things about Saw X is how human John Kramer is. In previous Saw films, he is presented in an almost godlike way, testing people and judging their souls to see who deserves to be punished for their sins. He's always one step ahead, even when it seems impossible. We rarely ever get to see him be vulnerable. In Saw X, he is very, very human. We see him grapple with the weight of his mortality. Nothing demonstrates this better than the Bloodboarding Trap. For the first time, we see him put into one of his own traps, subjected to the same harsh judgement he treats other people with. Not only that, but he's forced to watch an innocent child suffer because of him. For the first time in the series, both literally and metaphorically, John has to confront the blood on his hands. It's so immensely satisfying.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Mmmhh...

[mercurymacaroons]

woagh 2 posts in one day