#I just…….. did not like the plots of the sequel trilogy movies that I DID see

[sweetnnaivete]

unfortunately my roman empire is the star wars sequels because what a load of garbage that could’ve been avoided if the people in charge of the films actually gave a shit. and it’s a problem that honestly i notice happening more and more to franchises these days :/ the disneyfication of everything is starting to get to me because GOD

[corellianhounds]

The Last Jedi AU: Ignore whatever’s supposed to happen or where people are in this movie. Paige Tico is foiled in her attempt to release the bombs that would take out the First Order ship. Her ship is boarded and she’s taken onboard the Star Destroyer as a captive intelligence officer, but before she’s captured she’s able to relay a covert message to Rose telling her what happened.

Instead of the diversion to Canto Bight, Rose is the one with the knowledge of splicing into Imperial ships and she and Finn impulsively plan to jet over to the Star Destroyer in an escape pod Rose had been experimenting with a cloaking device on, the two of them breaking in on their own.

Finn finds Poe to tell him of Paige’s capture and his and Rose’s plan. Poe knows that he can’t condone or contribute resources to it and knows for a FACT Leia won’t allow it, despite the fact Paige is a friend and the same rank he is. He’s torn between getting her back but needing to stay and lead, so he he tells them to take BB-8 and does that Mr. Incredible thing where he tells Finn and Rose what “NOT” to do to get into an Imperial flagship, him planning the distraction from the outside and still screwing with Hux over the comms and keeping eyes turned his way as Finn and Rose sneak onboard to find Paige.

Can you imagine if like they manage to get into some labs while they’re doing recon and Finn senses something? Can you imagine him hesitating as they move, telling Rose they have to go back while she’s hissing for him to keep moving? Her either hacking into the tech to redirect First Order troops away from their location, or going off to find her sister herself while Finn stays behind? Finn finding schematics and draftings alongside old codexes and scrolls before eventually coming to the humming, fractured kyber crystal in the next room, hanging suspended in midair above the equipment? Realizing as he’s digging through the odd mix of both scientific and semi-magical texts what it’s for, but that Ren hasn’t been able to force it to conform to his needs, too unstable to be housed even in his own lightsaber? Finn starting to configure and piece things together even as Rose tells him they’re running out of time?

As they’re sneaking around, gathering pertinent information to the plot and finding Ren’s plans for Rey and Skywalker, they’re nearly caught— Surrounded by First Order troops and with seemingly no way out, Rose and Finn prepare for the worst, when all of a sudden one of the troops goes rogue and eliminates all of their fellow officers instead. Paige Tico managed to escape and had disguised herself, just happening to be lucky enough to run into them in the lower levels. Paige tells them of some of the other rebel prisoners aboard the ship she was planning to break out, and the three of them, finally united, start plotting their means off Ren’s flagship when they overhear Hux in the corridor talking about Ren meditating in some inner sanctum with an order to be left alone with his own retinue on pain of death as he searches the Force or whatever for the location of Rey and Skywalker

Back onboard the New Republic ship Poe and Leia confer with the other generals as to what the Sith’s next move is going to be when they receive an incoming transmission from Kylo Ren himself.

As Kylo Ren and Leia Organa face off in what was to be their last confrontation, the tone and gravitas of their conversation somber, something flickers over the feed, and everybody on the New Republic ship’s bridge sees a blinding arc of light as one of the First Order troops behind Ren steps out of line and carves a blade of shimmering green in a downward arc directly behind him.

Outraged and caught off guard, Ren blocks the attack with his own blade, both lightsabers flickering with different energies, and as Finn’s voice shouts over the holo Poe realizes that not only has Finn given them an opening to hit Ren’s flagship, he may have even been able to stop this war in its tracks.

[stripedtabbycat]

i am also aware that my standards for "bad movies" are perhaps exceedingly generous, such that i could never declare any of the films i have seen as "the worst", and for this reason i can never look at the notes or comments of any "what's the worst movie you've ever seen" post because i know it'll be full of people who do not have my standards and have also not seen very many movies

[gotta-get-back-to-hatchetfield]

Okay so I took some notes during the Hatchetfield Halloween party stream

This doesn't include spoilers for Working Boys (which was actually fucking excellent) and also doesn't include the proposed NMT3 episode descriptions just because I didn't screenshot and I've seen a billion posts of them going around.

Steph's mum's dead, Matt Lang says it's likely something to do with when Solomon Lauter says about the black book 'I'm never touching that book again'.

Nora is the owner of beanies

Melissa is a serial killer in every reality

The black alters constructed by the church of the starry children: Lakeside mall, Waylon place, the highschool, the starlight theatre, CCRP (formerly the site of the Hatchetfield Gazette)

Greenpeace girl's real name is Harmony Jones

Duke's dad was the sheriff of Hatchetfield and was murdered in October 2005 by Wilber Cross

Linda auditioned for Working Boys but was the only person not to make the cut.

Working boys was originally going to be much longer and more complicated and the black book prop was originally commissioned for it. In the end most of that content ended up getting lifted and pulled into nightmare time episodes. The song 'The Summoning' was originally written for Working Boys as the goal was to trick the cast into performing the ritual. This also originally wasn't supposed to happen in Nerdy Prudes.

They're keen to put the brakes on Hatchetfield at some point soon and the next musical definitely won't be Hatchetfield.

NMT2 ends on a cliffhanger because they originally intended to do NMT3 very shortly after to wrap up some of the loose ends.

Doing NMT3 will depend on demand. Writing a season of NMT takes about 4 times the amount of time as writing a musical and If they did NMT3 they'd want to make it even less zoom cally than NMT2 (i.e. have characters talking to each other) which also takes a lot of time and money. They are very keen to do it on a personal level as the arc from NMT2 currently feels unfinished but doing it will depend on demand.

They're keen to do more film style things akin to Working Boys.

Proposed NMT3 episode 'Bottle Imp' was originally planned to be part of NMT S1 E2.

NMT3 would revolve around Halloween.

They originally thought the musical trilogy would start with nerdy prudes must die and have the sequel be 'horny campers must die' (which became absintence camp), the third in the trilogy would have followed a similar plot to proposed NMT3 episode 'Devils night'.

The soldier referenced in the description for proposed NMT3 episode 'Orbweaver' is General MacNamara.

If they ever did another Hatchetfield musical at some point in the future it would be about Miss Holloway and her origins story.

They want to do a Hatchetfield movie at some point, and Working Boys was a test for how well Hatchetfield transfers over to that medium. This would have to be isolated in location and character list to be feasible. Their current thoughts for this would be 'Cast Party Massacre' which would involve a lot of the new characters we met in Working Boys.

[mk-wizard]

Transformers One Review

I know I'm late to this party, but I finally did it. I decided to watch Transformers One is spite of my apprehension and very cautious optimism (no pun intended). This is because I've never seen a Transformers that was great. They were either just kind of fun or bad. None of them were movies that were the kind of movies that had anything that made them really stand other than the soundtracks, great art or special effects, or serving as advertising for an upcoming new Transformers TV show. For context, I have been a Transformers fan since I was 4 and now I am 40, so I know what I am talking about and this media shaped my standards in cartoons, so of course, I'm going hold it to that same standards. I will always praise a series when it did great and I am not above admitting when something falls flat. Note, I admit my standards and tastes are not every TF fan's let alone everyone's opinion in general. With that all said and done, I used to think movies were Transformers Achilles' Heel. In other words, it is a medium that you can't translate something as big as the iconic bots into.

Well, after watching Transformers One with my husband last night just for fun with the attitude of "Well, it will be fun at least and if we don't like it, we'll just stop it", and now... if I said that all I can say is "awesome", I would lying. Because at the risk of sounding controversial, Transformers One was not an awesome Transformers film and I will be damned before I call it that...

... It is an awesome film. PERIOD.

I was so happy to be proven wrong and so happy to see Habsro break the Transformers-mediocre-movie-curse. This is the kind of movie Transformers should make more of because it is not a toy commercial, it does not over rely on special effects, there's no silly fanservice, there's no politics and most importantly, no sidelining of the bots.

Instead, we got a film that actually tells a story with a plot and deep complex characters who add to the lore, the focus is on Transformers, we finally see Cybertron itself be put on the spotlight and we finally get a nice clean origin story that works. Whoever made this film needs to put in charge of ALL Transformers films from now on as well as the cartoons. I love it so much that for the first time when I was informed that this is actually be part of a trilogy, I got excited the sequels were going to be made. And this time, I'm going to make a point of watching them in the theater!

Gongratulations, Hasbro, you finally did it. You made a Transformers film that was great.

PS: (Spoiler Alert) I don't consider Elita-1's character "woke". I consider it as realistic considering her situation, her harsh life and all that she has to put up with.

@tntmtheshow @headdypidgeon4180

[thekaijudude]

Ultraman Rising First Thoughts

Just finished the film and wow, this definitely exceeded my expectations

Going into this, I thought that the film will have a typical boring and basic plot cause the director stressed that it'll serve as an introductory film for the mainstream western viewer

But wow was I glad to be wrong about that

But perhaps its because I personally resonated with the overall message and the struggles the MC goes through

I also enjoyed and caught most of the Easter eggs here and there from various main series, the netflix ultraman suit trilogy and even a godzilla one

The ending was the highlight for me as it definitely felt very emotional as well

I also liked how nuanced the villain was, and can tell that the director purposely portrayed him as such. And not to mention under the same circumstances, I'd probably do the same

Tho if there was one thing that was a negative for the movie that I have to say, it's probably the build up felt too long, but then again, it was understandable given the premise (still not exactly sure why Ken and his mom relocated elsewhere from his dad tho)

I'm also slightly perturbed at the fact that Professor Sato's Ultra aged so quickly in just 20 years where Ultras in the series can seem to not age a day even after 10 000 years. But if TsuPro wants to reconcile this in subsequent UGF installments, they could probably just say that they hail from an Ultra species that age the same as humans or sth with the same lifespans, or that he remain too far away from the source of his home planet that he's bascially shriveled up after 20 years or sth

Overall, this film can definitely be enjoyed by all even for us hardcore fans. Shannon also did mention that he has ideas for 2 more sequels (like ShinU) but it'll depend on how this movie does. Definitely looking forward to a trilogy series directed by Shannon indeed

[calebwittebane]

worst opinion: you like the last Jedi and think it's a good movie lol

i mean its a star wars movie, and on top of that a part of a trilogy that got tossed from one writer to another like a hot potato, so how good can it get... but yes its good. despite its flaws (i audibly groaned in the movey theater when they did stuff like keep going with the running gag of finn getting zapped/tossed/whatever like Stop. i feel like none of the movies were remotely kind to finn but at least tlj gave him a b-plot i guess). it promised something interesting. established some cool plot beats. i had fun. at times i was surprised they like Went There, in a good way. i felt insane about how much everyone hated that one honestly. i mean i got yelled at in a car about this movie. for liking it.

i guess what sours the whole deal for me though is like. the cultural moment of the sequels trilogy coming out was fucking insane. the actors got so much shit and people were releasing hateful diatribes left and right feeling entirely justified in it. like the culture war aspect of it was unbearable like damnnnn people are being really fucking racist and misogynistic about these very digestible disney property movies huh. honestly i was glad when it was over. like i felt satisfied that rise of the skywalker was stupid and bad. honestly it should've been way worse. really it shouldve been just 3 hours of static shirtless kylo ren pic with non stop farting noises, thats all that star wars fans deserved. and i hope everything star wars that comes out in the future is bad forever. but yeah tlj was preddy good

[theriverbeyond]

what series scratch the same "itch" as TLT for you? Recently finished the trilogy and feel empty and have found nothing to fill the void in my chest (lol) that TLT had in the weeks I was reading it. I have already experienced homestuck, when thhey cry, and most of the other "big names" of similar media. Any format works as long as its good. I like morally grey characters (Ianthe), well written female leads, character driven narratives and lesbians (in that order.

1. Princess Floralinda and the forty-flight tower (by Tamsyn Muir. excellent audio book narrated by Moira Quirk, same voice actor as TLT)

2. All of Tamsyn Muir's other novellas and short stories (The magician's apprentice, The house that did 16 loops of time, undercover, chew, the deepwater bride, etc)

Next up is entirely my personal and extremely picky and subjective preferences of brain zing, ranked in order of me remembering them

Chainsaw man manga (i read this 5x back to back when I first got into it in 2021. part 1 is complete, part 2 is still updating. part 1 can be experienced as a complete work. the anime is very good but the first episode is not as good as everything after it)

This is how we lose the time war book (feels sorta like fanfiction but the prose is gorgeous)

Interview with the vampire tv show (it's fun, it's camp, there are a lot of gay and bisexual people making really terrible decisions and being very hot)

Gurren Lagann anime (my favorite anime of all time. the women characters are not good, as is typical of many animes. the bathhouse episode can be skipped in its entierty without losing any plot. the overall story is really good and gives me that zing)

Arcane tv show (i watched this in full once and every since have just watched a caitvi + jinx whump clipshow but it did give me that zing. i do not care about the men)

Fullmetal alchemist manga or FMA brotherhood (really good and at this point a classic. royai is the queerplatonic campal blueprint i will not be taking critique at this time)

Revolutionary girl utena anime (watch the sub, do not watch the dub, the dub didn't make them gay. it's really good but heavy TWs and also it is paced like a 90's anime so: slow with a fair amount of filler, which can be good or bad depending on your preferences)

I have complicated feelings about Baru Cormerant and recommend reading up on content warnings if things like violent homophobia and very intimate portrayals of being a colonized subject are things that would upset you. It felt a little too personal to my life for me to like... think it was "fun" or whatever like it felt uncomfortably personal (and also subjectively I didn't super enjoy the pacing of the latter 2 books) but it did make me feel a lot of things and think a lot of thoughts. if the blurb sounds like something you are interested in then I recomend giving it a shot and then you can decide what you think of it yourself

Ancillary justice book (liked this one a lot, but havent felt motivated to read the sequel)

Other fun Studio Trigger animes such as Promare, Cyberpunk 2077, Kill la Kill

Nausicaa and the valley of the wind manga (the movie is good but the manga spanned 10 years, is gorgeously rendered, and goes MUCH more in depth especially wrt climate philosophy and such)

Slay the Princess video game (on steam but also I got into it just by watching letsplays online. It's really good and REALLY interesting, i love how it uses the visual novel format to its story advantage to pull of some incredibly cool story twists. Highly recomend!)

I feel like I am forgetting things that made my brain zing. My childhood special interest was CATS the musical (stage play and 1998 recorded production) and i definitely got brain zing from that but I don't think it has a lot of taste overlaps with tlt. this post really went off the rails but in my defense, it is after midnight

[aquavierra]

Hear me out on my list of everything that I want for the upcoming sequel of Ocean's Trilogy that they said in pre-production:

STOP FORCING DANNY AND RUSTY TO BE HET. THERE IS NOTHING STRAIGHT ABOUT THEM! Homies don't stare each other like they wanna eat each other (yk what I mean.)

I hope this one will be set in casino but instead of boring Las Vegas, we are going straight to Monaco. Even better when you think about it; it has Casino and is in Europe. Basically a perfect mix of Ocean's Eleven and Twelve. Also I'm daydreaming to see the casts on yacht again like they did during Cannes film fest 2004 lol.

We need Toulour back, probably this time he is going to be the additional person in the team.

I want the plot to be revolving around Danny faking his death, why? Because well, hehe, might be funny if Danny and Rusty were secretly retiring together and coming back for this last heist to end their criminal activities for good or they might be just bored. But all Ocean's Trilogy heists happened for good reasons so I hope they make it complicated as the predecessors.

I need more intimate conversations between Rusty and Danny. We also need to know their backgrounds and stuffs because although headcanons that writers and fans made are great, I need some closure because they talked like a pair of mind readers and we just like to assumed things (the worse thing is that all of our ideas fit so well with their dynamics.)

Cameo of Debbie and Lou! (SELF EXPLANATORY)

I don't need to put this on the list because we all want this one: bring all the remaining Ocean's Eleven back! AT ALL COSTS! (I don't care if the budget would balloon like crazy, this is probably the last time a franchise movie might be good.)

Don't make Danny and Rusty married to anyone (other than with each other) pls, don't make them have children or any sorta stuff that are so cliché. It's a fact that they won't be conforming to society's heteronormative child-centric ideals. Quoting from Captain Raymond Holt the badass king.

Interesting villain! Gotta be honest Terry is my favourite, both intimidating and as the films progressesed he became more and more chill like rest of the people who robbed him lol.

Tess and Isabel cameo (sorry I want this one to be revolving around the boys not like girls aren't invited tho hehe.) The girls need to meet the rest of Ocean's 8 plsss!

Bring back Toulour too and his absolutely mindboggling capoeira skill.

Dude, I know Brad Pitt's old now and probably needs to check his calorie intakes every now and then but probably a lil bit snacking won't hurt hehe. Basically I need Rusty to munch celery or anything.

[gritsandbrits]

How to fix Sinbad

Or, some the problems My fan sequel would fix

Sinbad is a guilty pleasure for me. While i enjoy the animation and characters I feel like this is one of Dreamworks weaker movies and should've gotten the same depth Prince of Egypt and Shrek got.

Make it a musical! its very rare for a musical animated movie with a plot not about princesses or talking animals. A musical sinbad forms a trilogy with Prince of Egypt & El Dorado and stand out from other action movies of its time. We would get more bangers and a memorable story. So in my fan sequel I would imagine the songs inspired by Arab, African, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern genres. Imagine starting the movie off with a powerful sea shanty by Sinbad's crew; or a love duet between Marina and Sinbad; a bittersweet ballad for Proteus or a wickedly cool number by Eris.

Develop Sinbad x Marina futher: let's not lie sinbad and marina was a forced relationship that rarely provided any tension. Like she realises he's her true love despite their only true interactions being yesrs ago where he saw her an not actually know her? In a rewrite i would've had it where they meet where they were teenagers and became friends but had to break things apasrt when Marina had to focus on matters on the nobility and becoming a bride to Proteus. This spurs Sinbad to join a pirate crew to avoid confronting his feelings. Well, we cant rewrite past in my sequel so instead, i devote a good time towards developing their relationship, such as showing more of Sinbad's vulnerable side, Marina being his match physically and intellectually, quirky omantic gestures etc.

Give Proteus more screentime - in a rewrite, I wouldve had it where Eris visits proteus in jail to manipulate him into hating sinbad, however his faith in sinbad refuses to break and he begins to suspect that she had the book all along. We go back in forth between Sinbad's journey and Proteus thinking of a plan to expose her all the while pretending to be on her side. Also his relationship with marina gets more weight say he never romantically liked her and beleived her to be a beter fit for sinbad but still needed to complete his royal duties. In my sequel he plays a more active role in the story by joining sinbad's crew, and even gets his own romantic arc with my oc Princess Kaya, putting in end to the unsolved marriage plot by giving him someone he genuinely likes AND an important political ally.

Have the crew show off their skills more ie. One thing in my fan sequel the crew gets more action sequences to rekind yall thay this IS an adventure movie and i love seeing the heroes kick monster butt! Explore the characters unqiue skille such as Sinbad's cunning, marina's navigational prowess, proteus's swordsmanship.

Develop the rest of Sinbad's crew. One of the biggest missed opportunities were getting to know Sinbad's crew as individuals. When did they join? Why are they so loyal to him? It doesnt have to be directly in the movie it can be in supplementary material like videos or blog posts. You can pull a shrek and have them be inspired by other fictional seafarers like one crewmate is based on Captain Ahab, another based on Jim Hawkins etc. Just give them more personality beyond being cheerleaders.

Explain the Macguffin: okay so when the Book of Whatever is stolen SHOW the effects of the kingdom, ie, people slowing getting sick, buildings start falling apart, growing tensions among the populace and nobility. Dont just tell us that stealing the book would cause chaos SHOW US. Also why would eris need to steal a book when she's literally a goddess cant she just put a hex on the kingdom? Imy rewrite, i try to show the damage my oc villain Nazar has caused ie. The sea becoming full of algae which is turn begins to send nearby popularations to starve, in turn forcing to concede to the villains rule just to survive. Kaya experience trauma from almost getting kidnapped but with help from her friends andnlove interest she overcomes it to stop the villain.

DONT make it dark and edgy. While i wouldn't completely sanitize it I also want to remind the audience that it IS a kids movie. And the last thing i need is corporate cynicism in my colorful fantasy movie!!

Bring more story influences - Im not entirely familiar with the stories of sinbad but I'd like to incorporate more of its lore and Arab/Swana culture since its rarely explored in a positive light in western media. Like, maybe thus sinbad is the son of the sailor from the original stories follwing in his footsteps and previous escapades alludes to actual legends from the book. In my sequel the villain Nazar has a giant snake as a reference to the 2nd Voyage. As for culture, maybe have have more deities like egyptian and Persian gods, Sinbad wearing Iraqi attire to reflect his origins, and in Kaya's case she's an african mermaid.

In my sequels use other villains - As cool as eris is i wouldnt want to use her over and over again. I'd have more antagonists like the Demon worshipers from the seventh voyage, or a rival crew, or evil ghost royalty coming back for revenge etc. Dont rehash the same scheme either. That's why i created Nazar, he's a mostly human antagonist who is a sea conqueror and has his own crew of sailors trying to poison the world's oceans.

Give sinbad flaws: while he had flaws they werent always addressed in the story. Have the other characters call out his reckless and odd chauvinism. Have him experience failure or a situation where he can't solve everything. Make him RELY on his crew.

[mask131]

Why the Time Bandits remake makes me feel an angry despair (1)

I announced it before: I am mounting my high horses for this matter.

"Time Bandits" is a children fantasy movie by Terry Gilliam, released in 1981. It is one of those "almost Monty-Python-movies" thanks to two other Monty Python actors joining Gilliam's project: John Cleese, playing Robin Hood, and Michael Palin playing a poor guy who keeps being reincarnated throughout history and always has the worst love life. This movie is part of the "Imagination Trilogy" of Gilliam, meant to represent the "childhood imagination" - alongside the dark movie "Brazil", for "adult imagination", and Gilliam's adaptation of the Adventures of the Baron Münchausen, for "old man imagination".

I love Time Bandits. It isn't just that I love, I adore it. This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and it was such a huge part of my childhood it literaly shaped my imagination in many, many ways. It is still to this day one of my favorite movies, with such a unique feeling I couldn't find anywhere else but in other Gilliam-related or Python-related movies.

It is one of these rare things where I can say I am really a huge fan. I bought the Criterion Collection DVD, I bought the official script-book, I went online to find alternate versions of the scripts which contained deleted scenes NOT in the official script-book...

I even chose this movie as the subject of my presentation for my high school diploma, doing a full analysis of it that gave me a very good grade. I am really in love with this piece.

NOW if you haven't heard about it, a trailer was released for an Apple + series of (10 episodes I think?). "2024 Time Bandits". A remake by Taika Waititi (among others but he is the main guy behind this).

I had heard of this project a long time ago because Waititi's desire to do something Time Bandits related has been around since his glory days with "What we do in the shadows". He kept speaking about how much he loved Time Bandits and how he wanted to do something related to it.

... I never realized he meant doing a remake a it. Time Bandits has so much potential for sequels or prequels or alternate takes or whatever cinematic terminology you have.

Now, that being said, I don't mind a remake. Waititi has proven to have good ideas and cool projects, and he seemed to really be a fan of the original - plus it was a project he had been dragging for quite some times, so I had still some interests and hopes...

... and then the trailer came out. And I saw it. And...

... You know it will be the first time in my life I will turn into one of those angry Internet ranters mad about a remake of their favorite thing. Never in my life before I was involved on a personal level with disliking a remake but OH BOY here I am.

There are so many things BAD with this trailer. Not wrong. BAD. I don't dislike all about the trailer... But I dislike most of it, and I don't just "dislike" it as in "Oh yeah, they could have done better", no, we are talking about a "I DESPISE this".

Honestly it looks like the people behind this series considered everything that made Time Bandits unique and powerful and cool and weird... and decided to remove it to make it bland, flat and... a sort of flavorless, mass-marketable Americanized modern vaguely super-hero like movie (did Waititi's experience on the Thor movies screwed his imagination THAT badly?)

I literaly do not understand how someone so hellbent and so dedicated to Time Bandits could create a product that looks like was designed by people who only vaguely heard of the original movie's plot. Because the people who made this series clearly did NOT understood the heart, soul or goal or the movie.

I heard something about Terry Gilliam being hired as an executive producer, coming on the set for a planned three months, but leaving abruptly after only three days and never returning. And people concluded that it was because he was pissed off. Seeing the trailer, I am inclined to believe he was.

[zombie-bait]

my favourite fandoms are the ones where you cannot tell at fucking all what the original media is about from the tumblr content. I was seeing Deadpool & Wolverine posts for like a MONTH before getting to watch the movie in cinemas and I did not know a single lick of plot but oh boy did I understand what went down in that honda odyssey. It gets better the further it's removed from how your average "I've never even touched twitter" human being would interpret that piece of media. I'm talking Star Wars sequel trilogy on ao3 (iykyk), the whole Marauders experience built from the burning remains of Harry Potter, the fanart of Better Call Saul I spotted during my brief time on twitter, just everything about my favourite show Hatecrimes MD. Try explaining the concept of old man yaoi to Greg from Dominos who's only watched the Marvel movies his kids tell him about and you'll really get to see what a big and beautiful world we live in

[betasuppe]

Ok so finally. FINALLY. Sat down and watched the rest of Rise of Skywalker I couldn't swallow down over the last few days and I think I know why I have such beef with this film.

I personally don't give a shit if a movie is a "good" movie or a total shitty one, but if it was fun and there was love put into it, I really can enjoy the ride, nonetheless!

For example, to me The Force Awakens is a fucking amazing film. It's both fun AND good, solid plot, great character introductions & I'm here for it 100%, even beating out The Empire Strikes Back as my favorite SW film.

But BUT, as another example here, The Last Jedi is a MESS of a film, bastardizing a lot of the plot potential TFA set up, but it is genuinely fun & silly and I still fucking love it. It has humor that truly tickles my funny bones, but it does some stupid and unnecessary stuff with the plot & our cast of characters that makes me annoyed. But, because it's a fun ride, I still view this movie very positively and have no real issues with it as part of the sequel trilogy. It has its own personality, it's carrying the plot SOMEWHERE, and introduces Rose, who I was so hopeful for, alas....

But? But??? Rise of Skywalker is just. Bland and not really fun? And not enjoyable? It's a slog to get through, for God's sake. It took me three days of stopping and restarting it to push through on my second watch of it through since I saw it in theaters.

How it starts with a wordless Kylo Ren montage of him just going ham on people, but ultimately?? He gets no real screen time as he reverts back to Ben Solo? And never even talks after confronting his dad's force ghost??? I don't understand it - for a guy who's part of a force dyad with Rey, his development is SEVERE in this film & gets no screen time, it's insane!

Meanwhile, Rey has just lost so much of her personality, she's just like a walking mcguffin, I just... I dunno. As our main character, she suffers so much in this film and it's fucking BORING to watch her go through all this shit & NO it doesn't even feel earn3d that she calls herself a Skywalker in the end.

AND PALPATINE'S RETURN DOESNT EVEN GWT SCREEN TIME, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?! It happens BEFORE the movie starts??? Idk but gee, that seems like a REALLY IMPORTANT THING THAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN THE MOVIE, not FUCKING BEFORE IT STARTED?!??@?!

Side note, with subtitles on, seeing all the jedi speaking to Rey was like the highlight of the film. I never noticed Kanan's voice in there before!!!

But, I'll still always be bitter that the didn't give us the co-general romance with Finn & Poe, and that Rose was pushed wayyyyyy to the bg just for a few other characters who never had time to get development showed up for the ride. & also, Finn just getting these little points that he's force sensitive? Without getting to develop him further? I'll always be pissed as hell about that too x(

It's just such a sucky end to the series & the Skywalker bloodline. It's not fun, it doesn't feel deserved as an ending for our heroes, it doesn't even feel exciting at the end like the party on Endor with the ewoks did back in ep VI.

It's disappointing & I'm still just pissed this is how it ends, with Kylo Ren / Ben Solo dying such a pathetic death to let boring bland Rey live on.

Maybe I'm bitter, but I don't care. This film genuinely murdered all the excess love I've always had for Star Wars & I'm ready to re-write the hell out of this shit now x(

But at its core, RoS is NOT a good film and is NOT a fun one, either.

What a fuckign shame...

[thethiefandtheairbender]

Hello! If you don’t mind, I wanted to ask you..how do you know if a story is worthy of analysis? I feel I don’t have an intuition for what a Good story looks like since I haven’t seen too many (and I tend to not like the ones I do see???), and when I try to analyze my (bad) favorite shows, I feel like I’m gaslighting myself into thinking it’s deep. Lmao. Is there even a point in trying to analyze if you don’t have good taste? I hope you have a good weekend!

Quick note: there's not really such a thing as 'good taste' or 'bad taste'. Classics are usually not classics, after all, because of a bar of quality that they pass (though many of them are very very good) but because they were very influential of literature that came after (Jane Eyre inventing the coming-of-age genre for female main characters), very popular, or a great look at how people were thinking and feeling at the time they were written (The Great Gatsby, More's Utopia).

What's more useful framing, might be "this story worked for me on Various factors" vs "I only like a few things from this story and am discontented with the rest of it". Both can be useful to analyze in their own way. I will say, however, that if you focus on reading/watching/engaging with things where you enjoy more of the story than you don't, you will have a better time and probably end up learning more, especially if you're trying to build up analysis skills to start with, because it is easier to analyze something fairly when you enjoy it than it is with something you don't enjoy and you haven't built those analytical skills in advance. (More here on some of the analytical skills that are useful to employ that also provides good questions to start with when it comes to analysis.)

That said, the good news is that any story is worthy of analysis!

Every story has different strengths and weaknesses, and they're all worth examining. Whether a story is 'shallow' or 'deep' can differ depending on what you're looking for; some stories are light on plot but go deep on character work, for example. Different stories/shows also have different aims and requirements to succeed within their genres. For example, a sitcom doesn't need to have strong worldbuilding, but a great understanding of their cast's chemistry and how to pace the storylines they do have. Alternatively, while not every fantasy property needs to have a lot of lore to be 'Good,' if a fantasy series breaks their lore, chances are it's not going to be a very good fantasy series.

This also goes into looking at stories you think are bad but enjoy anyway. Clearly something is keeping you there (probably the characters) so what is it about that aspect you think the show did well, at least once upon a time? Even if you think they're bungling their execution of the characters, that probably means the show did a good job at crafting characters that were compelling on a premise basis, even if they're not living up to it.

I also think a good indicator of quality—at least what I find in the stories I enjoy, and why only 2 stories in my life have Disappointed me (the Star Wars sequel trilogy after the first movie, and Voltron: Legendary Defender after s3 and I cut ties after s6 / knew s7 and s8 wouldn't be to my taste)—is asking yourself "Is it evident that they have a clear end goal in mind while writing?"

This can be a clear end goal for getting a character from Point A to Point Z, or a conflict, or a theme. For example, Avatar: The Last Airbender makes it very clear from its title and initial episodes (Aang being both "the boy (child) in the iceberg" from ep1 and "the avatar returns" from ep2 followed by "the southern air temple" as his birthplace) that his main journey is about reconciling these three identity factors — being a child; being the Avatar; being the last airbender — is his main arc. This is evident even without looking too much even from the episode plot themselves or the dialogue, though they help push it further and develop it, of course. Therefore, the last episode of the series being "Avatar Aang" and the central conflict being his identity is unsurprising, and shows that this core goal was built throughout and then to fruition. This is also why defeating the Firelord was always going to have to be a non-violent (pacifist) solution; not because Aang is 12 and doesn't want to kill anyone, but because to do so would be to revoke his Air Nomad values and retroactively make Ozai/the Fire Nation correct that his people/culture was not 'strong enough' to exist in the world he finds himself in. This does not mean that the reconciliation of his identity / how this idea was developed or finished has to be to your personal taste, but it IS objective that there's a consistent arc and ideas being put forth.

This can also be something in plot and worldbuilding/lore. For example The Dragon Prince made it very clear two seasons in that 1) humans not having magic was unfair and the story was conscious of it ("the blindfold gives us a way to test the system to imagine we have not been born yet [...] that a fair system should be fair no matter the accident of my birth, that the laws and opportunities should stand to empower everyone") and 2) this unfair magic system would be fixed (main character proves humans can connect to primal natural magic after all). Therefore, 4+ seasons later when we finally started to get into the weeds of having characters In The Narrative who decided that humans couldn't have magic, and that these characters also suck absolute ass, like... Yeah, because this system was always unfair, and dismantling it Eventually was always going to be a Thing. Clear plot and worldbuilding goals from the start being steadily taken to fruition.

Good stories are not necessarily dense and complex, either. I know for me I tend to lean towards stories that have lots of motifs/symbols and are very thematic, because looking for that 'deeper' meaning is fun for my brain. I also find they help create richer, more engaging characters and plotlines. However, I also enjoy stories that have only 1-2 themes and very few symbols because they have other things that are still very good, like plot or character bonds.

The reason why it's helpful to feel and/or tell that a story has a Clear Vision (an end goal or multiple goals) in mind is because the two pillars of analysis (at least how I've always engaged it and how my professors encouraged me to) was two main things:

You examine every part of the story to see how it works together.

You examine every part of the story to see how it works together in good faith.

And that is easier to do so when you can look at, or make assumptions, that every part of the story is working together towards a holistic, cohesive ending. Sometimes this means leaving your personal hang ups or biases or feelings at the door. You may not like a ship, for example, but chances are there are still thematic and/or plot reasons as to why they're being put together. It is easier to argue in good faith when you like something (aka something works for you) which is why I recommend starting there. Doing so when something doesn't work for you, especially on a first pass, is important in creating an expansive viewpoint and stepping outside of your personal bubble.

For ex, like 10 years ago when Moana came out I felt like her conflict with her parents was a bit underdeveloped because she didn't 'push back against them "enough"'. I realized on my own that I was probably expecting a more Western (white) protagonist, rewatched the movie with a more collectivist mindset, and my previous complaint went away, because it was grounded in my (limited) cultural (dominant) context, not the movies (nor was I necessarily the audience in mind, anyway, which is also useful to keep in mind).

So, things worth analyzing in stories which can all be entirely separate (but often overlap):

How they utilize their protagonists and antagonists from a: characterization standpoint, from a foils standpoint, from a plot standpoint, from a thematic standpoint.

How does a story introduce ideas, such as: their characters, relationships, threats, conflicts, solutions, themes.

How does a story pace its: plot, character arcs, relationships, instalments (chapters, episodes, sequels, etc).

What are the repeating ideas in the story? Similar shots, turns of phrase, choices, etc? (Parallels/patterns is how characterization and growth / theme are built, so it's especially useful). Is the story drawing on other older tropes or ideas to subvert them?

All stories, even 'bad' ones, are worth looking at for how they do these things and which parts worked for you.

Ask why. Just always ask why. "This character made such a selfish choice" --> "This character made a selfish choice. Why do I think it's selfish? Do I think the character thinks it's selfish, or justified? Why? What could the narrative be saying about what/who/why people make selfish choices? Why would this character be selfish? Is this in line with their consistent behaviour? If not, why do I think that? Am I overlooking something?"

For example, in the movie adaptation of Wicked which was quite good, Glinda was portrayed exactly as I like to be portrayed: she's allowed to be more cunning and mean and artificial rather than playing up her 'ditziness'. However, while I generally prefer my Elphabas to be a bit angrier/meaner/sharper, I really appreciate that they didn't have her be that way when they cast a Black woman to play her. My preferences, depending on the context(s) of the adaptations, casting, staging, etc. do not rule all, and the film is not worse as an adaptation for not aligning with that specific preference of mine; on the contrary, I think it is undoubtedly better precisely because it doesn't align.

Now for the (hopefully shorter?) recommendations section because it seems like you tend to be dissatisfied with what you're watching and there's 100% stuff out there that'd suit your tastes better and/or be helpful to learn from even if they aren't:

The Dragon Prince (TDP) for its explorations of morality, its character work, its respect for all of its character emotional states, and how consistently it makes you watch all of its characters ("good" guys or "bad" guys) make choices that are bad or you know are gonna have disastrous consequences, but you also get 100% why they're making them every time. A 'good guy' protagonist uses a torture spell on someone when he absolutely did not have to. A 'villainous' character saves his sick child from dying. The show slaps. Also a very good example of thematic maturation, where the series starts off with a more simplistic view of love (love = good) for the first 3 seasons, only to then explore the darker underside (you will do terrible things in the name of love) consistently across the main cast.

Six of Crows for the way its multi-POV chapter style hammers home what you can do with gaps of information/perception between characters. How Inej or Matthias view Kaz, or vice versa for example, is radically different, and illustrates how as an author you have to hold/understand many differing viewpoints and motivations on your characters and their actions simultaneously. The YA fantasy duology also does a great job at showing how to craft characters who are very distinct from each other in personality and association, bolstered by the symbols/objects given to each of the main cast (Matthias is associated with wolves; Inej has her braid and two knives and ghost-imagery; Kaz has his gloves, his crows, his canes, etc).

Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) for its cultural worldbuilding and natural worldbuilding integration. The former is due to its pacing and its biggest main theme as a series being "cultural preservation in the face of imperialism is important," with the latter due to its strong character work (Sokka's sarcasm often provides a basis for Aang or Katara to correct him or explain things in greater detail in Book One, for example).

Sidenote: This is also a great example where understanding how a story is operating vs personal preference be useful. For ex, my brother preferred Dragon Prince to ATLA because ATLA was slower paced and he liked stuff that was faster, and TDP focuses on historical/lore worldbuilding whereas ATLA focuses on cultural worldbuilding partially due to being paced slower / having more room within its seasons, but the trade off is that TDP has more character development and is more thematically tight, which is my preference.

Tales of Arcadia: Trollhunters for its utilization of a very strong roster of multiple villains / antagonists going at all times, and subsequently for its plot pacing as a result. Many shows have what I call a 'crowning achievement'—the thing this show does very well amid other things it does well—and I think this is undeniably Trollhunters' greatest strength. I'm not usually much of an antagonist person (I tend to be most invested in the protags) but I think Trollhunters' willingness to subvert pacing expectations and keep a general sense of uneasiness adds to the fun of the show, i.e. 2 villains want the same thing so one teams up with the hero, etc.

Crazy Ex Girlfriend (musical comedy drama tv show) because it's a great example of a deconstruction narrative and an unreliable narrator as a protagonist. Basically S2 onwards goes "remember all those sit/rom-com trope things you laughed at in S1 that we made light of? yeah they're all unhealthy and here's why" while still remaining a comedy. The show also deconstructs common tropes and expectations around love / female archetypes as well as the title itself in thoughtful discussions on mental illness without ever being preachy.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous for writing interpersonal character conflict / dynamics without ever feeling contrived. This is probably one of the 'simpler' shows on the list (there's a few framing parallels, 1-2 verbal motifs, meanwhile like every other line or shot in TDP winds up having deeper meaning, especially on rewatches) but what it does well, it does very well. The main 6 kids who are left stranded on the island are very well written, the show provides ample space for everyone to be developed and balances storylines / character beats, it lets you see how trauma is affecting them without always spelling it out, and the dialogue always sounds like stuff real people would say or reason through without feeling like the characters sound too young or too old or anything like that.

TLDR; you like what you like, even if that's just parts of a story, and you have good reasons for liking it. Examining what you don't like and why can also be useful. Separating stories or parts of them into "this is bad vs this is good" can be a useful jumping off point, but in order to analyze having specific reasons for each one while considering why the story made the choices it did (in good faith) is a strong foundation.

Sorry this is long, but hope it helps! Most of my recs are all completed series, on Netflix, or easy to find online if you do choose to look into any of them <3

[randomthefox]

I random came across your posts about the Sonic movies and honestly I had originally thought the first two were passible but not great. But I was *so* disappointed by the third one and I feel insane everytime someone talks about it because it feels like everyone on earth thinks this movie is gods gift to man and its???? Not good???

It is a relief to see im not the only one and glancing through i didn't realize how inconsistent the movies were(my memory is trash though so it's not surprising I didn't realize).

I just feel like a crazy/broken person who feels like I'm missing something if this movie is apparently so amazing but its??? A mess???

Not to mention I was already disappointed going in because of knowing Amy wasn't in it. She's one of my favs and she's SO important to Shadow's story but everyone keeps acting like it's no big deal. NONE of the adaptations of SA2 HAS HER DOING HER PART??? IM SO TIRED OF THEM REPLACING HER.

But yeah!!! I'm glad to see some words that finally describe exactly what was wrong with the movie because I struggle with explaining why it's not good myself.

It's so hard to take anybodies stated enjoyment of the movie seriously, because nothing they say they like about it comes off as sincere. It either sounds disingenuous and hypocritical, because they're excusing or even praising things about the movie that they'd complain about when it comes to anything else (The Sonic Double Standard). Or it's completely shallow surface level praise, as if they're literally toddlers giggling and clapping over a set of keys being jingled in their face and actively get upset when you suggest one should USE THEIR BRAIN when watching a film. Or they're just transparently hating on the video games, and their proclaimed enjoyment of the movies is just an outlet for them to complain about how bad the video games are.

None of them ever have anything to say about why the movie's is supposedly good that actually sounds genuine. When they discuss the movie I do not feel the passion of someone who has a sincere enthusiasm for something. The way they talk about liking the movie feels fucking fake. That or they're shoving crayons up their nose as they watch this, the Michael Bay Transformers of video game films.

The movies are so fundamentally SYSTEMATICALLY BROKEN as films it defies belief. Everytime I even think about this stupid fucking movie I remember or discover something NEW about how bad it is and how much it doesn't fucking wrong. Jimbotniks death scene starts with him going "this will be my final live stream" BUT JIMBOTNIK NEVER DID ANY LIVE STREAMS AT ANY POINT IN THE MOVIE BEFORE THAT. I THOUGHT it was just Jim Carrey ad libbing something unfunny or something, but it turns out THERE ARE DELETED SCENES OF JIMBOTNIK LIVE STREAMING IN PREVIOUS POINTS IN THE MOVIE AND THEY CUT THOSE FROM THE FILM. But they KEPT the "this is my final live stream" line. HOW THE FUCK CAN A MOVIE BE THIS FUCKING INCOMPETENT? It's like an infinite onion that has endless layers of sheer parasite infested dogshit.

Sonic 1 was bad because it was literally just Generic CGI Character On A Road Trip With A Live Action Human Movie #828649296 and it was so fucking boring that it did not improve upon the experience of staring at a blank wall for the same amount of time. Sonic 2 was a MILD improvement in relative terms but was still an absolute fucking chore to sit through particularly because of that completely asinine wedding plot. But Sonic 3 is legitimately one of the worst most unwatchably bad "big budget, popular, widely praised" movies I have seen in a long fucking time. It is worse than Dr. Strange and the Multi Verse of Madness. It is worse than ANY of the Sequel Trilogy Star Wars movies. I would happily sit down and watch all three Star Wars Sequel movies rather than endure sitting through Sonic 3 again.

I'm sorry to sound like a hipster, but people are fucking sheep. Following the herd off the cliff. That's the only explanation for why everyone is insisting on this movie being anything more than what I've said about it. There is no other explanation. They want to be part of the crowd, whether it's a feedback loop of people proclaiming the movie to be good and they wanna be part of the In Crowd, or because they hate the video games and propping up the movies seems like a trendy way of expressing that hatred. Or because they are the kind of people who would genuinely go watch the major motion picture Ass

[silvercityyir]

I just finished watching the 1990 tmnt movie. It was a good movie, I really love it, there were comedic moments but it didn't go overboard with it the whole plot.

Shredder in the movie manipulate teenagers felt like a genius writing for the movie, why is no one talking about this shredder? He's so well written as a villain. The elements of crime commited by teenagers is also well written too

And the turtle boys, they were so cute, goofy and awesome as ever although their a bit of a show-off in my view whenever they fight ninja style at the start, idk about others views tho.

And splinter I like him too, he sounds like an aged father 'I did a funny' love that line of his. Also, is it just me or the actors for april and casey are both equally pretty, I like the way their both written too.

As a 22 year old, tmnt fan who has now discovered seen the 1990 movie, I see why nostalgic fans love it, I like it too and I kinda wanna draw the the screenshots of it. with 07 turtles since it's the one I can draw and also the fact that the 07 is a long sequel to the 90 trilogy movie as said vy the director still stuck in my brain

Now, I should give the 2nd and 3rd movie a try too. I've seen the clips on yt it's cute and hilarious :D