#Is this a cashgrab? Yes.

[randomstranger27]

[ben-the-hyena]

I see fandoms rightfully hating or being very critical on a sequel/prequel/spinoff movie or show in a franchise for shitting on what was in other movies and straight up retconning or changing characters and relationships, but then I see it brings as much if not more money than the previous ones and reviewers, article writers and YouTube reactors love it and praise it which will only encourage making more soulless cashgrabs since a big part of the audience loves it, and then I think we do deserve living in a dark age for cinema after all

[detectivenyx]

indie horror tier list but i designed it specifically to reflect my actual opinions piss off everyone

[rustdream]

You know your rock of bottom when you see something objectively bad snd go "i want to redesign the shit out of you"

[yuiyuuji]

So Austin / Austin's management (because I really don’t think it was him personally) deletes everything on his Instagram page and he comes back after months ... by posting the new Dune trailer? I’m sorry ... but the audacity. They took everything from that account. Everything in connection with  ELVIS and Baz and finally they do this? See, I have a personal problem with Dune and Villeneuve and how this movie is only a cashgrab because it has “all the big names” but to me this feels so radical? It feels like “they need to put Austin ayway from the past and into the real and big Hollywood because Baz isn’t good enough anymore.” The fact that he’s working with Spielberg and Villeneuve is proof enough. Sure I’m happy for Austin that he gets to work with.. them. But their movies are fucking mediocre. There is nothing to them. I’m sorry but I definitely won’t watch this shit. Austin needs to get himself a better management. I mean for fucks sake they talked about how they want to put him into an action / marvel / dc movie. Can only look over to Scorsese when it comes to shit like this. The man is right.

[lnkedmyheart]

Kpop stans look at idols that have lived together for nearly a decade being genuinely affectionate with each other and scream queerbait and then declare the most cringey ass fanservice and actual ship bait to be evidence of them being gay and supportive of lgbt rights.

[sanstropfremir]

I love your point about maximalism and embracing the spectacle being backbones of kpop and part of what sets it apart from other genres because I think that’s very true. I don’t listen to kpop expecting some heartfelt authentic song that I personally relate to. If I wanted that, I could go listen to any singer at almost any bar in my city sing about their depression or something. I want like an insane fantasy unattached from my regular life that isn’t about girls/cars/money, which is the only alternative reality you find in most western pop. Bonus points for insane production to go with the insane lyrics rather than just more of the same 2-4 measure instrumental motif repeated for an entire song.

(Also, gotta say - SM had serious confidence showing up in America with lyrics the level of cringe of Jopping, because a lot of Americans have way too many mean opinions that they shout confidently, especially at non Americans. But honestly SuperM’s unironic embrace of the cringe made me like Jopping even more. It’s also a crime they didn’t promote their full album in 2020 more. I know it was the early pandemic and they couldn’t figure out what to do if they couldn’t come to the US, but that album was 100% bangers and it deserved more)

exactly! even within the k music industry you can find musicians that make 'authentic' music, it's not that hard to find at all. but you cannot expect it from idol music, because idol music is a specific form of performance. idol music is engineered to be about spectacle; you cannot separate the visual element from it because it was essentially formulated for television and large scale broadcast. expecting idol music to forgo that element is like expecting the same from an opera. the point of an opera is that it is every art form combined together to make the greatest spectacle story possible, and kpop has exactly the same function, just crammed down into four minutes instead of four hours.

[forestlion]

8: A song about drugs or alcohol

[tiredgeekgirl]

top 3 most unnecessary things in the world:

mosquitoes

the existence of unholy by sam smith

toy story 5

[beardedhandstoadshark]

You can save 1 fictional character who dies in their story from dying, changing the official plot forever. Who do you save?

Anon, this responsibility is too much to bear for a mere mortal. A pressure such as this can never temper a human soul, only crush it

…also all characters I can think of are either unimportant side characters, come back with a new shiny upgrade, or their deaths are the thing kicking off the heroes journey that starts the whole story to begin with so it kinda doesn’t work ;-;

So uhh… I guess Padme from Star Wars? I don’t even care about SW but confession: I kinda like the prequels, especially the third movie, and if I remember correctly her dying is what drove Darth Vader to the dark side for good, so that. Not happening would be interesting maybe. Also she dies from unidentified big sad or smth weird like that? Genuinely don’t know and they’ve been airing marathons often enough for me to see that end scene multiple times XD

[iceunhie]

˗ˏˋ ꒰ ⊹ unexpected development ! ꒱ ˎˊ˗

summary ⁠☆ you get transported into your favorite otome game’s world as a shitty side character with a raging death flag. you try to prevent your inevitable destruction... but it doesn't go according to plan as much as you'd hope.

notes ☆ of course it's another scaramouche fic except this time it's plot is manhwa inspired

“This trashy game!” you curse, watching the pitch black GAME OVER screen linger in your phone. Happy music plays despite the current cg of your character at the hands of the tyrant character slash love interest Scaramouche. You sigh, tapping on the back button. “I was so close to completing his route… stupid, stupid game, ugh…”

Teyvat’s Seven Stars was a new otome game that you'd tried out for fun, bored out of your mind. The amazing art and soundtrack garnered your interest, not to mention the male leads were totally your type!

It had an array of tropes and spared no expense of flowery scenes and fanservicey excerpts that made you play despite its massive cashgrab feature. Heart fluttering near death scenes! Action packed romantic scenes with the main characters! It was consuming you and you loved it.

Even if the Scaramouche route was testing your patience.

You get that he was the most difficult to conquer out of all of them, but really, one! wrong! move! ….and an immediate gameover. Life sucks when he's your favorite character, and when your favorite character was notoriously known for having a horrid and difficult complete clear route that no one has completed yet, of course you needed to complete it, no matter what!

Damn it, now you've run out of love points to restart another run. Fuck you, system! Stupid trashy money grabbing game! You put down your phone, closing it. An immediate heavy weight settles on your shoulders, making you feel sleepy as you clutch your phone to bed.

Tomorrow… you'll complete his route for sure…

[ TEYVAT’S SEVEN STARS SYSTEM ACTIVATED! RUNNING GAME FILE NOW ]

Ah. You should've known what was coming.

—

[ CHARACTER FILE: [NAME] [LAST NAME] - CROWN PRINCE KUNIKUZUSHI’S BETROTHED! ]

What the fuck.

You think you've lost feeling in your jaw when the glare of the system shines bright, mocking you.

“[Name], you're awake!” You turn to the sound, and you face probably the most beautiful person you've ever seen. No, what the hell. You've seen him before.

Beautiful silky dark hair, glossy electric indigo eyes, a perpetual aura of ethereal lightness…. the game descriptions weren't lying after all. yes, you weren't dreaming. This was Scaramouche, or should you say at this point in time… Kunikuzushi?

He immediately clings to you. Oh. Oh. Well fuck. “I… uh.”

Scara- ahem, Kunikuzushi’s eyes are littered with tears and oh no you're a weak hearted person for your favorite character. “I'm so glad you're okay! I'm sorry, my mother- I mean, I'm so glad you're okay.”

The rest of the moments is a blur when your… fiance? betrothed? fills you in on what happened. Your mind is fuzzy and you can only piece together just a rough summary of what point in the game you're in.

So, you are currently three years early from the main story. Unfortunately, you are not either of the main protagonists Lumine or Aether. No, the system apparently hates you for being a hater and gave you the most egregious role.

A side character. A side character who barely even appears in the story, left to be trampled on by the story's plot. What's more, you're in the timeline wherein the current Kunikuzushi doesn't take the name Scaramouche because his Mother, the lone Queen Raiden Ei left him when he could not pass the Inazuma kingdom’s test to be worthy of the gnosis.

He took the name Scaramouche after being trained by the shady organization known as the Fatui, the main villainous force in the game and usurped his mother. In other words, a blackened tyrant character!

...And you were the betrothed his mother set for him - executed in the future because he didn't want any trace of Ei’s influence. Amazing.

The future Kunikuzushi would be an arrogant, tsundere and soft-for-only-one-person type of character, but now, he was like a gentle, tucked away from the world young prince.

Wait…. wasn’t he also gullible before?! Very cute, but it's no wonder he blackened so quickly with such a naive personality!

You, well, technically, the character [Name] [Last Name] ended up in this situation after they threatened to leave Kunikuzushi because he was far too fragile for their taste. A side character who’d contributed to Scaramouche’s blackening and paid for it with their life. That was who you were.

Okay, now you pity this boy a lot. He already had a traumatic childhood with Ei not giving him enough love and therefore a plethora of issues, and he'd even end up being a crazy tyrant who stopped at nothing to get the main protagonist in his grasp! For your death flag not to happen, you HAD to do something about that.

You had no choice.

To survive this horrendous fate, you came up with a plan. And that would be Plan give-kunikuzushi-all-the-love-in-the-word-before-he-meets-the-protagonist-and-turn-into-a-blackened-dark-tyrant!

Okay, lengthy plan, but to plan ahead is to be smart, so you can take care of the name later.

—

So far so good, this plan of yours. Plan get-kunikuzushi-to-turn-into-a-sparkly-prince character and not his blackened self was going well! (You gave up on thinking of a cool name) Thank god for cliche romance novels.

So far, you've increased your proximity to him, including him to spend time with you, showering him with bouts of affection and care. And so far, it's been paying off. The once secluded Prince has become so cute and so sweet!

You have to pat yourself on the back for this. You were doing the protagonist a huge favor that now they had a wonderful love interest in their sights for future reference.

Although, if there was one nitpick you had on your conduct, it would be the fact that Kunikuzushi didn't take kindly to others aside from you, and would even be panicked, utterly devastated if you even brought up the mere mention of leaving.

“Break… our engagement in the future?” if it weren't for him looking shell-shocked and deathly pale, the furrow on Kunikuzushi’s face would've been cute. “No! I don't want that! You aren't planning to leave me, are you?”

He gives you the most horrendous god kneeling look of a plea, and of course you drop the subject immediately.

“It was a joke, of course. I'd never want to break our engagement!” you hurriedly reassure, gently taking his hands in yours.

Kunikuzushi looks at you, all puppy eyes and pink cheeks. So cute. Who wouldn't want to stay by his side? You reassure him, “Whatever happens, I'll always stay by your side, okay?”

He looks at your intertwined hands with an unreadable expression on his face. “Do you promise?”

You nod. “I promise, Kuni.”

He nods, gripping your hands tighter, and his expression rivals a blazing sun, brimming with conviction as he pulls you in for a huge hug.

And of course, who wouldn't turn down an opportunity to hug their favorite character?

Surely this time, you’ll definitely escape the death flag and horrendous side character ending, right?!

You don't notice the shadow on Kuni’s face when the mere mention of being separated from you comes up.

In the back of your mind, you wonder what would happen if your Kunikuzushi met the protagonist. Would he immediately fall for them? you wonder, and an uncharacteristic pang of discomfort tugs at your chest. Ah, what would it matter.

You smile at the gentle, pristine and kind Kunikuzushi that's currently excitedly telling you about how Ei praised his sword skills after he beat his younger sister. Even if the main protagonist would come here, you could keep this adorable Kunikuzushi for yourself for just a little longer.

You kiss his cheek, and he heats up. Yes, the future can wait for now.

How the hell did it come to this?

“You told me you'd always stay by my side, right?” a hand slicked with blood is resting on the side of your face. Electric indigo eyes, these ones now having a ruthless glint to them, stare up at your own. “I've removed everything else that can take you away from me. Now, you have no reason to leave.”

By remove, he meant the man who'd decided to make a move on you after you went to the gardens for some fresh air. Hence the blood on his hands and sword, hence the reason why there's a dead body by your feet.

The once adorable and fair-faced Kunikuzushi still turned into Scaramouche after all, and you failed to prevent his blackening. He was truly, undoubtedly the same game Scaramouche.

But… Why was he acting like this? Wasn't this the exclusive feature only the protagonist should be experiencing?

He presses a kiss to your forehead, then the back of your palm. You blush.

Yes, he is now an extremely dangerous individual capable of executing anyone he deems appropriate to just for the sake of it, and yes, this same man is kneeling before you as you're just about to leave after the main storyline cg act just started. And yes, like the protagonist, you should stay far, far away from him.

But could you really? When he was pleading you with such an expression of longing and yearning? He takes your hand to caress it to the side of his face, eyes haughty and grin unsettling, gosh was he so… so attractive, like that.

“You won't leave, right?” Why was he so…. so sweet? Why was this scene structured as if you were the one he wanted to be with, not the protagonist? “You promised me, after all.”

….And why on earth did your heart leap out of your chest when he said he wanted you to stay?

(It was hard to pretend you didn't know why when the smile on your face said otherwise.)

1.5k words, only the real ones know that ive been planning a cliche otome game au since day 1 I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED TO ME WHEN I WAS WRITING THIS FIC 😭 might turn this into a series if people like this though <3

@ MHIIEEE : do not repost, copy or plagiarize or claim my content or work as your own.

[caliburn-the-sword]

the main talking point of a lot of people that love eah but bash on descendants is that "eah was deep!! descendants was just a disney knockoff that meant nothing and was just a cashgrab" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP (to be clear i am an eah lover). analytical thoughts to follow:

consider also, that auradon is portrayed as very technologically advanced in direct opposition to the isle being associated with magic (even with its ban) and a lot of of clearly second hand, worn and torn fridges and tvs and whatever

also, the fact that she felt PRESSURED to not only culturally assimilate into auradon culture, but alter her physical appearance to assimilate further. consider mal's costuming in the first movie. on the isle, we see her with (what i assume is her natural) purple hair, leather, etc. she is even, to a degree, gender nonconforming. pretty much the ONLY time we see her in skirts is when she's trying to impress ben for her plan to work

compare this with the hair costuming in descendants 2:

(i actually can't remember which scenes the third one was in but whatever) they have taken away her sparkle!! she's assimilated firstly into auradon fashion by dressing in pastels like them, and in SKIRTS which she textually only wore in the first movie when she wanted to impress ben. now with the added context of her wanting to impress auradon. and it really speaks a lot that she feels she has to conform to gender norms more in order to be accepted by auradon

and what about hair. she's felt the need to not only change the way she dresses, but change her hair to the eurocentric standard, so blonde that it's almost WHITE to conform to auradon's society (because let's be real, her mum's a fairy/dragon and her dad is a greek god. i'd be MORE surprised if she was DYING her hair purple than it being natural). changing your natural hair in order to to conform to and be accepted by the majority... where have i heard that one before??

shoutout to @soniccat

(to be clear. it is not a one for one analogy. "hey using a spell to force someone to forget what you did is an invasion" to me is like going "well actually people were right to fear mutants in x-men because some of them were walking weapons" IT'S A METAPHOR THAT IS ALSO A PLOT DEVICE)

('backwater' being used ironically, do not let my meaning be misconstrued here. a better way to word it is that immigrants are guilttripped into having to be 'grateful' for their oppression in a first world country because microaggressions or assimilation is considered better than the alternative, being back in your home country where living conditions may be considered poorer)

in the sense that for instance, jay put a VK spin on supporting feminism. like yes, he could've done it the rulefollowing, create a petition and gather signatures route, but INSTEAD he finds and exploits an existing loophole to let lonnie join the team. or evie shouting out dizzy's creations, uplifting her voice despite the fact she could've still taken the credit since she was the one that paired the outfit with the accessories. etc

are the descendants movies objectively bad movies?? yes. but this was to me, one of the most compelling analogies for immigrant struggles. take particular notice how almost ALL the main VKs are either racebent from the original disney movies (evie, carlos, uma) or were already based on an ethnic character (mal, jay)

but wait, mal is the whitest white girl to walk the planet. how is she already based on an ethnic character?

glad you asked. it is quite unclear in the descendants movie (basing its portrayal of maleficent on the disney sleeping beauty) is a fairy or a dragon. while the maleficent movie isn't canon to the descendants universe, i'm still going to use the fact that she's a fairy with the magical ability to turn herself into a dragon

a lot fairy folklore comes from ireland. the name maleficent itself, and i quote

shares similarities to the name millicent. millicent has irish (or scottish) roots (even a coat of arms) as in

thus one could argue that maleficent herself could potentially be irish coded

whether or not you agree with the idea that maleficent is irish coded, it is undeniable that mal is the daughter of hades, a greek god. it's a shame that that was a retcon in the third movie and not planned from the start, because the role could've gone to an actually greek actress (please google the ottoman empire and greek independence day if you still think it's not fitting for me to group mal with the others)

where was i going with this?? right. it's extremely telling that most of the main/side VKs, save for gil, are ethnic, in the story of a group of misfits finding themselves in an unfamiliar country with new social norms for them to learn as they try to fit in with and become accepted by their peers

[tyrantisterror]

So I Saw Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

...and listen, I went in fully expecting it to suck ass. I was expecting my nostalgia to actually make me hate it even more for sucking ass than I would have if I had never seen Beetlejuice before. I figured it would be a lazy, heartless cashgrab, with tired actors awkwardly forcing themselves to play a caricature of their old roles and young actors given nothing to work with beyond oooing and aaahing at references to a movie that was made before they were born, directed by Tim Burton, a man who hasn't made a good movie since at least 2007, if not even longer.

So I feel really weird about saying it was actually... good? Somehow? Against all odds, it was good?

Like, I assumed it'd be a lazy rehash of the original, but no, it has a very distinct plot from the first film. It takes Lydia and Deelia Deetz and not only allows them to have grown from where they were in the original film, but keep growing to the end of this one. It uses Beetlejuice himself sparingly, shows new aspects of the entertainingly weird and surreal bureaucratic nightmare afterlife of the original, and actually makes a really strong theme about escaping from manipulative and predatory relationships.

There are references to the original, yes, but overall far fewer than I expected - like, there were so many iconic gags from the first film I expected them to repeat in a "See? It's like the first one!" nostalgia moment that just... didn't get repeated at all. On the other hand, there were clear jabs at the stupid bullshit OTHER legacy sequels have been doing - like, you know how the trailer had the groan-worthy "serious" cover of Day-O? Yeah, in the movie itself, the "serious" cover is sung in-universe in what is clearly meant to be a moment of comedic tonal dissonance - the very idea of using that fun song in a serious context is the joke. They also have a "baby Beetlejuice" gag where the baby version of the pre-existing characrer in question is a horrid little ghoul who spends every second of screentime being as repulsive and awful as possible. It's like it knew what I, personally, expected from a shitty Beeltejuice legacy sequel, and decided to goof on those tropes for my entertainment.

It's not perfect or anything - it has a shitload of subplots which it mostly manages to juggle really well but has, like, just one too many, but that one easily cut-able subplot also revolves around having a Monica Bellucci frankenstein, and I'm enough of a freak to admit I can understand not wanting to cut the Monica Bellucci frankenstein even if it added nothing to the movie beyond the pleasure of seeing a Monica Bellucci frankenstein.

But, like, it was funny, it explored a fantasy setting that honestly is ripe for more exploration, and it had surprisingly more heart than I expected. Like, it actually had more sympathy for both Lydia and Delia Deetz than the original, which is one of the flaws of the first movie in my opinion - it understands that Delia is kind of a great artist instead of maing her just a joke, and that Lydia's anxiety and grief actually has some true pain in it beyond "lol teenage girls are so overdramatic amirite," and it lets those two actually form a really great bond while ALSO adding Jenna Ortega's character into the mix kind of seamlessly? It helps that all three of these women have great chemistry together as actresses - Winona Ryder and Catherine O'hara play off each other so well, and Jenna Ortega adds this great third point to the dynamic the former two had in the original film, it's kind of inspired? And Michael Keaton's Bettlegeuse is used just sparingly enough, as he was in the first film, to be funny and threatening without wearing out his welcome.

It was good. I can't believe I'm saying it, but it was good. I enjoyed it, and I'm still kind of baffled by the fact that I did so. I can't believe I'm writing this in 2024, but Tim Burton finally made a good movie again.

[magpod-confessions]

People saying the tmagp "statements" are worse or less scary is interesting to me, I don't think I ever found any TMA statements scary. Like at all. In fact I assumed they were supposed to be kind of hokey and goofy. And that's why I was able to listen so comfortably!! I hate horror, I scare easy. There are some exceptions which is understandable given there is more variation in the writers, but tmagp statements have stood out to me as way cooler, more impactful, and yes, scarier. I love the idea of them being read out by an automated text to speech that gets more uncannily human throughout. Didn't like the snake one and the tiktok one was a little painful but... I guess my point is, I think there are plenty of instances where there is something interesting there, and maybe people who are saying tmagp seems like a cashgrab know something I don't, but I don't see why someone would assumed that's all it is based on the actual quality. Obviously personal preference is a big player here. Also I feel like it's still so so early. TMA presumably did not have this many people scrutinising it before episode 20. The expectations are also different and that's gonna impact how you feel about it.

.

[meshaamem-li]

imagine how much more vibrant and varied our animation industry could have been if large monopolies like Disney would have spent $20m on 10 films instead of $200m on 1 soulless cashgrab.

seriously. Wish had a budget of 200 MILLION dollars, and for what? a sorry excuse of a story that feels like it's been written by AI? if Disney divided the money across multiple creators and let them pour actual passion into their art, we could have so many more animated films of different genres and for different audiences.

the average movies I can find that aren't a large disney production are usually made on like a $30-60m budget, but Song of the Sea was made with a $7.5m budget, wolfwalkers was made on an $11m budget, and the nightmare before Christmas was $24m. Your Name was only $5.5m!!!! so it's not impossible to make good films on lower budgets.

I'm not saying "don't pay your artists" or limit creativity, but there's no reasons to waste 200 fucking million on a movie that has no soul when there are millions of artists and storytellers who are just itching for their story to be told. not every movie has to have groundbreaking hyperrealistic animation, you can actually make really good and unique animation without it being this fucking expensive! (while still paying your fucking animators because they're fucking amazing and deserve a much higher wage than the Industry standard)

it's like.... why they putting all their money on like 1-2 films a year when they can make at least double that amount and they'll still look good??? why are they not giving any room for experimentation with lower budget films and instead relying on soulless cashgrabs that appease the general audience of parents and doesn't treat their young viewers as people with taste? take more risks!!! bring some variety to the medium!!! this 200 million film could have been 4 50 million films!!! you are a multi BILLION dollar corporation, you have the resources to make multiple films at a time, and not all of them need to be the most amazing and visually appealing movie of all time!

yes, movie production is complicated and requires a LOT of people and a LOT of time, and costs a LOT of money, but animation evolved a lot over the years, and we're at a point where indie animators can make a solid short film basically by themselves at home and it would look much better than anything that was made 30 years ago because the tools we have now are much more powerful and accessible.

[ilovethetalkingclock]

Ah yes, Dr. Seuss's classics...

Don't you hate it when it starts raining and a furry breaks into your house?

Proto-Shrek commits a mass robbery during the holidays

Elephant tries to protect a bunch of microbes in a clover, is labeled criminally insane for it

EAT THE FUCKING RADIOACTIVE BREAKFAST DAMNIT

And the actually deep environmentalist+anti-capitalist message warped into a hypocritical cashgrab with a Tumblr Sexyman