#Rampage Movie

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"...SO WHAT'S THE SECRET OF MAKING A GOOD MOVIE ADAPTATION OF A VIDEO GAME?"

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on front cover box art for "Rampage" (Atari 2600), released by Balmy Midway in 1986, plus more poster art for 2018's sci-fi/action/adventure/monster movie "Rampage," loosely based on the popular video/arcade game.

Resolution at 1153x1419 & 1000x1490.

COLLIDER: "There are a lot of bad movies that are based on video games. So what’s the secret of making a good movie adaptation of a video game?"

DWAYNE JOHNSON: "Great question. I’m not quite sure what the secret is. I can tell you what we wanted to do was we wanted to collectively get together and put together the best team possible to execute on the script, and that means bringing in all the great department heads. We had a great studio who does this very well, we’ve got a team in Brad Peyton. Yes, we’ve done "San Andreas." Before "San Andreas," we’ve done ["Journey 2"]. That’s when I found how talented Brad was. At that time, we were using James Cameron’s new cameras right off of "Avatar," it’s pretty cool, and how Brad was able to execute that."

-- COLLIDER, ""Rampage": Dwayne Johnson on Breaking the Video Game Movie Curse," by Kayti Burt, c. March 2018

Sources: www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/873z45, www.mobygames.com/game/124/rampage/cover/cover-19754, & Collider.

[monsterasia-zero]

Rampage By Mark Louie Superales

[londoncapsule]

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN in RAMPAGE (2018) dir: Brad Peyton

[v3n-dingmachine]

i got myself hyperfixated on stamps n blinkies, so heres the stamps that ive made ^-^

btw none of the pics/gifs are mine

free to use!!!

[watcher0033]

I LOVE NIMONA SO GD MUCH. WTF ANIMATION GOLDEN ERA. 😭😭😭🙏🏼

It was the perfect movie. It was so good. “I don’t know what’s scarier. The fact that everyone in this kingdom wants to run a sword through my heart or that sometimes I just wanna let ‘em” MADE ME FUCKING SOB ACTUAL TEARS THE HORRIFIC REALIZATION WHEN SHE WAS NEAR TO THE STATUE BECAUSE I THOUGHT I THOUGHT SHE WANTED TO DESTROY THE SYMBOL OF OPPRESSION AND BIGOTRY But of course. Of course, it was worse than that. It was a gigantic painful trek to an end to that would be less painful than what she’d been thru NIMONA U GAVE ME SECONDHAND TRAUMA IM FUCKING CRYING GDI. And it took. And all it took was one single person to see and accept her for who she is and suddenly she was phoenix rising ready to take on the world and rewrite the narrative. Just the one person to make her believe and be believed in return. WTF THIS MOVIE IM GOING TO WATCH IT AGAIN WHEN IM NOT GONNA BE HANGOVER FROM FUCKING EMOTIONS OHGOD

[nonafierce]

King of B*tch "Akihisa Shiono" 🤣🔥

[heishook]

HOOK on set for a short film 🎥🎬

[elitehanitje]

The wrestling world is known for its creative costumes and storylines – and now two female rivals are modelling themselves on the Bette Davis/Anne Baxter classic.

Inspired by a young fan, a veteran performer takes the woman under her wing to nurture her as an understudy. But the route to the spotlight inspires cut-throat behavior, and the protégé upstages her mentor to replace her entirely. For those familiar with cinematic history, this sounds like the plot of All About Eve – but in this case, it's actually the arc of a feud between two of the best women's wrestlers of the moment. 

A quick rewind to this time last year: London played host to one of the biggest, if not the biggest, wrestling events in the country's history with All Elite Wrestling's All In, which filled out Wembley Stadium, a pretty remarkable achievement for a wrestling company that's only five years old.

For those unfamiliar, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) owned by Tony Khan, is a relatively young entrant into the world of US professional wrestling. Matches are pre-determined, and rivalries between wrestlers are scripted using long-running fictional "storylines" over months or even years. The bouts are still legitimately physically fierce, but the result is an artistic dance between narrative planning and live improvisation.

Since being founded in 2019, AEW has rocketed to prominence thanks to the strong alternative programming it offered to the behemoth World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which was at a creative low point at the time (they've since bounced back).

The standout story this year, one which has played out across months of weekly television, and will now climax at All In with a title match for the Women's World Championship, is the conflict between the wrestlers "Timeless" Toni Storm and "The Glamour" Mariah May – and in their rivalry, they have been drawing from classic Hollywood, a unique accent to their narrative.

Khan, who as well as being AEW owner is also responsible for the creative direction of many of the storylines, has directly cited Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve as inspiration, calling them "two of [his] favorites". Lyric Swinton, freelance wrestling writer/creative and host of the Maps & Graps Podcast thinks this storyline may go down as "All Elite Wrestling's best work so far". "The investment in this story from both an administrative and fan perspective has been unprecedented for a women's feud in AEW, and every risk has paid off" she continues.

For a while, Toni Storm quoted Sunset Boulevard directly, saying "Mr Khan, I'm ready for my close up!", before defeating her opponents

A lot of wrestlers use wider popular culture as a jumping-off point for their characters but usually, such direct homages are contained to ring gear and walkout looks for big matches (one of my favorite examples: Kenny Omega walking out dressed as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, accompanied by the character's theme). As a result, even through those little nods, the shows become a fun nexus point of the other interests of wrestlers and fans alike.

It's not standard, however, for wrestlers to make cracks about Turner Classic Movies or use the infamously salacious (and mostly made-up) Kenneth Anger book Hollywood Babylon as a sight gag.

"Wrestling takes from itself just as much as it does from its current cultural moment," says Katie Stebbins, a film zine creator and co-host of the Clean Finish podcast. "But harking back to the golden age of a different medium altogether feels like its own homage, acknowledging professional wrestling as its own constructed, heightened, and totally unique form of storytelling.

How the story has developed

The storyline, which has been playing out over the past year across AEW's thrice-weekly programming, really kicked off in the lead-up to the 2023 All In, when Storm lost her title. This sent her into a spiral, her character gradually changing in a series of backstage interviews. Previously her styling leaned rockier, but now she was turning up talking like a washed-up, Golden Age Hollywood actress in the twilight of her career à la Sunset Boulevard's Norma Desmond (made funnier by the fact that she's only 28). The live interviews typically ended with her rambling loudly and throwing a shoe at her unsuspecting coworkers.

This developed further, as Toni's every on-camera appearance would be presented in black and white, complete with fake film grain. Now, her entrance music sounds like a classic film overture, she's billed as being "from Stage 7 of Warner Brothers Studios", her outfits have changed to silk gowns, and her in-ring gear looks like something Ingrid Bergman might wear to the beach. She got a butler. For a while she even quoted Sunset Boulevard directly, saying "Mr Khan, I'm ready for my close-up!" and pausing for a quick camera zoom before defeating her opponents. And, despite being a millennial from New Zealand, Toni speaks of Jayne Mansfield and other Hollywood icons like she spent time in the trenches with them, all in the kind of transatlantic accent that actresses from the time might have.

Stebbins highlights how the "feud playfully remixes a general 'Old Hollywood glamour' with the specificity of two stone-cold classics", Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve, while also noting that these reference points aren't required reading for fans. "If you recognize them, it's great but if not, it doesn't impact the enjoyment at all". It may even encourage people to seek out the films for the first time.

Eventually, in November 2023, entered Mariah, the doe-eyed fan, who in backstage segments claimed that she came to AEW for Toni, and to follow in her footsteps – this is where the story got its All About Eve angle, with Toni starting to seem like Bette Davis's old-school star Margo being pursued by Anne Baxter's super-fan Eve. What followed was weeks of Toni shrugging Mariah off, as she fought for her attention. She finally won it by dressing up as Toni, walking to the ring with her idol's old theme music and wearing her old ring gear – and later, her own variations on it – and then, to complete the betrayal, vanquishing her.  

Their sparring even gained a romantic subtext, not least through another rivalry between Toni and Mariah's old tag teammate from the Japanese promotion Stardom, Mina Shirakawa. It was effectively a battle for Mariah's heart (Swinton also notes how the trio has invited comparisons to film of the moment, Challengers).

The storyline is a genuinely original meeting of cultural phenomena, which has won over a lot of wrestling fans, given Mariah May some absolutely star-making time in the spotlight (Stebbins calls her "fully worthy of being the 'Eve' to Toni's 'Margo/’Norma'"), and provided an incredible revitalisation for Storm's character. As Stebbins puts it, "in real time we experienced Toni go from a placeholder women's champ indifferently received by audiences to losing the belt and gradually re-emerging as 'Timeless' Toni Storm. In real time, we experienced Toni the performer come remarkably into her own within Toni the character. It's part of what makes pro wrestling so endlessly fascinating, that the role of character and performer is always a simultaneous parallel and fusion." The same is true of Mariah, her newness to AEW adding to this immersive blend of fiction and person.  

Why the fusion works so well

When it comes to Toni Storm, the initial (and delightful) absurdity of a wrestler acting as if they're from the 1950s has developed layers, with Toni slowly but surely developing seemingly real vulnerability as her rivalry with Mariah has progressed. Stebbins posits that being able to see these incremental changes in personality has added to the fun: "So much in wrestling is about timing, and the effect that the passage of time has on both performer and audience and Toni / Mariah have utilized both in a way that doesn't often happen. We're with these performers week in and week out, watching performers evolve (or not), develop (or not), get over things (or not)."  

The narrative drama has also been helped by the fact that Toni and Mariah are so fundamentally skilled as physical performers: as Swinton notes, beyond "the clever video packages and heated [live] segments, these are still two of the best in-ring workers in any women's division worldwide". Indeed, the introduction of Mariah exemplifies how great wrestling storytelling can be built in large part through physicality – where outside of the ring she's a fawning and excitable sycophant, once she steps through the ropes she reveals her capability to be a vicious bully towards an opponent who doesn't quite know what they're in for.   

As the storyline has developed further, it has pulled in yet another Golden Age Hollywood reference. Following her (rather brutal) betrayal by Mariah, Toni returned angrier and more erratic , now seemingly nodding to another Bette Davis-starring film, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, as she channelled Davis's appearance as bitter former child star Jane Hudson, both through her gown and severe makeup.

Toni and Mariah's storyline is pretty unique, and it's unlikely to spark a "classic cinema" trend in wrestling: Stebbins sees it as having a "lightning-in-a-bottle quality". But it nevertheless underlines the appeal of professional wrestling more generally. It's a showcase of its varied potential, fusing a heap of narrative elements – shared with theatre, comic books, soap operas, and in this case, classic cinema – with combat and extraordinary feats of athleticism. And it's fun to see how the wrestling world draws on specific bits of pop culture to forge connections with audiences and create its own unique art form in the process.  

[laikaspotlight]

After 3 years, we finally have our first glimpse at the protagonist of LAIKA's next feature film, Wildwood!

I think she looks ready to take on ANYTHING the woods have to offer, what do you think?

You can see the teaser right here, where Coraline herself introduces us to our new friend!!

I love practically EVERYTHING about this teaser. From the sound design, the lush textures, And because I think it's like, THE COOLEST THING EVER, I took some pictures. Hehe!

LOOK AT THESE DARLING BEASTS AaaaaaAAAND, as if it couldn't get any better, WE FINALLY GOT A LOOK AT SOME WILDWOOD CROWS!!!!!

IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

[cinemaobscura]

Tokyo Rampage/Pornostar | ポルノスター (1998) dir. Toshiaki Toyoda

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

GHB: I DO A LITTLE RAMPAGING

GHB: LIKE TROLL GODZILLA IN THOSE TROLL KAIJU MOVIES

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers: For the first episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the second episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the third episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the fourth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the sixth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the seventh episode's Easter eggs it's here and here

For the eighth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the ninth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the tenth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

SPOILERS if you haven't seen this week's episode obviously

We start off the episode with this shot of Superman with the drawn on glasses. A good homage to what Lois did in the 1980 Superman II movie...

where she not only drew the glasses but also a full suit and hat on a picture of Superman.

Next we see Jimmy waking up and seeing someone debunking his conspiracy theories on Sub-Diego.

Sub Diego was an actual place in the DC universe before the New 52 reboot. In Aquaman #15 and #16 (2003) , shown here (W: Will Pfeifer, P: Patrick Gleason, I: Christian Alamy, C: Nathan Eyring, L: Jared K. Fletcher for issue 15, Nick Napolitano for issue 16). The underwater city is actually San Diego, but is buried underwater thanks to a tidal wave and makes its first appearance in Aquaman #15 (2003). There was a lot of casualties from this.

When we get to our title its "You Will Believe A Man Can Lie" a reference to the tagline for the 1978 Superman movie.

As seen here on the poster, it says "You'll believe a man can fly".

Next we see our villain, well one of the villains, for the episode, Heatwave.

In the comics Heatwave makes his first appearance in Flash 140 (1963) (cover art by Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, and Ira Schnapp). Heatwave aka Mick Rory is a Flash rogue usually acting as a rival to Captain Cold aka Leonard Snart. In MAwS, their Heatwave shares the same last name and powers, but MAwS Heatwave is gender flipped. You might have seen Heatwave in the CW DC comics shows where he is played by Dominic Purcell in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

Lois, later in the episode, name drops Heatwave's name. Gotta be honest when Heatwave showed up I was like is that Rampage? Cuz the MAwS design looks vaguely like Rampage.

If she does show up in MAwS, I'll talk more about her in another post, but for now, Rampage aka Karen Lou "Kitty" Faulkner, makes her first appearance in Superman #7 (1987) (full page here: W&P: John Byrne, I: Karl Kesel, C: Tom Ziuko, L: John Costanza).

Steve drags Jimmy to film his debunking Flamebird videos and references Starro who I talked about here.

Lois, later runs around with the Daily Planet police scanner trying to catch Superman and the dispatcher reports that a robbery is in progress at McGuinness Luxe Garage.

This is a nice reference to Ed McGuinness who was the artist for Superman, Action Comics, and Superman/Batman in the early 2000s. If you've seen Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, then you'll know the movie takes inspiration from his character designs in the first arc of the Superman/Batman comic series. The Superman/Batman #1 (2003) cover here is done by Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, and Dave Stewart. I like Ed McGuinness's pencils, very stylized.

Heatwave name drops Livewire and the Gazzo mod family. Both of whom I've talked about here and here respectively

Heatwave has been running away from Deathstroke here who has been taking our her crew. Notice that Slade Wilson doesn't have the half black half orange helmet yet that almost every Deathstroke depiction always has.

He, Amanda Waller, and the General who I totally think is General Sam Lane, Lois's dad, are fans of DBZ cuz of the scouters they're wearing.

Later in the scene we see the General again he's totally General Sam Lane. I'll talk more about him when we get a double confirmation through a name drop/reveal in a later post calling Amanda Waller, Mandy. What a fucking bold thing to say to Waller! Like damn! power move right there!

Superman and Deathstroke are fighting under a highway and we see the traffic is heading to Bludhaven!

Very good reference to my favorite character in all of pop culture, Dick Grayson aka Nightwing. Nightwing makes Bludhaven his city to protect. The city makes its first appearance in Nightwing #1 (1996) (the panel here - W: Chuck Dixon, P: Scott McDaniel, I: Karl Story, C: Roberta Tewes, L: John Costanza). Fun Bludhaven fact, its crime rate is WORST than Gotham! Also HIGHLY recommend reading the new Nightwing run cuz its fucking amazing! Won a few Eisner Awards (think the Oscars but for comic books) recently and I am not just saying that because I am a Dick Grayson fan.

Near the end of the episode, we see Lois willing to jump off a building to prove that Clark is Superman. A lot of discourse was happening online over this, but I do want to say this is pretty on brand for her to do.

In Superman II, Lois does something similar and Clark saves her. its just in MAwS, Clark flies to save her thus ruining the secret identity, while in Superman II, Clark does save her but he is still able to get away with it thanks to him playing it more subtly.

Don't know why people we're in such a fucking fit over something that Lois has done before.

In the after credits scene, Jimmy, who planned a sasquatch finding adventure with Lois and Clark, but they were dealing with their shit and Jimmy was by himself, decides to do the finding on his own and meets a giant gorilla. In the first episode Jimmy mentions an intelligent gorilla in France and my guess is this is Monsieur Mallah. You can read more about him here. If you made it this far down, I appreciate you taking the time to check this post out and if you want to see my other MAwS Easter Eggs posts - Episode 1 is here

Episode 2 is here

Episode 3 is here

Episode 4 is here

Episode 6 is here

Episode 7 is here and here

Episode 8 is here

Episode 9 is here

Episode 10 is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[movielosophy]

HiGH&LOW THE WORST Cross I Tsukasa

[filmtvfandom]

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Agent Harvey Russell in Rampage (2018)

[enhashoutout]

Plot Holes in High and Low We Need to Discuss

@tiredlittlewriter always gassing me up 🤭🫶🏼 @cheshirecatuniverse @mrskenpachizaraki @books-n-guns

Thank you so much everyone tagged for staying up and talking about the movies with me last night😂❤

Trigger warnings before you start reading, this ramble posts contains spoilers for the movies, cuss words, mentions of character d3aths, mention of SA that happens to a character, and other violence and cr!me associated with the H&L franchise. Please don't read if you do not want to see any of these.

Anywaysssas as you can tell by the title of this post and this screenshot, we are talking about plot holes in the High and Low franchise that we need to talk about because they BUG THE SHIT OUT OF ME.

I would like to start by saying that I do love this franchise, it is my everything. It's not like I have anything bad to say about it, I love it as it is, but some of the stuff within the franchise definitely could've been more thought out. It could've been worse! So I am thankful it wasn't bad but there are some things I wish the writing team did a little differently.

Also, I do attribute a lot of the plot holes to 1) the creators not being entirely sure whether or not they would get a green light on more movies, 2) trying to make sure the movies made money (it's a business unfortunately and not just art), and 3) High and Low is a multi-media franchise so some stuff is probably explained in the mangas, TV shows, games, etc. I will contradict myself and discuss this more in detail as we keep going.

These are in no particular order, just what comes to mind first

S.W.O.R.D Era

1)Noboru and Miho's story

I have beef with whoever on the H&L writing team thought that condensing the 2 seasons of Story of S.W.O.R.D into Road to High & Low was a good idea. "It's both seasons condensed into one movie" THAT'S A FUCKIN LIE. So much of what is in the shows is cut out from the movie.

Tell me why I learned here on Tumblr that Noboru actually spent a while in a coma in the hospital after getting body slammed by a Kuryu car? And then Cobra and Yamato had to do the "IF YOU DIE I'M GONNA BE SO MAD AT YOU" speech you always see in Asian dramas to get Noboru to wake up?!

And tell me why I learned from a fanfic on Wattpad that Miho isn't dead?! She literally comes to visit Noboru while he's in the hospital. Road to High & Low frames the situation to make it look like Noboru goes to beat up Miho's SA perpetrators after he finds he d3ad in her apartment. Then when I brought this up a couple weeks ago the Discord besties told me she broke up with him through a letter😭 A LETTER GIRL?! HE WENT THROUGH ALL THAT FOR YOU! IF I WAS YOU I WOULD'VE KEPT HIM. NOBORU. GIVE ME YOUR HAND IN MARRIAGE PLEASE GOOD SIR💍 (I'm completely joking I don't think anyone is entitled to another person's feelings, love, affection, etc. I'm just delusional because I love Noboru and Keita Machida)

Then I learned last night from Discord that Miho needs serious therapy because she was working for Doubt and it was addressed in season 2 of the show. Like HUUUH?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!

I do think the storyline between them as a couple and their stories individually definitely could've been explored and explained more. It was probably explained better in the show than RTH&L but I don't have access to the show so idk... which brings me to my first contradiction!

LDH AND EXILE TRIBE PLEASE MAKE YOUR MEDIA MORE ACCESIBLE GOSH. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SUB IT THAT'S FINE AT LEAST MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND SO THAT WE CAN GET FAN SUBS OR I CAN JUST WATCH THE RAW FOOTAGE AND PRETEND I KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING. There's so many films like the 2 DTC films, the Mighty Warriors film, the shows, even the manga that a lot of us don't have access to😭 Yes this franchise is multi-media but at least make the media accessible😭

2) Mighty Warriors working with Doubt

In the first and second High & Low movie MW and Doubt work together... AND THAT LITERALLY DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. Last I checked Mighty Warriors don't fuck with tr@ffickers in general so I don't even know why this happened.

And last I checked, MW rescued Sarah from Doubt so why would they work with Doubt when one of their members was literally a Doubt victim? That just doesn't make sense to me. Like yes the MW tend to just take up whatever whack-ass jobs for money they can get considering they fought with literal children (Oya and Rude Boys. I'm like 99.9% sure the Rude Boys members were all 16-19 and that is the age of children. Smoky might've been 20-22 which is not exactly a child but he's still young compared to the MW who were all mercenaries and in the military before they were musical bandits alluding to the fact they are older) but you would think that people who claim to have a club that is a utopia with music that is supposed to impact people positively and save their lives just like music saved the MW members' lives, they would have more moral and standards than to work with Doubt.... but I digress.

3) The alliance with a foreign mafia

This one I can kind of understand but also can't.

I understand that MW take up whatever job they can to make money. It's said directly multiple times in the movies by a MW member that there is no use doing a job for someone without getting paid so they do a lot of stuff just for the money. I also understand Doubt take whatever job pays them but also benefits their tr@fficking business. Hence why they took this job because not only were they getting paid by Lee who runs the Korean mafia but they could kidnap women in the S.W.O.R.D district which worked in their favor.

What I can't understand though is how this alliance even came to be. Hear me out. MW and Doubt will probably do whatever to get money, but where did the trust come from? Like how did they trust that a foreign mafia of all people would uphold their deal and pay them? Was it because Kohaku was made the front-man/face of the plan? Like did they believe that it would be fine because Kohaku was the one "leading" even though it seemed like Lee was pulling a lot of the strings? DOES KOHAKU EVEN HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO BE PAYING EVERYONE?! I SWEAR EVERY TIME WE SEE HIM THAT MAN IS JUST LAYING ON A SOFA IN A JUNKYARD! WDYM DOUBT AND MIGHTY WARRIORS BELIEVED THIS MAN WAS THE ONE WHO WAS GONNA GIVE THEM MONEY?!

4) Who the fuck are Bulge? And what happened to Kuryu?

In End of Sky, we learn that Bulge are interested in the fight between Doubt, Prison Gang, and White Rascals and would sponsor Prison Gang. That's why the scene where we see Jesse fighting with another prisoner, after he kicks him down the guards tell Jesse that Bulge wants to see him to. This is why Jesse and Prison Gang are released early. When Jesse goes back to Funk Jungle he's asking if Mighty want to join but Ice says that they are gonna focus on promoting Funk Jungle, but like he's a liar they show up at the fight anyways lol.

A the end of Final Mission, the movie closes off with a dramatic shot of Mighty Warriors and a typed out message stating "Hello, everyone. This is Bulge. The takeover plan has begun." We never get an explanation of who they are, what they do, etc. I did learn from Ryu's Wiki Fandom page however that "It is presumed that he and Bulge orchestrated the fall of Kuryu Group. In the music video of the MIghty Warriors' new song "Warriors Anthem", it is revealed that he took over Kuryu as the leader after the events of Final Mission, and having Mighty Warriors occupy the remaining 8 heads of Kuryu."

So who exactly are Bulge? How are they powerful enough to be able to take down all of the original Kuryu members who have been seen as indestructible the whole franchise? Why did they allow Ryu to be the new leader?

After Final Mission, the next media pieces that were released were the DTC show and DTC movie, and then we moved into The Worst era with High&Low: The Worst Episode 0 along with the two Worst movies that followed.

I had made the assumption that around the start of the Worst era the creators probably wanted to integrate more of Jr.Exile into the franchise because of their 1) popularity and 2) new stories. The popularity of Exile members like Hokuto and Kazuma would probably bring in more viewership which does good on the numbers and money side because as I said above, unfortunately this is also a business not just art. The H&L creators probably also needed new stories to follow because they can't keep adding to S.W.O.R.D

Vis said that they think the Mighty Warriors were probably dropped because we haven't seen anything from them since the third movie, but Taiga also brought up how the new Mighty Warriors music video was also dropped right around the time the most recent movie Worst X was released. This probably means they are trying to figure out the story within S.W.O.R.D behind the scenes and it's just taking a while to do the world building. Tired also brought up a good point that considering most of the actors in H&L are also Exile members, they have to also continue their jobs as artists so tours, making music, schedules, etc. are probably also clashing with filming and working on High and Low.

Hopefully that is the case and we see more because I have too many questions and no answers.

5) Wtf happened to Rude Boys, Nameless City, and Nikaido?

If you read my fics, you know that when I write about Nameless City after Smoky's passing, I write about how the Rude Boys, Lala, and Eri go and visit Smoky's grave all the time. About a month ago the besties in the Discord made it known to me that Smoky's gravesite and like 3/4 of Nameless City was completely blown up. I was like 😧when I read those messages because it wasn't even like a head-canon thing I genuinely thought that only a small section of Nameless City was blown up so we were fine BUT APPARENTLY WE AREN'T FINE. So what does this mean for the Nameless City residents?

Did they get government housing to stay in while they got tested for the disease from the pollution? Did the residents get released back into Nameless City after the whole casino project exposure? If they were released back into Nameless City, are they all just cramming into that little 1/4 of Nameless City that wasn't blown up?

What happened to Rude Boys afterwards? Are they all back in Nameless City? Or did they move to a different area? Where would they go though? Little Asia? Did Eri get adopted afterwards? Are they finding ways to make money like how they mined the crystal to get money to rebuild Nameless City? Do they even want to return to Nameless City considering the pollution from the toxic waste was causing the disease that killed their leader?

Wtf happened to Nikaido/Cain? Is he finally happy now that he purged his past? Was purging his past and killing his brother worth it? If Kuryu was overthrown and taken over by Mighty Warriors, what does that mean for Nikaido? Is he working for them? Was purging his past worth anything if he didn't even gain anything from it because MW took over Kuryu? Again, so many questions and no answers😭

6) Give us a more clear timeline

This isn't a plot hole, just something I wish the creators would do is give us a clearer timeline. We're never given any clear timeline of how much time has past between each movie or even how much time is between the S.W.O.R.D and Worst era. I'm always trying to calculate the timeline or everyone's ages based off of the only two characters we get ages for and Noboru's school timeline.

The only two characters in the whole franchise that we get ages for are Chiharu and Seki. At the start of the series we know that Chiharu is 20 because when he joins Sannoh, in the scene at the bar Cobra offers him a drink but takes it back and says "wait but aren't you underaged?" to which Chiharu replies that he is 20 (which is the legal adult age in Japan) and Tettsu makes fun of him for still being in high school as an adult (in good fun of course not in a mean way).

When we first are introduced to Oya, the narrator tells us that Seki is the oldest part-timer student there at age 25.

Noboru, Yamato, and Cobra were high schoolers while Mugen was still active. This is deduced by the scene where Yamato drops Noboru off in front of the school for the day he takes his exam, then when he opens up his college acceptance letter with them. I'm assuming Yamato and Cobra dropped out to be apart of Mugen and take care of their parents' shops. Then, we see when Noboru starts college but doesn't make it super far into his bachelors degree after getting sent to jail. We don't get to see how long he was in jail for, just that he was released early because Kuryu paid to get him out early.

I always use these ages and Noboru's vague school timeline to try and figure out the character's ages and shit but they are just estimates because we never get clear timelines from the creators. Like why couldn't they at least tell us how much time passed between the end of Final Mission and the start of The Worst?!😭anyways.... onto the next thing

The Worst Era (mainly X)

Like I said in the screenshot, The Worst isn't my favorite movie out of the franchise but I think it was the best executed in terms of plot out of all the movies. The plot was clear, very concise, and relatively had no plot holes. (I haven't seen The Worst Episode 0 so if there is something that is missing plot wise please let me know)

It was fun to see the cross with Housen and the themes and messages we got from not only the plot but also from each character were all really good too. It was a solid movie, no complaints.

The Worst X however... I have questions. It's not to say it wasn't good, I still liked it and obviously it was good considering I watched it with no context and it got me into the whole H&L universe, but I feel like it fell a bit short. There was more the writers could've done for not only plot development but character development.

1)How did that 3 school alliance actually even start?

From the movies, it seems like Kohei Amagai is well known as "the annoying son of the Amagai group". Like EVERYONE knows him and knows he throws around money to get people to work for him. And like yeah, we see when he is able to take control of the school with the beige uniforms because Senomon, Kamasaka, and Ebara are quite literally beating the shit out of them, but how did Senomon get Kamasaka and Ebara to cooperate?

I refuse to believe that Amagai was able to get Kamasaka who fight with weapons like brass knuckles and metal rods and Ebara who are all literal gym bros to join his stupid ass plan with just money. As dumb as I think boys are I don't think Reiji, Ghandi, Shoji, Raijin, or Fujin are actually dumb enough to join an alliance for money. Even if this alliance did win and take over Oya, what would they have done with each other afterwards? Those dudes have so much pride we all know that there is NO WAY they would all continue working under Amagai. Amagai is also stupid as hell if he thought he could be at the top without someone from Kamasaka or Ebara trying to overthrow him if he had taken down Oya like Kohei.... be fuckin for real bitch.

I need more of an explanation to this like someone from the H&L writing room please sit down with me and answer my questions so I can publish it in an interview for all of us we need answers.

2) What the fuck is the story behind Todoroki and the dudes from Ebara?

The whole time Fujin and Raijin are running around screaming about how they're gonna crush Todoroki and I literally sit there like

👁️👄👁️Why? No matter how many times I watch the movies because we never get an explanation! Idk was this in the show? Someone please tell me.

And like the scene after Todoroki beats up Fujin and Raijin, Shoji goes "you're different now" and I'm always like "Different? DIFFERENT HOW?! DON'T BE SHY SHARE WITH THE CLASS PLEASE"

Todoroki responds with something along the lines of "now I have friends to protect" which is so wholesome I love that, but what is the detailed history of him and the guys from Ebara? We never get that explained to us. I remember reading somewhere that Todoroki trained hard to beat his bullies and because he got so strong that's why he always tried to fight for the leader position because he believed he could beat Murayama. I also saw a clip on Youtube where when Murayama is fighting with Todoroki, he sees his old self in Todoroki who is being reckless which probably adds to Todoroki's character development.

Did the guys from Ebara bully Todoroki? Were they old friends who fell apart? Did they just have a bad run in when Todoroki was being a little shit and fought but now hold a grudge because they are teenagers with a lot of pride and anger issues and it's not that deep? Idk🤷‍♀️The thing that bugs me is the fact that their feud was added a solid amount to the plot and why Ebara joined then dropped the alliance so I don't know why we didn't get at least a vague explanation of who these characters are to each other.

3) Questions and what I want to see next movie

This obviously isn't plot holes but just some questions I have and what I want to see in the next installments of the franchise.

Why were these high schoolers doing THE FUCKIN MOST to see who was stronger?! The first time I watched I was so confused because why was this movie serious but also so unserious?! They did not need to be doing all that.

Why didn't Amagai get in any trouble for anything?! Is it because he has money?! Like how did this man commit literal crime and everyone was like okei. He literally kidnapped Tsukasa and tortured him for like half a day and 1 night...

How did Tsukasa not die?! The was literally beat over the head with a metal pipe, kidnapped, tied up, tortured, and then dropped from a balcony. I digress, he probably has plot armor as Sun calls it because how did he not die or at least end up in the hospital for a long time.

I want to see the movies circle back to the S.W.O.R.D plotline so it would be really cool if Amagai's little plan was part of a larger plan to break down the peace in S.W.O.R.D. It wouldn't be the first time the adults used kids to push their agenda. Kuryu originally wanted to use Murayama to tear down the peace in S.W.O.R.D because he used to look up to the man who was the head of Iemura but because he chose not to do it, they went after Noboru.

Maybe MW are thriving as the new heads of Kuryu so someone on the outside is trying to take over and Amagai's family is apart of that. Or maybe his family is trying to gain favor from Mighty and are working for them. Idk but it would be cool if we circle back to S.W.O.R.D and see the new Oya characters have to integrate into the S.W.O.R.D world also.

I also want to see a segment of how Rude Boys and Oya adjust to their new leaders.

I want to see what happened to the rest of S.W.O.R.D after the third movie. We saw Oya in The Worst era but what happened to everyone else? Which I also know these are probably kind of far fetched considering the Exile Tribe member who played Rocky is retired from the entertainment industry now... but a girl can dream I guess.

You made it to the end! Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read this big rant. This wasn't proof read and is kind of everywhere but thank you for reading it anyways! ❤️

[bornforastorm]

genuinely kinda obsessed with this little sequence of "hm should I use the new version or the rustyass old version? hell yeah rustyass old version it is."