#again i cannot STAND female characters 99% of the time especially with the personality she was intended to have

[iholli]

watching the Mario movie again reminded me just. how much raw mad respect I have for Nintendo's portrayal of Peach in the movie.

I've never been a Peach fan, in the games she's always been annoying and helpless and girly. And I went into the movie expecting the exact opposite, even worse-- the inexplicably already perfect insufferable bitchy girlboss who exists to belittle the male characters because "everything you can do I can do better." It's no secret I hate that female character troupe. And I went into the movie like, I'm going to hate Peach, she's going to make me roll my eyes every time she's on screen.

But she didn't.

Nintendo perfectly walked the extremely thin line between powerful and insufferable. She's feminine, but not annoying. Yeah, Peach is a girlboss, she's in charge, she holds her own, she doesn't really need Mario at all, she did the practice course the first try and she's ready to stick it to Bowser one way or another. But it makes sense for her ["I grew up here"]. She was raised and trained for it almost her entire life before stepping foot onto the course. She's not a bitch, she's commanding, but there's warmth and caring behind it. Her first instinct is to protect her subjects even at the cost of herself ["I'll marry you, just don't hurt my Toads"], but she gives everyone the benefit of the doubt [letting Mario explain himself even though he just broke in to her castle and she just threw him on the floor]. She's not annoying, she's kind and even tries to help Mario feel better about his failure ["now you're just trying to make me feel better." "no! no! ...is it working?" "kinda, yeah"], she gets genuinely excited when he wins battles ["you just don't know when to quit!" "I've never thought of that as a good thing." "That's a GREAT thing!"] even though at any time she could take charge and get her way on her own [she would've gone to the Jungle Kingdom herself even if Mario hadn't shown up, she obviously had a plan to win Cranky Kong over]. She doesn't need anyone to do things for her, but she's willing to let them. Because she sees that they can do it, too, and she's trusting them and encouraging that the whole time.

And that's a character troupe I can get behind.

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Nightwing #80 Review

woot woot i’ve kept it up for three issues lets gooo. i liked this issue more than the last one. there’s a lot of fanon dick characterization peppered in, but not so much that it puts me off entirely. also, i’m getting increasingly concerned about bitewing. but i did like tim in this one, very nice

look at all the blue and purple and pink. honestly at this point, i’m a broken record but come on come on come onnnnnnn. the blue and pink is very pretty though. this cover’s a bit offputting at first, and a bit spiraly, which i’m sure was the intended effect.

this is a genuine concern of mine. dick’s a vigilante, and he doesn’t have the same sprawling network and resources that bruce does. (even if he is a billionaire now, he hasn’t amassed the same collection of crime-fighting equipment that bruce has.) 

i’m not sure if he’ll be able to take care of bitewing. damian’s got plenty of pets, but alfred used to take care of them, and now bruce plus the rest of the batfam is taking care of them. as far as we know, babs only drops by occasionally, and the same goes for dick’s family and friends. will dick be able to give bitewing the love and time and affection that a traumatized puppy like her needs? i really hope so.

she does look adorable in this panel tho.

dick. richard. richie. baby. why are you shirtless.

you have scars upon scars. probably chemical burns. bullet wounds. weird fucking squiggly lines from knives that only psychos with blade fetishes use. no normal person has the body that you do. and you don’t think that showing up shirtless in front of the police is going to raise suspicion? you don’t think that the people accusing you of murder are going to look at someone who looks like they’re a fucking mob enforcer and go hmm that’s a bit suspicious?

put on a SHIRT jesus CHRIST it’s like you’re not even trying to hide your identity.

look at this pompous little princess demanding only the highest quality head pets i’d burn down latvia for her. (no offense latvians it was the first country that popped into my head.)

pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy-

no seriously kudos to the artist here. his expression is so human i wanna cry. dick, right now, is sheepishly asking a question. he knows he’s not going to get into any real trouble, he knows that he’ll be able to talk his way out of or somehow maneuver his way off this mess. but he’ll play nice for the police, so he’s asking a friend for a favour, part self-condescendingly and part oh-well-what-can-you-do.

and his expression reflects that. rather than a stoic expressionless face most male comic characters have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), rather than the weird desperate supposedly “seductive” face that most female comic characters plus dick grayson have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), he’s making a face that i pulled like yesterday. or the day before that. it’s kind of silly, kind of casual, very much human. i like it.

thank god. proper (in character) acknowledgement for officer grayson. yea, fuck cops in general, but i like that they included this line.

obviously, he’s not talking about the actual criminals, he’s talking about the police force itself. the bpd was too corrupt, and dick realized that he wasn’t helping. not only does one clean cop not make a dent in an overall dirty force, but dick was putting his allies in danger too. not only that, but it wasn’t good for dick’s mental health either. he was spreading himself too thin, and surrounding himself with some of the worst of crime 24/7 did a number on him. dick’s got a history of self-sacrificing tendencies, and i’m just glad he’s not a cop anymore.

dick has a gotham rogues mug. they make gotham rogue mugs, and dick has one.

what kinda city looks at it’s frankly horrible crime history and long list of certifiably insane serial killers who are all still alive and actively committing war crimes and goes “oooooh yea imma put that on a coffee mug!” gotham, that’s who.

this isn’t important i just like how all of bitewing’s barks are blue

back straight, hand on his hip, cheerful smile on his face as he says he’s being accused for murder. love that for him.

they couldn’t have said “yea it’s complicated” in a better way even if they put the words “yea it’s complicated” right there on the page in bold red letters. literally all the love to the artists.

dick please. you’re KILLING ME what the actual fuck IS THAT???? WHY DO YOU HAVE A MUG OF THAT???

anyway nightwing collects novelty mugs confirmed.

this paneling is so beautiful. 

tim’s the focus, but he’s not the first thing you see. he’s placed in a way that forces the reader to drag their eyes all the way up the page in order to reach him. it us know just how high up tim is carelessly crouching, especially close to the ledge of the building too. i cannot think of a single better way to introduce a character, and this character in particular: you instantly know this is a version of tim with plenty of experience and training, is comfortable in his body and knows his limits, but still hangs onto that civilian awe of being in a high place and overlooking a brightly lit city.

absolute classic robin. i love it. 

this isn’t even that important but it made me happy. this is how you train surf.

you don’t crouch or bend over when you get to a tunnel, which is oddly enough what most people think (at least from my experience). you bend backward. that not only 100% ensures that you’ll make sure you’re low enough to make it through the tunnel (because you can see the top of the tunnel, unlike when you crouch or bend), but it also makes it easier to get up: all you have to do is push up with your arms into a bent stance, and you’ll be in a ready, moving position. from a bend or a crouch, getting up is more awkward and more slow.

on a meta level, i like that this creative team knows what they’re doing when it comes to the small, almost unimportant stuff like that, because it makes the action more real. (as real as you can get with a guy running around stealing hearts.)

on a in-universe level, it once again drives home both dick and tim’s experience and professional level skill.

regardless of who you side with in the “should tim drake be robin again?” debate, you gotta admit that tim’s rebirth robin suit is r a d as fuck. if i’m not mistaken, this is the same one he was wearing in 2019 young justice for a little bit? it’s cute and hella cool i like it.

remember what i said about human expressions? doesn’t happen as often to tim bc he’s a Child, but it’s still nice to note when someone humanizes him, too. (that’s why i love the duckboy panel so much lol.)

me, at first: that’s not a “good call” dick that’s just common sense

me, now: sprinkled throughout the entire comic we can see dick bending to tim’s instructions if only briefly, joking with him to keep the mood light while still maintaining a serious mood and retaining control over this particular outing. this implies that dick’s doing it intentionally, purposefully leaving places in his sentences blank and offering affirmations, in order to encourage tim and train him in things bruce might not necessarily touch on, such as social chameleoning and misdirection techniques and love/affirmation from a family member. dick is not only a loving and supportive big brother, but he never stops training his younger brother in better vigilante tecnhiques because he wants tim to be better than him. in this essay i will-

d o g g o

also bitewing is getting so many head pats today i’m living for it

look at him, standing on a telephone wire with ease. nice flex, dick.

also look at how he’s silhouetted. the moon’s full bright, bright enough that the sky around dick is light, too. (at least. i’m like 99% sure that’s the moon.) not like most batman comics, where it’s sometimes hard to distinguish bruce from the background, which is entirely on purpose.

gotham is a dark gritty city, and so is bruce. the two of them are one. bludhaven may be a bit of a mess, but it’s being portrayed in all these different shades of blue and purple and pink, that are all light enough that dick stands out from the background. he hasn’t been swallowed up by the city, and chances are that he won’t ever be. also, the colouring helps establish bludhaven as a city too. there’s still hope for it. the light colouring means that it’s not going to sink into a pit as deep as the one bruce wove gotham into. the whole point of this nightwing arc in particular is to turn bludhaven into a better place, and it’s (most likely) letting us know early on that dick is going to accomplish that. he’ll struggle, but he’ll do it.

so dick??? dick designed his escrima sticks with a situation like this in mind? he created his signature and most iconic weapon (other than his chatty mouth), with a built in feature that turns his escrima sticks into tim’s signature and most iconic weapon???? just so that if he and tim ever got into a situation where tim didn’t have his staff, dick could make sure tim had the thing that would give him an edge over anyone he was fighting??? he’s such a big brother oh my goddd.

also tim’s smirk in this is just *chef kiss.* a staff is something he can work with, a staff is something he wields like an extension of his arm, a staff is means that someone’s about to get their ass kicked because tim’s about to beat the shit outta them.

this is my new phone background.

they really made sure we remembered that hey, those first few months when bruce was grieving too much to be any sort of a mentor to tim and was still unwilling to properly train him to be robin out of fear that he would end up like jason, dick was the one who stepped up (once he got over himself and his own fears and hangups with bruce) and trained tim to be robin, trained him how to fight and flip and fuckin fly out there, all while changing his own style a bit to be the more experienced one in the partnership while still trusting said partner to hold their own, so dick and tim have a very unique and cohesive fighting style that makes it hell for anyone who fights them together, didn’t they?

[genderfreezone]

Do you like the Evil Within 2?

Yeah! Certainly not as much as the first one (i was not immune to being sad they left out fan favorites Jojo and Ruvik's Cube)

The rest of this post is me rambling about things i didnt like about the game, and then things i did like (most of my issues are how they treat the female characters tbh)

Its missing kind of the action-noir-gone-horrifically-wrong feel of the first game. The scare factor also suffers bc our player character has been through this before, hes a veteran at dealing with this crazy shit, it doesnt phase him anymore and by extension it doesnt phase the player. They really like tripled down on the Evil Corporation thing and both the intrigue and horror suffer for it.

This game did not drink its respect women juice (the first one didnt really either, case in point: Everything About Kidman) Sebastian is surrounded by 5+ female characters and only 2 of them survive (and one of them is his 7 year old daughter hes spent the whole game trying to rescue... and yet they never bothered to give her any kind of characterization or agency. A highly empathetic and supernaturally powerful little girl in a monster-infested hellscape?? HELLO???? Lily really had the potential to be the most interesting, sympathetic, and complex character--especially as she slowly lost her innocence--in the WHOLE GAME, but she was just sort of relegated to Plot Device McGuffin) The rest of the female supporting cast are killed off for Sebastian's Man Pain. In fact, THIS ENTIRE GAME IS CENTERED AROUND SEBASTIAN'S MAN PAIN. Torrez is a walking stereotype, shes literally just Vasquez from Aliens. Hoffman was the most likeable and believeable, except when it Turns Out She Was In Love With Liam Or Whatever (psst, guess what, i dont care. Also O'neal was kind of a dick anyway? I dont care x2)

And you know who i SUPER dont care about? Bland-White-Bread-And-Mayo-Sandwich Myra. Where's the no-nonsense firecracker of a police lieutenant Sebastian married? Not here, thats for sure. Her entire personality is "mother" and "worries about stressed-out husband". We got more characterization of Myra in seb's jornals from the first game, where she never even made a physical appearance! Horror media does this SO MUCH, women are either A. Sexy Lamp B. Hurts Men (Sexily) C. Mother or D. Innocent Virgin. It sucks. Do better.

The story lacked the "digging up old buried memories" and "theres more to this than meets the eye" of the first game. It felt too...... Straightforward. Everyone told Sebastian the truth. EVERYTHING WAS EXACTLY WHAT IT SEEMED. It all felt too simple, too easy, like there SHOULDVE been something else beneath the surface. And yet there wasnt. (I watched markipliers playthrough and i loved his theory that Kidman was actually Lily. It had such potential. Kidman's entire resume for the police station was fabricated, who's to say the rest of her past wasnt fabricated as well? It would retcon a lot of stuff and like 80% of her backstory from the DLC, but you know games like this arent above retconning important shit, and at least it wouldve been sacrificed for something with actual intrigue. Maybe it wouldnt even retcon anything! Consider: tiny Lily is taken by Evil Corporation and dropped off in a non-nurturing environment that would lead her to become the kind of person who would willingly join & work for an organization like Mobius. At least wouldve been a nice excuse for why Kidman and Lilys face models looked so similar... other than... yknow.... "WomEN ARe hArD tO DRaWwwwwee")

Okay okay ive been ranting for long enough. It probably makes it sound like i kinda hate this game, but i dont! It certainly doesnt hold the same place in my heart as the first one (which i still have very glaring issues with lmao Kidman deserved WAAAAAAY better), but i do like it! It brings back salty, grizzled, tsundere Sebastian Castinellos. It brings back spooky monsters that kill you dead. It brings back having a fun theatrical over-the-top villain who takes himself a litte too seriously.

I love Stefano. Probably not in the way some other fans do, but i love him as a ridiculous theatrical over-the-top villain. He sucks! And i love that he sucks! I love him BECAUSE he sucks! Hes terrible and exaggerated and completely up his own ass and ITS GREAT. He isnt as ACTUALLY THREATENING as Ruvik was (even in his bad assassin's creed cosplay. I could go on and on and on about why Ruvik is simultaneously a ridiculous AND frightening antagonist and how much i love it but uh..... maybe later) but hes such a FUN villain! Hes the kind of pretentious art snob shitheel i cannot STAND irl, but in this game i LOVE to HATE him. Hes just SO over-the-top you kinda wonder if he actually subscribes to the pretentiousness he spouts, or if hes just being Exceptionally Extra.

The other villains? Theodore was.... forgettable. His monsters were forgettable. (Its like how i completely forgot that Frank Manera was a character in Whistleblower for like... 5 years lmao i guess this game also kinda followed that "having multiple named/characterized antagonists in one game" thing that Outlast did) Myra, i just didnt care. Her final design was kinda cool, i liked the red clusters of insect eyes. Her monsters werent really gross enough to be memorable. The only reson theyre gross at all is bc they kinda look like theyre made of semen. (I checked the wiki and apparently Myra's white goo is "psychoplasm" and her monsters lost 99% of their gross factor. I just dont care.) The Administrator literally just looked like a 3D human model of Maxwell from dont starve, and i have to laugh every time i see him. Hes not terribly threatening, all he does is threaten characters to work faster and doesnt actually follow through on those threats. He doesnt even make fun threats like HABIT or anything. He thinks hes so powerful and ominous that his mere presence will frighten the player but hes just kinda all bark and no bite. Hes The Big Bad Company Man so you know hes gonna get whats coming to him, and you know Kidmans gonna be the one to do it to him, so hes not even that much of a threat. Hes whatever.

Stefano definitely got all of the coolest monsters. Many Arms Buzzsaw Lady was terrifying and i love her. And OBSCURA was just *Chef's Kiss* Anima was cool, she kinda looked like a mix of Laura and Samara. The Harbingers were neat, but really only bc ive got a thing for gas masks. The rest of the monsters werent really unique or weighty/threatening enough to be memorable. Now the first game is a fucking TREASURE TROVE of unique monsters *muah* you got Sadist, Sentinel, Keeper, Amalgam, Heresy, Laura, Shigyo, the Twins, Alter Egos, and im probably forgetting some!! But holy FUCK!!!!! And if we're includong the DLC?? MOTHER FUCKING SHADE. SPOTLIGHT LADY. LIGHT WOMAN.  SEXY LEGS.  Whatever you call her, i fucking love her. Her design is so simple. Helmet. Sheet. Legs. Her voice? Unnerving as hell. Love it. (Also i just personally love the diving helmet. Also like you know how a lot of games have a spotlight mechanic where you have to avoid the light and if it lands on you, you're fucked? LET'S MAKE AN ENTIRE MONSTER OUT OF THAT. She's PERFECT.) Oh and also those weird crawling exploding dudes. They made gross sounds and it was great. (Tbh Keepers still probably my favorite, if only for horny reasons)

TATIANA HOW HAVE I NOT FUCKING TALKED ABOUT TATIANA. Shes like the ONE female character that i fucking LOVE in the sequel. I love how they finally gave her a personality, and that personality is literally just "fuck you, Sebastian" Oh GOD its great shes SO FUNNY. I just.... god i love Tatiana lmao. I love how she makes you kinda uncomfortable too, like she knows something, but she wont tell you bc youre stupid. I didn't like the kind of "all-knowing guide" thing they did to try and make her creepy (like she's a "guide" but then also turns around and is like "no i wont tell you what you need to know bc you """have to discover it on your own""" or whatever") it serves no purpose since she never gave you any actual information, and it didn't succeed in making her creepier, all it did was frustrate me. She was at her creepiest when she IMPLIED she was doing something behind the scenes or knew something you didn't know and then didn't elaborate (not REFUSING to elaborate, just... stopping talking and leaving the statement to hang in the air, like the "getting her nails done" and "its been a long time, detective" and the "now what makes you say that" from the first game) and she was at her funniest when she was interacting with Sebastian from the sidelines, her snide little comments and sarcastic clapping cracked me the fuck up. Tatiana not treating Sebastian seriously was a fantastic touch for a game that otherwise would probably take itself so seriously it would double back around to being silly. Without Tatiana, it would've been just another male-centric gun-toting "survival horror" game, and for the most part, it was just that. She was definitely a much-needed source of slightly derisive comedy and a definite high-point for me, even if they didn't so a great job of making her creepy or fulfilling her "purpose."

Oh I also really love the COLORS in TEW2. The first game fell into the trap of having the colors be totally washed out that a lot of horror stuff does, but it also kind of worked for it. Especially with the color pallette of our main villain and how the whole thing was His World. The saturation of the colors in the second game is a breath of fresh air and gorgeous to look at, and you can even see the color motifs of the game change with each new villain: the game starts out with Stephano has lots of blues and purples and dark reds, when Theodore takes over we get bright orange and yellow contrasted with black and brown, and in the climax with Myra the game goes back to having washed out colors and white (and with her villain design? Let's face it: they were kinda just trying to do Ruvik again) We did get portions that were still kind of wahed out whites and greens and greys, but it wasnt the ENTIRE game, even the big blood-and-brains splatterhouse sections of the first game kinda had their colors weirdly muted for that "Horror Aethetic."

In conclusion, i do like the evil within 2, but i also had a lot of problems with it. And i complain about these problems because i like the game and know it couldve done better, tried harder, and been a LOT more than it was (the wasted character potential is my real overarching pet peeve, probably becuase i loved the characters in the first game, and character development is kind of my whole jam) . But all in all, it was still a fun monster-zombie romp with at least one entertaining villain and fun-to-look-at designs and environments. It wasn't character or horror or even REALLY story driven in the way I know it COULDVE been, but i still had a fun time and enjoyed myself.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

I am genuinely concerned that comic book youtubers are going to create a GamerGate situation where there are extremists who poison the mass perception of people who criticise comic books or certain decisions in general.

 Like I have genuine problems with Amadeus Cho and Jane Foster being Hulk and Thor and I think Riri Williams and Miles Morales are bad characters (the latter being especially saddening because, unlike Riri, he had a strong initial concept powering him). I think Sam as Captain America was creatively problematic and that Marvel have been pulling the replacement hero thing for social/political reasons (and probably not sincere ones at that) as opposed to genuine creative ones. Similarly I think the America book is a lame super hero comic book and Gabby Rivera isn’t a strong super hero comic book writer. Similarly I think Marvel’s modern editors and assistant editors really do tend to suck at their jobs right now.

 But my rationales for all of those things honestly don’t have much crossover with certain Youtube comic book commentators (I’m sure you’ve all seen the kind) and I actually disagree and believe in a lot of other types of characters and directions cut from the same kinds of cloths as those above examples.

 I think Ice Man being gay made a certain amount of sense with his history and if you did have to pick a classical character to reveal as in the closet he was one of the best choices for it. We are in a position where Bobby could legitimately be given a strong romantic storyline and an iconic (for him, not necessarily within Marvel as a whole) love interest. I mean before Bendis had Jean out Bobby who honestly knew or cared who Bobby’s (comic book, not movie) love interests were? Hardly anybody aside from hardcore X-Men fans and most of them would argue Polaris was really the big one for Bobby. But at the same time most of them shipped Polaris with Havok anyway so what did that matter?

  I’ve said numerous times before Kamala Khan is the best new superhero character to come out of Marvel in the last 20 years. My problems with her series stem from the decompression alongside the fact that I don’t think her villain pool has been managed as well as it needs to be to enable her to last long term.

 Carol becoming Captain Marvel is something I find profoundly organic and logical, a brilliant stroke of character development that makes use of an iconic title by giving it to an iconic character who truly has claim to it. Look to me Carol’s outfit is always going to be the Ms Marvel outfit she wore for decades but at the same time to me Carol’s codename will always be Warbird, not Ms Marvel or Captain Marvel. I’m just from that generation.

 I think the general idea of temporarily having a black person become Captain America is interesting and understand the logic of making it Sam but at the same time I think the book never fulfilled it’s potential and ultimately Issiah Bradely or even Patriot would’ve been a much more interesting choice. But at the end of the day I cannot accept the creative bankruptcy of replacing Steve for the THIRD time and doing it the SECOND time in less than 10 years.

 I like Jane Foster’s Thor outfit, there are moments and aspects to her stories I find interesting but the way the series went about it overly denigrated the real Thor (and yes I will call him the real Thor, it is literally his name and he is supposed to be the actual figure from Norse mythology). I mean he was literally called out as ‘unworthy’ and the reason for his unworthiness made no sense at all. He realizes the Gods are assholes so he loses his worthiness. That isn’t how the hammer works, it’s just a binary ‘you are worthy or you are not’. Conviction in your personal beliefs doesn’t matter or else countless bad guys would be able to lift the hammer too. Additionally there were times where he narrative divulged into cheap, shallow in-universe attempts to ‘comment’ on the backlash against the concept. The Absorbing Man was at least somewhat exaggerating the complaints over a female Thor and at least dabbling in strawman arguments whilst Titania’s solidarity with Foster because she was stepping into the role of a man was utter out of character nonsense considering Titania’s arch nemesis is SHE Hulk. Jane consequently knocking out someone who’d surrendered was also ill considered. And I also cannot get over how we’ve been here before. Beta Ray Bill and Thunderstrike are testament to that. Once again creative bankruptcy.

 I’ve spoken countless times before how I think Miles had a good concept and still has potential but he’s been mismanaged and currently sucks shit as a character and how Marvel and certain fans and certain media outlets building him up as the best thing since sliced bread (or at least as great as Peter Parker) is profoundly unearned.

 I think the quality of editing at Marvel has clearly gone down hill but unless there really is some weird ass super Secret Empire conspiracy wherein Marvel went hardcore into hiring people because of their gender regardless of their qualifications, I don’t think the reason for that decline in quality is due to some (but far from all) of the editors and assistant editors being women. Frankly Steve Wacker is/was a major editorial player for awhile and his only legitimate qualification for being a Spider-Man editor was he could get the product on the shelves on time. The editing present in that product and their overall quality was shit 99% of the time. The guy lacked sufficient knowledge, passion or understanding of the character to really edit Spider-Man properly. This is a guy who was an amateur stand up comedian before entering comic books and has to my knowledge zero writing experience so why the fuck he was qualified to edit anything is beyond me. Maybe the new slew of editors and assistant editors are the same bunch of unqualified morons but I don’t think that’s got much to do with their sex or gender. After all Ann Nocenti was a solid X-Men editor and Molly Lazer edited Spider-Girl which was obviously a brilliant book. And shit Jeanette Kahn was President and EIC of DC comics for over 20 years and MOST of the stuff under her tenure was baller as shit. John Byrne Superman. Frank Miller Batman. Perez Wonder Woman. Wolfman Titans. DeMatteis/Giffin JLI. Kyle Rayner Green Lantern. Vertigo. Milestone. Watchmen. Frankly she oversaw what was maybe the single best EIC tenure for DC EVER in terms of quality.

  I gave up reading Coates’ BP run because I found it dull but I think T’Challa SHOULD have a book along with Blade, Luke Cage, Shang Chi and Jessica Jones.

I think the America Chaves series was problematic as a superhero story but the times where it does focus on the normal life stuff are generally good.

I was very impressed by Spider-Gwen when she debuted and looked forward to her ongoing, even defended her debut issue until I realized the critics were ont he money and it sucked and continues to suck to this day. It’s a profoundly shallow book but it could have been great and I supported it initially hoping it would be great.

I felt the Chelsea Cain Mockingbird series had moments of poor research, mischaracterisation and disingenuousness. I am specifically talking about how in issue #3 (I think) Cain uses Bobbi as a mouthpiece to criticise the lack of female representation within superhero comics. Okay cool. But she did it by essentially pretending that there never were any in the Marvel universe, that they got no respect in-universe and that Bobbi herself was at most a teenager growing up inspired by those male heroes whom she could never be like because she was male. Except there were female heroes, they did get in-universe respect (maybe not as much as was deserved but it wasn’t like people forgot they existed) and Bobbi is clearly too old to have grown up with any of the heroes other than the WWII guys like the Invaders. 

Similarly her retconning of the Phantom Rider thing in her final issue fixed one problem but did so utterly illogically whilst opening up multiple other problems. Look I’d also retcon the Hell out of Phantom Rider gaslighting and raping Mockingbird if given the chance I hate that plotline. But Cain retconned it by just having Mockingbird say that the stuff we have clear on the page evidence of didn’t actually happen. She was saying the colour blue is the colour red and always had been but it wasn’t. And Cain’s new spin on that Phantom Rider thing essentially threw Hawkeye under the bus by making him profoundly insecure and an asshole, because he’d rather believe his wife was raped rather than she cheated on him. Not to mention if Cain’s story is to be believed Mockingbird let the man she was sleeping with die for exactly no reason. There were other times during Cain’s run where I felt she was mischaracterizing some people or else was being too on the nose about stuff. 

But there were other times I thought the series was really funny, really action packed, i generally loved the pacing and I felt when it did cut more realistic (like the first issue when Bobbi is having a health check up) or in issue #3 when it was discussing the psychology of a sixth grade girl (even though said girl’s story had insufficient resolution, like did she go to jail or what?) it was incredibly refreshing. Truth be told a lot of the stuff in that series writing wise becomes easier to understand when you realize it’s partially a zany comedy and not really taking itself too seriously nor is it asking you to do the same, which is starkly different to say Spider-Gwen’s approach wherein it is playing stuff seriously but there is arbitrarily zany shit thrown in for the sake of it.

 I think Laura becoming Logan’s successor makes sense but it doesn’t mean it’s okay to just axe off Logan because he’s broken. FIX him and then down the line replace him. Laura’s book as is frankly just...an okay X-23 book with a new costume. I never cared for Laura outside of X-Men Evolution or the Logan movie (where she was more endearing) anyway.

 I didn’t agree with the female exclusive screenings of the Wonder Woman film but I also felt Zeus’s involvement in her origin was an unacceptable compromising of the specific feminist ideas and messages Wonder Woman was supposed to represent. I felt the same way about Azzarello’s run on the character which is where the Zeus origin came from and was happy Greg Rucka tried to fix that in his 2016 run.

 I’ve said before a poc actor playing Peter Parker is fine and dandy in my book and I was very open to Zendaya possibly playing Mary Jane (until I saw the movie...ugh...). My only concerns were in a significant way having the characters change to reflect the realities of them now being poc.

 I’ve suggested some basic ideas on how to maybe get more representation in Marvel and DC, including for queer, Trans and mentally ill characters and as I’ve seen it I’ve called shit out I found to be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc, e.g. I was disgusted by Civil War II killing off Rhodey and called out the way Cindy Moon was initially handled by Slott. And my frequent lambasting of MJ’s depiction under Slott (especially in Superior #2) should I hope by this point go without saying.

 So yeah my views don’t line up with those of Diversity and Comics but nor do they line up with those of ComicsAlliance and their hordes either. But because of people like the former people like the latter are going to broadbrush label and demonize people like me. People who might SEEM like we agree with guys like D&C but actually we’re coming at it from a very different angle and we don’t actually agree with their rationales 99% of the time.

 But in the times we live in right now nuance is apparently as dead as Batman’s parents.

 Frankly as I get older I guess I see myself socially/politically speaking being more of a moderate when it comes to comic books...and right now that feels like a profoundly lonely place to be.

[marisexmas]

alrighty I. finally gathered my courage and gave a proper listen to all the dub voices in puyo puyo tetris from this video. so now here’s a big old post of my analyses/thoughts on each character’s dub voice, normal and alt, with varying degrees of seriousness, for the sole reason that I had absolutely nothing better to do with my time

DISCLAIMER THINGY:if anyone cares enough to read this please read it with the understanding that my intent to buy and enjoy this game has not changed because of these voices. I did this purely for fun/out of boredom and while my opinions are somewhat strong, I don’t want them to affect anyone else’s interest in getting the game and enjoying it. these are only my thoughts and I’m just doing this to gush and also vent kinda.

okay here we go

overall: in general so many of these voices sound… foreign to me, ironic as that is. it’s simply because of the differences between spoken english and spoken japanese and the fact that I’ve grown accustomed to the japanese voices over almost four long years. no matter what, it’s gonna take a while to adjust to hearing these characters speaking english, most of them for the first time ever. to me, many of the english vas don’t sound as “into it” as the japanese vas, which is understandable because the jp vas have much more experience and practice voicing these characters. overall though? I think most of them did a pretty great job! and I’m sure if more puyo games get localized, the english vas will get a feel for the characters which will lead to them sounding more natural. let us cross our fingers and Hope!!

now for thoughts on individual voices. buckle up kids

Ringo:she sounds a lot more tomboyish and in-your-face than I expected, but honestly I kinda like that? she does sound a little bland and plain compared to the jp va, but to be fair it’s hard to compete with idol seiyuu goddess asami imai. I feel like I’ll warm up to this voice relatively quickly though~ Alt Ringo:Not really anything noteworthy? she sounds a lot more “aw yeah” and spunky though, which is cute! I like it a lot

Risukuma: I like his english voice a lot because while his jp va sounded eccentric in a creepy way, his en va sounds eccentric in a charming “cool dad” way, like the kind of cool mentor who’s probably very dangerous to hang around but you don’t care cause he’s just so cool. either way the “pedobear” vibes are not nearly as strong in his english voice which I am immensely thankful for Alt Risukuma: ounds like a guy who’s reading a storybook to small children and trying to put on a “gruff bear” voice to really invest them in it. it sounds strange but it’s oddly entertaining and kind of adorable

Schezo: my biggest issue with his english va is that it just sounds kind of… Flat? it just doesn’t have that Oomph or that Zeal that the japanese va had. but as I said that’s understandable because of the difference in experience, so it’s not too bad. the voice fits him very well, a good shounen swordsman voice. that’s enough to satisfy me. Alt Schezo: the most smug sarcastic self-satisfied asshole I have ever heard and I absolutely love it. this is a man who knows he has 5000+ followers on tumblr because of his “edgy” posts and because of that believes he is a paragon of sensibility and right-ness.

O:Bibibiii. Sounds pretty much the same as the japanese voice, only without the japanese inflection or accent. not much to say honestly? but it sounds nice. Alt O: I like the english alt way more than the japanese alt because it actually did something different. whO ANGERED THE CHEESE SPHERE THEY BETTER BOOK A FLIGHT OUTTA THIS UNIVERSE

Maguro: I was expecting a more P4 Yosuke-esque voice for maguro so the voice they actually gave him was a little surprising to me? but I actually like this one a lot more than I thought I would! it really plays him up as a playful carefree guy who doesn’t take life too serious and is just out to have fun. it’s a really good voice for him and I love it a lot Alt Maguro: he sounds!! like one of those stereotypical smooth-talking radio host dudes!! and it’s the greatest thing ever!! this is my number one favorite alt voice by far, it’s genius?? “You’re tuning into Smooth Jazz Hour with the S-man, kick up a chair, relax with some of Suzuran’s hottest jazz hits and add some Pizzazz to your evening~★”

Tee: stereotypical shounen anime protagonist voice at its finest. I’m honestly glad they chose a male va to voice him because that kind of voice more accurately reflects his character and sounds better for him in english than an english-speaking female voice would have sounded. if that makes sense Alt Tee: I really didn’t notice anything “different” about his alt voice at all? the inflections and such are different but otherwise the two voices sound pretty similar. they just sound like two different takes of the same lines basically…

Amitie: Flawless VA choice! I’m 99% sure christine cabanos is voicing her and a better match could not have been made, she has the peppy naive eager-to-help magical girl vibe that suits her perfectly!! I’ve honestly started liking her en va more than her jp va, and she’s the only returning fever 1 character whose puyotet va I may actually prefer over her old fever 1 va (though that still fluctuates quite a bit because fever 1 is too dear to my heart) Alt Amitie: Fanciful British Amitie!! I love her!! it’s really amusing and adorable to hear her try to sound “refined” and fail miserably. it just makes her even cuter and her ditziness more endearing, this is probably up there on my Favorite Alts chart, though there are others coming up that have her beat

Feli: she sounds a little bit older than I expected but I think the va pulled off her creepy, vaguely threatening tone of voice exceedingly well. I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t give her stocking’s va if only to play on her similar appearance, but all in all her voice is pretty good. Alt Feli: Rebellious Teenage Wangst Factory Yeah!! Shut up Mom!! You don’t Control Me!! I didn’t Ask to be Born!! I’m gonna Curse you and everyone else I hate cause I hate Everyone!! Lemres is the only one who understands my Brooding, Broken Inner Soul!! Everyone I know is so Lame and Embarrassing!! I Hate My Life!! (it’s beautiful)

Ai: let me say Thank You VA People For Getting A VA That Can Do A Convincing Dog Imitation. that was one of my biggest worries with this dub tbh, and I’m glad to hear that his dog whimpering is as beautiful in english as it is in japanese. the voice itself is also quite nice, not quite as effeminate but still pleasant to listen to. Alt Ai: you know when people make fun of their mom or wife or some other female/effeminate authority figure by imitating them in a shrill gravelly falsetto to make them sound as annoying and antagonistic as possible? this voice is essentially that. it’s funny but it also grates on my ears if I listen to it for too long

Ess: again she’s way older-sounding than I anticipated? though the voice is not bad, I do think it’s a little unfitting for her childish, bratty personality. I wish it had been just a little higher-pitched? however it still carries the tone of spoiled entitlement that is essentially her brand, which is great. plus she’s still cute as heck, so it’s all good in my book! Alt Ess: Basically normal Ess if you subtract the spoiled entitled daddy’s girl and substitute it with cool confident action girl. I like it cause it’s almost like character development! she grew up and abandoned her spoiled ways, and now she’s on the road to becoming a mature, honest and learned adult!

Klug: it makes me sad to get this negative after so much optimism, but oh boy. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I cannot stand the voice they gave him. I had to mute my volume halfway through his spells because I just. can’t? nothing about his voice or his personality in the jp version supports the idea that he would sound like this? even ignoring the voice not fitting him at all, it’s generally just exhausting and stress-inducing to listen to. I’m happy if others can find something to like in it but I just. can’t? suketoudara, the dancing mascot fish, sounds less like a caricature than klug does and that in itself is unacceptable to me Alt Klug: I still don’t really like the choice of va, but this is a much less grating and more reasonable style of speaking for him. this is what normal klug should have sounded like. in fact, why isn’t this his normal voice? who decided to make the voice that sounds like an actual human being his “alt” and the one that sounds like a perpetually screeching demon spawn his standard? I apologize for my negative rant becoming this long but after so many decent, sensible casting decisions it genuinely astounds me that a professional voice directing team somehow managed to butcher this character so completely

Sig: hearing english sig is a very complicated experience for me especially, both because of the bias of sig being my favorite character and the fact that hearing him voiced by a guy after 4+ years listening to him voiced by a girl. while I still would have preferred a more youthful voice from a female va, I’m quite all right with the voice they gave him now, despite my initial distaste? it’s different, but the most important thing to me is that it retains his spacey, well-meaning but absentminded nature. it isn’t Pure Perfection, but it should be noted that sig has a unique style of speaking that would be very difficult to recreate in another language. when I look at it like that, I think the directors did a respectably good job with him. (and… his “oh boy” damaged quote. Masterful.) Alt Sig: I like this alt for the same reason I liked happy sig in 20th; getting to hear sig speak with more emotion. though this time he’s just a cocky anime protag. I love my boy and I love hearing him go beyond his drawling monotone, in both english and japanese. plus I’m just glad they didn’t go for pokemon speak like jp, because as painful as that was in japanese it definitely would’ve sounded a hundred times more painful in english.

Draco: like a lot of people, I really appreciate english draco being much less grating than japanese draco. to be honest I think this low, strong, more butch-sounding voice fits her much better. I gotta say I’m pleasantly surprised? I might even use her more because I’m quite fond of her new voice… Alt Draco: her alt is kinda amusing to me because it sounds like english draco trying to sound more like japanese draco? I bet this is the voice she uses at beauty pageants. it’s adorable and charming and it makes me want to hug her

Zed: I never paid much attention to him as a character but I like his english voice, it sounds very friendly and warm. in a way it gives me E-102 vibes, it’s strangely nostalgic to me in a sense. it’s quite nice. he’s a nice papa robot. ess is in very good hands. Alt Zed: basically zed as an actual robot. it’s amusing but very predictable and not too noteworthy so there’s not much I have to say about it…

Jay and Elle: first of all *pops party popper* congrats jay on being the only male character voiced by a female va in japanese who is also voiced by a female va in english~ (not counting carby and o~) that aside, the wonder twins are my favorite tetris characters and I’m very happy with how they’re voiced in english! they sound like the adorable and mischievous little shits that they are. I can’t wait to hear them in adventure mode I know they’re gonna be great Alt Jay and Elle: essentially the same “creepy twins” theme that was done with their alt in the jp version. They still sound cute but it’s another cliche voice trope and there’s not much to say unfortunately

Arle and Carbuncle: as one of the two people who liked her voice in fever 1 (and zero of the zero who liked carbuncle’s), I still think these vas are a massive improvement. she sounds much more like a spirited spunky adventurer with just the right amount of sass, just like the compile days. on that note, I especially like english carbuncle for exactly that reason. his deeper voice almost feels like a callback to his voice acting from those ancient madou games of years past, and that makes me inexplicably happy Alt Arle and Carbuncle: this alt is?? hard to describe?? arle sounds slightly more forceful in her speech, and her tone carries more of an anti-hero vibe? meanwhile carbuncle sounds almost exactly the same. I don’t really know what to make of it…

Suketoudara: first of all how dare you. How dare you have such a flawless english voice. how dare you make me actually start kind of liking you. you’re a mascot character. you’re not supposed to be this cool. go tell your voice director to switch with whoever was in charge of klug’s va. this is unexcusable. I’m angry. (in 100% seriousness though he has an awesome english voice and I am kinda bitter but not that much) Alt Suketoudara: hueAH GOT MY BLUE SUEDE SHOOOES, AN’ I… …HHAH GOT MY BLUE SUEDE SHOOOES, AN’ I…~♪. TOUCH DOWN IN THE LAND O’ THE DELTA BLUUUE, IN THE MIDDLE O’ THE POOOURIN’ RAIN ~~♪ (basically: Raw Unbridled Soul Grit)

Satan I mean Dark Prince: though I miss his super super deep jp voice, his english voice still sounds plenty sinister and powerful despite the fact that he himself is rarely either of those. he has a voice that could very easily intimidate and establish authority, and still sounds like a serious, threatening presence even though he’s one of the franchise’s biggest butt monkeys. still can’t wait to hear him cry like a baby in adventure mode though~ Alt Satan: The Most Beautiful and Campiest of Camp Gays. basically oshare in satan’s body. if any of you wanted a cameo from oshare in a main game look no further because he’s right here. he’s finally returned to us in the most unexpected of forms

Rulue: the ojou in her voice is not nearly as strong, but it definitely commands the image of a Fighting Queen. she sounds a lot tougher and less demure than her jp counterpart, and I’m having kind of a hard time deciding which portrayal I like better? I think they’re both equally good. her “Tetris” sounds horribly out of place though, for some reason. Alt Rulue: again I don’t hear much of a difference tone-wise? this rulue sounds less fired up and a little more… smug? but that’s it. maybe this is the return of “ojou” rulue… I think I like tough asskicking rulue better though

Raffina: first: nope, I still have not adapted to that spelling change. second: from an objective standpoint, this voice is a very good fit for her. but to me, who has known and loved her fabulous fever 1 va for thirteen years and still heralds it as The Ideal Raffina Voice to this day, this new voice just sounds far too generic in comparison. it’s a wonderful voice and I like it, but it’s going to be a long and bittersweet road before I can let go of the La-ti-das in my heart ;v; Alt Raffina:the polar opposite of alt rulue. abandoning the ojou way, raffina’s voice loses all its prim and properness as she goes full fighting foodon. I like this voice because it makes me think of a raffina who’s made peace with her lack of magical talent and focused on perfecting her fighting skills instead.

Witch: Very different from her jp voice, much deeper and more tomboyish than I imagined… but honestly I’ve started to like it a lot. a real lot. a “wow this is the best voice I never knew I wanted for her” lot. I am very inordinately fond of her english voice oh my goodness. maybe it’s my love for tomboyish witches talking but… it’s a Good Voice Alt Witch: it’s like witch if they’d tried to make her sound closer to her jp voice. more childish and giddy and deliberately cute-sounding. but after hearing it I have to say I still vastly prefer her normal english voice?? what is this. I’ve been hexed

Ecolo: a friend and I talked long ago about how great ecolo would sound if sam riegel voiced him. and while I’m sad that it didn’t come to pass, I think this voice is a good fit for him too. childish, playful, and slightly dangerous… I hear people say he sounds like a girl, but I don’t really hear it? he just sounds… like an otherworldly blob. which is apt. Alt Ecolo: ecolo after entering Pouty Tantrum Mode. he’s the universe’s biggest baby and it’s fantastic. “Whatever. I didn’t wanna do that anyway. See if I care. Myeh.” ecolo we love you, you tiny ender of worlds. now sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.

Ex: people were saying he sounds like a game show host, and sure enough when I first heard his voice I could vividly picture him hosting a game of jeopardy. his voice doesn’t have the wistful, sentimental vibe the jp voice did, but he still sounds like a wise, gentle mentor. and the host of jeopardy… alEx trebek, ladies and gentlemen Alt Ex: if normal ex is the host of game shows, then alt ex is the host of extreme wrestling tournaments. it’s beautiful and it must be heard to be believed. OOOOH YEEEEAH! TETRAMANIA COMIN’ AT YA BROTHERRRR

Lemres: he’s another firmly-established character introduced long ago, whose new english portrayal is going to take a lot of getting used to. despite what I’ve heard, he doesn’t sound bara at all. his voice is not as soft and singsongy though… instead he sounds more like a stereotypical teen celebrity heartthrob. and honestly, I really really like that they went that route because that’s essentially what he is? it’s a weird situation because the voice itself is eh to me, but the context of it makes me appreciate and enjoy it more? it’s especially cool cause recent games have glossed over/downplayed lemres’s celebrity status a whole bunch, so it almost feels like someone on the voice team actually did their homework on the other games in the puyo series. and that makes me happy~ Alt Lemres:okay the surfer dude voice is beautiful enough on its own but do you remember?? these old dr. pepper commercials?? that is what Immediately popped in my head upon hearing his win quote?? it made me cry laughing what a magical world we all live in