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midethefangirl · 3 years ago

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Captain America: Civil War - My Thoughts

I know this is like 5 years late but for this, I’d like to resurrect a barely dead discourse that succeeded in not just dividing the Avengers but also dividing the fandom. Before we start, content warning for spoilers and let’s dive into this mess.

So, basically, the entire conflict of civil war stemmed from General Thaddeus Ross (who is a hypocritical dick, btw) coming to lecture the Avengers on being destructive despite conducting destructive experiments (ahem, the Abomination and the Hulk) but I digress. Then, Ross presents the Sokovian Accords which is really lengthy and we see Steve reading like a few chapters(?). Now, let us note that the Accords were presented to the Avengers after a mission-gone-wrong killed about 11 people in Lagos (lay-gos, not lah-gos that pronunciation gave me headaches as a Nigerian).

So, the Sokovian Accords were written by 117 countries and vetted by the UN asking for the Avengers to be under oversight (which SHIELD would have done if HYDRA hadn’t infiltrated it in the first place but it is what it is). Somehow, Steve made it about “our right to choose” (how?! Cause I’m not understanding) and decided to not sign*.

*he later got back to sign, then backed out when he learnt that Tony had placed Wanda under house arrest (even though it was for her protection. I do believe Tony should have fully informed Wanda about keeping her in the Avengers’ Tower)

My issues with the plot of Civil War are:

1. The Sokovian Accords were not read out loud or placed on some kind of PowerPoint slide for the audience to understand why Team Cap is against the Accords. No, the fandom wiki is not a source because that one is from Agents of SHIELD and not a lot of MCU fans are familiar with that show (yours sincerely included). Assuming the contents were read out loud or discussed by the Avengers, I’d have understood why Team Cap refused to sign the accords but since none of that was given, I’d remain Team Iron Man for this one.

2. The Sokovian Accords is not the American Constitution. Then again, the MCU fandom tends to be American-centric and most Americans seem to have this belief that the world revolves around them (and it manifests itself in Civil War discourse).

3. Contrary to popular opinion, the Sokovian Accords were about 117 (mostly third-world) countries asserting their sovereignty and boundaries, not taking away rights from the Avengers. If we go by what the MCU wiki claims about the accords, yes, some parts are absurd (like asking for blood samples and using trackers, why are those necessary?). However, when 117 countries state that they want you to respect their boundaries, I think it is best to comply. Unfortunately, respecting boundaries is one thing the USA has a problem complying with and guess who happens to represent America?

4. The Accords affected only their hero lives, not their lives as a civilian. I doubt the UN would limit the Avengers’ movements as civilians

5. Let us not forget how Steve and Clint protect Wanda from accountability and responsibility. Wanda in the MCU is like y/n in many fanfics where everyone (except for the “big bad villain” who in this case is Tony and 117 countries) seems to love her and want to protect her from facing the consequences of her actions. Anyone *ahem Tony* who has a bit of problem with her is suddenly the enemy. Not to mention how Wanda seems to have a knack for causing destruction in African countries (Johannesburg, Lagos, Wakanda)

6. And fandom behaviour from the Team Cap stans

7. Also, why is Civil War not an Avengers part 3? It’s better than making it a Captain America trilogy and then trying to frame Steve as being right.

8. I do believe that the accords were sped up which left little time for the Avengers to discuss and compromise on certain issues. If they were given more time to discuss, compromise and negotiate, I think the movie would have ended better than it had.

9. In addition, I also agree with Team Cap stans on how the UN arbitrarily deciding to shoot Bucky on sight is a human right violation.

10. “The safest hands are our own” why does this sound like a white saviour talk point from Steve? The accords is about 117 countries wanting you to respect their boundaries and the best you can come up with to refute that is saying something a white saviour would say?

11. “Even if the whole world is telling you to move...” just shut the fuck up, this is no way comparable to 117 countries trying to assert their sovereignty.

12. Look if I have to choose between surrendering a few rights as a hero and just dismissing that of civilians as potential damage, I’d go with the former because the people whom I’m suppose to protect come first. For me to dismiss their deaths as “we can’t save em all” is just not it.

13. “She’s just a kid”, a few years later and I still hate that term. One, it’s infantilizing an adult white woman (something white men have historically done and we all know how that went) . Two, while Tony was obviously wrong for not informing Wanda about her house arrest, he was right to keep her in the Tower when they were people who would harm her with every chance they could find. **

** after watching WandaVision, some people might find every reason to want to harm her.

14. Let us also discuss the motivation of those in Team Iron Man vs Team Cap

Team Iron Man

Tony: feels guilty for the events of Age of Ultron, believes that he’s stepped out of line and the Avengers need oversight.

Natasha: believes that the Avengers should listen to the public and the UN after all, if they had one hand on the wheel, they can still steer.

Vision: believes that the Avengers as a whole bring challenge which brings conflict and then catastrophe.

Rhodey: a soldier; believes in following orders especially when it is from the UN and 117 countries.

T’Challa: dude is just there to kill Bucky. I’m sure if Bucky was on team Ironman, my guy would have joined team cap, lmao 😂.

Spider-Man: not really there for a reason except to bring in Steve to Ross. I do agree that Tony shouldn’t have dragged him to the fight without Peter making an informed decision.

Team Cap

Steve: didn’t want to sign because it takes away his “right to choose”. Idk what that means or how it is relevant to the Sokovian Accords but okay. However, I understand his mistrust considering a few movies ago, we found out HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD and as much as I believe governments are corrupt and the UN is shit, you cannot just enter a country anyhow without warning ahead of time.

Bucky: was his motivation given? I mean, I believe he joined Steve’s side to stop Zeno from unleashing the other winter soldiers. Not that that’s a bad reason, it isn’t.

Sam: again, I don’t think the movie gave us a reason for him being against the Accords. Did he also believe it was taking away his “right to choose”?

Wanda: undecided as of moment of discussion. Joined team cap because Tony placed her on house arrest. While I agree that Tony should have informed her that he was putting her under house arrest and stated the reasons why, I believe it was for good reasons especially when some people might decide to carry out witch hunts (you get it, witch hunts? 😅)

Clint: only joined because Wanda was placed under house arrest. We aren’t given any reason why he would oppose the Accords.

Scott: fan boy of Captain America, need I say more?

15. Also, to Team Cap stans blaming Tony Stark for Team Cap being imprisoned, grow the fuck up. The people in Team Cap are all adults who made their own decisions yet Tony is to blame for them breaking the law (because they did break the law), wtf.

16. “Are you capable of letting go of your ego for one damn second?” Like Steve’s ego didn’t play a part in all this too, lmao.

17. Okay, the final battle was intense and while I believe Bucky was also a victim, I can understand why Tony lashed out at him. The one to blame here is Steve because even if he had no clue Bucky was responsible for the Starks’ death, he still lied to Tony by not telling him who was responsible. It is more appalling to learn that Steve, in an attempt to “protect Tony and Bucky”, was actually covering for HYDRA!

Also, the way Steve stood emotionless while Tony watched a footage of his parents being killed. Yet, he could shield Wanda from watching the news because of how it affected her, okay.

“I can do this all day”, fuck you, Steve

18. Clint exploding at Tony is so fucking hilarious. Tony is right, Clint has a family yet he decided to fight in a war that didn’t concern him. Also, his comments about breaking backs is so tone deaf after Rhodey just broke his back!

19. If Sam was Captain America, I think Civil War wouldn’t have happened at all, from the dialogue in the Raft.

20. Overall, this movie is a fucking mess and I hate it for dividing both the Avengers and MCU fans.

Before I close with this, I want to add that I am not anti-Steve but Civil War really made me hate him. I get, Steve is supposed to be a Boy Scout and shit like that, but he’s a Gary Stu in the MCU, let’s be honest about it. Civil War should have been an Avengers movie, rather than a part of the Captain America trilogy. The Avengers should have been given more time than three days to discuss the Accords and make necessary amendments; after all that went down in Lagos, Wanda should have been made to sit out missions and maybe we could have had someone like Doctor Strange help in training her; Crossbones would have made a great villain but it is what it is; Peter’s introduction to the MCU could have been as him actually interning for the Stark Industries and forming a kind of acquaintance with Tony Stark before Tony finds out that he’s Spider-Man; Steve should have told Tony about HYDRA‘s hands in his parents’ deaths. Anyway, I’ll go read Civil War fix-it fanfics and fanfics where the Avengers are more like family. Fuck Civil War and I’m outta here.

Edit: okay this was a thought I had when I was trying to sleep but it was too good to ignore. Rhodey has a point about Steve arrogance (if that’s the correct term) in saying “the safest hands are our own” and here’s why:

Like he stated “this is not the World Security Council...neither is this SHIELD nor HYDRA” (paraphrased). This is the UN as well as 117 countries. Look, I am as anti-government as one can go and I don’t believe that the UN are reliable (plus, if we really want to go by the AoS version of the Accords, the Accords are flawed and they need amendments), however, given the US records on disrespecting boundaries in many third world countries, I can understand why 117 countries are wary about a bunch of superpowered Americans entering their country.

To us, the Avengers are saving the world. To these 117 countries and the people who have families who were killed in the crossfire (Zemo is a good example), the Avengers are a bunch of nuisances who leave destruction wherever they tread.

I am still neutral on the whole Accords as I don’t know exactly what it entails but for Steve to go “we are surrendering our rights to choose” (again, how is the Accords threatening the Avengers’ right to choose?) when asked to be under oversight is tone deaf.

#marvel cinematic universe #captain america civil war #team cap critical #mcu critical #not anti steve rogers btw #wanted to clarify #steve rogers critical

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thevindicativevordan · 4 years ago

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On Supergirl

Figured I should put up my thoughts about Kara in the wake of her first film appearance being announced, and the final season of her TV show fast approaching. Short version is: Kara is very cool and DC needs to stop messing with her.

My Introduction to Kara

I was introduced to Kara the way most millennials/Gen Zers were I imagine, via the Loeb Superman/Batman arc which brought the traditional Kara Zor-El Supergirl take into Post-Crisis continuity, after years of DC attempting to have a “Supergirl” without violating the editorial mandate that Kal needed to be the literal “Last Son of Krypton” (an example of one of the dumb ways DC fucked Kara over). Story goes that one day Dan Didio was in line at the Superman ride at Six Flags (I love that ride even though it’s stolen my glasses every time I’ve ridden it, even when I left them in a locker!). The ride had signs that talked about various Superman characters. Didio was reading the entry for Supergirl where it talked about her not being Clark’s cousin but instead some weird merge of alien shapeshifter, angel, and human girl, and he realized how fucking stupid that was, and he went back to the office and told Loeb to bring Kara back.

Years later I would also be standing in line at the Six Flags Superman ride (probably at a different park location but who knows?) as a youngster and would read the new Supergirl sign that trumpeted that Superman had a cousin who shared all his powers, an update reflecting the new Loeb origin. I thought she sounded pretty cool, made a note to see if my library had any Supergirl stories next time I visited, then got on the Superman ride and promptly lost my glasses like an idiot because I wanted to take them off while I was riding and pretend I was changing from my “disguise” into Superman mid flight. My dad grounded me for this afterwards, but it gave me a funny story to tell at family get togethers and isn’t that what Six Flags is all about?

A month later (and with spiffy new glasses), my mom dropped me off at a new library next to where she worked, and they had one of the best Superman collections I’ve ever seen to this day. I was in heaven and while reading every Superman book I could find (I couldn’t check them out because I didn’t have a card, my mom’s card didn’t cover the area the library was in, and my mom wouldn’t have checked them out anyway since comics were “too violent”), I found the trade collecting Kara’s new origin. I read it and I thought both she and Superman were really cool, and Batman was a punk who had to beat Darkseid by cheating, the loser. Turner’s art to my young eyes was the best I had ever seen, and the panels got engraved into my brain.

I still get downright nostalgic whenever I see Turner Superman or Supergirl stuff. I also got my parents to rent the animated movie adaption of the Superman/Batman arc from Blockbuster (remember those?), and that sealed the deal. Seeing Kara hold her own against Darkseid convinced me she was as cool as her cousin. Next time my mom dropped me off at the library next to her workplace, I went looking for Supergirl stuff to read. I found the first volume of her new volume by Joe Kelly taking place after the Loeb arc and dove in.

It was... weird. 5 years later I might have enjoyed it but at the time I was majorly put off. Kara took a secret identity for a day and then ditched it because it was “stupid” and the kids bullied her. She was always getting into fights with Kal, and there was this weird plot that I couldn’t follow about how her dad had sent her to kill Kal, maybe or maybe not? Also she could grow crystals which I thought was dumb, and said she was stronger than her cousin which I couldn’t buy for a second given he looked like he was carved out of marble, and she looked like she relied on sunlight instead of food. I put the volume back on the shelf and kinda gave up on reading the character after that for a while.

I followed her via the DC wiki updates just like I did Superman, and everything I read seemed dumb and convoluted. She was split in two, moped around a lot, made out with an alternate version of her cousin, and basically just flopped about the same way the rest of the Superfamily did during the 00s. Nothing made me think I had made a mistake dropping Kara until I read the latest update to her wiki page.

I was super into what I was reading about the Busiek/Johns era of Superman online. Lex was back and making a big revenge scheme that involved all the other Rogues! Old Superman Rogues were getting revamped and made cool again! Johns reintroduced Brainiac and made him a big threat, with Kal and Kara teaming up to fight him! Busiek was revamping Prankster and telling big ambitious Superman stories! For the first time in a long while, the consensus on the Internet was that Superman was good again. My “home” library had zero Marvel books and no Superman or Batman books, all their DC stuff was Flash or Green Lantern, mainly written by Johns. Insane to think back on now. My hopes that because Johns was involved with Superman, Superman books would show up at my library were fulfilled. They started bringing in Busiek and Johns collections, and someone there also ordered Sterling Gates’ first volume of Supergirl, and I checked everything out since I was old enough to have my own library card, and my parents were worried more about the violent video games I was playing rather than comics.

I read everything and loved it. I also really liked Gates’ take on Kara. She was still an imperfect teenager but she wasn’t insufferably angsty or constantly fighting with Kal. She was going to give the secret identity another try and Lana had “adopted” her. It’s funny remembering how I enjoyed all that given my current thoughts on how Kara should work, but it was great at the time. I liked Gates introducing new foes for Kara, some classic Superman Rogues adapted for her like Bizzarogirl, others crafted specifically for her like Reactron. Gates’ basically rekindled my enjoyment of Kara the same way Busiek & Johns rekindled my enjoyment of Superman.

Of course it ended terribly like everything Superman-related seems to.

I’ve got a whole post I want to do about New Krypton and what came after. In short that is the most blatant example of “hitting the reset button” that I’ve ever seen. All the potential got wasted, and afterwards everything except Lex’s Action Comics stuff just didn’t appeal to me. Gates got booted off Kara for Nick Spencer who ended up leaving himself later, a promising Teen Titans line-up with Kara on it didn’t happen, and the last proper Pre-Flashpoint Superfamily story was a crappy team-up with Doomsday against Bigger Doomsday (thank God for Cornell’s final Luthor/Superman confrontation at least). When news of the reboot arrived, I was honestly happy. The Superline needed an enema.

Controversial opinion time: I liked New 52 Supergirl. It’s weird because a lot of the stuff I hated about Kelly’s run was here, and a lot of the stuff I loved about the Gates’ run was not. This was angry, moody, emotional Kara again, fighting with Kal and not fond of Earth. But I was in my teens at this point, and I didn’t want happy go-lucky Superman or Supergirl. I wanted my heroes angry, scared of the future, ready to go out there and smash some cars. Morrison’s Action Comics was 100% my jam (still is once I really understood the deeper meaning beneath the work) and this Kara felt like a natural fit for this universe. Plus we got Asrar on art and that guy made it damn pretty to look at, lots of cool science fiction stuff going on, even with the dumb H’el storyline.

I loved all the new Rogues Kara got. I loved her new Fortress under the ocean. I loved how traumatized she was by the loss of Krypton, that she wanted more than anything to go home, that her cousin was like a stranger to her since they had been apart for so long. I found all of that incredibly relatable. A lot of the New 52 Supergirl stories might have been schlock but it was my type of schlock damnit, and I enjoyed it!

I kept with her New 52 series all the way through the Red Daughter Saga (which I loved). As someone who grew up on Johns GL (since that was the only comics my home library had), seeing a Supercharacter join a Lantern Corp was the hypest thing ever. I loved the finale about Kara finally letting go of her anger and losing the ring while smashing her foe into the sun, it was incredibly cathartic for me as an angry teen myself. I finally stopped following her series sometime after since I was no longer enjoying the Superline or really DC as a whole. It wasn’t until I heard that New 52 Superman died and the “old” Superman was back, that I checked back into DC.

DC Rebirth & How I Think Kara Should Work

I did not enjoy Supergirl Rebirth, and I think I’ll talk about my problems with it alongside how I think Kara as a character should work since the two are related. A pet peeve of mine that has formed over the years is this: I don’t like it when Superfamily members get turned into Clark clones. Kon wearing glasses and going to Smallville High. Kara going to high school and being involved in journalism. Jon more or less being written as a copy of his dad personality-wise. I hate that kind of stuff because it’s boring. What’s the point of a Superfamily if everyone is just copying Clark? It also doesn’t fit the characters especially in Kara’s case. Why the hell does she want to be a journalist? Were there journalists on Krypton? I don’t remember ever seeing one! Shouldn’t she want to be, I dunno, a scientist? That seems to have been the El family tradition, wouldn’t she have been groomed for that?

This one-off by Shea is honestly the only acceptable outcome for Kara going into journalism for me. She realizes she’s just copying her cousin and switches to something she wants to do. So Orlando copying the show, which already basically turned Kara into an expy of her cousin, just did not appeal to me at all. What had worked for me under Gates way back when was not clicking for me this time. I wanted to see Kara embody the principles of the S-shield in a different way than her cousin did. So I really enjoyed when Rebirth ended and we moved into the Bendis era with Andrekyo relaunching the title as Kara in space.

Kara in space has always felt like a good fit for me. Unlike Kal I’ve come to believe that Kara really shouldn’t be all that fond of Earth. For him it’s home, but for her it’s just where she ended up after her real home got destroyed. I think Kara works well as a sort of nomad, occasionally making stops back home to Earth to check on her cousin, but otherwise? She’s more comfortable out in space than she could ever be on Earth. Out in space she can be Kryptonian (which is what she should think of herself as in contrast to Clark being torn between his Kryptonian biology and human upbringing, and Jon/Kon identifying as human), be her true self, not have to pretend to be human to fit in. Kara founding a moon refuge was one of the best ideas for her that I’ve seen, I would love if DC made her Future State refugee center on the moon canon. I’m excited for more Kara adventures in space with the upcoming Tom King story.

Also love that her and Krypto are getting tied together, if they don’t want to use Krypto in Superman’s stuff, let her have him! Bring on cosmic adventurer Supergirl!

Personality & Other Traits

Kara to me should be more hot-tempered than her cousin. All the Superfamily members should have a temper in my opinion, I see that as the “Deadly Sin” of Superman and his family. But while Kal is like a simmering pot that will explode if it’s left cooking for too long, Kara is like dynamite. Light her fuse at your own peril because she will go off on you.

I also like the idea of Kara being rash. Kal’s got a maturity that came from over a decade of having to live with Lex Luthor constantly getting away with all his evil schemes. He’s patient because he’s been forced to be. Kara? If you ask for her help she’ll give it, but beware because she doesn’t really care about the long term impacts of her decisions. She’s an invulnerable teenager after all.

Really liked that Venditti Annual where Kara got tutored in history by a reincarnation of Hawkman. Kara having a passion for history is a neat trait, would be nice to see her teach Kal or Jon some Kryptonian lore, or have her lead a Kryptonian holiday celebration for the Superfamily because she’s the only one who remembers how to do it.

Sexuality wise I know a lot of people ship Kara and Lena on account of the chemistry between the two in the show. I haven’t watched the show myself but I’m fine with making Kara bisexual, the Superfamily could use some LGBT+ rep, and Lena hasn’t done anything of worth as a villain, so undo that and throw the two together. If we’re letting Harley and Ivy get away with murder I think we can let Lena off the hook too, undo the Ultrawoman weirdness and put the two together. Could be fun seeing the two building that moon refuge together.

All in all I think Kara is a great character who is a stronger embodiment of the immigrant experience than even her cousin in some ways. I hope King does a good job with her, she’s treated better than her cousin on the film side, and that overall the 20s are a better decade for Supergirl than the 10s were.

#supergirl #superman #lena luthor #krypto #dc comics

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secretive3amramenmaker · 4 years ago

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My Opinions On Jujutsu Kaisen That Literally Nobody Asked For

I finished binging the Jujutsu Kaisen manga in 48 hours. I am having some expresso, because I’m depresso.

Here’s a Sad Stitch to show you how I feel.

(And of course, warnings for discussion/ranting/kinda meta on the Jujutsu Kaisen manga below the cut, so please read at your own discretion!)

Sukuna is truly a Bastard™, along with Mahito.

I just- *cries in Shibuya Arc aka PAIN*

*Pulls out megaphone* Nanamin.

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading, have a nice day!

(Just kidding!)

Ugh, NANAMIN 👏 WHAT 👏 A 👏 MAN 😭 😭 😭 😭 I became a certified Nanami stan once I saw the tired business man aesthetic (plus, his words about how work is shit? Truer words have never been spoken), and his little speech about adults and responsibility, how children no matter their circumstances are still children, and should be given the opportunity to act as such. Because, YES, FINALLY, A RESPONSIBLE ADULT WITH THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL aka the voice of Kenjiro Tsuda

Anyways, I love how the Jujutsu Kaisen manga shows that adults can handle things, and that is A-OKAY!!! If Jujutsu Tech follows the Japanese school system, Yuji is a first year in high school, so he’s probably 15 or 16 years old, way too early to go through Shibuya level of trauma (though, I think anybody is too young to have to go through what happened to Yuji in Shibuya).

Children should have the privilege to be children. That doesn’t mean coddling, it means that children should have plenty of time to experience new things, enjoy being a child, and I’m so happy Nanami says this!

In conclusion, Nanami deserves happiness and a vacation to Kuantan 🥺

YOSHINO JUNPEI!!! He and his mom deserve happiness, they’re both precious beans. I didn’t even realize Junpei was dead until 5+ chapters later. But it was too late, for I had already gotten attached!!! *cue curse worthy screeching*

I was so excited for Junpei to join Jujutsu Tech, too! I had this whole headcanon of Junpei being HAPPY again, talking about movies with Yuji, interacting with the other first years, him seeing Panda for the first time!!! The thing was, back then, it wasn’t headcanon! I thought it was going to be facts, until Gege said ‘lol, you thought, peasant’, before spitting on any hope of mine for a happy Junpei.

(On a completely different tangent, I would be SO psyched if I got to meet a talking panda, we could act out all of “Kung Fu Panda” together, especially the chopstick scene, and maybe we could go to a zoo, just to mess with the zookeepers about a honest to god PANDA walking on its hind legs around the zoo)

‘If Junpei had lived’ is a phrase I think about a lot, and I think that is why the “Young Fish and Reverse Punishment” arc was so crucial to the story and yet so tragic.

Junpei has so much potential to be happy, and then he didn’t get the happiness he deserves. It really sets the tone, the high stakes to the whole manga, for we see the amount of damage a curse inflicts on somebody who could be in a situation like Junpei.

As the readers, we understand the reasoning behind Junpei’s ideology, sympathizing with him as we see what horrible torment he has to go through. That very first scene of this arc, where the bullies made him eat the cockroach and BURNED HIM WITH A LIT CIGARETTE, and the teacher who saw all of this happening, JUST TURNS AWAY!!! It was haunting. But finally, finally, we get a light at the tunnel for Junpei in the form of our lord and saviour, the cinnamon roll of cinnamon rolls, Itadori Yuji. HERE is a person who is able to connect with Junpei, who wouldn’t dismiss how Junpei’s circumstances or feelings. and then Junpei dies.

(look at this cute face, how could you Mahito?!)

Also, the symbolism in the opening? The Junpei fish ENLARGING??? HNKDJSFLJDSF JUNPEI NOOO-

Also ALSO (sorry this is the last ‘also’), did we ever learn if Junpei was a sorcerer, or was he a window that possessed enough talent to summon a shikigami? I at first thought Junpei was a window, since he was able to see Mahito, and was hoping that we’d get a more detailed explanation of what windows actually do. (Do they just wander around Tokyo, or wherever they live, and act all ‘La Dee Da, just living my regular, normal life, oOOHHH is that a special grade? Tell that to the sorcerers, maybe I’ll get a bonus!’ Is their life basically a demented version of Pokemon Go? I have so many questions-)

All the villains were well written, and had super cool character designs. My top three villains other than Sukuna, my top three villains are Geto, and Mahito.

Geto’s backstory in the Hidden Inventory arc was so incredibly written, I especially liked the way Gege wrote how Getou’s righteous ideals gradually deteriorating throughout the Hidden Inventory arc as he realizes the depth of the curses of humanity, the dark hatred the “weak” hold towards things they have no understanding of. (i.e. Riko’s death by the Star Religious Group, Haibara’s death, and finally the villagers ignorant treatment and abuse towards Geto’s twins, Mimiko and Nanako, beating and imprisoning them for “causing” the deaths of the villagers) Geto’s chilling charisma and the reasoning behind his actions as a villain makes him a top tier villain in my eyes.

As for Mahito, I love to hate him, and that why I think he is a great antagonist. I guess I’ve just been seeing a lot of villains that because of their tragic backstories, the readers or characters sympathize with them and rationalising their actions, turning the villain into a flaky antihero of lesser impact. It’s very refreshing to have a villain who is just pure evil.

I think that Mahito fulfilled his purpose as an antagonist very well; his twisted ideals on the worth of human life foiling Itadori’s own ideals of giving others a “proper death”, the curse making Yuji continuously adapt both physically and mentally to defeat him. Physically, by learning new spells and techniques to defeat Mahito, such as the Black Flash (and possibly his own cursed technique! The weird “Past That Never Happened” in the fights with Choso and Todo), or mentally, by questioning his ideals, such as what exactly is a “proper death”, after Yuji had to kill the transfigured humans.

(Ew look at this worm.)

Some Honorable Mentions of Good Villains IMO: Jogo, because I find his ideals of curses, who stem from the true emotions of hatred and fear, being superior yet suppressed by the emotionally faceted humans is definitely fascinating, and eerily reminds me of Geto’s hatred towards non sorcerers. Dagon was pretty cute in his Cursed Womb stage, and I really liked Hanami because the eldritch environmentalist aesthetic is pretty coolio 👌 .

How do Inumaki children learn to speak if all the adults barely talk, only saying inane words like “salmon” and NOT ACTUALLY meaning “salmon, the fish” but an adult secret code for a definition that you might not even know?? Or do the adults just charmspeak the kids, like “SPEAK small child, and have full language comprehension, O tiny ball of pudge!” and boom! Babies talking in complete sentences, maybe understanding weird adult customs. Will the child know when then adult actually mean salmon, the fish, and not the code word salmon?

Let’s assume that Inumaki clan children from learning to speak to four or six years old will be able to speak normally until the clan technique sets in (because that’s when the jjk wiki says cursed techniques kick in). How do you explain to a toddler: “Hey sweetie, happy birthday, have a present! Oh, by the way, those cool tattoos of yours mean that you can’t talk normally to anybody anymore, EVER. Only using these specific words as code to mean these specific meanings, restricting any chance of normal interactions with non-sorcerers if by some inane chance you DON’T want to become a child soldier jujutsu sorcerer. Welp, guess you have to become a jujutsu sorcerer now! Make sure to restrict your choice of words, you could kill somebody! Have fun playing with your Legos honey, welcome to adult life.” Like, EXCUSE ME?

You can’t tell mw a four year old is expected to understand that (or didn’t kill somebody by accident via cursed speech. That MUST have happened at least once).

This is all an elaborate way of saying please give us Inumaki backstory, I’m very curious.

Anyways, thank you for reading my post, and I hope you have a nice day!

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macgyvertape · 4 years ago

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50 or so hours into Cyberpunk 2077

This should be roughly the correct amount of time, ive been leaving the game running as I get up to get food or do stretches. Quests are roughly in order I did them

non spoilers above cut:

i haven't found a single hat/helmet i like, and since you can't hide them I just am not wearing any. It matters that much.

I posted the other day about bugs, every few hours I play I find new bugs. some require me to go back and reload a save others I honestly can’t tell if it’s a bug or just really poor development

there are several perks that don’t quite do what the description says, like the Anamesis perk. Based on reddit and trying it out it seems to just not do anything.

sometimes in car chase segments the passenger will say “look out” as cars spawn in my path and hit me. Can’t tell if that was deliberate or a pop in issue

Yeah I’ve just totally given up on doing pacifist things unless required by a mission. Given up on doing stealth too unless a mission objective, except for sneaking around to set up a fight.

:readmore:

the delemain car quest is fun. From the shock of the one going "beep beep motherfucker" and doing a hit and run to start it off, to the GLADOS car i see a lot of people talking about. It was fun to explore the city when i might have missed places like the landfill apparently there is follow up on T-bug's death if you go back to the quick hack shop in Kabuki. It's not much but better than nothing I made the pass with Panam of "what if the room just had one bed". I know she won't do a wlw romance, which is fine since I wouldn’t have chosen her. I enjoy her as a character, don’t get me wrong, my V considers her as a friend, but it seems like theres always drama going on which would be tiring. I would have gone for a fling, i like her leotard-pants combo with all the straps

but also her questline was buggy as hell. Multiple cases of having to reload due to clipping into objects, including her in a driving section, or just insta-dying when collision physics with some rocks broke "your neural network can no longer function independantly of the chip" me slapping my desk: s y m b i o te!!! come on lets have some s y m b i o s i s

in the scene with hellman i really liked how Johnny moved around the room. It made him feel like he was really there. it was hard to follow the convo as I left the room, i would not have understood it without subtitles. But i guess Takemura fucking waterboarded hellman. :|

lol I hope the dialogue is different b/c i refuse to smoke for Johnny

i am level 18 and still can't beat the first opponents in the fist fighting quest. ffs

I looked up the romances options so I went to do the I fought the law quest as soon as i got it. ACAB, but like I literally just met River Ward 2 minutes ago, and I really like him. His earring and cyborg eye, his big fluffy coat. I'm definitely gonna sleep with him Ok i like how when River Ward is dealing with the tiger claws if you interject it leads to a fight. It goes better if you follow his instructions and let him deal with it. Seriously I enjoy that sometimes its good to not pick a dialogue choice.

during the red queen club part, there was no dialogue over the phone. So i reloaded a save and got myself spotted and attacked. Then River showed up to help me <3 and it was more enjoyable having him there. I honestly am not sure if him not going to the club level is bug or not.

then uuuuuugh the worst of irl police "cops are my family" from Detective Han. Again ACAB "FRATERNITY OF CITY COPS RESEMBLES A [Nomad] CLAN NOT AT ALL" ok a few minutes ago i was complaining about bugs, but the character modeling in this game is good (when they're there). You can see body posture, characters jiggle their legs when they are nervous. Like I though character A was just throwing a cigarette on the ground, but then character B flinches back; I realize Char A threw it at B as a fuck you

I'm honestly curious if "I fought the Law" quest will have any impact later on. My choices were that I thought there was more going on than Holt being the only person behind this (based on how complicated the main questline heist is, and keeping an eye on some of the in game news), and told him not to take it to internal affairs, and I loved his response of how he doesn't give a shit what we think, he's doing it anyway.

In the elevator to report in, Johnny said "this muck is deeper than you think, tell them nothing", so i just said that the case was complicated. anyway i love how much of a sarcastic asshole V is

I thought i was being nonlethal with the monk quest, but it seems i accidently killed someone. RIP, but thats kind of the problem with this game. Like when i do the non lethal cyberpychosis quests I equip my non lethal modded gun and hope for the est. I like how a go here kill things quest led to Charles the ripperdoc. He's getting all his parts from scav gang members so I felt obligated to take him out. I got a police bounty for it but w/e.

I merged the Delemain fragments with the whole. Guess he's the meta now. (Side note: some of my favorite rvb fanfic plots are Ai consiousness/memory merging with the humans, so I’m having fun with this game and look foward to introspective fanfic)

Honestly Jonny made some good points, the fragments didn't deserve to die; but also destroying the core and freeing the fragments, they couldn't really function alone.

I was able to rescue Saul fine with stealth. Using cameras and the synapse overload really made it easy. Can't use the sniper rifle reward b/c I don't have the stats for it, and while it has a silencer the fact that it's a ricochette weapon and not a shoot through walls weapons, makes it not as good imo; and theres a legendary one that is stats free for only 100k.

Lol made a pass again at Panam, and she immediately shut me down. I then did Mitch's quest and I love every time someone tells V they area good person.

I hacked the operation carpe noctem shard, and wow the corporations are using ai to make people have cyberpsychosis, or something like that. What a shocker /s, I've played Deus Ex HR before

lol driving through the unifinished interstate, past the fight from Panam's first quest I found a "batcave" with a very nice car, and a manifesto written by "muckman'. But here's my complaint about the loot, there is a legendary top, but it had 16 armor. My current top has 84 armor, like why would i switch?? then later i found a bunker with soviet spies in it. Wild

Doing River's second quest, love the timing of as soon as you ask, why are we breaking in, someone shows up to tell you he got kicked off the force. It's funny how Johnny comments how maybe River's into you, and V just doubts Johnny's words. Love how the first kid asks River if I'm his girlfriend. also wow like oof both the second parts of Judy and River's quest are SUPER fucked UP!! oof like i stopped doing first person mode on the braindances for those quests as soon as i could, just made me too uncomfortable seeing that in first person.

DRIVING IN THE GAME IS BAD! nowhere is it more apparent than the sinnerman quest, which took me 3 times to get the driving section done, as cars spawned out of nowhere to hit me. Then when you restart, there is a bunch of dialogue it doesn't let you fast forward through. The rest of the Sinnerman questline is interesting. My V took every option to tell the dude that he was messed up, and what he was doing was wrong. idk, I was surprised how much dialogue there was that let you buy into his whole "forgiveness thing" and how there wasn't any real dialogue to call him the fuck out, that in seeking forgiveness he continues to do harm both emotional to the mother of the man he killed, but also that he got the husband killed via cop. The later follow up quest, I told him that what he is doing is crazy, studio is just going to profit off this vid. Then I refused to join him prayer, and told him fuck no i wasn't going to hammer him to the cross, or even watch. Yes, the man is scared of dying, and the corporation is exploiting him, but he keeps creating burdens for others. I think the discussion on this quest will be interesting to read, it's definitely my own personal experience with religion coloring my view. Anyway back to a main quest, yeah i don't trust Placide, especially in that scene where he grabs my hand, then jacks in. I ran off to do most of the sidequests here and got some criticism from him. I do love how in the cinema the western movie switches to a mission brief as the netwatch agent talks. its a fun enviromental detail. I took the netwatch offer, i don't think he's being fully honest with me, but he didn't put a virus in my head. As I told Placide later, I didn't pick a side. I like how you can then talk with the agent, who is a fan of Western movies, b/c they show "a simpler time where all good guys carry badges" :eyeroll:, and then V recommends Unforgiven, which from the wiki summary goes against that theme.

Looks like the Voodoo boys all got killed by Netwatch, but I as revenge for them trying to set me up I'm fine with it. Honestly after speaking with ai!Alt I don’t believe their plan of trying to be on good relations with AI would work.

doing the johnny flashback 2, and wow Johnny really is an asshole. Like I had gotten so used to him in side missions I forgot how self centered and unlikable he was.You constantly get prompts to drink or do drugs, which I ignored. But i do love the goth/punk love Rogue and others have.

lol i called it, when Hellman said that the engram would seek to override the host, put V on the engram. I really like how as the relic malfunctions, you wind up in the chair with a cigarette, which you can either smoke and say you are turning into Johnny or throw away. My dialogue "your problem is the ends justify the means", which is true!!! He and Rogue detonated a nuke downtown, does anyone know that, and like ask Rogue about it????

(Funny you can ask Rouge about Johnny silverhand, over the phone, then the game bugs out and spawns her npc where you are. She doens't say much about the nuke, but she does say no one trusts you for jobs). The line of no one trusting you for jobs is pretty funny at level 46 street cred where im at “respected” status. really loving the family atmosphere at River's 3rd quest. Also his big strong arms, and the fact he is no longer a cop. I totally let the kids win, and wow the family dinner where they GRILL YOU over the relationship and try to set the two of you up, then the water tower scene!!!!! I don't love the first person sex cutscenes but they do have personality. I'm glad afterwards you got to tell River about the biochip and that you might die. Because he's so far removed from your personal plot. So I took that option to back out of a relationship.

I do love that you wake up with "river's tanktop" that says "fuck the police" It actually has extremely good armor stats, so thats what I'll wear now.

panam 3rd quest, when shes like why did you help me, I'm like "because it's important to you". Basically the closest you can get to "when a friend asks for help you help them", which as an ex-nomad backstory I really choose the nomad options when ever i can Paralezes quest part 2! I love the piano song but I always think of it as ocean's 11 music. It's also fun to see the computer and see Judy recommended you for the first quest. The emails talk about "forgetting" to hire a staffer, on the balocony a strange antennia was scannable, the color of the roses was remembered wrong... lol guess i was right with those giant wall screens. Its fun environmental details that spell things out before you can notice, and it ties into some other quests where people's behavior is being altered. Actually, this quest "Dream On" I love it! For a while I've been like "wheres the illuminati conspiracy! Here it IS! I chose to follow Elisabeth's wishes and not tell her husband he was being brainwashed. In best case they program him to forget again, in worst case he ends up dead. The gaslighting Elisabeth described is CHILLING, her husband describes a vacation she can't remember and she doesn't know whose memories have been messed with. On your way to the plaza you get a call from someone/something that says the know exactly WHAT you are, any you black out!!! It's such a great feeling of helplessness that you're just one person in a world so big that you can't fight every power. As Johnny said, could be a corporation, could be a rogue ai, either way Jefferson is fucked (and so are you).

#cyberpunk 2077 #mac plays video games #a lot of this journaling i do #so in a few years i can look back #and see my first impressions

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firewvlker · 4 years ago

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Did you see BEN HANSCOM from IT walking around Limbo? The CISMALE looks like CHRIS HEMSWORTH, and is THIRTY-EIGHT years old. I’ve heard he can be INTELLIGENT & STOIC but also SENSITIVE & LONELY. When I think of them I think of A LOVE OF BOOKS & BUILDING THINGS, JANUARY EMBERS, AND THE SMARTEST MEMBER OF THE LOSERS’ CLUB. They’ve been here WITH their memories as an ARCHITECT for FOUR MONTHS. I heard they’re still trying to figure out how they ended up in Limbo.

sorta doing a mix of the book, movies, & possibly miniseries for ben. but mostly the movies.

if you dunno ben, he’s a member of the losers’ club, who prior to that was a new kid, super shy, heavily bullied (he was quite a heavy), kid with a mega crush on bev marsh.

after escaping from a group of bullies (aka after henry tried to carve his name into ben’s stomach), he hid out & first met/befriended bill & eddie. then came richie, stan, & beverly & the formation of the losers’ club.

they start coming to realizations about “it” & mike joins the club not long after.

a lot happens so just read the wiki or watch the movies tbh ok. but basically they beat “it” & make a blood oath to return to derry if “it” ever returns.

ain’t following that one book scene in the sewers bc yikes. nah fam.

ben moved away & lost a bunch of weight/got in shape in his teens. & became super desirable & a successful architect as an adult. but poor boi was still stuck on bev.

when stuff starts happening again, they all return to derry, minus stan.

‘nother long story short, they manage to kill “it” for good, but lose eddie in the process.

ben & bev finally realize their love for each other.

may or may not say he remembers marrying & having a kid with bev like in the miniseries, but idk haven’t decided yet.

110% would’ve tracked down tom & beat the living hell outta him if “it” hadn’t gotten to him first. fight me on this.

#ben hanscom tbt #ben h intro.#limbchq: intro #death tw

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dream-beyond-the-fantasy · 4 years ago

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fandom meme, please: F or P or Z? :) (or all of them if you like)

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom

Active or not? Some of my earliest fandoms were Star Wars and Power Rangers. Both were early/mid-1990s aka my childhood. I still love both franchises but don’t always actively interact.

I was pretty big into watching the Star Wars movies and Clone Wars series, reading the books, keeping up on updates and new pieces of history by reading the wiki, reading fics, and dreaming up face claims from the late 90s all the way up to about 2014. That’s when Disney disbanded the Expanded Universe in favor of rewriting all of that history and character and picking and choosing what they wanted. I used to have nearly 200 books on my bookshelf (in chronological order, in-universe) and sold most of them. I liked some aspects of The Force Awakens and Rebels, loved Rogue One, but otherwise haven’t watched anything else. The fandom got bad, really bad, and divisive. So I don’t really interact with that fandom anymore.

I was a huge Power Rangers fan through my childhood but drifted somewhere around 2000-2001. It wasn’t until 2002, as Wild Force was airing, that my best friend dragged me back in. I read fics, bought VHS tapes, joined a message board, engaged in shipping discussions, read the wikis, and watched continuously up through 2010-2011. That is when things changed hands again from Disney to Saban with Nickelodeon distributing. I didn’t have Nick, so it was harder to watch, relying on Nick’s website. I tried to keep up until the beginning of Dino Charge in 2015. It also took on such ridiculous kid-level, which sounds weird as it has always been a kid show. But they really dumbed it down, especially in Samurai. Ever since we got Netflix a few years ago, I’ve been trying to rewatch the whole franchise from the beginning (with some breaks and hiatuses along the way). I do stay away from “spoilers” from seasons I haven’t seen.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

Ever since I really got into the A Song of Ice and Fire (as opposed to Game of Thrones) fandom, I’ve been nearly obsessed with an AU where all of Aerys II and Rhaella’s children lived and trying to change the relationships to where characters might be happier and then trying to pair up the next generation and still have interesting stories for them. I still want Jon and Daenerys as a couple. But I want happier endings and relationships for Cersei, Jaime, Lysa, and Lyanna. Also, other characters, such as Joanna Lannister and Robert Braratheon’s parents might live in different variations of the same AU. If you want more details, please just ask. I wouldn’t want to bore anyone more than I already have.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

Haven’t I rambled enough already? There are so many tropes and story types that I’m addicted to, such as Alternate Universes and Canon Divergence, OCs, and canon characters gaining relatives, especially siblings or children, in fics. Two of the best fics I’ve ever read were Harry Potter fanfics that were AUs in which Snape has a daughter with a fellow Death Eater. Both series are very emotional and yet, keep true to Snape’s character. And even better is when the author engages their readers, which both of these do. Or rather did. Sadly, one abandoned her fic in the Second Year before it was finished. 😭😭😭 The other, I got too busy to follow all the way through. It was a fantastic epic story.

#fandom meme #star wars #power rangers #me #alternate universe #fanfic #harry potter #asks #strikelikeacobrakai

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thecorteztwins · 4 years ago

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@esteicy-blog “I'm convinced that they didn't even check the wiki page of her comic version when writing her in the mcu because movie Mantis has absolutely nothing to do with what you describe.“ I haven’t see the MCU movie, but I have read a bit about that version of Mantis and they sound NOTHING alike to me either! Comics Mantis is: - Not an alien. She’s a completely human woman with a Vietnamese mother and a German father. She was raised by Kree priests in a temple, but that temple was in Vietnam, not space, and then when she was an adult they wiped her memories so she remembered only growing up in Saigon. She never goes to space until her destiny as the Celestial Madonna is revealed. She MARRIES one of the Cotati aliens, but she isn’t one herself. Which means I think GotG has more POC who are playing aliens than actual POC characters? - Her powers are very different. As I understand it, movie!Mantis is a generic empath. Comics book Mantis had what she described as “empathy with nature” often calling it simply “empathy” for short, but what it actually was was just like...this very vague and generic psychic sensitivity. She wasn’t exactly a real telepath, nor a true empath, nor a precog, but she could feel “vibrations” that gave her clues if something was wrong, get a general sense of a person in a vague sort of way, and just generally gave her really good intuition. For instance, this one time a cop with a split personality had his other personality take over, and Mantis sensed SOMETHING was wrong because his “vibrations” changed, she just couldn’t say WHAT was going on. But more than her psychic sensitivity, was her martial arts prowess. Mantis has such martial skill that she’s able to grapple with Thor and WIN---quickly win, at that! At one point ALL THE AVENGERS try to physically restrain her, and she TOSSES THEM THE FUCK OFF (again, including Thor) She also once kicks Pietro in the face WHEN HE’S RUNNING! Again, this woman is HUMAN, she just has really extreme training by alien priests. - Her personality. Again, I haven’t seen the movie, but she seems kind of...cute and fragile and ditzy and naive from what I understand? Comics Mantis is intelligent, fearless, and very much NOT naive. She’s extremely assertive and serious, she’s not shy or giggly at all. She’s also framed as very intelligent and logical, though that’s more something the writing tries to convince us of than what’s actually on the page. She’s not stupid AT ALL, just we’re told she’s a brilliantly logical deductive mind on par with the Vision, when actually she just mostly makes guesses based on her intuition powers but calls it deduction. She’s definitely clever though, both in a fight and in terms of getting what she wants from people and situations, and how to best utilize her powers. She’s also never unsure in her abilities either; she’s so confident in them that in fact she defends them to others when they think her psychic intuition is wrong, or that she didn’t measure her strike correctly, and BOTH times she’s proven correct. But she’s also not arrogant about her skills either, and in fact demures from compliments. Mantis doesn’t tolerate anyone underestimating her abilities, including allies, and she trusts in herself completely...but she also doesn’t need praise from others either, and doesn’t seem to want it. And the story supports her, there is never a moment where she’s proven wrong in this. Mantis is NOT a character who EVER struggles with control of her powers. Mantis can be great. For instance, when she’s reuniting with the Avengers after having been away in space with the whole Celestial Madonna thing, they’re all super happy to see her. Silverclaw, a new Avenger (who is also indigenous Latina) stands off the side and is left out, because she doesn’t have any connection to Mantis. Mantis notices this, and she immediately reaches out to Silverclaw, putting her arm around her, saying that “Yes, they gather around this one. But this one would rather gather around you.” and explains that she was the new girl once and the Avengers supported her, and she wants to support Silverclaw too. It’s very sweet! Mantis absolutely can be a big jerk. The way she meets The Avengers is that some guys are being creeps to Wanda on the street, and Mantis jumps out to kick their asses and defend Wanda. This is great. But it’s not coincidence. Mantis wasn’t just passing by. She and her boyfriend the Swordsman (a former Avenger) want to join, and had come to the US for the express purpose of joining. So she was probably following Wanda and just jumped out at the moment she knew would make her look best to Wanda, so that Wanda would vouch for her as an Avenger. Mantis shows this capacity to be manipulative other times as well, and in fact in the end she seems to have been just using the Swordsman as a way to get America and be an Avenger, even though she claims to the Avenger that she doesn’t care about being one and just wants to be next to “her man”. She acts like the typical “submissive Asian girl who loves her big strong white boyfriend” at first but the minute she decides that she’d rather have the Vision, who is actively involved with Wanda, she starts pursuing him. She’s a huge jerk to Swordsman and Wanda in the process, insulting the both of them as being weak and not good enough for her or Vision, at first behind their backs, and then to their faces, she and Wanda get pretty catty. Mantis is very adamant that she wants a strong, heroic, INTELLIGENT man, and the Swordsman falls short for her. Which is her choice, but the way she handles it is very shitty to him (not to mention going behind his and Wanda’s backs trying to seduce Vision). He tries more than once to have a discussion with her about it, and she evades him, avoiding giving him any kind of straight answer when he asks her very straightforward questions. It’s not towards the end that she finally coldly dismisses him and tells him he’s not enough for her and that she doesn’t care for him any longer. Even when he’s dying after saving her and she’s begging him to live and apologizing, she’s still frankly kind of a selfish dick about it? She says she used him and that it was wrong and that she sees that now, but she says he needs to live so she can make things up to him. So he needs to live so SHE can feel better, basically, and she’s only feeling remorse in the first place because he sacrificed himself for her. Even after death, he can’t catch a break---she says she prefers the version of him that is actually the Elder Cotati possessing his dead body (I’m still not over that) because its smarter than the original Swordsman was. Ouch. But Mantis isn’t all bad for this! She’s not actually demonized for it at all, to be honest, nor is she punished by the narrative. Her story with the Swordsman is honestly more just a way to get her to the Avengers, then she quickly overtakes him in terms of importance as a character. It’s easy to forget he’s there most of the time compared to her, and he’s got rid of the moment he’s no longer really needed, and the next chapter of her story can begin as she’s revealed to be The Celestial Madonna. It’s the reverse of the typical male and female roles in a story, ESPECIALLY for a white man and an Asian woman. He’s HER prop, he’s the one devoted to her, he’s the one who is cast aside and dies for her as a part of HER story. Mantis also evolves. When she comes back from her journey as the Madonna, she’s straight with the Avengers about why she’s come to them, and she asks directly for their help, there’s no manipulative games. Wanda and her still have a bit of an issue on Wanda’s end, Wanda understandably still doesn’t like seeing her be close with Vision, but BOTH of them work at having a better relationship---Wanda in fact goes out of her way to tell Mantis that she and Vision are separated now, so it’s fine if he hooks up with Mantis (which he does) And Mantis hasn’t said an unkind word about Wanda in a very long time. Being a mother brings a whole new dimension to her. Ben Grimm cracks about how any “red-blooded American kid” would have a hard time calling her “Mom” due to her sex appeal, and Mantis rightly points out that people don’t often think of her as a mother---which is a small but VERY true commentary on how people can’t seem to conceive of motherhood and sexiness in the same woman outside the MILF stereotype---but she is, and she is a very devoted one, and she’s a great mom while also having sex with the Vision even while she also has a “mate” in the Elder Cotati, and she’s not portrayed as wrong for this in any way; she and the Elder Cotati seem poly I guess. And being a mother, being the Celestial Madonna, gave her a bunch of additional new powers, she’s stated to be a GODDESS now, and she ends up being able to TAKE ON THANOS and she WARNS him---”This one is life, Thanos, but hurt her son and she will kill you. That is a promise.” So, she’s a very well-rounded character, she’s very assertive and confident woman with every right to be, while not being arrogant. She’s got some really nasty flaws, she can be cruel and catty when it comes to romance, manipulative when it comes to achieving her goals when there’s not even any need to be, but she also matures and develops. She’s a great mom who also has an active sex life and nothing is shown as wrong about it. She starts out with admittedly very racist trappings---the mysterious seductive martial artists Dragon Lady from the Far East who seems devoted to her white boyfriend--but grows beyond it in spades. I can see why a modern movie might want to shed SOME of that baggage...but making her into a cutesty-poo side character with nearly all her incredible canon powers gone, while ALSO erasing her ethnicity and cultural identity, doesn’t seem at all a step in the right direction to me.

#mantis #marvel #avengers #gotg #guardians of the galaxy #meta #mantis meta #sorry for the novel but I wanted to talk about it #and you provided a very good opportunity #out of cortez

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tomeandflickcorner · 5 years ago

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Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: The Old College Spirit

So, I suppose this could be considered a Peter centric, since he does play a significant role in the episode. But I gotta say, he doesn’t display his best qualities in this one. Rather, it highlights many of his worst traits.

It begins at a frat house at an unidentified university. This particular frat house is occupied by the fraternity Tri Kuppa Bro. At the time the episode opens, three members of Tri Kuppa Bro (the Wiki article identifies them as Dudley, Specs and Willis) are being confronted by Dean Fitzroy about a series of pranks that someone has been playing throughout campus, which apparently included 300 bats being placed in Dean Wriggle’s refrigerator and a slime pit appearing in Dean Fitzroy’s driveway. Dean Fitzroy is accusing the members of Tri Kuppa Bro of being behind the pranks, but the three frat brothers insist that they’re innocent, and that someone is framing them. Dean Fitzroy, however, doesn’t believe them and states that he’ll make sure that they’re expelled. As he turns to walk off, a ghost suddenly appears and kicks Dean Fitzroy off the porch before disappearing as quickly as he appeared. Which, of course, makes Dean Fitzroy even angrier, turning a deaf ear to the frat brothers’ attempts at explaining that it was a ghost. In order to try and clear their names and prove their innocence, Specs suggests they pay a visit to the Ghostbusters.

Dudley, Specs and Willis arrive at the Firehouse in time to see the Ghostbusters being visited by members of the West Side Women’s Club. They’re presenting the Ghostbusters with a commemorative plaque as a reward for ridding their community of ‘undead undesirables.’ Their attempts at presenting them with this plaque is interrupted when Slimer pops into the room. The women voice their shock that the Ghostbusters have a ghost living with them, completely scandalized by the notion. To this, Peter makes a snide comment about the lead woman’s weight. Which was quite rude of him, I must say. However, I’m not sure why the women were so surprised. I thought Slimer’s presence at the Firehouse was public knowledge now, since Cynthia Crawford made him the focus of her news segment in Citizen Ghost.

Anyway, Slimer ends up inadvertently chasing the women away when he notices the hat the lead woman is wearing is sporting fake fruit and he acts accordingly. So, with the women of the West Side Women’s Club out of the way, Dudley, Specs and Willis approach Janine’s desk to inform the Ghostbusters of their problem. However Peter initially doesn’t believe their story, dismissing it as some sort of fraternity prank. Until Dudley begins to recite the fraternity motto of “Tri Kuppa Bro! Brothers through and through! So what if we're a mess? We always pass the test!" Peter joins in in reciting the motto halfway through, revealing that he is a Tri Kuppa Bro alumni. (So Peter was a frat boy? Why am I not surprised?) Dudley reveals that they’d already known about Peter’s connection to the history of Tri Kuppa Bro, mentioning how Peter became a legend within the fraternity when he ran his own underwear up the flagpole while he was still wearing them. (There’s an image.)

In any event, Peter, in light of how it means helping out a fellow Tri Kuppa Bro brother, decides to take the case. But the strange thing is, when they arrive at the frat house, Egon doesn’t seem to pick up anything on his PKE Meter. Which makes them suspect that this was a prank after all. But then, in the next second, they’re surrounded by a large group of ghosts, who wrap them up in a large rug. They eventually manage to free themselves, but the gang of ghosts have already vanished. (Why the PKE Meter failed to detect the ghosts before they appeared is anyone’s guess.) In order to cover more ground, Peter suggests that they split up. As such, Winston is alone when he once again comes across the ghosts. Although, the way this goes down does make me raise an eyebrow. Winston is lured into a room when he hears the ghosts calling him by name. How the ghosts knew his surname of Zeddmore is beyond me. Especially since their Ghostbusters uniforms don’t sport their nametags like in the movie. Anyway, the ringleader of the ghosts tells Winston that they’re willing to surrender, as they know they’re no match for the Ghostbusters. But when Winston walks into the room, he ends up falling through a trapdoor, resulting in him falling down a VERY long pit. In fact, it seems unrealistically long, considering they’re in a three-story fraternity house. Of course, it’s soon revealed that Winston actually fell through a laundry chute, as he ends up landing on a pile of old sheets in the basement, though that only leads to the question as to why there was a laundry chute opening in the middle of the floor to begin with. Seems like an odd architectural decision to me.

Unfortunately, the ghosts aren’t done picking on Winston just yet, as the sheets he lands on come alive and begin to loom over him. It then cuts to outside the fraternity house, where the haunted sheets are tossing Winston around as the ghosts stand and watch. Peter, Ray and Egon soon arrive on the scene and come to Winston’s aid, driving back the haunted sheets with their Proton Packs. However, before they could turn their attention on the Fraternity Ghosts, they fly off, with their ringleader stating it’s time to go back to school. Which means that the ghosts are heading to the main part of campus.

Upon reaching the college campus, the Fraternity Ghosts surround a large fountain in the middle of the grounds. The ringleader of the ghosts then fires off some sort of ghostly energy at one of the goldfish swimming about in the fountain. (Ummm… I’m sorry, but… why are there goldfish swimming about inside the fountain? This isn’t one of those koi pond like fountains. It’s one of those stone courtyard fountains. Doesn’t seem like a good habitat for goldfish.) In any event, the goldfish ends up growing to the size of a small whale. Out of nowhere, Dudley, Specs and Willis appear on the scene, and the ringleader of the ghosts ends up singling them out. He and two of his followers end up grabbing the three fraternity brothers and lift them up in the air, with the ringleader asking Dudley if he’s interested in a little goldfish swallowing contest. To this, Dudley tries to protest, stating that it’s them who has to swallow the goldfish, not the other way around. But the ghosts pay him no heed and simply drop them, allowing the three fraternity brothers to get swallowed up by the giant goldfish.

Okay, time out. Obviously, the episode just took a surprisingly dark turn, showing three college students getting swallowed by a giant goldfish. But the way Dudley and the ringleader ghost were talking, it suggested that swallowing goldfish was a common practice. Is this really something that happens in fraternities?! Do frat boys habitually swallow goldfish? Because that seems rather disturbing to me. To the people who are reading this review, if you were part of an actual college fraternity or are currently in one, could you please clarify this for me?

Returning to the episode, the fraternity ghosts begin to try to also feed the other students standing nearby to the giant goldfish, and they manage to grab onto a young woman student. (Again, this scene is rather disturbing.) Thankfully, the Ghostbusters arrive in the nick of time and save the young woman student by blasting the giant goldfish with their Proton Packs. This results in the giant goldfish exploding, with the young woman landing safely in Dudley’s arms. Yeah, the three frat brothers survived getting swallowed. Because they had to keep things from getting TOO dark for the kids. And they even throw in the joke of them swearing to never eat fish ever again. (Still, I feel really bad for that poor goldfish. He was just minding his own fishy business, but then he got turned into a giant fish monster without any warning and was then brutally killed in the next moment. Talk about having a crappy day!)

The Fraternity Ghosts then end up in one of the college’s dining halls, where they briefly start a food fight before the Ghostbusters catch up to them. Unfortunately, the ghosts manage to get the better of them by stealing their Proton Packs. But before the ghosts could directly attack the Ghostbusters, Peter manages to trick them with a variation of the old ‘hey, look over there!’ ploy, which allows them to get away. (Yeah, the Fraternity Ghosts aren’t very bright.) Deciding they might need to regroup and come up with a better strategy, Peter suggests paying a visit to the dean’s office in order to learn the history of the frat house Tri Kuppa Bro occupy.

At Dean Fitzroy’s office, the Ghostbusters proceed to look through some old college yearbooks. In doing so, they learn that the ringleader of the Fraternity Ghosts was Elwin Spalding. Some 50 years prior, Elwin was the president of a notorious fraternity that cared more about throwing parties and pulling pranks than actual studying. One day, they were caught breaking into one of the college offices in order to steal the final exam answers and were subsequently expelled. Upon being kicked out of college, Elwin had vowed that he’d have his revenge against the college. And it seems that is the reason why his ghost is there now. Apparently, when their former frat house was taken over by Tri Kuppa Bro, it conjured up the ghosts of Elwin and the rest of his band. With this knowledge, a plan is hatched.

The Ghostbusters end up tracking down Elwin and the other Fraternity Ghosts at the girls dorm. Just in time to see the young women running out in panic. Elwin and the other Fraternity Ghosts then appear in the upstairs windows. And they’re all wearing togas. (Guessing this was supposed to be an Animal House joke?) Anyway, the Ghostbusters approach Elwin and his friends and inform them that the college dean would like to offer them a chance to graduate. Upon hearing this offer, Elwin and the other Fraternity Ghosts are clearly excited. Of course, Peter tells them that, before they could actually graduate, they’ll need to take some makeup classes.

The next few minutes of the episode focuses on Elwin and the other Fraternity Ghosts attending these makeshift classes the Ghostbusters threw together at the last minute. The classes in question are economics, biology and physics. However, I do have a few questions about this part. Obviously, Egon is covering the biology class. Even though he momentarily gets distracted by the rare mushroom specimen on display on the desk in front of him, he really is the best choice to cover a science class. However, Peter is apparently ‘teaching both economics and physics. While Winston and Ray pretty much stand back and do nothing. Why couldn’t either of them have ‘taught’ one of those two classes? Especially since Peter stated clear as day that he was rubbish at economics in school. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea for Winston to cover one of the fake classes. I mean, it was previously established that Elwin and the other Fraternity Ghosts were expelled 50 years ago. So, since this show is mostly set in the 80s, this means that these ghosts were students at this college during the 30s. And back then, I’m pretty sure segregation of schools was still prevalent. So chances are, Elwin and the others might not have responded well to having a Black man as a teacher. (And that might also explain why they chose to pick on Winston back at the frat house earlier.) On the other hand, I might be reading too much into this.

So anyway, Peter soon wraps up the fake classes, telling the Fraternity Ghosts that they all passed their classes and are free to report to the auditorium for their graduation picture. However, that’s not good enough for Elwin. There’s still some old college traditional stuff he wanted to do before graduating. Such as the Seniors’ Obstacle Course. Okay, I went to college myself, but I don’t remember anything about an obstacle course. Is this just something exclusive to this particular college? Regardless, the Ghostbusters just go with it and throw together an obstacle course for the Fraternity Ghosts to go through. Which consists of the carrying the Ecto-1 around the school and wandering through the college plumbing system. And disrupting a college class in the process. As well as a reappearance of those women from the West Side Women’s Club

Eventually, though, it seems like Elwin gets sick of the obstacle course, demanding that he and the others be allowed to graduate NOW. (Don’t get mad at them, dude. The obstacle course was your idea.) Elwin and the other Fraternity Ghosts proceed to chase after the Ghostbusters, who lead them into the college auditorium, which has been decked up with colorful banners. And it’s here that Elwin announces his intention to kill the Ghostbusters. (I never thought I’d hear the phrase ‘prepare to die’ in this show.) Before Elwin and the Fraternity Ghosts can do anything, however, Dean Fitzroy pipes up, announcing that their graduation ceremony has begun. And before they can receive their diplomas, they should take their places for a class photo. Of course, the ‘camera’ is just a Proton Thrower in disguise, and the Ghostbusters proceed to capture Elwin and the other Fraternity Ghosts in a ghost trap. Which seems… a bit disappointing. I was actually expecting this episode to take a more unique route and actually have the Ghostbusters help Elwin and the others cross over. You know, help them achieve their unfinished business by letting them graduate and put their souls at rest. But nope, we’re just going the old blast and catch routine. Of course, maybe the show writers felt that having Elwin and the Fraternity Ghosts getting diplomas they didn’t actually earn might have sent the wrong message to kids. I suppose that’s possible.

The episode wraps up with Dean Fitzroy apologizing to Dudley, Specs and Willis for misjudging them and accusing them of causing the pranks Elwin and his friends had pulled. But as he walks off, a bucket of water falls over his head. And he immediately accuses them of being behind it. Dudley protests, saying they didn’t do it this time, either. And them Peter causally starts to walk out of the room, whistling a bit too innocently. Which indicates that he was the one who planted the bucket of water. Wow, nice work, Peter! You could have gotten those kids into trouble! (Yeah, I really don’t like Peter in this episode.)

Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything more that I could say about this episode that I haven’t said already. Though I do wrinkle my nose a bit at how this episode made the same sort of fatshaming joke twice. First with Peter calling that woman from the West Side Women’s Club fat and then with Elwin making a jab about her weight later on. Yeah, I know it was the 80s and this show was a product of its time. But when you have a woman being insulted for her weight while at the same time featuring Slimer stuffing his face at any given moment, it does present pretty mixed messages.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

#the real ghostbusters #rgb episode review #ghostbusters franchise

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klaudiafmp · 5 years ago

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War of the Worlds

“Ray Ferrier is estranged from his children: 10-year-old daughter Rachel, and teenage son Robbie. Ray's ex-wife, Mary Ann, drops them off at his house in Bayonne, New Jersey, on her way to visit her parents in Boston.”

“Later, a strange storm occurs during which lightning strikes multiple times into the middle of a local intersection, disrupting all electricity. Ray joins the crowd at the scene of the impacts, where a massive "tripod" war machine emerges from the ground and uses powerful energy weapons to destroy the area, disintegrating most of the witnesses into a grey dust. Ray collects his children, steals a van that had just been repaired, and drives to Mary Ann's empty home in suburban New Jersey to take refuge. That night, they take shelter in the basement, but they soon hear a strange roaring noise followed by an explosion, which destroys the house. The next morning, Ray discovers that a Boeing 747 had crashed into the neighborhood. A news team scavenging for food explains to him that there are multiple tripods that have attacked major cities around the world. The tripods have force shields to protect them from human weapons, and the tripods' pilots traveled to Earth within the lightning storms as a way to enter their machines, which are assumed to have been buried underground for millions of years.”

“Ray decides to drive the kids to Boston to be with their mother, but a desperate mob swarm their vehicle and they are forced to abandon it. They eventually board a ferry to cross the Hudson River only to be surrounded by several tripods, who begin massacring and abducting many of the refugees, but Ray's family manages to escape. They then witness U.S. Marines engaging in a futile battle with some tripods; Ray tries to stop Robbie from joining the fight, but is reluctantly forced to release him so that he can take Rachel to safety. Ray and Rachel flee as the machines annihilate the soldiers, and are offered shelter in a farmhouse basement by a deranged man named Harlan Ogilvy.

The three remain undetected for several days, even as a probe and a group of tripod aliens explore the basement. They soon discover that the aliens are cultivating a red-colored vegetation across the landscape that is quickly spreading; the group deduces the aliens are modifying Earth to make it more like their home planet. The next morning, Ogilvy suffers a mental breakdown upon witnessing the tripods harvesting human blood and tissue to fertilize the alien vegetation. Convinced that Ogilvy's mad shouting will alert the aliens to their location, Ray reluctantly kills him. A second tripod probe catches the Ferriers sleeping; Rachel flees and is abducted by a nearby tripod, and Ray joins her after picking up a belt of grenades. Ray uses the grenades to destroy the tripod from within, freeing all the abductees.

Ray and Rachel arrive in Boston, where they find the alien vegetation withering and the tripods inexplicably collapsing. When an active tripod appears, Ray notices birds landing on it, indicating its shields are offline. Ray alerts the soldiers escorting the fleeing crowd, who shoot it down with anti-tank missiles. As the soldiers advance on the downed tripod, a hatch opens and a sickly alien struggles halfway out before dying. Ray and Rachel finally reach Mary Ann's parents' house, where they are reunited with Mary Ann and Robbie.

A closing narration explains that the aliens' immune systems could not handle the countless billions of microbes that inhabit the Earth, and that humanity has "earned" the right to the planet by virtue of naturally coexisting with the rest of its biosphere.”

I feel it’s very interesting that this story that was adapted to be a ‘modern day’ movie back in 2005 when the original book that it was adapted from was written all the way back in 1898. I never read the original book but I’m going to have to judge it by it’s cover and say that the artworks for the book even the ones made before this movie came out all depicted very high tech futuristinc looking ‘tripods’ and it got me thinking about how did somebody come up with this more than 100 years ago. The fact that this story could’ve been set in the late Victorian era but the movie depicts it in the modern world just shows how timeless the book really is. It’s adaptable and the concept that Wells came up with for the aliens doesn’t have a time stamp on it. And that is further proven by how in the movie the aliens or specifically their tripods came from the underground. It in a way shows that we never know when they would attack it could be 1898 or very much so 2005, and that is what amazes me about this story because hear me out the actual plot is really boring and inconsistent.

This guy gets stuck with his kids after their mum decides to visit her parents and doesn’t want to take them for some reason but ok. Then aliens attack and the dad instead of going into hiding or doing anything smart comes up with the brilliant idea of ‘you’re going back to your mum I ain’t dealing with this’ and then the entire story is just him trying to give the kids back to their mother and on the way his son has to be a stereotypical rebellious teenager and decides to run away to fight the aliens, then Ray destroy one tripod and figures out how to destroy them all by the end of the movie because plot. And happy ending the kids end up with their mum how nice.

But the concept of an alien attack that dates so far back is just so suprising. You wouldn’t think that sci fi from more than 100 years ago would still hold up to how we view some of the modern science fiction movies and books.

I also just want to mention one scene from this movie that really stuck with me because of how terrifying but cool it was. I remember seeing just one scene from this movie as a little kid and that was the scene of the little girl turning around to see three tripods slowly walk towards them from the forest. I must have been like 5 or 6 seeing that I remember it was at my old house back in Poland and I never got to see the full movie till much later but that one scene really defined this movie for me. Even back when I haven’t actually fully watched it whenever somebody would mention it, I would think of this one scene. It amazed me when I got to see it in context how helpless these people were. They are trying to run from these tripods jumping and crawling onto the boats, stacking on one another others helping people crawl onto the ships or throwing their children on it so at least they have a chance of survival only to get cornered by these 3 tripods from the distance. And when they were finally on open water thinking they are safe for now two more tripods emerged from under the water. I want my story in the comic to feel somewhat like this, very hopeless. My story will include an adavnced alien race getting destroyed and run over by yet another alien species and sending a warning message to our solar system, I want the message and what is going on in the alien world that’s getting taken over to feel kind of like this one scene. As in there is no hope left and all they can do now is warn others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2005_film)

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duhragonball · 5 years ago

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: Broly -- Second Coming

The tenth DBZ movie premiered on March 12, 1994 at the Toei Anime Fair, after the airdate of Episode 220, and before 221. So presumably there was some kid in Japan who watched Dabura turn Piccolo and Krillin into stone, and then this movie, and then the episode where the Saiyans enter Babidi’s spaceship.

The original title was “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Rivals” or “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Duo! Super Warriors Never Rest.” When Funimation dubbed it in 2005, they simply named it “Broly -- Second Coming”, emphasizing that this is a direct sequel to Movie 8.

For my part, I didn’t wait for 2005 to see this movie. Cartoon Network had finished airing DBZ way back in 2003, and I was getting sick of waiting for Funimation to release the last few movies. I think Movie 8 and Movie 9 were released a year apart, to give you an idea. So I downloaded the fansubs of Movies 10-13 and watched those. I didn’t watch them in order, though, because 12 and 13 were of greater interest to me, and I was curious about 11 because I knew nothing about it. Turns out Movie 11 was the third part of the Broly trilogy, so I kind of goofed on that, but we’ll get into that later. If anyone from Funi! is reading this, rest assured that I legally purchased all four movies once they became available. As a matter of fact, I bought them again on Blu-Ray around 2009, and again in 2019 because your shithead streaming service doesn’t have them, and I can’t take screencaps from the Blu-Ray editions. So I think we’re more than square. Support the official release, kids!

So let’s cut to the chase. This movie is about Broly coming back to get revenge, kind of like how Movie 6 was about Cooler coming back after losing in Movie 5. The difference is that Movie 6 at least tried to explain how Cooler survived certain death in the previous film. Movie 10... doesn’t do this. At all. When we last saw Broly, Goku punched a big hole in his abdomen, and I’m pretty sure he exploded (!!) and then the planet they were fighting on got hit by a comet. Movie 10 just stone cold doesn’t care about any of that. It opens with a Saiyan spacepod drunkenly heading for Earth, and then it crashes on a mountain.

And here’s Broly, still glowing green and muttering about Kakarot. He’s badly hurt, but he looks a whole lot better than he did at the end of Movie 8. So I guess he just didn’t explode after all? How did he heal his wounds? Dd he heal himself, like Cell? Where did he get the pod? We only saw three spaceships on Planet New Vegeta in Movie 8. Paragus had a pod, as well as a larger ship, and Broly destroyed them both. Then there was the Capsule Corp. ship Piccolo used to join the battle, and all the good guys rode home on that.

To be fair, it would make sense for Paragus to have had a few extra spaceships handy, except the whole point of his scheme was to keep Vegeta (the prince) on New Vegeta (the planet) long enough for the comet to hit it and kill him. This is reflected in Paragus’ final scene in that movie, where he tries to make a run for it and leave Broly to die, and Broly catches him in the act. Paragus claims that he wanted them to leave together, but Broly knows that there isn’t enough room for them both in the pod, so Paragus’ betrayal is clear. The tragedy of the movie is that Broly kills Paragus, who he had once saved, and then he dies in the same trap that Paragus had intended for their enemies.

Only Broly didn’t die, because he’s here in Movie 10. There was a spare pod on the planet, and Broly somehow crawled into it and escaped before the comet hit. Then he rode it all the way to Earth, and somehow survived the trip. To be sure the only part of this that really adds up for me is that Broly wound up on Earth. Paragus planned to conquer it after killing Goku and Vegeta, so it makes sense that the coordinates would already be laid in. And Broly would want to go there, because he wants revenge on Goku.

But then the crater around the pod gets filled with water and freezes. How did Broly not drown? How did he not freeze to death?

I mean, I get that they were going for this Captain America thing, except they show the crater filling with water, and then they cut to Broly gasping for breath as the water freezes around him.

And here’s the title screen. Okay “A Pair in Peril” makes a lot more sense than “Dangerous Duo”. I never understood who the duo was supposed to be. Goten and Trunks? They’re hardly dangerous at all in this movie. But they are in danger, so maybe this is a big translation mixup.

The story picks up seven years later, with Goten, Trunks, and Videl gathering the Dragon Balls. Continuity-wise, I assume this movie was intended to be set after the Babidi crisis wrapped up. It couldn’t be set before the 25th Budokai, because Videl and Trunks hadn’t met yet, and they’re awfully chummy here. We never find out how Videl learned about the Dragon Balls. For that matter, how did Trunks and Goten know about them? I think Toei just assumed that they would find out about them eventually, which is fair.

The big thing that disqualifies this movie from canon (other than being a sequel to Movie 8, which also wasn’t canon) is that Videl doesn’t know very much about DBZ stuff yet. She can fly, and she know about ki, but she still doesn’t know about Super Saiyans, etc. But she gets a crash course in all of that over the next fifty episodes of DBZ, and by the time it’s all over this movie just wouldn’t make sense. The post-Buu Videl has seen Gohan and the others transform, she’s been on a Dragon Ball hunt and seen Shenron, and she’s died and come back to life. But no one knew all that would happen when Movie 10 was written, so they made due with what they had.

As far as wishes go, Videl just wants to see Shenron, while Trunks plans to wish for his own amusement park so he won’t have to wait in line for the rides. Goten wants to wish for infinite chocolate, and he hasn’t seen that gif on Tumblr yet.

One sidebar on their quest are these naturally forming crystals that Videl finds in the area near the final Dragon Ball. Trunks and Goten don’t care, and I’m not really sure why it’s supposed to matter. Videl remarks that the people who live in this place could make money off of the things, but their village looks very poor, so something doesn’t add up. And there is something afoot in the village but the crystals never seem to have anything to do with it.

The trio enters the village to check it out and maybe get some food, but they find a ritual human sacrifice taking place instead. This is sort of the same deal as Oolong’s first appearance waaayyyyy back in the Pilaf Saga, where the townsfolk would hand over a bride to Oolong to save their community. Only here, the monster is supposed to eat the girl instead of marrying her.

The sacrifices are organized by this dude, who never gets a name in the story. The subtitles call him “Prayergiver-sama”, and I think the dub called him a “Shaman”. The Dragon Ball wiki identifies him as Maloja, but I have no idea where that name came from. I’ll run with it, though, since I need to call him something.

Basically, the deal here is that things were pretty cool in this village until about seven years ago (hmm...) and then the climate became harsher, which apparently caused the emergence of some monster from the mountains. When the local wildlife became depleted, the beast started attacking the villagers, and Maloja convinced them that the only hope for their survival was to appease “the mountain god” with these human sacrifices.

Videl dismisses the whole thing as superstitious nonsense, which is kind of rich coming from a girl who used ki energy to fly to this place so she could summon a magic dragon. I mean, she’s right, but for all she knows Maloja’s plan is perfectly sound.

The kids offer to defeat the best and save the village from having to do any more child sacrifices. Specifically, Trunks demands Maloja’s ceremonial necklace as payment, which seems kind of random to me. There’s a big orange sphere on the front, so when I first saw this I assumed it was the Dragon Ball they were looking for, but that shows up later. Maybe it was originally intended to be a Dragon Ball in one of the early drafts and they ended up changing it but keeping Maloja’s design. But now you have Trunks asking for the thing for no apparent reason. Does he really like it, or is he just looking to humiliate Maloja by taking his stuff?

So their big plan is to hide in the buffet the villagers left for the beast, and then whenever it shows up to eat, they’ll jump out and kick its ass. Videl seemed to think she could handle this alone, but Goten and Trunks wanted to be there to see her get eaten, or so they say.

But the boys are hungry, and there’s food sitting right outside of this pot they’re in, so Trunks reaches out and swipes an apple. When Goten tries to do the same thing, Videl smacks him in the face, and then he starts throwing a tantrum.

Eventually, Videl gives up and hands Goten a roll or something to shut him up, because she’s worried that Goten’s cries will give away her trap. Trunks tells her that Goten was only pretending to be upset, and she fell for it. I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I’m not big on this movie, but Goten and Trunks are pretty awesome. I love these little shits.

But Goten’s wailing has unintended consequences. Somehow Broly heard him from all the way up in the mountain. Even though he was unconscious. And submerged in a frozen lake. Sigh...

Of course, as we all remember from Movie 8, Broly was traumatized as a baby when he heard Baby Goku crying back on Planet Vegeta, and just being near Goku as an adult was enough to drive him into a murderous rampage. So it does kind of make sense for Goten’s crying to be the one thing that disturbs his hibernation.

Moreover, Goten’s cries also remind Broly of when Goku wrecked his shit in Movie 8, so if anything, Broly’s original trauma was compounded by the events of that movie.

So Broly busts out and goes on another rampage, right? Wrong, first we gotta wrap up this “beast” subplot. Turns out it was just a dinosaur the whole time, and Goten and Trunks kick its ass.

Then they... eat it? Savage. I thought Trunks was only trying to punish the dinosaur and scare it away, but unless the villagers had some other dinosaur already curing in their smokehouse, they must have killed it and brought it back here for the victory feast.

Ok, this place is called Natade Village. Good to know.

And Trunks has Maloja’s necklace. See, I’m pretty sure this guy didn’t have a name in Movie 10 or 11, because Trunks refers to him by the chant he was doing during the sacrificial ritual.

But by the next morning, Maloja’s at it again, begging for the mountain god’s favor, because there’s some other disturbance in the village, and when Videl goes to check it out, she runs into Broly.

And they just star throwing down. Okay, so here’s where the movie really starts to get stupid. I like both of these characters, but it makes zero sense to have them fight like this. Broly spends much of this movie in Super Saiyan 1, as opposed to his jacked up “Legendary” mode. But that’s still strong enough to kill Frieza with one blow. Videl just learned what ki was a month ago, so how on Earth is she able to survive a hit from Broly?

To be fair, Mr. Satan took a hit from Perfect Cell and survived, but I think it was clear that Cell had no interest in killing him, probably because he wanted to terrorize him later. But Broly’s a deranged lunatic. He never showed mercy before, and he’s even more unhinged now. Even if he wanted to spare Videl here, I don’t know if he’d have the self-control to hold back.

Then Goten and Trunks show up, and Broly immediately goes after them, because he notices Goten’s resemblance to Goku.

So you might be wondering, where the hell is Gohan during all of this? Well, the movie doesn’t know either. We just cut to him in some far-off location, and he senses Broly’s ki and heads off to investigate. Did he just not want to join Videl on this Dragon Ball hunt? That seems a bit weird.

As for Goten and Trunks, they seem to do okay on their own, at least starting out. Their attacks have no effect on Broly, but they’re agile enough to stay one step ahead of them, at least while they’re in their Super Saiyan form.

But then Broly starts using stronger attacks, and the boys quickly find themselves outclassed. They land in this abandoned mine, which I guess was for those same crystals Videl found earlier? This is never explained. Did the villagers operate this?

The thing is, Broly clearly has these boys dead to rights, but he never bothers to finish them off. This is the same problem I had with him fighting Videl. If Goten and Trunks are in base form, Broly should be way out of their league while he’s in SSJ1. And yet he keeps tossing them around like ragdolls, and they never die and he never bothers to try harder. Is he just screwing around?

So then he just starts walking menacingly towards them, and the boys notice the seventh Dragon Ball lying nearby, so they devise a hasty plan. Trunks moons Broly to distract him, while Goten grabs the Dragon Balls and wishes for Shenron to defeat Broly for them.

So there’s a few problems with that plan, but besides all of that, Goten loses the ball in a pile of spherical crystals in the mine, so it takes him a while to find it again. During his search, he stops to take a whiz.

Meanwhile, Trunks does surprisingly okay fighting Broly alone. I guess the conceit here is that Goten and Trunks can hold their own against SSJ1 Broly, but they lack the stamina to maintain the form the way Broly does.

Eventually he has to take cover in a cavern behind a waterfall, and I guess Broly can’t sense ki or he would have found him a lot more easily than this. While he waits for Broly to leave, Trunks considers how his father would react to him hiding like this. So where is Vegeta during all of this, anyway? I used to think this movie might have been set after his death against Buu, but that hasn’t even come close to happening yet in the anime, and I’m fairly sure the manga hadn’t gotten there either. Are we supposed to believe that Vegeta just doesn’t know this is going on? He sensed Trunks was in danger in Movie 9, and he showed up in Movies 6 and 7 without an invitation.

Look, if they just didn’t want Vegeta to be in the movie, that’s fine, but they should have at least explained why he isn’t here. It doesn’t make any sense for him to sit this one out, and I have a hard time believing he would have no idea that Broly’s running amok on Earth.

Anyway, Goten finally tries to make the wish, but nothing happens. I don’t know if he just isn’t summoning Shenron correctly or what. Goten decides that he needs to move the balls out of the cave so that Shenron will have more room to manifest, and I guess that makes as much sense as anything.

So that leaves Trunks in the same bind he was in before. Broly starts doing... whatever this is supposed to be. Seriously, was this the most lethal manuever he could come up with? Even if he’s trying to hurt Trunks before killing him, there’s got to be better ways to go about it. Besides, why did he let Goten leave a minute ago? He’s the one Broly really hates right now.

Also, this screencap gives us a good look at the scar tissue on Broly’s chest. This is maybe the silliest thing in the movie. I remember in the Budokai 3 game, there’s a mode with a Red Ribbon Army theme, and Commander Red is there to introduce it, and he has a little bandage on his forehead, covering up the spot where Staff Officer Black shot him. That was a cute little joke, but this is supposed to be somewhat serious. Goku ripped Broly open in Movie 8. The scar tissue runs all the way up to his clavicles for crying out loud, and we’re supposed to believe that it just healed over like a hangnail?

Anyway, Trunks breaks the hold by peeing on Broly, and no, that’s still not as dumb as Broly growing back half of his chest.

Broly finally gets fed up with the boys and tries to finish them off, and then Gohan finally arrives to save them. Gohan’s surprised to see they lasted so long against an enemy as terrible as Broly. No, it’s not that amazing, Gohan, this movie just really sucks.

He tries to fight Broly... in his base form. Why? Why would that be a good idea? Then Videl shows up and kicks Broly in the head. Okay, so here’s why this movie is stupid.

To me, the whole point of bringing Broly back was to show how he’d fare against Gohan as a Super Saiyan 2. Movie 8 couldn’t deliver on this idea because it was made before SSJ2 was introduced. Then Gohan dominated Cell as a Super Saiyan 2, and he did the same thing to Bojack in Movie 9. Broly only lost in Movie 8 because the Z-Fighters donated their power to Goku, which made him strong enough to turn the tide.

But in this movie, it’s seven years later, and Goku’s dead and Future Trunks is gone, so it’s basically up to Gohan, with a lot less backup. But that’s okay, because he’s a lot stronger than he was in Movie 8. Sure, he’s slacked off on his training, but he still knows how to turn into a Super Saiyan 2, so maybe that’s all he needs. And Broly’s been out of action for a while too, so maybe the playing field is more even than it looks. Of course, Gohan would have to win against Broly, or the movie couldn’t have a happy ending, but most of the battle would be this suspenseful thing. Both Broly and Gohan have forms that surpass Vanilla Super Saiyan, but which one is superior? That’s what this movie should have been about.

But instead, Toei tried to do the battle from Movie 8 all over again, only it doesn’t work because most of the guys who were in that fight aren’t here for this movie. Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, and Piccolo have been swapped out for Goten, Trunks, and Videl, and they can’t look credible against a monster villain like Broly. That’s why they spend most of the fight doing comedy spots with him, and that’s why Gohan has to skip the first leg of the battle, so that he can rescue them here. In Movie 8, that was Piccolo’s job, but Gohan has to do double-duty because there is no Piccolo this time around.

The whole fight strains Broly’s credibility. He has to be at Super Saiyan 1 most of the time just to keep it from looking too ridiculous, and even that’s pushing it too far. If Videl can kick this guy in the face, why was he ever a problem in the last movie? You had four Super Saiyans fighting him at the same time and they couldn’t do anything to him. This movie has Videl survive his attacks and Trunks peeing on him. What was the point of bringing Broly back if they were just going to make him look like a joke?

So then, finally Gohan turns Super Saiyan 2, prompting Broly to whip out his Legendary form. I’m pretty sure Toei recyled the animation from Movie 8, since Broly’s clothes aren’t tattered like they are through the rest of this movie. But whatever, we’ve finally gotten to the part that I wanted to see.

And Gohan still can’t win. I wouldn’t have a problem with Broly being stronger, but Gohan can’t even get in some decent offense, which is all I wanted out of this stupid movie. If I wanted to see Broly clobber Gohan, I could have just watched Movie 8 again. I realize that this is kind of Broly’s deal, but thewhole point of doing a sequel set seven years later is to change things up.

Is Gohan using Super Saiyan 1 or 2 in this movie? You never see the lightning arc around him, which is kind of the tell or SSJ2, but the movies seem pretty inconsistent about this. Personally, I think this looks like SSJ2, but it’s open to interpretation, to say the least. My thing is, why would Gohan not use his strongest form in this fight? He knows how dangerous Broly is, and it’s not like he can’t use SSJ2, so why wouldn’t he? And this should have been clarified in the movie. This is where another character should have said “He’s gone beyond the Super Saiyan, just like he did against Cell!” Or if he’s not using that form, then someone should have made that observation instead.

Likewise, no one knows if Broly is stronger or weaker in this movie than he was in Movie 8. If he can dominate a Super Saiyan 2 like this, then maybe he’s gotten stronger. His power was out of control seven years ago, so maybe now that he’s finally recuperated from his injuries, his ki is increasing again like before. Or maybe he just got a zenkai boost from Goku nearly killing him.

On the other hand, he might be weaker. Look how lethargic he was against Goten, Trunks, and Videl. Movie 8 Broly would have slaughtered them without a thought. Maybe Movie 10 Broly is still suffering from the beating he took, and that’s why it took so long for him to ramp up to his Legendary form. And while he is dominating Gohan, it’s still a one-on-one battle. Broly never had this much trouble against a single opponent before.

I’ve lurked on message boards where fans tried to argue both sides of this, and I used to have opinions on the matter, but now I realize that it doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t have to ask these kinds of questions, because it’s the movie’s job to communicate that information. Nobody had to ask how strong Broly was in Movie 8 because they showed us. Here, it’s ambiguous, because no one bothered to go into detail.

I mean, this shouldn’t be so complicated. Each movie villain is supposed to be stronger than the last, mainly because the heroes get stronger as the story progresses. Logically, Broly ought to be stronger in Movie 10 than he was in Movie 8, and the selling point should be that Gohan is stronger too, but will it be enough? And then it is enough, because that’s what the fans want to see.

The closest we approach to this is when Gohan escapes a hold by kicking Broly in the face. I think this is one of the few times Broly actually experiences pain from an attack. From here, Gohan realizes that he can beat Broly by luring him into a river of molten lava, which was brought to the surface by one of Broly’s prior attacks.

So it seems to work, but then Gohan passes out on a patch of land right as it’s about to get swallowed up by lava...

And then Piccolo shows up to rescue him. Well it’s about time.

Only it’s not Piccolo, it’s Krillin disguised as Piccolo. Okay, that’s cute and all, but why isn’t the real Piccolo here? This stupid movie would have me believe that Krillin was sitting at home, sensed Broly’s ki, went upstairs to get out his custom-tailored Piccolo costume, put it on, and flew out here, but Piccolo and Vegeta have no idea what’s going on? This is bullshit.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I’m pleased with Krillin’s cameo here, but it just raises more questions than answers. Broly’s kind of a big deal, and this movie seems to revel in the notion that less than half the cast would notice if he showed up on Earth. Where’s Tien? Yeah, he probably wouldn’t be able to help much, but he’d be one more guy for Broly to knock around. It’d make more sense than having him fight Videl.

Anyway, Broly survived, because he has the same force field he used to survive Planet Vegeta’s destruction as a baby. For that matter, Gohan used a similar force field earlier, so maybe this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to him.

So then Broly catches Gohan in a bearhug. Why are there restholds in a cartoon? Seriously, it’s like Broly suffered a career threatening neck injury after Movie 8, and he had to tone down his style so as not to aggravate it. Only that’s dumb because he’s an anime character who doesn’t exist. Just punch the kid already.

Then Videl wanders over and tries to help by throwing a crystal shard at Broly. Well, I can’t fault Videl for being all heart, but that’s not enough to save this turkey.

Broly swats it away, which gives Gohan an opening to escape. But why? Wouldn’t Broly just let the thing hit him? It’s not like it could hurt him anyway. This guy took a Kamehameha to the face.

So Gohan decides to end this now with a Kamehameha, and Broly decides to do the same with his.... Gigantic Meteor? Omega Blazer? Gleaming Sagitarius? The video games had all sorts of stupid names for Broly’s moves, even though they all look the same. This one is, “Toss some more green shit at things.”

So then we get to a halfway decent part of the movie. Goten runs over to help Gohan, and they do a beam struggle with Broly. Cool.

But it doesn’t look good, and in desperation, Goten prays to Shenron for help.

Then Goku shows up. Is this because Shenron heard Goten’s wish? That’s the general idea here, but the movie refuses to say for certain. What I do know is that Shenron never actually manifests to grant wishes. The Dragon Balls just glow, and then this happens.

Also, Goku doesn’t have his halo, so I have no idea what this means.

Meanwhile, Trunks gets up from wherever he’s been laying, and he fires one last ki blast at Broly, for spite’s sake. This turns out to intercept one of Broly’s attacks, which seems to give the Son family an opening. It’s basically like how Vegeta attacked Cell right before Gohan finished him.

Actually, now that I write all that out, this all seems pretty derivative. We saw a Father-Son Kamehameha in the Cell Games, and a lot of this “Goku returns to help” stuff was covered in Movie 9. Even so, I dig this version a little better, because Goten is here. I still would have preferred it if Gohan had just beaten Broly on his own, without all this overbooked nonsense.

So the triple-Kamehhameha manages to break through Broly’s bullshit armor and it sends him flying into the sun, just like how Cooler lost in Movie 5, only all this green crap spews out of Broly as he dies.

Then he explodes, and the blast comes out of the other side of the sun, so maybe that’s enough to finish him this time?

Then the sun turns green for a second, like it has to burn off the last vestiges of Broly’s Gary Stu ki.

After the fight, there’s no sign of Goku, although the Dragon Balls have scattered, indicating that a wish was granted. Then Videl starts questioning how Gohan beat Broly, and she chases after him, demanding a full explanation.

As the movie closes, the narrator asks how Goku appeared during the battle, but claims that no one can ever know for sure. That’s horseshit, frankly. We know how the Dragon Balls work, and we know they couldn’t bring Goku back to life, so none of what happened makes any sense. Goten didn’t even say the wish out loud. He just thought it and Shenron heard that? It’s dumb. You had the whole movie to explain these things, and you blew it on piss gags.

Oh, and Krillin’s still embedded in the rock where Broly hit him.

So yeah, this movie isn’t very good. Team Four Star ranked it near the bottom of the list of movies and specials, and they often talk about how everyone says Movie 11 is the worst, but they actually dislike this one more because it’s more boring. Personally, I think 11 is worse than 10, but I’d hate to live on the difference.

I’m pretty sure Movie 10 is the main reason people dislike Broly. That’s not to say that Movie 8 would be universally loved if Movie 10 weren’t around. But I think Movie 10 cemented a lot of the worst aspects of Broly’s character. He comes back, surviving what should be certain death, then he survives several other predicaments, and he just says “Kakarot” over and over again for the entire movie. The only other line he speaks is when Gohan gets ready to Kamehameha him, and he’s about to fire back. Otherwise it’s all grunts and “Kakarot!”

In Movie 8, the guy at least had a personality, even if it was twisted and cruel. In this movie, it’s like they were trying to imply that he suffered some sort of brain damage. It’s just so dull watching him fight. He moves like he’s in slow motion sometimes, and he never seems interested in actually defeating his enemies.

And this is a complete inversion of how they brought back Cooler in Movie 6. Remember Cooler? He came back as a cyborg with unlimited spare bodies, just so he’d be strong enough to cope with fighting Goku and Vegeta at the same time. Movie 6 is far from perfect, but at least it understood the need to raise the stakes. Movie 10 brought back Broly and took a bold step backwards.

But at least Broly was actually in this movie, and I think that at least puts it ahead of Movie 11. I’m not sure that should be the only criteria for rating Broly movies, but I think it should be a major one.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #dbmovieliveblog #broly second coming #broly #goku #gohan #goten #trunks #videl #krillin #piccolo #well not really #maloja

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jinmukangwrites · 5 years ago

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Dear Jin, you've cursed me. I told myself superhero comics were dumb and conveluted but I honestly love your work and I've fallen in love with the characters you've written even though I barely know who they are??? The only DC exposure I've had is Teen Titans and the Nolan movies but I desperately need more content,, great Jin If it's not too much trouble would you recommend some good batfam comics to get started?? -a humble emotional wreck _(:,3」∠)_

OH MAN. OKAY.

So I'm still trying to get all caught up on comics, so I don't exactly have a whole lot to recommend, but I'll try! I'm just gonna recommend pretty much everything that I've liked, so this will be a long list cuz I like a lot. You'll notice a lot of these have to do with Dick...

A common misconception with comics is thinking you need to start from the beginning! Hate to break it to you, but Batman has been around since before the second world war so good luck with catching up with comics lol, the best way to get caught up is to pretty much look for the classic comics that the fandom has embraced. Wiki the character you want to know and read the comics recommend to you! There's a lot of stuff to know about these guys!

New 52! I'm not sure how accepted the New 52 reboot comics are in the fandom, but I love these comics! Granted, Dick's costume is weird, but it has some amazing stories and one of my favorite arcs ever "The Death of the Family". Joker manipulates and mind tortures all the Batfam and captures them to get to Bruce and it's amazing. The family dynamic of the Batfam in these comics is what I most closely base my fics off. I have mostly just read the Nightwing comics in this one tho, but I plan on getting to the rest of the Batfam in these comics eventually! (If the comics have 2011 after them, they're New 52. 2016 is the current Rebirth comics)

Nightwing (1996): SOME GOOD CLASSIC DICK GRAYSON COMICS. Dick moves to Blüdhaven, the only place in the world worse than Gotham, and makes his debut as Nightwing! Some very good classic stories in this one. Be careful with issue 93 though! There's a lot of controversy with it.

Robin Year One: a simple modern retelling of Dick Grayson becoming Robin! It's super cute and it shows how Bruce turns from a unfeeling vigilante into a hen mom. Super freaking good. Dick gets beat up by Two-Face and it's great.

Forever Evil: an evil version of the Justice League attacks earth and aims to destroy the world! Doesn't focus on Batfam, but does have a lot of Batman and Nightwing! Nightwing gets captured and his identity is revealed to the world and it's great. Leads into Grayson where Dick pretends to be dead so Bruce can send him on a dangerous, undercover mission.

Red Hood and the Outlaws: I'm only a few issues into this one and I'm loving it! Jason Todd (Red Hood) reluctantly joins a Amazonian named Artemis and I believe a reject Superman clone named Berserk I think, sorry I'm not too far in yet (-_-;), but he pretty much goes on whacky slightly illegal adventures and cause Batman more headaches than normal.

Batman and Robin (2009): Bruce is dead! Assassin Damian Wayne is Robin and Gotham needs a new Batman! Dick Grayson steps up and basically raises Damian and slowly gets Damian to warm up to being a normal kid until Bruce returns. It's been awhile since I read these, but I remember really liking almost everything about this one! The only thing I didn't like about this one is how Red Hood is portrayed as a super evil bad guy. Otherwise, I loved a lot of the stories in this one.

Robin 1993: TIM DRAKE Y'ALL. About Tim and his adventures as a recently made protector of Gotham! I haven't read all of this because it's so long and I have a short attention span, but what I've read is super good!! It's older, and older comics are usually VERY GOOD.

Red Robin: TIM DRAKE BUT ANGSTIER. Pretty much, because Bruce dies and Damian takes Robin, Tim is forced out to take his own superhero persona, again I haven't read much, but so far I love it!

We are Robin: DUKE THOMAS Y'ALL. Bruh, I just started reading his comics and I love this idiot. After Joker infected the entire city to become basically mindless Zombies and also attempted to recreate the death of Batman's parents with Duke and his mom and dad, Duke runs from the foster care he's placed it to try to find his parents who were infected and went missing. He runs into a group of teens calling themselves Robin's and he sort of reluctantly joins them!

Batgirl (2000): Cassandra Cain and her backstory! Taken under the wing of Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl now Oracle.

You can always go back to the classics as well! Experiment with the ones you want to read! All I recommend is not reading DC Rebirth for a little while, they kind of all suck, except Young Justice, I actually enjoyed reading that so far!

#long post #jin answers #ask #anon ask #mystery anon #comics recs

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irresistiibles · 5 years ago

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*slaps the hood* this baby can fit so much trauma in it!

Was that [KIM TAEYEON]? Oh no no, that was just [PEARL], a/an [CANON CHARACTER] from [STEVEN UNIVERSE]. They are [TEN THOUSAND +/PHYSICALLY TWENTY TWO] years old and [ARE] aware that they are not actually from Washington DC. Too bad they can’t stray from this city for long.

how long has your character been here

like a week? maybe? definitely not past freaking out

what is your character’s job

pearl has piles of money stored in her gem she doesn’t need to work. she might wind up helping as a mechanic somewhere eventually though.

where has your character been pulled from in their fandom

the end of the movie

has any magic affected your character

nope! one of the su characters needs to have memories to freak out with and i am more than happy to provide

and any other information you might find useful for us and the other members to know!!

alright everything from here is stuff you can definitely read in a wiki but i’ve been playing this character a lot and i like to write about here so i’m going to give the abridged version. there are su spoilers below!

on her homeworld pearls were essentially made-to-order servants. from the start of her existence pearl only existed to serve.she wound up serving pink diamond, who was like top of the order of gemkind, right under the three other diamonds. when pink got her own colony and started going to earth pearl started discovering some freedom. despite how she was made she had thoughts outside of what was asked of her and wanted more from it

eventually a rebellion started and pearl joined pink diamond (disguised as rose quartz) in it. she was super reckless during the war, easily willing to throw herself in front of rose quartz and die for her. she absolutely one hundred percent thought rose quartz and her life was more important than her own. i would say that’s something pearl has continued to carry with her until very recently, and it’s still difficult to remember to put herself first. in what was personally, not a super smart move, they wound up faking pink diamond’s death together, and rose took on the permanent identity of rose quartz. before that she basically gave pearl a gag order that made it physically impossible to tell anyone about rose’s real identity.

the other three diamonds freaked out about pink being “killed” and corrupted most of the gems on earth, essentially turning them into monsters. it left just rose, garnet, and pearl safe and alright and pearl feeling lost and responsible. still, she pushed the war trauma to the back of her head. it was fine. the diamonds were leaving. her and rose were together. they could make things alright on earth.

and for a little while they did. the found amethyst. they had a sort of a family going on. anyway, then greg comes into the picture and gets with rose. now it says rose kinda had men coming in and out of her life on earth for a while, and even though pearl was definitely in love with rose it had never really bothered her since they never seemed to truly matter to rose. gems are immortal, she didn’t care about some silly human man to have a short fling with. as long as she knew rose would pick her over them in the end of it it didn’t matter

well, rose picked greg sO. and then she had a kid with him, which meant rose disappearing since she needed to pass on her gem to steven, which is essentially her. basically she couldn’t have a kid without kinda sort of dying herself

and oh boy did pearl not handle that loss well. so now she’s alone, no rose, who was the only other one about pink diamond. a very confusing sense of freedom, since she’d always linked that back to rose and the rebellion. and steven, her half human half gem son to raise.

the good news is she loves steven to the world and back that is her baby and she’s been getting better at moving on from rose. by the movie she’s able to acknowledge that she thought rose would set her free but she didn’t, pearl set herself free. (rose? not being pearl’s missing piece? cinematic genius)

she’s got a lot of self confidence and dependency issues. as a gem that was created to serve she falls back into the mindset of being incapable of doing anything alone. she was definitely getting better with that, but i think after her reboot in the movie, even if she doesn’t remember it, it’s put her back a few spaces. knowing just how easy it was to throw her back to a perfect obedient pearl has shaken her a little and she’s more likely to fall back to other people for guidance at the moment

she’s also got a big old issue with feeling responsible for a lot of what happened with rose. since for a while she was literally the only one that knew about everything she kinda feels like she has to handle and right a lot of what happened, even with other people in the know now. she’s got a lot of guilt issues that hit her hard. so we got anxious, low self esteem, dependent, guilt complex! she’s doing great!!! we love it!!

other than that she’s a smart bird mom. ballet and war basically sum up her entire personality. on her good days she really is great. a little overprotective, but she’s got fun rebellious moments and is looking towards the future and can be fun and put together and confident. on bad days it’s a mess.idk listen i could absolutely keep going but it’s 12:30 so i’m justposting this instead of pushing my desire to keep going. if you want to hear more about her don’t hesitate to ask i will absolutely hit you up ;)))

#hw: intro #this is #so long #i've never done this for an intro before it's a lot #and i feel like there's so much more i could say #i'll start replies on her tomorrow #alsdkfjalsdfj i love her a lot #one of my all time faves

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randomfandomfamily · 5 years ago

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A very long--and I mean really really super duper loooong--post about ROTG 2

So, I’ve had this idea about a second Rise of the Guardians movie for a long time (I mean, who hasn’t, right?). But I thought about it so much that I’ve started a Google Doc to put every new detail down so I didn’t lose anything as the weeks and months passed.

And since no one I know wants to listen to me rant about this movie (again) I’ve decided to share it with the lovely world of Tumblr. And although I don’t necessarily expect anyone to read it all the way through because of how lengthy it is, I still appreciate you even if you read just a singular bullet point.

I did a lot of research from the books, sifting through several websites and even Wiki article or two. I think I’ve comprised a decent outline for a movie, but I am also just an overly enthusiastic fan, so please feel free to call me out on my obsession.

That said, click “Keep Reading” if you feel like exploring over two-thousand words’ worth of crazy frantic writing.

Pitch Black Origin

Kozmotis Pitchiner: Guardian of Innocence

Much like the Kozmotis in the novels, part of his job was to guard a cage full of certain undesirables.

Over time, children started losing their innocence younger and younger, giving Kozmotis nothing to protect or derive any power from. Being a guardian with nothing to protect made him feel obsolete, thus growing angry and bitter.

Like the other Guardians, Kozmotis’ personality reflected the aspect childhood he guarded. He was kind and believed in the good of others, making him gullible at times--and perhaps a little naive.

Since his personality reflects the fragment of childhood he guards, as innocence among children began to dwindle, so too did Kozmotis’ kindness and compassion for others.

In his rage, Kozmotis opened the cage he was supposed to be guarding and caused the Dark Ages. For this, MiM took his title as guardian, making Kozmotis even more malevolent than he already was. This anger warped him and turned him into Pitch Black, an entity of Fear rather than Innocence.

This concept was adapted from the novel, in which Kozmotis releases a horde of Fearlings that posses him. However, in the first movie, Pitch uses Fear as a weapon. They are manifestations he creates himself, and not separate beings that posses him, thus the slight change in the story.

MiM sent the remaining Guardians (North, Bunny, Tooth, Sandy) to strip Pitch of his power, resulting in his disappearance until the time when the first movie is set.

Mother Nature

An ancient spirit and a messenger sent by MiM.

She informs the Guardians of their new mission which, to their surprise, is saving Kozmotis Pitchiner.

Her powers include controlling/ becoming elemental forces, plant manipulation, empathy, and healing.

Her position is one higher than the Guardians’, but lower than MiM.

Though she has never met any of the Guardians face to face, she is very familiar with Jack Frost due to his constant use of the winds to travel and frequent manipulation of the weather. Jack, like the other Guardians, has never seen her before, and is uncomfortable with how much she seems to know about him.

Mother Nature tries to talk with Jack, which makes him suspicious of her, but she genuinely just wants to talk with him. She comes to realize that the reason Jack is so weary of her talking to him is that none of the Guardians had done it prior to Pitch’s attack, so it is understandable that Jack would question her motives.

She is actually infuriated with the Guardians for their lack of contact with the young soul, demanding an explanation from them. Upon hearing several bland excuses--inexperienced, mischievous, never had time--she tells them how much Jack had seen in the past three hundred years, like war and slavery and watching kids grow up around him and passing away.

Though she’s certainly full of sass and attitude, she also plays a motherly role to Jack once he’s more relaxed around her.

Katherine

A tribute to the Katherine in the novels, she is the key to defeating Pitch Black and bringing back Kozmotis, although she doesn’t realize it yet.

She is introduced to the Guardians by Jamie, with whom she goes to school with.

Jack, still sort of a wandering spirit, oftens visits Jamie and his friends. After explaining what’s happening with Mother Nature and Kozmotis, Jamie remembers a friend his, Katherine, who is frequently plagued by nightmares.

Jamie and his friends arrange a secret meeting with the Guardians under the guise of a sleepover.

Katherine is extremely skeptical of Jamie and friends’ story of the Guardians. She, like most children, believes in Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, etc. but the idea of them saving all the children of the world from a villain named Pitch Black seems ridiculous.

After seeing the Guardians, Katherine no longer thought the Pitch idea was so far fetched, but it did take a little time for her to start believing in Jack Frost.

Katherine finally tells Jamie that she will help the Guardians save Kozmotis, especially if it will get rid of her nightmares.

Finding Pitch Black

Mother Nature informs the Guardians that Pitch is still being held hostage by his own fear. Meaning that they are going to have to conquer the Nightmares once again in order to save Kozmotis.

Pitch’s realm has always been in the shadows. More specifically, the Boogeyman was well-known for hiding under beds, leading the Guardians and Mother Nature to believe that path that will lead them to him resides under Katherine’s bed.

After finding their way to the Nightmares’ domain, they come to realize that there is no source of natural light that is staying lit for very long. No sunlight reaches the tunnels, a torches burns out faster than it should, and Mother Nature’s bioluminescence fades almost instantly.

However, once Jack joins them in the tunnels, they soon realize he is radiating blue light. This magical light is what gives them visibility on their journey. Mother Nature explains the aspect of childhood Jack protects is what causes the light to appear when surrounded by Fear.

In the first movie, when Jack was overwhelmed by the Nightmares, he actually appeared to be glowing (we can see the blue light shining through the wall of darkness). This detail is a nod to both this scene and his former identity Nightlight in the novels.

This also serves as a symbol to the correlation between Fear and the aspects of childhood that the Guardians protect. While Fear can damage Hope, make us lose sight of our Dreams, and forget the things that make us happy, it also plays a huge role in the aspect of Fun. Activities such as riding roller coasters, climbing trees, swimming in lakes, etc can be enjoyed in spite of being afraid. In fact, most times, it is this adrenaline that makes things fun in the first place, which is why Jack shines so brilliantly amongs all the Fear.

While he can radiate light and use his power over winter at the same time, it drains him to the point of exhaustion (as seen in the first movie), so when confronted by Nightmares in the tunnels he is torn between fighting and illuminating the battle.

Of the five Guardians, Jack is still the one that finds it easiest to talk to children. Katherine is adventurous, much like Jack, and they get along fairly well. He has been the one watching over her for most of the journey. Mother Nature is perhaps the only other member of the group Katherine talks with openly, mostly due to her motherly tendencies.

The Guardians’ Relationship With Pitch Black

When Kozmotis was Guardian of Innocence, he was well-liked and respected by his fellow Guardians. Jack, at first, doesn’t understand why they are helping Pitch Black considering all he had done to them. But his fellow Guardians explain along their journey that it’s not really Pitch they’re helping, but rather a friend they’re saving.

Since Innocence ties in so closely with Wonder, Kozmotis and North were perhaps the closest of the original five.

North, though clearly ready and willing to save Kozmotis, also seems very hesitant to talk about him at all. As close as they were, North never really got over Kozmotis’ disappearance.

The other Guardians are willing to discuss Kozmotis and explain who he was to them, but North simply refuses to do so. His unwillingness to talk alludes to the nesting dolls in the first movie, representing North’s layers--or walls--that he has built up, especially around the subject of Kozmotis.

During Kozmotis’ decline in power he frequently visited Tooth, who was an unending well of optimism, to try and cheer himself up.

Pitch had to have known the power the teeth held before the Dark Ages, otherwise he never would have found out (due to MiM revoking his title). If he visited Tooth while a Guardian, it would explain the knowledge he had about the teeth in the first film, and how he was able to use it to his advantage.

Sandman wasn’t nearly as close to Kozmotis as North was, but the two of them certainly respected each other. Kozmotis communicated with Sandy easily, often interpreting for the others, or alerting them when Sandy had something to say.

The rivalry between Sandy and Pitch doesn’t occur until the Dark Ages. Despite how much they respected each other, Sandy had zero hesitation about bringing him down, which is what made Pitch so afraid of him in the first movie.

None of the Guardians consider Pitch and Kozmotis to be the same person. Sandy explains that as soon as Pitch rose to power, their friend completely disappeared. In their eyes, Pitch using Fear as a means of power was just the same as killing Kozmotis.

Bunny, surprisingly, was good friends with Kozmotis. He would often use Kozmotis’ nativity and gullibility against him in terms of practical jokes. Kozmotis would often retaliate by pulling his own pranks.

Jack is surprised by Bunny’s explanation of Kozmotis, particularly the part where Bunny partook in childish antics with him. It seemed incredibly out of character for him, although we do see those traits returning in Bunny at the end of the first movie (especially in the scene with Sophie).

It is implied that Bunny’s hatred of Jack was never really about Jack’s trouble-making personality (though he was still angry about the Easter that Jack ruined with a snowstorm) but rather, Jack reminded him a lot of Kozmotis

Bringing Back Kozmotis

Ultimately, the key to defeating Pitch is the same as it is in the books: Katherine.

Throughout the movie, she proves herself to be very brave. She is the first to jump down the dark tunnel under her bed and she is more than willing to help fight off the Nightmares.

She isn’t sure how she’s supposed to help defeat Pitch, but she promises to try, no matter what it takes.

Once they find Pitch in the heart of the Nightmares’ tunnels, he doesn’t seem to be in any position to attack them. He is nearly completely incapacitated and overwhelmed by the black creatures he created.

The Guardians do their best to fight off the Nightmares, but they keep returning, fueled by Pitch’s own fear. Admist this chaos, Katherine approaches Pitch. Jack, who is still unable to fight, accompanies her, mostly to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.

Katherine, rather than fight Pitch, opts to sit with the panicking ex-Guardian instead. She actually says very little, which surprises Jack.

He sits with them, listening to Katherine talk to Pitch in hushed tones. She assures him that he has nothing to be afraid of. Pitch replies that he certainly does have something to be afraid of, he is literally surrounded by fear.

Katherine replies by simply that he should get back up anyways. No one ever beat Fear just by sitting down. It isn’t until she directly addresses him as Kozmotis, which no one has done since the Dark Ages, that he does finally decide to join the fight.

The end result is one last battle against the Nightmares, much like the end of the first movie, but with a more definitive end thanks to Katherine.

Pitch isn’t able to do much, but with Katherine and Jack assisting, he is able to banish his fair share of Nightmares, which became increasingly easier thanks to his rapidly dissolving fear.

Throughout the fight, Pitch has less of a dark aura. He becomes less pale and his dark robes become something lighter and more refined.

Pitch Black is gone, and once again replaced by the Kozmotis that the original four knew in the past. He is no longer naive, as that is something that can never be retained, but he has certainly changed. Once they get Katherine safely back home, the Guardians and Mother Nature reconvene at the North Pole to discuss Kozmotis’ place among them.

Man in the Moon makes one last appearance to inform Mother Nature that her duty with the Guardians is done, and to tell them exactly where Kozmotis belongs, which is alongside the other Guardians.

Kozmotis is no longer the Guardian of Innocence, as that was lost long ago. But through Katherine’s influence, he has become the Guardian of something else: Courage. He will never be what he once was, but he will have the opportunity to help children as he did hundreds of years ago.

(hey there! you made it to the end! you are a very patient person, i hope you know that. apologies for the long post, but just know that i appreciate you reading this even if you disliked the idea. i hope you have a lovely morning, afternoon, or night you beautiful human being!)

#rise of the guardians #rotg #rise of the guardians 2 #rotg 2 #movie idea #plot idea #movie outline #plot outline #i actually have no idea what i'm doing with my life

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