#and the main villain’s redemption happening in two episodes !?!

[bbibbirose]

the amt of plot holes and terrible writing in fruits basket is akahjwhdjsbcj

[our-happygirl500-fan]

So I’ve been digging around the Turtlepedia wiki, going through old tweets from the team who worked on Rise & watched videos covering the scrapped Rise episodes so this is basically a post going through some of the scrapped season 2 stuff for Rise that I have found:

Rise was first written under the basis of there being three seasons

JJ Conway’s twitter posted an episode guide which showed some of the episodes that were expected to be in season two:

As you can see ‘The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle’ was one of the last episode that was released that fit the original plan for Season 2 before most of the episodes got scrapped or changed & the Rise team had to rush to finish the series.

Some of the episodes we know the synopsis of while others still remain a mystery the scrapped episodes were listed in order as:

Wedding Smashers:

This episode involves Mikey & Raph going undercover as pretend villains ‘Shady Bug & Dr Rude’ to sneak into Ghost Bear’s Wedding after they accidentally gifted Ghost Bear one of Donnie inventions (a black hole generating toaster) as a wedding gift that they then need to retrieve.

The episode was supposed to introduce the character Ghostpepper, Ghostbear’s fiancé 

The episode also brings up some continuity in having the characters be aware that Meatsweats has been missing since the episode Pizza Puffs where he got kidnapped by ‘Shadow fiend’ at the end, I wish this episode hadn’t gotten scrapped because it shows that the Turtles are aware that their enemies are going missing when Big Mama starts kidnapping them for her Battle Nexus New York.

This episode most likely would have shown Ghostbear be kidnapped at the end like how Meatsweats was kidnapped at the end of Pizza Puffs & Hypno was kidnapped at the end of The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle.   

Warren Stone 2: 

Donnie: Stand back total stranger we are fighting our greatest foe

April kept the arm that she cut off Warren in ‘Warren & Hypno Sitting in a Tree’ & the arm ended up growing into a second Warren Stone, despite April raising this second worm in secret Warren Stone Two ends up becoming the ‘turtles greatest foe’ after Warren Stone Two captures the Turtles, April & the original Warren Stone team up to save the Turtles & defeat Warren Stone 2

Parts of the episodes storyboards can be found on youtube, a running gag appears to be Mikey referring to Warren as ‘that other worm guy whose not Warren two’  

T-Hex

The episode T-Hex covers Mikey desperately wanting a robotic toy but Splinter saying no & Mikey having to sneak the electronic pet into the lair. Though the robot is adorable Mikey learns that it’s not as innocent as it seems & is actually a trap set by Baxter, the episode would have introduced Baxter in an Albearto mech

Psyched Out

Shred Dead Redemption

After the events of Manny Unhappy Returns the Foot Shack has shut down, Foot Lieutenant & Foot Brute open up a cupcake shop selling flaming cupcakes called  Fire and Icing which Raph wants to investigate 

The episode would have involved the Turtles doing a stakeout, a chase scene & the Foot clan putting themselves at odds with Big Mama as they investigate if her new champion ‘Shadow fiend’ has a connection to the missing Shredder.

The Island of Dr. Noe

Dr. Noe, the evil dentist from Todd Scouts ends up kidnapping Raph & Leo ends up having to lead the team in order to rescue Raph & stop the evil dentist.

Something interesting about this episode is when the Rise team were discussing this scrapped episode it was revealed that Leo wasn’t supposed to become the Leader at the end of Season 2, that’s right the iconic ‘Blue You Are The Leader Now’ wasn’t originally supposed to happen, instead Leo was supposed to be pushed into roles where he had to take charge throughout season 2 & the season would end with Raph & Leo as co-leaders.

Battle Nexus NYC (a full 20 minute episode) which was used in the series as Battle Nexus New York, the main difference between the original plan & the episode we got is that originally instead of Cassandra taking the Shredder from Big Mamma, the Grand Nexus Hotel was supposed to have fallen into the Hidden City with both Big Mamma & Shredder leaving The Foot to have to venture into the hidden city to try & retrieve the Shredder.

Toddler Mutant Ninja Turtles

A Mikey focused episode where a ‘bank robbing immortal jellyfish’ zaps Raph, Leo & Donnie, turning them into Turtle Tots & making Mikey the oldest brother for the episode. The episode is said to be inspired by the 1987 series episode ‘Adventures in Turtle Sitting’

Dog Dale Afternoon

April’s friend Dale who we first see in ‘Hypno! Part Deux’ gets turned into a werewolf by a witch & Donnie & April team up to try & turn him back to normal

Bee Story

Goyles Just Want To Have Fun

Huginn & Muninn reunite with Draxum, only to be confused when they find him working as a lunch server. Not wanting Huggin & Muninn to know how soft he’s gotten since his redemption Draxum begs the Turtles to help him look good in front of his former minions.

Rampagin’ Raph

Mikey & Leo have become more skilled in using their mystic powers making Raph feel left behind so Raph tries to practice in secret only to end up stuck in his giant form, Raph goes to to Draxum for help who ends up separating Raph & his mystic projection however the mystic projection ends up rampaging through the city becoming bigger & more powerful with the more things it destroys leaving Raph to have come clean to his brothers about what happened so they can save city. 

Hot Thrash  

Gourd Almighty 

Donnie grows a giant pumpkin for competition & has to have his brothers help him find a way to get the giant pumpkin out of the lair

Two pages of the episodes script were posted on Ron Corcillo’s twitter

A Spiders Web Widens 

Hidden City Heroes 

Gone Goat 

Draxum walks out after having a fight with the family but then gets kidnapped by the Foot. While attempting to rescue Draxum, the family has no choice but to resolve their issues relating to him.

The Key (a full 20 minute episode)

Karai was supposed to be introduced in this episode, she was supposed to have a larger role training the Turtles & with the family spanning around 10 episodes but due to the Rise team rushing to finish the series most of Karai’s episodes were scrapped.

The rest of the episode titles were not finalised however Ron Carney’s twitter posted a schedule board where possible episode titles can be seen.

Though Ron Carney also admitted that some of these titles are fake, the episode April Showers Mayhem Flowers might be real as the team admitted to wanting to do an episode about Mayhem & their status as an agent of the Council of Heads 

The Return of Monty Moose is also probably real as we can see Monty Moose appear in the Rise Movie’s scrapped intro so the team probably had plans for the character in season 2

Monty Moose is a toy line only character from the 1987 series so Rise introducing him as an actual character is kind of cool

[resisteverything]

Five ways the Harley Quinn show is better than spindlehorse.

1. It’s sex positive. In Helluva boss and Hazbin sex is selectively respected, and there are many jokes about STDs. Meanwhile in the Harley quinn show when Joker tries to insult Harley based on her HPV, Bane educates him on how most sexually active adults have it, and it’s never mentioned again really. The eat bang kill comic has a sex worker character who is both a sympathetic character and isn’t a victim of sex work. It’s not perfect, season four blows and it basically ruined nightwing butt jokes, but that’s an outlier and you know vizie wouldn’t have take four seasons to do even worse, and even then the joke isn’t shaming anyone for being horny.

2. The show actually centers and explores the sapphic relationship at the center of it all. It’s deranged how in Hazbin which is supposed to be a wildly raunchy adult cartoon, there is no indication that Charlie and Vaggie ever had sex, or ever wanted to. If you cut adam from the show I could believe that angels never have sexual feelings. While Harley Quinn on the other hand consistently centers these two as a couple, like even if they hadn’t become a canon relationship the two would have been infinitely more shippable than Chaggie are, and once they did they were just the best.

3. I never get the feeling that the show is written by someone who doesn’t know how to swear. A character talking like she doesn’t know how to swear is actually played for laughs when it happens because it’s meant to be her having uncharacteristically lost control of the situation.

4. The show cares about its premise. It’s not secretly about another thing. Season 2 kinda did that with Harlivy but they’re the main characters and their dynamic is central to the series. The show is about Harley Quinn’s quest to become a great villain and her relationship with Ivy, until season 3 which is about that but also Harley’s redemption which leads to her being a hero. But before then the story continues to explore this stuff instead of finding some new stuff. There’s no half an episode dedicated to some unimportant side characters.

5. The humor seems to be better from what I remember. No one is just saying crass shit to no one, they have humorous conversations. Not much I can describe but the humor I remember shows self-awareness.

[poppyplate]

minor season 5 spoilers for lmk!!!

(some sketches + my thoughts on the new season :0)

this season was so good!! i'm gonna put my long rant about my thoughts below, just cause i have a lot of things i wanna talk about :3

animation: ik the animation change was jarring for some people and i did almost cry about flying bark leaving the show when the news first dropped, but i honestly think wildbrain did a great job and the animation is still super cute and fun. it's definitely different and you can tell, but they still do all the silly animation things that flying bark did and this season honestly had some of my favourite humor (visual and otherwise).

i'll definitely miss the old animation, fully hand drawn 2D animation is becoming harder to come by in cartoons now so it's sad to see this show lose one of the most exciting aspects of it, but i'm looking forward to seeing how wildbrain does in the following season(s?). i'm honestly just glad we're getting more monkie kid content.

plot: i did enjoy the plot they set up. this season did feel different pacing wise? if that makes sense. not that it's necessarily bad i just noticed it felt a bit different. i'm really excited to see more about this whole chaos thing.

ik li jing wasn't necessarily a villain, but he was an antagonist for a bit so i'm adding my two cents about him and nezha. i didn't love what they did with their story arc, but ik there's only so much that can be done in a 10 episode season where each episode is only 10 minutes long. i think their arc would've just benefited from more time :(

villain(s): i think the nine headed demon is such an interesting character (even though he did confuse me a bit) so i hope we get to see more of him. probably my favourite big bad so far personality-wise.

main characters: i'm glad sun wukong had more screentime this season!! he always either isn't around or gets trapped, so it's nice that he was present again.

i definitely felt this season focused a lot more on the monkie trio, which was bound to happen, but i like them so i was fine with it. idk how much of a redemption arc macaque is trying to have, but i kind of hope it's not a standard redemption arc. not that i didn't enjoy macaque's character this or any other season, i do like him most of the time. i just personally hope they keep him as more of a neutral figure even if he does stick around with the group.

i don't have much to say on mk that hasn't already been said. i love the guy and i hope he gets to be happy again soon T^T

side characters? ig: i thought mei and red son's episode was cute. i love dragonfruit interactions a lot, but i do hope red son gets some more screentime next season cause i miss him </3

i am happy sandy got some more screentime though, his episode with mk was cute. also tang was so real this season, he's just like me fr (i hate manual labor).

other notes and whatnot: this season felt shorter somehow, even though it wasn't and i'm not sure if we'll be getting a special like we always do or if they're just going to move on to the next season. either way, i'm excited to see where it goes from here.

although i wasn't in love with the ending of this season, it just felt a tad rushed and i definitely think we would've benefited from a few special episodes again.

i'd give this season a solid 8/10. i would love to go through all the episodes and share my thoughts on them, but i'm just gonna share my ranking of the episodes.

(i feel pretty even with 1-2 and 3-5)

1. collar the king

2. temple of the goddess

3. the cage

4. sacrifice

5. strings that bind

6. into the pagoda

7. claim to flame

8. harbinger

9. the storm within

10. festival fugitives

[flower-boi16]

This is a problem I've never seen any hh/hb critics bring out so...both shows lacks story arcs. There are so many definition for story arcs, but I'm going to explain what I mean by that. Story arcs for me is a certain part in the story that works like pieces focusing different journey or problem for characters in the same story. If both shows have story arcs like if season one of helluva boss focus on the imp doing their job and their beef with cherubs, season two focusing on their beef with dhorks. Season one of hazbin focusing on hotel's clients bonding, and season two how angels think of redemption. Each season can have multiple arcs going on, but given how limited episodes they got on each show, I decided to make each season focus on different arcs, but the writers have no plan how to organize different arcs resulting in many conflicts showing out of no where, and rushed payoff because they don't know what they want to focus. If the hh/hb crews know how to utilize arcs, they can put as many characters as they want as long as they can give enough episodes for their development. Imagine if every harry potter's villain showed up in the same book, that's how I feel about hh/hb.

HH and HB are just structured pretty poorly. They cram multiple seasons worth of plotlines into just 1-2 seasons and messes with the pacing REALLY bad. It all feels so...cluttered and unfocused like the shows don't know what they want to be about.

HB is ESPECIALLY bad at this as I've talked about before. The show completely forgot it's main premise and turned into a soap opera about Stolitz. It has no idea what it even wants to be anymore and it comes to a simple lack of structure.

Season 1 laid the groundwork for a lot of the show's issue and Season 2 would go ahead and make those issues significantly worse.

There's just two many conflicts and recurring plotlines for a show that currently has only 1 completed season, with the second still ongoing. It makes it into kind of a mess. Hazbin is at least better structurally but it still faces a lot of the same issues that HB does when it comes to how it's paced; the first four episodes feel like the first season and the second half feels like the second season because it feels like there's this giant gap in between halves where major things happened, but...we just never saw it.

And for HB, conflicts like the Dhorks plot line and Stolas' family drama are conflicts that are already enough to be the main story's of whole seasons, yet the show crams them into one season and it again, gets unfocused as hell. The seasons of both shows just choose to focus on multiple things at once rather than just having one, maybe two major plot lines per season, one show sets up six plotlines into just it's first season and the other rushes to the stuff that feels like it should be saved for season 2.

I just want to emphasize how unusual it is for a show to have this much stuff in just 1-2 seasons. Most TV shows tend to have one or two main recurring plot lines per season, with some smaller plot lines here and there that are typically plot lines for a specific character relating to their arc. HB in just it's first season set up six major plot lines within its story. Let me repeat that. SIX.

There's just. Too much shit going on in these shows. Plain and simple.

[spxdyr]

i can't sleep and i keep seeing people angry at gerrards "redemption" so i just wanna talk about redemptions again for funsies.

i genuinely don't think what gerrard did should be considered a redemption because it wasn't. gerrard didn't save the day, bobby and the rest of the 118 saved the day, gerrard was simply a pawn. he was the person who could realistically get close enough to ortiz to get her to let her guard down without raising any alarm bells.

gerrard only agreed because he would get something out of it. and i truly believe it isn't the what that makes a redemption but the why.

i'm gonna use prince zukos redemption arc from atla as my example/comparison genuinely i genuinely believe its one of the strongest redemption arcs in all of television history. i'm also going to use negans from the walking dead because its a very divisive redemption arc that i also believe is one the greatest in tv history because of what it isn't.

first, i want to emphasize that i wholly believe that redemption isn't up to the narrative its up to the audience. the narrative can try to convince you of anything but if the audience doesn't buy it, it doesn't mean shit.

but onto the actual point. gerrard did a good thing, he is not a good person. bad people do good things all the time because two things can be true at once.

the reason zuko has such a strong redemption arc isn't because he did a couple good things. its because we as the audience saw him go through genuine introspection and come to the realization that he wasn't a bad person doing bad things. he was a good person influenced by the people around him to do bad things.

but it also so good because we saw the episodes watching him not only ask for the Gaangs forgiveness but also the audiences. we as the audience were forced to sit down with zuko and decide whether or not we would be able to redeem his actions. and character by character we as the audience found ourselves forgiving him.

it also helped that zuko had a character in the show who was the mirror of his redemption. iroh was also a good person who did bad things but we are immediately forgiving of those bad things because we are constantly showed his goodness through zuko.

gerrard didn't have any of that. in fact the only characters that are still presented in the narrative that might mirror gerrard come in the form of tommy. who also didn't get actual redemption. he was granted forgiveness by passage of time. which as an audience member doesn't change how i view him.

zuko got redemption from both the narrative, the characters, and the audience because he earned it. gerrard didn't get redemption from either, he just did a good thing for personal gain.

on to negans redemption. i want to preface this by saying im a negan defender until the day i die so if you hate negan, disregard this i guess.

negan was offered a redemption by the narrative, the characters, and the audience, and technically he didn't take it.

the thing with the walking dead is that technically there's no heros or villains. there's just people trying to survive, the hero is whoever's story you're following the most and in this case it's rick and friends. there are however, people who are objectively worse than others (ie the guy who tried to sa a 12 year old carl).

negan wasn't a villain he was an antagonist. he was the very thing in the way of rick and friends' main goal, survival.

and he was a good at it. he was so good at it he killed two main characters in one episode, then about 2-3 more over the course of his run as the primary antagonist. then he lost. and spent years in jail for it.

and at no point during that jail time was he offered, nor did he ask for, redemption. because at the end of the day he did what he thought he had to, to survive. and to his people he was a hero.

negans redemption doesn't actually start until years after his arrest. and it happens through judith. a character who wasn't there for negans big performance but was directly effected by it. judith saw negan for what he was, a man trying to survive. and a man who was at the very least good enough that her brother wanted him not be be killed as his dying wish.

negan didn't ask for judiths redemption, she's just a child. but judith, in her childlike optimism, could see the "good" in him.

and objectively, negan was "good." he had his rules that made him better than a lot of other antagonists in the show. rules like no hurting kids, no sa, etc.

when the narrative did finally ask the audience and the characters to see things from negans perspective it wasn't forcing us (or the characters) to forgive him. but inevitably, many characters saw negan for who he was a person who did bad things to survive. and the audience could choose what they wanted to do with that.

in fact, there's a character who, much like much of the audience, refused to forgive negan. maggie was the most affected by negans little performance as it killed her husband in front of her while she was pregnant. and negan never asks her forgiveness, he never expects it. negan doesn't want to be redeemed by anyone let alone maggie. he is only good to maggie as a debt to be repaid. one that he also agrees will likely cost his life.

negan is the perfect example of how redemption isn't just a part of the narrative. a character's redemption doesn't come from the story, or even just the characters in the story. redemption comes from the audience AND the characters agreeing to redeem that character. and the audience and characters don't have to agree on the redemption.

but the thing about gerrard is that he wasn't redeemed by anything. he wasn't redeemed by the narrative because the story was telling us that bobby came up with a plan and gerrard agreed because it suited his interest. he wasn't redeemed by the the characters because it was still pretty clear (at least to me) that the 118 still don't like or forgive gerrard just because he did one good thing, for his own interests. and he wasn't redeemed by the audience because as far as the audience ive interacted with have told me, they still hate that man.

the narrative can't force the audience to redeem someone. that's why the audience is there. the audience is as much a character in the show as the actual characters. especially in the age of social media. so if you hate gerrard still, good you're supposed to.

nothing about gerrard changed so why would we consider one good action a redemption arc? was buck suddenly a villain for filling the lawsuit? no. was eddie suddenly a villain for hurting chris? no. was hen suddenly a villain for cheating on karen? no. was chim suddenly a villain for punching buck? no. then gerrard wasn't suddenly a hero for turning on his body cam and egging on ortiz.

storytelling isn't the place for black and white thinking. there's so much nuance in it. if the show was constantly telling you exactly what to think it would be bad tv. gerrard wasn't redeemed in the same way the buckley parents weren't redeemed, in the same way the diaz parents weren't redeemed, in the same way tommy wasn't redeemed.

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[applebuttercringe]

Arcane finale initial thoughts

This episode was a roller coaster for me.

-She cut her hair off screen? Why? If she is about to commit suicide I don’t see the desire to get a new look beforehand. Usually stuff like big haircuts signifies rebirth is storytelling, a shedding of the past. This is the opposite.

-A whole melancholy Jinx tries to kill herself scene. I’m so tired. Give her a break.

-the song is haunting

-I know that they established that the time travel doesn’t work past 4 seconds, so no saving Isha. But they should have saved Isha.

- I don’t get the Jimx with the flag in the intro. She never really became a leader for Zaun. She briefly called herself it during the prison break out. But that was about saving Aisha. Then she abandoned it entirely for Vander. She really never became a revolutionary. She avoided it.

-They built the hexgates with no off switch? Did Dr doofenshmirtz teach us nothing?

-We never see Caits reaction to Jayce’s….everything?

-How does Jayce know that?

-so Viktor died, he was brought back via mad science that stripped him of his humanity, and then, the exact same thing happened again. Something something two nickels weird that it happened twice.

-Does Maddie know about the sex with Vi?

-Is this the Waarwhik Viktor team up?

-If shutting down the hexgates is a slow but steady process. He probably should have started it earlier instead of having meetings to tell them how long it will take to shut down. Is there a reason he didn’t do this immediately after Viktors mannequin attack.

-Is Loris dead?

-Is Cait never gonna tell Maddie?

-Is Maddie gonna die so it never has to happen?

-The Undercity member of Caits new team is the first to die.

-Very similar imagery to Caits gassing of the Undercity

-Oh damn, they won

-Maddie was a spy, the theories were right

-Cait used the same gun butt jam move on Maddie that she did on Vi.

-Cait won’t die. I don’t believe it.

-MADDIE THAT IS COLD

-Damn Mel

-Are they gonna be saved by Mel’s newly revealed magic powers that came outa nowhere? How did she master them so quickly?

-Jinx incoming

-I guess Ekko convinced her

-Ex Machina

-Dod Sevika convince the Undercity?

-what is with the sense of time this act. I have no idea the time between events. I thought Cait passing out was at least an hour time skip seeing as everything calmed down, but then Vi and the pianist are in the same place and same position as before?

-Is Viktor dead? Oh it was a trick.

-He ain’t in the egg.

-the hex ray from season 1?

-NEW DESIGN SLAYS

-nevermind he looks like a hammerhead shark.

-Cue all the fanfictions where this is resolved with freaky sex

-Is Sevika dead?!

-Cait you just got stabbed, how are you walking?

-With every scene change you can feel the writers struggling to keep track of all the characters. This fight scene is never ending cause we keep needing to pause for an ex machina reveal. It’s Voltron all over again.

-This is reading as Mel will become a new league champion. Mage support. The new design and everything.

-“People deserve to choose their own fates.” Says the guy who fuses Viktor with the Hexcore against his will.

-That was a cool Mel moment

-Is she saving her mom?

-So will Ambessa give up and Viktor is the new main villain?

-How did that kill Ambessa? I’m so tired.

-I can’t tell if 23 more minutes of this is a good or bad thing

-This redemption is sweet but, meh.

- Aw, they are flying like it is the invention of Hextech again.

-More loss for the sisters, cool.

-Oh, it’s the top of the hexgates like it was in the dystopian apocalypse.

-Them losing and the apocalypse happening would at least be an interesting ending.

-Viktor is spirit bending Jayce’s soul like he’s the avatar

-AS IF THEY COULDNT GO HARDER WITH THE CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. Jeez

-It’s like Viktor is asleep behind the mask, or dead.

-“what you thought were weaknesses” “your leg, your disease” “there is beauty in imperfection”. Was he supposed to find beauty in dying young Jayce? It wasn’t a random imperfection. It was a disability and debilitating disease caused by Piltover senseless mistreatment of the Undercity. Demonizing Viktor for wanting to cure himself, or make life better, or being able to run is so dumb.

-Yeah Viktor how dare you wanna live.

-Between that and the Silco speech this seasons big moral monologues are really flat yet sanctimonious.

-Viktor is in there. Seeing once again!

-“All I want is my partner back” gay baiting till the end eh Arcane. I’m not complaining about this, I eat it up every time. I am losing chess to this dog.

-AAAH LOVE IS GONNA SAVE HIM

-oh, the mage is Viktor. That’s. Hmmm. It’s fine. Don’t know how I feel about the goatee.

-Do you think they intended this twist from the beginning?

-“In all time lines, in all possibilities, only you can show me this” damn. Diversity win I guess.

-Now kiss lol

-Handing the bracelet back like Viktor gave it back to him in Episode 3 of season 1

- and just like that I’m back

-“We finish this together” 🏳️‍🌈

-They’re writing the fix it fanfic for me

-All the mannequins go to space?

-The hug 🥺

-Caitlyn’s gonna get a dope eyepatch

-Aww, Vis arc is about trying to save people and self sacrifice. You have to move on and live for yourself Vi. You can’t save em all.

-Save her Jinx, get involved and make a positive difference.

-Oh no, don’t kill Jinx. Don’t do it. I saw it in the trailers. No

-If this is a fake out death it is dumb, if this is a real Jinx death that is dumber.

-

Jinx suffered the most out of anyone in the series. She tried to kill herself and was saved by Silco, she tried to killer herself and was saved by Isha, she recovered with Isha, Isha died so she tried to kill herself again, she is saved by Ekko, and finally kills herself as a sacrifice for Vi? Fuck that. This endless pain train was t a recovery, it was just revelling in her pain till her violent death.

-SHES ACTUALLY DEAD

-Oriana, sure

-SINGED GOT TO LIVE. HE GOT A HAPPY ENDING? HE KEEPS THE HEADS OF KIDS HE KILLED IN HIS EXPERIMENTS IN JARS.

-alright. Ultimately fuck this show. It was so good, then it messed it all up. Ultimately this show was just about reveling in Jinx’s pain. I’m too tired to have coherent thoughts but. That was the worst ending they could ever had done. F this

[spotlightlowlife]

Charlie hazbin reduced to an extra

S1 should have sold us on Charlie entirely, her ideas and motives, her connections with others or lack of.

Others keeping major secrets from her, working at her place because someone else wants them to, accepting bribes offscreen in a pilot episode that's pretty much mandatory viewing but selectively cannon, fighting besidr her in war when they had no choice and simply not wanting her to die, all don't tell us anything about how much Charlie is loved or even liked.

Charlie worked as both Lucifer and Adam's strawman, they are two individuals who are and aren't at opposite ends, both are mad at the sinners and are happy to see them brutally slain, however neither like one another, their is a rivalry on one side and torment from the other, yet for all these years they somehow existed keeping their distance from one another whilst sticking to an agreement that benefited both of them, which was dealing with the sinners. Charlie served simply to bring these two perpetrators together.

Lucifer could have been the main or singular hurdle whilst still being an unthreatening goof, simply by thinking her idea was a waste of time and putting her in a position where she would have to explain or prove herself. What if he didn't have the resources to easily get Charlie an audience in heaven, what would his use be then?

Why wasn't his involvement called out? This would have been better grounds for Charlie to guilt trip her daddy over rather than 'distant during childhood' and 'never supporting me giving me what I want' she chose to sulked about which got her her own way.

Since Charlie managed a pointless talk with Adam back in episode 1 and so much effort has been made to tell us Alastor is this big threat that even Lucifer is weary of immediately, if only she had entered into her meeting with her dad with a load of options, showing her as a little more competent and bringing her back into focus.

Adam successfully got someone a place in heaven, ironically, with minimal effort. This someone was easily the most deserving of sinners we met and was worst of all, someone who Charlie wasn't even looking at as the ideal redemption candidate.

Charlie appeared to look to popularity, a juicy storyline and a cool friend, if her portrayal were to shift to highlight a bit of a shallow person then we would have great grounds for development, but s1 ended and that didn't happen, she didn't move on from 'nice' and 'innocent' and in effect it was Adam, the villain nobody cared about who did Charlie's job which was more than a job but her whole dream and purpose, for her - Charlie is oblivious to this last part, but knowing this wouldn't help her cause neither.

Lucifer rushed in to save the day just in the nick of time, him and Adam shared some of their history with us, it was all about them, them the baton got passed.

[selfshippinglover]

SMG4 SPOILERS AND EPISODE THEORY/RAMBLING BELOW THE CUT !!

So, we all agree that Puzzles latest form has an Omega Flowey vibe right? Right!

But that has me thinking, could that potentially be a part of how his WOTFI story ends two and what could that possibly look like?

Option 1: Redemption

Okay, so I know that what he to Meggy was straight fucked and personally I wouldn't be forgiving him for that tbh BUT arguably Flowey did worse? Like, he literally killed the rest of monster kind because he was bored. Because he wanted to see what would happen but also as an expression of how trapped he felt without any other real people-or friends. So arguably all that Puzzles has done so far could potentially be forgiven under that logic.

If that were the case, I imagine it would play out like a regular SMG4 style fight that eventually ends with a rap battle since it is WOTFI. After Puzzles is inevitably defeated by the power of friendship and memes(lol) SMG4 offering him a friend since looking at his thing with Leggy it's clearly something he wants and something he could be capable of. They could have SMG4 flashback to how he used to be when he first started making videos, have a heartfelt speech about how they aren't so different and offer him his hand in friendship or at the very least a compromise of sorts. I like to think the others will disagree and then SMG4 will give them part of a heartfelt speech about how their continued support was what helped him make things right. There's a chorus of reluctant agreement, and the episode closes off on good terms more or less.

I would hope following that we would see Mr. Puzzles slowly earning each individual characters trust,(ESPECIALLY WITH MEGGY) apologizing, and taking some time to be more in the background to recuperate. From then on he might show up as a side character. Whether that be silly villain of the week antics, an ally for bigger bads, a shoulder to lean on in the writer's room, or some other secret third thing is up in the air. he could do anything from there really! The main thing is that he's decided he has to change and will make a real effort to now.

or

Option 2: Death (PLEASE NO NOT MY HUSBAND PLEASE)

A lot of people have guessed it and I definitely get why between Puzzles doing body horror shit to Meggy, and literally everything else he's done to torture the crew. It could easily be done thematically and other characters have died under similar circumstances before, like everyone hates him fr, and I'm pretty sure he just broke whatever chance he had at having a real relationship with Meggy. It makes sense that they would have a typical fight followed by a WOTFI showdown and decide everyone is safer if he's dead cause man does NOT know when to quit FR!! I think it would be thematically fitting if they got him down to his tv screen casing and pounded him into to tiny little pieces. (it would also break my fucking heart but ya know QwQ) Getting him down to something small enough that it can't reformed is probably the safest bet for keeping him down and out for good.

Option 3: Meme Ending(joking)

[grutadodaibo]

Lily Orchard's criteria for fictional works and how to write with her as part of your audience

I watched a lot of 2010's critics when I was younger and out of them I think Lily Orchard was probably one of the worse ones, in the sense that even for 12yo me the arguments on her videos were weak, flawed and untrustworthy, which is a lot that's coming from someone who thought that Nostalgia Critic's reviews were masterpieces around the same time. I took notes from what I understood from her videos and made a criteria list for what can be considered good writing based on her own opinions

- Characters need to be as vague and shallow as possible so actual characterization can be dismissed in favor of headcanons and other assumptions of what they are like, there's no better version of a character that isn't the one you see in your head.

- Your characters' morality need to be gray and complex but also it needs to be extremely black and white so discutions about a character's actions can't be made or questioned.

- Redemption archs only work if the character you are writing can't me considered a villain in the great scheme of things, sanitize as much as you can, don't engage with what the character is going for and if possible kill everyone with no remorse

- The plot should be in your face and straightforward and as possible, so everything considered "filler" can and should be thrown out because engaging with fiction takes time and being patient is a sin, so make sure you don't waste your audience's time with whatever you want to do that isn't the main goal of your story. The journey doesn't matter as long as you take your audience from Point A to Point B.

- Everything needs to be taken literally, nothing is allowed to have a symbolic, allegoric or metaphorical meaning, surface level is the only way, trusting your audience to interpretate your stuff is a categoric error

- At the same time, surface level things that are just there to be cool are horrible things to have because it makes people question why is it there in the first place and why should we care about it

- Fanmade material is more important than the official thing and it's related works, not because you like the thing and want more of it but because you can use it as a substitute for the actual thing

- Serialized stories are inherently bad and episodic stories are the superior form of storytelling, if an episodic series transitions to a serialized one, or even bounces between the two, that's bad because you aren't able to recognize that piece of fiction the same way you did when it was episodic due to a sudden tonal shift and that's for all fiction... don't try to analyse case by case or how and why it happens in the first place, that's an objective fact.

[revive-the-fandom]

Hey! Saw your essay about the inconsistencies. Ah ye. When contrasting the Httyd movies with the shows, I like to not take it all that seriously. "But the shows are canon!!!!!" the shows are a beautiful and meaningful AU of the movies and vice versa; I've fared wonderfully treating them like that. Keeping the good parts for inspo and tossing the rest tbh.

E.g. I'm keeping Dagur and Viggo and the Fireworms for canon. Maybe there was an outpost called Dragon's Edge once, but I like to think to myself that Hiccup merely used it as a weekend base camp / storehouse for further explorations rather than actually living there for extended periods of time. He had to make all his Httyd2 improvements on Berk somehow within those five years lol. He would have had to abandon Dragon's Edge wayyy earlier to be able to have a constant presence on his home island that would earn him the village's support and Stoick's eye regarding Chieftainship. I'm definitely keeping the volcano eruption though. Also the Buffalord, the amazing Season 4 Hiccstrid kiss, the Night Terrors and Chicken. And of course the gang becoming better friends.

...On the other hand I'm definitely treating Heather, Mala, the Wingmaidens and all the dragons I don't personally like as vivid fever dreams lol. I'm also ignoring the comics. Had Hiccup truly encountered Viggo and gone through all of that Rtte character development canonically, he wouldn't have acted as naive as he did in Httyd2... Viggo already taught him better than that.

Those are just my two cents, they are also helping me embrace such things as Homecoming etc.

If you could build your canon however you liked, what would you keep? :)

I don't know if you meant it like this but I do want to clarify that I adore the first 2 movies, GotNF, LotB, RoB, DoB, and RttE. And I like elements of Httyd 3 and Homecoming, but not them in general.

(I have no intention of reading the comics - they don't interest me).

Criticising stuff I like, and pulling it apart to see how it ticks is literally my biggest hobby, so, no problems enjoying it there.

I would honestly keep most of it, so here's a list of some of what I'd remove instead:

The inconsistencies between httyd 1 ending and RoB opening - mostly to do with the dragons' integration into Berk and the new infrastructure for the dragons.

Stoick's inconsistent and easily swayed opinion on the dragons - he would never allow them to be banished from Berk unless he was physically forced to. They saved Hiccup's life, they pretty much are Hiccup's life, and he would never dishonour Valka's memory by going against her ideals (esp since her son basically redeemed her weirdness by proving her right 15 years later).

Gothi's role - she shouldn't be the only healer on Berk, she shouldn't even be a healer. They made new characters for Mulch, Bucket, Mildew, Johann, Silent Sven, Alvin, Savage, Dagur and Heather (and most of those are males) so just kick one of those out and build a new healer for Berk (bonus points if its a relation of one of the Riders e.g. a Thorston).

Johann's villain arc - I've talked about this a lot already so I won't repeat myself but this was an atrocious direction to take.

Viggo's redemption happening off screen

Dagur's redemption happening off screen

the Hunters having exactly the same ships as Drago (who comes from outside the archipelago & is designed with a different aesthetic than the vikings)

inconsistencies with the Hunter's Lore

Ryker being forgotten - the brother of ur main villain???? hello?

Krogan being so inconsistent...

Where are the women warriors???

Defenders of the Wing Lore Inconsistencies

Mala's whole personality - during the trial episode and marriage episodes especially

nearly every woman has a love interest

Dagur x Mala (not necessarily the ship - fandom adds depth to it tbh - but just how the show itself handles it)

Throk x Ruffnut (it's fine its just boring and doesn't add anything)

Gruffnut. the man annoys me - his design is lazy, his voice is annoying, he has an intruiging opportunity to add depth to the thorstons but is never utilised

Agnut. same as above

Astrid being in love with Hiccup but only in a conventional "im a woman and I will get jealous at any opportunity" kind of way

Gustav's lack of character development

the A team should not include those characters. Bucket and Mulch are farmers WHAT are they doing here. Gothi is old as fuck and she's got important shit to be doing (like apparently being the ONLY healer on Berk - srsly what r u gonna do when she dies?). Spitelout is on the Berk Council and is one of the main leaders of their military, why would he want to be bossed around by a 19 yro. the only one who makes sense is Gustav.

why does Astrid have to build the A team at all?? shouldn't Stoick or the entire military force of Berk teach themselves to use dragons to fight off invaders????

Astrid being so inconsistent with her suspicions and cautions.

Astrid randomly deciding to be Mother to dragons like Garf and throwing away all her military training and paranoia to bring said dragons on actual military operations??? like just say you needed a conflict and picked The Woman to throw under the bus.

Heather's (and Oswald's) mild backstory inconsistency.

Heather being a femme fatale.

Posing for the camera

The Wingmaidens - they're an obvious scramble to add female characters but they fall short on believability and worldbuilding.

The Bewilderbeast beneath Beserker Island. I don't like how... fucky.. this makes the plot. We didn't need this, we could have just ended on Johann & Krogan heading towards Valka's mountain, which could explain why Hiccup was still exploring the archipelago in httyd 2. then we could have done a post-credits-esque scene with Valka decimating Johann and Krogan. boom, vibes preserved, plotholes kind of prevented.

ok theres probably a lot more but this was all i could think of. Ik it looks like a lot but most of it is just tweaking canon. the majority of RoB, DoB, and RttE are wonderful. otherwise I wouldn't give half of a shit about them.

[theprinceandthewitch]

After learning how Dana was never gonna get into the Wittebro and Evelyn lore, it makes sense why they wasted their final two episodes on TC's redemption and Huntlow lol.

That's pretty horrific ngl.

It really does make you wonder how The Kiss in SAI was going to happen without ever showing us Philip's history with Caleb and Evelyn.

In SAI, they literally made King say, "skip to the finale because it's quite a payoff" over a whole ass Lunter kiss, but they were never going to get into Philip's backstory... that kiss was a thing that was on their minds and... idk man, I think we should be grateful TOH got canceled, considering how the canon couples played out lmao.

I thought that they had Caleb and Evelyn's story figured out and were gonna do a big reveal after the build-up they did in HM and TTT [plus, the grimwalker details hidden in the background in previous episodes]. But it's like... oh... no... they weren't ever gonna go there. They were only ever going to give us vague hints in the background, which will be missed by most people. It existed purely as theory fuel because they were never gonna give us shit LMAO. And hey man, I'll take these Caleb/Evelyn = Lunter hints - because Luz and Hunter getting together makes sense for the main story, but that doesn't mean the show should get pass for neglecting its main villain.

So, yeah, it's no wonder why Belos is completely absent in season 1 - he is not considered to be the most important piece to the story. That's why season 1 is Like That... they wanted a multi season show, but they didn't want to put alot of effort into into their main antagonistic force - the thing that actually drives the main conflict in a story.

That's - uh. hm.

So that's why Hunter doesn't show up until Season 2 - not for shippy reasons, but it's because of his history with Belos. Hunter is tied to Belos' backstory, but the writers didn't actually want to show us his backstory, so the lil man needed to get placed in limbo for a whole season. Without Hunter and Philip, they can continue to avoid the main plot for as long as they want to.

That's - hm... TOH getting cancelled really was a blessing all alone tbh

[carnelianwings]

Went and saw Gundam Seed Freedom in theatre last night, I have so many thoughts about it (as you'd expect for a long time fan - I've been waiting for this movie ever since they announced it), there will be spoilers behind the cut, but the spoiler free highlights:

This movie is everything I ever wanted out of a Gundam Seed movie - the characters, the mecha, the OST, the cast, everything. It is as much a continuation of Cosmic Era as it is a celebration of Cosmic Era at its best, there's so much love put into this movie I can genuinely say I enjoyed every minute of it from the beginning to the end. My one and only nitpick is that they recasted Cagalli, but Mori Nanako does a fantastic job, so much so I don't have anything negative to say about her performance. (More on this behind the cut below, as I will delve into spoilers.)

Story pacing was actually really good here, in that there's no true retread/recap of both Seed and Seed Destiny. The movie assumes you've seen both, and while you could arguably get away with a cliff's notes version of Seed Destiny (even I know how much of a Base Breaker it is from watching it as it aired in Japan), if you sat through it you're rewarded between the shout outs and extra emotional impact from some of the scenes. There's a few brief clips of flashbacks to the prior series, but to me they feel like they're providing context (as you don't get to hear the characters' inner thoughts the same way you would out of a manga or a novel of the same story).

The animation just looked so good on the big screen, even the CGI used for the Gundams (like they've been doing in the newer Gundam series) looked fantastic. So smooth, no stock footage, you can tell where they made obvious homage shots to the original, but they're clearly redone for the movie. It was a feast for the eyes, in more ways than one.

The OST is fantastic, the way Sahashi wove the various melodies from songs past and present were a delight to the ears. I particularly love how he kept using various melody lines from Shizuka na Yoru ni as a way to musically reflect Lacus's journey and arc through the movie - just a line or two of the main melody, sometimes shifted into minor key, sometimes intertwined with another character's theme (usually whoever she's interacting with at that moment). There's also some glorious reprisals from both Seed and Seed Destiny, all rearranged to give it a grander, more spectacular sound to match the on-screen spectacle. Definitely one of Sahashi's best works, and I'm really happy they brought him back for it. Also, if at all possible - don't listen to the OST before seeing the movie. It will spoil key moments for the final battle, especially if you know which themes are used where.

Now, onto spoiler territory.

First and foremost, I really feel like Seed Freedom manages to redeem Seed Destiny as a whole. My biggest complaint in Seed Destiny is and always has been that Shinn's redemption happens in 5 minutes in an epilogue that was added on in an extended cut - I loved the idea and potential of Shinn as something of a Villain Protagonist early on, and even as we watched him spiral further and further into his grief and anger throughout Seed Destiny, the fact we never got to see what redemption and atonement meant for him was something of a sore point. One of the things I love is a good redemption arc, where the character learns from mistakes they made and improves themselves as a person, as an individual, and we finally get to see that here in Seed Freedom.

Shinn finally gets to do what he really wanted to when he enrolled into the academy, and under Kira's command he shines. For a character that was so heavily defined by his grief and anger for 50 episodes, he's done a 180 here, putting in the work and effort to turn his life around - we get more scenes of him smiling and eagerly working to help Kira as part of the team in COMPASS than angrily scowling or yelling at someone. He's finally found someone he can look up to and work towards being; it's clear he looks up to Kira as something of a role model, both as a goal and commanding officer, and has been rewarded accordingly as the pilot of the Immortal Justice. He's a lot calmer now, long gone are his days fighting for glory on the battlefield, he puts a priority on COMPASS's main mission of intervention and protecting civilians (so much so he'll voluntarily use Immortal Justice's shield to protect them over keeping it to defend himself). But it's not to say his past is completely forgotten or even retconned away - he gets called the Freedom Killer multiple times here (largely as a way to get at Kira too) and while Shinn never denies having been that person, his reaction shows he treats it as Old Shame, something he did but is no longer proud of.

And the true pay off to his arc comes in the end, when he gets reunited with the Destiny thanks to Cagalli upgrading it to the Spec II in the final stretch of the movie. He greets it like someone would greet an old friend, proudly and triumphantly launching this time to the fanfare of Seed Destiny's next episode preview bgm - it's hands down Shinn at his most heroic, and it's a moment he's earned. He's finally become the person he wanted to be at the beginning of Seed Destiny, before he let his grief and anger cloud his mind, before he was manipulated by Durandal. And in the end, his journey through the darkness that was his time under Durandal's command become his strength, granting him a spectacular flawless victory over the Black Knights achieved through his own skills - Stella protects him from the Black Knights' Mind Control, and his instinctual berserker Seed Mode keeps them from reading his mind to predict his moves. It's after all the trials and pain he went through that he comes out at his absolute best, and the Seed Freedom version of Shinn is hands down the best version of him.

Character development aside, it's genuinely heartwarming to see a character that was so narrowly defined by his grief and anger to be the one who brings a lot of the light and levity in what's otherwise a fairly heavy movie. Seeing him as a Big Eater during the ball at Foundation, his entire reunion with Lunamaria after she thought he'd been KIA'ed in the joint operation on the Blue Cosmos base, him getting hit by both Kira and Athrun during their brawl (with neither of them noticing ^^;;) - he's come so far since his Seed Destiny days he's (and I can't believe I'm actually saying this) one of the major highlights of the movie. And then there's his smile at the end when Kira finally relies on him and his cheerful response.

And of course, I can't talk about Shinn without mentioning Lunamaria - they've both come a long way from their days at the ZAFT military academy (if you go off the prequel novel Moonlight Valkyrie) and even from their time on board the Minerva. You can tell there's genuine love and affection between them, mutually supporting each other both on and off the battlefield, between them sharing a room onboard the Millennium and the energy transfer moment between the Impulse and Destiny. There's even a clear moment of redemption for Lunamaria's shooting skills when she shoots down a tactical nuke in her Gelgoog. And while she's definitely not one of the main focus characters in the movie, she still gets her moment of triumph, launching in the Impulse once more after Shinn's Destiny. Even though she's relegated to the Designated Chick Fight, it's a moment of personal triumph for her - she's grown as a person since her academy days, her time on the Minerva and with Shinn and Rey has changed her, and she's a better person for it. Even her time pursuing Athrun (even though he doesn't return her affection at all) comes back as a Meaningful Echo in how she ultimately deals with Agnes. Instead of choosing to kill Agnes in her GYAN, Lunamaria does something of a "pay it forward", disabling the GYAN and returning to pick her up from the moon after the fighting is over. Like Shinn, it's clear Lunamaria's in a better place than she was during the finale of Seed Destiny, and she also gets to join in on some of the lighter moments of the movie next to Shinn.

Onto Kira (because I'm saving my favorites for last), who is most definitely the main focus of the movie, along with Lacus and his relationship with her. Is his story arc a rehash of Seed? In many ways yes, and in so many ways, no. On a surface level, sure - we once again have Kira trying to shoulder the entire burden of the team on himself, of trying to do everything without relying on anyone else, of pushing himself to his limits, and as icing on the retread cake, we're even treated to a CV Kuwashima Houko girl (Agnes) trying to get his attention and affections. And that's about where it ends, because Agnes' motivations are vastly different from Flay's, Kira's circumstances this time around are entirely different from when he was in Seed - this is more about Kira realizing he really doesn't have to shoulder everything by himself, that even if Lacus is a non-combatant, she's there to walk next to him side by side, that Lacus's love for him is completely different from Flay's (initial) love for him. For Kira, it's The Power of Love while also echoing Seed's earlier themes of how easy it is to fall into old habits and make the same mistakes again. It's about Kira finally breaking past his remaining trauma with his relationship with Flay - he finally realizes that Lacus wants to be with him for him, that she never expected him to hand her everything she wanted on a silver platter, that she's willing and ready to work and walk with him to their final goal and destination, wherever that may take them. His relationship with Lacus was never a transactional one like it was with Flay - even if Flay genuinely grew to love Kira in the end, her true feelings for him never managed to reach him before she dies. And in the end, once he realizes what he has with Lacus, once he gets a chance to talk to her and clear the air, he's rewarded with a shiny new upgrade to the Strike Freedom, Lacus voluntarily joining him in the battlefield, and of course, that ending on the beach.

As for the whole "Is Kira Yamato a failure because he was a failed Accord or just Orphee insisting that he is superior to even Coordinators as an Accord" debate, ultimately it doesn't matter (at least in terms of Kira's arc - on a meta level, yes I absolutely want to know lol). He's got the one thing Orphee will never have (Lacus's love) and with that behind him he can overcome anything.

Honestly, if this is where we end Kira's story, where he gets to go off into the sunset with Lacus, to live quietly in the middle of nowhere (or even return to Marshall Islands to stay with Reverend Malchio) where he doesn't have to fight anymore, where he can just spend his days with Lacus until there's some world-ending reason to step back into the cockpit, I'm good with that. Kira never wanted to be a mobile suit pilot to begin with, he only ever did it to defend the people he cares about, and if this is where we part ways with him, because in learning to rely on other people, he also realizes he can hand things off to Cagalli, Athrun, and Shinn (and by extension, Lunamaria), I'm good with that. (I'll get to Cagalli and Athrun after Lacus, I want to save my favorites for last lol)

Lacus always came off as a little too perfect, a little too good with her words, and with a Seed Mode that ... didn't activate like your traditional Seed Mode (for one thing, she never gets the Seed burst animation on screen when she goes into it; she almost always monologues her way in). And I have to say it was satisfying to see that crack some more this time around, where her decisions are a bit more questionable, where she's finally having to deal with some of the consequences of her actions (and by extension Kira's as he answers to her and only her within COMPASS). But ultimately in the end, she's still the same Lacus as ever - Silk Hiding (nerves of) Steel, steadfast in her love and support for Kira, something that nothing can change, not even meeting her genetically destined partner in Orphee. And yes, while even she gets in on the action this time, quite literally delivering the Proud Defender to Strike Freedom to upgrade it into the Mighty Strike Freedom, I don't really have much to say about her.

I will say this though (because it gets very indirectly touched on by Athrun) - if Lacus hadn't fallen in love with Kira, and had continued with her engagement to Athrun as set up by their parents, would she have gone with Orphee? Would that alone have changed events enough so that Athrun might've been conveniently KIA'ed so Orphee would've been able to sweep in?

Now, onto my personal favorites (and complete show stealers this time around): Athrun and Cagalli.

Where do I even begin? Athrun being a Big Damn Hero for Kira not once, but twice? Cagalli taking over Lacus's role for being Crazy Prepared, Bearer of (Gundam) Gifts this time around?? The complete insanity that is the Z'Gok hiding the Infinite Justice Type II??? The (remote) Battle Couple fight????

Cagalli's just pure Crazy Prepared this time. She's learned from the painful lessons of the past 4 years, ensuring there's a plan in place to get her people to safety, immediately issuing evacuation orders for the civilians to avoid direct orbital laser bombardment from Requiem. She's made peace with the fact that sometimes, you really do just need to hop into a Gundam to get shit done, so she's seen to it that the Gundams for the top COMPASS pilots are available should they ever need it. She's the one who came up with COMPASS in the first place, providing some much-needed legitimacy for what Kira and Lacus want to do. She's also very clearly been training with Athrun for mobile suit training - where she once Could Not Keep Up, she's able to seamlessly pilot the Infinite Justice Mark II remotely, a less advanced unit than Shura's Shi-ve.A, without Shura ever realizing it was someone else piloting it. She's back as the Goddess of Victory, now older and wiser and all the better for it.

For all that she hardly showed up on screen, her presence was felt everywhere, most especially whenever Athrun's on screen. Really, I wouldn't even be surprised if the next time we see Orb get threatened by Orbital (Laser) Bombardment, she tells her people to get inside to safety before turning on a shield to protect the cities and then taking the field again.

And as for Athrun - it makes sense he didn't join COMPASS, even though the fact he has a custom COMPASS pilot suit and the Immortal Justice was clearly designed with him in mind. He's found his place in Orb, staying by Cagalli's side as her personal knight. He's even got his own custom suit with the Z'Gok-hiding-the-Infinite-Justice-Mark-II - he's got everything he could ask for while still being able to do his part to maintain peace. And in a double redemption moment - Athrun's the first one to throw the punch this time when Kira starts wallowing in his self doubt and lets his insecurities get the better of him, repaying the favor Kira did back in Seed Destiny when he, well, Saviour'ed the Saviour. Athrun's the one to remind Kira that as a close friend of Lacus's that her actions this time don't sound like the Lacus that he knows, and this time (unlike when he did something similar with Shinn) it works and gets Kira back on track. Poor Shinn - he thinks Athrun's about to do the same thing to Kira that Athrun did to him during his time on the Minerva, but while Shinn's not entirely wrong, he's also misreading the room a bit, not realizing this is a "They're really good friends, and sometimes they just gotta throw some punches to work shit out" moment.

Because in overcoming everything that happened in Seed Destiny, Athrun and Cagalli have finally grown into the people they both want to be. They've found their way, fighting for what they both believe in. Their time apart in Seed Destiny forced them both grow as individuals, so that when we get to see them working together again it's in perfect sync. In so many ways, Athrun and Cagalli (and not Kira and Lacus) are the ideal the Cosmic Era wants to push - two people working together side by side, regardless of genetics, as partners and equals. The dream of Coordinators and Naturals, living and working side by side in harmony - that's them. And ultimately, it is what they do that brings the heroes victory and lets everyone fly off into the (metaphorical) sunset together. They played the long gambit - creating COMPASS (giving Shinn and Lunamaria a means to atone for the things they did, giving Lacus and Kira a legitimate way to stop skirmishes), upgrading the Gundams, being there for their friends and allies when they needed it (Athrun literally knocking sense back into Kira, Cagalli coming in with the equipment upgrades) - all while keeping their priorities in order (first the civilians, then reequipping allies, and then finally going into combat together to take down Shura), and it all pays off in the end.

Really, is it any wonder, then, when Shura tries to read Athrun's mind in the final battle he's just thinking of hot (naked) Cagalli?

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

You know, when I saw the action episode in the Season episode list, it thought it would be something big since “action” is the concept of the bee miraculous. Which gave me two ideas (one before I knew it was a ecological episode, and one after)

Before:a epilogue about Chloe having a small redemption and ending and having a good ending

After:I imagined the premise of the entire next season being about facing a evil scientist who had a multi steps plan involving sabotaging the “miraculous ladybug” so he could make he’s company thrive around fixing the damage he’s mutant monsters create (making a problem and then a solution)

(You know to make a actual criticism to capitalism, company’s and contamination)

and getting ladybug’s trust, only to pretend ladybug took he’s arm off on a accident fighting a monster (it was actually a prosthetic/upgrade he gave to himself) to slander ladybug and make he’s way to presidency to put everyone against the heroes so no matter if ladybug defeats the monster, she’ll be hated, he’ll be loved and sooner or later that would give him the miraculous by making ladybug’s job harder and harder.

And then is revealed the guy wasn’t supposed to actually get that far (probably a accident on the timeline caused by Gabriel’s wish which transcends space and time) and he ends up deleting the time line of future Bunnix by just existing, and the guy kept making monsters and even turning people into monsters until he had so much power it seemed invincible until he’s own (favorite) monster betrays him to replace he’s plan of “becoming humanity’s god” with “destroying humanity” because he forgot making a monster pure evil (even in code) meant making it very treacherous and untrustworthy (a villain who’s only true enemy was he’s own ego and pride, who couldn’t even think of he’s monsters betraying him for how high he sees himself) and then the monster (who use to be people) would become the main threat for what’s left of the arc

Am I in the wrong for expecting the episode titled after the concept of one of the most controversial characters, which happens after THE FINAL BATTLE to not have any relevance in any way shape or form and to happen before said finale?

Maybe I should have lowered my expectations when I discovered it was a “wannabe Capitan planet” episode

I can understand. I thought the same thing, though I can understand why this episode wouldn't connect to anything, seeing how it was meant to be something shown in classrooms.

But given everything that happened in Season 5, we really needed an epilogue episode to really show the aftermath of the events of the season finale.

[ultraericthered]

A tale of two "tragic downfall" villains.

Really think about this - the villain is someone who has suffered greatly in his life to the point of being a traumatized, fragile wreck of a person but is a close friend of the story's main protagonist and works alongside them for years until certain events make his hatred, pride, and need for power, control, and the loyalty of others grow and put him on a worse path, on which he betrays the protagonist and leaves them for dead, taking over his friend's group and making all of them follow him now, and when the protagonist returns to face him and get him to relinquish his control of the group, they have a fight to the finish where the villain proves once and for all that he is too far gone to see reason and beyond hope of redemption, so he ends up meeting a terrible, painful demise. Which one did I just describe?

And I don't want to tear either one of them down, since they're both phenomenally written villains who star in their own dark, tragic tales that were both very well executed. ....BUT, I have to go here: I believe there is one thing that one of them got down a lot better than the other one. And it ain't the damn dirty ape.

I am referring to the quality of pathos, which is derived from, for lack of a better word, humanizing the character. Matt Reeves has expressed very clearly that we are intended to feel pathos for Koba, and for his limited screentime in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and in the first act of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we do. The poor bonobo was terribly abused, tortured, traumatized, and damaged by callous human scientists and has the physical scars to show it. Even after joining with Caesar and being allowed by him to personally kill his abuser, the deep hatred of humans and fear of what might happen to him and other apes should humans find some way of striking back at them remains with Koba for years; the one thing he ever learned from humans was hatred and nothing else, as Caesar puts it. But the deeper into Dawn we go and the worse Koba gets, the issue arises. Caesar and all these apes were family to Koba for a good many years, years lived in peace and relative happiness, with Caesar even likened to a brother to Koba. However, after a heated dispute with Caesar over his willingness to work with humans turns violent, Koba is beaten down and sees none of the other apes are on his side, he turns his thinking around to view any "weak" ape who'd side with or have leniency on humans to be no better than humans, and that he needs to secure the loyalty of the stronger apes (including Caesar's own son) by taking Caesar's life and framing the humans for it. So he goes for it. And keeps going. And going. And going. And in all this time he's being a villain, the whole second half of the movie, there's not a single moment where Koba ever feels conflicted over what he's doing, no visible traces of remorse nor any sign that he's internally pushing back against remorse because second-guessing himself and surrendering to feelings of shame would reflect weakness. After he's shot his "brother" and left him for dead, Koba is stuck playing the one note of being an evil, wrathful, deranged, murderous monster. There is no metaphorical dog he won't kick, no one he won't mow down in order to assert his dominance and satisfy his rage, and no limit to his blatant hypocrisy. And yes, it was the narrative intent to have Koba slide so far down the slippery slope that he becomes this twisted caricature of his former self who must be put down. But at the time he's condemned and dropped to his painful demise by the ape who was once his brother, there should be a tiny twinge of pity and sadness that it had to come to this....but I think most audiences just cheered when it happened, as there was nothing in Koba left to feel any pity towards.

For Simon, being the equilvalent to what Koba was in the second half of the film occurs only in Book Three's final episode, "The New Apex". In the episodes prior to it, throughout the course of Book Three, Simon is one of the main protagonists and has a wide range of facets and emotions to his characterization; we see moments of him and Grace having the sort of camraderie with each other that could only come from years spent together as friends that makes them both a bit easier to like despite their apalling actions, we get funny bits from him that endear him to us, we see him get sad, get frightened, get confused and unsure of the direction Grace is taking things in, hear about his personal interests, learn about his past trauma, see him vulnerable and interally torn up by conflict. When he works together with Tuba in the Color Clock Car, even sharing a laugh with her, figuring out she's colorblind, and learning more about the sad past with her deceased daughter that also shows him how much Hazel means to her, we can tell that all his views about "Nulls" and about the train are being challenged and he's starting to second-guess himself, to think that this "Null" might be so much more than he'd written her off as from the start, which would lead to guilt and shame over all the "Nulls" he'd mistreated and killed in the past...and so naturally, there's the internal pushback from Simon, because he not only cannot admit to being wrong, he cannot let himself be wrong: he has to be right all the time so that all the years on the train and in the Apex can mean and amount to something beneficial to him rather than having all been a sad waste that'd render him a pitiful, insignificant failure. So with all doubts dispelled from his mind and clear from his consicence, he deliberately and cold-bloodedly sends Tuba to her death, and feels proud to have done so. Things only spiral downward into further darkness and madness from there.

Simon finding out that Grace learned the truth about Hazel before he did and withheld it from him as a secret between herself and the "Null" is the tipping point for him. He snaps, turns against Grace and leaves her for dead, and like Koba, now feels there is no one in his life that he can trust to be on his side unless he were to force their loyal devotion to him through fearmongering and shows of dominance. And yet even in "The New Apex", even with Simon at his most irredeemably loathsome and psychotic, the writing allows for some pathos. When Grace saves Simon from falling off the train, he asks her why she did it. Grace responds "I don't know." Looking at Simon's face in the brief silence that follows, we can tell that deep down in his heart of hearts, he was hoping for Grace to give him a different answer. Something like "because I love you" or "because you're my dearest friend", or "becuse I didn't want to lose you", or "to make amends to you for everything" or even "because you're not the one who deserves to die; you were right about me, about everything." But instead, he hears a vague, ambiguous "I don't know", as it was just basic human decency from Grace and nothing deeper than that. And thus goes away whatever was left of Simon's mind and heart, as he kicks Grace off the train to her apparent death in an act that rescinds years of love and friendship built up with her, raises Simon's number higher than even Amelia's, and sends him into a complete mental breakdown as we see a surge of conflicting moods all over him. So then even if his grisly end that follows elicts some cheering from viewers (I certainly wouldn't blame them!), that tiny twinge of pity and sadness that it had to come to this is very much there by the time Simon is dust on the ground that Grace is sobbing over.

Two exceptional villains in two exceptional works, but only with Simon do I get the sense of a victimized and vulnerable not-all-bad person who tragically descended into becoming a mega asshole. With Koba, I just see a mega asshole.

[gryficowa]

Hey guys, I watched the review of "Horseland", didn't I?

And suddenly I hear that the twins' names are Chloe and Zoe, it blew me away so much

So I entered the name of the cartoon and the names of these two and this is what I found

The question is whether Thomas did it by accident or, as usual, he stole ideas from better creations than his series

Although it's hard for me to say whether "Horseland" is better than what Thomas did, it probably has similar problems to Miracolous, but in a slightly different way (I happened to watch the series itself, but with Polish dubbing, it was probably less stiff than the English one, which it amuses me)

But let's be honest, at least "Horseland" didn't have a theme with a terrorist getting a redemption arc and the mayor taking bribes (And there wasn't a guy like from fandoms when there's a ship war who sells ice cream without permission)

Seriously, I didn't pay attention to the character names until I watched the review of the entire "Horseland" and found out about the names of the twins

What was my point about this show having similar problems to Miracolous but in different ways? Well, miracolous has a lot of problems with sensitive topics and, ironically, it does worse than a series about a girl in a latex suit who saves Paris from black butterflies

Ableism, i.e. a scene where mean characters run over a blind girl and laugh at her, ok, they could have made it interesting, but this character has no reaction to Ableism towards her, which gives the message that Ableism is ok

There's a lot to unpack here, and the main cast is too overprotective of this girl So yes, the moral is that ableism is ok and you have to prove to able-bodied people that you are worth somethingBecause she's blind, you know she can't cope on her own)

As a person on the autism spectrum, I feel this too strongly and I don't really need to explain where the problem is

The character is dyslexic and well, the episode could have worked, but the attack of the mean girls (Even though all the characters are mean, but strangely only the twins are considered mean, which is strange) and the lack of awareness of where the limits are when writing ableism is quite sus

There was also the topic of racism, but funnily enough it is criticized more often on the Internet than ableism, so this is quite an interesting fact about children's series

Damn, even in the case of miracolous, more people talk about racism, but they don't say anything about ableism, and this series also has problems (The fact that Kagami's mother is the only character in the series with a disability makes me feel a bit disgusted)

The trope of a disabled villain is unfortunately common, but also ableistic, ok, it may be less so when there are characters with disabilities in the group (It's like a non-white villain, if the main characters are white, it's racist, but if they are same origin as the villain, one has a much different feeling)

And well, I don't need to tell you what the connotation of miracolous is

Both series have problems with this topic, but in different ways, Horseland tries to tackle a difficult and delicate topic, but it comes out so bad that it hurts, no matter what group you are from, you will feel it

Miracolous, on the other hand, rarely tries to touch on a sensitive topic and it comes out differently, you can see it with racism that wasn't done very well, or the topic of parental violence (Chloe, Adrien, Felix and Kagami are the main topic here), but compared to Horseland it is more difficult to estimate, because many episodes don't try to teach a lesson (Maybe it's better, I don't know what other shit Thomas would do if he gave more lessons on a topic he knows nothing about)

Although the only explanation for Horseland is when it was created, while Miracolous is already a rather new series, so we should look much more critically here

So yes, this is the paradox of it all, I have classically written too much, but you see, the paradox of the characters' names led to this rethinking of all this.