#and they didn't spoil the big twist in the trailer!!!

[ar3s-r4t-qu33n]

So... Brokeback Mountain but make it toxic yaoi??

[w4gg]

Wallace and Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl Spoilers below‼️

(This was going to be a bunch of separate posts but they’re too short to be on their lonesome so enjoy my mindless rambling)

When Wallace went over into the grassy area I KNEW we were getting a Shaun the Sheep cameo but I expect SHAUN not the FARMER I’m still so happy though Aardman spoiling me again ☺️ And heck they might’ve even had Shaun in the corner or something and I hadn’t noticed because I was too shocked at seeing the farmer like I KNEW hed be there but when I saw his backside I was thinkin “No. WAY” yknow?

How do you think they did the scenes with water and milk? I’m sure theres an obvious answer but I genuinely wonder because it looks smashing (They used CGI, It was in-fact obvious)

We got more moments of Gromit acting like a dog, Aardman you do take care of me ❤️ He’s so cute in his dressing gown and his slippers I love him

Bro when Gromit looked so happy to get a pat from Wallace and then he whipped out that invention like bro NOOO GIVE HIM A PAT I'm so glad he did at the end they're so cute

The REFRENCESSS bro when Wallace finally saw Feathers my fingers were crossed so hard I was praying he’d say “Good Grief! Its you!” again because that line delivery is so funny and he DID, and the “cracking toast” line omg Aardman knows what their fans want

I was hoping Fluffles would be at the final scene with the tea party but seeing the way it played out makes it understandable

We didnt get to see them hug which upsets me, also a severe lack of cheese imo

I literally didn't watch the trailer nor the teaser all the way through because I was worried I'd piece too many things together and spoil it for myself and Im glad I didn't because I went in knowing practically NOTHING

did you guys SEE Gromit as a kid? I know we got baby Gromit but now we have ADOLESCENT Gromit he’s so CUTEE his eyes are so BIG and Wallace was BALDING

Best part about this is once I stop obsessing over W&G (and who knows when that’ll be) I’ll start obsessing over seeing more Shaun the Sheep seasons. With Aardman you’re ALWAYS winning

I knew Gromit wasn’t going to die because like you can’t do that? Plot armour but I was still so worried cuz he was dangling there and I was scared Wallace was gonna jump after him but NORBOTS FOR THE WINN ugh I love them all they didn’t deserve being used like that

I’m probably reaching but I saw so many parallels between The wrong trousers and Vengeance most fowl which I love, on purpose or not it was nice to see them

Why was Norbot so freaky at the recharging scene

BROOO WALLACE DIDN’T WANNA EVEN TALK ABOUT LOSING GROMIT THAT SO SAD THATS HIS BEST BUD RIGHT THERE he looked so betrayed when Gromit didn’t like Norbot I feel bad for them both if only Gromit could talk

Talking of which Gromit and Feathers are so expressive which is like “duh they’ve always been” but like they cranked it up several notches in this movie e.g. that scene at the end with the turnip Feathers reaction was so animated I loved it

They both look so big in their dressing gowns I love them so MUCCHHH RAHHH

I cannot remember that last time I was actually surprised by a plot twist because WDYM IT WAS A TURNIP? THIS WHOLE TIME?? Wallace had the diamond in his HANDS and nobody had a clue oh my round of applause for Feathers because that is just clever 👏

Nicholas did in fact give us a naked Wallace, thank you Nick ☺️

When Gromit hugged Norbot in the end UGGHHH THEYRE SO CUTE

Not enough people are talking about Onya Doorstep

Gromit looked so confused Feathers smacked him they’re both so funny I want to fill them with an unhealthy amount of carbon dioxide

If they’re serious about this I’d love that Ron deserved more screen time

Ben did a great job mimicking Wallace’s voice, but there’s still a noticeable difference when compared to Sallis’ and don’t get me wrong I’m glad we’re getting new W&G content, but I also really wish we still had Sallis

[cursedvida]

What were your impressions before watching Kingdom and its promotional media? I was kind of feeling odd that Freya Allan was being promoted as the only leading human character alongside apes that I had two thoughts:

1. She was pretty enough to gather male audiences and would be like a side-along character like Nova from 1968.

2. (Initially, and hoping it didn't happen), there would be some plot twist, and she would subtly be paired with the ape character.

Mind you, I only saw the teaser trailer and promotional posters in the theaters, and while I was more interested in watching the new lore on ape kingdom... I wasn't initially interested in seeing humans and thought that their presence would overshadow the apes in the movie. Again, I wasn't particularly excited for a possible human x ape ship to get out of this movie (let alone an actual pairing).

But Tumblr is a strange place that can challenge your preconceptions and I got little spoiled with the plot that fuelled my curiosity. So I went to see what the whole thing was about, and lo and behold, I ended up as a shipper and feeling so excited for the next movie to come out and see the drama it will unfold that I want the critics to be so enraged for the controversy it's going to be 😈 hahaha!

Well, the truth is that I was curious to know what her role was going to be within the story. I expected her to be a more flat character; I don't usually have high hopes for female characters in big franchises because they often get sidelined. Seeing the minimal role they had in the previous trilogy, my hopes were minimal. When it was revealed that she could speak, I found her much more interesting because that was definitely going to add depth to the story, but I didn't have a truly preconceived idea. I never bought into the crazy theories about her maybe being an astronaut or something like that, but I imagined there would be much more to her storyline than I had initially thought.

When some promotional videos started appearing that I chose to watch to spoil myself because I can't help it, I did start shipping. I don't know, I've always been a bit basic in that kind of thing, although I didn't ship even a quarter of what I do now, hahahaha.

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers ONE Review: Autonomy is the Right of All Sentient Beings (Comissoin for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy autobots! This reviews one i'm excited for. See I was hoping One would be good: Rise of the Beasts was a disapointment having some good spots (the soundtrack, Anthony Ramos) but falling into the trap of trying to cram 80 tons of plot into two hours while not developing the robot cast enough. I mean it didn't have robotic gay jokes, racisim, robot testicles, or Optimus Prime gleefully murdering people, instead at worst being an asshole, but it didn't quite reach the heights of Bumblebee , not really taking in it's lessons of "less is more" and "Maybe people like characters"

Thankfully Transformers One takes the later to heart: Transformers One succesfully combines the spectacle people want from robots punching each other on the big screen, with a deep and personal character story of two robots who were like brothers whose ideologies drive them apart. One delivers both huge robot spectacle but grounds it in characters you care about. I'm a more casual fan of the franchise, haven't seen g1 , but I can't be happier as a fan of both transformers and animation itself to see this film and hope it does well over time. The first trailer REALLY didn't help but word of mouth probably will.

So while that's the most I can give without spoilers, I invite you to join me under the cut as I dive into WHY this film is so great, it's characters, ambiguities, great design choices, and the mistep or two. let's call him act 1 bumblebee. It's all under the cut with FULL SPOILERS. Seirously the film relies heavily on a twist about halfway in that while experinced fans and those experinced with fiction can probably see coming, though the marketing did a good job not telegraphing it, is still not something I want to be a dick and spoil outright So join me under the cut, till all are one.

What's Old is New:

Transformers One is the first animated transformers movie in decades: While I really CAN'T explain the 90's as Beast Wars seemed super popular when I was a kid, from the 2000's onward Hasbro largely dubbed anime of the transformers, and once we got to the live action films in the late 2000's through the 2010s Paramount made so much money hand over fist with each entry despite being "they gave devistator truck nuts" levels of baffling and "what seems to be standard micheal bay" levels of racist, they likely felt no need to inovate. If the movies are making them enough money to scrooge mcduck every time one comes out, there's no real reason to fight that if your a studio executive. The cartoons could simply take a queue or two from the films, as both animated and prime did and still make them money.

One comes in during this cash flow: looking into it on wikipedia, I genuinely tried looking elsewhere and couldn't find much, One came about after Age of Exctinction, with Parmount setting up a writers room to pitch sequel ideas. The films title animated nature and basic premise as a prequel came from that.. then as far as I can gather sat on the shelf as they still had binload of money.

Then the last knight happened ,an incoherent mess that had Anthony Hopkins have violent sexual tension with C3PO yet did nothing with it, so naturally it failed at the box office. This lead to Bay steping back from the franchise as a director

And lead to One being dusted off after Bumblebee's success. While the live action films continued with the ehtastic Rise of the Beasts and a GI Joe vs Transformers movie on the horizon, it's clear Parmount saw two things: putting all their transforming eggs in one transforming basket probably wasn't the best idea and animation was making bank post spider-verse. So One was dusted off. It just needed a director. Weirdly despite expresssing intrest in doing it Travis Knight, director of Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee and longtime Laika animator, wasn't tapped.

Instead Parmount went with long time pixar animator and Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley. And cooley ended up being the perfect man for the job: he looked at the script and while he liked the concept he'd been pitched, a prequel focusing on a younger optimus and megatron and their brotherly friendship destegrating into a forever war, he found the script was a bit lighter in tone and wanted to get a tone.

Cooley was a fan of the G1 Cartoon, and in one interview recounted seeing the film as a kid and being blown away by the scope opening on unicron eating a planet. He loved the spectacle of it and wanted to bring that to one, comparing it to epics like ben hur or the tend commandments; big bombastic stories with a very human core, a relationship breaking down at it's core. Cooley also had a great approach to adapting it:he clearly loves the franchise with his reaction to various animators and storyboarders sneaking in their faviorite autobots for cameos simply being

Cooley knew how to adapt the film: honor it's legacy, with plenty of nods to transformers history, but not be beholden to it going for a style that was a mix of g1 astetics but with an art deco sensiblity. Notably his decision not to have orion pax wear the optimus mask a ton was for good reason: instead of just being change for change's sake, it was to let him emote more. It's the same reason Peter Cullen wasn't chosen: Cooley utterly adores cullen but got that this optimus.. isn't him yet. The films about Optimus growing into being a leader and thus needed another tone. More on that later but these interviews gave me even more respect than the film itself already had, showing a man who knew how to adapt something well.

Visually the film is a treat: the animation is done by industrial light and magic, who did the films and who have only done three animated films. To my suprise i'd not only seen them all but one of them wasn't the clone wars. You'd think but no, Lucasfilm outsourced. No instead they did the animation for Rango, also with paramount under nick and Strange Magic, and both films have some impressive animation. I mean the designs for strange magic are questionable, as are a lot of things in that very dumb very fun movie, but it's clear they were just as good at making a fully animated world as they were making animated parts of a live action one. It's been almost a decade since strange magic, but they haven't lost a step.

As a result One looks gorgoeous: we've seen pre war cybertron before, but the big budget means we can see it as a gorgeous gleaming futuristic city with icacon, it' sbucolic surface and it's full glory once the planet is restored at the end. It adds emotoinal weight as the war will likely leave this planet a ravaged cold wreck as usual, but we ge tto see that beauty first. Even with the unlimited budget of comics the cybertron of the idw comics, while not bad looking is a pretty generic city. Here we get a gleaming metropolis that fully takes adantage of the fact some of it's citzens can transform, cramped quarters and mines. It makes cybertron feel truly alive and fils me with the kind of joy and wonder I missed from sci fi. This big colorfulspectacle that dosen't shy away from darker themes or moments, but despite the darkness of it's world, the corruption, the lines, and the tragic destiny that awaits there's a sense of hope. I loved Dune Part 2, still one of my faviorite films of the year and one of the best films i've seen, but it also follows it's characters tragic downfall as he's forced on the path of the chosen one wether he likes it or not and no matter how many genocides he's going to do walking that path. It's nice ot have a thetrical space where you can have a tragic yet hopeful story abotu robots in the same space as a tragic tale of a charsmatic leader's villian origin story. That I can have the kind of fun and thrill I had with star wars before disney decided to make the most pandering film in existance with rise of skywalker and still make no one happy, be a kid again for 90 minutes while still having the intresting stories nd characters that engage me as an adult is nice.

We Were Closer Than Brothers

This quote's been glued to my brain since I first read it in Powers of X, this perfect summation of the disolution of xavier and magento's friendship and why the two were forever at odds. There's a simple gap in who they are, who they want to be that can't be crossed.

And it's that kind of eternally recurring conflict that drives the film. It's one I never realized just how common it is yet so timeless and malleable it's been done a lot. In addition to x-men, both in the comics and the reboot/prequel films, Nartuo and She Ra and the Princess of power both tell the story of two people who are closer than family, but whose lives, egos and core beliefs pull them apart. Granted only one of these takes the obvious route of "and now kiss" but I digress. This is a tale as old as time, the tale of two people who genuinely truly love each other, as family or more. ANd it's one that works really well with these two characters.

This isn't the first version of Transformers to have Optimus and Megatron as former friends: The War for Cybertron Trilogy and Prime both use this idea, as we discussed earlier this month Transformers Cyberverse teased it and the IDW comics i've covered had something close to this: the idea that Pax agress with Megatron that cybertron needs to change and for the better.. but they simply can't agree.

One however gets the time needed to really dig into this: the two aren't just friends.. their best friends. Possibly more but that's left open for interprtation. And in the good way not "QUICK WE NEED TO MAKE THE FILM LESS GAY BECAUSE WE WANT MORE MONEY BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE THINK THAT'S WORKS. "cooley saw the two as brothers , while it's just as easy to see the two as having feelings for one another. I tend to go towards the latter, with D-16 like he tends to do repressing it and the point being moot by the end as that bridge is burnt beyond recognition.

Transformers One sti feels queer coded, something I noticed pointed out on tv tropes but is hard to ignore once you notice it: it's a story about two young robots one whose proud of who he is and wants to buck the corrupt system they were both born into , the other who keeps his head down and mouth shut, both of whom find out a part of them was kept form them by said system and are allowed to be who they are. It's really not hard to read into that, especailly when the main antagonist is literally stealing a part of who they are. Which is not subtle but the fact a family film is saying this at all and in a way that's hard to ignore is fucking amazing.

Circling back to that first part it's how the two react to the world they live in that defines Pax and D-16 long before they become the bots we all know and love. The world of cybertron is one where a good chunk are seemingly born without cogs, forced to work in mines or other hard labor for hours on end, and all for the glory of their leader Sentinel Prime, played by John Hamm in glorious smarm. The queer coding is hard to tell if it's intentional.. but the film's commentary on how soceites are often built to keep one class, often containg people of color, queer people and others society deems "other", down to profit the rich.

It also shows how those in power create cults of personality: Sentinel gets all this hard work by projecting a show of being this loved glorious figure, going on quests for his people every few days. John Hamm does a damn good job showing just WHY cybertron hangs on his word. In the IDW continuity, Sentinel really didn't hide what a bastard he was beyond what he had to. Here... they all love him and he leaves the dirty work to his minons. They get to bully the lower class and do whatever they please, and he gets the adoration while likely condoning their bullshit because he's just as much of a monster as they are, he just gets to hide it.

It's their reactions to this inequality that define our heroes: Orion is a dreamer. You've seen the type in animation before: he wants a better world, keeps striving and wants his big shot at being someone. But One nicely grounds this: where his now.. is a dangeorus life of mining being bullied constantly and where his heroic act of saving a coworker get shis boss Elita One demoted. It's a world where he can't even look at the past glories of cybertron and it's 13 primes without having to dodge security. Orion senses something is off and that the world can be better. He's an optimist.

What I like though is this isn't without consequence: elita did get demoted and resents him for it, D-16, his best friend, quitely resents him for having to bail him out. He has the heart of Optimus Prime, wanting to try for the best for everybody and wanting to take D-16with him as he gets up in the world... but he lacks the patience he'll gain in time, rushing into things, dragging others with him and generally not thinking before he acts. His actions get a friend demoted and later get him and his best friend sent to the depths.

D-16 on the otherhand.. just wants to keep his head down. Respect authority even if it's unfair, slowly get promoted.. work his way up. The thing is... the system isn't really BUILT to help bots. At most he'll be leading a shift. And while there's nothing wrong with that, as there is in real life blue collar work, he also wants to ignore that there's something.. off with the world. That maybe he dosent' HAVE to be a miner if he dosen't want to or wait centuries to get promoted. He's quick to see the benefits when Pax drags him into thei iacon grand prix.. but just as quick to panic, worrying any slip will get him sent back down. He's resigned that their stuck where they are. And look i'm not saying class disparity is easily sovled in the real world. It's not. But you can still fight for change where you are.

Eventaully though Optimus finds his shot, one that Megatron tries to resisit.. but ultimately can't: what seems to be the matrix. Taking along Elita, who gets dragged along and only agrees if she can arrest their asses if this fails, and B, a bot they find in the depths of waste management, our heroes trek heroically across the planets dangerous surface and duck a quintesson ship.

And the World Screams, Kiss Me Son of God

And it's here.. where the film gets flipped on his head. Now i'll grant the twist isn't super groundbreaking. Having the seemingly nice authority figure turn out to be an asshole is old hat, the film's marketing tried at first to hide the fact Megatron would turn evil till they realized they kinda marketed it bad, it's pretty easy to suspect sentinel. It dosen't help on my end that the previous versions I know are a genocidal racist monster man whose horrible managing of cybertron helped create the decepticons, and a smug prick who needs to be thrown into the sun.

But it works well as Sentinel Prime.. works as a symbol for systemic corruption. The primes were 12 noble people chosen by primus for their character and who ruled justly. Now granted it is iffy having your creator god whose also the planet pick your rulers, but Pax's ascendance later makes it very clear Primus choose not just by destiny but by character. Sentinel claimed he was one and the last survivor after they beat out the quintessons. One's universe uses mostly chunks of the g1 backstory: Primus created transformer kind and became the planet as in the comics, but the Quintessons are still key, just as adversaries rather than a monsterous race that created the transformers as slaves before they rebelled, though still keeping parts of that in spirit. The 13 primes from war for cybertron and prime are added in creating a perfect precursor.

Sentinel however betrayed them, selling them out to the quintessons to become god emperor of cybertron with the mining class born entirely of his own greed, stripping them of their t cogs and indocrinating them. And tha'ts what makes this scary: part of why Sentinel's plan works so well.. is indocrination. To most of Cybertron this is just how things always were. The few people who know gladly keep up the lie. By creating a system he can control, sentinel has guaranteed few will rebel because they have no reason to doubt him. Like any good dictator he's set himself up as the be all end all and as a god unto himself so his people don't question and those like optimus who do are struck down.

Even when Alpha Trion last of the primes played wonderfully by Laurence Fishburne tells them all of this and in a truly beautiful and horrific sequence shows it to them using some dust he controls, only pax and Bumblebee truly digest it. It makes sense for both. Pax has ALWAYS questioned his place in the world so while he's mildly skeptical at worst, for him, someone whose broken into the archives to learn, constantly pushed against the system, finding out "Oh your life is a lie".. is freeing. It's finding out the horrible sytem that hates what you are is wrong. It's where the queer coding comes in finding out no your not wrong.. it's the people who said you not being you were horrible. For Pax this is what he's always wawited for: a mentor who truly respects all he did to get here, a purpose in freeing cybertron, a true world.

For B when we meet him he's spent his life being constantly kicked down rungs for his screw ups, abandoned by Cybertron to it's depths and happy just to have friends. Finding out "oh yeah your leader is a lie and you get to be badass now" is just.. nice. B is just kinda there for the ride. Honestly Bumblebee is just kinda there in the movie. Keegan Michael Key does a great job as the character especially in the second act when he gets to react to the more horrific things going on , but for the first he's just the annoying comic relife. The Badassatron gag gets old FAST and the trailers did not help. The trailers also didn't help focusing entirely on the comedy, which helps offset things and makes the more dramatic and often violent second act work. We get ot know these characters and there world... then see what happens after the curtains lifted and they see what there world always was.

This plays into Elita who i've glanced over, and who dosen't take it well, having to see Sentinel directly selling out to the quintissons to belivie it. Elita did her job, played the system, tried to get out.. and finds out it was rigged the whole time. Elita as we see her is tough, but fair.. wanting to arrest our heroes when they escape to the surface.. but willing to go with them when stranded as if they ARE right she gets what she wants and if their wrong they've agreed to be arrested anyways. Yet when her world turns upside down her response to it is shock.. then acceptance. The world is bad, how can we fix this? She goes with Optimus plan, though dosen't go loyally pointing out it MIGHT not work.. but it's their best option: expose sentinel to the public and hope it turns them.

This... is where D-16 shifts entirely. And his actor Brian Tyree Henry is easily the standout of the cast. No question. We see D-16 as someone who truly belivied in the system and the primes: he's a huge Megatronius Prime fanboy, who in most realities ends up being a tratiorus monster and basically satan.. but here.. is a good person and the strongest of the primes. He respected sentinel, utterly in awe to help him find the matrix, which was said to be lost. So instead he finds out everything he belivied in is a lie and takes it hte hardest: elita was annoyed with the system enough it took light convincing, pax was never for it and B is just happy to be included. But for D... this was everything. This was his LIFE. He rages at Pax for taking them on this adventure, for everything he loved and worshipped being relveaed a lie. Finding out what his life was, or rather what he likely expected it was but refused to admit to himself breaks him.

And that.. unleashes his rage. You get the sense D-16 has a lot of supressed anger: constantly having to tow the line, to clean up after his best friend, to keep his head down.. and finding out it was all for nothing and said friend is the reason he knows this.. unelashes every rage. Every thought he had to keep in every bit of it at once... and he wants Sentinel dead: not brought to justice, not heroically brought down for corruption: DRAGGED THROUGH THE STREETS IN CHAINS TO THE DEPTHS OF THE MINES AND TORN APART. Orion wants justice, he wants revenge.

The film also does a good job not making d-16 just.. evil. He's full of rage, he lashes out at orion.. but you still side with him despite knowing where this angers gonna take him. The system is broken, horrible and nightmarish. Like the IDW megatron, D-16 has EVERY reason to think it needs to burn. Yet you get why Pax wants the softer touch at first: he dosen't care about sentinel fuck that guy but burning it to the ground gets other people caugh tin the fire. Neither is entirley wrong: sentinel probably does need to die, but a brutal execution dosen't help anyone. And as pax can do doing so won't fill the void in his chest. Getting the t-cogs for the literal voids in their chest dosen't either.

The film dosen't entirely stop the lighthearted stuff: We get that great seuqnece form the trailers where our quartet try to transform and end up stuck mid way. It's both a neat idea, as i'ts essentially waking up a whole part of your body you could not use, and fun, based on Cooley's own experinces as a kid where for the more complex transformers they'd end up in a half transformed pile.

But the core is clear... and while the divide between D and Pax deepends as we meet the High Guard

Choked Out

So our heroes are kidnapped by the High Guard, the future decepticons. The High Guard were the primes loyal and noble enforcers but have spent the last however long it's been turned into a rebellion against sentinel, barely scraping by. Granted their also lead by Starscream which has never gone well and there's no giant gun to shoot him with nor volcano to throw him in so their kinda stuck.

I do love Starscream here played by the one and only Steve Buschemi who gets Sceamers smugness and arrogance right while adding in a dash of bloodthirst and class. The High Guard has devovled into a might makes right hellscape. And it's this hellscape.. that finishes creating megatron. I belivie had b had time to process or think , he MIGHT of not become megatron. It's likely why Alpha Trion still trusted him.. though as Brotoman pointed out when we discussed the film it could just as easily be that trion didn't care and wanted D-16 to go on a blood rampage. This still puts him above the G1 version whose only menoring to optimius was bringing him back form the dead like jesus after four robots from the future wondered in.

But the high guard share his views: wanting to burn it down, wanting to use brute force, resenting the rest of cybertron. It's all there. And the high guard are the army he needs to pull off his goals, as he's grown to resent optimus and Bee and Elita are firmly on his side.

So in a fit of Irony it's starscream who helps fully cement the creation of megatron. Megs is annoyed at their postering, doing seemingly nothing and done with their shit. He plans to just fuck off if their not going to do anything. Starscream as usual for him takes this as a challenge. And as usual across space and time megatron's response is exactly as good for starscream as you'd expect.

Megatron fucks him up so bad his VOICE changes. Yeah in this continuity Starscream's whiny voice.. is because megatron choked him out. And Starscream was into it asking for more. Was it a love of violence or is starscream discovering he's a sub?

But it's the point to me where D-16.. is gone. He hasn't turned full villian yet.. but he's found himself surronded by likeminded bots whose reaction to them choking out tehir leader is FUCK YEAH! YOU GET EM MEGS. I grant spending at least a decade around starscream is probably a lot for anyone, but it's still nicely horrifying and I like this barbarian portrayl of the decepticons: that they too started from a good place but having to constantly fight while being seen as traitors and being isoilated casued all their warrior instincts to go to a whole lord of the flies situation.

Megatron dosen't get to bask in his new horde or a nearly destroyed starscream who only lives because Orion is there.. and D makes it VERY clear this won't happen again. The mercy thing. Instead Sentinel kidnaps most of them with only Orion and Elita escaping.

You've Found my Breaking Point, Congradulations

So our two heroes are now seperated.. and while it was clear what path D-16 was on, it's Orion's turn to cement his. Oriion.. is not doing so good

He feels this is all his fault, that his constant diving into stuff hurt people and while before he was able to brush it off, the elita one situation REALLY wasn't his fault, enlisting megatron in the race was an attempt to help them, and even ending up in the cybertron's bowels, he figured Sentinel would come from them. Every reckless action and unintended consequence was just a step up. And he wasn't entirely wrong, his actions were well meaning.. but it's here he finally gets the downside and what makes his earlier character work: that relization that yes, he meant well, yes he wasn't wrong.. but he was still dragging everyone along with him when they kept telling him no and while in the long run, even with what he's about ot become, d-18's better for it, Orion finally gets that he can't just keep assuming people will be better off or he knows what's better.

Granted he takes this as

But Elita has changed. She's seen the good that's happened from it and encourages pax... she also rubs in that she's smarter than him, true, but also that as annoying as he could be to her... he had one thing she didn't, that d-16 didn't... hope. He never gave up, just fell into the system. He never stopped beliving in a better world even after finding out it was a lie. He dosen't try to stop sentinel just because "what else am I going to do" or "revenge" he's doing this because he WANTS a better world for everyone. To lift people up. He dragged d-16 into this not because he was blind, but because he wanted to help him. He wanted them both to see the sun. To build tommorow together. And maybe make out a little. His methods weren't great, but he was always trying to do the right thing.

So with that Pax isn't back to his old self he's better, and thinks out his plan for a second.. and it's a brilliant one, for once not just winging it but thinking it out: they need to take down sentinel. They can't broadcast his misdeeds for now, but they can at least stop him. They dont' have enough of an army as only half the guard escaped, so it's time to split up: Elita will lead the rest of the elite guard to free their captured brethren, Orion will go rally the miners who already trust and look up to him. Shockwave asks "Wait why would I do that" and get sa cup of punch in the face as his answer, while Soundwaves like "eh why the fuck not. " I do love shockwave in this film, he's just a pathetic butt monkey aand sounds like bluster blaster. It's glorious.

Meanwhile Megatron gets some MORE trauma. He refuses to bend the knee for Sentinel. Sentinel's plan is to frame the guard as destrutive rebels and megatron as one. And he has a chilling line I love: "The truth is whatever I say it is: it's the truth and i'ts chilling and Hamm does a fantastic job going from egotistical ass to chilling dictator at the drop of a hat, never dropping the smarm. Sentinel is the perfect vilian for this film: a legit threat and meance.. but also someone clearly there to be the starter villian: someone who unites our heroes at first but gets the fuck out of the way for the emotional climax. It makes the whole 'Oh no the heroes idol is evil" twist we've seen a lot. A lotttt, go down smother as while he's evil enough that his final takedown is satisfying, he's not so menacing or compelling you feel he's wasted. He's just comeplling enough

He's also a massive dick and upon seeing Megatron's sticker, he's been wearing a decal of megatronus, he rips it off.. and fucking BRANDS megatron. Yeah there's.. some racial stuff buried in here that as a white dumbass i'm not qualified to talk about. But it is brutal as hell.

SO while Team Elita crashes a train into a buildling to start the climax, because Elita is the best and I wish I had more to say about her other than she's the most badass one there is and Scarlett Johnasen is having a LOT of fun playing her, Orion goes to inspire a line of cameos. There are a LOT with Ironhide and Arcee being the most prominent.

The Miners are chafing under the strips not helped by Dreadwing, their supervisor and the dickbag who demoted Elita earlier and who in general is a bullying asshat. So naturally Optimus easily deals with him with a punch to the face. It's a nice moment that says a lot with just one punch: Optimus has problems FAR BIGGER than one petty asshole and has grown, literally and metaphorcially past him.

Orion having a t-cog and easily taking out the local bully is enough to get everyone to listen and he gives his first true rousing speech, revealing the truth, admitting they dont' have much reason to belivie him, but beliving ther'es something better.. there has to be and Sentinel has no right ot take it: So with mining equipment and jetpacks, our hero leads the future autobots. AI am a bit iffy about all the autobots being in one group and the decipticons in another, but the sequel could help flesh it out and I get they only had 90 minute sto pack a lot in. One is VERY overstuffed and takes place over maybe two days tops. A lot happens.. but it all feels resonable and well set up: D-16 changes entirely but it's hard to say megatron wasn't lurking under the surfance and a LOT of trauma in less than a day didn't change him. Likewise Optimus and Megatron rising as leaders.. makes perfect sense; The Guard had spent years hiding and stewing and suddenly a new kid comes along with more o fa vision than ducking and weaving and easily chokes out the guy who was likely only leader because he killed a few people who said no to that. He then refuses to bow to sentinel despite knowing what this might means an dkeeps getting up.

Meanwhile Optimus leads not through badassery.. but hope. He puts his dreamer nature to good use and instead of inspiring his troops thorugh violence, inspires them. And because Oriion was already a decent guy who instead of being seen as a weird outcast, was seen as a guy who did what they wished they could, a nice turn of that usual "never accepted weirdo" thing we get, because he was simply a good perosn.. people listen.

So here comes the climax.

Throw My Better Self Overboard, Shoot At Him When He Comes Up for Air

So we get our big climactic battle as our untied rebel forces eat the rich while Elita squares off with Airachnid. I hadn't brought up Airachnid because her plot relevance for most of the movie is to stand around and look menacing, being Sentinel's liutiennt. And I like how they went for something diffrent: true to the name she's part modern helicopter, part spider and usies her spider legs to brutally tear into foes, leaping on them and tearing them to shreds. While the rest of Sentinels mooks, various mass produced drones ala the ones Megatron has in prime, go down easily when fighting Alpha trion she took him down and let sentinel finish him off later because of course he wanted to gloat.

So while the final battle goes down to the two female robots of importance duking it out, it still works as it makes sense: Elita has quickly become the autobots bruiser and Optimus second in command, and Sentinel is busy gloating to his captives. Rather than the cliched "well the women must fight because a man punching her would be too mucH" it feels like a fight between each sides seconds that's also brutal and well done.

Orion however has a plan and while he and an ungreatful B-17 fight Sentinel, who reveals he took Megatronius cog, he has elita grab airachnid as she showed off her creepy camera head before... and thus he realizes she has incriminating footage. So while Bumblbee finds he has knife hands and helps clear the way, our heroes team up.. kinda.

I also have to give it to the fighting here: Something Cooley made sure to include was transforming. In most continuites the transforming is used maybe to ram a fucker and most fighting is as the robots. Here ther'es a lot of transforming in combat: Ariachind uses her alt mode to gain advantage as it can fly nad elita's can't. Sentinel uses his massive jet form's firepower to even the odds before diving back into bot mode. D-16 RAMS into the fucker with his tank mode, uses it frequently for blasting and easily switches back into combat. It's fluid, gorgeous and really takes advantage of the trasnforming to turn every fight into a spectacle.

While D-16 fights Sentinel, Orion inacts his plan: hyjack the radio tower and er.. slam Airachnids face into the console therebye getting the footage he needs.

Sentinel's outed as a bad guy, everythin'gs fine? right? right? Right D-16.. whose inching towards sentinel and... oh... oh no.

So Orion rushes to prevent his friend from doing a murder, whiel Sentinel pathetically crawls away. He begs him not to do this, that this isn't the right way.. but it won't work this time. Pax says the wrong thing: "Don't be like sentinel". He threatnes pax to move and pax instead jumps int he way.. and is shot , barely alive. And thus.. two bots die... D-16 throws Orion Pax into the core of the planet "I'm done saving you". One wanted war, to keep raging forever against a planet that wronged him the other wanted to fix tha tplanet and restore it. In the end it was two roads that simply HAD to diverge but damn do they make it painful. You see just how much these two meant, how much good they acomplished..b ut ultimately B-17 can't let go of his rage and pain.. and he shoudln't.. not entirely. He can still feel hurt and rageful.. but it's in trying to tear the rest of the world down where he failed.

Sometimes the world DOES need to burn, but if you don't think about the people who get hurt, then your in the wrong.

Where You Go Once You Arrive, Where We Go Once We Arrive

The next scene.. is the films best... a truly striking back and forth series of cuts as we see the true ascendance, the birth of megatron and optimus prime given all the gravitas 40 years of stories, conuities and tellings of these two's clash.

Megatron gives a firey horrifying speech as he rips Sentinel in half. The film is unflinching with hit's violence. It did have to cut around things.. but all that did was have cooley let your mind fill in the gaps. For a family film, this is fucking brutal, and it all crecnedoes with a bot getting ripped in half. likely being robots gave them some leeway, but it's still horrifying to see. I don't feel bad for sentinel he fucking deserved it but Megatron giving him a mortal kombat fatality then going on to scream about he's going to burn iacon down, destroy every last person loyal to sentinel to burn the world no matter who gets hurt... it underlines Optimus point. While Sentinel defeintly deserved to die, this dosen't fix anything. This dosen't change iacon for the better, it just replaces a tyrant who made the trains run on time and again deserved his mortal kombat fatality, with one who thinks he's doing the right thing while killing as many people as he has to to do it. Neither version of this is good but Megatron is too blinded by trauma to see that and thus has become something almost as bad as what left.

Thankfully as Megatron rises... so too does another. As he falls into the core, his body dead.... Orion Pax meets the primes, all 12 showing up.. with Alpha Trion himself anointing our hero. This could easily be iffy: chosen one narratives aren't nearly as common these days for a reason and this is the same year where Dune Part 2 showed just how bad that could go based on a book all the way back in the 60s, just taking out the racisim and sexism.

So instead Orion Pax becomes robot jesus this time not because destiny says so.. but simply because he acted well. He acted nobly, selfishless and laid his life down and thus he not only rises from the dead but gets an upgrade: a cool ax ehe does the thor thing with , which had to be intetional, able to take out a hudnered bad guys with swords or at least all three main decipticons with only megatron giving him trouble.

So before our climactic breakup, le'ts talk about primus. Some consider the idea Primus is a two faced prick: he made the matrix of leadership, the source of cybertron's energon in this continuity and why they have to mine without it, not feel so good and go away into dust robbing sentinel of it.

Me... I think it wasn't the smartest move given Sentinel then created a slave race to do the job and it didn't really stop him.. but my take is that it was all primus COULD do. Primus did create the primes to guard cybertron, but that was right after becoming the planet and space god. My honest interpretation, one backed up by talking to brotoman is that primus isn't as fully cognizant without the matrix. In the war for cybertron duology, Primus created the matrix as a way for it to be with the rest of cybertron kind as it really coudln't commuincate outside it's core. If eel that's the same here: that it can only do so much and without the matrix as a conduit, all it could do was thrash blindly, hence the storms of the surface and the mines shifting horribly. THe mines woul dbe closer to cybertrons core, giving him more dexterity. Prime fell directly into a shaft leading down int oCybertron's bowels and into it's core, which gave Primus a chance to look him over, see what he did. If you notice primus doesn't even talk directly. He has to use alpha trion's ghost. Primus transformation into cybertron likely put him beyond most cybertronians and unlike say Unicron if he shows up, please let him show up, he can't go back and forth.

Now that's just my interpretation but it's something I like about the film: the world's well built and set up.. but it dosen't explain everything. It leaves some ambguity: where the primes as perfect as they seemed or was sentinel right to resent them, even if

Did Alpha Trion know the risks he was unleashing with megatron? We don't know, and tha'ts okay. And yes the sequels probably will clear some of this up if we get them, but it's still something really neat to think about.

For now we get an awesome fight with Optimus ending the thing by slicing Megatron's fusion canon. He commands him to leave: he tried to conquer cybertron, killed a man and broke Optimus' heart in the process. Megatron bitterly leaves setting up a sequel that please please please god let us have some form of sequel, and takes the gaurd with him.

This leaves optimus in charge, and their paths set: Optimus turns the miners into the autobots and gives them their cogs back, restoring cybertron.. and Megatron... brands his new peeps the decepticons. THey are not being being decieved and they will open cybertrons eyes and close optimus'. It's a truly painful but well done ending with both rising : Optimus prepares to hold off the quintsions.. and Megatron prepares to do what he planned to do in the first plac.e. burn it down. They were close but now... the war begins.

The One and Only One

Transformers One is a masterpiece, well worth a look in theaters. I'ts a feast ofr the eyes. But it's it' semotinal core that makes it: following two young men as one goes from reckless dreamer to real leader, with his voice lowering the right octaves, and the other going from a stickler for the rules to a radical planning to kill as many people as he has to to save cybertron from hitself. One is a heartfelt epic, with eye popping colors, great social commentary and a hell of an emotional core. This is the best of the transformers films i've seen, probably not a stretch to say the best given it lacks robot testicles or a man waving around a piece of paper saying he can fuck teenagers, but still a truly great film I hope Paramount gives a sequel even if it dosen't do gangbusters. In a year with maybe three animated films i've wanted to see theatrically, this was a welcome treat and is one of the best transformers stories. Go see it, thanks for reading and remmeber you can win if you dare.

[simplylove101]

2024 Horror Challenge: [28/?]

↳“I think you're looking for me.” Trap (2024) dir. M. Night Shyamalan

Plot: A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event.

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills & Alison Pill (and featuring Kid Cudi & Russ)

Last catchup review for the day (even tho I definitely have other horror movies I watched lately) since these were the big four that I wanted to type up on here. I saved this review for last because I actually went to go see this one in the theater. Yeah, a M. Night movie, me, in the year 2024. Who would have thought? Mostly because as I previously stated in my reviews of Old, Knock at the Cabin & The Visit (and his daughter's The Watchers), my track record with him is, quite frankly, not the best. lol But hey, I love Signs. I was mildly amused by The Visit. Split, while problematic, is pretty entertaining imo. And I've actually never properly watched The Sixth Sense in its entirety (I already knew the plot twist so lol) but hey, that's considered a classic. So, I don't hate M. Night. Just not all of his movies are my cup of tea BUT I was actually pretty excited for this one. The premise intrigued me, despite there not seeming much elsewhere for the story to go based on the trailer. And a chance to see Josh Harnett as a villain, hello??? Sign me up! Also, I just really love the idea of a horror movie at a concert. Now, while I didn't hate this... I gotta get into the negatives. lol Overall, it is kinda mid. BUT it's because while there are some twists near the end in typical Shyamalan fashion, most of the first half was already spoiled for us in the trailer, so that's a bummer. Basically trailers these days suck because they think we actually want the whole story told to us before we see it when um, no. We want to be surprised. Now, as I said, there are some surprises later on, but those do seem a bit contrived as well. But also, the movie itself felt incredibly longer than it needed to be. We're at the concert quite a while considering plenty of the movie takes place outside of it in the second half. Not to mention, there's actually a good portion of it dedicated to the musical performances instead of plot. Now I will say, the music was good ngl, at least to me. lol So, that part is a positive. But that also brings me to one of the big negatives: This is a definite nepotism movie. XD The focus on M. Night's daughter's character grows in the second half in a way that had me go, hmmm interesting because it's not remotely believable. Partly because, sadly, Saleka's not a very strong actor imo. She tried her best but making her have a bigger part in the story was definitely a choice (not a very good one) Now, to the biggest positive of the movie: Josh. HE CARRIED THIS THING ON HIS BACK. Like, he was soooo good. He's very much why I can't say I hated this watch. He's what makes it work at all. Definitely my fave performance by him I think. Just deliciously evil. I will say, Allison Pill was really good with what she had to work with too. And you know, props to Ariel Donoghue really being dedicated to playing up the fangirl role as much as she did. She committed. Also, shoutout to Kid Cudi. He's really just a cameo but he def ate his small role. I love him. lol So, at least, acting-wise, there were positives. The concept was cool, it's just the execution (kinda as per se usual why M. Night's movies tend to be a miss for me because they're slightly off in a way that isn't always my thing) but it is decent. I didn't even mind that I paid money seeing it in the theater since it was enjoyable enough. Also, I watched it with an interactive enough audience that it felt like a pleasant experience. Now, I just gotta know, that ending... is M. Night just being silly or is he hinting at a sequel?? Because honestly, it did keep feeling like he genuinely didn't know how to end the movie because it just kept going. There were certain beats where it felt like we reached a conclusion and then, nope. And then we got that. Like, what??? LOL okay. Anyway, this one was interesting. I still have thoughts. So, yeah. That's all.

[hopeymchope]

I HOPW YOU ENJOY IT I LOVE THAT GAME

I'M HONESTLY WORRIED BECAUSE IT'S SO INSANELY HYPED LOL

Plus I'm worried about playing FF7 for... many other reasons that I'm now going to ramble about at EXCESSIVE LENGTH.

UNPOPULAR OPINIONS START!

FIRST: It's been, what, 27 years since this thing came out? And I've probably played a lot of stuff that took whatever FF7 did that was so groundbreaking and iterated/improved on it already, y'know? I doubt this game can ever be the earth-shattering experience it was for people of that initial release period.

SECOND: In my own opinion, the worst-aged generation of gaming (outside of the very first one) has to be the N64/PS1/Saturn gen, a.k.a. "fifth-gen." Pixel art from the older retro systems is kind of timeless-looking to me, and 2D game mechanics got locked down pretty quickly for the main titles of the day. Plus and the sixth-and-later generations still look fine and hold up on some level—by seventh-gen, we were already in HD! But fifth-gen polygonal graphics and pre-rendered assets are just... WOOF.

Get a load of those overworld character models in FF7 — they ain't got no alibi. And that's to say nothing of how awkward things typically were while we were first figuring out how to transition into 3D. Camera controls/angles, save structures, etc... it's all a fit fumbly.

So yeah, I don't have a lot of nostalgia/fondness for this gen, personally. My favorite games from this time period are typically the ones that dared to stick to 2D: Symphony of the Night, Mega Man X5, etc. And the exceptions are usually best experienced via latter-day ports that made big quality of life improvements or visual enhancements. I adore Ocarina of Time... but I'd definitely recommend that anyone new to it play the 3DS version.

THIRD: I ALSO don't like random battles. I know they're an RPG staple for many old-school titles, but like... I strongly prefer being able to see the enemy on the overworld before I enter the battle screen. Or at LEAST being able to tell where I can walk to either avoid or trigger potential random battles ala Pokemon games. I'd GREATLY prefer to not be jump-scared by a random battle every few steps. And although the modern FF7 ports have a trigger to supposedly turn off the random battles, it (A) doesn't seem to work half the time, and (B) using it will just leave me under-leveled in the long run.

And ALL OF THAT is why, for a long time, I waited for the FF7 remake. I figured that'd probably be my best introduction to the story and characters—bringing them to a new generation with a new presentation. But when the remake finally arrived, it wasn't a remake at all. Not only is the gameplay radically different, but even the story is heavily based in how it diverges from the original! Familiarity with the original game appears to be highly recommended.

And so... here I am.

I've only been playing FF7 for a couple nights now. Tuesday night was day one. And so far? I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I didn't already know in the story — I thought that cultural osmosis from years of Remake/Rebirth trailers and general gaming YouTube channels and overall gaming chatter would have spoiled every single story beat already. Certainly, the most famous event/twist in the game is something that was spoiled EVERYWHERE for years and years. But right now—having just swung away from a huge explosion on a big old crane-hook—I'm like "Huh, I didn't know that'd happen" pretty regularly!

Plus a general "Huh, I didn't know the overarching evil in this game was corporate capitalism." That last part has certainly aged like a fine wine. :)

[whatyourusherthinks]

Abigail Review

I was actually excited for this movie. The trailer was pretty cool. My work friends and I actually made plans to watch Abigail as soon as we could because of that fact. And the movie has aspects that I'm not usually big on, so that's pretty impressive.

What's The Movie About?

...I'm not going to tell you. If you can, you should go into this movie blind. Honestly, showing you the poster is already too much information. Just know it's a horror/thriller movie where the main characters are kidnappers, and watch it. That's my review in a nutshell.

I'm being serious. Stop reading this review and go see the movie if you think you might be interested. I'm going to spoil parts of the movie in the review because I have points I want to make.

What I Like.

Abigail is a gore-y good time. The first two-thirds are an intriguing mystery, and when everything is revealed, the finale is extreme and ridiculous. It's great. The acting is very good, I was especially impressed by Alisha Weir as the titular character. She had to do a lot and it was all very good. The effects as well were very good, especially the gore effects. Honestly, the only thing that would make it better if it was bright red like a Hammer Horror. (We had the Christopher Lee Dracula movie's trailer playing before the movie, so I have Hammer Horror on my mind.) The story itself, is pretty good as well. Mostly.

What I Didn't Like.

The movie is a great slow burn mystery, until it all get's revealed and then goes nuts. Fun time.

...

It's just a shame that the trailer SPOILS THE WHOLE MYSTERY. If you've seen the trailer, you know Abigail is a vampire. They don't reveal that in the movie until it's over halfway over. Really, you don't know anything supernatural is happening until the first third, maybe half of the movie has run. It would be a really fun mystery until that point as well. But if you've seen the promotion for the movie, you'll know exactly what's going on as soon as the first character dies. Hell, probably before that to be honest.

My only other complaint is almost the exact opposite of the first one honestly. If feels like the filmmakers tried to jam as many twists as they can in the final 20 minutes. Characters betray each other, motivations are revealed to be lies, and new characters suddenly show up for not really any reason. It's not as bad as something like Argylle, which just seems to flip-flop it's premise like 8 times. But it was bizarre and hard to follow at times.

Final Summation.

Honestly, Abigail is fun. Even if you are spoiled going in. I just wish I wasn't, I think I would have been super upped on the movie had it been a mystery to me. As it stands, I had a good time and I think most people will as well.

[makiruz]

I watched the first episode of The Acolyte, it's actually better than the trailer made it look, the sets and costumes are nice, except the Jedi who still look like cosplayers

It's not great though, the story gives me the vibe of an author's first self-published novel or a good fanfic by a 15 year old, they have interesting ideas and some potential, but the execution isn't there yet. To me the biggest thing is the so called "mystery"; we are shown the protagonist killing Trinity (btw Trinity is murdered in the prologue, we'll get back to that) and then we see her in her daily job, and me like a normal person reading the text as presented I'm groaning a bit because now they're trying to sell me the murdered as "relatable™" and I'm gearing up to see her lying to the Jedi faces, which I think I would have liked, but then my brother spoils the identical twin twist and now I'm annoyed; this show didn't tell me there was a mystery other than "Why is OSHA Compliant murdering Jedi?" I didn't know I was supposed to assume she didn't do it and there was something afoot, all the visual information presented is that she did kill Jedi master, there's nothing to suggest this isn't a reliable retelling of events. Watching the rest of the episode I felt that if I didn't know about the Evil Twin I would've assume the show was trying to gaslight me by claiming OSHA Compliant didn't do it, when I saw her do it

This post was supposed to be positive.

Yeah the story kind of annoy me, but it's actually not that bad; but I do have a big problem with the false advertising. As mentioned Trinity is featured heavily in the advertising as if she were a main character but she is killed in the first 5 fucking minutes; and there's no sign of the Twin in the trailers either, it's not representing the show well at all

Edit: Forgot to mention, that while I don't care much for this show, I think it's more entertaining than Andor

[dribs-and-drabbles]

I just...really hope that Por's actually still alive (call it blind optimism, call it stupidity, whatever) but there's just something, or quite a few things actually, that either intrigue me or don't add up about Por.

Like, why was he SO eager to mention he has the camera in the house to reshoot the video? And why did he recognise that particular hard drive as the one containing the footage of Non? And actually why does some footage even still exist - didn't we get shown 'Por deleting the videos of Non' in someone's recounting of Non's disappearance?... And why did he let Phee take over the directing when it was originally his film? And why did he go outside and follow the unknown person into the woods, especially after he knew there was a possibility that someone/thing else was there? And what has he been trying to say in his 'delerious' mumblings (incoherent enough to not reveal anything but also incriminating enough to make Fluke want to shut him up)? Phee and Tan/New might have started the questions about Non but Por's actions set in motion the events that followed.

And then there's the camera and the footage itself - Top was recording when the camera fell, so what if Por found that footage and discovered that it wasn't Non at all who broke the camera. I know he's a spoiled, rich, bully but what if he did have a conscience (because I posit he was a bully because he was also a victim of bullying [by his father] - not an excuse mind you BUT him being a bully might have been some kind of posturing to cope with the abuse he was getting), he might have figured out that Non was a victim of Top and Tee's lying and decided to help.

What would he get out of it though? Maybe the idea of getting real found footage for a horror film (and Phee may have put that idea in my head when he told Jin he and Tan had put hidden cameras around the house)? But maybe it's gone too far for that now (unless Uncle Dang and Top's deaths aren't real either 👀).

I know, I KNOW, this is all too far-fetched but what if, WHAT IF, his wound was all make-up and prosthetics and acting? - as a directing student he would know about this stuff and presumably have access to it. Of course that would mean that Fluke either has to be in on it OR he has to be so new to his studies (which he does keep saying) to not realise that Por wasn't actually impaled. Also, they're all hallucinating, so maybe the drug is making Fluke and the others see the wound as real because right from the beginning they've been afraid something/one is there to hurt or kill them...and the drug exaggerates their fear. And Fluke has already hallucinated that Por woke up and strangled him - so what if that was partly real?

And honestly, out of all the theories about what twist could happen, this is the one I want most of all. (Mainly because, deep down, I know I'm wrong and Por is most likely actually dead but my god I would LOVE it if he weren't). This is a great post by @bubbipond about how Por is probably a Static Character and why he died first...and it makes sense! It really does! BUT! What if he's not!? What if he's the big twist?! I really want him to sit up at the end like a zombie in Night of the Living Dead (disclaimer: I haven't seen that film I'm just guessing with this comparison) and go sike! Gotcha bitches, I wasn't dead at all. I just needed you to be scared shitless to confess your sins. And oh by the way, here's Non, I think you have something to say to him, no?

Look, I know this begs the question of whether Por and Non are in this together (and whether they're working with Phee and Tan or not...and then there's the mystery of how WHITE fits into this all *bites knuckles*) BUT there's more backstory to come! There's the hint of what we'll soon get to see in the ep 11 trailer - Tee 'helping' out Non, and how (and why) White and Tee got together - so I'm still believing it's possible that there's more to know about Por as well...until I'm shown otherwise!

One more point about DFF—

I really, really, really wish Por had found out before he died that Top was the one to break the camera.

[gronjon44]

Listen I'm just gonna come out and say it-

Revelations Part 2 kicked ass, I wholeheartedly enjoyed it, and now I'm excited for Season 2 after that ending.

And I'd like to say that to everyone being mean to God-Lyn and her design

Y'all need to lighten up this isn't that bad and I for one dig it with the galaxy cloak and the spikey collar and the short hair looks really nice also she can break my ribs with those abs

Also just like, why are we mad at Part 2 so far? More people were upset when the trailer dropped due to everyone feeling like it spoiled everything. But honestly it shows bits of the pilot and some scenes from the finale (but let's face it Savage He Man and Orko returning were NOT the only big twists)

I'm seeing people say they pulled the bait and switch again like with Part 1 and I don't see how?

⚠️⚠️SPOILER⚠️⚠️for anyone who hasn't seen Part 2 in it's entirety.

Evil Lyn taking the sword and becoming God Lyn didn't feel out of place and everything involving the shaky alliance between Adam and Skeletor was fun as hell. It all felt natural to me and now I'm really excited to see what happens to everyone come the next season.

Also yes, I get people had beef with Teela and her character in Part 1, and honestly she felt alot better in Part 2 (her arc was easy to pick up on but I enjoyed it nonetheless)

[space-blue]

syril and dedra aren’t going to fall in love or anything. i believe the interview that comes from they meant it as more of a joke. the actress that plays dedra loves to joke around in interviews, she said dedra and syril probably will get along because they both like a nice tailored suit lol. but they definitely will partner up prolly to find cassian, that parts true. idk about it being a huge spoiler tho.

Prefacing this by clarifying that I don't mind spoilers, so when I call something that, I mean in the literal term of like "info that tells a lot about twists" and not in the emotional sense of "I didn't want to know that, it ruins the show".

I don't mind learning Dedra and Syril will team up. I called it a big spoiler because, as an average fan who watched the trailers and that one tumbr promo interview, I had NO idea Dedra and Syril were meant to team up. Nothing hinted at it.

The show itself never gives us any indication of it. They go to great length to show that Syril has a complex and ominous emotional reaction to his fuck up. Yes he's a zealot with fascistic tendencies, but the end of episode 3 really put a lot in perspective for him. There was room to wonder what he'd do... Going home to mom was unexpected, hilarious, and probably a turn for the worse for his character, but episode 5 STILL kept things vague.

SO yeah, Syril going to Dedra and doubling down sounds amazing and a natural progression, but also like a massive late season spoiler. I didn't even know there would be a heist, for example. I'd also be shocked if interviews spoiled that fact.

Disney also owns the MCU, and that is known for draconian (and frankly stupid) levels of spoiler management.

[acerikus]

...Welp, after over 120 hours of playing I sought out all pokemon in pla and beat the final-final boss and... Wow.

I'm not gonna reblog/talk spoilers for anything Gamefreak haven't officially shown (and a few things that they HAVE) for at least like a month bc I know everyone's enjoying this leisurely, but... Wow.

The twists and turns just didn't stop, this game constantly blew my mind and holy shit, the composers? I wish I could send them a gift basket, the music was just stunning. There were a couple of things I got spoiled on (The Big Twist unfortunately being one), but... I'm amazed at how much more there was that I didn't have any idea about, how much i got to experience for myself and yell incoherently to myself about as I watched the screen.

Gamefreak did an amazing job with what they showed us of this game beforehand, it's wonderful to step into a pokemon game so blindly and discover so many new wonders, done in ways that they've never done before. I think a lot would lose impact if they'd just happily shown it in a billion trailers, like they did for stuff like sun and moon.

Some of the more collection based quests (one in particular, I think we all know what lmao) were kind of a slog, but... Everything feels rewarding in this game in the end, invokes some kind of emotion. They've got plenty of room for improvement (graphical/rendering improvements, give us more interaction in areas, such as giving us somewhere to sleep and at least one merchant in the settlements for example), but... Really can't deny that this is my favourite mainline pokemon game so far. Really hope gamefreak take the resounding success they know they have with this and use it to blow even pla out of the water in the future, because man... Seems like they've really restored faith for a lot of people.