#and they were both done SO dirty

[foreveranevilregal]

The Traitors (US) 🤝 The Traitors (Australia)

Most interesting person is named Kate.

[lunatic-fandom-space]

guess what i realized when i tried talking to someone about my most recent interest

[justanotherwriter140]

Kung Fu Panda 4 - The Movie

The last really, really long discussion post (for now).

Major spoilers ahead!

This review is full of spoilers, so please refrain from reading through it until you've watched KFP4. I would highly suggest doing so, as I want everyone to form their own opinions without my influence. The movie has its flaws (some of which admittedly being a bit distracting), but it's a fun film that has things to offer.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is a fun movie (take that as you will) that takes its audience on an action-packed, surprisingly funny, yet relatively contained adventure on which Po doesn't really do much. It's an inconsequential, safe sequel that doesn't really hurt the franchise but adds close to nothing.

I had a good time watching the movie. It was obviously produced with its theater experience in mind and the action scenes especially reflected that priority. The humor was actually funny sometimes and I enjoyed Po and Zhen's dynamic. During the film, I was able to put most (most!) of my grievances aside and take the movie for what it is. I've discovered that the best way to watch KFP4 is with low expectations and an open mind.

I have a lot of things to say about KFP4, both complaints and compliments (though the former might be taking the forefront in this review), and I hope this review can help those of you who have seen the movie organize your thoughts. I've been having a lot of trouble with that specific aspect of things myself. Those who get it get it.

With that said, let's get into my full review of KFP4! I've been waiting for nearly 2 years to write this and I'm so excited to share every single thought.

I'm going to follow the format of my first discussion post and curate a bulleted list of my thoughts, followed by an analysis of each of these points. Keep in mind that everything I say is IMO and this is more of a rant post than anything else.

Here are my main points:

The Furious Five's role is comically minuscule in the context of the film. Their actions are inconsequential and add nothing to the plot (a confirmed last-minute add), and they have 30~ seconds of screen time. Shifu is also largely irrelevant.

Mr. Ping and Li's presence has little to no effect on the movie (though I won't complain too much because they were pretty fun to watch and this movie has bigger problems). In almost any scenario, I am adamantly against having characters present that don't add anything to the narrative; however, Mr. Ping is an exception. I love Mr. Ping. James Hong is a gem.

Zhen's screen time is not utilized well and her character is underdeveloped. She definitely wasn't annoying, but I didn't find her either compelling or funny enough to warrant the screen time she was given, especially considering it wasn't used to establish a backstory/strong motives. This makes me feel bad for the character because the movie kind of screwed her out of any substantial development.

The Chameleon, while complimented greatly by Viola Davis, is an underwhelming villain. Viola Davis is amazing in this film and I would suggest watching it for her performance if for nothing else, but the Chameleon is underwhelming considering the super cool concept behind the character.

The film feels very rushed. Apologies to those who disagree, but I think the pacing is atrocious and the final fight is anticlimactic. The movie felt like a word-vomit with no discernible intermissions that stops abruptly when the film ends.

I felt as though Po didn't change/grow as a person and the audience never had a chance to either bond with or relate to his character. His internal struggle is kept to a minimum and we don't spend a moment alone with him as an audience, which is disorienting and distracting. Watching the film felt like running into an old friend at the store who's too in a rush to have a real conversation.

The action scenes were strong with few exceptions. Creative art direction was utilized and I thought the martial arts choreography was entertaining and dynamic. I love the color palette of the film and many scenes were very impressive visually.

With my main points established, I do believe it's ranting time. Strap in, folks.

Let's start strong with the Furious Five: I'm gutted. Chagrined, despondent, crestfallen, etc.

The lack of the Furious Five negatively affects KFP4 so much, because not only does their absence hurt the atmospheric integrity of KFP as a franchise, it also forces KFP4 to bring in a slew of different characters—all while still noncommittally including the FF at the very end because I believe the marketing team required it—that clog up the cast a bit. It all goes to show how important strong, established side characters are.

The Furious Five are side characters, but the role of "side character" does not equate to being irrelevant, expendable, or exchangeable. I recognize that the Furious Five aren't super developed as characters beyond a handful of lines that allude to traits sprinkled sparingly among the members; however, I believe that the tiny bits of development we have been given have proved impactful in the past. Tigress's development in KFP2 is a prime example of how much narratively conscious changes (however small they may be) can positively affect these movies.

Because of limited runtimes, the Furious Five often operate as more of a singular unit than five individuals. Even so, I don't think discarding them is valid. They're so important to the KFP universe (to Po's universe!) and not having them with him feels so wrong. The Furious Five are fully integral to the heart of Kung Fu Panda, which is why I believe a lot of those who have seen the new movie have expressed something feeling "off" or something being missing.

I agree with this sentiment. To me, KFP4 didn't feel like a KFP movie. I don't need a Furious Five spin-off movie and I can be fully content with a KFP5 centered around Po's journey as an individual as was intended from the beginning, but he can't carry an entire movie on his back. As strong as he is in every sense of the word, he is only one character. He's the centerpiece of the franchise, but a centerpiece can only go so far without the rest of the design, so to speak.

For me, the Furious Five's absence is one of this film's biggest faults. It's huge and glaring. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, either, because the friends with whom I saw the film refused to talk about any other aspect of the movie after seeing it. Seeing them at the end was better than nothing, of course, but it was a disappointing culmination after eight years of waiting.

That all is to say I feel robbed. Despite all of this, though, I understand that there were reasons why the Furious Five weren't included in the movie. I don't believe the production team would exclude the Furious Five unless they weren't given a choice.

Shifu and Po's dynamic continues to be thoroughly delightful but their interactions are short and simplified. I would have loved to see more of them in this film, especially considering the extreme relevance of teacher-student relationships in KFP4. I (somewhat) digress, though, because the idea of Shifu having to live at the Jade Palace with only Po for an extended period of time is hilarious enough on its own. Maybe that's what the short film is about!

The comedy is odd but has some jokes that stand out. Po maintains a healthy relationship with his inner sass, which I think makes him more fun to watch and kind of eradicates the man-child verdict. Some jokes don't land, of course, but I genuinely thought KFP4 had some funny moments. Mr. Ping was consistently awesome and Po had some good lines sprinkled throughout the film.

As for Mr. Ping, he and Li Shan are the subjects of the film's B-plot as they follow Po to Juniper City out of shared concern for their son's safety. In my mind, they don't add anything to the story that couldn't have been brought about by other characters, but they had their moments of being entertaining. I enjoyed their silliness and thought they had a cute dynamic if nothing else.

Speaking of other characters, I want to discuss KFP4's deuteragonist and why I genuinely feel bad about the way her character was treated.

I want to let it be known that I'm still not on board with Po passing the Dragon Warrior torch to another character. While I agree that his arc is now calling for him to have a student, I disagree with the notion of him retiring from his DW role.

As I stated in my first discussion post:

Didn’t the initial significance and nuance of the title come from the fact that there is only one person who can be the Dragon Warrior, because the concept of the “Dragon Warrior” isn’t so much a title as it is Po himself? The universe (Oogway) must choose the Dragon Warrior because they are a singular being of legend. It is one person, and that person is Po. Wasn’t the point of the first film that the title ultimately doesn’t really matter because there is no “secret ingredient,” so to speak? The title doesn’t actually give Po anything. “It’s just you,” Po says, and that was the resolution.

When it comes to Zhen as a character, contrary to what I predicted I would think of her, I thought she was okay. While I was still a bit distracted by how out-of-place her design looks, I wasn't truly annoyed by her at any point and she and Po had some cute moments. Even so, I think their relationship could have been a bit more refined and developed.

While it's evident that Po and Zhen are meant to have a teacher-student/mentor-apprentice dynamic, I think their relationship feels half-baked. There were parallels that contradicted one another and ended up being confusing come the film's conclusion, and the nature of their relationship seems to vacillate depending on the scene. Additionally, the strength of their bond goes from zero to one hundred within thirty-ish minutes and left me with a bit of whiplash.

We're shown that Po and Zhen care about one another, but we're never shown why. They have a brief conversation during which they bond over being orphans, and Zhen says at one point, "You're actually a good guy," but that's it. This obvious lack of development is a bit disorienting because we're later led to believe that Zhen and Po care very deeply for one another when there's almost nothing to back it up.

A scene that sticks out to me when discussing this is when Zhen attack-hugs Po in a way that explicitly mirrors Tigress's hug from KFP2. This happens around the beginning of the third act, and while it had the potential to be an endearing moment, I think it fell flat.

The impact of Tigress's hug was brought on by her character's hardcore nature and reputation of being heartless, further strengthened with the knowledge that she was hugging Po (which was obviously way outside her comfort zone) as a show of companionship and fundamental understanding. Tigress hugged Po because he needed someone to recognize his strive for closure.

Zhen's hug had little to no impact because she had no reason to do it and it didn't indicate growth. She hugs Po because she's sorry for betraying him and doesn't want him to be killed by the Chameleon, but neither of these things are newly-established via this hug; we have already gathered by now that Zhen regrets betraying Po and doesn't want him to get hurt.

The hug is far from the movie's weakest point, but I think it's unnecessary given the context. I'm big on hugs in movies (an underutilized form of platonic affection, in my opinion), but it didn't fit here. I don't hate it, and I see it as an honest effort to bring emotionality to Po and Zhen's relationship, but it seems arbitrary.

Zhen and Po's relationship has a lot of potential and I'd be open to seeing more of them in the future, but I think some more thoughtful development needs to occur before I can humor it further. Even so, I can see myself featuring Zhen in some future post-KFP4 one-shots—sparingly, of course, because we have a lot of Furious Five content to compensate for.

Overall, they had a cute dynamic and some sweet moments but I'm not attached. I'm on board with Po having a student but I think their relationship needs a lot more development, something that this film unfortunately didn't give them time to either accomplish or earn.

Now, onto the Chameleon!

The concept of the Chameleon's character is admittedly super interesting. She's the deuteragonist's fastidious mother figure who feels that Zhen owes her a debt and as a result holds her to an impossible standard. That dynamic had the potential to be so interesting but I didn't think it was explored at all. There is no indication of Zhen having any internal conflict about fighting the Chameleon, no emotional complexity between them at all; it's disappointing because I think it would've added a bit of earnestness to the film.

Additionally, the idea of a shape-shifting villain is versatile. A shape-shifting villain gives those telling the story a lot of room to experiment with the protagonist and different ways in which the main character can be challenged and tested. It's yet another good idea utilized poorly. Just one idea: the Chameleon could have disguised herself as one (or several) of Po's family, friends, etc. and brought to fruition a new arc with his character (seeing as he arguably doesn't have one in this film), but she only disguises herself as Zhen very briefly in the movie.

Furthermore, the Chameleon completely relies on the powers of previous villains to pose any sort of threat to the main characters. She summons Po's former nemeses from the Spirit Realm (despite there being little logic in doing so considering Kai's literal evisceration) and takes their kung fu abilities for herself.

An excerpt from my first KFP4 discussion post that I think is relevant to the point I'm trying to make:

I don’t think it would be in the best interest of anyone if the past villains were to come back in any way that’s not a flashback (even then, I’m not sure I’d see the point). In all honesty, I thought that the whole point of the villains was that they died and stayed dead. They were defeated by Po once and for all as a testament to the idea of establishing Po's character growth and journey as a person through the bad things he’s able to overcome. It’d be highly contradictory to the messages of the other films if these villains were to suddenly come back.

While there was an honest effort made to portray the Chameleon as intimidating, I never felt as though any of the characters were endangered by either her or her army of lizard henchman. She's a visually appealing character (aside from her eyes, which I thought more resembled those of a gecko than a chameleon) and I greatly enjoyed Davis's performance, but overall I don't see the Chameleon as a notable villain.

The return of Tai Lung (had he been on his own) had the makings to be an excellent story, especially considering the importance of teacher-student dynamics in KFP4. To see him interacting with Shifu would have been incredible and could have led to further closure on Tai Lung's end (because I think that's kind of what the team was going for anyway), but it didn't happen.

It was nice to see Ian McShane reprise his role, but I wish Tai Lung's characterization had been more reminiscent of the way he was in the first film and more complimentary of his overall character arc. Tai Lung isn't a one-dimensional villain with a singular goal and motivation, and I couldn't help but feel as though the complexity of his character was simplified for the sake of KFP4's narrative.

Tai Lung's presence in KFP4 may be odd, but Shen and Kai's appearances are even more so. Kai, if I remember correctly, was fully obliterated by Po, reduced to literal particles on screen (which is kind of wild now that I think about it). Shen being in the Spirit Realm makes sense all things considered; however, Po and Li had no visible reaction to his presence, which seemed a bit unlikely considering Shen's deeds. This plot hole can likely be attributed to the fact that Shen and Kai's cameos (to my knowledge) were last-minute additions to the movie.

I have to talk about the pacing. I have to. I'm sorry, bear with me.

To me, the film's pacing is erratic and disconcerting. While I can appreciate a quick-moving narrative that doesn't dawdle on storylines that aren't interesting/important, KFP4 kind of flings itself too far in the opposite direction and ends up being frighteningly fast-paced. Once the credits began, I felt like I had been holding my breath for the entire movie.

KFP4 is confusing because while the runtime is standard for a KFP movie, it feels incredibly short. At the same time, the film's story moves at a breakneck speed and leaves little time for heart and development. These things culminate into a barreling boulder of a movie that simply doesn't have time to let its characters, story, or audience take a breath.

A fast pace is not inherently negative, but I don't think it worked in the favor of KFP4. The KFP franchise has always been very emotionally grounded (and just very grounded in general), so to see a film in which emotion/heart takes an aggressive backseat in comparison to action and comedy is jarring. While I think it's unreasonable for fans to expect the same emotional integrity as the original films to be present in the current and upcoming ones, I still think there's room for Po to grow and I felt as though the notion of him developing further was brushed aside in this film.

As for Po's growth, I felt it was nearly nonexistent. The previous trilogy wrapped up his character's journey beautifully and I know that KFP4 was bound to struggle with this particular aspect of making another KFP film; however, just because the strongest pillars of Po's character are established doesn't serve as a valid excuse to reverse his development and repeat what he learned in KFP3.

In KFP3, Po learned firsthand that he is capable of spreading wisdom and teaching kung fu. He also learns that he is constantly growing and that change is inevitable; there is always something more to learn.

"If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now."

"I don't want to be anything more, I like who I am!"

In KFP4, Po pushes against this narrative despite fully accepting it in KFP3, actively reversing crucial parts of his character development achieved in the latter. KFP3 was non-ambiguously about learning to cope with change and responsibility, and I can't help but feel like KFP4 is simply copying this message while not adding anything to it.

Additionally, I felt that KFP4's Po generally felt less personal than he has in the past. In every KFP movie up to the franchise's most recent addition, I felt very connected to Po as an audience member. I felt like I was truly seeing the world of KFP through his eyes. I consider this to be one of the franchise's most impressive feats; it's incredibly difficult to build a universe around a character without making the audience feel limited to one perspective and one part of the world.

With KFP4, I felt both limited and disconnected. The world didn't feel as vast and all-encompassing as it has in the past and Po didn't seem fully like himself. This could be me nitpicking (as I'm prone to do), but I can't recall a single moment in the movie in which Po was alone on screen. Scenes like these are crucial for me because I see them as a meet-cute between the character and the audience, a moment for us to cross the bridge into their world in a way that's silent and intuitive. These little bonding moments are absolutely integral to feeling connected to a character.

Po's dream sequence in the first KFP movie is one of the best examples of this. It presents his aspirations, alludes to his way of life up to the point of the movie, and showcases his personality. During Po's dream sequence, the audience is quite literally inside Po's mind; we're there with him, seeing what he sees, subsequently feeling what he feels. Po is a dreamer at heart and makes the audience feel like dreamers, too.

In KFP4, I felt like I little to no point of reference when it comes to how Po was feeling. I didn't feel immersed in him and his world.

I know I've been very "doom and gloom" throughout this post, which is an exhausting mindset for everyone involved. I want to end my critique with something positive because I think some praise is deserved. Let's just say the movie could have been a lot worse, the details of which I'm sure you're all well aware.

Congratulations, you've reached the end! Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to read this unnecessarily long and detailed review. As long as I help someone translate their conflicted feelings into coherent thoughts, I'll call it a win.

KFP4 has its flaws and there are a lot of aspects that I dislike, but the I greatly admire and respect the hard work put into the film by those of the crew who put their efforts forward and tried their best to make it work. This does not at all excuse my issues with the movie, but it's worth saying.

As for the future of the series, I only hope that the next installment is more considerate of the franchise's origins and why Po's story is being told in the first place. I fully believe that another sequel could be good (even great!), but only given a strong, passionate crew with a great understanding of the characters and world (and I wouldn't be averse to some previous directors returning, just to put it out there).

Thanks again to those who took the time to read this crazy excuse for a movie review. Feel free to either disagree with me or add things in the replies/reblogs, I'm always looking for more thoughts to think.

Until next time!

[thefabulousfab-3]

Penelope and Colin deserved to go traveling the world together. They deserved so much more than what the writers gave them.

[sumarmz]

Mitsuri and Obanai shouldve been the ones to fight Akaza and I will fight ppl on this

[asexualbookbird]

Another Ohuhu vs Copic Post

I'm not the first to compare the two, and I won't be the last, but I have opinions and I love foisting them upon the void of the internet so here we are.

I have a mishmash of 16 copic grey tones and one pastel purple (BV11 Pale Violet), and the 96 Honolulu B Pastel set from Ohuhu, and even though I've only had these Ohuhus for a few hours, I can already tell you I have OPINIONS!

Let's get the obvious out of the way. The seventeen (17) copic markers I've acquired over the years cost more than the ninety six (96) set from Ohuhu. Lol. Lmao even. Everyone knows it, copics are Pricey and that's why everyones looking for an alternative. So yeah, I've been excited about ohuhu for a while! They're been a good competitor, even more so since they added brush tips and refillable markers! For real, while copics have been ridiculously priced, I've resigned myself to just buying a few here and there because it felt like a better investment in the long run. But now? I HAD TO KNOW! What are ohuhu markers like to USE?

Kind of nice, to be honest. They have next to NO smell, especially compared to the copics. Even my prismacolor markers are stinkier than the ohuhus. Love that. I'm not hotboxing myself out of my room every time I want to do a color. Amazing, no notes. Well, one note. I think the reason they aren't as stinky is because they aren't NEARLY as juicy as copics. Maybe it's the color set I got? I'd like to revisit this with a more bold color set to see, but the pastels feel almost Dry. So I wouldn't be surprised if the juiciness results in more stink. If that's the case, then yeah I'll go into the hot box.

The juiciness is probably also the reason ohuhu doesn't blend as easily. They still blend nicely, but the copics were SO smooth. Here's some blending I did with each set. The colors aren't compareable, because the copic colors I have go much darker than the ohuhu pastels, but the blending is the same.

Ignore the one on the top lol that's when I decided I needed More Colors and got the Ohuhus. The bottom cloud is the copics (the brights are prismacolor markers that are not part of this because they're about 20 years old at this point and not alcohol based anyway). It was my first attempt at blending, but it was easy to get a nice gradient! The hardest part was choosing colors and that's on me!

Here are ohuhu clouds! I noticed the paper had some texture so I did the little blob on the right to compare with the first cloud. It did blend a lot smoother on the smoother side of the paper, but I still had to use the darker copic marker to even the blend out. I don't mind that too much, to be honest, I think they work VERY well together! I did find myself needing to layer the ohuhus more, but I really do like the result.

THE NIBS! LETS TALK ABOUT THE NIBS! Copics big thing was always HEY WE HAVE REPLACEABLE NIBS! So when your nib inevitably gets Nasty, you don't have to buy an entire new marker. But now. Guess what ohuhu has done. REPLACEABLE. NIBS! Not only that, but most of the nibs are INTERCHANGEABLE! So if I decide I don't actually like that I got a brush/bullet combo and want the chisel, I can replace either with a chisel! HOW NEAT! I don't know if copic nibs are interchangeable, but they have always been replaceable.

Ohuhu has more different nibs and nib combos. They have brush/chisel, brush/bullet, chisel/bullet, something called a tri nib??/chisel, slim chisel/bullet, and wide tip. The tri tip is. So interesting to me. I'm not a chisel fan, if I want to cover a lot of space I can do that with a brush tip. But this tri chisel?? looks like you get more control over the line width. It's fascinating. I'd love to try it some day, but I don't think it fits the art I generally enjoy making. Like. I don't think I'd use it a lot. It's why I chose the Honolulu B, they have a brush and a bullet nib.

Copics have fewer choices, brush/chisel (sketch), brush/bullet (ciao), bullet/chisel (classic), and Wide. Biggest thing about these, though is that everything but the ciao are refillable. This is the other big draw to copics, especially considering ohuhu doesn't offer open stock. If your favorite color dries out, you'd have to buy a new set with that color in it. Ohuhu has started offering refills for some colors, and I can only hope that means they'll eventually offer refills for every color they offer. Both set of nibs are fine. Copics are a little more squishy, but I think that has to do with the juice once more. They aren't different enough to affect me in either direction.

Color choices are close enough, ohuhu honolulu series offers 363 colors, thier oahu has 320 colors, copic sketch offers 358 colors, all of which have refills. Ohuhu offers 50 colors on their website. Again, I really hope that since this is so new, it just means they'll offer more refill colors in the future. Still, a win for copics. I also love that copics allow you to buy empty BARRELS along with refills, which means you could theoretically make your own colors. Also, if you price it all out, in the long run, buying empty barrels and the ink refills and filling the markers yourself is cheaper than buying individual or sets of copic markers. I hate that. Lower your prices.

Overall, I like them both! Are copics better? Yeah, absolutely, I'm not denying that. But the price is SO outrageous and ohuhu is fighting for that affordability market. They're perfectly fine markers, and I WILL be buying some brighter more saturated colors. I will also be slowly (very slowly) buying copics too. They're so smooth, they really are the quality they're known for. If you want to try out alcohol markers and don't want a commitment, go for ohuhu. They have so many sets, and a wide price range, and still everything is so much more affordable than copics. It all comes down to that. If you want an investment and can drop a lot of money at once, then yeah absolutely go for copics. I am doing all I can not to say They're Worth It, because I hate that price I HATE IT! A single marker shouldn't be six dollars (and that's the Discount Price at Blicks). But I can't deny their quality. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing, which is getting a large set of ohuhu and supplementing it with copics and hopefully one day copics will take over.

Did that help?

PS ohuhu caps clip on to the end of the barrel. Copics do not (unless you get the ciao).

[hazbinbabbling4ever]

I can’t believe that the “a kiss can’t solve it all magically”, the theme that seemed linked to Maggie and Nina’s story, was actually just foreshadowing for Crowley and Aziraphale. It’s been 3 days and I still think about it.

[iguessitsjustme]

[the-dye-stained-socialite]

thinking about how elias went from learning how to take care of themself and exist as a person from the neath's servants, to becoming a paramount presence and London's Adored Regent in a few short years

[akimojo]

wild to think about how square enix had more fleshed out female characters in ffv (1992) than they do in xv (2016) and xvi (2023)

[pocketfullofjoltiks]

[missrosegold]

Looks like I just lost another close friend to guy who isn't worth a pile of dog shit. 😊

[scalproie]

[queerasian]

better call saul breaking a record for most emmy nominations w no wins is so crazy and wildly thematically fitting. but also @ academy members i am at your doorsteps ready to avenge bob and rhea and everyone involved w my entire life

[bethrnoora]

the husband in cat people is a piece of shit and we know it kinda from the get go bc he dismisses irena's culture and just wants her to be his perfect american wife and then cheats on her when she won't be that.

the boyfriend from night tide is kind of a sleeper piece of shit bc he's useless as hell and when his mentally ill girlfriend is murdered by her own adoptive abusive father he picks up a new date on the way out of the police station after learning about her death. spits on you spits on you spits on you

[sugurugayto]

now twt has ppl pitting yoi and sk8 against each other