#been thinking abt this scene nonstop for 2 days

[pyrotechnicdarts]

(wip) top 10 podcast scenes that fuck you up

[ill337erate]

Guess I’ll post abt this

So a few days ago I watched the final Evangelion Rebuild movie, 3.0 + 1.0, and was shocked at how different my own reaction was compared to what I had seen online. Up till that point, all I had seen were people praising it as a great ending. When I finally watched it, I thought… basically… it was abysmal. The original series and EoE are still there, thank god, so this doesn’t RUIN EVERYTHING for me. But it was startling.

Disclaimers, I guess: I haven’t rewatched the movie at all, nor have I recently watched the other Rebuild movies. I didn’t write notes; this is just some of my off-the-cuff opinions, in no particular order.

1) The movie sets things up and immediately contradicts itself. The most egregious example of this is Shinji’s mental state and his trauma. For the first part of the movie they set up that Shinji has trauma so severe that just seeing the choker makes him vom instantly. Then he sees another friend explode into LCL and he’s…. fine. What?? I got so much emotional whiplash.

2) The fan service is out of place and often tasteless. I’m not a fan of the way the movie uses fanservice shots during clearly serious scenes, or adds some nonsense over top to pretend it wasn’t gratuitous. I’m not saying the fanservice in NGE was always tasteful and warranted, but I will say that at the very least it captured the awkwardness of adolescent horniness as experienced by Shinji. When framed in that light, I think it’s much more palatable. In this movie however this framing isn’t really possible since Shinji goes from catatonic to hero, not really ever getting to just be a boy; plus, a lot of the blatant fanservice is done in scenes he’s not present in. His point of view does not color those moments.

3) The fights are so boring. There are no real stakes, the limits that used to make battles tense and uncertain have all been dropped. It’s just dozens of minutes of nonstop action interspersed throughout the movie. Sometimes the CGI dips in quality and it’s very jarring and apparent. I already didn’t care about the battles, but when they don’t even look good… guh.

4) Rei’s “being innocent in Ghibli town” moments made me roll my eyes. It was very contrived. You cannot expect me to believe that someone who can speak coherently hasn’t encountered simple words. When she receives a turnip from a kid and asks “what would you say in this situation,” (to which the child replied, “you say thank you”) wanted to scream. Did none of the writers ever see a toddler? You think someone with little socialization would intuitivey feel that they had to say something in that moment? No, they would just take the turnip and not say a damn thing. Maybe take a big bite out of it and chew noisily with their mouth open. What made NGE Rei so fucked up was precisely that she was never raised the way a human child should be, and the results weren’t cute. They weren’t endearing. Her room was disgusting and she had nothing that we would understand as self-respect, because of that lack of socialization. Anyway, I could go on and on, but basically I found it super forced, unrealistic, and manipulative, especially since they just explode her for no clear reason anyway. I guess just to show us that Shinji is forever completely over his trauma and is totally invulnerable to emotions now. Nothing will ever faze this guy again. Character development!

5) There was exactly 0 buildup to boobgirl and Shinji getting together. What a bizarre end pairing. And apparently she’s technically like, 60 years old at that point?? Lmfao. I’ve seen it being called “comphet” and honestly, yeah.

6) My only hope for this movie was for the 3rd movie to be contextualized, but instead, it only made it look stupid. The WILLE characters who hated Shinji are only now, 14 years later, coming to accept that Shinji saved them? Are you fucking kidding me? So this whole time these people just didn’t sit down to think things through, which is why it never ocurred to them until now that 1) Shinji had no real choice in that moment, 2) his actions literally saved their asses, even if much was lost in the process. Wow! It was so weird to see Misato like Shinji again when she spent the last movie being so cold and unfeeling towards him. She reverted to what you’d more or less expect, but… why? Why was she even pissed off in the first place, she literally ENCOURAGED HIM BEFORE THE 2nd MOVIE’S IMPACT. This movie did nothing to help the characters in movie 3 make any sense.

7) I really disliked the visual callbacks to NGE and EoE because they all felt so hollow; there was no substance justifying those scenes, no proper buildup. They were transparent references for referencing’s sake. Ritsuko shoots Gendo because she did that in the other continuity, remember that?? Remember how she did that and it was iconic? Remember the giant Rei head? Remember Asuka going beserk as she fought off other Evas? Remember Shinji saw Asuka naked? Remember the quiiiirky style shifts to sketchy uncolored frames and to live action?

8) The dialogue was basically nonsense. So much of it was fake-deep (“there are only two things to do with a father… pat him on the back, or kill him.” Uh??? If you say so???????), while the rest was just an endless assault of jargon, including brand new shit that wasn’t introduced or foreshadowed in the previous 3 movies. The fuck is the Book of Life and why is Kaworu able to write shit in it. Why are there endless religion spears. I lost track of how many Impacts even happened by the end of the movie, and also stopped caring.

9) At the same time as incomprehensible new stuff is flung at you, the already-established stuff stops following the in-universe rules that once bound them. AT Fields were once a consistent and understandable phenomenon; in this movie they literally just do whatever. A soulless Eva creating an AT field that blocks itself from moving forward? Sure! Why not! It just has to look cool and complicated! Really, this is why I didn’t care at all about any of the new stuff they kept introducing: there was absolutely no regard for the the pre-existing lore, why bother learning the new concepts if they were going to be just as messy and inconsistent?

10) The name of the movie is incredibly obnoxious and I love when people just call it 4.0

All in all, this movie seemed obssessed with the surface-level aspects of Evangelion. Big robots fighting other big robots. Blue haired alien girl being a blue haired alien girl, angry redhead girl being angry redhead girl. Calling back to iconic scenes from the original iteration. Fanservice! But it didn’t have any real heart, and that makes me uninterested in engaging with it on the meta level, or bothering to take any time to understand the terminology and mechanics built upon in this movie.

Anyway yeah I did not enjoy this final Rebuild movie, but on the plus side I will certainly rewatch the original series + movies with renewed appreciation!

[thebreakfastgenie]

ik i already said chianti was my favorite, but please talk abt writing emergency room!!!

thank you for indulging my obvious fishing you're a real one <3 I did not expect this to get this long I'm so sorry I'm gonna put it under a cut

The Emergency Room is the only one of my "renaissance" fics I spent a lot of time on or really... worked at. Chianti, The Apple, and Campfire all came easily and unexpectedly. Normally I think I do some of my best writing that way and I am pleased with the writing on all of those but I do think The Emergency Room benefitted from the amount of time and attention it got.

I started writing Emergency Room on Christmas. It might have been Christmas Eve or the day after but I'm pretty sure it was Christmas itself, because I was trying very hard to finish a new draft of a Christmas themed WIP six years in the making (I failed. I'll try again this year.) and this other thing kept wanting to be written instead. So I was like, fine. So technically Emergency Room predates Chianti, at least everything up through the waiting room scene because those were all written first and then edited only a little later. I was on a role and I was so excited to get to the scene with the doctor and then when I got there it became impossible to write. I still don't know why this happened, but it did, so I had to stop writing it for a while.

But I never really stopped because I was thinking about that scene all the time and working on phrases and sentences. The way I write, a lot of the process is invisible. I work out full sentences and sometimes paragraphs in my head and then I write them down. (Most of the first half of Campfire was written in my head while I was in the woods and I was so anxious I would forget it before I got to my phone to write it down.) I do make changes at this point, but it's rare for them to be significant. I basically use my WIPs as my daydream scenarios for any time I need something to think about. I also write in chronological order, so this scene I was stuck on became my mental backdrop for months. I really wasn't planning to pick it back up when I did, I was supposed to be working on a different WIP, but it happened.

The conversation with the doctor is one of my favorite parts, but the farthest I had gotten during these months of rumination was this part:

“I thought your name sounded familiar,” she sounded apologetic, almost embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I need to pick my metaphors more carefully.”

“Don’t be,” Josh shook his head. “You’re the first doctor I’ve seen in months that hasn’t opened with it. It’s... kind of nice.”

The next line, where she talks about the patient's role in surgery, was unplanned, but it ended up being pivotal to my understanding of this scene. The subtext of

“But there’s something else, something intangible, that comes from the patient. For all our scientific advancements, there’s still a lot we don’t understand about the body,” she paused, then added, “and the mind.”

is you lived because you wanted to live.

I actually worked out this subtext and I had a sentence that I thought sounded nice, but I didn't write it down because I knew I wasn't going to use it, and what I recall doesn't sound quite as nice, but it was basically "You were teetering on the brink of life and death. Dying had never been easier. If you wanted to die you would have done it then."

It's supposed to be a counterpoint to "He could have died happy," from the previous scene.

So, I hope someone picked up on that.

One of the things I knew about that scene all along is that when Josh tells the doctor what happened to his hand he's really telling Donna. Hopefully saying it to her shoes got that across adequately, lol. That moment was painful to write because I had already way, way committed to past tense but that one little line sounded so much better in present tense and there was nothing I could do about it. I still like the sound of:

"I broke a window," he tells Donna's shoes.

but there's nothing I can do about it!!! I'm not going to rerelease the Special Present Tense Edition although that sounds kinda fun, I have no desire to rewrite the rest of it in present tense.

Also I forgot about this when I was being annoying about wanting people to pick up on my favorite parts, but the thing about comparing the innards of the chair in the waiting room to organs is something I (surprise, surprise) thought of while looking at a cracked chair and I still adore the concept but I'm satisfied but not thrilled with the execution.

It's worth noting that even during the literal months I was stewing over the doctor scene, everything that comes after that was planned in excruciating detail. I even had specific phrases; the hug and

"I'll be right here when you get back." "Promise?" "I promise."

were one of the first scenes I thought of and anchored this fic the whole time I was writing it. That moment is the companion to

"I am very glad that you're alive." "Me too." "You are?"

in Fortune Cookie Wisdom.

Because that's the other thing about this fic. From the beginning, I was envisioning it as the night before Fortune Cookie Wisdom. This caused me a few minor wrinkles, like the space heater. I was writing along assuming it was already there, when I went back and checked and realized that I established that Donna was the one who put it in the bedroom, so I came up with a compromise. I also deliberately avoided saying what time it was throughout Emergency Room so we can all convince ourselves Josh got a few hours of sleep before already being awake at 7:30 AM in Fortune Cookie Wisdom.

But the biggest influence from Fortune Cookie Wisdom is the phone call in K-Mart. I had established that Donna got a last-minute flight home for Christmas and that Josh arranged it with Leo's help, and I knew I wanted the scene where he convinces her to go. But I had to figure out when and how he actually managed to pull it off and so the mysterious K-Mart phone call was born. I got a kick out of an AO3 comment that highlighted finding out who Josh was on the phone with because it meant that part actually worked.

And then there was the ending. At this point it was 2 AM, I had been agonizing over this fic nonstop for the last couple days and intermittently for months, and I wanted it to be done so I could post it. The ending was torture. I kept writing and deleting things. I kept staring at it trying to get the perfect last line, trying to convey the same general vibe as the end of Noël itself. I'm still not sure I didn't need one more sentence of buildup before putting the button on it, but everyone seemed to really like and respond to it, so I'm happy!

If you actually read this whole post congratulations we're friends now.

Also if you've read both I'd be very curious to hear how anyone thinks Emergency Room and Fortune Cookie Wisdom work together because I wrote them three years apart and the style is very different.

[cosmicretribution]

💕🌡🔑📖🌼📺📻

ask game: x

💕 Your two top fave fictional characters

oof I think im gonna have to say flowey is one for obvious reasons but the second fav? thats a hard one........... im gonna say grovyle from pmd2 for now ! i fuckin love that bitch! 

🌡 Fave season

this emoji doesnt show up for me so i had to . cross match the empty box by google searching it. I like the transition zone between summer and fall, so like, right now kinda? ^^

🔑 Key to your heart

ppl being like. steadily supportive and compassionate and ppl who’re good listeners and talk abt my interests with me both have the key uwu

📖 Fave book

you know what? warrior cats: tallstar’s revenge. that book slapped. 

🌼 Fave flower

lavender, bleeding hearts, and petunia !!! I have a petunia that’s over a year old that i grew from a seed :D 

📺 Fave anime

I dont rly know A Ton of anime shows but I guess soul eater ? at times it’s like. man can u Please tone down the tiddiez and at times its like heres an extremely heartwrenching story about friendship and heres a story about an abuse survivor finding support and here’s a cool weapon transformation scene. take it or leave it i fuckign guess

📻 Fave song currently

currently? I’ve been listening to the ib title theme on repeat for like 2 days nonstop ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[toothplug]

ok official spoilery list of what i liked and didn’t like abt tlj........

before i get going i know there will be way more dislikes but i still enjoyed the movie as in I Had Fun but it was an extremely flawed movie. i give it like a 5/10 (tfa for me was like 8.5 even 9 but i’m biased maybe)

likes:

i enjoyed learning the back story of kylo/luke esp from both their perspectives, neat enough

REY IS A GARBAGE CHILD FROM A TRASH PLANET AND NOT A STUPID FUCKING SKYWALKER THANK GOD

good acting all around

That Scene Where Laura Derne Esploded In Space And It Got Real Quiet

some funny moments*

the scene where kylo turns on snoke (some ppl hate that he died, i don’t care as much in fact i kinda liked it but i’m adding a ** here)

Poe had a good arc i guess......

the kylux sex scene i made up in my head

i liked the casino

cute and well designed creatures altho i’m really picky with CGI so sometimes the porgs and crystal dogs or w/e looked a little weird to me but that’s just.....my own issue

When Kylo Ren Stances Up The Gay Icon

When Luke Brushes The Non Dirt Off His Shoulder The Gay Icon

that fucking titty milk luke drinks str8 from the teet that part rocked my world

dislikes:

fucky things with the force that made no sense to me:

snoke connecting rey and kylo, then somehow it still happening after he’s dead

flying leia????????????? wtf??????????? wtf wtf that scene wtf

the following characters got royally fucked in this film: leia (went to sleep, did virtually nothing), rey (everything she does relates to kylo, other than that one thing with her parents and it felt like an afterthought to me, we’re told she grows over the film, but i didn’t see how or when), finn (he does nothing. point blank. does nothing and only interacts with his wittle girlfwiend), rose (also did nothing. the only woc in the main cast and all she does is some stupid ass pointless mission then kisses finn. lame. the dead sister plot had potential but kinda went nowhere), hux (literally a punching bag who lost any sinister qualities he ever had, why was he even here if this was the point), PHASMA???? (she shows up finally for 2 seconds, has the most boring anticlimactic fight in fucking film history, and falls in a fucking hole without us ever SEEING HER FACE?!?!?? i’m so furious about this one. i’m fucking mad bye)

kylo got literally all of the character development/arc other than maybe poe and luke. but poe’s was kinda blah idk it was fine but it fell a little flat for me and luke like had more conflict than others but he basically stagnated the entire time until the very end where he saved the day and then like. died.)

obviously the kiss

*too much humor. detracted from a lot of emotional moments or sinister atmosphere, v marvel film of them to do. 

**i liked snoke’s death BUT it ends up kind of fucking up the movie because he’s not replaced with anyone nearly as menacing or scary. neither kylo nor hux/the first order come even remotely close to how legit scary they were in the first film. i mean hux is literally one of the 3 stooges basically. so we’re left with no proper villain which sucks

these characters were literally unecessary: 

the DJ or any code breaker at all. why did this even happen. this entire thread with him, finn, and rose was fucking ridiculous. worst aspect of the whole movie. i could like go on abt this forever so i’m gonna stop now

ok wait one more thing: the whole gray morality thing via the weapons dealing is sooooo funny hahahha it was stupid af. the first order has slave soldiers but they don’t have their weapons made exclusively? ok

this pains me to say bc i love her but laura derne. other than her sacrifice, everything she did could have been leia, and we could have avoided literally throwing leia’s character away. i mean she got FUCKED and i’m really mad about it. i dont know why johnson set up this atmosphere with the rebels where apparently leia is god and no one on board would ever defy her or even argue something but i think it’s fucking stupid and bad writing. the idea that poe couldn’t have learned the exact same fucking lesson from her is idiotic. laura derne could have just like been around a few times, established that she’s close with leia, then her sacrifice still means something without detracting from other characters’ screen time. because that’s what she did sorry lmfao

listen it’s so cute and sweet that billie lourd was in it but she was in it too much. i’m sorry like. u only have so much time to develop a shit ton of characters so :( sorry billie.

that stupid fucking white boy with the force or whatever at the end. fuck that. sorry but why him ? if ur gonna do some like Kids In The Galaxy Paralleling The Audience Nostalgia fuck you for making a white boy. just reestablishes that this franchise originally was never meant for me like, this was all just a huge i love star wars wank fest for rian johnson and he clearly sees himself as that little boy which i think is literally dumb. not sure why it couldn’t have been one of the other kids or all three. stupid

this ties in with leia getting shafted but she and luke get to interact for like literally 3 seconds

this movie should just be retitled “Kylo Ren Is Valid And Here’s Why”

i want to point out i’m not one of Those People who hates the idea of a kylo redemption arc or thinks it’s impossible. like i said earlier, i liked getting his and luke’s sides of things and i’m fine with past kylo being painted somewhat sympathetically. but this movie fucking WACKS YOU OVER THE HEAD with it literally NONSTOP. 

the rey and kylo stuff was fine in theory but again it happened way too much. i think it could have been condensed into one scene where they connected once

as soon as rey and poe introduced themselves to each other i knew there was a big problem. i had like a revelatory moment in the theater because that was at the End of the film and two of the three MAIN protagonists (imo) JUST NOW MET?? at the end of the second movie. there’s only one more and their relationship is only starting now???? k.

in general splitting the main trio up for the entirety of the film was a shit ass idea

rey had too much makeup on lmfao there i said it

other than the one fight scene with rey and kylo, the fighting fell really flat as did the other action

didn’t like luke’s death. it took me a second to even realize what happened. probably fans of the OG trilogy loved it or at least liked it more but i didn’t grow up with SW and i didn’t care about it until TFA. i had this fleeting thought of like “oh wait were there two suns just then? that’s like....where he grew up or something right oh wait now they’re gone so it was symboli-oh wait he’s dead. oh.” idk it felt really anticlimactic to me. i mean compared to han’s death it doesn’t hold up at all imo

FUCK YODA THE STINKY OLD MAN!!!! that part was dumb as hell and so fanservicey it like hurt my body

overall, the movie did mostly nothing. felt like filler !

all in all i had fun like i said, the movie was p blah, and if the final one rocks which obviously i hope it does, then i’ll be more forgiving. every trilogy has a stinker even if it’s a good stinker, and the 2nd is always the best one to be the stinker imo so. hopefully this one is it.