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bloopitynoot · 8 months ago

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Reading SVSSS: Chapter 14

For those who don't know, I am reading SVSSS for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag bloopitynoot reads SVSSS. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read.

New book new book! Can you believe I am on book three already? Holy heck, time has flown by.

I thought I would switch up my tea process today with a new cup but also I wanted to show off my collection XD We bought some new and some refill teas from the ren faire yesterday (one of our favourite localish tea blenders) and what a collection my partner and I have amassed. I didn't realize how huge it was until I snapped the pic- it feels very at home apothecary LOL

I went with a lady grey latte and instead of my heart mug I was feeling the spooky vibes and and using my mug by Jaxx b. I have a few other handmade mugs I might start featuring because they are fun as heck!

I've rambled enough about my tea and mug let's get into this chapter!

okay right away bless MXTX for doing such a good job immediately place setting. We are in the demon realms! p9

oof. the energy between Luo BInghe and Shen Qingqiu is so uncomfortable right now. Neither of them saying anything. I am intrigued to see how they sort through this. I know they are end game but like- this is so awkward. p9

oh gosh. Luo Binghe 10000% modeled the room he is basically locking SQQ in after the Bamboo House. Yes SQQ, there most definitely is meaning in it being familiar. p10

So. LOL SQQ's rationale. Instead of "looking too much like a respectable woman kidnapped by a ruffian" p. 10 is to essentially play gay chicken?

RIP well, luo binghe did find out about the blood. so sexually charged though in the way he decided to find out. p11

How is Luo Binghe even surprised that after SQQ being treated this way that he requests that Luo Binghe never see him/see him as little as possible? What did he even expect would happen here?? p12 There is a lot of trust broken between these two.

oh? System feature upgrade? p13

LOL "luxury edition" p14 There must be fanfics about SQQ kept trophy husband

omg what kind of novels was SQQ's sister reading XD those are some wild fantasies. pp14-15

SQQ: "I will not have stockholm syndrome" okay buddy, we will see what happens with your 'luxury edition' p15

oh luo binghe, that sweet baby boy is having them plant bamboo and is cooking SQQ's meals.p16 this would be even cuter if they talked about things instead of having such a weird dynamic.

Jesus Christ. Shang Qinghua enters again. How does this man stealth so well when he is kind of an idiot? I feel like terrible decisions and bad luck follow him everywhere- but he is just slippery enough to get away. p17

LOL SQQ: Your protagonist turned gay. Shang Qinghua: eh, it's fine as long as I'm not the love interest. sucks to be you. p18

okay but I want to know how deep the info of this world goes. Where does it pool the information to generate everything- just published content OR is it everything and anything Airplane thought about or created (ie the lost computer files about Luo Binghe's dad) p19

uuuugh not another interruption- I feel for you SQQ, I too want to know what he was going to say about your tragic backstory in the original edit. p22

Airplane really said 'no homo' "That man of yours is here. Let's do it later- wait, I mean let's chat later" p22

okay okay okay! The boys are talking for real about their mutual deception of one another. Is this the path to them figuring their shit out?? Maybe they will talk about their trust issues. p23

Okay I am with Luo Binghe on this- it did feel as though SQQ completely did a 180 on fundamental life beliefs RE: no one is inherently evil because of their race. p23. So I understand Luo Binghe here- I am glad they are talking.

OMG pp24-25

well. that escalated quickly LOL pp24-25

Luo Binghe probably "hit me harder daddy shizun" p26 +500 satisfaction points.

is Luo binghe going to assault him 😭😭😭😭 this is not it. that was not cool that entire part was so gross "If shizun see's me as no better than a beast either way, I might as well live up to expectations" p27

thank fuck all of that was interrupted, but also now i'm deeply concerned for SQQ!!!! is it the other demon blood? Is it past (young SQQ) trauma?? What's happening?? (no one actually answer this I 1000% know it will be resolved in due time, but I am having a panic about the guy).

Well that's not good at all

this was one rollercoaster of an opening act omg. Not a good time for everyone involved at the end there. I am VERY glad SQQ was not assaulted but I am SRESSED now for other reasons.

#bloopitynoot reads svsss #svsss spoilers #mxtx svsss #svsss #scum villain #scum villian self saving system #this series is causing me emotional turmoil #hopefully shen qingqiu is okay!

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markerofthemidnight · 4 months ago

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Danganronpa: Trial by Media

At the request of @namearentfunfr, I have officially been given permission to talk about my fangan that’s been dwelling on my mind for the past like month! Prepare for a rant (although there’s only so much I can tell you without giving away spoilers so far).

Its name is Danganronpa: Trial by Media. It takes place in an… ambiguous point in the future, somewhere in America (I’m sorry guys but Japanese names are just really hard for me to remember, besides I don’t have to worry about translating the Japanese culture over to it and all the research that would require so for me it’s much easier this way).

Its basic premise is “Danganronpa: Despair Time, but what if the fact that it’s a TV show impacted the plot more?” Because that’s one of my only complaints about DRDT: I think the fact that the cast know from the beginning that the Killing Game is being broadcasted to an audience of millions doesn’t have enough of an impact on the plot as it should. So I made this fangan to fix it!

Besides that, it also takes a lot of inspiration from Project: Eden’s Garden, namely the fact that every character except the host has an associated animal. It’s also pretty similar to P:EG theme-wise, since Logic v. Emotion is looking to be a big thing in it so far- but I think its main theme is perception and moral ambiguity. Its constantly reminding its viewers that a lot of things run deeper than they seem to think, and how noone is really a “good” or “bad” person- which, wouldn’t you know it, is also a prominent theme in P:EG.

Anyways, let’s stop focusing on all that and just get to the plot!

In Danganronpa: Trial By Media, 15 Ultimates wake up in an as-of-now unnamed animation studio that’s been reformed into the setting of a most frightening, yet even moreso popular, reality TV show. I say 15 because our protagonist, Hayden Dernier, doesn’t have an Ultimate, and is just listed as the Ultimate Lucky Participant in their profile to compensate.

There, they find themselves at the mercy of a merciless, indestructible AI host, Hattrick, who luckily for them seems quite amicable at first, despite the kind of game he’s hosting… but however much he enjoys the company of his participants, he’s even moreso single-minded in keeping his audience entertained. And as the views fall and fall with each passing day, Hattrick quickly decides there’s only one thing that can bring them back. After all… everyone likes a good murder-mystery, right?

The 15 Ultimates, as well as Hayden, then have to dedicate all of their power to making sure things go well, and if luck is truly on their side, the show might just be cancelled before anything can happen. But with the darkness hidden deep within each and every Ultimate, as well as the compelling motives Hattrick and his team have up their sleeves… how much longer until this show turns south?

There we go! Danganronpa: Trial by Media!

This fangan isn’t one that’s as focused on avoiding tropes and moreso just telling a good story, y’know? If I tried to be as original as possible, it’d just be bad, and I don’t want that. Anyways, while we’re here, here’s a few aspects of the Killing Game I’m not afraid to be original about, just as a cool draw-in or “focus point” to grab your attention:

There is no deuteragonist or rival character. Instead, Hayden has two partners that both help and hinder them in their own ways with their opposing ideals.

I haven’t come up with the specifics yet, but DR:TbM, if it was ever made into a fangame, would also have a new mechanic/minigame in Class Trials that allows you to team up with one of your classmates, just because I thought that’d be a cool mechanic.

Besides that… this isn’t really a selling point, but my preferred format for it in my head is actually as an indie animated musical, to fit with the 1930s aesthetic it (especially Hattrick) has. Since we all know that’s never going to happen, though, if I ever do anything with it it’ll just be on AO3.

One of the participants is the Ultimate Therapy Animal. I have put a dog into a Killing Game.

#danganronpa #fanganronpa #fangan #trial by media

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sugarsodaa · 6 months ago

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Oc lore when🥺🥺🥺

ANON I AM SCREAMING THANK YOU FOR ASKING FOR LORE 💙💗💙

alright: so backstory of my world for these ocs, i made two in sixth grade and decided to flesh them out and give them lore

so protagonists are iris/inoko (girlfriends) and antagonists are aao/kira (servant/controller) side characters (who might have a better role in the future are chris and yuzu i need to flesh them out)

now how this story works is that all these people 'die' horrible deaths and get 'reborn' into a new life.

from kira's perspective...

before we meet our antagonist, let's meet her dad.

kira's dad:

ridiculed for not being enough his entire life, constantly reminded he is a failure

he throws himself into escapism and finds that he's really talented at programming

creates his 'ideal world' where he can do whatever he wants to have control

he's still a shitty person by the way, really rude and projects his insecurities on other people and constantly seeks attention in order to forget how awful he actually is

has an idea, by this point he's old enough to get married and have children so he's focused now to gain 'control' of his life again

so he has kira. now he raises her to be successful at first (grammar school age to middle school age)

but seeing her success reminds him he's a failure and it drives him insane

it makes him want to relive his life. so how does he do that? the program he made…

not to mention he starts to shift kira's mindset to become manipulative and he also forces her to do some crimes so she's 'just as bad'

kira, on the side, has made some friends, who just happen to be children of the other people in his life who abused him

and now everything seems to come together

kira has been finding out things about her dad in the meantime, and is nearly killed at the age of 15 in his basement because he tried to murder her since she is too close to finding out the truth that he's awful

but she escapes- not for long though as her dad has led a four year long search to kill her and he finally did it

triumphant, he hooks her up to the program as a pawn to destroy the other children of his peers

why? because it would be the best form of revenge- hurting the loved ones of people who tormented him

not to mention the 'control' aspect

little did he know there would be a glitch where memory would come back to kira in the midst of files stored on his computer for the original plans…only a matter of time before they all find out

hoo boy,, i hope that made sense 😭😭😭 you reminded me i should work more on the lore of my characters and the world they're in :3 thank you lovely anon 💗💙💗💙💗💙💗💙💗

#☆soda yapping☆#anon!!#oc lore

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thealogical · 4 months ago

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goddd thank u im so glad u agree the finale waa bad.

like yeah ruby had no arc. she had huge fears of abandonment - but turns out her biomum loved her and named her and immidately reconnects when she finds out. wouldnt it be stronger to have her biomum not want her, or to suck, or to be dead or something? and ruby could learn that shes worthy all on her own?

also why is ruby finding her biomum not connected to 15s struggles with his own "adoption"?

and the show is like ohhh you were stupid for ever thinking theres something supernatural about rubys mum she's not important/special!! like we all only thought she was special bc the show told us that!

the season as a whole theres a huge lack of the doctor like. looking at clues and figuring them out (so we can understand him as a character). like he does it in ep1-3 and 7 lots but theres so much of the series where he does nothing! we dont see him figure out he needs the outside metal, we're just suddenly in a scene about him getting it. we dont see him and ruby figure out a plan to defeat sutekh, they did that offscreen!

also making sutekh destroy all life and then they bring it back easily is unsatisfying yknow? have them work to stop him killing everyone! have them do things (like in sutekhs original episode pyramids of mars).... instead of giving the doc and ruby stupid plot armour.

and sutekh being wrapped around the tardis since the 4th doctor is such a strange and baffling retcon lmao

anyway god sorry this is long im just glad u also didnt like the finale bc so many ppl on here have been praising it and i dont get it

I know this ask is pretty old and at the time I agreed with you but I couldn't really think of much more to say. Looking through my inbox and seeing it today though made me reflect on the writing again and you touch on some problems that I've been feeling with the show even more since watching the new Christmas special.

Nothing is set up properly, our heroes aren't shown figuring anything out, and the pacing is all over the place.

When the show was first revived it followed a classic, serial, monster of the week style formula. The Doctor and companion(s) arrive in a place which contains some sort of threat. The setting is explored by our protagonists and hints at the threat are dropped slowly, increasingly building tension until the identity of the threat is revealed and the rest of the episode is dedicated to running from the monster and figuring out how to beat it. I can't speak for Moffat and Chibnall's time as showrunners, but this is how the average episode goes from series 1 to series 4.

This format is well-paced, it has set up and pay off, and it's compelling because the viewer is always along for the ride. We figure out the episode's mysteries at roughly the same pace as our heroes because the writers gives us roughly the same information that they give the protagonists.

The new episodes pretty consistently fail at these fundamental principles. There is often a great disparity in knowledge between the protagonists and the audience.

Why are all these accidents happening around Ruby? It's Goblins that feed of accidents, which the Doctor already figured out off screen.

Why is all the music gone now? Oh wait we already saw at the beginning of the episode, its Maestro. Guess we have to wait for the Doctor and Ruby to figure it out. How are they gonna beat them? Oh like they have to play a special chord, a fact they figure out randomly and then the Beatles do it for them I guess.

Oh man how's the Doctor gonna get off this landmine? Ah an AI ghost fixes it for him cool.

Who is this mysterious woman following Ruby and why is everyone who interacts with her changing like this? Lol lmao the writers couldn't think of any answers so I guess we'll never know.

Wow, how are the Doctor and Ruby gonna beat Sutekh? They figure it out off-screen. RTD seemingly wanted to prove he could be just as much of a hack as Moffat with this one.

How is the Doctor going to save Joy and deal with this ominous briefcase? We get a whole montage about his life while he does this, and he still fucking figures it out off-screen goddamn you Steven Moffat.

These episodes feel too fast paced and unsatisfying to watch because they're all pay off, no set up. We barely get a chance to figure things out, because nothing is established. In episodes where we do get sections of slow build up, we usually either already have the answers that our protagonists are looking for, or the build up was pointless and the characters figure out how to win by magic. The pacing in many episodes is exhausting because you're being given a million questions and none of them are answered, our heroes just figure it out off screen or suddenly by magic and the show has to play you some overbearing dramatic music to tell you how important the moment is because the writing does nothing to invest you in the plot.

I was hoping for a return to form from this series, but it seems like we're just getting more smug nonsense. It's really disappointing.

#thea's who thoughts

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buscaminas · 5 months ago

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This manga is just as dark and gore as Oshi no Ko but to everyone's surprise it had a happy ending.

This sleeve is called Watashi Ga 15-sai De Wa Nakunatte Mo

Please watch the manga at your own risk, I am not responsible for your mental health. +18

********

It all starts with our protagonist(Iwashita), a father with a family that does not value him and depresses him.

He has a wife and daughter who don't show him how much they love him despite giving them everything. The daughter is the typical bully and the wife is a fat woman dependent on his love. Kokoa y Tomoko

Later, our protagonist meets a girl (Shiina) who is the girl his daughter is bothering and falls in love with her despite being 15… shady with parallels to Oshi No Ko. She said she had nothing to lose. They see each other and she takes him to a hotel where his daughter interrupts and confesses that she always loved her father but she didn't know how to express it and that she only fulfilled her duties as a father out of moral obligation saying that she would have liked to marry someone like her father. Then Shiina confesses that she planned everything and that this way she could ruin his life as she ruined hers.

Look at those evil star eyes🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 It turns out that Shiina's mother told her that she was only worth something for her body and she innocently does a hot live asking for donations, give her 500 yen, her mother scolds her, she doesn't understand why and unfortunately for her, Kokoa sees the live and shares it with the class, making her life impossible to the point of asking her to change schools.

Then at the hotel Kokoa stabs Shiina because she says that jail is better than being with her father, then he divorces his wife. Shiina gets pregnant and her mother does not want her to have the baby, she only sees her as an object.

With a mother like that, it's better to be an orphan.

If we fail to understand that children are a blessing from God and the best thing that can happen to us as adults, we will be bad parents.

Then Shiina remains in a coma for 3 months and decides not to return to her mother, she decides to live with Iwashita (who lives under a bridge to punish himself) they work and she proposes marriage to him but he rejects it even so he takes care of Shiina and the baby

The girl's trauma was this… her mother blamed her because she said she lost her beauty when she gave birth and her boyfriend left her. Then her mother tried to strangle her while she was sleeping.

But don't worry, the story has a happy ending 😊 *Iwashita improves his economic and social relationship with his wife, and they even go to dinner, although Tomoko goes only to show off her daughter's successes, who became an internet celebrity (she sold out to the entertainment world, although I won't deny that she had few options). The father paid Shiina's support and bought them a house. Shiina had a wonderful daughter who loved her for who she was without rancor, hate, or resentment… the cycle of hate was broken.

Parallelism with Oshi no Ko

Truth and morality saved the characters because they were not afraid to say what they felt (it seems like something simple but it is more powerful than it seems, being honest with ourselves will give us peace and we will be able to move forward), a way to obtain self-forgiveness.

Absent and irresponsible parents who see their children as walking wallets, Shiina's mother resembles Ai's mother in many ways.

They were not afraid to face life even when they were alone and they were able to give love, which is the first step to heal the soul.

TELLING THE TRUTH WILL MAKE US FREE.

#oshi no ko #Watashi Ga 15-sai De Wa Nakunatte Mo

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yuseirra · 6 months ago

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Mentioned this too earlier

but the god that's mentioned in ch 147 is a "he". I really do think it's Kamiki that's granted Ruby's wishes then and there. What other "god" can there be? What shrine were they praying at? Was it Amenouzume and Sarutahiko's shrine again?

The way he listens to his daughter, it just feels like HE's the one who could grant her wishes for her. That whole chapter gave off a really strange feeling even when I first read it. I really do think he wanted to bless his children one last time before he decided he could go see Ai, what was he going to do?? He SAID he was okay with rotting away with all the lives he carried back then??? Isn't what's happening in 162 EXACTLY THAT? He went to see Aqua after having said that, so I'm assuming he wanted to see Aqua too then. Watch that movie about him and Ai and congratulate him??

and then he finds out Ai's loved him all along and decides no, there's something he should do for Ai's sake and walks out, this wasn't what he had initially planned. He never saw that coming.

The whole chain of events that follows is pretty weird. What was actually going on this guy's head? What was he going to do for Ai? I don't think he would have planned to sacrifice Ruby or something if he really did get her message but?

What would have happened if he DIDN'T see Ai's video then? What was he originally planning to do? Tbh I thought he went to visit his children one last thing before going to see Ai/die in her place as a sacrifice of some sort

but upon seeing how she cared for him, gave up on all that? What he had been doing for the past 15 years since he realized she wanted him to live??? and decided to watch Ruby's show but, I have no idea actually because things went WILD after that and;; the focus is and should be on Aqua I guess and they say he's evil and is beyond saving and all,

so what was going on?? what was he planning to do?? what was he up to?? it's not.. still not explained AT all actually!!! But this is an event that directly leads up to the ending!!! Shouldn't THIS be explained at least??? If they don't do that in the last ep??? this piece of work will not make sense!! We won't know what the actual heck's been happening and they won't.. be able to do it.; They won't be able to explain anything even if they have 100 pages. Kamiki needs AN ENTIRE BOOK TO HIMSELF. Not because I favor him (I kind of do), it's because we don't know!! We don't know what's been going on regarding him in the story!! We need to understand what's been happening and; his role IS pretty crucial; he's the one that's brought about a major conflict that directly leads to the ending. It's just really clumsy and bad writing if it's this empty without a proper closure to it. What exactly was going on?? What do we make of him? If he's something our protagonist must risk everything to take down shouldn't we know what's actually been happening about him in detail? but there are not enough pages AT ALL!! AT ALL. It's not going to be enough. It's unfair to the readers who came in looking for a resolution. I want to know the truth and how things really are...

#hikaru kamiki #oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #spoilers

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e-thonrudwrites · 2 years ago

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Writblr Introduction

I’ve seen so many writblr introductions that I wanted to do one!

P.S., it’s a long one.

So I got into writing (as a hobby, even though I’ve always loved creating stories as a kid) thanks to an old bully of mine in Swedish eighth grade. I wrote my first queer characters, in my first English WIP ever. It was a fanfic/AU of She-hulk and other Marvel characters, and of course I posted that bad boy on Wattpad and think it got 80k views over the year on something I’ve never finished. I remember being so nervous about making my FMC fall in love with another woman and for them to care for each other. In retrospect, it probably had to do a lot with trying to figure out my sexuality. But as soon as I did it I felt such relief, and I’ve never looked back on writing straight MCs.

But how does this connect with my writing journey and who I’m today? Well, I’m 23 yo, and my English is better, and that’s coming from someone who’s dyslexic, heck I think I can spell better and have a more advanced language in English than in Swedish which is ironic that it’s my native language. But genre wise nowadays, I write MM Romance in a bunch of different sub genres: romcom, fantasy/sci-fi, thriller, and a bit of horror. And ever since my disability progressed, I’ve tried to incorporate disability in my stories — have bad ass characters that just happen to limp. It’s not the end of the world and that’s what I wanna read.

Which is the most important thing I learned as a 16 yo kid posting on Wattpad and getting the social anxiety and burnout of posting there. Write for yourself. Write what you wanna read. Which has made me connect so much more with my stories and characters, especially when writing a WIP as RUINS OF DAWN and letting myself lean into the darkness I’ve always enjoyed as a kid.

But one of the negative things I know my bullying has affected me in is I know no one’s gonna care about what I write because I’m who I am. Because I’m me. And that’s why it took me so much time in to figure out that I can, and I’m allowed to send queries to agents. That just because I’m me doesn’t make it that anyone else who’s ace, queer, and/or disabled can’t connect with the characters and see a glimpse of themselves. Because that is what RUINS OF DAWN is for me. It’s a book for my 15 yo self that loved all the grimy and gory stuff, who was not feeling good or understood why I was feeling like this around people. Though RUINS OF DAWN is not for people under 18, but if I know myself, a bit of blood and spicy scenes wouldn’t have stopped me. My favorite and comfort movie is WARM BODIES. A damn zombie movie, though the books are more horrifying.

So what is RUINS OF DAWN then? Well, it’s the WIP I’m currently laying all my focus on getting done and ready for beta reading, and the one I’m gonna try to query.

RUINS OF DAWN is a dark sci-fi romance thriller, set in 1962 after the Cubs crisis has gone nuclear. It follows Ed Johnston, our Time manipulating protagonist who gets forced by the NTIA—an organization created by the President to watch supers (Psst, think of an organization corrupted like the TVA from LOKI)—to meet the Director, and where he meets his ex-lover the waiting room. It’s enemies-to-lovers, second chance with similar horror elements as Isaac Marion’s THE BURNING WORLD.

#ownvoicesdisability #ownvoiceschronicpain #ownvoicesqueerness

Comp-titles for RUINS OF DAWN: V. E. Schwab’s VICIOUS, Amal El-Mohtar THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR, Greg Rucka’s THE OLD GUARD, MOONKNIGHT (2022), DEADPOOL (2016), L. J Hayward’s WHERE DEATH MEETS THE DEVIL, Isaac Marion’s THE BURNING WORLD.

So if you like the X-MEN, THE WATCHMEN or anything to do with superheroes and time loops and time travel, then I hope you’ll follow me on my journey to get this bad boy published.

Also, I’d gladly get to know more writers. My life is definitely lacking writing buddies, because authors supporting other authors is the best thing ever.

#writeblr #writblr intro #bookblr #wip #author #writing community #queer #book #writing #my art #ownvoicesdisability #ownvoiceschronicpain #ownvoicesqueerness #scifi #thriller #mm romance #dark romance

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mirqmarq428 · 2 years ago

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Mir reviews:

Anchorman: the legend of Ron Burgundy

This is one of those movies that your dad shows you when you're 15 and he remembers it as good manly fun but you feel icky sitting thru it and feel bad for laughing at its jokes, then mostly forget about the bad parts when 5 years later you notice that it's free with your cracked youtube app. Just me? No. According to youtube, it's somehow rated PG-13. Different times, man.

Tl;dr: this one is worse than you remember. 4/10

le Plot:

Will Ferrell plays the titular protag-kun, a popular local news anchorman. His news team is a deeply closeted gay cowboy, this mostly reasonable cologne fanatic, and an autist whose IQ is canonically 43.

The actual protagonist of the film is burgundy's "love" "interest" whose name I forgot already since her name isn't on the poster. Her dream is to anchor on national news, and she will have to stand up to institutional sexism, personal misogyny, and casual sexual harassment at every turn.

She is hired on, the boys all make moves on her, she fights them back brilliantly. Ron doesn't just want her body, he "loves" her (meaning, he wants sex but would like to be all romantic about it). Through a fair amount of bullshittery mixed with some genuine chemistry, they hit it off and make out. This is shown thru a short interpretive montage of them riding white unicorns thru heaven over rainbow pathways.

Despite promising to keep their relationship private at work, our "hero" immediately brags to the guys and tries to explain how it feels to be in love.

One day disaster strikes as burgundy is late to work due to being a oblivious pretentious asshole (he throws a burrito out his window while driving and makes the motorcyclist next to him crash, then the biker throws his dog off a bridge as punishment). Despite the men's reservations, our hero fills in for her boyfriend and delivers the news. She's great and everybody loves her. Then Ron barges in and is horrified that a _woman_ (gasp) would take his job. They shout about their misunderstandings for a while.

Despite continuing to work together, their relationship worsens further. Eventually they physically fight, and he is fired and sinks into an alcoholic depression.

End of the movie. Time to shake things up. A panda at the zoo is giving birth, this is the biggest thing to ever happen and must be reported upon. She goes looking for the perfect angle, but a random evil reporter dude knocks her into the pen of Kodiak Bears. They can't find her so end up calling Ron. He glows up quick, gets the band back together, marches down to the zoo, find the girl in with the barely-sleeping bears, and jumps in like a dumbass. His dog returns from presumed watery demise and talks the bear down (dogs and bears share a language in this world ig). They get lifted out and he lets her report on the panda birth. The. Fucking. End. Carry on Wayward Son plays over way-too-short credits (there are lots of cameos I think weird als in this one but I can't find his name on well).

le Review:

4/10 do straight men really?

I liked: her arc. 43 IQ bro was a good guy. The vibe is mostly goofy and whimsical.

The male gaze here is overpoweringly putrid. Burgundy isn't the worst, but he's still pretty bad. There's a point early on when she points out to him that he has a very visible erection in the middle of the office and he hasn't even the sense to be embarrassed.

I guess his arc is accepting that women can be equals in the workplace even if they're sex objects.

I guess her arc is accepting that she can be in love with him _and_ achieve her dream.

"toxic masculinity" is not strong enough to describe this filum. This is Nuclear Masculinity, the all-poisoning radioactive cumstain of Gilgamesh himself (but even less gay somehow).

The ending is reductively egalitarian, to the point of advocating pure tokenism. Yeah this one woman is really good at her job so let's make her a public figure to feel better about ourselves. We care.

Ugh.

#movie review #anchorman #mir rants

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dribbonart · 7 months ago

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My big Honorverse complaint bag

First thing: I didn’t give Honorverse a proper chance. Once I realized the Haven sections never intersect with the Honor/Manticore sections, I just skimmed them. I’m told this is a mistake, but it’s too late now. I read nine books, now I’m done. I wanted a Horatio Hornblower book, not a series of captains that blow up without ever interacting with the protagonist.

This brings me to my first issue: (Below the fold)

Black Box Haven

Weber has this weird belief that hostile forces simply do not communicate at all. From book one to the end of book nine, Honor briefly interacts with Cordelia Ransom, and that’s it. Despite lots of opportunities for communication, (The Haven captain in book one literally thinks how useful it would be to send a message to Honor’s ship!) they just… don’t. It’s as though there’s an impermeable curtain between Honor’s story and the Haven story. A couple characters cross, but not words. This takes away one of the best things in spaceship stories, the part where the hostile captains face each other on their viewscreens and try to reach some kind of understanding or leverage against each other. Instead it’s just hammering on ships that might as well be staffed by robots.

Since the bad guys almost always explain the details of their plans to each other, this means that we have to learn about them twice. This is one of the main reasons I stopped reading the Haven parts, I’d much rather find out what’s going on just once from Honor’s perspective.

We’re given dozens of pages about some Haven captain only for them to be destroyed by Honor’s forces without even being aware that something is happening. What’s the point? When I’m told about a character, I want some kind of pay off in proportion to the detail I’m given.

Even the Haven leadership, while suffering enormous losses from a superior foe intent on their extermination, never tries to extend any kind of embassy until the end of book nine. Why? They have nothing to lose by sending an ambassador to ask, “Hey, why are you so intent on killing all of us, and is there anything we could do to dissuade you?” Remember, Manticore has no public war aims! It is a war of extermination, and neither side even tries to gain an edge by the most common thing in international conflict, words.

When Honor is sent on a mission with an ambassador, everyone treats him as insane for suggesting that they should pursue a diplomatic solution. When he’s talking, people can’t even look him in the eye. He, very sensibly, points out that Grayson and Masada would be better off if they were friends, and the Navy people seem to think that “they hate each other” is proof that peace is impossible. But what’s the Navy’s plan? Have they been reading the chapters that lay out the impending Masada attack?

Info Dumps

Even people that like Honorverse admit this is bullshit, so I’d just add that he infodumps about things other than tech. The history of the Grayson constitution does not need to have an interlude just to have an excuse to give Honor some prize.

Oh also, someone eyeballs a space battle and says, “our tech people say that Haven has closed the tech gap by 15%, but this looks more like 20%,” which might be the most insane thing in the entire series.

Honor Harrington, you’re right again.

What I would give to have Honor do something, anything wrong. The one thing that’s clearly illegal, (beating Houseman to serious injury) is affirmed by her superior officer as a necessary, but impolitic act. When he says “You did the right thing, Honor Harrington,” he may as well have been giving the series a subtitle. Her only “weakness” is being “bad at math,” which means that when she has to estimate the number of people that can survive in a ship not designed for it, she estimates 1300, instead of the “correct” 1350. (This is genuinely treated as an example of her being bad at math. Possibly the only one?)

Instead of mistakes, Honor makes money. And ranks. And titles. And superpowers. And powerful friends. She’s jumped up three ranks all at once, at a political cost, just so she can be a double admiral, which doesn’t even matter in that book! This is one of the many ways that Honor is an evil mirror of Horatio Hornblower. Horatio is never the greatest guy, he has to struggle to make it in a world that doesn’t care about him. It makes him relatable, and it makes it more interesting to see how he deals with problems that are larger than him. Weber seems to think that this is an error, and a good protagonist is one that gets a new superpower and ten times as much money for every new book.

She loses her first battle in book eleven.

Even before she knows how to use cosmetics, she’s universally seen as unconventionally attractive. Cosmetics let her sand the edge off that “unconventional” and eliminate one more thing that makes her interesting.

Honor becomes a child of two worlds, a very old standard sci-fi concept, but it too is reversed. Instead of Honor being torn between two loyalties, her two nations simply become two separate sources of goodies to make Honor wealthier and more powerful. She’s become an admiral in two different navies, clearly an untenable situation, but no one even seems to think that’s an issue.

Very early in the series, Honor has so much power and prestige that she should be a major player in society, but she’s oddly passive. She still acts like a mid-level soldier that simply reacts to the scenario put in front of her. She barely has likes or interests outside of the military. She likes cocoa, that’s all I can think of.

To make sure that Honor is never wrong, the story has to set up situations so that they align with her desires. When Honor refuses to follow an ambassador’s orders, there happens to be someone else in charge of the mission to countermand those orders. Her duel with Pavel Young is a great example. She decides to shoot Pavel even though he is helpless. This would be an interesting character moment! But! Honor cannot be allowed to be questioned, so the laws of dueling are such that Pavel would have been summarily executed anyway, so she’s not actually doing anything wrong.

Just imagine how much more interesting it would have been to have Honor choose to kill Pavel, when he otherwise would have lived! Character is about choice!

Honor should have been forced to choose which ship to save in the assassination attempt on the Queen. Put the ruler of Grayson and Manticore on different ships, make her choose. But that would mean her decision could be criticized, so it can’t be allowed.

The weirdest part of Honor’s superpowers is that most of them don’t actually change anything in the story. They’re just to make her a “better” character in a childish, “Well, my character is super-strong and a super-genius!” kind of way. Her telescopic vision is used in a way that affects anything maybe once? Her photographic memory that works even when she’s not paying attention is mentioned but never affects the story at all. Her psychic powers could literally be replaced by looking people in the eyes. (This would also be better for the story since it would give us more details about people instead of scanning their brains for emotions. Show, don’t tell.)

Show, Don’t Tell

There’s showing, where you experience something that happens directly.

There’s telling, where you’re told about something.

Then there’s Weber-ing, where the narrator goes off on their own to directly transmit the data directly into the reader’s brain without anyone in the book interacting with the information at all. Maximum abstraction. Please, just use an appendix! If no one in the story has a reason to talk about or experience something, that’s a hint that you don’t need it in the book!

If we must have endless descriptions of missiles’ statistical chances of encountering the enemy, at least put it in a character’s thoughts. Have Weber stare at a radar screen, frantically calculating the odds! Put us in the room, not in the manual for a missile!

Grayson Is Nothing

Why do people like Grayson? The best thing you can say about their culture is that they’re not as bigoted as their neighbors who seem to be specifically designed to be the “bad” people to contrast with the “good” Graysons. There doesn’t seem to be a single good Grayson that actually believes in their religion. They have a state religion that has, for centuries, maintained a lower status for women, and they just fold on it instantly! Every prominent Grayson thinks that their misogyny is antiquated, at best. When a priest points out that misogyny is a big part of their whole thing, and he doesn’t think a woman should be in a position of enormous power, he’s brutally beaten and expelled from the church!

When the idea of instant equal rights for women is introduced, the wise people of Grayson say, “that sounds good, but let’s not be too hasty, women aren’t really ready for participating in society.” This is exactly the position of real people fighting against civil rights, but Honor agrees! Could you look someone in the eye and say, “yeah, my type can’t be given their rights all at once!”

And what, other than the parts no one believed in, is the Grayson religion? They mention going to church once, but it doesn’t seem to actually affect anyone’s behavior.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to think of an analogy for Honor’s position in Grayson society. I don’t think there’s anything in history that matches it, because it’s completely bananas. Here’s my best attempt:

Imagine the Mexican-American war turned bad for America, and Mexico started making territorial gains into the US. Then a dashing British navy officer led a defense of an American port city that turned the tide of the war. This British officer is rewarded with a private state of Texas. He’s the permanent Governor, and is put in charge of the American Navy. But the “American” Navy is in British ships, staffed by British officers and financed by British loans. This Navy is pulled away from the defense of the Union for British military operations. The British Permanent Governor of Texas also has a patent on all railroad construction and gets so much of a percentage of railroad spending that he becomes the wealthiest person in the country. He also rejects the idea of Democracy, but says he won’t actively oppose it.

Reasonable people would say that, hero or not, they do not want the US turned into an extension of the UK! But the idea that Honor’s equivalent position makes Grayson an extension of Manticore is treated as absurd!

Why does Grayson have more details about its history, politics and constitution than Manticore? That’s weird!

Economics

Everyone hates the weird economic moralizing of the Honorverse. I’m surprised there’s not more complaining about how bad it is in its own right.

The conversation about Manticore’s economy was error after error. They genuinely say, “We don’t have an income tax! We believe in free trade! That’s why we get all our income from tolls!”

Haven tries to achieve deflation during a war. Incredible.

Haven’s economy is treated as a garbage fire because they have a lot of debt (Although Weber doesn’t seem to realize that they must owe that debt to another entity, instead it just exists in its own right as a floating negative number at the bank,) but there are riots when they suggest that they stop increasing the basic income more than inflation. This means that the basic income, and therefore standard of living, have been going up for all of living memory. That would make Haven the most successful economy of all time.

Haven conquers planets to exploit them, but then reflexively turns them into social welfare states like Lemongrab turning candy seeds into more candy people. They should have considered not doing that.

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Anti-Politics

I suspect Weber would describe his politics as “centrist” or “reasonable” or “non-political”. I think a better title would be “Anti-political.” Everyone in the Honorverse that engages in the basics of politics, delivering benefits to their constituents, is treated as a naive buffoon wounding the nation at best. He genuinely does not believe in popular control of government.

He thinks the problem with a military dictator is the culture clash between people accustomed to a democratic process.

The only legitimate political act in Honorverse is supporting total war against an enemy without a casus belli. The queen even insists it’s not political! “I have not asked you to abandon your principles. I have not asked you to embrace or pretend to embrace any ideology offensive to you or your party members. My only concern is…to win the current war and establish a lasting peace."

As though a war of annihilation did not concern principles or ideology!

The War

The war between Manticore and Haven is weird. Haven thinks it’ll just wipe out Manticore and its neighbor so it can retire its Navy since it won’t have a dangerous neighbor any more, apparently unaware that there would just be more dangerous neighbors on their new borders. Haven does a few border raids that would be casus belli, but Manticore seems to think it would need to be able to prove their case to justify such a declaration of war, even though there’s no space UN to appeal to.

Then, once Haven does an act of war so provocative it cannot be denied, Haven’s entire government is decapitated, resetting relations between the two countries. Except it doesn’t, and Manticore starts a war of annihilation against a country that just started that year. The very existence of a country called Haven is treated as an existential threat, regardless of who's in charge. (I’m told the new book Toll of Honor has a whole section justifying this, I don't care. The idea that they don’t even send a letter is ridiculous.)

From the formal beginning of the war in book five, Manticore is the aggressor. It’s undeniable, they’re making massive inroads into Haven’s territory. First they have the goal of seizing Haven’s major shipping lane, then they move on to the capture of Haven’s core worlds and capital. Yet Manticore must not just be winning the war, they must also be the most sympathetic. This means that Every. Single. Battle. we witness is a perfidious Haven attack against a Manticore planet. Manticore is seizing planets by the dozens, but that might make them look bad, so instead they are shown defending their homes.

In case anyone doubts that Manticore must be seen as a victim even as it plots the destruction of its enemy’s capital, Weber makes it explicit: “In a crazy sort of way, the fact that we keep winning battles only makes it even more acceptable to the Sollies. It’s almost as if every battle we win somehow turns the Peeps more and more into the ‘underdogs,’ for God’s sake!”

In the Honorverse, being the underdogs is good, so Manticore are underdogs. The fact that they are winning is irrelevant.

Weber also gives every colonist's rationale for colonization apparently without irony. Manticore doesn't WANT to hold basilisk, they're innocent of those desires. But the colony makes so much money they MUST hold it forever.

No Contest

Honorverse is the only story I’ve ever encountered that gives the good guys easy wins. More than once an enemy thinks, “There’s no way we can win this.” That’s not good for drama? I don’t know what you can say about this, it’s so obvious.

Let's not forget the much maligned pistol duel. Here's my live reaction.

And the sword duel was even worse.

Paul’s death being off screen was a weird choice too.

One Perspective

All good people agree. Even the bad people secretly agree, they just can’t overcome the shame of disagreeing with the objectively correct position.

Everyone says “Manties” and “Peeps.”

In the first book, Honor thinks, “I’ve gotta be hard on this crew so they toughen up” and another perspective character thinks, “I’m glad Honor’s being hard on us, it’s toughening us up.”

When she meets Alfredo Yu, she thinks about how awkward it is that he killed her mentor. Then he immediately brings it up in conversation.

When Ransom decides to execute Honor for her murder conviction, even Haven people think it’s outrageous.

Haven had eight years of political purges and official minders for political loyalty, but there are no loyal Haven military officers because all military officers are good and upright people.

Missiles, Missiles, Missiles

Honorverse is all about tech advances. Except it’s hard to think of new technology, so we have to suffice with one new tech, FTL communication, and endless iterations on “More Missiles.” Missile pods, little ships carrying a few missiles each, these are not interesting!

Like Honor’s wealth, the number of missiles multiplies by ten per book. The Grayson Defense fires an impossible 12,000 in a battle, then Manticore fires 111,000 in another instant win, and I’m told the Battle of Manticore has 700,000 missiles in the first wave.

Misc.

How dare he not include the scene where they asked Honor’s mom to get pregnant while everyone was still in mourning.

The first book clarifies that Honor isn’t gay, and that seems to be universal in the series. C’mon, it’s the 2020s, include a gay.

Why is one guy kind of named after a real guy, (Robert S. Pierre), but Saint-Just is the same name as the real guy.

Furry Contralto

“that’s the beauty of hindsight: it always has a lot more to go on than you did when you had to make the decision the first time around.”

The story of genetic engineering in Honorverse is the exact same as Star Trek.

Sure are a lot of women being raped.

The bad members of Honor’s bad crew were planning on damaging the ship so they could escape. And it was going to be exciting to see Honor wrestle with handling a damaged ship. But the bad guys were sent to the brig and died and that plot just… ended.

#Honorverse #Youtube

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azothmahoushoujo · 9 months ago

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Social progress or whatever is certainly not a march of time, let alone when it comes to fiction, and again while it wasn't necessary for me to learn or relearn what I already knew, it does feel like I learned in a hard way by reading a chinese webnovel made in 2011 that is likely for more sexist in its over 25 chapters that I read than the entirety of a japanese mystery novel written in what I recall being 1951. If you were to ask me what the genre of the forner was, I would unironically say the sexism genre, the subgenre of which being "protagonist written by author who by all means should be castrated repeatedly stumbles into situations where it's totally not his fault that he sexually harrasses women even when it still is his fault and the bad women are the ones that don't tolerate it and the good ones are the ones that barely do and if you even so much as vaguely suggest that they're a bad person for all of the other shit they can't blame on anyone else and because you're paranoid they might rape you after literally just being raped yesterday by a magical demon thing that possessed his body at age 15 (yes, this happens), then you WILL be treated as the one being unreasonable and evil for suggesting that our hero that repeatedly makes sexist and sexual remarks about your body would ever do anything sexually violent to you even as they keep the bedsheets they raped you bloody on and swear oaths under a fake name as a safety way out while also never even making a FAKE oath not to rape you."

Like when I said Rance isn't even this bad probably I really mean it. Genuinely might be the most sexist thing I've ever read. Just hours of my time wasted I could have spent reading that damn mystery novel I keep putting off. A japanese man who literally fought in world war two for imperial japan probably couldn't even come of with something that sexist, for fuck sake.

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alilybit · 1 year ago

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positivity is important so here’s a positive coming out story:

it’s now been one year (2023-03-26) since i’ve told my “little” brother (15 at the time) that i’m trans. it was my first “proper” coming out, the only person who knew before was my best friend and i never had to come out to him because we’ve been a part of each other’s lives since 2012 and so he partially witnessed the entire process starting from me playing as a female version of myself in pokemon while coming up with excuses for it, to me starting to question, and eventually changing my name in our chat and in private games we played together.

i’ve been wanting to tell my brother for months so i wouldn’t have to hide it from him any longer, but i was too scared. and on top of that, right-wing propaganda has taught me that telling people under the age of 18 about the existence of anything outside of cis and straight is child abuse. and i was (and still am but it’s getting better) still struggling with accepting that me being trans is okay.

i hadn’t planned to tell him that day, it just sort of happened. it was late at night and we were both in our beds, texting each other on matrix on our mobile devices. and then i felt that this might be the time and i should just do it now instead of continuing to be afraid of it and planning to elaborately plan it beforehand. and so i typed the message and eventually pressed the physical enter key on my tiny physical phone keyboard. for the first time i phrased it like “i’ve kind of always wanted to be a girl, i am trans” instead of “i think i might possibly be trans because i kind of feel like a girl and it somehow makes me happy but also what if i’m wrong and what if being trans is not real and bad and disgusting after all”. saying “i am trans” to another person was really scary and felt too big and definitive and somehow pretentious, but i didn’t know how much he knew about trans people and i worried that he might think i’m (even more) crazy if i sound like i’m not even sure about this myself. and i am sure, i just have way too much internalised transphobia and homophobia and way too little self-confidence. i also hoped that phrasing it in a definitive way would help me become more confident. so that’s what i said. and as “proof” i mentioned some things he already knew and i sent him a screenshot of my female pokemon protagonists dating back to 2013.

and he accepted it. naturally he asked questions that i was happy (although nervous) to answer because we love and trust each other and i knew that they were genuine well-intentioned questions. he might not understand how someone could not feel at home in the gender they were assigned (just like how i don’t understand how apparently not every boy wants to be a girl) but he fully accepts and supports me.

afterwards i felt very relieved, but even more guilty and disgusted by myself. i had internalised the narrative of telling minors about the existence of disgusting gays and transes equals child abuse too much and doubted if i had done the right thing, even though i knew that it was the right thing to tell him for my sake and even more because it’s important for him to know about this stuff, both for him should he discover that he is not straight and/or cis and so he learns that queer people are just people. which has unfortunately not really been a part of our upbringing or education or environment. not knowing that LGBTQ things exist or are acceptable and thinking oneself is broken or wrong is the real abuse. but over the next few days the guilt grew smaller and joy won. shortly after i also felt safe enough to tell him about the time i had a crush on a boy and that i might be on the bisexual spectrum (figuring out more on that has been a big and difficult thing over the past year with an important realisation just this month, more on all of that some other time).

i have no words for how important and positive it was for both of us that i told him all of this. i love my brother with all my heart, and he loves me too, now as his big sister lily. and since i finally told him, we’ve grown even closer and i’m so happy that i can be open about this and be myself around him in this aspect too. it turned out there was no reason to worry after all because we love each other no matter what. he has guarded the secret well, but we’re used to keeping each other’s secrets. recently when he and our mum visited me he even made sure my (musical) keyboard with trans stickers was covered before our mum came in so she wouldn’t see them.

we may not be the Ph Brothers anymore but we are the Stardew Siblings, and we love each other more than ever.

#trans #coming out #trans positivity

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jasper-rolls · 1 year ago

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Media Roundup (February 2024)

a few days late because my job is kicking my ass lately, but i've got another batch of little reviews of stuff i've been checking out. take a look!

Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor (Seasons 19-21)

it only took 20 years but this show is truly getting good i think. you can start to see where the DNA of the reboot comes from, especially how davison's performance would influence tennant's - and what a sendoff he got in the end, some really wild shit happening there. not much more to go now

Faraway Downs

a lot more digestible than the movie it was edited from, and makes me ponder if it shouldn't have just been this way from the start. the changed ending feels more in line with the rest of baz's ouvre, given his penchant for tragic deaths - but i'm not sure it's a better ending for this in particular. otherwise, everything from the movie applies, good and bad

Checkmate - Malorie Blackman

a strong conclusion to this first trilogy, about healing from the scars of your past and focusing on the ones who are here now. some elements feel all too real to this day, and it's heartbreaking. believe in something better

Puella Magi Oriko☆Magica: Extra Story - Magica Quartet, Mura Kuroe

boy i just…do not care about this spinoff

Iron Man 3

james bond by way of marvel while grappling with tony's actual damage instead of just libertarian-ing all over the place. disappointing that they did "What If Iron Man But Evil" yet a fucking gain but once i get past my annoyance at that, they do make it kind of work, and tony getting down in the dirt and getting to know actual regular people was really fun. good start, phase 2. try and keep it up please

Ben 10 Versus the Universe: The Movie

this was distinctly pretty okay, definitely far more enjoyable than the nonsense that the live action movies are, and there was some poignancy to it all - gwen and max thinking ben might be dead, ben having similar worries on his end, azmuth's test pushing him to be better than he can be. it may be a bit rote hero's journey stuff, but ben 10 has always been extremely by the numbers - it's no different here. my main gripe is that for being a movie, they really don't push the animation much. this genuinely looks like it could've been split into a 5-6 parter to cap off the last season of the show and there would be no obvious difference, and for all i know it probably is aired this way when the show is in syndication.

The Wolverine

watched the extended edition. man i just zoned the fuck out of this one. some nicely shot action at least but i just didn't have the mental energy to follow the plot and the silver samurai stuff was dummmbbb. very unmemorable

The Mandalorian (Season 3)

the narrative arc must sacrifice all for The Lore. all subservient, all reverent of The Lore. mandalore is back. don't you feel proud? don't you feel serviced? don't you feel clever, for knowing all these things about our brand? we took the narrative arc of our main characters and shot it behind the shed so they could stand around while bo katan, our hidden true protagonist of this season, does all of the actually important stuff, but that's okay, right? you feel good, because you know who bo katan is, and why she's important, and why the darksaber is important, and why its so so sad that moff gideon destroyed this trinket from another series made 15 years ago. look, here's jack black, and lizzo, and christopher lloyd. isn't it fun that they're now part of the Star Wars brand? isn't it great? din and grogu have a house now, all to themselves. that works as an ending, right? this is what you want, right? this is what makes you happy. this is what you crave, fans. The Story is dead. long live The Lore.

Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

what if hope doesn't spring eternal?

what if the energy you got from knowing the one you love is looking down and smiling on you wasn't enough? what if you really couldn't live without them? what if you said yes when in your heart of hearts you wanted to scream no, wanted to damn us all and destroy everything because if you have to suffer then the whole world should suffer too?

what if persephone and hades, but make it yuri?

Ben 10 (2016)

honestly really not that bad if you take it for what it is rather than being mad that it's not alien force Like Some People. fun redesigns, some decent comedic writing and mixed additions to the rogue's gallery (extreme pass on breaker 1-9 and nanny nightmare, but xingo, the bugg brothers and tim buktu are fun). don't go in demanding deepness or tight canon or worldbuilding (factors ben 10 as a franchise has never actually been all that good at if we're really being honest) and you can have a fun time

Thor: The Dark World

it should be a crime to misuse christopher eccleston this badly

Mario Kart 7

this must have seemed like a shock to the devs of mkwii but it turns out when you don't entirely fucking explode the player for the crime of existing near first place, the game is actually fun and enjoyable, and i want to play more of it

Star Wars: Visions (Season 2)

not as good as the first season IMO, but still some fantastic and beautiful animation from around the world. the aardman short got me good. i saw you grand day out robot

Nichijou: Original Run (Vol. 1-10)

works just as good in manga format as the anime did, although it doesn't have quite as good an ending. keiichi arawi has an impeccable sense of timing that shines even in manga format, and their ability to take comedy to great extremes in their art is hilarious

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis

well that was a load of nonsense. AC's take on greek mythology was admittedly pretty cool to see but it was just a lot of meandering in the end. a surface level tour with some juno teasing at the end which i'm pretty sick of tbh

AD:PIANO VIVACE 2 - Diverse System

pretty good but not stellar. little really stuck out to me as truly awesome, even BlackY's track was kind of a let down. still, nothing actively bad here.

best track: "Flows With Errors"

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

it feels wild that thus far captain america consistently outdoes every other MCU movie. i didn't think i'd be this on board with him when i decided to start catching up. a great spy thriller that managed to contain a ton of engaging plot threads without feeling overstuffed and overlong, and genuinely left me pretty excited for more

Disney Gallery / The Mandalorian (Season 3)

where is any of this for andor. i don't care. i hate this show now

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

there's like, almost a movie here. it starts off pretty good! there's bits and pieces that shine, it feels like it should be better than it is, there's stuff throughout that could absolutely go somewhere exciting and then it just completely fumbles everything. what the fuck

got a longer review on my letterboxd

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anyway kind of a pingpong month in terms of quality, but the show goes on...

#media roundup

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claire-starsword · 1 year ago

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The Guardiana Magic School Run - Part 15

Worry not, Balbaroy, I'll (hubris incoming) be shocked if this one turns out to be hard. With that said I'm not enough to a fool to head on without preparing, so we retreat immediately as there's no stop between the last battle and this one, but we certainly have things to equip!

The Mermanbuster, which has been teasing us in the deals section for a while, is finally ours for free, and this is the exact chapter it is meant for. As you can see it is slightly weaker than the Steel Sword, but its bonus on aquatic creatures is brutal. Hopefully you'll get to see it. I'll still make space on his inventory for the Steel Sword so that he can switch between them as needed.

The Healing Ring turns out to grant immunity to poison, which is great, as there are poisoning enemies in this battle. I'm a bit unsure who should get it, but I decide to give it to Gong, who tends to be in the front line despite not being as defensive as I wish he was. Gong is very much the limiar between squishy and non-squishy in this team. He still currently has more defense than Max though, which is wild to me, this is so not how my casual runs go.

Either way, we've saved the game, we're good to go!

We have a chance to get some money as well, hopefully it won't be hard but I am trying to get my ego under control before bad things happen.

Our first and perhaps worst enemies are these pegasus knights, they can reach us right away, so we gotta protect the mages and healers. Luckily, Domingo is the greatest and currently the fastest in the team. Narsha is also fast enough, so Tao and Anri get protected right away. Also, Max is in reach of all the knights and it would not surprised if they decided to go for him instead.

It's a moot point anyway cause in the end everyone moves before the knights, and I decide to bait the bats enemies further ahead. We're not in their range and they should be simple to deal with, and we're close enough to back Narsha and Domingo up if things get complicated.

The knights decide to just, not move, which is annoying as I need to wipe them out eventually. had I known I'd have boosted Domingo's magic with Narsha beforehand, as he is the only one who can bait those out. Time to put his tankiness to the test again.

He deals half of the knights' HP with Freeze 1 so I guess boosting wouldn't have made a difference.

I can however boost Anri to maybe help her train, that would be nice.

I give up on baiting the south with Gong, Khris and Arthur though, as there are more enemies gathering there and none of them should be tanking that much.

Anri finally gets good at the spell she's supposed to be good at.

Domingo tanks a hit, but the other two garbage knights refuse to advance. This is very annoying.

I advance Tao a bit too much by mistake and cry. She has been oneshotting bats left and right though. It's not even worth mentioning anymore, assume Tao can oneshot most things by this point.

Behold. The Mermanbuster.

With thus, Lowe gets to heal Tao and everything is fine again.

I sent Gong to help Domingo, as he would die if like, both knights got double hits. Very unlikely, but you never know when the RNG is gonna decide to be hilarious.

(And yeah sure, if it did that Gong would die too, I'm not sure what I was thinking, maybe I just wanted Domingo to have a friend around.)

At least now the knights are finally advancing, the north one also skipped attacking in order to, beeline for Khris? You silly bean, I'm not letting you do that.

Meanwhile these conches are very weak, despite the first impression they made against Tao, so I don't expect problems. Since everything is going fine, I decide to cast Attack on Narsha to speed up things. She levels up and gets Aura 2. Never disappointed with this woman.

In the back, I decided to play it safe and have Gong heal himself, so the knights were not defeated in that round and this one is very determined to ignore Domingo.

Meanwhile the blob is getting protagonist-worthy level ups.

I'm just gonna keep advancing Narsha, she doesn't care.

This is vacation for her. Tour where the queen of Runefaust hunts down some seafood.

The ice avoidant knight gets a fitting end.

We're at turn 6 and there's two enemies. This battle is kinda ridiculous. I'm gonna let Max and Narsha tank some hits and try to give other exp, either by attacking or tossing heals to the void.

nvm

He also gets poisoned. Told you it was gonna be a thing.

Narsha should still be able to tank though.

And that's it, I laze around for two turns while Arthur and Anri finish a Shellfish each, Arthur is overleveled but his stats aren't great so I don't mind him growing more, this does finally gets his HP past 20 which is nice. Gong is the first to get Heal 3, which is also nice. As previously discussed, he should get promoted right away to not delay his promotion-only spells.

He's now back to having less defense than Max, but it's not too big a deal, and his attack is still respectable as well. With Narsha around, a character falling behind in attack is not the death sentence it used to be. Besides, our upgrades are not yet over, this rich-ass town has like, five chests lying around.

I. Hate. That they retranslated this thing as Agility Ring when it doesn't effect agility. So anyway. The Running Ring gives us a +2 in movement which is awesome. For now I'll give it to Domingo so that he can tank in front of people more easily, and also he's my only flyer in this playthrough so the mobility is nice.

This town is also where we should be getting the Heavy Mace, but because our Runefaust Queen has soloed a Kraken that doesn't matter.

Finally, let's check out the deals on this very normal shop.

There's another Mermanbuster, and another Elf Slayer. This is very annoying as I don't have any other characters for these weapons, and I guess they'll be here clogging the deals until I buy them.

On the bright side, we can buy the Repel Ring now. I'm leaving it with Gong for now. as counters would ruin him big time, but Max is also a candidate.

The regular weapon shop doesn't have anything useful for us, so that's where we end it for today.

Losses: 0 Deaths: 2

#shining force #ressurection of the dark dragon #guardiana magic school run #long post

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thatlexplays · 2 years ago

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Friday the 13th: Ranked

She's on Tumblr again? LONG POSTING? What is this, 2012?

Hi Tumblr. It's been a bit. But I decided it was the best place to talk unhinged shit that wouldn't make sense on other sites, so here we go again I guess. Last time I was here, I was straight. Now I'm uh...not.

ANYWAYS. Today's Friday the 13th, and it just so happens to also be OCTOBER (aka Halloween season). So y'know. Extra spooky.

I feel like there's only one REAL way to celebrate this day. To talk about the slasher of Camp Crystal Lake himself, Jason Vorhees.

I've had a fascination for horror movies since my edgy years from late 2009 through...honestly most of high school (I wore fingerless bike gloves to school every day--I didn't bike to school. I was CRINJ CITY). I remember watching the major slashers like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, one of my most cringe moments was making a YouTube video about the 2010 reboot of Nightmare on Elm Street and talking about how good it was (15 year old me, for the record, was an idiot).

I know for a fact that I remember watching the original Friday and Friday Part 2. But I'd never seen the other TEN films in the franchise. So earlier this year, I got together with a friend and over the course of a few weekends...

We watched every Friday the 13th film that currently exists (as of posting) and ranked them.

Our Rating System

This was our first time doing a ranking for horror, so we didn't come up with a fun system at the first go around, save for an exception.

For the purposes of consistency of our lists, we're going to use the following rating system: Actually Good. These are the movies that are actually genuinely good watches, with fun characters, good writing, and good sequences. These are the best of the best.

Fun Time 🎉. The movies in this category might not be amazing, but they are still a fun time and are still pretty good watches for the type of horror we're watching.

A Movie™️ . These movies range from almost fun to not boring or bad enough to be lower on the list. We'll explain these as we go.

Why? 🤷. There are movies that take things into confusing territories and make things more convoluted for one reason or another. If it makes us say "Why?" then it's here. No 🙅. These are the worst ones--reasoning will explain.

Caveats

I think it's important to note that while my friend and I love watching horror, we don't think the Friday the 13th franchise is particularly scary. But we were interested becuase the 80s slashers are known to be just fun, and that entices me more than anything. So while these aren't scary when you compare them to modern horror like Barbarian, we were looking for fun times.

Also, should go without saying, but these are subjective opinions.

So with that out of the way...let's do this in order from top to bottom.

Actually Good

Jason Lives! Friday the 13th Part VI

If you watch any of the Friday the 13th movies, make it this one. Part VI is not just a solid slasher movie with great production values, but it's also just a good movie in general.

Tommy Jarvis and Megan are the best duo protagonists we have, with great chemistry. The group of teens we have here are also just fun to watch. People are mostly likelable!

Also the guy who went on to be the voice for Disney's TARZAN is in this movie. Neat.

There's also a ton of great references to other Horror Media because Director Tom McGloughlin is a damn nerd and we LOVE IT. Watch the Dead Meat Kill Count on these. Ya learn a lot.

Friday the 13th Part II

So when it comes to the original canon (aka up through Part IV), this film is the strongest out of all of them. Mostly because of the fact that even though Jason Vorhees doesn't have his iconic hockey mask (which he gets in Part III), the film has straight up the best group of camp counselors/teens in the whole franchise. They're fleshed out more, more sympathetic, and it's just fun.

The only real reason this doesn't top the list is that Part VI is just a better movie overall. There are some weird shot choices, and the cold open is weird and has no pacing.

A Fun Time 🎉

Jason X

Ok, so hear me out. I know the conceit of this movie is WEIRD. It's literally Jason in SPACE. This should be ridicously bad, right?

It's absolutely wild, but the thing about this movie is that it FULLY commits to the crazy concept and it honestly just works. It truly has no right to be as good as it is.

It's not a masterpiece, and it's still objectively wild, but it's a good time.

Friday the 13th (the Original)

It feels weird that the original Friday the 13th movie is in this team, but while this movie is still very good, and still a fun time with great iconic kills; it's still a little anticlimatic and the other films have stronger thru-lines.

Still a good movie, and one that I'd argue that you should still watch because it's the original and iconic, but it's not the best one.

Friday the 13th (2009 Reboot)

So I remember as an edgy teen harping on this movie for being bad (had I seen it? No. Did it matter? Also no). But this is actually a VERY strong reboot. While it doesn't entirely meet the bar of the other movies thus far, it's a fun time that does act as a "best of" of the early films in the franchise.

The characters are also kinda fun.

A Movie™️

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (Part IV)

This is the technically the end of the main story arc of Jason Vorhees--he does die here. Every movie from this point on has a Zombified Jason.

Part IV is higher than the other movies on this list mostly because of the kills themselves--someone gets stabbed while they're holding a banana -- it's wild.

Everything else is kinda meh. Most of the characters here are kinda sleezy and high key horny af, and they're all kind sex pest energy. They kind of suck.

Friday the 13th Part IV: A New Beginning

So Jason isn't in this movie, at all. There's someone else imitating Jason

It's aggressively sleezy and almost pornographic, which isn't

The one main positive this movie has is that it has some very solid characters that very much feel more interesting than most of the characters in the franchise. The kills aren't as good as Part IV, but it's still fun.

Freddy vs. Jason

So I was expecting this movie to be a lot better than it was (for what its worth, it's one of the better Nightmare on Elm Street Movies). It's fine. Not overly worth writing home about per se.

Friday the 13th Part III

So this is an important film that brings us the iconic hockey mask and was also in 3D (because we love gimmicks). Unfortunately, this movie recycles a few kills and the characters are way more one dimensional, and annoying, and there's also some fun problematic racism thrown in.

Why? 🤷

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

This was one of the first movies in the Friday the 13th franchise that BAFFLED me and my friend when watching. According to Dead Meat, they tried to reach out to New Line about doing someting with Nightmare on Elm Street; they refused. So they went, "Ok but what if Jason vs. Carrie White? This slasher franchise needs telekinesis."

Part VII tries to be both a Friday the 13th film and a Carrie film at the same time. It fails at being good versions of both. The teens are forgettable; the telekenetic plotline is interesting but that's kinda not really the point of Friday the 13th, so it's just baffling.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (Part IX)

Woof. This one is real rough.

This was a movie we kept pausing to see how long we had so we can say "We have NO IDEA WHAT IS HAPPENING".

The movie tries to streamline things but make things more complicated.

The effects are cool, the kills are ok, and the characters are fine. But the structure is bad.

No 🙅

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

Out of all of the Friday movies, this one is straight up bad. All of the characters are terrible and have no redeeming qualities. Half the movie doesn't take place in Manhattan, and once there, there's also a fun scene that's essentially SA and it's straight up upsetting. When you manage to make Jason look like a good guy, you know you've got a bad movie.

Final Thoughts

I'll go on record and say that Friday the 13th has more good movies than bad ones in my opinion. You don't watch these movies to be scared, you watch them to have a good time.

So go have fun and watch these movies!

#friday the 13th #I spent way too long writing these #maybe I should do this for every horror franchise i watch so we have a running list #horror movie #slasher movie #tier list

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