#but honestly the game the trailer promises and the game that actually exists are two wildly different things | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

Text

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Refuge”

Happy Saturday, everyone! Welcome to week two of… fourteen? Is that how many episodes we’ve got this Volume? Man, we’re going to be here for a while.

There’s a ton to unpack in “Refuge,” but as promised I want to delve into the opening first. Given the scattered, symbolic nature of our intro I think it’s easiest to just chuck out observations in list form. I’ll segue back into cohesive recapping in a moment.

So, what have we got?

The glitching between a happy, whole Atlas and the burning wreckage we’re now dealing with. That works well given both Atlas’ tech-focus culture and the ways that tech has led to some of our biggest tragedies (hijacked army, framing Penny, etc.)

Ruby looks scared and is standing behind the rest of her team, separated from them by the title. I’m not really feeling that theme so far though, given Yang’s incredibly weak challenge, Ruby’s immediate forgiveness (during her talk with Penny), and the fact that she’s still working with half the team who vocally support her, particularly Nora. Unless something drastic changes, the idea of Ruby being the outsider here is silly.

We get shots of the girls with their past selves superimposed over their bodies and weapons. I like the message here—they carry those versions of themselves with them—just not how it’s contrasted with Ironwood’s image of an earlier Atlas now burning. So that’s all he is now? Everyone gets to embody their growth except for him? His past is erased to focus solely on our current predicament? I’m not picking up any redemption flags here…

Robyn’s hand reaches down towards Clover’s badge, which then circles to show off the Ace Ops. The final image contrasts an angry Harriet with a defeated Qrow. At least, I hope they’re contrasts. It’s going to read as absurd if they somehow end up working together after Qrow helped get her leader killed.

This morphs into Qrow alone who sits, devastated, until Robyn offers him a hand up and they both smile. I’m not a fan of this symbolism after the prison scene we got this episode. It’s like Qrow might have thought about his choices until Robyn’s anger reminded him that, oh yeah, he can be angry at Ironwood instead. These two teaming up, when their last team-up led to a death, is worrisome to say the least.

We get our horrifying image of Salem looming over Oscar as he clutches his head. The group’s weapons fall. This makes sense given this episode’s kidnapping and the team’s sheer inability to do anything to stop it.

Jaune stands determined—also makes sense with his trend of giving “pep talks”—while Ren and Nora stand apart, facing opposite directions. Nora looks back though.

Paralleling them are Winter and Weiss who also face opposite directions. This is becoming a common visual theme: Harriet and Qrow, Nora and Ren, Winter and Weiss. Here though, Weiss looks determinedly ahead while Winter stares down at her feet, unsure. Ugh, I just know they’re going to have her betray Ironwood too.

We get a brief glimpse of Whitley and Willow, not a whole lot to go on. Then we see Salem turning her chess pieces into grimm—literally changing the game—while Ironwood’s white pieces are turned to dust. I could make a quip about how white is supposed to go first, but the initial move was made thousands of years before Ironwood existed and thus he never stood a chance, certainly not when his own allies are actively working against him… but I won’t lol

Watts is smiling at a terminal while at his back Pietro works at his. More opposites. Pietro’s reflection looks to Penny even as his body continues to work, his heart contrasting his head. Penny, in turn, looks upset as her reflection flinches at something off screen and the glass cracks. Watts hacking her, perhaps?

We see the new teams as a cherry blossom (I think?) floats across the screen. It melts in Ren’s hand while escaping Nora’s. Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of that just yet.

Ruby and Yang share a look—undermining their supposed conflict this volume. Couldn’t we have gotten sister unity over the last three years instead?—and a fight against grimm starts up. It freezes as Cinder walks through it, hopefully implying that the group’s attention is on the wrong threat. While they concern themselves with low-level grimm, Salem and her allies are walking free and wreaking havoc.

Then Cinder screams and clutches her grimm arm as things go up in flames. I hope that’s not a death flag given that we’ve teased her death twice already and we only just got a glimpse at her backstory. Also, I think it’s worth mentioning here that there’s a “Summer is the Hound” theory gaining traction which, frankly, I think is 100% unsubstantiated. It’s a fun crack theory, but not something I’m inclined to take seriously until we get some actual evidence behind it. There is, however, potential evidence for people becoming grimm in general: Salem falling into the pool and Cinder receiving that arm. That’s not much though. So while I’m far from convinced that the Hound was once human—let alone that it was Summer—there is something to the theory that Salem may be able to control Cinder via her arm like she controls other grimm. After all, she knew Cinder was alive despite everyone else thinking she’d perished. They seem to have some sort of connection that hasn’t been explained yet and now that Cinder has willingly walked back into Salem’s clutches, she may not be able to walk out.

There are shots of all our other villains, the Lamp and the Staff reflected in Salem’s eyes, and Jinn’s blue smoke, perhaps suggesting that we’ll see her again, or the entity residing in the Staff (if they exist).

Atlas glitches back to normal—a false victory?—before the ice breaks and Team RWBY falls into the darkness below. Volume 3 vibes all around. There’s light above them emanating from the Staff, but as Ruby reaches for it grimm arms circle and pull her deeper. I hope this means that the group will suffer the defeat we need to keep Salem as a legitimate threat, but we had very similar imagery back in Volume 6 and they made it out of that situation just fine, so.

“Happy Ever After” glitches into “Happy? Never Again.” Which isn’t ominous or anything. We finally end on the classic RWBY image of Crescent Rose buried in the snow underneath the shattered moon.

On the whole I think the opening is strong and I like a lot of the symbolism in it, though I do question how much will actually end up being relevant to the story. My only gripes are that there are too many different styles going on—it feels like three or four different Volume openings slammed together—and the fact that it also feels overly long. I don’t think it’s actually any longer than our Volume 7 opening, but it seems that way to me, perhaps because of those varying styles breaking things up.

So that’s what we’ll be watching for the next twelve weeks! Let’s move onto the actual episode.

We open on the image of Clover’s bloody badge in Qrow hand, the same one we got in the trailer. I theorized last recap that we’d be getting the rest of our trailer/promo material this week and I was almost entirely correct in that. This moment, retrieving the bikes, fighting off the grimm, Watts getting hit, Oscar carried away… all we’re missing are some eye closeups and Nora powering up her hammer. As said, it makes me nervous for what the rest of the Volume holds. I can’t decide whether the footage wasn’t ready to be included in promo materials that early, or if RT is just determined not to give us any information past the first two episodes…

Regardless, this is supposed to be a moment of grief and all I could focus on was Qrow’s hand. Specifically, the lack of detail in it. On the whole, I’ve been very happy with the engine upgrade and I quite like RWBY’s animation now, but a closeup here draws too much attention to how, sometimes, they’re just not animating their characters in a way that looks natural. Where is Qrow’s wrist? Why is his palm perfectly smooth? Stylistically that’s usually fine, but when given the chance to stare at it you realize how odd it looks.

Says the woman whose own drawing skills suck but, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But we’re talking about the important bits in this episode! Out of frame Robyn is heard yelling, “This is your fault. You realize that, don’t you?” We’re meant to think that she’s telling Qrow this, especially with how he’s bent guiltily over the badge, until we cut to reveal Jacques right next to them.

I wish Robyn was saying all that to Qrow. It would mean that she was ignoring her own responsibility in Clover’s death, but at least it would have started an arc where Qrow has to grapple with what he did. Not the awful moment that’s coming up.

Before that though, Jacques claims that he’s the “victim” here who was “duped.” His hands may not be clean, but “at least I’m not a murderer.” Look, I’m not here to absolve Jacques of anything. The guy is an absolute shit stain on the Remnant world. However, he’s right in his overall point even if his words are BS. Meaning, Jacques is not a victim and he is a murderer, but he is not the one responsible for Clover’s death. Robyn has plenty of things to be furious at him for, but this is not one of them. Ironically, here we have Jacques functioning as the kind of villain the show wants Ironwood to be. He is a murderer because the company he runs exploits faunus and forces them to work in dangerous conditions (see: the death of Ilia’s parents). He is culpable because he a) had control over these conditions and b) has full knowledge of their flaws. He’s a racist who cares more about money than lives. His informed choices then led directly to deaths. Ironwood? Not anywhere near the same thing. Overlooking the “Omg Salem is here and I have to do something about it” context, he did not try to arrest Robyn. He did not force Qrow to resist arrest, or Robyn to get involved, or Qrow to break Clover’s aura, or Tyrian to stab him in the chest. Ironwood had no control or knowledge of these events, so he is not responsible for Clover’s death in the way that Jacques is responsible for the faunus’. RWBY is giving the right arc to the wrong character.

Robyn then insists that Qrow didn’t kill anyone. He didn’t strike the blow, but he certainly helped! Look, Qrow is one of my favorites, but I’m not about to claim that he didn’t have a hand in getting his friend killed. I seriously can’t believe the show is ignoring this.

We then segue into some, uh, questionable dialogue choices. Jacques is a “snake with a mustache”? Sorry, I can’t take Robyn seriously at the best of times, but definitely not when she’s tossing out laugh worthy insults like that. Nevertheless, this “snake with a mustache” is guilty because he “helped that man tear us all apart.” That man being Watts.

…why are they all in what amounts to the same cell with barriers dividing them? I suppose we could make the argument that they’re being held in some secret facility, given that they’re in this dark, garage-esque space with no lights and no other prisoners. Some sort of maximum security setup that... doesn’t have any other inmates and no additional security? Hmm. Then again, the power is supposed to be out and I don’t really trust RWBY’s ability to craft consistent backgrounds. I feel like they’re packed together merely because that’s plot convenient, not because it makes any sense in world.

Watts looks pretty comfortable in there though and Jacques is likewise full of confidence. He says that by now Whitley will have already called their lawyers to get him out. Now, non-imprisoned people know that the apocalypse is currently underway, as Joanna will later put it. No one is lawyer-ing at the moment, but it will be crucial to see whether Whitley is trying to get Jacques out despite the chaos. How faithful is he to his abuser? Can Willow start undermining Jacques’ influence now that they’re alone?

Jacque’s confidence thoroughly pisses Robyn off and she screams, punching the barrier between them. Keep this in mind for a second.

A moment later two guards show up to take Watts somewhere and… oh no. Please don’t tell me Ironwood is going to team up with him now that Penny has written him off? I know the guy has (presumably) already killed someone, and he must assume he’s killed Oscar, so we’re definitely in full villain territory despite the stupidity of it… but please don’t start working with Salem’s henchmen too. You know what? I’m not going to assume the worst until I actually see it. RWBY gives me enough nonsense as it is lol.

What I really want to talk about is that hit.

I’m somewhat concerned by a lot of the fandom’s reaction to this moment in comparison to another. Who remembers Volume 6? That scene when Qrow punched Ozpin directly into a tree? Now, I’m not keeping track of who says what when—this is a generalized reaction—but I saw a lot of posts defending that action. There were numerous justifications for the punch, but the three big ones were: 1. These characters are fighters and they’re used to it, 2. These characters have aura so it’s not that bad, and 3. Ozpin totally deserved it. Now, the problems here are that 1a. I don’t think punching someone when they’re crying on their knees is justified, whether they’re a fighter or not, 1b. Qrow was likewise punching Oscar, a totally innocent kid, 2. We had established earlier that Oscar was having trouble remembering to activate his aura and didn’t seem to have it active then (no ripple effect, he’s rubbing his jaw afterwards), and 3. Ozpin’s crimes are, as explored on this blog, not nearly the horrific actions that the story and fandom would like to paint them as. The point is that despite all this, lots and lots of fans said it was totally okay to punch Ozpin&Oscar. What’s the big deal? they asked. Now, lots and lots of fans—mostly when the trailer first dropped—say it’s not okay to punch Watts. Despite the fact that he’s also a fighter. Despite the fact that his aura has broken. Despite the fact that he’s not currently a threat (seated on the bed/Ozpin on his knees). Despite the fact that he’s responsible for helping Salem try to take over the world. If we were to make a case for who deserves to get hit, Watts is a WAY stronger candidate in my opinion, yet he’s the one who a lot of fans are scrambling to defend. Why? I assume it’s because hitting him feeds into the generalized police state/dictator theme Ironwood has been thrown into. It helps villainize Ironwood for fans to go, “Poor Watts. He’s done horrific things but no one deserves to face police brutality.” I agree. The only problem is that a lot of those same fans seem to have gone, “Ozpin can get over it. He deserved to be hit! I would have done a whole lot worse to him…” So is the difference only that one attacker is a military professional and the other is… a huntsmen professional who soon after that scene starts working for the military? Yeah. The show continually ignores that the group aren’t the rogue heroes they pretend to be. They worked under Ironwood for weeks, if not months.

The show isn’t clear about its morals and neither are the fans, with both changing tactics whenever it helps blame the character they already don’t like. When Robyn punches the barrier, do we really think she wouldn’t have hit Jacques if given the chance? Why would it be heroic for her to hit the Evil Man but it’s not okay for the grunt minor character to hit the other Evil Man? These morals don’t change just because you like Robyn and don’t like Ironwood.

Jumping ahead for a moment, we get another example of this hypocrisy with Joanna. A reporter is informing the people that the military seems to have stopped evacuations and there is an unheard number of grimm hanging out overhead, both things that are objective facts. He’s reporting as he should, sticking to what’s known and provable, and thus is, notably, not some lackey of Ironwood’s who is hastily presented as evil. Yet Joanna treats him like he is. She snatches the microphone from him and, when he starts to protest, threatens him with her weapon. After she’s done hijacking the feed, she shoves him on her way out.

Look at how scared this guy is. These are our heroes? This back and forth doesn’t work. Prior to his random killing spree, Ironwood took his fear and frustration out on some furniture, yet the show acted as if he was hurting real people. The mere possibility that he might use violence and intimidation to achieve heroic goals—getting Amity up/escaping Salem—was enough to label him as an antagonist because the understanding was that you can’t act like that no matter what your intentions are. Yet our current heroes can use as much violence and intimidation as they want to achieve their own heroic goal of warning the people? Do we think the story will encourage us to be critical of the group if they start beating up a bunch of Atlas goons to reach the access point? Of course not. And it’s that flip-flopping that’s the problem. Your heroes have to function differently than the villains in order for them to be heroes. Under that logic, our heroes haven’t acted like heroes since mid-Volume 6 and it’s getting harder and harder to watch.

Especially when we take the scene before this into account. Yup, we’ve still got Qrow gunning for Ironwood. Robyn bemoans the fact that they can’t do anything, to which Qrow replies, “We can do something. We can kill the man who put us here.” I… feel like I shouldn’t start repeating myself given how long this recap is—we’ll be here for forever lol—BUT I hope everyone reading this understands precisely how little this makes sense. How god awful a choice it is. I mean c’mon. Robyn attacked Clover unprovoked, Qrow teamed up with Tyrian, he broke Clover’s aura, Tyrian murdered him, Salem is here, and now he’s sitting in a cell with Watts and Jacques… but Ironwood is the guy he wants to kill? REALLY, QROW? THAT’S WHO YOU’RE GOING TO GO AFTER? I really can’t with this show sometimes. RWBY, put your clown makeup on.

We get a cut to Ironwood’s image just so there’s no confusion about who Qrow wants to help kill next and Joanna threatens that reporter who, you know, is also a citizen in need of help and protection… Her “General Ironwood has abandoned you, but we have not” sounds absolutely ridiculous when we just watched her intimidating this guy to get what she wants. ‘You can trust us! Unless we randomly decide we don’t like you.’ I have other things to say about Yang calling out that racist woman later on, but she gets props for helping her regardless. Honestly, I don’t get that sense from the cast very often: that they’d help you even if they don’t agree with you. They certainly didn’t offer that to Ozpin, Ironwood, or the Ace Ops.

There’s a very long shot of a scared toddler staring out the window, just to hammer home how young and innocent Mantle is. Seriously, pay attention to our imagery: Mantle is scared children in homes, cute children fist-bumping Jaune, family photos lost in the street, a stuffed toy run over by hoverbikes. It’s meant to evoke a general sense of domesticity and, again, innocence. Meanwhile, Atlas is only shown via Ironwood and Jacques, the villains. Where are the families living up in the sky? The children? The humanizing details? Our racist woman is an outlier who is quickly silenced by Yang. The rest of Mantle is characterized as victims: scared women, worried fathers, the faunus huddling together in the slums, even another racist who, while an asshole, is supposed to have a point about things like the embargo. Which is all true. These characters are all of these things, it’s just that they’re not unique in this. All this exists above too—from those families, to the faunus slave labor, to the beloved objects that remind you of someone’s worth—but they’re ignored to provide a simplistic look at Atlas as the villain.

Throughout this entire episode the group tosses out snide remarks about how “They” don’t care about you and it’s just… they who? The other thousands of innocents who have nothing to do with Ironwood? The hundreds of Mantle citizens you already evacuated? The redeemable people like Winter and Whitley? The group fights alongside a Schnee who was one of the most vocal racists a year and a half ago, yet writes off the entirety of Atlas as the bad guys. What a mess.

As Joanna’s voiceover finishes, we cut to Yang’s group going after Pietro’s tech. I already covered this scene in our promo material, but to summarize here: horrible tone. Absolutely nonsensical given the situation. Salem is here and Yang is giggling over bikes. In fact, the tone is off for most of the episode (our end being the wonderful exception): Yang’s joy ride, antics with the Mantle citizens, Blake poking fun at Weiss, the tube scene… none of it fits the context of the series’ big bad here to kill everyone. Arguments along the lines of, “But it can’t be doom and gloom all the time” or “This is a brilliant parallel to Volume 3 with happy times heralding tragedy” don’t erase the fact that our cast isn’t taking this threat seriously. Last week Weiss’ “We’re never going to sleep again” moment worked because it’s humor in the context of how bad everything is. All of this? It’s just the group goofing off despite supposedly being in mortal danger. This?

This doesn’t read well. I’d argue this scene is even worse in context due to lines like “The others are definitely missing out.” In our promo material I assumed that the group just split for the sake of splitting and they were, in fact, just missing out on something cool. But we’ve since learned that they split due to a fundamental disagreement about how to help people, a split Ruby compared to Salem’s plans, a split that Yang started! Why is she now acting like their separation is a funny “missing out” moment? It’s like if half your friend group decided to go to the movies while the other half went to a party with an unexpectedly good DJ. The movie-goers are people who are “missing out,” not the group who went off to take over a military base and everyone left angry.

Keep in mind that Ozpin is also back. Every fun times scene with Oscar in it has the added problem of Ozpin hanging back, not saying anything, not acknowledged, still a secret.

The other issue I brought up weeks back was the lack of grimm. Why are the streets deserted? Shouldn’t the army be overrunning the city? Well, turns out that there’s no army because… Salem just hasn’t bothered to send it into the city yet? When Jaune and Ren take out the low-level grimm Oscar asks if they’ve “already pushed this far in,” to which Yang replies, “No, I think those are from last night.” A few minutes later, last night’s grimm change to new non-Salem grimm as Oscar observes, “It’s the negativity. Salem’s forces aren’t moving in, but it’s enough to attract the stragglers.” Later still, Joanna asks, “…grimm are circling out there. What are they waiting for?” GOOD QUESTION. We don’t know, but it’s real convenient, isn’t it? RWBY redeems itself a bit at the end of this episode with that Hound grimm, but I’m still calling it out for having Salem hold off long enough for the group to evacuate pretty much all of Mantle and infiltrate the base. That’s real nice of her. As the characters keep pointing out, it would be a staggeringly different situation if they were overrun with grimm right now, huh? Kind of like the situation Ironwood (rightfully) assumed they’d be dealing with.

Again, I’m so glad our Big Bad is kind enough to let the heroes do everything they need to before lifting a finger to attack them.

RWBY seems to be setting up a, “See! There was always time to evacuate the city!” accusation even though no one could have known that and it makes zero logical sense. Salem brings an army with her so she can not use the army against Atlas? Right…

This all segues directly into our other promo scene. My initial comments still stand: the tone doesn’t work, the lack of urgency doesn’t work (Jaune playing with the kid, Oscar politely knocking on doors), the low-level grimm are not a threat, that shield is useless against anything not driven by plot convenience, and it’s weird for Jaune to be yelling, “Heads up!” when there’s no one in front of him. As said, this moment really doesn’t sit well given everything that’s going on. I had hoped that it would read better when seen in the episode itself, but that’s sadly not the case.

After Ren one-shots the grimm Jaune suggests that they use his amplified semblance to get everyone to the crater safely. Ren seems less than pleased about this, but agrees. Right now, it’s easy to say that he’s in a bad mood because Nora is mad at him, but what about the Volume before? Where’s this underlying tension coming from? I can come up with lots of theories, but at some point the show needs to confirm something. The longer we go not explaining what’s wrong with Ren, the less faith I have that it will make sense when we get it.

We see the racist woman upset that they have to go live with the “animals in the slums” rather than going up to Atlas. As said, I like that Yang helps her despite clearly hating the woman, I also think her criticism holds up well (ignoring the simplified ‘They abandoned you’ narrative). The only thing that bugs me is RWBY continually presenting racism as a problem to throw a band-aid on and then pat yourself on the back for ‘solving.’ Racist drunk says shit? Toss him in the trash! Racist woman says shit? Remind her that her survival depends on you! It’s not that these responses aren’t earned, but that we’re given them instead of an actual arc that tackles the complexities of this issue. I mean, Blake has abandoned the White Fang and we’ve barely mentioned the faunus slave labor in Atlas. When they head to the dust facility it’s conveniently run by bots instead of faunus. Can you imagine if Weiss Schnee walked into a group of exploited minorities, hoping to use them to access a military base? But of course, there’s nothing like that. RWBY ignores the actual issues for these simple solutions. Heroes just attack/threaten racists and then it all goes away. Yay.

The other problem with this scene is that we learn the crater is the slums. Um… what? Hold on, Joanna made it sound like it’s a separate place, potentially inhabited by grimm, yet it’s the same area Oscar was in last episode? How is that area warmer? This makes no sense to me.

Also, ha, the crater below Atlas apparently houses all the “animals” that Team RWBYJNR is very protective of. I’m waiting for them to do something that messes with the Staff—Ruby reaching for it in the opening—Atlas crashes down on a whole city of exploited minorities, and then Ironwood is blamed for it somehow. Can’t wait for that episode.

So the group starts making their way there and hark! An Ozpin! I’m always thrilled to hear him, even if he’s treated just terribly by the show. Oscar is at the back of the group and comments that “It should not be this hard just getting people to cooperate.” Except… they are cooperating? Oscar, you are watching them cooperate right in front of you. That one woman might grumble a bit, but she hasn’t made a move or said a word about not doing what you say. Where did this complaint come from? Another example of RWBY insisting something is there when it simply isn’t. More importantly, Ozpin responds:

“And yet, it’s becoming something I’m increasingly concerned about.”

“You know, I really don’t need your additional comments right now.”

Then why did you comment out loud, Oscar? What, do you normally talk to yourself like that? You were clearly speaking to Ozpin! Don’t criticize him for responding. I hate traps like that.

Ozpin immediately says that Oscar has every right to be upset and apologizes for leaving… it’s not apologizing for his entire existence like I wrote on the bingo board, but it’s close. Who’s surprised that Ozpin is the first to offer (another) apology? Not me. Oscar corrects him with, “I’m upset you came back!”

Okay. Here’s the thing. I like the idea of Oscar rejecting Ozpin both because he’s taken over his life and because Oscar has suffered horribly due to Ozpin’s presence (punched, slammed into walls, kidnapping attempts, etc.) That makes sense, it’s actually morally complex, and it’s great groundwork for character growth. The only problem is… this came out of nowhere. Oscar was shown accepting this new life when he left the farm. Then again when he insisted on fighting Hazel. Then again all the times he’s been told he’s acting like Ozpin and seems to accept that just fine. He’s clearly pleased with this new badass self he’s got going on—he even says as much—yet doesn’t want to acknowledge Ozpin as the catalyst for all this positive change. Okay, that’s something we could still work through, but what about the group? Fans are already theorizing that this is why Oscar is keeping Ozpin a secret, because he’s scared of how the group will react, punishing him to get at Ozpin again, and though he 100% has reasons for thinking that will happen, Oscar hasn’t shown that fear before now. Qrow punches him? Bonding moment with Ruby. Jaune attacks him? I made you all dinner. They all smile over his inevitable death/disappearance? He smiles back. Yang is the most scream-y? Happy to have her using him as an armrest. The group continually ignores him and treats him with suspicion? Not a peep of protest. It’s horrifying that Oscar accepted how the group previously treated him, but he did accept it. Where did this fear come from if we haven’t seen it in response to the harm done towards him? Just as importantly, can’t we have an arc where Oscar is mad at the team some too? I’ll admit that the general premise of blaming Ozpin makes sense for the traumatized fourteen-year old, but after two years of blaming Ozpin for everything… aren’t we sick of this? His team has actively hurt him, outside of Ozpin’s ability to prevent, yet Ozpin is the one who takes all the heat for their behavior. “I felt like I was actually part of the team” should lead to the realization of, “Hey, Yang shouldn’t yell at both of us for things outside of our control” not, “Hey, you should stay away forever because others have decided they don’t like you.”

All of this following Ozpin saving Oscar’s life in the airship. Then saving his life again after Ironwood shot him. Our heroes are real grateful, huh. I hate that RWBY is taking another fave and doing them dirty, though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

Ozpin also mentions his magic—would be nice if Oscar brought that up with the team!—and that he is now “recollecting my longest held memories.” He…is? When? Don’t you think that’s something important to show us? We keep being told that “the merge” is occurring but not shown what that actually means. Seriously, when did Oscar get slammed with that many memories??

Please just use the aura machine and give Ozpin a robot body. RT doesn’t have the chops for writing this situation.

As they continue on towards the crater Ren snaps at Jaune about not needing a “pep talk.” Jaune looks annoyed at the attitude which, fair. It says a lot about the writing the last few years that Jaune is the character I’m least frustrated with lol. Likely because they haven’t had him do anything lately which, given that he’s not one of the title characters and our cast is bloated enough as it is, I’m still totally fine with.

Ozpin concludes the scene with, “We need to find a way to work together. Not just the two of us, all of us” with the camera panning up to look at Atlas. I’m glad someone isn’t ready to throw Ironwood under the bus. Given how the group reacted to him sparing Lionheart’s name though, I don’t think they’ll follow Ozpin in his forgiveness. If anything, I expect this perspective to just be more hate fuel.

We move to Ruby’s group which now includes May. Woohoo! She still hasn’t gotten half the screen time as Joanna, but I’m really glad she’s here. In fact, between a useful semblance and that adorable courtesy, I love her already. Despite, you know, helping the team break into the base and all that. Everyone has their flaws lol.

She also frames the Amity plan as getting the world “talking again.” Why is everything presented like a fun romp rather than avoiding death via Salem? Absolutely terrible tone this episode.

The group hilariously waltzes past a sign labeled AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY and enters the dust facility with the bots I mentioned earlier. This I do like. My hypothetical scenario incorporating the racism issue aside, I like that Weiss is using her knowledge and connections to further the mission, rather than something conveniently dropping into the group’s lap. Like Amity suddenly being ready for launch…So yeah, it makes sense that Weiss would know of a potential way in.

Sending someone up through the tubes though? Ehhh… I know they have aura and everything—and that Zwei was once mailed—but are we sure this is safe?? Doesn’t matter because Nora sends Weiss through with a misplaced button press. Good thing that was the tube heading to the base. Too bad Weiss is heading to a guarded military base alone. It should have been May going first with her semblance activated, but no. Chuck this onto the ever increasing ‘Bad Tone’ pile. There should not be giggles over Weiss being in that level of danger, especially with everything else going on. Ruby’s expression is the only one on point.

Before Weiss is yeeted off though, Penny and Ruby have a talk wherein Ruby lies her ass off. Penny says, “I do not like it when friends fight” and when Ruby starts talking about Yang she corrects her, revealing that she’s actually thinking about Winter and Ironwood. “They were our friends.”

I was ready to sing Penny’s praises and really, she still gets credit for being the only one who has acknowledged this, but her opinion is (once again) overridden by Ruby’s. Penny goes, “but then the Ace Ops attacked you” which Ruby doesn’t bother to correct. How would Penny know otherwise? The only information she has about that battle is what Ruby has told her, but Ruby is lying via omission here. The Ace Ops never attacked her. They very explicitly refused to start a fight. Ruby attacked them. Then when Penny is upset that Ironwood said “people were going to die because of me,” Ruby takes her by the shoulders and angrily insists, “That was a lie and he was only saying it to hurt you.”

Ruby… you’re the one lying. You know damn well Ironwood didn’t just say that to hurt Penny. Oh yeah, the general trying to keep a kingdom alive from an immortal witch is preoccupied with hurting Penny’s feelings for no reason other than being evil. That makes sense. More importantly, Ironwood is right. Look, I’m by no means blaming Penny for anything. She fought off Cinder, took the power when there was no other choice, and has now gotten caught up in Ruby’s plans which include incredibly misleading information that Penny has no reason to question. She’s doing her best and deserves that hug. But that doesn’t mean she lacks responsibility here. Ironwood needs Penny to evacuate. Penny—listening to Ruby—won’t help him. Ergo, if something happens to the people up in Atlas Penny will be partly responsible. If I have the key to a door with lots of people trapped behind it as a fire rages, and I refuse to open that door, I have indeed allowed a lot of people to die. As Penny says, she didn’t want this responsibility… but she has it. She has to deal with it. Too bad she’s with Ruby who encourages her to ignore it instead, insisting that nothing bad that happens after their choices could in any way be connected to them. Kind of like Qrow ignoring his own actions against Clover.

Because that’s the takeaway from this scene. Penny had empathy for their friends and then Ruby talked her out of it. She never even acknowledges that those were indeed seven friends that she betrayed. That’s horrible.

What happened to Ruby? I used to love this girl.

Continuing our tone issue, Nora is watching this show like her favorite soap is on. Okay then.

Weiss goes up the tube and then we cut to Fiona saying that… the Mantle police are helping them evacuate? So the military is bad, but the police are good? I need to stop trying to make sense of RWBY’s allegory.

When Yang and the others return Fiona makes an innocent comment about being worried about how they’d fare without the rest of their team. Yang is pissed.

Ah, so we’re back to her giving allies attitude for random observations. Remember the anger at Marrow for suggesting she and Blake try different team-ups? Now here Yang is, in a different team-up, doing quite well. Funny how we never acknowledge who first suggested that. Now, Fiona reveals a totally logical worry that losing four fighters might make a difference when fending off grimm, but Yang is poised to be angry at everyone, about everything, all the time. Which I get is something that a lot of fans like. I’ve already seen a couple of posts praising RT for letting Robyn and Yang be angry without consequences because women often can’t do that and, fair. That is indeed one way to read it. My problem is that their anger is actually irrational, not just called as much because we women are ~emotional~. Their anger isn’t justified: Robyn because she had a significant hand in all this nonsense (that she’s ignoring) and Yang because it’s clear Fiona means no harm here. This is anger that needs to be called out, not ignored because yay women expressing emotion. That kind of defense is reserved for a woman’s justified anger that needs to be expressed without criticism, especially in a narrative that tries to undermine her perspective. But what has Fiona done to Yang? Nothing. More importantly, the show has yet to teach Yang a better coping mechanism than lashing out at people, be it with her fists, words, or angry glares. Yang has been through the ringer and it makes sense that she’s angry, but that doesn’t mean she gets a lifelong pass to treat those around her badly.

Anyway, Joanna says they have a lot of people to keep warm even though the crater was supposed to be warmer? And they’re stealing dust? So what are they using it for it not heat? We’re not seeing any difference here and frankly all the civilians should be dead by now. Or at least entering hypothermia. (Give me that conflict: how do you keep people safe when they’re not all conveniently up for walking all the way to the slums?) Joanna also says that they’re trying to get the “Old mine shafts into a livable condition” which would take how long exactly? In fact, I’d say our timeline is already wonky. We’ve watched Yang hide the Ace Ops last Volume, fly to Winter and Penny, find the Happy Huntresses, wait around for Oscar to show up, ran off on her own at some point to scout, went to get bikes, evacuated all those people to the (far away) slums, then went back out to fight off the grimm. That had to have taken up a good chunk of the night, though it’s impossible to tell the time with Atlas’ snowy sky. I’m leaning towards a bingo mark though…

The faunus who I thought was a badger or something is… a bear I guess? He has a bear-like paw, but his nails seem too long… I honestly don’t know. But he’s Fiona’s uncle! Cute. She's off to deal with a fight that’s starting while the group goes to fight more grimm. Finally, the episode gets good.

The teamwork to take out the dragon grimm was nice, always glad to see it, but the real fight starts when two more grunts show up and then immediately run away. What could have scared them off?

The Hound. (I’m sorry, all I can think of is Game of Thrones when I write that, but it seems to be the name the fandom is adopting, so…) Remember how I said it was unlikely to be a threat on its own? I WAS WRONG. Holy shit this thing is terrifying. It snatches Oscar and in some wonderfully quick animation absolutely obliterates the kid. Oscar is thrown around like a chew toy, desperately trying to rabbit kick at this thing and it does [checks notes] absolutely nothing. I’d normally say something about our farm boy always getting the shit kicked out of him, but this scene was too good for my salt.

Then it changes shape, growing arms, and starts using Oscar as a shield. Yang can’t pull back in time and is snagged by her head, the Hound tossing her into the wall hard enough to break the stone. She’s still conscious though and warns the others about its strategy.

“But grimm aren’t that smart,” Jaune says. Maybe if you kids (Fiona keeps calling them kids) had stayed in school you would have learned that grimm get smarter with age! Oobleck knew that. Or, just as likely, this is a special Salem grimm. Hard to say at this point.

The point though is that the group is helpless in the face of this monster. I do want to emphasize this. I’ve seen a few people criticizing them for not doing enough to save Oscar and it’s like, what did you want them to do? Yang tried to attack and the grimm nearly had her hitting Oscar instead. Ren tried to attack and the grimm changed so fast his weapon was useless. Factor in that morphing—which the group has never seen before—the horror of Oscar hanging there limp, and the general fighter response of, ‘I can’t just keep attacking head on because that thing might kill me,’ and you realize the group was screwed from the start. They can’t stand up against this thing, not without a good strategy anyway, which there’s no time to think up. For the first time in years, ever since Tyrian, Salem actually made the right, villainous call.

Ren screams, “Give him back!”—which was just lovely in an angsty way—and the grimm creepily cuddles Oscar against his chest. Then he responds, “No.” Yeah, they’ve never seen that before either. Can you blame them for their shock? I’m impressed that they were on their bikes just seconds later, managing to keep the grimm in sight. That speaks to their combat experience. Not the ability to power through a situation where they’re clearly outmatched, but their ability to pick themselves back up and try again.

... Ah, so that’s why Pietro was oh so randomly making them bikes. The plot needed a way for them to keep up with a flying grimm. Got it.

My takeaway? RT should be writing horror. They’re far better at it. The animation, sound effects, voice acting, the grimm’s speech and protective instincts, that splatter of goo on Oscar’s cheek…

... stellar all around. Like the Apathy, this is the best I think RWBY has been since the lore episode of Volume 6. Granted, action sequences like this aren’t required to grapple with any of the messy morals and character consistency of other scenes, but still. If RWBY had just given me a lighthearted ‘Girls fight cartoon monsters’ show or a horror fueled ‘Girls fight monster abominations’ show, I’d have been happy. This? This is the only redeeming part of the episode. And it’s indeed one hell of a redemption. Look at this thing!

I’m not going to say it erases all the bad we got—it doesn’t—or that it likewise erases problems like Salem not using the rest of her army, but it’s a notable step in the right direction. This grimm is a threat. This grimm is a mountain the cast has to overcome. If this is the minion its master should be Everest. I still think this Volume is going down the tubes fast (it’s going the way of Weiss lol), but if it can give me more scenes like this? It might not be a total loss.

Last thing to acknowledge: What about Ozpin? I’ll admit it doesn’t look good. Given how fast he takes control he should have been able to override Oscar’s will and at least fight back a little with that spectacular magic we saw during the finale. So why didn’t he? I hope we get an in-world explanation: it happened so fast even Ozpin couldn’t do anything (shaky, but I’ll take it in a pinch), now that the merge is farther along he can no longer take control—something. Because I can easily imagine how quickly the fandom, and even the cast, will turn on him for not playing deus ex machina here. In reality, I think Ozpin didn’t take control simply because the plot needed him not to. The writers needed Oscar kidnapped so any potential out from that is conveniently forgotten… which is another knock against their writing, despite how great the scene otherwise was. The point is to take all these potential pushbacks and find a satisfying way to circumvent them, not pretend they don’t exist. RT can still save themselves here by providing that explanation later, so I hope they’re smart enough to do that. Ozpin has been blamed for everything at this point. His own kidnapping doesn’t need to be added to the list.

Also, still no word on Schrödinger's councilman. We’ve got to wait another week to see whether he’s dead or not.

Finally, let’s update the bingo card!

I’m crossing off “Ruby gives an ‘inspiring’ speech built on ignoring facts she doesn’t like” for that conversation with Penny. Yeah, it’s a speech to her alone about her worth, but Ruby mischaracterized the situation so badly I’m mad at her lol

I never thought the story would straight up just not have the grimm army attacking, so I think I’ll hold off on “Army of grimm conveniently doesn’t kill any civilians” until we see if/when it gets involved.

I’ll likewise hold off on the timeline slot until we see how bad things get…

Maria is on thin ice given that we have no idea what she’s supposedly doing while the group is off on their missions. Stay tuned.

Today we’re crossing off “Deadly cold conveniently doesn’t kill any civilians.” They should all be dropping like flies by now.

A friend pointed out that Cinder’s Cinderella flashback counts as an “Overly obvious fairy tale allusion.” In fact, I talked about how much of a shorthand that is, so that’s getting a mark.

From last week I’ve also decided to include Amity for “Retconning previous lore.” Now that the group is fully underway with their plan it reads as even more egregious that we were told it wasn’t ready.

I’ll hold off on Ozpin’s space for a while. See if he apologizes to the whole group and, if so, exactly what for.

“Oscar is finally kidnapped”—check!

Well, that’s a whole lot of headway this week. Can’t wait to see where the next episode takes us... Here’s hoping we spend a lot of time with that Hound. MVP of the episode.

Until next time! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps

74 notes · View notes

kyzveryown · 4 years ago

Text

Observations — Melody of Memory

Melody of Memory has finally been released, and I have to say that I’m not disappointed with the new story cutscenes. I had zero expectations for the new story content but was pleasantly surprised by what I watched. What mainly stood out to me was the reveal of this ‘other side of reality’. Kairi got to shine…sort of. She’s also going to train with the love of my life, Aqua. The city from Verum Rex finally has a name – Quadratum. Unfortunately, the Star’s name wasn’t revealed. Riku went to the aforementioned ‘other side’ and Scala ad Caelum still exists. There were also one or two minor things, but I’ll cover that later. This episode made me even more curious about the direction of the series going forward.

This new revelation about ‘the other side’, which is more than likely another universe (I’m a call it what it is) makes me curious about what’s there. The way Ansem described it was stupid, but I think that was by design. To me, it looked like Nomura was dancing around a ‘particular word’, which if it was actually said would’ve raise a lot of eyebrows. And if that is what he was doing, then I get the feeling that he’s holding out on this because it’s too big of a 'surprise'. And assuming that this ‘surprise’ is what I think, then a certain section of fans will be extremely happy. As for what that word is? Well, for those who’ve seen the trailer for the game Verum Rex looks like, it’s in the opening. And let’s not forget the strange emphasis on the title card for the last world in Melody of Memory. Now, this is just an observation. None of this is fact. I’m just pointing this out because I think it’s interesting. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now, I’m not going to touch on Kairi because that’s an entire post by itself. But I will say that she handled herself the best she could against Xehanort. And her going to train under Aqua seems promising on the surface. I’m not expecting a damn thing from that though. Honestly, this felt like a ‘shut up’ story for Kairi. I’m call it like I see it. On a more positive note, Quadratum is the name of the city in Verum Rex. Not coincidentally, Quadratum means ‘square’ in Latin. You can make of that what you will. I’m slightly disappointed the Star’s name wasn’t revealed. I’m not calling her Stella. I’ll wait until she actually has a name.

I’m going to assume that Melody of Memory’s ending leads into the ‘Yozora’ secret ending of KHIII. Riku goes the other universe at the end. Xehanort knew about this universe for a minute. Will this be explored in KHDR? Most likely not but considering Y-Xehanort knew about Sora’s ultimate punishment and kept warning him, I don’t want to entirely rule that out. Oh, and Scala ad Caelum still exists. There's a lot I want to say about that, so I'm reserving that for another posts somewhere down the road.

And lastly, Memory worlds seem to be a thing now. Whether or not that’ll be explored later on? I hope so. I could see this being a way to integrate UX into the main series. Ventus diving through his memories to uncover his past while ‘Darkness’ tries to prevent him from remembering seems interesting. And within those memories, you get to play as Y-Ventus. Basically, it'd be like Sora's journey to save Kairi in Re:Mind. I doubt Nomura would consider that though. If his precious idiot ‘golden boy’ can't be in the story, then it’s not happening. I wish he would give other characters the spotlight.

And that’s it. There’s more to talk about, but those topics will be discussed in separate posts. My curiosity has certainly peaked. Let’s hope there's another ‘surprise’ sometime next year.

#kingdom hearts #khmom #khux #khdr #melody of memory #kh3 #kairi #verum rex #square enix #khmom spoilers #kh #observations

14 notes · View notes

journeyofbell · 4 years ago

Text

Why Onward is Pixar’s biggest waste of a good plot (review)

Okay, let’s start out with the obvious: No, it’s not worse than The Good Dinosaur. Nothing will ever be as bad or disappointing from Pixar as TGD. So with that out of the way, let’s get to it.

Okay so.. Pixar isn’t really holding up these days. And I mean that in a kind way, for the record. I’m kind of worried: sequel after sequel and their few original films just bomb, both with box office and reviews. Something is wrong with Pixar these years and I’m going to tell you what: brilliant ideas with miserable executions. Hence why the title of this text is ‘waste of a good plot’.

Pixar are the supreme storytellers of modern animated media, that’s something everyone knows. They can take the most ridiculous plot and turn it into a heartwarming, heartbreaking story that all ages can enjoy and sob over. So why are they just not doing that?

Well, obviously, we won’t be discussing the sequels, this is only about the original films. In the past 5 years, Pixar has only released three original films: The Good Dinosaur, Coco and Onward. After the massive disappointment of TGD, I think people were more than ready for the next perfect pearl in the necklace of Pixar’s proud lineup of original films. They made Coco, won them Oscars, the Supreme Pixar Experience. And that’s partly why Onwards, in my humble opinion, was a massive disappointment. In between Coco and Onward, there were only sequels that we didn’t really need or ask for (Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4). We were ready for the next big thing, not necessarily a new Coco but just.. something solid and original.

Pixar’s films will never be bad, oh no. There are Actual Bad Animated Films that can take up several lists. No, Pixar just makes two types of original films: masterpieces and the occasional disappointment. We can forgive one sequel once in a while but it’s hard to forgive several disappointments in a row, whether it’s sequels or originals. That’s partly why Onward failed, seeing as it would’ve gotten much better reception if it hadn’t been released after a very big original disappointment (TGD), the mixed mess of the very much anticipated sequel Everyone Actually Wanted (The Incredbles 2) and finally, a very ‘meh’ experience of an unnecessary sequel (Toy Story 4). I think hopes were super high, considering the marketing. Pixar is actually doing a modern critical take on the fantasy genre? That’s good! ..right? Right??

Aaaaand the answer turned out to be no. Unfortunately, a very big no. And I hate to say this out loud, I mean no disrespect to all the brilliant people working on this film, I just.. I loathe this film. I hate it, with every fiber of my body. Not because it’s bad (it’s average) but because it’s wasted potential. It’s a waste of a good idea, waste of a good plot and a huge waste of their money. There’s only one saving grace about this film and that’s the end of it. Why would you ever make a film that’s dying all the way through, then revive it last minute? I got angry, let me tell you. Films don’t make me angry, especially not Pixar. But this time, I felt like I’d been lied to. I was promised a genius story and I left feeling empty, angry and disappointed. Utterly, utterly disappointed.

I can go into lenghty details on why this film sucks but I don’t have to when it’s so obvious: Onwards is overly predictable. Boring, unoriginal and the trailer gives us a false promise about original worldbuilding when in fact, that never happened. Why make a world with magic when the entire world just forgets about it because of technology? Has none of the writers seen Legend of Korra?? There was no reason for magic to be talked about like it never existed and only belonged in a card game, it was such a big plot hole I still can’t get over it.

As soon as those boys get into that van, it just turns into your average roadtrip film, just with funny character designs. I fell asleep no less than three times during this film, that’s how predictable it was. I felt like I was watching Cars again, just the DnD version! What the hell man? How did no one pick up on this during the production?? Chris Pratt and Tom Holland both did a marvelous voice acting job but it didn’t save the plot, never could, because it sucked.

And that’s pretty much my review of Onward. I figured this was my last shot at releasing it, considering this film actually came out this February (what a year, huh?). Can’t recommend, 1/10, only reason it’s not zero is because of the ending and then some cute character design details. Nothing else about this film is interesting and you’ll bore yourself to death, honestly. This might be a Pixar production but it’s not worth it and if you still care to watch it right now, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

#also this is not an invitation to fight me about this #my opinion is set and I will not like Onward just because some diehard fans want me to #nah ah #if you have any constructive insight then go ahead #but like with Frozen I stand by what I said #Pixar #Bell reviews #review

2 notes · View notes

popwasabi · 5 years ago

Text

Lockdown Lookback: Catching up on the past months’ Pop Culture

Aaaaannnd we’re back!

It’s amazing what a little pandemic can do to shake you out of your creative cobwebs but if we’re all going to die, I want to make sure all my pop cultural hot takes are up to date at least.

Many of us are already on lockdown and many major movies including “007,” “Black Widow” and ummm I guess “Mulan” are all getting pushed to the backburner as no one is leaving their God damn homes unless they’re told to!

(Didn’t realize the thing I wish I had more of in the apocalypse would be sweatpants...)

But there’s still plenty to talk about from the previous months and other hot topics I have been meaning to write about but just hadn’t found the time or energy for. Life has been hard I think for just about all of us these days thanks in no small part to this pandemic. For me personally, I’ve had two different vacations canceled because of the virus and currently working understaffed at my job which is considered essential. Not to mention my therapist is on call only at this time and both my martial arts schools have been suspended, so I can neither talk nor punch my feelings out of my system.

So, I might be just a LITTLE on edge at the moment.

(My internal monologue for most of these past few weeks, more broadly years...)

Anyways, I digress, you come here because you like to read my highly unprofessional takes on pop culture and genuinely to those who have cheered me on from the beginning thanks, you guys are my prime motivators. But anyways let’s talk about all the shit I was supposed to write about these last two and a half months.

“Birds of Prey” was a hot, but needed, mess

Earlier last month I got to see the sort of sequel to the much-maligned “Suicide Squad” in “Birds of Prey and the…waaaay too long of a title for me write here.” I had cautious optimism for it because it looked strange and off the beaten path of most comic book movies and seemed to promise at the very least a fun time at the theater but it’s still also a DCEU movie so the floor was pretty low on its possible quality as well.

In the end, the movie is kind of bit of everything; the best and worst parts of the DCEU.

In terms of the good, it’s definitely outside the box, a sort of fem Deadpool first person story as told frenetically by Harley herself. Margot Robbie is, of course, still quite great at this role and you can tell she’s having a blast as this character. The humor is mostly good and visually the bright colors and cinematography pops on each screen and on that front there isn’t much to complain about.

But as a DCEU movie it does suffer from some narrative imbalance partially due to it’s psycho storyteller but mostly, and more than likely, due to corporate editing that probably axed an entire dance number that I was honestly looking forward to from the trailers.

(Seriously, I actually wanted to see the full unedited version of whatever hell this ended up being.)

It’s definitely in the “could’ve been better” camp of comic book movies but you know what? I’m still glad it exists. You know why? Because comic book movies dominate our blockbuster culture right now and if the genre wants to survive, at least artistically, it needs some outside the box films like this. I HATED “Joker” but I appreciate that it opened the door for stranger, more unique takes on a genre that is getting increasingly more stale. This movie falls into that unique category too.

(Also, to all the faux-intellectuals and alt-right nerds making a culture war out of “Sonic” vs “Birds of Prey” *kindly* reevaluate your lives please...)

We’re at the point now where comic book movies should be getting weirder, not more formulaic, and that means swinging for the fences even if a couple don’t quite make it out of the ballpark. If it takes a few not so stellar takes on the genre for Hollywood to greenlight a truly fantastic one I’m all for it.

In any case “Birds of Prey” doesn’t quite end nor continue the DCEU’s recent hot streak but it is enjoyable enough to where I would be more than open to a sequel. It’s worth a watch.

The Mandalorian and The Witcher: Two shows about violent mercenaries and fatherhood

Both these shows are old news at this point, but I did want to talk a little about both for a bit if you would have me.

First, “The Mandalorian” which was Disney+’s flagship production to begin its streaming chapter late last year is definitely a more than welcome addition to the galaxy far, far away. It’s pretty easy to feel fairly jaded about Star Wars these days given how flat the new trilogy ended but for what it’s worth “The Mandalorian” was a good mix of nostalgia bait and something new and interesting for fans to chew on. Its production value is obviously top-notch, no doubt because of all the Disney money pumped into it, it’s well-acted and thrilling and fun from start to finish. It plays heavily on the genres that influenced the series, primarily westerns and old samurai flicks, and fans of those will certainly enjoy the homages to them all.

The series was something of a coming out party for Deborah Chow who directed two of the season 1’s best episodes. Her steady hand, eye for details and tributes to Asian cinema throughout really gave the series an extra kick at times and showed how Star Wars can evolve still. Chow is set to helm the upcoming “Kenobi” series and one can only hope that she *really* leans into the samurai genre for that show.

(Hopefully, there are some “Yojimbo” vibes in there somewhere...)

The Mandalorian’s best and worst parts though are its semi episodic nature making each episode easy to digest as a one-off but also lacking some narrative tension between each. It plays kind of like a Saturday Morning cartoon to both its benefit and detriment with bite-size easy to digest plots and dialogue for the viewers but not offering a ton of depth beyond that.

The Mandalorian himself is also kind of a Gary Stu. His armor is basically impenetrable and far and away the best killer onscreen typically, making more than a few action scenes lack real stakes and tension. Baby Yoda certainly helps at times to make him more vulnerable and puts him in precarious positions plenty of times but outside a few moments (mainly episode 2 and to a lesser extend the final episode) he’s just a little too overpowered to be a more interesting character.

But this show and frankly the Star Wars series as a whole is meant for kids, no matter what the neckbeards try to tell you (violence =/= adult), and that’s not necessarily a bad thing either. Plenty of kids productions can be both great and even sophisticated and while I wouldn’t say “The Mandalorian” is either of those it’s a good and fun kids show for the fans.

(And yes I’m aware that the books, some comics, and games have touched on more adult stuff, you weirdos. But how would you describe the overall tone and presumptive audience of the movies and TV series as a whole, guys??)

As far as “The Witcher” goes it also has a bit of an episodic style to it as well with an overarching, albeit, convoluted story that runs parallel to it. The first 3-4ish episodes can be classified as a quasi “Game of Thrones” clone leaning perhaps a little too heavily into the tropes of that series. Once the series finally starts leaning into its real identity, a dry-witted hack and slash fantasy, the series is much more consistent both tonally and narratively.

Henry Cavil is solid as Geralt of Rivia and the supporting cast of Joey Batey as Jaskier, Freya Allen as Ciri and even more so Anya Chalotra as Yennefer are all great in their respective roles delivering some great moments throughout the season.

(And lest you forget this earworm...)

“The Witcher’s” early season struggles keep it from being as tonally or narratively consistent as “The Mandalorian” but where the monster slayer beats the bounty hunter is that it has overall more compelling drama and has more to say, leaning much more heavily into the thematic greys of the plot. There are tons of problems with “The Witcher” on a story-telling level but you can definitely say it cares more about adding some depth in between the more pulpy aspects of the story which is something you can’t say as much for in “The Mandalorian.”

Of course, I’m partially overselling “The Witcher” a bit here, it’s not anywhere near “Game of Thrones” best (yet at least), and on the flipside one could argue that “The Mandalorian’s” more subtle sense of story-telling does its themes better. But when it comes down to these two shows you get somewhat similar story-telling ideas, mostly involving both characters and their smaller counterparts, in two very different genres with equally diverging conclusions to their respective seasons.

(🎵 Toss an “Oof” to your Witcher...🎵)

All in all, they’re both good and worth a watch and I think they deserve a chance to evolve and hopefully showcase more of what they have to offer moving forward.

“Parasite” wins Best Picture! Many people have some hot takes, including the president...

Last month one of my favorite films of 2019 “Parasite” won Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s a movie that is becoming increasingly relevant as elites and celebrities alike are getting front of the line testing despite being asymptomatic in the middle of pandemic and think they can assuage our concerns and dread by poorly singing “Imagine” together within the comfort of their McMansions.

It’s about as a good time as any to revisit this movie, I mean where else are you going to go during this timeline, and at a later date I’ll write something more extensive about it eventually (hopefully) but first here’s a helpful video on one particular thing that came out after director Bong Joon Ho took home the night’s top honors:

youtube

“Cats” is still a fever dream of madness

Back in late December, I watched “Cats” for science, as I had AMC A-List and a friend crazy enough to join me. I figured it would be bonkers and unlike anything I had seen before in the worst way but even then, I don’t think I was truly prepared for what I ended up seeing that fateful night.

I remember quite vividly going to the bar inside the theater and ordering a stiff drink beforehand to numb the pain and the bartender asking “So what are y’all watching tonight?” and beginning to laugh manically like an insane asylum patient at the innocuousness of the question. Walking into the theater was like that feeling you get before getting on a particularly scary-looking rollercoaster at Six Flags but instead of the pre-ride jitters eventually subsiding to the eventual fun and joy of the ride, only a deep sense of existential dread built up and sustained itself through what felt like six hours of the most baffling thing put to screen in front of my eyes ever.

youtube

(The music that played in my head as I exited the theater...)

Have any of you watched the Stanley Kubrick movie “Eyes Wide Shut” before? You know the scene when Tom Cruise is walking around in his mask observing the strange occult sex orgy going on around him at the mansion? That’s kind of what “Cats” felt like except way more terrifying, somehow MORE sexual, and definitely crazier.

(Is...this some type of...intepretative dance to summon an eldritch horror??)

There’s a voyeuristic terror that comes from sitting in that theater room as you watch bipedal humanoid looking felines dance to confusing songs about “Jelicle” cats (whatever the fuck that means) and all other manner of things that should NOT take human form throughout it’s near-endless runtime. A lot was made about Rebel Wilson and the disgusting roach people she consumes but NO ONE warned me about the frankly HORRIFYING mice children in the same scene!

(I am not perusing the internet to find that image again for y’all. I have enough nightmares each night...)

The saddest thing about the whole movie is everyone, save for Ian Mckellen who seemed to be acting as if a gun was pointing at him offscreen and Judi Dench who looked 100 percent like a geriatric in her digi fur, was giving the movie their fullest effort in what can only be described as a Titanic-sized level of hubris by all parties involved. This movie really needed a “Chaostician” involved in evaluating the production for studio heads and shareholders because there were definitely NOT enough people on this project wondering whether or not this film SHOULD exist...

(Dr. Ian Malcolm coming to Universal Pictures to access the film.)

What has “Cats” wrought upon this world? The universe has been clearly out of balance since this movie came out and while I’m not saying it’s director Tom Hooper’s fault, I’m not saying it isn’t either.

“Cats” is one of those things, much like The Matrix that cannot be simply described but must be seen to believe. It’s one of the worst things I have ever seen onscreen but with the right group of people and a few stiff drinks it’s certainly an experience you won’t forget. Consider it for your next Google Hangout during this apocalypse.

Anyways, that about wraps up my thoughts on the last few months. Going to try to be more consistent going forward especially given how much more time I have now to write, for better and worse. But more importantly, just want to say stay safe y’all. It’s going to be a process to get through this and while things are more likely to get worse before they get better there will be a day when this all ends and some normalcy may yet return to our life but in order for us to get there we need to remain vigilant.

So stay at home, wash your hands, and if you want to watch movies just order it online for now and we’ll just wait until aaaallll this blows over…hopefully.

Don’t panic...

24 notes · View notes

takaraphoenix · 5 years ago

Note

For the ask game marvel

Thanks for asking! ^^

Top 5 favourite characters: Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Janet van Dyne, Okoye, Carol Danvers

Other characters you like: Ororo Munroe, Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, Darcy Lewis, Hope van Dyne

Least favourite characters:MCU!W@nda

Otps: Loki/Tony, Bucky/Tony, Thor/Tony

Notps: Tony/Pepper, Peter/Michelle, MCU!Steve/Tony, Steve/Bucky, Valkyrie/Carol, honestly it’s actually a pretty long list so we’ll leave it at a Top Five

Favourite friendships: TONY AND RHODEY!!! Also Peter and Miles in a “they’re the same age”-setting

Favourite family:THE IRON FAM

Favourite episodes: doesn’t have episodes

Favourite season/book/movie: listen, it may be basic but Avengers. The first one. Like, that was all the MCU was about. Forming that team. It may not be the best movie by various definitions, but it’s my favorite because it sums up what Marvel should be all about for me

Favourite quotes: not really a quote-kinda-gal. Like, there are these often quoted quips and stuff from the MCU but nothing that I’d really say means a lot to me

Best musical moment: an Avengers musical would be awesome :O

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: That hero shot. In the first Avengers when after all these years, those heroes all came together and we got that shot of them all together

When it really disappointed you: *cough* so often. But the worst offenders are Age of Ultron and Thor Ragnarok. Like. Just. Everything about these two movies. AoU’s only redeeming quality was Vision and Ragnarok just flat-out didn’t have any redeeming qualities.

Saddest moment: WHEN TONY DIED. I CRIED. A LOT ;-;

Most well done character death: If I am allowed to use the deleted scene instead of the one that ended up in the movie, then Tony’s death. Because him dying and everyone kneeling before him was amazing??

Favourite guest star: JARVIS. JARVIS IN THAT ENDGAME

Favourite cast member: Kat Dennings

Character you wish was still alive: ANTHONY EDWARD STARK

One thing you hope really happens: that Captain Marvel makes Carol/Maria canon, because Marvel promised more LGBT rep, with new AND existing characters and if you wanna retcon anyone into being rep, genuinely NONE from the MCU offer it better than the two women who raised a child together, lived together and spent the entire movie being each other’s anchor??

Most shocking twist: that Captain America was wrong in his own movie :D man I was dreading Civil War because if it’s Civil War but Captain America then surely they will give Steve the moral high ground and have Tony be in the wrong - and then they just made Steve the fuck-up and Tony the reasonable one and it still feels like a blessing (though I still think this shouldn’t have been a Captain America movie. It should have been an Avengers movie...)

When did you start watching/reading?: I watched it when Iron Man first came out, but like... casually. I only started caring - and caught up with the ones I was missing - when Avengers came out

Best animal/creature: are... are there animals in this franchise...? Because I just genuinely do not recall any, aside from Valkyrie’s outta-nowhere pegasus in Endgame...

Favourite location: ooof Wakanda probably?

Trope you wish they would stop using: miscommunication and distrust. Like. The Avengers movies were supposed to be about a team, but we didn’t have A SINGLE actual Avengers movie where they were just a team. Every single one had miscommunication, distrust and betrayal among the team and it was tiresome and stupid. There should have been at the very least ONE proper Avengers movie where it’s the Avengers, united as one team, facing a threat together

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: the interwoven universe. I mean, these phases lined up pretty well while so many other franchise attempts fail because they can’t build it up and rush it too much

Funniest moments: the majority of things Tony Stark says :D and also Okoye, just her being a whole mood

Couple you would like to see: I’d be over the moon if, once they introduce the X-Men, T’Challa/Ororo could become canon? Also the further above mentioned Carol/Maria. And when they’re giving Valkyrie a girlfriend next Thor, I really hope it’s gonna be Sif

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: Freema Agyeman as Ororo Munroe. She’d be the perfect age to be with Chadwick’s T’Challa, she is a gorgeous badass and I really want to see her in it??

Favourite outfit: that Infinity War nanotech Iron Man suit

Favourite item: the Cloak of Levitation

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?:uuuhm... Huh. No, I actually don’t...

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: I would be a human. Maybe working for Darcy? :D

Most boring plotline: ...Ant-Man and the Wasp, like I genuinely can’t remember what that movie was about, beyond getting Janet out...??

Most laughably bad moment:ooof there were so many, most of them in Ragnarok, really. That movie was one laughably bad moment after the other

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: mh, I don’t know??

Most layered character: Tony Stark, unsurprisingly so considering who you asked xD

Most one dimensional character: the majority of villains

Scariest moment: not really scary

Grossest moment: can’t think of one?

Best looking male: M’Baku

Best looking female: Gamora? Sif? Okoye? Hope? Why would you make a weak-minded lesbian choose

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Hope and Okoye

Favourite cast moment: I don’t really care for these things ^^°

Favourite transportation: flying with the Iron Man suit?

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): I don’t know

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: I mean there are probably a ton, to be quite frank, and most are linked to the flusterfuck of timetravel Endgame put in there :D

Best promo: I don’t really follow these things; I don’t even watch trailers if I can avoid them

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: Avengers, that team-shot

IN DEPTH FANDOM QUESTIONS

#Marvel #MCU #In-Depth Fandom Ask Game #send me asks #fantasylover16

4 notes · View notes

sasorikigai · 5 years ago

Text

@paindealt asked.... (aka the MK Kommunity Rambler)

Honestly YESSSS. That's what I love about Sub-Zero and Scorpion, and just Mortal Kombat characters. Is that they're IRONIC, and they have things about them that intentionally contradicts what character they're supposed to be. And that? Makes them feel more realistic imo. With a lot of characters in medias, they tend to fit one role/mold (like the stoic one, or the angry one, the funny one etc etc) which makes them feel one dimensional. But not the MK kast. Not only what we just talked about.

Raiden is another fine example. Like, he's this wise mentor character -- yet he FUCKS UP so badly. In fact, lots of people blame Raiden for the key problems in the series. Like Earthrealm's defender, yet he led characters' to their deaths, technically tried to sell their souls, became a "bad" (or "dark") for a little bit. Like Raiden is that wise old guy, but he's far from perfect, and even his wisdom is of no help. And I just find that very interesting about the kast & why I love them so.

The Mortal Kombat characters just SURPRISE you. And not in an ooc/bad writing sort of way. They're like REAL PEOPLE, and not only do they have a lot of history -- but you find out things about them you wouldn't expect. And it's why the MK games are my FAVORITE fighting series, just because the series really aced their characters and they're so good.

Like Kuai for example... when we see him older, it feels like he's actually aged. His younger self seemed more emotional, more liable to do something impulsive without thinking. (Example; going to straight on kill Scorpion for his brother without considering the circumstances). And then we see older Kuai and how much he's matured, how much wiser he became, and overall a man of peace. Yet... he STILL feels like the Kuai Liang we know. They did an amazing job with realistically aging Kuai up.

Same with Johnny and his younger self. And I know I'm rambling now. But MK just does an AMAZING job with its characters and I am impressed by it. Yes, there are still some ooc stuff, or they didn't do a character justice... (such as the death of Hanzo). But for the most part, they're good at writing realistic & interesting characters and except for a select few (mostly from the ps2/3d games era) I honestly adore all the characters.

I love that they’re both ICONIC and IRONIC, and despite their supernatural abilities and exceedingly and excruciatingly tragic lives, I believe they are two of the most relatable and characters who one can sympathize with the most. I called it their duality, but also, it’s their complexity and humanness that initially intrigued me to nab Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion and Kuai Liang/Sub-Zero as my dual-muses (obviously)!

To begin, the premise of my blog’s creation (based on the word cathexis, which means THE CONCENTRATION OF MENTAL ENERGY ON one particular person, idea, or object (ESPECIALLY TO AN UNHEALTHY DEGREE - which I headcanoned here). Basically, it has to do with Hanzo’s most woeful tragedy that only has brought him a vicissitude od descension; with the loss of his life, his family and his clan, he has lost self-control, governance, freedom and humanity. By accepting the hubbed hell and excruciating suffering by letting himself be forged in hellfire, Scorpion not only lengthened his life (if he were to simply accept his fate without vengeance, then Hanzo Hasashi obviously would have not existed ever), he found the sole, one-track mind to seek out the one who annihilated his life to charcoal dust and exact revenge, to cause equally excruciating suffering against anyone who had been complicit in his clan’s demise (most notably Bi-Han, Quan Chi, Shinnok and Sektor, amongst the others who are subordinates under them).

Despite Scorpion’s motive being immoral and wrong, I cannot help but to let it justified, because he too, is inwardly and outwardly suffering through his own hubbed hell and chaos and insanity. Through anger, there’s an associated sorrow and suffering and through vengeance, there’s self-destruction and emptiness that’s so humanly relatable and connect to. It’s also the universal idea that the concept of self-sustenance and familial love is what serves as the foundation of anyone’s fueled desire, responsibilities and duties.

Through his suffering, depression and PTSD that continue to haunt him, despite taking more than two decades to free himself from the shackle of the past and let Harumi and Satoshi’s death become the fuel for his fiery passion to protect the Earthrealm at all the cost and regain his humanity and redeem himself, Hanzo’s redemption arc is essentially what drove me towards Mortal Kombat and especially MK11. It is a poignant, emotionally-changing makeover of an individual who literally has gone through hell and back, to be killed multiple times only to be resurrected and come back even more stronger, and gradually purified towards the good side with his solemn vow becoming evermore stronger. I especially like the fact that the franchise’s quintessential antihero got a huge transformation, to serve the side of good for seemingly the first time, without wrath and revenge, only to meet the most noblest death one can suffer through the all (through the allegory of retelling of The Scorpion and The Frog).

Kuai Liang is one of those people who you immediately feel sympathetic for; he’s your quintessential good guy who has also suffered so many hardships, yet the stacked experiences of the past has only made him kinder and wiser; he IS perhaps the most miserable character (next to Hanzo) in my opinion.

His clan (or most of it anyway) gets forcefully converted under Cyber Initiative. And that's after Kuai Liang rebuild it piece by piece, to add insult to injury.

His protégé Frost absolutely hates his guts, betrays him, cyberizes herself and even leads the new Cyber Initiative that perverts everything his Lin Kuei vision stands for. He's obviously hurt by it too, as seen in one of his intros ("Was I such a bad mentor?").

His friend Cyrax has to be put down literally right after he's freed from the cyber mainframe.

His other friend Smoke is trapped in Netherrealm according to Noob Saibot (Bi-Han) who taunts him with his.

According to his Story Ending, his biggest wish is to redeem his brother which is quite obviously not happening anytime soon without the Hourglass and in the main story line.

From many of his intros it seems that as a Grandmaster, he lives a lonely life. He straight up tells Cetrion that "love gets in the way" and both Jax and Johnny note that he doesn't socialize much outside of his Lin Kuei duties.

He makes peace with Hanzo and both become respected equals and brothers in arms. Hanzo then gets promptly killed by D'Vorah and Kuai Liang is understandably upset about it ("This is for Hanzo" intro with D'vorah).

In a lot of his intros with Jade, he constantly badgers her to join the Lin Kuei and she always refuses (funnily enough, in her intro with Scorpion she's more than eager to prove she can join the Shirai Ryu, despite not being from Earthrealm).

He keeps getting his ass whooped in almost all trailers or promotional videos.

Add on top all he had to endure throughout MK9 and the MKX comics (forcefully cyberized, killed by Sindel, then painfully "remade" again into a Revenant, gets tainted by the Kamidogu dagger, Scorpion almost kills him etc.).

Sub-Zero deserves major respect. He’s been through all this, and wasn’t seduced by Kronika’s promise of a new era and still remains resilient and headstrong and a beacon of hope in Raiden’s army against the Keeper of time.

I obviously concentrated on Hanzo and Kuai, because I love them much more than the other MK rosters (obviously), but I definitely agree that Netherrealm Studios has done such an amazing job not only fleshing out their characters and giving them relatable growth and development, but different facets of their characters that become so intriguing and contradicting in a sense. Hanzo could be stern, hot-headed and intimidating outward, yet he’s perceptive, astute and compassionate to those who deserve his trust, loyalty and love. Kuai is your ever-stoic, phlegmatic individual who hides all of his pain and suffering inward, yet he’s so open about his philosophies and is able to crack ice puns or partaking in pranks, etc. They’re so multifaceted and the possibilities are endless, which makes them two of the most amazing characters.

TL:DR; I FUCKING LOVE THEM SM.

#✗ the ineffable testimony of spawned hellfire (scorpion)#✗ bone-deep chill of despair (sub-zero)#✗ breathing iron and rust (outofkombat)#(take this morning ramble)#paindealt

14 notes · View notes

blazehedgehog · 5 years ago

Note

To my knowledge, there are currently 3 major attempts to revamp/remake/whatever Sonic 2006: The Legacy of Solaris mod, P06 and SonicNEXT. You've already talked about the latter two to some extent, but I was curious 1) What your thoughts on LoS were and 2) What you would consider to be the "best" of them?

I suppose “currently” is the operative word because there have been more. For example, I made a “Sonic 2006 2D” fan game, but there was another one, a much more direct remake, and it actually completed all of the singleplayer levels:

youtube

It tried to build off of that to become a game called “Sonic Unlimited” which was… fine, but I remember it being really difficult. There was also, of all things, a Halo 1 mod called “Genesis of the Azure Wind.” It wasn’t a Sonic 06 remake per-say, but it was definitely deriving a lot of inspiration from it.

There’s also the STH2006 Project for Sonic Generations, which is… getting better, a bit, after a spotty history.

The problem with something like Legacy of Solaris is, like… it’s nice that they’re making a mod that works on real console hardware, but I feel like in the modern context that’s a lot less of a priority.

Playing modded games on an Xbox 360 still isn’t easy. Neither is emulating them. And I imagine that making these mods isn’t easy, either – Sonic 06 is a fundamentally unfinished piece of software, duct taped together from half-implemented ideas that barely survived the prototyping phase.

It seems like a lot of very hard work for a result that many people won’t be able to play. Good for some form of bragging rights, I guess, but how much beyond that? I watched the trailer and nothing dramatic jumped out at me outside of boosted color saturation, maybe.

And I feel like that’s the same issue STH2006 Project faces. Yes, playing modded Sonic Generations is way easier, but Brianuuu (and others working with him) have spent how many years on that project? And how much of that was spent figuring out how to mod an engine that wasn’t designed to be modded? It’s the hardest hard mode of game development, basically.

As for the best one, I’d probably say P-06, currently. It’s accurate where it matters, but makes subtle and smart improvements to things like controls and level design. I question whether or not there would ever be a “fixed” version of Sonic 06 that could honestly be considered a good game, but P-06 seems to be promising us the best-case scenario to see what that might look like.

youtube

SonicNEXT, on the other hand, has always been a very weird beast, because its largely aimed to be a nearly-identical port of Sonic 2006 to Unity, often warts and all. Some of the more recent demos have started trying to massage in more improvements, but they’re still kind of clumsy. It could get somewhere interesting eventually, and it’s definitely further along than P-06, but I’m just generally really confused by its existence.

P-06 is legit, though.

#questions #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #p-06 #sonic 2006 #mods #dreamsaturn

9 notes · View notes

adamwatchesmovies · 5 years ago

Text

The Worst of 2019 (So Far)

And now we get to the opposite of yesterday’s post: the worst of what we’ve seen so far. Time to give them a proper thrashing before they (hopefully) fade into obscurity. Disappointingly, there's a general lack of films that were bad but in an interesting way. Mostly, it’s either been the same sorta dreck we usually get with a couple of unusually offensive stories and a couple of soul-crushingly bad superhero flicks. Curious? Read on.

10. Serenity

I like to save my #10 spot on the “Worst of” list for a movie that has a chance of becoming a favorite among those who love bad movies. Serenity is competently enough made that it does not belong in the same category as The Identical or Runaway. It’s another kind of bad movie, the kind that baffles anyone who sees it and who will have film historians scratching their heads in the future. It’s not quite on the same level as 2017’s “The Book of Henry” but close. Top-notch actors at the top of their career in a story so poorly conceived it would’ve been brilliant if it weren’t awful and utterly absurd.

The revelation that everything we've been seeing is actually part of a video game programmed by an angry teen who hates his abusive father, and that his actions are tied to those of Matthew McConaughey's character is the kind of nutty decision someone at some point should've questioned. My advice? Surprise some unsuspecting friends with it. Periodically pause the movie so they can write down how they think it'll all fit together and then watch their faces as they're proved wrong.

9. After

I’m not going to remember After down the line so this is my opportunity to give it another flogging. I can’t believe fan-fictions of real people is a real thing and that one of them was deemed legitimate and popular enough to be turned into a movie. It plays out like the clone of a clone of a clone of Twilight. At least that movie had danger in the form of vampires and werewolves. This has nothing to offer except embarrassing drama and a prepubescent’s idea of what romance and love look like. I saw it in the theater with a friend and thank goodness she was there; it made what would've been a chore... slightly more bearable.

8. Dumbo

I’ve already gone on about how I feel about Disney’s string of live-action remakes. For the most part, they fail to validate their own existences; they’re just copies of the original but with “real” actors dancing around animated backgrounds, objects and locations instead of everything being traditionally animated. Dumbo isn’t like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. It does try new things. It diverges from the source material significantly in the worst way. The titular character winds up playing second banana to a bunch of circus performers no one cares about and in the end didn’t contain an inkling of the emotion the 1941 version did.

7. Dark Phoenix

This one’s a triple-whammy. Not only was it a deeply disappointing way for Fox’s X-Men series to end, it retreaded old material in a way that was worse than X-Men 3: The Last Stand AND it was a box office bomb. By the time the story finally comes alive… it’s just about over. The whole thing feels like a mistake, bringing in aliens and asking us to invest in characters we just haven’t had enough time to fall in love with. Makes me wonder what the future of the characters is going to be like. Yes there are a number of heroes and heroines we haven’t yet seen, but are people going to care, even when the brand gets a new coat of paint from Marvel Studios?

6. Men in Black: International

Was anyone asking for the Men in Black series to return? Maybe if they'd had a dynamite story this could’ve overcome the public’s general disinterest, but this was an extremely generic plot you could figure out easily minutes in and lost touch with what endeared us to the first. Even with the combined forces of Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth failed, it to generate many laughs. Worse, to make sure I got any references or Easter egg it might drop, I re-watched all of the previous Men in Black movies, including the horrific Men in Black 2.

5. Replicas

This movie goes about itself in such a convoluted way. First, Keanu Reeves plays a scientist working for a company that wants to transplant the mind of dead soldiers into androids. Then, his family is killed in a car crash, prompting him to use the mind transfer tech to put their memories into new clone bodies of themselves. Problem is, he only has the means to clone three out of four family members. This means he has to erase all memories of his youngest daughter from the others’ brains. Following me so far? Good because it keeps going from there. Actually, that’s just the start of it. It’s a classic case of TMSGO - too much sh*t goin’ on. Even with all that, it STILLL managed to have gaping plot holes. No surprise it came and went as quietly as possible.

4. Hellboy

This one hurt. I wanted to see a superhero horror film badly. The early interviews I read about them wanting to adapt Mike Mignola’s books more closely than the Del Toro films got me excited. I was a little apprehensive when the trailers showed some goofy stuff but I figured these were included to draw people in. I should've listened to that sinking feeling. The actual film is awful, one giant mistake after another. Without a doubt, this featured the year’s worst special effects and even this I could've forgiven but the would-be humorous tone was badly misjudged and the story bloated with way too many elements that might've worked... if we weren't also trying to tell the character's origin at the same time. Hellboy ends with a teaser promising more and there’s no way we would’ve seen a sequel even if this had made money at the box office. Cool demons though, for what it’s worth.

3. Shaft

Looking back, I’m struggling to think of anything worth seeing in Shaft. I hated the film’s approach at comedy, particularly when it reverted Samuel L. Jackson’s John Shaft into the kind of man who proudly doesn’t understand modern sensibilities and spews out one homophobic joke after another. The plot was uninspired and uninteresting - not to mention generic - and none of it felt like it belonged on the big screen. On the upside, it prompted me to view the original trilogy with Richard Roundtree and those were enjoyable.

2. Simmba

Simmba is unlikely to be on the “Worst of 2019” list next January. It probably won’t be at the #2 spot. The film mixes two wildly different tones but not well. It begins as a romantic crime comedy, a dated one, sure. Simmba staging a phoney crime in order for the woman he’s attracted to to call him for help and then use the call as an excuse to stay with her through the night is creepy but I guess it might’ve passed like 20 years ago in North America. What makes this a bad film is the way it then introduces a character’s gang rape and murder as a way to prompt the anti-hero onto a righteous path. From there, it turns into this vigilante revenge film that has disturbing implications. You probably haven’t heard of it before now, much less seen it. I don’t recommend you check it out.

Runner Ups:

Aladdin

A controversial choice, as many casual filmgoers seem to have fallen madly in love with it (similar to the way they ate up 2017’s Beauty and the Beast) but honestly, what does this film do better than 1992’s Aladdin? Add an unmemorable song for Princess Jasmine to sing? Reduce the number of talking animals in order to give us more… nothing? Pile on the CGI to the point you wonder why it was made with live-actors in the first place? Like the innumerable direct-to-video sequels of classic films who've been all but forgotten, I tell you this Arabbian adventure won't endure.

Tolkien

So much potential squandered on a boring story. It didn’t take an astute viewer to recognize the film was crippled by the studio failing to obtain the rights to Tolkien’s actual work. I get the feeling we'll see another shot at a biography of J.R.R. Tolkien in a couple of years and this will be the Christopher Robin to the much superior Goodbye Christopher Robin.

The Hustle

It’s an unfunny comedy, what more is there to say? Rebel Wilson makes yet another bad career choice playing the same character she always plays. I only realized it was a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels while writing my review, which is unfortunate. Hopefully I can expunge this film from my memory soon enough and forget anything it might’ve spoiled about the original Bedtime Story or the 1988 remake.

1. Unplanned

The numerous instances of technical incompetence - mostly coming from the performers who are given lackluster material - would be enough to condemn Unplanned to this list. What made me hate the film is the way it blatantly lies and attempts to manipulate the audience into further entrenching themselves in a certain point of view through cheap, manipulative means. I can respect that genuine passion was poured into the project but the way it goes about it is shameful. Do not go see it, even if you're curious.

Yuck. That last one really left a bad taste in my mouth so I'm going to talk about a movie I did enjoy and am enthusiastic to direct you towards Alita: Battle Angel. Rosa Salazar as the titular Alita impressed me and I really dug the action scenes. I'll also right a wrong from last year by reminding you to find and watch Paddington and Paddington 2, both movies I should've put on my "Best of" lists the years they came out. I don't know what I was thinking but I keep coming back to these in my head. They're excellent for kids and adults.

And with that said, the list is over. Back to our regularly-scheduled film reviews until something big comes up. Thoughts or comments on the list are welcome and I hope you enjoyed reading.

8 notes · View notes

eggoreviews · 6 years ago

Text

E3 2019 Nintendo Direct - BREAKDOWN

Oh wow. That big ol direct sure was something. So now I’m here to break down everything that happened in unnecessary fashion and give my personal reaction to everything that happened with my tried and true Excitement Rater. Want to see my heavily scientific and not at all arbitrary process? Then click down to see the deets.

Before we kick off my (very very scientific) breakdown of this year’s packed direct, I thought I’d briefly go over how I rate things:

A random string of letters/numbers = Immeasurable excitement

YEEHAW BABEY = Big excitement

Heck Yeck = Vague excitement

Yeah! = Not really excited, but still could be good

Sure, why not? = I’m more confused than excited but sure

Oh = The excitement isn’t there

Oh no = Used on the rare occasion I really don’t like what I’ve seen

The Hero from the Dragon Quest series in Smash!

After a brief montage of some games that already came out I guess, the direct jumps straight into an ominous shot of World of Light baddie Dharkon, followed by a seemingly hopeless fight between Link and one very possessed Marth. Then the Luminary turns up gloriously on his horse. With all the leaks that had been flying around for so long, I think pretty much everyone had accepted the presence of Dragon Quest at this point and I was totally stoked when this happened! I love Dragon Quest! And my boi from 11 is here, along with a few other DQ veterans as alt swaps and a pretty awesome looking stage overlooking what seems to be the land of Erdrea and the World Tree. Now to wait until summer and hope the Smash team have some sick ass remixes for us when the time comes!

Excitement Rating: YEEHAW BABEY

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

In a move that makes it a lil obvious that DQ’s Smash addition was more than a little commercially minded (not that I really care I’m still big hyped), a trailer for the expanded edition of the series’ latest installment follows. Seeming as I’ve already played this, I doubt I’ll be picking it up again but I still heartily recommend the game to any JRPG fan. Admittedly, the fact you apparently get to explore worlds from past games is pretty exciting.

ER: Heck Yeck

Luigi’s Mansion 3

In a way I thought was surprising, Nintendo’s first proper focus of Luigi’s Mansion 3 actually took up more time than Animal Crossing, but I guess that’s because it’s further along in development. We now know that the game is set within a haunted hotel and had some new gameplay features shown off, including the various ways Luigi can succ a ghost. Most exciting I think for me was the various multiplayer aspects, such as the local co-op option to play as Gooigi and the seemingly challenge and minigame-based ‘Scarescraper’ which I think incorporates online co-op too. Overall, this is looking to be a creative and well thought out entry in the series and I’m here for it.

ER: Heck Yeck

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Tactics

A licensed tie-in game for a thirty year old film feels a little odd, but I suppose stranger things have happened. This looks to be a sort of top-down tactical thingy involving the various characters from The Dark Crystal and for some reason Netflix is involved, I don’t know, but I guess it could be interesting.

ER: Sure, why not?

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

The adorable remake of this classic Game Boy title seems to be coming along great and this direct’s extended trailer gave us a good look at what we’ll be exploring come September 20th. The overhaul Koholint Island has had is phenomenal, giving us designs for Link and various other characters that we’ve never seen before and that makes this remake look especially unique. Another very exciting aspect for me was the dungeon builder that looks like great fun! You collect different dungeon parts as you go and then you can build and explore your own! Am I a goblin child or does that sound like the best thing ever?

ER: YEEHAW BABEY!!

Trials of Mana / Collection of Mana

I’ll admit I’m not really familiar with the Mana series, but from what I was shown in this direct, it looks to be a fairly standard JRPG. That’s definitely not a bad thing, as most JRPGs are amazing, but nothing in this trailer really stood out and came into its own. That being said, the gameplay and graphics look pretty solid and I’m sure the Mana fans have been fairly starved for content for a while so that’s something to look forward to. On top of this remake/new game with the same title as an older game (I really don’t know), the Collection of Mana containing the series’ first three games is being released real soon on the eShop.

ER: Yeah!

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition

Following a few scattered rumours, we finally have confirmation that a Witcher 3 port is in fact in the works, coming packed with all the game’s DLC. This basically legendary RPG is not one I personally had a great experience with, but I’m sure a lot of people are gonna be happy to play this in handheld. I’d keep expectations tempered however, with the likes of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Saints Row the Third proving that these ports don’t always function brilliantly on this platform.

ER: Yeah!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Yet another and probably our last Fire Emblem trailer was shown in this direct, giving us a better look at how the story might play out and what our villains are going to be. With most of the gameplay features explored in the previous February direct, it’s good to have a slightly better idea as to what’s actually going on in terms of story and, to me, the results seem pretty damn good. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

ER: Heck Yeck

Resident Evil

In a slightly unnecessarily convoluted advert, we were given a two minute reel of two teenagers playing the original RE in tabletop mode in an abandoned house (??), along with the kind of less than exciting announcement that we’re getting the two weakest entries in the series for Switch, RE 5 and 6. I probably wasn’t the only one who felt a little passive about this whole thing. That being said, definitely not complaining about 1 & 4 being ported over.

ER: Oh

No More Heroes III

After the very slightly disappointing Travis Strikes Again, I really wasn’t expecting them to drop a trailer for the series’ third mainline installment so soon after. What we’ve seen looks pretty much like classic Travis, with a smidge of gameplay seen that looks just a bit more like what we’re used to. Of course, with this being the first reveal, there’s still a lot to find out but this looks very promising.

ER: Heck Yeck

Contra: Rogue Corps / Contra: Anniversary Collection

I’m not gonna pretend to be familiar with the Contra series, but this doesn’t at all look like what I’ve seen in the past. Honestly, this seemingly tactical shooter didn’t elicit much excitement from me and neither did its rushed character drops or its oddly rough textures. I’m unsure of actual fan reactions to this, but in my mind this one kind of sits in the ‘guess this exists’ category. As well as this, we got a shadowdrop for the Contra Anniversary Collection, whereas Rogue Corps comes on September 24th.

ER: Oh

Daemon X Machina

In what seems to be almost a mainstay in Nintendo directs, we’ve got another vague trailer for this mech shooter that finally has a confirmed release date of September 13th. The gameplay looks harmless enough, with the mechs seeming to be a blast to pilot, but beyond that, I can’t really see a lot of substance that would draw me in beyond the cool robots. I’m sure it could be good, but not really one for me.

ER: Yeah!

Panzer Dragoon

I was completely unsure of what this one was, but it looks a bit like a cross between The Last Guardian and those bullet hell sections from Kingdom Hearts 2. They’ve certainly nailed the smooth graphics and the cool looking creatures, but this one is mostly a case of needing to know more.

ER: Yeah!

Pokemon Sword & Shield

This one’s obviously a title so monumental that it consistently needs its own directs, but there wasn’t any *real* news about it in this direct. We were given a brief explanation as to how the Pokeball Plus works in conjunction with the games (something to do with taking your Pokemon for a walk) and the fact that we’ll see more gameplay during Nintendo’s Treehouse streams. Still, excitement remains pretty high for these titles.

ER: Heck Yeck!

Astral Chain

This game, to put it bluntly, looks awesome. The newest Platinum Games IP seems to be set in Blade Runneresque futuristic city with an alien threat and some cool ass looking fighting police people. Our second proper look at this game has cleared up a few murky doubts as to what exactly is supposed to be happening, so now we’ve got a much better idea of what this game is going to be. The story seems pretty full and polished, the gameplay looks like brilliant fun and I’m definitely not mad at the cool monster designs. This is one I’m definitely watching.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!

Empire of Sin

I know very little about what this game is supposed to be, but it looks to be a 40s gangster XCOM, substituting alien fighting marines with gun toting mafia dudes. The trailer went for style over substance, giving us an edgy visual thing of some burning playing cards and broken bottles, but the little gameplay we saw looked decent enough and may just end up injecting more variety into this genre.

ER: Yeah!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

An obvious pick for any Marvel fan, this hack-and-slash is jam packed with various heroes and villains from the comic series’ rich history. Ghost Rider and Elektra were among those revealed to be playable, while the likes of Mysterio, Hela, the Destroyer, Doctor Octopus, Surtur and MODOK are seemingly part of growing cast of villains. Looks like a good bit of fun if nothing else, though the immediate presence of a season pass is a tiny red flag.

ER: Yeah!

Cadence of Hyrule

In an unexpected but greatly welcomed crossover between Nintendo’s RPG titan Zelda series and the indie developed Crypt of the Necrodancer, a new rhythm based dungeon crawler with some brand new Zelda remixes and the presence of Link and Zelda as playable characters. This game’s retro graphics look totally adorable and the addition of the Gohmaracas were a definite highlight.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!!!

Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tell you what, this definitely looks like a Mario and Sonic Olympic Games game. There looks to be a decent amount of variety in terms of what sports are involved and with its online multiplayer, there’s no shortage of vaguely cartoon sportyness to be had with friends both real and virtual. I’d be lying if I said I was totally disinterested because it does look a bit fun, but we all know it won’t be anything groundbreaking.

ER: Yeah!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

In a fairly drastic formula change, Nintendo have decided to strand us on a desert island rather than move us innocently to another village, but Tom Nook is still here and oh yes he’s coming to collect his bells. From this surprisingly brief trailer, most of Animal Crossing’s core gameplay seems to be intact, with the return of craftable items from Pocket Camp, and the sudden bombshell that the game has been pushed back to March next year. Never going to be a bad thing if the finished product is all the better for it, but I guess that just means more info is to come!

ER: Heck Yeck

Highlight Reel

In what looks like a list of honourable mentions, Nintendo gave us a laundry list of other titles coming to the system:

Spyro Reignited Trilogy is joining Crash on the Switch with his acclaimed remaster trilogy.

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the prequel to the original game, looks just as charmingly dark as its predecessor.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is showing up I guess, but I’ll come out and say I know nothing about it except that it looks cute.

Minecraft Dungeons looks better than it has any right to be and looks a bit like blocky Diablo I guess

The Elder Scrolls: Blades sure exists and I’m unsure of what it’s trying to be, but whatever quells off the need for Elder Scrolls 6 I guess.

My Friend Pedro, another strangely unique title from Devolver Digital, looks like it somehow incorporates banana peels into its combat system.

Doom Eternal looks like Doom always does, but a distinct lack of gameplay may put its dual release with the other consoles into question.

The Sinking City with its Lovecraftian inspiration looks totally brilliant and looks to be a unique experience for sure, so eyes firmly open for this one

Wolfenstein Youngblood definitely looks all Wolfenstein-y, but rumours of Dishonored-like sandbox levels has definitely piqued my interest.

Dead by Daylight still looks unfortunately a bit eh, with its slightly not great graphical quality from what we’ve seen in the trailers.

Alien Isolation was an extremely odd one, but I’m not gonna say no to more good horror content on the console.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles seems to be continually delayed, but they’ll probably get round to it eventually.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 looks adorable and I’m very into the idea of Dragon Quest Minecraft, so sign me up.

Stranger Things 3: The Game looks a little more SNES-like in terms of graphics than its 8 Bit mobile predecessor, which is definitely a decent step. An obvious pick for fellow fans of the show.

Just Dance 2020 is definitely a Just Dance game. Yep, sure is. I even checked. And it is.

Catan is a tabletop game of sorts, but I really couldn’t figure out what kind from that few seconds of vague footage.

New Super Lucky’s Tale looks like Bubsy, but actually good and worth real money

Dauntless looks like a bit of a Monster Hunter clone, but you know, doesn’t look terrible.

And lastly, Super Mario Maker 2 was tacked on the end there to remind us all that Nintendo is taking our money in 2 weeks.

Banjo-Kazooie become Smash Ultimate’s 3rd DLC Fighter

Just when we all petering out a little and the hype seemed all but dormant, they go and drop this on us out of nowhere. While I personally don’t have an attachment to the bear and bird, I’m fully aware of their significance and how much they mean to a lot of people out there. And that excitement ended up being contagious, so this fact coupled with a pitch perfect reveal trailer has got me hugely hyped to see these guys join the fight come autumn.

ER: YEEHAW BABEY

Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

And now, dear reader, for the reveal that removed my scalp and cut out my eyeballs. At first, I was totally confused as to what this could be. And then I recognised the symbols, and then my perfect lil Hyrule eggs come on the screen and it’s all spooky and there’s dead Ganondorf and I don’t clock the fact that I’ve just screamed out loud. A direct sequel to my absolute favourite game of all time is happening and it’s real and I get to live another adventure in the best game world ever crafted all over again. I think it’s safe to say I have transcended the definition of hype when it comes to this one.

ER: AAA!!! AA!!! GFFGF!!! THIS!!! ZELDA!!!! HGGGG!!!!

So there’s my probably a little stupid breakdown of everything Nintendo bestowed upon us this E3. Guess I’ll jump in after the next direct to give you yet another heavily scientific analysis of its events. Or I’ll babble at you until I start punching the keyboard. Either way, happy trails my dudes. Don’t let the hype bugs bite.

#e3 #e3 2019 #zelda #loz #the legend of zelda #mario #smash #super smash bros #super smash ultimate #astral chain #fire emblem #animal crossing #pokemon #Luigi's Mansion #dragon quest #final fantasy #nintendo #marvel #resident evil

9 notes · View notes

superoddgaming · 6 years ago

Link

My Top 10 Games For E3 2019

E3 2019 is on the horizon and you know what that means; endless predictions and guesses and what the hell is gunna be going down from the 8th to the 13th apparently.

A bunch of companies are having their own showcases and conferences except for Sonyand I believe EA this year but I’m not really gunna run through all of the different conferences I’m more so just gunna run through the games that I am most excited about.

10// Session

It’s been almost a decade since we have seen a good skateboarding game on console or PC. Skate 3 released in 2010 and since then nothing has been able to dethrone it as the last well executed skateboarding game.

Tony Hawks Pro Skater sure as hell didn’t even come close. If anything that game made us have even less hope for the genre. But then along came Session, announced at 2018’s E3 slated for a late 2019 release on PC and Xbox.

I hope that we get to see more of Session during Xbox’s conference along with a look into a campaign for the game as well as a final release date.

9// Animal Crossing

I am the most excited about this one mostly because of the Switch’s portability and this will be the perfect drop in drop out game to have on the go with you.

I’m really hoping for an Island or vacation themed one this time around, I think that would be so cool.

8// Control

Control looks all kinds of bizarre, creepy, fun and holy shit the physics they have in this game is just absolutely crazy.

Destructible environments, almost everything is interact-able and they really showcased it at the end of their trailer and where she picks up the projector and shoots it at the wall and each of the boxes and papers all act independently.

I am amazed with this game both technically and from a story standpoint, it looks like a descent into madness mixed with a little government conspiracy.

I’m really excited to see where this one goes and it does look like it will be another PS4 exclusive. Sony is KILLIN IT with the single player experiences.

7// Biomutant

I have had my sights on Biomutant for what it feels like years now. I have eagerly been watching and awaiting more news and insider looks for it. It looks like so much fun, it’s got style, zany humor, really funny narration and the game play looks really promising.

Not only that but the world that your creature exists in is really fascinating with all of these spliced creatures all over the place and interacting with each of them to find out how the world went to a over-polluted corrosive wasteland is sparkin’ some interest in me.

I have a feeling we will get another gameplay demonstration as well as a release date but I’m honestly not expecting this one to come out until 2020 or 21.

This is one of those games that I’m fine with if it takes forever to come out just because I really want it to succeed.

6// Outer Worlds

Space is yours to explore, for a price. Impossibly cool looking monster combinations, beautiful unearthly landscapes and a crazy cast of characters on top of that and you got yourself a new favourite to sink only what I can assume will be over a hundred hours.

They showcased some game play for it and the writing is just awesome. The fact that they has the crowd and myself laughing without and voice acting done in the game yet is a testament to their comedic writing.

What I love most about this game is there’s no real good and evil. You play the game how you want to play it. If that means going along with the story and being a boring upstanding citizen you can do that.

If that means literally murdering actors because of a terrible performance and then disintegrating the director you can do that. Either way you are still rewarded in some fashion for your quests and I just think that is so cool paired with all the other face swapping goodness.

5// Pokemon: Sword & Shield

This will be my first Pokemon game in probably a decade. The last one I played was I think was Ruby and Sapphire.

I’m hoping that Pokemon gets some love during the E3 Direct and we get to see a little bit more of the Region and possibly a look at the starter evolutions.

Y’all know I’m #grookeygang for life. Doesn’t matter what it’s final evolution is look at that little bastard.

They look like they are introducing more RPG elements and the Pokemon franchise could use a refreshing new implication of their pattented Pokemon formula. Hence the reason I haven’t gotten a Pokemon up until this release.

Here is to hoping that they showcase more of the technical improvements beyond just content. I do have a feeling some of the millions of Pokemon IP’ currently being released might get talked about instead though.

4// Cyberpunk 2077

This will come as no surprise it’s in my top 5.

It’s in everybody’s top 5.

It’d be doing this game a dis-service to not have it in your top 5.

CD Project Red, the people who made the Witcher 3, have been working on this game for a millennia now and last year it was showcased and said to be playable from start to finish at that point.

I think we will get a final showcase of all the polishing and finishing touches they’ve put on the game and set it up for a release window.

And I mean what’s not to love about this game?

The concept of cyberpunk the style alone is already badass but a whole dystopian world set around that and knowing that Project Red can do with world building, questing, dynamic abilities and interactions.

If you ask me I don’t think it’s going to be coming until late 2020. This is a game that NEEDS to be perfected. It needs to have a good release. People have been anticipating this game for years, including myself.

My wallet is going to be so empty...

3// Astral Chain

This is what I want to see from Nintendo!

No more Sequelitis, finally an interesting fully developed IP and it looks absolutely badass.

The world, the intricate fighting system, badass robo-cop persona’s on leashes, being a cool ass detective.

This game just looks amazing. We need to see more of it. We know almost nothing about the story so far or even how expansive this game is shaping up to be.

YOU GET TO RIDE ROBO-DOG MECHS! whats not to love?

But hey it’s directed by the dude who did Nier Autmoata and that game was a hidden gem for a while. I’m really hoping this game get to bask in the spotlight a little bit more.

I want this game to be successful so bad. As fun as the Mario and Zelda games can be I know that the Switch can have some serious independent releases like this one.

Astral Chain my just be the trendsetter the Switch needs to prove that it’s not just the Mario console, it’s something that can hold it’s own up against the Xbox and Playstation.

2// The Evil Within 3

This is my wildcard.

I know next to no one is anticipating this game but I LOVE THIS FRANCHISE.

I love the world they have created, the resident evil vibes, the terrifying distorted monsters, the twisted visuals that send a chill down your spine.

The ever looming threat of always being hunted, watched or taunted. The Evil Within masters the atmosphere of never feeling truly safe. You are always on guard and that makes for very interesting game play in a horror narrative.

There was worlds of improvements made between the first and second game and I loved each of them dearly. We were left with a couple unanswered questions at the end of the second game and I really want to see the story come to a close and finish off the trilogy.

I’m not expecting and game play or even a release window but at some point during Bethesda’s conference I really really want to see this pop up. We know they’re not announcing the new Elder Scrolls so there is definitely room there for a surprise release.

This is just me being really really desperate for a third game, the second game had such an incredible world and we saw the characters grow so much it would be a shame to see all of that get stuck in just the second game.

Not to mention that this is the most fun I’ve had playing an actually scary game in a long time. Let’s make it happen Bethesda

1// Square Enix: Avenger’s Project

The long awaited and incredibly mysterious Avenger’s project form Square Enix is the cherry on the cake of this E3.

Square Enix is hosting their own panel and while I know majority of it is going towards the 7 remake and possibly a new final fantasy announcement they would be just plain dumb to not have this ready to announce.

With the MCU concluding it’s current phase with Endgame now is the perfect time to showcase this project. It has been two years since we had the teaser and people were going bat-shit then, imagine what would happen now.

The crazy thing is that this will be the first part of a multi-game deal between marvel and Square Enix which means that this game will just serve as the starting block.

We have seen Marvel make an incredible comeback into the gaming universe and they may be doing exactly that. Creating a gaming universe to pair along side their cinematic universe. This one just might surpass PS4 spidey though. It’s got some serious hype going behind it and we might just finally get to see it at E3 this year.

The Wrap-Up

Anyways that is my top 10 list for this years E3. Are they the biggest announcements or releases? Not by a long shot!

But they are the ones that as of right now I am the most excited about!

Are there anything that you think I’ve missed or forgot about? Are you one of the only other Evil Within fans that want a third instalment?

There’s gotta be someone else out there wanting this as bad as I do!!

5 notes · View notes

undeadwicchan · 6 years ago

Note

I would say it's less EF's mourning a character that never existed and more like Adam just wasn't... A character. He just was. He existed for no other reason than to be a tool for development. The White Fang plot was entirely shelved and given to Ghira, Kali and Ilia to resolve it off-screen in the V5 finale. You have to at least agree there is a discrepancy with how Adam was written in V2 and how he ended up being like.1/2

And also I don’t see people shitting on Ilia for ALSO being an adult of age during the Adam Trailer. I see people calling Adam a pedophile grooming a young and impressionable Blake, which he may have been doing, but we don’t know because again he just… Is. He has no backstory, no true motivation, no… Essence. Ilia is better but let’s not excuse her just because she’s a girl and female characters seem to get preferential treatment in the FNDM. She, too, was doing the same to young Blake. (2/2)

(Okay, so it took awhile to answer this ask because not only this anon wrote me two paragraphs for this one so I wanted my response to be longer than usual. But, I accidentally refreshed the page while answering this ask, so I lost a bit of motivation, and now I’m writing all of my responses to any asks on Google Docs from this point on.)

I will agree that there is a bit of discrepancy in his writing. Let me start with Volume 3’s Adam.

Volume 3 Adam was a mostly calm and collected high ranking member of the White Fang with the Vale branch under his leadership. He didn’t want any part in human affairs at all, especially if it’s going to concern the wellbeing of his fellow faunus brethren. While on the other hand, he was violent and hostile towards humans, showing a complete lack of compassion towards them. He didn’t seemingly show any care regarding Blake leaving either until he rencounters her while he’s at Beacon and harming other innocent people.

Now I’m clearly not defending Adam’s actions here as I most definitely have been calling him out on his abusive shit. However, I would like to analyze his little “I will destroy everything you love” promise towards Blake is not just out of him being petty, but going by how the White Fang runs things when there’s a traitor or someone that tries to leave the White Fang. A example on one of them being Tukson. Tukson was a former member of the White Fang and tried to go into hiding after leaving, but then ends up getting hunted down and killed for doing so. Sienna threatens Adam with execution for bringing in a human in their base of operations and considers it a act of betrayal towards the White Fang. It’s terrifyingly considered the NORM around their organization to do something like that. However, Adam went even further with Blake’s punishment for leaving the White Fang. Instead of outright killing her as per apparent code of conduct within the White Fang, he promises to kill everything she loves. So she can know how it feels to be truly alone and perhaps beg for death or/and forgiveness from him. It’s a incredibly cruel and abusive promise towards Blake and just shows how merciless, cold, and sadistic Adam can be towards even someone who he used to consider ‘dear’ to him. He wanted to see Blake suffer for her betrayal plain and simple. What a “lovely” guy he is.

Now THIS is where they messed up. Adam’s combat prowess and how powerful he is. He easily tosses aside Blake like her combat prowess was nothing compare to his own which makes sense considering he was her mentor, but the power gap between them was insanely huge to the point it felt like he was more of a near-end game boss. And, then came the part where he easily slices Yang’s arm off. He even casually cuts down a Grimm that went towards him. And the fact that CINDER didn’t even want to use force with Adam until she got at least half of the Fall Maiden’s powers says a lot about how strong he really is. Adam is a incredibly competent fighter this is supported furthermore during his own character short on just how easily Adam tosses aside his enemies like they’re nothing compared to him. In Volume 4, it was reported that any huntsmen or police force that tried to apprehend him has been met with brutal force by his hand meaning he’s clearly stronger than the average huntsmen. With this imagery and knowledge they added for him, CRWBY had to keep him an incredible threat towards our heroes right? Well…. Then comes Volume 5’s Adam.

There were indeed some considerable changes to Adam (and not just his clothes), as a character and as a fighter. First off without hardly any proper context on explaining his new behavior that came about. Adam went from what I described him as in Volume 3 to a incredibly hot-headed, conceited, with a lack of compassion for anyone but himself, and was willing to harm other faunus for his own selfish goals. Like Sienna Khan for example, whom he was willing to kill off with no remorse merely in order to have Salem no longer worry about Sienna’s compliance and Adam would become the new High Leader of the White Fang. Another thing is that Adam is way more mentally unhinged and incredibly willing to go to war with humanity alongside Salem if it’ll mean that humanity will serve the faunus as the end results. And the reasons why? There’s nothing to explain this change because all we can do is assume on what changed him, like I’m assuming that Salem and Adam actually had a talk at one point in Volume 4 that was never shown. Not only that, but he’s incredibly obsessed with Blake like as many said he’s acting like the “crazy and obsessive ex-boyfriend’. Had Adam not tried to send assassins at Ghira and Kali, I doubt Blake’s plan would work and Adam would have been able to destroy Haven as he had planned with Salem and the other members in her circle. Hell, in his own words to Blake back in Volume 3.

“I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love.”It was HIS OWN personal mission yet, he didn’t bother to travel down to Menagerie to do the job himself once he learns of Blake’s location? Volume 5 did have some questionable writing every now and then but, this. Yeah…I don’t even know…

Now this is the part where I’ve heard fans say “Adam was nerfed!” and I agree very much at this portion of Volume 5 (I’d argue while in Volume 6 that Adam wasn’t nerfed and was just blinded by so much rage, he became reckless). While I do so much love how Blake told off Adam, her abuser, and it was a strong point for Blake’s character in the series. This also hurts how much of a threat Adam is, especially considering from what we were told and and seen about how powerful he is as a fighter in Volumes 3 and 4. Volume 5’s ending was rushed quite a lot with so much getting resolved fairly quickly, I was honestly expecting Adam’s time as the High Leader of the White Fang to go on for so much more longer. I would like to point out is that, wouldn’t have Adam noticed something is wrong by now when Corsac or Fennec didn’t attempt to contact him for a whole month? But, that’s just me. The whole White Fang plot line was done after five volumes and it honestly didn’t feel as satisfying as I thought it would have and feel it should have at least concluded during the Atlas arc considering that’s where the most discrimination against the faunus is at.

Now onto Ilia. I don’t think she did any part in grooming Blake at all compared to Adam who was heavily implied for it considering she might have been roughly the same age as Blake, and even then she never really had any intentions to do so. Let me explain about their ages, using Adam. In the first scene of his character short. Look at Adam’s coat, you don’t see ANY patterns on it, not even his own emblem was on there! Let’s go to the next scene which is where it appears the other White Fang members are already wearing masks that were probably Adam’s little heist buddies back in Mantle. Not only does Adam have his markings on his mask, but his emblem and that dash of white are on his coat. Ghira was still the High Leader here, and then when we move onwards to the scene with Adam and Blake. Where there still aren’t any new additions to Adam’s coat, meaning their conversation in Forever Fall took place a long time ago because this was way before Adam was promoted to lead the Vale branch. Yet, if we look at Blake she doesn’t look younger at all. I personally, wouldn’t determine their age based on their character model when Adam hasn’t really shown to not age a day, and we can only tell just by how many patterns to his coat he added. It would really help if we knew the exact age for both Adam and Ilia.

“But, Barbara and Arryn said–” Look, I take VA comments on characters with a grain of salt to be honest. I’d feel more comfortable if I heard it from Miles or Kerry on how old Adam actually is. Especially considering the RWBY Wiki actually removed Adam’s age because of this.

Honestly, I don’t understand why there’s been hate or backlash on Ilia for supposedly ‘stealing’ Adam’s role? Am I the only Adam fan here that likes Ilia? Adam wasn’t going to be redeemable or have a redemption arc, he may have had a extremely traumatic and abusive past, but again that doesn’t excuse his actions towards others.

While it would be nice to learn more about Adam’s backstory and motivation, this is Ruby’s, Weiss’s, Blake’s, and Yang’s story where they are the main characters after all.

#RWBY #Adam Taurus #Asks #Anon #rwby spoilers

22 notes · View notes

desperatelyreviewingdennis · 6 years ago

Text

Endgame

By basically any metric, Endgame was strictly inferior to Infinity War. It was a solid conclusion to he MCU, they wrapped things up nicely. But they really didn't meet the bar they set in the last movie. Visually, sound design, effects, all the technical aspects they nailed. As always. But the *story*? The plot, the meat and bones of it? Abysmal.

I don’t remember *exactly* how I felt leaving Infinity War. I know I did not like it as much as most, I felt they rushed too much into the one story, and they would have been better off with a trilogy [Guardians of the Galaxy 3 followed by Infinity War and Endgame]. I disliked Thor’s sequence in the film in particular, and thought the Snap was poorly handled because it was obviously going to be undone in the next movie so there was no emotional punch [although Peter Parker sure tried, even knowing he’s not really dead that scene stings]. Despite the flaws, though, I felt the movie was largely solid. The writers crammed too much into one film, but most narrative threads were fully realized and the ones that weren’t have a whole nother movie to wrap up. Upon a couple rewatches, my opinion has grown. The tightness of it all is much more apparent, and Thor’s sequence is now my favorite in the movie, despite basically being a retread of his arc in Ragnarok.

So maybe once I will reevaluate this once its on DVD. But I suspect my opinion isn’t going to change. The issues are more fundamental, and there’s no sequel planned to fix the problems. Honestly, I wonder how much of the writing team carried over, because this movie doesn’t feel like it was the planned sequel to Infinity War.

Also, it seems clear that there was some executive meddling in places that would suggest the problems of Ms Marvel are going to carry forward.

I don’t want to say its a bad movie. Ms Marvel was a bad movie. Iron Man 2 was a bad movie. For the first two thirds of the movie, it had its issues but nothing irredeemable. And the stuff it did right it did really really right. The last act, though, really dragged the whole thing down.

Spoilers abound after the break.

First of all, I never watched so much as a trailer for this movie. I wanted to go in completely free from assumptions. I'm glad I did, but I don't know what other people took from different scenes with that additional context.

Movie opens with Hawkeye's family getting dusted. I hate Hawkeye so that was immensely satisfying.

Next scene less so. Why did Tony and Nebula get on the damaged ship? What was their end game (no pun intended)? Not a huge deal but right off the bat I'm questioning character motives. Not a good sign.

Oh, it's because if they're on a ship it's easier for Ms Marvel to save the day. How did she find them? Was she specifically looking for Stark? Why? Nobody on Earth knew what happened with him. Was there a distress signal? Can she sense those now? Nobody knows, and we're not going to find out. The only thing we learn about Ms Marvel is that she didn't help out during the previous movies because she was busy on other planets. I mean, come on.

The sequence between Stark and Rogers back on Earth was spot on and I loved it. This will be a recurring theme, specific scenes being perfect with the surrounding material being crud.

They then kill Thanos and we time skip five years. That was actually pretty cool, and an unexpected turn of events. Take notes, Rian Johnson. My expectations were subverted but it didn't make me want to murder the Russo's. It does sort of abandon the child Gamora scenes from Infinity War. Everybody thought that was supposed to be her actual soul in the soul stone, but the Soul Stone is now destroyed so maybe it was just Thanos being crazy? Maybe it’ll come up later in the movie [Ron Howard: It won’t.]

Commence exposition. Couple thoughts. One, I hated Bruce Banner. The Hulk was a separate, unique personality. Banner killed him, and took over his body. We can debate the morality of it, but I just found it unsatisfying. It all happened off camera, and they never really explain why The Hulk refused to fight in Infinity War. I assumed it was because he was afraid, the Russo's claim it was because he was tired of being Banner's lap dog. Either way, that character was killed unceremoniously during a time skip and never mentioned again.

Two, Banner’s pretty confident in how Time Travel is going to work. Time Travel has never been a thing except with Dr Strange, and the two never sat down to discuss the subject before the later was turned to dust. So where is his confidence coming from? Their entire plan hinges on him being correct. What really bugs me about this is that, with about thirty seconds of actual discussion [rather than the comic relief listing time travel movies and Banner shutting them down], they could have reached the same conclusion. “Why don’t we prevent the snap from happening in the first place?” “Because that would be a paradox, and we don’t know how time responds to paradoxes. Maybe we all live happily ever after, maybe time itself implodes. But if we undo the snap in the present, we know exactly what will happen.” But instead he just knows. And, oh, also he’s wrong. We figure that out later in the movie, but never really address it.

Tony with his daughter was perfect and I loved it. It was a little unsatisfying that he just sort of tinkered with time travel for an afternoon and figured everything out, but that’s sort of his thing so it works.

Thor... less perfect. Look, this is the third movie in a row now that is about Thor losing everything then regaining his power. They did it in Ragnarok. They did it better in Infinity War. Do they really need to do it again in End Game? In fact, it occurs to me just now as I’m writing this that was the plot to the first Thor as well. So this is four times now that we’ve been in this exact situation. I’m just done with it, you know? The scenes were funny enough, and I certainly understand *why* the character is in that place, emotionally, but being understandable is no excuse for retreading old ground.

So now we’re time traveling. This was like 90% great, but the 10% really drags the whole thing down.

We’ll start with the Power Stone. Having Nebula reconnect to the interstellar wifi was inspired. Obviously they need Thanos to figure out the plan and move to stop it, otherwise there’s no climax. Obviously there’s no present day Thanos to do that, so it has to be past Thanos. This also wraps up one of the nagging threads from the first movie. Thanos has been hunting for these things for years, then just stumbles upon all of them in a couple months? It seemed a little convenient, but now they’ve shown that he had inspiration from the future telling him exactly where he could find them all. Just wow. Then having past Nebula take present Nebula’s place? I loved it.

Next, time stone. Remember my annoyance with Banner’s overconfidence earlier? Here Banner being told he’s full of shit, but they just sort of ignore it. Its not that you can’t change the past, its that when you change the past you create an alternate reality, and that alternate reality might be super shitty so you shouldn’t do it. But they hand wave it away with a promise to return the stones back to where they belong on the timeline, so that the timeline doesn’t “branch” and Banner ends up technically correct. So it works, I’ll put this in the 90% great category.

But here’s the 10% shit: how did The Sorcerous Supreme know how great Dr. Strange was going to be? She can’t see past her own death, but she knows how powerful Strange becomes after she dies? But she doesn’t know about the Snap, so they’re definitely sticking to the original rules, this isn’t a retcon. But Strange is dead, so how does he know everything works out? In fact, not only is Strange dead, the time stone is dead too. He used the time stone to go further into the future than the time stone itself exists. This would have been a perfect opportunity to close some loose threads, but they missed them.

Also the scene after they arrive in New York where Banner half heartedly destroys some stuff was pretty cringe. I think they were playing it as a joke, and people in the audience definitely laughed, but it really drove home the earlier point about how they killed off The Hulk and replaced him with a Green Bruce Banner.

Next up: Space and Mind Stones. Talk about important McGuffins. Studying the Tesseract lead to the creation of SHIELD and Hydra and Captain America and eventually Ms Marvel. Studying Captain America lead to the creation of The Hulk. The Mind Stone created Vision, Quicksilver, and the Scarlett Witch. Important stuff here.

But anyhow, 90% good. Everything was great right up until the end. The plan, the banter, everything worked for me. I even loved the bit about “America’s Ass.” I do wonder if that wasn’t a response to criticisms of Brie Larson’s ass in Ms Marvel? Or just commentary on comics drawing attention to asses in general? I’m not sure but I liked it.

10% shit: the plan goes sideways at the last minute, and Loki escapes with the Tesseract. Ok, now, its been a while since I watched the first Avengers movie, but I don’t remember Loki escaping with the Tesseract? Isn’t that exactly what Banner said can’t happen, and the Sorcerous Supreme made Banner promise he wouldn’t let happen? A branch in he timeline? That’s a pretty goddamn significant change in history. But whatever, we’re never going to comment on it. A rogue infinity stone, in the hands of a crazy person, NBD.

So Stark and Rogers go further into the past to steal the Tesseract from SHIELD before Loki could steal it from Rogers stealing it from Hydra stealing it from the Avengers. No complaints here, Some nice foreshadowing for Rogers, and Stark gets closure with his father. It was great.

Finally, Soul Stone. Look, I have always hated Hawkeye, since the first Thor, and love Black Widow so that’s all I have to say about that. Except that Nat doesn’t get the sort of closure Stark and Rogers do. Can’t really blame the writers on this one, they didn’t have a lot to work with, but its still disappointing. At least it wasn’t a pointless death and her and Barton got some time together.

Finally: the Ether/Reality Stone. This was just an extension of the previous “we’ve covered this already why is this here?” issue around Thor. Him getting Mjolnir was pretty tight, though, not gonna lie.

So now we’re back in the present, we have all the Stones and past Nebula has infiltrated the group. First of all: this would have been a great place for an Intermission. Like, seriously, There are literally no dangling story lines, everything’s come back together to one location, and you’ve got a couple minutes of downtime before the action starts anyhow. Just give people ten minutes to piss, please.

First of all, how did Past Nebula bring an entire fucking battle ship into the present? Like, they had just enough Pym Particles to get their team back once. Sure, they picked up some extras but she couldn’t have been expecting that, and the memories she got from Present Nebula should have made that clear. So what was her end game (no pun intended)? And if they could send a ship full of people all at once, why didn’t the Avengers do that? Take the entire team back at once, leaving themselves with eight more doses if they fail.

Moving on, the scene were they use the stone worked for me, given what they’ve done so far. Specifically, with respect to the Hulk. But bear with me here: what if they hadn’t fucked up the Hulk? Imagine a movie where Banner doesn’t kill a character off camera. He’s just a regular guy the entire movie. Maybe they ask him if he still has issues with Hulking out and he says “no, I guess he got tired of cleaning up my messes so now he refuses to come out even when I need him to.” Then, as Thor is about to don the glove, Banner transforms and everybody is certain he’s about to ruin everything when he puts the glove on himself and snaps his fingers. After, his body is still green but its Bruce talking. He doesn’t sense the Hulk inside him anymore. He sacrificed himself because he knew he could do it and Thor couldn’t.

Just a thought. As I said, the scene works as it is.

We establish the plan works, then suddenly THANOS. Opportunity #2 for an intermission. They launch the barrage of missiles, then fade to black, see you in ten minutes. Would have been epic.

So we get a nice, super satisfying scene with the three original Avengers fighting Thanos. Thor is fucking dual wielding, yes please. And the scene where Steve catches Mjolnir? I was literally hard. But Thanos is even more powerful than he was in Infinity War. Remember Infinity War, that movie a YEAR OLD written and directed by THE SAME PEOPLE? In that one, Stark went toe to toe with Thanos in control of the Infinity Stones and held his own. In this one, Thanos has no problem taking down a dual wielding Thor, and literally destroys Cap’s Shield without even the use of the Power Stone. Its just... blah.

Now, when things are at their worse: MAGIC. Literally, Dr Strange uses magic to save the day. Its not a complaint, its just what happens. Again, SUPER satisfying. But lots of things stick out. One, half the Wakandan army just woke up from being dusted. As far as they’re concerned its been like half an hour since Infinity War, but they’re all in pretty good shape. Even if you assume the Wakandan army was made up of survivors, they sure mobilized quickly. That’s impressive. Two, where did Valkyrie get a fucking Pegasus? They’re all dead, remember? Hela killed them thousands of years ago, it was kind of a big deal. Yeah, neat scene, loved seeing it, but it doesn't belong. Third, Pepper Potts shows up. She abandoned her five year old child to fight alongside Tony. I get there’s an end of the world argument to be made, but it still doesn’t seem in character. Both for her to do it, and for Tony to not call her out for it.

Still, nice satisfying fight scene. Things still kind of go south, though, they just can’t seem to beat Thanos’s army. Wouldn’t it be convenient if a flying god were to show up for no reason and destroy the battleship causing all the trouble? That would be convenient, but they’re better writers than that. [Ron Howard: they were not]

To add insult to injury, they literally divide the heroes by sex and have a scene where all the women are together launching an attack. It wasn’t even like a natural progression of the battle, where the women are thrown together. Just the one shot of all them showing up for no reason.

There was no corresponding scene with the male heroes.

But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence and they weren’t pandering for woke points.

At one point Thanos grabs the Power Stone with his bare hands and uses it to blast somebody [I think Ms Marvel but I don’t remember]. He doesn’t appear to suffer any ill affects,

Finally, Tony Stark’s big moment. People were literally weeping in the theater. I loved it so much. It was honestly perfect. Killing everybody wasn’t what I expected, I thought they’d be sent back to the past to preserve the timeline or whatever, but this way it mirrored the end of Infinity War so thematically this works better.

Everything after that was basically shit.

First of all, this movie suffers from a serious case of Return of the King Syndrome. There was like half an hour of movie left after Thanos died the second time. Christ.

Past Gamora might or might not still be alive in the present? She kicks Star Lord in the nuts then kind of vanishes. There’s no reason to assume Tony’s snap wouldn’t have killed her along with the rest of the past army, but they also didn’t resurrect Present Gamora so she probably survived for Guardians 3. Starlord is using the computer to search for her at the end, but Thor keeps trying to stop him because I guess he’s a prick now?

Also Thor retires. Just quits. Names Valkyrie Queen of the Asgardians. That’s the conclusion of his story. He just goes off to find himself, gonna spend some time with the Guardians of the Galaxy see where life takes him. Because that’s satisfying.

They still have to return the infinity stones, along with Mjolnir. Rogers gets to do the honors, and he makes it pretty clear to everybody that he’s saying his goodbyes. Somehow, nobody notices, and everybody’s super surprised when he doesn’t come back after. Apparently, he choses to return to the 40s and live out his life with Peggy. I liked this, it was a satisfying conclusion to his story. He found a way back to the love of his life. Nice.

Here’s what’s not nice. Bucky and Falcon see old Steve sitting near by. Bucky, Steve’s childhood friend who owes his life to the fact Steve never stopped believing in him, sends Falcon over to talk to him. Because...I don’t fucking know. Why didn’t they both just go talk to him? Why didn’t they call over Bruce, who was standing right there trying to figure out what went wrong? No, its Falcon’s time.

But more importantly: HOW IS STEVE THERE? You can’t change the past. Bruce tells us that. The Sorcerous Supreme shows us that changes in the past create alternate timelines leaving the original in tact. They pulled Thanos into the present and killed him before he could collect the Infinity Stones, but the snap still happened. Present Nebula shot Past Nebula in the heart but didn’t wink out of existence.

But somehow, when Steve goes into the past, he doesn’t create an alternate timeline where Captain America survives the war. He just inserted himself into the prime timeline, and waited until he had a chance to say hi to his old friend Falcon.

Oh, also he had a second Shield made at some point?

Look, I liked Steve’s story. I liked that they passed on the title to Falcon, a nice nod to the source material. I’m thrilled that Peggy got the dance he promised her all those years ago. But that scene ruined the core premise behind the entire movie. Time Travel stories are hard, but if you agree on how they work and stick to those rules its fine. This movie did neither.

Also: how did Steve return the Soul Stone? How shocked was he to discover the stone was guarded by Red Skull? Did he just drop it off the cliff and hope the ancient magic would handle the rest? Will Thanos still have to sacrifice Gamora or does Nat’s sacrifice still count?

There’s other issues. Ms Marvel and Wanda both just sort of vanish. Wanda especially should have gotten more story, but they just gave her one angry woman scene then she was forgotten about. They sort of gloss over the massive issues they’d have faced with half the population dead. They show one overgrown neighborhood, but by and large everything seems to be exactly the same as it was pre-snap. Just with everybody sadder. We never see Rocket meet a racoon. Hawkeye was in the movie. Nothing really huge.

So that’s all I have to say about that. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#mcu #endgame #movie

1 note · View note