#but if they have even a scrap of romantic chemistry it sure as hell isn’t anything that pings on my own radar

[gossyreblogs]

Alas, it begins.

(I’ve hit the point in DS9 where Odo pining for Kira has become a noticeable sub-plot 😩)

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

An Explanation of Why Louis and Violet are Both Terrific Love Interests [2/5]

+Why both romantic routes are not only amazing but better than other games I’ve personally played in the past.

+Why some people are idiots and get off on picking stupid fights.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Romantic Option #2: Warren Graham

Uhm.... Warren’s a person in this story, too.

He, uh, he’s really nerdy. He does some science shit. He has a huge crush on Max which is made very obvious by the everything about him. Uh..... he took a fist to the face and got a black eye because he was helping Max, uhm.... he took a picture that was pretty important to the plot... um....

I literally can’t remember anything else about him.

I couldn’t even remember his last name. I had to look up his wiki to remember anything about him.

That’s how forgettable he is.

Hell, fans of the game took his character and made him more interesting in fanart and fanfics than he ever was in the game! I remember more about THAT version of him than I do about the him in the canon of the game!

I gave you that whole bit about Chloe from memory. That’s how much more fleshed out and important she is within the game than Warren is. Everything I’m about to talk about here if from reading his wiki and remembering things that way.

We meet Warren and find out that he’s into nerdy shit like Max. He’s also obviously into her and does a shit job at hiding that fact, but then Nathan comes over and beats the shit out of him because plot.

When I first played, it was pretty obvious that Warren would be romanceable, and truth be told, I liked Warren. He was fine! He’s dorky and weird, but I thought he and Max could potentially be a cute couple, and so does the rest of the school since you can’t talk to any of the girls without them implying that Warren likes Max.

I kept waiting for Warren to be important, but it never really came! I mean, you could talk to him and help him with a science experiment [in which he fucking blows up] and you text him a lot. Oh, and you can go to a Planet of the Apes marathon with him which you never actually get to go to, but the game constantly reminds you that you’re going because Warren won’t shut up about it.

Let’s see, he also sends you instructions on how to build a bomb so that you can break into the principal’s office, and then he beats Nathan up, and then he shows up and takes a picture of him and Max that ends up being important in the final episode and then.... he doesn’t do much else.

Well, okay, he does talk about Max’s powers a little bit in ep5 and you can give him a smooch or hug him or disregard him completely.

And that’s about it.

........Wait a minute.

A boy with boyband hair who has extensive chemistry knowledge, knows how to make bombs, uses said bombs for pranks, gets fucked up by one of the antagonists AND was a throwaway character that the writers threw in there to further the plot along but doesn’t really do much so the fandom took him and made him better than the game ever gave him credit for...?

.....Welp, that’s a whole thing that I’m not gonna get into. One post at a time, folks.

ANYWAY

Back on topic, Warren’s a romanceable character, apparently. You can agree to go on a date with him and smooch him. You can tell people you think he’s cute. It’s fine.  

With all that about these two choices in mind, compare Warren to Chloe.

There is no comparison because Warren’s “romance route” is... is nothing! It’s a whole lot of little things that don’t amount to much! With Chloe, Max has all this chemistry and you spend 90% of the game with her! You forget that Warren exists until you get another text from him or another character brings him up!

You know what Warren feels like? He feels like a character that the writers threw in because they were worried that players wouldn’t want a tragic wlw love story between two best friends, who reconnect and fall in love over the course of five episodes.

Which, fair, because people are idiots.

Could they have made Warren more important? Sure, but like with Skybound and Telltale, they didn’t have an unlimited budget to pack everything they wanted into the game to make it better, and that’s not just limited to the relationships, that’s clear in the endings we got. And I’m sure that some Warren stans will read this and retaliate and tell me that he’s just as important than Chloe, I just don’t understand because I’m a shithead.

And maybe that’s true, but look me in the eye and tell me that if you took Warren out of the game, it would have drastically changed the story beyond repair.

Now, what does all this mean?

Compare Chloe and Warren to Louis and Violet as far as love interests go and how they were handled.

In TWDG, Louis and Violet are fairly even.

In LIS, Chloe and Warren aren’t even in the same universe. It doesn’t matter if you like Warren more, or if you like Chloe more, Chloe got more time and effort put into her story and romance than Warren did.

Think of it like this: Chloe is at a 90% and Warren 10%.  Louis is at 48% and Violet’s at 52%, and that’s depending on how you look at it.

If TWDG did the routes like this, then Violet would’ve been way more important, would’ve have ten times as many scenes with Clementine, and if you took her out of the story, the whole thing falls apart because she’d be 90% of the plot, while Louis over here would’ve been used as background noise and plot convenience once or twice. Sure, we would’ve gotten to know him a little bit, but not nearly anything substantial and not nearly as much in comparison.

That’s what we could’ve had, okay? The writers could’ve given us a single love interest and said: “We want you to pick this person... but we’ll also throw in this other person just in case y’all are homophobic/racist/fucking stupid/whatever.”

In conclusion: We were blessed with Louis and Violet who each got an arc and love story, both of which are fairly even. 

Have I made my point yet? No? You need more examples? Fine. I’ll give you another alternative to what we could’ve had, or rather, what we could’ve missed out on.

[Note: I want to add that I haven’t played Life is Strange 2, but I know that its playable character is also bisexual and can choose between a boy and a girl to romance, but I can’t comment on how well it did because I’ve yet to play it.]

[persona 4 and the relationships you can’t have]

This one time I tried to romance my partner but he was too busy trying to convince everyone that he’s straight to even notice.

Persona 4 is a game that came out in 2008, then re-released with new content in 2012 under the name Persona 4: Golden. The game follows your nameable protagonist who has just moved in with their uncle and cousin. During his year-long stay, he becomes involved in investigating mysterious murders while harnessing the power of summoning Persona. 

Great game, one that took over my life for about a year. Great characters, great voice acting, great story, great antagonists, and great romance and romanceable characters. 

While the romance is more of a side thing depending on if you decide to take that route with one of your social links, it’s still nice to have special moments with them to break away from all the TV murder and whatnot. 

And you have several great options to choose from! You’ve got Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Naoto, and then you’ve got several other girls around the school that you can start a thing with, but they’re not as important as those core four. 

Each of the girls has an incredibly well-written story and share a deep bond with you, the protagonist. So, the reason I’m putting this example here is that the choice between all these great girls is super hard, right? 

Wrong. 

Because when I played the damn game, I didn’t romance any of them. Not because I didn’t like them or because I didn’t want my character to have a romance, but because the asshole I WANTED to romance wasn’t an option. 

Because I’m not allowed to romance the dudes. 

And that includes this dude. 

Yosuke Hanamura

Remember that pin I mentioned about how great it is that Clementine’s bi because not only does it give us well-deserved representation but also allows the player to romance both girls and boys? 

The Protagonist of Persona 4 is not bisexual. 

I can only romance the girls because he is straight. 

But not really, because MY Protagonist pursued and sought after Yosuke despite the fact that the game would not let me romance him. Which is bullshit, because he clearly feels the same way, and no, that’s not my crazy brain making shit up. 

My entire playthrough was pretty much 

I won’t get into it because Persona is a long game and a complicated one to even try and explain to someone who hasn’t played it so that’s another rant for another day, but know this: 

Yosuke was the perfect opportunity to tell the story of a boy dealing with internal homophobia, falling in love with his best friend [PARTNER] after the girl he cared about died horrifically and faced his shadow learned to accept himself and his insecurities. The potential here was wasted. 

There are a shit ton more layers to that, but on the barest of bare-bones, that’s what I wanted. 

Hell, according to a bunch of people, Yosuke was going to be a romantic option, but they scrapped it! Insult to injury, I’ll say!

Comparing this to TWDG, you could argue that Clementine only gets to romance Louis and Violet, but some wanted to romance Mitch, Aasim, Brody, ect. 

Fair enough, but what I’m saying is this:

It sucked that I couldn’t romance the person I wanted to when I played Persona, and it still sucks every time I play a game and my person of desire is unattainable. This isn’t just Persona, that’s just the first game that comes to mind when I think about characters I always wanted a romance, but that includes all the other missed opportunities from other games, as well.

The Final Season is different. 

The writers of TFS could’ve said, “Oh you want to romance Louis/Violet? Oh no, sorry, we were gonna do it but we changed our minds! But, don’t worry, we’ll leave hint after hint that they have feelings for you but you can’t actively pursue them. Allow us to tease you with the wonderful romance that could’ve been! Midnight piano lessons! Conversations under the stars! Lots of smooches! You’ll never see it in canon!”

Or, they could’ve only given us one of them, but that’s the topic of the next game. 

In conclusion: They didn’t have to give us Louis and Violet or make them romanceable. If you want Clementine to have a relationship with them, you have the option to do that, which is something you can’t say with other games.

Continued in Part 3

[multimetaverse]

Andi Mack 2x21 Review

For the Last Time was a really emotional episode with some stellar performances by the cast. It was also the best written episode of 2b so far but what was the point of all of this?

Positives:

Sofia is truly a powerhouse actor. She really brought it this episode and shows just how indispensable she really is to the show. And it was such a great twist that Buffy didn’t want to say goodbye and told them she was leaving the next morning when in fact she left at night.

It was great to see Pat Driscoll again. Her scenes with Buffy were powerful as usual but I also liked that we got to see a softer side of her when she talked with Cyrus and Andi; I loved her reading the list and being surprised by the items that called back to S1.

LOL at her asking Buffy if she went out with Cyrus. The show sure is fond of subtly reminding us that Cyrus is gay right before he hangs with TJ: him breaking up with Iris the ep before the swings, his little head rest with Andi before going to talk with TJ at the game, and now this right before he spends time with TJ at the gym and at the spoon in the next ep.

I was so shocked that they brought up Marty. It was very poignant seeing Buffy with that photo of him.

I’ve seen a lot of misconceptions about the ‘’faith’’ scene. Guys it’s not hinting at T*ffy in S3 or ever. Even if TJ was straight (not something I’d bet on after the swings), they’re not going to pair him with Buffy. They have no chemistry and almost all of their scenes are painful to watch. And there’s a large age gap between Luke and Sofia that shouldn’t be ignored. 

The reference Bex made came right after Jonah said that even Buffy’s nemesis (TJ) will miss her. Faith was Buffy’s sorta ally turned nemesis turned redeemed ally. They were never lovers! 

What we can’t forget is that everything said in Bex’s apartment wasn’t meant for Buffy as she never got the capsule, it was meant for the other characters and for the audience. 

TJ signing the ball was to show the audience that he’s slowly starting to change for the better and Bex’s faith comment was a fun little nod to Buffy the Vampire Slayer that also let us know that TJ isn’t going to remain a villain forever. And of course we saw Cyrus’ little smile when he realized that Jonah got TJ, that was meant to once more connect them in the minds of the audience.

Marty’s letter was a very sweet recap of Muffy’s most important moments. Again it was meant more for the audience than for Buffy. I’d bet Ham and Celia’s retirement savings that Marty giving Buffy his shoelaces and telling her that she was faster was going to be how Marty reconciled with Buffy in the writer’s original plan for S2. But that’s all for naught so we got this closure ceremony as well (reminded me of the one Bex and Andi held for Gabriel). I think the casual audience will now understand that Marty is never coming back nor shall he be mentioned again. 

I think this was the most thoughtful and charming Jonah has been since at least A Good Hair Day if not earlier. This is the Jonah we should have been seeing in 2a, he cares about his friends, he listens and give good advice, and he takes decisive action to help. 

Now I’ve long thought that Buffy’s crush will be on Jonah and this episode provides some support for my theory. Jonah’s ‘’Buffy likes me doesn’t she?’’ line sounds like it could be foreshadowing. Of course sometimes a cigar is just a cigar but there also is the fact that Jonah knew exactly what parting gifts to get Buffy, something he’s never been good at with Amber or Andi. And the last time we’ve seen Jonah be this good at human emotions was his scene with Buffy in A Good Hair Day.

We’ll have to see what happens in eps 23 and 24 since Buffy most likely doesn’t return until the end of 2x22 and her crush is revealed in 2x24 at the art show.

Stoney did such a great job this episode. Once Bex revealed that Celia had bought the Fringe he looked he aged 10 years as this sense of weariness settled over him. Celia really needed to talk things over with Ham; she can’t just spend their retirement savings on trying to prop up their daughter. The vast majority of small businesses fail and what happens when their retirement funds run out? They can kiss goodbye to their house and to any dreams of Paris.

I’ve seen speculation that Ham’s shocking news in 2x23 might be a separation or a divorce. It could be though it would obviously lead to a quick reconciliation. That may explain why Jonah is trying to comfort Andi at their trampoline date in what looks to be 2x23. 

The on location filming really helped sell Buffy’s move and the last shot of Andi and Cyrus and Jonah standing in the dark outside Buffy’s empty house while a super on the nose song (’’For the Last Time”) played was heart breaking.

Interesting little detail, both Andi and Cyrus were wearing red and black at Bex’s apartment, it’s not often we see them matching. I think it was a little visual cue that they’re closer than they’ve been in a very long time.

This episode did a good job of wrapping everything up, it would have made for a good season finale.

Negative:

What the hell was the point of all this though? We have 5 episodes left in S2 and surely the entire audience knows that Sofia has been on set for S3 and that there are still clips of Buffy from the 2b promo that we haven’t seen yet. 

For a show that prides itself on realism how are they going to bring back Buffy permanently? There’s no good explanations, we’re probably going to end up with some bs ‘’My mom convinced her commanding officer that our friendship was more important that the army’s needs and he agreed to transfer her back’’. Even GMW had the good sense to not actually move Riley.

Setting aside Disney’s strangling of Cyrus’ story, there are clear issues going on in the writer’s room. As @andisyellowmotorbike mentioned, the acting and production for the individual eps in 2b have been great but from a birds eye view the writing is really bad.  Did no one in the writer’s room point out that actually moving Buffy would backfire when they inevitably bring her back at the end of the next ep? Did no one realize what a bad idea it was to slow the timeline to a crawl for 6 eps? Did no one think that there was way too much story to fit into a 10 day timeline and that even breaking the timeline like they did and stretching it to 3ish weeks would still mean that a lot of plots wouldn’t properly be dealt with?

This episode hints at one of the reasons that 2b has been such a mess; Marty leaving. I think once S2 is over we’ll be able to fully see just how disastrous Marty’s abrupt exit was to the show and to Buffy’s storyline in particular. 

What I think happened is that the writers had to scrap their eventual Muffy endgame and they had always planned for TJ and Walker to come in for Cyrus and Andi so Jonah would be left single after S2. It would have really upended audience expectations to have Jonah, the Disney prince love interest, stay single in S3 but it’s much harder for a tween/teen oriented show to have 2 out of 4 main characters stay single. So if Buffy needs to be paired off and Jonah is free why not push them together? Disney will be happy that as Asher’s star waxes he’ll still be playing a romantic lead so they can keep those tween girls happy. 

Looking Ahead:

I’m very interested in next episode. I can’t wait to see what the mobile text apps have to say about Cyrus and TJ and what our hetero-normative pals on the Mack Chat have to say. It looks like TJ and Cyrus leave the spoon after the Jandi drama erupts which will be an interesting contrast.

This also marks TJ’s first scene at the spoon and more importantly his first scene with Andi, a big moment for his character.

And it’s nice to see that at least the straight characters can textually act out jealousy! Jonah calling Natalie to get back at Andi is so petty but so funny.

[misscrawfords]

I can’t stop thinking about that terrible movie, The Christmas Wedding Planner. It doesn’t deserve 1/10th of the mental energy I’m giving it and yet here we are.

The main problem is that just a few tweaks could have made it a decent film and that the things that were wrong with it were just so wrong. So I’m making two lists. The first is its greatest atrocities. The second is what I’d tweak to turn it into something watchable, even good.

The premise: Kelsey is a rookie wedding planner, about to get her big break with her rich cousin Emily’s wedding to the oh so charming, Todd. Then she bumps into Connor, Emily’s ex, a private investigator mysteriously charged with investigating Todd. He wants to recruit Kelsey to help him with his investigation. She wants him to piss off. Sparks fly while my suspension of disbelief remains firmly rooted to the ground.

This post will contain spoilers. I really wouldn’t bother caring. Buckle yourself in - we’re going for a very inane ride!

Problems

The leads have no chemistry at all. This is obviously a problem. Buying a romance and attraction between them was just impossible. Their first kiss was meant to be awkward but, my god, surely not THAT awkward! 

This lack of chemistry was added to a flat script that clearly was trying to present Kelsey and Connor as a sparring love-hate dynamic who grow to appreciate each other and eventually come to realise that their connection is really deep as they share the same values. But, uh, that may have been the intention but not the story that came across on the screen. Which was just two people who irritated each other suddenly and for no reason getting upset about how the other was behaving after knowing each other for about three days and then...

THEY GOT FLIPPING MARRIED. I mean. WHAT. They’ve kissed twice. They know basically nothing about each other. Half an hour previously she thought he was a villain. This isn’t romantic, this is INSANE. I give them till the end of the honeymoon.

She’s called Kelsey. Like, that’s not a name. It’s just a random word. (This is petty as hell, but still.)

Kelsey has a “tragic backstory” where her mum died and she’s narrating her life in text messages to her mum which are text message overlays of exposition in case the viewer is finding the plot too complex to follow. I have no idea why this exists. It goes nowhere.

A romantic comedy ends with Emily, described as the most perfectly lovely and sweet person, discovering at the altar that her almost-husband was cheating on her and got a maid pregnant and then dumping him. And then she watches her wedding planner get married to her ex-boyfriend who she barely knows. I don’t particularly care about Kelsey and Connor but I’m very, very concerned about Emily! Make your beta couple happy, you cowards!

Todd was cheating with the maid. Wow, what a radical secret. And then Emily just doesn’t even talk about it. She just accepts the wedding is off and wants to plan a girls trip away instead. She was going to MARRY this guy. Doesn’t she want to IDK hear his side of the story? Why so quick to believe the worst? I mean, wow, clearly she shouldn’t be marrying this guy if she doesn’t care, but she’s meant to be intelligent as well as beautiful!

So basically none of the characterisation makes sense. In that there basically isn’t any. Just plot points that apparently have to be hit. Like, Aunt Olivia is a bitchy Rich White Woman (tm) half the time and a caring, mother-figure the other half. I was getting whiplash keeping up with her 180 degree character changes.

Connor isn’t even vaguely attractive. Physically or emotionally. That’s kind of a problem in a romance film. (I mean, YMMV with the physical aspect but, eurgh really.) He’s as charismatic as a block of wood. She’s... eh. She’s a generic Hallmark movie protagonist.

The way these characters dress and look. It’s so... 90s? I don’t mean that exactly. I mean, everyone looks the same and it’s a kind of glossy Clueless vibe. The women are all in tailored mini dresses and with long waves of hair. The men wear slacks and a shirt and have a bit of stubble. They all live in massive mansions or cute apartments that are all spotlessly clean and neat. They literally look like Barbie dolls except even my dollhouse was more realistically lived in than any of these sets. It’s such a weird aesthetic. And it makes no sense for the demographic these people supposedly belong to.

Perfect, sweet Jane Bennet Emily has three caricatured bridesmaids who are horrible. Why? Why are bridesmaids always jealous, miserable bitches? WHERE ARE HER ACTUAL FRIENDS? Speaking of, who even has weddings like this? What is the deal? Who WANTS this kind of wedding? Who behaves like this about their wedding or their child’s wedding? I’m so confused. If this is some kind of fantasy, I wonder whose it is, because everything about it is horrible. Which brings me back to this all feeling very dated in its aesthetic and early 2000s obsession with skinny women getting carried away with designer weddings in romcoms written by men. IDEK. This is 2018 and we have Set It Up and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. This kind of film just doesn’t belong any more.

So that’s quite enough issues. Let’s try to solve a few and make this a better film.

Most of the problems could be solved by making the lead couple appealing. Cast different actors and write the script that they think they already have. If you can actually buy the narrative of two people who have more in common than they think growing closer from antagonists to partners, then the ridiculous ending where they decide to just get married could potentially work. POTENTIALLY. If they had more lingering looks that were genuinely hot, their awkward kiss melted into something real, their interactions sizzled with wit and suppressed passion then... yeah. Maybe then the spontaneous decision at the end would make you think, “Actually, yes, it’s mad but LOOK AT THOSE TWO CRAZY KIDS!”

Work on characterisation. So Kelsey’s deal is she’s concentrating on managing other people’s happiness instead of concentrating on her own because she can’t let go after her mother’s death. This is kind of heavy for a romcom. Let’s scrap the dead mother altogether. Make Emily her actual sister instead of the cousin who is like a sister and make Aunt Olivia her mum. Streamlines everything. This is better. So Emily is the perfect daughter who is beautiful and sweet and having the perfect wedding and Kelsey is the younger daughter who is determined to make her way in the world without the family money. This causes friction because she thinks her mum favours Emily and her determination leads her to believe that if she gets involved in a serious relationship which would please her mother then she is compromising her desire to be independent. Cue touching moment near the end when her mother admits she’s got it all wrong and she admires Kelsey’s entrepreneurial spirit and reveals that it’s possible to have a career AND a relationship. None of this is rocket science or even that interesting but I’m trying to make this a better Hallmark movie, not Citizen Kane.

Connor’s turn. Good grief, get a better actor for a start. And the entire plot here needs to change now. Because the PI bit is good but being hired by Aunt Olivia because Todd is cheating is just... so BORING. So before we can improve Connor we need to work on what he’s there to do.

Time to look at the actual plot. Wedding planner forced to work against her will with PI to investigate the wedding she’s planning is a genuinely cool concept. We have a bunch of tropes here: spies! we had to kiss for cover! love to hate! fake dating! All of these need to be fully exploited and above all the spying has to be funny. This needs to be the centre of the film. Not a single montage. It needs to circle through every conceivable trope to romantic and comic effect. We need to see these two bickering and flirting and denying their attraction in ridiculous undercover situations. This should be basically 90% of the film. Because that I would watch. But “Todd is cheating” is beyond boring. So what will the scenario be?

A couple of options and I’m not sure what I’d go with at present. Firstly would be sticking with the “Todd is cheating” plotline but... he isn’t. He’s a great guy! The spying is all pointless and both Kelsey and Connor realise that but... just... can’t quite bring themselves... to stop... because that’s their excuse to see each other. Todd and Emily find out in the most embarrassing way possible, and find it hilarious. Because they’re a well-adjusted couple ready to take the next step into married life. Either Aunt-now-Mum Olivia did start it and then has to eat humble pie and realise she was wrong about everything or someone else instigated it. Maybe a jealous ex? IDK. It doesn’t really matter. They’re proved totally wrong and true love triumphs!

The alternative is that Todd is really a bad egg but in that case we need to play his relationship with Emily differently so she doesn’t come out looking like a robot or an idiot. We can do a Much Ado situation where their superficial relationship - Emily desperately trying to please her mother as much as Kelsey is trying to distance herself (two sides of the same coin) - is contrasted with the real and flawed relationship that develops between Kelsey and Connor. Meanwhile, because this is a romcom, while Todd and Emily’s relationship is obviously wrong from the start, Emily builds up a cute friendship with the adorable baker making her wedding cake - who is the only appealing character in the film as it stands. Once Emily’s relationship with Todd is exploded, then give her a shoulder to cry on and the hope of something real with the lovely baker in the future.

But even if Todd is a genuinely rotter, the spying needs to be a smokescreen. If Kelsey and Connor do discover whatever is dodgy about Todd, it needs to happen accidentally and so all their spy antics need to be a complete waste of time except to lead to them falling in love. Because actually spying on people and so on is... not very nice and turns this into a spy film rather than a romcom. Even better, let Emily come to the realisation herself. When Kelsey breaks the news to her (she has to do it, not Connor for maximum emotion, and not ridiculously while she’s at the altar) then Emily has to admit she already worked it out so she can make a really informed decision.

If you’re going to have Connor propose at the end (which is stupid) then the correct response is for Kelsey to laugh hysterically and say something like, “Are you crazy? But you can take me out for a real date!” Cue kiss, applause and credits.

So Connor. Firstly, his background needs to be simplified. He shouldn’t be Emily’s ex. That’s just weird. And the whole money business is dubious and overly-complicated and doesn’t make him look great and is just shoe-horned in for ~drama. He’s just a stranger who is a PI. The end. This ought to be an easy job for him, a boring one. He didn’t count on the genuinely smart, witty wedding planner he got entangled with. Bless his snarky, so over-it cotton socks.

So, I can see you wondering, haven’t I removed all sources of tension? No issue with the ex, no money problems, Kelsey and Connor don’t even affect Emily’s relationship. What is the massive problem that will occur 4/5ths the way through and make our hero and heroine desperately miserable for five minutes before the final denouement? But, my friend, if you think this is a problem, then you’ve completely missed the central premise of this story. They think they’re just forced to work together! As spies! Undercover! But actually! They have real feelings! For each other! Isn’t that enough of a plot? When Emily and Todd’s wedding either goes ahead without problem or is broken up no thanks to the inept spy duo, they have no longer any reason to see each other! And thinking that the other one doesn’t care, they just sadly say goodbye and prepare to part for ever... BUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SHOCK YOU. Look, this is all the level of conflict this film needs. Nobody is watching this because they want this part of the film to last more than a couple of minutes maximum. Just let them roll their eyes at each other like the Beatrice and Benedick dynamic they so desperately wish they had and kiss!

THE END.

[thebluesideofthemoon]

The Wall #48: ZOOTOPIA

Well, it's about time I got around to this. Welcome to The Wall, and I'm not going to waste any time because I'm going to have a lot to say. I feel like I don't need to say this, but just in case you haven't seen the movie (not just this one, I mean in general) I'll try to be as spoiler-free as I can. Yeah, I said "try", because sometimes I'll see something as awful as Collateral Beauty or Yoga Hosers where I have to spoil the movie just to get my point firmly across in why those movies are as bad as they are. And yeah, that's a general rule of thumb: if I consider the movie awful I WILL spoil it (So yes, take that as your premature warning that I WILL spoil Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in the next review. ;D). Seeing as this is the movie that revitalized the series and allowed it to take off in a way far bigger than I could even imagine, I have to pay its respects and give it the proper review it should have had in the past. So, let's dive right into the literal urban jungle that is the colorful world of Zootopia!

I’m not even going to waste time by dabbling in my usual routine of building up my points in a movie of what I liked and what I didn’t because I’m going to say something I haven’t said about a movie this year since Hell or High Water- I absolutely adore this movie. Believe it or not, I wavered a lot in how I felt about this movie throughout the course of the year, but my answer is finally clear. But first, the usual- plot.

In this movie, a young anthropomorphic bunny by the name of Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, whom I last saw in that godawful “romantic comedy”, Something Borrowed back in 2011) dreams of becoming a cop in the big city of Zootopia to make the world a better place. This doesn’t turn out to be that simple as for a bunny trying to even train to become a cop proves to be incredibly difficult, though determined to not give up she pushes on and eventually manages to graduate from her training and be moved into the central district of the Zootopia Police Department, though instead of being assigned into a highly pursued case of tracking down twelve missing mammals, she gets assigned to parking duty. One messy turn of events later allows Judy to be part of the missing mammal case, though on the condition that she only has 48 hours to solve it or she will be fired from her job. She’s stuck with virtually no resources, though manages to find one clue that takes her to one key witness that may hold the answer for the case, in the form of a red fox by the name of Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman, whom I last saw in 2015’s The Gift, which was actually a pretty good movie�� and then the ending happened) who turns out to be pretty uncooperative. The clock is ticking, and the evidence is minimal, so can these two unlikely partners come together for the better of their society?

Continuing with my usual formula this is where I would start listing down the negatives about a movie, and this was the part that I found the most tricky was how to feel about these because I have two: Gazelle, and the ending- specifically the climax.

Let’s start with Gazelle, who is voiced by mega-famous Colombian pop star, Shakira- heeeeey, finally a movie that has someone representing my home country of Colombia that also DOESN’T suck- isn’t that right, Hot Pursuit? Anyway, she suffers from something another animated movie I reviewed (and the first movie I ever reviewed on The Wall, as a matter of fact) which I will now call “DreamWorks Syndrome”. When your movie has DreamWorks Syndrome it will feature a big name voice actor or actress playing a pretty tiny role in spite of their exposure and fame to the general public. Granted, at least Shakira gets to talk in this movie whereas in Angry Birds, Sean Penn could have been replaced by a garbage disposal and the difference would have been none in the slightest. Shakira also isn’t a bad voice actress, then again I’ve been of the belief that pop stars and voice acting is something that goes hand in hand. She’s also at least not out of place in her role, unlike Miss Almost-30-Year-Old Rhianna voicing a 12-year-old girl in Home. I can’t be the only one who thought that she was going to have a bigger role in the movie based on how prominent she was shown in the advertisements. Hell, I was under the belief that the final showdown of the movie was going to take place in one of her concerts, and I was actually right! Well… sort off. As it turns out, that’s what happened in the scrapped version of the movie, not the final one. If you haven’t seen the movie (for whatever reason), that’s not how the movie ends. I’ll get into that (as spoiler-free as possible, of course) in a bit, but I’ll finish with Gazelle and Shakira. Gazelle’s role is pretty minimal and she doesn’t really add much to the movie. She’s not in the movie enough for me to say she’s one of the stand-out characters when the best use of her character involves a running gag about two other characters in the movie fooling around with this app that allows them to digitally insert themselves (or rather, their faces) into a music video featuring her. It’s actually a really funny gag, but that’s the best thing involving her character. The other reason why she’s here is for the movie’s title (and only) song, “Try Everything”. The song is… okay-ish, it’s really put together in a way that it’s pretty much just your typical generic uplifting pop song, though at least with Shakira singing you get her pretty distinct vocals to make the song at least nice to listen to. I’ll admit I was never a big fan of Shakira (my mom and sister LOOOOOVE her, though) so this song is just a “take it or leave it” type of deals- you hear it at two points in the movie, once at a montage, and at the credits for the obligatory “everybody dances” ending.

Speaking of which, when I originally talked about Zootopia I said I noted some pacing issues with the last act of the movie, and knowing what I know about the history of this movie that turned out to be very unsurprising. This movie was basically remade from the ground up at the last minute due to the original concept of the movie being too dark for its own good- and before anyone raises any complaints about “well they should have gone with that darker version”- no they shouldn’t have, though I’ll address that later, as I want to get through the rushed ending over first. So yes, the movie had to be completely remade and that may be what ended up causing the ending of the movie to feel a little fast. To be fair, all of the elements for the climax are there, they’re just blink-and-you-miss them. They didn’t need any more extra time being established- I think even just one extra minute could have made all of the difference. It’s at least more sensible than how Big Hero 6 ended up in a giant pile of explosions and nonsense, but yes I’m aware of the issues here and they sadly have not gone away. So how much does these two things affect how I feel about the movie? I thought about this long and hard, and if I’m going to be completely and totally honest… they don’t. My flag is up- despite this movie’s problems it has a metric ton of AMAZING things going in its favor that its negatives are pretty negligible by comparison.

First of all, I have to give absolutely major kudos to the amazing animation and design of the movie. There’s something particularly special about the way this movie looks to how everything in this world is constructed. The character designs are absolutely great, the city looks amazing- all of the districts are distinctively designed, full of life, and it gives me this absolutely giddy feeling of “holy crap, I want to go there!” I rarely ever get that feeling out of many movies, and that’s one telling sign when I knew this was something special. I could make an entire college essay at how amazing the level of detail in the environement in this movie is, but I really AM trying to keep this short as I can, so let’s just put it this way: A+ for not only the design, but also the REALLY great animation! This movie is fast-paced, colorful, full of great action moments, the expressions are absolutely joyous to look at.

The characters are simply wonderful! The crazy thing is that they’re all types, but the level of development they get, how layered and fleshed out they are really is something to admire. Nick and Judy are a pair that form the typical “cynical guy/optimistic girl” pairing, however a combination of great dialogue, perfect chemistry, as well as a really great level of depth allows them to not only be great foils to each other, but also makes them highly relatable and really easy to sympathize with the both of them. Not just them, this applies to other characters such as Bogo (voiced by Idirs Elba), Clawhauser- who also manages to score one of the saddest scenes in the movie- the other secondary characters are also unbelievably enjoyable, like Nick’s best friend Finnick (voiced by Tommy Lister), or Duke Weaselton (voiced by Alan Tudyk- wait a second, how many Disney movies have you been in now, pal?), and even more bit characters get their own really memorable moments (I’m sure the wolves need no introduction. Huh, I’d say between this and Storks that it’s been good year for wolves). Again, I could really expand on these a lot more, but there’s just no room or time here.

The comedy is absolutely great. It goes between really sharp, witty banter to even the use of puns, though these are used in a much smarter way than I’ve seen plenty other movies (especially animated ones) use them- they’re pretty much background gags. They’re never in your face, and they’re pretty much used for scenery, which makes them really great to go hunt down when rewatching the movie- I certainly did.

While “Try Everything” may be really far from the best pop song (though considering how awful of a year for pop music 2016 was, it may be one of the few that actually qualifies as even “listenable”) the rest of the soundtrack is really fun. Movie scores are something I don’t usually notice because 90% of the time they’re often really generic and forgettable, and then there’s movie scores like in Accidental Love which are grating and make you want to kill yourself. But this one has a score that is really enjoyable to listen to, goes really well with the movie and adds that little extra hint of fun to a lot of scenes (like Judy giving out the parking tickets for the first time, or her chasing Duke in Little Rodentia). I wouldn’t say this is the biggest positive about the movie, but I think it’s worth pointing out nonetheless. No, if you want a REAL major positive here it is:

The movie manages to combine a lot of really great elements that makes it a really enjoyable family movie, from the comedy to the characters, but it also has some really brilliant uses of filmmaking to make the movie also a really great mystery and leave little extra touches for anyone watching the movie to notice, even when they’re not in your face, or as I like to call it the “Edgar Wright Method” (He may not have been the first one to do this, but it’s my example so shut up and read). If any of you have seen a movie by Edgar Wright- and knowing my audience, I’m going to say that’s probably most of you- this movie pulls a really nice trick of putting tiny little bits of plot littered in the background. The brilliance of this is that it allows the audience to notice things that any less competent filmmaker would have just simply presented, but with someone like Edgar Wright he just leaves things like really great, funny gags way in the back that you may catch out of the corner of your eye, or other little moments that make you go “rewind that, I want to see that again”, which happens here but in a way that sets up the final act of the movie. Seeing the movie for the first time I’ll admit, I didn’t see any of these extra details, but now that I’ve seen the movie several times I feel like I’m discovering something new every time I rewatch it. Even shots are reused to make really sharp, contrasting parallels that actually help in the intensity and drama, as well as the investment in the audience.

I love movies that feel rewarding to revisit, these kinds of movies actually acknowledge that their audience is smart enough that they don’t need to have exposition jammed down their throat, they can find these details for themselves because they’re that observant, and seeing this kind of fine crafting in an animated movie of all things is the kind of thing that I want other movies like Sing, or Ice Age: Collision Course, or hell, even movies like Kubo and the Two Strings can learn a thing or two about Zootopia- movies are a visual form of storytelling, you don’t have to talk down to anyone just because your movie is restricted to needing to be seen by a younger audience, they’re smart too, and movies like this can really go a long way into showing what animation can really do.

Oh yeah, there’s a message in this movie, isn’t there? I pushed this until the very end on purpose, because, like I said, this movie has a lot of amazing things going for it that this is just icing on the cake. The message of prejudice is something that clearly hasn’t gone overlooked- it really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice it. Now I did say that I don’t think that the old concept for the movie would have worked, and here’s why: it would have come across as insanely heavy-handed. The movie would have suffered from a grim atmosphere, compounding that with the message of “prejudice is bad” would have come across as a more of a “no duh” moment, rather than how it’s presented here in the way that it’s entirely possible for someone, even if they are the nicest people in the world, to have prejudices of their own. Now, I’m being very specific with my wording here- “prejudice” and not “racism”, because the thing that it seems that some people who failed to grasp the point of the movie love to connect this movie as being a movie that’s about racism, when it could really be applied to a wide variety of different scenarios. Something else I don’t think this movie gets enough credit for is the fact that it not only gets you thinking about it, but it also helps you understand it. Not to give anything away but from the way we see one certain character be treated it actually becomes perfectly understandable why they act the way that they do- which is actually something that is really scary to think about. Again, I need to stress: “prejudice” NOT “racism”. There IS a difference, and it’s a very dangerous difference at that, and the way the movie deals with it is absolutely brilliant, as well as the fact that it answers what it can be done about it. It’s a crime mystery with a good enthralling mystery, and really smart commentary that also works within the context of the world, so even if you wanted to completely eliminate the message of this movie being connected to the real world in any way (though that’d be something really difficult to do), you can- the movie still works! The idea of taking a really beautiful, utopia and showing its ugly insides is a much smarter, more clever approach to deliver this kind of message; while there’s an obvious right and wrong, the morality is a little bit more grey and that allows you to discover shades about the characters and the world and how they all grow and develop into what, I consider to be, one of the true masterpieces of the decade. (2,636 words. This has, undoubtedly become my most positive review to date- and no, Finding Dory doesn't count because I spent half of that ranting about Pixar. Music: Shovel Knight- High Above the Land)

You know, back when I reviewed this movie the first time I gave it a... admittedly, joke review, and a joke score to go with it, but that was an intentional decision to exaggerate how I felt about the movie at the time. Though... that may not have been as far from the truth as I thought.

Yes, you're reading that right- not a 10, but an 11. I thought about this long and hard, but I can definitively say that Zootopia has joined an elite club of movies that I would call my unquestionable favorites. There's the 10s, movies which are absolutely perfect in every way, but then there's these movies- these are the movies that go above and beyond and will forever be part of a very small pantheon of movies that I not only find truly spectacular but absolutely worth watching again and again and never get tired of it. Now, if you have any problem with this... well, I'm assuming you made it 'till the end of the review, but hey that's what the comments are for, aren't they? And if not, then you're more than welcome to drink a cool, tall glass of "Shut the Fuck Up". Either way, it ain't going to ruin the way I sleep at night. Sigh... if only the next movie I had to talk about was going to be as fun as this. Next time, guys... I destroy Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Oh yes, it WILL be a bloodbath. Until then~

[pyramidhead316]

On ‘Supergirl’ and toxic relationships.

So, I didn’t know about this sh*tstorm that was going on, until I came across it while reading one of my regular jaunts through Supercorp for the day, since I’ve been steadily working on my Star Wars/Supergirl/Persona crossover and my Silent Hill fic ‘Dark Descent’. (Yes, it’s as crazy as it sounds!  ;-D) And I’ve been shocked at the mess that this has turned into it. I’ve read accounts of it on Reddit, where people have blamed the fandom from Supergirl, and said that shippers are toxic to the series. Others have said that people are taking this way too seriously.

Yes, fans may be overreacting to this. I don’t condone threats or very harsh personal insults to the cast, since they have friends and family too. But here’s the thing. We’ve just endured an entire series of one of the worst relationships I have ever seen on screen, with a character that literally makes me, a bi-leaning man, want to see Bane break him. I really wanted Bane to just put in one appearance on ‘Supergirl’, break Mon-El in half, and then leave.  :-P  Chris Wood is a good man, but he’s been stuck with playing Mon-El, a character who is one of the worst and most boring love interests I’ve ever seen on screen, and who has sucked away nearly everything I loved about the series. He pales to some of the legendary love interests who have been presented for strong female characters in the past. Hell, he pales to James who came before him! And now we’re told that LGBT people, who don’t have enough representation on screen, have to feel diminished and that they’re not worth much to the show, that they have to accept anything thrown their way even if it’s insults, that they have to have their fantasies mocked, by straight people who can never understand even an inkling of what they’re going through (God, I really want to punch some straight people tonight, after reading through that thread on Reddit), and that it’s okay to have a formerly strong female be together with an absolute slime of a man, because God forbid you have another LGBT pairing on the show? Yeah, I don’t blame them for being pissed.

By now, I’m sure we all know what was done. Jeremy Jordan said something stupid at Comic Con, and used a song to turn it into a game. Thereby earning himself and Melissa the ire of about 500,000 fans. :-P Even Gail Simone herself has chipped in on this, bashing rightfully the cast for their idiocy. That we’ve pulled a legendary comic book writer from her important work to comment on this says a lot about this situation. The problem is not that Jordan said Supercorp was never going to happen. We knew it was never going to happen. The problem is that he then turned it into a game, using it to insult the very viewers that support him, and a partial portion of the cast was stupid enough not to shut him down. This would NEVER have been done for a straight pairing, and if you’re a straight person and you believe differently, then you’re a fool and deluded.

First off, let’s be honest: the way Kara and Lena are written on ‘Supergirl’ is queer baiting. I understand this happened a lot on another show, ‘Rizzoli and Isles’, to the detriment of that show’s cast when they personally took to mocking the show’s fans who were hoping for a pairing. A lot of people never forgave them for that. Another reason why I never watched that show, besides my disinterest for police procedurals. I don’t have time for that game. Kara and Lena could easily pass for best friends at first. But the dozens of flowers as gratitude for saving (or trying to save) her reputation? The increasing relying on Kara for support? The fact that Lena and Kara have more chemistry in their little fingers than Melissa and Chris have in their entire bodies, on screen? (Where is this supposedly hot action that Karamel fans see on screen? The words that come to mind are “cold fish”. Now John Crichton and Aeryn Sun – there’s a HOT pairing! And I’m not ashamed to say that as a man.) All this has to be intentional on the part of the writers. The chemistry can be accidental – that happens in sets, but the actors can only work with what they’re given. Mon-El never should have passed beyond his comic relief role as an almost little brother for Kara, and I think the writers realize this. They have no plans for what they want to do with him in the end, but he fits the traditional white bread image of a love interest. Lena and Kara have fantastic chemistry, terrific chemistry, but the writers already have an LGBT pairing on the show, and they can’t afford another one – the censors would eat them alive. So, they write this way, teasing glimpses of something that could be more, in order to keep the LGBT audience watching, knowing that there will never be more. That’s queer baiting. Writing teasing glimpses and touches, in order to give the appearance of a possible gay relationship, knowing that there will never be another gay relationship on the show all the while.

Secondly, some people say that why is it important. Do you wonder why so many fans pair together characters in lesbian or gay relationships? People flock to pairings because there is a dearth of representation on the television. Hetero relationships have NEVER been under-represented on TV, ever. It has been the norm for so long that people have accepted it as the norm, and don’t realize that it’s not everybody’s norm. It’s become so accepted for people to assume that a character is straight that a woman could come in on a show and start flirting with every woman imaginable, and people would still assume she was straight and just playing around, unless she outright said she was gay. The same goes for men. Jonathan Frakes attempted to destroy this with an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the 90’s, by wanting a man to play his love interest, showing that love knew no gender, but big surprise, the writers never let him get it passed, out of fear of the censors. If you would just give us more LGBT pairings to root for, we wouldn’t give a crap who Supergirl was with! As it stands, you don’t and you pair her with a man that she would otherwise be advised to dump as soon as possible by most people. It’s the final insult, in a long line of insults. What do you expect to happen!?  O_O  You can’t keep pushing the LGBT fandom, teasing them and needling them whenever necessary, and not expect some fallback. Yes, sometimes it falls on the actors unfortunately, but you have to understand that a lot of people out there are getting sick of this ‘straight only, white only’ crap out there. I notice that you guys didn’t go deep into Maggie’s background in Blue Springs, because you probably didn’t want to traumatize white viewers watching it. What’s the matter, you don’t want to show how nasty white people can be in a small rural town?  o_O  (And I say this as someone who’s most favorite protagonists are mostly white (Solid Snake, Alessa Gillespie, Raiden, Anakin Skywalker, Kara, etc. The whities are strong in my fics. ;-P Yet it’s their stories I like, not their skin color.)

Wonder Woman is absolutely, blatantly acknowledged as bisexual in the comics. Why is she not portrayed as blatantly bisexual in the movie?  O_O  Are you that terrified of the few hundred Christians who will protest the decision, that you don’t want to risk ever giving a hint of it in the film? Oh no, other Amazons can be involved with women, and Diana herself admits that men are useless for pleasure, but God forbid you come out and say that she loves women. And this isn’t an attack on the WW filmmakers, they did the best they could. This is an attack on the mindset in Hollywood that says you can’t make a protagonist gay or bisexual in a strong Summer tentpole movie. Why don’t we have a major gay or bi superhero out there, in full display? Why are we letting the bigots continue to run our entertainment for us? And I hate to see this kind of crap filtering down to the television world, with its series.  :-(  Some people would say, that we should be grateful we got one LGBT couple, in Alex and Maggie. That’s exactly the point: we shouldn’t have to be grateful for only getting one couple, the scraps of whatever they deem fit to toss us? You may know more gay people in your real life than you see on TV! It’s ridiculous. When are we going to be able to see a woman loving a woman, or a man loving a man, and not have it called a perversion or “sickening” children’s minds? It’s the freakin’ 21st century. Get with the program!

Third, if it had been a man who was Lex Luthor’s brother or son, you can believe the Network would have wanted that they hook up and sleep together in three episodes into the season. You can better believe that would have happened. In fact, it would have been a demand: they would HAVE to sleep together, or the writers would be hearing from the network executives soon. Yet God forbid that a woman has something besides friendship with another woman!  :-P  Yes, it’s perfectly fine to have women be platonic friends: it’s completely ACCEPTABLE! But that’s not the whole story. Far too often, women’s love has been restrained only towards the friendly, while it was expected that any man they meet up with would immediately turn into the romantic. James, Winn, and Mon-El; three red-blooded men who fall in love with Kara, and want to be with her. Why is it that every time Kara meets a man, it has to be romantic? Yet with Lena, a woman, it’s like, oh no, she has to be a friend only! There’s a blatant double standard there, and you must be a blind man without Daredevil’s enhanced senses if you can’t see it!  :-P

What hurts about Jeremy Jordan’s words is that his character was (unfairly) characterized as a Nice Guy (™), and not the one you hope for but the other one (i.e. manipulative asshole), whereas he wasn’t that at all. I think he was a friend who genuinely fell in love with Kara, and then shifted out of it later on. He wasn’t trying to manipulate her feelings, by playing the sensitive companion. But the point is that he, out of all the cast members, should have learned that you have to be careful with what you say, and make sure writers give the right impression. It’s like the actor learned nothing from his own arc!  O_O  I can almost expect this from James’ actor, because then it would have been characterized as jealousy that his character never got a full romantic arc with Kara, and people are clamoring for one with Lena. But for this to come from Winn’s actor, who should have learned that you have to be careful with what you say, because of his own story, is just incredible to believe. I’m glad the actor who plays J’onn J’onzz is staying out of it. He seems to be the wisest of all the main performers there.

I just find this all sickening. The fact that LGBT fans still have to fight for even the slightest shred of respect, and that the smug straight people call them “immature” or “perverts”, or “toxic” or “obsessed for it”. F*cking bastards. It just makes me sick, and makes me wish to never interact with the ‘normal’ fans ever again. If this is what the ‘normal’ fans look like…I’d rather be with the shippers, thank you very much.  :-P

Why are gay people and bi people pissed all the time with TV shows? Because gay people ALL DIE in serious programs!!  O_O  The Clexa thing is an example. You have a 10 times greater chance of dying in a serious TV show, if you’re a gay person! No happy endings are allowed, no sirree. You have to satisfy the Network’s demands that gay people are a perversion, and deserve to die, even if it’s heroically. Whereas with a straight couple, God forbid they have some fatal trouble in their relationship.  :-P  Some people dismiss that as an insignificant detail, that some people are obsessed with Lexa. I used to think that way, too. Until they realized the truth. Many, if not most straight protagonists make it through their relationship intact. Gay people don’t.

I’ll be honest, I am not going to be watching the season 3 episode when it first premiers. Not just because of this, but because of all the crap with Mon-El, the lazily scripted arcs, the people acting completely out-of-character for the sake of the plot, the hints of Lena turning evil, and many other things. Mon-El sucked all the joy I found out of watching ‘Supergirl’, and the crap going on around him didn’t help. I didn’t care for watching ‘The Mon-El Show’ week after week, and it just became a chore to watch, week in and week out. Sometimes I even switched over to ‘Dancing With The Stars’, even though the lineup was the worst it had been in several years, because I got bored with ‘Supergirl’. At that point, I’d rather have watched a show about J’onn J’onzz and his little adventures, than turn to follow Kara and Mon-El. :-P  I’ll wait about six episodes in, until I make sure that it’s good, before tuning in. It wouldn’t be the first time I abandoned a series. I stopped watching ‘The X-Files’ way before the final episode ever aired, and I gave up on ‘Farscape’ for a brief little while when it was obvious the writers had no idea what they were doing, until they got themselves back on track. (Which they did. Thank God.) I have no trouble easily abandoning a series for a few short episodes, until it sorts itself out. Kara’s strong characterization is gone. The strong sisterly bond she shared with Alex is gone. J’onn’s commanding presence is gone, thanks to being hijacked by Mon-El. Lena is set to be evil, from what it looks like, which would completely take away the grayness of her character and stupidly prove that “You are more than your family” just isn’t true.  :-P  Cat Grant is sorely missed, because James is no replacement, Snapper is sure as hell no replacement, and as cruel as she was, she brought something to the show which is lacking now. Getting rid of the “strong feminist tones” to satisfy the red-blooded American male, apparently means making it like everything else. There is nothing worth watching on ‘Supergirl’ at this time. That’s the simple truth. Besides the occasional guest starring character; those are always good (i.e. Superman, Mxy, etc.). Unless they’re Daxamite. Then they just suck.  :-P  I hate to put it this way, but maybe it’ll spur some clarity in some folks. ‘Supergirl’ has become a toxic relationship in itself, expecting you to take whatever crap it dishes out, because hey it’s tradition! – that’s what all the other shows do, and I’m cutting it right now. No one is forced to watch, not even if Melissa’s or Chyler’s acting is excellent, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, I won’t watch. It’s that simple.  :-P  Unless the show does some serious redeeming, gets back to strong characterization, and forces Mon-El to show remorse for all of the godawful things he did and his godawful fratboy douchebag personality, I’m not going to come back for what is sure to be a sh*tshow of white privilege and faux-romantic arcs painfully grinding strong women down. I miss the way the show was when CBS used to run it.  :-(

The irony? I wished for it to be a part of The CW Arrowverse. I see now that my wish was horribly misguided.  :-(

*And I can assure you that Mon-El is going to get the most unholy of beatings in my fic. Nothing personal, but his clownish personality and incompetent fighting skills make me sick, and other heroes that aren’t Kara aren’t going to stand for this crap. Can you imagine Batman training this guy? Holy sh*t, Bruce Wayne would go ballistic!  :-P  As for Winn, I was going to give him a cute little obsession with Star Wars, once he realized the Jedi were real. Oh no, Serra is going to take him to task now, for some of his more annoying foibles. :-P  No mercy for the I.T. Hobbit. (And to think, I used to hate that nickname. No longer. You suck, Jeremy Jordan. Thank you for ruining my pure, innocent image of Winn.  :-P)

No anonymous messages bashing my views, please. I automatically delete any anonymous messages I receive on my inbox, on every site I’m on whether they’re positive or negative.  :-P