#completely out of tone with everything else in the movie imo

[sainamoonshine]

I was today years old when I found out that silly goofy deeply unserious « deleted scene » from the end of 2005 Pride and Prejudice is THE ACTUAL ENDING OF THE MOVIE IN THE USA.

They just cut it out for the UK and Canada versions because test audiences told them - entirely correctly - that it was bad and the movie ending was much stronger without it lol

So anyway I found this out while listening to the Pod and Prejudice podcast discussing the movie and for a solid fifteen minutes I was like « what the FUCK » and cringing in embarrassment that the hosts and guest had apparently been bamboozled into thinking a deleted scene was the actual end of the movie

And then I googled « does P&P have a different ending in Canada »

And oh my fucking god it DOES ahahaha what the fuck

[austinsastrology8991]

> 2nd House Lord in the Houses <

2nd house is about values/Investments - its what you value, and how others see the potential growth in you. also where you stubborn/stuckup its also about your voice - (throat) or its 3rd > Idk still trynna figure that out - but just run with it on this post okay (but its probs both considering 2 houses away from 2 is 3....) I view 2nd house themes like business investments; where your the main shareholder of whatever you invested your time and energy into

2nd house lord in the 1st - you invest in yourself - you are very preoccupied by how much value that you bring to the table. your very self aware of what you are good at, and what you are not so good at. this is > 12 < houses away from the 2nd so what you invest into is something that will require much self actualisation, you will undergo a process of filtering what is and isn't of value many times over in this lifetime, because you are someone who only wants quality within yourself, and that of your surroundings. You also may have a voice that is very recognisable, and you can change the tone in your voice a lot, maybe a lil ethereal (12) but its very noticeable (1) “Hey, hey, motherfuckers!” - roman roy 2nd house lord in the 2nd - You invest in worthwhile investments - You are very conscious of how you invest your energy, and so you typically invest into high value things or what is 'worth'while, nothing grinds your gears more than wasting your time. this is > 1 < houses away from the 2nd so people can tell very quickly, your time is valuable, and you yourself are high value; your like the fortune 3 pick axe (yes I said that).... because of this they aware that they cannot waste your time, otherwise you'll just leave lol. You likely have a very sensual voice (2) which is highly noticeable (1) "two little mice fell into a bucket of cream..." type beat 2nd House lord in the 3rd - You invest into education - You believe knowledge is one of the most valuable things you can acquire, and because of this your knowledge is ever-growing, and one of your greatest assets. This is > 2 < houses away meaning you do not waste your time; 'time is money' and since you want to invest in only the most valuable sources of information, it pays off; the type to read only the most noteworthy books (catcher in the rye and the crucible; wassup), and watch the most talked about movies (wassup whiplash and nightcrawler). You value your time, and you value your education above everything else so you take it all very seriously. Your voice can be a bit more high pitched (3) but its also very sensual (2) and maybe you'll learn to value it more as you grow; 2nd house theme is about growth; 'started from the bottom now we here' 2nd house lord in the 4th - You make emotionally sound investments These natives are a natural at putting there money where their mouth is. because if they make the wrong investments it completely dishevels them emotionally. They also are growing into their comfort zones and this makes others feel very comfortable to be around them. This is > 3 < houses away meaning they are investing into education/research and because their intelligence is naturally in a state of growth, they feel very stupid if they make a bad decision, they get kinda emotional. This would also indicate they value their family a lot, and it should get better as time goes on. Their voice is likely a higher pitch (3) and a little soft (4) but its actually a great thing imo because the moon is exalted in taurus so I imagine some overlap here. "like a competent kind of clever filing cabinet that everyone seems content to have around." 2nd house lord in the 5th - you invest into your kingdom You value yourself a lot; you want to shine in how valuable you are and if you fail to do so you can get a bit of an ego tantrum. This is > 4 < houses away so you can get emotional about not living up to the value that your ego has set for yourself. Because of how much you put value into your >ego</emotions you are highly recognizable as someone who is constantly evolving and striving for better outcomes for yourself (5) and your a natural at this by now (4) Your also the type to only invest in the same thing over n over because you find comfort in it, and it feeds your ego > its like getting special discounts from your favourite store makes you feel a lil more special (me too fam i getchu) Your voice is loud (5) but also soft and comforting (4). "young moneay"

2nd house lord in the 6th - you invest in yo daily life for the best outcomes You value what you do a lot. you don't like to waste your time so you always spend it efficiently. This is > 5 < houses away so everyone recognises you as someone who don't fuck around with what you do with your life. You pride yourself on your achievements and this attitude is so healthy > many people admire your hard work, (6) and your dominant attitude (5) to get shit dun; people readily respect it. This is one of the better placements considering its trikona or whatever the fuck its called; but everyone respects a hard worker and we appreciate the effort <3 Your voice can be a bit raspy, you may not like to speak up (6) but others love it/ and its bald(5) He's offered seven million dollars for your life. Seven million dollars is a lot of money, Mr. Wick.

2nd house lord in the 7th - you invest in sum people (choosy) You value your close partners/bestfriends and because of how much you appreciate them, you are very decisive on who you let in; in your life. It is > 6 < houses away so you may view everyone as a bit of a work in progress, but some people you consider are worth the effort. so you don't mind pulling out yo credit card and tappin for the bill on the people who are your favourites. You also value hard work a lot, and you may look for 'high value' people who are worth dealing with. Your voice is likely very balanced/stable (wtf does that mean fuck me idk but libra shit okay) (7) and a bit raspy but people like it (6). "I call you gata, 'cause you's a wild cat" 2nd house lord in the 8th - you invest like a gambler You value what you get from something.... Consider the concept of gambling; high risk; high reward and ya'll love that shit. and well consider it being > 7 < houses away there is nothing more high risk than placing value onto someone else, because people are probably the most disappointing thingz we all have to deal with. But ya'll are exceptional at power (8) and because of this power you have developed/ constantly growing, its really only useful against others (7) when it comes down to it. Your voice is likely deep (8) and well balanced and stuff (7) "So I tell him there's one of me, he makin' fun of me (ha-ha) His girl is a bum to me (grrah)" - what a fkn banger cuh but have you heard the cartman remix? its better (youtooz advert)

2nd house lord in the 9th - you invest into pyramid schemes You invest wisely / extremely strategically with lots of well renowned philosophies to back you up; makes it easier to feel better about spending yo money, when it is likely gonna pay off.. this is > 8 < houses away so you have been developing your power/allure and its paying off in your mindset/ belief in yoself and I mean you too like a bit of gamblin in life; it pays well don't it? Business savy and everyone knows the real money is always hiding (8) and you are well aware of this fact (9). Your voice is likely naturally loud (9) and seductive/deep (8) "you take the blue pill.... but if you take the red pill tho...." 2nd house lord in the 10th - you invest in business and business is business and business is good You are a manifestor investor... wait thats not a word... did ya'll know thats not a word? anyway; your well known to place your money into the enrichment of your ultimate destiny, and well it likely has or will pay off for you, because no one stfu about how you spend your time/energy/money. this is > 9 < houses away, so you have a carefully constructed philosophy on how you are going to thrive in the business landscape. Your reputation should grow much and well, but in terms of what you place your value in; it would have taken much effort to finally grasp what really is worthy of your time (10 about mastery) but since 9 blessin yo ass you should be fine. This is probably one of the best ones to have in terms of growth - but I didn't say that. Your voice is likely deep/authoritative (10) and louddd (9) "Everyday I'm hustlin' hustlin' Hustle, hustlin' hustlin'" 2nd house lord in the 11th - you invest in yo people fo da people You are kinda a genius at investments because you've spread out your investments in many different avenues/affiliates/communites and well one has to fkn pay off at this point (and it likely will pay it big for you, because 11 is massive gains). This is > 10 < houses away so your like known for ur investments and well maybe you gettin a lot of eyes on you as people are wondering if they can invest in you, or if you'd invest into them... your voice is likely something of a wat da fuck; (11) and authoritative (10) "you can pay me and I'll play a song or dance for you; what would you like?" - every other quote is real i made this up because i have a scene from Futurama in my head but i cbf finding it > respect the honesty okay 2nd house lord in 12th - you invest in strange things and most of them are your stupid friends you don't have the soundest judgement for business, but you know what it somehow does pay off, because the 12th house is confusing af, and people are confused at how tf you made a profit outta that investment you made. But It is > 11 < houses away and well you do love to invest in your mates, and it actually could grow into lots of fortune (11th house is massive gains) however it is primarly 12th house energy and your investments are mostly surrounded by cloudy judgement that can and should pay off later and massively (11). Your voice is ethereal and hard to pin point because of its changeable nature (12) and also a bit wat da fuq (11) "I was born rich life ain't fair"

Sidenote - when I speak about the tone in your voice please check the planets in the 2nd. but also the degrees of the cusp, and the house lord planet/degrees. > I don't wanna hear a bunch of squeakers tellin me they don't sound like that CHECK YO WHOLE CHART <

before anyone asks about the gifs - itz call of duty zombiez > my childhood ;p > goood timez < 1st gif is called 'random weapon' or 'mystery box'; it is easily the most worthy investment to make in the game (950 points), and you never know how profitable it is hence the name 2nd gif is called 'pack a punch' and to go the furthest in the game it is necessary to invest 5000 points into your weapon to make it the most powerful it can be if anyone played - my highest round is like 80 or someshit and that was on Revalations. and on Mob of the Dead I got 70 i'm pretty sure but idr its been so long..... basically all you need to know I was a god at that game... and Ik most of ya'll don't care/play but dont make fun of my gifs or imma eat your face off like a zombie

[coldgoldlazarus]

I think I've talked before about this, but I have kind of a weird relationship with the Metru-Nui arc. Because like, there's lots of stuff about that era (The Toa Mangaia, the Dark Hunters, the Brotherhood, all the EU deeplore nonsense) that I just do not care about at all, that a lot of the fandom tends to fixate on for some reason. On some level, even just the aesthetic departure from the early years' tropical vibes to more of a like, traditional science-fiction futuristic urban style, I'm in theory not really a fan of? Plus the the shift from mythology to a more superhero-adjacent framing of Toa as a concept.

But at the same time I also really love the characters and the main story of those two years, and I think taken as a complete but isolated package, it's Bionicle's peak of storytelling and Greg's writing, even if it doesn't have the same scope as the Ignition Trilogy or the iconicness and level of immersion as the Mata Nui years.

And like, a big part of it is Vakama's personal growth, of course, but IMO that's only the most obvious area where it succeeds. The whole thing is a remarkably complete and internally consistent package even with the movies and their novelizations making for something of a disjointed presentation in some spots. But like, the story being told has a very consistent mood and atmosphere, and a lot of the story beats and character development is shaped by a key driving thematic thrust.

Tone-wise, it is a noir detective story first and foremost, and an action adventure with magic robots as a bonus to that. The first book's title establishes this pretty plainly, and most of the novels are driven by a mystery of some sort. What happened to the Matoran, and who is the traitor? Where is the Morbuzakh coming from, and why? What's hidden in the deep tunnels? What is the 'heart of Metru Nui' and what is Dume's plan? Where are we going now? Where did these mutated Rahi come from? What happened to the city while we were gone? Were we not meant to be Toa all along? How can we save Vakama? What happened to the timeline?

These are admittedly a bit of a reach in some spots, and there were definitely some weaker installments in among there, (*coughMazeOfShadowscough*) but regardless, the general idea holds true. Even though the movies very much depict Metru Nui in that alien sci-fi style, whenever I read the books, I usually just wind up picturing an old-timey 1910s big city straight out of a black-and-white Noir film, with those more futuristic elements lightly sprinkled in on top. And of course, as many have pointed out, Vakama's arc, particularly in 2005, is very noir.

But that's still like, mainly an aesthetic, a vibe, but that doesn't really say much about what it's about. And I definitely think it's about something.

First of all, I think it's helped in part by being a prequel to the original years, so the overall aim of the story and where it's going is already locked in, and everything else is inherently built around that. We have to explain why and how Metru-Nui fell and the Matoran ended up exiled to Mata Nui in the first place. Simple idea.

And even though 2005 wasn't originally part of the plan, I think it adds to it, because it creates this one-two punch of tragedy and aftermath. 2004 is all about the dawning realization of how corrupt and oppressive the city truly is, and that the goal isn't to stop it's fall, but just to save the people who called it home. Even if it aided Makuta's plan, one could argue that Metru-Nui needed to fall, and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that it was a totalitarian nightmare well before he began posing as Dume, and he was simply taking advantage of and intensifying the pre-existing issues.

(There's also a supporting point to this idea alluded to in The Darkness Below and Voyage Of Fear regarding Rahi, that I don't quite know how to properly phrase but that will probably get its own text wall when I do.)

But then in 2005 they have to return afterwards and see the aftermath, the ruins, and have it rubbed in their faces that despite everything that was fundamentally wrong with Metru-Nui before, it was still their home, the only home they knew, and they have lost that now, and there was nothing they could have done about it. They had lives and homes and a place in life, and that's all gone now.

(And we as the audience know that they will go on to build something far, far better and happier in Mata-Nui, but they don't know that.)

Everything from Krahka's arc in The Darkness Below and Challenge Of The Hordika, to the in-depth look at Le-Metru's fate in Web Of The Visorak, to the displaced Tahtorak, to Vakama getting to re-experience the glory and oppression of the pre-fall city in Time Trap only to have it ripped away again and revealed as the illusion it is... I could list examples all day, but nearly every element in those books ties in, one way or another, to the overarching theme of loss and exile that defines those two years.

It's somewhat ironic, then, (and portentous of later developments) that the framing device in those books is about the islanders preparing to return to Metru Nui, when everything in that story is exploring how you can never go home again.

[wahbegan]

Malignant Review (minor spoilers)

Well, implicit spoilers in that i briefly touch on the fact the fact that the movie is pretty badly self-spoiling IMO and i give a content warning, but that’s it

Anyway....let’s get this out of the way right now so that we can get to the good part.

Malignant is not, in any sense of the word, a GOOD film. Nor is it, apart from some delightfully gruesome violence, effective in any way as a horror movie.

The acting is universally subpar, the writing is just awful, and there is not a single character I could detect any amount of effort put into in any way.

What it DOES have going for it is that it’s much more interesting than the trailers would have you believe. And by interesting, I of course mean......fucking bizarre.

This is the weirdest shit I’ve seen in a long time, and you know how I never stop banging on about movies like Kill List and Possum. 

I’m not even talking about the much buzzed-about BIG TWIST which, frankly, I saw coming from the International Space Station. This has nothing at all to do with my intelligence and everything to do with the movie telegraphing it way too heavily, way too soon. Fuck, the title of the movie itself is a spoiler, and it fucking bafflingly does everything but spell it out in the first five minutes, in a cold open that is campy and tonally all over the god damned place.

I was about to call it out-of-place but, you know what, the whole movie’s pretty much like that so it fits strangely well.

So yes, the twist, in spite of its overt, in-your-face weirdness, is not what makes this movie weird.

It’s just literally every fucking thing else about the movie.

I’m not totally sure how i’m supposed to feel watching this. After the incredibly campy, made-for-tv syfy movie intro, it goes straight to the protagonist being violently abused by her husband, who blames her for her multiple miscarriages. Well, THAT was abrupt! Later there’s a completely flippant mention of a teenager impregnated by rape that is, you guessed it, never brought up again!

Then the movie is so god damned excited to get to the murdering that that happens almost immediately, with the kill sequences ranging from inexplicable Giallo throwbacks to cop show chase scenes to spookhouse “someone in the mirror” flickering tv bullshit to....an action movie shoot-out setpiece???? what the fuck is HAPPENING???

There is a character whose sole defining character trait is wanting to fuck the lead detective. That’s it. Literally every line out of her mouth is either expository or trying to ineptly flirt with the dick. That’s it!!! 

The two hour run-time is overly long, yet everything feels rushed. Nobody is developed at all!! I could not name a single personality trait or interest of the protagonist.

I could tell you about the antagonist...he looks like a member of Slipknot, he talks like Venom with less charm, and he has superpowers that are literally never explained and come and go as the plot demand.

At one point, when the protagonist is (shock!) suspected of the villain’s murders, she’s put in a holding cell and is immediately jumped by a Joe Dirt looking ass white trash woman and a black woman who looks exactly like Cleopatra fucking Jones. I’m sorry, are we doing blaxploitation now? What the hell is this character doing here??? Why is she immediately beating on the protagonist? Oh, she’s a plot device with an afro and bell-bottoms, i see

What we have here, boys and girls, is a film where James Wan clearly came up with the concept, the elevator pitch if you will, and felt that was good enough to carry the whole movie so he just sort of haphazardly slapped a story around it. Slapped whatever shit he wanted to around it, frankly, to see what would stick.

And the twist is fun, I won’t lie. Seeing it in action, even knowing what it is, is pretty great, and it’s definitely the thing’s main hook.

But is it enough? The movie’s random, jarring tone shifts and air of amateur, almost deliberately shitty film-making is enough to keep you watching, the same way you wouldn’t be able to take your eyes off of a flamingo struggling to keep its balance with a wiggly dildo duct-taped to its forehead. But can i, in good conscience, recommend a movie simply for being a trainwreck with a fun twist?

Tbh, it’s up to you. If you’re looking for a movie with artistic merit or something to actually scare you, may I direct you to Nia DaCosta’s Candyman.

But if you’ve had a few, or smoked a bowl, and you’re with some friends, it’ll definitely give you a LOT to talk about.

But here’s my ultimate criticism of this movie. If James Wan was going for a Venom-esque campy, off-the-wall screwball horror movie, which I’m confident he was, he didn’t commit to it nearly enough.

The screwball tone is half-assed and, as I said up above, there is some really dark shit just casually slipped in there like it ain’t no thing. The acting is bad, but not one of the cast has the guts to gloriously ham it up and chew the scenery. The characters are stilted and weird, but not in a particularly amusing way. The camp is campy, but it’s not campy ENOUGH.

Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by my eyeballs having been graced with some of the wildest shit you’ve ever seen, but most of the praise for and buzz around this movie, is how zAnY it is, which is clearly something it prides itself on as well.

To which i say: that’s the zaniest you can do, Mr. Wan??? MAKE IT ZANIER NEXT TIME

[jadelotusflower]

March 2021 Roundup

Reading

Benevolence by Julie Janson - One of those books that caught my eye at the library (I’m a sucker for the “top picks” shelf) and I’m glad I picked up. The story of Muraging, given over in 1813 to the Parramatta Native School, but always trying to find a way back to her family and culture in the brutal early days of colonisation - resilient in the face of so much hardship. Janson is a Burruberongal woman of the Durag Aboriginal Nation, and Muraging is based on her great-great grandmother and Durag oral histories. An engrossing but often difficult read, about a period of history not often told from this perspective.

One Day by David Nicholls - A book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for so long I don’t even remember buying it. I vaguely recall seeing the movie adaptation on a plane once so must have enjoyed it, but can’t say I would recommend this book. Depicting St Swithin’s Day every year in the lives of two absolute character cliches, from one night stand, to friendship, romance and marriage. The concept is neat and the writing has wit, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care about Dex (insufferable twat) and Emma (not like other girls) or their love story. Okay, it’s not that bad. It kind of grew on me by the end.

Watching

Superman and Lois (episodes 1-5) - I’ve had reservations about this show because of this but am giving it a shot. I have not followed the Arrowverse/Crisis but a friend did her best to explain it to me, although honestly I found it this show works just as well as a standalone. The premise is simple - Lois and Clark return to Smallville with their twin sons for teen superhero angst part two. To be honest, it feels so much like a Smallville revival that...I kind of wish it was?  

Tyler Hoechlin makes a good Clark, but that padded Superman suit is an embarrassment - get rid of those fake muscles and show us some super collarbones! Elizabeth Tulloch is growing on me as Lois - she’s very...subdued, but imo lacking that spark Kidder, Hatcher, and Durance had. Honestly, subdued it how I would describe the show overall. Also the colour palette is sooo drab because gritty realism I guess.

I enjoy the family drama aspect of it, although I wish one of the kids was a girl. I mean, I understand why they’re twin boys - the son becomes the father and the father the son and all that - complete with both sons being named after both of Clark’s fathers (is there a name for the trope of the hero’s kids being named after his dead family/mentors as if the mother had no input??). The Captain Luthor/Morgan Edge plots are still in the setup stage so hard to comment on them. 

I sound harsh, I don’t dislike the show overall (and there’s some really good elements there). We’ll see, I guess.

Man of Steel/Batman v Superman/Zack Snyder’s Justice League - I’ve never really been a huge fan of the Snyderverse, and have been trying my best to avoid the Discourse about the Snyder cut over the past few years (from both sides). I have however been following what Ray Fisher has had to say, and can’t deny my interest was piqued by the idea that there was an entirely different film out there that did right by its characters. So I went back and revisited MoS/BvS before embarking on JL to give the franchise another shot.

While I still don’t really vibe with Snyder’s aesthetic (it’s just a bit bleak and muddy for me) I think these films are actually better when viewed together as one long story. I can appreciate that he made an effort to step away from the Donner nostalgia, and tell this epic modern myth of gods among men, and can enjoy it for what it is. The Snyder cut was entertaining enough, and I quite enjoyed aspects of it - Cyborg is indeed the heart of the film (but I honestly wish it had been explored in his own movie), and Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Flash break up the dreary tone.

It was nice to see the Amazons again (and I loved “Amazon’s, show your fear”/“we have no fear”). I like this take on Clark and Lois, even if most of the relationship happens offscreen, and there’s certainly more in the Snyder cut - even if I wish there was greater depth to Clark’s arc in particular, less of the god and more of the man.

I did however notice a pattern in these films in that I was interested/compelled by the first world building/character half, and having my eyes glaze over in the endless action cgi-fest of the second half (I have this issue with Marvel too). And the Snyder cut is indeed endless - it rivals Return of the King for number of endings but is much less cohesive, like Snyder was throwing everything at the wall since this might be his last chance. There’s a nice montage at the end with a bit of hope, and I was thinking well this is a nice uplifting note to end on, thank you! But nope, twenty more minutes of grimdark prophecising (in isolation, an interesting scene, but felt so out of place to show the team torn apart again immediately after we’ve just seen them come back together).

I also lol’d at David Thewlis getting a front credit for what amounted to his cgi face behind a massive helmet. Collect that paycheck, my man!

Coming 2 America - I watched the original as a teenager more times than I can count, truly iconic. Look, I dislike the sequel/reboot/remake merry go round when it dominates the scene, but to be honest I am a sucker for a sequel that’s lovingly made and really just an excuse to get the band back together and have fun. Worth it for the costumes and dance sequences alone (especially the En Vogue/Salt n Pepper/Gladys Knight mashup), but I really enjoyed this overall. There’s nothing groundbreaking and it doesn’t try to be. Was it necessary? No. But did I enjoy it? Absolutely.

Actually, scratch that. The costumes and hair are absolutely necessary.

The Prom (dir. Ryan Murphy) - Now I love a movie musical and this was...fine. It’s sweet and I enjoyed Meryl Streep doing her best Patti Lupone, and Nicole Kidman clearly having fun (even if she can’t Fosse to save her life) although I can’t say I found any of the songs memorable. James Corden, however, is pure cringe for reasons outlined here. But overall it’s light and fluffy, and not a terrible way to spend two hours of your life.

Superstore (seasons 1-6) - I’ve been binging on this for a while, and it’s a fun little show about the employees of a big box store - it’s nice to see America Ferrera back on screen (with producer credit). A great, diverse cast, but MVPs for me are Lauren Ash as Dina (you may recognise her voice as Scorpia from She-Ra), and Kaliko Kauahi as Sandra. While it did touch on some real-world issues - corporation malfeasance, unionisation, etc - ultimately it’s lighthearted and pleasant, especially the series finale that just goes full happy ending with a nice break from grim reality.

Allen v Farrow (dir. Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering) - I’ve never watched a Woody Allen film, and the clips I’ve seen of Woody Allen films haven’t changed my mind on this point. But what struck me seeing the clips of Manhattan in this documentary is just how young Muriel Hemingway was - this is not the Hollywood standard 22 year old playing 17 (which is problematic in other ways) but an actual teenager with a baby face and childlike voice, in bed with a 40+ year old man and I am baffled that this film is so highly regarded - if nothing else it’s right up there on the screen.

But of course there is so much else, which makes this documentary hard to watch at times. To those who have followed these events there’s not much new here, but it does an excellent job of compiling the sources together and giving a timeline of events, as well as refuting many of the pro-Allen arguments, and giving Dylan a chance to speak for herself. There’s also a companion podcast which is worth a listen for added perspective.

Writing

I actually finished something, finally! Posted Debrief, a Smallville one-shot (3920 words). 1670 words done on my other Smallville wip.

Posted chapter 41 of Turn Your Face to the Sun (1865 words). Now that the Obi-Wan show is actually happening, I need to get this finished before it all becomes moot.

Total: 7455 words this month, making 23,962 for the year.

[loopy777]

What’s your favorite composition by John Williams? And if you can’t choose just one, list your top 10.

My personal favorite is “Welcome to Jurassic Park,” the finale and credits music for the original Jurassic Park. I love the Jurassic Park theme, and this is a great suite of it combined with the ‘island theme.’ I like it even better than the concert versions of the same combination, as I think those are performed too quickly, even when Williams conducts.

And since I love talking about this, I’m also going to keep going for a top 10! Yay!

“Adventures on Earth” (from ‘E.T. the Extra Terrestrial’): Again, this is the finale and credits, which touches on all the great themes from the movie and includes the big, rousing, emotional climax. It’s funny- just two days ago I was talking about how everyone was comparing the end of Mandalorian Season 2 to the ending of E.T., and I speculated that the reason it didn’t work as well for me as everyone else is because Ludwig Göransson, while a great composer, just doesn’t do that Spielberg-sentimentality as well as Williams. But then, no one does.

“A New Hope and End Credits” (from ‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’): I’m cheating with this one. I love the Star Wars music. It’s what made me aware of John Williams in the first place, and it got me to realize that the reason I wasn’t excited by all the pop music that my peers were into wasn’t because I disliked music- I just didn’t like that music. Star Wars taught me that I like the full, complicated performance of an orchestra, that the different sounds of the various instruments intrigue me more than lyrics (which I have to concentrate to understand), and that I like storytelling in music. Star Wars is probably the ultimate expression of that in the career of John Williams, not just because of how thematic it is, but also the breadth afforded by his doing nine movies spread across over 40 years. So how do I pick something to represent that? The main theme? The recurring Force theme? A suite? Yes, I have to go with a suite. But which one? I went with the one from the finale of ‘Revenge of the Sith’ for several reasons. It includes nice expressions of the themes of Leia and Luke, referencing the classic trilogy. It has “Battle of the Heroes,” which I consider one of the standouts of the prequel trilogy. And, for the soundtrack release, this suite includes pretty much all of the expanded version of “The Throne Room” from the very first Star Wars movie, which I feel was a great way for John Williams to take a bow at the end of a trilogy that can be criticized for many things but absolutely not the soundtrack. (By comparison, the soundtrack release for ‘Rise of Skywalker’ was a bit of an anti-climax, as Williams’ last Star Wars movie. That should have included a whole second CD that’s just an hour-long suite of music from the entire 9-film saga! Disney could have afford to take a loss on it! If they’re not going to release properly restored versions of the full series’ soundtracks, they owe to the John Williams fans!) And, of course, there are multiple expression of the Force theme in this piece, from the ‘binary sunset’ final scene of the movie itself to the B-segment of “Battle of the Heroes” to various parts of “The Throne Room,” and that theme might very well be the signature of the series at this point, since it has meaningful recurrence throughout the saga. The main Star Wars theme is Luke’s theme, and is reused throughout the saga as callbacks and call-forwards to that same kind of heroism, but George Lucas kind of messed up the focus there when he expanded things with the prequels. So the Force them is really the dominant theme in the saga, and that’s appropriate. I probably could have selected just the Force theme for this, but by cheating and picking a suite, I get other stuff, too, and get to acknowledge the prequel-era music (which is arguably superior to Williams’ work on the classic trilogy), so it’s a win all around.

“Out to Sea / The Shark Cage Fugue” (from ‘Jaws’): I think we have to recognize that John Williams has made an indelible mark on all of human culture- it is impossible for us include a shark in our media without a pulsating musical motif. He has literally defined the sound of sharks in our imagination. Even so, I think the soundtrack to Jaws is under-valued; sure, everyone knows the shark theme, and there’s no big thematic stuff like in Star Wars or super-emotional stuff like in most of the Spielberg scores, but it’s still a great soundtrack with really solid adventuring music that’s so wonderfully lively and fun to listen to. This suite is a great example of that, mixing samples from the second half of the movie with lighthearted moments, some of the more action-y chase music, and some darker stuff like when the ship is destroyed by the shark. I’ll often just whistle parts of this for fun even if I haven’t listened to the soundtrack or watched Jaws in over a year.

“The Visitors / Bye / End Titles” (from ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’): People are sleeping on this soundtrack, let me tell you. It starts out with weird alien sounds and standard action music, but the ending -- where mankind makes peaceful contact with aliens via the medium of music -- is one of the standouts of Williams’ entire career, one of the greatest examples of that Spielberg sentimentality. I find this music to be absolutely glorious, majestic and full and transcendent. The little joke of having an instrumental recurrence of “When You Wish Upon A Star” along with the ‘five tones’ motif is something I find actively amusing- wish upon a star, and alien life with reach out in response! XD I wish I could have linked to some of the alternate arrangements from the restored 40th Anniversary release from La La Land Records, because they’re absolutely fabulous and I love blaring them on my car’s speakers, but it seems that no one has pirated and posted them on Youtube. WHAT ARE PEOPLE DOING WITH THEIR TIME?!

“Remembering Childhood” (from ‘Hook’): Look, I don’t care what people think of the movie. I haven’t even watched it all the way through in over a decade, probably. But this is one of Williams’ best scores, no fooling. I want a 5-CD expanded soundtrack of this thing with every second of music from the film, the stuff that was recorded that didn’t make the final cut, alternate versions of the stuff that was used, etc. I love this music. Every moment is great. And Remembering Childhood is one of the standouts; it uses the main flying theme at the end, and the beginning is a big triumphant instrumental rendition of the “When You’re Alone” song that sounds great. But the showcase is the stuff that accompanies Peter Banning getting his memories back and becoming Peter Pan once again. It’s emotional and reflective and nostalgic and heartwarming. It’s a perfect musical sandwich.

“Prelude and Main Title March” (from ‘Superman’): Just like John Williams invented the sound of sharks, he invented the sound of cinematic superheroes with his score for Superman. It’s the perfect embodiment of the first and ultimate superhero, and everything that’s been written for the character since has either been a pale imitation or a deliberate attempt to do something different (to lesser effect). And I love the exuberant sound it has, like it’s shouting, “It’s Superman!”

“Love Theme” (from ‘Superman’): Two from Superman?! I didn’t even mange to fit two from Star Wars and had to resort to a suite! (Not that Superman isn’t one of Williams’ best. It’s great.) However, I feel like I had to include this one. Lots of movies have love themes, and Williams himself has written a bunch. But IMO the Love Theme From Superman is the best of them. I’ve never been in love and I don’t ever expect to be, but I have to imagine that this is what love sounds like.

“Theme from Schindler’s List”: There’s a lot of music on this list that’s warm and positive and exciting, but John Williams is also great at quieter stuff, without losing any of emotion. I think the theme from ‘Schindler’s List’ is probably the preeminent example of that, perfectly mournful and full of the proper sound, a unique sound that’s completely unmistakable. Of course, Itzhak Perlman‘s performance is a huge part of that. The theme is still good when played by others, but there’s something special about Perlman’s rendition.

“A New Beginning” (from ‘Minority Report’): Another finale, but this one isn’t a summary of the rest of the movie’s music like the others. It’s a fairly stand-alone piece, but I just love the sound of it. I’m never getting married and I don’t dance, but this is totally going to be the music for the first dance at my wedding reception.

If anyone else has favorites from John Williams’ oeuvre, feel to reply or reblog with additions. I’d love an excuse to re-listen to those.

[minijenn]

Sigh...

Alright, enough is enough. 

Time to give a certain someone exactly what they want. 

(long, drama-related post under the cut imo)

So since I would say around May or April, just about every single day, several times a day, I’ve been receiving a handful of negative guest/anon reviews on both UF and Keys on Ao3 and FF.Net alike. The crux of every single one of these reviews basically boils down to hatred for the Stonemason idea being used in UF2, specifically the idea that Yellow Diamond will be redeemed after it. To be even more specific, here are some things this individual (and despite using several different “names” to post these reviews under, I am well aware that they’re all coming from the same person) has accused me of: 

1. Singling Dipper out for “baseless angst” (when that’s not even true, that entire arc will stir up angst for just about everyone). Also says I’m wrong just for enjoying writing angst when its a genre that a lot of people like writing/reading, I’m not the only one smh it’s popular for a reason. 

2. Being willing to let YD get off scott-free for what she does to Dipper in that arc (something that I never said and even if I did say it in the past that’s not necessarily my current plan now) just because her and the other Diamonds were redeemed in SU canon (which again, I have confirmed that I’m not necessarily following to the letter and I’m still currently very much in the process of trying to figure out what I want to do in that regard)

3. The Stonemason arc being an example of “bad writing” and being full of “holes” despite the fact that its NOT written yet and WON’T be written for another few years or so at this rate

4. Claiming that the only reason why I’m willing to let YD off the hook for her actions is because I see her as “attractive” and a “wiafu”, despite the fact that anytime I say that I’m clearly joking, that’s what I do around here smh 

5. Making several blatant attacks on my person, including calling me a fascist, an incel, a pedophile, homophobic (despite the fact that I, myself, am bisexual), claiming that I’m “creepy” for writing fanfiction, claiming that I am a “middle age man” (I’m a 24 year old woman), claiming that I have no sense of morality, get off on torturing children/child abuse, and a number of other horrible, baseless claims 

6. Claims that Dipper needs to get revenge on YD by shattering her when that would stir up an entire whole other mess of problems, by 1. starting an entirely new Gem war no doubt since Blue and White would be livid 2. completely against Dipper’s character entirely and against the spirit of GF, SU, and UF 3. not at all “cathartic” and is really just simple, sociopath thinking expected from a small, immature child obsessed with the idea of “getting even” without growing from an experience and moving on to become the better person instead. Which of course, is probably what this individual is. 

7. Has said insane, immature, stupid shit like this. There really is no making this up: 

Mind you that this person has left these reviews not just on UF, but on Keys to the Kingdom, a KH fanfic that has nothing to do with UF, but these reviews are still very specific to UF all the same, which yes, does basically make this spam. And indeed it is spam because today alone so far, I have already gotten 6+ reviews from this single person alone:

This person also loves taking things I’ve said here on the blog in answers to asks from years ago out of context, never mind the fact that they might not be in line with ideas I currently have and/or again, are completely without context to what the original conversation was so they can twist whatever I said to fit their bizarre, hateful agenda. Here’s a taste of some of today’s fare, for reference: 

At first, I thought this whole thing was just a troll, but really at this point it’s become legitimate harassment. I’m not, nor have I ever asked, everyone and anyone to accept and enjoy everything in UF. I know some people don’t like the Stonemason arc, that’s fine. But I also want people to understand that I haven’t even written the damn thing yet. My entire plotting process for both UF and UF2 alike are always in flux, even from chapter to chapter, in both large ways and small. Minor details and big ones are going to change with time. Not that this person cares about that since they’ve already decided a long time ago that they hate both me and my work for whatever reason (seriously I have no idea what i did to them to provoke any of this). 

(also before any of you say “oh well Jen, just turn off guest reviews and this will end!” Ao3 and FF.Net don’t give authors the option to do that, so I’m pretty much stuck where I currently am with this whole terrible situation unfortunately)

Now mind you I do have a theory about who this individual actually is but I’m no going to address that here because stirring others to action against them isn’t my intention with this post. My intention is something I’m sure they’re not even going to listen to but I’d like to make an earnest appeal all the same, so now, my dude, let’s speak to you individually. Since you clearly want attention so badly in all this, looks like you’re finally about to get exactly that. 

Look. I get that you don’t like this whole Stonemason arc. Again that’s fine, you don’t have to like it. But you sending me these reviews every single day, day in and day out is not going to change my mind, especially given your downright malicious tone in every single one of these. Consider, just for a moment, that I’m an actual person behind this screen, a person with feelings and thoughts of my own just like you are. A person who is out here writing fanfictions because it is something that gives me a personal sense of enjoyment to see a story I’ve crafted play out, and enjoyment in how others interact with my work. Your reviews haven’t changed any of that, I’m going to keep on writing despite them and I’m going to keep on taking pride in my work regardless of anything you have to say. That’’s what being the bigger person is all about. 

 But before sending any more of your petty little reviews, just... all I’m asking is that you think about what you’re saying and why. Does sending these reviews make you feel like you’re superior to me? Is that really what you need to feel some sense of fulfillment? Because really, friend, you could find that sort of fulfillment in something much more genuine and wholesome. Read a book, watch a movie or TV show you really love, go outside and take a walk, hell even write your own fic if you despise mine so much. But just... maybe try to find something else to do with your time instead of attempting to tear other people down for no reason. 

I highly doubt this is going to change anything, hell you may not even read this to begin with, because again, you’ve already decided you hate me for some reason and that’s fine. Go ahead and hate me. I just want you to maybe do a little self reflection and consider that what you’re doing only makes you look bad in the end. 

And with that, MiniJen’s out. Peace. ❤

[butterflydm]

2020 (what a weird year)

I did not get very much done this year at all. The business I work for got us all classified as essential workers which... tbh, I did not agree with as a categorization. It’s meant that hours per week stayed the same, but my anxiety levels at work skyrocketed. And most of the time, after getting home, I basically had enough energy to check some stuff online but I mostly needed to decompress by doing something familiar, which I’ve been doing by replaying FFX and FFX2, and my brain mostly hasn’t had room for anything new. Which is a shame for all the plans I had to watch tons of new media! I had a long list of things I wanted to check out and I haven’t really watched any of it.

I did get a chance to watch a few new things (as always, tbh, any recs of mine are basically ‘you will like this thing, if this is the kind of thing you like’):

The Old Guard: Really enjoyed this movie. It’s been out for a while now, but if you haven’t had a chance to watch it, it was a fun, easy watch that also made me think some interesting philosophical questions about life. A good time! It’s honestly the only movie I watched during the 2020 pandemic period, unless I get around to watching anything else in the next couple of days.

MXTX’s Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System: I love love this story. I’ve watched the donghua (looking forward to S2!) and read the translation by BC Novels, and the story just has so many things that make my heart go ‘yes!’: it’s funny, with a charming PoV character who both doesn’t take himself too seriously and also seriously misunderstands himself in a lot of ways -- very relatable. It’s dramatic AF, with romantic lead Luo Binghe at the heart of a lot of that drama. It’s clever and I love the way the premise is used for both humor and pathos.

Tone-wise, it reminds me of works like Galaxy Quest or Northanger Abbey. Honestly, that light tone helps in some of the later chapters, which have content that is actually very dark and very heartbreaking if taken seriously, but because of the momentum of the story and the tone of the narrative, I didn’t feel like I got lost or bogged down in the darkness.

And I love the relationship between Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe a whole heck of a lot. I think the way it’s structured is clever and sweet and sad and makes for an interesting story. There is an element of an unintentional romantic obsession that SQQ created by the way he flipped between kind and cruel (against his will, which is what makes it forgivable for the audience, imo, because SQQ wanted to always be kind, though not always for the most selfless of reasons) and how LBH had to try to mentally justify/rationalize how the same man could act in such completely opposing ways. And the narrative symmetry between how SQQ thinks of LBH as the center of the universe because he’s the OP Protagonist (!) but LBH thinks of SQQ as the one that everything revolves around and how that’s narratively true because, of course, in the story that we’re reading, SQQ is the protagonist and LBH is his love interest.

I also actually really appreciated the bad sex near the end of the novel -- sex-to-save-the-world is a trope that can easily get romanticized but here it’s (literally) painful and ugly instead, as all of LBH’s trauma pairs with the influence of Xin Mo on his mind. Even through the translation, it definitely feels like bad sex written well, rather than badly-written sex that is supposed to be good, if you know what I mean. Sex can be an important narrative tool in stories and I feel like MXTX uses it very effectively here.

I think I burnt through the entire translation in just a few days. I’ve been reading a lot of fanfic afterwards and I think my favorite so far is I Wish You Were My Husband by Feynite. It’s an AU but it keeps the same kind of vibe as the original story.

Bridgerton: Goodness, so enjoyable! Julia Quinn is not My Most Favorite of the various romance writers that I read but she was one of the first writers that really got me back into reading romance and it was delightful to see her world on screen. I don’t picture people when I’m reading novels; I have to have a visual first and then I can carry that into the reading, so it was nice to be able to assign faces to some of these characters that I’m already very fond of. Simon and Daphne had a nice amount of chemistry and I loved the Bridgerton family relationships.

I hope they get to cover all the romances in the series and continue to do some updating as well -- I generally liked the changes they made to Simon and Daphne’s romance (a few I wasn’t as into but could see why they’d done it -- mostly For The Drama). And I really loved what they did with Simon and Lady Danbury’s relationship. It took me some time to tell the three older Bridgerton brothers apart but that’s pretty much canon, lol. Anyway, I was invested enough in it all that I stayed up all night on Christmas eve to watch it all and I had no regrets afterward.

I started watching S2 of TharnType but then my work schedule changed and I was working on Fridays and (see above) I just didn’t have the energy to watch anything after work. I might wait and binge the rest of the series once it’s all out, now that it’s gone this long without me being caught up.

I do think I’ll take a break from Critical Role for a while, after it comes back. I’ve just come to an unfortunate place where the show literally cannot win with me re: the romances, as I’m annoyed when they happen but also, perversely, annoyed when they get ignored because my brain goes “they gutted beaujester for this limited amount of inferior romance? At least commit to giving an adequate amount of the romances that I dislike!”. And so it becomes a vicious circle. Good sign that it’s time to take a break. My unhappiness with one part of the show is overshadowing everything else and maybe some time away will change that. Or maybe I just need to pick it up again with campaign 3. I guess I’ll see how it goes. I also admit that I’d hate to pick up the show again only to have Lucien get killed off in a few episodes.

I want to try to watch some more shows in 2021, and maybe I’ll have time, if I’m freeing up several hours every Thursday.

I want to watch Heaven Official’s Blessing and I’ve had a translation of the novel on my phone for the entire year and I really do want to read it as well. I’d like to watch Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo’s new shows (The Wolf & The Legend of Fei) as the gifsets I’ve seen have been interesting and enjoyable, and there are a bunch of shows that I’d gotten recommendations about after watching TharnType that I still want to check out too. Plus, I have the new Stormlight Archives book and I want to read that as well. So, there’s quite a list.

It’s still probably gonna be quite stressful at work for a while, at least until I’ve had a chance to get the vaccine, but at least I am going back to Thursdays & Fridays as my days off at the start of the year, so I’m looking forward to that. I’m also hoping to get back to my detailed rewatch of The Untamed, because that was so much fun but I did not have enough brain this year to do any more of it.

[mvssmallow]

hi q, thank you again for your works. they've been great company during this time of unrest. i know it's been awhile but would you have tips or suggestions to aspiring writers in the fandom? your world building is honestly amazing, as well as the characterization. hope you've been well.

I’m still trying to figure out how to write myself, Anon. But yes, I do have some tips for writing in general:

1) Write what you feel strongly about. This is the most important. I can always read the author’s apathetic mood and I can often see when fics/stories are just performative. I can tell when an author is really passionate or invested in their stories and it makes me more likely to go on the ride with them. 

2) Draw from your own experience, it is often the most convincing. Don’t plagiarise or write an autobiography (unless that’s what you want to do) but rather, reflect on your past experiences, how you felt during that time, what happened, how others responded. For example, unless written very well, how likely is it that someone confesses to another person in 24 hours? How realistic is it that people say sorry and everything is perfect 2 seconds later? I get that fiction is fake and this is all for fun but if you want to be good, at least try to give your story a degree of plausibility. TLDR: write what you know.

3) Research. If you want to explore new concepts, new AUs, new themes, then research is vital. You don’t need to study thermonuclear physics to write a science AU but read Wiki or watch a YT video on it. Imagination is a wonderful thing but your story is more rich and satisfying when you have some understanding of what you’re writing. Readers can tell. They might not ever say it but good research and knowledge makes a big difference. It also tells the reader: this writer put effort into this, they care about it. It makes it worth their time.

4) Plan. I’ve heard this is a good idea. Haha. I don’t do it very well but it is good to have even a vague idea of where you want your story to go. What you want a chapter to say. What is the purpose of this chapter? How did it build on the last one? How does it set up for the next one? Is there consistent continuity? You might not always know the exact ending but it’s important you know what you want it to say to the reader. I actually write the ending first/early and go backwards but please, for the love of God and Anime, don’t ever take me as an example of good writing methods. I’m all madness and chaos.

5) Edit. Whether you do it yourself or get someone else to, editing is crucial. If a passage or scene does not add anything to your story or characterisation, delete it. I go a little beyond this because when I start a draft, if it doesn’t flow then I start again. I’m notoriously for deleting entire chapters. It’s only when I have a decent completed draft that I do a final edit for typos/grammar/flow etc. Listen to your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, it’d probably not right. Some people just want to read/write words on a page but if you want to be a good writer who genuinely wants to improve their craft, then I think you need to be honest, cutthroat and discerning with your work. I am not precious with my drafts. Sometimes you gotta let go of stuff that doesn’t work. If you like a certain phrase or line then jot that down somewhere for later but yeah, I always tell people do start fresh every time. It forces you to be better. 

6) Motivation and when you’re stuck in a rut. In Life, there’s no substitute for experience but failing that, there are always movies and other books to immerse yourself in if you get stuck in a rut. Reading widely helps you write. I always go back to reading when I can’t write anything. Be open to what the World wants to give you. Music and photography are usually the biggest help but everyone is different. I have certain playlists for certain moods and I often put them on when I am writing chapters with similar themes. Personally, I find talking to other people the biggest inspiration these days. It’s good to bounce ideas off people so if you have someone you trust or enjoy talking to, use them! Haha. 

7) Believe in yourself and just write. Even if it’s terrible, just write. Sometimes I sit there and type on notes on my phone and before I know it, I’ve written a new CWAC chapter. It might not be good but it might lead to somewhere better. Sometimes you need to write a total fail-chapter before you can see what’s wrong. Mistakes are much more helpful to your progress than perfect success imo. 

8) Reading and Writing a Movie. This is probably my biggest tip tbh. Every writer has a style that’s unique and influenced by their life so you have to discover your own. I always wanted to write a screenplay so when I watch movies, that’s how I notice things: What do people say. What is their tone. How long is the pause. What camera angle is effective. How’s the lighting. What music is playing in the background. What are they wearing. I picture a whole complete scene in my head as if I’m going to film it, then I write it. I use this method for 100% of CWAC. That’s why there’s so much detail. Details are magic to me but I don’t know if everyone thinks that hahaha. 

Okay that’s enough I guess. There are plenty more but these are the main ones I can think of. 

[majicmarker]

why did you dislike 'the hating game?' (haven't read it; i'm just curious)

AAAUURGGHH okay. OKAY. it’s been a hot minute since i read it, so i’m going off strictly memory here — i am thinking of doing a reread, for the record, but chances are high that’s just going to remind me of/reinforce my initial bad impressions — BUT — 

(oh god, this became an essay so fast, but to be fair to myself i’m coming off a depressive episode and almost everything in this world pisses me off, so this is just where we’re at. and, yeah, i’m really picking this shit apart, no doubt, but I've always owned up to being an enormously picky reader, so we’re off to the races here, i said what i said, etc., etc, ad nauseam) 

you know what, i’m gonna preface this with the One Thing I remember above all else about this book. i am 100% sure this wasn’t the intention but, oh my god, the one thing i will always remember is how lucy (the heroine) refers to one of her superiors as “Fat Little Dick.” dude’s actual name is richard, he’s short and annoying, blah blah. this is supposed to be funny, and i — much as i’m a fan of vulgar humor, lord, i’ll tell you about my favorite shows and movies sometime — find it so incredibly off-putting, that it’s the first thing I think of whenever i see this book mentioned. the immaturity of the nickname doesn’t bother me so much but it’s like, the fact that it’s meant to be clever that irks me. it’s just... gross, to me. this is really individualistic, but i can’t talk about this book without bringing this up because, for me, it set the whole tone for what i was about to read. this is the humor of the whole book, it falls cringingly flat to me, and that means a lot when it comes to a romantic comedy. 

in that vein... look, there is seldom an occasion in which i enjoy first person. this is completely a personal preference, so it’s not a point i hold against this book in particular, but i just... i really gave this book a shot, despite being immediately turned off by the style. first person runs rampant in romance and like, that’s fine, i do have a couple i enjoy and, anyway, it’s not a dealbreaker for me and overall it doesn’t actually speak to the quality of the work. like i said, total personal preference — but. but. it depends on how you write it, and i just didn’t see the merit of it here. I think we would have benefitted from dual pov, even if both sides were written in first person. 

a nitpick, perhaps! and tbh this particular detail might be suited to a larger discussion of narrative structure dependent on genre, but! in this case i just don’t like it and we can go from there. 

MOVING ON. 

lucy has no friends. what the fuck is that? she’s twenty-something and, as far as her character reads, quite sociable. even if she was some awkward mess (like, hey, me too, y’all should’ve seen me in my twenties), she’d probably still have, like, one person she could confide in, and yet... nada. (this is what i recall, anyway. as i said, it’s been at least a year since i tried this book out, so maybe i’m forgetting someone, but from what i remember, this fact stood out to me almost as plainly, painfully, as the “Fat Little Dick” gag.) i’m pretty sure all she has in this world is her job, her weird crush on josh, and her smurfs collection. also, she’s short. that’s cool, but it’s not a personality, and any which way i don’t need to be reminded of it every page. 

on a broader scale, i, personally, find lucy and josh both profoundly unlikeable. lucy is irritating and, if she were a friend of mine, i’d tell her to her face that she needs to get her shit together because this is ridiculous. and josh is just, an asshole? imo. he’s every other guy i’ve met at a bar who pretends he’s really into his personal development but at the same time he won’t go to a therapist. so, like, what’s the point? he’s dull at best, and i’m not surprised robbie amell’s been cast for the film adaptation (last i knew of, that is). and the thing is, like, in romance, the characters need to be likeable. you’re rooting for their personal lives; there is no “greater good” or whatever else at play here. all i care about are these people and, in this case… i can’t deal with them. if this was YA, absolutely, yes, i’m here for it. but, again, these characters are whole-ass adults. i don’t necessarily expect your life to be together at this point — mine certainly isn’t — but have some self-awareness, for the love of god. 

ON THAT NOTE, the book’s focus is on these twenty-something romantic leads, but it reads so juvenile. meg cabot’s high school romances have more self-awareness and depth than these career-oriented Adults. don’t get me wrong — i’m all for relatable, for insecure, for the identity struggles that really shape your twenties, because oh my god, do I Get That, but this was just all so… god, it reminds me of the stuff i’d write in junior high. it’s like what i imagined it was gonna be like to be a grown-up. this is probably personal preference all over again, but it doesn’t read authentic to me. it’s shallow, and sexual without being really, actually emotional. i’m seeing the lust, but i’m being force-fed the love. 

and, before i drop without precedent the whole “career-oriented” thing that the plot itself seems to have done — the professional, essential, conflict is never resolved. spoiler alert, i guess, but the conflict hinges on the love interests being up for the same promotion, but we end the book with the male lead quitting and taking a job elsewhere — so his career is stable, right, but the job that’s been waiting in the wings this whole time? your guess is as good as mine as to who gets it. much as i disliked this whole Thing, by the end i still hoped lucy would be offered some professional satisfaction, but we never actually find out.

and, listen, i don’t remember any of the sex scenes. i know they’re in there, but i have zero recollection because they’re boring. gratuitous, maybe, but that’s only if you believe some of the book’s naysayers. i guess i’m a naysayer, too, but it’s not because the sex stuff made me take up a confessional booth for ten minutes (no shame, i’m just saying, from experience, most priests don’t care if you read erotica, okay, they’ve heard it before and frankly they just wanna go home because it’s ten A.M. on a saturday and already they could use a shot of jack in their coffee), 

but if y’all know me, you know i love a good sex scene. what i’m getting at here is that, like, these ones just slid off my radar like melted butter. not good melted butter, either. (this is a bad metaphor, maybe. but the point is that i don’t remember them and i don’t even care.)

i guess, on the whole, the tone here doesn’t land for me. it’s just not real, it feels so forced, so wannabe funny and edgy and relatable, but none of those hit quite right. when i first read it, i recall thinking sometimes that “alright, this isn’t bad,” but then i had to deal with “Fat Little Dick” again, or i was constantly reminded of other things — lucy is short, josh is hot, they hate each other, no scenery is described in a way that i can actually picture it, yadda yadda — or else i was subject to quite a bit of body-shaming. that shit was casually sprinkled all over the place, which was both irrelevant to the story, to the characters, and it was just obnoxious. this sort of casual bigotry happens in romance all the time and, like, i’m over it, so i’m gonna point it out every time i try something new and it crops up. 

when this book was rec’d to me, when i saw all the accolades, i thought i was in for some new, fresh, revolutionary read — but then it wasn’t actually… anything. “sometimes it was sort of funny” is the best thing i can say about it, and that’s the best thing i can usually say about most other romances i’ve tried in the last couple years, so i’m not seeing the distinction here, i don't see anything special. i legitimately do not know why this book in particular is so popular. like, there are romances out there that i Hate, poetically, with the fire of a thousand suns, but at the same time i understand why they hit the bestseller list (yet another Discussion all on its own). but this one? i’ve got nothing. 

i’m tentatively considering doing a reread. as i mentioned earlier, but this is probably only going to reinforce everything i don’t like about it, which means eventually i could perhaps give you a more comprehensive answer as to why i so thoroughly Did Not enjoy this book. but, like, who even wants to read that shit? ireally don’t mean to be an asshole about this, but I Don’t Get It, and some of it legitimately pissed me off (the body-shaming, lucy having no friends, both of which are entire Essays onto themselves) — and it’s that second thing i’m not gonna apologize for. in case anyone wanted an apology, but… too bad. 

anyway, in the meantime, i hope this answers your question well enough. it’s actually probably Too Much. but i’m bored and lonely, so i’m gonna go off like a firework best i can, whoops. 

[ssnakey-b]

FF8 English-French translarison, part 24: Return of the Translarison!

Holy shit, have I seriously not posted a new part since February?! Well, it’s time to get back to business. Since it’s been a while, in case you forgot, last time, the team was getting ready to face Edea for the second and last time. Let’s get to it.

We start with another example of Fujin telling us a bit more than in English as instead of just “FATIGUED!”, she says “I can’t take it any more!”.

Meanwhile, instead of “Let’s just go. ...Let’s get it over with, ya know?”, Raijin says “Come on, let’s keep going! We gotta end this!”

To this, English Fujin rplies “REQUEST” (which I’m still not sure what she means by that since she doesn’t actually request anything) while her French counterpart says “I’ve had it!”. A little dialogue follows.

English:

Raijin: ...We’re leavin’ Seifer up to you now, ya know? We don’t know what’s going on anymore, ya know? ...We just want the old Seifer back, ya know?”

Squall: (Seifer... He probably thinks he can’t go back now.) All right.

French:

Raijin: Seifer, we’ve had enough... this isn’t fun for us. We don’t know what’s going on! You weren’t like that before...

Squall: (Seifer won’t give up. No, not now...) I see...

I’ll give the English text that it’s a nice bit of characterization that Raijin is basically asking Squall to save Seifer from himself, or at least stop him from going even further down the deep end than he already has but man, do these annoying catchphrases and gimmick destroy any atmosphere for me. I really don’t understand why English-language translators are so obsessed with them (and if they were in the original Japanese, well, not everything needs to be translated directly).

Seriously, professional translators, you gotta understand that you don’t need to commit to a running gag every goddamn time to the detriment of everything else. Even if you don’t think it takes you out of the story, running gags get really old really quick.

Also, we once again get a hint that Seifer used to be better, which would have been nice to actually see in the game rather than constantly be assured that it used to be the case because again, we see more genuine chemistry between the Jin Team & Squall than between him and Seifer.

Anyway, with that rant over, let’s continue. This guy, who gives you the first key card, says mostly the same thing in both versions, but I wanted to bring it up because of an UNFORGIVABLE mistake in the French version. That’s right, despite the sentence being pluralized, they used the pronoun “Il” without an S, which is the singular form!! I really hope whomever wrote that atone by cutting off their pinky at the first knuckle.

On a more serious level, there is also an interesting little bit in the English version where he mentions that most students were kicked out, which is absent in the French version. And I mean, I guess it doesn’t need to be stated explicitly, but I think it’s nice to have it confirmed that Galbadia Garden was completely recycled into a military base, as it adds to the tragedy that the student basically lost their home IMO. Although I guess at least it means they’re not being held hostages.

And now it’s time to finally meet these hockey-playing monsters we’ve been told about so long ago. I just love that the devs actually made those, and that they decided that their reaction to a massive battles would be to take the opportunity to get involved in the fight for no real reason.

And yes, as you may have noticed the Slappers are called Jason in the French version of the game, because why not throw in a Friday the 13th reference for good measure? And if you remember (in which case, congrats on the good memory considering how long ago that was), this ties into another reference that’s been invented by the French version, where they explained that these guys psych themselves up for a match by watching horror movies such as Friday the 13th. Just amazing!

But wait! That’s not all! Because if you scan them, the French version also explicitly mentions that the Jasons are, in fact, students at Galbadia Garden. I mean, you could gather that information in the English version as well, but to have it explicitly stated here just makes it that much funnier to me. Just imagine having to take classes with these things next to you. Do they keep the masks on? What do they look under there? Please, Square-Enix, cancel the remaster and put your resources towards giving us a spin-off expanding on this lore. THIS is what the world needs!

Sadly, we must leave the Jasons, but we do get to meet Cerberus! The original dog from Hell!

Massive difference in tone between the versions when it comes to Cerberus, or Cerbères in French (the last E is silent, as is the S). In English, he’s very blunt, talking less like an immortal demonic being and more like a pro wrestling Heel, yeeling in all caps “PRETTY CONFIDENT. LET’S SEE HOW YOU DO. SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!” which by the way, really makes me wish he went “I LIKE WHAT YOU GOT” upon being defeated.

In French, he is more eloquent and collected, saying “What arrogance! Mere mortals! Show me what you’re capable of!”. And while his actual line upon defeat is “NOT BAD...MORTALS” in English, in French, he simply says “Interesting”.

One last detail about this fight I’d like to mention. After Irvine mentions he doesn’t know that Guardian Force, French Squall simply says “Let’s take it!” but I like the English version a lot more here, as Squall goes “Ahh... let’s just take it.”

Yeah, sometimes you just gotta go with the flow. And I think that says a lot as to where Squall is mentally at this point. Just done. Fuck it. I mean, he just fought a team of horror-inspired hockey monsters, there’s no point in questioning anything any more.

Much to my dismay, it’s time to meet up with Seifer again. The dialogue stays mostly consistent across both versions, with the one notable detail being that in the English version, when addressing Linoa, he says “remember a year ago we...” whereas in French, he says “and yet, a year ago...” so the English version hints at a slightly deeper, perhaps more reciprocal relationship.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the only acknowledgement Seifer gives of any previous relationship between the two in either version, and it’s in an optional bit of dialogue that only appears if Linoa is in the party at this point. This is why I am not buying this supposed love triangle for a second. Much like every part of the supposed rivalry between Seifer and Squall, it barely exists, what little is there is completely superficial and Seifer is blatantly outmatched right form the get go.

And look, I’m not here to tell you you’re right of wrong in your headcanons or fanfics or whatever, I really don’t care. However, it always annoys me when people go on and on about how deep and meaningful this love triangle when it’s really not. In fact, it barely is at all. So again, I’m not giving people shit if they want to make it a thing, but you gotta keep in mind that whatever story you give them is entirely your creation. Because when it comes to what’s actually shown in the game, well, it’s almost nothing, which makes me wonder why it’s even there to begin with. The extent of their story is: Linoa thought Seifer was hot, Seifer might have thought the same about her, maybe?

Anyway, second rant over, there’s a small difference in the dialogue with Irvine. In English, Seifer says “Hey, you’re a Galbadian student, get over here.” to which irvine replies “I’m happy right here, thank you.”

In french, Seifer says “Hey, the Galbadian, you’re coming back home?” and he answers with “I like my new country better” which I don’t think is actually quite what’s going on but I will admit is an interesting take on this scene.

Again, things are pretty similar in the dialogue between Squall and Seifer leading up to the battle, with Squall saying Seifer is just another monster in both versions, although Seifer’s last line before the fight is different... and very stupid either way. In English, he says “You guys are the monsters” and in French he says “I think of myself as a Boss, yeah”.

Well I’m glad both lines are equally cringeworthy, with English Seifer cribbing his from a 12 year old trying to sound deep and French Seifer just coming across like the kind of douche that The Lonely Island likes to parody. Also, I think the French version may have attempted to be cute. Get it? Because he’s a boss battle! HA HA no.

In the auditorium, we have a slight difference in Edea’s opening line. In English, she refers to Squall as “the legendary SeeD destined to face me”. In French, she calls him “the famous Seed whose coming is announced by all”. It seems a bit weird to me as I’m not getting the impression that Squall is all that famous in-universe so it would be weird that “all” would announce his arrival.

So I think the English version works a little bit better as it gives the impression she knows that due to her insight into future events. Then again, you could argue that French Ultimecia is talking about her original timeline, where perhaps Squall was leading the charge against her and he had become some kind of hero to the people of that time, and that she is trying to stop him before he can become that hero. After all, for someone like Ultimecia, it would make sense to view the various timelines as one and the same.

So we fight, I grab Alexander (known in French as Alexandre, so almost the same, but the English name will still show in my game due to my save file getting confused) and during Squall’s blackout, we get a slight difference that once again at the two translations being based off the original Japanese rather than each-other, as in English, Squall complains about his body hurting whereas in French, it’s specifically his head, so it appears we have different interpretations going on.

Similarly, after Edea asks if she was able to protect Ellone (which interestingly, shows that Edea is at least not always aware of what Ultimecia is doing), English Squall thins “I don’t understand”, showing general confusion at the situation, whereas French Squall thinks “I don’t know.” replying directly to her question about Ellone.

And that’s it for today! Next time, we’ll see how differently Squall reacts to Linoa’s situation in both versions as we finally start taking on the 3rd CD content. I hope you all enjoyed this return of the translarison, I honestly didn’t realize it had been this long. I promise I’ll try and be more regular again, even though as I’ve said before, the only schedule for this is “when I feel like it”.

Now speaking of future updates, in case you missed it, I would like to start streaming my gameplay sessions on Twitch as I take screenshots and comment on what’s happening, and hopeuflly take your questions and observations. If it”‘s something that sounds interesting to you, I would really like you to say so by commenting on this post, dropping me a line or however you see fit, and if/when it happens, you can join us at twitch.tv/ssnakeyb. Either way, likes and reblogs are always appreciated to help spread the word.

Have a nice day, everyone! I’l be seeing you next time!

[briangroth27]

Ready or Not Review

I really liked Ready or Not! It’s a very entertaining horror adventure with a healthy dose of comedy and a great lead in Samara Weaving. The supporting cast is on point too and everyone involved more than capably delivers a really fun thrill ride!

Full Spoilers...

Weaving's Grace is hoping to find a family once she marries her fiancé, Alex (Mark O’Brien), but everything goes wrong when his family tradition of playing a game each wedding night leaves her running for her life. Weaving imbues Grace with a winning way that makes her easy to root for, which is very important since we don't learn much about her interests or aspirations outside the family here. Her interactions with and reactions to the members of the Le Domas clan (along with her struggle to survive) give us a good grasp of who she is as a person (and that's just as if not more important as her biography), but I would've liked to know what she wanted out of life beyond a family and a solid home. Given no one in the movie really gets those details, however, it doesn't feel like she was slighted or underwritten. Her drive to have a family after living through foster homes was strong enough to give her a relatable goal and to fuel the tragedy that what she wants demands her death. The movie sends her through the ringer and Weaving absolutely sold Grace's growing confidence and grit in the face of so many would-be killers. She wasn't ever helpless or short of the ability to defend herself, but carving out an independent life apart from what she wanted was handled really well as the metaphorical component to her literal struggle to survive. I really liked that her most deliberate murder was the one that also eliminated any chance of a happy marriage to Alex, since she kills his mom Becky (Andie MacDowell), whom he loved her more than his new wife.

The script and direction did a great job of balancing Alex’s wish that he was different from his family with the dawning truths that he really did believe as they did and that he would choose them over Grace. The very act of putting her in a situation that could lead to her death without telling her—even if the Hide & Seek card hadn't been drawn in 30 years—was a huge red flag and I'm glad they followed through to the conclusion of that plot point. The romantic music swelling when he told Grace he'd proposed to her because she'd leave him otherwise didn't convince me that he was a good guy (he would have explained why they couldn’t get married or just let her go rather than risk her life if he really loved her), so I was happy the movie used the romantic music as a trick instead of a true emotional beat. There were other small hints at his turn along the way, so his was a nicely-constructed and acted arc too.

Alex’s brother Daniel (Adam Brody) was initially drawn as sleazy and unlikable, so I wasn’t expecting either of the moments where he helps Grace escape. I definitely didn’t think he’d turn out to be the best of his clan, particularly given his role in the last Hide & Seek game they played. However, I fully bought his turn after Brody and the movie showed the toll his choice back then had taken on him and how exhausted with everything about his family he was. Most of the Le Domas family were pretty affable on the surface (accounting for niceties at a wedding), and the actors and writers crafted a nice blend of reasons for them to stick with the family as well as some very entertaining comic relief within the group. Like Grace, we don’t hear a lot about their goals or dreams, but through the writing and performances it was easy to see who these people were from their actions and interactions alone. I did believe that they were truly hoping the Hide & Seek card wasn’t pulled and not just because they knew they’d all be terrible at hunting a person. That obviously doesn’t excuse any of their actions—they still put Grace in that position and immediately went through with trying to kill her to save themselves and the family business—but I liked that the movie took the step of giving them a bit of humanity before carrying out their ritual. That actually made them scarier, since people who do evil, selfish things are still people and pretending that only inhuman monsters are murderers (or racists, sexists, white supremacists, etc.) is dangerous.

There are some solid foils set up for Grace amongst the women of the Le Domas family. Becky is who Grace might want to be: the outsider welcomed into the family so that she can build a large one of her own and in doing so, find a stable home. They have the closest bond, come from similar lower class backgrounds, and the movie makes note of them both being smokers, providing another small connection between them (even if Grace lies about it to impress Becky). The ironically-named Charity (Elyse Levesque) is the cliché reflection of Grace (and possibly how we’d expect a wealthy family to see someone joining them from the lower classes): she’s literally there for the money and security that being part of this family provides. Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) is Grace without her grit (and what Grace hopes the family doesn’t see her as): a screw-up in over her head who has no idea what she’s doing, but who’s desperate to impress the family. Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), on the other hand, is who Grace could be if she were all grit and devotion to the family. Looking at them this way had me wondering if the men in the Le Domas clan are foils for Alex as well. Daniel is set up as the red herring evil brother and their trajectories are opposites: Alex left but never really “left” the family while Daniel stayed, but that only allowed him to stew in how terrible they all are. Fitch (Kristian Bruun) does bring up cutting and running once, but ultimately he’s fully willing to go along with the ritual and between Alex fleeing the family and Daniel drinking himself into snark, before Alex’s turn Fitch is kind of the best son Tony (Henry Czerny) has (even if he’s a son-in-law, ensuring he’ll never be treated like blood). Tony’s devoted to the ritual and will absolutely kill to protect his family, though he wishes he didn’t have to. He’s what Alex probably would have become had Grace pulled a different card. Emilie and Fitch’s sons Georgie (Liam MacDonald) and Gabe (Ethan Tavares) also mirror Daniel and Alex, with one of them being hidden for most of the movie and the other taking part in the family’s ritual “because everyone else was doing it.” 

Since I saw the first trailer, I was hoping Mr. Le Bael would be a real demon, so I absolutely loved that he actually was mystically sustaining this family’s fortune in exchange for this ritual! Just before that reveal, when it seemed nothing would happen to the family for not killing Grace before dawn, the family’s awkward “well shoot…what do we do now?” moment was played perfectly, so that was a bit of the best of both worlds. I thought Grace was going to have to fight off the whole family at once somehow, since they’d still have to kill her to get away with it. However, the parade of exploding devil worshipers that followed instead was a fitting end to these terrible people: they’re all brought down by the thing they thought would make their dreams come true (which is a nice parallel to Grace’s biggest dream turning into a nightmare). I thought Mr. Le Bael might offer Grace a deal of her own for surviving the night, but I’m glad he just gave her a nod of approval instead.

The violence throughout the film expertly walks the same cartoony/serious line that the tone of the whole movie does. That’s very hard to do while still keeping the stakes high, but this movie completely and consistently pulls it off. There’s a lot of gore (though not too gross-out graphic IMO) that’s used well to comedic effect, until Grace starts getting injured and it takes a turn to decidedly not comedic; then they play the seriousness and pain of those injuries just as effectively. While the accidental deaths are comical, I wish they weren’t solely reserved for women (Hanneke Talbot, Celine Tsai, and Daniela Barbosa, who play the Le Dormas maids), though I suppose that’s the comment on these villains: this rich family didn’t care about their value beyond bemoaning how well they’d served them.

Criticisms of the upper class like that are effectively deployed throughout the film, from joining/maintaining a ridiculously wealthy family being the only way several characters think they can have a good/secure life, to the only non-white people associated with the family being among their hired and quickly-forgotten help, to their fortune being built on games rather than socially-helpful endeavors (not that diversions aren’t important) as if they’ve never had to take anything but this ritual seriously (not to mention the literal deal with the devil alleviating any hard work they might’ve had to do to make said fortune), to the flimsy “this is just how I was raised” excuse Alex and Georgie give. Given that the butler Stevens (John Ralston), Tony, and Helene are the most effective/vicious hunters, there’s also a vibe that the old white people are the ones fighting hardest to maintain their traditions (sometimes even if they know they don’t make sense anymore) and way of life by using the younger generation as expendable pawns and targets. Even when outside authority figures are trying to be helpful, they’re ultimately playing into the Le Domas family’s interests instead of the common person’s, like when Grace explains that she’s being hunted and the family car’s security agent Justin (Nat Faxon) turns the car off (since it’s been reported stolen) while offering half-meant hopes (and prayers?) that she makes it out alive. 

The score is fun (and the Hide & Seek song is very creepy!), while the production design of the Le Domas mansion and the movie in general feels perfectly fitting for this kind of story (as others online have pointed out). The pacing is excellent, giving us enough time to get to know Grace and her new family in the first act before everything goes crazy, which also gives her a glimpse of the life she wants before ripping it away and lets them play some relatable “dealing with the in-laws” gags. Once the game begins, the comedy and thrills don’t stop until the end!

Ready or Not continues the steady build of solid horror movies heading into the Halloween season this year! I can’t wait to pick it up on Blu-ray. It’s definitely a blast and it’s more than worth a trip to the theater to see it!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!  

[destiny-smasher]

I used to be close friends with one of the composers for Steven Universe. I watched them rise from a YouTube remixer living in a cramped bedroom in a shared apartment with nothing but a mattress on the floor and a keyboard beside it to owning a house, happily married with a whole backyard garden and a cat because they found success working on one of the biggest cartoon shows I’ve known. But they broke off that friendship earlier this year and it’s made my biased love for Steven Universe become very difficult to grasp with. Understanding how and why we weren’t friends anymore was likewise difficult to grasp, even after hours of us trying to hash things out and resolve it. And while we DID resolve things amicably (I hope) and peacefully, it wasn’t until Steven Universe: The Movie that I was really able to feel like I could see the forest from the trees and ‘get’ what happened. This will be a kind of review of the movie, but mostly it became more of a personal ramble relating my real life experiences with Aivi to those of characters within SU, especially the antagonist of the Movie. This is lifted from this Twitter thread, so it was originally written stream of consciousness and I’m sharing it here to keep it more readable and archived. This is a bit of a read so tucking it behind a ‘read more.’

--

"You keep on turning pages for people who don't care about you And still it takes you ages to see that no one's there Everyone's gone on without you"

Time to finally talk about the #StevenUniverse Movie. Strap in 'cause this gon' get personal.

It should go without saying BUT I am gonna be talking about the movie! Dunno how in detail per se but I can't properly say what I wanna say without diving into some of the important plotty stuff. So yea.

Don't read this thread if ya don't want #spoilers #sumovie 

First off, I wanna talk about what this movie does well. Going in, I had heard it was framed like a musical. And I wasn't sure how I felt about that idea, though it wasn't surprising. After all, the 'musical' style episodes tend to resonate quite a lot. 

I think they work great when it's one song in a 10 minute episode, but an hour and a half of songs? I wasn't sure how well that would go. Turns out, pretty well. This is due to many factors but primarily the variety of song styles and art styles used throughout. Basically every scene has a primary song that drives it home, and basically all of them have a different genre/tone as well as visual presentation style. A lot of work went into getting it all to work together and feel cohesive. TBH for me personally the main highlight of the movie was honestly the animation. Average TV goers might just see "yup sure looks like a cartoon" but on the whole, on average, the movie is CLEARLY animated and framed with much more dynamism and detail than the majority of SU. Getting to see these characters we've gotten to know over the past few years a couple years in the future, generally at peace with things, but animated with more detail than ever, THAT is the true highlight of the film for me. Naturally, there was a lot of bits of comedy, often relying on knowledge of what the characters have been through, and I felt a lot of bittersweet smiles throughout as this felt like a good send off for Steven and his Space Moms. It managed to work in cameos from basically everyone you'd expect, some of which...didn't work out as well as others (specifically, the Diamonds bookending the movie was a bit forced and weird IMO but they ARE important to the lore even if I find them boring tbh) It was nice getting to 'catch up' with everyone, and the plot itself uses a generic 'gotta save the world again' thing (bleh) in a creative way, at least -- it all becomes an excuse to "re-live" the four primary heroes' stories through song. Cool enough. Something the movie inadvertently highlights, however, is the fact that SU as a series really started spinning its wheels a lot for its second half, in particular. Much has been said about how and why and why or not this doesn't matter, etc. etc. I was just along for the ride. I've repeatedly expressed my personal bias in the series' favor for a long time, and now? I kinda don't really have that personal bias anymore. I still love the show, I still think it's one of the best cartoons I've ever seen. But those rose-tinted glasses are off now. Taking said glasses off and actually listening to and looking up what critics of the show had to say kind of unearthed a bunch of things I had kept sweeping under the rug for the sake of personal bias/support of someone I loved and cared for a lot. We'll get back to that. I say all of this because the movie ironically failed to do much of anything NEW, something the series itself kind of struggled with for a while until it finally got around to the conclusion of Steven's story arc. The film ultimately kind of ends with "yeah Steven can change!" Which, um yea? Obviously. He's a completely different person than he was in S1. But he's kiiiiinda been the same person for....some while now. The weird irony of SU as a series is that about halfway through the narrative, the protag has essentially grown up, done. The last half or third or so of SU's narrative was basically Steven having to cheer everyone around him up and help them deal with their shit, and...kinda just going about that essentially the same way every time. The power of love, the friends we made along the way, etc. To be clear, there's nothing BAD about this, and in fact it's what sets Steven apart from most every other narrative of this type. The protag is almost always forced to change in ways they don't want, do things they don't want to do, etc. But when you put it side by side with something like Avatar or Gravity Falls, those series saw everyone growing alongside each other. There are clear arcs for everyone, almost all of which get resolved in ways fitting each character. It's imperfect but it's varied. SU has a tendency to just...hammer everyone's character flaws and arcs with ONE option: just love yourself and be nice, and everyyyyyyythinggggg 'll work out in the end! Which is fine, but when a story does it for so long, over and over, always the same, it gets a bit weird. I specifically LIKED in the film, at the end, that Steven actually does have to fight, because THAT is what Spinel needed to do. She needed to let out all of that anger, and that violence was her own way of doing it. 'you can't just sing a song to make everything go away' etc. It's typical, perhaps, for protagonists to have to tackle problems in different ways because that's LIFE. The fact is, Steven's approach will NOT save everyone. Lapis stilllll kinda stands as an example of this but an as of yet unresolved one. I liked that at the end of things, Spinel still doesn't come into the same fold as everyone else. Basically "sorry, I already fucked this up too much, I can't really deal with this," and that is IMPORTANT and I really liked it. Before really digging into the personal angle, I want to bring up how fascinating it is that the movie essentially had a real BUDGET and so they deliberately seemed to design an antagonist that would take full advantage of that animation budget. EASILY, by far, Spinel is the most interesting-to-watch antag in the whole series imo, in terms of how she moves and fights, etc. They really just wanted to flex and they did it, but like any SU antag there's (somewhat predictable) motives. This gets back at what I was saying before -- how the series spins its wheels a lot -- but Spinel's motivation/back story isssss kiiiinnndaaaa a lot like many many characters' issues and, like, I get it. We get it. Steven's Mom was Not The Best does that have to be the basis behind kinda EVERYONE who goes against Steven? Or the Gems? Lapis, Bismuth, and Peridot all offered more varied motivations, and even THEN, Bismuth was still essentially in the same boat? Anyway, I digress. I DO appreciate the way the series set up Rose as this wondrous lovely lady and has severely dissected and broken that down to the point where I really do not like Rose, in any of her ID's, as a character or a fictional person, and it did so gradually. A lot of what the movie did was kind of expected. Right? Songs, singing, check. Steven going about things the same way, check. Re-living/celebrating how far he and his moms have come, check. What I didn't expect was -- OK, well, there WAS that one fusion...which, um

But the actual thing that really latched onto me was how much I conncted with Spinel. As is the case with any story that has well presented characters, you can attach to SOME part of just about all of them. I associate most closely with Pearl overall but can relate with just about anyone prominent. I see parts of me and Jenny in Steven/Connie, in Ruby/Sapphire, in Peridot/Lapis. I see what kind of woman I might've become in Amethyst (and sometimes am). Spinel, though, is a really weird case because I see my adolescent self in her SO MUCH and yet fairly recent events in my life -- directly tied TO the show itself, mind you -- make that connection weirdly poignant and present. For some context, I used to be good friends with Aivi, one of the musicians who works on the series with their husband. Spring 2018, Aivi and I vocalized to each other that we considered one another one of the closest friends in each other's lives. We're no longer friends. To make sure this is clear, I think Aivi is a wonderful person, and our breaking apart wasn't violent or dramatic or anything, Aivi just...decided they weren't interested in the relationship anymore. And neglected to tell me this until like a year later. The context is of course not at ALL as severe or dramatic as Spinel/Pink, so please don't assume there's some one-to-one there. But OOF are there some harsh similarities and it really made Spinel's backstory sting in a very confusing way. I say 'confusing' because, as I mentioned, I see my adolescent self in Spinel. The way I was going about making friends matches her 'happy' self. The way I acted in my senior year of college matches her 'angry' self. There was no single person that created any of that, though. In high school, I was like Starfire, in college, I tried to nurture that, play to my strengths. I failed miserably. And what I feel is a big part of why is inherently tied to my transitioning (which is, still, something I feel I am failing miserably at). By the end of college I was more like Raven, and there I remained through the duration of my first long-term romance, into a very weird and atypical marriage and breakup, and then I moved to CA and started changing. Fittingly, my current self can't quite ID with any single Teen Titan. I'm not a teen anymore, after all. Throughout a lot of my friendship with Aivi, they really seemed to fixate on comparing me to Pearl. It sometimes made me uncomfortable the particular ways they did, though. I strongly identified with Pearl's flaws and strengths in personality (though we're obviously different people), and so seeing Pearl go through redemption via self-love and self-acceptance meant a lot to me. "It's Over, Isn't It?" I was IN THE ROOM listening to Aivi and their husband work on the chorus to that song. Obviously they couldn't talk about it but I knew damn well what it was about, and anticipated that piece for a long time. Now it's even more weirdly painful. I met Aivi because they made Mario arrangements they put on YouTube and they happened to live a few blocks away when I was subletting my first summer in CA. They seemed very kind and caring and eager to Be Nice and at the time I really needed that at a very vulnerable and fragile time in my life so I latched onto that. -In The Garden- The week when the LiS terfs freaked out on me and that Bad Spinel side of me lashed back, and I found myself suffering from being gaslit and facing the fact that the worst part of myself that Trigon in Raven's mind that Angry Spinel was still THERE was still ME It was too much For the first (and thankfully, only) time in my life, I experienced suicidal thoughts. And Aivi REACTED to that shit. Strongly. In a way no one ever had for me before, ever. They drove across the Bay to my house, picked me up, had me over, and helped me process it. And in the months to come, as I was healing and coming to terms with how That Worst Part of Me That I Wanted to BE RID OF was still THERE and apparently could just fucking show up, through all of that, Aivi helped me work through things, and we really bonded. In retrospect, though, it's SO damned hard for me to tell if Aivi and I became so close because of mutual respect or pity or just conditioned behavior to Be Nice and Keep Up Appearances. I dunno. What I know NOW is that apparently Cost More than I would've thought. I'm not Aivi so I don't want to really dig into 'dirt' (again, Aivi is a great person who works very hard and that's WHY their work is so good) but looking back, it's wild to see their progression into SUCCESS and fame while I just stood by, floundering The thing is, Aivi was a super busy person. We barely got to spend time together -- when we DID, it was a multi-hour affair and apart from like, Jenny, Aivi is prolly the person I've had the deepest, most vulnerable conversations with. They were next to me when I realized 'oh huh I'm maybe trans??' because they were there when I was at one of the lowest points in my life. I never ASKED them to be there, to Be So Nice and as it turns out, Being So Nice is harder than it looks. So to kind of loop this back to the movie, I wasn't some Skullgirls Peacock Cuphead grinny goof or anything like that but I AM WILLING to bet that from Aivi's POV the way Happy Spinel acts toward Steven is prolly how I felt in Aivi's life at points, at the least. The irony is that we would go weeks, months, barely interacting. But looking back, the way Aivi talked about things, the same phrase keeps dominating my mind: Aivi got bored of me. I wasn't 'useful' to them anymore. Aivi said that day in spring 2018 was like 'the climax' of our friendship, or something like that. Way they talked about it was like...the finale of a season of TV. Our character arc together was over. Even though we TALKED about it, came to mutual understandimng of The Logic behind Aivi's decision to cut ties, I don't think it ever REALLY made sense to me, how Aivi must've felt about our friendship, until Spinel. By spring of 2019, my role in Aivi's life -- from what they have told me, from what I can perceive -- was more like I existed in a separate space from the rest of their life. I was that one interesting person always waiting in The Garden for them to visit when they felt like it Because while Aivi had gotten BIG, gotten MARRIED, gotten a HOUSE, found legitimate SUCCESS in their creative field I was still poor still stuck in retail still unable to find an audience still unable to understand the pressures of Success And OOOOFFF in those last couple years, interacting became more and more strained for both of us, from opposite ends of things. Aivi had responsibilities, PEOPLE vying for their attention, people wanting to hire them, projects to complete, a house, a spouse, etc etc My life was (and kiiiinda still is?) nothing like that, and as our Mutual Creatives Struggling to MAKE THINGS and Get By transforming into Yep I Am Still Here but you are SUCCESSFUL I think that really put a lot of strain on things I never accepted until Spinel. After Aivi hit it big with SU, in particular, they gradually started...acting differently. Acting in ways that made less and less sense to me. They were a Diamond now. And I was still just what I was. When drawing comparisons to characters on the show, Aivi persistently compared me to Pearl. A fact I once took pride in. They repeatedly compared themself to Garnet. Which...always kind of didn't make sense to me. Aivi wasn't really like Garnet. They are more NOW, though? In the sense of how they act, I suppose. Specifically, one of the last things Aivi said to me was that trying to be friends with me had started feeling like Pearl trying to force Garnet to fuse with her. This was problematic because from my POV nothing of the sort was happening. All I was looking for was occasionally hanging out a few times a year. Like. Ya know. Actually a lot less than what I was looking for with basically all of my other friends. And that was still Too Much? But when I start looking at things like Pink Diamond and Spinel instead of Pearl and Garnet, somehow things make a lot more sense. I was probably too clingy, too exciteable, and what amusement or relief I could provide eventually stopped being useful. Aivi eventually didn't even want to spend time with friends to just...spend time with them. Everything had to have some kind of practical Purpose to it, it had to be contributing to a Goal. I still don't get that, tbh. But I'm also not A Diamond. I'm not Successful. The most responsibility I have right now is fucking hanging up the laundry to dry. I have college loans that have and continue to feel pointless to try and repay. I have severe dental problems I haven't been able to fix. My body fell out of shape because of retail hell, and what energy I’ve had to spare from that always ends up going into the people I love, and trying to keep Making Things. Let's not forget The Complications of coming out and wanting to transition but not possessing the resources to do so. (Aivi was actually super supportive of this btw and was the first person to make me feel comfortable wearing feminine things so yea) Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that MY LIFE is not together. My personality is? I feel like I am finally Myself in terms of mental/emotional stability. And that is largely because Jenny helped me get there. But Aivi helped a lot with that, too. But I think Aivi got to a point where Success was more of a measure of how Grown Up and Healthy one was because despite my behavior, my personality, my mood, what I was asking for, and what I was giving, all changing DRASTICALLY after being with Jenny, I think Aivi still...looked at me the way Pink Diamond looked at Spinel during that song. Like, "yeeeaaaa ok kiddo it's time for me to go now, kinda done here" This is what's so confusing about all of this metaphor/etc. I'm not...like Spinel anymore? My current, post-coming-out self doesn't really relate with Happy OR Angry Spinel. It's almost like Aivi couldn't see me for who I became, and could only see me for who I had been. And maybe that's like why Spinel can't be friends with Steven at the end. It's too painful. I used to take pride in being associated with Pearl because "I'm enough" and "being strong in the REAL way" but now it's more like "oh you just think I'm still hung up and needy and clingy?" which uh don't feel so great a comparison. I can't help but wonder if while working on the movie, Aivi saw some of themself in Pink. Because I'm not the only person who apparently wasn't 'useful' to them anymore. And I'm not saying we should've kept forcing something that wasn't working. Not at all. What we had was good for both us, but it also entailed a lot of patience on my part and effort on theirs. And unlike any of my other long term friends, I often ended up waiting weeks, months, "Happily wondering night after night, Is this how it works? Am I doing it right?"

Years and years of broken friendships, one after the other, most lasting merely 6 months, MAYBE a year at most, with a handful that have lasted since middle school (but which are so much harder to maintain) took a toll on my Adult Self until Jenny, anyway. For quite a long time - the majority of my life, currently - I assumed I just was Too Different and that was why my friendships didn't seem to last, didn't seem to extend to the depths I was looking for. That's perhaps one critical difference between Spinel and I: she's looking for FUN, for smiling faces, for attention, for creating smiles, I just want some fucking consistency. At this point, I'm not even sure WHY I still reach out to people. I don't NEED friendships in that desperate way I used to, back in the Happy/Angry Spinel times. And I've come to terms with that Other Max part of myself and integrated it, accepted it. My worst parts are still me and instead of suppressing them (often by relying on bids of deep friendship with others) I just have to let them EXIST and let them do their thing once in a while. This is ALL why Celeste hit me as hard as it did. Because even if I'm not actually much like Spinel anymore, and Aivi's not really like Pink Diamond, even if I don't actually share much in common with Madeline (other than the subtle 'I drink sometimes to deal with my problems' thing, which I don't anymore) I still comprehend and resonate so much with that concept of just needing to accept the worst parts of yourself and work with them rather than trying to keep them caged up and then they escape and rampage every 5-10 years or so and ruin your life As I felt myself coming to all of these Good Feelings I FINALLY felt like I could help Aivi in the ways they had helped me. That I finally had something to offer I didn't before. Turns out, I didn't, apparently. Aivi had More Important Things to do than visit me in The Garden. And I couldn't blame them. Not a bit. Especially if they had gotten bored of visiting me. I didn't like feeling like a burden on them, either. Can't really argue with that. During the last time we talked, Aivi didn't use the WORDS, didn't literally say them, but I finally could see it: I wasn't Useful anymore. I couldn't Understand, either, because I wasn't Successful. Our friendship was rewarding, but because it required effort. And that effort was still worth it to me, but no longer to them. I was no longer worth it. And despite that, despite starting to feel those hunches, I spent those final months -- as had been the case before, they were afraid to hurt me so avoided actually confronting the problem -- I remained "Happy to listen, Happy to stay Happily watching her drift away" I have no idea if any aspect of our friendship impacted anything Aivi had worked on creatively. TBH Aivi seemed to approach even relationships themselves with more of a logical, pragmatic style -- it was entirely unique compared to anyone I had ever connected with. But if you've read @lis-allwounds then it might not surprise you to know that a lot of what I expressed through Stella and Max, as well as Other Max and Another Stella, channels a lot of these things. I even quoted Aivi directly in the story's end (perhaps foolishly optimistic) And yes, that epilogue moment of sorts is gonna be entirely different if I ever do finish the visual novel. The fact is that we were ALWAYS very different people and our friendship was weird and complicated and hard for one or both of us throughout its, what, 8 year duration? Ironically, I think I took away the opposite 'Character Arc Lesson' they did from all this. But that's just the thing, nothing is permanent for a Human Being. We aren't Gems, we don't actually fuse, we can't just change our appearances when we feel like it, or project ourselves to look how we want to look, or exist for thousands of years. But we DO all have different needs, different ways of understanding those needs, and different ways of needing to adjust or change ourselves or our environments in order to pursue what we want to pursue with the limited time we have here. We tried, hard, and it lasted long enough. If I'm not useful, I'm not useful, I guess? I don't have any ill will toward Aivi, I loved them as a friend and I know they loved me, too, and were better at showing it than most any friends I ever have had. If I'd been better at reciprocating in ways that were actually useful, that would've been good -- but then maybe we wouldn't have become friends in the first place if I hadn't needed 'saving' in the first place, I don't fuckin' know. And I hope my saying all of these things doesn't make anyone think any less of Aivi because your relationship with them is, very likely, not at all personal like mine is. And you know as well as I do how good they are at what they do. Aivi took the time to ease me out of things. Aivi did NOT suddenly up and vanish for thousands of years. While the dynamics of the situation might bare sharp points of similarity, Aivi is not like Pink Diamond and I'm not like Spinel -- not in the present, anyway. Stories help us because they share THREADS with reality but it's always important to recognize those threads for what they are and not confuse them for ropes. And me ranting and tossing all of this out there is something part of me has wanted to do for months but needed to take the time to grieve and process and accept. And maybe it's selfish to be posting all of this, I don't know. But it helps me accept myself and them a lot more. "Finally something finally news about how the story ends" Aivi likely has brand new friends, better ones than me, and I'm willing to bet some of them worked on this movie. And it turned out pretty good, all things considered, probably in part because Aivi was able to focus on it That person I became friends with, she doesn't exist anymore. Just like how who I used to be when Aivi first me, he doesn't exist anymore, either. We both changed, and grew in opposite directions, I guess. We've found happiness and growth and relief in different ways. In the end the Movie helped me come to terms with all of this in a way Angry Spinel younger me couldn't have still hurts yo

"Isn't that lovely?

Isn't that cool?

Isn't that cruel?

And aren't I a fool

to have happily listened,

happy to stay,

happily watching her drift away"

[snkpolls]

SnK Chapter 116 Poll Results

The chapter poll closed with 1,671 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

  RATE THE CHAPTER 1,533 responses

The chapter overall had positive reviews, with only 19 respondents leaning toward disliking the chapter. Will Isayama be able to keep up this momentum with the rising action?

Amazing as always. Definitely I always get surprised by Isayama each chapter, you never know what can happened in the next chapter, and i love that. Thank you Isayama

It was amazing. Can't wait to see how things will play out

Felt short, little content. I'm happy Porco can be seen when Pieck says "hey there", nice touch

I don't understand how some people thought this chapter was boring. I found it to be the most entertaining one in ages! Hyyyype. Also yay Colt!

I'm glad it looks like we'll get a bit of a break from the political conspiracies and constant double crossing. This is not the kind of stuff I started reading this manga for.

Pretty good chapter with a lot of characters stepping up imo. It's getting pretty tense and I was hoping for more information regarding Ymir or more of Zeke but reasonably this chapter was necessary.

FAVORITE MOMENT FROM THE CHAPTER

1,634 responses

This chapter had no shortage of excitement, and we nearly had a three-way tie for the favorite moment of the chapter. For 14.7%, Eren coldly calling Pieck’s bluff was chilling enough to be their favorite moment. In contrast, 14.6% most enjoyed Pieck’s betrayal as she turned to name Eren her enemy. Despite Porco’s failure to incapacitate Eren, 14.1% still loved the Jaw Titan’s surprise attack! He tried!

Nice to see Eren playing 4D Chess with Pieck. I loved Pieck's "Please take care of me!" as she went up the stairs! And Yelena standing up for Sasha was a great moment in my book too - a bit extreme like, but that's Yelena's style though! Eren at the end returning to his old self - angry and legless - was my favourite moment though!

my favorite moment was jean, just jean, jean all the time but that wasn't an option :(

Reiner finally showing his beautiful face again is the best, one can only hope that we get Annie soon.

This chapter was amazing and really set the tone for the upcoming battle. That last page with Reiner looking down at Eren was my fav moment.

  WHO WAS THIS CHAPTER’S MVP? 1,627 responses

This wasn’t much of a competition - with Pieck taking the MVP title for Chapter 116 with more than half (56.2%) of respondents thinking her actions were exactly right (as expected). We had a close race for second place, with Jean (17%) taking a slight lead over our problematic protagonist (15.4%).

I never really got invested much in the new Marley characters, but god damn if I don’t love Pieck more after every chapter. I mean the pointing thing? That was SICK

I liked Nicolo's defending of Sasha and it hurt to see her family forced to listen to that guy degrading her. And because of his feelings for her and for eldians, I chose him as the MVP for now :)

Grior. He showed us how deeply Nicolo felt about Sasha, he created a scene where Jean got to show his worth, and he opened the door to everyone seeing exactly how creepy Yelena is. He made EVERYONE (besides Yelena) look good. :D

ERENS ABS

  YOUR FEELINGS ON PIECK GIVING GABI A DOSE OF REALITY? 1,578 responses

The vast majority are happy to see someone from Gabi’s side of the war finally tell her the reality of their situation. 12% of respondents don’t think it will ultimately matter as Gabi is too stubborn to change her views. A smaller portion feel that Pieck doesn’t actually believe what she’s saying to Gabi at all.

Gabi is easily the character whose future development I look forward to the most.

I feel like Gabi needs to listen but Pieck here really means there's another method on the way; the rest is just her LARPing as a restorationist to gain Eren's trust, just as Armin did with Annie in the past.

Gabi's already gotten so many doses of reality that have done nothing. I honestly don't feel anything about these moments at this point.

Pieck isn't entirely lying here. She believes that eldians should fight for themselves and is using Marley to get what she wants. Good on her for calling out Gabi's blind devotion to Marley! Stupid child.

Pieck is showing her true thoughts but won't act on them, because she won't betray Marley and everyone she knows.

Gabi truly believes that all the Warriors are doing what they do in the name of Marely, Zeke turned his back on Marley to accomplish his ultimate goal and Pieck revealed that she doesn't trust them at all. Gabi may understand that simply being an honorary Marleyian isn't why the Warriors fight for Marley, they simply fight for themselves, even if it does help Marley to an extent.

I'm more interested in what it means for Pieck's viewpoint tbh. She says this, and is clearly smart enough to know this to be true, and yet is still apparently fighting for Marley. I'm very interested to see whether she actually has any ideas on how to win Eldian freedom after the Paradis battle.

Pieck was telling half-truths to Gabi, she knows about the danger of the Eldians being obsolete but Eren is not the answer for the survival of her people in the mainland.

  WHICH MEMBER OF THE 104TH DO YOU MOST AGREE WITH ABOUT EREN’S ACTIONS? 1,582 responses

70% of respondents feel similarly to Jean, believing that Eren wouldn’t do everything he’s done without a good reason for it. 21% feel similarly to Armin, just wishing to understand Eren’s actions and why. A smaller percentage feel similarly to Connie and agree that Eren has simply become irredeemable regardless of his motivations.

I BELIEVE THERE IS A GOOD MEANING BEHIND EREN’S ACTIONS, TRUST MY WORDS

I still don't know how to feel about Eren and his plans

I really like how Jean was trying to see Eren in a different light to try to understand him and Connie's ongoing grudge against eren.

  WHICH JEAN ACT SOLIDIFIED HIM AS BEST BOI? 1,582 responses

Jean provided some much-needed comfort this chapter, and 38.4% were most pleased that he decided to finally introduce some much-needed objectivity to the Eren discussion. On top of that, another 26.1% were most impressed with his ability to stay calm despite the stressful circumstances.

All of the above. Any of these moments in isolation would have been good, but it's all of them taken together that made Jean amazing this chapter.

Now our favourite Jailbirds: I'm so happy to see them after a few months. Jean continues to be the best, and my most favourite boy, I liked how rationally and objectively he viewed the situation -- and the fact that he was still vouching for Eren, and showing so much care for Mikasa made my heart flutter a lil bit.

Horse-face standing up for that suicidal bastard was the best moment in this chapter!!! Jean growing so much makes him best boi-horse ever!

He should join the yaegerists, then we can talk about best boy

Literally anything the majestic stallion does classified him as best boi. He breathes and he’s best boi.

Jean's actions in this chapter show the signs of a good leader, and I hope he is rewarded for it down the line.

getting the SOLID gift of character development that just KEEPS ON GIVING

Oh so for THIS one you ain't got 'all of the above'? WHERE IS ALL OF THE ABOVE

You utter fools, everything Jean has done since Season 1 has solidified him as best boi

  MIKASA ISN’T WEARING HER SCARF. DOES THIS HAVE SIGNIFICANCE? 1,569 responses

Is it getting hot in that jail cell or did Mikasa take off her scarf for more personal reasons? Almost half of us believe this is hinting at Mikasa breaking away from Eren in some way, but more than a third think it’s just another of many instances where Mikasa has gone scarfless for practical reasons.

Isayama probs used it to sew another seed of doubt so that we'd ask this exact question.

she's sad :(

It's typical for her to take the scarf off when it's warm, so it shouldn't have any significance, however it's hard to think she would just casually remove/interact with the scarf after that conversation. I feel like Mikasa'd either keep it with her at all times, or get rid of it completely (though if it's the latter, the chapter should've focused on the absence of the scarf more). For now, the scarf situation has me really confused.  

She doesn't want to think about Eren right now

She finally saw how hot Jean is. Just as everyone else in that cell. That's it.

She is Sad, not Mad at Eren

This can mean that she is still shaken up after what Eren said to her, but that doesn't mean she's sick of him. She's probably realizing that her attachment to him is not doing her any good so far.

She wants to let go

  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ONYANKOPON ALLYING WITH YELENA? 1,562 responses

The majority are still uncertain about where Onyankopon stands. Less than 1/4th of the fandom believe he’s truly on Yelena’s site.  Many agree that he needed to side with Yelena at that moment regardless of what he truly believes. Nearly half the fandom (45.6%) selected “He’s been too hard to predict, I hadn’t made up my mind.”

My man is legit Yelena’s hostage. He never asked for this.

He looks very hesitant, so I am also hesitant to make a call

he’s sweating and eyeing yelena like he’s worried so he is just playing along with. i think he’ll go free the 104th during the commotion!

At the very least, he and Yelena are not on the same page. In a way, they've been foils since their introduction: from the way they interact with the Survey Corps, the ways they assisted in Liberio, to their stance on God. I've always loved their dynamic, and I definitely look forward to more of these two in the future!

Great way for Yams to maintain tension in the storyline. It doesn't really matter what he chooses, but he works great as a character to bounce concepts off of.

He is on Yelena's side for now. You can tell that the guilt is weighing on him.

He's just here until the next Star Wars movie

  ON A SCALE OF 1-5 HOW BADLY DID YOU WANT TO PUNCH GRIOR? (1: HE WAS IN THE RIGHT SOMEHOW; 5: I’VE NEVER ROOTED HARDER FOR YELENA.) 1,574 responses

Perhaps the most interesting thing in this result is that 51 people in our fandom don’t want to punch Grior. The vast majority (72.2%) selected the highest choice, “I’ve never rooted harder for Yelena”

She's nuts but she's fun and gets props for shooting Grior.

Jheez the disrespect coming from Grior. Connie and Nicolo were rightfully fuming. Yelena putting a hole in his head has been the best thing she’s done in the whole story.

Fuck Grior

I wasn't a fan of Grior, but shooting him was an overkill. Yelena did it in front of the kids no less.

  WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT FEELINGS ON YELENA? 1,576 responses

“Crazy” was the most common reaction with nearly half the fandom (41.9%) selecting that option.

Although she's 'cray cray', I would feel bad for her and Zeke if they find out that Eren is using both of them. I'm staying neutral to her.

I hate fanatics. I hope Zeke steps on her and we never see her again.

I love Yelena. Truly, her actions aren't that right, but everyone in this show depends on some corrupt decisions. I'm sure she has good reasons why she's that way and she shows to the 104th some of her weak as well as nice side. I think she would be a good ally for them, but we will see!  

She's very interesting, although her motivations are indeed 'crazy' (not normal admiration for the Yeager brothers), her actions stay logical and reasonable considering her goal.

First she kills people in ruthless way and few minutes later she is crying and tells others about Yeager bros being gods. Yet, I have to admit that she is a good character.  

She’s an interesting combination of things tenacious, devoted and cunning. I can’t wait to find out if what her and Zeke want is actually the same thing.

cray cray, but still, P O U N D T O W N

  WHY WAS ARMIN CRYING? 1,573 responses

Another strong consensus in the poll! 65.4% selected “He realized Eren would never agree with what she said, and is still on their side”.

Armin is trying to like to gain the upper hand

he must've felt overwhelmed with something, and decided to play it to his advantage

Biggest mystery of the whole manga imo. Ymir fritz and he origins of the titans? Nah fam, I need to know why Armin crying was important enough to take up a whole pageworth of panels.

Boy tryna get tf outta here even if it means temporarily joining yelena’s wack ass cult

He just got heads-up about some harsh truth.

He was definitely faking

He's figured SOMETHING out, we don't know just yet. I'm so excited, it's been a while since we've seen his tactical cunning side!

He's obviously manipulating her. Yelena is a bit of a nut case, but she's also really passionate. Armin is using that to his advantage. 

I think he's genuinely crying, but certainly not for the reason he said. As for why exactly... Not sure, it might be for a lot of things… I think he understood something about what Eren's plan might be

he could be crying from relief. he has known eren the longest, knows how much he values freedom, and knows he would never agree to euthanasia. after 112, he was really asking himself whether eren was actually on their side or not. he's definitely seeing through his mask now and realizes that he's playing zeke and his cult like a damn fiddle.

  THIS MONTH SEEMS TO CONFIRM THAT EREN KNEW ABOUT THE WINE PLOT. ARE YOU SURPRISED? 1,576 responses

Ahem. The Snk Poll Team would like to remind you that we asked this question in the chapter 111 poll and at that time only 27% believed he knew about the wine. Just sayin’ :P

  DO YOU THINK THAT EREN KNOWING ABOUT THE WINE HAD ANY INFLUENCE ON HIS DEFECTION? 1,556 responses

The larger half of the fandom doesn’t feel that the wine plot had anything to do with Eren taking his own actions. Still, nearly half feel it’s possible it could have influenced his decisions.

Eren is planning something

Eren is suspicious.

  HOW DO YOU THINK EREN FEELS ABOUT FALCO INGESTING THE WINE? 1,580 responses

Nearly 75% of voters feel that Eren does care about Falco’s situation, but not enough to distract him from his plans. Nearly 15% feel that Eren doesn’t actually care about Falco at all, and 9% believe that he is feeling concerned for Falco.

Sympathizes with another unknowing Eldian pawn

Eren collapsed a building on Falco, like, are we forgetting this.

He thinks he cares, but has decided that the end justifies the means. How noble

I think that Eren thinks it sucks but that 'it be like that'

He’s so cray cray right now that I don’t know what to think

  WHO IS THE OTHER WOMAN THAT EREN IS SAYING HE DOESN’T TRUST? 1,575 responses

Was Eren shading Yelena? 30% of the fandom seems to think so. 23% feel that he is referring to Kiyomi. 20% don’t want to make any calls yet but feel that this is something we’ll be calling back to down the road, while 10% think the rest of us are making a big deal out of a small statement. A few write-ins also listed Annie, Hange, Gabi and Historia as potential options.

He's talking about Pieck, the translation is weird.

Can we hack Eren's brain?

Have we considered Historia? I'd love for Historia to be one of the big players herself.

Either he's talking about Pieck if you take the translation as "just as she doesn't trust me" or Yelena, since he's not on board with her plan as a whole.

"That woman" is Kiyomi and she will appear like a wildcard next chapter.

I think that he means Pieck doesn't trust him either? I don't really know, the translations are so wildly different.

  WHO PLAYED THE OTHER BETTER? 1,608 responses

Regardless of who wins or loses the upcoming titan battle, Pieck won the chapter with more than 75% believing she won this particular meeting of the minds.

As expected of Pieck, she's best girl (hope she won't die too soon).

Erem seemed way too easily convinced by Pieck that she would point out her colleagues. Yes he threatened her with his pricked finger, and yes he was ready to transform on the roof, but it felt like he went along with everything too quickly.

I love pieck and eren and I didn't know I needed them to meet until now!

I was super worried that Pieck wouldn’t be given any spotlight and would stay in the background forever. Now all I need is her last name and I will die happy.

  PORCO FAILED TO EAT EREN AGAIN. WILL HE EVER GET HIS MOMENT OF GLORY? 1,571 responses

Sorry Porco. Most (73.1%) of us have no confidence in you. But look on the bright side - 17.1% think that maybe you can be redeemed. Oof.

Coming up through the roof *was* his moment of glory. It's all downhill from there.

His moment of glory was getting to see ymir's gorgeous face four years back

I believe that his mission was about injuring Eren, not eating him. I hope he will have his own five minutes because he is strong as a titan and knows very well how to use his powers.

Eating Erens legs off is pretty impressive on its own right tbh

Eren is gonna eat him before he gets another chance to do something impactful

He'll be forever a failure but I still love him very much! He's trying his best!!

  WHAT WAS THE GRIMMEST GRIM REMINDER? 1,577 responses

The opening scene, and one of the most iconic, has had several imitations since. The slight overall majority, at 51% think that Eren turning the tables and being the one to deliver the grim reminder in chapter 100 was the grimmest.  33.5% of you prefer the classic scene that started it all.  9.2% thought that this chapter offered the grimmest circumstance, with Marley’s blimps appearing overhead.

The grimest reminder was chapter 84 for the simple reason that heroes of the story showed the worst side of humanity and ever since then I think they don't deserve happy ending.

THOSE BLIMPS HAVE MOUNTED MACHINE GUNS

It’s so cool that we get to see another grim reminder, again, so soon, as to ensure that it has little emotional impact!

  WHICH MARLEY CHARACTER WERE YOU MOST EXCITED TO SEE RETURN THIS CHAPTER? 1,564 responses

There was some genuine excitement at seeing Reiner’s return to Paradis. Of the Marley cast, 84% where most excited to see him.

Why you gotta be assuming people are unanimously excited for Marley characters to return? I literally could have gone this entire series without any of them.

ITS BEEN SO LONG MY SON IS BACK i missed you reiner youre doing amazing sweetie pls dont die @_@

BEST BOY REINER IS BACK AND READY TO KICK ASS

My ovaries exploded when Reiner showed up looking badass with those swimming goggles. I missed my best baby boy so much.

REINER VS EREN ROUND 4 BABY!!! hopefully reiner can win! he deserves to win a fight with eren once at least lol

I was so happy to see Reiner again. It's so ironic of Isayama, that Reiner looks like a hero in this panel and Eren as the bad guy.

cOLT STILL EXISTS BOIS YEE HAW

  REINER, MAGATH, AND COLT ARE ALL WEARING PARACHUTES. WHO (IF ANY) WILL BE GOING SKYDIVING? 1,566 responses

In chapter 92 we saw Reiner join his comrades by jumping out of a blimp; will he do it again?  And if so, who will join him?  The general consensus, at 92.8% think Reiner will be skydiving once more; and about half at 52.2% think Colt will join him this time.  36.6% of you think Magath will as well, with 73.4% feeling he’ll likely command from the skies.  2.8% of you think no one will be leaving the blimp anytime soon.

Reiner again! I still fear that Colt will end like Farlan, but it's just me.

I freakin' wish Pixis weren't in jail. I'd love to see him and Magath match wits while commanding large forces.

Colt is allowed to exist dammit

I think Marley is going for the same tactic they used in Slava: sending in Pieck and Porco on the ground, then deploy Reiner via parachute. Zeke will also show up last this time and fire on enemy ships, the difference being that the enemy isn’t marley and the ships are airborne.

I didn’t realize Colt was even in this chapter until I filled out this survey

  WILL EREN USE THE WAR HAMMER POWERS IN THE UPCOMING BRAWL? 1,575 responses

With Eren recently acquiring the unique and awesome war hammer abilities, many of us are waiting with bated breath to see him show them off.  87.5% think that Eren will utilize them in the battle, and 8.3% think he already has.  While his titan form doesn’t seem radically different yet, it seems to have formed in the style Lady Tybur’s did.  Only 4.2% don’t believe Eren will break out these powers.

Disappointed that Isayama didn't give Eren's titan form a redesign after eating the Warhammer Titan. Hopefully we'll be able to see how Eren's going to utilize its power in the next chapter.

Marley came prepared to deal with the Founding+Attack+Warhammer Titan. If he's overwhelmed, he may get desperate and who knows what could happen then.

I thought Eren easily fell into a trap, and I don't see why he can't easily take down the blimps with his Warhammer power.

After that Awesome entrance I really wanna see warriors kicking his Eldian ass, but I just somehow know that Eren Warhammer will wreck them.

i'm really hoping to see some badass war hammer action

i am ready for the war hammer boy

  THE LAST TIME EREN FACED THAT WARRIORS HE HAD THE SUPPORT OF THE SURVEY CORPS. THIS TIME HE IS ALONE. DO YOU THINK THAT WILL AFFECT THE OUTCOME? 1,615 responses

The results here are relatively divided. Nearly 40% of the fandom believe that Eren’s going to be able to handle himself in this battle without the help of the Survey Corps. 23% are certain that he will be defeated. 30% feel it could go either way and don’t want to make a solid prediction.

Eren will struggle but ultimately not be taken captive

He is totally going to get kidnapped😆

They will help him anyways. They need to protect their home, and without Eren it's impossible

Eren's fine. He's been able to predict and deal with everything up to this point. If he knew there were already spies on Paradis, he could've predicted the invasion. Might be too much credit, but he might've even used Pieck's arrival as the opportunity to lure everyone out.

With the help of Zeke and the Yeagerists I believe he’ll be able to hold his own

I sure hope so. He better fail. And he SC better only reluctantly help him they have to; ends don't justify means Eren. You made your bed, you gotta lie in it.

He has the support of the Yaeger faction, Eren has shown massive improvement with his fighting ability in titan form in Marley, and with the power of the Warhammer he can only improve.

He will not be able to overcome them on his own BUT WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP will win out once Armin convinces everyone of the truth

Last time he didn’t have the Warhammer’s abilities, now he does. He also has the Yeagerist faction with him. I say he takes it.

We've never seen Eren in a fight where he was completely on his own.  He always relied on an assist from either the Survey Corps or an Ackerman.  It's going to be  really, really interesting to see how he does without his cheat codes.

  WHO ELSE WILL JOIN THE FRAY FOR THIS FIGHT? (CHECK ALL THAT APPLY) 1,488 responses

Another battle finally erupts!  What other challengers will approach?  Zeke is the most popular option at 68.7%.  Armin, Mikasa,  and Jean all had about half the fandom voting for them, and Connie and Floch just below that, but still popular choices.  About 90% of you think Levi and Hange will sit this one out whilst on their own little adventure.

I suspect that Zeke will show up with the Yeagerists in time to save his younger brother.

If Zeke should appear, then the battle is almost certainly lost to Marley.

Zeke will probably show up at that moment so he can save Eren just as he claimed he would long ago. His promise to Eren was even brought up Pieck this chapter, who we know is exactly right!

Reiner is going to get SO depressed when Armin transforms into the Colossal. Also not a big fan of Annie but she needs to get out now.

Now Eren is facing the strong enemies alone. I would like to see how he can handle them, that why I hope that Zeke and SC won't join. I want Reiner to win at least once.

Floch and co. will come to the rescue after Eren starts losing

I'm sorry but ew who wants to see Floch?

Floch needs to make an appearance I wanna see the rest of the 104th rip him a new ass hole tbh

Floch is best boy

I just really wanna see all titans fighting each other. Just Imagine how Eren is standing there with Zeke like : Hey We just won and then Eren is kicked from behind by Annie and then Levi show up + Armin (and others) gets out of prison and transform to fight Eren.

I know I've said that I hoped Hanji and Levi stay away from this war as long as they can but LORD please tell me how they've been currently.

  WHO AMONG THE SC, IF ANY, DO YOU THINK WILL EVENTUALLY CHOOSE TO SIDE WITH EREN? 1,519 responses

Has Eren burned every bridge?  The majority, at about 55% think both Armin and Jean will still end up siding with him.  Just below that, 47.7% think Mikasa will continue to support him.  28.9% think everyone listed will oppose joining up with him.

Eren alienated Mikasa and Armin so i think they won't join, but they can't abandon him either.

I bet Eren broke ties with Armin and Mikasa so that they wouldn't get involved in this fight, because he's seen a scenario where they die here.

It's hard to tell because Eren's "side" is still quite a mystery. If he truly believe in the euthanasia plan then I doubt anyone in the SC will join him, even Mikasa. But if it turns out his plan is something else we don’t know, then they might help him in the end. Most likely Armin and Jean. But I doubt any of the SC joins the Euthanasia side, now we just need to find out if that's actually Eren's side.

Mikasa believes that the Eren now isn't the Eren she knew back when he saved her

I think it would be interesting for at least one warrior to join forces with him.

  IS THIS THE FINAL BATTLE? 1,570 responses

The warriors have returned to Paradis Island on the offensive!  Will this be the final conflict in the manga, or is there more to come?  78% of you feel there will be another fight after this one; while 22% think we’re in the endgame with this brawl.

I'm concerned that if this does turn out to be the final battle many important characters like Levi, Hange, Historia and Annie will not be involved.

I think this is the start of the final fight but depending on how you look at it the fight may pause and continue on elsewhere, but this is for sure the final conflict I think

The chapter is a kickstart to the final climax of the manga, and I'm excited to see how the end turns out.

I hope this isn't the final battle, if so, I hope its very long

The final battle will end up decimating the entire island. No one will survive.

I really like that Pieck was pointing her finger at Eren, as he asked on the rooftop where the enemy is and she said 'there'. I'm wondering if this has a special meaning that Isayama will turn Eren into the last 'antagonist' for his final arc. Maybe the last fight, includes the whole world vs. Eren, but who knows?

This chapter was great! i thought pieck will side with eren and others but nope. Also hyped for final battle!

I hope it isn’t the final battle. I’m so confused by everything happening.

  HOW HAS YOUR OPINION ON THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS CHANGED?

The biggest winners this month were unsurprisingly Jean and Pieck, with huge upswings in popularity. On the other end, Onyankopon, Yelena and even poor Connie took a hit. It seems Connie’s distrust of Eren might have upset a few people.

I don’t know who in the SC will side with Eren but I am almost completely sure Connie won’t.

I'm glad we got to see more of pieck! best girl snapped on this chapter. She was playing it safe and smart with the things she was saying to both Eren and Gabi.

Could someone please punch eren in the face

Honestly feels like Onyankopon is just a side character that won't affect the plot much at all and therefor is pretty much irrelevant.

Also, WTF are you doing, Onyankopon?

Can't say I was surprised about how things unfolded. The SC are still in jail, at this point it's laughable. Pieck and Marley attack - who didn't see it coming? Onyankopon is still shady. Yelena is still cray cray. Eren is still acting like a heartless asshole. Gabi is beyond redemption, she would have shot Pieck if she hadn't been stopped. So nothing much was new :D

Still tryin to figure out what's the point of Gabi in this story.

AT THIS POINT, AROUND WHICH CHAPTER DO YOU EXPECT THE MANGA WILL CONCLUDE? 1,561 responses

Just like last time, most respondents (37.5%) believe that Chapter 130 is most likely to be the final chapter of the manga. 85% think that the manga will go until at least 130, and 48% think it will go until at least 134. With the recent announcement that the manga will continue for another 1-2 years, it’s looking like we won’t be getting a conclusion before Chapter 128 (or 130 if we are going by volume-ending chapters and chapters per volume remains the same).

  WHO DO YOU MOST HOPE TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,554 responses

We may or may not have forgotten to include Annie on this list, but aside from that, people seem overall most anxious to get an update on Levi’s condition, as well as see Historia (presumably doing something other than sitting in the rocking chair). Floch… sorry, dude.

Annie wake up and kick some people in the head.

Can we get some annie or is she just like the basement we'll never get?

PLEASE JUST SHOW ME HISTORIA, WHERE IS SHE

I just want to see Bertoto at some point again :(

I still curious with Levi's and Hange's condition after Hange throws herself to the river.

I wonder how many more angles can we view Historia from that rocking chair.

WHERE DO YOU NORMALLY DISCUSS THE SERIES?

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER?

Porco and Pieck look good in Paradise Military coats...

It would make the most sense for Eren to lose this upcoming fight because he abandoned his friends, while the opposing side is united because of their friendship (if we're speaking in narrative terms). But we still don't know what his thoughts are, how much he knows, what his plans are, or his reasoning for anything. How can he be the main antagonist of this fight if we don't know this much? Idk but I hope we'll get some clarification during the fight (but I doubt it)

Will Reiner overcome his sufferboi status to finally do something right for himself? That's what I want to see.

I want to know if they have Hot Chocolate in the cell or some coffee. Why only tea? What is Eren planning withholding the coffee?

Armin's ability to manipulate has levelled up so much! He might be overplaying it a little bit with the tears, but considering previously he was really bad at making the emotions on his face reflect what he was saying, he's getting better at it. It both excites and saddens me. Excites because it makes him all the more dangerous; saddens because my greatest wish for Armin is that he needn't know these skills at all. Just let him be free and travel and see cool things! He deserves it.

What a ride!  And what a turn-around.  I love how the narration has come around to Eren being the villain, and Pieck and Reiner being the heroes.  I also can't wait to see Eren get his ass stomped.

I'm so happy that it looks like the remains of the 104th might actually do something soon.

The direction the manga is going it’s fucked up. I think the manga has lost that sparkle that once had. Basically at this point everybody is waiting just to see who makes it out alive and lives to tell the tale.

Eren is finished. Maybe imprisoning your best soldiers, crippling your strongest trump card, having Zeke titanize a bunch of Scouts, and generally wreaking havoc in Paradise wasn't such a good idea.

I was really impressed with Eren. He’s become such an interesting and amazing character. And he didn’t fall for Pieck at all, and it was so smart when he healed his finger in front of her to show he “trusted” her, meanwhile still having another finger cut and hidden. And his overal distrust and not telling Pieck anything he knew. He obviously didn’t trust her. *sniff* my baby going out to destroy people

JEAN FOR BEST STALLION

Jean and Connie are both right. Eren's not absolved just because he has reasons for his actions. Lying and manipulating your friends is shitty, especially if you're doing it "for their own good." That's not a solid friendship. I hope Isayama sticks to his guns on this. And also get Historia out of that damn chair, I'm so tired of it. But mostly I really liked this chapter, particularly the arrival of Reiner and Co. And Gabi and Pieck!

Pieck is the best girl of all time. You CAN’T change my mind.

The Marleyan military is attacking Paradis. Them killing Eren and getting his powers is bad for Paradis. I have no idea why there are fans saying the Survey Corps will outright abandon Eren or even fight against him right now. Helping the people currently attacking them is...unwise, to say the least.

I know Eren looks like a tasty snacc, but I would be extremely grateful if Porco keeps his filthy mouth away from Eren. He can eat a 10 foot flaming pineapple for all I care, please and thank you!

Best part of this chapter: no Zeke. Thank you Yams.

Porco and Pieck look good in Paradise Military coats...

It would make the most sense for Eren to lose this upcoming fight because he abandoned his friends, while the opposing side is united because of their friendship (if we're speaking in narrative terms). But we still don't know what his thoughts are, how much he knows, what his plans are, or his reasoning for anything. How can he be the main antagonist of this fight if we don't know this much? Idk but I hope we'll get some clarification during the fight (but I doubt it)

Will Reiner overcome his sufferboi status to finally do something right for himself? That's what I want to see.

I want to know if they have Hot Chocolate in the cell or some coffee. Why only tea? What is Eren planning withholding the coffee?

Armin's ability to manipulate has levelled up so much! He might be overplaying it a little bit with the tears, but considering previously he was really bad at making the emotions on his face reflect what he was saying, he's getting better at it. It both excites and saddens me. Excites because it makes him all the more dangerous; saddens because my greatest wish for Armin is that he needn't know these skills at all. Just let him be free and travel and see cool things! He deserves it.

What a ride!  And what a turn-around.  I love how the narration has come around to Eren being the villain, and Pieck and Reiner being the heroes.  I also can't wait to see Eren get his ass stomped.

I'm so happy that it looks like the remains of the 104th might actually do something soon.

The direction the manga is going it’s fucked up. I think the manga has lost that sparkle that once had. Basically at this point everybody is waiting just to see who makes it out alive and lives to tell the tale.

Eren is finished. Maybe imprisoning your best soldiers, crippling your strongest trump card, having Zeke titanize a bunch of Scouts, and generally wreaking havoc in Paradise wasn't such a good idea.

I was really impressed with Eren. He’s become such an interesting and amazing character. And he didn’t fall for Pieck at all, and it was so smart when he healed his finger in front of her to show he “trusted” her, meanwhile still having another finger cut and hidden. And his overal distrust and not telling Pieck anything he knew. He obviously didn’t trust her. *sniff* my baby going out to destroy people

JEAN FOR BEST STALLION

Jean and Connie are both right. Eren's not absolved just because he has reasons for his actions. Lying and manipulating your friends is shitty, especially if you're doing it "for their own good." That's not a solid friendship. I hope Isayama sticks to his guns on this. And also get Historia out of that damn chair, I'm so tired of it. But mostly I really liked this chapter, particularly the arrival of Reiner and Co. And Gabi and Pieck!

Pieck is the best girl of all time. You CAN’T change my mind.

The Marleyan military is attacking Paradis. Them killing Eren and getting his powers is bad for Paradis. I have no idea why there are fans saying the Survey Corps will outright abandon Eren or even fight against him right now. Helping the people currently attacking them is...unwise, to say the least.

Best part of this chapter: no Zeke. Thank you Yams.

I know Eren looks like a tasty snacc, but I would be extremely grateful if Porco keeps his filthy mouth away from Eren. He can eat a 10 foot flaming pineapple for all I care, please and thank you!

[frumfrumfroo]

I know the Reylo fandom puts a lot of emphasis on creator comments because for a long time that's the only thing we had to go on, and it's one of the ways shippers can demonstrate that "no, this was the authorial intent" to people on Twitter or wherever who don't see the romance, but IMO it's better to ignore them completely, positive or negative. Especially not when JJ's around, because he's outright lied to people before his movies to preserve twists. Just watch the movies to make predictions.

I do prefer to focus pretty exclusively on what’s on the screen because the movie>>>>everything else, but there is a huge difference between the film-makers openly discussing their intent after the film is out and everyone knows what happened in it, and the kind of vague equivocal stuff they say in promo to get audiences on the hook. There’s also a difference between the actors’ personal opinions on whatever and the performance they gave as a professional working in collaboration towards a predetermined goal.

I'm pretty sure JJ has learnt his lesson about outright lying, but I’m still not interested in obsessing over interviews. This fandom had 4000 freak-outs over pre-TLJ interviews and all of them were unwarranted. The official tone of the overall marketing has been exactly what we’d want it to be.

[spaceorphan18]

SO’s Guide to the MCU

A handy guide for @coffeegleek to decide if she (or anyone else) would like join the ranks.  It’s fine if you don’t want to, but that means more shawarma for us.  

1. Iron Man - 

Robert Downey Jr. plays himself Tony Stark, an asshole billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist, who nearly dies, and saves himself by becoming Iron Man.  This film kicks off the tone of the MCU combining humor and action and just being a fun ride.  Completely recommended to get a jump start into the MCU to see how it all begins.  

2. The Incredible Hulk

Rightfully considered the black sheep of the Marvel family.  It’s... not good.  In fact, I couldn’t even find a gif for you.  Eventually, they’ll switch out Edward Norton for the much more entertaining Mark Ruffalo, and pretty much nothing in this movie matters to the big scheme of things, so it’s entirely skippable.  And I mean, even if you are a huge Hulk fan - I’d probably still recommend skipping it. 

3. Iron Man 2

This film is considered by a lot of people to be one of the weaker ones - and while I still enjoy it a lot, it’s understandable as to why people think that.  It’s funny and has charm, but it’s kind of a mess - so... if you had fun with Iron Man 1 and really want to see more Tony Stark I recommend! Otherwise, feel free to move on.  Black Widow is introduced here, but her introduction in The Avengers is just fine.  

4. Thor

For me, the first Thor film is a little ‘meh’, though it does have some charm.  Chris Hemsworth plays a frat boy god who gets grounded to Earth after he misbehaves by his father Odin.  The real gem of this film is Tom Hiddleson’s Loki and the family dynamics between Thor, Loki, and Odin.  The stuff with Natalie Portman and the Earlings is fine.  But I almost recommend watching Avengers first and seeing if you like that first, and if you do, come back and watch Thor if you’re interested or if you just want to see Chris Hemsworth be pretty for two hours. 

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

The epic romance that is Steve and Bucky starts here.  If you’re totally intrigued by tumblr’s fascination with ‘Stucky’ this is a must!!  But more seriously, C:TFA is a fun film, yes set in the 40s, but I think it handles that well and Chris Evans is an absolute delight as Cap -- or Steve Rogers, a plucky kid from Brooklyn who just wants to prove what a big heart he has.  It’s much more entertaining for than the Thor film (IMO), though if you’re still on the fence, again, watch Avengers first, and come back if Cap holds your attention. 

6. The Avengers

If you’re really unsure about any of the first phase of films, then start off with The Avengers.  This film is amazing -- it’s funny, and emotional, and is nicely paced, and you really get a nice sense of who the characters are and what they stand for.  This film is just fun, with the MCU’s trademark humor and intriguing action (and I say this as a person who really isn’t into action films if you can believe it).  I can’t say enough good things about this film - it’s really good, go watch it!! 

7. Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 is the continuing adventures of Tony Stark.  This film is batshit insane at times (but I kinda love it - though I love Iron Man, so...)  It’s got some great character work for Tony Stark if you’re interested, which I think is the best thing this film has going for it.  It doesn’t, however, play much of a part in the bigger scheme of things, so if  Tony isn’t your person, then you can skip past it. 

8. Thor: The Dark World

This film is often considered the weakest (after Incredible Hulk), but I’m not gonna lie, I find this way more enjoyable than Thor 1.  It’s... not a good film, but if you’re a fan of Thor, or Loki, or just utter nonsense in a fantasy setting then check it out! 

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Epic Romance of Steve and Bucky pt. 2: The Return of Bucky!!  I’m kinda being tongue-and-cheek, this film is honestly pretty amazing.  It’s a political spy-thriller where Cap has to go underground and undercover when Shield (the good guys) is infiltrated by a Nazi organization.  Everything about this film is done wonderfully well, and I highly recommend this one.  (Though, I’m not doing it justice - just ask @ckerouac) 

10. Guardians of the Galaxy

Do you like epic space operas with a quirky sense of humor and a good soundtrack?? Well then Guardians is right up your alley.  The first film Chris Pratt is Star Lord - a scavenger Han Solo type who finds himself caught up in space hijinks.  There are green aliens and talking trees and raccoons and whatever Drax is.  It’s fun and entertaining.  I think general audiences like it more than I do - but I do agree that it’s a wonderfully done film. 

11. Avengers: Age of Ultron

Well, let’s be honest - the Avengers sequel just isn’t what the first film is.  It tries, and has some charming moments, but just doesn’t hold together very well, the main issue being that the villain - Ultron - just isn’t a very good villain.  If you liked Avengers - give it a shot, it introduced Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver and a lot of the next batch of films, but I recommend going into it without much expectation.  However, you can always come back to this one if you want to wait to see if you like some of the later films first. 

12. Ant-Man

Ant-Man, played by the delightful Paul Rudd, is a low stakes fun heist film that’s kind of a mix between Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Ocean’s 11, and every other MCU film.  It’s cute and lighthearted - and if you find Paul Rudd charming, I totally recommend it.  If you’re still on the MCU fence, though, there are other films I’d much rather recommend first. 

13. Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: The Epic Stucky Romance pt. 3 -- Steve Rogers breaks up with his current BF Tony Stark so to be with his one true love, Bucky Barnes... Meanwhile, Tony Stark finds out he’s a dad -- to a teenager. 

Okay, I’m kidding.  Here’s the thing... 

This film is hard to discuss.  Some people love it (me! - I love the characterization stuff we get in it, plus the deep nods to the comics, and the introduction of Spider-Man), others hate it (@ckerouac - this is not a Cap film, It’s Avengers 2.5.  I want my Cap film!!) and, much like the film itself, there are valid reasons for everyone’s point of view.  It does play a major part in the fabric of the MCU - so I do recommend seeing it at least once so to gather your own opinion. ;) 

14. Doctor Strange

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a mystical Tony Stark Doctor Strange.  I think it’s an interesting film - it’s kind of got an Inception/Matrix vibe about it, but I like both the character and Cumberbatch in the role.  However, I don’t think it’s anywhere near the strongest of the MCU films, so if any of that doesn’t interest you, then it’s okay to skip -- Doctor Strange’s appearances in other films are better if I’m being totally honest. 

15. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Guardians 2 is probably my second least favorite film of the bunch.  I think it kind of lacks the charm of the first one and amps up the 12yo humor.  But that’s just me.  If you really liked Guardians 1 check it out! Otherwise, feel free to move on. However, it does gain a few points for Baby Groot. 

16. Spider-Man: Homecoming

Let’s be real - This film is basically Tom Holland being a precious little muffin for two hours, and if you aren’t sold entirely on that premise, well then, I can’t help you. ;) 

17. Thor: Ragnarok

Underwhelmed by the first two Thor films? Thought the Hulk movie sucked? Well - welcome to Thor Ragnarok -- the film that just does not give a shit what came before it and does whatever the hell it wants because it’s like a 70′s acid trip.  And walks away being, perhaps, the best comedy in the MCU.  Everything is delightful about this film -- and if you wanted more from a Thor film, more Loki, more crazy antics with Mark Ruffalo - then you’ve come to the right place.  Also - bonus batshit crazy Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson as an amazing lesbian/bi (?) female warrior, and Jeff Goldblum -- Jeff Goldblum-ing.  

18. Black Panther

Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther - and I’m sure you’ve heard all the stuff swirling about how amazing this film is.  There are two things I personally really enjoy about the film -- the fact that it digs deeper than your average superhero film and is not afraid to tackle relevant questions we’re talking about in society right now, and the fact that the female cast in this one is fantastic and incredibly worth watching.  This one’s a definite must! 

19. Avengers: Infinity War

So...  I’m sure you’ve probably heard all about this one by now.  Here’s what I have to say about it -- I recommend seeing if after you’ve seen all the previous ones that you’ve wanted to see -- it does build on the others in a way a TV show builds to its finale.  And honestly, left me emotionally satisfied (knowing it was the first half of a two parter).  It’s a great film, imo, and worth it.  

20. Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and Wasp is a lot like the first film, only ramped up a little more.  After the heaviness of Infinity War, it’s light and a treat.  It’s not entirely (or at all) essential, but it’s a lot of fun if that’s what you’re looking for.  

21. Captain Marvel

Okay, so Captain Marvel isn’t out yet - but the trailer looks delightful, I know who Cap Marvel is from the comics, and it’s time the MCU got its shit together and put a woman in the front.  I say go see it! Plus, I’m sure it’ll be relevant for the next Avengers film. 

22. Avengers: End Game

So, um, also not out yet - but if you’ve liked everything up until now, I’m sure you’ll not only go see - but cry buckets full <3 

23. Spider-Man Far From Home

Let’s be real - we’re all gonna need another two hours of Tom Holland being a precious little muffin after whatever Endgame throws at us.  ;) 

///

And that’s it! That’s the MCU in a nutshell (so far).  Marvel has, like, it’s next ten years planned out, so definitely not the end.  But - hey - if anything interests you - I really do recommend checking that out first and coming back to fill in things if you want to know more. :) 

Guide to Non-MCU Marvel Films Part 1 Guide to Non-MCU Marvel Films Part 2