#don't give me that “they wanted to be respectful to the source material” crap

[thekimspoblog]

"Prince of Egypt" is one of those movies the internet has decided that you're not allowed to hate.

Too bad I do!

[silviakundera]

Empresses in the Palace ep 16

"And now she dares to take away my Persian Ink!" Hard agree, my darling Hua Fei. Screwing your man is one thing, but fucking with your brows is another!! ✊

but babe, why u want to live with a baby??

Lmao look I know its A BABY but it's a fictional one and I'm amused that her palace is so crap at taking care of it. My career girl is just NOT the maternal type. Drugs the kid with crushed sleeping pills; "It works just fine on me." lmaoooooo

ffffuvk she's looking ragged in front of the emperor GURL let that baby go. Neither of you are having a good time.

Zhen Huan, I know the emperor is your dad's age but this fickle dude that might kill you or your besties someday is not the DILF protector you need, in metaphorical OR literal thunderstorms.

Empress savoring the new girl being humiliated by the new new girl 💅

While Zhen Huan plans for the long game by serving up Ling Rong. She's in it to win it now. Definitely feeling disconcerted about matchmaking her friend with her husband but willing to do it so they have a stronger backing in the palace. The first sign for me tbh that she could be empress material. And tbh for once the Empress isn't laying it on thick. LR truly has a celestial voice. Consort Yu supposedly was admired for her pipes but she has nothing on LR. The way she looks back. Yaaaasss always leave them wanting more.

That half-sister is gonna become a real problem.

me trying to picture how u draw eyebrows "like distant mountains"

ep 17

Prince Guo is not hot but not grandpa. He's also not the source of humiliation & suffering for a busload of ladies. I'm sold! yeah, I ship it. Please bang in despair at your wasted lives at least once, thx.

Hua Fei taking a big swing to frame up Zhen Huan by poisoning the favored baby. But it's not actually that risky, because her brother is impeccable armor.

Duan Fei is the real MVP. Everyone knows she's lying but the emperor clearly respects her and isn't willing to embarass her. No more than he's willing to severely punish my gf Hua.

Hope Duan gets her revenge.

Ep 18

So the emperor totally knows Hua Fei posioned the kid that he actually likes, but General Nian's skills trump all.

I'm honestly not sure if Zhen Huan should be trying to push the emperor to not reward Hua Fei. He's gonna do what he thinks he needs to.

Half-sister Huanbi is getting on my NERVES. And finally ZH's, thank god.

Prince Guo is so chill. He just strolled by like, hey crying servant, what's up? oh, somebody dissed your look? you're doing amazing sweetie, don't worry be happy. (Exit stage left.)

I think I love him.

Our protagonist with a BIG WIN. (crowd sounds) 👏 👏 proved half-sister is a traitor and her nemesis finally annoyed the emperor enough that she'll miss a promotion.

Girl, u know I love u. You're the only one for me. But Hua Fei, darling, you really need to properly space out your scheming. It's too much. The man needs some time, space, and calm to properly ponder how much he loves & appreciates your brother.

Ep 19

This episode should be subtitled "The Tale of Two Loves' or '2 Ships For The Price of One'.

First she risks it all to sneak in to hold hands longingly and shed tender tears with her Mei Zihuang. Then romantic coincidental rescue by Prince Guo and a late night boat ride with poetry & literature musings.

And I'm winning because I ship both of them.

Not sure how I feel about Half-Sister Intervention. Huanbi's situation is fucked and in a different drama she'd be the revenge-seeking protagonist. But she's also dumb as hell to want to join the harem and give up the chance to escape to a normal life. She's seen what a hell this place is. Ultimately, she has reason to resent ZH and their family. And she has a dangerous secret. What if she flips again? Just get rid of her ASAP. It's life & death struggles over here, no space for second chances.

[beevean]

It's incredible how many video game adaptations haven't really evolved from the days of Captain N, except back then they were overly goofy because no one gave a crap while nowadays stuff like NFCV is super edgy to give the illusion that it's serious and deep and respecting its source material while in actuality it too doesn't give a shit and is too enamoured with itself

CN!Alucard is a rebel teen who speaks in '90s slang and rides a skateboard, and somehow it feels less offensive than N!Alucard

(I also find hilarious how CN predicted blonde Alucard years before Kojima redesigned him)

I never watched CN, but I don't think they had any pretenses to be anything similar to the games, they just wanted to star some of the most popular characters of the time and have fun. Same with AoSTH: it's basically Looney Tunes with Sonic in it, but it never wanted to be more than that, and I can respect it even if it's not my thing. It's the pretentiousness, or even that subtle smugness against its source material, that makes me angry.

[aquaburst3]

So @stormkitty97 and I did one of our writing sessions several nights ago, outside of writing and her giving me a tour of her houses in Sims 4, we got to discussing some of the faults of the game. One of the major ones is that Yana seems to always want to match up the events in the game with their respective movies. That's fine. The fact the world and characters are inspired by Disney properties is one of the major selling points, and, to be completely honest, I wouldn't be a fan of this game if that WASN'T the case. The downside of this is that Yana hardly ever considers how things would change due to how she set her characters up.

The most obvious example is during Book 2 Leona plans to take out Malleus with the stampede in order to possibly win the tournament. This plot point is ripped straight out of The Lion King where Scar does the same thing to Mufasa. But, that makes no sense when applied to TWST. Scar was able to do that in The Lion King, because they are just both lions without any powers then. Whereas in TWST, Malleus is one of the most powerful mages in the world, who can just teleport away. The fact that Leona, who is really smart in the rest of the game, never ONCE considered this is mind-boggling. But yet she forced it in to be just like the movie.

A much smaller one is during Book 4 where Jamil is after the dorm leader position. Yana tossed it in, because Jafar wanted to be sultan in the movie. But that makes no sense here. Jafar was a power hungry monster, and went after a very real position of power. (Though, I do find it funny as an adult that Jafar could've gotten everything that he wanted if he just waited and used Aladdin as a puppet king, since he knows nothing about politics. But that's besides the point.) That's not the case with Jamil, because that position won't even matter once he graduates and he would still be enslaved by the Asims. That hurts his character, because he's set up as a extremely smart plotter, so he should've already known this. By going after the dorm leader position, it makes him look like a fucking idiot. She forced that plot point in so that the story matches up with the movie.

While some people say that the game got better at this over time, I'd still argue the game still does this. A lot. During Book 6, Idia captures the overblot gang and takes them to his family's lair in broad daylight. This, strangely enough, is taken from Greek/Roman mythology where Hades kidnaps Persephone in a similar matter. However, that makes no sense when applied to these characters. For one, that's a oddly bold and stupid move for someone who is one of the smartest characters in the game. If it wasn't for plot convenience and his family's influence, he could've gotten arrested. And two, the guards capturing them so easily makes no fucking sense. These guys are all extremely powerful mages, who can take them out in a second. Even if the "fairymen" had powered armour that nixed their mage or something, which still makes no sense, but whatever, a lot of them are professional fighters. Vil is a trained martial artist, and Jamil took out assassins. And three, them giving in without a fight is out of character for all of them, since they would at least try. But, again, say it with me now, Yana added that in to match up with the source material, despite it not fitting these characters.

These are just a few examples. There is plenty more examples of this shit in the game. But since I don't want to go on all day, I'll end it there.

Something I always consider in my own writing, especially in the These Twisted Tales series, is how these character's actions would change the narrative. Because while the characters share similarities to their counterparts, they aren't the same and would make different decisions. Hell, @stormkitty97 and I have lengthy discussions about this crap when outlining our stories. The fact that @stormkitty97 and I are both amateur writers and are better at that sort of thing than Yana, a trained professional with years in the industry, says A LOT.

[irandomblogfulb]

FATE: What happens when you get a bunch of middle aged white guys to adapt a cartoon for girls

Well, I just went through 6 hours of fate and I have a lot of opinions on it. Yeah, this is going to be long (slightly under 3k words) so putting it under read more and obvious spoilers.

PSA before delving right in:

1) Yes, I will be comparing to the original. Any comparisons are not through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. There are parts here and there that I genuinely think were done better in the cartoon on a writing standpoint.

2) This is purely my opinion and overall negative. Don't like it? Don't read. I'm all up for discussion but I don't want another person crying to me about how I “ruined” their experience of the show.

3) If you like Fate then good for you. This isn’t me bashing people who like it. 

I've spit it up into sub sections just for my own convince.

1. The problem with the 'I'm not like other girls' trope

This pertains to the entire Bloom-Sky-Stella love triangle. I wasn't as pressed about it compared to other winxers (and I loved Stella's and Brandon's relationship on my rewatch). In fact, I was okay with it. But then I sat down and watched the show and there's a lot of underlying problems with the love triangle. Particularly pitting Bloom and Stella against each other for Sky's affection.

Now this part of the love triangle I already didn't like. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I dropped the OG Winx after season 5 but the Winx while they did have their conflicts and arguments, never fought over a boy. I really appreciated that from the cartoon so seeing that live action would fall into that trap – I was mildly annoyed at that. Then it hit me. It's Bloom and Stella.

The seemingly ordinary girl vs the pristine princess of Solaria. If the title didn't give it away, you should get the point by now. Others have already called it by now but the "I'm not like other girl's" trope in itself, while seemingly feminist is actually misogynist. Saying the more masculine type of girl is better than the feminine is inherently misogynist. Stella, the prime princess, girly and feminine, is villainized by the love triangle. Sky's and Stella's relationship is toxic and Stella's overt co-dependence and jealousy are already big fat red signs - but Sky's and Bloom's relationship is built on how she's "different". Bloom isn't like Stella, she's "real".

2. Am I supposed to like Riven?

As the title puts it, wtf am I supposed to feel about Riven. Is he supposed to be a good guy? Do I root for him? Is he morally ambiguous? Because holy shit compared to OG!Riven, this guy is diabolical and much much worse! OG!Riven is an asshole and he teams up with the trix but his arc was very simple and easy to understand. He joins the bad guys, distances himself from the good guys, the trix betray his ass, he self-reflects in the dungeon - escapes and redeems himself. Net!Riven is so bad to the point where you can't redeem him and the writers don't even try. Freddie Thorp is good in his role. (however, he definitely doesn't pass for a 17-year-old. He's 26 and it shows) and he actually makes the cringe dialogue work. But he's way too diabolical and downright predatory. The scene where he forces Dane to gulp down his spiked drink - it’s worse seeing it than reading it. That grossed me out more than the gore.

What makes it worse, nobody properly calls him out. Beatrix kinda does on his homophobia – “Homophobic bashing by GIF” - and Sky does chastise him, but they still tolerate him. It is kinda funny in a way Sky has a whole ass arc about how he's enabling Stella's problematic behaviour by still dating her after she blinded her friend but doesn't realize he's doing the same for Riven.

The only person that really puts her foot down with Riven is Terra and nobody takes her seriously about anything she says.

Everyone is very laissez-faire around him and that's not how you respond to your friend being problematic. (Hey, kinda like the other girls sans Aisha are with Bloom!) Everyone surrounding Riven is so disgusting and the notion of him supposedly being a good guy is very hard to buy into. His whole relationship with Dane has a section of it’s own because there’s just a lot to unpack.

3. Stella I am so sorry

I'm also in the majority hating how they've tarnished Stella. Basically, they turned her into the stereotypical rich bully with mommy issues.

I get that Stella has an abusive mom but that’s no excuse to be a total bitch to her roommates. And no, her roommates shouldn't accept her back with open arms. And she doesn't even redeem herself - the girls just accept her back after her mom pulls her from Alfea.

And this is also another issue with the writing were the characters suddenly just change their opinions on a whim. Suddenly Stella likes the winx, suddenly Terra misses Stella even though having that girl literally gives her anxiety. Suddenly Aisha's on Bloom's side in the end.

This isn't me simping for the cartoon out of nostalgia. I was mostly okay with the idea of Stella and Sky hooking up. But Looking at it from a creative standpoint - looking at the source material, and the many paths you can take this character, the best thing Brian Young and co. can think of for her was turning her into the stereotypical rich bully that we've seen time and time again? No deconstruction no meta take, it's played out exactly how you’d expect it.

Again, this isn't me simping for the show. Purely from a creative standpoint Stella was such a major let down. There's so much to the character and Brian Young took the easiest, saturated path.

4. That one scene with Bloom's parents

You know the one. Mike unhinges Bloom's bedroom doors and Vanessa cusses out and insults her child like a petty teen bully. Forgetting how utterly cringey that scene was, you can't have her mom go batshit insane on her child, then act like she's this loving parent that cares so deeply about her daughter. Screw that! Vanessa deserved those 3rd degree burns! She invaded her daughter's privacy. Bloom didn't even do anything wrong!

I can't buy into this narrative of Vanessa and Mike being loving parents when they do something like that. Seriously who thought that was okay?

5. Pity Parties for everyone.

I already discussed this in Stella’s section but I don’t like the “it’s okay for me be a shitty person because my life sucks :)” narrative Fate tries to pull. They did it with Stella, Bloom, Riven.

What I liked about the first season of Winx Club is Bloom’s arc and her character as a whole. Because while she went through shit, from the Trix, to finding out she was adopted, her existential crisis, not feeling like she belonged, losing the dragon flame, she went through a lot. She didn’t throw a pity party. She didn’t whine, bitch and complain. She allowed herself to feel upset, took it as it is and tried to make lemonade out of lemons. And I respect that.

Net!Bloom is agrevating. She does some dumb, reckless stuff but it’s excused because she’s the protagonist? She let the war criminal out, the school gets taken over by the bad guys because of Bloom. Faragonda fucking dies because she let the war criminal out! The burned ones attacked the school because she let the war criminal out!!! But no, Aisha’s villainized for calling Bloom out because Bloom’s existential crisis is more important then anything else.

Getting to Sky, he isn’t as bad as the others. He doesn’t become a shitty person because of his problems. (Though lowkey flirting with Bloom while he hooks up with Stella is uh not good.) But he does come across incredibly whiny. Because of the cringey dialogue and the unnecessary swearing  I can’t take his speech on opening up to Bloom seriously. I laughed throughout the whole thing and Bloom leaving his unconscious body there was the icing on the cake.

One of the few characters that deserved a pity party is Terra. She’s very much like OG!Bloom in a way. She is bullied by Dane and Riven, has body insecurities, anxiety, nobody listens to her and at most only tolerates her. Despite all the crap that is thrown her way she still reminds humble, kind, and respectful. And she is one of the few characters that deserves more support than what she got out of the season.

5. Bloom, Aisha, Tokenism and their awful relationship

I’m going to be upfront, their relationship sucks. The core of their dynamic is what Aisha can do for Bloom. It’s very one-sided. Bloom only goes to Aisha to help solve her problems, which Aisha gladly does – but when Aisha disagrees with Bloom or says something Bloom doesn’t like, Bloom suddenly goes off and Aisha’s made to be the bad guy. Even though she’s right? And Aisha has her own problems as well, shown to also struggle with her powers. But nope, that’s pushed to the back burner because Bloom needs help.

I am all for creative freedom. I can stomach Stella x actual Sky. I can stomach turning Stella into a rich mean girl. I can stomach the dark academia aesthetic but what Brian Young and co. did to Aisha is just plain racist. Screw the “it’s an adaptation” excuse. Turning this character who had a rich storyline and was a princess into a white girl’s magical negro who fixes all her problems is racist and by definition tokenism. And by whitewashing the other two characters of color, making Aisha the only poc in the group – that’s the worst thing you can do to her.

And frankly we need more black princesses on screen.

6. Dane and the homophobia of the show

Towards the show’s climax it’s revealed Dane is helping Beatrix because she accepts he’s “different”. Not only does this go back to my pity party rant but like bruh,

1)      Beatrix never really did anything for Dane? She hung out and smoked with him a bit, but that’s all. You’re telling me Terra wouldn’t accept Dane? Beatrix never helped him and he never really opened up to her about his struggles.

2)      Nobody else, not even background characters bully or harass Dane for being “different”. It’s only Riven, the guy he’s crushing on. The whole falling in love with the bad boy/abuser trope is bad in a hetero relationship and that still stands for a gay one. And I know damn well if Dane was a woman half of the shit Riven did to Dane wouldn’t slide.

It makes no sense for Dane to side with the bad guys when Riven’s the one bullying him and Beatrix is complacent in the bullying. Oh, and having your second black* character who’s also lgbt+/potentially questioning be a villain? Not good.

I’m all for gay and poly rep, but not like this. If Stella and Sky’s toxic relationship is going to be called out for what it is, why not Dane’s?

*Idk if Theo Graham is light-skinned black or biracial so I’ll just refer to him as black.

7. The plot

It’s very predictable. Personally, wasn’t fond of the ‘twist of a twist of a twist’ style of writing. The story tries to be nuanced and deep but it’s not. Common sense is treated like a big revelation. Not trusting the war criminal you barely know isn’t as big of a take that the writers try to make it out to be.

8.  Everything else

·       Beatrix is fine. No Icy but did like the gothic bookworm aesthetic.

·       Sam is just there to be Musa’s love interest and provide some dumb drama between Musa and Terra. I thought they’d go the Edward/Bella root – Musa’s drawn to Sam because she can’t sense his emotions for some reason. Nope, they just get together for the obligatory make out sessions. Don’t care much for the relationship or the character.

·       Since the powers are all elemental shouldn’t there be classes purely for an elemental? Classes purely for fire fairies, etc?

·       Musa’s powers are confusing. If she has no control over them and they are “always on”, shouldn’t her eyes constantly be glowing purple?  Very wishy washy. Sometimes they overwhelm her and other times she has complete control. Her character is just there for plot stuff.

·       Terra is one of the better characters but can’t enjoy her knowing about the whitewashing. Why can’t we have a plus sized character just exist and not have body issues?

·       Sky doesn’t feel like a prince. Characters treat him like his dad is a war hero and not the King of Eraklyon. There was a point where I thought I misheard and thought his dad was just a war hero and not a king.

·       Why try to justify Rosalind’s war crime if she’s going to be the big bad anyways?

·       The way the characters treat death/act around death is very weird. Musa and Terra see a pile of dead bodies and they’re unreasonable calm. Especially Bloom an “ordinary teenage girl from earth”, reacts very nonchalant when death and war crimes are brought up. Doesn’t help the show tries to push this “they’re kids fighting a war” narrative.

·       Can’t buy into the girls’ friendship. The Aisha/Bloom dynamic is centred on what Aisha can do for Bloom. Bloom only cares about herself and only goes to her friends to help with her problems. Most of Musa’s and Terra’s interaction centre around Sam. Stella didn’t care for the girls until her mom showed up and pulled a 180. The girls were quick to turn on Aisha when she sided with the adults.

·       I have no problem with technology existing but why do they have Instagram, Tiktok and Tumblr? The otherworld is a completely separated from Earth, why do they have the same technology?  

9. Brian Young, what do you mean by mature?

I grew up on the 4kids dub before transitioning to the Nick dub for season 4 and 5 then dropping the cartoon for good. So naturally on my rewatch of the cartoon I decided to go watch the RAI dub since I heard it’s more accurate and 4Kids are infamous for their horrid localisations straying too much to the source material. Upon finishing season 1 and currently watching season 2, a few things took me by surprise. For one, the cartoon is surprisingly dark. The schools are at war with the Trix and their army of Darkness, Sky almost dies in Season 2, Riven almost dies and the Trix thinks he suicided, it’s heavily implied in Season 2 Darkar murdered some of the pixies, the paedophilic undertones of Bloom and Avalon’s relationship, the list goes on.

When the interview with Brian Young came out, he said Fate would be a mature take on the cartoon. And I wondered, what did he meant by mature? Was he going to delve deeper into the darker aspects of the show, or did he mean he was going to have the girls swear and have sex? Watching Fate, I found my answer.

If you take out the gore, swearing, drug and alcohol usage from the live action, the maturity is on par with the RAI dub. The difference is in the presentation. This is what sucks about the mentality surrounding live action remakes. Because the OG!Winx was colourful with glittery transformations , was super girly and overall had a positive upbeat tone (not forgetting 2D animated) - it can’t be taken seriously. You have to strip all that, the colour, the kindness, the femininity in order to be deemed mature.

10. Wrapping up

I went into Fate expecting the worst and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. There were things I liked about it. The show looks pretty, and I did like what they were trying to do with Sky’s arc. The actors did what they could with the material. Freddie Thorp made the cringe dialogue work and Abigail Cowen proves she can carry a show as the lead.

Fate is your generic, YA, dark academia show. It follows all the tropes of the YA genre to a T. If that’s your niche, then you’ll love Fate and I’m not bashing anyone who liked it.

For me, as a creative, it doesn’t capitalise on the strengths of the source material. I’m not asking for Winx Club again, as I’ve reiterated, I’m all for creative freedom. But Brian Young, Iginio Straffi, whoever worked on this – they could’ve created something new, innovative, something that stood out from the hordes of other YA shows. They had good material in their hands! But what I got -  I’ve seen before, and I’ve seen it done better. That’s a major disappointment.

As a winx club fan, don’t bother watching this. It’s a very diluted version of the Winx. In trying to capture the interest of the adult fans who grew up with the franchise – Iginio showed how out of touch he is if he thinks this is what they wanted.

[skyhopedango]

State of the Season pt 1

So, so many shows! :O I don't remember the last time I watched so many ongoing shows. Alas, quantity doesn't translate into quality, but still, there are some pretty nice shows that I enjoy a lot.

Not these, though.

Dragon, ie wo kau

Yeah, this was crap. I expected something fun and fantasy-spoofy, I got a badly animated, badly produced, badly acted (from the main character) video-game-referencing show that takes one joke that is already not incredibly funny, and runs it into the ground until there's nothing left but dust. Pity.

.

Mars Red

Oh, this show. The first episode was stilted and vaguely pretentious*, but I thought eh, let's see a bit more of it. So I watched episode two and three, and bam, the usual vampire-hunter-vampires shenanigans with some half-hearted attempts at ~Historical Relevance~ but still pretentious. Perhaps it could've been better with more interesting/charming characters, but they weren't interesting at all... OK, that's not quite true, I liked that young vampire (supposedly the most powerful one?) who was always doing the "hey enemy vampire, you can join us or you can die" speech, that was cute.

*I mean... yes, you've read Salome. Yay. So how is it related to what happens in the episode? Does she kill the one she loved to possess him or something? No. Does she do anything even vaguely related to the story of Salome? No. So... what's the significance of the references? And from episode 2 it was downhill. EP 2 has Romeo and Juliet for "tragic lovers" which is about the most clichéd thing ever and the lovers' story had nothing in common with Romeo and Juliet other than them dying in the end. And in episode 3 the characters are literally standing around reciting Relevant Poetry. I suppose this works for people who are satisfied with understanding a reference and who want to feel smart for knowing some classical literature, but other than that...

I've been putting off watching episode 4 since Monday, and frankly at this rate likely I'll never watch it.

.

Fumetsu no anata he

3 episodes in, and oh yes, I remember why I didn't keep up with the manga. Look, I'm not saying it's a bad show. As most people I was very impressed with the first episode. Good stuff, emotionally powerful. But what happens after that is just totally not my cup of tea. Nonhuman entity learning to understand humans and gaining sympathy for humanity would be totally up my street - but not really when it happens via a generic adventure story, tryhard epicness tipping into unintentional hilarity every now and then, overwrought music, precocious kids mugging for the camera, and the threat of misery porn looming just over the horizon... and that's not even mentioning the obvious production issues apparent from episode 2 that further undermine the epic tone the show is going for.

I think I'll give it one more episode, although I have a feeling I'm not going to last longer. I'm sure the story will eventually have some profound things to say, but I'm also sure it'll be nothing I haven't heard before in ways that resonated better with me.

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86 -Eighty-Six-

aka "Liberal Circlejerk - The Anime". (And while it can't be "white liberal" for obvious reasons, it has the attitude down pat.)

This show. This is what you get from a LN for horny teen boys fantasizing about being badass soldiers and naive girls in sexy uniforms, that also wants to say Serious Important Woke Stuff. You get a show about Super Special Teenagers that is hilariously dumbed down, preachy, self-congratulatory, and also cynical about how it treats its female characters. (And that's not even saying how stupid the setting is... I'm sure there'll be some twist but seriously, it still wants us to just handwave away stuff like "even if the enemy's weapons will expire in 2 years, how come nobody asks 'what if they built new ones' or 'what if they have other stuff up their sleeve'" etc...)

Really, I'd like to say that at least the show has its heart in the right place, but I can't, because for every preachy and dumbed down but decent message it delivers it does shit like ogling the main female character (whose uniform has a garterbelt apparently because the LN writer is into that), having her make cute pouty or blushing faces, pointing out how she's a virgin, having a "boys ogle bathing girls" scene* where the girls of course talk about boys and romance because girls, eh? etc. Hell, in episode 4 it even manages to undermine the single best thing that happened in the show so far by basically tone policing the oppressed character who told the MC to fuck off and not treat them as her morality pets. Clearly even if your friend was just killed in action and this random person who is also your oppressor and is wallowing in privilege, is crying in your ear making it all about her, you shouldn't be rude to her because aw shucks she meant well. And of course all it takes is a "sorry, I'll treat you like humans from now on, I swear" for everyone to start respecting her. Like, wow, she's committed to the bare minimum, where's the champagne?!

*Yes, the girls were dressed, but you just know that at one point in production (or perhaps in the source material) they were were naked. The entire scene is set up as a usual ogling-bathing-girls scene, so I'd bet money that what happened was someone in production vetoed it in the very last moment so they didn't have time to rewrite everything, only to give the girls clothes.

I'm still getting some entertainment value out of 86 (those spider tanks are pretty nice...) but oh boy, the cringe.

[rabidfirefoxfan]

YES TO ALL THAT! The thing is, BECAUSE people didn't care for our didn't like Thor's solo movies, the general audience was MORE than okay with the destruction of the characters even most Loki fans (the ones who didn't fully understand him) also support new Loki and Thor. If Thor movies were as loved, gagnarok would've gotten the EXACT same backlash as Star Wars, Ghostbusters 2016, transformers, etc.

I honestly don't understand why Loki fans support new Loki. Did they TRULY understand Loki from Thor 1&2 and Avengers???? I'm guessing no since they praise ta*ka for "fixing" him (they did QUITE the 180° there when gagnarok came out)

Speaking of "fixing" they (amongst other fans) also annoyingly, want EVERY movie to be remade to be a comedic POS just like gagnarok. I truly DESPISE that ta*kas hate for source material seeped onto the fans. Both don't respect the source material of anything. they're BEGGING for Star Wars to be remade by ta*ka to become a "gAY spACe oPeRA" instead of the in depth drama that it is.

Also, I LOVE mauler. I have already seen all his videos and I love him for it 💙

Also, I love your responses. I mean, I love other responses as well from nikko and amongst others but you delve deeper into the psyche of things and I absolutely LOVE that 💜

Thank you for reading my stuff. Honestly, it feels like nobody reads anything I do T-T 

Many members of the Theater-Going-Public just want to consume easily digestible material. That’s why crap like Transformers is so Popular. So for most fans I would probably put them Like Ragnorak upon initial view as scratching this basic itch.

I also agree that many audience members really didn’t understand why there is such a strong Loki Fandom. Most outsiders who Look into this Fandom just ASSUME that we Like Loki because Tom Hiddleston is hot and charismatic and we all must be Thirsty Fan Girls who follow what ever is good Looking and hot for that second. This Post (talking about meta why Loki and Beta are popular with women) does a Far better job talking about it. Basically, Girls relate to Loki and Bucky story not because they are hot but because we recognize ourselves in the characters. We recognize Loki’s struggle, how he has to deal with family and friends that don’t respect him and just DON’T get him, how they aren’t actually there when he NEEDED them, and how to be Good Loki would have to change a basic part of his personality. Also, how Bucky agency is literally taken away from people in Higher positions telling him what to do and what to think. These resonate strong with many members of these Fandoms, which also happen to be made predominately of girls.

To do a Basic Translation, Girls like Loki for a similar reason that Teenagers Liked Spiderman. Its not the powers, the attitude, or the actions that theses character did that grew such powerful and enduring fandoms. It’s the everyday struggles that these characters face. Simplifying Loki fans to be just Thirsty is like telling Spiderman fans that they only want to Punch people in the Face. While not wrong, it is grossly a misunderstanding of these groups.

HOWEVER, it is much easier just to say Girls are dumb and I am smart. Look at how smart I am from ruining what theses Dumb girls like. Also, it is much easier to explain to higher up (Kevin Feige) that Girls are dumb and they don’t need to be listened to and we should just crap on them instead because we can get a big paycheck ONCE. Also, Taika has a big incentive to want to do this: Money and Power.

Remember, Taika only gets money and respect if you buy and talk about Ragnarok. He doesn’t get crap if you like and buy anything from Thor, Avengers of TDW. Therefore, he (and Hemsworth or a certain excent) will continue to crap all over the older movies because they need to destroy anything that can get in the way of their profits and powers. Because of the Success of Ragnorak (Money, money, Money) Marvel lets him. This basic concept also applies to The Russo Brothers. The Russos get money and an Ego boost if you talk about how EPIC Thanos was, but they don’t get that from Loki. Therefore, they would also see Loki as a threat, which explains why they are so dismissive of Loki and Tom Hiddleston.

Lots of “Fans” reactions to movies are in some way regulated by Disney/ Marvel. Like I said before, Disney wants everyone to see their movies as Awesome, so they will promote Fans/ ideas that support it, at the cost of anything else (even making money in the long term)

Besides, Showing respect to established IPs is FAR to much work for people who don’t care. Much easier to crap on stuff (LOOKING AT YOU 2020 MULAN) than it is to improve upon any type of older material.

Just like Star Wars, Taika’s Ragnorak will not be able to hold up when given 3-5 rewatches by large audiences, especially when those Large Audiences are looking for reasons to hate the movie. And, it seems like a good reason is developing really effing quickly. In Thor 4, Lady Thor is said to appear and take Thor (Hemsworth’s place). Many Fans see this as MCU going “Woke” and therefore bad. I don’t think Lady Thor is necessarily bad, but Taika has not shown that he would be able to show Jane the respect she needs in order to grow into this role. I mean, Jane is a scientist. Loki had parenting issues and Taika called him Emo-Slut who just wanted attention, what type of respect is he going to give a Scientist. I am expecting that when this movie comes out, and Taika tries his same tactics but it’s on something that most fans actually care about, that Ragnorak will have a big drop in popularity.

Just like with everything else, if you feel like Thor 4 is going to be a bad movie, don’t spend money to watch it. There are plenty of illegal sites to watch it if you still want to watch it, plenty of other users will watch it and you can get the major scope of what happens through them, or you can just ignore it.

Regardless, consume Loki content that you like. Read Good Loki Comics (there are a lot of great old Villain Loki stuff read and fair amount of Hero Loki stuff to read), read fanfics by creators who actually care, take part of interesting Loki discussions and draw Loki fanart. Just Ignore/ bash stuff you don’t like and make suggestions for stuff that people might actual like.

Um.... Thanks for reading. I hope you like long responds.

PS: Thanks for sending me an ask

Loki wants me to Throw wibble, but then he won’t let me get it. Then I try and grab it and he’s like “You can have it, but you want it.” And then I steal if from him, dangle it in from of his face for like 10 seconds and I throw it and he yips at the top of his voice. Then he chases and grabs the wibble and brings it back to me. He’s so cute.

[littlestarofthewest]

Hi, I love your fics and wanted to know if you have some tips for someone who wants to start writing? English is not my main language and I don't know if it's worth writting on my first language and then translate/adapt to english...

Hey anon, sorry this took me so long to answer, but I just wanted to do a somewhat decent job with it. Also, thank you. I'm really honored that you consider me to be someone who can actually give valid advice. I put this under a read more because it got super long (I’m sorry if that’s not at all what you were looking for).

Important side note: While I use phrases like "this is better," everything below is my personal opinion and not some sort of universal truth. I'm not criticizing any writers. I'm sure they know what they're doing, and we're all just looking for ways to put out the best works we can.

A lot of writers use things in their stories that I try my hardest to avoid, and they still have lots of happy readers. It comes down to personal preference, and all I'm offering here are a few ideas for you to consider.

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Let's start with the language issue. When I started writing fanfic I thought about the same thing. I think you have to consider 3 things:

1. Do I have the time / am I willing to translate everything?I'm usually so excited about finishing a story that I want to post it right away. You won't be able to do that if you need to translate it first. Also, writing itself can already be exhausting, and you're going to have to do the same work twice with each story.

2. Is my native language interesting for others?I'm German, and since the majority of the German people I'm in fandoms with speak English, there's no need to post anything in German. If the source material is English, they will consume English fics.

If you know your language to be interesting for other people, it would make more sense to post both languages to reach a bigger audience.

3. How close is my native language to English?Again, I can give you the example of German. The two languages are very different when it comes to sentence structure and how to phrase things. So, if I were to write in German first, a translation would be quite tricky. I'd probably end up "rewriting" the story rather than translating it word for word because the English wouldn't sound so good.

In conclusion: I know it's tempting to write in your own language because it seems more natural but unless you have good reason to do it that way (as mentioned above), I'd probably try to write in English right away. That's what I ended up doing. If you want to find the best way for you, try it both ways and see what works best.

Judging from your ask, I'd say you have enough knowledge of the language to write in English, and while it might suck a little in the beginning, it gets a lot easier over time.

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GENERAL ADVICE

1. Write! Practice is key. Talent might be a thing, but what makes you better at something is actually doing it. You don't have to publish everything, but the fact that you wrote it will help you to get better. I cringe whenever I look at things that I wrote 6 years ago, but it's also great to see how much better I am now compared to then. If you keep at it, you'll definitely see that change at some point.

2. Don't get discouraged if there's no significant response. Even for amazing writers, it takes time to get some traction. Especially on tumblr it's tough to be seen. There are also a ton of reasons why people might not interact, like forgetfulness, blog aesthetic, laziness, shyness, etc. That doesn't mean they don't enjoy your work. I hate to say "write for yourself," but that's the mindset you need. It should be still fun for yourself, even if you don't get a lot of feedback.

3. Have a healthy attitude towards your work.It's absolutely okay to love your own stuff, and if you enjoy it, feel free to show it. Still accept if not everybody else likes it, though.

BUT… don't hate on your work. A lot of writers are a little unsure about themselves, and that's okay, but if you say things like "this is garbage" about your own fics, you shouldn't be surprised if people don't read it. Why would they, if even you don't like it? So, don't put yourself down. Putting words on paper out of nothing is hard work, and every fic is worth at least the time and effort you put into it.

4. Read! My English improved a great deal just by reading. You'll pick up vocabulary and ways of phrasing things without even trying too hard. Read with variety. Fanfic is great, and it's a good idea to see what's out there, but fic writers are still a certain kind of writer. Mix it up with published books (even if it's hard to find LGBTQ+ content), preferably with different genres you're interested in.

5. Mingle. It's hard to put yourself out there, but don't be shy to promote yourself a little. If you feel like doing that, offer to take requests. Check out other writers. One great way to find readers is actually to interact with other writers. We can all need the support, and you might end up picking up some good advice.

Be respectful, though. I've seen people leave comments just to go like, "Hey, you wanna read my stuff, too?" Not nice. If you interact in a friendly manner, there's a good chance they'll check you out anyway. No need to pressure them.

6. Make an effort. I learned that one early on, when someone commented on one of my first fics that they "almost didn't read it because of the way it was formatted." It kinda sucks when you finally have something to post and then need to "waste time" with that stuff, but it's just as important as the story itself.

You don't have editors who will fix every little thing but try to do the basics yourself.- correct your punctuation- try avoiding walls of text- make enough paragraphs (when different people speak etc.)- check for major spelling errors

7. Consider advice / ignore haters. When someone gives you advice (if you asked for it or not), consider it. It's not smart to reject it right away, but you also don't have to do what others tell you. Pick out what works best for you. If someone's rude, kick them out of your life and don't waste a second on them. It's not on you to teach them to be polite.

8. Be mindful of your readers. It's their job to construct a safe atmosphere for themselves online, but you can do a great deal to help them. If you post on AO3, tag your stuff!! I hate to give away spoilers, but a lot of readers will feel better reading your stuff if they know that you look out for them.

On tumblr, use the right tags. Don't tag every character and ship in the universe. People will hate you (for a good reason). Go with what's actually in your story. Mentioning the basics in your post might be an option, too. (I give a quick overview on top of each story, but many writers don't. That's personal preference.)

And due to recent events, a plea from myself. Please consider all genders, sexualities etc. when you post. Tag your male/gn/female/trans reader inserts, tag your ships, tag major triggers, etc. You can't know every dislike of every person, but you have a bit of responsibility here, so please make an effort.

9. Write first - edit later. I'm shitty at this myself, but it's still great advice. A good way to avoid writer's block is just to put down the words, no matter what. It sounds like garbage? It doesn't matter. Did you use the same verb three times in one paragraph? Fix it later. No idea how that sentence should go? Add [character is doing some great action move to defeat the villain] and move on. Fill it in later.

Neil Gaiman said: "There is no first draft worse than a blank page."

You can always change and fix what's already there, but you can't work with nothing.

10. Take writing breaks. You don't have to crap out 2k of words a day to be a writer. In fact, letting your mind rest can be a great way to gain motivation and inspiration. Do something you love and don't hate yourself if the words don't come right away. They'll be back.

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SPECIFIC WRITING ADVICE

There's one golden rule: You want your readers to be so enthralled by the story that they forget that they're reading it.

These are some things that I picked up and still look out for to get exactly that effect. If you do that or not is totally up to you, though.

1. Use paragraphs when another person speaks. Although pretty much every advice blog tells you this, I still see stories that don't do that, and it's super confusing for readers.

NO:Arthur stands up and comes your way. "Are you sure?" You put your arms around him and nod. "Of course."

YES:Arthur stands up and comes your way.

"Are you sure?" he asks.

You put your arms around him and nod. "Of course."

There are a few ways to do this, but the important part is that your readers know who's talking at all times. The second they have to ask and maybe reread to find who says what, they're thrown out of the story.

2. Don't be afraid of "said" and "asked." I know there are these great lists of other words, but there are a time and place. Imagine yourself in conversation. Do you switch between sighing, whispering, growling and shouting with each sentence? Most of the time, people just say things. Use said and pepper in other words when it matters. Also, people tend to read over said. When you switch each sentence, they'll notice which breaks the golden rule.

3. Read out loud. If a sentence is weird, that might help you distinguish what doesn't work. If you notice a point that makes you reread or pause for a moment, chances are your reader will too.

This is also a great way to find weird dialogue. Actually speak the words, and you might notice that nobody talks that way. It's also great to find "the voice" of a character. Read it in their voice and dialect (nobody has to know if you suck at it), and you'll see if that's something they would actually say.

4. Only use epithets if they are absolutely necessary or convey an important fact!!! (This one is a real pet peeve for me because it's so dominant in fic)

NO:The Blonde leaned over, holding out his hand. You shook it, and were taken aback by the older man's shining blue eyes. The cowboy had a voice that made your skin prickle when he finally talked to you.

This is bad for a few reasons:a) You have to come up with all those epithets and oftentimes, they're not very good. b) It can be confusing because it might seem as if you're talking about more than one person. c) Your readers will focus on each new epithet, which breaks the golden rule.

It can be great to introduce a character as the tall, handsome stranger, but as soon as you know how they're called (and you should try to get there fast), for the love of God, use the name. It might sound repetitive to you since you're the one writing it, but readers usually read over names.

If you have to use a workaround, stick to one. The same person is always "the stranger," the next one is "the loudmouth," etc. That way, you can have multiple unknown characters without confusing your readers.

The only!! other reason to use an epithet is to emphasize a particular fact.

YES:"It hurt Arthur to leave John behind, but he wants his brother to be safe."

You could just write "he wants him to be safe," but in this case, "his brother" isn't only a replacement but is supposed to show that Arthur thinks of John as a brother and not just a friend. It actually means something and might even convey information your reader didn't have up until this point. It works well in dialogue, too.

"I need to go with them," you tell Karen, "and try my best to keep tall, dark, and handsome out of trouble."

Karen looks over to John and rolls her eyes. "Good luck."

Of course, the reader character knows John's name, but using the epithet here gives a little insight into how they think about John and that they're comfortable sharing that information with Karen.

5. Check your punctuation. Nobody's gonna kill you if you forget a comma, but try to get it right as well as you can, especially with dialogue. Those are a few rules that aren't hard to understand, and it's especially important if your native language does them differently.

English:"Would you just shut up," says Arthur, giving Micah a mean stare. "One more word, and I'll have to shoot you."

German:"Würdest du mal die Klappe halten", sagt Arthur mit einem bösen Blick zu Micah. "Noch ein Wort und ich werde dich erschießen müssen."

In German, you put the comma after " while you put it inside " " in English. It's a subtle difference, but it threw me a lot when I started writing in English. And if I notice, then readers might notice which again breaks the golden rule.

Besides, we're trying to make some effort, right? Let your story look pretty and professional. You can google a lot of useful guides about comma rules, dashes, and correct punctuation in dialogue.

6. Passive voice can be avoided. Or better said, avoid passive voice. I'm not saying, don't use it at all, since some very common phrases use passive voice, but try not to overdo it.

In most cases, there's always a better way to phrase a sentence, and active voice usually has more dynamic and drives your story in a way that passive voice can't.

7. Adverbs. Most writing advice blogs will tell you to avoid them like the plague. When I first started writing, I was a little on the fence with that advice, but by now, I agree with all my heart. Again, not saying that you can't have a single adverb in your story, but on many occasions, there's a better alternative.

NO:With his heart beating rapidly, Arthur moves quickly around the wagon, pulling out his gun. He fires back, shouting angrily at his attackers, "You gonna pay for this!"

YES:With his heart almost beating out of his chest, Arthur darts around the wagon, pulling out his gun. He fires back at his attackers, his anger sounding like a lion's roar in his voice. "You gonna pay for this!"

I'm not saying that version B is THE best way to write this, but I dare say it's way better than version A. Maybe that's because I'm not a native speaker, but it hurts my head if I have to read 3 words ending in -ly in one tiny paragraph.

A lot of writers very much abuse adverbs in their dialogue tags, which can make things repetitive and takes away the opportunity to put better information there. BUT, there's definitely a time and place for adverbs.

"He speaks quietly to her" is NOT the same as "he whispers to her," and that's the hill I'm going to die on.

8. Strong verbs. I suck at this myself, but this is where you should actually look for long lists of "other words for." This might be especially helpful when you have the above mentioned adverb problem (e.g., dashes, darts > goes quickly).

Still, don't overdo it. You might find words that sound fancy, but chances are that even native speakers might have no idea what you're saying.

9. Past or present tenseWhen writing in German, I often used past tense, but somehow I'm more comfortable with present tense in English.

From what I gathered over the years, most fic readers don't care either way; the only important thing is: pick one, stick to it! It's a widespread mistake a lot of writers make that they somehow switch tenses while writing. It happened to me a lot in the beginning and still does to this day. So be warned ;D

10. What POV should I use?

Again, google is your friend. There are a few different POVs you can use, some of them are very common in fic while others seem to be less popular (like 1st person as in "I do this, I do that"). There are 3 rules that I find important.

a) Don't switch inside of the story. Decide which one you want and stick to it. It's very confusing to switch at some point.

b) After you picked one, look out for the traps. If you write from one character's POV, they can't know things unless somebody tells them about it or they were present for the event. It's easy to suddenly have a character know something because YOU know it. Make sure it makes sense within the story.

c) Don't switch mid-sentence or mid-paragraph. I've seen this a lot lately in reader fics. You have 2k of story from the reader's POV, and then when they interact with the character, the author suddenly ventures into the feelings and inner thoughts of the character. That's confusing, especially if it happens without any marker or break in the text.

Don't switch just because it's convenient. If you want to give them both a voice, do it from the start. And if you do, switch where it makes sense, e.g. every other chapter, in the middle of the chapter with a visible break, etc.

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That's all I can think of for now. I hope it helps you in any way, and feel free to talk about it with me whenever you want. I can ALWAYS talk about writing.

Good fortune with your writing!!!