#i don't know narratively how they would have introduced her in the last movie while also introducing tails and knuckles

[aparticularbandit]

I'm surprised we're getting Shadow before Amy given that Amy was the one who unlocked his full Maria memories and led to his changing his mind on world destruction. Amy was a surprisingly important part of that game.

I know they can adapt around that, but.

By the way: I can accept Shadow because of what a big deal he is with the fandom. It honestly shows remarkable restraint that they waited until the third film to introduce him.

But so help me if the films introduce Silver before they introduce Amy, I will be very cross with Neil Moritz. (•̀⤙•́)

[patroxlos]

in another ask u said that reader feeds into his insecurities and worsens his abandonment issues could u explain it more? also loved how we got to know reader more in the last chapter it helps build character and made me think abt how much deep the reveal is gonna be (angst coming? 👀). tnks for the food💕

the angst will be coming! and they will be miscommunicating so much more than they are right now! im excited because ch8 is significant to establish the reader's motive >:) but to answer your question...

SUMMARY:

all will be revealed as the story progresses >:) i was intentionally vague in that ask because it hasnt been revealed in the story yet what caused you two to fall nearly out years ago, but that said im a yapper HAHAHA

your role as his childhood friend is significant bc u are tied to his past in japan, a place and culture he has very conflicting feelings about

he thinks you don't need him in your life esp because you're so confusing and indecisive about what you want from him

you both were very toxic for eo during your situationship.

If you want to see me yap about Kenji's abandonment and attachment issues, keep reading.

There is narrative purpose as to why I figured a childhood friend would fit in well with Ultraman: Rising's plot in itself

the movie is very family-centric, and a lot of how kenji achieves peace with himself in the film is by reconnecting with the past, be it his family or the culture he left behind

while i figured that it would be fun to write a reluctant team-up to lovers, bc ill be able to play around w kenji's personality pre-Emi, i also didnt see the place of a romance forming while he's struggling being a single mom

but i also wanted the story to take place during the movie's run bc i wanted to include Emi since she plays a big part in us learning who Ken is, so writing a fic that starts after the film didnt feel in the cards for me

since kenji grows as a person by the end of the film through making peace with his conflicting identities and his tumultuous past, i thought having a childhood best friend would make sense since i dont think he has the space to introduce anyone new in his life

bc reader is a childhood friend who he is meant to be close to, i cant write kenji interacting with reader the same way he is at the start of the film because there is a familiarity that breaks down his walls— which caused me to have a dilemma about how to characterize him

it also made me a bit sad that i cant write full-on ken sato the "egomaniac" bc i think thatll be fun since he's such a boyfailure

but that means that we see a softer ken when he interacts with reader, someone who is a bit more vulnerable with showing that he strives for further connections in his life even if he wants to look like he can do it all by himself

Kenji feels alone and disconnected from everyone, including you

it's also clear to the audience that kenji doesnt have any friends, and anyone he's friendly with is probably friends with him on a surface level. Ami states in their first interview that he is known as someone who keeps others at a distance, and who is untouchable

the team behind Ultraman: Rising did state that there is a deleted scene where he is clubbing, which is meant to show that he feels alone even in a sea of bodies. and his dad in the movie isnt surprised that he is throwing parties at his house, so it just clues us in that he probably lived life with very shallow connections and has filled his time with materialistic pursuits (e.g. his car collection...what he need a mclaren for)

i decided to make the reader someone from the 1% for two reasons: first being so that i can explain why her and kenji meet up over the years (i see a lot of friends who migrated to north america only once a year and we're still close!), and second, because i wanted you to be on the same playing field if not higher playing field than him.

Ken puts up the front that he doesn't need anyone else, but he is insecure about how he thinks you don't need him.

bc u have ur own things going on!! u have ur own friends

what makes it worse is that u genuinely think that kenji is the same. u think that since he's very successful, he would have his own thing

i havent touched up on it much yet, but it's very evident to kenji that you will readily pick yourself over him, which isn't a bad thing but it reminds him when his dad picked Ultraman over keeping his family together

ken feels like he can never be anyone's first choice or priority, and your situationship messes this up further

I haven't touched much on what happened between them yet in the story because it's building up to it, but

it soon feels for ken that youre only seeking him out on convenience. that he doesnt matter to you beyond what his body can do for you

bc spoiler: you are the villain in the situationship! you're the one who insists that everything is casual yet you keep the line blurry

^ karma is gonna get to u soon in the main storyline ure gonna be dry heaving when u realize u actually do want something with him

your constant back and forth with him will be revealed in the flashbacks... you not wanting more than a casual relationship yet youre talking abt what it would be like if you two got married???

Spoiler but during the situationship years, you're also the first one to say "I Love You" ROMANTICALLY yet youll later on backtrack and say that you didnt mean it in that way

can you blame him for getting confused and insecure about where you stand and whether or not he actually matters to anyone.

it doesnt help that his presence in your life is actively harming your reputation and career.

in ch8, it's briefly mentioned that ur media hate train is caused by ppl who are paying for bad press abt u starting from when you were 18. if you remember ch3-4, kenji freaks out abt a new article abt u two, and ch6 he was conscious of what others were saying.

one thing i want to elaborate in a separate post is that ken is AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT and reader is written to have DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENT.

Even if Kenji is avoidant due to his trauma of abandonment (e.g. self-reliant, avoids social connections), he can't help but yearn to be with you

so it's so confusing to him bc with everyone else, he would want to leave first. and he's close to leaving you so many times

yet you keep making these promises, saying sweet things about how much you need him, that he cant help but get roped into it a bit

When he is younger, he's fully aware that it is not a healthy mindset, but even if you're just using him at least it means that he still gets to be in your life. It makes him feel needed.

in the present timeline, sometimes those thoughts definitely cross his mind but at present he is focusing on maintaining the boundary you guys set about strictly being friends

So far I hope you caught in the story [as of ch8] from the subtext or dialogue that

in the present timeline, you are both 26 years old

the situationship started when you were 16 and lasted until you were 23

bc ure both high profile starting when you were 18, and u both publicly seem a lot closer than what ure claiming to be, it is well-documented that you two kind of go back and forth with each other (think justin and selena/shawn mendes and camila cabello)

(a new photo recently surfaced of shawn and camila together at Copa América and ppl were kind of confused as to whether or not they got back together again after breaking up for like the fourth time and i was like omg... home base core...)

when you both were 23, three years ago, you two had a really bad falling out caused by your previous situationship

it caused you officially end it for good, and while you maintained your friendship for those three years you weren't able to properly see each other face to face (partly. bc covid is canon in the fic HAHAHA but i havent talked abt it)

yall dont know how to act around eo anymore like why a little eye contact making u nervous .... yall had ur privates in eo's mouths (kenji munch next chapter soon promise hihi)...

since it is revealed that a large part of the hate train against you is paid for by people who want you out of power, kenji as much as possible wants to avoid being seen as more than friends with you atm bc he's worried it will derail your career

SORRY if it felt like I didn't say anything at all since I don't want to reveal too much at this stage lmao but I can do my best to elaborate on any points of interest!

[synergysilhouette]

Another 10 Disney hot takes/probably unpopular opinions

Not a fan of Meg and Hercules as a couple. I ADORE them having an innocent male lead and a jaded female love interest, but Meg's situation with Hades makes it feel very toxic. The movie is kinda confusing on whether or not she can refuse Hades; one minute he uses incentive to get her to do what she wants (which is bad enough; her freedom for Hercules' death), and then when she tells him the deal's off, he reminds her that she has no say in the matter. Following this, she rejects his deal and he forces her into being exposed so Hercules will make a deal. She does sacrifice herself for him in the end, but it still feels very iffy for me, particularly since the backbone of her resisting him isn't even "I can't let this guy get killed" but instead "I don't wanna fall in love after getting my heart broken and having sold my soul" (which is EXTREMELY valid, but so is the other point). Had Meg been a normal human and made a deal with Hades to save Hercules or help him earlier on during his training, it'd be so much better.

2. Disney needs needs to stop making sequels just because of financial success and actually work to craft a narrative that requires a sequel or two. It's risky (considering the first film could have negative critical or commercial success, as well as take time and resources away from other films at the studio), but would have a better payoff, imo. I enjoyed "Frozen 2" despite it's flaws, but the fact that it felt independent of the first film did make it feel like we could've used an entirely different cast and made the same story.

3. I need more musicals with a male lead--The last one we had was "Tarzan"--or "Hercules," depending on your criteria. The revival era has had female leads for all their musicals, with a male playing as a co-lead or a deuteragonist. I know the girls are MUCH more valuable at Disney due to the Disney princess line and musicals with a male lead may be harder to market (well, not really; "Aladdin" and "The Lion King" were the highest-grossing animated films at one point, and their remakes grossed over $1 billion).

4. "Moana" needed a bigger (main) roster--Something I love is a nice-sized amount of main characters in a movie. "Moana" only had Moana and Maui for most of the movie, and thus it wasn't as enjoyable for me in that respect. "Moana 2" is introducing new characters, so I hope they can hold my interest.

5. Involve the Anderson-Lopez team in more musicals outside of the "Frozen" franchise--they almost got to do this with "Gigantic," but it fell through. Their music has been great, so I really hope to see them in more musicals for Disney outside of Disney's "Frozen."

6. NEVER return to hybrid animation for a feature film--It's too disorienting for me personally, and while the animation for "Wish" wasn't bad, it definitely didn't have the storybook vibe it was going for except with backgrounds. It would look fine if it was a video game, though.

7. "Gigantic" should've been Disney's anniversary film instead of "Wish"-- I already did a post on this, so I'll just leave it at that.

8. Raya is one of the best Disney leads in a while--Granted, her movie could've been much better and I wish the color of her clothes reflected her culture instead of going for neutral colors, but Raya is the blueprint for a great protagonist. It's been mentioned before how she's a feminist icon without having to really show it in ways others have in films, by being a confident warrior with no discussion of marriage or gender inequality brought up in the film. She's also deliciously sassy and quick on her feet. I may have preferred her OG concept of being stoic, but her swagger makes her one of the more engaging Disney leads, particularly as the adorkable trait started to show up. Speaking of...

9. Ariel and Mulan are the best adorkable leads for a Disney protagonist--While I don't have much issue with Anna and Mirabel and don't really find Rapunzel or Moana that adorkable, Ariel and Mulan were the blueprints for a funny female lead, and they felt less forced than later leads.

10. Aladdin is one of the worst Disney princes--DON'T KILL ME! He used to be my favorite Disney prince, until I watched a "therapists react" video to Disney couples and they brought up the fact that Aladdin had lied to Jasmine several times over the course of the movie. Him being insecure is a great character trait (a common one with Disney leads since the 90s, really), but it's poor writing to make his romance with Jasmine be based on a lie. I'd rather he just kept tight-lipped about his identity when Jasmine caught him the first time rather than covering up with another lie.

[air--so--sweet]

How to Speedrun Bury Your Gays aka That Time Legion Killed All Its Queer Characters In 20 Minutes

Well, 20 minutes 30 seconds to be exact...

First up at the episode's beginning, we have Daniel, who doesn't actually die, but I'd argue having your memory erased with no possibility of regaining it is comparable to death.

But hey he was a two dimensional character who existed solely to have effects on his husband, Clark's, storylines, firstly to humanise him when Daniel was introduced in Chapter 8 and then to add weight to Clark and David's exchange in this episode, Chapter 24. Oh and he also appeared in chapter 20 to remind us he existed since he hadn't been seen or spoken about once since he first appeared. So, not a great loss, right? I didn't even know his name, I had to google it for this post. Not a big deal when he was practically created to die...wait...

So at the 3 minutes 48 seconds mark our first gay has been buried. Record time and we've barely broken a sweat.

Next up we have Lenny and this one is trickier. She's a more developed character with her own agency and who has purpose beyond being a glorified prop. That purpose has been a bit harder to nail down this season but she had some growth in the last episode, choosing to feel the loss of her daughter rather than let David take the pain away or suppressing it with drugs (which feels like it would have been her MO pre David). It also seems she's reached her limit and is no longer willing to blindly follow David and allow him to- oh no, never mind, she's stabbed herself in the neck. I guess it kind of fits with her motivations, since she states to David that he can't have her, prior to stabbing herself. Would it have been more interesting and satisfying narratively if she chose to work with Division 3 to take David down instead? Or decided to try get revenge on Farouk for what he did to her on her own terms, which would also have the benefit of at someone finally trying to hold Farouk accountable for the monstrous things he did? Or even just have Lenny decide she doesn't have a horse in this race since she was drafted against her will and she's going to ride of into the sunset to do her own thing? (this is one hell of a mixed metaphor, I impress myself) Sure...but here she gets to have her last words be a call back to a memory she shared with David...except actually that was a false memory altered by Farouk to hide his presence in David's mind and he and Lenny never had a 'Why is it blue?' exchange in real life nor did she witness said false memory. Love the writer's cared enough about her arc to remember this accurately. And so dies maybe the best role Aubrey Plaza has ever had.

We've now hit the 10:42 mark so slowing down but still keeping a decent pace (sidenote: I remembered Lenny's girlfriend Salmon when writing this, a character who was maybe even less developed than Daniel, and wondered what happened her. We saw her giving birth in the previous episode and then she wasn't present for the rest of her daughter's abridged life courtesy of the time eaters which...actually implies she died in childbirth which is incredibly grim...I don't think it was an intentional implication but it's there nonetheless).

And last, but certainly not least we have Mr Clark DeBussy. Did I know his surname without googling it? Absolutely not. Have the writers ever figured out how to use his character post season one? Absolutely not. Though I did enjoy his one girl talk scene over tea with Syd.

To be fair, I do quite enjoy the scene leading up to his death. While a manufactured scenario, the home movies he's watching of his husband and son do add a melancholy to this scene and I love the visual when he turns to face David that leads to those images being projected onto his face. Teamed with his resigned yet angry delivery of 'I should have killed you the first time we met', David's sad smile as he agrees and Jeff Russo's always beautiful score it is just perfect. And then Clark is grabbed by one of David's cult members and thrown out the air lock and, as we hit 20 minutes and 30 seconds, our final gay is buried...well floating in the depths of space but same thing. There's excellent use of the family video projections again as they briefly overlay the scene of his expulsion from the airship and...it's just occurred to me since going to space in no way impeded David's attack, and Farouk could have gotten pissy with Division 3 for being cowards even if they hadn't started orbiting the earth....did we go to space just for this visual The style over substance of Legion is an ongoing issue but this time I might just accept it, it's a lovely shot.

And thus ends Legion's queer cast's run. There is a further 21 minutes and 40 seconds in this episode in which Syd loses her mind and Kerry looked like she was about to lose a fight and I thought 'Okay actually this is just an episode where characters are going to die, it's coincidence the first three were gay' but then Kerry actually survived and, after a brief second childhood in the astral plane with Melanie and Oliver, Syd gets her mind back...so actually the only people who stayed dead/memory wiped were queer.

I don't know how to to end this. Maybe with the advise to write decent queer representation and don't bury them or at least not all in one fell swoop only taking up half an episode? I wrote a joke about Clark's son not having a name but googled it to doublecheck and he does...it's Buster...Buster DeBussy...Clark was underdeveloped but I refuse to believe he would give his child a name tha sounds like a side character in a video game. He was better than that

[luaspersona]

oh wow. this was... god, i don't even know 😩 i have a lot to say, and i'm literally obsessed with this (can i make it my whole new personality?), but i feel like i should warn you ⚠️🖐🏽 that this feedback ain't gonna be like the last ones. i just read this, so any reactions are straight out of the oven, and i wanted to share them asap instead of waiting some time to work up a proper lengthy review (that i might still do later too). so let's go 👏🏽

ok, so i wanna start by saying that it's been a privilege to follow your writing for these past months. i've been actively reading you for around a semester now, and every time i go through your other, older works, even if you've always been ridiculously talented, it always stuns me just how palpable you can see that you've grown more and more comfortable with your words. you explore, you experiment, you go all in and the result is an every time more and more refined expression of the character — who's no longer a character, really, but a full on person, with their own voice, actions and thoughts, independent from you in a way that's amazing too see. i just... it's beautiful to see because for the longest time, all you've posted is 3tan related, and you've been writing those characters for around a year now, you're used to them and to their thought process. so i bet going in for something other than that must've been kinda scary, intimidating at least like, will i be able to convey other voices? 

and shit, rest assure you are, and you're able to flash out real people like no fucking one. right off the bat the narrative style is completely different from 3tan. we can still spot a familiar pacing structure — with the whole scene unraveling like a movie in quick and interactive paragraphs —, but the flavor to it? the effect of each sentence, of the way this cool af reader things? it's completely different and it causes a completely different feel while reading it.

the mc is confident, is so fucking hot, and so captivating. this could be a pwp but the way you completely surrender the narration to her eyes make it impossible to not make this super tangible too, super real. her insecurities, her hesitancy, her annoyance... its all so well-written that there wasn't a single emotion i didn't feel with her. i really liked how she kept coming back to what that guy said to her, and your style of narration only heightens this effect, by how she would suddenly mention him and what he said, and bicker with herself about it. your narration is just so fucking good, it’s never plain nor merely descriptive: it adds another layer of meaning to the story and to the dialogues, and it’s safe to say that no one else could do it like you.

and ive told you this before (i think especially in the window review), but you have this amazing quality to your writing of never underestimating the reader: you hint at shit all throughout the story, you don't hold stuff for convenience, like how she keeps saying that getting attached wouldn't be good (and at first it seems like the usual fuckgirl talk, but we learned that’s exactly it lol) or even the way jungkook feels familiar and so on. but ok, i had to say, i was full on thinking he was a stalker for the longest time omg i was thinking this would turn dark real quick (and it did, but an angsty dark, not a creepy dark lol).

wanna point out two things before we proceed: being in a band with jimin and yoongi feels like my ultimate fever dream, so this had me screaming from the get-go. and aaaah the whole teasing saying jimin was gonna be jealous? 😭 god, i can 100% picture the man furious like how THE HELL you scored that one 🗣️

but anyway, moving on.

i talked about the reader and how palpable she is, but i need to discuss this jungkook too, ‘cus god if he ain’t adorable.

even the way he’s introduced as a passing character. someone serving her a drink and vanishing before coming to check on her and make sure she’s all right, it’s all so interesting and so real. i loved how shy he was, how unsure, stuttering and trying not to blurt he’s a fanboy and making an effort to make her feel comfortable. and aaaaaaaa the protective move when that creep showed up again? fucking hawt 🥵 if the men find out we like that shit, we’re screwed 😔

but jungkook isn’t only hot. he’s so attentive and soft spoken, and i think this is one of the best takes on his character that i’ve read: the way he’s very shy and wholesome until he turns on his teasing mode. it’s so fucking nice because you seem incapable of writing a flat character: everyone has layers and depth by your hands. i loved how focused he was on her pleasure, how he gave in to her, how he let her lead the way until he was in control, and then he went on to be the most reassuring and caring person, letting her know the impact she made on him. and the reason why he admires her? it was so fucking nice, so fucking pure. he likes her because she’s determined and she’s brave, and just so fucking cool.

the humor too, god, it was so fucking sexy. the teasing, the dick handling, the soft words and giggles. it was so nice, so heartwarming. i wanna say tho, that you were able to create an atmosphere of luring threat. at first i thought i was hinting at jungkook and what his familiarity meant, but at the end i understood that this “bad feeling” was coming from the reader herself and the fact that she’s moving. it was so fucking interesting to see it unfold, how she blurts it and shatters the buble they were basking on. but this impact and the heartbreaking feeling it brings it’s only effective because you were able to write about their interaction with such deep and unquestionable chemistry. like, the way they just like and feel at ease with each other, and how they don’t mind saying shit, it felt like a whole relationship in a single night. i really liked the ending, bring me all those bittersweet finales, gimme that angst cus imma eat it up 🤲🏽🤲🏽🤲🏽 but i have to say i’d love to see more from that pairing. this reader seems so intricate and jungkook still has so much to show, so much we don’t know! it’d be a privilege to follow what happens next, but i get that you’ve a lot on your plate as it is. i’ll be here regardless and i’ll always have this one-shot to get back to and create my own scenarios (at some point i’ll start to make fanfic of your fanfics, ‘cus they’re just so fucking good i can’t DEAL with them).

i also love whenever you use repetition, and here the whole “two and a half hours that felt like eight” thing was so well useddddddd ugh, i wanted to scream when you used it at the end. i don’t know ryen. i think my reviews of your works will get smaller and smaller as i run out of adjectives to praise you. at some point you’ll have to accept that i’ll just be able to scream and yell at you, because you’re one of the best writers i’ve ever come across and your words give me refuge. i just love and appreciate your generosity so much. and on that note, you mentioned that this is a love letter to your readers, and your silent readers at that. i wanna say that this also feels like a message you wrote for yourself. don’t doubt you or your talent, much less your impact. because if you stumble on stage and struggle after a show, we’re still here, silently or loudly supporting you, and what we admire is precisely that amazing ability to make everything unabashedly you. we love it, and we love you. but PLEASE OMG DON’T GO AWAY 😭

ugh, anyway. i’m on my way to work and i didn’t wanna go weeks without reviewing, because this just deserves the fucking world. there’s not a single universe in which something you write is anything but perfect, so — even if it’s simpler than my usual reviews — i wanted to write something quick to let you know that.

calling you cool (m) | jjk

title: calling you cool (m)   pairing: jungkook x rock star!reader(f)   rating/genre: m (18+); angst , fluff , smut ; rock band au , strangers to lovers   summary: after your band finishes a coveted club gig, you’re frustrated that your dope ass night ends with you hiding in a bathroom stall. at least, this is what you figured—until someone comes along to change that.   warnings:language, alcohol, one (1) creep at the club, explicit scenes, unprotected (wrap it babes), choking, head/hair pulling, hitting it from the b b back, you aren’t the only one in restraints lmao, but urs are his hands💕, wh*re mentions, angst??, mast*rbation, sub!jk until he’s not :)))), or*l teasing, rough s*x, wet humping.. just trust me lmao, angst lol, exhibiti*nism, c*m play, club grinding :)), cre*mpie, competitive jk, handcuffs<3, bre*st play, cowgirl yeehaw, body worship, p*ssy play, praise k ink pain k ink waow a combo, he’s not gonna be quiet a ha ha, it’s ck jk bc he broke me, manhandling, tatted up jk, also he’s a brat but who is shocked, kissing lol, multiple org*sms, ..feelings??, jk in denim is a warning in itself, aftercare bc ofc, the ending a ha ha :))) note: so… i have no explanation for this other than i went to a live show in february and got, umm. inspired lmao. tbh this is for the ones that wanna get revenge on this man for everything he’s been up to && it’s cuffing season so let’s get itttt<33   note 2: hope u enjoy what i’ve been working on for months now🥺💕 nothing else to add other than this is only semi-edited lol see y’all on the other side :))   drop date: april 10th, 2023, 7:20pm est word count:12.1k🤪

-

-

Two and a half hours that felt like eight.

Keep reading

[samaspic31]

Theory : anti-spoiler culture ruined the soundtrack of the kenobi series

I relistened to the series' soundtrack last week and the thing most noticeable about it is.... how unremarkable it is. Aside from the main theme john Williams composed, can you remember or sing anything from it? Aside from few good parts here and there, the impression I have is very generic, bland, and definitely void of the trademarks that make a good, memorable star wars soundtrack in my opinion.

Now I'm not one to hang on established themes if new, equally good ones are introduced; the mandalorian is my favourite star wars music, it proved it was possible. That wasn't the case here. And the kenobi series is, let's be real, mainly an appeal to nostalgia of the prequel movies. The mandalorian made new themes for new characters; and used the force theme for Luke's appearance, because it would feel like it's missing if it didn't. kenobi was almost exclusively legacy characters, some of them with firmly established musical themes. Leia has a theme since A new hope. The series also repeated instances from the prequels that had distinct musical associations: order 66 had the march on the jedi temple, anakin's betrayal, and the obiwan - anakin duel was characterized by battle of the heroes and duel of the fates (whose absence is made more frustrating by its use for the trailer. I don't think it was unreasonable for us to expect in to be used in the series when the promo was done with it).

Leia's theme is not used at all, despite the fact it had come to represent even alderaan itself in tcw's soundtrack. It makes no sense not to use it. They used it for baby leia meeting breha, it was created for her 19yo self, why wouldn't it be relevant to her 10yo self ? Besides, the emperor's theme is also left unused despite being long established in both trilogies. The imperial march is used once, and while I don't mean to swing back and argue they should have used it as much as rebels did, I do think it was too little and felt missing in the village scene on mapuzo

Again I would not be complaining if the music we got was so great that it made me forget what it didn't include. I don't want star wars to become a repetitive loop of rehashing and never any new theme, only callbacks. I do feel those themes should be used, sparsely, when relevant, when telling the story of the characters they represent. And especially in flashbacks. And the "replacement" we were given instead is, frankly, mediocre. I can't help but feel a void listening to it, because if you are reusing so much of the prequels both narratively and emotionally... why leave out such a huge part of what made us feel this way? Why cut the wings off your most emotional scenes by not reminding us musically what it's connected to ?

If you have to make me watch order 66 one hundred times, make it good. I have qualms with tcw s7, but I can't say Victory and death wasn't efficient, fitting, and as good a track as revenge of the sith's order 66 music. And it's just my opinion, but kenobi's take didn't live up to the challenge.

Ok, rant over. Why did this happen tho ? Why wouldn't they use the established themes? This is just my theory, obviously I don't work at Lucasfilm, but my guess is : the composer didn't know who she was writing for, she couldn't know what to use when. They wanted to keep the importance of leia's role a secret at all costs and make it a big reveal, as was when the vader - obiwan confrontations would take place, and the emperor cameo. I wouldn't be surprised if it was kept from even the composer. Favloni kept Luke's cameo secret from as many people as possible, telling basically anyone but mark that it'd be plo koon, and the only reason we did get the force theme in my opinion was that it did not give away it was specifically luke but any jedi. That specific brand of bland soundtrack mediocrity reminds me of what happens with the mcu when composers don't know neither what characters nor the details of the scenes they're writing for, in opposition with the Black Panther soundtrack where ludwig Goransson was informed.

It betrays such a disdain for composers that Disney is fully choosing to sacrifice quality, retaining relevant and vital information, to exclude artists from key aspects of the projects they hired them to be a part of, stifling their abilities to give us good music, and all out of fear of leaks that they cannot stop from happening anyways. Word got out of Luke's cameo, word got out of leia's involvement. Total lack of spoilers is impossible to achieve, and striving for it is hindering the very art it claims to protect the enjoyment of. Besides, a good plot should be able to withstand spoilers, and the whole spoiler circus seems very much a way to manufacture hype by signaling to people that they should want to find out before anyone else. But I digress. My point is that the lack of involvement of the composers make for some very forgettable scores and it's a damn shame

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

https://youtu.be/NWzBX3OP234

Saw this and thinking of your criticism about Phase 4 of MCU

Hey sorry for the late response and thank you for sharing! Wow, that video was a roller-coaster of "hey I agree with that" and "oh holy no, shut up please" 😂

So first, the things I agree with. I really like this quote:

"There's an over emphasis on representation where instead of it being a strength for this phase it has become a crutch and a shield to any sort of criticism. Representation in phase 4 is being used as a threat, as if minorities have to like something simply based on the fact that their culture, religion, ethnicity or sexual identity is being represented".

We spoke about just that when it came to the Loki series ("a bit of both" is NOT representation), when Victoria Alonso claimed the negative reviews for Eternals only came from bigots, when some fans yell "racist!" or "misogynist!" or "homophobe!" if you dare to criticize a POC, woman or queer character while Marvel and Disney smile at how easily they can get the audience to believe they're progressive.

The toxicity in the MCU fandom is being fueled by Marvel and Disney, through some of their series and movies & in some interviews as well.

It has happened in Phase 4 far more than in previous phases, I'm not sure why the change happened but it sure feels like they want to use the so-called "representation" to make up for the lack of characterization and storybuilding - and if they did a good job with the rep that would be great, but they don't, it's always a line or something so convoluted that it sounds preachy instead of natural (this video has been the first time I've seen Jen and Bruce and wow it's really, really bad).

I also like this quote when she's discussing new characters:

"It feels unearned because until we get to know a person's weaknesses, their struggles, and see them work towards excellence we really don't care if they win"

I feel that way with Sylvie. We were told of her trauma but we never really see her struggling on-screen. They're so focused on showing how perfect she is that they refuse to give us even one weakness, choosing instead to make Loki weak beside her so she can rise above him and show how superior she is.

It's absolute nonsense. We've known these characters for years, why are they introducing new ones whose only purpose is to prove how much better they are than the old ones?

Now, those two are the things I agree with, but the video does take a nasty turn halfway.

Besides the fact that it's too biased in favour of the movies pre Phase 4 (they were not perfect at all, this downward spiral did not start last year, it did a few years before that) & the fact that she claims CW was about safety vs freedom (it wasn't, not even close), I don't think it's fair to take every single movie and show released in Phase 4 and claim they're all the same.

I noticed that the only time they mention Moon Knight is to talk about Layla and say she didn't earn her powers. I personally disagree but that's subjective, the point is: the OP doesn't mention anything about Marc. Why not? Because his characterization is brilliant, the entire plot is about him and he's never shown as weak or lesser than - it doesn't fit the narrative of the video so she doesn't mention it.

Same with WandaVision. Wanda is not framed as a good girl in the end and that scene the OP includes in the video of Monica showing compassion to her does not work and is not intended to work as an absolution, not at all.

That's the problem when you want to make a blanket statement about roughly 15 different movies and series, they're not the same and you can't. Like when she says TFATWS doesn't paint Karli as the villain (I don't know what show she watched but it did, oh Disney made sure of that) or when she says all men in Phase 4 are being talked down or treated as villains when that's not true at all (Loki and Stephen were but they had the same writer).

So yeah, overall I agree with what she says but I think at some point the video does go a little too overboard. Phew, that was long! (My reply is longer than the video! 😜😂)

[nealiios]

The Supernatural 70s: Part I - Corruption of An Innocent

"We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers writers."

-- with apologies to the screenwriter of "Stripes"

Dear reader, I have the darkest of revelations to make to you, a truth when fully and wholly disclosed shall most assuredly chill you to the bone, a tale that shall make you question all that you hold to be true and good and holy about my personal history. While you may have come in search of that narrative designer best known for his works of interactive high fantasy, you should know that he is also a crafter of a darker art, a scribbler of twisted tales filled with ghosts, and ghouls, and gargoyles. I am, dear innocent, a devotee of horrors! Mwahahahaha!

[cue thunderclap, lightning, pipe organ music]

Given the genre of writing for which most of you know me, I forgive you if you think of me principally as a fantasy writer. I don't object to that classification because I do enjoy mucking about with magic and dark woods and mysterious ancient civilizations. But if you are to truly know who I am as a writer, you must realize that the image I hold of myself is principally as a creator of weird tales.

To understand how and why I came to be drawn to this sub-genre of fantastic fiction, you first must understand that I come from peculiar folks. Maybe I don't have the Ipswich look, or I didn't grow up in a castle, but my pedigree for oddity has been there from the start. My mother was declared dead at birth by her doctor, and often heard voices calling to her in the dead of night that no one else could hear. Her mother would periodically ring us up to discuss events in our lives about which she couldn't possibly have known. My father's people still share ghost stories about a family homestead that burned down mysteriously in the 1960s. Even my older brother has outré memories about events he says cannot possibly be true, and as a kid was kicked off the Tulsa city bookmobile for attempting to check out books about UFOs, bigfoot, and ESP. It's fair to say I was doomed - or destined - for weirdness from the start.

If the above listed circumstances had not been enough, I grew up in an area where neighbors whispered stories about a horrifically deformed Bulldog Man who stalked kids who "parked" on the Old North Road near my house. The state in which I was raised was rife with legends of bigfoots, deer women, and devil men. Even in my childhood household there existed a pantheon of mythological entities invented explicitly to keep me in line. If I was a good boy, The Repairman would leave me little gifts of Hot Wheels cars or candy. If I was being terrible, however, my father would dress in a skeleton costume, rise from the basement and threaten to drag me down into everlasting hellfire (evidently there was a secret portal in our basement.) There were monsters, monsters EVERYWHERE I looked in my childhood world. Given that I was told as a fledgling writer to write what I knew, how could anyone have been surprised that the first stories I wrote were filled with the supernatural?

"The Nightmare" by John Henry Fuseli (1781)

My formative years during the late sixties and early seventies took place at a strange juncture in our American cultural history. At the same time that we were loudly proclaiming the supremacy of scientific thought because we'd landed men on the moon, we were also in the midst of a counter cultural explosion of interest in astrology, witchcraft, ghosts, extra sensory perception, and flying saucers. Occult-related books were flying off the shelves as sales surged by more than 100% between 1966 and 1969. Cultural historians would come to refer to this is as the "occult boom," and its aftershocks would impact popular cultural for decades to come.

My first contact with tales of the supernatural were innocuous, largely sanitized for consumption by children. I vividly remember watching Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I read to shreds numerous copies of both Where the Wild Things Are and Gus the Ghost. Likely the most important exposure for me was to the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? cartoon which attempted to inoculate us from our fears of ghosts and aliens by convincing us that ultimately the monster was always just a bad man in a mask. (It's fascinating to me that modern incarnations of Scooby Doo seem to have completely lost this point and instead make all the monsters real.)

ABOVE: Although the original cartoon Scooby Doo, Where Are You? ran only for one season from 1969 to 1970, it remained in heavy reruns and syndication for decades. It is notable for having been a program that perfectly embodied the conflict between reason and superstition in popular culture, and was originally intended to provide children with critical thinking skills so they would reject the idea of monsters, ghosts, and the like. Ironically, modern takes on Scooby Doo have almost entirely subverted this idea and usually present the culprits of their mysteries as real monsters.

During that same time, television also introduced me to my first onscreen crush in the form of the beautiful and charming Samantha Stevens, a witch who struggles to not to use her powers while married to a frequently intolerant mortal advertising executive in Bewitched. The Munsters and The Addams Family gave me my first taste for "goth" living even before it would become all the rage in the dance clubs of the 1980s. Late night movies on TV would bring all the important horror classics of the past in my living room as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Godzilla all became childhood friends. Over time the darkened castles, creaking doors, foggy graveyards, howling wolves, and ever present witches and vampires became so engrained in my psyche that today they remain the "comfort viewing" to which I retreat when I'm sick or in need of other distractions from modern life.

ABOVE: Elizabeth Montgomery starred in Bewitched (1964 - 1972) as Samantha Stephens, a witch who married "mortal" advertising executive Darren Stephens (played for the first five seasons by actor Dick York). Inspired by movies like I Married a Witch (1942) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), it was a long running series that explored the complex relationship dynamics between those who possess magic and those who don't. Social commentators have referred to it as an allegory both for mixed marriages and also about the challenges faced by minorities, homosexuals, cultural deviants, or generally creative folks in a non heterogeneous community. It was also one of the first American television programs to portray witches not as worshippers of Satan, but simply as a group of people ostracized for their culture and their supernatural skills.

Even before I began elementary school, there was one piece of must-see gothic horror programming that I went out of my way to catch every day. Dark Shadows aired at 3:30 p.m. on our local ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma which usually allowed me to catch most of it if I ran home from school (or even more if my mom or brother picked me up.) In theory it was a soap opera, but the show featured a regular parade of supernatural characters and themes. The lead was a 175 year old vampire named Barnabas Collins (played by Johnathan Frid), and the show revolved around his timeless pursuit of his lost love, Josette. It was also a program that regularly dealt with reincarnation, precognition, werewolves, time travel, witchcraft, and other occult themes. Though it regularly provoked criticism from religious groups about its content, it ran from June of 1966 until it's final cancellation in April of 1971. (I would discover it in the early 1970s as it ran in syndication.) Dark Shadows would spin off two feature-length movies based on the original, a series of tie-in novels, an excellent reboot series in 1991 (starring Ben Cross as Barnabas), and a positively embarrassingly awful movie directed by Tim Burton in 1991.

ABOVE: Johnathan Frid starred as Barnabas Collins, one of the leading characters of the original Dark Shadows television series. The influence of the series cannot be understated. In many ways Dark Shadows paved the way for the inclusion of supernatural elements in other soap operas of the 1970s and the 1980s, and was largely responsible for the explosion of romance novels featuring supernatural themes over the same time period.

While Dark Shadows was a favorite early television program for me, another show would prove not only to be a borderline obsession, but also a major influence on my career as a storyteller. Night Gallery (1969-1973) was a weekly anthology television show from Rod Serling, better known as the creator and host of the original Twilight Zone. Like Twilight Zone before it, Night Gallery was a deep and complex commentary on the human condition, but unlike its predecessor the outcomes for the characters almost always skewed towards the horrific and the truly outré. In "The Painted Mirror," an antiques dealer uses a magic painting to trap an enemy in the prehistoric past. Jack Cassidy plots to use astral projection to kill his romantic rival in "The Last Laurel" but accidentally ends up killing himself. In "Eyes" a young Stephen Spielberg directs Joan Crawford in a story about an entitled rich woman who plots to take the sight of a poor man. Week after week it delivered some of the best-written horror television of the early 1970s.

In retrospect I find it surprising that I was allowed to watch Night Gallery at all. I was very young while it was airing, and some of the content was dark and often quite shocking for its time. Nevertheless, I was so attached to the show that I'd throw a literal temper tantrum if I missed a single, solitary episode. If our family needed to go somewhere on an evening that Night Gallery was scheduled, either my parents would either have to wait until after it had aired before we left, or they'd make arrangements in advance with whomever we were visiting to make sure it was okay that I could watch Night Gallery there. I was, in a word, a fanatic.

ABOVE: Every segment of Night Gallery was introduced by series creator Rod Serling standing before a painting created explicitly for the series. Director Guillermo del Toro credits Serling's series as being the most important and influential show on his own work, even more so than the more famous Twilight Zone.

[weaselandfriends]

I bet you have probably seen Neon Genesis Evangelion. If so, what do you like or don't like about it?(I'm talking about the original series, not the rebuild movies).

A lot of NGE detractors cite Shinji’s wimpiness as a problem with the story, but I think when people say that they’re actually identifying a visible symptom of a much more significant problem: inconsistent pacing.

If I step back and examine NGE the show structurally, I can divide it pretty cleanly into three distinct parts:

1. Episodes 1-6

2. Episodes 7-16

3. Episodes 17-26

The first part, which is the shortest, introduces the situation and stakes, establishes Shinji’s psychological problems about getting into the mech, and culminates with a large, climactic battle against Cube 2 Hypercube in which the heroic efforts by everyone (literally everyone, as all of Japan comes together to provide electricity for one superpowered attack) inspire Shinji to do what is demanded of him. The amount of narrative content packed into these six episodes is huge, because there’s also the development of the relationship between Shinji and Rei that serves as kind of a microcosm for Shinji’s ability to trust, depend on, and help other people, and which also sees a narrative resolution in the final episode when the two work together to defeat their enemy.

Episode 7 is essentially a filler episode, then Episode 8 introduces Asuka. I get, conceptually, the idea behind Asuka and what she’s supposed to provide to the plot. She is, in essence, a fiery, hypermotivated soldier who wants nothing more to get into the mech and prove herself, which juxtaposes her against Shinji’s reluctance. But I think, narratively, Asuka is redundant, as her role has essentially already been filled by Shinji’s classmates Toji and Glasses. Asuka adds a sort of gender dynamic to that question by being female while Shinji’s classmates were male, but ultimately not much dimension has really been added to a question that was already posed and resolved in the first 6 episodes. (I know you mentioned you weren’t talking about the Rebuild movies, but think about how effortlessly those films substituted Asuka for Toji in the experimental Unit 03 plot; these two characters really are doing the exact same thing narratively.) Asuka receives way more narrative weight that Toji does, has a huge flashy introduction episode, gets a lot more screen time, et cetera, but she hasn’t changed much of anything and because of that the next few episodes, which frequently focus on her role, are often pretty stagnant in the grand scheme of things. There are several obvious filler episodes where Shinji and the gals take on Monster-of-the-Week type angels who fail to live up to the massive narrative weight and big, flashy scale of Cube 2 Hypercube back in Episodes 5 and 6. As such, the story sinks into a dull holding pattern, one that lasts longer than the entire, densely-packed first arc. The pacing, in short, has gone from “fast” to “dead stop.” Nothing is developing, not the characters, not the story, not even the sense of scale or the stakes. The middle of NGE is a gaping black hole that only becomes more frustrating as the third part begins.

I think I would ordinarily want to put Episodes 17 and 18 into the previous part, because what should very obviously be a culminating moment for flashy new character Asuka gets stolen from her and given to (now irrelevant) Toji. If it were Asuka who gets into Unit 03, it would sort of justify the second part, although not its length or arduous pacing. But because Asuka is completely divorced from the Unit 03 subplot, I’ve decided to organize it into the climactic third part, where NGE seems to remember it’s supposed to have stakes. However, there’s another extremely frustrating element about these two episodes, because after them, Shinji regresses back to the reluctant (or unwilling) hero he was all the way back before the Hypercube fight. It’s this moment of regression, I think, that drives so many people batty about Shinji as a character, because NGE just topped off 9 to 11 episodes of nothing really happening with a huge moment of plot de-advancement. I think if this moment came shortly after Episode 6, with Asuka being more heavily involved in it, it plays out a lot better. But because of the show’s massively inconsistent pacing, the frustrations the viewer feels for the narrative itself are dropped onto Shinji and make him come across as kind of obnoxious. The fact that it’s irrelevant Toji who sparks this regression in Shinji is also a misstep; it just makes it a lot more difficult to empathize with Shinji when this tragedy has occurred to a character who barely rises above the background. (And in classic anime fashion, the show pulls a massive punch and doesn’t even kill Toji, when it really needs to be hitting as hard as humanly possible to sell this regression.)

By Episode 19, the narrative is basically back to where it started in Episode 1, with a couple more characters floating around and a smaller number of angels left to fight. Basically, the first 18 episodes don’t matter that much. It’s here where NGE actually starts, and also actually starts to get good. If you can get past the the huge frustration of Shinji’s regression, NGE very quickly returns to the fast pace and ramping scale/stakes of Episodes 1-6. The angels become more threatening and difficult to defeat, the characters start to break down emotionally and literally, the sense that things are slanting toward a disastrous conclusion grows and grows. And it finally culminates in End of Evangelion, which I would consider close to a masterpiece, an excellent film where my largest criticisms are that it’s shackled so strongly to the uneven show that came before it.

The first two Rebuild moves, while sacrificing the excellent visuals of the show and injecting a few stupid elements like Mari Illustrious, resolve a ton of the problems I have with the original. Asuka gets put into Unit 03, while Toji and the other schoolkids are correctly reduced to only the barest of roles. The distended post-Asuka midsection is slimmed down significantly and more emphasis is placed on using it to drive Asuka into that climactic Unit 03 moment. Unfortunately, Rebuild 3 is kind of a hilarious mess that makes zero sense, but oh well.

Overall, NGE is a strong story with extremely high heights muddled by some fairly quotidian narrative missteps. It’s worth it for EoE, though. That movie is phenomenal.

[emperorren]

1-The typical reasons why people write love triangles are: 1) The genre/story is already romance-centered, and one of the core questions is how the romantic arcs will resolve, 2) To create tension in serialized stories so the audience will be hooked for the next installment. The ST is neither of these. A triangle wouldn't work as a marketing ploy, because people don't think of SW as a romance-oriented property and most of the GA would just go "bzuh?" if the trailers tried to build that up,

a love triangle wouldn’t work as a “Who do you think Finn or Rey will end up with? Tune in next time!” because IX is the end of the Skywalker Saga and they would have to resolve the triangle in the same movie they introduced it, and it wouldn’t work as a narrative centerpiece because while space operas *are* romantic, they aren’t “romance” genre stories the way we think of paranormal romance or bodice-rippers. There is just…*no* sensible narrative reason (or even cynical money-making reason) to write a love triangle in IX unless the writers are incompetent, inconsistent, or backpedaling (badly) on TLJ. The *only* world where a love triangle makes sense is in Anti RPF one where the directors are working completely independently of each other, and JJ wanted to steer the ship back to where he intended without outright retconning Rian’s work. That, or the writers really are incompetent, which with millions of dollars on the line and oversight from all of Lucasfilm, I strongly doubt.

Nothing to add here except that this supposed love triangle is nothing but antis’ last shot at keeping f/rey alive. If LF really wanted to keep f/rey as an option for Rey, a) JJ wouldn’t have killed the tension between them by making their dynamic less antagonistic than originally intended, and b) Rian would have teased the triangle in some way in TLJ. 

The jealousy thing was not even in the TLJ script - neither from Rose’s side nor from Rey’s side. Did the novel authors read a different version of the script that was released to the Oscars library? Because Jason kept saying how detailed Rian’s script was, and yet, the fans who read it in the library said that there were no extraordinary details in it. So either Lucasfilm haven’t given the original script to the library or these authors drew their own conclusions from the script.

I honestly have no idea about the script, but I highly doubt a jealous Rose was ever in Rian’s plans.

I would fear a love triangle a lot more if the ST was a TV show than I do at the moment, but there’s no time for such things in a 2-hour film that’s marketed as wrapping up nine movies’ worth of narrative. Besides, SW’s final trilogy movies typically feature romances that are already resolved (Anidala) or on the cusp of resolution (Hanleia), not engineer new romantic drama that could potentially derail the plot and character arcs, and which will have to be resolved by the end credits anyway.

^^^^^ excellent point.

There are people theorizing that IX will feature two interlocking love triangles between Rose, Finn and Rey and Finn, Rey and Kylo, people theorizing about a Rey, Poe and Kylo love triangle, and this is in addition to the people advocating for individual Rey ships. So my question is: Would *any* of this take place if the main protagonist wasn’t a woman? I understand that there were Luke and Leia vs Han and Leia shipping wars during the OT, but the ship wank around Rey is just at another level.

^ Shippers will ship and ship wars will happen regardless if the main protagonist is a man or a woman, but they do tend to get more insane when the main protagonist is a heroine. I certainly doubt that, if Rey were a man, there would be so many people convinced that her actual canon plot in the third act of the trilogy would revolve around which love interest she’s going to choose, rather than, you know, how she will save the galaxy, defeat the evil empire and help the broken man under the monster suit find his way back to his true self.