#i got here by nitpicking logical inconsistencies

[noandpickles]

I know I've probably said this before but I will always be in awe of the moral fortitude of people who leave religion over bigotry. The strength of character it takes to look at a system that you've been told your whole life is perfect, was (depending on the religion) created by the universe's only law-giver, not to mention it's probably the system every authority in your life adheres to. The strength it takes to look at that and say "No. This isn't right." I adore you.

[tenebriskukris]

Oshi No Ko Chapter 160 - My Thoughts/Analysis

This was simultaneously a very satisfying and unsatisfying chapter at the same time. I feel like that’s a large issue with the series at large, in fact. High highs and low lows. As always, spoilers for Oshi No Ko Ch160 below.

We’re back with Hikaru and Aqua’s conversation—and a small flashback to Akane grilling Nino on her own relationship with Hikaru. Hikaru mentions that pushing someone off in this panel—then immediately backtracking to say he didn’t do any of that. Really bro? I’m not sure if Yura’s corpse has been found yet or if Nino spilled the information that Hikaru had a hand in her death there but I find that strange. 

All he did was talk about Ai. He wouldn’t let us forget about her. He thought that was enough for us to break. It’s incredible how bad this makes Nino and Ryosuke look. The two of them weren’t contractually obligated to be around Hikaru for any period of time—and because of his manipulations the two of them got their hands dirty.

Perhaps I should be a bit more sympathetic to them considering that Hikaru already had a pension for manipulation even at a young age and I’m well aware that cutting toxic friends out of your circle is a chore and a half but considering that Nino was still being manipulated by Hikaru and was an almost thirty year old woman when she was aware of that sort of manipulation from him in the first place—and don’t even get me started on the fact that she was working with him during the movie arc. 

Hikaru asked Ryosuke to deliver a bouquet and then leaked Ai’s address? There is absolutely no way that could’ve backfired on him in the slightest. Please note the sarcasm there. If Ryosuke had been caught by the police instead of hanging himself and he spilled that info to them then Hikaru would be in some real deep trouble. Did he not think that would backfire at all??? There was absolutely no way for him to be sure that Ryosuke would hang himself or get caught by the police or that he or Nino wouldn’t be connected to Ai’s murder. It’s just—absolutely stupid. Ruins the suspension of disbelief.

I do have a small nitpick on this mess though. Aqua says that Hikaru tried to kill Ruby—using Nino as a proxy—but how is he sure about that exactly? Nino might have squealed everything she knows about Hikaru to Akane and that information was delivered to Aqua after the fact since Nino’s capture likely happens chronologically before this encounter but that bit is not communicated properly to the viewer in an easy to digest manner so it feels like we’re just taking Aqua at his word here. It’s such a small thing but honestly there’s bigger fish to fry with this chapter.

These few pages of Hikaru explaining himself are, to me, a load of shite. We’ve already been clued in to the fact that this man is a grade-A liar so I’m not sure how inclined I am to believe him here. I make it a point to never take what any character says at face value unless there’s sufficient reason to prove otherwise—but from both how Nino’s telling the story and the logical inconsistency that Hikaru gave Ryosuke, a stalker with an obsession for Ai, her address—well. There’s more than enough evidence to call bull on this entire spiel—and Aqua does that too.

Ah yes, Nino wanting to kill Ruby and Hikaru not doing anything to prevent it. That is also a bit of a red flag there. Hikaru definitely was aware of Nino wanting to kill Ruby—and he didn’t even report Nino to the police or contacted Aqua or anything. He just let it happen, and in doing so helped kill Ruby by inaction. It does nag at me slightly considering that Hikaru told Nino that they should turn themselves in to the police, but I’m not sure whether to brush that off as bad fucking writing, which would be par for the course with the manga, or more of Hikaru’s manipulations.

Actually now that I think about it, Hikaru calling Nino during that one scene a few chapters back is a massive error on Hikaru’s part. It’s an easily accessible link to the police to link Nino and Hikaru if Nino was ever taken in. If Nino suspected that Hikaru was manipulating Ryosuke and her into trying to kill Ai and or Ruby, and the only reason she didn’t go to the police herself to tell them that both of them were also responsible was that she herself would be implicated in that same murder, if she got caught by anyone after stabbing Ruby it would be game over with Hikaru. Nino could squeal that she had a hand in Ai’s death as well as Hikaru’s part in all of these murders—since they were working together somewhat—and then that’d be game over for Hikaru. The Japanese conviction rate of close to a hundred percent strikes again.

And then there’s the full page panel of Hikaru with black star eyes and grinning like a horror monster. Cute and all, but it’s all style with little substance. I’d prefer a well written antagonist rather than one with a brilliant design but falls flat. There’s a reason I don’t dabble in criticizing the art in the manga, and it’s not because I’m no artist—any concept can perform well as long as its foundations are steady. As much as I love some of the art in this manga, it’s extraneous in terms of the story at large. While, sure, the manga’s art is notable at times, no amount of pretty art can make a pile of shit stop smelling like a pile of shit.

You tortured the hearts of others on purpose and stoked the flames of madness of those who were weak. Considering that Nino had already been captured and also assuming that Akane had conveyed all of this to Aqua beforehand it’s not much of a wonder that Aqua is coming to these conclusions. Unfortunately the manga just fucking refuses to show us how Aqua came to this conclusion and instead tells it to us as though the readers were children.

The question of whether or not Nino is slandering Hikaru like this did cross my mind—but she really isn’t smart enough for something like that in my opinion—otherwise she would’ve found a way to dispose of Ruby without putting herself at risk or made sure that it actually was Ruby who she was trying to stab. Nino fully intended to go down with the ship when she attempted to stab Ruby in broad daylight like this. Not to mention my previous assessment that Hikaru stood by and let Nino try and kill Ruby in the first place still holds weight, so I don’t think what she’s saying is false—at least not without any other evidence.

I see, you’re the same. You have the same eyes as me. And that shot with both of them with black star eyes…Quite impressive ambience. I mentioned before about how I don’t criticize the art of the manga, but this is one of those moments where there’s plenty of style to highlight the substance of the panel. Well done.

Oh, we’re getting a bit of explanation about the eyes. I don’t have the exact interview on me at the moment but I recall the authors saying that the stars in people’s eyes just aren’t visible and are instead just a metaphor or something along those lines—point is, Hikaru and Aqua can’t see the black stars in each other’s eyes. But with his pension for manipulation I don’t think it’s a stretch for Hikaru to shoot in the dark in order to get under Aqua’s skin here. 

Is Hikaru really going on this “we’re not so different” bit? That’s cool and all but usually the villain follows up on this by tempting the hero or trying to break them by talking but this just falls oh so very flat when you think about it for more than two seconds. What is the point that he’s trying to make here? That Aqua and him are the same? Okay, cool. But that’s not right at all. Everything Aqua’s done for revenge has been morally dubious at times as he’d been playing the industry game, but that’s egregious compared to, y’know, the actual literal murder that Hikaru has enabled through his manipulations. It’s not a competition.

It’s true that we’re ugly beings that manipulate people’s hearts, deceive them, and make us obey them for our own sake. That’s more than a bit of hatred towards yourself and Hikaru in your words there, Aqua. I’d even argue that that sort of shine is exactly what a performer needs to evoke emotions in their fans—it’s merely a matter of using that kind of pull responsibly.

Ruby is different. Even now, she’s singing of love. That’s certainly some bias that he has for her, gotta say. Ruby’s black star arc comes to mind as a time when Ruby was manipulating people to avenge Goro but saying that Ruby’s an exception is a bit of a stretch. Though—considering how much Aqua cares for Ruby I’m more than sure that his feelings are coloring his words right here—it’s very in character.

And another few panels detailing how Aqua sees the star eyes and about how these eyes are supposed to convey love…it’s interesting. I’m quite sure we already know for a fact that the eyes are supposed to represent talent or something of the sort from an official interview, but it’s nice to see that the star eyes are used here as a vehicle to display how Aqua views that kind of pull and influence in respects to all the Hoshinos. And that one panel of Ai holding baby Aqua and Ruby…damn. Never forget what we lost.

AQUA WITH DOUBLE STAR EYES??? AFTER HE TALKS ABOUT RUBY LIKE THAT??????? Welp, that’s game. GG WP. 

Well that was certainly A Chapter. With some of the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation out of the way I think it’s time to rip out this chapter’s guts.

As a single chapter—I think this chapter did well enough to stand on its own merits. As a part of a greater whole? It misses the mark quite badly in terms of pacing. The aftermath of the Nino confrontation and just what exactly she said and the question of how that was relayed to Aqua are questions that aren’t really necessary for the manga to flow together coherently, but when the manga tries to answer them so opaquely and in the middle of the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation it messes with the atmosphere and the pacing of what should be the main event.

What’s annoying is that this is an issue that could be easily solved by restructuring the order of events. Just focus on the Nino aftermath and squeeze all the info out of her for a chapter and end it off with Akane telling Aqua all of this over the phone before meeting Hikaru. Simple, efficient, and it doesn’t break too much with the timeline. 

One question that I still have to pose is why. Why the hell did Hikaru try to kill Ruby using Nino as a proxy? Obviously doing nothing is easier than doing something since he mainly kills through via proxy and if he didn’t do anything to stop Nino he knew she would make a move on Ruby, but the question of why is still hidden. While I’m now relatively confident that his prior reasons for killing Ai that he’d explained in his previous confrontations with Aqua are bullshit, that still leaves his reasoning for orchestrating their deaths unknown. Perhaps we’ll get a peek in his head before the end? 

In regards to the Nino-Hikaru antagonist fake out—I’m still on the fence on it. I’d been meaning to give my own take on it as soon as this confrontation was dealt with, but I need to see how Hikaru is dealt with before I give my honest opinion on the matter, but I’m not liking what the authors are giving us so far.

Now then—the final panel. This is the nail in the coffin for everyone that isn’t Ruby for the Aquabowl. The last chapter showing that Aqua wasn’t even at Kana’s graduation concert for Kana herself is telling enough, but this final scene showing him with both star eyes about to kill his father for Ruby’s sake is—well. If it was Akane or Kana that Aqua mentioned in this scene then you’d be sure that it’d be a downright slam dunk confirmation towards who would be the winning girl by the fandom but because Ruby’s entire admission in the Aquabowl is controversial as all hell it’s less interpreted in the manner. Bit of a double standard there in my opinion, but I’m sure we’ll be getting more content for us Ruby fans to chomp on. 

In any case, I suspect the manga will be wrapping up soon. With Aqua’s revenge against Hikaru almost certainly coming to pass within the next chapter or so I don’t expect there’s any other plot points that the manga will go out of its way to detail going forward. A quick look at the current chapters in each volume of the manga tells me that the end of this current volume is on the horizon. Perhaps one more volume and another ten-ish chapters to wrap everything up, but truthfully I wouldn’t be surprised if the manga ended with this volume. It wouldn’t be the first time this manga has neglected good writing to finish the story faster.

[theanimeview]

My Nitpick Issue with Sherlock in Moriarty the Patriot

By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting​

It may surprise some of you to know that I have degrees in book reading and writing. While earning those degrees I studied one specific time period more than the others--that being British Literature from late-17th/18th century through the early 20th century. This is to say that it is a time period I know a little more about than you might think. And early 1900s is probably my favorite period out of that timeline, particularly England under Victoria’s rule. 

And, perhaps, because of this strange obsession I have with the period, I presently have a small bone to pick over Moriarty the Patriot. 

It’s not the minor inaccuracies of the clothes, nor the adaptation of character designs. It’s not even the adjustment to social tendencies depicted that are more Japanese than British-English of any period thus far either--because those kinds of things happen frequently in adaptations. And it's not Moriarty or his backstory too! Because, again, this is an adaptation, and liberties will be taken to fit the new story (besides, even in the original works by Doyle the man’s backstory was inconsistent). 

My issue is with the character of Sherlock and his supposed “deductions.” Well, maybe more accurately it's with the writing of Sherlock. 

You see, Sherlock is almost always introduced the same way in an adaptation. He makes a judgment about someone (usually about Watson or the Watson stand-in) and then proves it using his observational skills. This introduction is important because it clarifies that the world of the characters is one based on where common sense and science not only work but make sense. His deductions are logical and based on some semblance of rationality. Here is an excerpt from the original novel: 

“I knew you came from Afghanistan. From long habit the train of thoughts ran so swiftly through my mind, that I arrived at the conclusion without being conscious of intermediate steps. There were such steps, however. The train of reasoning ran, `Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.' 

How does this prove we are in a world where common sense and logic works? Well, because he didn’t pull any of these deductions from thin air. He just used his eyes and common knowledge to make a quick judgment. 

In the example above, everything that Sherlock assumes is true and based on reasonable assumptions about the time period and about what he can observe of the person before him. 

The tan of Watson’s skin is something he notes because London is usually dark and wet around this season, so you’re unlikely to get a tan. The way the man walks and stands is also a thing he can observe, and fresh military men walk very differently from the average citizen or gentleman. These two observations, coupled with noticeable injury and limp could lead one to think that maybe he has just come back from the current war (the First Anglo-Afghan War). Of course, maybe he wasn’t injured in the war at all--maybe something else happened; however, you can make a pretty good guess that an abled bodied soldier would not be home and looking for a room in the middle of war-times if something hadn’t happened to him on the battlefield.

My point is that all of Sherlock’s deductions come from observing details, paying attention to the basics of the world (such as the ongoing war or understanding rigor mortis), and using your senses. Sure, there may be a few things the average person doesn’t know that Sherlock does, but that’s because Sherlock has studied different things and to a more serious degree. The level of understanding is different, but not impossible to achieve in one’s own time or effort. And, as another note, Sherlock is not perfectly observant all of the time. There are plenty of examples of him needing to take breaks, of him closing his eyes to block out distractions so he can better focus on what someone is saying, and of him smoking to zone out for a bit so that he can come back to a problem with fresh eyes at a later time. 

It’s absolutely vital to Sherlock’s character, and the original story, that all of the deductions are based on the “possible,” which is why the introduction of Sherlock in Episode 6 of this adaptation immediately irritated me. Here is the scene:

Side note:  I’m sorry it’s shown as a poorly made gif--I literally could not find a copy of the clip with English subtitles on YouTube so I could not include it as a video. If you want to look at it in the episode itself, it starts at about the 13:00 minute mark. EPISODE LINK)

Here is what bothers me so much. Why would a mathematician be checking to see if the staircase on a ship fits the golden ratio? More importantly, why would that in any way matter to Moriarty as a character? Based on what we’ve seen so far of this character, and we’ve had 6 and 1/2 episodes to define him so far, none of Sherlock’s statement makes sense here. 

Like, at all. (And I know that this also happens in the manga--doesn’t make sense there either.)

You know what would make sense though? For the time period and the character development we’ve seen of Moriarty thus far? A pause to consider-- and maybe even compare--staircases on the ship between the main steps for passengers and the steps for commoners or staff. 

Why would that make sense? Oh, thank you so much for asking. Time to get real nerdy here for a minute: 

Class issues were a serious problem in Victorian England (as they are now, though in a different way). These issues were not necessarily the same as depicted in the show but it was still consistently present throughout the society as a whole. (A good, short read on the subject can be found here for those of you interested: Social Life in Victorian England.)

One way that this issue came out was in the very architecture of homes. In Victorian England, nobleman homes and estates were built with main staircases, where the residents and guests walked, and servent staircases, where the staff and other temporary employees walked. The difference in these stairs was huge, as the servant staircases were basically death traps. 

In the late 1800s, a mathematician (and architect) named Peter Nickolson figured out the exact measurements that would generally ensure a comfortable and easy walk upstairs: 

BTW: Here is a great video on the subject and how they were death traps: Staircases in Victorian England

However, Nickolson’s math and designs were not used regularly in the design of houses for years to come. 

By the setting of the story, and given Moriarty’s interest in maths, his understanding of class issues, and beyond--this kind of knowledge would make far more sense than searching for the golden ratio in a man-made set of stairs. 

Moreover, the golden ratio is generally interesting to mathematicians (to my understanding) because it can be seen in nature frequently. It is a pattern found everywhere, from the way that petals grow on flowers, to how seashells form, to freaking hurricane formations! So why on Earth would Moriarty be interested in an architect's choice to use such a ration when planning a staircase? 

He wouldn’t, I believe. Nor would Sherlock generally be able to make that assumption based on his time gazing at the staircase, distance from said staircase, nor angle. 

So what can he deduce, if not that? Well, he may be able to deduce that Moriarty is a nobleman based on his attire. He may also be able to deduce that the man is a student based on age, as in an earlier episode we were told he’s quite young to be teaching in university and appears close in age to his students. Maybe he’s a student of architecture? But, if he’s a nobleman--as we suspect he is based on his attire--then it's unlikely he works a labor-intensive job or one close to it. So, he must be in academia for academic reasons such as mathematics. Physics during that time, as an academic subject, focused more on lighting, heat, electricity, magnetism, and such. And, Sherlock notes that Moriarty is specifically looking at the stairs, not the lights of the ship. 

So, BAM! I’ve deduced Moriarty is a young nobleman who is likely a student of mathematics. Perhaps he’s recently had a lesson on staircases or another algebraic concept that’s caused him to pause with momentary interest. 

It makes a heck of a lot more sense than finding a “golden ratio” in a man-planned and man-made staircase... don’t you think? And, maybe, we can even deduce that rather than a student he’s a professor who has just thought up an interesting lesson--though that would be a BIG jump from the data we’ve been provided here. 

Deductions that come from major leaps in logic make it seem like Sherlock is doing magic... and he is--because it is magical that people find it impressive or believable. It’s not. And I would argue that the original character would find it insulting based on his comments to Watson regarding being compared to other fictional detectives.

Pay in mind, I have this feeling about several adaptations, so my judgment on Moriarty the Patriot isn’t technically exclusive. It just hit me so hard in my first viewing that I felt I needed to share because generally, this issue of deductions becoming magic rather than stemming from logic doesn’t happen in the first two minutes of meeting Sherlock Holmes.

So... yeah. Thanks for coming to my absurd history/lit lesson through Moriarty the Patriot. I appreciate you sticking with me to the end and hope it was enjoyable.

You can watch the series on Funimation.com right now at: https://www.funimation.com/shows/moriarty-the-patriot 

Overall, it’s a pretty good series; although there was a lot more child-murder than I expected...

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I thought about the MCU (Phase Two)

Sorry this didn’t come out sooner. Disney+ needed to be paid, and that is the only way I can possibly watch most of these movies. Anways, here’s the continued ranking:

6th place: Thor: The Dark World (4/10)

The final fight is cool, and Loki is still a ton of fun. There. That's all I like about Thor: The Dark World. Other than that, it is easily the weakest MCU film. It's boring. It's ugly. A large percentage of the characters are flat and dull. And Christopher Eccleston's Malekith is arguably the worst villain yet. His goal? Plunge the world in darkness. Yeah, been there, done that, at least have a hammy personality if your plans are as uninteresting as vanilla ice cream. If you love this movie, more power to you. I just cannot get into it.

5th place: Ant-Man (6/10)

I won't lie, I will fully understand if you don't like this movie. The rules behind how the shrinking works are inconsistent, the majority of the characters are flat, it's almost hilarious with how bad Corey Stoll's Yellowjacket is, and the racial and cultural stereotypes can come off as really annoying...and a tad bit offensive. Not to mention that it is downright CRIMINAL to not let Edgar Wright go all out with this movie! So I won't blame you if you hate Ant-Man...but I still kinda like it. Some jokes are funny, it's a spectacle to see the world when the characters shrink, and Paul Rudd's Ant-Man is a fun and heartwarming character who gets better with each movie he's in. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this movie for the first time and I still enjoy it every other time. So while I understand if Ant-Man isn't your cup of tea, I'll always get a kick out of it.

4th place: Iron Man 3 (8/10)

Yup, this is my favorite Iron Man movie. Mostly for the same reason why Captain America: The First Avenger is my favorite Captain America movie. Iron Man 3 has everything that I think of when I think of Iron Man: A character who is reckless, impulsive and is kind of an a**hole, but he's still charismatic and highly intelligent. Throughout the movie, Tony goes on an adventure without his suit, and while most people complain about that, I see it as the film's best feature. It forces him to use his brains to outthink his enemies while also charming the pants out of strangers to help him out on occasion, proving that it isn't the suit that makes Iron Man, but the man inside. Plus, it leads to some exciting action set pieces. Probably the best ones in the MCU. But I will admit that there are some issues that I kinda agree with. The big reveal of The Mandarin, while funny at points, is pretty disappointing. Plus, while Guy Pierce's character has formidable powers, he still lacks any motivation or charm that makes me enjoy that same character. Still, Iron Man 3 is easily my favorite. Because while it has issues, the cooler elements more than makeup for it.

3rd place: Avengers: Age of Ultron (8/10)

...Man...this was way uglier than I remember. Seriously, someone both needed to turn up the color gradient and polish out the CGI because this movie is hideous...still a ton of fun, though.

Don't get me wrong, there are some complaints that I sort of agree with. The majority of quips, while funny sometimes, feel out of place, and half the time, I'm thinking, "This character wouldn't say that." And while I enjoy James Spader's Ultron being written as an evil Tony Stark, charm and all, the character does pale in comparison to his comic book counterpart. With that said, everything this movie does wrong, it does the most important job right: Make likable characters. The Avengers are still a ton of fun, and it's always a blast seeing them work off of each other. Even trying to one-up one another at times. For example, that scene where everyone tries to lift Thor's hammer is the best because it shows how much these unstoppable heroes are still people. It may not be the best, but as long as people have fun in the end, what's the harm in that?

2nd place: Captian America: The Winter Soldier (9/10)

What? While I did say that Captain America: The First Avenger is my favorite, I also acknowledged that the other movies are better. Case in point, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is easily the best one. The action is stellar, the story is tighter, the characters are more dynamic, and some legit good political commentary got sprinkled in this movie. I could nitpick all the things that it does wrong, or I could be a logical person and say, "Screw it. It's good, so why should I bother." While I still consider The First Avenger my favorite, I can acknowledge that The Winter Soldier is objectively better.

1st place: Guardians of the Galaxy (9/10)

This movie has no right to be as good as it is. It really doesn't. Because if I were to tell you in 2014 that the best movie you were going to see was a movie with a dopey blue villain, a talking raccoon, with classic pop music as the soundtrack, you would most certainly laugh in my face. And yet, despite how ridiculous it sounds, Guardians of the Galaxy is easily a top tier movie in the MCU. Not only is it funny as hell, but unlike Avengers: Age of Ultron, it understands that comedy comes from character. Everyone in Guardians of the Galaxy has a unique way of being funny (Drax takings metaphors literally and Rocket's cynical one-liners, for example). It also helps that the main cast is all identifiable and memorable, too. Plus, as hilarious as this movie is, it can also have some compelling drama at times. This movie, with a talking raccoon, has compelling drama. Explain that to me!

Guardians of the Galaxy is a stupid movie, and that's why I love it so much. It leans into the nonsense of its concept and earning serious moments while also never taking itself too seriously. It's a ton of fun, and in my opinion, is the best movie in phase two.

And that’s it for now. I’ll see you next time for phase three, which will hopefully come sooner rather than later.

[queenlua]

radicarian said: how dumb are we talkin'

under a cut because the diehards can’t find me there

(note: um this got long, apparently i have a lot of art-criticism-y thoughts about this)

so there’s this subreddit that was created for “respectful” negative critiques of The Last Jedi, right?

and i find this amusing for a bunch of subtle inside-baseball reasons.

to dump my cards on the table:

* i keep Star Wars discourse at forty-foot-pole length, and

* while i really enjoyed The Last Jedi, and thought it did a lot of interesting things,

* it managed to attract a fanbase that seemed to love it for really dumb/cringe-y lefty/SJ reasons—if i see another “TLJ is about punching nazis” take i will scream, and yet

* of course the haters hated it for even dumber, bad-at-watching-movies reasons (“wah i don’t like that Luke was a depressed old dude wah” omfg y’all do you just want Ep4 re-released forever and ever��okay, yes, that’s what Ep7 was, you’ve made your point)

obviously this “respectful critique” subreddit is more palatable than like, idk, nerds screaming at Disney or whatever, but it embodies this fascinating faux-intellectual discourse that i see creep up time and time again on the internet.  i’m familiar with this subculture because these are totally the forums i would’ve hung out in when i was twelve, haha :P

scroll through the archives and you’ll find endless weird, obsessive, nitpicky critiques of the new movies.  people are salty because some obscure point of Force lore/mythos were rendered inconsistent by the new films, people are salty because Anakin’s sacrifice was “undermined” by the new baddies, and also Rey is a Mary Sue, blah blah...

and it feels like when you’re a kid, and you learn about the list of logical fallacies for the first time, and then spend the next several years pointing out the fallacies in every political debate, as if the problem with election cycles is the words ad hominem and non sequitur.  like, yeah, kinda?  but you are missing the forest for the trees, buddy.

similarly, so often what people assert is “bad writing” is this annoying memetic thing, where one dude launches their contrarian take on Why [X] Sucks, and maybe they’re even right that the piece feels unsatisfying, but often their critique amounts to a bunch of obnoxious nitpicks and checkboxes rather than a compelling narrative of what, on the whole, isn’t working.

but then a bunch of contrarian nerds latch onto that take, and parrot the same boring nitpicks back at each other forever, and because they’re being “contrarian”, they’re convinced that they’re Smarter Than Those Other People, and they end up forming a whole weird negging version of the fandom based around pseudo-intellectual gamesmanship.

and again: i get it.  i wrote my fuckin’ 80-page takedown of every single page of Eragon as a twelve-year-old, i get why people find it fun, i’ve engaged in my share of it over the years, but nowadays it just bores me.

in general, as i’ve gotten older, i increasingly cringe whenever someone describes something as “categorically bad game design” or “bad writing” or whatever—not because i think all writing is equally good; of course it isn’t.  but, (1) usually other adjectives are so much better for describing what exactly is happening—writing can be subdued, flat, frenetic, brash, stilted, hollow, uneven, etc, and these all tell you so much more than “dumb” or “stupid” or “illogical” or “bad”.  and (2) other descriptions often give a better sense of what was being attempted, so you can actually judge the piece by what it was aiming for—and sometimes, the answer is “this isn’t bad, it just wasn’t meant for you,” a thing that fans often find intolerable but i think is actually kind of neat.  (random example: ff13 was not flawed merely because it lacked open-world exploration.  it was trying to tell a different story and give a different experience, and you can have an interesting discussion about whether that experience works, but if you spent the whole time being pissed that it’s not ff7 then of course you’ll hate it.)  and finally (3) the rare stuff that i just find bad bad bad is usually not worth raging about at any particular length.   i don’t learn much or feel good about doing exhaustive takedowns of every Eragon-tier novel on the market; i haven’t even got enough time to read all the good stuff.

(as a sidebar, you’ll notice that very little of my engagement in fandom is via “meta” essays, and this is kind of why—while there’s lots of interesting and wonderful meta that i adore reading, i’m personally uncomfortable writing it, because so often it gets embroiled in these weird fanwarish arguments about “good writing” and i just disengage.

the nice thing about writing fanfic is that it often embeds my feelings about the piece i’m responding to—but in a way that isn’t an argument or a game, it’s a here’s how this worked for me & how it made me feel, and you can write both fanfic that’s furious at canon and fanfic that’s elated with canon while still having something compelling and interesting and new to say, i guess.)

for another perspective on it: one of my favorite takes on TLJ was from a friend of mine, who was pissed because to her, it felt half-assed.  it tried to do something bold, but flinched at the last moment: it didn’t go far enough to truly be a subversive weird arthouse film, nor did it nail any of the fun popcorn-cinema things you want from a blockbuster, and thus it failed at both.

that’s a fascinating perspective, one i don’t share but one i’m very glad to hear about.  but i assure you that that’s not a take you’ll ever see posted on that subreddit, because it’s just a totally different tenor than the obsessive, nitpicky arguments they’d rather have.

and i find the “forum debate” style of argument staggeringly emotionally tone-deaf at times—like, here’s someone pissed that Rey somehow didn’t try hard enough to redeem Kylo in TLJ and that’s what made it bad, and just, wow.  if you couldn’t hear—feel—the heartbreak in Rey’s voice when she says “please don’t go this way,” if it didn’t remind you of a time when someone let you down in the most brutal possible way, if you didn’t feel that moment of “oh, fuck, this isn’t what i thought it’d be”—then idk.  uncharitably, i’d say you’re just going out of your way to be annoyed over even the bits that really really worked—but at the very least we’re just not really relating to this piece in an emotionally compatible way at all and our conversation stops there.

anyway, yeah!!! tl;dr sometimes i pass the time by eating popcorn and watching nerds who assert they are Better Than Other Nerds doing “takedowns,” basically

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “What Ever Happened To Donald Duck?!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Colleen Evanson

Storyboarded by: Sam King, Tory Harris, Sebastien Duclos, Jason Reicher

Directed by: Jason Zurek, Jason Reicher

Mysteries will be solved...in more ways than one!

After a long hiatus, we're back to the moon plotline. I kind of left out a few things that would be very important to know before going into this episode, and I have promised that I would clear those up. Here's at least part of what I left out, starting with the end of "The Golden Spear!".

While Della successfully managed to get back to her family, something had to go terribly wrong, and that something happened to our bastion of bad luck, Donald Duck. While he was preparing for his much-needed vacation on a boat filled with hammocks, Donald noticed a ship in the sky making a landing. He knew it had to be Della. While going into the ship to find his long-lost sister, who already left the ship before he arrived, he accidentally pressed that same emergency launch button, which caused the rocket to launch right back into space, with Donald screaming for help.

Just after we got the answer to what ever happened to Della Duck, we were wondering what ever happened to Donald Duck. We did get an answer to that in the next episode, "Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!", where we see him flying into space, ending up on the very same place that Della landed on years ago. Coincidence? I have a theory on that.

He ends up meeting the Moonlanders, who are preparing to invade the Earth because they believe he's a spy from the Earth that will thwart the upcoming Moonvasion. To make a long story short, Lunaris shot himself in the arm, told the Moonlanders that Della intentionally left the moon to tell the Earth people how weak they are, and declared war on the Earth. There is a major implied reason for all of this, in the episodes before it and in this one, but everything all boils down to "Lunaris is a jerk." That's putting it pretty lightly, actually.

This episode begins with General Lunaris, who, in the opening of this episode, is showing his troops that he has captured the brother of the traitorous Della Duck. Lunaris is lucky enough to capture the one Duck with a speech impediment, so a "what's the big idea" from him can be interpreted as "death to the Moon." With his cries that the Moon is mighty, and that they are the Moon, the general of this "mighty planet" brings together his troops in a call to arms. He certainly does not believe he's just on a satellite of that horrible blue orb, and he will make anyone who claims otherwise know this.

He forces a beak guard on Donald, has him taken away to a jail cell that proudly shows a "There Is No Way Out" poster with his mug on it, and promotes the lieutenant that supposedly discovered Della's evil plan to Captain. The newly promoted captain is not glad about this.

In her first appearance, the then Lieutenant Penumbra was seemingly trying to kill Della moreso than help her. She hated Della, they had what could be described as a life-changing adventure, and then, boom, while Penumbra won't admit it, she became kind-of sort-of Della's friend. At the very least, she is against this invasion. The now Captain Penumbra whispers to Lunaris that he's lying, but Lunaris shoots her down saying that the people do not know that. Besides...

General Lunaris: You’re a hero again. Isn’t that what you wanted?

While Penumbra does nod slightly at this, it is clear from her facial expression that this manipulation based on the crowd chanting her name is not working.

Unlike "What Ever Happened To Della Duck?", they decided to do a B plot back on Earth with this one. If anything, this episode is more like "The Golden Spear!", but they could not avoid the obvious way to title this episode.

After solving the Della mystery, Dewey and Webby are on the hunt for another adventure, and come up to Scrooge with various mysteries, distracting him from making a Money Bin in a Bottle. Dewey tries to pass off a mustard stain as the long lost Phooey Duck, an obscure reference to the comics, while Webby wants to find the Silver Sporran of Clan McDuck, which Scrooge already found years ago. Scrooge tells the nephew and honorary niece that an adventure has to call to them.

As Scrooge tells them that, Huey walks by, saying that his letters to his Uncle Donald keep getting returned. They take this as their Uncle Donald being missing, and take this as Scrooge's fated call to adventure. Uncle Donald being missing is technically true, but there is no way they would know about their Uncle's adventure on the moon.

Speaking of Uncle Donald, he's busy trying to headbutt the walls of his prison to disprove that smug poster. Unfortunately for him, Lunaris and Penumbra come in to talk about their opinions on how prepared those originally peaceful Moonlanders could be. It's funny to see Donald's attempts to hide the crack in the wall he made while this scene is happening.

Lunaris was not entirely ignorant at this, but is also ignorant of Captain Penumbra's "not-his-side"-turn and orders his Captain to take that vile Earth creature to the gold mines.

She's not going to take him to those gold mines, but it's not like she's completely friendly now. Introducing herself as Della's "ugh, friend", she tells Donald that she's against the invasion and wants to help him out. In her own way, of course. She asks Donald if he can find a weakness to the Spear of Selene if she can find the stolen blueprints for it, since his "stupid family" built the rocket.

Donald Duck: (shakes head)

Penumbra: I'll take that neck spasm as an Earth "yes." Let's go! (grabs Donald by the beak)

Penumbra was just nodding a few scenes ago; it's not like shaking and nodding are Earth-specific. I get the joke, but that's a bit inconsistent. That's a nitpick; I had to find at least one minor problem here.

Back on that Earth where "neck-spasms" mean "no", the other sibling that’s allowed to exist in this episode is invited to be a guest on the new spinoff of Dewey Dew-Night, Dew-Dective Dewey Dew-Night, with both Dewey and Webby playing the role as the bad cop. I was a little worried this was going to turn into Dewey and Webby essentially being the same character for this episode, but they find different roles eventually.

Huey does have his own explanation of the returned mail: he's on a boat. It would be difficult to get mail to a boat. "Mystery solved.", he says right after in a "" way. It is logically sound for Huey to come to this conclusion; even if Donald really is missing, as said before, there is no way anyone would know about their Uncle's adventure on the moon.

Huey’s explanation didn’t stop Dewey and Webby’s investigation, so they try a plan: infiltrate the mail by hiding in a box. While this doesn’t work because Dewey forgot to tape the bottom of the box, the mail carrier does tell them that Donald Duck didn't tell them to send his mail to the McDuck Manor, and drops off all of his mail. Dewey picks up one of the envelopes, and, by sheer chance, finds a clue!

Dewey: "Your life is a nonstop deluge of pain. If you want it to stop, pay up. Dash, Jones."

Webby: Is your Uncle getting blackmailed?!

They come to the conclusion that Donald Duck isn't missing, he's on the run! Also technically true, but not in the way they are thinking. They got to save Donald from a tight spot he can't get out of!

Cut to a scene where Donald is getting himself out of a tight vent. This is the only time they do this with a line of dialogue, and this makes this joke stand out more. I approve. Suddenly, a glowing moon scorpion shows up, and Donald scurries away into another tight vent.

You can guess what happens next.

...the scorpion crawls up his shirt and makes him do a "get this scorpion off of me" dance. What did you think was going to happen? This is Disney.

Eventually, he falls into the Moonlander's sleeping quarters, and ends up in a few hijinks. A highlight is this scene where that glowing scorpion shows up, and Donald desperately tries to rock-a-bye all of the soldiers it wakes up. I can just imagine this being one of those flash games that Disney used to have. This shot makes me imagine the mouse cursor and a score on the top. Eventually, Donald gets attacked by the scorpion, causing him to make as much noise as that beak guard could allow, waking everyone up.

Donald Duck: (The most he can say it with a beak cover) Aw, phooey.

After so many months, he finally got to say his own catchphrase.

The scorpion helps him out of this situation indirectly, as it turns out that "get this scorpion off of me" dance from earlier turns out to be a great method for defeating these soldiers. Penumbra was right, these soldiers who used to be peaceful for most of their lives really weren't prepared for this.

Captain Penumbra shows up to see this carnage, and she pays it no mind. Maybe she does see this as proof that the Moonlanders really aren't that good at fighting, but she does praise Donald's fighting ability nonetheless. The scorpion just kind of disappears after this, but that will be a good thing considering it would be a distraction from what they're going to run into next.

We cut back and forth between the Moon adventures and the Dewey and Webby plot of them and their mystery on why Donald Duck's mail keeps getting returned. They end up at an unmarked building where this Jones character's address is, and, while sneaking around, Dewey manages to find a folder with every misfortune his uncle Donald has ever faced. Could it be that Donald's bad luck comes from more than just his misfortune this whole time?

There's a lot of jokes I'm leaving out here. One joke is that Webby is constantly saying that Jones must be an evil land developer that wants to shut down a summer camp, and even when Dewey gives her a simpler plan of just selling Junior Woodchuck cookies, she still manages to shove in her idea of asking that evil man if he has the missing half of a locket. Dewey just shrugs his head at this, but he also thinks he has the "spy skills", using the best of his abilities by not-singing his own name while sneaking around. Oh no, not "not singing", but singing "not dew-dew-dew-dewey!" It's all in good fun, and a good way to do breaks from the more serious plot with Donald.

Definitely not in good fun, for the characters, that is, is Penumbra, who is telling Donald not to mess around in an observatory-esque area. While she's searching for those blueprints, Donald, with his bad luck, leans against a wall and ends up accidentally revealing a secret war room. Penumbra yells at him for his, only to realize she didn't even know about this.

It's revealed that he's been spying on the Earth for quite some time, and he was really taking some notes on people who could stop his invasion. Namely, anyone who is remotely related to, or interacted with, Scrooge McDuck. Captain Penumbra also makes this quip about what she's seeing.

Captain Penumbra: He's been doing this before Della even got here!

She doesn't elaborate on this; does she mean before Della met Lunaris and Penumbra, or before Della even crash landed on the Moon? I am going to assume the former, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lunaris was waiting for the opportunity to invade the Earth for a long time. Maybe they'll elaborate on this when we get back to this arc.

We also learn that he's been making experimental rockets by himself with a series of videos showing himself testing them out. With each one, Lunaris gets more and more bandages on him, until he decides to use a test crash dummy. The current version of this rocket is right in the middle of what looked like an observatory, which looks more like a cannon that will just shoot a bullet-shaped rocket right into the Earth. "Nobody could survive that", Captain Penumbra admits.

She also finds out he's been getting transmissions from the Earth, and Donald finds something that looks like a walkie talkie. Penumbra gives him a plan: send a message to the Earth warning them about the invasion, and...

...she doesn't get to finish that plan, as Penumbra falls over, that badge Lunaris gave her turning out to be some sort of electrocution device. Lunaris ends up being right behind them, and he decides to fill in for Donald's speech, as that beak guard isn't helping his speech impediment:

General Lunaris: I believe the words you’re looking for are "aw, phooey".

He even knows his catchphrase; he really was planning this for a while. Because he's a villain, he decides to describe his plan in more detail. He knew that Scrooge would be a major threat to his invasion, and he says that most people would just target him directly. Instead, he's going to target his next of kin instead, including Hubert, Dewey, and Louie. He even shows, right to Donald's face, their faces covered with Xs, telling him to say goodbye to them. Donald is not too thrilled about this, needless to say.

Going back to one of those nephews, the B plot ends with a satisfying conclusion. Jones, this reboot's version of Neighbor Jones from the comics, ends up getting an entirely different role from the role he had in the comics or the role they had in either Dewey or Webby's noggins. I'm not going to spoil it here, but considering the clue of him having a folder of every bad thing that's happened to him, I can not say it came out of nowhere.

I will say the B plot's ending does do something that ties in perfectly with Lunaris's consequence of threatening Donald's nephews right to his face from the A plot, where Donald breaks open that beak guard with rage and goes into his classic fighting pose. Sadly, him curb stomping this guy was not an option. After all, we have a "Moonvasion!" to get to, and fisticuffs solving the problem without much in the way of wit would go against the spirit of the Disney Ducks anyway.

I will spoil that he does manage to get into that experimental rocket and hit the launch button. General Lunaris just jumps to the conclusion that he cannot survive that, echoing Penumbra's statement from earlier. As for the message, watch the episode to find out what happens with that. I will say at least this much: it's fitting for Donald.

How does it stack up?

This is mostly build up to the upcoming Moonvasion, but it's really exciting build up nonetheless. A funny B plot, and an A plot with some twists and turns. This was a great episode overall.

Next, we get to find out what Goldie and Louie are up to. Oh, and Doofus shows up. Oh, boy.

← The Duck Knight Rises! 🦆 Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake! →

[prosebushpatch]

Okay I have to talk about the latest miraculous episode because OH BOY that’s not how you maintain stakes in the plot.

What do I mean by stakes? Well, when a story has a FORBIDDEN thing that CAN NEVER HAPPEN or else extreme consequence will happen, that’s a stake. It can be an emotional stake, like the fact that Ladybug and Chat can’t know their identities even though that would solve the love square. An emotional stake where Mari and Adrien’s love lives would be easier but in exchange, something horrible will happen.

What horrible thing will happen?

Well, for the first season and half of season two, it was a typical, “oh we must protect our loved ones and so to reveal our identities would be to endanger those we love most.” This is used in superhero stories a lot and is used so much that it’s fair, but honestly it leaves a lot to be desired. It can work as a reason but now that we have so many superheroes without secret identities (Kim Possible for example) we need more to back up the fact that sharing identities would be catastrophic. And you know what? Miraculous did that at first! Hawkmoth can turn anyone’s emotions against them so if Ladybug gets akumatized and knows who Chat is, that would be bad! So it made sense for them to keep it secret.

But then the show started to introduce more heroes.

Marinette met Fu and he taught her all about the miraculous. Fair. Good. Mari will be the next chosen one. Plot build up. BUT then Mari goes to Fu for help because her lucky charm told her. He has her choose a new hero.

This is the moment that changes everything.

One could argue that Marinette knowing Fu’s identity messed up the reason for keeping identities because now that Marinette knows who and WHERE the guardian is, if she gets akumatized, Hawkmoth knows where all the miraculous and how to get them. The only safe miraculous is Chat’s but that won’t mean much if Hawkmoth gets to the guardian too and ends up getting Fu to confess who Chat is. BUT we can give this a pass because in theory, Fu is able to protect the miraculous box himself. (Though this is not the case, as seen by his inability to transform so far but hey we can stretch it more to Fu has centuries of wisdom to protect himself from akumatized ladybug/he can choose more chosens, ect.)

But then Mari chooses Alya to be a hero. The system makes sense. Ladybug chooses a hero and takes back the kwami. If Ladybug gets akumatized, she has no reason to go after Alya since Alya does not carry Trixx everywhere with her.

Okay. They maintain this for Carapace. No one can know each other. Only Ladybug knows and she delivers the miraculous back to Fu. We know why they have to do it like this and there’s a safety net in case one of them gets akumatized.

But then Chloe happens. Chloe reveals her identity to the whole of Paris in season two. Everyone knows who Queen Bee is. Queen Bee is able to use the miraculous still and is not told she has to give up her miraculous until LATE into season three. (Late because this is something Marinette should have dealt with ASAP as in the second that Chloe gives back the miraculous for the first time.) If Chloe endangered herself because Hawkmoth now knows her identity and where to find her, this should be addressed the MOMENT Ladybug gets the bee miraculous back. Marinette SHOULD NOT have given the bee miraculous back to Chloe to fight her akumatized dad because by the logic they use in season three, Hawkmoth could have easily set up a trap at Chloe’s home to steal the bee miraculous before Ladybug can even deliver it.

The problem isn’t that Chloe got the bee miraculous, the problem is that the story changed the rules to keep her from using the miraculous in future episodes (and spoilers for season three finale I guess but this leads up  to make her a villain again so whoops, there goes that character development out the window.)

Also we should mention the moment in the season two finale where Ladybug presents Alya and Nino the miraculouses at the same time and makes an off hand comment like “I should wait to do this separately but lol ain’t nobody got time.” Sure they made some emotional errors in the final battle but here’s the key take away. Alya and Nino get to know who they are and still get to be superheroes.

Now, let’s jump to season three. Kagami using the dragon miraculous is made known to Hawkmoth and Kagami is told she can never be the dragon miraculous holder again. Okay. Same as Chloe (though can we talk about how all of Mari’s love rivals are reduced to being unable to be a miraculous holder ever again?) but at least this is consistent. Hawkmoth knowing the holder’s identity is a HUGE problem. That is obvious.

There are more miraculous holders and while I don’t think Chat finds out the identity of anyone he does know that Ladybug takes the miraculous back (I think?) AND WAIT he does find out that Max is a miraculous holder for sure because of Startrain.

Okay so Chat knows Max’s identity. That’s not bad, of course, Chat is a member of the team, after all, and he knows Max doesn’t always have the miraculous. Chat knows to keep it secret. This falls under the same thing as Alya and Nino. Maybe not the best situation, but ultimately not dangerous.

And I want to bring up when Ladybug wants to give Adrien the snake miraculous. Note; she reveals this to Chat Noir BEFORE she gives Adrien the miraculous (for story plot, of course because how else would Chat know to detransform) BUT hold onto this. Ladybug mentions Chat shouldn’t know but Chat knows Adrien’s identity as the snake now. (From Ladybug’s perspective, of course.)

Okay so now jump to this mess of an episode, Kwami Buster.

We are introduced to a new stake; If Ladybug or Chat Noir learns of the other’s identity, they have to give up their miraculous.

What? Why? Let’s break it down. Ladybug and Chat Noir have their miraculous all the time. If Chat gets akumatized, Hawkmoth basically gets the cat miraculous at least until Ladybug saves the day. If Chat knows Ladybug is Mari and gets akumatized then this could cause problems! Clearly! But actually not really.

Here’s where other stakes come in. Ladybug is never going to fail. The most Chat could do is hurt Mari’s loved ones but because of the magic butterflies, Marinette can heal everyone. Marinette is also incredibly smart. She can casually wear, what? SIXTEEN MIRACULOUS AT ONCE?????? Something that Fu is like “oh no, you mustn’t, too many miraculous can destroy presumably the most practiced miraculous holder mentally and physically and you’re what 12? this can’t be good” AND LETS NOT FORGET if Mari fails WHICH WE ARE TOLD IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THIS SHOULD DESTROY HER then Hawkmoth got it all. Wow. He would get every single miraculous because Marinette IS WEARING ALL OF THEM. This is an extreme situation where one misstep leads to the end of the show. Period.

So wait, if Chat Noir gets akumatized and knows that Mari is Ladybug he can do what exactly? Nothing. Literally nothing. The most he can hope for is a surprise attack if he knows her identity and she doesn’t know he knows but even then this fourteen year old girl is smart enough and capable enough to wield 16 miraculous at once so like? Chat Noir can’t touch her. No one can.

So why would she have to give up her miraculous if he found out?

Especially since if MARINETTE GETS AKUMATIZED everyone’s done for. I can understand not wanting to share Chat’s identity with her because Chat’s is the only miraculous she doesn’t know the location of. So her being akumatized would have to have Chat somehow cataclysming her object and getting her back to being ladybug to purify the akuma otherwise Paris is SOL.

But we’ve seen Mari get akumatized and she immediately goes to remove her earrings. So whenever Hawkmoth gets Mari akumatized long enough to have Mari spill the beans, so like more than one second, the show is over. If Chat noir can’t know Mari’s identity, what happens when Hawkmoth finds her out?

(Oh gosh, I’m picturing Fu going, “Oh now that Hawkmoth knows, the safest thing is for you to KEEP the miraculous to protect yourself since he’ll keep coming after you anyway to find out about me!” and if that happens I will scream)

Anyway, to make things worse, Mari tricks Chat into thinking Marinette cannot possibly be Ladybug which is clever but then she adds “Oh no, since Chat knows Marinette’s identity, she can never be Multimouse again. Oh nooooo” BUT THERE’S NO REASON FOR THAT. If Chat knowing any other miraculous holder is enough for Ladybug to never give them the miraculous holder again, then Max and Adrien should be SOL. Ladybug should have NEVER given Adrien the snake miraculous in the first place since she blew the secret to Chat immediately and then in Startrain Ladybug should have been like “Max you were awesome but also you can’t do this ever again since Chat knows you sorry”

The only reason that Mari wouldn’t want Chat to think she could be Multimouse again is because she doesn’t want to have to have multimouse be a thing again but the solution is simple, “Oh Mari wasn’t available so I got someone new woo” and he has to accept it. Or “oh the mouse miraculous wouldn’t help here, oh nooo.”

And this seems like a weird thing to nitpick but this episode was a clear example of how often this show tries to throw in high stakes but constantly undermines them to make a single episode work or to do something that looks cool.

tl;dr: This show changes the rules as it goes. This is not good for stakes because by having Mari know everything and be able to wield so many miraculous at once, it takes away any excuse that Chat Noir can’t know her identity to the extreme that they changed the rules to keep Marinette from ever getting a miraculous again.

And, ultimately, the more this show changes the rules, the less impactful any huge reveal will be. This is a disservice to every one of the characters and the reason for most of the inconsistent writing.

[themattress]

“You don't have to kill anyone. You don’t go around killing people. It's not nice.”

This was said by George Lucas when developing Return of the Jedi, as justification as to why he axed Han Solo’s death even though Harrison Ford desperately wanted in (and as a result phoned in his performance throughout the movie), and why he didn’t even want to kill Yoda. 

What’s disheartening for me is that too many fans these days agree with him.

I am not arguing that all character deaths are good, because that is far from the truth. Character deaths that are done for shock value, for misogynistic reasons, for not being able to think of anything else to do with the character even when there are obvious creative paths available....those are all terrible and should be condemned.  But so many people these days just condemn any character death (or imperilment, troubles, or any kind of high-stakes conflict, really) as “BAD WRITING!” It’s a knee-jerk reaction just because they’re upset about the death or whatever, without actually taking time to think and analyze if it was earned or not, if it’s truly objectively bad writing or if it’s just writing that they personally don’t care for.

Which brings me to my main subject here: Anthony and Joe Russo.

The Russo Brothers have directed four hit Marvel movies: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Despite all of these movies being critical and financial successes, there remains a sizable constituent on the internet who hates these movies and the Russo Brothers because they dare to kill off characters, create difficult and challenging conflicts between characters, and raise the stakes to the highest personal extent possible, with a happy ending not always guaranteed for all.

Yet despite these fans’ constant accusations of the Russos being the definitive bad MCU directors and for their movies to be full of bad writing, when looked at objectively these just don’t hold any water. The S.H.I.E.L.D - HYDRA connection? That was set up in the previous Capain America movie and in The Avengers. The titular Civil War between the Avengers? Makes absolutely perfect sense not just when considering the Sokovian Accords and Bucky being framed but also when considering the pasts, characters and motivations of each individual Avenger, especially Cap and Iron Man. And then of course we have Infinity War and Endgame, which have gotten the majority of fan outrage. And why is that, exactly?

Well, mostly because characters died. Some temporarily, some permanently, some horribly, some peacefully, but there was a lot of death. And naturally the fans of those characters are angry about that. But is it bad writing? Were those deaths unearned and hold no deeper significance? No. All the temporary deaths had to happen because that’s literally how the story goes - this is a loose adaptation of The Infinity Gauntlet, where half of all life in the universe is wiped out and then later restored, so of course that was going to happen here. 

Heimdall had to die in-universe as a sacrifice to get Bruce back to Earth and out of universe because Idris Elba didn’t want to play the role anymore. Loki had to die because a noble death for the sake of his family was always the trajectory of his arc in the whole MCU and it had to be done here after the original plan to do it in Thor: The Dark World fell through, plus it effectively establishes Thanos’ ruthlessness and kick-starts Thor’s arc in these two films. There are a lot of reasons for the death of the prime timeline’s Gamora and of alt!timeline’s Nebula later on which could fill a post of its own, but the bottom line is that they were narratively justified and well built up to. Vision had to die for obvious reasons and it’s nebulous at this point if it’s a permanent death anyway. And Tony Stark’s death was essential to closing out his overall character arc - I know that fans would love to see him live happily ever after with his wife and daughter, but when you put your feelings aside and look at him objectively you realize that this would be a betrayal of everything that had been established and developed about the character. As Doctor Strange put it, this was the only way.

The one death that I think is actually debatable is Natasha’s, and even then I feel that this is mitigated by the fact that they were also considering killing Clint instead: one of them had to die for the Soul Stone to be obtained and it was just a matter of which one would make the sacrifice play, which offers a brilliant thematic contrast between how Thanos obtained the Stone. While I’m sad it was Natasha, I admit that I do think it’s better off being her than Clint.

Some also take issue with how some characters got portrayed, chiefly Thor Odinson, Bruce Banner, and Steve Rogers. With Thor, it’s a complicated issue involving either fans loving what was done with him in Ragnarok and upset that so much of that was reversed (although I find that the most essential things from that film were followed up on), or taking offense to his fat, drunken portrayal in Endgame (something I think is more a matter of bad acting than bad writing). With Bruce, they don’t like the Professor Hulk angle they went with, even though by all means it’s the logical conclusion to the character’s struggle with his dual nature and pays off brilliantly when all the Infinity Stones are collected. And I don’t think the ending for Steve himself is bad per se, but I will admit that if anything in these films absolutely deserves to be called bad writing, it’s his ending due to the implications it has for both of the Carter women. But since it only comes at the end and only affects a few characters, it’s not too bad, IMO.

An Infinity War-specific complaint is Thanos, whom people say is either made too sympathetic or even heroic and not villainous enough (which is a damn lie: Thanos as a three-dimensional being who is framed as the hero in his own mind and as the “hero” of the movie in order to serve its gut-punch of an ending does not make him any less of a repulsively evil monster), is adequately villainous but the narrative takes his side or acts like he has a point (again, confusing the deliberately twisted framework of the movie’s story for authorial intent, when in reality the Russos expect their audience to be intelligent enough to know that Thanos is hopelessly deluded in his messiah complex, which is made much clearer in Endgame), or is a bad villain because his plan makes no logical sense (if his plan made logical sense, he wouldn’t be the MAD Titan or even the villain, his plan is meant to be insane because he’s insane, it’s supposed to be illogical because Thanos isn’t adhering to real logic but to his twisted view of what should have been done on his homeworld that he is applying to the rest of the universe as part of a narcissistic desire to validate himself to everyone.)

An Endgame-specific complaint is time travel, which is messy in any story and thus always has people confused about its shaky and often inconsistent rules. Complaining about that misses the point that this is both a character drama so that’s where the focus should be - on how the time travel shenanigans affect them and not on the shenanigans themselves - and a freaking comic book movie, and comic books are full of these nonsensical elements. They always have been and they always will be. If you’re going in expecting every fantastical element to always make sense or always be consistent, then you’re watching the wrong film.

And of course there are nitpicks everyone likes to make. And that is the death of cinema.

If you don’t like the Russos’ movies for any personal reason, then you’re free to do so and to admit that. But going on that they’re “badly written”, or that they somehow trashed the MCU’s story and characters, or whatever hyperbole you come off with based on your emotions rather than looking at things objectively is wrong. It’s not your cup of tea, and that’s OK. But the fact still stands that these movies are objectively well-written and well-directed movies, and that characters dying and high-stakes conflicts transpiring are sometimes necessary. 

[azuresquirrel]

I know “Miles Edgeworth takes fiction too seriously keeps approaching it with LOGIC to find the CONTRADICTIONS, while Nick rolls his eyes” is a very popular take in the fandom, but consider:

1. I doubt the Steel Samurai actually has a perfect story with zero plot holes.

2. Phoenix is the one who stopped a story about the origin of the chinese word for contradiction to shout OBJECTION at the obvious contradiction the story revolves around. In the same case he also kept pointing contradictions even when they literally hurt his defendent’s case without even THINKING about that. 

Phoenix Wright would obviously be the worst, most obnoxious nitpicker in the world and every nerdy person in the AA universe should be greatful fandoms just confuse and bewilder him. One time Maya tricked him to a Steel Samurai marathon with Edgeworth and he decided to get back at them by just pointing out every. single. tiny. inconsistency and plot hole he noticed.

Maya just tried to ignore him, and at first Edgeworth was all “Hmph. Wright, what’s important is not how the Steel Samurai knew about the magical fan of undead, it’s how it impacts his emotinal arc. Wright, you obviously know nothing about artistic expression” (let’s be honest, his stupid kid’s show was probably the only outlet Edgeworth had for his emotions for a long long time). But then Nick says something about a spesific plot hole Edgeworth actually thought about a lot and has constracted a very elaborate headcanon all around fixing it and it IS ON. Wright is NOT gonna act like he has the superior Steel Samurai knowledge when it’s his first watch of these episodes and he never read the offical interviews OR the manga.

And so the entire evening just becomes a Court Day but about the Steel Samurai instead of murder. Maya was bummed at first because they were just about to start her fav episode, but this is pretty good entertainment too and also she got to eat all of their popcorn (and whatever sort of fancy-ass cookies Edgeworth brought with him)

And in the end, Nick’s plan of “getting back at Maya” ended up with spending like two hours thinking and talking about the Steel Samurai, so even if he won the argument he’s the real loser here.

@inbarfink

[dreamytfw]

Let’s Review: 14x02

This felt more like a season opener than the season opener did. Much to my surprise, I didn’t hate it. Kind of hated the ending, but that’s about it. This was a good middle of the line, turn your brain off and enjoy episode.

I’m going with directing and acting saved this episode since the writing was okay at best. Bucklemming still doesn’t know how to show an audience something instead of telling us about it. The opening Bunker scene was a good example of this. We don’t need you to tell us that Cas’s angelic presence would alert Michael. We can infer it because we’ve been watching this show for 14 years now. Even when Bucklemming does show us something, they still have to tell us about it for some strange reason. The opening scene where Michael was experimenting with vampires was a really good way of showing the audience what Michael was doing. But then the vampire (Lydia, I think?) went and exposited everything we already saw. I understand that Sam, Mary, and Bobby have to learn the information somehow, but we as the audience don’t need to hear it again. Same thing goes with Nick’s backstory. I understand refreshing the audience’s memories since this is season 14 and the last time we saw Nick was season 5, but you can show us Nick’s flashbacks without having Castiel turning into an exposition machine. Speaking of which, how does Cas know Nick’s backstory??

Speaking of Nick, it looks like they’re trying to set up some sort of “archangels leave imprints of themselves on their vessels’ psyches” type deal and I don’t know how I feel about that. Maybe it could work, but you’d think we would have seen something with either Sam or Cas after their respective Lucifer possessions. Fortunately, the psyche imprint thing means no Nick redemption arc, so thank god for that. Well, that and the whole murder thing. And this is just a nitpick, but it’s a major pet peeve of mine with all media regardless of how well it’s written. They used to do this ALL THE TIME on Hannibal and it drove me nuts. How did Nick get to Delaware so fast?? Delaware is my state. I live maybe 10 minutes from Pike Creek (btw the houses aren’t as nice as the show implies I’m just saying). It’s a 20 hour drive from The Bunker to here. What the hell?

As much as I don’t like Mark Pellegrino as a person, he’s a damn good actor. Lucifer was written so badly these past few seasons that I honestly forgot how good MP is as an actor.

I thought Jack was really well written in this episode as I was watching it. The scene with his grandparents was touching and emotional and it was written like how humans would actually interact with one another instead of just dumping exposition all over the place. Although I do wonder how he got there since he supposedly doesn’t have his powers and I’m pretty sure he can’t drive. His scenes with Cas were so good. I love how father-son Alex and Misha’s chemistry is even though they haven’t spent a ton of time on screen together. Part of me kind of wishes we had a scene between Jack and Nick just to see how they react to one another, but I’m okay with leaving that to more competent writers. And then he said the thing. “Dean doesn’t matter.” Logically, he’s right. If it comes down to Dean or the entire planet, Dean would need to be sacrificed (can’t wait to see the anon hate I get for that). HOWEVER, it feels very inconsistent with his character and upbringing up until this point. To the point where I briefly wondered if I had missed an episode that was crucial to this development. Last season, he was willing to do anything to save Mary and get back home. That grew to saving the other people he was camped with from the apocalypse world. But we never saw him have to suss out, essentially, a trolley problem. We never saw him have to deal with a “one versus the many” situation, and since Team Free Will were the ones who raised him and instilled certain values in him, I think it’s safe to assume as an audience member that Jack would share those values. What I’m getting at is Jack willing to sacrifice Dean to save the world is coming out of left field for me.

I’m surprised Bucklemming only broke one hard and fast lore rule this episode. Dean telling Michael to gtfo really should have expelled him then and there and it bothers me so much that they didn’t following that hard and fast rule.

I did like Michael much better in this episode, though. He was charismatic, he knew what he wanted, and he was going after it with both hands. So much better than last episode where asking other people what they wanted made him seem like he didn’t know what he wanted. I liked having him around, and then poof! Gone! I’ve seen people speculate that Michael isn’t really gone and he’s somehow going to be able to hide himself from Cas, but I think that might be a bit of a stretch tbh. Just based off of how long the writers tend to keep the boys not themselves.

I’m really disappointed with how Michael’s arc ended. Anticlimactic doesn’t even begin to describe it. It feels like the writers knew we were expecting one thing and they went out of their way to avoid writing it just for the sake of avoiding it. To me, it feels like how Star Wars: The Last Jedi went out of its way to subvert expectations just for the sake of subverting expectations. That can work with certain things, but when you spend all summer hyping up a certain character, you need to deliver on that hype. Otherwise it’s just sloppy and disappointing. If anyone is looking for a better, more well-flushed out Michael!Dean arc, I highly recommend checking out bisexualmichaeldean.

The highlight of this episode was definitely Misha’s acting. This is where my brain devolves into fan girl babbling, so I’m just gonna go ahead and… CAS HEART TO HEARTING WITH JACK!! CAS HAVING SO MUCH REGRET OVER WHAT HAPPENED TO JIMMY AND CLAIRE AND AMELIA!! CAS TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE AND BEING NURTURING!! CAS SCOLDING JACK FOR SNEAKING OUT OF THE HOUSE LIKE A FATHER DOES TO THEIR CHILD!! CAS WORRYING ABOUT DEAN AND WILLING TO SACRIFICE THE FATE OF THE WORLD FOR HIM!! I HAVE ALL THESE CASTIEL FEELS HELP!! Also, high-key, that angry snarl that slipped out when he was scolding Jack was massively sexy and I need a new pair of panties now.

So yeah. Disappointing ending, clunky beginning, but not a bad episode. Good directing (Rich Speight always delivers and I love him so much for it), good acting (as per usual), and average writing (better than expected tbh). The best way to enjoy this episode is to turn your brain off and not think too hard about the established canon or what’s to come. I just hope what’s to come is much more satisfying than that disappointing ending.

[argentdandelion]

Review of "Judgement" | Minecraft Undertale Music Video [GENOCIDE] (Song by TryHardNinja)

(To read about the video's good parts, see "Scene Composition, Shots, and Artistic Choices")

Introduction 1. Bad Expressions 2. Death Animation 3. Route Inconsistency 4. "So I've Got a Question For You." 5. Scene Composition, Shots, and Artistic Choices

Introduction

EnchantedMob(TM) are skilled at animation, as their previous Undertale video, "Hard Drive" illustrates. I was expecting "Judgement" to be of similar quality...and it was not.

While "Hard Drive" wasn't absolutely perfect (I have a few nitpicks about seemingly easy-to-fix parts of Mettaton's face) "Judgement" had a lot more flaws. Or, more precisely, it had only a few flaws, but two of those were so severe it severely affected the quality of the video.

Bad Expressions

The greatest flaw in the video is how badly Sans’ mouth was handled. Rather than having a Glalie-like perma-grin, his mouth is structured and operates like the genocidal human’s. As he is apparently singing the song in-universe, his mouth opens and closes almost constantly, covering his two rows of small, inconspicuous teeth as if he had lips. In fact, at several points in the video his teeth aren’t visible at all with an open mouth, making him look toothless.

The second-biggest flaw is Sans's massive and very unfitting eyebrows. If one looks closely at his sprites, not once is Sans shown with eyebrows, not even minimal eyebrows that show up only for specific expressions.

Between the mouth and eyebrows, Sans is too expressive, and in the wrong ways: his mouth and eyebrows seem to “bounce” everywhere. It is clear from the game’s sprites that Sans emotes primarily through his big eyes, with his mouth largely frozen in place. Here, Sans is excessively expressive, at times looking overly friendly. His out-of-character expressiveness also alters the overall feel of the moment he dies. Rather than giving a brief grimace with a shocked/startled look when the fatal blow is dealt, he looks sad/betrayed/panicked.

Between the behavior of the eyebrows and mouth, he’s so “off-model” (even by the standards of Minecraft’s limitations) and out-of-character that he doesn’t look like Sans at all, but someone poorly cosplaying him. Apparently, though EnchantedMob (TM) does very well with highly expressive characters (e.g., Mettaton from “Hard Drive”) they have yet to learn how to handle inexpressive ones. (Sans here, and Five Nights at Freddy’s robots)

I could go on and on about this (previously this section was 622 words) but, in short, it wasn’t actually necessary to give Sans eyebrows and a humanlike mouth if EnchantedMob(TM) wanted him to convey a variety of emotions. There are other methods---methods EnchantedMob(TM) knows---that could have been used by themselves, such as eyelid-based expressions and shrinking Sans’ pupils in shock.1

Death Animation

How EnchantedMob(TM) handles monsters dying in a serious flaw. Lesser Dog, Undyne, and Toriel are shown collapsing to the ground, but not turning to dust. As some monsters (Toriel, Papyrus) speak a few sentences before dying, one could argue monsters don’t have to turn to dust immediately upon the final blow being dealt. Yet the way their bodies linger on screen, with the screen’s shaking drawing attention to it, just emphasizes how they aren’t turning to dust like they should.

It’s not that EnchantedMob(TM) has to show an impressive turning-to-dust animation: TechnicalAntonym depicted monster death correctly by showing it indirectly: for example, Frisk travels through the Ruins with a pile of dust (probably Toriel’s) in the foreground. Context (an Undertale fan’s familiarity, the lyrics, and characters’ facial expressions) convey how bad dust and being covered in dust is.

At one point, the human fatally slashes Sans, and dusty-looking light pours out from him. When first watching it, I had the feeling they were going to use dusty-looking light beams as an easier-to-animate, aesthetically-pleasing workaround to a turning-to-dust animation. Yet, soon after, Sans’ body breaks apart into some kind of explosion of block-atoms, which is a closer approximation of turning to dust. (I didn’t even think they could do something that complex) The explosion of block-atoms could have worked, and would have been a creative and logical way to depict turning to dust. Yet, the block-atoms don’t turn grey/white, on- or off-screen, as expected2 during the extended death sequence.

Though technically impressive, the way the death sequence was handled made it look more like a nuclear cloud or an “exploded” skull than turning to dust. It has the inexplicable details of Sans’ face being perfectly intact, him having a red human SOUL, and some kind of purple energy circling in his disassembling body.

Now, I have heard of speculation (and read fanfics/fan comics) in which Sans and Papyrus are the reanimated skeletons of dead humans, and I have heard of the idea Sans (somehow) has Determination, but outright showing him with a human SOUL here makes no sense to me. A better choice would be to show a white, upside-down monster SOUL. (While only Boss Monster SOULs persist after death, Sans is not technically dead: the sequence is just an expanded-upon “dying” sequence)

Frisk also tries to covers their eyes at 3:32, suggesting Sans is emitting a strong light as he dies, like a bomb. This behavior might have made sense for Mettaton's death (as he is a magic robot), but with Sans, him emitting a strong, explosion-light light as he dies does not make sense.

Route Inconsistency

I'm not against Neutral routes being referenced in a Genocide Route-based video; TechnicalAntonym's video does so, after all. The trouble here is that there are no cues for which timeline is happening on-screen. (TechnicalAntonym's video, in contrast, has cues, most obviously showing Frisk's LV) Featuring Neutral/Pacifist moments and versions of characters in what seems to be a Genocide timeline makes it seem more like the Leaderless/Queen Alphys Neutral path, or a Genocide Route with Neutral route moments patched on. Route inconsistencies include the fact Undyne is apparently dealt a fatal blow with the first hit, but neither melts (Neutral Route) nor reforms into Undyne the Undying (Genocide Route).

"So I've Got A Question For You"

The video takes an interesting direction with the “so I have a question for you”3 part of the song. In TechnicalAntonym's video, Sans asks this as he sneaks up on Frisk in Snowdin Forest. Frisk, who has gone through the Neutral, Pacifist, and Genocide Routes in that order, turns around with tears in their eyes and hugs Sans in response. In that video, it seems Frisk's answer was “yes”, and Frisk has gone Pacifist because of Sans. (either because Frisk realized the error of their ways or just believed Sans was unbeatable)

In EnchantedMob(TM)'s video, Sans asks the question in a really (i.e., excessively) friendly way in the Judgment Hall while walking up to Frisk. His “so I have a question for you” dialogue seems to be replacing his “there's a glimmer of a good person inside you” dialogue as a friendly ploy to make Frisk stop fighting and make "his job a lot easier". (Who knows, Sans might have been genuinely offering to forgive Frisk...port-mortem) While the dialogue switch isn't perfectly accurate to the game, it counts as a Adaptation Distillation matched to the lyrics.

Frisk's response to Sans' question is to slash Sans, and as he dies, seemingly happy music plays. In this take, Frisk's answer to Sans' question seems to be “no”, or at least “I'm not willing to listen”. Frisk then proceeds to the throne room, and as any Undertale fan well-versed in the Genocide Route would know, from that point mercy is (literally) no longer an option and the world will be destroyed.

Frisk's different answer here re-contextualizes the seemingly happy background music at this point, emphasizing the hints of despair or desperation that chiptune conveys so well.

Scene Composition/Shots/Misc. Artistic Choices

The video’s flaws are so severe, it compares poorly to both EnchantedMob(TM)’s “Hard Drive” and TechnicalAntonym’s version of the song. (Which EnchantedMob(TM) hadn’t seen while making the video) Though predominantly bad, like a curate’s egg parts of it are excellent.

While EnchantedMob(TM) poorly depicted Sans' skeleton-ness in his eyebrows and mouth, there are some aspects they pulled off well. The way they designed Sans' hand (seen most obviously at 0:18) looks good, and could very well be the best way to depict a skeletal hand in this style. At 0:39-0:40, Sans' head swings a little faster than his body, but of course a cartoony skeleton could spin his skull around. It's such a minor detail I think most people wouldn't notice it, and it might even be a tiny animators' gaffe with a handy in-universe explanation.

The “fighting Lesser Dog” sequence (1:03 to 1:08) was animated well. It was an unexpected (but fitting) take to make it from the first-person perspective. 1:57-2:10 was also particularly well-animated and shot sequence.

The sequence where the screen is filled with 9999s and slashing curves is a good, abstract way to indicate the human’s rampage, though toothless-Sans bobbing about and over-expressing himself on the right is a big distraction.

The Judgment Hall is literally pixel-perfect: it looks great in CGI like this, and the zoom through the area at 1:55-1:57 was a tiny moment of perfection.

The left-to-right panning at 2:08 where Sans suddenly appears as the camera moves was an excellent portrayal of Sans' off-screen teleportation, though it is ruined by Sans' bad model and gorilla-like hunching.

The animation of Sans' bone bullets (2:26-2:36) looks a little off. I think it's the way they seem to "wiggle" midair; bones don't wiggle. They may have looked better if they manifested in the air, by Sans' shoulders, and then immediately shot after Frisk.

Sans spreading his arms out as he brings up some Gaster Blasters (2:38-2:40) was a bad choice. Sans never raises both hands while expressing magic; he's not a Mewtwo-like (Super Smash Bros depiction) Full Contact Magic user. If Sans' hands were in his pockets as the Gaster Blasters rose up, it would have looked both more menacing and more in-character.

As impressive as the Sans battle sequence is (though the Sans model and its expressions are a massive flaw) I do have a nitpick: Sans’ eye only flashes blue (and yellow; people often forget that) during his “strongest attack” (the first of his attacks) and his second-to-last attack. It's common for people to show Sans' eye as glowing all the time in the Genocide battle, or even just when angry or vengeful. I understand why it's overused: it's cool, and people might be too busy trying to survive his volley of attacks to pay attention to his expressions while he's attacking.

The technical aspects (animation, cinematography, color composition) of the ending shot from 3:43-3:52 was very good, even if Frisk's sashay-like walk was a little silly and more feminine than I'd like. (Though, who knows, perhaps all attempts to animate humans’ walk as realistically as possible in Minecraft style end up looking like a sashay)

Sans never manifests eyebrows, and his pupils do shrink in shock when finally hit in the Genocide Route battle. [Source] ↩︎

Battle scenes are always in black-and-white, except for rare color accents. Thus, monster dust seemingly being white may just be a product of the black-and-white style. No piles of monster dust are shown in the overworld, and its color isn’t mentioned. It’s just fan convention to depict it as grey/white, and it could easily be the same color as the monster it came from. That being said, I’d prefer depictions of grey/white monster dust to colorful monster dust. ↩︎

The in-game dialogue is actually "so, i've got a question for ya." Most of the time Sans uses "you", not "ya", so it's possible the songwriter mis-remembered it based on Sans' typical word choice. This is not a flaw: I just wanted to point it out for thoroughness's sake.  ↩︎

[the-desolated-quill]

Heaven Sent - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I’m being too cynical at times.

Sigh. Look, it’s not that I don’t like Heaven Sent. It’s okay. It’s a competently made episode that has its moments, and I’m certain that if this came out before 2010, I probably would have loved it. But as I’ve said in the past, once you notice the tricks, gimmicks and general bullshit of Moffat stories, that’s all you notice. The fact of the matter is, while I didn’t hate Heaven Sent, it’s hard for me to truly enjoy this because of just how sick to death I’ve gotten with Moffat’s MO.

I suppose I did like how small scale it all was. No alien invasions or anything like that. Just the Doctor trapped in a prison and having to figure out how to escape. Moffat is clearly taking inspiration from Classic Who stories like The Deadly Assassin and Castrovalva, and it’s certainly the most unique and interesting setting to have cropped up this series. I also quite like the Veil. A Grim Reaper-esque figure that will always slowly follow you everywhere you go no matter how hard you try to outrun it. This combined with the claustrophobic prison helps create a sense of impending dread. And of course Peter Capaldi deserves a huge amount of praise for his amazing performance, giving it everything he’s got and selling the Doctor’s grief, pain and anger like its going out of season.

The problem is... well... Moffat.

As much as I love Capaldi in this, it’s the characterisation I really can’t stand. One of the things I find most annoying about Twelve (apart from the inconsistent writing) is his constant need for reassurance. He’s become so dependant on Clara to the point where even now he’s having imaginary conversations with her, seeking her validation on just about everything. I could just about be able to stomach this if it was about the Doctor learning to let Clara’s memory go and move on, but that’s clearly not what this is about at all. Moffat is trying to imply that the Doctor and Clara are completely inseparable at this point, and that the Doctor is completely lost without her... which simply doesn’t sound like the Doctor at all. I refuse to believe he’s that ineffectual without a companion (it also further confirms my theory that Clara isn’t really dead. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. If she stays dead by the end of the next episode, I’ll be genuinely surprised).

Heaven Sent also exposes a weakness in Moffat’s writing. Namely his interchangeable characters. Oh we’ve all known his female characters have been shit for a while now. That’s not in dispute. I’m talking about his male protagonists. These eccentric mega-geniuses who seem to be able to solve everything with magic. Here we see the Doctor slipping into Sherlock territory at points, most notably with the mind palace stuff. I cannot stress enough how much I hate this. The Doctor and Sherlock Holmes shouldn’t get within a parsec of each other and it just goes to show how unimaginative Moffat is as a writer. Rather than have the Doctor think on his feet and escape the Veil using his wit and ingenuity, Moffat instead freezes the action so that the Doctor can monologue to himself in his imaginary TARDIS and thus destroys all the tension. While thankfully it never quite goes to the same insulting extremes that Sherlock took it (His Last Vow anyone?), it’s still a massive problem and it just feels like Moffat showing off rather than him telling a compelling story.

Then there’s just the crushing sense of predictability to all of this. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the setting, but I wouldn’t say I was intrigued by it and that’s because of how depressingly familiar I’ve become with Moffat’s schtick. The moment I saw the very old painting of Clara, I knew that this was a prison of the Doctor’s own making and that he’d been there for a long time. Then when I saw all the skulls, I just nodded and thought ‘yeah. he cloned himself each time the Veil killed him. Okay.’ It’s neither satisfying nor surprising because it’s all telegraphed so heavily and yet Moffat still expects us to give him a pat on the back. He honestly thought the final twist was going to be a big shock, but really, did anyone think it wasn’t Time Lord related? Who else could it have been? Like with the mystery of River Song, it’s hard to be surprised by a reveal when the list of suspects is so pathetically small.

And then there’s all the logic holes and inconsistencies. So the Time Lords want the Doctor to confess what the Hybrid is. First of all Moffat is changing the rules again for the purposes of plot convenience. Before the confession dial was a Time Lord’s last will and testament. Now it’s a personal torture chamber. Why would anyone carry something like that around with them, let alone the Doctor? Also if the Time Lords are using the confession dial to get info on the Hybrid from the Doctor, why add in an element that could kill him? What if the Doctor never made it back to the cloning/teleport thingy in time before he kicked the bucket? That would have been a bit awkward, wouldn’t it? If the Veil is just to punish him on the other hand, then why does the Doctor get rewarded for confessing random things? (we’ll get to the confessions in a bit). The Doctor says he’s being interrogated and he’s therefore irreplaceable due to the information he possesses, and yet he’s still afraid to die because the Veil can literally kill him with a touch. Which brings me back to my first point. Why are the Time Lords trying to kill the Doctor if they need information from him? It just doesn’t make sense.

And what about the prison itself? The rooms reset after a while to hide the things the Doctor has changed, unless it’s something he himself added like his clothes or his numerous skulls. So how come the azbantium wall is unaffected by the resets? Why is it that all the messages he leaves for himself get erased, but the damage he does to the wall doesn’t? And speaking of messages, why did the Doctor feel the need to dig a hole in the ground to leave a message? And where did he get the chalk to draw the arrows? And if he had the time to draw arrows, why not just leave himself an explanation as to what’s going on? Or at the very least tell himself to use something other than his fists to break through the wall.

Ah yes, now let’s talk about the azbantium wall. The Doctor taking billions of years to punch his way through. Surely it would have been more effective to use the pointy end of the shovel or his fingernails or something rather than punching it. Because the thing about the original story with the bird and the mountain is that the bird’s beak is pointy. By sharpening its beak on the mountain, the bird does a small amount of damage each time. I fail to see how punching a wall is supposed to do any damage whatsoever. Punching a brick wall is unlikely to do anything. Punching an azbantium wall that’s apparently four hundred times harder than diamond surely would make zero difference. And zero is still zero no matter how many times you multiply it.

You can easily dismiss all of this as nitpicking (in fact you probably are), but it’s little things like that that slowly erode away at the credibility of it all for me. Like a bird sharpening its beak on a mountain, you might say. It’s hard for me to really be invested in this because the episode doesn’t follow the rules of its own internal logic. Something Moffat has frequently been guilty of in the vast majority of his stories.

Finally there’s the confessions. I mentioned way back in my review of The Witch’s Familiar that I was deeply concerned with the direction this series arc was going, and as we come within spitting distance of the series finale, I’m now in abject terror. Moffat has demonstrated in episodes like Listen and The Witch’s Familiar that his arrogance and desperation to put his own stamp on the show means he’s prepared to lift up the bonnet and tinker with the vital components of the show. Components that should NEVER be tinkered with, like the Doctor’s mystery. We don’t know exactly who he is or what makes him tick, and we shouldn’t know either. That wouldn’t make him more interesting. It would actually diminish him. So I was very alarmed when the Doctor started confessing that he originally left Gallifrey because he was scared of the Hybrid. (I’ve already talked about how stupid the idea of the Doctor being driven by fear is in the past, so I won’t repeat myself here. Just read my review of Listen again if you want the details). And then to cap it all off, at the very end the Doctor confesses that the Hybrid... is him.

At which point, I glanced at my DVD copy of the Doctor Who movie and gulped nervously. Please tell me Moffat is not going where I think he’s going.

Moffat has written some bad stuff before (a lot of bad stuff before), but it’s been stuff that for the most part you can easily ignore and pretend never happened (something I one hundred percent plan to do when Jodie Whittaker comes a-calling). This however is the first time Moffat has been in a position where he could do some serious damage to the franchise as a whole. Never before have I been so apprehensive to watch a Moffat penned series finale...

[turqrambles]

I watched all 26 episodes of an obscure Australian cartoon in one week and I’m not okay - My journey with Wicked! (2001) PART 2 - The Actual Review

Hello again! I just checked my watch and I noticed that it was time to talk about the cartoon with the apple-headed guy some more!

When I last talked about this delightful piece of obscure media, I went over the origin story of how the show was created, introduced the cast of characters, and then talked about the main draw of the cartoon that makes it unique of other cartoons of its quality.

And then, at the end of the blog post, I mentioned that I think that the cartoon is merely “Okay” rather than anything Amazing. It has a great idea but ultimately, it really is just an alright show.

So now, after introducing this beautiful cartoon and explaining to everyone just what the hell is going on, it’s time to break this whole thing down.

The Good, The Bad, and The Apple-Flavored

Wicked! is a weird show to grade. The animation itself fluctuates in quality and there’s some very obvious cut corners from how frequently animation is recycled in some of the episodes, scenes can have weird editing or continuity errors, and sometimes they’ll even recycle sound bytes like insults that Dawn and Rory shout at each other or Gramps reminding everyone about Normandy. I feel like I heard The Appleman mention that something was “100% real nightmare” like five times while watching this whole thing in quick succession.

Information for this cartoon is practically nonexistent, but my theory is that this happened because the animation was all produced in a single in-house Australian studio rather than shipping bits of it overseas to get tightened up. Again, I could be wrong, and if anyone has any better information, please send me an ask, but a lot of the techniques that Wicked! use reminded me of Filmation, which also famously kept everything in one studio.

Just be warned, similar to when someone watches He-Man and go “oh hey, I recognize that talking animation from the second episode”, there are shots that get reused often to save time. Get used to that one scene where Appleman is laughing and running across the steel walkway suspending over the refinery vats, it’s used a ton.

That being said, when they give them the budget to add a little polish to the show, they do a pretty good job!

Don’t be fooled by my talk of He-Man - this show actually looks pretty great. Most of the time the animation is pretty fluid and the decision to constantly use shadows to wrap around the characters really works in its favor and gives it an extra layer of moodiness.

It just reuses animation on top of that.

I think that, in many ways, Wicked! is carried more by the strength of its ideas over its actual execution. Even if this show gets super goofy at times (this is a show where the Appleman literally infects the Internet by taking a piper and dropping glowing green goo on a CD-ROM), there is a definite horror undertone to the show that gets carried through its entire season.

Dare I say it, the show actually gets a little scary at times. That scene where the kids discover that their pets are nothing but empty skins with all the organs and bones sucked out in the first episode actually sets the mood really well and feels extremely faithful to the original books.

Plus the concept of The Appleman being able to tinker around with a living virus and create something that can mutate literally anything is a fun as hell idea, even if it doesn’t make sense most of the time and seems like a weird mutation (hah) of the conflict from the books. It’s just fun that this guy can create literally anything out of thin air as a weapon just so long as he goes to his lab and makes something that allows him to do so.

The Pros

*The Appleman. Yeah, there’s a very good reason why the only thing people remember about this show is The Appleman. He’s just a fun character and a fun villain. His design does takes a bit to get used to on account of how uncanny he can be, and there are times when they draw him off-model and make him look just horrendous, but once you see how far they go with the apple-theming, you kinda start to vibe with the apple headed monster.

Sure, he’s basically your run-of-the-mill cartoon villain but with a bonus tragic backstory, but his vocal performance by Bill Conn really sells the whole package. You can tell that he’s greatly unhinged and that he’s not exactly playing with a full deck. It’s only until the last episode that they flat-out say that he’s being controlled by the same virus that he’s been using to infect other creatures, but I’m pretty sure your average cartoon-watching kid is able to guess that just from the small hints that they drop.

Also all of his vehicles are apple-colored and I love a villain that takes the time to make sure he has a proper theme.

(The “starting out with an island with apple trees on Animal Crossing: New Horizons” moodboard)

*The Family. I liked that, since this show is about terrorizing one particular dysfunctional Australian family, all five family members of this show get enough character development that the mom and dad feel like they’re more than “the mom and dad character”. Save for that one episode where Gramps was constantly bragging about how back in his day, he didn’t need electricity, he was a fun, lovable grandpa, and I like that the kids get someone to talk to about mutant frogs and such.

They’re definitely dysfunctional and, as I mentioned in the previous post, Rory and Dawn constantly insulting each other in every single episode can be grating at times, but I like that their level of dysfunction is not because of the mom and the dad having an emotionally abusive relationship. If anything, the mom and the dad have the most stable relationship in the whole show! Eileen and Jack love each other and I hate that I’m at a point where I see this husband and wife genuinely enjoying each other’s company and I go “Yes, this is something refreshing”.

Also, gotta give the show points for having the family be two single parents from past relationships finding each other and getting married and for having Eileen be totally cool with her new in-law Gramps. 

*The Slobberers. Expanded from the first creatures from the books, I like that the apple-headed monster has giant worms for pets (again, gotta aggressively keep to the apple theming) and, while there’s a couple episodes where they’re just something to give The Appleman something to talk to, their designs are fun. Gives the animators an excuse to draw slime.

In a later episode, he mentions that he considers them his only friends and boy...that’s rough, buddy. 

*There’s an episode where characters travel into the Internet and fight a buff video game avatar of The Appleman in a late 90′s dungeon crawler computer game. I looooove late 90′s Internet imagery in cartoons, what can I say. You even see the dial-up pop window and a clunky late 90′s webcam!

*This is a show where a divorced man keeps bugging his own son and ex-wife while sometimes trying to kill his ex-wife’s new husband - all while keeping to a strict apple and virus theme - and honestly, this is a pro on its own. The Appleman is such a petty bitch at times and I love it.

*The Appleman is allergic to medicine. Minor touch, but I like that, since he’s a virus-themed bad guy, they apply “Revive Kills Zombie” logic on this guy and he literally can’t take painkillers because it’ll only cause him more pain and agony. This comes up in an episode where he’s screaming in pain and wishes he could make the pain go away but just can’t.

*The Title Cards. This is one of those shows that freezes on eye-catching artwork for each episode title before they continue with the rest of the episode and they’re really nice.

*The Accents. Forgot to mention this anywhere else, but since this is an Australian produced cartoon that aired primarily in Australia, everyone is rocking a very noticeable Australian accent and say things like “Oi, you two! Come and get a wriggle on!”. It’s fantastic.

They were definitely at the level where, if this show ever did make it to the states, they would’ve dubbed it to sound more American. And probably flip the animation so that the characters are driving on the opposite side of the road.  

The Cons

*The Reused animation and sound clips. This is unfortunately the show’s biggest strike against it. Once your brain picks out which scenes get reused and which voice clips get reused, you’ll notice that some of the episodes have a noticeably smaller polish than others. The episode “Decayed” in particular felt like 50% footage from previous episodes and boy, did it stick out like a sour thumb because of it.

That being said, I didn’t mind too much (watching a lot of B-list anime and Filmation shows will do that to you) and I feel like you would’ve noticed this a lot less if you weren’t blazing through all 26 episodes in a short period of time like I was. But it is definitely a bummer that they had to cut corners like this because again, when they don’t cut corners, this show looks utterly fantastic.

I guess the lesson here is that the animators of this show didn’t get paid enough, but really, you can say that about literally every animated project in existence.

*Weird continuity inconsistencies. This goes into a weird nitpicking “you probably only noticed this because you’re an adult with too much free time/boy I sure hope someone got fired for THAT blunder!” territory, but sometimes this cartoon does a thing where something minor is established and then the cartoon subtly retcons it.

Mostly I’m using this space to complain about how Dawn explicitly mentions that they don’t own a cat, but then in the “character shrinks to the size of an ant” episode, they have a pet cat! They have a pet cat that lasts a grand total of one episode and no one says anything!

What happened to the cat, Rory? What happened to the cat?!

(my theory is, like his father, it ran away from this family)

*Some episodes use stock cartoon plots. There is an episode where the main characters shrink to the size of an ant. There is a camping episode. There is a school dance episode. There is a Halloween episode. There is an episode focused on teeth. There is an episode that talks about the dangers of too much fast food.

Like the reused animation issue, depending on the episode, you end up not minding too much about this on account of how utterly bonkers The Appleman is when he’s concocting his evil schemes. The “characters teleport into the Internet” episode ended up being one of my favorites, as did the school dance episode.

But at the same time, two of my least favorite episodes are the stock episode plot episodes, so it’s definitely a mixed bag.

*They use real photographs in background shots and it bugs me. Come on, guys. Just have the blank wall or scribble in some posters. Anything will look better than this cartoon character standing right next to a still image from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, especially when you clearly had the time to draw that cartoon skull on the door.

*The three plot-heavy episodes unfortunately have weaker animation. This just seems like weird planning on their parts, but Episode 1, Episode 4, and Episode 26 are all episodes that deal with backstory of The Appleman and this wacky dysfunctional family and, for some reason, they didn’t bring their A game in regards to actually animating these episodes.

I feel like if you’re dealing with heavy backstory, you need to make the episode look good, because that’s going to be the stuff that the audience remembers. You need to have the flashback of The Appleman’s horrific transformation while he was working at the old refinery look amazing, but instead it just....doesn’t.

(picture unfortunately related)

Just to make a note, the episodes with the most fluid animation are the following: The one with the mutant plants, the one with the mutant sheep, the Halloween episode, the episode with the dinosaur bones, and the episode where The Appleman learns how to make clones. None of these episodes are important to the overarching plot. 

*One of the episodes is unfortunately popular because it depicts animation that caters to the inflation fetish. Just...noting this for posterity. It makes google image searches of this cartoon a bit awkward. I’m not going to elaborate much further.

*There’s a minor transphobic joke in one of the episodes. In the episode “Decayed”, The Appleman dresses up like a nurse, tries to adopt a more feminine voice, and puts on makeup and fake eyelashes. Thankfully, this only happens for like three seconds and is never mentioned again.

The rest of the show otherwise passes the “can this still fly in 2020″ test. I’m just making a note here because it is pretty shitty. 

Closing Thoughts

Wicked! is not the best show in the world, and I struggle to call it “great”, but it is a solid and enjoyable one and honestly, the things that it has going for it are unique enough that I recommend giving it a shot despite its shortcomings.

If anything, my main takeaway from watching this whole show is that this show does not deserve to be as obscure as it is. At the very least, the concepts and characters introduced here are strong ones - the villain is a bitter divorced man transformed by a hate-feeding virus after all - and I feel that, in a more fair world, this show got the small but dedicated fanbase it so woefully needs. It doesn’t deserve a huge following of fans, but I say it definitely deserves a Fanfiction.net tag with 200 fanfics total and a lot more fanart than what it does.

While I’m not sure I could recommend it as one of the great obscure cartoons that everyone missed, I think it’s definitely worth checking out for anyone looking for a fun time. It’s definitely a hidden gem, even if the hidden gem has a few imperfections. If anything, this show is a definite wild ride and I think it’s time for everyone to give this cartoon a shot.

Anyway I got to see The Appleman playing Second Life and moving the muscle slider all the way to the right, so I obviously had a blast.

Next time, I talk about the actual episodes!

[mysterious-prophetess]

Review: Ready Player One

as some of you might remember, I did a live blog of reading part of novel this movie is based on about five-six months ago. I had to read it for a Video Games in Literature class.

Suffice to say, I found parts of it a pain to read.

It got a bit better but really it’s mid-rank as a novel in quality over all. Not terrible. Not great. Certainly not movie-worthy but then again, as it was pointed out in the aforementioned class, Cline wrote in such a way that it all but said “Adapt me! Adapt me!” So, there is that.

Anyway I’m going to do both a review of the movie and a comparison to its source material. Where it succeeded, where is sucked, and where it just was “meh.”

Spoilers ahead, so I’m placing this under a read more.

Quick spoiler free coments:

The movie isn’t horrible, and is less painful than the book at times. It’s also a case where if you haven’t read the book prior to the movie, don’t. The movie is a bit more enjoyable if you haven’t read the book. The movie is evenly paced but predictable.

The Review

As usual I’m going to break this down overall story, pacing, characters, effects, enjoyability, and a special specific category to the film. In this case: Video Games. Which is to say, how they handle the various aspects of game play in this film.

Pacing

Speilberg knows how to pace a movie. The writing didn’t always match it but the pace was fairly even.

So. Point there

Plot.

Oh boy. Where to begin.

Even if I hadn’t read the book, the plot would have been a bit “meh” as I’ve seen the whole “unlikely hero ends up as part of a “resistance” and finds a selfless goal only after he meets a girl with a selfless goal and the underdog wins” story.

For the sake of an action piece, the first (and worst) parts of the story were thrown out, so fair that, but then again, they did a SAO where everyone knew where the first level of a challenge was but no one had passed it yet.

Also, the fact that NO ONE was live streaming the race is a bit suspect. I mean, social media age folks.

Chances are, there are those who go to these things with drones and shit to broadcast it to those who aren’t skilled enough to do it themselves. So, the fact only the High-5 and the 6-ers found out, is bullshit.

Then again, I will allow that maybe the game blocked it.

It’s also way too convenient that Aech, Sho, and Daito are all buddy-buddy.

The romantic subplot was clumsy in the book. It was even clumsier here with Wade/Parzival confessing his love to Art3mis like that like “boom.”

The resistance subplot was kind of stupid. I get that there should be people in the real world doing shit to resist but, these idiots kind of deserve to get caught.

Tip: if you’re going to be some sort of resistance person? Don’t have a very distinct tattoo anywhere on your body. It makes you easier to identify.

The fact they game Samantha/Art3mis a “damsel in distress” subplot was so fracking sexist. I’ll get more into it later with character.

The second key challenge, I appreciated a bit. Not sure why they had to use the shining whenever they had a plethora of other 80’s movies to go through, but then again that clue reminded me more of Frankenstein. That would take a leap of logic that fits with the whole “think like Halliday” thing.

Moving on to the “real world” meeting between Wade and Aech/Helen. That was actually pretty good. Gotta admit making Sho and Daito appear as well was ok. The “fixer” woman was a nice touch. The in game assassin was meh. Made sense, though.

Act 3. That was so-so. It was almost beat-per-beat the book’s climax plus or minus some extra things the movie added such as Art3mis’s whole “on the inside thing” because of the damsel in distress plot line they gave her and the corporate executive being gutsy enough to attempt to kill Wade himself, which made no sense to me. Guys like that usually use their professional killers like what’s-her-face who’s name sounded like “Finale.” Then there’s the fact that this ruthless asshole has a chance to take the shot, and for some reason doesn’t? With all his prior actions this doesn’t really mesh.

Also, I missed about five minutes of the climax because I really had to pee but I can gather that Wade/Parzival shot Samantha/Art3mis in the game to hide the fact she was there. That’s actually a smart move. Bravo movie.  The stupid action sequences in the final moments, well the adjective I chose says it all.

The moral is stupid.

“Reality is real.” Thanks Captain Obvious. Wouldn’t have known that without this movie telling me that.

That ghost in the machine mystery was tantalizing for all of a few second before they moved to the ending.

Overall enjoyability: Average.

Not terrible, but not great other. It’s trying so hard to be a Tron or a Star Wars but, it lacks any of the charm.

It’s a nostalgia blast that banks on that and that alone.

Effects: I get that the uncanny valley thing was on purpose to differentiate the real world and the oasis and all but that would really defeat the purpose of a Virtual Reality that’s supposed to be as groundbreaking as this Oasis was alleged to be. Beyond that, the effects were fine.

Video Games: They integrated a lot of the mechanics of a game fairly well into the movie. It wasn’t front and center but they at least attempted to keep the rules of their game consistent in presentation and function. Except once. That office scene with the hologram. How would that even work? Would they have a feed back into the Oasis relayed to the player? Wouldn’t that be, idk a HUGE security hazard if a hacker gained access? They could spy on the villain any time they pleased.

Characters:

Let’s start with the one whose character I’m actually pleased with: Aech/Helen

First the bad: I hate Aech’s avatar’s design. It was supposed to look realistic. Not some big old freaking cyborg.

The rest I liked, especially how Helen was a confident character in the real world. Whereas her book counterpart wasn’t exactly confident in herself during her reveal to Wade. I’d look for a page number but that would mean I actually care and I don’t. There are others who can if they wish.

Sho

He’s a kid in this version. Ok. Makes sense.

Daito

Is much younger too, but not a little kid. Also makes sense. A bit of a stereotype.

Samantha/Art3mis

Where to start. How about the obvious: They were too chicken to cast an actual curvy girl as the romantic lead. I’m surprised they were brave enough to keep her birthmark. Even more surprised they didn’t make her a blonde supermodel-ensue girl.

The “extra” tragic backstory and her being in a resistance was completely unnecessary.

Her getting a damsel in distress storyline was insulting and really sexist. They slightly “redeemed” that third act fuckery by having it vital to the plot that they have an inside man, but I still was disgusted by it.

Wade/Parzival

Honestly, they somehow made him blander. Wade/Parzival of the book isn’t going to end up on top ten sci-fi protagonists lists anytime soon. Maybe not even top 100. Wade/Parzival of the movie is a generic geeky male protagonist who starts of selfish but realizes through love that there’s more to life!

He’s not a terrible character, and at least his actions are consistent with his semi-predictable characterization.

Unlike the villain whose name escapes me at the moment. Let me google it…Nolan Sorrento.

Now let it sink in that he left next to no impression on me to the extent that I forgot his name and his inconsistent actions.

First, he hires a cyber-assassin to go after Wade/Parzival and then the idiot orders a strike giving his target a chance to flee.

Then, during the negotiations he just blatantly admits he wanted to subvert the company’s wishes on feed that the company likely has access to and if they were any sort of intelligent were listening in on as he offers the first player to get a key a job. So, shows he’s a bit too stupid to be in that position of power.

Then he waits to blow everyone up on Doom. He could have handed the Cataclyst off to a goon, offered them a wiping out of all their debt owed to IOI if they blew everyone up, then logged in an won if he was really that ruthless about the whole thing.

There’s the whole gun thing. He had Wade in his sights in the real world. He could have shot him and everyone in that car, but because Wade’s got the egg, he just can’t do it? This is a man who was able to order the strike earlier in the movie to kill Wade if he didn’t comply. I guess it’s a he’s too much of a wussy to actually sully his hands thing, but that’s not how the actor played it. If he was too much of a wuss to do his own dirty work, he’d have balked sooner. It just seemed really really silly for him to give up because the kid was so happy he was crying at having the egg in his hands.

Now onto the nitpick Comparison (well full tilt nitpicking section)

I understand why all the school stuff was cut. I really do. It was, as I already wrote the worst part of the first section of Ready Player One. Not a fan of how they glossed over how Wade’s parents died. Here they took his actual tragic backstory and stuffed it in the trash and tacked on an extra tragic background to Samantha/Art3mis.

But it also undermined the whole point of the first key’s dungeon. Which was, it was on the school planet because you learn there and Ludo comes from a word that means “play” so it was a very clever play on the planet’s name. The Ohio-planet’s exclusion and replacement with the archives was actually a good choice for a movie but also made moves by the High-5 too easy to track and the point was it was hard for the IOI 6-ers to patrol the whole of the Oasis.

The High-5’s cooperation in the movie was too convenient whereas in the book there was this “everyone man for himself” mentality that persisted up until the end practically.

Art3mis’s competency was reduced in the movie. In the book she’d found the first key on her own before Wade but she sucked at Joust.

Og’s deus ex machine appearance in the book was written out, and probably for the better but on the other hand I missed him a little. Plus the sentiment at the end was almost a bit too shoehorned in, but that’s at least better than the horribly worded “moral.”

The fact the movie had Wade acknowledge that there were people who didn’t play as their own sex/gender in the Oasis was a correction of a mistake in the book where Wade didn’t really even think about it aside from his anxieties that Art3mis might be a man. Something that, when he’s presented with Aech/Hellen later makes it seem that—to him—the idea wasn’t one he thought would actually happen.

As a female gamer who often plays as male avatars, I know this is not an uncommon phenomenon.

Making Sho(to) and Daito kids was a weird twist to me at first. And, unless I’m mistaken, they’re brothers for real in the movie whereas Shoto and Daito of the book never even knew eachother.

Daito of the book dies. IOI killed him and made it look like a suicide. Og rescued Shoto, whose book name was Akihide Karatsu. They did keep the “Tsu” bit and made it into it being changed to “Sho” as a nickname but that name change was weird to me.

The High-5 all made it to the end in the movie,  whereas Daito/Toshiro, died.

It was Wade not Samantha/Art3mis who ended up being arrested by the IOI, but he did it on purpose to steal codes and shit and it was like really easy to escape custody. That was a bit OP in the book, I’ll admit but that whole “man on the inside” plotline was negated by the fact Wade had Sorrento’s Password. Let’s forget, for a moment, how monumentally stupid it is that he even had it on a post-it note on his immersion rig in the first place and how, in the second, how stupid it was to have Parzival the hologram in his office and able to see shit. I already mentioned how bad it was up in the video game section.

Anyway, Wade has his password from the end of the first act of the movie. That means they could have just hacked the whole kit and caboodle anytime they pleased and maybe used it to figure out a way through firewalls to get inside the barrier. Idk it just was one of those things that both made sense but also could have easily been sidestepped.

The Van chase. In a world of recognition software, why oh why, wouldn’t you make sure your vehicle was as plain as possible if you were on the run or, if you had been spotted by a drone identifying your van, why wouldn’t you try to change the outside with some paint or dirt or SOMETHING. Book Helen was already on the move constantly for her own safety reasons. Movie Helen, while more sure of herself, didn’t seem to have as good survival instincts as her book counter part.

Everyone is too conveniently located near each other.

In the book the closest ones together were Helen and Wade. Samantha was Canadian. Shoto/Akihide and Daito/Toshiro were Japanese, and they all had to be brought together by their deus ex machina Og, who had located the survivors after Daito/Toshiro had been murdered and brought them to his place for the final assault.

Surprisingly, though, aside from changing the pop-culture references (obviously due to copyright issues), the climax was still similar enough that the changes here and there didn’t affect the whole thing. Though, the Art3mis being tapped out early because she was undercover shit wasn’t in the book. She just got plain wiped out by the Cataclyst like everyone else. Which, btw was done by a rando IOI person, not Sorrento.

Tl:Dr They’re both middling properties in the end.

However, I’d say the characters from the book make more sense than the movie characters, but the movie world makes more sense than the book world.

This is also a case where if you hadn’t read the book, the movie’s actually more enjoyable. Well, marginally.