#i just had the creative urge to give her some screentime

[myrmyrtheorca]

The Bonegrinder. Carrion-eater. Lieutenant of the Defense and Strategy branch, Leda Ysoude Cavalieri. Ya' call me whatever the fuck you want, keh. It's not going to matter - it's pretty hard to speak without your teeth in their place, y'know?

I was supposed to go back home and write, but Ysoude had other plans for me.

By the way, she's innocent of all crimes. She did nothing wrong. Those stories about rats in Myr's food? Slander. Ysoude is an angel.

The wrong kind of angel.

[usernamesuggestionsarefunny]

Ok, so Spiderman.

I still hate the multiverse as a concept and how much it cheapens everything that happens in the MCU, won't explain why in detail again, but I admit I was sold on the childhood nostalgia with the previous two Peter Parkers and absolutely adored having them interact together (I wouldn't have minded if everything had been a dream or something though). I loved the jokes, the sort of friendship that formed between them, everything.

Seems the writters put a bit of effort into not making this completely sitcom-y and nostalgia cash grab, I am not gonna lie, and I was pleasantly surprised. Although it also had a bit of that vibe, but the plot was solid enough for a Marvel film. Maybe not, I am bad at spotting plot holes lol.

That scene where Andrew!Peter saves MJ is GOLD, so emotional, so fitting. They managed to give his unfinished story some sort of closure in the few minutes of screentime he had. How is that not AMAZING? Makes me even wish for a third TAS movie where he moves on.

I liked Tobey's moments as well although I was a bit disappointed he didn't talk more about his life and how he is doing in that universe, giving us some closure on his relationship with MJ, whether they are married, have children idk he looks like a dad you have to admit it.

The scene where May died was very emotional and sad. Now, I loved this version of May, she was fun, sweet, affectionate and motherly, and I am a sucker for angst (And Tom Holland's crying on cue abilities lmao), so it is not the death itself what bothered me or even that she is this universe's version of Uncle Ben, but I did think the famous phrase and her pushing Peter to do something as dangerous as trying to save those villains was sort of forced and inconsistent with her character in previous movies. I mean seriously, in the first Spiderman movie she was telling Peter: "If you see danger run the other way", and we didn't get much character development on how she changed her views or whether her desire for Peter to be safe depended on his apparent helplessness and changed upon learning of his powers. Not enough scenes to show this. Even if there were though, it seems letting go of Peter or admiring his urge to help others is something she learnt from him off screen and not the other way around despite her being his tutor. Willing to be proven wrong but I doubt it.

So yeah, I am sorry, I loved her character, I loved her death scene and I am looking forward to reading angst fics describing the effect this will have on Peter lol but I am not sold on her saying the famous "with great power comes great responsability" phrase and the way they only killed her so she could say that and Tom's Peter could have something in common with the other two. Seems like a very last minute creative choice that would have been better had we been shown scenes in previous movies of May being Peter's inspiration. This could have easily avoided also by having Tom's Peter recall an MCU Uncle Ben during a conversation with May.

May could have still died though, just with an original reason as to why. Yes, with her helping, but not necessarily as the main inspiration. Maybe in a way that showed her concern for Peter and dismay he was doing something as dangerous as portrayed in previous films. Similar as to what happened in the movie, but I would have enjoyed it more if she had lost herself a little, you know what I mean? More panic in her actions and reactions. She is a civilian, not a superhero. This is her BABY BOY fighting a dangerous man willing to kill him and she is seeing something like that up close real time on front of her for the very first time!! Panic a bit more, damn it!!!!!! (Nothing to do with the actress, she was great, this is about the writting/direction).

-

The ending was very sad.

Peter is completely alone :'(

Left me with a truly bad taste in my mouth lol. But a good bad taste in my mouth if that is even possible.

Looking forward to see what they are going to do with his character now but at the same time... bad taste. I don't know how to explain it lol

[mrs-goldie-mcduck]

DuckTales reboot sinks to a new low in its adaptation of “Land Beneath the Ground”

*Spoilers for “Terror of the Terra-Firmians”*

How can you adapt one of Barks’ most wonderfully creative, surreal, imaginative tales of all time and come up with an episode that is none of those things?  

Well, it seems you start by omitting the two most important characters, then exchange an expansive underground world for a boring subway tunnel.  Also take the whimsical creatures at the center of the tale and strip away most of what made them interesting and unique, use them as generic monsters, then inexplicably have them become not scary after all so they can have a quick cameo that amounts to nothing.

I have tried to approach the reboot with the right attitude--times change, new people have new ideas, not everything is going to be to my taste, art is subjective, etc.--and I’ve mostly succeeded in maintaining that perspective.  I’ve had a few nitpicks here and there, but have definitely enjoyed the episodes so far.

Until “Terror of the Terra-Firmians.”

Where do I even begin?

Well, I guess I start with a cut to keep most of the spoilers out of sight.  THEN I rant.

The episode started out fine. I got a laugh at the kids’ half-hearted attempts to tell the adults where they were sneaking off to.  I loved Webby’s notebook doodles, and having her little Terra-Firmian drawing saying “I’m mythical and adorable” was really cute (and accurate).

I understood that earth science has progressed by leaps and bounds since 1955 (when Barks’ “The Land Beneath the Ground” was published), so the original concept of “nobody really knows what makes earthquakes” wouldn’t work anymore.  I was fine with the idea of Huey as a skeptic versus Webby as a fringe science fangirl as a way to update the story.

I even laughed aloud at Launchpad, who, paranoid after seeing a scary movie, asked of HD&L,  “Have there always been three of them?”  Great line.

Lena’s British-themed nicknames for Mrs. Beakley were amusing, and I was excited to see the Magica mystery deepen.

But when I saw that half the episode was already over and there were still no Terra-Firmians in sight, I knew something was very wrong.

Then they showed up, but the show tried to make them scary.  Not in the subtle, “Hey, where did that rock come from?  It couldn’t have moved...could it?” psychological way from the comic.  But in the “glowy red eyes and gaping maws, chasing after the characters who flee in terror” way.

Seriously.

These guys...

...are supposed to be scary monsters.

I mean, the show did succeed in making them genuinely creepy.  I guess I can give it credit for that.  But then the Big Twist Ending(tm) was that they...weren’t actually mean or scary.  It was all a trick of the lighting, I guess?  For some reason?  And then we got an E.T. reference, because soooooo many little kids in 2017 are fans of that 1982 movie?  Just...what?

I remember my dad reading “Land Beneath the Ground” to me when I was a five-year-old kid.  It was one of my favorites, despite or perhaps because of the fact that it was a tiny bit scary in the beginning.  You don’t know what’s down in that dark tunnel, and the ducks get a little creeped out, too.  Then you see the gorgeous, alien world deep under the surface, and it’s not so scary anymore.  Then you meet the goofy, round people that live there, and it’s not scary at all.  Then you find out what they’re capable of, and a different kind of fear sets in, but it’s okay in the end because the ducks save the day--and the world.  So I’m not completely opposed to having some scariness in the story, but it was way more subtle than “being chased by monsters with glowing red eyes.”  The reboot showed a disappointing lack of nuance.

I had even harbored a hope that maybe, just maybe, the show would give the Terra-Firmians natural rock colors instead of bright hues.  I don’t remember the source, but I know I read once that Barks intended them to be camouflaged like that, thus indiscernible from a normal rock when rolled up into a ball.  The original colorists didn’t get the memo, or perhaps decided that wasn’t visually interesting enough for a “kid’s comic” and made the Terra-Firmians look like they’d been rolling around in paint.  Decades of reprints and the 1987 DuckTales continued that tradition.

The original DuckTales made them look like they were made of Play-Doh, to be honest.  I thought maybe the reboot would rectify the situation.  They did have more muted colors than in many depictions, but they certainly didn’t look like rocks.

That’s a small nitpick, though.  If only that was the only complaint I had with this episode!

Perhaps the biggest travesty was that we never got to see their kingdom.  The whole episode took place in an abandoned subway tunnel.  A dark, uninteresting subway tunnel.  We could have had THIS:

That’s one of the most breathtaking reveals in all of Barks’ stories.  The animators could have gone nuts making creative and intricate rock formations!  It’s not like they had to build sets on a huge scale.  It’s drawing!  The sky’s the limit!  (Or, in this case, the opposite of the sky...)

I had hoped that they’d stay true to the comic and include the Terra-Firmians’ distinctive neckwear, maybe even explain their caste system, but nope.  They weren’t wearing anything.

“This rock is wearing a necktie!” is such a great line, and the reveal of the “rock’s” true nature is an amazing surprise.  Look at Scrooge’s expression!  The audience should get to have that reaction, too!  To go from “it’s just a rock” to “it’s a strange creature wearing a necktie, speaking with a Texas accent, and offering to shake hands despite not having visible appendages just a second ago” is wonderful fun.  How could you pass up something like that?

The neckties and the cowboy accents were such delightful quirks, adding to the wild creativity that ran throughout the story.  I mean, who sits down and thinks up something this wild?  Rhetorical question, obviously.  It was Carl Barks.  He devised so many crazy adventures and characters to make up the ducks’ world, but “Land Beneath the Ground” showcased another entire level of imagination.  Most of Scrooge’s best adventures were grounded in history and existing myth, but this one was pure fantasy, proving Barks’ creative power was as versatile as it was timelessly entertaining.

The stakes were also much, much higher in the original.  All we worry about in the show is whether the kids and their chaperones will find their way out of the subway tunnel.  Barks started with a threat to the Money Bin and the hill on which it sat, and worked up to putting all of Calisota (if not the planet) in jeopardy.  Talk about an epic story!

It was a great opportunity to delve into the ducks’ characters, too.  It was the classic setup of “Scrooge drags his nephews into danger trying to protect and/or add to his fortune, then has to begrudgingly put their safety over his own interests.”  In the comic Scrooge begs Donald to compete against the Terra-Firmian champion to prevent a catastrophic earthquake, urging him to “think about your house, and Daisy’s house,” and then Donald puts him on the spot by interrupting with “And your money bin!” It’s a great character moment!  It shows the recurring conflict between Scrooge and Donald, as well as the warring priorities in Scrooge’s mind.

What did we get instead of exploring the dynamics of the core cast?  Um, well, we got...Mrs. Beakley and a new character we just met (Lena) butting heads and eventually getting to know and understand each other a bit more.  Which is fine, I guess, but the priority should be establishing the characters who are the stars of the franchise.  After the intrigue of the pilot episode, with all the simmering tension between Scrooge and Donald, I was excited to explore that.  I don’t want to dislike Lena, but if she’s stealing the spotlight from characters I’ve loved for over thirty years, I can’t help but resent that, and I’m sure that’s not the creators’ intention.

I understand the episodes are airing out of their intended order, which is probably throwing off the balance of characters’ screentime and the pace of their arcs. I try to give the show the benefit of the doubt with regard to that, but this episode was truly egregious in its elevating of the kids at the expense of the adult characters.

There are a million shows where smart-talking kids have wacky adventures.  Only DuckTales can show us the world’s richest duck and his nephews having epic globe-trotting adventures.  So...do that.  Please.  We haven’t left Duckburg since the pilot, and Scrooge and Donald are M.I.A.

There was so much wasted potential with this episode!  If it had been presented as any other random creature in the subway tunnel--actual mole men like Launchpad was scared of, or gremlins, or trolls, or literally anything else--it would have been a decent episode, albeit a disappointingly Scroogeless one.  But to take one of the most unique and iconic Barks stories and turn it into a throwaway “those wacky kids versus the monster of the week” plot is beyond comprehension.

I’m certainly not giving up on the series, as I have enjoyed the episodes up to this point and I expect future episodes to be better.  However, “Terror of the Terra-Firmians” was, well...terrible.