#i mean they all have “lore importance” but some definitely feel more filler and less vital yk?

[daigah]

The use of they/them from all the agents for Valorants new agent makes me hopeful for a non binary character but really they're just probably keeping the gender vague for the reveal 😔

[ghostbustermelanieking]

some thoughts on mag 200

i’ve been having trouble articulating this, but i wanted to get some thoughts down on mag 200, and the ending of tma as a whole, now that i’ve heard the finale twice and had some time to process it all. putting this under a cut in case people don’t wanna see it -- there’s gonna be a lot of praise here, but also some legit criticism. this is a way to sort through my feelings more than anything else.

first off, relistening to the finale, and sitting on it for a while, has made me feel a hell of a lot better about the whole thing. the episode comes off a lot better when you’re not vibrating with fear and anticipation, in my opinion. the final statement was very fitting and cool -- not my favorite ever, but i can appreciate it a lot as a final closing for the fears. and i don’t have an ear for soundscaping but the sound in that statement was cool as hell. the jonah magnus gets fucking murdered scene is incredibly satisfying. a lot of other people have said this, but i love that jon finally got his revenge, and was able to lash out against jonah for all the years of manipulation and beng used, and for tim and sasha and everything else. that was perfect. i genuinely thought we might not get a scene like this after 193 but i am so glad we did. incredibly satisfying. the girls made it out!! i am very glad that they’re ok and moving on and seem to be leaning on each other. (By God I Will Wring Found Family Out Of This Podcast If It Kills Me.) and the admiral’s okay. love that

and the jonmartin ending. oh my god. while i was never the biggest fan of the possibility of martin having to kill jon, the way it went down was so painful and good. i loved that final scene. i love the ambiguity -- that they might have died but maybe they didn’t, maybe they’re all right and happy and we can decide for ourselves -- i love that i got exactly what i wanted, that i get to have my cake and eat it too, all the angst of a jmart death and still the possibility of happiness... i am going buckwild. i love it. the longer i spend with this ending, the happier i am with it. i really really loved it

on another note... i do have some reservations about the finale and the season as a whole. i understand peoples’ irritations with the finale, and while i’m trying to focus on the things i did like, i definitely have some irritations. for one, i definitely wish the finale had been longer. i would’ve loved to see more of what wtgfs and basira were doing, and the actual lighting of the archives, etc. and while i completely understand why the scene at the panopticon went as quickly as it did -- it comes off very much as wild, frantic impulse in the heat of the moment where they’re in danger and trying to protect each other -- i do wish it had gone a little slower. 

in my mind, the biggest issue in season 5 ended up being pacing. and this might be a personal preference thing -- there’s a lot of things within the show that i don’t personally vibe with, but i don’t necessarily think they’re badly written. but i do think season 5 was slow. and while slow things can certainly work in a certain context (season 4 comes off wildly slow til you listen to 160), i wish more of what actually happened in season 5 had been baked into the end game. the season felt like it had a lot of filler, which drives me mildly crazy, because the end game feels rushed and i don’t think it NEEDED to be. i liked a lot of what season 5 did -- there’s some impeccable episodes, the character interactions are weirdly lighter and softer than they have been in previous seasons, and i wouldn’t trade a lot of the things that it’s given us (all the jonmartin interactions, jon and georgie briefly rebuilding their friendship, martin and melanie friendship, wtgfs scenes and intimacy, backstory, lore, etc) for anything. but i do think it could’ve been structured and paced a little differently. i also think it could’ve given some more screentime to the character stuff we got from episodes like 161, 170, 186, 190, 191, 192, 199... i absolutely love both martin centric monologue episodes, but i hate that we didn’t get anything like that for jon. (or for melanie or georgie or basira...) the best episodes of the season, imo, are the ones that broke from traditional form of domain statement domain, and the ones that focused in hard on backstory, lore, character introspection, character interaction... i wish we had more of this. 

when it comes to the jonmartin arc... i know this has been a point of contention with a lot of people, but i don’t hate it at all. maybe it’s just because i relistened to the majority of the season back in january, but a lot of the more grating moments that seemed large week to week (martin pressuring jon to smite people, the disagreements they had earlier in the season, jon using martin as bait in 176, etc etc) come off a lot more minor when you’re binging. personally, relistening to act i made those interactions come off as things they were struggling with through continued support and reassurance. there were absolutely things i wanted addressed, especially with the “kill bill arc” -- the disagreements early in the season, and how it seemed to turn on its head in the argument they have in 194. (i didn’t like martin blaming jon for the kill bill arc and i was hoping it would get brought up.) i also wanted to see a discussion of martin going with annabelle in 194 -- i wasn’t really ever mad at martin for doing it, but i did want to see them talk it out. 

but! after relistening to 200, i think i have a better handle on why that couldn’t have happened. martin goes behind jon’s back to go with annabelle and they don’t talk about it; jon goes behind martin’s back to sabotage the plan everyone agrees on in order to prevent the fears from spreading. if they’d had a big talk about trust, and working through martin going off with annabelle, and then jon turned around and did the same thing, more or less... it would’ve completely soured that discussion. jon and martin needed to be in a place of discourse for this ending to work. 

honestly, the more i’ve thought about this final JM arc, the better i feel about it. sure, jon and martin are in a bad place, and they’ve gone behind each other’s backs and been somewhat selfish, but i don’t think this ruins their relationship. for one, martin’s break in trust comes from a place of wanting to save jon and the world. and for another, jon genuinely feels he is doing the right thing, making a decision he can live with. (i have my own opinions as to how ethical jon’s decision was, but that’s another post. and i think the muddy ethics of this ending are on purpose -- it’s horror, a genre that often doesn’t offer ethical decisions.) their final decisions and final moments come from a place of love and protectiveness, and they change their decisions for the other. they still love each other, through all of it. i don’t think these late stage betrayals equivalate jonmartin necessarily being doomed as a couple (not that anyone has said that, but it’s worth saying). and i think it’s important to remember that this is still a relatively new relationship. it existed for approximately three weeks before the literal apocalypse, and it’s been under an immense amount of stress, as well as the constant fear that one or both of them would die. (which they did.) i’m not saying that excuses certain things they’ve said or done, but i am saying i don’t think the relationship is doomed. i think, if jon and martin have survived, they’ll need to work through things. they’ll need to talk it all out. and they’ll be able to! they’ll heal from this one way or another. the tragedy isn’t that jonmartin is doomed, or toxic. it’s that these moments of betrayal are what dooms them. and the beautiful undercurrent of it all is that they still manage to come together, and make decisions that mean they stay together. and that wherever they are, they’re still together. 

all in all, i don’t think season 5 has been perfect, and i can make my peace with that. (tma’s worst is a hell of a lot better than most shows’ best.) (i also think it might be worth considering how covid could have affected certain aspects of how the season was written -- pandemics are stressful, and i can’t imagine what it’s like to finish an enormous, in the works for years project like this in the middle of that. personally, i’m impressed they’ve managed to finish the show through all of this and keep it to a similar quality.) i think critiques are valuable and worth discussing. and i think plot aspects aside, there are several other critique related things that could be brought up about this season that people have articulated much better than i ever could. but i also, personally, want to walk away from the show feeling satisfied. i tend to be weirdly positive about things i love (the x files finale was horrendous, but i managed to get to a place where i was happy with it, for example), and i think that applies here -- even more so because i really did love so many aspects of that finale. i don’t necessarily want to linger in my own mind over what i disliked, especially considering the show is over. although i did want to air out my thoughts. 

i still love this show. i loved a lot of episodes this season, frustrations aside. season 5 will forever be my only live tma experience, and it got me through one of the worst years of my life, and i am very grateful for this. i genuinely did just want to air out my thoughts and get them all down on paper. these are just my opinions -- i don’t want to criticize anyone who feels differently about the finale, or the season as a whole. everyone’s opinion is their own. 

i feel a lot, lot better about mag 200, to the point of genuinely loving it. i hope my appreciation only grows as i get further from that frenzied first day and have more time to sit with it. and i can’t wait to see all the art and read all of the amazing fics that are going to come out of this ending (and write some of my own). it’s been a wild ride. i’m glad i was here for it.

[prince-toffee]

I don’t care if the character is good. I care if the character is interesting. I don’t know where the morality police came from, I don’t know why people try to justify actions of villains, I don’t know why all characters need to be good. I don’t care if they’re justified, or right. ‘Do I care when they’re on screen?’ is the right question. The character can be a pure saint, but what does it matter if they’re pure good if they’re boring to watch? I love villains, love, love, love villains, but if a villain is just... boring, then what the hell is the point of even showing them on screen?!

For me spop is a prime example of this. I’m sorry, I really am, but I don’t care about... anything in that show, except for Hordak, Entrapta, and maybe Shadow Weaver. The Princesses do nothing for me. This one’s the sassy one, this one’s the hippie one, this one’s the blue one, again. I don’t care. I’m sorry. We learn nothing about them! We have no flashbacks, no lore, nothing! Show me Mermista’s father. The Whispering Woods are apparently sentient, can Perfuma talk to it? Show me how Frosta’s parents died, and give her a consistent personality. In her bio it says Netossa doesn’t have a kingdom, why? Show us Spinerella’s kingdom. Show me Entrapta’s backstory, her parents, her childhood, explore her kingdom! I’m interested, show me more! Show me The First Ones, they’re evil or something right? That was the plot twist, right? I think? Why weren’t we shown a satisfying and fulfilling climax where Adora kicks their asses? Show me George’s past battling against the Horde. Angella is immortal according to her bio, maybe. Show me that!

This show is bone dry! No meat! This show somehow manages to be empty and slow and drag while also going at break neck speeds. The only character I can’t complain about, who is my favourite Princess is Glimmer. Glimmer is great, I love Glimmer. Not s1-3 Glimmer, s4 Glimmer. Compromised Glimmer. For three seasons Glimmer was just another Princess, Adora’s best friend. But after Angella dies, then it gets fascinating. Glimmer has the responsibilities of Queen thrust apon her, and all those lines spoken in season 3 are paid off, Glimmer slowly becomes her mother even though she doesn’t want to be, she doesn’t want to be a coward, she wants to be at the frontlines helping her friends. And that pressure forces her to consult Shadow Weaver and go down a darker path. Her rise to power paralleling Catra that season, and then her descent catalysed by desire for power paralleling Shadow Weaver who forges the same relationship with her as with Micah, it’s all great. Glimmer wants to, is responsible for, protecting her kingdom, the whole world and as the Horde grows in power she feels the need to use increasingly more drastic measures to protect everyone.

Glimmer isn’t at her best in this season, but she is the most interesting at this point. And then in s5 she likes Bow I guess. The Mara Razz stuff is also pretty interesting, but that was in s4 and by that point I was just turning off my brain. I kinda feel like s4 was a filler season.

And then, when I’m given so little, we get to Hordak. And he, I cannot stress this enough how much this means to me even though it is the bare minimum, he has a flashback, an artistic, stylised flashback! With a thematic colour palette. With a tease that will be paid off, of our endgame bad guy. A flashback that tells us about the character’s backstory, about the lore of the universe, about themes that are relevant to the whole meaning behind the character and to the conversation he and Entrapta are having in that moment. We see the world from his perspective, we don’t agree with him, but we understand him. And guess what? That scene wasn’t even originally meant to be apart of the episode! Because of course it wasn’t! Because spop is the definition of white bread!

Fuck! Shadow Weaver does it even better! She has an entire episode dedicated to her, and it’s all a flashback, it’s amazing, we see her younger, we see what makes her go down a darker path, we see a meaningful relationship between her and Micah, we see LORE, LORE, LORE, I LOVE LORE, it’s lore that makes no sense timeline-wise, and complicates everything even more without expanding or explaining anything, and not paying it off later, but at least it’s something. I love Shadow Weaver, from her design, which is perfection to her voice which is gorgeous to her actions and writing which is marvellous. I love this irredeemable pure evil disney stepmother because she’s interesting, she’s fascinating! She steals every scene she’s in! Shadow Weaver is the best character in this entire show. I can’t stress how amazing Weaver is, and we all slept on her. I swear she’s like the only competent character in this entire show. She’s refreshing.

And to show you that I’m not just an edgy loser that hates heroes because they’re dumb and villains rock, I’ll say this. Not even Horde Prime is as interesting as those two. He’s this universe conquering monster that is pure evil and that is right up my alley, I should love him.... but I don’t. He sucks. He’s nothing. I feel nothing. I’m not intrigued, not interested, not captured. You know why? Because he’s a reskinned Princess. He’s not important, he doesn’t matter, he’s a cardboard cut out. He alludes to somethings that may or may not have happened in the past, we never see any of it. He’s like a weird Catradora shipper for some reason? He’s this super powerful monster that destroyed planets, he conquered half the universe, he brainwashes half our main cast, and the planet, and yet... I feel nothing... because deep down you know... that this is the last season and the hero will win and there will be no lasting ramifications, and if there will be we won’t see it. Oh no he couldn’t trace them because the ship blah blah blah. Fuck you. Sucks. The heroes are untouchable, he’s not scary, he’s incompetent, oh so you can just mind control people? and you didn’t do that right away, why? He’s stupid. And yeah Hordak is stupid too, but Hordak has a backstory and a love interest and thematic meaning, unexplored, but it’s there. Prime has nothing. I don’t know who or what he is. He’s an after thought. And what contributes to me not giving a fuck is the fact that s5 as a whole is terrible and it rots my brain, and I turned off my brain as I skimmed that season, I blacked out.

Anyway back to Hordak and Weaver. It’s strange when we get to them, because Hordak, in particular, is so unimportant and is so separated from the rest of the show, it feels like he’s in a completely different show from the rest of the cast. Even Weaver is important, she’s directly connected to Adora and more importantly Catra. Hordak? Sure his actions matter to the plot, his backstory and his lore matter to the plot, but he himself doesn’t matter. Sure the portal is the catalyst for the s3 finale and it calls Prime, the clone trauma is important to Catra’s arc in s5, but Hordak the person, is unimportant, Hordak the individual doesn’t matter. He’s less then a side character. He’s so disconnected from the entire show. He feels like he’s in a completely different show. Which strangely enough was welcoming for me. It felt like I could just like Hordak and Entrapta in that small corner of the fanon over there, away from all the drama. Hordak, from his design to his personality to his existing backstory, was so different and stood out from amongst the crowd.

At first it was wow this guy looks cool I’ll proceed to theorise what he’s about, and then when we actually got a story behind him at first I was disappointed, but I quickly began digging into the potential of it and you couldn’t stop me. An exiled and shunned clone with a genetic disease who wishes to prove himself to an uncaring god, his mental state is so fascinating to pick apart, don’t tell this isn’t the most interesting thing in this show... I don’t know what the conclusion of this cluster fuck is.

i hate wrong hordak

[aceandart]

Hey! I read your recent post and it read differently to a lot of posts under the destiel tag as of now. Personally, I’ve seen the first 5 seasons (watched it about 5 yrs ago), but haven’t been caught up to date on any of the recent stuff other than the Destiel apocalypse that’s happening right now. Could you explain the following?

“...mostly being this show is a misogynistic racist homophobic consent issue-ridden pile of bad writing “.

I was contemplating returning to the show and tuning in for the missing seasons, but what you said about it has now placed me on the fence. Could you elaborate and advise?

Thank you so much! I appreciate seeing an honest post that doesn’t sugar-coat or overlook bad writing/negative characteristics of a show!! :)

[re this]

Hi!

Well, I feel like the finale probably took care of any fence-sitting you were doing (and sorry I couldn't reply sooner), but actually my answer wasn't going to change even if the finale was okay (good, imo, was always a stretch): No, I personally would not recommend watching this show. and while my answer is mostly because of the things I am going to list to answer the rest of this question, I was also going to say - you dropped the show in s5 and that was five years ago? Whatever caused you to drop it in the first place, it probably got a lot worse. (It literally doesn't even matter what your major grievance was, they have since doubled, tripled down in terms of how bad it was.) Trying to marathon through ten seasons (20-23 episodes long each) is hard; trying to marathon through all of that to get something without a satisfactory ending is a lot of emotional labor for no payout. It's not just that this is a bad show (though it really, really is, on every level); it's that you have already tried it, you tried arguably the better seasons of it, and you still didn't want to stick to it. By the nature of how tumblr works, it can make anything look so much better than it is, just because in general the people you see hyping it up *like* the product, have decided to devote their fandom time to it, are highlighting the choicest parts of it. spn was always about the potential around the edges, the story fans made of it; the actual product was always secondary to the could have, should have beens, and this gets truer the later into the show you get. I'm not saying there weren't some great episodes, some great scenes, and even some great mini-arcs, but it was a drop in the bucket to everything else. and I'm positing this answer on the idea that you are asking because you want to watch the show, and not because you want to use the show as a supplemental for your fandom experience, but if it is the latter, I'll just say I'm currently heavily involved in reading fanfic for a fandom I've never actually watched a whole episode for, and while I'm probably missing some context I'm still highly enjoying it. fandom, honestly, so often becomes so much more than the bones we build it on. and if you want a little more, catch some "greatest hits" videos or catch up on just some of the “must-see” episodes and save yourself from having to watch all the moments in-between, because there are a lot more of them than the good parts. very few shows improve as they age out, and before the nov 5th resurgence if you weren't already following spn blogs, likely the main spn meme you were coming across was the annual 'salt and burn this dead horse' that went out after each season renewal. the tl;dr answer is really, it's not worth it. (to be honest, at the end of the day, despite the sheer amount of time, energy, and words I've put into this fandom over the years, and I put in a lot, I didn't actually like the majority of the show. so, you know, grain of salt on my opinion. then again, you left it seasons before I did.) That said, buckle up, cause now I'm gonna tell you why:

Literally, The Shitty Writing

I feel like the finale speaks for this point by itself, but before I get into all the "problematic" bad writing spn does, I want to talk about the fact that the writers are also just fundamentally bad at the craft of writing.

continuity errors. they’d change their lore/creature ability to fit their plot. (the reapers esp got the end of that bad stick.)  the characters will often forget (monster-slaying) solutions that worked before (holy wood, yarrow, christo, creative approaches like exorcisms on recording, spells to remove angels from their vessels, bullet with a devil’s trap, etc).  the writers forgot their own timeline more than once. the random retcons they'd do. sometimes it would also lead to plot holes.

which, speaking of, they had plenty of

there's also things that don't count as plot holes but are very large missed opportunities (ex: Dean spends a year in Purgatory and no one recognizes him? he doesn't bring up his daughter?)

I don't even know what this one would fall under, but if a character wasn't right in front of them, they would forget that character's existence. not just Adam (though that was a big one), but there were so many secondary characters that even in places it would make sense to mention them, much less bring them around, they didn't. or because they would not expand their main character list, characters who should have been around a lot more than they were (*cough* Cas, but that's an easy one, I'm also talking about characters like Kevin) would have these huge gaps between episodes that didn't make sense

they don't really have character development. this isn't to say the brothers don't change, they do, but at the same time the characters face the exact same (internal) arguments over and over again, never resolving or growing from them; they just have more examples when they think about them and it gets worse and more unhealthy because of the new weight added to it. the problem with their brothers only format, and the problem with their biphobia but more on that later, is that Dean wasn't actually allowed to grow out of his John Winchester's son role, to let himself be comfortable (and dare to be happy) with himself because that meant changing the story into something they didn't like and/or didn't know how to do. at the same time, allowing Sam to grow meant breaking the Brothers Only format, because as the show stated multiple times, Sam's happy ending did not involve hunting.

and with that, they sometimes flattened the characters so badly they became caricatures more than anything else.  hell there's a whole season where Dean goes evil, and people had a hard time realizing it, which was not because it was a subtle slow descent but because shitty pacing, uneven (and contradictory) episodes, previous actions that weren't written as being evil but were the the exact same thing as when he was evil that were supposed to be "signs", and how they chose to represent that evil meant it was really hard to figure out that was what they were doing and not just writing Dean as more of an asshole than they previously were.  (he's not evil, he's just a prick.) and I don't mean I had trouble telling, I mean fandom as a whole had major arguments about it, much less the general viewing public.

the series finale put a definite end to the idea they would follow through on even one of their main series themes (family don't end in blood, free will vs destiny, always keep fighting, etc), but this was something they would build up to addressing and then just anti-climatically let fizzle out in multiple seasons. character and relationship themes (not just destiel but the brothers co/counter-dependency, the importance of found family, Dean's growth from Daddy's Blunt Little Instrument and Sam's acceptance that he deserves better/agency in his own life, etc) would be built and broken down in an effort to drag the question out into another season. it wasn't two steps forward, one step back, it was a reboot.

their filler vs arc episode ratios: there's nothing wrong with the Monster of the Week format as a stylistic choice, but this show

a) would kill its own plot momentum to focus on MotW episodes. [part of this is the general spn problem they created of constantly trying to one-up their season's Big Bad, which I understand but also means one episode they are going against The Most Powerful Being in Existence (for the Fifth Time) and then rather than focus on that world-ending threat, they hunt vampires for like six episodes straight. they had a very bad balance where rather than continuously weave the larger arc into the season, or at least build characters and relationships, they'd jam it all around the season premiere, finale, and mid-season finale/premiere episodes, and then all the rest was just, bullshit cases where nothing got resolved or had a lesson stick around for the next episode, making them very skippable. also more on this under the homophobia section]

b) the filler episodes contradicted themselves and the main plot all the time.

c) sometimes they focused so much on making the b-plot a mirror they forgot to write a coherent a-plot. also: sometimes they focused so much on making the b-plot a mirror they forgot to write a coherent b-plot. 

I cringed my way through more than one episode of dialogue

the recycled plots

more on this in the next sections, but either they didn't notice, actively didn't care, or purposefully chose to overtly and subtly imply or state a bunch of really fucked up things, and then never address them at all

speaking of never addressing anything, I realize this is a fandom vs canon battle in general, but so many things get swept under the rug as they move on to the next issue (ex: Dean put an angel in Sam's body to "heal him", violating his consent and exasperating his issue with telling what reality is - a huge issue from previous season - and once the Mark of Cain story really took over the subject gets dropped.) 

death is so cheap on this show. and I don't just mean that the revolving doorway of resurrections means it's hard to get worked up about a death because (as long as the character was a white man and especially the brothers) there was a high chance they'd be back, and I don't just mean that their Murder Is the First, Last, and Best Solution to Any Issue, Ever means the faceless and not so faceless hoards of villains, monsters, and humans who get caught up in it are just hand waved as one of those things (they have ways of saving vessels and the later into the show the less likely they are to even try), but that there was no point in investing in (esp non-white, male) secondary characters because chances were they'd be dead pretty fast.  I'm honestly shocked characters like Jody (who actually at one point was in the middle of being killed off on-screen and then we didn't see her for eight episodes, so we assumed she was dead) made it until the end.

(speaking of dead characters though, what was with the habit of bringing them back constantly? just don't kill them in the first place! create new ones and let those ones stick around instead!)

when they can't use death as their solution, the other answer the writers fall back on is Deus Ex Machina

buckleming were a writing duo who had their own bingo cards that included things like shitty pacing, OOC-ness, flat one-liners, etc, and the question wasn't if you'd get bingo, it was a question of how often you got it during their episodes. at some point throughout the show, it became hard to tell what was a buckleming episode and what was just another episode in the season.  aka the writing quality went WAY DOWN as a whole

you know the tv trope Idiot Ball? or Idiot Plot?  spn should have it's own page for both. 

they constantly break viewer's trust, which is the basic tenet of what not to do when it comes to telling a story. (again, not just destiel, though the queerbaiting is a major part of it because it happened all the time to avoid actually answering that question.) when a writer violates their character's or story's core identity for a 'twist', it needs to have been carefully built so that it's a surprise to the viewer, not a betrayal. (you may not have seen it coming, but when you look back you can see the groundwork.) these writers, every time, chose the "shocking" choice regardless of how much they need to break canon or character to do so. their twists are either obvious, and/or they don't make sense with the rest of their story/lore of the show, and the viewer is left feeling stupid for believing they have more respect for the audience/characters than they do.

I realize this is pretty subjective, but huge swaths of it are just boring. fandom made the experience of watching it interesting, not the show itself.

and yet, for all of that, the quality of writing (while painful to have to sit through) was not the worst thing about it.

(note for the following: I stopped watching after s11, but I'm sure some if not all of these are still relevant until the very end)

Misogyny and Consent Issues: Is There a Limit? Signs Point to No

there is honestly so much under this topic I don't even know where to start. i'm going to focus on patterns rather than specific incidences, because otherwise I'll be writing this for a week, but just know I can easily provide examples of all of these because this is literally what I spent years writing meta on.

female characters were more likely to die quicker/earlier (esp vs other other male characters with similar reoccurring roles/characterizations), stay dead, and die often at the hands of their loved ones and/or in Stranger Danger situations. they died for man!pain. they died for fodder. they died as a sacrifice. they were turned into love interests (whether that was their original role or not) and then killed. they were put in mortal danger and then not given resolution for several episodes (Schrödinger's death.) they died in ways we've seen male characters survive. their deaths - the violence enacted on them - was constantly, consistently sexualized, and the camera lingered.

when it came to villains the show would go out of its way to kill the female one first, or act like she's the more pressing issue so that the male character could hang around longer (and honestly by male character I often mean specifically Crowley and the season's female villain. not only that but they'd often break canon to kill off a female character, and break canon to save Crowley/a male character)

when you compare the treatment of reoccurring female characters vs male characters who occupied either similar roles or characterizations, female characters were often punished and/or treated poorly for the same attitude and/or actions of their compared male character, who often got not just a (free) pass, but more screen time, dialogue, and development

they have more than once used the story line of underage girl seducing a grown man. (it was a whole season arc even.) this is esp galling when you find out about crew member Jim Michaels, who sexually harassed and assaulted (minor) fans

(btw, not the only crew/cast member to do so! and still be invited to cons!)

Dean Winchester (who is narratively treated as the moral judgement for the show) has blamed more than one rape victim for their assault/trauma. they often get abused (or outright killed) for stopping their abuser. 

Dean is ok with flirting with/leering at barely legal teenage girls. already sketchy when he's 26, really gross when he's in his mid/late thirties 

speaking of Dean. based on past personal experience I'm going to say up front people do not like me saying this, but that doesn't mean what I'm saying is wrong or even based on interpretations: Dean has more than one relationship that if it isn't rape, falls under extreme dubious consent.

there's actually a lot of rape (or "extreme dubious consent") and assault/molestation, both shown and mentioned: Cas and April, the cases were men take away free will and then have sex with the women (Ben Edlund was one of the better writers of series and even he did this a couple of times), Crowley orgy (and demon sex in general), random women in some episodes, Sam and meta!Gen, Becky and Sam, Sam and Lucifer, Dean and Alastair, several monsters (like the siren) and their victims, male characters secretly watching female characters undress/be naked, and so on. Dean was often attacked sexually by men, Sam by women. most of this is never addressed, never treated like what it is, and/or is made into a joke

and there's even more rape jokes beyond that, sub-sections: prison, vessels/demons, angel possession, sex work, childhood abuse, monster of the week, sexuality, etc.  huge chunks if not whole episodes were devoted to making what amounted to a rape joke. 

often ignored non-sexual consent (esp Dean’s actions, including a lot of mind-wiping and violations of body autonomy)

everything about Sam and body autonomy - he is frequently violated (multiple characters have possessed him; he is fed demon blood); how he feels unclean, how he feels disconnected from his own body, how he often is forced to act outside of his control and then blamed for those decisions

actually, Cas goes through that a lot too; he is trained, brainwashed, and forced to do things without his consent, and goes through major depressive episodes because of it

this show has a pattern of girls who are kidnapped, (sexually abused), raised in isolation, and expected to develop some perfect moral compass of acceptable behavior and were then killed off when they didn't. meanwhile, male characters get fourth, fifth chances.

female characters (and I'm talking about ones with speaking roles, who play an actual part in the plot, who are sometimes in multiple episodes) are more likely to be unnamed or given no last name

are you a Mother on spn (as in, that's your role)? you're either fridged for man!pain or abusive or both

it rarely could pass the bechdel test (including in s9 don't believe those fandom lies), and that's including episodes that focused on female characters. if the test included that the characters have to be named, that (small) number probably gets cut in half. if that test included both women are alive at the end...  

female monsters prove they deserve to live by killing off their family to prove they're the "good kind"  (this is not necessary for male monster characters)

female characters are not allowed to get vengeance

they took the Virgin vs Whore dynamic (and that that's all women are), and devoted a whole episode to it, but in general it underlines of ton of interactions, esp with regards to Dean and women.  {I actually never got around to writing it, but women tended to fall into four main classifications on this show, though overlap definitely allowed: Victim [sub-categories: Fodder, (Dean) Mirror, Mother], Love Interest, Sex Object, and Villain/Obstacle. very few female characters were either allowed to outgrow their category or didn't start in one.} 

we see the male characters assault female characters but it's okay because [insert supernatural reason here], ignoring that whatever explanations for why it's being allowed, we are still visually being shown this violence against women, and often from our "heroes"  (the women are then tossed away from the narrative after the violence and again, their aftermath gets regulated to off-screen who cares)

female characters were only allowed to be "so badass"; female hunters often fought female monsters or they lost/got regulated to the sidelines in battles. this gets even more contrasted as a male character/hunter will often do a nod about how "badass" she is, even as she is very easily beaten.

 the whorepobia of this show

had a tendency to strip female characters down to their underwear/make them nude before torturing them, and then adding sexualized torture on top of that

outside of actor injuries affecting this (like one of them broke his arm so he had a sling for a few episodes), female characters are often more likely to visually carry the bruises/violence of violent incidences much longer than male characters

gratuitous filming shots of breasts, asses

the use of the words: bitch, skank, whore, slut; the play on words they do so they can say "pussy"  

taking female myths/figures and reducing them to a cheap, sexist storyline (Amazons, Artemis, Lilith, Eve, witches - who are only allowed to live/be "good" if they're men, and are otherwise in league with demons/are evil and lose)

they often kept a character but switched out her actress; helps with the disposable feeling

how they treat women's ages (ex: Jody is not allowed to be a love interest to Sam because she's older than him/calling Dean 'kiddo'. ex: Rowena is played by a woman fifteen years younger than Crowley's actor. ex: Amara being one of the oldest things in existence but still having to age her way up.)

their treatment of teenage girls, ranging from how they sexualized them to expecting them to save themselves to treating them like they are grown adults and not children to the way they kept killing the ones who posted selfies to the fact the pr more than once used the tag "teenage girls - the scariest thing ever" for Claire's episodes 

actions and lasting legacies by female characters often got erased or passed on to male characters instead

it's a time honored tradition to treat certain monsters as metaphors for things. specifically for spn, they often use werewolves and vampires for sexual assault. (not the first to do so, not the last to do so.) however, that part of it gets textually glossed over, or treated as a joke, more often than not

and for all the patterns I talk about above, there's plenty of other one-off examples of misogyny/sexism or consent issues/rape culture this show did. like that time a grown man sniffed the bra of a dead teenage girl. not for any reason, just because it was there and that's what dudes do, apparently.

Racism: All the Flavors(+ Bonus Sexism)

when you compare the treatment of reoccurring white characters vs characters of color who occupied either similar roles or characterizations, characters of color were often punished and/or treated poorly for the same attitude and/or actions of their compared white character, who often got not just a (free) pass, but more screen time, dialogue, and development. 

usually Black men but in general men of color: 

a) got humiliated (often using feminization or infantilization) before their death  

b) had a more violent death; had a death that visually echoed racism (lynching, shot in the back, etc)

c) often used (racialized) rhetoric that in the real world is used against them

d) often filmed in ways to highlight their physicality, to portray them animalistically, to dehumanize them

e) even when victims, will add context to make them partially responsible for their death

characters of color were the villains or antagonists, very rarely "good guys"

this was a very white show, and while I'm speaking about speaking roles, reoccurring characters, and characters who get their own arcs, I'm also talking about background characters

using lore from groups they should not have and/or turned creatures into racist caricatures

having white actors play characters they shouldn't have

heavily depended on stereotypes for their characters of color

the treatment (esp narrative empathy level) of white angels vs angels of color.  again, screen time and character development differences between the two

a summary of (East) Asian woman on this show: fetishized porn/sexualized, “tiger mom”, Yoko Ono/The Girlfriend, monster. they were often silent or had no dialogue. microaggressions (usually spoken by Dean) were leveled at them.

antisemitism (styne issue, erasure of the Judah Initiative, Lilith, the golem)

like the sexism, just had random racist lines or visuals throughout the show (and sometimes those came in the absence of who should be there); some groups literally did not have enough characters to make a pattern, which is why this section looks a lot shorter than it really is

like for ex, I'm trying to stick with patterns but seriously, they put a Black woman in a dog collar and said her white boyfriend was her master/that she belonged to him

the ignorance of how white privilege worked to make them palatable

the replacement and/or elevation of a white character over a character of color (Lisa over Cassie, Bobby over Missouri, Charlie over Kevin in terms of how they were treated under Found Family, etc) 

how they treated non-Christian Gods: easily killed, evil, weak. they often repackaged them into a Christian framework and made them lesser than.

Bi/Homophobia, Queerbaiting, and Using Fans

they butchered Charlie.  they killed her, they killed her in a way that involved leaving behind plot, characters, and logic to do so, they killed her and used the violence of it for "shock," they butchered her and stuck her in a bathtub.  the guy who wrote Charlie in every other episode (Robbie Thompson, one of the better writers of the show) didn't write her last episode (assumption: because he wouldn't) and then he arguably left the show over her death. at one of the cons (comic-con?) the cast literally turned their backs when a fan questioned Carver (the showrunner) about what he did because they wanted no part of it. there was a mass exodus of fandom after they killed her (and another portion actually hung around because they got destiel queerbaited to stick out the rest of the season, and then they left.) she was un-apologetically queer, she was found family, she was widely popular, and they killed her for no reason at all. they didn't just Bury The Gay (their only reoccurring one), they salted and burnt the ground

they spent over a decade queerbaiting Destiel. they built queerbaiting destiel into the structure of the show: season opening/first couple of episodes whetted the appetite, which they then backed away from (usually removing Cas from Dean's physical area) and around this time they'd usually have some kind of heterosexual love interest, then mid-season they'd have some room to be together and share feelings, Cas would again disappear but this time they'd have some bi!Dean thrown in to keep you going, a few episodes before the end they'd have a major connection moment (I need you, I love you), and then the season would end with something to keep destiel fans occupied with during summer. it was never a trajectory, it was a cycle; just enough for plausible deniability but more than enough for fans to believe in. they had whole seasons where the b-plot were mirrors for destiel. they tried to sell DVDs by promising destiel cut scenes. they'd remove Cas from huge chunks of episodes just because they didn't want destiel interacting in the same physical space. they filmed them (I'm talking camera angles, physical positioning, etc) romantically.  (and sometimes, someone on crew/the network would accidentally reveal how not-fucking-happening destiel would be, and then backtrack when they realized fandom’s uproar.) 

a) Dean was only allowed to care so much for Cas, the narrative would only give him so much room to mourn/miss him. (Sam too.) it's beyond my general complaint that the writers/bros lose all interest in a character if they are not right in front of them (if they even cared when they were), but specifically they will spend episodes talking about how Cas is family, how much they care, and then because Dean and Cas cannot share the screen they come up with asinine reasons to remove Cas, which means Dean/the bros do not help him on his issues, and he is cast adrift until they need him, a push/pull of show vs tell with contradictory answers but made a lot of Cas/Destiel fans argue Cas deserved better.  

b) they also devoted seasons to the (subtextual) love triangle of Dean/Cas/Crowley. (I wish I was fucking kidding)

c) "you construct intricate rituals which allow you to touch the skin of other men": the way they use violence to supplement affection (which is actually a larger pattern with Dean and his loved ones in general, but specifically the show is willing to show - multiple times - Dean and Cas being violent (often with an arguably sexualized filming to it) in conjunction with or as replacement for expressing their care.)  other side of this: hugging/physical affection outside of the shoulder/hand thing is reserved for escaping or coming back from death, if then (and it took seasons and a few deaths to even get that.) 

d) "buddy"  

that time Dean was allowed to be textually attracted to his mother and a literal dog (who was visually made to be very clearly a girl dog), but his attraction to men always stays subtextual and/or treated as a joke

they spent the whole show queerbaiting bi!Dean. aside comments, checking out other guys, getting flustered by men he finds attractive, metaphors, mirror characters, the heterosexual overcompensation [which is different from but comes from a similar place of the macho compensation to counteract how he gets sexualized/feminized], everything with Cas and how they play that relationship romantically and with sexual attraction, the character development that led to his relaxation of his macho compensation coinciding with increasing subtextual readings of his bisexuality (and domesticity), the inspiration for his name/character is bi, his relationship to Charlie and the pattern of fictive kinship, etc etc.  

why are angels straight???? why do they have gender???? (why are they interested in sex???)  minus the queerbaiting of destiel, they spent a lot of seasons pushing Cas into a heterosexual box. other angels were often pushed into heterosexual boxes too. (or left in subtext and then killed.) closest we got to playing with gender was Raphael and maybe Hannah, and at least with Raphael it was not without its issues. (also: both dead.)

random transphobic lines

homosexuality was often treated like a joke/punchline. queer characters/scenes were often treated like a joke/punchline.

outside of Charlie, queer characters were small, two-bit roles, extremely rare, and often killed

how they treated and showcased fandom space and esp queer fans in-show (much less how they treated them in real life), comes from a deeply sexist and homophobic place 

The Show Was 328 Episodes Long And the thing is, these are the four big categories, but it's not like this is it. The show flip-flops on calling John an abusive parent/that the bros are childhood abuse survivors. The show doesn't even really call out when Dean is being abusive to Sam, and the way they always, always go back to the Brothers Only format means they are often ignoring or straight-up forgetting the unhealthy aspects of their relationship. The show ignores how their trauma builds (and all the things that happen because of it), disconnecting the current issues with the ones that came before. The way they flip flop on monster morality and never address what the winchester bros do to people who happen to be monsters but aren't evil (or definitely aren't as evil as they are).  How violence is always the answer. How the "saving people'' part of hunting got dropped the later the show goes on, and red shirt vessels/hosts die in droves. Depending on how you view it, the way they treat alcoholism and addiction. The ableism. The line between the narrative's opinion on acceptable violence and not is inconsistent and dependent on how much they like the character doing the violence vs who the violence is being done to. Etc.

(The above lists are definitely missing stuff. I haven't done anything in this fandom in like four years, I've forgotten a lot.) I'm not saying people didn't enjoy this show. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy (parts of) this show. I'm saying whether you are basing it on things like writing craft or things like 'social justice issues', this show is bad. It is of poor quality. I really don't know how to explain the hold it has on people, how a show can be charismatic, how fandom was able to squeeze so much out of so little, but that's probably what's got you attracted into the idea of watching it again. If you're thinking of watching it because you want a coherent, well done story, look elsewhere. The finale was the literal last straw, not the only one. 

[gayregis]

Hi good morning can we talk about twn ciri for a sec? There is something about the way she’s portrayed by the actress that just drives me CRAZY and I don’t know quite how to put my finger on it. I think she’s just so reserved and serious and haughty, whereas in the books she’s really playful and lively and exaggerated and just?? Has emotions?? And also I was spoiled by Peter Kenny’s fantastic accent for ciri and can’t think of her any other way. ANYWAY WHAT R UR THOUGHTS CUZ IM SURE THEY’RE GOOD

ohohoh yes. just as a prefacee and for context, freya allan (ciri’s actress) is 18 years old, and i am 19 years old, so to say i didn’t like her acting in twn isn’t me bullying or being harsh on a minor. in addition, i also don’t think her acting was bad. i think her acting was great, but it was just out of character for ciri, at least the ciri we know from the books... i do not think the directors treated ciri with enough weight as she needed to have in the narrative. like with yennefer, they gave her way more screen time and much less significance in the overall story, because the moments that they gave them to be on screen were just pure filler with no effect on the character development, relationship development, setting, themes... the audience never learned anything useful when they were on screen, besides lore about aretuza and cintra that would immediately escape their minds after the episode was done.

i know for a fact that this “out of character” acting for ciri (her being “so reserved and serious and haughty”) was a result of the directors and people running the show, and NOT freya herself as an actress. like with joey batey and anya chalotra i think, they got the short stick in this deal. they’re actors, so their profession is to act, but they don’t always get to decide HOW they’re supposed to act and portray these beloved characters. that’s what the director is for, right? to direct how scenes play out, to make sure the characters are in-character. and the writers are the ones that write the actors’ lines and the scenes they exist in, so “then it’s just like any other place,” or “who’s yennefer,” and other ridiculous garbage throwaway lines were the writers�� fault and not the actors. i just think it’s important to establish that even though yes, freya is an older teenager/young adult, she’s not responsible for a lot of decisions involving ciri and the character. plus since she is 18 and just got done being 17, i feel like this is the first time she’s actually been able to legally make her own decisions. 

plus in this topic, because i’ve never mentioned it anywhere before, i’d like to bring light to how it’s super shady of netflix to decide to hire an actress for ciri who is BARELY an adult actor, because child actors (as opposed to adult ones) are restricted by many different laws concerning how many hours they can work, etc. the fact that freya is 18 means that they can give her more work and disregard any regulations that may have applied to a child actor, and i think i literally read this from lauren hissrich in an interview, that “older actors are easier to work with than child actors” or something like this, that it’s difficult to shoot with child actors due to the immense restrictions. so although they phrased the casting choice for freya allan more in the sense of “well, we were GOING to cast someone younger, but freya was just so fantastic in auditions that we NEEDED her in this production” is suspicious to me, i think they did it so they wouldn’t have to deal with the headache of laws surrounding child actors (note that i do NOT doubt that freya is a great actress, i liked her acting, i mean look at the scenes she is in! she is actually acting, unlike henry cavill).

speaking of henry cavill, anyone want to mention his 19 year old girlfriend or his “opinions” on the #MeToo movement? no? my more conspiratorial theory is that they might have just wanted to get a barely legal actress for ciri because if cavill were to “do anything”... ahem... it would be less complicated for all of the legality than if he “did anything” to a child. i’m not calling cavill a r*pist but he has made his views on women explicitly clear, and a LOT falls under the umbrella of sexual assault and harassment. innappropriate comments, etc... i don’t trust him to respect women just as much as i don’t trust him to act.

that was a big preface that pretty much went nowhere, apologies... but i think it’s significant to look at the context around the actor or actress when they’re likely being a tad exploited on set. but yes, ciri does come off as super out of character to me in the majority of scenes she is in. it’s because her character was set up to be a white feminist fantasy of being declared innocent from the sins of her family because she feels bad about it, with her “being so privileged and then she finds out her grandmamma committed mass genocide and she has to realize that her royal ways!” instead of anything related to what we see in the books, of a vulnerable child losing that childhood and trying to cling to some sense of normalcy and family. they set her up as “a princess” and not “a child.” 

in the books, she’s just a child, and then geralt learns she’s a princess and teases her that she doesn’t look much like one, being lost in a forest with a snotty nose... she’s not introduced in a royal court surrounded by noble guests. i doubt that books ciri spent all of her time in court, either... according to the lore, she wouldn’t even be able to sit down and she would have to stand in calanthe’s presence (season of storms, the princes must stand in the royal court alongside their father while coral gets to sit because she is a sorceress... of course, this is cidaris and not cintra, but it still stands). she is a princess, but she has difficulty acting like one... it’s something i’d rather erase from my mind because it’s one of those “problematic points of canon that only exist because they live in a medieval society,” but it’s made clear that calanthe gave ciri the belt for misbehaving, multiple times. ciri is obviously interested in more childlike pursuits and acts outside of her station a lot. after all, she is the reason that their entourage got pulled into brokilon in the sword of destiny, because ciri fucking ran away since she didn’t want to be brought to and married off to prince kirsten of verden.

again on ciri’s age, she was 8 or 9 when we first meet her in the books, and 14 when we meet her in the netflix series. that’s a vast amount of difference in age, not only by years, but by development and experience. an 8 year old is a 3rd grader, a 14 year old is a high school freshman. i think that makes a lot of difference in not only how much agency a character is treated with, but how an audience views them. i mean, 14 is a good age for a YA novel protagonist - think harry potter or percy jackson. ciri in the netflix adaptation was set up more as someone relatable (to those younger watching) as she’s like the hero of her own story! she escapes from her evil evil evil pursuers and has this great power she doesn’t yet understand! whereas books ciri is meant more for an audience to feel like geralt toward - protective, parental, you find a child in the middle of the woods, and you’re thinking, “what’s with this... sassy lost child?”

sapkowski is also the master of a good character reveal. i think ciri, cahir, regis, even characters like vilgefortz, have these GREAT reveals as to who they were all along! surprise, surprise, there is no black knight of cintra, it’s just a young man paralyzed with fear and pain! surprise, surprise, the guy that knew a lot about vampires and lived near a cemetery and dresses in all black is a vampire (ok, this reveal is weaker... but you’ve got to admit, the actual reveal scene... alright). 

ciri had a GREAT character reveal in the books. since we see everything from geralt’s perspective, she’s just some child, she’s just some brat geralt finds in the wilderness, he doesn’t have ANY reason to feel any sort of way to her, and he practically adopts her and she feels safe with him. he recognizes her vulnerability as a child and does anything to protect her and guide her. this is what is meant by “something more,” their relationship from the beginning was something more than strictly destiny. destiny may have led them together, but it did not make them become family, they did that themselves. and later when geralt learns that ciri is the princess of cintra, the child surprise promised to him, does he even consider destiny as part of the equation. and this is actually what drives them apart, because geralt believes that he will and refuses to ruin her life by introducing her to the blade, and thus, death. because it’s not incredibly special that ciri is a child surprise, i wouldn’t say it’s horribly common, but it’s not like she’s the only one. and she’s definitely not the only child to be taken/taken in and raised by witchers. and geralt knows what being raised as a witcher is like, and he refuses to do that to her, because he actually loves this child as his daughter. and this is where the conflict stems from, because geralt spit in destiny’s face and said, fuck you, i’m not going to hurt this child. and destiny said, i’m going to hurt her anyways.

in the netflix series? the first time we see ciri... is in cintra! the surprise is RUINED!! child surprise, more like child already-revealed. the audience has no reason to watch anymore, because we already know who she is and what happens to her. they literally kill calanthe and eist off in the first episode, and then expect the audience to CARE about them during episode 4 when they adapted a question of price. in the books, dandelion telling geralt the accounts of the massacre of cintra was a heavy scene, it was a tragic scene, and you knew somehow that it was geralt’s fault because of how he had refuted destiny, you had the lore on your side if you had been reading the stories beforehand, you understood why this was happening and what has happened to ciri.

also side note, i sincerely think the massacre of cintra is better coming from geralt’s best friend, someone he’s known for years and trusts immensely, also a poet so his account is horrifyingly immaculate and it really hits that mark of chilling, rather than geralt just... idk being there? i didn’t watch this far but he showed up to cintra and calanthe threw him in jail? this makes no sense, why would she... anyways. but yes, dandelion is a character that serves to be there for geralt, so it makes sense for him to tell geralt about cintra because then geralt can respond and thus demonstrate to the readers/audience all of the emotions about it that he is feeling.

but yeah so to summarize, my thoughts are that ciri really comes off as a weaker character in the netflix series than in the books because:

they treated her as older and introduced her as the lion cub of cintra and not as just some child found in the woods, taking BOTH the “child” and “surprise” out of “child surprise”

they removed geralt’s paternal relationship to her and why exactly he is significant in her story, and hyped up the “destiny” thing instead, which came off as completely meaningless, not to mention annoying to hear repeated when there has been no significance developed behind the word. i mean, they cut out both brokilon and something more (i will NOT accept that scene as the ending scene of something more. that wasn’t a hug fit to pick your kid up from afterschool, much less a hug that you run towards your kid with when you thought they perished and you were responsible for it, when you risked your life just to maybe be able to see them again. there was also no dialogue, no “geralt, you’ve found me! after all this time! i knew it! i’m your destiny! say it, i’m your destiny? am i your destiny?” “you’re much more than that, ciri. much more.” so that sucked).

they chose an older actress for ciri, likely to evade having to respect their actors by working within the confines of child labor laws, but not only this, they treated her older in the narrative and made the viewer empathize with her instead of with geralt, the parent... ciri only is supposed to become a “relatable” character when she reaches 13 or 14, in blood of elves and in time of contempt.

they reduced the significance of how deep her trauma was from the massacre of cintra (she makes one offhand comment about how cahir had a bird on his head... that’s not gonna cut it for me. she’s so far experienced a total of zero nightmares about the black knight of cintra).

they gave her a bunch of filler scenes that had absolutely no impact on the broad story or her character development or relationships with other characters (doppler plot). they also made her arc surround unlearning being a princess and finding what epic powers she might have, and nothing comes from both of these points. she doesn’t develop any character because of these points, they’re just there for more filler.

a tad unrelated but: they made yennefer’s wanting a child more of an obsession than a goal the character just happens to have, and have sexualized her character immensely, moreso than in the books... plus the fact that they made her super appealing to the audience and to every other character including geralt from the start (she’s not someone who is icy at first, then warms up), makes me feel like we are never going to get ciri and yennefer at ellander. ever. i just can’t imagine it with this ciri and this yennefer from the netflix series.

[aaaa-mpersand]

Why I Love Hollow Knight

aka a super long essay I wrote about why this game is,,,, ridiculously good. Spoilers, though I’ve tried to keep them minor for the most part and as cryptic as possible, if you want to go into this game blind, this is not something you want to read. It’s part prose part essay part me waxing poetic. TW: bugs, minor character death, existential dread some quotes are taken directly from the game. They are usually in bold or italics. - - - Higher beings, these words are for you alone. Beyond this point you enter the land of King and Creator. Step across this threshold and obey our laws. Bear witness to the last and only civilization, the eternal Kingdom Hallownest. It was a long trek to the city, and even the nail that has kept all enemies at bay is starting to feel heavy on your back. You have braved acid lakes, fended off husks gone mad with The Radiance, climbed Crystal Peaks, and fought the Mantis Lords. Now, you are finally here. Past the city gate, into the cavern that houses what was once the heart of a great kingdom. The City of Tears

You stand in one of the city’s large spires, the endless rain pattering like piano notes against the embellished windows. These architectural feats were marvels of their time, a testament to Hallownest’s greatness, an open declaration of defiance against the water pouring down from the lake above the caverns. They were made to stand for eras, a love letter to the eternal kingdom. Now, Hallownest is a rotting corpse, and only the rain cries for it. Zombie soldiers, eyes yellow with Radiance, continue their endless patrols. Husks of citizens sit, glowing eyes unblinking, in their homes, dead enough to rot but alive enough to attack any living thing that comes by. The foundations of the buildings are already starting to wear. One day, they will crumble. One day, the lake above will run dry. One day, the rain will stop, too. You find a bench. There is already someone sitting there, a traveller you met along the road named Quirrel. He is a mysterious but polite fellow, with the simple goal of seeing all the marvellous sights of the world. On his head is a hat that looks more like a mask, black holes for eyes carved into it. On his back is a nail, one that looks much like yours. Travellers do not get far without them. He gestures for you to sit beside him. Even if you could speak, you would be too tired to say your thanks, much less argue. “The capital lies before us, my friend. What a sombre place it seems, and one that holds the answers to many a mystery,” he says, “I, too, have felt the pull of this place, though now I sit before it, I find myself hesitant to descent. Is it fear, I wonder, or something else that holds me back?” The only sound between the two of you is the soft patter of rain. If your silence disturbs him, he does not let it on. “Isn’t this a wonderful place to rest? I so love the sound of the rain upon glass.” You rest your fill, and you move on. At the center of the city, you find a collection of four carved statues. Three smaller ones surrounding a large––far larger than you––horned figure with black, hollow eyes. City of Tears––the rain pouring off of them certainly makes them seem as if they are weeping. Hornet, a spider-like creature with a shell that looks similar to yours, lands in front of you. Unlike your last meeting, her needle is sheathed. ‘Little ghost,’ she calls you. She tells you to seek the Grave in Ash, if you wish to play a part in Hallownest’s perpetuation, knowing the sacrifices that keep its crumbling remains upright. Using a thread of silk as a grapple, she leaps back into the murky shadows of the city.You cannot speak, so you only stare as she leaves. Turning, you read the inscription of the statue. Memorial to the Hollow Knight: In the black vault far above. Through its sacrifice, Hallownest lasts eternal. You look around at the empty streets, the pouring rain, the husk of a Radiance-crazed sentry with a nail driven through it lying on the cobbled pavement. Hallownest is already dead. --- Gameplay and storytelling: Immersion is a large part of every story, but Hollow Knight really takes it a step further. It is a metroidvania game, so immersion and storytelling through settings is pretty much a given in its genre. All things considered, Hollow Knight has a good, but not really amazing, storyline. Rather, it is the way that it tells its story that makes it memorable. Hollow Knight is a videogame first and a story after, utilizing its gameplay to tell its story better than words could. This is why watching let’s plays is enjoyable, definitely a wonderful experience, but there is a difference between dying five times trying to beat a boss or platform through an area versus watching someone die five times trying to beat a boss or platform through an area. There is a moment of surprise you wouldn’t get if you only watched the lore video, to see a character alluded to only by other people in an awed or fearful tone, only to find the hilarious but horrible truth of their fate, and their small stature. However, it is definitely possible for a person to enjoy this game without personally playing it. The setting and music are enrapturing. There are small stories in every new room and every enemy and npc you meet, the love put into every detail is astounding. Evidence of previous battles, the cracked husks of beings that look suspiciously similar to you, a hostile enemy still unaware of your entering, staring out over an endless lake, Hollow Knight makes the player feel like their story is a small part of something bigger, something more than themselves. A good example of this is a minor character named Tiso, a proud warrior who says he wishes to travel into Hallownest and challenge the colosseum there. If you decide to challenge the colosseum yourself, you’ll meet the enemies that he had to face, too––and maybe die more than a couple times trying to do it. If you travel to the Kingdom's Edge, you’ll find his shield and hat with a pile of other remains––all that is left of those who fail the tests of the colosseum. It is possible to go through the whole game and come out knowing not much more story than when you went in. Of course, if you did that, then that’s a whole waste of 15 dollars, and why the hell did you buy this game in the first place. Rather, through the large map and its immersive storytelling, the game makes the player work for the story. A lot of the storytelling is open ended too. Instead of info dumping everything, the game assumes that you are capable of putting the pieces together yourself. It is a strong case of showing and not telling, but it definitely works. This greatly encourages players to go out of their way to find out what happened before. Lore tablets––and text in general––are very sparse in this game. Rather than loading you with information and npcs to talk to, you’ll be overjoyed to find an npc hidden away at the corner of the map. Each one is important, each one has its own story to tell. There are no characters that feel like throwaways or filler. In addition, the player can obtain the Dream Nail, used to reveal any npc or enemy’s true intentions and thoughts. This adds yet another layer to the game; most players immediately go around swinging their Dream Nail at everything they can find after discovering this. In conclusion, Hollow Knight uses a lot of very interesting storytelling elements and tools in the most effective ways possible. Music, characters, text, setting, flashbacks. Nothing ever feels like filler, or something to be disregarded. Instead, there is a joy in discovering and in asking questions. In a way, the playable character is a vessel through which the player can hear the stories of other characters as much as they are going through a journey of their own. --- Story: Hollow Knight’s story is a very interesting take on the “Chosen One” trope, among others. It starts as a story we’ve all heard before, “oceans rise, empires fall.” Maybe it’s for that reason that the game keeps most of the backstory elements secret until the very end of the game, forcing you to dig for it and spend time on it. Meanwhile, you grow attached to the playable character, the characters around them, the world, and the story, so when the curtain finally rises on the hidden secrets of Hallownest, you feel its meaning as if it were your own journey. In the most plain terms, to avoid completely spoiling the game, the story is this. The playable character travels into the remains of a kingdom long fallen: Hallownest. Along the way, you meet characters that tell you more and more about the kingdom and how it got here. The Pale King, a god in and of himself, travelled to this place to build his own eternal kingdom, but in his goal to unite all caverns and areas of the region under his rule, he trampled the already existing gods past recollection. One of these is The Radiance, who in a desperate effort for revenge and self-preservation, sent a sickness upon the kingdom that turns bugs mad. In an effort to combat this, The Pale King created the Pure Vessel, the Hollow Knight, to contain it, and recruited three dreamers to seal it. But when the moment of truth came, and the Radiance was to be sealed away, they found the Pure Vessel was not entirely empty, it was filled with a hope for love and recognition from the Pale King. Hallownest fell to The Radiance. Now, your goal is to find a means to an end for Hallownest, caught in a fate worse than death. Along the way, you will find the truth behind your own creation, the story of the dreamers, and the extent of the sacrifices Pale King made to preserve his eternal kingdom. This story, if not driven by its storytelling, is driven by its characters. You meet, or at least hear of, most of the key characters in the story by the beginning of the game. The Pale King is referred to in one of the lore tablets extremely early in the game. The Temple of the Black Egg, its door sealed, is where you meet Quirrel. The Daughter of Hallownest, Hornet, tries to cut you down, claiming she knows what you mean to do. All of these happen in the first two areas of the game. For the rest of your game, you learn about these characters bit by bit. You interact with them. You find them in corners of the map you wouldn’t expect, and find yourself happy to see them. By the end of the story, you realise that you are much more entangled in this than you realised. The Pure Vessel and the story surrounding him is one of the best ‘chosen ones’ I’ve seen. Even the playable character is technically a ‘chosen one,’ though it takes the role because they are the best candidate, and not because anyone wanted or forced them to. Its fandom has one of the best found families, and the endings are open-ended enough that it doesn’t feel confining. This story has a lot of things to say about imperialism, power, ambition, sacrifice, fate, and relationships, and sometimes all of that can be found in the spires of a city, watching the endless rain patter against the windows as the piano plays in the background. --- My Interpretation: For a large part of my life, I was scared of the dark. I couldn’t bear to go outside to throw the trash out when it got too dark to see. It took me a long time––far longer than most––to learn how to sleep quietly in my own bed. For a long time, I didn’t understand this fear. Nobody around me seemed to understand either, when I asked them for help. Logically, I lived a sheltered life, and my neighborhood was safe. Demons, ghosts, monsters: they didn’t exist. It’s only now I realise that that childhood fear was rooted in this fact: you are a very small person in a very big world. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You don’t know what’s out there. You know, instinctively, that you are an ant. The universe is very big, much much bigger than you could ever imagine, and that it doesn’t care for you. Not for your ambitions, your dreams, your fears, your safety. Hollow Knight takes this and deals with it in a way that I love. It’s indicative in the first few moments. Your playable character is smaller than almost every other character in the game. You travel deep into a bug kingdom, much much bigger than you would have dreamed. Everyone around you is a bug too, from the meek to the courageous to the regal. Outside this kingdom is a bigger world, just as harsh as this one, maybe harsher still. All you have is your nail to keep you safe. Travellers before you have fallen. You are the only person left to pick up what’s left of their stories. The world is endless, it stretches in infinity through time and space. People have tried to conquer it before. They have tried to build eternal kingdoms, immortal cities, taking what is not theirs in the hopes that finally, finally, they will be big enough, they will be good enough. They have tried to delay the inevitable––that all things end. Mistakes have been made, evils have been committed. “This place is not a place of honor. No highly-esteemed deeds are commemorated here.” The world is big. Kingdoms are small. You are smaller. Still, you move on. Someone needs to put this coughing, dying part of the world to rest. You will get no lore tablets in your name, no statues to commemorate your deed. Yet you cannot find it in you to be affected. Somewhere, Hornet wakes up and finds herself no longer tied to protect a monstrous ghost of a kingdom, her future now her own. Somewhere, you put your siblings to rest, their lost souls and empty eyes now at peace. Somehow, that is more important, more eternal, than any city or any god. It will follow you even after you are gone. There is strength in being small. There is strength in not knowing where you come from, or where you will go next, but going anyway. There is strength in achieving great things, not because of recognition or greatness or immortality that could brush the stars, but because that is the story you want to live through. That is the footprint you want to make, even if it fades away with time. You enter a large world with a nail on your back, looking for the means to an end, and you leave with less. Perhaps there is wisdom in that.  (and can you believe that this is an indie game, made by like, idk 3 people?? And it’s 15 dollars for a game you can spend 48 hours or more in total on. Absolutely insane sksksksks i love this game)

[oodlyenough]

she-ra s3 thoughts ftr

i know it’s not the show’s fault netflix is forcing them to release weird batches of episodes. but OMG the result of that sure was a boring, listless s2 and an extremely tight s3 huh. s3 was awesome

it screws the pacing a bit... scorpia and catra for eg had an interesting arc across s2-3 but it would have worked better in one season

another unfortunate consequence is fans of other characters barely even saw them in s3... but... i dunno how to get around that. if it had been all one season like it was obviously designed, they would’ve had a decent amount of screentime to start. it wouldn’t have made sense to interrupt a tight 6-episode arc to shove in a filler episode

but the upswing was that there were six solid episodes and i wasn’t bored in any of them

i’m a casual enough fan that some of the lore gets lost on me, so like... definitely lost track of whatever’s going on with micah and shadow-weaver and all that backstory lol 

likewise i only kind-of remember what was up with mara, cutting of etheria? people thought it was bad? my main memory of it was that mara was a gay disaster for madam razz? but unlike with micah and shadow-weaver i’m super interested in it regardless lol. more mara!! my main disappointment in the finale was that adora saw her in the flesh (sorta) and they didn’t speak. i assume it will happen later but i wanted it nooooow

also she’s got the same va as amara in borderlands 3 lol 

(side note though was mara-version she-ra white and blonde as well?? i can’t remember if we’ve seen her. yikes if so)

looking back i think i expected more from adora re: wanting to open the portal to go “home”. she very nobly immediately gave that up. i guess that’s why she’s the hero... but... would’ve been interested to see more conflict there. i assume it will return though w “hordak prime”

which, btw, what the fuck & lmao @ that 

entrapta/hordak....... woof. not here for it. deeply uncomfortable with it. why is this happening.

LOVED adora’s gay amazement at huntara lmaooooo. huntara sweetie i’m sorry these teenagers ruined your hook up with that bartender goat lady

also liked goat kyle

can’t honestly say i ever found angella anything other than tedious so... her sacrifice didn’t hit me. also as soon as glimmer in like ep 2 or whatever it was said “you’ll ALWAYS be there to lecture me”, or whatever, i was like oh she dead

sucks for glimmer though. and she’s absolutely definitely going to be manipulated and abused by shadowweaver before that whole thing wraps up. lol every time the “heroes” teleport in their Sinister Shadow Cloud i’m like hmmm totally innocent

that entire sequence with shadow weaver, where glimmer was half-in half-out of shadow, and eventually stepped fully into the shadow, was EXTREMELY on-the-nose directing ... but also should assuage the fears of anyone who thinks shadow weaver is totally our friend now and got a redemption arc while catra didn’t. shadow weaver is still awful and is gonna do something awful very soon. just wait.

“you made me this and now YOU get to be a good guy?” - the writers aren’t dumb, they know what this is, they’re not like, unknowingly redeeming the abuser first or whatever. it’s gonna be bad. 

catra once again too gay to function

i mostly see a lot of handwringing in the tag about how catra is irredeemable now, she’s too far gone, unheard of!!, etc, and i don’t really think any of that is true. i still feel like this show couldn’t be telegraphing a redemption arc for catra more clearly if it tried, even before you take into account noelle stevenson’s general... like... body of work. 

same with catradora. it was inevitable that they reach a point where even adora has given up, and i think that is necessary for them to ever reach a point where they come back together. if catra’s going to be redeemed (which again i think is almost inevitable, much like shadow weaver inevitably betraying the rebellion), it needs to be because catra wants it, not because adora or even scorpia were nice to her a few times. adora making catra take responsibility for herself is important in the long run. it would be significantly less meaningful if, after being asked five times, on the sixth time of “run away with me” catra was just like “yeah aight” 

there’s supposed to be what, four seasons total, which netflix will probably split into eight? this is season 3 of 8? not even the halfway mark. of course catra’s got a long ways to go. she’s very close to rock bottom now (if not already there) without anyone -- including scorpia and adora -- looking out for her. i think that’s where we’ll see her for the next season or two before she starts to climb out of it

i mean if people wanna bail on the ship bc it’s too #problematic or w/e like fine (although i gotta lol @ the fandom deciding catra’s iredeemable now but loving entrapta and hordak) but if you’re worried bc you think the show just quashed your ship or doomed your fave to a life of evil misery.... i really don’t think that’s the case 

[catquartzuniverse]

Quick Thoughts on How to Write Better Beach City Episodes

So I know everyone’s already given their stance on it but I’m new to sharing my (very old and consistent, but just recently, openly vocalized) critical opinions on su and really need to get my word in, and I am also a writer myself so I really value working through a writing misstep like this, which is so easy to fall into. So here I go~

I wanna make this post short since I’m pressed for time, so I’ll just cut to it all. I actually love the Beach City updates. I believe, (or used to believe), that they were very important to the overall narrative despite the general opinion that they are just filler episodes with no real plot relevant substance to them, and even now with all the clear flaws in the show’s writing, I do still believe that, and do still value townie stories, but their execution is definitely falling very flat and it should be no wonder that people aren’t interested in them anymore and dreading their premieres. So how should we fix it?

As said by Slice of Otaku on youtube, the first thing they need to do is change the format of these episodes. That is first and foremost, I feel, the best and most important first step of changing these episodes into something better so I just wanna elaborate on his point and take it a little further. They currently don’t have anything to do with the gem plots which have taken our complete attention and intrigue as audiences, and rightfully so because they are written and presented with so much intrigue and development that’s meant to entice us. But should that make the human episodes these static, one shot stories with no consequence to the overall outcome of the series? HELL NO AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THEY’RE DOING WRONG HERE! Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale, the writers/directors of Back to the Future, said something in a dvd commentary for the movie that I have kept constantly in mind when world building for my own original content: you have to create your own world with it’s own history and play with it, thus making the audience invest in it and care about seeing it’s outcome. And there is SO MUCH in Beach City that I DO feel drawn into, and want to see develop, and care to follow completely independently of how it ties into the gem plots and the past & impending gem wars. And yet their episodes are self contained formulaic predictable one shot stories that couldn’t feel more grating in a show as epic as SU. Slice of Otaku called attention to how much we all love following Greg’s past and how intriguing the development of Nanafue’s term in office is, and I 1,000% agree! HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE TOWN’S CONTENT TO TREAT IT WITH REVERENCE! I care about what happened to Greg’s family, I want to know what happened to the DeMayo clan and why it was so easy for him to leave them for Rose. I care about how Dewey’s loss of office to Nanafue affects the overall outcome of the town. I care about the history between Ronaldo and Lars and what came to pass between them. I care about Vidalia and her sons and her relationship with Yellowtail. I care about the Pizza family and the cool kids and the Fryman’s. And I care about Steven, so showing us how all of these things directly affect Steven is a really really good way to present them in a more enticing way because Steven owns the plot and therefore, him caring will make us care as we’re following his story. But as it stands, even Steven only seems to care about the town in a cool-down sense, as a break from gem stuff, as an inconsequential little romp between the genocide and tyranny he has to deal with on his mother’s side. The town will never be as huge or ominous as the galaxy that homeworld is taking over with their plot in this story, but it DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ANY LESS INTRIGUING. Create a lore for the town as much as you do for the gems! Show us the history of Beach City and drop various hints and mystery around about it to intrigue us. Touch on the conspiracies that exist for it. Bait us in with tales of various family trees being broken up or built throughout the centuries since the gems invaded earth. Would you believe that I am actually genuinely still very interested and curious as to what happened to the Cookie Cat company going out of business because they couldn’t compete with Lion Lickers? Why do we never touch on such lore about the human lives on earth anymore? The election between Dewey and Nanafue should have been extremely intriguing and interesting but it felt so downplayed because it was treated with a lighter sense of consequence than anything gem-related. By which I don’t mean I expect that plot to be as worrisome as a gem tyrant related plot, I simply mean that the way this affects the overall human life around us as viewers and our protagonist should be treated with far more reverence and consequence than it seems to be hinting at. This election’s affect will change Beach City as we know it! Why does it feel like we aren’t meant to really care a whole lot about this?

That said, while I say this with caution cuz it can easily be misinterpreted, start linking these townspeople more directly with the main plot. I do not necessarily mean the gem plot. I mean that both the human and gem sides of the story are equally important. Steven is equal halves human and gem and this war will be equal parts defeating gem tyrants and protecting earth. WE SHOULD NOT BE AFRAID OF THE 2 SUBJECTS OVERLAPPING. WE SHOULD BE SEEING THEM CROSS PATHS WAYYYYY MORE THAN WE DO. One of my favorite episodes to this day, even as a fan who had criticisms of it from the moment it aired and as a non-fan of Lars and Sadie and their ship, was Island Adventure. Why? Because Sadie is clearly a warrior in the making. Because this human girl took down a gem monster with her own two hands. Not because of any gem lore, not because I was so curious about what the fuck this gem related island is, but because Sadie trained herself as a fighter with just her own wits and strength and took down a corrupted gem monster that even evaded the Crystal Gems with her own bare hands. Because I knew from the show’s endless foreshadowing even back then that another gem war was imminent and that as Greg implied in The Return, people were involved too. People are on equal grounds of importance to this war as gems are. Human beings will fight against Homeworld when they come back. This makes humans just as important as gems in this show’s universe and so I don’t know why their episodes are not being treated as such. I do not like Sadie, I don’t even like Sadie in this episode! But I like what she represents of the humans involved in Steven’s story. Where the hell did all that go over the seasons? Episodes that really, directly, delve into their potential as players in the war for earth? Sure, Lars is a space pirate, but where are the plots that really get into the potential Jamie has as a messenger or scribe in the war? Where are the episodes that discuss Ronaldo’s potential as a source of information, (which I know is meant to be an ironic joke about a dumb white guy, which I’m all for~, but that doesn’t really work anymore given how often Ronaldo has been absolutely right and logically should be respected far more than he his by the town)? Where are the episodes that show us the affect Beach City politics will have on the town’s ability to come together to fight in a war? When do I get to see how Sour Cream’s raves with Jenny and Buck could play into creating ammunition against the invading gems, who we know are made of light and music? When do I get to see how Greg’s family fell apart and lead us to the birth of Steven thanks to his departure? When do I get to see the potential that Onion has as a warrior for his fearlessness? When do I get to see Kiki use her wits and responsible trustworthy attitude foreshadow her ability to be a strategist of some kind? When do I learn more about the Dewey family tree? When do I get to learn more about the governing forces of earth in SU? WHERE THE HELL ARE FLASHBACK EPISODES OF GARNET AND AMETHYST INTERACTING WITH HUMANS? AND LEARNING FROM HUMANS? AND EPISODES SHOWCASING, NOT JUST IMPLYING OR NODDING TO, BUT ACTUALLY SHOWCASING THE MANY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OUR WORLD AND THEIR WORLD BECAUSE OF THE GEMS? Buddy’s Book is an extremely interesting episode to me for that reason I just stated. Why are there not more like it?

Anyway, the Townie episodes should be better than they are. They are not filler but they should be treated with more respect from the writers than they get. We should be valuing them as true plot points and not just hoping that they’ll foreshadow something related to the gem plots, or reveal something about gems in the background, or Steven’s magic with their inconsequential plots. We should be valuing the townies’ stories because we should be valuing the humans as TRUE, IMPORTANT PLAYERS in the lore and the story of this universe. But instead we’re just stopping everything we’re doing to watch Sadie’s band perform a concert or Kiki learning to stand up to her sister. I love these characters and care about them, but “cooling down” after a big plot tentpole arc should never have been their fucking job and if you ask me it’s insulting to them that they are. In regards to anything not-gem related, this show failed its world building. And that is really heartbreaking given how inspiring it used to be to me as a writer.

The End, thanks for reading.

[avisalaencantadia]

If you’ve followed me from the very start, you guys would notice that I’ve never published my own reviews or opinions over the show (except for some asks). This is because I prefer giving my opinions when a show is over. This gives my review some sense of finality.

But yeah... Anyway, just in case you want to read my rambles and opinions, feel free to click the “Keep reading” link below :) and yes the comic sans is intended

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I’ll be dividing my feedback on certain aspects and then I’ll say what the Enca team did good and bad there. Brace yourselves, this is a very long post :))

Story/Plot

The Good

Modernizing the existing Encantadia plot - If you’ve watched Encantadia since 2005, you would know most of the 2016′s version plot derives from the original. But what I really liked with Encantadia 2016′s plot is how it was adjusted to reflect current day sensibilities and moralities like with how Amihan still loved and treated Mira as her own daughter after learning the truth, not making Mila/Lira into an archetypal abused maid, Lira and Mira being best friends and literally #cousin goals instead of love rivals, Ybramihan with their realistic and slow burn romance, Alena breaking out of the “first love never dies” trope, and so much more.

Book 1 - Book 1 (Episode 1 - 148) is the best part of Encantadia 2016. To be very honest, I really wished that the requel just ended with Book 1. Book 1 is, for the most part, well written. I like how little backstories were added from the start, the story was pretty much cohesive, most of the plot deviations from the original were logical (the fall of Amihan and the banishment of Pirena were superb), and the mortal world was less shown than from the original. Speaking of the mortal world, please see below :)

Involvement of the mortal world - Perhaps one of the best things I really liked from the plot of the requel is how the setting of the mortal world was used more logically. What I really didn’t like about the original is how around 50% of the scenes (until Lira returns to Encantadia) was divided into Encantadia scenes and then mortal world scenes and I was like, “this is a show about Encantadia right??” In this version, Mila/Lira’s growth in the mortal realm was not extended (they really did great in doing away with the maid-and-master-romance plot for Lira), Danaya and Alena’s exiles to the human world are sensible, Encantados - like Enuo, Mira, Lilasari and Hitano - choosing to live in the mortal realm was interesting, and the concept of “taong ligaw” as well. Seriously, if you know your migration and trade theories well, it’s very very logical that some Encantados would choose to live away from their motherland because y’know, it ain’t exactly peaceful in Encantadia. Or like the Bandidos who choose to go to the mortal realm to dabble in some trade... although of course human slave trade is definitely not right.

The Bad

The plot being obviously dragged out - All popular Philippine dramas are victims of extension due to public demand and it isn’t a secret that Encantadia was extended until Mulawin vs Ravena was ready. While I totally understand that GMA wanted to capitalize on the ratings success of Encantadia, unfortunately, the plot really suffered and Book 2 (together with the “Finding Lira” arc) looked like it wasn’t thought of very well. 

Plot handling - *ehem* You mean Book 2? *ehem* Ok, on paper, the premise of Encantadia is great. The problem is, most of the plot devices they introduced became too big for them to handle and the prime example was how they handled Book 2. Actually, Book 2 started well in showing what happened after Amihan’s death: 3 kingdoms flourishing, the threat of Etheria, the introduction of the 6 guardians-in-training, etc. But unfortunately, it fell apart: Lireo is great but why did it look that Ybrahim and Pirena were spending more time meddling with Lirean affairs than with Sapiro and Hathoria respectively? We all know that Etheria was a great kingdom but why didn’t they explore its history well and why did they make it fall again just to give way to Hagorn’s return? Oh and the 6 guardians in training? You know what? I really really loved it at first because it showed that not only royalty can become guardians but also normal Encantados (or a mortal like Pao Pao) as well. But after the massacre at Cassiopea’s island, all the remaining guardians-in-training became useless character scene fillers. Marami silang sinayang tbh...

Amihan-centric plot - For a show that used to highlight the four sisters, Book 1 revolved and highlighted mainly Amihan. From episode 1 until her death, we were made aware of Amihan’s significance due to Cassiopea’s prophecy and Hagorn’s obsession to kill her. If you watched the original series, you will see each Sang’gre was given enough air time and importance in the story. But since Amihan was given so much importance in the requel, this led to major plot issues when Kylie left the show. This was partially fixed in Book 2 where we see the three remaining Sang’gres united against Avria, Hagorn and Ether. However, it makes me wish they had an opportunity to do this with Amihan still alive. Which leads to...

Plot handling for actors who leave the show - For the requel we saw 2 major plot changes due to actors leaving the show: Kylie’s and Sunshine’s. Naturally, Kylie’s departure left a bigger hole in the plot and in our hearts than Sunshine’s. Of course I understand that the actors’ departures come from valid reasons (Kylie’s pregnancy and Sunshine’s schedule due to Ika-Anim na Utos) but I wish their character’s deaths and aftermaths were handled better, especially for Adhara. I had huge hopes for Adhara’s character only for her to die a very meh second death. No huge build up whatsoever nor any major revelations about her character. I’d really love to know the story they originally intended for Adhara. Was it taken over by Lilasari’s character? As for Amihan’s death, yes, it was handled very beautifully and logically but it’s the aftermath I had huge issues with. You can obviously see it in Book 2 :)

Worldbuilding and Lore

The good

Expansion of the existing Encantadia world and lore - In this requel, we were given a more solid Encantadia in terms geography: there’s a nice map and cultural distinctions between the different kingdoms were more apparent (I love the sigils and the aesthetic differences between the kingdoms). What I really love as well was the Nchan and Hathorka writing developed and explained to us. It gave us an excuse to write our names and words using these wonderful fictional but working scripts.

Limitations of the Sang’gres’ powers - Ok, some fans had issues with this but I really liked it when it was shown that the four Sang’gres only obtained special elemental powers when they have the gems in their possession. It was also a nice touch when they showed the Sang’gres not wearing their trademark warrior gears when the gems are not in their possession. This shows the Sang’gres do have weaknesses unlike their previous counterparts who can still manipulate their elements (albeit weaker) even without the gems. Because of this, it further emphasizes the gems’ importance: whoever obtains can become extremely powerful.

The deities backstories - In this requel, we get to find out there are actually 5 deities (bathala/bathaluman) instead of 3. It also showed that these deities are not all powerful and have weaknesses almost just like an average encantado. Instead of acting all-omnipotent (except Emre during Book 1), these deities acted a lot like the fickle and full-of-human-emotions Greek/Roman gods.

The bad

The fifth gem - I know a lot of people were asking about adding a new element but I did not like how they handled it. I mean, seriously, how can Cassiopea not know about its existence until the fall of Amihan? Was it because the one who obtained it was not an encantado but a batang ligaw? Speaking of batang ligaw, I did find it cute that the one who will first wield this gem is not an encantado but a little human boy. Paopao’s innocence highlights the fifth gem’s power, quintessence. However, what I highly disliked about the fifth gem is how it just became an accessory after Hagorn forced Paopao to give it to him. An extra gem to grab with no major significance unlike the four elemental gems and an alternative to the Earth gem for healing, that’s what it became. If only they let the grownup Paopao wield it again, then perhaps this gem could’ve become as significant as the others.

The deity involvement - While I first raved about adding the expansion of the deities and their backstories, I will rant about their incessant meddling (or the lack of it). For the first parts of Book 1, I liked how they maintained Emre is the Christian God-like deity, Arde is the guardian of Balaak (or hell) and Ether is the all-around mischievous meddler. I also found it cool at first that Arde and Ether both chose their champions (Adhara and Hagorn respectively) in their bid to regain power over Encantadia. However, I found it really annoying when their meddling became too much or when the encantados (*ehem* Avria *cough* Hagorn and to some extent, Lira) cannot do anything anymore except rely on their godly powers. Deus ex machina much? On the other hand, I generally thought the addition of Keros and Haliya was ok. I liked how Keros’ treachery brought about Emre’s downfall. Too bad he was killed even before he could have a total change of heart. I think it could’ve been cool if he aided Emre and gained followers after that. While Haliya was pretty useless, at least she still had some involvement in Emre and Cassiopea’s sidequest and to explain the origin of the double moon and Lilasari’s curse. It would’ve been cool if she did more. Anyway, long story short: I wish the deities meddled less and just maintained a certain distance from the encantados. Let the encantados do the work with some very occasional sprinkling of their divine blessings.

Adamya - Ok, so why was Adamya demoted from a kingdom to a protectorate territory of Lireo in the requel? I don’t get it why they made Adamya weaker than it is. Adamya had more relevance in the original series where the Diwatas usually seek refuge and get really sound advice from Imaw and his staff. However, in the requel, Imaw and the humanoid Adamyans (except the Gunikars and Nymfas) just stay with the Diwatas all the time. Is there really no desire in Imaw to return to his own homeland, see it flourish on its own and without the Sang’gres’ (especially Alena’s) help? It seems not because this is the vision of Memfes, the leader of the Gunikar tribe. While I had huge problems with him pursuing Alena, I just wished that his vision of a strong Adamya was shared by Imaw and its traditional denizens. I also wished that it was made clearer that the Gunikars and the Nymfas are technically Adamyans.

Characters and Relationships

Since Encantadia had a lot of characters, I will not be commenting on them all.

The good

Lira and Mira - Without any doubt, the Lira-Mira tandem proved to be one of the best things that happened to this requel. Like I’ve mentioned, I’m so glad they did away the love rivalry between the two cousins from the original series. It was utterly refreshing to see these two being close and doing their own adventures and shenanigans. One minor critique though, I just wished they had more character growth especially in Book 2 where they were promoted to Sang’gres.

Ybramihan - Ah, the pairing that launched a thousand ships in the requel. While I wasn’t a huge shipper myself, I really appreciated the slow burn romance between Amihan and Ybrahim. These are two leaders who are dealing with their own political and emotional issues yet still found themselves falling for each other. This mature and bittersweet kind of romance is a breath of fresh air in the sea of “pabebe” romances. I wonder if the Ybramihan endgame would still push through if Kylie did not leave the show.

Alena - Alena’s character started out as being really problematic. Lovestruck, pabebe, immature, shallow, weak - these are words I read from frustrated viewers on how they described Alena. I will also admit that I was really frustrated with Alena’s character because they made her so much weaker than her counterpart from the original series. However, thank Emre, the Encantadia crew seemed to our heard our prayers and wrote a strong and beautiful Alena in Book 2. Alena shows that despite all the hardships she suffered and endured, she learned from them and emerged a woman with the voice of reason and wisdom. I also think it was awesome that she didn’t rekindle her relationship with Ybrahim despite still having feelings for him. We really need to show less of this “first love as true love” trope and more of this “never wanted the crown but ended up as a deserving and independent queen” narrative. Alena’s character growth was one of the few things right in Book 2.

Hagorn -  Hagorn is proof you can write multi-dimensional villains. Coupled with John Arcilla’s excellent acting, I think Hagorn was beautifully portrayed. Here, we saw a king who became consumed by his rage over the injustices he experienced: Mine-a breaking his heart, his father whom he idolized being killed and falsely believing Raquim (a friend turned enemy) to have done the deed, the once mighty Hathoria being cursed, Lilasari breaking his heart and Deshna hidden from him. While yes, all of his actions can be called evil but in its essence is Hagorn’s desire to be respected and loved. Pirena is indeed very similar to her father but the difference is Hagorn let anger harden his heart completely. Although one major critique I can give of him is... why must he be so damn overpowered?? I get it that antagonists need to be more powerful than the protagonists at first but as the series progress, why must Hagorn be always gaining powers all the time??

The bad

The Etherians - I was first excited about the news they were going to bring back the Etherians in the requel since I loved the Etheria arc from the original series. However, this excitement turned into frustration when we saw flat villains on our screen again. So we know Avria and the gang are power-thirsty encantados whom Ether revived because Hagorn was presumed to be dead. However, what was their story? What really happened in the Great Etherian War? Unlike in the original series’ Etheria, we find out the reason they antagonized the Diwatas was because of a prophecy that predicts their downfall. However, for the requel, nothing was explained except their desire for vengeance against the races that brought their first downfall. And that’s it. Added to the fact our beloved Sang’gres know nothing about their history which added to my eye-rolling moments.

Aquil - You may know me as an avid Danquil shipper but I highly disliked how they handled Aquil’s character for the requel. Gone was the Lirean mashna whose loyalty and dedication was at par with Danaya’s but was replaced by a lovestruck man whose character was mainly hinged on the stubborn Sang’gre. While we did see glimpses of Aquil’s loyalty to the Lirean crown but it was really lacking compared to the original. If Muros and the soldiers did not call Aquil “mashna”, I would think of him as a normal soldier who happens to be in love with Danaya. While yes, as a Danquil shipper I am satisfied with their scenes, but as a character he fell flat. And sorry Aquil, Muros made a better mashna. PS: I have no issues with Rocco’s acting. He did well. It’s the characterization I have issues with.

Ariana - Oh Ariana... So much has been said about Ariana but I’ll say this. On paper, the sarkosi/reincarnation concept was nice but it was the execution that fell flat. I will not touch upon Arra’s acting but there were so many plot holes that came along with Amihan’s reincarnation as Ariana. So when Ariana died and Amihan’s ivtre came in, why were Ariana’s memories retained? Where did Ariana’s ivtre go? It was answered in the finale since Ariana’s ivtre came along in the Devas bunch. But I thought the memories and consciousness of an encantado lie in their ivtre/spirit? I guess not. Also, the Ariana we saw is already the Sarkosi!Amihan version. Who is the real Ariana? Would the real Ariana still be chosen by the Air Gem as its next guardian? Will she still have feelings for Ybrahim without Amihan’s ivtre in her? So many questions about this tbh. I would’ve really preferred if they went with the typical reincarnation route where a newborn encantada will grow up discovering she was Amihan in her past life.

Production

The good

Special effects - While it still has room for improvement, I must say it has HUGELY improved since the original series! The transformation sequence, ivictus scenes and even the gem wielding scenes were very smooth. Just a bit more refinement especially in the rendering of creatures (ex. Arde’s dragon form, Ether’s snake form, etc.) and I truly believe we can be at par with other fantasy series. 

Fight scenes - This is what I really loved in this requel. The fight scenes are quicker and smoother compared to the original. Kylie’s martial arts skills were in full display and were duly appreciated by the fans in return. Even Sanya’s arnis skills did not go unnoticed. I also appreciated the fact that even the actors who didn’t necessarily have martial arts skills refrained from using stunt doubles (for most part I guess). At least you can see their dedication in really embodying their characters.

Costumes for Book 1 - I may be one of the few people who’ll say this but I loved the warrior gear for this version. Yes, it may looked less detailed or bongga than the original but I think it suited this requel’s modern fantasy feel. It also enabled the actors to move more freely (thus better fight scenes). I also appreciated the fact the Sang’gres were not shown in highly sexualized scenes despite their costumes being revealing (thank you Direk Mark for not doing what male Western fantasy directors usually do). As for the gowns, I was in love with the Francis Libiran gowns. I just wish that kind of costume aesthetic was maintained throughout the whole series... (more on that later). 

Kingdom throne room set design - I liked how unique each kingdom’s throne rooms looked like. From the airy Lirean throne room to the dark and ominous Hathorian throne room, it added to the emphasis of culture differences between each kingdoms. 

Soundtrack - Who here is getting goosebumps when you hear the remixed Tadhana at the start of each episode? Or the ethnic chanting during burial scenes? I think the Encantadia crew did a good job in composing unique music to use for the requel. I’m also glad they didn’t seem to reuse music from existing teleseryes. 

The bad

Too much studio filming - While I understand logistical constraints in shooting outside the studio but it contributed to the “fake” feel of the scenes. There were many scenes that could’ve been better if they were shot outdoors. There are times when the studio sets looked obviously fake. 

Costumes for Book 2 - In Book 2, we saw a time skip and naturally, we saw costume changes. However, a lot of them looked awkwardly stitched or ill-fitting to the actors. The general aesthetic also changed and sometimes out of place. I understand not all costumes can be “Francis Libiran level” but I wish the costume aesthetic was given more attention by the production crew. We also saw costume recycling within the actors especially with Sanya wearing Marian’s Mine-a gown (not a new occurrence though since Diana also wore Dawn’s Mine-a gown).

Overall

While there are many things to left to be said, overall, the Encantadia requel still proved to be a general success. Not only did it manage to rekindle childhood fantasy emotions from the fans of the original series but had also brought in a new generation of fans. 

Encantadia reinforced the notion of girl power and has once again showed us kickass and multi-dimensional women on TV. Encantadia also proved we can produce a successful fantasy series of our own aside from the ones Americans, Europeans or Koreans produce.

Do I want a Season 2? Of course but only if it can be better than the previous season with better commitment to the plot, character and actor handling :)

Avisala eshma to the whole Encantadia crew and to fellow fans who made the watching experience more colorful. If you managed to read the whole review, thank you as well. Feel free to leave comments or messages if you wish. I’ll be open to discussion :)

[pixel-creates]

About Me: Kingdom Hearts

Behold, my excuse to cry over KH with paragraphs for nearly each answer.

(shamelessly copied from @khfriendlyreminders​)

Favorite Kh Game Overall: … I underestimated how hard this would be. I mean, I can't simply say I love all of them (even though I do), so... I guess it has to be

ALL OF THEM.

Least Favorite Kh Game Overall: Aside from nitpicks in story and gameplay, I don't have much to say against the KH games. ^^'

I understand perfectly well when people analyze the story and explain why certain parts just don't work, but unless it's something that just outright doesn't sit well with me, I find it hard to be critical of the games. Which is weird since I can be very critical of other media, but KH is kind of... hard to see or make criticism of. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it...

Kh Games I Should Replay: … ALL OF TH-

Okay but for real, I do have to repay them all for the sake of my fic since I'm basing the events off of my gameplay. Though, one I'd like to experience once again is 0.2. I only had the chance to play once at my older brother's before I moved and I feel like I need to experience it again to really understand where the story stands currently.

Most Played Kh Game: KH2 definitely.

Least Played Kh Game: Maybe Re:Coded, Days, and Re:COM. Re:Coded, while I do enjoy, is just not that fun to play on my dying 3DS. Also, I can't remember if it's just Re:Coded, but the camera was just really loose?? On my 3DS with broken left and right triggers, there was just no end to the frustration when those babies started going out. Days is a long game to play and my gameplay is either short and brief stints or finishing the entire game in a day. Right now, I'm in the short and brief stint gameplay mode since I need a new 3DS. On that part, Days and Re:Coded aren't at fault. Re:COM just scares me. Eveyone says that it's easy to get a handle on the card system, and it is but I don't do very well under the pressure of getting the cards together. It's gotten to the point where just looking at the menu screen makes me cringe. ^^' KHUX can count, as well. The game has a hella lot of filler quests, which are fine here and there, but wow those mission goals (“Defeat Every Enemy” has been seen in my nightmares). Not only that, but I'm not really that good at keeping up with games that often require constant/daily logging in for advancement.

Kh Games I Need to Play: I've technically played them all in one form or another, but I would very much like to try out the original GBA COM game at least once. GBA used to be my favorite system and finding out a KH game had been made for it is amazing!

Favorite Gameplay: This one is a tie between KH and KH0.2.

KH2 is just... fun. It's fun to play, it's fun to watch, and it just feels satisfactory to attack and explore the worlds. It might seem a little weird, but my favorite part was being able to 'Examine' everything with the triangle button. It was like Sora's (and Roxas' thoughts for a time) were given a place to exist outside cutscenes and gave insight into how Sora/Roxas were viewing the world. I dunno what anyone else thinks about it or if they even care, but I sincerely hope it makes a comeback in KH3.

KH0.2 is like KH2 in which we are given more of an opportunity to explore and interact with the world around us by actually creating change within the world through spells, hitting objects, or finding the lost memories. I absolutely love to freely roam in games, but it doesn't do much to bring me into the world itself if I can't interact with the world. That's why, as much as it creeped the frick out of me, the Dwarf Woodlands in the Dark World was my favorite world to explore even after the main story.

Least Favorite Gameplay: It's not my least favorite by far (in fact, it's really high up there), but I feel I do have to mention that in KH DDD, I felt really bad about using Flowmotion. It was like, I'd find my way up to several treasures, but then, it turns out, that you'd eventually make it up there by unlocking the way so that you could walk to the treasure. I feel like if there was a couple of puzzles that locked some treasures away and couldn't be accessed through mobile means, it'd balance out the gameplay a little more.

I also find the Dream Eater system to be... a little cool and also a little bad. A little cool because while I can adventure to who knows where and not get constantly freaked by Donald and Goofy teleporting right behind me. It felt like I was on a little solo adventure! Not only that, but the feature to import Dream Eaters from a previous save to a new/other save was a great feature. It was especially helpful when I replayed DDD went from Beginner Mode to Critical Mode. Did I mention it was y first time playing any KH game on a mode tougher than Normal?

A little bad because sometimes that solo adventure was just a bit too solo – and when just starting out (especially on Critical Mode), rather than being my allies, my Dream Eaters were more so the colorful Pokemon rejects I babysat so they didn't die after three hits. It became annoying pretty quickly to constantly keep them alive, only for them to wander away from where the enemies are or just simply not attack and once again die.

KH Re:Com as explained above, though I will admit that once I start to get into it, I feel a lot less pressured unless it's a boss fight. Other than that, the game just feels really repetitive and as someone who's gameplay style is 80% grinding until you simply can't die, it just really didn't feel that fun to play after an hour of just grinding for a boss fight that I felt really unsure about fighting because I'm sill having trouble with the card system.

Favorite Story: Yikes, another hard one. It's easy for me to talk about gameplay in the games because they're self-contained to a singular game within the series, but goodness the story.

I suppose out of all of them, I would replay KH2, DDD, Days, and Re:Coded for story reasons only. I find them to have the more interesting stories. Right now, I'm kind of side eying BBS for... reasons, and KH1 is kind of hard for me to say anything about. More on that in the next one.

Least Favorite Story: Out of the games, KH1 is probably the most consistent one... on its own. As the series progressed and the writers tried to fit more lore and story into an idea that... no one really expected would garner so much attention, it becomes more obvious how... out of place the first game seems in comparison. This took me years to realize and I only really understood why people made such a deal about it when Caddicarus talked about it in his review.

I can't bring myself to really blame the writers (or Nomura) too much for the inconsistencies between the first game and the latest one, but I will say there are some things I wish could've been kept consistent throughout the series, or just plain kept.

So, I don't think of it as my least favorite (since there are times I'll play it simply because I love the story a heck of a lot more than the gameplay), but it's question because of how out of place its story is in comparison to its children.

Favorite Character:  Sora. I would fucking die for him – but he probably wouldn't let me. Why is he my favorite character? Probably for a similar reason why Naruto is – I am not a particularly outgoing or outspoken person. My voice is naturally soft and whenever I try to gear myself to ask people the simplest of questions or even to say hi, I chicken out at the last second. And then, we have this character who not only talks to people without an issue but easily has an active participation in not only social situations but in everyday life.

In a way, my younger self strived to be just a little but more like that, if only because I wanted to be surrounded by friends like Sora was. Not only that, but there's just the overall positivity vibe Sora gives off that I feel like I lack; I almost immediately assume the worst of situations, have trust issues, and stress horribly over situations that even I can admit are out of my control. And seeing this character go through what he did and still keep that positive outlook? How could I not want to be like that, if only just a little?

Least Favorite Character: I'll probably get shit on for saying it, but I really can't bring myself to like Kairi in any way shape or form. She's pretty much the only thing about KH that I can be really critical of and I'm not very proud of that. I can't get into her in canon and I can't get into her in fanon. I can detail point by point about why I just can't like her in any capacity and my own disappointment towards how she's written, and I really wish it was the opposite... but that's a whole other post.

For now, I'm more than content to ignore her.

Favorite Character from Main Cast: Aside from Sora? Roxas, Xion, Vanitas, Riku, Namine, and Ventus are in the ring competing for 11th favorite character since Sora has taken up the first ten spots. Aqua, Terra and Goofy are shoe ins for the next spots after them.

Least Favorite Character from Main Cast: Aside from that one chick? It's mostly as a joke, but Donald can rot.

#NeverThankDonaldDuck2018 Also, fuck Yen Sid.

Favorite Drive Form: Final. Fucking fite my vanilla ass.

Favorite Spell: While the Cure line is a staple, I'm going to have to go with the Reflect line. Late game KH2 often ends up with Heartless/Nobody encounters quickly ending as soon as it started with a single Reflectga. I really hope it makes some kind of comeback in KH3.

Favorite Keyblade: Kingdom Key. Call me vanilla, but I love it's simple design and the lore around it.

Favorite Summon: I've honestly only ever really used Tinkerbell and it's always for the Dragon!Maleficent fight in KH1. I always stress about using things with time limits, so I often just don't use them period. :,D

Favorite Limit: Okay, but if I rarely use Summons, then I really don't use Limits like ever. I hardly switch my party members out unless mandatory. Even then, I turn off the Auto Limit shit because I find it more important to make sure Sora has magic for Cure than pulling off an attack that will only hit like 3 times.

Aside from completion purposes (and Riku because how can I deny the beauty that is Sora and Riku's Limit), I don't use them in the main story.

Favorite Dream Eater: It's a toss up between Pega Slick and Me Me Bunny. While offering some pretty good abilities, I really like their aesthetic. Yoggy Ram and Aura Lion are pretty high up there, too.

Favorite World: Oooo~ How about we have fun with this answer?

KH1 – A toss up between Hollow Bastion and End of The World. The aesthetics for both just really agree with me and the map for Hollow Bation especially is really fun to explore. KH Re:COM – 100 Acre Wood for being the only world that isn't completely repetitive. Whenever I play Re:COM I use it as the 12th floor just so I can reward myself for sticking with the game. KH2 – Radiant Garden for being probably the biggest world in KH2, linking to worlds I really like (Space Paranoids/100 Acre Wood), and having an interesting story that was actually intertwined with the main plot. KHBBS – This one is a bit hard since I don't play any other story except Ventus' 90% of the time. It's a toss up between Land of Departure (aesthetic and story reasons), Disney Town (mini games are really great – except I Scream Beat), and Mirage Arena (Rumble Racing and Mono- Command Board ftw!!).

KH Re:Coded – Pretty much all of Hollow Bastion. While a re-hash of KH1, it still felt like its own thing, especially with the battle system since Data!Sora's Keyblade was destroyed. I also really liked Olympus Coliseum. It was my favorite place to grind. In fact... Re:Coded took a lot of risks in changing up how you could fight and/or navigate the world and, to me, they were all interesting takes and fun experiences. Except Agrabah. Fuck Agrabah.

KHDDD – I like La Cité des Cloches because of what it could have been... Actual worlds I like are The Country of Musketeers, The World That Never Was (Sora's story), and Symphony of Sorcery. KH0.2 – Dwarf Woodlands as explained above. KHUX – I honestly really like Daybreak Town. I wish we could freely explore it.

Least Favorite World: F U C K M O N S T R O

I have some bad memories with Monstro from KH1.

First off, there's a chance you will just plain miss the cutscene needed to get access to him. I once had to drive between Halloween Town and Atlantica six times to get him, and often require 2 or more trips around to get him to appear in general.

Second, in KH1, a game that actually would've benefited from the nowadays useless as shit map system, has a world where everything looks the damn same and has rooms literally titled 'Monstro: Chamber 1' and 'Monstro: Chamber 2'. Just watching Raisoren, someone who has played KH1 at least twice, try to find his way around Monstro was a headache in itself back when I first found out about KH. Actually playing it was a migraine.

Third, the aesthetic... just the aesthetic. I am very squicky about the 'insides' of things. I understand that the team went through lengths to make it not look realistic, but that ultimately failed since the main different between most of the rooms are ledges and the amount of barrels in a room.

With all that said, I bet many of you can guess my reaction to Monstro in KH:DDD... it honestly wasn't too bad. Unless I was grinding, I didn't have to spend as much time in Monstro as I did in KH1 and the layout was a lot more varied and easily distinguishable from each other.

And then I played it in Critical Mode. :)

Am I ready for Kingdom Hearts III: Very much so! I've been steadily getting more and more excited with each piece of news we get. I don't know what to expect, but as long as it feels like a KH game, I don't think there's a way to disappoint me.

[gengarnips-fr]

Drunk Lair Review: Kael

definitely almost spelled that kale, so thanks for participating! :D Let’s hop right into this, I know I kept my fans waiting ;) @fr20866 its your time to shine!!!

Okay, I want you to know, that I was sincerely stumped by your lair. I was seriously wondering if my internet was shitting out on me. But no, a SIGNIFICANT PORTION of your lair is dressed in the goddamn invisible cloaks and it fucked me up. Jeeeeeezuzzuuz. and based on my understanding (please correct me if im wrong) everyone labeled Rock is kind of a filler space. Like you like the V shape pattern you’ve got going on so you have these dragons called Rock to fill in your lair space. That is so creative and I’m very into that!!! That said, I’m gonna grade your Non-Rocks :D and also is everyone a gen one? Because that’s POWERFUL. 

First off, I rather enjoy Meleo! The Abyss Skink color gene combo just gets me right. you know what i mean? that shit gets me RIGHT. I LIVE FOR THAT SHIT. I love his bio art! How neat is that! and he’s even got stats, which as a DND player, I can always appreciate! And the little bit of lore you have in his bio hints at an ability to change color at will! Can I just SAY HOW AMAZING THAT IS JEEEEEZ I want more of him. Make him important!!! All of your dragons are soo cool and im so into whatever aesthetic you’re cultivating! I want more!!! Tell me about how he uses and abuses his color change abilities. Tell me about how he hides in the darkness or blends in with the earth rocks. I WANT IT ALLLLLL.

Next I’ve chosen Sethen, who can I just say is one of the brightest, cutest boys ive ever seen. Like what a fucking peach. I feel like hes the dude that takes you out on a museum date and buys you ice cream. Never done anything wrong in his life. Look at his bio art!!! A GOOD AND PURE BOY and I will take nothing less! I also really adore his minimal apparel. I can definitely appreciate when apparel doesn’t cover the whole dragon but rather accentuates its features. I mean I cant relate but you pulled it off so well (I love apparel so much I just want dragons head to toe covered, help me)! Also this bitch is fucking stacked like hes a colosseum lvl 25 get #rekt. You don’t have lore for him yet, but I really just envision him as a cute little man (maybe some sort of historian? Lore keeper? I cant shake the nerd from my mind) who serves his clan somehow. Don’t let me influence your decisions tho ;P 

Omg next is Ark, who is by far one of my faves. I look at him and I just feel the Paladin mojo emanate from his form. I feel POWERFUL when I look at him. He could definitely hold his own in a fight and honestly? Id let him save me from a fire. And I don’t say that about a lot of dragons ;) He’s also super old (love itttttt) at a hot and spicy 4 years and I love that. I’m trying to spoil some of my older dragons too. I want them to feel all the love. Stern, conscientious, loyal. YESSSSSS I feel it!!! And im sorry, but im such a lore slut for complicated backstories involving secret trysts with hidden eggs. A lot of my dragons have weird complicated headcannons like this because I LOVE IT. Also his colors are awesome but that’s a given. And I love his bio header. Okay I need to move on before I drool 

Wow, I love Numedha. Like, love love. I love her. She’s so badass. I can tell on ONE glimpse that she knows what she’s about and I adore it. I LOVE HER CHARACTER ART IN HER BIO OK THAT’S GOALS and im definitely not biased towards red dragons, no way, shape or FORM I swear. And her stats are so fitting omfg. I just love a rebel without (maybe with) a cause and I want her to have a bad attitude, just middle fingers out, fuck the cops, fuck the rules, cause same. God. Any character that can make me feel like this deserves all the love and attention I have. ESPECIALLY LADIES. We don’t see enough ladies that can hold their own in combat or story telling. But I guess that’s a rant for a later date lmao. Anyway, her aesthetic is my aesthetic and I love her to bits! 

Last but certainly NOT LEAST is Tyrane. I, personally, would love if Tyrane just came in a ran my clan for a while. This girl is hella organized, just based on first impression. Her little bio says shes sarcastic and shit, and I adore it. LOVE IT. Gooooood character. Also AMAZING GENES can we just discuss the power of skink/alloy. It’s underrated. Two of my fave genes for sure. Like, not to be weird, but I’m pretty sure Tyrane owns my ass in some way shape or form. She found it at an auction and bought it for cheap. SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE IS DOING MY DUDE. Everyone, please go look at her. She is absolutely gorgeous and if you want to see an excellent execution of purple/pink go LOOK AT HER BODY. 

Also at the end of the day please make an RPG with these dragons as the main characters. Or something. Give me a story because I love all of your dragons so far and I would die to see them all in action. And maybe an explanation for the Rock trend???? It’s amazing, and leaves me in confusion, so you know its modern art. That’s iconic. Thank you so much for your time and I hope this was at least a little entertaining. I loved looking at your lair!

-DeadValkyrie

[mazarinrouge]

BS Bending in TLOK

Watching The Legend of Korra is so disappointing in a lot of different ways. So if you ignore the plot, you’d expect at least some good action scenes with the effort and consistency from the old show. Ehhhh. The bending in LOK is strikingly idiotic and a degradation of the gem from the old show. Maybe if I weren’t comparing it to The Last Airbender, I wouldn’t mind it. But the fact it is so blatantly off from its predecessor makes for another highlight of Korra that I can’t un-see. From how elements are manipulated to even more complex shit with specific kinds of ~special people bending~, Korra, if I can put this politely, fucks everything up.

Right from the start you can tell that Korra definitely dumbed down the movements of the characters. It’s odd because the martial arts expert from Avatar worked on Korra as well. However, he only worked on 22 episodes of Korra, compare that with his 61 episodes guided in The Last Airbender. It’s probably a mix of Kisu’s lack of involvement, and an overall decision from the writers that maybe it wasn’t as important? Which is sad, because it really disassociates the audience from the complex spirituality and intricacies of the world. Styles benders seem to have spent years mastering are lost, and replaced with a modern, boxing type “PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH!!!” Hollywood action situation. Here’s some pretty (MS PAINT) pictures to do the talking for me.

And a bonus:

If the simplification of normal bending hasn’t gotten to you, there’s still a lot more I have to sift through. There’s so much shit pointing to how bending’s complexity was reduced for coooool moments. I’m even going to make nice little subheaders.

Lavabending 

So, in ATLA we see lavabending is a feat only the Avatars are capable of. Roku does it, Kyoshi does it. Avatar cool kids only. But then in Book Three, Bolin suddenly has the ability to lavabend at the tip of the hat. Which, by the way, is another thing stupidly prevalent throughout this series. Both Korra and Bolin in times of crisis suddenly have the ability to do things they couldn’t do, but really wished they could’ve. Hooow convenient.

So the discrepancy here is how Bolin can lavabend, and so can this random Earthbender guy, wouldn’t that mean all Earthbenders can? Metalbending makes sense, but lava is so hot it’s going to set stuff on fire. Technically, it counts as two elements, and has been confirmed as such by making it an Avatar-only thing in ATLA. But now these two random guys can just do this. Apparently it may even be easier than metalbending, which is also ridiculous. If lavabending is just bending the Earth to “go fast”, that’s a lot easier than metalbending because there’s more mass to bend. Just make it go zoom zoom and blamo everyone’s a lavabender.

Some people like to claim that because Bolin had an Earthbending dad and a Firebender mom, then that means he can control both elements to control lava. Which is dumb because then that would make him a fanfic-esque Dual Bender. And we really don’t need any of those. It’s never explained or justified, and is so different from the original show, it feels...sacrilegious. How dare you dishonor the lore. /s

BALD AIRBENDING MAN

What’s his name?

I don’t really care, because he’s dumb too. I feel like I don’t have to elaborate, though. It should be pretty obvious. ~Harmonic Converge~ (weird af plot device) gave him airbending, and because he studied it before and read a book by an Airbender Lady, he’s a master at it now. His powers are so innate, he worked so little to get to where he is. Hell, he didn’t work at all.

Unless you want me to believe that all his days in prison, he anticipated becoming an airbender and practiced all the moves beforehand. Granted, there are no official moves anymore. I’m sure he’s experienced in reckless punching. That’s all you need to bend, right?

If he can read a book and be great at airbending, why can’t Korra. Why didn’t Aang read THREE books to go defeat Ozai. Aang just should’ve read Earthbending for Dummies. Then he could bend the entire world off its axis. And This Bald Guy can jump off a cliff after quoting some “deep airbending lore” and he can FLY. Not even propelled by anything or even (AGAIN I REITERATE) moving his arms to BEND the currents around him. He’s not flying. He’s floating. And floating characters have always seemed like pretty bad animation, seriously. He looks like a late-stage yuri on ice character. Super out of place, and moving oddly across an undefined plane.

MAKO IN GENERAL

Mako does a couple things I’m not a big fan of. Ok, a lot of things. But in terms of bending, I have a few choice picks.

In Legend of Korra, lightning and its redirection has a lot less of an impact. Being electrocuted no longer hurts anyone unless the writers want us to feel bad for a character being hurt (usually Korra). But half of the time, it’s just there to look really COOL and not really do anything. This is proven by two things. Mako shoots lightning right on Amon at point blank, and Amon isn’t affected. The same is true for Mako. He HOLDS ON to the lightning and ISN’T AFFECTED AT ALL. Let me make another ATLA/LOK comparison.

Zuko: Tries to redirect lightning, gaurding his torso so hopefully it doesn’t hit him. In the end it does and he’s pretty much out of the fight.

Mako: Doesn’t even really care if he’s hit by the lightning at all. He holds on to it for a good few seconds, because it’s not like electrocution hurts or anything. Only after getting a REFRESHING SHOCK for a good bit does he decide to toss it back at the Robo Man.

Maybe this would make sense because Mako is supposed to be a cool, all-powerful Firebender. But then even that theory breaks down, because he can withstand the strongest forms of raw fuckin’ Bending Power from all elements, apparently.

He does another of these dumb moves when he’s being bloodbended by Amon. We see Amon being bloodbended, but he escapes the grip, and the audience assumes it’s because he’s a bloodbender. But then suddenly MAKO CAN DO IT TOO. What a great guy.

Also Amon’s fine from this shock as well. And this kind of encompasses everything I’ve touched on. There’s Amon bending without moving, Mako having unrealistic powers never touched on before, and powers that are nerfed to all hell just to add ~drama~ in replace of actual sense.

TL;DR: LOK’s bending is saturated action filler written in for wish fulfillment, sacrifices old techniques and inner consistency for cool looking moves and scenarios, and shows a disappointing lack of passion or misunderstanding of the source material

[seddm]

Even though this doesn't really match up with anything regarding "Wholesome Week", I would still like to hear your thoughts about a few things that have been on my mind for quite a bit. WARNING! Everything that I want to say will add up to one lengthy post, so I greatly apologize in advance. Alright, here we go! *gaaaaaaaaaaaaaasp*:

Long Ask after the KEEP READING!

1) Seeing loads of people in this fandom speculate how the episode "Starcrushed" is possibly going to involve a lot more shipping war fuel, considering how each of the show's episode titles have been quite literal in their content, what if that's also the case here, and instead the episode involves Star and Ludo having this big magic battle, resulting in Star finally managing to beat him, but not without the cost of both of their wands being crushed beyond normal* repair.

That’s definitely a possibility, since the show is obviously not afraid to change the status quo. Sure, I don’t expect the magical element to be removed from the show, it might be back soon after in season 3, in the form of another wand or a complete control on dipping down or who knows. Doesn’t sound THAT likely, since the wand is iconic to the show, but I wouldn’t discard the possibility either!

2) Considering how S3 will most likely continue and finish up any remaining stuff from S2, if a Season 4 was announced, how would you feel if the show during that time decided to go back to the more light-hearted and comedy based episodes like in S1, but this time taken in much more of a "Slice of Life"-esque direction? Specifically, the kind of "Slice of Life" that's generally used to describe the filler/in-between arc(s) episodes of "Dragon Ball Super".Me personally? I would absolutely love it! These kinds of episodes are not only a great way to bring back some levity after a great deal of heavy episodes, as Dragon Ball Super has shown, they can be used to explore more of the lore of a series (without going full-blown serious mode), explore more about other character's personal lives (perhaps Janna's or Jackie's homelife?), and even give them a chance to be in the spotlight (ex: Yamcha with the baseball ep., and Gohan in EPs 73-74).Oh! And it would also allow to give both the show itself and fans a bit of break from all those heavy episodes during S2 and (again presumably) S3. Because hey, after all that, I think most people would definitely need and enjoy a good break from stuff like that WITHOUT constant hiatuses (hell, it's partly why "Wholesome Week" was created, right? To bring the fanbase out of its angst because of the hiatus after Bon Bon, and give it some much needed levity?).

It’s a personal preference, but I’d rather avoid it: the longer a show goes on, the harder it is for every episode to be meaningful. So far, even more filler episodes such as Fetch or Star vs Echo Creek or Camping Trip, while not progressing the plot and lore at all, gave us important insight about the characters, and pieces for the puzzle that is their characterization. But you can’t introduce a new aspect of Marco’s low self esteem, or Star’s allergy to problems forever. So I’m in the team “Less episodes, more focus”. Note that this doesn’t mean that I want every episode to be about lore, magic and Mewni. There’s a difference between “filler episode that still adds something to the characters and world” and “filler episode that’s not even canon”.

3) Regarding the episode "Just Friends", since a lot of people are Starco fans (including you) and many of those speculate that the episode title possibly refers to a Jarco break-up, if that did happen, what reasoning would you prefer as to why they broke up?

It’s impossible to answer, for me at least, given how little we know about Jackie, and about what her relationship with Marco is going to be in the next episodes. It has to be GOOD, though. Something that either Marco, or Jackie, or both, are going to mature over the course of episodes, not just “You love Star more go to her” or poop like that.

Because a) Either one (or both) realize that they actually see the each other as just friends and not as a couple? Or b) Either one (or both) thinks it'd be better to stick to being friends not because they don't like the other person, but because they just don't feel comfortable being in relationships yet, but once they do, they would totally be fine dating again?Personally, I greatly prefer the second option. Mainly because while the former is the more common, and therefore, expected reasoning, considering that both Marco and Jackie are still 14 years old, the two are still pretty young and at the age where they haven't really fully "matured" yet. Having the two decide that it's probably not the best idea for them to be a couple at that moment and to just stick to being friends, to me, feels much more natural and believable too.Heck, even I've experienced something like that when I was younger, so it's not like I'm pulling this out of thin air. Plus, the former option just feels way too sappy imo, and for the love of god, I do not want to see this show become something of a soap opera.

This is, again, my personal opinion, but I’d hate the second option. While it’s definitely something extremely common in real life, this is a cartoon: I want relationships to be idealized, while still relatable. This “I’m not ready to date you right now but maybe in the future” feels a lot like something long-running tv shows do, to avoid closing any road.

But I agree, too much sappiness would be equally bad. In the end, I trust the writers, and I’d rather wait some more episodes before starting to speculate on it.

[recentanimenews]

THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Encounters A Star In Episodes 176-182!

Welcome to THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! I’m Jared Clemons and I’ll be your host this week as we barrel on through all 220 episodes of the original Naruto anime adaptation. Last week in episodes 169-175, we got perhaps the best arc out of the filler thus far when we learned about Anko’s backstory and her history with Orochimaru. This week, it’s time to learn about how the postal service works and how dangerous meteorites can be in episodes 176-182.

  I really enjoy the idea behind showcasing how regular jobs are handled within Naruto, like we’ve seen with the Chef Ninja and now the Delivery Ninja. It’s the right kind of goofy that you need when you’re as knee deep in filler as we currently are. We then transition out of that into another arc that takes us into the Hidden Star Village where they have quite a few secrets and a way to make their ninja incredibly powerful, but at a steep price. This arc was surprisingly grounded and I’m almost surprised we didn’t get something like aliens being behind the power of the meteorite. I think at this point, the filler could go completely off the rails and I wouldn’t be too shocked. 

  Before we see if Naruto and his pals can get to the bottom of what’s going on in the Hidden Star Village, let’s find out what the rest of the Crunchyroll Features team had to say about this week’s slate of episodes!

    Jiraiya makes his return and we are also introduced to another regular job ninja in the Delivery Ninja. If you could have a one-off episode devoted to a random job that is now made for ninjas, what job would you choose?

  Paul: Judging by how hardcore the ninja postal service is, I have to imagine that ninja tax collectors would be even more hardcore. Can you imagine trying to collect taxes from villages populated entirely by professional shinobi, who know every stealth and evasion trick in the book, not to mention having access to Genjutsu that could make you think a pile of leaves was a fresh stack of bills?

  Danni: I want to see ninja athletes. Not really for any particular sport, I just want to see what kind of professional sports they’d come up with to utilize jutsu and what rules they’d have to put in place to regulate it. Kind of like how The Legend of Korra turned bending into its own sport. 

  Joseph: Ninja garbage men. 

  Carolyn: Kiba’s dog walking service. Shino’s flea circus. Ooh, ooh, Tsunade runs a gambling ring, Sasuke’s famous disappearing act with Naruto as a carnival barker, Jiraiya runs a burlesque show. Basically, Naruto goes to Vegas. This is a filler episode, after all.

  David: Honestly I’d like to see the opposite - someone doing a completely mundane job that doesn’t require being a ninja at all, and when Naruto and friends try to help them with their ninja skills, they manage to make things worse every time and learn that not all problems need to be solved with jutsu.

  Kara: Funny, I just went into a monologue on this on Twitter. I want to see the shop where villages go to get their ninja headbands. They probably have a three-ring binder of laminated pages of available symbols, which are all getting slowly used up so at some point you’re either gonna have to be the Village Hidden in the Dolphins or the Village Hidden in the Tribal Butterfly Design Things. Also I bet they have novelty ones for bachelor/ette parties.

  Noelle: One thing I’d want to see is a general supply shop. The villages act like small cities, but where do they get food from, and how is all of that transported? Who protects the transports? Stuff that aids the day to day going more smoothly is something I’d like to see explored.

  Kevin: I would want to know about something mundane but necessary for the main cast, like how paper bombs are made or the process of creating ninja tools, or some kind of jutsu research and creation facility if we’re allowed to go away from the silliness of ninja postmen. For something less educational and more insane and fun, maybe a ninja carnival where all of the attractions and employees are just using jutsu in really creative ways?

    Speaking of Jiraiya, he comes and goes very quickly as he’s still too tied up with other missions to train Naruto. Has his absence been felt throughout a lot of these arcs or had you forgotten about him until this episode?

  Paul: Jiraiya is the worst recurring character with the worst throwaway episodes, and I wouldn't notice the difference if they replaced him with a wet sack of compost wearing a kabuki wig. I'm still waiting for Jiraiya to demonstrate sufficient redeeming qualities to make up for him being a huge creep. At this point, I'm not holding my breath.

  Danni: I like Jiraiya whenever he gets serious about something, but he’s the absolute worst whenever there’s any downtime. Considering most filler is downtime, I can’t say I miss him. It’s more that I miss having plot worth him getting serious about.

  Joseph: I liked Jiraiya in the manga and I think he gets better, but as it is now he just makes for even worse filler episodes than usual. I’ll also never not be grossed out every time he’s turned on by Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu. 

  Carolyn: Yeah, I didn’t really notice he was gone and I don’t really care for him being back. He basically just stole from Naruto and disappeared last time around.

  David: No, I didn’t think about him until he showed up again. In the series proper the adults tend to show up for important things, so it made sense for him to not be around for all this filler, and I don’t think he needed to show up in this capacity either.

  Kara: For me, Jiraiya’s like the “little girl with the curl” in the old nursery rhyme. When he’s good, he’s very very good; when he’s bad, he’s an irredeemable pervert. That's how the rhyme went, right? It’s a shame, because I really like the older generation in this show for the most part and I really want to like him without having to hand-wave a bunch of gross stuff.

  Noelle: I think Jiraya is best when he’s actually doing something, and we can see some of his power. When he’s not in the spotlight, he’s just hanging around, and isn’t too missed.

  Kevin: As someone who really likes Jiraiya and is eagerly awaiting the start of Shippuden… the vast majority of the time I completely forget that that’s why Naruto’s still in the village and not out training. Generally once or twice a week, I’ll remember Jiraiya is supposedly off on various missions, then go back to wondering why no one remembers that they can walk on water, so they don’t need to use boats. 

    We dive into a lengthy arc after that with a trip to the Hidden Star Village. A fallen meteorite grants great power to those who train beside it, but that has dire consequences as we learn later on. What are your initial thoughts on this story in comparison to the other filler stories we’ve had thus far?

  Paul: The Hidden Star Village arc has been pretty solid as filler arcs go, not only because of the central dilemma (the meteorite boosts Chakra, but slowly kills the people who train with it), but also because of the internal political conflicts within the Hidden Star Village and the ethical quandary faced by Naruto, Neji, and company. They're required to complete their mission, even though their employer is a complete heel, and that’s not a type of pressure that they've faced before.

  Danni: It’s not a bad arc, but I haven’t found it near as interesting as some of the better filler arcs we’ve been through. The most interesting aspect has been them having to come to terms with the fact that they’re essentially mercenaries who have been hired by the bad guy. They still have to complete the mission for him. Though I feel like once he literally tried to murder Naruto, the Leaf shinobi should’ve taken that as a severance of contract if not a full blown declaration of war. 

  Joseph: I like some aspects of this arc, but overall it just reinforces the feeling that Naruto used to be a highlight of my week but has since turned into a mostly mediocre Saturday morning cartoon. It’s like I’m stuck in a time loop and each trip through is only slightly different. 

  Carolyn: I mean, it does seem somewhat meatier than past filler arcs, like the Ramen-making. And it actually does have a bit more of a story than the weird Scooby-Doo arc (as much as I liked that one) but in the end it is just filler and doesn’t quite capture the same interest as the earlier Naruto-focused episodes.

  David: It feels weird because if it weren’t filler, the meteorite probably would have been really important lore information, but here it just seems like nonsense. Maybe there will be a twist, but generally I prefer filler that doesn’t try to seem more important than it is.

  Kara: This would be throwaway for me except it goes straight for my morbid fascination with this ninja culture of absolutely destroying yourself to be Best Ninja Possible. Most of all I think it’s interesting to see a place where people draw the line. Hacking your Hayflick Limit or ripping out your own spine is fine, but we draw the line at running yourself ragged with meteor chakra.

  Noelle: I definitely agree with everyone else; it has a lot of potential, but in the end, it’s filler and won’t be brought up again. What is chakra and is chakra universal or just set to the ninja world is something that I’d really like to find out more of, but alas…

  Kevin: Honestly, I’m actually more invested in this arc than the vast majority of the rest of the filler. Sure, I know that the star will break or something, rendering it impossible to use later (it wouldn’t be filler, otherwise!), but for me this arc is working pretty well as a self-contained narrative about a group of people using whatever means necessary to survive and become the next respected hidden village.

    Naruto meets an individual with similar aspirations as him in Sumaru. They both are stubborn and want to become the leader of their respective villages. How did you feel about Sumaru’s arc with regards to him and what eventually happens with the reunion with his mother?

  Paul: I need to reserve judgment on this until I see how the arc concludes. A traditional ending would have Sumaru triumph over Akahoshi, implying that Sumaru will grow up to be a great leader for Hidden Star Village one day. I'm not sure that they're going in that direction. I wasn't expecting them to kill off Natsuhi...assuming she's actually dead, that is. If that detail sticks, the conclusion could be surprisingly dark.

  Danni: Same as Paul said I can’t really speak to his arc given that it hasn’t finished yet. I would also like to see him and the rest of the children defeat Akahoshi of their own volition.

  Joseph: I gotta echo Paul and Danni here. Sumaru is fine, but I’m not holding out hope for his eventual rule of this rinky dink village. I like the concept behind his people in general, but I got a little beat down by an arc that could have been two or three episodes tops. 

  Carolyn: It’s a little odd that he didn’t realize she was his mother without basically being told that. That sort of removes some of the emotion from that story. 

  David: “Look at this character Naruto just met, they’re a lot like Naruto!” happens in literally all of these longer filler arcs, and it rings more hollow each time.

  Kara: I like the parallels when Naruto can bring his experiences to these new and different people. He’s had to work through a lot and is finding success against the odds (or at least the assumed odds), and I think when it’s played right, it’s a good reminder that he actually does have the chops to be Hokage because he remembers the human element. I didn’t see as much of that this time, so past the “Ohoho, wanna be the Ho(shi)kage” it didn’t do much for me this time.

  Noelle: Parallels are interesting, but they really need some meat to actually work. I think Sumaru has potential, but I’ll need to see his arc in full to allow for a proper judgment. 

  Kevin: While I praise the arc in general, Sumaru is the part where I just tune things out and go back to looking at my phone. He’s not bad, per se, but everyone’s seen the “character brainwashed by the obvious bad guy who’s actually a good person, just on the wrong side of things” before, and outside of that trope, Sumaru’s basically another character that’s like Naruto, which we’ve seen at least a half dozen times at this point. His reunion with his mother is probably the most interesting part of his arc, because there’s some lingering resentment that they need to work through, instead of just immediately being on the same side because they’re family. 

    Near the end of this week’s run of episodes, we see a split with regards to how to proceed with the mission. Naruto wants to bring Akahoshi to justice for what he’s done while Neji believes they should leave that matter to the Star Village. Given what we’ve seen in other filler arcs over the last couple of weeks and with what happens at the end of our final episode, should they have been more gung ho with confronting Akahoshi or was Neji in the right to hold Naruto and Lee back?

  Paul: This was the most interesting conflict in the arc. The Leaf Village shinobi have been charged with a single task: retrieving the stolen star. Everything else outside of the purview of their mission, and their conduct – no matter how righteous – could reflect poorly on their village and damage its social standing. Since peace among the ninja villages is so fragile, a loss of reputation could have dire consequences. Naruto and company are caught between a rock and a hard place, and I love it.

  Danni: Honestly, they’re both right. Naruto is correct in that the just thing to do would be to stop Akahoshi, and Neji is right in recognizing that shinobi are hired guns and not vigilantes. It’s an interesting conflict that Naruto has always danced around from the start, and I have full confidence that Naruto’s view will ultimately win out and this conflict will never become a factor ever again.

  Joseph: This is definitely an interesting dilemma, and I’d like to see more of it in these missions. I agree that both sides are right, but it’s going to come down to what’s more important to Naruto. I suspect he’ll land on the side of confrontation, reputation be damned. 

  Carolyn: I’m a Gemini so I see both sides and will agonize over this answer for 30 years. Neji is definitely right in a way, it’s not exactly their place. But Naruto isn’t wrong, either. Morals are morals.

  David: Neji is completely right, but this isn’t the kind of story that will give the pragmatic character his due.

  Kara: I think that first begs the question of what is valued higher: justice overall, or faithfulness to your village and assignment. Considering previous episodes, it seems their lives will be most affected by their adherence to the latter. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but there it is.

  Noelle: It’s tricky, because they both bring up good points. While there’s no doubt that Akahoshi deserves to face some justice, the Leaf Village is not the world police; they don’t have full jurisdiction over what happens outside their territory. In the end, the Star Village ultimately has the right to the final say. It’s a tough call. 

  Kevin: In terms of actual mission rules and how professionals would handle the situation, Neji is almost certainly correct. Their employer was releasing them and saying that their mission was concluded, so the Leaf team should have headed back home right then. But this is Naruto, so screw the rules, we have a Nindo, a ninja way, to uphold.

    Open up your flip phone and give me your highs and lows from this week’s episodes.

  Paul: My high point is all of the intrigue surrounding Hidden Star Village, which was grounded in concepts such as duty, ambition, and obligation. My low point was the conclusion to the face-stealing shinobi mini-arc, which began as a serious threat but concluded as an episode of Looney Tunes. The set-up didn't match the pay-off, although I like the idea of a perfect impersonation Jutsu being used for something as mundane as dining-and-dashing.

  Danni: My high point was watching the treasure hunting arc go from serious threat to goofy chase hijinks from last week to this week. I found it pretty humorous in the end. My low point was, of course, Sexy Jutsu. I’m so, so tired of it.

  Joseph: My low point was pretty much everything with Jiraiya in what was yet another pointless episode that landed back at square one. Second low honors go to a totally wasted Rock Lee. My high point was the brief intrigue at the beginning of the Star Village arc, which quickly dissipated as more was revealed. 

  Carolyn: Neji’s growth and that entire conflict was definitely an interesting high point for me. Also, “Creeeeping.” Because Rock Lee is a very good boy. Low point is always sexy jutsu and just the weird amazement the characters always display when they realize a super-strong awesome ninja is a woman. They’ve been punched in the face by super strong women the whole series.

  David: My high point and low point are both when Naruto used Rasengan to propel his boat he was on forward to catch up to the postman’s boat. High because it is such an amusing use of what is supposed to be an extremely powerful, Chakra-intensive attack, but also low because of that wastefulness. Did the writers forget these guys can literally walk on water?

  Kara: My high point was Naruto’s garbage smutfic bringing peace to the land. My low point was the rest of that episode.

  Noelle: The Star Village intrigue was definitely something I enjoyed, with both the concepts it introduced and the morality conundrum it pushed towards. I like it when things aren’t clean cut. Low point: Sexy Jutsu… haven’t we gotten tired of this by now?

  Kevin: 

High - The concept of the Hidden Star arc. I really like the idea of a group of people trying to become the next Hidden Village, but even more than that, I like that the previous village Kage banned star training because of how dangerous it is but the current villain brought it back because if even a handful of people master it, then their position as a powerful village is secured. It’s a bit more of a nuanced narrative than we’ve seen in previous arcs. 

Low - The conclusion of the one-shot with Jiraiya and the Ninja Postmen. I get that it’s a gag, but a Nation’s Lord reading whatever genre “Make-Out Paradise” is in and deciding to not go to war as a result is not a satisfying ending. It would’ve made more sense if one of the following happened. Either a) he didn’t particularly like it, was disappointed and then Jiraiya and Naruto showed up to explain what had happened, giving him the secret documents and a promise to send the manuscript when Jiraiya finished it; or b) the Ninja Postmen accepted that there had been a mixup and swapped the documents back.

    COUNTERS:

  This Week:

Ramen: 3 cups

Hokage: 3

Clones: 28 + 2 variable scenes + 2 uncountable scenes

  Total So Far:

Ramen: 171 bowls, 12 cups

Hokage: 58

Clones: 711

  And that’s it for this week! Remember that you’re always welcome to watch along with the Rewatch, especially if you’ve never seen the original Naruto! Watch Naruto today!

  Here’s our upcoming schedule:

-Next week, JOSEPH LUSTER is back to continue the Star Guard mission!

-On July 26th, KARA DENNISON returns to guide us through the end of the Peddlers Escort Mission!

-Finally on August 2nd, NOELLE OGAWA shows us the formation of the Konoha 11!

  CATCH UP ON THE REWATCH!

Episodes 169-175: Anko’s Backstory At Sea

Episodes 162-168: The Tale of the Phantom Samurai

Episodes 155-161: Quickfire Curry

Episodes 148-154: The Forest is Abuzz With Ninjas

Episodes 141-147: Mizuki Strikes Back!

Episodes 134-140: The Climactic Clash

Episodes 127-133: Naruto vs Sasuke

Episodes 120-126: The Sand Siblings Return

Episodes 113-119: Operation Rescue Sasuke

Episodes 106-112: Sasuke Goes Rogue

Episodes 99-105: Trouble in the Land of Tea

Episodes 92-98: Clash of the Sannin

Episodes 85-91: A Life-Changing Decision

Episodes 78-84: The Fall of a Legend

Episodes 71-77: Sands of Sorrow

Episodes 64-70: Crashing the Chunin Exam

Episodes 57-63: Family Feud

Episodes 50-56: Rock Lee Rally

Episodes 43-49: The Gate

Episodes 36-42: Through the Woods

Episodes 29-35: Sakura Unleashed

Episodes 22-28: Chunin Exams Kickoff

Episodes 15-21: Leaving the Land of Waves

Episodes 8-14: Beginners' Battle

Episodes 1-7: I'm Gonna Be the Hokage!

  Thank you for joining us for the GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

  Have anything to say about our thoughts on Episodes 176-182? Let us know in the comments! Don't forget, we're also accepting questions and comments for next week, so don't be shy and feel free to ask away!

---

Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup where he can be found always wanting to talk about Love Live! Sunshine!! or whatever else he's into at the moment. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

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