#i've been betrayed by video game sequels before

[sapphire-weapon]

You're a fan of The Evil Within? Awesome! Who's your favorite character and which game (1 or 2) is your favorite?

so, real talk, i kept this ask open for like an hour trying to answer it, and i just. can't bring myself to talk about TEW, even still. we're six years removed from TEW2, and i still just. ugh.

i will never stop being haunted by the tired expression on john johanas's face and the rueful tone of his voice during the E3 where TEW2 was announced, as he said over and over again to different interviewers: "what i learned as a first time game director is that my job wasn't to see my vision realized. my job was to release a finished game on time."

i knew, in that moment, that he was trying to tell me and mine to temper our expectations -- but what i didn't know was just how bad it was actually going to be.

i talked to johanas several times about TEW1's lore in the aftermath of the assignment & the consequence being released, and i was so deep in there that, when i played TEW2, i could see the seams where content was cut and the story was changed in order to simplify the plot and get the game out on time. i could see exactly what it was that he'd wanted to shoot for, and i can point out the exact moment where he gave up.

and it's just

hundreds of hours of playtime

hundreds of thousands of words written

entire folders filled with screencaps and files and scans

all of it dedicated to putting together the full picture of the lore as it was told in TEW1

worthless

all of it, worthless in the end

and now i'm just kind of watching john johanas go full tetsuya nomura in the sense of "square enix stole ff versus from me, so i'm just going to put my ideas for it in kingdom hearts instead AND NO ONE'S GOING TO FUCKING STOP ME"

because that's what johanas fuckin did with hi-fi rush LMAO

[myaoiboy]

Hi I saw that you answered an ask* the other day and I wanted to know if you continued with your analysis or if you could continue. I was really interested and curious to know more about it. I really wanted to know what you had to say, seriously, I could read a bible of Death Stranding reviews!

*https://www.tumblr.com/myaoiboy/739740134244794368/death-stranding-gender-talk-you-say-count-me-in?source=share

Hi! I totally can keep talking about Death Stranding forever (I know it's a very divisive game but imo on the whole the writing is like a well-oiled machine in ways that MGS just barely started to scrape askdjfh)

For the most part I haven't talked a *ton* about it at length because the series is just getting started and I feel weird making assertions that are likely to be fully subverted within a year or two. MGS has like. well, now, 25 years of shit going on. Sequels, prequels, fanon, etc., that Death Stranding...hasn't really had time to grow into yet.

I also tend to intentionally only post for dead series because the fandoms tend to be chiller lmao

Plus the fact that I got into DS right around the time that DS2 was announced, so I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs knowing that there's about to be more content and context that I just don't have access to yet. I already feel like there's a lot more to be learned about the first game, just from the latest trailer drop.

Honestly I think the thing that really gets me with DS is that despite the borderline insanity of the setting, to me, there's a lot of dramatic irony and meta knowledge that makes DS pretty easy to follow compared to, like, any single MGS game. Maybe I'm just the exact target audience that the writing was intended for, but most of the big reveals felt less like a sucker punch and more of a dramatic swell.

Some reasons for this (please be gentle i am taking cutscene SCs from youtube videos, they're gonna look like shit):

First of all, this is basically frame 1 of being formally introduced to Amelie, we see...this lens flare. Look familiar?

...how about now?

We are introduced to her instantly with a sign of danger. A pretty one, but a sign of danger nonetheless. The fact that it's an inverted rainbow is important! It shows up around timefall because of chiral air disturbance. We don't know that yet in-game, but if you know about how light works you know that there's something Wrong(tm) about this.

A regular lens flare shouldn't be causing an inverted rainbow if it's causing one at all. I think in this cutscene Amelie's presence is causing that inverted rainbow. Throughout the game, people come up with various theories of their own to excuse her connection to the beach. Little do they know at the time how right they are...

She's also heavily backlit, which hides her features in an unsettling manner. In fact, I really can't think of anyone else that this happens to throughout the game (if anyone knows of another example PLEASE let me know!!!)

She gets pretty damn close before that rainbow disappears, but this is where I very quickly lost my initial trust in her (as the player).

I jokingly called called this her "Fox News reporter look," but it's very much constructed in a way that made me suspicious.

Let's talk about that red dress.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Kojima fucking LOVES using color language, especially red, blue, and gold. It's been super obvious and explicit since like 2012.

The fact that we meet her wearing a red dress is not a coincidence!!! It's a great big flashing warning sign! It says "hey, this person is going to betray you! Do Not Fucking Trust!!!"

Compare Amelie's name card to Paz's from Peace Walker:

The art styles are different, but there are a couple of main throughlines. Namely, both have an emphasis on the color red, both are young (looking) women who are lying about their identities in order to ask the main character a favor. Characters vouch for them, from trusted advisors, to the main character himself in DS. And then they try to bring about armageddon.

Basically what I'm saying is that they're both the embodiment of white woman tears a wolf in sheep's clothing, if the sheep's clothing was still dripping in blood. We (characters, and maybe the players) believe that she's on our side because we want to believe she's on our side, and because other people that we ostensibly trust tell us she's on our side, while the extremely dissonant narrative and imagery of the scene are SHAKING US BY THE SHOULDERS TELLING US TO SNAP OUT OF IT.

Add to that the fact that we kind of vaguely, through that intro cutscene post-central knot explosion, know that the beach is connected to dying somehow, and that amelie seems to be on it, doing very stereotypical little girl in horror things there, like singing nursery rhymes slowly while walking into the ocean.

So we've basically been told that Amelie is Not Good, but we have to spend the game piecing together what kind of Not Good she is. The first hint is (surprise!) also in this cutscene!

I don't recall off the top of my head if I knew at the time how heavily egyptian mythology plays into DS, but I do remember this cutscene giving me a bad gut feeling about the concept of the West.

Very few Big Concepts in these games (the West, strand(s/ing), patriotism/nationalism, etc) are only symbolic of one thing. That's also true across the board in basically all art, but I feel the need to point that out in public posts because I don't want someone to eg, think that I say something means one thing, and then back that up, and then people think that means it can't mean something else! It can (and often does) mean both! and sometimes that additional meaning is super important!

Anyways, Die Hardman refers to Amelie going West. We don't really use that phrasing much, so it stuck out to me as euphemistic. Especially since we saw her after we died, and there's so much euphemism going on from the bridges team anyways. I mean, cufflinks "symbolize our connection?" Girl, you locked me to my bed with them. You drain my blood with them to turn into weapons. Call 'em what they are.

You'll even notice in the same cutscene that Amelie says "we made it to Edge Knot City" and Sam replies with "all the way to the Pacific?" Not "all the way to the west coast," or even a single question about why she was on the/his beach.

If you know anything about egyptian mythology, you might know that west is considered the direction of death and the underworld. ancient egyptians buried dead people on the west side of the nile river. Osiris, god of death and mummification, and king of the underworld, is referred to as "foremost of the westerners" among his epithets.

So the vibe that I got instantly was "Amelie is already dead, she led her team to die, and they are basically sending Sam on a suicide mission" though I didn't realize exactly how I was right at the time.

The other big thing I recall setting off my alarm bells as the game went on was the fact that nobody you meet has ever met Amelie in person. It's a very slow reveal, especially since most people seem to see online meeting and in person meeting to be mostly the same, and we're told that she set out with bridges one. That she went west. Turns out that...also wasn't literal.

I don't remember exactly when I started wondering if *sam* had ever even met her outside of the beach, but I do remember thinking that there was something off. For a little bit my guess was that she was entirely fictional, some sort of AI (pretty influenced by all the "dead person brought back by AI/hypno bullshit ngl), or maybe that Higgs could somehow disguise himself in the Beach in ways i didn't understand yet.

But I didn't feel *worse* for being able to figure things out ahead of time, I felt clever that I could piece together all the little hints and have a good idea of what was going on. It made death stranding feel more like a coherent sci fi narrative rather than a cheesy action story that's expected to follow certain strict genre conventions.

Not that I'm saying mgs or action in general are bad, but rather that imo Death Stranding feels...more mature and confident in some ways (and also isn't bogged down by 20 years of previous work. which. i don't even like my own shit from a year ago half the time, i cannot imagine having to write within the constraints you created TWO DECADES prior kjhksjfh). Maybe it's that it feels like less of a genre subversion and has more genre utilization? dunno. Now I'm thinking too much like an english major lkajshdf

But yeah anybody who wants to talk about anything totally feel free. Or if you want to give me prompts to write about. I will always be willing to talk about things for way too long on the internet. I just don't always reply quickly because I start rambling....Like This.

[ruthlesslistener]

Hi! I saw the post you wrote for LN2 and I've a few questions (I'm not the same anon). This is gonna have spoilers, so yeah. Before the questions, though, the secret ending actually confirms that this is a prequel to the first game, as otherwise Six would've had her coat and would've shown her hunger earlier. And there's also a comic which shows hers and Mono's first meeting which is actually before the game. I'm not too sure how she ended up in the room at the beginning of the game or if (1/4)

 it had been hers, but the fact that she decides to run away is pretty telling of the way she felt about the place. Since I’m really bad with phrasing this, I’m sorry if I come off as demanding, I’m just genuinely curious as what your thoughts are since I really look up to you and your opinions. I’ve read somewhere (YT, I think) that she absorbed Mono’s ability, or copied it in some way, since she was able to go out through the TV at the end and before that she wasn’t. Do you think that this is the case? Also, since the main ending shows Mono slowly becoming the Thin Man over time (and it’s a clear rep of the cycle of abuse, as you said) do you think the he was trying to save his child self from Six or was trying to stop himself from letting her hurt him again? And, supposedly, the music box is actually smt that the Signal Tower was using to control her. I might be diving in too much into the lore of the game rather than the actual meaning here, I realise, tho that’s smt I’ve learnt to do bc of Hollow Knight xD I also realise that I could be wrong about some stuff or missing some info, but yeah. Dunno, I’m just genuinely intrigued by the lore and stuff and I’ll prob be for a few weeks till I find smt else to hyperfixate on. I’ll be binging explanation videos instead of doing uni work, sigh. Hope I didn’t bother you with all this stuff, feel free to completely ignore all of these if so!! Thank you!! 

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Hey np anon!! I held off on answering this bc of a combo of hw and wanting to sit and ponder over it a bit, but it's interesting stuff and I wanna try to expand on it!!

First off, my belief for the whole 'time loop' theory is that there is a loop going on, but that it's a metaphorical one. It's not the same Mono and Six over and over again, it's a representation of the whole cycle of abuse thing that I was talking about where the trauma that a child experiences turns them into an abuser later- the son becomes the father that traumatizes the son once more, the daughter becomes the mother who abuses her own daughter, etc. I don't think that the Lady we see in the first game is Six, exactly, nor do I think that the Thin Man of the second game is Mono. I think that Mono becomes the 'replacement' Thin Man in the cycle after Six 'betrays' him (re: retaliates) because his trauma with his father and with what he perceived as a betrayal shaped who he was to be, and that he would then continue on in his father's shoes. Similarly, with Six, she takes the Lady's place not out of a desire to be the Lady, but as a necessity to satiate her endless hunger. They're forced into the same roles and are modeled to reflect that, yeah, but they're not the same Mono and Six every time, it's just the same story with similar characters and fixed outcomes, resulting in a pseudo-timeloop scenario.

As for the prequel thing, I'm p. sure they made that feel bungled on purpose? To lend to the overall dreamy haze feel of the game. I just looked through the comics (which are AMAZING by the way), and there's not really anything in particular that points out if Six meeting Mono comes before or after she escapes the Maw, or if she lost her raincoat along the way and salvaged her new one off of a corpse that had that model, etc. The reason why I assumed that the game was a sequel was bc I think I heard from somewhere that the reason why Mono had to help Six was because her powers were fading, which scared her. Either way tho, I don't think that the exact timeline matters much because I feel like they intentionally wanted it to be as hazy and dreamlike and confusing as possible (as well as a huge metaphor). The way that it would run goes slightly differently bc of the time jumble, yeah, but the plot remains mostly the same, with the abuse cycle continuing regardless. So I'm going to explain how I interpreted that from the '2 is a sequel' perspective, bc the '2 is a prequel' perspective appears to be the one you understand personally :)

The reason why I think that Six returned to the Maw is based entirely on a trauma response (one that I admittedly struggle with). It's one where an abuse victim that has just escaped their situation longs to go back to it- even if they purposefully ran away from it- because at least in that scenario, they knew how the world worked, they knew the rhythm of things and had a sense of control. There are tells and cues that get ingrained into you after years of living with it, subtle details that allow you to expertly navigate a path where you can mitigate the chance you will be yelled at, or hurt. The outside world, however, is a wild card; you have no idea how it works, you don't know the cues, you don't know how to survive like you did before. The previous situation was awful, yes- but it made sense, whereas the outside world is only chaos. And with Six specifically, I feel like after the chaos of the Pale City, she would have wanted to return to The Maw for the specific reason that it was the only place in the world where things made sense.

Not to mention, I interpret her hunger to be a physical manifestation of her abuse 'turning her into a monster', since it grows stronger and makes her more powerful the more brutal that it becomes. A lot of the reason why the cycle of abuse is so hard to break irl, after all, is because lashing out gives power to those who have no control. If you don't learn how to fight back, and to make it hurt, you get stepped on. If you don't get strong enough to hurt people before they hurt you, you will be crushed. So I interpreted Six's hunger as being something that was metaphorically passed down from the Lady via her own unique abuse cycle (or because of the Thin Man and Mono traumatizing her and breaking her sense of trust, if we're going the prequel route), one that gets stronger the more 'monsterous' she gets, because it's linked to how much power she currently possesses. In the Pale City, she has no Hunger because she has no power; she's a weak scrap of a thing who doesn't belong, she doesn't know how to properly strike back. In essence, her dependance- and trust- in Mono fades it to nothing, because she has no reason to feed or strengthen herself. The reason why it comes back (or is sparked at all) after she drops him off the cliff is supposed to represent that dark, bitter part of her going 'this is proof we can't trust anyone, this is why we need to hurt people to survive', and then has her going back to the Maw because it's a place where she understands the layout and hierarchy of and can easily ascend to a position of ultimate power. 

I'm not sure if this is coming across correctly, but basically Six's Hunger = her learning how to hurt people and then using it to make her harder to harm, thus increasing her ranking in the world and becoming more and more like her mother, The Lady. We see that the more harmful someone gets, the more monstrous they become, so my personal interpretation of Shadow Six was that that was her dark, angry side (the part of you that's angry and hateful and just wants nothing more than to hurt people, bc if they want to make you a monster then so be it) guiding her decisions and making her more and more bitter, brutal, and monstrous, thus making her Hunger-and the need for her Hunger- worse. In particular, the reason why I think that Shadow Six showed up after the Thin Man grabbed her and Mono attacked her was bc that was an intensely traumatic experience, both bc she was kidnapped and also bc she was betrayed twice- once when Mono didn't protect her from being taken, and then the whole music-box smashing debacle. In a metaphorical sense, her ability to go through TV's like Mono could have been acquired from her hurting him after she made the connection between the Thin Man and him, bc we already have established that the magical powers these kids have are sort of passed-down trauma from their predecessors. In a literal sense, it could also be possible that her Hunger just sucks a part of the powers from whoever she harms, bc a popular theory for the first game is that she figured out the Lady's weakness after eating the nome. Which, again, is tied to a traumatic event, but enough about metaphors.

...Or not, bc I just scrolled up to re-read you asking about the music box XD That too is a visual metaphor for a trauma response, imo! I don't think that the music box was manifested to control Six as much as it was her trying to cope with her current circumstances. We know she really, really loves music/is sensitive to sound, so in a terrifying moment like being kidnapped by the Big Bad you were trying to escape from, it makes sense that she might have entered a dissociative state where she focused entirely on the music box and nothing else. To Mono, this dissociative state represented her monstrous form (perhaps something that was impressed upon him by his father, to warn him that attachments only lead to harm) that he had to snap her out of...which meant that he had to break the very thing that put her in that state, ie focusing only on the music box while also ignoring any other stimuli. Really, I saw the whole monster Six thing to be Six in a very animalistic, terrified state of mind, clinging onto the one thing that made her happy, and then her screaming and thrashing and having a meltdown when Mono (who was likely terrified by her current state) tried to 'save' her by snapping her out of it. The fact that she visually returns to being her after the whole ordeal was over really only supports this imo, bc she's literally been shocked out of that numb, animal state of being. I think the best way to represent that scenario through meme format is through that one Spongebob screenshot when he and Patrick are like 'we did it! We saved the city!' bc that's basically what that bossfight was, lmao

As for the Thin Man's motives...I think that we likely don't have a definitive answer for that. The way that I originally interpreted the whole Mono vs Thin Man thing was that the Thin Man aimed to groom Mono to be his successor, and that his goal was to recapture Mono, isolate him, and then 'turn him into him', a goal that Mono could not escape. That would have made Six a 'bad influence' that needed to be removed, which I see as the main motivator for him capturing her- I feel like he wanted Mono to see her as a monster so that he would willingly abandon her. It would make a sweet antiparallel to the Lady for sure, who seemed to see Six as competition that needed to be eliminated- whereas the Lady's abuse towards her daughter was a very physical, hateful thing that taught Six the only way forward was to kill her and be stronger than her, the Thin Man's desire to groom a successor was purely psychological abuse, where he set Mono up to fail, essentially teaching him that tough lesson of 'nobody is on your side, you will always be alone.' I don't think that he saw Six as anything more than an obstacle to be brushed aside so that the Signal Tower's next transmitter wouldn't malfunction, which in turn helped lock both those poor kids on the path of turning into their parents.

Hope that came across easily enough! I typed this all out on my phone at 1 am so I have no idea :D

[jazzypizzaz]

for the book ask: 3, 12, and 25?

3 - top five books this year

My Favorite Thing is Monsters - I bought this purely because the illustrations looked neat, only to discover it's about a baby gay girl who aspires to be a monster, investigating a neighbor's murder in 1960's Chicago??? wtf it's so so good. top graphic novel.

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures -- really fuckin cool stuff about mushrooms. also I'm obsessed with the author's voice (he narrates the audiobook), peculiar & sultry, just like fungus.

Falling in Love with Hominids and Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson -- two collections of short stories by Afro-Caribbean author, a focus on myth, folklore, fantasy, bodies, being.

Rosewater Redemption -- conclusion to the trilogy, future Nigeria with aliens, psychics, space fungus, weirdness, fantastic characters & clever dialogue, great audiobook narrator, all around wonderful.

honestly hmmm.......... yeah I'll count my reread of Terra Ignota series here (especially The Will to Battle). they excite me as much the second time around as the first. totally bonkers futuristic / historical world-building, philosophy that in turn fascinates bewilders infuriates, strange characters that I'm not sure if are incredibly human or bizarro caricatures, just like nothing I've ever read before. somehow crams tons of exposition along with breakneck plot revelations.

12 - books that disappointed me

idk if it was the headspace I've been in, or I just picked a bunch of duds, but it's way harder to find 5 books I want to claim as favorites of the year than list books I was disappointed by... plenty that were enjoyable enough but I expected so much better from.

"Book of Koli" I think I felt most betrayed by. the summary said dystopia with killer plants and yet?? the killer plants were almost entirely secondary?? it coulda been any vague boogeyman that destroyed society. anyway lazy uninspiring world-building all around imo.

"Red Rising" I didn't expect much from and boy did it deliver. garden variety sexist Hunger Games / Lord of the Flies ripoff with a chosen one narrative and boyyy did this stink. this book was not written for me at all.

"Axiom's End" I like Lindsay Ellis' videos, but her book was... mediocre. like it was perfectly fine, but am I going to read the sequel? ehhh.

"Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe" -- I WANTED TO LIKE THIS BOOK SO BAD!!! fun, fresh, absurd adventure with badass anti-capitalist women / queer people found family on a spaceship, totally ridiculous world elements like PSYCHIC OCTOPUS and champagne-loving elves who live under the Sahara desert; literally everything I could love!!!! and yet!!! I could not get invested at all. :-( :-(

more I could list but is anyone still reading this post idk shhhh ramble ramble

25 -- answered

[firstruleofmethclub]

Elevator pitch

Video game movies are generally bad, but here's the one good idea for a video game movie. Tony Haw's Pro Skater 3 - The Movie.

Tony Hawk (Tony Hawk) is at home doing an episode of MTV's Cribs and the crew is like "When is Tony Hawk getting here?" to Tony Hawk, because nobody knows who Tony Hawk is, and after all these years of not being recognised, Tony Hawk finally snaps and beats up the MTV's Cribs crew with a skateboard.

Because of this violent outburst, he gets sent to gaol where the leader of the local Aryan Brotherhood (played by Henry Rollins) is like "Hey whoever you are, you're white, join our racist gang." But Tony Hawk isn't in to that, 'cause you know, he just loves skating as opposed to racial-motivated hate crimes. So the AB leader is all "Well you've got one week to either change your mind or get your affairs in order, 'cause if you don't join after one week we're gonna jump you and kill you!"

So Tony Hawk gets in touch with his older brother (who is also played by Henry Rollins), and is like "Dude you've gotta get me out of here in less than one week". So Tony Hawk's older brother breaks into prison to get Tony Hawk out, and they escape on skateboards Tony Hawk has made out of old toothbrushes and tape and stuff in prison.

So now Tony Hawk is safe from the Aryan Brotherhood, but because he is a prison escapee the FBI are after him! It's been fine mostly because the FBI keep coming up to him with a photo of Tony Hawk being all "Hey have you seen this man? His name is Tony Hawk and he is also a skateboarder" and Tony Hawk just says "No sorry I've never seen that guy before" and goes on his merry way.

But eventually the FBI is sick of not being able to track him down, so they decide to send the newest graduate FBI-guy in undercover to like, the X Games and a Viva La Bam reunion show and stuff, so that this new young hotshot (Keanu Reeves) can get in to the world of skateboarding and track down Tony Hawk and put him back in gaol.

The undercover FBI-guy learns how to skate and eventually gets adopted by this crew of professional skaters that are really good, but the crew that's adopted him is Tony Hawk's crew! There's Tony Hawk and Tony Hawk's older brother and a host of other skaters, but undercover FBI-guy doesn't realise because he doesn't recognise Tony Hawk and he doesn't want to blow his cover asking questions.

After a few months, undercover FBI-guy eventually does realise that Tony Hawk is Tony Hawk, but by this time the skaters are like his family, and he doesn't know if he should betray his loyalty to the FBI, or betray his loyalty to Tony Hawk, who at this point is like undercover FBI-guy's big brother (which I guess makes Tony Hawk's big brother like undercover FBI-guy's big brother's big brother).

He decides that the right thing to do is arrest Tony Hawk, but Tony Hawk breaks free and skates away down the street, and undercover FBI-guy pulls his gun but he's so conflicted, he can't shoot Tony Hawk so he points his gun into the sky and fires it a bunch of times and goes "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH". And Tony Hawk gets away.

This leaves room for a crossover/sequel called Tony Hawk VS Godzilla.

[geek-gem]

Transformers Dark Of The Moon

I've finally seen the movie again after these years. Let me warn you, spoilers and I have a lot to say.

Their is really a lot to say about this movie. But I'm glad I finally got my to do list of watching the first three Bayformers now.

Another thing I'll be honest about I was gonna play the Dark Of The Moon game on PS3 but it requires more MB's to clear out but I decided fuck it I don't care. Especially it's a short game but I'm not doing that shit. I just wanna watch this film especially remembering this is a long film.

But back to the movie. I'll be honest and I'm not critic and my opinion may be invalid because lots of people hate Bayformers. We have a new continuity with the Bumblebee movie which I think is the best decision this franchise has done.

To me this movie while I like the first film from 2007.

After watching this and I'm still having some feelings after being it. But I feel this is my favorite out of the Bayformers saga. This is basically where it should of ended and should of let the Bayformers end with dignity. Or at least until a new director came along like Travis Knight or others.

Especially like I remember a movie guy named Cure4 on DeviantArt but he's gone from that shit. I agree with him and I'm thinking this is the sequel the 2007 film should of had.

I'm pissed and I hate that Age Of Extinction was the follow up to this film. Despite how people feel about this film, my God Bay tried to redeem himself after Revenge Of The Fallen a film that is like some sort of weird parody there the video game tie in's I see as the best version especially the PS3/Xbox 360/PC versions and even the Wii/PS2 versions.

Another thing I wanna reveal when I saw this film for the first time in theaters I actually used this.

I seriously wore that and it worked and it was awesome. It was a experience despite I felt nervous. I was young but what the hell it's gonna be 8 years since the movie was released. Especially the 3D was awesome when I saw it in theaters.

But back to the movie again I'm sorry. I'm not gonna make this a full review I don't wanna waste anyone's time.

When I think about it Sam is a lot better in this film. While I do feel some moments could be worked on. He should of apologized to Bee after he meets him I know Sam's angry. Especially this development of Sam wants to matter. This is much better then what we had in Revenge Of The Fallen.

Carly I honestly find more likable then Mikaela. Seriously I do especially that moment where she literally tells Megatron that he will basically be Sentinel's bitch if he doesn't do anything. She basically treats Sam with a bit more respect and well I like the relationship more then what Sam and Mikaela had.

Lennox and Epps were always great. Especially Epps during the scenes in Chicago. Simmons is seriously entertaining in this and Dutch is a blessing.

Let me just talk about Dylan Gould. This guy he's been on my mind. I made two joke posts him deleted the first one of he's been waiting for that betrayal towards Sam.

Patrick Dempsey honestly and his portrayal of Dylan is a performance that left an impression on me. Because I was actually surprised by his reveal of who he actually was. But seriously this man is a dick and in a way I like him. Despite seeing in the film him talking about making tough choices and him being on the winning side. Yet over the course of the film he starts to take it a bit personal.

While I kept thinking before seeing the film he was enjoying it maybe. But my view on it changed. I just think Patrick Dempsey kind of owns the role.

Yes we should talk about the robots and let me be honest. What I love about this film it's basically the Decepticons strike back. They are basically winning in this film. I love the Chicago invasion scene.

I do feel like the entire Bayformers series yes their should of been more Transformers screen time. Especially the Decepticons in this case. While I feel in Revenge Of The Fallen I can tell Starscream feels like he's a little snarky in some parts. While I know he's kissing up to Megatron to cover his ass. I would of liked some what....I don't know more snarky shit or something Starscream would say or do. Maybe even during his confrontation with Sam he mentioning after the Decepticons win that he would overthrow Megatron and become the winner.

I remember when I was young when I saw this for the first time. For Starscream I had hoped he would betray Megatron yet that would be so much for one film. Because that's Starscream from G1, Animated, and other continuities. At least one last hurrah before he dies.

Especially I remember when I was young I wanted Skids and Mudflap, along with Leo to come back....I was young and I enjoyed Revenge Of The Fallen a lot more okay. Wouldn't mind Leo but their seems to be a bit much but what the hell I wanted Dinobots in this film.(well it's said Skids and Mudflap are shown as cars but they were supposed to die....they did die by Sentinel in the movie comic)

I dig Soundwave in this film. Even Laserbeak these guys are douches but would of liked to seen more Soundwave. Especially I like this little dynamic between Dylan and Soundwave I know that's weird of me to say. Would of liked to seen more.

Shockwave in this film seriously I was hyped for him when I was young and playing the prequel game. I feel it's stupid he's not as important. He should of had more lines and more interactions. I even agree with a comment on YouTube he should of been in the Africa scene.

While he is badass it's stupid how he goes out but give him a better send off and a fight with Optimus Prime. I wanted to see more Shockwave and I think it would of been better if he was voiced by Mark Ryan. Frank Welker didn't do a bad job and he actually had two lines spoken in English.

At least his driller creature is cool. But seriously after all the hype and I want to just put some promotional stuff.

Whatever if this one is official or not. It's just in Shockwave's own words......logical. Or my own words fucking logical.

The reason I'm saying Mark Ryan because of his English accent and I want to be reminded of Corey Burton. Sorry for sounding weird.

Let me say I feel Sentinel Prime is probably the best antagonist actually we've had in a Transformers live action film especially in the Bayformers. Characters like Shatter and Dropkick are great. Even Lockdown was nice. But I liked Sentinel. I'll be honest I was actually surprised when I witnessed his betrayal when I was young. I thought the Decepticons were gonna force him to use the Pillars maybe even Shockwave but what we got was something else.

Also I really liked the scenes with Optimus and Sentinel. I do feel we should of gotten more and had them be longer. Especially I like Optimus in this. I do see their was this father and son or brother like relationship that Bay talked about. But would of liked to seen more.

The other Autobots are alright cool. I do feel the whole Que/Wheeljack thing was just seriously stupid. Especially now before Bumblebee a Wheeljack design that was more accurate. Tragic about the way he died.

Looking back at the film theirs not a lot of Cybertronian scenes but they leave an impact.

Also I really wanna talk about the ending with Optimus, Sentinel, and Megatron. We should of gotten more Megatron I agree.

But the scene where leading up to Optimus killing Sentinel seeing it in action after going through the movie. It is awkward in a way.

Yet I'll be honest Sentinel basically deserved it. In fact of the Decepticons, and Dylan fucking deserved what they got. Because after everything they did their to me was not a way shit would end peacefully or something. Including your hearing this from a Steven Universe fan a show that deals with pacifism and other shit.

I do feel and I've talked about this before but I might delete it now because I'm gonna mention it here. But I feel if the scene went like it was Megatron who kills Sentinel or this dark idea of Sentinel killing himself or even himself dying from wounds. Especially giving Megatron and Optimus more of a fight even with Optimus haven't one arm.

Or hell seriously Bay should of gone with the original that was kept in the novel that Megatron teamed up with Optimus to kill Sentinel and Megatron would stop what he's doing. Also hearing that it would of explored Megatron more. That ending would have his look in The Last Knight make sense that he went to Cybertron after Dark Of The Moon and over time he decided to go back leading the Decepticons. Instead they had to kill him off and the whole Galvatron thing. Even though Megatron got what was coming to him.

Gonna be honest the Starscream death while I like the idea of Sam having the courage to take on Starscream and even killing him. But I do feel Starscream should of died a more I guess epic death.

Especially I weirdly wanted Sam to be all Cade Yeager shooting Decepticons and some how killing them. I mean you Sam jumping on cars and even sliding under them.

Gonna say before seeing the movie I kept thinking Dylan in his fight with Sam should of died a more brutal death. Such as Sam telling him to shut up after the messager comment and beating him to death. But Dylan's death is perfect. Seriously he gets hit in the face with some sort of pole thing and dies by the pillar.

Listen I'm sorry for rambling a lot. This became more of some review or reaction. The action was seriously nice and the special effects, score was always excellent.

Gonna be honest while I wasn't emotional much throughout the movie. Did feel emotional over the, "The fight will be your own" scene and felt a little at the, "No Prisoners Only Trophies" scene....that should of had more weight. I'll be honest when I was young I was expecting Sam for some reason come out of hiding yelling no in slow motion, surprising everyone then the Decepticon drop ship gets hijacked.

Gonna say did enjoy Wheelie and Brains I like them. Glad they we're still around in later films.

I think I've talked too much. Basically I think this is the best Bayformers sequel, this is what we should got gotten as a sequel to the 2007 film. It's better then Revenge Of The Fallen, Age Of Extinction, and The Last Knight.

My only weird complaint that isn't towards the movie.....Dinobots could of been in this some how.....during the battle of Chicago. We should of gotten Dinobots vs the Driller. Grimlock voiced by Vin Diesel or whatever I've had that weird casting idea I think for years. Or even Devastator in this because it's a huge open battle with so many opportunities. While I understand Michael Bay didn't wanna go larger like he did with Revenge Of The Fallen. I'm just disappointed that the next film we got after this was Age Of Extinction.

Tags dealt with sorry that got wrong, their was a lot to talk about. Glad I could talk about this and again I finished my to do list of rewatching the original trilogy. Bring on the new cinematic universe in the Knightverse that started out with Travis Knight's Bumblebee I'm ready for more excellent films.