#if adam does come back he has the potential to have a great redemption story

[kittenfangirl20]

I really saw someone try to claim that they don’t want Adam to come back because they think he doesn’t deserve redemption. What makes Adam less deserving of redemption than any of the other Sinners in Hell? This is a common misconception about redemption, some people think that redemption is about if you deserve redemption or not, that isn’t redemption. Redemption is about realizing you did something bad and working to make things right even if you don’t get forgiveness from the person you wronged. If we go by the logic of people who say that Adam doesn’t deserve redemption, then that basically says that no one deserves redemption. If someone refuses to change for the better then that is another story, but you can’t say that redemption is about deserving it because in order to need redemption the person would have to have done something bad to need redemption in the first place.

[cerealboxlore]

i personally really like the idea of cap remembering the lives of past champions a lot

but like if he remembers those lives as his own then he’d have technically have killed before since back in the past champions times that would’ve been pretty normalised (also adam)

so i think it’d be pretty fun if cap mentions that he has killed before, whether it’s offhandedly or if someone says that he is one of the few who don’t kill and he admits that he has

or maybe even someone who does kill saying he doesn’t understand what it’s like to kill and his reaction to that

i’d love to see the angst it all gives billy

i actually love both billy who has killed and billy who hasn’t (honestly i love anything involving my boi)

like billy who has killed is great for him killing ebenezer (i honestly don’t even want him to kill anyone else just don’t like that guy)

but on the other hand billy who’s super against killing but technically has is a great source of angst

a billy who didn’t kill ebenezer because it goes against his values but then he becomes the champion gaining their memories and regrets it

a billy who struggles to seperate them from himself at times

a billy who desperately tries to hang onto his memories because otherwise all he’s done, all he’s believed in, becomes worthless

this can also be tied into my other angst idea where mary “dies” just to add some more flavourful trauma to the child ya know

I'm taking some time off with my assignments to finally answer my inbox mail and I am so excited to answer this one!!

Cap remembering the past lives he's lived through is such an incredible source of story potential and angst material that it's unbelievable there's not much content for this. 100% on board with the idea that cap has indeed killed before, and the only thing that holds him back or pushes him forward to kill is his host. The host connects him to what he will be and what morals he will have in that lifetime. It's really interesting and fun to play around with! Especially with cap having formerly been one with Black Adam before, that is an entire Rollercoaster of angst and emotions the two could go through together after having been the same person (technically) before.

As For A version of Billy who is not above murder and the other who isn't, these two interpretations of Billy are both good to me! Personally, I enjoy reading about a Billy Batson who doesn't see death as an option for punishment/last resort. He'd find another way to fix things, another way to offer redemption if possible, to prove his pure of heart soul. One that influences cap to not kill and bind him to the goodness in the world.

However.

Ebeneezer deserves a long walk off a short pier. Into a volcano. On another planet. That gets sucked into a black hole.

I'd honestly really would enjoy a fic where Billy desperately wants Ebeneezer to pay for his actions and crimes, but is too pure of heart to do what he wants to do. Cap hearing the voice of Billy's deepest and darkest thoughts and bringing them to life without Billy knowing, killing off Ebeneezer in an indrect way. A bit like the SQUIP from "Be More Chill" the musical.

I also really enjoy the concept of Billy having dreams about caps past lives, allowing him to peer through lifetimes of knowledge during a single night and view his predecessors for wisdom. However, it quickly turns into nightmares, as life comes with death, and the endless pain and suffering that he sees are horrors beyond his mortal comprehension, especially for a young child. Memories that arent his, haunting him, taunting him, making him feel scared and worthless. Different morals and personalities all clashing together to scream at Billy for what he does and doesn't do as the new Champion of Magic. Resulting in him coming to his classes exhausted and ending up sleeping during class, pushing forth a need to call his guardian, good ol' Uncle Dudley, to help save the day and help calm Billy down. I know Uncle Ebeneezer has traumatized Billy, but I believe Uncle Dudley will help Billy heal. He's not magical, but he's a better uncle than anyone else.

Billy truly is his own person, but with the constant stream of voices flooding his mind and dreams with their own opinions of how he should live HIS life is very intriguing. It could go further into his identity issues when growing up and cause some inner turmoil for him to resolve. I do love traumatizing this small child 💖

Bonus: the memories Billy relives through his dreams haunting him to the point they gain a portion of control over his subconscious, bullying him with forced remembrance of Mary's "death" in order to make him complacent and obedient to the morals of the former lives. An interesting antagonist/villain for a story. Maybe cap and Billy would have to pull an Avatar Korra and erase the former Champions and other lives' memories in order to bring peace to Billy.

[dc-said-bi-robin-rights]

That one storyline in the festival of heroes thingy is...ugh. So much wasted potential.

Dc: Damian and Cass are going to be in a storyline together!

Me: That’s fantastic! That one issue where they interacted back when she was Black Bat was wonderful! Damian being super pissed with Cass for pulling him out of Wayne Tower before it exploded and madly insisting she ruined everything and that he could have disarmed the bomb, even though it had only one second left on the countdown, thus showing he values proving himself over his actual life, brought tears to my eyes! Damian attacking Cass in an insane frenzy and Cass realizing that there is something deeper here than just Damian acting out was great! Her reacting like an actual emotionally aware adult and simply pinning him down and telling him that the only thing that matters is that he’s safe was precious! Tim telling Damian that he’s only upset because Cass is yet another person his father trusts more than him is kinda yikes on Tim’s part (Tim I get you’re overprotective of Cass but why the fuck would you say “you’re just mad dad loves her more” to a child who was actually afraid of that being the case), but it was so clear it hit the nail on the head and brought so much more weight to their dynamic! Damian and Cass coming together at the end despite the unresolved emotions was wonderful! Cass telling Damian that she needs him to trust her and Damian saying nothing but still doing what she says was awesome! That comic set up so much groundwork that never really got used and I’m so glad-

Dc: Damian called Cass a monster and Cass is sad about it.

Me: I’m sorry, what? Why would Damian do that? He literally has no reason to say that! He killed way more people than Cass! Besides, why the heck would Cass care instead of telling Damian “whatever, nerd” and moving on when he clearly has absolutely no ground to stand on? Damian can be mean, but he isn’t a hypocrite. He knows very well what he did and there was an entire solo dedicated to him seeking redemption so even if this is before all the shit with the Teen Titans this is really shitty characterization that does not at all-

Dc: Colin’s comforting her about it.

Me: I’m sorry, why is Colin, of all fucking people, comforting Cass? Colin, who was Damian’s first friend? Colin hasn’t even been in a comic book in years and you’re telling me bad-mouthing Damian is his debut in rebirth? What? Do Cass and Colin even know each other? Isn’t Cass like 18 and Colin a literal child? Why would Cassandra fucking Cain need comforting from a literal child-

Dc: Damian isn’t even there lmao, he’s just mentioned.

Me: wait, then why would you have Damian be the person to tell Cass that? Why not literally anyone else which would make way more fucking sense? Putting all that aside, you’re telling me that in the comic book dedicated specifically to Asians you mentioned but didn’t include a character with actual Asian heritage? Not only that, but you also bad-mouthed them along the way? What kind of representation is that? Is Colin even Asian?

Dc: Nah, he’s just there for some reason lol.

Me: but why? Why would-

Dc: the writer gets money every time Colin is used in a story.

Me: that explains a lot. Alright, whatever. So who wrote this, anyway? Who is the guy that hated Damian enough to do this? Adam Glass? Bendis, maybe? Or-

Dc: it’s the Lil Gotham writer, who is one of only four writers who have portrayed Damian in a good light in the past five years. He apparently doesn’t like Damian, actually. That means there are now only three writers who would write Damian fairly after his solo series ends. Have fun with that.

It’s just....why?

[kittyprincessofcats]

RWBY Volume 6

So, I pretty much binge-watched this one in a few days because I really needed to know how things go on after Volume 5 and it was just so good! Lots of messy thoughts to come!

[There will be spoilers for RWBY up to Volume 6 in this post (duh). Please don’t leave any spoilers for anything after Volume 6 on this post, or I will block you.]

Thoughts under the cut because this ended up getting a little long.

- The character short for Adam was really cool! It was cool to see how the White Fang began, to see Sienna, Ghira, Ilia and Adam in action, to see the irony of Sienna being a mentor to Adam and encouraging his ways when you know he’ll end up killing her, and to see a glimpse into Adam and Blake’s past relationship (and how the stuff he said to her was textbook emotional abuse). However, I do have one criticism, and it’s something that really bothers me: There’s a continuity mistake with Ilia’s age. Let’s think about this: Ilia was always implied to be the same age (or around the same age) as Blake. In the part of this short where Ghira was still leader of the White Fang, Ilia appears and doesn’t look younger than in canon. But we know Ghira stepped down at least a few years ago. If Blake is meant to be a teenager in volume 1… there’s just no way Ilia could have been there and already been an adult. She’s supposed to have still been a kid when Ghira was leader, unless she’s at least a few years older than Blake – which I don’t think she’s meant to be? Yeah sorry, this kind of stuff just bothers me. I get that timelines can be hard to keep track off, but that was a really obvious mistake and it ruins my immersion a bit.

- I loved the whole opening fight on the train and just seeing team RWBY fighting together again.

- I’ve got to say, I do feel bad for Weiss: After everything she went through to leave Atlas, she now suddenly has to go back there. I mean, that must suck.

- I’m a bit sad they just but Ilia on a bus, but I get that her main conflict is pretty much over and they had to go back to focusing on the main characters’ quest. I still wish we’d have at least gotten a scene of her interacting with the other members of team RWBY, though.

- I really liked Ilia and Blake’s goodbye at the train station, though. (And the whole “wrong tree” moment with Neptune really made me laugh 😂)

- Also just wanted to say I love Ilia’s new outfit (and the fact that she has spots on her belly – this is really important information, okay?)

- There’s a certain irony in the Faunus becoming more accepted because they STOPPED Adam’s attack on Haven.

- I think Jinn and the whole concept of how asking her questions works is super cool.

- I totally get why everyone’s pissed at Ozpin both before, during and after Jinn revealed his and Salem’s backstory. He has been hiding an awful lot from everyone, even after promising not to anymore, and he actively tried to stop the team from finding out the truth. Plus, the whole fact that he doesn’t have a plan for defeating Salem and is potentially risking everyone’s lives for nothing. (That said, can they not take it out on poor Oscar, please? None of this is his fault.)

- Oscar fighting Ozpin from within and telling them how to summon Jinn was a really badass scene. And I feel super bad for Oscar overall. Not only is he kind of at war with someone who lives in his brain now, but he also just found out that he’ll eventually only become a part of Ozma. And on top of that, people are punching and blaming him for stuff that’s not his fault. That’s super harsh.

- I’m kind of glad Cinder’s alive, because as I said, I was hoping they’d develop her more and make her a more interesting villain… but I don’t feel like this volume did that. Right now, she’s still pretty superficial, unfortunately.

- And now, time to get into one of the highlights of this volume for me: Salem’s backstory! Because holy shit, that was one hell of a backstory! When I said back in my post about volume 5 that I hope Cinder’s alive because I would like to see them make her a more interesting villain, I didn’t expect them to do just that, but for Salem. I love villains that are interesting, but I didn’t expect Salem, the literal big bad of the show, to be the interesting one here! I am pleasantly surprised by this, though! (And just to be clear, because some people love to misunderstand this: When I say “interesting”, I don’t mean “She has a sad backstory, this excuses everything she’s doing”, I mean “She has a sad backstory, this makes her more compelling as a villain”.)

- So, about that backstory: Do we all agree that the gods are major jerks, or what? I mean, initially not bringing Ozma back to life was fair, death is a part of life, they can’t upset the balance, I get that – but making him repeatedly disintegrate in Salem’s arms after she just thought she’d gotten him back? And then making her immortal just to make sure she couldn’t be with him? And then killing ALL of humanity just because of the actions of a few? But still not letting Salem die? And then bringing Ozma back after all (because now it suddenly doesn’t ‘disrupt the balance’ or what?) and kind of tricking him into that whole relics task because he wanted to be with Salem? The god are jerks, I rest my case - and I’m not sure if bringing them back is a good idea.

- Also… I get that she’s like… evil and all… but am I the only one who thought Salem got way sexier after jumping into the pools of grimm? Is that just me? Because damn… I’m kinda into that version of her. (Come on, she’s a sexy goth witch and I’m a simple lesbian, what do you expect?)

- So yeah… in an unexpected turn of events, Salem might be one of my favourite characters now? Oops? (*insert obligatory ‘this does not mean I condone her actions in any way’ disclaimer here*)

- I feel super bad for Salem and Ozma’s kids, though. I hate kids getting hurt in media in general. (I imagine the grief over them stayed with Ozma forever. And I like the theory that he gave the original four maidens their powers because they reminded him of his daughters. In general, I don’t consider him to be the bad guy in this backstory at any point. His only mistake is not being honest with the people who are helping and protecting him in the present.)

- I am now convinced that this entire show has to end with Salem and Ozma dying. That’s the only way all of this can end. Salem will have to either be killed somehow or learn the lesson the gods tried to teach her and die. Ozma will have to fulfill his task and die as well – either through Oscar dying with him (😢), through only Ozma dying but Oscar getting to live without him, or through the reincarnation cycle ending and Ozma/Ozpin recognizing that Oscar is going to be his last life. Something like that would be my prediction.

- Speaking of interesting villains: This volume also did a great job with Emerald and Mercury! With those two, I’m actually hoping for a redemption now. (And Hazel is a great guy as well. The fact that he was willing to take the blame for their failure at Haven to protect Emerald and Mercury is something I really respect.)

- I also I want to say I find Tyrion super entertaining.

- It was great to see Neo again! (I’ve gotten so used to Chibi!Neo it was almost weird to see regular Neo again.) Her fight with Cinder was EPIC.

- (I basically feel like this volume did a great job on all villains except for Cinder. But hey, maybe that’ll still happen.)

- This was an interesting volume for Qrow. On the one hand, I get why hearing Oz’s backstory drove him into a sort-of depression and made his drinking habit worse and I feel bad for him, but from the point-of-view of Ruby and the others, it must have also been super frustrating that the one proper adult in the group couldn’t keep it together and everyone else had to keep doing the hard work.

- Maria is a super cool and epic character! I really hope she sticks around with the team for Volume 7 because she’s amazing and I love her. She was super badass in her backstory (that moment where she lost her eyes was painful just to watch), I love the fact that she was Qrow’s hero growing up (and that he based his weapon on hers!), that we finally met another character who has (well, had) silver eyes, and that she’s that funny, cranky, but also wise old lady now who mentors Ruby and is just super funny all around. Good stuff, I hope we see more of her!

- The Apathy are the creepiest grim yet. The whole concept of them draining you of your will to live without you even noticing is just SO scary – I love it, but I’m also low-key terrified. The crew’s trip to that farm estate could have easily gone very wrong. Pretty much nothing but Ruby’s silver eyes even worked on them. I like how those episodes set the whole thing up – Team RWBY having emotional conversations while they were in the house, everyone having doubts (which makes sense at that point in the story, so you don’t really question it at first), and then the sneaking realization of what’s going on. Also, the guy who sealed in those Apathy grim in in the first place was just so dumb. How could you think that was a good idea? Good job getting everyone killed, dude.

- I’m glad this volume gave us more on Ruby’s silver eyes! I like that she finally got to use them before the season finale (though I loved that joke on RWBY Chibi), and I also like that she first used them to protect Blake. (I don’t ship them as much as Bumbleby, but I feel like Ruby and Blake’s ship/friendship is super underrated.) It was also nice to learn more about how the Silver eyes work in general and how they came to be. (If they came from the god of light, I’m assuming all the people with silver eyes are the descendants of Ozma’s past lives? TV Tropes kind of helped me out here: Apparently if you freeze the picture where you see one of his past lives with his kids, you can see the kids have silver eyes.) People with silver eyes being hunted also comes as no surprise to me, that’s kind of what I was assuming already. (Which raises the question: Just how did Summer Rose die?) Also, interesting fact that they only work on the Grimm...

- That moment where they reunite with JNR in Argus was really sweet. I also loved the design of Argus as a whole.

- I LOVE Saphron, Terra, and their son!!! I love that we got to meet one of Jaune’s sisters, I love that we got some more LGBT+ representation, and their baby is adorable!! (I loved that scene of everyone cooing over the baby. Also, that moment where Ruby realized Jaune and Saphron were siblings. Also, that moment where the baby helped them distract the guards by crying.) Basically, I just love the Cotta-Arcs. (Also, I just want to say that Saphron is super pretty.)

- Cordovin and her two goons are hilarious. I mean, I also hate them because they’re overly patriotic Atlas-people and Cordovin was racist to Blake – but they’re also super freaking hilarious. Every little line of Maria and Cordovin’s beef with each other had my dying with laughter 🤣 (mainly it was Maria’s lines that had me dying with laughter).

- That whole scene with the statue of Pyrrha was such a tearjerker 😢. First the leaf, then the sad music, then Jaune talking to that red-haired lady (I’m guessing she’s either Pyrrha’s mom or sister?), and then Ren and Nora joining and giving Jaune a pep-talk 😭 😭. I think this was a really important moment for Jaune, not just to get closure, but also to stop blaming himself and putting himself down. I’m glad Ren and Nora told him they don’t want to lose him too, and that the red-haired lady said she’s “glad Pyrrha was surrounded by such amazing people”. Gosh, now I’m tearing up again writing this 😭. I miss Pyrrha 😭 😭.

- I love Oscar’s new outfit. It was time for him to finally drop the farm boy look.

- I love how Jaune is so down for crime that his plan is just “They only let Atlas airships though, so we steal an Atlas airship.” I mean, makes sense.

- I think their whole plan to steal the airship was super cool and although I get why things can’t be that easy in shows like this (and I love that we got the showdown with Adam), I still kind of wish it had worked just because it was a really cool plan and everyone had their part to play in it. Heck, even the baby got to help (and it was awesome)! But yeah, Adam just had to ruin everything, nothing new there.

- So, about Adam: First of all, he’s a major creep for victim-blaming Blake (again) and stalking her. I like how creepy his behaviour is from a story-telling perspective (and from an angst-loving “I like seeing my faves suffer” perspective), but his story was getting a little old, so I’m not too sad they killed him off now. It was a good point in the story to do it. (That said, holy shit is he a creep! “I wouldn’t have to be doing this if you just behaved”? Wow. I get that he’s meant to be abusive and controlling; that’s the point of his character (and like I said, I’m here for the angst), but… yikes, poor Blake.)

- And then we had Blake and Yang’s rematch with Adam. EPIC STUFF. First of all, I like that Blake was able to hold her own against him for a bit (and same for Yang later). I also love the whole dramatic setting by the waterfall and the fact that Blake lost her coat (this is important, okay? it symbolizes vulnerability – and also it just looks cool), the scar on Blake’s belly (from their fight at Beacon, right?), the face reveal of Adam – I just love how all of this was set up in such an epic, dramatic way. But the most epic moment, at least from the start of the fight, has got to be Yang just jumping down there with her motorcycle hitting Adam and that amazing music. I’ve said before that Yang is just too cool for words and I will stand by that. The fight itself was epic too, though I was so stressed the whole time I couldn’t completely pay attention. Blake and Yang fighting Adam together was definitely the best part, though. And I loved the irony of Yang’s metal arm saving her. In general, I like that Yang and Blake got to fight and defeat (and kill) Adam together because he’s been a demon for both of them, and I like that they clarified they’re doing it as equal partners. “We’re protecting each other” was a nice callback to earlier when Blake tried to reassure Yang she’d protect her, and to even earlier when Yang was protecting Blake at Beacon.

- Let’s talk about my other highlight of the volume: Bumbleby! Because sorry not sorry, there’s no way you can deny their romantic subtext anymore at this point. Early in the volume, there’s the conflict of things being weird between them, and Blake not knowing how to deal with her guilt and thinking she needs to protect Yang (and do stuff like getting her bag down for her) – while Yang feels insulted by this and thinks that Blake sees her as being incapable of doing anything now that she lost an arm. Then, when Blake first leaves to disable the comms, they give each other those really sweet, loving looks. And of course, it all leads up to them confronting their nightmare together, holding hands, and declaring that they’re protecting each other. Add Adam’s jealousy to that (He was making comparisons between himself and Yang and asking “What does she even see in you?” – that’s not a sentence you just say to your ex’s friend) and you’d have to be willfully ignorant to not see the subtext. And those soft moments after the fight just killed me: Blake breaking down crying, Yang immediately running to hug and comfort her, Blake’s promise not to leave, Yang reassuring her and wiping away her tears – I LOVE hurt/comfort stuff and I’m so soft for these two! They love each other so much!

(Pretty much the only downside of all this is that a few major parts were spoiled for me in advance. Look, it’s pretty impossible to follow lots of blogs that post wlw ships and not see that picture of Bumbleby holding hands, or the one of them hugging (or the one of them killing Adam) at some point. So yeah… I’d seen all three of those pictures before and knew this would happen. But it was still really nice to see it all come together and see how we got there!)

- The fight against Cordovin and her giant mecha was also pretty cool! It reminded me a bit of the Legend of Korra finale. Ruby going inside the arm canon was an especially epic moment. And I also liked that small moment when they were flying on the Queen Lancer and Ruby had her arms around Weiss’ waist (a bit of White Rose, yay!).

- I like that moment when the Grimm attack and the team first realizes they just destroyed the only thing capable of stopping them – but to be honest, that was mostly Cordovin’s fault. She brought out that mecha for something it wasn’t meant for and started the fight that attracted the Grimm in the first place. Also, how exactly did she think the people of Atlas would take it if she had actually hurt Weiss? So yeah, most of that mess was on her, tbh. I’m glad she at least came though to help in the end, though.

- Back to Bumbleby: Honestly, the strongest romantic undertones weren’t even in the fight with Adam or directly afterwards for me, but in the last episode when they’re all on the ship together. So, Blake is blaming herself for the plan going wrong, and Yang has an arm around, her, still half holding her and reassuring her. And then – and this one really gets me – Ruby hugs Blake and gives Yang that knowing look over her shoulder while Yang suddenly looks away shyly. They’re communicating without words and Ruby totally knows what’s up. She’s basically saying “So you and Blake, huh?” and suddenly Yang – YANG – is feeling shy. This isn’t subtle. And then later Bumbleby hold hands again and look at each other like that… they’re in love, I don’t make the rules.

- And finally, we of course have Ruby’s epic silver-eyed moment in the finale, which was AMAZING. I loved all the flashbacks and how they’re drawn pictures and not just stills from the episodes, I love how the memories of her friends motivate her, I love how much of Penny there was in there (bit of Nuts and Dolts, yay!), I loved seeing adorable little!Yang, and of course the first look at Summer Rose! (I still want a Team STRQ backstory episode at some point.) Also, the music during that scene was so good!

Gosh, now I’ve talked for way too long again, but there was just so much to say about this volume! Long story short: Loved it, can’t wait to continue! (I know exactly 1 major spoiler for volume 7 because it was unavoidable on social media, but that’s it. And it’s a spoiler I really didn’t mind knowing, so…)

[fantastic-rambles]

Ahhh yaknow what you’re right. I just went back and looked over some of the rod, and I didn’t see Langa explicitly agree to not to skate with Adam. He promised that he wouldn’t quit skating with Reki, but he only acknowledged Reki’s warning to not be reckless. It actually makes a bunch of sense why Langa would be confused by the distancing and argument. I see now why you were upset with Reki’s behavior. It feels kind of like a ‘secret contract’ sorta thing where Reki got upset over a broken rule Langa never realized he was supposed to abide by. And not only is that unfair like you said, but it flipped the situation as if Langa was being untrustworthy to his word when really Reki didn’t trust Langa not to quit skating with him just because of danger/injury. And especially since I’ve seen people make solid arguments for Langa being neurodivergent or neurodivergent-coded, it’s really not a stretch at all for him to see the situation like you did. Langa most likely saw the issue as solely reckless behavior leading to quitting. But clearly Reki’s own jealousy/insecurities added Langa preferring better skaters as potentially leading to them not skating together without ever discussing it until Langa was blindsided during the argument. I would’ve looked a better apology from Reki where he fully explained why he was upset when they were making up. It’s human for his feelings on the issue to change, but that should’ve been better expressed to Langa. Although Langa did a great job of accurately smoothing over what was bothering Reki without that. Maybe that’ll be rectified if he apologizes to Miya. I think Miya deserves one especially since Reki physically shoved him after he opened up about why his actions were such a sore spot for him. I actually thought Miya’s words would help Reki see the other side of things so seeing Miya get pushed was like a “Bro wtf??” moment for me. Again it’s understandable that people act out when they’re angry and Reki was obviously already struggling with his emotions, but it should be acknowledged again how wrong that was. Boy are you opening my eyes to a lot of problematic stuff lol.

Also, I’m very curious as to why you hate Shadow. For me, it’s because I can’t move past that comment in ep 1. I know ppl brush it off as just an (unnecessarily misogynistic) act for his persona, but that woman literally didn’t say anything to him and he insulted her for no reason by using her body as trophy to be defaced if he won. Ew. And just because he’s super nice to the flower shop lady, he does not get a pass. If he’s only respectful to women he’s attracted to and jumps at any other the opportunity to degrade women, he’s still a misogynist. And I’m pretty sure that he already new flower shop lady when the series started, so I don’t think you can argue that his character developed to be better towards women as a whole because of her or that he wouldn’t do something like that again at this point in the story. Especially since the goal of proving yourself as a “strong man” has not historically worked out to men being compassionate with women. (Tho within a vacuum devoid of his other actions, I can appreciate his commitment to a makeup routine)

Oh! And I would totally wanna read that fanfic if you write it!! I’m not even as gung-ho about Adam going to jail as most fans and Adam-haters tbh. Mainly because it’d probably be for political corruption via money bribes which is already kinda common and I don’t think the show has stated him to be doing anything particularly bad with it I don’t think so?? Like it seems to be mainly for the purpose of keeping S secret which is indeed a waste of money and effort when he could just buy it, but on the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be any ill consequences on the citizens the politician represents. So yea, it’s illegal so the jail time is technically deserved. But also like... no harm no foul🤷‍♀️ If he would be getting charged for assaulting other skaters than I definitely think that’s fair, but I doubt that’ll happen in the show just because I feel like no one will actually say anything when the time comes partially due to the shock of his arrest if they’re even involved. And I mean, Cherry was pissed at Adam for getting skaters hurt but still rolled out the hospital and joked like he was fine, so I just don’t particularly see anyone calling him out on it to the point of it being apart of his sentencing. The end of ep 11 with Cherry and Joe arguing about one of them going against Adam just doesn’t sound like condemning him to battery charges to me XD

But yaknow I’ve been loving hurt/comfort type fics lately, so I’d be really interested in seeing Adam truly work and change himself for some type of redemption in that setting. I can see hitting rock bottom as being really good for him given it may provide a reprieve from having to manage his image. Adam is underrated in complexity so it’s always cool when people try to flesh him out more and dive into his inner world. And of course Tadashi is kind of my fave (if you couldn’t tell) so I love anything healing for him as well :)

Yep, I was majorly pissed at Reki for how he treated Langa and Miya. His behavior is absolutely problematic. Not as bad as Adam, obviously, but with everything I’ve said and you’ve realized... yeah. I’m glad he made up with Langa and will probably make up with Miya, but it doesn’t invalidate everything he’s done before. Yes, he’s still an immature teenager, but I don’t think he realizes how messed up his behavior was, even after making up with Langa (the resolution seems to be based on him accepting that he’s not an ace skater, rather than recognizing how toxic his behavior was), so I’m still not satisfied. But hey, it’s probably just me being hyperfixated on trivial details that nobody else even cares about. /shrug

(I’m glad to know that I wasn’t misinterpreting the “promise,” or lack thereof, though!)

And I have two major problems with Shadow. My first--and biggest--problem is, as you’ve pointed out, that he’s an enormous misogynist. At “S,” people have the freedom to be exactly who they are beneath the facades that they show to the world. For example, Adam is someone desperately searching for someone who can understand him, not the perfectly put-together politician Shindo Ainosuke. Cherry and Joe are more true to their “real life” selves, but there are differences in their behavior on the track and off. And then there’s Shadow, the overcompensating “strong man” who threatens to make a guy tattoo “Dumpster Slut” over his girl’s name. So I 100% agree with everything you said about Shadow. He’s a chauvinistic pig.

The second problem is that I honestly think his actions when he’s racing are worse than Adam’s, and the only reason it’s not made out as such is because he’s the buttmonkey rather than the villain. I believe that, as problematic as Adam’s antics are, he does not intend to cause severe physical harm to his opponents. I’ve discussed this idea in more detail in other posts, but in short, even in the most extreme case--Cherry’s--his injuries were far lighter than they would have been if Adam had seriously wanted to hurt him. Death, coma, etc. were all highly probable outcomes of that situation, so the only reason they didn’t happen was because Adam was holding back. Or anime logic. But even anime logic can only stretch so far. And against lesser opponents like Reki, he generally holds onto them to ensure that they don’t accidentally hurt themselves when they’re panicking.

Of course, Shadow doesn’t intend to cause severe physical harm to his opponents either, but he does not exert any control over the situation after he throws fireworks at his opponent or shines a laser in their eyes. We’ve twice seen his opponents fall off the course as a direct result of his actions: Reki in the first race, Harry in the quarterfinals. They could have just as easily fallen off the cliff or slammed into a wall (at full speed) and been badly injured. If Shadow were an actual villain, I fully believe that he would have an actual body count of people who died racing against him (as opposed to Adam’s trail of injured opponents). So it bothers me that people shrug off what Shadow does while screaming for Adam’s death.

As for the scandal subplot... I’m *pretty* sure it’s a lot more serious than Adam bribing the police to leave “S” alone. I think he’s actually involved in some majorly shady/illegal activities politically. Like, in Episode 7, when the other Diet member gets pulled over, arrested, and has his house searched... there’s no way that has anything to do with “S.” At the very least, the two of them were collaborating on something really bad, something serious that Adam lied about under oath, and that’s enough for Adam’s staff to worry about what’s going to happen, especially Tadashi. We don’t know what it is specifically, but it’s definitely a lot more than just passing out bribes to hide “S.”

Lol, I’ll have to see how it goes. Probably won’t start it until after the anime finishes at the very least so I can see how it turns out for Adam and Tadashi, plus I have another half dozen WIPs at the moment and nowhere near enough time to work on them all. xD

[danwhobrowses]

MCU: 10 Ways WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier are the Same

So now we have 2 of Marvel's Phase 3.5 shows in the books, and both have been pretty great. In the 7 week wait for Loki though we'll have time to mull things over.

When watching the Falcon & Winter Soldier finale though, I started to notice that there were some patterns between it and Wandavision. While two completely different stories they did share some similar beats, so here's 10 I spotted and thus 10 to look out for when Loki comes around.

Spoilers for WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier, give it a watch before you give this a look

10 - Villains become Memes

While one can contest that Zemo acts more as an antihero in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he still provides an antagonistic edge in the story. However, both he and Agatha became villains that had charisma to charm the audience, and their actions brought about multiple memes. On Agatha's side there was the wink, Agatha All Along and her in the fitness outfit, while with Zemo there was the 'it captures the experience', his iconic dancing and Turkish Delight. While not a story beat on the shows, the writers must've known that fans would gravitate to these characters to give them such content to use. Also add a hat tip to John Walker who got his own memes too with him about to embed the shield into a dude's chest, and Wanda herself for her nose scrunch being used as a meme alongside Thor's 'is it though?'.

9 - The Government aren't exactly helpful

While the Government aren't entirely the enemy in the show, they don't do well to stay on our heroes' good side. In WandaVision, they enhance Wanda's grief in the fact that she can't even lay him to rest, SWORD instead deciding that her lover is government property and they are harvesting his 'organs' and vibranium skin as a resource to use for weapons. On Falcon & Winter Soldier, the US Government deliberately deceive Sam by having him hand over the shield to put in a museum, only to then take it out and give it to John Walker without even telling Sam or Bucky about it. In addition when they disavow Walker they try to reclaim the Shield - which, as the Contessa does reveal, isn't technically their property either. While Falcon & Winter Soldier delved deeper into the government's lack of help through the GDC subplot motivating the Flag Smashers, there were still similarities found with how SWORD - which is quite different to its comic version - antagonizes Wanda. In the end all this escalates because of them, and in the end neither of them get to keep the Vibranium.

8 - 'Good Person' is Bad Guy

Although there's a more supernatural threat in both stories, the characters end up having their trust betrayed by people they believed to be decent. For WandaVision it is current Director of SWORD, Director Hayward, who appears adamant in silencing Wanda after using her as a means to power up White Vision as a programmable weapon. For Falcon & the Winter Soldier, it's Sharon Carter - descendant of Steve's beau who he also made out with - the discarded agent who gave up a lot for the heroes only to not get it in return, remaining enemy of the state and becoming the Power Broker. The shows can also have this reserved for 'Agnes' and John Walker but in the end people expected them to break bad from day 1. You could make a statement for Wanda since she looks to be an antagonist for Doctor Strange 2 though.

7 - The MCU add a little history

Marvel has had a habit of changing Wanda's (and Pietro's) origin on a whim, the MCU deciding to source their powers on an Infinity Stone. Doing this however left a gap in the fact that Wanda is a Witch, which they cleaned up in WandaVision. Treading back on the Scarlet Witch being a mantle (though cutting her mother being a Scarlet Witch before her) as it is in the comics, they changed Wanda's powers from being latent and amplified by the stone rather than gifted to the stone itself. Falcon & Winter Soldier added to their history with the impactful Truth: Red, White and Black story, adding Isaiah Bradley into the MCU to further layer the conflict and tragedy Sam faces with being Captain America. Both are welcome additions to the MCU timeline, setting up for newer things to come in Phase 4 Movies.

6 - The hero wins the fight, but not the day

Winning isn't always winning, as Wanda and Sam would discover upon the finale of their respective shows. Wanda defeats Agatha and Hayward is forced to face his crimes, but she has also come to terms with the face that the Hex must go, and in turn her family with it. While the Hex has freed all its residents, Wanda knows that she's not on anyone's good side either with the people she subconsciously enslaved. Sam gets it a little better, he's recognized himself as Captain America and given a patented 'Cap-speech', but he was unable to save Karli Morgenthau from being killed, someone who he was once so close to reaching and sympathized heavily with. Although the Super Soldier threat is neutralized, the Flag Smashers' ideals will live on to further radicalize itself, and its vision will further sow conflict and division.

5 - (Mostly) Bigger Roles for old MCU Side Characters

Never one to shy past their crossovers, Wandavision and Falcon & the Winter Soldier both brought back side characters - some more obscure than others - from older films to gel into the plot. WandaVision brought back Darcy from the Thor franchise and Jimmy Woo from Ant Man & the Wasp to great comedic effect, fans already wanting a spin-off with them and possibly Monica - who may also count but technically not the same actress, the same can be said for 'Pietro' too. Falcon & the Winter Soldier stayed primarily in their lane of Captain America movies; with Batroc and Sharon both debuting in Winter Soldier and Dora Milaje's Ayo debuting in Civil War, while it was less comedic, the story was more interwoven with them since they all had ties to the main two characters.

4 - [Person] is obviously [Character]

Possibly a bit of a narrative backdrop, or maybe years of MCU has clued us in on a plot twist a mile away, but both shows also were unable to hide well that Agnes from WandaVision and Sharon from Falcon & Winter Soldier were in fact Agatha Harkness and the Power Broker. It's not to say that knowing ruined the story, it just felt more of a 'when' rather than an 'if'. The main difference though is that Sharon managed to keep her villainy secret, and remains that way, while Agatha went too far in trying to take Wanda's power rather than help her with it and has now become stuck as Agnes instead.

3 - New Blood coming on the Hero Scene

While the shows already did their job in setting up Wanda and Sam as big league heroes, they also looked a bit more in establishing new blood too. WandaVision established the potential for the twin Maximoff boys to grow into Wiccan and Speed - once Wanda finds a way to re-canonize them, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also made sure to introduce Elijah Bradley, Isaiah's grandson, which may also aid in establishing a Young Avengers team - what with Kate Bishop also soon to appear in Hawkeye. WandaVision also created the origin for Monica Rambeau, having her body altered by the Hex, which will likely be furthered in Captain Marvel 2, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also established John Walker as the US Agent to leave a potential for Thunderbolts, as well as introducing Joaquin Torres - opening the possibility to have a new Falcon. While not a bad thing to set up for the future, it is interesting that both shows had exactly 3 names that could become future heroes.

2 - 'Villain' character partly redeems themselves after a Grief-Fuelled Mistake

Make no mistake, technically speaking Wanda is still a villain in WandaVision: she enslaved an entire town and suppressed them as side characters of a tv show. But the thing is that she didn't really intend to cause pain, it was an impulse action triggered by her grief. The same can be said for John Walker in Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he was already pressured by the standards being Captain America would entail and he was feeling the stress of a string of failures, a Dora Milaje humbling and a frosty reception from Steve's two close friends, juiced up on Super Soldier serum, and then his best friend just got killed because he didn't back him up, in a rage he killed a Flag Smasher with the shield - even though they were fleeing and not the one who killed Lemar, which he would lie about to Lemar's family. Despite this though, they managed to find some form of redemption, even if it was small. Wanda released the Hex and stopped Agatha from going haywire with her chaos magic, John gave up on his revenge seeking to save a truck from falling. Even though it doesn't entirely make up for what they did, it was at least a sign that they had not completely gone off the deep end...yet.

1 - Comic-Accurate Costumes

Comic costumes are always a tough one because some of the older costumes were borderline atrocious. WandaVision at the very least managed to poke fun at it with them dressing up most of the Maximoff/Vision family in their comic-accurate costumes, Speed getting a few more nods in the finale alongside Wanda's revamped and quite on the money look. In Falcon & Winter Soldier, there was accurate costuming for John Walker's US Agent look and Sam's Captain America costume, not to mention Lemar's Battlestar outfit, Zemo's mask and Batroc's jumpsuit.

Overall, it's not a bad thing that they kept these story beats, but it may be worth trying to avoid some of these in later tv show plot points so that it doesn't appear repetitive and formulaic. These shows have been great, so let's keep that momentum going.

[zghostreviews]

She ra review part 1

I know this isn't anime, but this show and how horrendous the writing got has honestly bugged me to no end.

SheRa 2018 is a "reboot" of the 80s SheRa, though I wouldn't even call it reboot considering the creator trashed the original constantly and also never even watched the original show in the first place. The only thing this "reboot" has in common is that it uses the names of the characters from the original and that's it. The show is basically a fucking fanfiction labelled under original work outside of that essentially.

Going into the actual show topic.

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I started this show pretty much a year or 2 late, basically just waiting for all the drama to die down from the annoying reactionary communities. When starting out, I REALLY wanted to like the show, and honestly, I was enjoying it back then. Unfortunately, as episodes went by I started enjoying it less, ESPECIALLY in season 5 where everything had officially gone to shit.

The writing for this show is honestly fucking awful, they had many great ideas but either these were executed badly, or they didn't go completely through with it. There's also a lot of stuff that didn't make sense. Like when it comes to the princesses, elements, and their runestones. The elemental princesses are all able to do that rainbow power thing that I forgot the name of, yet some princesses that actual have a power that is elemental(*coughs*spinerella*coughs*) aren't able to be included in this. Glimmer which doesn't even use an elemental power can be included, but Spinerella, who literally uses wind, a fucking elemental, can't be included?? That sure doesn't make sense. This show also has a problem with further elaborating on things.

Though they did a REALLY good job with the writing of Shadow Weaver, she is a VERY complex character and you can truely tell the writers put alot of their effort into her. If you're not some fucking catradora stan that just immediately hates her character just because she abused your fave, than you'd definitely agree.

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Going into the characters themselves.

Adora

She's very bland for a main character and Im honestly not a fan of her design. Why is she shaped like one of those bugs from the ants movie when she was a soldier that constantly trained since childhood? She should have muscle of some kind, and that goes for everyone else in the horde minus Rogelio, Scorpia, and Huntara who was a former horde member.

Catra

I really....really don't like catra, she reminds me of 4 different goals I knew....if they all merged into one person... Catra is a selfish, manipulative, and very unstable character. She had SO many opportunities throughout this show, literally since the first season to just join the good side Adora is now on. Catra, unlike Adora was very much aware that the horde was evil since day one, yet when offered the chance MULTIPLE times to join the good side, she refuses, but is still VERY adamant on stalking Adora, and constantly trying to kill her. Season 5 was especially awful, she literally got worse and worse overtime until this season and in season 4 was willing to commit mass murder(or would it be mass genocide?) all because of Adora, just to spite her. I see many catra stans trying to say catra's redemption arc was better than Zuko's when um, no? It wasn't. Unlike catra, Zuko didn't have multiple chances to better herself and join the good side automatically. Zuko, from what I remember, couldn't just immediately drop everything and join the good side. He was a prince of the fire kingdom who was stuck under his father's command and he actively had to work to better himself throughout MULTIPLE seasons before he could join the good side and gain people's trust. Meanwhile Catra had multiple chances since literally day one to better herself and go to the good side, yet she just wanted to be an asshole, attempt to kill everyone, abuse others, and overly obsess over, stalk, and literally murder Adora on multiple occasions. Literal toxic relationship, but that didn't matter as long as it was catradora end game.

Bow

I actually have no problem with him, he's a nice support character. The only annoying thing is that his abs are constantly showing no matter what he's wearing, except for the one time when he was trying to hide his real self when we first meet his dads.

Glimmer

I didn't like this girl either. I hated the way she treated her mother. She just seems spoiled and whiny and way too quick to do things without an ounce of thought. The way she treated her mom most of the time was just completely unnecessary. Like dayum bitch, she just doesn't want to lose the only other family she has left. As someone with mother issues and does not have a mother, Glimmer had literally no reason to be that fucking rude to her mother, her mother just cares about her well being, safety, and overall existence, unlike mine.

Shadow Weaver/Light Spinner

Excellent character, very well written, bonus points for having a hot voice and having big milf energy. She was the horde kids caretaker and trainer from what it seemed. She has a lot of layers to her. If you look more into her character you see that she actually does care about people around her, she just could be emotionally stunted. She was kinda both selfless and selfish. She had this whole obsession with gaining power which she had even as light spinner, which definitely hints at her family maybe being disappointed in her for being powerless or something along those lines. She even shows signs of having been abused herself, but unfortunately continued this cycle of abuse on Catra and Adora specifically. Shadow Weaver had many goals that involved Adora specifically and she was willing to hurt others in order to finish this goal. Even as Light Spinner this was prominent as she was willing to help save the universe even if it ended up harming herself or others around her in the process. She wasn't just some cruel old woman, but a very complex woman that had a lot of baggage. Sucks that they ended up killing her, I wish she got her own redemption because her story definitely had a lot of potential to be great. It would've been cool to see her try to better herself out of her own willingness, repent for the shit she'd done, maybe a childhood backstory to understand her better, and she tries to apologize to those she used and abused and it doesn't in any way involve having to accept her apology. I just think Shadow Weaver was a neat character.

Hordak

The mindcontrolling is not an excuse for how fucking shitty he is, he became a fucking a war criminal and coloniser out of his own free will. The fandom seems to think that shadow Weaver had done everything wrong, but look at hordak like "uwu my sweet cinnamon roll". Hordak literally colonised kingdoms, kidnapped infants and young children, most likely imprisoned and/or killed those babies parents/other family members, tried to take over the whole world, and other actual war crimes, but he got a pass to walk off into the sunset because he had feelings for someone, and his big bro was mean to him when he was in the cult. Don't come at me with the 'buts' you have, wrong hordak didnt do any of the bs our hordak did when he was no longer under mind control.

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I think I'm done for now. It's 1am now. I'm gonna just stop here and continue with more at some point.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Kylo Ren

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

When I said Pryde was the best villain in the sequel trilogy, I wasn’t kidding. All of the other villains have something holding them back from true greatness. And nowhere is that more apparent than the big bad of the trilogy himself, Kylo Ren, AKA Ben Solo.

In The Force Awakens, he was built up as an unhealthily obsessed Darth Vader fanboy, trapped between the Light and Dark sides which were pulling him, and prone to anger and tantrums at the drop of a hat. He was petulant and creepy to be sure, but it was an interesting direction to take a villain… and then slowly, over the course of the sequels, he morphed into different but vaguely similar characterizations that ultimately left him as the epitome of a Darth Vader clone, with his character arc taking the same beats and cramming them into three films.  

In short, while not a bad villain by far, Kylo Ren may be the biggest wasted element of the sequel movies, bar none.

Motivation/Goals: So Kylo Ren is a rather simple villain on the surface: he’s motivated by a pursuit of power. But he is also motivated by Rey herself, wanting to corrupt her and have her join him as the head of the First Order. Some people really want you to believe there is some level of romantic attraction here, but honestly, I never saw it. Kylo Ren always seems more like a depraved stalker in his pursuit of Rey, and Rey frequently and violently rejects him. While there is a touch of romance at the very end, it feels really forced and lame. Overall, he has pretty standard motivations in terms of Star Wars villains, with just a touch of interesting flair to keep him interesting for at least two films in a row before the third film cements him as a carbon copy of Vader.

Performance: The one truly great element of Kylo Ren is Adam Driver’s performance. Driver is, simply put, incredible; he does a fantastic job at portraying Kylo Ren as a disturbed, broken man who was twisted into villainy before fully embracing it. The violent tantrums, the brutal combat stylings, his sinister voice as he tries to corrupt Rey… he does an amazing job. And to his credit, when the time comes for his forced redemption, he manages to pull it off as convincingly as he is allowed without once speaking, using only body language and facial expressions. He really manages to sell that Ben Solo is Han Solo’s son in these scenes. Frankly, Driver’s acting is what redeems Ren at all in the end, because a lesser actor would not be able to come out of The Rise of Skywalker relatively unscathed (just ask Domhnall Gleeson).

Final Fate: After a conversation with his dad’s ghost, Kylo Ren redeems himself by tossing aside his lightsaber and going to save Rey from Palpatine. We get extended sequences of Adam Driver pulling off a great Harrison Ford-esque performance that reminds you Ben Solo is supposed to be his kid, and then finally he sacrifices his power to save Rey from “death by grandpa.” Rey then delivers a kiss that’s so bad that poor Ben disintegrates. At least Reylo can’t happen now!

Best Scene: Really, anytime Kylo Ren fights is great or has a tantrum is great. Across his appearances in the trilogy, I do think his back-to-back duel with Rey and then attempt to sway her to the Dark Side as well as his confrontation with Luke, both scenes from The Last Jedi, are really standout. The Last Jedi, despite dropping a lot of the elements that made Kylo Ren interesting in favor of just making him as creepy and sinister as possible, really allowed Driver to show how good he is at playing a villain.

Best Quote: Again, I must praise The Last Jedi, because the dialogue when he tries to turn Rey is so wonderful and sinister. I always got the feeling like Kylo Ren was trying to gaslight and manipulate Rey at every turn, and this dialogue definitely sold me on it:

Ren: It's time to let old things die. Snoke, Skywalker, the Sith, the Jedi, the Rebels; Let it all die. Rey... I want you to join me. We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy!

Rey: Don't do this, Ben. Please, don't go this way.

Ren: No, no, you're still... holding on! Let go! Do you want to know the truth about your parents? Or have you always known? And you've just hidden it away. You know the truth. Say it. Say it.

Rey: They were nobody.

Ren: They were filthy junk traders, who sold you off for drinking money. They're dead in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. You have no place in this story; you come from nothing. You're nothing... but not to me. Join me. Please.

Final Thoughts & Score: Kylo Ren is simultaneously the best-acted character in the sequel trilogy and a character who struggles to overcome the obnoxious, scattershot nature of the writing. And yet despite that, Kylo Ren does have the best and most consistent arc, though the end result is just really awkwardly done.

Kylo Ren seriously had the potential to be an interesting and worthy successor to Darth Vader; the way he was set up, it seemed like we were going to get a truly evil and irredeemable Star Wars villain for once. In the first film, we get a hint of his struggles, his internal battle with the pull of the Light and the Dark side, we see his tantrums and his obsession with this glorified idea of Darth Vader, and it all culminates with the moment where he kills his father, which is quite frankly a powerful moment. It really establishes his character well and sets up an intriguing storyline…

…and, to its credit, The Last Jedi does continue the storyline. Kylo Ren cements himself as a cruel and irredeemable, with him usurping the power of the First Order by killing Snoke, attempting to kill his mother, and trying to strike down Luke. Despite the divisive nature of the film and how poorly it treated characters like Poe, Hux, and Finn, The Last Jedi knew how to handle Kylo Ren and continue his character arc in a satisfying and logical manner. But then, of course, along came The Rise of Skywalker, and he gets tossed into a stereotypical redemption arc. This would be fine if the films prior hadn’t built him up as utterly irredeemable as a villain, with him killing his own father, attempting to kill his mother, and so on.

And while, yes, Vader did the same exact things, that’s the issue: Kylo Ren seemed to be being built up as a different beast from Vader due to his idolization of the negative traits of Vader’s legacy and not his ultimate turn and redemption in the eyes of the Force. There was an assumption in the first two films of the sequel that Kylo was going to be something different, especially with all the twists and his numerous villainous actions, but ultimately they redeem him, and while the incitement to the redemption and the acting Adam Driver shows in his silent rescue of Rey is fantastic, it ultimately just makes the character feel like a boring, less-impressive retread of something we’ve seen before, which is an overarching problem with the whole trilogy to be frank, though The Rise of Skywalker is really where it hits worst. Kylo Ren needed to stay a villain, needed to embrace the Dark side, and needed to die instead of giving us the tired redemption arc that we saw executed far better in the first six movies.

Adam Driver seriously is what carries this character, because despite the inane twists and turns the character takes, Driver still manages to deliver a fantastic, powerful performance, but it does leave you sad he didn’t get to go full villain. Driver clearly has the chops for it, but the shortcomings of the script really end up hurting him. Ultimately, Kylo Ren ended up being a stale, tired retread of one of the most important villains ever created despite being set up to be so much more, and it frankly pays me that I can only justify giving him a 6/10. Him even being that high is mostly a testament to how fantastic Driver is in the role, as he’d easily be a 4 or a 5 if he was played by a lesser man, but it’s still rather bittersweet, since Kylo Ren deserved to truly be a great villain, but because of corporate mandates, merchandising demands, and awful writing decisions, he ended up a less interesting Darth Vader clone. And Star Wars is a series with no shortage of clones as it is.

[ask-ivory]

RWBY Random Rant #2!

What villain is the best? (Cinder vs Roman)

Second rant everyone! This one may be a bit longer than the first, so if you don't have time but find this interesting, then I suggest reading this later. If you have infinite time on your hands and your board, then this might help depending on your interests. So let's jump into today's rant!

So, the world of Remnant is a big place. There, you'll find friendly people, weird people, mean people, and people who are just flat out crazy. But today, we're looking at a certain group of people: Villains. Now before we jump in to the blender of craziness, this post is an analysis that can be used for predictions and plot lines. I may be wrong, but I'm writing this off of what I know.

Anyways... Let's start with the basic question, What IS a villain? A villain (or for the more technical term: antagonist) is a character who is trying to stop the hero (or protagonist) from accomplishing his or her goal. Either this, or they're trying to get something and the hero is trying to stop them because what the villain wants is wrong. This is the loosest definition, so you can imagine that this goes way deeper than you think.

There are some things that you need to ask and have answered before you confirm who is the villain in a story. Some of which includes the following:

Who is this guy? (Basic background)

Why is he or she interested in this scenario? (Could this benefit to their cause?)

Why are they doing this? (If so, then why?)

So if we take this and try and apply it to the "villain" we can tell if this is a VILLAIN. Another important thing to note is the quality of the character. What sort of events cause the villain to act like this, and why?

Well, when we're talking RWBY, then villains come in different shapes and sizes. Some villains are immature, and others have experienced enough pain and defeat to know exactly what will work to achieve their goal and/or stop the hero. Then you have the peeps in the middle who aren't as overwhelming as the big baddie, but have enough common sense to know what's going on, what needs to be done, and why they're doing it.

So I'mma gonna start at the bottom of the rainbow and work my way up to the best colors. I'll also be rating these characters on a scale of one to ten. I won't do everyone. Let's start with the entire fandom's LEAST favorite character.

Cinder Fall

Stars: 0/10

Now if I was a writer for the show, I think the most interesting thing that could happen to Cinder is if she just dropped dead. That's how bad she. Literally. Now, what makes her so disgusting? There are two answers.

She did horrible things. Like hacking the communication towers (With help from Watts, of course), making the people at the Vytal Festival Tournament doubt the leaders of Vale, and, to top it off, KILLED Pyrrah and Ozpin.

But these are the actions a normal villain would do, so what really makes her Terrible? The second answer has the reason.

2. She's a poorly written character with a lack of depth are perception.

I have no idea what made the writers want to make Cinder a hated character, but whatever did worked really well. Honestly, it's like Roosterteeth did the opposite of what Disney did to Cinderella. But when I say she lacks depth, I mean there is nothing that makes her character any good. She's also one of the biggest mysteries in the show, and I don't mean that in a good way. Here are some of the questions that I often ask about her:

Why does she want power?

Does she want to rule the world?

Why does she wear an outfit that's guaranteed to help her freeze to death?

Does she want to kill Salem?

Why doesn't she learn from her mistakes?

WHY THE HECK DOES SHE EVEN EXIST?!?!?!

Well, after some examination, I found out something shocking. She is just a plot device. She may talk and act evil, but in reality, she's just there so that the characters have something to worry about. She has nothing that makes her good, or relatable. To add to that, she's like the Grimm, all she does is attack and kill and if she loses, she DOESN'T reflect on her actions, and she DOESN'T try to fix her mistakes. She just goes back into the fight with the same strategy as before. If the main protagonists studied Cinder's basic movement, then they would be able to take her down, no doubt.

Can Cinder be saved? The answer is no. I bet that, judging from the road she's going down, her strategy will be her ultimate end.

Hazel Rainheart

(I may have spelled his name wrong. Sorry.😁)

Stars: 2/10 ☆☆

Now Hazel is a bit more interesting. Unlike Cinder, he has a reason he's on the side he is now, but like everyone, he has his flaws. He lets his anger get the better of him, and he's quick to judge. But the real reason why he's not so good is because of his reasoning. His sister died on a training mission because SHE chose to become a huntress. But Hazel takes all of his anger out on Oscar and Ozpin just because he (Ozpin) was the headmaster of Beacon, and let her into the school in the first place.

And I gotta say, this reasoning is understandable, but it's still dumb.

But there is something that makes Hazel a huge threat to the heros: his semblance of pain nullification. This gives him the ability to block out pain. And I kinda get where it comes from.

When his sister died, he was broken. She was probably the only family Hazel had, and when she was killed, he wanted to block out the emptiness, the grief, the pain. Thus his semblance was unlocked and he could no longer feel pain. This ability is probably how his aura charges up so quickly. If pain can block aura from charging, then he has the tools to be a force to be reckoned with. The only downside is that just because he can't feel pain doesn't mean that he's not hurt.

Can Hazel be saved? Maybe. But if he goes on a redemption arch, then he will probably die. But that doesn't mean that he's a lost cause. There's still plenty of things that can be added to Hazel's character to make it better. But at the present, he could be better.

Adam Taurus

Stars 2/10 ☆☆

This character is relatively horrible. In fact, he's worse than Hazel!

But the thing is, he's like Hazel in a special way: he has a tragic past. Certain events that wreck a kid's childhood can scar them for life. Adam was discriminated for his faunus traits, and this set him on a path of revenge that would be his bitter end.

He was a threat, but small compared to the real one. His semblance made him very dangerous, but it also makes sense. To be more specific, his semblance is, what I like to call, absorption of impact (or for the EruptionFang version, moon slice). This gives him the ability to absorb any damage done by the enemy into his blade, then release it back at a more powerful rate. This can cause devastating damage to both the enemy and the environment. As for why he had this semblance is pretty basic once you think about it.

Adam desired to get back at those who mistreated him. He wanted them to feel his pain, but a lot more extreme. He wanted them to feel what he felt, but worse.

Adam had a lot of potential, but, well when you get stabbed in the back, it's not easy to get back at your enemies. Over all in terms of writing, the thing that would've made him better was a better understanding of what he went through.

Tyrian Callows

Stars 4/10 ☆☆☆☆

If Adam wasn't crazy enough for you, then Tyrian's your go to guy.

I think that Tyrian is insane enough to join Salem, but has enough sense to know how to kill. He's kinda tough to figure out, but thanks to some much needed information in Volume 7, we now know a bit about Tyrian's past.

Tyrian was a mad man killer on the continent of Anima but was captured. He was then rescued by Salem and her Grimm. Since he's mad he owed his life to her ever since.

He's mad, so there's no bad excuse. And to add to that, he is flat down dangerous. His semblance is the ability to cut through aura, making him a hard to beat.

Can Tyrian be saved? Not really. The only way to kill him is for someone to fall victim to him while another strikes the killing blow.

Doctor Aurthor Watts

Stars: 5/10 ☆☆☆☆☆

Alright. Here we go!

Watts is very interesting. That's saying alot. Now that we have more information on him, it's easier to see why he wants to screwer Ironwood.

He was an Atlasian scientist who went against Pietro in the effort to make something great for Atlas. While Watts helped write the Atlas security code, Pietro found that the best inspiration is found inside. That was were Penny was created. Watts was disgraced and faked his death. Then Salem found him and he joined her group to get both revenge on Ironwood and respect from Atlas. Though he is clearly unaware of what Salem's true plans are.

He is a wiz when it comes to technology. Besides that, I believe he has some experience with combat. His semblance could have something to do with technology, but we're still figuring that out.

Can Watts be saved? Writing wise, maybe we can get more details about Watts in the final episodes. He's not a lost cause when it comes being a more interesting villain.

Story wise though? He's a dead man.

Salem

Stars: 6/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆

Yes, I didn't save her for until the end.😼

Now from the writer's point of view, Salem's backstory has been completely fleshed out. It's pretty complicated so I won't go into details. But from that alone, Salem's actons make sense. As a prisoner of life, she yearns to be free. She wants to die. And she believes that the only way to do this is to divide humanity and summon the gods in there darkest hour. Then the gods destroy the world and Salem is free. She doesn't care about the people she is hurting. She hates humanity and wants to destroy everything. But above all, she wants to get permanent revenge on her ex Ozma (or Ozpin or Oscar). She wants him to die and stay dead when millennia ago she made great sacrifices to try bringing him back from the dead.

Now she has nothing to show for it except endless years of war, hatred, and suffering. There is some relation that one can have with Salem. If anyone who is reading this tried to do something for someone you cared about, but got nothing to show for it in return, then that's what Salem would be feeling. And this has caused her to spiral into madness. She is the purest definition of crazy.

Can Salem be saved? It depends at this point. Story wise, most likely not.

Emerald and Mercury!

Stars for them both 7/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

These two are going to be paired in honor of their beloved ship: Emercury.

Both characters have tragic pasts, so that gives them some common ground, but both are looking for something different. Emerald is looking for love, the one thing that she never had in her entire life. Mercury is looking for a purpose in life, a way to make himself Worthy of greatness. He claims that Cinder recruiting him was just destiny.

Both of these peeps are incredibly good at what they do. Both can fight better than the members of team CFVY.

Emerald's semblance is Perception manipulation, which makes perfect sense in her case. In a very special case, her semblance is similar to Adam's. She wants others to see what she sees, Emerald wants people to see how alone she is, and just how much she needs family. Her semblance is an incarnation of her desire. And she uses it to make people see what she wants them to see.

Mercury's semblance is currently unknown at this time. But we do know that his semblance was stolen by his father. After killing him, Mercury probably got his semblance back, but lives under the illusion that it's still gone.

Mercury grew up in an abusive household, under the guard of a murderer. He was tortured everyday by his father.

Emerald grew up on the streets.

Basically, these characters are well written, and both have great potential as well. There's even some hope of a redemption Arch for these two, and possibly some romance.

Can Emerald and Mercury be saved? Writing wise, yes. More trauma and info can definitely help. Story wise? Hopefully, yes.

Roman Torchwick

Stars: 9/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Time for the classics!

This charming young schemer has been the first character in the actual show. Fans everywhere love him, and will often mark him as the best villain. Honestly, I have nothing against it. But for the sake of this post, let's break down this lovely character and examine his awesomeness.

Roman's origin is currently unknown, but maybe we'll get some light cast on it with Neo's backstory as well. Many believe that he is somehow connected to Brunswick Farms, and it's still a possibility that has yet to be ruled out.

Roman is a good fighter and a master mind behind the underground crime rings of Vale. By himself, he is a relatively good fighter. Though his semblance has yet to be determined, he has his own Roman candle.

Another aspect of this character that won the hearts of fans is his charming personality. I mean, who can blame him? Though his death was sudden, and unfair, his handsome face will live on in the hearts of many.

Neo Politan

Stars: 10/10⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The star of the show, folks!

Neo made her big enterence in Volume 2 episode 4 Painting the Town, and ever since has been one of the most popular characters in the entire show. If you break down Neo's character based on what we know, then it's actually really interesting. Let's scoop ice cream!

Neo's backstory is unknown, but we're hoping to have some light shed on the subject. Based off of the song "One Thing", we can tell that Neo's backstory is tragic in some way. She lost everything except for Roman. And she is willing to fight to protect Roman from the death. How do I know?

Her semblance is called illusions by many, but Unicorn of War calls it Mirrors, which I think is the most accurate. Her semblance gives her the ability to reflect her opponent's attacks upon themselves, and she can change her appearance right down to her hair and eye color.

What does any of this have to do with protecting Roman? She will use Any means necessary to protect what little she has left, and to her, that one thing is enough. She Will change her identity as many times as possible, and she often gets away with it. But she is so fierce in protecting that during a fight, any pain that the enemy can dish out to her dumdum would make her determined to kick her opponent's butt. She would give them a taste of their own medicine and literally reflect their attacks upon themselves.

She is a reflection of protection. And like that reflection she represents, she says not a word, but shows people how exactly they can hurt the one she loves.

After Roman's death, Neo Politan is determined to reflect her loves justice upon the true enemies. If you can't face yourself, then you can't face Neo.

So, there you have it, villains everywhere.

Be sure to reblog if you found this interesting!

If you have questions, then ask away!😁

[silentbutsweet77]

So I finally saw TROS and I’m still trying to digest all the plot holes and just overall mess of a movie it ended up being.

Rise of Skywalker is basically the Rise of pandering, fake feminism and commercialized greed.

We start the film with the news Palpatine has returned. Yet we were never given any real explicit hints to this in the prior two films. We see Kylo confront Palpatine but it all moves so fast that you can’t properly take in the scene. Adam Driver does the best he can acting wise but it overall fell flat for me. Pacing here is my main issue.

We then get our Rey training scene and then we get the trio scenes with Rey, Finn and Poe. Unfortunately we get next to nothing of Rose. Because apparently JJ felt he should pander to the toxic fanbros minority that whined and complained over her character. We never get any explanation to what happened between Finn and Rose. I guess we as an audience are just supposed to forget the bonding scenes between Finnrose in TLJ. Oh and forget about their kiss. Who needs plot continuity.

So that takes us to Finn. Since TFA they’ve made it clear he has a crush on Rey but that it was never reciprocated or that serious. They are pretty much the Luke and Leia of this trilogy. Even right down to the ship bait that they would occasionally throw out to keep you guessing. How original right? But I digress.

My biggest complaint is that they don’t really give him his own storyline away from running around worrying about Rey. We understand that they are bffs but Finn should be more then a prop for the main protagonist. If Finn is force sensitive, then show the audience and stop with the innuendos. If Jannah is the new love interest, then allow them to have more then one or two minor bonding moments.

Poe is pretty much the same old Poe. But oh let’s throw in there that he was a spice runner. And lets give him a new love interest that the audience knows next to nothing about. His Han Solo transformation is just about complete! Groundbreaking writing right there. *sigh*

We then get a myriad of angry emo Reylo Skype sessions. Gone are the days of soft TLJ Rey. No we can’t have that. A strong woman apparently can’t show vulnerabilities even to the man she loves. We then get angry stabby Rey. You know the same Rey who shipped herself across the galaxy. The same Rey who could’ve killed Kylo in the throne room but chose not to back in TLJ. Ah yes that Rey. When we do get a proper bonding moment after Rey stabs Kylo, the pace is then put into fast forward mode once again. The plot of the never ending MacGuffins takes precedence over character development. We do get a beautiful moment between Han and Ben and I’m grateful but it’s one of very few sadly.

The Palpatine moments with Rey actually had me lol. It reminded me of some crappy video game. The cheese was living large in these scenes. Ben coming to the rescue and wielding his light saber in sync with Rey was visually stunning and helped remind me of why I ship Reylo. The jedi speaking to Rey was fine but it should have been to both. Rey and Ben are a dyad. They are Star Wars version of soulmates. Anakin is Bens grandfather, talk about wasted potential. But not just wasted potential, a plot hole that just doesn’t make sense. Ben is a Skywalker. Rey is not. You’ve built up dual protagonists but in the end you are really only focused on one. You’ve had the heroines journey for Rey and this beautiful redemption arc for Ben. Yet you completely diss Adam Driver by not even allowing him a speaking role in these final moments. Lucky for JJ, Adam is such a great actor that his body language told the story.

The longing when Ben holds a lifeless Rey was so powerful it luckily didn’t need words. The kiss was beautiful and then we get an emotional goodbye filled with mourning and a proper funeral. Oh wrong movie? How silly of me. JJ literally copies the redemption arc in Return of the Jedi but robs us of the emotional impact. A strong woman like Rey can’t show too much emotion after all.

So to sum it up JJ envisioned Rey as this feminist hero that didn’t need a man. Because in his mind this would’ve made Rey weak. Well I’m here to say that’s fake feminism and quite frankly it’s bullshit. This is why we need more input from female writers. Especially where romance is concerned. The two do not need to cancel each other out.

So where does all this lead in the future? Well that’s all up to the greedy mouse.

Gotta love the ambiguous plot holes they left all over the place! Ben fading away at the exact moment Leia did was certainly not by chance. The no closure for Bens passing also feels too weird. The healing shot that centers on Rey’s tummy. Is she pregnant? Bens hand could’ve been placed on her head or heart but they chose her belly. The fertility necklace that transfers from Rey over to Ben. Symbolic? It certainly could be.

Finn being force sensitive another plot left open ended. Jannah not knowing where’s she is from while talking to Lando. How subtle. Is Lando the father lol?

In short with the new popular Galaxy’s edge at the Disney parks, it totally makes sense for Disney to continue to milk this in the form of comics/books. It’s money over art unfortunately.

My final and only hope is that if they resurrect Ben, that it’s done right. Show us that Ben has atoned for his sins and allow him a happy ending with Rey. That’s an actual fairytale that ends with hope.

[wits-writing]

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Movie Review SPOILERS)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, directed by J.J. Abrams with a screenplay by Abrams and Chris Terrio, has the most fun being a capital-A Adventure movie of any Star Wars movie in a while. The majority of the movie’s first two acts is comprised of a treasure hunt for a Sith artifact. The main trio, Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) are in a race against time before Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order launch their final strike, with the artifact being the one thing that could help the Resistance strike first. That part of the story, on a pure visuals and spectacle level, has some of the best action beats in all of Star Wars, including a speeder chase to rival the classic one from Return of the Jedi.

Enhanced by Dan Mindel’s cinematography and John Williams’s expectedly excellent score, if that quest was all there was to the movie, I’d be more than happy to call this a satisfying movie and conclusion to the story that preceded it in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. However, that’s not all there is to it and what else there is takes away from what does work in favor of a more convoluted narrative. One that I find more frustrating the more I’ve thought about it, even as I tried to enjoy what I could from it as it played out. To explain why, I’ll need to go into some spoilers, but I’ll save the big one for the end of the review.

[Full Review and SPOILERS Under the Cut]

The Rise of Skywalker had two possible directions for how it could close out the story that was set into motion back in 2015:

Focus on being a finale to the Sequel Trilogy itself

Focus on being a finale to “The Skywalker Saga” as a whole

While doing a bit of both was unavoidable in a situation like this, TROS defaults to the Door Number 2. It gets in the way of closing out the narrative of characters that aren’t as directly connected to the Jedi/Sith conflict that drives the “Skywalker” narrative. It’s a problem that goes back to this movie’s central hook, a move I’ve been skeptical of since the first trailer dropped; the return of Emperor Palpatine.

One smart thing about Sheevy-boy’s presence in this movie is that they don’t treat it like a twist. In fact, it’s the first thing seen in TROS’s title crawl. Everything that comes after that is where things start to come apart at the seams in irrevocable ways. He doesn’t have a real dynamic with any of the new characters, to the point they retcon in connections. McDiarmid doesn’t seem particularly awake, he’s been brought back to serve as a glorified lore-delivery service and to artificially escalate a conflict that didn’t need it. He shows up, gives Kylo Ren the “Join me and we can rule… etc.” spiel and exposits the previously mentioned retcons about how he’s been the true puppet master all along. If you’re framing this story as the end to the nine “Episode” movies, the Emperor who started this whole thing by pulling strings from the shadows coming back to reveal he was still doing that in these new movies makes a little sense. Taking this only as an extension of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, two films I feel work as wonderful companion pieces, it’s clumsy and reductive.

When it comes to the journeys of the characters that have been here for the previous movies, it’s a mixed bag. Poe’s been going through a sort of crisis of faith since the last time we saw him. Watching the First Order overtake the galaxy between movies, he’s lost his belief that the Resistance was ever worth being a part of if no one’s willing to stand up alongside them. He goes through this doubt as the story takes the audience into a look at his background. We meet an old friend of his, Zorii (Keri Russell), who resents him for ever joining the Resistance in the first place. Her scenes with Poe put his internal conflict of what he thinks versus what he wants to believe in place. The way this internal conflict gets to resolve makes Poe’s story feel the most complete of the main trio in this movie.

On the other side of the spectrum, Finn’s story feels emblematic of the movie’s problems, similarly split between two focuses. One of them is a barely present arc about his connection with Rey. There are multiple points in the movie where he says he “needs to tell her” something and it never resolves. Between those moments the only scenes between Rey and Finn are her rebuking his offers to talk about her problems. It’s a disappointing display for two characters whose friendship has been a motivating factor for both since The Force Awakens. The other side of Finn’s story comes late into TROS’s runtime, the discovery of other Storm Trooper deserters. Getting to not feel alone about what he did anymore would have been a great starting point for his story in this movie, but it’s introduced so late in the game that it feels tacked on to introduce the, admittedly cool, leader of the deserters, Jannah (Naomi Ackie). Nothing about Finn gets to coalesce by the end of this movie, he’s left with two loose threads and nothing tied up.

The good stuff from Poe and Finn’s arcs gets sidelined throughout the movie to focus on new wrinkles added to the story between Rey and Kylo Ren. A lot of my problems with Palpatine’s involvement in this plot most heavily effect this part of the story. After taking his place as a Supreme Leader, de facto head villain of this trilogy, by the end of the last movie, Kylo’s arc goes backwards and he’s someone else’s attack dog again. Promises from Palpatine to rule over a “Final Order” if he’s able to deliver Rey to the Emperor drive him. We replace a villain like Kylo, who’s been choosing the Dark every step of the way despite “the call to the Light”, with a mustache twirler. All of this to serve the start of a redemption for him and a retcon to Rey’s backstory that feels more in service of the “Skywalker Saga” than her personal narrative.

[Major SPOILER after this point]

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Rey begins the movie in the middle of Force training based on the books she found in The Last Jedi, frustrated with her inability to connect with the full legacy of the Jedi. It’s all framed under this idea that she’s somehow “afraid of who she is” and that’s before the full retcon… er, reveal.

[Final SPOILER warning, for real!]

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Rey is revealed to have been Palpatine’s granddaughter the entire time. This decision from Terrio, Abrams and everyone else credited with the story for this movie shifts the focus of her story. She’s no longer uncertain of her place yet ready to forge it for herself, but instead she gets to be conflicted about the potential for falling to the Dark being in her blood. I was willing to give this a chance, like everything in this movie, but there’s nothing more there beyond the same temptations to the Dark Side we’ve seen in the Star Wars movies before. The final fight between Rey and Palpatine works overtime to add dramatic heft and make it feel like a culmination of nine movies, while utterly failing to be the culmination of this trilogy or just The Rise of Skywalker.

I’m frustrated while writing this, because I can acknowledge strong points to The Rise of Skywalker, some scenes on their own are the best put together in the history of this series. But I keep coming back to how what got shoehorned in for this final entry in the Sequel Trilogy left me feeling empty.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

[geek-fashionista]

Okay but I need ur review of rise of skywalker

SPOILERS SPOILERS I’M ON MOBILE SPOILERS PLEASE SCROLL PAST SPOILERS

~*~

There were a lot of things I disliked, and a few things I liked.

The retconning was obvious. Painfully obvious. To go from “your parents were nobodies” to “actually your parents were Palpatines and I knew the whole time and so did everybody else including you lol” was just... bad.

And the thing is, I wouldn’t have been upset with a Rey Palpatine plotline if they had set it up from the first movie instead of the-80s-called-and-they-want-their-ass-pull-surprise-twists-back. Could you imagine if homegirl Rey had found out she was a Palpatine in the first movie, then struggled with her identity for the next two? How intrigued Ben would have been watching Rey fight desperately against the pull of the Dark Side and her lineage?

Second of all, the way they just gave Rose the shaft. Her actress was BULLIED off Twitter. And instead of giving her a great big role as a middle finger to entitled fan brats, she had like... three lines, her relationship with Finn was wiped off the map, AND another potential love interest was thrown into the mix for Finn, and for what? So fans could pick whoever they wanted him to be with? Work. With. What. Y’all. Have.

Third, Hux could have been a great villain. He had the back story. He had the hatred of Kylo Ren. He had the means to carry out an epic revenge plot. And instead he got treated like comic relief and was suddenly killed off halfway through the movie in favor of the ass-pull nostalgia villain. I was rooting for him!!

And most obviously, I hate the fact that Ben died. I hate it. He didn’t have a single line of dialogue after his redemption, the thing we were all waiting for. What the hell. Rey wasn’t allowed to mourn him. There was no catharsis for the audience. No chance for him to live with the consequences of his actions. NOTHING. He just flopped over and died. The End. Music By John Williams.

Now... the things I did like.

The Death Star fight. Oh my goodness. I could write an essay on this fight and all the reasons I loved it, so I will! I loved Rey’s obvious frustration with Kylo Ren, the fact that she couldn’t overpower him, that she couldn’t save Ben. How she collapsed from pure exhaustion but she kept swinging at him because why won’t this evil persona die and let me be with the man I love!!!

And eventually, she DOES manage to kill Kylo Ren. But she doesn’t do it alone! Leia intervenes, and later on, Han intervenes as well. The three people Ben loves most all had a hand in saving him, but ultimately he had to make the choice to yeet his lightsaber into the ocean. He had to make the choice to get better. Poetic cinema.

And oh goodness, when Ben and Rey both fall together in their shared grief over Leia. When Rey snaps out of her anger and remembers who she’s fighting and why. When Rey heals Ben and she doesn’t just heal the fatal wound, but the scar she inflicted on him in TFA as well. And then, still sobbing, she delivers the line that killed me:

“I wanted to take your hand. Ben’s hand.”

*needs a moment to collect myself*

Gosh, and then that moment in the final battle when she realizes Ben has come for her. The hope in her eyes. The happiness!! And then she passed him that lightsaber in the hottest display of Force Bond I’ve ever seen and I fainted at least seven times in two seconds. My heart was POUNDING, fam!!!

The kiss. Ben’s smile. Adam Driver’s acting. Disney Prince Ben Solo standing in the rain, mourning his parents.

Yeah. *dreamy smile*

The rest of the movie will be purged from my memory by mountains of Reylo fic.

[jxffhxrdy]

RAW 5/19/2020

Wassup everyone. Back again with opinions that you didn’t ask for on Monday Night RAW tonight 5/19/2020. I am not related to WWE in any capacity, so what I say is not bible. 

The show in general tonight? Sucked. I’m sorry, but it really did. You’d peaked my interest with a Drew/Corbin fight, because I think Drew is the most talented big guy on RAW and Corbin is the best heel on Smackdown. But even THAT let me down. Alright, let us discuss, shall we?

♡Edge Accepts Randy Orton’s Challenge (-)

I mean, duh. God, I am so bored with this. WWE, I played your little game and allowed it with Wrestlemania, since Edge had just come back and let’s face it- I am a big ol’ fan of Adam Copeland. But this is just overworked, overdone, overpromoed, just... over everything. And calling this “the greatest match ever?” Really? In an empty arena and no fans, no pop, no nothing? Please WWE. Chill with that. It just makes me cringe. I could easily list 10 matches of both of theirs that are undoubtedly going to be better than this match. Minus.

♡Murphy vs. Humberto (-)

Jesus christ. I’m sorry, but you cannot take someone who was literally a jobber last week to trying to take on the biggest tag team on RAW. You just can’t do that. You just sent Humberto to the slaughterhouse because you wanted a hispanic wrestler to stand up for a hispanic wrestler. Let’s be real. Now, if Aleister Black had come out for a little pre-match tussle, it would’ve been more forgivable. But this was just random and boring.

♡Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ruby Riott (-)

Honestly, forgot this match happened. CHARLOTTE FLAIR SHOULD NOT BE ON 3 SHOWS. I see so much of Charlotte Flair during the week that I literally do not care what she does anymore, because I know if she loses a match on Monday, I’ll see her fight on Wednesday and Friday again. Yes, I commend her for working like she does 3 days a week, that must be insane. But it is Charlotte City so much that all of her matches just run together. Give Rhea back the NXT belt, take her off Smackdown, and just keep her on Raw. Less is more here. Also... what is Ruby’s storyline? Redemption? Isn’t that Liv’s story? Like this match just made no sense for either character, unless they’re trying to make Charlotte seem like some tyrant and Ruby even more of a loser than she already is. Seriously, when was the last time that girl won a match? Please don’t turn even more of your female roster into jobbers for the 4HW. 

♡Whatever the Asuka thing was (?)

So it got leaked after Becky’s announcement last week that at MITB this year, we were supposed to get Nia Jax vs. Becky, with Nia taking home the belt. But with her sudden pregnancy and Nia not being the most well liked woman on the roster, they figured giving the belt to Asuka was the safest option. Which, yes, that is correct. I get Asuka and Kairi are cute lil weirdos and they play their parts well, but this was a very weird start to the Asuka/Nia feud. It was just kinda sped through and all over the place. However, I did enjoy including Kairi. I am terrified of them splitting up the Kabuki Warriors. I just don’t really know how I feel. 

♡R-Truth vs. Bobby Lashley (-)

The only positive out of this is I absolutely adore R-Truth. He is so damn funny (until he puts those damn teeth in) and I cannot wait to see how he gets Gronk. On the other end with Bobby.... I just really don’t care? I mean, 3 weeks ago, we saw the man flip a tire. Like, that was a whole segment. And if you want Bobby to seem like the biggest badass, why oh why would you put him with Truth? Why wouldn’t you have a Jinder Mahal vs. Bobby Lashley for top contender spot? That would be FAR more entertaining then watching Lashley put the beating on Truth every week. MVP is settling quite nicely into the manager position though.

♡Women’s Tag Team Championship (A BIG -)

I AM FURIOUS. ABOUT THIS MATCH. FIRST OF ALL. Fuck WWE for ending it on a DQ, because if it were a male match, it would’ve been completely fine and not mentioned. I am very very tired with womens’ wrestling in WWE being so quick to DQ. Second, why would you have an ACTUAL tag team lose to this awful combo? Put Nikki back in NXT with Sanity; you can’t deny that would bring BIG interest into NXT. Alexa... I don’t know. She has a horrible mean girl thing about her that I can’t take any of her feuds seriously because she reminds me of high school. I truthfully don’t see her in the title picture, especially not with the likes of Nia and Asuka, But you know who she would absolutely kill with? Zelina fucking Vega. Ruby, maybe? Liv even? The combo with Nikki and Alexa is just so awkward and I’m over it. The IIconics are annoying- BUT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE. You can tell they are best friends and have the best chemistry in and out of the ring. They are so entertaining and a genuinely good team. Please. 

♡Shayna Bazler vs. Natalya (-)

Natalya deserves better than a year of losses. That’s all I am going to say about this match. Shayna is very talented and will do very well in the current main title picture.

♡Owens/Crews vs. Andrade/Garza (+) (MVP)

I actually liked this match! Kevin Owens is the fuckin’ man. He is so talented, he’s amazing on the mic, and honestly- he is what kept this episode afloat for me tonight. Plus getting Crews back was amazing; he is the most underused talent on the Raw roster. I enjoyed getting a taste of the Andrade/Garza tag team that’s been rumored for a while and I think once Andrade loses the belt (which is undoubtedly coming shortly), I’d love to see them do some stuff with Street Profits. Or even Mysterio/Black if we get that tag team. I would absolutely love to see Crews get that belt next week, it is time for him to. If he does get it and they’re going the McIntyre/Lashley route they seem to be going on- maybe pair Crews with Jinder? Shelton or Titus maybe? I think that would be great. A lot of potential here. MVP of the night!

♡Murphy vs. Aleister Black and randomly austin theory and seth rollins (?)

So, everyone knows I love me some Aleister Black. I think the man is insanely talented and should be in a title picture ASAP. And honestly, I’m a fan of Murphy too! I think the two of these men have great in-ring chemistry and I enjoy watching them fight. The reason this match is getting a question mark is... Austin Theory? Really? So, I know Theory was kinda brought up to give Angel Garza something to do while Andrade was out on probation, but why on God’s green earth are you going to put him with Seth and Murphy? I was hoping after the split of Zelina’s group, he would go back to NXT and maybe work with Undisputed Era or Cameron Grimes. I also know he’s not been moved from the NXT page on the WWE website to RAW yet. But if you’re planting the seed of him “following” Seth, then when are you going to make that pull official? Should they? No. Theory is not ready yet. He doesn’t have a distinct ring persona yet. Out of the three, Andrade is the cocky workhorse, Garza is the flirty ladies man, and Austin is... there. Send him back and if you want to fill your roster, pull someone who could make some good ass TV (Damien Priest with Aleister Black, thank you). 

♡Axe Throwing (+)

Scrolling on Twitter, it seems to be that a lot of people cannot stand the random competitions between the Street Profits and Viking Raiders, but honestly? I’m a fan! With the empty arena era, all of WWE’s matches are just grunts and ring slaps. Long matches become literally miserable to watch (ie. Orton vs. Edge at Wrestlemania 36). Having these random cutaways, while aren’t wrestling, is something different from the usual. And frankly, I’d rather see this than most of the other matches I sat through tonight. I don’t want to see the Street Profits lose their belts just yet, I absolutely adore them, but I think these cutaways are setting up a really fun feud. 

♡Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Baron Corbin (-)

Drew wins, fucking obviously. Did people REALLY think Corbin was going to win here? Against Drew, who is literally a tank? No ma’am, not a chance. This was kind of a throw away match just to set up the feud with Drew & Lashley... yawn. MVP is the best part of Bobby Lashley right now. I just love Drew McIntyre so much, I never want him to lose the belt ever. Bobby vs. Drew at Backlash, most likely. Whatever man. 

♡General Thoughts

~Please just never let Lana speak anymore. No promos anymore from Lana.  ~More Kevin Owens. More Aleister Black. Yes. ~Where the FUCK is Cedric Alexander and Ricochet? Please bring them back, WWE. Please stop destroying legitimately good tag teams.  ~Lana Never Speak Again 2020 campaign. 

Thanks for reading my rambles and I’ll be back on Wednesday for AEW thoughts. <3��

[littlemisssquiggles]

Sooo, I'm in love with the theory that Ruby's silver eyes destroy Salem's connection with the grimm+ the pools so she turns to humanity to start a second Great War. It also lets me expand my personal theory on Cinder: she's going to usurp Salem as the big bad. Right now, it's being foreshadowed that the only way to beat Salem is to redeem her; meanwhile Cinder is trying to gather as much power as she can; heck, she might find a few drops of the pools left and grimmify herself- role reversal!

Firstly, I’m pleased to hear that youliked the idea Miki-chan. Secondly, alright, if I may be honest with you here I have toconfess something. I actually don’t think Cinder has a chance of remaining a poignant character in RWBY. I mean in the sense that I’m quite torn on what’s next for her given the way the Writers’ have portrayed her side of the story up until thisvery point in the series.

Similar to you, I used to share in the theory that Cinder would ultimately rise up and replace Salem as the ultimate big-bad of RWBY. As a matter of fact, I used to be of the opinion that that’s part of why Salem was grooming Cinder. In the past, I figured Salem had taken Cinder as her apprentice to nurture her into becoming either a) her next successor or b) her next vessel.

This was way back when my theory was that Salem was some kind of face-stealing intelligent Grimm that has lived for centuries by stealing the bodies of its victims. I figured Cinder was someone Salem was going to eventually turn into her next vessel. Almost like a darker version of what becomes of the Wizards during their reincarnation cycle. I figured Salem was just like Ozpin—she’s been changing her face over the years but whereas Oz was sympathetic of taking control of his successors, Salem would force her way. She would find her vessels, groom them to her liking and when the time comes for her to reincarnate, she would forcibly take over her successors bodies replacing their minds with her own—like a parasite. 

That’s what I though Salem was. Her being an invincible immortal was way out of what I pegged. So yeah, I thought Cinder was going to become Salem in a way.

But as of V6, I have not the slightest clue what the Writers’ intentions for Cinder’s story are and I’ve also lost faith in her actually getting a proper progression with her side of the narrative. With the way how the Writers have positioned Salem as this invincible force, I can’t picture anyone usurping her since they’ve placed her on this pedestal where she literally can’t be dethroned. Because of the direction the show has taken with both Salem and Cinder, I can see one of the following:

Cinder is given the Adam Taurus treatment where she is unceremoniously killed off during the events of the Atlas Trilogy. This is why this squiggle meister has shied off from any theories that suggest Cinder having any kind of ongoing story including a redemption arc. Nothing against the fans and theorists who want this to happen, it’s just that after watching the Writers play character assassination paddy cake with Cinder for the entirety of the Mistral Arc, I’ve lost hope for her.

Personally, speaking for myself mostly here, I never saw Cinder as a character worthy of redemption. Again, nothing against the folks who believe this. I just don’t see it for Cinder since in my opinion, redemption arcs should go to characters who’ve shown a shred of remorse or doubt for their past actions. This has not been the case with Cinder. Not once has she revealed a side of her that’s regret anything she’s done. 

This leads me to believe that Cinder’s downfall will her megalomaniac personality. Her lust for power is going to continue to consume her until it ultimately brings her to her final curtain call. As a matter of fact, twice over, Cinder’s power hungry ways has brought her to her own demise.

In V3, her pursuit of the Fall Maiden magic resulted in her killing the original Fall Maiden, Professor Ozpin and Pyrhha and the karma from those murders resulted in her losing her arm and eye thanks to Ruby awakening her Silver Eyes for the first time.

In V5, Cinder’s pursuit of the Spring Maiden magic resulted in her losing to Raven and being frozen alive before plummeting to her second alleged death.

But as we saw from V6, Cinder survived that ordeal scotch free and is well on her way to Atlas on the assumption that she is going to have another fated rematch with either Ruby Rose and/or Oscar Pine.

Huh. 3, 5…7? Am I sensing a pattern here? At this point, after baiting her death two times, either the CRWBY Writers kill off Cinder for good in V7 or…continue to drag her character around while doing very little to progress her character and story while providing the audience with more incentive to question why she’s being kept around.

What is Cinder’s purpose? 

I thought she might replace Salem but if Salem can’t be killed and Salem has sort of disowned her as of V6, seriously what is Cinder’s purpose now? What hope is there for her now to be kept in the story? 

Really sorry to all the Cinder fans but, to me, Cinder feels like another villain with wasted potential at the moment and I have this sad gut feeling that she’s going to get the same treatment as Adam Taurus.

While the end to her story might be fitting (being defeated by the combined efforts of Ruby, Oscar and possibly Jaune and having her be stripped of her Maiden magic by Oscar, an incarnate of Oz and the rightful wielder of said power), Cinder might get killed off before the audience could even get a chance to learn more about her. I feel like that might happen given the weird way the Writers have treated the villains these past volumes.

However…

Since I’m someone who often likes to toss out ideas to the FNDM, I’m going to toy with an idea I have right here. A headcanon of how this squiggle meister thinks Cinder can be salvaged for the future of RWBY.

You might even like this one Miki-chan since it encompasses one or two things you wanted to see done for Cinder.

Hear me out:

Let’s say…by the end of V7 or whenever during the Atlas Arc, Cinder isdefeated. Neo betrays her and Ruby Rose isn’t killed. As I said, Cinder isstripped of her Maiden magic by Oscar and is left completely powerless and at the heroes’ disposal.

Imagine this as Cinder’s lowest moment yet as she is forced to kneel before her enemies. Like how Pyrhha was made to kneel in her final moments. Despite her weakened state, Cinder’s pride forces her to fight against her enemies restraints but to no avail.

Out of the crowd, Jaune walks up to Cinder. This provides the perfect opportunity for Jaune to finally get justice for Pyrhha—the justice he tried to get back in V5 during the Battle of Haven. 

But rather than enacting his revenge, Jaune does the opposite. He shows Cinder mercy. He refuses to kill her. He doesn’t give her the satisfaction of staining his hands with her blood and instead looks back at her in pity.

Jaune decides to leave Cinder be since in her feeble state, Jaune saw heras less of a threat. No longer worthy of his wrath and he even quotes that Pyrhha wouldn’t wish for him to fall to the same level as Cinder. 

Jaune’s anger toward Cinder over Pyrhha’s death nearly made him into a monster. This wasn’t the boy Pyrhha knew and no one, not even the likes of Cinder Fall was going to make Jaune become less of who he was. Not anymore. Cinder is shown pity by her enemies and such a feat angers her to no end.

After all, let me remind you of a quote from Cinder from V3.

‘I want to be strong. I want to be feared’.

Cinder desired power so that she could become someone whose power made her feared in the eyes of others. Cinder saw power as her ticket to making her formidable. A somebody in the world to possibly contrast her previous lifestyle that made he feel less of a person, perhaps?

So for another time in her life, Cinder finds herself back at the beginning. At her lowest. Alone. Powerless. A nobody that even her enemies saw more fit for pity than fear.

If this happens and Cinder is left completely powerless but spared, my headcanon is that the Geist Grimm arm attached to Cinder’s body will fully corrupt her, turning Cinder into a Grimm-human hybrid. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. A Grimm in human skin. 

And since Cinder is part Geist, this grants her the creature’s unique ability to possess other things. And since Cinder is  part human, her Geist abilities enables her to steal the form of other humans.

So that’s how Cinder is able to escape again. She ends up walking right out of custody by possessing the body of a guard or something. When outside, she discards this human skin and goes in search of another body to steal.

I even have this dark idea of Cinder stealing Neo’s body. Since I can’t think of any other way that the Writers might wish to keep Neo in the story outside of being redeemed (y’know becoming the General Jinjur of RWBY, falling in love with Henry Marigold and having her happily ever after with him somehow).

And with Cinder becoming part human, part Grimm, this adds to your idea of her gaining control of Grimm and becoming their new leader in Salem’s place after she’d been cleansed by Ruby’s Silver Eyes. Imagine the Grimm coming to see Cinder as their new leader since her Geist Grimm half makes her one of them.

I figured the Grimm saw Salem as one of their own since she crawled out of the same dark Grimm Pools that made the Grimm.

So why wouldn’t the Grimm see Cinder as one of their own should she shed her human skin and become all Grimm—well mostly Grimm. A Grimm in human skin.

No need for her to bathe herself in a Grimm Pool. Since she failed to gain power to dominate the humans, Cinder becoming a complete Grimmoire (my fanon name for Grimm-human hybrids basically) gives her an advantage. She dominates the Grimm, showing her superiority by positioning herself as an Alpha among the Grimm.

Heck! Perhaps becoming a Grimmoire even enables Cinder tocommunicate with the Grimm. Speak to them. Hear their voice. Understand the Grimm in ways that even Salem never did. And by becoming the Grimm’s Alpha—their Queen, that’s how Cinder will become feared. Not through Maiden Magic but through becoming a Grimm in human form—the very personification of fear leading her newfound armies to do her bidding.

I’m not sure what Cinder’s goal would be after becoming a Grimmoire. Basically if she becomes a Grimmoire, she’d be the embodiment of what she desired. As Qrow Branwen once said. The Grimm are fear. So if Cinder becomes the Grimmoire and turns into the new Queen of the Grimm—she’d be fear itself too.

Oh! Oh! And do you know what would even more awesome? Imagine if…by being part Geist and Geists are able to take possession of other things, what if Cinder gets the idea to grow her Grimm army by making more of her.

For the Game of Thrones fans, remember the Night King and the White Walkers? 

Imagine if Cinder ends up becoming something akin to the Night King? A Grimm-human hybrid whose Geist Grimm abilities allowed her to possess the bodies of the dead.

So imagine Cinder leading an army of the Grimm and dead humans she’d reanimated with her Geist abilities. I know this last bit is a huge stretch but…think about it?

It’s a way to make Cinder a bigger big bad than Salem? Oh!Oh! And it can also be another huge burst of irony. Remember what Salem told Ozma when he told her about the Gods’ Judgement? Salem wanted to bring about the end of the world so that her and Ozma could replace humanity with their magical off-spring or something to that extent.

Imagine if…after becoming a Grimmoire, Cinder decides to make all of Remnanther kingdom. She desires to convert all of Remnant into her World of Death. A complete Grimm World under her reign.

Imagine if…the second Great War and Salem’s second attempt at using humanity to kill the Gods or even the Gods’ Judgment becomes less of a threat when Cinder decides to turn her Grimm army on humanity and use them to pillage and kill in order to grow her armyof death and destruction.

Imagine if Cinder becomes the big powerful fearful threat that everyone inRemnant cease everything to band together to stop  since she and her army can literally kill everyone and turn them into one of her. I mean she’s not as indestructible as Salem was. Her fear factor isn’t that she can’t be killed because she’s immortal.

Making Salem immortal actually made her less interesting of a villain to me if I’m being honest. She can’t be defeated because she literally has a magical thingamabobble (that the Brother Gods’ rather foolishly bestowed upon her and idiotically never revoked from her after abandoning Remnant with the monster they created) that’s preventing the main heroes from destroying her. To me, if Cinder is to replace Salem as the biggest threat in RWBY, I like the idea of her still being vulnerable in some way but her fear factor is that she’s difficult to kill.

Not because she’s immortal. But because her power, strength and overall cunning makes her a formidable opponent who forces our heroes to become, not only stronger, but smarter if they stood any chance of killing her. I like a villain that challenges our heroes in that kind of way. But that’s just me.

I originally pegged that the reasonSalem survived for so long was because she was cunning. Especially more cunning than Ozma and his reasons for never defeating Salem up until this point was because she would always find a way to outsmart him and thwart his plans no matter how much he tried to plan ahead. That could’ve been interesting.

But nah. Salem survived so long cause immortality that the Gods stupidly gave to her as punishment for tricking them even though she tried to kill them. Who gives someone who tried to kill you the power to not be killed? I mean….

Anyways, moving along! If Cinder replaces Salem, let her be formidable through the same strength and intimidation tactics that was originally meant for Salem…but done better.  

Seriously picture Cinder becoming RWBY’sversion of the Night King. Like a Queen of Darkness or the Red Queen. Cinder the Red Queen sounds kind of cool, in my opinion. 

I know, this is all one big stretch of a squiggly theory. But…think about it? If Cinder is destined to become a character like that then I wouldn’t mind hoping on board with it. Buuuuuuut it’s up to the real Writers’ of RWBY.

Overall, what do you think of the concept?

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[thebookbandwagon]

Unpopular Opinions Book Tag

I’ve seen this list of tag prompts floating around and find them really fun to read and watch so here’s my take on it. This is just for fun and I’ve put the image of all the stuff I talk about below so you can skip over this post if you don’t like the idea of seeing potential criticisms of them. My Youtube version of this is here.

1.) A popular book or book series that you didn’t like

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I read the first two in the trilogy and I just don’t connect on a personal level to any of the characters. I’ve enjoyed other books by this author but Mistborn just… doesn’t do it for me. I don’t have the level of emotional investment in the characters that I want and they don’t feel like vivid people to me.

2.) A popular book or book series that everyone else seems to hate but you love

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat. I know not everyone hates this series, but there’s a fairly high proportion of the people who read it who end up hating it. Based on the negative reviews I’ve seen, many people’s reasons for hating it seems to be rooted in labelling it as problematic. While I agree there are a couple of elements of the series that aren’t handled with as much care as they should be, I still don’t think it’s quite as bad as some people make it out to be. It’s also a pet peeve that some people make it out as if an author having certain things happening in their stories means they endorse those things happening in real life and that’s just... not logical.

3.) An otp that you don’t like

99% of the time I just don’t care about pairings and there aren’t that many pairings I can think of that I actively dislike instead of just not caring. Buffy/Angel? I’m counting it as qualifying for this tag because it has comics. I never found a Buffy pairing I either liked or was neutral about. I found Buffy/Angel to be way too over the top and corny and too instant. I honestly have no idea what they talk about when they’re not dealing with various apocalypses and watching it made me realise where part of the inspiration for Twilight probably originated from.

4.) A popular book genre that you hardly reach for

Young Adult Fantasy that’s geared towards the older end of the spectrum. If I’m reading YA it’s either because I trust the author to write something I like in that genre or because I want to give myself a brain break and read something I can get through really quickly. I’ve found with the older end of the YA spectrum that there doesn’t seem to be much difference in the reading difficulty between YA and Adult within the fantasy genre so the genre usually just ends up not giving me what I want from it.

5.) A popular/beloved character that you do not like

Kvothe from The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I like there to be things characters are bad at and Kvothe was just way too good at every single thing he did for my taste. Never before have I been so invested in the main character of a book failing and I was left completely unsatisfied because at no point in The Name of the Wind does Kvothe fail when it isn’t because of being sabotaged by someone else. I know there are theories about how he’s an unreliable narrator but unless I see actual evidence on the page then I just don’t have the faith that he is. Saying that, I really did love the writing style so if Rothfuss writes anything not involving someone who I despise as much as Kvothe then I’d give it a go.

6.) A popular author that you can’t seem to get into

Leigh Bardugo? I’ve read Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, as well as Shadow and Bone and they were all fairly meh reads for me. I feel like my reasons for not being able to get into her books come down to my repeating previous points I’ve made because they’re a combination of the genre she writes in as well as me knowing I love the tropes and character archetypes she’s using but just not having the level of investment in her characters that I want.

Robin Hobb is another popular author I can’t get into. She has characters that feel much more vivid and writes within Adult Fantasy but her pacing is so so slow and I’m not patient enough as a reader to be able to get through her lengthy books.

7.) A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing

Redemption = Death. I love a good villain eventually turning sides or an anti-hero/anti-villain having a good redemption arc but it seems like all these arcs inevitably end in their death and it just… doesn’t have to be that way. I’d find the story far more interesting if the redemption arc doesn’t end so abruptly and the person undergoing it has to figure out their new place in the world, how to live with themselves, and other people’s changing perceptions of them.

8.) A popular series that you have no interest in reading

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. As a fantasy fan, peer pressure makes me feel obligated to like this series. I don’t like this series. I’ve attempted to read it three times and only managed on one of those times to get almost halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring. All the characters just don’t do anything for me (except you, Gollum) and I have no interest in what happens to them or the themes within the story.

Me not liking Lord of the Rings doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate what it’s done for the fantasy genre though and I’m well aware most of the series that I love probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the book that’s basically responsible for the catalyst of the genre of fantasy books that feature worldbuilding.

9.) What movie or TV show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?

Hmm. If I was only going off seasons 1-4 of Game of Thrones I’d go with that but considering what happened after I’m… ugh.

So instead I’m going with Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Originally by Douglas Adams, it’s a very witty and quirky comedy book series with sci-fi and fantasy elements set in modern-day (which back then would’ve been around the 80s). It follows a detective who employs bizarre techniques like Zen Navigation:

“Rather than using conventional avenues of wayfinding like consulting a map, the Zen navigation method consists of finding someone who looks like they know where they’re going and following them. This is supposed to deliver the navigator to their destination, although its results are variable and often unexpected and unintended. It very rarely gets you where you wanted to go but always where you needed to be.”

The only issue I have with Douglas Adams is that his characters tend to be a bit on the caricature-ish side but this is something the TV show put a huge amount of effort into and it paid off so so well. I had my reservations about the show since, other than Dirk, it looked very Americanised but they actually did an incredible job. It’s funny, complex, wacky, unpredictable yet (sort of) makes sense. There are lots of warm fuzzy feelings between the main characters and it’s great. Also there’s a portal to a fantasy world where the knights fight each other with giant pairs of scissors. It’s an incredibly underrated Netflix Original series that always deserved more attention than it got.

[local-star-wars-kinda-nerd]

Episode IX review.

In short, my primary reaction was facepalm.

I had a bad feeling about this episode since first teaser has been released. It made me feel... nothing, which was strange. When any teaser or trailer for previous films had been released, I got excited about these movies. Every one of them: from The Force Awakens to Solo. But not this time. And, unfortunately, I was right (at least for myself).

Detailed review is under cut, as well as spoilers are. You've been warned. I also want to warn you that I'm not professional critic, just a fan like a lot of other people.

IMHO, the whole trilogy should've been made by one director. No guarantee this would make these movies a lot better, but at least the story would've been whole. Why am I saying this? Because one of the biggest, if not the main, problems of TROS is it's trying to apologize before fans for mistakes made in episode VIII. Instead of trying to fix them, giving a good and understandable explanation for questions left after TLJ, they just said: "Forget about episode VIII ever existed". No jokes, I could've just watch TROS after TFA without watching TLJ and only questions I'd have are where is Snoke, why Kylo's mask is destroyed, where is Luke. And that's disappointing. I'm not saying episode VIII was perfect, it has done some things wrong, but also some things were good. And they should work on fixing bad and improving good. I realize that J.J.Abrams was given an impossible task: to finish Star Wars saga with the most unstable fan base. TROS was gonna be hated anyway, no matter what director has done with it.

Okay. What I liked about The Rise of Skywalker?

- More Poe and Finn interactions. I know it's not enough, but they made a really cool bromance.

- C-3PO. Just C-3PO.

- Luke training Leia the Jedi ways.

- The idea of redeemed Kylo Ren (or Ben Solo at this point). I only wish his redemption arc has been executed better.

- Hey, they haven't forgotten about Anakin's existence, the true Chosen One.

- Visual effects. As always, magnificent.

- Lightsaber duels also looked good.

- Luke admitting that he made mistakes and that he shouldn't been hiding on Ach-To.

- Hey, they showed that Rey had some kind of training.

- Finn turned out to be Force-sensitive. I thought it would be cool since TFA has been released.

- Music, because I love John Williams' work obviously. Though sometimes some tracks from other episodes in this movie seemed off.

Now, to things I disliked or even hated (forgive me, I'm a simple human being with the right to feel negative emotions towards things. I'm not gonna hate or blame other people for their disagreement with me):

- Too fast. TROS had some good scenes, but I couldn't feel their weight and importance because everything was going too fast.

- Maybe it's just me, but despite movie's best efforts it hasn't managed to convince me that the main trio is a team. Poe and Finn - yes, their friendship was obvious since TFA. Finn and Rey - also believable friendship (for me). But I never got feeling that all of them are good team, best friends. A New Hope managed to make the same thing way better.

- Kylo's mask. In TLJ destroying the mask was important point of his character arc. Snoke just humiliated him for being beaten by a just scavenger and pointed at that Kylo isn't Vader, only a child wearing a mask and pretending to be his famous grandfather. And at this moment Kylo decides to stop trying to be someone else (even someone he idolizes) and finally try to be himself. And then he repairs it in TROS. Why? There is no explanation in movie. My guess is on a huge amount of hate towards Adam Driver and his appearance.

- Remember Rose from TLJ? Well, either your answer is yes or no, forget about her. You barely will be able to notice her role in this movie. Yes, she did questionable thing. Yes, she was hated by half of fans. And that's why you will even forget that she was here.

- Palps is back! Remember how he returned from dead in EU? He's also not dead in our movie! So it vanishes importance of every episode made by Lucas, so what? Ya boy Palps is back! Aren't you glad? Okay, no jokes. When a lot of people hated TFA and TLJ, I thought: "Hey, at least these episodes haven’t made the biggest mistake EU's post-Endor made (and by this said "Anakin's sacrifice and Luke's path don't matter! Balance isn't restored, Sith are still there, the Empire isn't dead yet, have fun!") - they haven't brought Sidious back. Sequels still have a chance to be a not bad trilogy". And then the teaser happened. Honestly, his comeback feels like a YouTube theory on the big screen. That's what you expected from the finale of great Skywalker saga? Total unimportance of Skywalker's sacrifice. Alright, it would be only half of trouble. The real pain is Palpatine's comeback makes no sense. How he survived? Why waited so long? What he even wanted? What was his plan?

- If there is a thing I liked the most about The Last Jedi, it's Rey's parents being just scavengers, who sold their daughter for drinks. Again, since I watched TFA in theater, I was hoping the creators won't make Rey Skywalker, Kenobi, Palpatine, Bridger, or anyone else at this point. But no. She is Palpatine's granddaughter. And somehow this explains her abilities. I have no idea how. And it also feels like writers were looking for YouTube theories about Rey's bloodline and just picked the most popular one.

- Rey is Mary Sue. More than ever. I absolutely don't mind her a being powerful Force-user, but please, can anybody explain me how she manages to use tricks without training some Jedi couldn't use even with years of training and practicing? This explanation from TLJ novel sucks, honestly. In TFA she used mind trick. How? Okay, she did only once, maybe that's all. In TLJ she moves a hella lot rocks. How? Alright, not everything is too bad. But in TROS she is using Force lightning, healing, she holds a ship(!). And that's because... what? Palpatine's blood? No. No, and again no. Being daughter of someone powerful doesn't mean you can now do every-freaking-thing with the Force you want. And thing is, she face no consequences of such power. What do you say? She killed Chewbacca? Nope, he's alive, and we didn't even have time to believe in his death, and Rey has no time to realize the cost her uncontrolled power. Does she need help in defeating Palpatine? Well, voices of Jedi helped her to rise, but why it had to be her alone? If you present us Rey and Kylo being a diade (sorry for spelling, wasn’t watching in English), be so nice to use it.

- Redeemed Ben doesn't matter. He isn't remembered, no one's gonna be upset of his death, he won't show in the final scene as a member of Skywalker family (and why Anakin isn't there is big mystery too).

- I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. Reylo. Yet another thing I didn’t want to be brought into movies since TFA. I don’t believe in their love. I can believe that Kylo cares for Rey after she shows some amount of compassion towards him, something he hasn't got in years. I can accept that Rey wants to help Kylo to return to light (honestly no idea why she does, but I can accept it), but not love to death. They just didn’t have enough time or interactions to make their feelings believable, if these feeling are even real. As someone who thinks that Arcann's romance is pretty fast, even it is way more believable (and his redemption arc is better, too).

In the end, question is, was the sequel trilogy needed? Maybe. The story could've been finished better. Was this trilogy needed? I'd say no. Nothing has really changed, we still don't know if Jedi Order is going to be reborn, or the new order will come to replace them, or what is going to be with all Force-sensitive at all. This episode was supposed to be the finale of whole Star Wars saga, but for a finale it leaves way too many questions about future. As finale of Skywalker story, there's not enough Skywalker's influence for victory over Palpatine. Especially Anakin's. He is the Chosen One (or at least was before TROS), and everything he did to finally bring Palpatine down in this movie is... said a few lines. No more than any other Jedi. It destroys all previous episodes for me. It hurts me to admit that for the first time I was shocked by how a Star Wars movie turned out. In bad meaning. Of all new movies The Last Jedi was my least favorite, and still I like it. The Force Awakens had great potential, even with everything Abrams did. Solo was such a satisfying story for me. Rogue One is personal favorite of new movies. But The Rise of Skywalker made me sad and disappointed. And that's considering I love a lot of Star Wars. For me, it wasn't worth it.