#is that story a masterpiece?

[joe-bastianich-is-a-cutie]

just got traumatized by a fucking jjk spoiler

[mimimar]

i've been completely charmed by witch hat atelier♡

(art prints)

[taylortruther]

all her fuckin' lives flashed before her eyes is one of the main themes of ttpd actually. like, all those men with many faces, all those stories, they all return when she emotionally plunges through the ice.

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

[averageinternetsurfer]

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish may be one of, if not, the best movie in the past decade that truly shows what proper character development actually goes.

While I do love the voice acting of Antonio Banderas giving a near authentic yell of desperation and fear.

The thing I love the most about this scene is that Puss is so determined to get his wish out of fear. He's completely lost all composure and is thinking and speaking irrationally. The famed "Fearless Hero" is trembling out of fear.

Especially this scene here where he struggles why he needs the wish.

He's so afraid and desperate to get the wish that his reasoning to have it was to continue being "The Legend", completely removing Kitty and everyone else out of the picture.

Like I previously mentioned, he lost all composure, he's trembling, stuttering, being irrational, and most of all afraid. It's the complete opposite of what he was in the beginning. The notion of only having one life has changed him dramatically.

It's only later on when he faces Death and realizes that he's no longer fighting to continue his legacy. He's now fighting for his one and only remaining life. To live life to the fullest.

Armed with courage and bravery. He no longer shows fear, instead he faces Death like the way he faced bigger foes before, like the Fearless Hero we know we love.

Before: "I don't want to die."

Now: "I want to live."

"The fear of Death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."

- Mark Twain

This movie is a masterclass of writing character development and I'm loving every second of it!

[sol-shines]

my favorite thing about revolutionary girl utena is that finishing it changes you fundamentally as a person and both you and the characters will be haunted by the narrative and its impact forever. my second favorite thing about revolutionary girl utena is that one episode where nanami nearly gets her shit rocked by a renegade boxing kangaroo on school property

[lornaka]

My five cents on Tech’s fate in TBB

It’s been over three weeks since the show ended and I’ve been writing this in my head ever since, mostly to have it summed up in one post for posterity lol. I considered letting it go at this point but I know it’ll drive me crazy if I don’t get it out of my system so might as well.

So here we go, some of my rambly post-finale thoughts on Tech’s death (and a few other issues) under the cut!

Disclaimer: while this post is in critical spirit (because that’s how my brain works), I want to make clear that I have nothing but respect and gratitude towards everyone who’s worked on the show. My criticisms are of the final story as a whole as I interpret it (art is art, everything is subjective, you know the drill), but one never knows what goes into the process of making it behind the scenes, so I’m not holding anything against the creative team. I love this show dearly and am in awe of how good it is at its best, despite certain things I wish they did differently.

To begin, if I had to sum up the biggest problem that TBB writing suffers from, it would be lack of closure, and too many red herrings. Not just for Tech, but many things. Major plot threads as well as little character moments are cultivated or thrown in just to never culminate in anything or to be immediately discarded after serving the plot, some of them incredibly misleading. Some of the top examples:

- Crosshair’s chip. We never get an exploration of how the trauma of his chip activating and being left behind not only affected his motivation and choice to stay with the Empire, but his relationship with his brothers. While it was made fairly obvious, if subtly, that Crosshair became free of the chip’s influence after getting hit by the ion engine on Bracca, the narrative treated this change as if it didn’t matter at that point, while it obviously mattered a lot within the context of Crosshair’s character. Add to that all these little details with him clutching his head in s1 finale, Omega expressing her disappointment in him, and Tech’s comment on how “it is just his nature” (as if it matters!!! See what I mean about the narrative treating Cross’s chip as if it didn’t play the key part in his trajectory? They throw in this line, like we are supposed to take away that it’s simply Crosshair being Crosshair and not like, the results of brainwashing and abandonment), Wrecker blaming Crosshair for not going back to them, all while we as the audience have been shown and told repeatedly how these chips work (and so were the Batch), we ended up with an incredibly confusing situation with lots of mixed signals from the writers. And once Crosshair makes his choice to stay with the Empire in s1 finale, his chip and the confusion it brought to his relationship with his brothers is never brought up again, because the plot simply moves on.

- Cid’s betrayal. After her being a major character for two seasons with a continuous relationship build-up with Omega in particular, she is discarded as soon as her betrayal serves the plot, with all that character development getting thrown out of the window. You can be mad at Cid all you want, but to me it’s incredibly weird and wasteful to end two seasons worth of build up on that note without it having any closure for the characters, especially Omega whose whole theme is trusting people and bringing out the best in them. It’s fine if they decided to make Cid exactly what she appeared on the surface (untrustworthy and self-serving) after playing around with her potentially growing through her fondness of Omega, but then at the very least the betrayal should’ve had an impact on the characters, Omega most of all. Even just one casual line from Omega in s3 about how Cid’s betrayal impacted her emotionally, however minimally, would have solved that problem. And no, CX-2 mentioning how he extracted info on Phee from her off screen absolutely doesn’t count as closure, because I’m talking about emotional closure for the main pov characters as well as the audience. Cid had a presence for two seasons, then as soon as she executed her role as a traitor to further the plot, she was discarded like she was a random extra.

- Emerie’s relationship with Hemlock. We are led to believe that he basically raised her, instilling in her the idea that she had no chance without him and owed her purpose and “safety” to him. You can’t tell me that this didn’t deeply affect her struggle and eventual decision to break away from all that and choose to help the kids, basically betraying Hemlock. I get that the show only had so much screen time and Emerie is a supporting character in season 3 at best, but common, she has more tension with Dr. Scalder than Hemlock while the potential for this rich deep conflict between them is right there.

I can probably list more smaller examples but this is getting long and I don’t want to go on any more tangents, so, finally, the biggest example of lack of closure and tendency of TBB writing to display foreshadowing that leads nowhere:

Tech’s death.

First of all, I’ll die on the hill that it wasn’t denial or delusion that led to such a big portion of the audience to believe that Tech didn’t really die in s2. If we look at the facts:

- there was no body

- it’s the finale of season 2 out of 3, pretty early for one of the main titular characters to get killed off

- the only/last character to allegedly see Tech after his fall is a villainous scientist who is known to experiment on clones specifically

- not a fact but: the whole scene with Hemlock presenting Tech’s goggles to Hunter was incredibly suspicious. In hindsight, I think the whole purpose of it was so that the Batch got Tech’s goggles back in their possession as a memento (and to show how evil Hemlock is to rub it into Hunter’s face like that) but it was executed in a way that read as something much more. It read as if Hemlock was going out of his way to convince us/Hunter of Tech’s death, but with us knowing who Hemlock is, his background in experimenting on clones, everything screams at us to not trust a word he says. Is it really so surprising that so many of the viewers immediately jumped at the conclusion that something more was going on there?

- Hunter’s (lack of) reaction/immediate narrative fall-out. More on that later as I address lack of emotional impact of Tech’s death in s3.

- it’s Star Wars. And there was no body.

So yeah, to me, it is completely justified that so many people read that whole thing as open to speculation at the very least, foreshadowing Tech’s survival at most.

Personally, I was 70% sure Tech was truly dead prior to s3, but not because the text told me so, but because at that point I was used to the show���s writing regularly sending out mixed signals, and a part of me was resigned to Tech’s death becoming another example of the writer’s intent clashing with their accidental empty foreshadowing.

As season 3 aired and the whole CX-2 plot was unfolding alongside continued lack of closure for Tech’s fate, my hope for Tech Lives reveal grew and grew, but in the end my initial doubt was proven right, unfortunately.

Oh, CX-2.. what a mess. You can’t tell me the creators went over all of these scenes, all of these lines, looked at the whole picture and *didn’t* see how it was incredibly easy to interpret CX-2 as potentially being Tech with all these little potential parallels. “Domicile” alone.

If they didn’t want us to entertain the idea that it could be Tech, they could’ve done it differently, but for some reason, they chose to leave that space for speculation. My question is, why?

If they truly wanted us to believe Plan 99 was it, Tech’s Noble End that we were supposed to take as this dramatic super emotional ultimate sacrifice and all that, then why would they not make it clear that CX-2 couldn’t be Tech? Why breed confusion? And breed confusion they did. It’s hard for me to believe they didn’t foresee the “ohh is it Tech?” speculation.

When so many members of the audience immediately and individually jump at a theory or have the same take away from the story they are being told, yet the authors say it wasn’t meant to be taken that way, something went seriously wrong with the writing.

I don’t like to speculate on such things because we will probably never know for certain, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had at some point considered CX-2 being Tech or at least something more for the whole CX plot thread, but changed and reshuffled things at the last minute for whatever reasons.

Which is fine and understandable. But it brings me to the heart of my biggest issue with how Tech’s fate was handled:

lack of impact and closure.

Let’s disregard all the Tech Lives theories for a moment and focus on what we did get: Tech, one of the main characters, getting killed off at the end of s2 out of 3, for stakes and consequences and NOTHING else. When I say nothing, I mean nothing.

Imagine, for a moment, he survived and stayed with the Batch. Nothing would have changed, in the grand scheme of things. Nothing. We wouldn’t have had a few obligatory “Tech mention, everyone feel sad now” throwaway lines/goggle shots and whatnot, sure, but that’s it.

Tech dying didn’t change the trajectory of the plot in any way, nor did it affect any of the other characters in a way that changed their trajectory. And anything less is simply not enough to justify killing one of your main characters. Stakes and consequences ain’t it.

Consider Mayday, for example: a supporting character, but his death in s2 affected Crosshair in such a way it completely redirected his journey, AND in s3 we got an episode that cemented the impact Mayday had on Crosshair and provided emotional closure for them. That’s a narratively meaningful death.

Tech’s death was not meaningful to the narrative beyond removing him from it. That’s why so many Tech fans insist he deserved better treatment: not only was he not present in one third of the show physically, but he lacked any sort of presence even in death. His absence was never processed or grieved by any of the main characters and so by extension by the audience.

And before anyone starts with the whole ‘they are soldiers/they had no time to grieve/etc’ arguments, it is the responsibility of the writers to provide the space for all of that emotional impact. It they don’t, there is no impact.

A few reactions here and there, moments of missing Tech as a person and a brother, not an asset, anything would have made this whole thing easier to accept.

The lines that we did get, from Omega mentioning the stuff Tech taught her to Echo commenting on how decryption would be easier if Tech was with them to “Clone Force 99 died with Tech” from Crosshair - each and every single one of those lines linked to Tech’s functions as part of the squad, his usefulness, but we didn’t get a single line in remembrance of him as a person of his own, no one missed or remembered him for himself or his personal impact on them.

Just one line from Omega about how he taught her about change being a constant part of life or whatever, or Wrecker making a comment on how Tech used to info dump about stuff, anything would have instantly provided that much needed sense of “he was here, he was a person and is still a part of us”. Instead, Tech was killed off to show that messing with the Empire is dangerous and risks are real, I guess, and immediately lost any and all presence within the story.

We never even got to see Crosshair’s or Phee’s reactions to losing him.

Speaking of Crosshair, that’s a whole other example of complete lack of closure: they never closed the loop on the family being reunited again after initially leaving Crosshair behind, and with Tech dead, it’ll forever stay broken.

They could’ve given this a bittersweet yet meaningful spin if they developed the angle of Tech dying on a mission to bring Crosshair home, making a sacrifice so Crosshair had a chance.

Instead, the moment Tech dies, we get Hunter (and through him, the narrative) immediately abandon the idea/plot thread of going to rescue Cross all while saying “let’s not waste Tech’s sacrifice”. Sacrifice for what? Clearly Hunter doesn’t see it as a sacrifice for Crosshair’s sake, so, what, to make sure the rest of them makes it from the mission? The mission to save Crosshair. That mission. Right.

I see people talking about Tech’s noble sacrifice that ensured his family got to live and eventually have their happy ending, but all I can think about is how the creators chose to have him die on a mission that was immediately abandoned and the only take away from that whole sub plot was Tech’s own demise.

And after Crosshair is back with the Batch, his reaction to Tech’s death is never explored at all.

So yes, to me Tech deserved so much better. If you are going to kill off a major character, it must be necessary to be compelling. The way I see it, Tech’s death was not necessary at all because it didn’t change anything. And if it was meant to, the creators failed to communicate that by choosing not to explore the emotional impact of it and not structuring certain story beats in a more precise manner.

To wrap this up, if the way Tech’s death was handled was satisfying for you, that’s valid and I’m glad for you. For me, unfortunately, it’s completely the opposite and will forever remain the biggest and most unfortunate low point in the story.

And while I welcome anyone to share their own perspective if they wish, please don’t take this post as an invitation for debate, since there is no one right or wrong way to interpret or be affected by art.

[olympain]

[aliencatart]

so the story goes....

seriously such an amazing series and i'm going to be missing these kings very dearly

[kotya-tkina]

since its fnaf movie anniversary LETS TALK ABOUT VANESSA SHELLY MY BELOVED

Animatronics kill every adult from the fear and anger (be it a man, a woman) but they are friendly to vanessa because she was fucking friends with them when they were alive and kids. She was there that day and saw them being killed. That's fucked up. She got a job in the police not only because of her father's pressure so that she could cover for him, but also out of a personal goal to protect them and not let them offend. They are not just the children she found in this condition, she is the only survivor who knows the truth and tries to help these children out of guilt that her father did

ALSO- SOBBING?

[myobsessionsspace]

A MF traillleeerrrr🔥🔥🔥 Not a fan edit…well kinda, AMC stans Richonne DOWN🙌

[thinwhitedoc]

CARGO | Martin Freeman as Andy Rose

[vertigoartgore]

1987's Batman: Year One house ad art by David Mazzucchelli.

[tannnnblogs]

Ended up gushing about my favorite Vault 11 to my sibling and started crying.

[selemina]

Parkour Civilization is weirdly good! It starts a bit cliché and predictable, and you soon wonder how far this initial idea can go.

And then they pull out the parkour battles.

And then they pull out dystopian themes.

And then you get invested in the execution of the courses.

And then they slap you with lore for the world and high stakes and clever problem-solving alongside some ridiculous deus ex machina, and intrigue and mysteries and-

AND THEN THEY SLAP YOU WITH THE MURDER CLOWN???

(And if you squint there may even be some yaoi in there? But for once I genuinely could not care because I was enjoying the story too much!)

Go watch it. If you've got the time and can ignore inordinate amounts of vine booms, go watch it. It's worth your time if only for the humor and skill display!

[sparklingjay]

Here is the whole Sonic X Shadow Sonic channel translation for you just in case you haven't read it before or if you want to read it again:

I got the translation from here:

Beneath the light of the full moon stood the trendy business and shopping district of Mission Street. Sonic perched atop a storefront that overlooked the block, stargazing.

He came here tonight to witness a celestial event.

As usual, Sonic arrived with time to spare, so he turned to watch the hustle and bustle of the city below — when he spotted a black hedgehog engaged in fierce combat behind a back alley… Shadow.

Shadow was one of Sonic's most formidable foes, rivaling his abilities in every way.

He didn’t always choose the dark side, but his ruthless “ends-justify-the-means” attitude had a dangerous unpredictability that sometimes put him at odds with Sonic and his friends…

What was Shadow doing here?

Curious, Sonic dropped to Shadow's side.

Before them lay the wreckage of several G.U.N. Beetle surveillance drones, spewing black smoke and sparks. This was serious.

With an accusatory tone, Sonic asked:

"Yo, Shadow. Looks like you're having a fun night?"

"This is none of your business. Stay out of my way."

Shadow responded curtly, then disappeared into the darkness — but Sonic wasn't one to be left behind. A high-speed chase ensued as they weaved through the twists and turns of Mission Street.

They ran along walls and leaped between buildings, coming to blows as they sped through the rumbling highway into the tunnel… After some time, Shadow kicked out his heel with fearsome agility, but Sonic caught it with both hands.

I'm ending this…

I couldn't dodge it…

They paused in blade lock until Shadow jumped aside, seething in frustration.

"Why are you following me?"

"I don't want anybody pinning your crimes on me again."

"Ha, aren't you paranoid? I'm busy. Farewell!"

Shadow pointed at Sonic, a flickering stone in his hand… A Chaos Emerald.

"Wait! Hold up!"

"Chaos — Control!"

There was a brief flash of blinding light! And when it cleared, Shadow had vanished.

Chaos Control… This was Shadow's signature move, wielding the power of the Chaos Emerald to warp time and space.

To perform this technique with a weakened Chaos Emerald, after exhausting his own power in the previous battle, was an impressive feat for Shadow. Left alone, Sonic could only stare up at the night sky.

"Shadow…"

☆ ★ ☆

Later…

A few blocks away, Shadow had silently infiltrated a suspiciously large bank. The wreckage of a newly-destroyed Beetle rolled at his feet.

"Here. I'm sure of it."

He dispatched another armed Beetle that emerged from the back and proceeded to the second-floor vault, incapacitating the guards who dared fire upon him. As he reached the reinforced vault door, he saw —

Sonic, standing with a smirk, twirling the key card between his fingers.

Using the energy detector he borrowed from Tails, he tracked Shadow’s location and snuck into the bank through an alternate route.

The fact that there were military Beetles all over town, that not one of them sounded an alarm after being destroyed, that they open-fired without warning…

Well, Sonic thought there was something unusual about the whole thing.

"So, what are you willing to exchange for that key card? …No, stupid question. You want the full story of this situation."

With a dour sigh, Shadow lifted his head and recounted the evening’s events.

"This place looks like a bank, but it's a fake… It's actually some sort of a G.U.N. research facility. They're conducting experiments on a mysterious electromagnetic capsule seized from the Doctor's base after our last battle. Now I fear they're using this place as a front to develop even deadlier weapons within the city."

Shadow slowly approached Sonic, continuing:

"I received intel that this capsule is a disguised time bomb set to explode at midnight tonight. If true, it has enough power to obliterate half the city. I tried to send a warning, but they failed to heed it. That's why I came here. What do you believe?"

Shadow paused in front of Sonic, glaring at him interrogatively. Several seconds passed.

"I don't know what to say."

It was a lot to take in. As Sonic worked out his reply, the detector picked up a sudden energy spike and sounded a loud BEEP! Whatever it detected was inside the vault.

"But I know I trust Tails' device."

Sonic grinned at Shadow as he slid the key card through the card reader on the vault. A heavy metallic clanging echoed from within.

Undeterred, Shadow placed his hand on the vault when…!

BANG!

The vault door swung open from the inside, and a group of researchers frantically rushed out.

"Get out of here!" "It's about to explode!"

Emergency sirens wailed as people fled the scene. The whole facility was in a frenzy.

When Sonic and Shadow burst into the lab, they found that it was much larger than they expected, and at the center was a glass-encased capsule about 6 feet tall, protected by an electromagnetic barrier, emitting intense light.

A swarm of armed Beetles spotted them and unleashed a barrage of bullets, despite the imminent countdown.

"Talk about a work ethic! Shadow, you get the bomb!"

“…!”

Sonic easily cleared out the three guard robots before him. Shadow leaped through the ensuing blast toward the capsule. The electromagnetic barrier sensed his approach and emitted an electric charge — then deactivated just before Shadow touched it. At that exact moment, Sonic found and destroyed the barrier generator. And then…

"Chaos — Control!"

A halo of light erupted from Shadow's Chaos Emerald, enveloping the surrounding area. And when the light subsided… There was no trace of Shadow or the bomb. Then, seconds later…

A massive explosion filled the sky above Mission Street.

The fireball was so huge that it eclipsed the moon. The soundwaves that followed shook the surface of the earth. Sonic saw it as he leaped from the bank and gave a cheerful thumbs up.

Meanwhile, Shadow, already outside via Chaos Control, looked on with frustration. He had intended to teleport the bomb into space. However, he could only do so much with a malfunctioning Chaos Emerald.

Shadow pulled out the Chaos Emerald and tossed it to Sonic.

"Shadow…?"

"This is no better than a fake emerald. If I give it to you, maybe your soft nature will restore it."

Sonic shrugged as he caught the Chaos Emerald with one hand.

"I was gonna say thanks, but I take it back…"

☆ ★ ☆

"Why are you still following me?"

Shadow asked without turning back as Sonic trailed him down a deserted road outside Mission Street. Sonic wrapped his hands behind his head and gazed into the night sky.

"I'm the one who should be asking the questions. Since when did you become such a guardian of peace?"

"I don't care about peace. I don't care about these people. What I can't stand are the fools of this planet who believe they can get away with whatever they want — whether that's the Doctor or anyone else, including you. So don't misunderstand me."

A few seconds of silence followed. Shadow scowled, but Sonic kept grinning.

"Okay. I getcha. I'll do my best. But I think some people out there would wanna thank you for what you did today."

"Nonsense. Who would —"

Fed up with Sonic, Shadow stopped cold and finally turned back to shut him up…

"…!?"

Sonic stood with his arm outstretched, the lights of the distant city behind him, pointing up at the full moon shimmering out in space — and floating just above that, staring down at them, was the Space Colony ARK.

The sight of this spectacle left Shadow speechless, the ARK appearing otherworldly in the glow of the moonlight.

The ARK… An ark of hope and pain. The place where Shadow was born, where he gained and lost so many precious things and so much time. A tomb lost in the void with nothing left to sacrifice for this planet.

Once a year, there was a night when the orbits aligned, and the ARK was visible directly above the full moon.

Mission Street was one of the best spots to see it, and Sonic loved the view of the two cold, majestic “moons” against the sea of warm city lights.

Shadow silently watched the ARK.

Nobody knew how many memories or secrets of the past remained in his heart or how he felt about them to this day. But to Sonic, his silence seemed like an answer.

As if in response, Sonic slowly lowered his pointed finger.

Shadow traced Sonic’s gesture downward with his eyes —

— until it landed on Sonic’s own smirking face.

"Enough…!"

Shadow dismissed, then straddled a hidden motorcycle in the bushes at the side of the road. It was a heavy G.U.N. bike. He must have prepared it there ahead of time.

The engine revved to life, drowning out any further comments from Sonic…

"It looks better on its own anyway."

Shadow sped away at full throttle. Sonic didn't chase him this time, but as he turned away, there was a hint of disappointment behind his smile.

☆ ★ ☆

Beneath the light of the full moon stood the trendy business and shopping district of Mission Street.

Beyond the peaceful glow of the city, a lone shadow drifted away as if it was exiled.

The shadow was indistinguishable from the darkness — except to the moon, hanging over the bustling metropolis, watching the shadow from above, always… ★