#jack is kind of a hunk oops

[vladdyissues]

More 1981 college trio (fashion edition) 😎

[ursae-minoris-world]

KALTENECKER: Who is your favorite Voltron character? (part 2 : Keith)

...and, my last answer for @ashrayus‘s ask for the Voltron ask meme ! As a follow up to that one about Hunk !

Thanks a lot for tagging me, by the way, I’m having way too much fun doing this !

Sooo. I didn’t think I would get that much attached to that guy that fast. Oops.

(Me : “oh, you think you’re cool ? I’m not impressed. No way I’m getting attached to a character like that”. Narrator’s voice : “it didn’t go as planned...”).

So yeah… the one that really grew on me was Keith, to the point that I think he’s probably my fave now (well I love him different ways that I love Hunk, if that makes sense ; it’s hard to compare). This is funny because when he was introduced, for some reason, I really wanted to hate him (lol).

He had this epic introduction scene and I just thought “Ok, here comes the cool guy, he’s gonna be the leader and overshadow every other character... and I liked the others, damn ! So annoying.” Which is funny considering it was Shiro who first was set up to be the leader and it became explicitly so pretty soon. But, even without the leadership, he had this sort of Main Character aura. Well I thought he would be the 80’s hero stereotype, and the others would be kinda reduced to side-kicks, and it rubbed me the wrong way. But then he kept surprising me.

His soft, worried expression when he saw Shiro caught me off guard. Then, when Lance interrupted, and he wasn’t able to recognize him despite having been in the same class, and clearly trying honestly hard to remember, got me chuckling despite myself : “OMG, not good with people, are we ?” lol.

And him begrudgingly saving the garrison trio along with Shiro, and then being salty when they had the guts to complain about  how he did it was… more relatable than I expected. Also, it was pretty cool to see him using the fact that his hoverbike was overloaded as an advantage to gain speed. And when he excitedly drove of that cliff, it was kind of endearing.

Then he brought them to that shack in the middle of the desert when I expected to see his family or at least a somewhat decent flat, and I started getting intrigued. Added to that heartfelt dialog with Shiro (“good to have you back”) and when he then admitted how lost he had felt when booted from the Garrison…  How his voice breaks, the sad look Shiro and him exchange… I started connecting the dots about their past. And getting really invested in it.

But a voice in my head was still saying “well of course the cool hero has a tragic back-story ! Don’t fall into this trap !”. I don’t even know why I was so stubborn about NOT liking him lol. But I couldn’t help but being fond of this emotional and vulnerable side I was starting to see in him, and that I really didn’t expect (same goes for Shiro, but I really liked Shiro from the start).

(you all took that decision together as a team, Keith !)

And the moment I let go of that curious mindset of “I don’t like the stereotype so I��m determined not to like this character” was when, at the Castle of Lions, out of sheer provocation, Lance tells Allura that them being attacked has to be Keith’s fault. Keith starts sarcastically “Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better.” And, as much as I actually enjoyed the reply, I was still thinking, a bit annoyed “yeah of course he would be more mature and not react to the provocation”. But then… Keith explodes. And I realized that he was not being mature, but trying to appear so by bottling up his emotions and that they had just...blown up on him. And that was such a good character flaw that it completely scraped the “cool guy” stereotype I had seen at first. And I started really liking him.

And he just kept growing on me.

Basically, what really got me with Keith was this struggle he has, with desperately wanting to belong… But also being terrified to let himself get attached, because then it would hurt too bad if he gets rejected again. And how that ends up being a self-fulfilling prophesy. Because the way he keeps a distance by trying to protect himself doesn’t allow him to grow deeper bonds with others, or communicating properly with them. Which, in turn, results in misunderstandings and conflict. He ends up running away (come on, it was not the only reason why he left, but I bet this was at play too), isolating himself from the people he cared for.

(Canonically his greatest fear is being rejected by Shiro...)

(...and of course it ended up happening… or well, not really, it’s complicated, but it must have felt pretty close to him)

And it makes complete sense that he struggles like that , it all comes from his childhood trauma ; and honestly he keeps getting traumatized  again, like losing Shiro not once but twice already, and being there not only for Ulaz’s death, but also for Thace’s after having fought alongside with him, and Regris’, who was his teammate and with whom he had at least been on several missions ; that doesn’t help ! And the growing tension with Shiro after finding him again ; and the gap that has been slowly widening between him and the team (his “found family”), culminating in his decision to leave. Heck, even having to leave Red, with whom he had such a great bond, to pilot Black in season 3. And then, leaving Black too for Shiro’s benefit. So far, the story keeps feeding his narrative of “I’d better not let myself get attached” : it seems each time he bonds with someone, they end up separated, or, in worst case scenarios, that person even dies.

It just breaks my heart and I really, really need him to solve this issue. He deserves to be loved, and for that he needs to learn to accept that love, too. Because more than once, we see him dismissing it or misinterpreting it when others try to show concern or support. I kind of hope the tide will turn now that Krolia is in the game. And I really cross my fingers for Kolivan to not being killed off, and forging deeper bonds with Keith as well, although I’m really worried about how that will turn out.

Also, I like how deeply emotional he is, but how he tries to bottle it up, and how that doesn’t work at all. Please Keith, please open up to others.

I’m also extremely curious about all the secrets that surround him. We found up about his galra origins, we finally met his mother, but there is so much more I want to know. For instance, I’m dying for his back-story with Shiro. I need to know more about his family history, how his parents met, what happened to his father. I wonder if Acxa could, indeed, be related to him. I want to know more about this weird connection he seems to have with magic and quintessence. I want to see if those visions of galra invasions (both in his dream in “the Ark of Taujeer” and in his visions in “the Blade of Marmora”) could be repressed memories, like some theorize.  I want to know what happened between his father’s disappearance and the garrison, did he hop from foster family to foster family like many of us headcanon ? How did he get into the garrison ?

(I don’t thing that’s what Kolivan meant by “undetected”, Keith !)

Another thing I like with Keith is how he is balanced. Yes, he is extremely talented in some fields. He’s an amazing pilot and a great fighter, and it’s really cool to see him improve in those domains. He’s also pretty good at improvising on the spot in dangerous situations. He’s extremely focused, loyal, dedicated and resourceful.

But at the same time, he can be pretty awkward in social situations. He has a hard time managing his feelings. He might be really good with blades and in close combat, but struggles when he has a gun. He gets caught almost every time he tries to be sneaky, which is both endearing and worrying, considering the risks of this while he works with the Blades. He is the worst liar ever and it’s hilarious (I hope Kolivan has given up any expectation to make him go undercover, that would be a disaster).

Anyway, some characters are well balanced by being moderately good at everything and being a jack of all trades (Lance for instance). But Keith… he’s amazing in a few domains (flying, fighting with a sword…) but pretty bad in others.

So despite his obvious talents, he is quite far from the cool, flawless character  that I first thought he would be.

Although he has a quite eventful and compelling arc, I don’t feel he overshadows the other characters as he’s often (and sometimes painfully) out of focus… We barely saw him at all in the last two seasons. And honestly at this point I’m invested enough in his story that I wouldn’t even complain if he hogs the spotlight a bit more at times.

I ended up getting way too attached and it’s hard to watch him getting hurt by the story all the time. I really hope he gets some good comforting moments soon (same goes for Shiro, by the way).

Yeah, I also love Shiro very much, I think he’s an amazing character. Honestly, there is such a good cast of characters in this story, including really charismatic side characters (Kolivan ! Matt ! Krolia ! Shay !). So it’s really hard to pick a favorite.

[thusspakesophie]

Miscellaneous Meditations Rewatching PotC <3

I’ve been rewatching the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. (no, the ones that came out after my tweens don’t count) I think Curse of the Black Pearl is the purest joy of any viewing experience I know of??? I actually adore every second of it. It’s perfect. Jack is obvs a slytherin. So is Elizabeth, albeit of the borderline-gryffindor bad-tempered and honour-valuing (even if herself lacking) variety. Will is a cinnamon roll gryffindor who sometimes tries to be a slytherin, bless him. His father is even more precious; he might even be a hufflepuff. (Everyone around him is busy turning into eels and sharks and he’s all ‘imma be a beautiful coral reef with sea flowers and starfish~!’) Barbossa is also a textbook slytherin. I didn’t appreciate him enough when I was younger, so here’s some love for Barbossa <3 That Pirate voice tho~ A+++ (Why is Drapple so famous, when ... Barbossapple? Barbapple? Applossa? exists??? Did Draco ever spend an entire movie going on about how miserable he was cursed because he couldn’t eat apples? Did he ever die with one clutched to his heart? Or come back from the dead just to bite apples with RELISH? No. No he did not. Inferior apple romance.) Norrington is another textbook gryffindor who has slytherin moments because who doesn’t in these movies? I mean seriously the number of double crosses in At World’s End (leaving aside the ones in Dead Man’s Chest) is completely out of control. I must’ve seen that movie half a dozen times by now and I still couldn’t tell you the plot.  My favourite piece of reasoning is where Sao Feng decides that the best thing to do to a captured goddess right before releasing her is try to rape her. Like, that will totally make things better for you when she’s all-powerful again??  Tho now that I pride myself on my naval expertise thanks to Patrick O’Brian, Barbossa casually being like ‘loose the cannons!’ to capsize the ship has to be up there, stupid-wise. ‘Loose cannon’ is an expression for a reason dude. All you will get is a ship full of holes and an entire crew with pulverised bone jelly instead of bodyparts.  Elizabeth is like 95% motivated by horniness for the entire second movie Pintel and Ragetti are a brOTP for eternity Also eternal props to the ridiculous fight choreography and brilliant score. These movies are a pretty compelling argument that you literally do not need anything else to be delightful.  Jack and Will in Curse of the Black Pearl are the most precious comedy duo. The latter doesn’t get enough credit for that, imo! CotBP is kind of supposed to be an anti-corset commercial, and somehow totally failed. For me, anyway. I might even have been more excited to wear my first corset because of it. Oops. Go figure. ;) :P Cutler Beckett is a great name. Also speaking of things I missed/didn’t appreciate as a kid, he totally doesn’t have a dick. No wonder Jack is so quick to think of guys being eunuchs. Oh and villainous harpsichord theme A+ Battle of the theme music is an impossible choice. Drunken cello and swashbuckling magnificence? Epic romance? Headbanging (and heartbeat-based - I see you character nod) electrobass + orchestral kraken glory? Tender musicbox turned tormented organ? I LOVE IT ALL Every villain should be required to angstily play the organ. It’s badass. 1000% approve. Kylo Ren take note.  That poor Kraken just got killed off because it was OP. It ate the Pearl once and they were like ‘oh shoot it needs to... not exist in the next movie... or else we can’t have a 40 minute battle in a whirlpool’. Realistically speaking there is absolutely no way Cutler Beckett wouldn’t be like ‘you have a ship that’s nice SET THAT TERRIFYING BEASTIE ON ALL MY ENEMIES STAT’ Actually that’s probably the stupidest decision in the entire thing: keeping Davy Jones’ heart-in-a-box on board his own ship so that its guards can be conveniently slaughtered and leave it available for whoever. Anyone with a particle of sense would hide that thing on the biggest hunk of land possible and be like ‘if I don’t get back from our meeting on time it’s toast’.  Also what is the point of those two armadas at the end? They all assemble for some impressive wide shots and then do *literally nothing* but watch while the flagships battle it out. Like ???  “How can we make our sea battle more epic?” “Maybe it can be during like, a huge storm” “Yeah it’s in a whirlpool” “Oh sweet. Uhm. How about, add a ton of air ballet?” “Perfect!” The progressive absurdity of Jack’s cannon-and-rope acrobatic escapes is beautiful. He literally flies out of a whirlpool and a collapsing sinking ship during the last one, on a seaweed-sail parachute, with a heartbroken bride in his arms. I mean.... OK. XD

I still really fucking appreciate how Elizabeth learned to be an expert swordswoman in the like, few months’ space between the first and second movies. She was a feisty damsel in distress, but still a damsel in distress, so giving her the power to fight back made 12-year-old me *extremely* happy. And her becoming the Pirate King was even better so I completely forgive the nonsensical plot leading up to that~! :3  I love how easy it is to fuck with pirate politics. ‘Nobody ever votes for anyone else so literally anyone has the ability to be kingmaker. And by literally anyone we mean Jack Sparrow, because of course.’ (Jack Sparrow = Winston Peters) Rewatching these movies is very strange because it’s like they contain my past self in them. I hadn’t realised quite how many of Jack’s jokes made it into my friends’ personal collection. I remember a lot of ‘my peanut’ ‘Nobody move! I’ve dropped me brain’ ‘Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this madness’ etc. It’s like a shrine to the mid-2000s cult of raNdOM. “Why is the rum always gone?” - the human condition, a summary. A+++ Existential commentary. 

Tia Dalma is played by Naomi Harris! I guess that’s why she always looked familiar. #mysterysolved Ditto Stellan Skarsgard. Elizabeth’s stunt with her ‘haunted’ wedding dress is wonderful. I love how subtle it is. (TORTUGA in flaming letters) (Also damn they actually do roll with the bad luck, fated tragedy etc thing with that marriage... tho even in the image of that dress sinking into the ocean there’s a nod to how Elizabeth was never suited to the restriction of her old life, symbolised by the suffocating corsetry. So it’s sad but also maybe it kind of suits them to end up Pirate King and Captain of the Flying Dutchman. I’ve always really loved that all the main characters end up in a different important position. Will will make an excellent psychopomp.) I have other thoughts about magic and epic romance in PotC but they were too serious and lengthy to include. I’m putting them in another post <3 Anyway, I still love these movies!

[killscreencinema]

Resident Evil 7:  Biohazard (PlayStation 4)

I haven’t played a new Resident Evil game since Resident Evil 5.  I played the demo for RE6, and the gameplay had becomes so stale and boring I just skipped playing the game altogether.  So I was excited by the gameplay footage for Resident Evil 7:  Biohazard because it was so far removed from any other RE game I’d played and it seemed like the series had reinvented itself once again, like it did with Resident Evil 4. 

By the way, speaking of Resident Evil talk, I think I have something RE related here... hold on, let me look for it... ah, here it is!  An older episode of my podcast Killscreen Cinema, where we talked about the first Resident Evil movie!

https://soundcloud.com/the-dnn/killscreen-cinema-14-resident

Hey, I don’t get to cross-promote as often I’d like on this blog, so I’ll take it when I can! 

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (FYI, the subtitle is a bit of a reference to the Japanese name for the RE series, which is simply “Biohazard”), which was released earlier this year by Capcom, is a first-person survival horror game that still exists firmly within the Resident Evil-verse, but is more or less a soft reboot as such key RE phrases as Umbrella, Wesker, S.T.A.R.S., or “Hunk” are not mentioned.  You play as Ethan, a young man who ventures into the Louisiana bayou to look for his wife Mia, who went missing in that area three years ago.  He had received a mysterious email from her, warning him to stay away, but like the idiotic horror movie protagonist he is, Ethan goes alone into a clearly dangerous abandoned plantation in the middle of nowhere with no weapons or backup.  

His “courage”, if that’s what you want to call it, pays off in the form of being quickly captured by the residents (EVIL!) of the farm, the psychotic Baker family.  These aren’t your normal, garden variety psychos, as something is clearly wrong with them beyond their lack of hospitality.  This is most evident as the patriarch of the family, Jack, chases you throughout the house, seemingly unperturbed by being shot multiple times or, say, being decapitated.  Yep, there is definitely some kind of Resident Evil shenanigans going on at the Baker household and it’s up to you to figure out what it is, while saving your wife in the process.

As mentioned, this time around the gameplay is more like an FPS than a third-person shooter, although I wouldn’t consider it a “run-and-gun” like Doom.  This actually isn’t new ground for the Resident Evil series, as a Resident Evil FPS game for the PlayStation 1 was released called Resident Evil: Survivor:

See how little of the actual gameplay they showed in that commercial?  It’s because they knew that game fucking sucked. 

Resident Evil 7, on the other hand, does not suck - in fact, I’d consider a rather successful reboot of the series, although it’s not without its flaws.  The most major flaw being the lack of enemy variety types and lame ass boss fights (the lamest being the final boss).  Throughout the game, you encounter bipedal slime monsters known as the “Molded”, who come in three types: normal, four-legged, and fat (oops, I mean “husky”). 

That’s it.  Those are the only enemies in the whole game, besides the Baker family, who relentlessly hunt Ethan throughout their property.  Honestly, these portions of the game of the most fun, and the most intense, as you have to find ways to slip by them because killing them isn’t an option - they just shrug off all your attacks.  This to me is the heart of the game, so (spoilers) once you dispatch the family and move on to hunting down the TRUE menace, the person who is responsible for the Bakers’ unfortunate transformation, the game takes a bit of a lame turn and becomes pretty pedestrian.  It’s okay, but all of the charm is lost. 

Fortunately the game is short enough that this doesn’t become too much of a drag on one’s patience.  Other than the new window dressing, the game plays basically the same as any other Resident Evil game - collect enough ammo and herbs to survive, kill monsters, repeat.  The story is usually absolutely ridiculous, yet entertaining, and featuring memorable characters... not to mention memorable quotes...

(SPOILERS) I should also mention that at some point the game presents you with a choice.  After obtaining the serum that is supposed to cure the fungal infection that allows Eveline to control people, you can either give it to your wife Mia OR to Zoe, the estranged daughter of the Baker family who calls you on the phone throughout the game to give you advice.  There are two problems with this premise:

1.) This is literally the first time you physically MEET Zoe, so why in the hell would you sacrifice your wife, whom you risked life and ACTUAL limb for, to save her?  The game does nothing to inspire any kind of affection or sense of loyalty to Zoe that makes this a difficult choice.  However, all of that could be forgiven but for...

2.) ...it doesn’t matter who you choose in the grand scheme of things.  If you give the cure to Zoe, she ends up dying immediately and the game goes on more or less the same except Mia doesn’t survive at the end.  Whoopity shit. 

Overall Resident Evil 7 is a solid game, though one I’d advise picking up used for $30 bucks max.