#just me thinking about how underdeveloped characters are cool to play with fan wise--

[celticcapricorn9945offical]

very...VERY unpopular opinion but...

Sometimes underdeveloped characters are the best of the series because you can project yourself on them or develop interesting headcanons for them.

If you're a vocal synth fan and disagree with this...Idfk what to say, You probs have headcanons of your favourite vocal synth character which ironically has no "canon", "personality", or stuff, it's all just fanon. Checkmate~!

[imagitory]

For the fandom ask -- how about Yu-Gi-Oh?

Favorite character: Yugi! Hands-down. He was my very first bishie, and even now he remains one of my favorite protagonists from any series. Unlike a lot of fictional heroes, Yugi is defined as a true hero not by his determination, cleverness, courage, or even talent, but for his gentle, forgiving heart. His strength doesn’t come from punching his way through a problem or outsmarting his opponent, but most regularly in how much compassion he feels for others. It’s enough to transform a rough and tumble bully into the best friend a man could have. It’s enough to inspire friendships so strong that they can defeat ancient magics forged centuries ago. It’s enough to make a ruthless, vengeful spirit of darkness see him as his equal -- his “partner.” And yeah, coming from a world where men are usually defined by how stereotypically masculine they are -- by how stoic, cold, and physically bad-ass they are -- it was so cool to follow a male protagonist who instead embraced heroic traits like kindness and empathy that are more often associated with female characters.

Least favorite character: *sigh* Anzu. I’m sorry to those who enjoy her character, but even now that I’m older and have thankfully leapt off the “Tea-basher” bandwagon I was on as a kid, I still can’t find myself getting into her, even upon rewatching the series with a kinder eye. She just didn’t have much to do in the series except for rooting Yugi on and being one side of a love triangle between Yugi and Atem, and...I’m really, really sorry, but I just didn’t like anything about that love triangle. In my mind, it only served to make Anzu look really superficial, especially in the manga where there were plot points like Anzu trying to act like she was in danger in the hopes that Atem would take control of Yugi’s body to try to save her. Plus it got irritating whenever the series actually decided to let her duel and yet depicted her as having no clue what she was doing, even if she spent basically the entire series doing nothing but watching other people play Duel Monsters. And screentime-wise, she was the main female character of the show! I’m sorry, but as a female Yu-Gi-Oh fan, it just grated on me that for most of the show, a non-duelist who mostly just served as a love interest in a really awkward love triangle was the main source of representation for my gender. I don’t hate Anzu like I did as a kid, but I still can’t label myself a fan of her at all.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Yugi/Atem (Puzzleshipping), Jounouchi/Kaiba (Violetshipping/puppyshipping), Yugi/Jounouchi, Yugi/Kaiba (Rivalshipping), Jounouchi/Mai

Character I find most attractive: Yugi, Atem, Jounouchi, Kaiba (can I just steal ALL of his outfits? Please?)

Character I would marry: Yugi

Character I would be best friends with: Jounouchi -- he’s the best friend anyone could ever have, period!

A random thought: I really wish that Jounouchi and Kaiba had had the chance to duel alongside each other the way Kaiba and Atem or even Jounouchi and Atem did. Kaiba spent so much of the show putting Jounouchi down, and I dunno, I guess I would’ve liked it if they’d been able to develop to the point where Kaiba could’ve given Jounouchi some begrudging respect for his abilities.

An unpopular opinion: ...I guess I’ve never been into either of the Bakuras as much as everyone else -- I always thought Ryou in particular ended up super underdeveloped, compared to other members of the cast!

My Canon OTP: *frowns* There aren’t that many canon Yu-Gi-Oh ships to begin with, and the ones there are, I don’t really feel passionate love for, honestly.

My Non-canon OTP: I like the Yugi/Atem relationship in all forms: friendship, bromance, romance, whatever.

Most Badass Character: As much as I hate to say this given how overinflated his ego already is...I’m afraid I have to pick Seto Kaiba for this.

Most Epic Villain: Mm...well, memorability-wise, you can’t go wrong with Pegasus...though the villain I hated most was Dartz, largely because he stole my Yugi’s soul GODDAMNYOUDARTZI’LLKILLYOU, but overall, I think the best was Marik.

Pairing I am not a fan of: As mentioned, Yugi/Anzu/Atem

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Oh gosh, there were quite a few that got screwed over! I feel bad for all of the sidelined “cheerleader” characters like Anzu/Tea, Honda/Tristan, Otogi/Duke, and Shizuka/Serenity, as the series’ extreme focus on Duel Monsters almost doomed any non-duelists to remain forever in the background, no matter how interesting they could have been personality-wise. I also gotta put Ryou here too, for the reason I mentioned earlier -- he just gets so little screen time and is given so little agency in the plot that he’s completely overshadowed by his Thief King alter ego.

Favourite Friendship: YUGI AND JOUNOUCHI FOR ALL TIME. BEST. FRIENDSHIP. EVER.

Character I most identify with: *considers carefully* Mm...that’s tough...I guess Mai? I always liked how clever and put-together she was, even if she harbored a lot of self-doubt and loneliness inside of her heart.

Character I wish I could be: I would love being more like Jounouchi. Even though he was dealt a rotten hand in life, he’s just so honest, brave, and true to himself. He loves and fights with all of his heart, and I think that’s super admirable.

Fandom Ask!

[kylermalloy]

My Official Unofficial Ranking of Supernatural Seasons That Nobody Asked For

This was...surprisingly easy. For someone who has a hard time picking favorites, I’m apparently quite eager to throw some seasons of one of my favorite shows under the bus.

My reasonings for this ranking are...all over the place. Since I’m considering seasons as a whole, I look mostly at the overall narrative structure, the prevalent themes, and the major character arcs. I won’t take individual/one-off episodes into much consideration...except for when I do. I won’t like some seasons/story arcs for any rationale between “this was sloppily executed,” “the message is misunderstood by viewers,” or even just that gif of Chris Evans “I don’t wike it.” I’m trying to look at seasons and storylines objectively, but I guarantee my Sam!girl bias will peek through at some point. Also, I reserve the right to change my mind at any point after I post this!

From bottom to top:

14 - Season 14

Ah, the twilight years of SPN. Now that we know this is the penultimate season, I’m a bit more lenient toward its shortcomings. Long running shows usually do stutter to a halt, story-wise. But still. I’m not taking it out of the bottom spot.

What was this season even about? Michael overtaking Dean? Nah, that barely lasted three whole episodes. Jack becoming evil? Not until the last six episodes. Team Free Will becoming a cohesive family unit? Lol. For a season that tried to set up Jack’s evil arc as a kid betraying his family, I hardly saw this “family” except in fanworks. The most heartfelt moments remained between Sam and Dean (not that I’m complaining about that—I loved those moments!) Was there an overarching theme besides “nobody is okay, especially Sam”? Season 14 is clumsy, unfocused, and does a poor job of telling the story it tried to tell. Even Mary’s second death reeked of “well, we didn’t know what to do with her and we needed a tragedy.” Oh yeah, and John was back for a hot minute.

13 - Season 9

Here’s one of these weird seasons. I like it, but I don’t. It’s well done, but it’s terrible. Also, I’m taking fan response into consideration on this one, since it colored my perception of it so negatively.

Season 9 could have been great. In a way, it was great. It was Dean’s dark arc—the part of Dean’s dark arc that I like. I’m not here to debate, just lay out the story. Dean stepped over a line. He tricked Sam into possession, lied to him for months, then refused to apologize afterward. He took the Mark of Cain as a penance, but it blew up in his face and turned him into something worse than he was before.

This is where fan response comes in. Fandom (from what I can tell; I wasn’t here back then) vilified Sam for setting boundaries with Dean, overwhelmingly siding with poor Dean who just didn’t want to be alone. The show, on paper, wasn’t trying to make the audience think this, but the POVs were skewed in such a way that we hardly got a chance to see Sam’s perspective and Sam’s trauma—so casual viewers didn’t really have a choice.

On a completely unrelated note (see, this is why this season is ranked so low) we have the angel storyline. What could’ve been a really cool and impactful story of celestial beings walking the earth, as well as Castiel exploring his new humanity in a way (that wasn’t just about sex) ended up a trite, dull affair about underdeveloped politics and characters I don’t care about. Did Metatron (the supposed big bad) even care about the Winchesters? I can’t remember. Only the actor’s indulgently entertaining performance saves that character. Even Castiel’s human arc was so short and ignored I sometimes forget it happened. This was a season that was so all over the place—good bones, bad execution.

12 - Season 12

This season is just...forgettable. Yet another season that was so all over the place—but unlike season 9, the story arcs did not culminate in a cool twist that pushed the SPN story to new heights. We had the BMOL, Mary’s return, and the Lucifer/Kelly/Dagon/nephilim story, and...honestly I can barely remember anything about them. The twisting story threads got interlocked at some points, like Mary working with the BMOL, and Sam and Dean working with them to take down Lucifer, but the threads were all wrapped up independently. To me, this suggests a lack of true investment in the stories and season arcs. Ultimately, Mary’s return was utterly wasted, the BMOL might as well have never existed, and the Lucifer storyline is a bloody, bloated carcass being dragged along behind the show by a fraying rope (called Buckleming) complete with a bad smell.

The reason I rank this season above season 9 is that I don’t shudder when I hear people talking about season 12. I don’t generally get angry when I think about it (except the way they did Crowley dirty) and it did give us Jack, the greatest fanon projection the show has ever given us. (I’ll elaborate on that in a minute)

11 - Season 10

This is the season in which I don’t like Dean’s dark arc. By that I mean...it wasn’t much of a dark arc. Instead of exploring Dean’s inner darkness and the choices that led him to take the MoC, we get a meandering season of (pretty enjoyable) one-offs. We are repeatedly told Dean can’t fight off what he truly is—except we’re also being told that Dean can’t truly control what the MoC is doing to him, meaning the MoC isn’t what he truly is. It’s a mixed message, and it ends up being too many episodes in a row of Dean staring moodily at his arm while he drinks. Sorry, an ancient tribal tattoo does not a compelling big bad make.

Speaking of bad guys, though, season 10 gave us Rowena! And more Crowley material! And the Stynes—wait, no. We don’t talk about...whatever they were.

I do like Sam’s determination to save Dean, and I even like the underhanded methods he used to get the MoC off. Charlie’s death was a horrifying shock, but it actually fed the story very well. And I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about individual episodes, but Soul Survivor and Fan Fiction are both epic.

10 - Season 8

...this season. This season is such a mixed bag you could almost rank it as two separate seasons! ;) This was Jeremy Carver’s first season as showrunner—and while I like what he ended up doing, I hated the way he played with the brother dynamics throughout the season, especially the first half. Season 8 starts out disjointed, very unconnected from the previous season. The story thread of “Sam didn’t look for Dean” is overplayed and very tired. Also a bit of a reach, considering the season 5 finale. My point is, Sam and Dean both act like pod people for the first part of this season. Dean is mad at Sam for...doing exactly what Dean himself did a few years ago (fandom misses the nuance of Dean’s hypocrisy and jumps right in the blame-Sam boat with him) and Sam is suddenly...living with a strange woman we barely get to meet and okay with not hunting anymore?

This is another example of the skewed POVs hurting the show’s message. We don’t get to see Sam’s grief the same way we saw Dean’s struggle in purgatory, and since Sam’s Amelia arc makes very little sense anyway, we’re forced to imagine it—and this is a disservice to both Sam and the overarching story.

However, the saving grace of season 8 is the second half. We get the bunker, the Trials storyline, which is a whump goldmine for my Sam-loving heart, and one of the best season finales this show has ever produced. I mean...they got married. In a CHURCH! I’m not really a wincester, but seriously how do you not ship it just a little when the show gives you stuff like THAT?!

*deep breath* I’m good. Moving on!

9 - Season 13

I...have a soft spot for this season. Anybody who follows me on here can probably guess why. That’s right, it’s Jack, the greatest fanon projection the show has ever gifted us.

Let me explain. The narrative structure of the season is a mess. The exploratory theme of Sam and Dean as parents is derailed by the fact that Sam and Dean spend less than six episodes with their surrogate child and spend the rest of the season spinning their wheels until it’s time for the finale. Lucifer as a villain doesn’t give a crap about the protagonists, which makes him a really boring and terrible antagonist—to say nothing of the fact that two of the writers try to make him sympathetic and end up assassinating the character harder than Michael!Dean did. I only found Scoobynatural mildly entertaining. As for Asmodeus...who’s that?

Basically, the only shining light in this season besides the brothers is Jack. And we don’t even get a consistent characterization of him. He’s essentially a blank slate, which means we as fans and fanwork creators get to make him whatever we want. While he’s supposedly the Winchesters’ kid in canon, it’s rarely shown—that falls on us as fans to make a reality. And boy do we make it reality! This is where I found my corner of fandom, and that’s why this mess of a season ranks relatively high for me. Still in the bottom half, but it gave me one of the greatest gifts the show has ever given.

8 - Season 7

I shouldn’t have to defend myself, but while most of the fandom harbors a little black spot of hatred for this season...I don’t. Like, at all.

I don’t agree with all the creative choices of this season—the Leviathans were an out-of-nowhere big bad with no connection to the Winchesters. However, the guy who played Dick Roman did a fantastic job hamming it up. And I love how all the pieces came together in the end—Sam and Dean, Cas, Crowley, even Meg as a surprise reluctant hero. We also got Charlie! And Kevin! Bobby got a fantastic arc, both before he died and from beyond the grave. And Crowley, even though he helped win the day, also rigged the game so he took all the pieces left on the board. Mad respect for my king.

Also, as a stalwart fan of Sam whump, Sam’s hallucination storyline was all kinds of awesome. (Except for how it abruptly ended and was never spoken of again)

I know objectively this season isn’t very good, but I still find myself rewatching it a surprising amount. I have a soft spot for Sera’s storytelling, and she did not have complete control over the creative decisions for this year. Season 7 only barely misses out of the top half.

7 - Season 3

This season is great, it really is. I think the main reason I rank it so low is because of the shortened season—Sam’s aborted arc. And that was obviously out of everyone’s control; the creators had to just pick up the pieces and make do with what circumstances gave them.

Basically, I don’t have anything bad to say about this season. It’s a brother-lovefest, it gives us Bela and Ruby, and yes we get some truly great one-off eps. Bad Day at Black Rock, A Very Supernatural Christmas, Mystery Spot, Jus in Bello, and Ghostfacers are among my favorite episodes to rewatch. I just mainly miss the end of Sam’s arc. Although I do appreciate the writers’ strike giving us Castiel instead, I still wish we could’ve gotten to see boyking!Sam save his brother.

6 - Season 2

While on the surface season 2 is barely different than season 1, it also gives us loads of gamechangers. It’s the coming-of-age season—Sam and Dean aren’t kids anymore; in fact, they aren’t anyone’s kids. The season bookends of John’s death and Sam’s death make a horrible tragedy that I don’t even care much what’s in the middle.

But then again, everything in between is so good. There’s not much of an overarching story, just a sense of dread and desperation as...something...draws near. (We don’t even know what it is, but it still scares us! It’s masterful!) The tone is consistent and effective, the brother dynamics are still balanced enough to fully enjoy, and of course...there’s Playthings. :)

(Y’all are gonna stop believing me when I say I’m not a wincester, I can feel it. What can I say, I have incestuous shipping tendencies.)

5 - Season 11

This is a season that I could tear limb from limb for falling so flat in the end, but...somehow I can’t bring myself to. I didn't find myself into the Amara storyline too much, mainly because the God/Darkness sibling dynamic wasn’t developed enough to parallel with Sam and Dean invest in. But this season does an awesome job of healing the brother dynamics. While seasons 8, 9, and 10 were fight-heavy, Sam and Dean spend this season in relative peace. In times of potential crisis, they band together instead of fracturing apart. And that, honestly, is enough for me to forgive...well, a lot, plotwise. The Dean/Amara connection that went nowhere, the Casifer storyline that went nowhere, the Darkness’s grudge against her brother that...went nowhere...and I’m not even going to touch on the Sam/Lucifer dynamic that started out SO GOOD and then...well...

Again, I’m not going to touch on it. I love this season despite its flaws.

4 - Season 1

Here it is. The season that started it all. I said I was going to consider mostly narrative structures for this ranking, yet here season 1 is without much of a narrative structure, fourth from the top.

The first season of a show is always the feel-around-in-the-dark season. This is where we learn the rules of the show, how the world works, and most importantly, who our characters are. We spend 22 episodes with the writers and actors just...figuring out who Sam and Dean are, most especially who they are to each other. They were so successful in this that they spawned a fifteen year phenomenon centered around this fraternal love story. As an additional plus, since the characters were so new, season 1 gives us the most balanced POV between the brothers. We get to feel for both of them without being pitted against each other, and I appreciate that more than words.

The horror is old-school, the storytelling can be a bit cliche, but every show has an origin story and I’m in love with this one.

3 - Season 6

Again, I love Sera Gamble’s storytelling. It’s most evidenced here in her first year of showrunning. This season had the astronomical task of following up season 5. How do you follow up the literal apocalypse?

...Astoundingly well. To me at least.

This season’s narrative structure is my favorite. It’s kind of a noir thriller, with more twists and turns than Supernatural usually gets. In fact, having now watched Vampire Diaries and The Originals, season 6 of SPN kind of echoes those shows. (I don’t think it’s coincidence that TVD aired its first season one year prior to this)

Instead of trying to outdo the literal devil (the mistake of latter seasons) we spend most of season 6 not knowing who the big bad is. We meet a few baddies, get backstabbed by former friends, and we’re told Raphael is a threat, but in the end the big bad was the friend we made along the way—Castiel. It’s depressing, it’s not what we expected, and it’s honestly a departure from “traditional” SPN. But I like it. I like it a lot. If Sera had been allowed to do more seasons like this, she probably would’ve stayed longer.

2 - Season 4

I love a lot of things about this season. The way they handled the angels was great—the right way to do unknowably powerful beings. I like Sam’s dark arc. It’s coupled perfectly with his good intentions and his all-consuming love for his brother. The plot twist at the end is perfect—Sam, in doing the right thing, unleashes the worst evil this world has (yet) known.

The tone is also perfect. It’s dark. A little edgier. Edging toward eldritch horror rather than ghost horror. Balanced out with light episodes that pack a hard punch in the feels regardless. And this is a little thing, but the color grading shifts back to more sepia after the technicolor of season 3. It gives us this little sense of dread throughout the season without even knowing why.

I could complain about the skewed POVs, about how fandom still sometimes crows “Dean was right about Lilith!” when all Dean opposed was Ruby and the demon blood—he wanted killed Lilith too. But as this instance of POV-warp serves the storyline in a good, necessary way, and Sam truly did need to be brought back from his dark path, I’m choosing to ignore it.

1 - Season 5

Are we surprised? Maybe some Sam fans are—I know some who get vexed about the blame for the apocalypse being solely and constantly placed on Sam...but I’m not. The overall story of season 5 is just so good. Lucifer is a good villain in this season. Sam and Dean have an excellent healing arc. The angels are good villains, also ironic mouthpieces of the overarching themes—despite touting “fate” and “unavoidable,” they are champions of free will, since they do whatever they want in their father’s absence. Zachariah most notably. Castiel was utilized in a good way (whereas now he struggles to still have purpose in the show) Bobby and Crowley both were good in this season (and also sparked a rarepair that’s—hilariously—canon) and this season did not pull any punches when it came to death. Even the main protagonists were shot point-blank halfway through the season! (Don’t talk to me about the samulet, I can’t do it without bawling)

And Swan Song remains my favorite season finale and overall episode. Dean relinquishing control of his little brother, allowing him to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the world. I still halfway wish the series ended with Sam and Dean both throwing themselves into the Cage, destroying themselves for the world, out of love for each other. (insert “poetic cinema” meme)

And there we have it! To my mutuals, I’d love to hear your thoughts or your rankings. And to @letsgobethegoodguys - Steph, since this was so hard for you, I did it myself so I could feel your pain. 😘

[zdbztumble]

But What About Kairi, Or: Today’s KH Ramble, Part II (KH III Spoilers)

Meanwhile...

My play-through of KH III has taken me through the last of the Disney worlds, Big Hero 6. Besides reminding me of why I’m not the biggest fan of that movie, its day/night options make for a fun mechanic, and the layout of San Fransokyo is great. Baymax has some cute battle dialogue, and Donald’s reaction to “Keyblade Hero 3” was a good laugh. Of all the non-Pixar worlds, it’s also probably the best-integrated into the main plot. The reappearance of the Replica Riku, and the revelation of yet another plot, this time a burgeoning rebellion inside the real Organization XIII, nearly made my head explode, but on balance, it’s a solid level. The unorthodox beginning to the last Gummi zone was a pleasant surprise too, though I’d say that the Gummi ship sequences were at their best in KH II.

But then we come to the Badlands of the Keyblade Graveyard, and...ooh boy.

The battle that opens this level is fun, and a worthy successor to the battle with a thousand Heartless in KH II. I may have been a bit over-leveled for it, but it was still a good time. The cutscenes that followed, on the other hand, had me sputtering in disbelief. To begin with, the fact that all of that was a cutscene is baffling. All seven Keyblade Wielders facing down Terranort doesn’t sound like a good boss battle to anyone? Or hell, just Terra and Aqua? They’ve got the real stake in that fight. And Donald’s surprise spell, which I gather was a big Final Fantasy Easter egg, made for a cool moment that would have been much cooler as something that appeared in the course of battle. But that cutscene was also baffling on a story level. The Demon Tower becoming a Demon Tornado certainly made it bigger, but all the characters reacting to it with such despair was hard to follow when the distinction between the two isn’t all that great. Sora’s total collapse was especially out-of-character. The staging of this cutscene, it’s choice of camera angles, action, and pacing, all failed to sell the supposed magnitude of this threat. Coming off of a single battle, massive though it was, didn’t help.

And then...there’s Kairi.

I’m struggling to think of another series where a character supposedly of the main cast has been so consistently mishandled the way Kairi has since the end of KH II. The writing for her has been absolutely abysmal. And it’s in abysmal in a way that, rather than souring me on the character (which has happened in other series), I’m increasingly sympathetic towards her in a critical sense looking at Kingdom Hearts as a story.

That sympathy doesn’t come from Kairi being a favorite of mine. I don’t see how Kairi could be considered a favorite character, because I don’t consider her a complete character. The best way to describe Kairi IMO is as a potential character. She has tremendous potential to do great things in this series. Her wholesome, “girl next door” personality gives her a charming if rather conventional starting point, and the fact that she’s a freakin’ princess - one of the Princesses of Light, no less - who can’t recall her past offers a wonderful hook into stories. I said before that I’d revisit the idea of a KH prequel game, and IMO, the best choice for a prequel story is to explore Kairi’s past. Imagine that; a BbS, or equivalent game, that explored her life as a princess in Radiant Garden, how she came to lose her memories and end up on Destiny Islands, and why she could wield a Keyblade at the end of KH II. Was her personality still the same before she lost her memories? Could the confederation of Disney villains been aware of her and the other Princesses even then? If the prequel must expand on the Xehanort saga, then could Kairi have had anything to do with Ansem the Wise’s research, and could that explain her amnesia?

KH III has, so far, suggested that’s going to deal with at least some of this. Eventually. Maybe. If it gets around to it. But the point still stands that fleshing out one of the main characters of the series instead of inventing three new ones and pulling a third twist with the villain seems like the much more sound storytelling choice to me. A prequel game that focused on Kairi could also contain a hook that, combined with Maleficent’s unresolved fate at the end of KH II, would’ve provided a much more organic segue into a KH III story than pulling all sorts of stunts to re-open the Xehanort saga.

But that didn’t happen, and we’re left with the reality that Kairi’s backstory has barely been touched upon since the first game. Kairi herself is barely present for Coded, BbS, or DDD. In the latter case, that being a game primarily focused on the Destiny Islands gang sans Disney battle partners, Kairi’s absence seems a terrible wasted opportunity. That could be made up for if the revelation that she was training as a Keyblade Wielder had a payoff, but so far, KH III has yet to provide. She’s had two cutscenes with Axel, neither of which actually show any training, and then what little you see of her in the Badlands (more on that later.)

Once again, this feels a wasted opportunity, because this series has a precedent that would allow for Kairi to have more of a role early on in the game. Remember the Roxas segment at the beginning of KH II that served as an extended tutorial? Why not have Kairi’s training be the tutorial of KH III? It would make sense story-wise for her to be the player character as you learn or review basic controls, there would have been opportunities for cutscenes to flesh out her character (and Axel’s, much as I hate to admit it), and a clever bit of writing could’ve passed the torch on to Sora right on time for the story to begin in earnest. And why not turn the swarm of enemies battle that opens the Badlands into a multi-party affair? Start off playing as Sora with Donald and Goofy, switch after a certain stage to playing as Riku with Mickey, then to Ven with Aqua, and then to Kairi with Axel. You could go back to Sora for the finale, but this way, everyone gets included, and the character in most need of material gets to shine for a moment.

Instead, Kairi is probably the least-featured member of the party in all those cutscenes. In the moment when Aqua directs her, Mickey, and Goofy to get the wounded to safety, Kairi isn’t even in the shot. Pretty much the only time she’s in frame in that cutscene is when she’s either being saved or reaching out to Sora.

And here’s where we come to a tricky part of the issue, because I’ve seen some rather strange commentary on Sora and Kairi’s relationship. One school of thought seems to hold that Kairi becoming Sora’s love interest is what costs her any opportunity to stand as a character unto herself. I can’t follow this line of thought, for several reasons. The first being that Kairi can’t exactly “become” a love interest when it’s clear from the start of the first game that Sora has a thing for her. Being a love interest and a solid character in your own right aren’t mutually exclusive either. But I also don’t understand this argument because Sora and Kairi’s relationship has been neglected just as Kairi herself has, and that’s a real problem given its importance to the series.

In KH I, Kairi serves as the stakes and as the prime motive for both Sora and Riku. While she herself doesn’t have much to do, she is pivotal to the story, and her bond with Sora being so strong that her heart takes refuge in his, that she can restore him from a Heartless, and that they somehow find a way to promise to see each other again even as they’re separated in the finale, is the reason why. Kairi indirectly serves as the prime motive in CoM too, with Sora’s memories reworked to replace Kairi with Namine. And while she shares the role of motivation with Riku in KH II, Sora is still mindful of her throughout the game, even slipping into romantic thoughts at least twice.

Now, lest you think I have nothing but praise for the early games in the series: in those games as in the later ones, Kairi is still underdeveloped as a character. She is basically there as the love interest and little more. Being a lifelong huge sucker for first love/young love subplots in fiction, I’ve been taken by Sora and Kairi’s relationship since my first playthrough, but it works as well as it does almost entirely because of Sora. Sora is developed as a character throughout the games, as well as being the protagonist and the player character. Because he is such a charming and likable character, and because he cares so much about Kairi, that carries over to the audience, or at least this member of it. It would be a stronger relationship if Kairi were more developed as a character, which is all the more reason to do so.

But even if you accept their relationship remaining on the level of “hero and love interest,” there’s been a terrible case of neglect since KH II. It wouldn’t be a factor in BbS, naturally, but by leaving Kairi out of nearly all of Coded and DDD, the relationship drops out of the story. Cut to KH III, which does want to present that relationship as being as important as it’s ever been, and the long dry spell is felt. It doesn’t help that KH III is so densely packed with other material, much of it devoted to Organization XIII either taunting Sora or sniping at each other. Several of the Disney films selected offer parallels to Sora and Kairi’s relationship that aren’t noted, even as previous games did so and this one draws parallels in other relationships.

Which brings us back to the cutscene in the Badlands. Sora’s desperation to save Kairi is evident, and an earlier cutscene where they finally share paopu fruits was adorable, but neither has the same impact as they would have had if Kairi had remained prominent as a character, and if her relationship with Sora had remained relevant in previous games. It speaks to how well that relationship was presented in the first three games that it can still exert some sway over the heartstrings despite that, but there has been real damage done to one of the central bonds of the series by the neglect, and nowhere is that damage more apparent than when the story stresses Kairi more than anyone else when the Demon Tornado swallows up the party.

Now, I left off just as Sora emerged in Olympus after literally putting himself together, so perhaps some of this will be addressed by the end of the game. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. And in the meantime...that whole Final World sequence was trippy as all hell and those Soras damn hard to catch, but I loved it. Absolutely no idea what that cat thing is supposed to be though.

[ariyadaivaris]

hey ive been trying to figure out how to do this for awhile and since some anons have asked im gonna try 2 articulate my feelings about f*nn and this is not going to be very polite and im sorry, its nothing personal and if you have a perspective on him that i dont its fine and i absolutely get you and im glad you can enjoy that! i just wanted to try and work through how the fuck i feel about him and this is ultimately a pretty personal post and not a Manifesto on How F*nn Is Bad (i dont think he is, particularly, ftr), so like, if youre not interested which I CANNOT FAULT YOU FOR AT ALL, just know that its cool to go on! this isn’t trying to start shit or anything, i genuinely dont want to, im just writing this for Me, basically. its alright. 

thanks thats the intro done okay take care i love u

what...does f*nn have even. he’s good in the ring but he’s surrounded by people who are better. he doesn’t have a character. what motivates him? what the fuck is he even fighting for? what is his personality, even? he absorbs the storylines of everyone around him in any feud he does too often for him to be as underdeveloped as he is and yet we are here and WHY???

i mean. apollo. let’s look at apollo! apollo is similarly kinda underdeveloped character-wise and most of who he is comes from who he is irl, and people don’t really play characters up irl! but like. it’s not glaring in the same way f*nn is, because

1) apollo got called up SUPER SUPER EARLY in nxt where f*nn had YEARS to develop a character and still holds a spot as longest reigning nxt champion, and

2) apollo plays a support role! he’s not a main event player (which is fucking criminal in and of itself but thats another issue) and him being underdeveloped+not as fleshed out lends itself pretty well to him supporting people however they need support at the moment. it’s not Ideal but it works well for who he is in the context of story stuff, which is not the case for f*nn

(also 3 secretly but apollo’s moveset is actually really varied and interesting which f*nn’s is...not but that’s a subjective thing obviously lol)

like. f*nn is just. such a nothing of a wrestler. i’m sorry but genuinely i don’t know or understand what there is there. he doesn’t have a character besides...vagueing people on twitter until he gets what he wants and yes okay i know that’s not an entirely true unbiased thing to say and im sorry but also i dont think im exactly Wrong

(also about vaguing people on twitter i know that has something to do with how bad his 2017 booking was, i WON’T deny that, and multiple people are booked badly in dubya at once and they all deserve more than that, but also f*nn’s the only person who really got any rage on his behalf as far as i’ve seen and it’s definitely affected my feelings about that)

the only thing he’s got going for him is a storied history in new japan, which itself feels lacking in the ring, and which honestly...gets...a lot more credit than deserved (and mostly SOLO credit at that)? he DID create the bullet club but his bullet club was essentially an entire stable of Foreigner Heels. cheap heat. any story he told (and i only know that there was apollo 55, im unaware of any other feuds, so bear that in mind) feels so...like...secondary to that of anyone he worked with. he could be a support role and get away with being the white bread he is but GOD FORBID that should happen, and so he just engulfs the story of anyone around him and does nothing and it’s just

it’s disappointing and its boring and exhausting to see him get shot after shot after shot doing the same thing over and over again because He Can. i have nothing much against him, i think he’s petty and petulant and very...self-absorbed, like, not in an entirely bad way but in the sense that he buys a lot of his own hype? and its...off-putting. i don’t know him personally though obviously, that’s just how i feel about him based on what ive seen, but like, as a person, its whatever. i just can’t stand him as a wrestler or a character. he’s generic and unmotivated and so. NOTHING and it’s exhausting to watch and try to make something meaningful and enjoyable out of. especially juxtaposed with the miz rn, and even with s*th, who i hate but who at least HAS a personality even if it’s a genuinely awful one

not even going into the fan reception of f*nn vs anyone else who’s more deserving and interesting than he is, lmao, i’m bitter as anything about how f*nn is treated compared to the cruiserweights because NATURALLY and OBVIOUSLY i’m biased, you all know this, i don’t deny it, i cant say this comparison is all the way fair when im so so so FUCKING cwuisewweights, but like, the reaction to f*nn getting Beachballed vs any of the 205 dudes getting Beachballed was so heartbreaking in how much More he gets just for the name he’s got

i don’t know. i don’t know. i just think he’s such a nothing of a character, surrounded by people (taguchi, joe, kevin, hideo, FUCK IT, even s*th or like, fucking, KENNY, or the young bucks, or ANYONE) who really care about the character and story they have against him, and instead of being relegated to a supporting role where he’d be like, Worth anything, he’s thrust into whatever title picture or main event there is because He’s F*nn B*lor and it’s so...so much less talked about or acknowledged and for the life of me i don’t understand why. i don’t know what it is im missing

again, i don’t have much against him as a person, i personally don’t like how he acts but he doesn’t seem Proublematique in any way beyond...the foreigner heel stuff which is inherently built in anti-japan sentiment EVEN THOUGH that is strictly kayfabe afaik (though he does fucken. support the special olympics and did some Cool Trendy Straitjacket Entrances as prince nevitt and that is a very VERY personal thing i have against him) i guess that’s what matters. i just. ugh. im over it

i appreciate him being vocally supportive of queer fans but i don’t owe him for that and i still think it sucks that he, a (as far as i know) straight white dude, is getting the platform to do that instead of people who are actually queer and out in the same company. sonya isn’t getting this chance, and more blatantly, darren never got that chance. despite having the block the hate movement, and despite the fact that his coming out is what got him a face turn while it was ENTIRELY and COMPLETELY unacknowledged in the canon universe of wwe proper. like, i guess that’s not f*nn’s fault but there’s a common trend of men of color being pushed down to boost him up and it’s not the best. i don’t think that’s all his fault but i don’t like it

again this isn’t like, denouncing Liking F*nn, its fine! this isnt decrying everything about him, i don’t wanna fight about this, and if you like finn, sincerely i’m glad you can find something there to like and i hope you’re having a good time with him! and to boot i really DON’T know much about anything he did before dubya, and so i could very well be wrong about everything. like, calling the gullet blub just a Cheap Heat Stable? that interpretation could be and probably is wrong. i know that, and i know that’s probably gonna affect how i feel abt him, but also god i do not care even a bit enough to learn and i would rather die than look at pr*nce nevitt/gullet blub anything

i dont know. i hope this didnt come off as.......TOO shitty, i know this is a stupid and mostly impenetrable post, its alright, this is just me trying to work through this for myself and i promise its not like...a huge thing. thats all! thats all. im sorry if i worded this weird at all and i know my perspective isnt the best or most informed on this, but also i am very very tired of f*nn and i don’t think that’s an unfair thing to say

[81scorp]

Constructive criticism: Batman v Superman

(Originally posted as an editorial on Deviantart May 26 2016)

In 2013 Superman`s movie franchise got rebooted with a movie directed by Zack Snyder and written by David S Goyer. The result was... a little bit divisive. Some loved it, some hated it, but never the less it made money, enough to greenlight a sequel... or rather: a bigger, shared movie universe. Not unlike what they were doing over at Marvel.There were some missteps in the first movie but surely the filmmakers had learned from them when it was time for a sequel, right?No, not really. Like Michael Bay when he made Transformers: Revenge of the fallen, Zack Snyder and David S Goyer just kept on rolling as if they had learned nothing from the first movie. This time my love for DC and it`s characters was not enough to distract me from the movie`s shortcomings. Take the small bastardisation of some of the characters out of the equation and it`s still pretty bad on it`s own. Lack of humanity, underdeveloped characters, poor motivations and having too much stuff crammed in. But it wasnt all bad. It had some moments that I liked. Over all I didn`t hate it... much, but I didn`t like it either. Where did it go wrong and how could it have been better?

The SPOILERS are coming! The SPOILERS are coming! Before I start: In my Constructive criticism of Man of Steel I suggested a climax that didn`t involve killing Zod. If they don`t have Zod`s body to test the kryptonite on, how will they know that kryptonite harms Superman?How about: When Superman was under arrest by the military in the first movie they took some hair or skin samples from him (I prefer to think of Supes as superdurable rather than invulnerable). I mean, he is an extraterrestrial afterall. They should take DNA samples from him FOR SCIENCE! So this is the kryptonian DNA that they use to find out that kryptonite is harmful to Superman.

Batman`s origin Yes, I know, the part where young Bruce starts flying is revealed to be a dream the next second, but still. We know Batman`s origin and have seen it several times, so keep it to the necessary minimum. Thomas Wayne doesn`t whisper Martha`s name and it should end shortly after young Bruce finds the batcave. The destruction of Metropolis Bruce`s employees shouldn`t have to wait for his approval to evacuate. Here`s how it could have been:

Bruce: Jack! Talk to me! What`s happening!?

Jack: We`ve started evacuating! There are still a few left! But I think we have time to- *large crashing noise* Telephone voice: The number you have dialed can not be reached.

Bruce: Jack?! Jack!

We can assume that Jack and many others didn`t make it. After this the scene plays out like it did in the movie. (Except the name of the man who gets his legs crushed is not Wallace Keefe, but John Corben.) We also see Lex Luthor witnessing the destruction of the city from his own building. The middle east scene Appearently the photographer that gets killed is supposed to be Jimmy Olsen. I mentioned before in my previous journal that I`m not crazy about when they kill characters that have played an important part and/or has been in the comicbook a long time. I`m not a big fan of Prof Emil Hamilton (possibly) being killed in the first movie, but I can let it slide once. But Jimmy Olsen is more wellknown. What does Snyder (or possibly Goyer) have against supporting characters? If you don`t like Jimmy because you only know about the silly version of him from the silver age comic then don`t use him! Or at least just give him a small part. So my idea is: the photographer can be killed, but make him an original character created for the movie. In the movie Lois was there so that Superman could show up so that Lex could frame him for the killing. Uhmm... Why would people believe that Superman uses bullets? The reason for her to be there doesn`t necessarily have to tie in to anything in the rest of the movie, she`s a reporter, it`s part of her job. Didn`t Superman have an aversion to killing? Sure, we are told later that the guy that he rammed through a wall didn`t die, but that`s stretching it a bit. I can understand why Snyder went this direction though. If someone pointed a gun at your girlfriend`s/boyfriend`s head you`d get angry too. But still, Superman has great strength and he can`t do whatever he wants without risking hurting others or causing great damage, he has to practice restraint, something Zack Snyder is not very good at. How about: Superman uses his superspeed to grab the bad guy`s gun-hand and aims it in the complete opposite direction of where Lois stands. Then he grabs the bad guy by the collar (in regular speed, but still pretty fast though) with his other hand, lifts him off the floor and pushes him against the wall. Then he calms down, squeezes the bad guy`s gun into something unrecognizable and ties his hands together with an ironpipe.Then a scene with no dialogue: he takes a look outside, at the photographer who died because he wasn`t fast enough. Lois understands how he feels and puts a hand on his shoulder. Clark and Lois`s bathtub scene I dunno. It felt like it was (almost) nudity for the sake of (almost) nudity. You could: Change it so that Lois has already bathed and goes out in the living room, wearing a bathrobe, where she meets Clark. They can talk a little about what what happened. Clark wishes he could have saved more people. Lois can say that not even he can be everywhere at once. Clark: "I know..." (It`s basically like the scene where Lois puts her hand on Supes`s shoulder but here it is done with dialogue.) Bruce wayne at the fight-club bar You know that bar that Bruce visited to steal information from the russian guy`s phone? Those two guys beating each other up and people being OK with it made it feel like it was some kind of illegal, shady place. Shouldn`t Bruce Wayne, a wellknown millionaire (or billionaire) and philanthropist, be more concerned about his image and not go to places like that? They could have made it an ordinary, legal bar. I know, it`s a short and small scene. But still.

Batman killing First let me get this out of the way: Ben Affleck`s portrayal of Batman: good. How Batman is written in this movie: not so good. Why do I feel that Batman shouldn`t kill? Batman the animated series and the Dark Knight trilogy established that Batman has a no killing rule. Sure, this is a different universe, but still. Batman`s no killing rule is an important part of his character. I think it would be more interesting to see Batman balancing on the edge rather than to begin with him already fallen. They could at least have acknowledged it, that there was a time when Batman didn`t kill and Alfred could try to talk him into finding his humanity again. But it feels like Snyder didn`t think that far, that he only thought behind this decision was because it "looked cool". How would I have done it? Batman doesn`t kill criminals, but he`s very close to trying. And he`s cruel, ruthless and he brands criminals with the bat-symbol. Alfred confronts him about it. Bruce responds that it is "necessary cruelty"

Alfred: Is it?. Bruce knows where Alfred is going and defends his actions with:

Bruce: There`s one thing that separates me from the criminals that I fight.

Alfred: One thing, yes. But how long will that one thing last? Bruce Wayne is a man who has been pushed closer and closer to the edge by traumatic experiences several times in his life. The death of his parents turned him into Batman. Joker killing Robin is what made him extra cruel and made him treat criminals as less than human. Superman destroying buildings in Metropolis and being responsible for the death of several of his employees made him hate Superman.There could be some monologue when he looks at Robin`s suit. Bruce: I took him in, gave him a home when he had nowhere else to live. But I couldn`t save him. That psycho beat him to death. This could be followed by a quiet moment. Alfred understands how he feels and puts a hand on his shoulder. There`s no reason to have Batman chasing after the bad guys in his batmobile and shooting and destroying them. Not just because of my opinion that Batman shouldn`t kill, but because it felt like action for action`s sake. Just have him shoot the tracer on the truck and leave it there. (BTW: Batman shouldn`t manage to steal all of the kryponite from Lex. And Batman knows that Lex is very likely up to something fishy, but he focuses more on Superman because Supes seems like the bigger threat at the moment.) Also, when Bruce first visits his parents grave there should be a tombstone visible that says "Jason Todd" to tell us that the Robin that died is not Dick Grayson. Lex Luthor I was OK with Lex having hair and being played by a young (or at least young-looking) actor like Jesse Eisenberg. He also added some (in my opinion) necessary humour to a very dark and serious movie. And I`m not gonna lie, I liked the "The redcoats are coming" line. Then I watched the movie and realized: He`s gonna do that voice and personality for the whole movie. Crap. Was Jesse playing Lex Luthor, The Joker or the Riddler? (BTW: I`ve seen a video on youtube where people who defend this movie say that they can`t see the similarities because Lex and the Joker have different goals. So let me clarify: sure, they may have different goals, but personality-wise Eisenberg`s Lex acts very similar to how the Joker is usually portrayed.) Some may defend this with "But it`s not Lex, it`s Lex`s son, Lex jr!". I still don`t like the personality and his motivation is still weak. Like I said: I like that he provided some humour, but I think he overdid it. How about... A: Keep Jesse Eisenberg but have him play Lex very Tony Stark-like or very Mark Suckerberg-ish. (Though I can understand why he didn`t play him like that since he already played Mark Suckerberg once and probably didn`t want to repeat himself.) BTW: I haven`t seen The Social Network yet so I don`t know what he`s like in that movie, which is why I suggested Tony Stark as an alternative. Apologies to all DC-fans. But the basic idea for Lex`s personlaity is: cocky and arrogant and less cray-cray. B: Have Mark Strong or Bryan Cranston play Lex (or at least someone Mark Strong-ish or Bryan Cranston-ish), and play him like Lex from the DCAU. He can have a dry, deadpan style of humour and he doesn`t necessarily have to be bald. Lex`s reason for hating Superman can be similar to Bruce`s reason: He`s seen what great powers Superman have and the destruction he`s capable of. Batman and Superman`s reason for hating each other Besides the fact that Supes is responsible for the death of thousands (including people who work for Bruce), Bruce has trust issues and thinks that Superman only helps people because he wants to clean up his image after he recklessly destroyed several buildings in Metropolis. He thinks that Superman is too much of a rookie who isn`t worthy of his powers.When they first meet and talk about this Clark can acknowledge that Superman didn`t have the best start but also clarifies that Superman has learned from his mistakes. Bruce says sarcastically that the employees at the Wayne building must be so grateful for his progress. Clark doesn`t like Batman because he feels that someone who has been in the business for such a long time should`ve learned by now to not be so inhumane and brutal to people, even if they are criminals. There could be a montage scene before Clark and Bruce meet where Clark does some research on the Batman and finds out how cruel he is to criminals. Batman`s a cynic and Superman`s an idealist.

The post-apocalyptic world dream One of the movie`s problems is that it tries to cram too much stuff in. There`s too much "this will make sense in later movies", "this will be important in later movies" and this scene is one of those things. And I know that those flying things are parademons from Apokolips, I`ve read the comics, but still. Lose it. Flash`s portal cameo At first I was gonna put this in the "On the fence" category because I liked Ezra Miller`s performance, even if it was extremely short. And even if it was one of those "this will make sense in later movies" I was willing to let it slide because confusing things are something you have to deal with when it comes to time travels. (Believe me, I know what this scene references, I`ve read "Crisis on Infinite Earths".) But still, keeping it in just gives the movie that overcrowded feeling. Lose it. Martha`s advice to Clark That scene where Martha says to Clark: "Be their hero, Clark. Be their angel, be their monument, be anything they need you to be... or be none of it. You don`t owe this world a thing. You never did." This was another scene that I was thinking about putting in the "On the fence" category. It`s one of those scenes that we`ve already seen in the first movie, where people keep telling Superman who he should be. Then again, while it`s not giving us anything useful, it`s not taking away anything good either. But then again: it just comes of as if Superman is unhappy because people don`t like him. Superman`s biggest priority is helping people, wether they like him or not. You can: A: Lose this scene. B: Change the dialogue. She can ask him what he`s gonna do and he can say that he`s gonna keep doing his boyscout thing wether people like it or not. Then he could hug his mom. He then hears someone being in trouble with his superhearing and Martha notices this by the way he reacts and seem to listen to something that she herself can`t hear.

Martha: Someone in trouble?

Superman: Yeah, duty calls. (He flies away.)

Martha: Good luck... Ghost dad Kent Originally I had this in the on the fence category but then I realized that in my version this scene wouldn`t work. Why? Because in the movie this happens when Superman has given up and is ready to throw in the towel. In my version Superman keeps doing his boyscout thing regardless if people like him or not. How about: Superman is taking a short break from superheroing to relax on the Northpole. His dad shows up and they have a little talk. Ghostdad Kent points out that he (Superman) is in a problematic place (being wanted for a murder he didn`t commit and having the media against him). Superman says yeah, but what else can he do? Give up? Even if he`s not exactly Mr Popular right now there are still people out there who need help, and he can`t just turn away from that. Ghostdad Kent admits that he has a point. The two of them are quiet for a moment and admire the landscape. Ghostdad Kent says: "It sure is beautiful up here." Superman: "Yeah... I wish you could be here to see it." In the next cut Ghostdad Kent is gone. This scene shows that even Supes needs time to rest, that he has limitations. Talking to his late dad as an imaginary friend shows that he has a sentimental side. In short: this scene humanizes Superman. "But isn`t Superman supposed to be a god?" Some may say. A godlike Superman is flawless, a flawless character is boring. Yes Superman is godlike but there is a human side to him as well and there should be at least as much focus on that as his god side. But doesn`t this mean that his character doesn`t go through any changes? Yes it does, but then again, Supes already had his inner journey in Man Of Steel. BvS is not about Superman`s inner journey, it`s about Batman`s. The reason for Batman and Superman to fight Instead of Lex killing several people with a wheelchair-bomb, how about this: Early in the movie when we meet Lex he talks about the many scientific advances that his company has made. He mentions that they have come a long way in laser technology. Later, after Senator Finch has nixed his idea of weaponizing kryptonite, she is found the next day, dead in her home, with third degree burns. An autopsy shows that her death was caused by two heat-rays, similar to Superman`s heat vision. But why would Superman kill her? Here`s where Lex goes all J. Jonah Jameson on Superman (again, apologies to all DC-fans). Superman killed Finch because she tried to tell him what he could and could not do, and his sensitive ego couldn`t handle that! His good guy persona is just a facade! He may have the powers of a god but he has the mind of an immature sociopath! He`s a threat and must be dealt with! Batman believes this, steals the kryptonite from Lex and starts preparing for a fight. One of the things that he packs in his "Kill Superman-kit" is an E.M.P gun. (Hey, you never know, it could be useful.) He must stop Superman, and to do that he must cross the line and do that one thing that separates him from the criminals that he fights. Hearing this saddens Alfred. Batman later attracts Supermans attention (He could put the Superman symbol on the searchlight that usully has the Batman-symbol on it.) and gets him to meet him on a building where they fight. (Superman wants to go easy on Batman, he knows that he`s too strong for him, but when Batman uses the kryptonite on him Supes realises realizes that he`s gonna have to get serious.) So there`s no need for Lex to kidnap Martha. ("But, then we won`t get to see Batman`s cool fight scene" you say. Fear not dear readers, for I have a backup plan! Before the scene where Batman puts the tracer on the truck there`s a scene where someone mentions a kidnapped kid. After the "put the tracer on the truck" scene Batman drives to the building where he has figured out that the kid is being held prisoner. We get to see Batman be brutal and beat the kidnappers almost to death. He opens a door to a room where the kid is hidden. He extends his hand as a way to say to the kid "It`s OK, you can come out now, the bad guys won`t harm you." but the kid is afraid of him. Batman radios the police and stays with the kid until a cop shows up to take the kid to a safe place. On his way back home Batman meets Superman who uses his X-ray vision to see who`s under the mask. He thinks that Batman should retire. Gotham deserves a better guardian than the violent psychopath they have now.) Batman`s Superstrength Speaking about Batman beating up a bunch of kidnappers earlier brings me to my next point: I know that Batman`s strong but his strength in the fightscene with the kidnappers feels a little too superhuman. They could have toned it down to a more believable level.

Lois Lane I`d give Lois a chance to be more proactive and useful in my version. So there`s no need for Lex to kidnap her either. When Lois hears that Superman is accused of a murder she starts to do everything she can to prove his innocence (instead of the "trying to find out who made the bullet" subplot that we got). She gets help from an anonymous hacker that mails her files with blueprints of the heat-ray weapon that was used to kill Finch. There are also detailed files about Superman and a very old photo of Diana in her WW costume. The anonymous hacker is later revealed to be Victor Stone. He can be revealed, sitting in a poorly lit room, wearing civilian clothes. He`s wearing a hoodie and the shadows cover most of the metallic half of his face, but we can clearly see his glowing, red robot eye. (Victor Stone could be foreshadowed earlier in the movie. When Lex talks about how advanced their laser-technology is, he also mentions that a young athlete who got into a terrible accident is now able to walk again, thanks to Lexcorp`s advancements in the field of bionics.) The reason for Batman and Superman to stop their fight Batman get`s the upperhand. He`s about to use the kryptonite spear on Superman. But... he hesitates. By killing Superman he`s become just as bad as the criminals he fight. (This can be shown visually by cutting from a shot of the kryptonite spear to a shot of the gun that Joe Chill used to kill Bruce`s parents. Followed by cutting from a shot of Superman`s face to a shot of young Bruce`s face from the scene in the beginning where his parent`s were killed.) Lois shows up and shouts: "Stop! Don`t do it! He didn`t kill Finch! I have proof!" Batman decides to believe that they are telling the truth until he knows for sure. Wonderwoman`s character developement I like Gal Gadot as Wonder woman, but it would have been nice if she had some character developement. How about: Before Lois discovers the old photo of her there`s a scene where Diana meets her old friend Julia Kapatelis in a restaurant. Julia talks about how Diana used to help people and wonders why she gave it up. The way things look right now the world could use an extra pair of helping hands. (They use the word "help" as a codeword for "doing superhero-stuff" since they`re in a public place and don`t want to out Diana as a superhero.) Diana responds that there were several reasons but doesn`t want to go into details. Julia thinks that whatever the reasons for quitting are, the reasons for getting back in the game seem bigger. Then the waiter shows up with their meals.Instead of finding out about the fight when she`s on a plane Diana could be in her own home, packing her bags, prepairing to leave when she gets a call from Julia. She tells her to turn on the TV, Channel 12 (or some other number). Diana does so and sees what`s going on. The introduction to the future members of Justice League Like Flash`s portal cameo I was toying with the idea of putting this in the "On the fence" category. Unlike Flash`s scene this is more of a "This will be important later" rather than a "This will make sense later". I prefer things that become important later over things that has to wait for a sequel to make sense. But keeping it in just makes it feel like it was shoehorned in at the last minute. Not to mention it`s a lazy way of introducing these characters. Lose it. I know, my own version also has a cameo of Victor Stone (Cyborg). The difference is that I only put in one of the other members of Justice league, and he at least had someting to do and wasn`t just there to be there. And the thing that he did was payed off within the movie, we didn`t have to wait for a sequel. Doomsday Personally I don`t mind that Doomsday looked like a cave-troll from Lord of the Rings. He looked Doomsdayish enough to me. But he was introduced too early in the DCEU. A problem that DC movies have is that they use up their big guns too early. Now that we`ve already had the fight against Doomsday and the death of Superman there are no higher stakes left (except maybe Darkseid). It would have been better to save Doomday for a third solo Superman movie where you could give the Death of Superman story the proper time and care that it needs. How about: Remember John Corben who I mentioned earlier? Instead of getting a high-tech wheelchair, John Corben gets recruited by Lex who uses technology from the kryptonian ship to build him a giant, kryptonite-powered robot-suit equipped with rockets (It`s built with nanotechnology, so if they harm it, it repairs itself). Supes and Batsy fight him, Corben uses the kryptonite on Supes who is weakened. Batman is in trouble but Wonderwoman shows up and joins the fight. (BTW: when Corben opens his chest to reveal the kryptonite, it`s still protected behind superdurable glass, so Wonderwoman can`t just stick her hand in and pull it out.) Batman uses his EMP gun on Corben and knocks him out (See? I told you it could be useful!) WW or Supes manages to open the robot-suit and pulls out an angry, legless, halfnaked Corben. He has plug-in holes in his back, kinda like the people from The Matrix movies. (He controlled the robot-armour mentally with the help of these.) He is furious and shouts: NO! NOO! You took my legs! You took everything from me! WW feels sorry for him, but he doesn`t want her pity. Supes doesn`t want the robot suit (which is still mostly intact) or the kryptonite inside it to end up in the wrong hands, so he takes it with him out into space to throw it into the sun. Out in space the robot-armour comes back to life and notices that the human host is gone but also that it is close to Superman, it`s autopilot kicks in. It starts to wrestle and fight Superman and exposes him to the kryptonite in it`s chest. Supes is weakened but pulls himself together and delivers a powerful kick that sends the robot-armour into the sun and himself back towards earth. He lands somewhere in Japan and manages to avoid destroying any property or hurting innocent people. He whispers one word: "...Ouch!" Lex goes to jail, he could be visited by Superman or Batman. When Supes/ Bats leaves Lex could shout that they have opened Pandora`s box. Before Supes leaves Lex asks him one last question.

Lex: "Tell me, do you see yourself as a good man?"

Superman: "I see my self as a man who tries to be good." Later, Bruce visits his parent`s grave and is later accompanied by Clark and Diana. Clark sees the name on the grave and mentions that his mom`s name is also Martha. Bruce allows himself to smile at the coincidence. They talk about joining forces, finding other extraordinary people similar to them and together fight great threats that are to big for one of them to handle. Bruce puts his hand out, Clark puts his hand on Bruce`s and Diana puts her hand on Clark`s. The End Snyder may be a good director, but he`s not a good storyteller. Visually it`s impressive but it is lacking when it comes to writing. It could have been better if they had tried some restraint in some scenes, something that is, as I mentioned earlier, not Snyder`s strong side. It seems that the only thought behind the decisions that were made was focusing on how cool it would look. I may be wrong but I think Michael Bay once said: "I make movies for 13-year old boys. What a crime." Snyder is similar to Bay in that they both know their audience, but they never seem to think about the periphery demographic. This movie had several opportunities to be good but someone (Snyder? Goyer? Terrio? Some of the Big suits at Warner Bros?) really dropped the ball on this one. I get that Warner Bros wants their DC movies to be different from Marvel but it seems that they are putting their focus more on being different than telling good stories. DC, if you want to be different that`s fine, but be a different kind of different. And those are my ideas and thoughts. Feel free to disagree.

[is-osana-here-yet]

Comparing Lunar Scythe and Yandere Simulator 1/? : Character Design

This is Luna, her backstory as written by Dev is:

The main character is a girl in her late teens named Luna. Luna is obsessed with an idea; the idea that this world is full of people who don't deserve to live. Murderers, thieves, kidnappers, human traffickers, drug dealers, arms dealers, arsonists, scam artists, identity thieves - Luna desperately wishes she could do something to rid the planet of such people, but she feels like there is nothing she could do that would ever make a difference. At the beginning of the game, Luna dies. As Luna's spirit looks down at her own body, she feels nothing but apathy. She didn't want to live in a world filled with human filth, anyway. That's when Death shows up. Death looks into her soul to determine which afterlife she belongs in, and he is surprised at what he finds within her. He learns that she is free of sin, yet her strongest desire is to take millions of lives. While examining this pale girl clad entirely in black who yearns to kill, Death feels as though he's looking at his own reflection for a moment. Death decides that Luna may be able to serve him a purpose. Instead of sending her soul to the afterlife, Death makes Luna an offer. "I'll bring you back to life, if you agree to bring me human souls." Luna is shocked by his offer. "But I don't want to kill innocent people!" "Then do not kill the innocent," Death replies. "Kill the guilty." "But who are the guilty?" She asks. "That's for you to decide," Death replies. Death is offering her the authority and the power to kill anyone she thinks deserves to die - and she thinks that a LOT of people deserve to die. She doesn't want to come back to life and return to a miserable world filled with criminals, sadists, and psychopaths...but if she had the power to purify this sinful world, she could create a world that she actually wants to live in. And so, Luna accepts the offer, not to become Death, but to become Justice. Death resurrects Luna, gives her a giant scythe, and grants her superhuman powers that become active at midnight. By day, Luna is an ordinary girl who works part-time jobs to scrape by...and by night, she is the judge, jury, and executioner of her city, an agent of death. If Luna does not bring him enough souls, Death will take her life. Luna asks Death how many souls he wants, and what her deadline is. Because Death does not perceive time the same way that mortals do - in terms of seconds, minutes, or hours - he cannot give her a specific date. As he looks upward in contemplation, he notices that the moon is full. And so, he decides that Luna must use the scythe to deliver a specific number of souls to him by the end of the lunar cycle. Hence the name of the game, "Lunar Scythe." (What do you think? Corny?) The game takes place over the course of a year. After each full moon, Death demands more souls by the next full moon. So, Luna has to kill more and more people to meet her quota each month. What Luna doesn't know is that she's not the only dead girl that Death has brought back to life! He has also resurrected other recently deceased girls who each have the capacity to take millions of lives. Every time there is a full moon, Luna will fight another resurrected dead chick wielding a giant energy weapon. The game takes place in 2015, and there are 13 full moons in 2015, meaning Luna will have to face 13 of these enemies in total.

What is Death plotting? Why does he want mortals to gather souls for him? What will happen once Luna has defeated all of the other dead girls?

You'll have to play the game to find out. ^.~

Alex has given her a fairly simple backstory that could easily be expanded on. In the forum he presented this in, he gets some good feedback on her character wise. The people pose questions such as “what is her goal?” and “well this bit doesn’t make sense because .....” 

We already know Dev made Ayano a blank slate, because when he presented Lunar Scythe, he was met with what he saw as “harsh criticism.” However in the forum no one is really that harsh. Most tend to clue in that Alex doesn’t take critique well, and pose their thoughts in ways such as “well think about why she does this, who made her like this...” One of the major problems fans have with Yandere Simulator, is the lack of personality/story for Ayano. One could say Ayano is meant to be a self insert for the player, but the problem is she is legit nothing. A self insert in other games typically has a base story, and the interpretations of a character are formed based on the choices that the player makes. In otome games, Persona 5, Fallout, you can choose dialogue options. It’s up to the player to pick the snarky comment, the kind comment ect... The only way a player could form an interpretation of Ayano is through elimination methods. Do they stab a person? Blackmail? Pair them up with someone else? Either way the only focus on these options is Ayano’s perspective on removing someone from Taro’s life. The player can’t decide why Ayano loves Taro. What kind of person Ayano is. 

I tried my best to make sure that Luna wasn't a Mary Sue. There are a lot of details about Luna that I left out... Luna's younger sister, Stella, was a child genius and a celebrity. Chess grandmaster, master of four instruments, wrote and published a best-selling novel, graduated college, performed surgery - all before the age of 12. Luna was never able to measure up to her little sister in any way, which left her with a horrible inferiority complex. As soon as Stella started pulling in tons of money and making the family famous, her parents practically forgot that Luna existed. Luna tried everything to get her parents' attention - causing trouble at school, wearing bizarre fashion, dying her hair crazy colors - but this only pushed her parents further away. She moved out at age 18, and she hasn't spoken to them since. She doesn't bother reading any news related to her younger sister, preferring to pretend that she doesn't even exist. The goth fashion and dyed hair became a part of her identity after so many years, so she still keeps a little bit of dye in her hair and wears gothic accessories from time to time. Luna started struggling immediately after moving out. She barely graduated high school, she can't make friends easily, she can't hold down a job, and can't afford to pay her rent. She's depressed, miserable, and desperate when she finally dies. Even after her resurrection, she still lacks the qualifications or experience for any full-time job, and has to keep doing lousy part-time jobs to scrape by. She literally has nothing going for her, other than the fact that she gets superpowers for a brief period of time at midnight...then it's back to being a failure at life.

Again, this is very underdeveloped. Why can’t she hold down a job? Doesn’t she learn? Is being depressed just part of her character? Alex refused to give Ayano a backstory, because he decided that if people didn’t like what he wrote for Luna, they wouldn’t like what he wrote for Ayano. Ayano has been given a few backstory prompts, sort of. The biggest being “Ayano can’t feel anything”, however people criticise Ayano’s character because it contradicts the very basis of her, she’s a yandere. It feels like Alex has just recycled the murderous intent from Luna, removed her backstory and stuck it into Ayano. There is no “deredere” to contrast the “yan” side of her, making her boring and dull.

People began saying Luna looks too generic, looks like Ryuko from Kill La Kill, Ruby Rose from RWBY, and Cassie Hack from Hack/Slash. People also though she looked too “edgy”, typical busty goth anime girl. When met with this criticism, Alex went around commissioning different artist to come up with a different design for his character. He asked the forum what they liked best. The designs presented were:

And this, is Ayano’s concept art.

Ayano’s first design shares some similarities to Luna. The red/black palette. Short hair. It seems as though Alex abandoned the original “having a distinct silhouette” and opted for having a plain design. Ayano is not easily recognisable, as she looks like any other Japanese middle school student. In the forum, he is constantly asking for harsh criticism. He says he want to improve the character. He often asks what other people would suggest instead. 

As he’s met continuously with criticism about the practicality of this all, he states:

I'm totally aware of how ridiculously impractical it would be to use a scythe as a weapon...in real life. But this is a video game, where the Rule of Cool is the only rule I need. I'm willing to throw realism and practicality out the window for the sake of having the coolest weapon possible, and to me, that's got to be an energy scythe. An umbrella isn't a practical weapon to use in a fight, either, but that doesn't stop Parasoul. You can argue that Parasoul is using a special fantasy umbrella that shoots projectiles - and, likewise, my character is using a special sci-fi scythe with an energy blade rather than a solid blade, which opens up combat options that a grass-cutting tool does not.

I agree that the costume is impractical, but that doesn't matter to me very much. Once again, I'm willing to completely suspend my disbelief as long as something looks cool enough...or sexy enough. I'd rather have an impractical and cool-looking character than a completely realistic, practical, boring character. With that said, it may be entirely possible for her to be wearing a much more cool-looking outfit than her current corset / skirt combo...but whatever outfit I eventually decide on will definitely not be restrained by practicality. So, what would you suggest for the outfit?

It seems like this is what fuelled Alex to make Ayano so boring. Ayano seems like she’s just a huge “fuck you” to the people that criticised Luna. Ayano is very practical. Very realistic. To the point of boredom. People continually state Luna’s character is boring and too simple, his response:

The reason I wanted to give the protagonist a simple hairstyle is because I haven't been able to get cloth physics or long hair physics working in my game engine. But, of course, that's a personal failing, and shouldn't restrict the character's appearance. So, what would you suggest for the hairstyle?

Having short hair fits with the first design of Ayano. Perhaps his engine still was that bad that he couldn’t get physics working. Personally, I feel like Alex continuing to ask people for suggestions when met with any criticism becomes very passive aggressive. Every single comment is met with that. It comes off as “well if you think it sucks, tell me how I should do it then.” You cannot saying the hair is generic without giving an alternate suggestion according to Alex.

He also gets upset over someone stating there was no reason for having a young white female protagonist. Keep in mind Ayano too, is a young white female protagonist.

What's wrong with having a young, white, female protagonist? If this is a "social justice warrior" thing, I'm definitely not going to argue about that subject in this thread. The costume is my primary concern here.

Alex quickly abandons is old “please critique my work!” rhetoric and writes this rant defending his choices.

About the cleavage, midriff, and legs...well, there is a story-related reason why she desires to dress up in a sexy outfit when she fights, but even if there wasn't a plot-related reason, I'm going to fall back on the Rule of Sexy. I absolutely love sexy-looking femme fatale characters. ...aren't we on...the Skullgirls forum...?...

This goes back to Alex is making a game for himself. A character for himself. He is sexualizing this girl and is lying about having a story related reason for the sexy outfit. He does the same thing with the characters of Yandere Simulator. 

I really hate over-designed characters with too many belts and zippers and random useless accessories hanging off of every limb...but I really don't think my character suffers from that problem. She's got a pretty simple outfit. There are some details, sure, but I don't feel the design approaches the DeviantArt level of ridiculous over-design. Everything about the character's design, however implausible it might seem at first glance, does have a justification. The reason she dyes her hair, the reason Death thought a scythe would suit her best, the reason she wears a sexy outfit - it's all worked into her backstory. Is that what you're talking about? I didn't really purposefully make the game's storyline dark for the sake of being dark - I just made it a story that appeals to me, and dark things happen to appeal to me, so the story came out really, really dark. I guess you could say that my over-abundant enthusiasm for impractical weapons, sexy outfits, and super dark-and-edgy plot elements is totally steering the design and direction of this game. (However, because the game takes place predominantly in LITERALLY dark environments, it may be a good idea to give her a brighter color scheme...) Maybe it's because all of these aspects of her design appeal 100% to my personal tastes, but I just can't imagine that choosing to go with this character design could actually result in "practically no revenue". Is that what you're really suggesting? Or are you just saying that every time I make a decision about a character's appearance, I should treat that decision, no matter how minor, as being a choice that could ruin the game financially? Because that doesn't seem realistic to me, either... Anyway, why even criticize the original design? I'm ready and willing to replace it with one of the new re-designs that I posted. So, please tell me what it is you like / dislike about the NEW designs.

The thread goes into gameplay a little more, and then Alex says this:

I'm starting to think I made this thread a little too soon. I mean, I'm TOTALLY aware that I could never, ever ship a game that plays exactly like that prototype you played. Obviously, the final game won't just be killing sets of 5 dudes over and over. Obviously, the final game won't have that lame death animation. Obviously, the final game won't have a special move that is just spinning in a circle. But since people are getting the wrong idea, I guess it was a mistake to post that prototype and call it a "demo". Maybe I should have called it a "proof of concept". Or maybe I should have called it a "programming test". Or maybe I shouldn't have posted anything at all just yet...

It’s quite similar to the pity party he threw himself when his game was critiqued by Mike Z. Alex posts more designs for his character at this point

We go back to Luna’s goal and backstory, and Alex just keeps stating that she hates bad people and wants to rid the world of them. He states a few times “you have to play the game to find out” A similar tactic used with core plot points in Yandere Simulator.

What I’ve gathered from looking at Luna and Ayano together, Ayano is Luna. Same sadistic side. Lack of empathy. Similar beta designs and motifs. Ayano just had Luna’s backstory removed because Alex didn’t want to face criticism again.