#not a hc but i kinda love that she was a solo villain

[spinnysocks]

Chuluun headcanons?

to be honest, i don't have much because i don't focus on season three, but i headcannon her as lesbian and that makucha becomes her reluctant best friend. she and makucha are like ora's babysitters /silly

not my headcannon/au, but i like Percy-McMurphy's stuff on DeviantArt where makucha helps chuluun when she gets injured or sick. i really love this piece, check it out! :] /gen, nf

[berrythep4nda]

We listen and we don't judge (please don't attack me)

I kinda dislike (no hate) those fans who lift their favorite character by downgrading/underestimate other characters, where it shown painfully clear how they really doesn't care at all about the other characters and just close their eyes on the other characters best moment

Like I'm not saying you can't have a favorite character, you can, you can have that one specific character that you like, you love, you use in every fic as mc, think of their HC the most, draw, edit, and love the most, but all I'm saying is there's no need to belittle other characters

Beside the "they're just fictional characters" point, they come from a show where it is shown working together is better, the other contributes to the plot and the lines, and even to the favorite character's life, you can't just say "he/she don't need the other, he/she fight the villain alone, he's/she's the only strong one there"

Bro, they're a family, they train together, they're a team with different skill and contribution, they have their own task to do and it just doesn't shown much because the og writer didn't think about it, that's where the poor plot comes in, only one character focus doesn't mean the others are useless

Even the film/series itself shown that that character needs the others in more ways than just fighting, they have a connection with one another that was deeper than it was shown

So yeah you can have "the goat" or "he/she would solo...." But just don't disagree with the other who have different favorite characters than you

Another reminder: this is for those who disagree and insult other's favorite ok?, not for the one who have a favorite and and still like the other characters, this is for the one who goes out of their way to comment on other people post/comment and just diss what they posted because it's not their favorite character

(why is English so hard, I tried to explain this the best I can, so I hope y'all understand)

[zai-doodles]

Hey, love your FT redesigns they're very cool and creative, and I also love swing people's criticism of the series 👀, so which female character (that isn't juvia cause that's too easy) would you say is portrayed in the worst way?

gonna beat a dead horse but lucy,,

like i dont think shes the WORST, the female zodiac spirits but idk

and ok stay with me cuz i promise I don't say this cuz shes "useless" or emotional or whatever goku stans say idk

lucy is potrayed the worst bc dispite the seirse, kinda revolving around her journey, the series never really gives her moments to grow in the traditional action shonen sense?

like ok ok first, shes a novice wizard at the start of the show with like, 3 or 4 zodiac keys,, now if I lived in a world where there were 12 zodiac keys TOTAL and some blonde rich girl inherited 4 of them??? id??? aks questions???? or would at least assume shes much more powerful and important, and that could have been a fun plot thing considering she has her moments of arrogance that show her inexperience,,, bUT these moments just,,, KEEP HAPPENING like??? even after lucy gets her star dresses we r suppose to laugh like haha lucy really thought she could help like??????? what???? so natsu can solo like,,, all the villains but lucy cant like,, win a fight on her own without being the but of the joke??? i think she does do stuff later but it bothers me?? that shes arguably the female lead and her arc and emotional journey revolves around natsu specifically?? like yea she grows with fairy tail and stuff but it feels like the narrative is constantly punishing lucy for even TRYING to do cool shit???

ik it might sound like i fell into the argument I said I wasn't going to do but listen ok cuz like, my problem isn't that shes "useless" its that shes not respected by the narrative as an equal to the rest of the main cast, the loke arc and the celestial gate arc r, in my opinion her best moments and the fact that that's only 2 OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD THATS KINDA NOT GREAT FOR UR FEMALE LEAD???

i lied her moment with her dad in phantom lord is pretty dope too but I digress

idk give me lucy with deep rooted imposter syndrome bc she doesn't think shes worthy of following in her mothers footsteps bc she doesn't think shes strong enough so she tries to compensate in the rich girl fake it till you make it mentality but when she really starts to care about fairy tail she just sees how unapologetically GENUINE they are like UGH shes been surrounded by people who are fake or r obligated to be around her and these r the first people to like,, WANT to be around her just CUZ

i have hcs leave me alone djgkdghj

thank u for coming to my ted talk

[curedeity]

For the bingo: kyoko and/or mami?

While i may have surprisingly few boxes for kyoko colored in, its not from a lack of love. Kyoko, imo, is the best redeemed villain character ive ever seen. Its not about her apologizing to sayaka or whatever, its about her slowly understanding sayakas worldview and growing closer to her, how their differing philosophies intertwine as the world slowly beats them down. Kyokos redemption arc is just her choosing to change and try to help sayaka, such a simple thing and yet masterfully executed. Its even more impressive when kyoko really only had 4 episodes in the show to execute all that. Saying she didnt have enough screentime is a bit tough, especially considering what a short and tightly plotted show pmmm is, but i really think kyoko couldve used a few more scenes to show what she does when shes alone, shes normally only with another character.

She does work very well off of whatever character shes paired with though. She and sayaka have (imo) the best dynamic in the entire show, what with how much they impact each other and how their dynamic builds up over time. Kyoko also has great chemistry with madoka despite having only one episode together. I know theres a manga of her and mami somewhere which i really want to read. (Rebellion spoilers for the rest of the paragraph) I also love how she and homura get to grow close in rebellion. I just wish rebellion had given time to kyoko and madoka, and kyoko and mami, but it isnt a huge problem.

Basically, i love kyoko a lot and what she means in the series. Her arc is incredible and she works well off of anyone she comes in contact with. The only problem is that i think the show doesnt give her a chance to show off what she can be like solo.

Mami. Gosh, this feels lkke payback for me giving you her. Shes such a hard character to describe.

First off minor point not everyone is wrong about mami im mostly joking bc i really hc her as aroace. Shes got so many aroace vibes. Shes the character through which i truly understood what relationship envy was. But i dunno if i wanna say all her ships are bad or anything yknow. They just dont work for me. So mostly that point is kinda a joke.

Also ghsjfnnsks so hard to choose whether shes wasted potential and not enough screentime. To say those things would i think imply something in the writing wasted her, and i dont think so. She is a character with very little of an arc, very little time, but she dows a lot in that time and is incredibly important to how the rest of the show plays out. Plotwise, i think shes used perfectly. I think what redeems her short tome is that they strongly characterize her in short moments. That scene in episode 10 reveals so much about how mami views the world, and makes so much sense. Not to mention how much they let mami do in rebellion. Its clear they have a strong characterization of mami and show it off whenever possible.

She did get done dirty by the creators though, she did not need to be fanserviced in rebellion. Shes a middle schooler.

Other than that i find her very interesting to think about but i will admit she is my lest favorite magical girl in pmmm. Which means shes still an incredible character, but the weakest in her cast.

EDIT: i forgot to mention i love her dynamic with madoka but idk if thats necessarily where she works best. Its just fun.

[the-angst-lord]

So I watch the first 3 seasons of TDP and here are some thoughts (so spoilers)

- Not much to say about Ezran. He is bby, and is doing great with his new adoptive parents. But I would like to see animals just adopting him as their own, that’d be real cute (or vice versa) 

-Same with Rayla but let her have her 4 parents back, she doesn’t deserve this she is bby. (Although I kinda wanted Viren to capture her into a coin as maybe a driving force for the next season) 

- Callum is bby as well. And I really want him to become the avatar and learn all the primal magics. But I also want him to find a way around using life for Dark Magic. There’s a lot of potential there. Even though a really strong foundation for the show is the relationships with the characters I kind of want to see him go solo for a little while traveling the world to learn more about magic. I think he has enough character to hold his own for a few solo episodes. (ALSO DOES NO ONE ELSE THINK IT’S HILARIOUS THAT SOKKA - WHO IS A SCIENCE BUFF- IS A MAGE PROTAGONIST-) 

- Viren (WHO IS A TERRIBLE FATHER WTF) has an out. He can just take Claudia and just go right now to somewhere remote. She literally is doing everything for her father’s sake (literally killed someone to bring daddy back), and while I’m here for a possible villain arc. She is still bby and I do not want a repeat of a Morgana like from Merlin. (She too, has a good arc, but it was still sad af to see her descend from a hero to villain)

- I think, and I can’t prove this at all, that Viren killed his wife. It’s just a feeling because Claudia’s abandonment issues start and end with her absent mother that she seemingly hasn’t seen in years. I feel like they’re probably going to come back to that. (And yeah mama Claudia said, stay with your bro and dad. But who's to say that wasn’t just an illusion or Viren didn’t just kill her afterward) I think it may be why he has a stronger bond to Claudia, because she resembles her mother. (HC that Claudia looks like her mum, but Soren has her personality)  

- Soren is good boy, pls don’t let anything bad happen to him, I love him so much. 

- I really hope Runann is the type of character who is cold to everyone else but soft with his husband. Also, he’s an objectively bad dad for endorsing the bby elf daughter into an assassin career. His husband said it too. 

-Ethari had me at “Trees to meet you” and I would die for him. I just really want to see him and Callum be goofs together. Please have him be dad to his future son in law, Callum needs a father figure that won’t die on him. 

- I can’t prove it, but I have a feeling that Dark magic came from Aaravos, or the druids in general. Like, they just gave it to them, and just noped out. 

- Amaya and her boi, and her gf are so fucking valid. I want more screen time of her being an aunt to her babies. We were all robbed. 

-Someway, somehow, I want Ellis and Ava to return and be friends with Ezran. They were too cute. 

-Also I think Viren put Harrow in the bird. 

Edit: Okay nevermind, I checked the wiki and king daddy is a confirmed dead. So Pip is probably the only witness to dad’s murder. So I hope he’ll come back soon. 

[movienotesbyzawmer]

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

December 9: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

(previous notes: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace)

Source: Blu-ray release, the box set with all six Lucas-era movies (2D)

I feel like in recent years I've seen a lot of rhetoric claiming that this is the worst of all the Star Wars movies. But I've always felt like the prequels improve as they go, at least a little. Like, Hayden Christiensen might not be especially good, but he's an improvement on Jake Lloyd. Is there less of the childish stuff in this movie? Let's press play and find out.

Opening crawl is first mention of Count Dooku; seems like the previous stuff was resolved and a new story is beginning. Maybe that's why it's common for people to recommend skipping Episode I, like it's not actually necessary.

We also at this point in the natural chronology don't know anything about clones. Just the title here.

Another decoy-Amidala, but this one gets blowed up right away. And that's Rose Byrne, right?

0:07:30 - Obi-wan does a "oh… oh yes…. Mm mm mm mm mm mm" thing which is stupid and I don't like it.

Wait, no Rose Byrne is a silent handmaiden lady I guess. Unless they're clonesies. Are they clonesies?

Hey, a glimpse of Coruscant's colorful nightlife scene! Or at least some commercial advertisements. Feels like we don't see much of the lives of regular folk of Coruscant much.

Super pretty imagery of this city at night with its traffic and lights and I know I say that every time but it's great.

0:14:30 - Obi-wan shooting himself through a hole in the window in pursuit of that flying robot villain is exciting! And then he just hangs onto it, and then the sniper snipes him off it and he just falls and falls! This is a good action scene.

Then later, Anakin just jumps and falls and falls on purpose like and it's fun to watch.

0:20:00 - Does the sniper have a weird disguise that goes away when she turns her head? Is that what I saw?

"This weapon is your life" says Ewan McGregor doing his best impression of Alec Guinness. I think it was supposed to be funny. And I think it succeeds. Helps to remember that EG's natural accent is Scottish. And you know what? Maybe a little bit ago when I didn't like EG's hammy delivery, I should respect that he's embracing the need for him to embody a young version of Alec Guiness's character, figuring out what that would look like while honoring the director's vision.

They're in a nightclub, and I think there's some genuinely imaginative vision around what people are doing in there.

Ooh! The sniper got sniped by someone else, and the shot of that second sniper zipping away on a jetpack is I like it.

Senator Amidala gives Jar Jar the important job of substitute senator while she goes and hides. Yeah right. Not very credible.

Now Anakin is venting to Amidala in a way that shows how cocky he is. He does the flirtation stuff so that we'll think he's sexy like Han Solo, but also visibly flawed with impatience. Meh. Okay.

Whoa, Rose Byrne just did some acting! She spontaneously shed a tear in a way that looked authentic! Acting… in a Star Wars prequel!

0:31:50 - A greasy spoon diner! I don't remember this. Obi Wan is doing some intel gathering and George Lucas decided to go all in on having this be a 50's-style neon urban railcar slop counter!

The romance. Anakin and Amidala. GL is also going all in on the overtness of that plot. Maybe it's fine? Anakin seems like a horny and awkward teen with a huge crush on someone out of his league but he's going for it anyway. Maybe we'll be convinced that she'd succumb to his charms?

0:39:00 - We're back on Naboo… this scene is oddly non-CGI-looking. Did they film this in a real place with that actual architecture?

The tension they're setting up between Anakin and Amidala is moving in a direction of NOT growing fonder of each other. She looks irritated, and rightly so. This is a move that experienced romance plot makers make, but will GL pull it off?

Meanwhile Obi-Wan is doing spycraft, going to the clone planet place and pretending he's the one who ordered the whatever. "That's why I'm here!" Kinda funny.

0:44:45 - Okay, another A&A scene. He has that line about sand getting everywhere. She looks really damn fly. They kiss a bit and then she changes her mind. See, this is a weak link in the romance plot. We don't buy it. She's not such a sucker that she'd want to kiss him now. She didn't go, "oh he was so charming when he talked about where sand goes that now I'm not only less annoyed by his churlishness but I'm actually turned on". Or did she.

There's something about Obi-Wan's intel gathering, realizing that this huge army of clones is being put together, that's very James Bond-y. I mean that in a good way.

Naboo countryside is hella pretty.

Oh ick. A very very stupid romance scene just happened. See, Anakin fell off a blob creature and it looked like he was hurt! This worried Amidala! She ran to him but it turned out he was okay! They laughed and laughed at this merry misunderstanding and rolled around together! Oh merry! And…. SCENE.

Now Obi-Wan and Jango Fett are having a fight on a platform place and it's pretty exciting and still kind of like a Bond movie. Even more so because of "gadgets" like the devices on JF's outfit. And a dippy little "this is not good" comment from Obi-Wan that would fit in okay coming out of 007.

A&A go to Tatooine and talk to the salvage dealer who used to own Anakin. I like where that CGI character visibly starts to recognize the grown-up Anakin.

Obi-Wan followed JF & Son to a pretty red planet with an asteroid field and it's fucking beautiful and they do this wicked sound effect with bombs and it looks and sounds mother fucking amazing. Seriously god damn. The SOUND.

1:11:40 - They're at what will be the moisture farm of Luke, et al. "I'm Owen Lars and this is my GIRLFRIEND Beru." See, because this is BEFORE they're married. She's JUST his GIRLFRIEND.

1:14:20 - Okay, they just did a weird thing where A&A have an exchange, then hug. But the camera just shows their SHADOWS. And Anakin's shadow looks like he maybe kind of has some semblance of a VADER HELMET. I'm not even that convinced that that's what they were going for. If it actually conveyed that, it'd be cooler. As is, it's a little awkward. But I wouldn't discourage a director from going for this kind of thing.

Anakin found the Tusken Raider camp where they'd brought his mom and he found her just in time for her to die. Like she was just hanging on long enough for him to witness her death. Melodramatic. Then he goes and slaughters everyone… this turns out to be important because it's the catalyst for him turning dark, but it's sort of a weak explanation for something so important.

So HC just did a rage monologue about how he killed everyone, and okay it's not good, but I really don't think it's HC that isn't good. I think he did his very best with really dumb writing.

1:34:30 - Ooh, we're back in that neat senate hall. Jar Jar was suckered into proposing that Palpatine be given special powers, and it's super easy and it just works, and the Jedi are like "oh, hm, bummer". I'm just not impressed with the story.

A&A have arrived on Geonosis and it's quickly quite actiony and rather like a video game where they have to fight robots and hop on platforms at just the right time. I dig it.

It's a little odd now… so I already forgot how A&A got captured in the video game factory place, but they're quickly hustled to an execution arena to be munched to death by monsters before a delighted audience. With Obi-Wan. Just a little odd, but now it's pretty fun action.

Oh yeah, Mace Windu cut Jango Fett's right head off! Forgot that. Another case of an interesting villain ending disappointingly. Except that it's important because his "son" witnesses it and looks vengeance-y.

1:56:40 - Yoda heroically shows up to save the good guys with a force of soldiers that look kind of like Stormtroopers. Those are clones, right? I guess so, but the movie didn't quite ensure we know that. I mean, if they're going to treat the audience like children with their jokes, maybe they could extend that same expectation to plot explanations.

Okay, so now they're in a much bigger battle. I like the flying thing that delivers a walking tank thing! Lots of exciting things to look at. It's not that clear which side is which, not by looking at the battle, but maybe that doesn’t matter too much.

They shoot down a globe-shaped ship as it's taking off and it's pretty. So is lots of this battle stuff.

How does Anakin have a lightsaber now? His was broken earlier. I'm probably not the first to ask that. I probably overlooked the explanation. Seems like they trimmed stuff out of this part of the movie to improve the pacing.

2:07:50 - This is the part that worked well enough that it's probably the main factor in holding this movie's reputation above that of Episode I: the light saber duel with Yoda! Those of us who had played the Dark Forces PC games were already familiar with how it would look to see a Yoda-type wailing on someone with a light saber, but it was a pleasant surprise for many, and it definitely worked.

Then Dooku escapes on a ship that does a really sweet-looking panel-unfurling thing. Love it. And then he goes to Coruscant. Very visibly. Which is for me to love some more.

The movie ends right after that, with Yoda observing that it's dumb to think of this as a victory because now the Clone War has started. Then we get suitably disturbing imagery of the Clone Army being imposing with, significantly, the Imperial March in the background. It's okay. Then a shot of A&A getting hitched. With, a little less significantly, the new tragic-love theme in the background which John Williams was probably pretty pleased with. And over. Okay.

Yeah, better than Episode I. Less childish. Although it's harder to point to a climax, it somehow seems less anti-climactic than Ep1. No less impressive visually, but with new locales compared with the first one. And it's true that you can get all the information you need by starting here instead of with the first one.

(next: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith)