#not like they were bad and overall there were plenty of strong moments

[villainvillain]

maybe my expectations were too high but overall i feel a bit underwhelmed by those two episodes

[jeanjauthor]

What would be the top five non-natural (like a river or forests) things for a land to have that makes it super rich? in medieval times

Ouff...non-natural?

A really good agrarian situation, so that there is a food surplus instead of a lack. This includes good farming techniques and good animal husbandry practices, fertilizing, irrigation, flood management, coppicing skills for renewable wood resources, etc. Food surplus means that everyone has good nutrition and thus the strength to take on more tasks beyond the hard-scrabble life of hand-to-mouth subsistence living. In the latter situation, all of your time & attention is devoted to getting barely enough to eat to survive, but if you have good agrarian practices and take the time to educate yourself & others (observation, experimentation, sharing of ideas), then you can gradually turn things around, making acquiring a surplus of food much, much easier, freeing up your time and giving you more energy for other things.

A really good attitude of being charitable toward the less fortunate, so that the excess foods and other goods don't go to waste. A society that encourages sharing and discourages hoarding is going to be richer overall than one where a few control all the resources while simultaneously refusing to share them. This could include the royals, but it also could simply include a better-off neighbor who shares with one whose crops were wrecked by a bad flood.

A strong crafting industry, so that there are plenty of people who know how to build safe houses, good furniture, sturdy baskets, leak-proof barrels, excellent pottery for cooking and food storage, tiles or thatching for leak-resistant roofing, fiber crafts for durable clothing and stout ropes that don't break easily, so on and so forth. Once you have enough spare food that you don't have to spend every single moment getting that food to eat, you will have the time and the energy to practice various techniques and find ways to improve everything you make, which leads to a better quality of life overall for everyone over time.

A leadership that genuinely cares about making things better for everyone, (and by that, I mean the nobles & royals, clergy, mayors & burghers, clan leaders, etc). This includes trying to figure out ways to mitigate and manage natural disasters like flooding, making retention ponds for irrigation in case of drought, encouraging the basic freedoms of people so that they're able to go find careers that they honestly enjoy rather than being essentially a slave to a plot of land, and taxing just enough to pay for these public works (along with paying for the upkeep of defensive forces) without over-taxing the people. If all you have are leaders that hog all the resources to themselves, don't care about protecting their people from wild animals or enemy raiders, etc, you are not going to create and maintain a land that is rich. Personal wealth =/= national wealth, and all that.

Good relations & alliances with other groups. And not just for national safety reasons, though that one is perfectly valid! No, this is for trading reasons. No single location is ever going to "have it all" in terms of natural resources. During the Bronze Age, the only location within a couple thousand miles of the Mediterranean that had tin deposits existing closer than 500+ miles of copper was in the south of of the British Isles (like 80 miles at most, iirc). So in order to make good quality bronze, you had to be good neighbors, good trading partners, etc, with people far away from you as well as within your own country / territory. During the Middle Ages, the best wool was considered to come from the British Isles, but the best weavers were in Flanders on mainland Europe. The best dyes came from various places all across the land, so if you wanted high-quality clothes in bright colors (and contrary to Hollywood's over-use of grim-dark, medieval people LOVED bright colors), you'd have to have good relations with several nations to be able to get all the quality ingredients to make that fancy outfit to wear to the next feast or festival. But if you're at war with England, you're going to have a hard time getting your hands on their best-quality wool without, y'know, engaging in combat to get it.

So those are what I'd pick to be the 5 top non-natural resources a land should have to be able to be rich.

And yes, people are a resource. People are your #1 resource, if they have plenty of food & education, and are protected from dangers by good leadership type people.

...If you wanted natural resources, I'd say a decent supply of safely potable water for drinking, cooking, and irrigation, good soil for growing food, plenty of wood for building stuff, some mineral deposits for metals and things like limestone for making plaster & mortar, and terrain that mitigates bad weather while still providing good transportation routes--aka lots of sun-facing farmland but with like some mountains or hills on the windward sides to blunt the forces of winter storms, and maybe some rivers that are navigable by boat as well as good solid ground for making transportation roads.

[professorhayforbreath]

my blog probably gives the impression that i think the show is bad as a whole, but the reason this show frustrates me so much is because it's definitely NOT 100% bad

like... the movies are bad adaptations. everyone knows it. they have some great moments (an embarrassing amount of which are better than the show lol) but overall they are widely considered blatantly bad adaptations. it's easier to make peace with that

the show, however, is far less consistent and i find it much more difficult to wrap my head around. there are parts that are bad and i'm happy to say that with my chest, but underneath numerous questionable-at-best writing choices, there are glimpses of really, really good stuff. the first few episodes had so much promise—percy burning blue jellybeans and praying to sally, the consensus song. these are brand new additions but they're good, they capture the spirit of the story and characters successfully

and sprinkled throughout the rest of the show are other strong choices! for example in the last episode i really liked that they set the betrayal scene during the fireworks, it created a fantastic ambience. i liked that grover left camp at the same time as percy and annabeth so the three of them got to part ways as a trio on half-blood hill

there are good changes being made, but they're almost all small in the grand scheme of things. in my opinion, the bigger, more consequential things are where they missed the most marks, and that prevented me from fully enjoying the show as a long time book fan

when it comes to writing nothing frustrates me more than wasted potential. mediocre writing is one thing, but mediocre writing that could have clearly been so much better is INFURIATING. i don't dislike the show because i wanted it to be a 1:1 recreation of the book, i dislike it because it's just okay when it could have been great. it so EASILY could have been great and i don't get why it's not. a lot of the writing choices are just baffling in their mediocrity, and sometimes technical weakness, when compared to the well written and effective source material. i wish i could have been a fly on the wall in that writers room when they were making some of these decisions, seriously

the cast is phenomenal. their budget is more than sufficient. they marketed it as a "redemption from the movies", as the adaptation that would finally give fans book accuracy. and the show we got is... fine. it's all right. it's not all that book accurate even though it was advertised as such. there's plenty to like but it comes hand in hand with plenty to dislike. it's only natural for people to be disappointed

i know my critiques can come off as venomous but please never mistake my harshness as hating for the sake of it. i adore the original pjo books so i really wanted to adore the show as well, but unfortunately i can't get there yet. "yet" being the key word because there's still plenty of time for this show to pick up the slack, and for that reason i'm glad it got renewed. i don't have the most faith the writers will listen to the feedback but i'm rooting for them to prove me wrong

[nothingwithdignity]

I don't feel like I have anything new to say about the end of Campaign 3 that hasn't already been said better by someone else but that doesn't mean that writing it out is any less cathartic. Character and story analysis have been a large part of my fandom since the beginning and I miss writing meta but there just hasn't been much of anything this campaign for me to sink my teeth into. I also don't want to be overly critical because at the end of the day, there are things about this show that I enjoy and there's a reason I have persevered through a three year campaign that I knew a couple weeks in would never be my favorite. That being said, even with a bit of distance many of my overall thoughts are negative ones. There are plenty of wonderful moments from this campaign and these characters but this post is meant to be about broad strokes.

From the very beginning it felt like there was a disconnect between the characters the players chose and the premise of the campaign. If any of the characters had been able to grow, this is something that might have been largely overcome by the end of the campaign. However, every character in this campaign remained almost entirely stagnant. Almost every character is at the end, almost indistinguishable from who they were at the beginning. This isn't an inherently bad thing, every campaign has one or two characters like this and it doesn't detract from it. The problem arises when most or all of the characters fall into this pattern.

Part of this happened because certain players are incredibly uncomfortable with making the big choices. They are happy to lean into them if someone else makes the first move, but they are never going to take that step on their own unless there is a clear, black and white, objectively correct answer. Again, not an inherently bad thing, every game needs a balance of player types but this campaign was built to be shades of gray and those black and white players were put at the forefront while our traditional risk takers took a step back. It was a doomed combination.

This campaign also struggled from its over-reliance on previous iterations. It's always fun to see where our heroes end up, and to see the long term effects they have on the world, but having them be so directly involved is a disservice to those whose story it was supposed to be. I'll probably write an entire post on this alone but the short version boils down to two points. 1. Previous characters are so loved that it puts extreme limits on the choices current characters are going to be able or allowed to make and 2. It made it very difficult to maintain story momentum in the way they needed to for a long form campaign.

The last point I'm going to make for now is that the lack of consequences for the characters that were supposed to be central to this campaign was extremely frustrating throughout but especially so when it came to the finale. I've already talked about this, I will continue to talk about this, this is fundamental to my interactions with this campaign. Part of why this show has been my go to for actual play is because it has historically allowed for consequences to play out and stick. That didn't happen this campaign and worse than that, the lack of consequences messed with the story telling that make other campaigns so strong. I get that because this is their DnD game first and foremost there is going to be some level of "happy ending" prioritized but if you are going to build an entertainment behemoth off of your DnD game there needs to be some level of commitment to the fundamentals of story telling that made your stories successful in the first place.

I'm just going to wrap up by saying, I think it is important to be able to criticize the stories and the media that you love so please don't take this as me hating everything that CR has done for the last several years. I am still a fan, I am still very much looking forward to what comes next and I will continue to revisit and enjoy the first two campaigns. I know they have the ability to make something beautiful so I'm hoping that whatever comes next is given the space to be everything it can be.

[where-dreamers-go]

“Adorably Okay” Bridge Carson x Reader

(A/N: Based on my Imagine: Bridge hearing your thoughts about him. I did not expect to do multiple revisions during and after typing it all up. Warnings: Reference to beginnings of a slight panic attack. Use of (Y/N). Word Count: 1,093 words)

Days could mostly be weird. It wasn’t their fault and it was mainly one’s perspective. Such was how people viewed each day in life.

Your day had been pretty average. Keeping a schedule. No big surprises. People, fellow cadets, around you were overall in pleasant spirits.

No big tests today apparently, you thought.

Sure, you weren’t on a path to become a Power Ranger, but that suited you just fine. There were plenty of other responsibilities. Ones you gladly shared with others throughout your time at Headquarters.

You saw enough of your crush, an actual Power Ranger, regardless of your job position. Lucky you. Your crush, Bridge Carson, was as nice as a dream. The two of you had talked before loads of times, but you hadn’t pursued anything beyond friendship.

Honestly, you weren’t sure how. But you were happy. Fully content to have a friendship with the most cute and intelligent person you knew.

And so darn adorable.

Walking from your room with a book of choice, you made your way through the halls, intent on returning the book to a friend. A cadet, busy as others.

Thankfully, the walk wasn’t far, even if S.P.D. Headquarters was enormous.

It was a wonder then, when a familiar pairing of grey and green caught your attention.

“Hey, Bridge,” you greeted as he started walking up to you with a smile.

That smile could brighten any day.

“Hi.” Bridge gave a short wave and quickly begun talking once he stood in front of you. “I heard your thoughts again. You think I’m adorable. How come—.”

A large book slipped from your fingers and dropped to the floor.

Everything in you seemed to go into a static mode, like you were somewhere between panic and complete shutdown. Worried thoughts trying to consume you.

He knows I like him? No. He can’t. What do I do? Why’s he here to tell me? Does he want me to stop?

“(Y/N)?” Bridge tilted his head. “(Y/N)?” His dark eyebrows pinched together in concern.

Upon Bridge’s announcement, it became impossible to function outside of your own mind. You were incredibly ill prepared.

He knows? Your vision hardly picked up details of the flooring. Worry started overtaking you. Pulling you away from your more rational thoughts.

Black-gloved hands grabbed a hold of your arms.

“Hey.” Bridge’s voice was gentle. “Can you hear me?” Thumbs rubbed small circles along your uniform.

He can’t just talk about my thoughts. Gah! Just…you can hear him. Answer him. Something. He’s worried.

Taking a moment or two, you were finally able to nod.

“Okay. Good. Uh.”

Just breathe, you thought. It’s okay. It’s okay. Don’t freak him out. He just wanted to talk. It’s Bridge not…something bad.

He took a step closer. “Here.” Bridge placed one your hands on the center of his chest. “Follow my breathing.”

Heat whipped through you in a confusing mixture of surprised panic and nervous excitement.

Okay?

“Breathe in.” His chest rose underneath your palm.

Staring where he held your hand to him, you copied his breathing. It went a little shaky. Yet you made progress.

“Breathe out.”

Exhaling, you felt the beating of your friend’s heart. Your crush’s heartbeat. Strong and uncharacteristically quick.

It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong. You closed your eyes and centered yourself. With Bridge as your anchor, you knew you were safe. No matter what surprising or intrusive thoughts made themselves known, you would be okay. Truly and honestly.

Out of all words to react to. He can’t know specifically how I feel from just that word. Goodness. And he wouldn’t be mean about it.

You swallowed.

“Please don’t surprise me like that.” You muttered, feeling calmer.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was soft. “Are you all right, now?”

“Yeah… My mind took a turn.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just thinking about you again.”

Your eyes snapped open. “Again?”

“Yeah. Thinking about what we ate yesterday, about what we were reading and which of your thoughts I’ve heard. You know.” His bright brown eyes could hardly keep steady eye contact with you while he spoke.

Glancing down to his chest, you focused on how the rate of his heart beat sped up. Neither of you made a move closer nor away.

“So, it’s okay that I think you’re adorable?” You asked, boldly keeping your hand on him.

Just breathe. This is new. Asking him is fine.

His other hand slipped down to hold your free hand. “Yes.”

Oh. Oh, he likes it?

“When I found you, I wanted to ask: how come you haven’t told me? Out loud. I wanted to know.”

The vulnerable conversation had opened. Both of you equally giving.

“I don’t know.” You answered truthfully. Sort of.

It’s not weird to call someone ‘adorable’, in general. If you know them. And he wanted to know why. Wants to.

“Do you want me to?” You asked quietly.

However empty the hallway appeared, sound carried. There was no telling who could walk by. Who might overhear or see.

The conversation curved closer to the heart.

Goodness and the universe knew how much Bridge meant to you. How much you liked him. Adored him. Even more so after he calmed you.

“Yes and I do like when I hear your thoughts too.” Bridge answered, his hand pressing yours more firmly on his chest. “And I really like you. I hope it’s alright to tell you now.”

Your mouth fell open slightly.

Was he truly telling you? Confessing to you?

Your feelings for him were reciprocated?

“Do you like me?” He asked timidly from your silence.

Those warm brown eyes pulled at your heartstrings. Tender and caring. Always attentive when you were near.

“I do. I really like you too.” You whispered.

Releasing both of your hands, Bridge held your face gently. His gaze and smile were just as soft. The speed of his heart was the only contrast.

He likes me. You thought happily, he’s adorable.

“So adorable.” You murmured.

Breathing out a small, delighted laugh, Bridge leaned forward and kissed you tenderly.

Your day had not gone weirdly nor had it been predictable. The day held warmth and good intentions.

A forgotten book.

Two friends standing in a hallway.

Tasks were on standby.

What was a few more kisses shared between two people?

“You’re so adorable and—”

He kissed you.

“—incredibly smart.” You continued and kissed him back.

Bridge smiled against your lips again as you played with his hair.

He was your adorable Power Ranger.

~~~

(If you love my writings and want to support me, I have a Ko-Fi where you can buy me a coffee. I would be eternally grateful. coffee

Best wishes and happy reading.)

~~~~~

DreamerDragon Tags: @

Bridge Carson Tags: @

**Let me know if you would like to be tagged in insert readers, either through replies, ask, or message.**

[h0ney-gl0ws]

Fire Emblem Boys! Parenting Headcanons!

Here’s a short collection of headcanons of how the fire emblem boys are as parents! Includes characters from fire emblem engage and three houses!

Characters are: Kagetsu, Ashe, Claude, and Diamant

Word Count: 896 (approx)

Kagetsu: I saw a video of a man doing this challenge to hang from a pull up pole for 100s, and he did it with a baby strapped to his chest, yeah, that’s Kagetsu

Kagetsu would totally give his babies rubber knives and stuff for fun. He wants his kids to be powerful fighters when they’re grown up after all.

Speaking of that, Kagetsu would totally sword fight his kids once they’re old enough and have at least learned the basics.

Kagetsu when his kids are older: “Finally a worthy opponent, our battle will be legendary!”

Kagetsu sometimes would go too far during training sessions, and his wife(you ;) ) would have to tell him to reel it back in. Kagetsu would feel bad and let his kids win after that. Pretending to be real hurt by their hits and all that. “Oh wow! Look at how strong you guys have gotten! You’re able to take even me down.”

Kagetsu’s wife would totally step in to have some fun as well with play fighting Kagetsu. And it turns into a real fun family bonding moment. “Aghast, my own love betraying me?! How could you!” Lots of giggles from the kids during and after.

Overall, very good dad 9/10.

Ashe: Oh, you know he would just be the sweetest dad ever. Ashe’s kids would just be the cutest little angels.

He’d teach them how to cook and all teaching sessions would end up being a giggle fest in the kitchen usually with flour all over the place.

Ashe’s kid: pours 90% of milk on the floor and 10% into the bowl. Ashe: Great job buddy! :D

You know he would teach his kids to have the same morals as him. In that everyone deserves to be shown kindness and to have a second chance. He doesn’t shy away his past from them, and wants to make sure they understand how his late adopted father’s kindness changed his life for the better.

He really cant resist when his kids come home holding bunches of kittens or puppies, and even on one occasion a snake, and you’ll have to step in to be the voice of reason like “no you cannot keep 12 cats in our pantry, put them back.” Lolol

Ashe would give you the puppy dog eyes too when your kids start to pout, and it definitely didn’t work and you definitely didn’t keep one of the kittens

In conclusion, cinnamon roll dad 10/10

Claude: Claude’s not a regular dad, he’s a cool dad XD

He wants his kids to be comfortable on wyverns so he takes them flying often. You worry of course, but he always assures you he is right there with them, and they are perfectly safe. Plus seeing the kids excitement as they try to explain to you how cool flying is, eases your worry plenty.

Claude’s kids would end up being little rascals, running around the halls of the palace, playing pranks on royal staff. Usual rambunctious kid stuff.

Claude has almost certainly assisted in their little tirades, especially on the ones directed at Lorenz. He once got them to replace all of the sugar in Lorenz’s tea with salt. Claude got quite the earful after from him, but Lorenz couldn’t prove anything.

That’s not to say that Claude can’t be a responsible parent when he needs to be. If his kids were getting involved in something that would put them or others in danger, you bet the stern dad voice is coming out and he’s teaching them why they can’t be doing that.

Very nice dad overall, his family wishes he could spend more time with them, but I digress 7/10

Diamant: This one is a difficult one for me, as I try to portray them as the best dads they can be, however I see Diamant’s best as…rocky.

I feel like he would be overprotective, he’s very worried about anything bad happening to them. As a result of this he can be a bit overbearing.

On the other side of the spectrum, when’s he’s not being overbearing he can be distant. His anxiety over running the kingdom, and his own insecurity about being a father can cause him to push people away, and as a result you would be doing a lot of the parenting.

Of course all of these tendencies come from a place of love. He wants to be the best father he can, he’s just not great at navigating his emotions.

Every night, however, when your kids are tucked into bed you can hear him whispering stories about how great of a king his father was, and your kids fall asleep hearing tales of how amazing their grandfather was.

You also see them showing interest in his training. They love watching him train, and often times want to join him. which is great because he wants to teach all of his kids self defense. He wants them to be able to protect themselves when he’s not there after all.

In the end, his kids adore him even if he’s not the greatest parent at times, and you know that this is just another chapter of life you will be able to work through together. 5/10

[uboat53]

This came to me during a conversation with some friends and I need to flesh it out. Ready for a LONG RANT (TM)?

THE BOOMER PERSPECTIVE

Okay, first of all, I know, "not all Boomers". The point is not that all people in the Baby Boomer generation share this perspective (they don't) or that no one outside the Baby Boomer generation has this perspective (a surprising amount of them do). The point is that this is a perspective that developed in a specific place and in a specific time among a specific group of people and that is that it developed particularly among white members of the Baby Boomer generation because of specific circumstances of their childhood and young adulthood.

To summarize, what I'm calling The Boomer Perspective is the idea that peace, prosperity, and well-being are the natural and normal state of the world; they're what the world defaults to as long as people aren't actively trying to screw things up. The actions of the government, then, are generally assumed to be bad because they interfere with this natural and normal state of the world.

With that in mind, I want to explore exactly how this particular perspective developed, why it isn't entirely accurate, and what the effects have been that a large number of people subscribe to this perspective.

CHILDHOOD - THE 50'S AND 60'S

If you were white in the 1950s and 1960s, things were great. Housing was relatively cheap and widely available, jobs were plentiful and paid living wages, and household goods, including luxury goods like televisions, were increasingly available and affordable. Even more so, the childhood diseases that had ravaged previous generations were increasingly a thing of the past as was the expectation of famine and crop failure.

If you were a child during this period, this created a strong baseline expectation for you. This was a world in which just about anyone willing to do a day's work could fairly easily make a living and afford not only the basic things in life, but also occasional luxuries. Just as importantly, this was a world in which things like hunger and disease simply weren't major concerns.

Now, obviously there was a lot more going on in this time, but not the kinds of things that children would be aware of. Certainly there was the assassination of a president, but that created a moment of national unity and mourning rather than the kind of divisive response we tend to have today and racism, though severe, wasn't a daily issue for the nearly 80% of the population that was white because they were mostly segregated from it. A white child of that era would likely recall a time of general peace, prosperity, and a high level of overall well-being without a lot of controversy.

YOUNG ADULTOOD - THE LATE 60'S AND THE 70'S

After a baseline of a fairly peaceful, prosperous childhood, the white children of that time started to come of age in the late 60s. This is the period in life where things become less abstract and you become more aware of things like government and the systems that drive things in your life.

If you know your history, you're probably aware of a significant thing that happened in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the top levels of the government lied the country into a major foreign intervention that cost over 50,000 lives, wounded over 150,000, drafted over 3 million Americans, and irreversibly changed American society and perceptions of their government.

Then, as the US finally began to withdraw from Vietnam, an American president was found to have committed numerous crimes in the course of getting elected to his office, lied about it repeatedly, and was eventually forced to resign in disgrace, avoiding prosecution for those crimes only because of an incredibly controversial pardon by his hand-picked vice-president who became president after his resignation. The mid-70s were dominated by the Church and Pike Committees which uncovered decades of lies and abuse by the government across multiple administrations of both parties. Finally, the decade ended with the embarrassing overthrow of an American-backed regime in Iran and the embassy staff in that country being held hostage for over a year.

As you might imagine, this formative experience with national politics led to a fairly large degree of skepticism of the government.

BY YOUR POWERS COMBINED…

So what do we get when we take these two types of formative experiences and combine them together? We get a point of view that sees peace, prosperity, and high levels of well-being as the natural state of the world and generally views any action on the part of the government as actively working against that natural state of things.

Is that accurate?

THE REALITY OF THE SITUATION

What people often miss when they wax poetic about the 1950s and 60s is that, yes, it was a period of generally broad-based prosperity, but it was enabled by massive government intervention into just about every sector of life to a degree that would be almost unfathomable today. The government sponsored huge public works projects like the Eisenhower Interstate that provided lots of working-class jobs and created infrastructure the enabled private businesses to flourish and this was on top of the massive public investment of the New Deal and the Second World War which had created industry on a scale that the country had never seen before. Even more than that, the labor reforms of the New Deal and the Progressive Era had set up strong labor rights and protections that enabled workers and their unions to bargain for extremely favorable wages and working conditions.

And it doesn't stop there! Much of the peace and prosperity that defined the era was enabled by the government acting forcefully abroad. A lot of that isn't things we're very proud of today, things like regime changes orchestrated by the CIA, but a lot of it was also just the basic work of diplomacy. The US spent an extraordinary amount of effort making sure that war didn't break out across the world and setting up the international infrastructure that helped alleviate poverty and hunger and also guided the process of decolonization. Where war between nations had been extremely common before, the early Cold War period was absurdly peaceful by world standards. This was not only good for the people who lived there, but also created new markets just about everywhere for American goods and powered a lot of the prosperity here at home.

It was also around this time that a polio vaccine was developed and made widely available. Not long after that, the MMR vaccine was developed along with a number of other vaccines. In 1920, one out of every five children born in America died before the age of 5, by 1950 this number was one in twenty-five. The 1930s had also seen starvation and hunger as crop yields failed and people's incomes fell. By the 1950s, however, the federal government was regularly distributing surplus food to poor Americans and by 1960 hunger in America was considered to be a solved problem.

In other words, the 1950s and 60s were an extraordinarily unusual time in the history of this country and of the world, unusually peaceful and prosperous that is, and this was made possible largely by the unusually heavy hand of the government which taxed the wealthy at a rate between 70% and 90% and used the resulting proceeds to dramatically improve the lives of the majority of Americans.

Why didn't Baby Boomers know this? They were kids! Kids don't know about the systems and institutions that function behind the scenes, they just see the world around them. Unless you make a deliberate effort to correct your understanding after you grow up, your childhood understanding the world pretty much gets baked in. And let me tell you, it took a lot of effort to be able to really research those kinds of things in the days before the internet.

The narrative of the 1970s is also not quite correct. It is absolutely true that presidential power had gotten out of control and administration after administration had abused the powers given to them (or allowed long-time civil servants like J. Edgar Hoover to do so without restraint), but the vast majority of what the government did in that time was carried out by non-partisan civil servants executing the laws passed by Congress. This is a case where the narrative created by the top levels of government, particularly the political parts of it, has been applied to all of government regardless of its actual accuracy.

AND THAT LEADS TO…

It leads to cognitive dissonance is what it leads to! Look, if you dismantle large parts of the government and then expect conditions to exist that were only possible because of the existence of a large government, you'll be very frustrated that what you're doing isn't giving you the results you expected.

Like I said, people with the Boomer Perspective think that the default state of their world is peace and prosperity and they've been convinced that the government is, if not THE reason, a big part of the reason why their world doesn't reflect this. People with this perspective have, thus, been electing politicians for decades who promise to restrict or reduce the government and, while a significant chunk of the government exists, it is significantly reduced in its capacity.

Over the last 45 years, rather than peace and prosperity, we've seen ever-increasing income and wealth inequality, increasing social tensions at home, and a decline in the position of the United States abroad.

CONCLUSION/SUMMARY

Because of some very unusual conditions that were in place during their childhood, a perspective developed among mostly white Baby Boomers that the world was supposed to be a place of peace and prosperity for them and people like them. Their experience in their early adulthood then convinced them that the government was antithetical to that world, a perspective enabled by their childhood ignorance of the high level of government involvement in the peace and prosperity that they experienced.

Those with the Boomer Perspective (again, not all Boomers have this perspective and many who are not Boomers do, but it is a perspective that developed specifically in that generation due to the circumstances of their formative years) have consistently voted for politicians promising to restrict or reduce the government, believing that this would remove barriers to the peace and prosperity of the Boomer childhood, even as inequality has only continued to grow and fuel social conflict.

Needless to say, this perspective, while widely held across the country, particularly by white Americans, is based on a number of false premises and has not led to the results that they had hoped. I'm not sure, exactly, what the solution is, but hopefully knowing one of the roots of the problem can help address it.

[kurage02-cs]

This is my first post so I guess I have to establish some things.

Beyblade X. I love Beyblade X.

But— I have a few problems with the story. I’m not fully caught up to the story, since season two just started to air in my country like 3 weeks ago (I think?) and I missed some episodes.

First of all, Multi was kind of done dirty. Seriously, I felt bad for her when she lost to her sister. However, I get it, we need season two/more volumes. But seriously, couldn’t Multi at least win a SINGLE battle against Shiguru in the anime? We can have that and still have her lose overall.

Second thing, the battle between Ekusu and Chrome was a bit anti-climactic. Would have been fun to see Chrome at least gaining some points since it was a “First to get 4 points wins” game. It would have been more entertaining and we can have a bit more insanity on Ekusu’s end. And maybe, Ekusu’s beys could have been more damaged? Like having the ratchet chip? I’ve seen enough posts of people showing their very damaged beys to know that is possible.

Next, I can’t really judge it too much since I haven’t watched the episode where this happens, but this was a “get a load of this” moment for me. Kamen S. We all know who this is. Do we REALLY need another Kamen? I seriously thought the screenshots were edited.

Finally, Dran Sword Metal Coat: Blue (DSMC:B)is confusing. It is highly implied that Ekusu chipped off the metal coat of DSMC:B because he was too strong, but there are two problems I have with this. One, isn’t that logo thing on DSMC:B different from the one DS has? The colours are slightly different, but maybe this can be chalked up to the pigment becoming desaturated and discoloured overtime. The big problem comes in the form of the plastic. The plastic part on DS is blue, and the plastic part on DSMC:B is red. THAT’S the problem. I don’t think it is possible for a red plastic to turn a dark blue within 6 years (Ekusu got it when he was 7. We can assume he’s 13, it’s the common assumption. 13-7=6), so I think the whole “He chipped the metal coating off, DS and DSMC:B are the same.” is kind of confusing. But this one is a special nitpick, so I’ll let it slide.

At the end of the day, the problems will keep growing, but they aren’t as atrocious as the ones from other shows I watched. Keep in mind, the show’s demographic consists of mainly children, so we can’t exactly compare it to other works of a higher level. I love the show and there are plenty of things I admire about it, but there are some problems. (And before you ask the “What about Bird not being the protagonist?” thing, I’m going to talk about it in the future.)

[oddygaul]

Godzilla Minus One

I’ve been going through something of a Godzilla crash course for the past year or so. When I was pretty little, I think I once rented a VHS of the original Godzilla from my local library. I don’t remember almost anything, but I think the themes and talking went over my head and I was mostly disappointed he wasn’t punching another monster. Then, I got a McDonald’s toy of the 1998 Godzilla, which was in my regular school backpack rotation for a while, and... that was about the extent of my experience with the guy.

Two of my best friends, though, are huge Godzilla stans who grew up watching just about every movie that’s ever released. After discovering my innocence, they’ve taken it upon themselves to educate me in his big scaly ways.

Most of these screenings were well before I started keeping this journal, so I don’t have deep thoughts on them. We started with Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla - wasn’t impressed by the robotic human characters, but Kiryu is sick as fuck, no getting around it. Next was Anno’s Shin Godzilla - as a lifelong Evangelion fan, I was really tickled by how much the entire movie felt like an extended, live-action Operation Yashima sequence, and the half dozen remixes of Decisive Battle were the icing on the cake. Final Wars, despite clearly being made by some folks who had just seen The Matrix and wanted in on that action, was exactly my kind of schlock and I honestly can’t wait to rewatch it. Tokyo SOS was kind of forgettable? …outside of the scene where the rival punches a fly out of the air one inch from someone’s face, which I now do weekly. And finally, All Monsters Attack was a wild fever dream of a movie; the plot is about a child vividly hallucinating Godzilla fighting giant crabs and shit in order to deal with his own growth and confidence issues, and that all works… exactly as well as it sounds like it would work. Overall, I’ve certainly enjoyed my time with the franchise, but it’s certainly in a more, I dunno, popcorny way.

So color me surprised having seen Minus One and being genuinely impressed on all fronts!

This is easily the most compelling human storytelling out of all the Zils I’ve watched. To be honest, during the long gap between Godzilla’s introduction and his reappearance in the plot, I got so fully invested in the characters and the story that was unfolding, it was a little jarring having a big monster show up. The emotional core of the story, based around a found family trying to find meaning in their lives in a devastated, post-war Japan, was genuinely engaging, well-acted, and absorbing. I guess Godzilla being there is what got my butt into the seat, but I honestly wouldn’t have minded a more grounded take on this scenario/era either.

I quite liked that Godzilla’s design in this movie felt focused around his aquatic habitat - he felt very lithe, crocodilian and deadly in the water.

Similarly, after spending so much time digging into the hopelessness felt at large by the citizens we see, and the widespread devastation of Tokyo after the firebombing, Godzilla coming in and attacking Ginza felt like a gut punch. Typically, in the Godzillas I’ve watched, at least, the moment where Godzilla finally shows up and wrecks shop is a moment for the audience to cheer. You recognize that the horror and destruction he’s wreaking is bad, of course, but for one reason or another the blow is usually softened tonally. In Shin Godzilla, for example, we watch plenty of montages of Japan’s well-oiled, calm evacuation plans being carried out, so we’re not worried as much about the human toll. In the more creature feature entries, like Tokyo SOS, these type of scenes are more WWE throwdown than human catastrophe - the city’s really just backdrop, and it’s time to get hype. Minus One even has some moments like this, in my opinion - the scene when Godzilla first engages the battleship and they cut off his iconic roar has strong “real done with your shit” vibes that make the film’s debut atomic breath a real crowd-pleaser.

But man, the Ginza scene? Absolutely devastating. Panicked, weary crowds, scores of people visibly trampled underfoot, the black rain calling back to Japan’s nuclear strikes… the entire scene is designed to be a nightmare, and I thought it was a powerful decision in a franchise movie to make the viewer squirm and wish the titular character hadn’t shown up at all.

“Godzilla, bro, look. My job? The job I’m working to feed this orphan who showed up on the doorstep of my dead parents' house? That job is shooting active mines out of the ravaged coasts of my country on a fishing boat at great personal risk to myself and my only friends. Did we really need this? Was this warranted? Could you just like, fuck off?”

Overall, I just can’t get over how strong the character work and theming was. There’s a lot of musing on the value of a life, survivor’s guilt, and people grappling with the aftermath of a lost war while figuring out how they can still make a difference in their community. In the opening scene, you can already tell from the conversation between the main character and the engineer that they both understand the war is over, and yet Shikishima carries guilt with him the entire movie about not committing the meaningless sacrifice his country asked of him. He’s absolutely wracked with guilt, feeling that he’ll be rejected by society for failing - and to a degree he is, especially in the first act. After that, though, time and time again, the movie shows a community coming together, refusing to let each other give in and succumb to guilt, and finding ways to rebuild their home and move forward on their own terms, rather than under the direction of a government that's abandoned them.

The standout scene for me was Shikishima’s trauma coming to a peak when he wakes up at night and questions if he’s been dead all along, wondering if his current life is just a hallucination. I feel like I’ve seen that exact scene or moment in other media before, but it always felt like empty words, unconvincing; here, the buildup and acting was just so stellar that I fully resonated with this broken man and bought every word.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

SUPERHERO CHOOSINESS

It’s strongly being suggested that the superhero movie bubble is bursting…

There’s the more mixed critical reception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s remarkably stuffed but hasty Phase Four, and then there’s the equally fast Phases Five and Six… whose ending feature AVENGERS: SECRET WARS is still set to open in the summer of 2026… Meaning that this Multiverse Saga only will last five years, compared to the eleven year span from IRON MAN to SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME… Like, wow!

And not only are there a lot of movies, but there were plenty of shows. So many from 2021-2022 alone: WANDAVISION, THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER, LOKI Season One, WHAT IF…? Season One, HAWKEYE, MOON KNIGHT, MS. MARVEL, and SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW. In addition to those, you had the “Special Presentation” featurettes WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY HOLIDAY SPECIAL.

For me, it was starting to become homework to keep up with what was going on. And this is coming from someone who has seen all but two Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in a theater. The two that I missed were THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.

Then of course you have the DC movie-verse, which is being hard-reset in a few years under the new leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran. Prior to that, it was an always-changing mess of visions and intentions. Faithfuls kept up with the series, some left afterwards because of these changes, general audiences seemed to stick around for most of the movies. It’s a clustercuss of its own, and further discussing that will likely get me into hot waters… But what happened with The Rock and his apparent strong-arming of the DC movie-verse with his BLACK ADAM project and plans really shows just what kind of directionless mess the whole thing was for ten years…

So we’re now left with a few movies that were locked and ready to go before the Gunn/Safran take-over, the first of which, SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS… Opened with roughly $30m. A pretty blah take, and well below the $53m take the first SHAZAM! took in back in 2019. It’s been said before, but the whole “these won’t matter in the long run” attitude has probably deflated attendance… But many other things do as well… People being choosier with movies, ticket and concession prices being absurdly high… A statistic in 2014 stated that the average American family hits the flicks four times a year. I believe it. I’ve been working at a movie theater since August of 2015, and I see what I charge my customers… Both movies and for snacks… Yeah, I do not wonder why… Especially in the pandemic era, that people are choosier with movies. I feel we see the same thing with animated movies as well. Those are also usually four-quadrant family titles... And then around the corner, them being on streaming. Be it Disney+ for an MCU movie, or HBO Max for a DCU movie.

A month earlier, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA opened pretty great with $106m. That was way above ANT-MAN AND THE WASP’s mid-70s opening weekend haul, and an overall fine opening for an MCU movie... but the legs? Abysmal so far. It looks to barely score a 2x multiplier, which is pretty bad… It might be the first MCU movie to completely miss that. I don't even know if I'll make time for it, myself. (I've missed a lot of movies in theaters lately because of other lifestuff going on at the moment.)

What does this all tell me?

Is it truly superhero movie fatigue? Are audiences catching on to the perceived problems of these big budget shared universe movies?

Here’s what I think is happening…

Choosiness...

I, in true form, am going to relate this to animated movies… And I mean “animated movies”, because let’s face it… There’s lots of animation in your average MCU or DCU movie. QUANTUMANIA, from the looks of it, is an animated movie with some real people in it. Much like GRAVITY, AVATAR and its sequel, Jon Favreau’s THE JUNGLE BOOK, LIFE OF PI, etc. etc.

Once upon a time... $100m at the domestic box office was a magic number for an animated feature film. And I mean a $100m gross on the film's first ever theatrical release, not $100m via the original release and added theatrical re-issue totals (like classic pre-Renaissance Disney films, like SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS and 101 DALMATIANS)...

Only Disney scored $100m domestic totals for their animated movies. Hybrid WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, released through Disney's Touchstone banner, broke the barrier first and grossed $156m in the summer of 1988. Then, an all-animated movie broke the barrier nearly four years later in early 1992... That was Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, which got to its high total through strong word-of-mouth and legs throughout the holiday and post-holiday season. It was slow to start in November 1991, because back then... Theater-to-video release windows were longer. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was released in American movie theaters in November 1991, and the videocassette and LaserDisc release wouldn't be until... October 1992!

So, an unreachable number for everyone else. Don Bluth, former Disney animator and hot competitor, seemingly peaked with AN AMERICAN TAIL and THE LAND BEFORE TIME, both of which collected in the upper-40s at the domestic box office. His last box office hurrah, the 20th Century Fox-released ANASTASIA (now owned by Disney), grossed $57m by the end of its run in early 1998. Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes hybrid movie SPACE JAM came very close with $90m, two years prior. BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA put up a decent fight, with over $60m in 1996/97. That was a record high for a TV-to-movie animated adaptation back then, beating out A GOOFY MOVIE, JETSON: THE MOVIE, DUCKTALES - THE MOVIE: TREASURE OF THE LOST LAMP, and plenty of others.

In fact, Disney *themselves* missed $100m on occasion. HERCULES, made up at Feature Animation, the mainline studio, just missed it with a $99m domestic gross in 1997/98. The Disney MovieToons GOOF TROOP movie, A GOOFY MOVIE, made less than $40m stateside. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS made an impressive $50m back in the day, and became a massive cult classic through video and TV. Hybrid JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, which was also a Henry Selick-Tim Burton Skellington Productions joint, missed $30m.

Then there was a little movie called TOY STORY... The first-ever all-digital animated feature film.

By the end of its theatrical run in early 1996, TOY STORY grossed $191m domestically... No doubt helped by being a Disney release and being the first of its kind, and a genuinely really good movie that audiences loved. So in a way, the only movies to make $100m domestically *before* TOY STORY were Disney Feature Animation movies (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING, and POCAHONTAS), and a hybrid movie made by Amblin and Richard Williams Animation but released by Disney...

So Disney still had $100m under lock and key, and TOY STORY was their first non-Feature Animation endeavor since ROGER RABBIT to get it...

Believe it or not, the first-ever animated movie that was a NOT a Disney release, to score $100m domestically... Was... THE RUGRATS MOVIE. No doubt getting there off of the show's sheer popularity at the time. Despite first airing on Nickelodeon in 1991, some seven years earlier, RUGRATS seemed to be at the peak of its popularity in the late 1990s, after the show was renewed for more seasons following highly successful re-runs and the few specials that Nick and studio Klasky-Csupo did after the show's early seasons. I was there. I was 6 when THE RUGRATS MOVIE came out, and I felt the hype. Everybody I knew back then watched and liked the show, I watched it frequently with my sister back in the day. RUGRATS was one of those cartoons that everyone knew and everyone watched. Almost as ubiquitous as THE SIMPSONS, I'd argue. Paramount released THE RUGRATS MOVIE, and it broke that barrier, in addition to being the highest grossing TV-to-movie adaptation animated movie... By a country kilometer.

THE RUGRATS MOVIE came out in November 1998, just one month before DreamWorks rolled out THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, the second animated movie to cross $100m domestically... Two months prior... ANTZ came out, and grossed an impressive $90m. Pixar's sophomore feature A BUG'S LIFE opened, infamously, amidst this four-movie fall shakedown, and won the race with $163m.

So two not-Disneys made $100m domestically, and two not-Disney Feature Animation movies made $100m domestically... This was a turning point in theatrical feature animation, and it would come to benefit - for a brief while - all CGI animated movies.

We'll focus on those now...

1999 saw the release of Pixar's TOY STORY 2, which broke $245m. That was above every Disney animated movie *except* THE LION KING. Wow!

In 2000, Disney released their hybrid live-action/CG feature DINOSAUR, which has been counted as a Walt Disney Animation Studios canon movie since 2008... While that movie didn't make enough money to justify a sequel or to keep the collaboration studio behind it (The Secret Lab) alive, it still broke $100m domestically.

2001... DreamWorks' SHREK and Pixar's MONSTERS, INC. break past $250m domestically. Paramount/Nickelodeon's pilot movie JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS takes in a respectable $80m. 2002... Newcomer Blue Sky's ICE AGE makes over $175m domestically. By this point in time, several hand-drawn animated movies... From all the studios: Disney, DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, Columbia, etc. Largely losing money theatrically, with few exceptions in between. Many of them are missing the titan $100m threshold. For context, only Disney Feature's LILO & STITCH broke that barrier in mid-2002. CGI movies seemed foolproof. Guaranteed blockbusters...

2003 brought Pixar's FINDING NEMO, which became the highest grossing animated movie of all-time, unseating THE LION KING... Then SHREK 2 came out the year after, made that record look like nothing, becoming the first animated movie to break **$400m** domestically. In addition to SHREK 2, 2004 saw the release of DreamWorks' other CG hit SHARK TALE ($160m+), Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES ($260m+), and Warner Bros.' motion-capture pic THE POLAR EXPRESS ($160m+). In 2005, DreamWorks' MADAGASCAR came super-close to $200m, Blue Sky's ROBOTS cleared $120m...

So, unstoppable, right?

The one exception seemed to be the 2001 release FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN, a mocap feature based on the game series of the same name. That one puttered out at $32m domestically, and fell well below its hefty budget with all the worldwide take factored in... But this seemed like an anomaly more so than anything. You also had a few super-limited releases of foreign CG films, like KAENA: THE PROPHECY, which was a French film.

2005 was when it all seemed to be up... VALIANT, a British animated movie distributed stateside by Disney, performed quite badly... Despite it being a CGI movie and touting "producer of SHREK" cred. Disney Feature's first all-CG feature, CHICKEN LITTLE, managed to make more than $100m domestically, but its worldwide total didn't measure up to the budget. HOODWINKED!, an independent venture that only cost $8m to make, was released by The Weinstein Co. at the end of 2005. It made less than $60m domestically.

Then... 2006 happened...

The features that crossed $200m domestically: Pixar's CARS, and only CARS. ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN and Warner Bros.' HAPPT FEET came very close. ICE AGE 2 won the race worldwide.

The features that crossed $100m domestically: DreamWorks' OVER THE HEDGE.

Everything else... Missed $100m. Some movies got by on being lower budget, like Sony Animation's debut picture OPEN SEASON, and the Nickelodeon TV show launcher BARNYARD. But some of the big flops included DreamWorks/Aardman's FLUSHED AWAY, the Disney-released Canadian feature THE WILD, and Warner Bros.' THE ANT BULLY. CGI and celebrity casts and talky scripts couldn't save them. Then you had movies that just did abysmally, like Fox's EVERYONE'S HERO, and DOOGAL: the Weinsteinized version of THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT.

For a little while, computer animated movies were a novelty for audiences. No one had seen anything like TOY STORY when it first came out in Thanksgiving 1995. Like, this wasn't an episode of REBOOT or a glossy production company ident... This was over 70 minutes of fully animated 3D characters in convincing 3D environments, that stayed watchable the whole time, and on top of that... It was really well-written! Lots of people tend to make remarks about TOY STORY's more, dated, visual qualities... But it remains a classic because of the passion that went into it. And despite some of the aspects that didn't age well, it still *looks* appealing and watchable. Woody and Buzz and the rest of the gang have pretty much kept the same designs over the sequels and shorts/specials, only the human characters have seen slight design changes that matched the much-better rendering over time. (It's already a big difference with Andy and his mum from TOY STORY 1 to 2.)

But enough about that. My point is, audiences ate CGI up circa 1995-2005. Big time. It was the future, it was the **way** to make animated movies. Even with CG incorporated into them, hand-drawn movies failed to keep up. Whether the movies did actually appeal to audiences (TARZAN, LILO & STITCH) or not (TITAN A.E., TREASURE PLANET)... It just wasn't enough. $171m from TARZAN just didn't compare to, say, SHREK's $267m haul. When even your best isn't enough...

Capitalism, ya know?

But soon, audiences began choosing what computer-animated family movies they'd go to see, not seeing all of them each and every calendar year. In 2007, for every RATATOUILLE, there was a HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER. Even a good film like SURF'S UP that year had trouble. Release that movie in 2002, it would've made **bank**... In 2007, it had a hard time appealing to audiences. Let's apply this to 2008 as well. WALL-E and KUNG FU PANDA do great, THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX - a book adaptation - makes $50m and fails to double its budget. So every year, there are the family-friendly CGI movies that do pretty great! And then the ones that lose money.

And eventually, it caught to everybody. Even the heavies.

Pixar saw their first money-loser in 2015 with THE GOOD DINOSAUR, breaking an astounding 15-film hit streak.

Disney Feature Animation's CHICKEN LITTLE did so-so, MEET THE ROBINSONS two years later outright lost money. BOLT did so-so as well. They wouldn't have a genuine CGI flop until STRANGE WORLD, because we gotta mulligan RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON and ENCANTO. Ya know, COVID and release strategies and such.

DreamWorks suffered badly in the mid-2010s, with money-losers like RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, TURBO, and MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN... It was to the point where it seemed like the lights would go out.

Blue Sky's final film, SPIES IN DISGUISE, lost money. After a streak of successes (the ICE AGE sequels) and respectable hits (FERDINAND). That likely played a big part in its shuttering, after Disney had bought 21st Century Fox's film and TV assets.

Sony Pictures Animation had some financial losses, too. The aforementioned SURF'S UP was one such flop, and there was also their Aardman collaboration ARTHUR CHRISTMAS.

So much, like a good hand-drawn animated movie, a competently-made CG film wasn't gonna cut it every single time... Even from a big studio. That's why many of those studios got smart with budgets... Especially Sony Animation and DreamWorks.

Now... Superhero movies...

Superhero movies have been around for a while. Serials, yes, all the way back to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Max Fleischer's SUPERMAN cartoons from 1941-42, every modern superhero movie owes it to those in particular. Long-form superhero movies, I believe, really got their start with the 1978 SUPERMAN movie... But you'd get a big superhero movie every once in a while, or a comic book action hero movie if you will. In the 1980s, you had SUPERMAN II - starting off the decade, and then Tim Burton's BATMAN ending the decade with a blockbuster gross. A big phenomenon. What else was in-between? Well, there was Lucasfilm's infamous adaptation of Marvel's HOWARD THE DUCK that tanked hard. You did see a brief boom in this kind of movie in the 1990s because of BATMAN '89, but plenty of those movies actually went belly-up. DC adaptation STEEL did poorly, movies like THE PHANTOM didn't make much of a mark, but you did have the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES movie doing quite well, ditto BATMAN RETURNS and BATMAN FOREVER. BATMAN & ROBIN's not-so-great performance in 1997 put the Caped Crusader's theatrical future in limbo. SUPERMAN puttered out back in 1987 with a badly-received fourth movie. So, this was a bit of a false start, if you will? Batman, Ninja Turtles, maybe something else that did okay-ish at best... That was about it, circa 1999.

Then along came BLADE in 1998, which would be the first Marvel movie to do pretty well. HOWARD THE DUCK bombed back in 1986, and the 1989 PUNISHER and 1990 CAPAIN AMERICA went straight to video in the states.

Then, X-MEN came out in 2000, that did even better.

Then, SPIDER-MAN came out in 2002, made a **gargantuan** amount of money...

After the release of X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN, both Marvel adaptations, you saw **some** action going on. More Marvel movies came along. HULK, an ambitious film from Ang Lee, opened big in summer 2003 but had trouble staying afloat. FANTASTIC FOUR did okay in 2005 despite poor reception. GHOST RIDER did okay in 2007. SPIDER-MAN 2 and SPIDER-MAN 3 made biiiig money, and there was also a FANTASTIC FOUR sequel that also did okay. The next Batman-inspired DC movie, CATWOMAN, came about in 2004 and bombed quite badly. The year after CATWOMAN came BATMAN BEGINS, Christopher Nolan's then-bold new take on the Caped Crusader *and* the superhero movie in general. It did pretty well, a sleeper hit that relied on strong word-of-mouth. Then in 2006, a year later, you had an attempt to reboot SUPERMAN with SUPERMAN RETURNS. While it made money, it wasn't enough to cover its then-titanic budget, so it seemed like a non-starter. The other DC adaptation released amidst this was CONSTANTINE, whch did pretty well (and is finally getting a sequel after all these years). Funnily enough, amidst these Marvel and DC movies, you had Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES... A then *rare* animated superhero movie, and it did great business. There was also HELLBOY, too. Non-Marvels and non-DCs had their time to do pretty okay, too. So, superheroes had a healthier time in the early-to-mid 2000s...

But where it really all took off was in 2008...

IRON MAN started the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a BANG! in May of that year, and BATMAN BEGINS sequel THE DARK KNIGHT - no doubt accelerated by the tragic passing of Heath Ledger, who gave his iconic performance as The Joker - was **massive**. It was the first movie since TITANIC to clear $500m at the domestic box office, and make the then-magic $1b worldwide... Only TITANIC, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST made that amount of money... Nowadays, it seems like there's one billion-dollar smash every year, excepting 2020 of course... Back in 2008, though? Magic number. Very few movies did **that** well...

And from there... Lots of hits. The MCU had barely a stumble, and their highest highs at the box office went very high. They had no trouble getting audiences to come out in big numbers for... Checks notes... Movies based on THOR, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and ANT-MAN. Warner Bros. had tried very hard to keep a consistently successful DC movie-verse going, but despite the valleys (JUSTICE LEAGUE, BIRDS OF PREY), they too saw some big peaks: WONDER WOMAN and AQUAMAN. BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE and SUICIDE SQUAD made a lot of money, too, despite not meeting particular expectations. Animated superheroes brought home bacon, too! BIG HERO 6, INCREDIBLES 2, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, need I say more? Sony's own Spider-Man villain movies VENOM and its sequel did very well, too! Almost everybody was winning the superhero sweepstakes post-2008, with very few actual losers in-between.

But now... Well, with so many of them around, and both cinematic universes from the heavies... Again, Marvel and DC. Known commodities... We don't see any movie-verse for, say, Image Comics, no do we? Well, again, money is tight, theater visits are costly, and the movies aren't always delivering satisfying experiences when other endeavors are next door...

Last year, we saw TOP GUN: MAVERICK, a legacy sequel to a 1986 blockbuster that isn't a superhero movie in any way, mop the floor - domestically and even worldwide - with both Marvel and DC's most anticipated movies. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER was in second place domestically, top dog worldwide. We're starting to see other movies have a say again, and smaller movies are having their fun again, too. ELVIS and NOPE did very well, as did BULLET TRAIN and THE LOST CITY. Bread-n-butter movies that used to fill up the yearly box office charts quite nicely. We see that nowadays in the form of things like WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, THE BLACK PHONE, THE WOMAN KING, TICKET TO PARADISE, BARBARIAN, SMILE, VIOLENT NIGHT, A MAN CALLED OTTO, M3GAN, CREED III, etc.

So... With QUANTUMANIA and SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS past us... Here's what I think... Much like in 2006, where some computer animated family movies did great and others not-so-much... That'll happen with this year's crop of superhero movies.

I think the guaranteed hits are GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE. The former? Well, those two movies functioned well as a standalone story not connected to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like you had some things here and there, like an Infinity Stone or the presence of Thanos, but they're both self-contained, VOL 2 even more-so. They're genuinely good space adventure movies that audiences actually quite dig, the characters are so likeable, and the movies have director James Gunn's authorship all over them. That's a night and day difference from many of the other MCUs... SPIDER-VERSE... Need I say more? The original is beloved, it was a passion project for everyone involved. It was not just a great Marvel or great superhero movie, it was a great movie, period. Rian Johnson himself described it as "The Velvet Underground of superhero movies." That is *high praise*.

Those are both poised, I feel, to make beaucoup bucks.

Everything else? Well... The DC movies coming out this year are much like FURY OF THE GODS. They don't really matter, because the hard reset is coming up with SUPERMAN: LEGACY two years from now. I suppose THE FLASH could do well because of Michael Keaton **and** Ben Affleck's Batman returning, in a sort of NO WAY HOME-esque manner. I don't think much of the general public is in tune with star Ezra Miller's controversies and wrongdoing, so I think this one's appeal hinges on whether fans/audiences see it as pointless or not. I think the novelty of both Batmen being back, alongside some other DC faces (such as Michael Shannon's go at General Zod from MAN OF STEEL), could help it a bit. BLUE BEETLE? I couldn't tell ya, it'll probably come and go. AQUAMAN made over a billion back in 2018/19, and is the highest-earning DC film ever... But will fans and audiences be back for, again, a movie that seems pointless in the long run? Also at the end of the year comes the MCU film THE MARVELS, the sequel to CAPTAIN MARVEL and also a follow-up to the MS. MARVEL TV series... Plus you have Monica Rambeau in it as well, who - as an adult - was a major character in WANDAVISION. That all could help it, but I'm starting to think it falls quite short of CAPTAIN MARVEL's impressive take in 2019. CAPTAIN MARVEL had the benefit of opening right before AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the penultimate episode to the big climactic event... THE MARVELS is just, well, the sequel... With two other faces. I think it'll do pretty well, but not excellently. Disney and Marvel Studios were smart to delay the film from July to November after the CEO-switcheroo with Bob Iger this past autumn. I can only hope they delay all of the other movies, too. Like, two a year is fine, guys. AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY and AVENGERS: SECRET WARS can wait. They don't need to come out in 2-3 years from now, in addition to like 10 other movies and 10-20 other Disney+ shows...

And next year, I think, will show as well where this is all going... Like, I don't see the likes of CAPTAIN AMERICA 4, THUNDERBOLTS, DEADPOOL 3, and BLADE hogging up the top slots anymore. I forgot to point out that these movies seem a lot more frontloaded. Big fans and those who were always going to be there *will* be there on opening weekend, but it collapses after that, as OTHER audiences save their money for other things that they'd rather see... Maybe the JOKER sequel, not really a superhero movie but still based on a DC villain that's tied to one of their most well-known superheroes, could repeat the massive surprise success of the original. Maybe not. BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE should do pretty great... I think other biggies are what's gonna surprise this year and next year, and take the Top 3 slots... A new INDIANA JONES movie, a MARIO movie, a two-part MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE epic, AVATAR 3, maybe even something like GLADIATOR 2. 2025 is when the DC hard-reset comes, so it'll be interesting to see how SUPERMAN: LEGACY does, in addition to whatever Marvel movies end up coming out that year. KANG DYNASTY or no KANG DYNASTY...

If anything, the budgeting should be smarter from here on out. Then these movies can come and go, make adequate amounts of money, give *other* kinds of movies the Top 3-5 for once, and then the wheels will spin. Something new will come along and spam up the top slots, even. Maybe we're in for an area of legacy-quels following TOP GUN 2's massive success. I really do think INDY 5 has the chance to somewhat repeat that, and GLADIATOR 2 even. How long till, say, another sequel to a beloved '80s or '90s movie drops? And then too many of those happen and they get tiresome?

All a cycle in Hollywood...

But yeah, I do see the parallels between superhero movies now and CG animated family movies circa 2006...

[lorz-ix]

It's a buncha DBZ movies

I don't need to go very deep into these. Quality varies, but you mainly go into them for the high quality animation, memorable setpieces and unique (?) characters. They're self-contained and about the length of a couple of anime episodes, so I dig them.

Dragon Ball Z (1989)

Neat early DBZ adventure, it has a distinct vibe to it. Action scenes were a highlight, but I also like the backstory and characterization of Garlic Jr. The climax is a bit whatever though.

Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest Guy (1990)

Found it to be one of the more boring movies. The start feels very slow, the fight scenes before the climax were a bright spot, but the climax is once again not great. Bland, with a forgettable antagonist that could have worked better.

Dragon Ball Z: A Super Battle for the Whole Earth (1990)

A personal favorite of mine, it already goes into the later saiyan saga/early Namek saga vibe, presenting a cool antagonist, plenty of great action, and a really solid, self-contained storyline.

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiyan Son Goku (1991)

A bit of an awkward, relatively forgotten entry in the series, very unfortunate in its timeline placement, coming out right before the debut of the super saiyan in the manga. The titular transformation ends up being a "wait, that was it?" moment. That being said, I think the movie has a strong start and is not bad overall.

Dragon Ball Z: The Incredible Strongest vs Strongest (1991)

One of the better flicks in the collection, its easy emotional connection to the main story sets up a slam dunk for a short spin-off tale. While it's very simple, Cooler makes an immediate impact and works very well.

Dragon Ball Z: Clash!! 10,000,000,000 Powerful Warriors (1992)

Cooler worked so well, he earned himself the honor of being the first (and one of a select very few) movie villain to earn himself a sequel. There are some setpieces in the return of Cooler that I think are extremely memorable and impactful, like Cooler chasing Goku inside the instant transmission (how does that even work?), and the terror of watching countless Metal Coolers over the horizon after the heroes exhausted themselves trying to defeat a single one. It's a bit of a mixed bag though, since other than that iconic fight with the first metal clone, the rest of the film is a bit one-note.

Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Battle!! The Three Great Super Saiyans (1992)

One of the more middle of the road films, it does feature some well-loved scenes and a funny english dub, but I don't think it has the sauce to push it into the top tiers.

Dragon Ball Z: Burn Up!! Hot Fight • Fierce Fight • Super-Violent Fight (1993)

Love him or hate him, the first confrontation with Broly made for a very strong short movie. It has the added narrative and characters to get people more invested. The action is fantastic here. Contrary to this flanderized idea of him, Broly is a consciously devilish, smart guy. He is triggered by something goofy, but that isn't his entire motivation. Out of the 14 or so DBZ films, this is a must watch.

[amazildoessomethingstupid]

Chapter 84: Scenic Route

So with that out of the way ONTO THE NEXT CHAPTER: chapter 84 Scenic Route! Which if there was a runt of the litter for the Paulo Show, this would be it. Not to say that it’s bad or anything, it’s wonderful and really sweet, and much like all the other chapters it has a really strong and memorable character moment in it.  The problem is… this chapter has a certain heavy weight attached to it that… It just couldn’t shake off. Even back then when I read this chapter I couldn’t fully appreciate it, because of the unshakable knowledge that this… would be the last time Tess got to hang out with the gang. And worst of all, even here she wasn’t allowed to shine.

The chapter is centered around Tess inviting the gang (minus Sue) to a picnic to a familiar riverside park. With callbacks a plenty for old readers to enjoy! Look!

They’re gonna race along the trees, just like that one time when-

Oh… yeah… Well thankfully that doesn’t happen here! Instead we’re treated to some nice subtle nods to Abbey and Daisy’s relationship being a little shaky still with Abbey seeming to be absentminded throughout the chapter, if not a bit negligent towards Daisy.

Honestly a most of this chapter is just the kids goofing around and… well… acting like kids.  Which is refreshing! I really like it, the chapter serves as a sweet reprieve from the heavier chapters that we’ve had and it’s nice seeing the gang just have fun.  And yes, that does include you…

Mike… And before you ask, no I am not going to have a gush session over Mike.  He hasn’t EARNED it yet.  I may have accepted Mike’s failures as a decent human being, but that does not mean he is FORGIVEN! It is nice though, and I wish to reiterate that yes.  Inbetween all these skipped over pages, THERE IS GOLD HERE!

Oh that Paulo~ So the set up is paid off as Abbey’s negligence ends up getting him left behind, meanwhile Daisy does accidentally get hurt, which leading to her staying put with Paulo as company while the rest of the gang goes to get Abbey leading to the actual meat of the chapter as Paulo and Daisy sit and talk, thinking about where they are in life and what the future may hold. It’s a really nice and sweet scene… So nice they did it twice but we’re not talking about that. POSITIVITY! So overall this chapter is solid.  On its own, it serves as a great nothing chapter that shows that the kids are alright and looking to a brighter future, although for some it’s not so certain.  If this chapter came out now, one could argue that it’s shipbaiting for Paulo and Daisy, but to me their dialogue came across more as siblings that care about each other, with both seeing the best in the other with a bittersweet tinge of sorrow as they see how they’re both headed on different paths. It’s really nice, but

But I would be remised if I didn’t bring up the one gripe I do have about the Paulo show that this chapter just happened to fall in line with an anecdote I have.  Because, while I was going through my 2 years of illiteracy I did actually take a look at a page just because I heard grumblings over the art style.  And I figured I’d take a glance and see what all the hubbub was about, and it just so happened to be this page! I remember it because, my exact words were, “Wow! This is actually pretty neat!  Y’know the proportions did make the characters’ ages seem a bit older and ambiguous, but this is actually pretty cool!  These proportions, the washed out colors… This is a really good way of artistically showing a flashback without just blatantly using cloud panels!  This is great! Good job Taeshi!” and the old dogs I talked to at the time just went:

And sadly the chibification of characters was the one thing that actually did carry over from The Paulo Show. But… I’m forgetting something aren’t I?  Did you notice there was something missing from that summary?  Oh yeah, TESS!

Despite her technically being in it the whole way through aside from the Paulo and Daisy scene, Tess really didn’t get to stand out here.  Sure, we get a nice heartfelt bit where she says how much she enjoyed just being there with the gang, but all it really does is remind us of the unfulfilled promise that this character gave.  And it makes my heart ache as I knew this was the end for The Rich Girl, the OG Golden Girl, my favorite lie… Tess. For context, Tess was a PIVOTAL supporting character in Volume 1 for BCB.  In fact, a number of great character moments, chapters, and arcs can be traced back to her involvement. From the Christmas Chapter

To setting up the Acapulco Arc!

Her purpose in the toolbox of characters in BCB, was very versatile.  Setting up adventures, new conflicts, and at times, serving as an audience surrogate to ask questions about the other characters’ history and allow exposition naturally.

 She had a spunk to her that made her likable, a complicated history that made her sympathetic, and a perspective on life and drama that set her apart from the rest of the pack. As the oldest member in the group she brought a more mature perspective to a lot of the drama and scenes that the kids would get into, but she also had this childish excitement and eagerness to be involved with the gang.  She wanted to see them grow and help them become better people.  And that falls right into the biggest involvement she had, when she had her relationship…

With Paulo! Serving as a positive force in his life, Tess dating Paulo was a perfect match as two punky kids trying to make it in this cruel world.  And with Tess’ maturity being a great opportunity for her to build him up to follow suit, it was perfect. Absolutely perfect!  Except for one liiiiiittle snag, a small chink in her immaculate armor, and no it wasn’t that she wanted more out of Paulo that he couldn’t understand. You see, Tess was afflicted with a terrible, debilitating disease when she was born into this world.  An awful condition that she had to deal with early in her life… She was a Fan Character.  A death sentence, for most cursed with such a cruel fate.  But she showed so much strength in what she was able to do in those early chapters, that we all hoped that maybe she could beat her condition maybe she had one last trick up her sleeve, one last hurrah, one last adventure, one last send off to carry us through and remember her by… But alas the damage was already done, and in this chapter we see her succumb to the bitter sudden end.

The promise of suspense in Volume 2.  Setting up Tess’ final year with the gang to be a senior year to remember would sadly only lead to her being muscled out in favor of more heavy drama.  Her presence becoming less and less, as she was forced into irrelevance.  From being a powerful force in moving these characters, with deep connections to all them, to being just a shadow of her former self as she would become nothing more than a side-note in Volume 2, and an occasional speedbump in Volume 3. The fact was the fireball, take charge, punk rock girl we all once knew and loved was dead.  She died years ago.  And this chapter just shows…

She was the last to know. 

9/10

Gone but not forgotten;

Replaced, but forever remains

[gotta-get-back-to-hatchetfield]

My overall opinion on this is obvious from my profile pic and url but I do think it's good to have this conversation because I think it is important and is probably something a lot of us in this fandom are very aware of at the moment

Firstly its worth noting how far removed financially starkid are from JKR. If anything I think coming across AVP might make active HP fans more likely to buy starkid merch instead of actual HP merch (Warner brothers certainly thought so or they wouldn't have bothered suing). Given this I don't think AVP gives any money to JKR which she could use to fund nefarious groups.

The second argument for full HP content boycott (Inc AVPM) is that keeping HP in the zeitgeist gives JKR a microphone. I don't personally think this is a particularly strong argument in general because it is still a fact that JKR was the author of one of the best selling series of books of all time that had a total hold over the cultural zeitgeist for over 20 years. That fact is unfortunately immutable and is what gives her her megaphone. Even if we could snap our fingers and stop 100% of all support for anything that even mentions the word 'harry' in it starting today unfortunately she would still be a figure of great cultural relevance. Even people not clued into progressive politics agree that the fantastic beast films were bad and pottermore was unnecessary and yet she still has the microphone. But even if you don't agree with this more general argument I think it's clear that AVP is such a small and insignificant thing relative to the Harry Potter empire at large that such that I think this definitely doesn't apply to starkid. I feel like one single channel 4 showing of chamber of secrets (which seems to happen at least once a month) does more for keeping Harry Potter relevant than the entire existence of the AVP trilogy.

Then I think the third and final argument for boycotting it is in order to show a general sense of solidarity with the trans community. This one is I think more complicated and I'm very respectful of the fact that people will come to different conclusions on this. I think my personal view on this is that I haven't seen any calls from trans people for AVP to be boycotted and I know plenty of trans and nonbinary people who love AVP and are very active in this fandom. But I do think this is the more difficult one because even if these calls did exist I don't know how I'd feel about boycotting something that i don't believe does any practical harm on the basis of defending a principle. Indeed there's definitely a lot of things that I still do (like eating dairy) that cause a huge deal of practical harm but I still do out of a desire to protect my own comfort.

Hey so today is the 14th Anniversary of the live performances of A Very Potter Musical and therefore in a lot of ways Starkid itself (!!). I was gonna make an excited post about it because it really is important to Starkid (and it's still one of my very favorite shows, plus Quirrellmort remain the All-Time Greatest). But then I stopped to (maybe over)think. While personally I have no problem separating AVPM from JKR, as it's so different and Starkid has nothing to do with her, not everyone may feel the same. Thoughts?

[phantom-of-the-501st]

TBB Ep 10 Thoughts

Spoilers for TBB Season 2

Today on The Bad Batch, child slavery!

Let's get into it.

The way Wrecker stares at the part that fell off the speeder for a second and then falls back. 🤣

The timing of that cracked me up.

They're gonna try and fit all 4 of them on one speeder???

GONKY IS HOW THEY FIND THE MARAUDER?!

Omega being a smart bean. 🥰

Honestly, the amount of Gonky in this episode makes me so happy!!!

Excuse me, but Mokko is not the metal-handed guy that I wanted to see.

ALL OF THEM BALANCED ON THE SPEEDER HAHAHAHA

"That's our defective power droid"

Fuck yeah it is!

Don't mess with Gonky. The dads will come after you. 😠

Wrecker activated Intimidation Mode ™️

Okay, yeah, cool, we're all just gonna abseil down a chimney, sure.

That seems totally safe. 😐

"Plenty of time". Omega's so one of them omg. 😭 She's grown so much. 🥲

That brief slow-mo when Hunter falls forward. 😍

Than animation this season is so good!!!

Ngl, them all sticking their faces over the chimney stresses me out.

Smooth take-down from Hunter, there!

Mokko is a dick. 😡

I'VE JUST REALISED THAT THIS IS WHAT JENNIFER'S CRYPTIC TWEET WAS

Omega's head poking out from the oversized coat! 🤣🥰

Bitch, you did not just press that button. YOU DID NOT JUST PRESS THAT BUTTON!

Omega giving Benni her ration even though The Batch don't have much food. 😭

Wrecker hanging upside from the ship is one of my new favourite things.

Okay, I understand why Benni did what he did. I'm still pissed though. 😤

All the stuff about kids not being able to just be kids in this galaxy is so sad. 😭

Sorry, did Mokko really expect his "let's make the Batch work in the mines for a decade" plan was gonna work???

Although, he does say something about if they survive that long, so best bet is he was just gonna leave them to die.

Like I said. He's a dick.

ALSO THREATENING TO THROW OMEGA OF THE PLATFORM?! HOW DARE YOU SIR!

He's actually lying to the kids and keeping the ipsium for himself? How surprising (note strong sarcasm).🤨

OMEGA THROWING HERSELF OFF WITH THE DROID BECAUSE SHE KNOWS HUNTER WILL CATCH HER 😭

That scene might be my favourite of the episode. Especially with the altered Bad Batch theme over the top.

Ngl, the fight with Mokko was underwhelming.

The guy literally fell over a railing by himself. 😭

Although he was also a pathetic dickhead so a pathetic end is kind of what he deserves.

WRECKER HUGGING GONKY!!! 🥰

Even though they were all in competition with one another, when it comes down to it, the kids actually do all care about each other. That's sweet.

Wrecker is reunited with Lula! 🥲

TECH AND OMEGA THIS SEASON ARE GIVING ME SO MANY FEELS!!!

Was hoping the Echo and Crosshair convo would carry on this episode but oh well.

Also, we never saw Tech and Wrecker apologise to each other. 🥲

Overall feeling about this episode is that I think it might be one of my least favourites of the season. I didn't dislike it but with how good the others have been, this episode didn't stand out a whole lot to me.

There were specific moments that I absolutely love though! Wholesome Batch moments just hit me right in the feels. 🥲

And Wrecker's "I'm working on it" reminded me of Echo in Season 1. 😭 I still miss that man.

Weirdly, I don't feel like I have much to say about this episode right now. There's some more stuff delving into the idea of kids not being able to just be kids in this galaxy, so I'm happy they're continuing on that narrative. I maybe would've liked to have seen a little bit more from the other miners? I don't know.

Normally when I watch an episode, one or two particular things sticks out to me as something I want to talk about more but I didn't really get that much from this episode. Think I may just have to sit on it for a few days and see what comes to mind.

Still liked the episode, but I definitely think that the first half of this two-parter was much stronger. Very excited to see what Metamorphosis is going to be about though! My hope is to see Echo and Rex again, but that's more wishful thinking than me believing it's actually going to happen. 😅

Edit: This was supposedly a breather episode, so that may explain why it fell a little flat for me. I think I got really hooked up in the more high-stakes episodes and that swayed my judgement on this one. 🤔

[amostimprobabledream]

I finished Season One of The Boys. *SPOILERS*

Thoughts!

HoLYSHIT. THAT CLIFFHANGER. I knew about some of it because of spoilers, but jesus christ it was fun to watch. My god.

Hughie's a sweetheart. As much as I wasn't sure how much I'd like him (I tend to find the MCs of shows like this boring), I actually really love him? Even though he does Bad Shit there's this adorably dorky core I can't help but find super endearing. His and Annie's relationship is like a backbone of sugar to keep this show getting too dark.

STARLIGHT'S MY BABYGIRL. Ugh. I love her so much. Her powers are rad, her costume is so cheesy in a cute way and the way she manages to balance being a nice girl at her core with plenty of flaws and badassery is just *chefs kiss*. The show never lets her get too perfect, so when she does win it's so much more satisfying.

I'm back and forth about whether I like Billy or not. Sometimes he's cool and other times I get sick of his cliched "waaah my wife is dead so I'm gonna be an angry cunt to everyone" schtick. I guess he does a good job of showing that humans contribute to the cycle of corporations, Supes and civilians, but I couldn't bring myself to care much about his angst about Becca. Idk if it's her actress but her doe-eyed face and "ooh I'm so vulnerable" thing got really sickening. Not saying she deserved anything she got but I didn't like Becca. She's just a plot device in this season. I mean, so was Robin but she came off more like an actual person and not just a victim.

I love Frenchie and Kimiko!! Their ship is just so adorable by itself but overall I just love them both, Frenchie's so cool and then such a soft boy for her and Kimiko learning how to be a human again with his kindness towards her is just so SWEET. That scene where she brushes her hair and paints her nails and comes out of the bathroom, I was like, "I know Frenchie's going to compliment her!" and when his eyes lit up at the sight of her I about died.

I don't have any particular opinion on MM, except his nickname is dumb. He's just kinda there.

Okay, okay, OKAY. Let me add a disclaimer: I don't condone anything the character does, I KNOW he's evil and he gets a lot worse, and that is BAD and so forth. Okay?

BUT.

HOLY FUCK I CANNOT GET OVER ANTONY STARR AS HOMELANDER. JESUS CHRISTMAS. HE'S SO TALENTED. I don't think I've been this blown away by a TV show villain since Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders, and me being the gigantic Tommy simp that I am, that's a big compliment. Homelander's just so fucking INTERESTING. Yes, he's a total psycho, unstable and narcissistic and petty af, but god does the man know how to work a room. The charisma! The way he smiles and shows too much fang! When his hair gets all messy when he gets mad! His crazy-af mood swings! The way he fucking purrs his lines when he's feeling especially powerful or sadistic? How he's basically canonically a Yandere?? The EYELASHES! The way the other characters shit themselves when they hear Homelander is coming! GOD, it's so, so fucking entertaining. (And YES, I find him hot, OKAY?! I know he looks like a waxwork figure sometimes and I know he's a violent manchild, but I'm such a villainfucker and you give me a good-looking, intensely charismatic but eerily unsettling villain with a fucked-up backstory to rival Mewtwo and powers that mean he treats being shot at like a mild drizzle? What was I meant to do? I am but a mere mortal!)

I'm very smug I figured out how The Boys were going to kill Translucent before they did it. The ol' Man on Fire treatment. As soon as he bragged that his skin was impenetrable, I knew it was already over.

I don't really have any strong opinions on the rest of the Seven? A-Train is meh, Queen Maeve and Black Noir barely do much all season and The Deep is just a fucking creeper and he doesn't even manage to be cool or scary like Homelander, he's just like a fishy date-rapist you could find in any old nightclub. I know Black Noir get some cool moments and I admittedly like his costume and how he's kind of an evil counterpart to Kimiko, but I just don't have much else to say. And I thought Maeve was kind of whiny.

Homelander killing Madelyn Stilwell was so fucking satisfying. I already knew he was gonna beforehand and how he'd do it, but I was still smiling when it happened. Maybe that's fucked up but she'd been annoying me all season and tbh she deserved it - she helped make Homelander the way he is and was grooming him to boot, so fuck her.

I can't wait for Season Two now!

[elliepassmore]

Zhara review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, multiple POVs, secret groups, humor Big thanks to Netgalley, Wednesday Books, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! While there are two POVs in this book, it's really Zhara's story. She undergoes a lot of development throughout this book and comes out stronger, and more herself, on the other side. At the same time, Han does play a major role in the story and has some of his own growth, it's just at a milder scale than Zhara. It's clear from the beginning that Zhara loves her sister and would do pretty much anything for her, even if it means dealing with her stepmother. That loyalty and sense of protection also carries through to some of the other people, particularly the kids, that Zhara comes across that are in need of help. She's also smart and fairly resourceful, despite her not thinking much of herself at times. Han is definitely a himbo. He works out a lot and prizes being in physical shape but is often one of, if not the last, person to put things together. Like Zhara, Han is also desperate to try and save his younger brother, though from a very different threat. He is fairly innocent (and as the synopsis says, easily flustered), which the other characters tease him mercilessly about, and makes him a fun character to read. Xu is Han's best friend and might be one of my favorite characters. I love how upbeat they are and yet at the same time they have their moments when they can be more serious. I also feel like Xu has a very strong sense of identity. They don't get a POV, but they have a lot of character to them that I enjoyed and I think it would be fun if we do get their POV at some point. I also really treasure their friendships with Han, Zhara, and Jiyi. Jiyi comes into the story a bit later and is endearing for different reasons. She's fairly straightforward about things, to the point of coming across as gruff, but it's clear that she's very knowledgeable about her field of study (and very accomplished) and that she cares about what happens if the worst were to come to pass. Yulana is also a late-comer in the story, but I absolutely love her. She's got somewhat of a mysterious vibe when she's first introduced, and things stay like that for a bit, but she's actually a pretty open person once we get past that. Like with Xu, I hope we get her POV at some point, and I suspect she's a more likely candidate for that than Xu is, lol. This book does a good job of including some lighter and more humorous moments amid the more high drama/stakes scenes. At times it did feel a but juvenile, but overall I think the effect worked. The funny moments allowed for relationships to develop between the characters and so we as readers cared when those relationships were put to the test or were in jeopardy. On the surface, magic is banned because magicians turn into abominations, but of course things are never so simple. Learning about the magic system and how things had gotten bad was interesting. The linguistic element of magic was definitely something that I enjoyed. There's a whole history and culture that's been driven underground or erased because of the abominations, but so few people know the truth of what happened, and what happened is very different from what people think it is. Of course there are allegories a plenty here, and a lot of aspects of the magical purge can be related to history or current events in our world in a way that's written very neatly without being overbearing. Overall, I enjoyed this book and that the high stakes were interspersed with lighter moments. I look forward to seeing the characters in the future books and am definitely hoping for more page time from Xu and Yulana in particular.