#official movie prequel book

[morganhopesmith1996]

I am only 51 pages in and this book is amazing @drabblesfromthegraniteinn @watchingbehindtheeyes

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi, the new event is based on Nightmare Before Christmas. Did you know that the movie had a prequel? It’s a graphic novel. Do you think that they’ll add it into the event? Or is it to obscure too be added?

Oh, are you talking about The Battle for Pumpkin King? I actually read that very recently, along with some novels that center on Sally as the protagonist. Without getting into spoilers for graphic novel, it’s an official Disney licensed prequel manga. Jack and Oogie used to be friends (their beef is vaguely alluded to in the film), but had a major falling out in the past. The manga follows the two of them as compete to inherit the title of the next Pumpkin King as the current one, Edgar, is stepping down.

While I do think the manga is definitely more obscure than the film, I think it's fair game for the event to pull elements from. After all, Rollo's backstory involves a dead brother that is never mentioned in his film, but is, however, a large part of the far less known Disney stage production. I'm not sure how likely or to what extent Lost in the Book with Nightmare Before Christmas would use ideas from The Battle for Pumpkin King, but honestly I'd wager probably not a lot??? This event seems to be focusing on things that actually happen in the movie (ie preparing for Halloween), as that's the most iconic. I think, at most, maybe one or two elements from the graphic novel would be adapted into the event, most likely as part of Skully's backstory. This would be similar to what happened with Rollo.

I did see some more recent theories saying that Skully might have a backstory comprised of elements from other Tim Burton works (such as his directorial debut piece in 1982) or even from irl history (a 19th century poem by the same name as the film, as well as actual history of the holiday's traditions). It'll be interesting to see which direction Skully actually takes!

[raccoon-coded]

Did you know there are Guardians of the Galaxy novels? Well, there are actually a few!

Here's a brief review / breakdown of the gotg books in my collection. (Not including children's books, retellings of the movies or books that aren't novels.) I love them all and would recommend any of them.

And if there are more out there, I will find them and add them to this list.

The Pirate Angel, The Talking Tree, and Captain Rabbit.

Written by Steve Behling.

A book read from teen Groot's point of view, for the most part, taking place during the flight to Nidavellir with Thor, (during Avengers Infinity War.) It focuses on the dynamic between Thor, Rocket and Groot, while Groot sneakily reads Rocket's journal. Through the journal we get to see Rocket go on missions with the original Groot, with Rhomann Dey and with the Guardians. We see him being the badass he is but also get plenty of insight into Rockets thoughts.

It also includes a short epilogue from Rocket's point of view during the battle of Wakanda.

It's fun and it's humorous with a couple of emotional beats, and an overall enjoyable read which acts as an interlude between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

This one is aimed at a younger audience (teens I suspect) but I still found it enjoyable.

206 pages, although it would be less if the font wasn't so large.

Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord.

Written by Sarah Cawkwell and adapted from the scripted podcast by Benjamin Percy.

This one is a novelization of the audio drama 'Marvel Wastelanders', (which I recommend listening to if you haven't.) It's based on the Marvel Wastelanders comics but is an original take on the stories. Includes many comic book characters and comic references but can be read/listened to without prior knowledge of the comics.

It features an old man Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon as they fight to save Earth from Doctor Doom's takeover. The story is told as a recount of events from a Rigellian Recorder whom they team up with along the way. Rocket and Star-Lord bicker like an old married couple and it's great. It's a good read, and has an interesting plot with a lot of fun characters. However it does have a tragic ending that the story never hid it was always leading up to. It's bittersweet. You might cry, but it's worth the tears.

The voice acting during these emotional scenes in the audio drama makes it worth listening to over reading but both options are good. Personally, I read the book first and then listened to the audio drama on Spotify. Sidenote, the characters in this are not voiced by their movie counterparts.

348 pages of the book, or 10 episodes around half an hour long each of the Star-Lord centric story of the audio drama.

Guardians of the Galaxy: No Guts, No Glory.

Written by M. K. England.

This is an official prequel to the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy video game, (which is an incredible game that takes aspects from both the comics and movies.) Like the game, it's read from Peter Quill's perspective.

It switches between the 'present day' which is a time where the Guardians are only newly formed and struggling as a group, and 12 years before that during the Galactic War where Peter is a young ravager first meeting Nova officer Ko-Rel on Mercury as they battle a Chitauri invasion.

I really enjoyed this book. It's funny, heartwarming and action packed, and embodies the characters very well. I'd recommend it to any fans of the video game. It gives us a great preview of the relationship that Peter and Ko-Rel formed, and on the early dynamic of the Guardians.

If you haven't played the game yet, I highly recommend doing so and then going right ahead and giving this a read. Although in saying that, it'll still make sense if you read it without playing the game prior, it'll just make the experience more enjoyable if you have already played the game.

307 pages.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Collect Them All.

Written by Corinne Duyvis.

This novel is based on the comic versions of the Guardians.

The point of view jumps around between all members of the Guardians, so you get an insight on each of them throughout the story.

In this novel the Guardians embark on a quest to save Groot by collecting all the pieces that have splintered off him and scattered around the galaxy.

Gamora has her own significant arc in this story.

Another solid Guardians tale.

383 pages.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket Raccoon and Groot Steal The Galaxy.

Written by Dan Abnett.

This novel is also based off of the Guardians of the Galaxy comic versions of the characters and was actually written by comic writer Dan Abnett who has written numerous Guardians of the Galaxy comics, along with many other notable comics.

In this novel, Rocket and Groot find themselves teaming up with a Rigellian Recorder on a quest to save the Galaxy. Gamora also pops in for a bit.

The book is read from the point of view of 'Recorder-Dude' as Rocket calls him, with a few interludes read from the pov of other characters.

This book was quite enjoyable. Would read again.

359 pages.

Apologies that the last two weren't as detailed as the other reviews, it's been a while since I've read them. Will have to give them a re-read and edit.

[figmentjedi]

The criminally underexposed HBOMax/Cartoon Network Latin America exclusive, Frankelda’s Book of Spooks, is getting a prequel movie with Cinema Fantasma bringing it to Annecy.

We can finally make it official! It's with great excitement that we tell you that the sequel to #Frankelda is... a movie! Get ready to learn the story of "Frankelda and the Prince of Spooks," which we've been working on for a year and a half. Also, we are honored to be selected in WIP on Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy where we will be giving a presentation to show, exclusively and for the first time, some behind-the-scenes footage. It's an honor to represent Mexico at the most important animation festival in the world. Thank you so much to all of you for supporting Frankelda, Herneval and all the scares!. HBO Max

Still no word on a proper release of the original show outside Latin American territories, but this should hopefully get more eyes on it.

[irontragedyreview]

I was waiting for the official translation of this chapter because I wanted to know what meaning they were going to give to this phrase and since I don't know Japanese the most accurate thing I will get is the official translation.

At first I was going to take just Shoto's panel but in the end I decided to also take the previous one because the phrase "there's sure to be a period of chaos the books don't talk about", this phrase plus the way Shoto talks about the lack of a symbol and how a person like Afo born or emerges from them, it’s something that left me thinking and a little uneasy, because while I understand what Shoto says, it makes me wonder how much these kids know about their history.

What I'm trying to get is that the concept of Horikoshi's pre-Quirk society isn’t original, in fact it can be found literally in the X-Men comics, I would even say that you don't even have to go to the comics, The X-Men movies of the early 2000s showed us the pre-quirk society of bnha, the first scene of that movie is Jean Gray speaking in front of Congress against the anti-mutant registry, throughout this debate the question that makes Jean's words lose power is "Are mutants dangerous?", the question itself is unfair because Jean answers is that everything has the potential to be dangerous, even a teenager driving a car, the reply is that those cases can be regulated but mutants are an unknown and therefore a danger as they can’t be controlled. The original trilogy has this presentation to a society fearful of mutants, the end of the trilogy is the invention of a cure against the X gene, which is discovered through the experimentation of a mutant child (Chisaki arc). This is later taken up in the films that focus on being prequels, in X-Men days of future past where we meet Dr. Trask whose introduction is him explaining how the evolutionary chain of the human being was, how those more evolved ended exterminated their less evolved ancestors, the mutants here are the next evolutionary step and all those born without the X gene are the least evolved, who in Trask's words will only follow the same path as their ancestors before.

Now, whoever reads this will say "why is this story important and what does it have to do with Shoto's words?" Well, it's that Shoto's words, plus the panel that refers to those events that are outside the books, they make me wonder how the UA students know history, because they live in a society where the supremacy of the quirk is what is imposed, they didn’t live in first stages and we know little or nothing about how this stage is told to the generations that followed. Afo, Yoichi, Kudo and Bruce were born in the first glimpses of quirk society, however there is something that is interesting and that is that Kudo doesn’t represent a front against discrimination to people with quirks, they were a revolutionary army againts Afo, Yoichi himself never thinks about the discrimination and mistreatment of quirk people in the society in which he grew up, which is incredibly strange considering that he witnessed his brother killing a group that planned to kill them for recognizing that Afo belonged to that new generation of people. The pre-Quirk society carried out practices of discrimination and perhaps even death of people they considered dangerous, the majority of quirkless people in the old society were terrified of the quirks and their response was to attack the unknown. Ofc, we can only talk about Japan since we don't know what happened throughout the world, from what we can see the glowing baby was not considered dangerous in China, or perhaps there were certain quirks that were less inconvenient than others but in Japan we can see that there were groups against people with quirks.

Now, returning to Shoto's words, the big problem of the society in which Afo was born is not the lack of symbols, the chaos of pre-Quirk society was based on fear and discrimination of an unknown other. The times after the first stages are unknown to all readers, we only know what Horikoshi said, we also know that the society where Toshinori grew up and decided to become a symbol of peace was also very different. All Might is presented to us in the manga as the first symbol not only of peace but also as the first symbol of society, although Banjo is one of the first group of heroes who aren’t what we know as vigilantes (please correct me if I'm wrong). ), it isn’t until All Might and his long career that the society of heroes as we know it now is consolidated. All Might is the symbol and only pillar where this society stands and that explains how weak a symbol that shapes society can be, because once AM can no longer act as such, that is when society breaks down. In the movie Catching Fire there is a very interesting conversation between Snow and Katniss, where Snow tells her that Katniss' behavior cannot be ignored, because if people thought they could face the Capitol without fear, eventually the system would collapse and Katniss responds "what a fragile system if it collapses because of a few berries"

With all this I’m trying to say that having a symbol or not does not end up being a factor of true stability, AM or rather Toshinori renounced every aspect of his personal life to become the symbol of peace and bear the weight of society, but his figure was the only thing that kept society in order, the symbol of peace was fragile and only hid a broken and corrupt society, this isn’t AM's fault, the problem is that when Shoto talks about the lack of a symbol doesn’t finish internalizing that society with a symbol didn’t work either, because the symbol was only represented in a man and when he could no longer take his place, Endevor could have been the number one hero but he isn’t a symbol at the level of AM, no hero could fill that place.

So, is it the lack of symbol that allows chaos to be generated? Or is the function of a symbol to create stability? What happens when the symbol is more revolutionary and generates chaos or confrontation? This is where I may sound controversial but Afo could have been a symbol for the people he "helped", in a twisted way he was a symbol of refuge for people who were rejected and found with him a place to belong or even a solution to be found, someone that could take away the quirk that made them different in that society, Tomura is a symbol for those who didn’tt fit into society, we saw that when in the previous chapters he said that he wanted to be the hero of the villains, when we saw panels of people who said "Yes, Shigaraki destroys everything", Spinner is a symbol for the discrimination of heteromorphs even though Horikoshi neglected the issue.

So, in bnha there are symbols, the problem is that the heroes lost the symbol that gave stability to the society that they know, the society was sustained by covering its problems and creating its villains through the rejection and indifference of those who didn’t fit. The society of pre-quirks didn’t become chaos due to the lack of symbols but due to the systematic mistreatment of a minority where fear led to violence, Afo knew how to take advantage of those expelled at the time. It’s for all this that I wonder how much the UA students know about history and the formation of society, of course there could have been sides represented, for example like Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, who could be symbols in that pre-quirk society but these wouldn’t have avoided chaos, since it’s formed by the discrimination of others considered different. The society of heroes in bnha doesn’tt need a symbol embodied in a person, it isn’t the lack of a symbol that generates chaos but the system, symbols can often be functional to the perpetuation of the same, instead of corrections to their shortcomings.

[ape-apocalypse]

Road To The Kingdom - Firestorm Tie-In Novel

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm is a prequel novel written by Greg Keyes for the second movie in the reboot trilogy. It takes place soon after the end of the first film, about a week after the apes escaped into the redwood forest beyond San Francisco and the Simian Flu began to cut through the human race. This novel is a fantastic bridge between Rise and Dawn, giving us more insight into characters we met in the first movie who will feature in the next, as well as fleshing out the fall of society. 

The book does very well juggling between the two massive plots of Caesar's apes avoiding their human hunters and the Simian Flu tearing through the city. Though we don't see Will or any other humans we met in Rise, they give us many new human characters: a reporter trying to make the connection between the escaped apes and the new virus, an emergency room doctor dealing hands on with outbreak casualties, and an ape researcher and a former hunter who have been brought in by Gen-Sys to capture Caesar's group. While I thought I wouldn't care about the humans because the apes are always my favorite characters, all these humans in different locations and with different stories keep the story from dragging; I ended up enjoying the final days of humanity almost as much as Caesar's story. The book also gives us the first introduction to a human character who will become important in Dawn: Dreyfus, the leader of the human colony played by Gary Oldman. Going into the movie, his backstory isn't very clear other than he was in some position of power before the end and he lost his wife and children. But the book goes really deep into his story of a former police chief running for mayor and wanting to protect humans. Rereading the book in 2024, the parallels of the Simian Flu with the Covid outbreak definitely rings true (much like the YouTube shorts).

But no matter how good the human characters are, what I enjoyed most about this book was seeing Caesar and his escaped apes start to adapt to life in the wild. Even while they're being hounded by the humans chasing them, they have to figure out how to care for sick/injured apes and where to get food without humans to feed them. A great moment for Caesar is when he thinks to himself that he never thought beyond escaping from the human city; his realization that there is more to figure out than just dodging humans shows how he goes from accidental ringleader from the sanctuary to the wise authoritative leader of the apes of the next two films.

Though surprisingly, the true star of this book isn't Caesar; it's Koba. We get numerous detailed flashbacks of Koba's life before ending up in the Gen-Sys lab and receiving the brain enhancing drugs. From the death of his mother to being an abused TV star to arriving at the labs as a test ape. In the films, Koba's hatred of humans shines through and is unquestionable; you don't need the backstory to understand why he carries a grudge against all humanity. But reading the details really did break my heart. And getting his backstory revealed as he learns to work with other apes, as he proves his loyalty to Caesar by rescuing injured apes rather than wrecking vengeance on humans, you actually have hope that he could be happy now that he was free with other apes. 

Another great part of the book is getting to see the very beginning of Caesar and Cornelia's courtship. Since one of my disappointments with the films are the forgotten female characters, I was glad to see Cornelia here, challenging Caesar's orders when it came to taking care of injured apes. Though her role is still small, I liked seeing her get a little time to flesh out her character.

Firestorm is officially labeled as a prequel (which is why I have it listed first as I'm trying to go in chronological storyline order), but I actually enjoyed reading it after seeing Dawn. While I think it can still be appreciated in any order, I liked getting to meet Koba in the movie and seeing him as a great complicated villain, before then learning his backstory and growing your sympathy for him, while also thinking about how tragic it is that he couldn't let go of his hate. Whatever order you decide to read them in, Firestorm by Greg Keyes is a wonderful expansion on the movies that I would label as required reading for fans for the expansive and enjoyable story it shares.

Intro / Previous / Next

[tpq-heritage-posts]

Our Fandom

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Let me know if I forgot got you!

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[the-gershomite]

X-Men 2 Wolverine: official movie comic book prequel -May 2003-

Marvel Comics

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (March 24-30, 2024)

A coworker asked tonight me how Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire measured up to Godzilla Minus One, and I responded, "Almost as good, but in a completely different way." If you like monsters (and if you're following me I have to assume you do), see it, no questions asked. There's about a million of them and they're all delightful. The franchise has long struggled to recapture the specific charms of the Showa era, and I think this comes closer than any of them. (It's the climactic tag-team battle... also Mothra returning to knock some sense into Godzilla). Pure junk food, but you can't just watch Oppenheimer all the time.

Godzilla x Kong tore up the box office this weekend, performing well above expectations. Its $80 million opening Stateside was the second-best of the Monsterverse (after Godzilla). It added another $114 million internationally for the best overall opening of the (still-young) year. China was a big part of that with $44 million; giant monster movies are among the few Hollywood imports that still play well there. With a $135 million budget, lowest of the Monsterverse by a wide margin, it's a matter of when, not if, Legendary announces the next one.

The Oxford English Dictionary has added an entry for tokusatsu, defined as "A genre of Japanese film or television entertainment characterized by the use of practical special effects, usually featuring giant monsters, transforming robots, and masked and costumed superheroes." It's part of a group of 23 freshly-acknowledged Japanese loan words; unclear if the timing is coincidental. Oh, and if you're curious, they added kaiju in 2018. As someone who remembers when the only English-speakers who used either word were in fandom, it's pretty wild to see.

French company Extralucid Films will release Gappa on Blu-ray in June. The impressive-sounding bonus features are naturally all in French, but there's one that transcends language: 17 minutes of extra monster footage. The U.S. version of Gappa, Monster from a Prehistoric Planet, only has about 7 minutes worth of shots absent from the Japanese version, so I'm pretty curious about the other 10. It's also the first time this footage has been released in HD (Tokyo Shock blew it in 2020).

Season 2 of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again is indeed receiving official English subtitles, starting the same day as the Japanese premiere, April 10. Godzilla Battle Line also added a hilariously busted joint Chibi Godzilla-Chibi Mechagodzilla unit, along with a Destoroyah variant. (Maybe Godzilla x Kong units are next month?)

A new Monsterverse movie means new books to buy. The prequel comic Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted is out already (not recommended), but officially you'll have to wait until April 23 for the novelization and May 14 for the art book. Chalk that up to the late release date change, maybe. Unofficially, people are already getting the novelization from Amazon, because they're a monopoly that can afford to pay the fines from publishers for breaking street date. The audiobook version also released on the same day as the film. I don't have intel on what it adds and changes yet; adding everything from the film itself to Wikizilla is all I can handle right now.

The San Francisco Giants are offering a Godzilla VIP Experience on May 17, a long-overdue acknowledgement of the savior of their city. Tickets are almost gone, though I think it's a shame that the promotion is opt-in to begin; what happened to giving these tchotchkes out to the first thousand fans? Well, figures that they'd make getting merch of the Minus One Godzilla in the States a hassle.

[wandringaesthetic]

I think it builds character for a piece of media you were really, really looking forward to to totally disappoint you.

Do you know how much tiny me looked forward to the Animorphs TV show? Online video basically didn't exist at that time, so I watched Nickelodeon all day to try to get a glimpse of one of the TV commercials for it. It was like 30 seconds long and it didn't show much and I think the network was already not confident in it because it didn't air often!

And when the show came out, it was bad. It was very bad. It was a pretty high concept sci fi thing that had a shoestring budget. They could have saved it by leaning more into the horror/suspense that everyone you know might really be an alien brain slug but they were not that smart. The writing wasn't good. Only a couple of the actors were good. It didn't have much respect for the characters or the plot or continuity or tone of the books. Of its twenty something episodes there are maybe 2 that are kind of tolerable! I never watched the last few of them!

(the opening is good. I do like that theme song)

Animorphs fandom was some of my earliest internet experiences , so I went to the Animorphs forums on the official Animorphs Scholastic website, and I want to be clear, this place was usually not very strictly moderated if it was moderated at all before this. I think it had some filters for language but beyond that it was the wild west in there. And all of the comments about the show were positive! Even fifth grade me knew to call shenanigans. They were deleting negative posts about the TV show!

And I had to deal with the little "watch Animorphs on TV!" stamp on the covers of the books for a couple years there, thinking "no. don't." whenever I picked them up

And you know, I'd like to say I learned from this, but I didn't, because a couple years later the Star Wars prequels happened. Now, I actually quite liked The Phantom Menace, and 25 years later I stand by that, but Attack of the Clones....

I was pretty online and absorbed general fan jabber about Phantom Menace so by the time Clones came out, you know, I was a high schooler instead of a callow middle schooler, I knew things, I was beginning to doubt my earlier stance about TPM.

but Clones made me feel this sweaty cognitive dissonance. I liked it less than TPM, but like, fans and mainstream media alike seemed to like it better than the last one, and I already had a poster for this movie on my wall and....

To this day I am of two minds about that movie. I can explain why better now but I'm still not sure what Lucas' intentions were with parts of it, so....

To me, the Star Wars prequel trilogy is Phantom Menace, the soundtrack to Attack of the Clones, a hundred and twenty whatever episodes of Star Wars The Clone Wars and some mishmash of the Revenge of the Sith movie and the Matt Stover novelization.

Anyway. I feel these experiences gave me perspective. Gave me confidence in my own opinions while also not feeling like I have to make them known to everyone. A fandom where most of the people are unhappy with the piece of media they're gathering around is not a fun place to be. I'm very capable of walking away from things that aren't making me happy without complaining about them ceaselessly or acting like my distaste is a moral issue or needing to convince myself that this part is actually good, really! None of this is that serious and we're supposed to be doing this for fun.

I won't say that I haven't felt betrayed by any piece of media since, but it's rare, and when it happens I'm really good at shutting up about it and pretending it doesn't exist unless someone specifically asks me about it. I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. It also makes me cautious about getting on hype trains.

[monsterblogging]

List of Official/Official-Adjacent Pacific Rim Media

Here's a list of Pacific Rim media for y'all Pacific Rim fans who want to check out as much of it as possible!

PACIFIC RIM (2013 FILM) Usually considered the primary text of this franchise. Pacific Rim fans mostly agree it's good.

PACIFIC RIM NOVELIZATION BY ALEX IRVINE The novelization of the 2013 film. The book's writer, Alex Irvine, had texts from Legendary Pictures work with, but some of the information was outdated. Furthermore, the book has a cynical, smug tone and comes off like it's written for the type of audience who thinks CinemaSins is actual media criticism. The only thing it's really good for is for scraping out lore, but it's full of contradictions and occasionally uses outdated lore, so you have to compare/contrast it with other materials.

TALES FROM YEAR ZERO Authored by Travis Beacham, this comic explores the origins of the PPDC and the Jaeger program. It's interesting for lore, but story-wise, it might not be engaging if you aren't into Travis Beacham's particular romantic storytelling tastes. Also, if you're a puritan who gets offended when main characters are kinda fucked up people, this isn't for you.

TALES FROM THE DRIFT Authored by Travis Beacham, this comic tells the haters-to-lovers story of Duc and Kaori Jessop, pilots of Tacit Ronin. Mildly interesting for lore, and another romance-oriented story. (Beacham loves those.)

PACIFIC RIM: MAN, MACHINES, & MONSTERS The official artbook. Has some interesting information and lore, though it also contains a few typos and references outdated worldbuilding.

TRAVIS BEACHAM'S TUMBLR After Pacific Rim's release, Travis Beacham answered many fans' questions. While he was often cryptic and straight-up refused to answer certain questions for fear that he'd spoil a future story, he still provided quite a bit of insight. You can visit his old blog at travisbeacham.tumblr.com

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING Largely panned by fans of the original film. Partway through production, the sequel to Pacific Rim was handed off to another director, and many plot elements were hastily changed with little to no regard for the rich worldbuilding developed by Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro, or even story coherency. The film never gives really your brain space to breathe, so it's very difficult to follow the story. Moreover, it misses the thematic and allegorical tones of the first movie, and lacks its occult influences. Overall, it's a hollow followup to Pacific Rim.

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING NOVELIZATION BY ALEX IRVINE Fundamentally, it's the same story as Pacific Rim: Uprising. The upside is that Alex Irvine's writing is significantly improved, and the story is much easier to follow in novel format. The downside is that you don't have John Boyega's acting talent.

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING JUNIOR NOVELIZATION BY BECKY MATHESON It's more or less the same as above, but edited down for a younger audience.

THE ART AND MAKING OF PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING The PRU artbook. I've never read this one, so I couldn't tell you what's in it aside from the very obvious.

PACIFIC RIM: AFTERMATH A prequel comic to Pacific Rim: Uprising written by Cavan Scott, Aftermath tells two stories: one focuses on Jake Pentecost and his relationship with his father; the other on what happened to Hannibal Chau and Joshua Griffin (one of Vulcan Specter's pilots) after the kaiju war. The comic makes excellent use of the lore, and the stories are great.

PACIFIC RIM: AMARA A prequel comic that focuses specifically on Amara Namari. I have mixed feelings about it; the mini-Jaeger designs were great but I felt that the actual storyline was a little melodramatic. I dunno, read it for yourself and see what you think.

PACIFIC RIM: ASCENSION A prequel novel to Uprising by Greg Keyes, this story gives life and focus to many characters who didn't get a lot of attention, including the Kaidonovskys and the cadets. Mako Mori is given the narrative respect she deserves, and Hermann Gottlieb's characterization is top-notch. The author makes use of the lore provided by Legendary Pictures to weave a rich and fascinating narrative that puts the actual Uprising film to shame.

MAKING OF/BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE There's a number of videos out there on YouTube, which you can find by searching up.

PACIFIC RIM CONCEPT ART There's quite a lot of concept art out there. You can start here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or search Pinterest or whatever search engine for Pacific Rim concept art.

PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK A cash grab produced by Netflix, The Black disregards Pacific Rim's rich worldbuilding and follows bland, generic cartoon protagonists through a bland, generic cartoon plot loosely - loosely, mind you - based on the films. It tries to be dark, but it has all the skill of a sixteen year old edgelord about it. Also, the production values are nonexistent. You will miss absolutely nothing worthwhile by skipping over it. If for some reason you really want a Pacific Rim story where child soldiers are framed as a good thing, just read Pacific Rim: Ascension. If you want dark, watch Pulp Fiction or From Dusk 'Til Dawn. If you want a story where somebody makes a religion out of turning people into monsters, watch Midnight Mass or play/watch a no-commentary playthrough of Resident Evil 4 or 8. If you want an AI that looks after two stranded children, watch 3Below. Seriously, there is nothing The Black does that something else doesn't do infinitely better. "But most of these aren't Pacific Rim stories-" Wrong. Any story can be a Pacific Rim story if you're not a coward. And just about anything is a better Pacific Rim story than The Black.

PACIFIC RIM: BLACKOUT Prequel comic to Pacific Rim: The Black. Haven't read it, but it's written by the same guy who wrote Aftermath so it's probably a sight better than The Black.

[damnfandomproblems]

https://www.tumblr.com/damnfandomproblems/765731043946971136/6201-these-witch-hunts-against-fans-of-certain?source=share

The problem with the hp topic is that many people believe fan engagement = new official content = more money in jkr's pockets, and frankly this is kind of bs. Though the fandom is a bit smaller, it's still a big thing, and yet Fantastic Beasts sank and isn't coming to back to life. Her book sales went down. This reboot series that's been talked about last year feels like a desperate attempt to have the franchise make money again, because big companies don't care what fan content fans create (if they did, they would have made a marauder prequel with how much fans have been asking for it for at least a decade), they only care that official stuff gets them money. You can consume all the hp fanfic and fanart and buy all the merch you want from unaffiliated artists and at some point WB and whichever publishing house has jkr now will still drop her because she won't earn them enough profit to continue buying her works, like it happened to the FB movies. In order to do this, though, you have to completely stop buying official HP stuff. This has to be clear. This is what you should speaking about. You have to make sure she doesn't sell anymore. But yeah, you should leave fans who don't support her in money or ideology alone.

Posting as a response to a previous ask.

[mask131]

Why the Time Bandits remake makes me feel an angry despair (1)

I announced it before: I am mounting my high horses for this matter.

"Time Bandits" is a children fantasy movie by Terry Gilliam, released in 1981. It is one of those "almost Monty-Python-movies" thanks to two other Monty Python actors joining Gilliam's project: John Cleese, playing Robin Hood, and Michael Palin playing a poor guy who keeps being reincarnated throughout history and always has the worst love life. This movie is part of the "Imagination Trilogy" of Gilliam, meant to represent the "childhood imagination" - alongside the dark movie "Brazil", for "adult imagination", and Gilliam's adaptation of the Adventures of the Baron Münchausen, for "old man imagination".

I love Time Bandits. It isn't just that I love, I adore it. This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and it was such a huge part of my childhood it literaly shaped my imagination in many, many ways. It is still to this day one of my favorite movies, with such a unique feeling I couldn't find anywhere else but in other Gilliam-related or Python-related movies.

It is one of these rare things where I can say I am really a huge fan. I bought the Criterion Collection DVD, I bought the official script-book, I went online to find alternate versions of the scripts which contained deleted scenes NOT in the official script-book...

I even chose this movie as the subject of my presentation for my high school diploma, doing a full analysis of it that gave me a very good grade. I am really in love with this piece.

NOW if you haven't heard about it, a trailer was released for an Apple + series of (10 episodes I think?). "2024 Time Bandits". A remake by Taika Waititi (among others but he is the main guy behind this).

I had heard of this project a long time ago because Waititi's desire to do something Time Bandits related has been around since his glory days with "What we do in the shadows". He kept speaking about how much he loved Time Bandits and how he wanted to do something related to it.

... I never realized he meant doing a remake a it. Time Bandits has so much potential for sequels or prequels or alternate takes or whatever cinematic terminology you have.

Now, that being said, I don't mind a remake. Waititi has proven to have good ideas and cool projects, and he seemed to really be a fan of the original - plus it was a project he had been dragging for quite some times, so I had still some interests and hopes...

... and then the trailer came out. And I saw it. And...

... You know it will be the first time in my life I will turn into one of those angry Internet ranters mad about a remake of their favorite thing. Never in my life before I was involved on a personal level with disliking a remake but OH BOY here I am.

There are so many things BAD with this trailer. Not wrong. BAD. I don't dislike all about the trailer... But I dislike most of it, and I don't just "dislike" it as in "Oh yeah, they could have done better", no, we are talking about a "I DESPISE this".

Honestly it looks like the people behind this series considered everything that made Time Bandits unique and powerful and cool and weird... and decided to remove it to make it bland, flat and... a sort of flavorless, mass-marketable Americanized modern vaguely super-hero like movie (did Waititi's experience on the Thor movies screwed his imagination THAT badly?)

I literaly do not understand how someone so hellbent and so dedicated to Time Bandits could create a product that looks like was designed by people who only vaguely heard of the original movie's plot. Because the people who made this series clearly did NOT understood the heart, soul or goal or the movie.

I heard something about Terry Gilliam being hired as an executive producer, coming on the set for a planned three months, but leaving abruptly after only three days and never returning. And people concluded that it was because he was pissed off. Seeing the trailer, I am inclined to believe he was.

[sorandomlaur]

— The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - concept character posters // PS CC - 2023

› Hiiiiii there,

It's been sooo so long since I've last posted here, yes I am ashamed, BUT I'm coming back with not one but TWO new posters! The Hunger Games : The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes character posters for Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray Baird !

To be honest Tom and Rachel are the ones who convinced me to start reading the book and watch the movie, as I've never really been much of a Hunger Games fan, although I've tried soooo hard as a teenager and wanted to like the saga SO much, turns out becoming an adult and this prequel were what I needed haha. I looove the book so much and I just can't wait to watch the movie! It came out today in France, but I'm gonna have to wait a bit more to watch it sadly.

In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy these new posters, love them as much as I do, and as much as I had fun creating them, I will hopefully see you soon !

Take care

——————————

This is a FANART, not an official poster.

Please DO NOT REPOST this artwork anywhere without my permission, you are free to reblog it tho. And please do not claim it as your own. I do not own most of the pictures or resources used for this artwork, they were found on the internet.

[vani11a-ice]

So, any unpopular opinions about Star Wars Legends that you have? I'm perfectly willing to listen.

Lmao hi, I didn’t expect to see you here! I really liked your Mara Jade criticism/analysis, and I saw your thoughts about my silly little hashtags—off topic to the ask but yes I definitely agree it’s too late to do anything with Mara Jade now given her story already concluded in Legends/EU verse, not to mention Disney now own the rights so that couldn’t even happen. If she were rewritten however she definitely could be far greater of a character.

As for your kind ask, when it comes to Star Wars EU there’s a lot to unpack because there’s so much content, but I guess I can give an overall opinion to make it more concise (But brace yourself, I will be yapping quite a bit anyways on here lol).

I generally love Legends. I grew up mainly with the central Lucas canon many years before Disney acquired the franchise: obviously the movies and 2008 clone wars series, and then some small EU content such as video games and some children’s comics/books before I even knew what the EU was. Because of this, I think it’s easy for me and many others to look back on the old stuff and be nostalgic for it.

But now that I’m older and gotten back into Star Wars (after losing interest in it for a while due to the sequels), I now have a better grasp of Legends content as well as a lot of lore I didn’t know as a kid—mainly books about what happens post ROTJ—and one thing I’ve noticed is that the quality highly fluctuates. On the one hand you get some amazing stuff like the Old Republic era, some of the Clone wars comics, old Battlefield games, the Darth Plagueis novel, the Prequel novelisations, Thrawn, Clone Wars 2003 and ofc many more. On the other hand, you get some pretty ridiculous stuff too, like Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, the Force Unleashed (Ironically, I actually really like this game for the nostalgia, its gameplay, Galen himself, story potential and the memes but many events of the game itself do not realistically make sense lol) and many books post ROTJ (mind you haven’t read all of them, way too many lol) that kind of have plot points I’m not too happy with and I could go on forever about (and some others I probably haven’t thought of).

My main point is, many legends fans will always advocate that the solution to Disney’s less than stellar Star Wars works recently is doing adaptations of existing legends material. And whilst I do think that there is a lot of lore you can pluck from legends and reuse/rewrite for their potential (I mean Disney already does that with characters like Thrawn), I never would want a 1-1 recreation. First of all, Legends started before the prequels so a lot of it doesn’t make complete sense now anyways (Hot take, but post-prequel-movies legends has always been better overall in terms of quality. For this reason, Old Republic/Prequel era was handled better overall than New Republic era). Additionally, Legends just isn’t as consistent or good overall as people would like to believe. It’s a large universe with several different writers, there’s bound to be mistakes/bad works riddled throughout here and there.

I also don’t think there’s enough people that talk about (especially) the older legends materials’ problematic elements as well. I’m not always a huge fan of how certain writers treat female and even other minority/non-human characters in Legends. I’m sure you’re familiar with this with people like Mara Jade. One of my other personal main gripes just to list another example is Leia. I’ve always hated how sidelined she is because she was always my personal favourite as a child, and the writers throughout the continuity could not make up their mind on whether she should be a Jedi or not to the point where her skills largely varied between writers until they finally decided to make it official when she’s much much older. Even by then she’s already overshadowed by her children/brother. George Lucas himself didn’t always write her or other female characters in the best way either, but I always thought an EU continuity would be the perfect place to give her the attention she deserves, instead all we got was an inconsistent arc, especially after the Thrawn trilogy. Disney could have turned this around but unfortunately the exact same thing happened where they couldn’t make up their mind on whether she was a Jedi or not (and gave her the shittiest excuse for quitting—how ironic that both Legends and Disney write in immediate motherhood and marriage as a sexist obstacle rather than actually letting her character grow before/during these events).

Fanatic Legends fans will, however, unfortunately rarely agree or at least try to understand criticism of their favourite universe, and, in my view, this is no better than Disney Adults who vehemently reject criticism of some of the worst recent Star Wars media that’s been released.

To conclude this long ass rant, I just think Star Wars EU whether that be Legends or Disney could do with rewriting/organisation here and there. But that’s highly unlikely, so a more realistic solution is just to pick and choose the media you enjoy from both universes (or make up your own!) and just accept it as your own personal canon. That’s what gives me peace and mind anyways :)

[tremendouskoalachild]

i like Barriss Offee well enough but don't enjoy anything she's in and haven't watched or read any of it in like 12 years so. i'd appreciate an update or correction if anyone knowledgeable sees this. but here's my likely very skewed understanding of the situation:

2002's attack of the clones arena scene has many jedi, though most show up for a single shot or so, and they have many different alien designs to make it visually interesting. a lot of them don't do anything (not to distract from the main characters' action and because of the limitations of a greenscreen set, as well as some of the costumes and prosthetics not being well suited to action).

two of these background jedi are green-ish ladies with facial markings and head coverings (is this originally for a practical reason because face paint is more complicated when the character's hairline is visible? i don't know enough about film make-up to guess)

Lucas isn't interested in or simply doesn't have the time to establish lore for random background characters, and movie tie-in material is pumped out quickly to drive hype for the films and make the most out of the films' relevance. the early reference books and pre-aotc novels are not very consistent (remember when Tholothians were canonically just humans wearing funny hats for a while? i remember). Luminara and Barriss are officially humans and Jedi Knights for a bit. Barriss' face markings are connected to Depa Billaba's culture.

Barriss doesn't have an official age for a while but is assumed to be around Anakin's age or a bit older.

the Mirialan species is established in the lore, Barriss and Luminara being members. their tattoos are now a part of Mirialan culture. it is established that Mirialans have a deep cultural respect for the Force and Mirialan Jedi often take other Mirialans on as students.

authors are allowed to play around with the side characters because that won't impact the films. Barriss is established as a talented compassionate healer and is the main character of the MedStar duology (2004).

Barriss is at first planned to be one of the Jedi shown executed during Order 66 but the scene is cancelled, much like Shaak Ti and Luminara.

The Clone Wars 3D animated show (2008) begins development a while after the prequels end and slowly starts overwriting the Clone Wars multimedia project, because it is made with Lucas. an effort is made to keep the two projects consistent but it becomes more and more difficult the longer the show goes on. the show does incorporate some lore or events from prior media, but regularly changes them to fit its plot and characterization.

Ahsoka is the child audience pov character and needs a peer for some storylines. there are no young teen girl Jedi in the films but Barriss is close enough and her design fits well with the tcw aesthetic, which often prefers hairless characters for its animation style, especially in the early seasons. she is changed to be around Ahsoka's age and a Padawan.

Ahsoka and Barriss are established to be close, paralleled from time to time, and the writer of their main arc together later claims he intended a romance between them. (i only got this second hand and haven't fact checked this.). the barrissoka fandom forms.

Barriss disappears from the show, which focuses on different arcs for a few seasons.

Filoni is writing an important arc for Ahsoka, which needs to challenge her emotionally and philosophically as well as physically, and must culminate with her leaving the Jedi in order to be absent during Revenge of the Sith. he decides to bring back Barriss as an adversary, for the emotional drama of being betrayed by a friend.

Barriss is intended to die during this 2012 arc but Filoni ends up sparing her for undisclosed future plans. she gets arrested and imprisoned instead.

her character's previous ending, shown in the original novels as dying in service of the Jedi on Felucia, doesn't seem to work at all anymore. the MedStar duology is extremely dubiously canon at this point. the canon reset is imminent and lucasfilm has more or less stopped pretending all these events are part of the same continuity. wookieepedia editors are in shambles.

the multimedia project is officially declared Legends in 2014, and Barriss doesn't appear in tcw's new canon tie-ins. her characterization now comes only from the show. she doesn't show up in any of the prequel-era projects for years, until the novel Queen's Hope (2022).

Filoni's new canon show Rebels (2014) introduces new adversaries in the form of inquisitors, former Jedi who are now hunting survivors. one of the more prominent villains is a female Mirialan inquisitor. there is rampant fan speculation that this is Barriss. it isn't.

Ahsoka becomes a main part of the show. the fandom keeps hoping for Barriss to reappear with her. she doesn't.

Filoni creates a tcw spin-off focusing on Ahsoka (and Dooku) in 2022. Barriss doesn't appear.

Ahsoka gets her own post-original trilogy show by Filoni in 2023. there is some speculation Barriss could appear, possibly as a mysterious new inquisitor character. she doesn't.

in 2024 there is a new season of the animated tcw spinoff, prominently featuring inquisitors. Barriss is now a main character, picking up a while after the Wrong Jedi arc. it has been something like 12 years since we last saw her.