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kcwcommentary · 6 years ago

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VLD6x07 – “Defender of All Universes”

6x07 – “Defender of All Universes”

This is a long one.

This episode starts where the previous one left off. The music even makes it feel like the episode is starting in the middle of a scene, rather than starting a new episode, which is odd. Keith tells Coran that he’s “got incoming” and we see, I think, the hover bike/craft that the show’s used a couple of times functioning here like a standard transport pod. That’s a use that hasn’t been established before and feels forced to me. The clone’s body is aboard, and the bike/craft would have to be operating on autopilot, what with Keith in the Black Lion. Honestly, this feels like an add-on to the episode to explain how the upcoming fight can happen and Keith not have to worry about having the unconscious clone’s body with him in the Black Lion, like they realized after a lot of the episode was formalized and then tacked an extra two shots on to cover themselves.

Voltron and Sincline are still fighting. After the shoulder cannon proves too slow, Voltron forms sword, and Sincline counters with two swords. “Now we will see how Alfor’s legacy stands against the new Altean defender,” Lotor says. I actually really like this line. It’s well performed, and it continues some of Lotor’s new argument from last episode that he’s done more to try to preserve the Altean culture than Allura (and in some ways, he’s not wrong about that). I wish the validity of his work in trying to keep the Altean species from going extinct wasn’t lost in the show focusing so hard on the quintessence harvesting from the colony. Yes, there is something gross about his harvesting that quintessence, but because this is the end of Lotor’s story, and to justify this conflict the show focuses on this particular reprehensible thing he’s done (without fully explaining why he did it), the good that comes from him preserving the Alteans is ignored. Because the show wanted to get to the action fight scenes, Allura went almost instantly to yelling at Lotor over harvesting quintessence that she hasn’t had any reaction to knowing that there are a bunch of Alteans still alive in this universe, that she is not alone. That is a huge realization for her to have, and it feels like the show has totally skipped it.

I am quickly tired of seeing Lotor animated to have a maniacal smile on his face. That direction choice is so disrespectful of his character. It feels like the show is trying to say we can interpret him as villainous by way of insanity, and the equation of mental illness with villains being dangerous is both antiquated storytelling and an offensive trope. It’s also reductive characterization that severs the combat from the motivation. The external, physical fight should be a symbol of the internal, psychological argument between the protagonist and the antagonist. But by making Lotor the villain by way of insanity, the show deprives the fight of its necessary weight.

After an earlier moment of Voltron, from a distance, not being able to hit Sincline with the shoulder cannon specifically because it’s too slow and Sincline is too fast, Keith orders Hunk to again attack with the shoulder cannon. The blast is even animated really slowly (ships have been animated to physically move faster than the blaster beam is moving in this shot), and Sincline is just floating there not moving. Granted, Sincline sort of kind of teleports away right before the blast would hit, but even still. Why Keith suddenly thought the shoulder cannon would be effective when he had already deemed it to be ineffective, I don’t know. Nothing has changed in the combat to allow for a differentiation of circumstances to make the cannon now be effective.

Sincline pops out of a tear in space and slam into Voltron.

Coran puts the clone in a healing pod. It’s a super short scene, and it has no dialog. It’s a weird edit because there is no narrative transition that makes having this scene occur now have any meaning. Sometimes a show might cut to a different location for a slower scene in the midst of a larger action scene, and that’s almost always to manage the action’s tension, but this doesn’t do that because this scene is really short. It’s almost instantly cut back to the action scene. I wonder if this too, like the earlier two shots of the hover bike/craft, was added at a notably later stage of development for the episode.

Voltron and Sincline continue to fight, Sincline teleporting through tears in space. Allura says that Sincline is “entering the quintessence field at will.” The show gives some characters a couple moments to display a lack of intelligence. Hunk responds, “Didn’t we blow up the gate?” The gate that was managing the exact same rift from 10,000 years ago, thus the gate was not creating the hole but supposed to manage access to it? “How is he entering without it?” Pidge asks. Because Sincline is made out of the “comet,” and that “comet” tore a hole in space all on its own. This doesn’t seem like it should be information/conclusions that they are baffled by at this point. Allura says that she gave Sincline the ability with her alchemy. Not really, but okay. Does this mean that we’re supposed to think that Allura created functional capacity and did not know she was doing it? Though if she did, that wouldn’t exactly be unheard of since Alfor apparently gave Voltron a ton of functionality that he never designed it to have, but that is a criticism I have about the show’s lore of the creation of Voltron. The idea that someone can accidentally create functionality in a system is ridiculous, but I guess at least there’s precedent.

Lotor references a “new Altean Empire,” which is an interesting choice of words that I really wish had a greater exploration within this moment. We’ve seen an Altean Empire before, one created by alternate-reality-Allura in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky.” This gets to something that I wish the show had spent more time on than it does: The setting of this story canonically has alternate realities, and we barely see any of them. The show doesn’t use the differentiation of comparison that alternate reality stories allow in order to explore the show’s main characters. Right now, because of Empress Allura in “Hole in the Sky,” our main character Allura could be hit by the realization that what she sees in Lotor that she considers evil right now is very much what she herself is capable of because of having seen that alternate reality.

Lotor enters back into the quintessence field. The Paladins start talking about how they need to go into the quintessence field and use the quintessence there to power their fight against Sincline. Since Lotor’s argument was that they need the power of the rift’s quintessence, and the Paladins fully rejected Lotor, it makes them hypocritical to now say that they need the power of the quintessence from the rift.

In response to the question of can Voltron access the rift, Allura says, “My father did it once before.” No, he did not. The show is forgetting the details of its own history. Alfor did not tear a hole through space, creating a portal into the rift. Alfor, as seen in 3x07 “The Legend Begins,” widened an existing tear in space that was created by the raw, unprocessed “comet.”

Everyone is “focus[ing their] energy,” which is nothing more than them clichédly sitting around with their eyes closed. There is a split-screen of half of Allura’s face and half of Voltron’s face, and their eyes glow. It’s very reminiscent of a similar split-screen with Shiro and the Black Lion back in season one. This split-screen moment with Allura and Voltron, because it’s so similar to Shiro and Black, unintentionally makes me think about how the show has now entered the next and final phase of taking Black away from Shiro, and it’s aggravating. Also, I can’t help but to think that this moment between Allura and Voltron would have worked so much better if she wasn’t a leg. If she were in the Black Lion, if she were the head of Voltron, it would have so much greater significance.

A point of light distant in space sparks, why, I have no idea. This does not match what Sincline was doing, which occurred locally, directly around it. Allura orders Voltron to form sword, which is how Alfor widened the rift in “The Legend Begins,” but again, that was an already existing rift. Allura/Voltron just created a rift by doing nothing but looking off into space, and the rift opened a significant distance from them. And the sword Voltron forms is the blazing sword, which is normally formed with an accompanying emotional beat showing the Paladins making it with their bayards, but not here. They zoom the distance to the hole in space and stab it with the sword. Everything glows.

They open their eyes to see themselves in the endless light of the rift, though now there is some dark bits of dust or cloud to help give visual texture to the environment. Pidge and Hunk ooo and aah over the energy of the quintessence. Keith says, “It’s more than that; can you hear your Lions talking to you? Voltron is capable of more than we’ve ever imagined.” Since the Paladins are supposed to be bonded to their Lions, they don’t need this quintessence in order to hear their Lions. They really are proving Zarkon’s, Honerva’s, and Lotor’s point about the rift. For all the previous rejection the show has had the protagonists make about sourcing the quintessence in the rift, they sure are fine with it now. I can’t help but be bothered by their hypocrisy.

Voltron and Sincline continue to fight. The music during this moment is some of my absolute favorite music from this show.

The Paladins screaming as they fight is kind of disturbing, which I suppose is the point. Pidge yells, “See if you can dodge this,” and has the Green Lion detach its head and shoot off at Sincline. Since when can the Lions separate their heads from their bodies? Is this functionality ever seen again in this show because I don’t remember it whatsoever? Pidge is in the head, right? So, does that make the left arm of Voltron unable to function? It seems like it would be a dangerous thing for her to go off on her own and abandon the rest of the team like this. Lance yells, “Come and get some,” and blasts Sincline with energy from the sword.

Allura, gritting her teeth and breathing heavily, is angry, and she hears how the other Paladins are speaking angrily too. She then realizes that the quintessence is causing them to behave this way, and she says, “We have to get out of here.” I really wish the show had an explanation for this, but it doesn’t: Why does this quintessence cause people to react this way but the quintessence Allura uses all the time to power the Castle Ship, to revitalize the Balmera, to perform alchemy, to restore Lance’s health in 6x01 “Omega Shield,” none of that causes this aggressive behavior. The quintessence of each Paladin is what bonds them to their respective Lion, but it doesn’t cause them to turn hyper aggressive like this. If quintessence is life energy, then how does it cause a person to behave like this? Quintessence is just miscellaneously whatever the show wants it to be at any given time, even if different instances of quintessence contradict one another. And, as I’ve complained about before, if quintessence is life energy, where is it coming from in this rift? The only things that are shown to live in the rift are the weird blob creatures. What are they? What makes them so special beyond being, like quintessence itself, a nebulous whatever that the show writes them to be in any given moment?

Allura says, “This is exactly what happened to Zarkon. Exposure to all this quintessence turned him into a monster.” No, he was a monster before. He was always a horrible person. As I’ve said before, I do not accept the show’s attempt to absolve Zarkon and Honerva of their behavior by blaming it on an external influence, especially when we’ve seen what kind of people they were before they were poisoned by quintessence.

Lotor takes off his helmet, and the show has him become even more ridiculously maniacal. This is not an interesting antagonist! This is uninteresting 80s cliché villainy. And it’s a total disservice to how interesting Lotor’s character has been throughout most of his time in the show.

Hunk asks, “How do we stop this,” and Allura responds, “We give Lotor all the power he wants.” That’s another cliché. It also means the battle continues here in the rift, which they just finished saying that they cannot stay in because they were all becoming uncontrollably angry. Now, their uncontrollable anger is gone because the plot has moved on. They’re apparently not affected by the quintessence like they were just a few seconds earlier for no actual reason. It’s frustrating that the show will have a development like that – their recognition that they are being negatively affected by the quintessence – and act like it’s a big development only to immediately ignore it as the scene moves on to the next stage of the action sequence. Allura earlier said, “We have to get out of here,” but now they don’t. Rather than having Voltron work to leave the rift, the narrative just has them return to fighting.

So, Allura closes her eyes and the V-like shape on Voltron’s chest glows. Voltron blasts Sincline from its chest, with the ring of a wormhole circling the blast. Lotor continues to be depicted as ridiculously maniacal, and every time they have him scream, it offends me that they did this with his character. He tries to get Sincline to Voltron to attack, and just as he gets there, everything turns bright white. Afterward, Sincline is adrift.

Keith says, “Let’s grab Lotor and get out of here.” Pidge responds, “No, we can’t. We have to leave now” with a vocal quality that makes me think of every arrogant moment Pidge has ever had. The idea that they had to leave was introduced earlier, but then ignored, now it’s back again. It’s all just storytelling by whatever is convenient from moment to moment, not anything based on logic. Allura affirms Keith’s position, but Hunk concurs with Pidge. For some reason, Voltron is now in danger of being destroyed by all the quintessence, I guess. Whatever.

It’s so weird to see Allura act like she cares about Lotor here when she’s already declared him to be a “monster.” Voltron flies out of the rift, leaving Lotor inside. Outside, Allura says, “If we had stayed in the quintessence field, we would have kept fighting until we destroyed ourselves.” What additional fighting could they have done? Her comment sounds like one that would have been made if, the instant she first says they have to leave when they were all super angry, they then immediately left. But how would they have destroyed themselves by continuing to fight when they totally won the fight against Sincline/Lotor?

Coran reports that “all of Lotor’s jumping in and out of the quintessence field has created multiple growing rifts in the fabric of time and space.” Why? The previous rifts – the one in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky” and the one on Daibazaal from 3x07 “The Legend Begins” all the way up until now – have not continued to expand. The one in “Hole in the Sky” actually closed all on its own. The one on Daibazaal remained as it was for 10,000 years. This sudden threat of expanding rifts is totally inconsistent with how this show has portrayed these entrances into the rift before. This is more of the show just doing whatever at any given moment without care about keeping its lore consistent. This doesn’t feel like a threat because the show hasn’t built it up as one. This being a threat is a negation of what the show has previously depicted and established about how this all works.

Pidge says, “Unless we do something fast, those tears will continue to expand until all existence as we know it has been destroyed.” That is not how these tears have ever behaved before.

“Scanning the rift for any strand refabrication possibilities,” Pidge says. What is “strand refabrication?” Meaningless words. Hunk adds, “I’m running a few different models now to see if there’s any chance it could close on its own.” One, if the show was consistent with how these rifts have been depicted in the past, yes, it should either close on its own or stay as is for ten millennia. Two, the ability to construct a computer model to conduct any of this “running a few different models” that Hunk speaks of would take time to set up, but the show just has it be instantaneous.

Allura was apparently taught on Oriande how to tear open rifts, but not to close them. “I just don’t possess that level of alchemic knowledge,” she says.

Pidge says that the only thing that could close the rift is “a source of gravity more powerful than a supermassive black hole.” Small black holes are differentiated from supermassive black holes solely by their mass, not by their gravity. Once you get past the event horizon of any blackhole, regardless of size, it’s all the same gravity. That’s kind of the point. A black hole is gravity that has reached a level that causes the center to mathematically become a singularity, a point of infinite density. Also, there is nothing conceptually that can be more gravity than literally so much gravity that everything becomes a singularity, becomes infinity. This show just can’t help itself but to get science fundamentally wrong.

Coran says the teludav will work because it “creates a brief flash of infinite mass.” Uh, why? It would require a huge amount of energy to create just a tiny amount of mass, so if they have access to the infinite energy that would be necessary to create “infinite mass,” then just use the energy. Also, if they have the infinite energy needed to create infinite mass, then they had all the energy they needed to give to Lotor for him to use to stop the Galra Empire from taking quintessence from living creatures.

Coran’s proposal will result in the destruction of the Castle. Hunk refers to it as their “home,” and that makes me wish we had gotten more moments of regular life aboard the Castle Ship to help it feel more like a home. For me, there has always been a kind of sterility to the interior of the Castle.

Coran speaks about the Castle, indicating how it is for him a connection to his grandfather and how it is “the last piece of the real Altea.” This is where the emotion for this moment is strongest. While the others have lived on the Castle for this series, this is the last bit of the past that Allura and Coran have of their destroyed world. Once again, Allura and Coran have to give up a part of their lives. Allura orders Coran to set things up and for everyone else to load everything they can into the Lions.

The music of the evacuation montage is really good. Krolia takes care of the clone’s healing pod. Pidge gets as much from her room as she can carry and a couple of floating fluff creatures from 2x01 “Across the Universe,” which I didn’t even remember they had because they’re a total non-entity in this show. Allura gets the mice and a small holographic display of her parents, which makes me whish this show had given us as much of her mother as it has of her father. It feels really patriarchal for Allura to have this big relationship with her father but none with her mother. Lance deals with Kaltenecker. Hunk loads up some boxes that I imagine are food, since it’s Hunk. Romelle is riding with Allura.

Coran says, “Goodbye, old friend,” to the Castle. The show almost exclusively gives humor to Coran, so this is a big difference for the performance of the character. The voice actor makes Coran’s voice sound really sad in this line, and it’s truly making me tear up as I watch it.

Everyone leaves the Castle as it enters into the giant light at the center of a swirling cloud. Even though Lotor created multiple tears, I guess they’ve expanded such that they’re all just one really big tear now.

The music continues to be amazing.

Coran stands beside Allura in her Lion.

The animation sequence of the various rooms we’ve seen of the Castle over the past six seasons is emotional.

Light explodes then shrinks then explodes again then shrinks again.

The rift is gone. Left behind though is a small crystal. Hunk says, “It’s a diamond. The pressure crushed the Castle of Lions into this little diamond.” Why “diamond?” A diamond is made out of carbon, which I doubt the Castle was made out of. Also, we today have the ability to synthesize diamonds, so it’s not exactly a difficult thing to do. Something as fantastically huge as this explosion creating a diamond is not awe-inducing. Also, how did this Castle-turned-diamond survive when it entered the rift? This is all totally contrived. Also, just in case anyone was curious, despite what a lot of people think, diamonds are not actually rare. We only think they are due to successful marketing campaigns and a really small number of suppliers controlling almost all of the diamond mines here on Earth. Those suppliers use artificial scarcity to affect the market-price for diamonds, which is commonly misinterpreted as high prices resulting from rarity. But no, diamonds are not rare.

“Well, we saved all realities everywhere,” Lance says. Say what now? This episode did not establish that the rift from this reality into the quintessence field threatened all realities. The tear in space being between this reality and the quintessence field would have nothing to do with other realities because they’re fully closed off from our reality. There are no tears in the space of the other realities into the quintessence field. So, if this reality can be safely sealed off from the quintessence field, then the other realities would remain safely sealed off from the quintessence field even if the tear between this reality and the field caused this reality to be consumed by the field. This is more of the show just making stuff up without thinking through what they’re actually saying.

Keith says they need to find somewhere to land so they can help Shiro. The Lions fly off toward a galaxy. Since this battle took place at Daibazaal, when did they leave the galaxy that Daibazaal was in in order to now be flying toward a galaxy?

The music again is wonderful.

Keith says, “This body’s barely living, but Shiro’s spirit is alive. It’s inside the Black Lion.” And here the show infuriates me by not wrestling with the reality that our heroes are taking the body of someone and giving it to another person. If all life has quintessence, then so too does this clone. It is unique. It is not empty. The clone has had his own, unique experiences that no one else has ever had. He is a person. And our supposed heroes only see him as a thing they can use.

It is my understanding that once confronted with this criticism, Joaquim Dos Santos and/or Lauren Montgomery tried to say that the spirits of the clone and Shiro combine here. Of course, the show does not depict that. Had the show shown that, maybe this wouldn’t feel so cruel. Just because the EPs made an extratextual proclamation doesn’t mean that it’s in the text. Keith’s specific phrasing – that the body is “barely living, but Shiro’s spirit is alive” – makes it such that their actions here are killing the clone so that Shiro can have his body. Keith is totally dismissive of the clone, “barely living” is still living. And the body has the chance to recover if they hadn’t taken it out of the healing pod.

Lance starts crying because he realizes now that Shiro’s spirit tried to talk to him in 5x03 “Postmortem.”

Allura walks over to the Black Lion, does the hand-touch-and-glow thing, taking Shiro’s spirit from Black. She walks over to the clone’s body, touches his head, and puts Shiro’s spirit in the clone’s body. This means that Shiro’s spirit was temporarily in Allura’s body. There is never any exploration of the significance of that, and there really, really should have been. That’s a huge deal. It would have been a story that could have allowed Allura and Shiro to have grown a lot closer as friends. They could have come to understand one another in a way that no one else ever could. But because Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery hated Shiro so much, hereafter, Shiro is more and more sidelined in the story. They didn’t want to explore Shiro’s character anymore, and they only brought him back because they had to.

Shiro’s hair turns all white (quintessence makes your hair white?). He opens his eyes and sits up but then slumps against Keith. The Lions all roar. I love the voice acting of Shiro saying to Keith, “You found me.” There’s an ache in his voice. Shiro looks at Keith the whole time as he closes his eyes. Their relationship is one of the best things in this show, whether you want to term it friendship or surrogate brothers (I would say potential romantic, but I don’t think the EPs and writers ever even remotely considered romantic to be a possibility between these two characters; I think they were oblivious to any potential romantic undertones the show has for Shiro and Keith). That is why it’s infuriating that in the last two seasons of the show, Shiro and Keith barely ever talk to each other. This relationship that is fundamentally important to both of them is mostly ignored for the rest of the show.

The characters now start wondering what they are going to do next. Out of nowhere, Pidge says that Coran gave Sam Holt a copy of the plans of the Castle of Lions. The show visually composes a group shot of Coran, Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Allura, and Keith looking toward the camera, the camera pulling back away from them. Shiro is not included in this shot, nor is he visible in the reverse shot that includes Krolia and Romelle. I can’t help but feel like this is purposefully cutting Shiro out of the composition. His laying on the ground doesn’t matter: the camera could have tilted at an angle as it pulled away to have included him. The composition of the shot reveals a directorial decision that suggests a lack of inclusion of Shiro in the group.

The music the episode ends with is again excellent.

Thus, season six ends. It has been a frustrating season, a frustrating past four seasons. The specifics and implications of everything that has happened with Lotor and Shiro over how this middle third of the show is concluded are in so many ways hurtful. This show makes me ache for the storytelling to have been better than it is in a way that no other show has made me feel.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #voltron criticism #vld criticism #voltron critical #vld critical #vld season 6 #vld 6x07 #commentary

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praphit · 6 years ago

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Captain Marvel: I dream of Breezy

People, the time has come!

Ever since we saw Nick Fury sending out a message at the end of "Infinity War", we've been waiting... which in the moment seemed out of place. The world is literally disappearing before our eyes, The Avengers took a big L, and Nick Fury decides to... what? pull out some high-tech weapon to save the day? - no. Pull out some type of device that will save himself from disappearing? - no. But, he's got time to take a selfie or tell his women "bye" - or so I thought. He was actually sending a message to the mysterious (at the time) Captain Marvel!

BOOM!

Brie Larson, who plays CM, was always hanging out at Marvel events, and we finally figured out why. It was strange at some of these events tho... like the Black Panther Party - all of these people from Wakanda -

- and then there's Brie Larson.

And they're like "What the hell, woman?! Why are you here?!"

But, now we KNOW! - she's Captain Marvel!

SPLADOW

- and she's going to play a huge role in saving the day. Then, we found out that she's getting her own movie, and it's about damned time it has arrived.

I had a dream about Brie the night before this movie's release. She was sitting on the couch, and was upset about something. She also had... well, maybe she was pregnant... or she had a beer gut. But, in this dream, I remember feeling a deep love for Brie, so even if it was a beer gut, it didn't matter to me. It would also mean tht she's passionate about beer, which I am as well:)

I don't know if we were a couple, or if she was the other woman, or if I was the other man... or if I was trapped in the friend zone, and thought I'd use this time of her being upset to break free and into her arms... Who knows?? I also don't know what she was upset about. But, towards the end of the dream, I was on the couch with her, giving her a hug:) - she let me, so I know she wasn't upset at me. I woke up and shouted "Brie!" And within seconds, I realized it was all a dream... or was it? Maybe she's my wife in another dimension. We'll solve that mystery later, it felt real as hell tho.

Anyway! We have Brie as Capt M. We also have a digitally young Sam L Jackson!

Before the brooding, the scars, the all black uniform, the badass eye patch, and him demanding to know what's in my wallet, he was a young pup of a detective, who loves cats apparently. I was excited to see more of his story.

Jude Law is also in this movie. He's rockin that look when you're losing your hair, but you jell it up a bit to look like you're still young and hip. Some people can pull off the look, but it's always the beginning of mid-life crisis. Whenever I see people walking down the street with that look, I always tell them that I'm praying for them.

When was Jude's last big movie? I ask because Jude is supposed to be a big star right?? - or at least he was. Yet I never see him at any Marvel parties. Is he not invited? Why don't they like Jude? "Jude" is such a cool name. I'd want him at the party, so I could say things like "You know JUUUDE'S going to be here." and "Excuse me, but I need to go speak with JUUUDE." Why don't they want him there? Is it because of his mid-life crisis? I have a feeling that when rich, famous, white men go through their mid-life crisis that it's ten times worse than other non-those things people. Anyway, yet another mystery to solve.

Djimon Hounsou is up in there as well - I feel like he never gets enough credit for being in everything. And Ben Mendelsohn, who's frickin awesome as a villainous character.

We've got a great cast, some kick ass special effects (which btw they put their budget to good use - the bg's and fight scenes were dope), AND we got the 90's going on! We saw from the trailer that Capt Marvel smash-lands through the roof of a BlockBuster Video store. Memories, am I right?? Some of you are prob too young to remember the pain of renting a DVD season. I remember trying to rent epi's 3 & 4 or something, but they might only have 1 & 2 and 5-10. I'd have to search around at other BlockBuster's (especially if I promised a lovely lady on a date that we'd watch a certain episode when we got home) or say "eff it!" and watch it out of order. I used flirt with the clerks to ensure they'd lmk when the epi's I needed were in. Turnin BlockBuster tricks for episodes... the 90's were rough. The movie takes you down a fun lane of memories, if you remember those days tho.

In the midst of nostalgia Capt Marvel is snatched away from her successful life as a pilot, taken to space where she is made into the Capt Marvel that we come to know, finds herself back to earth to hang out with Sam L while piecing together the memories of her past, all while a war is going on with a shape-shifting alien race called "Skrulls"

- they kinda look like Yoda's people.

Ooo! maybe tht's another mystery! It would fit too, because a lot of this movie feels like Star Wars - like Star Wars meets a 90's buddy cop sitcom.

I enjoyed the movie. I had a fun time with it. There are some compaints out there: Some wanted this movie to be deeper in story. Some wanted this movie to be more soaked in serious feminism. Some wanted this movie to be less soaked in general feminism. Some were bothered by Brie Larson, believing that she's too stoic in her delivery.

Um... I don't understand the complaints about feminism (on either side). If you are looking for the feminism, it's def there. BUT, if you simply want to enjoy a movie without too much serious world stuff in it, that's def there too. You'll see or not see whatever you want, I guess. I would compare this movie more to "Ant-Man" in tone. Not as goofy, but it stays fun and light.

Now, it definitely could have been a deeper movie - CM is kidnapped, violated, and lied to - but Marvel ain't dumb - they don't want THAT to be the kid's first impression of her - that might effect sales. Besides, we don't always have to be so serious and tense all of the time.

Ex. In Ant-Man, he always goes big at some point and ends up crushing people's property, and probably crushing people around him as well - we don't talk about that. And what about his manipulation of those ants?! When you think about it, that shit ain't right! But, we don't need to talk about it:)

And I'm of course going to defend my wife from another dimension (Breezy). A lot of her personality is implied from the flashbacks, but we see she's snarky, fun, and a bit of a loose canon. I understand to a degree what people are saying, but I think the blame goes more to the writers than Brie. Also, the fact that there's non-stop war going on throughout the movie, so there's not a whole lot of down time to get to know her in depth.

The writing to me, is the biggest flaw of this movie: The villainous character that Ben Mendelsohn plays brilliantly is inconsistent. In the beginning of the movie, he's no-nonsense "We need to kill her and anyone who gets in our way". Then, later on, it's like he joins in the 90's buddy cop sitcom fun. He's crackin jokes and talkin shit - which btw (and I admit this is a nitpick) how does he know how to use slang and idioms, if he'd never been to the planet before? I also have other questions about shape-shifting - like... they can change into whomever they see, but... how do they get the details right? - or do they? Let's say somebody has a third nipple and a bad case of athlete's foot... how could they get those deets down? or even the voice - how do they copy your insides? And how do they copy your mind enough to fool people? I'm getting way too deep into this, I suppose... more mysteries smh.

Can you imagine if we all had the ability to copy one another?? Which takes identity theft to a ho nova level. Also sexual harassment... I mean let's say you wanted to feel what Chris Hemsworth's butt felt like.... you kinda could whenever you wanted to. Like I said, we don't need to go deep with everything:)

The writing is also too quick; the whole movie is - we don't get to know much more about Fury or any of the characters really - especially CM. At the end of the movie, I found myself not being invested enough in Capt to care if a sequel is made. I mean, I care if my wife from another dimension gets more of that Marvel money, but that's something different. There's also a part in the movie when she realizes she has been lied to... she gets over this very quickly. Most of us with that type of power would have went on a drunken rampage, but she just throws a slight tizzy, and moves on to kick butt. It would have been a great time to show some human traits that would have helped us relate to this character.

I also fear that they might run into the prob they run into with Superman. Supe is sooooo powerful and he doesn't have many flaws. It's flaws that draw us to characters as much as anything. We didn't get enough of the human side of CM. BUT, all in all (like I said), I enjoyed the film. But, I didn't have any expectations going in. I think if you go in like that, you'll be satisfied.

Grade: B

I wonder if Brie had a dream about me as well. I wonder if she's blogging about some lovable, praphitic... and sexy black man whom she feels like she had a loving life with, but then woke up. She's probably telling someone right now "I was preggo with his beer child (idk what that is, but it's another dimension - diff rules) and he was about to comfort cuz I was upset over stubbing my toe." That's prob all it was right?? I guess we'll never know:)

#captain marvel #Marvel Comics #john praphit #praphitproductions.com #brie larson #jude law #samuel l jackson #Movie Reviews #praphit #dreams #feminism #writing

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ezilyamuzed · 6 years ago

Text

Heartbreaker

Summary: Jensen and you had long ago been a couple after mutually agreeing that there was something more out there for the both of you. He found what he was looking for while you still searched for yours. Upon accepting a new role in his show Supernatural, you may even find what you were looking for all along, in a familiar face.

Warnings: Language. Fluff.

A/N: So honestly I was listening to songs from my teenage years when this popped into my head while trying to write another part to an ongoing series. Listening to Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker, I could see Jensen being silly with an ex and rapping Jay Z’s lyrics, because come on...that man is multi-talented. I might have an idea for what will happen if this continues but I really want to have a feel from others about their opinions. Some aspects of this have been done a lot by others, but hopefully I can add my own little touch to it to make it unique.

Thank you for taking the time to read whatever the heck this is. Any and all mistakes are my own. Please leave me feedback about what you think!

Opening scene :Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker featuring Jay Z playing

The cords of the familiar song began to play as you stood up on stage in front of the crowd, you smiled to your accompaniment. His emerald green eyes shinned to you as recited the words scrolling in front of him before you closed your eyes, allowing the lyrics to flow from your memory.

“Give me your love. Give me your love. Give me your love….” You repeated while he followed along in the duet.

“Ooh your love's so good I don't wanna let go And although I should I can't leave you alone 'Cause you're so disarming I'm caught up in the midst Of you and I can not resist at all

Boy if I do The things you want me to The way I used to do Would you love me baby Or leave me feelin' blue Would you go and break my heart?

Heartbreaker you've got the best of me But I just keep on coming back incessantly Oh why did you have to run your game on me? I should have known right from the start You'd go and break my heart” you sang with a sway in your hips while continuing to the repeat the chorus “Give me your love. Give me your love…”

The smile on your face grew wider as he winked at you while you continued reciting the lines from your past. In your best Mariah Carey impression you continued on with the words, feeling all the emotion that resided in you in them.

“It's a shame to be So euphoric and weak When you smile at me And you tell me the things That you know are stated To relinquish my love to you But I can not resist at all

Boy if I do The things you want me to The way I used to do Would you love me baby Or leave me feelin' blue Would you go and break my heart?

Heartbreaker you've got the best of me But I just keep on coming back incessently Oh why did you have to run your game on me? I should have known right from the start You'd go and break my heart”

He stepped up closer to you while you sang in preparation to his part coming, making you laugh as he put his whole body into it while flawlessly rapping the lines. You watched him lovingly move his arms around to the beat, while you waited for your cue.”

“OK. Cool. Aight. Yo. She wanna shop wit Jay Play box wit Jay She wanna pillowfight in the middle of the night She wanna drive my Benz with five of her friends She wanna creep past the block, spyin' again She wanna roll wit Jay, chase skeeos away She wanna fight wit lame chicks, blow my day She wanna respect the rest, kick me to the curb If she find one strand a hair longer than hers She want Make love in the Jacuzzi Rub up in the movies Access to the old crib, Keys to da newbie She wanna Answer the phone Tattoo her arm Last one I got her Sent it back to her mom She call me heartbreaker When we apart it makes her Wanna piece of paper, Scribble down 'I hate ya' But she know she love Jay because She love everything Jay say, Jay does, and a...”

“Heartbreaker you've got the best of me But I just keep on coming back incessently Oh why did you have to run your game on me? I should have known right from the start You'd go and break my heart

Heartbreaker you've got the best of me But I just keep on coming back incessantly Oh why did you have to run your game on me? I should have known right from the start You'd go and break my heart.

Give me your love. Give me your love. Give me your love.”

The smile on your face was wide as your threw your arms around his neck while the on looking crowd roared in praise to your performance. He gave you a little kiss on the cheek before placing his hand on the small of your back to lead you off the stage and back to your other companions.

“Amazing job as always Y/N,” Jared smiled while wrapping his long arms around you in an embrace. “You weren’t too bad there either Jay.”

You looked to your side where he stood, reaching for his beer on the table with a smirk on both of your faces. You had laughed at him when he suggested that you sang “your song”, knowing very well that the past that you two had shared was nothing but a distant memory that you once shared, that seemed like another lifetime ago. In reality though, it was only 19 years since you had met Jensen on set of ‘Days of Our Lives’. Both of your fresh faced and thrown into the crazy world of daytime television found comfort in each other. You started out at friends but slowly became more until you mutually realized that there was more waiting for you both out there. Your friendship never faltered through the years though. Whenever possible, the two of you still found time to catch up with each other’s busy lives, almost always feeling so natural like you had just seen him yesterday.

As Jared dropped his arms off of you to give Jensen a hug you sat down at the crowded table amongst the people you have come to welcome into your life as extended family members. This was always the highlight of your year, when you could just be your silly self with them, because they themselves were an odd bunch.

“You know Y/N, if I didn’t love you so much I would think that you were flirting with my husband up there,” Danneel laughed while pulling Jensen down to sit next to her.

You rolled your eyes while letting out a full body laugh. “No Danneel, he is definitely all yours!”

He shot you a look with a fake scowl like he was hurt by your words. “What’s wrong with flirting with me?”

“Besides the headaches…”

“The drama,” Gen chimed in.

“And the childlike behavior,” Danneel added.

“Nothing,” you smiled while gesturing your beer to him in a toast.

“Don’t try and change their minds Ackles,” Jared snorted. “These girls know us better than we do ourselves.”

“Damn straight we do,” Gen exclaimed while pulling Jared down to meet his lips with hers.

You watched them all in admiration. They were all really the perfect couples that they portrayed to the media. Secretly you were jealous of them all, knowing that it’s a rare find to come across someone that compliments you in every way possible. Sure you had relationships, but they were mostly publicity stunts arranged by your manager and theirs. Behind closed doors more often than not, you two were strangers which left your feeling perpetually alone in the world.

“So Y/N, what was the news that brought you down to our neck of the woods from L.A.?” Jensen inquired while wrapping his arm around Danneel.

“What I can’t just come and see my favorite person?” you laughed innocently.

“Well I am flattered but…” he started to reply but you cut him off short.

“Who said I was talking about you? I’m here to see Padalecki over here,” you said while nudging Jared’s arm. “He has to explain how the hell he has been able to work with you for so many years, since, well… a role has recently come up that I may or may not have been offered.”

Everyone’s mouths dropped but quickly formed into large grins as they processed what you had said.

“Are you serious?” Jared and Jenson blurted in unison.

“Apparently the producers thought the Winchester’s needed another wayward girl coming into their lives,” you smiled while taking a sip of your beer.

They all started flooding you with questions like who was the character? What was her story? How would she fit in to the Winchester brothers lives? You could only shrug in response, because the details had yet to be disclosed to you. The audition had fallen into your lap after recently finishing your last project. Seeing who it was from you jumped at the chance. Not only did it mean that you could work alongside of one of your best friends, but you got to be a part of the story that you had fallen in love with for the last 13 years.

“Honestly, even if they kill me 10 minutes in I will be the happiest fan girl alive,” you smiled before adding, “As long as it’s a Winchester that kills me.”

“OOO, maybe they are bringing in a love interest for one of the boys?” Gen squealed in excitement.

“Well then I am definitely dead after one episode,” you snorted.

“Oh come on, they don’t kill off all of them that soon.” Jensen huffed in defense.

“So which boy would it be?” Danneel leaned in closer with her eyes widening in suspense. “Brooding Dean or Sympathetic Sammy?”

“How could a girl choose between those two?�� you laughed again while glancing between Jared and Jensen’s smiles. “They are both almost the perfect package, but if you throw them together then you have the best of both worlds. The Winchester package.”

The five of you laughed while talking about everything and anything all into the late night until it was finally last call. Closing time, where you had to say your goodbyes once again while smiling to yourself knowing that you would see them all again soon.

“I’m getting a ride back with Jared and Gen,” Danneel spoke up as she scrolled through her phone. “The babysitter is going into overtime so I have to get the kids. Jensen you take Y/N back to her hotel okay?”

“Alright,” he said while giving her a quick kiss on the lips. “See ya soon sweetie.”

The two of you walked over to the black SUV that was definitely all Danneel’s. Hair ties on the gear shift, various toys from the mini Ackles Clan thrown all around, and the distinct smell of her designer perfume that lingered on the seats. You sat your head back on the seat as he started up the engine, thinking about how once upon a time this life could have been yours.

“What you thinking about there kid?” Jensen asked while pulling out of the parking spot.

“How I’m going to protect myself from Jared and yours pranks on set,” you smirked.

“You have nothing to worry about from me, I know you can kick my ass,” he sniggered. “Jared though might need reminding of that though.”

“I’m ready for it,” you responded confidently.

“So honestly here, what made you decide to come on to the show? I’ve been asking you longer than I had Danneel, and she just finally gave in last season.”

“I’m not busy with anything at the moment,” you shrugged. “It’s not like I have an incredible pilot falling into my lap right now, plus after the last stint with that Aussie actor, I could use a break from L.A. and join my best friend in Vancouver.”

“He’s a good actor, but man was he a douchebag.”

“I think that is the nicest thing you have ever said about one of my ex boyfriends there Ackles,” you skeptically commented.

“Well I do have to make sure my Y/N is in good hands.”

“And whose hands would that be?” you inquired while raising your eyebrow.

“No one I’ve ever met,” he answered with seriousness in his voice while concentrating on the road.

“The perfect guy for me is probably just a fictional character that someone plays on TV, movies or something. Most likely one who is broken beyond repair that needs saved,” you laughed

“Like Dean?” he asked while wagging his eyebrows to you.

“If Dean Winchester was ever real, then yes he would be the perfect guy. But come on Jay, this is the real world. No one is that perfectly broken for me.”

Dean Winchester, the concept of a man that you had admired as Jensen brought his words and actions to life all these years. Although it was definitely Jensen’s face on the screen, which honestly you would never complain about after all of these years, Dean was from another world that he selflessly protected with his life. If only fictional characters were real, than you could have the best of both worlds. Dean Winchester, the perfect man.

Okay ya’ll give me all the criticism you got!

Tag: @curly-haired-disaster @snffbeebee @dean-winchesters-bacon @julesthequirky @waywardbaby @waywardnerd67 @bobasheebaby @ain-t-bovvered @imafictosexual @imma-winchester-addict @itsstillnotwhatyouthink @theworldiscolorful @bobasheebaby @anotherwaywardsister @midnightsilver @time-travel-bouqet @ladywinchester1967 @missjenniferb @myinconnelly1

#supernatural #jensen ackles #danneel ackles #gen padalecki #jared padalecki #heartbreaker #mariah carey #this is some random crap #what did I just write #send me all the hate

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minijenn · 7 years ago

Note

Notes for Revenge Trip

Ooo good choice! My notes for that chapter are rather interesting, given how I wrote out the flashback parts, so hopefully this make sense…

Characters: Stan, Amethyst, Gideon, Garnet, Pearl, Dipper, Mabel, Steven, Vidalia, Greg, Soos, Rose (in flashbacks), various GF and SU characters (Blubbs, Durland, Bud, Fryman, ect), Rose Quartz (flashbacks)

Settings: Mystery Shack, various locations in Gravity Falls

Episodes to look at: Original, though use episodes like A Tale of Two Stans and Maximum Capacity and Onion Friend (watch it) to help

Tone: Humor, friendship, some angst, drama, flashbacks, action, character building

Start the chapter off with Stan unveiling his latest attraction at the shack (come up with something creative) (probably include the twins in this)

However, things soon go awry as he realizes the attraction has torn apart/defaced (again be creative), and because it this the tourists leave, disappointed

In the midst of this, Stan discovers that Gideon was the one responsible, but of course he gets away with it

Around this point Amethyst arrives, so have some snappy banter between the two of them until Stan points out to her that the temple was also defaced (graffiti or something), also done by Gideon

No sooner than that, Garnet and Pearl order Amethyst to clean the temple up, believing it to be one of her pranks despite her cries of innocence

Follow her up there and have a little interaction between her and Steven, where she comes up with the idea to get revenge

Later that night, cut to Stan, mourning the loss of his ruined attraction until Amethyst comes in and suggests they get even with Gideon by going on one of their infamous Revenge Trips (imply that its been years since they’ve done one)

Initially, Stan tries to protest the idea, saying that its too risky and he has the twins to worry about; Amethyst calls him out on it though and after a little prodding, she finally convinces him into going on the Revenge Trip

Show them gathering supplies and planning for a little bit, and have the twins come in during the middle of this and question them, though make it comical as Stan and Amethyst remain super vague about it (and instruct them not to tell Garnet and Pearl)

After a little of this, they set out; On the way though, they get on the topic of how they first met, so go into flashback #1

They go to Vidalia’s house so introduce her like in Onion Friend, though maybe a bit differently; show her rapport with both Stan and Amethyst but don’t explain everything about their past

Anyway, explain that the reason why Stan and Amethyst have come to Vidalia is to have her help in their scheme by contracting her to paint a huge, realistic painting of the Tent of Telepathy; Vidalia is skeptical, but agrees to it nonetheless and promises to have it done before the night is through (as she’s helped out with their schemes before)

The pair set out once more and so have some more dialogue as they’re driving, which eventually leads into flashback #2

After its over, they arrive at the first stop on their revenge trip: the Tent of Telepathy; there, they take its pegs out and make off with them; Amethyst cheerfully brings the whole tent down and Stan uses his flamethrower to burn it (make this aptly hilarious)

Once they’re done, they nearly get caught escaping but still manage to flee the scene undetected (make this a bit suspenseful)

From there, go into a montage of Stan and Amethyst going around town and vandalizing every Lil’ Gideon sign in creative ways while just barely avoiding the police who are on their tails

In the middle of this, they talk about some of their previous Revenge Trip escapades, leading into flashback #4

Eventually, the pair get ready for the final stage of their revenge trip, which involves them pretty much stealing all of the merchandise out of Gideon’s factory and dumping it into the lake; using their respective talents, they break into the factory and get to work

They eventually gather up all of the merch and start hauling it over to the lake; during this they show their complete confidence in not getting caught and prepare to celebrate their triumph…

Only for them to get caught at the lake, where Gideon and Bud are awaiting them; have a bit of a confrontation between them before Stan and Amethyst take off and escape, and of course, Gideon follows right behind them

Back during the chase (and do actually have this play out with a car chase as Stan drives and Amethyst tries to drive them off), the pair eventually drive Gideon off by driving straight into the woods

In the middle of this, have them get into a rather rough argument that centers around why they don’t really do Revenge Trips anymore (because the last one nearly ruined their friendship; make it poignant, have Amethyst show her bitterness over loosing Rose and have Stan hint at Ford maybe)

They think they’re in the clear, but suddenly, they’re confronted by Garnet, Pearl, Steven, and the twins

Before anything really starts, cut to flashback #6

Back in the present, Garnet and Pearl scold Stan and Amethyst, having learned about everything they’ve done (the kids occasionally add their two cents but not often); in specific, Garnet and Pearl come down hard on Amethyst for being so irresponsible and setting a bad example and they mention briefly what happened in flashback #6

In the middle of this, however, Stan comes in to Amethyst’s defense, claiming that this was all his idea (even though it wasn’t); the older Gems are still quite upset, but in the end it’s the kids who speak up and defend the pair (make this touching)

In the end, Garnet and Pearl relent and tentatively apologize; as Gideon catches up to them, this time with the cops, the elder Gems actually end up covering for Stan and Amethyst, (have Stan mention he threw away Gideon’s note in here for logic) allowing them to get off scott free (much to Gideon’s anger)

Everyone heads home, since its really late; as this is happening, have another rather heartwarming scene between just Stan and Amethyst as they reflect on their rather disastrous night but admit to each other that they’d do the whole thing over again if they could

The next day, cut to Gideon as he prepares to host a show at the Tent of Telepathy, only to discover that it’s a painting (Vidalia’s painting) and the real tent is gone

End the chapter with Stan and Amethyst watching Gideon throw a fit over this, laughing all the while; end the chapter on a generally heartwarming, yet humorous note

Flashbacks (22 years ago, done in italics)

Start with just Stan, finishing up a day of work at the Mystery Shack (Murder Hut), so have some introspection (be vague, but imply his ongoing mission to get the portal working and bring Ford back; however, he’s startled by a sound outside; he goes to investigate and finds Amethyst rooting through his trash; cut back before any real interactions happen (was originally supposed to be split in two flashbacks) Pick up right where the last one left off, with Stan angrily trying to drive Amethyst off, but she’s hardly phased by him and instead thinks he’s joking; as per her curious nature, she tries to strike up conversation with him, but he rebuffs her by going inside; however, she follows by sneaking in (probably using shapeshifting) and the humorous banter between them continues (show that Stan wants nothing to do with the Gems, though Amethyst doesn’t really understand why);

eventually, they start reaching a common ground as Amethyst mentions how the Gems went on a mission without her and how she thinks they don’t really want her around, which evokes sympathy from Stan, who knows well what that’s like

Cut to another day, where Stan’s just finishing up a tour at the shack and Amethyst pops in again; once again, Stan tries to brush her off (he’s less mean about it this time though); in this, explore, compare, and contrast things between the two of them, like personalities, skills, ect. But kinda keep it mostly interactions and dialogue

The next flashback is set several months later; Stan and Amethyst have been hanging out occasionally for a while now and they’ve established something of a loose rapport with each other; imply that Amethyst is keeping her newfound friendship with Stan a secret from Garnet, Pearl, and Rose, but Greg knows about it and he’s still working at the shack, so have a little interaction there; all the same, a bunch of kids come by and end up discreetly stealing from the shack or something and both Stan and Amethyst notice it but the kids get away with it, prompting Stan and Amethyst to start plotting their first revenge trip to get even with them

In this flashback, detail the first revenge trip, which involves Stan and Amethyst breaking into the kids’ houses and stealing the lost merch back; be sure to detail a bit of their planning as well as their execution; however, they end up being sloppy about it and get caught by the police and arrested

Cut to later on in the next flashback, as Stan and Amethyst are sitting in jail, contemplating escape until Rose, Garnet, and Pearl arrive; have Rose scold Amethyst (but make sure she’s still gentle) and show her surprise and disapproval over her hanging out with Stan (show how the two of them don’t get along); eventually, Stan and Rose get into an argument, but in the end, Amethyst is the one that interjects and pleads with Rose to let her continue hanging out with Stan, since he’s really the only person who she feels she can act like herself around without being judged (make this poignant); this outburst surprises everyone, including Stan, but in the end, Rose is resolute about Amethyst staying away from Stan (though she won’t give her reason why)

Cryptogram (A1Z26):

Translated:

Never ever underestimateWhat just might be greatThey see themselves with little worthBut what they’ll do could save the earth

Untranslated (CHECK):

4-15-14-20 5-22-5-18 21-14-4-5-18-5-19-20-9-13-1-20-520-8-9-14-7-19 20-8-1-20 13-9-7-8-20 2-5 7-18-5-1-2020-8-5-25 19-5-5 20-8-5-13-19-5-12-22-5-19 23-9-20-8 12-9-20-20-12-5 23-15-18-20-82-21-20 23-8-1-20 20-8-5-25'12-12 4-15 3-15-21-12-4 19-1-22-5 20-8-5 5-1-18-20-8

#uf notes

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guywithtime2kill · 7 years ago

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Adventure Time: "You Blew It Man!" An Essay Adventure Time“You Blew It Man!”Hello everyone! I’ve been a fan of Adventure Time since its conception, and I’ve often read the thoughtful and intriguing discussions posted on this subreddit. However, I was often hesitant and nervous about positing my own opinions of this show, especially since I was shy and never quite built enough confidence to put myself out there. Now that it is all coming to an end, though, and I see just how loving, dedicated, and supportive the people here are to Adventure Time and for each other, I wanted to post something. Thank you for helping me gather the courage to speak about this crazy, unique, sprawling, imaginative, daring, silly, philosophical, emotional, hopeful, and very mathematical show. It’s a long list, and it’s a testament to this “kid’s cartoon” with all of its creativity and heart that I could use a thousand more words and still have more to say. In the ever expanding and inventive medium of television, Adventure Time proudly stands on its own as a beacon of childhood and hope.To be entirely truthful, Finn the Human is not my favorite character. He is not always interesting and entertaining; and, in his more emotionally volatile years, he can be painful to watch as he flounders in a swirling, violent vortex of relationships and heartbreak. Even at his most selfish and vulnerable, though, Finn is loyal, caring, and righteous; in the context of a coming of age epic, he makes for a great and compelling main character. His development is gradual and meaningful, and this development of his character as he matures and grows is significant enough that we observe a different Finn in each season without losing sight of his heroic heart and noble spirit. There’s the head-strong adventure-seeking child of Season 1, the more accepting and quietly emotional adolescent of Season 3, the sexually awakened and selfish teenage of Season 5, the contemplative youth of Season 6, and the insightful and intelligent young man of Season 7 and Season 8. The episodes focusing on Finn may not always be of high quality, but they all do their best to work in service of his character.The gradual growth of Finn from season to season as he enters manhood is surely impressive, but to see how he also maintains his most important characteristics while he still changes is frankly astounding. Even the best of animated main characters such as Steven Universe or Aang (not “Ung” from the movie adaptation, God help us all) from Avatar: The Last Airbender often stagnate for long periods of time or occasionally act out of character. There are definitely a few hiccups in Finn’s development, such as the return of his arm in “Breezy” (Finn still gets some great development in Season 6 and I love this episode for its handling of depression, but this arm conflict was a big missed opportunity). However, unlike with Aang or Steven, we never lose sight of Finn as a character. He always stays the one true hero of Ooo, and all I can say to that is, “Schmowzow!”Now, I want to discuss a controversial episode which not only showed Finn at one of his lowest emotional points but also hurled a blazing spear of such tremendous velocity and intense force that it impaled and scattered the entirety of Adventure Time’s fan base. This episode is Season 5’s “Frost and Fire.” I was fifteen, just starting high school, at the time. I remember Cartoon Network absolutely hyping the shit out of this new episode, the advertisements exclaiming this was an event not to be missed. Will anything happen to Finn and FP? Is Ice King going to threaten their heating relationship? Stay tuned at (insert time here) and watch the sparks fly! The commercials were probably not that cheesy and strained, but from the crude way a large portion of the fan base strived to match any of the characters into a forced romantic relationship and the poor treatment the channel later gave to its more quality shows, they might as well have been that cringe inducing. The ads were also manipulative in that they influenced many anticipated fans to believe the episode would potentially be another emotionally draining melodrama which further developed Finn and FP’s relationship into something akin to “true love.”It is perfectly understandable why fans held this view, for Cartoon Network was also manipulative in the way they advertised Season 4’s “Burning Low,” a good episode in its own right, as essentially a love triangle among Finn, PB, and FP. The episode certainly possessed romance and dramatic tension, but the focus was on Finn finally expressing his emotions to Bubblegum and the rage he feels for being so conflicted. Flame Princess’s characterization is actually rather thin, and she has very few lines of dialogue here. However, as the commercials depicted and exaggerated, the episode’s drama was genuinely engaging and the emotions brutally raw. More importantly, Finn and FP officially kissed on screen, which solidified their relationship status for many of the fans. There was an intimacy there which few shows, even those developed for adults, could capture well. In addition, Finn is compelling and human enough character that we want to see him succeed and find someone special to live his life with. For a maturing adolescent wandering through a cheerfully bleak land of isolation and sweetness, FP was someone wonderful. If anyone doubts the impact and influence “Burning Low” had on fans, the episode is recorded to have the highest ratings in the show’s entire run, right in the middle of a season with heavy episodes like “I Remember You” and “The Lich.”Of course, Adventure Time doesn’t act like most television shows and is nearly unpredictable, which directly puts it at odds with fans who want to take a more conventional and traditionally satisfying route. If television shows were like rivers with the occasional twist and turn, serenely flowing to their natural conclusions, then Adventure Time is a torrential rapid which breaks off into hundreds of smaller tributaries before pouring up a cliff side as a reverse waterfall, defying the gravity of expectations as it strives for the clouds themselves. And in the midst of ever expanding, the main river takes a moment before flowing naturally again to tumble and swirl into the violent whirlpool that is “Frost and Fire.”There are probably several reasons why this episode plummeted into controversy, but the most important one is also the easiest to identify: Finn and FP broke up over a wet dream. There’s no point denying whether what he did was truly wrong: Finn experienced a sexual awakening and exploited the insecurities of his trusting hot tempered girlfriend and a demented old soul to manipulated them into harming and potentially annihilating one another, all because he wants to get aroused. Consequently, Ice King lost his home, FP lost her only friend, and Finn utterly blew it. I remembered thinking what the Hell just happened, more so than the average episode. Why would Finn act like such a prick of a dick? In retrospect, the answer is simple: Finn is a teenager, and teenagers can do some really stupid shit. As a teenager at the time, I was too self-absorbed to understand why Finn did that shit, but I definitely thought what he and the show did was stupid. Finn is certainly a noble and heroic spirit, but he is also figuratively and literally human. He has no one like him who fully understands what he is going through and how to confront such feelings like arousal. Jake, the wonderful brother he is, simply does not comprehend this aspect of Finn. He does know about prophetic dreams and fate, though, which is why he encourages Finn to commit the deed. Therefore, Finn is essentially alone stumbling in the dark chambers of the dungeon of adolescence, and he poked some big ass monster with his sword trying to find the way out.However, adolescence is not the only reason why Finn acted this way; selfishness is another integral aspect of Finn’s character which motivates some of his actions, and it’s just prevalent enough to be more than just simply being naïve or bull headed. Finn has occasionally harmed others, usually unintentionally, in order to help himself or someone for whom he cares deeply. Unintentional or not, though, the pain is very real. Take Season 2’s “Storytelling,” for example, when Finn abuses multiple innocent animals to create a good story for Jake, or “To Cut a Woman’s Hair” when Finn tries to save Jake from a witch’s bottomless bottom by stealing and/or harassing princesses for their hair. Or how about “Another Way,” where Finn beats up anything and everything to get his foot healed and avoid his fears, or that time in “Sons of Mars” when Finn essentially killed the King of Mars out of his deep caring and tunnel vision to save Jake, or “The Lich,” where Finn steals from every princess in Ooo in order to help BILLYEEE for a highly ambiguous purpose? Better yet, what about “All the Little People,” where Finn gets a chance to play God and fiddle with the lives and relationships of tiny figurines without once questioning their own individuality?The reason Finn’s selfishness is not addressed more often is because Finn has enough of a conscience to later realize what he did was wrong and apologize for said wrong doing. These apologies were enough to patch up the problems with most of the characters he harmed. However, his crime in “Frost and Fire” cuts too deep into a very complex relationship to be forgive so easily with words. As Magusmirificus refers to, this is the point where Finn needs to stop viewing his life as a video game and treat it and the people around him with nuance and consideration. Considering Finn’s own father is Martin, a pompous dingwad who is sucked so far up his own ass that he’s his own black hole, distorting everything around while he himself is filled with nothingness, it is amazing Finn is not even more selfish. That is because Finn has friends who care about him and a brother who loves him. Finn has, as Martin puts it, “a star to revolve around.” The pain Finn feels may last for some time, but it is not forever, and as we see in Season 7, he becomes all the better of person and friend precisely due to everything he has gone through. From here on out, Finn eventually conquers his selfishness and becomes truly selfless.Not everything following “Frost and Fire” is great: Finn is too horrifically awkward to watch in “The Red Throne” considering he already tried this with PB earlier in “Too Old” (an episode I personally really like), and Flame Princess is not strong enough of a character to carry said “Red Throne” or the rather lukewarm “Earth and Water.” However, there is something beautiful in seeing Finn grow in episodes that range from very good to downright brilliant. That is because the crew is so dedicated to Finn as a character and put a lot of effort into making the arc “Frost and Fire” ignited truly work.In addition, there’s really no way to get around this episode when revisiting the show; it is too grounded in the series’ past. We have Finn’s slight selfishness as a character and his initial sexual arousal from “All the Little People” come into play. There are the prophetic dreams and Cosmic Owl from “The Final Frontier” as well as a callback to PB’s probable German roots. We have Ice King’s tragic backstory being acknowledged as Finn abuses him. And, of course, there is the collapsing relationship between FP and Finn that started from “Incendium” onwards. Likewise, the episode greatly influences the events to come that will affect Finn and his friends’ lives. Such events include Finn and FP’s breakup, the destruction of Ice King’s home, the dissolving of Finn’s demon sword due to Ice King’s antics, FP dealing with her betrayal and her subsequent transformation into a ruler who focuses on trust, Finn’s torment and anguish following the breakup, the introduction of the grass sword, the loss of Finn’s arm and the birth of Fern. Many of these plots last several seasons, even extending to the end of the series, and they all stem from the tragedy which occurs here. As suggested by “The Comet,” even the most insignificant act has consequences which go far beyond what we can see and feel. This immaculate randomness and the very real and caring individuals it encompasses is what life is all about.A major component of Adventure Time’s success and identity is its portrayal of childhood and its real sense of hop, that everything will turn out all right. However, in order to confront maturity and retain such hope, Finn, that boy adventurer in a bear hat who in some way represents all of us, has to be challenged in the face of all sorts of adversities, whether it’s candy zombies, selfish acts, the Lich, sexual awakenings, an uncaring father, isolation, or the death of a best friend and brother. If hope can survive that, through apocalypse, adolescence, and loss, then even wonders like Ooo can prosper from destruction, and a young man can have a life that is happy and truly worth living.I know that this was a long ramble which went everywhere and nowhere in particular, but I’m glad I was finally able to speak my mind on this special show. If you still hate this episode with a fiery passion or icy disdain, that is perfectly fine! If you think I’m full of it and want to set me straight, I would welcome such a conversation. To be able to discuss this show, no matter the opinion, is fun, educational, and helps me to become a better and more understanding individual. My only hope is that you give this episode another chance and try watching with a fresh perspective, for even when you become an adult, as a wise nut once said, “You never really stop growing.”Thank you.

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