#that whole subplot was shoehorned

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

arcane s2 - review

okay so now that i have given my two cents on caitvi and i've had enough time to digest s2 of arcane, what do i think about the rest of it?

overall, i have mixed feelings about it. i didn't hate it but i feel like a lot of the themes and ideas were poorly executed, especially compared to s1.

(huge spoilers to arcane below!)

but let me start with the positives:

the animation OBVIOUSLY. huge props to the animators, s1 was already phenomenonal and s2 lived up to the hype, animation-wise. the fight scenes especially were just *mwah* chef's kiss.

the character designs were great. caitlyn looks a lot prettier with the middle parting. vi's emo phase is really hot. jinx's designs in the alternate universe and the finale were iconic. jayce's beard and disheveled look was just chef's kiss. jesus viktor was hot as fuck.

the voice actors did an amazing job obviously, and i didn't expect anything less from them.

jayce's and viktor's relationship was so good despite not having all that much screentime when you think about it. they interact in the beginning when viktor wakes up from his hex-coma and then reunite and fight and make up in the final few episodes. but because of their relationship that was built up in the first season, it all worked out smoothly and made for a very natural progression in their relationship.

jinx's redemption was pretty good. not the BEST but it was carried out well enough, especially in just 9 episodes. i didn't feel like it was rushed or undeserved. her sacrifice in the end was heartbreaking but it felt natural and not shoehorned in for some added angst.

and now for the negatives:

1. the pacing was really bad, in my opinion. they had only 9 episodes but they stuffed in so many subplots into this season that it felt overwhelming.

maybe i'm just stupid but i couldn't keep up with half of the stuff that was going on and some parts of the finale didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

like the whole storyline with mel and ambessa and the black rose was a blur to me. i honestly don't know what happened in the end after ambessa dies.

the whole deal with singed and vander and whatnot was also really murky. like i get the overall premise but it was really hard for me to grasp every single detail.

maybe this is just a me problem and i'm too dumb to follow more than two storylines at the same time. but s1 already had a lot going on and it was still a tad bit easier to follow.

s2 was just crammed with a whole bunch of different characters pursuing different goals and facing different obstacles, 9 episodes weren't enough to give all of it a satisfying conclusion. and as a result, some of the arcs felt rushed and unfinished.

like what happened to the whole found family thing with sevika, jinx and isha? they were beginning to get closer and form a good relationship but then suddenly, sevika is pushed out of the image and we never see how she reacts to jinx and isha's death.

2. while i don't think that caitvi is abusive, i still don't think the ship was great. it was just super rushed and there is a grain of truth to what caitvi antis are saying.

like yeah, caitlyn being an enforcer and seeing nothing wrong with it was.. questionable. wasn't the whole point of s1 that enforcers were ruining the lives of the people in zaun? wasn't police brutality and classism the main theme of this series? how come vi's parents were killed by enforcers and she was unfairly imprisoned for years by enforcers, but somehow she ends up dating an enforcer?

before s2 came out, i expected caitlyn to give up her job after realizing how corrupt it was. i thought that would be the natural progression of her arc, especially since she's seen how much the people of the undercity has suffered at the hands of enforcers. but nope, she keeps her job and it's never addressed in the end.

i don't think that caitlyn hitting vi once out of frustration and once out of necessity makes her a domestic abuser. but i do think it's kind of icky for vi to end up in a relationship with an enforcer, and for the show to frame it in a semi-positive manner. it's not entirely romanticized but the problems with it aren't really addressed either.

3. i feel like the themes of classism wasn't as well addressed in this season as it was in the first one. the first season had a strong message and it stuck to it. the second season was all over the place and then suddenly, there's viktor and the whole glorious evolution or whatever, and the conflict between piltover and zaun is pushed aside.

i like that sevika becomes part of the council in the end but is she the only one representing the undercity? is one person enough to speak for all these people in zaun? at least it's true to real life, i guess.

overall, i felt like the message was a lot more murky in this season. this ties to my first complaint because while s1 had a lot of storylines too, they followed a common theme. war, classism, and how privilege and the lack thereof affects people. s2's storylines are just all over the place and none of them seem to follow a theme. at least some of them could have been discarded.

4. i briefly mentioned this before but the fact that jinx stops experiencing her hallucinations never made sense to me. especially after she accidentally killed silco, shouldn't they get worse? it is implied that she has schizophrenia and c-ptsd so i really don't understand how silco's death suddenly got rid of most of her symptoms.

she still sees and hears the hallucinations from time to time and her mental state is definitely far from stable, but it was still such a huge jump from her psychotic breakdown in the s1 finale.

so yeah, these are my thoughts about arcane s2. there were more pros than cons but the cons still outweigh the pros, simply because of how much impact they had on the plot.

i'm generally not one to demand more seasons or episodes out of a series where the writers have already told the story they wanted to tell, but arcane s2 was so rushed and so filled to the brim with different characters and storylines, i couldn't help but feel like it would have benefited from having more episodes to play everything out more slowly.

i still liked this series a lot and i enjoyed watching it, but i'm not blind to its flaws and i try not to be biased.

[melrosing]

poor gurm. hotd has it problems but I do believe the showrunners are trying to make a good product. unlike d&d who gurm should rightfully resent...no way there's not a bit of projecting in any hotd criticism from him.

i think it’s probably complicated, like I get the impression that the HOTD showrunners have gotten carried away with the changes they made in S1 and now it’s demonstrable that they just don’t really have the raw talent to spin this story into something new, try as they might. I don’t think they were ever wrong for changing things up in adaptation, F&B practically requires that - but they are to blame for the shoddy execution

but apart from that I’m starting to get the impression that for GRRM it’s more complicated than that. if I had to guess, I’d say that after GOT, he was clear with HBO that he wants more faithful adaptations going forward, and he wants his opinion to count for something, and that’s why he signed. like if he’s this mad about Maelor the Missing, how mad was he when a whole host of characters and subplots were missing from GOT and the rest were butchered?? I’m gonna guess pretty mad. but he had to surrender on that count because he hadn’t finished his books and D&D + everyone involved wanted the show to end.

HOTD was supposed to be different, and it sounds like it hasn’t been. Condal suggested that removing Maelor was only temporary, only now it looks like it wasn’t, and GRRM is annoyed about that - I think he feels lied to or left out of the loop, when that was exactly what he didn’t want this time. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was initially a plan to leave Daeron out similarly, because he was conspicuously unmentioned in S1 and the Daeron references in S2 were really shoehorned in seemingly at the last minute.

and GRRM has been saying he feels like perhaps he ought to stop caring and get on with the books (I would love it if he did) but he’s still so obviously annoyed about how his work has consistently been adapted poorly and that despite all promises he can’t do anything to stop it. especially as he’s apparently mentioned all this in connection with a growing consciousness of his age and his legacy, im gonna speculate that seeing adaptations like this is really grieving him. so i feel a little bad for team hotd because i think they’re really trying, but imo they aren’t doing a good job and even if GRRM’s expectations are too high sometimes, i think it’s been plain since the fall out from GOT that he is well worth listening to.

[zel-shadedreviews]

With the success of the first two movies, it gave DreamWorks the ability to milk the franchise dry and release a third instalment. I couldn’t care less due to the trailers and its horrible marketing but I decided to see if this would be the very best out of all of them.

During the Bethan wedding, Branch is approached by one of his long lost older brothers, John Deary, who reveals that they were once in a boy band altogether, before they went their separate ways. It turns out that one of their members is being held hostage by a duo of pop singers named Velvet and Veneer, who are draining his essence in order to boost up their voices. In order to free their imprisoned brother, Branch, John and Poppy must venture across the troll land and recruit their long lost members in order to sing in sync and perform the Perfect Family Harmony.

You know it, I know it. It’s yet another storyline of getting the band back together, only that it’s nothing original or even that self-referential. The Blues Brothers practically gave birth to the entire storyline, yet held up with its amazing scope and treating each meeting as an experience. Even Phineas and Ferb’s literal episode, Dude, We’re Getting the Band Back Together, treated their premise with their writing. This, however, had some minimal stakes and while not completely terrible, it’s not exactly bringing anything new to the table. The entire dilemma cuts from two legitimately-cruel villains and then boring and overdone sibling rivalry, all amounting to some sort of climax involving the brothers becoming in sync by the very end.

Not only that, but I felt that they wanted to make a short or make a separate premise where Poppy reunites with her long lost sister. As if Branch having an extended family wasn’t enough to warrant the sole focus of the movie, they shoehorned in an additional subplot of Poppy’s sister, Velvet, keeping her away from the dangers since they believed that the ogres are still dangerous. For what it was, there’s very little focus as Velvet immediately diverts herself away from the story, until the same ogre couple show up and change her mind, making her point in the third act incredibly forced.

Would a good supply of visual humour assist a mediocre plot? I don’t think so. From my first viewing of the trailer, I had to suffer from the overuse of the term, “bro” used in different manners. I didn’t know which one was more painful to listen to as at the beginning, one of the brothers makes a statement which references several boy bands around the time. Even worse, there’s even a joke about using old underwear to sniff out one of the members, but luckily, it didn’t go the way you’re thinking at first. The visual humour was admirable when it applied to the differently-designed characters and there was a line that got my attention, but I wasn’t impressed by its unfunny and forced writing. This is coming from someone who actually found something salvageable from the endless dialogue diarrhoea during the first two flicks. Granted, the writers for Trolls had to execute the humour for younger audiences, but why couldn’t they go out of the ordinary more so than one part involving Bridget’s rather risqué line of tying up her husband.

I felt that out of all the Trolls movies, this soundtrack really attempted to squeeze all of the pop songs altogether, even some without so much as a break in between. There was time for original songs to reflect on each brother and their lives, but then there’s a few moments where they had to combine each of the songs altogether.

So, the storyline and the whole joke supply were the weakest I’ve seen, which was weird to say as I felt that their animation was some of their finest. From glitter realities to stuffing landscapes, what followed was maintaining its quality and being able to gain some potential. The trolls bared their expressive nature while each of the brothers were given different designs to not have that copy-and-paste appearance. A nice little mention goes to one of them, a retired member who’s a father, where he’s portrayed as slightly overweight yet is physically active to not dwell into the stereotype of one whose let themselves go.

In fact, the trolls aren’t even the only creatures in this universe as this road trip brought us some more creative-looking races. When the characters reached a beach resort, designed with nothing but colourful inflatables, they meet the residents that were extravagant Muppet-resembling creatures. The villains weren’t trolls or ogres this time, but plastic-looking creatures with spindly limbs and dollish hair, bringing back the Betty Spaghetty aesthetic.

While brief, we’re treated with some solid traditional animation when their vehicle boosted their speed, returning the polished colours from Yellow Submarine. The movie could have benefited more from such the change of style, however.

I could go over the characters all over again, only to a slight relief that there’s no James Corden in this, however, since the sides are gladly left behind. The only one who returned to be part of the crew was the same glitter baby, Tiny Diamond, voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson; in this, he’s given the small arc of wanting to become his own troll rather than acting as the baby, so he pretty much is subjected to the driver’s role.

Poppy maintains her characteristics with herself sadly becoming more annoying than the first two movies thanks to her inconsistent tone and never taking a break. Branch is always the one to put up with more annoyances consisting of his desperate older brother looking to make amends, seeing how he was the one to split their band up in the first place.

It’s not long until Poppy reunites with her sister, Viva, before the story secluded her straightaway. Her role was as minuscule, which was why they had to bring back the ogres to convince her otherwise, so that clearly had to involve her in the climax. Who voiced her was Camila Cabello, sounding like the desperate and nervous type when around new company.

The brothers consist of four ex-BroZone members who once trusted each-other and went their separate ways due to their eldest’s bossy nature: you have John Dory the eldest, one who’s deeply willing to get the family back together in order to save their imprisoned sibling, but it’s his egotistical nature that gets in his way; Spruce the owner of Vacay Island and a laidback yet overwhelmed father; Clay the prankster, forced into hiding by Viva, before assisting the main heroes by leaving their premises; their main target was Floyd, a compassionate type, being the last one to leave behind Branch, spends the duration trapped in a bottle, held captive by the villains. In order of who voiced and sang as, we have Eric André, Daveed Diggs, Kid Cudi and Troye Sivan.

The villains in question were a pair of elasticated creatures, Velvet and Veneer, two corrupted singers whose voice talents spawn from the life of one of the BroZone trolls. Both differ slightly in personality with Velvet as the manipulative and crueller type, not having any qualms in draining a troll’s life in order to maintain their fame. Veneer on the other hand is shown to be the one with a tad of humanity, through nonetheless goes along with his sister’s plan regardless. It’s not until the end where he fully admits to his crime, becoming a last-minute pathetic chance at redemption, only to suffer the consequences. It’s also refreshing to not bear witness to any contrived sad backstory, growing up in a life of luxury. Who has to put up with their harsh comments was the talkative and optimistic bristle-ball, Crimp, vocals by Zosia Mamet.

Throughout my viewing, they stand as the best aspects of the movie as they’re allowed to become fully-fledged villains, at least for one of them. With Amy Schumer as the passionately-sweet spoken schemer and Andrew Rannells as the sensitive yet easygoing type, they made the siblings an interesting pair, though I felt that they could have been worked on more.

This is hereby the weakest out of the trilogy, though I have a feeling that in four years time, we’ll receive yet again another instalment. I was actually interested in giving this whole trilogy a chance and I’m glad I did so, though I wouldn’t watch them all over again if I had the opportunity. I’ve really got to admit that one of my largest surprises was that I never began to hate the Trolls franchise, let alone each movie.

Final Rating: E

3/10

[embershroud108]

It seems like a lot of people didn't like the Black Rose subplot in Arcane s2 because it felt shoehorned in as a backdoor pilot for the Noxus show, which took away from the main setting plots.

Which, fair enough, I can definitely understand that perspective, but I (surprising to me) ended up liking the Black Rose plot and a big part of the reason is that it actually ties into the themes of Arcane and Piltover/Zaun as a region better than I think people are giving it credit for.

Season 1 established Piltover as a place founded to "escape the warmongering of mages." Piltover is not precisely anti-magic or anti-mage in the same way say Demacia is, for example, but it seems that it was meant to be a safe haven for people to build a society free from the excesses of magic and its users.

But except for very vague, distant warnings from Heimerdinger, season 1 never shows us mages in this world being a problem.

Why are mages and magic so bad? Well, something catastrophic happened a long time ago, magic was involved, but the details are left extremely vague. Are mages a thing in the world now? Not answered or addressed at all, except in Jayce's flashback where a mage and magic are presented as a good thing.

The introduction of the Black Rose in season 2 changes that. Mages are very much still a present, if secretive and covert, threat in the world and they are presented as being downright evil. Suddenly Piltover originally intending to be this non-magical bastion of enlightened progress (however false that ended up being in practice especially with the invention of Hextech) feels a lot more relevant.

Further, Ambessa's whole motivation being attempting to use Piltover/Zaun as a testing ground to develop technology to negate the advantages of the Black Rose and mages in general in warfare is essentially just a logical extension, but also the corruption, of Piltover's own foundational ethos. Thus, in that sense, Ambessa becomes the perfect foil and nemesis for Piltover.

Also, that's not even getting into the ironic twist of one of Piltover's main political leaders ending up being a mage.

But basically, overall I think the Black Rose plot actually added a nice extra thematic dimension to the Piltover/Zaun setting rather than detracting from it.

[rosencrantzsguildenstern]

Viola is a gifted soccer player who's school has just cut girl's sports. When her twin brother Sebastian decides to go to London to chase a gig, Viola decides to enroll in his new school as her brother. "His" roommate Duke is both a complete hottie and the captain of the soccer team. In order to score a place on the team "Sebastian" agrees to help Duke get with his crush Olivia. However Olivia is totally gone for "Sebastian"! Shenanigans ensue as the difference between girls and guys in both love and sports is explored.

This is a hilarious and irreverent take on Twelfth Night starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. It's incredibly quotable, tons of fun, and a great modern adaptation.

Shirtless Channing Tatum. Positive messages about masculinity! Very quotable. Random acting part for Vinnie Jones. Amanda Bynes at her comedy peak! The shoehorning in of a Shakespeare quote at the end from a play that isn't twelfth night! Peak 2000s romcom

A high school take on the Malvolio Gulling subplot. Sixteen-year-old Marshall Gardner is 1) straight-laced, 2) exacting, 3) judgemental, and 4) perfectionistic. And below the surface, kept hidden from the rest of the world, he’s 5) controlled by his obsessions and compulsions, 6) fixated on the number twelve, 7) hopelessly in love with his best (only) friend, and 8) horrendously imperfect. He’s also 9) universally disliked, 10) the self-made enemy of the former GSA president, 11) just a little too easy to trick, and 12) in trouble.

This book is sooooo fucking good it’s my comfort read!!! Max asks the brave brave question of what if twelfth night was about a high schooler who i want to squeeze like a stress ball and it makes me feel insane. 12/10 book of all fucking time please read it

THIS STORY FUCKS. extremely hard. i read it before i even read twelfth night and let me tell you it works just as well as a stand-alone story as a retelling. it uses the subplot of twelfth night revolving around the servants (which deserves more attention, as a side note) to explore gender and neurodivergence and the inherent horror of being sixteen and it executes every theme extremely well. if you have maybe half an hour to spare honestly sit down and read the whole thing right now. it's so good. sir toby is a lesbian. what more could you want

read the whole thing here

[sayheykid]

why are you an anne with an e hater (genuinely curious bc I haven’t read the aogg books)

maybe i'm harsh bc there are some good moments. however. i love the books SO much and anne with an e just completely remixes and shifts away from canon in a way that just seems like it would be more productive to do something original instead of calling it an 'adaptation'. i know i reblogged something on this topic recently, but one of my biggest pet peeves about anne with an e was that it seemed almost apologetic? about existing in the time frame it was set, and other subplots were shoehorned in to kind of atone for this, when the story is about anne and is pretty small scope in that regard. with all those extra plots, i also just felt like none of them actually got fleshed out and the whole thing felt halfhearted on all fronts.

i also adore the 80s aogg movies — also not book-canon compliant but the vibes and casting are absolutely impeccable whereas i think anne with an e misses the mark big time.

for what it's worth, my favorite aogg books are anne of avonlea and anne of the island which mostly focus on (hopefully this isn't a big spoiler) being in college and living independently plus anne and gilbert's developing relationship, and no adaptation i've seen have adequately explored that the way i think it should be.

def rec reading the books! they're enduring favorites for me, i come back to them about once a year.

[cnwolf-brainrot]

I'm curious, what do you think of X-Men: The Last Stand? Are there things you would do to improve it? Besides having Nightcrawler actually in the movie of course. xD

Sorry it took me a minute to get to this ask because I have A LOT OF THOUGHTS, this is a FANTASTIC question because I actually literally just rewatched that movie!! (yes, it was for Weapon by Name. No, it wasn't for anything plot-related, it's cause I've been having a hard time writing Hank McCoy lol)

Very short version: I like some parts of the movie, but I definitely have ideas on how to improve it!

This is going to be a long post so my improvement ideas will be under the cut! But first:

What do I think of the movie? I mean... it's not the best. There are a few enjoyable moments, but it's just genuinely not a super well-written film; it feels unbalanced in a lot of places, leaves out a lot of things I would have liked to see addressed from the first few films (*cough* yes I'm talking about Kurt *cough*) and feels like it doesn't properly give focus to the Phoenix storyline at all. I think one of my biggest problems on a re-watch was the fact that Jean literally does nothing. She has no motivations in the movie and only a handful of dialogue lines. HOWEVER, I do love the mutant cure plot line, and I feel like it makes a fantastic focus for a third X-Men movie! I also think I can blame this movie for my love of Warren Worthington! There are definitely parts of this movie that I do enjoy, there are just things that could have been better! Now, a break-down:

Things that I like/would keep the same: - The Worthington Industries/Cure plotline (I find the mutant cure to be an extremely interesting X-Men plot, and I enjoyed how it was handled here for the most part. I'd make a few small changes to balance it with the rest of the story, but this is something that I'd want to see MORE of rather than LESS of) - Most of Warren's story (again, this is a plot that I LOVED from the movie, but needed to see more of. This goes back to the unbalanced feeling I mentioned, and I'll talk more in a bit about how I'd fix it) - Hank McCoy (honestly I love Hank in this movie, I don't think I have any changes) - Mystique's ending (I actually love how this movie handled Mystique. It's short, simple, shows just how much her abilities mean to her with her casual shifting even while she's captured, and I personally feel that her turning her back on Magneto when he turned his back on her was a very in-character moment. This whole subplot was great, no changes)

Things I would completely take out: - Juggernaut (he was an unnecessary addition to an already packed story, he really didn't add anything and if he's going to be in a movie I think he deserves more screen time) - The whole plot line with Xavier having hidden Jean's true powers from her. (It just makes Xavier a bad mentor figure in my mind, and I'd prefer it if there's just a quick explanation of there being weird energy readings at Alkali Lake or something that could have brought her back.) - The weirdness that was Kitty and Bobby sort of flirting (I feel like this was shoehorned in just to add a romantic tension between Bobby and Rogue. Kitty and Bobby have little to no chemistry and any that they do have just makes Bobby seem like a jerk to Rogue. I have a proposed fix for this subplot, which I'll address in a bit, but I would completely remove romantic implications between these two) - Xavier's death as it was (I feel like there was a strange imbalance between his death and Scott's, so to increase emotional impact I would like to streamline it and get rid of that scene)

Ok, now what would I do to improve it?

HONESTLY if I were to completely rewrite this movie, I would have to go back and rewrite X2 as well because I don't feel like the foundations were set up well for the type of Phoenix Saga that I would have liked to see. HOWEVER, I'm already rewriting X2 in Weapon by Name so there's no way I'm doing that again. Instead, here are just a couple of semi-quick changes that I would make to the movie, WITHOUT changing any of the previous canon.

First of all, let's talk about Scott. Scott Summers is the backbone of the X-Men and he was done DIRTY by this movie, so let's at least make it a bit better. Going based off of what has been established for him by the canon of this set of films, we have basically three character traits for him: he's Xavier's star pupil, he's the leader of the X-Men, and he's in love with Jean Grey. SO, instead of having him sulk and shirk his teaching duties at the beginning of the movie (which goes against two of the three things established about him) we instead go the opposite route. The movie opens up with Scott leading the Danger Room session, and we see that he has basically thrown himself into his work after Jean's death. Storm and Xavier express concern about this, even Logan can tell something is off, but Scott continues to drive himself and the new X-Men (Bobby, Kitty, Rogue, and Peter) into the ground as a way to try and avoid his grief

Speaking of the newbies, let's pause the Summers angst and talk about them for a moment. In the actual movie these four get completely sidelined (I already talked briefly about how Kitty is just used as an awkward romantic device, and Rogue literally disappears for days without anyone questioning where she is/misses the whole final fight scene, and yes I'm happy that Peter and Logan have a Fastball Special, but that's literally the only time he contributes to the movie). I wish that we had gotten a little bit more of the four of them in X2, but again we're not changing anything from that movie here. What I propose as a way to improve them as characters in this movie alone is to treat them as a unit. I think that if the four of them were treated as friends and shown in the first Danger Room scene having a bit of banter/generally joking around and working as a team, it would establish to the audience that these people know each other, like each other, and have a reason for being on the team together. In addition, setting these four up as friends in the first scene with them also helps fix Rogue's whole character arc.

I was genuinely upset with how the movie handled Rogue; it boiled her entire character arc/want for the cure down to "I want to be able to touch my boyfriend". I think this is a huge disservice to her character, and I think it can be hugely improved in just this first Danger Room scene. Instead of having the moment where Kitty saves Bobby, we replace that with a moment where Kitty is in trouble and Rogue reaches out to help her. Bobby or Peter then jump in and pull her back because her gloves fell off in the exercise; if she'd tried to help her friend, she would have only hurt them both. Now Rogue's eventual desire for the cure isn't built on teenage horniness; it's built on a fear of being dangerous to those she cares about.

Now, back to Scott. With this re-written version that focuses more on him trying to drown himself in work rather than just being sad and mopey, I think that a good way to get him to Alkali Lake would be for Xavier to have a talk with him. Xavier pulls him aside and basically says "you're hurting yourself by avoiding this, Scott. Take a few days. Take a breath. Allow yourself to breathe." This is what results in him going off to Alkali Lake and Jean's revival happening.

Personally, I wouldn't kill Scott here. I would let him come back to the mansion with Jean and everyone gets a reunion... however, Scott and Logan both start to notice something is off about Jean. She seems just a bit too on-edge, will zone out occasionally, things will float around her without her even noticing that she's controlling them, and there's the whole fact of she should be very dead.

Scott is concerned for Jean and trying to find a way to help her. Logan, on the other hand, is beginning to wonder if this person even is Jean at all, or if this is just some creature that is trying to look like her.

Now, a quick aside for some thematic values of the movie. I'm sure there are some in the original movie, but I had a hard time finding them honestly. What I would like to be the main theme of my version would be the concept of monster-versus-man or the "beast inside". This theme would primarily be shown in the contrast between Logan and Jean, as they are (or at least SHOULD BE) the main two characters. However, every key character could be shown to be struggling with their "internal beast": - Rogue, who is struggling to be close to anyone because of her mutation (an example of how this "beast" can be harmful to others) - Warren, who tried to get rid of his mutation long before the cure was invented (an example of how denying that beastial nature entirely only serves to hurt himself) - Scott, who keeps his mutation carefully contained to try and please the people and ends up paying for it (we'll talk about his fate in a moment) - Ororo, who is at peace with the wild, natural nature of her mutation (an example of a good balance between the man and the "monster") - McCoy, who is the literal embodiment of the "beast" and can't even attempt to hide, but still contemplates how it would be to feel more human (another example of balance, but with more longing) Every part of the "cure" plotline would help amplify this theme, and keeping that in mind for every character's decisions throughout the film would give it a far more streamlined and dynamic feel

Speaking of streamlined and dynamic, let's talk for a second about Magneto. I'm torn on what to do with our man Erik. Half of me is tempted to completely write him out, because I think he completely overshadows Jean in the original movie and that he's half of the problem with how it doesn't feel like a Dark Phoenix film, lol. However, he's also the best X-Men antagonist and it would feel like a disservice to him to leave him out of the climax of the trilogy, especially when the cure plotline is something that he would never stand to the side and watch.

So, I think that here we still have Eric gather his forces and start making threats over the cure. However, we cut the scene with him and Jean and Xavier in Jean's old house. Instead, we have the X-Men go to confront Eric just before another attack. This is at a public support rally for the cure, and remember Scott is still alive here.

Just before this scene, we should have a scene between Scott and Jean, where they talk about the changes that Jean's been experiencing. Scott's worried about her, and Jean tries to tell him she's fine (and that maybe this new power isn't a bad thing). In this scene we have the moment where Jean uses her powers to let Scott see without his glasses -- only he flinches away the moment he opens his eyes, and basically tells her that it doesn't feel right. He also tells her that the old Jean -- his Jean -- didn't need all of this power. She was content with things they way they were. We see a big example of that "inner beast" theme here, focusing on that contrast of how Scott wants to keep his powers under control in order to fit in while Jean has almost limitless power at her control, and she doesn't see a reason not to use it to make their lives better.

Now, back to the X-Men versus Magneto. As they stare him down, Jean tells Scott she could end it. She could wipe the minds of everyone in the crowd around them, and change them all to mutant supporters. She could change everything with just a thought.

Scott, of course, tells her no. He wants to try and solve this peacefully, the way that Xavier would (it's important that Logan overhears this line).

In the middle of Scott trying to diffuse the situation, one of the anti-mutant protesters tries to take a shot at Magneto. This causes immediate chaos, and another protester takes aim at the X-Men. Magneto deflects the bullet coming towards him. Scott is hit.

Oh goodness I hit a text block limit I didn't even know Tumblr HAD text block limits ok then.

Now, with this being the way that Scott dies, Jean actually has a reason to go berserk and give into the power she feels. She tried to follow Scott and keep it contained, and the attempt at peace got him killed. She ends up killing multiple innocents here, and when Logan tries to reach out to her she turns and leaves the X-Men behind.

Professor X's funeral scene is replaced by Scott's funeral scene. In the original movie it felt unbalanced to have such a focus on Xavier's death and no focus on Scott's, so as previously mentioned I think we should take Xavier's death out entirely. Plus, because of the nature of Scott's death (being killed by an anti-mutant protester), now the whole school is buzzing with unrest about the cure.

This is where we would have the scene where Bobby comforts Kitty, but unlike the original where's it's a "romantic" beat between those two we have all four of the younger X-Men outside iceskating together. Scott was their teacher so they were all fairly close with him, and they talk about it together. They also talk about the cure, and how they don't want to take it after Scott's death... Rogue is the only one who speaks up for the fact that the cure wasn't what killed Scott, it was just the people in support of it. We also have a moment here where everyone ends up knocking into each other as they skate, and that is where Rogue's jealously comes from; simple, human interaction that she isn't able to experience.

She leaves early, and Bobby notices. They have a conversation that only serves to upset Rogue more, and this is where we have a touch of their relationship because yes, it's important to her and she does want to be able to get physical comfort from her boyfriend, but now it's built on top of the other ways it has affected her life. He mutation has hurt her relationship with her family, her friends, and her boyfriend instead of only putting the focus on her romantic life. This conversation leads to Rogue leaving to try and get the cure.

But putting them aside for a moment, let's focus on Warren. I really liked the skeleton for Warren in this movie, but he still feels very flat and stilted because we don't get much depth to his character. To fix this, I would have developed a friendship between him and Leech. Both are prisoners here in Worthington Labs in their own unique way. Both have the illusion of choice (Warren could theoretically say no to his father, and Leech is shown to be comfortable and humanely treated which means he probably had at least a bit of autonomy) but neither have true freedom. I think it would give a level of depth to Warren's character if we see a scene of him sitting with this kid, maybe even moving just close enough that his wings go away, and Leech asking him if this is what he really wants. They could talk about the cure, really give the audience an inside perspective on what would go through the mind of a mutant to make them want to take this, and also bring up another running theme of freedom and what it looks like. ALSO we could have them talk about the complicated relationship between Warren and his dad, which would make Warren saving him at the end of the movie more impactful. Also, it would add another level of depth to the look of pure longing that Leech gives Warren as he watches him fly away after the attempt at taking the cure.

Now, in the original movie I felt like it was a bit awkward for Warren to just show up at the Institute without any real reason to go there. That could be fixed by tossing in a comment about the Institute along with the aforementioned Leech scene, but instead, I think it'd be interesting if Rogue was already heading over to try and get the cure as Warren breaks out. She sees him flying away, and makes the decision to follow him instead of going to get the cure. They end up talking (this could be off screen or on screen, either way) but end up showing up to the final fight last minute together.

Before we get to the final fight through, let's talk more about Jean. Now, at this point I think we've already made her arc better by giving her the earlier scene where she talks with Scott, plus hid death causing an actual emotional impact that would turn her against humanity. I feel like one of the biggest problems with the original movie is that they don't give Jean any screen time, which to be fair they tried to cram a LOT into this movie. However, it is literally supposed to be a Dark Phoenix movie, so I think she should get at least one scene where we really see her struggle with the new beast inside of her. This would start out as a solo scene where we get to see her go somewhere away from civilization, probably into the middle of the woods or something, where she can let go for a minute and literally scream out her grief. We see objects floating around her and turning dangerous in the wake of her anger (maybe she accidentally kills a few animals, something catches on fire, etc), and I'd love for her to have some dialogue that brings into question for the audience whether this really is Jean, or if the Phoenix Force is something else entirely.

Magneto would show up halfway through her breakdown, and try to give her the same "you could be powerful, you could get revenge" speech he does in the original movie to get her on his side. But, Jean doesn't fall for it; instead she says he's going to manipulate her the same way Scott did, and that she's not going to make the same mistake twice. Her reasoning doesn't entirely make sense, but that's where the Phoenix comes in; now that she's latched onto the idea of people hurt the ones I love because I tried to hold back, the Phoenix is using that to make her completely loose control and cause the chaos that it craves.

Magneto attempts to talk her down once he realizes that she's becoming a danger to mutants as well, and this escalates into a fight between the two of them. Honestly, I think it would have been interesting to see Jean kill Erik here; as much as I enjoyed him being de-powered in the original version, I feel like having Erik out of the picture would give more focus to Jean as the climax. She kills Erik, and then turns her sights to Alcatraz to try and take out everything that she perceives as harmful to her people (though at this point, as seen with Erik's death, the Phoenix has blinded her to the point that she can't truly see who her people are)

The X-Men are still in the wake of Scott's death, but they find out Jean is going to Alcatraz and that she killed Erik (because of course Xavier would be able to sense that) and they gear up to go fight. I think we should also get a moment between Bobby and Logan here talking about the fact that Rogue isn't there with a ton of guilt from Bobby, and Logan basically accepting that she's made her choice.

Also, Xavier goes with them to Alcatraz. Everyone is a bit hesitant, but he makes the point that he knows Jean's mind better than any of them, and that at the level of power she's at they might have to take it to an astral plane battle in order to defeat her. Plus, Jean has taken both Scott and Erik from him. He can't sit on the sidelines of this fight, not when he feels responsible for her spiral (again I would like to take out the "Xavier hid her memories from her" thing and focus on the fact that he basically raised her from when she was a teenager, BUT you also could keep that plotline in here)

So now we actually have the final fight, which is just the X-Men and the army VS Jean. For Jean of course this feels like betrayal, since the entire reason she's here and fighting is because humans (like the soldiers the X-Men are standing with) killed Scott. This also gives us a chance to see just how powerful Jean is, because it's literally like 100 to 1.

Now the rest of the fight goes similarly with Kitty rescuing Leech (though she's fighting against the building collapse, not Juggernaut) and Warren coming back to save his father (with the added detail that Rogue comes with him). We also get a reunion between Rogue and Bobby and Rogue helps Kitty save Leech. I'd also like for there to be a sweet moment mirroring the opening Danger Room scene where Rogue reaches out to try and help Leech just like she'd tried to help Kitty, and she's actually able to touch him and save him. At the same time, she also uses her powers in the fight to help, and she doesn't lose her powers at the end of the film.

The fight with Phoenix comes down to Xavier trying to get into her head, and they duke it out in the astral plane. We get to see here that this isn't really Jean any more; Jean is almost completely gone, it's the Phoenix that has overtaken her. We have a bit of dialogue here about how the monster has taken over to reflect that "internal beast" theme, and haha I lies we didn't entierly take out Xavier's death, I think he should die here. It looks like all is lost, until Logan comes up behind her and finishes the job similarly to the movie.

Logan's character arc ends with accepting that he is a beast, and that he can use that to protect those around him. It means he has to make the hard choices, but unlike Jean he's able to come back from that beastial mindset and actually process the grief with the rest of the team.

So THERE WE GO!! I think that's how I would rewrite the movie!! I like a lot of parts from it, but I think it could have been improved! Sorry this ended up being a much longer ramble than I intended and there's still things I could have fleshed out more, but this took way too long to type out so I'm just leaving it here.

TL;DR: If I could make improvements on this movie, I would have given Rogue more of a character arc, Scott a more satisfying death, and Jean the spotlight she deserved. Also, I would have given the film some identifiable themes that actually relate to the character's actions.

If you read this whole thing holy cow thank you this took me several hours lol

[igottakeeponmoving]

Rewriting Romance in Les Légendaires

Disclaimer: This is all in good fun, and is merely a way for me to get this all out of my head before Brain stops Braining.

I once said that Patrick Sobral can't write a romantic subplot to save his life, and that I really wished he'd stop trying to shoehorn them where they're not needed. A bit of pondering has led me to the conclusion that there is, in fact, potential for good romances among Sobral's six leads; the combinations he chose to put them in just kind of suck. Of course, these are romantic subplots featured in a story that is not first and foremost a romance, so of course you don't get a whole lot of reason for why these people are attracted to each other, but one can only suspend one's disbelief for so long when taking a look at the character dynamics. The canon pairings are as follows:

Danaël/Jadina: Classic Knight/Princess setup, he rescued her when she was kidnapped during an escort mission and they ran away together and founded the Legendaries. You don't watch these two fall in love, you are given the understanding that they already are in love, but despite their being adults who have known each other for a long time, Danaël and Jadina suffer from a case of what Tv Tropes refers to as Twice Shy. There is demonstrably nothing actually standing in the way of their being together, not even Jadina's royal title given that her parents banished her, and definitely not her erstwhile fiancé prince Halan, in whom Jadina makes it pretty clear that she has approximately zero interest. Not offensive, but relatively cliché and all in all pretty bland and predictable.

Razzia/Tenebris: Former co-Dragons to the villain, he dumped her when he realized they were actually the baddies and joined the Legendaries. This is a complete wish fulfillment fantasy; A not conventionally attractive dude has no indication of a love interest until it turns out that he has a beautiful, murderously devoted ex-girlfriend who even after all these years is still very much in love with him? Again, there is no buildup to them falling in love because they somehow already are, to the point where Tenebris's entire reason for deciding that she wants to be on the "good" side is that she is still in love with "Korbo" (Razzia's villain name), who on his end hasn't actually done anything to inspire this decision, would much rather she didn't join the team and tells her to fuck off every time she calls him Korbo. Their romance doesn't do it for me because she's in love with who he used to be, and isn't given nearly enough time to get to know this new version of him before they get back together, while he on his part associates her with lies, betrayal and the trauma of losing his family to her father's forces. Knowing this, how could they ever pick up where they left off?

Gryf/Shimy: Snarky beastman with a Past meets proud elf who can merge with the four elements. Is meant to be your run-of-the-mill bickering old married couple, is in fact an absolute dumpster fire that never should have happened. Gryf and Shimy don't appear to respect one another at all, and consequently treat each other like absolute crap, to the point where neither of them comes out of it looking better than the other. Gryf appears to be utterly allergic to communicating with Shimy to the point where he keeps her in the dark about a lot of things and generally treats her like she's unworthy of his trust, or like she's fragile, and winds up cheating on her with another girl who he also treats like crap despite the fact that said girl is, ironically, way more fragile than he believes Shimy to be (#ShunDayDeservedBetter). Shimy on her part assumes the worst of Gryf on principle and reacts to any perceived or legitimate slight by physically abusing him, and we the audience are meant to find this funny because Shimy is a woman and Gryf is a man. This isn't made any better by the fact that there is a significant power imbalance between the two: what can Gryf's claws do when Shimy can literally bend the elements to her will, and why would anyone want to be someone who puts the fear of God in them? Gryf is frequently referred to as "the bravest of the Legendaries" and yet somehow, dealing with Shimy is the one area where this does not apply. There just came a point where I really wished these two would break up for good and try their hand at being friends again.

Now. Before anyone makes any assumptions, I should mention that I am an aroace lesbian who does not actually ship any ships from Les Légendaires. Teenage me was an avid fan and used to think this was quality writing, and having grown up and drawn my own conclusions on Sobral since then, I think it highly unlikely that he would have made any of his main pairings anything other than heterosexual, given that Sobral has already been known to use les yay as a joke and the only same-sex pairing seen in his works is a side couple, two women at that, who get lecherously spied on by Gryf because Sobral apparently couldn't just Not Make It Weird.

Knowing this, here are the combinations that I propose: Gryf/Jadina, Razzia/Shimy and Danaël/Tenebris.

Gryf/Jadina: Power couple as fuck. Gryf and Jadina respect and support each other so goddamn much that no disagreement could ever make their bond any less strong, they are the Best Friends to ever Best Friend (no shade to Gryf's canon best friend, Danaël). Their upbringings are diametrically opposed, she a princess and he a gladiator, and they should by all rights have nothing in common, but they share a common experience of being denied their very freedom because of (granted, very, very different) circumstances beyond their control. Jadina will rightfully call Gryf out on his nonsense but never in a way that is meant to make him feel like an idiot, and she trusts him so much that he was initially the only other Legendary she apparently confided in about her banishment; Gryf not only doesn't treat Jadina like she's made of glass (which is how he treats Shimy) but listens to her, and has proven again and again that he will follow her to hell and back - remember his heartbroken rage when he thought Jadina had been killed and replaced by an impostor? These two also have a not-insignificant recurring Beauty and the Beast motif which I love, and which Gryf himself lampshades when he rescues Jadina from her execution in book 14. As a bonus, I personally headcanon Gryf as bi, and in my head his type is smart, kind-hearted and ludicrously powerful mages with dark hair, brown skin and light-colored eyes (Jadina and Elysio have more than a few similarities; I see you, Gryf). Also, they're both royals; potential for a political alliance meant to get the Jaguarians out of the shadows? Maybe that's too convoluted.

Razzia/Shimy: Fun fact, these two were originally going to be a canon pairing before Sobral realized that Gryf/Shimy was more popular with the fans (arguably a horrible reason to make a ship sail). Shimy has a more easy rapport with Razzia and shows him more genuine care than to any of the others, though she also enjoys teasing him in earlier books and generally seems to find him quite endearing. Razzia conversely thinks the world of Shimy and always lends her an ear if she needs to talk while also respecting her boundaries, and goodness knows what a calming influence he has on her. It bears noting that the pair of them are the muscle component of the Legendaries, he in the literal sense while she can magically enhance herself with rocks, I can totally picture them working out together. Also, the fact that the two of them have more personal beef with Darkhell than any of their comrades means that they get each other in a way that the others might not - yes, Jadina was a frequent target of Darkhell's, but the Eagle Staff is what he actually wanted; Shimy was full-on tortured, and that's not even getting into what went down with Anathos. All of that is still pretty fresh and even once Anathos is gone, Shimy understandably still has a lot of residual anger. This is probably partly the reason why she lashes out at Gryf so often and so violently, but he isn't really in any position to truly be there for her given that he's currently going through his own shit. Razzia, on the other hand? He's no stranger to how Shimy feels, but his emotional wounds are not as fresh, in fact they've pretty much scarred at this point.

Danaël/Tenebris: Such a missed opportunity. Give me more Enemies to Lovers that is actually Enemies to Lovers and where the girl is the "evil" one. I'm thinking that one scene from Princess Mononoke, you know the one: "I'll cut your throat! That'll shut you up/You're beautiful". Danaël and Tenebris are shown to respect each other but are also fundamentally opposed in their philosophies. They challenge and question one another in a relatively professional and level-headed manner, and I could see a mutual intrigue blooming into admiration as each attempts to work the other out. Danaël's unrelenting idealism would give Tenebris the push she needs to actually question her view of the world, which would give her a real, believable redemption arc that wouldn't come out of nowhere - she was a one-off henchwoman who got dealt with pretty quickly, honestly what was there to redeem - or indeed be boiled down to Doing It For Love. Danaël on the other hand could come to realize the more he interacts with Tenebris that it's not all black and white, that no one is born evil and that Tenebris was just as much shaped by her environment as he was by his own. Speaking of which, they actually have more in common than they think since they both grew up motherless, have a shared military past that each ended up defecting from (she ranked higher than he did though) and they also have been known to go to extremes for the sake of the Greater Good - like for instance Danaël deciding to have Shimy killed to keep Anathos from coming back, or Tenebris justifying the sacking of Barabath as a necessary sacrifice for the unifying of Alysia in one of Razzia's flashbacks. As a nice final touch, together they make up the blade component of the team. Sparring date, anyone?

One last disclaimer: My reshuffling of the pairings does not, in my mind, erase the original pairings, because it's common knowledge that you can love more than one person in your lifetime. It also always bugged me that Sobral's heroes were allowed to move on to different partners and even express attraction to other women while his heroines stayed stuck on the same person book after book for no apparent reason. I can see Danaël and Jadina having a small adrenaline-fueled attraction when they meet that later becomes a real friendship as they get to know each other better, Gryf and Shimy letting the sexual tension fizzle out once they realize their personalities just don't mesh well (preferably without dragging poor Shun-Day into it, honestly Gryf could not have picked a worse person to needlessly jerk around), and Razzia and Tenebris getting closure and moving on from their past.

[cross-my-heartt]

okay so I slept on it... and as much as I hate to say it I think I'm disappointed with episode five

really disappointed

putting my thoughts under a cut, they're mostly critical but there's some praise in there too

I'm not gonna lie some parts of this episode were fantastic. I legitimately started crying when Crosshair picked up Mayday's helmet and started lining them all up. but as much as I wanted to feel the same way about the other emotional moments in this episode (and they were a lot) I just didn't and it's weird because they feel right from a storytelling perspective but execution wise?... yeah, I have some thoughts

for starters I'm getting really frustrated with Corbett and co's aversion to showing us characters reacting to major events. I fully expected this episode to pick up where we left off but instead we went straight to the timeskip, foregoing all the initial stages of Crosshair's reintegration into the team (similarly people have pointed out how disappointing it is that we didn't see Crosshair react to the news of Tech's death. or Echo reacting to the news of Fives’ death. can we see the pattern here?)

we're supposed to feel like this tension in the team has been going on for a while but instead we're just told that it has. yes, it makes sense for this to be the case but when you think that the whole thing is resolved in one single episode, you start to realize just how damn rushed it is

so much of this episode relied on clunky exposition to fill us in on what's happening instead of just taking the time to show us. imagine if instead of one episode we had three episodes to develop this story line. one on Pabu, one on Barton and one final one for the mission where Crosshiar and Hunter's tension comes to a head. just imagine.

we have so much room for side quests where these characters' conflicts can broil and stew and develop in the background and we can get a real sense of time passing and a sense of how this affects them. we got a whole episode dedicated to showing us what Omega's imprisonment was like on Tantiss, imagine if they'd put the same effort into setting up Crosshair's return the same way

instead this is really starting to feel like we're trying to get Crosshair's arc out of the way so we can move on to the next one (which I presume will be about Tech) and if we do get episodes where this could have been developed as a background subplot I will chew my socks off

also if I see another giant worm creature living underground in a star wars media, I will throw myself off a cliff

NO MORE FREAKING CREATURES. we're sick and tired of them. why, why do we have to waste precious screen time on a redundant action scene? it feels so old at this point. not to mention how obviously shoehorned it is because a) it messes with Outpost's plot and b) Outpost never mentioned this being the purpose of the sensors meaning this is obviously something the writers retconned into existence to hastily cobble the plot together

a very predictable one too, I swear to god I expected it to be a worm the moment they showed the ground shake, I swear

yes, it was supposed to show us the batch working together as a yay team moment but I personally feel it was pretty lackluster (none of them actually put their special skills to good use, I'm baffled by how useless Hunter's sense were here). imagine if instead of this we got an episode that was actually interested in exploring the conflict between these two

have them walk off to quarrel after Hunter sees Crosshair acting strange with the helmets (the one piece of setup I would praise) then accidentally fall through a weak point in the ice, plunging them underground. and instead of an action scene we get a long episode of them trying to get out of the maze, walking through the tunnels and struggling to cooperate in between bouts of bickering. have Crosshair internally freaking out because this is all so similar to him and Mayday crawling through the tunnels. maybe have one of them step on an old mine, echoing that same moment in Outpost

have Hunter ask Crosshair why he knows about these mines and who taught him to disarm them. have Crosshair completely reluctant to tell him

seriously there is SO much wasted potential here...

which leads me to the next point which is dialogue. the worst side effect of rushing plot is that most of your dialogue ends up being expository and it really showed. characters saying exactly how they feel, over explaining and pointing out things that could have been shown. it all feels even more egregious when you realize that Crosshair is the one saddled with most of the exposition making him not only weirdly talkative this episode but also nudging him into the out of character territory

because Crosshair has always been taciturn and roundabout in the way he expresses himself and I feel like this was sorely lacking this time. it's a shame because that's one of the main things that made him so complex and interesting to watch

call me crazy but we didn't need Crosshair and Hunter acknowledging their mistakes. a meaningful look or a silent moment shared between them would have sufficed. we didn't need Crossahir saying what he's done, we know what he's done, and knowing Crosshair that shouldn't have come out so earnestly either

I feel like the show has proved that it's really good at conveying these nuances in a subtle way but somehow it forgot all about it in its urge to hurry the plot along

I don't know if I'm wrong or right about this but I really hope I'm not. I'm not saying the writers are neglecting Crosshair as a character, there were moments where I could really feel how much love they have for him. but the telling of that story really fell flat

all in all this episode felt like 'finish crosshair's story arc: speedrun edition'. the right story beats are there - the hug, the confrontation, honoring Mayday, focusing on the tremor - but they're so rushed and the dialogue is so expository and clunky that they left me feeling hollow

(also are we really going to pretend it's okay for AZ to be there?? your sole chip removing droid and it's used as target practice by the man with a hand tremor and a 50% accuracy rate?? hello??? anyway, just a nitpick lol)

all in all there is a lot to love and in a sense we got everything we wanted but I do wish it had been done differently

[anti-dazai-blog]

my actual opinions on today’s episode (under the cut because spoilers)

As I said in my last post, I actually really liked Fukuchi’s development in this episode, and I think this was a really satisfying way to conclude his story.

everything else though? Tbh I’m not the biggest fan. I’m gonna hope that all of the things that are out of character for BSD as a story to do are anime only, and the manga will have a better resolution to this arc.

Fyodor dies without any ability reveal— what does that mean for the series? If Asagiri’s on board with this, does this mean that his ability will be revealed and explained after his death, or is this a way to get out of revealing and explaining his ability at all?

Fyodor alludes to a different opponent he fought who was nearly a match for him. Is this a way to shoehorn in another person for Dazai to have his quasi-super genius quarrels with? Is this a way of saying “Fyodor may be gone, but Dazai still has someone out there he can play the numbers guessing game with”?

The episode pulled one of those “Dazai knew everything all along” moves, which really makes the entire Meursault subplot meaningless. There was no conflict. There was no back and forth strategizing. Dazai knew everything from the start and everything went exactly according to his plan. Dazai’s injuries also don’t matter, since he’s up and about immediately after sustaining them.

What was the point of Dazai choosing Sigma. Was there a point? He left him behind at the end. Sigma didn’t do much of anything to help him or harm Fyodor (nothing that affects the plot at least).

Dazai being all-knowing also adds to his accountability in everything. Which I mention fairly often, but I hate that this final episode is proving me right. There’s this issue now of at what point did he contact Chuuya and arrange this plan. If it would be too far in advance, you’d have the question of how and why he’d know about vampires and that Fyodor and the decay of angels is planning on using them. You have the question of why he wouldn’t warn Ango, the one person he’s contacting who’s conveniently in the Actual Japanese Government, about a potential World War 3.

If Chuuya wasn’t a vampire this whole time, that means he brutalized all of the Meursault guards on purpose. It also doesn’t explain the panel where he’s struggling and breathing heavily, dragging two dismembered corpses of guards. What does that panel mean in the context of Chuuya be conscious? The struggling could be an act, but what was Chuuya’s conscious reason for picking up two corpses he brutalized and dragging them around with him?

And that epilogue. It looks like a cliche shonen boss fight. There better be a solid explanation to why we’re reverting to beam attacks after having such a long series presenting us with some of the most unique abilities found in anime/manga.

[lyraoctaviawrites]

My favourite part about the last chapter of Into the Phantasm book 1 is that there’s this whole subplot about these two dragons that doesn’t really matter that much to the plot or characters in any way.

It doesn’t create any parallels, definitely feels like it’s been shoehorned in for no reason other than extra drama and tension and could easily be removed without much work.

But I’m not gonna remove it.

Because dragons are fucking sick.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Vulcan's Glory" review

Hey look! It's SNW's Spock... in the 80's!

Novel from 1989, by Dorothy C. Fontana. This author is better known as the writer of several TOS episodes, like "Journey to Babel", and as the producer for TAS. Given these credentials, I expected more from this novel. But it turned out to be one of the worst I've recently read.

The plot (or rather, the several mini-plots) were pretty dull, and the slow pace isn't helping. The writing style is so meandering and flowery, that it takes forever to move from point A to point B. (Some spoilers ahead): Set in the Pike era, shortly after Spock arrives at the Enterprise, the main story concerns a legendary emerald revered in Vulcan, the titular "Vulcan's Glory". The gem is easily found in the first chapters, after being presumed lost for a long time. But soon thereafter, an assassin kills a couple of scientists aboard the Enterprise, using a Vulcan killing technique (rehashed plot from "Journey to Babel") and steals the emerald. The murder mystery lacks any tension, and I found the identity and motives of the culprit really contrived (also, it presents a backstory that completely messes up Spock's unique identity as a Vulcan-human hybrid). Apart from this, Pike has his own adventure in the planet of Arete, which has no connection at all with the murder mystery. The civilization of Arete is yet another generic ancient society, divided into townspeople, nomads and outcasts (mutants, in this case). After a nuclear holocaust, they somehow have forgotten any previous technology, and Pike's mission is to check whether communication and trading between the different groups proceeds smoothly. This mission is quickly forgotten in favor of a story about two teenagers in love, who have run from home and now need to be rescued. Again, I found the whole thing pretty boring and predictable. Finally, the novel shoehorns Scotty into Pike's Enterprise, but his only role is brewing moonshine in the engine room, with no concern for sanitary measures (or the proper use of the engines, by the way). Apparently, you can distill liquor the same way you brew tea, as people is already consuming the thing a few hours after the distillery is set up... This subplot was so unnecessary, that I guess it was just included to increase the page count.

Now the characters... I gotta admit, I'm not a fan of the Pike era. But I wasn't particularly interested in Robert April (the previous captain) either, and yet Diane Carey's Final Frontier made me love the characters. This time, however, I can't say I care more for this crew after reading the book. Pike and Dr. Boyce seem like mere sketches for Kirk and McCoy. This may have been understandable in the pilot episode, but here I hoped they'd get a bit more of a personality of their own. In fact, I'd say that Pike was much more his own character in "The Cage". Number One gets a bit more development, but in general, she's simply a cold, perfect woman, created through genetic engineering (you know, the same kind of eugenicist stuff that Khan gets criticized for). And then there's young Spock... His personality in the first chapters is alright. But then the story makes him develop a pulpy romance with a Vulcan woman from the crew, and I simply can't buy the whole thing. Regardless of whether you believe that Spock ever loved T'Pring or not, he was committed enough to his betrothal in "Amok Time" to divert the ship and honor his engagement. He didn't just take the first person available to get him out of pon farr. Less than a marriage but more than a betrothal, indeed. Yet here, he's ready to ditch T'Pring for the first woman that makes a pass at him. Certainly, Spock describes the affair as "true love", and "the only woman he will ever love" yadda, yadda... But let's be honest, they just had a couple of quickies, nothing more. Add to this Spock's unrestrained and vengeful behavior in the last chapters, shouting things like "You bastard!" at the villain (no, for real), and I was left wondering who was this guy.

Last but not least, this novel has a certain, annoying sexism going on, and this is almost the 90's not the 60's. All women get cliche descriptions upon being introduced, which focus on their physical attributes and little more. T'Pring is villanized as a dirty cheater (yet Spock's no better, as seen before). Amanda is particularly submissive towards Sarek (compare with Diane Duane's far better portrayal in Spock's World). Pike and Number One are starting a romantic relationship at the end, because God forbids a female first officer is just doing her job. It seems that Vulcan males can break their engagement at any point (but Vulcan women would still need to invoke the kal-if-fee, with all that entails). And then there's the story of a Vulcan woman who, after being raped by a man, was seen as a disgrace and shame for her family, and banished from the planet! (this in the "most logical" culture of the Federation). But don't you worry, the narrative still manages to villanize this woman as well... Sigh.

Spirk Meter: 0/10. First, Kirk isn't even there. Second, Spock is super-ultra-heterosexual. Third, D. C. Fontana disliked K/S to begin with, to nobody's surprise.

[spotlightlowlife]

ep 5 Hazbin the best so far

It moved the story along quick, which was needed.

We meet Lucifer and he is exactly what is to be expected of a character who is here to be powerful but liked. He's he's awkward, silly, cute, depressed, defeated, not responsible for a major issue because it's someone else's fault but come on, he is so. He also validates the 'Chalie follows in her parents footsteps bad turn' by being so much like Charlie only seasoned, competent and fed up.

Still, he's likeable non the less.

Charlie was outclassed, no surprise there but I actually forgot what it was she wanted until her dad chose to give her exactly what it was. Charlie's 'daddy issues' were weak and I'm grearful for that, there relationship going from not really existing to great all hinged on 'daddy gimme what I want, you love me don't cha?' which quite frankly fits at this point, she's rather silly.

Charlie referring to the sinners as 'her people' fits too, she comes across as a pampered rich kid, specifically a celebrity's child, who wants others with much less to know they're cool and down for everyone, their angst is generally their boredom, guilt and fear of being judged unfairly, they assimilate their frustration into the frustration of those they watch who tend to have a lot to worry about. This felt like a bit of progress for her character, looks like we just need to meet Lilith next for Charlie to truly blossom.

Mimzy was fun, she told us a little about herself and her life back when she lived, she let us know of her history with Alastor along with a bit of his backstory. She bought trouble for Alastor to flex on, still she held her own very well, pity she was just passing by and is no longer welcome.

Alastor showed that he isn't composed all the time and can be needlessly reactive and does enjoy getting his hands dirty. He also quickly inserted himself between Lucifer and Charlie to mark some territory and showcase just how ambitious, ruthless and competitive he is.

It is a shame that two women were used to contribute to mens stories, especially when the woman with the least charisma happens to be the leading character who barely has a story of her own, but even so, as much as Alastor 'missing 7 years like Lilith, Charlie's new daddy and Lucifer's have a go rival' shoehorned his way to spotlight, it was interfering troublemaker Mimzy who stole the show for me, and Lucifer who revealed that he still works with angels and told us a little about heaven, which he has access to.

There are some pacing issues, all that happens in ep 5 could have happend earlier imo (maybe prior to the board meeting featuring all those characters we didn't know), giving us some Charlie content and progress, an explanation for a lot of her absence because heaven has to be a big place? A number of the subplots could have took place in the same meantime.

Still, best of the series, things atleast picked up, went somewhere and remembered the source material. No thanks to any lead character.

This post has been in the backburner for a whole day and wow there are still no gifs for this episode, I thought this show was popular?

[cosmic-day]

Having seen the final season of The Umbrella Academy: I didn’t hate it quite as much as most of fandom seem to, but I also didn’t love it. Rambly thoughts and massive spoilers under the cut:

First of all, I don’t know how much the compressed episode count affected things, but I felt like adding  ‘could/would have worked better if fleshed out more’ at the end of every sentence in this review.

As far as positives go, I was OK with the ending. It has been baked into the show from the beginning that the Hargreeves siblings only break whatever they try to fix, and their erasure from the universe being the only thing that restores the timeline does make sense. I kind of respect the show for committing to that, rather than finding a last minute “they died but not really” cop out.

I loved Abigail’s role in it as well and think that is a really underrated bit of satisfying writing: Abigail who has been literally and figuratively fridged for three seasons gets to tell Reginald that she never asked for this and never wanted it, and most importantly gets to not only seize control of the narrative but end it. That part really worked for me.

Viktor had a decent arc and also got to confront Reginald about his shitty parenting which was also satisfying.

Unfortunately, there the positives end.

Most of the other characters got short changed. Klaus was stuck in an irrelevant subplot, as he often is, but here it felt more irrelevant than usual, and also gratuitously dark – I mean, it’s a dark show at times but this felt like trauma porn for the sake of it. Allison had some good moments, but not much of an arc. Diego and Luther were both reduced to goofy, borderline pathetic comic relief in a way that just felt mean spirited at times. Ben and Jennifer needed way more time to work properly.

And then there’s the Five/Lila of it all.

I love these guys. Not only are they my favourite individual characters, but I loved their enemies to chaotic besties arc, and I really wanted more of that friendship. The subway plot was a brilliant idea, and I could have watched a whole episode (I’m thinking the Last Of Us episode ‘Long Long Time’), following them surviving together and developing their friendship (and also maybe addressing little irrelevant details like Five being the killer of her parents). But they just had to shoehorn in a romance, by Steve Blackman’s admission, because they ‘had to have a love story’ for Five. OK, but why? Why does a character ‘need’ a romance? Also, protip, but if you do something because you feel it ‘has’ to happen, and not because you want to develop the characters in any way, it shows.

I should say I don’t particularly care about the age gap issues. Nor do I entirely agree with the argument that it’s ooc for Five, because our precious blorbo Would Never betray his brother like that. I love Five, but he’s a little shit. Also, I’ve seen many complaints that he spent decades in the apocalypse and never gave up so why is he giving up now, but maybe he gave up because he spent decades in the apocalypse. Maybe he’s just tired. Everyone has limits, and Five has hit his.

I just hate that platonic relationships are always erased, sidelined and overwritten in favour of romantic relationships because those are obviously more important and more interesting. Five’s friendship with Lila and devotion to his family are also love stories, and they’re not lesser because they’re not romantic. I also violently hate love triangles. This one was particularly annoying and not even properly resolved.

Overall the season just felt lacking. Where were the great big goofy, joyous setpieces, or alternatively, if such is your jam, the dark and deranged pieces of ultra violence set to a banger of a pop tune. Where, in short, were Footloose and Istanbul Not Constantinople. (Though I will admit Baby Shark made me laugh.)

Anyway. I wouldn’t say the show is ruined for me, but it was a disappointing conclusion and my least favourite season by far.

[moralesmilesanhour]

AND ANOTHER THING! Going off of my tags on my previous post, outside of me just thinking they're cute I also feel like flowerbyte works better for me purely on a narrative level. One of my biggest pet peeves esp for action movies is when the romantic subplot takes over like half the story without proper development. It doesn't matter WHO it is or how much I like the characters individually I will literally fast forward through every romantic scene if it feels shoehorned in. It makes it so tedious you don't even understand. (Haterism ahead. Well not really 'hate' just mild irritation really. this is looong):

So let's look at Gwen and Miles' relationsip. We start ITSV with Miles basically having a one-sided crush on Gwen. By the end of the film they had just agreed to be friends and have known each other for maybe like a week tops, and *maybe* Gwen reciprocates but it's not extremely clear. Whatever occurs between them in between ITSV and ATSV, we don't see (it's implied that they haven't even seen each other at all for obvious reasons so. oof).

But then we jump into ATSV, and suddenly they're swinging into the sunset talking about how they're "the same"...? Besties. Friends. Niece and nephew. Neither of you know each other dfghjkl

Then the wholeee rest of their scenes together is just the film trying desperately convince us through the music, framing, and even other characters' dialogue that there is romantic (notice how i specify ROMANTIC) tension between these two kids that is just so thick you could cut through it with a butter knife. I'm sorry, but is this tension in the room with us right now...? But okay movie.

Now, compare that to the scene in ATSV where Miles and Margo first bump into each other. They're able to establish romantic chemistry almost IMMEDIATELY! One look and a 'hey'. That's all it fuckin' took! They *both* like each other and it's clear as day.

Then right after, Margo is given a quick implied backstory that instantly gives her and Miles a reason to relate to each other that isn't (necessarily) just about them both being Spider-Man (because, in Margo's words, they're ALL Spider-Man and this means you need more than that to form a genuine connection). Neither of them feel like they can be themselves because their environment at home doesn't allow for it, even without the secret identity. Bada-bing bada-boom instant connection in under 5 minutes and I am still awake by the end of it.

Then, finally, we get a scene that shows that they can, to some extent, trust each other. Margo only just met this dude a few scenes ago, but she immediately goes against Miguel's wishes knowing the consequences and attempts to send him back home because her convictions are stronger than her loyalty to Spider Society. Just that act alone makes her a better ally to Miles than like, half the cast at this point.

...And that creates a bit of a dilemma if Gwiles is meant to be endgame.

As literally everyone and their mother have pointed out by now, Gwen is objectively a bad friend to Miles in this film. But...I would also argue that there are very few instances outside of combat in either film where she's even a *good* friend. And that's sort of the point, isn't it? Gwen has been terrible at friendship for the majority of the time we spend with her because she's traumatized from literally murdering the last good friend she had. Then her dad tried to shoot her. Then Miguel-- you know how it goes. She clearly has a long way to go before even a healthy *friendship* with Miles can start to develop. So that leaves me with a few questions:

A) Why did we wait until the last scene of the SECOND FILM for her to finally decide to be a good friend

B) Why didn't they just give Miles and Gwen more scenes together where they actually get to know each other if their relationship is now so important to the story, and:

C) If Gwen's whole journey is about her inability to maintain strong friendships...Why the FUCK is she the love interest then???

Either we all just got baited, or we are now going to have to spend a decent portion of BTSV watching Gwen try to salvage a friendship that was barely even that developed to begin with, convince the guy whose trust she just lost that she would ALSO make a good girlfriend i guess, and all the while there is now another potential love interest that is clearly, *according to the movie itself*, the better option (or so it seems for now). So like...Where do we go from here?? It just feels like a clumsy narrative decision. And if they do the misogynistic ass 'cat-fight' between two female characters over the main guy I will literally commit a felony. So yeah that's where my head is at right now thank you for reading all the way through my tangent over pixels on a screen sorry everybody

[gamer-comix]

hey gamer comix is the magia record anime good at all? I remember hearing it was bad but I remember a lot of things that arent true soo..

i...guess it's not the WORST anime i've ever seen...? but then again neither was mekakucity actors

i haven't watched it since it first aired so my memory's not super clear, but they crammed over half of the story into season 1 so a lot of good scenes got left out (RIP "that's a real gun! what is wrong with you?!") and the pacing was awkwardly fast. didn't help that shaft really piled on the

then in season 2 they added a whole anime-original subplot about a character going missing, shoehorned in the PMMM cameos that didn't make it into the first season, then completely changed the ending to make it The End For Real so an adaptation of the game's arc 2 would be completely impossible

oh and they ALSO introduced a completely anime-original character, did nothing with her for the whole first season, then put all her backstory and development(?) in season 2 as well

it's a mess. and it's a huge bummer that that's gonna be most people's only exposure to magia record now. at least the manga is still ongoing, and that adapts the story pretty well. (though there hasn't been any new english release in quite a while...) (and the another story manga seems to have been cancelled entirely...)