#the original “god forbid women do anything” to me. but also her backstory is genuinely really sad

[bird-butch]

i do think they majorly fucked up in some really important aspects of her character but i still love dahlia hawthorne so much the version of her story that exists in my head is literally perfect

[wykwryt]

ok you know what no seeing one (1) bit of external criticism has emboldened me so uninformed mini vent based on just the first 2 episodes of tristamp

WHAT DID THEY DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Meryl & Milly (???) '98 vs Stampede:

unless Milly for real shows up later instead of being replaced by this old man who looks exactly like her but old and sad and named Roberto????

They replaced the *two insurance agents are trying to chase down Vash about his destroyed citycar's extended warranty* plot with *young! elite! new graduate! whipper-snapper! Meryl Stryfe learns how to be a reporter in the real world led by her mentor This Character Is A Man Now God Forbid We Have Beefy Feminine Women*. Meryl is literally Milly's mentor in the original but they completely threw out all the original characterization for the youth appeal. And while it's clear that the new show has no intention of bounding itself to being a precise adaptation of the original... in what world is this a better story?

[Disclaimer: I have not read the manga, just watched the first anime + movie. Therefore, I can only discuss it in terms of the anime.]

I fucking ADORED the world building of '98. We just get plopped into this archetypal western movie world in a desert with gunslingers and saloons and outlaws and stuff and you go "yeah ok fine, Vash the Stampede, wanted for $$60B, he gets chased 'round by folks who want the bounty" and little do you know ANYTHING about the sci-fi aspect of it.

The way that the first few episodes of the show just sort of keep going as a goofy western comedy anime while also letting you know something is up literally just from the environmental story-telling of there being two fucking suns in the sky the whole time is incredible. (Also just visually it led to some really really cool shots that had Vash looking like he was under studio lights even though we're outside but I'll talk visuals later.)

I love it when stories start in the middle rather than the beginning. World-building 101 is to not?? info??? dump???? everything at the start????? Trigun '98 did an incredible job of grabbing you right away with sheer style and humor and quietly but firmly undermining the assumptions you would make about the world based on the apparent genre.

It gradually feeds you bits and pieces of information about the setting, WHILE ALSO keeping pace with the way Vash's character is slowly unraveled to both us and the other characters. Ultimately it all culminates with Vash's backstory, revealing both the core of his character and the conception of the setting AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME. Watching this had me swooning at how elegantly all of it was laid out.

Trigun Stampede just kicks off with Vash and Knives and Rem???? Do they know you can tell stories out of chronological order????? We don't even learn Vash has a twin brother till halfway through in '98, but Stampede just makes the premise *this guy is actually a good guy because it's his identical twin brother who's the criminal*. And all of our first encounter with Meryl and ~Roberto~ is him verbally laying out the lore of the planet to her THAT SHE ALREADY KNOWS for the sake of the audience.

And then we get to town and literally all the stakes and any semblance of sense are destroyed. Vash is some kind of hero to these people because he's a plant technician but then they immediately turn against him for the bounty WHICH WHILE SENSIBLE they've chosen to execute by having the townspeople show genuine hostility towards him????? And then the Nebraska family guys show up and they end up as friends????? And every one just drinks?????????? Again, only seen the first two episodes but goddamn it's really clear that they're just rushing through shit so that everyone's problems are resolved within 23 minute sized bites of story. Vash feels like a passive participant in his own story, just this sad little guy who now looks like he's 18ish rather than in his mid-twenties (real ages aside).

And while both of them are trying to make sure that no one dies, '98 Vash is doing it as a choice he's making, something that he's stubborn and angry and confused about, while new Vash seems to do it just because he's a good guy and feels bad. '98 gives us this protagonist who refuses to abide by the typical harsh kill-or-be-killed rules of the genre he's in—he's unique in that he never stops being a proponent of peace no matter what tragedies he or other people have suffered—and he STRUGGLES to maintain these principles. And other people matter too, their lives matter. Vash's whole character feels ensnared by the human condition while he struggles with his own sense of humanity.

Stampede just makes Vash feel like an action hero. A reluctant action hero maybe but action hero nonetheless. We're so transparently supposed to like him just because he's the protagonist; he's also just a good guy who doesn't kill people because he's the protagonist and that's the sticking point of the source material. All of the characters who aren't part of the recurring supporting cast are just part of the back drop to tell Vash's story.

And now because this is my post and I get to decide what is good and what is bad—where is the style??? The pizzazz????? Trigun Stampede is so fucking sterile man.

Here's another shot of Meryl and Not!Milly specifically to illustrate how ugly Meryl's model is:

Her head is just a straight up circle. Everyone else is vaguely face shaped and appropriately proportioned but she is stuck as 12 year old anime girl from the 2000's. Which, like, if that was the style, is fine, but she doesn't look like she belongs with everyone else at all. Her facial expressions are so limited in a way that other characters are not too; everything about her design and character reeks of #girlboss.

And you know what, actually nevermind, I'm not going to get any further into visuals because I'm getting tired but I feel like this illustrates my point well enough:

oh man i just started the new trigun yeesh

[ironxkid]

why don't you like endgame or civil war

((hoo buddy, idk what brought this up but salt under the cut!! Like... a lot of salt - specifically regarding Endgame lmao

I’m gonna start off with CACW because it’s a short response lol

I don’t like it simply because I was done with the infighting between the Avengers. The found family crumbs we were given in Endgame was something I really wanted to see, and them just... ripping them apart frustrated me lol

honestly, the movie was... fine? Idk, I found it to be a lil slow for my taste (it felt like it just dragged on when I watched it in theaters), and I just don’t care for it in general  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also, ngl, I’m really bummed that Captain America: Serpent Society was a joke announcement because that sounds dope as hell and I really wanted to see that before I realized it’d been a joke dfgjhdsfhj

but, yeah, literally just because CACW is specifically an infighting movie annoys me to no end so I just won’t watch it again dgsfjhsfdhj

now, Endgame?

fuck Endgame

I. have a lot of issues with it, all of which are major grievances throughout the fandom. I’m pissed they killed Natasha and didn’t even bother giving her a fucking funeral because, I quote from Joe Russo, “Well, Tony does not have another movie. Tony is done. And Natasha has another film. And Marvel Universe obviously does not have to move forward linearly anymore. But that character still has more screen time coming.” (see here) and that annoys the hell out of me. She’s getting another movie - great! So you killed one of the few characters doing her fucking best to keep everything together at the compound, the one who was taking charge, give her a big role, and then murk her and... give her nothing but a brief mention at the end. Like... what the fuck? Natasha deserved so much better than what she was given. Tony’s funeral could’ve (and, frankly, should’ve) been a funeral for him, Natasha, and Vision because god forbid we see anyone mourn Vision other than Wanda

(actually this post covers how Endgame fucked over the MCU women perfectly, though Wanda’s not mentioned :c )

plus... Tony’s not done lol - he’s still a massive figure in the films/shows despite RDJ not acting in them, so his character has left shockwaves that aren’t dying any time soon. Natasha... basically disappeared, and I believe she would’ve been dropped completely if it wasn’t for the fact she does have a film coming out soon. Which, frankly, seems awesome and all, but it’s a film that goes back to post-CACW pre-IW and... frankly doesn’t give me any reason to understand why that means she didn’t get a funeral. She’s not coming back in future movies/shows that are in present MCU timeline - her movie is set in the past. She could’ve gotten a decent sendoff 

now, Clint’s arc as Ronin rubs me the wrong way. I know it’s a huge thing in the comics, and it’s not him taking a different mantle that I have an issue with. It’s the fact he, a white man, went around murdering people and got off scot-free. Yes, he was targeting genuinely bad people, but... to show that, they specifically singled out Mexican cartels and the yakuza (Japanese mafia, essentially) - so, in other words, the bad guys were people of color! I feel like I don’t need to explain how fucked up that is. And, to clarify, I love Clint! Clint is honestly one of my favorite characters, and the whole thing was just handled... poorly in the film

Tony’s arc genuinely hurts. This is a man who has suffered for years and has tried to make things right, and finally got a chance to settle down. He finally retired from the Avengers, finally settled down, and had a fucking life he could enjoy despite his ghosts, and yet... His arc ends with a message of “tortured soul finally gets rest by dying”. Because, y’know, it’s great seeing yet another long-suffering character only reaching peace through death, because god forbid they let characters heal! He could’ve still caused the second Snap, and he could’ve survived. He could’ve finally been able to step away for good and focus on his family, focus on recovering, and be truly happy. What’s so wrong with letting him stay alive so he can rest and be with his family? What’s so wrong with letting a long-suffering character finally find peace after one last bang? 

plus it pisses me off that they’re now using him as a reasoning as to why bad things are still happening. Why is this person the bad guy? Because Tony Stark somehow may or may not have done something that hurt them! Even though most of that really stems from Howard or Obadiah. Tony just ends up getting the blame in their place. He’s just an easy target to use, much like the tesseract seems to be the go-to answer for why things go wrong. But this is a different train of thought

Steve’s ending pisses me off just as much as the next person lmao. You take a character who has acknowledged he no longer belongs in the past (which, funnily enough, was written by the Russos), aaaaaaand have him go back to the past while ignoring two important people in his life that were still right there. He got Bucky and Sam back, and he leaves them. His arc is ruined within a matter of minutes, and it paints a hella bad picture of him in the process. He goes back in time to stay with Peggy (which ultimately destroys her own arc, and the fact she’s a person outside of her relationship (or lack thereof) with him because, y’know, why have her be able to move on and be her own person?), and we’re supposed to believe he’s fine with everything he knows from the future? Fine with knowing Bucky’s trapped with HYDRA and is suffering as the Winter Soldier? Fine with knowing HYDRA has infested SHIELD from day one? Fine with knowing Howard and Maria are going to die? Fine with royally fucking up the timelines? We’re supposed to believe he sat back and did nothing with all of that? They could’ve had him still hand the shield over to Sam - they could’ve let Steve stay an Avenger without the mantle

also the fact the Russos said he didn’t recognize Red Skull when he returned to Vormir to return the soul stone? Like... what the fuck?? Not to mention he literally returns the stone to Vormir, which “soul for a soul”, and they didn’t bring Nat back that way??

and now onto Thor. Thor... holy fuck is this hitting something personal for me. Thor was ridden with guilt - he was furious with himself, hated himself, and blamed himself for failing to stop the Snap. He fell into a massive depression, and... was promptly danced around as laughing stock. Like, “oh! look at Thor! he’s fat and drunk because he’s depressed haha!” - like fuck off. It’s not funny in any form. His suffering was made into a joke and it pisses me off because I suffer from depression. A lot of people suffer from depression. It’s not funny. It’s fucking terrifying at times. I wasted a shit ton of money on a stupid online sim game because it was a distraction - it gave me... god, I wouldn’t even say temporary happiness, but it gave me something to temporarily help, and I still hate myself for doing it. It was a poor decision on my part, and I wish I could change it. And, during that time, I was scared because I couldn’t see myself pulling out of it. I thought I was gonna feel that way forever. I called out of work multiple times because there were days I couldn’t stop crying (something I still feel horrible for doing), I couldn’t get myself to contact any of my friends for months, and it was all because the medication I was on at the time... stopped working. Thankfully, my depression doesn’t work in a way that makes me a danger to myself, so that wasn’t an issue, but it still fucking sucked. And to see a character that I could relate to on such a personal level treated as laughing stock fucking hurt. I’m not sharing this for sympathy - I’m sharing this because it Thor’s arc hit home and it’s literally the main reason why I will not watch Endgame again

this is more of a nitpick than anything else, but... I didn’t really care for Carol in it tbh? Which is unfortunately because Captain Marvel is one of my absolute favorite movies! And I’m well aware she was introduced in Endgame while CM was being drafted, but that in itself is annoying?? Because Carol was originally going to be introduced in AoU, but was cut because it wasn’t going to introduce her character properly. And yet they decide to introduce her character in a clusterfuck of a movie before her movie is in the final stages, and proceed to release her movie first and then give a complete different characterization in her following appearance

honestly I just wanna cover this now to clarify some things regarding Carter and her backstory: the only reason I keep Endgame as is is because it felt easier for me to do so for the purpose of bending canon for specific threads. I wanted to stay as true to the given plots as possible to help with fudging of both the movies and her background, and also because I didn’t want anyone to feel like I was trying to force my own headcanons onto them, y’know? 

I’m just gonna plug this here because fuck it lol, but I did start a fix-it fic regarding Endgame that you can read here! I... probably won’t finish it tbh, and I haven’t gone over it in a hot minute so it might be riddled with errors ahah - plus I’m not sure about how I wrote the characters! I get nervous when writing canon characters because I feel like I’ll miss their characterization completely, which is actually why I,,, rarely rp canon characters dgfjhgsfdhj

also the image in the doc was created by @/archervale!!