#there are so many plotholes i am pretty sure i missed many

[neroushalvaus]

Top 5 things you'd change in Frank Wildhorn's beloved musical spectacle Jekyll & Hyde, go

I'm pretty sure you know this but when I reblogged this I was silently chanting "please somebody ask me about jekyll & hyde" in my head

So even though all the points I'm going to list have probably been discussed several times, I am really really grateful

5. Make the father thing make sense. In the musical Jekyll's want to create his potion is rooted in him wanting to cure his father's Mental Health Problems Disorder™ and I am not saying I am completely against that. However, after he has transformed for the first time, he seems to forget all about curing his father. At most we get him saying "forgive me father" or something during the wedding scene (if I'm missing a version of the script where this is explored better, I'm sorry). Jekyll's wish to cure his father ends up feeling like a flimsy excuse to try his potion. I would either remove the whole thing and let Jekyll just play around with science and morality because it interests him, or have them have like one scene together after the one scene in the beginning. So we could see Jekyll didn't just forget about his father after he started having way too much fun murder-murdering.

4. This will be elaborated below so it is kind of a filler point but: Please someone do something about the portrayal of women in this musical, dear God please. The whole Madonna-whore thing Emma and Lucy have going on is. Bad. The Bring on the Men/Good and Evil scene is, in most versions I've seen, bad. Whether it's changing the characters of Lucy and Emma or gender-bending Jekyll or something, if I truly had a magic wand I could use to change this show, this is a thing I would tinker with.

3. Give Emma something to do. Or at least make her relationship with Jekyll more interesting. As things are, she's supposed to be one of the most important relationships in Jekyll's life but she's in the dark about her boyfriend's problems until the very end. Both Lucy and Utterson see the both sides of Jekyll during the musical and that makes their relationships with Jekyll feel more captivating, at least in my opinion. Whereas when Emma never gets to know anything about Hyde or why Jekyll does the things he does, it feels random when she's so prepared to talk Jekyll back to himself in their wedding and it feels kind of undeserved when he poetically dies in her arms. I still like the idea you once had about combining Emma and Utterson into one character. If there was a character who was somehow a combination of Jekyll's best friend who is concerned about his dealings with this mysterious Mr Hyde and his fiancée who loves him enough to instantly gently cradle him in her arms as he dies (after he has violently killed her ex, no less!), that would be a truly interesting character. So. Emma Utterson when??

2. I want to make the board of governors sympathetic. I know it is super convenient for Jekyll that the people Hyde must murder are all classists, ableists and sex offenders, but it is so so so boring. I'm not saying they all have to be saints, but it is kind of silly that the first person Hyde kills is someone some people would say "i do not support death penalty but" about. The board is full of cartoonishly evil and selfish people and I get that if they weren't, it wouldn't be so fun to watch Hyde murder-murder them in whimsical ways, but it's bad and goofy writing. If I were to write them, I would make them people with reasonable concerns about Jekyll's potion (because, you know, they are right actually!). And maybe during Murder, Murder! they could say horrible things, because sometimes people do that. And Hyde would see and kill them at their worst moments. Then Jekyll could feel perfectly justified in his actions but I maybe wouldn't die laughing every time because of how eeeviiill the board is.

1. Lucy's death. You knew it would be this one. It couldn't be anything else. And how would I change it? Make it make sense. Somehow. Give Hyde a motive for killing her, any motive at all. At the moment my favourite version of this is the one we discussed once, about it being Jekyll killing Lucy and not Hyde. So maybe I would change it to that. Let's have Jekyll thinking that actually Lucy is the reason he can not control Hyde. Because you know, Lucy has the gall to exist as a woman Jekyll is attracted to, and because of her doing that Jekyll simply must turn into murdery monster man every once in a while so he can fuck her. As one does. So to make Hyde disappear Jekyll must remove the thing that awakens him. So he kills Lucy. Maybe have the Sympathy, Tenderness reprise be genuine instead of mocking, or something? It could be kind of cool actually. Anyway I like this version because it would show how desperate Jekyll is and how utterly selfish he can be. Also how well would it go with Hyde's lyrics in The Confrontation? "Can't you see? You are me", literally. So yeah, I wouldn't just let Hyde kill Lucy so Jekyll can be horrified about it. I would write an actual reason for her to be killed.

*

Send me a show/book/fandom/anything and I'll say the top 5 things I would change about it

[gingeraleluke]

𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀

𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: tom holland x fem!reader

𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀: your boyfriend got home just in time to watch his most recent interview on tv with you.

𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: swearing, nothing just fluff! :)

𝗔/𝗡: this is my first time writing for tom so i hope you guys like it!! <3

this is based on the spider-man: far from home interview with jimmy kimmel!

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

the young girls heart was silent for the first nineteen years of her life. nothing but a faint heartbeat and some clouded thoughts of little to nothing inconsistencies. from the moment she first opened her eyes as a baby, separating her fingers and spreading her toes while her newly polished eyes tried making sense of her surroundings, to the ripe summer when her mother insisted she become a camp counselor to succumb enough money to buy her very own long-overdue car. the girl felt nothing.

the teens she longed to be alike were a mere hourglass, y/n a shadow. portraying their success and growth without mirroring any of her own, she felt like a weak duckling surrounded by marvelous swans. she would spend her youth watching blondes fall for brunettes on television, plopping popcorn into her mouth while pressing rewind on her favorite romantics, watching the way they would look at eachother and move with one another. she never thought she could be able to experience that. everything inside her was too quiet, too plain.

and then she met tom. it became loud, too loud, and she loved it. everything she thought she could never achieve, she achieved with him. her colorless days no longer existed and she fell deeper and deeper in love with him everyday.

switching the tv from some medical soap opera, y/n sat on her couch. she wore nothing but a plain bra and a pair of baby blue satin shorts. normally, she’d cover up more, especially if she had company over, but tom was a different kind of company and a comfortable one at that.

“THOMAS HURRY UP!” she could hear her boyfriend yell a faint, “i’m coming,” through the noise of the water running. shortly after, the shower stopped as y/n scrolled mindlessly through her phone, impatient.

she expected to see her boyfriend walk out of the bathroom, a trail of steam behind him, but instead she heard the loud roar of a hairdryer.

“for fucks sake-“ her mouth was lacking the salty and buttery flavor she craved so she took the opportunity to use her time by putting some popcorn in the microwave while her boyfriend blowed out his hair.

as she watched the minutes on the timer go down, the machine dinged as she grabbed a bowl and poured the snack inside it. she made her way back to the bench sofa and extended her legs out on the grey island cushions. the lace on the trim of her shorts tickled her feet as she folded her legs. “TOM HURRY THE FUCK UP, ITS ALMOST STARTING!”

the girls mouth was full as she yelled, losing patience with the boy. “IM SORRY, IM COMING!”

minutes later, a shirtless tom holland, wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist, appeared in their shared living room. the girls eyes grew big, his doing the same as he took in her taboo and exposed form.

“what- tom! you haven’t even gotten dressed yet?!”

“well, neither have you, apparently! plus, this is pretty comfortable, is it not?”

“tom-“ she warned.

“i got it, i got it..” his bare feet slapped against the hardwood floors as he quickly ran into their bedroom and retrieved his clothes. he came back out wearing a black t shirt and a pair of light blue sweatpants.

“KIMMEL IS STARTING!” she pointed at the tv and looked over to see tom bounce down onto the couch next to her, sprawling his legs out like she had done earlier.

“baby, that’s just the intro, i’m not there yet.” she peered over at him.

“who said i’m watching this for you?” he turned his head and made a sarcastic face.

“yeah, sure..” he mocked.

“WAIT, i need my blanket! go, get it, i don’t want to miss this!”

“y/n, it hasn’t even started yet-“

“now tom!”

“but what if i miss it!”

“you were there, you already know what happens-“ you lightly shoved his clothed knee and he sprung to his feet, so fast that tessa jolted up and ran after him.

“tessa! calm down!” the dog didn’t listen and continued following her dad, panting the whole way back.

once they were settled, jimmy announced his upcoming guests before a quick commercial break.

“quick, my ass..” she muttered.

tom stifled a chuckle. “why are you so bent up about this? you’ve seen my interviews before!”

“yeah, but i’ve never been able to actually watch one with you! it’s like… an entirely different experience!”

he didn’t believe her. “are you sure that’s the real reason? or is it because you just want me to give you secret info on the film, because love, you know i can’t do that, not after last time.”

she placed a hand on her chest playfully, “tom! i would never, how could you think of me like that?! as if i would ever do such a thing!”

“mmhmm..”

the commercials came to an end and y/n looked up to see jimmy start announcing the cast.

“shit, oh my god, it’s happening.”

“shhh, calm down!” tom laughed, placing a hand on your shoulder, his other arm sprawled out behind the frame of the sofa.

“how can i keep calm!? my fucking BOYFRIEND is about to be on tv! you know how many people can say that they are dating spider-man? like, no one!” her knee was bouncing and she couldn’t contain the excitement. watching someone on television while sitting in the same room with them was a rush she had never felt before.

she was loud as hell inside.

“please welcome, tom hol-“

“WHOOOOO, YEAH!!” she started clapping dramatically and stood up for a quick second, her eyes glued to the tv as she watched her boyfriend appear, while her actual boyfriend sat there laughing at her excitement.

they did a stupid elevator bit, before him and everyone else walked up to their chairs.

“really, tom?” his dark eyes flickered to hers. “what?! i thought you would like it, it’s funny!” she rolled her eyes and smiled, thinking to herself: my boyfriend is a dork, even on national television.

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

“oh my god, you all look so good.”

“i know, right?”

“look at jake!”

“yeah-“

“look at zendaya!”

“i know-“

“OH MY GOD LOOK A-“

“OKAY Y/N, i get it, everyone but me is attractive, thanks. you’ve made it pretty clear.” he frowned as you gushed over how good his coworkers looked.

“yes, tom! i think you look awful, that’s why i’ve been dating you for the past four years, because i think you are ugly.”

he looked at his girlfriend, uncertainty in his eyes.

“oh, come on, i’m joking! you’re beautiful, come here.” she grabbed the side of his head and pulled him over so his head was laying on her chest. she began to play with his hair while watching.

“so the trailer came out, the trailer got like 135 million views within the first hour-“

“yeah it did!” she exclaimed, her fingers busy in his hair.

“see, i didn’t know that then.” he muttered, his brows furrowing together as tessa looked up at him from y/n’s lap.

“well it’s no secret, i’m not very good at instagram.”

y/n bursted out laughing. it wasn’t even that funny, but all of her emotions where heightened in this moment.

“oh god, i know where this is going.. this is the zendaya story isn’t it?” you smirk down at him and he lifts his head to nod at you.

“i knew it..”

“i basically.. forgot to post the trailer.”

“that’s bad.”

“yes jimmy, yes it is.” she couldn’t contain the snickers leaving her mouth and tom protested against it.

“listen, it’s difficult for some people, okay!”

“mmhmm, whatever you say baby.” she remembers distinctly, waking up and asking her boyfriend why he never posted the trailer, which caused him to wind up into a frenzy and immediately contact zendaya for assistance.

“well, you wouldn’t tell me how to!”

“tom, you’re a grown man! you should be able to figure that out yourself, peter parker.” she leaned over and kissed his cheek, his arm wrapped around her.

“so you’re IT for the team?”

“yeah, y/n, making poor zendaya the it for the team-“

“oh, shush, it was funny as fuck. but not as funny as the time you spoi-“

he placed his finger on her lips to quiet her, “oh, stop it!” she giggled in response.

she watched as zendaya recalled the moment she had to screen record how to delete an instagram story for him, which was another thing y/n refused to help him with. sure, she loves him and all, but watching the panic on his face as he realizes that he messed up, always cracked her up. especially since he brags about how ‘tech savvy’ he is for his age.

“it’s not my fault you’re a grampa!”

“yeah, we’ll, you’re dating a grampa!”

“true, i am.”

her hands reached towards her blanket as she put her popcorn bowl down and laid the covering over her and her boyfriend. the grey weighted blanket matching the couch perfectly.

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

“okay, wait…why are you guys still in highschool?!” y/n had paused the program to engage in a very serious and heated discussion about the aftermath of endgame which led up to the beginning of his new movie, far from home, which had yet to come out.

“i mean.. it’s five years! i’m so confused.” tom sighed, placing his hands on his knees, he sat up straight. “like i said in the interview, y/n, i don’t know.”

“well… ask the russo brothers! i mean, jacob is right, that’s a huge plothole!”

toms eyes sparkled as he looked at his lover trying to make sense of the whole thing.

“i… i don’t even know what to say right now. my whole life is a lie!”

“okay, let’s not get too dramatic here-“

“NO, tom! as an avengers fanatic, i need to know!” she gripped the hem of his shirt and tugged, his body jolting forwards.

“tell me!” she shook him as he laughed and tessa barked.

“i don’t know, baby!” she frowned slightly and looked at her boyfriends amused face.

“i’m dating spider-man, you’d think i’d get the inside scoop.” she rolled her eyes and placed her legs back up on the cushions. tom leaned over and looked her up and down, flickering from her bare chest and her eyes. he leaned into her neck and started planting kisses. “i’m sorry, i will be sure to ask someone at marvel for you.” she smiled sweetly before thanking him.

“has everyone seen avengers: endgame?”

the girl rose to her feet, the blanket stuck to her bare legs. “yes, jimmy, i have! i saw my boyfriend get dusted right before my fucking eyes!”

tom remembered the first time he watched the film with her. it was hard for him to keep it under wraps and while he did end up telling her some spoilers, he kept out the whole ‘death by thanos’ part.

“okay, calm down little one.” he reached his arm out to pull her down, back to the couch.

“tom, baby, i know you like.. could get in trouble for it but-“

“y/n… not this conversation again.” he put his hand up to his forehead, two fingers on the bridge of his nose. she knew that if she prodded and poked in all the right spots, that her boyfriend would give in. that it just took a little push for him to confess all the dirty details of his new blockbuster.

“come on! i am begging, tom- i have so many questions, can you blame me? i mean… mysterio, like.. what’s that guy all about?! he’s a villian right?”

“well…”

“a hero?”

“definitely not.”

“antihero?”

“not exactly-“

“UGH, tom! you are killing me here.” she whined, putting her hands on his chest as the paused tv shined upon his features. “please give me something… anything.” she trailed her fingers down his chest, tauntingly.

“anything?” he smirked at her.

“yup. like… maybe just exactly what jakes character is? i mean, i remember him telling us at dinner that time, but that was barely enough, i mean.. there’s gotta be more right?”

“go on.”

“and mj, i mean.. is peter finally going to ask her out? baby, so many questions, i just have so many.”

“well… i guess i could tell you one thing..” he tempted her. her lips twitched upwards as she pressed her forehead against his.

“mmhmm?”

“i could tell you that… the ending of the movie?”

“yeah..”

“is fucking fantastic. really, it’s brilliant babes.”

“because?”

“you will just have to see-“ he was cut off by his girlfriend hitting him in the face with a pillow.

“FOR FUCKS SAKE TOM-“

“quiet down! you are going to get tessa all going..”

“sorry…”

a moment of silence passed as tom squealed, “for fucks sake tom!” in his best high pitched, y/n impression possible.

“shut up!”

the two laughed before she clicked play.

“you look so good here, tom. it’s so weird like- i’m sitting next to you-“ she pointed at tom, “but, there you are on tv!”

“you are just realizing this?”

“well, it’s like inception!”

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

“i was told, it was a wedding!”

her chest boiled with anger as she quickly hit pause. “NO BECAUSE, fuck you for that! i remember being all excited, thinking tony and pepper were gonna have a beautiful wedding, only to see hes fucking DEAD.”

tom couldn’t hold in his laughs. “i’m sorry, i didn’t know!”

“well it’s pretty obvious, tom! everyone’s sad and in black, baby, you really are an airhead.”

“hey-“ she cut him off with a kiss to his lips.

the two cuddled up while watching the interview, small laughs leaving their bodies.

“like, zendaya! when did you find out how endgame ended?”

“oh, i remember. me, jacob, and zendaya were all in a facetime call freaking the fuck out, while my boyfriend over here, was chilling like nothing was wrong.”

“you guys were in a facetime call?” he questioned.

“yes! i was heartbroken and i had gotten a call from z who was clearly also upset!”

“well, he’s fine clearly! i mean, i wouldn’t be in far from home if peter was dead, right?”

she looked up at him, his heartbeat still lingering on her skin. “so you can tell me that you are still alive, but you can’t tell me about jake gyllenhaals character?”

“well, it’s a given! obviously peter is alive!”

y/n groaned, her head now resting on his chest.

“dating a superhero is difficult.”

“aww, poor darling, i’m sure it is.” he peppered kisses along her forehead.

“hey! you ate all of the popcorn?!” tom was flabbergasted, his voice heightening a few octaves.

“yep, and what about it?” her tone dripping in sass.

“i wanted some, for one!”

“too bad, maybe if you would spill the deets on far from home, you’d get some of my popcorn. hell, tom, if you confess right now, i’ll make you a whole bowl!”

“no.”

“well it was worth a try!”

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

“i can’t believe it’s over.” the house was completely silent, the only thing audible being tessa’s light snores.

“i’m gonna miss that guy..”

“baby, i’m right here.” he placed his hand at the small of her back, looking at her lovingly.

“i’m talking about mysterio.”

“oh, yeah, great!” she giggled at his response. “he’s just so hot, tom! way hotter than peter-“

“yeah, maybe if you think manipulation is hot!”

her mouth fell agape at his words.

“what?” he said, oblivious to the screw up he just made. she smiled widely at him as he slowly was hit with realization.

“oh, fucking damn it!”

[spectralscathath]

do robyn :3c:

Send me a RWBY character and I’ll tell you:

Robyn Hill

My top three ships for the character

Clover/Robyn (Lucky Shot is my OTP), Qrow/Robyn (Jailbyrds is a spite ship and I’ll admit it), Roman/Robyn (Rob the Rich, if only for the name)

My three least favorite ships for the character

Robyn/any of the other Happy Huntresses, Robyn/Winter (I remember that fucking ‘snowbyrd’ discourse you bastards), Robyn/Qrow (when I remove the spite goggles I don’t like this at all.)

My biggest criticism for the character

you got 10 minutes? 20? Maybe 30? Buckle up fuckos. I got some points to make and you’re gonna listen.

1. Robyn Hill is wasted potential

Robyn’s first appearance was one of my favourite scenes of Vol7. No joke! She was witty, interesting, had an excellent banter with Clover, deliberately stood down from a fight she couldn’t win, though she seemed eager for a challenge, showed some cunning, and looked like she was having fun. 

And then pretty much all of that got ignored. Robyn was set up as a good, smart leader with a cocky swagger, history with Clover, a deceptively cunning streak, and a calm, level-headed attitude. What Robyn was from then on was Angry Shouty Hothead Picks Fights She Can’t Win. She turned into someone impulsive, short-sighted, bullheaded, and focused only on fighting. 70% of Robyn’s lines are about violence and how she likes violence and how she wants to fight with VIOLENCE. The other 30% are, incidentally, ‘i’m so smart and understanding and kind, I’m gonna force people to undergo a lie detector test via peer pressure and ultimatums but it’s actually tragic that no one wants to be my friend because of my semblance. Poor me. 

And that was not what I was expecting. That is not what was foreshadowed. And compared to what the potential could have been, a good allusion rich with depth, a setting that could ahve been interesting if it wasn’t so rushed, how she could have been a player on the board, filled so many possible roles, and instead she was a walking ‘Ironwood bad’ mouthpiece that didn’t actually do anything (and has never done well in a fight, which is RWBY’s staple). What a waste. 

2. Robyn Hill actively makes things worse and gets no comeuppance

Robyn Hill makes situations worse. First of all, she steals supplies from Ironwood (and then doesn’t use them???? what the fuck????), which puts Ironwood under stress, which then leads to Ruby being Miss Unhelpful (but that’s a rant for another day). Robyn then gets classified info from Blake and Yang who, may I remind you, never met her. She could have been a spy! But no, Blake just has a gut feeling (because the script said so).

Robyn then calls James out on this, which later leads to ‘how did Robyn know about the global communications tower’, which means the fighting happens in the office, everyone stresses, Salem provides one of the few redeeming scenes in the show post-Ironwatts fight (it all went downhill from there, even more then it already was). Robyn didn’t explicitly cause this but she sure as fuck had a hand in it. 

Then you have fucking. Clover’s death. Yes, Robyn, agreeing with the serial killer who just tried to murder you and starting a fight in an enclosed space when you’re a ranged fighter vs your melee combatant ex-boyfriend is absolutely the smart thing to do. And then, for a moment, Qrow and Clover nearly sort things out, and fucking Robyn jumps in again. And then, what did she do? She got knocked out immediately. Yikes. Ladies and gentlemen, our ‘Resident Strong Female Character’. But because she did all this, she pretty much guaranteed first: Tyrian escaped. Secondly: Clover died. 

And yeah, Robyn. Just because Qrow didn’t personally shove that blade through Clover’s chest, he still worked with The Serial Killer Who Kills People to help. So yeah, Robyn, that does count as some sort of murder. Or at least, accomplice to murder. You’re also vaguely adjacent to it, so don’t get all ‘but Qrow’s innocent’.

It’s the same problem with team RWBY. They do terrible things, they whine about how hard it is, and all is forgiven cause they’re cute sad girls. There’s no comeuppance. There’s no growth. It’s just the script going ‘this character is right because we said so, so now we’re gonna do our best approximation of if a pretzal and a contortionist had an unholy boneless lovechild and bend the plot so the characters win anyway.’

3. Robyn Hill is a static character

This is gonna sound weird with this lil header but Robyn actually had an arc in vol7! She had an arc that was fairly basic, she went from ‘I don’t trust Ironwood and want to know what’s going on’ to ‘I am actively ruining Ironwood’s goals’ and finally settled on ‘I know what’s going on, Ironwood is worth supporting, and I do trust him.’ It was a simple arc, but it didn’t need to be anything more then that. 

Then in the span of about 1 minute all her actual development was reversed and she ran backwards to her original stance of ‘Ironwood bad’. We literally saw her devleopment walk backwards, and there it stayed. She spent all of vol8 as an empty voicebox that occasionally pipped out ‘Qrow’s my friend’ and was devoid of any personality. She didn’t have much beforehand that wasn’t fairly generic, so it’s almost impressive.

The problem is that static characters take a lot of work to avoid being boring characters. A lot of rwby just has these problems in general, character development is either ignored, skipped over, or given to the wrong characters, but in Robyn’s case it’s actively annoying because she had some development, and then she ignored all of that to go back to being ‘ironwood bad’ with a side of ‘Qrow good’ because we needed to be reminded of that after he got an innocent man killed. 

4. Robyn Hill is an unnecessary character

Why are you here. What do you do. Robyn was stated to be a character meant to act in opposition to Ironwood, to put him under stress like every other fucking character in this series. This was ‘confirmed’ by Eddy Rivas, which means zero because at some point the mentally deranged Weazel Ball that masquerades as the crwby writing team’s collective braincell will rapidly and suddenly change direction, causing massive retcons and plotholes in their moth-eaten threadbare dishtowel they dare to call ‘lore’, and we will have a different excuse for this waste of a good VA. 

Here’s the thing tho: Robyn as ‘opposition for Ironwood’ isn’t fucking special. The fucking air in the Atlas Academy lobby opposes Ironwood. Robyn seems to be there... because Mantle needed a voice? Okay, well, why the fuck did Mantle need to exist? Because... the election plotline needed to exist so Jacque could do something mean? God, everything about Mantle and Robyn and the election plotline is just annoying. It drags and it adds nothing to the plotline and it all should have been culled so instead we could focus on things that are actually important (like maybe: the myth arc? character development? the fucking Schnees in Atlas???) rather then rwby’s fuckboi incel attempt at ‘classism = bad?’. If I, as a professional paid editor who works with actual manuscripts, was given the scripts for rwby vol7, I would have gotten the big red highlighter and done a shitload of crossing out. Then I would have told the writing team “come back with your second draft”, but alas, we got the Atlas Arc.

My favorite thing about the character

I love her design aside from that ugly-ass scarf. Also, her VA, Cristina Vee, is the only redeeming quality of this tire-fire of a character. Godbless and praise. 

A headcanon I have about them

She deals with chronic ‘ponytail keeps falling out’ syndrome, just constantly. So many hairbands get used up when she does anything. 

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

Everything. Every fucking thing. Especially that stupid fucking lie-detecting semblance.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

It’s incredibly underutilised. It’s Robin Hood in-name-only. It’s like, the most basic ‘oh the name is Robin and they steal’ and there’s not even any of the most obvious tells. Where’s the bright green? Where’s the hood? Where’s the fucking longbow? Where’s the ‘giving to the poor’ that comes after ‘stealing the rich’? She didn’t actually use any of those things she stole to fix Mantle, she just stole it. 

Literally, all the classic elements of Robin Hood are missing, all that’s there is a name and... that’s it. The allusion isn’t there, and even if it was, it’s done in a boring fashion. 

Personally, I would add more Robin Hood elements, and I would change one key thing. I would change her allegiance. Instead of ‘Robin Hood on the side of good’, I would take the team WTCH  approach, a ‘good allusion turned evil’, and I’d have Robyn working with Salem, or, at least, as an antagonist. Because that could be actually interesting then the boring and unnecessary storyline we had. 

[stephkaylor]

FAVES & FAILS: #1 (Teen Wolf)

I’ve decided to do this questionnaire when a show/book series/movies where I answer these questions with fun gifs too (its Tumblr, what did you expect?), if you want more info, the original idea post with links to each of my completed lists is here ⚡️. A bunch of my faves have already ended so getting all of these out will take a minute, but I’m aiming to post a new one twice per week. 🤞🏻Anyway, enjoy!! OH!! ALSO, I’ll be discussing plot elements in this list so...SPOILER ALERT!!

TV Show FAVES and FAILS: TEEN WOLF

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER: STILES STILINSKI

HANDS DOWN, no question about it! He was the soul of the show, and funny, and so incredibly human on a show full of the inhuman, and that was what made him so integral.  Anyway, I could go on forever about how much I love Stiles, but here’s a gif:

LEAST FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER: GERARD ARGENT

There isn’t really a male that makes me want to punch something, so good for the writers, I guess?

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER: LYDIA MARTIN

I really want to say Allison but it HAS to be Lydia, hands down! Her character development from a girl pretending to be vapid and shallow and who hid her genius so she could “fit in”, to a strong, powerful, confident woman secure in who she really is and the power inside of her (figuratively AND literally, lol), this girl is the real MVP.

LEAST FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER: MONROE

This was hard because there are several female characters that made me want to throw my laptop out of the window.  The short list is Kate Argent, Allison’s mom... I could go on... but Monroe’s systematic attempt to wipe all supernaturals out of Beacon Hills and then maybe the rest of the world gave me fucking high blood pressure and a rage issue. I don't care how “scared” you are, killing a kid who hasn't done anything wrong just because they are different than you is some fucked up, borderline genocidal bullshit. And she survived the finale!!? Like I had to deal with her self-righteous smirky attitude and you didn't even have the decency to punch her in the face and let me watch?!? Rude.

THE CHARACTER THAT DESERVED BETTER: Aiden (and kind of Ethan)

I badly want to say Allison again here because I love and miss her tons. But she died protecting her family and friends and I believe that she is happy wherever she went afterward.  Watching Aiden die in his twin brother’s arms I don’t know who I felt the worst for.  The boy dying, or his brother who now has to live without him... I’m gonna go cry now, brb.

THE DEADWEIGHT CHARACTER WE SHOULD’VE DUMPED IN 2009: Kate Argent

Luckily she was not a regularly appearing character, but when she showed up it was always “for revenge” and I'm like...can we just...not this season? I was having a lovely time and then you showed up with your petty anger for whatever fucking shit that happened in, like season one.  Like, honey... if it’s been so long since you’ve been relevant that I have to google what you’re upset about because I have honestly forgotten...maybe it’s time to let that shit go.  Kindly fuck off now, please...

OVERHYPED CHARACTER: Derek Hale

Like, don’t get me wrong, he’s great and I loved when he was on the show, but I feel like some people think he carried the show and it wouldn't survive without him.  Well, surprise! because he went away after season 4 and I still think some of their best shit came in season 5 and the beginning of season 6.  

UNDERHYPED CHARACTER: Deaton

Um, he was basically Scott’s druid emissary and he got no recognition for it.  He saved all of the main pack members’ lives at least once.  Also he didn't make Stiles pay for the windows, so he’s apparently not an asshole. 

OVERHYPED SHIP: Scott and Malia

I feel like they had to adjust the final season A TON because of Dylan’s injury and Kira not coming back and I think the writers panicked when they didn't know who to put Scott with (because our leading man could never not have a girlfriend, *gasp* THE HORROR!) because Lydia needed to be with Stiles and I think they picked Malia because she was basically the only one left...I was never into it.  In fact, when my friend texted me after we watched the episode where they get together, my response back to her was literally “meh 🤷🏻‍♀️��.

UNDERHYPED SHIP: Allison and Isaac

It would’ve been so nice to see where that relationship went.  Don’t get me wrong, had she lived, I would’ve wanted Allison to end up with Scott.  But I loved that the show was willing to say that it is okay to fall in love more than once in your life.  Sometimes the shows aimed at a younger audience have a tendency to act like your first love has to be the one you’re with until you die and that’s just not realistic. It was nice that the writers didn't box these characters into that mold because it gave them more depth as characters. 

FAVORITE SHIP: Stiles and Lydia

I don’t know how to explain how much I love this pairing.  Like, from the beginning he saw her for how amazing she was and he supported her as she came into her powers and then she was always there making sure that someone was taking care of him when he was taking care of, literally, everyone else, and then when he disappeared SHE KNEW something was wrong nearly instantly, and ‘remeMBER I LOVE YOU’ I need to stop before this run-on sentence goes on forever.  ALSO they’re canon official, which never fucking happens for my ships so I’m fucking excited, sue me.

FAVORITE VILLAIN: Deucalion

His backstory was well-developed and deep, he was clear with his goals, he actually executed said goals in a logical and timely manner, he was a fucking ALPHA OF ALPHAS, nuf said. 

MOST HEARTBREAKING MOMENT: Allison’s Death

Hands down, the most heartbreaking moment on the show, and I will fight anyone who comes at me with a different opinion. Because like--she was smiling when she was stabbed because she had figured out a way to help her friends and then she died in Scott’s arms and told him she loved him even though they weren’t together she still loved him and he still loved her, and I truly believe that she had zero regrets when she died, and how bittersweet is that???!  But Scott couldn't take her pain because it didn’t hurt anymore, and Lydia had to feel her best friend die and she screamed Allison’s name and if you are not hurting right now are you a monster???!?!

FAVORITE STORYLINE: Eichen House Escape/Dread Doctors in Season 5

It was hard to pick between the Dark Druid storyline in season 3A, but the Eichen rescue/Lydia learning how to be a BAMF Banshee from Meredith while she was catatonic (ALSO ‘Stiles saved me’ I AM DEAD!!!), and the whole la bête du gévaudan thing was great, and reuniting the pack after Theo had royally fucked it up earlier that season, it was all just superb! *chef’s kiss*

STORYLINE WE COULD’VE DONE WITHOUT: Like, the whole second half of the last season, TBH

It was a petty, counterintuitive, and just garbage. The monster was dumb, Monroe is a royal twat (as I stated above), and it didn't have a conclusion.  Like, the fuck? This isn't Game of Fucking Thrones you guys do not need to leave every season finale with so many loose ends it make people want to throw their laptops off of a cliff into a vat of hydrochloric acid.  And it was the LAST SEASON so there’s no hope of fixing this bullshit storyline. ugh, kill me now. 

BIGGEST PLOTHOLE: Scott’s pretty selective “True Alpha” powers

They, like, kind of tried to pass it off as it taking a ton of energy so he can’t always do it all the time.  But he got through a mountain ash barrier to save Deaton and activated his True Alpha but then couldn't get into Eichen to get Lydia out because of the mountain ash...? oh and also where the fuck did Cora and Isaac go? (I, sincerely, hope he’s not still just chinning in fucking France wondering were Argent fucked off to)

OVERALL MARKS OUT OF TEN (10 being that watching this show has probably increased your life’s worth by at least five percent; 1 being the only thing this show has given me is a stomach ulcer and trust issues): 

8.75 out of 10.  This show was a blessing and I would definitely recommend it to other people. (mostly because I love to get people hooked on my favorite shows and then they're stuck and we can be tortured together). 

THE END! Thanks for reading my overly-long and overly-obsessive list.  Do come again soon.  I’ll probably have another of these up next week.  🤍🤍🤍

[starfighter10]

tlou2 opinion

So I really had to share my opinion(rant) on the last of us part 2 and boy I have a lot to say. I am gonna dwell deep into this one, so bear with me if you can and want to

 But before that I have to share the feelings I hold for tlou1.Back when I finished tlou1, I knew I experienced something truly magical. I was pleasantly surprised by the beautifully crafted story, the execution of the characters, the music, the gameplay , and the effort that went into shaping the journey of the game,the character arcs and bonds. You could see and experience the uniqueness and passion that went into the first project. This game immediately became a favourite of mine.

When tlou2 was announced, my expectations were skyhigh,was elated to continue Joel and Ellie's journey and how it unfolds. The bar set by the first one was exceptionally high and probably impossible to achieve, but I had trust and faith in naughty dog, thought they couldn't go wrong with this one. After experiencing tlou2 , I am speechless.... not in a good way. I have no words to express my disappointment,frustration and anger I feel right now. I don't even know where to begin.... the absolute mess of a plot, the original characters being blatantly ignored, retconned and disrespected in favour of new bland characters, the plotholes in the story, the false advertising and marketing, naughty dog's hubris, making a complete mockery of your fans who are paying money to play something but getting baited for something else. I am utterly heartbroken and angry.

The plot - the driving force of the game is over ambitious, lazy,sloppy and nihilistic. It felt forced. Naughty dog bit off more then they could chew with this one. Tlou2 could have gone several ways in terms of plot with the existing characters, yet we get the cliche revenge plotline with the character abandoning the quest altogether to realise revenge isn't the answer. This trope has been done several times before, with more finesse and better execution. The writers aim for the " Ellie breaks the cycle of the revenge" but it really fails to achieve this as she blatanly annihilates several characters,npcs along the way in quest of her revenge. The damage has been done practically speaking. According to naughty dog's logic , I should expect Nora's sister or a random npc's friend/relatives in tlou3 hunting down Ellie in their revenge quest. Also Abby's quest literally does nothing for me. This character was so poorly written, executed and shoved down our throats, I didn't have any sort of attachment or empathy for her. I simply don't care about this character.

The circumstances that lead to Joel's death was out of character as well. Since the trailer drop in 2016, I was prepared for his inevitable death. Thought he would probably go out like the badass he is, maybe sacrificing himself for Ellie/tommy. The Joel I know from tlou1, a hardened survivor who has fought tooth and nail to survive the past 20 years would NEVER end up in a situation like that. Joel was intensely alert, critical,clever and intuitive. The argument here may be that he has softened in Jackson, but I feel at this point this should be 2nd nature to him. Something that is automatic. Yet the writer's now want you to believe he is a dumbass who would trust a group of strangers, make small talk and introductions and end up in a situation like that. One of the bigger issues was the constant reinforcing that Joel wiped down the fireflies in cold blood and doomed humanity for death by robbing them of their cure for survival,Ellie believing the cure would have been a guaranteed sure shot success ..... WHY? This retcons the first one completely. The beauty of the tlou1 was it's moral ambiguity and uncertainty. We were constantly hinted that fireflies is a mess of a group whose agendas weren't clearly known, whose actions caused the sacrifice of many people for the sake of a slight possibility of a cure.They were power hungry and were cruel enough to send a 14 year old girl to her death with no remorse,consent or any proper investigation or medical research. Joel initially negotiates to find someone else, gets shut down immediately, gets his means of survival snatched and was practically marched to his death. He had no option but to wipe clean these people who planned on killing someone dear to him, for something that is uncertain or in vain. And yes this was a selfish decision on Joel's part, and that was the beauty of it. The moral ambiguity. He was right or wrong or both - open to your interpretation. BUT NOW NAUGHTY DOG WANTS TO TO ERASE ALL THAT DEVELOPMENT. The active reinforcement that Joel was a cold, ruthless murderer who killed fireflies and deprived humanity of its cure? Trying to erase the fact that he was surviving and trying to keep his dear ones safe in this cold, brutal and unforgiving postapocalyptic world. So that we sympathize with Abby and enjoy golfing the tf outa Joel?. Ellie seems like a different character in this one, but again this character is immediately pushed to a whirlwind of traumatic events right from the start of the game. I missed her spark of joy,humour and enthusiasm. The treatment of the main chatacter in her own game is utterly cruel and disappointing, and seemed unfair to me. By the end, Ellie is broken beyond repair. Though she thematically chooses to be the better person and gives up on her vengeance and hate, she still manages to be on the losing side as she ends up losing her father figure which was her closest bond, loses Dina and the kid , she doesn't have her community, her people, her fucking fingers as well. Why? So Ellie could suffer a little more and be unable to do most important thing that bonded her to Joel. Not to mention she loses her switchblade too, her mother's final memory. Surprised that ND spared her mother's letter . Feel her pain and despair. Why does Ellie get such a shitty,depressing, worthless, futile and a hopeless conclusion while Abby not only gets her revenge successfully, forms a close bond in Lev and gets to escape possibly to a fresh start. Ellie? Nah she gets to suffer alone. Her BIGGEST FEAR has become a reality by the end. The least they could do is let Ellie have some solace and calm, surrounded by her loved ones on that farm,her trying to recover from her trauma slowly but surely, it's what joel would have wished for. But no, she is left all alone, absolutely traumatized, all by herself with nothing to look forward to. Oh and tommy is whole new character in every scene. So keep your eyes peeled for various versions of tommy throughout. The character inconsistencies are ridiculous.

The gameplay, beautiful sceneries, and new characters like dina and jesse are few of the positives of game - leaning more towards Jesse. Dina felt perfect for Ellie and Jesse did manage to lighten up few of the moments. The space shuttle cutscene, the museum flashback sequence, ellie and joel's flashbacks were the only parts that remotely captures the magic and beauty of tlou1. I got emotional watching them. The space shuttle sequence hits you with the feels. Joel slaying a bloater with a machete was cinematic art. (Hot too)

Abby... the forced deuteragonist, is an utter failure of character execution. Her character was forced onto us, felt hasty and lacked real build up. She starts off on the wrong foot by killing one of the most popular characters. If ND really wanted this character to work, the only possible way would have been to play her point of view and backstory prior to her mercilessly killing and torturing a guy who just saved her life. What was ND thinking? That a few hours of her pov,forced out of the blue background story, her getting to play with dogs while ellie has no option but to attack the dogs, the abby-lev bond which is pretty much discount or the walmart version ellie and joel would be enough to side with her over ellie and joel???? The part where they force you to play as abby against ellie? It made me sick. I felt cheated and disgusted.

The false advertising to make us believe joel is alive and good? That this is an ellie and joel centric game?To tug at your heartstrings like this. A complete mockery of the fans who waited 7 years to see their favorite characters get horribly treated,retconned, disrespected and thrown under the bus in favour of new unlikable characters. Butchering the heart and soul of the last of us - Joel and Ellie's bond. The fact that these two don't even get a heart to heart before his death, that Joel dies uncertain of ellie's future, maybe thought he could not save Ellie in those final painful moments, that she had never forgiven him, Ellie never getting her closure with Joel, or really getting to tell him how much he meant to her.... all these thoughts legit made me shed tears. Broke my heart. This is how much ND wanted to honour and respect ellie and joel.

The game's conclusion is hollow, futile, worthless and depressing. And in my opinion, this is non canon. This is the only way I can cope with this unsastifying conclusion. It is immaturity I guess... but I will feel better about it.

Though I utterly despise tlou2, tlou1 will continue to remain one of my favorite pieces of work in fiction. JOEL FUCKING MILLER WILL ALWAYS BE THE BADDEST BITCH AND NOTHING WILL CHANGE THE LOVE I HAVE FOR HIM.

If someone actually read it all the way, thank you for your time and effort. Really needed to rant and let these negative emotions out.

[tsarisfanfiction]

I had a dream last night that we had a conversation about writing that started with the question "how do you write as much content as you do so quickly while maintaining a consistent level of quality?" so, uh, here's the question :D

Huh, that’s definitely an interesting question (also you had a dream about chatting with me???? I’m flattered!)

Not entirely sure how to answer this so I’ll just let my brain ramble and see what happens (which is one of my writing methods in general!)

First off, ‘quality’ is subjective.  Personally I don’t think my stuff is a consistent quality - there are definitely fics I side-eye in hindsight going ‘did I really think posting that was a good idea’, as well as the fics I keep rereading because I love how I wrote it - but I’m also aware that as the creator I’m my own worst critic, so there’s that.  It’s definitely interesting to see that the stuff I’m proudest of tends to get the smallest reception, while the stuff I’m more eh? about often gets more of a reception than I expected.

As for how I write so much...  Well, I think I actually write even more than some people realise.

This is my main WIP folder.  I have more elsewhere but I’m not gonna go through all my folders and stuff screenshotting all of it.  I have even more stuff scattered in notebooks in my bedroom.  The vast majority of these, I’ve not posted anywhere.  Some of them I am actively working on.  Some of them are old scraps of ideas I’ll never touch again or I’ve forgotten where they were supposed to be going.  Some of them are vent-y things or similar so I have no plans to post them even if I finish them.  None of them are finished.

My brain is pretty much constantly active.  I’m almost always toying with ideas - there are many I haven’t even started trying to write so they’re not represented in that screenshot either.  If I’m not reading or drawing, I’m probably writing.  I’ve always been this way - I wrote my first book when I was six, and aside from being clearly written by a six year old, I still think the plot of that is decent and do have vague plans to one day rewrite it properly.  I’ve been working on another original work for the past fifteen years, when I’m not playing in the sandboxes provided by already-published works.

My brain is also fast.  I’m a speed reader, and you only have to glance at my handwriting to know that my brain is normally several sentences ahead of my hands at any one time - that translates to typing, too.  Missing words from sentences is one of the things I have to watch out for when I go through and edit.  If my muse is particularly active (and doesn’t have to keep pausing for research), I’ve been known to bash out 4k words in 2 hours.

When it comes to playing with characters, storylines, what-ifs, my brain never stops.  It’s reached the point where if all my muses are silent, I’m lost.  Life seems empty, I can’t gather motivation for anything...  Not a fun place, luckily it doesn’t happen very much.

This is where I hold my hands up with a confession: I’m unemployed.  I’m not a student, either (although I’m going back to uni in September because I need to do something with my life and if I can’t get a job, might as well go back to school).  I still live with my parents so I don’t even have to cook, clean, do laundry, etc.  I get temp jobs that might last anywhere from two days to six months, but I have a lot of free time that I am fully aware most people do not have.

So, how do I write so quickly?  A brain that never stops thinking and way too much free time.

How is the quality consistent?  I only post stuff that, at the moment of posting, I’m happy with.  I won’t say that the posted stuff is only the tip of the iceberg, because I’m on 97 posted works according to AO3 so it’s probably closer to half of everything I’ve written, but if I’m not happy, it doesn’t get posted.

Other than that, it’s just basic things.  I always proof-read before I post.  Doesn’t mean I catch everything, but it usually catches most of the problems.  I don’t have a beta - I’ve never used one - but I do have friends that sometimes get previews and occasionally point out a glaring issue, or that patiently sit and let me bounce ideas off of them and input their own comments to iron out things like plotholes and stuff.  I do my research on things if I’m not sure about them.

And I enjoy what I do.  Writing is a hobby, for me.  It’s not a chore, it’s not something I have to do to get money or whatever.  I’m a scientist, my degrees are all science-based and almost completely unrelated to anything fictional that I write.  That makes this an escape - and in the past few months, certainly (which coincides with my explosion of TAG works), escaping from the disaster that is life has been incredibly appealing.

I have no idea if that answers your question, but hopefully it’s at least given some insight into the insanity that is my mind!

-----

As I’ve posted a screenshot of one of my wip folders, I feel like this is a good time to remind people that I’m always willing to chat about anything I’m writing if you have questions!  If any of those doc names particularly interest you, ask away!  Ask what it’s about, ask for a snippet... whatever you want to know!  If you’re lucky, it might even wake my muse up for that particular one.

[phytine]

TRoS - With Spoilers

It's going to be a long ride and given that English is not my native language, it's probably going to be a bit confused with a lot of mistakes.

Anyway, to explain a bit where I come, I'm going to say that I have been a reylo since 2015. I have been in the Reylo fandom from 2015 to some months after TLJ. I left because of dramas, fandom police and just a general different point of view with what I was waiting for this ship. My favourite character was Kylo (I didn't care about Rey) and I cared little for anything else. Still I retreated myself from the Star Wars fandom emotionally at least and wasn't waiting much for TRoS.

And yet...

Was this film a shitshow? Yes it was. For me, it wasn't bad because my fav died, it wasn't even bad because of the message you can take from it. It was just not well done. It was just bad from a qualitative point of view, imo. Nothing more, nothing less.

At first, I didn't want to believe the leaks because it was so much of a compilation of bad decisions and plot points that it felt to much. I mean, who would think that something as big as DLF could crash into a wall? Maybe I should have because it was totally what happened.

Even from the beginning, I knew something was off. When the scrolling text appeared, I had this impression that I have missed an episode. We are welcomed with something along the lines of "Palpy came back" and... what is the link with TLJ? Even with TFA? I mean, Palpy comes from nowhere. What happened in the gap between TLJ and TRoS? Who knows? Who cares? Palpy is back and that's all that matter. I could accept that for the gap between TFA and the OT. Not between two films.

Because the first problem with this thing is how TRoS retcon almost entirely TLJ. You can't take what you want from a previous film, especially the one just before. The ST is a whole thing, not three stand alone. And yet, it is what we have. JJ shades Rian at some moments in the movie and it is such a bad move because... you are in charge of the same franchise, dude. You are also responsable from TLJ and shitting on it like that is a problem because of the continuity.

Leia

Anyway, I don't know what was the worst but maybe I will begin with Leia. Ah Leia... all characters were done dirty but this one was pretty spectacular. So Leia knows that Rey was a palpatine but because - said Luke - that she saw bravery and all in Rey's heart, she knew it was okay. Guess that his toddler of a son is not given the same courtesy, I guess. After all, Palpatine was so much better than Vader.

And now Leia is a jedi and has a lightsaber. Fantastic. I have nothing against a Leia force sensitive but... if she is a Jedi... why was Luke so necessary? Why sending Ben away? Just why? Wasn't Han a bit wary of her because of it too? Jedi!Leia is a cool idea on the paper but in application? In this situation? It leaves so many questions unanswered and creates so many plotholes.

And her death? It's not that I don't care but I don't? It was just kind of random. And don't get me wrong: I'm sure some people cried but the question is: did you cry because it was Leia or because it was well done? I am pretty sure it is the first option. Anyway, calling out for your son a last time that beautiful huh? Maybe you should have done that more actively since 10 years, right?

Luke

I did like the evolution of the character in TLJ. At least in TLJ 2 third's parts because the fanboy's orgy on Crait wasn't my cup of tea but here? He is so bland. He says that he hide on Ach-To because of fear and that's very telling: the guilt has disappeared, what he has done to Kylo has disappeared and never the Jedi order is questionned. They are the good guys and the questions Luke had raised in TLJ are forever forgotten. He doesn't even speak to Kylo again. He is just here for Rey.

Rey

Big part, right? I dislike Rey. I liked her in TFA, I disliked her very much in TLJ. In TRoS? I disliked her as well but it's more of a writing problem here than just her personnality in general.

First of all, the elephant in the room: Rey Palpatine. How many times did I read about DLF saying that Rey was powerful on her own, that she didn't need a justification for her power nor a bloodline to prove it. TRoS has done a beautiful middle finger to that. Like it texto says that she is that powerful because she is Palpy's grand-daughter. Thanks the retcon of TLJ. It's even more a retcon that now her parents are heroic and good people because they sold her for her own good to save her from Palpy. Character's development, who? Backtrack yes, instead.

And I don't speak about her taking the Skywalker's name as if it was all good heritage. She probably doesn't know that it comes with murdering children and famillies, casting away your child, etc. right? The skywalker's heritage is flawless right because it is just the perfect jedi Luke and Leia. And I can't even begin how fucking stupid it is to take someone else randomly like that. As if she was even very close to Luke (the last one to explicitely wearing the name, you know - at this point, Organa or Solo would have made more sense). It is ridiculous and so forced.

In the end, Rey regressed to the beginning. She has no other family than a fantasmed one. Fucking fantastic.

And you know, concerning Reylo... I am the only who feels like Rey doesn't care about his death. Like he died and she doesn't seem that devasted? Even when she comes back to the resistance, she doesn't mention anything and go like that. I have always think that she has built more of a fantasy of him under Ben's name than anything, anyway. (It's how I interpreted it when she said that she would have taken Ben's hand. As if Kylo and Ben weren't the same person. I will forever saty a partisan of this the same way that for my Anakin = Darth Vader. It's too easy to split them.)

Even Rey's struggle with the darkside I don't believe it. You know what? Because I don't understand why she is so afraid of herself when... there is no real consequences to her actions. Even with Chewie's "death", even if she claimed it was her, it has so real influence and they prefer to blame Kylo. Even when she decides to seclude herself on Jakku it feels so... bland, empty. I have never believed in her struggle and will probably never.

Kylo

I don't even know what to say about it because I liked to see him fight but... it's as if he had lost a lot of his complexity from TLJ and he shifts from "bad" to "good" in a way that made me rolled my eyes. I know people will be happy about his redemption but again it felt empty to me because what he had suffered is never taken into account. He never gets to see/hear Leia, Luke or Anakin. That's? It's for Rey. When he is the last skywalker alive ffs.

Even at the end he sacrifies himself for Rey and? I mean, I can't help but see that as a way to kill him easily. You know why? Because he didn't save Rey in a redemption move. He was already redeemed BEFORE. The part where Rey died/he died for her could have been cut it would have changed nothing. I don't know how to explain it clearly but : Rey's death is easy and could have been easily dodged. Her channeling all the jedi's force did not forced her to die. It felt very much that she did to make Kylo die saving her and... I disliked that? Especially when Kylo's death feelq like a footnote because nobody ever acknowledges it after and it the party the shot after?

Again people will cry watching this but same question that for Leia : do you cry because of the character or because it is well done?

Finn

For a second, I thought that he would finally have an interesting development because of Jannah, an other rebellious stormtrooper. Too bad that they put their rebellion on the Force. Since when is the Force a moral compass? Does that mean that the Dark Side is also a moral compass? I mean, they use the Force too.

And even that doesn't developp Finn's character who is super flat. None of the thematic that rises his former stormtrooper's status are treated. Great.

And don't count on a global stormtrooper's rebellion. Guess that they weren't force sensitive enough, right? Either you have the 'instict" or you don't have it. Inherent goodness is so boring. How I miss you Rian.

I won't even speak about Poe because I don't care about him and his character's development is missing and Palpy wasn't even a good evil overlord (what he was saying made no sense), so...

To be honest, my sole and unique love in this movie was Pryde. I stan him very much for how he handled Hux's treason and all. You are doing great sweety.

But... hum... it's as if I was forgetting someone.... AH YES ROSE. YOU FUCKING RETCONNED A WHOLE CHARACTER TROS. She is a tertiary character in this (Hux has more influence on the plot than her ffs) and her relationship with Finn disappeared. Like that. No explication. Y'a p'us. Que dalle. I wasn't fan of her but she deserved so much better.

And right now, I just speak about the characters. I don't speak about the plot in itself like the Sith sect (since when the Sith were so bff that they allied behind Palpy? Who are all these sith adepts? Was it a Korriban 2.0.? Why Rey won in front of Palpy? I mean, since when are the Jedi automatically more powerful than the Sith?) Or the destroyers-death stars (yes an other planet exploses and we don't care the slightest) or the fact that Zori becomes bff with the Re (especially Rey) in 3 seconds or the fake death of Chewie and C3PO. Oh no it would take too much time to unpack today...

Now, all I have to say is: it shouldn't be the Skywalker Saga but the Palpy Saga. Palpy managed to fuck up this family generation by generation and at the end, the one who gets the Skywalker's name is his grand-daughter. Well played, it was probably your best move and best middle finger to the Skywalker's line.

The Rise of Skywalker? More like The Fall of Skywalker.

[lil-area-sfw]

So! Finale! You know we're all going to pester you until you tell us all you thought about it, right?

Yes Iknow :PSo well, I think I can talk about it for a while ^ ^

…

Okay,let’s be honest. Not talk about it, rant about it for a while >:)

Sorant time? Rant time!

Firstof all, I have to say that I’m loving creators are giving series theirrespective endings. I remember before, many series got cancelled beforereceiving a proper one. Luckily today is the season of finishing stuff ^ ^ Iloved that Nick greenlit Arnold’s Jungle Movie. I waited for so long for that.I thought it was impossible to have it but yay!

Also, we’re having more Invader Ziiiim, yas! I hope they do the promised seriesfinale cause it looks very interesting.

Backto the original topic, well, as all you know I have SVTFOE series and Starco ina place close to my heart. It was an overall enjoyable series. That said, Ineed to point that as much as I enjoyed watching the ending and that they gaveus Starco at the end, I feel some happenings a bit messy, can I say?

Surelymany people will disagree with me but I think the whole “Destroy themagic" arc (or mini arc, since it was brought up like that in thesecond to last episode) wasn’t necessary. I mean, creators could want to give us a messageand all but for a show with the premise of a magic princess fromanother dimension, for me it doesn’t fit much. That idea was the one thatcharmed all of us, why to take it away?

Why…?

Infact, I dunno if I’m the one with the unpopular opinion but I loved, LOVED theEarth episodes. That was the setting that brought us into the show and itworked so well with Star being the foreign and unaware of the new world magicalprincess. It was easy to enjoy her crazy shenanigans while Marco tried to teachher about his home. And it was funny because well, we all know a fountain it’snot a monster, so it was enjoyable how Star kept mistaken familiar stuff X)By switching to Mewni, well, we ended being the foreigners and, it wasn’t thatcharming to me cause I don’t know anything about dragon cycles and it’s logicaleverything is strange. So Star leading Marco through her world wasn’t as funny asthe opposite. I really thought Mewni eps will not last the two last seasons, butwell.

So inthe topic of the episode, I felt like they went too far with Moon. She’s nowthe one who caused the destruction of Magic… ouch.

Andfor the magic itself… It was really a good idea to wipe out all the magic andmagic beings of all the multiverse to… save a single kingdom?Don’t take me wrong, I wanted Mewni to be safe but why to put the characters tomake that kind of decision? Am I missing something? because that doesn’t looked like a multidimensional threat. For me that was like wiping out all theweirdness of Gravity Falls.

Andthen, when you finish the show and start figuring out things, you notice that,besides the obvious ones, they wiped out characters like Spider with a top hatthat actually had complete episodes in the series… and they didn’t even saygood bye or anything. 

My poor boy :(

That’s messy. Am I supposed to laugh at the MHC dead on atable? I mean, I don’t know, I would prefer a different resolution. Good thingabout it? It made Toffee interesting again, cause… he won.

Surprise indeed u.u…

Characterswe used to like as Kelly, ended severed from their friends’ dimensions withoutknowing what happened at all. Sounds a bit selfish…

Anyway you know?Personal theory that would sound like denial but after all that, I think magicis not gone completely. Maybe they referred to “magic you can control”, becauseraw magic still exist it seems. How can Ponyhead fly and sparkle? Please don’tcome with “Not magic”, cause dude… How can monsters do their things like Globgoraugmenting his size?

Yes, maybe it’s“just a plothole” but the thing is there, isn’t it? ^ ^

Continuing, Idon’t think I like completely the Earth + Mewni fusion but it’s interestingenough. Wonder how both worlds will manage.

That’s something…

Nice things aboutthe ep? Well, first one is we got Star and Marco together. I was hoping we willnot get a “And they lived separated for the sake of one kingdom” ending, and wedidn’t get that! ^ ^

Yeah, I will rantagain about it not happening way before but just in the two last episodes… butheck, I’m looking at the bright side here :3

Pretty much,every bit I liked was Starco related, like them both running at each other. Idunno if I’m more trash than I thought or the rest of the stuff wasn’t sointeresting.

Oh, oh! The lastJanna moment was endearing. I love when they give presumably one note characters theirdevelopment moments. It was nice to see her worried episodes before about notbeing able to help and how she uses her snarky attitude to avoid herself fromunwanted situations. Also it was nice to see her opening to Marco and telling himhe’s her friend. I would be pissed if she ended being just the “LOL Janna iswacky, she always pwned Marco” and that was all. It was nice. I would like tosee her after that tho. Last moment we saw her was when faking her dead.

Talking aboutthat, I feel like the ending lacked closing for many characters/stuff. It letmany stuff unanswered. It can be a nice thing. Maybe we will have some comicafter this just like GF did? I just hope, if they do, we can have a completething and not a cancelled one like past comics. I was left waiting for therest!

Okay, I don’tthink this is the kind of rant you were waiting for, since it’s a bit harsh onthe ending, but I love the series and I wanted something different and a bitless rushed.

Lately, I’vefeeling many endings don’t completely fulfill my expectations and I’ve beenthinking if it’s because we fans build upso much said expectations and I will never like an ending anymore but aftera while, I think it’s not the case. I sure think that as much as I enjoyed theeps while watching, they can be much better. Maybe writers are training inmaking endings since before we didn’t even have them :P

Again, it’s nice to have another ending. We will miss the series and I think I need to say congrats to the people who completely liked the ending. You got all what you were waiting for ^ ^

Well, I thinkthat’s all, at least for now. I know this topic has so much to talk about butlet’s stop here since I’ve written so much. We have Starco anyway :D

Canon Starco :D No kiss…? Oh well ^ ^

[minaminokyoko]

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil--A Spoilertastic Review

Disney: *shuffling through records* Hey, Hollywood.

Hollywood: *drunkenly burps, throws empty beer can behind the couch* Yup?

Disney: What’s that really well written, well acted, beautifully shot, feminist movie we made with Angelina Jolie that one time?

Hollywood: Oh, the broad with the wings and the horns? Maleficent.

Disney: Yeah, yeah, her. Do something else with her.

Hollywood: Wait, you don’t want to give it to her? *points to Talent, who is sitting at the table typing* Or her? *points to Effort, who is in the kitchen baking souffle* I mean, they’re the ones who made the first one.

Disney: Nah, you got this. Go for it.

Hollywood: Alright. *farts and a script falls out of his ass* Here you go.

Disney: Thanks, fam.

*END SCENE*

In case you can’t tell, I’m extremely disappointed in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Overall Grade: C-

As always, spoilers below.

Pros:

-Probably the only reason a few straggling fans are showing up to Maleficent II is finding out that the legendary Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as the evil queen. She is just as smug and cold and awful as she seemed in the trailer, so kudos. They don’t share enough screen time, but Mal vs. Ingrith at that dinner table was some of the shadiest, pettiest shit I’ve ever seen. Ingrith is That Bitch. You really wanted her to have a harsher fate considering the monstrous shit that she does in this movie.

-Though they are seriously few and far between, I did like the tiny domestic moments we got from Diaval and Maleficent. I’m sad to say that the hype was once again wrong. They were teasing that perhaps Diaval and Mal would get a little more of a romantic spin, but either it was cut for time or they changed their minds. Diaval and Mal are apart the entire movie. It’s the worst. However, the bits we do get of them in the beginning, like him giving her the bad news and her trying out her smile in front of him and her telling him he missed her was nothing short of adorable. I especially loved it when they were served bird and Mal gives him that mean little side-eye. It feels very comfortable and domestic, and less like they’re mistress and servant and a little bit more like the mother and father pair that they actually are. I’m just sad there is so few scenes of them together.

-Expanding Mal’s backstory has very mixed results, but the bits we do see and understand aren’t half bad. The phoenix thing is way under-explained, but it is a neat concept that the dark fae came from a single source. It was also a believable story that they were hunted to near extinction, especially during this era of time when white people were at their most fucking ridiculous killing every new people they found on every fucking continent they found them on. It made sense they hid from them and wanted revenge, since we pretty much see that the humans for the most part are utter shitheads anyway. I also loved the diversity of the dark fae, coming from all continents and all peoples. Nothing drives me crazier than the idea that all fantasy creatures should look like pale white folks. This was very nice to see. 

-At least Diaval didn’t die. I was afraid of that since bad sequels often kill someone you like just to “raise the stakes.”

-Tying the cursed spindle into the sequel isn’t half-bad an idea. It’s kind of neat that it’s how Aurora ends up discovering the truth.

Cons:

-Fucking everything else in this movie, basically, is a negative point. Goddammit. Why did they squander all this fucking talent?

-Having Mal, Diaval, and Aurora separated the entire time is the first huge mistake. I was hoping from the trailer that Mal getting hurt and finding her own kind was something that happens in the second act. Nope. First act. Fucking hell. All the reasons why Maleficent was a great movie was the dynamic between these characters and the development of their relationships. It was so easy to love them. They were a family. They had struggles and they all put in effort and they won the day. And then this movie happened. Mal and Diaval first and foremost were done dirty, especially since behind the scenes they had been teasing that maybe the hints of romance between them might finally get a brief spotlight, but no. Didn’t happen. Either it was cut for time or they changed their minds. Then Aurora just blindly believing that Mal cursed the king despite knowing her mother for fucking five plus years, not counting how Mal raised her from afar, just massively pisses me off. Aurora has shown no signs of wanting to just be a normal girl. She loves her mother faithfully and it feels very OOC for her to just instantly assume the worst, especially since she should know things about magic by now and would have heard that Mal has to verbally curse someone, not just with a gesture of magic.

-Almost every part of this story has our leads being passive as hell. I hate passive stories and I hate passive characters. Remember, a good story is one in which your protagonists affect the plot and the outcome and each other. This movie is borderline boring. It’s so much of people looking out the window at the sky and fretting and being moody. All of our characters just sit around for two goddamn hours barely doing a thing until the war at the end, as if the movie is just waiting for itself to end. It’s such a fucking shame considering how many creative, engrossing scenes are in the first film. The first film perfectly paced the character development with the three main leads alongside the action. I loved seeing Diaval’s different forms. The action was fantastic and the story was deeply personal. Everything built towards the end goal of showing the full scope of who Mal is as both the hero and the villain. Here, it’s just miscommunication. That’s it. It’s so stupidly basic and it doesn’t do anything but open the door for her backstory. It’s such a lazy method to introduce them. There were much better ways to go about it and I’m sad that none of our beloved three barely does anything over the course of the movie.

-The tone is all over the fucking place. I actually would not recommend this movie for kids. It’s much too harsh for the little ones when we reach the war in the third act. It’s unnecessarily cruel to a bunch of characters. It even has the nerve to outright KILL one of the three fairy godmothers with little to no reverence for what a big fucking deal that should be. It’s a nasty, unpleasant feeling when she dies and when the other moorfolk and the dark fae die as well. And yet some of these scenes have slapped together “wah-wah-wah” moments, like the evil queen simply being turned into a goat. Ha-ha. Yeah. There are dozens of soldiers and innocent townsfolk and fairies dead. But she’s a just a goat. Sure. That’s not a whiplash of a fucking tone at all. What the hell is the matter with this movie? How dare you actually kill a fairy godmother. And it was one of a few stupid sacrifices while we’re at it. I mean, Magical Negro Fae went full Piccolo standing in front of Mal when all he had to do was yank her out of the way. Same for the big tree fae who died. Not to mention the fact that the giant tree fae just had to walk over to that fucking pipe organ and snap that stupid redhead’s neck, easy peasy, in three seconds. Problem solved. Fuck this movie for showing such flagrant deaths for innocent characters.

Oh, excuse me, one second.

*grabs Hollywood by the ear, shoves him into a chair, and breaks his nose*

Hollywood: OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!

Me: IF YOU PUT ONE MORE GODDAMN FUCKING MAGICAL NEGRO INTO ANOTHER MOTHERFUCKING MOVIE IN 2019 OR BEYOND, I’MMA FUCKING KILL YOU.

-Magical Negro Fae makes me want to kill something. I’m tired, y’all. I’m tired of writers in Hollywood continually making wise black characters teach white people life lessons and then promptly die to advance their story. Go to hell. All of you who keep writing this wretched cliché go straight to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Take your ass to hell and rot in the lake of fire. Stop. Fucking. Doing. This. To. Black. Characters. You. Fucking. Assholes.

-It feels like there is a movie between the first Maleficent and this one that we missed. Seriously, the characters spout backstory that sounds interesting and important, but it’s off-screen, and we’re constantly fighting to understand something that the characters clearly do. Show, don’t tell. Show me Aurora and Philip being in love. Show me Aurora’s longing for Philip and Mal to get along. Show me Mal wondering about her heritage and feeling like an outcast. Show me the dark fae’s backstory. Show me Lickspittle being forced into betraying his own kind. I cannot connect with these characters if you do not give me a reason to do it like you did in the first film.

-Is it just me or did Hollywood deadass steal a whole bunch of this from the Gargoyles animated series? I’m just saying. Go back and watch that and then watch this and tell me it’s not similar.

-Nitpick: God, Disney, I am so tired of you filming all your live action movies on one sound stage with zero practical effects and zero sets. Yes, we can tell the fucking difference when you film everything indoors and there’s no sets. Can we go back to actually giving a shit about how movies look?

-Nitpick: There’s plotholes everywhere. I already mentioned how the tree fae could have ended that church massacre in a total of 3 seconds, if that. Where have the dark fae been? Why did they just act that one time with those mercs stealing the moorfolk? What was Lickspittle actually doing to the trapped fairies? We never see him experiment on them or anything. How did Magical Negro Fae see Mal fall in total darkness? Was he just hovering around the area? Why? They seem very far away from their stronghold, so how did he see her and why have they never attempted contact with her before even though they apparently know the moors very well? I could go on like this for some time.

-Angelina Jolie is given very little material to work with and it’s depressing considering how emotionally attached I became to Mal in the first movie. Her struggle was so sympathetic and her reaction to Stefan’s cowardice and cruelty was arguably justified. Here, she’s not having some kind of revelation about herself. It’s cookie cutter right and wrong. It’s very little struggle. She’s not barely doing anything for long periods of time and it’s honestly boring and disappointing as hell considering what a force of nature she is in personality and in abilities. They took all the zest and spice out of her. She’s a hollow, empty version of herself here and it’s probably the most insulting thing of all.

-Nitpick: The title is a big fat lie. Mal does not turn evil or become evil. She swats some fools around at the end, but that’s all. I hate misleading titles.

Overall, the word to describe this movie is unnecessary. It’s not bad, but it is nowhere near good at all. It reduces all its characters into passive roles in a dull story that tries to make up for it by heavily loading the ending with very distasteful, cruel war scenes that are frankly too harsh for children. It’s not asking any deep, sympathetic questions from its audience. It’s just spinning its wheels, mostly. If you’re curious, sure, go ahead and rent it. I would warn you from paying full theater price since it adds almost nothing to something that was frankly perfect the way it was already. I went in with low expectations and while the movie didn’t go below them, it was still a letdown. Mostly because I wanted some Maleval scenes to wake up the tiny, dormant fandom, and I highly doubt this is going to do that.

Sigh. You deserved better, Mal. At least we’ll always have the first movie.

Kyo out.

[psychedaboutstudying]

What I read in July + August

These are the 9 books that I read in the past two months. I am combining the two months because of my Tumblr break in the first half of August and I couldn’t get the post up before.

Overal I think my reading has been going great! I don’t consider myself a very quick reader, but I don’t mind taking my time to enjoy books. Especially in August I’ve been loving reading so much! And that in itself is more success than any number of books could ever be :)

My favourite of these was "Pulp", which was a very touching read for me personally. I love to read LGBTQ+ books, but so far that’s been a bit too much “G” and too little “LBTQ+”, and it was great to see some “L(+)” rep here!

Pulp by Robin Talley

I loved this book and hold it very closely. I bought it on a whim when I was in Dublin because lesbian rep and a pretty cover, but I ended up loving this so so much. "Pulp" follows the perspectives of recent high school graduate Janet Jones in 1955 and senior Abby Zimet in 2017. Both girls love writing and girls, but in 1955 homosexuality is sin. Some things I loved were the several subplots, the way the two story lines were intertwined, Abby's character development, the satisfactory ending, and the bits and pieces of writing advice scattered throughout the story. (Abby and Janet are both writers and Robin Talley admitted that this book started out as a story of love for writing, which is clear. This book made me want to write so many things!) This was my first Robin Talley book but I definitely plan on reading more!

Red, White and, Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

I wrote a little post on his hate-to-love romance between the First Son and the prince of Wales here. Overall, this was such a cute and beautiful romance. And hilarious! There has been so much hype over this book, which I didn't expect at all while reading it. But I think it's good, because it's the sort of love we all need a bit more of in this world.

The Archived + The Unbound (+ the short story "Leave the window open") by V. E. Schwab

In the world of "The Archived", records of people's lives are stored in the Archive, in the form of the person they were just before they died. I'm struggling so much to write a review on the books. Not because I don't know if I enjoyed them (I did!) but because I keep wanting to compare them to the "Shades of magic" series by Schwab (that series meant a lot to me) and I don't think that's fair. I enjoyed these books so much and they had me on the edge of my seat! Full of action, suspense and mystery.

Siege and Storm + Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

In my previous wrap-up I mentioned I was not too impressed with the first book in the Grishaverse, but I liked the second and third book a lot more! More (interesting) characters appear, and I feel like all personalities are displayed better in the second and third book. I'd say, it's best to judge these books as a trilogy, and not separately. I love Bardugo's writing style and I love Ravka. There's a trope that I'm not a fan of, and I still believe that the main character is the most boring character in the entire series, but on the plus side there's a whole cast of more interesting ones! There's also a couple of things I don't understand plot-wise, and I'm not sure if I just missed it or of there's actually plotholes. Either way, Bardugo's writing style is marvellous and I can't wait to read more of her, especially because all I hear is that her other books are even more well-loved than the Shadow and Bone trilogy.

The Gilgamesh Epic (Dutch translation by Theo de Feyter)

The Gilgamesh Epic is one of the oldest mythologies we know of and consists of twelve tablets originating from Mesopotamia, around 2000 BC. I have read it before, but this time I read a Dutch translation by a scholar. There is something very humbling about this story, partly because it has survived four millennia, and partly because of the themes of pride, grief, love, and mortality that are always relevant.

De huiveringwekkende mythe van Perseus by Imme Dros

This is a Dutch book telling the story of the demigod Perseus. It was a very short book and a quick read, although I have to admit I was not a fan of the writing style or the art work. I recently read Stephen Fry's version of Perseus myth which I liked a lot more. Dros' take on the myth felt a lot more dry, and the author also tried to weave in background stories and other Greek myths into this one and it did not work very well, because it was just too much story for such a short book.

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

I was almost about to publish this post but I finished Geekerella just in time! This is my first ever audiobook (I could never get into them before), so it's a very new experience. As the title implies, it's a Cinderella retelling of a girl who's a fangirl of the TV show "Star Field". I love reading about other fangirls' experiences, although this one is a little unusual due to it's fairytale-like aspects. It was a cute, fluffy ode to all geeks and fangirls* out there. I like how all the Cinderella aspects were weaved into the story, with my favourite being the pumpkin food truck that Elle works at. I also loved one of the narrators, Eileen Stevens, who added an extra dimension to the characters with the way she voiced them, and made the scenes come alive in my head. (* "Fangirl" does not apply to girls only, obviously. Guys can be fangirls. Everyone can be a fangirl. Fangirl is not a gendered word to me! )

I hope your reading is going great!

[annakie]

Thoughts on a DW Rewatch & Mass Effect replay.

So I’m in the Eleven / Clara half-season now.

Also I’m now replaying Andromeda.  I have thoughts, about both.  I’ll start with Doctor Who then label it when I get to Mass Effect stuff.

Oh my God this gets long and rambly.  Apparently, I have a lot of thoughts.

So, season 702... I’m ready for it to be over.  I miss the Ponds.  I felt like most of the first half of this season was pretty great, honestly.  I’d forgotten how fun some of those episodes were, I think at the time we were anticipating a new companion so heavily that it was harder to appreciate those episodes?  I feel like there was a lot of criticism levied towards them that now I felt like was a bit too much.  The western episode was kinda meh but still not bad.

I’m not sure what exactly it is about these Clara / Eleven episodes that I’m still not connecting with but I’m in the middle of the Crimson Horror episode (which is a Vastra/Jenny/Strax heavy episode and enjoying it more than anything else so far this half-season.  

*edit later* NOPE NOPE NOPE I’D FORGOTTEN HOW THE DOCTOR FORCES A KISS ON JENNY.  GROSS.  SUPER GROSS.  SHE’S A MARRIED WOMAN, A LESBIAN AND DID NOT CONSENT TO ANY OF THIS.  BAD DOCTOR, BAD.

Honestly even with some excellent guest start acting, the Russian Submarine episode was STILL a slog and the ghosts in the 1950′s episode no better.  Like they still weren’t ridiculous and unwatchable but... just didn’t feel fun or interesting at all?  The Journey to the Center of the TARDIS episode was decent, and I felt like that wasn’t nearly as cool as it should have been..

I remember reading a criticism of these episodes early on where they said that the biggest fault is that they failed to give Clara any real characterization or solid personality other than “girl the Doctor is obsessed with”.  She’s SUPER IMPORTANT but not only do we not know why at this point but it really doesn’t feel... earned?  I don’t recall it ever feeling earned that Clara was supposedly always so important?  “The most importantest companion EVAR!”  

And as someone who stanned the hell out of a character who was hated in the fandom for “replacing” a previous companion I’m checking myself to make sure it’s still not because I Miss the Ponds.  Like, I don’t HATE Clara, I just, at least at this point in the rewatch, can’t find any reason to really LOVE her?  She’s there, she’s fine, Jenna-Louise Coleman is doing a great job with what they’re giving to her but... I don’t know.  It all feels... off.

I had forgotten all about the “the Doctor rides a motorcycle up the side of a skyscraper” moment and something hit me in that moment that made me remember that wow people hated that moment.  It felt really... shark-jumpy somehow.  

I love Eleven, but this half-season isn’t connecting with me, AT ALL. It feels like the writers just went and dug through a bunch of rejected script ideas, polished them up and were likle “let’s just do this until Matt Smith is gone.”  I’m anxious to get to Twelve.

Mass Effect Stuff

OK TECHNICALLY I haven’t finished ME3.  I still need to do the party and the goodbye scene, (Citadel Epiloge Mod installed) but I’ve gotten all the Stuff and done all the missions in the arena.  I just wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye yet, so I started Andromeda a bit early.

-----------------

OK look I had a point I wanted to make and never quite got where I wanted to go with it right here.  I’m too tired of trying to fix it, so this stands as written.

This playthrough had me ruminating a lot on Kaidan and Garrus.  I really love both of those characters, though in my heart I’ll always primarily love Kaidan, I’ve done the Garrus romance and wouldn’t mind playing that character again to see the romance one more time.  In ME1, I bring Kaidan everywhere all the time, and pick which other companion I bring to the story-based missions based on what I know is gonna happen like I’m sure most people do.  Wrex for Therum, Tali for Feros (though I REALLY wish you could switch before going to see the Thorian), Liara for Noveria, Ashley on Virmire, Garrus for Ilos/Endgame.  I rotate through all five for sidemissions.  

In ME2, Garrus is my always-bring companion, with Garrus + Miranda being my favorite team.  Except after the Omega relay, where characters with Throw really shine with all those husks running at us, Jack holds the bubble, and Miranda and Thane, who both have Warp to help take down the Reaper Baby, are the preferred team.  Also so Miranda can tell TIM to fuck off.

Then in ME3, once the game opens up, Garrus is back on the perma-team, with a preference towards bringing Liara along... until we get Kaidan back.  And then I realized I didn’t bring him to a single thing except a side mission or two until Earth.  Mostly, this is because I’m following the Kaidan Banter guide and it turns out Garrus is a real banter hog for most of the missions.  At leat he’s not James, who I literally never use unless I’m going on an N7 mission and feel bad that I haven’t taken him off the Normandy in awhile.  I mean, even Javik gets more play.  Also EDI doesnt leave the Normandy til near the end when all of a sudden she gets real important.  

But Garrus is always on the team for Priority Earth.  And that always felt like the way the main game should end, with your two favorites.  (Also what kind of monster wouldn’t bring Wrex to the combat-centric areas of Citadel DLC?  I keep thinking I should have runs where I bring other people but... Wrex is my other fave and we don’t get him with us AT ALL since ME1.)  

I love Garrus, so much.  And I was thinking with this whole parallel DW rewatch / Mass Effect replay think I’m doing right now how both Rose Tyler and Garrus Vakaraian are characters that were ruined for me for awhile due to their respective... overly enthusiastic fanbases who a small percentage of were dicks to people who loved other characters.  The Kaidan tag (and from what I understand Thane got some of this too, but not nearly as bad) was a pretty hostile place for awhile (and yeah I used to check the Garrus tag too and there was a small amount of tag-invasion there but uh, like 5% of what the Kaidan tag got) which made loving the character of Garrus a lot harder for awhile.  But when actually watching seasons 1 & 2 / the end of 4 of DW, or actually playing the games, those characters are awesome.  

Fanbases can be amazing or terrible, and time and time again I think you start to realize that no matter how great a fandom is, there are going to be a few people who can only enjoy themselves by feeding on drama, or on lifting up what they love by stomping on other people/characters/plotlines.  Going back through my blog reminded me that even the TAH fandom had some of this, with a small percentage of fans being real dicks to two prominent female characters in favor of their favorite ship, which soured even that just a tiny bit.  

It’s not fair to characterize everyone who loves a popular thing as someone who does this.  It’s also hard to avoid completely because there will always be jerks, or young/new people who don’t realize what bad form they’re showing.  I did learn by trying to fight it for a year or two, that responding might help that one person not do it again, but it’s not going to stop overall.  Maybe yelling a lot about Martha Jones did change some people’s minds.  It still isn’t that good of a look now, even knowing that in general I was pretty polite and logical about it.  I might respond to an odd comment now and again in some favorite character tags, but in general, turns out that kind of fight just isn’t worth it.

And those fights seem so stupid in the light of everything else happening in the world today.

Anyway, don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like.  

-----------------------

I also wanted to say, and I know I said it in a few other posts about this ME3 playthrough, but seriously I cannot believe how much ME3 is a changed game because of the modders.  I cannot imagine ever playing ME3 again without these mods.  There were so many small things that I kept thinking I should take note of to talk about and I’m sure I forgot 90% of them, but there’s things like... adding in mentions of the Andromeda Initiative, closing a few plotholes, mentioning Emily Wong, adding in many more Spectre console options which end up having their own plotlines, adding in an entire plotline about the VI civilization that had previously only been talked about in like, social media or Cerberus News Network posts, having the Normandy be so much more populated, seeing so many more other species on the Citadel with more variety in clothing for those species that have clothing / could have more variety, way more female Turians.... every time I play ME3 the game is more and more like the game we wanted when it came out.  

I am kind of itching to go back and replay it even now.

But hey, instead, its time to talk about Andromeda.

-------------------------

So first of all, yes, mods for Andromeda.  A few appearance mods, a lot of convenience mods.  

After having recently played DA:I and I think Andromeda and DA:I are a lot more similar than Andromeda and the previous trilogy, I had decided it was time to cut down on the stupid stuff Andromeda does, like “Oh, you want minerals?  Spend 10 minutes in each mining zone finding the PERFECT place to gather materials or you’re fucked”  No, thanks.  I’ll mine but give me that “one probe placed anywhere and you’re done” mod.  

Make the modifications and crafting materials I use actually matter. 2% damage increase is nothing.  Make my squadmates not suck because I remember doing 90% of the work myself before and that got exhausting with the number of spawns.  

I tried to not go overboard so things feel like cheating, but there’s enough out there to just get rid of the stupid stuff, and it’s nice.  And works together a lot easier than the DA:I mods did.

One thing I did do was install the Multiple Romance Mod.  I enjoyed it in DA:I, even though ultimately I only did 2 full romances.  I am **NOT** romancing Gil or Cora with the mod, I just wanted to experience all the content available for female Ryders at once, since I’m not going to have the energy to replay this 100+ hour game enough times to see every romance on its own.  So I am poly-romancing Liam, Jaal, Vetra, Suvi, Peebee, Keri, and if it lets me, Reyes when it’s time.  

I’ve only gotten all the way through Andromeda once (where I romanced Liam)  My second playthrough was right after my first and stalled out about halfway through (was romancing Jaal.)  It was one of those “I’m totally gonna get back to this! (She didn’t.)” things.  I’m gonna be honest, I enjoyed the Liam romance and was enjoying the Jaal romance, I’d done a fling with Reyes but not the full romance my first time through and the fling with PeeBee on my second.  Reyes was probably my favorite out of all of them.  So this time I decided.. let’s see which I love the most, all at once.  I don’t know if I’ll do this in the future, but this game is too long to not see all the content I wanna see, TBH.  

And you know, I still really do like Andromeda.  It’s a GOOD game.  And I’m forever going to be mad that we’re not going to see how this story ends.  This story deserved to finish being told.  Like, there are a lot of very legit criticisms about Andromeda, but it didn’t deserve the harshness it got.  And the worst thing about it, and DA:I both is that... there’s just a little TOO MUCH of it.  100 hours is an amazing amount of game but... it’s also just too much.  For now I’m not trying to 100% this playthrough.  My plan is on each planet to get the planet to 100%, take out the Kett or whatever major base, the Remnant Architect, and yeah probably clear out the sidequests that show up on the map, but fuck quests that are like “visit random Kett camps until you find the right datapads that don’t show up on the map!” or “scan random blobs in the forest that don’t show up on the map!”  

So like, do the content, not the filler.  

I still hate the vaults.  The first one is cool.  The rest are tedious.  But they’re mandatory.

I love everyone on this spaceship though.  They did the Tempest stuff SO WELL.  All the companions I think are... good?  There’s no one I don’t like, even the non-squadmate shipmates ship have so much interaction and so much to do/say.  It’s not like “a bunch of randos and Joker, with occasional appearances by Chakwas and the Engineers”  There’s no randos, it’s just a few people you have real interactions with, and its great.

The lack of enough beds in the bedroom will never not annoy me.  There’s 4 beds for... Lexi, Liam, Cora, Suvi, Kallo, Vetra and Gil?  Even if Liam slept on his couch, and Vetra put a bed in her supply room... still doesn’t add up.  What, do Salarains not sleep or something?  Does Lexi sleep in a medical bed?!?  Peebee sleeps in the escape pod, Jaal brings a bed with him, and Drack’s like “Eh I’ll just sleep in the kitchen”.  WHAT?  THE KITCHEN?

I mean sure there weren’t enough beds, even with the sleeper pods, on the Normandy either, but somehow that was less disturbing.  

Also, I know you’re supposed to HATE Director Tann but I love Kumail Nanjiani so I find it hard to be a total dick to him, even if he usually deserves it.  If he wasn’t an anti-Krogan racist I think it’d be easier to like him.  He was thrown into a pretty shitty situation and... did actually hold things together for some time.  He’s not doing anything out of malice.  He’s a dick, but also doing what he needs to do to keep the Initiatiave going.  Oh, except for being a anti-krogan racist.  (Honestly, I also think  “until he turned Cerberus Udina was just doing his job pretty well” too, so...)

Taking some screenshots as I go.  I mostly just take screenshots for me now.  I have a few thousands screenshots from a dozen or more games rotating through my desktop background, and I keep adding to it, and love it.

Anyway, I’ve gotten Eos, Voeld and Havral to 100%.  Time to go save the Moeshe.  I’m having fun.  

*edit from later* I’d forgotten that... idk if the dialog they recorded for Jaal was the first thing they recorded for him or they used a different VA or what but on the Save the Moshe mission his voice is VERY DIFFERENT and oh man, that is still bad.

Might take a break for when Onslaught comes out for SWTOR, though.  I haven’t really played SWTOR in months. Oops.

[boasamishipper]

endgame review (spoilers!!!)

okay so now that i’ve finally stopped crying and had a good night’s sleep here are all of my thoughts on avengers endgame:

things i liked:

the opening scene with clint losing his wife and kids -- my heart was in my throat the whole time; i felt so so bad for him

nebula and tony bonding

steve getting rid of that beard like thank god

tony and pepper reuniting

tony FINALLY telling steve off for everything; as a lifelong tony stan this was super cathartic

scott reuniting with cassie; in fact, all of scott’s scenes were awesome

bonus - the fact that the only reason any of this was able to happen was because a rat accidentally turned the machine back on

the fact that tony got married to pepper!!! and had a daughter!!! he was such a good dad to baby morgan i loved it

carol’s new haircut  👌 👌 👌

tony looking at peter’s picture  😭 😭😭

“shit :)”

“i love you 3000″

all of the time travel scenes. did the rules make sense? nope. did i love seeing the crew go back in time to all of the previous avengers movies and see their past selves and fuck around with the timeline? absolutely.

going off that -- getting to see all the minor characters like jane and frigga and hank was awesome. i loved the entire time heist plot.

loki making fun of cap by transforming into him

“hail hydra” followed by that smirk (and the fact that they made fun of the whole hydra!cap thing was awesome)

the cap vs cap fight

thor getting to talk to his mother

tilda swinton’s character and bruce talking. seeing her again was def a surprise.

nebula and gamora talking and teaming up to fuck thanos over. karen gillam was great in this film.

tony getting to talk to his father (and the fact that the code name he used was howard potts like??? i cry)

“we’re a long way from budapest” be still my 2013 clintasha heart

the new infinity gauntlet being made out of tony’s iron man hand

the fact that they brought everyone back without fucking up the timeline. i was so worried they’d have to erase tony’s kid from existence but they didn’t so thank god.

steve wielding mjolnir. ngl that was pretty cool.

EVERYONE COMING BACK!!! (i knew it was coming. everyone knew it was coming. but it was still great to see.)

steve saying “avengers assemble”

PETER AND TONY’S REUNION!!! (i waited an entire fucking year for this and it was WORTH IT)

PEPPER FIGHTING ALONGSIDE TONY!!! HOPE FIGHTING ALONGSIDE SCOTT!!! battle couple goals :D

“hey peter parker”

“i am inevitable.” “i am...iron man.” S O B B I N G

tony’s death. like am i sad that tony died??? 150%. but it made narrative sense, he got to be happy with his kid and pepper (for however brief of a time), he found the loophole in time travel that allowed him to save everybody, and he dusted thanos. “you can rest now.”  😭😭😭 a fitting ending for the strongest avenger.

the entire funeral scene. the viking funeral wreath thing with the “proof tony stark has a heart” on it??? GOOD SHIT. i was bawling.

happy and morgan. that kid’s going to have happy wrapped around her little finger.

tony’s final message

the thorkyrie scene (even if i didn’t like what was being said i’m glad they shared some screentime.)

harley coming back!!!

sam becoming captain america (THANK GOD)

the end credits with rdj (the man who singlehandedly made the mcu amazing) being billed last. the theater was cheering and crying at the same time and it was amazing.

the final bit at the end with the noise from tony making his first suit. 😭😭😭

things i didn’t like:

the way they treated thor. taika made thor so amazing in ragnarok and the russos (and the screenwriters) got jealous and shit all over it!!! wtf!!! (and all of the fat jokes and jokes about his ptsd were NOT cool. didn’t like rocket slapping him out of his panic attack either.) can’t believe they made him an alcoholic who sits on his ass and plays fortnite all day. wtf.

for that matter -- i CANNOT believe that he would just up and fuck off with the guardians of the galaxy and abandon his people. is valkyrie a worthy leader??? absolutely. but so is thor!!! that was his entire arc in endgame like WTF!!!! (also the fact that we didn’t get a thorkyrie kiss is fucking CRIMINAL)

also why couldn’t he keep the short hair??? why did he have to get mjolnir back when taika went to all the trouble of showing he didn’t need the hammer to be a hero? did they just want to fuck up EVERYTHING that taika did?

the ending for steve. ‘nuff said.

no you know what? i’m going to go into this further. do i like steve? no. i never have. his actions toward tony in civil war put him on my shitlist forever, and that’s all i am willing to say about that. but you expect me to believe that steve fucking rogers (who KNEW that peggy moved on, lived a good life and had a husband and kids) really went back and fucked up the timeline just to be with her? he barely knew her!! they barely bonded in the first avenger at all!! also there are so many plotholes with how in the world he managed that (what happened when the other cap woke up from the ice???) also does this mean that his ‘romance’ with sharon is technically incest??? and did he just live out the rest of his life with peggy knowing that bucky was being tortured by hydra? insert “it’s bad writing” gif here.

(i am glad that he passed the shield onto sam though. bucky would have been a terrible choice for captain america.)

ALSO. you know who would have been a better choice to go back in time and live the rest of their life with the people that they loved and could not be with due to reasons outside their control? CAROL MOTHERFUCKING DANVERS. let her go back in time and live a happy life with her wife and kid. #carolmaria4evr

the fact that natasha died instead of clint. i literally cannot fucking believe that they fridged the first female avenger just for clint’s (and everyone’s) man pain. it was bad enough when they fridged gamora for thanos’s man pain. clint should have died in nat’s place and the fact that he didn’t is a huge fucking cop out and that’s the that on that.

for that matter -- clint’s entire storyline prior to going back in time was WILD. his only explanation for killing all those people was “thanos snapped half the universe and you didn’t die so imma kill you.”  FUCKING WHAT????

the fact that the russos are patting themselves on the back for their “woke lgbt rep” that was actually just a “leave for the bathroom and miss it” extra. you know what would have been better? a stucky ending. a sambucky ending. carol going home to monica and maria. valkyrie kissing a girl. ANYTHING would have been better than that.

speaking of carol -- she was CRIMINALLY underused in this movie. she was barely shown mourning fury (and also!!! why did we get no confirmation about monica and maria????) and barely spoke to the team in general. i thought she was going to have a major role (and would help them go back in time) but she didn’t and that disappointed me.

did i like the fact that she destroyed thanos’s fleet? yes. but i wish she was used more. she’s the most powerful avenger ever!!! and i wish that she got to speak more with tony as they’re friends in the comics.

(BRIE LARSON IS AN ACADEMY AWARD WINNING ACTRESS AND THEY BARELY USED HER!!! LIKE WTF)

i won’t even get into the makeup thing bc that’s already been said and done. actually no i will. there was no reason for her to have perfect hair and lipstick and makeup. that’s not who she is. please let butch ladies continue to be butch please and thank you.

the fact that they didn’t bring gamora and natasha back :(

this might be controversial but i didn’t love the fact that pepper and tony suddenly retired to a lakehouse and became stay at home parents. i was totally expecting pepper and tony to keep running stark industries and make it into a charity organization that helped people in need/those affected by the snap.

the fact that they never fucking explained how time travel worked and WHY they couldn’t just go back and kill thanos as a baby (that was a good suggestion!). and the thing where nebula shot her past self and somehow lived??? it made no sense. i mean. i know it’s bad writing. but i was expecting it to be at least a LITTLE better. where are my explanations.

speaking of bad writing -- did the avengers ever come out and say the reason that everyone got dusted? did everyone know it was bc of thanos? why are some places in such states of disrepair and others are not? who ruled wakanda since shuri and t’challa were dusted? so many unanswered questions. rip.

the directing of the final battle was on par with the throne room battle scene in the last jedi in that both are chaotic and messy and that’s the that on that. as was the scene where hawkeye was beating up the yakuza. messy. lame. yawn.

the scene with all of the female superheroes. was it cool? sure. do i wish natasha could have been there? YES. do i wish that the mcu had more female superheroes? DOUBLE YES. was it a blatant attempt for the russos to pat themselves on the back and be like “sEE!! WE’RE FEMINISTS!!! LOOK AT US!!”?? definitely.

honestly, i was expecting the acting to be way worse than it was based on how all my mutuals were going off about it. overall, though, it was clear in some scenes that the actors had no idea what the context of their lines were and the acting was pretty meh throughout, and for the biggest marvel movie of the year the acting should be a damn sight better than “meh”. but this just reinforces what i know already, which is that the russos are shitty directors. get them as far away from the mcu as possible please and thank you.

things i wish we got:

a carolmaria reunion

a peter&may reunion

a fury&everyone (and esp a fury&carol reunion)

clint sacrificing himself instead of nat sacrificing herself

valkyrie talking to thor about overcoming alcoholism and ptsd

thor staying in new asgard with his people

steve going back and dancing with peggy like he promised and THEN going back to the future (where all of his friends are) and retiring or helping fury bring back shield.

better writers

better directors

an end credits scene that set up phase 4 (tho i assume we will be getting that in spiderman far from home)

tldr - thor got fucked over. tony is a hero and the love of my life. steve shouldn’t have gone back in time to be with peggy. nat shouldn’t have been fridged. the writing was meh and the directing was worse. not the complete and utter shitshow i was expecting, but not the so-called greatest movie in the mcu. give rdj an honorary oscar. 6/10.

[knightofbalance-13]

https://rampantlytyping.tumblr.com/post/174581718969/for-fuck-sake

“Oh, it gets worse. Because I’ve read the archives of KOB’s reddit account. (Link here for reference, someone may wanna archive this in case KOB pulls a Delete Fucking Everything)

Never before have I seen something that would backfire so hard.

First of all, I’d recommend a look at the very first comment on that Reddit account, which was a screed about FatManFalling’s Volume 3 review. So much of modern KOB can be traced back here- has hatred of the word “the” and insistence on trying to replace it with “teh,” his long paragraphs, condescending attitude and personal attacks/insults (Also, for the record, “Fatass” is one of the worst mocking nicknames I’ve ever see on Reddit).

Actually-

https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/5jdst1/cowardly_lion_taiyang_fanfiction/

This is. Thing is: this would HUMANIZE me. But god knows you can’t think of your opposition as human.

First is mischaractization.

Second is not a moral argument.

Third is conflating me being angry with who I am normally.

And fourth is downplayed since this whole post is nothing BUT a personal attack.

Also: Never said I was clever.

There’s also this post after Volume 4 which is basically “So the RWDE tag sucks amirite?”

No, the title is what I meant.

But a relevant comment that Caddeter and @psyga315 should see is this one. I’ll quote it directly, emphasis mine at the end:

Backfire in 3...2...1

“Now I know many of you are thinking “Why should I care?”

Well, because these people are in a dangerous mindset of ignoring everything that isn’t their opinion and warping that to justify their feelings.

I gave a comment on this journal pointing out the flaws in his work. The closest thing I said to an insult was saying that his usage of the term “man-pain” was stupid in any context. And when I admitted I wasn’t aiming towards him but his audience who weren’t sure about V3’s finale, he blocked me, deleted my comments (EDIT: he’s admitted to being wrong about teh previous two and has restored my comments. Still blocked but I have a way around it that he knows) and warped my words. Something he claimed Miles and Kerry did, minus the last part.

I ask of you: Say what you think about this. And not just the journal, what you thought of Pyrrha’s death. Not what he said, not what I said. But what you want to say.

Now GO!”

Now, if I was a generous man, this in context could be KOB asking for discussion on the Reddit.

I am not a generous man. To me, it looks like KOB deliberately inciting the Reddit post-Volume 3 (when they were most protective of RWBY as it was the last season that Monty would have definitely worked on) and encouraging them to dogpile the journal author.

Yeah...

Three things:

A. The time period this was made is post Volume 4, Not 3. So that’s bullshit.

B. https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/5khw9y/my_thoughts_on_pyrrhas_death_rwby_and_rt_by_jswf/dbo9z0v/

Oh hey look, there’s someone disagreeing witrh me and I ENCOURAGED them. So that’s also bullshit.

C. https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/5khw9y/my_thoughts_on_pyrrhas_death_rwby_and_rt_by_jswf/dboysk7/

Okay everyone, I have to ask that no one goes to the link and comments. The author is getting too stressed out by his debate with me and I don't want him to break.

So please, keep your discussions here.

Outright contradicted. Three strikes, you’re out.

And the worst thing? He had no empathy to the situation. Quote (again, emphasis mine):

“Well, don’t fight him. He’s…not right in the head.

Like I was arguing with him and he…wanted to kill himself.

And I didn’t even try being mean.”

Remember that in the Deviantart comments, KOB said that he could be “far far far crueler.”

As evidence by this post, where I am going to turn EVERYTHING against you. https://comments.deviantart.com/1/619991269/4290345087?offset=25#comments “*Sigh* Look, I never meant for you to get this stressed out. Hell, I understand where your coming from. Thinking about killing myself is such a common occurrence now I'm not even fazed by it anymore. So putting aside my feeling towards you and your conduct, I want you to listen to what i have to say: Your life matters. No matter what you think I've said, no matter what other people have said, no matter what you say, your life matters. You have friends and family who love and care about you and if you kill yourself, all it will do is wound those around you. It's painful I know but it's true. The best thing you can do is seek help above all else. Trust me, psychiatrists maybe be expensive by by divinty' sake they are miracle workers. And I know you're sick of hearing about this anime but really, look up Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. That anime is a large part of why I get out of bed in the morning even thought I know there's a very good chance I'll choke to death on my breakfast, lunch or dinner or that my life probably doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. It taught me to keep moving forward no matter what I lose or what I suffer because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The journey is hard and long but it's worth it. I never intended on hurting you. Had I known you were this psychologically fragile or you were this invested in Pyrrha I would have said nothing. I understand where you are coming from and I'm sorry I did so much damage to you. I was wrong and you were right. Good day.” No empathy huh? “Also while I’m here, how about this long callout post about RWBY Analysis after she was angry at some art from Dishwasher that had Enabler undertones (complete with the classic “I used to respect you” card which you can always imagine someone saying within the context “I used to respect you when you agreed with me.”). And here’s her reaction, which should be recorded alongside the Great Fire of London as one of the greatest burns in history.”

Ah yes, a callout post...Where I didn’t call her out once...

But I guess the actual post looks pretty fucking bad for you (https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/172361707730/httpsrwby-analysistumblrcompost172345982047) since it is short and-oh yeah-SHE WAS SLANDERING SOMEONE. Good job completely missing the point eh?

But sure Knight of Balance. Tell us all about how you never meant for any of this to escalate and how sorry you were. It’s not like your own accounts show you to be a liar who instigated a harassment campaign and showed no empathy upon hearing that it was partially successful. You can surround yourself all you want with your little cabal of white knights like Sunder the Gold and MageKnight who will go to bat for you when they can. You can claim all you want that what you do is a crusade to purify RWBY and Make The FNDM Great Again or some bullshit like that because you seem to think that if you kill RWDE, Miles will personally fly out to thank you for saving RWBY. And you can even run to other fandoms like Darling in the Franxx or FLCL where your name isn’t poison. But we all know what you are.

I didn’t mean for thing to escalate as evident by how I TRIED TO STOP IT,

No empathy when I actively tried to call him down MYSELF.

That sounds pretty fucking ironic  considering that you surround yourself in haters like Dudeblade and Cadder there who will never ever think to question you or themselves. But as for that Sunder thing.. Well I’ll get to that latter but let’s just say, it’s a show of self control how I’m not screaming my head off.

Oh and you’re any different? You probably think ‘I f I get rid of all the fanboys, M&K will HAVE TO listen to my obviously not biased criticism and I’ll Make RWBY Great Again! Then Monty Sempai will rise form the grave to thank me for saving his legacy!’

Please, I’d sit Miles down and give him a lecture on how a timeline is VERY important for a long running show and keeping time skips vague to ‘avoid plotholes’ would in fact make MORE of them. Though I’d probably force him to attend a writing class, Just because I respect the guy doesn’t mean I see him as flawless.

Yerah, doesn’t work when I did the EXACT SAME THING I did here in Franxx. I obviously do not care about my reputation worldwide.

Here’s the thing: I do not regret many things in my time on the internet. I regret not asking about internet customs so i could know things like alt accounts were a bad thing. I regret my raging outbursts at innocent people because I was an immature fuckhead. I regret interacting with RWBYcrit. ... That’s it. My fight against RWDE? My battle against shitty critics? I do not regret that one bit. I fought for what I believed was right and got to meet amazing people along the way. I think I’ve even grown as a person. So no dice bitch.

You’re a schoolyard bully with a stick and anger problems. You’re a child throwing a temper tantrum, unaware of how if Miles or Kerry saw what you’ve said and done, they’d be disgusted in you and would shame you for the world to see. You are nothing. In the grand scheme of life, this will be your legacy. You will never amount to anything significant in this lifetime, and your life peaked before you even hit your twenties. KOB, I really hope you realize how in just under two and a half years, you have made nearly the entire fandom hate your guts.

... And?

Oh you thought this was gonna hurt me? You think you saying I have anger issues is gonna hurt me when I’ve acknowledged that as one of my worst traits. You think telling me Miles and Kerry would be disgusted with me is gonna hurt me when I am not them, they are not me and I am fighting primarily for myself? You think you calling me worthless and saying I will never amount to anything in my lifetime when I’m a fucking existentialist AKA someone who believes that there is no inherent worth in life? Bitch, I say worse things about myself every day.

And the rest is either lies (the fandom as a whole, even on Tumblr, DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ME.) or shows you’re projecting onto me (’You’re a bully!’ says the bullies.)

Let me break this down: We all hate you on Tumblr,

God, stop projecting your ego onto me, I know the fandom as whole on Tumblr doesn’t care about me.

You haven’t shown your face on Twitter

https://twitter.com/KOB13x

Shows what you know.

and when someone cited you in a Reddit post, everyone warned them not to link to you because you’re a toxic influence.

Considering how you’ve been posting links throughout this whole post, why should I believe you if you suspiciously DON’T provide proof of this. And again: stop projecting your ego onto me.

For Christ’s sake KOB, FatManFalling can get his stuff posted on R/RWBY. It’s extensively mocked, yes, but it’s still allowed.

To the point it regularly gets kicked off reddit for having massive downvotes.

You’re so bad you haven’t even got that privilege. Let that sink in and realize what it says about you.

A. Proof

B. Not the same context.

And C. I don’t care.

Because this is coming from someone who tried throwing Sunder The Gold under the bus by saying he associates with me. DESPITE the fact that we haven;’t talked to each other in MONTHS. Why did you say this then? Oh right, Sunder is a fan of RWBY ergo he must be eliminated right? Because anyone who doesn’t conform to your fucking hivemind and treat the show AND ESPECIALLY the creators like shit is a heretic right?

That’s why I do this. Because you people are fucking AWFUL in every sense of the word. Everything you just tried to pin on me applies to YOU instead and then we can add on EVEN MORE and EVEN MORE DISGUSTING shit to that pile.I don;t like Steven Universe but I am JUST as disgusted by SU‘s fandom and it’s bullshit. This has nothing to do with RWBY anymore, this has to do with you people DESTROYING INNOCENT LIVES. That is YOUR legacy: the ruins of people’s lives and the destruction of a show people hold dear all because you decided to embody the WORST aspects of humanity.

In short: Fuck you.

Oh, PS:

https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/162724070290/rampantlytyping-knightofbalance-13-hey

Guess you’re in the same boat as me eh?

[soul-music-is-life]

More About Me Than You’ll Probably Ever Want to Know...

Came across this questionnaire at the bottom of my drafts (right beneath a thread I started ages ago titled “PLL plotholes that were never resolved” that I plan to finish before the world ends) and since it’s another sleepless night and I need something to occupy my brain, I figured...why not?

1) Do you have a good relationship with your parents? This would be the first fucking question. I have re-evaluated how much I used to take them for granted. Nothing like a family tragedy to slap some sense into your head.

2) Who did you last say “I love you” to? My mom. Or my dad. Probably both of them. Or it may have been one of my friends who called to check up on me. Hell, I’m just saying it to everyone at this point. Because you just never know, man.

3) Do you regret anything? Regrets are just lessons learned. And I could write an entire school decade of lesson plans with what I’ve learned.

4) Are you insecure? “You’re insecure. Don’t know what for. You’re turning heads when you walk through the dooooor…” Jesus, I just started singing a One Direction song. What the fuck is wrong with me?

5) What is your relationship status? Single, cuz don’t nobody want this crazy dorky mess.

6) How do you want to die? Happy. So the key to immortality is to be all emo.

7) What did you last eat? Salted milk chocolate caramel. Actually, I think that’s the only thing I’ve eaten all day.

8) Played any sports? Awkwardly and badly.

9) Do you bite your nails? It’s a horrible habit I’ve had since I was a child.

10) When was your last physical fight? I do get distracted and run myself into the wall a lot, does that count? I may have done it ten minutes ago.

11) Do you like someone? I like a lot of someones. No, I’m not a whore. I just like people.

12) Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? Ha. Hahahahahaha, I am an insomniac whose mother is currently in the ICU. I’m going for the record of staying up for 48 days.

13) Do you hate anyone at the moment? Mostly myself, because I’m really good at self-loathing, especially when I’m editing my writing. Which I’m doing tonight.

14) Do you miss someone? My mom. I miss her annoying me constantly with her stupid emojis and talking to me about our TV shows and just being ridiculous in general.

15) Have any pets? I have a very bossy cat.

16) How exactly are you feeling at the moment? The weather is being a bitch, so my head is currently about to explode.

17) Ever made out in the bathroom? Public or private? Because, like, ew, public toilets are filled with so many disgusting germs that the last thing I want to do in there is roll around in those germs. Private? No comment. Heh.

18) Are you scared of spiders? No. I rescue them when I find them, because my hatred for mosquitoes far outweighs any fear I might have and they eat mosquitoes. So, house spiders and I are homies. But Brown Recluse and Black Widows? I’ll burn those motherfuckers to death.

19) Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? The older I get the more I answer yes to this.

20) Where was the last place you snogged someone? Ohhh, a Brit came up with this questionnaire and I just love that. And actually, to answer the question, I’m not really sure. I haven’t dated in a while.

21) What are your plans for this weekend? Read. Write. Pretend reality isn’t real. Maybe I’ll remember to eat and sleep. Who knows?

22) Do you want to have kids? How many? Yes, but I don’t know how many. Depends on how much I like the first one I guess. *glances at future first born, puts weight of world on that child’s shoulders*

23) Do you have piercings? How many? Yes. I think. Maybe. It’s been a while since I’ve worn earrings, but I’m pretty sure they’re still pierced.

24) What is/are/were your best subject(s)? Lunch and recess. I was great at sneaking food off to the playground and then hiding from my teachers. My teachers hated me.

25) Do you miss anyone from your past? I do.

26) What are you craving right now? Relaxation. But since that’s not happening, I’m just gonna go for like…pizza or something instead. Take THAT arteries!

27) Have you ever broken someone’s heart? Not intentionally.

28) Have you ever been cheated on? Yes.

29) Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? I don’t think so, because unlike Shonda Rhimes and George RR Martin I don’t need the tears of my relationships to survive.

30) What’s irritating you right now? Adulting. Just being an adult in general. It’s so hard. I want to go back to the days where I was stealing from the cafeteria and hiding on the playground.

31) Does somebody love you? I like to think so.

32) What is your favourite color? Purple and royal blue.

33) Do you have trust issues? Majorly.

34) Who/what was your last dream about? My mom.

35) Who was the last person you cried in front of? My neighbor. We hugged it out. She is good people.

36) Do you give out second chances too easily? I do not. See the question about trust issues.

37) Is it easier to forgive or forget? Neither, unless you have memory problems, then I guess it’s easier to forget.

38) Is this year the best year of your life? *guffaws, falls over laughing* 2018 and I are having creative differences and I have decided that it’s best for the both of us if we just mutually split.

39) How old were you when you had your first kiss? Five. Ah, playground shenanigans.

40) Have you ever walked outside completely naked? Is that…are you not supposed to? *whistles while carefully backpedaling to room to put on clothes* Come on, I live in the south where it gets hotter than Satan’s butthole in the summer.

41) Favourite food? Chocolate. Tomatoes. Not together, of course. Ew. Although… *leaves to try something* …nope ‘ew’ was right.

42) Do you believe everything happens for a reason? You know, I like to believe so, but there are just some things I’m not so sure about. Like…Beiber. Why? Don’t @ me.

43) What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night? I never went to bed. See the question about staying up for 48 hours/days.

44) Is cheating ever okay? Personally, I don’t believe in it, but I’m not going to judge anyone for how they choose to live their lives. Just wrap your tool when you do.

45) Are you mean? I’m a sarcastic asshole, so that can be taken as mean sometimes, I guess.

46) How many people have you fist fought? I have lost count. I did not grow up in a stable neighborhood.

47) Do you believe in true love? Call me an idiotic dreamer, but I do.

48) Favourite weather? This is a trick question, because no matter what I say mother nature is going to attack me. Winter = black icy death. Summer = death by heat. Spring = death by tornadoes. Hmm, maybe Fall is the way to…nope, Fall = leaf piles of fiery death.

49) Do you like the snow? I do. But do we get snow? No. We get 8 fucking inches of ice.

50) Do you wanna get married? Maybe some day.

51) Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? Eh, I could take it or leave it.

52) What makes you happy? My TV. My TV understands me.

53) Would you change your name? I would consider it. I would consider changing literally everything about me. I’m going to start a new life in Canada where no one knows me. I will adopt a moose.

54) Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed? If it was, why would I have kissed that person in the first place?

55) Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? “Listen, when my (future) husband dies, you and I can get a condo at the beach and grow old together like we planned, and oh, wait a second, you just started plotting my (future) husband’s death, didn’t you? Well, let’s just skip that then. I don’t feel like burying any bodies.”

56) Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around? I do. He’s a good homie to have. Listen, I’m here to tell you, if you can’t be your true self around someone (regardless if they are the opposite or the same sex) then they may not be as good a friend as you think. Just be you.

57) Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? See above question about my good homie to have.

58: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? You know, considering neither my dad, nor I, are good with talking about our emotions and shit, the fact that my mom has been in the hospital for over a month has spawned some really in depth conversations. And my best friend, because my best friend just gets me. We all need that Thelma to our Louise to keep us from hot-rodding a car over a cliff. You find you your partner in crime and you hold on to them.

59) Do you believe in soulmates? Absolutely. Mine is just apparently lost as hell.

60) Is there anyone you would die for? Many people. I would throw myself in front of many buses for many people. But to be fair I’d also throw myself in front of a bus to get out of paying my student loans. And to get away from the current government. And to just finally get some goddamn sleep.

Alright, I’ll quit flooding your feed with my nonsense now. Hope I entertained at least one of you. Peace out.

[fanfic-inator795]

So... Am I really the only one who didn’t really care for Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie?

Because honestly, from a writing standpoint... It just wasn’t that great. Compared to the original show, the story, dialogue and humor just felt so flat (towards the end of the movie especially with the reveal of what happened to Arnold’s parents and how it’s solved. Sooooo many plotholes...). There were only a couple small bits I smirked or smiled at, but that was about it.

The animation looked a bit off too. It wasn’t even just the redesigns, but the different, brighter color pallet and the facial expressions (those ‘big cute’ Arnold made were anything but. They just looked so weird to me!).

And finally, the emotion... I don’t know if it was because I saw spoilers before hand/watched individual scenes before watching the whole movie or what but, I felt NOTHING. And this is coming from someone who still cries at Arnold’s Christmas and The Journal. But that reunion at the end... I don’t know, it just didn’t work for me. 

(SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT)

I’m not going to say the reunion scene is bad because it was short. The reunion scene in Tangled is short too, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful. They just could have done so much more... All Arnold’s parents do is wake up, glance over, and are just like “...Oh, hey.” And yeah I know they said it as a title callback but that was awkward as heck anyway. Like... Really? No surprise at all that your son is in this hidden city? I know he’s the ‘chosen one’ or whatever but he’s still nine years older than when you last saw him! No look of shock, no realizing what had happened to them, no tears of joy, no apologizing for being gone for so long - just a hello and a hug. ...Okay. Heck, Miles and Stella don’t even look at each other!  I mean, I know there was this whole prophecy thing so, maybe they were expecting to sleep for ten years and be woken up by their son but, they still could’ve shown a bit more emotion other than ‘pleasantly surprised’.

Idk, maybe I’m comparing it too much to other reunion scenes I’ve seen but, I just feel like the staging and the pacing of this scene could’ve added so much more. I wanted more emotion! But again, all I got was a “Oh, hey. You’re here. Nice. Hug time.” 

The fact that the rest of Miles and Stella’s scenes make them seem like they lost a few brain cells while asleep (”Oh yeah, we’re hip!” “Can we walk you to school? We already miss you!” “When are you going to be done?” After being told that they have to wait outside. Should... Shouldn’t they already know that??? See, this is what I mean with the dialogue especially just feeling sorta awkward and not nearly as snappy as in the original series. Though, maybe that was the fault of the new voice actors, though I’m sure they were trying).

So yeah, I was just majorly disappointed and underwhelmed with this movie... The story was meh and full of plot holes towards the end, the jokes were flat, the dialogue was awkward, the animation was weird at times, and the ending could have done so, SO much more in my opinion. 

Though, I definitely wouldn’t say I outright HATED the movie. Like I said, a couple things made me smile, and there were a couple good action scenes. Any time I get to hear Alfred Molina’s voice work is always a treat.  But other than that, I just don’t feel like the movie was nearly as good as it should have been (or as good as we were all hyping it up to be, which may be the underlying problem and the same thing that made Samurai Jack such a disappointment in the end: Hype and tons of expectations meeting an unexpected reality). 

But yeah, that’s just my thoughts... I’m sort of surprised that so many people are calling this movie a near perfect masterpiece, but maybe I just wasn’t in the right place to enjoy it and maybe all I could focus on were the flaws. Maybe a couple years down the line I’ll watch this movie and enjoy it more than I did the first time around. But for now, it’s just another episode of Hey Arnold to me - and a pretty meh one at that.

[kuugo]

(1) I’m sorry to bother you, I just need to vent bc I’m feeling sad over bleach again bc… God, bleach was such a brilliant series and I loved it so much but then its quality started flagging somewhere along the way and by the time tybw arc ended, you could tell that kubo wasn’t even trying anymore. I like to think I’m over the damn manga but here I am, over a year after it ended, seething bc there’s just?? So much? So much left unexplained, so many loose threads left untied, so much that doesn’t

(2) even make sense, so many plotholes and so many characters done dirty and I want to channel that anger/disappointment into writing a fix-it fic…but then I realise that I’d have to go back and reread the entire damn thing and god, just remembering that shitshow ending is enough to kill all desire to do that. So now I’m stuck feeling pissed off about the ending and frustrated that I can’t do anything about it. Gah. ;_;

I get it :/ I’ve gotten to the point where I’m pretty sure I can rewatch it… I’m still gonna be angry about it lmao but I’ve been missing ichigo and rukia so much lately that I have to revisit it. maybe give yourself a little more time!!