#this is why it baffles me when people post spoilers even for relatively new things & theyre like 'it came out WEEKS ago it's fine'

[chrismcshell]

i’m still thinking about when i got to the big climactic Saving-The-World moment at the end of the main questline of oblivion last night

& i was like “yeah ive seen spoilers. i basically already know what happens. it’s fine, whatever, i’m sure it’ll still be a nice big emotional moment-”

but then it turned out that a pretty significant detail HADN’T been spoiled for me. i was so pleasantly surprised, it was awesome, i was so happy that i got to Experience that, it was so good, it was so cool

it felt so good to be SURPRISED & to have such a genuine reaction to the end of a game that came out SIXTEEN YEARS AGO.

i love video game

[elumish]

keeping in mind the strategic/operational/tactical failures discussed in your earlier post, what would be the major failure point of the worldbuilding in iron flame? feel free to spoiler tag. is it the nature of the enemy and the common public narrative about that?

Okay so even though I finished Iron Flame fairly recently, I have also read a lot of books in the interim, so this may be a little general and may not get every detail totally correct. I'll stick all of my thoughts under a Read More, so if you don't want Fourth Wing/Iron Flame spoilers, just skip this post.

Strategic: To be totally honest, I didn't have a huge issue with the strategic-level worldbuilding of the Empyrean. I think the question of why dragons take part in this whole thing and also why dragons vs. griffins are totally neatly divided by country borders that are relatively new is not clear and sort of a problem, but I could mostly suspend disbelief there.

It definitely is not the most well built out/robust strategic worldbuilding, but I was basically fine with it. My feeling basically boiled down to "it didn't make me actively annoyed so I lived with it and can't currently think of a major issue." Also I like dragons.

Operational: Okay! So!

I found the entire organizational structure/setup of this entire world absolutely baffling to the point of being incomprehensible.

This probably doesn't need to be said, but I will anyway: a major goal of a military is to have as many trained fighters as you can. Attrition is one of the biggest issues faced by militaries (other than logistics) and the more people you are starting with, 1) the more you can do in general and 2) the more people you can afford to lose.

This means that you really want as close to 100% of your potential fighting force to survive training. Even if you only view people as cannon fodder, literally the point of cannon fodder is to put them in front of the cannons, not kill them in training.

I know the argument presented in the series by Violet is that it inures them to death so they can keep going when their teammates die, but that is terrible for a military. Yes, people need to be able to keep going when their teammate dies, but the training system has them killing each other. They are incentivized to kill each other! And so this school is literally training them to commit friendly fire incidents. Do you know what happens in a military that trains its soldiers to commit friendly fire incidents? They all kill each other and can't work effectively as a team. And being inured to that? That's just PTSD! You are just fucked up!

So having this military school system where they need to kill each other to win makes for a dramatic story but is an absolutely awful military training setup.

But also these are (or should be, if they had a non-awful system) highly trained members of the military, which makes them extremely valuable and also extremely expensive. People who fail out should just get stuck in a different part of the military instead of basically being killed.

And actually to that point, this whole setup would make much more sense if they had the equivalent of basic training and then had people specialize, the way they do in the real military. You absolutely want your military forces to be interoperable, and they are not even a little bit in this world.

Also why the hell don't these people use more ground forces? The number of dragon riders is limited to the number of dragons, but you can just have as many infantry as you can logistically sustain. Set up an effective border defense.

If you look at the traitor people (I can't remember what they're called right now), sticking them in the elite fighting force school also doesn't make any sense. I know they gave some in-universe reason for it, but especially because of the incomprehensible "if more than three of them are near each other then we can't magically surveil them" system if they were actually viewed as a security risk, they shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the military, much less in the dragon forces.

They're a literal flight risk! There is absolutely nothing keeping them from defecting en masse. They can't be surveilled when they're together! Also they could commit friendly fire attacks! None of it makes any sense!

I also never really understood why they were keeping the real enemy a secret and why there was such a concerted effort. It didn't seem like the military leadership/king got any real benefit from maintaining a massive conspiracy to...kneecap their own military force.

The funny thing is that since finishing Iron Flame I've read basically all of Rebecca Yarros's other books, which are basically all contemporary romance, and she writes a lot of military-adjacent books, and they generally don't have this problem. Her husband was (is?) in the military, and she seems to have a decent understanding of it, so I'm not sure why she threw that all away for this.

Tactical: Okay so this is a lot related to the issue of "why are the trainees incentivized to kill each other" but Violet's ability to poison her way through her sparring didn't make any real sense if they was any point to the sparring. She should have just been made to spar with some instructors. And also they should have had some real fighting training. Though again that's more an operational issue.

Violet definitely had a lot of Plot Strings (the plot "coincidentally" moving her to the right place at the right time to do something only she could do): especially, that she (the person who happened to have the father who knew all of the plot-relevant things for some reason) happened to get magically soul-bonded to Xaden (the person leading the group that happens to know the truth about everything). I understand the whole situation with her mother, but her mother didn't control the soul bonding.

Overall the issue on a character level was more of a "wow this person just happens to have/be exactly what we need at this time" (the prince! who was just there! until he was extremely plot relevant coincidentally just when we needed him!) but each character was mostly believable taken in isolation.

[sunmaylight]

FGO Danmei Romani AU - Post Solomon Singularity

I’m still alive. Um, yeah. Have been more active on Twitter, sorry. But still check here for FGO stuff ever now and then.

Speaking of FGO, I made this AU when one of my twt friends shared a post with me and activated my muse. ((Full post edition))

Twitter Alt

-FGO SPOILERS AFTER UNDERCUT-

After Solomon uses Ars Nova, he wakes up on the side of a road in his Chaldea uniform, but with the addition of another set of clothing and a backpack that looks like what he used when traveling the world before joining Chaldea.

He checks out the bag and sees it has a mix of medical supplies & equipment, generic camping tools, and items that look like they belong ancient times of Asia (i.e. scrolls, brush & ink, talismans).  

Romani closes his bag and unfolds the bundle of clothing next. He is greeted with a green and white robe that is a traditional Chinese outfit similar to what Jing Ke wears.  

At that, he goes back to the bag and pulls out one of the scrolls.  

He takes a good long look at it and realizes that it’s ancient Chinese writing that he can understand for some reason. He puts the scroll back into the bag. While doing so, he sees a familiar ring on his finger. Romani freaks out.  

He remembers the end of the Final Singularity, but doesn’t know why he is here.  

By all means, he should have essentially ceased to exist once he cast Ars Nova. Yet he is here, wherever here is, very much alive and existing.  

Before he can freak out more, a monster pops up from the ground a good few feet away from him.  

Romani panics and is about to cast a Gandr, when an arrow comes out of nowhere and kills the monster instead.  

The doctor turns to face his savior and is greeted by a young teen of Chinese descent in traditional Chinese clothing, that he feels like he knows the name of, holding a bow & arrow.  

“Greetings, from which Sect do you hail from fellow Cultivator?” The young teen asks Romani after making sure no more monsters will pop out.  

“Excuse me? Did you say you were a Cultivator?” Romani asks in reply.  

Hey, would you look at that, the doctor can understand the spoken language as well. He has obtained Ancient Chinese language comprehension without doing anything.

As the doctor converses more with this Cultivator, he is slowly remembering something Guda has mentioned. A hobby that they enjoyed before the Singularities. 

What was it called again, dame? Wo shiya? 

Oh, now he remembers, it’s Wuxia Novels. 

Oh god, Romani has ended up in a Wuxia world all alone with no way to properly explain where he came from. He is a Transmigrator if he remembers from Guda’s rambling about it.

Worse, the young Cultivator (who is not a mage, yet might as well be) is looking at Romani in concern and- is that blood on the arm? Is the young Cultivator bleeding?  

Romani goes into his doctor mode as he takes the young Cultivator's arm and examines the wound. He glares as he realizes that it's a poisonous wound. The young Cultivator shows no signs of discomfort, so the poison must have some numbing effect. 

Romani quickly goes to work to extract the poison and treat the wound. Once he is done, did he realize that he essentially treated a patient without consent. All the time treating Guda's, made him forget about it.  

As he apologizes to the young Cultivator for treating the wound without consent, the Cultivator drags Romani to a rural village nearby. The young Cultivator doesn't stop until the two enter a big building. 

Once inside, Romani is greeted with a sight that can only be described as a battlefield to the doctor. Some of them are poisoned, others have laceration wounds, and then there are those that are coughing from the flu or a possible disease.

"Can you help them as you have helped me?" The young Cultivator asks. 

Romani looks at the people in the building, the young Cultivator with hopeful eyes, and to the growing crowd outside.  

The doctor has many questions he needs answers to. Mysteries to figure out on his arrival, then what is the purpose of being here. Among other things that he should be doing to learn more about this place. 

And yet, looking at those people suffering from wounds and ailments that can be easily treated back in his world, his answer couldn't be more clear.

"Yes, I will do my best. I can't promise that I can help everyone, but I will try and do what I can to make sure all who can recover, can. After all, it's a doctor's duty to help treat people whenever possible" Romani answers with a reassuring smile usually given to Mash & Guda.

The young Cultivator smiles and bows.  

After getting consent from the patients and relatives of the patients, the doctor gets to work on treating the people.  

And that is the start of Romani's reputation of being an almost legendary healer in this world, even though rumors have it that there are no signs of him using Cultivation.  

Romani decides to travel the lands and help those in need when the world's current medical knowledge fails them. Which is often.

Several 'incurable diseases' that would need legendary medicine are now curable since Romani shares basic homemade remedies and treatment plans that anyone can afford.  

The more he travels, the more knowledge he gains of the world, the more he helps heal people, the more the rumors of him spread until they reach the Cultivation World.  

When the Cultivators hears that Romani has cured several 'incurable diseases' that plague non-Cultivators, they wonder if he can possibly cure an 'incurable disease' that is affecting Cultivators. 

So a famous Sect declares that they will find Romani and bring him here. They send one of their own to find the traveling doctor. 

It has been quite some time since Dr. Romani has arrived in this world that he is surprised that he hasn't run into any Cultivators besides that young teen when he initially arrived.  

Thinking about it the monsters here are also wary of him. Which is odd.

While traveling, the doctor discovers he can still use his Magecraft & Magic Circuits here. He accidentally discovered it when he uses a simple healing spell on an unconscious farmer to prevent him from bleeding out of a head wound. The doctor didn't have his medical supplies, so using magecraft was his next option.  

When he was using the spell, he felt his magic circuits flare but also another sensation. He can't think of it more in the current situation but when he thinks back on it, he feels as though he is pulling from another source of power. Similar to how he used to as a Servant, but more mythic in nature (it's the world).  

---  

When the doctor treats people with his medical knowledge or magecraft, he leaves thinking that the people healed will be on a completely normal recovery process. What he doesn't realize is that those that he treats have a minor accelerated recovery a couple of days after he leaves.  

If the doctor knew, then he would be baffled since nothing like this has happened in his original world.  

---

Early in his travels, Dr. Romani was foraging herbs for medicine in a deep forest filled to the brim with a mystical feeling. As he is finished with his search, he stumbles across a strangely familiar wounded animal. He treats the wounds and cleans it up.  

Once clean, the doctor realizes that this animal looks like Fou. Then when the Fou look-alike wakes up, it is revealed to be Fou. This is done when Fou takes one look at Romani followed by pawing the man's face and snuggling up to his neck.  

(What Romani won't learn until far in the future is that this Fou is actually a counterpart that was born after the Beast sacrificed himself at the end of the Solomon Singularity.)  

Once the Fou counterpart is healed, he travels with Romani again...under a new nickname the doctor gave him,' Fou-Fou’.  

Fou-Fou gives the doctor a flying kick the first time he is called that.  

---  

With the addition of Fou as a traveling companion, the rumors of the doctor flares again in the Cultivation and Non-Cultivation Worlds. Rumors spread about a mythical creature of unknown origins traveling with the wandering doctor. Everyone now thinks that the doctor has been 'Blessed by the Heavens' so to speak.  

Romani is oblivious as always to any rumors concerning him since he doesn't know what people call him besides traveling/wandering doctor or healer. 

Fou-Fou, on the other hand, learns of these rumors and laughs. The Beast Counterpart is finding new humor in the future suffering the doctor will experience.  

For now, Fou-Fou headbutts the doctor in the stomach before he accepts half of the agreed payment from the shady village chief.  

Honestly, Romani is possibly more useless than before to the Beast Counterpart since Magical Mari isn't a thing in this world.  

---  

Remember that a famous Cultivator Sect sent someone to find Romani to make him cure a Cultivator's 'incurable disease'?  

Romani doesn't know that Cultivators are looking for him since he travels through nature instead of the normal man-made paths. It's an easy path to forage for herbs and he can get the exercise he has been missing for quite some time. Also, Fou-Fou prefers the nature paths instead of the other ones.  

While the two were traveling near a cliff, Romani slips on a patch of moss and fall down the cliff. Fou-Fou watches Romani fall and jumps after him shortly after.  

As the doctor falls, he can't help but scream. Thinking that this is how his life will end for the second time. He closes his eyes and thinks about those that he misses. Mash, Guda, Da Vinci, Magi Mari, Olga Marie, the Servants of Chaldea, and finally, his Master from the Fourth Holy Grail War.  

Apologies are sent and Romani braces for impact, only it doesn't hurt. Instead, he feels very much alive and held?  

Did someone catch him?

Romani Archaman opens his eyes and gasps at the face of his savior.  

Director Marisbury Animusphere's face is staring back at Romani, only it doesn't seem right. He seems different somehow. The doctor reaches his hand up and touches the other man's face  

"Ma- gah!" Romani chokes as Fou lands on his stomach. The last thing he sees is the out-of-character look of shock Marisbury gives him before he falls unconscious.

===

Senior Cultivator 'Marisbury Animusphere' is a well-respected and well-liked member of his Sect. He is rumored to be the next Sect Leader with Senior Cultivator 'Lev Lainur' as the runner-up. The two are good martial siblings to one another but aren't exactly close. They have similar Cultivations, but they are vastly different as well. 'Marisbury' even heard rumors that Lev is studying Demonic Cultivation as well. Which doesn't bother him, he has new disciples to train for the Sect.  

Only now it seems like he is sent on a mission to find and retrieve a legendary healer of the Non-Cultivation Realm. Which he humbly accepts.  

What the Senior Cultivator presumed to be a simple search mission, ends up being a long journey of chasing after what could be considered a divine being.  

Everywhere he looks, he sees the aftermath of a miracle happening. Any inquiries about the mysterious healer are met with hostility until 'Marisbury' promises that he doesn't wish to do any harm to the rumored healer. Even then, the information obtained is sparse and barely worth anything.  

'Marisbury' is at his wits ends when he gets some information that the rumored miracle-working healer is close. The Cultivator quickly mounts his sword and flies to the area that the healer is. He arrives at a path near the cliffs and walks in search of the legendary healer.  

He doesn't have to wait long.

For the legendary healer falls into his arms, literally.  

The Cultivator is going to ask if the healer is alright when the words get caught in his throat. For one look at the man makes 'Marisbury' think that he is breath-taking.  

The healer reaches up and cradles 'Marisbury's face with one hand.  

"Ma- gah!"  

Is the only thing that 'Marisbury' hears before the Divine Beast that travels with the healer lands on his stomach and knocks him unconscious.  

'Marisbury' stares at the healer's companion and is given a smug grin in return and-  

"Danmei-Fou"

=====

If you didn't get it, in the end, Fou-Fou realizes that he and Romani didn't end up in a Wuxia world, they ended up in a Danmei world.  

If Romani was more knowledgeable to distinguish the two, he would have realized it. But since he isn't, he thinks he is in a Wuxia until it gets through his thick skull that he is not.

[cdt12345]

I was talking to @luckyshazmrsmonaghansblog about Shameless 10x07 after we watched it, like I always do and she told me I should post my review. And since I love her so much, I usually do whatever she tells me to do. Lol!

I really liked Carl's story line. He has such a big heart, and that makes me love him so much! He, out of all the Gallagher's, reminds me the most of Ian. He has Ian's big heart and I really love that!

gif source: @carlgallaghers​

Lip and Tami's story lines have been so fucking boring, but this week has to be a new low for them! But since I don't care about them, it's not upsetting. I'm just baffled that the writers think this is interesting stuff. Also, that they think this deserves longer scenes over Ian and Mickey's scenes.

Now onto sandy. I see why the people with spoilers were saying she was gross. I totally get it and now she can leave. I hate that they're going to have her involved with Debbie. That is, if it's true. I don't even want to think about her being involved in the wedding! Ugh! 

Also, are people gonna get pissed off at her, like they did Ian, for her talking about incest. The only difference here was she wasn't joking like Ian was. But I'm sure people won't give her as much shit as they did Ian.

“It’s not like we’re related.” They have the same last name! Terry is her uncle and his father! Does she not know how relatives work? I know it’s too soon to judge her with less than five minutes on screen. God knows Mickey didn't make the best first impression either. I don’t know any of her background, but knowing what the Milkovich life is like, I’m sure she hasn’t had it easy. So, I’ll still try and keep an open mind, but I can’t see myself loving her.

This show doesn’t need more characters to waste valuable Gallavich screen time, because we all know the producers will choose anyone else’s scenes over Ian and Mickey, every fucking time.

If it is true about her and Debbie, why do they have to keep doing this? Do all the Milkovich's have to date a Gallagher to be involved in the story line? They're going to be legally related to each other. They don't need excuses to involve the Milkovich's and Gallagher's anymore. They're going to be family. I know they're not blood related, but I find it weird for family members to date from the same family. I found it weird with Lip and Mandy. 

That happened in my own family. Without getting too much into it, my uncle married his sister-in-law and my mom and I always found it weird. I know it's not blood relatives, but legally they're already related and we always found that strange.

It's like that here. The only Milkovich and Gallagher that belong together are Ian and Mickey. They need to stop! They don't need to use that as an excuse to involve the Milkovich's in the story lines anymore. Old habits die hard for these writers, I guess.

Screen time was better than last week, that's for sure. Still don't think it warranted a huge Gallavich campaign, considering how much they made it out to seem like this would be their season. But it was definitely better than last week.

Domestic Ian and Mickey was all I ever wanted! We may have gotten a minute of it, but it's better than nothing and I was so happy. I freaking loved it! Did you see how happy Mickey looked?! Being all lovey dovey, blatantly checking Ian out and being domestic in front of other people, without fear or shame. I'm so happy for Mickey! And Ian, bc this was all he ever wanted with Mickey as well.

THE LUNCH DATE!!!! Mickey got Ian his food and everything! How did they plan this lunch date?! Did they plan before he went to work? Did Mickey call Ian? Text him?! Did he know what to get Ian already? Was it Mickey’s idea? Was it Ian’s idea? I was brought to tears and that kind of made me mad. I shouldn't be crying over very mundane, normal shit that most couples experience, because we never get this for them. It took 10 seasons to get to this point and it shouldn't have taken that long.

gif source: @gallaghersdaily

But seeing them do normal couple domestic stuff was a beautiful thing and all I ever wanted for them! Of course until the bitch P.O. showed up. I knew she would want to get Mickey involved in her shit. (She was on SNL last night too and I was so conflicted about it. LOL!)

Even though the situation wasn't great, I was super thrilled to see Mickey riding shot gun in the ambulance with Ian. I know that's not the focus of this scene, but I always wanted to see that and I never thought I would. 

gif source: @gallaghersdaily

When Ian became an EMT while Mickey was gone, I thought he'd never get to see Ian work and I always wanted him too. I knew he'd be so proud of Ian and would love seeing him work. The circumstances weren't great but, a wish of mine came true. 

If I'm being honest, a lot of moments did in this episode and apparently the next. Ian and Mickey walking outside with their arms wrapped around each other and laughing. OMG!!!!

gif source: @seeallmydreams

I knew when I saw Noel run from the cop in the BTS video, this was how it was gonna be. The cop shows up and his first instinct is to run. Mickey's probably like, Ian you idiot why aren't you running and Ian is like, Mickey you idiot why are you running? I love them so much!

gif source: @seeallmydreams

To think that was the final scene they filmed for the season. I pray it won't be the last. I need married Gallavich next season! A full season of them married! I MUST HAVE IT!!! 

I feel like they may renew it. I think Shameless has been around so long, that Showtime runners would want to give them a farewell season. They've been doing that with their other shows, that haven't even been on as long as Shameless.

[plush-anon]

tejoxys

I finally saw the Endgame spoilers clip

*rubbing my grubby little hands together bc I love a good roast*

Welp, if it’s a roast you want, a roast you shall receive!

(Note: I think I spoke vaguely enough about everything big in the Clips below NOT to warrant an outright Spoilers tag, so I’m leaving it with just an Endgame Leaks tag and a ‘Read More’ line. Message me if you’ve a.) seen the Clips/gone scrolling for more info in the Spoilers tag and b.) think it’s more spoilery than I try to vague it to be, and I’ll tag it post haste)

Christ Almighty, the Clips just make everything look like an enormous MESS.

Thor looks just... awful. In every scene. LITERALLY EVERY SCENE HE’S IN IN THESE SPOILERIFIC CLIPS, HE LOOKS TERRIBLE. There isn’t a single one where he doesn’t look like a mess. Everyone else gets a glow-up (new hair, tattoos, freshly shaved) and looks put together in general (which is admittedly baffling - really, EVERYONE looks good in the face of mass genocide and failure to stop it from occurring?) but Thor decided to whip out his Big Lebowski cosplay at their big ‘save the world’ get-together... why??? (seriously Thor, was a shower too much to ask for?)

Now, if we’d had ANY inclination that anyone else looked rough aside from Tony and Nebula a la the stuck-in-space teaser trailers we saw originally, that would be one thing. Everyone there lost a loved one, everyone there has probably had to come to terms with the fact that they FAILED TO STOP THANOS when they were all right freakin’ there! NO ONE SHOULD LOOK 100% OKAY HERE. Show me dishevelment, poor coping mechanisms, show them having to struggle for weeks (maybe even MONTHS) after the events.

But nope! They are ALL in perfect health according to the trailers we’ve seen before. Even Tony, after nearly dying in space multiple times, just takes a bath and appears to be in fine health after getting back (with some bags under the eyes). Everyone’s perfectly fine, except for Thor (and maaaaaybe Hawkeye, who looks to have gone full-on Frank Miller Batman in his quest for vengeance, but still had time to get a mullet and some sweet sleeve tats in between!).

Nice.

This is a MASSIVE problem with the MCU as a whole, and has been for a while: their repeated attempts to gloss over and sweep consequences of mental trauma and illness away under the rug until it suits them for plot convenience or for comedy. You see this in the Thor sequels a LOT (Selvig being institutionalized for comedy after being possessed, Loki being kept in literal solitary confinement for roughly 2 years, Valkyrie’s PTSD and alcoholism played for laughs, mocking Loki’s suicide attempt from Thor 1 and the actual death he survived in Thor 2, ALL of Odin’s outright dickishness as a parent a la narcissistic parenting, Hela being imprisoned in isolation for literal CENTURIES), as well as anything to do with Tony Stark and his thought process (everything he does is pretty much as a result of the trauma he endures, and everyone in the Avengers just??? doesn’t recognize it??? and attacks him for it without going ‘hey, maybe he’s got PTSD’ or something???? what the hell, man). GOTG does a MUCH better job of it with Rocket and Nebula, but Mantis is left woefully unrealized (thought they do touch upon it briefly, and handle it with relative seriousness). 

Either way, Thor concerns me a LOT, because he is the king of a very small group of Asgardian refugees (and given the scene that shows in the Clips, as well as the appearance of another Thor character later on, we KNOW there were multiple survivors), trying to find a new life on Midgard in the face of not one, not two, but THREE fcuking tragedies - the destruction of Asgard, Thanos’ attack on their ship, and the Snap. Why is he the way he is, in the location he’s in (which actually appears to be the apartment from Team Thor’s mockumentary)? He is the only semblance of leadership left for these people who have lost everything and he’s Like That. Where is a Thor stressed and fretting over being fully responsible for once in his life over the lives of his people, over what little remains of his kingdom? Where is a Thor struggling with guilt as he tries to build a new life for his people, struggling with rule and politics and trade? WHERE IS HE??? Bc right now, all I see is Chris Hemsworth auditioning for the remake of The Big Lebowski, having wandered onto the Avengers set instead of his audition location by mistake -_-

The scenes with Steve leave me absolutely baffled (and some of them just ooze cheese, and not in a great way), because how in the fcuk do we get to those?? His scenes feel the most disjointed here, bc they all have a similar vibe to his personality in Whedon’s Avenger movies. Kind of the ‘Boy Scout’ presentation, which is particularly odd in the aftermath of the Russo Fools’ two Cap movies and Infinity Fcuk Up, which made him more serious, less - bright? I can’t think of a good word for it rn. This is particularly highlighted in his big ‘save the world’ speech we hear - it feels kind of like an ‘okay team, time to save the world!’ speech, instead of something more serious. Is it to try to bring everyone’s hopes up? What else is missing here that we’re not seeing? Why does he feel like he’s back to this persona in light of all that’s happened? Is it to highlight how good and awesome he is in order to {SPOILER REDACTED} like we see in that final sequence? (Also, the imagery for SPOILER REDACTED, while meant to be badass and awesome, feels... kind of awkward, IMHO. Which is weird, bc I thought it would be more amazing and awesome. IDK, maybe I’m just super jaded with the MCU by now).

Carol Danvers’ scenes are actually pretty on point. She gets to be a badass in her fighting scenes and gets an awesome new look that pretty much only functions to further cement her Lesbian Status. The only way she would be more obviously a Lesbian is if her suit were in the colors of (one of) the Lesbian Pride flags and a Cyndi Lauper song was playing in the background (or maybe Joan Jett).

Hulk/Bruce Banner... I don’t even know how they’re going to swing this. Like, at all. I’m particularly baffled bc given how some of the scenes appear to be set early in the film, it resolves extremely quickly to get to that point, and after all the drama of Hulk not coming out in Infinity Fcuk Up, I just - who the fcuk knows at this point. Also, that one scene with the {SPOILER REDACTED} could be effective depending on how they set it up, but then... why exactly is he the one in the scene with the {SPOILER REDACTED} and not Carol or Thor, due to Obvious Plot Reasons?

Finally, Peter Parker. He’s adorable in his scenes, ‘nuff said.

Now, after seeing these scenes, I am left EXTREMELY CONCERNED for this movie’s tone. Granted, it was only 5 minutes of footage for a 3 hour movie. Quite clearly, there is a LOT we aren’t seeing. All the same though, it feels extremely disjointed. I know they’re trying to pull away from the dark and grim ending of Infinity War, but these clips make it all feel a little too casual, a little too ‘let’s go beat the bad guy!’ as opposed to ‘we have suffered a great failure and a great tragedy - as heroes, we MUST work to undo this for the sake of those we have lost, and everyone left alive who has lost the people they loved’. Idk, that may just be me on this one.

But you know the worst part of all of THIS? The worst part is that this is probably what we’re going to get on the release date. This isn’t a trailer Marvel released with deleted live-action scenes featuring minimal to no CGI, or sections clumsily edited over with explosion effects - this was a slew of scenes with a TON of special effects fully rendered in painstaking detail, recorded with a phone on its side in what looks like a movie theater, with foreign subtitles on the screen (I honestly don’t recognize the alphabet, but it might be Middle Eastern). That CGI is expensive and time-consuming as all hell to do, and considering how many of these scenes had it? Either they wasted a shit-ton of money on scenes they didn’t use (seriously, a number of them have Rocket in them, or Hulk - those aren’t the easiest characters to render, I would imagine), or these are in the movie, end of story.

Not to mention, TPTB clamped down on these Clips HARD - like, IMMEDIATELY - as opposed to the process behind deleting Reddit comments. The fast and heavy response from Marvel and the Russo Fools, COMPLETE WITH OFFICIAL TWEET LETTER, along with a Chris Evans tweet not to Spoil the Shit, was to chastise the ones who did (which is somewhat warranted here, given how extreme the security on leaks for Endgame have been).

This response, combined with the quality of the clips, and some of the plot threads that actually seem to be mentioned/referenced in the Lego sets, leads me to believe it’s real.

And I’m not really impressed.

On the flipside, I’m actually kind of relieved, knowing what I’m going into when I walk into the theater opening weekend. I’m not going to be completely shocked and horrified by what I see. This works well in breaking the ice, and also eases some of my anxiety on what to expect (bc I have had a LOT of it for this movie).

The downside to this is that at the end of the day, this is what 22 films ultimately amounted to. Something that feels a little too glib, a little too rushed. Something that doesn’t feel like it’s doing right by the characters who were left, and the characters we love (at least, not in full).

I understand that this is an insurmountable task - to bring to film, with limited time, a satisfying conclusion to so many characters. To arrange hundreds of people within thousands of hours on a set budget to bring this massive story, building for over ten years now, to a close that will resonate and sate with as many fans as possible. But I read fanfiction that does just that with less time, fewer moments, no budget - hell, there are 10k oneshots that rewrote Infinity Fcuk to make sense and treat the characters with the respect that they’ve earned over 20+ films.

This? Doesn’t feel like those.

I will happily admit, I am guesstimating a LOT here, based off of what essentially amounts to 3% of the movie (slightly more, depending on how long the credits are sans post-credit scenes, but still roughly 3%). There is a LOT that is missing, which could fill in these gaps successfully and make this whole post look completely pointless. If it does that, I will gleefully concede that it fooled us on this one. Maybe all of these scenes really ARE hoaxes (even if they were painstakingly subtitled in a foreign language and shown on a movie theater-size screen, but I digress).

But the framing of the scenes looks like it was meant to showcase what the movie would be as a whole, in terms of tone and what to expect. And from that, I’m not excited, or overjoyed. I’m just tired.

And I cannot WAIT for this all to be over, bc I’m fcuking exhausted just watching 5 minutes. Lord knows what 182 of them will leave me like in the end.

*peers up at massive unending ranty analysis post* ...ah. Well then. that happened again. Ah well. Hope you had fun reading my nonsense brain goop, kiddos.

[janiedean]

ah well, enough’s enough.

so, I noticed that tumblr used @gamoralives who of course has preventively blocked me is going around publishing SCREENCAPS of my replies to that op about the holocaust but not of my actual replies because of course not and I was trying to reblog it from @galactic-jewce-box who in turn was reblogging it from @jewish-privilege but ALL THREE OF THEM HAVE BLOCKED ME OF COURSE SINCE I CANNOT TAG THEM, from which we can ABSOLUTELY NOTICE how strong is their spine since they can’t even talk to me properly.

okay then, I know that this post is not gonna get screencapped as a whole but since y’all are a bunch of immature assholes who think they can get away with slandering people behind their backs, spread misinformation and be honestly disgusting people because first they accuse ME of holocaust denial and then

 deny that categories other than jewish and roma people have died in it

completely ignore that queer people died in it

ignore that disabled died in it

ignore that the pacific front had another genocide going on that had equal if not higher numbers of dead people

have suddenly decided that wwii and the holocaust are two separated things when before they weren’t

spread misinformation about auschwitz works

complain about polish ppl not fighting the nazis enough and then literally spit on the ones who did by going like IF A HANDFUL OF POLISH GENTILES DIED IT DOESN’T MATTER guess what you completely fucking asshole those people were political prisoners and I have absolutely no qualms calling you an asshole by this point so they died to fight the nazis but I guess that’s not good enough for YOU ALL FUCKING AMERICANS WHO HAVEN’T EVER SET A FOOT IN EUROPE HAVE YOU

I’m going at it. bye.

so, what my pals had to say about me.

THIS is what gamoralives screenshotted:

of course, she didn’t, like, LINK TO EITHER OF MY OPS, one and two in which I said a lot of things, INCLUDING:

like no one is denying that jewish people were the the most targeted category and no one is even dreaming of it and no one is denying that everyone had responsibilities in the jewish ethnic cleansing but the ‘blame the polish at all costs’ mentality I’m seeing in some comments on this post is honestly baffling and not really what brings us to a constructive discussion on the topic.

but of course y’all could not, like, directly engage with me on my op. nooooo. YOU SCREENSHOTTED THE REPLIES TO MY OP BY PEOPLE WHO WERE AGREEING WITH ME AND THEN GO AROUND SAYING I’M ANTISEMITE. GOD YOU’RE FUCKING COWARDS.

but never mind that.

so, what else does my pal, my friend gamoralives (WHO NEVER ONCE TOUCHED THE TOPIC DIRECTLY WITH ME lmao) have to say about me?

OOOOH, IT DISGUSTS YOU?

let’s see what disgusts me instead.

this is one of the OPs that got the screenshot from the OP of that post which we all know was yours like shut up don’t even try to deny it is:

that’s what some pal of yours had to say:

THEN YOU GO AND SAY THIS:

like YOU GODDAMNED IDIOTS YOU REALLY THINK Y’ALL CAN SPIN THIS AGREEING WITH ‘HOLOCAUST AND THE WWII BELONG TO ONE GROUP ONLY’ AND THEN YOU DO A 180° AND SAY THAT WWII AND THE HOLOCAUST ARE TWO SEPARATED THINGS????????????

LIKE???????

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS????

YOU SAID THAT WWII ***AND*** THE HOLOCAUST ARE PROPERTY OF JUST JEWISH PEOPLE AND ROMANI AND THEN YOU GO AND CLAIM THAT WWII IS NOT THE HOLOCAUST?

LIKE??????

but it’s not even the worst because honestly I still have fucking vomit in my mouth from this:

and then you do this:

YOU GODDAMNED - I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO CALL YOU, I HONESTLY HAVE EXHAUSTED THE WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, BUT SINCE YOU’RE SO EXPERT IN ANYTHING WWII, PLEASE LET ME FUCKING C/P YOU A THING YOU CAN FIND ON THE FUCKING AUSCHWITZ WEBSITE MUSEUM PAGE which you’d know if you actually set foot in there (spoilers: my antisemite ass did and I actually went to krakow 40% for the rest and 60% because I’ve been wanting to visit since I was fucking eight because I started reading up about concentration camps and studying wwii when I was in elementary school because I was interested and I never stopped, differently from you who most likely only learned how to *research* now by c/p-ing together information that doesn’t count the other side but oKAY THEN):

Gas chamber I

Auschwitz I, Crematorium I and the first gas chamber

This object is preserved in an original state to a large degree. Crematorium I operated from August 1940 in a prewar ammunition bunker adapted for its new function. The largest room was a morgue, which was changed into a provisional gas chamber. There were three furnaces for burning corpses in crematorium I, ordered by the camp administration from the Topf and Söhne company, which installed them.

When the gas chambers in Birkenau were going into operation, the camp authorities transferred the mass killing operation there and gradually phased out the first gas chamber. In July 1943, after the completion of the Birkenau crematoria, the burning of corpses in crematorium I ended. The furnaces and chimney were dismantled, and the holes in the roof used for introducing Zyklon B were closed. Two of the three furnaces and the chimney were reconstructed (from original parts), and several of the holes in the roof of the gas chamber were reopened.

Outside the boundaries of the Museum, the railroad siding and unloading platform (the so-called Judenramp or "old ramp") is commemorated. Transports of Jews deported for killing, and also of Roma and prisoners of other nationalities, arrived here from 1942-1944.

YOU GODDAMNED FUCKING ASSHOLE, YOU ARE SAYING THAT *AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU WERE DIFFERENT CAMPS AND THAT NO ONE DIED SYSTEMATICALLY IN AUSCHWITZ BUT THEY DID IN BIRKENAU WHEN BIRKENAU WAS BUILT WHEN THEY DIDN’T HAVE SPACE IN AUSCHWITZ ANYMORE TO KILL PEOPLE *INCLUDING FUCKING POLISH POLITICAL PRISONERS WHO WERE THE FIRST CATEGORY IN THERE FOR TWO FUCKING YEARS* AND THEN *I* AM THE ONE DOING HISTORICAL REVISIONISM??? ARE YOU FOR FUCKING REAL??

MISCONCEPTION?????

MISCONCEPTION???????

and *I* m the revisionis according to you???????

and you actually don’t have the decency to realize you’re wrong and like drop this conversation and shut the fuck up already?

nooooooo trash talk me and say to pre-eventively block because why the fuck not?

here, you want pictures because you don’t trust the website?

I FUCKING TOOK THEM WHEN I WENT. HAVE YOU? SINCE YOU’RE FUCKING ***AMERICAN*** I DOUBT IT AND TBH YOU BEING AMERICAN IN THIS CASE TRUMPS WHATEVER ELSE YOU ARE BECAUSE AMERICANS TALKING ABOUT WWII AS IF THEY LIVED IT WHEN THEY DON’T HAVE A RELATIVE THAT FOUGHT IN IT CAN, AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY, SIT BACK AND LEARN FROM US PEOPLE WHO LIVE WHERE IT WAS ACTUALLY FOUGHT.

anyway, this is the gas chamber + ovens in auschwitz 1. I was inside it. it wasn’t nice. I still wanna vomit if I think about it. sure as hell I wouldn’t be using it to prove a point about fandom if I were you.

that’s the ovens:

BUT NONE OF THAT EXISTED IN AUSCHWITZ 1????????

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME????

then again, have a few other choice things that I took pictures of while I was having my merry stroll around the place while trying to not throw up in my mouth:

LOOK AT HOW MANY CATEGORIES ARE LISTED IN THAT HANDY, PRETTY CHART, HMMMMMM? I even put the high-res picture in case you wanna look at it in depth :D

that’s the monument for FRENCH PATRIOTS OF WAR BUT I GUESS THOSE don’t count either. aaaah and wait a moment I went into the barracks and took pictures of the explanations and look at what I have for you:

just in case you can’t bother to open it: that’s about the execution of polish citizens and the quote of the nazi commander in the white tag is:

‘'if I wanted to put up a poster for every seven poles who were shot the polish forests wouldn't be enough to produce the paper for such notices'.

UHM. A HANDFUL OF POLISH GOYIM, @gamoralives? god, you’re such a blatant, spineless hypocrite I can’t even.

ah, but wait, I’m not done:

I think that one’s large enough you can read it yourself.

like, wow, and I am the revisionist.

I’d say kindly shut the fuck up just based on that, but hey, then you went and reblogged this piece of shit post which has been making me almost vomit my tea all over again:

POOR

DEFENSELESS

EUROPEANS IN NAZI OCCUPIED COUNTRIES

for WILLINGLY HANDING THEIR JEWS OVER TO GERMANS?????????????????? MOST EUROPEANS WERE GLAD?????????

@tikkunolamorgtfo I’M TAGGING YOU BECAUSE APPARENTLY YOU HAVEN’T BLOCKED ME YET, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCK. YOU.

NAZIS FORCIBLY INVADED MOST OF THIS GODDAMNED FUCKING CONTINENT. THE FRENCH CERTAINLY DIDN’T WANT GERMANS ON THEIR SOIL. THE POLISH DIDN’T AS WELL AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT GIVEN POLAND’S HISTORY WITH BOTH THEM AND THE RUSSIANS. THE SLOVENES, HUNGARIANS, CZECHS AND SERBS SURE AS FUCKING HELL DIDN’T ASK FOR IT EITHER, NOR THE NETHERLANDS WHICH WERE NEUTRAL AND NOR THE DANISH NOR BELGIUM AND YOU GODDAMNED LYING ASSHOLE, if you go to the copenhagen jewish museum there’s an entire part of it just dedicated to how the danish rallied and tried to send off to sweden as many jewish people as they could.

but no, you’re here saying that we’re all happy that the nazis/russians/americans/whoever else occupied our damned nations and did whatever the fuck they wanted just because we wanted to get rid of the jewish people?

well I’m going to tell you a story since y’all are so sure I can’t talk about wwii because I’m neither jewish nor roma but never mind. one or two. to you, gamoralives and all the goddamned assholes on that thread who didn’t even have the guts to engage with me directly because you know you’re wrong. and since I’m from italy, THE LAND OF THE DOUBLE-CROSSING PPL DURING WARS, let me just tell you a few things I can say as someone who’s studied this shit for twenty years.

1) hitler thought mussolini was his role model and shit. guess what, fascism initially targeted some categories, which were either killed or sent off to ‘confino’ which was basically ‘we’re sending you to a small town in the middle of nowhere where everyone knows you don’t like the regime’. who got sent to confino? political adversaries, gay men, prostitutes and trans people. and while sad to say ghetto is an originally italian word so we have our bad history of antisemitism as well, guess what, there were no laws against jewish people until ‘38 when mussolini officially allied with hitler and had to get on with the plan, and actually ALL THE NEOFASCISTS IN ITALY WHO JUSTIFY HIM SAY THAT ‘HEY HE WAS GOOD BUT THEN HE MADE THE MISTAKE OF LISTENING TO HITLER AND DOING THE RACIAL LAWS’, but you wouldn’t know that, would you? while europe has never not been antisemite BUT actually at the beginning of the 20th century things had been going better until hitler showed up, NO ONE WAS FUCKING THINKING ABOUT GENOCID-ING ANYONE IN THOSE TERMS. but okay.

2) the italian government seeing how the tide was turning in 1943 decided to change sides and go with the americans instead after deposing mussolini - fair enough, except that THEY DIDN’T WARN ANYONE LESS OF ALL THE ITALIAN ARMY which resulted in all the italian soldiers stationed in places not under allied control to end up deported to concentration camps and so on, except that then it gets better because italy got split in two with americans south of salerno and the germans north of it which meant we ended up in a civil war where partisans fought nazis in the north and americans tried to advance from the south and hmm

wow, just the russians whose total death toll was TWENTY MILLION did better than us but never mind that, SINCE YOU DIDN’T BOTHER TO READ MY OP, LET ME REMIND YOU THAT THE GERMANS WENT AROUND KILLING CIVILIANS RANDOMLY INCLUDING 130 CHILDREN AT ONCE FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE CIVIL WAR AND THAT THE ALLIED FRENCH ARMY POST-CASSINO RAPED AN AMOUNT OF MOST LIKELY 7K PEOPLE CAUSING A RIDICULOUSLY HIGH NUMBER OF SUICIDES ESPECIALLY IN BETWEEN WOMEN, but if you’d fucking bother, never mind:

After the armistice with the Allies, some 650,000 members of the Italian armed forces who refused to side with the occupying Germans were interned in concentration and labour camps. Of these, around 50,000 died while imprisoned or while under transportation. A further 29,000 died in armed struggles against the Germans while resisting capture immediately following the armistice

how bad, but:

marzabotto massacre (700+ dead)

fosse ardeatine massacre

sant’anna di stazzema massacre (130 children including A TWENTY-DAYS OLD)

or you could go on the WHOLE WIKIPEDIA PAGE ABOUT WWII massacres here where idk I’m opening a few pages at random of stuff happened in PLACES THAT THE NAZIS OCCUPIED:

Kisielin massacre was a massacre of Polish worshipers which took place in the Volhynian village of Kisielin (Second Polish Republicuntil 1939), now Kysylyn, located in the Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. It took place on Sunday, July 11, 1943, when units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), supported by local Ukrainian peasants, surrounded Poles who had gathered for a ceremony at a local Roman-Catholic church. Around 60 to 90 persons or more, men, women and children – were ordered to take off their clothes and were then massacred by machine gun. The wounded were killed with weapons such as axes and knives. Those who survived (around 200 by some accounts) escaped to the presbytery and barricaded themselves for eleven hours.

The Kragujevac massacre was the mass murder of between 2,778 and 2,794 mostly Serb men and boys in Kragujevac by Germansoldiers on 21 October 1941. It occurred in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II, and came in reprisal for insurgent attacks in the Gornji Milanovac district that resulted in the deaths of 10 German soldiers and the wounding of 26 others. The number of hostages to be shot was calculated as a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every German soldier wounded, a formula devised by Adolf Hitler with the intent of suppressing anti-Nazi resistance in Eastern Europe. (3k deaths total)

The Kraljevo massacre was the mass murder of approximately 2,000 residents of the central Serbian city of Kraljevo by the Wehrmacht between 15 and 20 October 1941, during World War II. The massacre came in reprisal for a joint Partisan–Chetnik attack on a German garrison in which 10 German soldiers were killed and 14 wounded. The number of hostages to be shot was calculated based on a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every German soldier wounded, a formula devised by Adolf Hitler with the intent of suppressing anti-Nazi resistance in Eastern Europe.

In World War II, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, the Lidice massacre was a complete destruction of the village of Lidice, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, now in the Czech Republic, in June 1942 on orders from Adolf Hitler and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.In reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942, all 173 males over 15 years of age from the village were executed on 10 June 1942. Another 11 men who were not in the village were arrested and executed soon afterwards, along with several others already under arrest. The 184 women and 88 children were deported to concentration camps; a few children considered racially suitable for Germanisation were handed over to SS families and the rest were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp where they were gassed to death. The Associated Press, quoting German radio received in New York, said: "All male grownups of the town were shot, while the women were placed in a concentration camp, and the children were entrusted to appropriate educational institutions." About 340 people from Lidice died because of the German reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children) and after the war ended, only 153 women and 17 children returned.

The Maillé Massacre refers to the murder on 25 August 1944 of 124 of the 500 residents of the commune of Maillé in the department of the Indre-et-Loire. Following an ambush a few days before and in reprisals against activities of the French Resistance, Second Lieutenant Gustav Schlüter and his men organized the massacre and burnt the village. Forty-eight children were among the dead. The SS unit believed to be responsible for the massacre is the SS-Feldersatzbataillon 17 of 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen (Lieb, 2007). In contrast to Oradour-sur-Glane, the village was rebuilt after the war to its pre-war state (Delahousse, 2008).

The Muczne massacre of 16 August 1944 was the massacre of Polish civilians committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) in village Muczne located in Bieszczady County in Poland.Among the Poles were mainly refugees after the repression of the population in Volhynia and retreating in front of - 70 Poles were murdered. They were residents of nearby villages such as foresters, priests and children. Members of the UPA murdered Poles with axes, pitchforks and scythes.In place of the murder in 2010 the memorial and a wooden cross was erected.

The Palikrowy massacre was a war crime committed by 4th police SS-regiment made up of Ukrainian soldiers of the SS-Galizien who were removed from the SS-Galizien at the time of the massacre and placed under German police command, Ukrainian SVK ("Self-defence", Ukrainian: Samoobronni Kuszczowi Widdiły) forces and Ukrainian Insurgent Army on Poles in the village of Palikrowy (since 1945 Palykorovy), which took place on 12 March 1944. A total of 385 Poles were killed. Palikrowy was an ethnically mixed village, with 70% Polish population. In 1944, the population was about 1880, with about 360 houses. The action in Palikrowy was coordinated with the attack on nearby Pidkamin including the monastery in Pidkamin, where some of inhabitants from Palikrowy were hiding during the massacre of Poles in Volhynia. All the inhabitants of Palikrowy were gathered on a meadow near village. The Ukrainian inhabitants of the village were released. Then the Poles were killed by two heavy machine guns. Only a few wounded people survived. Polish houses were burned down and hiding Polish civilians were murdered, and their property stolen.

or, SINCE WE’RE DISCUSSING THE POLISH: The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (Polish: rzeź wołyńska, literally: Volhynian slaughter; Ukrainian: Волинська трагедія, Volyn tragedy), was an ethnic cleansing (some polish scientiests think that was a genocide) carried out in Nazi German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the UPA) against Poles in the area of Volhynia, Polesia, Lublin region and Eastern Galicia beginning in 1943 and lasting up to 1945. The peak of the genocide took place in July and August 1943. Most of the victims were women and children. UPA's methods were particularly brutal, with many of the victims being tortured and mutilated, and resulted in 40,000–60,000 Polish deaths in Volhynia and 30,000–40,000 in Eastern Galicia, with the other regions for the total about 100,000.

The Janowa Dolina massacre took place on 23 April 1943 in the village of Janowa Dolina, (now Bazaltove, Ukraine) during occupation of Poland in World War II. Before the Nazi-Soviet invasion of the Polish Second Republic, Janowa Dolina was a model settlement built in the Kostopol County of the Wołyń Voivodeship by workers of the Polish State Basalt Quarry. The town was inhabited by 2,500 people. Its name, which translates as the "Jan's Valley" in Polish, came from the Polish king Jan Kazimierz, who reportedly hunted in the Volhynian forests, and after hunting — rested on the shore of the Horyń (Horyn) River. The town was destroyed during World War II by Ukrainian nationalists who murdered most of its Polish population including women and children

The massacre of Uus street was committed by German forces and local collaborators on 30 August 1941 in Tallinn.German forces occupied Tallinn on 28 August 1941 after the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn. The German occupation forces included a local Omakaitse militia. Einsatzgruppe Acommanded by Franz Walter Stahlecker closely followed the German front units, actively recruiting local nationalists and antisemitic groups to instigate pogroms against the local Jewish population.

The Huta Pieniacka massacre was a massacre of the Polish inhabitants of the village Huta Pieniacka, located in modern-day Ukraine, which took place on February 28, 1944. Estimates of the number of victims range from 500, to 1,200. Polish and Ukrainian historians disagree over the responsibility for the Huta Pienacka massacre. According to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the action was committed by the 14th subunit of the '1st Ukrainian' Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS. Polish witnesses testified that the orders were given by German officers. According to Ukrainian sources, it was committed by the German police battalions. According to witness accounts and scholarly publications, SS Galizien were accompanied by a paramilitary unit of Ukrainian nationalists under Włodzimierz (Vladimir) Czerniawski's command, including members of the UPA and inhabitants of local villages who intended to seize property found in the households of the murdered.

I’m not going ahead because this post is already too long but I’d really like to ask tumblr user @tikkunolamorgtfo if they think that ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DIED AS A RESULT OF WWII HAPPENING IN THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTANCES WOULD HAVE SIGNED FOR IT IN EXCHANGE FOR HAVING ALL THE JEWISH POPULATION REMOVED.

LIKE.

ARE YOU *SERIOUSLY* IMPLYING THAT ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS A THING EUROPEAN CIVILIANS FROM OCCUPIED NATIONS WERE OKAY WITH BECAUSE IN EXCHANGE THEY COULD SEND JEWISH PEOPLE TO DEATH???? BECAUSE THAT’S LIKE, FUCKING DISGUSTING, AND YOU’RE HONESTLY OVERREACHING LIKE NOTHING ELSE HERE. but nah, sure thing, everyone was so antisemite they totally would have died as well because hey, at least the category we hate more than we love ourselves gets to die, right?

you fucking asshole, of course in an occupied country people will collaborate with the forces occupying it in order to survive and to not get killed especially if you have a family, but assuming that we all accepted it and actually wanted it to happen is disgusting, not true, a slap in the face of everyone who died fighting the nazis and it can only come from someone who has no fucking clue of the vast consequences wwii had on everyone in this fucking thrice-darned continent. 

also, y’all demeaning the polish deaths in auschwitz/during their occupation in WWII is fucking insulting af because sorry but:

first you say the polish weren’t doing enough to fight against the nazis (even i they also were specifically targeted but y’all keep on ignoring that)

then you ignore that most polish people who died in concentration camps (YES IN AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU TOO YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES) WERE POLITICAL FUCKING PRISONERS

POLITICAL PRISONERS

WHICH MEANS THEY WERE EITHER COMMUNIST OR SOCIALIST OR ANTI-NAZI OR ONE OR MORE OF THEM

WHICH MEANS *THEY DIED BECAUSE THEY WERE ANTI-NAZI* 

WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED POLISH PEOPLE TO DO

AND YOU *DARE* SPITTING ON THOSE DEATHS SAYING THAT IT WAS A HANDFUL????

let me c/p it for you:

The number of Polish dead are estimated to number between 5.6 and 5.8 million according to the Institute of National Remembrance(2009). Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) and 3 million jews were victims of German Occupation policies and the war for a total of just under 5 million dead.

FIVE/FIVE-AND A HALF MILLION PEOPLE.

AND YOU CALL IT FUCKING HANDFUL?

NO ONE, LIKE LITERALLY NO ONE TRIED TO SAY THE JEWISH WEREN’T THE MAIN VICTIMS/TARGETS OF THE HOLOCAUST/WWII.

BUT YOU ARE SAYING THE ABOVE DOESN’T MATTER AND YOU’RE PROCEEDING TO INSULT THE MEMORY OF EVERYONE WHO FUCKING DIED THANKS TO THE NAZIS IN WWII and I haven’t even touched the russian war crimes but nvm that. honestly? HONESTLY?

AND I AM THE HISTORICAL REVISIONIST THAT YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS WON’T EVEN REBLOG FROM DIRECTLY AND BLOCK BEFORE SHE CAN DEFEND HERSELF BECAUSE DEEP DOWN THEY KNOW THEY’RE SPROUTING BULLSHIT?

HAHAHAHAHAHA.jpeg.

like. NO ONE like NO ONE IS EVER DENYING IT and fyi you’re talking to someone who has more than once defended the existence of israel in front of people who say it should be obliterated exactly because I think its *existence* is the least we owe jewish people for the european history of antisemitism that we have on our shoulders, and if you want the receipts I even did it on this hellsite once, HERE if you want to see how fucking antisemite I am.

but you and your friends are purposefully downplaying about everything that’s not what you want, and on top of that you are excluding from your holocaust victim list:

THIS IS A FUCKING OFFICIAL-ISH LIST OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS.

all these categories were targeted under the holocaust.

that’s historical facts.

you cannot go and say that someone stating the facts is doing revisionism when the only people doing any such thing are you and your fucking friends.

ALSO, since y’all are absolutely denying the existence of the pacific front, I will remind you kindly a few things:

unit 731 existed;

the japanese made twice the victims compared to the nazist;

japanese war crimes have zero to envy the nazi war crimes tbqh;

and since y’all are so fond of doing math to prove that the polish were shitty and that they were, like, WORSE THAN ANY OTHER OCCUPIED NATION (spoilers: lmao) and to demean the fact that even with that they still have more than a quarter of the names in the just among the nations (ps: in krakow’s history of wwii museum [or the schindler factory now I don’t recall] there are two computers with a huge af database of names. on the left you have the people who helped the jewish people somehow, on the right you have the collaborationists and you can read their life story. SOUNDS TO ME LIKE THEY ARE AWARE SOME OF THEM WERE ASSHOLES), and since y’all are a bunch of hypocrites who use real life tragedies to make a fandom point and insult idek how many people in the meantime and are also a number of things I’ll say at the end, let me do some basic math for you and I’ll also show you that reading the war in black and white is lost effort:

see that chart above?

SEE THE NUMBERS?

okay then.

jewish people: six million.

roma people: between 130k and 5k.

serbians: between 300k people and 600k people. THEY EVEN CRANK THAT TOP FIVE. WOW, AMRITE?

now. let’s take the lowest one and say that the serbians killed were 300k people.

THE NANKING MASSACRE ONLY - THAT ONE ONLY - HAD A DEATH TOLL OF 300K PEOPLE.

which means that the japanese killed in one single occasion/war crime/however you call it as many serbians as the nazis did in the course of the entire fucking war, or half the number if you take the 600k figure. but wait a moment, who, during the whole nanking affair, saved 250k people?

A FUCKING GERMAN BUSINESSMAN NAMED JOHN RABE WHO WAS ACTUALLY IN THE NAZI PARTY AND STILL SAVED THAT MANY PEOPLE TO THE POINT THAT WHEN AFTER THE WAR HE FELL INTO DISGRACE AND HE COULDN’T EAT, PEOPLE FROM NANKING SENT HIM FOOD AND RALLIED UP MONEY FOR HIM AND GUESS WHAT AFTER HE DIED HE WAS EVENTUALLY BURIED THERE RATHER THAN IN GERMANY.

like.

as I said in my first op which of course you didn’t fucking bother to link, WWII and the holocaust and the asian genocide AND everything that made it up including the pacific front that y’all just don’t really want to acknowledge, is the most fucking mucked up ethical situation in existence because again, not counting the targeted categories of the mass genocide(s) and even with that we can discuss because as we said some polish people were collaborators, the russians persecuted jewish people themselves and so on, EVERYONE ON EVERY SIDE COMMITTED ETHICAL ATROCITIES AND WHILE OF COURSE THE ALLIES EVENTUALLY WERE IN THE RIGHT POSITION THEY CERTAINLY DIDN’T SHY FROM DOING EXTREMELY SHITTY THINGS AND I’M SAYING BRITISH, AMERICANS, RUSSIANS AND EVERYONE INVOLVED AND THE WESTERN BETRAYAL ISN’T EVEN HALF OF IT. and wwii is world war two because it involved the entire fucking planet, so trying to tell people that *TWO* CATEGORIES OWN IT AND NO ONE ELSE CAN TALK ABOUT IT IS A) DEMEANING EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED DURING IT, B) FACTUALLY INCORRECT.

ALSO, y’all are still glossing over the fact that - NOT EVEN COUNTING THE POLITICAL PRISONERS DISCOURSE because I know that getting you to agree that communists, socialist and prisoners of war could be a targeted category is wasting time - SPECIFIC TARGETED VICTIMS OF THE ****HOLOCAUST**** WERE:

disabled people because they were disabled (and most of those either were killed straight or were used for medical experiments and none of those survived) so thanks for being ableist fucks and forgetting 270k people;

gay people/queer people because they were fucking gay/queer and guess what MOST OF THE SURVIVED ONES GOT ARRESTED LATER BECAUSE BEING GAY WAS STILL A CRIME ANYWAY so hey thanks for forgetting those 15k people as well, I’m sure you love the smell of homophobia in the morning;

polish + serbians + slavic people FOR BEING SLAVIC and that chart isn’t counting the hungarians/czechs as well so like if we take it with the highest value we can say you’re forgetting four million people tops and HERE in europe it’d be considered as pretty damn racist because yes you can be racist against slavic people;

the poor jehova’s witnesses obviously deserved to die there because they like to press your intercom button to tell you about our lord and savior jesus christ I guess, but nvm it was enough of them they had their purple little triangle in auschwitz, the place where PEOPLE DIDN’T DIE;

we’re obviously not gonna touch the poor spanish revolutionaries who were from a place with a huuuuuuhhhhh fascist dictatorship? ah well, 7k is really not that much, right?

idk what you want to do with the data about russians pows/civilians which if we take the highest count as in 4.5 + 3.3 makes for a whopping 7,8 million people that makes a little more than 1/4 of the total 20 million ussr casualties on a total of 80 million total which means that one fucking fourth of ALL wwii casualties were russians, but hey, that’s math for you.

the entire point is that YOU CANNOT RECLAIM OWNERSHIP OF A HISTORICAL EVEN WHERE THAT MANY PEOPLE DIED AND THINGS WERE ETHICALLY MUCKED ON BOTH SIDES AND SIMPLIFYING THINGS IS NOT A THING YOU CAN OR SHOULD DO OUT OF INTELLECTUAL HONESTY and like... first y’all say wwii and the holocaust are one thing, then that they’re separate, THEN YOUR FUCKING PAL GAMORALIVES HAS THE GALL TO SAY THAT SHIT ABOUT AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU WHICH IS LITERALLY THE FIRST THING YOU LEARN WHEN YOU OPEN A FUCKING BOOK ABOUT AUSCHWITZ AND YOU DON’T EVEN CALL HER OUT ON *THAT* BULLSHIT, BUT THEN YOU GO AROUND SAYING THAT WE’RE REVISIONISTS???

BECAUSE WE SAID THE FACTUAL TRUTH IE THAT A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT CATEGORIES DIED BECAUSE OF NAZI CRIMES?

like, especially if you’re american and your grandfather didn’t risk losing a limb or getting ptsd in this damned war: don’t. and tbh if you’re american and willingly ignore the pacific front when the usa basically shouldered most of that side of the war by themselves out of all the allied coalition idek what you learn in school but I’m fucking worried about your educational system.

but sure go around saying that that I’m an *antisemite* just because I told you the actual historical facts while you demean around, idk, 70 million people deaths with your arguments contradicting themselves and @gamoralives goes around sprouting factual bullshit about how auschwitz works (because excuse me that’s factual bullshit period) and y’all do it after having blocked me preventively (okay, the tumblr user I tagged hasn’t yet but I’m sure it’s a short time coming) and haven’t engaged with me directly once because I have an inkling that having my original OPs on their blog would have made them look like the assholes they are. totes makes sense. next time I run into my former ***self-declared fascist*** classmates who called me a jew-abiding commie when I was nine I’ll tell them that according to you I agree with them. jfc.

and fyi, I never, never, NEVER in my entire life read anything by a jewish wwii survivor or a jewish wwii historian or anyone jewish discussing wwii/writing about wwii/making movies about wwii where the message was your message. the message usually was ‘we were the main targeted party but other people were with us as well and we can only hope it never happens again if everyone knows about it and talks about it’, and I can assure you I read wwii fiction, nonfiction and such on made by people of every damned background including memorials of camps survivors.

I mean, you ever read this is a man?

written by italian jewish chemist-then-writer primo levi who survived auschwitz and later killed himself out of survivor’s guilt?

I mean, if I were you I’d consider reading this shit and then avoiding saying things that go directly against what actual auschwitz survivors had to say about the entire thing while automatically having a greater understanding of how human nature works than any of us in this discussion, but what have you, you have the infused truth given to you and no one else around here has and you’re all, constantly, treating world war two as if it happened in a social context that’s, guess what, the usa’s.

it. was. not. deal with it and for the love of fucking everything at least if you want to call me an antisemite do it to my fucking face and not vagueblogging about me and only c/p-ing comments and not, like, THE ENTIRE OP.

but hey, we all know that if you knew you were in the right you would let your followers read what I actually said in the first place.

but honestly, honestly, I’m fucking appalled that I had to write all of this crap down and that we’re fucking comparing AUSCHWITZ CAMPS BECAUSE Y’ALL WANT TO MAKE A POINT ABOUT A DUMBASS *FICTIONAL FANFIC THAT WASN’T EVEN WRITTEN YET* AND YOU’RE DOING THIS OVER SHIP FANDOM DRAMA.

I mean, it seems to me that discussing this shit over fucking fandom drama is tasteless and honestly insulting af but whatever, you have the incensed truth of it.

please come at me and tell me how wrong I am.

to my face, thank you. btw: it’s rich of you to assume that poland in wwii was the template for how every other country behaved especially bc poland has a specific history that’s not shared by most other european countries, but reading your posts one starts thinking that according to you most of wwii got fought in poland while everyone else was chilling back and sending targeted categories to concentration camps while sipping a few margaritas and then all of a sudden the americans decided to drop the h bomb on the japanese BECAUSE THEY FELT LIKE IT (I mean you didn’t say that but knowing how tumblr talks about wwii I have a feeling it’s where it’s headed) and then it was all over but let me tell you, it’s so wrong and simplicistic and misinformed and misleading that I don’t think the level of a-historicism in all of your posts - and your friends’s which I haven’t shared because otherwise I’d have been here until tomorrow - is so mind-boggling it’s not quantifiable.

cheers. ps: technically I could report you for slandering me because that’s just about what you did. think about that. and no, you couldn’t report me for the contrary because differently from you I never said anything that wasn’t true or sourced and most of all I never once said jewish people weren’t the most targeted group.

have fun, I guess, if you read this far.

ah, btw, just because you’re demeaning consequences of wwii on civilians: my grandmother didn’t fight in it and wasn’t part of any targeted category, but they were starving so much during the war (and they were in the american side of italy good for them) that for the following sixty years up until she died she wouldn’t waste a drop of food, she wouldn’t spend a cent that wasn’t absolutely necessary and wouldn’t go to the doctor’s because IT WASN’T AS BAD AS THE WAR and every time anyone told her to take a rest she’d say that WE WEREN’T IN THE WAR SO WE COULDN’T UNDERSTAND and it ended with all of her kids having... issues that more or less go back to that and her approach on life made sure that she spent her old age suffering for shit she could have helped but wouldn’t because THE WAR and she died after one year of real fucking bad conditions BECAUSE SHE ENDED UP IN THOSE CONDITIONS BECAUSE OF HER ISSUES THAT WENT BACK TO FUCKING WWII and if it was like that for her try imagine people who fought in it or survived it or their descendants and come tell me to my face again that no one else suffered because of the fucking second world war.

sincerely, go fuck yourself. all of you. and I hope you feel half-ashamed that you went as far as this but I have a feeling y’all are so self-centered you wouldn’t get it.

ps: I’m done with this discourse from this point on but like if y’all think I’m letting you shit talk me behind my back you can forget it. :)

[cartoonessays]

“This Wasn’t Made For You”

WARNING: The following piece contains spoilers for Bao and other films.

I ranted about Pixar shorts a few years ago, mystified by what I saw was a decline in quality.  I was feeling like ever since Paperman, Disney and Pixar got stuck in telling the same tired and generic “boy meets girl” love stories with their shorts, Lava being their nadir.  They were creating new and amazing art aesthetics with shorts like Paperman, Blue Umbrella, and Feast, but my nagging thought watching these was that imagine if they used these boundary pushing aesthetics to tell a story that’s actually worth a damn.

There’s good news, though.  I think there’s been an improvement since then.

I haven’t seen or remember every Pixar/Disney short since 2015, so I’ll bring up the ones I remember off the top of my head.  Sanjay’s Super Team was like a breath of fresh air, especially after the embarrassing Lava.  I don’t really remember the hermit crab short that came before Finding Dory.  The short right before Moana about the dude’s internal organs was mediocre.  I didn’t see the short before Cars 3 and the half-hour Christmas special before Coco starring Mater the Snowman was pretty excruciating.  As of this writing, the most recent short is Bao, which is about a Chinese woman doting on a little dumpling she made as her child.

I liked this one very much.  I absolutely loved the cartoony way the human characters were designed and the cartoony way they were animated.  And while the story of the growing rift between the doting mother and the dumpling child wanting to go his own way in life as he grew up didn’t move me to tears, it was nonetheless very touching.

The short was directed by Domee Shi, a Chinese-Canadian woman and just like with Sanjay’s Super Team and its director Sanjay Patel, Bao draws on Shi’s Chinese background.  There seems to be a weirdly polarizing reception to Bao, attracting a lot of praise (particularly from other Asians) and confusion (particularly from white people).

Bao’s story is particularly resonant to Asians raised by immigrants in a Western country.  I’m not Asian, but I didn’t think the story was so uniquely Asian or Chinese that it’s completely unrelatable to anyone outside of that culture.  Bao is basically a condensed version of A Goofy Movie.  It shares parallels with Brave and the aforementioned Sanjay’s Super Team too.  So I’m completely mystified that there has been such a big chunk of people so detached to this that they can only come away from it baffled.

I’m also the child of immigrant parents who’s culture has not been represented in any of the cartoons I grew up watching or have watched since growing up.  Relating to all the white, Japanese, and anthropomorphic characters that inhabit all my favorite animated shows and films was never a problem for me.  As a matter of fact, I always found it even cooler when those shows introduced me to parts of their culture I wasn’t familiar with.  I’m not Jewish, so I was introduced to Passover and Hanukkah through episodes of Rugrats.  I learned what a bar mitzvah was through Hey Arnold!.  I’m not Persian, and one of my all-time favorite films is Persepolis.  The concept of Bao and the emotional gut-punch scene where the mother, fed up with her dumpling child’s defiance, devours him is no less confusing than CatDog’s mom and dad being a big blue Sasquatch thing and a big nosed frog.  They’re all metaphors for the points they’re getting at.

Asian fans of Bao were also mystified by some of the glib and dismissive responses the short has gotten from some white audience members.  Some of these fans argue and defend its cultural specificity to Asian immigrant culture by suggesting they should suck it up because this isn’t for them and there’s a billion other media that centers their experiences anyway.

(I don’t know how to embed tweets on Tumblr posts....)

I don’t agree with this take either.  Like I mentioned before, I don’t think Bao is so specific to Chinese culture that it can’t be relatable to anyone outside of it.  Domee Shi’s perspective is still one that comes from growing up in the West and she directed this film for a Western studio that primarily targets Western audiences i.e. audiences that aren’t Asian.  A studio like Pixar would never release a film that would only be relatable to a small cultural niche.  When Disney or Pixar portrays any cultures outside the dominant, they always package it in a way that allows for those outside of it to engage, for better or for worse.

However…

In This Corner of the World is a movie adaptation of a manga about a young artist who lived in Hiroshima during World War II.  I watched this movie last fall and I didn’t like it.  I found it too mundane and it was a struggle to keep from dozing off or to keep my attention on it.  This is a film that has garnered critical acclaim so I was confused by what I was missing, especially because I really liked other films/manga like Grave of the Fireflies and Barefoot Gen.  But then I realized something.

Most of In This Corner of the World takes place before Hiroshima is bombed by the United States.  The story mostly revolves around the young artist named Suzu getting married, moving in with her new husband’s family, and adjusting to her new duties as a wife.  These aren’t things that readily come to my mind when I think of Hiroshima.  When I think of Hiroshima, I think of the ravages and the immediate drama portrayed in Barefoot Gen or Grave of the Fireflies (although that didn’t take place in Hiroshima).  I don’t think of marriage or domestic home life when I think of Hiroshima.

And this is what is so pivotal about In This Corner of the World.  It portrayed Hiroshima and its residents before the bombing, laying them bare as no different than any other town in Japan (or anywhere, really).  The people there get up in the morning, go to work, get married, raise children, play, laugh, and cry just like anyone else.  Even as the war rages on in the background, the people of Hiroshima do their best go on with their lives.  The tragedy of the film is that the reality of living in a war-torn country steadily disrupts their lives more and more until it is unavoidable.  It started with taking shelter during the occasional air raid.  Then it continues with Suzu occasionally seeing bombs exploding in the sky.  Then it continues with food and water rations.  It continues further when the air raids increase in frequency and devastation.  And then it hits close to home when Suzu’s older brother is killed in action.  It hits even closer to home when Suzu’s sweet little niece is blown up by a time-delayed bomb.  This all culminates at the end of the film when the nuclear bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.

Hiroshima will forever be haunted by the specter of the nuclear bomb, even as the surviving residents continued to live on as best as they can for the next 70+ years.  There are several generations of Japanese people who only know a Hiroshima after the bombing.  So it is a big deal that In This Corner of the World provides their audience with a vision of what Hiroshima was before the bomb and what it could have been if not for the bomb.  I can only imagine how powerful this is for Japanese audiences, especially those from Hiroshima, those who have relatives from Hiroshima, or those who have loved ones who died in Hiroshima.  I specifically say “I can only imagine” because this was not my response to the film.  I have no cultural or personal connection to Hiroshima at all, and I think this why my response to this film was so lukewarm.

In other words, In This Corner of the World wasn’t made for me.

This isn’t to say it could only resonate with Japanese people or people from Hiroshima.  Based off of its critical acclaim, it clearly has wider appeal.  I’m just acknowledging this as the likely reason it didn’t personally resonate with me.

So for those that didn’t like Bao, they don’t have to like it.  I just think it would do them some good to think about why it might resonate more with others and to demonstrate more thoughtfulness in their discourse.

Hell, I don’t doubt there are people who did culturally relate to Bao and still didn’t like it.  Actually, I related pretty strongly to Riley’s gradual descent into depression in Inside Out and it’s nonetheless one of only two Pixar films I didn’t like.

[xtreme-icecream]

lls2 ep 1 meta recap post?

Intro: last night (oct 7, 2017, around 10pm PHT) i was pseudo-liveblogging on the first episode of love live sunshine season 2, posting caps and spouting dirt-tier memes when my good ol pal @sabraee (y’all know her as miki also check out her metapost) dropped into my dm’s, also in the middle of digesting the ep, and said to me something to the effect of “hey dude you should totally make some meta posts”

like a day later, here i am, trying my hand at the whole LLS meta talk business

yea this is a screencap from the ep and this is what my irrelevant captions look like. also, sunrise visual pun! symbolic? uh yea

I’m crap at intros! hi im xtreme-icecream, known by some as nick, my only background in metanalysis posting is that one post i made last year about ep 9. join me for some serious dang nerd talk about LLS: Lyrical Lesbian Saga!

Before we begin the season I think it would be useful to bring up Sunshine’s big themes, what the story is supposed to make you think about and what drives it. From season 1 we can glean, roughly and in my crude, breezy language:

This is very important: There’s Nothing In The Country. City Folk Have It All. (Fight For Your Folks In The Boonies. No One Else Will.)

You can’t follow the footsteps of your idols if the roads have changed. Chika took a beating (in her heart) to get in her head that five years of competitive evolution and their own circumstances mean Aqours can never be μ's 2.0.

“Shining” (and what it means)

something zero to one. something out of nothing.

Sunshine is going to come back to these concepts again and again because that’s what the story is about, and we gotta keep that in mind when we analyze a storyline. What’s it trying to show us bout This Thing? What aspect of This Thing are we talking about this episode? etc. Season 2 may have new themes, probs does, and if they’re woven in well we’ll be able to figure out what they are.

Ok cool we are equipped to Dig In. The episode opens with Chika.

this paper plane is a new thing. we’ll be seeing it a lot. it means something, but a sloppy caption isn’t the place to talk about that so just remember it

Spoiler alert: It’s a dream sequence. She’s wondering what makes people shine. As if picking up right where the last season left off, Chika’s in her Mirai Ticket outfit. She’s running toward either the paper plane or the light, and as the former disappears into the latter, she laments how close she was to reaching it. Real-world Chika is crying at this point, and as a teardrop falls, it destroys the fragile glass footing of the Chika in her dream.

The fall shakes her awake, and after she catches her breath, Shiitake barks at her and... wakes her up again?

Anomaly: This is the first episode of the season. Studios typically devote a good chunk of their budget relative to the rest of the season on the first and last episodes. That said, Shiitake is not there at all when Chika falls off her bed, and I doubt that they’d make a scene transition error like that right in the start of the season. A subtle blur effect also frames the above shot with Shiitake. Maybe she was dreaming half-awake, maybe dreaming of dreaming will mean something later down the line, just. This was odd.

Shiitake aside, Chika’s dream is a very visual scene, especially remembering that the closing shot of Mirai Ticket last season was Chika running and reaching a light in the distance. Aside from the costume and the light, her outstretched hand and the paper plane will also be recurring motif shots, in this episode at least.

And the atmosphere of the dream is just the beginning.

More importantly, she’s late. 

Also in a first episode, and especially for a character-driven story like Sunshine, Sunrise wants everyone to get a feel of these girls’ characters. I will say right now that not much really happens in the first episode this time around, and if I’m right, it will because the plot was right up there with character establishment when it came to their first episode goals.

In a nice example of this, right off the bat we can see Mari, Dia and Kanan’s dynamic as Fiery Responsible StuCo President, Prime Memer Director, and the Godsent Voice of Calm and Reason, respectively. This is easy mode, though, cause it’s one of the most vivid, natural... organic... free-range character dynamics in Aqours.

Also exposited in this scene are the following: new season (term), chika’s Still late, and they lost the regional prelims (the participation prizes were ridiculous i love it). Mari overhears the first years talking about this and tells everyone to shut up in English because the next Love Live is now right around the corner!

And then Chika arrives and answers the question on everyone’s minds: Are they up for the next one?

Heck Yeah Boi

this shot is a fav of mine because not only did they dedicate time and effort into designing 6 classes’ worth of girls to keep the consistency when they strike this cute formation, but also because you can see the symptoms of Uranohoshi’s fatal and terminal disease right there. Aqours is about a fifth of the whole student body, and there’s a steep, steady decline in new students when you look at how many first, second, and third years we have here.

Back to the story, note that Chika’s idea of the future sounds like this right now: enter Love Live, do awesome, save the school and then Shine the best they can. Oh Chika.

And now, the fresh new OP.

Okay as visual I am when it comes to these things, there’s not much to pick apart here. I could gush plenty about how Sunrise has evolved with their production and talk about the choreo, but that’s not what the post is about. The two caps above are the only two really (immediately) noteworthy things there that might have more meaning than ‘damn does this look cool or what’

The girls running to the light and the paper plane, and the third years’ fountain. (The latter strikes me as an ‘aw look that’s their Spot look how they’ve grown’ kind of thing.)

Don’t ask me about the song lyrics, i dont know

Back to Plot

can i just say!! i loved it when she said ‘that was perfect, zura’. idk why i cant even tell if she was sarcastic or not but ruby is cheering! her! on!!

Practice time! We see Yoshiko make her first chuuni excuse of the season and that Hanamaru is not really that athletic. Ruby is an angel. Character establishment enough.

While discussing the future of Aqours’ course, Dia brings up, in a very smart and opportunistic way (inspired by μ's? maybe), that the open house is coming up soon and it would be a great place to have a little performance. Chika is totally behind this, and now that’s the plan, team.

Meanwhile, Mari gets an ominous phone call...

no one even Looks at this. no one at all.

Aqours hangs out at the bus stop and find their newest dilemma: the open house is fast approaching and the season is cutting their already short practice times even shorter. they don’t mull over it very long because Chika has Got this guys.

Also in this scene, there’s a pretty notable chunk of time devoted to Riko explaining her mom’s newfound friendship with Yoshiko’s mom and teasing Yoshiko over Her Dark Past as a Young Fiendling. I haven’t figured out the purpose of this scene, because we get a split-second look at Yoshiko’s room later in the episode anyway if that’s what they want to show, and her streaming thing doesn’t need this much time to bring up. I suspect they’re setting up for a future plot development (cool), but either way, this is a good piece of character development.

Another thing that took an unusually big amount of time is the shot of Kanan noticing something wrong with Mari. I swear it’s five seconds longer than it needs to be, and five seconds for an anime reaction shot is A Lot.

Dia, for some reason, notices much later. Not in this scene.

What comes of all this is a little later. First, the Beach

Motha Fokin Parallelism

Yeah, parallelism. Riko wild introductory scene in LLS1 gets plenty of echoes here that I doubt I really need to provide pics for. Do the events in the scene and the dialogue do the same, though?

(It can’t, because in Riko’s version the dialogue was “oh my god she’s going to die” “*determined yelling” and “stop, you’ll die”)

Here Chika discusses with Riko how, even if it was just for a second, singing with everyone (in their last performance last season, I take it) helped her understand what it means to shine. (This is odd because last episode they had a whole play? about figuring that out. Did she forget or something? More on that later.) After this she does the baffling thing of running down the pear and jumping off it.

Now it’s not exact, but this I believe counts as parallelism, too.

top: chika in this scene | bottom: chika in the dream earlier this episode

Here’s where I, too, reach, trying to figure out why Chika even did that. The shot above is meant to bring to mind that same motion in Chika’s dream, and lights in this episode Mean something. Her goal, I guess. Shining again. The distance of the hand to the camera in the above shot and the softer lighting makes the goal seem much closer, and Chika is talking about when she started to understand what shining was all about.

When Chika runs off the pier this scene, she’s remembering and trying to relive what she did in the dream (which is totally a Chika thing, imo). She runs off the pier for inspiration, trying to understand a bit more, which is just the same reason Riko ran off the pier when she did it last season.

So yeah! Dialogue Does Not echo, but the uhh cinematography and the reasons behind the characters actions Do. In this scene we see the parts of Riko that Chika has adopted. Another scene later shows the other half.

Also of note, this is just a thing I personally enjoyed, but if you try to match up parts of the dream and this pier scene with each other, Riko catching Chika more or less matches up with where the glass floor breaking was.

Not all of this really comes to the casual viewer, though. If I had to do mental gymnastics to make sense of everything then it lacks flow and cohesiveness. In fact, my interpretation might even be wrong, and in that case, I really don’t understand what all these odd shot decisions mean. 

Speaking of decisions...

For the first time in Love Live history, a dude has some major bearing on the plot! Whatever Mari hears, it’s bad, probably has to do with the school (because what else does she have) and she’s just feeling Awful about it.

(Wonder why her dad, a hotel+resort guy, calling the shots for some school. His money i guess)

Just in time, a familiar light glints off the end of the pier. Kanan, who apparently is afraid of dropping her phone in the water while jetskiing, would like a word with Mari.

She cuts to the chase. What happened?

Mari tries to avoid answering the question. This happens.

Which is totally unnecessary and very extra of Kanan tbh but im quite sure it was appreciated. They needed a hook for their first trailer. Also apparently Kanan does something like this often enough to know how much Mari weighs. (Sunrise thinks theyre so slick with what ships they back. No this is probably the gayest thing ever.) Also, she threatens to sue Mari again. I really wonder why her go-to threat is with lawsuits.

Now that Mari can’t escape, Kanan pries the answer out of her, and Mari kind of just. Crumbles right there. 

We don’t learn yet what was wrong.

The next day, they’re still figuring out where to practice. While we see Maru do a spook and the mess in Yoshiko’s room (the numazu gamers mascot, whom i love, cameos), Dia finally notices something suspicious about Mari (and Kanan). It’s really so weird how the student council president, Mari’s other best friend, the other thoughtful mom friend in the team, takes a hint so late isn’t immediately told about the open campus issue. On one hand, Mari really doesn’t want to break it to her, but on the other, I don’t think Dia’s this slow about things like this. 

When she learns about what’s going on, she gives a very gentle buu-buu, though and her expression is really soft. There’s lots of kinds of love and this is one of them. She seems to understand.

All that said, though, to be blunt, when it comes to things like this, Sunrise constantly gives Dia the short end of the stick when it comes to serious third-year matters, and even their relationship. Her learning about the open house cancellation feels like a formality. Aside from an upset that can be resolved in like two lines, we'd have lost no development had Dia not been informed. It becomes more and more difficult to believe that Kanan and Dia have equal footing as Mari’s friend as they keep this up.

look at the in the background all sad and blurry. dam

The scene cuts to their new practice area, probably also based on a real-world location in Numazu. You’s dad’s friend rented it out, but it’s not being used right now so they’re free to practice there (and it’s really awesome because uh Mirrors dude). In the process, we are reminded that Yo’s dad is a sailor.

After some totally appropriate gushing over the new practice area, and before they can waste their time on a performance they’re not even going to do, The Truth Come Out: Uranohoshi’s open campus is canceled on the grounds that they won’t be accepting any new applicants next year. It’s dead.

Miki’s post mentioned the impact this news could’ve had is dampened because the info that matters here (no future applicants ever) is stated second, and after a commercial break at that. I agree. Just a few seconds could’ve been spared to say the whole thing.

Despite Chika’s best and most daring efforts, it’s just made out that it’s final. Mari’s efforts as Director, their efforts as idols, everything they’ve done -- it didn’t change anything. Mari, understandably, having given up her future for this, is the most sorry.

I have a lot of thoughts about Mari but i’ll get to them some other time maybe

When you compare how μ's and Aqours started, there might not have been a chance from the beginning. It’s been said time and time again: μ's had people, the city, and less competition. Akiba was right next door. Aqours had none of that, and their threat of school closure had been looming overhead much longer. You could say not that they’ve just had it coming. 

Here’s the thing: Last season, last episode, shining was all about enjoying yourself no matter what crap comes along. Aqours (Chika’s) wasn’t even founded to save the school at first, and we already know they’ve ditched following μ's way of doing things. Why is this a failure? This wasn’t even on the agenda.

It all wraps around in the next few scenes.

One Billion CG Cranes Are In This Tower. not really

In the short scene following this, the paper cranes Chika gets in her room from Mu and the other ura girls drive home who she failed.

Last episode, I noticed it was kind of a Thing that Uranohoshi backed Aqours and was part of them in a way Otonokizaka wasn’t for μ's. 9 was μ's number -- μ's was the nine of them, even when Otonoki students shoveled snow out of their path and countless other idols came together to perform behind their lead.

Aqours was 3, then 9, then 9 and Uchiura, who were the 10 in their count-off. Uchiura and Uranohoshi had more presence in the narrative of Aqours than Akiba and Otonokizaka did with μ's. All of them, alongside Aqours, wanted and tried to save the school they loved and help their town.

Simply but dramatically put, μ's were leaders. Aqours are champions. That’s their big functional difference.

The scene after this reiterates how much Uranohoshi is looking to Aqours for help. What do the students think when Mari breaks the news to everyone?

They want to do something, too, of course, but they know that Aqours is their best shot. And if that failed, they don’t have anything to fall back on.

The following ChikaRiko scene is a lot like the last. The discussion is of the same topic as the S1 version; the standing party gives some words of encouragement to the sitting party, they act like a kaiju (they’re both monsters of normalcy huh), and then they talk about the future.

The end of the conversation is much more sullen, though. At S1 the kaiju ended on a hopeful note -- Chika helped pick up Riko’s mood and they talked about who they were and what drove them. A white feather was there.

Here, they both end up sitting down. They both wanted Aqours to go one, but now neither of them know what to do.

Later, Chika’s too depressed for dinner. She’s still mulling over what’s next for her.

As she reflects, we see the images that come to her mind: the Mirai Ticket performance, Mari delivering the news about Ura High, the other students, and Riko.

hey you know that thing in japanese culture where if you fold a thousand paper cranes you can make a wish? that is absolutely relevant.

She gives the tower of cranes one last, meaningful look before turning over and falling asleep.

She returns to her dream in the beginning, where she’s alone in her Mirai Ticket outfit with a paper plane and a single, distant light. The plane flies into the light one more, and Chika suddenly awakes.

And bolts out the inn, straight to school.

Where she stops in the middle of the sports field and roars her biggest, proudest normal monster roar. 

She’s going to work some damn Miracles. She has to, for everyone.

What happens after this point is pretty straight forward. Aqours is so Squad they know when their leader is going out in the asscrack of dawn to do their best inspirational godzilla impression.

And they’re All gonna make miracles happen. None of them are going to give up. It’s the most zero to one thing ever.

Sunrise! First light of the day, last light of this episode, and a great image to close on. It’s the go-to symbol for hope and beginnings, and even more relevant here after all the light-chasing Chika’s done.

Chika’s not done, though. 

She get up on the bars, states her plans loud and clear, and catches a paper plane fly past her into the sky.

Then the credits roll.

...Hm! I’m done! I’m not touching the ED right now because I got a nice closing mood just now.

My picking it apart had to do with it, because I’m slow to absorb some things really unless I look, but I liked the episode. It’s a 6/10 as a first episode, but as a part of Aqours story and their collective character development, I liked it. It set the bar for the scale of their goal this time around and, destroying math, made the zero even bigger.

Main qualms i have: S1 ep13′s definition of shining is nowhere to be seen despite “shining” appearing so much this ep, scene timing could’ve been a little tighter, You and Ruby didn’t really get moments, they still need to treat Dia right, and some things, idk maybe it’s just me, but they’re kinda convoluted in their execution. I needed to pay some serious attention to connect some dots this time.

As for me, though, I don’t know how often I’ll make posts like these, I’m a very slow worker. Maybe some episodes I really want to talk about, or some topics, like uhhhh Mari.

Anyway guys if you read all this, thanks, let’s have a good one! We’re in Sunrise’s questionably capable hands. No doubt there’s more angst on the way.

Feedback is 👍 and I’ll see y’all around!

(Also if fsr u got someth to say to be abt my words on ep 9 that’s 👍 too)

[theticklefox-blog]

Snatch the Series: My Review

Note: this will contain spoilers, so read no further if you haven’t watched the series yet. It will also contain negative opinions on some issues, so if the show was everything you ever wished for... this isn’t for you and I don’t want to upset you. Just enjoy the GIFs (which betray my biases) and skip the rest.

I really, really wanted to like Snatch.   Honest I did. I keenly anticipated it from the moment it was announced, despite my not being a huge fan of Guy Richie or the film version. The previews made the show look energetic and fun and most of the actors are consistently good, and playing types of characters they’re not necessarily known for, which I always appreciate.  Also, fans of the other actors, Luke Pasqualino and Rupert Grint in particular, were very kind and helpful in providing news, BTS video and rare photos as the series filmed, and were-- mostly-- good about not posting spoilers without a warning.

So it saddens me to report  I found the show more annoying than involving. A large part of that is due to the slipshod writing, underwritten characterization and reliance on jarring edits and often “WTF?!” character motivations and action that made it difficult for me to care about the protagonists (or even perceive them as protagonists, really... let’s say The Young Pretty People The Writers Clearly Wanted Us To Like.) 

Mostly I’m upset Marc Warren’s considerable talents were wasted on such a grand scale. So much could have been made of Bob Fink in the hands of a more creative writing staff... every week on Fargo and Better Call Saul, to name just two current examples, corrupt cops and wannabe gangsters (who are often the same characters) have rich, unpredictable storylines which give talented actors a broad canvas on which to showcase their talents and play off one another. But the Fink charter is merely insulted by everyone in his orbit from the beginning (which, frankly, just made me sympathize with him), marginalized in most of the plot and never given enough to do. 

I suspect Ed Westwick fans are also somewhat frustrated that Westwick, who was front and center in most of the promotion,  was too easily dispensed with in episode four, and that most of his colorful momements were actually given away the commercials. 

I'm still baffled by Marc’s treatment in that promotion. His name was literally never mentioned once by other actors or by the show’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds, though he’s the closest thing to a main antagonist the show has. (Photos of his character appeared, but Marc was never named.)  Did Marc want to avoid being part of the publicity? Was it some sort of misguided decision by the marketing staff because Marc is relatively unknown here, or even because a handful of people keep whining about how much they disliked his character on The Good Wife? I just don’t get it. I’d like some answers about this.

But the promotional absurdities wouldn’t  matter if Marc had been given a decent role to play, and he was shorted in that department too... Fink could have been a great villain or a great tragic character, but, despite some great acting moments from Marc, he wasn’t allowed to be either. The character is bullied, deceived and marginalized by both his gangster friends and corrupt police associates, yet  the writing kept implying he deserved this without ever providing proof. 

Then there was the Vic Hill character, who the writers clearly intended to be charming, but I saw only a thuggish man-child who continuously jeopardizes his family and bullies his perceived underlings. I hated him from the beginning and he only got worse. Dougray Scott’s hammily overdone performance didn’t help matters. I was on Bob’s side pretty much from the start... if only the writers had a clue about nuance and a willingness to challenge their audience or divide it, but... no. There was no character depth to speak of anywhere.

As for the young leads... the old kiddie ganster musical Bugsy Malone kept popping into my head. i couldn’t take them seriously as adults despite the fact these actors are in their late 20s-early 30s and more than capable of playing bona fide adults if they’d been given a decent script. Instead they were given hoary paint-by-numbers plot cliches cribbed from every gangster movie since the 1920s, padded out by clumsily-executed heist sequences and flashbacks that played like music videos.  

In some ways it seemed like the series had two or three episodes worth of material, and the rest was filler, leading to a number of pointless tangents and inexplicable actions. The backstory about the gold was goofy at best, and nice coincidence about it resurfacing exactly when and where Albert, Charlie et al were planning to hijack Sonny’s cash (in an identical truck, no less). The show is full of such cartoonish improbabilities, though none delivered with the verve of an actual cartoon.  

There are repetitive flashback’s of Vic’s original heist (yeah, let’s show Bob getting heaped with more abuse... ), loony side-stories filling in for character development (ie Billy’s whole backstory... what a wasted opportunity that was. Though Lucien Laviscount did a great job with the few subtle dialogue moments he got between having to beat people up and listen to crazy yarns about his parents), repetitive scenes of Charlie getting impaired in various ways, an out-of-nowhere love triangle that seems to be there just to divide the main group, female characters who have too little to do in general except be feisty and supportive (or, in the case of Dwyer, feisty and cuntish)... I get the sense the scripts were all written in the weekend before filming began, and that no one really scrutinized them closely. 

Yes, I’m a Marc Warren fan and am biased. And I knew going in that he was probably playing an antagonist and that he’d get iced in the final episode... I’m used to all of that. Pretty much every actor I’ve ever admired from Lon Chaney Sr onward got typecast as villains or outsiders and got killed onscreen more times than Steve Buscemi does throughout the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre. I don’t have a problem with that. Conventional heroes and the squarejaws who play them bore me. I love complicated characters and character actors who seek out such roles.   

But I don't appreciate youth-obsessed deck-stacking, treating bullies as heroes, and writing which both wants our protagonists to be “bad-ass” or at least risk-taking, yet continuously lets them off the hook, either through miraculous escapes or through having the older characters or one-note side characters take bullets for them or do the dirty work. Full disclosure: I haven’t bothered with the last two episodes because I was so disgusted with what went down in episode 8. I’m pretty sure the Young Pretty People prevailed and that Albert redeemed the sins of his father and finally said something nice to Charlie according to schedule. I can’t say I really care. 

As in The Musketeers, Marc played a bullied, mistreated character who I couldn’t help but care about, both because Marc is such an exquisite actor even in marginal roles, and because I tend to side with complicated or oppressed characters, not with self-described “heroes”.  In both shows, despite being the nominal villain, his character was shunted to the sidelines for too much of the duration, then suddenly given a lot of screentime just before being ganged up on and killed off.  So yeah, the worst kind of deja vu... in The Musketeers at least Rochefort had some fun or powerful moments, and I understood that the show’s episodic structure hindered a more nuanced character through-line. 

But Snatch has no such excuses. Also: couldn’t Bob and Charlie have had a sustained sequence or conversation without annoying cutaways to more trivial matters, like Vic torturing Charlie’s butler (which was played for laughs! God how I hated Vic...)? And why did Bob keep leaving the apartment? Apart from more plot-padding I mean? Why didn’t Bob shoot Vic when he had the chance? Because he really should have. Why was the whole tiresome side trip to America necessary, given how easily Billy got the diamonds back? Much of the plot strains on like that, making no sense. 

The Snatch showrunners keep comparing their efforts to Fargo, Noah Hawley’s brilliant offshoot of the Coens’ film (of all their films, really)... they need to stop doing this. It does them no favors and it makes me pine for Marc to get cast on Hawley’s show (or anything by Vince Gilligan) instead. Yes, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, because the writers on those shows know something about ambiguity, character development, unpredictable plotting, creative musical cues, and, most essentially, how to hire great character actors and write roles worthy of them, then give them room to breathe onscreen.   Hawley or Gilligan would’ve known what to do with Bob Fink. They could’ve done for Marc what they’ve done for Giancarlo Esposito, Bryan Cranston, Jonathan Banks, Bokeem Woodbine, Alison Tolman... even established stars like Ewen McGregor  and Billy Bob Thornton have shown new capabilities on Fargo. I would donate my left kidney to see Marc on one of those shows, whereas if the Snatch crew had created Breaking Bad... I'm sure Walter White would’ve been killed off in season one while the balance of the show went on to document the hijinks of Badger and Skinny Pete.   

I know I’ve gone on long enough, but I'm still bitter. ;) Marc Warren has really scaled back his acting commitments in recent years. I have no idea why, whether his priorities now lie elsewhere (and it’s none of my business to guess where), or whether he’s just not getting the calibre of role he’d like... if Snatch and Audible “Audio dramas” are the best he’s being offered, it must be very frustrating, but I don't want to judge his choices when I have no idea why they were made. Marc rarely gives interviews these days.  He has said in the past that Mad Dogs arose from the poor quality of roles offered him at that time. If he and his actor friends wanted to crowdfund something along those lines I would do everything in my power to promote that or help. If Marc simply wants to focus his attentions elsewhere and not act so often, that’s perfectly within his rights as well. Of course he owes me nothing. I hope that when he appears at Birmingham’s Collectormania fancon to do signings next month (June 3) he’ll give us a hint of some kind. (Don’t worry, Marc, I won’t be there... I only do the fangirl thing from a distance.) 

Anyhow... with Marc doing so few projects lately, it’s incredibly frustrating to wait months for something like Snatch, that so consistently fails to deliver. Marc does the best he can and has some great moments in spite of the limits he’s working under. As I’ve said, there was the potential for a great, messy, complicated character there. He deserved so much better.

[andseperand]

thoughts

ive been sitting on this post for the better part of a year. i tried to read through it and make edits, but im going to have to post this as is. maybe ill be able to edit it someday. anyway, this is completely composed of spoilers.

tl;dr: i mostly wrote bitterness about “kung food,” “origins part 1,″ and “reflekta.”

these are my thoughts on what ive watched of the first season of miraculous ladybug (i have watched most of every episode except the last three).

i may be confused or misinformed on some points. some of this is not as serious as other parts, and the writing style is disjointed because i didnt write it all in one go. any links are formatted within brackets (as in [text]).

ordered by the order i initially watched (parts of) the episodes in and indicated by villain name somehow (english, korean, french, french translation, etc.).

stormy weather/climatika

why did alya just toss manon like that? she couldve hurt something just being thrown around with her tiny little bones and joints that lack any significant cushioning. not to mention that her neck is completely unsupported. safety, much?

the bubbler/le bulleur

so the record is fully functional but also survived getting smacked off a building on its edge? wow.

copycat/l’imposteur/the imposter

i get that alya is supposed to be that “go-getter” friend who pushes marinette to be brave, but honestly, if she had waited another minute for marinette to be more ready for making a phone call, this wouldve been less of a mess. yeah, i get the “pushing boundaries to build confidence,” but honestly we could have waited for marinette to stop stalking adrien, too.

i gotta say: marinette is truly fearless. my phone is so suspicious. i would not have the confidence to deliberately touch it with my face and risk contact with who knows what has been on it.

the “moral” or whatever of this episode is kind of unclear? steal someones phone and run into issues with security but then also somehow break into it and get what you want anyway? no, thats not okay. its not that funny that marinette legitimately stole someones phone, and she doesnt even get seriously reprimanded for this.

timebreaker/chronogirl

one of the most pressing questions i have for this episode is why no one thought of using pockets or a bag or something to hold this important watch. hand perspiration is pretty bad for a lot of older and newer mechanical objects alike. why is this clearly-important item treated any different? ive considered both the “tikki is in the bag” (doesnt mean it has to be marinettes bag) and the “girl pockets” (marinette designed her own clothes, though) possibilities, and im still stumped.

mister/monsieur/mr./m. pigeon

how did chloe know what the colors were or even what the embroidery pattern looked like from a pencil sketch? it looked like chicken scratch.

lady wifi

im not sure that “dont violate other peoples privacy” was very well stated, seeing as alya was landed with an unfairly harsh punishment due to corrupt politicians. and how did that get resolved, anyway? was she still suspended? was there even supposed to be a moral in this mess?

the pharaoh/le pharaon

the villain is a pharaoh, continuing the ages-long trend of pretending ancient egyptian culture is just ~so interesting~ and that its portrayal isnt exploitative at all. i cant really say much about this, but i dont like those special ancient egypt episodes of anything.

rogercop

a mess

im pretty sure that this was to save animation budget or something, but why was marinette picking up those croissants off the floor and arranging them so nicely as if it really mattered what she did with them besides cleaning up the spill? i guess ill let it slide if shes trained that way as an advertising thing (though advertising doesnt get a free pass by default just because its strange).

the evillustrator/evil artist/le dessinateur

off topic, but could that tablet also erase or create living beings?

dark cupid/le dislocoeur/heartbreaker

this was still technically a kiss without consent? doesnt really feel all that romantic and whatnot. i cant really get behind this as shipping material.

horrificator

side note: i really liked how chloes english voice actor delivered the lines mockingly announcing mylenes “award” in the beginning.

im not a fan of the “you must kiss as part of acting” plot point. it always gives off those peer pressure vibes from other people and opportunistic vibes from main characters who want to actually kiss the other person.

darkblade/le chevalier noir/the black knight

sabrina is honestly super lucky that marinette made her box have a hole big enough for super tiny animated character wrists or else she wouldve been in a world of more pain.

alya had a platform? im so confused about how this election worked. did they do ballots or some sort of “heads down” in-class vote thing?

the/le mime

seeing as people dont lose their memories of being attacked by the villains, i really dont see how tearing down the eiffel tower (even in an animated show where people are not in the structure at the time) is the best way to minimize traumatic experiences. i get that it was supposed to be a “wow” moment for the plot and just visual effects but not the appeal.

kung food

the second i ever laid my eyes on this name i knew it would be bad, i just didnt know how bad because there were just so many ways it couldve gone with that phrase and i didnt know what to expect until i actually watched the episode. more on this in a bit.

there was literally no point to having the famous chef be related to marinette other than contrived circumstances to get adrien into this episode. im using this as a launching off point for talk of other stuff.

why didnt marinettes parents do anything about a relative coming to their house? this really baffles me because they have their daughter meet an effective stranger with no help.

why didnt marinettes parents tell her what languages the relative spoke? honestly, it kind of seems like they just didnt even care if this would cause her extreme anxiety or anything. you would really think they would have at least discussed this as a family because it was made pretty clear that his visit was actually expected. i thought way higher of their characters until it seemed that they pulled this crap move.

i know it was supposed to be all cute and a bonding moment when adrien came over to translate, but it was even more of a disaster. why did they take a car literally around the corner to get to the hotel? why didnt the chef go directly to the hotel if it was so close? was that adriens car? who was in charge of organizing this event and making sure the contestants didnt end up in the wrong place? how in the world did the chef even get to the bakery? because of the close proximity of the hotel to the bakery, it doesnt make sense that he would go to the bakery instead from an airport or something? unless he was supposed to meet his relatives? which, in this case, was not facilitated at all? so many questions are raised.

i dont speak nor understand mandarin, but im pretty sure adriens wasnt good enough for him to actually be complimented for it. then again, its nothing new to see white people getting complimented for deigning to learn a ~foreign language~ while i get interrogated about my lack of “authenticity” for not speaking “my native tongue,” so i guess the writers were just being realistic.

he bowed...funny story, at least one time i went to a restaurant with other visibly asian people and the apparently-white waiter kept making this weird head bobbing motion every time they left the table and what im saying here is that i know adrien has presumably been learning about culture stuff, but i also know firsthand that creators really love to shove bowing into media whenever asian people show up. (that waiter did give us extra mints, so i guess that was nice.)

sarcasm alert: i love when ~asian~ people have ~asian~ accents. its not like this is a tired gimmick that i dont need to see literally everywhere i turn (oh, wait! according to the english version, it is! hooray for me! this is probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me ever! im not being sarcastic at all! or overly sarcastic to the point where im sarcastically putting in that everything ive written in this paragraph is sarcastic because im just so mad! or maybe it definitely is! it probably is all sarcasm!) [bonus sarcasm here]

the chefs english/default dub language fluency was either inconsistent or this was just a straight-up rude portrayal of a nonnative speaker of a language, because adrien didnt seem to wait five seconds (for the chef to even consider the question about what he was cooking) before talking to the chef (and naturally, being a polite person, the chef listened to what adrien was saying), and i feel like it was only for the sake of adrien being ~useful~ because right after that, he talks to the chef in english/whatever language? dont think i didnt notice that his english speaking got “better” after becoming a villain. you know, if they hadnt faked the accent in the first place, they wouldnt have had to hastily cover for the fact that their voice actor couldnt even execute it well.

im sure adrien and marinette tag-teaming to argue with chloe and her racist comments was supposed to be this whole “wow look at that team” deal, but it felt like adrien was shoehorned into this mess sloppily. woohoo for the white boy defending marinette because she cant do it herself or something! i do appreciate when white people help stand up for me, but in this context, it feels off.

i have such a big problem with the “pep talk” adrien gives marinette when she thinks the chef doesnt like her. first thing, white boy explaining things about a person of color to a person of color, and the two people are actually literally related? i think the bouquet misunderstanding was really bizarre, and when did adrien have time to gain all this extensive exposition? the interview when they first arrived was short, and i dont think that both adrien and the chef would be so rude as to exclude marinette from their conversation in the car on the way over. this just comes off as a way to have adrien ~encouraging~ marinette, and its not a very good one.

this supposedly super prestigious competition literally has no security to make sure no one is mucking around behind the scenes, let alone ensure that the contestants arent up to any funny business. because why not. and no cameras around either, because cooking-based television programs never show any cooking, just the tasting and subsequent subjugation by a villain (this is a sarcastic sentence). even if this is supposed to be a featured dish and thus one they dont want to showcase the recipe behind, they could still have those little soundbites interspersed with candid panorama shots (can you tell i have no idea what any of these words mean?). im just going to have to chalk this one up to animation budget and move on.

i know this was just a sort of (intendedly funny) visual thing, but i highly doubt that the objects chloe put in the soup could just go unnoticed, especially since i presume a chef would thoroughly stir (and taste) their cooking, and the soup didnt appear to have properties of decomposing things touching it. otherwise that tasting session would probably have turned out a little messier (i am completely kidding here).

why is the chef being upset about being sabotaged made into a ~cultural~ thing? why is a white boy telling marinette about her ~own~ culture? sheesh, its like you cant just be upset because your shot at a world title was ruined on live television and you have confirmation that you were deliberately sabotaged. yes, chloe did it because shes petty and racist, but the results of her actions could upset anyone! its not just because the chef is chinese! what is the point of saying that? its a pointless throwaway comment! why dont you just find some other way to get the chef alone so he can be become a villain that isnt a) nonsensical and b) making sweeping generalizations about people? (granted, i cant speak to the validity of anything said about cultures, but i sure can comment on why saying such things about them isnt okay regardless).

“kung food” oh my god. this is such a piece of crap name. it is racist. you can literally try to argue against this until youve gone far beyond oxygen deprivation and in a grave but itll still be racist by the time youre done. aside from the pharaoh, there arent a bunch of ~ethnic~ names (not that it would be okay for that to be the case anyway) running around, and yet we get one with this specific villain whose ethnic and national origin is talked to death? okay.

and ive seen this pointed out, but the villain appearance seems to have a kind of anime-inspired design, which is honestly a good laugh because who was just talking about not conflating china and japan again? weeaboos and sinaboos are often in the same boat.

okay, not related, but adrien just had to taste a suspicious substance off the floor. why. there are so many ways to figure out what a substance is before putting it in your mouth. or you could just not do that at all. before this point, they did not appear to suspect a food-related villain, so this couldve ended badly.

another side note: i dont know how that receipt retained its integrity long enough for ladybug to wrap the villain up after dipping it in the soup. do the magical items just have super special properties like extra toughness that allows them to defy the reality of paper receipts? i wonder how many of the things ive talked about in this post have been me marveling at the sturdiness of lucky charm items.

of course this turns into an ~accountability~ lesson for marinette. and chloe doesnt get reprimanded? yeah, she got booted off a panel she didnt even want to be on and no one actually clearly articulated to her that the things she said were absolutely unacceptable? then again, this is a “diversity episode,” so i dont know why my standards are so high.

wow, marinette really needed to have adrien encourage her before going to take a picture with her great-uncle? im going to be generous and allow that she wanted to make sure he would be okay with her ditching him for her much cooler great-uncle because she didnt want him to feel bad about how not-cool he is in comparison. there, you see what i mean about making up story elements? (though im really not much of a writer, oops.)

im so over people making fun of how others dress as a joke. before i realized that i am autistic and reflected back on my life, i didnt realize that i gravitate toward clothing i find comfortable rather than fashionable, and ive always gotten negative comments, ill-intended or otherwise. so i really didnt appreciate marinettes jab at chloe, even if it was to defend herself. it was just unnecessary.

i want to talk about the whole ~chinese representation~ thing in this show. yeah, i know marinette is one of the very few chinese and mixed main characters out there (and there are barely any that are both), but im going to be super honest about this: i dont think shes all that great. i am a big fan of her and this show, but that doesnt make it infallible. the fact that adrien of all people is telling her about her own culture is a huge failing in itself. i dont know everything about my own cultures, but its not cool to have a literal outsider being shown to be the expert on someones culture and be the one to guide them through that. theres barely any portrayal of sino stuff in the show as is, and i hate the way this is only shown as a kind of special episode topic. i would be way more fine with this if this wasnt basically the sole instance of discussion of marinettes heritage. and no, the fact that her mother wears stereotypical clothing doesnt count. at all.

okay, this has been a huge issue for me before and after this point, but it was in this episode that it was made abundantly clear just what we are dealing with. i know that it is completely possible, genetically speaking, for a mixed chinese and white person to have blue eyes. its also completely possible for a chinese person to have gray eyes even without being mixed (i say this because i dont know if her mother is monoracial). however, if you only have two confirmed recurring characters of chinese descent, and their eye colors are ~special~ colors...well, thats kind of iffy there. why is it that the minor chinese character has stereotypical eyes? theyre basically just expanded pupils for all intents and purposes, which is not the problem, because its possible to have irises that are so dark as to make figuring out whether they have a distinguishable brown tint to them really hard. anyway, i suppose i dont want to talk about things ahead in the season, but why is it that the background asian characters get the stereotypical eyes but the main characters who are asian get the special eye colors? (that was a rhetorical question. i know exactly why.)

im pretty that at some point in the creation of this villain name, someone patted themself on the back for being so ~clever~ like “haha kung food geddit? its like kung fu but with food because im actually not that creative and more racist than i would like to openly admit.” okay, i know im being a bit harsh. but its really annoying when one of the few things people “know” about sino people is that kung fu exists. and honestly, i kind of suspected this, but ive seen other people say that the villain more resembles a villain from anime, so...thats kind of disrespectful there...

the/le gamer

i really disliked marinettes combo move names. they all had ~asian~ words like lotus, jade, oriental, etc.

animan

i find the sniffing scene to be kind of creepy. personal space much?

the city has really high quality buses. i cant believe the bus didnt end up backfiring on their plan because if i know anything about buses its that the ones ive seen are probably way older and more decrepit than me.

antibug

how do the earrings work in this setting? as far as i can tell, it would make sense for chloe to have pierced ears and a pair of ladybug imitation earrings that she could put it, but how is it possible that ladybug was able to just pull the earrings off? because that could be a really, really messy situation if they are actually piercings with backings and everything, but is there an explanation for this? magnets, clips, anything?

the puppeteer/le marionnettiste

can that glowing bright red effect that comes from her yo-yo and the power cord being swung around just for the viewers, or can it actually be seen in-universe? or is that a null point because both items are generated by ladybugs magic?

reflekta

this show really didnt need any “haha look a ~guy~ in a dress” jokes. and honestly, this was ill handled (though arguably, its very existence was ill handled). first of all, im not the best judge of this kind of thing, but to me, ladybug felt out of character while mocking chat noir? honestly, marinette doesnt strike me as the type of person to find that kind of situation funny in the first place, so the premise doesnt really hold up in my opinion. i know marinette can make mistakes, but youd really think she would be more open to not thinking this way because she knows what its like to be bullied for other things. moving on... [though, to reiterate]

the way this was not addressed? at all? yeah, ladybug apologized for that one comment at the beginning of their conversation, but then she continued to make jokes at chat noirs expense, and it just wasnt as funny as it was probably intended to be?

i know the whole thing about ambiguous chronology, but there is no reason ladybug wouldnt take chat noirs opinion into account when planning for things anyway. it felt like that part was written specifically so he could “prove” his worth to the rest of the episode and ensure that, yes, he is still allowed to be in it after being turned into a reflekta lookalike, and the whole thing smacks of trying to write out of a corner...that was written into in the first place. if it hadnt gone the route it did with the mocking of appearances, i dont think it would have had to be as convoluted as it ended up being.

i personally dont care for high heels, but i dont get the kind of “fashion cracks” that were being made about them. like yes, high heels can be hard to move in? yeah, it isnt fun being turned into the appearance of someone who isnt you against your will? i just dont understand this gag.

guitar villain

did ladybug really honestly just full-on spray someone in the face with the contents of an aerosol can? im aware that the point was that the hair was in front of his face, but what if some had gotten into guitar villains eyes? dang, what if someone tries to emulate this in real life? ouch.

digital/numeric

kind of done with the spotlight on stalking behavior this show has.

marinette still shows no fear of suspicious screens. she continues to use parts of her face to touch one multiple times, never mind that she literally flings her yoyo all over the place.

stoneheart/coeur de pierre i

did marinette have pierced ears in the first place? shes not shown taking any earrings out, and we dont get that clear a view of her earlobes anyway. that might be deliberate for modeling budget and all.

master fu has brown eyes. so thats like four ~chinese~ characters that are in this show, and the main character and her mother have the special eye colors, and the minor character who is somewhat important to the plotline has non-black eyes, and the minor one-episode character has the black eyes. what a shining example of diversity (no).

anyway this is a good point to say that some things are just not for you. there are things that you just cant be a part of no matter how much you want to be because it just doesnt work that way. and the mess that is the miraculous “mythology” is definitely an example of this. i myself have very little knowledge of anything sino, but i sure as heck can spot that this...”history” thing is so off.

at this point i should probably mention i really dislike master fu as a character in general. just as a single point, apparently hes based off the teacher character in karate kid? i saw somewhere that the creator said he basically made marinette mixed because he was dating an asian person when he was thinking about the show and that marinette is basically his idea of their mixed kid? and back to the eye color thing (again), ive even seen someone with green eyes and blue hair suggest to him that they could be the child of marinette and adrien, and he said theyre like his grandchild? (im not really inclined to try to dig up an iron-clad, indisputably genuine source for this right now, but if youre honestly searching for completely serious, well-researched information in a really good quality post, this is not the post you are looking for.) i have no idea where i was even going with this paragraph.

stoneheart/coeur de pierre ii

why is marinette so invested in her crush on adrien? this couldve been a sweet crush, but no, she has to make it so creepy? leading up to this episode, i really didnt know what to expect because i really thought there would be some sort of explanation for just how extreme the lengths marinette goes to are, but from what i can tell, shes just being super invasive? the ambiguous timeline doesnt really help with this, nor does the fact that the origins episodes were aired at the end of the season. whatever characterization was supposed to be inferred from this feels choppy and unnecessary.

simon says/jackady/jacques a dit

i dont really blame her, but ladybug totally could have reduced the level of adrien distractedness going on here. shes previously shown signs of compartmentalizing ladybug and even having to face the fact that it isnt worth using up her power over adrien, but gosh golly, what gives?

princess/princesse fragrance

ive seen criticisms of how ladybug was written to be overly competent in this episode, which i think is fair since it keeps happening, and its so late in the season by this point that its gotten tired.

volpina

i try not to be too judgmental, but frankly, adrien is not that great of a prize.

anyway, from what i can tell about this episode, i think that there was too much on marinettes flaws, which i really think is a bit much to have in the last chronological episode of a season. its already been established that she makes mistakes with her decisions, but i just thought her unequal prioritization of adrien was too much. it just seemed contrived to squeeze in scenes that the creators wanted to animate regardless of overall context in the show, which is really unfortunate because of how the show becomes a little less chronologically ambiguous at this point.