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twistedtummies2 · 1 year ago

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Top 5 Scar Appearances

Tomorrow is Halloween, everybody! Good news, bad news, WORSE news time: the bad news is that a very special month-long countdown I WAS planning to do in November isn’t ready yet. I’m going to try and get it done in time for either December or January. The WORSE news is that I also didn't have time to write a Halloween story special. :( The good news is that, since I don’t have those things to worry about, I now have a chance to present to you all a smaller list in commemoration. And, seeing as how Halloweentime is the “Season of the Villain” for Disney, and we’re still in the month of Disney’s 100th Anniversary…how about a list devoted to a lot of people’s favorite Disney Villain: Scar, from The Lion King. I’ve never been AS into Scar as a lot of other people I know are. I love him, make no mistake, but he’s never been my absolute favorite Disney baddy; he’s not even in my Top 10. However, do not misconstrue this as me thinking Scar is a bad character or even an unfit antagonist: there’s a very good reason he’s widely considered to be one of Disney’s greatest and most sinister evildoers. Many people name him as either their number one favorite, or at least somewhere in their Top 10; I’m an outlier there. You can’t blame anybody who does: Scar is one of those wonderful villains who is equal parts menacing and delightful. He does some of the absolute worst things any Disney Villain can do, which is saying a lot, yet it’s hard to completely hate him because he’s just such an entertainingly vile character - the secret formula that makes a lot of villains, especially those from Disney, so uniquely enjoyable. Despite his notoriety, Scar is surprisingly not a villain who makes a LOT of appearances beyond his film, and most of the ones he does make are relatively small. There are a lot of possible reasons for this, but whatever the cause, it does mean that making a full Top 10 for this list was very difficult. Ultimately, I decided to shorten things up and make this celebration of Scar a simple Top 5. Also, I’m just going to say it right now: I WON’T be including the 2019 Remake version of the Lion King anywhere on this list. This is for two reasons: a.) the remake sucks, Sucks, SUCKS, and b.) even if it didn’t suck, it doesn’t really do anything new or meaningfully different with Scar compared to the original, in my opinion. (Unless you count making him infinitely more boring.) With this in mind…I know it sounds sordid, but I think it’s time Scar be rewarded, and at last be given his dues! Be Prepared: these are My Top 5 Appearances of Scar (since the original Lion King).

5. Kingdom Hearts.

As I’ve said many times before, Kingdom Hearts is quite possibly my favorite video game series of all time (alongside Castlevania), and Scar’s big appearance in the franchise was in my favorite game of the series, “Kingdom Hearts II.” You’d expect, therefore, for this to be in my Top 5…so the greater question is why the KH version gets the lowest billing. Well, first, let’s focus on the positives: Scar provides an awesome boss fight in the first visit to the Pride Lands, which essentially follows the footsteps of the original film, but with Sora and Co. inserted into the story. It’s also cool to think of Scar siding up with characters like Maleficent and Pete, since part of the reason he becomes a threat is due to his joining forces with them. I also really like the way the second visit to the Pride Lands plays out, in fact I like it more than the first visit: in that one, Simba is now King, but is haunted by the recurring reappearances of a shadowy “ghost” of Scar. This Ghost seems to pop up all over the Pride Lands, mocking Simba for his past failures and calling him a coward. It’s revealed that the mysterious Ghost of Scar is a lingering trace of Scar’s inner darkness, which feeds off of fear, and survives off of Simba’s doubts about his role as the King. Villains who have a legacy even after their gone are fascinating to me, and this is one of the best examples of such a thing I’ve ever seen. While I really love all these elements, one specific point drags this Scar down to the bottom: the voice. He’s played by James Horan, who does, to his credit, provide a near pitch-perfect impression of the great Jeremy Irons…but something about Horan’s performance feels like it lacks a lot of energy and direction. He’s honestly much better during the boss fight, providing the necessary aggression and intensity for the battle taunts and dialogue, but everywhere else in the game his work feels somewhat wooden to me. It’s a pity, because Horan is a fantastic actor, and I feel could have done so much better with the part…but, for whatever reason, the stars just weren’t in alignment. Still, this is ultimately a nitpick above all else, and KH still provides perhaps the most memorable appearance Scar has had in a video game to date.

4. Lion King: The Musical.

While I didn’t feel the 2019 cinematic remake of “The Lion King” deserved credit on this countdown, I think the stage musical does. This is, once again, for two reasons: a.) the musical isn’t an abominable waste of time and brain cells, which the remake largely is. And b.) while the show basically follows the same story as the original film, and does include a lot of the dialogue and other elements you would expect, the Broadway-originating musical does do a few new things with the material. First of all, aesthetically, it has to use some very clever costuming, choreography, and staging to bring the African Savannah and its wildlife to visual existence onstage. Second of all, the musical does actually do a few new things with Scar, in particular, giving him a few extra scenes and songs absent from the film. The most notable is the infamous sequence called “The Madness of King Scar,” where the audience checks in on the villain after his hostile takeover. While there is a scene like this in the film, the musical takes more time to look at the situation, and gives it a musical number to accompany it, diving into the depravity Scar has fallen into as tyrant ruler of the Pride Lands, and indicating that his sanity is slipping just as the kingdom is crumbling around him. The Broadway version of “The Lion King” is one of the most popular musicals in the world, and has been brought to other countries and theaters worldwide, such as London’s West End. This is not to mention numerous touring companies! There’s even a “Junior” version of the show intended for younger performers to put on, typically for High Schools and community theatre productions. Scar has been played by some pretty big names in musical theatre over the years, accordingly, such as John Vickery (the original performer in the role) and Patrick Page (pictured here). Ultimately, the only reason the musical doesn’t get into the top three is because, aside from the fact it’s basically just a staged version of the original film, I feel it’s a show best experienced live, and I unfortunately have not had the proper pleasure of witnessing it in such a fashion. Hopefully someday that will change.

3. The Lion Guard.

There is a LOT I could say about this show, just revolving around Scar alone, and I DO mean a LOT. It’s kind of hard for me to figure out where to begin. I will attempt to be as succinct as possible. “The Lion Guard” was a Disney Junior series that acted as a spin-off/official sequel to “The Lion King,” and covers the period of time between the end of the first movie, and the events of the earlier sequel film, “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.” The first season of the show was essentially a series of disconnected adventures, with the main characters - led by Simba’s son, Kion - having to protect the Pride Lands from a variety of antagonists. However, in Season 2, Scar was brought back, and became the main villain of the series until early in Season 3. (A new main antagonist, Makucha, became the primary rogue for the remainder of the show’s time.) Resurrected in the form of an angry, fiery spirit, dwelling in the bowels of a vast volcano, Scar is unable to do anything DIRECTLY to cause chaos for his rivals, but the phantom’s mind remains as cunning as ever. He thinks up an elaborate scheme to destroy the Pride Lands, vowing that if he cannot rule, no one shall. Instead of Jeremy Irons (or James Horan, or even Jim Cummings, who helped with singing duties in the original movie after Irons strained his vocal chords), Scar is voiced in the show by one David Oyelowo, who brings his own unique flair to the part while still carrying the mixture of foppishness and cruelty the original version had. The show gave us what are now considered the official origins of Scar, and while I have a few niggling issues with those origins, it did lead to some interesting story points for the show in its final season, as - much like in KH - Scar’s wicked deeds still have an effect even after his second defeat. Again, a villain with a legacy is a grand thing, and this is probably Scar’s biggest post-original-film outing, outside of direct adaptations of the same. “The Lion Guard,” in general, was a surprisingly well-crafted series; it went a little deeper and a little darker than most other Disney Junior shows have gone before or since. You might say it is the “Batman: The Animated Series” of Disney Junior…though how much that’s really saying is somewhat up to debate. Regardless, while neither Scar’s depiction nor the show as a whole were totally perfect, both have more than earned their placement in my Top 3.

2. “Disney Villains: Scar” Comics.

Recently, Disney teamed up with Dynamite Entertainment - a comics company that I know best for publishing things like “The Shadow” - to produce a series of comic miniseries focusing on the stories of several of their greatest villains, all set in a time before the Events of the original films. Of all the ones I’ve read so far, Scar’s miniseries is by far the best. This simple four-part miniseries takes place in the time between Simba’s birth and…well…the rest of the movie. It tells the story of how Scar formed an alliance with the hyenas, and thus began to work out the machinations of his grand scheme for power. While this is an interesting premise on its own, what these comics do so beautifully, and why they take top-billing, is that they do something for Scar that, honestly, no other version has really achieved before: they humanize him. (Or…lionize him, I guess? Semantics.) While Scar is, of course, fully immersed in the shadows by this point, so to speak, the comic dives into his mind and his heart, as we see what really makes him tick. The way he’s written, and the way other characters rebound off of him, gives us a more empathetic and almost tragic look at the dark lion than anyone has really ever attempted. Past origin stories of Scar always depict him as a bad seed, even before getting his namesake wound and becoming the scoundrel we all know and love to hate. “The Lion Guard” indicated Scar already had a desire for power and glory before getting his scar, and an earlier story, “A Tale of Two Brothers” (now considered non-canon) was much the same. While this comic doesn’t describe Scar’s origins, per say, it actually makes you FEEL for him, as we get the feeling there WAS some good in him somewhere, and he DID have a chance to see the light. The tragedy of Scar, as the comic makes it out to be, is that he was so blinded with anger and jealousy, there was no way to save him: it wasn’t that he didn’t have a good side, it was that he SHUNNED that goodness in favor of his ambitions and his rage. That’s something no other version has honestly TRULY achieved, which is funny because, in my opinion, Scar is one of the easiest of the Disney Villains TO make into a sympathetic, or at least empathetic, character. This miniseries does that, but still makes sure to make it clear that Scar is too far gone to be anything but the bad guy…which, of course, is what we love him as best. I actually debated making this one number one…and considering what I DID end up making number one, I sincerely hope it won’t be considered blasphemy of the highest order that I did not…

1. Leona Kingscholar, from Twisted Wonderland.

Okay, so…I had to fight with myself over whether or not I SHOULD make this lad and this game my number one. Because he’s not actually Scar HIMSELF, and therefore it felt like massive cheating to make him number one. After discussing the issue with a friend, they made a very simple and very good point: “I think Leona should be number one, because it’s been a long time since you’ve gone this crazy over a character.” I realized…yeah, that was correct, and therefore, even if I HAD placed Leona at number two, it wouldn’t have really been HONEST. For those who don’t know or have simply forgotten: “Twisted Wonderland” is a game that takes place in a parallel world, set in a school of dark magic called Night Raven College. The school is inspired by seven of the great Disney Villains, and many characters reference those villains. Scar is the villain who inspired the Savanaclaw dorm at NRC, and is seen in some flashbacks…but his main claim to fame here is the analogous character, Leona Kingscholar. Like Scar, Leona is the second prince of an African-styled kingdom ruled by leonine beings, but whose claim to the throne has been ruined by his nephew, after years of living in his older brother’s shadow. Also like Scar, Leona is sadistic, lazy, gluttonous, selfish, and while he absolutely can throw down in a physical fight, his true asset is his intellect. Leona lacks Scar’s elegant manners, but underneath his more beastly exterior, he’s a genius and a master strategist, who always has schemes within schemes (within schemes, sometimes). He’s also indicated to be one of the most powerful characters at NRC, second only to the Maleficent character, Malleus. Despite all these despicable elements, what separates Leona from his inspiration is the same as many other TW characters: he isn’t too far gone yet. While he resents his family, he actually does still care about them, and despite his at times downright narcissistic behavior, he genuinely cares for his kingdom as well. He’s not very nice, and he’s willing to go to some dangerous extremes to get what he wants, but he’s not pure evil the way Scar is often seen to be. It’s hard for me to say why I love this guy so much, but the fact is that I do. It’s probably going to be something a lot of people disagree with, but at the end of the day, he takes the cake at number one on this list. Whether it’s Scar or Leona…Long Live the King.

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undergroundbillions · 10 months ago

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Reblogged the post again about people wanting to make a new Raggedy Ann show, and boy do I have more thoughts!

I will. I admit. Sort of vague posting about specific ideas I've heard but at the same time I mean this to be a general statement and not criticism of anything in particular. It's just a trend that frustrates me.

What I see in a lot of suggested adaptations is a wide departure from not only superficial ideas of the characters and plot, but core themes that made up the very idea of the franchise. They were always, from the beginning, a little girl's toys brought to life with the imagination of her and her father, and when I see many concepts removing Marcella or any form of family from the story altogether, it makes me sad.

Because it marks the shift from the Raggedies as dolls who are alive, to the Raggedies as characters who also happen to be dolls.

In my personal opinion, that is one of the main issues plaguing the raggedy media that released post-70’s. People saw the two siblings themselves as the marketable entities, and the rest didn’t matter. It contributes to the flanderization of the characters and the stories as a whole, each generation of media getting us farther and farther away from the original concept as they pick only the most marketable bits. Natural selection via capitalism. Diluted into abstraction. Raggedy Ann is a franchise running on fumes at this point, all it has is that vague sense of nostalgia that gets fainter and fainter each passing generation.

It’s a similar thing to what has happened to the Winnie the Pooh franchise, they completely removed Christopher Robbin and most portrayals of the characters don’t go to any lengths to show that they were originally stuffed animals. But at least Pooh and his friends live in their own little fantasy world where removing the humans doesn’t make much of a difference. Raggedy Ann lives in our world.

And I’m not someone who thinks things always have to be exactly the same, I’d love to see new adaptations that play around with the setting!!! And the characters!!! And designs!!! And sure, the later books are more fantastical and usually take place outside in the Deep Deep Woods. But most people don’t even consider them in their plans.

It's clear many people's idea of the franchise is based on the movie, which is fair!!! The movie is in my opinion one of the better adaptations which manages to get the feel and charm of the characters being dolls and follow the themes of Camel With the Wrinkled Knees while still being it's own thing. Just like Gruelle's book it's wandering and nonsensical and goofy and the siblings get thrown from one wacky interaction to the next. It's a piece of raggedy media through and through, but I don't see much attention towards what makes it that way.

And I have to say, unfortunately, that many of these proposals remind me of one infamous piece of raggedy media, the 80's CBS cartoon. And I know the CBS series is bad for other reasons, of course. The writing sucks, the animation is worse, and the voice acting is grating. But. On top of all that, it doesn’t feel like a piece of Raggedy Ann media to anyone familiar with Gruelle’s work. There’s nothing that connects it to any of the franchise besides the existence of these characters, you could just swap them right out and it wouldn’t make any difference.

Same with the Chuck Jones specials. Sure, there are personality traits that follow, but they aren’t anything unique. You could put any characters in there.

Making a piece of raggedy media with no knowledge of what made the original books so timeless, I feel at best, you're going to make something like the Chuck Jones specials, and at worst, the CBS animated series. And to quote mod wowf: "and you're not Chuck Jones".

So. Idk. If you're going to make a proposal for a new piece of Raggedy Ann media, I think one should ask themselves why Raggedy Ann. We've had plenty of adaptations where the answer to that question was "they're popular", and I don't put much more trust in "I like them". It's not a criticism of anyone's specific ideas, I just don't think anyone is going to bother if the thing you're giving them is what they've already grown tired of. The siblings go on silly adventures, sure, but wasn't this originally about a little girl and her poppa who loved making up stories about her dolls? Is that not compelling anymore?

-𝕸𝖔𝖉 𝕲𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖑 𝕯.

P.S. I say this out of affection. I want people's projects to succeed and I want them to be well appreciated by people outside the fandom and I want them to change the public perception of Raggedy Ann for the better! And that's why I have Opinions.

P.P.S. This is about efforts to make an honest-to-goodness licensed Raggedy Ann TV show or similar media. Not fanworks. Make more fanworks always and regardless and don't listen to me.

#raggedy ann #raggedy andy #raggedy ann and andy #raggedy ann and andy a musical adventure

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jorissportsstories · 3 months ago

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Tennessee Titans: Best/Worse Case Scenarios 2024 NFL Season

Bottom Line: This Team Will Be Better Than Most Expect

Themes:

• A: Development of Will Levis

• B: New Key Pieces

• C: Coaching Change/Culture Shift

Call it “homerism,” but being a small market NFL team often means being underestimated. However, if you’re not paying attention to the Tennessee Titans, you’re missing out. The Titans are doing what most teams do when they believe they’ve found their quarterback: building a solid roster around him and creating an environment for success. With a quietly strong roster on both sides of the ball—featuring an upgraded offensive line, a reinforced wide receiver room, and an improved secondary—this team is poised to win games this year, even with Mike Vrabel no longer at the helm. Before the mainstream media writes this team off, here are some key factors to consider:

A: New Key Pieces

Titans GM/VP of Football Operations Ran Carthon has had a stellar offseason, acquiring talent through the draft, free agency, and trades. Let’s break down the additions:

Free Agents/Trades:

• Calvin Ridley (WR)

• Lloyd Cushenberry (C)

• L’Jarius Sneed (CB)

• Chidobe Awuzie (CB)

• Tony Pollard (RB)

• Sebastian Joseph-Day (DT)

• Kenneth Murray (LB)

• Jamal Adams (S)

• Quandre Diggs (S)

• Tyler Boyd (WR)

Draft Picks:

• JC Latham (OL)

• T’Vondre Sweat (DL)

• Jaylen Harrell (LB)

• Jha’Quan Jackson (WR)

• Jarvis Brownlee (CB)

Clearly, this team is heading in a new direction, and I’m not mad at it. Times change, and the Titans are adapting. Pairing Ridley with Hopkins seems almost unfair, and when you add a solid receiver like Boyd along with Treylon Burks, who’s ready to take the next step, the wide receiver room is no longer among the league’s worst. All of this has been achieved without sacrificing the run game. Both Pollard and Spears can run the ball the way Callahan wants it done, and I believe they’ll prove their worth this season.

On the defensive side, the moves made almost brought tears of joy. Drafting T’Vondre Sweat, who is unbelievably fast and agile for his size, was a masterstroke. Sweat is a certified run-stopper and will also affect the passer, drawing double-teams a solid percentage of the time. Pairing him with Jeffery Simmons, who also requires double-teams, will force opposing offensive lines into some tough decisions. Adding a talented, budding linebacker like Kenneth Murray to an already physical Arden Key will secure the middle of the field and boost the pass rush.

Then there’s the secondary, which has been reinvigorated with the additions of Sneed, Awuzie, Adams, and Diggs, alongside preexisting talent like Elijah Molden and Roger McCreary. This group has the potential to lock down a lot of yardage this year. Bottom line: the Titans’ defense has improved significantly.

Before I forget, let’s talk about the offensive line. With the addition of first-round pick JC Latham and the continued development of Peter Skoronski under new offensive line coach Bill Callahan, this unit should be miles ahead of where it was last year. Improved blocking, especially from the right side of the line, has been a highlight of the preseason, addressing one of the major issues from last year.

B: Coaching Change/Culture Shift

Please note, I am not a Mike Vrabel hater. I appreciate everything he’s done for this franchise—instilling a culture of toughness and grit, leading the team to an AFC Championship run, and managing an injury-riddled roster. However, I acknowledge that change was needed. The league is evolving, and the Titans were at risk of being left behind.

Brian Callahan and his staff bring a fresh perspective, new energy, and a balanced approach to Nashville. Players are reportedly thrilled with new defensive coordinator Denard Wilson and offensive line coach Bill Callahan. The emphasis on physicality and toughness remains, but there’s also a focus on balance, which I believe will help the Titans adapt and thrive in this new era.

C: Development of Will Levis

One crucial factor for the team’s success is the continued development of second-year quarterback Will Levis. Levis showed a lot of promise last year, stepping in for the injured Ryan Tannehill and pushing the ball downfield with confidence. He clearly won the team over, and his growth will drive this team as far as it can go. With a strong supporting cast around him and improved protection, Levis has the tools to succeed.

One concern is Levis taking unnecessary hits. We get it—you’re tough. But we’d also like you to have a long, successful career. All in all, I believe he’s ready to take the next step.

Best Case Scenario:

In the best-case scenario, the offensive line gels quickly, Levis makes sound decisions, and the defensive line dominates early by stopping the run and pressuring the passer. If everything clicks, a 10-win season and a playoff berth are within reach.

Worst Case Scenario:

On the flip side, if the offensive line takes most of the regular season to figure things out, if Levis regresses, if the run game falters, and if the defense spends too much time on the field, the team could be exposed. An undisciplined, sloppy defense could result in a 6-7 win season, or worse, and no playoffs. However, I highly doubt that happens, given the personalities and talent on this team.

The Tennessee Titans are primed to surprise many this upcoming season. There’s a fresh energy, new vibes, and a modern approach in Nashville. The Titans are changing with the times, and as a fan, I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.

If you liked what you read from this article, feel free to give us a follow, leave feedback, and share it out! Let’s grow the audience! Head on over to my friend @chompinatthebit and check some of his great content as well!!

#football #nfl #sports #women in sports #nflnetwork #sports blog #blog #contentcreator #Tennessee Titans #afc south #afc

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samasmith23 · 1 year ago

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Evangelion: You Can (Not) Marathon — (Part 10)

Neon Genesis Evangelion, “Episode 10: MAGMADIVER”

Continuing my Evangelion re-watch marathon with NGE, "Episode 10: MAGMADIVER”! For my thoughts on the previous episode, click the link to the post below:

Now this is going to be a very interesting episode for me to revisit since for a lot of EVA fans this is widely considered to be one of the weakest/worst episodes in the entire original series. The most common complaints I’ve seen directed towards this episode include that it contributes nothing to the overall series narrative, that the science involved with defeating the Angel in this episode is completely unrealistic and implausible, and most especially that this episode in particular is loaded to the brim with gratuitous and unnecessary fan-service. I remember reading all of these complaints a few years after I first marathoned NGE back in college and to be perfectly honest… I never understood nor agreed with any of them since… I always personally really loved “MAGMADIVER” and think it’s seriously underrated/overhated.

No seriously, “MAGMADIVER” was always one of my personal favorite episodes in the original series, right alongside Episodes 4, 19, 22 & 24! I’ll provide my own counter-arguments the aforementioned fan complaints directed towards this episode as I go through it!

But with all of that out of the way, let’s finally dig into the episode itself!

Oh boy! Right off the bat this episode establishes that it’s going to heavily focus on one of the most important thematic elements surrounding the entire Evangelion franchise: sexuality.

While themes about sex & sexuality have already been heavily present throughout NGE so far, particularly in relation to Misato’s personality and mannerisms as well as the interactions between Shinji & Asuka in the previous episode, “Magmadiver” is particularly notable in how much it emphasizes developmental feelings of sexual desire as a central tenant for characters like Shinji & Asuka.

In relation to Asuka, the themes of adolescent sexuality are effectively conveyed in this opening scene where she’s out shopping with Kaji. In addition to Asuka obsessively clinging onto Kaji as they’re walking down the streets of Tokyo-3, Asuka immediately sets her eyes on a provocative bikini in the local department store which she claims that, “Oh come on Kaji, this is what all the girls are wearing,” in response to Kaji’s understandable concerns that Asuka is still too young to be wearing such a swimsuit.

This interaction not only further establishes Asuka’s adolescent one-sided infatuation with the much older Kaji, but it also feels like a very honest and sincere portrayal of teenage sexuality. In addition to plenty of teens in the real-world often developing one-sided crushes on older individuals, celebrities or even fictional characters (for instance, one of my personal earliest childhood crushes was supermodel/actress Rebecca Romijn’s portrayal Mystique from the live-action X-Men movies), several adolescents will simultaneously struggle with wanting to be perceived as being more “mature” and “adult” than they actually are like with Asuka here.

And skipping ahead a little, but this is something that Kaji acknowledges during a flashback in Episode 22 when he rejects Asuka’s inappropriate advances towards him precisely BECAUSE she is still a 14-year-old girl, stating that she shouldn’t rush into engaging in adult activities like sex BECAUSE she is still a minor who’s developing and learning, and that she should hold onto her youth while it lasts.

“Public middle school?” I thought that Asuka & Shinji were freshmen in high school, since that’s what grade I was in back when I was 14-years-old (they could be in 8th grade, but still)…

I love how naturally the little tidbits of world-building are established throughout this series! We get a glimpse of just how big of an event the Second Impact was, as well as just how much the near-apocalyptic disaster affected the daily lives of every single person on the planet through Kaji’s comment here about how his generation never got to go on school field trips!

While Asuka’s reaction to the news that neither she or Shinji will be allowed to go on their school field trip due to being on standby in case another Angel attacks can definitely come across as overly whiny, I feel that it’s rather effective in highlighting one of the major downsides of being an EVA-Pilot. Namely that because Asuka & Shinji are essentially serving as child-soldiers who pilot giant robots to fight against alien monsters threatening to destroy the world, the two are essentially being forced into adulthood far too early and are unable to enjoy the youth of adolescence like their fellow classmates are. It’s an interesting subversion and deconstruction of the Japanese mecha genre, as while plenty of mecha anime similarly feature teenagers piloting giant robots to combat kaju, EVA actively explores and interrogates the implications of forcing such a heavy burden onto literal children instead of focusing on the escapist power-fantasy elements of the genre.

Additionally, Asuka’s reaction here also conveys an interesting contradiction in her characterization! While the previous shopping scene with Kaji portrayed Asuka’s misguided efforts to “act more grown-up” by wanting to impress the object of her one-sided crush by buying an inappropriate swimsuit, Asuka’s outrage of being unable to go on the scuba-diving field trip highlights some double-meaning behind her earlier excuse of, “This is what all the girls are wearing,” in that she was not only wanting to impress Kaji but that she also wanted to “fit-in” with her classmates. This not only conveys themes of peer pressure, but also a contradiction in Asuka’s facade of “adulthood” since there is a part of her that still wants to engage and participate in the activities of other 14-year-old girls like herself.

Lol! Asuka’s description of Shinji as a “housebroken male” is absolutely hilarious! It makes it sound like she views Shinji more like a pet than as an actual person. I wonder if that was intentional on Anno’s part?

Also, I just noticed that Shinji’s wearing more a more feminine shirt in this scene! Yet further confirmation to the fan-theories that Shinji is a trans-femme egg!

Double lol! Asuka predicted modern debates about the value and effectiveness of numerical grading within the public education system!

As much as I praise the levels of nuanced character writing for the main cast of NGE, credit should also be given for the little bits of development that Anno also provides for the background extras which helps makes EVA’s universe feel more alive and three-dimensional! For instance, this scene within NERV HQ’s Central Dogma during down-time is heavily effective in how it not only portrays the main staff members Maya, Hyuga & Aoba outside of an intense and chaotic action scene, but distinguishes each of them with their own unique personality traits. This information is visually conveyed to the viewer through their reading material and demeanor during casual down-time at the office, as we see Maya intently focused on what appears to be a regular novel (establishing her a steadfast analysis), Hyuga giggling over what appears to be a Shonen Jump manga (making him the more nerdy fan-boy of the group; in other words he’s essentially me…), and Aoba drumming his fingers to punk-rock magazines (which is in line with his more pessimistic attitude that’s later on display in The End of Evangelion)!

I love Misato’s insightful response to Ritsuko’s questioning about the idea of having a school field-trip during the middle of an Angel invasion: “I guess the idea is to let all of the kids to have time to get out and act like kids.”

Not only does she make an incredibly valid point here in-and-of-itself, but her words interestingly parallel the aforementioned themes about youth and adolescence in relation to the expectations of the mecha genre. While one could easily argue that Misato’s words are hypocritical since she’s an leading presence in the militaristic weaponization of the EVA pilots as child soldiers, her insight here helps illustrate how in contrast to other NERV personnel like Ritsuko, Misato is willing to continuously question and doubt the ethics of the methods utilized to combat the threat of the Angels.

Also, because Aoba is tuning out to punk rock in this scene, he is therefore automatically on Batman’s crap-list!

I’ll NEVER… EVER… get tired of referencing the dark knight’s all-consuming hatred for rock-&-roll!

I actually never noticed this before, but this underwater shot of Rei swimming laps beneath the overhead nadatorium light strikingly mirrors the animation from the “Fly Me To the Moon” ending credits segment where Rei’s silhouette is spinning in front of the moon in an underwater setting! In addition to directly evoking both the imagery of the end credits theme (as well as the Ocean of LCL during Human Instrumentality in The End of Evangelion), this scene not only further foreshadows Rei’s true identity as the reincarnated soul of Lilith, but it also reinforces the idea that Rei feels more comfortable when submerged in liquid substances like water or LCL (an idea that will be later expanded upon in one of the stanzas of Rei's poem from Episode 14)!

Speaking of the swimming pool scene… oh boy there is certainly a lot to unpack here!

This scene in particular is easily one of the primary contributors to the negative dismissal of this episode from a sizable portion of the EVA fanbase, as many argue that it exists solely for the purposes of gratuitous fan-service. Specifically, while Shinji is trying to study for a physics exam on a nearby table, Asuka is standing in front of him in the same provocative bikini that she tried and failed to impress Kaji with earlier and was unable to wear on the school field trip, and Shinji can’t help feel uncomfortably embarrassed at the sight of Asuka’s chest as she leans in to help answer his homework questions.

The situation isn’t helped when Asuka answers Shinji’s questions about “thermal expansion,” i.e. the idea that objects will increase in size when heated and contract in size when cooled, since she making a suggestive analogy to the size of her breasts to try and explain the scientific concept to him.

Many critics write off this scene as nothing more than stereotypical anime fan-service tropes being played completely straight, which is sadly symptomatic of a larger criticism that I’ve seen some people direct towards the Evangelion franchise as a whole. Except, while I will concede that the usage of gratuitous fan-service is definitely a problem with the Rebuild movies based on everything I’ve seen and heard about them (which is especially uncomfortable since the characters in question are underage…), I personally heavily disagree with the argument that it’s also problem with the original NGE series and especially The End of Evangelion movie, and that both entries instead actively subvert the usual problematic tropes of fan-service in anime in order to discuss complex themes about sexuality, adolescence, and adulthood. And this scene at the pool is a prime example of this IMO.

The primary reason why I feel that NGE actively avoids perpetuating problematic fan-service tropes largely comes down to framing, and what subjects that the camera chooses to direct the viewer’s attention towards. In the case of the Shinji & Asuka pool scene, the camera & framing makes it very clear that the narrative is critiquing Shinji objectification of Asuka instead of encouraging the audience to do the same. Instead of simply focusing on Asuka’s chest like a lot of other anime do with their female characters, the shots here instead emphasize Shinji’s line of eyesight & POV which directed towards Asuka’s body, along with his visible sense of discomfort and confusion. A motif which is continued after Asuka walks away, as Shinji not only can’t help but continue to stare at Asuka as she bends down to grab her scuba gear, but also blushes and quickly jerks his head away when he witnesses Rei drying herself off. Shinji’s dialogue also accompanies the visual framing, as he attempts to write off Asuka’s innuendo about thermal expansion with, “How should I know?! I don’t think about things like that!”

Essentially, this scene is emphasizing that Shinji is a teenage boy who is struggling with his latent sexuality along with his complicated and borderline sexist views towards women. It also serves to highlight the growing romantic chemistry and toxic tension between Shinji & Asuka which becomes even more prevalent as the series progresses. So while the scene does utilize some close-up shots that you commonly see in fan-service scenes from other anime, EVA’s directing instead places all of the focus and attention onto Shinji’s perspective and reactions.

Additionally, the pool scene also further fleshes out Asuka’s struggles with wanting to grow-up too fast and her developing relationship with Shinji due to the preceding events with Kaji in the episode’s opening. At this point, Asuka is beginning to simultaneously perceive Shinji as both a substitute for her infatuation with Kaji, as a well as a rival who threatens her alleged "superiority" as an EVA pilot.

Essentially, Asuka is overcompensating for these aforementioned insecurities by treating Shinji like a child who’s ultimately beneath her, not only purposefully flaunting her sexuality in order to get a reaction out of him, but also bragging about her more advanced education due to her having previously already graduated college early. And when Shinji dismisses Asuka'sefforts to attempt to feel “more grown-up” than him, she can’t help but disappointedly write off Shinji as a “boring little boy…”

Elements such as these are why I honestly get incredibly annoyed whenever I see others dismiss “MAGMADIVER” as “the disposable fan-service filler episode,” since not only does the framing and blocking of the pool scene instead actively subvert and interrogate the very same problematic fan-service tropes that many people mistakenly believe the episode to be engaging in, but it simultaneously utilizes this subversion of tropes to reveal important information about characters like Shinji, Asuka & Rei in relation to EVA’s overall themes about sexuality.

Also, in addition to all of the rich thematic subtext and character development on display here, the pool scene also establishes the Chekhov’s Gun of this episode, as thermal expansion will come into play 2 more times throughout the course of “MAGMADIVER”! So the scene is also incredibly plot-relevant as well!

Alright! Now we’re getting into the major meat of this episode and why it’s titled “MAGMADIVER”! NERV has just detected the 8th Angel, Sandalphon. Except unlike all of the previous Angels seen so far, Sandalphon is unique in that it is currently still in its embryonic chrysalis-like state. And while Misato & Gendo see this as a golden opportunity to capture and study a live Angel before it hatches, the downside is that Sandalphon’s cocoon is buried deep inside the magma chamber of an active volcano. Which means that Asuka’s EVA Unit-02 will have to dive straight into the lava and enter an environment far too hazardous and pressurized for normal methods of human intrusion to retrieve the Angel egg before it hatches!

I’ve always loved this premise for an Angel battle, as the idea of the Evangelion essentially scuba-diving inside of an active volcano whilst having to contend with increasing pressure and the possibility of the Angel prematurely hatching is not only an insanely creative concept, but also allows for a foreboding sense of tension and peril with multiple ticking-clocks! Weirdly though, the Sandalphon fight seems to be another strong point of contention for “MAGMADIVER” detractors, arguing that the scenario is scientifically implausible. Except I have to ask… how is a giant robot being lowered into a magma chamber any more scientifically implausible than connecting an entire nation’s power lines to a giant sniper rifle within the span of only 10-hours?! This is exactly the kind of silly yet strategic creativity that I love when it comes to EVA’s fight scenes!

Plus, this episode also gives the viewer some insight into the Angel’s life-cycle that’s not explored in previous episodes, revealing that they spontaneously appear in random environments and enter an embryonic chrysalis stage similar to caterpillers before fully maturing into giant kaju, and that each Angel uniquely adapts to its surrounding environment.

Also, it’s rather neat seeing Sandalphon in an embryonic stage since the only other Angel we see like this is their progenitor Adam from back in Episode 8 (Sandalphon’s egg even kind of resembles the Adam fetus now that I look at it…)

I can’t help but find it really fascinating how Gendo adopts Asuka’s mindset from earlier in the episode about shifting from a defensive to an offensive position as soon as Sandalphon’s cocoon is discovered. It makes me wonder whether or not Anno was trying to evoke some parallels between the two characters?

Also, SEELE’s Human Instrumentality Committee makes another brief appearance here as Gendo receives begrudging approval for the plan to capture the Angel egg. Haven’t seen them since Episode 2… and I still maintain my previous theory that they’re all secretly Marvel & DC cosplayers in their spare time!

Yeah… I can’t really blame Asuka’s sense of humiliation when it comes to not only EVA Unit-02 being covered-up with bulky and dull-gray D-Type Equipment to help shield the mecha from the crushing pressure of the lava chamber, but also the fact that Ritsuko’s attempts to make her plug-suit more heat-protected essentially make Asuka look like Violet Beauregarde when she transformed into a humanoid blueberry in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory…

Thankfully there are no Oompa Loompa’s to roll Asuka around… or else this whole situation would be even more embarrassing than it already is for her!

Also, I love how just like in the previous episode, it’s once again Rei who triggers Asuka’s feelings of wounded pride, since when Rei volunteers to operate Unit-02 when Asuka refuses to do the mission while looking like Blueberry-Violet (especially if Kaji’s watching), Asuka immediately refuses to let Rei lay a single finger on her beloved Unit-02!

Did… Misato just say, “God’s gift won’t be coming, he’s got no business here,” when Asuka asked if Kaji was there to watch at the Volcano? A very interesting choice of words for someone whose thus far demonstrated nothing but verbal contempt for Kaji…

Speaking of Kaji though… I’m curious as to who the woman he’s talking to on the gondola about “frozen assents” is? This definitely feels like some serious double/triple agent shenanigans here…

Yet another reason for me to hate Gendo’s guts: he’s willing to have the UN drop N² Mines on Shinji & Asuka if they fail to successfully capture or kill the Angel! What kind of a father would be willing to essentially nuke his own son?!

I love how Asuka telling Shinji to watch her imitate a diving maneuver while Unit-02 enters the lava mirrors the previous scene at the swimming pool, effectively conveying that Asuka is beginning ti crave for attention and acknowledgement from Shinji in particular!

Man oh man do I FREAKING LLLOOOVVVEEE the lava-descent scene! This entire sequence is just oozing to the brim with tension! Not only does Asuka have to deal with intense heat and near-zero visibility, but as she continues to descend deeper and deeper into the lava chamber the environment is becoming increasingly more pressurized and starting to take a visible toll on Unit-02, as not only are visible cracks beginning to form on the protective D-Type Equipment and cooling pipes, but the pressure also forces Asuka to drop her progressive knife! And the tension of this scene is only further enhanced by not only the NERV staff calculating the continuously increasing depth level, but also by the lack of background music as well Asuka being forced to defend even deeper than previously calculated due to the lava flow altering the Angel egg’s position.

This scene also reveals some rather interesting new insight into Misato’s character while she monitors the mission, as she ignores the safety protocols and orders Asuka to continue descending to levels too dangerous for human intrusions. This demonstrates that despite Misato’s previous concern for the safety and well-being for the EVA pilots, there is simultaneously a part of her that is willing to risk the lives of these kids if it means destroying the Angels at all costs. Hyuga’ s look of concern towards Misato perfectly encapsulates the viewer’s feelings right now!

Oh! Two clever bits of foreshadowing here! Not only does Asuka repeatedly express her desire for a shower after the mission is completed (I mean, can ya blame her considering how much of a heat & sweat trap that Blueberry-Violet plug-suit is?), but Ritsuko can’t help but discern how Misato’s aforementioned conviction during the descent and capture of the Angel egg is intrinsically connect to fear of causing another Second Impact! Yup, this will definitely come into play later on in Episode 12!

And things go from bad to worse since the moment Asuka captures the Angel-egg in her electromagnetic cage and begins to ascend back up to the surface, Sandalphon begins to prematurely hatch and escapes from the containment field, immediately shifting this mission from a retrieval-operation into a combat-operation! And to make matters even worser, Asuka is left without a progressive knife as Shinji is forced to drop Unit-01’s knife down into the lava as this Angel with an ultra-thick lava-proof armored-shell along with razor-sharp teeth and tentacles is rapidly swimming towards Unit-02 and begins to bite away at its cooling vents and life-line!

On the subject of Sandalphon itself though, I love how in addition to this Angel being perfectly adapted to this uniquely hostile environment, we never get a real good glimpse at the Angel’s physical appearance in this episode due to it being heavily obscured by both the lava and the heavy red color pallete. I remember being annoyed by this when I first watched it on my original DVD copies due to their fuzzy image-quality, but upon rewatching this scene in HD on the Blu-Ray collection I now feel that this framing helps further add to the suspense of this fight, truly enhancing the zero-visibility conditions of the setting by making obscuring the monster’s appearance to not only Asuka, but to the viewer as well!

But for the sake of interest, here’s what Sandalphon looks like unobscured according to official concept artwork:

In regards to this Angel’s name, according to Wikipedia “Sandalphon (Hebrew: סַנְדַּלְפוֹן Sandalp̄ōn; Greek: Σανδαλφών Sandalfón) is an archangel in Jewish and Christian writings, although not in scripture. Sandalphon figures prominently in the mystical literary traditions of Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity, notably in the Midrash, Talmud, and Kabbalah and is generally seen as gathering prayers and passing them on to God.”

Additionally, Sandalphon’s name symbolically correlates with the episode’s depiction of the Angel’s life cycle, as some theological texts depict Sandalphon as being “instrumental in bringing about the differentiation of sex in the embry.”

I’ve seen some people criticize method by which Sandalphon is ultimately defeated, wherein Shinji remembers his physics homework about thermal expansion, meaning that if Sandalphon’s thick armor shell is designed to protect itself from the highly pressurized heat of the lava, then extremely cold temperatures will force the armor to contract make it brittle enough for Asuka’s progressive knife to penetrate its core. This gives Asuka the idea purposefully rip open the pipes to her cooling vents and force-feed a stream of liquid-coolant straight down the Angel’s throat, lowering its internal body temperature enough for its exterior armor to contract and for Asuka to stab its core. Detractors have argued that this portrayal of thermal expansion is scientifically inaccurate, but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief as the entire scenario is just so FREAKING cool!

That moment of horrific realization as Asuka looks back up at her life-line beginning to completely break-apart after severing her cooling vents to kill Sandalphon, as well as the lava pressure crushing her exposed D-Type Equipment? Absolute chills! Tiffany Grant once again nails Asuka’s sense of despair as she quickly realizes that despite successfully defeating the Angel she’s still going to die, almost as if she’s simultaneously reluctant yet accepting of her fate!

And her reaction to Shinji & Unit-01 sliding down the remaining life-line into the lava without protective armor to grab Unit-02’s hand before Asuka sinks down into the depths? Absolute perfection! Not only do we get a quick shot of Unit-01’s eye’s glowing (implying that it entered a partial berserker-mode again), but Asuka’s comment to Shinji, “Idiot… you show off!”

Despite being an insult, Asuka says that line in such a grateful, playful, and almost affectionate tone (once again, kudos to Tiffany Grant’s voice acting)! It shows a hidden tenderness to Shinji & Asuka’s relationship that we haven’t seen before!

As much flack as we give Kaji, him mailing Pen Pen to Misato and the EVA pilots for their post-mission hot-springs bath was an incredibly thoughtful gesture on his part… though stuffing a live penguin inside of a box seems counterproductive. Hoped he poked airholes in the box at least…

So umm… Shinji overhearing Misato & Asuka on the other side of the hot springs when he throws the body shampoo over the fence and it accidentally hits Asuka, leading to Shinji overhearing a rather… suggestive… conversation where Misato seems to be teasing and tickling Asuka. I’m curious as to how much of that was real, and how much if that was just Shinji’s imagination over-exaggerating it. I know that Misato is very forward with her own sexuality and that public bathing and standards of privacy are very different in Japan than they are here in America, but I’m really hoping that she was NOT doing anything sexually illicit behind that wall. I instead prefer to believe that a lot of what Shinji was hearing was grossly exaggerated by his own perverted imagination as a teenage boy with complicated feelings towards both Asuka & Misato (the latter being a product of his Oedipus Complex), especially since this leads to the final instance of “thermal expansion” in this episode which understandably embarrasses Shinji and freaks out Pen Pen (the poor penguin was just having a good time swimming).

While critics like to also cite the ending hot springs scene as further evidence of “MAGMADIVER” being “fan-service filler trash,” not only does the aforementioned stuff with Shinji continue to convey the character’s struggles with latent and developing sexuality and complicated attitudes about women, but once we finally see Asuka & Misato on the other side of the wall and the two watching the sunset, we get two major pieces of important foreshadowing for both characters! In addition to Asuka noticing a massive scar which runs straight across Misato’s chest, which the latter reveals was a byproduct of the Second Impact, Asuka asks Misato whether she knows about her own past, leading to Misato stating that it’s “ancient history.”

Not only does this indicate that Misato was directly present in Antarctica during the events of Second Impact, but it also hints at Asuka’s deeply traumatic childhood which serves as the foundation for the character’s struggles for attention as an EVA Pilot and misguided desire to be perceived as an adult instead of the child that she actually is.

Overall, that was NGE, “Episode 10: MAGMADIVER,” and upon rewatching it I still consider this episode to be one of my personal favorites in the series and wholeheartedly disagree with the general criticisms that most other fans lobby against it! Not only does this episode cleverly subvert the usual problematic fan-service tropes that unfortunately plague most modern anime, but through doing so it’s able to effectively communicate interesting and nuanced themes about Shinji & Asuka’s respective struggles with their own developing sexualities, perceptions of adolescence versus adulthood, as well as how the characters perceive themselves and others through this lens. Part of what makes Evangelion stand out among other anime before and after it is how its portrayal of adolescence is so earnest. EVA discusses the more difficult & uncomfortable aspects of teenage growth with careful respect & maturity, instead of creepily fetishizing these issues in a juvenile & gross manner like a lot of other anime sadly do (even the really good ones…).

So while I can definitely understand other people’s discomfort with NGE’s depiction of these uncomfortable themes, I feel like arguing that the series as a whole (as well as this episode in particular) actively perpetuates rather than subverts negative fan-service tropes like I’ve seen a few critics argue misses the mark on a lot of the insightful themes that EVA is trying to convey through these otherwise uncomfortable subjects. Despite Misato’s running gag in the “Next Episode” teasers about “promising more fan-service,” the original NGE and The End of Evangelion are in fact very critical towards the anime fan-service tropes that were popularized by Japanese Otaku subculture.

Additionally, the lava-fight with Sandalphon was FREAKING phenomenal in just how creative and suspenseful it was, even if the weaponization of thermal expansion used to defeat it is somewhat scientifically inaccurate! So yeah, I definitely still really love “MAGMADIVER” and feel that this episode gets far more hate than it deserves!

Next up is Episode 11!

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floaromaxtowns · 7 months ago

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For the fandom edition asks, can I ask for G, I and Q <3

Ask me: FANDOM EDITION [Accepting]

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it

OKAY SO I started shipping all the way back in 2006-7 when Youtube was the new hot shit around, and I was an itty bitty kid on early internet. Whom had Pokemon and Sonic as her main big interests at the time. I'm forever thankful for those old as fuckkkkkk tribute videos, with the biggest bops from that era. Although, I'm unable to pinpoint which ship I stumbled upon first, so I consider I started shipping them at around the same time: Rival Barry/Dawn (Twinleafshipping) and Shadow the hedgehog/Tikal the echidna (Shadikal).

FUN FACT- I have been SO long into Twinleafshipping that when I first saw it, Barry had YET to receive his official name for either Japanese and English versions. Gen 4 had YET to be released in the west, and we still didn't even know all the pokemon species introduced in it. So, the fandom nicknamed him as Damion, and for the longest time that's how we called him by. Until his official name was revealed.

And my very first queer ship was Alucard/Richter Belmont from Castlevania. That was mindblowing for sb who lived in a country, where even to this day same-sex couples and lgbtq topics are treated as a taboo.

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

I got into Tumblr all the way back in 2015 BECAUSE of my hyperfixation on League of Legends, and by 2017 I was done with the entire franchise. I can't say I blame tumblr entirely for me falling out of love with LoL, there were a number of factors that caused me to distance myself from it (the fact I had stopped playing the game altogether, bc my computer couldn't run it anylonger). But I can say that LoL's fandom is already infamously toxic as it is, and on Tumblr that shit becomes unhinged. And I'm certain that since the inception of Arcane, that fandom must have got even worse.

The only reason we don't hear that much about it nowadays is bc, there is now actual competition for the prize of 'the worst community'. Genshin Impact somehow managed to speedrun those levels of toxicity and unhingedness.

It was through LoL's fandom on tumblr I first saw the lengths, some not-sound of mind individuals are willing to go, to """defend""" their ships. It was the first time I saw anyone receive genuine hate and death threats, just bc they didn't sign up to the popular and most wide spread ship. And I heard through a friend of mine who is still into LoL, that side of the community truly became the worst, thanks to Arcane. Bc now you got a bunch of motherfuckers who never touched the game, wanting to weight in on shit from ppl who aren't interested in the animated show.

Im gonna spread hate on League of Legends, Arcane and anything else related to it LOL

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

It's really difficult for me to drop any ship... At all. So much so, I don't recall dropping any ship in my previous fandoms (Pokemon/Star wars/Castlevania). I may not focus on some ships as compared to others, but that's mainly due to me likely having folks to talk about another ship. But I'm still most definetely a shipper.

As such, I think the very first case of me genuinely dropping a ship happened in the Saint Seiya fandom LOL. I've mentioned it a few times, I shipped Sha.ka/M.u for maybe at most 15 days. It was literally the very first ship I came across, and I genuinely loved how pretty ppl's works for the ship were. Then, the more I dug into StS' lore & content. The more I realized how this couple has little to NO actual substance to offer (by which I mean those two characters literally barely interact with one another, in the entire series).

It actually took me awhile to find out about Aldebaran/Mu, and when I did...

youtube

Nevermore looked back at it since LOL.

My theory as to why that ship is massively popular bc most of its fans likely are going off their really vague memories of watching the show, in their childhoods. And solely bc those characters look really good together (I'll give it that, their aesthetic is nice. But that's all you get bc LOL). And they feel entitled to crapping/disrespecting other ships, just bc popular ship brainrot behavior uwu.

#[ rambles ]#thank you for the ask!#attacking-those-pesky-kyojins #long post

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ceasarslegion · 1 year ago

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Im a huge horror movie buff and i think that genre is a perfect example of how, in this weird pursuit to make cinema appeal to everybody of every human experience and walk of life, it often just ends up appealing to nobody.

Like, okay, let me be more specific. Let's use The Conjuring franchise.

I LOVE the first Conjuring film. It's a fantastic supernatural horror film. Has a really cool premise, harkens back to the old Amityville Horror classic but with more modern filmmaking tech and capabilities, and it knows how to do a "true story" (insofar as you believe in demons or the word of the Warrens) horror film. It's creepy, it's unsettling, it builds and builds and knows just when to release the tension to give you a big thrill without relying entirely on jumpscares. And it was loved by audiences and critics alike, and for good reason.

But that doesn't mean that making it a franchise was a good idea. You gotta remember that horror films getting positive critical attention wasn't much of a thing outside of horror circles until very VERY recently. Horror has always been a bit of a pariah among other genre films. It's an acquired taste that most people can't acquire. You can rely on a steady and consistent audience when you decide to become a horror filmmaker, but you just can't rely on that audience to grow.

And you definitely shouldn't try to pull outsiders in by force. Outside of the first one, I've seen The Conjuring 2 and The Nun. Both are... underwhelming, at best. At worst, I wouldn't even call them horror anymore. The creepiness is gone, it's no longer vaguely unsettling, it's all jumpscares, the payoffs are in these big action sequences instead of a thrill meant to instill fear. They feel more like action movies, and not even very good ones. It's like they're trying to ride on their initial success by appealing to audiences they just don't have, and have lost the foundational horror audience in the process.

And the thing is, I feel like it could've been good. The concept of an anthology series based on the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren could've been a really cool horror franchise, if they actually stuck to their target audience instead of trying to pull in the fringes. In the case of The Conjuring, I think that was just profit motivated, but the point still stands when youre talking about any form of representation, I feel.

How many times do you hear, especially on the internet, that x media was bad or even "problematic" because they don't appeal to a hugely sweeping demographic of everybody on earth and every human experience? "I think as an adult that this pixar movie for children is the death of art." "I think as a white person that blackwashing exists." "I think this underground arthouse film was snuffed at the academy awards." "I think not having every type of minority on screen is inherently bigoted." Okay! But sometimes movies arent made for you! If you feel like there isnt enough attention paid to your experiences, thats one thing. Thats an issue of your target audience not being considered in the industry, but its not an issue of other target audiences having movies for them. We can have both, one existing doesnt negate or take away from yours, youre fighting the wrong crusade here.

And honestly, I can tell you as a horror fan that saw The Conjuring rise and fall as a series that you really DONT want widely sweeping hypergeneralized art that appeals to everybody. I don't give a shit about that Annabelle doll that gets good SEO with its urban legends, can I please just have a good horror movie made for horror audiences again instead of all the thrills being sanded down and sanitized for action audience ticket sales?

#some thoughts

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dovesndecay · 1 year ago

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from all ur chucky posting i finally read the wikipedia pages with the episode summaries to get a bit of context for them and honestly im so happy for u, this show seems right up ur alley

I gotta say it's been very strange to have gone from "I can't even look at dolls for extended seconds" to "Chucky is my favorite series" but Don Mancini is ridiculous and I just think he can do what he wants.

That said, I still don't love dolls, and I refuse to buy any Chucky merch that could potentially hold a knife.

For anyone interested in, like, what the fuck is going on in the franchise without actually sitting down to watch 7 movies and 3 seasons of a TV show to get caught up like the GOAT that I am, I highly recommend the Kill Count (ReCount) of the franchise.

James A. Janisse does a fantastic job of not just giving you the plot, characters, and lore, but goes into the production process, special effects, and the history behind the franchise as well. The progression of technology for the puppeteers is utterly fascinating to me. (Shout out to the TV show for listing the puppeteers in the credits as Chucky performers, as is Right and Proper.)

I think a lot of people are mostly worried about the gore of the franchise upsetting them, which is entirely understandable, I'm not a huge fan of gore myself-- personally, I find that the best way to watch the series is with people who have seen it and can warn for the particularly gruesome bits.

There have been a few kills I had to look away from, and others I thought I would that turned out not as bad as I was worried they'd be or were cooler effects than they were scary bad things to look at with my eyeballs. Most recently, the mid-season finale of Season 3 managed to make all of us scream and hide our faces during multiple kills, and god, it. was. great.

Admittedly, my favorite kill and the one I think is just, fucking, art is John Waters' death scene in Seed of Chucky*, which is [apparently] widely considered the worst kill of the series and the worst movie of the franchise but they're wrong. (I picked a hill and I will kill on it. Seed is amazing and I'm sorry y'all didn't catch the genre change with Bride.) *content warning applies for a melted face and, y'know, killer dolls.

But I'm also staunchly of the opinion that there is no "bad" Chucky movie, only particularly strong ones, and ones that Don Mancini didn't have majority control over.

#askbox #hey nonny nonny #chucky series #child's play

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exeggcute · 2 years ago

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dont feel obligated to post this but you asked on that one post why people accuse staff of being terfs and i dont wanna clog anyone's notifications so im sending an ask kjhgfdsgsgd sorry again feel free to ignore.

there was a situation where some popular blog made an accusatory post about a known member of staff openly having a case of Hogwarts House In Bio on their personal blog and it got hard deleted from the site for "encouraging violence towards staff." nobody could reblog it, the blog responsible for the post was terminated for violating tos, all physical evidence of the post existing (besides screenshots) isn't there anymore, etc. the post was kind of "mean" but in a way that was pretty typical for tumblr so staff's actions are widely considered an overreaction and/or indicator of sympathy for the transphobic population of the site.

okay I do remember when some marketing staffer was "ousted" as a hardcore harry potter fan (which like, to be fair, is reasonably tactless behavior at best and a sign of blatant transphobia at worst... although if there's one thing corporate marketing normies love it's harry potter so my money is on the former here) but this is preeeeetty flimsy evidence imo. like we all know how people on this website are. three days ago people were on the verge of doxxing me because I spent eight whole dollars wrong lol.

I have not read the entire tumblr terms of service because I read enough stupid technical jargon as it is but I am guessing there's some kind of specific clause in there that you can't be a dick to their employees, and even if there isn't I can 100% imagine why they'd delete a post that was directing negative (and/or potentially baseless) ire at an employee. I am also not an HR professional (thank god) but there's probably also something at play where you have to provide employees a safe working environment and that also includes an environment where twenty-somethings in your inbox aren't telling you to kill yourself or whatever.

like, I could totally be wrong! I know this is mostly speculation on my part, but it sounds like the evidence in favor of "tumblr is run by terfs" is also mostly speculation and we're sorta just getting into occam's razor territory here. if the evidence of a vast transphobic conspiracy is that tumblr shut down people who were being mean to an employee about liking what is (regrettably) one of the biggest media franchises in the world but not otherwise being overtly transphobic, my money is on boring corporate bullshit ever time. I can't imagine it even occurred to the people making these decisions that it was gonna come across badly; like, truthfully, I just don't think your average software company employee is tapped into the broader pop culture "guess which famous children's novelist was posting transphobic rants on twitter again" apparatus, let alone the microclimate of this website. the HR team at my work is mostly Extremely Extremely Offline (and very nice) middle-aged women and one slightly thotty gay dude from new jersey.

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chososhairbuns · 1 year ago

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my infatuation with simon blackquill is back full force actually. truly one of the ace attorney characters of all time it's not his fault that the two games he's in are widely considered the worst ones in the franchise

#.are

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a-captions-blog · 2 months ago

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1. Tumblr post with two reblogs: mindfulWrath: honestly “I’ll do whatever you want” “then perish” is the single most powerful exchange possible in the english language and it’s from some bizarre “hewwo” obama rp falling-towers: And there was that other post where someone dreamt that Obama said “violence for violence is the rule of beasts” like what is it about Obama that makes people come up with such raw fucking dialogue for him TwoFingersWhiskey: my mother had a dream where he lived in the forest and she had a cigarette with him and he said “to become god is the loneliest achievement of them all” and put it out and walked into the mist and I’ve never fucking forgotten that

2. “I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.”– Joshua Graham, Who Is A Fallout New Vegas NPC, Something Most People Throwing This Quote Around Don’t Realize

3. “If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have.”– Shadow the Hedgehog in what is widely considered one of if not the single worst game in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise

4. Tweet by wint @ dril that says in all caps, ‘If the zoo bans me for hollering at the animals I will face god and walk backwards into hell.’

5. Edited comic panel showing Donald Duck talking to Mickey Mouse. Donald says, ‘Everything that we know and love is reducible to the absurd acts of chemicals, and there is therefore no instrinsic value in this material universe.’ Mickey replies, ‘Hypocrite that you are, for you trust the chemicals in your brain to tell you they are chemicals. All knowledge is ultimately based on that which we cannot prove. Will you fight? Or will you perish like a dog?’

6. Quote by Ultimate Warrior that says, ‘Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them bleed deeper in something that’s larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized by the storytellers.’

7. A gif of a person asking, ‘Do you think god stays in heaven because he, too, lives in fear of what he’s created?’

8. 4chan post that says, ‘But what is stopping you? Best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. Second best time is today.’

9. Quote by Nick Nolle that says, ‘Nobody likes to change. There will always be resistance to change, and there always will be change. And the quicker you get to that, the easier it is. It’s not such a difficult thing. If you entrench yourself and go, ‘By God, I will not change, I will not have this.’ Then, you’re a dead man. We’re great at adaptability. It’s our strongest suit.’

10. Quote by Arin Hanson that says, ‘You’ve got to make a statement. You’ve got to look inside yourself and say: “What am I willing to put up with today?”’

11. Quote by Danny Sexbang that says, ‘Whenever you look at another creator or an artist that you respect, you're only seeing what took them a long time of work and doubt to push through. You never see the struggle behind it. So you think you're the only one struggling, when in fact, everyone goes through it.’

12. Fallout screenshot of Thomas Hildern saying, ‘Too many people have opinions on things they know nothing about. And the more ignorant they are, the more opinions they have.’

13. Quote by Paarthurnax that says, ‘What is better – to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort.’

14. “Pick a god and pray.” -Fredrick from Fire Emblem Awakening

15. Quote by MewTwo that says, ‘I see now that the circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant: it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.’

16. Animal Crossing screenshot of Katrina saying, ‘And remember that bad times...are just times that are bad.’

17. Tumblr post with three reblogs: personsonable: me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: [in all caps] I’m not fucking scared of you MiaIsLying: Hey OP? What the [word in caps: fuck] does this mean? Personsonable: decay exists as an extant form of life MiaIsLying: That’s a terrifying answer, have a nice day

18. Quote by Griffin Mcelroy that says, ‘When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrubt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable. Unintentional. Clumsy.’

19. “You want to be a hero, Tommy? Then die like one.” - Technoblade from Dream SMP

20. We deserve a soft epilogue, my love - A Stucky fanfiction

21. Tumblr chain: MishaToesies: “if no art makes you feel anything, make your own art and feel something” is too raw of a line to have come from a jenna marbles video of her painting a rainbow/polka dot seahorse saying “it’s seahorse time” on a denim jacket StarSeekrr: [photo of the jacket with the seahorse] GreenyCrimson: Why do you people feel profound thought has to come from high places? The gutter looks at the stars too.

22. Haiku Bot: Grandma Arbuckle reading a love letter in A Garfield Christmas. Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

23. YouTube comment by BrianRusk37 that says, ‘”If violence was to ever be considered a work of art, this place would be the damn Sistine Chapel” is such a raw line and I can’t believe it comes from a video about pokemon.’ The comment has 689 likes including one by the creator. \End ID]

“i am a monument to all your sins” is such a fucking raw line for a villain it’s amazing that it came from halo, a modernish video game, and not some classical text or mythos

#requests #quotes #guns tw #death tw #violence tw

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otnesse · 5 months ago

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Honestly, Misty got redeemed overall with Aim to Be a Pokemon Master, and I'm glad about it. That said, like with the Unintentionally Unsympathetic entry for her and to a degree, Brock, I see a vocal minority of her haters have taken TV Tropes and basically pushed this shade on her:

"Back in the 90s and the 2000s, Misty was one of the most popular characters in the franchise for being a Fiery Redhead Action Girl and hilarious Deadpan Snarker who acted as the perfect foil to Ash Ketchum while also being a bit of a mentor to him, with legions of fans shipping the two of them together. Many were devastated and outraged over her getting Put on a Bus at the end of Johto, and you could see people demanding her return to the series as a main character as late as 2009, long after her replacement May had been retired and while May's own replacement Dawn was getting ready to leave as well. However, starting in the early 2010s those same fans would look back on Misty’s tenure and scrutinize it for a multitude of reasons. Unlike later female characters, she lacked any kind of Character Development beyond becoming less violent after getting Togepi (which some don't count as actual development, considering the show as a whole became less violent around this time), with said violent outbursts now being seen as more cruel than funny. These fans also point out that for all of Misty's bravado, she rarely battled against trainers aside from Team Rocket, which made her credentials seem like at best an Informed Attribute, and at worst made her many critiques of Ash seem hypocritical. The introduction of the infamously polarizing anime version of Iris was also a contributing factor; Iris was widely suspected to be an attempt at recapturing Misty's success, which caused many viewers to go back and re-evaluate Misty in a more critical light, with some pointing out that quite a few of Iris' most criticized qualities had earlier been displayed by Misty. While Misty still retains fans to this day, she's become far more divisive, with many fans arguing her initial popularity came mainly or even solely from being Ash's first female companion."

Oh, trust me, the scruitinization was going on during AG as well, and that was just showing how some people lacked loyalty to her to begin with. Scott85 was among the worst.

As far as the rest, seriously? Misty if anything was probably one of the better-developed members of the cast (if there was anything preventing her from being fully developed, it's that Masamitsu Hidaka forced her to be kicked off for "not being girl enough"). She actually had to develop from someone who had to present a tough exterior partly due to bullying from her elder sisters to being somewhat open about having a soft side by the end of Johto, while STILL keeping her temper intact. I'll admit she probably didn't get much battles in hindsight, but at least she still managed to GET battles in, and by Johto she was getting a good turnaround by giving SOME focus on her goal. And as far as the outbursts, seriously? Most of her outbursts in Kanto were outright TAME compared to some of her peers in other anime (for example, Bulma outright SHOT Goku a few times, and don't get me started on Naru Narusegawa in Love Hina, who treated Keitaru FAR worse. Heck, even IN-SERIES, Jessie treated her companions FAR worse than Misty EVER did). And as far as Iris, while I'll admit I don't have much to go by regarding Best Wishes due to being on boycott at the time (and I would have watched it on Pokemon TV alongside the other sagas barring OS, even that, if they didn't stupidly do "keep circulating the tapes" for everything barring the immediate beginning and ending of the series prior to shutdown), what little I heard about Iris if anything had me view her as a WORTHY successor to Misty, meaning I didn't even hate her at all. Even her infamous "Just a kid" catchphrase (what caused her to get a hatedom) was if anything more the fault of the writers making Ash regress in development than an ACTUAL issue with Iris herself. At most, I was neutral, even came close to liking her (far more than May and Dawn, those two I downright hated, and still DO hate ultimately, and believe it or not, my hatred of them had very little to do with Misty other than maybe characterizations). I fail to see how Dawn really developed other than MAYBE going from point A to point B, and May's development if anything was a complete mess (and considering she threw a tantrum after her loss to Solidad and even basically blamed Ash for the loss, I can hardly say she even developed from her insecure self at the beginning at all), with Lillie doing May's character development a LOT better (and if anything May was moreorless a standard Shoujo Protagonist). The only things they had over Misty was an (over)focus on their Coordinator goals (and let's be honest, had Misty actually been allowed to go to Hoenn instead of kicked off, her Water Pokemon Master goal most likely would have gotten a LOT more focus and thus actually ALLOWED her to be better developed goal-wise). Oh, and Misty was NEVER a hypocrite regarding her criticisms of Ash. At least Misty actually WON her battles when she had them, while Ash for half of Kanto literally got his badges via dubious methods that didn't even entail battling (especially when one remembers that the Pokemon League in the anime was a fighting tournament, meaning Ash needs to actually BEAT the Gym Leaders just to genuinely qualify), and even regarding the Cascade Badge, her SISTERS were the ones who awarded the badge to Ash that time, NOT Misty. She if anything protested that decision. Actually, the only one of the cast who actually WAS a hypocrite was Brock, since he derided Ash for so-called "pity badges" despite his WILLINGLY giving such earlier.

And at least for me, Misty's popularity had nothing to do with when she debuted. It was overall her actual character (and most of those "fans" seem to ignore the actual positive qualities she had on the show, including encouraging Ash [yes, she DID in fact do that, and also did a LOT to actually TRY to help him. In fact, there were more than a few times where if it weren't for her, Ash and co. would have been dead or otherwise unable to continue], also genuinely helping various COTDs like Joe when he was being bullied by Giselle. I can assure you if Misty debuted after May or Dawn or even Serena, I definitely would have genuinely liked her regardless.

The good news is, this is definitely a case of vocal minority, since the Movie 20 poll for various characters made it pretty clear that Misty was liked by fans of all ages enough to qualify in the Top 3 (only Brock and Serena beat her out).

#Misty Pokemon #TVTropes #Anti-TVTropes #Anti-Misty hate #Pro-Misty

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spoilertv · 8 months ago

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#SpoilerTV

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glassmarcus · 10 months ago

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Pokémon Violet has Transcended Embarrassment

*Played in November 2022, Written in December 2022

Pokémon Violet does a surprising amount well. I still think it has a ways to go both as a Pokémon game and as an open world game, but it's still head and shoulders above what I expected and honestly MOST Pokémon games. I didn't presume much because this was rushed, but that's really not a new issue. This franchise is categorically rushed at this point. The last new batch that was actually finished cooking was Generation 5, and those are what I would classify as outliers.

You can look at games like Pokémon Platinum and Emerald and view them as easy cash grabs because dumb kids will buy the same game twice without reservation. I didn't buy Platinum when I was 11 because I thought I was getting grifted. "Why would I buy ANOTHER version of Pokémon Pearl?", "That game was awesome! There's not much to improve on", "I'm not gonna save up my allowance just so I can get a third option for a fire type" were the thoughts I had on the matter. It was after returning to Pokémon in my senior year of high school, when I replayed every Pokémon Generation, where the illusion shattered before my eyes. Pokemon Pearl...is really slow. Every action you take in that game is as slow as a Shuckle. It has the lowest speed stat of any Pokémon game by far. I didn't realize it before, because my perception of time was suspect when I was a preteen, but that game was not optimized at all. It wasn't recycling the same product, it was charging for the completed version. It's a patch, you put up money to get. That doesn't make it excusable really, but at the end of the day I'd rather a finished version of a game exist than not.

It probably wouldn't have been good to market it as Pokemon Diamond and Pearl: Actually finished edition, but it would have made it clearer to me as a consumer what was on the table. That's pretty much what they tried to do with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon a decade later, but the complete versions of those games just happened to be worse than the betas. Plus, it's not like there is no precedent in the series for transparent updates that should have been there at release. It's just that most people don't know about them. The versions Pokémon that were released world wide had drastically better sprites and a few bug fixes to boot when compared the original Pokémon Red and Green. And even then, every version of Generation 1 is still full of holes. Pokemon, at its bare foundation, is a franchise that is OK churning out products that could use another year of development. Games like Yellow Version and Crystal looking back were honestly the only ones I'd consider pure cash grabs. Pokémon Yellow didn’t fix much from Red V2 and Blue. Gold and Silver were more or less complete. Ruby and Sapphire though, while they weren’t egregious in any way, the lack of post game content left them feeling like they were hurried in development, especially compared to the previous games' massive post game. This makes Emerald feel necessary in retrospect. People whine and cry about the lack of battle frontier for a reason. It wasn't just an additional thing, it completed the experience.

Platinum was the first case where a fix was implemented mainly for technical reasons rather than content ones. And because of those technical kinks being ironed out, the rest of Gen 4 and Gen 5 were as polished as the series has ever been. Then Pokémon X and Y happened. And while the performance wasn't an issue, it certainly had the same problem of feeling like a ton was left on the cutting room floor. Gen 6 is probably the most reviled generation of Pokémon and I can't help but think that's because A) they really are the worst games, and B) they had no “patch release” to fix any of its problems. I have fond memories of Gen 6, but that's because I had too much free time on my hands and they made EV training and online battling painless. The games themselves I've beaten twice and don't remember any of. It's the essentials with no flourishes, and as much as people would have welcomed another version with some meat on it's bones, a Pokémon Z would never happen. Sun and Moon had a dearth of content and a surplus of technical issues. An update for that game felt more necessary than in Gen 6. And like I said before in Ultra Sun and Moon’s case, they barely fixed anything and made that story worse and added content that was bad.

This marked the end of the "Third Version" era. If the things added just detract from the game, then why bother making them at all? Downloadable Content always seemed like the obvious route for Pokémon to go, but was never feasible due to the hardware. Any extra content they can't add on release, can just be developed later and sold for the price of not an entirely new game. Things like performance and bugs can be fixed in updates as well. So there's no real need to buy an entirely new version. Sword and Shield came out, lacked content, but announced DLC to make up for that lack of content. The DLC was decent, but that didn't really sway public opinion about the game itself. Its legacy is that of a paint by numbers poké. This is all based off the osmosis of opinions I absorbed from the circles I hang around in. Still haven't touched them myself. It's getting to the point where I'm about to play Sword and Shield for the sake of having my own opinion on it when I spend far too long developing context for these essays. It's agonizing having this gaping fissure in my Pokémon knowledge, but those games do look painfully mediocre, so I have no drive to try them.

People can look back at Gen 4 and think fondly of it because while it was initially a slog, it was improved later. Not just because it was optimized, but because the adventure itself was tweaked to be improved. DLC fixes the amount of content that can be contained in the game, but it does nothing to fix the distribution of said content. The main journey is still underwhelming and no additional content will change that. The third version wasn't just a patch, it was a second shot. There are design decisions and story beats which can be tweaked. Changes that would be awkward if done via an update. No matter how polished an addendum is, it can't make up for a rough draft being so rough. And that's what I was worried about for the new games. Because I knew they would be drafts just like almost all Pokémon games initially are.

Pokémon Violet has issues. It has spelling mistakes. It has busted grammar. It has misused vocabulary words. But it's still coherently formed and carefully crafted. It just turned in its work without using spell check. The base game is strong and nothing about it is broken. It's just kind of embarrassing, but the game confidently shrugs it off. Violet is populated with glitches, but the only one that really matters is the memory leak one after a long play session. Violet has extremely rough looking animations, but you will get over it and not really care after a few hours. The indoor exploration feels like a cheap visual novel, but that ends up being a small percentage of play time. Violet has low fidelity graphics, but the art direction more than makes up for it.

It might be because I played them back to back, but Pokemon Violet reminds me a lot of Sonic Frontiers. It's not Broken and Embarrassing like Sonic 06; It's not Broken, but polished on surface level like Sonic Lost World; It's just Embarrassing sometimes. And that’s funny. Most of the wild bugs you find in the game are things you laugh at and move on from and Violet is the same way. I'm not condoning games lacking polish, but I really can't get too upset at it. The only true killer is performance slowing down the pace of battles to near Gen 4 rates, and that is something I would call a major issue. Especially after how quick it was in Pokémon Legends Arceus which released in the same year.

I'm of two minds about this. Yes, they should give the game more time so that it's polished and presentable. I don't want to support smooth brained upper management and I wouldn't say I PREFER things to look awful, but when you change your perspective you can appreciate how hysterical this game turned out. We're at a point where Pokémon is unstoppable and the vote with your wallet approach is futile. So all I can do is be happy with the product being good enough. And yea, this is good enough. Probably the best Nu Pokemon game, an age bracket I’m gonna say extends from Gen 6 and onward. Not sure I can say it’s better than any of the old ones though. Why? Because they are far different experiences with different goals. Old Pokémon games were about building your team and overcoming obstacles. These new ones are about exploring and finding your favorites. There's probably more challenge here than in any from the past decade, but I still had to really try to not be over leveled. I was training like 20 Pokémon at the same time here, and caught 300 by the time I got to the credits. It's a middle ground between a traditional Pokémon and a Legends game. Which makes it not great at either. There's no satisfaction in overcoming anything, but exploration isn't as smooth as in Arceus. There's just...more of it. I remember areas in Arceus because they were smaller and had land marks and locations where only certain things happened. Violet is just larger and more connected, but it has the same motifs spaced out further. This game lacks interesting locales and events, and while the things you do are fun, I'd rather just do them in Legends where it's faster. It does nothing old better. Battling and catching is not what you go to Pokémon Violet for if you want the pinnacle of those activities.

The new it brings to the table is the best part though. Multiplayer works. Just being able to point out where things are to people and experiencing new Pokémon in stereo is the most magical part of this game. The synchronous wonder you feel during unions do a lot to enhance the feeling of adventure. It wears off once you're near the end of the game and things are inherently less exciting, but it's still relatively seamless and only additive. It starts to feel like a MMO. But instead of massive it's micro. People have been asking for a Pokémon MMO since the dawn of high speed internet access, and while it's not there yet, it's at least something.

The story is also the best the franchise has had due to its approach. Instead of 1 story arc that takes itself far too seriously and takes too long to tell, you are given 3 story arcs with a final one at the end. Each story arc is easy to follow and character driven, endearing you to the setting and cast. All 3 are genuinely touching tales. And when things started to pop off and get serious at the end, I was more engaged in learning the outcome more than other Pokémon games aside from maybe Sun and Moon. I can attribute a lot of the strengths of this story to those games as well, but they’re held back by linear structure and can feel like you are getting pelted by story at all times. In Violet, no storyline feels like they are interrupting your adventure because you can do them at your own pace. I liked this game about as much as Moon, but I will never replay that game. The story is far too obtrusive. So I have to prefer Violet just based on how much replay value it has, not just because the story is structured better, but because I'm certain my next play through will be FAR different.

The non-linearity is yet another thing this game brings to the table. A lot of people were bothered that this game doesn't have level scaling for gyms and other equivalent goals. I expected them to do this so you can do things in any order you want. But they didn't and it was a great decision, because now it feels like I’m breaking the rules by doing things out of order. It feels more free when there are structures you can surmount. I liked doing gyms out of order in the first two Gens and this is the logical extension of that. Having the challenges curve with badge amount makes it feel like you've been placed in a bounding box and would make it impossible to attempt to punch above your weight class. Personally, I think it's good for players to have the freedom to get bodied by lv 30 Pokémon near the beginning of the journey. It builds character.

Having a variety of goals also helps break Pokémon out of its linear structure. You can swap between storylines whenever and in any order you like. And each one gives different rewards. If you prioritize movement, you take on titan sized Pokémon to get traversal upgrades. If you want higher level Pokémon to obey you, take on gyms. If you want a wider variety of attacks for your Pokémon, you take on Team Star. The path the player walks along is not driven entirely by curiosity, but by implementing a system that supports prioritizing some modular aspects over others. Players who beat the game will end up at the same place, with the same abilities, but with a different story. Pokémon has sort have always been that way. Everyone becomes champion with a different team that you bonded with along the way, with their own tale of how they succeeded in each challenge. But now that those challenges have no order, there's an even greater variance the narrative you can craft.

I wish this game was finished. I want there to be free updates that enhance performance and fix memory leaks. I want there to be DLC with more to explore. But I do not want a third version. Because the bones of this game are strong and Game Freak is really onto something.

#pokemon violet

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