#tragically underused female characters

[squeakygeeky]

If you're expecting a last minute reprieve, you better forget it. Once they get you this far, there's no going back. You better get used to the idea. Nobody out there gives a damn about you.

[minthe-lover]

I am curious why Athena didn't play a larger role in LO. She's the goddess of wisdom and war, and her power almost matches Zeus and he considered her his right hand in terms of political strategy, so why not have her more talking to her father to out some sense on him like in the jury?

But no, for some reason Rachel like many female characters were putted aside and overshadowed. But Athena could play also a role guiding Persephone, and being her wise and smart could figure out what happened to her and demand justice for the assault Apollo did. Also where is her armor?? Her iconic helmet and spear and owl??

Uhhh- well the owl shows up like once, same with her helmet

And in the end like most of the female character are under used. I mean Christ the first scene we see Athena she didn't even speak, Athena is just tragically underused and it sucks.

[moonlightknightess]

Hello! By accident I saw your comment about Eren x Ymir Fritz! What are your opinions on it and on Founder Ymir's character in general? It seems the fandom underuses Founder Ymir so much, it's refreshing to see her getting some attention in AUs and HCs

Hi! Now that's an though question! Especially cuz I just realized they were a thing not too long ago 😂 just as I said before, it's kinda wild honestly, like not even I would have come up with such a pairing, and those are really bold words considering I'm shipping Eren with almost the entire AOT female cast here in this blog 🤣 It's interesting tho! I'm a big sucker for rare pairings after all, and truth be told the more I think about them the more I start to like it, especially how unique they are as a pair and all the implications behind it when you take in consideration their roles in the series And regarding Ymir... I can't say I got a lot to say about her as a character to be honest, maybe it was cuz she wasn't that prominent until the last arcs or how she never had that much time on camera, but up to this day I can't say I understood her character, I pity her for how tragic her story was and loved the closure she got right at the end with that "talk" between her and Mikasa, but other than that, not too much to say 😅 Gotta agree with you on the last part, I have never read a single AoT AU fic where she is featured at least as a minor character, every single fic I read where she appears is about the canonverse, I would actually love to see something about her in a modern au or at least in another au different from canon!

[filmmarvel]

2022 Marvel Ranking

I thought it would be fun to return to my roots and make a Marvel post again! This ranking is preference based by the way.

1. Moon Knight- I think Moon Knight was the best project of the year. It was interesting, fairly unique, Oscar Isaac was amazing (along with several other leads), and I’m a huge sucker for mythology. Honestly I’m a little rusty (It’s been a while since I watched this), but as far as I can recall, my biggest complaint about this show would be the visuals. The CGI really wasn’t so good, which always throws things off for me.

2. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever- Overall, I really liked this movie, and I feel that Ryan Coogler did the absolute best he could under the tragic circumstances. It was heartbreaking, and there were some incredible performances given. My only complaints were that some of the pacing was weird, there was a bit too much going on at times, and there were a few plot holes where the audience was left to just assume what happened.

3. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special- This was actually a lot of fun! It was really funny, Drax and Mantis make a great duo, and the inclusion of Kevin Bacon was delightful. It was really quite sweet, and I’ll take whatever content I can get where the Guardians are happy (it seems like they’re heading somewhere dark for the 3rd film).

4. Thor: Love and Thunder- I have 3 primary issues with this movie. First of all, Gorr the God Butcher was severely underused, secondly, the jokes overwhelmed the plot at times which was annoying (especially because they weren’t always that funny), and third, this movie accomplished very little. Basically all it did was catch us up with what was going on with a few characters. Other than that, this film served little purpose to the MCU at large (this wouldn’t be such a big issue if it were made better). It was also pretty cheesy, and just plain cringy at times. Overall a disappointment from Taika (who I love), but it’s been incredibly irritating to see the outpouring of hatred for Taika since this movie came out. I love Taika, just because he made one bad movie doesn’t automatically cancel out all the great movies and shows he’s made.

5. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness- I was immensely looking forward to this movie, so it was overall the biggest disappointment. I found the ‘Raimi touch’ that everyone’s been praising to be overly campy and unoriginal. Plus, the dialogue was unbearable, and the whole movie kind of felt like an embarrassing rip-off. I cringed more watching this movie than any other this year, which was bizarre for a Dr. Strange movie. It didn’t feel true to his character at all. Why did I rank Thor, which was widely disliked, above this? Because despite it’s wild mediocrity, it wasn’t nearly as big a disappointment to me as this film was.

As I have become fairly disillusioned with Marvel over the past year or so, I haven’t seen everything that’s been released. Namely, I haven’t watched She-Hulk or Ms. Marvel, and at the moment, I have no intention to watch either, as I haven’t heard anything to convince me I’d find either worth my time (I’d consider Ms. Marvel but not She-Hulk). I also haven’t seen Werewolf by Night, but I’ve heard some great things about it, so I’ll definitely watch it (eventually). I’ve heard that Marvel intends to slow down, and focus on quality over quantity again in 2023, and I really hope this is true. It’s been especially disappointing to see many of the female-led projects get trampled by this recent trend in lower quality.

Also, would anyone like to see a post on visuals, colors, or characters for one of these Marvel projects? I really haven’t done much of anything on Marvel this year, I’ve got some stuff cooking but feel free to request anything!

[weaponizedducks]

this is incredibly exciting ive never met enyone whos actively liking Shapeshifter!! following u immediately we are now best friends

ABSOLUTELY agree with u abt the government side of things- so ive got a whole oc sorta for this one- i feel like they should have had like a kid of one of the government people who is really against the colas and then sorta gets turned over to their side- making the readers like wake up to the horror of the cola project.

also LOVE ur lisa analysis- shes always been my favourite- i adore that she gets to be angry and powerful but also feminine and pretty? i love how angry she is. also the patrick wood messages thing?? NEVER thought abt that before that is such a cool idea- they really underused this guy and his power was so interesting.

re: the lisa and mia thing. ohoho their dynamic is so interesting to me. i am incredibly invested in it bc to me they really remind me of erik and charles from x men and im also really invested in them. but to me theyre like two sides of a coin. they want the same thing- but their methods are wildly different. mia is angry at the world and she's hurting and she wants to get rid of anything that hurts her friends, especially lisa. she doesnt want the cola's to be accepted so much as left alone. lisa wants to fit in. she's always wanted to fit in- she wants to be normal. she wants to be accepted and while she acts like other peoples opinions don't bother her, they really do. mia and lisa value each other so so much, but they're constantly hurting eachother. its clear to me that mia loves lisa- and their twisted dynamic in feather and fang when mia is BEGGING lisa to come with her, and lisa is horrified by what mia's done, but she still loves her, and she doesn't say 'i hate you, i don't want to see you ever again' she says 'maybe later on i will see you again. when we're both better.' i think they work because fundamentally, lisa has always understood mia more than anyone else, and because she's so angry and expresses her feelings, around her mia finds it easier to express hers. i sort of relate to mia- i really get her character bc she feels like she has to be the happy, calm friend all the time- she never gets angry, she bottles up her pain, she pretends everything is fine when it's not. and she hates being seen as breakable or fragile. she's quite like dax in that sense. (also if u wanna get into xmen i recommend x men first class and days of future past, but also the og triliogy are amazing)

mia is such a tragic character, she's always been hurting so much. she presents herself as very easygoing and calm and 'nothing bothers her'. she seems very at peace, when in reality she's the opposite. she seems very open- like she has no secrets, but she has major trust issues, and she doesnt let anyone get close enough to her to understand her. apart from lisa and the rest of the gang.

re: humanity of the characters- yes i love that abt the books. i also love how they portrayed the bad effects of having these powers and how they impact such young people- i feel like a lot of ya fantasy just sees it as a cool bonus. might expand on this later idk.

(also apologies. our diva alice jones would absolutely star in barbie. not even gonna speak on gina bc i hate her and she fucked up her kids badly. gonna speak on this maybe)

CATHERINE. OH MY GOD. YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABT HER. i do feel horrifically bad for her- she's essentially a failed experiment. its so interesting to see a female antagonist like her- she's so young, so she isn't forced into that 'cool, flirty female villain trope' that i despise, which is great because it allows her to go completley batshit without the readers needing to like her. i feel a lot of books make the mistake of wanting to create a likeable villain, and i'm glad this wasn't the route taken.

re: gideon. yes yes yes he's such a Character. he's been through so much, and yet it's never really acknowledged. i would have loved to see more of his arc- i think him and lisa have a really cool (platonic) dynamic that would've been fun to explore. and yeah get this boy a bf. he deserves it.

tysm for adding ur analysis- its so cool to find someone who likes these underrated books!!! please feel free to come yell into my inbox any time, and ur character analysis is so interesting and accurate

(also. xmen. its very like shapeshifter and i cant believe im only just realising this.)

Hello! Your pinned post mentions The Shapeshifter books so 🫵 hi

Tell me about them. Who's your favourite character? What do you like about them?

(feel free to redeem this ask as a way to infodump if you want. license to yap)

omg hi hi!! i love you so much for asking this and im sorry for turning this ask into an infodump. definite spoilers for the shapeshifter below.

ok so my favourite character is lisa probably bc shes iconic and her instincts when something goes wrong is just to attack. either verbally or physically. also her backstory is so sad??? like she predicts someones about to die but she doesnt know thats what her visions mean (bc her visions are very cryptic and she was like 10 at the time) so she only realised when the girl died and then blamed herself?? like what??? these books are so dark for a kids series. i think she deserved a gun and also to say fuck. i really love her relationship with dax also theyre just so cute. like she'll by fully attacking someone and he's like :). isnt she so pretty :). theyre a bi4bi power couple i just know it.

also she fully had a doomed wlw situationship with mia and i fear we dont talk about it enough. mia was fully in love with her both before and after she went evil. like they very much gave cherik for a hot moment there. actually now that i'm thinking about it shapeshifters is very x men coded. so yeah im never getting over lisa and mia but i do love her and dax so im not mad.

MIA OH MY GOD. I LOVE MIA SO MUCH. never before has someone so deserved their villain arc. she's like morgana. i LOVED the subversion of her being the sweet healer-y type and then going batshit insane with her healer powers. like kinda using them for...nefarious purposes shall we say. she's still very sweet she's just very cunty and evil now.

i also love alice especially in the last book bc. shes just a kid. her mother's shit. stepmom neglected dax and smothered alice while never actuallly listening to her wants and needs. and their fathers never there. i wish we had gotten to see alice and dax bond more over their shitty parents. they could have been the best sibling duo. also shes badass and she would have loved wearing pink to see barbie (2023).

gideon for me is one of those characters who is so into women it just wraps around into him being gay. he's like lance mcclain to me. he deserved a boyfriend. also i think he's bi (i think everyone's bi. i don't think there's a single straight character in these books. minus mr grey). i love gideon he's so mecore. he's also traumatised!!! and he has a twin brother and an evil twin sister who's thirteen and ripped out her brother's tongue.

on the subject of gid's evil twin sister she is SUCH an interesting character to me. like obviously i hate catherine but she's so fascinating. her power means she can never stay with someone for too long or she'll end up killing them. she never has her own likes or hobbies or talents- she borrows someone elses because she feels herself isnt good enough. she crucified a man. she's killed three adoptive mothers. sort of on purpose. she just wants to be loved. she drowned an entire school with a massive tidal wave after leeching their powers. she was killed with fire. she was french for a while. she's perpetually thirteen years old.

i love the series as a whole but i think it had so much potential to be more. it was already pretty dark (windmill scene. need i say more) but it was technically a teen fantasy series, and i feel if they committed to a YA age rating and went all out with the horror and the very clear 'fuck the government' theme that was present throughout the whole series it could have been amazing. i have so many ideas for these books and what they could have done (note i love the books so much as they are but god. what we could have had if they weren't technically kids books).

also just realised i forgot to talk abt owen!!! gay father figure of our hearts. he accidentally adopts a bunch of motherless children and then he commits to it for the rest of his life. he canonically faked his death to live in a cave in spain with his superpowered male best friend. he's killed quite a few people.

this is the end of the Yap. in conclusion none of these characters are either normal or know how to function in society. i love these books. theyre like xmen and harry potter combined. but no jk rowling so win

[fanfictionroxs]

This is a post for a female character that I really admire in The Devil Judge. Jin Joo.

She was honestly underused, but what little time she had, showed her development and character beautifully.

Note this. Jin Joo is ambitious, but she doesn't put it above her morals. A woman being ambitious is generally shown as an evil thing because misogyny and stuff. But here we had a woman who wanted power, but she wasn't willing to abandon her ethics for it.

She was tempted by the wrong people. She trusted them and made a mistake. But when she understood that she had been tricked and realised the truth, she owned up to it and took steps to rectify her mistake.

Damn! That's the mark of a true mature adult! She's actually perfect to help troubled kids precisely because she'll make a beautiful role model and someone to look up to.

So Jinjoo was ambitious, but also stayed true to her morals and the need to do right by the poor people. She is a woman of character 😍😍😍💖💖💖

Sunah saw that during the last few episodes (I don't remember the exact episode number) when she said that Jinjoo shined brighter (phanchak phanchak) after "betraying" the evil side. I loved that line because it was a very small hint towards the connection shared between Sunah and Jinjoo and how Sunah really saw her. They were a wasted couple with fantastic chemistry. Argh!

(Let me go off on this tangent slightly please. I need to get this off my chest)

Do people realise what a tragic pairing Jinjoo and Sunah are? What a fantastic and doomed love story their's could have been if shown as prominently as Gahan?

We have one person who has crossed all lines and still keeps on crossing them, blinded by ambition and the need to control everything. Then we have another person who is ambitious as well and a fire burns inside her to get in the limelight and get to the top. But she isn't willing to hurt others for this ambition.

Both have had poor childhoods and both processed them differently and came out to be very different people. But they meet and have a connection. Sunah tries to use Jinjoo's ambition to win her to her side, but what she doesn't realise is that that is only the surface of what Jinjoo is.

And Jin Joo. Well for her, taking down Sunah is a moral obligation. She cannot allow the poor to perish among the games of the powerful. She knows how that feels and how destructive these things are.

Imagine in the end, it's not Sunah shooting herself to death, but Jin Joo stabbing her in the heart. And she's crying, but she knows it must be done and Sunah collapses in her arms and smiles because she is free.

Doomed 😔

Anyway.. JIN JOO FOR PRESIDENT! Gaon can be the vice president or the chief judge and they'll keep the powerful men and women in check while protecting the weak 💖

[jockvillagersonly]

2020 Drama Round Up!

Jock’s Alphabetical Watched List

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

Ancient Detective

Rating: 🧣🧣🧣🧣🧣 5/5 cozy winter garments

Watch Status: done! ✅

The Good Stuff:

The MC is, objectively, the coziest man alive

MC said “simp rights” and honestly...good for him

I guessed the ~final twist~ really early, but it didn’t dampen my enjoyment of each individual case or the show as a whole!

Any Bad Stuff?

The last few episodes are like...oddly homophobic? With a queer-coded character presented in a somewhat grotesque stereotype? SAD!!

🌸 more reviews under the cut 🌸

Ever Night (S1)

Rating: 🌂🌂🌂🌂 4/5 inexplicably magic umbrellas

Watch Status: ...like 30% done

The Good Stuff:

Some of the BEST fight scenes I’ve seen

Lots of interesting world building!

My queen Meng Ziyi 👑

Any Bad Stuff?

God the MC’s hair is UGLY 😔 pour one out 😔

Guardian

Rating: 👬👬👬👬👬 5/5 gays

Watch Status: done! ✅

The Good Stuff:

It doesn’t get any gayer than this folks

Really this is some of the queerest media I’ve ever seen

Also the main and ensemble characters are all endearing and fun 🐍

All I know is have diarrhea and be hindrance

Any Bad Stuff?

The middle portion of this show DRAAAAGS

Also ZYL’s hair makeover is awful and someone needs to say it !!!!!

Legend of Fei

Rating: 🌰🌰🌰🌰🌰 5/5 dog safe chestnuts

Watch Status: still airing

The Good Stuff:

The pure yibotonin in this show could power a city or at least one depressed viewer (me)

Zhou Fei could and frankly should kick my ass

I love her your honor

Any Bad Stuff?

Has the odd effect of each plot arc feeling both way too long AND like you’ve been crammed way too full of information

Maiden Holmes

Rating: 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️ 5/5 superior detection skills

Watch Status: one night and 15 episodes in

The Good Stuff:

The main pairing is so fucking cute guys. He loves her so much. He thinks she’s so smart 🥺

Includes one of the purest archetypes of a himbo on screen today 🤌

Crime solving! Hidden identities! Bisexual panics!

Any Bad Stuff?

One episode includes a pretty long assault scene / near r*pe of a main character - the scene is flashed back to throughout the episode, as well

Oh My General!

Ranking: 💪💪💪💪 4/5 beefy lady biceps

Watch Status: like 25% done because FUCK it’s long

The Good Stuff:

Literally EVERYONE in this show is bi. I have the screenshots to prove it. It’s glorious

call me old fashioned, but i was raised to serve my general. clean for her. cook for her and everything i do is for her. and if she cheats? that is on me! she caught me slipping and i will apologize and do better.

Any Bad Stuff?

My only complaint so far is the romance takes awhile to pick up? I’m pretty tired of the main love interest being rude to his objectively incredible wife >:(

S.C.I.

Ranking: 🐭🐭🐭 3/5 mouse archetypes

The Good Stuff:

The pacing is quick! Sometimes too quick? I got lost a lot @___@

Bai Yutong is simply TOO ripped

Any Bad Stuff?

Honestly this show is a bit of a poorly edited, problematic dumpster fire with not even a passing understanding of what psychology is

...but god if it isn’t fun to watch

Silent Criminal

Rating: 🥸🥸🥸🥸 4/5 conveniently disguised emperors

Watch Status: done! ✅

The Good Stuff:

They’re gay and in love your honor

Honestly the two leads really grew on me! I found myself wanting to rewatch their interactions

Not a whole lot of actual crime solving :(

Any Bad Stuff?

Yet another example of the tragic underutilization of female characters with potential 😔 justice for the ladies of this show

There is an assault scene (a character straddles a main character and forces a kiss while he protests). Easily skippable and not referenced again

Sword Dynasty

Rating: 🐛🐛🐛🐛 4/5 divine silkworms

Watch Status: just started (like 3 eps in)

The Good Stuff:

The fight scenes are very wuxia and very fun

Idk what the fuck is going on, but I’m pretty sure the emperor deserves to be stabbed, so go off I guess!

Any Bad Stuff?

Honestly I have barely begun this so ... idk yet!

Tale of the Nine Tailed

Rating: 🦊🦊🦊🦊 4/5 immortal foxes

Watch Status: mostly done

The Good Stuff:

Lee Yeon is very hot and that’s a fact

Nam Ji Ah (main female lead) is SO powerful and SO amazing and LITERALLY my queen

She stabs her fake mom when she’s , like , 5!

The communication b/w the leads??? Iconic

Any Bad Stuff?

This is just me, but I truly cared so little about the Imoogi. I just. Wanted an episodic monster of the week with all the same characters. Pls

The Lost Tomb Reboot

Rating: 👨‍🦰👨‍🦰👨‍🦰 3/5 bad mustache disguises

Watch Status: I stopped watch once [SPOILER] Wu Xie was cured, because I just ... don’t care about the mob politics? So for me that was where the show ended

The Good Stuff:

Zhu Yilong is like ... way too fucking pretty

Also the Wu Xie & Pangzi friendship is so FUN in this show!!!!

Everyone is 2 hot 2 handle

Any Bad Stuff?

Not nearly enough Iron Triangle hangouts >:(

Shockingly large amounts of white collar crime, shockingly few tombs

Every lady is CHRONICALLY underused and/or murdered. Yawn.

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty

Rating: 🎩🎩🎩🎩 4/4 detective hats

Watch Status: I’m always on / off with this show 😔 I’m like 2/3 done now

The Good Stuff:

Crimes !! Solving crimes !! Gay domesticity !! What more could you ask for

One of the best OT3 set ups in the business

Any Bad Stuff?

Silly hats

For folks with secondhand embarassment issues, the main lead can be ... hard

The Untamed

Rating: 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰 5/5 soft bunny metaphors

Watch Status: Done! ✅

The Good Stuff:

Everyone in this show is so pretty I’m convinced it’s illegal

Like if this didn’t pass censorship it wouldn’t be because of the obvious gay longing but rather because it’s setting unrealistic expectations for beauty

Also: the gayest longing around. And murder!

Any Bad Stuff?

Nothing this show is perfect in every way

(Except like maybe don’t kill or write off all your women ... thoughts)

[movie-magic]

A Davy Jones Prequel Is The Best Way To Save Pirates of the Caribbean

A prequel digging into Davy Jones' tragic backstory can save the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and improve the existing films' flawed narrative.

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies have struggled creatively since Gore Verbinski’s departure in 2007, but a Davy Jones prequel could save the franchise from its curse of diminishing returns. Disney is keen to change direction with Margot Robbie’s female-led adventure, but ushering in a new roster of characters is a considerable gamble. It would be a mistake to ignore pre-established lore that could improve Verbinski’s trilogy about love and morality.

Davy Jones’ tragic romance with sea goddess Calypso was underused by the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, hindering emotional attachment to the characters. It was stated the lovers betrayed one another, both confined to separate forms of immortal torment. Jones carved out his heart to symbolically shed his emotions, yet each remained bound to the other, as evidenced by their matching musical lockets. Small but meaningful teases of their relationship set the stage for a confrontation that never satisfactorily materialized onscreen.

Their Pirates of the Caribbean backstory could be significantly improved with a prequel movie and offer insight into why Jones became such a monster. He is a memorable villain who took great pride in slaughtering his opponents, but it’s the softer moments that make Jones such a complex character, and there are lingering questions about the details of his curse that provide the opportunity to retrospectively enhance the second and third films’ story. How did Davy Jones turn into an octopus-like monster and why did Calypso abandon him?

The rules of Jones’ curse and reasons why Calypso never visited him at sea were never fully defined. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End revealed he initially honored his soul-ferrying duty, only to step on land after 10 years with Calypso nowhere to be found. Only then did he quit his role and turn on her in revenge. This paints Jones in a more sympathetic light while exposing Calypso as the original instigator of cruelty. His narrative arc could come full circle with a prequel, exploring their affair and how he felt manipulated into spending an eternity aboard the Dutchman, in turn gleefully forcing future sailors into joining his crew. This story would also better explain Calypso’s sudden exit from Pirates of the Caribbean, underscoring her flighty nature. Jones was racked with guilt over helping the Brethren Court trap Calypso, giving a prequel ample opportunity to explore his psyche as he questions the truth behind their love.

Flashbacks to Jones’ time with Calypso would surely be important, but the story needn’t dwell on his origin. The focus should remain on his physical and emotional transformation, lending the film a body horror aesthetic as he relinquishes his humanity. This would provide the perfect contrast to Will Turner’s story. At World’s End saw Will ultimately take Jones’ place as captain of the Flying Dutchman, and a prequel exploring what horrors this life entails could emphasize the tragedy of his and Elizabeth’s star-crossed romance. Disney’s attempts to replicate the Will and Elizabeth courtship in later films failed to resonate, but a Davy Jones movie sidesteps this issue by involving familiar characters already firmly rooted in the larger story. This would showcase the birth of a monster while delivering a cautionary tale of cutting oneself off from the world.

The tragedy of Davy Jones emphasizes Pirates of the Caribbean’s theme of how the choices people make impact the lives of their loved ones. Of course, a clear distinction would need to be drawn between victim and villain, illustrating the point of no return where Jones actively embraced evil. However, a prequel would avoid the obstacle of Margot Robbie's reboot being compared to beloved original characters, and instead deepen the suffering that connects existing heroes and villains.

- Screen Rant

[fonulyn]

I saw someone the other day here on good ol' tungle complain (before the show came out, mind you) that Claire wasn't going to be in the show enough and wasn't gonna play an integral role, and like. I can understand why that thought is upsetting, bc the girl is a badass and deserves more screentime for sure, but like not only did they end up being wrong (our girl kicked ass, played a huge role in the plot, and was just generally amazing) but they had like, blamed Leon a little bit for it? As tho it was his fault the writers don't give three shits about the female protagonists in the franchise (who, if I remember correctly, only one of which gets an actual entire game to herself? The rest, to my knowledge, are POV swapping games, which are fine but like. Come on Capcom)??? It was v weird and caused me to unfollow them bc they were already disappointed by the show, they blamed Leon, and they acted like, surprised? I don't know about you, but I'm never surprised by franchises like this when they put one of their main female characters on/in the promotional to garner attention and then she's actually only in it for five seconds. That's just misogyny (which I'm not excusing or saying is okay, obvs, but don't push blame onto the other main character, just bc he's the main character? Leon didn't choose to push Claire out of the spotlight, and honestly I don't even think he did. Like he got more screentime then her, yeah, but I think this is as close as we were gonna get to a fair split amount of time between the two, with capcom's history of "women? What women? Oh you mean convenient plot devices?"), so don't hate on people who love Leon, and don't hate on the character himself. Like what the what? As a Leon lover (he is my favorite, I love him sm), I am pissed that we never get to see Claire in anything, that we hardly ever saw Jill after RE3, and that all female protags are secondary to their male counterparts. It's bullshit, frankly, but taking it out on other fans and the other characters in the franchise is. Not good, and will just isolate you further from the fandom. Don't know if this is a hot take or not lol and I'm not trying to like be mean or start a fight with anyone, I just needed to rant about this bc it was bothering me and I figured you would kinda get where I was coming from? Also I love your rants, you are v knowledgeable lol

okay so... i saw some of that going around too. and it doesn't really make sense to me for multiple reasons. first of all, some people already decided that ID would suck even before it came out, they decided Claire would get no screen time and decided they'd ruin her character and... all of that before they'd seen more than the trailers? and I just don't get it, why not give it a chance before judging it?

i do understand that people want Claire to have a big role and want her to get the chance to shine. i want that, too! she absolutely deserves that! and I get being scared of what would become of it! i was nervous beforehand that they'd take the characters (both of them) into a direction that I'd find disappointing. when I pressed play on the first episode I was terrified as much as excited, because there was no way of knowing before seeing it.

but i do think it's important to press play and watch for yourself before condemning the entire thing.

and as for blaming Leon for Claire allegedly not having a large enough part in it? it... makes zero sense. it's not like they're living breathing people who have an actual say in what happens? :'D overall I find it weird how readily people jump to attack other characters to defend their own favorites. I don't understand this whole shooting down others to lift your own fave. there are ways to appreciate a character without hating on everyone else.

(that is not to say you're not allowed to hate on characters! of course you can hate characters! but like. you don't need to hate whoever you deem a "rival" just because. it's not a competition.)

and yeah, there is a long history of misleading promotion where a character is advertised as a main character and then sidelined to only appear for a bit. and it was a possibility. but it didn't happen, and I for one am happy about it. (what I am disappointed in, is that they made it seem like Leon and Claire would work together, while they did that for like two and a half minutes. but well. can't win them all)

(tangentially, they did something a bit similar to Chris in re8 too, the promotions relied super heavily on him but from what i understood (without having actually played the game, so correct me if i'm wrong!) he was a playable character for a very small portion of the game. so. they used him and his fanbase for promotion a little misleadingly. so yeah it is a real concern that could've happened)

like you said, Leon might've gotten more screentime if you only count the minutes. but Claire was an integral part of the story, she was fighting for the things she believes in, she got to be fierce (that headbutt is like the highlight of the movie :'D) and it wouldn't have been the same without her.

yeah it is bullshit how Capcom just threw Jill aside, and are tragically underusing a lot of their female characters. and I'm not trying to excuse that. but I do think they have a general problem with forgetting all of their characters except for Chris and Leon, who have gotten to be in most things (even tho to be fair they're not getting a fully consistent storyline either but. they do get screentime?). they create the most wonderful characters and then forget all about them, and it sucks.

but that's a problem with the people who make these movies and games. not the characters in said movies and games. so taking your own disappointment out on other characters and their fans is just... counter productive at best. it just leads to anger and resentment and the absolutely pointless fandom wars no one benefits from. i, for one, am too old for that bullshit.

so yeah, I get what you're coming from. it is so frustrating to see the unfounded hate. and tbh I've seen Leon get quite a bit of it. but that just comes with the territory I guess. he is popular, and some people react badly to it. which doesn't make sense to me, personally, but hey it is what it is.

I know it's easier said than done, but try to focus on the good! we got new content, Leon and Claire both got to be important parts in the story, they both kicked ass and looked amazing doing it! for the most part they both felt very in character, and I have high hopes we might get more in the form of season 2! :3

also, I'm glad you're enjoying my ramblings :'D I have a lot of thoughts but I usually get carried away rambling and I'm never sure how much sense i make, lol.

[neuxue]

Who are some of your favorite villains?

Oh man, that is a question, anon. This is not a comprehensive list, because if I started listing every morally corrupt character who owns my soul, we’d be here all night. I’ve also taken a somewhat flexible definition of villainy at times, because…it’s complicated.

Also, spoilers for uh…most of the things listed; I’ve tried to keep it vague where possible, but the nature of villainous arcs means sometimes that doesn’t work. I’ve listed the work before the commentary, so if you don’t want spoilers for the thing, skip that section.

In no particular order…

Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter (His Dark Materials): okay, so arguably they’re not villains, per se, but they each serve as antagonists at various points, they’re ambitious and proud beyond belief, and their morality is…well. Complicated. (Did I lose my mind at the ‘corruption and envy and lust for power. Cruelty and coldness. A vicious probing curiosity. Pure, poisonous toxic malice […] you are a cesspit of moral filth’ speech, from a corrupt angel to the one deceiving him? Abso-fucking-lutely. Also ‘I wanted you to come and join me. And I thought you would prefer a lie’). They’re also on this list because they were my Formative Villain Faves from the age of 7, which probably tells you something about who I was as a child and who I am as a person.

Nirai Kujen (Machineries of Empire). You really…could not write a villain more My Type if you tried. I’m not sure I could write a villain more My Type if I tried. Immortal, immoral mathematician who traded empathy for the ability to act on it, reconfigured a universe, and has lost most of his humanity but not his sense of beauty? I am but a simple woman. It helps that there is one hell of an enemies/allies/lovers dynamic going on between him and another character who is a different sort of my type, and it’s precisely my kind of Fucked Up Power Dynamics.

Moridin (Wheel of Time): ’Your logic destroyed you, didn’t it?’ I have a whole…thing about villains who see themselves as a kind of anti-Chosen One. I’ve written about it slightly more coherently elsewhere, but it comes down to a particular kind of despair and perception of inevitability, that they have no choice but to fight and that their role is always to lose, and that they will be cast and remembered as the monster, and so there is not reason not to be monstrous, but that doesn’t help with the self-hatred.

Semirhage (Wheel of Time): I could pick a lot of the Forsaken, and one or two other characters from WoT but I’ll stick to two here. Semirhage is all about pain without emotion, and I’m into it.

Malkar (Doctrine of Labyrinths): okay, he’s sort of in the category of scenery-chewing villain you love to hate, but I do love to hate him. And he causes so much delicious pain for the major characters; it’s almost like he’s running a charity service for those of us who like watching our favourite characters hurt.

Aaravos (The Dragon Prince): Listen. Listen. Trapped in a mirror, lost and alone and yet only letting that show in glimpses, possibly a Prometheus figure, graceful and beautiful and terrible, and that voice. Also the entire aesthetic. He is awful, and he is a delight, and he has that kind of cruelty that you can almost forget about - it’s as though he’s so into the villain aesthetic that you almost think it’s just an aesthetic, almost forget how capable he truly is of horrors, and so when he commits them it’s all the more thrilling.

Astrid & Athos Dane (Shades of Magic): The Dane twins deserved better. And by better I mean more screen time. They were criminally underused as villains and they had such potential. Vicious and cruel in a world where to be otherwise is to die, holding power by blood and pain, and chaining another …well, if not villain then certainly antagonist to their will, forcing him to serve the world he wants to save? Which brings us to…

Holland (Shades of Magic): Holland is…arguably not a villain but as an antagonist he is absolutely my type: powerful and ruthless and broken, and yet somehow still fighting; a character whose defining trait is his extraordinary will (and also self-hatred); a character who, literally in canon on the goddamn page, is told ‘no one suffers as beautifully as you’. (Plus he gets a redemption arc! That lets him remain complicated and doesn’t undermine his competence! And while it falls into redemption-equals-death, his death doesn’t come at the turning point in his arc the way it does for so many villains - he gets a whole road-trip first!)

Melisande Shahrizai (Kushiel): oh man. She’s such an interesting character, and the narrative does an excellent job of creating that link between her and Phedre - a really, really compelling and beautiful form of 'you know it’s a terrible idea but you can’t help yourself’. Also, she and Marisa Coulter should never be allowed to meet (by which I mean, I would read that fic). I’m also always here for a female villain who gets to be complicated, who has depth beyond just the typical 'femme fatale’ (though Melisande could certainly claim that title), and who is truly central to the story rather than there to look pretty.

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender): For all that I love Zuko, he doesn’t belong on this list, flexible as my definition of 'villain’ here is. Azula, on the other hand…sharp and vicious and a void of anger and fear inside, and if she has to feel that, then the world should too.

Zhao (Avatar: The Last Airbender): It’s at least 85% the voice, and the other 15% is the way he looks at Zuko (I know, I know, I’m sorry).

Rhaegar (A Song of Ice and Fire): Rhaegar’s villainy is…complicated, but he gets a spot here anyway. I have a niche subtype that can be defined as Sad Harpists (Rhaegar, Maglor, Deth, Morgon, Asmodean), so that’s part of it, as is the way he sets that aside out of what he perceives as necessity. But also most of his draw is how he’s this shadow hanging over the entire narrative and yet is himself a void in it; we see so little of him, know so little of him in truth, catch only glimpses and will never know what’s behind them, and every character sees him differently, and he has defined all their lives but we know almost nothing of his. I’m all about identity and choices, and the fact that his are so thoroughly obfuscated but have such a lasting impact on the entire world really does it for me.

Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade): Does she count as a villain? I suppose it depends entirely on whose point of view you’re watching from, which is kind of the point. Regardless, she is so much of what I want from a character, from an author who doesn’t do things halfway. Intelligent and ambitious and utterly ruthless, to both herself and the world she wants to burn down around her.

Delilah Briarwood (Critical Role Campaign 1): any character whose cry of agony and despair takes the form of 'I broke the world for us!’ is a character I’m going to like.

The Lone Power (Young Wizards): mostly because the traditional greeting, upon encountering them, is ’fairest and fallen, greetings and defiance’, and I am a simple woman. But also because they’re the Lucifer figure, in all senses - evil, perhaps, but mostly a necessary embodiment of entropy, one who must exist and must struggle and must always lose, beautiful and bright and terrible, and oh so proud.

Judas (Christian Mythology): He betrayed a guy with a kiss. What more do you want from me?

Rin (the Poppy War): By the end, she makes a very compelling case for herself as a Villain Protagonist and I, for one, am into it. Also, 'genocidal’ gets tossed around a lot when villains are discussed, often without cause, so uh…points to Rin for actually deserving it? (This book is strongly in the category of Not For Everyone, but if it’s your thing…weaponising gods.)

Loki (Marvel franchise & Norse Mythology): so, I have a complicated relationship with 'trickster’ figures and characters, in that I like the idea of them, but tend only to actually enjoy the ones who fall on the darker side of that line they all dance around. Loki, in pretty much all his incarnations, fits that mould.

Achilles (Greek Mythology): Is Achilles a villain? Depends who you ask. But he’s powerful and proud and doomed, and knows it. I just…heroes who go out in a blaze of glory are all well and good, but villains who step up to the flames of their own damnation?

Ruin (Mistborn): It’s funny; I really enjoy a lot of Sanderson’s stories, but by and large he tends not to write my type of villain (which I will forgive him because he gave me Kelsier). But Ruin…starts off like just another godlike semicorporeal villain with absurd power, as you do, and then gets significantly more interesting – and tragic – when you learn the full story. I have a thing for villains who chose their villainy out of necessity (with a side helping of hubris) and become that which they most hated or feared. The ones who look at a razor’s edge and think 'I can walk that’. Who look at power that will consume them and think 'I can control it’. It’s a very specific kind of… arrogant sacrifice, I suppose, and it never ends well and I’m into it every time.

[thecorteztwins]

what are some under used marvel female characters youd love to see in the rpc?

HMMMOkay, so I’m trying to think OBJECTIVELY here and not just rattle off the female characters that I personally like, and more “I’m surprised that there’s not more blogs for this character, whether or not I personally am a fan” ....because I missed the “you’d love to see in the RPC” bit because I’m dumb, and then I wrote this whole list without regards for that part. So this came out as less “female characters I personally want” (who would all be stupidly obscure and irrelevant anyway) and more “female characters I think the RPC should give some more love to, whether I personally am into them or not”:Definitely ALL the girls in the New Mutants and Generation X! I see a fair few blogs for Magik and Jubilee, but I really don’t see any for the others. I get why Magik is going to be more popular---she’s in more stuff, she’s currently much more relevant in the comics, and her backstory is so goddamn compelling---but that doesn’t mean the others shouldn’t have ANY blogs out there. Wolfsbane, Magma, Karma, and Moonstar are all extremely complex and compelling characters with their own struggles and triumphs too, and I think they deserve just as much love. Likewise, I get why Jubilee will naturally get more blogs than Husk, Monet, and Penance (depending if you count Penny as a separate character or not...) due to her being in more stuff, having bigger arcs, etc. But it still surprises there’s NO blogs around for those ladies! I know there was that Monet blog awhile ago, and @badmusesdoitwell had an Amara that’s now part of their multimuse, as well as a Rahne, but that’s still nowhere near enough love in the RPC for these Junior X-Ladies, in my opinion. Speaking of Generation X, I’m also a bit surprised no one has picked Cordelia Frost up, given that we’ve got plenty of background canon for her via Emma’s history yet Cordelia herself has LOTS of room to go nuts with headcanons, like it’s just the perfect opportunity! And I’m sure lots of Emma blogs, of which there are MANY, would love their little sister around for some family threads. Fuck, I would pick her up myself if I were more into Emma and the Frost family as a whole. She’s hardly the most relevant, recent, or even interesting character around, she’s done very little and shown up very briefly, but the fact she’s related to Emma Frost makes me think SOMEONE would have an interest in her.Madelyne Pryor, for sure. Like, I love Maddy, but it’s not just my favoritism talking here. I think she’s pretty decently well-known in the comics fandom, and she’s a tragic villain, which usually pulls people in big-time. She’s got a grudge against the good guys, and it’s actually more legitimate than most, which I’d think would also attract people, since a lot of villains fans like to blame the good guys no matter what and THEY’D ACTUALLY HAVE A GOOD ARGUMENT HERE? Plus she has very strong connections to other, more popular canons, with a ton of fodder for angst and drama threads, which people just LOVE. I have seen a few Maddy blogs pop up in the past, and I always get so excited, but they never seem to last very long :CDr. Moira MacTaggert deserves ALL the love and respect in the world/fandom! She’s been a staunch supporter of mutants since day one, she’s a total badass, she’s super smart, she calls Xavier out on his shit ALL THE TIME, she’s the survivor of an abusive husband, she had to make terrible choices about her son that no mother should ever have to and then live with the consequences of those choices, and SHE GOES AFTER A KELPIE WITH A GODDAMN MACHINE GUN! She’s been a part of the X-Men comics for such a long time, and is very significant in them, it really surprises me that I’ve never seen a blog for her besides just ONE and it was for the XMCU sexy American CIA agent Moira, who is NOT Moira in my book and NEVER WILL BE. Speaking of, Moira will ALWAYS be human to me, I think making her a mutant all along REALLY undermines a big part of her character as just an unyielding mutant ally. Though I think her being human, combined with being an older female who isn’t anyone’s love interest (unless she’s, gasp, getting in the way of CHERIK aka the ultimate fandom sin how dare she the harlot -.-), is probably WHY she’s so damn ignored -.-Frenzy hasn’t been in THE most recent stuff, but she’s still been relevant recent enough that I think one or two blogs around would have happened if she weren’t black. Yeah, I hate to be THIS person, but any black character who isn’t Storm doesn’t get love, for all that the RPC likes to yell about being diverse and progressive. Remember all the Captain America and Iron Man and Hulk and Quicksilver blogs that popped up after their movies? Yeah I saw like ONE T’challa blog after Black Panther came out. Then again, I’ve yet to see blogs for Pixie or Firestar either, who are white, and I feel like they both were fairly interesting and well-known in fandom? Same for the Academy X girls like Sofia Mantega, Mercury, and Wallflower. Luna Maximoff FOR SURE. It SHOCKS me I haven’t see more than a couple short-lived blogs around for her, just given her family connections. Now, I don’t think a character deserves love just because of who they’re related to---in fact it annoys me when a characters gets a ton of attention and it’s very obviously just for that---but Luna has SO MUCH going on? The problems between her parents, her mother being absent so much, her father exposing her to the Mists, dealing with her powers, being a child of two very different worlds and cultures, it just goes on and on. Luna has had to grow up so fast, she’s such a strange and stoic child as a result, and though her situation is very fantastical, having to be the mature one at an early age because all the adults in your life won’t be is something a lot of people have to cope with and I think would find relatable; I especially love how she lives in this world where there’s no bad guys, like neither Crystal nor Pietro were the villains in her situation, just hurting messed up people, which she also recognized in Magneto and maybe also even Maximus . And there’s so much that could be explored with her too that hasn’t been in canon yet---for instance, her choice to identify with her Inhuman heritage and why that is, and the journey of identifying with your heritage but also looking at the horrible things in their history, I think that’s a story that a LOT of people from MANY backgrounds can relate to. It surprises and frustrates me that both writers and fandom don’t really seem to care about her or remember she exists; one the only two blogs I ever saw for her seriously got someone asking them “why would you make such a weird OC” like SERIOUSLY! Luna needs more love, big time. Any female Avenger that’s not Wanda or Natasha. I don’t read Avengers, I’m just an X-Men fan, but I know they exist and they shouldn’t have to be in a movie to get love. Ditto for She-Hulk, I’m not a Hulk reader but I know she’s a prominent character who has been around a long time and has a very developed personality and stories of her own, yet I’ve only ever seen her on @getreadytosmash‘s multi. I’ve also never really read Alpha Flight, but its main ladies ---Snowbird, Aurora, Vindicator---all seem awesome in their own different ways. Alpha Flight isn’t very popular to begin with, of course, so I don’t expect them to have as many blogs as, say, major X-ladies, but I think one apiece or so would be very justified.KWANNON!! I actually get why we didn’t have any blogs for her BEFORE now, because we knew NOTHING about her, she was just a very tragic prop for Betsty’s body-swap plot and a way to give her insta-ninja-skills, but now she’s come back and has HER OWN NEW SERIES in which we’re finally learning who she is and her background, I hope to see a blog or two around for her eventually!Destiny aka Irene Adler. Like. Do I even need to explain WHY? I think people just don’t want to play an OLD woman, especially one whose primary/only ship is going to be with another woman.Maaaaybe Clea Strange? I don’t know shit about her, never read Dr. Strange, but like, people make blogs for Sigyn literally just because she’s Loki’s wife, and Clea at least seems to like...DO stuff? IDK, not sure on this on, but figured I’d make an honorable mention.Siryn, Boom Boom, and Dr. Cecilia Reyes are all X-Ladies that I really don’t know much about. Like I know basic things like their powers but I don’t know their story arcs and such. But as with Clea and the Avengers ladies and She-Hulk, I just have a HUNCH there’s a lot there getting ignored by fans.Silhouette Chord is a longtime member of The New Warriors, and, like Alpha Flight, New Warriors doesn’t really have a fanbase on Tumblr to speak of, so it’s not surprising to me she’s not got any love here. And even within the pages of her own comics, she’s generally pushed aside, underused, and underdeveloped compared to the other characters, generally more a prop for her boyfriend’s stories than anything else. But she DOES have a personality, a REALLY cool backstory, and she’s like...look, the RPC claims to love diversity and representation and all that, right? Silhouette is a mixed-race WOC (half Black, half Cambodian, and I have NEVER seen another Marvel character of Cambodian heritage who wasn’t connected to her) who is also very visibly physically disabled, her legs are completely paralyzed and she is never without her braces/crutches, yet she still fights PHYSICALLY (something very rare for physically disabled characters, they usually are more like Oracle or Prof X) and is depicted in a sexual relationship, and there’s never any kind of fuss or angst about it or anything treating her as delicate or less than or anything like that. She’s just completely adjusted to it in a way that’s very rare in media. And like I said, she’s not a flat character, I’m not saying she should be more popular just for ticking off the diversity boxes, she manages to be really intriguing to me despite how little focus the writers give her, and I think that she and the other New Warrior girls (Firestar and Namorita) have a lot to offer the RPC. But I have to give a special shoutout to Sil since she’s my fave, as the neglected ones alway are.Meggan Puceanu is probably most familiar to folks here as Kurt’s love interest in Age of X, but she’s been around since the 80s. She’s a longtime member of Excalibur, and she’s just...fascinating. She’s a Romanichal mutant (though often hinted to have magical/mystical heritage too, perhaps fairy like Pixie) who has empathic, elemental, and shapeshifting capabilities. However, her empathic and shapeshifting tend to overlap, so she changes her form (and her mind) according to the feelings, fears, and desires of others. So for instance, there’s this one time where a group of men are checking her out, and she feels that “They love me...I want...to love them in return!” and she morphs into this sexxed-up version of hersef on the spot. This isn’t played for kinkiness or laughs either; Meggan’s identity struggles are a HUGE part of her character. She has no idea who she is because her powers make her reflect and respond to the feelings of others around her, internally and externally. She doesn’t even know what she actually really LOOKS like because of this; her powers were present since birth, causing her to grow fur instantly as an infant due to it being winter. This caused her parents to keep her locked up in the camper trailer, where she was raised alone with the TV (she’s also illiterate, which causes her to feel dumb a lot) and as more and more people around her spread rumors about the monstrous child inside, she psychically absorbed those beliefs and her physical form changed to reflect them, making her more and more monstrous as she got older. She didn’t know she was a shapeshifter, she just really thought she was a hideous monster. And even when she found out the truth, she STILL didn’t know what she really looked like, as the beautiful form she took on (basically Pamela Anderson with elf ears) was to please her boyfriend Captain Britain (whom she is really unhealthily dependent on starting out because of her situation)Meggan is insecure, she doesn’t know who she is, she has to cling to a man in order to have anything because no one else has ever loved her, she easily becomes jealous of other women near him, she gets made fun of for being a bimbo and she often feels she is because she can’t read or understand “clever words” due to her isolated upbringing...and she gets through this! She develops! She becomes STRONGER and she becomes SECURE and she gains CONTROL of her powers and SHE KICKS ASS and she FORMS AN IDENTITY!  And then Meggan SACRIFICED HER LIFE to buy time for Captain Britain, Psylocke, and Rachel Summers to repair the tear in reality caused by House of M. She ends up lost between dimensions and TRAPPED IN HELL, where she uses her empathy to rally the lesser demons against THE LORDS OF HELL ITSELF and wages a war IN HELL for which her demon followers dub her “Gloriana” and she forms a sanctuary there called “Elysium” where souls can escape torment!  AND THEN SHE FINDS HER WAY HOME!THIS WOMAN KICKED ASS IN HELL AND WON!! Like she just goes through SUCH an arc, and I admit I have not read it myself yet, she’s on my list of characters to read EVERYTHING on and I’m still only familiar with her very insecure Excalibur days (which I love a lot, I just feel so much for Meggan and her struggles, I think she’s very much a reflection of a LOT of real-world issues, ranging from mental illnesses to just EXISTING as a woman) but I already have a ton of feelings about her and I think she’s more than prominent and accomplished enough to merit more attention in the RPC. And this is less of an “actually has reasons the RPC should love her” character, because really there’s no reason they should, she’s not prominent or relevant or or anything, but more an interesting “did you know”---did you know there was a “young female Wolverine clone” in the comics BEFORE Laura Kinney? Avery Connor! She pre-dates Laura by a year and has a VERY similar story, yet she never took off in popularity and very few people know her. You can read about her HERE on my Marvel blog. Again, would not say there’s actually any reason she’s earned love from the RPC like, say, Meggan or Luna, but I just thought I’d toss that in as a tidbit for the Logan family fans, as I know there are many.(Also, cheating because these are dudes, but: I’m not a Banshee fan but I am surprised I’ve never seen a blog for him, nor for Sunfire. Or for 616 Pyro. Or...)

[squeakygeeky]

May you die alone and silent.

[elenatria]

Do you think Loki is going to be in Thor 4 ? I know he's getting his own show but I like seeing the two together ! I also didn't understand if this movie is still about thor odinson or if is going to be about janethor and odinson is just going to be there. Who's the protagonist?

Well. Good question. Let me try to answer the second part first.

Initially I was kinda pissed. I hated Jane so so much in the previous films, what a generic boring Mary Sue she was and a disservice to Natalie’s awesomeness. Secondly I got pissed because heyyyy this is supposed to be a Thor film, not a female Thor film, I don’t care if it’s canon. Thirdly I know from hardcore Thor fans (yeah, the ones who have actually read the comics unlike myself) that female Thor is NOT the best Thor story line ever written... 

So basically I’m copy/pasting from my friend who has read the comics:

“It seems they couldn't think of a better way to empower a female character without demeaning and humiliating a beloved male character. 

Half of the story is just about her being able to lift the hammer, just because, and Jane being absurdly out of place. The other half of the story is just about character assassination of Thor, Odin sounding like a meninist, all Thor's friends and allies loving Jane!Thor without any valid reason and forgetting their loyalty to the true and original Thor, everyone just fawning over Jane!Thor though she has just stolen Thor's name and identity. Even Mjolnir is absurd. Suddenly all is better with Jane!Thor and all Thor's struggles, sacrifices and courage are discarded. 

Literally villains simply surrender to her because she is a woman. And Frigga is not mad at someone who is stealing her son's identity. She is angry because she couldn't steal it herself! 

I'm a woman of colour, I’m all for diversity and equality BUT I'm totally against replacing iconic, and beloved, characters. They are changed entirely so that writers can say their comics, books or movies are diverse. Why didn't they create an original character who represented women? Why didn't they take awesome and underused characters they already have like Sif or Brunhilde and give them their own comics? 

 Thor is  based on an actual god in Norse myth. And those of us who have read him since childhood love him, we have seen him grow, mature, love, learn, fight, sacrifice himself, cry, lose and win. When I heard them say there would be a Female Thor I just thought the Thor Odinson we know would suffer a change in his very own body, just like when he became FrogThor. And I was all for that. I remembered how Loki turned his body into one identical to Sif's in TDW and Thor took it in his stride. He even said he would kick Loki's ass in any form Loki gave him. Having a female body was not a problem for Thor. I would have loved that. But taking Thor's name, treating it as a mantle, replacing him...  SPOILERS!! Jane Foster is dead and gone now (cancer).”

Imho this is going to be a Jane!Thor film mostly. It’s quite obvious Natalie will be the protagonist but I don’t know if they’re gonna follow the comic’s tragic story line. I know Taika is an expert on tragicomedy (we saw that in “Boy”) so I’m quite sure he’s gonna combine seamlessly the tragic and funny elements of the film... unless the script is loosely based on the Mighty Thor comics just like Ragnarok was loosely based on Planet Hulk.

Plus you can tell it’s going to be primarily a funny film, right? I mean look at the logo.

It’s like the “Life of Brian” logo. (COMEDY!!1)

Or the “Conan the Barbarian” logo. (EPIC CHEESE!!1)

Maybe Thor remains overweight in the fourth installment, who knows, Taika always wanted to include a flashback scene of Thor as a chubby kid in Ragnarok.

So I hope Taika is going to take the piss at anything Marvel holds sacred even if he, as a person, is all for feminism and diversity. 

And now for my biggest concern: female Thor means there will be no room for Loki. 

Can I say that I’d hate a Thor/Jane reunion after they hilariously “dumped each other” in Ragnarok? Yeah I’d hate it if it’s all about them bickering about the way they split and who was responsible and then kissing and making up blah blah blah. How lame.

Also, Jane being the center of Thor’s attention (or Thor being reduced to a supporting character) would probably mean Loki has no place there. 

BUT... what’s giving me hope is that the Loki series will be released in spring 2021 and Thor: Love and Thunder will premiere in November 2021. It is so not a coincidence that those twin Marvel projects will arrive back to back. 

Tom says Loki is “still that guy (from ‘Avengers’). Seems there’s a lot of psychological evolution that is still yet to happen but it is one of the most exciting creative opportunities I’ve come across.”

Honestly, I don’t know what that means. Does Loki get to grow through his adventures in parallel universes and different timelines, with or without Thor? Does he miss Thor? Does he seek him out?

And if he does, which Thor does he meet? The Love and Thunder Thor, or a Thor from a parallel universe? According to the billboard behind him, he just traveled back to 1975.  Does he even care at this point?... 

I’m guessing Loki will make a tiny appearance in Love and Thunder. Not that I haven’t been disappointed by Marvel before, and it’s not like I didn’t trust the Russos blindly (just like I’m trusting Taika now) because of “The winter soldier” and “Civil war” only to be GLORIOUSLY disappointed by their mess of a story in “infinity war” and “Endgame”.

So... I want to believe yes. But after “Infinity war” and “Endgame” I’m not exactly holding my breath.

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Wizard Episodes 01-17

Where's Kaede? The magical show is about to begin.

The fourth installment in my "watch all of Kamen Rider" series is here! I'm two months and I still haven't given up, I'm not gonna lie I'm very surprised with myself. XD

As much as I was excited to start this new series, the bad taste Fourze has left into my mouth got me a little apprehensive. But, while Wizard isn't a perfect show, I was very pleased with this first third of it.

This is a show about hope and, much like its predecessor, the show isn't subtle about it. But somehow it works here, first because the dramas the MOTW victims go through feels more grounded and believable, and second because it's not just a bunch of teenagers going around dealing with stuff that to an adult's eye seems very dumb. It also helps that, for the most part, the characters here don't have a twisted notion of what Hope is, though there are some times where "hope" is mixed with "dream" and it feels a bit weird, but I think the two themes are correlated so it's not that big of a stretch.

If there's one thing I don't like about Wizard is the bad CGI. I understand that the effects aren't the best, after all, this show is heavily dependant on special effects because of all the magic spells so they can't use the best and most expensive CGI all the time, but I can't deny that they feel very wonky. I think if the engage sequences inside people's underworlds didn't exist or included actors in suits doing the monsters instead of large CGI creatures, they could afford better and more polished effects. Sadly that didn't happen so that's a letdown, at least the only instances where this bugs me is in the underworld scenes and during the Flame Dragon form attack so that's not that big of a deal.

Another thing I also don't like is the villains, the concept of the Phantoms is really good but the generals they lack a loooooot of personality. Phoenix is the hot-blooded villain and Medusa is the stereotypical female villain, in terms of design Phoenix is basically Ankh and Medusa is basically Mezool so it just shows they don't have a lot going on for them. Though the reveal that happened in episodes 14 and 15 made me interested so I didn't lose all hope in the antagonists just yet.

I'd like to come here and say that thankfully the other side of this coin has amazing characters that balance out the blandness of the villains, but sadly that's not the case. While Haruto is very cool, everyone else on his gang aside from Wajima isn't the greatest. And what's more sad about all of this is that each member of the gang has things that could make them great, but most of the time they're there being used as comic relief so when it's their time to shine is hard to take them seriously. Rinko could've been very interesting to see as a rookie female detective that has a strong sense of justice, but she's very underused and more often than not she's there playing a comedy role. Shunpei is naive and has a genuinely pure heart, and he would've been a great companion if the show didn't make him very extra and exaggerated making him look dumb rather than a kind kid too pure for this world. Koyomi should be the most interesting of them all since she's an empty shell powered up by mana, but we barely see her and her "introductory" arc was very rough in the edges with them making her seem like she is "jealous" of Haruto and has feelings for him. I wanna make clear that despite my problems I still like these characters, they had times where they shined a lot which made me like them, but they have those flaws and I can't overlook them. Of course, this is only the beginning of the season which means there's still more time so they have opportunities to grow so I'm very open-minded for them.

A character I don't have any hopes for is Kousuke, aka Beast, aka the mid-season Rider. As much as I appreciate that the dude didn't just appear out of nowhere during a fight, he still follows tradition and I don't like him, in fact, I hate this dude. I've seen him only once but I already hate him more than any of his predecessors. I don't wanna go for very long since he appeared only in one episode and the next arc will be more focused on him, I believe, so I'll have plenty of time to dish on him next week, but for now, let's just say I want to see choke him with his bottle of mayonnaise while engaging on his gross eating habits.

Talking about the man of the time, Wizard himself, Haruto is a bit weird, but in a good way. I appreciate that his "default mode" is a more serious one, it doesn't make him look off whenever the moment needs him to be more grounded/angry, but also gives openings for him to be playful and crack a few jokes here and there, I really like that in his personality. I feel like his backstory is a bit too much, but all main riders so far had some sort of tragic background that seemed way too heavy to be believable so I can't hold that against him.

Wizard is a rider I really like both in design and powers. Weird helmet shapes on his side forms aside, I really dig everything on his design. I never cosplayed on my life, but if I ever did a Kamen Rider cosplay it would probably be Wizard. The hand in the belt and the gun/sword, and the rings are way too big for my taste, but these need to be sold as toys so I think that's the reason why they're this big and I can get past that. I absolutely love the droids for this season and I love even more that they're called familiars if I had the money I'd buy ALL OF THEM. I love Wizard's elemental powers, but his "side rings" are weird and very situational, it seems weird to complain about that coming from a season with 40 EXTREMELY situational side powers, but c'mon, they have a spell that makes the user smell bad, what use does that have? Though I can't deny I'd love that sleep spell because my insomnia can be a bitch sometimes.

I'm a little thorn on the first power-up Wizard got, while I love its design in all of the three forms we've seen so far, and I love when the dragon parts merge with him in the Hurricane and Water Dragon styles, I hate how they came to be. Especially after seeing that Wiseman was the one that gave the stone for Flame Dragon and Water Dragon I expected this power-up to have a bigger thrown back to not make them as spammable as they are, and these things were supposed to be dangerous after all they use the power of Haruto's inner Phantom so, it's a bit of a letdown when you think about them under these lenses. They're still pretty cool though, I love them, aside of Flame Dragon form while doing the special attack, that head coming out of his chest is cursed and it doesn't deserve any love.

To mention a few episodes I really enjoyed I wanna highlight episodes 6 and 7 that had a very interesting plot centered around a con artist, I really liked the outcome of that one. I also loved episodes 8 and 9, as much as I think it's a bit forced I liked seeing Haruto's backstory and drawing a parallel with the victim of the week and what he was going through on its absurdity it felt very real and strong and I was all here for it. Episode 14 was kinda interesting, but it was more because of the reveal rather than the main story of that episode.

My favorite episodes were 12 and 13, as well as the Christmas episode. Both of these stories were very beautiful and emotional, I usually pause a lot to take screenshots and notes during the episodes but in these three episodes I had almost 0 pauses, I was really invested and felt very touched by these stories. 12 and 13 was Shunpei time to shine and it gave me a new appreciation for his character, it was also a great story about passing a legacy and keeping traditions alive, I also appreciate that the story ended on a very positive note despite of the Gate closing his business after everything that happened - that was a very good move on my eyes. And the Christmas episode was a real surprise to me, I usually don't care for the holidays' episodes but this episode was very beautiful, the thing with Santa appearing and giving a special spell that restores the destroyed gifts was a bit of a stretch, but I can't deny that I was very happy to see it happen just so that we could have a good ending so I'll give it a pass this time.

And that pretty much sums it all for now, I'm pretty hopeful *winkwink* for the next portion of Wizard even though I hate the new Rider so I'm excited to come back next week. What are your thoughts on Wizard? Let me know in the comments. I'll see you all the next time. o/

[mech-bull]

Station 19 3x01

[attilarrific]

celestriakle replied to your post: I’m caught up on My Hero Academia! Finally got to...

Do u still have the same faves/ships as when u were just reading the fic?

Sort of! On the one hand, yes, absolutely, I am JUST as predictably into Todoroki and Hawks (not together, just as characters), as I knew I was inevitably going to be, because they’re GREAT and definitely what I’m into. On the other hand, I have found another favorite character in Amajiki Tamaki, who I don’t think I’d even seen in a single fic before I went looking, so that was a lovely surprise! One of the reasons I’m really really looking forward to the fourth season of the anime coming out is because it might net me some more Tamaki/Mirio content, because they’re finally showing up and doing the Eight Precepts arc!

I’m also madly in love with Yaoyorozu, which I sort of called as being likely, but way more than I thought---I’m literally dying for her to get more screentime, I think she’s tragically underused (as are most if not all female characters in this series, tbh).

In terms of things I did not even slightly seem coming, I’m incredibly fond of Tsuyu---she’s not my usual character type at all, but every time she shows up on page I get really happy about it, and I wish she’d get more to do. Seriously, I don’t know what it is about her, but she’s one of my favorite characters.

(I also had no real idea how I was going to feel about Bakugou, because my extreme affection for Todoroki meant that I fell on the TodoDeku side of things, and the way their fics treat Bakugou varies wildly. So I wasn’t sure, and it turns out I love him! He’s hilarious. And I thought I’d be largely ambivalent about Midoriya, because me and main characters, and instead I love him as well. So that’s all very good!)