#and i promise i'm not bitter

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

To all the Bad Batch fans who are also MCU fans:

Do y'all remember when Endgame came out, Natasha Romanoff sacrificed her life just for a chance at everyone else returning, and the most she got in terms of grieving was a short scene of some of the other Avengers crying with Hulk throwing a bench, and a vague reference at the end? While Tony Stark got not only several extended goodbye sequences, but also a funeral/memorial. And fans brought up the discrepancy and their disappointment, because Tony DID deserve such a send off, but so did Nat.

This is how I, as a massive Tech fan, feel about the "closure" we got in the show regarding Tech's death and its impact on the other characters. Except it hurts even worse in Tech's case, because the only finality about his death came at the very end of the show and was basically "he's dead by default" since he hadn't come back, whereas with Nat we at least got reliable confirmation of her death so we could process it early on.

I love the Bad Batch. I appreciate the finale even more after a rewatch (and several paradigm shifts). And thankfully I (and the fandom) have an imagination so I can come up with my own cathartic moments to fill that gaping oversight for Tech. (Though the question remains: why do we as the fans have to do this, why didn't the show provide the closure and catharsis??)

I'm just saying: spare me the convenient time skips and "they were busy/they'd moved on already" excuses, Tech should have gotten at least as much attention from ALL his family members honoring his memory as Mayday got from Crosshair.

[ivywing]

[neverbelessthan]

JET LAG THE GAME | Benjamin 'bing bong' Doyle (2 / ?)

[autogeneity]

so embarrassing to be an aspiring-vegan aspiring-athlete person who genuinely likes kale and quinoa for the taste and texture. and now I'm doing gluten-free too. just shoot me

[lloydfrontera]

y'know what's funny in a 'not really funny at all but i have to laugh or i'll start biting people' kind of way??

the adaptation team working overtime to make the relationship between javier and lloyd look so much less deeper than it actually is in the novel makes the novel look so much gayer than it already did on its own. like. sorry but your attempts to cover up the homoerotism just makes it stand out more in its absence.

because if there truly was nothing remarkable about lloyd and javier's relationship and they were just very good friends and nothing else then why take the time and effort to change it in the adaptation so they look less close than they actually are.

why skip entire scenes that make their relationship deeper. why change their dialogue and thoughts so they're less invested in one another. why give interactions that they had with each other to their romantic interests. actually why give javier a whole new love interest that did not exist in the novel.

why go through so much trouble to change something that is so important in the source material if there truly was nothing else going on in the novel.

what was it about their relationship that made the adaptation team decide they just needed to change everything about it so they weren't as close and attached as they were originally.

if they were truly nothing but platonic with each other in the source material then why change their relationship so much in the adaptation that it's almost unrecognizable.

what about it did they find so unappealing that they simply had to modify it until it was but a shadow of itself.

in trying to cover up something they only managed to call attention to it by the people who knew what was there originally. now we know that they wanted to get rid of it so badly they were willing to butcher the story and plot for it.

it's really funny :)

[utilitycaster]

I enjoy shipping, but I cannot see the appeal in watching shows only for the purpose of shipping; I think it closes you off to so much. I think coming into a work with the expectation that it will only succeed if a particular configuration of people end up happily in a relationship with each other when the curtain closes means you will reject so many unexpected choices altogether. It destroys your ability to appreciate the entire concept of tragedy. Just, imagine refusing to let yourself enjoy "I'm not a gardener" because you are too furious that a different kiss than the one you wanted happened to feel other emotions.

[gunpowdercarousel]

Baldur's Gate 3: And then you saved the day! The End 😌

Me: W-wait, but what about Astarion? He's the Vampire Ascendant, what does-

Baldur's Gate 3: The End 😌

Me: But what about Shadowheart and Lae'zel and Minthara and-

Baldur's Gate 3: Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee End 😌

Me: But what happens to them? And what about all the other people that-

Baldur's Gate 3: Main Menu 😌

[exercise-of-trust]

.

[softstarsabove]

Ah this used to be one of my favorite photos I've taken (*´∀`)♪

[whokilledtheowl]

how do you balance it then? Magic and might. One person who's most powerful sorcerer to walk on the earth and the other who is The best warrior and a powerful king.

The prophecy was about Arthur, you can't deny it. Merlin was part of the prophecy, yes, but essentially it's Arthur who'll bring magic back, it's Arthur who's supposed to unite the whole Albion and become her High king. Merlin was supposed to protect him and help him reach that goal.

How it works then? I don't know if I'm making any sense because fuck if that whole fucking show made any sense. Cause, like baby I love you buf wtf you were trying to cook? The whole thing was a disaster recipe. The one person who's supposed to be a prophesied figure, who's supposed to bring magic back and all that.. That man isn't aware of his own destiny, like how fucked up is that?

[yoosung-ah]

[corvidclub]

there's really no canon evidence for it but I really like the idea that Louis' dad was a relatively caring father for the time period and that loustat were both attempting to (consciously or unconsciously) emulate their paternal figures in their treatment of Claudia

[otomevibes]

Anyway here's the shojosei licensing announcement I'm most excited for from Viz:

[kalosian-woods]

clemont post-crisis really needs to be studied. but like also, so does everyone in kalos. clemont specifically i can see being really paranoid, cause even after taking back his gym and getting his invention and gym team back, it was taken away from him, right under his nose, the result being him losing his gym and soon, the city of light will fall with it.

so i can totally get why clemont would be really paranoid and overly cautious and prepared. but like geez man, this kid's rivals are full grown adults who just wish they could be as smart as him so they don't have to work, like wow.

the episode in general is so messed up in so many different levels, he was kidnapped, almost got mind controlled and after xerosic was put to jail, he immediately brushed it off like "okay! lets get back home now guys! :D" but like... what if we don't clemont. what if we talk about it. time to face another one of your fears-- addressing your feelings. your emotions. your thoughts.

(also not too mention, what happened to his gym team when team flare was taking over the tower??? did they get captured?? were they with clembot?? even then were they okay when clembot got destroyed? WHAT HAPPENED???)

-⚡ (yeah! i might talk about the other characters, mostly the gym leaders, elite 4, professor and his team, etc! i really like the pokemon league... especially the electric type leaders, they're so silly. from surge to volkner, to elesa, to clemont, to iono, we have such a wild variety of them.)

It's definitely the thing where everyone was affected by the Crisis in some way, but some had more of a role to play and thus took a harder hit with the whole situation (or at least should've). Clemont could've been semi-okay bar the fact that, y'know, Clembot as we knew it died (and also losing the Gym again), but then that episode had to happen and I'm at a loss. What did he do to deserve getting kidnapped after the whole ordeal??? I love how it's not even Ash going through the reprecussions because of Greninja/just being that OP or even Bonnie for having a connection with Zygarde, no, Xerosic felt so horrible about getting beat by a child back at a building he stole from said child so he felt the need to just control him instead. His priorities lol... (But even so, the fact that his whole Gym got taken away was probably one of the worst nightmares to him. He had so much trouble taking it back from a rouge invention and now it's happening again but the world is falling to pieces as well. Because of the device that is in his own Gym. The accountability he must've felt for it, undeserved as it was, must be crazy. If he wasn't already oerly-prepared before, you can bet your socks he's got an invention for every possible bad thing under the sun after the Crisis lol.)

But even with Clemont, he really did just brush it off so casually and that makes me even more worried, if that's even possible. He's so blase about everything that was happening around that fact. Weird man I met once (1) before in my life literally stealing me alongside a part of a Legendary Pokemon?? I'll just ask what's his buisiness and use my highly-specific anti-measure against his device that will cause me unimaginable amounts of pain. Same weird man who tried to control me trying to jump off the plane (in which who is steering this thing??)? Nah, I'll catch him and tell him to repent. Like I'm with Xerosic with this one, what is actually giving you your strength ability to move on so easily?? They watch that guy go to jail so casually lmao. And I get that the whole Squishy + Greninja thing happened right after, but was no one going to talk about it?? No??

I think, in a way, being controlled like that really parallels what happened with Clembot in the Crisis. The body is still there, but the memories, the feelings and decisions that can arise from that, can't be drawn from anymore. You are not you anymore. Xerosic aims to puppeteer him fully, denying him of any autonomy, and it's also so similar suto how Clemont sort of carried himself around before at the start too. He thought that he couldn't do both Gym stuff and being an inventor at the same time. He made an invention that looks like him to carry out the Gym Leader role of him (and now Xerosic wants to make him a tireless inventor at his beck and call). Clemont initially was very closed off and wasn't as interactive, and throughout this journey he had learnt to live as boldly as he ever could. And now, after everything that has ever happened, he was faced with the terrifying ordeal of losing that all over again. I think, maybe, he doesn't want to confront that reality, that he could've lost all of his freedom and his own autonomy and having to go through that alone, at that. There is no physical proof, after all. He does not 'have' to face it fully. The problem is solved, and so, to him, there is no use thinking about it. Not when the rest of Lumiose is still under heavy construction and he needs to be the beacon of hope and standing tall (just like Prism Tower, just like a Gym Leader would, just like everyone would expect from the inventor lighting up the world).

About his Gym Team, we do see Heliolisk with Clembot in the crisis, so I presume they're just always?? With Clembot?? Tbh the anime absolutely ignores the heck out of them at all times and I don't think we even see the Mags after the Gym Takeback (okay I checked the only other time is 'Battling With A Clean Slate'... yeah). But nooo, you've got me thinking about the death arghhh I would hope that the Pokeballs are durable, and also I am of the firm belief that Clembot would've at least tried to protect them to his very last moments. In the anime proper they're probably just all with Clembot for infinity times forever, which I guess isn't a terrible fate but also yeah. Sad. At least they're alive though???

[coffee-with-mint-syrup]

Look, I didn't want to be "that" person

who criticizes something just because "it was different in the books".

But I love PJO just way too much to not feel frustrated at the tendencies of modern adaptations that I think new series is suffering from. And I feel much more frustrated because in others aspects the new show is great.

First of all, what's with this downplayed brutality of PJO world? The moment Sally started her speech about Perseus I smelled trouble. In her story, in her reasoning she named him after Perseus because of this beautiful story where happy ending is just something that happens. While in the books thats a huge deal that Percy is named after THE ONLY HALF-BLOOD HERO that had that happy ending. That fact is supposed to highlight the mortality rates and that for most of these demigods happy ending is pretty much NOT IN PROSPECT. Like, despite that rambling post I'm usually fine with some differences that are made in adaptations, most of them I usually can understand. But why do you need change the message of "I named you that way because I hope you will live happily ever after despite being in constant danger" to "I named you that way because it's a beautiful story about a mother and a son"? Especially when they absolutely could do both?

Secondly, the Gabe issue. You see, Percy Jackson books were great because they were able to discuss with children some pretty heavy themes without downplaying them - like domestic abuse. And that scene with poker players and Gabe getting from Percy money was brilliant because it showed that Gabe was so awful that he took everything he could even from a 12 y.o. There were also heavy implications that he beat Percy. But now Gabe is just your usual jerk who is lazy and doesn't have a good relationship with his stepson and argues with his wife all the time. Look, I know, that is awful too, I know that. But the point of Gabe that he was absolutely the worst. That he's the worst of the worst that's why he smells on this metaphysical level and is able to hide Percy. That he kinda deserved what happened to him in the end. And now I sure that we won't get that end because apparently that stuff is too brutal for kids. If they're afraid that much younger audience would get shocked by it they could at least do that in hints, you know. Old shows were great with things that you didn't understand as a child and then later while rewatching them you finally could get the message.

And what's with this Grover thing? Okay, I understand they probably didn't have the time for establishing why Percy would feel betrayed by his teacher but wanted to save this "low point" for Percy's character. But why? Why? How Percy as a character and we as viewers are supposed to feel that amazing friendship if it started for us with betrayal? That just sucked.

Also, personal flaw - they really could insert "This is a pen" line when Brunner gave Percy the pen. They really could and that would be so awesome. But they didn't.

And the sad part is that now I understand that there was no way they could include this important stuff in the series. Because Disney is too afraid to show domestic abuse. They afraid to show Sally Jackson that put up with heavy abuse just to keep her son safe. They afraid to show that literal children die in PJO world. That that half-blood stuff is no game - as Percy said in the very first minute of the series. For fuck's sake they didn't even mention him having ADHD! They implied that by saying that he was being weird! That was so so so so important that those things that kids with ADHD are struggling make them so special and strong in their own way. And now that message is gone too.

And all of that is because Disney doesn't have any balls left. It's like they sanitize everything they make into that 0+ versions of stories while sometimes the point of the story is in discussing something from a real, sad and unsanitized world.

The stuff I listed is just from the first episode and I don't know if the show will go that way, if this tendency of sanitizing the story will continue or not. I'm just really afraid that all of that means that they decided to leave out all the brutality that made Percy Jackson so iconic. It is like watching this new version of Harry Potter where he doesn't live under the stairs - that maybe doesn't change much story-wise but it's just not the same Harry Potter that way.

I want to like the show, I really do. Walker is so amazing is this role. Other actors are really great. I see the effort, I see how people tried to make this adaptation as close to books as they could. The show looks truly amazing. The fight with minotaur was absolutely stunning. Ending sequence is a masterpiece. I have so many good things I can say about it. But those little things they changed - they weren't little at all. A huge chunk of what made those books so special at least for me is gone (especially in comparison with Harry Potter books). And I can't help feeling sad.

[milkzfall]

I'm thinking about how tua end.

If only we had a season 4 ┐⁠(⁠‘⁠～⁠`⁠;⁠)⁠┌