#bad plots

[tenmongakusha]

today while my actual serious business code has been running, I have been making many very incorrect visualizations of the orbits of the moons of Jupiter and this one is my current favorite wrong answer

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

You're just not toxic enough.

[mychemicalbrromance]

Guys ive been reading peak

[grave-robbedd]

Special Children :: All Hell Breaks Loose

[babybluebanshee]

Someone pointed out that a lot of recent films that previously focused on the importance of found family (Lilo and stitch is the most recent, but they also mentioned Frozen, Wreck It Ralph, and Toy Story, plus HTTYD in the tags) have had that messaging undone by their sequels and remakes. And if I were more conspiracy brained, I would point out how found family narratives are very important to queer people, who’re often rejected or mistreated by their biological families, because it reminds them that there is a place for them in the world. That even if some or all of their blood relatives won’t have them, someone out there will gladly welcome them into their family of choice. It’s been foundational to the queer experience for centuries and so much media that’s beloved by queer people (whether openly queer or merely coded) focuses on it. And how in a social and political time when backlash against queer people is reaching a fever pitch, the emphasis on “actually no, these people who were shunned, mistreated, and isolated for being different and came together to be happy anyway should split up without even a thought to the people who have loved and welcomed them and made them feel safe and accepted for the first time. They should all have normal dreams and want to live respectable, individualist lives and have socially acceptable careers and get married and have children, and the ones who want them all to stay together are explicitly shown to be wrong and holding the others back.” is actually kind of nefarious, especially with Disney’s current very, very, very bad erasure of queer themes and characters along with the revelation of their support of Florida’s don’t say gay bill. Given all that, this would all seem very concerning to me. Good thing I’m not conspiracy brained tho.

[katsinspats]

Tragic: Guy you based your entire villain backstory on doesn't even remember you

[escespace]

To whoever first wrote that Merlin is only clumsy because he has to make a conscious effort and always invest a lot of energy to not allowing his magic to be instinctive : Thank you! That concept always lives in my mind for free

[stars-obsession-pit]

The “insane” twin

The Fentons found about Danny being Phantom and… it could have gone worse?

They don’t hate him. He’s not in any danger of being vivisected or having his adoption annulled. However, they’ve convinced themselves that he’s not actually a ghost; clearly he must be just a Meta with ghost-like powers and delusions of being dead!

So now he’s spending time in a psychiatric institute. Oh joy.

Well, at least they aren’t shooting at him?

…And of course this is when his twin brother Damian finds out he’s alive and comes to see him. While he’s in the looney bin.

Great.

[callmeizukunotdeku]

one of my favorite brands of Jason and Tim angst is when Jason realizes that Bruce had been treating Tim like his replacement, not as Robin, but as Jason

Robin's a mantel, a mask that gets passed down from one brother to the next

Jason is a person. full stop.

just,,, something about making Jason's thinking shift from "Bruce replaced me by getting another son" to "Bruce found a kid that looks like me and he acts like the kid is me"

and Jason trying to bring this up with Tim, who knows better and expects worse just replying "at least, now that you're back, he's stopped calling me by your name"

and Jason is like "no, no, you should be asking so much more from him; this is Batman for god's sake"

"yeah" Tim agrees "I asked him to keep me around even though he doesn't need me any more. he seemed to be fine with the idea"

"need you? tim that's a fully grown adult he doesn't need you to do anything for him"

and Tim just gives him a you haven't seen the half of it look and Jason remembers that technically he's right

tim didn't need to do anything, he needed to be someone. and now that Jason is back, he doesn't need to be anyone anymore

but how much of himself did he lose trying to become someone else?

[mysterywriter2187]

While it's a common issue with all the more recent remakes (The Little Mermaid, Snow White, etc) one of the most frustrating parts of the Lilo and Stitch remake is how carelessly it lifts scenes and dialogue word-for-word from the original script. And without any of the original context attached, what they've carried over from the animated film completely clashes with the things that the new writers have changed or removed.

They still keep the setup of the mosquito joke, with Pleakley explaining that they're an "endangered species" so they can't just destroy Earth.

But unlike the original, this doesn't lead to a running gag - Pleakley never sees or even mentions mosquitos again for the rest of the film - nor do we get the final payoff where it's revealed Cobra was the one who told them this (he has no prior contact with the aliens at all in this version).

So now there's no actual reason for how or why the aliens think this, and one of the best jokes from the original film is reduced to a weird throwaway line that makes no sense.

They also keep the scene where Stitch and Jumba destroy Lilo and Nani's house. Only now, it has completely different circumstances leading up to it, and the consequences this incident is supposed to have are completely skipped over.

It doesn't prompt Cobra to take Lilo, nor does it lead to Lilo running away (the closest equivalent happens before this scene) or getting captured, and when seeing the destruction themselves, Nani and the others are just mildly confused at best before they go back to the issue at hand.

So instead of a genuinely devastating culmination of all the film's mishaps, the destruction of the house now serves no purpose in the story and is completely pointless.

Even the music suffers from this, like Nani singing Aloha Oe or Lilo listening to Elvis.

In the first film, these songs tied into the characters' cultural heritage, and the film's running commentary about America's modern day colonisation of Hawaii. But, this being modern Disney, the more political themes are omitted entirely from this version - certainly not helped by the fact that they didn't even bother to cast a Native Hawaiian actress as Nani - and other than playing a few of this songs, the movie downplays Elvis' prominence so much that it never even mentions him by name.

So instead of actually serving the story or themes, there's no deeper meaning or purpose whatsoever behind the songs beyond the fact they're in the animated film, and now they're just included out of obligation.

That's only a few of many, many examples (feel free to share others), but perhaps even moreso than the other Disney remakes, this one really makes you appreciate how layered and well-structured the original film was in comparison.

[shutupcrime]

Some of you are too afraid to admit this but we all know Star Wars works best when it goes full soap opera

[ruporas]

trigunned the hades or hadesed the trigun (id in alt)

[boysborntodie]

TUA S4 proved that Netflix cancelling their shows after the first season is actually a good thing

[strialternatives]

bonus:

:inhales and slams hands on the desk: akechi. palace. pitch.

disclaimer: the setting for this is all about vibes and aesthetics, it kinda got away from me when i started hashing out the plot around it two months ago so now we're here. in hell. (i'll probably have to make a secondary post i made wayyy too many concepts,)

yes i made an ost for this idea, here is a youtube playlist of chill european jazz

AU details under the cut-

Akechi Goro's palace is "Ampitheatrum Doloris”.

KEYWORDS: Akechi Goro, Tokyo Highcourt, Amphitheater

Akechi's psyche is a massive collection of locked doors, puzzles, and contradictions. He wants to be seen but not understood—heard but never known, ect. This makes his palace infiltration a waking nightmare (affectionate).

His palace is made up of five main layers. They each mirror a stage of grief:

1) There is the outer layer of with the appearance of a Venice-esque water canal maze, there is a door that must be opened to reach the entrance to infiltrate the second layer underneath the amphitheater. The puzzle's actually pretty sentimental and revolves around Akechi's interest in literature.

(This layer is depression, Goro mourns what he lost and the fact that the choices he made for the sake of revenge ultimately led to nowhere. This is reflected in how desolate/meandering the outer layer feels, it is the largest and most time consuming part of the palace for this reason. It takes weeks to finish. AKA, Akira and Morgana have a terrible, no good, very bad month of May.) 

2) The Labyrinth under the amphitheater; it is full of shadows for the arena champion to use as fodder for the enjoyment of the masses. ‘Loki’ resides here—this layer’s theme loosely plays on the Minotaur myth. 

The only way to escape is through a pulley/elevator mechanism which leads to the surface after shattering the Champion’s chains by force. Loki taunts in Old Norse, but gives Akira (and the party by extension) genuine hints on how to escape.

(This layer is anger, Goro is always angry, about the hand he’s been dealt, the futility of his own actions, and the fact that his life has always been a dead end, written in the stars.)

3) The Audience Stands; full of human cognitions and Akechi’s former clients and fans, despite everything, like Sae, he sees them as ‘people’ and is disgusted by them. Their compliments are shallow and empty, surface level like Goro’s facade. Cognition Sae is delegated to a middle manager-type role, and leads Akira and Co. through puzzles.

Different cognitions from Akechi’s shitshow of a childhood throw riddles based around philosophy and the nature of justice at the party, if the answer is ‘wrong’, there’s a mini-boss fight. Answering everything correctly yields a prize—a key, this process is made difficult by all of Robin’s ‘hints’ (which the Thieves can directly ask for) being lies.

(Bargaining. Goro always thought he could still salvage his revenge despite his enemy being essentially invincible, even now deep down he thinks he can salvage all the effort and sacrifices he put in.)

4) The Stage; Robin Hood appears proper instead of in cameo appearances, this is the lead actor's stage. To earn the right to stand with him, Akira has to have to prove his worth in one-on-one combat while showing the crowd a rousing show. The goal is to use the key obtained in the bargaining layer to unlock the Performer's cuffs.

(Denial, Goro doesn’t believe he needs or deserves saving or a life outside of his revenge, he believes there is no other way forward.)

Hereward and the 'treasure' are in the Imperial box area, which I'll save for part 2 of this I think! The second half of this'll have less focus on the environments and more on general plot and character design.

EDIT: here's part two and part three

[kandavers]

first kiss!

[magicandmundane]

Rex: Hey boys, I could really use your help with—

Hunter, napping on the beach: Retired.

Rex: Seriously—

Crosshair, sipping a margarita: Retired.

Rex: Would you just consider—

Wrecker, playing volleyball with the baby regs: Retired.

Echo: *glares*

Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair: Retired.

Rex: Omega?

Omega, shrugging: Sure, I’m always down to kick some Imperial ass.

Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair: *grumbling, putting their armor back on*