#(especially when they share the screentime)

[sasorikigai]

*I’m solely going to focus on Andrew Koji (Yuichi Kimura) and Hiroyuki Sanada (the Elder, Kimura’s father) because I solely went to see Bullet Train to watch my two favorites. 

I feel like the first half of the movie could have focused more on Kimura’s flashback; in the book, there are so many intricate and emotional interactions between Kimura and the Prince (one of the antagonists, who pushed Kimura’s son off the roof), instead of giving the viewers absolute minimum exposition required to give Kimura character. Obviously for the movie adaptation’s sake, a lot of precious material was abridged and even entirely cut off from the film, but since the film wields a flashback-heavy structure, it would have smoothed out the narrative so much better. 

Indeed, Bullet Train is first and foremost, a cacophony of an action movie filled with chaos and mayhem, and too often fast-paced without coherence at times, thus it took away from having such unique, eccentric characters. Kimura is a Japanese grieving father seeking vengeance after his son was pushed off a roof and the Elder is the boy’s royally angry grandfather who is really out for blood. They really do play their characters with verve and excellence, portraying Kimura’s alcoholic angst and the Elder’s stoic, sagacious, and yet viciously protective character. 

The actions scenes, while sometimes thrilling and unique, I really think the director could have utilized and optimized Koji and Sanada’s remarkable talent. Not that I am against giving them katana, for they are remarkable with it and obviously they are experienced martial artists who can properly wield and use such weapon, but for being such a high-octane film with so many colorful and vibrant action sequences, I have to admit, I was disappointed by how little there was of them two engaged in action scenes. 

Even after reading the book (and knowing the source material, aka the sequences of events, characters’ backstories, etc.), the pacing from the present to the flashback was making harder for me to follow. It became more exhausting, than exhilarating, and I still could not get away with the fact that the profit potential of a Hollywood blockbuster, however silly, should eases the pain of whitewashing, considering those two are the only ‘Japanese’ characters out of so many assassins on Shinkansen.

While this movie has a multilayered narrative with many characters that can sometimes get in the way of the action, I wish there was more of a balance between the drama and the action. However, despite being an overachieving story with issues with pacing, the film never got really boring. Maybe because I knew where those two would pop up and share the screen and grace me with such remarkable acting prowess, screen presence, and chemistry. At least all the action sequences I’ve seen were dealt with clarity and impact, creating a beautifully nonsensical thrill ride that could have been a complete trainwreck, but I did really wish there were much more of them, especially Kimura, since he indeed IS the heart of the novel. 

[mcfuckity]

You know what? Im breaking my silence. Im TIRED of people missing Jess’ character on purpose. Like, everyone can use context clues and fill in the blanks for every other character but somehow Jess is the only one taken at face value? Jess is being seen as a cold, detached, mean bitch by fans but I cannot determine whether we even watched the same movie.

Let’s address the elephant in the room, because she is a black woman who is NOT a mammy character, people criticize her harsher. Jess was MORE than Miguel’s “lackey”. She had her own thoughts and opinions. She definitely had her own personality and feelings about the entire situation. She lowkey stalled time to give Gwen chances to fix her mistakes.

If Jess was as cold as Miguel and such a “bitch”, she would’ve left Gwen the first time. Let’s not forget that Miguel was fully about to leave Gwen with her own father holding her at gunpoint, JESS vouched to bring Gwen under her name. Jess put her OWN position at risk to help Gwen and it required that she do her job accordingly. Jess made the boundary VERY clear, she is NOT Gwen’s mother. She is NOT her friend. I seen people argue that “Jess’ maternal instincts” should’ve kicked in to protect Gwen” but fully ignoring that Jess HAS A FAMILY! Jess is PREGNANT with her OWN child. Her instincts DID kick in and she chose her dimension with her family in it!

Jess was stuck in a rock and a hard place. She obviously wanted to help Gwen (considering she brought her in at the cost of her own position) but UNFORTUNATELY, GWEN messed up. Gwen saw Miles and that ultimately led to Spot escaping. You can love these characters and acknowledge that every character had their OWN thoughts and motivations that led to fuck ups. It’s not right to try to make Jess sound worse than the man who fuckin replaced his dead self out of grief, was about to leave a teen at gunpoint, and had an entire society of people chase a teenager who wanted to save his dad.

Don’t get me started on the “she’s fighting crime while pregnant argument” because we can accept superpowered people but NOT the possibility that their bodies are more resilient. NOT TO MENTION THAT PETER B HAS A WHOLE BABY ON MISSIONS???? Like, no one is calling him a bad father so what’s different with Jess? Miguel was mean as fuck to Miles upon meeting but Jess doing her JOB is considered being “mean”.

Then the “I didn’t see her enough to connect with her” is fair until everyone can somehow create entire {TERRIBLE} mischaracterizations of Hobie, Pav, and Peni who (arguably) had just about the same amount of screentime. She also shares traits with every other spider person with being snarky and quick-witted while being completely grounded. She’s literally one of the spider people that Miguel fully trusts but somehow the fandom erases her and goes “He loves Peter B and Lego Spidey🤪🤪”

Like, it’s crazy how people find it so easy to erase Jess and Margo (Spiderbyte) in fanworks for things they easily dismiss from other characters and it’s feelin like misogynoir. Like, Margo and Hobie served the same purpose with deciding to go against Miguel for Miles, yet only Hobie and Gwen gets that credit.

AND THEN THE MANY EXCUSES WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING! People keep hating on Jess/Miguel because she’s “obviously pregnant and married” but go right around and ship Miguel with Peter B. Same with Margo/Miles because it’s a bunch of “Miles and Gwen are obviously endgame” ANDDDD???? Since when did every ship HAVE TO be canon in order to be a ship? It’s especially crazy because I BARELY EVER see those comments on Miles/(Peni, Pav, or Hobie) or have no problem with having all the boys huddled around Gwen. The double standard is glaringly obvious.

In conclusion, some of you mfs dont deserve ATSV.

[sketchy-tour]

OKAY SO I AM slightly shy about sharing my Welcome Home oc after being absent from this account for a hot minute but- MEET DANDY! Dandy Leon, the quiet flower gardener and neighbor in welcome home! Ignore how horribly I edited the template by @fetusmeme I have been relying on a toyhouse code for Dandy's "official" little neighborhood page and I am so bad at editing templates. I couldn't fit all of Dandy's silly info into the template so I'll put the full bio down below!-

"Resident gardener of Welcome Home, Dandy Leon is a calm, careful presence among the others in the neighborhood. They enjoy the quiet and spending their time tending to their various flowers. While a little shy around their fellow neighbors, they open up quickly when asked about their garden. Despite their more introverted disposition, they're always determined to make everyday just dandy!"

Dandy came onto the cast only in later episodes of the show, not getting much screentime before it's end. But in old scripts found with them, it's shown that they moved to Home specifically because they were interested in the local plant life there. The episode that featured their move in seemed to focus on them slowly warming up to the others in the neighborhood, as their shy nature made it difficult for them to properly meet everyone. When asked as to where they lived before moving to Home, Dandy mentions living in a farm town far away, simply deeming it "far more south from here!" A lot of their dialogue also mentions their father, though he's never named but instead mentioned passively as Dandy would often use phrases like "Well it's like my pop always said-" when speaking to the other puppets.

During their short time on the show, Dandy's segments focused on teaching easy 'do it yourself' gardening tricks that audiences could follow along with, usually showing these to the other neighbors while in their garden. While they were always shown as polite and nice, their quiet personality clashed with the more loud ones in Home. Julie and Sally being namely the neighbors they struggled to communicate with, often shown feeling a bit talked over. However Dandy is still depicted around Julie in illustrations, especially alongside Frank as the two got along quite well in the show. Frank and Dandy often shown chatting about their respective interests together. Before the show's end however, most of Dandy's screentime is with Wally as he tried to get Dandy out of their shell more to spend time around others.

Interestingly, what pronouns were used for them seemed to change between the shows episodes and illustrated materials. While neighbors would refer to them as 'she' during the show, most art pieces seemed to refer to Dandy as a 'he'. Whether this was simply a miscommunication between teams or a printing error is unknown.

[lightandfellowship]

I'll be honest, I think maybe the Foretellers would have been better received if they weren't sharing their screentime with the MoM.

Like, I see the Foretellers get called "boring" a lot (and I get why) but I feel like it's a little unfair to them when they're standing next to the MoM who is so overwhelmingly quirky, funny, expressive, and lively; it's hard not to read the Foretellers as humorless sticks-in-the-mud in comparison (which is probably the point, but still).

As well, we get very little time with the Foretellers and during that time we mostly see the Foretellers talking about and reacting to matters concerning their official responsibilities as Union leaders; I think it's understandable why they'd be mostly serious and no-nonsense throughout Back Cover, even if it doesn't make for the most entertaining/compelling character work.

And even then, I still think we get some interesting glimpses into the personalities and flaws of these characters via KHUX and Back Cover, especially with regards to how their qualities and behaviors sometimes contradict their first impressions.

Gula comes across as an edgy, detached loner teenager who Doesn't Care and doesn't need the help or friendship of others, but then by the end of Back Cover we see how much of a front this is, with him emotionally falling apart, begging for Ava's help, and trying to pull a dangerous stunt (summoning Kingdom Hearts) to, essentially, get his MoM to pay attention to him and come back to save him and his friends.

Ava comes across as the young, innocent, kind favorite who doesn't want to rock the boat or engage in any conflict, but she's also the one most involved in many of the mysterious and suspicious events that occur throughout KHUX, the one who attacks Luxu first out of anger, and the one who is implied to rebel against the MoM in various ways.

Aced, though undeniably big and strong and a little intimidating, still nonetheless comes across as someone kind and justice-oriented who genuinely cares about fairness and other people. By the time of the Keyblade War though, he is forming an army, voicing his intentions to overthrow the other Foretellers, and trying to become a literal tyrant who rules with an iron fist.

Invi comes across as this cool-headed, logical, impartial, reliable type of person but is one of the first to openly accuse Aced of being the traitor with no evidence to back it up and even prioritizes Ira above all the others, being willing to spy on everybody else for his sake.

Ira is meant to be the leader, the one who takes care of everybody else and mediates disagreements, but instead he's the first to become suspicious of his own comrades almost immediately, and is the cause of the tension and conflict that arises amongst them.

(I watched Back Cover/KHUX again a couple months ago and I'm going off of memory here. I'm sure bigger Foreteller enjoyers than I could provide way more character analysis than just this. But the point is: I don't think the Foretellers are completely lacking in character or personality; in the very least there's some good groundwork here for future games to flesh them out even more.)

[gartenofbanny]

Alright, for some reason I actually typed an indepth review of Unhappy Campers because I didn't really have much else to do, so with that out of the way let's get started with the positives!

The Positives

Alright so now that the positives are out of the way let's get started with the negatives!

The Negatives

The Characters

The characters in this episode were all just infuriatingly insufferable to watch throughout the episode or were just painfully underwhelming. I'm gonna start off with the character I disliked the most in this episode and that's Moxxie.

Moxxie, as I said in a previous post, was honestly stupid, extremely sensitive, and legit wanted the attention of everyone in this episode. They had the clear opportunity to just solve the case and get it done, but Moxxie wants to roleplay with literal kids, wants to be well known, and use his solo mission as some detective game for some fucking reason. He gets mad at Millie just because she's getting the attention he wants where tf did this toxic behavior come from exactly? Moxxie is a hypocrite in this episode and Millie was 100% in the right to tell him off.

Oh yeah and I almost forgot, they made Moxxie physically weak again. Which I gotta ask why was he struggling against Barbie Wire and how tf did he not kill the human when he was fully capable of fighting and killing demons twice his size just an episode ago? Doesn't seem consistent now, does it?

Not to mention the writers did another "Moxxie gains confidence arc" AGAIN. Millie tells him to "play to his strengths" literally giving him the same damn advice she gave him IN HARVEST MOON it's just worded differently.

And for some reason, Moxxie is like a Blitzo dickrider in this episode. Why is Moxxie ecstatic when Blitzo gave him the solo mission? Why was Moxxie down in the dumps when Blitzo called him a disappointment? Moxxie in Season 1 wouldn't take that shit, what the hell happened? They made one of the more sufferable characters in Helluva Boss so insufferable.

Now onto Millie and this is going to be short. I am glad that Millie's getting a lot of screentime but this entire revelation where she likes being loved and respected because of her physical capabilities comes completely out of nowhere.

Millie has always been respected for her physical strength especially by Moxxie, but she wasn't this fixated on it. Where did this come from? Why is it that she's obsessed with fame over her physical capabilities? And what's even worse is that her fans don't even like Millie for her personality that much they mainly like her because of her looks and strength. It had no build up and Millie wasn't even affected in the slightest when all of that reputation she garnered was instantly flushed down the drain. It was just meaningless. Now that I think about it, I would appreciate the character arc more if it had some form of build up and Millie would actually reflect and talk about it later on. But I know she probably won't.

Now onto fucking Barbie Wire. Her screentime in this episode is 3 minutes and 16 seconds and the entire episode is 20 minutes and 18 seconds long excluding the credits. So there was more screentime of Blitzo and everyone he confronts MENTIONING her than there was actually showcasing her.

Barbie Wire is literally Blitzo but female design wise and disguise wise..she just looks like a human version of Velvette. Tell me you can't design characters without telling me you can't design characters, this is the second new character in a row that shares a physical similarity to a previously made character. I'd get why she looks exactly likes Blitzo but having her human form be extremely similar to Velvette's actual design is lazy as hell.

Barbie Wire is also a groomer too. I know that the counselor is technically an adult, but Barbie Wire is still using her body to manipulate him and adults are vulnerable to grooming. Plus it's still weird to me due to the age gape, Barbie Wire is in her 30s and the counselor is 18 to 19 years old. I bet you're all wondering how I got this info too, well Viv made a tweet about it. It wasn't stated in the episode that the person Moxxie and Millie were trying to kill was barely an adult leading many people to believe that Barbie Wire was a...cupcake eater.

Barbie Wire is revealed to hate Blitzo, do we know why? No, we do not and for some reason the writers decided to keep this part ambiguous. When we first saw Verosika Mayday at least it was revealed that she had a reason to hate Blitzo but we don't get that with Barbie Wire for some fucking reason. Overall Barbie Wire is underwhelming but also infuriating, I honestly thought that I could manage to like her going in this episode but it just couldn't work no matter how hard I tried. So we have to wait another couple of months or at most years for Barbie Wire to show up again so then we'd fully know why she hates Blitzo from her perspective.

Blitzo was honestly the least sufferable character mainly because he didn't have much screentime, I was honestly so happy. But then I realized why is it that Blitzo now wants to see Barbie Wire? The nurse over at the rehab told Blitzo that Barbie Wire checked out of rehab months ago, so why is it that Blitzo didn't visit her prior? He apparently wants to make amends and catch up to her but why? We're not given an explanation or even a reason. He wants to help Barbie Wire, why? How come he doesn't visit Fizzarolli or anyone else he had a past relationship with?

Blitzo complains to Barbie Wire for not keeping contact with him even though he had opportunities to actually talk to her. Then after he's confronted by Barbie Wire he immediately goes back to being regular old Blitzo. At least in Ozzie's Blitzo actually had some form of guilt, in this episode we don't see how Barbie Wire yelling at Blitzo even affected him all we see him do is just make the sad puppy eyes, that's it. What was the point in all of that if you're just gonna go back to the status quo? 💀

Anyway, somehow they managed to make all the characters bad or underwhelming. Idk how they achieved both with Barbie Wire, they need a medal for that one.

This episode is a waste of time

This episode in all honesty is a literal waste of time. Nothing has changed aside from the fact that Barbie Wire is out of rehab. You can skip this episode and miss nothing because this episode immediately goes back into the status quo regardless of all of the shit that happened. The only important thing in this episode is that Barbie Wire got out of rehab, but even then we'd know that information from a throwaway line. And what's even more frustrating is that this episode isn't a filler episode, it's a chronological episode with nothing that's relevant to the story. 

More fucking questions

This episode as always raises a lot more questions than it does answers. With the main one being if Blitzo can find an Asmodean Crystal in a week then why does he even need the Grimoire? The Asmodean Crystal has more use to them regarding their business and actually gives them human forms. Next question is how come Barbie Wire didn't cover up her tattoos so nobody would find her? How did Blitzo recognize Barbie Wire in her human disguise instantly? Was the counselor aware that Barbie Wire was a demon the entire time? There's just so many questions but no canonical answers.

Too many plots

This episode juggles around three plots. Moxxie and Millie killing their target, Millie getting famous while Moxxie tries to get famous, and Blitzo finding Barbie Wire. This could've easily been split into two episodes have the Moxxie and Millie plot one episode, reveal that Barbie Wire is the one selling and smuggling the heroin then have the next episode dedicated to Blitzo finding Barbie Wire and trying to talk her out of selling drugs with Barbie Wire revealing why she doesn't like Blitzo throughout the episode.

But instead the episode just jumps from one scene to the next. Moxxie trying to get famous while also trying to go inside the shed, Millie loving her fame, and Blitzo trying to find Barbie Wire. It's especially apparent when Barbie Wire vs Blitzo and Moxxie is always halted to show Millie's fucking performance. Like holy fucking shit we don't need to see Millie perform, show the important fucking part.

Barbie Wire is confronted, cuts to Millie using her rizz, then it cuts back to Barbie Wire being confronted.

This is definitely an Adam Neylan episode because it's always the episodes he writes that has these amount of plots in one episode.

The..jokes

This is honestly the last thing I wanted to touch up on because the jokes in this episode are not even funny and honestly disturbing most of the time. I'll name the three worst ones.

The camp is called Camp Ivannakummore and it's a camp filled with preteens and children. Let that sink in.

Moxxie wants to be famous around kids and starts crying because he isn't even though he's in his 30s. I'm pretty sure that they were doing the "high school nerd trying to be famous" trope, but it doesn't work because Moxxie isn't in the same fucking age range as these kids. It's like if an adult disguised as a teenager tries to go back into their peak high school years by going into some random high school and starts doing some fucking musical.

This is like the worst joke in this episode by far. Fornication between demons disguised as minors that are also disguised as siblings in front of a crap ton of other minors. What is this, Rick and Morty? Did Dan Harmon write this joke?

Conclusion

This episode in my opinion is the worst episode to me. The characters weren't likable or just flat-out boring, there were too many plots, and even then it led to nothing in the future, none of the jokes made me laugh or even chuckle, and it was honestly very painful just dragging myself through this episode. Unhappy Campers has all the worst aspects of Helluva Boss in the span of 21 minutes. And it was just very very painful to even sit through. I honestly don't think I would've missed anything if I didn't watch this episode because that's what it feels like, a nothing episode that managed to make me mad.

Anyway, thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a nice day! ❤️

[wlwcatalogue]

A few sapphic film recs!

Just a few recommendations for sapphic films under 2 hours which may or may not have flown under the radar:

Moonlit Winter / 윤희에게 (1hr 45m, 2019, dir. Lim Dae-hyung)

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (1hr 48m, 2017, dir. Angela Robinson)

Who's the Woman, Who's the Man / 金枝玉葉 2 (1hr 50m, 1996, dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan)

Sisterhood / 骨妹 (1hr 37m, 2016, dir. Tracy Choi)

DEBS (1hr 31m, 2004, dir. Angela Robinson)

Farewell, My Queen / Les adieux à la reine (1hr 40m, 2012, dir. Benoît Jacquot)

Bonus - short film: Love Does Human / 사람 하는 사랑 (24 mins, 2019, dir. Oh Seon-ju)

Commentary under the cut!

1. Moonlit Winter / 윤희에게 (1hr 45m, 2019, dir. Lim Dae-hyung) - IMDB | MyDramaList

This movie is about a daughter (Kim So-hye) who finds out about her divorced mother’s (Kim Hee-ae) past with another woman (Katase Jun), and how in encouraging her mother to reconnect, the two finally open up to each other as well. Dry stuff on paper, but there’s more to it: the mother and her former lover didn’t just break up, they were split apart by their families as teenagers and the mother was forced to marry a man against her will. In short, it deals with the aftermath of the typical “bad ending” of older stories featuring WLW characters, wherein schoolgirls in love would be separated and married off to preserve the heteronormative status quo.

Although the queer relationship does not get much screentime at all – the two characters share a single scene, there are no flashbacks, and there’s not even a hug – queerness remains at the heart of the movie. It’s a rare depiction of how the repression of queerness leaves scars on people which affect how they engage with the world, but which also shows that as long as they are alive, there is still hope that those scars can be healed. Also, despite the heavy-sounding subject matter, it’s a very gentle experience: there are no direct depictions of homophobia and no sensationalism, just a little story of human connection unfolding in a snow-cloaked Hokkaido.

2. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (1hr 48m, 2017, dir. Angela Robinson) - IMDB

The blurb on IMDB says that this movie is about “psychologist William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans), and his polyamorous relationship with his wife [Elizabeth] (Rebecca Hall) and their mistress [Olive] (Bella Heathcote) who would inspire his creation of the superheroine, Wonder Woman”. As someone who is not particularly drawn to biopics, male protagonists, polyamory, BDSM, or Wonder Woman, I assumed that this movie wouldn’t be my jam and so didn’t watch it until quite a while later – which is when I discovered just how wrong I was.

First, the two women take up just as much of the movie’s focus as Marston. Elizabeth, Marston’s wife and fellow psychologist, is highly intelligent but equally highly-strung; she does not know how to deal with her husband’s attraction to new research assistant Olive, nor Olive’s attraction to both her husband and Elizabeth herself, and this internal conflict (even after the three enter into a polyamorous relationship) features heavily in the story. Second, although it declares itself to be “based on a true story”, the movie is not especially interested in recreating or representing the past. Rather, the historical elements are used as a framework to explore certain ideas: Diana’s Lasso of Truth symbolises how progress and healing must be first founded upon honesty, for example. The polyamory and BDSM is also not at all sordid or sensationalised, but rather presented in a nuanced (though still sexy!) manner. More than anything, this is a movie with a big heart and big ideas, and should be judged on its own merits.

3. Who's the Woman, Who's the Man / 金枝玉葉 2 (1hr 50m, 1996, dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan) - IMDB | MyDramaList

All you need to know going into this sequel of 1994 movie He's a Woman, She's a Man (金枝玉葉) is that main character Wing (Anita Yuen) is a woman who has found both fame and (heterosexual) love while disguising herself as a male idol, and that her relationship with record producer Sam (Leslie Cheung) is known to the general public— although it is perceived as being homosexual in nature due to her persona. At this point, you might be wondering why an M/F romantic comedy is on this list, but this movie is a bit odd in that instead of focusing only on problems such Sam’s internalised homophobia and misogyny (both of which are addressed in the story), one of the new obstacles facing the couple is the female lead meeting female pop star Fong Yim Mui (Anita Mui)… and both starting to fall for each other.

I was surprised at how sensitively Wing and Fong Yim Mui’s respective arcs are handled, especially for a mainstream movie from the 90’s starring two of Hong Kong’s most popular performers at the time. Instead of giving the two women a meet-cute and leaving it at that, a lot of care is put into showing them processing and coming to terms with their feelings in their own time. Romantic and sexual attraction is also highlighted separately, which is refreshing given how they are usually depicted as inextricably linked even now… Obviously Wing and Fong Yim Mui don’t end up together, but their feelings aren’t dismissed and – relative to the narrative constraints – the ending is a warm, optimistic one. Also, Anita Mui gives an absolutely award-worthy performance in one of the scenes with her character and Wing, so fans of her should definitely give this movie a try.

Important note: Although there’s much that’s good about it, Who's the Woman, Who's the Man is far from perfect. Early on, there’s a masquerade party where two of the characters are wearing masks which look like racist caricatures, and the masks are crop up in multiple scenes in the film. More serious is the subplot about a male character who keeps trying to win over a lesbian, culminating in her agreeing to sleep with him once while he’s dressed as a woman (CW: transphobia, homophobia) – though this storyline ends with the man accepting that she really is gay and parting on friendly terms. That said, these problems are already mild compared to the actively hateful transphobic and homophobic jokes present in so many of its contemporaries, so if you’ve watched a 90’s Hong Kong comedy before, chances are that your tolerance level is more than high enough.

4. Sisterhood / 骨妹 (1hr 37m, 2016, dir. Tracy Choi) IMDB | MyDramaList

Sisterhood opens with tragedy. Originally from Macau, main character Sei (Gigi Leung) is living quietly in Taiwan with her husband after the 1999 Handover when her life is overturned by a newspaper personal ad informing her that her long-estranged friend and colleague Ling has passed away. The movie is shot through with flashbacks to earlier times, tracking a young Sei (Fish Liew) as she starts doing sex work and is taken under the wing of the more experienced Ling (Jennifer Yu) and her friends. Memories of togetherness and community are juxtaposed against sequences of present-day Sei struggling to navigate her grief, the tensions of the now-fractured friend group, and a Macau that has changed just as much as she has. The acting and script can be clunky in places but the sentiment shines through, especially after the first third, at which point the movie starts honing in on Sei and Ling’s relationship. It’s not a happy story, but nor is it defined by sadness; instead, it posits that the past is not merely to be mourned, that it is instead something that can shape and provide a foundation for the future. I won't talk too much about how queerness figures into this story, due to spoilers, but rest assured that it is present and important!

5. D.E.B.S. (1hr 31m, 2004, dir. Angela Robinson) - IMDB

Okay, you've probably heard of this one before if not watched it already, but anyway! This was the first WLW movie I watched, and for a long time, the only one which I actually enjoyed. It’s about an elite spy (well, more like an honours student at spy school) (Sara Foster) and a criminal mastermind (Jordana Brewster) falling for each other, a premise which is just as fun and over-the-top as it sounds. The movie does a great job of mixing action, humor, and romance, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome – it’s got a nice compact runtime and a cracking pace. There’s still nothing quite like it in my opinion, though I’m very welcome to any recommendations in this line (my askbox is open if you have any!).

6. Farewell, My Queen / Les adieux à la reine (1hr 40m, 2012, dir. Benoît Jacquot) - IMDB

Loosely based on Chantal Thomas’ novel of the same name, Farewell, My Queen is a portrait of French nobility in decline, following maidservant Sidonie Labarde (Léa Seydoux) who is in the service of Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger). It's a beautiful, lavish production which effectively conveys the perspective of a servant locked in the gilded cage that is Versailles during the French Revolution, and is a rare case of a historical figure as famous as Antoinette being presented as queer in a serious historical drama.

That being said, the queerness is mostly background, coming mainly in the form of Antoinette’s crush on? relationship with? duchess Gabrielle de Polignac (Virginie Ledoyen)— though a case can be made for Sidonie, whose outward opacity belies an unwavering, almost unsettling, devotion to her queen. Also, be warned that the movie has many a dodgy shot of cleavage, and two instances of unnecessary and voyeuristic nudity... but other than that, it really does have gorgeous cinematography.

Fun fact: there really were rumours about Antoinette having a scandalous relationship with the duchess, although these have nearly always been written off as baseless reputation-smearing.

Bonus - short film: Love Does Human / 사람 하는 사랑 (24 mins, 2019, dir. Oh Seon-ju) - MyDramaList

Some say that the best science fiction puts a spotlight on some part of the human condition, and this short film does just that. Main character Tae Eun's (Kim Min-ju) girlfriend Joo An (Jang Sam-yi) no longer has a human body: after carrying out a medical operation which transferred her consciousness to a computer system, she now has a web-camera for her eyes, a speaker for her mouth, and control over their home's devices for her hands. And although the change was by Joo An's choice and Tae Eun was supportive, the pair struggle to adjust to this new reality, and are confronted with the need to communicate and to consider each other's perspectives. Love Does Human has a bit of a slow start, and there were points where I didn't understand why the characters were reacting in a certain way, but it all comes together beautifully in the end. Through its sci-fi premise, viewers are encouraged to think about real-life problems using a different angle, and the movie never gets too heavy. Also, shoutout to some excellent voice work from the two actors - Joo An is performed nearly entirely through voice but she feels deeply human and present, and Tae Eun's actor also has a standout scene featuring some great voice acting. All in all, it's a short film that's well worth checking out (especially since the director has made it available for free, with English subtitles, on Youtube - embedded above)!

[stardustbuck]

toxic bwddie shippers are going to read into everything. you can’t stop it from happening. i think part of the issue is that journalists immediately started talking bwddie when bi buck came to be because it would get clicks and they knew just how popular it was. i don’t fault any of the actors for feeding into a little, they obviously thought it was fun and lighthearted to talk about, these people are not ingrained into fandom culture the way a lot of us are. what you find to be “hints” is simply an actor expressing they’d be open to a storyline if it were to be brought up. that they understand why people ship it, that the content is there and they see why people read certain scenes as romantic. sometimes two actors having great chemistry on screen is both a blessing and a curse.

tim minear is writing bisexual buck the way he wants to, not to appease a certain subset of fans. perhaps he fiddled with the idea years ago, but what we have now is bisexual buck with tommy kinard as his boyfriend. the idea of eddie and tommy was simply that, an idea, that ryan seemingly didn’t want to do because perhaps it felt wrong to him for eddie’s character. headcanoning eddie as gay or demi or anything is fine, writing him as queer is fine, but so far all i’ve heard from ryan is that he considers eddie to be a heterosexual man with an deep, meaningful friendship with a queer man and that means a lot to him considering how he feels male friendship should be.

of course buck and eddie are going to share copious amounts of screentime together. they’ve damn nearly been attached at the hip since s2 and bffs for liferz, buck and eddies friendship is important, buck is essentially christophers godfather/uncle, not his father. buck’s arc of the season was in the beginning, so we don’t focus as much on him as tommy because again, their storyline for the season was over, but tommy was brought back even just for 60 seconds to show that their relationship is still going strong, with what little time the crew had to work with this season, i think many people can agree they did a good job introducing this relationship and by the end getting people excited for season 8 to see their relationship grow and struggle with the reintroduction of captain gerrard.

but it’s clear no matter what, there is going to be people who are reading into every single thing and claiming it’s bwddie hints and well, maybe you’re right but atp im highly doubting it’s happening. especially with the way people are acting.

you’ll continue to hate tommy, you’ll continue to complain, you’ll continue to grasp at straws for how “this is how bwddie with happen still!” by the end of s8 when buck and tommy are most likely still together.

i can only hope people will come around and start to realize how amazing it is we even have bisexual buck at all and that bucktommy isn’t the evil ship you think it is now.

[maxwell-grant]

(SPIDERVERSE SPOILERS)

Something I always really liked about the first movie was the way Kingpin’s design, besides being a Sienkewicz homage and all, complimented the handling of Fisk as a character and the threat he poses, and it’s more than just him being big and terrifying especially by contrast with Miles. Spiderverse Kingpin is a hate volcano tearing open the city and universe in the hopes that doing so is gonna get him his family back, get the only thing that can fill the void inside him that they left when they died, and nothing else matters. Kingpin takes up so much space everytime he’s on screen that every second of screentime he shares with another character is overpowering by default, and the wholly black suit makes it so that everytime Fisk shows up, the movie’s colors and style and everything it has, it all gets punctured to leave room only for him, to the point that in the final battle with Miles, Fisk might as well be part of the background multiverse debris overtaking and suffocating everything.

Doc Ock and Prowler get to have the fun, of sorts, they get to have colors and styles and cool fights, the movie has no shortage of vibrant and lively and colorful characters, but Fisk himself is a walking casket and little else, basic and banal even compared to other versions of the character. He is the Sydney Greenstreet gangster of old blown up to astronomical proportions befitting a danger to the entire entire multiverse, not so much an enemy for Miles specifically as he is one to Spider-Man the concept, The Ultimate Gangster as someone who couldn’t deal with grief responsibly and has to make it everyone else’s problem (that also being kind of an apt description for Miguel O’Hara, who both triples down on the “all-encompassing grief as poison that harms not just you but those around you” part and is also a much more sympathetic character trying his damndest to do the right thing).

It’s only for a few seconds in his flashback that we see what he looks like with colors, and textures, and a little bit of warmth on his face in the life he had, before his family died running away from him, trying to escape The Black Hole Monster that he is. Figuratively, Fisk is not so much a person, as he is a a person-shaped hole in things, losing what little claim he has to personhood right when his family, and all the families he could ever have, leave him again and so he has nothing left but to take away other people’s families.

And I emphasize that figuratively, because it turns out they decided to turn that into a literally, for the villain in the sequel.

The first movie’s villain was a lifeless thug threatening to undo everything and everyone as collateral damage to try and fill the all-consuming void in his soul. The sequel had exactly that, except we got to see The Spot work to get there in real time and on purpose. And so instead of a generalized enemy to Spider-Man, the hero Miles is trying to be, we get the enemy to Miles Morales, the person he is.

The Spot, funnyman nerd sidekick to the previous villain’s number two, just a gag character without even a name to him that we didn’t even know was there, was pushed every step of the way by the frustration of being perceived and put down as a wannabe never-will-be, driven to uncover the multiverse and make himself noticed and respected by his peers, (like a certain someone who was going to define his entire career prospects around the possibility of getting to meet his spidery friends again, and then they did that to him)

turning out to be a anomaly that was never supposed to be and is hunted as such, their spite nipping at their heels to push them forward, twisting themselves to be free from the expectations and scorn of potential-peers-turned-enemies.

And so at the end, obviously Miles must face the worst version of himself, before he can face the worst version of himself, and it has to be right after he finally understands what he’s up against, his own nemesis, and it has to be right after he declares, after embracing himself as a fugitive and someone-that-shouldnt-be-but-will-anyway,

“I beat them all“

[natrogersfics]

The Anthology - Chapter 2: Fortnight

Artwork by @faith2nyc Read on AO3

Did you have an early call-time that I missed? Haven’t heard from you all day. Getting a little worried… Nat, where are you? Please answer the phone.

She’s not a morning person.

Of all the things Steve knows about Natasha Romanoff, that’s one fact he’s certain he can bet his life on. It’s why waking up to an empty bed yesterday was such a jarring experience, especially since he’ll be hard-pressed to pinpoint the last time it happened. And as he looks down at his phone, reading through all his texts to her that have gone unanswered, he can only run a hand wearily over his face.

Natasha had been an enigma from the very moment he’d met her on the set of The Avengers years ago. He had heard a lot about his first-time costar, sure – it was hard not to know of the prodigious child actor who would eventually go on to become box office royalty in no time at all. But with the limited amount of screentime they shared then, it’s not as though he’d gotten the chance to get to know her. It's for that reason that he had jumped at the opportunity when, after their first table read for The Winter Soldier, their directors had suggested that they spend time together outside of set.

It wouldn’t be hyperbolic to say that getting to know Natasha has been profound in every aspect. Nevertheless, it hadn’t been an easy process. Despite her vast body of work and the many stories the media has written, speculating untruthfully about her life more often than not as he would learn, the mysterious and seemingly impenetrable aura about her that intrigued so many remained. It’s only through their late-night conversations, often seated on the floor of their temporary living rooms and a bottle of whatever they could find passed between them, that he had finally come to realize that her mystique is all to do with all the armor she carries. Armor that, despite how ruthless this business is, has allowed her to survive. To thrive. The concept was foreign to him, of course. He’s an open book, has been from the very first time he entered the industry and donned the glimmering shield of Captain America. But that too was a privilege, he had found out. While he’s made some mistakes along the way, none of them have been heightened, underscored, and thrown back at him at lightspeed quite like hers have.

In all honesty, he’s still not sure what he did to deserve to see what’s underneath all her sacred protection. To get a glimpse into just how heavy and exhausting it is to have to constantly carry it around. Even so, he’s glad to have the honor. For as grim a sight as it can be, mixed in with all the pain and loneliness are also the most beautiful parts of her that very few get to see. To the rest of the world, Natasha Romanoff is the captivating bombshell on their magazine covers. The striking, perfect face and the husky, seductive voice behind some of the most alluring characters to grace the big screen. And yes, he sees those facets of her, too. But beyond that, Natasha to him is the epitome of what it is to be beautifully human. She has loved. She has lost. She’s made mistakes and made them again. And while she’s not always afforded the same time and space to learn from her missteps as others, she’s always risen from the ashes – even if that’s meant she’s had to keep her heart under lock and key.

The last thought elicits a sigh from him. She rarely speaks about her past, but he didn’t need to hear the entire story to know that she’s had her heart eviscerated enough times to last her a lifetime. And it’s not as though her heart is something he expects of her now. He wasn’t expecting anything at all when they had fallen into… whatever this thing between them is now. But he’d be lying if he said he hasn’t felt something shift. Almost as if their touches have lingered, their kisses growing hungrier in the absence of their ability to speak the words. He can’t help but wonder if she had felt that, too. If that’s the reason she felt the need to run away from the warmth of his bed that morning.

The need for clarity cuts through him like a blade through the softest of flesh, and he finds himself reaching for his phone once more. “Natasha,” he all but pleads when his call goes straight to voicemail. “Please talk to me.”

A gasp falls from Widow’s lips as her back hits the wall. Before her, Captain America stares her down, his eyes blazing with fury. “Where is it?”

“Safe,” she says practically through gritted teeth.

“Do better!”

Her eyes narrow. “Where did you get it?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Fury gave it to you. Why?”

“What's on it?”

“I don't know.”

Unconvinced, Captain America’s grip on her arms tightens. “Stop lying!”

“I only act like I know everything, Cap.”

“I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?”

“Well, it makes sense,” she acquiesces. “The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you.”

“I'm not gonna ask you again,” he hisses.

“I know who killed Fury,” she whispers, prompting his hold on her to loosen. “Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.”

“So he's a ghost story,” he concludes.

“Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me…” She pulls up her shirt to show him the scar on the side of her stomach. “Soviet slug, no rifling.” She lets her lips curl into the slightest of smirks. “Bye-bye bikinis.”

“Yeah,” he deadpans. “I bet you look terrible in them now.”

“And cut!”

Natasha would never show it, but for the first time since her day started, it’s as though she can finally catch her breath as she steps away from Steve to look at the men behind the camera. “Did you want us to go again?”

“No, we’re good,” Joe, one-half of their directing duo, says. “We got the take.”

“That’s a wrap for you two today,” Anthony chimes in.

She doesn’t argue, and despite feeling Steve’s gaze heavy on her, she doesn’t dare look his way as she nods at both directors and makes a beeline for her trailer. She’s halfway there when she hears hurried footfalls behind her.

“Natasha,” Steve calls out, but she keeps walking. His voice grows louder. “Natasha, wait!”

“What do you want, Steve?” she asks as she whips around, crossing her hands over her chest. The question comes out harsher than she’d intended, and she regrets it immediately when she sees the hurt flash in his eyes.

“What do I want?” he says, expression incredulous. “Nat, I haven’t heard from you in days, and now you can’t get away from me fast enough.” He takes a step towards her, leaving mere inches between them. “Did I do something wrong?”

She looks away from him at that. She’s read his every text. Listened to every voicemail he’s left her, and then listened to it again. And now, as she stands before him, hearing the agony in his voice up close and personal, she wants nothing more than to tell him the truth. To let him know that this is killing her, too.

As his question hangs in the air between them, she feels his hand encircle her wrist. “Natasha,” he whispers, running his thumb gently over her tripping pulse. “Baby, I-”

Her head snaps to him then. He’s never called her that, at least not outside the safety of either of their beds, that, coupled with the concern thick in his stare, she feels her restraint begin to waver like a house of cards in a gust of wind.

No.

She yanks her hand away and out of his touch, shaking her head. “I have nothing to say to you.”

As she walks away, she keeps her eyes downturned, certain that another glance at him will all but make her resolve crumble. It’s only when she’s finally in the solace of her trailer that she leans her back against the door, bringing her hands to her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

Chapter 1 | Chapter 3

[fablefrogg]

Character Study & Rewrite: Colin Bridgerton vs. Lord Debling

First of all, I want to say that I really enjoyed Bridgerton season 3, part I. However, that is mainly because I enjoyed the side plots more than the main plot. A main reason why I didn't enjoy the main plot as much is because I believe that Colin Bridgerton's character arc could have been dealt with better, especially since Penelope Featherington is a more established character than him in the previous seasons. This third season is the first season where we really get to see into Colin's mind and how he views the world and himself.

I know that Colin's character arc surrounds his struggles with finding his authentic identity and the costs of fitting in with the ton at the expense of sacrificing his own values when it comes to relationships. On the other hand, Lord Debling is a great foil to Colin because we see that Debling is content with who he is, despite how his "peculiarities" aren't accepted by the ton and how that extends to how the ton talk about him. Unfortunately, I don't think that the writers took advantage of their relationship dynamic other than to simply show that they both want Penelope's hand-in-marriage.

I believe that adding in scenes where we get to see Colin Bridgerton and Lord Debling interact with each other one-on-one or how they witness the other person interact with the ton would've have made the main plot much better. This would allow the audience to have a more transparent understanding of Colin's character arc and of his inner thoughts while also making Debling a formidable love rival for Penelope.

I know that this season has limited screentime and that the season is split in half with two different release dates so here is how I would have personally added into the existing scenes or rewrite the existing scenes in Bridgerton season 3, part 1.

Warning: There will be spoilers so if you haven't watched these episodes yet, don't read any further. I also haven't read any of the Bridgerton series and I didn't look so my personal characterization may be off from Book Colin.

Colin Bridgerton's Travels

Other than knowing that he slept around, we haven't gotten enough information about Colin's travels and what he ACTUALLY did in the 17 cities that he traveled. I know he talks about the contessa but even his "friend" group doesn't know the details so I think it would be great to have a flashback of what he actually did with her. Either the contessa he talks about was just a made-up story to fit in with the guys or he was a virgin when he slept with her and he doesn't want to share those details because that experience was very intimate for him in exploring how sex works.

I think that scene of Penelope reading Colin's notebook was excellent. However, instead of her reading his passage about sleeping around, I'd rather that she read a different passage that details his struggles of fitting in with the ton and how he thought that traveling to new places where he thought he could belong would help but it turns out that he couldn't fit in with these new people either.

Until he started learning the lessons of "charm" and other social behaviors that men around him typically adopt because it was better than being alone. I'd think the best origin story of where he starts to learn that charm can be taught would be in France, considering that that country is the one he tends to talk about most and because flirting is pretty common in France (though I admittedly don't have much knowledge on French culture).

That would explain why Colin's lessons for Penelope aren't on how to fit in; rather that she just needs to relax enough in order to stop fixating on what other people think of her and to be her authentic self. It tells us that Colin doesn't want Penelope to go through the same process he did because that require her to not be true to who she is, so he alters the lessons he's been taught (which is actually really good. Even though I know he's a writer, I can also totally see him as a teacher, teaching others about the lessons he's learned from life) These lessons also benefit Colin because it gives him a sense of purpose, something that he's been struggling to find his entire life.

After Penelope finishes reading it, have Colin flashback to his past travels so that the audience can see his interactions in person and how he slowly alters his behavior as he travels to each city. This serves to give Penelope and the audience further insight into his motivations and mindset.

I know that his travels were written in the story to develop Colin and show the audience how much he's grown from the past seasons. But in truth, Colin doesn’t need to have grown from his travels. This is a personal judgement, but it gives me the impression that in order to be in a relationship, one must be "developed" enough but that doesn’t need to be the case. Colin and Penelope can grow together, and I think that's beautiful.

Brothel Scenes

As much as I didn't like the brothel scenes, I know that they exist to showcase Colin "maturing" (and perhaps a bit for fanservice). Instead of omitting them altogether, here is how I would have rewritten the scenes. Have Colin feel pressured by his "friend" group to participate in a group orgy at the brothel. That way, we see the clear contrast of his friends having a good time compared to Colin, while also participating, is clearly shown to be uncomfortable or less active about it than his friends. Maybe he tells them that he'd rather have privacy, but his friends make fun of him for acting like a prude or somewhere along those lines where his romantic nature is made fun of or is seen as childish.

This way, it would be a full circle when Colin tells them off at the end of part I, stating in these exact words, "It is tiring, is it not? The necessity imposed on us to remain cavalier about the one thing in life that holds genuine meaning." I absolutely love this moment when Colin dares to speak up because this is the first time we see him be so honest in front of them and it's amazing to see.

Colin vs. Debling

I would absolutely love Debling to witness Colin's flirting scenes in episode 1 because I think that he would cringe (like the rest of us) because let's face it, the lines are so cheesy that it would be comedic gold to see Debling have the same reaction as the audience.

Before Colin realizes his feelings for Penelope, I'd want Debling to interact with Colin’s “friend group” and have them talk about their respective travels to show the vast difference between his and Colin's interactions with the ton as well as the contrast between their characters. I think it would give us a lot of insight into both Colin and Debling as people, seeing Colin observe Debling and admiring (and envy) his quiet confidence to be himself.

Meanwhile, have Debling encourage Colin to stray away from the herd. We've seen how observant Debling himself is when he notes to Penelope about his intuition that Penelope can make someone wither if she wants to. And he is spot-on. I could see him totally knowing that Colin is trying to fit in, but he doesn't make fun of him; rather giving him advice on how to not care for what others think. That way, Colin's lessons to Penelope and Debling's advice to Colin end up backfiring on both of them which would honestly be funny to see.

In their interactions, have Debling share to Colin his need for a practical match because he plans to go on a 3-year long travel. At the end of part I, when Colin tells Penelope that Debling may not be the best match for Penelope because of his need for a practical match, it showcases how observant and thoughtful Colin is rather than simply acting out of jealousy.

Have Debling ask Colin about Penelope to get to know her more so that we can see Colin talk about his past with Penelope. This would be a good place to provide flashbacks of past interactions with Penelope. Show us flashbacks where Colin took notice of Penelope or admired her when past!Colin was too oblivious to notice it as anything more than friendship but looking back it now, present!Colin views those moments differently in light of his growing romantic feelings for Penelope.

The Balloon Scene

I would have Debling (instead of Colin) be the one to lead the charge in saving the hot air balloon and shouting commands to get the others, Colin included, to join in, capturing Penelope’s attention and awe (and the other ladies of the ton).

When Colin sees how everyone flocks to Debling for his heroic rescue, I want to see him insecure afterwards about how he wished he could’ve led the charge for once instead of always being in the shadows and following another person's lead.

Most importantly, he sees how the ton can quickly change the target of their affections from Colin at the beginning of the season to Debling, the one that people didn't talk much fondly of, provides Colin with more motivation to not follow with society but to follow his own heart.

Conclusion

To summarize, I want Colin to not just be jealous of Debling being the object of Penelope's attention but to also envy Debling himself because he wants to be like him because I think that would give Colin and Debling more complexity to their characters. With more insight into Colin's character and his embracing his true self in part I, it's going to hurt even more when he discovers who Penelope truly is and how her actions impacted his family.

Anyway, I'm super excited to see part 2 of Bridgerton season 3, especially after seeing their trailer, and I am waiting ever expectantly for it. Thanks for reading my long, semi-organized ramble; I had fun writing it, and I hope you had as much fun reading it!

[lyretheinstrument]

Finished batch one of tfe season 2 and honestlyyyyyyyhhh..,.

(first batch review and opinions)

(cut to avoid spoilers)

it's rough compared to the first season. I genuinely believe it's not the creators fault and they probably got mega rushed and a ton of budget cuts.

This season was definitely more Terran focused and I don't minddd that?? because it is their show. but I do wish legacy characters got a bit of spotlight. I know prowls coming in batch two so I hope he gets a fair share of screentime. again, I know it’s supposed to focus on the Terrans but I feel that if your gonna include the cybertronians can you try to use them a little more ? otherwise don’t have them at all yk /lighthearted

but personal grievances aside for a moment the writing was ROUGH. I know it's a kids show but almost all the episodes felt weirdly paced, awkward, and babyish?? and the animation downgrade doesn't make it any better.

honestly a lot of it was just really distracting and I couldn't really focus on the story. Also the story itself felt kinda, unfocused? idk maybe that's a personal thing as well. I found it kinda hard to get invested. The Terrans I only really like are twitch thrash and nightshade. jawbreaker is fucking insufferable. I’m sorry.

I noticed a lot of the issues in the episodes could have been easily solved. That is NOTT something u want an audience to feel.. a simple communication or action could have easily prevented an issue in an episode. :/

personal grievances back infront IM SO MAD BEE GOT LIKE ZERO SCREENTIME

Optimus episode was cute tho I like it when characters shit on jawbreaker

I don't mind the cons being villains but if you’re gonna have them as villains can you give them more personality and screentime. also a lot of the decepticons felt bland or out of character.

A fun and interesting plot line we could have had (at least in my opinion) is decepticon infighting. It felt bizarre to me that soundwave and shockwave just fell in line when starscream assumed leadership. IDK!! I feel like the three would be arguing over who would be leader?? Correct me if I’m wrong on this I might he looking at this all wrong. </3

honestly I had like zero interest in spitfire and aftermath but at LEAST aftermath had a new design (GLARES AT SHAMELESS TWITCH RECOLOR).

like I’m not even upset that twitch and spitfire have the same/similar alt modes because it works w them being literal parallels of eachother. I’m just mad it’s just a straight up (lowk ugly) recolor. it just doesn’t work for me personally. Especially bc a good redesign could immediately fix a lot of my issues with it. like make her sharper or give her different patterns and adjust the color placement SOMETHING BRO.

that concludes my disorganized ramble for now. I’m excited to see everyone’s thoughts on the first batch of season two and I remain optimistic for the second half :3

side note:

I LOVE YOU BUMBLEBEE I LOVE U SO MUCH AND ALSO IM SOOO HAPPY RAVAGE GOT CONFIRMED AS FEMALE ILY GIRL CAT RAVAGE

[bcbdrums]

I saw the Reddit drama. Please explain why Drakgo is a more interesting ship than KimRon.

first, thanks for the ask! second, whoaaaaaaa i wouldn't presume to label one ship more interesting than another. some people will find ships interesting, others won't.

i'll give a diff example. in my other current hyperfixation, soul eater, my friend adores Ship A while i'm all about Ship B. her ship IS interesting to me! i think those chars are the most shippable in the show, they're basically canon w/o PDA, and they are deeply complex both as individual chars and as a couple.

they're just... not the ones i'm hyperfixated on. doesn't make them uninteresting.

what makes a person's brain and heart grab onto one ship and not another? who can say.

a lack of personal interest in a ship does not make it objectively uninteresting, or worse... and a ship having way more attention than another in fandom doesn't objectively make that ship more interesting, or better.

CAN a person make canonical objective arguments for or against ships? certainly.

let's just grab characters from KP to use as example. Bonnie and Brick. canonically a couple for more than one episode! we do not get a lot of canon info onscreen for them, so most of the interest in them would have to come from fan creations. compare to Kim and Ron, who have infinitely more screentime together, infinitely more individual character development than Bonnie and Brick both as individuals and as a couple...

one could argue that Kim/Ron is more interesting than Brick/Bonnie. there's more to grab from the canon at least. but if a person wants to draw/write/talk at length about Brick/Bonnie? why not!

no reason to be hating on any ship. if it's not your ship, then just...don't engage?? especially if you're against said ship.

now me, personally, i find Drakgo more interesting than Kim/Ron. (altho recent convo with @creatorping got my Kim/Ron juices flowing again). Drakgo just appeal to me more as characters, with their gritty backgrounds, a lot more unknowns to explore, the challenge of two villains developing a mutual trusting relationship so they can have a happily ever after... that just grabs my mind and heart more than the perfect girl and her adorkable boyfriend. it doesn't mean Kim and Ron aren't interesting, cuz ohhhhh they are! mostly post-canon for me because...who ARE they, after high school?? who is Kim other than the student who saves the world? what's she gonna do with her life? and what is Ron gonna do? he absolutely can't go to the same college as her, and she can't ditch a good opportunity to go to a community college with him... my hang-up has always been that Kim wasn't given enough individual development onscreen to do anything interesting with her post-canon. but aforementioned convo with Ping changed my mind, heheh. 😏

in any case, the point... one ship isn't more or less interesting. one ship isn't better or worse than another. it's us, the viewer, who either will or won't be interested.

so as i've always said.... ship and let ship. don't like? don't interact. don't hate on someone else's ships or headcanons or POVs... (reddit...)

and, that's not the same thing as discourse. discussing characters, discussing points of view, interpretations... sharing various headcanons... with willing parties who want to enter into that conversation! THAT is a major part of fandom! but it's all in how one goes about it. and! should people come to disagree about interpretations of characters, also fine!

i think the issue arises when people start to act like... my interpretation is correct OR, my interpretation is the only valid one. when people get up on that horse, that's where the problems arise... it can be tough if you feel like you're the only person WITH a certain POV, but... again, if the folks you're chatting with aren't into it, then find other people. i'm in that boat with some soul eater headcanons, but, that's okay. i don't need to convince everyone else in the fandom in order rto enjoy my thoughts. i'll still talk about them, but, not with the idea of telling anyone my view is the only view. that's the antithesis of what fandom is about. i'll talk about them because i enjoy talking about them, to like-minded folk, and on my own blog which is what a blog is for.

and, idk why it shows up so often in the KP fandom, especially the Drakgo side, that people can't simply say "hey i have this headcanon!" and someone respond with "oh that's neat!" and just. happily co-exist. everyone creating their things, sharing their things. and people will like what they like, as they always have, in every fandom. and if they don't like someone's idea, that's fine too!

but it's not worth fighting about?? it never is! it's just not that important. it's fandom. it's fun. it's our escape. if one feels SO strongly against a concept, or ship, or whatever.... then you don't interact with it. you don't make it your mission to disprove the other person. you don't actively seek out opportunities to hate on a point of view you dislike. that's not how fandom is supposed to be. find your people, and chill with them.

let's all be positive in the various fandom spaces.

i hadn't intended that to be such a rant, but...well, there you have it. sorry it probably was not what you wanted to hear, but yeah. thanks again for the ask!!

[jacky-rubou]

Planning to write an essay on the limited Ford and Mabel bonding in the show and well, I thought of approaching you if you have any pointers. Especially dispelling any misconceptions by the fandom whether Ford overlooked Mabel or the bond she shared with her brother.

I think the main misconception I see is that Ford didn't care about Mabel at all in comparison to Dipper. Or, in some ridiculously extreme cases, that he hates her.

People forget that Mabel was the first twin he interacted with, and it was largely positive. Ford laughed and said he liked her when she stated that his six fingered handshake was one finger friendlier than normal.

The Last Mabelcorn being the episode where Ford interacted with Mabel the most gives a big insight into how he feels about her. First, he agreed with Mabel when she stated she was probably the most pure of heart in the room (i forget the exact phrasing but same difference). He trusted her with the unicorn mission, even knowing that the unicorns were difficult. And last of all, he directly tells her that she is a good person without even knowing the struggle she went through with her morality moments prior.

Dipper and Mabel vs The Future is contentious in this regard, fans often using it as proof that Ford doesn't care about Mabel just because he asked Dipper to stay in Gravity Falls. But honestly, Ford cared enough to observe Mabel's social skills with the pizza delivery guy, plus probably witnessing plenty of instances of Mabel handling herself without Dipper's help. He genuinely believed that Mabel could handle being without her brother outside of the summers.

Plus, it isn't like Mabel was forthright about her feelings about leaving Gravity Falls and growing up until she blew up at the end of the episode. Obviously there are things to be said about Ford taking Dipper on as an apprenticeship being a good or a bad idea depending on who you ask, but Ford didn't know how badly Mabel would take it. He thought he was doing Dipper a favor by giving him a head start on his studies and, as I previously mentioned, that Mabel would be fine at home. That the two could reach a compromise if needed.

Ford isn't perfect though, he does tend to project himself onto Dipper after finding out how similar he thinks he is to him. That might've affected how often he spends with either twin or how he saw their bond, but to say that he doesn't care about Mabel at all is simply misguided. He cares about them both so much. His traumatic experience with his own twin just tainted how he saw the twins' bond being something that could be potentially suffocating. He does sorta have a point though, Dipper and Mabel can't force each other to stay glued at the hip forever or it could potentially stifle their individual dreams if handled badly. But that's just my 'controversial' opinion right there i guess, so take it with a grain of salt if you wish.

And besides, if we were gonna get upset at Ford for favoring Dipper over Mabel, you might as well also get upset at Stan for favoring Mabel over Dipper in some honestly worse ways than Ford ever did to Mabel. Stan literally projected his father's abusive ways onto Dipper and justified being hard on him with 'toughening him up'. Not to mention how he made Dipper the butt of his jokes so often it drove Dipper to seek out time with Ford over him because Ford never made fun of him like that. Obviously Stan does care about Dipper too, but the double standards in this fandom when it comes to how the grunkles treat the twins is honestly flabbergasting. Neither grunkle is perfect in how they handle the twins, neither are 'better' in their methods, and I think that's the point.

it doesn't help that Ford doesn't get a lot of screentime compared to Stan, as i'm sure you're already aware.

anyway, if you have any more questions, feel free to let me know. hope this was a good insight into all this Ford and Mabel business.

[noahvember]

Hello everyone! We're about two weeks out from the start of Noahvember. Today, we're going to give you some inspiration for Day 5, our ship-centered day! Obviously, these prompts are more geared towards ship-related content, but feel free to take them anyway you would like. You are more than welcome to have ship-related content for the rest of the week as well.

Before we go over some Noah-related ships, we'd like to remind everyone that this event does not tolerate ship hate. We encourage all ships here (so long as they aren't minor/adult, incest, etc). Please do not engage in ship discourse during this week. We're all here to have fun!

Onto some ships! 🚢

Noah/Cody

I think this a ship most Total Drama fans are introduced to pretty early on! From the sleep kiss in Total Drama Island to the sausage incident in World Tour, there's plenty of moments were the two are oddly paired against each other. Do all these sleep cuddling incidents mean something more? That's up to you!

Noah/Alejandro

This ship has gained popularity over the past couple of years, especially in part due to fics like Slippery Slopes. Noah and Alejandro share plenty of moments together in World Tour, matching in intelligence and wit. The London episode leaves lots of room for interpretation. Is this the start of an enemies-to-lovers relationship?

Noah/Emma

Our canon Noah ship! The two meet in Ridonculous Race, setting up Noah's first canon relationship. They match in intelligence, but Emma seems to have far more drive than Noah. This complicated relationship leads to some struggles during RR. This season shows what Noah's truly like when he falls in love!

Noah/Owen

While not as popular as other ships, this one definitely has some of the most screentime! An unlikely friendship formed between the two, even leading to them competing together on Ridonculous Race. While the show plays it out to be platonic, it's very easy to see these two as a couple.

These are just some of the fandom's popular Noah ships! We definitely encourage you to try some that aren't listed. We're super excited for Noahvember. Reminder to check our pinned post and FAQ for more details. Our inbox is also open for any questions you may have! If you reblog, maybe share your favorite Noah ship with us!

[hrodvitnon]

Regarding that one ask, I heavily disagree with it and I dare say that person is completely wrong about Godzilla's intentions. Based on what these pages from Godzilla Dominion shows, as a well as Mike Dougherty's own tweet regarding this fic, it's nowhere near as one-sided as some people think it is, and as you can see, Godzilla himself remembers Serizawa's sacrifice as well as the time he lived alongside humans, seeing as his definition of home is a place where he lived with humans that loved and worshipped him.

But wait, there's more! Before certain people come out and say that those aspects have been "retconned", Godzilla is shown to be sleeping peacefully at the Roman Colosseum in GxK, and in the novelization, it flat out says that he sleeps there because misses his old temple at KOTM and that he might still have a soft spot for people. Not to mention in GxK in general, Godzilla clearly has a connection with the Hollow Earth Iwi tribe. Who are, you know, humans.

Also Monarch: Legacy of Monsters further reaffirms that Godzilla is ultimately a benevolent being who's just doing his job keeping titans and humans from harming each other.

If people can accept the idea of a giant apes being benevolent protectors with zero strings attached, then there should be no problems accepting that the giant lizard is exactly like that too, especially because there's been no real evidence to say otherwise (and again, like the examples I've shown and mentioned, they actually further prove that Godzilla is indeed a benevolent protector and that Serizawa / Monarch, as well as other people who similarly trust in him like Shaw, is right to trust in him). And if people say that it can't be the case because "rEpTiLeS cAn'T fEeL fEeLiNgS jUsT LiKe MaMmAlS cAn", well then I am sorry to say, but Mothra disproves that just by existing.

Because hey, if you make a false equivalent between these fictional giant monsters and real life animals they took inspiration from, then by that same logic, Mothra should be an emotionless thing that acts only based on instincts and self-preservation because she's a giant insect. But she doesn't, and she's a genuine protector who also goes out of her way to avoid killing (even sparing those who attack her whenever she can) and in GxK, she even goes out of her way to save humans. Not even Kong did that in the movie btw, and if anything, the movie shows that Kong accidentally kills some humans in Egypt.

But yeah. It's really exhausting how these people just keeps reducing Godzilla's more nuanced character traits. Especially since Godzilla has always been a sympathetic character going as far back as the original 1954 movie (though Heisei era is the best example of that), but for some reason, these people now suddenly have a problem with that just because Godzilla shares screentime with Kong. And in these people's logic, Kong is Good because he's mammal and therefore relatable, while Godzilla is BAD because he's reptile and therefore "not relatable".

If people in real life can compare their pet lizards to dogs and treat them with as much love as they would a dog, we can have Good Guy Godzilla (who is still a big ol' grump willing to put down repeat offenders like Scylla while being nostalgic for humans and being anxious without Mothra's presence). It's okay. We can have a Godzilla who maintains the worldly balance while still being a proud warrior beast who enjoys fighting and when he's not fighting he can even feel lonesome in some way, these are not mutually exclusive.

[briefobservationdreamer]

Missing Potential About Organisation XIII Members

Some things about Organisation XIII members that I thought was a shame we haven't seen (yet)

The events of Chain of Memories being touched on. Like, how do Lea and Riku interact with Aeleus, Ienzo and Even? What about Saïx’s involvement, how much of it was from Xemnas, Saïx or just Axel's initative? Imagine Sora dealing with Marluxia and Larxene in KH3 with their history remembered. And let's not forget Riku Replica.

Marluxia and Larxene actually share very little one-to-one screentime for two villains who are working together, they only have a single short scene in KH3 before other characters show up. What was their relationship as Nobodies like? How did they come to trust each other enough to try and orchestrate a coup together and be loyal enough to die fighting together twice? We know Marluxia didn’t remember his past, but what about Larxene? Does the history of their Somebodies still factor in, even though they might not even remember?

Seeing the Organisation’s earlier history. How and when did they claim the World That Never Was as their base of operations and start working on completing the artificial Kingdom Hearts? How did they all get their powers and weapons and learn how to use them? How was it run before Saïx became mission control, how did he get that job and what kind of training and missions were they assigned to turn it into the Organisation we see in Chain of Memories, Days and 2? What are the details of Axel and Saïx’s story, how they lost their hearts and plotted their coup, how Axel got his teardrop tattoos and how Saïx got that scar and got possessed. How did Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene get recruited (twice)? The original Organisation XIII doesn’t actually get to be an organisation of 13 people for very long, if at all, and there is only a brief period at the beginning of Days where we have a chance to see all members interacting with each other. I know there were at least two coups being plotted but they are never seen acting collectively as a single unit.

Lea still keeps his affinity for fire magic since being recompleted, but what about the other recompleted members of the original Organisation? I’d have to assume that the others still keep their powers post-recompletion too, and if so it’s a shame we don’t get to see the Radiant Garden crew using their powers more. Or Aeleus and Dilan showing off their fighting skills in general (even in a war), they are castle guards after all.

The Radiant Garden crew adjusting back into society after all the human experiments they did, especially if they remain respected authority figures.

Lea losing much of his potential character development in KH3 - exploring what his keyblade and being a wielder means to him, making up for his mistakes and fighting to get his friends back and earning all of those things - in favour of ignoring a lot of the harmful things he did and turning him into comic relief who doesn’t contribute much to the war. He deserved better than that.

The whole possession thing is kind of glossed over in KH3, in that it doesn’t really seem to affect the Real Org members. The way Xigbar described it in DDD makes it sound like some kind of hive mind to me, so I wondered about Xehanort being able to completely control any of them at any time, all of them forced to share the same thoughts and feelings from Xehanort about what he wants them to desire (or even sharing or sensing each other’s thoughts and feelings?), and in the Keyblade Graveyard none of them are themselves at all until their deaths. There was a reason Xehanort did this after all, and it would not only keep the members trapped and make betrayal more difficult, but make it even more impressive that Saïx, Vexen and Demyx were able to pull it off despite this.  

The traitors in the new Org doing more than drop off a replica body at Radiant Garden right when it was needed. Maybe there could have been more communication between the traitors and the guardians to make cooperation easier and give the plan greater chances of success, maybe even pass along information about the organisation's plans and movements (easily done by Demyx if he was always sent on recon missions). This is really more of an idea I had.

Group dynamics in general. So many contrasting personalities and motivations with so much potential for interesting interactions just by putting some of these characters in the same room for a few minutes.

All the former Nobodies adjusting to having a heart again after being recompleted. Even though there would be a lot that's similar for them, I think each of them would experience it in their own way, with their own unique challenges, needs and coping methods about the process.