#I have thoughts on so many pieces of media

[hesperocyon-lesbian]

I don’t think I’ve posted about this but I recently played through Star Wars Outlaws and I have so many thoughts on it cause just

Fundamentally it’s not a mechanically engaging game. The gunplay is god awful and the player character, Kay Vess, has obnoxious MCU dialogue. There’s a bit where she looks over a steep cliff and goes “well *that* definitely isn’t terrifying” out loud.

But it also has far and away the best narrative about a droid in any Star Wars media I’ve encountered. ND-5 is an old separatist commando droid who’s mentally held captive by a restraining bolt that the man who owns him installed.

And the thing is, the narrative actually explores the fact that ND-5 is a sentient, feeling being who is legally treated as property and has his free will denied by his restraining bolt. Not only that, as the game moves into the third act, the central narrative of the game increasingly focuses on him, his agency, and the abject horror of being conscious while you’re forced to hunt and kill your friend against her will. I’m kind of shocked.

Star Wars has pretty much always tried to tiptoe around the fact that droids are enslaved. The closest I’d seen the acknowledgment of that fact before this game was in Solo, and there is was partially played for laughs, and the droid who’s a militant advocate for droid freedom ends the story being turned back into a piece of property with even more agency stripped from her, unable to even speak now.

I’m just so surprised that there’s a frankly excellently written narrative that delves into the implications of how droids are treated and examined how they actually feel about it buried in a mediocre Ubisoft Star Wars game

[just-thoughts-no-vibes]

Can someone take One Piece from power scalers PLEASE?!! I can't deal with people who have invested days of their time into something as long and complex as this anime/manga just to be able to run into every conversation and say "he solos", "a fraud!!!", "he wins tho", etc. Sure, power scaling can be fun but if it's your measurement for the quality of the story or characters then you are dumb as a brick, especially if we are talking about One Piece.

I just saw an edit on tiktok about Vivi and the person who made it said they would like her to rejoin. Makes sense as we all love Vivi and she was the only person we were convinced would join but didn't (If you thought that Bon Clay, Carrot, or Yamato would join I really don't know what to tell you…). And comments were FLOODED with people hating on her because she is weak. I am not joking, this one dude literally said he would drop One Piece if Vivi rejoins because she is a weakling. There were so many comments about her impracticality and weakness, and how Luffy wouldn't benefit from her at all, and I have to ask: Why get involved in discussions about an anime/manga that you obviously haven't watched/read in your life?

I can't even say they weren't paying attention because statements like this go way beyond that. You can't convince me that you've ever seen a second of One Piece and still think that Luffy recruits people based on strength and their utility. I can't believe that someone is so media illiterate that they can watch hundreds of episodes and think that physical strength is the deciding factor for a character's importance and role in a story like this.

I am so sick of people who reduce great stories to just fights when they have so much to offer. And most exhausting of all, they are everywhere! I can't solve this just by blocking them because these people have an undying need to force their opinion always, regardless of the context. In this community, someone can make a tutorial for Franky's hair, and a "dude bro" will emerge from his little stinky lair to say "Zoro solos tho" thinking he's done something significant.

[nutsack90]

just a normal girl

[brother-emperors]

@garland-on-thy-brow #get romancedramad romeboys.

(metal gear solid voice) on it boss 🫡

the first and last ones are scene re draws, in order: the live action adaption of sci mystery, the heirs lmao

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Broke (2016): BBC Sherlock is a phenomenal piece of media and anything that seems like a flaw just hasn't been fully explored yet

Woke (2020): BBC Sherlock is an incredibly flawed series run by an egotistical writer, it never deserved the hype and is actively bad on so many fronts (especially representation)

Bespoke (2024): BBC Sherlock is flawed and bogged down by increasingly poor writing, which many fans refused to see while it was airing, leading to hugely misplaced expectations (particularly for the final series), AND it has the seeds of some compelling characterizations and portrayals, some genuinely solid performances, and touches--albeit imperfectly--on complexities that are still being discussed today (particularly as it relates to the relationship between Sherlock and John). The huge cultural impact of the show has created a massive pendulum effect in its public perception, leading to most people today remembering a caricature of the show (whether positive or negative) rather than appreciating its nuanced merits and failings...that being said Season 4 sucked

[atlasascending]

So I just finished young royals and Oof, what a show. If you haven’t seen it yet watch it because it’s great BUT ALSO can I please just take a minute to say I love how much all the characters just hug? There’s so many hugs? I love it. Of course it’s Wille and Simon the most, but I adore how much a normal gesture of intimacy it is for them all. It’s so sweet to see.

I actually also think this show kind of perfectly strikes the balance of Teenager™️ wherein you can’t focus for the following two scenes after kissing someone you like (shout out to that one post) but you can also do drugs and drink and fuck around and somehow these things are not mutually exclusive. Just honestly 10/10

AND the writers and director(s) give the characters so much SPACE. It is so unbelievably refreshing to not be rushing from scene to scene all the time like most American media does (and sadly UK media is heading the same way). Truly reflect for a moment and consider when was the last time you watched something that had so much silence in it, so many pauses, so much room to breathe? And by god do you need it, because all the characters are such forces coupled with the intensity of the plot that you’d be buggered if the characters (read: actors) were barrelling on a mile a minute too

I think it’s a really well written, INCREDIBLY well shot show and that more people should watch it

[ilovedthestars]

I am having many many thoughts about Hands of the Emperor, but here is one before I go to sleep:

this sounds very silly, but i am eighty-odd pages into this book and almost nothing has happened, technically. The main characters are going on a vacation. It is a fairly significant part of this that the Emperor has never done so much nothing at once before. Travel arrangements have been made, social interactions had, various vacation activities enjoyed, but on a literal level there is no large plot moving forward.

AND YET. I am up late reading this already, and I want to stay up later. I want to keep reading. Because even if on the surface, not much is going on, the emotional depths that this book has already gone to are incredibly compelling.

The main character is watching the man he serves as emperor and reveres as a god, a man he cares for deeply, slowly remember that despite being an emperor and a god he is also a person, and find enormous joy in getting to be just that. The main character has been overcome with emotion multiple times by seeing his emperor smiling with great pleasure at things like a casual conversation, or watching the rain, or tuning a harp with his own hands. I am overcome with emotion too.

I don’t know if the pace will pick up at some point, but I genuinely think even if it doesn’t, I could read seven hundred pages of this, just on the strength of what it’s making me feel.

[voidshrubsquared]

Listen. Listen to me

Do you know how much I LOVE that comic? IT'S SO GOOD SO SO SO GOOD

We get to see a glimpse of Click's inner workings! How his mind operates!! His complicated relationship with himself and the other pinks and what it is to BE a pink!!!! Is he just like them? Are they all the same?? Is HE the horrible one??? Is he not horrible ENOUGH???? WHO KNOWS!!! And the 'I miss my department' like MANS DOESN'T WANNA BE THERE!!! HE DOESN'T WANNA THINK ABOUT IT!!!! HE HATES IT HERE CAUSE INTERACTING WITH THESE GUYS MAKES HIM THINK TOO MUCH💕💖💕💖

Like, what if they're all the same? Then Click isn't special and he's just another darkner abiding by the rules of his code.

What if the others laced the candy platter and he didn't? Then Click is too soft, they'll eat him alive out there! How is he going to survive!!

What if he's projecting and nobody else even thought of lacing the candy? Does that mean he's just a horrible person in general? Is it not just a pink thing and more a HIM thing?

And then the visuals, the zooming in into the one piece of candy among all the others in the candy platter as he does Thoughts™

O U G H OVJJSBBCKROLNXNFODOF

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I LOVE HIM DO YOU GET WHY I WANT TO INJECT HIM DIRECTLY INTO MY BLOODSTREAM THIS IS WHY HE'S MY FAVORITE ADDISON HIS WRITING IS IMMACULATE

[justplaggin]

« to the stray dogs »

[ninjasmudge]

I SAW THE TRANSFORMER POST TAGS... I KNOW WHAT UOU ARE!!! (<- said by guy who also knows all of that)

i had a long long time to learn everything abt transformers and i will say, i think its def the most creative fandom ive evvveerrrr seen. ppl interpret everything from emotions to physicality to personhood in transformers in alien ways ive never seen even mentioned in other media before or since

[cassmouse]

WHY on earth is there doomed yuri EVERYWHERE. First Checkmatch and now Violentine why can my favourite girls never be happy

[asthe-crow-flies]

naturalness/unnaturalness in Lolina: Origins by R L Hughes

i could write a whole essay about this, but its almost finals, so this is what you're getting

[goldenhawk-k]

I’d love for Swept Away to gain a large fandom but then people would tell me things aren’t “canon” like I knew or cared about what the canon was when I first learned of it and now. You can rip big brother sacrificing himself out of my cold, dead hands. The man who watched his younger brother, the boy (and, god he was only 20, he had a whole life in front of him, he wasn’t even married—) he watched turn into a man, pull the short straw, and get ripped that cursed pocket knife from his hands and placed it to his own neck. The man who had a wife at home, a wife he thought he loved, the wife he thought would be enough, but his time with the mate proved that wrong. Even if he made it back, he’d never be able to love her the same, love her in the way she deserved. So he’d look the captain in the eyes, the captain that had let them embark on this journey, and he’d look back in understanding. The sort of understanding that meant he knew there was no way to change big brothers mind. And he’d press that knife into the thin skin of his neck in a final sacrifice, in a final act of love so that those he cared for could consume him and survive.

[seaofreverie]

I will make any sort of sacrifice for art

[snekdood]

im not gonna act like its as severe as hindutvas make it out to be but if you deny hinduphobia exists you're just a dumbass i think

[toytulini]

name some canonically nonbinary characters why dont you