#I hope he gets more screentime in a future sequel | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thatgirlinskullz · 2 years

Text

Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 6 ***SPOILERS*** (and final thoughts)

-- SPOILERRSSSS

-- I MEAN ITTT

-- IT'S GONNA BE ALL OVER THE PLACE BUT STILL

-- YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

-- SPOILERS INCOMING

-- IN

-- 3

-- 2

-- 1

OHMYGOD THIS EPISODE

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

fucking hell my heart hurts

Baby Leia is still perfection and needs to be protected!! i am so happy with Vivien Lyra Blair's performance, and cannot wait to see her in more stuff. not only is she adorable, but she is soo damn good for her age!!! 💖

Baby Luke is adorable, and i'm happy with what they did with him, and Grant Feely did a great job with what he got, but i feel like they could have done more.. he barely has any lines or screentime, but then again he does it really well, still. and i am glad he wasn't the focus. tbh, cuz Leia deserves more love and screentime, she is a badass and i love how she was the focus...

speaking of badasses... AUNT FKIN BERU KICKED ASS!! holy shit!! she was so amazing, (underutilized but amazing!!) thank you Bonnie Piesse for gracing us with your presence, i love you. please come back for more!! 💖

Owen still kinda pisses me off xD i get why he's so protective, but i just don't like him.... he did do a good thing in the end by allowing Obi-Wan to meet Baby Luke and give him the present, so i guess that's fine.

moving on to other things...

Haja is still one of my favs from the show, and i wish he got more to do.. maybe in the future.. i really liked Kumail Nanjiani in this so i hope he can come back to SW one day..

Roken is actually great. he grew on me. and i rreeeeallly hope we get to see more of him in future projects.

unfortunately the Grand Inquisitor was extremely underutilized. he is wasted potential if i ever saw one.. he is such a fkin cool character and then you don't do shit with him?! what the hell?!!! 💔

aanyway...

Reva is redeemed, i guess. which.. works, i guess... i mean she was never fully on the dark side, she was tempted, and after revenge, but she was never fully turned, so i guess it makes sense to go down this route..

i really loved how they made her face her demons, face herself, face her past, and choose her own path.. for a second there i actually thought she'd commit seppuku like Hux was supposed to in the sequel trilogy... but no. she lives. she gets to move on. and build a life i guess...

would be really cool if she joined in on the rebellion or just help rescue force sensitives, trying to fully redeem herself and make up for her actions.. maaaaybe partner up with Quinlan Vos.. they would be a perfect pair: both having been on the dark side, both having lost people they cared about. they would work perfectly together imo.

now... let's talk about that fight...

OHMYGOD THAT FIGHT

my heart. it hurts. 💔😭😭😭

fkin hell...

the choreography was great, the music was great, the lighting, the lines, the emotions, it was all there. it was fkin amazing.

no, it was not as powerful as Revenge of the Sith, nothing can be that powerful. nothing can ever come close to that.. BUT it still all worked. it was so well done..

the chemistry between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader.. you could feel all the history and emotion behind each slash and stab..

idk if it was Hayden or one of his doubles in the suit, but goddamn they did an amazing job!! moving like that in that heavy ass suit cannot be easy, so great job to them! and thank you!! 💖💖💖

loved the way Vader was showing off how strong he is, using the saber one-handed and using the force so much... but he did switch to two-handed mode when he felt he was in over his head xD

loved how Obi-Wan regained his strength from thinking of Luke and Leia, well, mostly Leia.. thinking of them, their future, what they mean to him and to the galaxy gave him the push he needed and goddamn did he use it well.. throwing rocks at Vader to make him lose focus.. niceee

speaking of... what is it with Disney Star Wars and floating/throwing rocks? XD i get it, it's cool, but it's funny they keep using it xD

but the end of the fight was waaay to much for me...

Lucas was right when he said "It's like poetry, it rhymes" because goddamn did it rhyme. and did it break my heart.. again..

the way Obi-Wan slashes Vader's helmet and Anakin's face is shown, and his voice comes through.. a perfect parallel to Rebels when Ahsoka slashes Vader's helmet... and it hurt. it hurt so much. 💔😭😭😭😭😭

(he also said the "then you will die" line at some point like he did with Ahsoka in Rebels and that hurt me on a personal level)

the way Anakin's voice breaks through and mixes with Vader's... and says he killed Anakin.. my heart...💔😭

and even after the loss, Vader/Anakin is still obsessed with Obi-Wan, and he has to pretend that he doesn't care in front of Sidius...

speaking of... FKIN YESSS IAN MCDIARMID IS BACCK I KNEW IT FKIN HELL YESS THANK YOU FOR COMING BACK!!!!

also... they fkin left the Qui-Gon force ghost cameo to the last second, they just wanted to hurt me even more, didn't they? XD LOVED IT though

edit: alsooooo the way Obi-Wan was talking to Leia about her parents, the way he got sooo emotional talking about Padme and Anakin.. omg. it was such a good scene!! and it was also very painful but like in a good way? idk... i LOVED how he told her all these nice things about her parents, and it was enough. and i feel like Leia finally realized that she doesn't need to know more, because she HAS parents already. Breha and Bail, who love her and would do anything for her. and they ARE her parents. the way she ran to Breha proves it that she's finally content and happy with being an Organa. she doesn't need more. she is at home. she has a family. i loved that scene. 💖💖💖

.....

all in all... this is not a perfect show.. there's a LOT of wasted potential: the Grand Inquisitor, no mention of Cody or Satine, no clone war flashbacks, the episodes could have been longer to flesh out the characters more.. we could have had more of Obi-Wan in solitude.. could have had more Luke and more Beru tbh.. more Inquisitors.. the lightsaber lighting was a bit overused, (sabers have never been this bright ever xD but i guess it's fine, i get it was a stylistic choice)

there's a lot they could have done with this story, a lot of characters could have been mentioned or shown.. but overall IT IS A DAMN GOOD SHOW!!

i fully enjoyed all of it. and i loved all the performances!! i loved where they went with the story and characters. i loved how there was a lot of inspiration from Rogue One and Rebels, and Clone Wars.. with the references and some story beats.. the parallels and the rhyming.. it is all perfect imo. 💖

the emotional weight of all aspects of this story, Reva's, Anakin's, Kenobi's, Leia's, even Owen's.. it's all there and you can feel it all..

Anakin is still not fully gone, and you can sense it in every second he spends obsessing over Obi-Wan..

Obi-Wan has not fully given up, because he knows there is hope..

their reunion and rematch makes sense, and was very much needed before A New Hope, imo, it ties things together perfectly.

i am so happy that this show happened. that Ewan and Hayden got to come back and play these roles again. 💖

and, while i hope it's not the last time we see them, (although i know Hayden is gonna be in the Ahsoka show, so that's something i guess), if it is the last time, i'm happy with what we got 💖

i am happy with this show, and i am hopeful for the future of star wars.

8 notes · View notes

aerialflight · 3 years

Text

Fic Recs (mostly Naruto cause I read too many good fics in the fandom and now I'm in hell)

[Naruto]

Spirit-Touched by phooykazooi

Once upon a time, the Haruno clan were priests. It was said that they were spirit-touched, and that they walked among the downtrodden and the poor, and did not bow to royalty.

Or, an AU in which Sakura can see spirits.

Part 1 of The Realms Between

(Really, and I mean REALLY fantastic Shikamaru & Sakura friendship! Fantastic, beautiful writing, and such good worldbuilding, god, and the Haruno family is so badass!! Sakura and everything she does makes me want to scream!! Please read!)

Final Evaluation by Do_the_Cool_Whip

Progress evaluations are one-on-one consultation meetings between academy students and their teacher. Their purpose is to inform academy students of their strengths and weaknesses and guide them down their ideal path to becoming a strong shinobi. Upon graduating the academy and passing their jounin-sensei test, new genin return to the academy for one final consultation. (Or: The story of what happens when Umino Iruka uses his final meetings with his students as way to send them off to become the best shinobi they can possibly be.)

(Iruka! Is! The! Best! Teacher! Ever! End of story!!! Great interpretation of all the characters and their capabilities and I am so so excited for the sequel that will undoubtedly come! XD)

Celestial Bodies by Oceanbreeze7

Sasuke looked at the fire, eyes glowing red as the mutated corrupted seal on his throat. "Amaterasu blessed me. I see things. Like you with two normal eyes and the Hokage. And Sakura with a seal on her forehead. And I run Chidori through Naruto's heart. I keep trying to kill him. Over and over. And that knuckleheaded idiot never gives up.”

(Don't you get it? I saw it. The moon will bleed, the nations will die. The world is going to end.)

Part 1 of Celestial Bodies and Anomalies

(I swear, this fic freaking elevated my expectations on Sasuke-centric fics in general holy hell. Also, read the fucking sequel after this cause EVERYTHING GOES NUTS AND THE PLOT GOES OFF AND I'M HERE FOR THIS SHIT. Fucking Uchihas man. Also, you wouldn't think this series is funny, but it is, and it's amazing.)

A step to the left (and right off the cliff) by weavingBlue

Team Seven starts off on a different foot and Sasuke's canonical journey to get stronger goes off the rails a bit. It all works out though. Probably.

(This fic went in a direction I didn't expect and it's GLORIOUS. SO FUNNY, I honestly was dying while I was reading this. Please give this a chance!!)

promises by BombsAreForBabies

It's her first kiss and Naruto's last. She promises him that she will bring Sasuke home. It's his dying wish, after all.

(Naruto bleeds out faster than the kyuubi can heal him.

Sakura learns that being a ninja is more than fancy jutsu and fun.

Sasuke does not know that he just killed his best friend and turned his most loyal comrade into his worst enemy.)

(Listen LISTEN I know this sounds depressing but the relationship developments and slow healing is EVERYTHING and I think it's absolutely worth it to read this. Sakura's characterization is so good and Kakashi makes me want to hug him. A lot.)

Fang Under Fang by Vroomian

"Are we sure he's really an Inuzuka?"

(The answer is no.)

Someone reborn as Inuzuka Kiba not only has to deal with bullshit ninja magic, but soulmates being A Thing.

(Really good self-insert fic and its platonic soulmates, not romantic! I am always here for a good Kiba-centric fic and I won't say who the soulmate is. It's unexpected but so, so good! Trust me!)

Haunt The Lonely by Tht0neGal666

(Series where Sakura can see ghosts and the Things she gets up to due to this ability. The fics are short but man, you can already see the shifting differences in Team 7's dynamics, it's great!)

Perception by Ellie_Enchanted

Naruto can sense auras, which throws everything off it's balance. Because really, with someone as open as Naruto running around and peering into the depths of people's souls, something is bound to change. In other words, sometimes all that's needed is a push. Also, Sasuke apparently glows.

(Naruto the empath changing the plot and making it Better and I am loving it!)

Crossfire by DejaVu22

Following the events of Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke never makes it to Orochimaru's hideout. Instead, he is waylaid by a one-eyed man named Tobi, a man possessing a Sharingan, a terrifying dual personality, a penchant for always being late, and a single-minded mission to stop the Akatsuki in their tracks. When Sasuke runs into Naruto again years later, he must ally with his old teammate in order to protect him from the Akatsuki, while keeping him out of the two man war Tobi and Sasuke have started against the dangerous organization.

(I honest to god can't stop cackling when I read this, the Sasuke & Obito dynamic is so freaking chaotic and Sasuke's characterization is the best thing I've ever read. This boi is a mEsS and I'm fucking rooting for him. He cares so much! There's secret identity shenanigans happening on sasuke's end and it's HILARIOUS! This is the duo I never thought I needed but here it is! *cackles insanely*)

[Diamond no Ace]

Echo in His Hands by SportRayne (rayningnight)

Ship: Miyuki/Sawamura

What does it mean, when you remember snapshots of your own future?

Is it your future at all, if you change it?

Would you even want to change it?

(Look I am WEAK for BAMF Eijun and time travel fics and Miyuki being a tanuki bastard, okay? Time travel fic where Eijun gets feelings of people he knew before in the future. Really good so far and am so excited over this fic!)

The path we walk by WindsOfTime

Ship: Miyuki/Sawamura

Eijun goggles at the magazine she just shoved into his hands. "W-Wakana!" "I know!" she says, beaming. "That's my soulmate!!" "I know!!" "My soulmate plays baseball!!"

(Became such an instant fave so fast it's unbelievable. I LOVE THESE IDIOTS SO MUCH! Best soulmate fic in this fandom, hands down!)

[One Piece]

switching places by fireflywitch

Zoro is 21 and wakes up in a desert they already saved, on a ship that they burned two years ago, and standing next to a man who is supposed to be dead. Except, that can’t be right, can it?

Zoro is 19 and wakes up on a ship that’s too big, next to a robot wearing a swimsuit, and he’s supposed to fight something called a Kaido. Also, he’s missing an eye, and no one’s even a little worried about it?

(or)

Time travel is a shitshow, and Zoro didn't sign up for this.

(FUCKING HILARIOUS ZORO IS THE BEST PERSON TO SEND BACK IN TIME CAUSE HE'D BE TERRIBLE YET FANTASTIC AT IT I CAN'T MAN FIEWNOPFEW)

No Time To Crank The Sun by VIKAN

He’s surrounded by strangers, but they’re all trying to convince him otherwise. Or, Zoro faces a mysterious and relentless challenge that he just can’t wrap his head around.

(This ripped my heart open, I cried reading this my god. Please read this, the pain is so worth it and Zoro and his relationship with his crew is so good here. This reminded me why I love the Straw Hats so much!)

[Fairy Tail]

to learn about a lucy (with a look into the future.) by るる凪 - nagi (arurun)

A watching the future fanfic.

It's currently X781, three years before canon. A group of Fairy Tail mages find themselves in a large building, with no known way out.

They sit down, and they watch the future.

(This is so much more fun than I thought it would be and I'm so happy I found this fic. This fic reignited my old love for this fandom and I hope it does for you too!)

[Harry Potter]

sunflowers by Marnie27

One day, a young girl sits on the edge of a well. On this day, she falls in. Then the next, she’s not even a ‘she’ anymore. He’s Peter Pettigrew — doomed to die at the hands of his (betrayed) friend’s son.

Peter is selfish, bitter and brash. He’s not some fairy tale hero, he doesn’t care if everyone around him dies, as long as he lives. The marauders are annoying and childish. Survival is his priority, and he can’t afford to face distractions.

This just makes the fact that soulmates are now apparently a thing all the more godawful.

(And then another day years later he falls into an entirely new impossibility, Remus Lupin in tow, right into the third book of Harry Potter. Smack bang on the other Peter Pettigrew’s grave).

It’s confusing and graceless, and entirely something that would happen to him of all people.

(Self-insert fic where a girl reincarnates into Peter Pettigrew! And there are soulmates! And it's angsty and hilarious and Peter is an Asshole (somewhat unintentionally lol). Always a fan of biased pov fics and characters slowly improving themselves and their mental health! Cause dying! Is! Traumatic! *smiley face* Please read!)

[Crossovers]

he's a killer queen, sunflower, guillotine by hoye

Fandoms: Fullmetal Alchemist, Harry Potter

He has to be the weirdest Hufflepuff Harry’s ever seen. Scratch that, he’s the weirdest Hufflepuff Hogwarts has ever seen.

(One thing everyone could agree on: NEVER call Edward Elric short.)

(This is peak Edward Elric and all the best things about him and I'm just having a Good Time. Friendships! Logical solutions! Marauder screentime! And so much More! *bright grin* It's a fun place here!)

#Fanfiction #AO3 #Fic Rec #Fic Rec List #Naruto #Diamond no Ace #One Piece #Fairy Tail #Harry Potter #Crossover #Fullmetal Alchemist

162 notes · View notes

leofiat-bunny · 3 years

Text

DSN Ep 2 Part 1

"Somebody like Leo doesn't bring a single maid" I'm living for the spoilt prince vibes. 🤣

Holy SHIT

He doesn't do things by halves does he 👀 That place is HUGE. There are 2 of you and you will be sharing a bed! 🤦‍♀️

And with a pool, because that's a bare minimum for any non-savage I guess 😒

Watching the opening this time. Seeing the friends celebrate the victory; Leo's friends being no more cool than Fiat's for once.

Ooh, I wonder if we'll meet Beam today?

HIGH SCHOOL FLASHBACKS! HIGH SCHOOL FLASHBACKS! We're really getting them! It only makes sense but also !!!

[End credits]

... rich people

Ooh "Czech & Slovak Republics" ok. I'll look at the rest another time. Although that law book had a very prominent place.

"The main house" So his family already owned it? That... is that better or worse? I'm torn. [Update: I think they didn't and this is a new place entirely]

But Leo's so happy

Ooh INTERESTING. I like this. His family moved abroad. That's different.

Okay, fond memories of his mother, except she's only temporarily out of the picture. Family drama. Good. (Well, of the options, this one is probably my favourite.)

Also, it's nice that they do communicate well with most things - I'd not forgotten, but wasn't sure if they would. That will probably give the silly lack of communication a longer shelf life?

Okay... that was a weird flashback to have if you weren't going to show us anything???

"He's getting weaker by depending on you" - the number of things going through Leo's mind :

he's not weak you 🤬

he'll always be able to depend on me

it's good he has someone he can depend on

"[I make] you feel happy?" Cute!

PROGRESS! We've upgraded from "safe trip home" to "can I hug you?" 👏🥳

SO CUTE!!! A POUTY BABY!!! WHO WANTS ALL THE HUGS!!! <Beats up chair./>

Yeah, hugs are more difficult if you try and think about them.

Okay, I'm actually quite enjoying the sound effects here. 😳🤷‍♀️

Maybe I'm just being easy. You know what? That's fine. If something simple and ridiculous makes you happy: EMBRACE IT!

🤣 And Fiat loses patience and we take another step. 2 armed hug!

Okay, I'd heard "consent is sexy". I hadn't heard it was this fucking CUTE! This thing needs a warning label!

Well they were trying to!

Stomach cramps - I found that one legit funny.

It's really interesting that the friends hadn't spent time together before. Ooh... if Anda and ... Beam's character haven't spent time together then this series can establish a friendship and then we can have a sequel series 😎

AHHH THAT'S what the photo was about. I see.

So, we're embracing the flashback. Good. There are quite a few Leo crying scenes. Flashbacks would explain them without bringing in unanticipated angst (Fiat's crying scenes can be either flashback or anticipated angst re photos and family)

Also, I'd been worried about that "set him up with someone else" line. So, you know, that was the BEST POSSIBLE explanation of it. 🎉

You're both idiots now. You just switched to a less toxic brand. 🤷‍♀️

I think they are hoping to make a spinoff, probably with the twins both finding their future husbands. I'm all for it. 2nd seasons tend to be... poorly handled but spinoffs with LeoFiat as a beta pairing would allow them stability AND screentime. 🤞

#leofiat #don't say no liveblog #don't say no ep 2

9 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Ducktales: New Gods On The Block! Review or THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES: COCKBLOCKER OUT OF MYTH!

We’re back, and i’m doing away with intros, for now, i’m trying to see if offering people a bit of the review makes them more receptive to reading it and now we’re nearing the end of this hellyear, and the trump presdency, i’m going into this one with a ton of energy, so let’s get quackin!

We open with the Scrooge and Kids on a quest to get a golden helmet he’s been after for years and has been one of his lifelong goals using a carefully crafted plan with all the kids skills needed. Okay i’ll admit that last part is unique to this show: given how interchangable the boys are outside of this continuity, I assume he’d just throw them at the monster like Pikmin as a distraction while Donald grabbed the helmet and just grow new ones in his vast venture bro style clone mine if they happen to die. Thankfully there’s no Child Death but there is Child Failure as the team comes back sad and defeated and doubting themselves.. Della having a confetti cannon ready to celebrate dosen’t help. Though it does bring me to the subject of Della being out of focus this season. It’s a mixed bag for me: On the one hand I do get it, as she was the main focus of last season, even more than Louie, and now we’ve gotten to know her, she can sit back and play more of a supporting role, especially since Donald , who himself was more of a supporting character the past two seasons, is now getting more screentime and Beakly’s getting fleshed out more. Their trying to balance a rather massive cast, so it’s natural the one whose already got a ton of focus at this point would take a back seat and all around the show’s done a far better job giving everyone screentime this season. Launchpad has been lacking of late but given a Darkwing Duck spinoff is probably in the cards, and he’s had tons of episodes at this point compared to Donald and Beakly, i’m understanding of it.

On the other.. there’s still a lot of stories to tell with her: We still haven’t had her deal with Scrooge basically erasing her for a decade at all nor Donald hiding her past from the kids.. he had reason and all, but he still made their mother a stranger to them. They had no stories, nothing to really go on for 10 years. That’s gotta have impacted both the kids and gotta hit della hard at some point that her father-uncle and brother both just kinda.. erased her to the kids. Plus we don’t know how she’s been adjusting to have a life OUTSIDE the kids especially since she’s been sitting out so many adventures, likely to let Scrooge have time with them and be a good daughter and mother and what not, but still there’s a LOT of ground to cover they simply haven’t yet. The Donald and Della plot we did get, while glorious, didn’t really add anything to either’s likely strained relationship and it’d be nice to give the two a subplot to work this out. Granted this might all be coming in the Castle McDuck Episode for all I know, but I can’t pin all my hopes and dreams on that one. And this all COULD’VE easily happened off screen.. but it’s something the audience really wants and needs. I’m not sure if we’re getting it and that worries me. But again theirs a large chunk of the season to answer this if this is the last one, and another season possible if it’s not, so i’m willing to wait for it. I’m just getting impatient is all.

That being said this episode makes up for the Della Deficet as she’s one of the main driving forces of this side of the episode. I’ll get into that more in a second but Della’s been on the rare misfire adventure and knows Scrooge’s stages of grief and that he’ll come out of it with a better plan. Unfortunately for the kids that plan dosen’t include them and Scrooge runs off to assemble a better team leaving the kids utterly devastated. One of the other main driving forces besides depressed children and the greek gods is scrooge being really bad with people, but i’ll get to that.

Point is the kids understandable emotional devastation and Della trying to mom for all of them at once because Launchpad had to get to his other job and is taking Beakly this weak to teach him and Drake how to raise a child, is interrupted by said Zeus ASSHAT RAPIST OUT OF MYTH! Along with Storkules COCKBLOCKER OUT OF MYTH and Selene, DELLA’S FIRST TIME WITH A WOMAN OUT OF MYTH! There here because Zeus has lost his powers, as the Gods all collectively decided he was a dick and voted him out of office.. er stripped him of his powers. Sorry an asshole, narcacistic, sociopathic racist getting removed from his position of power happening a few days after the election was called.. the timing just could not have been better. But yeah Zeus is out, roll credits. Join me after them and after the cut for the rest of the review.

So yeah the Gods are fed up with him, and Selene and Storkules are there to pick a worthy inheritor to his Laurel Wreath, his lighting bolts, and his collection of playboys he keeps alphabatized in his mancave.. also his mancave will also go to the winner. Storkules however, having a one track mind, notices Donald isn’t there and goes to find him. The kids are all eager to try but Selene is there for Della, which they all agree makes sense: I mean she has the disposition and sexual appitite of a green god but without all the rampant sex crimes and murder, and given most of them have clearly copped to the times except Zeus, that’s a plus. Plus she and Selene have already been together before so the fact they can smooch into infinity along with all the fun stuff is a nice bonus. It’s not like Storkules isn’t selecting his candiate soley with his 13 inch penis, so ther’es a precident. But Della, seeing the kids clearly need this more than she does, convinces her once and future girlfriend to let them try out. I really do wish we got more of the two this episode but what we get is great, and Selene reluctantly agrees after Della makes the valid point their STILL more mature than her dad. The fact Zeus punctuates this by getting into a “No you” contest with an 11-12 year old probably helped. As for where Donald is he’s preparing for a date with Daisy! Horay. I’ve been waiting for Daisy to come back since the last time she was here, and Donald has naturally been considerate: Setting up a bunch of hearts, flowers, some punch that is likely just box wine and sprite, he has a budget and throwing all his garbage in the pool with bricks because he’s still Donald. Romantic, a good dad.. but still a disaster of a person who dosen’t know quite how to live like an adult... which naturally I immensely relate to and hope i’m lucky enough one day to have a lady or fella to hide all my garbage from. I mean i’m probably dying alone, but that’s likely my old buddy crippling depression talking. Oh you old scamp.. please fuck off an die. But enough chilling looks into my psyche, point is Storkules barges in to ruin it, and eat his carefully made grilled cheese. As though Storkules may be incredible he’s also STORKULES, GOD OF NOT REALLY READING THE ROOM. Daisy comes in, and we find out it’s their second date.. and i’m assuming their first wasn’t that time they ended up in a direct to video sequel to Die Hard that’s still far better than Die Hard 5.. then again a colonoscopy is preferable to that movie so I Dunno. But she’s nice, friendly, if put off by the big sweaty man suddenly in their date. Storkules COCKBLOCKER OUT OF MYTH, does not help matters by, upon hearing that seeing how in love they are, and finding out it’s the second date assumes their getting married and hugs them in THE SWEATY ABS OF STORKULES. Do me next.

Back at the God Tests, god I love a job-ish thing that lets me say that, Louie is up first, and being Louie has thought up a plan that benifets him wether he wins or looses but one that has serious underlying issues he hasn’t thought of. Naturally it turns out to be a gold touch which, as with Midas, works out about as well as you’d expect.. with Dog Murder and mass murder to follow. Selene undoes it, So Louie gets nothing. And yeah this has been a major issue this season that while I talked about it back in “Let’s Get Dangerous” bares repeating: Louie feels like he learned NOTHING from the events of last season. He still likes, he still dosen’t think plans through, and he still cheats. In contrast Dewey DID grow from his season.. it’s subtle, he’s still the same loveable trainwreck and pre-teen Hank Venture he’s always been, but he no longer hides secrets or family stuff and is more of a team player. Still an egotsitical one, but it’s there. But Louie.. hasn’t changed at all. He’s still conviving, still thinks only in short term.. it’s only once or twice like with the Impossibin the events of last year really seem to have sunk in. It feels like the writer’s couldn’t figure out how to write a smarter Louie and just gave up. It’s really disheartning especially when most other character development, subtle and otherwise, sticks.

While Huey sweats over his turn and Della tries to encourage, we cut back to the date which is going okay, Daisy’s trying to roll with it but Storkules, TERRIBLE WINGMAN OUT OF MYTH really isn’t good at talking Donald up or letting them get to know one another. While things breifly get better when Daisy brings up her career and Donald talks it up like the loving soon to be boyfriend he is, Storkules FUCKUP OUT OF MYTH screws things up by saying, when she explains to him she hasn’t made any Toga’s because she works primarily in dresses that she can “work up to them eventually. “ As proof this is the best Daisy she dosen’t dump Donald immidetly despite none of this being his fault and him trying to explain he didn’t invite him, but instead just makes an angry, and understandably so , face and goes to powder her beak.. which is clearly code for “Scream Obscenities into Donald’s Mirror for the next ten minutes”. Which if it already wasn’t abundantly clear they were perfect for each other this would be the clincher. Donald wants Storkules to go and TRIES to tell him, but Storkules just assumes he wants him to make a big romantic gesture for them and goes to “let Cupid’s Arrow” strike her. Donald understandably wants conformation he doesn’t mean that literally. Spoiler alert: He does.

IT’s Huey’s turn next at playing god and he decides to be God of Intuition, gaining future sight so he can know everything and prevent tragedy. We instead get a damn funny scene where after adjusting to his powers he tries to prevent a breakup.. only to play both parts himself and cause it anyway. Just some great acting from Danny Pudi there. We get some more as Huey slowly melts down from the information, traumatizing a kid and nearly getting beat up with a guy who wants to “Beat up the freak for making everyone uncomfortable” which..

Yeah it’s not acceptable for what looks like a grown adult, or even a Teenager if that was an intent, to whale on a CHILD, let alone ANYONE for being “a Freak”. I mean yes Huey did screw up big, not mass murder bit but still.. but he’s still a fucking child. As someone who was prone to breakdowns at that age, and up to present day... I take this personally, especially since I see Huey as high functioning autsitic. So this hits home as i’ve had many people just tell me to get over it instead of trying to help. So yeah fuck this guy, take off that Gizmoduck shirt you do not deserve it. We fans do though, I hope that becomes real merch.

But yeah Huey failed and Zeus is gloating..mostly because in his already considerably warped brain, he thinks that if they all fail he dosen’t get it. Selene explains basic logic to him: If they fail to find a new god here, they’ll just keep looking. Zeus naturally has a tantrum as Scrooge enters, wondering why the kids care about god powers and Della, being a supportive mom, tries to get him to encourage them. He instead focuses on his team. Again, we’ll get to him trust me. Selene also calls her dad out on the fact he hasn’t done anything good since defeating the titans centuries ago. Naturally being THE GREATEST SHITHEAD IN ALL OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Zeus takes the exact wrong lesson from this and calls his brother Hades to whip up a titan for him to fight because that was her point and not that your an irredemible dick tip who their desperate to replace and who was dethroned because no one liked you, not even your horrible presumibly now ex wife. I mean unlike DC Comics Zeus he’s not planning a cou but only because he has no powers. Hades however is well aware his brother has no powers, as the gods have been talking about it and laughing about it because Zeus sucks eggs. Also Hades has a great goth look and personality here as well as muscular arms to hold my bi ass at night. A-Plus character design. I may also have a thing for goths and emos I never realized I had. Just an observation.

Back at the boat Donald and Daisy are enjoying drinks, which again has to be wine.. I mean again box wine, Donald needs a lot of booze after a hard days nearly getting murdered and Costco has great deals on it, but still booze. They cuddle a bit and it’s fucking adorable.. and Storkules WHO JUST KIDDNAPED HIS COUSIN CUPID AND STOLE HIS SHIT naturally ruins this moment by first trying to fire one date rape arrow at them, then takes donald’s rampant headshaking no as a sign to fire all of the arrows... with Daisy ending up in the water and unsettling the garbage. Granted Donald COULD’VE prevented this by explaning things to her.. but i’m betting he didn’t simply because he’s.. tired of this shit. He’s tired of adventure, tired of it intruding on his life and just hoped Storkules was gone and out of sight and didn’t have a chance to prepare for that till it was too late. NOW Daisy storms off.. but unlike say Cabs Daisy, whose a living nightmare, or Comic Daisy, whose not a great person but has her moments depending on the comic, she has VALID REASON. Donald lied to her about garbage and dind’t just take it out like a normal Duck, and didn’t just outright yell at his friend to leave on their date, a friend who just attacked her and already insulted her. IT’s understandable, especailly given a line coming up she’d WANT to leave and leave Donald behind. Donald however is naturally miserable and it finally gets through Storkules thick skull he messed up and he runs off to cry while Donald miserably floats among the garbage and my heart both relates to that nad breaks seeing it. I mean .. Daisy meant a lot to him: After years of presumibly avoiding dating, or if he did not doing so for long, to focus on the boys, after a year of putting their needs ahead of his and living with his demanding uncle, of being dragged out of a normal if miserable life and into a less miersable but adventerous one he didn’t want, of being stranded in space and on an island wondering if his kids would be okay.. he finally not only has time for himself, and his sister back after years of thinking her dead and thus someone else to take care of the kids needs for a while without feeling any guilt over it or worrying about them, but found someone special. She’s talented, beautiful, charming, and understanding. And most importanlty she LISTENS to him and throughly likes Donald for who he is. And he looses that only PARTLY due to his won incomptence but mostly because someone he already barely allows in his life came in and ruined it. Once again the adventure and everything took something from him and while not nearly as big as loosing his sister, it still fucking hurts to once again have one small bit of something just for himself, one bit of normalcy, one person who loves him for who he is now through and through.. and it’s seemingly gone. It’s why I like this relationship even if this part panes me: Donald can FINALLY be happy... finally have someone who genuinely cares about him. This also boils down Storkules character and why I don’t ship the two of them: He’s a good god, he’s brave, compasionate, carring, and generally wants the best for donald and does genuinely love him.. but he also dosen’t care really what DONALD wants half the time. He’s the embodiment of Donald’s biggest gripe with his life: No one listens to or repsects him or what he wants. Storkules wants Donald the adventurer, Donald the brave, Donald the undaunted, DONALD THE IDEALIZED VERSION THAT ONLY EXISTS IN HIS HEAD. He dosen’t really get Donald isn’t the same person, and even that person wasn’t into him. Not because he’s a man, like his sister Donald could easily be bi or pan.. but because he’s just SO MUCH and Donald’s family is already SO MUCH.. and that was BEFORE the kids and the launchpad. Donald has made peace with adventuring but it’s still clearly not his faviorite thing while for Storkules adventure and experince is his life. Storkules needs someone like him and Donald needs someone down to earth, someone who can HANDLE the amount of chaos that follows him and the famly, but someone whose .. normal. And Daisy is that. If you ship then fine fine, but I just don’t because they just don’t go together and both deserve a partner they can truly be a partner with, not someone they clearly don’t understand or someone they DREAD visiting. They both deserve better than that.

Back on the god plot, it’s Webby’s turn as she becomes Goddess of Friendship. And helps the mood at the pier by spreading sunshine.. and then deals with the pier’s greatest menace and my honorary uncle, because he’s really not much worse than some of my actual uncles...

GLOMGOLD, SCOURGE OF CHILDREN’S KIDDIE RIDES. Because of course a seemingly regular habit for Glomgold is hogging a children’s ride he somehow fits into. Of course it is. It’s cheap and he’s not the best human being but I love him anyway. Webby heats it up to scare him then tries to get the kids to hug before having a breakdown at everyone not being happy. This does fit with her personality.. I didn’t think so at first but thinking back her first response in any friendship crisis is to panic and overreact. Her reaction to her best friend telling her she may have to stop sleeping over with her and her sister/webby’s giflriend because of magic danger is an implied death threat. She’s getting BETTER with people, but she still dosen’t have the life experince to fully deal with it and naturally upon seeing things get worse and worse goes on a lighting filled rampage Selene thankfully stops and likely undoes. Though Glomgold is likely on the moon now. He’ll be fine.

Dewey is last and auditions.. but forgets the god part and fails which fits him perfectly and is a great bit. The kids have all washed out and are depressed about it. While Della is hopeful when talking to Selene, Selene gently explains to her girlfriend she shares with a space alien that the kids just aren’t ready and that maybe the power of a god just isn’t the thing you give to a kid for a self esteem boost. Della MEANS well here, she just wants her kids, Webby very much included, to feel good and get their self esteem back after Scrooge swallowed it whole. But Selene is right that this is just too much power, and given it nearly drove Huey insane and nearly made Louie and Webby murderers, she has a point. It’s a good thought, but Selene needs an actual replacement for her dad. Sadly though this breaks the kids further after this and they slink off and Selene gets she messed up.. while she was right to reject them, she missed WHY Della was trying so hard. However credit where it’s do unlike her brother, while she dosen’t try to fix her issue, it’s likely out of emotional maturity: she knows just saying nice things to the kids wouldn’t help them or would wring hollow and their mom is better for that. IT’s things like this that are going to make her a good step mom.. yeah i’m shiping Della with both her girlfriends at once. Just because I gave up on her and Launchpad dosen’t mean poly’s off the table, and frankly selene is strong enough to win Penumbra’s favor and Penumbra has the kind of pepper and violence a greek goddess likes in her women. They’d be cute all together. I likes it.

Less cute is ZEUS, SCHEMING BOWL OF ELEPHANT PISS OUT OF MYTH!, who realizes his greatest gift isn’t his powers: I’ts manipulating his children.

And since he found a sad STORKULES POOR SAD BOY OUT OF MYTH. , and hears his issue, with Storkules hilarious sitting in his poppa’s lap, he spins it into getting what he wants: Saying since he and his wife, and Storkules mother in this version apparently I dunno, fell in love with battle, summoning Chronos will do just that for Donsy. Granted for most people your dad’s tale about how he met your step mom who tried killiing you a bunch and who he’s cheated on dozens of times would raise a red flag, but STORKULES IS THICK AS A BRICK.. in both senses of the word and calls forth Chronus.

Daisy meanwhile is driving her car away, but is battling with herself. On one hand she doesn’t want to play mother to a guy who can’t dispose his trash or his weird friends. On the other she admits she can really be herself around Donald. We then get the most telling line though.. “You do not need to fall for another man who needs saving!”

That.. is clearly setup for the future. It MIGHT be Gladstone but it could be anyone. Hell it could be someone entirely new. She also could have a kid like we’ve all wanted. We could get a canon version of Juinor.. not named Donald Juinor because 1) He’s not donald’s son and 2) that name’s been forever tainted and we all know which living bottle of axe body spray to blame. I.. genuinely can’t wait to find out who this is and I expect we will before the season’s up and i’ts nice to see Tress, like last time, get to dig into some emotional complexity with the character instead of just yelling at Donald or talking about bows and stuff. Here she grapples with herself as she does love Donald but the past has burnt her a lot. But as a wise pansexual once said “ But I think it's important for us to remember that sometimes, sometimes it does work out. And even though everything inside us is telling us to protect ourselves, when you've got it, don't let it go. And I am telling you, that you have got it, if you want it. “ Love is hard, love is messy, maybe that among many other things is why i’m alone. But it’s worth it when you take the time.. and upon seeing a giant monster heading for Donald’s house, Daisy realizes he is worth it.. or that frustrated with him right now or not she dosen’t want him to die. Either way she’s a coming and i’m gathering hornets in a box in ancipation of finding out who hurt her so I can mail them to him. I popped an H on there so I know it has hornets.

Back at the mansion the mood is bleak as heelllllllllll with Louie ordering pizza minus the toppings and Della’s attempt to give the kids hot choclate just getting an ow from Webby. It does make sense: Scrooge and adventuring are their lives.. if he dosen’t need them.. how would they ever do it themselves? Plus their 11 and 13 and at that age kids are very fragile so having their mentor and grandpa reject them like this really hurts, not helped by Scrooge proudly announcing his new team and trying to awkwardly bounce not getting this is his fault, though Della is staring at him with a look that just screams.

But before Della can stab her Dunkle, we cut to a depressed donald who switches from one natural state, Depression, to another, fearing for his life, as Chronus arrives and Huey rightly wonders how he’s here. The kids all defer to Scrooge while Della continues to just be the best. Seriously for the entire episode her only throught is her kids, and their emotional well being and had this crisis not popped up she probably would’ve stabbed scrooge then yelled him out for hurting her babies. She’s graduated from trying to be a mom but having issues with it due to mentally still being in her 20′s, to genuinely being GREAT at the job. Good on her. Daisy is naturally horrified to arrive to find Donald being eaten while Storkules is overjoyed. I WOULD say his stupidity’s overplayed this episode.. but he’s never displayed good judgement before why start now? It fits his character and his joy turns to distress when Chronus eats donald.. and has a cage in his tummy. with glass walls. I dunno, it’s a cool design. Daisy is understandably pissed and yells at it for eating her boyfriend, which gets an adorable oh boy oh boy from donald> Again love is rough, but one jackass screwing with you does not equate to every man or woman or person you date being a jackass. Daisy has realized this. Storkules is overjoyed, but soon finds himself and his sister fihgting Chronus and honestly both are damn impressive doing so. Seriously when the justice ducks form.. give htem a call. I mean She has moon beams and he’s a greek god.. plus Drake and Launchpad could use a third.. I mean he fits better there and Drake is already dating one manchild, and is one to a smaller extent, another won’t hurt. Just consider it shippers.. or foursies with Morgana because as this episode shows Storkules is bi as he is mighty. he’s Bighty. But the god squad fails, and gets eaten and Zeus’ time to shine predictably ends with an “I’ve failed immediately”, to no one’s suprise.

Scrooge starts working on a plan as he and Della, naturally scale the colossus. We then get the scene that’s been boiling all episode: When Scrooge wonders where the kids are, Della calls him out pointing out they’ve been plauged with doubts about him replacing them.. because he literally was replacing them, and when Scrooge is earnestly suprised by that Della points out the obvious: Their children, as I said their fragile and as Della puts it, Scrooge puts a LOT of pressure on them, something she likely knows from experince. And this is what i’ve been leading up to and putting a pin in all episode: Scrooge himself. It’s something I thought of days ago but this episode hammers in heavily: Scrooge really dosen’t have a ton of personal social skills. Sure he can work a board room pitch, lead a team of adventuerers, and run a vast empire while never forgetting the human element, for a lack of a better term, he’s not lacking in empathy or the ablility to talk to people, but when it comes to reading them it’s just surface level. He’s genuinely been show to struggle with empathy, with feeling someone elses emotions or realizing them till they’ve already been hurt. He spent a good ten years desperatley trying to bring Della back, avoding his pain and guilt instead of talking to Donald and making amends with him. His relationship with Goldie took decades to get anywhere healthy as he just put his walls up and assumed she’d never change when, as we’ve seen now, she always could she just needed a push. And when confronted by the kids he lashed out and then pushed them away instead of mending the wounds he created. Even on a much smaller level, when Lena and Violet ended up along next week he’s utterly lost when Adventure isn’t on the menu and only picks up from being baffled by two normal ish (One’s a parnaomal expert the other is the paranormal) joining him once it’s clear at least one of them fits right in with his intrests. He can deal with people on a problem by problem basis, but he’s just not good at dealing with their emotional needs or opening up. It’s why this works so well: his oblviousness fits. To him and the way his brain works, the crown is just a problem to solve and he just needs diffrent tools to fix it, not realizing replacing the kids for a mission would bother them or they’d ever think they were replaceable. Until now I hadn’t seen much similarity to Huey but both.. are just not great with PEOPLE. They put them in boxes, try to solve problems that way.. it’s just their specific issues that way are diffrent. Scrooge can anticapte the unknown and how people he’s fighting act.. but can’t anticipate personal hurt and pain well because he bottles all his up. When checking off a problem.. i’ts just something he dosen’t consider and thus his biggest blindspot, the thing he has to overcome time and time again: How his family feels and how he can deal with it. Here however he deals admirably.. now he KNOWS there’s a problem, and in a genuine show of character development over the past three seasons, he apologizes fully, saying their the best team he could ask for, better than zeus and don’t need his powers and they can get the helm together. Instead of putting up walls.. he’s letting his in and showing humility, which given Scrooge’s ego.. is a tall order. But for those kids, for his strength, it’s no small feet. Of course said speech gets Him and Della eaten, but the kids, now reinegized, ahve time to plan, with Daisy further stalling by roaring at Chronus to stop. Because she’s fucking awesome and Storkules finally gets that. The kids however take the leaves and breifly retake their powers, Dewey’s is for dance naturally, and use them together to take down Chronus, freeing everyone else, defeating the titan and throwing him back into the pits. Donald and Daisy reunite and get a RELLY sweet moment, blushing and looking lovingly at one another, getting lava on each other, before kissing. STORKULES, DOSEN’T GET THEY DON’T WANT A THIRD PARTNER OF MYTH, of course interrupts and hugs them hostage for the remaider of the episode. I’m assuming Beakly , when she got home, pried htem out and explained them not wanting a third int heir relationship to him, and it’s a weak end to the plot as Storkules learned nothing and one of the weaker parts of this episode. The rest is stronger as the kids and Scrooge plan to make another run at the helmet and Selene wonders off to “use your shower” and then order pizza.. so she basically just asked Della out. And has used her shower before.

I mean again, she can have two partners. This episode alone has earned that and they seem like they’d mesh. Penny would just have to learn some lessons about sharing and godly vagina’s is all. Nothing wrong with that. And what about Zeus.. no one asked but he gets his wreath back only to fall in the pit, with Hades naturally laughing his ass off.. and likely also taking Zeus’ laurel back. So Zeus is trapped in hell with a goth mocking him. HORAY! HAPPY END. Final Thoughts; This was a pretty good one. It does have it’s weak spots: Storkules learned nothing, the kids stories endings were easy to see coming and there wasn’t enough Dellene. But really despite that. .it’s still a solid episode mostly because it’s REALLY damn funny. The comedic timing is just pitch perfect and while like most of the plots I could see the rhythm of the donsy plot, the reasons for it were all funny and fresh and the scene with Daisy in her car was a nice bit of character building/clear setup for the future. And showing off Della’s own character developement and history with scrooge, the latter without ever having to mention it, really brought the episode up, as did the guest cast’s game voice acting and timing. This episode is far from perfect, but it’s still a fun episode that felt needed despite not being tied into the main plot: Bringing back some old friends, and having an intresting story to tell. Plus we got more Donsy so there’s that. Overall while not the BEST episode of the series, it was a funny, enjoyable half hour of television and sometimes, that’s enough. If you liked this review follow me or more, and if there’s an episode of Ducktales from seasons 1 or 2 you’d like me to cover, you can comission it for 5 bucks, 5 bucks an episode, 5 dollars off your order when you comission more than one, via my personal messages. You can also follow me on patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet if you want. NEXT WEEK: FLASHBACK EPISODE! BABY DONALD AND DELLA! BRADFORD ORIGIN STORY! POSSIBLE HORTENSE AFTER SO LONG! MY BODY IS READY!

#ducktales #donald duck #daisy duck #donsy #delumbra #delene #della duck #selene #storkules #scrooge mcduck #dewey duck #huey duck #louie duck #hades #chronus #chronos #new gods on the block!#new gods on the block #ducktales spoilers

81 notes · View notes

dgcatanisiri · 3 years

Text

I’ve said before, the kindest I’ll be to TLJ is to say that it’s a decent first draft, but... It’s DISCONNECTED from TFA, the movie that IMMEDIATELY precedes it. No one brings up Starkiller - not even pointing out that Poe’s actions and reactions could easily be considered PTSD from the torture and trauma if they wanted to frame him as being in the wrong, no, he’s just written off as a hotheaded maverick who needs a lesson in humility from Holdo - Finn shakes off the coma in moments, Rey has no reason to give a bisected fuck about Kylo, yet immediately becomes infatuated with him, Luke left a map in TFA but wanted to just be left to die in TLJ... Nothing in this movie has any ties to the movie that came before. Which, honestly, just meant that, to conclude the story of the sequels, the one TFA started, TRoS basically had to downplay things left over from TLJ - hell, TRoS at least ACKNOWLEDGES events in TLJ, which is honestly a lot more than TLJ seems willing to do with TFA, despite, again, taking place almost immediately before it.

And then there’s the internal plot - the timeline is a convoluted mess (the Resistance is under an explicit sixteen hour ticking clock, yet Finn and Rose jaunt off to and back from Canto Bight - a disposable point in the plot ANYWAY, considering that Finn and Rose don’t even accomplish the goal they went there for - in the middle of a fuel crisis, AND Rey’s training is explicitly taking place over days if not weeks, but she manages to arrive in the nick of time, while still having real time Force communication with Kylo, who is with the ships chasing the Resistance). The First Order has the military might and strength of the Empire with no acknowledgment of the personnel loss that losing Starkiller - a weapon built out of a goddamn PLANET - must have been. Leia and Holdo both hold Poe losing people against the dreadnaught against him, when a) one man fighters have been established in this universe to be hyperdrive capable in all trilogies, so there was no reason to hold the fleet there, b) taking out the dreadnaught made tactical sense, given the firepower it had and the manpower on board - 200,000 crew! Combined with Starkiller, that should be a MAJOR blow to the FO, but, because this is TLJ, the FO just has infinite resources from no where, and c) the dreadnaught is the kind of target you’re SUPPOSED to use those bomber fighters for, if they couldn’t take going up against it, they should have been scrapped for parts ages ago.

Like... I’m sorry, but if you want to trashtalk Rise of Skywalker on the plot level, you have to start with the fact that TLJ left them with no real conclusion to be had - the Resistance is left with enough people to be carried in the beat up weed van that is the Millennium Falcon, while the First Order SHOULD have been reduced to maybe a cruiser’s worth of troops. Because they weren’t the Empire, built on the bones of the Republic that had stood for a thousand generations. They were a fringe group, pushed out to the margins of the galaxy, where they built in secret - which means that if they’d made a major production push of a fleet capable of taking on the New Republic, which DID get a lot of the resources of the Empire as it collapsed, SOMEBODY would have noticed it and done something. When TLJ closes, both sides are basically at a stalemate with neither of them capable of striking back. They just don’t have the manpower or the resources anymore. I’ve said for years, when TLJ, I do NOT feel a sense of hope for the future, like the previously downbeat endings in this franchise - AotC may have started the Clone Wars, but Anakin and Padme get a tender moment together, a respite in the storm. RotS has the Empire ascendant, but Luke and Leia are with loving families and the new hope is intact. ESB has Lando and Chewie heading off to find Han and Luke has been fitted with a new hand - they’re ready to keep going. TLJ just feels like both sides played out the fight to the inevitable conclusion of everyone being left with nothing but ash.

TLJ was F - L - A - W - E - D. And I’m not saying that TRoS is beyond reproach or anything - I’m pissed that they reduced Rose to basically nothing, Palpatine didn’t really need to be there, Finn deserved to do more than shout “Rey!” through most of his screentime, especially when they had the stormtrooper rebellion subplot to work with... But a lot of the plot level flaws of TRoS stem out of the way that TLJ left things. Not all, but it was NOT this groundbreaking thing that changed the game. I honestly end up with the feeling that it was just a first draft that, due to the ridiculously fast pace of pumping out this trilogy, went straight to filming with like no editorial oversight.

Which is a failure when we’re talking about movie two of a trilogy and movie eight of a saga. The whole trilogy fails to be a cohesive whole, in large part because for some ungodly reason, the plan had been to rotate writers for each part AND give those writers almost no time to weld their stories together. JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson, say what you will about them as storytellers or people, are both VERY different in their styles, and making the two try to mesh... doesn’t work. Lord knows what would have happened if Trevorrow’s ideas had made it out of the concept phase, but it wouldn’t have been better, just had more tonal clash, because, again, we have a different writer with a different style who sees different things out of the movie and the franchise.

The problems of the sequels are foundational. But the movies ALL have their own individual problems. You can shake off most of the problems in TFA by viewing it as set up... But then TLJ tosses aside a lot of what is being set up - TFA is clearly setting up a Finn-Rey dynamic, but, to fit the way that Rian Johnson’s already planning TLJ, Rey has to go off on her own. TFA has Finn wielding that lightsaber multiple times, so VERY clearly indicating he’s Force sensitive, to the point of being narratively framed as the counterpoint to Kylo, but they never interact again and TLJ reduces him to bumbling comic relief. TFA speaks of the Knights of Ren, presumably students from Luke’s academy who joined Kylo, but then they’re gone in TLJ and are functionally replaced with the Praetorian Guard. Snoke gets a lot of fanfare as being this hidden manipulator of Kylo from birth, then gets tossed out of the plot in TLJ with no explanation of his motivations.

Just... Look, I get that TRoS was a disappointment in a lot of ways, but it really was, for the most part... Honestly, all we were ever going to GET after TLJ. Because there wasn’t a continuation offered by TLJ, other than reusing the characters. TLJ was telling a story all its own, unconcerned with connecting with the rest of the series. It wasn’t a deconstruction with intent to reconstruct, in the way that KOTOR 2 was. It was demolition, taking a battering ram to the established foundation, trying to build something ELSE in its place.

#dg rants #anti tlj #the last jedi critical #i swear i want to let this go #but i see so many people praise tlj to high heaven #and it was just NOT that good #i rated it about high c/low b walking out of the theater #and as i saw all this 'best movie ever' stuff #i was just like... 'no i've seen better seen worse but seen better'#and when i take it in the overall whole of the star wars tapestry #it just REALLY stands out as being not even remotely WORTH this kind of hype #like i'll ride or die that the prequels are better as a unified whole #but i don't get why tlj is where people want to be ride or die for

38 notes · View notes

schibi12 · 4 years

Text

Childhood Commentary: Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

My favorite Disney Direct-to-Dvd sequel and the best one fight me!!! (ok no violence or hate please we are free to disagree).

But honestly i watched this movie till the DvD got scratched i loved this movie i remember watching the first one and later this one but sadly i haven’t seen this one in like 6 or 7 years so im about to change that and to see if it holds up so LET’S DO THIS!!!

Spoilers so read at your own risk!!

The animation in this movie is good better than some sequels i never saw a moment where the animation downgrades there is some scenes with cgi but in no moments does it look awkward or off, Like look at this image of the magical time vortex.

The plot like the title suggests has some time-travel elements and i am really picky about my movies that involved time-travel (i don’t like Back to the Future the timeline goes void in that movie) but surpisingly i like this movie i like how they handle the timeline their and i love how at the end they don’t fix the timeline that’s the new timeline i love it (Disney make it canon!!) but it’s a smart creative plot with some great callbacks and use of Chekhov’s gun.

I forgot how funny this movie is from the little stuff to the visual gags but honestly Drizella had the best comedic moments and was a big fat mood during the whole movie.

The songs in this movies are GRRRRREAT they are so good and memorable literally when they started singing i also started singing i know these song by heart all of them are amazing, Perfectly Perfect great introduction song, More Than a Dream spectacular “i want” song and At The Ball a fun catchy supporting characters song, point is the soundtrack of this movie is worth a listen.

The characters are classic and have so much personality and life, Cinderella of course she’s kind, corageous, intelligent and no in this movie she doesn't become a badass she’s always been one she survived so many years of emotional, verbal and psychological abuse and she’s always been an optimistic we just see in this movie her qualities surface in her actions and she how she won’t let her step family get away with her action but she is also forgiving which i admire, Cinderella is just a great role-model

Lady Tremaine i love how when she acquires the wand she doesn’t lose her posture (only at the end when she’s at her wit's end) she is poised, elegant, clever and cunning she is basically a good classic Telenovela villain (Catalina Creel if you know your Telenovelas), Drizella like i said before she was a great comedic relief and a mood, i like Anastasia’s character arc during this movie and you really feel her grow and get free from her mother’s control and you feel for during this movie and i absolutely love the comeuppance that Lady Tremaine and Drizella get. .

i love how they give more personality to the King instead of a cranky old man who wants grandchildren know hes a father who wants the best and happiness for his son oh and The Prince holy cow the Prince here he has personality he’s a romantic, athletic, he’s humorous and honestly Prince Charming is kinda crazy how can we forget this iconic moment.

Jaq and Gus i’ve always loved these two they’re so helpful and funny but i prefer their roles in this movie than the first one since i feel they’re scenes don’t take that much screentime but still they where fun in this movies and i love when they sing At The Ball.

All the voice actors were good Jennifer Hale did an amazing job as Cinderella, Susanne Blakeslee as Lady Tremaine did good, everyone did a great job.

Overall i still love this movie it still holds up actually before i wrote this i watched the movie like 3 times i just love it, it’s funny, creative, smart and the best i think it enter my top 20's of favorite Disney Movies it was super fun rewatching this movie

Lesson of the movie: Sometime dreaming for that dream is not enough sometimes you have to take action for that dream.

So thanks if you read my long review/commentary and i hope you like it!

See ya real soon!!!

P.s. dont watch Cinderella 2 that movie is hot garbage

#disney #disney movie #disney sequel #disney direct to dvd sequel #cinderella 3 #cinderella 3 a twist in time #cinderella #prince charming #childhood commentary #review

32 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

WandaVision Finale Ending Explained

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

After eight near-perfect episodes, the story of WandaVision has concluded with a finale installment that sticks the landing on all fronts, including multiple cinematic battles, several heartfelt goodbyes, and a long-overdue moment of agency for a heroine who has so often been denied a choice in her own future.

But while “The Series Finale” is a deeply satisfying coda to what is probably Marvel’s most emotionally satisfying outing to date, it leaves us with more than a few questions about where these characters go from here. Let’s break down what happened in the WandaVision finale, and what it might mean for the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Wanda Transforms Into the Scarlet Witch

Thanks to Agatha’s pronouncement last week, we already knew that Wanda was the legendary Scarlet Witch but in “The Series Finale” we see her fully embrace her chaos magic, right down to an amazing contemporary riff on her traditional comics costume. (That headpiece! The cape! We love to see it!)

There’s even a return of the mind control visions we saw her deploy to such great effect in Avengers: Age of Ultron. What can’t this Wanda do?

Granted, we still don’t know what all this power now means for her character in a larger sense, but to be fair, neither does she. Wanda’s abilities as displayed in this episode are fairly tremendous, as she uses witch runes to neutralize Agatha, wipes her mind, and brings down the Hex she’s built around Westview, freeing its residents.

In the episode’s post-credits scene, however, her abilities appear to have grown even further, as she’s able to take in a scenic lake view even as her astral self is also busy reading the Darkhold, right down to making its pages turn on their own.

This is a move we’ve seen Stephen Strange pull before, but according to Agatha, Wanda is even more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme. So….what else will she be able to do? That seems to be what she’s trying to find out.

Westview Returns to Normal (Sort of)

During her (quite frankly pretty badass) battle with Agatha, the older witch frees several Westview residents from Wanda’s mind control, forcing her to face what she’s done to the townspeople in her quest to build a perfect life. The simultaneously angry and desperate crowd of Westview residents – who look like nothing so much as a suburban take on a horde from The Walking Dead – confront Wanda and reveal a bit of what it must really like as a person who lives under the town’s spell.

The most harrowing victim is certainly town queen bee Dottie, who comes to herself long enough to beg Wanda to allow her to see her daughter, or perhaps write her into the larger storyline as one of the twins’ friends. But we also learn that Wanda has been projecting her grief and pain into Westview’s nightmares, forcing them to suffer right alongside her, rather than providing a peaceful, perfect escape.

What Happened to Agatha Harkness?

At least one resident of Westview won’t be returning to normal, however. After Wanda defeats Agatha by scattering witch runes around the Westview Hex to neutralize her magic, she uses her own power to wipe Agatha’s memories and essentially turn her into nosy neighbor Agnes, the WandaVision “role she chose,” for good.

Your mileage may vary on whether this is an acceptable ending for Agatha – a character who was, admittedly, often monstrous, even though she was right about the way that society is all too willing, even eager, to vilify powerful women out of fear (and often just because it can). On the plus side, since nothing lasts forever in the Marvel Universe and Agatha Harkness is a pretty powerful witch in her own right, there’s every chance this character will reappear down the road. After all, Agatha was Wanda’s mentor in the comics and she tells Wanda here that her magical expertise will be needed in the future.

We Said Goodbye to Wanda’s Kids (Or Did We?)

As products of the Hex, young Billy and Tommy Maximoff’s fates were always going to be tied to it, so in choosing to break the illusion, Wanda also accepts that she’ll have to say goodbye to her sons. In one of “The Series Finale’s” most heartbreaking scenes, she and Vision, knowing what’s coming, tuck the boys in for bed one last time, as the red glow of the shrinking boundary line edges closer to their house.

Wanda also thanks the boys for choosing her as a mother. Reader, I cried. Plus, this basically confirms that Billy and Tommy aren’t entirely constructs of Wanda’s imagination. They’ve come from somewhere, and possess something like souls. How that all happened is anyone’s guess – here’s your entry point for Mephisto, folks! – and it’s something future series can explore, but it’s certainly the way I’d prefer to read it.

But, since the last thing we hear on WandaVision is also the voices of Tommy and Billy shouting to their mother that something is wrong, it seems pretty likely we’ll see some version of these characters again. There’s precedent in the comics after all, and finding her lost boys is a pretty powerful narrative throughline to carry over to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

What Happened to White Vision?

Paul Bettany’s dreams of essentially working with himself are realized, as Vision and the White Vision come to blows in the skies of Westview. But despite the epic battle between the synthezoids – or, synthezoid and Mind Stone-fueled recreation of that same original, as the case may be – physical combat isn’t the most compelling, or even interesting part of their encounter.

Instead, it’s philosophy. Yes, you read that right. Upon realizing that the two are too evenly matched for either to emerge victorious, Vision decides to engage the White Vision in a thought experiment about their shared existence, and whether either of them is truly the man (robot?) they claim to be. The two end up in a sort of pseudo-philosopher’s debate about The Ship of Theseus, a thought experiment centered on issues of identity and meaning, and what makes a thing real.

This is surprisingly deep stuff for a Marvel property but the conversation contains tantalizing hints about what we could expect as we head into Phase 4 of the MCU. After all, it will likely contain stories full of magic, mutants, and transformation of all types; this is simply WandaVision giving us a metaphorical anchor to hang onto throughout. Well, that and providing a way to bring Vision – or some version of him – back for good, as Westview Vision restores White Vision’s memories and gives us all a reason to hope that he and Wanda will one day be reunited again.

Was the Vision in Westview Real?

Yes and no. The Vision that lived in Westview and shared a house with Wanda wasn’t physically the Vision we’d previously seen in the Avengers films. He was a flesh and blood construct, created by Wanda’s power, informed by her grief memories, and born from the piece of the Mind Stone that lives inside her. (This makes sense, given that the rise of Wanda’s magical abilities was connected to her initial exposure to the Mind Stone. As Agatha puts it, the Scarlet Witch is forged, not born, and for Wanda, that crucible was her time with Hydra and the Infinity Stone that served as a sort of cosmic gasoline on her sleeping abilities that might never have stirred otherwise.) This Vision represents Wanda’s hope and sadness, but mostly her love.

And, as a result, even Westview Vision doesn’t greet his oncoming demise with sadness, or even fear. Instead, he reasons, he and Wanda have been here before twice already, forced to say goodbye before their time. And since their relationship has survived before, there’s every reason to believe it will again, and they’ll find their way back to one another.

Monica’s Powers, the Skrulls, and Captain Marvel 2

Unfortunately, thanks to everything else going on in “The Series Finale,” Monica Rambeau doesn’t have a ton to do here. However, she does get a straight-up hero moment, where she throws herself in front of a bullet (or four) for Wanda’s kids and reveals a heretofore unseen ability to phase through objects and slow them down. She also frees the real Ralph Bohner, and happily helps send dirtbag SWORD director Tyler Hayward to prison.

Happily, however, despite her limited screentime in this episode, Monica’s MCU future looks bright. In the mid-credits scene, she’s approached by a Skrull disguised as a SWORD agent who takes her aside and reveals she was sent by a friend of her late mother, Maria’s. And that friend, who is most likely Nick Fury, would like to see Monica – in space.

We’d all basically assumed that Monica, who is Maria’s daughter and clearly has some as-yet-unprocessed resentment toward Carol Danvers, would be a significant player in the upcoming sequel Captain Marvel 2, but perhaps there’s an even broader future in store for her, as part of the SWORD-like organization Fury and the Skrull named Talos formed at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Who Was the Fake Pietro Maximoff?

Sadly, the character played by Evan Peters in WandaVision was not actually Wanda’s brother Pietro ported over from the FOX X-Men universe like we all hoped. So, yeah, unfortunately, that means mutants technically still do not exist in the MCU, and that’s a problem another movie or series will have to address.

While trapped in his self-described “man cave”, Monica discovers that the Fake Pietro is really just Ralph Bohner, the mysteriously absent husband Agnes was constantly complaining about throughout the season. Agatha kept him under her spell using an enchanted necklace, and when it was removed his real identity returns. Whether the fact that Agatha’s punishment to live as her Agnes identity involves being really married to Ralph is unclear but in Westview, anything is possible, I guess.

Wanda’s Future and Doctor Strange 2

Wanda has long been confirmed as a major player in the upcoming sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but we haven’t known how exactly she would fit into this story, having never exactly met Stephen Strange before. But since the WandaVision post-credits scene confirms that the new Scarlet Witch is determined to learn more about her powers, it seems that will change fairly quickly. The only question is, how?

Stephen Strange has served as a mentor to many magic users throughout Marvel Comics history and could certainly be someone that Wanda seeks out to help her access and control her new abilities. But, given that she’s also currently DIY-ing her knowledge of witch history with a magical item that is basically subtitled the “book of the damned” it’s also very possible that she and Strange will end up at odds over the Darkhold’s existence, her possession of it, or both. Plus, there’s that interesting wrinkle of her still hearing the voices of her construct children that shouldn’t still exist outside of Westview thing. Time to explore the multiverse, anyone?

The post WandaVision Finale Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3bl8T3d

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

6 notes · View notes

that-shamrock-vibe · 4 years

Text

Movie Review: Sonic the Hedgehog (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day the movie is first released in the U.K, so if you haven’t yet seen the movie do not read on until you have.

General Reaction:

It's difficult with today's movie going audience to predict how movies like Sonic are going to perform and be received. Especially when the ad campaign did absolutely no favours for this movie other than convince Paramount that Sonic needed a more truthful redesign than what they originally put out.

Here's the thing. Sonic the Hedgehog to me is trying to be 2020's Detective Pikachu capitalising on that nostalgia of a beloved classic franchise.

However, I do feel that the haters and internet trolls out there are not going to be able to get past the comparisons this movie draws to 2011's Hop, which was a live-action/CGI-hybrid movie starring James Marsden who becomes the companion of a somewhat overbearing CG creature.

But, I encourage all movie goers, including the haters, to go into this with an open mind...particularly if you have any history with Sonic because you will get some enjoyment and walk away afterwards feeling happy overall.

My personal history with Sonic is slightly less-so than I would like. I played the original 2 SEGA games countless times and did watch some episodes of the earlier animated shows.

Having said that, my main Sonic fandom actually comes from the mid-noughties series Sonic X, which I feel this movie could have adapted but alas. Also I played the Shadow the Hedgehog spinoff game and more recently Smash Bros where I actually won as Sonic recently.

Now this movie reminds me of those shows and games practically in no way. I mean there is that opening sequence where you see Sonic running around and looping like he does in the SEGA games, I do also feel like James Marsden's character could easily be an older version of Chris, the boy from Sonic X, but aside from that, the gold rings and Robotnik...there's not a lot for the Sonic fans to spot.

I can't say this is a perfect movie, because it really is not. There are a lot of super speed gags and some of them do stick but some just fall flat and at times feel repetitive.

The worst crime this movie commits in my opinion is stealing Quicksilver's gimmick of speed scenes. By which I mean there are not one but two occasions when time is slowed down to almost a halt and we see Sonic running around still. They even have songs specific for these scenes.

Also, because I'm not fully aware of every Sonic incarnation, I did not understand why Sonic is effectively The Flash with being able to generate lightning. I mean I understand the laws of physics of generating enough friction can create static but I have never known Sonic to have any electric attacks.

I did like how the static electricity was preserved in his quills when they fell off though. In animation and the games you don’t think about Sonic’s realistic hedgehog qualities such as having quills so it was a nice touch.

I am also aware that Sonic has turned Super Saigen before with the help of the Chaos Emeralds I believe, so the fact we see a similar transformation here is quite good to see for that reason.

In terms of story I do think this is a simple plot that has been done numerous times, Hop is definitely one example that comes to mind, but I feel it’s also a very accessible story for non-Sonic fans.

I don’t know if Longclaw the Owl is an original character or one from Sonic mythology but I did not really vest much interest in her. Baby Sonic I thought was cute, but I refuse to accept anyone saying he is cuter than Baby Yoda as no one is cuter than Baby Yoda.

On the subject of age, it was good to see them acknowledging Sonic’s age for a change as opposed to just presuming because up until now I did always think he was some sort of teenager but this confirms it. If Baby Sonic is around 5-9 years old then Sonic in present day is late teens which makes sense with his temperament.

The gold rings being used as teleportation devices, I don’t know if they’re meant to be in the games but loved their use here.

I enjoyed the use of technology in this movie and particularly Robotnik’s commentary on how technology is more reliable than people which ties into his ultimate fate of being stranded alone without another soul on the planet he is sent to which forces him further into insanity.

The fact Sonic’s story is about fitting into society while James Marsden’s character is about figuring out what’s right in front of him are great parallels and do balance each other out rather well.

Also where he ends up with effectively being part of a family as well as a town hero was a nice way to wrap things up.

However, that mid-credits scene showing the arrival of Sonic’s faithful protege Tails to the real world looking for his friend screams for a sequel, especially if this means that more of Sonic’s companions could be introduced in the future like Knuckles, Shadow or even Rouge the Bat.

Characters:

Dr. Robotnik:

I don’t want to say he is the best character because I feel all four of the main cast members do a great job, but my favourite definitely is Jim Carrey as Robotnik. This is Carrey back on form and there were so many great shades of back when he was at the top of his game in the 90s with work such as Ace Ventura, The Mask and The Grinch.

From his first scene he stole every scene he was in. You could tell that he was taking the role seriously while also having the time of his life with it and this is why, back in the day, he was on such high form.

He may not have been the overweight bald megalomaniac, at least with the latter two not until the end of the movie, but he was the evil genius and mad scientist and almost every line he delivered he nailed.

I think “rockonnaissance” is going to be the new “joygasm” for him but it worked for The Riddler and it works for Robotnik.

I’m also happy he was nicknamed Eggman in the movie by Sonic because of the shape of his drones, I thought it was fitting. I can’t wait for Sonic to see the new bald version.

Sonic:

Yes Sonic is second but I said it before, there were times when he was overbearing.

Ben Schwartz by the way does a fantastic job voicing the character, I know he voices Dewey in the new Ducktales series and also for some reason voices BB-8 in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, but this is my favourite role of his voice is so realistic for a wide-eyed and somewhat innocent “alien” hedgehog.

I enjoyed how when he first came to Earth he was this urban legend around Green Hills who spent those 10 years people watching and either making up nicknames for the citizens while also longing to fit in with them but knowing not to.

Also the movie’s comedy was never as vulgar as Ryan Reynolds or immature as Russell Brand. I think they had one fart joke in the movie but the rest was generic comedy movie material which was hit and miss in comedy.

It was quite touching also that he was so protective of Green Hills and the status quo so much so that when Tom said he was planning on leaving to move to San Francisco, he was so offended and I thought it was going to be that trope of “Oh now they’re going to separate only to discover they need each other later” but instead it was a few digs and then they got over it.

I am so happy they did redesign the character because the movie’s original look for him was horrendous and did make Cats look reasonable whereas this is more like the Sonic everyone knows and I did not realise he didn’t have his traditional running shoes until Jojo, the niece of Tika Sumpter’s character, replaced them for him.

I will keep saying I want a sequel just because I am interested to see where Sonic’s story takes him next, especially with Tails now on Earth and the potentiality that others could join.

The Wachowskis

Again I thought James Marsden and Tika Sumpter did very pleasant jobs. This is my favourite James Marsden performance to date. Up until now his roles have been either corny or simply bland for me but here, yes there were a couple of dodgy jokes and moments but overall I thought Tom was a very likeable character and at the very least a driven character.

His wife Maddie, first of all props to the movie writers for having a mixed-race couple front and centre in the movie. But also, Maddie, who is also an accomplished career woman alongside her accomplished career husband, did not weigh Tom down or the story down as simply being “just the wife”.

I also enjoyed Maddie’s sister and niece, Jojo is quite cute and for the little screentime that she has does well with it for a child her age. While Natasha Rothwell continues to grow in my estimations after her fabulous turn in Love, Simon as the very sassy teacher.

Others:

As for the rest of the cast, this was a great who’s who for spotting the great jobbing actors as Lee Majdoub, Neal McDonough, Michael Hogan and Adam Pally all have minor supporting roles that do not go unnoticed.

Meanwhile Colleen Villard (née O'Shaughnessey), who voices Tails in the video games as well as voicing Wasp in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series and Sora in the Digimon franchise, reprises her role as the anthropomorphic fox in an uncredited mid-credits scene. I am hoping she returns for the sequel because it is good to hear her acting again.

Recommendation:

I do see a future for this movie in terms of a franchise. I do not quite see it crossing over with Detective Pikachu as I know there were rumblings of some sort of Super Smash Bros. movie cinematic universe.

However, if the movie does warrant a sequel, and with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 64%, considering this seems to be a deciding factor for some cinema goers, I don’t see why not. I am hoping the future of this franchise does see the introductions of Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge and even Amy.

Potentially also spinning off from this franchise, there could be Donkey Kong, Mega Man and maybe even Mario to create that Super Smash Bros. universe.

Overall I rate the movie 8/10, it’s a great movie and definitely has some rewatchability to it.

Having said that I can see where some cinema snobs or even haters may come from as they inevitably target the movie but I encourage everyone not to be taken in by other people’s opinions, not even mine, make up your own minds and see it for yourself.

So that’s my review of Sonic the Hedgehog, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other posts.

70 notes · View notes

jcmoneydick · 3 years

Text

TharnType SS2 Season Finale and Final Thoughts

Thanya has done more work for TT’s relationship than Tharn ever could. I think Thanya has been learning how to deal with people from Type. Look at her face when Mr. Thiwat starts talking smack. It’s about time someone cracked that old man. Type must have never opened that chat in the first place; it’s been months since they kicked him out. And we love a self aware king. Type knows he’s a dick. It’s nice to see.

I could’ve done without Leo and Fiat. I figured their story was wrapped up enough. Pop off, I guess.

Type seems to mention this grandkid thing a lot. Like more than his dad. It’s refreshing to see Tharn respect Type’s decisions like this. He catches himself, realizes he’s putting himself first, and changes direction for Type. I really wish there was more of this attitude throughout the show. This is a scene that demonstrates how a couple who have been together for 7 years can communicate with little words. They are coexisting in this moment, understanding the other’s needs. You can tell that even though Tharn doesn’t understand this tradition, he is fully supporting Type. I wish this was shown more during the entirety of the show.

I also wish Type’s ordainment as a monk wasn’t just a part of an episode. There’s so many undertones in relationship changes during Type’s monkhood that should have been further elaborated. In my personal opinion. It seems that Tharn learned about himself during this month as well, and I really would’ve appreciated the acknowledgement of that. Imagine if episode 10 was episode 11 and episode 11 showed us Type’s dad learning about Tharn, and teaching Tharn. What if we were able to see Tharn and Mr. Thiwat’s relationship and respect for another grow. At the end of the day, Thanya only showed her face. Mr. Thiwat knows that Tharn is taking care of his son, no matter the racist or homophobic comments that he hides behind. I feel like this was a missed opportunity. (Lost in the film just for Leo and Fiat to have more screentime). This was also a missed opportunity to show international fans more of the beauty of this tradition. The architecture of the temple and the ceremony seem unique and fun and really family oriented, and it kinda felt glossed over. But THAT TIME SKIP/TRANSITION? OF THARN VISITING TYPE? CLEAN! That’s the best editing in the entire show. At me.

Doc and Champ also deserve a little more. Their ending seemed… slapped on. Question: Is Champ a himbo, an airhead, or blind? “Love clearly, makes you blind,” my ass. Their ending wouldn’t be like this if Khunpol took Type’s advice. *shrugs*

I hate the beanie. But I guess it works if Type’s insecure about being bald. When I saw the welcome home scene the first time, I noticed Type touched the butt and I thought it in the nemo voice; It was hilarious to me.

Tharn crying and saying his vows is so Tharn. His dreams are finally coming true and he can plan the cheesiest, most romantic, in your face, gushy, mushy wedding ever. I can’t wait. But I called it. I knew because of the pacing of ep 3, TT’s wedding wasn’t happening in the series. I’ll talk about that at the end.

I love how tight knit the Kiriguns are. I wish this was my family. Tharn’s teasing P’Thorn until the end. (I’ve seen boomsticks in the behind the scenes pics, why is the mic work so shoddy in the entire season?) Tharn did cry though. GIL USED THARN! That’s the funniest thing in the entire season. Tharn’s face reeled them in, disappointment led them to Gil.

P’Arm’s dress is prettier than Bella Swan’s was, and I’m jealous I didn’t do navy for my wedding!! (I guess crying runs in the Kiriguns blood, P’Thorn is up there looking like Tharn. That is a family of hopeless romantics.)

Why did Thanya catch the bouquet? It don’t sit right with me. Isn’t she like 15?

I COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT THIS WAS BEING NARRATED BY TYPE THIS WHOLE TIME. That being said, why he know so much of LeoFiat’s business? Wild.

Do I like this season? Not really.

So, if you were to watch season 2 with zero expectations, I would assume you would have an alright experience. The show is almost typical, fairly easy to follow (although long winded) and the chemistry and acting is top notch. There’s so many variables in the show that would have easily made an excellent show had other variables shown their worth. I had all the expectations. The show was marketed with a TT wedding, a little jealousy and a lot of spice. We didn’t get that. There are some that are fine with this and some that aren’t. I’ll tell you why I’m not cool with this season, or the future special episode.

The TharnType wedding that was advertised, implied, and marketed to happen this season is instead being turned into a cash grab. I understand that the last one was pay to watch as well, but let’s talk about the content of that special episode. Season one’s special episode has nothing in it that is impertinent to the marketed plot. It was simply TT lost in a dream of the first time Tharn met Type’s parents. I’m sure it wasn’t implied that Tharn would meet them anytime soon in the first season. Essentially, you do not need the first special episode to realize that Type’s dad is biased against Tharn. That is made clear by the first two or three episodes of TTSS2. Opposingly, TT’s wedding was promised in the promotions of the second season. Blatantly. It would be different if the proposal was alluded or implied. If the promotion posters didn’t feature TT’s names intertwined with rings. (Take Thonhon Chonlatee for example. An heir wasn’t included in the promotions or alluded to in the series, but what happened happened.) Some people are like “well, the book stopped at blank” not every show follows the book, and some of us haven’t been able to read the book. It hasn’t been officially translated, and some of us wanted to avoid big spoilers and watch it fresh eyed. To me, a special episode is not a continuation of a promise, it is extra content beyond the main plot of the season.

The reason I’m not cool with the season can be inferred from my posts. I wanted a grown relationship. I wanted a grown, healthy, communicative relationship indicative of seven years of mutual maturity. I was excited to watch Tharn and Type deal with obstacles like loving, mature adults, but the show proved juvenile and problematic to me. The title TharnType 2: 7 Years of Love, to me, implies trust, understanding and openness. Maybe even their love being a positive influence for relationships around them. Or like the love bug striking the people around them. I understand not every relationship is not like that irl, but I wanted that representation on film. Some parts of the show delivered this, but in general it fell flat.

The actors, in my opinion, are all very talented and outshine the script, editing, camera work… pretty much all the production. I really hope all the actors featured in season 2 are able to showcase their talents in another series soon.

My rating for season 2: 5/10; the acting’s good, the chemistry’s there, but the story is too long winded for me. There are many other shows this year that have done better. I think Still 2gether being such a good addition to 2gether, skewed my opinion of what a Thai sequel could be. Rather, I should have referred to Together with Me: the Next Chapter for sequel expectations. (I honestly think the Next Chapter was better.) All in all, there isn’t much setting it apart from other Thai dramas; there are plenty that match this that you can just watch something else. Would I rewatch season 2 as a stand alone? Prolly not. I might let it run after watching season 1 while I do my nails and I need background noise. It’s not the worst show I’ve seen this year, but it is far from the best.

I’m gonna catch up with Manner of Death now (I had to put it on the backburner because I couldn’t concentrate on Thonhon, TT AND MoD). I think I’m too late for a “who did it” chart, so I may post a” scene that I laughed at, but shouldn’t have” instead. I have a stupid easy to rouse sense of humor.

Maybe I’ll see you again for KinnPorche, or if you have any suggestions of shows I should watch let me know! (I just finished Cherry Magic, it was so sweet and fluffy.)

#tharntype #type thiwat #tharn kirigun #TharnType 2: 7 Years of Love

2 notes · View notes

swan2swan · 4 years

Text

It is with a heavy heart that I now declare the Sequel Trilogy non-canon.

I’ve done it before, and I’m doing it again: none of this counts. None of this matters.

Because what are we losing by cutting it out?

Finn’s character growth and mastery of his Jedi powers? Rey Palpatine? Straight Poe? Rose Tico’s character? Han and Leia’s good parenting? Leia’s fulfillment of her promise that no other planets would suffer Alderaan’s fate? Luke Skywalker’s green lightsaber? Bloodlines? (Fun Fact: Bloodlines by Claudia Gray is no longer canon because the movie retcons certain facets of Leia’s character! That’s right! The only competent piece of Sequel-Era writing was nullified by the movies!). A rare occurrence of an on-screen romance between a black male lead and a white female lead in a blockbuster film?

There’s nothing in the movies that’s lost if you sacrifice them. If you say “Okay, all I’m taking is George Lucas’s films because those tie into his original vision.” If you want, you can envision a world where Kelly Marie Tran played Kira, the young girl who finds Luke’s hiding place and learns the ways of the Jedi from him (yes, KMT is Vietnamese and Kira would probably be best as a space-Japanese character, but Kelly deserves SOMETHING). And I’m sure Daisy Ridley would take no offense, because I feel like Daisy Ridley is one of the people who is going to loathe the direction these films took the most, and I wish her the best in the future.

The actors deserved better, but they got their screentime and they got their paychecks, so I’m sure they’ll be fine if I say “I don’t view the sequels as canon and everything ended happily at the Ewok village.” It honestly allows for a richer, more fulfilling vision in the imagination: what happened next? Surely there were other wars, other beings, other people they found and fought. It’s a fairy tale from a galaxy far, far away, and as with many fairy tales, sometimes storytellers get it wrong.

Is it awful that it came to this? Yeah. But I think it’s how I’ve found peace. Like Beast Machines, Game of Thrones, and whatever else has happened in the DC movieverse outside of Aquaman and a few other bits, I’m just going to let my eyes pass over the merchandise and imagery in the aisle and understand that other people will watch it. Like the Yuzzhan Vong before them, the First Order and the Sith Armada of Planet-Destroying Star Destroyers all pass into the “well now you’re just stretching things out to keep selling stuff” void.

And I hope, wherever she is in the galaxy, Asajj Ventress is enjoying herself (it’s Dathomir, and she’s not, she’s very busy training Nightsisters, sometimes Ahsoka stops by with supplies and stories, one time Luke and Leia came there because The Force Told Them and Asajj took one look at them and said “Oh kriff no you look just like him” but she relented and let Leia stay and then she realized that Leia was the Anakin and that she’d made a huge mistake meanwhile Luke just chilled in space with a stowaway Nightsister child who wanted to see what space looked like and he let her push the buttons and read the charts and eventually wound up teaching her how to fly the ship, it was a tremendously fun adventure and maybe Leia got a kyber crystal for a lightsaber, who knows, it’s up to YOU).

#star wars #the rise of skywalker #it's like they did everything people hated from the legends verse #I'm starting a conspiracy theory that this is why the movie was so bad #just to nuke the fandom and make it so everyone goes and plays on their own #use your star wars toys #keep them #have FUN #canon doesn't matter because IT DOESN'T EXIST #I'm free

41 notes · View notes

joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 4 years

Text

Thoughts on Chikai no Finale

As the title implies, I just watched the brand new, released nearly a year ago, Hibike Euphonium movie - Chikai no Finale. And like, yeah.

I suppose I should start by saying that I was already feeling pretty cautious about the movie ever since all the trailers and promotional art made it very clear that a key plot point of the movie would be Kumiko’s relationship with Shuuchi, who I will henceforth call Shoe, which uh, really annoyed me, because the pair have so little chemistry, especially compared to what Kumiko has with Reina, and it just seems like all the characters and the narrative itself wanted to push Kumiko and Shoe together for the sake of having a straight couple.

Now as for how my fears were actualised in the movie proper, Kumiko and Shoe as a couple is, kind of a waste of time. The movie opens with Shoe confessing, and then what little time is spent on their relationship basically amounts to the same type of stuff we saw between them when they weren’t a couple. except Kumiko is a little more approachable. There’s like one scene between them that’s romantic and Kumiko breaks off from it anyway. Outside of that their relationship is just Reina and newcomer Kanade kinda talking to Kumiko about Shoe . It just didn’t feel like an element of the narrative that was developed well or needed to be juggled with everything else going on. And the movie seems to agree with me, because somewhere around the 1 hour mark, Kumiko just tells Shoe that she’s balancing a lot right now and doesn’t want to be doing this as well. It’s an anticlimactic end for an undercooked plot point that I never appreciated even conceptually in the first place. So that’s cool.

Kumiko does tell Shoe he can ask her out once they’re done with high school if she still wants to date him though, which I’m still opposed to unless their relationship can actually develop, though I gotta note that I think it’s weird that Kumiko returned the hairpin Shoe gave her as like a symbolic gesture, cause that thing was a birthday present so it shouldn’t really represent your romantic relationship, but whatever.

And yeah, newcomers. The third years have graduated, and new first years have arrived to take their place. We see Ririka from Liz and some others and stuff, but the actually important faces are Motomu, Mirei, Satsuki, and Kanade, all of whom are important because they joined bass.

Satsuki’s barely a character beyond being a cute face, knowing Mirei, getting along with Hazuki, and failing the auditions. But I liked her, again she’s cute, livens up the place and her chemistry with Hazuki is endearing in a different way from how Hazuki gets along with, say, Midori. She doesn’t have enough screentime to be distracting but they also clearly don’t want her to be super important, which I can respect since yeah they’re balancing a lot and not all of it needs to be drama. I do hope she can amount to more in whatever the sequel project looks like, but for now she’s fine.

Motomu’s slightly more of a character but it’s all very undercooked. He reacts real negatively to being called his surname and hates how he’s small and looks girly, but off screen he grew to admire Midori and befriended Shoe, and uh, yeah that’s literally it. When compared to Satsuki I think he’s a little bit worse because he gives off the impression of being edgy and a source of drama, but it kinda just, never amounts to anything and is tossed under the bus. The fact that he has drama and it didn’t matter made me feel like I barely actually knew who this guy is, whereas Satsuki I at least got an idea, even if she’s just sort of a trope. So I hope this kid can also amount to more in the future, but he’s not started with a strong impression.

Mirei is the newcomer we spend the second-most amount of time on, and she’s a bit of a weird one. She’s very punctual about how much time she spends or doesn’t spend at practice, which gives off the impression that she only wants to do the bare minimum, but actually she’s pretty good at her instrument and manages to pass auditions regardless. The real source of her character is that she’s also kinda edgy and hard to deal with, because she like, does want to be accepted by people, but she’s standoffish and struggles to deal with everyone. And her character arc sort of ends at the Sunrise Festival where Kumiko and Kanade are basically like “do your best and be friends with people” and then Mirei accepts the nickname she previously rejected, and is able to befriend Hazuki and the like because of that. She’s fine, she’s less endearing to me than Satsuki but she’s got more of an actual character arc than Mirei, and like with those two I do hope she can amount to even more in the future, since, even though, yeah, she has an arc, it does kinda just feel like more time wasted here that could’ve gone somewhere needing it more.

And saving the most important newcomer for last, we have Kanade. First of all, mega cute design and voice, the moment she appeared on screen and spoke I fell in love with her. But second of all, that love started to dwindle, and get confused, as the movie went on. Kanade as a whole is a very confusing character I’d say, compared to the other 3 she’s very involved with the plot and actually spurs development in other characters as much as herself. Her actions just through me off though, because our very first impression of her is just, someone that’s cute and maybe into music. But the moment we get to know her at all, she seems like kind of a shitter that’s difficult to deal with. She seems to intentionally agitate the other new first years just for the hell of it, and similarly eggs on Kumiko for, very little reason that I could tell. But then as the movie goes on it’s made clear that she takes year relationships very seriously, she’s super pissed off when Natsuki, a 3rd year, asks her for advice. And then where that goes is that she tries to fail her own audition so that Natsuki won’t be salty about a 1st year getting priority over a 3rd year, drawing parallels to the Reina and Kaori trumpet solo of the first season. I just really don’t get why Kanade’s so reluctant about making enemies and that’s her character flaw she needs to overcome, yet opens the movie up seemingly doing just that.

The other thing is that a lot of what Kanade says relates to past events, and since she got all the info off screen it’s like, what? She’s kinda just nudging you on the shoulder, being all “remember this?” and it’s pretty annoying. I also don’t really get the parallel she tries to draw between Kumiko and herself, to the point of describing their personalities as mirrors. Maybe it’s something that would’ve made more sense to me if Kanade got to actually develop more and our understanding of her improved, after all this culmination of her arc happens a little after an hour in whereas we’ve had 2 seasons to get to know Kumiko by this point. Who knows. Once again though I hope we get to know Kanade a little bit better in the sequel project.

So to kinda just address the elephant in the room that I’ve been hinting at for a while now, yeah nah this movie is not well paced. We really do just rush through Kumiko’s entire 2nd year of high school in under 2 hours, compared to the 2 seasons we had for her 1st year. And in these less than 2 hours, we have the obvious plot progression towards nationals to worry about, so the start of the band at the new school year, practice, Sunrise Festival, practice, auditions, practice, and national prelims. But then there’s also the aforementioned new first years that have to be characters and do stuff. And there’s Kumiko and Shoe’s relationship as well that we’ve gotta balance. And just to keep going, the now 3rd years that we know and love have got to still be characters as well, and in fact, that one girl that was in Team Monaka who parts her hair with the love heart things, Tomoe Kabe, she actually gets to be a character too. And then all of this is juggled with this theme of the future, Kumiko contemplating what she wants to do as Shoe, her dad, and Reina ask about it. The movie wants to do a lot. And it just doesn’t really have the time for most of it to breathe, so near enough every conflict, hell even the smaller moments, it all just feels undercooked. Simply put, story should’ve just been told in a longer format, that’s all.

About those 3rd years and existing characters though, they actually are done pretty solid - Kabe grows to be much more than I ever thought she’d amount to, and while her dropping out of the band to just be a manager is something where the impact isn’t really felt because we don’t know her that well and it happens pretty late into the movie, it’s something very different for a character in this franchise to do and I appreciate that it addresses the subject matter of people losing the ability to play instruments from inflammations and shit. It’s cool.

Nozomi and Mizore are pretty much speechless the whole movie, but that’s honestly perfectly cool with me, we already had Liz and the Blue Bird for them to shine, this movie doesn’t need to give them more focus, on that note btw it should probably go without saying but Liz is essential viewing if you wanna watch this, and I would say watch it first as well, cause they do perform Liz in this movie and I can’t imagine it would have close to the same impact did I not know the story behind that.

Natsuki and Yuko are also really great, the former especially has a lot of great development in this movie and it’s great seeing her let those emotions run out towards Kanade, fucking champ. We also get to see the retired 3rd years, Asuka, Kaori and Haruka, none of whom we spend a lot of time on because they’re really not important to the narrative anymore but that’s kinda how it should be, it’s basically a cameo and it’s one I’m completely okay with.

As for the now-second years, Hazuki and Midori don’t really amount to much, which has kind of always been the case, but Reina gets a good amount of screentime, so that’s cool. Vows to be a professional musician and shit, I wish her luck. She also gives Shoe shit for having chemistry with a first year girl, something I forgot to mention earlier but is another plot point that’s unnecessary, although again so little time is wasted on it that I didn’t really care.

That’s more or less every narrative thing I want to talk about right now, so to state the obvious for a second, movie looks and sounds amazing. One thing I really appreciated about the aesthetic in particular is that we saw more shots at different times of day than the show’s usual golden hours thing, and there were a lot more miscellaneous angles of locations we are familiar with, just now we’re seeing them from a new perspective. I don’t think that thematically means anything, really just a different type of prettiness for the hell of it, but I’ll take it. Music’s amazing, voice acting’s really solid, the newcomers give strong performances, etc. Kumiko didn’t really have any big emotional outbursts at any point like in the first 2 seasons, so Tomoyo Kurosawa didn’t really get to flex as hard, but I don’t mind, she still sounds great and I think it shows some growth from Kumiko, gives this movie more of its own identity too so that’s cool.

Having said all that, the score that I gave this on MAL right now is 7/10. I do think it’s overall a positive experience despite the number of problems plaguing it. But let it be noted that Hibike’s one of my favourite anime series and I will inevitably revisit this movie, so all this stuff is subject to change. After all I wrote this post immediately after seeing the movie and having not looked into what anyone else thinks about it, so hey I’ve still got the opportunity to learn something new.

One last thing I want to touch upon is those themes of the future that I mentioned earlier. Lots of people in this movie ask Kumiko what she wants to do, and in a post-credits scene, it’s revealed to us that Kumiko has become the president of the club. Now I don’t think this is something that needed to happen for her character, and in some ways I find it a little weird since in-universe it elevates Kumiko to a position of importance that she didn’t really have, and the only real reason for it to happen is that we need someone who’s now a 3rd year to be president, and we’ve only got like 5 named characters to choose from. But still, I think this could be interesting, it’s an avenue for development we’ve not seen for Kumiko and I can understand her wanting it, become more like her cool senpai Asuka and discover more about herself in the process. So actually I am in favour of it, and I really hope that whatever format the story of her 3rd year is told in, it’s told as a TV anime or movie series (series, not a singular movie) because good god that idea could be so great that it needs to breathe. And then I do actually want Hibike to continue into Kumiko’s adult life but that’s neither here nor there so.

And yeah, end of post.

#Hibike Euphonium #josh reviews #1.3.20

13 notes · View notes