#Shame hes in a long form series where no character development sticks

[bronx-bomber87]

I have decided to rewatch the entire series over the hiatus with reviews. Whether anyone reads these will come with time haha but either way I’m doing it cause I think it’ll be fun with having s5 done and going back I’ll see things with totally different POV. Will credit all gifs I use to their original owners at the end of my reviews. All the gif makers in this fandom are the real MVPs ❤️ These reviews will mainly center around Chenford and development of Tim and Lucy through out the series , but I will throw in bits about the show as a whole too. Because I do love it as a whole as well. These may be long cause I have a lot to say haha anyway whoever sticks around and reads it I love you haha feel free to comment on these posts as well. Would love that. Alright here we go. Let us start where it all began the Pilot.

Some backstory like to add here for me. I’ve been with this show since it got green lit by ABC. I was a huge Nathan Fillion fan and wanted to follow him to his next show. Also I loved Eric from my teenage years. So my sisters were obsessed with Days of Our lives as teens. I had no interest in it till Eric entered the arena. I thought he was (and still is BTW) one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen. I was very interested in watching DOOL after that LOL if you didn’t know that tid bit about him before now you know. His name was Rex and he was shirtless quite a lot and had my rapt attention as a 14 year old girl. Lmao

Anyways Nathan and Eric were the reasons I started this show. I was excited Nathan had a new show and Eric was a bonus for me. I was so excited I remember watching the pilot on my phone during my lunch in the pool room of my job at the time. The pilot had me captivated and I knew this was going to be a great show.

First off like to start with I miss Nathan with some meat on his bones. I know he has to be in wicked good shape for this role. I just miss his ‘Castle’ form from s1.

Second like to talk about my girl Lucy Chen. Her characters entrance into the show is my fav of the pilot. Lucy has such BAMF intro. The ‘hot shot’ right off the bat. I will always love her opening appearance. That confident bad ass is what Tim sees in her day one. Why he’s so damn hard on her. She just doesn’t see that in herself it just yet. But hell of a start for her.

Then we have our first glimpse into Chenford. To that lightning in a bottle chemistry. Doing that thing Eric and Melissa do so damn well. Their silent communication with just their eyes and expressions. Saw this look between them and I was a goner.

‘Officer Bradford gets our hot shot ‘ He most definitely did in more ways than one. Has no idea how his entire world is about to shift with her in his life. I think he was very impressed with her. Thought she was a ‘hotshot’ because of the arrest that morning. But he couldn’t let her know or see that. Especially not on her first day with him and at this point in time ever.

Ah Tim s1- so very guarded his walls so high the Great Wall of China is put to shame. To me s1 Tim is a man in pain and its exuding out of him with every action he makes. He has no emotional support or outlet and it shows. It’s why Lucy entering his life was the best thing for him. Shook him out of his walking pain/anger. We get to see the first glimpse of the ‘Tim Tests’ Lucy is to endure.

She’s not even two seconds into her time with him before this occurs. He’s grilling her already. So hard on her right out the gate. Because he saw something in her. He was testing her in the harshest way. Being so hard because he was hurting not that a first time viewer would know that. Re-watching s1 Tim the man truly is hurting and lashing out with everything he does. He so damn gruff , angry and guarded, that he comes off like a tool cause well he was at this point.

You aren’t supposed to like him right now IMO. You only see him as this insensitive jerk. You have no more information at this point than this current impression . When you know his whole story rewatching him like this. All I see is a radioactively angry and hurt man. You’re not supposed to like him right here and now. He’s coming off as unreasonable grump of a man. Especially so when Lucy fails his first Tim Test. Which leads us to the gas station scene.

The ‘punishment’ he gives her just another test. To him it’s his way of proving to himself he’s right about her. He already knows she can take care of herself. He wanted to see it in action and Lucy delivers in spades. The pride is written all over his handsome face when she wins her fight. Then Isabel shows up…

Eric KILLS me in this scene. The way his eyes tear up. His whole body is trembling. You can hear his bated breath as he speaks to her. He goes from gruff T.O. to concerned husband in a flash. We get our first look into him as a character. That he’s more than just this hard ass T.O giving Lucy a hard time. That there is something going on behind the scenes for him and it’s deep.

I applaud Eric for this scene we get to see him become human and vulnerable for the first time. Not only that but be those things around Lucy for the first time. She’s already soft for him when she gets the glimpse into him as a person. Says she promises she won’t tell anyone. He quickly resolves it with his sharp reply to her saying ‘ Damn right you won’t’. He’s mad at himself for letting Lucy see even a glimmer of vulnerability. Can’t show her one damn crack in his rough T.O. exterior. (yet…). Pilot does such a good job setting up their dynamic, of everyone’s really but theirs is my focus of course in these reviews.

Lucy probably thinks he’s out to make her life hell. When really he’s seeing potential in her. As seen in the previous scene at the gas station. He’s hurting so naturally he’s going to throw himself into work. Not let Lucy waste this potential he sees in her. Because work and training her is something he can absolutely control unlike the situation with Isabel. We get to see Lucy apply one her lessons in their next scene together.

Tim kicking her out of the car earlier (Which at the time I’m sure she loathed )him doing so save ultimately ends up saving his life. When he gets shot and she’s able to relay where they are and get him to safety. Also how she defends them both until backup arrives. Reinforcing what he sees in her in the first place. She protects herself and Tim like a pro.

Some side notes I’ll probably make each ep. Probably non Chenford related. I always forget how much I loved Captain Zoe Anderson- she was only in the show for a short time but made a massive impact. She was such a fierce leader putting Grey in his place and her POV on Nolan.

Also Lucy being with Nolan in beginning. Even when first started watching. I was like nope. Don’t like this. They just didn’t work. I hate it every time I re-watch it I hate it LOL but it does show her pattern of things before Tim. Such as taking on relationships she knows will never work out. I.e. Nolan. Because she isn’t ready for such commitment or projects like Chris. Well that’s all she wrote for the pilot. Was fun to write this up. Will continue to do so through out the hiatus. 😊

Gif credit to tim-lucy

Burning Blake

The rookie central

Hamburger heroes

Chenford source

Thesweetnessandthesarcasm

rookielucychen

[mk-wizard]

Big Hero 6 The Series: It could have been better

Hello, friends. Today, I will be analyzing a TV series based on a movie that I fell in love with for its colourful themes, deep plot, compelling characters, great CGI and memorable messages. Before I get into it, I want to take a moment to say that I have quit doing videos. They are too big of a pain in the petunia to make and I write better than I speak, so I will stick to writing essays, reviews and more. Anyway, onto the analysis.

All I can say about Big Hero 6 the series is that it had a great concept, it presented some great ideas and tried hard to be a cartoon of the times, but it could have and should have been a lot better. The show’s downfall all centers around trying too hard to be kid friendly which makes the shame sting all the more because Big Hero 6 was already kid friendly even with its dark themes, sharp edges and intelligent writing. If anything, even the brightest kid friendly cartoons (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc.) had those things and actually benefitted from them. By needlessly trying too hard, character development got scrapped, the edges were all smoothed out, storytelling was subpar, the humour was too silly and the executive meddling in the end produced a dismal final season. However, I don’t want this analysis to be one lengthy negative rant about how awful the series was because in its defense, awful is an unfair word. It did have potential and ideas which are worth carrying over to a reboot that I hope will be done someday in the future. Also, we should root for a reboot because Big Hero 6 would not be the first story that needs it before striking gold. Just look at how many times Spider-Man was rebooted in film before MCU found the version that worked. Anyway, I will list all the things in Big Hero 6 that could have been better in my opinion;

1- Go easy on the laughs and be more generous with the action. - I love adding comedy to my own writing because I think a good sense of humour makes everything better, but Big Hero 6 is not a stand up comedy routine. It is a superhero story where we expect action, suspense and life or death situations that are to be taken seriously first. The comedy should be for relief and with the right timing. Also, the chibi cutscenes and having characters act like fools aren’t funny. Ren and Stimpy are the exception not the standard and their way of making you laugh doesn’t fit an action series. In a show as big as Big Hero 6, real life physics and danger matters.

2- Make the villains menacing and gritty. - I admit that after having a movie villain like Yokai who was the stuff of nightmares, it is going to be a challenging act to follow, but it was obvious that the writers were trying especially with some villains who could have easily gone into some dark relatable territory. For example, Mr. Sparkles (the gentleman in the photo above) embodies social media and Internet personalities. Right off the bat, you have a long list of things which embody the dark side of that like scams, fraud, using social media to dox or harass, driving people to suicide, online predators, the Internet personalities being very depressed people in real life, and much more horrifying things. When you stop and look at it, Mr. Sparkles even looks like the Joker which hints how dark and scary he could have been if the stops were removed. The same goes for enemies like Hardlight who embodies online gaming, Liv with cloning, Obake an amoral and insane scientist, and Trina and Noodle Burger Boy (more on him later) being evil robots. Globby especially should have been painted and written in much darker colours rather being played off for laughs because he has many parallels with Clay Face. The only two villains who I can say were supposed to be campy, charming and comical were Baron Von Steamer and Supersonic Sue because they were a satire of the Adam West style villains.

The rest of them needed to be dark and threatening including Mr. Sparkles. In fact, I would love a rebooted version of Mr. Sparkles who gives me the heebie-jeebies. Going back to Noodle Burger Boy, I must confess that I was actually excited when I heard that he was going to be the main villain of the final season because I thought he was going to fulfill his master’s final wish and as a reminder, Noodle Burger Boy was based on a super robot for military purposes.

It would have been fantastic if Noodle Burger Boy was upgraded into a full military war machine with a new threatening look. For that, I think all of the villains deserve to be rebooted and have their full potential unlocked for better or for worse.

3- A show about geniuses merits genius level art quality. - I am usually forgiving towards art styles, but in the case of Big Hero 6, the oversimplified style with minimal details and lack of textures did not suit the show. The characters blend in with the background which makes them look flat and the special effects were extremely dulled down. I also know for a fact that Disney can do a lot better than this because I saw how superbly Tangled the Series was drawn.

You can see and almost feel the difference in quality, the number of layers and level of detail between the two styles. I think there was no excuse Big Hero 6 was not done in the same style and at the same level if not better as Tangled.

3- Don’t dumb down or flanderize amazing characters. - I absolutely detest it when characters are flanderized because it makes them one dimensional and grating. For example, Go Go is tough as nails and extremely calm, but she is not cold or hesitant towards helping her friends. She doesn’t require very special episodes for us to know that. If anything, the movie version of Go Go reminded me a lot of Garnet in how she deconstructed the broody character. She isn’t cold or emotionless. Just calm and mature. Another good example was how Honey Lemon was rewritten to be overly positive to the point of toxicity, naïve and oblivious with a juvenile obsession with stickers. Then you have poor Fred who was rewritten to be an incompetent fool. The spark that makes Big Hero 6 shine is that they are a team of geniuses meaning they are all intelligent. Even Fred is genius in his own way just not a scientific one. He has a vivid imagination, he is resourceful and can get himself out of tight spots. Please, don’t turn characters into dummies especially if their intelligence is a part of them. It doesn’t make them better or funnier. It ruins them.

4- Tadashi needs closure and honour. - I am all for Hiro making peace with the loss of his brother, but Tadashi is to the Big Hero 6 team what Uncle Ben was to Spider-Man. His loss was the catalyst if not the reason. He should never be forgotten. Moreover, there was never any true closure to him especially with the possibility that he may still be alive up in the air. After all, like Callaghan, his body was never found and it turned out that Callaghan was still alive.

With that said, who is to say that Tadashi was not secretly still alive and just hiding or being hidden? This is something that Disney really needed to clear up if not for the fans, then at least as a service to such an important character. Never just forget about them.

5- The format can only be episodic with a deep plots, continuity and character development. - Random episodes with a mere monster of the day is an outdated format which doesn’t fit Big Hero 6′s modern and bright setting. In seasons 1 and 2, when the episodes were plot heavy with character development, the series shined brightest. It also helped move the story along, but with the final season, plot was removed, closure was abandoned or poorly written if any was given, and characters were disallowed from growing. A good example at how plot and character development could have made this series and its characters better was the relationship between Hiro and Megan. Would it have truly survived or would they have broken up?

Would Richardson Mole have eventually lost interest in his obsession with besting and bullying Fred or would his obsession consume him compelling him to become a super villain? I do see quite a few similarities between Mole and Reverse Flash.

Then you have Karmi who is in my opinion, the biggest wild card of the bunch. She was intentionally introduced as an arrogant, prickly and unlikable yet complex character who rivaled Hiro bitterly.

Yet had a huge crush on his alter ego and as time went on, started to grow up and even form a friendship with Hiro. What would have happened further down the road with her? Would she have become a super hero herself? Or maybe even another love interest for Hiro kind of like how Black Cat is for Spider-Man?

Is Obake really gone?

What does the future hold Diana (Liv’s clone), Liv herself or the Sycorax the genetics company?

Is Alistair Krei going to become an ally to Big Hero 6 or an antagonist? There is also the issue at how little we know about the other Big Hero 6 characters other than Fred, Hiro and Baymax. What are Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Go Go’s backstories? These questions matter and while not every mystery can be solved, leaving none of them solved is lazy writing.

6- Executives, kindly stay out of the writing and any other part of the creative process. - I’m sorry, execs, but there is no nice way to say it. History itself proves that every time executives got involved in the creative process of any media, it got worse not better. Leave the writing to the creative team and the execs should only handle the legal stuff. Please. We understand that TV is a business, but writing itself is not. It is an art which you just don’t have a talent for. Let the creative people do their thing with the freedom necessary and you do your thing, deal? Deal.

7- Focus on Hiro and Baymax. - The are the main characters so keep them at the heart of the series no matter what happens around them. That is all I can say.

And that sums up all the things that could have made Big Hero 6 the series better, but this is all just my opinion. What is yours?

PS: I am well aware that the Big Hero 6 series is being retconned because a new series called Baymax is in the works as well as the long awaited sequel to the first movie. I am looking forward to both with an open mind. PPS: I also am aware that some people liked this show the way it was including the art style and I am cool with that. An analysis for art that includes cartoons is never right or wrong. It is solely based on opinion. I may have thought this series could have been better, but there are people who make arguments that it could have been worse.

[fictionadventurer]

Thoughts on Edwardian literature (as opposed to Victorian)?

To keep things as simple as possible, I’m defining Edwardian fiction as anything published between 1900 and 1914, no matter which country it was published in.

The Edwardian fiction I’ve read seems to be a lot lighter than the Victorian fiction. Maybe it’s easier for the lighter works to stick around since not as much time has passed? Or maybe it’s just that the age of pay-by-the-word epics had passed? (Is this the point where cheap paperbacks started to be a thing? That could account for the rise in short, fluffy literature, unless my just-making-this-up-off-the-top-of-my-head method of historical inquiry turns out to (somehow) be faulty).

First association with this era’s always Chesterton. My love of him is no secret, and a lot of my favorites of his works come from this pre-war era.

Graybeards at Play was his first published book of poetry--conveniently, for the purposes of this post, in 1900. According to Ward, even Chesterton hated it. (He always considered The White Knight his first published book). I don’t think it’s deserving of hatred. It’s like, four or five poems. They’re light and forgettable (I couldn’t have told you a thing about any of them an hour after I read them), but there’s nothing all that terrible about them.

I don’t talk enough about my love for The Napoleon of Notting Hill. It’s such a fun story, and a lot of the ideas of it form important parts of my mental landscape. I think of it every time I see a Renaissance Fair, and any time there’s a Cheat-the-Prophet style prediction about the future. So much of it is so very silly, but it’s built on such an interesting tension between people who care too much and people who don’t care enough. Adam Wayne and Auberon Quin are such good characters. The ending section always kind of creeps me out--of all things, it made me think of Elmo Saves Christmas, because both stories left me with an extremely unsettled feeling when the silly story turns into an unexpectedly dark alternate reality--but the ending reconciliation between Quin and Wayne is excellent.

Manalive is delight in novel form. It was the first book I ever read by Chesterton and it changed my life. At first, I was just blown away by the love of life shown in the pages, but I thought it a better essay than a story. Later rereads have made me appreciate the excellent character work and the turns of the plot.

The Ball and the Cross was an excellent book, but very weird. A lot of the issues are still relatable, but I don’t understand the weird mystical happenings of the later part of the book.

I think Chesterton’s essays are my favorites of the things he’s written. “On Running After One’s Hat” is a particular favorite. As is the one about drawing with chalk on brown paper.

Lepanto is one of my favorite poems of all time. Ballad of the White Horse gets a bit long and repetitive, but it’s a stirring epic.

I have an entire section of Father Brown reread posts that go into my love of the stories. Those rereads gave me a greater appreciation of the stories as stories, rather than Chesterton essays. I low-key regret that I was never able to finish my post for the last story in Innocence. The reread posts were a big undertaking, but I would have liked to have had posts for at least the first volume of stories. (But there was something about that last story that just halted all attempts to say anything about it.)

Oh, how can I forget about Orthodoxy? Absolute cornerstone of my mental landscape. But Chesterton has already taken up far too much space here.

I’ve also got two years’ worth of Psmith Pseptember posts talking about my love of Wodehouse’s work in this period. They may not be Wodehouse’s best work, but they might be my favorites. It kind of shocks me to remember that the Psmith author is the same guy who wrote the Jeeves and Wooster stories, because I’ve kind of split them up in my mind. So much similar between the series while feeling so different.

I always assumed The Phantom of the Opera was the quintessential Victorian Gothic novel, but I ran across a copy this week and was shocked to see that it was published in 1911. I like the book, especially the parts that didn’t make it into the musical. I love that the book casts Raoul as the hero of the piece and plays up the horror of the Phantom’s past, making him this exotic genius. (The scenes with the traps below the opera house? Shivers.)

I seem to have developed a deep fondness for A.A. Milne’s adult books. His sense of humor is so relatably daffy, and I can see why he hated only being known for the Pooh books. I have a copy of The Sunny Side that I read about half of, and I really need to go back and finish the rest of the stories sometime.

Peter Pan is...fine. I was glad I read it, but I can’t say it’s a favorite.

This period also gives us Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. The first book deserves its status as a classic. It was one of the first books I ever bought for myself at full price (I had won a bookstore gift certificate). I hadn’t even heard of it before, but I loved it. Then I tried to read the second book and got so bored that I never finished it, and I never read the rest of the series until I was an adult. I’ll always hold a grudge toward that second book for depriving me of years of Anne enjoyment.

A Little Princess was one of the only books I got as a gift as a kid (my parents are not bookish). My aunt gave it to me, with an inscription saying it was one of her favorite books. I read it lots, still have that copy, and was glad to see that it held up when I reread it last year.

Daddy-Long-Legs was a book I discovered thanks to tumblr recommendations, and I loved it. Such an engaging voice! (Though the twist does make the MMC a bit skeevy). The musical is rather good, too.

The Rosary by Florence Louisa Barclay was an impulse pick when I was looking for free Kindle books. (It has nothing to do with religion--The Rosary is the title of a song the character sings). It was apparently the bestselling novel of 1910, and I can kind of see why. The characters and humor are surprisingly sharp, and the romance is sweet, even though it devolves into improbable tropes. I’ve only read it once, but I have intensely fond memories of it, and it always makes me wonder what other Edwardian gems have been lost to obscurity.

Kilmeny of the Orchard has some beautiful descriptions and cute characters, which makes it a crying shame that the entire plot hinges upon complete medical codswallop.

There are a lot of books that I think of as Edwardian that turn out to have been published during WWI or the ‘20s. But that’s probably a good thing because this post is already far too long.

[bullshittierlists]

Spoilers for DR1, obviously. I decided to remake this list because my opinions on all of the characters have changed significantly since the last time. I’m honestly not even super happy about this one.

I see no god up here other than me:

Kiyotaka Ishimaru - Oh my lord, he’s perfect in every way (except for the thing, which I’ll get to). He’s funny, he doesn’t feel entirely insignificant, and he’s got a cool, sad backstory to dive into if you like him enough, but it isn’t required to do so throughout the main game. Everything about his genius/hard-working motif is brilliant. I think it’s incredible how he’s actually the opposing force to Komaeda rather than Junko, even though no one talks about it and the game doesn’t really use it that much. His whole backstory with his grandfather and father is so sad and I’m so proud of him for getting to be where he is today, even if it didn’t quite happen how he wanted it to. The one exception to this practically perfect prefect is, of course, the elephant in the room, Kiyondo Ishida. Here’s the thing: I think Kiyondo could’ve worked really well. However, as far as I know, Taka was swapped out last minute with Hiro and had to die in chapter 3. I honestly think this was the worst decision the franchise made after making Mikan... the way that she was. The only reason people hate Hiro is that he survived the first game. I’ll get to this more later, but I honestly really enjoyed his character for the first three chapters. After that, though, he got a little stale and even a bit annoying, especially the Kyoko being a ghost bit. I feel like Hiro really overstayed his welcome and his presence could’ve been more than made up for by the comedic duo of Hina and Taka. I understand that choosing the survivors of each game is difficult and a very meticulous process, but let’s just consider the interactions with other characters for now. To start with, Hiro hardly had any positive interactions with any of the other characters in the back half of the game outside of Hina calling him out for being an idiot. If we put Taka in his place, he could’ve had serious moments with Kyoko and Makoto, helping them to solve some of the mysteries. He also could’ve played off of Byakuya and Toko’s relationship in telling them that PDA is “not welcome in a school environment.” And the crowning jewel of missed opportunities, his interactions with Hina. They’ve both lost their best friends in the whole world and have no one to rely on. In canon, Hina had to do a character 180 just to keep up with Hiro’s idiocy and not break down about losing Sakura. However, if we had Taka, he could’ve helped her to get through it because he would’ve already gotten over Mondo with the help of Ishida. See? I brought it back around. If Taka had been able to resolve his issues with Ishida in chapter 3, he would’ve been able to help Hina to develop her character through the loss of Sakura in chapter 4. I think this would’ve been so much better for both of their characters and I weep for what could’ve been. But for some reason, Hiro just had to stick around.

Mondo Owada - I’m honestly surprised I talked about Taka for that long without mentioning Mondo. I don’t actually have a lot to say about Mondo that I won’t get to with Chihiro, but this is basically your warning to be ready for another rant and it also serves as a break from the last one. Mondo and Taka are perfect for each other, Mondo is the most sympathetic killer, bar none, and even though I’m not a huge fan of dogs, Chuck is so precious.

You’re the best:

Celestia Ludenberg - Pretty goth lady. That’s about it. She could’ve been better in chapter 3, but I honestly still really liked her plan and her breakdown was phenomenal. My favorite thing about her though is her execution. Her execution fits into the thin category of executions that include the element of specific despair, basically meaning that Monokuma made it specifically to make her sad apart from the fact that she was dying. She was ready and honestly excited to be burned at the stake because it would guarantee her an interesting death and therefore an interesting life. But then, she ends up just dying in another boring old car accident, many of which happen every day. It’s fun to watch her expression and demeanor change throughout her execution, it’s one of my favorites.

Chihiro Fujisaki - Oh boy, it’s the one I expect to get hate for. Buckle up, lovely people, it’s time to get personal. I personally headcanon Chihiro to be a cisgender male; however, I also believe that you can headcanon anyone to be anything you want. There is an exception and it’s when that headcanon specifically derails something the character was trying to present. In this case, it’s toxic masculinity and the importance of appearances in society. I’ll preface this whole section with a statement: I’m not trying to be transphobic. I could see Chihiro being a trans male, but cis or trans female just feels counterproductive to me. Let me explain. Chihiro’s entire existence is used to parallel Mondo’s. Chihiro has a strong will with a weak body, while Mondo has a strong body with a weak will. Mondo is seen, in canon, as a super manly character who is strong in both heart and body, but he doesn’t believe himself to be this way. The only strength he’s ever seen is through aggressive violence, and that’s how he shows his strength. This is proven in the fact that when he felt weak against Chihiro’s strong will, he killed him out of fear, which he had grown to believe was strength. However, since Chihiro had a weak body, people treated him as unmanly, even though he was strong-willed, so he believed that everything about him was weak and learned to be submissive to everyone else’s desires. This is proven in the fact that he dressed and acted the way he did specifically to please others, not himself. It’s shown in multiple free time events that he hates the way that he looks and that he hates dressing to appease other people. It’s not even necessary to turn to the FTEs to gain this information, it’s obvious from the fact that he goes to Mondo specifically to get stronger in what he thinks is both mind and body, as he’s been known to think that the two are connected. It can also be understood from his dialogue that he wasn’t trying to get physically stronger for himself, he was perfectly comfortable with his body, he wanted to get physically stronger so that other people would leave him alone. These are the effects that bullying had on him. Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but whenever I see Chihiro as female, trans or otherwise, it feels as though those people want Chihiro to subject to the bullying because it more closely fits their ideal. It just feels like evidence of toxic masculinity because since Chihiro is feminine, he must be female, even if he says otherwise. The difference to me between this and say, trans Gundham headcanons is that with Gundham, there’s nothing in his character that goes either way, so it’s fine to headcanon him however you want. But when Chihiro explicitly states that he wants to be seen as male, he’s ignored and pushed aside as “another missed opportunity for trans representation.” But he’s not a missed opportunity for representation, he’s just representing something else, toxic masculinity. It’s obvious that it goes over people’s heads because they don’t seem to understand this at all. I’m not trying to be rude, I just want people to understand that just because the representation isn’t specifically for the group you want, doesn’t mean that it isn’t good representation. I can talk about this more if anyone wants me to, but it’s almost 1 AM and I’m not sure how much longer and I can form cohesive sentences and I’m not sure this is the best argument to test that on.

Genocide Jack - Idk, she’s funny. I’ve already gotten past most of the characters I have strong opinions on. Whereas in the second game, I have strong feelings about my favorites *and* my least favorites, I really only have favorites in this game and everyone else is pretty neutral.

Byakuya Togami - He was actually originally my second favorite character, but I realized a good way into the series that I didn’t actually like him that much. He’s not as smart as he claims to be and he isn’t as well written as Komaeda or Kokichi. However, he does have one truly fantastic moment in the first game and that is during chapter 4. When it’s revealed that Sakura killed herself, he shuts down. It’s impossible for something to have happened that he didn’t predict and he truly believes that. It’s incredible to see his complete shift in character (at least for this trial) and I absolutely adore that moment. Everything else with him is still kinda meh.

Hey, I think you’re really cool, I like you a lot:

Sakura Ogami - There’s literally nothing about her that I can say that hasn’t been said already. She’s perfect and I love her for it.

Aoi Asahina - Like I said during my Taka rant, I think she would’ve been much better if she didn’t have to accommodate Hiro. The first game had a much darker tone than the second and Toko/Genocide Jack already had the comedic relief role covered. She and Taka could’ve still had their fair share of funny moments together, but I feel like she could’ve gone through Akane’s arc during the second game, but better because she would’ve been able to build off of Taka, who already went through the same thing. Either way, she’s cute and I adore her and Sakura’s friendship.

Sayaka Maizono - So I actually made this list back in January (it’s currently the middle of April) and just never got around to making it and since then, I’ve fallen in love with Sayaka. It may or may not have to do with me being cast as her in a secret project that I’ll announce later, but she has my heart regardless. Now, I’d probably put her behind Chihiro and ahead of Genocide Jack. She’s just such an interesting character and while it’s a shame that she died so early, I still think she wouldn’t have been as good if she didn’t die so soon. For the record, I think both Sayaka and Leon were morally in the wrong. However, Sayaka was doing it for her friends, while Leon could’ve stopped at any time and really only went back for himself. Sayaka is not a snake. Thank you, goodnight.

Mukuro Ikusaba - She’s definitely my neutral point. I have one of these in every DR game, even if I don’t realize it. I just don’t really have any opinions on her and it’s not even because she wasn’t in the game for very long. I just don’t know how to feel about her. I just finished Danganronpa: Zero and that boosted Junko way up in my book, but it didn’t really change my opinion on Mukuro at all.

Kyoko Kirigiri - I get the hype, I really do, but I just can’t get into her. For starters, I don’t like Naegi all that much, so of course I’m not going to like the people that hang around him all the time. The most I’ve ever liked her is while watching videos of her along with “Not So Bad A Dad” from Phineas and Ferb. Other than that, she’s extremely neutral for me.

Toko Fukawa - I’m including her appearance in Ultra Despair Girls, but it didn’t really help her much. I liked her in the first game, but it was only because I was going through a weird phase of obsessing over people and now I just think it’s weird because it is. I went into Ultra Despair Girls knowing that she got character development and then completely forgot to pay attention to it because I was so enraptured by the Warriors of Hope. So, I don’t know, she’s just kinda creepy and I didn’t really notice her (or Komaru, for that matter) in UDG.

I remember you:

Junko Enoshima - Like I mentioned during Mukuro’s segment, I just finished Danganronpa: Zero and it was a wild ride. I made this list before I had even started the book and I was mostly just confused by Junko. I didn’t understand her motivations or any of her plans, much less how she was able to achieve anything she was. But once I finished DR0, it all made sense. I won’t spoil it here, but she was incredible in that book and I wish I had caught on to everything earlier.

Makoto Naegi - I feel bad, but I have to compare him to the other protagonists. He’s just so boring, and I know that that’s the point of a protagonist, but Hajime proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. Makoto’s just kinda there all of the time. For example, in DR0, he shows up for one scene, but he literally doesn’t even do anything. He stands there, talks to Ryoko, is scared during a fight scene, and is never seen again. It’s really frustrating to know that he’s only there because he was the protagonist of the first game and it’s like “Wow, you know this character!”

Yasuhiro Hagakure - My only opinion on him is that he should’ve died in chapter 3. My only explanation for why he was so high on the original list is because I watched this one hysterical panel for DR1 and Hiro was by far the best character there. In the game itself, I liked him until he overstayed his welcome and cost Taka his shot to be memorable.

Leon Kuwata - I honestly can’t explain why I dislike him so much, I just really, genuinely do. He’s just kind of annoying, but that’s about it. Like I said before, I don’t really hate many of the characters from this game, they’re mostly all loved or neutral and he’s just the most negative neutral.

You are literally the worst. Actual scum. Leave this planet and never return:

Monokuma - You know the drill by now if you’ve seen my other DR tier lists, it’s kind of an obligation at this point.

Hifumi Yamada - Why. Why is he like this? Why is he this way? Honestly, he’s not nearly as bad as Teruteru or Kazuichi in the perv department, but I just hate him so much. I don’t understand why he is the way that he is, but I do understand that I’m happy he died in chapter 3. Honestly, I could’ve done with him dying earlier, but it is what it is.

It’s 1:15 AM and I am done writing. I’ve been putting this off for months and I figured it was finally time to get it over with and it definitely didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I can’t sleep. I hope you enjoy all of this and if you would like me to elaborate on anything, just drop me an ask and let me know. I’m always happy to explain any of my opinions and want to make sure I’m as clear as possible. Please do not spread hate about me until you’ve made sure you understand my point. Then go to town.

[0m3g45n1p3r4lph4]

Since I saw you reblog my ask game I'd like to hear some meta/hc/thoughts either relating to Mutran, Chirox, Krika or Icarax (if you don't care for any of them or don't have any specific thoughts you can choose any Makuta of your choice, those four were just the ones I wanted to hear the most of)

Hehe I'm gonna go do all of them

Under the cut though cause it's gonna be a bit long

Mutran: Obviously he fears nothing but Tren Krom. If this guy's willing to stare down - no, try to control a Light Energy Storm for study, he either doesn't fear death or doesn't properly understand his own mortality. I have always found it really interesting what Rahi we've had confirmed were created by him - most notably the Klakk and Blade Burrowers, things that had a strong role in destiny one way or another. He's said to focus on mutations that are destructive in nature, but I think it has to be a more recent development of his - maybe his visit to Tren Krom shattered his perception of mortality, leading to his more destructive designs that ultimately brought his demise? something to think about. either way, fun character, and the Mutran Chronicles is always a good read.

Chirox: Can't really bring up Mutran without mentioning his matching-masked rival, can we? And to think that their rivalry is over the Lohrak. The pettiness building over the course of millennia. For all the battle strategy and cooperation these two have, I really like to imagine their rivalry is still relatively good-hearted - it's evolved with them to becoming rougher and much more harshly competitive, but in the end it's mere competition. idk, I just really like the idea of Makuta not being pure evil about everything, since we know it's well possible. Also shouldercanon - they both originally wear Shelek because they were trying to subtly tell the other to shut up and stop complaining about each other's designs, but ended up sticking to it because not having screaming lab mistakes was much more comfortable. (pretty sure the last bit is canon, but I like it tying into their rivalry.

Krika: my boy... spooky stickbug lad... before I talk lore, why does he not glow in the dark? His parts look the same semi-transparent as Takadox but no glow? That would've been the coolest thing in the world. Might remould all his pieces to glow when I get the materials. Lorewise? oooh... It's not often I get to see a 'villain fighting the heroes because if the heroes win, both sides lose' scenario (only other time I can think of is the Drawn to Life games which... maybe I'll make a separate post talking about the similarities between that and Bionicle one day.) I wish so frequently that we could've seen more of him,.. He never wanted this. Makuta he may have been, but he's a great insight into the wider variety of personalities we could've seen in other members of the species, and for that alone he holds a special place in my heart. Plus spooky boy cool

Icarax: Let's be real, we all thought this was a new Teridax form when it came out. Heck, I think that might've been the set designers intention, until Greg/someone on the story team decided otherwise, to fit in with the Great Plan and where Teridax needed to be for that. I like to imagine, since Pridak originally served under him, that Icarax was the influence behind the leadership of the League of Six Kingdoms. As from this aggressive behaviour, it's a shame we never got to see that fateful battle between Icarax and Botar - the more I think of it, the more I realize it likely would've been the most intense battle in the series. Both have immense strength and free teleportation powers, though it's implied Botar's has more range and is easier to use. Seeing this though, in the Mirimax/Creative Capers style, with the improved battle choreography from Web of Shadows? We probably would've more felt that the Toa Nuva were up against impossible odds. And I would've loved it.

[candlelight27]

Chapter 3: I Chase Your Shadow

Summary: Sylvain has been ignoring you since you met him. You had been in love with him since you met him. College is about to offer you a fresh start. New academic year, new life. You were ready to forget him. But fate seems to have other plans… (COLLEGE AU)

Series: Seeking Your Warmth If Only For A Day

Warnings: ATTEMPTED ASSAULT (!!!), Alcohol drinking, swear words, kissing

Pairings: Sylvain Jose Gautier x Female Reader

Word Count: 4907

AO3: I Chase Your Shadow

A/N:  I hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks for reading and sticking by. And, as always, leave a comment if you have any suggestion, request, question or just feel like it! My asks are always open, too!

Sylvain 18:35: What are you wearing? 😉

Sylvain 18:36: Just kidding hahaha

Sylvain 18:36: Although I want to know what’s your costume

You held back a laugh reading Sylvain’s messages. He was truly something else.

You 18:37: Top secret

“Is he texting you again?”, Dorothea asked, mascara in hand. You couldn’t see her expression, but you certainly knew the corners of her lips were curling upwards.

“So what?”, you answered feigning weariness.

Your brunette friend was applying the finishing touches to her makeup in front of your bathroom mirror. There were cases, brushes, pencils, shadows and liners everywhere, all varying shades of red and nude. The living room was in the same situation because Mercedes and Annette had insisted on helping Ingrid get her Halloween costume ready. Ingrid complained, of course, since ‘knights didn’t wear make-up’, but who could ever deny Mercedes? Not you, and not Ingrid either.

You were sitting upon the lid of the toilet, observing Dorothea’s carful movements. You weren’t going all out like she did. You had a black dress that you liked and cheap fake blood you found on a trip to the supermarket – this hectic year you had no time to prepare.

“Nothing, nothing. It’s just…” She turned around, her emerald irises glistening. “You are totally at his mercy.”

“I’m not”, you furrowed your eyebrows.

“I thought I taught you well. But I guess that’s what happens when your first love strikes you…” She took the brightest shadow of red lipstick she could find in her purse and began applying it.

“That’s totally wrong!”, you protested, putting your phone a way to prove your point.

However, Dorothea was painfully right, as always. You had developed a soft spot for a certain redhead. In fact, you’d dare to say you hadn’t felt anything this intense for him before.

Had it been any other person, it wouldn’t be a problem. But it was Sylvain. The root of all evil. You didn’t trust him at all. Wasn’t it very suspicious that he all of a sudden was paying you attention? He might just want to hook up a couple of times and then disappear, because he had just ended his available catalogue of other women. Was he really like that? You’ve certainly seen him act like that. You’d better stay away from him. But what you felt around him had you addicted.

“So now you are telling me that if tonight he gets you cornered in a room at Hilda’s…” Dorothea lowered her voice, a husky whisper, to avoid the other girls from hearing her. “If he presses his – rather hot, not going to lie here – body against you and leans in all bothered… and then kisses you… you are going to say no. And then remain friends.”

“Yes!”, you lied with all the dignity you could muster.

“I don’t believe you!”, she shouted. In between laughs you threw at her a roll of toilet paper that moved her fake horns. “Stop! Don’t ruin my look, I’m almost finished.”

Dorothea faced you and fixed her cleavage. She was wearing a tight-fitting red dress made out of a velvet-like material, along with headband topped with red horns and a fake tail. The only thing she was missing was a trident.

“You make a good demon”, you commented, tilting your head.

“I’m a succubus. It’s not the same”, she pointed out.

“Of course.”

“Wait, what are you going to wear?”, she stepped closer to you. She inspected you from top to the bottom.

“This”, you stood up and gestured your own black dress with both hands.

“What?” She crossed her arms. “You need a costume!”

“I’m going to put on some fake blood too”, you answered. “I didn’t have time to prepare something else.”

“I’m already seeing the disappointment in Sylvain’s eyes.” She shook her head and tried to reach the doorknob. Then it hit you that you had been meaning to tell her something entirely different.

“Wait, Dorothea.”

“Yes?”, she seemed confused.

“I’ve been having nightmares lately. A lot of them.”

“About what?” Her tone was serious.

“It’s kind of weird.” You scratched your head. It was hard to put together all the scenes that appeared out of thin air at night. “The atmosphere is… like those movies Ingrid watches. But the characters are us. And there’s a war going on. There’s blood, death… I see everyone dying. And I dream that… someone with a speak goes right through my chest and I wake up with this unsettling pain where it hit.” You pointed the exact area.

“That’s worrying… Maybe you’ll have to see Manuela in the clinic.” She looked in deep thought. “Could it be the pressure from university?”

“Perhaps…”

You both went out of the bathroom to meet the other girls. Dorothea was watching you with the corner of her eye, and you feared that you might have worried her over nothing.  

“Dorothea, you are breathtaking!”, said Mercedes as she saw her.

“Thank you”, the brunette smiled. “You are not so bad yourself as a …nun?”

“I love this costume! It always scares all the kids”, she laughed. And you wouldn’t have expected less of the queen of ghost stories.

The sight of her was unsettling. There was dark paint all over under her eyes and her lips that formed a stark contrast with the white base underneath. On the other hand, Ingrid was dressed as a knight, as she did every year. No surprises there. She looked ready to go jousting in any moment. Annette was dressed in a black outfit, completed by car ears and whiskers.

“I love Halloween!”, Mercedes exclaimed. “It’s my favourite holiday. Should we try an Ouija board session?”

“No way”, said Annette with wide eyes.

“I’ll pass too”, added Dorothea.

“What a shame. I’m going to get a glass of water,” Mercedes announced. She then said your name. “Care to join me?”

“Sure.”

You could hear the muffled sound of the conversation in the living room from the kitchen. Your hand reached for a glass in the cabinet. You filled it with water and offered it to Mercedes. She politely muttered a thank you, and drunk it slowly, not taking her eyes off you.

“I wanted to talk to you about something”, she paused, prudent as always, waiting for your response.

“What about?” You leant against the counter.

“It’s about Sylvain.”

The fact was not unforeseen at all. However, the fact that it was Mercedes carrying the message was unusual. You hadn’t seen her step in anyone’s affairs, so it must be serious. You gulped.

“I’m all ears.”

“I’m not going to beat around the bush. He hates women.” You remained silent, waiting for her explanation. “I’m her friend, and I’ve been for a long time. And I’ve had a lot of conversations with him… When a woman shows any interest in him, he thinks they’re after his family’s fortune, that they just want to brag of their relationship.”

“And what should I do with that information?” You said sceptically. You already knew all of that – you weren’t blind – but you didn’t see where she was going.

“I think you should be aware in case you are pursuing a romantic relationship with him.” She breathed in deeply. “I’m not saying he’s a bad person – I don’t think he is –, but he isn’t precisely nice when it comes to his girlfriends. Apparently he hasn’t always been like this… There were a few girls who took advantage of him, confirmed his fears, and now he feels entitled to use people as he wants. He can be the worst. And I’m afraid your feelings are pretty serious.”

“I’m not-”

“I don’t want him to break your heart. Even if you are made for each other, even if he seems completely in love with you, be careful. Anything can happen, because people who have been hurt often hurt others too.” She diverted her gaze.

“Are you telling me that I should just forget him?”

“I can’t tell you what to do, I just can give you my point of view. I don’t think he’s incapable of love… When he talks about you, he’s all happy and true. I’d never seen him like that. But I’ve also seen so many girls that tried to change him and failed…”  

“That’s… hard to process,” you replied as you let out a nervous giggle. “But I think I can’t just move on.”

“Whatever you do, I’ll be here, okay?” Mercedes touched your shoulder lightly. “Let’s head back.”

 The sky was dark and the moon was full. Your group walked down the main street to go to Hilda’s home, which was the closest to the campus. Her parents weren’t home, so she and Holst thought it would be a great idea to throw a party. None complained. Almost everyone you knew in high school was invited.

You weren’t exactly nervous. But Sylvain was going to be there and, even though there was some excitement within you, your mind was too busy second-guessing yourself and arousing doubt.

“What did Mercedes say?”, Dorothea whispered when the other three girls were distracted. She was always on the lookout for some gossip, just like Claude.

“She just wanted to warn me about the fact that Sylvain hates women,” you rolled your eyes.

“Well, it’s not untrue.” She smiled. “I’m sure she had good intentions.”

“I know, Dorothea. But it only makes me feel worse hearing it from the only person who had ever defended him.”

“Did it change anything though?” She placed her hand on your back Sympathetically.

“That’s the problem, it didn’t.”

“My poor baby.” She caressed your arm. “You look tired.”

“It must be the nightmares”, you concluded. “I couldn’t sleep that much yesterday.”

“Have fun today, will you? Everything will turn out fun if you do what your heart tells you.”

“That’s unexpectedly non-cynical coming from you”, you remarked, a smirk forming.

“Shush. You love me.” You hummed in agreement.

“Dorothea?”, Annette called her, turning around to locate her. “Where is Petra?”

“I still haven’t met her!”, exclaimed Ingrid.

“She must be already there! She went with Edelgard and Hubert,” answered Dorothea. “At first I wanted her to spend more time with other people but now I’m starting to miss the first few weeks when we were always together!”

As you arrived, Hilda opened the door. Her long, pink hair was tied back in a pony tail. She wore a white, lacy dress, and despite the beautiful eyeliner, she was kind of blue and had scars drawn all over her. You guessed she was a zombie bride. She had that sweet and satisfied smile of hers and a beer can on one of her delicate hands.

“Welcome, welcome! Come in! There’s a lot of people who will come later but we’ve already started. Ah, Petra’s waiting for you, Dorothea,” she said as she let you in the house.

“I’ll find her,” she said as she disappeared into the luxurious house. “Thanks!”

Mercedes, Anette and Ingrid entered too. Hilda was waiting for you, the last on line, on the doorframe. She winked at you.

“And you… Sylvain is coming in half an hour…”, she coyly remarked. “He’s coming with Felix, Dimitri and their brothers.”

“And that’s important because…?”, you played dumb.

“Not my business. Claude said that I should let you know”, she smirked. “Come in, let’s have a drink.”

 Hilda hadn’t lied. The music was roaring, and all the rooms were filled with people occupying themselves in the entailments of a party. Right after you greeted everyone, when you were the tiniest bit tipsy, you saw Sylvain arrive, along with Dimitri and Felix. He commented something to his brother, Miklan, who went away with Glenn, leaving the trio alone. Sylvain’s brother looked angry and aggressive – the opposite of the atmosphere of the place, and you had a bad feeling about him. He was known for causing trouble, but you hoped Glenn and Holst could keep him at bay.

Felix and Dimitri weren’t wearing anything remarkable. Dimitri, a white shirt on his torso and a plastic sword on hand, took advantage of his eyepatch to look like a pirate, while Felix had a scary-looking mask on. Quite the opposite was their redhead friend. He was wearing a cliché vampire costume, cloak and fangs included. His white shirt was unbuttoned halfway. It was totally in character for Sylvain.

“Admiring the prey?”, Claude’s voice resonated on you back, startling you.

“Claude, are you a furry?”, you laughed as you saw him.

“I’m the big bad wolf!”, he deadpanned. “You forgot to say hi to your sweetheart, by the way.” He whispered, then yelled. “Hey, Sylvain!”

“Claude!” Sylvain waved him. However, when his eyes met your form, he turned serious. He acknowledged you with a nod. You wanted to approach him, but you were unsettled.

Right before you could do anything else, the Almyran grabbed your arm and muttered a ‘let’s go’. Both of you disappeared into a corridor filled with portraits of Hilda’s family members that led to the kitchen. Right before going into your destination, you stopped.

“What are you doing?”, you asked.

“We’re going to play never have I ever with Hilda in the kitchen”, he smiled.

“What’s with all the rush? She’s not going anywhere, it’s her house.” You withdrew from him. “Besides, I thought you wanted me to greet Sylvain.”

“We’re setting the trap, don’t worry,” he winked. “Sylvain’s going to fall onto your arms tonight.”

“No, no, no”, you stated. Mercedes’ words resonated in your head, which further entangled all your thoughts about anything related to Sylvain. “No romance today. It’s a bad idea,” you said unconvinced.

“I think you are not telling everything to me, but it’s happening. I have a sixth sense for that.” You grimaced. “Don’t believe me? Then let’s bet! If by 2 a.m. you have kissed him, you’ll give me your dessert for three weeks.”

“And if I win?” It seemed easy, right? Just stay away from Sylvain all night, and there wouldn’t be any trouble.

“I’ll take you on a date”, he affirmed without hesitation. It shocked you that he wanted a date.

“It seems like a win-win for you.”

“I’ll also give you my dessert, okay?” he sighed.

“Seems fair, I guess.” You shrugged.

“Are you sure about that?” He smiled mysteriously, went into the kitchen and, being the natural at social gatherings he was, took a shot glass and filled it to the brim.

There were a lot of Hilda and Claude’s classmates partaking in the game, while your other friends were scattered throughout the multiple rooms. Holst, dressed as the zombie groom to his little sister, popped in from time to time to either get more booze or control the situation.

The hours passed by and you lost track of all the people you were interacting with, but everyone seemed very cheerful. There were a lot of sweets – it was Halloween after all – and pizza. You remembered that at some point you shared a conversation with Petra after those booze games, and she talked a lot about Brigid and how she missed it.

Another highlight was when you heard a ruckus about someone trying to contact spirits with a makeshift Ouija. You suspected it was Mercedes trying to scare anyone. And Hilda held a costume contest where the only judge was herself and the main price was helping her with her homework. Many people participated. There were films playing in the living room and techno music coming from upstairs. Petra and Dorothea were stuck together all the time, which was a little weird for you since your brunette friend used parties as a way to find a good catch. All in all, everyone seemed to be having fun.

Perched in the safety of a sofa with Claude and Dimitri – who, by the way, didn’t dare to speak with you out of shyness -, you were having a marathon of the worst gore-horror-sci-fi movies you could find. As time passed, you observed there were couples sneaking away, going to Sothis-know-where, and some of them came back dishevelled, others simply vanished.

You watched the clock. 1:56 a.m. No sight of Sylvain. You wanted with all your heart to look for him and talk because you hadn’t interacted with him yet. Maybe there was no harm in that. Claude had been following you like a lost puppy all night, so it had been easy to ignore the urge, but now… The youngest of the Gautier brothers had been talking to older girls, passing right next to where you were. You almost dared to say he was trying to make you jealous.

You stood up and went to another lounge where there was music. Incredibly, Felix was dancing with Anette. You guessed Sylvain could be there.

But then you stopped in your tracks. You spotted your prince charming. He was with a blonde girl who caressed his cheek with her fingers. He whispered something in her ear, she took his hand and led him outside.

Your heart flopped. That was it, wasn’t it? Game over.

Dorothea came out of the room and bumped into you.

“Did you know I haven’t seen Ingrid in like an hour? I think she left with Ashe and-”. She cut her sentence. “Are you okay?”, asked Dorothea, focusing her attention on you. Petra was behind her.

“Yes, why?”

“You look like you are about to cry,” the girl from Brigid said.

“I feel like I’m going to throw up,” you lied. “I’m going to the bathroom. Be back in a minute.”

“May I go with you?”, Claude, who had followed you, intervened.

“No, I’m fine”, you lied again. You were tired of lying. “Don’t worry.”

You went away and tried to navigate to the bathroom. Maybe you could spill some tears or at least splash some water on your face. You traversed the enormity of Hilda’s home, your mind a bit cloudy with the drink and the disappointment, yet overall you were sobered up. Keeping it together in a crowded place was a real challenge, more when you had to smile to the people you knew as you passed them by, but you managed just fine.

You bumped into some shoulders, did what you could to reach the white door at the what seemed the most remote corner of the hall.  

Once in the bathroom, you looked at yourself in the mirror.

What were you going to do? You were ready to go home. Or you could take what Dorothea once said literally and ask Claude to sneak away with you. Yet, you scratched that possibility right away. It wouldn’t be fair for any of you. If you just could have gotten into your head what Mercedes said and sticked to your original plan, you’d be fine, having the time of your life with your friends. Instead, your doomed heart yearned for him in a way you couldn’t undo.

There was a black hole in your stomach. It seemed that your desperation grew the further he was from you.

Why were you surprised? It was inevitable that it happened. Everyone said so, everyone thought so. Were you for real harbouring the empty hope that he would choose you? Or that he even wanted you? He was just being nice. It seemed clearer now.

As you sunk in your despair and confusion, the door of the bathroom opened.

“It’s occupied!”, you exclaimed. Still, the figured entered without any care and closed the door with a loud hit.

“You were taking too long.”

That rough voice… You turned around. It was Miklan. He wasn’t wearing any costume, and had the same expression than before. His eyes were cold, his stare calculated. His presence was eerie, turning on all your alarms.

“Miklan, get out.” You were still, as if treating a wild animal. “I need to use the toilet.”

“You know me?” He said very pleased with himself.

“We were in the same high-school,” you reminded him

“I see.” He smiled, and you got goosebumps. “I’ve observed you all night.”

“Why?”

“My bother hasn’t got his eyes off you. So, I took an interest in you.”

“If you haven’t notice, he’s gone away somewhere with a busty girl,” you passed him, trying to get out of there. “So, it’s quite useless to play now the dutiful older brother or-”

“You could have some fun with me instead.” He grabbed your arm. So that’s what he wanted. “I’m not an asshole like him.”

“You are acting like one right now.” You tried to force your arm free, but it was useless. “Let me go.”

“Why Sylvain and not me?”, he grunted. His breathing was becoming heavier as his irritation grew. “If it was him and not me, you’d gladly fuck me here.”

Suddenly, you remembered your last nightmare. It was about Miklan. He had turned into some kind of black monster before your eyes. It had horrified you, and everyone who was around you. Sylvain was next to you during that dream, trembling, as his brother’s features were consumed by darkness. The dream had felt so real. You woke up in panic, cold sweat, breathing with difficulty.

“Go away, Miklan”, you said with anger. He leant in.

“Or what?”

Then, out of instinct, you punched him in the face as hard as you could. As he covered his scarred nose, which was then bleeding, you run away from the bathroom.

“Bitch!”, he yelled.

You run a few meters before crashing into a solid body. He was talking to you, but you were focused on escaping. You assumed he was your Almyran shadow for the night.

“Claude, let’s go. Now.”

“Claude?” Oh shit. It was Sylvain’s voice. You turned around to see his confused features. Why did he look so sad for no apparent reason?

“Sylvain?”. You were disconcerted. Wasn’t he gone?

Thereupon, his brother appeared around the corner. He had blood smeared on his face and he was red with anger. You had done a good number on him. You felt safer, because you were surrounded by people.

“Go away, Sylvain. I’ve got some unfinished business with that whore”, he said as he came closer to both of you, slow like a predator. Sylvain pushed you behind him, but you could see the gleam of fear in his eyes. Miklan terrified him.

“Fuck you,” you retorted to Miklan.

“I swear if you did something, I’ll-” Began Sylvain, but thankfully he didn’t have to finish.

“Time to go away, buddy.”

You had never been gladder to see Glenn, the only human who had been able to control Miklan – or so it was said. Behind him, Holst and Balthus, a school drop-out you had only heard about, stood like two bodyguards.

Still, the older Gautier considering fighting them. You could almost hear his thoughts. But, in the last moment, he relaxed.

“Goodbye, losers”, he huffed, then made a beeline for the exit. “Not like I’m going to see any of you fuckers ever again.”

“Are you okay?”, Holst asked you, worried. “You have a red mark on your wrist. And your knuckles have blood.”

“I’m fine. It’s his.” You were so relieved.

“That was a really good punch! A piece of art on his face,” told you Balthus with pride. He seemed like a good guy, but way too violent for your taste. “Take that as a compliment from the King of Grappling!” You nodded politely.

“He’s going to a military school tomorrow. We thought he’d do the least harm if he felt…included. Not the case. If you need anything…” Glenn explained with a serious tone.

“It’s fine, really.”

“Can I speak to you in private?”, Sylvain got into the conversation.

“I’m fucking done with the Gautier brothers today, thank you.” You escaped from the men to look for the backyard to get some fresh air. Yet Sylvain, not giving up, chased you.

“I’m sorry”, he said. He was suffering too, but you chose to ignore that. “Really. Miklan just tries to take everything from me, so he must have thought-”

“That I was your girlfriend? That’s ridiculous.” You didn’t stop, your aim right in front of you. You didn’t see that his lips formed a straight line as soon as the words left your mouth.

“The thing is, he wanted to hurt you in order to hurt me.”

“That’s unfortunate then! Had he known you were out there fucking anyone that crossed your way, he would have left me alone!” You felt the cold breeze when you stepped out of the building. “I don’t understand why he didn’t bother any of your flings!”

“For your information, I wasn’t fucking anyone.” Sylvain closed the doors behind him. You moved to face him, since he didn’t seem to be going away any soon, so you’d better get everything out of your chest. It might do the job and reconcile your emotions.

“I don’t need to know, Sylvain. It’s your life, enjoy it as you want.” There was poison in your voice, but you couldn’t contain the raw emotions that controlled you.

“I want you to know! She was shitfaced and wouldn’t separate from me, so I called her a taxi.” He crossed his arms. “Why are you acting like that anyways? You and Claude seemed to be having too much fun to notice anything I did.”

“What are you talking about?”, you replied with indignation.

“All those touches and laughing. He does the same in class and you let him do whatever he wants. And then you come and text me as if you were interested in me! Do you kiss him when you’re alone?” He was approaching you, seeking the confrontation. You didn’t yield.

“You’ve lost it Sylvain.” You were so close, you were almost touching. Your faces were mere inches from each other. “I’m not the one who uses people as he wants and then leave them! Why are you so jealous? I’m just another girl in the count, you can easily replace me!”

“You have no idea what you are talking about!”, he shouted.

“Then explain it! Is it that fucking difficult?”

“It is! I’m trying to tell you, but you won’t listen! I could never replace you!”

At last, you surrendered to your heart.

You moved towards him and kissed him. It was like a weight lifted from your body. His lips were soft and warm, a hearth during winter. You clung onto his cheap costume, for you wanted to feel his warmth as close as you could.

It took him a few seconds to get back to his senses, but when he did, he turned the kiss into a fierce one, tainted with desperation. He placed one of his hands against the back of your neck, the other around your waist. You were perfectly anchored to him. His touch was exquisite, soft, as if you were a porcelain doll. You opened your mouth, caressed his with your tongue. You decided he was your favourite flavour, and that you’d never get tired of kissing him. He was experienced, determined, and knew what to do to turn you on beyond limit.

He lifted your body and pressed you against the wall. You wrapped your legs around his waist. He muttered a blasphemy. The next thing you felt, was his tongue back in your mouth. He was desperate to try your taste, to satiate the hunger that had been consuming him. You moved your hips, just in the slightest manner, because nothing he did was enough.

“We should stop,” he said, your taste lingering on his lips.

“Why?”

“We’re drunk. We were arguing.” You giggled. He wished he could hear that sound every day of his life. You disentangled your members from him and placed your feet on the floor, although he didn’t let go your waist.

“Don’t mess with me anymore Sylvain. Be clear. Don’t lie to me,” you pleaded.

“Okay.” He closed his eyes. “I tried to have sex with that girl before.”

“Oh”

“I was jealous of Claude. But I swear I didn’t do anything in the end.” His light brown eyes opened and gazed you sincerely.  “I called a taxi for her, I didn’t lie.”

“What happened?” You asked softly.

“I was thinking about you. As I was crossing the door, I regretted everything and… Well, I put her in the car and went in again.” He sighed. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“You got me right here and now,” you reminded him.

“I don’t want to spoil this like I almost did.”

“You won’t spoil anything if you tell me the truth.” You sounded calm, but you were a wreck on the inside. “I can stand it if it’s just a one-night stand. Just… don’t lie to me. Tell me what I am to you.”

“Please, believe in me. Please.” You could hear now how he slurred his syllables. He was right, neither of you were in the best condition to do anything.

“Why do you think I will?”

“Because you’re here with me right now. No one else has ever believed in me. Not even myself.” You caressed his cheek.

“Sylvain…”

“I promise you I will explain everything tomorrow. My intentions, my behaviour… I’m just asking that you believe all that I say and don’t give up on me.” He stared at you, waiting patiently for your answer.

“Okay, Sylvain. I promise.”

[darksaiyangoku]

RWBY: The Official Manga Review

Back in November of 2018, it was announced by Viz Media that Rooster Teeth’s hit show, RWBY, would be getting a manga adaptation published by Shueisha.

This sounded like great news at the time. I mean, a manga adaptation of RWBY being published by Shueisha, creators of Shonen classics such as Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and Hunter x Hunter? What part of that does not sound awesome?!

Now this isn’t the first time that RWBY had manga series, mind you. There was of course the manga written and illustrated by Shirow Miwa that was released in 2015 and the Manga Anthology collection in 2017.

But this manga was different from the others. Instead of being a spin off or a side story, it was an adaptation of RWBY itself, taking the story of the show and retelling it as a manga. Aside from anime, manga and comics are my favourite mediums of entertainment, so naturally this was something that I was very much looking forward to, even if I was pretty new to RWBY at the time.

The series was written and illustrated by Bunta Kinami and had a monthly release schedule, concluding in June of this year at 19 chapters total. Instead of reviewing this volume by volume, I’m going to be reviewing the whole thing. Without further ado, let’s get right into it. Here is my review of RWBY: The Official Manga.

Plot

Similar to the show, the manga opens up with notorious criminal, Roman Torchwick, robbing a Dust Shop in the middle of the night. It’s with the timely intervention of aspiring Huntress, Ruby Rose, that he’s thwarted. After an interrogation from the Professors of Beacon Academy, Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch, Ruby finds herself being admitted to the Huntsman Academy, much to her surprise. Together with her half-sister Yang Xiao Long, heiress Weiss Schnee and the mysterious Blake Belladonna, they form the Huntress group Team RWBY!

For the most part, it is a straight adaptation and retailing of the RWBY anime. It follows very similar story beats, such as the entrance exam, Blake’s revelation as a Faunus, meeting Sun and Penny, the revelation that Roman was working with Cinder, the infiltration of the school dance and the breach of Vale. With this new retelling, there was also the possibility of expanding on the source material and putting a cool new spin on a beloved series. Surely the writer would take advantage of that, right?

Well, no. He doesn’t. Not only is there very little in adding anything new to the story, but there’s a lot of things that have been either heavily condensed or flat out removed entirely. It’s almost as if Bunta goes out of his way to cut content. These aren’t just little moments either, a lot of what’s gone are plot points that are essential to the overarching story, making this adaptation feel hollow. It isn’t just the story that suffers, but so do the characters.

Characters

Team RWBY

Team RWBY come across as bizarro versions compared to their anime counterparts. For example, Ruby isn’t the cheery, optimistic aspiring hero that she is canon. Instead, she comes across more serious and sullen, but without any of the charm. Weiss is portrayed as nicer compared to canon. While this might seem like a good thing, I actually think it hurts her character development, where she starts out as fairly unlikeable but gradually becomes a better person, throwing away her shameful old prejudices. Blake seems less of a character here, having a lot of her endearing quirks completely removed. My least favourite, however, is what happened to Yang. Much of her personality is downplayed, to the point where I can’t even call her same character anymore. She doesn’t have that loveable “party girl” vibe alongside being the cool big sister. If that wasn’t bad enough, her backstory and motivation are also downplayed, which was essential in not only establishing and developing her and Blake’s friendship, but it also removes a key plot point for the Mistral Arc, which was the revelation of who Raven was and what she was doing all this time.

Team JNPR

Oh god, no characters have suffered more than Team JNPR. Their roles are severely downplayed, to the point where I’m questioning why they were even added to the manga in the first place. Ruby and Jaune’s friendship is almost non-existent, Ren and Nora’s fin shenanigans are gone and Pyrrha isn’t treated as a big celebrity athlete. Instead, she’s just another student. Such a waste.

Penny, Sun and Neptune

Penny doesn’t have any of the fun, cute quirks that she has in canon. Instead, she’s more desperate to be accepted and pushy wanting friends. As for Sun and Neptune? For the most part, they’re kept intact and there are few extended bits of dialogue they have, but that’s about it.

Roman Torchwick

All of the wit and humour from the canon is gone from this version of Roman Torchwick and he’s instead a cold, callous and sometimes downright psychotic. While that would normally sound right up my alley, there was nothing wrong with how Torchwick originally was! He was a fan favourite because of his wit and humour and that didn’t make him any less of a credible threat. Here, he acts more like Cinder, which is weird considering she is in this manga! Just... why?

Artwork

I’ll be blunt here, I don’t like the artwork here at all. A lot of it looks like it’s unfinished, especially the backgrounds and a lot of the characters look dangerously thin. I don’t know what kind of style Kinami was trying to go for, but it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t feel vibrant or colourful, it feels like a ghost, a shell of its former self.

Verdict

Overall, this is a very, VERY poor adaptation of RWBY. All of the charm, fun, heart and soul that made me fall in love with the original is nowhere to be found in this manga. Most of the cast have great personality shifts or have many of their signature characteristics downplayed, essential plot points that develop both the story and characters have been cut, the artwork is half-baked and there’s a real lack of effort put into this project. From what it looks like, it seems that Miles and Kerry had little to no involvement with this and gave Bunta free reign. With all that power, he decided to strip RWBY of its core and reduce it to something barebones and soulless. Some of you might be wondering if there is anything good in here and I will admit that there are two moments that I liked; Weiss actually apologising to Blake and Sun and Neptune taking a more active role in the fight against the Paladin. Other than that, there are absolutely no redeeming qualities to this adaptation. If you want RWBY manga, stick to either Shirow Miwa’s version or the anthologies.

Final score: 2/10

[your-shield-of-love]

I wanna write or see an AU where Varric notices Hawke and the Inquisitor having similar mannerisms and speech. Like exact copies and their priorities are similar, he doesn't know how to think about it and wonders if it's a hero thing.

But then one day, Inquisitor tries to protect him from a really bad attack, similar in a way Hawke did years ago. When the two are communicating, it's like they're the same person. And that sticks with Varric, he starts noticing more and more similarities between the two. The Inquisitor often coming to him for advice or just a simple chat and seems to be a bit sad when they do.

Varric doesn't know what to believe until Cole says something, (Okay so I probably am not the best at doing a Cole impression, but here goes).

"Playing the game, a new story, a new cast. Except him. But different, no longer a pair. Have to watch from afar, still caring for him so. Wish a pick pocket would come. Hoping, wondering,

Why can't I fly like the Hawke?"

Varric, understanding the ramblings of Cole, goes to Hawke, always ending up with Hawke. He checks on them, they're the same, but something is missing, maybe it's the time spent away from Kirkwall that's changed Hawke or being away from (Romantic interest). Maybe they're different because - somehow - it's not the same person as before.

Sitting at his desk, the Inquisitor approaching to chat but waiting till he's done writing his letters. Varric deciding to test the waters a bit.

"... You know what would help me find red lyrium? Dog. It was always helpful in sniffing out the bad shit."

Hawke would've responded, "*Dog isn't here to smell your shit, Varric! He's at home with (Love interest).*" Followed by some sarcastic humour.

"A dog would be useful, shame we don't have one around here. Solas would probably hate it, seems to dislike dogs quite a bit. Which is odd, since he seems to like wolves..."

Varric laughs softly at the idea of Chuckles being scared of dogs. "That would be a sight, I could make it happen, if you like."

Inquisitor leans closer, a sparkle in their eye. "You would?!" They seem happy, maybe at getting a dog, maybe about having a relaxed conversation where they weren't just the Inquisitor, perhaps both.

Varric pauses for a moment, thinking on how Hawke could get easily tricked into saying things, with the right words and hints. "Maybe a dog isn't a good idea, though. Especially with all this weird shit going on."

"Aw c'mon!!" The Inquisitor, out of character, raises their arms into the air, "If a dog can fight dark spawn and endless blood magic stuff, why not have one to fight Corypheous!" (sp?) They groaned, leaning on their own in a huff with a pout on their face.

Varric stared, his mouth agape slightly, the exact same mannerisms as Hawke. The same way of talking and- no, more proof. Something else. Something to get them to practically admit it. "Inquisitor, have you read my Tale of the Champion?" They looked at him, pout still on their face.

"Yeah, I've asked you a bunch of questions about it before, remember? Are you alright, Varric?" They sat up, real concern on their face.

Hmm how was he going to play this? "Well, I wanted to talk about... stuff. After fighting with the Seeker, things are still... awkward. I was thinking, opening up to you.. would be a lot easier?"

Inquisitor's eyes raised up, in concern for him and their eyes seemed surprised and confused. (My idea being the player is like, okay weird that I've never seen this dialogue before etc). "Varric, I'm here for you if you need me." They held his shoulder, their face all serious and.. the grip was familiar. The same grip and look as Hawke when they comforted him. Shit, this is getting weird.

"Let's talk somewhere more private, don't want unwanted ears listening." Varric rose out of his chair, walking towards the throne, Inquisitor following. He had never seen the Inquisitor's room and now gave him the perfect excuse to let him. They headed to the Inquisitor's room, no one ever came up here apart from the Inquisitor and *love interest's nickname*.

The two sat on the couch, Varric across from the Inquisitor and thinking how to start.

"It's nice to hang out with my friends up here." They said, tilting their head sideways, like Hawke did when they were shy or embarrassed. Sometimes angry too. "Believe it or not, I feel like myself here more than anywhere else in Skyhold. I can.. talk more freely here." They smiled nervously, itching at their nose. Another habit Hawke had until they began painting their face, then it was always their cheek, neck or forehead. Varric wasn't sure what to make of his suspicions. What did he think? A spirit that found itself inside Hawke and now the Inquisitor? If that was it, as long as it doesn't do harm, then it could be fine. Just don't want another blondie scenario to happen-

"Varric?" Inquisitor broke his inner ramblings, "Don't be afraid to talk, I'm here to listen and no one will hear or interrupt us. This is my space and right now, it's ours."

Varric stared at them, watching the way they fidget and thinking about how intent they were on listening whenever he wanted to talk. "I've said it before but, I want to apologise for not contacting Hawke soon-"

"And there's no need to. You've already apologised and I can understand." Hawke pushed a plate of biscuits towards him. Most of the chocolate ones were gone, he thought for a moment if it was a Hawke thing but everyone likes chocolate.

"Thanks, I- Hawke has been through so much. I just wanted them to be safe, happy. They were away with *nickname of love interest* and when they wrote me, they seemed genuinely happy but... different." Varric takes a look toward the Inquisitor, "I wouldn't take Hawke away from that, away from happiness. They lost so much and-" He had to stop, he wasn't actually trying to open up to them about Hawke.

"Varric? Can I ask you something? About the champion." They stared at him, unblinking and fidgeting, they were nervous. "Were you and Hawke- .. Are you and Hawke together? Romantically?" The Inquisitor blinked, laughing softly at their awkward phrasing and rubbed at the back of their neck. Varric wanting to move on from the question, so he said.

"I never found out why you started rubbing your neck after we met. I remember (Sunshine/Juinor) saying you hadn't until after we met. *They* said it was a nervous tick thing." Varric smiled softly, a grin growing on his face.

"Oh yeah, (Bethany/Carver) pointed it out once or twice. Dad often rubbed his neck when he was around Mum, it's one of the few things I remember about him. A habit he had when he was admiring M-" They stopped, wide eyed and looked to Varric in surprise. "I uh, I mean-"

"I don't believe I ever told you *their* nicknames. (Sunshine/Junior)." Varric leans forward, a small smirk on his face. "Odd that you would know about them, Inquisitor." They looked away, covering their mouth in shock.

Inquisitor's fingers started softly scratching at the couch, "I uh- Talk to Hawke. A lot. And that's what they-they said to me." They cringed at their daft excuse. Letting in a shaky breath and returning his gaze, they looked- sad, scared even.

"I need to know. Are you... are you Hawke?" Varric questioned, such a fucked scenario.

They looked to the ground, hesitant at first before turning serious. "Yeah. I... I was only Hawke since running from Lothering to leaving Kirkwall." They looked up slowly.

Varric leaned into the back of the couch, taking in what they said. "So what are you? A spirit or...?" So he- he became friends with this person and.. what of the Hawke he knew? Was he still their best friend and soulmate? Or was the now Inquisitor, his best friend?

Inquisitor looked sad for a moment. Unsure of what to say. "So there's- okay, you choose." They turned serious again, but looked scared. "I can tell you the truth. The complete truth. It's going to be hard to hear and honestly, might break your heart... I don't wanna tell you the whole truth. I don't know if you'd like it. Or I can tell you a story. One where it makes sense to you. Where I am both Hawke, the Inquisitor and... someone else. Where I have powers that... allow me to do many things. I'd be like Cole. I'm just not sure what I am."

Varric took a breath, thinking. This truth, they seemed uncomfortable with. The story however, they were happy to open up about despite being unsure of. Similar to him. He stared in their eyes, a familiar look. Hawke's gaze but with different eyes.

I want...

The Truth:

"I want the truth. If you're Hawke, I need the truth. It won't leave this room." Varric leaned forward, arms leaning on his knees and his hands gripped.

They swallowed, looking down, taking a breath and looking back up. "So you know books?" They smiled gently, "I'm... *reading* a book. This book, let's me make choices-"

"A make your own adventure book. Hawke loves th- *you* love them..." Varric caught himself. This was going to take a while to get used to.

"Yeah so um... The book is the third of the series... It let's me make choices, develop relationships and take part in a whole new story.

The first book, Dragon Age: Origins." They smiled brightly at Varric, showing a happiness and excitement he hadn't seen before. "In this book, you play a Warden whose thrust into the role of a leader. Who has to not only stop a blight but make choices that will effect the rest of the...*series*."

Varric blinked, "Wait. So you're-"

"Let me finish, I'll explain. Any questions you have, leave for the end please." They laughed, making Varric smile. Hawke only smiled like that with their (love interest.)

"In the next book, you play a refugee just trying to survive with their family, losing some on the way..." They looked sad, small tears forming in their eyes. "In this particular book, you make 'friends' with this amazing dwarf, which may I say in my opinion is the *best* relationship across the series?" They grinned and a small blush formed, *probably* out of embarrassment. "The plot twist is: your adventure is actually said Dwarfs book. So... if it's any form of comfort, I'm not *your* Hawke. But I'm the Hawke you *wrote*." They smiled nervously, "All the personal stuff, all the time's Hawke broke down or any *tension* that happened," The Inquisitor wiggles their eyebrows and snorts in laughter, "I don't know anything about. I'm literally the Hawke Cassandra knows of."

Varric rubbed his head, taking this all in before removing his hand, waiting for them to finish.

They pause for a moment. "The last book... is Dragon Age Inquisition." They look around the room, "You're playing as a character who got *lucky*. Or *unlucky*, I suppose it counts on your thoughts about it all. You receive a magical-portal-closing power that gains you political power and many friends... I've seen where this story ends but haven't finished the book for myself yet. I- There are many friends who you get along with, many who you can choose to fall in love with. But there are a few things about this book that... don't *sit* well with me." They laughed loudly for a moment before quickly regaining their composure. A joke Varric noted to himself he would ask about later.

"There are moments when I look back to the second book and miss the relationship I had with y- a *dear friend*. And when Hawke, the real-but-kinda-not-real Hawke on the battlements... I get jealous. Because I can't be close to you like how I used to be. And I'll be honest, I haven't really found a character who I can just be myself with, unlike in the last book. Where I got to be myself around you..." The stop. Hesitating. "I really miss you."

Varric stares at them, their sincere and pained eyes. "It's the chest hair, everytime." They look down at his chest and back up again, before cackling loudly.

~~~

I didn't think I would do this much writing, I really miss writing haha.

Anyway, hope you liked this so far, sorry for the cut at the end. Just ran out of energy.

If you or if you know someone who could like this little short story about Dragon Age, feel free to let me know your thoughts and feeling on the comments. ^^

Some of the opinions and things were mostly taken from my opinion or feelings. There were a few taken from others as well.

I'd love to see an artist draw their Inquisitor/Hawke in this AU. Or make their own interpretation. Maybe your AU is that all the heroes have a spirit that helps them or anything you want haha. Also feel free to write a HawkexVarric romance in yours, BECAUSE I'm trash for HawkexVarric TT-TT)/

Feel free to tag anyone you think would be interested and feel free to add to this ^^ I hope you enjoy this AU idea.

I may tag some friends who could be interested ^^

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

Ninjago Unpopular Opinions

Following on from my watch of the entire old series (combined with already having seen the last two series), I have enough material to work with to make a sort of unpopular opinion list. Some of these are lightweight, some of these are...uh, not so much. 

These aren’t in any particular order, this is more of a “I’ll just put them down as I remember them” sort of deal. That’ll be why they appear so messy. 

-Even after all this I prefer the newest seasons to the older stuff. There have been a surprising number of good to great older seasons, but I just love that hit of S1/S2 campiness with the more developed writing of later seasons. 

-Cole sucked as a leader, aside from in the pilot episodes. In the series proper he varied from complete meathead I hated (first part of S1), to having the same mentoring personality as everyone else (S1 - S2), to being consumed by the love triangle which made him pull a really shitty move (I don’t need to tell you what that refers to). He eventually gets ironed out in season 4, but Lloyd had already taken over as leader at this point. And rightfully so, even if Lloyd’s material got knocked from season 3 as a result. 

-I couldn’t really warm up to Ronin that much for some reason. I get the reason why he’s popular, since it was pretty obvious he was supposed to be like an off-beat mentor figure to Nya, but...I dunno, unlike with Dareth, it felt like his skeevy moments were more off-kilter, plus I didn’t really like his arc in Skybound (even if that was written out of reality). That being said, his was strong in Possession even with said moments. Maybe I just need a future appearance to see how I ultimately swing with him.

-I mentioned this in my Hunted overview, but I think Skylor’s just bland. Part of the problem is that she’s mainly just wedged in as an action girl and doesn’t have too many moments to interact outside of that. That’s mostly reserved for moments where she acts as Agony Aunt (which is fine, that shows that being supportive is in her nature), but she needs more to work with. And as an obvious offshoot, if Kailor is the intended endgame it sucks in its current form. They don’t have chemistry or a decent dynamic.

-The other Ninjago ship I don’t particularly like out of all of them is...actually Geode. Yeah, Rebooted obviously wasn’t good for it considering the love triangle, but what actually did more damage to it for me was Skybound. It went so far in trying to oversteer back that it beat you over the head with the fact they were making Cole and Jay best friends after said love triangle (made really obvious when Jay is worried about Cole’s reaction to him seeing Nya in his reflection in both Possession and Skybound, when Cole isn’t even phased when he’s told). It was just really off-putting.

-Jay is a better big brother figure to Lloyd than Kai. Yeah, Kai’s true potential moment in Rise of the Serpentine hinged on realising he (and the others, mind) were supposed to protect Lloyd, they all spent Legacy of the Green Ninja’s first half being Lloyd’s proper mentors, Zane’s death prompted Kai to hover with thoughts of the Green Ninja again (which seemed to me for different reasons to being envious of power at the start, although its handling was very clunky after that), and he had the first episode in Possession which was arguably the strongest showing of a dynamic with Lloyd, but Possession didn’t have much about it outside of said episode, and the show seemed to just forget it from that point beyond some very, very fleeting and sparse bits. In the more modern seasons, it feels like Jay’s stepped up to be more supportive of Lloyd on a more consistent basis (which would make sense with the common fanon that Jay is the youngest of the original Ninja, he’d be closer to Lloyd’s age). It’s something I kind of want tapped into in a proper way at some point.

-Sensei Garmadon is a bit overrated. Just a smidge. When he’s good, he’s good, but most of the time he’s no more interesting than Wu would be in the same position. And I feel like they didn’t really develop his fatherly bond with Lloyd too well despite that being what his character was there for. Again, aside from moments where he was really good.

-Most underrated season of the old batch for me was the last minute shock, March of the Oni. I did enjoy Day of the Departed (which has a worse reputation), but I can understand why someone wouldn’t like it considering how bare it was. March of the Oni is far from my favourite season but I thought it came together really well, so the fact it’s generally panned legitimately confuses me. I guess Hands of Time would be a contender too, but I think opinion on that has swayed in its favour after the new seasons came out (and Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjutsu would be here if I included the new batch) so that’s why it’s edged out. 

-Most overrated season for me was undeniably Tournament of Elements. It’s not my least favourite season, but Rebooted and Hunted are pretty maligned to begin with, while Tournament of Elements is usually considered one of the top ones. It starts strong, has an interesting premise and there are ideas that are executed well. The thing is that the elements that people tend to praise the season for are ones I actually think the writers dropped the ball on, hence why this ended up the toughest season to get to the end of, even more than Hunted. It’s a shame, but it’s just not for me. 

-Best ninja suits...honestly, I don’t really notice the suits unless they’re really bad, because I’m used to franchises where costume changes mark radical permanent redesigns, and are not just par for the course of the brand (it makes perfect sense with a toy brand who want to sell you the same characters over and over again but still). Not counting the S11 suits since they weren’t part of the old batch, I guess I’d honestly say the ZX suits, maybe? They’re simple, but they’re cute and very distinct. Also Sons of Garmadon Cole channelling the Movie costume was a very good move (and arguably looks even better ripped up in Hunted aethetically), and Kai’s suit was bleh in Sons of Garmadon but its overhaul in Hunted was way better. Also, just as a wildcard, Rebooted Lloyd looks like a more finely tuned ZX suit. Actually, just one last bit on a tangent to note a difference the show makes to the figures that demonstrates the figures’ limitations. For Kai and Jay’s S11 suits, their figures invoke similar feels (because underneath the accessories they do have a lot in common), whereas they feel very different in the show because while Jay sticks to the figure and looks snug, Kai has a lot exposed around the neckline, as if his gi is hanging loosely on the shoulders and should join Cole in the “For fucks sake it’s an ice realm wear a jacket please” club. 

-Worst ninja sui--what the hell happened to Cole and Nya in Hands of Time?! Nya’s main issue is that it’s trying to work too many colours and they just don’t mesh well. I think this was the time they were partially adapting the movie’s change, but they were clinging onto her having red to both represent Samurai X and her ties to her brother, but they should have just picked one or the other because it just doesn’t work the way it did in Skybound. And Cole’s outfit is just hideous. Its balance of colours and accents is all off-kilter, and to top it off the shoes just don’t work and somehow look like socks with sandals. I didn’t know that was doable with a whole suit. Finally, on a general note, I’m not a fan of when the suits are all very similar bar some very, very minor differences. One could argue that it makes them look more like a team, but I prefer the individual personality to come out. 

-It’s hard to judge the best and worst episodes, honestly. The seasons from Tournament of Elements onwards are done so tied to each other that picking an episode is rather difficult outside of designated finales (or the odd Jay-focused/Zane-focused episodes that happened in seasons 7, 8 and 9). I guess for best I’d say stuff like The Quiet One, or The Fall, or Grave Danger, or stuff like that would be up there. Worst episodes in those seasons are even harder, because usually it’s how arcs over episodes are written that get to me, not individual episodes.  This all being said, it’s much easier to do this with the more episodic first three seasons, and to that end I would still say that Tick Tock is my favourite standalone episode still, and Home is still my least favourite. For all the times the writing has dropped the ball, nothing has legitimately pissed me off more than what this episode did because it’s in its own category of bad writing. 

-There have been some concepts thrown in that, while they definitely wouldn’t work out in the long term, make for interesting snippets of what-ifs. Like, I loved the bit where Jay was a show host and got around the stage using his lightning powers. That seems like such a natural fit outside of his ninja identity I wish I’d thought of it. Imagine Bradley Walsh using lightning to get around the studio, that would be metal as fuck.

-On the other side of that coin, the bizarro Ninja are the single most overrated concept in the show. I don’t like Scourge the Hedgehog to begin with, but he at least had some efforts to make him unique (that fell flat, but eh). The bizarro Ninja are the equivalent of Evil Sonic; cliche and undeveloped. They’re not even useful for the cliche idea of framing the actual Ninja since even though they’re seen doing delinquent behaviour, this is never addressed. Heck Nadakhan was more effective with this idea. Thing is that I can’t blame the show at all for this. While the concept is naff, the show itself treats them as they actually were; Garmadon’s puppets and the scheme of the episode. Aside from bizarro Jay’s behaviour to Nya being full of unfortunate implications, there is no greater purpose for their existence, and the show never tries to do it again. It’s really the fans that have inflated their appearance in this case because I guess the idea of “take this nice character and give them an evil version” is just so appealing to the teenage demographic. Screw that, corruption is way more fun and interesting. 

-What I can blame the show for is the single worst execution of an idea, because to this point I still consider Kai’s green ninja “arc” in Tournament of Elements to be the single worst executed arc (yeah, even worse than the love triangle, but that one is still bad). The sad thing is it managed to convince me that it wasn’t such a bad concept when they explained it by being an offshoot of his depression following Zane’s death (before that I was very sceptical it could fit it in naturally after the last three seasons). But then it was used once when Skylor tried to get Kai to stab Lloyd in the back during the skating match (which Kai completely rebuffed and seemed over his depression-rooted negative vibes on Lloyd), and once more when he was overcome by the power of the staff. The latter is especially infuriating since this would have been the perfect opportunity for a character moment. Like, Lloyd and/or Skylor could have fought to get Kai out of the trance of the staff and see that his friends mean more to him than having power. It practically writes itself and is a perfect set-up. What happens instead is that Cole is technically the one to save Kai from himself as he rams the Roto Jet into the chamber and makes the rocky serpentine structure come crashing down on Kai. Maybe interesting to read into if you want a Lava reading of the show, but in that moment is just a wasted opportunity. Come on!

-Actually, also talking about other bad concepts, I don’t miss those weird energy dragons they could summon starting from Tournament of Elements. The dragons in Rise of the Serpentine/Legacy of the Green Ninja were fine because they had a logical reason for being there and actually were integrated into the plot (so you got to watch them being maintained and having moments with the ninja). The energy dragons in Tournament of Elements existed for one character as a plot thing (Zane’s, because he always had the good plots in the earlier seasons), but then everyone else suddenly could do it too and they became convenient plot devices and nothing else. Airjutsu I was more okay with because it seems more like a tool they’d use and could be integrated better, but I can also see why that stopped being used (outside of that one bit in Prime Empire).

-The Elemental Masters are both over-hyped and underdeveloped. The normal civilian cast really got the shaft once the series decided it wanted to explore this lore, yet the only ones I really got interested in in any way were the villain EMs and Karlof. And even Karlof is overlooked by the fandom, by the looks of it. 

-Jay actually came off the best in the Rebooted love triangle. He’s not entirely perfect, but he is essentially the biggest victim as a result of it in that season, and what Nya and Cole did either bordered on or was outright callous for different reasons. I think if people gave Jay the biggest shtick for Rebooted’s events, it’s influenced with how Skybound botched trying to patch it up. 

-The movie was a net positive influence on the show. Aside from me preferring the designs of the movie anyway, it forced the characterisation to actually pick a lane for each character and stick to it, mitigating a lot of the haphazard characterisation issues. The inconsistency in later seasons is tone instead, which is maybe why people thought the characterisation was inconsistent between Sons of Garmadon/Hunted and March of the Oni/SotFS (when really, they weren’t that different if at all). The show also made a good call in ignoring movie Zane’s characterisation; as much as I enjoy it in the film, it really didn’t gel up with what the show had done with him, so trying to force it in would have been more of a characterisation jolt than any of the early season stuff. 

-I’m generally fine with Jaya and Pixane. The former I can see why people would be off about it because there have been some badly written periods for them, but I think on the whole it manages to hold it together. The latter was written in surprisingly smoothly given the circumstances, so it’s no wonder I don’t see discourse about it. 

-Oh yeah, I don’t get Wu/Faith as a ship. Like, she was the cool drill instructor/aunt to everyone, including Wu. This is a quick one because it’s just a very small aside.

-Also I can’t really get behind Polyninja either. If the characters had a fairly even spread of interaction and moments between each other I could, but the spread ends up like lots of moments between Cole and Kai varying from little moments to huge dollops, and Cole and Jay having a whole best friends affirmation arc due to the fallout of the love triangle, to Kai and Jay having barely anything to work with and anyone with Zane getting a couple of table scraps occasionally. It’s not even enough.

-Following on from that though, Zane feels the least integrated with the group dynamic in general. He’s has some of the best plots and stories in the show, but nearly all of them have been focusing on him solo. And not even SotFS or Prime Empire helped with this one. Hopefully MoM can smooth this one out a bit. 

-Finally for this post, after going through all those seasons I still prefer Nya’s movie voice to her show voice by a significant margin. Sorry Kelly Metzger. 

I think that’s it. I’ve actually been on this for a week but I’ve been allowing time for more thoughts to come to me, because there have been a lot of thoughts coming in batches. I think I’ll leave it at this though, because I think most of it is covered pretty well.

I have at least two more text posts like this planned, but they’re not strictly about the old seasons so I’ve left them for after. I’m looking forward to them though, because they’re on specific topics and that is my bread and butter pudding. 

[doomonfilm]

Ranking : Marvel Cinematic Universe - The Infinity Saga (2008 - 2019)

Outside of the Star Wars or James Bond franchises (or maybe even the longstanding BBC series Dr. Who), I am hard pressed to think of a bigger, more intricately connected set of films than those created by Kevin Feige for his Marvel Cinematic Universe (better known as the MCU to most people).  With the help of numerous established and upcoming stars, a vast range of directors, and a rich history of characters and events the studio could play fast and loose with, Marvel Studios spent roughly a decade transforming “comic book” films from gimmicks into legitimized artistic storytelling, forcing many studios to attempt and emulate the success of a connected “cinematic universe” without laying the groundwork needed to do so.

With WandaVision in motion on Disney+, and the release future of Black Widow still up in the air, the trajectory in which the MCU will move forward is still a mystery, but these properties firmly close the door on the initial three phases of Marvel Studios releases, collectively known as The Infinity Saga due to their connection to Thanos and the six Infinity Stones.  Individually, many of these pieces had impact, but as a whole, the overarching story that they tell is an epic feat yet to be matched. 

But enough preamble, I know what everybody came here for.  So, based solely on my opinion and nothing else, here is The Infinity Saga, as presented by Marvel Studios, ranked from least to most favorite...

23. The Incredible Hulk (2008) It’s a shame that my favorite Marvel character seems to be a conundrum when it comes to giving him a solo movie.  With a decent slice of these characters, it’s about casting the “normal” version of the character, and in the case of this film, as great of an actor as Edward Norton is, I am not sure if he can play enough self-sabotaging behaviors to believably provide us with a Bruce Banner that audiences can connect with.  As a result, The Incredible Hulk left us with an isolated protagonist (literally and figuratively) forced to carry audiences between long stretches absent of Hulk in his green glory.

22. Thor (2011) For a time, it seemed as if Thor was going to be the realm of the MCU where gravitas resided.  The Shakespearean approach to mythic heroes adapted by Marvel was fresh at the time, as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. were around, but certainly more relatable.  Bringing Thor, Odin, Loki and a host of other legendary Asgardians into the fold broadened the world, but with the entire picture of this stretch now laid out in front of us, it is clear that Chris Hemsworth had not yet found his voice as Thor.  We knew he would have to earn his worthiness and his title as King of Asgard, but I doubt anyone anticipated Thor would become one of the consistently funniest aspects of the MCU... sadly, that was not yet developed in his first film, and as a result, his introduction falls to the lower realms of the list.

21. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

20. Ant-Man (2015) It was not my intention to lump the Ant-Man movies together, but in all honestly, they do work best in that capacity.  The events of both movies, for the most part, seem to satellite around the bigger nucleus narrative, and up until Avengers : Endgame, and appearance made by Ant-Man in the other films was cursory or meant to “balance the scales” (as in the case of Captain America : Civil War).  Don’t get me wrong... Paul Rudd is a fabulous addition to the MCU family, and listening to Michael Peña tell stories never gets old, but when it comes down to the big picture, Ant-Man and his two films are not the largest puzzle pieces on the table.

19. Captain Marvel (2019) The possibilities for an epic film were all there... Krees and Skrulls would finally get a chance at the spotlight, we were being teased going back in time without realizing how it would play into the resolution of our Infinity Saga storyline, and the final moments of the film made us question everything we’d been presented with up until that point.  Sadly, however, Carol Danvers turned out to be an extremely overpowered and dangerously self-unaware character, resulting in a lack of stakes or emotional connection ever really being established.  While Captain Marvel does have fun elements to it, much of the work that managed to stick was undone by her forced and underwhelming appearance in Avengers : Endgame.  Of all the properties in the MCU, this one seems to have the most whispers and rumors surrounding it in regards to its production and future within the MCU moving forward, but I will be curious to see how time treats this film.

18. Iron Man 3 (2013) Up through Phase Two of The Infinity Saga, Tony Stark was always positioned as the loner of the group.  With that in mind, it does seem a bit strange to me that his final solo film, and the first solo film after Marvel’s The Avengers, would find Tony back in isolation mode so vigorously.  In all fairness, War Machine is there (during his brief stint as The Patriot), and Pepper Potts is given the most room to play out of all three films, but as interesting as the antagonist structure for the film is, the convoluted nature of having at least three tiers of villainy almost begs the inclusion of at least one more Avenger.  Ultimately, the film does move Tony closer to the rest of the camp, but it’s odd that more Avengers weren’t involved in the actual film. 

17. Captain America : The First Avenger (2011) Of all the characters fans were presented with in the MCU, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Captain America received the most rewarding arc of any character in The Infinity Saga.  Every journey needs a starting point, and simply because it was the origin story, Captain America : The First Avenger was never destined to be the best of the MCU.  Visually, the MCU was still figuring a few things out, so some of the scrawny Cap scenes look awkward, but by the time this film is all said and done, all of the honor, character and heart needed to propel Cap forward was present and accounted for.

16. Thor : The Dark World (2013)

15. Iron Man 2 (2010) Maybe it’s a recencey bias thing, but I really enjoyed Thor : The Dark World and Iron Man 2.  Up until deciding to make this list, I’d not seen either of these films, and it was largely due to the negative reactions I’d heard from most fans and critics.  Thor : The Dark World gave us brief glimpses of where the Thor character was headed, it was a great look for Jane Foster (who is seemingly on her way back into the mix), it opened up some mystic doors that we will likely be exploring moving forward in the MCU, and due to these mystic elements, we may have seen the beginnings of S.W.O.R.D., who is already making its presence felt in Phase Four.  As for Iron Man 2, we are given the polar opposite Tony Stark from his introductory movie, and due to his seemingly unstoppable mission to erase himself, War Machine is given autonomy, and the beginnings of the Iron Legion are built.  Perhaps its a bit of a revisionist lens as well, hence these two being grouped together, but time seems to have been very kind to these two films, despite their flaws.

14. Spider-Man : Far From Home (2019) Avengers : Endgame would have been a perfect place to close the door on The Infinity Saga, but that monumental task was appointed to Spider-Man : Far From Home.  Perhaps it was that implied burden that made the film feel a bit buried under the weight of expectations.  There are certainly calls to a post-Tony Stark snap present throughout the film, but Mysterio’s plan runs seemingly independent of any previous events shown.  The mid and post-credit scenes certainly tease big things for the future, but even before COVID-19 flipped the script on the industry, it was uncertain where things where headed as the new phase unrolled.  This film was enjoyable, but almost feels like a stand-alone trapped on a bridge between two worlds of narrative.

13. Iron Man (2008) The one that started it all.  I’ve never been the biggest Iron Man fan, but I can certainly respect the large risk that Kevin Feige took by kickstarting his empire with a character seemingly caught between fame and obscurity.  Tony Stark has enough Bruce Wayne in him to make him an intriguing character, but Iron Man and Batman could not be more different from one another, which immediately gave the MCU a fresh feel in light of them using a Silver Age character.  The pool of household name talent was limited, as Sony was sitting on Spider-Man, the X-men and the Fantastic Four in 2008, but ultimately, Iron Man was a roll of the dice that paid off in a major way. 

12. Spider-Man : Homecoming (2017) Spider-Man is such an iconic character that it is sometimes hard to believe that he was not always involved in The Infinity Saga.  Tobey Maguire was the definitive Spider-Man to many fans, and Andrew Garfield was starting to build a cult following, but after a bit of legal ping-pong, Captain America : Civil War went from being an anticipated mess to possibly a shadow of its comic book counterpart when Spider-Man appeared in the trailer.  Tom Holland brought a pitch-perfect voice and sensibility to the character, and Spider-Man : Homecoming drove those feelings home (no pun intended).  It wasn’t like Spider-Man needed a boost in tandem with his entry into the MCU, but his introductory movie did most everything right (including assuming we were WELL AWARE of his often repeated origin story).

11. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Out of everyone that the MCU has introduced to the masses, it is safe to say that I knew the least about the Guardians of the Galaxy... in fact, my closest tie to knowledge of their existence came in the form of Howard the Duck, who shares that section of the Marvel comic universe with them.  Marvel Studios had already made me enjoy films about Thor and Iron Man, two characters I did not consider myself a fan of prior to their films, so I went out on a limb in hopes that Marvel could sell me on characters I had zero connection to.  Guardians of the Galaxy did provide another set of colors in the Marvel spectrum, and it helped open the door to Marvel’s space-centered stories, but it wasn’t until the sequel that I went back and really found an appreciation for Guardians of the Galaxy, which I will expound later.  That being said, Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel film that has been benefited by time and revisitation.

10. Marvel's The Avengers (2012) The main pieces had found their way to the board by the time Captain America : The First Avenger was released, and it only seemed like a matter of time before the big players would cross paths.  Rather than build to a mass collaboration via smaller duos and groupings, Marvel went all in to close Phase One by locking in The Avengers as the collective stars of The Infinity Saga.  Loki found new agency as their protagonist, but he was really just a smokescreen for the big bad of the entire saga, Thanos.  The entire run of 23 movies can be summed up or represented by the iconic shot that rotates around our heroes when they stand shoulder to shoulder for the first time, staring up at their enemy emerging from the sky.  There was no turning back at this point, and this is largely due to the wonderful execution of one of the MCU’s key films.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) I’m really not sure why Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t connect for me initially, but after watching Vol. 2, I felt a deeper understanding of Peter Quill, the relationship between Gamora and Nebula, and I came to love Groot and Drax even more (who didn’t immediately love Rocket Racoon?).  Kurt Russell was the evolved mirror to Chris Pratt that I didn’t know I needed, and the soundtrack contained more songs that spoke directly to me than the first film.  Some of the set pieces were downright beautiful in this film, I lowkey became a big fan of Mantis, and Yondu’s story culmination may have been the first time the MCU brought a tear to my eye.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may deceptively be the most emotionally powerful of all the MCU films, short of Avengers : Infinity War, and for that, it must be respected, considering it all came from a little known band of upstarts.

8. Captain America : Civil War (2016) While Marvel’s The Avengers may be the first true “event” film in the MCU, the first major “event” attempted in terms of historic Marvel stories was the infamous Civil War run.  A weird mix of anticipation and fear existed in the time preceding the film’s release, as a number of key players from the comic book storyline were either not available to the MCU or had not yet been introduced into the MCU.  Speculation between who would be emerging, omitted and adjusted flew back and forth, but in the end, we were not only presented with a riveting triangle of emotion between Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Bucky, but Spider-Man and Black Panther stepped into the spotlight (with a little dose of Ant-Man thrown in for good measure).  Had the MCU waited for a different phase, there’s no telling how many heroes and villains could have ultimately been involved, but considering what they had at the time, the MCU definitely exceeded expectations and created their own iconic version of a Marvel narrative hallmark.

7. Black Panther (2018) Outside of the final two Avenger’s, there wasn’t a more anticipated or well-received release (to my knowledge) than Black Panther.  After bursting onto the scene in Captain America : Civil War, it seemed everyone was ready for more of King T'Challa, Black Panther and Wakanda.  Chadwick Boseman became even more of a fan favorite than he already was, and Black Panther became the first MCU film to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards.  Marvel presented Wakanda, and Africa in turn, with the utmost cultural, historical and social respect, and short of a slightly underwhelming finale in terms of visual effects, it was hard to hang a complaint on Black Panther.  If the MCU had to pick a single film that they were most proud of, I would not be surprised if this was the one that was chosen.

6. Doctor Strange (2016) As a fan of science fiction, mysticism and overall weirdness, I was incredibly hype for the announcement and release of Doctor Strange.  Of all the active characters in the MCU at the time, Doctor Strange was the most obscure that I was already familiar with, and his introductory film did not disappoint.  The visual representation of the mystic arts was brilliant, casting Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One was a stroke of genius (despite many that voiced reservation to the choice), and the introduction of different dimensions and realms to the MCU hinted at the future that was to come.  With Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness coming in sooner than later, it is almost certain that I will be revisiting this film, and I hope that as time goes by, it finds a bigger audience with a deeper appreciation for it. 

5. Thor : Ragnarok (2017) If I think about it hard enough, I can probably find a character that will contradict this statement, but I’m hard pressed to think of a character than took a bigger personality jump between individual films than Thor did between The Dark World and Ragnarok.  We got shades of a new Thor in The Dark World, and he was really starting to come out of his shell in Avengers : Age of Ultron, but I’m not sure if anyone expected for Taika Waititi to not only turn Thor into possibly the most loveable Avenger, but make his third film a psychedelic masterpiece of fun.  Thor and Loki have never had better chemistry, Cate Blanchett was surprisingly well cast as Hela, and most everyone’s favorite MCU iteration of the Hulk came to life (not to mention a brief nod to Beta Ray Bill being present for keen viewers).  It may not be the best film in the MCU, but Thor : Ragnarok is almost certainly the one viewers gravitate towards if they make a quick selection.

4. Avengers : Endgame (2019) How do you end a story arc that spans more than 20 films?  Well, for starters, you bring every character to the table, collect every expectation that fans have for them, and then kick all of those expectations to the side and forge a completely wild, new and unexpected path.  For a large portion of Endgame’s runtime, it is tonally and stylistically different than any other Avengers film, but near the end, when the rubber hits the road, Thanos and his legions of followers take part in one of the most epically satisfying stands against our heroes already present, only for the world of the MCU to open up and rain the most enjoyable and acceptable fan service ever to be captured to film, including the most iconic Captain America moment of all time.  

3. Avengers : Age of Ultron (2015) For a long while, this film stood as my clear-cut favorite in the MCU.  I didn’t even know I was a Vision fan until he emerged from his chamber, and the introduction of Scarlet Witch has brought me nothing but joy.  David Spader brought some of the best antagonist personality in his powerful portrayal of Ultron, and the party scene provided one of my favorite non-action sequences in all of the MCU.  The interactions between the Avengers had the best balance of all their collaborative films during Age of Ultron, and Scarlet Witch took each of our heroes to the darkest corners of their mind.  Perhaps people had other ideas in mind when they learned that Tony and Bruce’s murderbot was due for a screen appearance, but for my money’s worth, Age of Ultron was the first Avengers film that blew my mind, and still stands as my personal favorite of the Avengers movies.

2. Avengers : Infinity War (2018) Easily the most epic of all the MCU films, Infinity War set the stage for a truly iconic struggle between the Earth’s mightiest heroes and the seemingly unstoppable Thanos that had been promised over many, many films, and in the opening rounds, Infinity War delivered.  For all of the combinations of characters we’d been provided, we’d yet to see Tony interact with Doctor Strange or Star-Lord, and each of those meetings yielded hilarious results.  The stakes had never been higher prior to Infinity War, and the costs had not been greater up to this point.  I personally remember people in theaters being nearly moved to tears when their favorite heroes (especially Spider-Man) began turning into dust, like they were watching Schindler’s List.  If the MCU collectively raised the bar for comic book movies, then Infinity War raised the bar for the MCU. 

1. Captain America : The Winter Soldier (2014) The MCU has more than a handful of classic films under their belt, but Captain America : The Winter Soldier is probably the sole film of the MCU that feels like a proper action/adventure suspense-thriller, like it was penned by John Grisham.  The connection between Bucky and Cap is kinetic in its swings between impending hope and tragedy, and the level of combat and action in the film is second to none.  This was the film where the Cap that the masses know and love stepped into his own as a hero and a leader.  Of all the directors that Marvel Studios has tapped, the Russo Brothers seem to have the secrets unlocked to make a great MCU film, and Captain America : The Winter Soldier is the pound for pound best they’ve offered yet.

[cluelessaboutavatar]

Warriors of Kyoshi (Reaction)

I am an animation fan who has never seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, and for the last 15 years, have never observed a single spoiler. Below is my blind-reaction/analysis of Season 1, Episode 4, broken up into two sections: a Dumb Summary(tm), and an honest reflection.

My Dumb Summary In this episode, Ang and the Gang go to Girl Island - a village with one claim to fame - it had been the birthplace of one of the incarnations of the Avatar hundreds of years ago. She was a female avatar, so it's not surprising that their culture evolved Girl-Jitsu, a special form of martial arts practiced exclusively by an elite squadron of young women. Key Events of This Episode: -The water bender's brother, What's-His-Face, gets his a** handed to him by girl warriors, and then dresses in drag to train with them. -Meanwhile, Young Fire Dude gets into a duel with Older Fire Dude over who gets to hunt the Avatar. The younger one wins, but the Old Fire Dude doesn't take losing well, so he launches the flame-throwing equivalent of a sucker punch. Iroh leaps in, blocks the flames, and chides the guy for being honorless. 'Cause Iroh is the only fire dude with any sense at all. -Back at Girl Island, Ang is fawned over for being the Avatar. Despite warnings from the Water Bender, Ang lets his fame go to his head, and endangers everybody by sticking around for too long. Then the fire nation shows up, trashes the village, and the protagonists skidaddle. -Ang on the way out, leaps off the flying buffalo thing, and summons a water-puking eel to put out the flames that the Fire Nation had inflicted upon the village of Girl Island. My Naive Reaction

This is the first episode of the series that truly grabbed me. That's not to say that I have anything against Episodes 1-3, but in the beginning, rather a lot happens to get the story moving forward quickly. The result is a plot that pushes the characters forward, rather than the other way around. Here, on Kyoshi Island, however, everything that happens is because of who these characters are as people. When Ang reveals himself as the Avatar, he ends up with a massive crew of adoring young fans, and over time, lets the fame go to his head. He lingers on the island despite the danger of staying in one place for too long. Ultimately, his foolish actions end up getting the village razed. I love this. Ang's hubris here is quite understandable, even relatable. In literally every other "chosen one" story I've ever read or seen, the author fails to take into account that such a thing could go to someone's head. Here, it is addressed openly, and handled with enough innocence on Ang's part, (and nuance on the writers' part), that the character doesn't come off as loathsome because of it. I really like that balance. I have a strong feeling that these mistakes that Ang made in this episode are going to shape his arc far into the future. Then there's Sokka.

In the first three episodes, his character was defined almost entirely by misogyny and hunger. And here he is, faced with fierce opponents in a troupe of female warriors who put him to shame. We have all seen this sort of thing in girl-power storylines before, it‘ always satisfying to watch a misogynist have his butt handed to him by empowered girls. What really impressed me, however, was the fact that it didn't take Sokka a whole episode to come around. After they whooped him a second time, he submitted to them with humility immediately, and begged to become a disciple. While it's fun watching him train in drag, he adjusts to that pretty quickly as well. He respects these girls as warriors, and embraces his tutelage under them as a mark of honor. This impressed me more than anything. They didn't drag his loss-of-misogyny arc out. At all. Once beaten, he put his desire to better himself ahead of his own ego, and instantly abandoned deeply ingrained lifelong prejudices. That's no easy feat. If there's one thing that 2020 has taught me, it's that, under duress, people's prejudices come boiling to the surface more toxic than ever. I don't know anyone who hasn't lost a friend over it.   Sokka is better than that. Respect. Now everyone I've ever spoken to has told me that this story is rich in character development, so I expected from the beginning that Sokka would grow beyond the one-dimensional stereotype he started out as. I did not, however, expect to see so much rich development packed tightly into one or two simple scenes, and certainly not in an episode as early as this. So far he's my favorite character, and I look forward to seeing where they go with this.

-Sprocket

If you enjoy what you see here, you may also be interested by my other blog, HELP MY HEART IS FULL OF PONY, where I do the opposite, and dissect minutiae in MLP in search of Truth.

[blastoisemonster]

Meitantei Conan: Karakuri Jiin Satsujin Jiken

My review will focus on the "Murder at the Temple of Karakuri" episode (featured in the cartridge shown above), since it's the one I played thoroughly, but it needs to be said that all five games look very similar and apart from, obviously, the different plots -or the lack of colour in case of the two gray cartridge games- they all feature the same mechanics and controls, along with the same quality in audio and graphics department. Later games might also show a few cosmetic upgrades but nothing experience changing.

After choosing our save slots out of the possible three, we're immediately launched into the opening cutscene, giving us context for the upcoming investigation. Right off the bat, the Meitantei Conan videogame shows offs some rather impressive backgrounds and spriteworks, with nice panorama views of the places we're visiting as the protagonist and portraits of the speaking characters, which also change expression depending on their speech lines. The soundtrack isn't immense, but definitely has solid tunes, too: the title screen even plays the main theme straight from the anime! This elaborate sound and video combination makes it feel like we're watching an actual toon episode. As soon as the initial scenes are done, we're off of "cutscene mode" and into "investigation mode", which controls and feels exactly like a classic top-view RPG for Game Boy, with the prerogative that Conan can run and move diagonally. Suck it, mainline Pokèmon games!

In this particular chapter, Conan's gang is initially tasked with finding Satomi Togawa, one of Ran’s friends who has recently gone missing. The search leads them to an ancient temple in the mountains, once home to a ninja clan and therefore still filled with traps, but that now hosts several people. Conan plans to look around discreetly, but all changes when one of the other characters living in the temple, Yuuji, is found dead in his room. Police arrives to the place, and the kidnapping investigations are moved aside in favour of the murder ones. During the game, Conan can obviously look around interacting with various objects and characters to round up clues and/or solve a few puzzles, but he has also other tricks up his sleeve- er I mean, main menu: by pressing Start we gain access to the Map (useful in order to memorize the most complex exploring areas), Character Profiles that display name, picture and basic info of everyone we've encoutered in our adventure (a feature strikingly similar to Phoenix Wright's Court Records), and last but not least all the Key Words of the case: this section pretty much gathers up all clues, thoughts and discoveries we find during the game and by "Considering" them (simply clicking on them, that is) Conan comes up with associations and ideas. If pressed in the right order until a coherent line of thoughts gets formed, the story will progress and new "scenes" are unlocked until the culprit is caught and their motives and modus operandi are explained. We can also stick close to the crime scene and examine the body and murder weapon, which are represented with perfectly gruesome close ups, and thoroughly described where the Game Boy's pixel screen reaches its true limit; we get a description of wounds, state of the body, and approximate time of death, all useful information in order to unveil the mystery. This chapter in particular also had an interesting murder puzzle with seemingly more than one killer at the same time, which made the experience even more pleasant to discover. Among some secondary game mechanics, the player may come across a few multiple choice answers of which only one is correct and guarantees progress; however, if the other two are chosen, there's seemingly no other malus than making Conan act like an idiot, though without changing the order or nature of future events. Conan can also "swap" roles with other playing characters if he talks to them (for example, while in the Karakuri temple we also have the choice of fooling around as Ran or Kogoro). This is not necessary in order to complete the case, but I understand it could be a welcomed touch for fans of the series that would like to experience a certain scene from different point of views; quite infact, it's interesting and funny to see how different characters react to clues or interactions, and NPCs also respond differently depending on who they're talking to. For example, suspects have a hard time responding to Conan while the police is investigating because they feel like it's not a kid's business; also, we learn that Kogoro is a record breaking asshole, as considering Key Words with him leads to absolutely nothing.

After all requirements are met and we're ready to point the finger at whodunit, one final puzzle is triggered in form of a questionnaire: similar to Gyakuten Kenji's logic thinking, Conan tries to summarize the case and put all events and intrigues in order with a series of questions that the player must reply correctly. However unfortunately it seems that just like the other multiple choices we get through the main game, these ones too end up feeling kinda useless for the unfolding of the events. Unmasking the culprit feels kinda a letdown, sadly, as it is presented not as an interactive section but rather as a long cutscene that, as said before, is not even influenced by how many answers the player got right during the "recapping" inner monologue. We don't even get to shoot Kogoro with sleeping needles; the game does it all by itself. That was very unnerving and unexpected, especially for an investigation game, and frankly the most negative point about it. We also get an epilogue where we save Satomi (remember her?) and some minor plot points that link this chapter's plot to the next one, tempting players to get the upcoming new cartridge. And after this, our very last gaming screen: a rating. Turns out that fooling around giving wrong answers only contributes to a less than stellar final score and nothing else in the game, which is honestly a shame, considering that it could have been potentially used instead to present different scenes, ways of investigating, and even possible bad endings. One could argue that this particular choice was made due to capacity limitations for data, but in that case why leave us the illusion that our choices matter? The character swap count is also shown on the score screen: I'm not sure if this counts towards a negative score or not, but I do hope developers didn't mean to penalize players for wanting to explore the game with different point of views (which, honestly, is what a good detective would do instead!).

In Short What's positive about Meitantei Conan? It's a little jewel in term of graphical and audio quality, and an impressive technical experiment that brings a complicated genre such as the murder mystery on a simple console such as the Game Boy, with a positive result. Easy to maneuver, it offers an intriguing story that can be enjoyed just fine either as alone or as a chapter from a saga, since the main plot links every single cartridge together. And it's also so bloody! Once you see this you'll definitely want to see fanmade Phoenix Wright cases on Game Boy. Let's start some projects!

And, what's negative about it? Well, it could have definitely been much more interactive. Except for the main examination part, the player mostly gets to follow the case through cutscenes, and the fact that they can't control any character during the final showdown is definitely disappointing. The multiple choices and logic thinking recap are useless to the story when they could instead add a lot of depth and replayability, so it does feel like developers missed a big chance. Also the fact that we only play through one investigation makes the game feel very short... I would have at least preferred to have two "episodes" per cartridge, but I imagine this was due to capacity limitations.

And that's the game! Very interesting and inspiring, but unfortunately not perfect. Nonetheless, an interesting piece for every kind of collection!

[fadinglake]

I’m going to gripe a bit at length about the ending of Harley Quinn S2, since it aired on Friday. These were all originally tweets that I’ve copied and pasted over. I’m putting this under a cut since there’s spoilers. 

So, the pivotal part of my complaint: Harlivy is canon now. And that's awesome! I've been hoping that's where the show was going to go since S1E1. For most of S1, it felt like that was the direction it was heading, and I loved it. But were any gay people actually writing this? I ask because, you know what gay people DON'T want to see? Relationships that start out as weird tension, become a drunken mistake, and then get hastily slapped together - at the expense of someone else's happiness, that we're guided to feel sympathy for.

The ENTIRE TIME, the show was working on the idea that Kite Man = goofy & weird, pretty immature, but ultimately well-meaning (in context), enthusiastic, kinda traumatized (by his parents), and deserving of something better. Some of this was played for humor - but not completely. The joke AT FIRST was that Ivy was out of his league. But over time, they actually form a meaningful connection, that was tied in with Ivy processing her own trauma and trust issues - and for a comedy show, HQ actually did a decent job of connecting & showing these things.

I was never, at any point, really into the idea that Ivy + Kite Man could be a legit thing. Ivy's connection w/Harley always seemed stronger, despite Harley having growing to do (which she did - most of S1 was her processing her breakup. Done pretty well. Felt thorough.) But it seemed like the show wanted to stick to the idea that Ivy+Kite Man was viable. It spent a lot of effort exploring that & showing growth, showing support for each other, really making a case for it.

I chalked it up to the usual comp-het stuff and moved on, somewhat disappointed bc I was, as I mentioned, rooting for Harlivy, but frankly any gay person is used to this. 2 characters have a DEEP bond, but they don't end up together, because we've gotta have a straight romance.

But then - after all that - suddenly the show pivots to push for Harlivy after all. REALLY quickly. ABSURDLY quickly - to the point where it actually feels like it was a last-minute decision. The leadup of this essentially happens over the course of just a few steps:

-Ivy+Harley escape from Bane's pit and kiss in relief. 

-They brush this under the rug & chalk it up to emotions running high.

-They get drunk & fuck a couple times @ Ivy's bachelorette party. Ivy expresses some regret, but somewhat passively ('oh, dammit. not again' esque)

-Harley VERY SUDDENLY realizes she's in love w/Ivy 

-Ivy VERY BRIEFLY admits they COULD have a relationship, but that Harley is too emotionally reckless. 

-Harley goes back and forth on wanting to prove she's trustworthy, or accepting that and moving on.

-Kite Man finds out, is sad. Ivy tries to prove she's dedicated to him. They attempt to get married anyway. 

-Wedding is crashed, Kite Man changes his mind & breaks up w/Ivy. 

-Ivy basically goes "Oh well!" and she and Harley escape together, deciding they're a couple immediately.

It looks a little long when you see it listed in like that, but all of that takes place over essentially just a few episodes - out of 26 total - and EVERYTHING after Kite Man finds out happens in 1 episode, alongside a bunch of other show-typical shenanigans.

It's very jarring in a show that took an entire season and a half to let Harley emotionally process everything that happened with the Joker. They set an emotional pace for themselves (that I thought worked really well!) and then threw it into a blender. To go from that level of pacing and emotional depth to everything that happened with Harley and Ivy in the last half of season 2 makes the entire thing feel incredibly rushed and underdeveloped. It's a huge shame.

I can tell that the show was heading towards them being together from the beginning - there's definitely groundwork - but it feels like all that work was supposed to pay off not by the end of S2, but by the end of S3.

For a show that was incredibly dedicated to exploring a character's inner emotional process, and showing them struggle through multiple stages of emotional healing, it sure feels like they didn't want to spend that time with ANY character for the last part of S2. Ivy goes RIGHT from processing that her trust issues stem from emotional neglect from her father to doing absolutely no inner reflection on what she feels and why. It doesn't match the established pace, and it makes the whole scenario seem REALLY sloppy.

Essentially, it feels like they slapped a series of quick-fixes on a HUGELY important scenario they have been building up to this whole time, with the biggest and messiest being Kite Man deciding halfway through the wedding (& in the middle of an anxiety fit) to call it off. He says "You don't really want this, and I deserve better." Ivy admits that he's right, and then goes to Harley, and tells her she loves her. 

 And that's. It.

There's no inner reflection on Ivy's part about the differences between the lives she and Kite Man each want. There's no delving into how her past trauma plays into how she responded to his love. There's not any spoken reason for why she loves Harley - just that she "gets" her.

At the end of the season, the show's message is: these 2 women are perfect for each other, and the thing in the way of their love is gone. Happy ending! But the 'thing' in the way was a character they spent 2 seasons building up to be sympathetic. The show literally shows that the only way for this relationship to exist is at the expense of another person's happiness, and it's SUPER uncomfortable. It doesn't make sense, and it's frankly painful for a gay person to watch, since this is the only gay relationship in the show.

Kite Man gets cheated on and lied to by a person he's entirely dedicated himself to, someone he shared vulnerability and emotional development with. The show spends a lot of time on that development, but then doesn't develop the relationship away at all. It's not a pendulum swinging the same arc back another way. It's more like a bird being shot out of the sky. 

I feel like in this way, the show is cannibalizing itself - it's smashing its own efforts, in order to get to point B.

I don't want to see gay rep that's show to be at the expense of someone else's happiness. I want gay rep that has meaning and development, the same as the straight rep in the show. This wasn't that. This was slapdash as fuck.

This was INCREDIBLY fucking rambly so here's the tl;dr: 

 Endgame Harlivy wasn't given the same development as the rest of the show, and instead felt rushed, uncared-for, and actually mean-spirited. I'd love to write a 'fix' for it. The setup was good, after all. But, well....we’ll see. 

Anyway. Don’t watch the HQ show for Harlivy. Watch it for Bane. And Killer Croc knitting “GOD’S DEAD” beanies. But mostly Bane.

[whump-the-caretaker]

Shifter pt. 3

previous / about the characters / next 

Avery woke, head pounding with whatever had put him out, and squinted up to see where he was. 

A cot. Small room sealed by a glass wall. A lab.

He jolted up off the cot and searched for… there. Beck. His stomach twisted, his eyes sticking when they landed on the table and the box holding his husband.

“No,” he breathed.

Beck was watching him from across the room, human this time and sitting with his knees drawn to his chest. The glass case was just as horrifying in the morning as it had been the night before, size and shape more akin to a dog kennel than anything that should be holding a person. His clothes were in shreds around him, apparently torn in a shift. 

“Are you okay? What’s happeni--” 

Beck shook his head shortly, eyes flicking sideways to something just out of sight. Avery frowned, moving to the glass wall separating them, and craned to see. 

The man who'd caught him, who'd stopped him from breaking through to Beck, was adjusting some sort of camera setup, pointed at Beck. Another sweep of fury flushed through him. 

The man nodded, pressing a button on the recorder and then scooped up a box that looked like an MRE. He watched him cross to Beck, slide it into the case through a quickly sealed slot and wait. 

Beck glanced at him and then picked up the box, flipping it open and wrinkling his nose in disgust. “What the fuck is this?”

“You were the one demanding food. That’s what you’re going to get for today. I’m sure you can think of something that can eat that.”

“Go to hell,” he growled, shoving it away and putting a hand under his nose to block out the smell. 

The man shrugged and turned away, heading for Avery’s holding room instead. 

“I really do apologize for this,” he said as he approached the cell wall. His entire demeanor had changed, and something about the shift made Avery deeply uncomfortable. “I hope you’ll understand, I can’t let you interfere. Whether you agree or not, we’ve already begun the process and stopping now would jeopardize the results.”

“What results?” Avery demanded. “What process?”

“Understanding of the shifter biology is very limited. The extremes of their capabilities have never truly been tested. I’ve begun the work with several others of the type, but never long term and never outside of… shall we say a more supervised study.”

“This is the first time you’ve kidnapped someone, you’re saying.”

“Now, that’s rather harsh. I’m only borrowing it from you for a short time. I’ll give it back when I’m finished.”

The hair on the back of Avery’s neck stood on end. “Did you just call my husband an it?”

“It’s a shifter.”

“He’s a person.”

“Mm. Interesting." He just looked at Avery for a moment, like he was curious about the idea. The idea that Avery thought Beck was a person. "Now, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to keep you here a little while. Can’t have you breaking in every time I turn my back. I’ll do my utmost to keep you comfortable.”

The man glanced back at Beck, who appeared to be focused on trying not to gag at the smell coming off of whatever was in the box. “I’ll be back tomorrow to see if we can’t get you into a few new shapes."

Beck flipped him off and waited for him to leave the room. 

“What the fuck?” Avery breathed when they were alone again. 

“He’s a piece of shit,” Beck muttered, cutting off with a dry heave. 

“What did he give you?” 

“Rotten meat.”

“Shit.” Avery smacked the glass wall. “Has he hurt you? What has he been doing?”

“Just making me shift. I’m fine.”

Avery doubted it.

“Goddamn it,” Beck growled, kicking his legs out against the side of the case in frustration. If he didn’t do something, he was going to puke, empty stomach or not, and it would only smell worse. “This is disgusting.” 

He pressed his eyes closed and reached for shapes he didn’t usually call on. Vulture, hyena, corvid… He ended up a coyote, the most familiar carrion eater he had, and was grateful for the moment that animals didn’t feel embarrassed the way humans did. The shame was still in his mind as he set his muzzle down and consumed the revolting contents of the box, but it didn’t have the same bite to it. He cleaned the scraps until even his sensitive nose couldn’t detect any traces.

Finished, he went to shift back and froze. It wasn’t the eating part that was dangerous as a human. It was the digesting. 

He was stuck.

Fuck. 

Unable to stop a low whine escaping his throat, he backed up until he was pressed into the corner, instincts driving him to put a wall at his back and lay down with his head on his paws. He was just going to have to wait it out. 

***

He startled awake and back to human form at a clatter near his cage. 

The man was there, setting up various instruments on the table beside the glass. Beck shivered with alarm that he’d gotten so close without waking him. Was it just the exhaustion settling in?

“Now,” he said, seeing Beck sitting up and eyeing him warily. “We really do need to get down to business.” 

“Leave me alone,” he protested. Despite his best efforts, it came out weak more than defiant. His mouth tasted foul from his meal as a coyote, and the dull ache of too much shifting was only settling deeper into his bones despite the rest.

The man ignored him. “Your clothes obviously didn’t shift with you, but your tattoos do. At what point does a foreign object start to shift with your body?”

Beck shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Of course you don’t. That’s why we’re finding out. Now, you don’t have any piercings. Strange for someone with tattoos.”

“The holes stay but not the studs,” Beck answered, eager to skip the trial of that. 

“Hmm. You demonstrated last night that stomach contents remain in their foreign body state until digested.”

Beck flinched, eyes snapping to the camera. He hadn’t known he was giving the man anything when he did that. 

The man nodded, seeming to reach a conclusion. He selected one of the marbles and readied the airhole plugs. 

“Wait, no,” Beck sat up straight. “Keep that shit away from me. I won’t--” The marble dropped in beside him and he grabbed for it, wanting to push it back out. But the holes were already plugged and the glass shattered under his fingers. 

The gas smelled sweet this time, coiling up and coating his nostrils. He pressed away from it and braced himself, waiting, but a shift didn’t come. When he went to look up at the man, ask what had happened, he found he couldn’t move. 

He heard the sensor chime and the top of the case open.

Panic was enough to trigger a groan and roll of his head, but that was all the movement he could manage. 

“I don’t know how I’m expected to keep sanitary conditions...” he grumbled to himself, gathering the empty ration boxes, broken spheres, scraps of soiled clothing. 

A cold, damp cloth wiped over Beck’s skin, spot cleaning. He heard Avery swearing, but it only made the violation strike deeper. The alcohol swab felt the same as the other cleaning, and he couldn’t see to prepare himself, so the first incision in his shoulder came as a shock. 

No, no, no.

“N--” His tongue was heavy, refused to choke out the word. He felt a series of prods and scrapes, a set of stitches, and then the stick of medical tape. “No.” 

The lid closed, locked again, and the man stepped away, cleaning up the mess now on the table beside him. He put the tools away, spoke calmly in the face of Avery’s fuming demands, and arrived back at the case as Beck was getting control enough to push himself up. 

“What have you done to me?” he slurred.

“It’s a small implant. Just to see. Now, I need your cooperation for this next part, so listen to me very closely.“

Beck shuddered. 

“Shift down. A mouse will do. Stay for at least ten seconds.”

Beck was afraid.

He’d been angry in this place, he’d been violated, but this time he was afraid. He shook his head, though, obstinately sure he couldn’t bring himself to cooperate.

“How about I pick for you?” he asked, holding up one of the spheres.

“How about you shove it up your ass?”

“If something goes wrong, you’re not going to want to be stuck. Now. Shift.”

"Leave him alone," Avery snapped from across the room.

Avery. He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath.

Just one shape.

It was better than Avery seeing him screaming if he was forced into something and suffering.

He shifted.

Fear was not a good place to begin when slipping into a rodent’s mind. They were fearful creatures and, combined with the searing pain in his flank, his heart was set racing out of control. 

He held, tried to count, panicked, tried to count, three, four--he couldn’t hold it. The mouse fled and he was dumped back on the floor a human, twisting to get a hand to his shoulder with a strangled cry. 

He heard Avery shouting from across the room, but the words didn’t register to his pain shocked brain.

“Fuck,” he gasped. “Jesus. What the fuck did you do to me?”

“Mm.” the man said, displeased. “It’s come out,” he pointed out.

Beck’s hand came away dripping in blood and holding a solid chunk of something. A metal device the size of a quarter, rounded on the back like a half sphere. He dropped it to bring his hand to stop the flow of blood. The man had taken all the scraps of fabric from his clothes, so there was nothing to use to stem the blood. 

“Subcutaneous metal is rejected…” The man was talking to himself. Beck ground his teeth. “I’ll go see what we have in development. Clean yourself up.”

Only the last part was said to Beck. He dropped gauze, a few antiseptic wipes, and a roll of tape onto a tray and slid it in to Beck.

Beck waited until he was gone to move, to take any of the items he’d been given. 

“Beck?” Avery’s voice broke. 

He flinched at the reminder that his husband was watching him get tortured. “I’m sorry you have to see this.” 

Avery kicked the wall between them. “I’m getting us out of here. I swear to you, okay?”

Beck smiled tightly and nodded.

[imagitory]

Tory Reviews Aladdin (2019)! [SPOILERS]

Yes, people, I finally got around to seeing this thing! And now it’s time to talk about it. For those of you who want a spoiler-free review, I will say that as Disney live action remakes go, this is one of the better ones. It doesn’t disrespect the original, and it brings in some new ideas of varying quality -- but hey, at least some of those ideas are good! It still follows the original film’s structure a little too closely for my taste (unsurprising, given that it uses a good chunk of the same music and similar characters), but there were enough differences that it didn’t feel like a beat-for-beat rehash like the Beauty and the Beast remake did. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a great movie, but if you’re not difficult to please like I am and you aren’t jaded by the idea of Disney live action remakes in general, I wager there is a lot here that you could enjoy. 

For those of you who don’t fear spoilers, feel free to read on! Come on...don’t you trust me?

The Good!

+I love the idea of Jasmine actively wanting to rule Agrabah. It makes for a very different Jasmine from the original animated version, one who is likable in her own way and stands apart as her own distinct character. In the original, Jasmine just wants to be free to make her own choices, and honestly, that is enough on its own. She already has been raised with large expectations on her shoulders, so it makes sense that she would envy Aladdin for having no chains or responsibilities, and therefore why she would run away from home. This remake plays Jasmine a little differently, though -- she wants to be free too, but in a way that helps people. She knows she’s been given power, but she hasn’t been free to use it, and she sees plenty of people with power, like Jafar, who misuse it. How identifiable is that struggle, for so many women with privilege! It’s a struggle that men of all stripes don’t entirely understand, and it’s a nice conflict for our secondary protagonist. It also puts a cherry on top of the Sultan’s gesture from the first film where he changes the law and lets Jasmine choose who she wants to marry -- now she can not only make that choice, but whatever other choices she wishes, too.

+Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott were good casting choices for Aladdin and Jasmine. Mena has this wonderful boyish quality that reminds me a lot of Scott Weinger’s Aladdin, while Naomi brings a wonderful class to Jasmine’s part.

+Involving Jasmine in the One Jump Ahead sequence was an interesting way to tie Aladdin’s introduction and the scene where Aladdin saves Jasmine together, which further emphasizes that the film will focus around these two as dual protagonists, rather than mainly around Aladdin with Jasmine as a deutragonist.

+Aladdin sneaking into the palace to give Jasmine back her bracelet was a great idea. Gone is Jafar’s weird wheel machine that tells him who his Diamond in the Rough is -- now he knows because he sees Aladdin break in just to return something to the princess. Added is more development for Aladdin and Jasmine’s relationship -- not only does Jasmine get to see where Aladdin lives, but she gets to see the grayness of him from the get-go. And really, more scenes for our two love interests to interact together is always a good thing, when it comes to us identifying with their relationship.

+The visuals, both in the backgrounds and costumes, were well done. I still don’t entirely get the fusion of Indian and Arabian styles (this film REALLY played up the Bollywood influence in this story set in the Arabian desert), but it looks rather nice. I’ve been saying for a long while that I want Disney to make an animated movie set in India and inspired by Bollywood, and this film makes me want one all the more. No halfsies on the Bollywood stuff -- I want it ALL over the movie, and I wanted it beautifully animated and scored. Disney, get on it.

+I’ll be honest -- Will Smith is no Robin Williams and I’ll get to some issues I had with his characterization in a minute, but he really did give the role his all and he made the part his own. He played to his strengths rather than try to imitate Robin and by doing so portrayed a very distinctive, memorable, and rather likable Genie. The idea of being clever with one’s words when making a wish also harks back to folk tales about Djinn where they’re more like tricksters, and I thought that was clever.

+The Arabian Nights opening number was EXCELLENTLY handled. I actually got super excited listening to it, just like with the original’s sequence, and I wasn’t expecting that. The use of the musical number to introduce the key players in the story, including Jafar’s interest in retrieving the lamp from the Cave of Wonders, also was very good.

+Friend Like Me wasn’t half-bad, either! Will put a lot of energy into the number and even though it started off way too slowly in the beginning, once it got going, the song itself and the visuals were pretty fun.

+Genie wishing to become human reminded me a bit of DuckTales the Movie: The Treasure of the Lost Lamp, but I still liked it. Admittedly it feels as though there should’ve been a way for Genie to stay a Genie and just be free to use his powers the way he wanted...but hey, the transformation into a human makes for good visual symbolism.

+Although overall the Cave of Wonders sequence wasn’t anything impressive, I liked the little homage to the final battle in Return of Jafar where Aladdin has to jump from rock fragment to rock fragment while floating in a sea of lava.

+This remake did capture one of the central tenants of the original film -- that Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie (and, in this story, even Jafar) have their own cages, but in the end what unlocks all of their cages is empathy. Genie befriends Aladdin and it’s through that friendship that he earns his freedom. Jasmine falls in love with Aladdin and stands up for him and her kingdom, and it is through that compassion that she becomes Sultan Sultana (goddamn it, film, she’d be a Sultana, just call her that). Aladdin comes to see Genie’s and Jasmine’s prisons as clearly as his own and in doing so is able to outwit Jafar and save the kingdom. And Jafar, by only wallowing in his own pain and refusing to acknowledge the pain of others, just keeps trying to take what others have until he loses what he had to begin with: his freedom.

The Not-So-Good...

+Jafar. *dodges knives* OKAY, HOLD ON. Before I go into what I didn’t like, I will be kind first. I truly do understand the rationale behind this characterization -- namely, that Jafar is supposed to now be a foil for Aladdin, as in “Be careful, or you could end up like this guy.” And that idea by itself isn’t a bad one. The problem is the film hammers in that point a liiiittle too much in scripted dialogue, and in trying to make Jafar more “sympathetic” (I don’t know if I’d say he actually was, but the film seems to be trying to make him that way), it actually makes him much less interesting, in my opinion. In the Aladdin TV series, there was another “foil” to Aladdin in the form of Mozenrath the sorcerer, but Mozenrath was still egocentric, charismatic, cocky, clever, ruthless, and threatening. Throughout the entire film, this Jafar just seems way less confident and powerful than he should be. While in the original film, Jafar moving slowly and purposefully made him this dark cloud over the proceedings, highlighting the contrasts between him and the rest of the jovial cast, in this version, it only served to make the character look boring and lacking in energy. If the filmmakers had wanted to make Jafar like Aladdin, make him like Aladdin! Make him charming. Make him witty. Make him fun to watch. And then also make him a selfish, pig-headed, sexist asshole. Have him sing the Prince Ali reprise. Have him smirk and sneer. Have him enjoy putting Jasmine down. Have his confrontations with Aladdin be like looking through a cracked mirror -- have there be this terrible, electric charge of hatred between them whenever they stare each other down, for they are each what the other would despise being, and yet they’ll smirk at each other through their hatred because they won’t let the other see that they got to them. In other words, HAVE MORE FUN WRITING YOUR VILLAIN, DISNEY. Character development is good and all, but if your villain isn’t interesting and fun to watch, then why bother writing one at all?

+Dahlia really was as pointless as I’d feared. All she really serves to be is Jasmine’s friend (wasn’t Rajah already that?) and a love interest for Genie (did we really need that?) -- she never really steps out of the other characters’ shadows and becomes her own person. Why couldn’t she have her own cage to escape from, her own story arc, her own personality that wasn’t there to just be a foil to Jasmine’s? If Jasmine is disdainful of someone, Dahlia likes them. If Jasmine isn’t impressed by something, Dahlia is. If Jasmine trusts someone, Dahlia expresses doubts. That basically is the start and end of her character, and it’s such a shame, as we certainly could use more female characters in male-dominated stories like this, where we can see multiple, but still equally useful and interesting ways to be a woman. But putting in another female character just for her to be a sidekick and a love interest is not the way to do that.

+The CGI really did stick out like a sore thumb in places. It could sometimes look aesthetically nice, like in the Friend Like Me sequence, but it still rarely looked real, and in the case of things that were supposed to be real like Rajah, Abu, and Carpet, it got uncomfortable. And yeah, Abu and Carpet were therefore also much less likable than in the original film, with Abu having nearly no comedic potential and Carpet losing a lot of its extroversion and energy. Rajah ended up the most like his original self out of all of them, but he still rarely looked real, to me.

+Iago should have either been just a normal parrot or more like his regular, energized, animated self. The way they portrayed him, sitting in that murky middle ground of being like a real parrot but not just repeating whatever he heard, made for a very uninteresting character. If he’s going to have his own mind, give him his own personality that sets him apart from Jafar -- if he’s going to be more like an animal, use his repeating of standard phrases in clever ways to make that clear.

+As much as I liked Jasmine’s new motivation, her story arc would’ve been much stronger if she hadn’t been as strong at the start and she’d discovered the power inside herself along the way. At one point, Aladdin says sometimes you just have to take risks, as if Jasmine has been playing things too safe -- well, was sneaking out into town under the noses of her guards not a risk? Was giving bread to starving children without a thought about the cost not a risk? Was hiding a thief who bust into the palace in your room not a risk? Was pursuing a romance with that same thief not a risk? When do we see that’s something this Jasmine needs to learn? Jasmine’s supposed “arc” about standing up for herself and others is the whole driving force behind Jasmine’s new song Speechless, but it falls flat for me because we don’t see Jasmine holding her tongue and staying silent. She still speaks out against the princes seeking her hand and she still tries to argue with the Sultan and Jafar. And on the note of Speechless, the way that number is staged really didn’t give the song its proper justice. The sequence is all in her head, making everything go in slow motion and making people appear and disappear when it’s convenient -- how much stronger would that scene have been if the song had accompanied her storming back into the palace and standing up to Jafar, singing loudly right into his face that she has no interest in staying silent the way he told her to?

+The Captain of the Guard was an absolute nothing character in the story until Jafar takes over Agrabah near the climax, at which point everyone seems to want him on their side all of a sudden. He says he’ll obey the Sultan and it seems like the film wants him to be the script’s version of Okoye from Black Panther, but unlike Okoye, he got no focus or development beforehand, so we don’t care when he decides to stand by Jafar when he becomes Sultan or when Jasmine convinces him to stand up to him in the very next scene. And for all the words Jasmine cries at the Captain that he has a choice, she also says that the guards will follow him if he does the right thing -- what, do those guards not also have a choice to do the right thing? Do they have to follow their Captain?

+The addition of Jasmine’s mother’s kingdom does give some reason for Jasmine’s fashion sense being a mix of Indian and Arabian influences (you know, as in she’s biracial and her mother’s country is more India-inspired compared to Agrabah, which is more Arabia-inspired), but otherwise the kingdom’s addition really didn’t add much in the script. Jafar keeps talking about invading it, presumably because he wants to become a dictator and have an empire and blah, but we never see it and never learn much about it except that it was Jasmine’s mother’s country. And as much as the biracial influences could explain Jasmine’s wardrobe, it doesn’t justify the Bollywood dance sequence in the palace -- I mean, Genie was controlling Aladdin’s limbs the whole time, but how did everyone else know that dance sequence? It’d be one thing if it was supposed to be non-deigetic, as in it’s representative of Aladdin as Ali interacting with Jasmine and so it doesn’t matter that everyone knows the dance, but it can’t be non-deigetic if Genie has to control Aladdin so that he can dance like everyone else is.

+On that note, Genie says that “Ali got [Aladdin] in the door, but Aladdin has to be the one to open it” when he’s trying to encourage Aladdin to be himself when interacting with Jasmine...but then, literally, a few minutes later, he’s controlling Aladdin’s limbs and making him break-dance in the ballroom. WTH, Genie? I thought you understood that Aladdin just had to be himself, why are you suddenly so confused about why your tricks aren’t impressing Jasmine?!

+The Cave of Wonders was such a let-down. Not only was the treasure kind of measly and unremarkable compared to the room piled high with various kind of treasures from all over the globe in the original, but we get such emphasis on Aladdin not touching any of it, but Aladdin has to step all over it in order to get at the lamp. And I guess touching the Magic Carpet also doesn’t count. If the idea is not to take it, that���d be one thing, but even Abu only picks up the gem, he makes no movement to hide it or take it away with him. Plus the wonderful build-up for the cave in the original, where Aladdin walks slowly down this long trek of the stairs, only to arrive in a room full to the brim with treasure, is instead replaced with just -- plop! Landing in a heap in the middle of an actual cave with some treasure littered here and there, until la-dee-da, you end up in the main room where the lamp is and more treasure is tossed haphazardly around. Yawn.

+As much as I will give Will Smith credit for clearly doing his best, the friendship between Genie and Aladdin really didn’t work that well for me. The scene where Aladdin breaks Genie’s heart and goes back on his word was just so utterly hollow in how it was scripted and directed -- rather than giving the actors a spring board to allow them to express raw emotion, whether by yelling, going abruptly quiet, lashing out, expressing vulnerability, anything, it hampered any sincerity from shining through. Genie told us how he felt, but he didn’t show it. He said his heart was breaking, but he didn’t express it and I didn’t feel it. And unfortunately part of that comes back to how Genie is written. In the original movie, we love Genie and Aladdin’s friendship because of the genuine affection between them and because of Genie’s vulnerability when he admits that he wants his freedom more than anything else in the world. Aladdin asking Genie what he would wish for is what opens Genie up, and Aladdin promising to set Genie free is what makes him hope. At that point, he's solidly in Aladdin’s corner and does everything he can to help Aladdin like a true friend would. In this version, Genie is more reluctant to trust Aladdin, which makes it so their friendship has less time to develop, at which point the betrayal of trust doesn’t mean as much. Another wrinkle that is lost from Robin Williams’s portrayal is that Genie’s humor is in some ways a cover for Genie’s more vulnerable, sad feelings. Will uses it more like a front, something to puff himself up, but Robin uses it the way someone uses humor to hide their depression -- namely, despite his crummy circumstances, he resolves to be happy and make others happy. It’s a sign of resilience, rather than pride, and as relatable as the pride rationale is, using humor as a means to mask one’s unhappiness I think made for a very sweet, compassionate, admirable, dare I say heroic character. That character admittedly does play more to Robin’s strengths than Will’s, so I understand the change, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still prefer Robin’s characterization of Genie.

+The new “rubbing the lamp and saying ‘I wish’“ rule wasn’t a bad idea, but then Genie circumvents it to save Aladdin’s life anyway, at which point, why have it in the first place? To make it all the more essential to be holding the lamp? Well, holding it makes you the Genie’s master anyway -- it was that way in the original film already -- so why use the semantics? And on that note, why didn’t Aladdin or Jasmine just friggin’ make a wish when they first snatched the lamp back from Jafar, during that whole chase scene? They had the lamp in their friggin’ hands a good chunk of the time -- if you don’t want to waste your last wish, Aladdin, have Jasmine do it, rather than just keep trying to play keep-away with the crazy big Roc that Jafar turned Iago into? (As a side, that thing wasn’t even half as scary as Snake!Jafar. Just sayin’.)

+The ending’s pacing felt much clunkier compared to the original. As interesting as you would think a chase scene through Agrabah on a Magic Carpet would be, it served to only be a long detour, as at the end everyone just ended up right back where they started. At least in the original, Jafar still held the lamp, so Aladdin was still fighting to get it the entire time, and the stakes were raised a little bit more over time, when Jasmine was trapped in an hour glass, Abu was turned into a wind-up toy, Carpet was magically unwoven, Jafar blew fire around Aladdin and turned into a giant snake, and right before Aladdin could save Jasmine, Jafar snatched him up in his coils. In the original climax, Aladdin is chasing the same goal, only for more and more of his options to be ripped away from him and things to get worse and worse by the minute. In the remake, the first half of the climax is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

+The music -- OOOH, this irritated me. There was so much potential in a lot of it, really -- as mentioned, Arabian Nights and Friend Like Me were actually pretty good, and even Prince Ali was better than I expected and Speechless, although badly staged and not as musically memorable as the other songs, worked all right. But A Whole New World and especially One Jump Ahead and its reprises made me really, really mad. One Jump Ahead started off so promising, with a much more Arabian sound to its backing track -- then Mena Massoud starts singing, and boom, there’s the autotune, and suddenly the backing track sounds like something out of a Disney Channel Original Movie. Then we get Aladdin’s sad reprises of the number, which were frankly pathetic. Brad Kane was so good at bringing such softness and pathos into the short tune -- when he sang “Riffraff -- street rat! I don’t buy that! If only they’d look closer...!”, you feel this empathetic clenching in your heart -- you feel his pain, you understand it. But Massoud, as good of an actor as he is, sounds flat, disinterested, and cold when singing, no doubt because he lacks the confidence in it, and the autotune only serves to dull any emotion in his voice  further. Then there’s A Whole New World, which didn’t make me as angry as even if it is autotuned, Naomi Scott does bring some energy to the song where Massoud does not, but for how good of a song it is, the performance and the sequence surrounding it were kind of embarrassing. Massoud and Scott sounded like two amateurs doing some lifeless Disney karaoke, and the scene accompanying the song was monochromatic and lacking in scope or excitement. I understand if you don’t want Aladdin and Jasmine to go on “the fastest World Tour ever” again, but at the very least, give us some scenery that isn’t just one of five shades of blue! We don’t see any color until after the song is over and the two watch this festival in the town square. A Whole New World is easily one of the most romantic songs in the Disney library if not the most romantic, and it deserved better than this.

+They gave Aladdin this quasi-inventor aspect where he had jerry-rigged special stairs to appear and hoisted a canopy into existence in his hide-out. I immediately remembered the same quirk being needlessly added onto Belle in the Beauty and the Beast remake and Clara in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and got really irritated -- seriously, Disney, does EVERYONE need to be an inventor of some sort in your LA movies now?? -- and sure enough, just like with Belle, that quality of Aladdin’s is never brought up again, and like with Clara, the trait doesn’t add any depth or interest to the character. It could’ve been cool if the filmmakers had modified it slightly, making it more like Quasimodo’s artistic creativity in how he sees the world and/or the Phantom of the Opera’s love of magic transforming his dreary, lonely world into something beautiful. Jasmine even cites that Aladdin can do “magic,” as in, “hey, maybe that can be referenced again, like his resourcefulness and creativity are the true magic, not what the Genie can give him,” but yeah, it’s never brought up again, so there was no point to those additions.

+Although the film got the tenant of people having different cages that can be unlocked by empathy down, it also added a moral that in my opinion not only contradicts the story, but could also be interpreted very badly. At the beginning of the movie, Genie and Dahlia’s kids look enviously at a boat larger than theirs and dream of having a boat like that, and Genie tells them the story of Aladdin, Jasmine, and the lamp supposedly to teach them to be happy with what you have. Not a horrible lesson, really...but here’s the problem -- THE FILM DOESN’T TEACH YOU THAT. If Aladdin had just been happy with what he’d had, he never would’ve met the Genie, fallen in love with Jasmine, and lived happily ever after. If Jasmine had just been happy with what she’d had, she would’ve married a terrible prince she didn’t love and never been Sultana. If Genie had just been happy with what he’d had, he would’ve never befriended Aladdin and earned his freedom. And I’m sorry, but trying to tell people like this -- a poor man struggling to survive on the streets, a woman being locked out of her birth right because of her gender, and a literal slave -- that they shouldn’t seek what others have that they don’t? I mean...are you serious?? Really?? THAT is the moral you want to add onto this story?? In the original, the moral was “it’s not what is outside, but what is inside that counts,” which ties into the tenant of empathy I mentioned earlier. I know that the filmmakers were trying to make a point about greed, and it is a good point to make, not to just mindlessly chase after what you don’t have and forget what you do have...but at the same time, all of these characters had a good reason to chase something they didn’t have and they were happier when they earned it.

As Disney remakes go, Aladdin (2019) in my opinion is better than the predecessors I have seen. Unlike Maleficent, it didn’t take pot-shots at the original movie or its characters. Unlike Cinderella (2015), its feminist themes were central to the female character’s arc and fit with the story being told. Unlike Beauty and the Beast (2017), it didn’t just take the original movie and pile a bunch of superfluous stuff on top of it so as to make it look different. It also took good ideas from those three movies as well. Like Maleficent, this film tried to tell an old story from a new angle. Like Cinderella (2015), it reinterpreted the characters and their relationships. Like Beauty and the Beast (2017), it tried to respect what people loved about the original. Admittedly this film is still not even half as good as the original in my mind, because even the fresh ideas were added onto a pre-existing structure from another movie that had been full of new ideas, but it’s still much better than I had been expecting. I wasn’t impressed, exactly, but I got a few laughs and felt some positive feelings while watching this. Let’s hope that the Lion King remake learns some lessons from this movie and only improves on the formula -- and finally does their original’s classic soundtrack some JUSTICE this time!!

Overall Grade: C

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Drive Movies and Specials

This is the end of the road.

To finally close the Drive chapter in this journey here we are with the post about the movies. And this time it's extra special because I'll be talking about some of the specials for once, I usually never do those because it's too much of a hustle to go looking for them and I don't have that much time to watch them either, but to download some of the Movie Wars movies I had to download them from TV-Nihon batches and they include the specials on them so I thought, why not? Of course I did that before I had watched Drive and I saw that I didn't like it very much but oh well, they're on my hard-drive already I must as well watch them.

Anyway, there's a lot of stuff to go through so let's get to that right away.

Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future

This movie... oh this movie... I feel like this movie doesn't work at all after you've finished the TV series. And even if you haven't finished the series I think it doesn't work very well either because they expect us to have some sort of connection to a character that hasn't been around for more than 15 minutes, and whatever connection we have with this character also dies very soon when the revelation that he's actually a Roidmude happen so... Again, Drive doesn't do family drama all that well. Also a lot of recycled things from the show, like another evil Drive? Really? And Shinnousuke apparently dying and the belt being destroyed again? How many times did that happen in the show again? Another thing that watching this movie after the show kinda ruins it is the treat of the Global Freeze because after we see the show it's obvious that the Global Freeze is useless, heck they didn't even care to explain what it is and how it works so seeing that being the treat was just irrelevant to me. Also that ending when they "revived" Krim was such a dumb Deus Ex Machina, I was just rolling my eyes at that point.

Well, at least Chase had a good bad-CGI scene where he destroyed a big thing that I don't even remember what it was. And Proto-Drive Chase or whatever it is called was kinda cool as well. But the rest? Pretty meh I'd say. Also, this movie had a Ghost cameo?? That really surprised me seeing that he appeared twice in the show?? it felt a bit excessive, but oh well... whatever.

Drive Saga - Chaser

THIS MOVIE. IT HIT REALLY HARD ON THE FEELS. And I don't if it's because is centered around my favorite character or if it's really that good, but I really loved this movie.

I think they've checked all the right boxes when making a story for Chase and it was very well rounded, if I had to say a point that they lacked I'd say it was in the action, but I feel like that wasn't really needed because this was so focused on working on the characters so, in the end, the only thing that comes as weird from this movies was the uncomfortable comedic close-ups, the weird erotic scenes, and Chase bleeding that much to remove the feather from his chest, I'm not sure if an android would bleed like that, but it doesn't hurt the experience.

But they do hurt your heart, because seeing Chase get close to that kid was really adorable and seeing that he doesn't remember it at the end HURTS and hurts A LOT. I felt sadder for that moment than I felt for Chase's death, heck this movie made me feel more things than in the 48 episodes and 2 movies I've watched at this point. Gosh, it's so good. I also like the villain they chose for this movie, Angel was a very interesting Roidmude, of course, I'd rather if she didn't look so psychopath right at the beginning so it wasn't so clear that she had bad intentions, but for a one-off villain, she was great. It was also very fun seeing a "softer" Chase, props to his actor he was so different but he still felt in-character, you know? It didn't seem fake or anything, it was weird at first of course, but It was really good. I bet his vocal cords also really appreciated the chance of speaking in a normal tone for a change. XD In the end, this was really enjoyable, Chase once again being the best thing of Drive.

Oh, I almost forgot, another thing that was really fun was seeing Ryu again, that was really great. It also makes sense that the rider who can transform into a bike made a cameo in a show where the theme is vehicles. You know, I didn't really like Ryu during W but everything else that he has appeared he has been so great?? That's so weird. Also apparently now he has a child with Akiko???? What???? You know, for all the crap I give to crossovers and such even I must admit that seeing Ryu and how his relationship with Akiko has been developing is really awesome. I still don't know why anyone would want to marry Akiko and build a family with her, but if he's happy, good for him. XD

Drive Saga - Mach & Heart

You know, this one was probably the one I was less excited about, and it surprised me, but it also got me very disappointed. This was totally a mixed bag. I wish these were more connected, for Heart's part to work Gou needed to be there and that worked really well, but aside from the villain Gou's part had very little involvement with Heart's part and it felt like a letdown.

Heart's part was quite good, the set-up was great, the story was pretty decent, and I really liked the payoff. As I mentioned in my posts about Drive I didn't really care for the Roidmudes or for the rest of the cast in the Special Crimes Unit, but seeing Heart and Genpachi work together was quite awesome, I had a lot of fun. I'm still kinda meh about that amalgam Roidmude being a thing, it is a good villain I'm just picky about how this guy appeared, and I'm not the biggest fan of Heart's rider design, but Heart's portion has enough things on there that make easy for me to overlook them and consider it a solid especial. I like that he came back as a fluke, and I like that he has Brain and Medic on his head too, I like that Shinnousuke appears because of the thing he had with Heart, and the emotional bits between him and Genpachi worked beautifully.

The same can't be said about Gou's part because they decided to make a love story, and they also decided to put family in the mix because Drive really knows how to touch in family discussions, and this was just underwhelming as hell. It gave Gou some development, and at least that's good because the show lacked a lot in that department, and it's always great to see Chase again even though it was just some weird supernatural thing, but I really couldn't care less about the other stuff going on. But if you like Gou maybe this will great for you because you'll be able to see the dude becoming happy, so...

Drive Saga - Brain

This one was surprisingly good, I don't know why but I came into this thinking this would be a serious thing, but I was wrong because this is a special for Brain so of course it would be a comedy. I thought seeing that it was just a comic thing would throw me off of it, especially because I wasn't the biggest fan of Brain in the show, but here it worked quite well. It still has the things I don't like about the comedy in Drive, but for some reason, they didn't bother me as much here. I think what I like the most is that it knows that is something ridiculous, and it owns it, like there's a moment during the fight in part 2 where one of the villains says "but this weapon ain't yours, it's just a recolor" and I cracked the hell up, I loved the joke that Brain has only 600 Giga in his hard-drive making him even weaker than my previous computer, and the fake-out he did on the final villain where his final blow was a headbutt rather than a kick was just marvelous. I got a few spoilers from villains of Ghost and Ex-Aid, but it was worth it. This was fun, Brain's design as a rider was freaking cool as heck, it's a shame but also very funny that the comedic rider got the best form of this entire season, and I like that this serves as either a prequel or a sequel to the Mach & Heart movie. If you want something quick and fun to watch go do it because this one is great. 

Drive Secret Missions

So these secret missions are kinda whatever, most of them aren't that good, but also most of them aren't that offensive, they're pretty mediocre. I think from these 5 only 2 are worth watching. Type ZERO is kinda okay, it doesn't add anything new so it's not that necessary, but we get to see Proto-Drive properly and that's really cool, his design is awesome, but that's pretty much the only interesting thing it has going for. Type TV-KUN is like a prequel for Drives episode in Movie Wars Full Throttle and isn't that good. Type HIGH SPEED is probably the worst of them because it's one of those Hyper Battle DVDs who have no purpose at all and are very boring, this one is even worse I feel because they try to make a full-length episode out of it and there's no need for that. Type LUPIN is another Hyper Battle DVD and while I love Lupin's design this one was pretty underwhelming, I'd say it was completely unnecessary.

Type TOKUJO, though, was pretty good, probably the best out of them and maybe the only one worth watching. Honestly, this story is so good it should've been in the TV show, I mean this gives inside on why each member joined the SCU, it's a fun case (despite the resolution being kinda dub, again), and also establishes that Bannou was inside Brain's tablet so it would've been perfect for it, I'd take this over any filler plot in the entire run of the show. I had a good time with it.

And that does it for Drive! Wow, this was very long, thanks for sticking with me until this far. If you have any thoughts, don't be shy, share them in the comments, I'd love to read them. Drive is over but this "marathon" isn't, and if everything goes right, the post with Ghost's first episodes plus his crossover movie should be out a few minutes after Super-Hero time finishes on Saturday (or Sunday, depending on where you are in the world). Once again, thank you so much for reading, I'll see you all around. Bye~