#and it gave me the opportunity to include an incredible scene for the main villain

[giantkillerjack]

Me and my wife: *hang out for 6 hours and stay up til midnight talking about our favorite things*

My wife: *leaves to shower and go to bed*

Me, 2 minutes later: *picks up phone to text her about the new movie trailer I just watched*

[dystopiandilfs]

My opinion on the different Dream manipulating someone storylines.

Disclaimer: This isn't meant to shit on anyone as a creator or anyone's acting. This might be kind of negative but isn't meant to be offensive to any DreamSMP creator especially since the main ones I'm talking about are minors. This is just my thoughts and you can obviously disagree. I don't think that Dream as a person is a manipulative person so whenever I mention Dream I mean the SMP character unless I state otherwise.

This is mainly based off of my own experiences as someone who was manipulated and gaslighted for a lot of time by several people and as someone who is doing a human psychology degree.

First thing I want to say is I love Dream as a villain and will be a bit annoyed if they try to redeem him like in every cliché film or TV show. The only redemption arc I will accept is Dream being possessed by a Dreamon from way back since that storyline was set up before Dream was considered the main villain. However if the Dreamon storyline is used as a Dream redemption arc it has to be flawlessly written otherwise it will come off cringe.

~~Here's the short version: From best to worst storyline based on my opinion is Ranboo, Tubbo, Wilbur, Tommy, Ghostbur and Techno~~

So the first manipulated storyline I want to talk about is Wilbur. I love the fact that Dream used Wilbur's already messy mental health to play him and turn him against everyone and made him the villain. I think it was the original starting point of Dream's biggest villain trait being a manipulative person. I think it was mainly used to be a lead up to Dream manipulating Tommy and Tubbo. I would call this the Clingyduo test run. If Dream can turn Wilbur against Tommy then he can turn everyone including Tubbo against Tommy. It also helped to explain how Wilbur managed to get all the tnt and how he always managed to sneak into the L'Manberg to set it up as well as clearing up mainly plot holes. The acting was fairly decent especially since it's not scripted and wasn't an intentional plot point. I like the fact it was more behind the scenes manipulation since nobody knew how much Dream was actually controlling Wilbur and most people just assumed Wilbur was just going insane. It made it so nobody was weary of Dream as a manipulator which made the Tommy exile arc more impactful since nobody knew this side of Dream.

Next up is the Tubbo being manipulated by Dream storyline. I like this one mainly because it was from a different angle compared to Wilbur and Tommy's. Dream pretended to be Tubbo's friend to get the disc whilst simultaneously manipulating Tommy to suicide in exile. Dream would talk about how Tommy's been (obviously lying) and saying how much better Tommy and Tubbo are doing apart. Tubbo was getting gaslighted more than straight up manipulated. Dream was saying how much calmer and safer L'Manberg was now that Tommy's gone. Dream's aim with Tubbo was to make him see how much better things were without Tommy and how when Tommy's around Tubbo gets pushed about and Tommy being all of L'Manberg's problems like the wall being built because Tommy burned down George's lesbian mushroom cottage. At the same time as feeding all these ideas and thoughts to Tubbo he playing nice by helping build things, playing games and respecting L'Manberg rules. It's a very sly manipulation because Tubbo obviously told Quackity, Fundy and Ranboo about all his conversations with Dream and it made them slightly less weary of Dream as well as making them think worse of Tommy. It was a good way of showing different kinds of manipulation and how it isn't all painfully obvious. Also Tubbo having a storyline that doesn't revolve around Tommy is an instant win in my book

3rd storyline is Techno and Ghostbur. I'm grouping these together because they were smaller storylines and were similar in tactics. Dream told Techno about The Butcher Army as well as where to get a totem to hold a future favour above his head. Dream knew Tommy was at Techno's but chose to let it play out knowing that Tommy and Techno had very different morals and end goals. Even if they didn't end up butting heads Dream could use his favour to separate Techno and Tommy either by getting Techno to do something to upset Tommy (killing Tubbo) or getting Techno to appear like he's using Tommy to destroy L'Manberg. Making Tommy see Techno as another powerful manipulator. Dream used Ghostburs lack of memory to his advantage. Ghostbur didn't remember that Dream and Wilbur were teamed up or that Dream was using Wilbur which meant that Dream could once again manipulate Wilbur but as less insane, kinder Ghostbur. He used Ghostbur by pretending to be his friend and offering him thing such as food, friendship and shelter to get Ghostbur to trust him so when he tells Ghostbur that he'll (Dream) deliver Tommy's beach party invites Ghostbur sees nothing weird or wrong because to him Dream is helpful. Then he tells Ghostbur to go for a walk so he can make Tommy think that Ghostbur has abandoned him making it so Tommy only has Dream left.

Next is Tommy. Dream used the discs to manipulate Tommy for a long time. When the opportunity of exiling Tommy making him truly alone appeared Dream took it. Then the whole exile arc was Dream manipulating Tommy to the point of him being so isolated and alone he relied solely on Dream until Dream stopped playing games and was ridiculously blunt with Tommy making him want to commit suicide because his last friend wasn't even his friend and he'd lost everything and everyone. I think in my personal opinion this was one of the less believable manipulation arcs nothing against Tommy but it came off as a very textbook/TV show manipulator story where the victim gets close to death only for the manipulator to switch up and start exposing themselves. Manipulators are smart and people around them don't know someone's being manipulated. Yes I enjoyed the storyline but I think it dragged on for too long with no changes and the immediately shifted tones. I would have appreciated it if instead of Dream snapping at the community house and revealing everything in front of everyone, if Dream would start to slip up and Tommy started to notice then Dream slips up Infront of Techno and Phil, then Infront of Tubbo and other L'Manberg members. So it was a domino effect of people realising what was happening instead of everyone finding out at one and having no time to process. Everyone finding out at once because Dream told them sort of ruined it a bit for me. I still think it was an excellent storyline and they both acted their hearts out it just went from a cool individual storyline to a cliché villain speech where they reveal everything in time for people to stop all plans. (However bonus points for doing the non canon chill streams with Drista and Mexican Dream in-between)

Finally is Ranboo's. I absolutely love the irl Ranboo and irl Dream dynamic. They are both incredibly good at portraying their characters down to the little details of Dream changing his voice to Ranboo stuttering and shaking. I think it might be my second favourite storyline out of all of them (first being Egg because it's the only storyline to be mainly og members like Sam, BBH, Ant and Punz). I appreciate the amount of work and details that have gone into the story so far, including doing the prison but of a different server so they could use special effects and coding. The story has a very structured and strong foundation compared to every other storyline which is helped obviously by Ranboo being new. Going to be honest the streams sometimes trigger me because of how realistic they are from Dream being the manipulative voice in Ranboo's head to Ranboo having to question what's real and what's fake. Ranboo's convincing himself he blew up the community house purely because of the Dream voice in his head. The fact that both Dream and Ranboo gave had to do content warnings and trigger warnings should be enough to explain how good the acting is. Honestly where are their awards. (Yes this is me praising Ranboo and Dream but I genuinely love this storyline so much eventhough it's another Dream manipulating a minor storyline. It's done so well and you can tell how passionate both Dream and Ranboo are about Ranboo's lore and storyline. Favourite child much)

[gascon-en-exil]

Who Can Say if I've Been Changed For the Better?: Ferdibert Does Wicked

This concept has been a bit in building. It started from a much-loved cover by Hubert and Ferdinand’s VAs inspired by their support line and the broad observation that these two are a musicals couple who absolutely would sing their feelings in all manner of theatrical AUs. It continued through my later observation that there’s ample material to carry that idea even further, albeit with a shift outside of Crimson Flower for a better tonal match. Still, I’m not quite sure what to call this project; it’s not really a headcanon nor is it fanfic by any means. I’ve written a handful of longform character/narrative explorations before, although when it comes to FE I’ve previously been inspired to do so only for Jugdral characters. That setting is somehow both underdeveloped and deceptively dense - and I suppose in a way you could say the same of Three Houses as well, insofar as it’s been incredibly popular for fan content of all sorts.

Regardless of what this post is in terms of my fandom output, the following isn’t exactly a Wicked AU as such. Rather, it’s how I would envision a hypothetical blend of the non-CF routes of FE16 centering around the Eagles trio and set to the structure and songs of the musical as organically as possible. There are no 1:1 analogues with characters and plotlines from Wicked, because few if any would exist without a lot of tweaking; to use the VA cover example, Ferdinand might be a decent proxy for G(a)linda, but the mere presence of Edelgard substantially complicates Hubert’s claim to the Elphaba role. The similarities only unravel further from there, but I did my best.

Writing this out gave me the opportunity to play around with Edelgard’s character as a way of addressing what I and many others in my circle have long considered to be some of the major problems with her canon presentation. For Ferdibert meanwhile I got to make use of my headcanons for how their relationship would develop outside of their support line, in a way that mostly preserves Hubert’s delightful evil wickedness. Add some ruminations on how one would splice together the non-CF routes in a dramatically satisfying fashion, some snark directed at the non-character of Byleth, and a bit of background Dimidue/Lions OT5 for spice and that just about sums it up. Enjoy this…whatever this is.

Act I

“No One Mourns the Wicked”

The show opens on the citizens of Adrestia celebrating the death of their emperor and the end of her bloody war. Ferdinand rides in, resplendent on his steed, and is hailed as the new Duke Aegir as he relates to the crowd the news of Edelgard’s death at the hands of the combined army of liberators. The “Are people born wicked?” flashback sequence is replaced with a summary mostly in pantomime of Edelgard’s backstory: the Insurrection, her being taken to Faerghus and then returning, and then being experimented on by the Agarthans before agreeing to work with them. Notably Hubert is not named or referenced anywhere in this song, appearing only as a boy at Edelgard’s side at appropriate times during the flashback.

“Dear Old Shiz”

Someone in the crowd finally brings up Hubert, the emperor’s vile and murderous minister, and accuses Ferdinand of having been his friend. With Ferdinand even more flustered than Glinda since his “It depends on what you mean by friend” definitely carries sexual undertones, so begins the flashback to Part 1. There’s an equivalent intro of Garreg Mach, so one may feel free to insert any headcanons for school songs here. The following dialogue scene establishes the student body in general and the dynamic of the Eagles trio in particular: Ferdinand pompous and eager to one-up Edelgard at any opportunity, and Edelgard and Hubert cold and dismissive toward his antics and just about everyone else for that matter. Edelgard is instantly enamored of the quiet new professor, of course. Because the room assignment conflict doesn’t make a lot of sense with the monastery’s setup, instead Ferdinand is incensed that Edelgard is chosen as the Eagles’ house leader over him even though it’s been ages since a Hresvelg has attended. Neither Nessarose nor Morrible has an exact equivalent (although Seteth can act in Morrible’s role as the academy’s main authority figure), so the segue into the next song ends there.

“The Wizard and I”

Now alone together, Edelgard and Hubert have a brief dialogue outlining their villainous plans for the school year. This establishes Hubert’s hypercompetency but also how detached and professional Edelgard is around him. Then comes the song, now “My Lady and I,” which serves as Hubert’s character introduction. In tones more sinister than Elphaba ever reaches - you know he’d have fun with “When people see me they will scream” - he outlines his history with his lady, that he delights in serving her because she validates his work ethic and gives him an outlet for his ruthlessness and cruelty. Where Elphaba fantasizes about the Wizard removing her green skin, Hubert instead goes full Nice Guy, believing that once he’s given Edelgard her continental empire and crushed all her enemies she’ll be so grateful that of course she’ll put out for him.

“What Is This Feeling?”

You could rip the tone of this one directly from the Ferdibert C support and change nothing - homoerotic subtext included. I like the thought of Hubert replacing Elphaba’s deadpan one-word summation of Galinda with a mocking imitation of Ferdinand's most memetic line: "He is Ferdinand von Aegir!". The chorus can be made up of any number of other students excluding Edelgard, who’d happily agree that Hubert is ugly, creepy, and downright unpleasant.

“Something Bad”

The content of this song and surrounding scenes would have to be completely altered, but they work as a necessary reminder that the plot of Part 1 is still going on in the background of all the school drama. Seteth runs through the major events up to Chapter 9 of the game, including the bandit threat, Flayn’s kidnapping, and the experiments on the Remire villagers. The audience/accompaniment for this exposition dump ought to be Dimitri and Claude with Byleth as a silent observer (more on them later), with Edelgard brushing off the news and eventually being the one to shut down the song as Morrible does. There could be some small side character moments in here as well particularly involving the Lions and Deer since they get so little focus in this story.

“Dancing Through Life”

Speaking of which, this was an awkward sequence to place. It matches up chronologically with the ball in Chapter 9 and the main part, Fiyero’s, is a dead ringer for Sylvain and his flirty, hedonistic nihilism (“Nothing matters / but knowing nothing matters!”), but it’s hard to tie into what’s going on with the Eagles trio particularly with the Ferdibert timeframe preserved, i.e. unlike Elphaba and Galinda they don’t become closer until after the timeskip.

As such I see this song as an opportunity for little vignettes with the other students: Dimitri angry over how Dedue’s talked about and hoping they can share a dance (fitting contrast with the coldness of Edelbert), Felix prickly between Dimitri’s recent outbursts and Sylvain’s showboating, Claude hinting toward the bigger picture with Hilda flitting between her excitement over the dance and knowing more than she's letting on, Dorothea casually taking note of Edelgard’s fascination with Byleth (see just below), Bernadetta as a wallflower who doesn’t want to be disturbed (a setup for Act II), etc. Thanks to one of the Forging Bonds events in Heroes I had the thought that the "You/we deserve each other" through line that later gets attached to Nessarose can become one for Dimitri's relationships, with Felix initially throwing it out at him and Dedue and the two of them then turning "We deserve each other" into a romantic line...and then an ironic one and finally a triumphant one come Act II, by that point with Felix et al included as well.

I’m not sure that the following scene of Galinda and Elphaba bonding on the dance floor really needs an equivalent, although it could be altered to something Edeleth-related. In any case Ferdinand ought to get a dance scene of some nature, so he can try to show up Edelgard as he brags about in canon.

“Popular”

It would be a travesty to have a musical starring FE16’s cast and not give Dorothea and/or Manuela a solo. This song works quite well for the former, and it doesn’t intrude on the Ferdibert development with the aforementioned timeframe and how the lightly sapphic vibe doesn’t translate well to two guys. Dorothea has taken note of her good friend Edie’s crush on their mysteriously wooden professor, and she senses the opportunity for a makeover. Not as exaggerated as Dorothea trying to make over Hubert, naturally, but I still think this works out well. Also, Galinda’s observation on leaders, “Did they have brains or knowledge? / Don’t make me laugh! They were popular!”, is darkly comedic when said to Edelgard.

“I’m Not That Girl”

This song comes with preceding dialogue scenes for setup, so those first. Edelgard emerges fresh from her makeover (given her general hot for teacher fixation, I’m thinking she’d lean pretty hard on the naughty schoolgirl look) to Byleth silently grieving Jeralt’s death - bad timing there. She’s as callous about it as she is in canon, only now with more clumsy flirting, and while it’s impossible as always to tell if Byleth notices or cares Hubert most certainly does. The scene segues into the Eagles trio together, with Edelgard alluding to the upcoming events in the Sealed Forest and indicating that Hubert should meet up with her later for some more villainous scheming after he’s ditched Ferdinand. Ferdinand, indignant about being left out of the loop as he is in canon, grumpily points out that he was a much more splendid dancer at the ball than Edelgard, makeover or not. To his utter surprise, Hubert acknowledges that this is true before leaving. This leads into the actual song, altered from homoerotic via triangulation of desire to an outright sexual awakening for Ferdinand. He realizes that part of his jealousy toward Edelgard is that he wishes Hubert were devoted to him instead, and tells himself not to get his hopes up because he’s, well, not that girl or even a girl. We shall of course leave aside how anyone could be attracted to someone as repulsive as Hubert; that’s part of the inherent comedy of this pairing.

“One Short Day”

This was the hardest song to place in this whole project. The touristy trip to the Emerald City just doesn’t have an analogue in the story of Three Houses, especially not late in Part 1 when tension is mounting toward the upcoming reveal and war. It took me a while to realize that it works wonderfully as an Edeleth piece: Edelgard invites Byleth to Enbarr for her coronation, but that scene is left offscreen in favor of a light romp through the city that further highlights Edelgard’s crush as well as her emotional immaturity in spite of everything she’s about to do. She just wants to have a fun day out and take in the sights and eat sweets with her beloved teacher, and it’s all very “Edge of Dawn”-esque where Edelgard knows she’s about to do terrible things that will change everything forever and hopes to prolong the time until she has to take that step. Adjustments to the lyrics could even work in reference to that song to make the similarities more apparent. An awkward/funny issue here is that I envision Byleth to be totally silent throughout this musical with no sung or spoken parts, which would naturally make them having a duet impossible and make Edelgard’s fascination with them even weirder. Even their gender should be left ambiguous throughout, somehow never confirmed if it’s m!Byleth or f!Byleth. It would take a lot of reworking, but I can see the value in it.

“A Sentimental Man”

The core of the Wizard’s character is not all that different from Rhea’s. Both were thrust unexpectedly into positions of authority that required them to enact a large-scale deception to maintain their power/safety, and both are driven somewhat by parental feelings. The tone of the Wizard’s songs doesn’t align well with Rhea, but once you cut out the vaudeville and do some rewording I could see this one working as Rhea addressing her child (among other things) Byleth at the Holy Tomb just before the Flame Emperor reveal. Of course the dramatic irony hits differently; Rhea knows who and what Byleth is whereas the Wizard doesn’t learn about Elphaba until the end of the show. Nonetheless this would still establish Rhea’s character and motivations as well as set the stage for the impending betrayal.

“Defying Gravity”

Said betrayal being Byleth’s, who decides to stand by Rhea and condemn Edelgard as the Flame Emperor when she arrives with her army. This is another song in parts that would need to be broken up. Edelgard gets the bulk of it, but the middle sections between Elphaba and Glinda could work as a kind of separated duet with Edelgard and Hubert attempting to convince Byleth and Ferdinand respectively to join them. Because of Byleth’s silence only Ferdinand can reply in song; only he and Edelgard add the “my friend” bit to the end of this segment, to illustrate the unevenness of Edeleth and Ferdibert at this point in the story. Then things turn to full bombast, albeit darker than in Wicked proper. Edelgard does the belting, Hubert’s sinister laughter reverberates below her (would it be too tasteless for him to be leering up her skirt the whole time?), Ferdinand has Glinda’s mournful “I hope you’re happy!” toward Hubert, and through this and the reprise of “No One Mourns the Wicked” the major events of the timeskip are enacted in pantomime or silhouette. Byleth tumbles off a cliff, Rhea is taken captive as is Dimitri but Dedue rushes after him, and Claude makes a tactical retreat. Side note: “And if I’m flying solo, / at least I’m flying free” is classic Edelgard fixating on Byleth and forgetting that Hubert exists.

Act II

“Thank Goodness”

A surprisingly tough one here. The core of the song, pivoting around the double meaning of “I couldn’t be happier,” suits early Part 2 Ferdinand perfectly, second-guessing his choice and, outside of CF, melancholy about fighting his homeland. In terms of plot it’s an easy translation too, with the crowd announcing the terrible things the Empire has been doing to win its war - persecuting believers, abducting civilians and turning them into Demonic beasts, consorting with inhuman shadowy figures who can disguise themselves as ordinary people - and the assembly working as a way to bring together the leads of the three routes: Byleth, Dimitri (who had Dedue always at his side and thus never had a full psychotic break), Claude, and Seteth, with Ferdinand representing the Adrestian resistance. It’s only the wedding announcement that’s hard to pin down, and I toyed with a number of ideas including Dimidue making yet another public declaration of devotion to one another or Ferdinand planning to follow through with his arranged marriage to Bernadetta they have in their supports (which makes more sense in light of the following sequence). In the end though I don’t think the marriage element is strictly necessary, leaving the song as a means of catching up with the cast five years later and seeing them united against Edelgard - with Ferdinand’s private regrets the only sour note.

“Wicked Witch of the East”

More a dialogue than a song, but still important. Bernadetta is arguably the Eagle other than Hubert most comfortable supporting Edelgard, because all Edelgard has to do is put Count Varley under house arrest for Bernadetta to sing the emperor’s praises. I can also see her as the same sort of self-centered, negligent ruler that Nessarose becomes in Wicked, not because of an unrequited attraction but because of her reclusive desire to be left alone. I see this scene playing out as Hubert surprising Bernadetta at her estate, angry about rumors that she may be helping the rebels and/or engaged to Ferdinand if going with that plot point after Edelgard has done her the favor of locking up her father. He’s fully prepared to, ahem, “persuade” Bernadetta, but before he can break out the torture implements Ferdinand arrives asking for her to support the rebels’ cause.

Farcical, sure, but it gets the two of them together again after five years and underscores how strong their UST has become in their time apart, with Hubert too flabbergasted to attack a known enemy and Ferdinand expressing how happy he is to see Hubert again despite everything. Each learns that the other isn’t as happy about his chosen path as he’d hoped, in Hubert’s case because his lady has grown ever more distant from him as the war has dragged on. Bernadetta cuts through the tension by bringing things back to the song (sort of) and blurting out that she knows both sides are marshalling their forces near Gronder Field. Ferdinand is too caught up in the fraught romance angle to do more than leave with this new information, but Hubert recovers enough to condemn Bernadetta for her flagrant misrule (venting by inference his frustrations toward Edelgard in the process) and resolve to set her on fire for her treachery.

“I’m Not That Girl (Reprise)”

The Gronder rematch happened offscreen - and Bernadetta was indeed set on fire - and on the Imperial side Edelgard is left increasingly frustrated over her losses and hurt that Byleth still refuses to listen to her and continues to fight her regime. You may notice that I’ve shuffled around the middle of Act II, necessary at this point in order to better line up with FE16’s story and Hubert and Edelgard’s separate narrative climaxes while also ensuring that those climaxes don’t overlap too much. This song is only a brief reprise, but it’s a significant one; Hubert finally realizes that Edelgard will never love him. It’s also kept gender-neutral, because Byleth.

“As Long as You’re Mine”

That segues naturally into this moment. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr using his unexpected stealth powers (I usually talk about Dedue having them, but Ferdinand shows he’s no slouch in his Mercedes supports) and encounters Hubert. Their UST boils over in a furor of awkward, impassioned sex and also this song. I like the idea of rewording some of Fiyero's lines to incorporate Hubert's acidic snark: “Maybe you’re brainless, / maybe you’re wise.” It’s all very desperate and sensual, ending with Ferdinand taking Elphaba’s line about feeling wicked for the first time - which will have a dark reverberation two songs from now.

“Wonderful”

Again, axe the vaudeville and it’s a solid Rhea song. There’s just the small problem of Rhea being captured at this point in the plot; I thought about moving this number toward the very end at first before reconsidering. While Hubert and Ferdinand are rolling in the sheets, a distraught Edelgard confronts Rhea in prison. Rhea responds to Edelgard’s frustrations with Byleth with her backstory in song, much more somber than the Wizard but, like him, still willing to rehabilitate her estranged listener. The bits of this song about the nature of history are especially relevant to what Edelgard falsely believes about the church and what she views as her own legacy, so I could see this as an interesting character study on what Edelgard actually wanted with her war apart from dragon genocide. There’s a lot that could be done here in the dialogue surrounding those revelations.

“No Good Deed”

However the interrogation of Rhea turns out, Edelgard takes a leaf out of SS Dimitri’s book and visits Byleth alone at the monastery, only to be as harshly rebuffed as is possible to be without the rebuffer speaking. Then comes this song, which was incidentally the one where I realized that Edelgard would need a major role in FE16-does-Wicked even with the Ferdibert focus. Hubert fully embraced his evil wickedness long ago and wouldn’t think twice about being wicked or being perceived as such, but Edelgard is a different matter. Here she breaks down, admitting that her good intentions were largely selfish and that she regrets that her war has cost her any relationship she could have had with Byleth (continuing the joke at his expense, Hubert goes unmentioned when Edelgard names the people she’s lost/failed). It ends with a foreshadowing of her Hegemon form, the sign that she’s abandoned all pretense of goodness and become truly wicked.

“March of the Witch Hunters”

Another ensemble/vignette piece, checking in with the various members of Byleth’s army as they prepare to storm Enbarr. Dimitri hopes for the chance to forgive his stepsister, Claude has big plans for the continent and wants to remove the threat Edelgard poses, Seteth is desperate to find Rhea, and Byleth…is there. As in many of the songs, the self-righteousness of the crowd here rings more sincere and less hypocritical than in Wicked given Three Houses has actual villains, but it still works.

“For Good”

The song that inspired this whole thing, now with many paragraphs of context to set it up instead of only some fluff based on the Ferdibert A+ support. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr (again) ahead of the battle, and their second love ballad is more somber as they resign themselves to their fates. As in the VA cover, Hubert refuses to ask forgiveness for anything and Ferdinand is fine with that.

“Finale”

Wicked reduces the final battle from The Wizard of Oz to silhouettes backed by sections of “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and that’s what comes here: Ferdinand and Hubert facing each other in battle, Edelgard becoming the Hegemon before being defeated and then dying as in AM’s final cutscene, and Dimitri taking the throne with Dedue at his side and proclaiming his intention to do all he can to restore both the Kingdom and Duscur - and that his first act as king is to announce that he and Dedue have decided to open their marriage up. This is met with much manly cheering and stripping and someone (Ashe?) saying incredulously that he didn’t even know they were married. End silhouettes.

The final scene with the Wizard and Morrible becomes Claude, Seteth, and Byleth rescuing Rhea. Rhea names Byleth her successor as leader of the church and says that she will go into quiet seclusion and do what she can to correct her mistakes. This all suits Claude just fine, who tells everyone that he’s off to take care of some other business and that Byleth will make a great archbishop - and also they can have the Alliance, no big deal. As with the King of Faerghus’s gay orgies, the King of Almyra’s grand ambitions are too large for this story to do more than allude to.

Next, Ferdibert does a version of the Elphaba/Fiyero scene, with Ferdinand revealing that he had Hubert spared on the condition that he help root out any remaining Agarthans and that he remain under house arrest at the Aegir estate. Ferdinand was also required to assume governance of the Empire, because Dimitri wasn’t getting that dumped on him as well. They can be together, but the general population can’t know that Hubert survived lest Ferdinand’s reputation and basic ethics be compromised…which in a darkly funny hypocritical twist then segues to Ferdinand pontificating before the crowd at the beginning of the show, reprising “For Good” with Hubert until they’re drowned out by “No One Mourns the Wicked.” Thus the story concludes on one of my favorite things about Ferdibert: perhaps even in this non-CF continuity Ferdinand wasn’t changed for the better by falling in love with the Most Wicked Man in Fódlan, but they’ve both been changed….

[trollhuntersshardborn]

Forged in Darkness summary

Forged In Darkness was going to be two backstories that I felt couldn’t be squeezed into Act 2. And because these backstories are important and FiD is short, we’ll start with that before jumping into Act 2.

The first backstory is Alora’s, because in original planning of this story, Alora was going to be the main character. 

So, a girl was born to two peasant folk in the year 1000 AD. The mother died of childbirth, and the father had no money to feed him and the baby. So he sold the baby to the nearest castle for coins to feed himself, convinced that a life of servitude would leave her housed, fed, protected and cherished. Well, he was right about the first two. The girl, who grew up with no name, was made the scullery maid of the castle kitchen, where she did dishes and the cleaning and made sure there was always hot water available. The kitchen cook would routinely check if the water was hot enough by dousing her with it, overtime leaving her with severe scars on her back. The girl was resentful and bitter, but powerless to even speak her frustrations else she become further abused or worse kicked out of the castle.

Her fortunes took a turn for the better and worse eighteen years later, when gumm-gumms took down the castle, killing and/or eating everyone inside. The girl was found and eaten by Gunmar himself. Then she woke up in his own castle keep twenty four hours later. Turns out she’s a Shard, resurrected by her now immortal soul. Yay? Well, now that Gunmar has himself a Shard to craft a massive army, he’d be able to take over the surface lands much faster now. But before that, he requests from her a son. It takes the girl time to get used to the idea that this is her life now, but she accepts this under the condition that she be treated better than when she was in the human castle (exact wording: “Don’t give me kindness and be cruel. Don’t give me cruelty and be kind. Be consistent with your treatment. Do not deceive me.” “Is that all? You don’t ask for much.”). Two months and two days of intense magical labor later, the Maiden has given Gunmar his son, Bular. The child is very small and weak, practically a runt, and while Gunmar is overjoyed to finally have kin, he’s apprehensive of the child surviving at all. Turns out that Maiden’s Life Magic is not particularly strong and it’s doubtful that she can churn out an army quickly. This would make her pretty useless, but since the other option is to toss her out and potentially give the enemy a Shard of their own, the gumm gumms opt to keep her. If only to raise the child.

Maiden loved Bular dearly, but having never cared for children and being a human raising a troll, she couldn’t give him a good upbringing. And terrified that he could be killed easily, once he started getting the hunger for battle, she tried to toughen him up and train him herself. Which meant she needed to be trained to fight as well. But a soft, fleshy human doesn’t last long in a sparring match with a troll. She was killed often, and soon brought back to life. She also eventually discovers the power to summon the swords she was training herself to use whenever she gets extremely pissed off or overprotective of Bular. These two discoveries cement that Maiden was immortal, and couldn’t die no matter what, which gave her the now trademark smart mouth, fiery temper and ignorance of high risks and deadly situations. The Maiden is now stricken with Deadpool Syndrome and quickly gets on the nerves of everyone in the Keep, including Gunmar. But again, they can’t toss out the firecracker or else she could become the enemy’s Shard. Also, Bular is rather attached to his completely erratic and insane mother, and she’s become rather good at fighting.

Determined to now become her own person and stand by Gunmar and Bular’s side as someone to be respected and feared, she goes to Gunmar and demands a rite of passage. All trolls go through a rite of passage to be considered adults, and once complete have the opportunity to choose a new name for themselves (this practice is now out dated and trolls in the modern day don’t really do this anymore). Gunmar is reluctant, but when she challenges him with a rite that “even Gunmar would not be able to do,” he tells her to go slay a Nyarlagroth Queen and bring back its skull. It takes her a goddamn MONTH, but she does it. Now, while she’s gone, a couple of changelings are putting a strategy in motion to keep themselves alive a little longer as well as put Maiden to better use when she comes back. They convince Gunmar that the Maiden will get stronger and stronger willed and possibly revolt against him, and if she does, Bular will most likely follow her. This isn’t good for anyone, so they convince Gunmar that the best and fastest way to tame her is to tie her down with the one thing that ropes in humans: love. “Give her what she wants most,” Corvis tells Gunmar, “a family.” Gunmar reluctantly agrees to play along, if only to keep civility and to reign in his own son. So when the Maiden comes back, and chooses the name Alora Darren (a combination of two troll queens from the past), Gunmar greets her with what will be a pet phrase to come:

“Alora. My wife. My queen. My one true love.”

This... works. Its awkward for the two of them at first, but now believing she’s won Gunmar’s adoration, she feels officially a gumm gumm and part of the pack. And it is so for three hundred years. Alora soon makes her name as a fieresome, deadly general among both trolls and humans. The trolls call her “Gunmar’s concubine” or “Gunmar’s human whore” while the humans call her “the wife of the devil himself.” But despite the new status, she’s still at the bottom of the family totem poll. And still as arrogant and wild as ever. Gunmar often sighs and groans at her antics, but there’s little else he can really do. She’s as reigned in as can be, but overtime, she does grow on him as his mischievous other half, though he rarely supports her schenaniganary. 

This backstory actually ends just before the end of Act 1. Having lost the survivors of Royal Troll market, everyone is moving to head out to China to track down this Heartstone growing there. Alora is rather salty after her battle with Nakrik but won’t say why. This is when her own right hand, Skeeziel, who had been by her side as basically her only friend and supporter, admits that he’s been madly in love with her this whole time and goes to embrace her. She quickly pushes him away, not sure what’s caused this confession and not feeling the same way. However, Gunmar has seen this, and he calls Skeeziel to him, and promptly beheads the wizard troll. Alora is... devastated by these turns of events and it leads to a massive fight with Gunmar. This is basically going back on the agreement of giving kindness and being cruel. It then comes out that Gunmar didn’t even love Alora back then and was just doing this to reign in her wild side. Both are hurt and heartbroken, Alora so much so that she just... sits down and refuses to move. Gunmar won’t stay for any temper tantrum she may have and calls his armies to march east immediately.

Bular goes to his mom’s side, not having seen this fight at all, to urge her to come with them. It takes all of her energy to bring him close and touch foreheads, eyes heavy with tears, trying hard not to cry in front of her son. Bular catches on that something is wrong, and wants to stay with her, but she urges him to go with his father, scared of what would happen if Bular was no longer on Gunmar’s side. Bular reluctantly goes, angry with his mother staying behind and follows Gunmar east.

And so falls the Gumm gumm queen, into mortal despair. We’ll come back to this scene in Act 2.

The second story in Forged In Darkness is called Paika, and it follows the villain to be introduced in Act 2.

The story takes place in Bulgaria (because GODDAMN IT RICHARD ASHLEY HAMILTON WHY DAMN IT WHY FUCKING GOD DAMN IT ALL!),circa 1121 AD, in a tiny village called Anka, which sits on a mountain. This village is a combination village where humans and trolls lived together side by side in peace. And Gunmar’s conquering and rampages are driving trolls to seek solace in places he would have trouble reaching or not bother with, including this very out of the way village. Making their way here is a group of refugees hoping to find safety for themselves and several orphans they picked up along the way. One of these orphans catches the eyes of the human elder of the village, Kohsena Radulova. She spies a troll toddler born with no eyes and is a species of troll she’s never seen before. Taking pity on this little one, she takes him in personally and through magic, gives him his own eyes to see the world through. He says his name is Paika and she raises and loves on him as a son of her own.

Now, Kohsena isn’t your average hedge wizard, she’s also a Shard (whoa!)! She was born in the year 1000 AD, and had no idea of her powers until she passed away in her old age at seventy. Having come back to life, she discovered she can retain any and all knowledge she learns and uses it to memorize books of magic the trolls have on hand, easily harnesses the power of magic and brought stability to the harsh mountain they live on. She went on to continue being a granny to her kids, grandkids and great grandkids as they grew, and is the undisputed wise woman of Anka. When she adopts Paika, she quickly notices his talent for magic and takes him as her apprentice to pass on her teachings.

Paika is incredibly gifted in magic, using it in ways never seen before. But he’s a rather small troll, so he’s often bullied by both the troll and human kids growing up. But he’s also rather fast and limber, so he’s able to outrun, out jump, out climb, and stay hidden from any trying to pick on him. Noting how he navigates around the village and nearby forest with ease, one of Kohsena’s grandsons teaches Paika how to hunt and he’s rather good at that too. He seems as in tune to the mountain as Kohsena and has good potential to be a village elder. It’s not long after Paika reaches adulthood that he accepts his rite of passage. It comes in two stages: to make a tool he will use for the rest of his life, and to bring back a rare flower that grows inside the mountain. Paika makes a hardy hunting knife and uses his own talents to bring the flower back. Now an adult troll by rite, he can chose a new name. He decides to name himself after this troublesome flower, the Ingoret, which is a poisonous flower but when used correctly can be a life saving medicine. The name Ingoret is a troll word for “the very fine line between life and death.” But Paika has never been able to pronounce this word, so his official adult name is Angor Rot.

Skip to 1297 AD, Gunmar and his troops are making their way up the mountain. There is almost nowhere else for the people living on Anka to flee. Some are preparing to fight, and Kohsena promises to protect her home to the best of her ability. But Angor believes they aren’t enough and wants to go search for help. When asked who could possibly help, he says the witch in the black sea. In the least, she can grant him greater magic than he can wield on his own. Kohsena viciously shuts this idea down, since the witch is extremely dangerous and fickle. But Angor doesn’t see any other way to fight off Gunmar and keep his home. He sneaks away to the rocks in the sea to strike a deal with Morgana. We all know how that went.

Angor, sans one soul, instead of going off to fight Trollhunters rushes home to mom, hoping maybe she could fix this. He comes back to a village in ruins and the mountain barren of life. Gunmar, Alora, and the gumm gumm armies have laid waste to it all. Kohsena clings to life by the village center tree, unwilling to move in her grief, and seeing Angor return after selling his soul for magic makes the grief worse. She tells him that some of the villagers had escaped and she did what she could to protect the village but almost everything is gone. Angor insists that she come with him to find the others, but she refuses. She’s heartbroken that he left, but she says outloud “I’m glad you did. If you stayed, you would have been killed.” And this cuts him deep. He leaves her behind to pack what little of their things survived, and when he comes back, he sees that she’s died. Figuring that she’ll wake up on the way, he starts to take her body down the mountain. After several days, she doesn’t wake. An immortal Shard has permanently died. Angor, devastated, takes her back to the village and buries her. And now, with no emotional tethers, becomes a hunter to all Merlin had created. This also includes Shards, creatures of Merlin’s creation.

((Side note: Nadia was born the exact moment Kohsena died. Coincidence? To be addressed in Act 2))

In 1300 AD, Angor locates another Shard. This one is a rather young woman who’s ability is seeing the future, and her title is the Blind Seer (I think I had a name for her, but it’s lost to time). She had evacuated the troll village she lived in, prepared for Angor to come here. He came seeking knowledge of how a Shard can permanently die, and she was willing to give it to him. Why? “Because I have seen this moment. You come. I tell you the secret. You kill me, and go on to kill the other Shards. This is both our destinies, and there is nothing to be done to stop it.” With this, she tells him:

A Shard is only immortal when she wants to be. When she decides she no longer wants to live, the soul becomes mortal for as long as this wish is present. And the Seer, knowing this is her final moment alive, accepts this and relinquishes her will to live. And so Angor kills her to test this theory, and it is so. She never revives. And now, with this knowledge, he gains a title other than Hunter of Hunters. He’s also the Shardkiller.

Aaaaaand, that’s Forged in Darkness. I had thought of giving Grim a backstory here too since so little is written about him, but I honestly don’t have a good backstory to tell about him.

[masterbeta29]

My review of Pokemon SwSh!!!! (or just Shield, cuz it was the version I play, LOL)

Finally, after finishing the game (including the Post game) and fully exploring the region, I think it’s time for me to say what I think of this 8 gen…

I know it’s obvious, but I mention it just in case: This is MY OPINION!!!, if someone disagrees with me its totally valid, I just ask for respect.

ALSO, English is not my first language so I might have certain lack/erros of spelling out there, or I repeat many words, hehe.

It is important to clarify that this review is based on SwSh base, everything that refers to DLC will NOT be included here, my opinion of the game is already done, the rest is extra content.

I wanted to give this review a more ‘’silly’’ tone, since giving negative opinions on the internet can be quite delicate and I wanted to relax the mood. Do not take this seriously, I still have my CONS with the game, but it is still genuinely enjoyable, which for me is the most important thing in a game.  I will talk about everything in general, so I will try to summarize certain points.

LET’S GO!!!

NEW FEATURES

Poke Camp, Curry Dex, Boxes and more

It’s like a dream come true for me, visiting other camps, seeing my whole party next to each other in the screen playing, discussing, running, is something really magical helps, me connect with them and know their personalities better, although I admit that I miss petting them lol and the minigames like in Gen 6. I also really liked the concept of curry as an alternative way to cure your Pokémon maybe I just wish there was a simpler way to know how to create new recipes (ALSO TMs).

Access to boxes anywhere is wonderful especially when you are breeding, just like, changing the name of trade Pokémon and the move reminder.

Rotomphone

It is not used as much as a phone, more than in the post Game (I can be wrong tho) but it serves as Dex and that’s what’s important really, the new feature is that now it includes the bicycle, that can ride both on land and water and in my opinion it is a degradation of what the concept of  “Poke Ride” was, but as I said before, it fulfill the function it should.

Trainer Cards

The concept of being able to share and customize them with other players is super entertaining, although it is a bit annoying that you always have to make a new code for each small modification. As for the cards of the main characters of the game, I will talk with a little more detail later. 

Dynamax

At the beginning it was fun and exciting, but in the end it just became a gimmick that sometimes I had to use by obligation in raids. It is not as epic as the Megas and does not have the weight of the lore and cultural/regional connection like the Z-moves.

The Giga forms, although some are great, and I am happy that they gave Pokémon like Garbodor love, I also think that there were many missed opportunities, starting with the starters of the region or in giving forms to Pokémon that in previous generations already had like Gengar and Charizard.

Raids

They are incredibly fun, it is an activity that you can spend hours and hours enjoying, especially with friends but if we talk about NPCs… OOF, I understand that the purpose of Pokemon is that we all make friends and work as a team, but DAMN, if it is stressful when you lose a raid with 3 friends and an NPC, because the Pokémon only killed the NPC, it is almost impossible to defeat a 5 star raid with only NPCs, and as I said before I understand why they do them weaker, but there are some that are completely useless, I see you Martin Solrock lol.

Poke Jobs and Rotom Rally

I  will be honest, I have not used these features enough to have a solid judgment on these lol.

CHARACTERS

Magnolia

OK, I need to get this off my chest: I am incredibly disappointed and sad with this character, especially since she is/was our first old female professor, to be simply pulled into forgettable land.

It started pretty well, but then it just disappeared until almost the end of the game to give the role of professor to Sonia … REALLY ?! I hate to say this, but she felt more like a device to give character development to Sonia, when she could have been used in scenes with Rose or repeatedly going into further detail about Dynamax for the MC (you know because she’s an expert about that topic…), before give the paper to Sonia. At least I am grateful that I had a little more screen time in the post game, although not even as a professor.

Sonia

Thank you Sonia, for allowing us to discover and know the story with you, honestly she was the one who saved mostly my interest in the story. 

But speaking of the character, I like her, I like her dedication to get out of the shadow of Leon’s achievement and to show her grandmother that she is capable, which she finally manages to fulfill, she still has certain insecurities, but that makes her more human, she’s the real professor (I’m still salty for Magnolia tho)

Leon

Everyone knows from the posts on my PT on Twitter that I constantly bullying the character, but I really like him a lot, he is an excellent guide/brother through the game, charismatic, EXTRA, but very involved in his role as champion, in the sense that he is always aware of what is going on and helping in the process, in addition to being strong (one of the most difficult battles in the game). Definitely among my fav champions with Cynthia, Steven and Kukui (I count him as champion, SU!)

Gym Leaders

I love them, their designs, personalities, the animations, they are all incredibly memorable, my favorites are Opal, Kabu and Piers. 

But even so, I wish I had more to go on besides the lore on the back of their cards and their battle animations, I would have liked to see them more integrated in the story, and I feel that it lack a little more interaction with some of them, especially Allister and Melony in my case, but at least the trainer cards were a good addition to know them a little more, outside of being a Gym Leader.

RIVALS

OK, I’m prepared for everyone to hate me, *sigh*:

I… I DONT LIKE BEDE AND MARNIE THAT MUCH?… I mean, I don’t hate them, and they are both far from being the worst rivals, but I did expect a little more from both…

Bede

I am one of the few of the fandom that does not like rivals flat jerks, because for me, that is not a character but rather  a trait.

But I wanted to give it a try, and when I was just beginning to gain interest in him, they force his backstory in my face… And as I said, I like trainer cards…but more in characters, like G.leaders because these are characters that we don’t see much around the trip, but in the case of rivals, that appear several times and develop in the story, I personally like to get to know them little by little, discover their story and understand them in the course, here I felt it more as an excuse for me, to feel bad for him, especially at the moment he gives you his card.

His relationship with Rose is not explored enough imo. 

And a complete turn-around that happens offscreen, like no joke, the MC literally didn’t see any of it, he just disappears after the Opal scene (but to give him credit, that scene is one of my favorites in the game).

But you know, I understood that he was just a lost boy, and I’m happy that he found a better place, and I admire his effort to want to change, so in the end I ended up liking him a little more.

Marnie

Marnie is interesting, because although I agree with many people that she would have benefited from having more screen time, I consider that a good character does not need all the screen time in the world, is about what but what they do with it, and the problem I have with her is that her time was not well spent.

I like her dream and I really like her relationship with her brother, however there was no moment when I really connected with her. I feel partly, that I don’t know her character, like her various personality facets. 

Untapped opportunities: fight with her more times or with her…would have helped the character a lot imo.

Hop

Hop is the best rival of the three hands down, his trainer card contains the right and necessary information to make us have an interest in the character, but also the story lets us know him more: a competitive boy, but who has insecurities, fears of failure, that is reflected not only by the dialogue but also in his Pokemon team (no really, it broke my heart when I realized that he didn’t have his Wooloo in his team), that he is frustrated and suffers, but he gets up, discovers other tastes and with these finds a new path, ugh perfect, I adore him.

Forcing the player to defeat him is torture, it is like defeating Hau in USUM and Wally in ORAS breaks my heart.

Rose

In short: ok character, decent /meh antagonist, and a horrible villain. 

Like the climax of the story, Rose is forced in the end to be the villain, when he worked best as an antagonist, his plan makes no sense, his battle is disappointing, although his battle theme is awesome, but it just does not fit the character, the plan, nor the situation at all.

But the character has a certain charisma, especially in his ‘’suit especially in his incognito suit.”

Oleana

Interesting character, with a potential backstory, with motives and characterization, who is underused in the story * sigh *… I LIKE HER THO

Overall, I would have liked to see much more of the relationship between Rose, Oleana and Bede, I think it would have benefited the 3 characters…

Team Yell

They are … ok, it is cool to have a team that is not villain, that bother the player from time to time even for good reasons, I admire his dedication and loyalty.

THE REGION

The region is aesthetically beautiful, the details, the structure, the contrast for example between Hammerlocke and Ballonlea, and despite not living in the UK or having had the opportunity to travel to the destination, according to my friends the region in which the games are based is very well related, which I think is excellent. However, despite the visual beauty, when it comes to routes and exploration it feels a bit limited, there are really some towns, where the most interesting thing to do is complete the Gym, there are almost no reasons to return to the previous town after having passed them…

But, what I missed the most was the lack of exploration, discovery, the charm of the NPCs…

Many have told me: what about the Wild Area? Because of the ability to explore in an open area, it is probably the best in the franchise! and yes, the Wild Area is a very attractive part of these games (I will talk a little bit about this, later), but as I said, everything that is considered part of the capacity of the new console, I will not take it into account, it is unfair, because a portable console can NOT stand a concept such as the Wild Area although the developers had the idea before, not at least at SwSh scale.

And as I said before and again, the T.Cards are an incredible idea, but for me NOTHING compares to getting to know the characters through the world, dialogue, interaction… I’m going to use pokemon Moon as an example to make me understand better: (because it was the last main pokemon game I played before SwSh and that’s why I have it more fresh lol) Where you can enter Olivia’s shop, buy jewelry and visit her room and discover that she is a desperate single woman, or enter Gladion’s room and talk to the receptionist and that she tells you part of his story, that kind of things…

Let’s see for example Melony, we know she has more children besides Gordie, but only for concept art, and yes, probably do unique models would take a while, but I honestly wouldn’t have be bothered  if they use generic NPCS, they did it with Lana’s sisters, then the anime can dedicated to giving them unique designs.

Speaking of NPCs (mainly of those inside the houses), many lost the charm and authenticity they had… I mean, where is the lady who told us the story of her husband’s accident or the men of the coffee shop, who every time he prepares us a drink told us the story of where such a drink came from, ect… the NPCS on that side are boring…

EXCEPT BALL GUY, he / she is awesome!

I know this look like extra or unimportant things, but these little details really give life to the region, personality to characters that are secondary, it makes everything feel more united and also makes the main characters feel more inside the world, and honestly that is why on this hand, some cities felt empty for me…

But the other hand, I really liked what they did with the NPCs fans, see how the number increasing every time the MC wins a gym battle, makes the trip to become a champion feel more rewarding, It really helps you feel like a true champion when you got it. 

Other examples like the girl NPC who is going to support  you in the Gyms while their pokemon is evolving, or how the NPCS react and change their dialogue corresponding to what is happening… beautiful, for this part the worldbulding is 10/10.

The wild Area

Probably the closest we have for now of an open space area in a Pokemon game, I have to admit that I get lost at least 1 half an hour trying to find the next destination (I understand you Leon), it was hilarious lol, at the beginning of the game it turns out to be a fairly limited area, and you really can enjoy it in its entirety when you finish the main story, but I don’t see so much trouble with that, since it’s partly the point, for balance. In general, it is a fantastic idea although I feel that it is necessary to polish it in certain parts, and NO, I don’t mean THE TREE, but I don’t want to be so hard on GF at this moment, because is the first time they experiment with such concept…

Pokemon and Music

I put these two together because they both share a very curious characteristic: EXPERIMENTAL. 

The pokedex is super solid, I love how these last generations, GF is doing its homework and is striving to make the pokemon belong to the region, as for animals, myths, culture…muah I LOVE IT, BRAVO.

For me a good OST movie or video game not only has to be for the piece n yes, but how it is composed to accompany the events that occur on the screen, how it adapts and fits a certain scene of the story or character, and although I admit that in general it is not my favorite compared to other gens, there are tracks that have become part of my favorites:

The crowd, the screams, the build up as you gradually approach the last pokemon, ugh. Dynamax is cool and everything, but THIS is the basis for me, of why these battles feel so energetic and exciting.

That mystical atmosphere that catches you, is beautiful but at the same time mysterious, and perhaps many disagree with me, but the addition of the howls of the legendaries… I love it.

STORY

I think the game started extremely well, the introduction to the characters, the exploration, the introduction to the starters, the mystery of the legendary, everything is on track to me to enjoy this adventure to the fullest, but later I felt like it began to fall.

I understand that this is Pokémon and sometimes Pokémon does not need a complex story to make it enjoyable, as long as it makes sense and is entertaining, the problem I have mainly with the story is how they constantly get you out of it. I understand the concept they wanted to do: to take a more realistic point of view, in which adults take responsibility or in this case the champion and that later when you become champion you now can do what the champion did, and I like this concept, but the phrase of “you focus on the gym, we take care of the problems ” they say and they repeat it several times in the game like, I understood the first time!!! 

Indirectly I felt like they were trying to took me out, and in consequence I lost interest in the story of the game, if it hadn’t been because Sonia bothered to explain to me the lore and a little of what was happening. 

It’s more like “tell us” and not “show us”

and that’s the risk of this concept: you play as a main character, because you want to be a main character or share the role.

The climax feels incredibly forced and confusing, I felt that there was no build out, almost no foreshadowing for what was happening at the moment, everything comes out of nowhere, and thats why, I started making Okami jokes with Eternatus, because I don’t felt that emotion of the ‘’Climax’’.

Definitely in the part where the game shine was in the gym Challenge, as I said before, the gyms, the leaders, the atmosphere within them, the scale, the music that changing every time, until reaching the final pokémon, the challenges that we have to do before, the fans, becoming the champion, all this really is the identity of the game. 

Pokémon returned to its roots, where this story is the story of us again, and becoming the champion here is everything, it is one of the most exciting and most satisfying Gym challenge in all generations with gyms.

ADDITIONAL

Here I want to give opinions according to the experiences I had with certain things within the game, which I think are quite PERSONAL, because each person plays different Pokémon, by the team of Pokémon, because he decided to level up more or stay at a lower level or how you decided to follow the story of the game.

Difficulty

Decent, by the standards of Pokemon of course, I try not to leveling to much, and if I do, there are maximum 3 levels and only one pokemon… So, gyms were easy in general, perhaps a pair that were difficult (Allister and Melony), but I never did black screen as in other games, but definitely the most difficult battle in the game is Leon, which I think is appropriate.

Online

Its horrible lol, There were not only once but several times in which I lasted like 1 hour trying to connect with a person, it is ridiculous.The signal falling every so often. But in general the biggest problem I have is connecting with very specific people, not even with the infamous Festival Plaza had so many problems.

Gameplay / Pacing

It is normal the same as always which is fine, some drop of frames out there in certain scenes but nothing serious, some cuts and lack of scenarios / designs that if you should in when they took me a little at the time, but absolutely nothing compared as the haters make it look, the game is still incredibly enjoyable, and it can be played perfectly.

The pacing started pretty well/decently, but from the fourth gym onwards, everything became very very fast, and not to mention the climax and the Pokemon League, honestly all this last arc felt super stuck….

So my opinion in general is: I enjoy the game like any other Pokémon game, it has its entity, it has new and interesting things that I would like it to expand more in future generations and it has personality. Is it my favorite game or my favorite generation? No, I definitely enjoyed other generations more, there were many missed opportunities that they could take more advantage, and I feel bad for GF for making them release this game for this year and these dates, because unfortunately some cuts are very noticeable. But the generation just starting ,so we will have to wait and see what we have for the future. For now, Thanks Pokémon SwSh, for another adventure…

[smuthuttpodcast]

Name/Handle/Alias

Jane Nightwork

About how long would you say you’ve been rooting for Reylo?

I'm definitely a TLJ reylo. In fact, I didn't even become intrigued by the idea of reylo until after the third time I saw TLJ in the theater! (Blasphemy, I know.) But by January 2018 I was absolutely rooting for reylo and bendemption. 

What did you think of the way Rise of Skywalker handled Rey and Kylo’s relationship?

So, confession: I haven't actually seen the film. I don't know that I ever will, which is a heartbreaking place to be considering how much I've fallen in love with the whole SW universe since TLJ. But since I know everything that happens especially in regards to their relationship, I think it's cruel: to the characters, to the myth, and to the audience. I'm uncomfortable with the way Rey and Ben both seemed to revert to their early TFA characterizations throughout much of the film, but even that I could've forgiven had they been given an HEA. And for what it's worth, if the decision had been made to make Kylo go "full evil" and live and die a villain, I'd have hated it of course, but I could have at least respected the decision if it was done well. The handling of their relationship in TROS spoke of a total lack of artistic integrity, which is such a disappointment because I loved TFA and had a great amount of respect for JJ Abrams.    

Do you think the film understood why you, and other people, felt like Rey and Kylo had something together? Did it get their chemistry?

No, absolutely not. I think that Daisy and Adam have an incredible amount of on-screen chemistry, and that definitely shines through in their scenes together. (I've seen all their scenes.) But I don't think the film had the slightest idea why I and others find Ben and Rey's relationship meaningful. I'm so sad to say these harsh things, but unfortunately they're how I feel.

What about the handling of Kylo’s redemption? Was it something you had to think through in your stories? 

I give Adam Driver all the credit in the world for his acting through the redemption scenes. All of the many problems with the film, in fact, are because of the leadership (writing, directing, producing), not the actors. That said, the way the film handles Ben's redemption is atrocious. TFA and TLJ, as well as the supplemental materials, show us a person who has been manipulated and abused his entire life. The film doesn't give us the slightest acknowledgment of that. Rather, it seems as though Leia has already given up on Ben before he was even born, which makes absolutely no sense for what we know of Leia. In the pivotal scene where Ben speaks to his memory of Han, the acting, again, is beautiful. But it's horrible that none of his family or the other Jedi come to help him, and that the only way he can comfort himself is to essentially daydream his father back into existence. Then every one of the Jedi, including multiple members of Ben's family, converge to help Rey, leaving Ben all alone at the bottom of a pit. And then none of them show up to help him save Rey. Frankly I find it disturbing. I think Marie-Claire said it best on WTF: "No one ever loved Ben Solo, except for Rey." I really don't like to think about it.

Funnily enough Ben's redemption is something I spend a TON of time thinking about in my own stories. That might not seem obvious, because thus far I've written exclusively already-redeemed-Ben. The vast majority of my stories are modern AUs, and my plots are all very soft and romantic and fluffy. My pre-writing focus is all about what happened to make Ben get to the place where my characterization of him is possible. Is it that Leia took a more active role in his childhood, that Luke was kinder, that Ben himself was more perceptive about Snoke's manipulations? I love finding the modern AU equivalent for the family dynamic, and the catalyst for Ben's "return," even if that's not something the story focuses on. I haven't tackled a story that goes through Ben's redemption arc myself, but I LOVE reading them; this fandom has so many gifted authors that really dive into the nuance and complexity of Kylo/Ben's journey. I'm drawn to space post-redemption and pre-happiness. My main question is: now that Ben and his family are reunited, how can they heal and grow?

Before TROS I imagined Ben's redemption would be a largely internal journey that was motivated by Ben's desire to reunite with Rey. He'd realize that as Supreme Leader he now had everything he thought he ever wanted, but the victory was hollow. He'd also realize just how much Snoke warped his perceptions now that he was free of him. And then, when Palpatine returned and tried to take over/make Rey his apprentice/recruit him/whatever, he'd have a revelation that the burden of Kylo Ren was too heavy and he was ready to become Ben again. I don't fully accept TROS as canon, to be honest, so I haven't changed my mind much about how I see his redemption. 

What did you think of where Rey landed at the end? There had been a lot of excitement around Star Wars having a female protagonist. Do you think she lived up to the promise of her character?

It's obvious to me that Rey Palpatine was a last-minute decision, and I'll hate it forever. It was even WORSE to make her take the name Skywalker at the very end. Again, I think it's cruel. So many people deeply identified with Rey Nobody, and to see her stripped of all her agency, and have her power attributed to a man, is disgusting. On top of that, Rey's entire arc for TFA and TLJ was to find belonging, to find a family. And she ends up alone and back in the desert with no one but someone else's droid. I sincerely don't have words for how heartbroken and enraged that makes me feel. Throughout TFA and TLJ Rey was such a gorgeously complex character. She's light and dark, frightened and courageous, fierce and soft. On a personal level her character gave me hope that I could be both powerful in my own right and still lovable. That my desire for love and belonging didn't negate my strength. TROS undercut all of that.

I absolutely believe that Rey is an amazing a character and Daisy Ridley as an actor achieved something wonderful with her performance of Rey. But neither the character nor the actor were given the opportunity to achieve their full potential, not by a long shot. 

There’s criticism of the movie that argues it’s akin to “fan fiction” and that is has too much fan service. As fans and fan-fiction writers, how do you react to that?

As of right now I have 255 fics bookmarked in my AO3 account. I'd recommend any one of them over TROS. I don't actually think the film has much of anything in common with fic, and in fact the comparison seems like a holdover from 10+ years ago when writing fic was a lot more taboo, and all fic was assumed to be terrible writing. I don't think anyone within the reylo community thinks TROS is like fan-fiction, but if I was talking to a casual fan and they said that I'd sincerely encourage them to check out actual fic and see how amazing it is.

On the issue of fan service, though, I would agree. I think one of the central problems the ST has had as a whole is trying way too hard to rope in fans of the OT and getting bogged down in "did you see that? did you get that reference??" type nods to OT. Neither TFA nor TLJ have as much of a problem with it as TROS, though, which is so overwhelmed with desperate fan service. 

Are you still writing any Star Wars fanfic? Tell us about it! (Don't forget your Ao3 handle!)

I am absolutely writing fic, and will continue to do so for a long, long time! I love Star Wars, and that's not going to change because I'm upset by TROS. My current story is a Christmas fic (I'm a little behind) in which Ben fosters a momma dog and her puppies, with the help of veterinarian Rey. My username on AO3 is JaneNightwork, and my puppies fic is called Merry (Fuzzy) & Bright.

Thank you Jane Nightwork you can find their writing here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneNightwork/pseuds/JaneNightwork

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Reviews Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

Final Fantasy VIII has finally received the remaster treatment. This was the last entry from the PS1 and PS2 era that had yet to receive a remaster. The reason it was constantly left out was because during the PS1 and PS2 era, Square didn’t have much of an archiving policy. This meant that the source code for Final Fantasy VIII no longer existed. If this story sounds familiar then it does as the original Kingdom Hearts also suffered the same fate.

Final Fantasy VIII was my entry point into the series and seeing that remastered announcement trailer gave me alot of feelings and a lot of joy that the gaming community would give this game another look.

Now, I’ve already reviewed Final Fantasy VIII for this blog already. This review is mostly going to focus on the remastered edition as well as cover some points I didn’t address in the previous review. I’ll be talking about what changed as well as what improved and what didn’t improve.

Let’s get the obvious change out of the way first and talk about the character models. These new models are absolutely gorgeous. They look like they belong on PS2 game. The details on the new models show more than the original PS1 models. For example, you can now see the Garden Insignia on the Garden student uniforms and you can see Squall’s necklace, both which weren’t as prominent previously. These models go to not only the main characters, but some side characters, NPCs, monsters, and bosses. Almost everything got a nice new coat of paint and pop out more than ever before. Even the weapons that each character wields have more fidelity to them making them stand out in their own way.

One drawback is that the environments look blurry at times. It gives a weird feeling that the models are just running in a background set piece rather than their actual environment. It sort of reminded me of the first Uncharted how the characters looked way out of place from the environment. The world map also looks really rough. Textures look patchy at places and the road is just a big gray line with details popping in and out.

As for battle maps, it’s sort of hit or miss with the remaster. Some battle maps, such as the Galbadian Garden battle map, Edea’s float battle map, and D-Prison battle map,  look like they got a nice touch up. Other battle maps such as the battle maps from the world map look incredibly ugly like they got no sort of treatment at all.

One thing I do want to address is the “censorship” issue some people seem to have regarding Rinoa and Siren’s new models. Honestly, I don’t have an issue with their new models. In fact, Rinoa’s new model is actually more closer to the FMV model which gives her more consistency throughout the game. As for Siren, her changes really didn’t bother me. I wish I could add more for Siren’s case, but I don’t have anything, I don’t feel one way or another. The only feeling I do have is if you are a person that has an issue with it then just stick with the PS1 version or the original PC version.

Speaking of FMV’s, they’re a bit on the blurry side. Most of them are not that bad and perform well but is a bit disappointing that they weren’t fully smoothed out. The intro FMV is probably the worst performing one as it’s incredibly slow and does suffer from frame rate issues in a few areas in that particular FMV. At least that seemed to be the case for the Steam version, I’m not sure how the scene plays on consoles. It’s something I hope Square does patch at a later time because this was the main shining point for Final Fantasy VIII which were these very cutscenes, especially with the very first scene having performance issues.

I think some new dialogue might have got added in as well as I ran into a line that I know wasn’t in the original version, particularly the Dollet SeeD field exam where Galbadia soldiers will make a comment that they’re fighting kids. Now the original Final Fantasy VIII did make references to this further in the story, particularly the Timber section. But, to have a new line that has these soldiers questioning and even state outloud that they’re fighting kids does make it more prominent that Squall and the gang are trained child soldiers which further amplifies an interesting subject matter that there is an organization actively training child soldiers with some areas of the world seeming ok with that!

Like the Final Fantasy VII and IX remasters, cheats have been included. These cheats include turning off random encounters, maxing out your health (which for some reason is only available in the Steam version), having limit breaks always available, acquire all cards, and speeding up the game. Now, those cheats might sound like they’ll make the game easier and they can, but turning off random encounters could also be challenging with how Final Fantasy VIII’s Junction/Draw progression system works.

I have to say, speeding up the game cheat was a great addition to this one as Draw farming can be a very mundane task. Now instead of spending 20+ minutes on a single encounter to Draw magic, you can just turn on the faster speed cut your farming by a significant amount. This goes for GF summons as well, no more having to sit there watching the long animation over and over again when you can just click the speed up button and get right back into the battle.

As for random encounters, I never turned them off. I can see how this cheat might actually be more challenging than helpful under the right conditions with how Final Fantasy VIII’s progression work. I can see this being an added layer of difficulty to no EXP challenge runs. This could make it to where you have to play Triple Triad and go to Draw Points to get the spells you need. This could also have your GFs learn abilities at a much slower pace causing you to be a bit more creative with some of the game’s Junction exploits to still fight effectively.

That’s another thing I wanted to discuss, now this isn’t bad, but it was something that I did hope that Square would address for this remaster which was retooling the Junction/Draw progression system. They didn’t change anything which isn’t bad as it maintains the system, but also bad because you can still heavily exploit it. This can be done by having your GFs learn item refinement abilities early and playing a lot of Triple Triad to where you can have what is traditionally late mid-game stats within the first five hours of the game.

Enemies are also still dependent on Squall’s level. This means you can stay at a low level to just kill enemies and even some bosses in one hit with how you can increase stats with the Junction system. That was another thing I hoped Square would address also to make leveling up Squall more meaningful.

I also wished that Square fixed it to where the game didn’t un-Junction your characters at specific points in the story. I get it, make sure you’re equipped and prepared to go, but damn it, why do I still have to double check to make sure the game didn’t decide to be a dick right before a boss fight to un-Junction everything.

You might be wondering with the pros and cons that I listed if the game is worth it. Honestly, yeah I think it is. For $20 USD, it’s a pretty good price for some updates and having the speed up cheat a very welcome addition for the GF summons and Draw farming.

Yes the game still has a somewhat rushed romance, the second half of the story falls apart, and the Ultimecia still feels disconnected to the story as a villain. But to me, that’s part of Final Fantasy VIII’s charm and this is a game that I still love to bits to this day.

In my review for the game a couple years ago. I didn’t give it a review score as I didn’t think I could be objective enough to give it one due to how much this game means to me and what it did for my educational development. However, looking back now I think I can be objective enough to show the differences between the original Final Fantasy VIII on its own and the remastered version. So for this I’ll score Final Fantasy VIII the game as is as well as a separate score for the remastered version.

Final Fantasy VIII receives a 4 out of 5

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered receives a 3 out of 5

This one I’ll admit was tough but I feel the Remastered version could have done a bit more to give it a remastered feel. There were issues in the original that were ripe for Square to fix this go around and they didn’t take that opportunity to fix them. However, despite me giving the remastered version a 3, it’s still a fantastic game and worth the $20 price tag. I’m glad that this game finally got some attention and even opened the door for new Final Fantasy fans to finally take a look at this game.

However, if you’ve been curious about the Final Fantasy series and is someone that is possibly looking for an entry point, Final Fantasy VIII is not a good entry point. Take it from someone whose entry point was this game. Yes, the Junction system is easy to exploit, but it does take time to understand the system to make it easily exploitable. You have to know how to properly train your GFs to get what you need at certain points in the game, know how to make skills you learn from GFs help you with progression, mastering a card game to help you get cards that can lead to items to make you stronger, learn what spells are good to Junction to which stat, and tinkering with Elemental and Status Junctions to better fight enemies with elemental weaknesses. This is better to play when you’ve had a few other Final Fantasy titles under your belt.

If you want recommendations on a good entry point, Final Fantasy XV serves a good entry point as it has all the modern conveniences of games today. Final Fantasy VI and VII also serve as good entry points as both have compelling stories and fun combat. Final Fantasy X is also a great entry point as it has a good mix of both modern and classic and one that I personally recommended as being a good “first Final Fantasy.” Then again that could also be my bias showing as it is my favorite Final Fantasy.

[ihadafeeling]

heroines are proportionate to their villains

Don Jon: Most people eat that shit up. The pretty woman. The pretty man. Love at first sight. The first kiss. The break up. The make up. The expensive wedding. They drive off into the sunset. Everyone knows it’s fake, but they watch it like it’s real fucking life. Barbara: She was the most important thing to him. He gave up everything for her. It was just meant to be. I love movies like that.

You've heard this before: boy meets girl; boy loves the girl before the girl loves the boy; girl is poorer than boy; girl is less powerful than the boy. It's an old story, and old stories accumulate endings with retellings. Sometimes the girl changes the boy by loving him. Sometimes the boy's love for the girl changes him, a subtly different story. At worst, the change is a conversion of a girl's no into a yes, though the means of conversion vary; in my very favorite incarnation, the girl converts a beast into a man by taking the magic out of him.

What I've always loved about Beauty and the Beast is that it is a story about the transformative power of love in conflict. When Beauty faces the beast, she proves her ferocity. When the Beast yields to her needs above his own, he demonstrates his gentleness. Even so: a dark story. The Beast's gentleness comes down to failing to compel Beauty, even when he could — and only when he shows that willingness does Beauty offer her love, at the first point when it could be freely done. Still, 'failure to compel' is not a ringing endorsement of the Beast's kindness, though usually pitched as putting her agency above his own survival. It is a distinctly different fairy tale ending when contrasted with the usual upward class mobility of pauper-to-princess stories, where the prince remains exactly as he was, while the princess-to-be bargains or endures magic to meet him.

This is supposed to be the story of Meteor Garden 2018.

This was made for women, I thought, watching the first twenty minutes of the first episode. The powerful boy-clique at the heart of the show and at the center of its university setting, the F4, include someone with an eidetic memory; a master of the tea ceremony; a piano virtuoso; a business wunderkind who made his first million on the stock market at age 18; and yes, all of them wealthy beyond compare. But they are specifically introduced as trilingual 185 centimeter Bridge enthusiasts who excel in their respective fields of music and business administration and, "though they might look like players, they respect women." Verbatim. Such is their unbeaten skill at Bridge, and so numerous are their challengers, that only those that receive a red Joker card are invited to play them, where each team will place a bet on their victory. These bets vary, the scariest being the allegation that a losing team had to eat a pair of slippers. Expecting powerful men, I anticipated the usual machismo of wealthy brutal playboys who would gain attention because of their dominance over others. I was not expecting cute schoolboys who are showered with attention for ... well, for being just that, really.

To be fair, the most traditionally masculine of four is the main lead. Daoming Si is the aforementioned business wunderkind, the heir apparent to the most powerful conglomerate in China, who incidentally also beat up a mob boss in highschool. (I'm telling this to you now so you are less surprised than I was by some otherwise unexplained karate heroics of his in the show.) The story begins when he steps on Dong Shancai's phone by accident, breaking it, and does nothing to acknowledge it. As Shancai, unlike the F4 or the vast majority of Ming De University students, is not from a well-to-do family but instead a humble restaurant, the loss of a phone represents a significant hardship. Shenanigans ensue. A red Joker appears in Shancai's locker, indicating a challenge to play bridge from the F4. Si orders an incredible amount of take-out from her family and taunts her over its quality, prompting Shancai to admonish him for bullying her and for being an embarrassment among the otherwise polite and respectable elites at Ming De — and angered, Si smears a box over her head to silence her. After cleaning the noodles and sauces from her shirt, Shancai dreams of the F4 boys chanting EAT THE SLIPPERS over and over.

Her response?

To tell Daoming Si she's not interested in playing cards.

Then kick him in the face.

This refusal to surrender, even when desperately outclassed and outgunned, is supposed to be Dong Shancai's strong suit, where she is the 'undying weed' who refuses to give up against stronger foes. We understand, as the story goes on, that the independence of mind that Si finds so attractive in Shancai is also what causes many of their initial romantic troubles. He seems to not account for liking someone who does not like him back. In a particularly brutal scene, Si rushes to the rooftop to confront Shancai for her interest in Lei, something he interprets as playing them both. He strikes the wall next to her head, never fully explains the source of his anger beyond telling her to stop pretending, prevents her from leaving, pushes her against another wall ... and begins to kiss her, smearing the blood from his knuckles along her cheek and her jacket in the process. Bearing all this, Shancai begins to sob, and begs him to stop. "Stop crying. I won't hurt you any more." He smoothes back her hair as she curls back into herself, crying uncontrollably.

There is no apology for this interaction at any point in the show.

This is the scene that made me rescind my judgment that this was a show made about men generally far outside of toxic masculinity, and therefore the kind of show I think of as aimed at women rather than men. The same scene sat uncomfortably with me as the show pulled out the conventional stops to show love in the making, where Si demonstrates care for Shancai's wellbeing at the risk of his own life ... always followed by a scene where he called her his girlfriend (yes, that specific possessive term, never simply dating), a title she would explicitly deny. He would risk some loss, but never actually lost anything — immediately followed by his indignation to find that this hadn't entitled him to Shancai's affections. I thought again and again of that scene, and of how the things that I often took as demonstrations of love did not involve a change in the balance of power.

So why isn't this Beauty and the Beast?

What story is it, and who is it for?

Let me say one thing it is not: it's not a kind of wish fulfillment. I described to a friend how many side-characters fall in love with Shancai, to her general lack of notice and Si's enormous frustration, and that friend was taken aback. 'You're telling me that dude after dude falls in love with this average girl, while this unattainable boy remains solely interested in her?' Indeed. You could read this as a sort of women's fantasy: the totally unremarkable average girl, surrounded by a harem of unwavering admirers, one explicitly a remarkable boy. But the narrative addresses this concern fairly early on. Si has the opportunity to be with a very average girl, and his refusal of this girl demonstrates that his interest in Shancai isn't simply curiosity about how the other half lives, or the novelty of her poverty, but rather his interest in her as someone with a uniquely strong will. Though there are occasional random admirers without deep explanation, in general, Shancai is flattered by potential love interests for being someone who can persevere in the face of adversity. Which is to say that Shancai is not some fill-in-the-blank average girl. She is specific, and it is her specific moral quality that these men admire.

(And it should be noted she is not uniformly beloved. In her break up with the only other real rival love interest, he comments on how ugly she is, a fact commented on in literally every episode by every character except Si and literally unbelievable if you even glance at the actress Shen Yue.)

It is also not Beauty and the Beast, at least, not in my eyes — and I think that unfortunately has to do with some of the changes to gentle the differing presentations of masculinity in the show. It has much of the shape of that story, particularly as the early episodes alternate between Si trapping Shancai into being with him through his power and Si risking his life to show the value he places on hers. That's Beast's locked enchanted castle. That's Beast laying down his life. But the quality that Shancai is supposed to demonstrate, her unwavering, weedy perseverance, grows absent as the show continues. She is never strong armed into dating Si, but she is also unable to communicate her feelings to him, and the scenes in which she is unable to communicate read as her being cowed by him rather than withholding them deliberately. From what I've read of Hana Yori Dango and Meteor Garden 2001, her confrontations with F4, and with Si, are meant to be between someone relatively powerless confronting the powerful who abuse that power. (This is based on reading descriptions rather than actual viewings, so please forgive me if I've misunderstood.) Instead, the F4 are respectful bridge playing nerds. They are not villains. When Si and Shancai confront in the earlier arcs, regarding their romantic status, it does not read as a moral confrontation.

To me, Shancai feels like less than she might be, because her opposition is less.

Si begins Beastly, but goes through the transformation that his half of the fairy tale insists on. Rather than assuming Shancai's interest because of his own, he learns to state his feelings, vulnerably and honestly, and to seek frank discussions about their relationship. He does what he can to assimilate into her world, rather than assuming he can yank her into his.

In contrast, Shancai doesn't seem to be learning much at all, and in that, I find her less like Beauty than I would like. Beauty is supposed to learn that she has something inside her that she didn't know about, something strong, something not simply sweet or lovely. Something that can take on the Beast. She demonstrates this with her first flying kick, but insofar as her quality of perseverance appears in their relationship, it is in her refusal to date Daoming Si just because he says so.

And her refusal to discuss her feelings with him doesn't read as courage, or as a denial of that kind of intimacy because he doesn't deserve it, but as unwillingness to confront him. It's not that I don't get that, but it doesn't make me feel like this is a demonstration of an important moral quality. And insofar as the quality she discovers in herself is the ability to deny consent, well, that sucks for a moral quality, because what a terrible thing to remark on constantly as something that makes Shancai unique.

The only real villain in this show is Si's mother, the formidable Daoming Feng, leader of the Daoming Group, whose actions play out as cartoonishly evil. (One pleasing thing: she is unique in being unsupportive of Shancai. Every other female character who is introduced with the potential to be a rival or obstacle to Shancai appreciates her, even as they may go on to compete with her.) Shancai does talk back to Feng on a few occasions, but breaks up with Si at her first truly villainous act, and fears to confront her for the next 17 episodes. And I fret about this, because if this is supposed to be a love story with a point, the point should be the perseverance Shancai demonstrated in her love -- and it doesn't. She wavers too often.

I suppose consistent fortitude would make terrible television. There would be no surprise! But insofar as this show has involved growth, and therefore change, it has been the male lead's, and that always makes me nervous; when you read a heterosexual romance where the man does all the deeply existentially human things, fighting, changing, learning, growing, in his pursuit of a woman whose main choice is the change of her mind about him, you read a story simply about a man.

That makes me wonder about my question of who this is for. When I remarked earlier that seeing such sweet, soft, non-toxic men made me think that this was aimed for women, I didn't have a way to ground the claim, even as I felt it was true. I have even less of a basis of who the audience is if it reads as I think it does: as the taming of a very traditionally powerful man by his love for a woman, with a story centered on (but not explicit) on how the plot mainly centers on his choice to continue to pursue her. It's women, I know it is, but I don't know why I know that. I worry that it's some of the old existentialist bullshit, that women never fantasize about themselves as doers.

There's five hours left in the drama, and forty-three of it behind me -- enough that Shancai may surprise me, or that I may be deeply mistaken about previous episodes, because I just can't rewatch them all. I worry that that this last arc will involve Shancai holding tightly to Si, even as his mother does everything to destroy her life. That would it Tam Lin's fairy tale instead of Beauty's: a woman rescuing a man from fairies by clutching to him as he changes shape. Liz Lochead put it best:

It seemed earlier, you see, he’d been talking in symbols (like adder-snake, wild savage bear brand of bright iron red-hot from the fire) and as usual the plain unmythical truth was worse. At any rate you were good and brave, you did hang on, hang on tight. And in the end of course everything turned out conventionally right with the old witch banished to her corner lamenting, cursing his soft heart and the fact that she couldn’t keep him, and everyone sending out for booze for the wedding. So we’re all supposed to be happy? But how about you, my fallen fair maiden now the drama’s over, tell me how goes the glamourie? After twelve casks of good claret wine and the twelve and twelve of muskadine, tell me what about you? How do you think Tam Lin will take all the changes you go through?

[skyecrandall]

Book Concept

Notes: I was rather reluctant to share this idea of mine since it is not exactly like your usual conventional choices story. It is darker, has more criminal themes ad your LI choices are morally grey and even get to date the main villain. My main aim with this idea was to make it different. Romance is in the backseat, different atmosphere ,Different LI formula ( they are not goody two shoes, they lack an eye and have moles (something not usually present on LIs), etc...). I would also like to apologize in advance if I somewhat put a bad stigma to a certain persons. My aim is not to do that. However it is possible that it might have lost sight of it in the attempt of making the persons different, I apologize again.This was mostly the reason why i was scared to post it. I would also really like if you gave me suggestions and stuff how to make this a solid story. I’m interested in writing it out completely.

Themes : Mainly Adventure , Self Discovery, Crime with a slight tinge of romance.

Length: Single book, about 16-20 chapters

LIs: 1 male, 1 female, 1 selectable gender.( I'll be calling them Derrick, Anais and X respectively for the next section)

What is it about :

You (Can choose your gender) are a member of a rather rich family. On the day that was supposed to be your engagement with X, you overhear a conversation between them and his friends/family, that they are only doing this for the money and stuff and not for you. Since you really loved them, you leave the pre-engagement party with a bottle(s) of a drink alone in the night.

You drunk walked throughout the city and eventually end up in the more criminal sector of the town. You stumble into a warehouse. As you look at everything there, you hear some people talking and decide to hide in the back part of a truck.

You here a person ordering other persons that the merchandise needs to be delivered at far away place F before a certain date. Afterwards someone then comes to close the truck and somehow they did not see you inside in the dark (it was at night) and you ended up stuck inside and the truck starts moving. You tried getting out but the door won't open and so you decide to sleep but then your phone rings and from the echo of the inside of the truck, the persons in the front of the carriage also hear it and come to a stop (they had already traveled a few miles.)

They check behind and discover MC. Those persons are the male and female LI. And so they force you out and decide to interrogate you together (with the female gun pointing a gun at you) but however due to personality clash they can't seem to interrogate you properly. And so you are given the choice of choosing who will interrogate you. The other one will go as lookout.

As of this moment, your choices start to matter. These choices will decide whether your character will end up liking their new risky but always new experiences and stuff or return back to their original boring rich life. You will also be able to gain points with Derrik and Anais and will also determine your ending. And if you are romancing either of them it will further change your ending.

Since we were talking about the LIs. Here is a brief summary of them with some of them having a little mini-background:

Derrik: Calm, pessimistic, driver of the truck, in his late 30s. Good cook. Rather gruff looking. Has scars from encounters and lost his right eye and so he wears an eye patch. However he can get a little violent to protect the others and his own life. Mexican origin. During his youth he enjoyed his life back home and had dreams of becoming a doctor but his father forced him and his whole family to cross the US border for 'new opportunities' .They succeeded but could not find any way to gain money and raise the family. And so his father introduced him to the crime scene and since then he became a delivery man. He lost his ee as a young kid because of it. Due to his father he could not leave the scene before and now he does not have the confidence enough to leave the delivery job because other persons find him too scary and he might not get a job. His personal scenes will be about helping him to stop his self-loathing and help him gain some confidence. 

Anais: Mafia member here to secure the delivery. Reckless and a bit sadistic. Cringy jokes. White. Has a mole on the nose. Has a soft spot for  cats but dislikes dogs. Also really likes cheese. She grew up in the rough parts of a certain town and developed incredible fighting techniques. She became a professional kickboxer. On the final of a tournament she got so enraged by her opponent that she went full beserk on them and even though they begged for her to stop, even with the referee's interference she kept punching them. It was then she developed those sadistic tendencies, that she liked seeing her enemies twisting in pain. She liked it so much she ended up killing her opponent. She went to prison but after it she was left jobless and could not perform as an athlete anymore. The mafia reached out to her and she agreed. Her personal scenes will be about calming her down and developing her empathy and tone down the bloodthirsty-ness by a notch.

X: Straight Up jerk, Can be made less of a jerk depending on choices, you finally get to romance an og villain, only wanted to marry you because of your money but you can make them like you for you, as I said customisable gender, most of the book you will only interact with them by calls.

Anyway where was I. During the interrogation you will already be able to skew either towards the return home or keep travelling ending. You will also get to gain points with the person you chose. (Derrik usually like the safer choices while Anais likes the more direct and frontal approach). Maybe even score some romance points with them.

After a while the lookout person orders to get inside. The other asks what to do with you and they eventually take you because there were rival gangs behind their asses.

And so your journey wth them starts. You will be able to experience chases, gang wars, deals, motels, explosions and more during the journey.

Eventually you reach your destination a huge town were you get to choose who to celebrate with, including X as you saw him in the crowd and this is where the different endings get in play.

If 1 of the 2 truckers don't like you they kill you. However if one hates you and the other is in love with you, they will kill the one who tried to kill you first. If you decide to meet with X in the big town and get them to divulge their plan (through questions or win them over with a sexy night through a diamond option) on how to capture the truckers who they thought kidnapped MC, you can either go home and took his plan and let the 2 roam free or join the 2 quickly and escape together and even convince them to stop their current crime relations. If you are really want to feel evil you could go home with X and have the 2 truckers captured (and executed). If you do not discover X's plan or inform Anais and Derrik about It, you and the other 2 will be intercepted by the police. Then you get the option to fight the police with them and become outlaws or if the two like you, they will force you to return home by playing along and acting like they were truly kidnappers. (and they are killed).

tagging @ninamckenzie22 @bobasheebaby @garlickk @butindeed @aryn-choices since they seemed to be interested in this draft.

Also @playchoices

[fandom-blerd-life]

Black Lightning 1.13: A Family Affair

“Whose life is this?” “Mine.” “What are you going to do with it?” “Live it. By any means necessary.”

There are so many important themes that have run through Black Lightning’s freshman season: family, pride, power, revenge, fear. But there’s one that has been present in just about every episode and has resonated with me especially: control. In a previous recap, I referenced Ta-nehisi Coates’ book, Between the World and Me, in which he spends quite a bit of time talking about the control exerted over Black bodies. He says, “the question of how one should live within a black body… is the question of life.”

In the pilot, Jefferson Pierce introduces us to the above mantra during a school assembly. He wants his students to remember that their life belongs to them and it’s up to each and every one of them to live it. The only people who can control their lives are themselves. When Anissa first gets her powers, the first thing she needs to learn is how to control them. She is so ready to help the community of Freeland that she forgets she can’t just go around beating up every person who looks at her sideways (or who wears a Confederate flag on their shirt). On the flip side, Jennifer wishes she was more in control of what is happening to her. She feels helpless and scared that because she was not given a choice in receiving powers, she no longer has control over her literal body. And then there’s Martin Proctor. The finale gave us a slightly heavy-handed portrayal of a white villain with dialogue including, “I want to make America great again!” The thing that makes Proctor so terrifying is that he is real. He represents a very real subsection of the population who feels they can do whatever they want to Black bodies because to them, we are disposable. The entire purpose of the Freeland Experiments run by the ASA, was to render a predominantly Black community docile. DOCILE.

These writers could have put this show within the DCTV universe, but they didn’t. They could have given us your run of the mill (yet still entertaining) Big Bad of the week, but they didn’t. They chose to show us what would happen if you took a familiar community, a real community, and you gave them hope in the form of a superhero who not only looks like them, but who also knows their struggle. Not a city affected by a particle accelerator explosion where random people became meta-humans. A community that the government purposely chose for an experiment because of its demographics.

I am so grateful to the writers and creators of Black Lightning for so many reasons. For giving us the first bulletproof Black lesbian superhero, for depicting Black family life in a way that too often goes unseen, but most of all for portraying the complicated experience of Black people in this country in a way that felt both uncomfortable and authentic. I’m so glad we’re getting another season to go even deeper into these themes and I hope more and more people have the opportunity to be exposed to this important show.

::hops off soapbox::

::cracks knuckles::

Okay! Now let’s get into this finale! We open with the first of many flashbacks to see a young Jefferson walking with his father Alvin. Because of unrest in Freeland, there’s no school, so Jeff is going to work with his father. A penchant for inspirational quotes apparently runs in the family because Alvin quotes Malcolm X to his son. The two are soon interrupted by a younger Gambi who is not pleased at Alvin for naming names in the ASA exposé. After Alvin’s death, Gambi watches out for Jefferson. We hear reports of more riots in Freeland and a shooting of an unarmed Black man. Jefferson is running through the streets trying to escape two officers when his eyes light up and he shoots lightning at both of them. The blue lightning against the black & white flashback is incredibly striking. Back to present day and Jefferson’s vitals are all over the place.  

Outside the new safe cabin, Jennifer and Gambi have a really sweet conversation about the situation they’ve found themselves in. Gambi explains to Jenn that Tobias, Khalil, and Syonide are different from meta-humans because their powers are artificial. We also learn that Tobias found Syonide in a dumpster when she was a baby and then trained her to be an assassin, so I have affectionately dubbed her… Dumpster Assassin™. Jennifer is having a rough time because she wants to believe Khalil is still the same guy she knew, but Gambi reminds her that he’s just not. They turned her boyfriend into a weapon.

Also...Khalil is now called Painkiller. Cool.

Cut to ASA headquarters where Proctor is holding court, spewing racist nonsense about the commonness of Black drug dealers, and mimicking that guy who’s currently running our country. It’s gross and it’s terrifying, but the main plot takeaway here is that the subjects from phase 1 of the experiments are failing and there are only 4 stage 2 subjects.

In Anissa’s words, she, Gambi, and Jennifer are literally walking down memory lane as Gambi tells the girls the story of how their father became Black Lightning. You see, it took 15 years for his powers to fully develop, but that isn’t when he decided to suit up. He chose to become Black Lightning when he saw Freeland was losing hope. Anissa thinks that’s sweet and all, but she’s tired of storytime. She wants to get out there and fight. Gambi reminds her that she is the strongest of all of them, and they’re going to need her to get through this. Preach, Gambi!

Listen. I can’t believe Tobias called out Lala’s velour tracksuits before I did, but holy Juicy, I haven’t stopped laughing about that line. Anyway, Tobias throws Lala across the room when Lala starts to run at him, and then utters the same phrase from last week, “the devil deals the cards.” Even Tobias agrees that it’s corny, but it gets the job done. It turns out, the reanimation process that Tobias spearheaded to bring Lala back has a side effect of everyone that Lala killed coming back to haunt him. Not only will they haunt him, but they will manifest as tattoos on Lala’s body, which has earned him the nickname of Tattoo Man.

It’s flashback time again, but this time, young Jefferson has been suspended for fighting. Alvin reminds his son that “education is the power they can’t take from you.” And in true Black Parent Who Is Serious About Their Child’s Education form, instructs Jeff to read the Constitution and be ready for a quiz because he’ll be damned if he spends this suspension in front of the television.

Jeff’s nervous system starts to shut down and the family fears they’re going to lose him.

Meanwhile, we go to what seems like another flashback, but instead it’s Present Day Jefferson, walking down the stairs of his childhood home (while “Stairway to Heaven” by the O’Jays plays) and looking like he’s just seen a ghost. Well that’s because he has, and it’s his dead father. Jefferson tearfully apologizes to his father for doing nothing when Tobias came to the house to murder him. He apologizes for Black Lightning and for the violence that has come from his decision. Alvin reminds his son that peace isn’t always peaceful (ain’t that the truth?!) and only Jefferson will know if it will all be worth it. It’s not Jeff’s time to go yet, and Alvin sends him back to handle his business. Back in the cabin, Jefferson opens his eyes, greets his family, and then discovers that his powers are gone. Alvin Pierce has been a driving force throughout this season even though we’ve only seen him a few times. Jefferson was so close to his father and everything he has done has been in his name. This scene was so powerful and so emotional because we got to see Jefferson tell his father the things he wished he could while he was alive.

Back at Bigotry Headquarters, Proctor’s team has discovered the safe house and are preparing to attack. Tobias, Syonide, and Painkiller also get ready to fight, after learning that Lala quite literally exploded after talking with Proctor.

Team Pierce readies themselves for the impending attack. The tactical teams are coming at them from all sides, but Gambi has a plan. Jeff suits up and asks Gambi to light up his suit even though he doesn’t have powers. Jennifer starts to freak out, she lights up, and runs to her father. She really is a generator because the energy she exerts is enough to fully charge Black Lightning and bring back his powers. Gambi makes a last ditch plea to the family to run, but that’s not what they’re about. They’re tired of running, they’re tired of hiding, and they’re tired of being controlled. They’re ready.

It’s fight time! The fight is set to “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind, and Fire because of course it is. I won’t bore you with my emotional connection to this song, but suffice it to say, I had Feelings™. Aside from the fact that these scenes were v dark and made screencapping v difficult, they were perfect. We cut from team to team to team as they fought their respective targets. Proctor’s tactical team wasn’t prepared for Black Lightning and LOL practically begged to leave the scene. They manage to contain Thunder, but that doesn’t last long because Black Lightning comes to her rescue. Even Lynn gets in on the action by taking out two guys in the cabin. Proctor eventually aborts the mission and orders his people to move the stage 2 pods.

When Proctor shows up to the new pod location, the Pierce family is waiting for him. For some reason, Proctor thinks overt racism is the way to get what he wants and tries to justify the Freeland experiments. Jennifer has had it and she uses her powers to lay him out. Proctor tries to make a deal, but Gambi shoots him dead! Okay Gambi, I’ll forgive you for your lying...this time. Anissa aks the tech how they can get the kids out of the pods, and he informs her that he needs the briefcase.

What briefcase? Oh just the briefcase we see Tobias opening (using dead Proctor’s thumbs) at the close of the episode. What does this mean for season 2??

Just before the scene with Tobias, we get a wonderful callback with Jefferson and his daughters on a run, and voiceovers from both girls. “They call us heroes, but the real heroes are you. The people who, despite the everyday struggles of life, continue to find hope, meaning, and purpose in what can be a challenging world.” “We’ve been given a gift. A blessing from God. We intend to use it to protect this city and its people.”

The season started and ended with a message of hope. A message that we can use every single day as we navigate this challenging world. A reminder that if you have hope, you can make it through.

I have gotten so much joy from writing about this show, and I hope you’ve had as much fun watching as I have.

What are your hopes for season 2? I’d love to hear them all. Find me at @njnic23 on Twitter, and look out for a rewatch during the hiatus. Thank you so much for reading these. Get lit!

[dellaliz19]

Altered Carbon review: spoilers!

So, I’m a little late to the ball on this one, but I just finished the first season of Netflix’s sci-fi drama, Altered Carbon, and honestly, the show was excellent!

Altered Carbon takes places in a future time where humanity has been able to cheat death by the use of “stacks,” an implantable brain, essentially, that allows people to switch between different bodies or “sleeves” if they are sick or murdered or bored. “Real death” is still possible, in the form of being attacked in the stack (kept at the base of your neck). The show follows Takeshi Kovacs, the last of a class of super soldiers called Envoys, who 250 years ago fought a losing rebellion against the concept of using stacks, as their charismatic leader Quellcrist Falconer believed that stacks would lead to a society where the rich and powerful would utterly rule the world, no longer even limited by death. Kovacs wakes up in a new sleeve after 250 years in a stack prision (on ice) and finds that not only has the world that Quell predicted has come true, but that he’s been bought by a “Meth” - a functional immortal as their wealth have allowed them to buy endless clones and back their selves up constantly - named Laurens Bancroft to solve his own murder, which occurred with a gun that only he and his wife had access to. Kovacs takes the job, and along his quest to solve the murder, he makes reluctant friends with a motley crew of characters including: the Elliot’s, a family whose murdered daughter was mentally damaged and needs repair, a mother in prision and a commando father, Lieutenant Kristen Ortega, a hot headed detective with a strong moral code whose framed boyfriend is the sleeve that Kovacs now inhabits, and Poe, an AI hotel with intense devotion to Kovacs as he is his only customer in almost 50 years.

Based on the trippiness of that plot synopsis, Altered Carbon is a show that wants to ask a lot of philosophical questions on the nature of the soul and life itself. In my opinion it manages to ask some of these: is it right to stay alive forever? What does it do to a person? What are we, as humans at our core? But ultimately, the show focuses heavier on Kovacs personally, and the Bancroft mystery, and I think that is the wiser story choice. Kovacs is played by Joel Kinnaman in the present and Will Yun Lee plays OG Kovacs (or his first body) in the past, and both actors do a great job with him. He truly feels like the same charcter in the three actors hands he’s played in (he’s also briefly played by Bryon Mann, as the sleeve he wears when he is killed the first time), and that character is of someone who had a very hard life and became devoted to a cause and wanted to do some good, and when that was taken from him he became bitter and sarcastic, but ultimately couldn’t help being someone who cared deeply about people.

The supporting cast are also all fantastic: Martha Higareda’s Kristen Ortega is a secondary protagonist, and she’s a fantastic character. Although she’s a ‘firey latina’ she never feels like a stereotype, and her agency throughout the story isn’t ever compromised for Kovacs. Their relationship - complicated by the fact that Kovacs is in the body of her mentally imprisoned lover - goes from enemies to allies to lovers to emotionally close in a seemless transition that was lovely to watch. Chris Conner’s Poe, the AI who controls the hotel that Kovacs stays at, is a breakout character. As an enitity that isn’t human, he brings an interesting viewpoint to a lot of the moral questions the show is asking...and is also just hilarious and charming. Renee Elise Goldsberry as the deceased Quell, and the love of Kovacs life is also a standout: she’s badass, wise, and watching Kovacs devotion to her is just heart rendering (literally once!).

So, in due fashion, let’s talk pros:

- The world building is really subtle and in depth. The opening scene ends with the realization that a child murdered in a drive by has been ‘sleeved’ into the body of a middle age woman and her parents feelings of furiousity and sadness at this are dismissed by a causal “if you want better than pay for it,” which may genuinely be the most chilling thing of the series and an great set piece for this strange new world. The married couple who sleeve duel, the role of religion in this new world and the VR torture are just a few examples of how the creators really took the time to make the world feel real, and explored the unique opportunities this premise gave

- Ortega and Kovacs evolving relationship is really the backbone of the show, and it’s super rewarding to watch them go through that journey. When Ortega is injured the first time and she calls Kovacs by her boyfriends name the pain just bleeds off him, and when he rescues her the second time and she then calls him by his name the look of shock on his face is a perfect evolution for them, and so well done.

- the action scenes are amazing: Kovacs and his sister fighting when they reunite, Ortega and Rei in the naked clone fight, Kovacs escaping the VR torture room and Lizzie rescuing them are just some standouts, but they’re all excellent scenes.

- Quell being the hallucination that haunts Kovacs is fitting, and it’s an interesting dynamic to see that translates well into the flashback episode where we actually get to see them alive. Quell herself is an amazing charcter, and the revelation that she was the woman who actually created stack technology and now regrets what she done to the world was a great aspect of her charcter that really justified her steadfast beliefs.

- Poe was just the greatest, and I don’t think I’ve cried so much at the death of an AI since Bayomax (and he came back, so I’m looking st you, Netflix!!)

-Samir - Ortega’s partner, and devote Muslim - was another fantastic understated charcter. His care for Ortega was real and genuine, and when he threatens Kovacs so simply that if he doesn’t care for him he’ll kill him, I couldn’t do anything but respect him. His death in diving in front of a shot meant to kill Ortega, sacrificing himself as he was shot in the stack (real death), was heartbreaking but so fitting for his character.

- the mystery itself was very good. It was hinted well throughout the series, and even Lizzie’s part in the final answer got past me, which tv mysteries don’t usually. It was a satisfying reveal and it was very well integrated through the stories of all of the main characters.

Now, some cons:

- Dichen Lachman’s Reileen Kawahara was amazing, but she could have done with more screen time. Rei was an incredibly important character, as she was both Kovacs sister, an Envoy who had betrayed them to the government and become a monstrous ‘titan of industry’ and a Meth, as well as the one who had facilitated the whole scheme that had set off the plot. She had so much interesting story to tell: that she clearly loved her brother but that she loved him in a way that was possessive and unhealthy, not satisifed with being his first love but desiring to be rather his only, and reacting violently to both Ortega and Quell who had places in his heart. She was clearly a skilled fighter, a devious and ruthless schemer, getting leverage first on Miriam Bancroft, the using that leverage to get what she needed from Laurens, and then further using that to get her brother released.

With all that said, she doesn’t get the screetime she deserved in my opinion. As an adult, she introduced only in a hallucination in the first episode, and then she shows up in the present and saves them, and then the next episode is the flashback heavy episode where, at the end of it, Kovacs realizes she must have sold them out and effectively killed Quell. This revelation should have, in my opinion, been drawn out over at least 2 episodes: have Kovacs and his sister be very close in this new world and have him slowly and carefully notice things about her, like her world view and her work that would lead him to the betrayal revelation. I feel like that would up the emotion when it does happen, and also give Reileen’s charcter some more time to flesh out some of the interesting things the gloss over with her, like her beliefs on life and her resentment towards her brother for letting her be sold to the Yakuza. She’s a great charcter, but given her integral role in the plot, I’d loved to have more time with her before she went full villain to explore her.

- The ending. The ending seemed a little...too neat for this show. I’m all for Ortega getting her boyfriend back, so long as she’s a charcter in the second season who has to deal with the emotions of loving Riker but also Kovacs. I feel the same way about Quell being alive in a stack somewhere: it seems to me that it makes sense that Rei might have saved her out of spite, hoping one day to have torture equipment strong enough to contain her so she could punish her for “stealing” her brother, but I want that resolution to be messy. Quell very explicitly didn’t want to be saved in a backup, and I want her to be really upset if Kovacs brings her back, and ready to wreck this new society. The Elliots getting their family back was genuinely sweet, but again, it was just all so neat, and for a show that was fun because it was a little messy, it just rode that line.

- Bancroft being drugged into murdering someone. Bancroft, and his wife’s narrative function in the story were clearly to ask the audience: what do we, and life, become when death is taken out of the equation? Bancroft literally asks this of his wife at the end, and while it’s true for Miriam, who killed Lizzie in a jealous rage over her being pregnant, it’s less applicable for Bancroft. Yes, he liked to choke out and possibility “sleeve death” girls, but he always bought them new sleeves, and held himself to the line of “I will not murder.” He goes over that line only when he’s drugged with an incredibly potent aggression increaser, and I think that weakens his story point. Bancroft as a cautionary tale would have been more effective if he’d just been pissed at his son and then killed that girl in a natural violent rage, because then it would have been a true trespass of his moral code.

Mostly, Altered Carbon is a show with a distinctive aesthetic and a great mystery, complimented by charcters that are interesting and well acted. If you’ve got any passing interesting in sci-fi, then certainly give it a watch!

[saltwukong]

In your opinion, what are the best RWBY fight scenes post-Monty?

WHAT IS THE BEST RWBY FIGHT SCENE?! (POST-MONTY)

I don’t think I can count Penny vs. Pyrrha, since some of those animations were leftovers Monty had done. Can’t count Ruby vs. Mercury since that was hardly a fight. Let’s see, what’ve we got? And which one of the forty remaining fights wins?

Enjoy as I completely dramatize this question into a contest, because I’m bored.

RWBY vs. ABRN.

JNPR vs. BRNZ.

SSSN vs. NDGO.

Qrow vs. Winter.

Coco and Yatsuhashi vs. Emerald and Mercury.

Weiss and Yang vs. Neon and Flynt.

Yang vs. Mercury.

Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury vs. Amber.

The multiple skirmishes at the Battle of Beacon.

Velvet and Weiss vs. Paladins.

Ruby vs. Neo and Torchwick.

Blake and Yang vs. Adam.

Cinder vs. Ozpin.

Pyrrha vs. Cinder.

Ruby vs. the Beringel

RNJR vs. Geist.

Sun and Blake vs. Sea Dragon.

RNJR vs. Tyrian.

Qrow vs. Tyrian.

Taiyang and Yang sparring.

Skirmish with Ilia.

RNJR vs. the Nuckelavee.

Weiss vs. Ice Wolves.

Yang vs. Ursa Major.

Weiss vs. Lancer Swarm and Lancer Queen.

Yang vs. Branwen Bandits.

Blake and Sun vs. Ilia’s Group.

Ghira and Sun vs. Assassins.

Blake vs. Ilia.

Ghira vs. Albains.

Sun vs. Ilia.

Haven Skirmishes.

Ruby vs. Emerald.

Jaune vs. Cinder.

Oscar vs. Lionheart.

Weiss vs. Vernal.

Everyone else doesn’t count due to not being given enough focus to properly see their fights.

Hazel vs. Ozpin.

Hazel vs. Everyone else.

Raven and Vernal vs. Cinder.

Blake and Sun vs. Adam.

Immediate discards:

RWBY vs. ABRN–good at first, but the finisher involving everyone trying to work together was poorly done and amounted to launching Yang at them.

SSSN vs. NDGO. After great showings by RWBY and JNPR, SSSN does terribly and one member doesn’t even get to fight, and their opponents are literally someone’s OCs. This is the most onscreen fighting they’ve done, and they sucked.

Qrow vs. Winter. While a fun fight, it was unnecessary and enraging.

Coco and Yatsuhashi vs. Emerald and Mercury. Rather than show us the latter overcoming the former legitimately, we are instead treated to Coco and Yats being mercilessly worfed to make Emercury look badass and dangerous without much in the way of fighting back.

Weiss and Yang vs. Neon and Flynt. A bunch of dumb unnecessary pirouetting followed by a stupid self-sacrifice by Weiss (instead of just picking up her weapon) so that Yang can take on two opponents and win.

Battle of Beacon skirmishes, which just looked like everyone not really trying instead of everyone being overwhelmed by a massive threat. 

Sun and Blake vs. the Sea Dragon. While an excellent fight, it was also the scene that revealed to us Sun having followed Blake for potentially weeks without her knowledge or consent.

RNJR vs. Tyrian–RNJR get thrown around without any sense of strategy while Ruby completely forgets she has a Semblance so that they can need Qrow to save them.

Skirmish with Ilia–it only works by having Sun hold down Ilia with four clones (WHY FOUR?! ONE WAS ENOUGH–) to justify his Aura being exhausted (Why??? He summoned three clones earlier that week with no problem–), which in turn was to justify Ilia one-shotting him (WHICH WAS ONLY DONE SO BLAKE WOULD HAVE SOMEONE TO CRY OVER…………)

RNJR vs. the Nuckelavee. A shit fight in which grenades, high-caliber rifle shots, and a broadsword all blip harmlessly off the model of a skinny bony centaur that can’t justifiably be that strong and then a pathetic, aged knife wielded by an aura-less Ren is able to sever its limbs and head.

Yang vs. Ursa Major. A flashback that told us nothing we didn’t already know (Yang relies on her Semblance too much, Ruby relies on her scythe too much, and Yang loves Ruby to death) to show us a fight that Yang should’ve won easily (this is only a little while before Yang goes to Beacon, where she easily KO’d two Ursas at once) and can’t even do so without breaking canon (Yang using her Semblance after her aura was depleted).

Ghira and Sun vs. Assassins, because despite saying he’d help Ghira, Sun is nowhere to be found next episode and Ghira is taking on the Albains alone–after having his aura depleted, while having the least combat expertise in the room, and after discarding perfectly good armor.

Ghira vs. Albains, for the above reasons.

Sun vs. Ilia. I’m not going to applaud Sun taking out the gunchucks for the first time in four years for a ten-second skirmish. Nor am I going to applaud Ghira and two Sun clones all struggling to hold up a section of a wooden balcony with nothing on it when these are supposed to be folks with beyond mere human strength.

Jaune vs. Cinder–I cite Jaune’s loss of control, him stealing a fight Ruby needed, and the missed opportunity of the broadsword reveal.

Ruby vs. Emerald, due to none of the Penny’s death drama being brought up.

Oscar vs. Lionheart. The former is an untrained boy barely having unlocked his aura, and the latter is supposed to be a huntsman headmaster.

Hazel vs. Ozpin. This is the destruction of Hazel’s character in its entirety, plus it’s just overall lackluster.

Blake and Sun vs. Adam, due to the wimpification of Adam and it only being half-animated in the first place.

Preliminary Disqualifiers:

JNPR vs. BRNZ: Showed good strategizing on the part of both protagonists and their opponents, yet at the end, it highlights how JNPR don’t sync as well as RWBY, and BRNZ just sit there and let them talk instead of taking the opportunity for hits.

Cinder vs. Ozpin: Yeah, high stakes and high-scale fighting, but not only is it short, we jump cut to different parts of the fight. Two volumes after we actually see the fight, we still don’t have a good idea of what Ozpin’s specific powers are or how they work, or how the fight ended (yeah, we know Cinder won and Ozpin died, but the actual end of the fight would’ve been nice to see.)

RNJR vs. Geist, primarily because it is again the girls who carry the majority of the weight while Ren and Jaune do much of nothing.

Qrow vs. Tyrian, due to generally only being there to set up Qrow’s Man Pain over his bad luck Semblance that doesn’t make sense in the first place. Missed opportunity to reveal Jaune’s Semblance as well

Blake and Sun vs. Ilia’s group. While it was nice to see Blake trusting Sun for once, it served as probably the least tactful LGBT reveal I’ve ever seen. 

Blake vs. Ilia. While it was well-animated and fairly character-develop-ey, Ilia had far passed the point of forgiveness, souring the fight immensely, especially after the fact.

Weiss vs. Vernal. While it showed how capable someone like Vernal is well, and cut short Weiss’ summoning, it didn’t work well for Weiss given that she seemed to rely too much on it and forgot she had other powers.

Hazel vs. Everyone else. While it was enjoyable seeing him trash everyone in the room single-handedly, including Qrow, it still came at the cost of his character and wasn’t all that well-animated.

Raven vs. Cinder. Despite being an excellent climactic fight, and one that showed the difference skill and experience can make when faced with equal power, I can’t appreciate it because it was sandwiched between the poorest displays of a lack of animation effort I’ve ever seen, and it almost feels like it sucked away most of the budget. Plus, despite the seeming point of the fight, Raven and Cinder still both break their auras at the same time for dramatic effect.

Semi-Finalists: 

Yang vs. Mercury

Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury vs. Amber.

Velvet and Weiss vs. Paladins.

Ruby vs. Neo and Torchwick.

Blake and Yang vs. Adam.

Pyrrha vs. Cinder.

Ruby vs. the Beringel.

Taiyang vs. Yang spar.

Weiss vs. Ice Wolves.

Weiss vs. Lancer Swarm and Lancer Queen.

Yang vs. Branwen bandits.

Honestly, any of these could take the cake. All of them were well-animated and provided me no in-story reason to dislike them. If I’m gonna discard any though…

Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury vs. Amber… a three-on-one fight against an incredibly powerful opponent. It shows that careful use of abilities and strategic planning can help immensely against even a threat of immense scale like a maiden, and it showcased Amber having the common sense to go after Emerald first despite Cinder being the main villain because after all, Emerald played the Queen in this scenario. However, I have to discard, because this fight revolved around the maiden powers, which are not a plot I’ve so far enjoyed at all and which I understand to have been introduced too early anyway.

Velvet and Weiss vs. Paladins and Blake and Yang vs. Adam… one a one-on-two fight that had to be taken over at the last minute, the other a one-on-one fight that was lost both by Blake and her would-be intervening rescuer. Velvet’s power was amazing, and what really won me over was the heart-shattering but heart-repairing shoutout to Penny Polendina with her blades, proving she was gone, but not forgotten. Weiss finally forced out some summoning at a critical moment: when she intended to defend Velvet at the cost of her own life, and thanks to it, both lived. Adam was a wonderfully, blatantly destructive and evil threat that was fun to hate and proved that no matter how much you think Blake’s moved on from her pre-series trauma it can all come back and collapse when the source of it arrives in person. However, I have to discard because of a lack of follow-through. In the case of Velvet and Weiss, this is essentially the last we’ll see of CFVY before they disappear off the radar forever, going the way that characters do when they are designed for fans. Weiss came to rely on her summons far too much, and we essentially never saw her use another ability again. Blake and Yang is the worst case–Adam’s wimpification in Volume 5 shattered everything his showing from Volume 3 gave us.

Ruby vs. Neo and Torchwick… definitely a strong contender for my favorite fight hands-down. It’s got great music, a fantastic showing of teamwork from fan favorite Torchwick and my favorite Neo, it showed that even someone like Neo can be pressured by a massive spinning scythe, it showed an excellent grasp of strategy on both sides of the fight, and it all took place on top of a gigantic airship in the sky, with Grimm flying around!!! Holy shit! In terms of successfully pulling off scale, this one probably wins! And after Ruby handily dispenses with Neo, guess how she goes for Torchwick, deprived of her scythe?! By zooming back and forth in multiple directions with her speed Semblance. Yeah, it didn’t work, because Torchwick had a counter for it–but the point is that she thought of it! She took advantage of one of her remaining powerful abilities despite being deprived of one of her greatest weapons and her most comfortable one, and did so creatively! That’s what the fuck I’m talking about!!! …Unfortunately, I still have to disqualify it, for reasons stated above–lack of follow-through. We don’t see that kind of creativity with her Semblance (or indeed, much of Ruby’s Semblance at all) again throughout the other two volumes. Tyrian and Emerald would like to say hello. I guess the Geist did okay, but not enough to save its entry.

Ruby vs. the Beringel… another strong contender. Ruby blows us away with just how much her Semblance has improved in a short that is good the entire way through. Ruby speed-blitzes the Beringel (who is really no slouch himself), and then blasts him through a damn tornado. The problem is that the Beringel is the first harbinger of the Nuckelavee–by which I mean, that scythe should be cleaving him apart and for some reason isn’t. Another problem is the end, where she trips him up and then tornadoes him, then slams him down to the ground and shoots him. What exactly stopped her from doing that in the beginning? And again, lack of follow-through. V3E11, the Ruby short, and V3E01 seem to be the last times anyone was willing to animate Ruby using her Semblance. 

Taiyang vs. Yang spar… At the end of the day, this is just a sparring match. It was wonderful to see someone straight-up tell Yang what she was doing wrong, in addition to her finally trying on her arm and attempting to put her foot forward and do some active recovery, as opposed to merely getting more talkative with time. However, at the end of the day, it’s still just a spar. It can’t hold a candle to the massive high-speed, grand scale of the other battles like the ones I just described above. What really makes my heart thud is where we get to see Yang apply what she learned here in actual combat. 

Finalists…

Pyrrha vs. Cinder… The pinnacle, the defining moment of Volume 3. The grand fight that broke so many hearts and was the climax both of Pyrrha’s breakdown throughout the volume and of Cinder’s schemes for glory and power. We finally get to see Pyrrha fighting an opponent who uses no metal whatsoever in her fighting style and thus who is not inherently at a large disadvantage against her. And Pyrrha, using everything she knows about fighting and her surroundings, still manages to give her a hell of a fight! She takes everything Cinder throws at her and manages to turn half of it against her! She still loses, but damn it, she gave it everything she had. Cinder is beaten down by a much weaker opponent thanks to creativity, strategy, and adaptability, just like with the Amber fight. Judging by this fight? If Pyrrha truly had gotten Amber’s remaining half of the Fall maiden powers? Cinder wouldn’t have stood a chance. She’d have been trashed. However… the end of the fight ended the way it did served primarily to unlock Ruby’s power, which was not hinted at whatsoever before then and has only been exposited a little afterward, and has led to a lot of bullshit that I’m not fond of. Thus, I discard it.

Yang vs. Mercury… Overall, a really great fight. You can see the two fighters thinking and adapting to each other, testing the waters, before Yang sees an opportunity and snatches it, nearly sending Mercury off the platform before he regains his footing and goes in to really put her in the position he needs. It doesn’t end the way we’ve been led to expect, either–with Mercury winning. Rather, he throws the fight and Emerald makes it look like he’s attacking her, but she ends up looking like she just attacked a defenseless Mercury. And it wasn’t even to weed out a maiden–Cinder had Yang’s reputation irrevocably ruined on live international television to escalate a city-destroying threat. Overall, I can’t find any glaring flaws–only that it doesn’t stand out as much as the next two. It is kind of tainted for me with the knowledge of Shane’s letter (and it’s not alone on this list) because yeah, it would’ve been much cooler for the bullets to richochet off walls to hit Yang…and harder to animate, I suppose. 

Yang vs. Branwen Bandits… A favorite of mine. I didn’t think I could be so easily wowed by a 41-second fight (it’s probably the shortest fight in the series that isn’t small-scale enough to qualify as a skirmish). This is the fight where RWBY makes good on what we saw in Yang vs. Taiyang–Yang has seriously adjusted her fighting style. She’s calm, collected, and completely in control of herself. By maintaining such a composure, she not only eliminates all of the bandits in under a minute, she doesn’t take a single hit, something we haven’t seen since the beginning of the series–something Pyrrha did during her match with CRDL or Ruby accomplished when slaughtering the Beowolves in her trailer. She ends the fight having completed the goal–KO all of them–and without having had to sacrifice a sliver of health for it. This is a fight that shows character development not through words and exposition, but through body language and action! It is, in a word, flawless. And I don’t even have to be annoyed at it for things that happen (or don’t happen) later–there’s follow-through! In V3E13, Yang again showcases what she’s learned when she keeps her jets calm and detaches her arm for Mercury to stumble with. 

And yet, it’s simply not got the scale going for it, like many of the other fights do, such as the last one on the list.

And the winner is…

Weiss vs. Lancer Swarm and Lancer Queen.

I cannot begin to describe how utterly elated I was seeing this fight, and how much hope it gave me for Volume 5 (which was summarily crushed with the finale). It has a working combo of pretty much every pro on this list going for it and none of the cons. 

Two characters work together and use their skills to survive an onslaught and defeat their opponents (the pilot uses his flying prowess and Weiss uses her huntress skills).

The scale is absolutely amazing–Weiss and the pilot do this while navigating through the skies at incredibly high speed, avoiding their enemies and the dust crystals that could pull them in and cause a crash, and even the pilot manages to kill some Lancers this way.

Weiss is completely in control of herself despite the above, demonstrating her Semblance and dust prowess by keeping herself glued steady to the cargo hold floor with a gravity glyph despite all the turns, loops, and 90-degree angles.

Weiss gets to fight, for the first time, both a horde and a boss, holding off and repelling the garden-variety Lancers with dust blasts, and then utilizing one of her recently-mastered skills in a creative way to take on the Lancer Queen.

Said skill involves having her Arma Gigas summon skydive off the ship to hit the Queen head-on, only to change at the last minute (much like Yang would with Shady Man later) and teleport-spam from multiple angles, before finally finishing it off and adding yet another summon to Weiss’ arsenal. 

All of this, set to the beautiful music Jeff Williams and his team are always ready to rock out with, featuring the final verses of “This Life is Mine”. 

And afterwards, Weiss pulls some quick thinking and utilizes her glyphs–yeah, she’s not even exhausted after this fight like she would be otherwise–to drag the cargo ship off its crash course and soften the landing, saving her own life. And maybe even Pilot Boi’s life as well.

And that is the motherfucking best fight post-Monty fight, hands-down.

[tanbrian]

The Last Jedi: BTan Review (Spoilers)

Here it is: I decided to write everything out because I obviously have too many feelings to process lol #allthefeels. A movie that has already proven to be a fairly polarizing 2nd (or 9th, if we're really counting) entry into the Star Wars metaverse deserves some cathartic play-by-play analysis. After all, that's more than half the fun (and point) of being a SW fan, is it not? Obvious disclaimer for SPOILERS, and I only saw the movie once - Thursday premiere night. Without further ado... here I go. *deep Lamaze breaths.

Comparison: Empire.

Let's be honest: with an ominous title and precedent-breaking RED Star Wars logo, it was inevitable that this second entry in this trilogy would illicit endless comparison to it's predecessor - namely, Empire, the 2nd SW movie ever in the OG trilogy, which has a darker tone and is widely regarded as the "Best" SW movie ever by fans - arguably, I might add. (IMO, A New Hope is the best SW movie of all time. BUT I DIGRESS) Considering how much TFA was designed after A New Hope, for better or for worse, it would be no surprise that The Last Jedi would mirror, borrow, or dare I say steal from Empire: major elements, settings, plot lines, et al. Fans and I alike were simultaneously loathed and relieved to find that this was both true and... not true, in this case.

Let's break it down via Empire lines:

Hoth: Empire/Rebel stand-off with low-rising ships and AT-AT fighters in a cold-climate planet with snow and winter-y creatures? Check. (this time at the end, not the beginning! what a twist.)

Yoda/Luke on Dabogah: Mentor/mentee jedi "training" period that transports a main character away from central Rebel action for the majority of the movie? Check.

"I am your father": Said main character is only to return for a climatic confrontation on an Empire ship with the main villain and discover parentage? Check.

Rebel characters engage in a cat-&-mouse run from a Empire ship that tracks them (A la Boba Fett & the Worm monster in the Asteroid fields)? Check.

Reunion-Hopeful end scene: With some medical care, hand holding, smiling, and small sliver of hope left just by still being together despite all the odds? Check.

Puppet-Yoda. period.

Thankfully, nobody's hand was severed or body was carbon-frozen. (Let's not get all Starkiller Base on us again.) Elements were certainly borrowed, but I don't think it was a hammer over the head in the same way that TFA was to A New Hope. A lot of the reviews are citing how "different" and "surprising" the plot twists and storyline went, and I will give Rian Johnson credit there. This was certainly not a carbon copy of Empire because, while borrowing fairly obvious major elements - Yoda/Luke and Luke/Rey being the most - it does its own thing with them....that doesn't always work out for the best, however.

1. Dagobah vs the Island (Ach-To, or whatever.)I think a lot of us expected (and were ready for) some head-on Yoda training of Rey. Give us a training montage. Knock her to her feet, do handstands, and make her lift that X-fighter from under the ocean (Did anyone catch that down there!?). OK - we don't need the whole she-bang, but give us something. I get that Luke is in no way the same master or teacher as Yoda, and he was going through this whole crotchety old-man complex and didn't actually want to train her. But when he and the movie actually got around to it... what even happened, really? We were treated to, frankly, weird and beautiful but unexplained cinematographic sequences (life! death! balance? and a dark seaweed-y dark tunnel?... ultimately leading to fun with mirrors? so many Reys, so few parents). My issue with them is this whole "training" period - which is a significant if not major crux of the whole movie - is that she's not really trained at all. Luke is basically like, "You're scary, Rey. ...OK, I'll watch you swing around my light saber." Like, what? I feel like the trailer gave the same level of impact of Rey's whole training on that damned island. She goes there, she gets trained eventually, and then she's a stronger Jedi - excuse me, er, "Force User." The movie really dragged its feet with this, and not in a satisfying way to me.

In Empire, you were on Dagobah forever but were enraptured by Luke's fear, frustration, and mystery over the force and his training (not to mention the charm of puppet-Yoda, bless him). Here, I couldn't wait to get off the island. I feel like I was stuck on LOST. Nothing was happening, the main mystery was "What Did Luke REALLY DO to Ben?", Rey talked to Kylo Ren a lot, Rey and Luke stalked each other... and - perhaps most insulting of all - our entertainment/comedic relief was pulled out of admittedly cute but pretty ridiculous creatures. More on all the creatures below, but for now: I'm anti-porg (hated all the random noise placements), and pro-caretakers - cute and funny. BUT - do you see what I mean? How was this adding to anything? We were charmed and entertained by Yoda and Luke all on their own as characters - their dynamic, struggles, values taught, etc. Here, it was like... welcome to the Island! We're, here... on the island. There are cute things and some mysteries. Train yourself Rey and leave as you like. See what I mean? Similar to Empire, but... not really, or at all, a better or improved version just by being different from it.

The saving graces are Daisy and Mark Hamill, who deliver strong and captivating performances as expected. Sadly, it's the writing and script here that fail them. Point is: this is a major/the plot point of this movie, Rey's training and answers as a Force User. Sure- what's happening with the Resistance is important, but the mythology and magic of this SW story is getting built with Rey. While necessary to bring her to the island with Luke, I just think our time there was a bit wasted. Too much "lemme follow Luke" ... "lemme follow Rey"... "oh look, another Porg!" *holds head in hands.

2. Rebels vs The ResistanceMeanwhile - because this movie, as SW movies are apt to do, requires a lot of Meanwhiles - the Resistance is stuck. They're out of fuel, tracked by the Empire after a mission, and getting clipped down. ...totally sounds familiar, right? In Empire, they run and hide - but get caught. They had the benefit of a budding romance with Han & Leia, and chemistry between them all - Chewie included. Here: they try to run, but are stuck. My issue is what they do to make it different this time, instead of Astroid Fields and a Cloud City: I guess they went with "A Codebreaker" and "Political Mutiny."

I have to admit: it must be really challenging to figure out to do with the Rebel/Resistance story arc. I'm sure when they sat down to write this script, they thought "OK: while Rey is off being important, what can we give the Resistance to do and make it fun, compelling, and just as consequential?" -Sadly, I think they really struggled here. It becomes the major middle of the movie, which just drags. Here was their solution: Introduce 3 new characters; go on adventures; solve the problem, and combine the plotlines. go.

First, as I'll discuss below with the Crowded Cast, the new characters (with the exception of Kelly Marie Tran) don't really amount to any new, exciting chemistry. It's less of a family, and more of a clusterf*ck to figure out what to do next... and then some.

Second: The Go on Adventures part was, simply put, random. Finn and Rose's romp to the casino land was a great plug/opportunity for a Mos Eisley Cantina - feel, not to mention pretty incredible wardrobe and set design. I felt mesmerized watching that first long shot of the casino: over the top, significant attention to detail, and fabulous. I do like the backstory we get on the planet's riches from sales to the Empire. Still, those are the highlights, but its all... random. and very quick. I don't want something to just "be a highlight" - it should have some purpose and add to the story. Otherwise, we're in prequel territory (Naboo is beautiful! ...so what?) The rest: "Find the Codebreaker" mission, randomly given by Maz - just seemed silly, and they didn't even manage to make contact with mustached Justin Thoreaux - settling for Benicio Del Toro in jail. Again, all random, and all just kinda like... ok, *shrug*, I'll just go with this? I know that's the spirit of SW - being a ragtag crew that just "figures it out" as you go. Here, however, they give a lot of twists and turns that your head is in a tailspin. They're in the casino, then in jail, but now they're riding creatures, but they got caught, but DJ saved them, but then he sold them out...? You're left feeling like, Wow. what was the point of that at all.

Meanwhile... Mutiny is afoot! Admiral Holdo vs Poe for control. Like I'm saying, it's all just like... so what? They're stuck in space and they need a solution, so Poe waits on one while Holdo pursues another one. It really feels like a placeholder, one that I think they just didn't need to develop all that much- yet, develop they did. They threw in so many twists into this plotline that felt unnecessary: we're abandoning ship?! oh - there's a planet down there? wait - leia's awake? no, wait - they're shooting us all down?... it felt like a waste of time. Sure, show them in struggle against the Empire, but let's move on. (Here, I'd like to note this movie is 2 hours and 30 minutes. that's LOTR territory, yall - not in the good way. Like, yikes.)

To summarize the Empire talk, I think they borrowed many checkpoint facts but didn't change them in truly effective ways. Let's be honest: the Empire framework is one we were all thinking about going into this. Below are more reasons why I think this movie's approach was successful... or not.

Crowded Cast.

Any true fan will tell you why the OG trilogy is the best: chemistry. Carrie, Mark, and Harrison had on-screen spark that continues to last 40 years later. All they had was droids and a walking carpet in Chewbacca as successful, impactful sidekicks (...forgetting the Ewoks, mind you.) We didn't need more. Even when Lando shows up, it's not a big deal - because it feels natural.

Characters aren't just being thrown in and added just for the sake of more characters. (If they are, it's for some plot point or twist that really pushes things along. Lando case in point: Empire needed a double-agent to get Han carbon-frozen & bring Luke out of Dagobah to encounter Vader, get hand cut off, hang from a Cloud City antenna, etc.)

I really thought in TFA, we were building to just that kind of "family" power. In our trio this time around, I think it was a solid effort at re-emulating what once was - The jokes and "banter" in TFA was believable, and you liked them as a crew. A family.

Unfortunately, this is less like a family of a cast than ever before; It's more meta, like: Here's this conflict in space that obviously involves hundreds of characters. Let's give each of them a little spotlight. There really is just too, too much going on character-wise. I'm just going to go at this bullet style with all the ancillary characters, because I have all of the complaints.

General Hux: admirable attempt to emulate Tarkin, but given way too much screen-time as if he actually matters. I think he's funny in the "evil" role - but that encapsulates my problem with it entirely. you should not be funny, or "evil" with g-d quotes around it. (Also, he's Bill Weasley. Like, just train your dragons.)

Snoke: NO. Why? Where's his story? Who is he? WHAT is he? He's just an <insert here> CGI bad guy from nowhere? What - were those scars that looked just like Anakin's head scars just to F*** with SW fan theories?!  There are plenty of bad guys in the SW universe that have Force powers and came out of nowhere. Like, who is Count Dooku, even. But I'm even fine with Dooku. This is like decades after the Emperor has fallen, and now "Snoke" rules the world... we def need a little more than just a gold f***ing kimono.

Captain Phasma: Fail. What an absolute waste. She could've been a cool, deep, fun character. Give her way more screentime over Hux. Instead, we get two lousy fights and a shot of Brienne's eye... like, *applause for your death?

Emo Kylo Ren. Sorry, reviewers: this is NOT a spectacular show of acting. This is bratty, brooding boy turned young man all wrong. I get it, I know -- this shows how darkness is complex and conflicting and not one side of the coin, I get that. Despite that, he still comes off as an impish child. Like, King Joffrey status. (Does that change anyone's mind?!) I don't care that he has great hair and "broods" well. Snoke's dialogue with him is the only thing I like about the two of them: "Take that stupid mask off your face." "You're nothing but a child." Very, true. That's the character. I shouldn't be able to make fun of the darkest evil and now supreme leader in that way. (...then again... Trump.)

Overall, I have been incredibly disappointed with the dark side in this new trilogy. Not menacing, threatening, or even "dark" at all. Throwaway characters. The fact that it can basically be made a joke - Emo Kylo Ren on SNL; Hux's ridiculous flailing and fails - is telling. Now, the light side:

Admiral Holdo: more like Who, doe? Laura Dern is an incredible actor, and she was very underutilized here. Very few lines of dialogue to sink her teeth into, and the whole Mutiny situation all passed by in what felt like an inconsequential flash. I feel like her inclusion was not necessary at all. It felt very Battlestar Galactica-y: commander of a rival ship comes, creates political conflict. She's also completely out of place with that hair and wardrobe... I get you commanded another ship, but aint nobody else on the Resistance looking like that. She looked more suited to the casino.

DJ. again, who? Benicio Del Toro, another fantastic actor, underutilized in a way that demonstrates he prob shouldn't have been used at all. His stuttering was pretty insulting and not charming like I guess they thought it would be. I'm guessing he has some double-agent turn to play in episode 9 (I guess as the Lando addition), but he certainly didn't add any value to this cast or story whatsoever.

Maz Katana: Well, that was funny, but random. Another wasted resource in Lupita Nyongo.

Rose. saving grace of the movie! Anyone knows I'm the first to shout about inclusive representation in entertainment; giving an Asian-American nerd such a highlighted role was fantastic. and not just b/c shes an Asian-American Nerd; just because she was fantastic in it. She's also 28, so she's just like me. That's empowering and awesome to see. Totally emulated the Rey, Finn, Poe trio dynamic-chemistry we got in TFA. Sadly, she's the only one we really got it from, other than:

Finn and Poe. sorry, they go in together because they really didn't give me much this time around. A lot of snappy dialogue and jokes that mostly landed. I'm disappointed, because I was ready to see that TFA chemistry continue and build. It mostly just remained stagnant, which isn't development to me. Also, I guess they're supposed to be main characters, but why didn't it feel that way? In TFA, they had an excuse - this was all just starting, and they had star power in Harrison, Daisy and Adam Driver to share screen time with. Now, I really feel like I needed them to step up as movers in this story - the same way Han was. Sadly, script and writing spread their power potential across far too many others.

Basically: it's crowded. It's like double the cast with half the punch. It's part of why I criticized Rogue One: ensemble cast that seems thrown together, just for the sake of being together. I think Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro, hands down, just should not have been added. I'm hoping they can revitalize the familial feel we got in TFA in episode IX; I think we will, now that we got that reunion scene and JJ will be back.

Separately, the OGs:

Leia. the movie did an incredible job bidding her adieu. Luke's reunion with her sends chills down my spine. "No one's ever really gone." She's reportedly not in IX at all, so I'm sure they'll have her pass peacefully.

Luke. By contrast, I think his death was anti-climatic.

Puppet-Yoda: was skeptical on his re-appearance, but leave it to Frank Oz to put you back at total Yoda-zen ease. His lines on failure particularly hit home for me, and it def maintains the heart of SW here: the empathy and hope, in the face of loss and despair, really is what matters.

Is this still Star Wars?

One of the more shocking allegations by angry twitterverse is that this movie "RUINED" SW, and that this "isn't a SW movie at all." Especially saying this is worse than Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones! Can it be? I ultimately have to disagree. There are light sabers, the Force, Luke and Leia, spaceship battles, and droids. Also, it splits characters/storylines up in stupid ways on "adventures" that all eventually pull together and make sense (we guess). it's DEF still SW.

I do see their point, however. SW is a space battle/family drama, but you can't help but feel it's pull into different territories on this one. For one, I mentioned the Crowded Cast issue. My most immediate comparison on this one is Battlestar Galactica: stellar ensemble cast & chemistry, with very similar cat-&-mouse chases from the bad guys in space. Sadly, I just don't think SW is built for this kind of meta-character building. That's my main critique for this feeling less "SW".

Second: The chemistry. The humor, comedic relief, and jokes. I mean, where are we going with these? I'm mostly okay with a lot of the "easier" funny moments, because there are a lot of those in the OG trilogy; all it took was one Chewie growl to get us going. I'm glad they didn't do away with them completely - this is still mass entertainment after all. However, I do think they simply went overboard on this one. Ex: The milked BB-8's abilities way too far; is he really capable of taking out multiple humans? It felt a little like Guardians of the Galaxy but with a lot less natural comedic punch. Again, I credit that to chemistry and the crowded cast: there wasn't a lot of opportunity to build much on what was created in TFA. We got it out of Rose, Poe and Finn in limited doses; not much else. Otherwise, we were given a lot of Porgs. Please, let Jar Jar and Ewoks be a lesson of late.

The Last Jedi is totally a SW movie; however, it does admittedly feel different. I would say it feels stretched. Strained. A little frenetic & confused. It does all find itself by the end, but rather than all that being "Ah, The Plan All Along," it feels more like... "Oh, thank god they got there."

Action Sequences

One way it is totally SW, however, and I'm glad they did this justice: epic light saber battles. This struck a golden, perfect balance between the aerobatic, choreographed prequel fights to the more raw, emboldened OG trilogy fights that focus on face and grit. The climax fight is one to behold and is going down in the pantheon as one of the best, likely a top 5. Snoke's chamber and that red backlight is fantastic - ominous, bloody. A little shocked by how good those guards were; where the hell did they get trained? I'm sure we'll get more Kylo vs Rey in episode IX. Rey, thank god, has stepped up her game - treating it like an actual sword instead of a heavy hammer to drag. (But do you see what I mean about there being too much going on this entire movie? I totally forgot that Kylo Ren even had a crossguard lightsaber. like, completely.)

The space sequences are, as predicted, breathtaking and exciting. Wouldn't expect less. In the middle "we're out of fuel!" part of the movie, it does just feel like being stuck on a chess set piece; that's claustrophobic, but not really in the captivating way here. Not like Gravity. More like... I got tired of playing chess and left the board overnight & forgot it was there for a week. and i dont care.

Cringe-worthy.

There were truly a lot, like a lot, of cringes here. These are undeniable, in fact, and simply cannot be done away with. The movie lives with them forever. *sucks teeth*

Floating Leia. NOOOOO. (please send me every meme ever). This is obviously a very polarizing decision. Personally, I think they should've cut that entire segment and left it on the cutting room floor. Kylo Ren doesn't need to get close to shooting her; she doesn't need to be asleep; hell, there didn't need to be a Laura Dern or any Mutiny, imo. She could've hit her head in an explosion and been in a brief coma, if ANYTHING. Idk. It was a lot. Esp considering Carrie has passed, it felt... super, really, uncomfortably weird. Therefore, I will rewind that scene x100 times. (It's up there with "Anakin, you're breaking my heart! You're going down a path in which I cannot follow!" also, I cannot believe they killed Admiral Ackbar with such little grace as that. Offended.)

Blue Milk. What might be a charming easter egg to some was really just a funny-disturbing, horrifically-cringey moment. Luke Skywalker on his knees, sucking down milk from the Tittie-Testicles of a bantha creature in its crotch, spilling it onto his scraggly beard. humiliating. this is not the master jedi I'm looking for. I want to unsee that immediately.

Mirror, mirror. maybe some people thought it was cool. maybe its deep, insightful, or artistic in some way idc to know about. I just dont care. It was giving me Mirror of Erised vibes from Harry Potter, which felt stupid and went totally unexplained. *snap, snap!

Emo-Bitch Moaning: on behalf of Hux and Emo Kylo himself. So many lines, I can't even dredge up from memory just yet, they're that painful. Greatest hit: Kylo bitching "YOU SHOULD BE!" or something equally bitch-worthy to ghost-Luke during their fight. groan.

Benicio Del Toro's stuttering: painful and offensive. of no value.

Rose's "kiss" of Finn. Ouch.

-Creatures

There were, simply, a lot of creatures this time around. Here's some reactions to the greatest hits:

Porgs: I'm decidedly anti-Porg. I wish Chewie ate that roasted one in front of their crying faces. I also can't believe they started burrowing into the Falcon; the disrespect! Please swat them off the drawing board for episode IX, JJ. Unlike Ewoks and even Jar Jar, they added absolutely nothing to the story. Keep it purposeful, not random, please.

Caretakers: cute and hilarious. random.

Canto Bight riding creatures: They look like Voldemort. Actually a cross-breed of Dobby/house elves and Voldemort. Disturbing. (also, why all this Harry Potter crossover!?) random.

Ice Foxes: Cute, pretty, again very random and barely added anything of value.

One can't help but see the commercial angle in throwing the kitchen sink in with these creatures: they're automatic money machines to cash in on Christmas plush toys, not to mention drawings, books/resources to develop in on their stories/backgrounds, etc. Creatures are also a hallmark of SW. Again, though, you can't help but feel like it was a bit overdone here. I hardly remember any creatures from TFA, other than the octopus. (See? That was a fun adventure - and we met Han that way.)

Cliffhangers/Theories

It just seems hard to believe, however, that Rey and Kylo aren't TWINS to Han and Leia. How could they be otherwise connected so strongly and randomly? Just one fight in the snowy woods, and they've got psycho-powers to each other? I guess it could just be a coincidence of their Force powers. High midichlorian count, holla.

I'm still banking on the Kenobi theory myself: why else bring Ewan and Alec Guiness's voices from the grave for her TFA dream? Help us Rey Kenobi - you really are our only hope.

Conclusion

If you read this far, you need to get a life - much like myself. Ultimately, my word on The Last Jedi is: B. OK. Idk! I think there was a lot riding on this movie: It was going to determine how a huge leg of this new trilogy was going to continue and be as an identity, really. TFA did a beautiful job building the legwork, and Last Jedi was both a surprise and let down in many ways. You can't snuff the highlights that made it shine: Canto Bight's casino, the light saber duels, Daisy and Mark, and Kelly Marie Tran. It just needed a lot of editing, which it clearly didn't get enough of at it's running time. The Cringes shoot down at this film significantly.

Most importantly to me: Part of what makes SW fantastic isn't exploding ships and sword fights; plenty of movies have just that. What makes us fans is the draw of their mythology, continuing/evolving story, and feeling like we're on-board with the "Family" of characters we love the whole way through. It's why I love many installments of Final Fantasy, LOST, Battlestar Galactica, and GOT: it's character-based, character development that gets breathtaking. I think Last Jedi may have lost the heart of that, by nature of feeling random, sloppy, and going too long without going much of anywhere. I'm certainly glad to be off the island and out of that awful Chess-like impasse between their spaceships. Moments with Yoda and Luke separately were strong and kept the heart of SW. Still, there were just a lot of choices... too many polarizing choices. the kind you can't come back from, and that really get the movie off the swing of things.

I will obviously be re-watching and contemplating for weeks to come. Ah, to be a SW fan! Feels good. (and a little sad, but good all the same).

[rosiep66]

"IRON MAN 2" (2010) Review

”IRON MAN 2” (2010) Review I must say that I am grateful to Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) showrunner Kevin Feige and the filmmakers of ”IRON MAN 2”.  I am grateful that they only waited two years to make this sequel to the 2008 hit film, “IRON MAN”, instead of three years or more. But even if they had made the movie more than two years after the original film, I believe the movie proved to be worth any wait. Some IRON MAN fans and film critics had expressed the opinion that ”IRON MAN 2” was inferior to the original 2008 movie. I certainly feel differently. I believe that this movie was superior to ”IRON MAN”. Mind you, this new film had a few flaws. One, I was baffled by Tony Stark’s reluctance to join S.H.I.E.L.D. I had assumed after the appearance of the organization’s leader, Nick Fury, in the original film’s Easter egg sequence that he was eager to join. Even Tony’s appearance in 2008’s ”THE INCREDIBLE HULK” seemed to hint this. So what happened? Is it possible that screenwriter Justin Theroux failed to see the last ”HULK” film? One would think so.  It took me another year to discover that “THE INCREDIBLE HULK” is supposed to be set a few days or a few weeks after the events of this film.  Only . . . why?  Why did Feige make this convoluted move with the franchise’s timeline?  I found it so confusing.  The movie’s score, like the 2008 film, sucked.  As much as I was impressed by Matthew Libatique’s cinematography, I must admit that I did not find it as impressive as his photography in the 2008 film. But I will discuss this subject in greater detail, later.  Nor was I that impressed by Tony’s initial behavior toward Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow.  I found it slightly sexist and somewhat tacky.  Even Pepper Potts’ snarky response that he would open himself up to a sexual harassment lawsuit could not erase ugly taint that surrounded his comment. ”IRON MAN 2” may not have been perfect; but as I had stated earlier, I believe that it is superior to the first film. Do not get me wrong. I loved ”IRON MAN”. I still do. But in an article I had written about some of the Summer 2008 movies, its plot struck me as simple and a little unoriginal. I cannot say the same about its sequel. Thanks to Theroux and director Jon Farveau, ”IRON MAN 2” focused upon the consequences of Tony Stark becoming and admitting to being Iron Man in the last film. During the six months since the end of the last film, Iron Man’s actions as a superhero has allowed him to maintain world peace. His actions have also attracted the attention of a U.S. Senate committee, led by Senator Stern, who demanded that Tony release the Iron Man technology for military application. Stark refused, claiming his competitors are years away from successfully recreating the technology. But more trouble seemed to plague Tony. The palladium core inside the miniaturized arc reactor that he had created to power his Iron Man armor and prevent the shrapnel from a disastrous Afghanistan trip in the last film from reaching his heart . . . was slowly poisoning his blood system. Foreknowledge of a possible early death led Tony to acts of excessive and dangerous behavior – including re-instituting the Stark Expo first initiated by his father back in the 1970s, appointing his personal assistant Pepper Potts as the new CEO of Stark Industries, in and participating in the Monaco Grand Prix, at the Circuit de Monaco. It is in Monaco where Tony has his first encounter with Ivan Vanko, a Bratva member and Russian physicist who happened to be the son of another physicist and former Stark Industries employee, Anton Vanko, who was fired by Howard Stark and deported back to the Soviet Union. Anton Vanko had also worked on the original plans of the arc reactor with Stark Sr., but the plans remained in the hands of Stark Enterprises. Vanko Sr.’s death at the beginning of the movie sent Ivan into a spiral of grief, leading him to create his own suit containing an arc reactor. Vanko used his new suit to attack Tony at Monaco. The attack attracted the attention of another weapons industrialist named Justin Hammer, an arch-rival of Tony’s. Hammer arranged Vanko’s escape from jail and recruited the Russian physicist to design drones similar to the Iron Man armor for the Stark Expo. Tony also has to deal with the return of S.H.I.E.L.D. in his life. Unbeknownst to him, the organization’s leader, Nick Fury had assigned one of his agents to infiltrate Stark Enterprises to assess Tony as a possible agent. His spy turned out to be Tony and Pepper’s new assistant, Natalie Rushman aka Natasha Romanoff. Although Fury has become reluctant to recruit Tony for membership in S.H.I.E.L.D., he managed to provide vital materials to the industrialist to allow him to develop a safe element for his arc reactor implant that also provides superior power. One would begin to wonder if the screenwriters had dumped one too many plotlines in the movie’s script. Some critics have complained that the movie possessed one too many villains. I would disagree. ”IRON MAN 2” simply had a complex plot that did not – in my opinion – struck me as difficult to follow. In fact, I believe that the plot’s complexity allowed the movie to be superior to the 2008 film. As for the number of villains, there were two – Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer. ”IRON MAN” also had two villains. Robert Downey Jr. reprised his role as Tony Stark aka Iron Man. I am trying to think of something to say about his performance. But what is there to say? He was magnificent as always by skillfully portraying every aspect of Tony’s personality – both the good and the bad. Yes, Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark was a charming, caring, brilliant and strong-willed man. But he was also narcissist, egotistical, and somewhat self-centered. This is a man who used his Iron Man technology to bring about world peace, instead of using it for personal gain and who had enough trust in his personal assistant to name her as the new CEO of his company. Yet, this same man resorted to alcohol to escape from his demons and was thoughtless enough to give his new CEO strawberries as a gift – completely forgetting that she is allergic to the fruit. Downey Jr.’s performance as Stark seemed to be among the best comic book hero portrayals I have ever seen on the silver screen . . . back in 2010. In one of the last scenes in ”IRON MAN”, Tony said the following to his personal assistant, Virginia “Pepper” Potts: ”You know, if I were Iron Man, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She'd be a wreck, 'cause she'd always be worrying that I was going to die, yet so proud of the man I'd become. She'd be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more crazy about me.” In ”IRON MAN 2” Pepper certainly discovered how stressful her life could be as the object of affection (or desire) of a celebrated costumed hero. Gwyneth Paltrow returned to the role of Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s personal assistant-turned-new CEO of Stark Industries. And I have to say that the actress did a skillful job of conveying the stress and anxiety that threatened to overwhelm her character. One of my favorite scenes featured a moment when Pepper’s emotions finally overwhelmed her, as she tendered her resignation in an angry tirade. As everyone knows, Marvel Entertainment had decided to replace Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle for the role of Tony’s best friend, Lieutenant-Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes U.S.A.F. I will not discuss the circumstances that led Cheadle to replace Howard. I will say that Cheadle gave a top notch performance as Rhodey. Do I consider him to be a better choice than Howard? No. I would say that the quality of both actors’ performances struck me as equal. Not that I find that surprising. Both Cheadle and Howard are excellent actors with a strong screen presence. I did notice that Cheadle’s sense of humor never had the opportunity to flourish, until the movie’s final scenes. And his screen chemistry with Downey Jr. did not seem as strong as the Downey Jr./Howard pairing. But he certainly did not disappoint. I must confess that I have only seen Mickey Rourke in three other movies, besides ”IRON MAN 2”. Aside from his award winning performance in ”THE WRESTLER”, I was never that impressed by him. When I had learned that he would be cast as the main villain, Ivan Vanko, I had qualms about Jon Farveau and Marvel’s decision. In the end, I found myself very impressed by his performance. He managed to portray a menacing, yet emotional personality in a suitably low-key manner. However, I could barely understand some of his lines through the thick Russian accent. It is a major pity that Marvel/Disney did not keep him around.  Sam Rockwell was as volatile as Rourke was low key. And surprisingly, his volatile performance perfectly suited his character, Tony Stark’s fellow defense contractor – Justin Hammer. What I especially enjoyed about Rockwell’s performance was his ability to inject a raging inferiority complex underneath the gregarious personality. Scarlett Johanssen had the opportunity to strut her stuff as Natalie Rushman aka Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow, Pepper’s new assistant and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. I must admit there were times I wondered if Johanssen’s character had a personality. It finally dawned on me that she simply possessed a no-nonsense persona that could kick ass. 

Director Jon Farveau returned as Tony’s bodyguard and chauffeur, Happy Hogan. Thankfully, he got to do a lot more in ”IRON MAN 2”, which included coming to Tony’s rescue with the Iron Man suit during Vanko’s attack during the Monaco Grand Prix, and assisting (somewhat) Natasha during the latter’s breach at Hammer Industries. Samuel L. Jackson’s role as head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, was increased in this second film. And all I can say is . . . thank goodness! I really enjoyed his strong screen presence and lively conversations with Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. I got the feeling that the two actors really enjoyed working with one another (unless I happened to be wrong). Clark Gregg returned in the role of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson. Not only was he his usual quiet and assuming self, but also deliciously snarky. John Sterling of ”MAD MEN” made an appearance as Tony’s father, the late Howard Stark, in old film clips viewed by Tony. Slattery’s Howard Stark struck me as lively and witty as Downey Jr.’s Tony. His performance made it easy for me to see the genesis of Tony’s own personality. And the late Gary Shandling tossed aside his usual comic persona to convincingly portray U.S. Senator Stern, a determined politician who wants the Iron Man armor in government hands. However, he was allowed a rather snarky and very subtle joke in the film's last scene. As I had stated earlier, I was not that impressed by Matthew Libatique’s cinematography in ”IRON MAN 2”. Mind you, I did not find it terrible or a travesty to the art of motion pictures. But I cannot recall viewing any fantastic airborne sequences that were featured in ”IRON MAN”. Aside from Rhodey’s arrival at the Edwards Air Force Base in the War Machine armor, the movie did not feature any daytime aerial scenes, just slightly confusing night time sequences near the beginning and the end of the film. But, as I will point out later, there was one exception. However, I found most of the film’s action sequences very exciting – especially Vanko’s attack upon Tony in Monaco; the birthday brawl between Tony and Rhodey in the Iron Man and War Machine suits; Natasha’s fight against Hammer’s security guards; and the aerial chase sequence over the Stark Expo between Iron Man and the Vanko-controlled War Machine. I must be one of the few who, to this day, still regard “IRON MAN 2″ as better than the original 2008 film.  I also regard it as one of the better films of 2010, despite its few flaws.  It would also proved to be the second to the last time in which I would truly enjoy Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark aka Iron Man.

[austencello]

Kapiushon - Arrow Music Notes 5x17

Oliver Queen faces and embraces darkness in his time in Russia while being confronted with it during his torture via Adrian Chase in a dark and disturbing episode.  It is the making and breaking of Oliver and his vigilantism.

Russia

The Flashbacks were a primary focus in this episode resulting in the death of Kovar, Anatoly becoming Bratva Pakhan and Oliver becoming Captain.  This also means that the main two Russian music elements returned: the low strings and the cimbalon.  The cimbalon is peppered throughout the episode in almost every Russian scene, helping to set the mood and place.

The low Russian strings is often present with the Bratva as a collective.  It plays as Gregor, the old Pakhan, is given a funeral of sorts while Anatoly is sworn in as the new Pakhan and Oliver swears in as well.

Low strings and male voices are present as Oliver talks with Viktor right before he tortures Kovar’s man for information as the Hood.  The torture scene includes his Hood/Arrow instruments (guitar harmonics, hammered dulcimer) which in turn represents the man he is becoming.  Believing that his darkness is separate and could be used as a tool for the greater good is turning Oliver into the cold killer that was seen at the beginning of Season 1.  Electronic creepy music enters as Anatoly comes in horrified with Oliver’s decisions.  Minor strings play as he says that Oliver is beginning to resemble their villains: Slade and Ivo.  It reflects his sadness at Oliver’s naivete and future dark path that it is possible to separate himself in two.

Hints of the Arrow theme plays as the Hood infiltrates the casino and tries to reach Galina before she is killed by Kovar and the cimbalon plays as Anatoly is betrayed.

The most intense scene is this episode is the back and forth between Oliver fighting Kovar in the past and Adrian pushing Oliver into his “confession.”  It is the most tense of the entire episode and the music reflects it.  Rhythmic strings continue between both scenes, while brass punctuates and electronic music plays during the fight scenes.  Things are briefly silent as Kovar dies and then slower minor strings plays as it switches to Adrian baiting Oliver that he doesn’t have to kill.  Brass ascends and percussion is added (especially cymbals) grow over the strings as Oliver yells that he liked killing and then is immediately horrified at what he said.

Prometheus

The rest of this episode was Adrian Chase’s physical, emotional and psychological torture of Oliver to get that confession.  His musical elements also play throughout although rarely all together.  The full reveal happened last week so it makes it almost more sinister to have one part in one scene and then another later on. 

The episode opens with Chase half-drowning Oliver over the high pitch of the violin (used a lot during last week’s episode as well) juxtaposed over low timpani rolls.  As Chase explains how he chose the name of Prometheus, his low string pattern and melodic percussive tick-tock plays.

The high violins return as Chase shows Oliver the pictures of all the people he killed.  He shoots 3 arrows at Oliver, reminding him of killing the Count for Felicity as he gives another opportunity to confess this time over the violin descending glissandos.  (The more vengeful side while the tick-tock is the colder diabolical side of Chase?)

Low electronic percussion punctuates tense moments over low notes as Adrian shows Felicity’s glasses to him.  Strings begin as William’s picture is shown reflecting the sadness and helplessness that Oliver feels, not being able to protect the people he loves most.

Both the glissandos and tick-tock return when Evelyn is brought in to the cell beaten up as a victim.  Chase gives them a knife explaining that one of them will have to die.  Otherwise, Adrian will kill Evelyn for him.  A truly cruel move.

As Oliver tries to convince Evelyn to give him the knife so they could escape together, low strings play with wooden percussion as Evelyn cries that they can’t beat Chase.  The high violin note appears as she shares Chase’s lies that she is dead because she was part of Oliver’s life.  The villain always present even when not there physically.  The tick-tock returns with Chase coming back into the cell angry.  It almost gets eerily quiet as they start yelling with only the high violin note continuing.  A violin glissando goes up and then down as Chase “snaps” her neck then silence as Oliver looks on in horror and shock.

This leads to the event mentioned above where Oliver admits that he enjoyed killing to Chase’s satisfaction.  For now, he has won and Oliver is completely broken.  He had tried for so long to divide himself from his darkness and he can’t anymore which defeats him.  Evelyn gets up pleased that they took him down while the slow version of the Arrow theme plays in the strings.  It repeats and gains in tempo (gets faster) as Chase tells him that his family and friends have paid the price for his sins and takes apart the purpose of his mission to his father while guitar harmonics enter with percussion and French horns.  Taking him apart one twisted step at a time.

He wakes up after his Bratva tattoo was burned off with piano (Oliver’s emotional instrument) playing for the first time this episode.  Strings and the hammered dulcimer are present as he gets up completely defeated.  This leads to the team trying to find Oliver adding a repeated electronic note often used for the lair.  A low bass note plays as Oliver enters.  Wooden percussion starts as he tells the team that it is over and the hero theme 1 plays in the horn as Diggle declares they are going to catch Chase for what they did to him. The first part of the Arrow theme enters in the strings, all 3 elements growing and repeating as the camera pans away on broken Oliver and the horrified team.

Extra Notes:

- This is one of the darkest episodes I have ever seen on Arrow. It literally gave me knots in my stomach every time I watched it.  The performances by Stephen and Josh were incredible but boy did it hurt to watch.  That is also why it took longer to write. 

- On a lighter note, I watched the Supergirl/Flash musical numbers on repeat to help counteract the darkness.  I really appreciate that those were on the same week.  Blake Neely did an outstanding job with that episode and it was wonderful to hear a real orchestra.

@ah-maa-zing @academyofshipping @herskirtsarentthatshort @mel-loves-all @pulpklatura @marniforolicity @smoakmonster @jorahandal

[upslapmeal]

Opinion: Jane The Virgin it's losing it's charm. It let me down after episode 10 and I tried to keep watching but it's disappointing me so far. I just feel is not as funny and smart written as it was and it's just reusing storylines. And I'm still not used to the characters now after the 3-year jump, it feels so hurried.

Ok so I know the point of this ask game thing is just to say whether you agree or disagree but I have way too many thoughts about this to just leave it at that. So. In general I agree, at least to a point. And I’ve literally written over 1000 words as a reply so I’m putting it under a readmore bc….whoops…….

Right to start off, I know something everyone used to complain about the crime plots but that was something I really thought was missing at the start of S3. Those plots were usually good at providing drama that really contrasted with Jane’s life and I’d been looking forward to Michael finally going back to work so we’d get them back. Which obviously didn’t happen, and I know we have Dennis and they’re still part of the plot but it’s different from having one of the main characters directly involved. 

Something else that definitely hasn’t helped but isn’t necessarily the show’s fault is that we’ve lost side characters because the actors have become involved in other shows - specifically Luisa, Lina and Rose. This limits the interactions we can see, and means that when they’re on the show they don’t get any meaningful longer storylines because they won’t be around for long. This has been a specific problem for Luisa who seems to appear for an episode or two then get sent off to rehab. Rose was a great villain and that’s something else the show’s been lacking, especially since Mutter’s dead though she was never as compelling as Rose. 

I remember back in S1 wondering how long the show would last because it seemed unlikely that they would be able to keep generating such elevated plots and ridiculous twists, and I think that’s just part of the nature of the show unfortunately. In that during S1 (and S2 though less so) all the ~telenovela aspects were new and fresh, but they used up a whole bunch of tropes and plotlines, and also we’ve just got more used to it and better at predicting what will happen. That’s not to say repeated elements don’t always work - the Anezka twist at the end of ch39 completely caught me off guard despite the Roman/Aaron plot in S1. I had thought that Rafael finding out he wasn’t a Solano would be an opening for more telenovela plots, possibly involving the art theft and Italian orphanage, but instead it fed the more grounded emotional plots in that it made Raf want to turn over a new leaf. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and that’s not to say it won’t lead to those plots in the future, but considering that the show seems to be lagging a bit in its telenovela side it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. 

Which brings us to ch54, Michael’s death, and the time jump. Considering what I’ve said about plots running out it made sense that they needed to shake things up, and Jennie said Michael’s death was the mid-show equivalent to Jane’s insemination in that it was an event that completely turned Jane’s life upside down and changed what she’s imagined her future to be. And it certainly did that but I do think it also did several things that hurt the story. Firstly, it just added to the problem I talked about with the show losing characters and so losing different interactions and relationships to explore. Brett said after the end of S2 that he’d love Michael to have more scenes with Alba and see what the relationship is there, and personally that was a relationship it really hoped we’d get to see, especially after those vows. Losing characters hits harder when they’re part of the main cast. Then we also lost our main connection to the police side of all the telenovela crime drama. And as well as losing a telenovela aspect we also lost many more grounded potential storylines. What’s Michael’s role in bringing Mateo up as he gets older? How do they deal with the difference between Mateo, who’s constantly moving between parents, and JM’s potential future child(ren) who would live with them all the time? Would we get to see Rogelio take Michael, Rafael and Mateo out on an over-the-top Father’s Day bonding adventure? Idk, it just feels like there were so many more potential storylines to mine from that family.

Then there’s the issue of trying to use the death in the same way as the insemination. The problem comes from the fact that they gave the show very different things. The whole show sprung up from Jane’s insemination. The show would not exist without it and the whole show since then has been dealing with the consequences of this event. We got to see the very real and emotional effects, the difficulties it caused and how hard it could be, really letting Gina flex her acting muscles, but it was also a ridiculous telenovela event that could be used as a source of humour and ultimately ended up being one of the best things to happen to Jane. And the problem with using Michael’s death to similarly shake up her life is it only provides the first half of that, the difficult, emotional side. It’s not something that can be joked about or used for fun drama.

And so then we have the time jump. I absolutely understand why they decided to have the jump, if the show had gone straight into the period after his death it would have been too dark for the show, and the jump lets us see the long-term effects. Unfortunately though, they literally killed their protagonist’s husband after they were married for 7 months. They created a situation where the consequences are dark and difficult and heartbreaking. And so while I appreciate that we’re seeing Jane still affected by it after three years, we need to see more of this difficult stuff that the show made for itself. I’ve already rambled a lot about this here so I won’t get into that again but if the show’s going to use this death supposedly to be a mid-show insemination equivalent, it mustn’t shy away from the situation it’s made for itself. And I’m not saying the show isn’t showing Jane’s grief but I don’t think it’s changed enough or doing it in a way that justifies killing him in the first place.

In fact the biggest change to the show that’s come from Michael’s death is the time jump. And honestly, outside Jane’s story I do think it’s done the show good. It’s refreshed a lot of storylines and from a practical pov has made sure they have good kid actors instead of just hoping that Aiden (who played young Mateo) turned out to be a good actor. And you know what? I think the time jump would have been a great thing to happen to show without Michael dying. Because then you haven’t lost one of the pieces in the game, just rearranged them. Rather than carrying the weight of showing Jane moving out of deep grief, the flashbacks would help fill in the gaps better for more characters. Everyone would be in a new place and there wouldn’t be the weird rushed disconnect there is now where the show has gone from an incredibly traumatic event back to near-normality in the space of less than an episode. 

I know this all sounds really negative. I do appreciate how the show has decided to tell a story of coming back after having dealt with terrible grief and I don’t want to fully judge how good a job it’s done until the end of the season, and even without quite the same spark as the start it’s a fantastic show. I’ve tried to be as objective as possible with this and look at the show without thinking about personal opinions of characters etc (though I am incredibly bitter and sad about Michael’s death for non-storytelling reasons), and I think that the heightened and balanced nature of the show at the start has made a bit of a fall inevitable. But it’s done a damn good job of trying to keep as close to that place as possible, even if that has included missteps or repeated storylines. I’ve still loved every episode so far, not all as much as each other, but there is yet to be an episode I dislike. And so yes, it has lost a bit of its charm and it’s made decisions I’m disappointed in, but as a whole I still think it’s a clever and important show that I love. And long may that last.