#and the fans only want to talk about the cameo character that doesn't look as good

[movie-robotnik-positivity]

Never change, Sonic Twitter

[eisforeidolon]

Destiel has definitely soured my opinion on Misha especially since he continues to feed into it. It would not be so bad if he didn't make everything so sexual in relation to this ship. It seems like out of the entire cast Jensen is definitely the one who is sexualized the most and destiel fans continue to act like that is ok because JA and Misha are friends. Not one of them care how Jensen might feel if he knew they look at him at this sexual fantasy to make their ship cannon. These people are not his fans no matter how much they like to claim they are. The ship only bothers me because the fans seem unhinged. Maybe if they shipped for fun instead of trying to make a statement that none of them even believe in other fans would take them more seriously.

Yeah, the hellers have annoyed me from the start, even way back when I shipped D/C in fandom over their disregard for other fans, the show, the actors, and basically anyone who didn't see their ship as an important cause/inevitable canon rather than just a fanon ship. But there also just came a point where I could no longer give Misha the benefit of the doubt either. Not because he's talking about shipping, or even specifically a non-canon ship? That could be fine! It's because of the specific way he talks about it and how a certain loud, batshit part of the fandom reacts to what he says.

Hellers want to pretend, despite everything Jensen has consistently said over the years about not wanting to talk about shipping in general and specifically not seeing D/C as any part of his character's canon story? That it's no big deal to keep dragging him into it. Actually, he's really into D/C and RPF of him and Misha - or it's at least a-okay because they're friends!

We'll ignore the part of that which is obviously deluded self-serving fetishistic bullshit. But it also pointedly ignores that there is a world of difference between joking with someone versus making someone the butt of your jokes. Especially regarding a subject you know they want no part of. Especially when you so specifically do it where they aren't present or active. The way he talks about the ship frequently treats Jensen and/or Dean like a subservient sexual object. It's often pointedly about laughably trying to make himself sound dominant. It's often pointedly crass and vulgar. It's often dishonestly contradictory to what Jensen and others have publicly said about the ship. They want to pretend like it's friendly banter/ribbing between him and Jensen, but it clearly isn't. It doesn't have the right tone, context, or level of interaction for that. It's him performing to his audience at Jensen's (and the show's) expense. As I've said many a time in regards to Misha, with friends like that ...

The thing is, both sides of that coin are about treating Jensen like a blow up doll. Any opinion or feelings he has don't matter, he's just a vehicle to project onto in the hopes it will get them what they want. In the fanatic shippers' case, the ship made canon. In Misha's case, continued money and attention. Funny how right when he needs to re-open Cameo for extra funds, this is how Grifter McQueerbait spent a J2-less con, huh?

Which is why Misha gets no benefit of the doubt from me. He doesn't care about his supposed friend getting called a homophobe for not playing along. He doesn't care about any of his other coworkers or the network who were very good to him getting similar blowback accusations from his lies and sly imprecations. He sure as hell doesn't care about his fans as he keeps setting them up to be disappointed over and over and over again. Hell, he doesn't even care enough about any of it to be consistent from con to con, because he changes his story according to his mood and whoever else is on stage.

Hey, if he keeps getting money and attention for it and someone else always faces the consequences, why change? Friendship? Integrity? Being gainfully employable? Pfft. Who needs it! There's $$$ to be made right now, baby! So I also just think he's a fucking idiot. Although I'll give him this, I didn't think even the hellers were daft enough to keep signing up to be fleeced this transparently with the same recycled material 3+ years post-show.

[buddiebeginz]

If they are keeping Lou around for any part of season 8 the show has to put an end to the cameo nonsense. Some of the Buck/Oliver takes that are starting to make the rounds are next level insane. I saw one scolding Oliver for making Lou do all the promoting of the ship. Another post said the writers needed to up Buck's game because he's not at the level of commitment yet that Tommy is being written (wtf when were these episodes). And yet another post scolding Oliver for promoting Buddie and Buck for continuing to spend time with Eddie.

They are taking these PAID (you paid him to say this shit) videos and making them canon. No part of anything he's saying is canon. Firstly, he wouldn't be allowed to tell them any actual canon facts and secondly Oliver/Buck is the character/actor the show gives a shit about. He's encouraging this nonsense and it's gross. Him promoting himself is fine, it's low-key cringe given the fact the other half of the ship is silent but you do you, babe. Oliver's silence is what's pissing his fans off. Seriously tell me you're new to Captain Starks ways without telling me you're new. He promotes no ship but the Buddie ship, canon or not. These people are here for Lou. When he goes, happy for him to take them with him.

I'm not sure why they keep letting him do those cameos especially after he pissed people off when he said T*mmy being homophobic and racist to Hen and Chim was just teasing. He also talked about people recognizing him in Thailand in the AH interview and did this fake stereotypical asian accent. 🤦‍♀️He really needs a better agent and some media training because they'd for sure tell him to knock that shit off.

I could see the cameos being fun to do a few times when he first came back to the show even to garner excitement about B/T and T*mmy but the fact that he's done so many now and has even raised the price just makes him look desperate for attention. And like you said he gives all these headcanons about T*mmy in his videos that his obsessive fans have taken for absolute fact. We would never hear the end of it if Buddie fandom was paying Ryan for videos like that.

I agree with you that a majority of B/T stans are here first and foremost for T*mmy and Lou not Buck and Oliver. I still can't believe that a lot of them used to be Buddie shippers. I think everyone should be able to ship what they want including multishipping but I don't get how some of them dropped a ship they were seemingly invested in for years for the nothing that is B/T.

That part of fandom also loves to call us delusional and say we're seeing only what we want to see but a lot of times we're just pointing out what's actually happening. Like in the recent episode T*mmy was being a downer to Buck's enthusiasm (which has basically become the norm for them). The camera also paned to Eddie after Buck got his award not T*mmy. Buck chose to run off to Eddie's after work not to T*mmy's. These are things the show is literally showing us not just stuff we're imagining.

It's similar with Oliver. They can come up with all the reasons in the world why he's never promoted B/T through this entire season but it doesn't matter because he still hasn't and likely won't. I've seen them say Oliver doesn't post anything about B/T or Lou to avoid dealing with the hate or to not upset Buddie fans or to protect Lou. The thing is though Oliver has left social media before when he's had issues and could again if he wanted to. He's also been dealing with homophobic comments since Buck came out but he's never shied away from talking about Buck coming out and has even addressed the hate on his insta.

Oliver liked a couple of B/T pieces of art when the story first happened but I think that was more to support the bi Buck storyline and the artists than anything else. Multiple times during this season he's liked Buddie art (including a tattoo which he commented on three times) he's also posted Buddie related and Ryan stuff on his stories. If he wanted to show support to Lou or B/T he could easily post on his stories where people can't comment. B/T stans can think what they want but it's clear Oliver doesn't promote any of that because he's rooting for Buddie harder than anyone. I think he knows B/T isn't going to be around forever and he's trying not to lead people on about it as he's said in the past he hates to do that.

I really hope we can get rid of T*mmy at the end of s7 although knowing Tim he'll probably keep him for added drama until s8. Unfortunately even when B/T ends I expect those fans to do a lot of complaining because they've concocted this whole idea in their head that T*mmy is Buck's endgame soulmate. They even want T*mmy to be added on as main character and get a begins episode. So I fully expect some of them to riot when he inevitably gets the ax. The rest will probably run back to Buddie the minute it becomes canon and try to pretend they never left. Jokes on them though because a lot of Buddie shippers have blocked them for how awful they've been this season especially towards Eddie.

[dlartistanon]

I have to be honest, after everything I heard I went into Lone Trail anticipating Muelsyse character assassination-- nay, *annihilation*, for the sake of Doctor-sexual fanservice and I was ready to be disappointed. But having finished reading Lone Trail myself now... What? Her homescreen lines are utter horseshit, I completely agree, but her actual character writing in Lone Trail fits that really good analysis post by meeblo so accurately that I can't believe meeblo didn't read LT before writing

"The more I think about Lone Trail the less I like how they executed the story."

So, let me preface this with with preemptive TL;DR: If you are a fan of Silence as a character, you probably really enjoy Lone Trail.

If you are a fan of any other character, especially Muelsyse, and ESPECIALLY if you don't like or don't care for self-insert pandering, you're likely disappointed and/or frustrated with Lone Trail. I am the latter.

Let me just copypaste what my friend has to say (plus my own replies and commentary) since they can articulate the feeling better than I can:

I'm sorry. I just can't imagine a world where Saria, who means so much to Muelsyse, is nearly assassinated and in awful shape, and *she knows that* and is like "wassup doctor, heard Saria's in trouble but lets hang out"

Me: Exactly. This does not make sense with what we know of their relationship. Especially since she's later worried sick/almost breaks down at the thought of losing Saria for real

I'm just going through the story and so much of it doesn't make sense to me. And it's (I'm not done but getting there) just *so depressing* how much of the event is eaten up with kind of pointless/uninteresting doctor babysitting? She should be front & center in all of this. There's so much to work with and play with but so much of it does not make *any sense*. Muelsyse did not need to be hobbled by this. Hell, so far as I've read, Doctor didn't need to be there or could have done it on their own. Fucking frustrating.

Me: I'm not that familiar with Guide Ahead, but I can't help but imagine how much better/more concise Lone Trail could've been had they handled Samuelsten in a similar way to GA's central trio. Don't shove Muelsyse to the side, make her an active agent in the story, with the people who matter to her

I mean I’ve made it to CW-7 and as someone who’s in the middle of all of this (often by design) I’m puzzled that she’s one of the least interesting parts of the event? Kristen, HoHo, Nasti, Jara are great. We know why it matters to her but she’s on the fringes the entire time. This should have been done like guide ahead but guide ahead was much better and leaner by virtue of not needing to dedicate half the fucking event to talk about how great and interesting the doctor is. There’s no reason doctor couldn’t have been with Kal’tsit the entire time. That would actually make sense. But nope.

"It's Saria you want to see, It's Kristen who you're looking for" but why don't we just stick you with Doctor the entire fucking event and you can act like you're just on a little adventure. Cannot believe I have to rely on the furniture to give what the event should have.

This might be a controversial take, but I wish all this giant lore dump with Doctor, Priestess and Kal'tsit had been relegated to another vignette or main chapter with just mentions of Kirsten/Kristen and Rhine Lab. It's taking up much too much of Rhine Lab's event. Instead of *way too many flashbacks* with Doctor/Kal'tsit/ whoever, we could have had this building up Saria/ Kirsten/Muelsyse with their past instead of the one 3 second glimpse we got. I am so mad at this stupid fucking decision. Rhine Lab Event: featuring Rhine Lab as glorified cameos

Reply: Yeah its so annoying. It takes up sooo much god damn space and for what? And for what ? It doesn’t belong. I swear to god i wish we focused on, idk, the main relationship between saria and kirsten (and mumu but my faith is lost) instead of kirsten only showing up at the very end

Yeah, I'm sure glad FERDINAND got the most screen time out of all Rhine Lab. Just *what*. But the lore dump, while *fine* is just fucking egregious and does not belong here. This could have been referenced elsewhere and they could have fleshed out everyone else.

I have finished Lone Trail! Cumulatively, I love about two chapters worth of it! I definitely had high expectations but even if I'd had mediocre expectations I would have been let down. Not enough of the Rhine Lab founders, needless lore dump that could have gone elsewhere. It felt fragmented and like a hodge podge of things. Saria, Muelsyse and Kirsten felt like cameos in the entire event. And I'm sure the intention of this was to elevate just how goddamn special the doctor is, but the way it was written, it felt like no one at Rhine Lab gives a single solitary fuck about Muelsyse in any real capacity. These are the people she's had and adores. Yes, her loneliness was a sort of focus of the event, but the way it plays out does make it feel like "yeah, you're right to be lonely. Thank god for doctor!"

So much of my irritation is not only was she reduced to a love interest for Doctor, treated poorly by everyone at RL, she had zero agency in the whole event. She really was just floating passively for the most part. Muelsyse in Lone Trail: 1. Looks for Kirsten/ doesn't find Kirsten/ abandoned & not said goodbye to by Kirsten. 2. Looks for Saria (eventually) stopped by Saria. Saves Saria, doesn't talk to her again/ is not acknowledged by Saria. 3. Nasti tells her she's a crybaby & to get lost I mean, it really is no wonder she wanted to off herself. She built Rhine Lab with them from the beginning and this is how the event chooses for all these people to treat her? It's unbelievable.

Me: All that to make Doctor look better in comparison, right? It's jarring bc it's such a far cry from the brief concern Saria showed towards her in DV and doesn't even follow up with her claim to want to save Muelsyse in LT. Where's the consistency? She remembers that Mumu is fragile, but we don't even get a scene or mention of checking up on her after crashing back down to earth?

At least in Kristen's case, she remembered Muelsyse exists afterwards with the plantlife onboard, but it's not even presented as wrong or a character flaw how Saria ignores Muelsyse in the end, even though she literally saved her life. Just... nothing. This is the defender who protects others? The one that she fell for?

Yeah “when you’re emotional you forget that you’re fragile” & okay this is a devastating day for her so fuck her very much! No need to check on how she’s doing losing a long time friend and colleague, how she was in a thing that literally crashed but she saved *her*. And this isn’t even about Samuels in particular! This is how she was treated by the people with an established history that matter to her. Obviously the game is pandering, but given how literally everyone in the game, from the actions she can see, treats her like she is disposable trash. It’s no fucking wonder she’d be like “oh wow doctor!” Because at least they treat her like a human being who has feelings and who hurts? The fact that Saria doesn’t even reach out, that she has treated her like a stranger for the most part doesn’t track. Why did they make Muelsyse the “hero/ star” of the event banner? She’s forgotten and mistreated by everyone, gets almost zero game content, her file and voice lines are a mess and she doesn’t influence the story in any way at all. This event as a Rhine Lab story was trash.

Me: It felt so much more like a "Silence" story with Rhine Lab as window dressing. They clearly didn't have any editors around because how can you SAY that these people matter to Muelsyse but then not PROVE it? The lack of care, the disrespect towards her and other characters in relation to her is just astonishing

I like Silence a lot but wtf was she leading this? The whole thing is the conflict with Sarsten w/ Muelsyse in the middle. She got a new outfit, talked to Parvis, rehashed a conversation w Saria for the 10th time? This should have been all Muelsyse / Saria/ Kirsten but they barely existed in the event. And who the fuck polled whoever else to decide that Ferdinand and the creep Josh should get the rest of the time!Why so much build up with Jara / her closeness to Kirsten to not have any interaction with them? WTF were they doing.

I could probably write an essay about all the things I felt didn't work as a Rhine Lab event. This might have worked better as a vignette just to keep it tidy. But I think the other thing for me is that… hrm this event almost assumes that all you've seen of Silence is the manhua and thus wow! Growth! She loses the glasses and gets a new style to show that off. But the Silence of this event is the Silence we've had in the game since day one. The one in Mansfield and in Dorothy's Vision who is kind of certain about what is wrong and what is right and will stand up for that. So to me there wasn't any growth there. Because we'd already seen that growth/ that was the person we've known since the start of the game. A lot of this event kind of relies on… either not having read the manhua or exclusively having read the manhua. Because if not for the manhua you don't know/ understand why there's that Kirsten/Saria divide and how much it means. It's all very weird.

And kind of to add to my little rant… DV and the manhua allude to Muelsyse being extremely close to Kirsten and being her sidekick. But in neither the manhua or any of the events do we see any of that. Instead we get Nasti (who I like a lot) in that role and--- I just don't get it. You'll be less disappointed if you don't read the manhua. lol A ton of Muelsyse's character development and her relationship with Saria is highlighted there and this event just kind of decides to burn all of that to the ground. But if you want to see why the final chapter matters/ is special/ yes, read it.

Me: Nasti's in the role bc we had to have our self-insert fix with the hot new playable op :/

yeah. with the same motivations. but all of that should have rightfully been hers I really do think they just gave Muelsyse's role to Nasti And the cherry on top of all of it was at the end when Muelsyse is like "Huh did the three of us actually dance together or did I make all of that up?" I just can't with that final slap in the face to Muelsyse and all of them. Like her talk about loneliness is fine and well done and the little history but so much left a lot of questions.

Me: yeah… it's just. wow. there were nuggets and seeds planted that had potential, but they didn't bother to actually cultivate and develop those relationships and dynamics at which point why even include them at all

Yeah, I’ll include that in my rant, but my last point on that end is Saria’s “I would do it over again” doesn’t make sense if you haven’t read the manhua— and just doesn’t jive with what is presented in the events with her that is much more clinical. And I’ve said this about multiple things— but a story should be able to stand on its own without having needed to read a manhua for additional context— and especially when having read the manhua you’re left with ??????

[gren-arlio]

Ah, Visual Novel Disc System games, my beloved. Welcome to Episode 8 of (Waku) Puyo Extras.

(Serilly reading a fashion magazine is pretty nice honesty. Too bad that Honey Bee and Momomo are gonna appear any second now.)

Hello everyone, it's the guy whose computer exploded on him once as well as the only Ciel fan in America (Seriously, I'm glad some fans know about Quest nowadays). Thankfully, the computer's slowly but surely getting fixed, so who knows, maybe I'll continue Arle's route next month due to every week having something planned this time around. (Apologies, Arle route watchers)

As the silly meme about PuyoLympics comes around and goes around (Thanks Witch,) I haven't neglected to speak about what the poll wanted to speak about: Serilly's Happy Birthday.

Would you call this a character speculated episode? It's more of a game starring a character, but I dunno.

With that, I think we can begin. Hope you enjoy.

------

First, let's talk about its origins:

Serilly's Happy Birthday was released in 1998 from Disc Station Volume #18, a magazine that carried either demos of games or full blown games, on the Windows 95.

(For some extra info, there were 2 sets of magazines. Issues #0-32 and Volume #1-27.)

It's a little unclear what month this was released, but we can make do with what we got.

(Cover page for the Volume.)

However, and idk if this is big news or not, but I think I found an page covering Serilly's Happy Birthday, though not in the best quality out there.

I haven't seen this anywhere on the Puyo Nexus, or anywhere else really, so take this with a grain of salt. If true though, I adore how it looks.

Apparently it was made by the people who made the Tower of the Magician artstyle, which would make a ton of sense, but take this with a grain of salt.

(No Schezo though. Yeah he just makes a cameo, but hey, would've been nice.)

Also, tiny Carbuncle. You love to see it.

-----

So, whats the game about?

The game itself is a Princess-Maker (Or in a better term, Social Simulation, didn't know the name first time around,) type game, a genre where you see the world of our own and the fictional world. Take Animal Crossing or Tomodachi Life for example. Or The Sims.

The story is that Serilly was given the ability to go on land, but she still doesn't have any legs. Minor misconception but an understandable one.

You then...simply put, plan Serilly's birthday as a whole, going through a week by week basis to get to the end of the year.

(A screen showing the days. From the Japanese characters from top left to bottom right, its Arle, Rulue, Suketoudara, Witch, Draco, and Owlbear.)

You may wonder what the numbers mean on the left. I'm glad you asked. They're stats that increase whilst doing activities with Serilly, such as dancing with Incubus, studying with Satan Masked Principal, I believe training with Samurai Mole, cleaning with Kikimora, etc.

From top left to bottom right, it goes Power, Head(? Due to Samurai Mole,) Cuteness, Story(? Or negotiation.), Kindness, and fatigue. These points are given in random increments, and doing too much tires Serilly, so heads up on on that.

(Cleaning with Kikimora. This is the best quality I could find this.)

Speaking of characters, here's some that appear in this game:

Arle

Witch

Suke

Owlbear

Masked Principal (NOT Satan. Wrong guy.)

Rulue

Draco

Incubus

Kikimora (Man. She's everywhere.)

Schezo. As a cameo in I think one of Witch's supports, and he's not the best written here.

-----

Wait, Supports?

Now you may wonder what I mean by supports. Well, to get an ending, along with Stat Points, you need to talk to the person themselves, which is why with my little Fire Emblem brain, call them supports. You have to have spoken to them enough, as well as get the necessary stats to get their ending, which is why it's so hard to get Draco's ending, least from what I see and hear. And Witch flat out won't talk to you if you're too stupid for her apparently.

However, while a little one-note, the supports and talks themselves are very charming in their own right, and they look stupid good to boot.

(A small support you can get with Witch.)

So, with those 6 characters I mentioned for the endings, there's 7 possible endings. One of them is NO ONE going to Serilly's birthday. If I ever got this ending, I'm retiring from everything.

Serilly herself is still fairly shy, but much more outgoing than what we're used to, which is nice considering she's the star of the show. I genuinely like how she's written here. Not Waku Puyo levels of great, but still top 2 IMO.

The characters themselves are roughly the same, with some expections. For example, the Masked Principal is actually incredibly nice to you, which is just...amazing tbh, Rulue is more dedicated to her training than anything, and Schezo...sucks as a character this time around. He's just a dude walking around saying "I want you!" like an actual pervert rather than just being a goofball about it. Oh, the misery. (Everybody wants to be my enemy...)

But what do some of these endings look like? Unfortunately, our old pal "The 10 image limit," has attacked us once again, and so, I can only show 4 of them.

But they're the popular characters so...I guess we win this time.

I genuinely love how this game looks, man. And the endings themselves are super charming in their own way. I believe in the Masked Principal ending, she helps people swim (Panotty, Archan?, Honey Bee, and Kodomo Dragon,) and it's honestly super cute.

-----

So what do I personally think?

I think this game is incredibly interesting, as it's something that Disc Station or Puyo has a whole hasn't really seen. They chose an interesting character with Serilly, and they honestly made this game look visually stunning. The music is nice to listen to, and the characters are fairly nice to you for the most part, which is a nice change of pace considering it's, well... Serilly.

Overall, if you can ever find a way to see gameplay of the sort, check it out.

This is a shorter Puyo Extras, but I think I covered most of the basis of this game. That'll be all for now.

Cya guys.

[canonically47]

thoughts on every ridonculous race duo including don at the beginning because i just finished watching it for the first time. continued in reblogs

don is such a fun host! he doesn't want anyone to get hurt, and doesn't push anything 'for the ratings'. and even so, he manages to have a lot of funny, witty moments. of course, chris is still my favorite host, but don definitely cuts it close!... especially because, let's be real, we all forgot anyone else in the universe. (don't come for me blaineley fans she's fine I SAID DON'T COME FOR ME STAY BACK PLEASE I HAVE A FAMILY)

the LARPers. definitely some... interesting characters. they're the prime example of total drama's flat and boring personalities, most of which were distributed in pahkitew island. i'm kinda mad that, of all those horribly mid and boring characters, we got the most mid and boring one back. hell i'd have preferred dave there, he'd had given us some substance to the story. i don't even remember the girl's name and i don't wanna google it. forgettable, but definitely annoying for as long as they were on screen.

the tennis rivals. good, but overhyped i think. at least, i've seen a lot of people talk about them and ship them, especially since their cameo in the reboot. i for sure thought they'd last longer because of that. i really liked their banter but they don't come close to my favorites. i will not be calling any of their agents. sorry :(

the geniuses. yeah they definitely existed! i mean their characters were fine and i really don't have anything against them, plus their concept is kinda fun. but i absolutely despise courtney's character and hearing her voice come out of another contestant's mouth made me hate her immediately. I STILL KINDA LIKE HER... like, her character design is fun... i just don't care for them that much

the vegans. they look sooo pretty and.. that is the sole reason i put them down as 'i vibe with'. i really don't care for them. i don't even know their names lmfao

the fashion bloggers. sooo fun whenever they were on-screen. unfortunately this show is so predictable and i can tell when a character's arc comes to an end and they're going home. i don't wish they stayed longer tbh? i like them but i think they've had their time. the wlw/mlm solidarity ever next to the ice dancers but we're getting to them. anyways, solid duo!

mom and daughter. ugh. fuck you

the adversity twins. i don't want to sound like a copypasta so i'll keep it short but GODDD THEY WERE SOOO ANNOYING. does NOBODY else feel this way?? i swear before i watched RR i only saw good things about them. HOW? LITERALLY HOW??? they are so fucking annoying and all they do when they're on screen is whine. "ooh mickey is allergic to breathing :((" "actually jay has a water allergy :((" AND THEN THEY HAVE THIS OP SUPERPOWER WHAT THE FUCK IS TEMPERATURE DYSLEXIA THAT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST ahem. excuse me. getting too worked up over thE WORST DUO. SHUT THE FUCK UP let's move on sorry i'll control myself

the step-brothers. idk about you guys but they are really close to being my favorite duo. just... their entire gimmick is so good. the build-up to finding out they're so similar... ough the bros ever. i was so sad when they got eliminated :( they were so funny AND fun. lorenzo is higher than chet because i like his character design more. tbh they're kinda the same person to me? but this is a mistake i made before watching RR, thinking every duo is the same person. which they're not, i quickly learned. at least not most of them. but yeah these two were very fun, they bounced off each other very well. i really liked them. they should've gone further methinks.

[lyricfulloflight]

RWRB thoughts

My thoughts after 1.5 viewings (yes, 1.5. I have watched it once and then re-watched certain scenes, but haven't made my way through a full re-watch yet.)

What I loved/like/squealed about:

nervous Alex at the wedding

Nora being all speechless when led away by Bea

The whole cake incident - it did not happened as I was expecting (don't ask me what I was expecting, I have no earthly idea), but I loved the whole thing

Zahra hitting Alex with the pillow. Perfect character moment

the silly height arguments that pop up several times. I think these are extra fun for book readers as it acknowledges the difference between the book and the actors in the movie but keeps the general teasing about height in the movie

Actually, Zahra in general was just so perfectly done

Amy being badass and also a loving dog mom (that wink at the hospital? the 'do I need to clear the room'? Amy is the best)

I still don't know what an equerry is. But I'll take a Shaan any day

The closet scene was really well done. It really allowed for the development of the rest of their relationship.

The way they did the texts with the voice overs and then Henry appearing in Alex's bed - I may have swooned a bit

The New Years party looked like what I imagine a cool party would look like (people do not invite me to cool parties and they never will).

All the representation in the film. Female black PM of the UK? Check! Gender fluid party attendees? Check? Some girl on girl flirting? Check! Trans actor? Check!

Percy's pink hair

Nora's red outfit. Damn girl.

Henry's reaction when Alex grabs his hips at the New Year's party - absolute gold

All of Henry's pining during the New Year's party was just perfectly painfully wonderful

The 'woah' of the woman who walks in when Nora and Alex are talking about his hook ups with men

Alex being totally distracted by Henry arriving at the dinner and looking every inch the son of James Bond that he is

That kiss in the red room was... hmmm... quite.... intense

Also Henry pointing at books after they were interrupted n the red room might have been the most ridiculously funny moment of the whole movie for me

Commanding Henry in the bedroom

Shots of Henry's ass bouncing on a horse being played between shots of the tack room rendevous. I think we all understand why Alex was so, motivated shall we say

The tenderness and intimacy of that Paris scene. Love making indeed.

Henry singing karaoke. Nora bopping along like all of us would like to be doing as fans no doubt

The Casey McQuinston book cameo!

Henry trying to make his burdens clear to Alex but Alex not getting it until they have their blow out. Also drenched Alex in this scene with Henry in his fancy housecoat was very visually appealing

The V&A scene made me cry. Henry talking about the only place he can find peace and have dreams of a happy life he doesn't think he'll ever have. Alex playing the song right away and making his dreams come true. Tears. Happy Tears.

The EXCHANGE! the signet ring. the house key. just kill me now

Seeing Henry's reaction to the email leak and how desperate he was to talk to Alex, how terrified he was, how betrayed. Hats off to Nicholas Galitzine for his acting (for the whole movie, but that scene in particular was just excellent)

Shaan and Zahra reveal! Yes!

Alex'a speech. Amazing.

Baby.

Stephen Fry as the king. What a choice. If you don't know how ironic this is, well go use your goggle skills.

Henry sticking up for himself. The tears in his eyes when he sees the public support

The way they show Alex's passion for politics and helping people.

The way they show Henry's passion for literature, history, etc. And also his frustration at not being able to make an impact and help people they way he wants to and how much he admires Alex for what he is doing

Things I missed/didn't love:

Alex not being a child of divorce. Also how his parent's relationship seemed ambiguous for a long time in the movie (for me anyway. Maybe I was just hoping they weren't together? like in the book?)

Not enough moments of Nora being a stats geek. She said she analyzed data but we don't get a moment where she gives Alex the odds. Sad.

Alex not having his sexual realization. I can see how this trims things down for the film, but I missed it

Not using the Miguel character as well as they could have. Again I can see this being trimmed out for time. I thought this was a reasonable replacement for the Luna subplot. Would have liked more in terms of fall out - did he have insider knowledge? Did he help get the emails leaked?

I would have loved more time of the texts to build the foundation of their relationship

I would have loved even more to have had more email time. I know this is tricky to get on film, but I really missed the sheer romance and intimacy we get in from the emails in the book. It makes the leak so much more impactful

I wanted more David. I love dogs people. I needed more beagle content!

Not enough Pez! Also why was he not Pez? Percy? Percy who? I loved when we saw him and I wanted more.

Same can be said for Nora

Did this film get an R rating from, maybe 2 'fuck's and one gay sex scene where no dicks or asses were shown? (Yes, one ass was shown, but it a completely different scene) Is that all it takes? Boo to the rating people. BOOOOOO.

The transition from the fight between Henry and Alex in his apartments to them leaving from to the V&A didn't feel quite right to me. It was awkward. Each scene itself was wonderful, just one right after the other felt like something was missing.

I honestly, completely, wholeheartedly loved this film. I know I will be watching it over and over. It will have a permanent place in my comfort film rotation. I think all the actors in the film did an amazing job. Both Nicholas and Taylor bought a lot of depth to their roles and really brought them to life so, so well. Their chemistry was completely believable and I rooted for them every step of the way.

For me, the book will remain my main source material for these characters and this story. But this film is such a great complement to the book. A different, but parallel story. I agree with director Matthew Lopez saying this was a work of fanfiction in its own right. It is not the same, but the heart and soul of the book and the two main characters is all there. Not sure I could have asked for much more.

(except for any missing scenes/extended scenes. i'm asking for those. please)

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

in reference to your "if you like tom taylor's writing you're white" post, could you possibly elaborate? i don't want this to sound rude so i'm a little nervous about sending but!! i like his writing, i am also white, and i would like to know any issues in his writing that i can look out for so i can enjoy it critically. i realize i'm not entitled to an answer, but if you feel like it then i would appreciate it greatly!

Of course darling.

Now, I was just going to talk about some dumb plotlines if this ever came up (like the telenovela shit and the fact that he uses cameos from beloved stories to make up for the fact that very little of his plotlines are original) but I didn't expect such a genuine answer and I have some free time... so I guess I'm doing doing a breakdown of all of the bullshit in his writing.

For the record: I'm not going to speak on how he handles disabled people. It's neither on topic nor my place. Several people have done this well here, here, and here if this interests you.

There are two main reasons why (tw for a bunch of stuff, don't read if you're sensitive):

How he treats race

I bring to the stand: "the romani smile incident".

Listen, I feel like this one was good-intentioned. Maybe. Probably. However, it's just so fucking weird from every angle I try and look at it from.

Telling someone they have a "(insert race here) smile" is already just... a very strange way to do representation. If you want to call back to/confirm his Romani heritage, which I would be all for, do it in a way that makes sense. Please. Literally anyone that thought about it for longer than half a second stopped and went "sorry, what the fuck".

I saw some people theorizing that he probably thought that, since there's such thing as a "white person smile", there had to be something like that for other races. And I hope that's the case.

It's funny... and also way better than the alternative.

Because there is a phrase like that for Romani people: "they had a (g-slur) smile". It generally means all of the things that are stereotyped about that culture. Mischievous, free-spirited, mysterious, etc. Changing it so the slur isn't used doesn't change the connotation and continues the perpetuation of stereotypes.

And then there's the entirety of this picture:

I don't even know where to start with this one, honestly.

Damian has been whitewashed to hell and back.

Duke isn't even there. He is considered part of the core batfam nowadays, so it's very strange that he hasn't been included. Especially since he's the only black character. Tom defended himself by saying that Duke hasn't appeared in a Nightwing comic in quite some time, but he has control over who is in the comics. He is the writer. And, since Cass is in the background of one of the pictures, the whole "there wasn't enough room!" doesn't really work.

And, speaking of that, Cass is in the background? The people of color are just not winning today. She's even in the background of Steph's picture, which makes it worse. Steph isn't even a part of the batfam, she can't be for the sake of Timsteph fans, she's just a family friend. Why did the family friend get to be in the front of the frame? Why is Cass, an Asian woman, considered a literal background character?

... anyways.

Then there's the zionism

This was 2013, so I genuinely would give the benefit of the doubt here... but Tom Taylor recently defended his past self by saying that "it's fiction, that doesn't mean I agree that he should have forced them to sign a peace treaty!", which means he still doesn't understand what is wrong with implying that the war in the middle east isn't a group of people trying to fight back against their oppressors.

2. Performative activism

The reason I have this second, despite feeling like it's the stronger argument, is because performative activism isn't strictly a White Person Thing... but, also, yes it is. So, let's get into his politics.

The treatment of homeless people: It's strange to see Dick Grayson suddenly "discover" homeless people in the most recent Nightwing comics, especially since he was homeless for a while in a previous run. I brushed past this, originally, though, because I figured he just wanted to address the recent talking point about how Bruce Wayne (and, by extension, his kids) should be using his money to help people in need rather than beat up the poor and I wanted to see what he did with it. I no longer let it go, because Tom Taylor has nothing to say. Homelessness bad. Yeah? You gonna address it at all, buddy? Some solutions? Some explanations for why homelessness exists? No? "Donate to the homeless" is all you're gonna say? Alright. Thank you for all your wisdom and new ideas, I guess.

The whole 'school gun violence' plotline with Jon was whack. It honestly deserves its own post, but I refuse to spend even more time thinking about it. Instead I'm just gonna sum up the villain's motivation and leave it there: the villain... wants school shootings to stop and therefore tries to draw attention to them... by shooting up a school.

Jon Kent... honestly, his whole thing at the moment is very white-savior-y, which is already annoying in itself, but that's not the real point here. His whole thing is saving the planet in the environmental sense, but Tom Taylor loves "good billionaires". He made Nightwing a billionaire. For some reason, I don't have much faith in his understanding of the global climate crisis.

Basically, if I see one more person call Tom Taylor a leftist I will scream. I am a leftist, he's an annoying liberal. We are not the same.

More seriously, the reason that I think performative activism is almost strictly White Person Thing, though, is because most people of color think more about what's going on and have more to say. Not because we want to know a lot about things like this, but because we have to. Systemic issues are our problems to deal with and white people's problem to sometimes talk about when they want some "good person points". And yet they never seem to do anything more than point at an issue and say it's an issue. It's a privileged position to be in.

And, we're done. If you want more information, try going through the 'anti tom taylor' tag. I'm lazy and don't have enough time to do any more before class. Byeeeee.

[tsintotwo]

(Part 4/4)

(Earlier: Parts 1, 2, and 3)

Okay, finally getting to the 4th and last post talking about Tom Sturridge in his projects. There's not too much left to say as these are mostly cameos.

Vanity Fair (2004)- This was the first movie Tom was in as a grownup (edit: nope, this was the 2nd)- in period clothing (and looking like a million bucks, as you would suspect). Screentime: 2min. You can tell he's still finding his footing in all this. But he's got the it factor already.

Journey's End (2017)- Movie about Brit soldiers stuck in trenches waiting for death during WW2. Sam Claffin and Paul Bettany are in this and I recognized neither before seeing credits 🤦‍♀️ Anyway, Tom plays a bad soldier: drinks and girls are his forte, fighting- not so much. His character is in this movie to basically show the bone-chilling, hope-crushing, cruelly pointless side of wars. He uses his 3/4 scenes to drive that point home like a master. There's one super emotionally charged scene with Sam that sears into the mind- they both absolutely chew it up.

Song to Song (2017)- Tom being in this movie is just the most RANDOM thing in the world, guys. Song to Song is about the music industry and rockstar life, and Tom shows up for like 2mins to play Ryan Gosling's hometown farmland brother of all things??? Wut. 2 lines of dialogue. Cute hair, tho. Cute everything.

Hello Apartment (2018)- Slice-of-life short film about how we all leave our mark in the spaces we move through. Dakota Fanning made this and asked Tom to be in it- they've been friends since doing Effie Gray. Tom is MC's stormy bf- a bit of kissing, a bit of pouting, a bit of shouting. Worth it. (Aside: some STUNNING shots in this, kudos to Dakota). This is on youtube.

That's it, actually. Only movie of Tom's I haven't gotten to is Junkhearts (2011). It's on Amazon Prime for $4 which is worth it, but it seems like an intense movie and I'll take a break before trying to watch this one.

A significant part of Tom's career has been theater work. From what I've gathered, seems like he's done some phenomenal work there- both in UK and US. Got cool awards and noms. Of course, if your play isn't Hamilton, it doesn't get to be on any screen, so there's no way to see any of those now. The one I'm most gutted about is 1984 (2017) on Broadway. I love the og classic by George Orwell, and by all accounts this adaptation/interpretation was banging (AND controversial!). Tom playing a role like Winston Smith... I'd have loved it so fuckin much * screaming-into-pillow break*

How does Tom choose his projects?

"The first thing I’m drawn to is a piece of writing, to an author, to a director. Weirdly, it’s rarely a character. I want to work with people or with texts that push me and make me learn things that I think I can’t do. Because if I think I can do it, then I can’t surprise myself. And if I can’t surprise myself, then I’m definitely not going to surprise an audience." -Tom for Interview magazine, 2022

Why does he often do troubles characters?

"... I think what I’m attracted to is being able to explore a spectrum of emotion. It’s easier to find comedy in something sad than it is to find darkness in something funny. I can be all kinds of people when the darkness is there. Also, the first character I ever played onstage was a boy who murders all of his schoolmates [in Punk Rock]. I do think there’s something to be said by, “You get stuck in a gorge that you start with.” People have always gone, “Oh, yeah. He’s the fucked-up guy.” - same

Here's something about me: I love falling in love with men on silver screen. It's the only space where it's okay to be in love with a version of someone you made in your head because you're not going to know any other version. The only space you get to channel your feelings six ways to Sunday: write posts, write stories, draw, make any art- people will actually celebrate those (whereas try talking to your friend about a new irl crush for five days straight, on the sixth they'll smack you upside your head). The feelings are intense because these men are deliberately performing for you, the emotions forever unsullied because they're not gonna come hurt you (unless they're being cancelled lol). And they're all the finest specimens! So, yeah, I love it, and it happens periodically. What's rarer, tho, is that I get attracted to an actor's whole personality. I mean, like, all of these hot men are hella charming, and you can yassify almost anyone based on interview moments. But, idk, it doesn't always click with me, and I love a character, ship a couple, then move on. Tom, tho, is going to be one of those 2/3 permanent ones. I just find him interesting which to me, is the thing. (And also, he turned out to be one of those rare people in life who lets you know things about yourself that you didn't know before. Huh. Who knew?) And yeah, okay, he's very hot and insanely talented which started this whole intense phase but while this won't last, a genuine fondness and love will. He has a place in my heart forever. It's been such a good time discovering him that I'm legit grateful to the universe.

I'll do a bonus post with links to Tom interviews/vids/ stuff that are worth checking out. Until then, guys.

[denimbex1986]

'Florence Pugh stars in Christopher Nolan's latest film Oppenheimer as Jean, a young, brilliant student who begins an affair with Cillian Murphy's J. Robert Oppenheimer. Pugh, surprising no one, portrays the cameo role with her usual emotional nuance and sophistication of thought. But that's not what many people on the internet seem to care about.

Instead, social media is filled with comments about — sigh — Florence Pugh's body. In the film, Pugh and Murphy have a sex scene which features several nude shots. "I think they were vital in this in this movie," Murphy told GQ of the scenes. "I think the relationship that he has with [Pugh's character] Jean Tatlock is one of the most crucial emotional parts of the film. I think if they're key to the story then they're worthwhile."

It turns out, some men have opinions about Pugh's appearance in the nude scenes. Should we really be surprised?

In one TikTok video, a man called Charles Peralo goes into detail about Pugh's body, describing her alleged measurements, her previous comments about her weight, and claiming that many viewers thought “she had too much belly fat when filming the role.” While Peralo goes on to stand up for Pugh, the video is, quite frankly, a little creepy.

On Twitter, there is more of the same. Numerous people have taken Pugh's nude scenes as an opportunity to comment on her appearance, saying she has a ‘mid body’, and hurling deeply offensive and triggering insults which we won't be repeating in this article. (If you want proof, they're sadly not difficult to find, but we advise against it).

Like us, many fans of Pugh have, quite simply, had enough of all of this discussion about Pugh's body.

“I'm so tired,” commented one woman on Peralao's TikTok video. “Honestly y'all… I'm so tired of being a human,” wrote another. A third wrote, "Why are we still talking about women's bodies? Let women live, Jesus." On Twitter, one woman wrote, “This is getting ridiculous guys.”

The fact that Pugh's turn in this film is being largely reduced to discourse surrounding her body is, frankly, exhausting. Pugh is a respected actor with one Oscar nomination already under her belt. It's in stark contrast to the reaction to Murphy's role in the film, with his performance being praised as ‘enigmatic’ and ‘searingly good’. The only comments about his appearance in Oppenheimer have been gushing about his character's style – despite being the man who invented the atomic bomb – and how much weight he lost for the role. Comments about the latter are inextricably tied to his craftsmanship and dedication to his work; not how ‘attractive’ he is to the opposite sex, as is the case with Pugh.

So why are so many people still fixated on the shape of her body rather than the quality of her performance?

As this latest round of body shaming discourse makes the rounds on social media, I can't help but feel — well — a little fed up. Pugh is not plus size. She is, one would normally assume, the ‘beauty standard’. But no matter her size, her body is not up on screen for your enjoyment. It's there to be a part of a larger story. If your take away from Oppenheimer is that Pugh doesn't look the way you wanted her to look, then you are the problem.

Pugh said it best herself last year when, surprise, yet another round of body shaming discourse took off thanks to her sheer Valentino dress. “What's been interesting to watch and witness is just how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman's body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see,” she wrote on Instagram, later adding, “Grow up. Respect people. Respect bodies. Respect all women. Respect humans. Life will get a whole lot easier, I promise.”

As this latest slew of body shaming comments reminds us, men will always have something stupid to say about women's bodies. To echo many of the Pugh defenders, I am also very, very tired.'

[dbphantom]

Film Red was fucking phenomenal omfg

People were screaming in the theater during Those Moments. there was cheering and clapping during the end credits. the energy was glorious I am so so SO happy I got to see it in theaters bc I lost my shit

Gear 5 is every bit as cool as I hoped it would be and it was only on screen for like a minute maximum, people were gasping and shouting 'no fucking way' as soon as we saw Luffy's eyes, it was amazing. He doesn't even do anything really in that form, he was just hovering there, menacingly, but we were all LOSING IT

And my boy Usopp finally got to shine after SO LONG and he played such an important part bro I genuinely almost started crying I am so happy for him he got CoO Haki comparable to Katakuri and waaaaaah- also OH YEAH my favoritest boy Katakuri is in this movie too 😭😭😭 and Law!!! And Bartholomew!! And Fujitora! And tons of fan favorite characters make cameos in the credits as well they just went all out it's amazing

It's 110% fan service and I ate. it. up.

Also, the songs are REALLY good actually, oh my god. The RANGE???? I haven't stopped listening to some of them they're that good

Literally my only complaint was the cgi was awkwardly implemented (not poorly, it just looked a bit out of place with the constant movement vs the anime style of animation where stuff stays still for a bit). Like there's one scene with the five elders and Uta is on TV in the background and they're doing the anime talking thing meanwhile you can see her silhouette on the TV behind them just absolutely busting it down. It was so funny. It looks great though, it's 100% in the style of the anime, it's just the super fluid motion that was throwing me (and my friend) off.

Otherwise this movie went SO hard. I went with a friend who knew nothing about OP and he liked it so much he offered to watch more One Piece with me. Like. Omfg. It's THAT good. The only thing he said he didn't follow was all the attacks against the demon at the end but that's mainly bc he didn't know the power sets all too well. He described it as suddenly going Madoka Magicka on him which... Yeah, fair. Otherwise he liked it a ton and I... Bro that says a lot given an hour before we got to the theater he told me he thought one piece was set on earth during our pirate age so he didn't understand why there was tech stuff. Like. He thought it was like PotC that's how little he knew. And he still adored it (I explained Haki and devil fruit powers and stuff but he thought it was just a very high fantasy version of PotC... Shook him when I told him about Egghead lol)

This movie is SO good dude I can't I want to go see it again Right Hugging Now ahsgdhshhsd I can't wait for it to come out digitally because I am going to watch it at least 3 times in a row it just fucking slaps I highly recommend it even if u read all these spoilers it's just worth experiencing it yourself

[st-eve-barnes]

MCU has been a big hit or miss with me these past years, I loathed Endgame but I thought Wandavision was truly amazing. I was genuinely disapppointed with Loki but then Spider man No way home blew me away and I even went to see it twice on the big screen.

So I watched Multiverse of madness last night and of course I have some thoughts. Spoilers under the cut

I had such high hopes for this movie, NWH already showed us what they could do with the multiverse and I think many people with me expected Marvel to go all out with that in a movie called MULTIVERSE of MADNESS.

Unfortunately not even half of the potential of the multiverse is being used here, and most of it is already shown in the trailer. For real though, marketing team, what were you thinking putting your biggest cameo in the trailer?? You do not play your best card right off the bat! I hadn't even thought of more big cameos until they showed me Charles f*cking Xavier in the trailer. THAT made me expect more.

And there was more, but it wasn't what I wanted. Can someone please tell Marvel that Captain Peggy Carter isn't as popular as they believe her to be? Whether it's Endgame or Haley and the stuff I read about her I'm not sure but the second I saw her I felt this huge dislike in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I wasn't the only one who wasn't a big fan because the audience stayed rather quiet when she came on. (In fact the audience reacted more when Wanda split her in half with the shield and honestly if I hadn't been team Wanda before that scene alone sure did it and was strangely satisfying! lol)

During NWH our audience cheered and clapped on multiple occasions, this time that only happened once: when sir John Krasinski showed up as Reed Richards. That was the stuff I think we all wanted to see more of.( I'm sure if Xavier hadn't been in the trailer he would have gotten the biggest cheers.)

Unfortunately that one big scene was where that fun ended. Can we also talk about how stupid it is to put all your big cameo's in one and the same scene and then quickly kill them all off? This could have been spread throughout the movie keeping the audience more engaged and excited who else would pop up.

But enough about the cameos.

Wanda Maximoff, I wasn't a fan of the character in the beginning but she has grown on me so much throughout the years and after Wandavision definitely became one of my favorite characters in the entire MCU. But this movie doesn't get her quite right. Don't get me wrong, evil Wanda is amazing to look at and the horror elements especially when she enters the house of other Wanda for the first time were amazing, some of the best parts of the movie for me. But she regressed in this movie, basically her storyline is a copy of what happened in Wandavision and next to being an all powerful witch they kinda reduced her to Mom Wanda and I really didn't like that part. Also where the hell was Vision and wasn't he part of the family she wanted? Because this movie solely talks about her kids. That annoyed me. The ending also, NO, I mean obviously she's not dead but just no, she deserves a lot better, please do better for her, Marvel writers.

Next to mom Wanda Marvel also wanted to show us a little dad Strange, neither were a good thing for me and that may be personal but it once again felt like Marvel putting down those family values it seems to love so much. Which brings me to America Chavez, the new young character that had to be introduced in this movie and I'm sure younger viewers love her but personally the character didn't add anything. It was a young girl who couldn't control her powers and needed help and of course by the end she realizes she had the potential to control it all along, I mean...been there done that? And even then it was lame.

There was not enough Dr Strange in this Dr Strange movie and I don't necessarily mean screen time but I feel like we didn't really get anywhere with his character because all his actions were focussed on either America or Wanda, or Christine. And his love story with Christine to me is just boring, in every universe.

The dialogue in the movie wasn't very good either, not funny and sometimes so standard it literally made me roll my eyes thinking "this is what we're spending time on when we could be watching Loki and Strange have a witty face off?" (just an example, I did not expect Loki in this movie tbh but it could have been great) I feel like in general this was a movie with a lot of missed opportunities and I've seen some fans saying well your expectations were too high and you set yourself up for disappointment but I'm sorry, no. Marvel set those expectations with No way home and all missed cameos aside if the storyline and everything else was strong enough people wouldn't complain so much about that, but it just wasn't. The writing felt lazy, and messy and uninspired and you can feel it pretty early on in the movie and unfortunately it doesn't get better.

Let's end with some positives then, the movie no doubt is entertaining and visually stunning, I mean even with the boring dialogue now and then I was never bored watching it, the possibilities created through the multiverse remain exciting and I really hope future projects will explore this in a better way. My man Wong is a treasure and he was one of the best things in the movie. Also Wanda, even though they did her wrong whenever Elizabeth is on screen she captivates the audience, she's the main star of this movie for me and I will always be team Wanda here.

Overall unfortunately this is another miss for me from Marvel and I can't help but feel a little bitter over what we could have had here, this was the movie to go all out with the multiverse and they failed.

[iwasbored777]

I've been watching miraculous since I was 9 (since 2016...). I always loved Marinette. Kinda kinned her. I grew up with this show. I'm almost 15 now, just like Mari. I see people hating on Marinette and I don't understand. Why??? I wasn't really a part of the fandom since I only watched miraculous and kept up with the news and updates. I didn't really interact with the other fans. I want to know how do Marinette haters still stay in the fandom if they hate the main character

There's a lot of other fandom fights too...

There are many reasons why people hate Marinette, some of them are understandable, some of them are not, but if you don't want to read all this, I'll just tell you that people rarely care about her feelings and her pov but here is the extended version and I hope I didn't miss any detail, that's why it took me so long to reply and this is not a salt take on any other characters, it's mostly salt on the fandom:

In the first part of the series Marinette let her crush on Adrien be her priority in some episodes, not always, but even then she does the right thing in the end. I myself had impossible friends at that age and Marinette is nothing compared to them. Plus, Marinette really does the right thing in the end. I know characters who do worse things "in the name of love" from other shows and people don't point that out.

Fandom complains that the show is mostly from her pov but they still forget what her pov is. They are so quick to defend every other character when they don't know what happened behind their backs but Marinette is supposed to look through other people's eyes and read their mind I guess. The show has too many characters and not enough space. People are complaining that Lila doesn't get enough attention which is true but consider - Miraculous had to forget about her for a while for Chloé's character arc in season 3, for Félix to appear and to squeeze Luka and Kagami in the story even though their characters don't have any big reason to appear. Sure some cameos, but not all the time. They don't affect the story anymore. It's not the problem that the show is focusing on Marinette the most because people complain about this too (she's the main character lol what did you expect?) but the show is trying to focus on too many characters all at once. Which is Marinette's problem I guess. Almost as if she had the authority to decide what's going to happen, she is just fictional like every other character, she doesn't decide anything, the writers do.

She can act selfish, this is connected to the first thing, but there is a difference between a selfish person who only cares about themselves and Marinette who does something selfish from time to time and makes it up for that every time.

Apparently she doesn't face any consequence which is the dumbest thing I have ever read and I read the same take many times because people keep talking about it and it's not even true.

She can get obsessive over Adrien, which is, like I already said, equal to his obsession with Ladybug, which is the most accurate thing for their ages and it doesn't mean that kids need to act this way but also it doesn't mean that people should only see Marinette's side of this, not Adrien's. I remember when Chat sniffed Ladybug everyone thought it was adorable but when she sniffed Adrien that's when they lit their torches. There tons of hate YT videos about how Marinette is a terrible main character and a stalker and how she's the only flawed character in the show. Remember when Adrien and Marinette found out that the other one has their pictures in their phones and they thought it was cute in Oblivio?

Miracle Queen - Marinette was hated because of Chloé's failed redemption arc. Interesting how Marinette wasn't the only person who wanted to have Adrien in the finale - Kagami constantly pushed her only friend out of the way to get her crush but Marinette was the only one who got salt because she chose Kagami to help her in a mission to keep her away from Adrien, which made Chloé angry because she wanted to be in the team so Chloé turned to the terrorist. So the fandom was like "I know Chloé is a needy brat but if Marinette just gave her what she wanted maybe Chloé wouldn't put an entire world in danger and took it personally" and Marinette suffered the consequences and became the guardian which ruined her life literally and not only that but she also let Adrien go to be with Kagami. So Kagami and Marinette and Chloé all acted selfish for their own reasons - Kagami got a reward (although Adrien broke her heart in the next season, I mean he did warn her that he is not ready and she knew this), Chloé dealt with the consequences because she lost her position in the team and got replaced, Marinette, who's 14, now has to take care of magical gods who hold the power of the universe, but Chloé and Kagami were ok, Marinette got a HUGE amount of hate. Plus Chloé literally bullied Marinette since forever but people forgot that.

The Miracle Queen hate didn't even cool off, Ladynoir conflict started. Now people hated her because she didn't "treat Adrichat better" and by that they mean know exactly what's wrong with him, which was him feeling left out because she has more teammates to think about. Marinette was out of place this whole season because she had to deal with bunch of things at once and no one asked her if she's ok with that, her old mentor left and the new one does nothing but yell at her. Adrichat didn't tell her what his problem is, she asked him but he said he's ok, but apparently she is supposed to know this. After Glaciator 2 people started calling her "worse than Gabriel" because she threw Chat Noir after he asked her to kiss her which was kinda a lot but I don't understand why was everyone so surprised when it's canon that she did the same to Félix when he tried to kiss her and she didn't even know it wasn't Adrien when he did it, I get why they are angry but not surprised. Kuro Neko trailer brought even more salt because it was misleading and it made Ladybug look like a real villain while in the episode we got to see just how biased the trailer was to make her a heartless b*tch who hurt Chat Noir when in context it was just a misunderstanding between the two but some people still didn't get the message and they hated her even more after the episode.

There is also a backlash years after Chameleon that Lila was a good person until Marinette/Ladybug didn't expose her - she just wanted to protect her friends who didn't believe her anyway and take the guardian book back from her. If Lila was so good she wouldn't have teamed up with Gabriel to control Adrien and she teamed up with Hawk Moth to destroy the world but I guess Marinette is the one to blame here (same with Chloé). Lila is messed without Marinette's help, thank you very much. But they forget the fact that Marinette never hated her friends for not being there for her when she needed them most and she gave both Lila and Chloé a second chance after everything they put her through. She's forgiving but no one remembers that. It's more like they're refusing to see it, they see it but don't notice.

Some people also agree that it's Marinette's fault that Félix betrayed the team for a terrorist/child abuser - the same thing as Chloé and Lila

Like you said, she's the main character and it makes no sense for them to still watch the show if they hate her. Some of them even watch hoping that she'll get hurt. It's really annoying. They wanted Chat to hurt her in the finale. Why is our fandom like this I'll never understand.

New York special where she got angry at Chat and her anger was justified but the fandom hated her because he cataclysmed someone because she got angry and it was her fault somehow

People also hated Marinette because Thomas said something bad about Encanto and they said how Marinette is horrible while Mirabel is good.

I hope I didn't forget anything.

[pathetic-midgardian]

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness spoilers ❗🛑

As a Doctor Strange fan it makes me sad that every critic and analysis of the marvel fans is about every easter egg and cameo and references and how it ties into the next projects and yeah sure, that's what we do with every marvel movie/serie but- like still there's always the character fans who flood the internet with pictures and comments, metas, analysis about the character's arc. And even tho I know Doctor Strange has a little fanbase I thought he would become more of a favorite with this movie yet everyone's talking about the director and everything else than Stephen 🙄 so here are my favorite things of the movie about STEPHEN STRANGE because it's his movie!

Doctor Strange (2016) ends with Stephen keeping the broken watch as a reminder of his choice to serve the mystic arts. The Ancient One taught him that "it isn't about him" so he renounced to his old life as a neurosurgeon because there are other ways to safe lifes. He chose to use magic not to fix his hands (his life) but to help protect the world from bigger threats.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) ends with Stephen fixing the watch ⌚ because he's now facing his fears, he used it before broken as a reminder of Christine and his love for her, but he was scared and he knew he wasn't good for her (the new life style is dangerous) so he stood away from her to protect her. Then the 5 years passed and he comes back to find she's engaged. So fixing and stopping using the watch is a way to give closure to that part of his life (he knows now that they don't end up together in any universe).

I am so glad we got Donna Strange crumbs, with all the America and Wanda things going on they had some brain left to remember this was a Stephen movie. I would have preferred a flashback something we could see. But ok 😐

Christine's line "face your fears Doctor Strange" !?!? hello!? *chef's kiss* because you know the fact Stephen's lost almost every person he's cared about in his life and that's why he chooses to put his asshole personality as a protector barrier because he's afraid of loving and be loved because he knows how it always ends 💔 (his parents, Donna, Víctor, Christine, TAO, Mordo, Peter Parker)

Speaking of Peter, he remembers he helped Spiderman to return his variants to their universes but he doesn't remember he is Peter :( so he decides to adopt the next teen he meets lol

We are past typical orange magic shields! I was getting bored and frustrated 🥴 THANKS for the magic 🪄✨ variations in this movie: turns water into red wine, the thing he did to see the monster, then some green magic not time stone related, also Defender Strange using white/blueish magic, Defender Stranger absorbing Américas power, the thing he did with some monster hands to remote control them and kill Gargantos, I love how he and Wong team up so coordinated. Sinister Strange purple's magic, also that Stephen and our Stephen using the darkhold magic (red), dreamwalking on his variant's dead body while also controlling the souls of the dammed to create a cloak and fly but also those looked like vampire wings ?! NEAT.

He's so extra 🤲🏼

Scarf cloakie!

Don't like the CGI of the third eye 👁️

838 Stephen's suit and cloak 🥵

"I love you in every universe" 😭💔

Would have loved to see him not only having dreams of another universes but nightmares about Dormammu/IW/Endgame

You remember the scene where he freaks out he killed a Kaecillius (Dormammu)'s zealot?! he said he was never taking a life again so I wanted to see him haunted by how he had to proceed the only way the could win but by letting Tony die, sure he didn't kill him but I think he feels guilty

Even if you don't ship Ironstrange c'mon he saw 14M possibilities of the IW/EG in his universe and even if every scenario lasted 5 minutes that's more than a lifetime of knowing Peter and Tony, you cannot convince me they didn't get to be at least very good awesome-facial-hair bros 💔 Tony's sacrifice hurt as much as casting the spell to forget Peter, and as much as losing Christine or Donna 😭

So I'm mad none of what he's done for the world is mentioned here :(

I love that he basically didn't care what Wanda did in Westview, he was like "yeah not here about Westview idc, honestly? would've done the same lol you're past that now you did the right thing by freeing those people ... but I do care someone's trying to kill my newly adopted child"

CLEA 💜 please step on me

"Face your fears Doctor Strange" / "Unless you're afraid" ✨ 100/10

[lola-andheruniverse]

Maybe I'm just delusional but I think we still get our canon.

🎉Only it will be on the MOST ridiculous way possible, like "here, look the crumbs we can give you, eat it up and don't argue" type of canon.🎉

Caryl will probably confess feelings after winning the war against Commenwealth. Their last badass moment together will be trapping and killing Lance. Judith will get shot, talk about how she can't die because RJ will be left with no family and reveal the truth about Michonne leaving to find Rick. Carol will assist on her surgery saving her one more time (because, yeah, obviously). Caryl will have their first and last night together because Daryl will leave to find Rick and Carol will stay as a guardian to the Grimes kids. They will agree on it like it make any sense, of course! Carol will probably help to build a new government for the Commenwealth because she can't have a break, can she?, and I can totally see her assuming the Comic Maggie final storyline as their President. (TPTB: look, looooook, she's being finally recognized and valued by her people. It only took us 11 seasons and 23 and a half episodes to do it. And, of course, these are the reshoots we've made last minute! What, you don't like it? At least we didn't kill her!)

The Daryl spin off can take place on the one year time jump, and the reason for it to be filmed on France is probably to acomodate both NR and AL (remember both of them together on Atlanta on February? Rick movies anyone?), because, hey, who cares that we promised a happy future to our leading female character/top billed actress? Right, only half of the fan base to said spin off.

After the time jump, we see Carol all sexy and regal with short hair and fancy coat. Daryl comes back with Rick (and Michonne?), Grimes family reunited, yada yada. The last kiss on screen?? Probably Richonne. Or maybe AMC even lost the opportunity to have their lead character back for one last scene because that's how much they suck.

Even worse, Daryl leaves after the time jump and they have a canon romantic relationship for a whole year THAT WE DON'T GET TO SEE because happens OFFSCREEN! *insert maniac laugh*

Wow, and if we complain about any of it? Bad, bad fans, never happy with anything. We'll try to give you a Carol spin off or a Carol cameo on Maggie's show, but no promises, because, you know, Melissa doesn't want to do it 🙄

Welcome to the Hall of Fame of Wasted OTPs and Disrespect ro Fans. Our seat is next to the latest screwed up ship, Villaneve.

[luna-rainbow]

Ok but the parallels between Bucky and all the NWH villains but particularly Norman and Otto though. While yes, Norman and Otto were much more willing participants in the events that led up to them becoming Doc Ock/Green Goblin than Bucky was in becoming the WS, all three men were forced into doing horrible things against their will, and were scared and horrified of what they had done once back in control. AND all three are good, kind people who immediately jump to help to protagonist once in control.

It's odd how both Otto and Norman were treated so well by the script, with no victim blaming (something I am thrilled by, since I love my sad boys and am very happy that they are (mostly) ok) but Bucky was given pretty much the opposite treatment. And I'm not really convinced that it's necessarily because of Sony's involvement in NWH as much as it is having people who actually like the characters as they are writing them.

From what I've gathered from interviews about NWH, everyone involved is big fans of not only the original source material, but also the other Raimi and Amazing Spider-Man movies. They genuinely like the characters they are working with and wanted to right by them. Whereas as we've all talked about, the interviews with Skogland and Spellman are pretty clear in their dislike of Bucky.

I think there's also an issue with Bucky in that I don't think Sebastian is the type of person to try to advocate super hard to have something changed even if he doesn't feel like it fits the character. Don't get me wrong, I love Seb, but I just don't think he's the type of person to really push the writers or directors to change something or to consider putting something specific into the story even if he feels it's right for the character. Meanwhile the NWH villain actors, who also have quite a bit seniority as actors, seem to have been involved much more in the creative process. Willem Dafoe basically told the director from the beginning, before they even had a script, that he wanted to have more to do than just a glorified cameo appearance, and he wanted to do his own stunts (which, damn, kudos to Dafoe for still being able to that sort of action stuff well into his 60s).

Idk, sorry for the essay lol, I just think it's interesting how two similar circumstances for characters but with very different executions ended up looking in the MCU.

Sorry for the late reply!

I completely agree. NWH comes from a place of such joy and love. It's clear how much the people involved had understood and respected the entire franchise, all the way back to Tobey's story. The entire story was an homage to who "Peter Parker" was, and that defining trait of holding himself responsible even when there's no one else around him.

I feel for Seb, you know. I mean, people are in the acting business for different reasons, but the sense I get from his interviews is that he really enjoys the story-making process, more than being the centre of attention or having cool scenes or having an escape from reality. He seems happy to choose roles that are unconventional, if he believes that story is worth telling, even if the role might be unpleasant or unsavoury or controversial.

Erm, that's just a rambly way of saying that I think Seb has a good read on stories and characters, so he's well aware of the deficits in Bucky's story. Him even saying aloud into a panel "I only heard about it 40 minutes prior" is pretty rebellious (for him), because it paints a pretty clear picture to avid fans of just how little scriptwriters cared about his and Steve's character arcs. This especially coming from someone whose default comment is "I just read out what the writers have written" -- which, as all Bucky fans know, is really unfair to what he (and partly Chris too) has brought to their dynamic.

But...Disney and Hollywood are big machines, you know, and Sebastian doesn't really have a lot of awards or hits to his name, which gives him very little bargaining power. At the moment, Bucky is the role he is best known for, and I think it's a double whammy of his opinion isn't considered important in the Marvel grand plan and him really not having much to use as leverage. I don't know if it's partly cultural as well, but his immense gratitude towards the MCU is more than I might expect from an American-born person.

Also we really don't know how hard he argued for the EG scene because even soft spoken in that panel, he sounded pretty unhappy with the way it was done. This is getting super rambly but it reminds me of the time when Letitia Wright remarked Sebastian hates stupid questions. And since then I've noticed he does get very offish in his answers to weird questions even if he never raises his voice or act abrupt. Together with the TFATWS stuntspeople saying he was surprisingly involved and specific about how he wanted Bucky to physically move -- we fans don't really know enough about his workplace dynamics to say how it went down. I feel like he does get irritated and frustrated with incompetence, and he might have argued harder than we give him credit for, but they'd drawn up their plan and they weren't going to shift around an entire movie for an insignificant side character like Bucky Barnes.