#and will also make cedric a bigger part of the plot | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

minty-malfoy · 5 years ago

Text

“would you still love me if I turned into a worm?” | blurbs

🌱 pairings: reader x blaise zabini, cedric diggory, draco malfoy, fred weasley, george weasley, harry potter, hermione granger, luna lovegood, neville longbottom (sorted in alphabetical order)

🌱 warning tags: language, probably

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Blaise Zabini

“A what, now?” your boyfriend asks, halting the movements of his quill to look up at you; brows furrowed as if it’s the most absurd thing he has ever heard in his entire life.

“You know, those wiggly things that—”

“I know what worms are, (y/n). But what the hell?”

“Dunno,” you shrug. “I’m bored.”

“So you thought about what it’d be like to turn into a worm?” his eyes narrow out of pure bewilderment, blinking once, twice, as he finally turns back to his unfinished essay. “Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that head of yours.”

“Not my fault you’re taking so long with that assignment,” you grumble as you begin to shift on the puffy couch, feeling somewhat annoyed by how cold and empty it is without the other boy in it. “And besides, you love me.”

An amused chuckle escapes his lips. “Can’t say that I don’t.”

“Even as a worm?”

“Will you stop asking if I said yes?”

You nod happily, giving him the answer he needs— or well, wants, really. Even though Blaise couldn’t quite understand the pointless question, he knows it’s significant to an extent.

“Yeah, alright. I would. Now give me five minutes and we can get out of here. Deal?”

A glint of satisfaction flashes through your eyes as you give him a hum in return, thinking to yourself that maybe the silly questions could be more useful than you thought.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Cedric Diggory

The moment the words leave your mouth, Cedric's first reaction is to laugh. He didn't mean for it to come out in a condescending way. He hadn't even meant to laugh, to begin with. But judging by the way you pout with both arms crossed, that might just have been how it came accross.

"I'm sorry," he offers sheepishly. "you were saying?"

"You heard me. I said what I've said," you grumble, despite not being genuinely upset at the hufflepuff boy you've grown to love.

"Wait, I need to get this straight," he takes another breath of air. "You're serious?"

"What do you think?" you pout once again, turning away slightly from your boyfriend. This only seems to ignite his amusement as much as it does his guilt. A second or two later, his arm finds its way around your shoulder, the other brushing a few strands of hair behind your ear.

"You really haven't figured it out yet?" he asks with a genuine grin on his face. You begin to eye him curiously, appreciating the charm of his pearly white teeth as you wait for the boy to go on. Soon, he pulls you into his lap where his arms craddle you lovingly.

"Sunshine," he begins. "I'm surprised you still have to ask. But if that's one way of putting my love for you, then yes. You'd be my favorite worm in the entire world."

"Promise?" you present your pinkie finger as a final means to seal the deal.

With one last chuckle, he wraps his fingers around yours. "Promise."

Everything that happens next is a flurry of innocent pecks and kisses planted along your skin, coupled with the security of two warm arms holding you in place.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Draco Malfoy

"And what exactly do you expect me to say to that?" comes his first response after a long moment of trying to figure out just how in Merlin's name your mind came up with that question.

You, on the other hand, can't help but giggle at the slytherin boy's confusion. "Whatever's on your mind right now will do."

"Well, to be honest with you, I can't quite stomach the idea of my own girlfriend turning into a bloody worm." he nearly spits the words out, softening his edge only when your eyes meet once again. "If you were expecting a different answer, I suggest moving on to the next bloke."

Draco wasn't lying about that first bit. Worms have always been an insignificant, unseen creature in his world; wiggling in the muckiest of places where they could easily be stepped on. Hence, he doesn't like to imagine you—someone so perfectly ethereal and quintessential in every single way; the only source of light shining into his pathetic excuse of a life—to be compared to a dirty worm, of all things.

"That doesn't mean I don't love you, though," he adds in a bit of a guilty tone; voice much, much softer this time. He brings your hand to his lips, dropping a few kisses on its skin. "I just much prefer having you as you already are."

You snuggle deeper into him, indicating that you already know exactly what he means.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Fred Weasley

“A worm!” Fred exclaims, nearly forgetting the food on his plate altogether. "What a brilliant idea!"

A few seats away, you can already see Ginny clamping her mouth shut as to not burst into fireworks of laughter. You mirror her gesture, eyes now on Fred once again, watching him announce this idea of yours to your entire group of friends.

Ron, who's not that thrilled to see his brother's public displays of affection, lets out a groan. "Wouldn't have asked him that if I were you."

"You think so?" comes your reply. "He seems to be having a lot of fun with this." you both glance at Fred, who is indeed already coming up with some sort of thrilling plot.

"Did you hear that, George?"

"Sure did, Fred."

"I reckon we could come up with a potion for that," he muses, turning back to look at you. "Give me a week or two and we can start living out that worm dream of yours, love."

"Wait, Freddie, you're getting it all wrong," you begin explaining, tugging on the boy's sleeve slightly to keep his attention on you, "It was just a silly little question. I don't actually plan on turning into a worm or anything like that."

At this point, you half expect his enthusiasm to die down from the grounding effect of your words. In reality, it doesn't.

"S'that so?" he replies, earning a nod from you. "Looks like you're missing the bigger picture to me, (y/n). Isn't that right, George?"

"Right you are, Fred." the said boy affirms. "Sorry, (y/n). I'm with him on this one."

With a sigh, you turn back to Ron, who's busily stuffing his mouth with a look on his face that says I told you so. You shake your head with a small smile at your boyfriend's shenanigans. You're not sure how you can both dread and anticipate the day of his worm adventures.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

George Weasley

"That's a new one," he asserts with an amused laugh. The boy rests his head against one of his palms, feeling instantly intrigued by your proposition. "Now tell me more about this worm business of yours."

"That's about it, actually." you admit sadly.

George frowns at this, wishing he could hear more worm stories and whatnot. Mostly he's just happy to see the way you talk about things passionately. Makes him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside in a way he can't ever get enough of.

"That's quite alright. I'll do the talking, then." he offers, rubbing his chin to think of what to say next. You light up in your seat, eyes wide in anticipation. Now it's your turn to eagerly wait for his response once again.

"I've got an idea. We could run off and start a new life— as worms!" he beams all of a sudden. You raise a brow for him to go on, not exactly complaining about your boyfriend's excitement towards the topic. "I'm only turning into a worm to make sure I can properly take care of you, of course. Wouldn't want to—er—squash you between my big human fingers, now do we?"

You both erupt into a chorus of laughter at the conjectured image, melting into one another like two fitting puzzle pieces. When you finally catch your breath again, you pose the main question once more, "So I'm concluding you're still going to love me, then?"

"Love you?" he repeats. "Oh darling, I'll be marrying you in a grand worm wedding!"

You can't hold back the gasp that escapes your lips, more than thrilled to have the first mention of marriage between you. Not too long after, you transform into a complete fit of giggles when George continues. "Then we'll happily live our worm lives, 'till death do us apart. Or when, you know, some bloke accidentally steps on us. Whichever comes first."

You lean into him lovingly to steady yourself after all the laughing. Taking a deep breath in, you mumble a soft, "You always know how to make me laugh, Georgie."

And the truth is, he wouldn't have it any other way. Worms or not.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Hermione Granger

"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand the point of this question."

"Which part, exactly?" you inquire, watching your girlfriend pull out another book from the wooden library shelves.

A few seconds pass before you get your answer. "You're not a worm," she states simply, eyeing you up and down as if to prove her point.

"Yes, thank you for pointing that out, 'Mione," you follow her to the next section. "Which is why I said if I turned into a worm."

The girl looks at you again, analyzing your words and expression briefly before coming to another conclusion. "I still don't understand." she pauses to think. "Unless you might be interested in becoming an Animagus? Even then, opting for a worm wouldn't be very... effective."

You roll your eyes, speeding up to block the girl's way. She lets out a non-committal "Hey!", only for you to quickly muffle it with a warm kiss. A moment or two later, you pull away with a smirk that makes her heart melt. "Just answer the question, would you?"

Still slightly caught off guard from the contact, Hermione finally caves in. "Alright, you cheeky flirt. I love you. Even as a notional worm."

Satisfied with her answer, you plant another peck— this time on her cheek, before announcing a gentle "I love you, too."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Harry Potter

The way his lips purse into a straight line tells you that Harry doesn't exactly understand the question. Not really, at first. Aside from being an entirely foreign concept to his ears, it also seems like an odd thing to ask someone, unless— "Oh! You're an Animagus!"

The smile on your face instantly drops at this. "What? No—"

"Why didn't you just say so, (y/n)?" he begins what—at the time—you don't know is going to be a nearly endless ramble. "I was planning on telling you this for a while now, but I know someone who's an Animagus, actually. In fact, I think you two would get along fantastically!" he lights up at the sudden idea, flailing his arms in the air out of excitement. "Yes, maybe I can try getting the both of you to meet up. No promises, of course, but what do you think?"

"I think you've got it all wrong," you frown; knowing you would have to disappoint your boyfriend and how you're not very fond of the idea.

"What do you mean?" he asks, albeit barely giving you a second to reply. "(y/n), it's alright, really. You know you don't have to hide yourself from me. Besides, I think it's brilliant!— what you can do, I mean."

The smile he gives you is the epitome of love itself, and now you're not quite sure how to handle the messy situation without pulling out the rug underneath Harry's feet. All you can do is squeeze his shoulder with a guilty smile, promising to talk about it again after dinner.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Luna Lovegood

"Of course. Worms are lovely, don't you think?" she says with a dreamy smile. You gape at how easily the answer could be pried from your girlfriend; no questions asked. But then again, it's not like you hadn't expected this exact outcome already.

"Really?"

"Mhm," comes her gentle hum as she begins to stir her honeyed chamomile tea. A soft smile stays glued on her features, as if she's enjoying the conversation. "What kind of worm would you like to be, (y/n)?"

"I haven't really thought about it that far," You admit. "Are you sure, though? We won't be able to hold hands or anything like that."

You can't tell if you had just imagined the almost-frown tugging on her lips, because when she looks back up at you again, her sweet signature Luna smile is back in its place. "I suppose you're right. But I could carry you around everywhere with me. Wouldn't that be lovely?"

"It would be," you nod. "but can a worm even fit into that pocket of yours?" you question, noticing how hers are stuffed with unknown items; blades of grass sticking out ever so slightly. Flowers, perhaps.

"Oh, there's nothing to worry about. See?" she pulls out a couple of daisies and fairy foxgloves to reveal a now empty pocket. "Now, would you like some tea?"

You eagerly join her on the table, snuggling against your girlfriend ever so slightly as you both begin to talk about your day. The entire worm ordeal is slowly slipping out of your mind already.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Neville Longbottom

Neville stops in his tracks at your question, taking a moment to toss the idea back and forth in his mind before he can give you a proper answer. You nearly giggle when his face scrunches up, brows knit and lips parted as he innocently asks, “But why would you turn into a worm?”

"Neville, love, no. It's a hypothetical question."

His entire body relaxes at this, releasing what you assume is a breath of relief. "Oh. I thought you were being serious for a moment there."

You shake your head with a giggle, taking a step closer to adjust the scarf around your boyfriend's neck. "I'm just curious is all. Would you still love me, then?" you ponder.

"Yes! Of course!" comes his instant reply, hands balled up into fists that match the determination on his face. "I would get you a nice worm house with all your favorite flowers in it," he bends one of his gloved finger inwards, beginning to keep count of this hypothetical to-do list. "Would you still be able to have human food? Well, either way, I promise to feed you every single day!"

He pauses, only for a second or two. "Oh! And I'll sing you worm songs! Or maybe we can sing them together? I don't know if you would still be able to talk as a worm though."

You swiftly pull him into an affectionate hug, effectively bringing his rambling—as well as the entire worm topic—to an end. His hands sheepishly find their home around your waist, where he places them softly as if it's his first time hugging you. After all the months of being together, it certainly isn't.

"What was that for?" he dares himself to ask, avoiding your eye contact shyly.

"For being the most loving and adorable boyfriend I could ever ask for," you lean in to plant a soft, gentle kiss on his cheek. You don't miss the way he pulls up his scarf to hide the blossoming blush afterwards.

I have no idea why I wrote this either lol <3

🌷 draco taglist: @arossebyanyothername @kawaii-angelanne @thefandomplace @yuosmi @bbeauttyybbx @mywellspringoflife @slytherinsunrise @avatarbeeb @scarlet-says-hi @lunars @coldlilheart @beiahadid @justmimithings @soundsquid27 @youknowiloveyou-so @n3ssm0nique @ochrythum @explxsion @yaanasluv @autumnpleaves @booksmione @drxcomvlfx @the–queen-of-hell @aspiringsloth20 @runninglownad @snitches-at-dawn @badfvith

🌷 harry taglist: @teheharrypotter @badfvith

#blaise zabini x reader #cedric diggory x reader #draco malfoy x reader #fred weasley x reader #george weasley x reader #harry potter x reader #hermione granger x reader #luna lovegood x reader #neville longbottom x reader

3K notes · View notes

deardragonbook · 4 years ago

Text

The reason to kill off a character

So, before going to the actual advice I just want to say, thank you so much for all the attention that my post on making a character death heartbreaking got! That post actually got reposted on Instagram by an account much bigger than me (they credited me so that’s actually really cool!) not sure if that’s where you all came from or just a coincidence, but I’m happy you’re here.

Now, that repost on Instagram got a lot of attention and among all the comments something I did see a bit off, was people asking why authors do this, so I thought for today it’d be cool to actually go over some of those reasons.

1.- The first and most obvious is tension management. In a story tension depends on the existence of the possibility of failure, in a lot of genres this could mean a couple not getting together, the protagonist not getting the job they want or a villain winning. In fantasy, we often find ourselves in life or death situations, and if character’s never die, life or death situations completely lose that tension. This is especially true with longer series with several books.

So sometimes, as saddening as it may be, you have to make the choice to sacrifice a character for tension sake. But why put in an effort o make it as sad as possible? Well, by making the death an impactful one, you can get away with killing less characters.

A good example of this is actually Harry Potter, everyone says loads of character’s die in Harry Potter, but that’s not entirely true, loads of characters die in the final book, so for the sake of this example, pretend the final book doesn’t exist please, thank you. Up until the the Half Blood Prince, there are only THREE important character deaths! Cedric, Sirius and Dumbledore (I obviously am not counting minor characters, mentions of muggles dying, ghosts, Harry’s parents, although I was tempted to throw Aragog into here). That’s not many deaths for six books. But they were all hard hitting impactful deaths, that carried the tension with only one character sacrificed for the sake of many.

So as a writer, remember it’s quality and not quantity.

2.- Character arcs and development. There’s two sides to this:

2.a.- Vengeance and mourning can be very powerful character motivations, they can make someone switch very quick. You got a character that always plays by the rules, always cautious and careful, kill of their friend, their family and watch how emotion can blind their judgement. They can switch sides, they can switch methods, they can change goals and form an entire new side! Everybody reacts different to grief, and you do need to be very cautious with this, lots of people have done this wrong, but so many have done this right!

Everyone talks about redemption arcs, love to see it, but a hero gone villain can be just as good when done correctly!

2.b.- Smaller changes. Some people don’t react suddenly, some people handle death surprisingly well, but someone close to you dying is something that will always be with you, and affect you. I think a good example of smaller changes, is when you have a say a team, and one of the members die and the remaining members have to take on the responsibilities that this person had.

If the person who died was, say, the one giving motivational speeches before each battle, when the next battle comes and there is silence, it’s very likely a different character will take up that responsibility, showing a side of them we hadn’t seen before.

3.- Plot reason. When I think of character’s dying over the plot, I usually think dead parents who died before the book even begins. You know, every Disney parent ever. But other examples could be villains who die or a king who dies leaving his son/daughter/next in line to rule. I don’t think it’s as important that these be sad, it depends very much on the character and on the author’s intent.

This is probably the area where personally I use the connection card, especially if the death happens before the book begins, it’s not sad per say, but you might feel empathy towards the character’s left behind and their soft words of remembrance.

4.- Just, emotions. The whole point of writing is to tell a story, the whole point of stories is to make us feel things. And a happy ending is only amplified by the struggles that got us there. A character dying for something they believe it can be heartbreaking in the moment sad, but when that thing they believed in comes to fruition, the fact so many gave so much to get it, makes it feel so much more important!

Anyway, so those are my big four reasons to kill characters off. There are probably loads more reason out there, maybe you’re just writing angst, maybe you’re writing Game of Thrones, maybe you just created far too many character’s and it’s time to clean up! No judgement here, but I hope this helps newer authors who don’t entirely understand the reasons behind these decisions.

I recently created a link tree so check that out for all my socials and my book!

Some upcoming posts I have in the drafts are:

Things that make character deaths heartbreaking (part 2)

Relationship drama without the constant arguing

How I do Timelines

How I do Fantasy Maps

So if any of that sounds interesting feel free to follow! I also have asks open if you want help with any specific aspects! I’m always happy to help!

#writers on tumblr #writing #writer #writing advice #how I write #writing tips #writeblr #writing tricks #authors #author #how to write #advice #fantasy #writing help #character #character death #resource

188 notes · View notes

missnight0wl · 3 years ago

Note

So we probably know why Rowan hasn’t ever been in a loading screen but I’m just now realizing that Ben hasn’t either and I wanna say he’s the only character I haven’t seen in a single one…could mean nothing but could mean something 🤔

I really don’t think the reason why Rowan was never in a loading screen is because of what happens in Y6. I mean, I just don’t see much logic in that, y’know? It’s kind of as if Cedric wasn't included on the book cover of the Goblet of Fire, and we'd assume: “Yeah, that makes sense because he dies”. Like… Rowan is still an important character for a big part of the story, so why their death should affect loading screens?

To be completely honest, I always thought that the biggest problem with Rowan was that they can be female or male. I know that when MC appears on a loading screen, they are a girl (just like in other promo materials). So technically, they could’ve done the same with Rowan, but… I dunno. Notice how rarely MC appears. It makes me suspect that Jam City simply doesn’t want to commit to this aspect too much.

Also, by the way. I remember some people speculating in the past that a person in the original loading screen is not MC, but a female Rowan:

Personally, I believe it’s supposed to be MC, but I have to admit it could be Rowan as well.

Now, it’s a bit more complicated with Ben. I still don’t understand why he is not on the original screen instead of Andre. I mean, Ben plays a pretty big role in the first years (and the story overall, for that matter). Andre, on the other hand… well, he’s not super important, to put it nicely. He’s officially introduced only in Y3, and then kind of disappears until Y4 or even Y5 (if you don’t borrow his broom). I actually theorised once that Andre and Ben might’ve been switched at some very early point of development, and it was Andre who was supposed to have a bigger role in Y2. For some reason, the change wasn't reflected in the promo art. But I guess we’ll never know that.

Still, Ben's absence is pretty weird nonetheless. He didn’t even appear in this Christmas loading screen with almost all characters introduced until Y4. The only other people missing are MC, Rowan, and Ismelda. And Ben, obviously.

And I just don’t get it. I seriously don’t think it should be related to the plot reasons, though. I mean, it could be the case, but I simply think it’s stupid reasoning.

But you know, there’s one more explanation that comes to my mind when it comes to Ben: his design is a little boring… Sorry, Ben, but it is. And I really wonder if it’s not somewhat relevant here. Because look at another character who actually appeared on a few loading screens already: Liz. Liz’s role in the story is very small, but her design is quite unique. And I’m not sure if that’s not what attracts Jam City’s artist(s).

Also, at the end of the day, I think we should keep in mind that the loading screens don’t really follow the game that closely. For example, let’s take Rakepick. Sure, you could say that it’s understandable she’s not included in the loading screens more often because of her betrayal. The thing is that she was included once– for the first Halloween TLSQ where she appeared only in the background in the Great Hall. You see my point? It kinda goes along with my previous argument made for Ben. It seems that the artists care more about what looks good than what actually happens in the game, in my opinion. They probably have some idea, but I don’t think we should look too deep into that.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #rowan khanna #ben copper #jam city #ask #anonymous

19 notes · View notes

elganac · 3 years ago

Text

ngl i’ve been putting off doing threads/asks from my old blog bc im still very ??? about how i want to go about continuations since a part of me likes the idea of starting fresh-ish but the other part of me hates dropping things and im sure a lot of yall can relate to this.

but !!!!! i do want to point out some changes that i can think of off the top of my head that i’ve done with this blog:

i’m in the process of re-writing bios!! so far, i’ve done emile’s, alison’s, and cedric’s. i’m working on nate’s, and i might flesh out leah’s, aito’s, and grace’s a bit more or do little to them since they’re relatively newer compared to the big four.

concrete age milestones for certain events in my muses’ lives have bene added so now yall have a better timeline of specific events ( e.g. alison’s relationships, nate and cedric’s friendship, emile and alison’s home life )

i think the biggest change is actually nate and cedric’s dynamic and how they met. i left a huge ass plot hole originally in nate’s backstory but im going back to fill it as of right now, and the tl;dr is that nate and cedric met when they were much younger than in their original backstory, meaning they were friends for longer. cedric’s family ends up providing for nate and taking him in unofficially, which explains why cedric and nate are extremely close and also why nate has a lot of independence as a teenager.

im shifting leah’s focus a bit to explore her influencer/social media personality side a bit more, namely that she’s big on instagram and fashion. in her social media influencer verse, she’s more of a streamer/more idol-like and has a much bigger presence, whereas in her canon verse, she’s more lowkey about it and it’s just for funsies. she’s still a sex shop and bookstore worker and a student, but now im putting a side of leah that i’ve played around with before more into the open

i aged aito up to be 27! leah was also recently aged up to 21 and is now a junior in university rather than a sophomore.

i think that’s it lmao this blog is technically still a wip but i’ll make announcements when more big changes come. also i wanna say thank you again for all of yall who followed me back after the remake, it really makes me happy to see you tag along for the ride still 🥺🥺🥺

#ooc;

11 notes · View notes

themattress · 5 years ago

Text

Evil Team Plots in the Manga

The same as this post, but with the Pokemon Adventures manga.

Gen 1 - Team Rocket:

In the original Red/Blue/Green Chapter, Kusaka very impressively created a very different, more in-depth Team Rocket arc than the one in the games but still managed to retain all of the major setpieces. The first battle with Team Rocket being in Mt. Moon, Team Rocket creating trouble for Lavender Town and making a secret base at the top of Pokemon Tower, a criminal operation being run by Team Rocket beneath the Celadon Game Corner that they own (complete with the secret switch behind the poster), Team Rocket taking over Silph Co. and holding Saffron City hostage, and facing Giovanni in battle at the Viridian City Gym. And just like the anime, the manga was well ahead of the games in tying Mewtwo to Giovanni’s master plan. The chief differences are that the manga had distinct characters as sub-leaders in Team Rocket (Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Koga, and their personal assistants Ken, Al and Harry) rather than there only being generic grunts and, like in the anime, Giovanni sought to conquer the world with an army of powerful Pokemon rather than by a corporate takeover / monopoly.

Gen 2 - Team Rocket:

Once again, all of the major setpieces are kept: Team Rocket cutting off Slowpoke tails at Slowpoke Well in Azalea Town, a special broadcast forcibly evolving Magikarp in the Lake of Rage into Red Gyarados, a secret base of operations in the basement of the Mahogany City gift store, and the climax involving Team Rocket invading Goldenrod City and taking over a broadcast room. But because this plot was even more bare-bones than the previous one in the games, Kusaka creates an even more different and in-depth one where the two Rocket Executives in charge are actually disciples of the mysterious Mask of Ice and all of the grunts are being forcibly brainwashed to do his bidding and work toward his horrifying objective.

Gen 3 - Team Aqua & Team Magma:

Much of the Aqua/Magma plot in the manga was both very similar and very different from the games. There’s an initial confrontation with Team Aqua in Petalburg Woods, but it’s against the Admins rather than random grunts. Team Magma attacks Slateport City, but it’s at the Shipyard rather than the Oceanic Museum and once again it’s the Admins rather than the grunts. Team Aqua initiates the Mt. Chimney event, but only Tabitha teams up with the heroes to stop them rather than the entirety of Team Magma. The face-off in Rusturf Tunnel happens way later than it does in the game and it’s against Courtney of Team Magma rather than a grunt. Blaise of Team Magma takes both Orbs from Mt. Pyre rather than Archie and/or Maxie taking one or the other. The attack on the Space Center is largely off-screen and done by just Courtney for her own personal reasons rather than by Maxie, Tabitha and a bunch of grunts for Team Magma purposes. Archie and Maxie both end up in possession of the Orbs at the Seafloor Cavern, but they get the correct Orbs here (Red for Maxie, Blue for Archie). Finally, Groudon and Kyogre end up clashing and Rayquaza is called upon to stop them, but unlike in the games Norman is required to control Rayquaza in a special way that ends up killing him.

Gen 4 - Team Galactic:

Like Team Aqua & Team Magma, Team Galactic’s arc from the games is adapted but there are notable differences. It’s just Mars at the Valley Windworks in the manga; neither a group of grunts nor Charon are present alongside her. Rather than holding Rick Radshaw in the Eterna Galactic Building as a distraction while other grunts investigate the town’s statues, he is held there to be interrogated for information on the statues, and Jupiter is not present. Cyrus making a creepy spiritual pilgrimage to Mt. Coronet is maintained, but here he tries to kill the protagonists for “desecrating” the site. Team Galactic taking the heroine’s Pokedex in Veilstone City is a more major event that introduces the Elite Grunt. Cyrus visits the cave painting at Celestic Town and fights the heroes, but he makes no attempt to destroy the painting. The Galactic Bomb blows up Lake Valor so that the Lake Trio can be captured, but here there is one hero fighting one Galactic Commander at each of the lakes. Cyrus’ speech to his followers at Galactic HQ, the extraction of the Red Chain from the Lake Trio, and the ritual to summon and control Dialga and Palkia at the Spear Pillar are all directly adapted, but rather than any of the heroes facing Cyrus at Galactic HQ it’s Cynthia who does so. Giratina pulling Cyrus into the Distortion World happens after he’s already defeated and unconscious. Charon attempts to take control of Heatran at Stark Mountain, but unlike in the game he is successful at this and has bigger plans for it than just using it for extortion. Finally, there is a battle with Giratina in the Distortion World, but it is moved to being the final battle of the whole saga rather than an earlier confrontation before Charon took control of Team Galactic.

Gen 5 - Team Plasma:

For the first third of the Black/White Chapter, events from the Team Plasma plot of the games are lifted almost verbatim: N undergoes the crowning ceremony, Ghetsis makes a public Pokemon Liberation speech in Accumula Town which is followed by the hero facing N in battle, Plasma grunts abuse a Munna at the Dreamyard, Sage Gorm and several grunts steal the dragon fossil from Nacrene Museum and the heroes team up with Burgh to go into Pinwheel Forest to retrieve it, Bianca’s Pokemon is stolen in Castelia City and the heroes have to find where the Plasma operatives who took it are hiding, Team Plasma tries to capture Victini on Liberty Island, and N reveals his true status and objectives while riding a Ferris Wheel with a protagonist in Nimbasa City. And for every improvement made (Ghetsis’ presentation, the grunts’ demeanor and lack of Ghetsis illusion at the Dreamyard, and more distinctive character vibes from the other Sages) there are some major steps down (N’s presentation, the lack of Ghetsis in the Castelia City event, and the more out-there designs for some of the grunts that neuter any credibility that they should have as opponents).

Afterwards, the adaptations made are a lot more different. Sage Zinzolin is still encountered by the hero and Cheren at Cold Storage but here he escapes and begins to draw Cheren toward the dark side. N summons Zekrom from the Dark Stone at Dragonspiral Tower, but he does so without the hero being there as the result of an entirely new big event that transpired at Nacrene Museum. The Relic Castle operations Team Plasma initiated in the games (Sage Ryoku and his forces testing the hero and a grunt trying to claim Volcarona) are combined: with Ryoku and his forces now searching for Volcarona. Both the confrontation with N at Chargestone Cave and N defeating Alder are combined into the same event, which happens much later than when the Chargestone Cave one did in the games but much earlier than when him defeating Alder did (also, it’s outside the cave rather than inside and Fennel is the one who accompanies Professor Juniper rather than Bianca). And then there’s the climax.

The climax is essentially the games’ one on steroids. Ghetsis is present with the other Sages and the Gym Leaders don’t get to fight them until after they are rescued from captivity (and crucifixion!) by a band of ordinary trainers. While one of the heroes uses Reshiram to fight N and Zekrom, the other hero receives details about N’s past by Anthea and Concordia while inside his room in the castle. Ghetsis comes in after N is defeated, reveals his true agenda and attempts to eliminate the hero in battle. And after fully realizing the error of his ways, N bids a solemn farewell to the hero; flying off into the sunset on Zekrom to parts unknown. Oh, and then Ghetsis suddenly seals the hero into the Light Stone out of spite. Fuck Ghetsis.

The Black 2/White 2 Chapter is much less faithful to the games, being a more straightforward continuation from its predecessor and being a hodgepodge of B2/W2 elements and the B/W postgame scenario of Looker hunting down the Sages, but that works to its advantage and causes it to easily surpass the games’ plot. The plot elements maintained are Colress as the new leader of Team Plasma who has developed a device that mind-controls Pokemon, a confrontation with Team Plasma in the Castelia Sewers (although in the games it was some grunts and Colress, here it’s some grunts and Sages Bronius and Ryoku while Colress is facing Zinzolin at Cold Storage), Hugh’s rabid hatred for Team Plasma and the backstory behind it, Ex-Plasma led by Sage Rood standing against the new Team Plasma over their differing ideals, the Plasma Frigate being launched skyward and using the Kyurem Cannon to freeze a city (actually, multiple cities in the manga!), Professor Juniper being behind the movement against Team Plasma’s schemes via agents like Cheren, Drayden, and her father Cedric, the climax transpiring at the Giant Chasm, Black Kyurem and White Kyurem being involved thanks to the power of the DNA Splicers, and Ghetsis losing his composure in a hate-filled rage after N, his “inhuman” son, reaches out to him and offers him compassion.

Gen 6 - Team Flare:

As in the games, Team Flare secures hold over the stone-filled Route 10 and uses those stones to absorb life energy from Pokemon, but in the manga this event is shown fully on-screen and the Pokemon in question are kidnapped ones from Pokemon Village. The event at the PokeBall Factory, conversely, is on-screen in the games but off-screen in the manga. Lysandre makes his broadcast to Kalos telling everyone that those not “chosen” will perish once the Ultimate Weapon fires, although in the manga it happens toward the very end of the climax rather than kicking it off. AZ is held captive at Flare HQ and implores the heroes to retrieve the key to the Ultimate Weapon, Xerneas is used to power the Ultimate Weapon, Lysandre wears special gear to absorb energy from Xerneas and while fighting the heroes, the Ultimate Weapon fires but fails to achieve its actual purpose, and AZ narrates his own backstory. Essentia controlled by Xerosic is involved in the storyline, whereas in the games she was only in the postgame episode. Other than all of this, the Team Flare arc in the manga is wildly different from the one in the games, being much darker and grittier with a heightened sense of stakes. So much like with the anime, not being too faithful paid off here.

As for the Team Skull / Aether Foundation arc from Gen 7, I’m not getting into that because it is almost entirely dissimilar from the games’ version. Even some basic surface elements here and there (Gladion as Team Skull’s enforcer, facing Guzma at Po Town, rescuing a girl trapped at Aether Paradise, “Mother Beast” Lusamine, and everything centered around Necrozma from US/UM) are so widly different in context and execution that they hardly count.

Overall, this manga is excellent at villain arcs. While the latter stages of the Aqua & Magma arc and early stages of the initial Plasma arc have notable problems, and the Skull / Aether arc isn’t as satisfying as either the S/M or US/UM versions it derives from, on the whole Kusaka’s skill at writing great Pokemon villains extends to the arcs that they are a part of.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Adventures #Villains #Evil #Analysis #Comparison #Team Rocket #Team Aqua #Team Magma #Team Galactic #Team Plasma #Team Flare #Team Skull

32 notes · View notes

pinkcurse · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 273 Thoughts

So even though we have a new and very ominous name for this Arc, chapter 273 still takes place on the “day of” event. Not sure what the unexpected result was though. Or is it still to come? However, there is still hope good people! It is only like 9:30 pm according to Kanae’s phone. So that is super early for Skip Beat, so there still could be a Ren/Bo meeting or Ren could go to the Darumaya and try to clear things up with Kyoko there. Either way, I still think we are getting a bomb of some kind dropped soon.

With the side story, Chapter 266.5, happening AFTER the unexpected results day it can only kind of explain Kyoko’s reaction to both the white day gift and Kanae’s mentioning that she sees Ren. IF Ren and Kyoko do not clear things up, in some capacity before that event, can you see Kyoko blushing like she did over his white day gift? Honestly, I would see her being more angry/upset about it like she was with the daisy ring. However, her reaction when Kanae says she sees Ren is spot on if she is still avoiding him because of everything that went down in the past few chapters. Also, Kanae’s inner monologue during this chapter seems to say that Ren says or does something in some capacity that reveals, to some extent, his feelings for Kyoko. So I still have hope that before this day is out something big goes down. This won’t be the first time that Nakamura has lead us into a different Arc, while finishing up the last one.

Now onwards my good people to the meat of THIS chapter.

Kanae, Kyoko, and Ren - Oh My.

I love Kanae but I want to throw her at a wall right now. I get that she is trying to protect her best friend, but damn girl. So it looks like our girl Kanae has private convos with Ren twice. First, right here, and then second at the end of the story on Chapter 266.5 (seriously Nakamura, could you make this any more confusing with plot progression!). Kanae’s attack on Ren just further justifies what Ren already “knows,” that Kyoko doesn’t see him as a man, but as a god. Really Kanae should be talking to Kyoko about this, no one should be put on that high of a pedestal.

What I find interesting is at the end when Kanae tells Kyoko he didn’t deny anything how it brings us back to that first initial piece of advice Ren gave Kyoko: ALWAYS DENY OR ELSE IT CONFIRMS IT’S TRUE! So because Ren has denied nothing publicly, Kyoko is doing what HE TAUGHT HER, believing it to be true. Yashiro should have had him flat out reject this as soon as it came out, but he went with an ignore strategy which is gonna come back and bite us all in the butt. Anyway, Kyoko keeps running away because she can’t face him without revealing all of her feelings, which is very Kyoko of her, so it makes me really really curious as to what happens next. How does Ren get her to talk to him again? Corner her in her room where she can’t run? Actually, I think what Kyoko is thinking at the end of the chapter is part of her resolve to not run away anymore. I don’t think she has realized that she is going to fight for Ren’s attention, but by not thinking the way the other girls did, implies that fighting for Ren is exactly what she is going to do. She won’t be pushed away.

Lory and Duris

So this phone conversation was meant to be purposely vague and misleading, but it has confirmed that Duris, Mr.D, Uncle Tiger is both Cedric and Kuon’s grandfather. It also Confirms aht Ren is looking for acting and promotional opportunities in the States. We knew this had to happen eventually, my question is how does Kyoko get to this point too? I’m sure it has something to do with her current role, but I guess part of me hopes that being Setsu has some part in it too. I just wanna see a Cain/Setsu scene again.

The bigger question is, if we are right about Cedric being the bully, why on earth Kuon’s cousin would bully him like that? The only thing I could figure is some serious sibling rivalry between Julie and her sister which carried on to the next generation, at least on Cedric’s part. We know Kuon was a passive child and he only started fighting back because Rick convinced him to. Duris says he will protect Kuon this time around, but why on earth did he let Cedric’s bullying get that far in the first place? It went on for literal years. Was he out of the country? Like, i need more info.

#skip beat #skip beat!#chapter 273 #kyoko mogami #Mogami Kyoko #tsuruga ren #ren tsuruga

38 notes · View notes

nomattertheoceans · 7 years ago

Text

Why I don’t consider the Cursed Child canon

So first of all, you need to know that I have an extremely strong attachment to the Harry Potter books, “The Philosopher’s Stone” was literally the first book I ever read when I learned how to read, and the views expressed in Harry Potter about tolerance, diversity and family have probably contributed a lot in my current viewing of the world.

This made it a thousand times harder to read the horror that is The Cursed Child.

Let me say before I start, this is my personnal opinion, it’s totally fine if you enjoyed the story, and actually, I’d be interested in hearing why you enjoyed it! :)

Also, I’m using a cut because this got unreasonably long hahahaha

@gouinetteparletrop

Some "smaller" issues to begin with

book canon vs movie canon: I personnally consider only the books as being actually canon, but I would have been fine with a story based on the canon established in the movies. However, this play is a mess of both versions of canon, to a point where it makes you wonder if the authors bothered with the original material. The play is supposedly a continuation of the books but it takes a lot from the movies instead. Some examples off the top of my head:

Ron appears oversimplified, like he was portrayed on the movies (I’ll get more into that later)

Platforms 9 and 10 are separated by a barrier in the books (like in the actual King’s Cross station), whereas the movie chose to represent it with a brick wall, more visually appealing. A small detail, and actually good for visuals in the play, but still, movie canon, not book.

The hedges of the maze appear to be trying to attack Albus and Scorpius. This is also very much movie canon, as the hedges in the books never behaved like that, they were just normal hedges and the obstacles were more varied.

Not logical with some small canon details. Again, it’s as if the authors read the books in a hurry and didn’t bother to pay attention. Some quick examples:

Harry leaves the Ministry with the telephone box, even though as an employee he should be using the fireplaces, or he should be Disapparating.

Pottermore tells us that Albus is a great fan of Quidditch, whereas the play establishes him as hating Quidditch to fit the story it wants to tell.

Albus and Scorpius shouldn’t be able to pass as Durmstrang students, because every student was over 17, and they are 14.

The trolley witch being a 200+ years old supernatural being in charge of the security in the train. Need I say more about this cringey detail? Allright, I will: if she never let anyone off the train before, how come Albus and Scorpius manage it so easily? ALSO, there are actual records of people being led off the train during Deathly Hallows, so it contradicts everything this storyline tried to add (and I don’t know what was the point of it, honestly)

The story is not interesting. I see two major problems with the plot that make it blah at best:

There are barely any new elements. Instead of making us live the adventures of brand new characters in a beloved world, it takes us back to the events of Goblet of Fire in a range of alternate versions of it. It could have been such a cool thing to discover a new vilain, new amazing kids having adventures at Hogwarts, but they decided to give us good old Voldy and Harry Potter Era instead. A truly wasted opportunity.

There is no point to the story, barely any character development, eveyrthing that happened is “erased” in the end and we are basically back to the start. I just on’t see the point in this kind of storylines.

World-building and bigger plot holes

There is absolutely no respect for the canon universe of the Wizarding World, whereas we’re talking about the events of the Harry Potter books, or the way the world itself works.

Polyjuice potion takes a month to make, and it’s an extremely difficult potion. The fact the Hermione manages to brew it properly at age 12 is a testament to her impressive talents and cleverness. In The Cursed Child, Albus and Scorpius seem to manage to get their hands on Polyjuice Potion extremely easily.

Transfigurating yourself works for small details in the books (Hermione changes Ron’s beard and hair only), but in The Cursed Child, you can apparently modify your entire body (like Harry with Voldemort)

Time-travel is just wrong in this universe, and for so many reasons.

All time-turners were destroyed during the Ministry battle at the end of OotP. Rowling stated herself she destroyed them to avoid having to justify their absence in later books. Yet, in this story, Time turners just magically appear as if their really easy to craft and not one of the most complex magical objects of all times.

The whole point of time-travel in PoA is that even if you go back in time and think you’ve changed events, actually, you haven’t changed a thing that happened, because you were already existing in the previous timeline. Going back in time doesn’t create a new timeline, it just ads a second version of you in the existing timeline. The decision of going back in time and of your actions once there are important of course, but they’ve actually already happened once. The Cursed Child completely changes this rule and instead introduces the idea of different timelines being created everytime you go back in time (a la “Back to the Future,” but handled much more poorly)

I won’t go into too much details about the problems with time-travel in this story, because it would get long unecesserally, but I’ll just say that the idea of different timelines is a viable one, if handled correctly, as it was not in this play, creating many plot holes exclusively because of the authors’ misunderstanding of how time-travel works.

Plus, time-turnes are brought back as a very convenient plot-device, and I hate it plain and simple. It’s lazy story-telling.

Anyway, moving on to a few of the big plot holes I spotted:

Harry has Horcrux abilities (speaking parseltongue and his scar hurting giving him visions) even though he’s not a horcrux anymore! The play tried to justify it by having Harry say in the end that he hadn’t gotten rid of Voldemort completely before, but that’s not a plausible explanation. Being a horcrux gives him actual tangible magical abilities, and they shouldn’t exist anymore the second the horcrux inside him is dead (you know, just like it hapened in the books... Ignoring canon doesn’t make your story good)

The Potters’ house was protected by a Fidelius charm, and The Cursed Child ignores completely this spell. In the scenes when they go back to 1981, Albus and Scorpius should not be able to see the house. At the most, Harry should be the only one being able to detect it, seeing as his baby version was included in the charm. Plus, James and Lily were never strolling around in Godric’s Hollow, they were in hiding, afraid for the life of their baby boy, and Lily clearly says to Sirius in her letter that James is getting frustrated about not being able to leave.

Pregnant Bellatrix contradicts directly the events of Deathly Hallows. All right, I might accept that she’d already had her baby by the time of the Battle of Hogwarts, but I’m not sure a woman who had recently (like... a few hours before) given birth would be in the good shape Bellatrix was in during the Battle. And if she gave birth right before the Battle, then she would have been more than eight months pregnant during the scene at the Malfoy manor. So why wasn’t it broguht up at that time then?

Characterization

All the characters in that book act completely out of character from their canon counterpart in the books. I know that most of them were teenagers in the books, and that obviously, people change and evolve in different ways. I get that. But this story didn't make the characters evolve, it just ripped off everything they were and replaced it with what was convenient. Here are a few examples:

Snape

He’s shown as the perfect hero. His character is very complex, and very interesting in my opinion because he is not a perfect hero, he’s a morally gray character throughout the entire series. A brave man and a hero, yes, but also a bitter mean bully with a lot of emotional baggage (being abused as a child, being obsessed with the Dark Arts, working as an undercover agent for years and, in the alternative timeline, having to endure losing the war in spite of all his efforts)

His bitterness is completely glossed over in the play, the authors portray him as a man who makes jokes and has friendly conversations with Ron ann Hermione. He just keeps on saying things completely out of character such as “ Tell Albus — tell Albus Severus — I’m proud he carries my name.” The Snape we know (canon!Snape) would never say something like this. Play!Snape is not interesting.

Voldemort

Why is everyone ok with calling Voldemort by his name in the universe where he survived the battle? Everyone should still be afraid of his name, it simply doesn’t make sense, he should still be “The Dark Lord”

The whole idea that he has a child with Bellatrix. There are two occurences in which I could imagine this would have happened, and they are both totally unrealistic:

He slept with Bellatrix to assert his power over her, and Delphie was an accident. This would have been realistic, except for the fact that it’s very out of character for Voldemort to see sex as a mean of power. He sees basic human needs/wants as weaknesses, and does not want anything to do with them. For him, the very idea of power is shallow, he only sees power as being directly superior to everybody else around him. It’s actually part of his downfall. Still, this possibility is still much more realistic than the second solution, which is...

He slept with Bellatrix with the intent of creating a child. Ok this is soooo out of character, it’s ridiculous. Why would he want a kid as a legacy when his entire goal is to become immortal?!?! You wouldn’t need someone to carry on your legacy if you live forever.

Cedric

This one is short but it’s because I shouldn’t even need to point it out. Cedric, one of the most righteous, kind, loyal people in the HP books, became a Death Eater because he was humiliated once as a teen?!?!?! This is just. Ok I can’t dwell on this, it hurts too much.

Hermione

Hermione is my second favorite character in the HP books, mainly because I identified strongly with her as a kid and teen. Also, she is a strong, independant woman, that takes shit from no one and stands up for her convictions. She works very hard in everything she does and is obsessed by the idea of being the best at everything. Now, here’s how she’s portrayed in this play:

She’s Minister of Magic. Alright, I didn’t see her as Minister, more like in Law development or something, but that’s my personal headcanon. So she’s Minister of Magic, the highest position in the Wizard Government, an yet she’s inneffective at it?! She leaves a very rare and dangerous object lying around in an office that can be opened with a simple Alohomora spell. She herself broke into the Ministry as a child, and yet she wouldn’t inforce some kind of security policy to prevent someone from breaking in the same way she had? Why didn’t she keep the time-turner in the Department of Mysteries? Why didn’t she have better security installed on her office? Those basic mistakes are very inconsistent with her character.

Hermione in the timeline in which she didn’t marry Ron and is DADA teacher is completely out of character.

Ok first of, why would she be a DADA teacher when it’s one of the only subjects she was not top of her class in? Why isn’t she teaching Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions,...?

Second, she didn’t marry Ron and therefore became a bitter person and a bully?! Ok, so many problems with this, starting with the stupid sexist assumption that a woman will turn bitter if she ends up not getting married. I’m not going to dwell on it because it angers me too much but it’s terrible female representation.

Also, Hermione being a bully and an unfair teacher is so inconsistent. She was herself bullied as a kid, by other students and by one of her professor, all of this was hard for her but she managed to live through it. And yet I’m supposed to believe that Hermione herself would take points off a student for “Losing patience now. Ten points from Gryffindor for stupidity” ?!?! Or that she would say things like “And that’s twenty points from Gryffindor to assure Albus Potter that I am this mean.” or “You really are a most disappointing bunch.” ?!?! Sorry, not buying it.

Ron

Basically, being Movie!Ron. His character is so complex in the books, yet so shallow in the movies, and the play just shows him as being shallow, gooffy and not caring about anything.

Canon!Ron is very caring, he’s concerned with the well-being of his family and his friends. He stands up to Sirius (who he believes is a mass-murderer) on his broken leg and tells him he’ll need to kill him before he can get to his best friend. Ron is talented at magic, he just needs a boost of confidence because he’s always undermining himself - that’s what happens with Quidditch. He’s not an idiot uncapable person. He becomes an auror, and becoming auror is extremely hard and demanding, the tests to become auror are difficult, yet Ron managed them. Allright, he doesn’t stay auror for long and quickly goes to help George with his shop, but he still passed the tests.

So now, here’s how he’s represented in the play:

He acts like a 12 years old, he is even shown stuffing his face with food when his nephew goes missing.

He doesn’t know how to use his wand properly: “ I’m armed and — entirely dangerous and seriously advise you — He realizes his wand is the wrong way around and turns it right. To be very careful —”

In the first alternative timeline, he hits on Hermione heavily even though he is married with a child. That is so not Ron, the character we know and love would not act that way and isrespect his family so much.

He sends a love potion to a young boy. Oh yeah, because Ron absolutely didn’t have a traumatic experience when he was himself given love potion and almost died, and he would absolutely send one to his nephew as a joke. Absolutely.

Ron and Hermione’s relationship

At the heart of all this mischaracterization, is Ron and Hermione’s relationship. Now personally, I love them together, I think their relationship in the books developped at a good pace, was interesting, and I understand why and how they fall in love. But their relationship is not a perfect one. Rowling stated once in an interview that they would probably need couple counceling and I completely understand why, with their different personnalities and their respective insecurities.

But needing counceling doesn’t mean your relationship is dead, and I feel like that’s how the authors saw it. They couldn’t conceive Ron and Hermione as being a normal couple with their problems, and so they tried to make them into this perfect love story that the characters need and would be incomplete without.

So they gave us ridiculous after ridiculous scenes with their relationship:

Hermione being a bitter mean bully just because Ron fell in love with someone else. Ridiculous. Also, why wouldn’t she become Ministry of Magic because she didn’t marry Ron? Isn’t she capable of pursuing a career without The Man™ in her life?

The only reason for them getting together would be one night of jealousy when they were fourteen. The Yule Ball scene was certainly important for them to start realizing their feelings, but it’s one of many other important occasions in their relationship. Plus, they were friends for years after and before this night, and yet because of this one event, the rest of their feelings would not happen? Highly improbable. This assomption that this night was paramount makes their entire relationship very shallow, when it isn’t in the books.

Also, the depiction of their daughter, Rose: she’s mean, prejudiced, and basically just a jerk. I cannot believe that Hermione Granger, founder of the S.P.E.W., that has been called mudblood and tortured because of it; and Ron Weasley, that fought to defend other from prejudice all his life, would raise their daughter to bully her cousin just because he’s in Slytherin.

Harry

Harry being a bad father would not necessarily be a stretch if it had been handled differently. Not everybody feels at ease with parenting and it could have been an interesting story to see him not being a perfect parent.

But I cannot imagine Harry Potter, a boy raised in an abusive household that never experienced love before he was eleven, a boy who fought for his friends and his family and was ready to die for them, a boy who dreamed all his childhood of remembering his parents and longed for some family love, tell his son things like: “At least you’ve got a dad” and “Well, there are times I wish you weren’t my son.”

I cannot believe that Harry Potter, who found solace in his best friends from a life of misery, would separate his son from his only friend just because he believes he might maybe someday have a bad influence on him

And I cannot believe that Harry Potter, who lost his family because of a prophecy being interpreted by Voldemort, who was very skeptical of divination and who heard a centaur tell him their prophecies were unreliable, believing a vage prophecy about some dark cloud around his son.

All of the characters that we see in the play were all modified to fit the story the author wanted to say, with no respect whatsoever for their character developments in the books.

Before you tell me what you think, let me add just a few small things

I haven’t seen the play live, and I don’t count on seeing it. This does not change at all my view on the matter at hand. I'm not talking about visual effects, good acting or beautiful sets, because I am aware that the actual play is beautiful and well enacted. I’m strictly referring to the story.

Also, if you think I might not have enjoyed the story because I read it on a screenplay, it’s not the case. I studied theater for years, and I am very well used to reading screenplays, the format doesn’t bother me at all, and I actually enjoy it (I keep reading screenplays to this day, even though my studies are over). I understand how the format can be hard for some people to read if they’re not used to it, but that’s not my case. So just this little disclaimer that my arguments, once again, are based on the story itself, not the format it was written in.

I heard many people saying the play is interesting even without respecting anything from the HP universe. I also understand this, and honestly, my main problem with this story was the way it was marketed: the 8th Harry Potter story. I would have been fine with a play I didn’t like but that didn’t pretend to be respecting the Harry Potter canon. I would have been fine with the story if it had been other characters having aventures through time in a different setting. I’m sure the play is beautiful, but the problem I see is that the marketing did everything to get Potterheads to go and see the play, even though it didn’t respect anything of the original material. I feel like JK Rowling and the authors of the play outright lied to us, and I’m not ok with it.

Bad fanfiction?

I hate comparing this story to bad fanfiction, because (as “50 shades of grey” before), it’s something that made it to the large public, and I hate including something so bad into a legitimate genre that I really enjoy. Fanfiction can be very good, I read and write a lot of it, and I actually enjoyed some stories more than I enjoyed the canon at times.

But that’s what this play is.

The Cursed Child is a bad fanfiction, written by people who didn’t know - or worse, didn’t care - about the original material, and used the very basics of it to write the story they wanted, regardless of the canon material. They didn’t respect the world-building and didn’t respect the characterization of every single person they included in the story. They bent everything to fit their story, their will. But instead of being a badly written fanfiction on the internet, that people read in their free time, then move on to another one, this shitty story actually became the new canon in this universe that I love, and I’m not okay with it.

That’s why this story will never be canon for me.

If you want to read my other thoughts on stuff

#my two cents #harry potter #cursed child #also #i totally reread some passages of the book for this post #even though i had promised myself that i would never open it again #that's how dedicated i am to pour everything in this post #i feel so bad at having reread some portions of it #i'm gonna go read the philosopher's stone to cleanse my mind #anti cursed child #my thoughts on stuff

62 notes · View notes

chrome-blade · 7 years ago

Text

Sofia The First: Season Five Ideas

This post is a little later than I would have liked, but this is just a rundown of ideas and scenarios I would have loved to see played out had there been a fifth season of Sofia The First.

There was just... SO MUCH POTENTIAL that wasn’t taken advantage of! So many storylines that could have been explored further. So many characters that we could’ve dug deeper into, given more screen time and gotten to know better.

So, I’m going to share my ideas. Anyone who wants to add on, please do so. I really want to write more on some of these characters and I have a few OC’s and headcannons (some of which will be mentioned here).

Here we go with the list.

The Order of the Wand

I think we can ALL AGREE that the Order of the Wand was TRAGICALLY underused. I mean, Grimtrix gets all these sorcerers together to overthrow their respective kingdoms and basically become High King over them all and it’s JUST. One. EPISODE.

I mean, COME ON!

THIS, more than anything, had the potential to become SO MUCH BIGGER than just ‘Day of the Sorcerers’. The whole season could have had them as an underlying threat in contrast - or even in conjunction- with Prisma and her hunt for the Wicked Nine. Grimtrix would have made an excellent competition for Prisma; possibly even tried to persuade them to join up and help each other.

For Season Five, I could easily see Grimtrix either getting out of prison himself or being broken out of prison and promise revenge on Cedric -whom he’s FURIOUS to learn is a great hero now- and Princess Sofia.

This would tie into my other plot idea...

The Wicked Nine

Of ALL THE PLOT POINTS and potential for something bigger, THIS is the one that really screams ‘WASTED!’ To me. I mean, you have ALL THESE MAGICAL OBJECTS, all belonging to the MOST VILE, depraved and sinister villains to exist... and DON’T USE THEM? Sure, we saw Grimhilda’s Crown, but that was once and what about the rest of them? What about her heart box? (That is some SCARY ASS potential there with that. I’m thinking that she doesn’t physically take your heart, but takes your soul and traps it inside and she can take possession of your body. Talk about nightmare fuel.)

My idea? Season Five sees every one of these villains resurrected as a result of Vor. (Don’t ask me how). They’re confused AF, but they don’t care. They’re alive, kicking and want to raise as much trouble as possible. They get out of the Mystic Isles while all the confusion with Vor is going on and the Protectors don’t notice until later. Needless to say, the three Good Faries are FURIOUS and scared of all the trouble they KNOW Maleficent will bring. So now there’s THIS worry on top of the Order of the Wand. Who team up with the Wicked Nine. Nice.

I’m just trying to picture all the banter and potential for conflict, rivalries and the like between these villains. The potential is just too insane and even hilarious. Example, Dr. Facilier gets along well with Gothel and eventually Greylock. Lady Tremain considers them so BASE and associates with them as little as possible, preferring the company of Queen Grimhilda and possibly Jafar, who understand how ‘the rabble’ can be. Shan Yu gets along well with Mor’du, which is no surprise given their love of bloodshed. Only Shan Yu is calculating and planned. Mor’du’s is naturally random and without warning. Shan Yu is the only one who can keep him in line and assures that he gets fresh kill.

Grimtrix is reluctant at first, but decides to join up as long as he can get back at Cedric, the sorcerer who turned on him for the friendship of a princess.

Prisma

This is a character that, despite being crucial to the storyline of season four, was woefully under explored as a character. She was someone I actually felt truly sorry for in regards to her motivations, even though her actions were wrong. As we saw with Cedric, being in the shadow of someone like a parent is no easy thing. In the shadow of a sibling? That had to have been a nightmare. I can’t help but feel we really missed out on exploring the culture of the Mystic Isles when it comes to things like being what and who you are. Watching ‘Undercover Faries’ gives me an idea of what it must have been like for Prisma. Only MUCH worse.

My problem lies with how her resolution was handled; I was SO GLAD to see her express remorse and accept responsibility for her actions. I honestly saw it coming. But my problem is, there was very little exploration into her background to give that apology more weight and meaning. If you’re going to make a character remorseful at the end, you need to give them a little more substance to them to make that apology feel more ‘real’. I wanted to look more into who Prisma was and who she is. What happened that made her snap and try to cover the Mystic Isles with crystals? What made her crystals ‘subpar’ in the first place? Were they or did they have properties that no one thought to explore that haven’t been seen in crystals either before or in a very long time?

In season five, I would love for Prisma to get a shot at redemption. (Remorse is not redemption . It just opens up the potential for redemption). How she would obtain it would be hard but I have a few ideas there. Also explore her family background and how Crystallar culture functions.

Her relationship with Azurine would be explored in depth more. Were they always like this or were they, like Cedric and Cordelia, closer as children? At least before people started going to Azurine for crystals and pass Prisma over? I think Prisma would want to apologize to her sister, but it would be hard for her and Azurine? I think she’d want to but they would have a LOT to talk about.

Prisma’s primary motivation for gaining power for herself was to gain love for herself. Her sister, it appears, got all the love and appreciation growing up in part due to her prowess as a Crystal Master. She saw her sister being loved like that and wanted to be loved, too. But because she was dismissed with her crystals deemed as inferior in comparison, she saw her sister as competition. I have to really question where their parents were. Which brings me to...

Prisma’s parents: my headcannon is her mother was a narcissist. She treated her children like gold until their Crystal powers became clear. With Azurine, her affection intensified. With Prisma, she became distant and made a point of showing her where she stood in not just Crystal Master society, but in her eyes. She’s a combination of Gothel and Tremain but even worse, in some respects. She dressed Azurine in bright colors ‘appropriate for a TRUE Crystal Master’ and forced Prisma to wear drab colors like brown. Telling her that it wouldn’t suit Prisma to wear bright colors like blue. It was a way of telling her that she was ‘dirt’ compared to the ‘sun’ that was her sister.

Prisma’s crystals aren’t subpar but have a power that hasn’t been utilized or even seen in crystals. At least, nothing seen as useful. But it is. Figuring it out would be part of how she helps Sofia and the Protectors stop the OotW and the W9.

Prisma ends up in Enchancia under the charge of Cedric, who is reluctant but is willing to try given his own history

Prisma is naturally unsure and doesn’t know where she fits as she tries to make friends and fails at first. She eventually befriends Lucinda and meets her mother Marla, who is happy to talk to her and offer guidance. They become BFF’s. This scares Cedric (in a funny way)

At some point, she finds a baby barn owl and cares for it in secret because she doesn’t know how people will react. Sofia finds out and promises to keep her a secret because it’s clear Prisma loves her pet and is glad to see Prisma opening her heart.

Wormwood and Twitch

Let’s face it; the series wouldn’t be complete without these two. I could easily see them escaping the Protectors Tower and ending up with the Wicked Nine. Wormwood would be utterly taken by Maleficent, who would gladly accept him. Twitch would be useful and we could explore his own background more. These two would bicker, but be seen as useful.

Wormwood has extensive knowledge of everything involving the Royal Family of Enchancia that could easily be used to the advantage of their enemies. Secret entrances and ways to get in and out of the castle unnoticed. Including a few secrets of the Royal Family and Cedric, of course that could be useful.

Cedric

Now known as ‘Cedric the Great’, his reputation has skyrocketed and he’s now loved and respected across the kingdom. His confidence is up there and he’s pretty happy.

Which leads to the eventual offers of courtship from women, mostly sorceresses of important families. He’s flattered, elated and overwhelmed. Eventually, the attention gets to be too much and before long, he’s hiding in his tower again and has to be persuaded out.

Cedric is going to help Sofia, naturally and is going to be involved with helping stop the bad guys. He is understandably wary of Prisma, but is reminded by Sofia how HE once was, so he helps her find her footing and they slowly gain each other’s trust and by and by, become friends.

Wow, that’s a lot...

I would LOVE to see what you all would want from a season five from Sofia the First. Please share your ideas! I’d love to hear them! I’d love for this to be a project of sorts.

#sofia the fandom #sofia the first #headcannon #characters

27 notes · View notes

weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

Text

The Weekend Warrior July 16, 2021 - SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, PIG, ROADRUNNER, GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE, and More!

We’re starting to get into the thick of summer where we’re likely to get two or maybe even three wide releases a week, and that’s definitely the case this weekend, even if it’s likely that Marvel’s Black Widow will continue to run rampant and should stay at #1 for a second weekend in a row. I also was busier than usual due to the Emmy nominations yesterday, but I now hopefully have a few easier months until the actual Emmys. (Famous last words.)

We actually have two sequels this week, one a sequel to a movie from a few years back and the other a sequel (of sorts) to a movie from 1996, so yeah, released a few months away from the 25th Anniversary of its predecessor. That always goes well.

We’ll start with SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (Warner Bros.), the long-awaited sequel/reboot of the 1996 movie that captured Michael Jordan at the height of his popularity and paired him with the Looney Tunes i.e. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, etc. For years, Warner Bros. and various parties have been trying to make a sequel, but it took basketball superstar, Lebron James and no less than Ryan (Black Panther) Coogler, to finally get the sequel made.

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip, Barbershop: The Next Cut), the sequel involves James and his son Dom (newcomer Cedric Joe) having issues that are taken advantage by an A.I. named Al G. Rhythm (played by Don Cheadle) who brings James and Dom to the Warner Bros. “Server-verse” for a basketball game that teams James with the Looney Tunes against his son and a group of super-powered NBA and WNBA stars i.e. The Goon Squad.

Yeah, it’s a similar concept as what led to the 1996 movie that capitalized on Jordan’s popularity and threw in other NBA greats like Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing, plus a little Bill Murray, and then lots of Warner Bros’ popular toon characters. That original movie opened with $27.5 million in 2,650 theaters in mid-November 1996 against the second weekend of Mel Gibson’s Ransom, but it went on to gross $90.4 million domestically with the bump from the holidays (which A New Legacy doesn’t have). In some ways, the movie was a response to the success of the 1988 hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which included many of the Looney Tunes, despite it being a Disney movie.

Looney Tunes movies (and even movies based on WB properties like the Cartoon Network) haven’t done particularly well since the first movie with Looney Tunes: Back in Action opening in November 2003 with just $9.3 million and grossing just $20.5 million domestically, which isn’t good. Space Jam: A New Legacy is Warner Bros’ first attempt to bring its toons back to theaters, and the company will be watching it closely since it has already started production on Coyote vs. Acme, a CG animated film featuring the age-old nemeses.

As far as basketball movies, the comedy Uncle Drew, which also starred Lil Rel Howery oddly, that opened with a decent $15.4 million in the summer of 2018 and grossed $42.6 million domestically, but that’s without the name brand of “Space Jam” or the beloved toons that will be a bigger selling point to kids than the basketball.

Working in Space Jam’s favor is that it’s a movie both for adults who were kids when the first movie came out, as well as modern-day kids who love sports or the toons, and that should help drive business over the weekend. What is likely to hurt is that the reviews, so far, have been absolutely TERRIBLE - 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, and while that might not put off the kids, it certainly will put off their parents.

The movie is also debuting simultaneously on HBO Max, just like other Warner Bros. movies this year, although as we’ve seen with Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat, that doesn’t necessarily hamper how a movie might do in theaters. One thing that’s changed is that Disney announced its PVOD numbers from Black Widow’s Disney+ debut over the weekend, which might change people’s tunes about feeling the need to go to theaters to see a movie like this, and that certainly might affect Space Jam’s opening weekend, but I think it will mean an opening in the mid-to-high $20 millions vs. something in the mid-$30 millions. It also doesn’t have too much family competition until Disney’s Jungle Cruise in two weeks, so it should be able to make $70 million in domestic theaters even with it being readily available on HBO Max.

Mini-Review: I’ll freely admit that I don’t have the long-term nostalgia for the original Space Jam of so many others. In fact, I only saw it for the first time a few days ago on my TV set, which may be the way many will see Space Jam: A New Legacy due to the fact that it’s on HBO Max. It’s just another casualty of my ‘90s when I wasn’t seeing many movies and also wasn’t going to see “kids’ movies.” But I do have a soft spot in my heart for the Looney Tunes, and HBO Max even did a pretty good job with its revival last year with some new shorts.

Unfortunately, this is more of a Lebron James/Warner Bros jam, to the point where you might wonder whether Lebron dictated how he wanted to be depicted to the gaggle of writers, and then Warner Bros came in and said, “Make sure to mention how great all our other properties are as well!”

The general plot involves Don Cheadle’s dumbly pun-named Al G. Rhythm -- I promise you’ll cringe everytime you hear that name -- trying to get attention by creating a showstopping basketball game between James and his son in a video game designed by the latter, and for whatever reason, it’s James who turns to Bugs Bunny to put together a team. It’s nearly 30 minutes before we finally see the Looney Tunes together, and that’s probably the best part of the movie, as Bugs goes to visit different worlds in the Warners “server-verse” to find his compatriots. I won’t spoil some of the movie worlds it visits, but these are some of the movie’s funniest scenes, although the laughs are fleeting since they’re relatively short gags. They're ruined by the movie going overboard in an attempt to throw James into some of these worlds, particularly the DC Comics superhero-verse, which seems like it might be influenced by the cartoons but never quite achieves that style of animation.

An hour into the movie, the Tune Squad is turned into 3-dimensional CG, as they face the Goon Squad team of NBA and WNBA all-stars transformed into creatures with superpowers. It's just unable to recover as the movie’s last hour focuses on that game, which is fine other than the fact that it's an awkward combination of the CG players with the audience being all sorts of background cosplayers acting as if they were found on Hollywood Boulevard or Times Square. This is the first time in a long time where I felt that the background actors ruined every scene... and then, of course, James and Cheadle are in there in a guise that seems to be a mix of human and CG.

I’ve been a fan of director Malcolm Lee for quite a long time, but Space Jam: A New Legacy is just an absolute disaster of a mess. Not that any of that matters much, because James is clearly a better ball player than he is an actor, and that fact keeps any of the movie from really gelling or offering much in terms of fun or excitement. I wanted to like the movie or find out what so many kids seemed to enjoy about the original movie 25 years ago, but sadly, that just never happened.

Rating: 5/10

The movie I’m looking forward to the most this week and will probably have seen by the time I write this is the high-concept horror sequel, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS (Sony), which follows up a little over two years since the original Escape Room. This one is also directed by Adam Robitel and starring Taylor Russell and Ben Logan as survivors of an escape room created by an evil corporation doing experiments to see how people will act. The movie benefitted from putting terror into a very familiar and popular world of escape rooms, which obviously have not been quite as prominent since COVID racked the land.

The original Escape Room opened the very first weekend of January 2019, which has seen a lot of horror hits over the years, and it proved to be a wise move by Sony since it opened with $18.2 million despite the lack of any big stars. It also had better legs than most horror movies, grossing $57 million domestically and $98 million overseas. It also did quite well in DVD and Blu-ray sales, which meant that the sequel was greenlit fairly quickly.

Unlike Space Jam: A New Legacy, the Escape Room sequel is coming out a little over two years since the first movie, which is good since more young people will remember it. Another advantage it has is that it’s ONLY playing in theaters, plus it’s also getting a full 9-hour advantage by opening on Thursday afternoon, so it could make quite a bit of money before Space Jam shows up and takes over the second spot behind Marvel’s Black Widow. It’s also PG-13 so teenagers who might not have much interest in other movies out there (or they’ve already seen them) will be able to see the movie as a group without adults.

That said, I’m not quite sure the Escape Room sequel can open anywhere near the first movie only because it’s getting a summer release where it might not be getting quite the attention of other high-profile movies out there. I’d like to think it can pull in somewhere around $15 million and maybe moviegoers will surprise me since that first movie was generally popular and its sequel can’t be viewed on some streamer day and date. We’ll see if it can then translate that into a $35 to 40 million domestic total, since I’m not sure it can match the take of the original at least domestically.

My review for Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is over at Below the Line, and you'll see that I liked it quite a bit.

This Week’s Top 10 Predictions:

Since I don’t think that Space Jam: A New Legacy will make $40 million this weekend, that keeps Black Widow at the top for a second weekend in a row.

1. Black Widow (Marvel/Disney) - $35 million -57%

2. Space Jam: A New Legacy (Warner Bros.) - $27.8 million N/A

3. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (Sony) - $15 million N/A

4. F9 (Universal) - $6 million -48%

5. The Boss Baby: Family Business (Universal/DreamWorks Animation) - $4.8 million -46%

6. The Forever Purge (Universal) - $3.8 million -47%

7. A Quiet Place Part II (Paramount) - $2.4million -28%

8. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (Focus) - $2.1 million N/A

9. Cruella (Disney) - $1.9 million -20%

10. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (Lionsgate) - .9 million -47%

This week’s “Chosen One” is Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz’s documentary, CAN YOU BRING IT: BILL T. JONES AND D-MAN IN THE WATERS (Kino Lorber), which is a surprisingly good documentary that combines a classic work of contemporary dance with how it originated from out of the AIDS pandemic of the ‘80s. Bill T. Jones was running the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company with his love and partner Arnie Zane, when the latter died from AIDS, and the deaths that followed led Jones to create “D-Man in the Waters.” Decades later, LeBlanc is performing “D-Man” with her college dance class, and she, along with Cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, ASC, capture that experience and embellish it with interviews with Jones and the original company performers.

Honestly, I’ve always been a bit reticent about dance and movies about dance, even though I’m almost always find that I enjoy them, like, for example, Wim Wenders’ Pina and the Cunningham doc from a few years back. The same thing happened with Can You Bring It, where I went in expecting to hate it or not find it interesting, and nothing could be further from the truth. FIrst of all, the original dance performance is something to behold, because there’s just an amazing physicality involved, which is why it’s amazing to watch LeBlanc (and the Jones himself) discussing the conditions in which the piece was written, but also getting some historical context about New York City at the time and how it was left ravaged by AIDS.

Hurwitz has tons of experience with documentary but LeBlanc is a relative newbie, but the two of them working together create a fantastic portrait of Jones, his amazing choreography work, and how the world of dance has been improved by the existence of his work and younger dancers trying to recapture the spirit of the original work. As I said, this movie was a pleasant surprise by how much I enjoyed it, since it woudln’t normally be my thing, but if you have even a remote interest in NYC’s iconic contribution to dance and how it was torn apart by the ‘80s AIDS crisis, you should give this a look.

Can You Bring It opens at the Film Forum this Friday, plus it will also be available via Virtual Cinema nationwide. Also starting at the Film Forum on Friday is its first series since the pandemic, a comprehensive Humphrey Bogart hardboiled retrospective with 19 films in 35mm and DCP.

You can also read my interview with Director/DoP Tom Hurwitz over at Below the Line later today.

A movie I’ve really been looking forward to seeing is Morgan Neville’s ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN (Focus Features), which does for the famed celebrity author and chef what Neville’s previous movie, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, did for Mister Rogers, really going in-depth into the life and career of the celebrated and opinionated foodie. Bourdain committed suicide in June 2018, leaving a lot of his friends and fans wondering why he would take his own life when he was at the height of his career. Neville’s film looks at that, but it takes some time before it gets there.

Oddly, even though I was a huge Bourdain fan and even moreso after reading his book, “Kitchen Confidential,” this isn’t my favorite movie Neville has made, and I’m still trying to figure out why. Sure, there’s tons of extra never-before-seen footage from the taping of his various world-travelling television shows. They do show us another side of Bourdain that maybe we didn’t get to see from what was eventually aired.

I guess I was disappointed that Neville didn’t try to talk to Asia Argento, or maybe he did, and she declined? (I was hoping to talk to Morgan Neville for Below the Line about this movie, but it wasn’t meant to be.) Bourdain’s friends and co-workers on the show talk about how Argento’s inclusion into Bourdain’s life disrupted the creation of his television show, particularly the Hong Kong episode Argento directed, which apparently wasn’t without its problems, even before it was yanked from CNN after Bourdain’s death. No one blames Argento for Bourdain's choice to kill himself, but it would have been nice to get her take on the man for a more complete profile.

Even so, one of my biggest issues with the movie -- and this is where I prove unequivocally that absolutely NO ONE reads this column -- has nothing to do with Neville’s filmmaking prowess or storytelling ability, but more to do with the complete inability by many that talk about his death to understand why there have been so many prominent suicides by hanging: Bourdain, Michael Hutchence of INXS, Chris Connelly of Soundgarden, and quite a few more. When you make the decision to end your life by hanging, there’s only two ways it can go: you fail miserably i.e. the rope snaps, the knots aren’t tied properly... or you die. Even if you have second thoughts while you’re standing on the chair, once you drop, you’re dead even if you merely slipped. This is why hanging has been such a popular form of execution for hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s hard to screw it up. Unfortunately, when you’ve decided you no longer want to live, and you decide to hang yourself, it’s much easier to succeed in doing so… and for better or worse, I’m not sure that Neville or any of Bourdain’s friends interviewed have ever been to that point where they tried to hang themselves to really understand that. It’s minor and probably will be a non-issue to most seeing this movie, but having been at that point of hopelessness myself (probably for far different reasons than Bourdain), that bothered me a little. That sort of context would have helped people who watch the movie understand Bourdain's last moments.

Despite those issues, Roadrunner brilliantly captures the spirit and tone of Bourdain’s character as depicted on his various television series. That's why Roadrunner is a movie that mostly worked for me as a fan of Bourdain’s amazing writing and television work.

Focus continues to give its movies semi-wide releases, and this one is going pretty wide into 800 theaters, so it might be able to peek into the top 10, maybe?

Another movie coming to theaters is Michael Sarnoski’s PIG (NEON), starring Nicholas Cage as Robin Feld, a reclusive hermit of a man who once was a legendary Portland chef. He’s now living on his own in the middle of nowhere with his truffle-foraging pig, but one night, some people break in and steal the pig, thinking that it’s their path to fortunes. Robin isn’t having any of it, and he follows his pig’s trail to a fight club and then to the father of one of his main buyers (Alex Wolff).

Even though I’ve known about this movie for some time, I didn’t really know that much about it. Like man, I expected it to be a straight-up revenge action flick a bit like John Wick, but the only thing this has in common with that is that this as terrific a showcase for Cage as an actor as that was for Keanu Reeves. Spending much of the movie completely bedraggled and beaten-up, this is still a far more subdued performance for Cage than some might be expecting, and a slower and more subdued film with only a few moments achieving anything that could be considered “action.”

Even so, this is such a great vehicle for Cage, and Alex Wolff is also quite good, plus there’s a foodie aspect to the movie that should make it a great double feature with Roadrunner. It should be expected with so much of it involving truffles, which not many people outside of chefs and gourmands know much about

Some people might go into Pig with the wrong expectations of this being some sort of genre revenge flick, but it’s in fact a pretty solid character drama, truly showing off Cage’s terrific ability at creating character, so hopefully, it will find its audience even it might not be the one some might expect.

Rating: 7.5/10

Pig will actually open in a few hundred theaters nationwide so plenty of opportunities to see it that way.

Netflix has a duo of high-profile films this week, including the action-thriller GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE (Netflix), starring Karen Gillan and directed by Israreli filmmaker Navot Papushado (Big Bad Wolves). Gillan plays Sam, an assassin for a group called The Firm, a second generation assassin no less since her mother Scarlet (Lena Headey) was also an assassin. One day, she finds herself on the bad side of a crime lord whose son she killed (on a mission) and finds herself having to fight off dozens of killers as she tries to protect that man’s 9-year-old daughter Emily (Chloe Coleman).

I can’t believe how much I absolutely hated a good part of this movie, because I generally like Gillan and some of the others in this movie, but I don’t any of them are doing particularly good work. For instance, Paul Giamatti is in full-on scenery-chewing mode as head of the Firm, but there’s also a great trio of women known as the Librarians, played by Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino and Angela Bassett, who I wish were in the film more than they actually are, because they literally are the best part of the film. (I also was pretty disappointed by Coleman’s bland performance lacking any of the personality she showed in My Spy, in which she was very funny.)

Basically, it feels like this is another filmmaker who has seen Tarantino’s Kill BIll a few dozen times and thought they could do something just as cool. The fact that it’s so flagrant and obvious in its ripping that movie off, it’s almost impossible to fully enjoy it. What’s really missing is Tarantino’s knack for sharp writing, because the writing in this movie is just terrible.

I thought the score was probably the most interesting aspect of the movie, but even that was highly derivative of what Tarantino has done. Even the needle drop choices during the bigger action pieces feel too much like something Tarantino might do, but generally better.

Sure, there’s some cool action scenes, and the last act generally gets better once Headey and the Librarians rejoin the fray to fight off a cadre of henchmen, but the writing never improves, so it’s just a movie that relies on far too many “oooo… Cooooool!” moments that never really come together.

As much as Gunpowder Milkshake tries to be cool and stylish, it always feels like it’s trying too hard without understanding why movies like Tarantino’s and others work so well. Any of the bad-ass fight sequences are constantly marred as soon as there tries to be any sort of talking or story.

Rating: 5.5/10

The third part of the horror series based on R.L. Stine’s books, FEAR STREET PART 3: 1666 (Netflix), will hit the streamer on Friday, this one being a prequel to the previous two movies, taking place in 1666. I’m still behind on this series, but looking forward to a night where I can finally watch all three.

I definitely had more movies to watch than usual that I just didn’t get to include some of them like Martin WIlson’s directorial debut, the horror-thriller GREAT WHITE (RLJEfilms/Shudder), which stars Katrina Bowden and others, about a tourist trip that turns into a nightmare when five passengers on a sea plane get stranded miles from the shore and try to survive as they run out of supplies and run into, you guessed it, a shark. Sounds like my kind of movie, but I’ve just been swamped.

I was pretty tickled by the premise for Jean-Paul Salomé’s MAMA WEED (Brainstorm Media/Music Box Films), starring the wonderful Isabelle Hupert as Patience, a French-Arabic translator for the Paris anti-narcotics police unit who interprets calls between the city’s top drug dealers. She’s taking care of her aging mother and one day she hears the son of one of her mother’s nurses, so she tries to protect him but ends up with a huge cache of hash, so she becomes a drug dealer herself, becoming the persona of “Mama Weed.” Nominated for a César for its screenplay, the movie will open in select theaters this Friday and then be available On Demand on July 23.

Another doc of note is Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt’s NO ORDINARY MAN (Oscilloscope), which tells the story of American jazz musician Billy Tipton who had spent his entire career passing off as a man, unbeknownst to his wife and son that he was born female. It’s an intriguing story that unfortunately got mangled by the talk shows after Tipton’s death in 1989, but the filmmakers use an interesting way to tell the story rather than using talking heads. I haven’t actually watched it yet, but it sounds intriguing. It will open at the IFC Center in New York and the Landmark Nuart in L.A. on Friday.

Debuting on Hulu this week is the amazing six-part docuseries called MCCARTNEY 3, 2, 1 (Hulu), which as you can safely assume is about Beatles founder Paul McCartney, covering his sixty-year career as he talks with producer Rick Rubin in a studio filled with instruments and tapes of some of the great songs that Rubin mixes different elements up and down to discuss how they were done with McCartney. I generally love music docs, but this is something truly special that I expect to rewatch many times over the next few years.

Netflix also has a new docuseries called HEIST (Netflix) and is debuting a doc about tennis great, Naomi Osaka, this week. Meanwhile, the anthology prequel series, American Horror Stories, debuts on FX and FX on Hulu this week, as well, so it’s a pretty busy weekend, which was bound to happen after last week’s bye week.

Other movies out this week that I didn’t get to include:

Die in a Gunfight (Lionsgate) Out of Death (Vertical) Casanova, Last Love (Cohen Media) How to Deter a Robber

Next week, two more new movies, including the action prequel, SNAKE EYES, starring Henry Golding, and M. Night Shyamalan’s new thriller, OLD.

#The Weekend Warrior Space Jam: A New Legacy #Escape Room #Box Office #Movies #Reviews #Roadrunner #Anthony Bourdain #PIG #Nicholas Cage

0 notes

canaryatlaw · 6 years ago

Text

Alright, I’m sitting on a train heading home from nyc to my parents’ place. Today’s been wild, to put it mildly, lol, so lots to explain there. To begin, my alarm went off at 3:45 am this morning, at which point I had to convince myself that I did actually want to get out of bed, then proceeded to do so and get dressed, throw my toothbrush in my bag and confirm that Jess was ready to go before calling the Uber. It was a few minutes out but I wanted to be ready, so I walked down the stairs in my apartment building and about three steps short of the bottom my brain somehow short-circuited, probably because I was still half asleep, and decided that there were no more steps there, so instead of walking down the rest of the steps I just took a giant plunge forward which landed me smacking my knees into the ground just in front of the door with a giant OW. My first observation though was relief it was just my knees that hurt from getting smacked and not any other parts of my body (like a foot or wrist that are known to break) that had been injured and could’ve been a much bigger issue. Don’t need one of those derailing the day to say the least, the amount of ice that’s been on the ground lately has made me really skittish about slipping and falling outside so that’s been on my mind a lot.

But I picked myself up and proceeded to actually leave the building and enter the Uber that pulled up a minute later. Picked Jess up and was on our way to the airport. I rolled my sweatpants up to check my knees, I had a fairly large scrape on my left one but my right one was ok, it wasn’t really bleeding though thankfully and I’m prepared for everything so I had bandaids and bacitracin within reaching distance. So I patched myself up a bit and we were on our way. Made it to the airport and since we had our boarding passes printed out and weren’t checking any bags (we were flying Spirit so just doing a backpack each) we just went straight to security, which proved to be a bit of a longer work than initially predicted, but once we got through successfully we saw we had no need to worry because the plane was not going anywhere fast lol. We ended up being a bit delayed, and then there was a whole hoopla where the lady on the speaker initially said we needed 23 people to switch to another flight that was leaving soon after and that there was gonna be a $250 voucher available for every person that switched, which led to a large amount of people rushing over to try to claim this, only to be followed up with a minute later that oh wait, actually there’s no voucher available but we still needed 23 people to switch to another flight. So naturally that put a bit of a damper on people’s willingness, but eventually we figured it out and actually did get onboard. Once we were onboard the pilot got on the speaker and explained that the issue had been that they had overfilled our plane’s fuel tank and that instead of removing fuel they instead transferred the weight of the extra fuel (apparently about 23 people’s worth) to another flight to make up for it, which made a lot more sense because I was like even for Spirit overbooking a flight by 23 people is wildly irresponsible, so I felt better knowing that didn’t occur. Once we were in the air I took out my make up bag and proceeded to do my make up, and when I was done with that I just closed my eyes while listening to music and didn’t sleep but at least rested my eyes for most of the trip. We ended up making decent time, got there at like 9:20 when our initial landing time was supposed to be 9, so not bad.

Once on the ground we headed to the nearest bathroom where we both changed our sweatpants into jeans and Jess did some make up before we left. Headed to the taxis (because easier that Ubers in NY) and gave them the address for Juniors, which was serving breakfast until 10:45, and headed there. The ride wasn’t bad, had to eat the midtown tunnel toll which was like $6 but that was unavoidable. But we got there pretty soon and waited for about ten minutes before getting seated and having breakfast. I had an omelet for the first time in quite a while, not because I don’t like omelets (because I do) but generally when given the option I preferred something breadier and sweeter (so pretty much waffles and French toast, occasionally with pancakes thrown in) but they had a corned beef omelet and you can’t get that every day so I went for that. They were good and fast of course, they know what their gig is and they play it well. After that we headed out and ended up going to a stuffed animal store on the corner that apparently was featuring the stuffed animals from the members of BTS which Jess is like obsessively against (she’s an anti-fan, basically) so we had to go and check that out and see all the very, very weird products they had (and they were very weird) and eventually took a picture with a giant teddy bear at the front of the store. We didn’t have much else to do at that point so we went to the Forever 21 in Times Square and ran around there for a while, Jess grabbed a few things and while we were checking out there were like best friends matching keychains that we were joking at and we were like oh if they were something more relevant to us maybe we’d get them, and under them they just had normal keychains of like a pineapple I lifted one of them which revealed an avocado keychain which then caused us to freak out because this was clearly Fate, so now we own best friend avocado keychains that weren’t supposed to be a best friend thing but they are now.

Once we finished there we really didn’t have anywhere else to go, so we ended up just chilling in the Starbucks on 47th until it was closer to the show time at which point we walked to the theatre on 43rd and stood in line briefly before getting to our seats. We were in the literal last row of the orchestra, where I have been before but have never complained about because I knew the important part was being in the orchestra to begin with, even the last row are good seats. And then it was time for the play (a bit of a change since we generally do musicals, but for Harry Potter you change things up) and so we were off. When the script had been released I had heard reports that it was very weird and a lot of people didn’t like it, but I had it on good authority that the play version was worth watching, so there we were. And oh, it was very much worth watching.

Heavy spoilers from here on, obviously, because I’m gonna freak out about how good it was now. Like, agh, all of it was done so well. I totally see how it wouldn’t transfer to paper well in the means where people were expecting to read it like a novel but plays aren’t meant to be read they’re meant to be performed, and this definitely needed to be performed to reach its full artistic genius. The technical effects were excellent, but unlike shows like King Kong and Spider-Man (the musical!) the effects didn’t far outshine the story but only served to elevate the story (as they should). They used music for a lot of the transitions, not unlike a musical except of course nobody’s going to start singing at some point. Everything was done very smoothly and they often left you with a “how did they do that....” as the scene goes on (and I mean, I’ve seen a lot of effects, but there were several I was quite taken with). Storywise of course I’ll only go through this for the first half of the show since it’s split into two actually separate shows (like first starts at 2 second starts at 7:30, each of which had an act one and act two). Okay so, act one. We open on the well-known scene that is pretty much all we know about the future of the HP-verse up until this point: the epilogue. We see Albus Severus talk nervously about potentially getting sorted into slytherin, then goes on the train with his cousin Rose (Granger-Weasley). Much like the opening of the original (as Rose points out was where their parents met) they come across one Scorpius Malfoy in his train compartment. I hadn’t imagined Scorpius as much other than existing from the epilogue up until this moment, yet I instantly recognized he was nothing like what I would’ve expected from him and was also 100% as he should be. The actor playing him was fucking hilarious but made it work with so much more than just the funny lines. So Rose gets sorted into gryffindor and Albus gets sorted into slytherin, where him and Scorpius become best friends. There’s also the establishment of a crucial plot point, being that there were rumors that Draco couldn’t get his wife pregnant and to keep the Malfoy line going they used a time turner to go have a love child with Voldemort and Scorpius is actually Voldemort’s child, something he gets teased about and Draco is trying to get Harry to tell people the ministry destroyed all the time turners but Harry won’t get involved.

We get shown a few scenes indicating the passing of the years, Albus having a deteriorating relationship with his father who can’t seem to relate to his middle son, up until right before he’s starting his 4th year. Harry, who works for the ministry, gets a visit at home from old Mr Diggory who is fairly unhinged and is begging Harry to use the time turner that just showed up at the ministry to go save Cedric. Albus is listening from the stairs in the back and gets introduced to Delphi, Diggory’s niece who is taking care of him in his old age. The scene ends, Albus and Harry have a fight where not nice things are said (mostly by Harry), Albus decides on the train the next day he was done with this crap and convinces Scorpius to abscond with him on a mission to steal the timeturner and go save Cedric. Now, some character commentary. Albus and Scorpius are fucking great together. From the first scene I legit just leaned over to Jess and was like GAYYYYYYYYYY because they’re legit just the entire plot and all of it was just them basically being in love with each other (🤷🏻‍♀️).

So the show up at the old wizard’s center Diggory is at And they run into Delphi who they conscript into their adventure to save her cousin. They manage to break into the ministry and do manage to steal the time turner, where they plan to go back to the first task of the tri-Wizard tournament which is of course flawed thinking because they only would’ve needed to intervene in the last one, but there had to be a whole show here. So they go back and interfere, they steal his wand and when they come back Ron and Hermione aren’t married and Albus is sorted into gryffindor, apparently the result of some prodding from Ron’s son he had had with Padma Patil. Meanwhile there’s parental angst and Harry tries to keep them apart because he thinks Scorpius is a bad influence on Albus. So these lovable dorks are like let’s go back again and interfere with the second task (again, not the point), but when they get back Albus is gone and Scorpius is greeted by headmaster Umbridge, who explains Harry died at the battle of hogwarts and the wizarding world is under Voldemort’s control, close curtain end of part one. So that was wild.

After the show we went back to Juniors and had more food, then ended up going back to the theatre because it was cold outside and back to the story because that’s where we wanted to be. Meanwhile in the theatre they had switched all the merch and stuff over to the dark insignia (not the traditional dark mark, a new snake thingy) because it’s all under that now. So the play opens, everything’s very militaristic, under a despot, and Scorpius is VERY STRESSED, he keeps getting hassled because he was asking about Harry, and talking about Cedric, where he is able to find out Cedric was so humiliated by his terrible loss in the second task of the triwizard tournament he went down a dark path and became a deatheater, but “wasn’t even very effective because he only killed one wizard, some loser named Neville Longbottom.” Oh. The future of the free world rests on Neville Longbottom. That tracks. So he eventually goes to Snape who’s still a teacher at the school and spills everything, including him knowing about Snape loving Lily from the other world, which leads Snape to take him into the room of requirement (didn’t spell that right) where we find Ron and Hermione and that’s about it, there’s a whole confrontation with the dementors which they did much more effectively than the movies, that basically led to all the adults sacrificing their lives in this reality so Scorpius can go set it right in the real world (at which point I was like legends season 2 finale much??), which he manages to do and yay Albus is back! So everything is good except Harry’s scar has been hurting and there’s some issue going on.

So they make the adults think they lost the time turner but Scorpius then reveals he had it and wouldn’t give it back to the adults because they would just lie and keep it again and since he had seen the true horror he knew they had to destroy it. So Albus sends an owl to Delphi because she was there with them to begin with and she should be there to see them destroy it, and manages to get the time turner from them and upon hearing of the alternate reality Scorpius was telling of she reveals she’s actually the child of Voldemort and is actually a very powerful witch who takes them back to the night of the final task of the tournament where they’re supposed to be stop Cedric from winning so he’ll become a deatheater, something about a prophecy, she’s crucio’ing Scorpius so Albus will comply but they manage to get away from her, for a second ACTUAL CEDRIC shows up and gets her away and I swear to fuck I fucking cried it was beautiful and so I’m home now and didn’t mean to get into explaining this much plot shit because as you can see it gets quite complicated and takes a lot to explain but we’re here now so I guess we’re going the rest of the way home. So the boys are missing again and parents are distraught again, they manage to foil her plans for that night but then she grabs them and takes them to a day and then smashes the time turner so they’re stuck. Meanwhile parents figure out who Delphi is and they go to her room which looks normal but when you turn the lights out there’s like glow in the dark words written all over about the prophecy except instead of just being on her walls they were all over the entire theatre like under the balcony right back where we were sitting EVERYWHERE it was so good and also Harry was having weird flashback dreams that never happened that mostly just consisted of him going weird places with the Dursley’s but one of them was at his parents’ graves and there was a jump scare that scared the shit out of both of us, so that was fun.

So boys figure out they’re stuck the day before Voldemort tries to kill Harry as a baby so they figure Delphi’s gonna stop him from getting destroyed, so they stake it out and with some creative choices they manage to get a message back to Harry and everyone about where they are and Draco reveals his dad had been hoarding a much better quality time turner (at which point I just leaned over and was like “a very potter sequel?”) so the adults (meaning Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Draco) all go back and find the boys and make a plan to corner Delphi when she shows up, but then they figure she’s waiting for Voldy to show so she can introduce herself, so Harry transfigures into Voldy and tricks her into where they all were except it starts failing at the last minute and so they’re fighting and at first she manages to lock everyone else out so it’s just her and Harry and she got his wand so he’s fucked but Albus is tiny and like climbs through a grate in the floor (they’re supposed to be in the old church in Godric’s Hollow), gets his dad his wand back and lets everyone else back into the fight where they defeat her. It was revealed when she was talking to fake Voldy that apparently she was the love child of Voldemort and Bellatrix LeStrange born before the battle of hogwarts and raised by Rodolphus LeStrange when he was apparently let out of Azkaban (because that happened for some reason) and was basically confunding old man Diggory and tricking everybody into thinking she was his niece and nurse (there was a confrontation with Draco and Harry and Diggory where they’re like “we know they’re with your niece!!” and Diggory is like “I don’t have a niece, I was an only child and so was my wife????”) and then once they have her defeated actual Voldy comes in and they have to watch his parents get killed (we hear it and see them watching) which was very sad. But then they get back to the present where they get yelled at a lot by McGonagall (well-deserved) and then some eventual cheering and improvement in father-son relationships for both boys and like, I’m sure the plot I just explained sounded really nuts but it was honestly such a sweet and sincere story that was so incredibly well-executed. If Angels in America hadn’t been playing on broadway last year, I’m convinced they would’ve swept the (play) Tonys, and while AiA won the actor focused awards (for best leading and featured as Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane, because of course), cursed child won for best play, best director, scenic design, costume design, lighting design, and sound design, which is honestly a huge feat in itself so they should be very proud, though I maintain Scorpius’ performance very much deserved a Tony (upon consulting with British friends since almost all the main cast was taken from the original west end production the actor did in fact with the Olivier for the role so that brought me comfort). But yeah, that was wild.

And since then, we left, walked back to penn, chilled at shake shack until the train was ready to go, rode the train home where I started writing this, and I’ve since gotten off the train, into an Uber, back to my parents house, got ready for bed, and am now sitting on my bed with the lights out ready to go to sleep as soon as I finish writing this, it’s almost 2 am so I think it’s safe to say this is a good spot to finish. Goodnight loves. Hope you had a wonderful Saturday as well.

#daily journal #February 2019 #Jess tag #that was 3380 words #wow

0 notes

kandrakar-rambles · 8 years ago

Text

Overall Thoughts

The good:

The show took me back to a nostalgic period of time. It was fun seeing my favorite characters brought to life with voice acting and animation, and made them feel even more real.

For the most part, I was pleased with the animation. I prefer the art style of the comics, but I understand the need to simplify things for animation... especially since this was probably a low budget production. And overall, I think they did a great job with the rendering and attention to detail.

I think Season 2 was better done that Season 1. It's too bad the show was cancelled... while I know a lot of you hated the animated series, for understandable reasons, I would have liked to see if they could have redeemed themselves given another season. And perhaps some new writers. But perhaps that's just because I would have liked to see some of my favorite arcs and issues brought to life. I would have loved to see Taranee vs. the Oracle. I would have loved to see Orube. And I would have loved to see Raphael Silla in action.

Yan Lin was as wonderful in the show as she was in the comics. Actually, I think she had a bigger role in the animated series, and for that I am utterly delighted. I love that they had an older female mentor. How often do we get to see elderly women portrayed in the media? Especially elderly POC women.

Some of the dialogue was corny and cringe worthy, but I really do think they got better towards the end of the series. And there were some very entertaining episodes. I think if they had stuck a little closer to the source material, they wouldn't have run into as many problems as they did.

I really love the voice actor they got for Cedric and Phobos. I found it very fitting to how I imagined it in my head.

They did change the girls outfits every episode. Considering other animated TV shows I've watched... hats off for that alone. It really helps the girls feel like real, organic characters.

They did not butcher Matt's character, although they changed some things about him that I'll never understand. But considering how badly they messed up Caleb... hey, I'm glad they didn't mess up my cinnamon bun.

The music brings up all sorts of 90′s and 2000′s nostalgia. A+ for playing with my emotions while making me cringe just slightly.

The bad:

They butchered Cornelia's character. Instead of the fiercely rational, passionate, loyal, and protective girl we get to know in the comics, they reduce Cornelia to a the stereotype of the airhead blonde who cares only about her appearance and boys.

They butchered Caleb's character. Instead of the sweet, supportive, and somewhat clueless flower-man, we get the stereotypical sexist white-boy hero who gets to be a dick all the time and no one ever calls him out on his shit. Comic Caleb and animated Caleb are so vastly different the only thing they share in common is their names. Giant portions of Caleb's history was erased and instead he was made the "son" of a rebel leader and an evil villain... because, you know, the boy needs an "epic" plot line. And earning redemption after living a life of servitude to Phobos wasn't good enough.

They butchered Cornelia and Caleb's relationship, which was supposed to be a tragic love story of star crossed lovers...and instead, relied upon the boring, over-used trope of "You annoy me so I secretly love you." It's reminiscent of the boy tugs girls hair and that somehow translates into love. It's...cringe worthy at best.

Caleb got far too much screen time. I'm sure it was in an effort to drawn in "male viewers." But first and foremost, this was a comic series (and animated series) geared towards young girls and empowering young girls, and Caleb got at least half the screen time. If anything, we should have been developing the girls backgrounds more or focusing more on their friendships.

Speaking of which, I wanted more scenes between the individual girls. We all know they're a powerful, strong group... but what made the comic so amazing was that everyone had a unique and organic relationship with each other. There were subtle differences in how all the girls interacted with each other and the comic focused on all of it. I wish they would have explored Irma and Hay Lin's friendship as well as the tension sometimes visible between Cornelia and Will.

Miranda's character was completely unnecessary and in the end, sad. But they never addressed it as such. If she was a 15 year old girl, then she was manipulated and abused by Cedric just like Elyon. I'm not sure how old Cedric is supposed to be, but we know he's old enough to be an adult and own a bookshop. So we're definitely crossing into luring a minor and creepy shit like that. While the comics did a great job of showing kids why adults aren't always "safe" with Elyon and Cedric's ultimate betrayal of her feelings, and we never once think "Elyon and Cedric are great together!", the animated series fails to address this as an issue. They don't go "Wow this is creepy and wrong as fuck." The comics do. The comics make it very clear that Elyon was manipulated by Cedric and Phobo's, who used her feelings for Cedric and her love for her brother to twist her into a weapon for themselves. So while Miranda was a background character, it's very dangerous not to address this issue. Because if you don't, it makes it seem "okay."

Not enough Peter. Period. But I have this complaint with the comics as well.

They changed Irma’s character too. For some reason, they made her into this sarcastic tomboy. I mean, Irma is pretty snarky in the comics, but she’s also probably the most girly of all the guardians. And I will never forgive them for trying to make Irma feel guilty for rejecting Martin, who acted like a total creep and was pissed about being friend zoned. It was an absolute injustice to Irma, who would never put up with that sort of shit. She’s also pretty flirty. And while in the comics she’s seen with multiple love interests, the animated series make it seems like she only ever pines after unattainable guys.

If they were going to change anything from the comics, they could have added more body diversity. *my one sole complaint about the comics*

I wanted more about the girl’s athletic lives. Cornelia is this amazing figure skater who has won medals and trophies, and Taranee is a fantastic dancer. Will is a beast at swimming... and I think it’s important to show girls excelling at normal athletic events.

#overall thoughts #w.i.t.c.h.#animated series #what a ride #season 2

83 notes · View notes

missnight0wl · 4 years ago

Note

What do you think of the kids in hphm: Percy, Fred, George, Cedric and Beatrice? Which one of them do you like the most?

In general, I quite like all of them. Although I also have to say that, in my opinion, their involvement in the story is too big – especially when it comes to the youngest kids, so the twins and Cedric. I know it’s a bit weird thing to say, considering that we didn’t even see them in a while (or at all in Y7, I guess). But my point is that they’re often kind of… meaningless for the story.

Let’s start with Cedric because I think that his case is the worst. I mean, I like him and whatnot, and I find it really cute that Amos has his pictures included in presentations he shows us during Assignments at the Ministry. But the way Jam City approach his character overall was simply terrible. It’s painfully obvious that it’s empty fanservice. I still feel slightly uncomfortable just remembering all those sixteen-year-olds gushing over a poor first-year. Not only was it awkward, but I also don’t understand why Jam City insisted that Cedric had to be popular since his very first days at Hogwarts. He didn’t. Cedric, we saw in the books, had years to prove he’s kind, a good student and a talented Quidditch player. He might’ve started as a regular kid.

I think it’d be much better if Cedric got his own SQ, and his role in the main story was significantly reduced. In fact, it could be interesting if we were helping Cedric in that quest to find his place at Hogwarts. You know, let’s say that he’s not that popular at all, he’s just another lost first-year. Then, MC could’ve boosted his confidence just a little or something. Of course, I’m not saying that MC should be the main reason why Cedric grew up to be such a great young wizard, but we could have a teeny-tiny part in that. I suppose I’d like it better than what we got from Jam City.

As for Fred and George, I have to say that their presence is much more understandable because well, they’re the Weasleys – and we already had Bill and Charlie (and Percy), after all. I also still believe that they were meant to have a bigger role, possibly involving a comeback of the Marauders Map. George even has in his friendship quiz a question about the Whomping Willow and some notes. Unfortunately, Jam City screwed up badly in the second half of Y6 and lost track of anything, so I guess we’ll never find out what was that supposed to be… Overall, I’d say that their presence is justified better than Cedric’s and it could actually be used in an interesting way. Still, I personally wouldn’t include them in the Circle of Khanna, for example.

Moving to Percy, I honestly really like him. Sure, he can be annoying, but to me, it’s a good type of annoying. Like, there’s a difference between a character who’s supposed to be annoying and the one who’s annoying because they’re badly written, for example. Percy belongs in the first group, in my opinion. Also, his banters with his brother or even MC can be pretty amusing. Remember when he caught us in the Gryffindor Common Room, and MC was like: “Go ahead, ask your brother Bill, how to punish us”. Another thing I enjoy about Jam City’s portrayal of Percy is that they stick to the idea of Percy being a caring brother (I’m talking here mostly about how concerned he was about Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets, or his reaction when Harry pulled Ron out of the Black Lake during the second task). It was pretty touching how worried he was when the twins went missing in Y6, and how he actually felt responsible – even though he was just a thirteen-year-old kid at the time! Frankly, Percy is a character I wouldn’t mind seeing more, and I truly believe he’d make much more sense on our Friendships list than Cedric.

That being said, I don’t know if I can say that I like Percy the most – because I like Beatrice more or less the same. I always thought that the plot of Beatrice’s change was interesting, and it’s actually weird that we didn’t see it before. Because what Beatrice went through is quite common for teenagers, even the ones who didn’t go through a traumatic experience. You know, changing your style, trying to understand yourself and find your own place in the world. I was really surprised that Penny seemed to not understand it at all because it’s a pretty normal part of being a teenager. I’m sure that if HPHM was more realistic, more of our friends would go through the “weird hairstyle” phase or the “looking for you fashion style” one (poor Andre and his heart). Of course, it was more complex in Beatrice's case due to her being trapped in the portrait. But it’s just interesting to see this issue being discussed at all.

However, MC’s involvement in the Haywoods’ drama was waaay too big. MC doesn’t know shit about the siblings' relationships, and it added nothing to the story, so it was simply a huge waste of time. I know it was important for them, but I’d just prefer if it was happening more in the background.

Also, I’m really disappointed that we didn’t push on Beatrice for information about what happened when she was trapped. I know it’d be hard for her, but it could be so important for the story! There was a moment back in Y5 when she clearly was trying to tell us something but wasn’t able anymore, and I’m just dying to know what was it about. She could’ve seen a person who was tampering with the portraits, for example.

So yeah. To sum up: they’re all good kids. It’s just Jam City’s execution that sometimes sucks – one way or another.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm mc #cedric diggory #fred weasley #george weasley #percy weasley #beatrice haywood #jam city #about characters #ask #anonymous

18 notes · View notes

letsprayitwritesitself · 8 years ago

Note

Harry Potter AU; Javid

(so the way this is going to go, because i’m so hyped about this, is four sections, following along with the plot of the last four books in the series. this is part one, with the next three to be posted in the next few days.) (also like this is all assuming the reader will have knowledge of the plot of the last four harry potter books!! wikipedia that shit if u dont know!)

again, sincerest hugest thanks 4 this prompt!!!!!!!

Davey knew, logically, that there was no way he could really be hurt at this thing. He was far enough away that he could enjoy the thrill of the event without being nervous (for himself, that is, the kid that was down there was another matter entirely.) But all the same, there was a fucking dragon there.

He would have been content to hear about it from his friends after it happened, head full of fantasies of how quiet the library probably was, how he’d be able to get at the herbology book he’d been coveting for weeks - but they’d forced him out, stressing how historic this tournament was, and how much he’d regret missing it. He didn’t tell them that actually, he’d missed a lot of historic events before, and he was really quite alright with it. For his part he’d made them stand at the back (although he was sure that if a dragon really wanted to hurt them it wouldn’t be put off by the extra fifty feet or so it had to travel.)

‘I wonder how they’re meant to pull this off?’ Albert squinted out into the field, trying to assess what the poor bastards taking part had to deal with. ‘Do they get any help?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Davey had read up a little on these tournaments. ‘I think the point is they’re meant to be able to come up with their own way.’

‘I couldn’t do it, ya know. I’d piss my pants and cry for a really long time, til everyone went home.’

‘That might work.’ Davey raised his eyebrows. ‘The dragon might feel sorry for you and let you win.’

‘Maybe I should have entered my name after all!’

They were interrupted by a short Gryffindor wielding a wad of parchment.

‘You guys want some action?’

‘I’m sorry?’ Davey couldn’t unpick this guy’s phrasing.

‘Good odds on Potter and Diggory. C’mon, let’s liven it up.’

‘It’s already pretty lively, I think.’

‘Give it up, Race,’ another Gryffindor appeared behind the kid and affectionately pulled on his friend’s woolly hat. ‘Them Weasley boys have monopolised the game.’

‘Rats.’ Race tucked his betting slips under his arm.

Davey turned back to Albert. ‘I was about to complain about being cold but I don’t want to tempt fate.’

‘I don’t think the dragon cares too much, Davey.’

‘Hey, I know you.’ Race’s friend butted in. ‘Albert, you’re in my potions, right?’

‘Right! What’s up? Davey, this here’s Jack Kelly. He’s the kid who exploded the Confusing Concotion in Snape’s face in second year, oh my god.’

Davey nodded in greeting, vaguely remembering hearing the story. Jack smiled and reached out his hand to shake Davey’s. It was at that moment that the dragon decided to show the world what a bad mood it was in, and blast a stream of fire over the entire stadium. Davey gasped, and ducked - because there was a fucking dragon there - and if he happened to accidentally squeeze this stranger’s hand, well, that was probably entirely understandable.

Because of the fucking dragon.

Jack grinned and raised his eyebrows but he didn’t pull his hand away. If a cute stranger needed him to protect them, he’d be there.

‘Sorry,’ Davey muttered. He dropped Jack’s hand and looked towards the arena, where the first competitor was coming out to somehow fight the god damn dragon. ‘Apparently dragons make me anxious.’

‘It’s no problem.’

Race and Albert, sharing a look, stepped away so Jack and Davey were standing next to each other. They all turned their attention back to the action. Cedric Diggory looked tiny among the rocks and the dragon had apparently noticed him going for the golden egg. This was terrifying. Davey jumped at every movement down there and, after only a few minutes was watching through his fingers. Cedric was shooting curses to try and distract the creature and they were almost working - not well enough for Davey to be anything less than petrified. A shocking near miss involving a badly timed leap from the champion saw him jump and physically look away.

He felt a nudge from next to him and turned to see Jack smiling and offering his hand.

‘Might help?’

He looked down at the hand and back up at Jack. Part of him wanted to defend himself, say he didn’t need protecting, that he wasn’t even scared - but a way bigger part of him, a very sensible part of him, was on edge, and grateful for the comfort.

And Jack was pretty.

He took the had and held it tight. None of the champions died, and the protective stranger turned out to be good company. Jack managed to supply witticisms to offset the tension of what they were seeing, and Davey appreciated it as much as he appreciated having a hand to squeeze when things got edgy. Even if he’d just met the guy, comfort was comfort.

At the end he let Jack’s hand go with only some reluctance, cringing at the white imprint his fingers had made on Jack’s skin.

‘Sorry. And thanks.’

‘Don’t mention it.’ Jack flexed his hand (it was only moderately painful.) Students around them were emptying the arena fast. Albert and Race started to head off in different directions. Jack took a couple of steps backwards, following Race. ‘Maybe I’ll see you around?’

‘Maybe you will.’ Davey smiled, almost daring himself to ask Jack when he might see him around, but panicking at the last moment. He headed away with Albert.

Race stared, incredulous, at Jack. ‘”Maybe I’ll see you around?”’

‘Didn’t wanna come on too strong!’

‘You just held his had for almost two hours, Jack.’

Jack glanced back over his shoulder and caught a fleeting moment of eye contact with Davey who was doing the same.

‘It’s a good start, isn’t it?’

Davey went to watch the next task with Sarah. Again, he had been planning on staying in and studying, even with the potential draw of handsome strangers offering to protect him from danger. At the same time, he may or may not have been keeping an eye out for Jack Kelly in the week since they had met, and he hadn’t spotted him once. He might not even be at the event, and if he was, there was no guarantee Davey would see him.

Like he had even thought about it.

But Sarah had cornered him at breakfast and told him categorically that they were going on a sibling date to check out the foreign kids in their bathing suits. They ambled down to the hills to take a sailboat into the lake, clad in their big coats and knitted hats, using the opportunity to catch up.

‘What happened to the little kid who used to come and find me every mealtime, huh? Haven’t seen you in weeks.’ Sarah aimed a light kick at him from across the boat. Davey smiled as he remembered how scared he’d been of starting at Hogwarts.

‘I guess I thought that you’d be able to introduce me to people, but you weren’t as cool as you pretended to be.’

‘Excuse you! I happen to be very popular… among… my friends.’

‘You’re right, I’m very sorry, Sarah.’

‘I actually do have some exciting developments in the gal pal department. You know Katherine from seventh year?’

‘I know Katherine from seventh year.’ He clambered out of the boat up to the stand, reaching in to help her up.

‘I’ve been getting to know Katherine from seventh year.’ She grinned, pushing him towards the crowd. ‘We spent all day together in Hogsmeade last weekend and then we had an accidental sleepover by the lake.’

‘Ew. I’ve heard enough.’

‘Not like that, gross! But I am feeling really good about her.’

‘Is she not here today?’

‘No, she’s on press duties. How cool is that?’

‘That is cool. In fact, maybe too cool. Definitely too cool for you.’

‘Luckily she hasn’t realised that yet.’ She poked him in the chest. ‘Your turn.’

‘What?’

‘Anything on the horizon?’ They found a place at the front and Davey leaned over the railing, letting the cold air whip his face, trying to decide if “I met a hot guy a week ago” was sufficient gossip for Sarah.

‘Not really.’

‘Your pause was very telling, Davey.’

‘It’s nothing. There’s no-one.’

‘You’re not getting out of it that easy!’

‘Davey!’ He heard the voice over his shoulder and for a split second he was glad of the distraction, before he realised who it was. Oh boy. He turned to see Jack heading over. He smiled in greeting, ignoring Sarah’s raised eyebrows. ‘You look cold.’

‘Yeah, it’s the… cold.’ His cheeks turned even redder as Jack reached out and touched one gently.

‘Better than almost being set on fire, I guess.’

‘A lot of things are.’ Jack stood next to him, leaning on the rail, looking at Sarah. ‘I’m Jack.’

‘Sarah.’

‘Not crashing a date or something, am I?’

‘Not at all. This here’s my baby brother.’ She grinned at Davey, who had managed to blush harder.

‘Bet you could tell me some stories, huh?’

‘Depends what you wanna know.’

Davey cleared his throat. ‘Guys, it’s starting.’ He didn’t want their conversation going any deeper - he knew what Sarah was like. She loved him a lot but god, she liked making him squirm.

The four champions stepped forward and a distinct impressed mumble passed through the crowd. Jack took a few seconds to rake his eyes over Viktor Krum and his tiny red shorts, and piped up.

‘I’m gayer than I thought.’

Sarah, just barely hearing, was captivated by blonde hair and lycra.

‘Me too.’

During breakfast the day before the first task, an owl dropped a handwritten note into Davey’s porridge.

How about we meet at the last task on purpose?

It was complete with a little moving doodle of cartoon-Jack valiantl protecting cartoon-Davey from a dragon, a drawing that might have been embarrassing were it not, you know, true. All the same it made Davey chuckle quietly, and he pulled out his quill to scribble a yes. Hanging out with Jack at the second task had been fun, even if Davey felt like an asshole for letting Sarah be turned into the third wheel. Jack was funny, making quips about what the mermaids might have stolen from him, and how he’d go about trying to do the task (transforming into a giant squid and fucking up everyone and everything until they handed Crutchie back to him with an apology note.)

At the end when Katherine came over to find Sarah, having finished composing her report, Jack confessed that he’d lost his friends when he spotted Davey, so the two ended up sharing a boat back to the castle. It had all seemed to get very… date-like, something Davey was totally fine with of course, but he was a little reticent in acknowledging it, in case he’d misread all the signals. Even now, telling Jack that he’d like to go with him to the last task, he didn’t want to let himself get too hopeful about the two of them, telling himself that it was still a good thing that Jack wanted to hang out. Even without any… intentions.

He gave the note back to the owl and watched as it soared across the great hall, over to the Gryffindor table he’d spent so long looking for Jack at. It flew all the way to the end, by the door, and he sat up as straight as he could to spot him.

Jack was sitting at the very end of the table, backwards, which went some way to explaining why Davey had never been able to spot him before. He was talking animatedly to a kid at the Hufflepuff table, one who had similarly turned his back on his own housemates. Davey recognised him, it was the kid everyone called Crutchie - he assumed it was an affectionate nickname, but he couldn’t be sure. Now he had found Jack, he watched him read the reply, felt the violent sting of butterflies in his stomach when he saw Jack say something to Crutchie, and Crutchie react with sheer delight.

Then Jack looked over his shoulder and caught Davey staring. Crutchie waved. Davey blushed, obviously. But he smiled too.

They met by the front door and walked across to the arena in the twilight. Davey itched to reach out and take Jack’s hand but even though they’d been there and done that, it would have felt like an enormous assumption. He took his cues from Jack, the more confident of the two, who was interested in using the cold weather to his advantage. They found decent spots towards the back.

‘Who d’you think’s gonna take this?’ Davey asked as they stared down at the hedges.

‘As much as I wanna say one of our guys, I kind of want it to be Krum. But I think that’s just me falling for his charm.’

‘Is that your type?’ This felt like a very brazen and un-Davey thing to say, but he saw a tiny window and had to leap through it. Jack pretended to think about it for a moment.

‘You know, I’m not sure. I’m starting to think I prefer someone a little taller. Little cuter.’ He looked at Davey. ‘Little smarter.’

‘How do you know how smart he is?’

‘I know how smart you are. Odds are he don’t match up.’

Davey looked at the ground to hide the grin that forced it’s way on to his face. Jack bit his lip, shuffling from one foot to the other.

‘Sorry, that was too corny. You can tell me to stop it.’

‘I don’t really want you to stop it.’ He looked back up at Jack. The air was full of excitement. Student babbled incoherently around them, and suddenly they’d both admitted something. They were quiet amongst the chaos for a moment and it was Jack who, with a smile on his face, started to lean in.

Cheers exploded around them as they kissed for the first time and they took a couple of seconds to pretend it was for them, riding the high of what sounded like a Hogwarts victory, with their own personal wave of elation. It only lasted a moment, more sweet and searching than anything else.

Their resultant dopey grins fell quickly as they heard an anguished scream from the field. Something was wrong.

Reflexively Davey reached for Jack’s hand, seeking that comfort, as he tried to figure out what was going on. The news of Cedric’s death travelled up to them via murmurs in the crowd and catalysed the wave of unease that the castle wouldn’t shake for months, that contradicted fiercely with the new happiness Jack and Davey had found, and yet that gave them more reason to cling to each other.

#newsies fic #jack kelly #davey jacobs #javid #newsies #Blessed by this prompt tbh

41 notes · View notes