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mortallyclearwonderland · 2 years

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Reasons not to watch Peter Pan and Wendy

1. It's another Disney ''live-action'' reboot. ''Live-action'' in air quotes because you just know a terrible CGI will show up eventually.

''It's not even out yet. Why are you hating it already? You HAVE to watch it first!''

No, I don't! Every single one of those remakes ranged from meh to terrible pieces of shit! The only ones I liked were the 101 Dalmatians movies from the 90s and early 2000s, before the dark times. All those remakes encouraged me to do is get myself physical copies of the original movies before the Chinese puppet censures them all.

''Stop comparing them to the originals! They're their own think.''

No, they're not! If they're supposed to be their own thing why do they go almost exactly the same as the original plot, why do they use the iconic imagery and music instead of creating their own (Why not change Belle's dress from golden to blue?)?

Just the idea of turning these beloved classics into live-action is an insult to animation and creativity. Imagine in place of every lazy remake there was an original animated movie. Not all of them would've been good. But people wouldn't hate them just for existing.

''But what about kids now? They deserve to see those classic stories.''

Yes, they do! So show them the originals, they still hold up! Are you worried about outdated stuff like language, stereotypes, smoking, etc? Then maybe explain this stuff. Or watch other live-action or animated versions. Disney isn't the only company that makes movies.

2. It looks like shit!

Disney remakes are notorious for being ugly and dark.

I don't mean dark as in dark themes, stories, and moments. They try but usually, they fall flat on their faces. Making awe-inspiring and funny moments creepy and ugly, and moments that are supposed to be scary and dramatic end up being funny. Mufasa's death original vs reboot, anyone?

When I say they're dark, as soon as a scene is at night or in a cave you can't see shit!

3. Race swaps.

''So, you're a racist !?!''

No! Shut up! To hell with this argument! I'm sick and tired of giving valid and logical criticism and Disney defenders brushing it off as people just being racist.

Don't you think people deserve their own characters instead of getting sloppy seconds?

''But there is so little representation! I just take what they give at this point. I don't care about the story as long as there are POCs on screen! - Insert iconic white character- is Black now, die mad about it racists!''

I'm sorry but you're part of the problem! If you're fine with race swaps of the white characters then companies have no reason to create original ones. If you will watch anything with anyone of the same race as you in it, producers will just put them in, without carrying about the story. That's how we end up with pointless token characters and bad stories.

There is not enough representation? Just google a movie, a show, a book, a comic, etc.

People aren't mad at the Black fairies and mermaids. They're mad because Disney's Tinkerbell is a white blond and Ariel is a white redhead. If they changed Tinkerbell into a redhead and Ariel into a blond people would still be mad.

If someone race-swapped them or changed really anything about these characters in a way that fans don't like there would've been a backlash.

There are plenty of stories from all over the world! It's the 21st century! Just use the internet! Or make something up! But then it wouldn't have a brand recognition and making original scripts is hard and long work and Disney needs to make 10 movies and shows in a year!

People are trained like dogs at this point!

Disney puts out a trailer for their remake with all the race and sex changes front and center.

Some people love it. Some people hate it.

Controversy ensues!

The trailer is dunked on.

''Give it a chance!'' people start to defend the movie.

The movie comes out and is just as bad as every other remake. And it would've been bad with or without those pointless changes.

4. Lost boys are not all boys.

Some idiot tried to argue that because there are women in the x-men team there is no reason to be upset over the lost boys having girls in them.

First of all, ‘’men’’ can be used as a synonym for people, humankind.

The x-men had female characters from the beginning.

Peter Pan already has female representation! You have Tiger Lily, Wendy, and Tinkerbell.

There is a bunch of stories with all-female groups or at least one girl in a group but as soon as there is an all-male thing Twitter screams.

The explanation as to why all the lost boys were lost in the first plays is because they were stupid and hyperactive and fell off their prams.

Nice going Disney, all those diverse characters were morons as babies. And it's true, everybody can be stupid, especially when they're just babies. But I can guarantee they will never show them being immature and childlike like in the original.

Also, the lost boys were inspired by real boys. And I can guarantee when people learn about their tragic backstories there will be a lot of angry people. Just like after they turned Peter Pan into a villain and everybody learned about the backstory of his voice actor.

Let the shitstorm begin! I'll be watching from the sideline.

#peter pan and wendy #fuck disney #disney remakes

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smokeybrandreviews · 1 year

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Gum-Gum no Excellence

I finished Netflix's take on One Piece yesterday and, i must say, it was superb. I did not think they'd be able to actually capture that kinetic, endearing, emotional, slapstick energy that the Straw Hat's exude but, to my joyful surprise, they absolutely did. This version of One Piece is every bit as valid as the manga and anime versions. In some regards, I'd say it's even better. Certainly the pacing is far superior. I mean, we spent, like, two episodes in Syrup village which is all you need. I hated that arc because it was so goddamn meh. Not in this adaption. You get in there, you get what you need (Usopp and Going Merry) and you're out. It's actually kind of amazing how adept the writers on this show were able to distill forty-five half hour episodes, into eight hour long entries, without losing the plot is borderline miraculous. There were changes made due to budget concerns and the like but, overall, the alterations were more positive than negative, something that is quite rare in modern Hollywood. I have an issue with the fact that this thing cribs way too much from that Pirates of the Caribbean aesthetic (this show is nowhere near as colorful or explosive as the manga and anime) but that, i think, is just for normie yankee appeal. I doubt the masses would except the technicolor camp of the original vision but who am i to day? What i can say is that the cast is pitch-perfect.

Months ago, when the cast was first announced, i wrote an entire essay about how perfect it was. If you're curious, it's titled "Bon Voyage". Search that up and give it a read. In short, i thought the cast was perfect. There was a lot of frustration about "forced diversity" and perceived "wokeness" but that wasn't the case at all. The characters actually skewed to how Oda, himself, saw them. Luffy was Brazilian, Zorro was Japanese, Sanji as French, Nami was Swedish (i think), and Usopp was Black. That sh*t is chock full of proper diversity and, surprise-surprise, the cast reflected that. Hell, Oda even praised Inaki Godoy for his portrayal of Luffy, even though he's Mexican, not Brazilian. To be perfectly honest, i think that cast, the chemistry of the main characters, is the strength of this show. Godoy's Luffy is a standout, capturing that naive yet powerful energy Luffy exudes. Dude is the engine which makes this show go but his energetic presence doesn't overshadow the rest of his crew at all. Emily Rudd's Nami is every bit the sardonic straight man i expected her to be and Mackenyu's take on Zorro is every bit the bad ass i imagined the Pirate Hunter could be in live action. The lone weak link, i think, is Jacob Gibson's Usopp but that's mostly because Usopp is useless in these first few arcs. Kid gets much more bad ass as the narrative progresses. Hopefully, we'll get to see a bit of Sogeking before Netflix inevitably axes this show because, if we're being honest, that Alabasta arc is about to cost a ton of f*cking money, and Netflix is notorious about not cashing out. I'm curious if this thing makes it past the three season death date because, seriously, even the supporting cast kills. Morgan Davies' Koby, Aidan Scott's Helmeppo, and Vincent Regan's Garp are perfect contrasts as the stalwart Marine contingent in pursuit of the free-wheeling Straw Hat pirates.

The villains, too, were pretty solid. I thought Arlong was kind of rushed but both Buggy and Mihawk were perfect. Their portrayal gives me hope that cats like Crocodile and the CP9 can be executed in live action rather faithfully. I don't know what the future holds for this adaption but i adore what we've gotten so far. and so do general audiences. Outside of the weird slather of grime the US perspective pushed on this technicolor wonderland of camp, Netflix seems to have cracked how to adapt anime. Well, if I'm being honest, that was more James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez with Alita: Battle Angel but One Piece is the next step in that growth. In terms of Comic adaptions, I'd say Alita is akin to Blade and One Piece is this genres X-Men. Cats can look at this show and see the ground work laid. They can crib that formula, tweak it as necessary, and really understand how to translate the very Japanese feel of anime toward the more mundane and formulaic notions of the American palate. I love what I've seen in these first eight episode and look forward to what comes next. I want Skypiea. I want Lougetown and Dragon. More than anything, i want Alabasta because i NEED Nico Robin. She's my favorite character of the entire series and it would be an absolute shame if we didn't get such an integral part of the Straw Hats. Hell, even Tony Tony Chopper needs to at least make a cameo. Netflix's One Piece was excellent. On it's own, as a show, it was fun, whimsical, entertainment. As an anime adaption, it's one of the best I've ever seen, up there with Alita and Speed Racer. All eight episodes are out right now. Go binge them right now. Support this fantastic show because we need more of this and less of sh*t like Bebop and Death Note. Even though i kind of like Netflix's Death Note.

#One Piece #Netflix #Going Merry

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smokeybrand · 1 year

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Gum-Gum no Excellence

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bears-wolves-dragons · 4 months

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This will be also detailed on tiktok but I'll post details here too. Obviously NSFW contents ahead...

Sky

The initial leak: a simply serious of tweets tagging a few group members as a warning to cease their abusive ways, with some extra popfurs thrown in to draw attention. It was poorly handled and led to a ton of misinformation being spread, and the smoke from this allowed other people involved to vanish.

Kero the wolf: when the tweets hit, Kero went into damage control and claimed he was hacked. He lied consistantly and his fanbase tried to help, but in time his beastforums account was found, as well as 3 videos of him sexually abusing his parents dog, Koda.

Surface

Snakething: the ringleader of the chat. Was filmed raping a puppy, actively distributed animal snuff, and was grooming his young relatives for his friends. Liked corrupting people. Is currently in jail for CP related charges, but was initially arrested for animal abuse.

Daylight

Tane: made CP with a 14 year old he "rescued" from an abusive home, bragged about drugging people at conventions. Never arrested but can't recover his former status in the fandom due to the leaks.

Ember Wolf: perhaps most notorious for an incident where he ran wild in a drug-fueled frenzy at a convention many years back, he bragged about drugging and raping dogs. Deleted everything and vanished while people were freaking out over Kero.

Sangie: owned of Inkedfur, was good friends with Snakething. 3x convicted pedophile, he was more scared of being caught again than Snakething harming his young relatives, one of which Snakething was grooming for him. Had his records cleared and still vends at conventions.

Twilight

Pakyto Dingo: french murrsuiter who, surprisingly, doubled down on his zoophilic beliefs, as it's not illegal where he lives. Allergic to dog semen, so that's something. Literally posted a shortened version of a video he posted in the chat online, in which he masterbated to footage of a dog being brutally anally raped, only removing the opening shot of the video he was watching.

Eliteknight: charged with aggravated animal cruelty, there isn't as much on him as there is the rest. (if this ever changes I'll update this post).

Sephius Rivendale: an Austrian fursuiter/murrsuiter who is into bestiality, crush porn, and apparently has raped puppies to death in the past. Still walks free to this day.

Glow Fox: happily discussed pedophilic and zoophilic content with his friends in the chat, but escaped any serious blowback from the logs. Still makes art, still has fans.

Dusk

Akela: the initial poster on twitter. Snakething was recruiting for a zoo meetup that Akela was running at MFF, in which they all planned to rape a dog together. The meet seems to have happened. Actively covered the identities of people in the chat they were friends with, even if they were just as bad as the ones they smeared online.

Woof: A Cuban national who is considered one of the worst people in the chat. Raped and tortured a puppy to death and filmed it with a friend. Abused countless animals, his own and those of others. Is most likely still free but lost his job and any credability he had. There was literally a huge animal rights protest because of his actions.

Shadow Woof: the mole in the Beastly Beast Beasts chat. Could have gone to the cops when the info was actually useful but never did.

Cenny Husky: Went to Snakething for help to get a dog to have sex with. Snakething posted this in the BBB chat. Was an open zoophile on twitter for a while, then went quiet about it, then openly came out again, leading to people rediscovering he was trying to find a dog to rape. Snakething wanted to film the encounter had it happened, and probably would have pushed him towards more extreme content.

Jace Shepard: a little known member of the group who was into "hard" zoo, AKA torture/snuff. Works around shelter dogs all the time and barely was noticed by the crowds when this was going down.

Night

Tim Win: exposed twice online for being a zoosadist before this, Tim is responsible for filming/creating some of the worst "hard" zoo content on the web, as well as a lot of other bestiality works. Online since the mid 90s at least, with a traceable trail. Has an FBI file on him yet still lives free with his wife and the dogs he likes to abuse, and still filming/creating content as of 2017. His old content was much loved and shared in the group.

Illone Sheppypaws: Kero's boyfriend and very active on some deepweb sites, filmed himself orally raping his parents dog. Died of a drug overdose, Kero covered his identity online and renamed him/gave him a new fursona in order to talk about him in public online spaces.

Midnight

Reddit DMs: Kero and Tim Win were talking on Reddit, and so was Snakething and Tim. There were multiple Reddit pages that featured "hard" zoo content and this is where a lot of these people met up.

Deepweb sites: Woof worked for one, and Illone was known to frequent another. Each time one goes down, another comes back. It's where a lot of the videos shared in BBB were sourced.

The other chats: after BBB leaked, more zoosadist chats were found. Some had user crossover (Tim Win and Kero were both in Sin Bin, for example). There's probably more we haven't uncovered.

Darker

Real Life Cub: Snakething, Sangie, Tane, and others enjoyed what they called RLC: child porn. There's literally a list of fursuiters that Snakething knew that liked such materials, 2 of which were arrested and 1 commited suicide.

Cupid the Deer: Was charged for raping a goverment service dog, wasn't in the chats but was mentioned in DMs. Ultimately went to jail for possessing CP. Seemed to be friends with Snakething.

Darkest

Nacho Doggo: Plans were made in the BBB chat to rape her as punishment for outing Cupid. Her ex was the person who let Cupid gain access to the dog. It was eventually learned she was also having sex with the dog, and she ultimately fled to Germany where she apparently faked her own death to escape the drama.

79 names found: there are at least 79 screennames found, and only a handful of people there have been tracked to their main accounts. Many of these are "zoosuiters".

VOID

Unknown users: because many people in the chats used alt accounts, not all of them can be traced to accounts, and when the leaks were first put out, many people had their names wiped entirely. Although more and more are being figured out as time goes on, it's also getting very hard to trace people by old telegram alt names.

Doug Spinks: the "father" of the modern zoophile movement, he identified that Tim Win was part of the leaks and then dumped the unedited logs when he learned that Tim was being hidden from public eye; Doug actually was one of the people who outed him originally too. However, it seems that the now deceased Spinks may have had a passing interested in zoosadism himself, as he had seen uncut versions of Tim Win's content on forums, which wouldn't have been on anything but forums for that type of content. He also could have stopped a lot of this from happening if he has just reported Tim to the cops instead of pubically outing him, since the videos weren't decades old at that point.

#furry #iceberg chart #the BBB leaks #zoosadist leaks

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batarangsoundsdumb · 3 years

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yet another ask dump yeehaw!

do you ever think that jay's mother was one of those bitch who believes in horoscope and tarots and things like that and so he believes in these things too, or it is just me projecting?

sheila haywood took one look at jason's birthchart said 'nah this won't do' and left.

Wait, but what happens when the justice league does find out that Bruce and John fucked? Lmao it sounds like it would be hilarious, really, I don’t want a justice league that doesn’t make fun of Bruce for like his entire life.

barry runs out of the meeting immediately and comes back with an entire sti testing kit. diana fully seriously wants bruce to get tested while bruce is sitting there like 'come on guys, you're being ridiculous, i already checked twice'

john is standing in the corner clearly offended while bruce is just like 'don't even say anything, constantine, you fucked a shark'

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

on the one hand, good for him, on the other hand, bro, how do you still have a secret identity when your superhero name is just your last name,,,,

Your fic on ao3 was GOLD PLEASE CONTINUE I loved Dinah's cameo btw ( @purple-vixen

thanks so much! i already continued but this ask is like 10 years old because i'm a notorious procrastinator (also yes! i love dinah so much aahhhhhhhhhhhh)

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

bruce internally: holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit bruce externally: get out of my city, alien

AHHH ur multimedia fic is the only thing that brings me happiness anymore continue it forever pls

uhh thanks, but can't continue it forever because my attention span is that of a toddler on crack on a good day and i can't function without at least 10 things going on at the same time and music in the background

Oi, so I'm getting into dc and watching batman the animated series, and they use fruitcake a lot. Which I thought was very funny and wanted to share w you - Denilla

wait like fruitcake (food) or fruitcake (derogatory) ?

young justice 🤝 teen titans slut shaming batman

tim drake and dick grayson to their respective teams 'you guys stop it, that's my dad'

Happyhoganon: If an eighty year old Batman had fought crime in Gotham City for decades and the only threats to him and the city lately are a wheel chair bounded Penguin, your usual purse snatchers and a few con artists popping up every now and then, how well could the Dark Knight do in maintaining the peace in Gotham despite him being just somewhat fit to do that as an elderly man (which says A LOT given how old he is)

uhh he'll probably do what my grandpa does and that is ruthlessly prank them until they die of shame.

in the death in the family interactive movie there's an ending where Jason is tasked with raising Damian and he decides he's gonna raise Damian to take down the waynes and al ghuls which uh maybe isn't great BUT the idea of Jason raising Damian... PRICELESS. CHAOTIC. I just need more people to know about this :)

yes i saw that wow holy shit but jason would accidentally drop damian on his head one (1) hour in and jason just yeets him into the lazarus pit.

Headcanon: The Penguin has a really hard time fighting any of the Robins because of his avian obsession means there's always a small part of his mind that's like "Birb. Child. Protect" ( @subspacecadet )

as soon as dick becomes nightwing the penguin is like 'you know what, fuck this dude' and shoots at him.

Y'all talking about King Shark dating Constantine, let's not forget about John literally hooking up with Satan

listen there's a clear difference between monsterfucker and satanfucker in that king shark is literally a shark and satan still looks like a normal dude

Does everyone in Gotham think Batman is a teen dad?

everyone in gotham thinks batman has been around since gotham was founded, but they do think that bruce wayne is actually a teen father and dick grayson's biological dad.

why. why would you do that fancast when you know it will only hurt people

what? i loved my fancast it was really well done. i did it with good representation in mind and i really managed that with alfred pennyworth being ✨italian✨

Seeing james charles a jason gave me psychic damage how dare you i need to wash my eyes

well that's a you problem isn't it?

do you think dick grayson thirst tweets about nightwing just to annoy his family/cause problems on purpose in general?

he thinks nightwing is hot, next question.

holy jiminy cricket batman, its as cold as the good lords ass crack in here!!

i- what? this is why i don't fuck with english expressions it's way too goddamn weird

Brooooooo, your teen dad!Bruce au is soooo good. I've got brainrot.

Honestly if you ever write anymore, I'd read that shit twice. Sign me the fuck up. Good stuff, Good Stuff.

uh yeah i'm thinking about writing a fic, but i have exams coming up and i don't wanna fail because that would suck. but after i'll certainly be writing more tho

your teen dad AU is so great! bruce acting like a big brother for all of like a week before he's telling everyone about his son. what if in the AU dick meets the JL because they need to rescue him? maybe he's in trouble/kidnapped at a gala and bruce starts calling for JL. clark finds him and has to fly with dick to bring him home - that's how dick and clark meet and superman becomes dick's fave hero. he goes around the manor thinking he can fly with a red blanket draped around him like a cape.

actually- if you want a young dad! bruce fic with like that kinda stuff(just with damian) go check uhh- in for a penny by cdelphiki. it's really good and bruce is like 24/25-ish. (and dick's there!!!)

This account has solely convinced me that Tim is a trash goblin ( @hamilcat-and-magic-turtle )

because he is. that boy has slept in dumpsters on multiple occasions even if he is the son of a billionaire.

Okay but when you said victory dance I did think of the whole justice league defeating the big bad and then they all start flossing

well that's exactly what hal jordan does and that's why batman uses a gun now. no but the victory dance in my opinion is like the 'we're all in this together' dance from high school musical.

The horrors in Invincible s1 was nothing compared to the comics, I cant wait for s2

oh well okay, i mean i personally react to horror and violence by laughing awkwardly so i can't wait to be called a monster for accidentally laughing at a mass murder.

I'm currently watching Batman: The Brave and The Bold and- Bruce is just talking about Oliver like he's an old love (@nightwings-kid)

okay im going to watch that lmao that's totally and completely in character for him tho.

The invincible comic is like super gratuitous with its violence so much so I'm shocked the show was able to adapt it in a faithful way! Anyway had the show been live action it absolutely wouldn't have the same impact as it does as an animated show and I'm so glad so many people agree with me on that

also because a live action casting would've been like uhh amanda stenberg for amber, the dude- the guy from the supernatural but with a mustache for omni-man, and scarlet johanssen for debbie grayson

Debbie grayson is a milf, yes. You're welcome for the invincible propoganda, now you can questions your life. Bruce def seems like the perfect father next to Omni-man. Like they really took a rip off justice league and I was like well, now I'm attached even tho I was like hah I know who they're supposed to be. And then bam- death gore death gore gore gore sad Mark grayson just had to have daddy issues. Why does every character have daddy issues. I'm sick of the attacks

because daddy issues make a person arguably funnier, that's why i'm not even remotely funny (haha good dad flex). i liked that it was dark contextually, but not in the colouring, bc i hate when it's like 'uh yeah graphic murder and now a shot so dark you have to sit in a dark room and squint at the screen to faintly see the characters. (like dcau ugh)

About the Wayne insurance, for a moment I thought you would put the video with moans over the waves.

i mean- i could've done that, but rick rolling seemed more family friendly.

Its the first time in forever that im surpise rickrolled, i usually expect it. Congratulations (i really should know better this is tumblr)

i get rickrolled so often but i actually like the song so i dont really give a fuck

Actually, my information about Damian and John's kids is outdated because it was revealed that the old men telling the kids stories about the Supersons were actually Jon and Damian the whole time. I was blinded by my thirst for Grandpa!Bruce Wayne but I was wrong... I liked my version better, tbh (@artemisa97)

fair enough. but i'd honestly like to see damian and jon getting together, just because it's a really fun dynamic and their friendship was really cute when they were kids. (also idk maybe it would be nice to have one (1) main batfam/superfam character that's not cishet)

How am i JUST finding your blog skdskfkd you're so fucking funny and ur takes are hot

i thought u were calling me hot :( but youre not :( crime detected (but lmao thanks)

So I have depression and I swear that your memes are one of the few things that have made me laugh so thank you 💛🥺 (@katekanebadass)

aw you're welcome, and i hope you're doing okay!

The metropolis memes are so funny, I love them 💀😌

i think metropolis is also so fucking funny it deserves more attention imagine having your entire police force being upstaged by an alien from kansas and his kids

as an american i feel your complete lack of knowledge of us geography is just so sexy (platonic) ❤️

thanks so much (i also don't know any other geography, i'm not kidding, like you can tell me you're from hungary and it will just blank, there will be nothing that comes to mind)

In the DC universe they don't say "Can't have shit in Detroit" they say "Can't have shit in Gotham"

this just reminds me of that guy whose porch got stolen like the steps to his door, and i'm thinking of people living in gotham and waking up without a front door and going "can't have shit in gotham"

honestly all i know about chicago is the bean, so. what would gotham's famous sculpture be?

gigantic gargoyle statue in front of one of the police precincts because a villain thought it was a smart way to keep the police inside, but it's too heavy to move.

why tf do people go on about how batman "works alone" or how he's the "lone wolf" when he like 38290202 members in his family

bc people think it's cool that a grown man in his 30s has no friends or family instead of calling it what it is (sad)

Bruce is gotham's sugar daddy

why would say something so controversial yet so brave.

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

dick: gerard way are you in position, gerard way are you in position

tim: for the last fucking time, my codename is 'totally not count olaf' this week, abbafan 3000

dick: shut up my codename isn't 'abbafan 3000'

dick: it's 'abbafan number 1' and you know it

I have a feeling Tim drake is ur favourite batfamily member but okay u don't have favs if u say so ok

i mean he is, i won't deny it. but i love each and every one of the batfam just the same, i just have a weak spot for short dumbass nerds, because i'm a short dumbass nerd.

Omg i fuckin love boy meets world too fam shsjkfk

bro boy meets world was the shit!!! it was just fire and awesome and so fucking great like bro. it was so good im not even going to be accepting criticism

you know I find the whole "joker completes batman" thing a bit disgusting considering the horrendous stuff the batfamily went through because of the joker and let's not get started on the "joker has a point" thing like yeah he's this cool complex villain but he's absolutely batshit crazy

like yes! i get what you mean the joker just fucking sucks man he doesn't do shit for batman's character or the batfam he's literally just annoying as fuck. like the joker has a point' shit is so stupid. i will accept 'magneto was right' because he fucking was and i think he didn't do anything wrong, but joker? he's just like that. he's not even cool and complex he's just a weirdo with a bleach kink at this point.

ALSO YOUR RACISM POST- SO TRUE BESTIE

thanks bestie, i'm glad you agree.

in today's essay of why I think cass should become batman- I was thinking Tim would probably be the most efficient batman in many ways but I also think he wouldn't want to be batman tbh none of the batfamily members would want to be batman because they're trying to outgrow him but cass is the one who wants to represent the symbol that is batman

absofuckinglutely i will say it again and again that cass represents the batsymbol more than anyone in the batfam, in batgirl (2000) she literally didn't care about anything else than bruce's oath to not kill, she thought the batsymbol was more important than anything in gotham. she's just an excellent character because her motivation to not kill is not 'i'm scared i can't come back from it' or 'well my dad says no murder so i'll go along with it' but that she's killed somebody as a young child and she never wants to kill a human ever again and that's so fucking beautiful for a new batman like yes.

need more cass, duke and tim inclusion in gothamite memes

yes yes, a tall order of cass, duke and tim coming up in 1-14 business days

oldest to youngest batfam members cus I'm confused as shit

okay order of being taken in: dick, jason, tim, cass, damian, duke order of age: alfred, bruce, dick, cass, jason, tim, duke, damian (though cass and jason are around the same age general consensus is that cass is a little older)

I'm so confused Steph is a redhead?? like how was it that hard to get this right? the source material is literally right there and free

cw is jared, 19

do you receive anon hate? if so, how do you deal with it

uh no, i'm not remotely popular enough to get anon hate and i also don't say a lot of things that would attract anon hate, but i do send anon hate to @the-real-peter-parker because he forgot about the specialists from winx club

Wait how many languages do you speak??

uhh- 5 if you include latin, but that's a dead language and i'm really bad at it. but english, my native language, german, and french also, tho german and french not fluently.

You can mix aguaepanela with aguardiente 😈 and is tasty

okay but now i'm curious if the liquor deserves the 😈 emoji or if that's a you problem. but i googled it and it looks like something you'd take one sip of and then not remember the rest of your evening.

#i love all of you guys so much thanks for all these asks #some of these are literally from march but fuck it #the day tumblr puts dates next to anon messages is the day i close my inbox crawl into a hole and die #it's such a basic task to answer asks but i don't want to bother anyone with asks clogging up their timeline #and if i don't have a funny or good answer i'm like 'uhh okay won't answer it now then'#so this is for you #also i deleted a few asks because it gives me mental pain to see my inbox go over 50 and it's almost at 100 #i was complaining about having too many asks to the-real-peter-parker like months ago and then i had 45 asks in my inbox #now it's amassed to going over 100 twice #but no i love all of you and you're great and you're all fantastic and i lvoe you #muchos kiss kiss #kiss kiss for my kiddies lvoe you #invincible spoilers #dc #dcu #dc comics #ask #anon #bataranswers #i really wanna try aguapanela now i'm gonna see if i can find panela somewhere and review it for you babes #uh yeah that's it #muchos gracias for all your questions babes

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hyunsuks-beanie · 3 years

Note

To me Netflix is notorious for writing dumb things and killing the vibe.

But I’ve been meaning to watch All of Us Are Dead but I’ve been wanting to ask someone I trusted if they liked it or not. I keep seeing all kinds of reviews and I know I should just watch it for myself and decide but when things have hype I always get confused 😆. So what did you think? Is it worth the watch?

- 🫒

No but seriously--

So I've told you that I watch a handful of anime right? And I already love Death Note as everyone can see (L is on my effing pfp lmao). And Netflix totally RUINED the whole plot in its version of the story and it sucks so bad?? And now they're off to adapt One Piece and My Hero Academia into English live actions, and I just feel so nervous😭😭

Anyway, back to All Of Us Are Dead. Truth be told, I'm a simp for zombie stories, I always have been. So I already knew I was gonna enjoy the gore and the blood, because that's just me lmao. So if you are into that genre, I'd say absolutely go for it!! But if you aren't, then here's a couple things. The story isn't all mindless gore, it has more depth to it with some pretty cool emotional stuff to back it. But if that isn't what you need at the moment, then the show can seem a tad bit too forced and too long, especially with its 12-episode long run (honestly, that's so long and there were times when even I wanted to skip it). Some of the subplots seem like total drags, but the overall premise does deliver.

Not the best zombie story around, but it's a good one. Similarly, maybe not as tight as some other Netflix shows, but it's enjoyable if you can watch through all the 12 episodes.

So final verdict, go for it if you have the time and can watch something which has pretty sad undertones to it.

#mellow's inbox #mellow's anons #🫒anon #all of us are dead

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chernobog13 · 4 years

Text

MOONLIGHT MASK

Starman, aka Super Giant, was Japan’s answer to Superman, appearing in theaters in a 9 films between 1957 and 1959. He was also Japan’s first superhero on film.

During that time, Japan’s answer to Batman or The Shadow appeared on Japanese television. Gekko Kamen, aka Moonlight Mask in English (also Moon Mask Rider), was the very first tokusatsu, live-action superhero on Japanese television.

Moonlight Mask fought crime, carried two snub-nosed .38 revolvers, rode around on a motorcycle, and usually could be heard singing his theme song (I ain’t making this up!) before he appeared out of the darkness. He had no super-powers except the ability to never run out of bullets, and never get his cape caught in his motorcycle’s spokes.

As for his choice of weapons, he couldn’t have picked worse. .38 caliber revolvers were standard issue for many police forces at the time. However, the .38s were notorious for terrible penetrating and stopping power; there have been documented instances of the bullets bouncing off someone just wearing a nylon windbreaker! And generally, the longer a handgun barrel is the more accurate it will be. The only reason anyone wore snub-nosed.38s was because they were easily concealable underneath jackets or other clothes. But for 99% of users they were only effective at point-blank range.

Japanese DVD cover for episodes 47-58 of the television series, part of the Skull Mask storyline.

Moonlight Mask was always coming to the aid of Police Inspector Matsuda, usually when some bizarre, diabolical villain was involved. No one knew who Moonlight Mask was, and his secret identity was never revealed. In the cast credits Moonlight Mask was always played by a question mark (”?”). However, even the dullest of audience members could figure that Moonlight Mask was very probably private detective Juro Iwai, played by actor Ose Koichi, because the two characters are never, ever seen at the same time.

Cover to the Japanese DVD for the film Moonlight Mask - The Monster Kong. Gotta say, this Kong isn’t as impressive as the television version.

Moonlight Mask debuted on Japanese television in February 1958 and ran for a total of 131 episodes, ending in July 1959. The episodes were run serial-style, with each episode picking up right where the previous one ended (usually with a cliff hanger of sorts).

The episodes were organized into 5 stories. The first story, Skull Mask, ran the first 72 episodes. The second story, The Secret of the Paradai Kingdom, ran 21 episodes. Mammoth Kong, the third story, was 11 episodes long, and featured the first television kaiju. Story number four, The Ghost Party Strikes Back, was 13 episodes long. And the final story of the series, Don’t Turn Your Hand to Revenge, ran for 14 episodes.

Mammoth Kong as he appears in the television series. He’s a fearsome looking brute!

I was only able to find available for sale in the USA the first four chapters of Mammoth Kong. Above is the cover of the DVD that I purchased from Amazon. The episodes are subtitled in English, but appear to have been lifted from Youtube.

Despite being an early television show, with a very limited budget, I was very entertained by these episodes. Mammoth Kong is a mutant giant ape, approximately 45-50 feet tall. The scale model building for the Mammoth Kong scenes, while not up to Eiji Tsuburaya’s standards, were convincing enough. And instead of using an expensive optical process to put humans in the same scene as the Mammoth Kong, they used marionettes instead. It sounds goofy, but it was actually pretty effective.

In addition to the television series, Toei Films produced six Moonlight Mask films during the same time period. There films were released in 1958, and the second three films were released in 1959.

That’s the diabolical Skull Mask and his gang of eyeball minions threatening Moonlight Mask.

The films were Moonlight Mask, Moonlight Mask - Duel to the Death in Dangerous Waters, Moonlight Mask - The Claws of Satan, Moonlight Mask - The Monster Kong, Moonlight Mask - The Ghost Party Strikes Back, and Moonlight Mask - The Last of the Devil.

The films were adaptations of the stories from the television series. with Skull Mask - the longest story - getting divided into two films. They were filmed in 2.35:1 aspect (”Toei Scope”) and had slightly better production value. Also, Moonlight Mask and Detective Juro Iwai (if they really are the same person) is played by actor Fumitake Omura.

Japanese DVD cover for the film Moonlight Mask - The Claws of Satan.

Think about how neat it was to be kid in Japan back then: not only could you see Moonlight Mask on TV every week, but you could go to the movie theatre and see him at the same time! The equivalent today would be watching Superman and Lois on TV at home, and having a new Superman film showing up at your local multiplex (anybody remember those?) every 4 months.

The television series and films were quite popular and doing well. Unfortunately, a young Japanese boy died imitating one of Moonlight Mask’s stunts. This led to the cancellation of the television series and the films coming to an end.

(A similar incident led to director Teruo Ishii, who directed several of the early Starman/Super Giant films, to leave the series after a young boy had been hurt imitating Starman.)

An early soft vinyl (sofubi) Moonlight Mask figure.

A manga of Moonlight Mask made the scene a few months after the television series started. Much of the artwork in the manga was by Jiro Kuwata, the creator of 8 Man. He is better known in the West as the artist of the Batman manga from the 1960s, which were collected and released by DC Comics a few years ago.

The Marmit 1:6-scale Moonlight Mask action figure. He has automatics here, which he never used in the television series, so thes may be based on the film version. (Yeah, I know he needs to be touched-up with a Tide Pen. You try keeping your white costume clean when you’re tussling with bad guys!)

Moonlight Mask would return in 1972 for a 39-episode anime series. He had an updated costume, with a motorcycle helmet instead of a turban. He was also sporting two .357 Magnum revolvers, which in real life would be only slightly more accurate than his old snub-nosed .38s, but with a heck of a lot more stopping power.

The Medicom Real Action Heroes (RAH) 1:6-scale action figure of the anime version of Moonlight Mask.

The anime series was apparently very popular in Latin America, where it is known as Centella.

The anime was broken into three 13-part story arcs: The Claw of Satan, The Mammoth Kong, and The Dragon’s Fang. I’ve never seen the anime, but based on the titles alone I’m assuming the fist two stories are based on the original series.

There was also a gag anime, We know You, Moonlight Mask-kun, which had 25 episodes broadcast between October 1999 and March 2000. I know next-to-nothing about this series.

That brings us to 1981, and the most embarrassing point on Moonlight Mask’s career:

The Moonlight Mask movie, known in English as Moon Mask Rider.

This movie was an attempt to update Moonlight Mask for the 1980s, complete with giving him a suped-up motorcycle. I’ve only seen clips from this film, and I was not impressed. The kindest review of the film of several I’ve read describes it as dull; not bad, but not good.

None of the original series’ characters return, and Moonlight Mask even has a new secret identity! The actor who played Moonlight Mask, Daisuke Kuwahara, was never seen in films again after this movie bombed big time at the box office.

The 1981 movie version of the Moonlight Mask costume, which seems to incorporate elements from both the television and anime versions.

Sadly, that was the last time Moonlight Mask was attempted in live action, and he hasn’t been seen in anime in over 20 years. Unfortunately, only Japanese versions of the Toei films, and a few chapters from the television series, are available for sale in the USA. The DVD covers shown above are all from Amazon’s site.

Some random episodes of the television and first anime series are available on YouTube, but I couldn’t find any subtitled in English.

One of the Toei films - I think it’s Moonlight Mask - The Claws of Satan - is available in its entirety on YouTube, but it is not subtitled either.

I’m hoping one day someone will subtitle the original television series and films and distribute them to the USA. I’m dying to see how Moonlight Mask manages to defeat Mammoth Kong and the evil gang controlling him.

#Moonlight Mask #Gekko Kamen #tokusatsu #Mammoth Kong

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discotreque · 4 years

Text

LwD 1.10, “No Small Parts”

Well, that was the most fun I've had watching Star Trek in literally a quarter of a century.

I had high hopes for this series. I love TAS, largely because of its wacky outsized concepts that could only have worked in animation—not that they all did work, but the potential was so apparent to me, even as a kid reading the Alan Dean Foster novelizations—and as an adult, there's something about the imagination of Lower Decks's FX setpieces that transcends even the glorious CGI bonanzas of Discovery.

Pause for a confession. I've long pushed back against criticism of serialization in new Trek. That's just how TV is now, okay? Might as well complain about it being in widescreen. But I'm backing down a little, because I've realized there is something about Star Trek that's inextricable from at least a partially-episodic format. And while Picard was telling a different kind of story, I can't deny that my favourite episodes of Disco have been the ones with a mostly self-contained A-plot. After 10 delightfully episodic instalments of LwD, its focus on long-term development of characters instead of a season-spanning puzzle-plot (okay, mostly just Mariner, but we only have 10 × 22 minutes and she is the star) has been downright refreshing.

So here we are, at the end of the most consistent and well-executed Season 1 of a Star Trek series since, arguably, Those Old Scientists. And sure, if they'd had to produce another... yikes, 42 episodes? Then sure, they probably would have dropped a clunker or two—but they didn't, and winning on a technicality is still winning. I'm practically vibrating with excitement for Disco to come back next week, but damn, I'm going to miss this little show while it's on hiatus.

Spoilers below:

Something I've been keeping track of finally paid off this week! (Which never happens to me, lol.) The destruction of the USS Solvang marked the first present-day death(s) of any Starfleet officer on Lower Decks, the only other on-screen killing at all being a flashback in "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Which makes sense, being (a) a comedy, and (b) about typically "expendable" characters: it hasn't been afraid to flirt with a little darkness here and there, but killing people off at Star Trek's usual pace wouldn't just be wrong for the tone, it would be downright bizarre.

But... people die on Star Trek. That's one of the core themes of the show, really: space is full of knowledge and beauty, but also danger and terror, and believing that the former is worth the risk of the latter is (according to Trek) one of humanity's most noble traits. I'm the least bloodthirsty TV watcher I know, but the longer we went with a body count of nil—ships completely evacuated before they were destroyed, main characters hilariously maimed without permanent consequences, etc.—well, I didn't mind per se, but the absence of truly deadly stakes was definitely getting conspicuous.

Turns out they were saving it up for maximum impact. And holy fuck, I've never felt such a pit in my stomach watching a ship get destroyed that wasn't named Enterprise. It felt grim and brutal and somehow both much too quick and dreadfully inevitable—and yeah, it looked extremely fucking cool—and I'd like every other Star Trek property for the rest of time to take notes under a large bold heading labeled RESTRAINT.

Comedy doesn't need to do this, but my favourite comedy does, and in a way that few other art forms can even approach: lower my emotional defences by making me laugh, endear character(s) to me with goofy-but-relatable antics—then BAM, sucker-punch me in the motherfucking feels. M*A*S*H is probably the classic example on TV, Futurama was notorious for it, and even Archer has pulled it off a few times; it's also a staple of some of my favourite standup. I wasn't sure if Lower Decks was going to go there in Season 1—and wasn't sure if they'd earn it—but I knew if they did, that they'd nail it, and damn. Feels good to be right.

Last batch of notes for the season!!! I rambled enough already, so let's do it liveblog-style:

I fucking KNEW they were going to use "archive" visuals from TAS at some point, I KNEW IT :D

"THOSE OLD SCIENTISTS" ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I like chill and confident Boimler a lot? You can really see—

oh bRADWARD NOOOOO

That opening shot of the Solvang tracking down to the red giant was extremely Discovery-esque... minus the motion sickness, that is

A lady captain AND a lady first officer? That's—oh hey, it's Captain Dayton's brand-new ship. Hahaha, that means they're totally fucked, right?.

Yep! They sure a—umm, wh—shit, okay, but—oh no—no, you can't—wait DON'T

...fuck

FUCK.

Narrator: "And then Amy needed a five-hour break."

[live-action Star Trek showrunner voice] "Gee, Mike! Why does CBS let you have two cold opens?"

Okay, yes, the bit with Rutherford cycling through all the different attitudes in his implant was transparently an excuse for Eugene Cardero to vamp while waiting for something to do in the story, but as far as I'm concerned they can contrive a reason for him to do a bunch of different silly Rutherfords in a row any time they damn well want, because that was classic!!!

EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP

AND THE EXOCOMP IS PAINTED LIKE THE EXOCOMP IS WEARING A LITTLE EXOCOMP-SIZED STARFLEET UNIFORM

EXOCOMP!!!!!

The slow burn and now the payoff of the Mariner-is-Freeman's-secret-daughter plot has been executed so well. I'm beyond impressed with this writer's room, y'all—they are threading a hell of a needle here

"Wolf 359 was an inside job" would have been a spit-take if I'd had anything in my mouth

...how many memos do you think Starfleet Command has had to issue asking people to stop calling the USS Sacramento "the Sac"?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY'VE DECORATED THE SHUTTLECRAFT SEQUOIA THOUGH

Is, uh, is it weird if I'm starting to ship Tendi and Peanut Hamper a little? It is weird, isn't it. I knew it was weird...

Coital barbs??? I take back everything I said about wanting to know more about Shaxs/T'Ana.

The "good officer" version of Mariner is... kind of hot, tbh! But Tawny Newsome has done such a great job of building this character all season that her voice getting uncharacteristically clipped and martial and "sir! yes, sir!" is also deeply, deeply weird

Ah, so this is literally exactly like when TNG (and DS9) would bring in, and then blow up, a never-before-seen Galaxy-class ship, just to underscore that we're facing a real threat this week, baby. And hey, it fucking worked—my heart was in my throat, omg, for the reveal of the—

PAKLEDS?????????

The fucking PAKLEDS have been gluing weapons to their ships for the last 15 years. GREAT.

(We interrupt the SHIP BEING SLICED INTO SCRAP for an interesting bit of world-building: on Earth, the traditional First Contact Day meal is salmon!)

"I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off! That's an order." I'm starting to think Captain Freeman might actually be overqualified for the Cerritos, y'all—she's REALLY awesome

OH SHIT IT'S BADGEY, this is a TERRIBLE IDEA

"How much contraband have you hidden on my ship?" "I don't know! A lot!"

Awwww, Boims!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS, PEANUT HAMPER OUT

BADGEY NOOOOO

AUGHHHHH WHAT THE CHRIST DID HE JUST—BUT—RUTHERFORD'S IMPLANT????

RUTHERFORD!!!!!!!!!!

SHAXS!!!!!!

F U C K ! ! ! ! !

ahaIOPugdfhagntpgjrq90e5mgu90qe5;oigoqgw4ouegrw5SP;IAEHURVa IT’S THE TITAN???????????

IT'S CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. RIKER ON THE MOTHERFUCKING TITAN??????????

i'm screaming I'M SCREAMINGGGGGGTGGGTGQER;LBHAOIBVNV;OAPBIJNVagr;h;oagruipuwtnaetbaetgq35ghqet

I'M SO GLAD THIS WASN'T SPOILED FOR ME WTF

I AM WEEPING LIKE A CHILD

...

(Just a brief 20-minute pause this time)

And oh wow, seeing Will and Deanna hits different after Picard too, in a few different ways, which I may even get into later now that my heartrate is back to normal, lmao

Oh, I am always here for some jokes at the expense of the Sovereign class. The Enterprise-E sucked. They should have built a new bigger model of the D and new Galaxy-class interiors for the TNG movies, and I will die on that hill

OKAY, FINE, YOU GOT ME, RUTHERFORD × TENDI WOULD BE ADORABLE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SETUP FOR IT

Awwww, Shaxs though :( Congrats on the single most badass death in Star Trek history, dude. The Prophets would—well, the actual Prophets would probably be slightly confused about most of it, but Kira Nerys would be proud of you and I feel like that probably counts for more. RIP, Papa Bear

I am here all damn DAY for the Mariner–Riker parallels, ahahahahaha

Pausing it to record my prediction that Boimler's commitment to not caring about rank anymore is going to last 3... 2...

Yep.

Bradward, how DARE YOU.

"Those guys had a long road, getting from there to here." OH FOR THE LOVE OF—

What a brilliant way to resolve and renew the various character arcs and relationships moving into Season 2! The writers could easily have brought everything back to status quo—chaotic Mariner fighting with her mom and being a bad influence on Boimler, etc.—and done another 10 just like these, but I suspect that wouldn't have been ambitious enough for these writers. What a blast. I cannot wait for more.

Thanks for following along, friends! Stay tuned for my (similarly patchy and amateur) coverage of Discovery, starting next week!

#star trek #star trek lower decks #lwd spoilers #lower decks spoilers #lower decks #amy's episode notes

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cagestark · 5 years

Text

-Defender//2-

warnings: an alternate universe where the avengers are mean to tony and peter has none of it.

read here on AO3

Everybody knows about the Avengers. They are the team of fantastically trained (and sometimes genetically enhanced) individuals who protect the world from intergalactic threats. For an enhanced teenager, they have been Peter’s heroes since he was bit by the radioactive spider as a teenager. Rumor had it that they were a great big family, all living together in Stark Tower and having game nights and private parties. He’d read a thought-provoking article on who would be Black Widow’s baby’s godfather, Tony, Steve, Bucky, or Clint—and Natasha Romanov isn’t even pregnant.

It takes only five minutes spent with them for Peter to see that he never should have taken Tony’s offer to join them in the first place. This is no family. At least, not the kind of family that Peter grew up with (though that family had all died off one by one), not the idealized family built on affection and mutual respect.

Maybe that is how it is—when Tony isn’t there.

“I’m the head of this team, you should have contacted me before extending Peter an invitation to join us.” Captain America, perhaps the most famous superhuman ever, stands at the side of the room in sweatpants and a tight t-shirt berating Tony when he thinks that Peter can’t hear. Peter keeps his face blank, staring around the room like he’s in wonder. It’s a beautiful room. There are exposed rafters—those would be so cool to hang from. But then a figure catches his eye and he sees there’s a man already perched up there, reading a magazine. Hawkeye, Peter knows. The man waves, and Peter waves back tentatively.

“I made several calls—did those not go through? Oh. You know what? Maybe I just considered making the calls and then thought better of it—”

“This is exactly why Fury is always on your back, Tony. You act first and think later. We don’t know this kid, don’t know how he meshes with the team, there’s not a room for him—”

“Not a room? This is my Tower, there’s more than ninety floors and a thousand rooms, I’ll find one for him. And for what it’s worth, he meshes just fabulously with me, Cap.”

“I can’t imagine why that thought doesn’t comfort me. Maybe it’s because the last thing we need on this team is another version of you.”

Tony laughs unhappily, and the sound makes Peter’s hands turn to fists he clenches in his lap. This isn’t the version of Tony Stark that the media sells at all. It isn’t even the man who sat with Peter at the Burger King talking about noise scrambling techniques. “You don’t have to worry about that. If anything, he’s got all my good traits and none of the bad ones.”

“What good traits?” Captain America mutters, rubbing at his forehead. Maybe it was even too quiet for Tony to hear, considering the man doesn’t reply.

But Peter hears it. Oh, he hears it.

Peter knows this at once: the family he had tentatively hoped he would receive?—he won’t receive. Whether it exists or not remains to be seen, but Peter vows then and there that he will not enter into any family that treats Tony the way he’s being treated now. It should be ridiculous: Tony is arguably the most powerful of all of them. He has enough wealth and resources to destroy them, not to mention an ultra-powerful suit with a mysterious endless power source. But when faced with this opposition in his teammate, he seems to crumble. To grow vulnerable.

Peter doesn’t like people who prey on the vulnerable.

“Peter,” Tony says when Captain America and he return to where they left him on the sofa. “This is the one, the only Captain America. He goes by many names—”

“But you can call me Steve. Nice to meet you.” The man is classically handsome with an excellent jawline, blue eyes, and blonde hair. He holds out a hand and Peter takes it—

—grips it. Then tighter, testing the strength. Peter lets himself grip tighter than he is careful to with un-enhanced humans, and he feels Steve change his own grip accordingly. The smile the man wears stays in place, but a furrow grows between the well-shaped eyebrows. This can’t be Steve’s full strength, though. More—Peter has to know. He squeezes more, just a little, their hands bobbing up and down in the mockery of a greeting. Bones would have cracked, if either of them weren’t enhanced, and the look in Steve’s eyes knows it.

All the time, Tony is talking. His voice flows over Peter like soothing white noise.

Peter squeezes just a little more—and there. Steve cringes, pulling his hand away just the slightest, a reflexive action to avoid the pain of Peter’s grip. Immediately, the younger man loosens his fingers.

Steve is strong.

But he’s not as strong as Peter. Not even close. And there’s a dark, scary part of Peter’s mind that thinks: Good. It feels good to know that he’s the physically strongest in the room, that he can use this strength to defend Tony himself, if needed. Even as he thinks it, it sounds ridiculous. Why would he need to defend himself from Captain America, the most notorious ‘good guy’ alive? Peter feels numb.

“—after that we all went to grab some shawarma, and wow, you two are really digging that handshake,” Tony mutters. He pulls his tinted glasses out of his breast pocket and replaces them on his face. “Should I give you a moment? Leave the room?”

“What?” Steve asks. He breaks their handshake. Out of the corner of Peter’s eye, he sees the man flexing his fingers. “No. Of course not. Let’s all sit down and talk.”

Peter does his best to curb the rest of his impulses. It helps to have Tony there next to him, a warm, (shockingly) quiet presence while Steve interrogates him. Peter gives them the watered-down version of his history: a radioactive spider bit him when he was a teenager and gave him the powers, he can stick to walls, his senses are enhanced, and he’s stronger.

“How strong?” Steve asks.

Peter meets his gaze flatly. “Very strong.”

“Any training?”

“No.”

Steve gives Tony a look. The hairs on Peter’s arms take notice, an animal instinct that feels threatened. In a handful of hours, he (and his enhanced senses) have come to see Tony as something precious, someone to be protected.

“I’ll take full responsibility for him,” Tony says flippantly. “I’ve already starting working on specs for his get-up. All he needs is the obligatory t-shirt all the Avengers get, and to pass Fury’s background check. Hope you don’t have any exo-skeletons in your closet, kid, because Eyepatch is going to find them.”

The young man’s stomach drops. There are a million tiny things this ‘Eyepatch’ might find. All the thievery Peter has done to stay alive, picking pockets for cash to buy food, stealing chips at 7-11’s so he can scarf them down in the alleyway, licking the crumbs from his bony fingers. Maybe he’ll find out about Peter’s previous employer, or the time Peter got his own uncle killed.

“Kid?” Tony says. “That silence isn’t reassuring.”

Just to break that silence, he asks: “Do the Avengers really all get t-shirts?”

There are no more bedrooms on the Avengers’ floor, so Tony takes it upon himself to house Peter on his own personal penthouse floor (which, apparently, has four guest rooms). Peter shakes when he stands in the middle of the room larger than the apartment he grew up in with his aunt and uncle. It smells clean, the sheets are fresh and smooth, there’s an attached bathroom with heated floors. All of these are luxuries for a kid who sometimes slept on benches until beat cops came to push him off to the next one.

But what really has him shaking is the fact that three rooms away is Tony Stark’s bedroom. That he’ll be sharing living spaces with Tony Stark. In the evenings if Peter wants to relax and watch television in the main room, Tony Stark might be there too, relaxing in an armchair with a glass of whiskey beside him, jacket off and sleeves rolled up, tapping away at a StarkPad. The man is so handsome, so kind. He’s changed Peter’s entire life in the course of a single day, and all when he could have just handed him over to the police.

“What do you think, kid?” Tony asks, leaning against the doorframe. “Not big enough for you? The one beside mine is bigger. Don’t be reasonable on my account. That’s not one of my few virtues.”

Peter opens his mouth to say no, it’s fine—but then, why the fuck would he want to say no? “Actually Mr. Stark—could I see the other room?”

“A kid after my own heart. Come on, I’ll show it to you.”

Tony has more than just began musing over specs for Peter’s suit. The next morning he greets Peter with burnt toast and a glass of OJ. Dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt, he tells Peter that they’re going to spend the morning down in his lab where he can get proper scans for the suit he’s creating. They’re also going to run tests to learn more about Peter’s abilities.

“What kind of tests, Mr. Stark?” Peter asks, eating every last bite of the burnt toast, even though it’s awful. Tony Stark made it! (And it’s not until later that he finds out it wasn’t Tony at all but a sweet little robot the man created, one who was prone to burning the toast and leaving the toilet seat up after it cleans and getting tangled in the blinds (which Tony finally had to do away with)) When Peter hears the word tests, he can’t help but remember the pictures in his textbooks of enhanced humans in cages like lab rats. He wished they were old, faded photos, relics of history, but they weren’t. Crisp, clear, and in color. From less than twenty years ago.

“I’m most interested in examining your scopulae—that’s the—”

“The hairs on a spider’s legs that it uses to stick to even slick surfaces. Yeah, I did a lot of research after I got bit,” Peter says, brushing crumbs from his shirt. Is there butter on his mouth? He squints at the shiny door of the elevator but it’s no replacement for a mirror. He subtly wipes his hand across his mouth anyway. “I’m still waiting to lay eggs, to be honest.”

Tony looks torn between laughing and crying. “We—will deal with that, if it should ever happen. Later. Never, hopefully.”

The tests turn out to be nothing scary. All he has to do is place his hands flat on these special sensors, ones that tingle with power and electricity. The lab itself is incredible, the place of Peter’s dreams. He’s always longed to go back to school and pursuing something in the science field, but growing up poor and only getting poorer hadn’t left a lot of room for educational advancement. This lab though is a place of magic, and FRIDAY? Well—Peter thinks he might love her.

“Can you see these googly eyes he’s giving you baby girl?” Tony asks the disembodied voice, a pencil between his teeth. Peter swoons. The way Tony talks to his tech is—well Peter wouldn’t mind being on the other end of that sweettalk.

“It’s safe to say my circuitry is blushing, boss,” FRIDAY says to both of their amusement.

When he asks Peter to take his shirt off so Tony can apply some electrodes to monitor his heart rate and blood pressure, he blinks at the sight of Peter’s newly-exposed abs. Peter can’t help but flex under the dark gaze. Living rough has him skinnier than he’s ever been, but the spider bite turned every last bit of him into muscle. Objectively, he can admit that it’s rather impressive looking. Tony clearly thinks so, with the way he swallows and adjusts his glasses before applying the electrodes, careful not to touch Peter’s skin no matter how desperately the younger man wants him to.

Around lunch time, Tony asks, “Pizza, Pete? Am I appealing to the whole room when I say pizza?”

Pete. Fuck. No one’s given him a nickname in…forever, it feels. Peter swallows around the lump in his throat and rubs his empty stomach. “Enhanced appetite. I’m never going to turn down a meal, Mr. Stark.”

“You hear that, FRI?” Tony says. “Order pizza from my usual place, and start ordering double groceries for delivery. Any allergies, kid?”

“No.”

After splitting a large New York style pizza with Tony Stark, Peter sits on a stool a table away (so the man has plenty of room to work) and watches. It’s warm, his eyes are heavy lidded, stomach full and sated. This is the happiest and most comfortable he’s been in a long time. Since May passed, at least. I made it, May, he thinks to himself, eyes stinging. All the hours she worked trying to provide for him, all the lessons she tried to impart it. Now Peter has a purpose. He’s going to be working to help keep the world safe. And he’s secure.

He’ll do whatever it takes to keep this opportunity.

“Do you and Captain America have a long history?” Peter asks.

Tony doesn’t even glance up from his work. “Cap and I? Yeah, we go way back.”

“I don’t like—” Peter manages to stop himself, but just too late. The relaxed atmosphere relaxed his tongue too, drunk on the warmth and good company. The words are out there now, and the way Tony’s eyes flicker up shows that he’s listening, waiting for the sentence to complete itself. “—I don’t like the way he treats you. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. He’s just, he’s not very nice to you, is he?”

Tony sits back on his stool, rubbing at his jaw like it aches. “How he treats me? He doesn’t treat me any differently than anyone else, I suppose. Everyone is—well, they’re nice enough.”

“Would you let him talk to me the way he talks to you?” Peter asks.

Tony blinks, presses his lips together in a thin line; Peter can tell that he’s doing the math in his head and not liking the outcome. Maybe it’s too soon for him to make a gamble like that, to assume that this man cares about Peter enough to give a damn whether Steve talks down to him. But he has a feeling that Tony Stark cares about most people. Even Peter.

“I wouldn’t,” he says at last, and Peter didn’t know that his heart could soar even as it twists. “But we’re not exactly the same person, kid.” He goes back to being hunched over the lab table. There’s a hologram of a gloved hand that the man twists and turns with just the prodding of his fingers. “Maybe we Avengers aren’t all best friends like the media portrays, but they don’t treat me any differently than what I deserve.”

“You deserve way better than that,” Peter says.

That makes Tony look up, his face turned blue with illuminated light. The intensity of his expression might make a lesser man look away, but Peter is unflinching. Unyielding; Eventually, he gives Peter a smile that is equal parts happy and sad, a flower blooming right before the first frost that will surely wither it away. With a snap of his fingers, the hologram melts into the table and disappears. “How about we call it quits for the day. You’re off the hook. Run along now—do whatever kids do. Scram.”

#starker #defender #cagewrites #mean avengers

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ionicspacemarmot · 4 years

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Modern Visual Effects and the Ethics of Digitally Revived Actors

Since its earliest days, illusions have been a staple of cinema. Filmmakers like Georges Méliès sought to use the medium to achieve visual spectacles which could never be accomplished in a live setting like theatre.

Over the past century, special effects have advanced to an unprecedented extent. We now live in a world in which just about anything that can be visualized can be translated to the screen, whether through practical or digital means.

When CGI, or Computer Generated Imagery, was first introduced to mainstream cinema, one of the main goals of VFX artists was to perfect photorealistic human beings. In this industry, one of the most difficult tasks is to create a human being detailed enough to fool the audience into believing it's really there. This is an art which only recently has even come close to being achieved.

Why So Complicated?

When a CGI character is present in a film, it's very rarely seamlessly integrated. Many would argue that it still has yet to be perfected. This is generally not for lack of effort or talent on the part of the artists, but rather the fact that human beings have evolved over many years to identify other humans based on the smallest details and microexpressions. We, as a species, are incredibly good at picking up on the slightest inconsistencies. When a character teeters too precariously on the line between realistic and unconvincing, it runs the risk of falling into what is known as the "uncanny valley."

What is the Uncanny Valley?

The uncanny valley refers to our empathetic response to humanoid creations who look real, but not quite real enough to be completely convincing, thus eliciting a discomforting emotional response from the audience. As explained before, we are extraordinarily good at identifying when something doesn't look or behave as it would in real life, as we experience real world textures, lighting, and physics every single day.

This discrepancy is especially true when it comes to identifying flaws in other human creations. The animal part of our brains immediately recognize that what they're looking at resembles another human being, but those slight imperfections trigger something inherently off-putting. (1)

This is why 3D animated films opt for more exaggerated, cartoony character designs. Mr. Incredible does not look like a real person. Homer Simpson is not designed to look as though he exists in the real world. Our brains have a much easier time registering these designs because they are not designed to imitate reality and fool us.

A Very Brief History

In recent years, technology and techniques have evolved within the VFX industry to the point where convincing photorealistic characters are quite possible. This has been the goal of many artists since the introduction of CGI, meaning there is a great deal of research and development behind it.

While Disney is known today, for better or worse, for their recent advancements in 3D human animation, this is something that has been attempted many times over the past twenty or so years, with varying degrees of success.

Even at the time, this movie was criticized for its creepy, imperfect character models who fell deep into the uncanny valley. That being said, this film was still an immense technical achievement unlike anything that had come before, and paved the way for the truly groundbreaking effects of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, released the following year in 2002.

One of the earliest experiments in 3D human animation was the 2001 Japanese-American film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi. This was the first fully motion-captured mainstream film, as well as the first film to utilize "photorealistic" human characters.

The Beginning of De-Aging

The Two Towers introduced audiences to Gollum, a fully computer-animated character who is still praised today for his realism. This film took the technology introduced in Final Fantasy far beyond its limits, taking Andy Serkis's motion-captured performance and taking the time to ensure his character was composited as seamlessly as possible into the live action world of the film.

A wide variety of films followed, all trying to perfect the art of CGI human beings. While some of these projects were well-executed and have aged quite well, such as (some of) the Matrix sequels. Most, however, failed to properly bridge the uncanny valley, notoriously films such as The Polar Express and The Scorpion King.

In 2006, Bryan Singer's X-Men: The Last Stand, introduced a new frontier to this evolving art: Digital de-aging. In this film, a flashback sequence shows off actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, both digitally altered to resemble younger versions of themselves.

Today, of course, the charge in the effort to perfect 3D human animation is led by none other than Disney. Specifically, Marvel Studios.

The Reign of Disney

While a bit jarring by today's standards, this was extremely new and impressive technology for 2006. It was also a technique that would once again be taken on by a number of other filmmakers in subsequent films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Tron: Legacy (2010).

Tron was Disney's first real foray into the world of digital de-aging technology. While once again, the de-aged Kurt Russell featured in the film is quite unsettling to look at, it paved the way for 2015's Ant-Man. This film opens with a flashback in which actors Michael Douglas and Martin Donovan have been de-aged approximately twenty-five years.

2016 would also see an unprecedented use of this evolving technology upon the release of Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Using a miraculously found, highly detailed lifecast of the actors face from the 1984 film Top Secret, the artists at ILM were able to produce an accurate 3D sculpt of the actor's face and composite it onto the motion-tracked performance of Guy Henry. (2)

This effect was remarkably successful and the film continues to be praised for its use of the technology. This technology would again be applied the following year, in Captain America: Civil War, which features a rather convincingly de-aged Robert Downey Jr.

While imperfect, CGI Tarkin was a groundbreaking achievement in terms of technological innovation. However, it did raise a number of ethical discussions. In particular, is it ethical to use this technology to revive deceased actors? And by extension, do actors have a legal right to their physical likeness?

Star Wars Changes the Game

A major element kept secret in the marketing for the film was the prominent role of the character Grand Moff Tarkin, a major character from the original Star Wars in 1977. The immediate issue here is that the actor who originally portrayed the character, Peter Cushing, passed away in 1994.

Ethical Dilemmas

For this film, the immensely talented artists at Industrial Light and Magic were tasked not with de-aging a character, but with bringing a deceased actor back from the dead. This daunting project was achieved by casting a stand-in actor, Guy Henry, who could not only imitate Cushing's voice, but also looked a bit like him.

While Lucasfilm did receive permission from Peter Cushing's estate to use his likeness, this is something they theoretically did not have to do. Legally, it can be quite tricky to protect one's physical likeness. That being said, because they were granted permission by the estate, the studio was not heavily criticized. However, it certainly opened up an interesting ethical discussion. (3)

Again, it begs the question: is this the beginning of a trend? Disney is far from the only studio to attempt something like this. Usually when a deceased actor is revived for a role through special effects, it's for a specific reason. For example, Brandon Lee and Oliver Reed both passed during production of The Crow and Gladiator, respectively. Special effects were used to finish a project they were already heavily involved in. A character like Tarkin is different. (5)

Soon after Rogue One was released, Carrie Fisher tragically passed away before she could film her scenes as Princess Leia Organa in the ninth installment of the main Star Wars saga. Disney released a statement soon after claiming they would not use CGI to recreate her likeness for Episode IX.

As it came to pass, the film ended up utilizing unused footage of Fisher from 2015's The Force Awakens. Writers JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio attempted to write scenes around her pre-existing dialogue to try and fit her into the overarching narrative. Whether or not this worked in the film's favor is besides the point. From a technical standpoint, it's undoubtedly impressive and a testament to how far VFX has come. (4)

One again, however, many questioned the implications of such a practice. Like Peter Cushing's return as Tarkin, Fisher's role in The Rise of Skywalker did not face much scrutiny due to the fact that once again, the production was given the family's blessing to use her likeness in this way. Her daughter, Billie Lourd, actually plays a significant role in the film and shares scenes with her mother's character.

While exciting for hardcore Star Wars fans like myself to see, Tarkin was a character that could have been absent from Rogue One, or at least kept more to the sidelines. However, Edwards chose to make the character a prominent player for the duration of the film, showing him off in great detail quite often. They have essentially used special effects to synthesize an entirely new performance from an actor who has been dead for more than twenty years.

So again, could this be the start of a trend in cinema? Will we see the return of great actors who are no longer with us? Is that a bad thing? Who gets credited and paid? This is entirely new territory that comes with our rapidly growing technological advancements in the film industry. It seems that this is a phenomenon that will continue for the time being. The question remains as to whether or not legal and ethical attitudes change as a result of this ever-evolving medium.

Notes:

Bill Desowitz. "Advanced De-Aging VFX Are Crucial to The Irishman, Gemini Man, and Captain Marvel," Indiewire, October 1, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020.

(2)Bill Desowitz. "Rogue One: How ILM Created CGI Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia," Indiewire, January 9, 2017, accessed May 2, 2020.

Brian Welk. "How Samuel L Jackson’s De-Aging on ‘Captain Marvel’ Cut Shooting Time in Half," The Wrap, March 18, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020.

Carolyn Giardina. "Will Smith, Robert DeNiro and the Rise of the All-Digital Actor," The Hollywood Reporter, August 10, 2019, accessed April 20, 2020.

David Ehrlich. "James Dean Is Just the Beginning: Critics Debate the Future of CGI Acting," Indiewire, November 11, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020.

Erin Winick. "Actors are Digitally Preserving Themselves to Continue Their Careers Beyond the Grave," MIT Technology Review, October 16, 2018, accessed April 20, 2020.

Laura M. Holson. "A C.G.I. James Dean? Some in Hollywood See ‘an Awful Precedent’," New York Times, November 7, 2019, accessed April 20, 2020.

Leon Miller. "14 Actors Resurrected With Crazy CGI (And 6 That Can Never Be)," Screenrant, August 9, 2018, accessed April 26, 2020.

Luke Kemp. "In the age of deepfakes, could virtual actors put humans out of business?" The Guardian, July 8, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020.

(4)Jordan Zakarin. "It Took More CGI Than You Think to Bring Carrie Fisher Into The Rise of Skywalker," Syfy, January 7, 2020.

(3,5)Joseph Waltz. "Rogue One: the CGI resurrection of Peter Cushing is thrilling – but is it right?," The Guardian, December 16, 2016, accessed April 26, 2020.

(1)"VFX Artists React to Resurrected Actors Bad and Great CGI," YouTube video, 13:20, "Corridor Crew," June 1, 2019. https://youtu.be/2ZKPnuUFwOk

#film #filmcommunity #filmmaking #star wars #marvel #carrie fisher #peter cushing #deepfake #deaging #disney #vfxartist #cgi animation #cgi #weta workshop #weta digital #industrial light and magic

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watchathon · 4 years

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BONUS: The Last Airbender

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watchathon, a blog where I’m hoping to watch an episode of a show (or in this case, a movie) every one-to-two days, with a short blog post where I give my thoughts on what I’ve just seen. Each new point starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so.

But today, I’m subjecting myself to the notorious live-action film The Last Airbender, to... Well, to “celebrate” its tenth anniversary. I initially planned on doing it either after Book 1, or after Book 3, but for whatever reason, I have decided to do this now.

Fair warning, this is going to be one of my rare posts where I’ll be mostly negative.

So much for “gushing about things I like”...

Also, so much for “the rare occasion I cover movies”, but that I don’t mind so much. The Lilo & Stitch post was a ton of fun to make.

- So, first things first, I don’t tend to be a fan of live-action movies based on animated properties in general. But it’s not like I don’t give them a chance.

Sometimes I even like them better than the original. I could never get through The Jungle Book in one sitting as a kid, but the 2016 live-action remake? I adored it!

Even the worst ones I tend to be “meh” about rather than flat-out disliking. But The Last Airbender? I hated it when I watched it as a kid... Emphasis on the past tense. I could well change my tune because of this, though I can’t imagine I’ll end up liking it.

- They recreate the “Water, earth, fire, air” part of the intro but without narration. Which, to be frank, just makes it look pretty silly.

- “The four nations. Water, Earth, Fire, and Air Nomads.” Sooo are they all nomads?

- Awvatar? Pronouncing Aang as Awng, I could sorta get, but... Awvatar? Really?!

- It feels oh-so-weird to see a white Katara and Sokka, when they, and all the people of the Water Tribes, had the darkest skin in the show.

- Something that really strikes me about this movie already is that it’s so... humorless. Sokka described himself once in the show as “the meat and sarcasm guy” if I’m remembering right, and not even five minutes in I can already tell we’re missing half of that description.

- Not only is this movie humorless, it can seem strangely... smaller, than the cartoon. In the cartoon, Katara got Aang out of the iceberg by accidentally using powerful Waterbending.

But here, Sokka causes the ice to crack by accident, revealing the iceberg with Aang inside. Then Katara grabs Sokka’s boomerang and whacks the iceberg twice with it.

- More about the lack of humor: There’s not even a mention of penguin sledding once Aang is out either.

- And not only are our most prominent Waterbenders white, the Fire Nation (who had light skin in the cartoon) have the darkest skin of the whole main cast. Juuust great...

- Aang’s heroic moment from the cartoon is taken away from him. In the cartoon, Aang was on his way out of the Southern Water Tribe when he saw the Fire Nation approaching, at which point he turned around and helped them.

Here? Aang sits in a tent until one of the Fire Nation soldiers sees his tattoos and drags him out.

- “We found that boy, he’s our responsibility!” Katara sounds like she’s talking about a stray puppy they found. “I’ll feed him, and bathe him, and teach him!”

- It crosses the line into unintentional hilarity when, as Katara and Sokka are discussing Aang, there’s just Appa noises in the background, entirely unremarked upon. The only take a glance in that direction once they’re done talking, ironically after Appa’s quietened down somewhat.

- Nobody gets out of this movie without major changes, but if it weren’t for Iroh referring to Zuko as his nephew, I’d have never guessed it was him. Also, Eeroh. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if Zuko isn’t pronounced Zucko.

- Katara and Sokka’s grandmother pronounces Avatar correctly. Why don’t Katara and Sokka? Or, heck, why doesn’t she pronounce it “Awvatar”? It’d be better if they stuck to one rather than the inconsistent pronunciation.

- I’ll give them props: The idea of testing if Aang is the Avatar by setting four objects representing the elements in front of him is pretty cool. Does become kinda silly, though, when the rock just... wobbles and goes upright. They could have had it, like, cracking, but instead, wobbly rock.

- I might be misremembering, but it felt like Aang’s escape from Zuko’s ship was a lot... more, in the cartoon. I know, time constraints of fitting a twenty-episode season into a two-hour movie. But I have to tilt my head at just how much shorter (and milder) this particular scene is than its animated counterpart.

- It’s weird how Katara’s narration calls Aang by name, then like a minute later (at most) we see her ask him for his name.

- Wow, is it weird to see Aasif Mandvi playing Zhao when I watched The Daily Show as a teenager.

- Exposition is always fun when it’s delivered in the form of a roast.

- “But we will let [Zuko] wear [the Fire Nation uniform] today, like a child wearing a costume.” And nobody even smiles at Zhao’s sick burn.

- Hey, at least they have Iroh drinking tea. But cartoon Iroh probably wouldn’t do that so casually while his nephew is fighting Zhao’s soldiers. And cartoon Iroh would probably smile. At some point in time.

- And movie Katara and Sokka have apparently gone all the way to the Earth Kingdom without learning that Aang is the Avatar.

- “He was bending tiny stones at us from behind a tree! It really hurt!” I gotta be honest, that’s not a bad joke. It does feel kinda out of place with the general tone of the movie thus far, but whatever. I’ll take the lighthearted fun moments where I can get them.

- I can sort of understand why they would want the Earthbenders imprisoned by the Fire Nation to have some sort of earth to bend without the Gaang going to all that trouble to get the coal. But putting them in a quarry is more than a bit overboard.

- Aang gets a big Katara moment from the cartoon. And the thing is, Katara doesn’t really get that much time to shine in this movie. She could have used a moment like this one. Heck, Aang could’ve joined in to confirm that the Avatar has returned.

But no... In this scene, Katara just shoves a Fire Nation soldier who’s being rude to Aang.

- Ah, the infamous pebble dance. And the thing is, in the cartoon, this would’ve been a joke.

Aang would go through this huge, over-the-top dance just to make a relatively small rock float slowly towards a Fire Nation soldier. At which point, Toph would make the rock move much faster before teasing Aang about what he just did.

- Ohhh, gosh, I’m half an hour into this hour-and-a-half movie, and the post already looks like... this.

- “Teachers to teach you bending.” A lot of attention gets given to another repetitive line later on in the movie, but we shouldn’t ignore this beauty.

- Weird to see Ozai in plain view. Especially considering how, later on, he will be framed in shadow.

- Agni Key... What is it with this movie and changing pronunciations? I wouldn’t even care if that was the only problem, but with how it is, it’s one of several things that make this movie feel like “Avatar but wrong”.

- “Yip yip.” Gosh, does it feel weird to hear those words in a movie that tries to be more serious than the cartoon.

- I had to stop and continue this in the morning since it was late, so I might be forgetting something... But was it established before the Blue Spirit that Zuko knew Zhao would be hunting the Avatar?

- Hard to take it seriously when Zhao looks at his soldiers, chained by their hands to the ceiling, and simply mutters “fools.”

- “You think my son is this person the soldiers are calling ‘Blue Spirit’?” *pause of at least four seconds* “...Yes.”

- “My brother and the princess became friends right away.” First off, that’s really underplaying it. But second, Sokka’s face is so blank as Katara says this that I can’t buy even that.

- Zhao really becomes a much less threatening force when it’s Ozai who tells him to kill the spirits, when it’s Ozai who starts talking about their destiny.

- “HOOOOOOOOO” lives in a pineapple under the sea?!

- Everything in the Spirit World is compressed into this one dragon. Which makes it seem a lot less like a Spirit World than just the home of this dragon.

- I would say that the whole bit of Aang trying to avoid Zuko even though he’s right behind him is more like something from the cartoon... But, the dramatic music really makes it seem like this is supposed to be a serious moment. And it just doesn’t work as one.

- Iroh’s trying to stop Zhao is nowhere near as good as it was in the cartoon.

- “He’s making fire out of nothing!” I don’t understand why they made the change that this is uncommon. The Fire Nation are the villains, they should be stronger than other benders.

- “It’s time we show the Fire Nation that we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in theirs.” I don’t understand how anyone thought this could work as a serious line.

- Back to the whole thing of this being smaller than the cartoon, Aang doesn’t turn into Aangzilla here. He accomplishes a very impressive feat of Waterbending, but when I just watched the cartoon version last week, it feels lesser in comparison.

- I imagine this is supposed to be Aang bowing in response, since he didn’t with the monks. But it doesn’t look like bowing. It just looks like an elegant dance move.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Yeah, I still don’t like it much. But I’ll say this: Now that I’ve watched it again, I appreciate the cartoon so much more.

I appreciate the characters. I appreciate the tone, I appreciate the pacing. And I appreciate all the things that are lacking from this movie.

I can only hope that the new live-action adaptation will be better, even if I know the cartoon will still be my preferred way of experiencing the story.

#The Last Airbender #bonus post #long post #really long post #super long post #negativity #negative #Katara #Sokka #Aang #Iroh #Zuko #Zhao #pebble dance #Fire Lord Ozai #Movie

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enfpguy · 4 years

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BioShock Infinite MBTI and Enneagram — Elizabeth Anna DeWitt or better known as Elizabeth is the secondary Protagonist of BioShock Infinite and the Main Protagonist of BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea. Due to Elizabeth being part of three multi-verses, we’ll be segmenting her analysis into 3 parts. They’ll be listed as titles under their associated functions. BioShock Infinite: The Main Story. Brainwashed Old Elizabeth: Alternate universe where Comstock successfully captures and indoctrinates Elizabeth. Burial at Sea Elizabeth: This takes place after the events of Bioshock Infinite and concludes Elizabeth’s story.

Dominant Function: Extroverted Intuition

BioShock Infinite: Elizabeth is a prominent example of someone who uses Extroverted Intuition as her first function, she’s obsessed with gaining vast amounts of information on many subjects intending to improve herself and to stave off boredom. Some of these subjects are physics to better understand her abilities, lock picking, history and medicine. Elizabeth is also always seeking novel ways to gain more mental and physical stimulation. This causes her to be very impulsive with her actions and decision making, such as coming up with conclusions too quickly with limited information. Here are a few examples of her impulsive nature: At Soldier’s Field Elizabeth and Booker run into a problem they need a vigor called “Shock Jockey” to power up the gondola to escape Columbia, Elizabeth proposes going to the Hall of Heroes because she sees an ad suggesting they have stock there. She ends up being wrong since revolutionaries ransacked the Hall of Heroes of all Shock Jockey vigors. The second example occurs when the elevator they’re taking to the Hall of Heroes gets jammed. Booker offers a practical solution, while Elizabeth impulsively opens a “tear” because there’s a bee in the elevator, which almost gets her and Booker killed by the Songbird. Speaking of “tears” Elizabeth constantly opens up new ones into alternate versions of Columbia without considering the consequences. This is because she wants to escape the floating city and go visit “Paris”. This plan ultimately backfires and causes her and Booker additional problems. Like that one time when they entered a multiverse where Booker died for the Vox populi and never made the deal with Daisy Fitzroy for the First Lady airship. Thus eliminating their only means of leaving Columbia and making an enemy of the Vox populi. This problem would haunt them for the rest of the game. Our last examples of Elizabeth’s impulsive nature occur when she’s left idle. She’ll investigate random items such as arcade machines, stuffed animals, people and will pick up ammo or health packs when she sees that Booker requires aid. But wait… There’s more! We can observe more indicators of Extroverted Intuition in her aptitude for brainstorming, thinking outside the box and finding patterns within ideas and actions. For brainstorming, she’ll offer alternate suggestions to aid Booker in their adventure, such as searching for more information by going off the beaten path via locked doors and sneaking around enemies to avoid them altogether. As for thinking outside the box, we have a funny example.. This occurs when Elizabeth is running away from Booker because she found out he was planning on selling her. During this chase she opens up four “tears” the first one has over 30 over-sized party balloons, the second one is a marching band, the third is a train that cuts off Booker and the fourth has her entering a “tear” through a wall into an open space where she ironically gets captured by two guards. As for finding patterns, we often witness Elizabeth analyzing her surroundings and questioning them to find hidden meanings within them. The diorama of Soldier’s Field is an exceptional example. After staring at it for a few seconds Elizabeth suggests they created it to acquaint children to the military for the purpose of instilling “Columbian” values within them making them loyal to Comstock's regime for life. As you can see Elizabeth relies heavily on her Ne function. Even her end game ability to see all potential outcomes of all situations is an exaggerated God version of NE. However, the traumatic events she experienced throughout the game have caused her to become mentally unhealthy, and a consequence of that is frequent reliance on lower functions This effect on her psyche can be best seen in the DLC Burial at Sea. Burial at Sea Elizabeth: Just like in the base game, Elizabeth uses Ne as her dominant function, but she will often enter NE-TE loops with the occasional SI grip. This is because at the end of the base game Elizabeth creates a paradox by killing Booker DeWitt before he could become Comstock, thus stopping her birth. This caused the memories, thoughts and emotions of all the other Elizabeths to collapse into her according to the BioShock Wiki page. With that being said, we’ll be mostly focusing on examples of her use of Extroverted Intuition. Other than her damaged psyche, Elizabeth remains as inquisitive as always. To acquaint herself quickly into Rapture’s society, she stole the first dress she saw and then spent over 2 months reading as many books as possible on Rapture’s society and ideologies. However, because Ne doms are pattern and idea driven, they don’t strive often in new settings and we can observe this by all the questions Elizabeth asks Booker. Such as what are Little Sisters and Splicers. This causes him to become suspicious and question what her intentions are and where she’s from. Luckily for Elizabeth, she’s a fast and creative thinker and can make up stories on the fly to which she does to dampens Booker's suspicions about her. Another indicator of NE usage can be seen in how Elizabeth thinks outside the box while in combative situations Such as suggesting to use Big Daddies to her advantage and hiding within vents to either stealthy knockout enemies or avoid them. Fun fact! In 1999 mode Elizabeth can’t use lethal ways to take out enemies, I can only assume it’s because of her moral code of not hurting anyone. This style of game play differs completely from Booker's Se type game play where he just runs and guns. Another indicator of her NE function is Elizabeth’s ability to react and read situations quickly. During the quest to find Sally, Booker and Elizabeth run into a problem they require, a plasmid called Old Man Winter she then opens up a “tear” to retrieve it and lies to a very suspicious Booker claiming it’s a new plasmid that she can’t tell him about. Our last 3 examples of the Ne function will be a negative trait, and that’s assuming things too quickly with little information. Elizabeth is notorious at doing this. Elizabeth assumed that the Songbird, and her were imprinted just by looking at one piece of information to which she ends up being incorrect according to Fink’s research. The second false assumption occurs twice by the same person. It first occurs after she repairs Lutece Device and then enters the “tear” to retrieve Lutece Particle and on her way back to the “tear” Suchong stops her and tells her she can’t go back unless she brings him the hair sample he wants. It secondly occurs when she retrieves the hair, places it in a bin and then gets betrayed again and turned over to Andrew Ryan. Our final example is a correct assumption, Elizabeth knew Atlas would not honour his deal even though he tried convincing her. Auxiliary Function: Introverted Feeling

BioShock Infinite timeline: One thing is for certain Elizabeth is an emotional individual, she often wears her heart on her sleeve and acts in the best interest for others. This makes seem as if she uses Extroverted Feeling function instead, but that just isn’t true. Extroverted Feeling relies on the outside world to gain information and then tries to harmonize with it. Elizabeth shows some use of it, such as feeling bad for the people affected by Fink’s abusive neglect and empathizing with Mrs Lin after losing her husband. However, there are more examples for FI usage than against it, and we’re about to explore them. These are best seen within the interactions between Booker and Elizabeth. The first example occurs after they survive escaping the tower Elizabeth imprisoned in by falling from the sky into the beach water, and instead of taking care of Booker she decided dancing would be a better choice. During their multi dimensional adventures Elizabeth loses interest in Paris for a temporary period of time. Instead she wants to join the Vox populi revolution on account of Daisy Fitzroy having a convincing argument for it while Booker didn’t want to be there but was strung along by Elizabeth. As the game progresses, Elizabeth becomes more confrontational against Booker and forces him to either help her or get out of her way because she wants to kill Comstock. She also threatens killing Booker with a tornado because he wanted to leave Columbia instead of fight, but after seeing the tornado he decided he’d kill Comstock for her. To make matters worse, Booker’s death was because Elizabeth decided she wanted to end the existence of Comstock and that meant killing her father Booker DeWitt because they’re both the same person. So much for harmony, eh? We can identify the final FI indicator in how she refuses to follow the societal standards of both Columbia and Rapture, instead she tries to force both of them to change to match her own personal views and values. For Columbia that means going against its Theocratic and Racist government system, and for Rapture that means Saving the Little Sisters. This because she believes everyone should be equal and little girls deserve the right to live free lives and not be used as Adam factories. An FE user would harmonize with that societal system or avoid conflict so they may achieve their goals, while an FI user like Elizabeth would stay true to their beliefs and be confrontational against the system. Burial at Sea Elizabeth: All the events of Burial at Sea occur because of Elizabeth’s FI function. Her strong morals and ideals demonstrate a clear example of how the FI function acts in these situations. It’s a story about her revenge plot against the last remaining Zachery Hale Comstock who took over Booker DeWitt’s identity. She wants to force him to face his own lies and make him realize he’s a monster before she kills him. During her time with “Booker” Elizabeth would constantly criticize Rapture’s society, mainly the treatment of the Little Sisters and Rapture’s dog eat dog society for not reflecting with her views. Once Elizabeth succeeds at her mission of eliminating Comstock, she’s overtaken by grief since she realizes she used Sally to get to Comstock and then left her behind to an uncertain fate. This prompts her to leave her imaginary NE-FI influenced version of Paris where everyone is an artist who sings and dances and return to a Rapture where she died to save Sally. By doing this she sacrifices her quantum-superposition, which reverts her back to a normal human being who has no powers or knowledge of the unknown. This means Elizabeth literally sacrifices being an all knowing being because she felt bad for leaving Sally because that went against her core values.

Tertiary Function: Extroverted Thinking BioShock Infinite: Elizabeth prefers and trusts external sources of information to understand the world around her. She often does this by reading books and putting her newly gained knowledge to practical uses. She loves mentioning “facts” about the world. Such as the beach in Battleship Bay being created in 6 months, “history” about Comstock in the battles of Wounded Knee and the Boxer Rebellion even though Cornelius Slate keeps telling her the history is incorrect and false information about Daisy Fitzroy and how she wants to tear apart Columbia. Elizabeth also seems to prefer inductive reasoning over deductive reasoning and a fine example of this is when she observes the damage Fitzroy causes and then concludes Fitzroy and Comstock must be the same, even though we learn that is not the truth. We can spot more indicators of Extroverted Thinking when Elizabeth becomes stressed and enters NE-TE loops. A good example would be when she wanted to use her dead mother’s hand to access Comstock’s house to kill him. Booker disagreed with her approach but Elizabeth was more concerned with efficiency, this ends up backfiring. Burial at Sea Elizabeth: At start the Burial at Sea we can see Elizabeth within an NE-TE loop. She acts hostile and is direct with “Booker” and has completely changed her friendly and curious attitude to a more serious, confrontational and opinionated one. This often causes her to butt heads with “Booker”. She often criticizes and cuts him off every time he has a question about her with comments such as “If I wanted to share my life’s story Mr. DeWitt, I would write my memoirs” or refusing to call him Booker when he asks her nicely, referring him as Mr. DeWitt. Other than her attitude being different, her methods have somewhat changed. Elizabeth still remains creative and relies on external information but will use it in immoral ways to achieve her goals. Such as the time she distracted 3 store clerks so “Booker” could steal a mask so they may enter Sander Cohen’s artistic event or she closed the vents and turned up the heat within them to burn Sally alive in order lure her out. This is when Elizabeth would confront Comstock, who was trying to save Sally. Elizabeth then forced Comstock into realizing who he was and made him face his past. After Elizabeth succeeded at breaking the man, she had him killed by distracting him as the Big Daddy impaled him with a large drill. She finally breaks out of her NE-TE loop but then discovers she also died. From this point on she returns to a healthier mindset and her Te function acts more as a passive function that she uses to figure out problems. Speaking of problems, she often relies on documentation or information on the subjects to figure them out. Such as using coded papers to figure out that Fontaine is Atlas or figuring out Fontaine’s office was the best place to put the Lutece Particle so they can cause the submerged city to raise from the depths of the ocean. Fun fact! Suchong’s codes are inspired by the periodic table and the Vigenère cipher which is similar to the Caesar shift cipher but with a keyword which is based on Suchong’s name... Oh, and the password to exit his impromptu lab at the Silver Fin is his birthday. Never underestimate the fallibility of an egomaniac…

Inferior Function: Introverted Sensing

BioShock Infinite: Elizabeth mainly uses Introverted Sensing for recalling past information and their patterns to explain or understand situations. Such as her feelings for the Songbird. She simultaneously likes and dislikes him at the same time. In the past it was the Songbird who feed her and gave her books, but as she grew older, she disliked him because she realized he was the warden of her prison. Her dislike of the Songbird was so strong she drowned him at the end of the title, even though she knew how to control him she still decided killing him was better. She also fears her past so much that she would rather die than go back to the tower. She asks Booker to promise that he will not let the Songbird take her back, sadly he wouldn’t be able to keep that promise because Elizabeth sacrifices herself to the Songbird to save Booker’s life which leads to her to being captured and tortured by Comstock which leads to our second version of Elizabeth. Brainwashed Old Elizabeth: This is where we notice Elizabeth’s SI function enter a grip. She faults Booker for abandoning her for his selfish desires and blames them for helping the Vox populi with their civil war by turning Eden, aka “Columbia” to Sodom. She uses both these reasons to drive her pursuit in destroying New York, a city she perceives as full of sinners who don’t deserve salvation. She also connects stories from the bible such as Adam & Eve and explains that humanity always betray God and how her and God both have something in common disappointment. She does eventually break out of the SI grip and brings Booker 69 years into the future where she gives him instructions on how to stop her from becoming her future self. Also a minor side note. She wears the same dress she had on when the Songbird took her to Comstock when she reunites with Booker. This is a huge indicator of nostalgia. Burial at Sea Elizabeth: In Burial as Sea we can spot a huge development within Elizabeth’s SI function. She heavily relies on it to recall past information and connects it to the present and this is best seen within her ability to remember how to read encrypted code. This talent is used to figure out how to repair the Lutece Device, accidentally discover how to pair Big Daddies and Little Sisters together and decrypting the Ace In the Hole. These actions made Elizabeth responsible for the destruction of Rapture and setting the path for Jack to save the Little Sisters. Speaking of connecting past information to the future, Elizabeth recognizes the Sky-hook and Shock Jockey within the Rapture universe and uses that knowledge to help “Booker” This doesn’t go unnoticed and causes him to become more suspicious about her, luckily she also remembers how “Booker’s” personality functions and suppresses his suspicions by using Sally against him. The irony of the situation is that the real Booker DeWitt is her father, and she learned how to be tough from him. We’ll be wrapping up this MBTI analysis with the most convincing SI indicator. Elizabeth committed the same atrocity as her father. By selling Sally to lure and kill Zachery Hale Comstock. In the past Booker sold Elizabeth to pay off a debt and now Elizabeth sold Sally to pay off a debt to Booker. This decision ultimately emotionally destroys Elizabeth and causes her to return to Rapture cementing her fate. In the end Elizabeth paid off her debt by sacrificing herself to save Sally and the Little Sisters. The vicious circle of blood has been broken. https://youtu.be/8-QpeLAfMpI

#Elizabeth BioShock #Elizabeth #BioShock #BioShock Infinite #Elizabeth Bioshock MBTI #ENFP 7w6 #782 #782 enneagram #free spirit #complex character #hero #in-depth #anaysis #enneagram 7 #strong female character #best companion

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greedy-fox · 4 years

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Halloween Recommendations!!

Thought tis the season to be creepy, if y’all are are interested ranged animes to watch. I have placed these animes from PG-13 to the Horror Level

Interviews With Monster Girls

Let’s start with a happy go anime for this Halloween season, and I will start by talking about “ Interviews with Monster Girls.”

This anime is actually an adorable comedy which follows the premise that all mythical creatures (aka demi-humans) are real and they are living peacefully within society. Our main character Tetsuo Takahashi, is a biology teacher at Shibasaki High School, with a big interest in learning the biology of demi-human.

With the bar set low on his part since demi-humans are a pretty rare species, he unexpectedly meets a Vampire, Dulhan and a Yuki-Ona (Snow woman) as his female students, there is also the fact that one of his co-workers is a Succubus.

In my opinion this is a good one to watch because of how cute the characters are, and also how considerate the biology teacher is to his demi-human students

Bloody Blockade Battlefront

Is another supernatural comedy, the story is set in a world where a version of ‘Hell’ (and the demonic creatures that come with it) decided to come up and live in New York. Now the area is closed from the rest of the world and considered its own country called ‘Jerusalem's Lot.’ To keep the inhabitants in check, an organization called ‘Libra’ that is filled with their own supernatural beings.

A freelance photographer called Leonardo Watch lives in in said ‘Jerusalem's Lot.’ But before he made that change, a demon gave Leo the ‘All-seeing Eyes of the Gods’ while his sister goes blind. After much research and a stroke of coincidental luck since that incident since that incident, Leo was finally able to join ‘Libra’ and finally use his eyes while finding a cure for his sister.

This is one of the funniest animes that I have watched. Artwork is beautiful and the storyline is great.

Soul Eater

Is a supernatural fantasy anime. The setting is Death Meister Academy in Death City run the head honcho Lord Death (aka the Grim Reaper).

The school teaches the student how to become better shinigami in order to defeat any evil spirits and their biggest enemy are witches. The student are split into ‘Weapons’ who are humans that have the supernatural abilities to transform into weapons and ‘Meisters’ their human counterparts that are able to use the transformations at their best possible outcome.

Our main character are team members Maka and her scythe Soul, Black Star and his katana Tsubaki, last but not least Death the Kid and his twin guns Liz and Patty.

Note: Highly Recommend reading this story line as a manga rather than watching it as an anime. Reason is because the main story line cuts off mid way through the series and ends in a completely different way.

Highschool of the Dead

The story follows a group of Japanese highschool student and their nurse as they survive an unexpected Zombie apocalypse. Along the way they meet both friends and foes and pick up both a child and a dog.

While all of this is happening, they toward a neighborhood that might be a safe haven for them, while kicking zombie ass along the way.

Tokyo Ghoul

Is a story about ghouls, humans, and a human who unexpectedly became half ghoul. The setting is Tokyo, Japan; and there monster living within the human population called ghouls. Even though they look human they look and act human they aren’t because they live off of eating human flesh for sustenance.

Ken Kaneki is your average male high-schooler who unluckily fell in love and victim to one of Tokyo’s most notorious ghoul criminals Rize Kamishiro aka the ‘Binge Eater.’ As what seemed to be a normal date, ends with him running for his life from her and they both fall victim to unsecured metal beams at a nearby constructions site. Just when Kaneki thought he was dead, he wakes up in hospital bed where his the doctor tells him that he miraculously survived the accident. But as time goes by while he still a patient and after he get discharged Kaneki realizes that there is something very different about his body and was shocked to realize that he is half ghoul. Thankfully he was able to find allies within the coffee shop he frequents.

This anime is on point one of the best things I have watched. The main character goes through a lot of character developments and regressions. There are about four seasons overall and I loved every single one of them.

Devils Line

Is a vampire romance- drama. Set in a world where vampires live among humans in hiding. But they don’t really require human blood to survive. Instead they drink blood when they are about to go on a rampage.

Our main character is university student Yuuki Anzai and she meets Taira Tsukasa a vampire-human hybrid whom she saves before he went berserk. The two then unexpectedly get closer and start to grow some feelings for each other. But Yuuki is worried that she is a liability to Taira.

I honestly really liked this anime for it great art work and honest storyline. (Reminds me of Twilight but better) If it catches your and you really like it this is a manga adaptation that you can read after watching the series.

Parasyte: The Maxim

An action horror series where aliens that are called ‘parasyte’s’ have descended into earth orbit and take on the human brain and make them into living hosts.

Good news is that our main character Shinichi Izumi did not have his brain taken over. Bad news is that the alien instead took over his right arm and is calling himself Migi throughout the series.

That not all, there are other evil and much stronger ‘parasyte’s’ that have taken over human bodies. Now Izumi and Migi are caught up in multiple fight they just can't lose or it might mean the end of the human race itself.

Another great anime. I personally read the whole thing and it was great the characters go through a lot fighting and there come literal life and death situations happening.

Another

Probably one of the creepiest horror-thriller animes on the decade. The show follows student by the name Kouichi Sakakibara transfers into 3-3 of Yomiyama North Middle school which rumored to be a cursed classroom. The rumors tells of a female honor student that dies tragically 26 years ago. As she was loved by all the student, class 3-3 decided to keep on believing that she was alive until they graduated. 😖😖😖😖😖

Suspicious and afraid of the classroom atmosphere Koichi ends up befriending Mei Misaki (who he is also very wary of). As the story unfold most of his classmates start dying one by one. Now Kouichi afraid that the curse is real and he might be the next target.

Will be able to survive this torture and be able to graduate from middle school or will the curse kill him off

I really believe that this story is creepy beyond compare. I honestly have not watched it myself but based on the opening and what I remember when I saw the trailer, I had nightmares for a month.

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This is all I have for this year be ready for more the next!

#halloweenseason #2020 #anime

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metalandmagi · 5 years

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Fall 2019 Anime Worth Watching

Wondering what anime to watch now that the jam packed summer season is over? Never fear, we’re into the fall, and there’s even more great shows this season! It’s my last rec list of the year so we’re in the home stretch now!

Full disclaimer, this season is packed with great shows, but a lot of these are not available on Crunchyroll...so here’s a link to a list of where you can watch everything legally on streaming! And I’ll but an (*) by everything that IS on Crunchyroll.

And here’s my recs for every season this year:

Summer 2019

Spring 2019

Winter 2019

And here’s my master list for 2020

New shows!

Chuubyou Gekihatsu-Boy (Outburst Dreamer Boy): A comedy in which a normal girl just wants a peaceful high school life, but finds herself surrounded by a group of ridiculous, overly dramatic boys who are all part of the “hero club” who try to make her school life better by helping her make friends. This is all well and good, but all the boys are delusional in one way or another. For example, one thinks he and his friends are basically Power Rangers, and another is obsessed with fabricating dramatic fake anime backstories for himself. It’s Ouran High School Host Club without the hosting. It’s absolutely hilarious, but it’s really flying under the radar because it’s not on Crunchyroll.

Kabukichou Sherlock: A surprisingly comedic modern version of Sherlock Holmes that takes place in the seedier portions of Japan in which a bunch of the city’s quirky detectives try and hunt down Jack the Ripper. I was not expecting this to be nearly as good as it was. The characters are great, Mrs. Hudson is a transvestite cabaret singer, the soundtrack is bomb, it’s an original anime by Production I.G. AND SHERLOCK EXPLAINS HIS DETECTIVE PROCESS THROUGH MYSTERY SOLVING RAKUGO!!!!

Babylon: NO, NOT FATE BABYLONIA! This is a mystery/thriller involving a case of illegal clinical research for a pharmaceutical company that leads down a rabbit hole full of murder, suicide, and political intrigue. IT’S LIKE DEATH NOTE AND MONSTER HAD A BABY AND IT’S FREAKING AMAZING! I haven’t been this interested in a mystery/crime anime since Erased. The first episode will definitely leave you...hanging…. The only problem is it’s not on Crunchyroll, so I have a feeling most people won’t know about it because it’s on freaking Amazon Prime!

Hoshiai no Sora (Stars Align): A coming of age sports anime in which a boys soft tennis team sucks so bad that the school will disband them if they don’t win a tournament. And the team captain is so desperate for serious members, he literally pays his childhood friend who recently moved back into town to play on the team. And said childhood friend has an incredibly interesting backstory and struggling family life that ropes you in right away. How is soft tennis different from regular tennis? No clue, but this show is awesome! You can tell by the first episode it is going to be a great coming of age story, with more mature themes of abuse and class difference.

And it’s not the only sports anime with Sora in the title...

*Ahiru no Sora (Sora the Duck): Another sports anime, in which a short, spikey haired boy wants to play basketball (yeah yeah very original) but discovers that his high school basketball team is full of punks! It’s basically what would happen if Izuku Midoriya wanted to be a basketball player. The first few minutes are basically every sports anime you’ve ever seen, BUT it really lives up to its potential by the end of the first episode. It has a likable protagonist, good animation, and the female characters all wear realistic clothes to play basketball in! If you’re a piece of sports anime trash like me, this is definitely the show for you!

No Gun Life: In a detective noir world where everyone has basically become a cyborg, a guy with a gun for a head works to uncover the plans of an evil organization. That’s it, that’s the whole thing. It’s made by Madhouse AND IT’S A CYBORG WITH A GUN FOR A HEAD! What else do you need?!

Beastars: IT’S JUST ANIME ZOOTOPIA! I’m not even kidding. It’s a school based mystery involving anthropomorphic animals who are faced with the murder of one of their classmates and the disruption of the peaceful coexistence of all types of animals in the school. It involves the whole predator vs prey dynamic and how appearances are deceiving, all with a jarringly serious tone considering everyone’s an animal. The only thing that doesn’t sit right with me is the use of 3D animation...which I notoriously despise no matter how great the show is. But even I am willing to put aside my hatred to keep watching this anime. The characters are interesting, it’s shot really creatively, and I love how ridiculously seriously it takes itself. Apparently it’s going to be on Netflix at some point.

*Shin Chuuka Ichiban (True Cooking Master Boy): It’s Food Wars’ less porny sibling that takes place in 19th century China, where a young boy named Mao is a master chef who travels around spreading his love for cooking! This is a reboot/continuation of an anime based on a manga from the 90s so there’s a really fun retro art style that’s nice to see updated. Apparently it picks up in the middle of the original story, but I haven’t felt like it’s necessary to see the source material to enjoy it or understand it. Also the soundtrack is bomb! It’s a great shounen to watch if you want more cross-cultural cooking anime that’s not straight up porn in your life, and it will definitely make you hungry!

Next seasons and Continuations!

And don’t forget the summer leftovers, and some shows are getting continuations!

*Chihayafuru season 3: This is an incredibly fantastic underrated sports/club anime about a girl named Chihaya who struggles to find members for her karuta club after her best friend who made her fall in love with the game moves away. Never heard of “karuta”? It’s a physically and mentally challenging traditional Japanese game involving 100 poems written on cards that the players must memorize and locate before their opponent….it makes more sense when you see it I promise. This show is goddamn amazing, with incredibly realistic characters, an amazing game that most people don’t know about, gorgeous animation. It’s hilarious, it’s dramatic, it’s sad, and it’s uplifting all at once.

This doesn’t premier until October 23, (so you’ve got time to binge the first 2 seasons!) but this is by far my most anticipated show of the season and quite possibly the entire year! I’VE BEEN WAITING SO MANY YEARS FOR ANOTHER SEASON, AND I’M SO PSYCHED!

Kono Oto Tomare (Stop this Sound) season 2: Speaking of club related anime, in case you missed the first season earlier this year, this is an anime about a boy who tries to recruit members for his high school koto club after all his senpais graduate. What’s a koto club you ask? It’s a large Japanese string instrument that no one cares about or plays anymore of course! Their club is endearingly terrible, with literally only one competent person on the team, but they’re aiming for nationals anyway, because...of course they are. This show seems pretty textbook at first, but it really grows on you the further you get. There are great character dynamics, it’s fun, it’s sweet, and there’s cool music that people don’t hear a lot of! If you like sports or club focused anime, give this one a chance!

*Dr. Stone: An action adventure in which all of humanity is mysteriously turned to stone one day. When a genius high school boy named Senku and his….not so genius friend Taiju awaken 3,700 years in the future, the two must rebuild civilization and turn the world back to normal with the power of science! I know pretty much everyone is watching this already, but I just want to reiterate how amazing it is. It is mysterious, educational, hilarious, and it really makes you think about civilization as we know it today. It was one of the best (if not the best) new show of the summer, and I’m so glad it’s getting a full run!

Vinland Saga: THE VIKING ANIME IS GETTING A FULL RUN!!!!!!!! In case you missed this gem in the summer, it’s a historical drama about a young boy named Thorfinn and his journey to avenge his father’s death and become a great warrior. And it’s all while traveling with his enemies through Northern Europe. It’s a fantastic dark, realistic story in a historical setting that filled the void left by Dororo. Plus it’s animated by Wit, so it looks beautiful. The music is great, the characters are intriguing, the story is interesting, AND IT HAS AN AMAZING ANTAGONIST! It has hype written all over it, so I’m pumped for the rest of the season! Unfortunately, you can only find it legally on Amazon Prime, so that’s why no one’s watching it.

*Fire Force: The (unfortunately timed) action/drama where fire fighters with super powers must protect Tokyo from people who are spontaneously combusting and uncover the evil rooted within their own organization. It’s made by the same person who created Soul Eater, and it definitely shows. The animation is high flying and out of this world. It’s worth watching for the action alone. But be warned, the plot and characters are it’s biggest weakness. It will jump between gratuitous fanservice and hijinks and then rocket into moral dilemmas and disturbing situations with no warning. BUT I still like watching it for the action, and in these later episodes the plot has steered itself back on track a lot more, and I’m way more interested in where the story is going now. I’m hoping that means the second half will give us a better sense of the characters. It also has a top tier muscular waifu!

*My Hero Academia season 4: I’m sure everyone’s already going to be watching MHA, but I guess I’d have my anime fan badge revoked if I didn’t at least mention this one. I may not read the manga, but I know this arc is going to be a good one! I firmly believe this will be a modern classic, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s really worth watching.

And that’s it for this season. I’ll probably do a list at the end of the year of my top shows of 2019, but otherwise, see you in the winter of 2020!

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skriaki · 4 years

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Resistance: Fall of Man GAME REVIEW (PlayStation 3)

For better or worse, Sony has a history of trying new things. The PS2 in particular had such an overwhelming market dominance during the 6th console generation that Sony had all kinds of weird franchises going. Some of them never went anywhere, but others survived to fight the next console war. Ratchet and Clank was one of the success stories, from the now-famous Insomniac (recent developers of the PS4 Spider-Man game), and after a few instalments of action platforming they decided to mix things up.

Resistance is a first-person shooter and easily one of the better-known PS3 launch titles, though it has to be said that the PS3 had a notoriously shaky early life. Truth be told, MotorStorm is the only other launch game I remember with any clarity. So Resistance had a bit of a reputation boost by virtue of not having a lot of competition, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I've seen reviews that call it either a killer app or a massive disappointment. In reality, I think it's somewhere in the middle.

Far and away what stands out most is the setting. Resistance takes place in an alternate 1950s where the Russian Revolution never happened because the Tunguska Event of 1908 turned out to be carrying some kind of horrific virus. Russia went into lockdown for many years without anyone else knowing why, only for an army of mutated former Russians to suddenly swarm over the walls and overrun Europe and Asia. Being islands, Britain and Ireland hold out for a while until the monsters dig their own Eurostar tunnel. You play an exceptionally boring American soldier who's flown into York (the old one) without adequate briefing just as the invasion gets underway.

I really like this kind of alternate history setup, as evidenced by my covetous love for Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Resistance takes its wacky concept very seriously. England is a surprisingly uncommon setting for a game as well, especially outside of London, and it's cool to see a war-ravaged depiction of places like Manchester and Nottingham. This is the kind of game that might be overly reliant on text logs to flesh out its world, but I was always genuinely excited to find out details like America's militant isolationism (what else is new?) or the sad story of a squad hunted by unknown assailants. The Chimera are the real stars, especially since the human characters are pretty disposable, and throughout the story they become increasingly well-entrenched until it's clear that Britain has fallen and the Chimera have the home team advantage.

So the tone is as far removed from Ratchet and Clank's cartoon antics as it could possibly be, but the gameplay still bears some resemblance under all the grey and brown. Insomniac are famous for their crazy weaponry and even Resistance's starter carbine has a grenade launcher. All the guns have a secondary fire that helps give them a distinct place in your arsenal, rather than being fairly interchangeable like the rifles in Killzone, and Insomniac didn't miss the opportunity for weird alien guns. The Bullseye is inaccurate but the secondary fire marks a target which your shots will then home in on. The Auger can shoot through walls and the secondary drops a shield for you to hide behind. Even better, you can carry all the guns at once (which is something Resistance 2 sadly fucked up), so at any time you can bring up the selection wheel as the situation demands.

The Chimera are notoriously bullet-spongey, unfortunately. In particular they have this one animation where they *start* to fall over before standing up again, which is pretty infuriating. Death can come very swiftly on the harder modes, despite the health system which regenerates up to each quarter of the bar, so I personally didn't feel any shame playing on easy mode just to compensate for the more annoying design quirks. Until you know the levels it's quite common for a hybrid to sneak up and pepper your arse with lasers.

Still, at least the game runs well. It actually runs noticably smoother than Resistance 3, since a lot of later seventh-gen games sacrifice frame rate for graphics. Resistance 1 isn't much of a looker these days but it holds up better than something like Killzone 2 because it doesn't feel as if the PS3 is about to catch fire.

Unfortunately, some of that performance is probably due to the mid-game slump; halfway through the level design starts to rely on underground corridors without even a pretence of exploration. This is one of the main symptoms of Resistance's launchgameitus. It doesn't help that the story loses a lot of steam at the same time. But then there are some vehicle segments which almost have the opposite problem, particularly when you're driving around a lovingly-rendered but fairly empty Cheddar Gorge. This middle third is when I'd probably have gotten flustered with the occasional cheap death if I hadn't played on easy mode. Still, things definitely pick up when the military decide to make a final push into London (it's always fucking London) so they can attack the Death Star's thermal exhaust port.

Resistance is your classic launch title: a middle-of-the-road game which seemed better when everyone had a limited selection of choices and no money after paying Sony's extortionate price for a big black sandwich toaster. I probably wouldn't have been so forgiving if I hadn't played it in that context, but I can forgive a game for a lot if it tries something interesting. While the sequels upped the scale and tightened up the gameplay, the original Resistance has an atmosphere of mystery that was never quite matched. The Chimera are a threatening and unnerving presence, especially when we learn details like how those big metal bits in their backs are cooling equipment that keeps their hyperactive metabolisms from burning out. The contrast of mid-1900s quaintness with high-tech alien technology is also really effective, and despite being a completely stock protagonist I did feel a bit of Nathan Hale's awe and trepidation when standing in the shadow of an snow-covered London crawling with mutant abominations.

Resistance is series that never quite lived up to its full potential. Still, getting murdered by alien sharpshooters on the underground is still more pleasant than actually commuting in London.

(3/5)

Availability: Resistance 1 and 2 only seem to be playable on PS3, but physical copies are extremely cheap so don't be suckered into paying a tenner for the digital version. Otherwise you can get Resistance 3 on the PS4 store, either as a single purchase or as part of PlayStation Now. The latter service only lets you stream it, as opposed to downloading, but it's perfectly playable so long as you have good internet. I actually like Playstation Now quite a lot because the service got a big price cut (since Microsoft's Game Pass was kicking its arse) and you can download a hundred or so games, but the rest are stream-only. It'd be nice to get some modern ports but it doesn't seem likely unless the franchise makes a comeback.

#game #gaming #ps3 #Playstation #ps4 #resistance #resistance fall of man #game review #sony #playstation 3

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