#btw I know next to nothing about this franchise but have decided I want to learn

[icarusdiesatdawn]

Data is my bff my bestest buddy my unproblematic fave my sweet babyboy my number one protect at all costs android I will die for you should you require (watched star trek for the first time)

[ackerpreach]

This ending .... I can name 500 reasons and I will name them right now, because I don’t think I’m the only one who is upset with how things turned out. (Also, A positive message for all of you at the end)

MAJOR LEAKS SPOILERS/ READ WITH CAUTION

Update: after reading more theories from fellow RM bloggers, and sleeping over it one day, this entire chapter might be an april fools... Don't fully lose hope yet beautiful people. It's me just giving a review on a possible fake April fools chapter

After following this franchise since 2013, so nearly a DECADE. this ending is a pure disserve to the entire fandom. I feel like Yams has rushed it just for the sake of being done with the entire manga. So many things are left open, characters and their developemt are reverted back all the way to chapter 1 or are left even worse than that...

Mikasa’s worthless character development/ Aaronmika’s horrible toxic codependent relationship 

Oh honey... Let’s start with how horrible Isayama has treated her. We were all rooting for her, because we all felt like she was so misunderstood. She had a horrible childhood and imprinted on a guy who treated her like trash 99 percent of the story. And then, slowly but surely, she starts to realize she has to stop obsessing over him in the uprising arc with the help of a real man who treats her like a queen, more importantly, he treats her like a real human being. This man sees her for her abilities and that she has the power to be self dependent. She learned parts of herself, that she was able to work together with him like no one else could.  She learned parts of herself she was unable to do so if she kept obsessing about Aaron. All this love, care, mutual understanding and RESPECT these two shared. 

but...NAH FUCK THAT, right Yams?? Throw all this development away, all this bonding. Let’s make the main female lead even more yandere than she already was in the first season. Let her make out with his decapacitated head (like dude, this is also pure disrespect to Aaron’s dead body btw) and let her obsess even more about the guy who has treated her no better than a piece of toilet cloth 99 percent of the time. The guy who was never really appreciative in front of her for saving his ass billions of times, who always pushed her away, who yells at her and snaps at her whenever he can instead of reasoning and talking calmly with her in mature way. (EVEN PARODY YOUTUBE CHANNELS WHO DONT SHIP ANYTHING MAKE IT A TROPE WHERE AARON TELLS MIKASA HE HATES HER GUTS WHENEVER HE CAN) 

Then after all that, suddenly Yams tries to last minute persuade us Aaron’s always been head over heels for her???  He should have build their relationship better which he hasn’t even tried to do so... He must be thinking his fans are stupid for eating this from his hands.    

Like seriously??? What is this??? 

Isayama is just fully contradicting himself. It’s like someone tipped him off with a buttload of money for him to write Aaron like this to satisfy shipping needs and to cash in those extra money’s from it. Even if he tried to cater to Erem*ika, this is not how you write a loving and caring couple which people will root for. 

This next two panels just freaking infuriates me to the core of my soul. I can’t even describe how dissapointed I am with Mikasa. 

Why is she clutching that head so obsessively like that?  Why is she walking and turning her back away from her comrades? After everything they have done for her, after all they’ve been through?! After everything Armin has done? Standing up for Mikasa, beating up Aaron for hurting her. I feel like even Jean, Connie and Sasha have cared more for her in a healthy way.  Sure, Aaron cares for her romantically too apparently (What a twist Yams :)), but has he aided her to becoming a mentally healthier individual? Has he aided in her mental stability? The answer is a big fat NO!  All I see between these two after today’s raw Chapter’s are too Yandere obsessed individuals who have no clue on how to maintain a healthy relationship. 

Love should only go as far as the heart can endure and it seems like her character is not willing to be aware of that. Even Armin was able to let go of Aaron in those latest panels. Why does her entire character resolve around this guy??? I really do not understand. Her Ackerbond and her age is not an excuse for her to throw her life away like this. 

Shonen’s disgusting portrayal of women 

I’ve seen this countless of times in the many years I’ve watched anime. SasuS*ku from Naruto, Ichih*me from Bleach, Shinji and that oranged hair girl from Neon Evangelion.. Why do these women get decreased to simpletons with one single goal? And that is to obsess over a bland male lead who either treats them like trash or doesn’t notice them up until the last last chapter (LITERALLY WHAT YAMS HAS DONE). Some go even as far as the male leading wanting the kill the female love interest and yet the female lead is still in love with them???. It’s disgusting for him to write the MAIN female character this way. 

It’s dissapointing we believed in Isayama doing Mikasa’s character right. That she’s finally being able to let go of her codependency and to live for herself maybe live in Hizuru and find more about her roots???, but every single time she shows some improvement, it’s burried deep in the ground again by the Author. It almost seems like a lowkey kink of some of the male Mangaka’s to write about a girl obsessing over them no matter what. I see this so many times to the point that I truly stand behind it that some of them might have this fantasy. 

I wished he didn’t portray her last panels like this. Everyone else is living their lives while Mikasa is still grieving about him. I’m not saying she’s not allowed to grieve and everyone takes it at their own pace, but cmon... Show her living her life too. This is too much. Her being next to his grave and grieving him as her last panels just shoves it in our faces that YET AGAIN, BEING OBSESSED WITH AARON IS ALL HER CHARACTER STANDS FOR. 

I truly despise how Isayama handles her grieving, kissing his decapacitated head, carrying it around like some handbag, and her last panels being thissss.

The world leaving Paradis alone miraciously after all that??? 

It’s so weird and out of place with so many political feuds and disagreements between the world and Paradis, the entire Rumbling happening and we can see Mikasa just chilling outside in Paradis with no one bothering them. You can see the rings of the walls in the picture below.  I don’t know the exact reason behind as the manga is still in Korean, but from what I see, the story went the route of: throwing a happy ending without enough proper reason and  it was all fixed just like that in a snap! It doesn’t fit the entire narrative of attack on titan for things to be so peacful out of nowhere. When it comes to the narrative, how things work in that world, how hard it is to achieve peace, everything made somewhat sense up until chapter 138. 139 seems so so out of place...  It’s like I’m reading a chapter from a totally different manga. 

Aaron Yoghurt got defeated so easily/ Aaron’s character assassination

The build up on the first part of the rumbling was great, those kids carrying coins. You could feel humanity’s fear and Aaron’s hatred in those pages. As if he truly had a goal and he has turned away completely from his comrades and his closest friends with no return. The world seemed truly doomed, but he  got defeated just like that. He was in the nape all this time (because screw the warhammer power of hiding yourself elsewhere in his ginormous titan body). There is no master plan as we all expected, and in the end he just acts all yandere in the paths with Armin and that’s it... They massacared his entire character as well. Many fan theories created a better ending with his character. Him being reincarnated as Historia’s baby would be so much better. For him to still keep on seeking and to strive for power. It has always been his motive. It’s his personality from the start until chapter 138. Even if things are okay, to keep on going and to seek that adventure, but then.. He’s so weak and directionless suddenly.. It’s so weird... This is not Aaron at all???

Using Aaron for him this entire post, because I don’t want others to invade our tags... :)))

Historia’s baby 

The only panel we got from Historia’s child was this. Just a normal kid, normal life... Why did Isayama put so much effort in highlighting Historia’s pregnancy if it was nothing too spectacular anyway? It seemed he had major plans for this kid and for their development too??? It’s again, big plans, big developments, big relationship dynamic, but all  got thrown out of the window... 

Don’t read the next sentence if you are a minor :’) 

It’s like almost ejaculating, but stopping right before it and repeating that every single Arc.

My energy when writing about this chapter is the same as Nostalgia Critic and his hatred for atla the live action

In Conclusion...

I know us fans should not be deciding on how this story should end, because this is Isayama’s story after all, but I truly wished for him to wrap up things much more rounded. There are so many unanswered questions... Again, I think for the sake of being done with this manga, he rushed all of it. He’s become a millionaire from this story and now his pockets are jammed full, I guess he doesn’t need to put in any effort anymore, right? Perhaps a controversial opinion, but I really wished he cared for his fans a little bit more with this last chapter by giving some answers that make sense at least. It’s his fans who gave him this platform and the opportunity to tell his story and for him to at least give in a bit of effort especially in the last chapter is the least he can do. Rivamika being canon or not, he truly rushed it without thinking much about the entire story line. He expanded it so much, he didn’t know how to bind it all together.

Even after all this, I’ll still ship them in the headcanon type of way. I do give credit to Isayama for giving us a template for such a beautiful dynamic between Levi and Mikasa. He decides to waste it, but that doesn’t mean we have to.  I want to thank all the people with amazing writing skills, the ones who give us beautiful art like @carmenlee @phit chan @vialesana​ and many more. I want to remind all of you that we can create something beautiful of our own and we don’t neccesarily need canon lore for that. The art I’ve seen, the fanfictions I’ve read have touched me deeper than Isayama ever could at times.The Mikasa in our mind is appreciate of Levi, is mature, classy and has a strong will for herself. They spend their remaining days together peacefully. Keep writing, keep drawing, stay creative. 

I love you all so so much, I’ve only been publicly active since March, but thank you Rivamika fandom for giving me so much joy as a lurker these past 7 years <3

[starcharmfunzies]

Could you please explain to us, in incredibly insane,DEEP detail, why you hate Mickey? From point A to point Z. I’ll get my popcorn ready.

under the cut cause this got long and I'm very passionate about the topic

---

okay so the year is 2010

BbS came out and the fanbase is heartbroken (including myself) over what happened to Terra, Aqua and Ven. At this point in the franchise Mickey although shady seems like a decent dude, so I didn't have any strong opinions towards him, only that he was this mysterious and seemingly OP king. Let's recap though.

In KH1 he wasn't very communicative with Donald and Goofy, but when he finally showed up at the very end it was to close Kingdom Hearts and ngl it was a pretty hype moment. So far so good.

In Re:Chain of Memories he again does not approach Donald and Goofy -and Sora- even though they were still looking for him, but it was for a very good cause as he stayed with Riku to help him fight Ansem Seeker of Darkness. Here I actually thought well of him.

In KH2 he's still being beyond secretive but he finally joins the gang to explain some things and fight alongside everyone to defeat Xemnas. Honestly he's got no bad record so far; he may be a douche sometimes since he barely explains himself but I could understand because of the circumstances.

So BbS happens. We get insight on how he was involved with TAV and I actually felt kinda bad for Mickey since he hadn't been able to do much to help them, and for all he knew in the worst case scenario they all died.

But then in 2011 Re:Coded came out, and with it its secret movie.

In the secret movie Mickey and Yen Sid have the following exchange:

M: Yen Sid, I think we're finally close to figuring out where Ven's heart is.

Y: Is that so? Then that leaves only Terra.

Hold the fuck up. Only Terra? As in, they already knew where Aqua was?

Why hadn't they gone after her then?????

This secret movie left a bitter taste in my mouth. I started questioning everything. For how long had they known? Why hadn't they done anything? What the fuck were they waiting for?

Sadly in 2012 with DDD's release I didn't get answers to any of these questions, and when Mickey told Xehanort that he hoped TAV sacrificing themselves hadn't been in vain it just got me more angry.

How dare you talk about them as if they were dead. How dare you utter Aqua's name when you know damn well where she is and you know damn well that it's almost fucking impossible to get out of that place without help. YOU could help her Michael. But no, you're just talking about her like she was just a bad memory you wanted to forget.

I was pissed.

And I stayed pissed for the next 5 years, with no main games coming out and only my memories of the past games to look back on Mickey's behavior. Since when had he known that Aqua was in the Realm of Darkness? Since KH1 when he helped Sora close the door to Kingdom Hearts? Since Re:Chain of Memories when he was helping Riku overcome his own darkness? Since KH2 when he was infiltrating the Organization? Since way before KH1? Just how long had he been walking around knowing of this and deciding to do nothing about it?

But not only was I angry at Mickey. I was desperate. How long would I be waiting until Aqua was saved? Would she even be saved at all? Information about her was scarce, and BbS volume 2 seemed nothing but a distant dream, but with DDD being the prelude to the final battle against Xehanort I was hopeful the next main game would finally have her involved again.

So you can imagine how excited I was when we got the first trailer for KH 2.8 that included A Fragmentary Passage.

That image of the back of her head gave me hope. Hope that she was still okay, still fighting, and that she would be saved soon.

And on January 2017 we finally found what had happened to her before she made it to that fateful beach.

And boy I wasn't happy.

The reason Mickey knew Aqua was in the Realm of Darkness was because he met her there, right before he helped close Kingdom Hearts. And of course I don't blame him for getting separated from Aqua, it was the demon tower's fault and I understand he couldn't do much being in a hurry and all to get to the door.

But shouldn't he have tried to find her right after???

I get that there's only so much Nomura can tie back to plot-wise as he writes along, but the matter of fact at this point is that:

Mickey stayed with Riku after closing Kingdom Hearts and didn't say a word to him about Aqua.

We don't know whether Mickey tried to search for her or not, but it sure as hell didn't stop him from leaving the Realm of Darkness when he had the chance.

So after escaping the Realm of Darkness Mickey eventually went to Yen Sid and told him he found Aqua, and Yen Sid told him to not try anything yet as they were unprepared to rescue her.

And OF COURSE, this is the one time Mickey decides to listen to him. Not unlike ALL the other times he went around and did whatever the fuck he wanted. Like when he ran away with the star shard in BbS despite Yen Sid telling him not to get involved, or when he went to confront fucking Xehanort and only got saved because of Ven, or when he abandoned Disney Castle without warning to do things by himself and just left a shitty note with a half-assed explanation, or when he jumped after Xemnas into the dark corridor and left behind everyone in Radiant Garden.

Nah, it's this ONE time in particular that Mickey decides to be a goody-two-shoes and not do anything reckless for a change.

Wasn't Aqua his friend? Didn't he form a D-link with her because they got close? Hadn't he done all the dangerous things he did in the past because he wanted to look after those he cared for and loved?

And not only did he decide to do nothing, but he didn't say a THING about her to anyone. So what if Sora and/or Riku planned a reckless rescue? Mickey had already done worse than that! And BESIDES, Sora and Riku did manage to get out of the Realm of Darkness once so they could have very well done it again a second time.

BUT HEY at least 0.2 ended with Mickey and Riku deciding to finally go get Aqua, so there's hope. That is until 2019, another 2 years later, that KH3 comes out. Mickey and Riku finally go to the Realm of Darkness to look for her, but when they get to the beach and find she's not there what does Mickey decide to do?

HE DECIDES TO LEAVE AGAIN.

It's been 10+ years already what's a little more time am I right fellas???

Reminder that Mickey supposedly considers Aqua a friend btw.

Michael you were there in the Realm of Darkness, you know how dangerous it is, you saw how at the verge of giving up Aqua was, and you decide to keep her waiting even more? What the hell is wrong with you?!

It's like he doesn't even care about her at all. It's so unsettling how carefree he is about it.

And you know what? Had Mickey decided to go save Aqua sooner they might have actually gotten to her before her confrontation with Ansem Seeker of Darkness, and they would have spared her plenty of suffering.

But what do I know.

Anyway, Aqua gets saved (by Sora btw, not Mickey), and in the process she calls Mickey out on his bullshit and he agrees he messed up. He even apologized. That did make me feel better, it was cathartic, and although I was still sore about everything he did now that TAV was back together safe and sound I was considering cutting Mickey some slack. I'll give him credit, I did get a little impressed with what he did in Re:Mind. Credit where credit is due.

But then Melody of Memory happened.

sigh

The moment this asshole found out that Riku went by himself to search for Sora to this strange world of unreality what is the first thing he does?

He bolts to the fucking door ready to go after Riku. And had it not been for Donald and Goofy tackling him to the ground he could have very well ran off.

Why wasn't he this worried over Aqua? When he found her she had already spent 10 years in the Realm of Darkness, a very VERY dangerous place. And yet when he made it out he wasn't worried at all and let her stay 2-3 years more in there?? Riku had left like a fucking hour ago and it was enough to have Mickey panicking COME ON. Biased much?

So there you have it. No matter what Mickey does in the future of the franchise I don't think I'll ever have the heart to forgive him. I was willing to do so, but of course he made me change my mind rather quickly.

I'm glad newcomers to the series share these feelings of not being fond of Mickey, but I don't think they'll go through the same experience that the people that followed the games did. Most of us liked Mickey at the beginning, but through the years we realized with horror that we had been deceived, and we were left to wallow in our rage while we hopelessly waited for someone, anyone, to save Aqua.

[toujourspur13]

Info

Blog closed. Epilogue.

My friends, I've reached the point where I understand that this blog should be officially closed.

I don't think it's such a surprise because I've talked about this already...and anyway I've barely posted anything last few months. When I started this blog - (let's put it mildly) I did not know what to do with myself - and so I found myself a hobby - digging into Harry Potter meta. Joining hp fandom at that moment was a good decision- it certainly gave me something to occupy myself with and some ideas about what I want to do. Even more - I've found such lovely friends here- it's almost unbelievable. But now, after 2,5 years I think I should officially finish this story - I partly solved the problem that pushed me into this fandom...or at least I'm on the right path now.

The other (not so important reason...but it also leaves me forever vexed) - I am kind of in strong opposition to modern copyright legislation...not that I've planned to take hp commissions - no, not at all...but I, like any other creator, feel a certain degree of ownership over the things I created - and for me even the idea that it doesn't fully belong to me seems insulting (personally, I think WB's policy toward its franchises is barbaric -I want nothing to do with it - even in general.) To cut the long story short, if you decide to draw you have to keep in mind that creating fanart can attract many easy likes, but you'd be forever haunted by the idea that 90 percent of them belong to WB marketing department. I do not wish that for me - I simply want a personal blog for myself where I can post my art.

Next, maybe the most important reason for closing this blog is a technical problem. You see, it’s a side blog (when I started it I was a newbie here and simply didn't pay attention to the limitations of side blogs- now I know all the drawbacks and it’s tiresome for me and constantly getting on my nerves.

So I feel it’s time to officially close this blog due to personal, philosophical, technical, and other reasons. To answer the question of whether I regret losing all my followers...yes, kind of - but it's not that dramatic for me. Anyway many of them follow hp-themed blog - and in total honesty, it stopped being that long time ago.

Now...at last, about tp13! The thing with it - I’ve gone too far from the original hp series. I've recently watched hp6 and I caught myself thinking that it's such a good film...I do enjoy it tremendously but it’s so far away from my ideas...I mean, what have Harry, Ron, and Hermione to do with Orion and Burgie - almost nothing. And it seems that I'm much more fatigued from hp than I could have ever imagined...I'm really tired of it. And I don’t even want to start talking about my controversial (and I bet unpopular) views on certain subjects and characters...it's much more probable that my image of Sirius as a spoiled brat is rejected by the largest part of the fandom. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I project my own stories on hp characters....in 2004 when I was very little I already had this interest in...'kissing cousins' trope. Ahahhah I feel that at this I should say - yeah...I see the pattern in my preferences and no, I don’t have handsome cousins of my age.

Soo straight to the point - I don't plan to stop drawing tp13 or renaming them (thankfully celestial names are not copyrighted or it would have irked me a lot ) - I simply do not plan to use hp stuff (tags, specific things like Hogwarts etc.) because I am not a writer and thankfully do not need to rename everything.

So I presume since you've read till this point then you really liked something I've posted here and I feel obliged to tell you to what blog I'm migrating - you can find me here...(and btw I will post something interesting today;) ahahah I know - it seems like a little incentive to follow me there - well then, let it be.

Basta! Trust me to inflate ‘blog closed’ to 500 words

(So, this blog will be closed and abandoned- I do not plan to give it to anyone - what if I decided to make a series of dramiona artworks ahahah)

...

I just feel that 2,5-year blog needs a proper epilogue.

-------------------

Upd.

I think that...maybe I'll be rebloging interesting things here - like a place for inspiration. (As I like to say - nothing is over until it’s actually over;)

--------------------

Upd.1

Yeah...I think that I just rename toujourspur13...because it seems I can't go far away from my favs

Upd.2

Thinking about renaming toujourspur13 to “la gran Familia” (unfortunately my first choice with la grande is already taken by another project:((

[slash-me-please]

The review of Spiral that nobody asked for.

Spoilers ahead!!

Three days ago I went to see spiral, these are my overall notes. If you just want to know if you should go see it- heres a straight up answer. If you're a die-hard saw fan, yes. Go see the movie. If you're just into horror and wanna see it because its a saw movie and saw is iconic, wait until its free on something because it will be. Btw a lot of people liked this movie, I just didn't think it was all that compared to 80's horror. Im probably biased.

THIS IS JUST MY OPINION, IF THIS IS YOUR NEW FAVORITE MOVIE THEN THAT IS WONDERFUL AND I'M HAPPY THAT YOU ENJOYED IT.

First of all, the casting.

1. It felt less of a saw movie and more of a celebrity get together honestly. While they did have big names like Marisol Nichols, Chris Rock, and Samuel L. Jackson- It seemed as if Samuel L. Jackson was the only one who did their part, even if they were only a total of 3 scenes.

2. Its no shocker that Chris Rock wasn't the best for the movie. He added a large comedy aspect, one that couldn't be found in the original franchise.

3. No cameos, none at all. While not necessary, could've make me enjoy this movie a lot more. (There's one scene where there's pictures of John Kramer's autopsy but that's about it.)

Second, The weird shit

1. I know this sounds picky, yet they had the weirdest camera angles. At one point Chris Rock got his own Billy Hargrove on a sunny day gif . ifykyk

2. Random snippets of music play at random times, this is a horror movie, not a drama.

3. Billy wasn't a thing I guess??? Like there was no mention of him

Third, nit picking horror shit.

1. The consequences of the traps were too brutal. One mans fingers were torn off, one woman had to sever her spinal cord, another had to rip out his tongue. You wouldn't want to live with these consequences. This is nothing like two scars on your titties.

2. Nobody lived?? I wanted at least one person to live besides the main character.

3. This took place after the final chapter, Lawrence is still alive and possibly Hoffman. And they just did not care that Officer William was impersonating John Kramer the whole time?

4. Supposedly the cops were being punished because of the killing of officer William's dad being allowed under article 8. Its never clarified what article 8 is exactly, but if I use common sense- I'm guessing article 8 is "Kill everybody to avoid a court case and a possible mugging" and nobody caught on except this ten year old little boy. The public didn't bat an eyelash when the cops were going around killing all the civilians caught in a twist or catching a charge??

4. Since there's no Billy, Officer William uses a pig mask on the tv and decides to cut the inconvenience of using a voice modulater of any sort and alternatively tries to imitate the voice of a nine year old girl instead..

5. At the end, Zeke's dad is suspended in a trap, a swat team raids the building and finds him. Its so obvious that he can't attack, but there's a gun taped (?) To his hand which is lifted up by strings and pointed at the wall. The swat team proceeds to shoot the shit out of him even though he is the chief of police, mr savior, creator of article 8. I still don't know why they killed him even tho he so obviously was wound up in a trap and too loopy to even shoot.

Bright Sides

1. Awesome beginning scene, starts off with a death scene like the Saw movies do.

2. You do NOT expect the killer to be Officer William. At least I didn't, the only give away is that his family picture looks like a stock photo and he didn't have any reason to be killed apparently.

3. Suspense, I was very anxious to see who'd get snatched up next- even though the consequences were too harsh for me to even want them to live.

4. Left it open for a sequel, maybe they can fix it.

5. I do enjoy the torture porn.

6. Short reference to the original Saw. Very appreciated..

7. The "riddles" were a very clever part of the movie. I enjoyed them.

DISCLAIMER!

i know this comes across as I don't like Chris Rock, I'm actually a big fan so I was excited to see his take on the role. I don't think he did bad, I just think this wasn't his thing.

I do know that this was supposed to be different from Saw, but the whole franchise has been done and loved by many people. Some hints to it would've been great. And even if they didn't want to, it could've been better than this if there was more thought put into this movie.

Even if this is a spin off- you can't ignore the universe it came from entirely. I don't think things truly would've gone like this.

Why Billy isn't here.

[radramblog]

Ninty Direct Feb 2021 Thoughts

That was uh. Kind of disappointing, actually.

I suppose it was inevitable that we weren’t seeing Pokemon since they’re gonna do their own announcement. But like. Coulda done better here.

(oh no you’re now introduced to my awful awful handwriting, is this better or worse than my cursed interests? you decide)

Anyway I wrote down everything they announced so here we go

Pyra/Mythra in Smash: I don’t give a single shit about the Xenoblade series, but it’s one of like 2 IPs Nintendo has had in the last decade so sure whatever they can have second a character as a treat. I’m mostly just annoyed this wasn’t a third-party character.

Fall Guys Switch: This feels inevitable. It also feels about 5 months too late.

Outer Wilds Switch: I’ve heard some absolutely excellent things about this game, so fair enough. I’m not sure I’d buy it on the Switch, but I haven’t bought it at all yet, so.

Famicom Detective Club: This looks like a Ren’py game if it had an actual budget, but still used Ren’py for some reason. Prooobably not biting on this one chief.

Samurai Warriors 5: The only Warriors game I’ve played is the first hyrule warriors, and the only Nobunaga game I’ve played was Pokemon Conquest (it’s a trip), so. I don’t understand the obsession they have over there for this bloke, like imagine if Australia made like a tv series a year and a large handful of video games about Ned Kelly or something.

Legend of Mana: Shit I should go play Octopath Traveler huh

Monster Hunter Rise: Those monster designs looked pretty kickass, and those human designs made me crack up laughing. I’ve never played Monster Hunter, and I don’t think this is gonna change that.

Mario Golf: Hey look they confirmed Waluigi as playable ahead of time so people wouldn’t complain, good job guys. The multiplayer of this looked silly as hell, but I’m not spending 80 bucks on wii sports tennis for a multiplayer mode ill drag my mates to play all of once before we go back to playing Beetle Adventure Racing.

Tales from the Borderlands: Wait telltale is still around? Ok…? I haven’t played Borderlands and don’t really care for the Telltale style so nah

Capcom Arcade Stadium: They could have made a peripheral like the NES/SNES mini, but they didn’t, and it’s for the best. The fact that one of the games is free implies to me that the rest are going to be overcosted, though.

Stubbs the Zombie: What the fuck am I looking at. Apparently this is a remaster of an old Xbox game, but I’ve never heard of it. Weird as fuck, but sure.

No More Heroes III: No more Heroes is a franchise that I’ve never played, but always wanted to. It seems right up my alley aesthetic-wise, and the gameplay looks pretty solid too- probably gonna try one of the older ones first, though.

Neon White: Speaking of aesthetic. This looks anime as fuck and edgy in a good way, and the gameplay looks real fun. I actually really want to check this out, and no, it’s not just because of the skull masked goth gf on the cover. (Doesn’t hurt, though.)

DC Super Hero Girls Teen Power: Jesus, this looks like a bad tie-in game from the mid 2000s. Not like Battle for Bikini Bottom, more like a Jimmy Neutron. And while I really liked the Jimmy Neutron game as a kid (shame about the show), this doesn’t look like it’ll stand up to that…high bar. Listening to this trailer made me want to die a little bit inside.

Plants Vs Zombies: Battle for Neighbourville: I miss PopCap. Peggle 3, never.

Miitopia: This looks cute, and will probably lead to the same sort of 3am DMs that happened with Tomodachi Life. If it’s a full priced game, it probably won’t sell at all.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Mario items: uhhh sure. Don’t have that game, so.

Triangle Strategy: Aww fuck it’s a final fantasy tactics that looks like octopath and it might have an actually good story, shiiiiiiiiit. I’m gonna give the demo a try before I land on this, but I’m optimistic.

Star Wars Hunters: When was the last time we had an actually good Star Wars game? And don’t say Fallen Order. Yeah, didn’t think so.

KO City: Ah, the bottom of the barrel. Didn’t think it would take this long. At this point, the pseudo-cartoony style everything has because they’re trying to ape Fortnite is extremely grating on me. (I definitely thought this ad was for Fortnite stuff at first)

World’s End Club: OK this one has me actually hyped. I knew that Kodaka (director/writer of the Danganronpa series) and Uchikoshi (director/writer of the Zero Escape series) were working on a joint project, and we’re finally seeing the results. Both of them have multiple excellent games under their respective belts, and this new game looks like a fun spin on what I’m sure a lot of people were expecting from the pair. Literally both of them have made a game where (spoilers I guess, Keara stop reading here you haven’t played VLR yet) there’s a death game going on while the characters are unaware the world fucking ended, so to see the idea of the death game getting interrupted and the characters actually having to live in the dead world is really cool. I’m paying cloooose attention to this one.

Hades (Physical Release): Dang now if I buy hades I can choose to have some of my money go to EB games or JB hifi or something. Cooooooooooooool.

Ninja Gaiden Collection: This just made me wonder why Ryu Hayabusa isn’t in Smash yet. Is it because there’s already a Ryu?

Age of Calamity DLC: I don’t think I mentioned this in my post yesterday, but I would have put money on DLC for this game coming out. I still haven’t played it, but the first Hyrule Warriors had so much fucking DLC so this was inevitable in my eyes.

Bravely Default 2: Uhhh its another JRPG man idk what you want me to say. Didn’t play the first one, apparently its good.

Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection: Kinda funny having this next to the free original in the Capcom Arcade Stadium. Capcom is reviving old franchises, I guess? Where’s Mega Man Battle Network, cowards?

SaGa Frontier: I’ve heard good things about the SaGa series, but this looks awful. Not like gameplay wise, the style for the models and shit in game just disinterests me.

Apex Legends: Is anyone still playing this game?

BOTW 2 (no news): I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. Next Direct, I guess.

Skyward Sword HD: I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

Seriously though, I was expecting 3 of the best Zeldas ever made to get ports, and we got the one that I wasn’t interested in. Fuck you too, I guess.

Splatoon 3: I actually was super interested in this, seeing as the trailer looked like it was gonna be for some like… side game, 3D RPG or something, exploring the origins of the Splatoon world? But then it’s just Splatoon 3. And like, I know people really like that series, but it never appealed to me. The world is neat! But I’m not interested in the series as it is.

And that’s the tea.

ADDENDUM:

shit that’s this weekend? huh ok -New Hearthstone expansions revealed, kinda like WOTC does with magic every so often, just like “here’s the next couple sets btw”. Since they do nothing but plagiarise off each other and MTG is having a set based on another WOTC property this year (D&D), there’s going to be a Starcraft set. -Diablo 4 release date that will not be stuck to since COVID is still a thing -people are hoping for starcraft 3. Blizzard to announce Starcraft 2 Episode 1. -New WoW expansion announced, determined objectively to be “worst ever” before trailer is even finished

[stillinaincrad]

The NineSpot: Anime I Really Liked with Sequels I Really Didn’t

Am not calling any of these the worst sequels of all time or likewise calling any of the originals the best ever by any stretch of anyone’s imagination, but these are sequels to anime series I fell in love with and didn’t really care at all for what came next. (am not considering OVAs or movies based on entire shows, btw, because they both almost always suck compared to entire seasons anime)

1. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka)

The original DanMachi series was proof-positive that predictable and cliché can still yield a really great tale when the directing and production is top notch. Everything that should have made it lackluster couldn’t outweigh the feels and I always end up smiling earlobe to earlobe. The characters are beyond well crafted, and it is still crystalline-clear that this project was someone’s pride and joy. I adore the original series. The Sword Oratorio spinoff was -meh- to me, it leaned too much on the original for hooks as it tried to fill in Ais’ backstory and ended up being more about Lefiya anyways (plus they blatantly stole the marquee anthem from Last of the Mohicans, which turns me off a thousand times every time it plays now). Oratorio provided some levity, but did nothing at all to advance the story. Then we got DanMachi 2, which started out with mediocre writing but a killer arc and the backbone surfaced for some amazing story depth to amass, but all we got in the end was the horribly lame Ishtar arc where a depressed fox girl doesn’t want to be a prostitute and Bell feels bad about it. I’ve felt exactly nothing for these characters since the original.

2. Overlord

Take a peruse through my blog and you will see that I have never campaigned for a second season of anything more than I did Overlord. I LOVE the first season, it is an absolute favorite of mine, and being that it is yet another Madhouse anime I honestly never expected more but always clamored for it because Overlord was absolutely deserving. When we finally got S2, it threw me for a loop because the original cast barely appears in the first four episodes, but then I found my feet and eventually got myself into the new episodes. Ironically, that is about all that this second season had to offer to me. The lizardmen arc is fantastic, definitely watch it, but when that ends? Here’s about all you need to know: Sebas has a softer side, Climb is a little bitch. There you go, onto season 3 (which is fantastic, btw). 

3. Full Metal Panic

FMP is one of my favorite old-school anime ever, because it balances great humor, great characters, and - despite a shload of filler in the second half - a great all-around story. It is SUCH a gem. Second Raid was a tad bumpy due to a new studio, but still fantastic, and Fumoffu was the comedic break that an already goofball of an anime conjured up and it totally fit as long as no one took it too seriously. Then, some 15yrs later out of nowhere we get Invisible Victory, which Xebec used to completely rewrite everything, and not in a good way. From go, Kyouka - an important supporting character from the outset - is killed and totally glossed over like it wasn’t significant asf, and I got pissed. Then all the already-established characters took on totally new personalities of grave seriousness, which was never the brand. When you take previously established characters who have always been hopeful, energetic, and buoyant to a fault, always looking forward and up - and suddenly make all of them overtly dramatic, hardened, and inordinately austere across the board, it totally cheapens the original and to an extent that superflous doesen't even begin to describe. Massive franchise fail, Xebec - dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow. Easily the sequel I have hated the most. As in, ever. 

4. Sword Art Online

Look, I am the last person you need to tell how much bad this series has divulged into. I was so all-in on the concept, the characters, the drama, and the love of the original series. Do you think it’s ironic that I’ve been doing this almost 5yrs now and haven’t changed my URL? I’ve always said that if the first Matrix movie were left alone and that was it - Neo giving that threat and then flying off into the credits and we have to make up the reality that may or may not have transpired after that -  that it would be in the top 10 movies ever made. That’s how I see the first arc of SAO. It was THAT good, I have somehow watched it more than anything ever made. I originally considered the whole second half of the first season to be filler and am always turned off at the molestation that it celebrates, but said it was ‘for the story’. Then the Sterben shiz happened and I said ‘yes, it’s the EXACT SAME STORY  but it’s going somewhere’, and then it did, to somewhere absolutely worse. I made it about halfway through Alicization and I up and quit altogether. SAO is such a shit franchise - the only thing that has gotten worse than the animation is the writing, the characters that used to be great are so incredibly shallow and annoying now, and I have made more fun of something I used to love than anyone. I am the first to admit I am a huge heel for most of what I have said in support of it in the past. But omg those first 14 episodes. I can’t label the initial tale of SAO as anything but amazing. And if those 14 episodes were the only episodes we ever got, I would easily call it one of the best anime ever made.

5. Date a Live

I almost have to laugh that I am about to mention Date a Live after that. DAL was never going to be confused with a good anime, but it was fun. It was silly and rampant and insane, but you still fell in love with the characters because they were totally and completely worth falling in love with. Then DAL2 happened, and I hate this season a little too much. It was released too soon, it was done too poorly, it was just every kind of measurable cringe. The only thing worse than the writing was the lackadaisical and pedestrian voice acting, and that’s saying a lot considering how intern-worthy the animation of the second season was. DAL3 redeems itself plenty, the characters become likeable again, and there is an actual story and it isn’t awful and harkens back to seeds planted that were never developed, and at least part of the budget was dedicated to better artwork. But wow - DAL2 is just pure hot garbage.

6. A Certain Magical Index (Toaru Majutsu no Index)

The first two seasons of both Raildex series have casts I'd pretty much take on an entire den of Wendol with a soup spoon to protect. They're just that good, so I was beyond excited when a third Index season was announced. I've never read the source material, so maybe some were ready for it more than I was, but Index III started off TOTALLY different - the blood and brutality is turned up past 10, everybody up and turned into an a-hole about everything, and it all felt very foreign to me compared to everything before it. But, I stayed in because I was still invested in the characters and wanted to see where it all went. It eventually reminded me a lot of the good 'ol days of anime where it wasn't always happy, where sometimes even the good guys made you feel bad, and where there was a fairly complex storyline that you really had to pay attention to if you wanted to keep up. The difference is, a lot of those shows were good. Index III just... was. I got nothing out of choking my way through the entire season, and really didn't care about anything but finishing it long before I ever did. I still feel a bit betrayed that this was the anime that fans waited 8 years for. 

7. Eureka 7 Ao

No need for any exposé. Screencap says it all. How you follow up one of the most epic mecha anime ever with this fail of a series is beyond me. Great music, absolutely abysmal writing. 

8. Infinite Stratos

Was Infinite Stratos good? Original, yes. Fun, yes, Characters that made you care about them, yes. But good? BWAHAHAHA NO, it absolutely was not good. IS is one of a handful of titles I chuckle about saying I enjoyed, because it's quite bad. Which is how you know IS2 is total dregs, because it's so very bad that it makes the first season look kinda decent. There was a story worth developing in place in the second season, they just chose to go full potato on the harem and fanservice elements instead, and decided that the writing didn't really matter. The ensuing episodes are for the most part just too much stupid to watch. 

9. Blood Blockade Battlefront (Kekkai Sensen)

A bit of an odd duck, Kekkai Sensen introduced us to a world of enigmatic and strange bedfellows traversing a totally bonkers landscape of a world that somehow all manages to come together as a collective yaaas in the end. There is a unity that develops between them which task by wacky task binds these otherwise incongruent personalities together towards a common goal, and interpersonal gold eventually develops between them. The strengths of the individual are blended like watercolor to reinforce the weaknesses of the individual within the resulting eccentric genus. A cliché but nonetheless robust red string of fate ties all the loose ends together and a fantastic actuality of cognizance materializes between the ragtag cast and the forces that amass against them, and the first season ends with a feel-good that no one could have ever seen coming. It really is a great ride. Then the second season happens, and the glue that holds it all together feathers and ‘stuff just happens’. I was disappointed that all that great writing and plot that intertwines in the first season is totally absent in the second, and in the end it becomes just tales. I wanted so much more and got barfly stories regaled secondhand. 

[praphit]

Gretel & Hansel: White people, hear me!

I know, I know, some of y'all were hoping that my next review would be Taylor Swift's "Miss Americana". 

I'm sorry to disappoint you. Why and how is she still making movies anyway? I thought that everyone associated with "Cats" had been banned from Hollywood.

Now, it WOULD be cool, if Taylor got involved in Horror. I'm thinking that a bunch of horror monsters could get together to track her down; kinda like a contest. They would, you know... do their thing to her, and then bring her back from the dead in the sequel, and repeat the process. Every now and then, they could throw in Justin Bieber or someone else with his same level of annoyance. BOOM! Franchise! So, donate to Praphit Productions (millions), so I can make that happen. I'll just CG Taylor Swift in, if I have to; I'm sure she'd be ok with that.

Just picture Jason Voorhees or Kanye West chasing her.

No, people, I'm here to talk to y'all about Hansel & Gretel!

No, no, no, I'm sorry! "Gretel and Hansel!"

I almost forgot about that blow up in their studio. Y'all remember that?

Sophia Lillis' (who plays Gretel - SHE’S GREAT IN THIS-BTW) first day on the set was raw! 

She walked up to the director and was like "Bleep this bleep! Who is Hansel? Who the bleep is he?! No one knows that actor! What is he, like 5 years old? Bleep him! How is his name first?! So, a woman can't lead a man, huh??! It's always gotta be Hansel first, right?! And what always happens?! That witch bitch always tries to eat them! Bleep that! Y'all know who I is! I'm Sophia bleeping Lillis! I was in "It" one AND two. What has "Sammy Leakey" (playing Hansel) been in??!

Not a damned thing! I want my name first! You will put it first or so help me God, I will UNLEASH THE FURY!"

Director (Oz Perkins): "I actually like that idea"

SL: "I don't give a bleep what you like! Just make it happen!" 

Then, she went to her trailer, and when she came back out, it was "Gretel & Hansel".

(Hansel’s not even in the shot. Lillis was too raw for him.)

Let's see if Gretel fairs better in this story, now that she's getting the chance to lead.

We all know this Brothers Grimm story. There's a family (I don't know what Gretel & Hansel's last name is... we'll just say "Shakur"). So, the Shakur Family was struck by a famine in the land. Stuff happens, and G & H end up off on their own, in the woods, and eventually meet up with a witch, who later tries to eat them.

White people, hear me! Are you listening? STOP GOING INTO THE WOODS! Seriously, STOP! I'm trying to save you. Black people know better, but y'all... smh. I know y'all like to go hiking, and camping, and taking selfies on mountain tops and shit, but PLEASE... STOP! Nothing good is waiting for you out there!

Quit going into the woods to get footage of alleged monsters/spirits. Quit going into the woods to spend the night in cabins. Quit going into the woods to party on the anniversary of the night that 12 people were mysteriously murdered in those same woods. STOP!

JUST STOP! DAMN!

Some of you might be thinking, "Well maybe Gretel will make it. Maybe now that she's leading the duo, things will be different." Nope, she's white... *sigh* so we all know what she and Hansel did...  went right into the woods.

This movie is mainly from Gretel's perspective. Right from the jump, we see Gretel being pimped out by her mama. Gretel of course declines to become a professional hoe, but when she comes back to her mama for a possible different direction in life, Mama is like "Would it have killed you to get on your knees for your family?! We're starving!"

I know - Mom of the Year.

Dad isn't even around. I may have missed something, but I don't remember where he was, or if maybe he ran away, a long time ago. One of those "Daddy went to get a pack of cigs, and never came back" scenarios. He may be off in a land flowing with Big Macs and Fries, Idk. Or maybe, being that his "selfish" daughter wouldn't put-out, he decided to get to work on the corner himself. Who knows where he was in this movie??

Gretel was def tough though. And she loved her brother! She was very protective of him. There is a scene where there's some sort of vampire creature chasing down Hansel, and Gretel stands up to the creature. That's the type of character that she is in this movie. She's smart, tough, and though sometimes hard on her bro, she loves him very much.

Hansel on the other hand is annoying as shit. And Dumb! Man, is he dumb! I'm surprised that we never see Gretel slap him. But, she is always able to compose herself in the midst of her annoying brother, and keep the journey going. She even calms him down at one point with some drugs. They end up eating some shrooms on their trip. Now, THAT'S love, people! Seeing someone in need of calming the bleep down, and offering them some good shit. What's a road trip without a moment when the group gets high??

There's a Lando-looking character that they meet along the way. 

He doesn't have much of a role in this movie. I'm not saying it's because he's black, BUT he's a fascinating, noble character, who's black and barely in the movie. And they do not trust him at all. I'm not saying it's because he's black... you know what?? - YES! Yes I am saying that!

He saves their lives, offers them food and shelter, and gives them specific instructions that will keep them safe. But, after that (the only character so far that has had G & H's best interests in mind), Gretel immediately questions his motives. White women, hear me! If a black man willingly sticks out his neck for you, IN THE DARKNESS, in order to save YOUR life, that's a man that you can trust. Cuz we (black men) all know, that if we try to save a white woman out in public (even if we succeed), there's a good chance that the cops will still swing by to shoot us. They're thinking just like Gretel is in this movie - "I know it LOOKS like they saved her, but... can we really trust him? - let's shoot him just in case." Granted, this Landoish character sends them off (again with instructions for their safety). They had no quarrels about leaving (and quickly).

So, they runaway from the compassionate black man, who just saved them, and they meet an old lady (the witch) who has black fingers, and house smells a lil like death... and they say to themselves "Let's sleep here!" Ain't that some shit??! 

White people, HEAR ME!

STOP!

They don't even question her black fingers, they just let her handle their food. I question people of whom I don't know, with normal fingers, handling my food, but... I guess that's just me.

Then, the rest of the story is legend.

The production design in this movie is absolutely amazing! If this film had no dialogue, and was just silent, it still would have been a beautiful movie (despite the cannibalism:)

The plot, I felt, was secondary to the cinematography.

Some of you might say, "Well that's nice and all, but is the movie scary? Does the witch, at some point, rev-up a chainsaw, and chase the two kids around her house?" No. "Ok, but does the movie, at some point, have little, pale Asian kids making creepy noises at H & G while they're trying to sleep?" NO! "Yeah, but is there some sort of human centipede action happening in the basement of the witch, and she tries to..."

NO! NO! HELL NO! What's wrong with y'all?!

No, none of that. The story that The Brothers Grimm have painted is horrifying enough. Famine and crappy parenting, leading to witch who wants to eat you... I'd say that's all that's required; the director knows this.

They don't need to use any gimmicks, just the same story (pretty much), a lil dark magic, the mentioned cinematography, and well-placed spooky music keep the movie in a consistent place of dread.

I think RT got this one wrong (59%). I don't have much bad to speak of, concerning this movie. I can't give it an A grade, due to it being a copy of a story that we've seen copied many times before. Plus, there are some ending issues I have with it, that I'll get to in a sec. BUT, this film is a hell of a B grade :)

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I WARNED YOU!

A few things:

Soooooo, Gretel has some sort of connection to the witch that is never explained. Apparently, she has within her, the same powers as the witch.

She ends up sending her bro off to Lord knows where. She sends him off on a horse that she says she SPOKE TO, and he (the horse) will get Hansel there (where? who knows??) safely. So, she's talking the animals now?? When did she pick-up that skill? And where the bleep did she even get a horse?

There's some super grease that her and the witch use to do magic, that is never explained.

Now, none of this took away from my enjoyment of the film, but... still though.

There's a message of false empowerment at the end. Like I said, she abandons her brother, so that she can... fulfill her destiny or something. She has dark magic in her, but she is convinced that she'll use it for good. Like I said, Gretel is a SMART character... what happened to all of that smart? It's like saying "Hey, I have this STD, but instead of tending to it, I'm going to use my STD for good. It's going to be hard, but I've gotta be strong."

WHAT?!

I said "false empowerment". The movie isn't painting a picture of this being a good thing, but the "false" part is subtle enough to where people could walk away thinking it's an empowering message.

You abandoned your brother to become a witch! But, maybe I'm not being fair. Perhaps Gretel will be just fine. Throughout the history of human beings, we've had many people who were in power, and who thought that not allowing their power to be checked was the brave and noble thing to do. I think those times in history all worked out well right??

I could have added some pics to accentuate my last statement, but I feel it might have been a little too real:)

So, instead I'll leave y'all with this slightly less horrifying pic

... and bid you adieu.

STAY OUT OF THE WOODS!

[superkitty21]

So, The Rise of Skywalker was a thing

I laughed, I cried, I sighed in disappointment, but somehow, despite everything, I liked it. (Major fucking spoilers for the whole movie btw)

Okay, I don't know where to start so I'm gonna talk about the Palpatine thing. This film feels like the writers went in and tried to "fix" alleged plot holes in the previous films. As someone who loved TLJ, Rey being no one special was something I found engaging about that film. The Star Wars franchise is really obsessed with legacy and blood and heritage (especially that of your male line) and Rey being nobody was a refreshing break from having to justify your character as a protagonist by proving them to be the special. I'm really annoyed that Rey couldn't just be Rey she HAD to be someone special, the granddaughter of someone IMPORTANT to 'explain' her talent and skill with the force and to justify her role as protagonist of this franchise.

On top of this, revealing Palpatine to be the master manipulator of this whole conflict felt so cheap to me. TLJ completely shifted the status quo and took the Star Wars franchise to places we haven't seen before. So returning to the plot line of "we must defeat the evil Sith" betrays the ending of TLJ. I was excited to see where this franchise was going next after the explosive ending of TLJ and finding out that we were just going to rehash plot beats from 40 years ago was more than a little disappointing.

The sequel trilogy has been a balancing act between pulling on our nostalgia strings and telling a new story and The Rise of Skywalker, in returning to Palpatine as the villain and making Rey his granddaughter, tipped the scales of this trilogy to boring rehash and it all feels like such wasted potential.

The romantic subplots in this one were... messy (to say the least). It felt very clear to me that the writers didn't know where they were going with Finn's romantic arc at all throughout this series. I'd like to start by saying RIP to Finn/Rose shippers because the writers utterly dismissed Finn and Rose's ENTIRE relationship. It's not even acknowledged that these two even know each other outside of the context of co-workers. The complete sidelining of Rose in this story is almost shameful. I can only assume this was done in response to the massive harassment campaigns targeted at Kelly Marie Tran post-TLJ. Not only was caving to the racist trolls and removing Rose from the story disrespectful to Rose's character, but it also made Finn's romantic arc so incohesive. They brought back the Finnrey dynamic from The Force Awakens, but then never developed on Finn and Rey's relationship in any meaningful way. It seemed as if they were going to make the stormtrooper defector, Jannah, a love interest but then never really went there either (thank god). It was messy and unfocused and I had no idea where they were going with any of it, and it turns out they didn't either.

They also decided to give Poe a love interest. out of nowhere. in the last film of this trilogy. Pour one out for Stormpilot shippers because that ship sank harder than the titanic. In trying to fully assert Poe Dameron's heterosexuality they felt the need to add a completely irrelevant and frankly out of place romantic subplot for Poe. Did doing this add to the story in any way? No. Did it add anything to Poe's characterization? No. So I have to assume its there to make sure everyone in the audience knows that Finn and Poe could never, in any way, shape, or form, under any context, ever, EVER be in a romantic relationship despite their obvious chemistry. Legit, the scenes with Poe and Zorii in Kijimi felt like an ad for a Poe Dameron tie-in prequel novel.

Kylo's redemption arc isn't the best I've seen. I'm generally not one for redemption arcs being motivated by external factors (ie your mother dying) rather than an internal realization and growth. There is an argument to be made that Kylo has been explicitly shown in struggling with the light the whole trilogy, but I still would have liked more lead up to his eventual switch and for the choice to be more his own rather than compelled by his mother's death and his girlfriend giving him puppy dog eyes.

Absolution through sacrifice is also a big pet peeve of mine, but somehow it worked for me in this one. It's probably because Ren's redemption is really isolated to his relationship to his family and Rey. Given that his most egregious actions were to his immediate family I wouldn't could it as a flaw in the film and it certainly made it easier to buy in to arc. And I never got the feeling that TROS never fully absolved Kylo of his crimes against the galaxy. Similarly to how despite his final sacrifice, Darth Vader is still seen as evil by the wider galaxy, I get the sense that Kylo Ren despite his heel turn will be in a similar position. I won't begrudge anyone who thinks his shift to the light feels to sudden, or that his motivations felt a bit weak, or those who generally just can't buy it, but it worked or me. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Now's probably a good time to mention that I'm a massive fucking Reylo and ate every scene of Kylo and Rey up like it was candy. I get why some people don't like this ship and I think if you're not on board with these two by the end of the film the ending to Ren's story won't be very satisfying. Given that I already loved these two's relationship that Ren's ultimate sacrifice got me straight in the feels and that contributed to my ultimate satisfaction with the film.

Okay, That's everything I wanted to be analytical about. Now here are just some random, unrendered thoughts.

*I absolutely adored the main trio in this movie. Their dynamic was fun and they all clicked so well together and made me what a whole nother trilogy about these three precious beans. Imma be reading a LOT of jedistormpilot fics after this because that unit was fantastic.

*I'm a bit peeved that they fake out 'killed' C-3PO cause his final goodbye was actually really touching. Bringing him back undercut what I thought was a really touching farewell.

*I don't think I've gushed enough about how much I adored all of the force bond stuff that happened in this movie because that shit was beautiful. I could not get enough of the Reylo force battles. Their final scene was *chef''s kiss* and I'll be rewatching it as much as I do the praetorian guard fight.

*Shout out to this film for remembering force sensitive Finn was a thing. I respect that.

*RIP Hux. I know I'm one of the 7 people who actually care, but I'm upset that he was given such a minor role and killed off by nameless first order general guy. Like he couldn't have even be killed by Kylo. smh

*The new droid was super cute. 10/10. Would buy a lifesize plush of that guy.

*This movie made me imagine Sheev Palpatine impregnating someone and I can never forgive it for that.

*The Knights of Ren were so unintentionally comedic to me. I genuinely burst out laughing every time I saw them because they were these back goons with these silly weapons that did basically nothing. I feel bad for anyone who was hyped to see them cause they were so inconsequential. The porgs in TLJ had more characterization than they did. One of the best moments in this whole movie was when a random stormtrooper that saw them and simply said "squad goals". I almost fucking died. That stormtrooper and Cait Salt-Licker are absolute legends.

*This may be the least visually interesting movies in the sequel trilogy. Don't get me wrong there is some gorgeous cinematography and shot composition in this movie. Every single scene with Palpatine was amazing and gave me chills, but it did feel like there were less jaw dropping stunning scenes in this one compared to The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. No one moment really sticks out to me as much as say, the Holdo maneuver did in TLJ or the forest lightsaber fight in TFA.

I don't think this movie will be well loved by many people. People who've hated the sequels thus far may be won over by the return of Palpatine, but I don't think it's enough to win over the detractors. I think people who genuinely liked the direction these films seemed to be taking after The Last Jedi will be disappointed in how this one plays out. There was a lot to love about The Rise of Skywalker, but there was also a lot of missed potential.

[caranfindel]

Recap/review 14.04: “Mint Condition “

THEN: Michael's gone. Supposedly. Dean feels bad. Ghosts are a thing. Salt circles. Monster Kaia's magic spear.

NOW: A comic book/collectibles store. The camera pans over a variety of figurines and memorabilia, including a poster for the movie Hell Hazers, which you may remember from Hollywood Babylon, (thank you, Continuity Fairy!) and briefly pauses on a poster for the movie All Saints' Day before showing a television. Someone's watching Shocker TV, showing scary movies "24 hours a day, all week long." We see clips from Route 666 and that movie they were filming in Hollywood Babylon, whose name escapes me, as well as from a movie we will eventually find out is All Saint's Day. Cut to a guy unpacking a box of collectibles under the watchful eye of a long-haired freak right out of All Saints' Day. I keep waiting for this guy to realize he's being watched, but I am the one who eventually comes to a realization - that's not a guy, it's a statue.

The guy unpacks a box and literally drops it in shock. Because it's haunted, right? No, it's just a Thundercats collectible figure Panthro, in its original box. (No one in my house knows anything about Thundercats, but I assume this is a real character.) He stuffs the box in a backpack, and then his phone rings. The incoming call is a video call, which is weird, because people this age don't even call each other, let alone via video, but it makes for better television, so we'll let it go.

The caller is a girl named Sam, who is apparently his boss. She immediately starts berating the guy for his bad customer service, which resulted in a negative Yelp review. He promises to do better and confirms that she's coming over for game night. Stewart picks up his bag and a set of keys on a Batman keyring and locks up the store, under the watchful eye of the creepy statue.

(Boy, this is a lot of recap before we even get to the title card...)

We see Stewart at his house, arguing with a pizza delivery place. Panthro is sitting on a table and he turns and looks at him. It's surprisingly well done, BTW. Stewart turns to see Panthro on the floor, gets closer, watches Panthro swing his mace, and then screams.

Title card!

Bunker. Dean's lying on his bed, eating pizza and watching Hatchet Man: All Saints' Day, which is a gloriously cheesy salute to the 80s. Well, I'm glad he finally got a TV in his room, but does this mean the Fortress of Deanitude is no more? Is it full of refugee hunters now? Aw, that's sad.

{Sidebar: I wonder if this movie is called All Saints' Day because they knew the episode would be shown on All Saints' Day, and were being meta/clever? Or is it just supposed to be a riff on the Halloween franchise?}

Sam comes in and asks what he's doing, and when Dean looks up, he's shocked to see the Beard of Despair is gone. "Why are you so surprised?" Sam says. "Obviously, judging from my glorious scruff, it's been a few days since I shaved. Have you really not seen me in a day or two?" (No, he doesn't really say that.) But Dean says "it's so smooth; it's like a dolphin's belly." And it's not. It's really not. And as much as I love the scruff - which is quite a bit - I'd also like to see Sam's pretty face smooth as a dolphin's belly sometime. Just sayin'.

Sam (still) wonders if Dean's okay, since he hasn't really come out of his room in a week, which I guess explains how he missed the Big Shave. Dean expositions that Cas is "showing Jack the ropes," because if Jack wants to learn how to be a hunter, there's no better teacher than Cas, right? Absolutely no one. And with Monster!Kaia and Michael "in the wind," and his home full of strangers, Dean apparently figures he's got nothing better to do than hole up in his room watching Hatchet Man movies. (Is Hatchet Man the franchise, and All Saints' Day just one of the titles? I'm having trouble getting a grip on this.)

He knows Sam doesn't get it, because Sam doesn't even like scary movies. "Our life is a scary movie," Sam points out. And speaking of which, he's found a case. He shows Dean a YouTube video of a bloodied Stewart describing his Panthro attack, and I wish I could take credit for this catch, but I saw it on Tumblr... look at the left side of the screen. The "Recommended for You" videos are about zombies, a conspiracy theory, and how to clean your sink, which are all very interesting, but look at the "Up Next" video.

IT'S A FUNNY CAT VIDEO. HAS SAM BEEN WATCHING FUNNY CAT VIDEOS?

Oh, Sammy knows just what he's doing, and I love him for it. He's all, we don't have to take this case involving KILLER THUNDERCAT TOYS if you're not interested, but he's got Dean exactly where he wants him.

His smug little face at the end of this scene gives me life.

Guys, I was so ready for this. A MotW, and Sam giving Dean a hunt he knows he'll enjoy just to help him kick his Michael blues... This is the show I'm here for!

The guys show up at the comic book store dressed like absolute dorks, in short-sleeved shirts and ties. Sam has a pocket protector. I don't know why. But it's single-layer Winchesters and I'm gonna embrace it. Looks like this episode is happening on Halloween and not on All Saints' Day, because they're accosted by costumed children outside the store. Dean comments that Sam still isn't a fan of Halloween (which we've known ever since the pilot; thanks again to the Continuity Fairy). Sam confirms.

Apparently this red mask is a character Jensen voiced in an animation? And of course Jared was in House of Wax. Pretty deep meta here, Show.

BossLady!Sam is there, wearing a red plaid shirt, and Dean comments that she's like Sam's twin. "I don't know what you're talking about," Sam says, as he and BossLady!Sam tuck their hair behind their ears in sync, and I die.

That’s me, in a puddle on the floor.

“Soft, delicate features," Dean points out. "Luxurious hair. She's like your Wonder Twin." All of this is true, Dean, and good on you for noticing that your brother has soft, delicate features and luxurious hair. Sam notices a guy stocking the shelves - black All Saints' Day t-shirt, shortish spiky hair, lollipop just like the one Dean snagged at the door - and says "if that's me, then that's you over there."

Dean's distracted (and delighted) by the Hatchet Man statue, giving him the name David Yaeger. {Sidebar: did you know the word jager means hunter in German?} His doppelganger encourages him to push a button that plays his catch phrases from the movie, including "we all do bad things sometimes." Which is, like Dean's motto. Dean's joy is infectious and adorable.

BossLady!Sam finishes her business with the police and asks what she can do to help the guys, offering "Funko Pops, Magic cards," and given the number of Supernatural Funko Pops decorating my office, I'm pleased with that shout-out. Sam asks about Stewart as Dean asks about vintage Hot Wheels, and Dean, I am very sad to inform you that Hot Wheels apparently never made a 1967 Chevy Impala.

The guys introduce themselves as Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, The Husband points out) from Campbell and Sons Insurance (hee!), wanting to speak to Stewart. Presumably not about Hot Wheels, unless he got run over by one. They'd gone to his place, but his roommate said he moved out. Or got kicked out. BossLady!Sam explains that Stewart is an "acquired taste" who makes a lot of online enemies, and he can be found at his mom's house.

I still don't understand why the guys are dressed like nerds. Is it a Halloween costume? Because we've seen them as insurance agents before, and they were wearing regular suits.

Mom's house. Mom puts a couple of mugs on the table - one is a superhero (Flash, maybe?) and one is decorated with cats - and announces that Stewie will be up in just a minute. Dean reaches for the superhero mug, even though it was placed in front of Sam, but the joke's on you, Dean, because we now know Sam likes cats! But more importantly, Dean has added a pair of black Clark Kent eyeglasses to his getup. WHY? I mean, it's hilarious, but WHY?

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON HERE.

We hear Stewart pitching a fit in the basement. He stomps upstairs and sees the Winchesters, and I know the guy in the store was supposed to be Dean's avatar, but this guy is wearing a RED SHIRT WITH A SQUIRREL ON IT. COME ON .

Truly a Red Shirt of Bad Decisions.

We learn that Sam is aware of Fortnight, and Dean notices the smell of burning sage. Stewart explains that he dated a goth chick who told him it would bring good luck, but he broke up before they could "merl." Dean's as confused as I am about "merl," but Sam explains it's MIRL - Meet In Real Life. Dean asks how he knows what that means, and Sam very quickly changes the subject. And this opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities, doesn't it, regarding Sam's online activities and his knowledge of MIRLing, and that would certainly be an entertaining rabbit hole to go down, and I hope some of y'all indulge in that, fic-wise or meta-wise or whatever. I look forward to reading it.

Anyway. Sam asks about the Panthro attack, and Stewart jumps in to say he made it up. When Dean presses, he gets mad and kicks them out of the house and then we cut to an exterior shot and WHAT THE FUCK? NOW DEAN HAS A TACKY CHECKERED BLAZER? It's like he's slowly turning into Matt Foley from SNL. At some point in this episode he's got to say something about living in a van down by the river.

Dean refers to Stewart as "Big Bang," which reminds me that I meant to ask, when we first learned his name, if he was a shout-out to Stewart the comic book store owner on Big Bang Theory. {Sidebar: Would this be a reciprocal shout-out, since that show has a character named Kripke? Is there a connection I don't know about?} Given Stewart's Wiccan girlfriend, they think the toy might have been under a spell, and they decide to check the house for hex bags later. Although I don't know how she would have left any in the house, since they never MIRLed.

Later. The guys are sitting in the car, still outside Stewart's house, when a little lumberjack and vampire walk by. Look, it’s Dean and Benny!

Sam’s instructing someone to use lamb's blood and "stay safe," because he's still Chief, Dean, whether you like it or not. Dean asks "seriously, what is your deal with Halloween," and "don't give me that 'every day is Halloween for us' crap." It's kind of odd that he doesn't already know. I mean, we already know. His life is Halloween. And his mother died two days after Halloween. {Sidebar: Is it just headcanon, fueled by fanfic, that John got blind stupid drunk every year around the anniversary of Mary's death? Or is that canon?} The conversation is interrupted when Stewart's mom leaves the house, and the guys have to duck - toward each other - to avoid being seen. It's ridiculous and hilarious and I love it.

Dean could have just taken off the Clark Kent glasses.

Sam suspects Stewart changed his story because he's being brutally mocked online. And he won't say the word bitch. Is this something we can't do now that we're airing at an earlier hour, Show? Then Stewart comes out of the house, bloody and screaming for help. Dean goes inside, gun drawn, and follows a trail of blood to Stewart's man cave (um, boy cave?). As he gazes at a Texas Chainsaw Massacre poster, he hears a chain saw, which hurtles into the room and barely misses his pretty head.

Hospital. Stewart's mom, still in costume, sits at his side and thanks the guys for saving his life. She wants to go home and get his favorite pillow, but they convince her to stay. "Everything's fine," Dean tells her. "Everything is not fine," he says to Sam, as they leave the room. He says he swept the room for hex bags and found nothing, but the EMF went crazy. So it's a ghost. Hey, guys, you should have watched the "Then." We already knew that. Dean is going to stay at the hospital and keep Mom from going back to the house, while Sam asks around to see if anybody "got dead lately."

At the house, Sam finds the light switch in the Den of Stewartitude doesn't work, even though a lamp and computer monitors are turned on in the room. He laughs at himself for being startled by the Panthro toy and says "nice, Sam, smooth," and for some reason this just almost makes my heart burst open. The toy isn't putting off EMF now, which he finds odd. Then he looks at one of the monitors and sees a group photo of Stewart, LadyBoss!Sam, Dean's doppelganger, and an older man.

Back at the hospital, Dean's doppelganger is standing outside Stewart's darkened room. He is wearing an army green canvas jacket and has acquired some scruff of his own and he's just such a precious little mini Dean; I can't stand it. He asks what Dean's doing there, and Dean says he's just keeping an eye on Stewart. "He must have awesome insurance," Doppelganger says. Which is very funny, and also very Dean, because he says "awesome" so much. I love it.

Dirk explains that Stewart is a jerk, but he's his best friend, and he's there when Dirk needs him. They eat pizza and watch movies and who else does that, my friends? You know who. Then the guys bond over their love of scary movies, and it looks like the franchise is actually called All Saints' Day. I'm sure you were really dying to know. Stewart comments that no hospital would ever be that empty, and Dean says he's been to a lot of hospitals at night, and "trust me, it gets pretty empty," and at first that's just heartbreaking because I figure he was at these hospitals because John or Sam were injured. But maybe he's just thinking about hunts in hospitals. (Again, I need to differentiate fic-fueled headcanon from actual canon.) And then Dean says he likes to watch movies "where I know the bad guy's gonna lose" and yep, my heart is definitely broken.

Sam shows up at the store and asks BossLady!Sam if anyone close to Stewart has died lately. She explains that Jordan, who used to own the store, was kind of a Willy Wonka to her, Stewart, and Dirk (Aha! His name is Dirk! Which is close to Dean, and hasn't Dean actually been called Dirk before?). He died and left the store to BossLady!Sam and Dirk. Not Stewart, because he fired him twice for stealing. But she hired him back because he's a friend. It seems like Stewart has better friends than he deserves. She tells Sam that Jordan was cremated, and then we see something frosting over behind her.

Sam is adorable, trying to look casual as he pulls out his EMF meter and it lights up like a Christmas tree. He tells her it's a carbon monoxide detector and she needs to leave. He starts to tell her she's in danger, and then the David Yeager statue smacks him into the comic book display and knocks him out cold. Even though he hits it with his back. (Handwave!)

When he wakes up, BossLady!Sam is terrified but unhurt. She gets a quick version of the "monsters are real" speech and finds that the door is locked, and Hatchet Man took the keys. He throws something at the door, but it's shatterproof glass. Apparently Jordan was serious about thieves, which explains why he's so keen on killing Stewart, that Panthro-stealing little asshole.

He calls Dean, who's fanboying with Dirk about horror movies, and tells him it's Jordan's ghost. And the David Yaeger figure is on its way. Dean can hardly believe his luck. He pours a ring of salt around Stewart's bed, having given him the speech, and orders him to stay in it. Boy, it's a good thing they reminded us what salt is for in the "Then," or else we'd be really confused right now.

Store. BossLady!Sam figured out what I did, that Jordan wants to kill Stewart because he's a thief. She says she's been taking money out of his check to pay for what he steals, but Jordan wouldn't know that. Sam breaks his lockpick, and then asks if they have any cleaning supplies.

Hospital. Ghost stuff starts happening in Stewart's room, and Dirk panics and flees. Dean takes a hatchet out of a fire emergency box, even though I think that would probably set off a fire alarm. (Handwave!) Dirk's mom is carrying a tray of food from the cafeteria and comes across the Yaeger figure. She drops her tray and screams, just like the woman in the movie. Dirk shows up and puts on a stern face and tells Jordan that if he's going to kill his friend, he has to go through him. Oh Dirk, you sweet little thing, you're channeling Dean so hard now and I adore you. Jordan does come for Dirk, who says "crap" and runs off. There's a funny sequence where we cut back and forth between Dirk and some hospital guards who are watching All Saints' Day and ignoring the actual mayhem happening on their monitors.

Meanwhile, Sam is mixing drain cleaner and something else in a Scooby Doo lunchbox. {Sidebar: I'm not a Scooby Doo fan, but I love the show's constant references to it and the way the Continuity Fairy always remembers Dean's a fan.} BossLady!Sam asks how he learned to do this, and he says "I had a messed up childhood." It's funny because it's true. He hangs the lunchbox bomb on the door and they hide behind the desk. After it blows the door open, they both slowly peek over the desk and simultaneously say "cool." I'm starting to love Sam and his little doppelganger too.

Hospital. Dirk hides in the morgue (no, Dirk, never in the morgue!) and gets a scary hand on his shoulder, but it's Dean. Then a body on one of the gurneys sits up. Yeah, it's Yaeger.

At this point there's a fake movie promo for All Saints' Day III: The Reckoning. It starts out "Three Years Ago," which reminds me very much of a certain scene that starts out "Twenty two years ago." Looks like David Yaeger was killed in a fire on October 31, 1983, which is two days before Mary Winchester dies in a fire. Oh, you clever, clever show.

Back to the show. Dean gleefully fights the Yaeger figure. At least he's gleeful until it seems he's not doing very well. Sam and BossLady!Sam show up, and she's wearing Jared's coat from the EW Halloween photoshoot last year.

Bless you, Show.

She figures out that Jordan must be attached to the Batman keychain. Meanwhile, Dean is cornered, and about to get axed, when precious little badass Dirk stabs Jordan in the back. It doesn't kill him, of course, but it gives Dean a chance to get up and start losing the fight again. The Sams run in and BossLady!Sam figures out that alcohol will help them burn the keychain faster. Whoosh! There goes Jordan, and the statue falls lifeless to the floor.

Aftermath. The guys tell Dirk and BossLady!Sam that everyone is safe now. The Impala scene starts with Dean thanking Sam for "giving me a win." Sam asks him to stop hiding out in his room. "What happened with Michael, you said yes for me, for Jack, for your family. You did the right thing." He says nothing Michael did afterward is Dean's fault, and he needs to stop blaming himself.

"I'm never gonna get over it, okay?" Dean says. "I'm just not." And once again, Sam could say "yes, I understand how you feel, because I've been there too," not to make this all about him, but just to commiserate and show Dean that he's not just blowing off his horrific experience, he knows how bad it was and he might have some good ideas about getting past it. And once again, he does not. But that's okay. What isn't okay is what happens next. Dean asks again why Sam hates Halloween, and Sam tells some ridiculous story about having a crush on a girl in sixth grade and throwing up on her at her Halloween party, and you know what? I just refuse to accept this. WE KNOW WHY SAM HATES HALLOWEEN. AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A GIRL IN SIXTH GRADE. I don't know why you're doing this to me, Davy Perez. You're usually so good about canon. I cannot accept that Sam Winchester, whose entire life has been Halloween, whose mother died two days after Halloween, is distressed because of something that happened in sixth grade. I'm going to pretend this part never happened. Who's with me?

Dean says that next year, he and Sam are going to wear couples costumes (and if you happened to be wearing your shipping goggles, I think I heard you squealing). Batman and Robin. Bert and Ernie. (!) Rocky and Bullwinkle. (!!) Shaggy and Scooby. Turner and Hooch. Ren and Stimpy. Thelma and Louise. "We just it in drive and go." {Sidebar: Who wants the show to end that way, Thelma and Louise style?}

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, one of those useless security guards finds the Yaeger figure in the morgue. The guys left it there? Oh well. It's a good horror movie ending.

So! For the most part, this was just what I needed after three episodes of mytharc. A good MOTW with lots of humor and nods to canon. On the other hand, there's that one thing. But since I'm ignoring that one thing, I guess this was a fantastic episode! What did you guys think?

Please help me stay unspoiled, thanks!

[annabcth]

tbh your blog sums up everything that is wrong in the sw fandom. if you didn't like tlj and if you don't get ben solo's character, just shut tf up.

If Rey had been a Skywalker or a Solo and either Luke’s daughter or Han and Leia’s daughter, that would’ve ruined these characters. Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, then again, is a Skywalker, not Poe or Finn. And btw Solo is a good movie, not the best one but good. It’d be amazing if people like you would just delete their blogs bc you make the Star Wars fandom toxic and not fun to be part of.

Kylo has been emotionally and physically abused for his whole life and you’re telling us he’s evil and the bad guy and abuses rey and doesn’t deserve a thing and doesn’t deserve to be in a poster that portrays the skywalkers? Lol your precious Luke Skywalker wouldn’t approve.

i’m replying to those messages for two main reasons. one, i’ve been getting hate about my stance on tlj/rey*o since december, both in my askbox and under my edits, and while i don’t really care about it, i’m torn about not publishing those messages/replies/tags because the rey*o fandom is a riot and i feel guilty about deleting evidence of their harassment. two, this new discourse is actually extremely relevant, so here we are.

since you’re writing this on anon, i assume you know i’m not the problem here, you are. i keep my opinions to my blog, i don’t look for a fight, i always tag properly. i’m not even an active anti. tlj really hurt my star wars obsession, and i needed to vent for a while, which i did, but then i moved on, and my blog is discourse-free once again. i’m assuming those messages were prompted by my tags under a post criticizing the comic-con poster fiasco.

we obviously have different interpretations of tlj, and you’re bothered by mine. i find it very reasonable though, given that ky*o did recreate anakin’s decision from rotj, and then proceeded to almost destroy everything his grandpa’s great redemption accomplished (saving luke and the rebellion). thankfully, he didn’t succeed (yes, luke died, but it was framed as a defeat for ky*o), and the legacy lives on. through whom? well, luke tells us: “the rebellion is reborn today, the war is just beginning, and i will not be the last jedi”. the editing shows us who will carry out this fight for the light side. the movie ends ky*o’s arc with his promise to destroy the new heroes. so yeah, for that reason i think finn and poe belong in that poster right next to rey, since all three were branded as the new rightful heirs. i get that you’re reading the film differently, probably hoping for ky*o’s eventual redemption and a happily ever after with rey, and honestly, there is nothing i can do about your opinion, so i’m not gonna try to. neither of us decides which interpretation is canonically correct. in the end, it’s jj’s choice, which was probably made back when he was creating those characters.

taking all of this into account, i’m hoping you could suppot two men of color who are an important part of the sequel trilogy’s narrative, whether you agree with my opinions about tlj or not. they were given their own storylines and character development, and they’re tied to the main conflict as leaders of the anti-facist movement. they deserve to be recognized as crucial to this story, and they deserve a spot in the comic-con poster.

my ramblings in the tags mean nothing. you sending anon hate means nothing. neither of those things matters in shaping the narrative for episode ix. quarrels over a ship becoming canon don’t influence the final outcome of this trilogy. however, people defending and supporting two characters of color in a predominantly white franchise means a lot, and can change a lot, at least in the long run.

we have our own opinions, and that’s alright. i voiced mine on my blog, in the tags of a random post. you were lurking on my blog, and sent me hate. i’m not the one who’s toxic here. we’re in the same boat, really- you will absolutely hate it if ky*o dies/doesn’t get redeemed, i will hate it if your ship becomes canon. the answer to that anxiety you’re feeling is to find a different thing to fixate on, and let go for the time being. or just keep your opinions to your blog, and don’t harass people by telling them to delete their tumblrs.

to address other things you mentioned in your messages (they’re standard rey*o talking points, so it should be quick):-  there is no canonical proof that ky*o has been abused his whole life. a dark presence watching him as a fetus/baby doesn’t equal grooming or emotional/physical abuse. it’s defenitely what his relationship with snoke is when we meet up with them in tlj, but we have no idea how and when this partnership was formed. that being said, i admit it’s possible that some additional information about kylo’s fall will be revealed, and it could change my opinion about this character. however…- even if kylo was abused, it wouldn’t justify his actions. he kills his alleged abuser in tlj, and continues to be a major ass, so yeah, he’s the bad guy. (to be revealed) cool motive, still murder*. - yes, kylo’s relationship with rey is abusive, both physically (throwing her into a tree, restraining her) and emotionally (invading her mind, telling her she’s nothing, lying to and gaslighting her). they’ve known each other for a couple of days, had five/six conversations in total, and the amount of time she didn’t want him dead could be counted in hours, i think. she asked him to stop killing her friends, he refused. conceptually it’s such an awful groundwork for romance it’s almost funny. she literally closed the door on him, flying away with his mother on his father’s ship, gripping his uncle’s and grandpa’s lightsaber, the literally destroyed heirloom of the skywalker family. leia said to her “we have everything we need”, completing rey’s tlj!arc of realizing that she’s destined to become the new legend despite her humble beginnings, disillusionment, self-doubt and abandonment issues. this is probably the point where you jump in to say the symbolism of the final scene between leia and rey foreshadows rey mending the lightsaber/redeeming ky*o, but i have three problems with that. one, rey already tried that, it didn’t end well. two, i don’t think jj gives two shits about vague symbolism of tlj, given that rian didn’t bother to uphold basic continuity between his movie and tfa. three, it would be incredibly sexist if rey, instead of being the true heir to the chosen one legacy, was used as a tool for redemption of the failed heir that almost destroyed it. this legacy, along with the one of leadership and rebellion, no longer belong to the skywalkers**. luke’s aforementioned quote makes this clear.- i never said kylo doesn’t belong in the comic-con poster. i only said finn and poe should be there as well. if you feel like their presence in the story threatens your predictions for kylo’s arc, then maybe those hopes you have are not well-founded in canon and you need to distort it in order to make your ship seem more plausible. just maybe. also, luke wouldn’t be able to approve or disapprove this opinion of mine that i never had.

and you’re right, luke skywalker is very precious to me.

* there is a great post going around arguing that ky*o’s apparent lack of relateable reasons for turning to the dark side is a great metaphor for neo-facism and current alt-right movements, and it makes him an excellent and very relevant villain. i agree.

** of course, this plotpoint would change if rey/finn turned out to be a solo/skywalker. i have complicated feelings about this concept, and voicing them would make this already long reply even longer, so i’m not gonna do that.

[littleredroseonthevalley]

Quédate Un Ratito Más

Summary: Isadora reminisce about her life in Los Angeles, her shot at stardom and how she winded up as Chris Winters’ lover.

Rating: M -  Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with non-explicit suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, or coarse language.

Explicit depiction of extra-marital relationships. Explicit, non-graphic mentions of drug use. Reader discretion is highly advised.

Words: 2536

Notes: Remember that confession about Chris Winters and the affair and that I said I would fight the HWU!MC in a pool filled with jelly out of pure boredom? It might have sparked an idea in me.

It all became more clearly defined when I heard this song by Javiera Mena, and there you have it! Just in time for the RCD finale!

(BTW, how do you like it? I’m writing this on Sunday and I have no idea if it sucked. It probably did.)

Anyways, enjoy it. Especially @playchoicesconfessions and @nightmonster86, who is the original confessor. Look what you made me do!

Isadora cannot help herself but to stare, dead, at the roof of her bedroom.

Los Angeles was blessed with cool weather and a soft breeze blowing from the sea tonight. If the city had less luminous pollution, she was certain they would be able to admire a beautiful, late-Summer starry sky.

Her iPod was still docked at the station, low music filled the room, but it was not that she was paying any attention to what was on. The candles that lightened the place already burned out, the only source of clarity came from the flickering street lights.

It was on moments like those she wonders how she ended up like that.

When she left Iowa, she had dreams, she had hopes. Those did not last long under the Californian sun. She knows she had forgiven Chazz for lying to her, for saying he had this great gig as an agent and a big house to host her, but she cannot help but think she may have never come to the West Coast if she knew it was not the case.

She was happy back home, was she not? She had her teaching degree, a nice employment working with children, and that fantasy of hers to be a movie star was dormant, she was satisfied working on community theatre shows every once in a while.

Chazz was insistent, though. He swore she had a special spark and, with his help, she could turn that into a ‘supernova’.

She believed him. She sold everything she owed, quit her job and took a flight to La-La-Land.

For a while, she struggled to find even the lowliest of gigs. She starred on a few commercials for the worse kind of company one can imagine. It did not matter to her, she was determined. She believed it was as they used to say, it is ninety-nine percent transpiration.

Finally, Isadora got her big break. A supporting role on the indie hype of the year, Tender Nothings. Co-starring with her childhood hero, Victoria Fontaine, and the guy she admits to have had a crush as a teen, Matt Rodriguez.

Things were not as easy as it first appeared, however. Victoria was ballistic against her, feeling horribly threatened by her presence as the ‘fresh new face’, while Matt, while a decent sort, was always either stressed over Markus van Groot, the director, and his rather unstable state of mind, or shielded by his elitist, entitled entourage.

For a gregarious person like Isadora, being snubbed out, being unable to form more personal connections to her cast mates, was a challenge, but a wise person once said, you are born alone, you die alone. She could handle it.

Handle she did, extraordinarily so, one might say. She managed Markus’ genius to a point he was almost tame and predictable, she pushed towards some of Teja’s, the assistant director, ideas, she calmed Matt and helped him soldier through the numerous reshoots, and she held her head gracefully in face of Victoria’s abuse.

Her goal was to prove herself not only as a talented actor, but also as someone easy, even pleasurable, to work with, and for a while, she was regarded as such. Even Victoria started coming around to her.

One night, however, sometime along the shooting, Teja said Markus would like to treat Matt and Victoria to a nice dinner, exclusive to the stars. The other actress could not miss the opportunity to rub it on Isadora’s face, the fact she was not important enough to attend.

The next day, every major gossip headline in town mentioned that dinner. It was said their drinking got very out of hand and they ended up confessing some pretty embarrassing, tethering on career ending, secrets.

What was puzzling on the story is that the restaurant was closed off for them, and little people other than the attendees knew they would even be there that night.

Victoria, of course, jumped to conclusions and blamed the whole thing on Isadora’s alleged ambition and desire to take her off the movie and to have the lead role all to herself.

As soon as she stepped on set, the A-lister pranced on her and hit her to the point she had to get stitches afterwards, quitting the production soon afterwards. Matt, always with the herd mentality, followed suit.

Appalled with the lack of professionalism of his American colleagues, Markus talked with the studio and they agreed the best thing to be done was pulling the plug on the production.

Isadora was fired, with a generous rescission package and a heartfelt request for her not to sue. Which she did not.

Something broke inside her that day. Besides her nose and teeth, that is. She realized she did not want to be an actor any longer. She did not want to have her life displayed like that, and she did not want to deal with the Markus, Matts and Victorias of the industry.

It just was not worth it.

A few weeks later, Matt knocked on her door, saying he had figured out the whole exposé on them was work of his agent, who was adamant he dedicated himself to another sequel of an action franchise. He said he was sorry, and that he wanted to revive Tender Nothings.

She answered him she did not want to work in show business any longer. He interpreted it as hardballing, and offered to expand her part.

Looking back, it was what cemented her decision to leave. How dared he? To come to her door with a meagre apology and feel like he had the right to demand anything of her? To think that her struggle, that her acquired distaste for the industry was just some concoction of hers? That it could all be solved throwing some money at it?

Had he learnt nothing from what happened? Or was it that he felt Isadora was too insignificant to pay any heed?

Be as it may, she sent him away and she never saw him again.

After that, she rebuilt her life. With the severance, she could purchase the, admittedly shitty but very affordable, apartment she currently lives, and she found another job at a private day-care, which paid reasonably well.

Overall, her acting career was now only memories and an obscure credit on IMDb.

That is not to say it was the last she ever heard from the Hollywood folks she met during her stint at Tender Nothings. She and Teja were friends, and Markus was still trying to coax her back into his movies. He had taken an admiration for her, as it seems.

And that’s the turning point.

Learning from the resounding failure of Matt’s, Markus, instead of appealing for her vanity or ambition, decided to take the long road and make friends with her, show her while Tender Nothings was pretty awful, she still could find good people within the industry.

Isadora was unmoved, but she enjoyed her relationship with the director, and his wife was a surprisingly reasonable, easy-to-please person, quite the kind of people she appreciated having as friends.

Opposites attract, she supposed.

One night, at Markus’ birthday celebration, she was trying to treat herself to a break from the characteristic madness of a van Groot party in some unoccupied room upstairs.

It was where she met him.

Usually, when people talk about how they met their significant others, it is some kind of meet-cute, like a mismatch at the coffee shop or a bump on their way to class or to work.

It was not like that with them. How could it be? Everything about them was twisted, their first meeting would not be the one conformist thing about them.

Isadora Andel met Christopher Winters while he was having a panic attack.

Not many people know, but America’s Heartthrob was taken to cocaine use, and while he had cut down over the years, he never really stopped riding the white horse.

Continuous drug use, especially one as strong as the uncut cocaine rampant in Hollywood, often leads to undesirable side effects. Chris developed panic attacks.

Thanks to her teachers’ school, Isadora had a few psychology classes under her belt and knew how to deal with a situation like that, helping the poor man to gather himself back together.

Once again at a normal heart pace, Chris offered Isadora something to drink, very thankful and somewhat embarrassed by the whole ordeal. She accepted, after all she did not know anyone else at the party, and it was Chris Winters, another of her teenage crushes.

She may have been a movie dork at high school. May have.

They drank, and they talked, and they drank some more. Sometime, late in the night, they started kissing, and undressing, and they had a pretty good time.

The morning after, the first two things Isadora thought when she woke up was that she was beyond hung over and that she had sex with the most desired man in America.

The very married, very unavailable most desired man in America.

She started having a minor panic attack of her own, freaking out about the absurd situation she put herself. She had left show business to avoid the exposition, and she now finds herself on what could very well be the scandal of the decade.

Her hyperventilation ended up waking up Chris himself, who had the taste, or the carelessness, of sleeping beside her after the sex. Not unlike his companion, the same two thoughts ran through his mind, and he too had a minor anxiety burst over the situation.

They were grown, reasonable people, though, they were able to get a grip and face the situation with logic.

Isadora soon realized she was in no danger. Chris would not want for it to leak, he was married and a messy divorce would damage his career and, above all, his all-American boy image.

The man, in turn, concluded it was best not to corner the girl, to question her forcefully if she was some kind of paparazzi infiltrate. If she was, she would not tell him, and if she was not, it might just change her mind. He would call his publicist and they would figure out what to do.

They calmly, yet very, very awkwardly, greeted each other and traded reassurances that it was just a one-time thing and it would be best kept forgotten, the kind of thing not-so-normal people did after a one-night stand with a stranger.

Relieved, and feeling a sense of security with the young woman, Chris offered to take her home. He was driving, after all, and he felt like he owed her some kindness, due to his panic attack the night before, and for, as much as he could remember of their conversation, her being a wholesome person.

It was a long drive between Bel Air, where Markus lived and hosted his soirée, to Little Armenia, where Isadora’s apartment was located, and during the good part of the hour they were contained in close quarters they conversed.

What else would they do, after all?

Isadora talked about her life, things like what was like back in Iowa and what was like living in Los Angeles. Chris, for his turn, shared some anecdotes of his own small-town childhood and impressions on some of his work.

As the sleek car parks in front of the downtrodden apartment block, both of them wished the journey had lasted longer, even if neither wanted to admit it.

The woman smiles at him softly, thanks him for the ride, it was very kind of him, and the grace he dealt with the situation. After everything with Matt and Victoria, she was relieved for not being blamed for a PR disaster again.

He said he, too, was glad that, for everyone that could have found him at that bedroom; it had been her.

For a moment, time stood still. Neither breathed nor moved, they just looked deep into each other’s eyes.

Then they kissed.

An hour later, they were undressed and spent on Isadora’s bed and Chris notes, with a degree of humour, “What’s about us that we can’t talk and not have sex?”

So, their relationship starts. Chris would call late at night, at odd days of the week and ask to come over. Isadora would have the house ready and a hot meal waiting for him.

He came, sad or stressed, and would talk away what concerned him, a particularly difficult job or some altercation with the shrew of his wife. She would pet his hair lazily, let him eat empty calories, offer some input and perspective and suddenly he was fine again.

Afterwards, he would show his deep appreciation for her on a physical manner. It might be as good for him as it was for her, but the thought would remain.

They were fine like that for a while, it was all good for them both, but something started to change. There was not a time when they did not care for each other, but in the beginning, they were friends, people who help and like each other and have the occasional sex.

Now… it changed. Isadora likes Chris, she may growing to love him, and she was somewhat certain that he feels the same for her, too, but it does not the change the fact he is married. That she has to share him with someone else. That there is a part of his life that does not pertain her, that she is not welcome.

She longs for more. Yes, he was a movie star and that is a hindrance on itself, but even as a celebrity, they could have dinners out, attend parties, go to the cinema and have a life together.

Before Isadora could consider it further, the water noise coming from her bathroom stops. Soon enough, Chris emerges at the door, a towel wrapped around his waist.

“I should go, I guess.” He says, his voice just above a whisper.

It was a moment neither of them appreciated much. The goodbyes. The parting. The underlined assumption he would be returning to the arms of his not-so-beloved wife.

“Don’t.” She responds, turning her face to look deep inside his green eyes. “The sun will rise soon, just lay here with me until then.”

The man sighs. “Isadora, I…”

“I know what you’re going to say.” She cuts him off. “People will end up noticing, paparazzi will see, but that will only happen if you leave. They can’t find you here.”

Her childlike logic tickles him, sends some shine to the darkness, graveness of his depression, his sadness.

It was too good, too short, to let go just yet.

He lets the towel that covers his intimacy fall to the ground. He circles the bed, and lays next to his lover and kisses her cheek.

“I can’t say no to you.” He confesses, voice grave and a melancholic smile on his expression.

“I’m glad.” She responds. “I really love you, you know.”

His smile widens, his eyes twinkle. “I love you, too.”

In bed together, they saw the purple light slowly flooding the room, announcing the impending, inevitable separation.

So it may be, but for now, they could ignore it and take delight on each other’s presence.

[seigaku9th-blog]

my computer broke months ago, hence the lack of updates. apologies for that! i tried writing up a quick summary of my latest trip to japan on my phone despite that, since i really wanted to share some details with everyone.

i was in japan from february 1st to 21st! during that time, i saw tenimyu’s VS higa six times, which i will talk about in a separate entry. so for now, let’s talk about bungou stray dogs on stage, stage oofuri, mononofu & nostalgic wonderland, as well as spi’s valentine fanmeeting!

02.03 BUNGOU STRAY DOGS what better way to start one of my japanese theater pilgrimages than by going to see my #1 boy, hideya (7th tezuka), less than 24 hours after landing in japan? i also had the chance to see teruma (6th inui) & kuwano (2nd shishido).

what most impressed me about this production was the choice casting. people i usually am iffy on were given very fitting roles that they rocked in, and of course, hideya was able to shine as the very popular & multidimensional character that is dazai. i was really happy to hear so many audience members gush about how good he was during the intermission! i think it’s one of the greatest compliments for an actor when fans of the original work & characters enjoy their portrayal.

i also enjoyed all the effort & wit put into the staging, the supernatural aspect of the franchise put into motion in such smart & artistic ways. also hideya is fantastic, gorgeous, versatile, charismatic, perfect.

when i got home, i found out that ryosei (8th inui) had went to see the show at the same time as i did...

02.11 OOFURI ️ oofuri was such a lighthearted & fun stage play, which really carried the energy of the source material. fantastic casting decisions were made here, i had a lot of fun both discovering actors i knew less and also seeing actors i’ve known for a while in person for the first time!!

i was mostly inclined to see the show because mashu (7th momo) & junpei (2nd marui) were in it!!!! i love them so much and was really happy to see them perform. they have very sparkly eyes and mashu is just such a delight to watch.

ps. ino hiroki is ridiculously handsome

02.12 SPI’S FANMEETING this was my first time going to an event without any tennis motivations, but spi is just such an amazing guy who’s always been very welcoming and inclusive towards his foreign fans, so i thought i’d honor that by attending his fanmeeting. well, of course, i also think of him as an amazingly interesting person and a fantastic performer!!

he had an entire talk section dedicated to sharing toumyu gossip, which i loved. he notably mentionned how arayan (2nd inui) is The Greatest Senpai Ever, that mario (7th eiji) has hilarious over-dramatic reactions of relief and keeps complaining about how tired he is when they’re finally done training, and that imari yu has this tendency to wrap his arm around whoever is sitting next to him...

otherwise, it was mostly spi showing off his wonderful voice with a variety of english songs. including a one direction song. help. he made a few jokes about english stuff, like how funny he thought the lyrics in real love story (tonbokiri’s solo) were, and each time he would look into my direction in a moment of north american bonding... i felt like i couldn’t unleash my full fanboy self bcuz we had an unexplainable bro bond now

after the event itself, much like for tenimyu, we had to wait our block’s turn to get out of our seats for miokuri. while waiting for my turn, an older lady came up to me and started talking to me in english, asking me where i was from, if i liked tourabu, if i’d go see take me out, saying her friend & her saw me earlier and thought i was cute, thanking me for coming, etc. now, i’m not going to assume anything, but spi did make a joke at the start of the event asking if there were mothers in the room (said lady cheered), and i also know for a fact that spi’s mother is an english teacher... hmmm...

afterwards, i got to meet spi! he handed each of us a rose since it was valentine’s day, which i thought was absolutely adorable  i was getting ready to ask 英語でいいですか？ before saying anything in english, just in case, but he was the one who super excitedly started talking to me in english, asking me where i was from & all!! we talked for a surprisingly long while considering it was just a miokuri! i was really happy... i also went WOW YOU’RE SO TALL I’M SURPRISED bcuz i’m never prepared for anyone that isn’t an inui to tower over me

02.16 MONONOFU  i went into this show excited to see so many of my favorites gorgeous boys, notably tsune (2nd atobe), kubohide (2nd niou), arayan (2nd inui), kent (3rd shinji) & sugie (2nd yuuji). since i didn’t particularly enjoy or understand the previous titles of this franchise which i had seen on DVD, my expectations for anything other than eye candy were fairly low. i ended up pleasantly surprised, as a fan of japanese history & the bakumatsu era in particular! this segment of the story covered the shinsengumi’s fall, with kondo isami’s execution & okita soji’s death at the hands of illness. i actually ended up crying along with everyone else in the theater, the actors’ performance & dramatic staging allowing a really emotional, honest & down-to-earth portrayal of a story we all love so much.

and of course, tsune was incredibly hot and kubohide really does look like that and arayan is so cool and kent is ridiculously handsome and sugie is a charismatic angel. but everyone was really fantastic! i knew ryosuke from kamen rider ghost, but his portrayal of okita really touched me. i also thought it was super cool how katsura’s actor was a legit kabuki actor! so impressive to watch!

02.17 NOSTALGIC WONDERLAND oh this show. THIS!! SHOW!! you guys!! this was undoubtedly one of my favorite things i’ve ever seen on a japanese stage!! okay, i might be a little biased because i’m a really big fan & collector of all things 60s~90s, but really!! this was just a bundle of joy, nothing but singing & dancing & casual talk segments between the actors.

the story here is actually pretty funny. i initially didn’t get a ticket for this, thinking “okay this would be fun but i already saw miura (3rd atobe), ikumin (3rd oshitari) & masa (1st niou) in person and i’m not supposed to spend money on anyone other than seigaku anyways”. then my love for miura amplified tenfolds. then my friend was like hey i have an extra ticket. then i was like i shouldn’t. then i watched shinken ranbu sai. then my love for miura amplified even further. then i was like okay please. i need that ticket. then my friend is like okay sure here is a pic of your ticket btw! and i see. the words. “Guest: Yata Yusuke”. written on the ticket. i have never been so happy to have ever decided to go see a show.

so, yes. i had the chance to watch yata (7th fuji) perform in person. he sang Open Arms by Journey, which was an absolute delight. a song i love and a voice i adore. i actually found myself crying while listening to his singing. listen... y’all know how much i love 7th cast. this meant a lot.

during the talk segment, miura was extremely excited to introduce yata, and is so jumpy, happy & clingy near him! it’s adorable! these two have been senpai & kouhai before miura’s days in tenimyu and continue to work together to this day. yata, in classic 7th fashion, was incredibly entertaining & hilarious in all of his crude honesty and lack of fucks. notably just saying “i don’t know these guys” about everyone who wasn’t miura, ikumin, masa & utsumi (2nd saeki), being absolutely exasperated and lacking in any efforts when asked to do cute fanservice, and also getting upset at masa for talking so much instead of letting him sing his solo. beautiful.

but my favorite moment was when miura exposed ikumin as a being a huge fan of yata! saying he always sings yata’s tenimyu songs when they karaoke! ikumin was incredibly flustered, but he confirmed this and straight up said “yata’s fuji is the best”. he then proceeded to kneel on the floor and reinterpret yata’s boku wa kawaru from VS shitenhoji for at least half a minute. i was howling with laughter, i can’t believe this was even allowed to happen?? where is the tennis police?? (too scared of miura and a 7th, probably.)

back to the actual show! they performed a wonderful variety of our songs, from The Karpenters to Blondie to Elvis and the Backstreet Boys as the great finale. absolutely incredible content. we all know the range of singing and/or dancing talent from our tenimyu boys, but the other actors were also really incredible singers, one is a trained ballet dancer as well, and another could play a wind instrument! sheer talent all around. miura & the other dancer, rui, had a contemporary dance number together, a very sensual one at that!!

there was also a lot of fanservice & audience interaction! and of course, i wound up with an alley seat. let’s start smoothly. i got a wink from masa when he stopped at our row during the final number!! and a big smile from ikumin during his solo!!

but what still has me *ahem* Shook to this day... is miura. yeah. during his solo — a cover of Venus by Frankie Avalon — he walked thru the alleys, doing cute fanservice with a few audience members, up until he stopped right in front of our row. i was smiling so widely from 50% happiness & 50% nervosity, and then he ended up looking right at me. held out his hand towards me. and smiled so beautifully as he continued singing. i think my heart actually stopped beating in that moment. and my hands were still shaking by the end of the show. i’m fine. yeah. uh huh

[lokgifsandmusings]

Definitive Ranking of Book 1 Episodes, #10/12

10. 1x11 Skeletons in the Closet

Bending is ILLEGAL, Asami drops it like it’s hot, a wild fanservice appears, and Noatak and Tarrlok build a snowman.

*Back a month later with Starbucks and more nitpicks*

Actually, real talk: can someone explain why part of the goyim gets upset with Starbucks not being Chirstmasy enough? Because I was just in one and it looks like Rudolph threw up everywhere. What ever happened to a nice autumnal display...

No, let’s get back to definitively ranking Book 1 episodes!

And let me just say: this has been a struggle. I know logically that Book 1 is fine. Obviously it engaged me enough to watch Book 2, even if I only saw the back-half in one sitting while I was drunk. But still, like I said in my first essay on this season, it just doesn’t get any deeper, unlike the other books. Instead, you notice all the hanging threads, and tugging on them leads to...well, whatever this is.

The thing is, I purposely do these definitive rankings in reverse order so that I sound increasingly more enthused. But when I saw I’d be writing about this one, I sat staring for five minutes trying to come up with a reason as to why it was better than “The One With All The Love Triangles” or “The One Where Amon Gets Caught.” It has slightly fewer contrivances?

Okay, stepping back, this episode isn’t all that complicated, or all that bad, really. The Equalists have taken over Republic City after their carpet bombing of it (you know...for equality!), so the Krew is underground in the sewers, eatin’ street gruel and flirtin’ with the person they’re not dating 10 feet away from the person they are dating. We get a glimpse of Republic City under the Equalists, which includes the apparent outlawing of bending, coupled with a line of handcuffed and blindfolded benders being paraded before Amon to be “cleansed of their impurity.”

Iroh II sails his face into a trap, and then he, Bolin, and Asami decide to go after Hiroshi’s army of biplanes (to prevent them from doing the same to Bumi’s fleet), while Korra and Mako want to go after Amon himself. They sneak onto Air Temple Island so they can ambush him, only to find a de-bended Tarrlok locked up. He explains how he and Amon are both sons of Yakone, and they can all bloodbend any day of the year. That’s how Amon has been taking away people’s bending. Korra and Mako then decide they’re going to expose Amon as a waterbender at his Equalist rally.

Let’s leave the Noatuk truth-bomb for last, cause that’s worth digging into a bit. Character-wise, this isn’t a very strong episode for any member of the Krew. Asami finally pulls the plug on Mako, I guess, which given that he’s acting like Korra’s boyfriend anyway makes plenty of sense. So that’s something? Otherwise, the biggest moment is Korra deciding she has to go after Amon herself. Which is kind of regressive? I mean, she doesn’t really have the skills or capacity to beat the guy, and the last time she tried to seek him out to fight on her terms, she got captured and very nearly lost her bending.

Korra: Wait, I'm sorry, but I'm not going with you tomorrow.

Mako: What?

Asami: Why not?

Korra: I'm sick and tired of hiding from Amon. It's time I face him.

Iroh: That's not a good plan. We need to stick together.

Korra: I'm not waiting for him to hunt me down. My guts tell me it's time to end this, on my terms.

Iroh: Korra, this is not a mission you should be handling alone.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s totally understandable why Korra would not want to just wait for Amon to go after her, and why she feels she’s not exactly needed in this “destroy the fleet mission.” But like, isn’t the protagonist supposed to have some kind of character growth?

I know I talked about this already in my “Endgame” piece, and yes, I think overall it’s a good thing that she had plenty of space to keep growing after Book 1. It just seems strange that her solution to the Amon situation is more “well NOW I’m going to do something about it!” despite her being no more prepared to take this on. Despite her having no strategy past “ambushing” him on Air Temple Island. And guess what, even when she has more information and tries to approach it in an inventive way, she still gets her ass kicked! She still gets de-bended!

Again, this is a narrative. What is the message supposed to be in Korra pursuing this option? Are we supposed to be cheering with her? Are we supposed to agree with Iroh?

Really, it’s this episode where the backwards nature of the writing becomes clear. Bryke needed Korra and  Mako pursuing Amon alone. They needed them to run into Tarrlok. They needed a way for Amon to get exposed by forcing him to waterbend. They needed Korra to get de-bended but then still airbend. None of this particularly flowed from character actions, and certainly not personalities. Shit just occurred *to* our protagonists, and that’s disappointing to think about in a story as thoughtful and intriguing as LoK.

I’m not saying that plot-points shouldn’t be planned out, btw! I’m just saying that they need to be done with respect to characterization and character journeys. Book 2 was one stumbling block after another, but that finale came together spectacularly well because the focus was on Korra’s arc. She beat Unalaq by literally tapping into the core of who she was and ripping her reality into existence. Sure there were contrivances that set it up, but we’re not talking Korra just randomly going against her own self-interest. That was Civil Wars!

Really, the emotional weight of this episode was Tarrlok’s story (and I know mileage varies there), so maybe this complaint is more along the lines of a nitpick. But it’s incredibly disappointing on a revisit to realize that Korra more or less stagnated after 1x04, with a small exception being in her attitude towards Asami (the result of exposure). Which maybe is what was behind Korra being the one to put up boundaries with Mako this episode? Mildly?

However, this also means that Korra’s most significant character development of the season was in the context of navigating the teenage dating game. And I’d be floored if that’s really what people wanted out of the Avatar franchise, or what Bryke even intended.

That’s maybe the kicker, here. This was the episode where it felt as though Bryan and Mike just had to start wrapping things up, logic-be-damned! But...wasn’t this the season where they had the most amount of time to plan?

Even a very small change could have gone a long way. A common complaint of “Endgame” is that the airbenders just showed up on stage, handcuffed. I don’t mind that it “undercut” Lin’s sacrifice (mostly because I don’t think it *did*. The point was that she was willing to do that), but I do think it felt like a total asspull when we more or less saw them get away. But what if word somehow reached the sewers (or was even intentionally delivered there) that Amon was holding the airbenders captive? Hell maybe Iroh could have brought this information. Then, that would have created a sense of urgency where it made sense for the Krew to split up, and it would have made sense for Korra and Mako to go to Air Temple Island specifically. Did they even have a way of knowing that’s where Amon was operating within this episode?

Again, writers should generally have an endpoint in mind that they write to. But it shouldn’t require contortions in logic to get there. And if you can’t think of a compelling reason for your characters to reach it...well...it’s probably time to rethink those beats, then. “Skeletons in the Closet” is an episode where just about everything that happens felt like it needed a second thought.

A perfectly good example of that is with the Equalists. In “Turning the Tides,” they bombed the entire city and captured enough benders where in this episode, they had an incredibly long line of them just waiting to be de-bended, including more policemen and White Lotus Members. The Equalists also declared bending illegal and stuck an Amon mask on Aang’s statue.

I have just...so many questions about how all this works. Like, logistically how have The Equalists actually taken over a city? I mean first of all, the crowd to whom Hiroshi announced bending being outlawed makes Trump’s inauguration look impressive.

Second of all, if we just talk about power dynamics of the universe, how does this work:

These are the SUPERPOWERED people. And the ones we’re seeing in this picture are literally trained fighters. They’ve got blindfolds on so...that’s it? Game over? No seismic-sense earthbenders? I’m not trying to victim blame here, but when you’ve got such a disparity in skill, to see these proportions of the benders to nonbenders here, with the benders doing absolutely nothing but being faceless and passive, it really pushes the envelope of believability.

Wasn’t the implication of the Equalist revolution that there actually was a revolution? That the *masses* went along with this, since they were the ones abused, ignored, and/or silenced under bender rule? Except then that makes the Equalists carpet-bombing the city even weirder, because this aftermath doesn’t seem to follow. Unless the only survivors were the people at Hiroshi’s rally.

Again, it’s the backwards writing. They needed the Equalists to have taken over, so they did. I’d totally buy the Equalists just controlling Air Temple Island and camping out there, maybe with important prisoners, but no. They successfully destroyed the United Forces and it was bad enough that their general had to retreat into the sewers and communicate his orders through Gommu.

I almost don’t even want to touch Iroh. He’s fanservice, and pretty heavy-handed fanservice at that. I really don’t care about giving people *something*, but fanservice that works is like...the picture of Aang airbend-juggling sushi rolls. It’s not some rando Mary Sue (and I truly mean a textbook Mary Sue here) showing up, ordering around our main characters to get us to the next action set-piece, and then watching him literally fly around with no explanation as he grounds Hiroshi’s fleet and saves the day.

He’s significant to us because we recognize his namesake, and because he’s voiced by Dante Basco. But just imagine if you were a viewer watching LoK without having seen ATLA. Wouldn’t this character feel incredibly odd to you? Wouldn’t you wonder why we were focusing on him at the cost of our regulars getting more time to contend with this new situation?

Like, oh I don’t know...ASAMI? I know, I know what this sounds like. At this point I’m gonna just lean into my reputation. But seriously, her FATHER just bombed the city, he’s making speeches about illegal bending, he blows up Iroh’s fleet here with inventions we didn’t know existed, they make a plan that revolves around facing head-on, and we get a single line of dialogue from her about it. Which the transcript hilariously describes as “somewhat bitterly”:

“It's time to take down my father.”

Yes, that was somewhat of a reaction. Does anyone want to check in if she’s conflicted?

Or like, Korra is apparently driven by extreme impatience now. Even though Mako says she won’t go alone, is there a reason we don’t get anyone actually challenging this or asking why she can’t help with the airfield and *then* go after Amon? Especially Mako, since he’s signing up for it, and he was the one with a slightly more cautious approach to sneaky things in 1x03?

“Hmm ... My grandfather would respect the Avatar's instinct. So will I.”

Aaaaand finally, speaking of “who are you and why are you suddenly the focal point?”, we’ve got the infamous bloodbending brothers.

Uh, so. Confession: I actually kind of like them? I mean, they ranked halfway up my list in the Definitive Ranking of Complicated Familial Dynamics, so that’s something. But really, I think their story in and of itself is fine. It’s about the futility of revenge, I guess, and there’s the poetic tragedy of the way both brothers did become instruments of their father’s plans despite the fact that they both wanted to escape that fate. Tarrlok wanted to be the city’s savior and have influence through upstanding, noble means; a clear backlash against his crime-boss father ruling from the “underbelly” through brute force. Noatak, meanwhile, truly believed that so long as people had the potential for the fighting dominance his father displayed, there could be no justice in the world. He was a bender who hated his own power, and emulated Aang’s course of action with Yakone, which somewhat ironically led him to think that he truly needed to debend Korra.

It’s a bit of flawed logic, I guess. “I’ll never become an instrument of revenge against the Avatar! Instead, I’ll apply what the Avatar did to you to *all* benders...including the Avatar!”

I guess he’s just an equal-opportunity debender who understands the symbolic importance of taking away Korra’s bending? Oh look, I made a pun.

But yeah, it’s a fine enough story, and I’m not sure we’re supposed to be viewing Amon as the world’s most balanced thinker anyway.

The problems with Amon are that the Equalist logistics don’t make much sense, as I noted, and the guy himself gleefully debending the sole survivors of genocide in the name of justice is a bit much to swallow, especially after Bryke tried to demonstrate how nonbenders really do have legitimate grievances with regards to their treatment by members of triads and law enforcement alike. Of course the puppy-kicker had to go down, and it’s kind of a shame that what was a nuanced issue was turned into something so black-and-white.

The problem with the bloodbending brothers, however, is actually one that’s kind of similar to the problem with Kuvira. Their personal stakes are entirely disconnected from Korra herself. She runs into them, and has altercations with them, and as the Avatar she has a unique symbolic and political importance. Therefore she “matters” in both of their plans, which is why Tarrlok kidnapped her (what was the long term of that, exactly?), and Amon purposely didn’t take away her bending when he first captured her. It’s similar to how Kuvira understood that Korra had an importance to the people of the Earth Kingdom and for that reason, took pleasure in knocking her down a peg after her absence for three years; but she was driven by personal reasons relating to the Beifongs.

And this is fine, by the way. I’d say LoK’s most successful antagonist was Zaheer, who again, was targeting Korra for strategic reasons, but not exactly personal ones. Not every conflict is going to be Clark Kent vs. Lex Luthor, with years of history and damage between them. I do happen to think that kind of dynamic is the most effective (Zuko and Azula, anyone?), but again, villains being motivated by something entirely external to the protagonist is absolutely fine, even if it’s their own personal familial baggage.

However, given that Book 1 tripped over itself and couldn’t actually land the beats of the main plotline, nor provide Korra with any sort of growth in its telling...having the focus on the bloodbending brothers is incredibly weird. Like, why was the creative energy put here, of all things? It’s a sad story, sure, but what does it actually mean to Korra?

Being generous, it allows her to create a plan where she exposes Amon instead of trying to brute-force the situation, but...that plan doesn’t work at all, and she wins by punching. Was this showing development in her strategic thinking? This goes back to the issue of her wanting to hunt down Amon again.

What it sort of feels like, and forgive me for saying this, is spin-off fanfic that people wrote who got interested in the villains. It’s not *bad* by any means. There’s interesting dynamics here. But it shouldn’t come at the cost of Korra’s journey, which it did. In the end, the biggest moment of the season was Tarrlok’s murder/suicide. It’s a tragic story, sure. It’s just not Korra’s. And at least with Kuvira, it was her arc that bent to suit Korra’s needs, not the other way around.

I’m pretty sure from here on out I’ll actually have some positive things to say about Book 1 episodes, don’t worry. It’s just the final chapter of the season is really where all the flaws of the storytelling came into full view, and though “Turning the Tides” arguably started that, this is the episode where the wheels came off. “Endgame” was the crash.

#12 1x12 “Endgame”

#11 1x05 “The Spirit of Competition"

1x11 photo recap found here

Book 2 ranking/essays found here

Book 4 ranking/essays found here

[raptorsraiderstarheels-blog]

95′

95′ is an important number to me. It’s not the year I was born, three years after that fact actually. I was three years old I didn’t care about too much, not sports, not girls, not movies, nothing but eating, playing with toys, my parents and so forth. So why is the date so important to me? It’s not necessarily that is was then, but through research I realize how important it was to the teams I like, the players i follow, the sports I enjoy. 

In light of being in the midst of March Madness, Tar Heels in the final four, Toronto Raptors working their way to the 1st seed in the Eastern conference and the Raiders now moving to Vegas, I felt compelled to make this blog and start writing. 

I didn’t realize it now, but after hearing about the Raiders moving, I decided to look into something. So the Raiders were in Los Angeles from 82′-94′ the next year they officially moved back to Oakland. Now I was alive when the Raiders were still in Los Angeles (born in 92) but I didn’t start watching sports until around about the year 2000. But the things that happened in 1995 are what I believe set my love of sports in motion right then right there. 

The Raiders came back to Oakland and through my years of living in Arizona, visiting my grandparents in San Francisco and being a Raiders fan, they had been in Oakland that entire time. So this move to Vegas hits me about as hard as it does tot he people who are native to Oakland. It’s tough, seeing the team you’ve loved since childhood completely change cities, and now I know first hand how people in the 80′s felt when they went to LA. 

I’m sure you’re asking right now, how do the Raiders connect to your love for the Raptors and Tar Heels? In retrospect...they don’t, but in the year 95 a couple other things happened that basically shaped my life and my love for sports. That same year the Toronto Raptors franchise was created, headed by Isiah Thomas as the GM. It didn’t matter to me then but just five years later it would. I also want to note that a movie a couple years prior had come out called Jurassic Park and that would also play a role. Don’t worry it will all make sense.

So when I was a kid all I cared about was playing with friends, watching Disney movies, eating, sleeping, etc. I eventually started to (because of my mother) enjoy movies. Two of my favorites were Jurassic Park and Space Jam (Which came out in 1996 btw). I knew who Michael Jordan was, everyone knew who he was, but I never watched him actually play. Maybe I’d catch a glimpse as my dad was watching games, but that’s it. Those two movies were two of my absolute favorites though, Michael Jordan at the time was my favorite player (because he’s the only one I really knew) and guess what my favorite dinosaur was? The Velociraptor. 

I bet you’re wondering where this all comes together? Well there’s one more very important thing that happened 95. That year at the University of North Carolina, they had recruited and got a promising, athletic, dynamic young guard. That guard’s name was Vince Carter. Now in 95 and for the three years he played at UNC I had no idea, I didn’t watch. But this all came together around the year 2000. 

I’m 8 years old, I play sports a bit with my friends now, I enjoy movies, tv, playing just like before, but I still didn’t watch sports. I like the Raiders mascot with the eye patch guy, but I still didn’t watch sports and at this point I didn’t know what a Tar Heel was. That all changed that year during the 2000 NBA All-star game. When Vince Carter came out there and put on the most spectacular dunking display I had ever seen in my life. From that moment on, I wanted to be him and I would watch him play more to see if I could pick up on some of the things he did. 

I found out what team he played for...The Toronto Raptors? What an odd name for a team, but then again one of my favorite movies Jurassic park (Which is actually how they got their name go figure) has Raptors and those are my favorite dinosaur so I can dig it. 

Like I said though, I really wanted to be Vince Carter, so I looked him up a bit, found out he went to a University of North Carolina, a University that Michael Jordan also went to, now I found myself interested in that team as well. So around 2000 I’m watching the Raptors using them on the NBA live video games, playing ball trying to emulate Vince however I can. But it wasn’t until 2 years later I started to really like football, and the Raiders.

That team from Oakland that had moved back in 1995 caught my eye (get it because the pirate?) in 2002 when they were tearing through the playoffs and Jerry Rice, Tim Brown and Rich Gannon were putting on a show. I didn’t watch football before, it confused me, but I figured since I gave basketball a chance and I watch it now, I should do the same with football. They played beautiful football all the way until the Superbowl but unfortunately lost in a game that I didn’t realize would be so notorious later on. From that point on I was officially a Raiders fan. And that’s when i would read up more on their championships, heartbreaks, tuck rules, Heidi games and so on...I was hooked. Unfortunately for me, I got hooked at the wrong time with them and the Raptors shortly after I became a fan, both teams started on a down trend as players like Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, Rich Gannon, Vince Carter left and players like Jamarcus Russell and Andrea Bargnani too their place. It had become dark times for me. 

I’m not going to lie, I wanted to see some winning, but me being as loyal as I am, I stuck with those two. I was however able to find some winning ways in a team in North Carolina, that college team both Vince Carter and Michael Jordan played for. That year in 2005 as my two teams were on the down trend, I decided to tune into the March Madness. Being from Arizona all of my friends and family cheered for U of A so I was a fan by default. Don’t get me wrong I liked the team, knew the players like Mastufa Shakur, Salim Stoudamire, Hassan Adams (who actually got signed to the Raptors at one point) but I wasn’t as big a fan as them. I remember clearly being on a road trip with my family and Arizona was playing a game against number one ranked Illinois being led by a young Deron Williams, We were in our car listening on the radio, then right in the final moments Deron Williams hit some back breaker 3′s and helped Illinois sink AZ from there. So here I was having to feel that same feeling that the Raiders and Raptors were giving me. 

But later that week I saw the NCAA championship and I saw Raymond Felton, Marvin Williams, Rashad McCants, and Sean May bring home a championship. Though I hadn’t seen them play all year, I felt this sense of pride that the team my two favorite NBA players came from won a championship. I even bought that NCAA video game with Marvin Williams on the cover that year College Hoops 2K6 I believe (My first time ever playing a game by 2K). I would use the Tar heels on that game, make myself and put myself on the team, make myself a crazy dunker (like Vince) and I just felt such an enormous sense of pride with this team. so from that moment forth, I was a fan. 

All of the events that happened in the year 95′ are what I feel shaped my love for sports and particularly for the Raiders, Raptors and Tar Heels. After researching this and thinking about it. As I watch the Raptors win today 130-112 against the Magic (DeRozan with 36 points) or watch the Tar Heels once again move their way up in the NCAA tournament, watch as the Raiders prepare to move cities again I have even more pride. So I made this blog so I can write about my teams, their games, my thoughts, my perspectives and now I know where that all started. I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I do.