#but it doesn’t dumb it down or ignore world building imo

[live-from-new-york-its]

honor among thieves was an incredible movie and I will be paying to see it again in theaters, as a tribute to my love for john francis daley

[cizzisblog]

things that piss me off about dabi and fans’ reactions to this arc:

-Dabi is definitely, absolutely not justified in going after Shouto (who deserves none of this!! this boy deserves only love and support and some gotdamned therapy) ima just say that now.

-It’s also shitty of Dabi to say he didn’t care if Natsuo was hurt/killed.

-The canon characterization may very well be Dabi is so far down the path of revenge and has spent so long suffering alone away from his family members that he no longer cares for them/feels anything and is willing to proceed with plans to hurt Endeavor even if they are caught in the crossfire. However, I also feel it’s worth mentioning that right now, he very much seems to be caught up in a manic episode/meltdown/basically losing his shit. Think about it- he’s spent however many years plotting this moment and his chance to get revenge on his father and expose him to the world is finally here, and I think the likelihood that he’s saying whatever shit he thinks will hurt everyone the most is likely. That, or he’s so caught up in the mania he’s just lashing out at fucking everything. I think to some extent he means it, because he’s shown signs of being severely depressed and there’s a numbness that comes with that, but I also think deep down there is still some care there, even if small, or at least some acknowledgment that the other members of his family aren’t the main target and source of his suffering. He literally hasn’t seen them in years and it’s easy to say ‘I don’t care’ when it’s not to their faces. (Why send a tape specifically to Rei and keep track of her? Why not hurt Shouto at the summer camp when he so easily could have?) I think it’s also clear he didn’t mean to kill Endeavor with the previous Nomu attacks, but wanted him to succeed (in a ‘Build him up bigger so when I bring him down he falls even harder’ type of way. After all, Dabi obviously wanted to be the one to take down Endeavor, not a random Nomu.) Again, shitty he didn’t care that Natsuo/Shouto got caught up in it, but I think he didn’t think Natsuo would die due to Endeavor saving him. (Again, that doesn’t justify it, and is some twisted logic, but this is complicated.)

-I want to make very clear I’m not absolving Dabi of his actions, but as an abuse victim and someone who’s intimately familiar with familial abuse, his actual feelings do not make him a bad person and are actually more common than you’d think if you’ve never experienced abuse. When you’re suffering that kind of trauma for so long, you lash out at and feel angry at other people in the household, even other targets of abuse, because your abuser fucks you all up so bad and turns you against each other (even if not intentionally). It becomes a sick competition for attention even from a person who’s horrible and terrible. Dabi undoubtedly felt like he’d been thrown away and jealous of Shouto, the ‘perfect child’ Endeavor finally succeeded in getting (again, this doesn’t excuse him actually hating Shouto, but I can see why he might feel bitter). In a perfect world he would’ve dealt with those feelings with therapy and realized Shouto was just as much a victim and not murder attempts, but this is bnha lmao. Him wanting to hurt Shouto- a fucked up urge, but in a trauma-inducing environment as a mentally ill teenager, you can understand why he felt it. Acting on it is what’s truly fucked up. I also find it unlikely he doesn’t care for Natsuo at all. Natsuo, who he went to specifically for comfort for his whole childhood, not even his mother but his brother?

-At first glance, it may seem many “fanon” interpretations of Dabi are now ‘invalid’ or whatever but I disagree. Sure, we do know that he wasn’t secretly skulking about watching out for his siblings from the shadows- clearly. But narratives that involve him reconnecting with his siblings, remembering or learning to care for them again, realizing he’s hurting them and he isn’t the only one with trauma, reconnecting with his want to protect them as his family, etc. still make sense. People are not static. They still hold the capacity for change and healing given the proper circumstances. Most fanfic are AUs, given they don’t follow canon exactly and word for word, and characters can make different decisions and feel differently if different events happen. Even if you do want to write a very different characterization for Dabi, that’s fine, especially if bnha ultimately ends up doing the whole Todoroki narrative dirty.

-In conclusion: yes, currently Dabi is acting a madman and doing some very reprehensible things. He is a severely traumatized individual who grew up in a home involving copious amounts of violence. However, I do not think the point of all this family drama is just to say “fuck it, Touya’s dead now he was too far gone whoops! But heroes are good anyway!” I think it’s likely we’ll get some scene with him arrested and being confronted by Rei or Natsuo or something along those lines and see some regret. (Why spend so much time on this arc and show their reactions if they aren’t going to be involved at all?) Simultaneously, it’s also possible the story will go the “he’s too far gone” route and basically have him end up as a mirror of Endeavor: so obsessed with his own trauma he threw his own family under the bus for his own revenge plan. While possible, I think that’s a shitty and lazy way to go and disrespectful to Touya himself as an abuse survivor. He is definitely extremely deep in his revenge right now, but I do not want that to be the end of his character.

-I want Dabi to have to face up to his own actions. I want him to realize he fucked up and hurt people he shouldn’t have. I don’t think we’ll get some mushy apology montage, but we have not once seen all the Todoroki siblings together at one time, and I want Dabi to have to deal with the repercussions of seeing his family again and realizing oh, they were never the ones I should have hurt, and I don’t think he’s too far gone to do that.

-I think it’ll be really shitty if Dabi, an abuse survivor, is ultimately depicted as the insane lunatic that needs to be put down and has no chance for any kind of redemption while his abuser who bought his wife for eugenics and neglected/abused his entire family gets to walk free with a shitty redemption arc. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware Dabi is a villain and as such is going to be on the losing side in a story where heroes win (I mean, it’s technically all a flashback from number one hero Deku) but he still has very valid points about hero society and how fucked up Endeavor truly was, and throwing it all away would be such a cop out. If bnha does truly go with the most insulting route for Dabi I feel it shows a lack of understanding for abuse and abuse survivors and fanfic authors are justified in ignoring and changing that for fics, especially if they’re abuse survivors themselves. I guarantee they’ll write better narratives about abuse lmao.

-Lastly: Dabi is a morally grey character. He’s a villain. But people who like his character or want to look at the why and how of his actions in a nuanced way are not just ‘dumb villain stans’ or whatever weird shit the bnha fandom has come up with. We just want this narrative to actually make some goddamned sense. Dabi’s actions are not all justified but do make sense in the context of his backstory and motivations and current mental state, I just hope to god hori doesn’t ruin it completely from here.

Edit: this post is also highly likely imo and also explains Dabi’s behavior (but as a reminder for those who don’t read closely, explaining something is not the same thing as justifying it.) “I can’t feel anything anymore” is a hallmark of being depressed/suicidal and his supposedly not caring for his siblings anymore most likely has to do more with his own suicidal state than aggression towards them. Dabi acting as manic as he has these last few chapters makes sense if he isn’t planning on living.

[bigskydreaming]

That last reblog is very informative and useful in figuring out where to find certain storylines. Purely on a personal recommendation note, for anyone looking for good reads and who tends to like my take on things, my recs from that list (and not saying that others I don’t rec aren’t good, just what immediately popped into my head) would be:

Batman: The Long Halloween (yes. its a good)

Batman: Birth of the Demon (if you want to set canon on fire, as many people are wont to do, a good place to start is aggressively ignoring Morrison’s take on Damian’s birth and origin and instead treating this story as his origin and just building off the idea that Talia lied at the end which is waaaaaaaaay better and just like...go from there)

Batman: The Killing Joke (kill it with the fire. we’ve had enough of the killing joke. it can die. even alan moore hates it and he wrote it and alan moore usually loves everything he writes and hates everyone ELSE for like, liking it the wrong way, so I mean, that should tell you a lot)

Batman: The Cult (holy shit I totally forgot about this story and now am off to go reread it again myself)

I have Issues with how ADITF AND A Lonely Place of Dying play out and most popular takes on them, so like, I’m not like, recommending RECOMMENDING them, but I mean like, they are pivotal.

Batman: Knightfall, Legacy, Cataclysm and all things No Man’s Land related have some good stuff throughout all of them. Like, things I don’t like, sure, but overall, there’s a lot of good material in them. Also, a good way to get a strong sense of actual canon Tim, who is not fanon Tim, and who would probably take one look at fanon Tim and go LOL nerd, and kickflip away on his skateboard to go tell Nightwing about this AU version of himself he just met, as like, he actually likes and respects Nightwing, among other differences.

JLA Tower of Babel (its a yawn from me, lads. the source of pretty much all “Batman can beat all of the JLA because he has the greatest superpower of all: PREP TIME!!!” hot takes and I mean, yeah that’s pretty core to Batman and who he is at this point, but the story itself its just like. Eh. Could you not. Idk. Basically I just mean this is all part of an era of JLA that for the most part I actually tend to LIKE Bruce’s interactions with the rest of the team, but then there was this and it was just like. Eh. Could you not).

Bruce Wayne: Murderer? and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (Quality reads IMO that emphasize the Detective part of the Batfranchise and contain good moments for the whole currently present Batfam, lots of great Cass and Dick stuff in particular. Idk. I havent read them in awhile but I have fond memories)

Batman: Hush (this gets a bad rep and not entirely deserved IMO. Like, its not the greatest story in the world but I like how it portrays Bruce as having flawed dynamics with a lot of his loved ones but not shying away from his role in that but also without overly vilifying him....he’s an appropriately complex character in this, is what I mean, and I also like that this is another story that emphasizes the often lost-and-forgotten Detective part of his core concept. Also, it utilizes some of my fave villains in ways that bring home how much potential certain combinations/team-ups of villains could have if they were utilized more instead of overlooked in favor of ITS TIME FOR THE JOKER AGAIN WHEEEEEEEE!)

Batman: Under the Red Hood (hahahhahaha no. like could you imagine me reccing this? LOL its not realistic. Nah, stick with the animated movie retelling. At least Bruce doesn’t slit his son’s throat in that one to save the damn clown again)

Batman: R.I.P (I reluctantly rec this not because I like it, cuz I don’t, its Morrison back on his bullshit in a most I AM THE MOST GALAXY BRAINED OF ALL THE GALAXY BRAINED AND ALSO IM A CHAOS MAGICIAN DID U KNOW THAT HUH DID YA DID YA, like, fashion. Its. A lot. The story is A Lot. I don’t say that in a complimentary way. BUT I recommend it anyway out of pure stubbornness and Dick Grayson fanboy spite, as its set like, directly before Bruce is believed dead and gets lost in time, and like, A LOT happens to Dick in that story that SHOULD BE extremely relevant and crucial to examinations of his mental and emotional state at the time of him assuming Bruce’s role in the family and as Batman, but that just like....ISN’T, and that annoys me. Also, the primary villain of this, Dr. Hurt, like.....

his grand endgame involved torturing the fuck out of Dick to hurt Bruce specifically, and pretty much the first thing that happens when Bruce DOES come back from being lost in time is Dr. Hurt pops up out of nowhere and shoots Dick in the head, like FIRST THING, like this is the absolute first thing Bruce has to deal with when coming back, and this is just like....NONEXISTENT in most fics about that era. Because lolol how can we blame Dick for everything that went wrong and make Bruce be mad at him for how Dick wronged Tim and Jason and all of Gotham probably, if we’re going by actual canon and thus dealing with the fact that Bruce is preoccupied with hovering over his just-shot-in-the-head-specifically-to-fuck-with-Bruce son’s bedside and WORRYING about him. LOLOL hashtag Fandom Willfully Erases The Majority of Dick’s Canon Traumas Not Because They Want To Set Canon On Fire - they’re usually fine with sticking to every instance of canon in which Dick does something even in the ZIP CODE of wrong - but rather because if we acknowledge Dick’s traumas then eww, he might come across as....sympathetic? No, we can’t have that. ERGO HE WAS NEVER SHOT IN THE HEAD HAHAHAH WE FIXED IT, WE FIXED CANON).

But I digress.

Battle for the Cowl (another reluctant rec because like, its dumb and its bad, but its one of those things that I’d still rather more people read than didn’t, because like it is pivotal and relevant, and it contains key plot points like oh Idk, Arkham literally blowing up as all the currently locked up inmates escape, which led to Dick having Wayne Enterprises rebuild it himself, and like, the only villains present in it when he was Batman being the villains he and Damian CAUGHT while he was Batman, which did NOT include the Joker, and thus all the hot takes about how Dick locked up Jason two doors down from his murderer like the uncaring bastard that he is, like.....instead of the reality that Dick pulled strings to have Jason put in Arkham instead of Blackgate when the POLICE ARRIVED ON SCENE AND LOCKED UP THE ANONYMOUS RED HOOD BECAUSE HE WAS CLEARLY DEFEATED AND CLEARLY A WANTED CRIMINAL AND THUS LIKE, HIS IMPRISONMENT LITERALLY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DICK OTHER THAN THE FACT THAT DICK DEFEATED JASON RATHER THAN LETTING HIM KILL HIM AND DAMIAN.....

like, its literal canon that Dick explains himself for having Jason put in Arkham instead of Blackgate because it allowed him to keep Jason OUT of gen pop where he had literal dozens of enemies that he, Jason, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR PUTTING THEM IN THERE HIMSELF, and it was to keep Jason SAFE, and it WORKED as Jason’s only actual canon complaint at that time was that he was BORED. So in conclusion, AS ALWAYS, you can do what you want, but when you literally manufacture the fake fanon - and completely fail to make any effort to establish that this is NOT actual canon and that you’re not actually riffing off of an actual canon moment - that Dick callously locked his brother up a few doors down from his own murderer (the dude that Dick himself literally once beat to death because he killed Jason).....like, inquiring minds would like to know, why are you trying so hard to make Dick look like THIS MUCH of an asshole, hmm?)

Batman: The Gates of Gotham (a weird, but fun little read IMO, that delves deep into the backstory of Gotham, the Waynes, and also Dick’s ancestors the Crownes, and establishes a lot of the history revolving around all of the above, and like, it actually has Dick as Batman and being competent and respected by the rest of the family in that role, and its also one of the only times Cass and Damian interacted one on one, stuff like that)

Batman and Robin Eternal (eww no, kill it also with the fire, burn it, I hate it, uggggggh why is this series so praised, its so baaaaaaaaaaaad, its like what if literally every character involved in it is an asshole to Dick for no valid reason whatsoever.....huh, weird thought, wonder if the fact that its so praised as being so good and Dick’s so hated for weird reasons by a lot of fandom are connected....almost like.....the fiction influenced how people viewed his character....and thus....critical commentary of how the fiction was bad is....relevant....HMM I MUST PONDER THIS STRANGE AND NOVEL THOUGHT).

[daeva-agas]

I was thinking a lot of the things people take umbrage with when they say a character is “flat” or a story/world is dumb boils down to the issue that the stuff is portrayed in a “childish” way. 

It’s like children’s books and cartoons. The pictures and big and bright. The shapes are simple. The hero is good-looking. The villain is scary. It’s easy too see and the audience doesn’t need to think too much to get it. 

I think that people who complain about cliches feel that way not because the so-called cliche is bad in itself, but because they want to be challenged. They want to engage with the media intelligently, and so the easily digestible common tropes are not satisfying. 

Like, the “show don’t tell” advice. Saying “X is angry” is spoonfeeding the readers information. Whereas if the writer describes that X speaks calmly, but having an unfriendly body language (crossed arms, a frown, hands on hips, tense posture, etc), the readers are allowed to analyze the scene and realize that X is angry by themselves. 

Of course not everyone is looking for an intelligent narrative, so that’s why some people argue “it’s just fantasy, stop thinking about it”. Or “it’s for children!!” It’s like comparing between pizza from Pizza Hut VS an artisan pizza from an authentic Italian restaurant. If you’re just an average person looking to fill your belly, it makes no difference which one you eat, but a gourmet would likely not choose the Pizza Hut menu. 

In otome, for example, I often thought that the SLBP MC to be pretty useless. And in-universe, it’s really stupid. When she marries the samurai, she shouldn’t be cooking and cleaning. This is not appropriate. Even with her commoner background she can learn. And then take up more important tasks, such as managing ladies in waiting. Or assisting in managing donations/offerings to the various temples. Or even handle negotiations in the absence of the lord. 

And that’s my point that it’s “childish” for the sake of accessibility. 

Cooking, cleaning, organizing things are the sort of chores that’s instantly gratifying because you can see the result right away, and also easy to do. It reminds me of those moral guidance children’s books, where it’s written that the “good” kids help out and do chores. In my experience, some of the time kids gladly help out, because it makes them feel like they’ve done something that’s a big deal. 

This is how the game works IMO: MC makes food, the other guys are happy. If the guys are happy, things run smoothly. That means MC’s food makes things run smoothly, ain’t that great? It’s all very superficial, and whether or not it’s ok depends on what you’re looking for. 

Like, if Voltage had written about the MC doing things that are actually realistically helpful, like tax reports, teenagers might find it utterly boring. I mean, TAXES, you know? Math is not fun, much less balancing budgets and all those icky adult stuff. Ew. 

In the case of world-building, a criticism that often pops up against a dystopian or fantasy story is that the antagonist of the narrative is too blatantly evil in an unrealistic way. To take the most famous examples, there’s many reviews decrying the “anti Slytherin bias” in the Harry Potter series, or “the Capitol makes no sense” in the Hunger Games. One of the most common defense for this is that it’s purposely exaggerated to serve as a “symbol” of sorts. Slytherins are symbols of bigotry and prejudice, the Capitol a symbol of ignorant decadence and government oppression.

Except that’s the problem. The people who don’t like it think that it’s too simplistic, and wants a more nuanced antagonist and a more complex issue. They want writers to trust the audience to be intelligent enough to be able to appreciate subtleties, not be shown a blatant “good vs evil”, “us vs them” dynamic. That is “childish”. The audience aren’t three year old kids whose understanding maybe only amounts to “good guy beats up bad guy, everyone's happy”. 

I don’t blame the authors sometimes, because I’ve seen people complain that the villain is such a “woobie” even though it’s not meant to be that way. It’s just the creator’s attempt to make a complex character. Some authors then go to their extremes avoid misunderstanding, and it results with ham fisted narratives, characters, or world.

Wow, this ended up being a big long babble in itself. I was just writing a big long analysis on Sengoku taxes again, all the while wondering if it’s possible to make something interesting out of samurai lords doing actual governing stuff. Paperwork and economy sounds very dull. 

[didsomeonesayventus]

okay long time spending in gestation but I imagine that someone out of the followers I have wants to know my onion on KH3 is 

Overall, good!

so consider wordbarf of very repeated and tired onions no one actually actively asked for below:

Alright so I’ve been trying to figure out how to make these words and what my opinions even are considering this game has been out for almost a year now (KH3 existing is wild imagine it turning a year old) so this will be. mostly bullet points + incoherent and unorganized rambling forgive me

BAD THINGS FIRST lets get the salt out of the way

Literally everything with Kairi was oof. I still feel her relationship with Lea is incredibly rushed given the last time they were interacting in canon he was literally kidnapping her but go off I guess nomura they’re brother/sister friendsy now at least the fandom can sell me on that better than you can. I seethe with rage recalling that they didn’t even try to hide that killing her off was a classic case of fridging (“You lack motivation” FUCK OFF) and I have been angry since the day I was spoiled by leak stuff accidentally. I wouldn’t have minded her getting her ass handed to her if they made it look like she tried and gave us some moments where she did defend herself and get some victories and not conveniently cut away from the actually badly needed training montage (surprise! this is why we have training montages!!!!) and I get she was instrumental in rescuing everyone and the fact she wasn’t THAT bad speaks for how much she improved but it still just. bites that she still feels more like a satellite love interest than ever. 

Kairi was bad enough to get her own thing but tbh everyone who isn’t Sora also.. really suffers. The writing is really Sora-centric here and that’s not inherently bad (see good list) but it leaves a lot to be desired, especially since they dog pile the extended cast moments in at the end. There was no big confusion at Ven and Roxas sharing a face, no talks between characters who would have interesting interactions given their histories and circumstances, no obvious sign of development from anyone except maybe sea salt family and Aqua. They’re here to be more one-note than usual and resolve their arcs. Ven in particular (I’m totally not biased clearly /sarcasm) I feel is a big example given he was kinda in a really rough mental state at the end of bbs?? and 3 is exceptionally vague on just how conscious ventus was during his nap so I can’t even answer if he was able to give himself therapy the past 12 years or whatever

Anti Aqua is a damn cool concept but ultimately kinda pointless and I think we could have received it better if it wasn’t spoiled in trailers and wholly out of left field. Plus Sora coming in after what was pretty clearly set up as a Riku moment- while it gave us the incredibly gay press triangle to Sora + use a big keyblade made from ur love moment -was uh! really cheap!!!! and ruined what was clearly set up for being Riku’s thing with an almost nonsensical SIKE ITS SORA (it’s saved from being wholly nonsensical by 0.2′s opening foreshadowing + it still kinda makes sense for sora to at least help but damn if the narrative wasn’t leading us towards a riku moment)

Also everyone was hit really hard with the nerf effect in-narrative so unless you’re the dream team you’re screwed I guess and that. doesn’t quite work since it makes everyone else look... not great. And I think this is kinda a miscommunication on part of Nomura and the fans (IM MAKING ASSUMPTIONS TAKE WITH SALT) in that we kept saying we wanted people “saved” but meant having their arcs resolved in a reasonable way that preserved their agency and power and relationships, but got interpreted literally as “alright Sora comes in and solves every problem, is tough on stains, and makes julienne fries”

And yet there’s also a lot of mean spirited “oh no sora’s dumb and helpless w/out a second braincell” which was kinda funny the first couple times and I failed to pick up on it first go I’ll admit, but honestly? Yeah. they pick on sora too much. Donald and Goofy are the most guilty, and everyone else by virtue of not seeing Sora that much actually in-narrative are off the hook from me because they probably didn’t know how much teasing he’d been getting from his pals, but it felt kinda like they didn’t know what to fall back on between the three besides “oh donald and goofy pick on sora” which is cute once or twice but the amount he gets and how it clearly leads to his breakdown at the end is uhHHHHhhhHH hm.

As always the pacing is pretty awful where the disney worlds are somewhat relevant at best and then the end is 0-1000 but that is a usual KH gripe so its pretty low on the bar

Attraction flow is cute and neat at first but it gets.. really wearing towards the end and in the serious fights at the Keyblade Graveyard BOY are they a mood breaker

the “repeat the plot” worlds- Tangled, Frozen, Pirates -REALLY stick out like a sore, ugly thumb compared to the worlds that went out and did their own creative thing, and Big Hero 6 was.. cute? but kinda maybe too much of a breather.

Frozen also get an extra award for “Audio mixer most in need of firing!” because who the hell allowed the do you want to build a snowman scene.

They did nothing with Scala and I want a refund on that aesthetic if they’re not gonna do anything besides a framing device with it

HEY WAIT THERE WAS GOOD THINGS TOO!

Good news point that may or may not come to pass: Re:Mind DLC might fix some of the above salt! We shall see and probably know by the time this post is a year old sfjhdsakjgh

SORA! Sora was actually a character again!!!! holy cow they pulled up from the utter nose dive that was DDD!! god i love this dork and it was really fantastic to see him back to normal.

The graphical upgrade lost a lot of the squish and stretch that the OG graphics had but you know what? pretty. tastey. good graphics and better at doing more subtle emotions and hey have i mentioned Pirate’s glow up? Pirate’s glow up. The details in Olympus to recreate the swirly aesthetic of the clouds and explosions and lava is a great touch.

Worlds as far as levels go?? really good! They feel legitimately like worlds and explorable and with their own flavors and I LOVE battle and field themes x2 its really great I’m down for less worlds if they keep the quality. Hell we have NPCs!! maybe even too many npcs.

Writing OVER ALL/ON AVERAGE I’d say has improved a lot! It’s still not a literary masterpiece or anything but I found the disney worlds really cute and easier to get invested in even if long term they were less relevant than I hoped they would be. In every world there was at least one scene I found myself actually invested in. Like there was something to the writing that was legitimately more endearing than usual on average, and toy box and monstropolis were strong contenders for really good overall imo

honestly there were moments that- as moments -were incredible. Wayfinder reunion scene will haunt me, and Sea salt’s was good too, final world and rescuing everyone was jaw dropping, getting the LoD Back was also good, Union X, Xigbar exiting left stage pursued by a bear, wayfinder trio making a grave for eraqus, all the gummi ship scenes had great chemistry, beach party ending, hanging out with rapunzel for the first half of Corona is adorable as hell, all the nods to scenes in the movies, the easter eggs, like the game is not consistently amazing but it is peppered with stuff that I feel in a bubble ignoring surrounding context just work really really well

Damn if the end boss rush wasn’t thrilling as hell and honestly??? really good. Hard to parse out first flush but I think this was a good decision and added a lot of blood roaring urgency and wild turns, and even if I want to overhaul a number of things about the endgame I think this can definitely stay

Kingstagram is a beautiful gift man

OST? A fucking banger all around and I love how they’ve made cutscene-specific tracks that play with the leitmotifs throughout KH’s illustrious musical history

Over all there’s some really glaring issues, but overall it’s KH really at its best. I’m not sure if it’s my favorite entry and I’m still really mixed + befuddled on just how exactly I feel and I think a lot of that is I had pretty high expectations and my own ideas of how it would play out since like. 2012. it’s really hard to detach from those feelings and ideas sometimes. But KH3 wasn’t bad! It could’ve really been worse, and the fact that it got out the door in the state that it was is a good deal

now here’s to the wait for Re:Mind and to see if it’s basically the content we’d get in Final Mix that could definitely bump up my opinion

[ingloriousbi]

thoughts on sylvanas’ short, they’re long, ignore me im ranting and really wish blizzard would give half as much of a fuck as I did about their stupid fucking game and had any more than 0.1% understanding of their characters

im pretty sure that whoever is/are in charge of writing world building premises for world of warcraft are not the same people writing the actual character motivations and dialogue for the characters enacting stuff. i get it. the dude who writes “sylvanas burns teldrassil” is not the same guy as the person who wrote for sylvanas’ warbringer short, and that might also be a team of writers who share motivations, dialogue, and storyboard

but minor irritations aside (sylvanas dies in a mission called “the fall of silvermoon” but its the sunwell map, where kelthuzad is resurrected, and the mission BEFORE that is the mission that attacks ghostlands/eversong altho presumably not silvermoon, and at the time the sunwell wasn’t on quel’danas yet so i GUESS the geography changed, which is fine since its been almost 2 decades since wc3, but the short should’ve more accurately reflected sylvanas’ place of death since she died at the very end of the elves’ bitter campaign and no where near the beginning, which the short implies since she dies outside of the city with the golden fields and a civilian outside, and i know im a die-hard syvlanas stan and lore purist but imo what this short reflects a severe mis- and under-representation of sylvanas’ death, especially since she becomes a named banshee unit that participates in killing the last of her people and what remains of her kingdom)

this was bad writing. which ever fucker said “sylvanas burns teldrassil” that couldve been written in many ways, without making the alliance responsible (even tho they lowkey are and should be), that doesn’t portray... this. whoever wrote this dialogue+motivations wasn’t just someone who knows nothing about WC3, it was someone who hasn’t paid attention to ANY of sylvanas’ dialogue over the years; not her click speech, her quest dialogue, her part during the Northrend campaign such as the Horde halls of reflection or the battle for the undercity. its hard to swallow ‘sylvanas is evil/misunderstood/warmongering’ but its not like theyre trying to make it easy to swallow or a worthwhile, interesting story put already in canon

sylvanas wants to kill the concept of hope? sylvanas EMBODIES the concept of bitter, bitter hope. she literally freed herself from arthas and continued to bide her time to hunt him, even during the halls of reflection she maintained determination, patience, and desire of vengeance. this desire for vengeance EMBODIES hope lmao. it was the only thing driving the forsaken - it wasn’t a ‘positve’ hope that we typically associate with the word, but the desire for vengeance in not only arthas’ demise, but through rebuilding a society (both pre and post cata these were the forsaken’s motivations) embodies a level of ‘hope’ that isn’t really seen anywhere else except in MAYBE thrall, pre-cata jaina and pre-legion anduin (honestly, even post legion anduin; i dont play alliance and can only judge from his dialogue at varian’s funeral)

the idea that sylvanas wants to kill all the living is not only antithetical to her modus operandi for the last 16 years; its an incredible misunderstanding of her character on a fundamental level. even if that wants/needs to change we can argue and argue and argue for a potential lore reason/character development behind that (which would probably boil down to “old gods” but w/e) and we argue post-wotlk sylvanas changes significantly from pre-arthas’ fall BECAUSE of arthas fall through char development and lore we never saw becuase blizzard hates women and they want to put that out NOW, FINE

but “wants to kill hope”? ... oke

look one misunderstanding? from blizzard? onto their female characters? dissapointing but not surprising. but wow fans have for a very long time been actively ignoring canon or twisting lore to have it make some sort of sense, because a lot of people very deeply care about this game and its story and its characters, and a lot of lore/timelines/character motivations have been twisted over the years and have been dissapointing but can arguably make sense within what semblance of lore we have (im not a fan of new jaina, but theres definitely enough lore+character building to have it become plausible for her to be who she is now, even if i dislike it, that fundamental change in her values didnt come out of nowhere even if it was horrifically orchestrated because blizzard wanted to see her suffer and portray her like this lmao) but sylvanas’ character is being utterly decimated on a level that even jaina hasnt experienced, and to be frank im fucking furious and genuinely hurt

say what you want abt chris metzen but of all his dumb shit he wouldn’t have pulled this. at least he KNEW sylvanas, even if that meant he never used her or wrote for her a ton.

in the quest dialogue, sylvanas says that the campaign starts as a preemptive defensive strike against the alliance re:azerite in silithus, and while i disagree/think thats kind of questionable we know that garrosh’s unwillingness towards preemtive strikes led to death of a lot of innocent tauren in the barrens, and led to the bombing of theramore as a reactionary result, and sylvanas has canonically been known to be bitter, practical to a fault, and morally “grey” so saying “burn this tree down lmao, we’re gonna have to do it anyway, at least now we prevent innocents dying first and we get the lumber in ashenvale, hope the warsong are happy” is... alright. acceptable to a degree within the confines of the narrative they’ve forced upon me, even if the narrative itself is shit. but this? kill all the living? kill “hope”? this fundamental misunderstanding of her character. her lack of remorse at the ranger, these were moments that could’ve significantly foreshadowed a redemption arc but ten bucks on a fucking reworked siege of orgrimmar =)

anyway fuck blizzard

[chromsai]

DM Review

So now that I’ve reached the end of my rewatch, I feel it’s appropriate to give it a quick review before I move onto GX. I don’t really plan on dragging this on too badly since I feel I expressed my thoughts over the show well enough throughout the liveblog anyway, but I do, however, want to break it down a bit, so in order to give it a proper rating, I feel it’s best (and easiest) to give each “season” of the show its on individual rating, and then go from there. So let’s do that...

Duelist Kingdom (episodes 1-40 + 41-49)

Well ignoring the fact that the rules are incredibly broken throughout (which can be forgiven since the rules for the actual game still hadn’t been fully established yet), the ridiculous premise is very much enticing enough to make me want to keep watching Yugi climb his way through the tournament to save his grandpa from Pegasus (who is, imo, still the most enjoyable villain of the whole show) and become the King of Games. Even though from episode one, we’re just thrown into the world and have to follow along with these characters that we know nothing about, the season makes up for it as it does take its time throughout to tell us each character’s background and story and why they’re involved. The world building this arc is, funnily enough, not that important, which is something that shows can very rarely get away with. We get just enough to understand why this tournament is important to the world of these characters, and that’s fine. Though the outcome of each duel is terribly predictable, it’s not in a bad way since what matters is the journey, not the destination. When I started, I thought this was going to be a hard arc for me to get through due to the nonexistence of the rules of Duel Monsters, but oddly enough it was exactly the opposite for me. It’s not such a grandiose plot, this season, but it kept up the intrigue throughout. On an overall note, DM’s main cast are (mostly) lovable so that of course always helps keep its charm.

The episodes in between Duelist Kingdom and the next arc are basically filler... meant for the purpose of introducing some recurring side characters. They’re fairly... um... ignorable, imo. Wouldn’t necessarily say they’re terrible but... most of them don’t really keep your attention for too long.

Overall rating for this arc: 3.5/5

Battle City (episodes 50-97, 122-144)

This arc does tournament arc tension and development for its characters pretty well, namely, actually, for Jounouchi. He got a good start in Duelist Kingdom, however he definitely starts shining this arc. Anyway, like 85% of this arc is legitimately enjoyable. There is a lot of dumb logic happening throughout, courtesy mostly of this arc’s villain Marik and his rare hunters, but I’d say it’s for a good cause (as in creating at memorable conflict and personal dire stakes to the game). This arc also does a great, no, a superb, job at demonstrating exactly why Seto Kaiba is such a memorable rival and character. World building is much improved in this arc, but also isn’t overwhelming where the cast is too large that we can’t even keep track or we just don’t care about certain characters (though... *coughbakuracough*). We also get to see some more good inner turmoil well up within Yami Yugi regarding dragging his friends into such a dangerous tournament, which in turn works very well along with his friends’ (again, mainly Jounouchi) support of him. The final duels in this arc are, despite their slow as hell pace, exactly the kind of shit you ended up watching Yugioh for anyway so it almost makes you forget any small little flaws you had to deal with on the way. Though, one of those flaws... was exactly the pacing. Why. Why do duels have to be that long? No... I don’t think I needed to hear that same monologue one more time. Lastly, is this arc also predictable? Definitely yes. But again, it’s in the journey. Not the destination.

Overall rating for this arc: 4/5

Noah’s Virtual World (episodes 98-121)

This is, more than any of the other arcs, the one that I was *not* looking forward to when I first began rewatching since I remember that I didn’t enjoy this as a child. Well it’s a good thing I seem to have grown up. This arc... is not exactly written well, and thus thoroughly flawed (mostly in its logic and general premise and whatnot), but what matters, once again, is the content we get in between all the idiocy. The most enjoyable parts of this arc comes, no doubt, in the form of Kaiba family backstory. We knew a fair bit about Kaiba beforehand, but this arc definitely adds a good well of information regarding his motivations growing up, why he is the way he is now (side note: lmao holy shit), and what kind of business man he really is. The backstory found in this arc for Kaiba is well worth slugging through it. Actually, even if you get frustrated with the dumbness of it all (especially the incompetence of its villains, The Big Five), it’s still overall a pretty fun watch.

Overall rating for this arc: 3.5/5

Doma (episodes 145-184)

Sighs. This is the worst arc. Just. Straight up. I don’t wanna beat around the bush.

I wish I could just keep it at just that but I want to emphasize that this isn’t just a “weak” story arc in the overall grand scheme of things, it’s bad. It is terribly noticeable that the writing direction was handled by someone else than whoever was writing-directing it up until before this point because the show stops being fun to watch. The entirety of Duel Monsters is riddled with bullshit logic, but this arc really takes up to an unforgivable eleven. The villains of this arc are literally fools whose tragic backstories are very obviously shoehorned in at the last second in order to draw out sympathy. The stakes of the game are so high, you don’t really feel compelled to root for our protagonists because you know that everything they’ve “lost” will be restored anyway. Not even the big bad of this arc faces any consequences. To top it all off, Mai, DM’s strongest female duelist, is reduced to demeaning levels of melodramatic character arc writing.

Noah’s Virtual World arc was indeed filler, but it was passable to good filler. This arc is just bad filler.

Overall rating for this arc: 1/5 this shit was a drag to get thru. I enjoyed it as a kid but I’ve grown tf up.

KC Grand Prix & Memory World (episodes 185-224)

I’ll probably get through this a bit quicker...

The KC Grand Prix arc was short... but not exactly sweet, though I will say it gave us a few classic lines here and there. Overall, it’s mostly forgettable and not exactly important for the story. It’s, once again, more filler, this time meant to convince Kaiba to let Yugi & co. hitch a ride back to Japan after the nonsense that occurred in America the last arc.

As for with the all important Memory World arc which leads us to the grand finale ceremonial duel between Yugi & Atem: It’s a nice story but the pacing is scrambled. That being said, however, I’ll forgive it mostly because it was a very interesting watch (not exactly fun, per se) and gives us answers to many questions we’ve been holding onto since the beginning of the show. Not to say it doesn’t raise some questions (that it doesn’t answer as well), but the other reason I’ll forgive it mostly is because Takahashi-san rushed to finish the manga on time for the anime whilst being severely ill. For as obviously rushed as it is, it still gives a good bit of depth that is just satisfying enough for us to run with that it feels mostly complete. 

The ceremonial finale duel, tho? The set up was rushed as well, but the duel itself was beyond iconic. Pretty good ending, I’d say.

Overall rating for this arc: 3/5

Final Overall Rating: 3.1/5 (yes, I did the math, check it if you must).

Final Thoughts: This show mostly shines on through nostalgia and its characters’ undeniable charm. However, its overall quality gets dragged down from its unnecessary filler, pacing, and flawed logic. For a shounen about card games, it certainly set a standard and a foundation, and I think that’s a good thing that future series can build off of and nod back to. It’s certainly one for the books, but with a big asterisk attached to some of its story arcs.

[valeriemperez]

How would you rank the seasons of Flash so far? Personally, I think 1 was best, then season 3, and 2 is last for me. I think 2 picked up at the end, but it was utterly boring (in fact I quit the show for a bit) at the start. A big shift happened in 2B, and then I liked it a lot more. Season 3 was dark, but my goodness the acting was a lot better and it had more of a professional feel to me.

My ranking is the same as yours, it’s just hard because there are highs and lows in every season scattered throughout.

Generally speaking my order is 1 –> 3 –> 2 for the reasons you stated. 1 had a lightness, spent more time outside STAR Labs, a villain story that seemed fresh, Iris was actually being a blogger/reporter, etc. 3 suffered from yet another redux of the villain story, a dark tone and massive plot holes but it had some excellent character/friendship/romance moments and much improved acting. 2 still suffered from that same redux (just less glaring plot holes) and there was way too much narrative stall for me.

But I feel compelled to break it down further, so here goes:

1.01 - 1.09: Great world-building and introduction to characters that I fell in love with, escalating tension with the reveals about Wells, beautiful slow build for Barry and Iris. A+1.10 - 1.14: What happened with RF? What happened with Iris’ POV now that she knows about Barry’s feelings? Why does Caitlin change her mind about Ronnie every episode? Why is Barry suddenly an alpha male with women swarming around him like flies? B-1.15 - 1.23: Annnnd we’re back! The climax of Reverse Flash was better than the conclusion, but we got some fun team-ups and villains, Iris got to express herself(!!!), Cisco’s powers started developing and packed a powerful emotional punch, and there was plenty of weeping. A

2.01 - 2.11: I S2G if this show doesn’t turn this shit around, I’m done. So much propping of LOT, nothing for Iris but a racial stereotype in the form of a storyline, Jay sucks, Zoom is scary af but he only appeared like twice, Patty is a crutch for Barry but people love her cuz she’s white, etc. The only bright spots were 2 eps of Linda, E2 Well’s backstory and Wally’s introduction. C+2.12 - 2.17: Oh, thank God, we’re safe. Wally bonding with his family is excellent, Barry & Iris building back towards each other plus Iris got 3 whole plots involving her journalism, Caitlin losing Jay was better than when they were almost-but-not dating. Zoom being Jay was kinda dumb but had potential. A2.18 - 2.23: There were a few great episodes here (specifically 2.20/2.21) but they really lost the plot with Jay/Hunter/Zoom. His motivations were weak and he lost all sense of fear. Wally faded into the background, and Barry wasted all the lessons he learned with that finale. The WA moments and Cisco’s burgeoning powers were the best thing about it imo. B

3.01 - 3.08: A slow start to the season with a heavy emphasis on Barry’s blame in Flashpoint, which I know was very controversial. But I personally enjoyed the majority of this. It was nice seeing the early stages of WA, and while Cisco being upset at Barry was hard to watch it really felt earned and the performances were excellent. Julian was actually a fun adversary for Barry and Savitar’s introduction was good. The issues? Killer Frost doesn’t make sense, Iris gets very little journalism, the villains other than Savitar were weak - especially Doctor Alchemy. B+3.09 - 3.12: This arc is my favorite, hands down. The emotional work from Grant and Candice (and Carlos in 3.09/3.11) was some of the best they’ve done, and WA never looked better imo. Caitlin struggling against KF made more sense here and was sympathetic, and we actually got some journalism in 11 & 12! IDK, I loved these episodes so they get their own special rating. A+3.13 - 3.20: Filler. They didn’t want to reveal who Savitar was, which meant they couldn’t start actively fighting him. I personally loved 3.15 for the mythology of Savitar, 3.17 because the musical was everything I’ve ever wanted, and 3.19 because of the excellent performances from Grant & Carlos. But outside of that, the narrative stalled without the reveal. B-3.21 - 3.23: If I ignore the narrative plot holes introduced by the previous stretch, these episodes were so good for me on an emotional level. Iris truly believing she would die, Barry’s horror, Cisco desperately trying to save Caitlin, HR going out a hero, etc. A

So S3 was probably the most uneven season, haha, but I still like it more than S2 because it made me feel more.