#except Furi

[justn0t]

Something looks a lil backwards here

Textless version

[dolorianwolf]

The furies nap together in a big pile like kittens when Harry falls asleep. I’ve heard.

[crimeronan]

i'm still a little mad that the only way i ever saw anyone talk about the owl house on this site for like 2.5 straight years was just "it's soooo gay and cute and it's gay and there are girls and it's gay and they hold hands in a gay way and it's soooo sapphic and sweet and cute and it's GAY can you belieeeeve that the showrunners are so BRAVE to make a show GAY for KIDS and it's gay so it's soooooo good!!" because i honest to fucking god spent those 2.5 years increasingly resentfully being like RAISE YOUR FUCKING STANDARDS. NOT EVERY CUTE UWU GAY SAPPHIC THING IS THE NEXT COMING OF MEDIA JESUS. IF THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT THEN IT MUST BE FUCKING AWFUL. and then only after a full year of pestering from my brother did i finally watch it, with an attitude mostly of "ugh FIIIINE let's get this tf over with for my sibling whom i love."

and it was good.

and it wasn't even good because of the gay shit. it was good because of 10,000 other things that No One Ever Fucking Talked About. that i had no fucking idea Existed. (the gay shit added to and reinforced the overall themes in pleasing narrative ways but was not REMOTELY the best part of the show for me. bc. it has that many storytelling high points.)

which. made me SO MUCH MADDER. i missed out on the entire fandom up thru the end of s2 because tumblr is BAD AT MEDIA PITCHES??????? LEARN TO SAY THINGS ABOUT THEMES AND EXECUTION OR FACE MY BLADE,

[kodeeznutz]

Been listening to the 1st and 2nd httyd soundtracks a lot lately, and I needed a good warm-up 🐉🌥️

[mossyflowers]

CAN WE PLEASE STOP PUTTING MEN IN EXPERIMENTAL SUPER JETS WHO HATE ANOTHER GUY CARNALY AND THEN MAKING THEM FIGHT TO THE DEATH. PLEASE. FOR MY MENTAL HEALTH

[hero-in-high-tops]

I finally got my hands on the marvel multiverse rulebook and I couldn't find a scan of this by Juan Fernandez but I love it so I'm posting it

[blackhholes]

-my favourite episode from every season of teen wolf

[formerheroeswhoquittoolate]

why I'm unhappy with secret invasion: an accidental essay that turned out WAY more aggressive than I wanted it to (sorry about that)

I'm furious about how Secret Invasion is going. It feels like Marvel just went ahead with a Samuel L. Jackson vanity project, but and it's barely interesting and it's fucking with canon characterization. And it's fucking Secret Invasion! This could be meaningful! But instead it feels like it's trying to redo what TFATWS already did and did better. We already HAD a show about a global terrorist movement and the evils of white privilege, and it was actually really good, so what is this show supposed to be again? Oh. I see. It's different because Nick Fury is in it. Gotcha.

Oh, and [spoilers for ep 1 and 2]

They killed Maria Hill in the first episode. Not only did they kill her (which is bad enough from this studio, considering they've also killed Gamora, Natasha, and Wanda), but they fridged her. And not even kind-of-fridged, like with the aforementioned characters, where the death was required and mostly reasonable by in-universe circumstances, even if it was an easy out. No. Maria was literally, actually, to-the-letter fridged. They even confirm that in the dialogue of the second episode. Fury actually says that Gravik killed her to hurt him. She didn't have to die -- hell, if she wasn't going to be relevant to the rest of the show, she didn't even need to be in it in the first place! (More on that in a minute.)

And the thing is. The thing is. I would be so much happier with the show if the roles were reversed. Canon Fury is all "I still believe in heroes! There's good in people! Befriend the aliens!" He's a badass spymaster, yeah, sure, but he's also pretty optimistic about people. And then there's Maria Hill.

[Image description: Maria Hill, saying "Best advice you'll ever get from me, a dedicated law enforcement officer, to you, an amateur looking to go pro: 'Assume everyone is a broken, nightmare, garbage person and then be pleasantly surprised if it ends up not the case.' It'll save you a lifetime of disappointments."] [Image credits: Bendis and Pichelli's Spider-Man #12 (2017)]

That seems to have carried over into the MCU fairly well. And to see her? Struggling to fulfill Fury's goal after his death, operating without her mentor for the first time, trying to figure out how to reconcile his faith in the Skrulls with her natural instinct that everyone is lying all the time? To see her actually doing the work, speaking to the security committee and telling them to piss off, because Fury was in Moscow to do a hero's work and he died a hero, no further questions? To see her, the character who has long been reduced to the sidekick of male characters with a much shorter stint in Marvel's canon, fully come into her own as the protagonist of this series? It would have been perfect. We could have actually gotten a show full of espionage and intrigue instead of a hamfisted... racism metaphor? I'm not even sure at this point. This could have actually been something besides a Samuel L. Jackson vanity project. I know I said that already, but I am going to say it again. This show is here so Jackson can look cool and badass and also be a funny old man. And I wouldn't care if they weren't reducing every other meaningful character in the series to a Skrull, a corpse, or a realpolitik adversary. Like, fuck this false advertising. Maria Hill, Everett Ross, and Rhodey were all in the trailer like they were going to be relevant. As if this was going to be an interesting web of an ensemble cast. Instead, it's the Nick Fury show with a few redeeming scenes from the terrifyingly cheery British spymaster lady.

It's almost like Marvel knew no one would want to watch the show if they just straight-up said it was going to be all Nick Fury. And I haven't even started on the bullshit that was the train conversation (a whole monologue about sitting in the colored section on trains and then straight-up telling Talos there's not enough room for his people on the train? Was I the only one thrown off by that?) or the dialogue between him and Rhodey in the bar ("even when I'm out, I'm in.") or the Skrull wife reveal (which felt like it wanted to be some big important twist but it also had exactly zero setup) or... whatever is happening with Talos and Gaea. The next episode comes out in two days, and I'm still crossing my fingers that a miracle of plot will happen and it will get better. But it's going to take a miracle.

[thedragon-and-hisboy]

httyd make dagur not homoerotic challenge difficulty level 1000000000000

[skyland2703]

Nobody:

Absolutely Nobody:

Javi Garcia, literally banging pots and pans: X-Y-LORD Z SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!!!

[microsuedemouse]

the fact that Danny literally has to walk out of the room when Steve makes the decision to go rescue his mother... lordie. he cannot cope with this. he's watched Steve put his ass on the line for Doris several times already and every time she repays him by being shady and keeping secrets and taking off and ultimately not being a mother in any way no matter how much she claims to want to. and he just doesn't know how to handle this happening again, let alone all of it going down in circumstances where Steve has to go completely no-contact with the team. Danny can't even go with him and watch his back this time.

not to project, gang, but there's just. so much happening in Danny's tone and on his face in that moment. "it's your mother; you're gonna do what you're gonna do."

[arcticwaters]

wanna introduce y'all to my baby white dragon critical role oc who has taken up 90% of my brain space for the last three years. her name is moonghost she's a champion fighter* and fully exists to be yasha's trinket, her most favoritest person in the whole wide world

[myothertardisisonthemun]

Star wars character: makes a reference to another planet, or object that appears one time (the writers want to make sure their dialogue seems star warsy)

Me: that thing only exists on the one planet as far as we know. The star wars galaxy is supposed to be huge, how would they know about it

[pinkwhalepjs]

Rage and Ruidus

More than any other campaign, Bell’s Hells is creating a story deeply rooted in their characters emotional impulses, flaws, and failings. As Orym implores them to understand in the episode’s climax, they are all powder kegs ready to explode and they need each other desperately in order to survive and in order to save their world, which, like them, in on the verge of imminent destruction caused by problems left too long unaddressed and festering in secrecy. After all, the red storms of Ruidus are themselves described as “angry” and “raging”.

The group boils over early in the episode as Fearne’s repressed anger at her parents for abandoning her basically due to their own carelessness (and their lack of reaction leaving her rage impotent) burns into the rest of the party as they see their own pasts mirrored. Imogen whose parents abandoned her for nearly identical reasons, their own obsession with or hatred of Ruidus, obviously brims with her own mirrored rage but it also spreads to FCG who was left by his only known family and even Ashton who too has a history of being left behind.

The rest of the episode can practically all be encapsulated by the wild and sudden rage of Ashton. The party is caught by surprise at his irrationally destructive behavior, destroying an important item the party needed on a whim. FCG senses Ashton’s own fury with no direction in an echo of Fearne’s, tells him not every problem can be solved with a hammer which only served to upset him more and inspires him to destroy Ira’s room. The last thing they want is to be reminded of their own powerlessness.

Before we even get to the end of the episode, a moment of extreme rage bubbles out from Imogen, Fearne, and Ashton as they escalate to the point of screaming “Let’s kill our parents!”. This is laughed off as a ridiculous moment but in truth is one of the only real glimpses of these characters depth of anger on this day. FCG is also a member of this patricidal exchange which creates quite the case of situational irony as it becomes increasingly clear that FCG did in fact attempt to kill his creator/family when his anger boiled over years ago.

The final scene can be understood as the culminating expression of the rage FCG, Fearne, and Laudna have all been continuously suppressing. Fearne finally gets the chance to scream and burn as someone finally says what she fears, that her parents simply didn’t care enough to keep her, to know who they gave her to, or even come looking (and worse that this implies some flaw within herself to make her not worth keeping). Laudna explodes as Delilah pushes fear and dread onto her and she hears her own worst fears, that she was “never alive” to begin with. She and FCG feel a echoed fear, that they are something less than the others around them, an empty shell that can never be filled. Laudna and FCG both come out of this fight seeing themselves as monsters, something others in the group might be better off without.

Ashton’s rage turns to a kind of fear as FCG turns on the group and the group turns on him. Ashton earlier than day showed that in a fit of rage he would destroy what others cherished and act with violent impulse and he keeps coming back to them same idea. Will he be abandoned if he steps too far one day? He too will strike out when pushed to the edge and hurt others on a bad impulse. Ashton begs Fearne to heal FCG to give him another chance. He doesn’t know her rage is more about her own family than FCG himself and is steeped in terror that family and friendship is conditional, something that can be lost based on ones actions.

Like the moon, terrible red storms of rage, fear, and self hatred are brewing in the majority of party members and they must not only uncover what terrible secrets are being held by Ruidus but they must face themselves and learn to truly rely on each other in order to survive what is coming.

[kanohimineka]

The Death of the Power Rangers: A Eulogy

I know it seems it may be early, or late, but I feel I need to eulogize Power Rangers for a second. Yes, I know it's not done yet. Cosmic Fury comes out in about a week, and Hasbro is planning a reboot... eventually. However, this feels like the end of an era.

I don't just mean this pre-reboot Hasbro era. As far as I'm aware, we are leading up to a 2024 where there will be essentially no Power Rangers efforts, toy or filmic, for the first time since the series started. Of course, we've come close. After RPM, Disney planned to kill the brand outright, but they still output a bizarre reissue of the original series with comic panels in 2010 before Saban rebought the brand and quickly produced Samurai for a 2011 release. Power Rangers has always seemed to find a way out of cancellation. From In Space to Wild Force to RPM, Power Rangers has, somehow, always found a way. But now, in the year's 30th anniversary, the main series's luck has finally run out. Even still, it is trying to push it's luck. Cosmic Fury seemingly only exists because of delays within the reboot.

That's probably why the Cosmic Fury suits look a bit bad. They were on a production crunch only rivaled (and probably beat) by Samurai season 1. But still, this essentially marks the death of what we've known as the Power Rangers. When it does continue, it will probably end up with a completely different feel. Yes, there will be no Sentai footage, but it will also seemingly be missing the overly earnest yet endlessly charming Tokusatsu charm in exchange for Marvel inspired cynical quipiness. This sucks even more in a year where One Piece proved that Tokusatsu stylings can work in a high budget prestige series and both work for audiences and critics alike. I would hope for better, but comments about the corporate reactions for the franchise gives me my doubts. As always, the people at the top of these companies are often the dumbest and least qualified people to make art. Support the Strikes. (Not to be overly antagonistic to Simon Bennet, we attack him to much. It's mostly the corpos up top.)

Anyways, this corporate idiocy has led to the death of a franchise that ultimately helped me through some of the darkest moments in my life. I won't get too much into it, but finding Power Rangers in my childhood was one of the few lights in my youth, alongside Bionicle and Pokemon, and it was still there through most of it. I watched SPD first, and it hooked me. I learned about the universe through reruns of Dino Thunder. After missing RPM through bad marketing, I refound it in Samurai and, while that show isn't greatest, it led me to be introduced to some of my favorite Sentai suits, the Samurai suits, and later, the Gokaiger suits. I found Sentai, and the grander world of Tokusatsu productions, around Dino Charge, finding Youtube videos on the subject. It helped that the universe was still connected. Each show is individualized, which allows me to appreciate each one on their own, but the few connections did help me to feel connected to my childhood. But now, it'll be gone soon. I haven't been the closest to it in a bit, mostly looking at Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and the original Sentai for my fix, but I did still appreciate it.

A bunch of this in my adult life came through the Lightning Collection. It gave me figures of some of my favorite series, especially since it started when I first started seriously collecting action figures. However, alongside the main series hiatus, this series seems like it will go on hiatus alongside it. This is mostly through rumors, though credible ones at that. As of right now, we have only heard about a few unannounced products, and Hasbro isn't particularly good at hiding listing leaks. The Lightning Collection feels like the perfect line to have going during a hiatus like this. It is a collector focused line not trying to tie into any current content, looking back on the past of the series in a fun, relatively inexpensive way. And Hasbro keeps lines like this up without fitting content, they make GI Joe stuff after Snake Eyes flopped, and those figures have been strongly received. However, I guess a part of this has come from fan displeasure with the line. Yes, there were some general Hasbro issues before, but the move to Vietnamese factories have hit PR hard. Yes, other lines have had complaints, but none have been on the level of Power Rangers in terms of QC issues. It is absurd, I've had to mostly drop out of the line because of it. But it is still sad to see.

This leads to yesterday. Hasbro has this super paltry segment in their Pulsecon show, on the level of series that don't have current Action Figure lines, only 20 minutes, as opposed to Transformer's 45. In which, they only talk on the show coming out in a week and 2 toys that went up for order that day. I decided to pick up the Omegas, with which I'll be mostly checking out, symbolically. I do still need to finish SPD and Dino Thunder, but for me, this feels like a nice symbolic ending. It fits for what Hasbro wants to do further in the show. A set of weird, Western exclusive suits that play on weird MMPR nostalgia. I prefer these over any of Hasbro's live action efforts so far, in terms of original suit designs, but still. It symbolically shows, to me at least, the end of the Power Rangers. The end of something important to me. It's bitter, it's a bit stupid, but it's happening anyways. Maybe the new stuff will be good, who knows. But given Hasbro's attitude towards the brand, it won't be the same. Therefore, I need to bow out in this 30th anniversary. Symbolically at least.

[larsnicklas]

what is it like to be the p.enguins and as usual have the broadcast so far up your ass that they can see daylight through your mouth