#hate when the writers try to give them a serious reboot or whatever.

[webginz]

i love silly batman villains. "hee hee hoo hoo im going to get you batman!!! and your little dog too!!" awesome.

[bro-ken-spoon]

I just want to know why people are shipping Yakko and Max so much, and I thought I might as well ask a Yax writer. I personally don't see it, but then again, I'm not normal.

So, I don't know how serious of an answer you want here, but all I can give you is my personal opinion, so I'll just do that! I can't speak for everyone in the fandom, though.

Basically, when I first hyperfixated on animaniacs in November following the reboot, I didn't have any ships. There really isn't anything to go on there that isn't extremely gross and unacceptable, so I was just like meh, sure, I don't need to ship. I wrote some regular, platonic sibling fluff, mostly focused on Yakko. I (and it seems, many others in this fandom) love to explore Yakko's character. I love all three Warner siblings, but there's something interesting to me about Yakko (especially the fanon perception of Yakko) so that's something I focused on a lot in my early fandom work from November when the reboot came out to around January.

Around January, I saw some fanart of Yakko and Max Goof. I remembered Max from my own childhood, grew up watching his movies, and immediately recognized him positively. I laughed at the ship a little bit, at first. It seems like a bonafied crack ship at first glance, just two random toons.

But then I started to think about it a little harder. They're both around the same age (though I know there's controversy there I won't get into) they're both dog toons, they're from different companies so there's a lot of potential for star-crossed lovers and the like. Their dynamics fit really well, too, with Max feeling like he has to try to be cool all the time and Yakko not really caring so long as you're a good person. They're both family oriented, but in different ways. Despite Max being Goofy's son, he's often forgotten outside of one-off references every now and then, something that's true of the Warner Siblings as well.

Of course, they've never interacted with each other, and I don't think they ever will, but that is part of the appeal for me. I can put them in a thousand different worlds and do whatever I want with them. I can pull these two characters who have both been immensely important to my life, put them in any scenario I want, and watch them fall in love over and over again.

So, when I was bored at work in January and started to write on one of the notepads, I introduced Max to my world of animaniacs fics. And I'm glad I did. I have found a very supportive community of people who understand me and hype up my writing.

I know I might get some hate for this as I know there are people who don't agree with the ship, but I wanted to answer this ask earnestly. You might not see the appeal, and that's okay! It's more of a vibe, really, a potential to write for a whole new world that keeps me going. And that's really what inspires me!

Hope that answers your question!

[siryaksalot]

Mink’s thorough and comprehensive list of pros and cons and stuff from the reboot after watching it all! Will contain spoilers. May update as I think of more. By the way, I’m a lifetime fan. I’m 22, so the whole time they’ve been away I’ve been here, loving the original.

PROS:

The animation. It’s great! Maybe the more neon bright colors are jarring after watching the original which is more washed out, but you get used to it. I can’t tell whether it’s Toonboom or Adobe Animate, but there’s a liiiiittle bit of sneaky puppeting of characters if you have an animators eye to look for it. And I do. When something is ESPECIALLY puppeted, I notice it but it doesn’t ruin anything. It doesn’t look cheap, it looks cost efficient. That being said if you HATE this type of animation you won’t be happy. I’m fine with it!

The character design is the big thing here. The Warners look fantastic and super sleek, all the credit to Genevieve Tsai, she’s a genius. Posing of characters is great too. It’s nice having a consistent look. Maybe you’ll miss the variety of the old 8 studios, but it’s okay.

The voices. Despite people saying Tress and Rob are older and sound different I think they sounded just the same. They were obviously well directed. It’s probably not Andrea Romano this time around but that’s okay.

Slapstick. It’s still the same, they didn’t hold back.

The music. Lovely as ever. We miss Richard Stone but it really was good either way.

The songs, lyrically, are all great! Clever songwriting I’ve come to expect.

EVERY PATB segment. I have close to no complaints about their skits. Just one, it’ll be below.

Them saying FUCK the Elmyra spinoff. Brain was busy these 22 years. That show never happened.

GOING HAM on Tucker Carlson. They absolutely tortured the guy. Fuck him.

The Warners still do their regular ol thing, go in on the jerks. I was afraid they’d be knocked around too much but no, they get control and succeed every time. Thank god.

I enjoyed Nils Niedhart coming back for a second round. The Warners have definitely tormented people more than once, it’s cool.

Seeing the inside of the tower more fleshed out! Me likey.

Yakko says sibs a lot. They know I wanted this. He also STILL does his Uhhhh. Good.

He also calls Wakko “baby bro” a few times and I 🥺🥺... gh...

Wakko and Brain saying hell. Wakko ALMOST saying motherfucker.

Yakko trying a few times to sing educational songs and Wakko and Dot having NONE of it. He gets really upset when he can’t do it, which is also hilarious

Yakko actually getting upset when no one is around to laugh at his jokes. I loved it. I’m glad this moment wasn’t dragged out as well.

CHICKEN BOO. CHICKEN FUCKIN BOO. YES IT WAS NICE TO SEE EVERYONE BUT. I LOVE CHICKEN BOO. HE IS TOP OF MY FANLIST.

The old Chubby Baby clown song playing deep and ominously over Nicklewise. LMAO

Like 15 uninterrupted seconds of Wakko without a hat. Baby. Baby boy.

Still got pretty good reference humor. A few I didn’t get, and that’s how you know it’s good LOL

The little Looney Tunes / Loonatics cameo.

CONS:

The “reboot it” song. Seriously, what happened to the voices? Rob sings ONE LINE as Yakko in the song, the rest is someone else??? And you can’t hear Dot for most of it. She’s just mouthing along I guess 🙄🙄

Adding to the previous, about 4 other people besides Jess Tress and Rob are credited for performing that song... so... hm. I don’t know which guy replaced Rob, but it’s one of them for sure.

The first episode in general was weak. Yes yes we get it, you need to be modern now. Just get to the funny skits.

Lack of Scratchy. I liked seeing him when we did but I love him... want more.

Speaking of him, his new long nose is BAD. Gives me Jewish caricature vibes. Bad.

No Slappy. I get why, you’d need Sherri and she might try to get Tom along with her. WB doesn’t want to pay Tom I GUESS.

The Cutening skit. The song sounds bad... it’s just a little weird. Tress isn’t singing it. Without the Warners on screen, you can barely tell it’s Animaniacs at all. The ending is gross. The beginning of it has some great lines, though. Hell I’m using one as my blog title now.

I dunno, the new original stuff didn’t appeal to me. I’m glad it was sparse.

SOME of the “goodnight everybodys” felt forced.

Hm... Dot’s line in the theme being changed. “Dot Has Wit”. I don’t think it was necessary. You can still say she’s cute, we all knew she was way more than her cuteness anyway! The new line throws me off for whatever reason despite being the same amount of syllables. idk, the flow is just odd.

Giving Brain backstory. It’s ... not a bad backstory persay but I feel this is a thing the original writers only have the right to do. I dunno.

The show says on MULTIPLE occasions that it’s “biting satire”. PLEASE... you don’t have to tell us. Over and over. Just make it biting and people will call it that. pointing it out feels SO forced.

Episode 6 having to be pulled because of the fuck up with Brain’s phone number. THAT is unprofessional. Did no one check??

After reflection... there may be TOO much politics. I think it should be toned down. There sure is a lot of Russian collusion jokes. 

NEUTRAL:

The Warners call each other by name a LOT more now. I dig it but maybe it’s a TEEENY bit forced? Idk

Ralph has a brown uniform. Maybe it’s more accurate to the security guards at WB?

Plotz is in a portrait, but no mention of what happened to him. Going to assume he’s dead, LMAO

The new CEO! She’s not THAT interesting but I’ll give her time. She has a name but it’s not even mentioned in the show?? Uh ...

Scratchy saying that Hello Nurse is with Doctors Without Borders now. Good excuse. Good for her.

Saying Yakko can’t do math!! Did y’all see the multiplication song? ok this is a nitpick LMAOOO it’s just silly.

...The anime segment. It’s cool animation, I love Studio Yotta, but idk how to feel. It’s a little much.

The other new lines in the theme. They’re alright, maybe a bit too specific to fit the whole show, but it’s whatever. The conservatives will be mad and THAT makes me happy. 😋😋

The human designs are ugly but they’re definitely supposed to be. The were in the original show quite a bit too.

The reboot gets a solid 7/10 from me! 70% is good, the 30% will be very divsive I feel. It’s a mixed bag, with a majority of the mixture being good. It is NOT on equal footing with the original, but it comes close. If you liked the reboot, haven’t seen the OG? Watch it. I’m serious. Watch it.

[trombonesinspace]

Typhoid Mary: feminist femme fatale?

“Season 4 was going to be Typhoid Mary, Alice Eve [who played the role in Iron Fist], we were doing a kind of...I had a much different version of her than what Raven [Metzner] had done in Iron Fist. I was kind of rebooting what she was going to be like, and we were going to do a, you know, kind of a warped love story/murder mystery kind of femme fatale, but kind of a modern-day, feminist version of it, as opposed to kind of the older, sexist kind of femme fatale archetype.”

-Erik Oleson, in conversation with Steven DeKnight, SaveDaredevilCon 

As I said yesterday, I have some thoughts about this! If you want some opinions nobody asked for, about a storyline that may never come to pass, you’ve come to the right place! Let’s dive in.

A femme fatale is a character type with quite a history, that can take various forms. She is always an attractive woman who brings ruin to the man who gets involved with her. But sometimes she is deliberately manipulative, while sometimes she is more a victim of circumstances. She may be evil, or she may be sympathetic/tragic. But whatever her moral alignment, she has two defining traits: sexual allure, and some form of negative consequences for the hero as a result of his involvement with her.

A woman who schemes against the hero, and succeeds in harming him, but without using feminine wiles? Not a femme fatale. The Marvel TV universe has featured several examples on different shows: Madame Gao, Mariah Dillard, Alexandra. And, ironically, the version of Typhoid Mary who appeared in Iron Fist. (We’ll get there.)

A sexy woman who tries to manipulate/damage the hero, but fails? Also not a femme fatale. I wish I could give some examples, but sadly I can’t think of any, in dramas at least. Our current media culture loves a sexy manipulator, no writer ever seems to introduce one into a dramatic story without making her succeed in her schemes, to some extent at least.

Which is unfortunate, from my perspective, because I loathe sexy manipulators. It’s a character type I really dislike, whenever I encounter her. As soon as she shows up, I know the hero is going to fall for her bullshit like a chump, and I’m going to end up respecting him less as a result. I could try to unpack my feelings about this a bit more, but that would probably make a post all on its own, so for now I’ll leave it at that.

This doesn’t mean I hate all femmes fatales—it really depends on her motivation and her behavior. If she isn’t trying to harm the hero, and it happens due to circumstances, then I might like the character, but the story becomes a tragedy. Which is not necessarily bad. Just, you know. Tragic.

Anyway! Let’s talk about Typhoid Mary.

Mary Walker is a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities), and high-level combat skills. In the comics, she is also a mutant with mental powers. She appeared in the Daredevil comics starting in 1988.

In this original version, her personality fragmented due to childhood abuse, leading her to vow as an adult that no man would ever hurt her again. Her personalities are: Mary, who is timid and gentle; Typhoid, who is adventurous, lusty, and violent; and Bloody Mary, who is even more violent, sadistic, and hates all men.

Mary becomes romantically involved with Matt Murdock, who is cheating on his girlfriend, Karen Page, to be with her. At the same time, Typhoid is trying to ruin him, having been hired to do so by the Kingpin. Matt can’t tell they’re the same woman, because when she switches personalities all her bio signs change (voice, scent, heartbeat, etc) so much that he can’t recognize her. (Uh, sure.) She may also be using some of her mutant powers to confuse his senses. I haven’t read the comics, I’m relying here on what I could learn from the internet.

Eventually Typhoid drops him off a bridge, but then Mary finds him and gets him to a hospital, saving him. Karen is with him when he wakes up, but he breaks her heart by calling out for Mary.

This storyline...does not thrill me. As I said, I haven’t read it, but comics writing about mental illness is generally neither nuanced nor accurate, and comics writing about women circa 1988 is also not great, by today’s standards. And comics Matt’s disastrous love life is legendary—cheating on your girlfriend is bad, Matt! Don’t do it! 

I have, however, watched season 2 of Iron Fist, where we get a different version. This Mary Walker is a US army veteran, special ops, who was captured by the Sokovian military. Her personality fragmented due to the brutal abuse she received from her captors for nearly two years, until she finally escaped. She got a medical discharge from the army after being diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Her personalities are: Mary, who is innocent and naive; and Walker, who is a ruthless, coolly efficient mercenary-for-hire. The existence of a third, ultraviolent personality, previously unknown to either Mary or Walker, is revealed near the end of the season. 

Mary meets and befriends Danny Rand, while Walker is hired by his enemies to stalk him, and eventually capture him so they can steal his Iron Fist powers from him. She later changes sides, getting hired to bring down Davos, the season’s main villain, by Joy Meachum, his former ally.

There are clear parallels to the Daredevil comics storyline, albeit in less extreme form—Mary befriends the hero, but isn’t romantically involved with him; her more violent personality works against him and fights him, but doesn’t try to destroy him. 

I enjoyed this version of the character more than I expected to, for a couple of reasons. For one, she is never the out of control, “crazy” stereotype of a person with mental illness. Both Mary and Walker are more-or-less functional adults, managing to live a strange hybrid life, aware of each other’s existence even though they don’t share memories.

But what I especially like is that she isn’t sexualized, at all. It’s incredibly rare, in my experience, to see a young, female antagonist opposing a male hero, and not have her be sexy. Older women are exempt from this obligation (see my list of examples above), but the young ones always vamp it up, and I am so tired of it. I am not opposed to sexy women, but I am very opposed to the requirement that all women must be sexy. (Unless they’re old.) Male antagonists aren’t required to be alluring, so why should women be? (Yes, I know why. I just don’t like it.)

There’s also a lot of potential YIKES in sexualizing a woman with a severe mental illness, which was caused by (among other things) repeated sexual violence. Could it be done in a way that isn’t super problematic? It’s possible, sure. Am I assuming that most television writers would give the subject the respect it deserves? NOPE! 

I’m really glad they chose to just not go there. Walker is extremely good at what she does, takes no shit from anyone, and (almost) never gets riled up. After everything she’s been through, nothing in her present life has the power to faze her, and none of the men around her have the power to intimidate her. It’s pretty great!

She isn’t the least bit coy or seductive, and, equally refreshing, none of the men try to sexualize her or hit on her. Everyone Walker talks to knows she is a highly skilled professional, and they treat her accordingly. Or, when someone does disrespect her, it’s never gendered as far as I can remember, and it stops as soon as she calmly states what she’s going to do to him if it doesn’t.

As for Mary, although she has a more feminine appearance than Walker (hair down and loose, makeup), she is also not sexualized. Her friendship with Danny, who is in an established relationship with Colleen Wing, is platonic, and no one else tries to hit on her that I remember.

So this is the version of Typhoid Mary that Erik Oleson was going to reboot, into a femme fatale. Only, you know. A feminist one. 

I...have some questions. What does that even mean? What does feminism mean to Erik Oleson? Let’s be real, the idea of a woman becoming an ultraviolent, sadistic man-hater as a result of sexual trauma would have been seen as feminist in some circles, back in 1988 when that version was written. So what, exactly, did he have in mind?

As I said before, sexual allure is a necessary component of a femme fatale. So she was definitely gonna be sexy. And you know now how I feel about sexy female antagonists. As for the “warped love story” part...Matt wouldn’t be cheating on Karen, since they aren’t together (please, for the love of mercy, don’t have them get together right before he meets Mary, we did that once and I do NOT want to see it again), but I am still not a fan of Matt/Mary as a couple.

Her Dissociative Identity Disorder raises some serious issues around consent, and even if the show chose to ignore that, there’s still the issue of past sexual trauma. Unless Oleson’s reworking of the character was going to include a completely different back story, a Matt/Mary relationship would mean Matt unknowingly having sex with a woman who has suffered brutal sexual abuse in her past. Not to mention, having sex with her that only one part of her personality actually wants.

Is it possible for someone with Mary’s past trauma and present mental illness to have a positive sexual relationship? In reality, of course! In the hands of writers with only a layman’s knowledge of psychology, on a show that loves to torment its hero, I wouldn’t bet on it. How do you suppose our poster boy for Catholic guilt would react when he inevitably finds out the truth?

Plus, aside from any issues around Mary herself, Matt starting a relationship with anyone other than the handful of people who already know his secret identity, means a whole new round of Matt lying to someone he cares about. Does anyone really want to see that? I know I don’t. Sure, maybe he’d tell her eventually, but how long would they have to date before he decided to trust her with the truth?

I’m not opposed to the Mary Walker from Iron Fist appearing in Daredevil, if the writers could come up with a new story for her (i.e, don’t just have her repeat all the same plot beats with Matt that she already did with Danny). But bringing her in as a femme fatale really doesn’t sit well with me. We’ve already seen Matt in an ultimately destructive relationship with a sexy, violent, morally grey woman. I really don’t want to watch Round 2: now with multiple personalities!

Of course, maybe we never will. The quote at the beginning of this post is from just a couple of weeks ago (July 25 2020), so Erik Oleson still seems to think it’s a fine idea. But obviously we don’t know yet if there will ever be a season 4, or who the show runner will be if there is. He may never get to make the story he was planning.

So yes, I realize I’m merely speculating about a completely theoretical story that may never happen. But I wanted to write this anyway. I had a strong “ugh, no” reaction to the idea of a feminist femme fatale Typhoid Mary, and I wanted to go deeper and pick apart my reasons for not liking the idea.

To the three of you who have read this all the way through to the end (this post is nearly 2000 words, yikes), thank you for indulging me! These are, as always, my own opinions, and YMMV. 

[lia-nikiforov]

Spring 2018 Anime Final Review

So, uh, this is six months late. I’ve had half of this post in my drafts forever. To make it short, as I’ve mentioned previously, mom lost her job, which has not only been a heavy hit to my sense of stability for the last six months, but also means my time to watch anime was seriously reduced and even now a slight change of plans fucks up my whole schedule and sets me back for a full week. Anyway, nobody cares about any of these shows anymore so let’s get straight to it? I’m gonna ommit the two-cours that continued into the Summer - hopefully I’ll be able to make that post soonish? idk. Worst to best, same as usual

The crappy gender politics pit of shame

Darling in the FRANXX: I think everyone has ripped this show to threads at this point and there isn’t much I could add to that. It is quite funny to me to see how many people flipped out when the show went completely bananas in its last few episodes. Feels a bit like KADO, I’ve been telling y’all this was a ton of empty crap since episode 2, it just took the writing to completely self-destruct for everyone else to notice. A part of me feels tempted to do a long post breaking down just how badly the show collapsed in its final shebang, specifically how every single twist and turn completely nulled any remote kind of message or central thesis the show may have had, but at the same time it doesn’t seem worth the time. In the end, I may have given What is Internal Consistency, The anime way too much credit. It’s not hateful antigay propaganda, it’s just dumb as shits, with a writer and creators who didn’t think for half a second of the implications of what they were doing, and who were so incompetent they couldn’t even conserve the minimal plot and character coherency within a single episode, let alone 24. In other words, Darling isn’t saying “gays shouldn’t exist” but “I have no idea of anything regarding gay people”. What makes it egregious is that the show spent so much time acting like it was “meaningful” and “important” and yet it ended saying absolutely fucking nothing. Except mayb “have babies”. Down to oblivion you go, along with the likes of KADO, to the void of shows that couldn’t even be offensively bad and no one will remember a year from now. Bonus garbage points for the half-assed “bury your gays”.

Nil of Libra Admirari or whatever this show was called: I’m not trying to diss on the show, I just genuinely never remember the title because I have the JP and EN all mixed up. Not that it matters much, as far as I could tell, the show could call Shalabalabatuna and it would have the same significance in regard to the content. But the title isn’t important. In fact, it may be a bit unfair to have this show in this section. For the most part, Main Girl is very self-determined and has an active role in the story.... but then the last two episodes heavily featured a lot of rape threats or rape themes and forced pregnancy (real and threat) and I don’t really understand why they’d go there all of a sudden. One of them was treated relatively well, even empowering the victim in the process, but when the ikemen bad guy was rambling endlessly about how he wanted to impregnate the protagonist it really turned me off :/ I’m also not a fan of “main boy was her secret fiancé all along”, but at least they also handled that somewhat decently. It’s a very disposable series, but since I watched all of Amnesia, I think I owe every otoge adaptation at least the smallest chance to clear that very low bar, and Libra of Nil does it, more competently than most other stuff in the same genre.

Hisone to Masotan: I really, really wanted to love this show. Even now, as I put it in the pit of shame category, I’m pained. There was a good show in this, and a lot of it made it to the screen: an adorable, charming little story about a woman finding her place in the world, making new friends, finding her calling and bonding with an adorable dragon. Unfortunately, it got buried down under this opressing, horrendous gender politics that tried to do something with bringing attention to sexism in the military only to cancel it out making the one dude that embodied that sexism getting rewarded with the affections of a girl he explicitly tried to crush. It also called back on the virgin or whore fallacy and even managed to shove in a “bury your gays” trope. Even though Hisone challenges the ritual bullshit, it’s too little, too late, and she does end up carrying it out anyway, so the defiance to the status quo is of little importance in terms of problematizing the ritual itself. Sorry BONES, it wasn’t meant to be this time. 

The ni fu ni fa section

Ni fu ni fa is a Mexican colloquialism for “It was okay but it didn’t change my life.”

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu HAPPY KISS: This soft reboot of the franchise had some really great episodes and did an actually good job of developping its characters. For the most part, it achieved what its predecessor did in terms of satirical comedy and I enjoyed it quite a bit. However, what bunked it down so low in the list was the final episode. At some point, the writers forgot they were doing a parody and made the show somewhat self-serious, way closer in tone to the magical girl anime it was supposed to be making fun of, rather than the satire its predecessor was. Whereas S1 ended with the whole Magical boy stuff being revealed as a crappy space reality TV show, this one ended with a real cheesy conflict about happiness and family and blablabla. Which is not bad by itself if this were a Precure show, but that kind of self-serious plot development just didn’t work for this series. I still enjoyed it, and the fanservice episode is one of the best of the whole franchise, but I’m a bit sad the finale missed the mark so badly.

Hinamatsuri: Hinamatsuri was very hit-or-miss for me. There were some truly brilliant episodes, a lot of funny vignettes and heart-warming stories, and then there was some stuff that made me uncomfortable -like every single Hitomi story- or felt unnecessary and dry. It also threw me off that the superpower dynamic completely disappeared in the second half of the show, especially in Anzu’s part of the story. It was okay but I feel like I needed something that felt like a closing, and choosing to end it with Mao who featured very minimally in the show overall didn’t cut it. It’s a fun show, I’d reccommend people check it out, but it felt a bit too disjointed for me

Persona 5: The Animation: This is a hard show to place because I love the looks of it and I think the concept is interesting and pretty cool, but there is something that’s keeping me from connecting emotionally to the story. The part where changing the villains’ heart makes them repent from their sins and become “good” feels very artificial and very tasteless when you’re dealing with rapists and abusers. I ended dropping it at episode 16, I just couldn’t find the motivation to catch up with the 6 episodes i’d fallen behind on because my schedule is a tragedy

Tokyo Ghoul: Re: I guess it’s fair to say I’ve kind of outgrown Tokyo Ghoul. There’s something messy and confusing about how this season panned out, and there comes a point in which misery porn just doesn’t cut it anymore. I still watch because Ishida has a way to make every single goddamn character extremely sympathetic, which makes for an emotionally engaging viewing even when you’re not sure of what the plot is supposed to be or who you should be rooting for. I tried picking up the new season that just started airing and immediately found I had no idea of what was going on, who was on who’s side and in general, who the fuck were 90% of the characters, so I dropped it.

Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu: I’ve mentioned it before, this second season had the opposite problem than the first one: the pace was too slow. It took more than half of it to get to Escanor, and then the season ends at a kind of random spot. I really thought we’d get further along on the story, since Gowther’s backstory was hinted at in the openings, but no such thing happened. They did manage to give us a variety of cool moments and fights, and I love Ban so his scenes with Zhivago and Elaine made me quite happy, though I really wish the romance between Elizabeth and Meliodas wasn’t su dubious and cringy. In light of some revelations that take place further along the manga, going out of their way to emphasize that Meliodas was a sort of mentor figure for Elizabeth when she was a toddler seems unncessary and just very squeamish. I do hope we get a third season though, and an OVA of the Vampires of whatever side story would be great too.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori: I was pleasantly surprised by this show, and it’s closer to being one of my top of the season than it is to “meh”. It had some weaker, cheesier segments, but it also managed great whacky moments and a genuine soothing atmosphere. What surprised me most is that the vanilla looking cast of moderately handsome dudes managed to develop into interesting, funny individuals with a dynamic that made every episode enjoyable. A solid reccommendation for anyone wanting to see delicious looking food and moderately handsome dudes being ridiculous. Also, the cat episode is the best episode of anime ever produced.

The I’m probably the only person alive who enjoys these shows

Mahou Shoujo Ore: This is a difficult show to place because it wasn’t quite as great as I wanted it to be and its parodic nature took me by surprise, but somehow I was still seriously entertained more often than not. The twists in the final quarter and the absolutely bonkers finale was a total riot, but I definitely advise caution before going in, given that some of the jokes may seem insensitive or in poor taste in regards to gender presentation, sexuality and there are even some mild harrassment jokes that certainly made me roll my eyes.

Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line: I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I think through half of the show’s 25 episode run, I was convinced the title was actually Glory Road. It’s kind of anticlimactic that it’s called Glory Line if they don’t actually reach the final Goal btw. Anyway, I feel I say this a lot, but really, if you didn’t like the previous Yowapeda seasons, there’s nothing here for you, and if you did, you’re probably not gonna hop off this late in the game. This season does suffer from the same dragging than its predecessors, with the added issue of being quite pessimistic for no reason in about half the episodes, and a diminished presence for Onoda. I really wish they hadn’t dragged the Day 2 goal so long, I really hoped we’d see the end of the race, but no such luck I guess. Still love most of it and hope we get one more season or a movie to complete the story.

The favorites of the season

Golden Kamuy: In spite of its pacing issues, terrible animation and general clunkiness, I can’t help but love this show. When season 1 ended my feelings for it had mellowed quite a bit, but as soon as I picked up season 2 this Fall I just fell in love all over again. It’s fun, unique, over-the-top in some ways, incredibly grounded in others, and the dynamics between the characters are incredibly charming. 

Hozuki no Reitetsu: It’s hard to talk about this one because it feels repetitive, given how tonally the show remains just the same across its three seasons. It could’ve very well been a one-season, 36 episode show, for how little it changes in spite of the time that transpired between the first season and the second. But in short, the comedy continues to be as spot on as always, the Zashikiwarashi twins are the best addition to the cast. It’s definitely a show I could watch endless episodes off, and the rare case of an episodic series with no overarching plot that I can enjoy wholeheartedly. 

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card arc: Over the course of the series, I’ve expressed a few concerns and misgivings about how the story of this 20th anniversary sequel was playing out. The final episode was particularly troublesome in that it left the story unfinished in spite of deviating from the manga. In spite of this, more than anything I’m very happy that this continuation still retains what made the original so special, that they captured the magic behind Sakura’s “everything will be alright” spell and gave us the chance to spend more time with these beloved characters and see their stories continue. The slow but sweet development of Sakura and Syaoran’s puppy love is a definite highlight. Needs more Touya/Yukito and Yue in general.

Piano no Mori: This show got heavily overlooked because it was kidnapped by Netflix (pls stop immediately), and then when it was finally unceremoniously dumped a month or two ago, it came under fire for the wonky CGI during the piano scenes -and it is indeed very wonky-. But beyond that, I found the story very engaging, especially because Kai is such a fascinating protagonist, his intense rivalry-friendship with Megane-kun (sorry, it’s been six months, i can’t remember names) is exactly the type I can’t help but root for. Kai’s participation in the final episode gave me goosebumps. I’m very happy we’re getting a continuation,  can’t wait to see how the Chopin competition develops.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: Sweet, funny and absolutely delightful from start to finish, Wotakoi was easily one of the highlights of the season. Although there were some aspects about Cosplayer-senpai and Yuri Otaku-senpai’s (I’m really trying to remember the names, I’m sorry!! ;---;) that didn’t work for me -namely the izakaya segment- Narumi and Hirotaka more than made up for it with their clumsy yet adorable romance. I spent the entirety of the amusement park episode screeching. I really hope we get a continuation -and get a chance to see more of Hirotaka’s brother and his gamer friend too- and that in general we can get more anime about adult stories

Megalobox: Who would’ve thought that a show that wasn’t even in my radar before the season started would’ve end as one of my favorites, possibly of the year? Even as someone who’s only marginally acquainted with Ashita no Joe and has no interst in the sport of boxing, I was completely enthralled by the style and passion of this production. As I said a bit above, intense rivalries are very appealing to me, and the build up in the tension between Joe and Yuri was almost palpable, their mutual respect gave me chills. Definitely the surprise of the season, made even better by its optimistic happy ending to contrast with its predecessor’s tragedy. Megalobox is a unique anniversary project that is closer to an homage and it works perfectly. Definitely check it out.

That’s it for the Spring season! I hope i can do the summer season this weekend and maaaybe even my watchlist for the Fall season. Fingers crossed i won’t get swallowed up in other stuff :’D 

[geek-gem]

My Thoughts on the Bumblebee 2018 movie

Well got tags done beware a long post, no spoilers, this is me talking about the film, and my experience with the franchise. All copied from my latest DeviantArt journal.

I think the best thing to just straight up say this is the best Transformers movie ever made like so many other folks have said. Unless we get another film that beats them. It's truly one of the best ranking above the 2007 live action film, and the 1986 animated film.

Especially I have quite a bit to say but no spoilers. How I saw this my brother seriously invited me along with his two friends who live in our neighborhood. Basically their my friends too but mostly my brothers. It was like one of those early showings but not midnight but yeah it was a 5:15 pm showing.

But yeah being invited kind of came out of the blue. Yet I'm grateful I've seen it because their seriously other films a lot or it seems like more I wanna see. So Bumblebee gets checked off.

Let me tell you this I literally looked on Wikipedia before this because theirs a some what mid credits scene or gonna spoil the surprise it's before the credits fully start or whatever. Because I was worried I missed anything. But seriously quite some stuff to talk about. Especially on Wikipedia I really wanted to know if this was honestly a reboot. Because my brother even called this out of how it's so different.

Sorry to ramble I'm gonna get into the movie first, then some personal feelings.

Really because it wasn't in my plans it was out of the blue. But I really did enjoy it a whole lot. I really liked the simple story especially the interactions between Bumblebee and Charlie played by Hailee Steinfeld. Also seriously all the characters are very nice some are just jerks or whatever. A lot of the characters are enjoyable.

Especially Charlie Watson as a main human protagonist is wonderful better then the likes or Sam and Cade from the other previous films. Including Hailee Steinfeld is honestly adorable. But just some personal thoughts. Especially John Cena as Agent Burns is another nice character and really I don't mind John Cena as a actor or a person and yeah I liked him another good part of this movie.

But okay the Autobots and Decepticons let me say Bumblebee isn't my favorite Transformers character but he's great in this. Especially our Decepticon antagonists.

The action was great as while like one of the better or as of now best action in the live action film series. It's not shot like how Michael Bay did it.

Including it was honestly quite humorous like generally funny. Especially emotional in parts because your invested in these characters. Along with the fact of how it feels like the lightest in the live action film series. But it's still very serious especially with our Decepticon antagonists when they show up, and even other stuff.

Also love those references just all that 80's stuff especially those Transformers references like G1. Including that entire beginning.

Let me talk about Blitzwing and that whole shit that happened with everyone thought he was Starscream but it wasn't Starscream it was Blitzwing.

I don't wanna spoil anything but he not in the movie very long. While I enjoyed his appearance his role is well....short but he is quite a threat.

Other then that I really enjoyed the film. It's just it's amazing I wasn't so emotional over it because it wasn't in my plans today. But I'm glad my brother invited me to see it with his friends.

Especially another thing I wanna talk about is me as a fan or ex fan of this franchise. Including on DeviantArt was where I talked more about it and Tumblr not so much.

I'll be honest the first live action film was the reason I became a fan. I saw that film four times especially with the Imax rerelease that was the fourth time. That film kind of I don't wanna say changed my life. But it was something amazing. Because of that film I became a fan of the franchise.

Over the years trying to stay a fan of the films despite the reception. It wasn't until the fourth film and I watched Nostalgia Critic's thoughts on that film where he basically took over Bum Reviews. I saw the fourth film twice just like the 2nd and 3rd. I was following Ragin Nation on the news of the film.

I tried to ignore Nostalgia Critic's video but that video changed me. So over time I became less of a fan or just I hated the Bayformers franchise basically the live action films. To a point and it still stands I took down all of my Transformers collections.

Including extreme stuff like I would disown people if they prefer the fourth film over the first three films. Because I even said Age Of Extinction broke me or something like that. I was weirdly depressed until I saw Guardians Of The Galaxy which I was surprised by and the MCU is a whole other story. But also Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks made me happy.

I didn't see the 5th film The Last Knight. It felt weird of not seeing it and still haven't watched it. Despite I've heard and read stuff of folks saying stuff like Ragin Nation, Shartimus Prime, Jeremy Jahns, and others. I felt grateful I didn't see the 5th film and more people didn't see it. Including the fact the 5th I don't know if I'm very sure but it's the lowest grossing of the live action films. I felt that gave Paramount and Hasbro the message the fact they stalled on the 6th film was because of that.

Especially why I say this feels like a reboot and I weirdly want it to be that. Because it's set so apart from the Bayformers despite some easter eggs and other stuff it wouldn't make sense in the Bayformers timeline like previous films in the series. Including what I've heard or whatever The Last Knight seems or looks like the true final film of that version of Transformers.

Including I feel and the attitude towards the films back in the day of how certain folks just accepted it and just we're in different times now. We deserve better and that might sound hypocritical of me.

But I'm just glad this Bumblebee movie exists and I'm really excited of what happens next.

Or something because I'm gonna be honest....can we see Charlie and Burns again? Might sound weird as hell just.....I wouldn't mind a sequel to this film which sounds stupid as hell. But also wouldn't mind if we get a older version of Charlie and Burns too probably.

Because seriously I enjoyed this film a lot. It's in the right direction. I recommend to any Transformers fan but also people wanting to see a good film but also giving this film franchise a chance now.

Really interested in that Cybertron movie even more now by the Ant Man writers or something.

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

Powerpuff Grils 2016 REVIEW: Part 1

So for those who are somehow unaware, the Powerpuff Girls has recently gotten a new rebooted series that premiered on Cartoon Network on April 4th 2016. People's opinions have been varied on the series, some people say it's worse that Hitler, while other people are saying that it's worse than the illegitimate lovechild of Hitler and some kind of eviler Super-Hitler. Okay, before you kill I'm obviously joking, but yeah people really REALLY hate this reboot! People are comparing it to Teen Titans Go! While I agree with some of the criticism made I feel people are being a bit...harsh on the reboot. And if you don't like the series I get it. I understand why people wouldn't like this show, it has serious problems. I'm not going to call you hater or anything if you don't like this show. I just want to give my opinion because everybody seems to have unanimously decided that this show is bad and somebody has to have the unpopular opinion. If nobody does then the majority opinion will be seen as fact, and I believe that there is always pros and cons to any piece of art. All I ask is that you don't hate me to much for having this opinion. I'll respect you and you respect me, and if you have some thoughts about the reboot leave it in the comments bellow, I would love to have a  civil discussion about it. Also I will be breaking this review up into multiple parts because have a lot I want to talk about. And if you don't want to read something this long that's fine, but if you like deep analyses about a cartoon for children and watching some idiot try to be insightful and funny than strap on in and get ready, this is my Review of the 2016 Powerpuff Girls Reboot. Point One: The Talent Behind the Show. It must suck to be Craig McCracken. According to the man himself Cartoon Network did approach him to be in charge of the reboot but he declined because of him contract with Disney. Than Wander Over Yonder ends and he's out of a job and has to watch commercials for the new Powerpuff Girls show, that could of been his new job but he said no. This isn't even I joke I kind of feel bad for him. Anyway on to the point, a lot of people where angry that Craig McCracken is not in charge of the reboot, saying that without the original creator of the show the series cannot be good, as the 98' series dropped in quality according to most fans after he left the show after season four to work on Foster's. I understand this argument but I disagree with it. This show is a reboot. Now everyone has a different internal definition of what is and isn't a reboot, but to me a reboot is when you take the same characters but set the story in a new universe, while changing the details of the show to fit a new tone or style. In my opinion getting Craig McCracken back to remake his own show doesn't make much sense because he most likely wouldn't make the show that different form the 98' series. Craig McCracken may have created the girls but personally I would mind seeing some new talented artist put there own spin on the property. Powerpuff Girls has always been a franchise, remember Powerpuff Girls Z? People are getting so mad at this reboot and it's not even the only reboot. People seem to only care about who isn't working on the show in stead of focusing on who is. This show has some good people being it, such as Bob Boyle who worked on "Clarance" and created "Wow Wow Wubzy", Nick Jenning's who was an art director on "Adventure Time", and painted many of the title cards, and Julia Vickman the creator of the popular pilot "12 Forever." While Craig McCracken has criticized the show for not getting the original voice cast back, and criticized a few bad looking shots he has given this show his blessing, at least according to voice of the Mayor himself, Tom Kenny. I mean it's possible Tom Kenny was lying and Craig McCracken doesn't approve of the show but I see no reason to assume this. And speaking of the voice cast... Point Two: The Voice Cast. I'm going to be honest, I'm a little disappointed in the choice of voice cast, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. I think they should of changed more. I was hoping for a fresh, new interpretation of the characters of the Powerpuff Girls universe, but in stead we're just getting the same voices we already got for six seasons. And if you wanted the old actors back that's fine, I understand why. The old show had an all star cast of great voice actors but for me and what I was looking for I was a little let down. What I kind of don't get though is why everybody is mad at the new voice actors when there are only a few new voices and 90% of the cast are people from the original series, but whatever. I don't mind the new voices for the girls honestly, I mean there not great but I wouldn't call them bad. Kristen Li is probably my favorite of the new voice actress, as she just has a really cute voice. Though I will admit she can't really yell very well in the Bubbles voice, which makes things kind of awkward when things are suppose to be intense or if she's suppose to be angry. Haley Mancini is a lot less whiny in her version of Princess, whether or not that's a plus or not is up to you. Jennifer Hale is now Miss Bellum and she seems about the same as Jennifer Martin, at least to me. There's a lot controversy over the original actresses for the girls not being called back to reprise there roles. While I find weird that everybody except them was called back I just don't feel like this is a big issue. They've talked about how there mad that they weren't even offered there old roles back but why should they automatically get first dibs? Just because they voiced them in the old show? They don't own the characters, and on the matter of Bubbles Tara Strong wasn't even the ORIGINAL voice, Kath Soucie was (She voiced Bubbles in the pilot, technically making her the ORIGINAL voice.) I mean just because an old cast member is still willing to reprise a role doesn't mean they always get it, and they way they seemed so angry about it on social media just seems weird to me. I mean it's not like when Ben Affleck was announced to voice Batman in "Batman v Superman" Christian  Bale went on twitter was all like "Well, I didn't order a stab in the heart today!" It would be like if in the upcoming "Justice League Action" people where angry that they didn't get Adam West back to voice Batman. I mean he was the original voice of animated Batman and he still does voice acting. I don't want to be mean to these actors, as they did pretty much voice my childhood, I just really don't understand why these actors seemed to think they deserved first dibs on this show. If you wanted the old cast back I'm not bashing you at all, I would never do that. They are great voice actors, I just feel like this whole controversy was handled very unprofessionally (But what the heck do I know?) Point Three: The Animation. I want to make it clear here that I'm not going to just blindly praise everything in this show. If I did that I would lose all my credibility as a critic and I've only had that credibility for four paragraphs so far. Anyway back on point I think the animation has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. The colors are really bright and the girls are particular in this version which makes things even brighter. This is actually a flaw to the show, at least for me, because it can often come off as to bright. That being said scene at night or with special lighting makes things look really awesome! The dark colors contrast the bright colors and looks really good. It feels like the writers knows this because a lot of episodes seem to take place at night, or in the rain, or with some kind of special lighting, so they do work to there strengths. Now that being said that doesn't mean the animation is always good. If you look online you will see a lot of awkward shots of off model animation or janked up perspectives. I don't mind this two much as there usually on screen for less than a second but technically speaking it's not very good,. Granted a lot of shows have animation errors, but this series seems to have a lot more than other shows Cartoon Network out there. My theory is that it's because it's a lot of modern animators with 90's character designs and they don't know how to draw in that style as well as they would a modern style. There's also one scene where they use a live action stock photo as a background and while that is bad, especially sense it wasn't even treated like a joke it was only one joke and it was in a dream scene where things are suppose to look off. It's not like in Teen Titans Go! Where they use stock photos as backgrounds all the time, so I don't feel like it's anything to get that worked up about. The designs of the characters are pretty much the same as the old show except more circular. Bubbles has scrunches now, which I like because now there's an actual reason on why and how Bubbles has her pigtails. Buttercup has a cow lick and Blossoms bow is bigger, but those differences are so small I'm not even sure if there worth talking about in detail. I like the changes, again I wish they altered the designs more, especially with the villains. I mean look how different the characters look in each TMNT or Batman incarnation. Now the biggest problem with the animation is that for some reason the animation is really slow. I don't get why as the theme song music video has some of the most fluid animation I've ever seen in a Cartoon Network series. This slow animation really hinders the action sequences and I really hope this improves in later episodes. I mean some fight scene look good but it could definitely use some work. The impact of the punches just don't feel like they have the same amount of weight as they should and it makes the girls feel a lot less strong than in the old show. Granted this show focuses on the fight scenes a lot less than in the old series but I still think it's a pretty big problem. And that is part one of my multi-part Powerpuff Girl reboot series review. I know I haven't really talked much about the show yet but other people have been talking about these points for months and I just wanted to give my opinions on what other people have been saying. If you disagree with my point that's fine, I'm not try to convince people to agree with me, I just want to show a new view point, and show that not everyone has to like or hate something for the same reasons. I hope that even if you disagree with me you still found this review entertaining. What do you think of the new reboot? I would love to know in the comments (as long as we can keep it civil.) Part two should be up soon, where I'll talk about the show proper. Please Fav, follow and comment if you liked this review and tell me if you would want me to do more of these. Since I can do this all on my tablet it would not effect Elinor High or Joy of Crime in anyway as of right now. And if you like things like this maybe check out some episodes of my Cartoon Thought series (sorry if I may have repeated some things from my Reboot Cartoon Thought and my PPG Cartoon Thought, but I feel it was kind of inevitable.

DA Link: https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Powerpuff-Girls-2016-REVIEW-Part-1-602969689

[miraclejin1204]

Mandatory bughead post #2: My thoughts on Bughead and why it is important.

I’m aware that the words ‘bughead’ & ‘important’ in the same sentence seem like a misfit but there is a good reason why I’ve chosen to write it so. This thought came to my mind whilst trawling through the morass of ‘ships’ & ‘ship-wrecks’ on tumblr & twitter about Riverdale. 

Now, I’m not someone who watches a lot of TV shows ,however, Riverdale was a serendipitous discovery that happened to me two weeks ago. 

I have been a fan of Archie comics since I was little & my two favourite characters were Jughead & Betty, in that order. Watching Riverdale was a revelation as it brought me back to the Archie’s world and I saw it in a new light. I went into it without expectations.

What I was not prepared for was how Bughead would gently creep up on me and reign over my entire existence in such a short span of time. 

You see, I have had a few ships, some fleeting and some enduring,some canon and some fantasy, however nothing as rabid or as intense that’d induce an “I’m SHOOK” moment. Until bughead happened.

When I used to read the comic books, I had wanted Archie to one day wake up & realize that Betty was the one for her, because I could so relate to her as a kind & sweet girl, being taken for granted every time and with a history of unrequited love. I’m 30 now and life-experiences, especially of the bitter kind has certainly changed my perspective about these things, especially about romantic relationships. No more suffering fairy-tale princesses for me. 

In the comics, although Jughead and Betty were my favourites and they always were good to each other, the thought of them as a potential match had never crossed my mind. I was intrigued and amused by Jughead’s woman-hating stance and had imagined that one day an extraordinary woman worthy of him would come and sweep him off his feet.I had no concept of sexuality and its associated complications that we see today, it was only a pure and innocent fantasy in my mind. 

I had only been familiar with the ‘classic’ and humorous golden age Archie comic digests and was unaware of the modern reboots and the various universes. Therefore, when I started watching Riverdale, I was immediately hooked to its modern,quirky & dark narrative and had my assumptions broken down bit by bit with each episode. When I started with the show, five episodes were already in so I binge watched them in a single night, which left me with little time to process the minute details and subtleties, which is why I missed noticing the growing chemistry Betty and Jughead. 

It was only when I began exploring the show on the internet and understood the whole narrative and tone of the show,re-watched the episodes, saw the interviews, trawled Tumblr & youtube and accidentally saw the leaked bughead kiss is when it hit me like slap on the face and a swift kick in the ovaries. It nearly felt like enlightenment!

Once I had seen and felt it, there was no going back. It was a like a virus firmly implanted in my psyche. I resurrected my dormant and inactive tumblr and twitter accounts only to ship bughead. I’m sure fellow bughead fans know the drill of our coming undone so I won’t go into much detail. 

Coming to the next part. Riverdale or rather Bughead has come into my life as a breath of fresh air when I am going through a very dark and stressful phase. I have been going through a very difficult divorce from a man, who caused mental abuse and cheated my family of money & absconded and left me to deal with the consequences and legal battles, triggering my anxiety,fear and depression. A man whom I had trusted with my everything and was completely vulnerable to, used me and left me with a deep fear and mistrust of relationships, trauma and some very hard learnt lessons. I’m an eternal romantic but a part of me has become cynical about it. 

Riverdale is a unique show as is evident in its excellent writing,for those who care to notice the nuances and characterisations. The symbolism, fore-shadowing, word-play, subtle body-language cues of the characters, parallelism and of course, a quality mystery is the gold-standard of writing. Can we also talk about the wonderful and talented cast who have given life to the characters? The show is a slow burn and not for those with a shallow mind who are looking for popcorn entertainment with a lot of mindless drama and illogical  and unstable romantic pairings based on lust and superficial chemistry,

Bughead is not just a run of the mill ship that people are fangirling over. It is beautiful union which tells you the story of two woefully young and tender yet jaded individuals, thrown together by a tragic fate, who are battling the darkness within and without, fighting for something that’s bigger than them and their personal problems. They are fighting for justice, light and hope. In spite of their struggle with their personal demons. Can you imagine what they are going through? For any child, parents are the safe space when the world around them crumbles, but both Betty and Jughead’s parents let them down with lies, manipulation and broken promises and the possibility that their families could be the perpetrators of murder. Under such horrible circumstances, they find the safe space with each other.  

They both are mature beyond their years, insightful, righteous, kind, compassionate, supportive and caring and there for each other without being asked. They communicate with their heart and eyes (sometimes with heart eyes too ;) ) It is not a connection based on lust and hormonal surges. Something very old-fashioned and real in the era of hook-ups. An oasis in a desert.

People who keep harping on about how there is no chemistry at all between Jughead and Betty and that it was rushed and illogical, then I’m sorry that you’re oblivious to everything that is going on in the show. They have been friends since childhood.

I think we do not give the writers enough credit for writing something so profound and refreshing in spite of it being a teen drama. A homeless, abandoned, rudderless boy, an outcast who is bullied, selflessly helps a  girl find her sister and uncover the truth, not because he wants to get into her pants. A stifled, lonely yet nurturing and loving girl giving strength, support and courage to a lost and scared boy failed by his father and society. They are each other’s guardian angels.

So I ask this to all the haters..can’t you see this? Are you so blinded by your superficial hate and violent desire to stuff your ship down everyone’s throats because it gives you some sort of false sense of control over others that you have lost the ability to objectively see what the show is striving for through this beautiful narrative within the confines of what is ostensibly a teen drama? Can we not rise above our pettiness of mindless and hostile shipping to learn from it? Everyone is free to ship whomever and whatever they want but it is another thing to be so vitriolic and spiteful towards the others to have your way. Isn’t shipping supposed to be all about love anyway? Bughead is so much above all this petty drama, it is transcendental.  

There’s so much that all of us, teens and even adults can learn from this ideal of a super healthy relationship that both television and our lives need. We need to move away from toxicity both in entertainment and our lives. Can we not be inspired to work on ourselves and build supportive, organic and nurturing relationships? This should give so much inspiration to the teens of today. With Betty & Veronica, the show strives to re-build the idea of strong, female friendships which seems to have become an alien concept in the world of ‘frenemy’ culture. Why can’t two girls be healthy best friends without the assumption that there is something sexual between them? People are hating on Bughead also for a fact that they are a heterosexual couple. As I see it, love is love in any shape or form.

Also, I do agree that all sorts of representation must have a place in popular culture and thankfully it is happening. However, those who are unhappy with Bughead saying that it erases Jughead’s asexuality, I disagree. Are you saying that Asexual people can’t fall in love? That they don’t deserve an intimate bond with another?

Now, in the larger Archie comicverse, Jughead was never portrayed as being an asexual, he simply was smarter and wiser and had other priorities compared to his hormone crazed pals. He was always the voice of reason. I’m sure that there are people like that, not everyone who doesn’t choose to be a crazy, horned dog is asexual. Besides, Jughead is shown to be asexual in only one version of the comics. There can be multiple variations of characteristics in the larger universe. Riverdale chooses its own narrative and characters as it sees fit for the context of the show. Therefore, in this version, Jughead isn’t asexual or aromantic. There is no erasure of any kind. Even if he were asexual, I’m sure that Bughead still can have a loving and healthy relationship.

It is my personal opinion and I am not trying to belittle anyone or trivialising the serious issue of representation in anyway. However, I do feel that in today’s world where there is so much hate and strife, showing love and companionship in its true and purest form is the most important issue here, first and foremost. It doesn’t really matter whatever is the sexuality or orientation of the characters in question. So, let us all keep our differences aside and show our love and support to something is for the greater good. Love is universal and not restricted to a specific type or form. Besides, it is fiction,let’s remember that. 

I also think that we must avoid pressuring or attacking the creative team, actors and show runners into bullying them to change their vision for the show. That truly doesn’t serve any purpose other than being detrimental to the quality of the show and making the team de-motivated. Let’s all appreciate the hard work and love everyone has put in to present to us something that is so beloved and cherished by all.

Why is showing a healthy, supportive, wholesome and stable relationship necessary? I can tell you why, because I have suffered greatly in an unsupportive, toxic and abusive relationship that was all about selfishness and greed with no regard or love for the feelings of the other person. Where one person only gave and gave and the other only took everything. I was left drained and battered and I’m still bearing the burden of its ruins.

So, when Bughead came along, it was catharsis and relief. It was about having the hope of bright sunshine in the pitch black darkness. It was about selflessness and having high standards and working for the greater good, something that is bigger than us. It was about women not wallowing and pining after some boy who had little value or regard for them and not allowing a man decide the course of their lives .It was about unconditional love and support without labels. It was pure beauty and art, like a perfect symphony.

Bughead isn’t merely escapism. It is the light of goodness that illuminates our hearts and fills us with compassion and hope for something beautiful. It is the delicate flower that grows in the parched desert of hopelessness and deceit.

Let us protect it all costs.

[scribbles-by-kate]

Thoughts on 7.1 “Hyperion Heights”

Little bit late to the party with watching season seven. I wanted to wait to see how a few things played out before I decided if I could watch or not, and now I am, so, first episode of the sequel/slash reboot/whatever the hell they’re calling it. What did I think of it? Well, I was spoiled for most of it (by my own choice), so there wasn’t the element of surprise that I had with the first pilot, and I didn’t love everyone this go round the way I did in the initial pilot, but I’ve a feeling that’s because I was spoiled and I knew the premise going in, which I didn’t really the first time. There wasn’t the same wonder. That said, I think it was a good introduction to the new story and the new curse personas.

My Fan fiction My Once Upon a Time episode reviews, essays, and meta

Hyperion Heights - strange to not be in Storybrooke any more. You really get a sense of the different neighbourhood as Henry’s driving around, and with the city lights at night. It’s greyer and grittier, not small town charm at all. I know I’m going to miss Storybrooke, but the new sets are fun and I really like Roni’s so far. It’s just interesting to see all these characters we know in new settings doing completely different things.

Andrew as Henry - really channelled Jared exceptionally well, I think. He had the inflections of the voice really well, and the mannerisms too. I love how adult Henry channels Emma too, as he’s arriving in Hyperion Heights. ‘Seriously?’ That made me grin.

Lucy - is certainly very earnest. I’m afraid I don’t find Alison as subtle as I always found Jared. He was always more understated for me, but Alison definitely has time to grow into the role. I do really get a sense of Lucy’s earnest desperation to set things right, not just for her and her immediate family, but for all the fairy tale characters. I did also love the Swan Believer callbacks - ‘Kid’ :)

The gentrification of Hyperion Heights - which, of course, is just a cover for pushing the fairy tale characters out so that they will forever be isolated from one another and the curse can’t be broken. That’s the ‘mistake’ that Regina made: she kept everyone together, increasing the chances of them finding each other, but we’ve since learned that Regina’s curse, well, modified by one Rumplestiltskin, was a pretty tame affair compared to others. If she’d (he’d?) really wanted to be cruel, the curse would have scattered everyone to the four winds. Seems Lady Tremaine is that cruel.

Tremaine/Belfrey - her Hyperion Heights persona is very much a take off of Miranda Priestly. I mean, Ivy pretty much made that clear with that whole ‘she’s coming’ business. Hmm, she’s certainly cold. I don’t know whether she has the oomph of Regina, though. Be pretty hard to top Ms Parrilla, to be honest, so I’m sort of lukewarm on her at the moment. I will say it was pretty fucking vile to cut the fairy’s wings off. I mean, I know what that was a metaphor for in the Maleficent movie, so Tremaine doing it made me shudder. And her whole thing being fear rather than power is new. Makes her seem colder and more dangerous, somehow. She’s kind of emotionally cold, while Regina was full of emotion, though I think Regina had more anger in her, while what Tremaine/Belfrey has is calculated hatred. She certainly seems to hate her daughter.

Ivy/Drizella - definitely seems to be under her mother’s thumb and trying to please her. Need to see much more of her to figure her out, though. So far, she seems not that bad, but that could change.

Jacinda/Cinderella - she sort of reminds me of Bandit Snow, with the whole jadedness and cynicism, and the whole idea that she doesn’t believe there’s a happy ending for her. She ain’t got no time for no prince, but there’s a surprising element there in her wanting to kill the prince. I like that they made her steal Henry’s knife and hide it under her dress! I like the sword fighting too. I mean, Once’s original Ella never really did it for me as a character. I had serious problems with her wanting to solve her problems with magic, even though Rumple warned her, and then not adhering to their deal, so I was pleased to hear they were introducing a new Cinderella. The fact that she’s Latina is also really important in terms of representation, and I’m really pleased that they had Dania keep her own accent. I mean, I don’t think she flattens it out in any way, but I don’t know enough of her to be able to tell for sure. I look forward to seeing more of her anyway. And I want to know why the hell she doesn’t have custody of her daughter. What the hell is Vicky playing at there?

Henry and Cinderella - I liked the meet cute and the fact that she stole the motorcycle! They’re echoing Henry’s parents and grandparents’ meetings through theft, which I love. I also love Henry’s little shake of the head as she rides off! The moment she first turns and sees him, and seems to lose her voice for a second, like she’s instantly struck was really well done, as was the moment Henry first saw Jacinda in Roni’s, where he couldn’t speak for staring at her. I also loved how Henry insisted on helping her get away, how he wouldn’t give up on her, and their dance at the ball. And I liked how they talked about the Cinderella story, with her saying many girls have the same size foot as her and him saying that’s a pothole, alright!  To me, at the moment, they feel cute and sweet, much like Snowing did. I sort of neutrally ship them, not at all in the way I ship RumBelle, but there’s much more to come, I’m sure, and I look forward to more sweet moments.

Alice - is very intriguing. I figured she was awake when she looked at Henry. She’s kinda weird and loopy, but I think she’s a girl who knows what she’s about. I’m intrigued by how she knows Rumple, and this whole idea that when you get involved in a story that’s not your own, bad things happen. Be interesting to find out how she knows Rumple, and how that’ll all play out. I like the idea that Rumple is keeping watch over his grandson. And I’m pretty sure Alice stole Henry’s car to keep him in Hyperion Heights. On Rumple’s orders or…?

Roni - cool chick. I like the lower register of Lana’s voice as Roni. I like the sort of more relaxed, friendly demeanour. Roni was probably the life and soul of the party while the community was thriving, but now it’s fading away, so she’s grudgingly giving up and feeling jaded. I love her speech at the end, and how Jacinda inspired her to stand up to Vicky. I love how she says ‘nah, I’m not giving you my bar today’ :) Lana does some lovely things with her voice as Roni that she never did as Regina.

Regal Believer - there’s a moment, after he says ‘what if I walked in and told you I was your son’, where there’s a sort of spark, a memory, like there was for Emma and Snow in the pilot. I kind of knew the Regal Believer relationship was going to be one I rooted for in this new season, and I still feel that way. I’ve really become a fan of Mom Regina and her little prince over the seasons, so that’s one relationship I’m still invested in. It’ll be interesting to see which of them wakes first and what that does to their dynamic.

Rogers - so I was spoiled that this is Wish Hook before I watched this episode, and for Wish Hook’s back story, so I’m actually pretty chill about him. If I’d thought that this was original Hook, I probably wouldn’t be on for the team up with Weaver so much. I mean, Hook and Rumple, to me, can’t ever really be friends, and it would be weird to me to see them even be partners, even under the curse. Wish Hook kind of gives them a blank slate. I’m sure the Milah business still happened, but Wish Hook is clearly a different man from the Hook who’d only been after revenge on Rumple, so I think this can be a better relationship. I think the fact that it’s suggested that Belfrey got him his promotion after his help with Lucy, though, indicates that the police in Hyperion Heights may not be as above board as they should be. That desk sergeant sure didn’t seem to care about his job! Have to say I did love Rogers’ smitten kitten reaction to being partnered with Weaver!

Speaking of Weaver - well, hello, Detective! What are you up to with attempting to drown that man? Is he someone you’re trying to extract information from or some criminal lowlife you’re interrogating in your own rogue way? Never felt that Rumple was awake here. I think it’d be stupid, really, to have him be awake from the beginning. Prepared for the curse so he could be woken, yes, but awake from the get go, no, because we never saw Rumple really cursed before, so I think it was important to give Bobby that to play with for a bit. I think they gave just enough of him in this episode to make people wonder about Weaver, though, just as they did with Mr Gold in the pilot.

Henry needs to live his own story - it’s what drives eighteen-year-old Henry to leave Storybrooke and also what keeps adult Henry from writing - the idea that he’s not living his own story. That’s an interesting metaphor for living an authentic life, isn’t it? I mean, Henry is only able to begin to write again when he truly reconnects with something/someone meaningful, when he really embraces life again. Though I can understand the writer’s block coming, in his mind, from the loss of a dearly beloved wife and daughter, though we, of course, know it’s the curse keeping him from his true story.

[adambstingus]

5 Movie Conflicts That Only Happened To Advance The Plot

Action heroes need to overcome obstacles before they kick all of the asses presented to them in chronological order. After all, their victories need to feel like they were earned, through much struggle and hardship. But sometimes screenwriters can’t think of a good way to accomplish that, so they whip up some absurd personal or bureaucratic nonsense instead, like being refused service at the DMV because you’re wearing a beer helmet. It’s part of our religion, Janice. Look it up.

5

The Rebellion in Rogue One Wants To Surrender To A Threat They Don’t Think Exists

In Star Wars: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story About Star Wars, Jyn Erso, the Star Wars character who sounds most like an Asian car model, informs the Rebellion about the existence of the Death Star. A few members of the Rebel Council support her plan to steal the Death Star’s schematics, but most either don’t believe that the weapon exists, think it’s all a trap, or decide that they should surrender to the Empire in the face of such overwhelming superiority instead. Eventually, the Council leans toward disbanding the Rebellion … because of a weapon half of them don’t believe is real. Wait … what?

Oh, and the reason some of them don’t trust Jyn in the first place is because she’s the daughter of the Death Star’s designer … which is also the exact same reason they sent her out to find information about the Death Star at the start.

Ultimately, Jyn gives an inspiring speech on the nature of hope … to which the Council responds with a series of fart noises. Remember, the Rebellion has already been fighting for years, and was formed entirely to wage a series of risky battles against a much more powerful foe; the only reason they were being doubtful here is because the movie needed a drama infusion, stat. Luckily, the Rebel Fleet eventually does show up and help out, right when things were looking their most grim. Sadly, we weren’t shown the scene where the Rebellion’s Death Star Truthers rounded up the rest of the council and made them watch YouTube videos until they all saw the light.

4

The Guy In Charge Of Defense In Independence Day Objects To Defending Things

If everyone on Team Good Guy agrees that their daring plan to stop the villains is brilliant and flawless, that kills the suspense. So Independence Day gave us Secretary of Defence Albert Nimziki, whose sole purpose is doubting our heroes, even if there’s absolutely no reason to do so.

When Jeff Goldblum first suggests his desperate plan to stop the overwhelmingly powerful aliens by giving their mothership a virus, Nimziki’s response is “This is ridiculous” before calling it a “cockamamie plan” and complaining that they don’t have the manpower or resources. He then offers absolutely no alternative suggestions, despite the fact that that is his entire job.

Remember, they’re coming up with this plan after:

A) They discovered the aliens intended to exterminate humanity.

B) Most of the military had already been wiped out, and …

C) Pretty much every other option, including the use of nuclear missiles, had failed.

So Nimziki’s objections boil down to “Nuh uh, this will never work, let’s just sit around and wait to die instead.” He’s the friend who shoots down every pizza topping after claiming he’s “up for whatever.” The plan, of course, works — making Nimziki look both cowardly and stupid for ever doubting it. After all, what good is saving the world if it’s not in somebody’s face?

3

Die Hard 2‘s Captain Lorenzo Hates John McClane For Absolutely No Reason

Die Hard 2: Die Hard In An Airport features the beginning of John McClane’s transition from relatable everyman to a cursed muscle lord doomed to encounter elaborate criminal activities wherever he roams. Early on in this extremely pre-9/11 film, McClane gets in a shootout at the baggage claim, and discovers that the man he just killed is a mercenary who was supposed to be dead already. He takes this suspicious information to airport police chief Captain Lorenzo, who immediately … becomes a huge bureaucratic pain in the ass, solely because a more reasonable response would end the movie in about 15 minutes.

Lorenzo complains about McClane breaking regulations, doesn’t bother to properly investigate the crime scene, and accuses McClane of gunning down a luggage thief and blowing it out of proportion because his fame has gone to his head. All of which is completely unwarranted. And this is after McClane points out that the dead man was carrying an obscure, expensive gun designed to beat airport security which — even if Lorenzo wasn’t genre-savvy enough to realise that he was in a sequel by now — should have clued him in that he was dealing with more than a desperate underwear thief.

Instead, Lorenzo has McClane thrown out of his office. Then, even after the full scope of the attack on the airport is revealed when the bad guys crash a plane, killing hundreds, Lorenzo threatens to throw McClane in jail. He eventually does try to arrest John, before finally accepting that his whole purpose in life is to be a designated naysayer, and comes around. In the end, Lorenzo apologises to McClane by tearing up a parking ticket he got at the start of the movie. It’s unclear how he deals with the psychic weight of the hundreds of deceased souls that died horrifically because he “just plain didn’t like the dude’s face.”

2

The Argument Over Detonating The Nuke In Armageddon Is Pointless Drama

In Armageddon, a team of oil drillers are recruited to blow up an asteroid that threatens to annihilate all life on Earth, because Michael Bay went to film school in a burning dumpster. The plan is to drill 800 feet into the asteroid and then detonate a nuke inside it, because a direct hit on the surface of the improbably tough rock would be ineffective. But then, of course, there’s a plot twist, wherein the government decides to remotely detonate the nuke on the surface …

Soldiers forcibly occupy mission control down on Earth, while up in space, William Fichtner gets his space-gun out to space-seize the space-nuke.

“The president’s advisors feel that the drilling isn’t working,” General Keith David tells a lead scientist inexplicably played by Billy Bob Thornton, even though Thornton points out that “they haven’t drilled the damn hole yet.”

Every intelligent (relatively speaking) person in the movie has made it explicitly clear at this point that detonating the nuke on the surface will do approximately fuck all to the asteroid, yet the government’s argument is “Our plan might not work, so we’re going to switch to a plan that definitely won’t work,” because apparently this 150-minute movie about blowing up a big rock needed to be padded out.

And this comes before the drilling team faces their more serious obstacles, like one of their drills breaking down. This scene might make sense if it came when the heroes were really struggling — a last-minute act of desperation — but as it is, it feels like the president is secretly siding with the asteroid, a foreign force that clearly doesn’t care at all for our well-being. Colluding with it, even.

1

Just Offer Peter Parker A Wrestling Contract

Early in 2002’s Spider-Man, which was the Spider-Man before the Spider-Man, Peter wanted to impress Mary Jane by buying a car, because he thinks he lives in 1950s rural Nebraska and not modern-day New York City. Luckily, he finds a newspaper ad promising the exact amount of money he needs. Movie magic! The catch: He has to survive three minutes in the ring with a pro wrestler at a sketchy cage match. Lord knows we’ve all been there.

Parker not only survives the match but also wins it. It looks like he just made an easy 3,000 bucks, but the sleazy promotor only gives him a hundred, arguing that Parker didn’t earn the money because the fight only lasted two minutes. The promoter is then immediately robbed, and Parker lets the thief escape in retaliation. But that same thief soon kills Uncle Ben, Spider-Man 3 is eventually made, and all of life is revealed to be a cruel puzzle with no solution.

But let’s back up. Why did the promotor stiff Parker in the first place? Yeah, he only lasted two minutes (heh), but he just beat up a professional wrestler with inhuman strength, acrobatics, and freaking web slingers. The crowd went from cheering for his grisly death to loving him within moments. Fans would pay damn good money to see more of a mysterious masked man who can walk up walls, jump unnatural heights, and kick serious ass. That’s why we keep making Spider-Man movies, at any rate. Why on Earth wouldn’t the manager sign him up on the spot, and make Parker the guy who annihilates mooks answering the newspaper ad?

But no, Uncle Ben Must Die, so the promotor prioritizes being a jerk to Parker over doing his job and getting rich. Maybe when the Spider-Man franchise is inevitably rebooted again in a few years this plot point can be addressed.

Molly is an avid reader and writer with all sorts of millennial dreams. Is also willing to write for food. Joel B. Kirk is a San Francisco Bay Area resident. He plans to produce and act in his own films for the masses, as well as write for television someday.

For more things that make no sense in films, check out 7 Movies That Made You Ignore That Their Plots Make No Sense and 5 Dumb Things Movie Characters Do Only to Advance the Plot.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out 4 Plot Holes You Didn’t Notice in Your Favorite Movies, and other videos you won’t see on the site!

Follow us on Facebook, and we’ll follow you everywhere.

Get intimate with our new podcast Cracked Gets Personal. Subscribe for great episodes like What You Don’t Know About The Opiate Epidemic and How Illegal Drugs Saved Our Lives, available wherever you get your podcasts.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/10/15/5-movie-conflicts-that-only-happened-to-advance-the-plot/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/166414854562

[samanthasroberts]

5 Movie Conflicts That Only Happened To Advance The Plot

Action heroes need to overcome obstacles before they kick all of the asses presented to them in chronological order. After all, their victories need to feel like they were earned, through much struggle and hardship. But sometimes screenwriters can’t think of a good way to accomplish that, so they whip up some absurd personal or bureaucratic nonsense instead, like being refused service at the DMV because you’re wearing a beer helmet. It’s part of our religion, Janice. Look it up.

5

The Rebellion in Rogue One Wants To Surrender To A Threat They Don’t Think Exists

In Star Wars: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story About Star Wars, Jyn Erso, the Star Wars character who sounds most like an Asian car model, informs the Rebellion about the existence of the Death Star. A few members of the Rebel Council support her plan to steal the Death Star’s schematics, but most either don’t believe that the weapon exists, think it’s all a trap, or decide that they should surrender to the Empire in the face of such overwhelming superiority instead. Eventually, the Council leans toward disbanding the Rebellion … because of a weapon half of them don’t believe is real. Wait … what?

Oh, and the reason some of them don’t trust Jyn in the first place is because she’s the daughter of the Death Star’s designer … which is also the exact same reason they sent her out to find information about the Death Star at the start.

Ultimately, Jyn gives an inspiring speech on the nature of hope … to which the Council responds with a series of fart noises. Remember, the Rebellion has already been fighting for years, and was formed entirely to wage a series of risky battles against a much more powerful foe; the only reason they were being doubtful here is because the movie needed a drama infusion, stat. Luckily, the Rebel Fleet eventually does show up and help out, right when things were looking their most grim. Sadly, we weren’t shown the scene where the Rebellion’s Death Star Truthers rounded up the rest of the council and made them watch YouTube videos until they all saw the light.

4

The Guy In Charge Of Defense In Independence Day Objects To Defending Things

If everyone on Team Good Guy agrees that their daring plan to stop the villains is brilliant and flawless, that kills the suspense. So Independence Day gave us Secretary of Defence Albert Nimziki, whose sole purpose is doubting our heroes, even if there’s absolutely no reason to do so.

When Jeff Goldblum first suggests his desperate plan to stop the overwhelmingly powerful aliens by giving their mothership a virus, Nimziki’s response is “This is ridiculous” before calling it a “cockamamie plan” and complaining that they don’t have the manpower or resources. He then offers absolutely no alternative suggestions, despite the fact that that is his entire job.

Remember, they’re coming up with this plan after:

A) They discovered the aliens intended to exterminate humanity.

B) Most of the military had already been wiped out, and …

C) Pretty much every other option, including the use of nuclear missiles, had failed.

So Nimziki’s objections boil down to “Nuh uh, this will never work, let’s just sit around and wait to die instead.” He’s the friend who shoots down every pizza topping after claiming he’s “up for whatever.” The plan, of course, works — making Nimziki look both cowardly and stupid for ever doubting it. After all, what good is saving the world if it’s not in somebody’s face?

3

Die Hard 2‘s Captain Lorenzo Hates John McClane For Absolutely No Reason

Die Hard 2: Die Hard In An Airport features the beginning of John McClane’s transition from relatable everyman to a cursed muscle lord doomed to encounter elaborate criminal activities wherever he roams. Early on in this extremely pre-9/11 film, McClane gets in a shootout at the baggage claim, and discovers that the man he just killed is a mercenary who was supposed to be dead already. He takes this suspicious information to airport police chief Captain Lorenzo, who immediately … becomes a huge bureaucratic pain in the ass, solely because a more reasonable response would end the movie in about 15 minutes.

Lorenzo complains about McClane breaking regulations, doesn’t bother to properly investigate the crime scene, and accuses McClane of gunning down a luggage thief and blowing it out of proportion because his fame has gone to his head. All of which is completely unwarranted. And this is after McClane points out that the dead man was carrying an obscure, expensive gun designed to beat airport security which — even if Lorenzo wasn’t genre-savvy enough to realise that he was in a sequel by now — should have clued him in that he was dealing with more than a desperate underwear thief.

Instead, Lorenzo has McClane thrown out of his office. Then, even after the full scope of the attack on the airport is revealed when the bad guys crash a plane, killing hundreds, Lorenzo threatens to throw McClane in jail. He eventually does try to arrest John, before finally accepting that his whole purpose in life is to be a designated naysayer, and comes around. In the end, Lorenzo apologises to McClane by tearing up a parking ticket he got at the start of the movie. It’s unclear how he deals with the psychic weight of the hundreds of deceased souls that died horrifically because he “just plain didn’t like the dude’s face.”

2

The Argument Over Detonating The Nuke In Armageddon Is Pointless Drama

In Armageddon, a team of oil drillers are recruited to blow up an asteroid that threatens to annihilate all life on Earth, because Michael Bay went to film school in a burning dumpster. The plan is to drill 800 feet into the asteroid and then detonate a nuke inside it, because a direct hit on the surface of the improbably tough rock would be ineffective. But then, of course, there’s a plot twist, wherein the government decides to remotely detonate the nuke on the surface …

Soldiers forcibly occupy mission control down on Earth, while up in space, William Fichtner gets his space-gun out to space-seize the space-nuke.

“The president’s advisors feel that the drilling isn’t working,��� General Keith David tells a lead scientist inexplicably played by Billy Bob Thornton, even though Thornton points out that “they haven’t drilled the damn hole yet.”

Every intelligent (relatively speaking) person in the movie has made it explicitly clear at this point that detonating the nuke on the surface will do approximately fuck all to the asteroid, yet the government’s argument is “Our plan might not work, so we’re going to switch to a plan that definitely won’t work,” because apparently this 150-minute movie about blowing up a big rock needed to be padded out.

And this comes before the drilling team faces their more serious obstacles, like one of their drills breaking down. This scene might make sense if it came when the heroes were really struggling — a last-minute act of desperation — but as it is, it feels like the president is secretly siding with the asteroid, a foreign force that clearly doesn’t care at all for our well-being. Colluding with it, even.

1

Just Offer Peter Parker A Wrestling Contract

Early in 2002’s Spider-Man, which was the Spider-Man before the Spider-Man, Peter wanted to impress Mary Jane by buying a car, because he thinks he lives in 1950s rural Nebraska and not modern-day New York City. Luckily, he finds a newspaper ad promising the exact amount of money he needs. Movie magic! The catch: He has to survive three minutes in the ring with a pro wrestler at a sketchy cage match. Lord knows we’ve all been there.

Parker not only survives the match but also wins it. It looks like he just made an easy 3,000 bucks, but the sleazy promotor only gives him a hundred, arguing that Parker didn’t earn the money because the fight only lasted two minutes. The promoter is then immediately robbed, and Parker lets the thief escape in retaliation. But that same thief soon kills Uncle Ben, Spider-Man 3 is eventually made, and all of life is revealed to be a cruel puzzle with no solution.

But let’s back up. Why did the promotor stiff Parker in the first place? Yeah, he only lasted two minutes (heh), but he just beat up a professional wrestler with inhuman strength, acrobatics, and freaking web slingers. The crowd went from cheering for his grisly death to loving him within moments. Fans would pay damn good money to see more of a mysterious masked man who can walk up walls, jump unnatural heights, and kick serious ass. That’s why we keep making Spider-Man movies, at any rate. Why on Earth wouldn’t the manager sign him up on the spot, and make Parker the guy who annihilates mooks answering the newspaper ad?

But no, Uncle Ben Must Die, so the promotor prioritizes being a jerk to Parker over doing his job and getting rich. Maybe when the Spider-Man franchise is inevitably rebooted again in a few years this plot point can be addressed.

Molly is an avid reader and writer with all sorts of millennial dreams. Is also willing to write for food. Joel B. Kirk is a San Francisco Bay Area resident. He plans to produce and act in his own films for the masses, as well as write for television someday.

For more things that make no sense in films, check out 7 Movies That Made You Ignore That Their Plots Make No Sense and 5 Dumb Things Movie Characters Do Only to Advance the Plot.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out 4 Plot Holes You Didn’t Notice in Your Favorite Movies, and other videos you won’t see on the site!

Follow us on Facebook, and we’ll follow you everywhere.

Get intimate with our new podcast Cracked Gets Personal. Subscribe for great episodes like What You Don’t Know About The Opiate Epidemic and How Illegal Drugs Saved Our Lives, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/10/15/5-movie-conflicts-that-only-happened-to-advance-the-plot/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/5-movie-conflicts-that-only-happened-to-advance-the-plot/

[allofbeercom]

5 Movie Conflicts That Only Happened To Advance The Plot

Action heroes need to overcome obstacles before they kick all of the asses presented to them in chronological order. After all, their victories need to feel like they were earned, through much struggle and hardship. But sometimes screenwriters can’t think of a good way to accomplish that, so they whip up some absurd personal or bureaucratic nonsense instead, like being refused service at the DMV because you’re wearing a beer helmet. It’s part of our religion, Janice. Look it up.

5

The Rebellion in Rogue One Wants To Surrender To A Threat They Don’t Think Exists

In Star Wars: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story About Star Wars, Jyn Erso, the Star Wars character who sounds most like an Asian car model, informs the Rebellion about the existence of the Death Star. A few members of the Rebel Council support her plan to steal the Death Star’s schematics, but most either don’t believe that the weapon exists, think it’s all a trap, or decide that they should surrender to the Empire in the face of such overwhelming superiority instead. Eventually, the Council leans toward disbanding the Rebellion … because of a weapon half of them don’t believe is real. Wait … what?

Oh, and the reason some of them don’t trust Jyn in the first place is because she’s the daughter of the Death Star’s designer … which is also the exact same reason they sent her out to find information about the Death Star at the start.

Ultimately, Jyn gives an inspiring speech on the nature of hope … to which the Council responds with a series of fart noises. Remember, the Rebellion has already been fighting for years, and was formed entirely to wage a series of risky battles against a much more powerful foe; the only reason they were being doubtful here is because the movie needed a drama infusion, stat. Luckily, the Rebel Fleet eventually does show up and help out, right when things were looking their most grim. Sadly, we weren’t shown the scene where the Rebellion’s Death Star Truthers rounded up the rest of the council and made them watch YouTube videos until they all saw the light.

4

The Guy In Charge Of Defense In Independence Day Objects To Defending Things

If everyone on Team Good Guy agrees that their daring plan to stop the villains is brilliant and flawless, that kills the suspense. So Independence Day gave us Secretary of Defence Albert Nimziki, whose sole purpose is doubting our heroes, even if there’s absolutely no reason to do so.

When Jeff Goldblum first suggests his desperate plan to stop the overwhelmingly powerful aliens by giving their mothership a virus, Nimziki’s response is “This is ridiculous” before calling it a “cockamamie plan” and complaining that they don’t have the manpower or resources. He then offers absolutely no alternative suggestions, despite the fact that that is his entire job.

Remember, they’re coming up with this plan after:

A) They discovered the aliens intended to exterminate humanity.

B) Most of the military had already been wiped out, and …

C) Pretty much every other option, including the use of nuclear missiles, had failed.

So Nimziki’s objections boil down to “Nuh uh, this will never work, let’s just sit around and wait to die instead.” He’s the friend who shoots down every pizza topping after claiming he’s “up for whatever.” The plan, of course, works — making Nimziki look both cowardly and stupid for ever doubting it. After all, what good is saving the world if it’s not in somebody’s face?

3

Die Hard 2‘s Captain Lorenzo Hates John McClane For Absolutely No Reason

Die Hard 2: Die Hard In An Airport features the beginning of John McClane’s transition from relatable everyman to a cursed muscle lord doomed to encounter elaborate criminal activities wherever he roams. Early on in this extremely pre-9/11 film, McClane gets in a shootout at the baggage claim, and discovers that the man he just killed is a mercenary who was supposed to be dead already. He takes this suspicious information to airport police chief Captain Lorenzo, who immediately … becomes a huge bureaucratic pain in the ass, solely because a more reasonable response would end the movie in about 15 minutes.

Lorenzo complains about McClane breaking regulations, doesn’t bother to properly investigate the crime scene, and accuses McClane of gunning down a luggage thief and blowing it out of proportion because his fame has gone to his head. All of which is completely unwarranted. And this is after McClane points out that the dead man was carrying an obscure, expensive gun designed to beat airport security which — even if Lorenzo wasn’t genre-savvy enough to realise that he was in a sequel by now — should have clued him in that he was dealing with more than a desperate underwear thief.

Instead, Lorenzo has McClane thrown out of his office. Then, even after the full scope of the attack on the airport is revealed when the bad guys crash a plane, killing hundreds, Lorenzo threatens to throw McClane in jail. He eventually does try to arrest John, before finally accepting that his whole purpose in life is to be a designated naysayer, and comes around. In the end, Lorenzo apologises to McClane by tearing up a parking ticket he got at the start of the movie. It’s unclear how he deals with the psychic weight of the hundreds of deceased souls that died horrifically because he “just plain didn’t like the dude’s face.”

2

The Argument Over Detonating The Nuke In Armageddon Is Pointless Drama

In Armageddon, a team of oil drillers are recruited to blow up an asteroid that threatens to annihilate all life on Earth, because Michael Bay went to film school in a burning dumpster. The plan is to drill 800 feet into the asteroid and then detonate a nuke inside it, because a direct hit on the surface of the improbably tough rock would be ineffective. But then, of course, there’s a plot twist, wherein the government decides to remotely detonate the nuke on the surface …

Soldiers forcibly occupy mission control down on Earth, while up in space, William Fichtner gets his space-gun out to space-seize the space-nuke.

“The president’s advisors feel that the drilling isn’t working,” General Keith David tells a lead scientist inexplicably played by Billy Bob Thornton, even though Thornton points out that “they haven’t drilled the damn hole yet.”

Every intelligent (relatively speaking) person in the movie has made it explicitly clear at this point that detonating the nuke on the surface will do approximately fuck all to the asteroid, yet the government’s argument is “Our plan might not work, so we’re going to switch to a plan that definitely won’t work,” because apparently this 150-minute movie about blowing up a big rock needed to be padded out.

And this comes before the drilling team faces their more serious obstacles, like one of their drills breaking down. This scene might make sense if it came when the heroes were really struggling — a last-minute act of desperation — but as it is, it feels like the president is secretly siding with the asteroid, a foreign force that clearly doesn’t care at all for our well-being. Colluding with it, even.

1

Just Offer Peter Parker A Wrestling Contract

Early in 2002’s Spider-Man, which was the Spider-Man before the Spider-Man, Peter wanted to impress Mary Jane by buying a car, because he thinks he lives in 1950s rural Nebraska and not modern-day New York City. Luckily, he finds a newspaper ad promising the exact amount of money he needs. Movie magic! The catch: He has to survive three minutes in the ring with a pro wrestler at a sketchy cage match. Lord knows we’ve all been there.

Parker not only survives the match but also wins it. It looks like he just made an easy 3,000 bucks, but the sleazy promotor only gives him a hundred, arguing that Parker didn’t earn the money because the fight only lasted two minutes. The promoter is then immediately robbed, and Parker lets the thief escape in retaliation. But that same thief soon kills Uncle Ben, Spider-Man 3 is eventually made, and all of life is revealed to be a cruel puzzle with no solution.

But let’s back up. Why did the promotor stiff Parker in the first place? Yeah, he only lasted two minutes (heh), but he just beat up a professional wrestler with inhuman strength, acrobatics, and freaking web slingers. The crowd went from cheering for his grisly death to loving him within moments. Fans would pay damn good money to see more of a mysterious masked man who can walk up walls, jump unnatural heights, and kick serious ass. That’s why we keep making Spider-Man movies, at any rate. Why on Earth wouldn’t the manager sign him up on the spot, and make Parker the guy who annihilates mooks answering the newspaper ad?

But no, Uncle Ben Must Die, so the promotor prioritizes being a jerk to Parker over doing his job and getting rich. Maybe when the Spider-Man franchise is inevitably rebooted again in a few years this plot point can be addressed.

Molly is an avid reader and writer with all sorts of millennial dreams. Is also willing to write for food. Joel B. Kirk is a San Francisco Bay Area resident. He plans to produce and act in his own films for the masses, as well as write for television someday.

For more things that make no sense in films, check out 7 Movies That Made You Ignore That Their Plots Make No Sense and 5 Dumb Things Movie Characters Do Only to Advance the Plot.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out 4 Plot Holes You Didn’t Notice in Your Favorite Movies, and other videos you won’t see on the site!

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from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/10/15/5-movie-conflicts-that-only-happened-to-advance-the-plot/

[usaokay]

Rebooting a Series

Around March 2005, I began Servers on a whim in Concerned. I always wanted to create comics, but with my self-confidence in drawings, I decided to tackle Garry’s Mod. At the time, I loved anything Rooster Teeth and other webcomics such as Ctrl+Alt+Del (before the controversy) and MegaTokyo.

I thought, “Making webcomics. How hard could it be?”

When it took me several years to finally get up to Season 3, the answer was, “Very.”

I initially approached Servers with the intention of being short and comedic. Once I realized that the team needed to go out of de_dust and explore the world, I created the Game Helmet, a social gaming world where the user can interact with others. For the antagonists, I chose the internet’s most hated type of people: Trolls. To better fit them in gaming, they became hackers. After all, no one likes hackers.

Around Season 2, someone suggested I should make the comic longer as the plot got more serious with higher stakes. 

Even though I had the intention of the series going up to Season 4 with the plot beats involving a fallout of the team due the villain doing villainy, and the rise back into greatness as the team defeats the villain, as time went on, I changed a lot of the general plot, characters, and world.

A ton of factors could be attributed to why I haven’t really finished the series yet:

Perfectionism.

Growing up in a first generation Asian family, I’ve been taught to always strive to be the best compared to everyone else. Sometimes I think that my work is so good, I release it expecting another hit, but it ends up with people hating it without any constructive criticism. While I end up going over a lot of details, there are a lot of things I miss and I do like to see praises, but what I want more is criticism.

Laziness.

The more I felt that people have higher expectations of my work, the less interested I get because not only do I receive some sort of positive stigma, but also why break my back for perfectionism when I could just thrive on the positivity I just received? It’s ironic.

Finding the right idea.

As time went on for Servers, a lot of world events occurred in the gaming industry. Coincidentally, the PSN hack involved hackers breaking into Sony’s PS3 servers and obtaining customer information, which nearly mirrors the hackers’ goal in Servers.

Garry’s Mod is boring.

After sitting in front of a computer all day trying to get that stupid ragdoll in the right position, with the gnawing fear that the game might crash and you have to spend 5-10 minutes starting the game back up and another 5+ minutes setting up the scene (if I didn’t save). My patience and interest wears thin. With the growing standard for quality work, I have to focus intently on also providing such well-rounded settings in my comics. It’s tiring.

The long wait time caused several issues that I needed to address.

Other similar stories coming out and being popular.

Ready Player One and Sword Art Online both have similar worlds involving a VR MMO where there is way better interactivity. While Servers is very different as it tackles personal character issues, there is a gnawing in the back of my mind that readers will think that I was inspired by those properties rather than setting out to be original in some regard.

I get older and wise up about my stories and writing.

I consider this a self-improvement, but when you compare recent Servers works to the very first, it can cause some tonal and writing issues. If I was going to tackle character drama, I need to first get rid of Frank being a pervert all the time.

I can’t obtain all of my files.

Around the development of the first and second season, my computer’s hard drive went kaput. I lost everything, but thankfully I managed to go back to areas around the internet where I posted the comics. Of course I can’t get them all, but I managed to get some of the most important. I learned from this by using trusted image hosts (DeviantArt), a flash drive, and a portable hard drive to save past and future work almost every month or so.

New ideas = more story implementation = longer wait time.

Sometimes stuff occurs in my life that I want to address in Servers. It could be something that still bothers me to this day or something that I would like to praise. Sometimes I write myself into a corner and need to find a way around it.

During Season 3′s development, I realized that not only I want to end the story on a high note, but I also want to stop making Garry’s Mod comics altogether to pursue my dream as a writer. Thus, S3 became the final act, which oddly fits the entire story as some sort of trilogy.

This grew into another issue. As I was making Part 22, I wanted to give people a refresher on the story so far. I tried a small synopsis of the characters and story so far; and an actual comic that added way more to the plot than I intended. 

Looking back on it, I don’t consider it to be a good way to present the story as people would rather go back and read my earlier work; but it’s crude, immature, and just bad. Really bad.

I tried to do a small “remake” of Season 1 that somehow still fits into the narrative of Season 3′s plot, but I eventually became disinterested as I felt that the quality wasn’t up to par.

So, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, I want to get Season 3 over with and be done. On the other hand, I want people to fully enjoy the story, and with something as crude as the earlier comics with some pages missing, it may put them off.

Time went on. I focused on other comics such as further developing Team Fortress 2 Originals and a non-canon Servers work. Eventually I met a fellow Garry’s Mod comic creator who was making his own site. We got to talking about implementing my work into his site, until he said that I should find a way to update my own work to better tell the story.

I agreed.

As I knew that I once attempted to remake the first season, it was high time to tell the story I initially wanted to tell while also keeping in line with the plot, world, and tone that was the culmination of almost a decade worth of work.

I turned the remake into a reboot and began implementing and polishing up story elements I felt needed fixing. 

I actually tried to fully do a remake of the old season, such as Frank buying a helicopter and crashing it, but it didn’t fit too well with the tone I wanted to set. However, I do and try to retain some element and important plot beats that may come into play in later parts.

While I called the rebooted series, “Servers Redone”, it’s still very much the original Servers as the previous version has been retconned in favor for the revamped tale. Think of it like Star Wars’ difference between Legends and Disney’s version. You can still enjoy the old story on its own merit and to experience the journey of my trial & error into getting where I am now. 

It does seem weird in itself to reboot something when I think that Season 3 is still in development. As I plan to also redo Season 2, I’m not sure if Season 3′s two parts (and Hartman’s Journal) will have to be retconned away or slightly remade to better fit with whatever story I want to include in the future.

With the rebooted story, I could have more freedom to implement whatever I wanted in order to help build up the world. This eventually lead to the inclusion of what I always wanted to do: Reveal that TF2O is set in the Servers world. The Servers world is continuing to grow thanks to its reboot and I hope that readers will find it enjoyable.

Up next: Servers: Part 6 - Of Monsters and Men.

[geek-gem]

The Teen Titans Go The Movies Teaser Trailer

Just saying I made this on Deviantart and saying my thoughts on here now. As of now Angel your username sorry to mention you changed well I retyped the first mention of your username since it wouldn't work with the a thing or even just putting a different a so yeah here's me talking

"Now here weeeee.....go" - The Joker from The Dark Knight.(I'm on the paragraph where it's about the comments)

That is well honestly the best way to title this and just...I'm gonna copy and paste this one Tumblr also here's the video. Which I tried to make sure I found the same one from @angel-baez had linked.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p4HrpCPquk4

Including just I'll tell you this. I didn't watch it earlier because was on my laptop doing other stuff like FilmJunkee videos, eating Me N Ed's pizza, watching OK KO, but mainly watching Markiplier play Doom 2016 in some parts which is just lovely to watch. Because playing the game myself just...it makes me happy. But back to the topic.

You know I don't really talk about Teen Titans Go and just yeah I don't like the show. Including I haven't seen this podcast yet I don't watch him anymore. But this podcast by Pan Pizza talking about how even talking negatively about the show still makes people aware of it.

I'm thinking I feel like yeah I don't try to talk about it. So I wouldn't give any attend to the series. Including seeing episodes the past few months when I leave Cartoon Network I try to avoid even having the show on now seeing certain episodes and just yeah. This goes for Uncle Grandpa too these past few days sorry off topic.

Honestly even if I'm not the biggest fan of the original show. I do like it, and as a DCEU and DC a bit I want the Teen Titans in the DCEU.

Yet just......you know I want to be detailed yet I feel I can't. Because it's mainly a teaser but you can still be critical of it. Including I'm gonna reblog a post where I watched this trailer at.

Will tell you this and spoiling a surprise the part with Wonder Woman no she's not in there I mean them wearing costumes. Including seeing that I think I could tell this was because of the massive success Wonder Woman was and I enjoyed that movie too. Yet sad when they say Wonder Woman inspires people when....I think I'm looking at it the wrong way. I was thinking of Superman and he inspires people what about him.

That's off topic. But yeah that part made me smiled just the rest. So the animation like they said in this reblog I'll reblog it's still the same. Despite it looks a bit more theatrical in some way. But not as of like the latest MLP movie or even SpongeBob movies. Or any sort of movie based upon a TV series.

Including remembered this now I've read the comments well the first page. Also forgot that quote I even quoted yesterday because just the incoming wave of hate the film is gonna get in the comments. Basically from another post I reblogged from Angel.

But yeah theirs hate and even some hate on the DCEU just seriously why even here. Including this year when we have this we have Aquaman which seems to be narly yet including that mention and appearance of Aquaman I feel is to reference yes theirs gonna be a Aquaman movie. Including the sad idea of why in the hell does a movie like this exist.

Including might as well get to this part. I remember talking about this in another reblog sorry I'm on Tumblr a lot. Theirs this idea or dream or hope that when the film comes out. The intense hatred is gonna be quite much, reviews are very negative. Including a box office bomb you know I sound stupid oh head thinking a movie deserves that crap.

But considering....I mean here's the thing. While I have been overjoyed to see shit like easter eggs in this show as a DC fan. Yet Teen Titans Go as a show oh head don't be nice to it or just it sucks. Including just....the kind of show it is. While I'm okay with the Powerpuff Girls reboot and Ben 10 reboot. Despite the road to the PPG reboot that Craig wasn't alright with it and not getting the original voice actresses while I'm okay with the new ones.

But Teen Titans Go as a show and I would of been fine with the show. If the writers and just overall creators didn't do things that honestly bothered me. Including of what I've read and even see.

As of now my brother was in my room or just honestly nothing serious when I think about it. Just he was testing my patience and me even telling him that and even me saying I was checking a text and him trying to close the door without using his hands or handle what the fuck.

Sorry and heard his door closed he's in his room now and everything's okay even me saying sorry just in case.

But looking at my last paragraph about the show. Honestly Teen Titans Go could of been just a silly show okay some parody but a sillier version of the original show. That didn't need out right insult it's audiences or just make it's audience seem like a dumbass. Along with really douchey moments.

The show could of been this cute thing with it's own cult following with it's own fans. That was less serious then the original but it's own silly thing. Including some nice little stuff like those easter eggs I've mentioned.

But instead we have a mean spirited show created by people who never seen the original show. That make certain episodes that just bother me quite a bit.

Including they just don't care.

Along with I'm just wondering if the outcry of hatred against the show is gonna be heard by the likes of shit like Collider which is also a bullshit channel, and other sort just....even reviewers surprised. Basically this idea no one knows their was this huge hatred until now. Which would sound weird as fuck if any of these people didn't know.

Honestly this weird idea like I hope certain cartoons I like aren't discovered or talked about by certain people or channels or whatever.

Yet hey would love to hear and see FilmJunkee's views on it along with Film Gob, and Chris Wong Swenson too. Maybe Jeremy Jahns been a while since I've watched him.

Basically I'm just wondering and I'm okay with Rotten Tomatos and I want to make my own opinions about movies. Despite I do look at it of what that score that shouldn't be fucking controlling over some God damn movies. Or just the amount of movies were getting.

Yet just to see what others might think but I would want to make my own opinion. Instead of relying of what others have to say.

I'm just so interested of how this is gonna get affected by those God damn tomatoes including even thought that might help in the favor. Yet I'm sounding hypocritical.

Seriously I'm not the biggest fan of Teen Titans and I don't care for this show despite I don't like it. Maybe just going deep into it and thinking about it more. Along with the idea it's getting a actual fucking movie. Including this worse thought imagine if the reviews are positive and how they might be towards certain DCEU films or the DCEU in general.

I'm sorry or fuck it but it's a show now don't like I dislike it greatly just thinking about it when typing this. Including I'm not gonna tag this because of fear of backlash but people will find it still honestly. I just wanted to share my opinion on both sites on Deviantart and Tumblr.