#i literally just wanted to show that there is nothing definitive in the 'source material'

[menelaiad]

Agamemnon is explicitly stated to be hot/muscular. It's in the source material. Books 2 and 3 in particular. I highly doubt being compared to the Gods meant being "chubby" or super old. The ancient text obviously wouldn't say "ripped" because that wasn't in their vocabulary. But they refer to him as everything else that such a body would imply.

And Achilles was saying things in anger in Book 1. Everyone forgets how in Book 23, Achilles pretty much retracts everything he said and claims Agamemnon is the best natural warrior which he was.

tldr; im a petty bitch

y'all are SO PRESSED ON THIS LMAOOO I'M CRYING

'ripped' isn't in their vocabulary?? but 'hot' and 'muscular' are? really?

AGAIN about your last point, cause people who are so pressed about this just keep ignoring it: YOU CAN BE A WARRIOR. AND NOT BE CONVENTIONALLY 'RIPPED'. NOTHING ABOUT A HUMAN BEING - A HUMAN MAN HAVING A SLIGHT TUMMY WILL STOP HIM BEING ABLE TO RUN, FIGHT, KILL PEOPLE AND BE A WARRIOR. YOUR WEIGHT IS NOT AN AUTOMATIC INDICATOR OF YOUR FITNESS LEVEL/ABILITIES.

that's y'alls prejudice about larger people coming through. this stupid belief that the ancient world represented 'the peak masculine alpha ideal' no????? this whole 'if man strong and can stab and have sex with woman then man must be muscley and ripped cause that make man sexy' like shut up.

it's baffling to me that you're all so heated on this. the mere thought of a human man having a tummy is sending you all west. you can't cope. a human man who consumed copious amounts of alcohol (because ancient greeks just did???) and probably had a very rich diet. having tummy??? NO. ILLEGAL.

im sorry but im cracking up over here. i couldnt care less whether people think aga has a 16-pack, that he's skinny as a twig, that he's fat, that he's not, that he's somewhere in between - idc. but your adamancy against 'slight tummy' aga. is just ..... fatphobic. and i never thought i'd type that word out being a fucking classics blog lmaooo.

i have shared so many DUMB opinions on this blog. from menelaus' teeth to odyssues' hairy feet and yet the thing that gets the most reaction from people - is agamemnon's weight.

that's what's pissing me off. everything else? whatever have your own opinion, you weird menelaus girl. but the sECOND i say why i think i character might be a lil chubby OOF ouTRAGE. IM A FOOL.

also your point is just so incredible. my issue isn't with you thinking aga was a ripped sex god crafted by aphrodite herself. it's your use of the word 'explicitly' cause aga's size (in regards to his weight) is NEVER explicitly stated ANYWHERE. so we're both just having our own opinions. but mine has got you so pressed????

i own a couple translations of the iliad. lets look at some. and see the descriptions of aga, shall we? cause i know exactly which sections you mean in book 2 and 3. contrary to your apparent belief, i have read the iliad.

we'll do book 2 first to make it all easier to follow:

PETER GREEN

“among them the lord Agamemnōn, in eyes and head like Zeus who delights in the thunderbolt, like Arēs in girth, and with the chest of Poseidōn. As one steer in a herd of cattle stands out, far above them all— the bull, distinguished among the cows assembled round it— such a one on that day Zeus rendered Atreus’s son, preeminent among many, of heroes the foremost.”

... again. nothing really? girthy??? eyes like zeus (nice)??? tall??? nothing about weight here babes.

CAROLINE ALEXANDER

there to go into combat, and with them was lord Agamemnon— his eyes and head like Zeus who hurls the thunderbolt, his girth like Ares, his chest like Poseidon’s. As when an ox stands out from all others in the herd, a bull who is preeminent among the gathered cattle, so did Zeus on that day render the son of Atreus conspicuous amid the multitude, outstanding among warriors.

pretty much the same?? gets called an 'ox' here though. ooooh

ROBERT FAGLES.

and there in the midst strode powerful Agamemnon, eyes and head like Zeus who loves the lightning, great in the girth like Ares, god of battles, broad through the chest like sea Lord Poseidon. Like a bull rising head and shoulders over the herds, a royal bull rearing over his flocks of driven cattle — so imposing was Atreus' son, so Zeus made him that day, towering over fighters, looming over armies.

just more girth stuff. that can mean his shoulders?? his chest?? his ass? bro we don't know. was aga just THICC. his cheeks always alerting the trojans???

ROBERT FITZGERALD.

Agamemnon's lordly mien was like the mien of Zeus whose joy is lightning; oalken-waisted as Ares, god of war, he seemed, and deep-chested as Lord Poseidon, and as a great bull in his majesty towers supreme amid a grazing herd, so on that dav Zeus made the son of Atreus tower over his host, supreme among them.

i like this one tbf. this one has got more meat on it. 'oaken waisted'. nice nice. again. i don't see oak trees are particullarly 'narrow' but hey. interpretation is what makes this field so great.

RICHARD LATTIMORE

“powerful Agamemnon, with eyes and head like Zeus who delights in thunder, like Ares for girth, and with the chest of Poseidon; like some ox of the herd pre-eminent among the others, a bull, who stands conspicuous in the huddling cattle; such was the son of Atreus as Zeus made him that day, conspicuous among men, and foremost among the fighters.”

STANLEY LOMBARDO

To enter battle, and Lord Agamemnon Moved among them like Zeus himself, The look in his eyes, the carriage of his head, With a torso like Ares', or like Poseidon's. Picture a bull that stands out from the herd Head and horns above the milling cattle— Zeus on that day made the son of Atreus A man who stood out from the crowd of heroes.

SEE this one we're not even talking about his LITERAL appearance but how he's holding himself. how he acts. his CONFIDENCE. cool take, stan. i like it.

STEPHEN MITCHELL

“and among them was Agamemnon, his splendid eyes and head like almighty Zeus’s, his thighs like the thighs of Ares, his chest like Poseidon’s. As a bull stands out in a herd above all the others, sovereign among the cows as they graze in a field: just so, on that day, did Lord Zeus make Agamemnon supreme over all the warriors massed before Troy.”

LOVE the thigh mention Mitchell. nice nice.

'The ancient text obviously wouldn't say "ripped" because that wasn't in their vocabulary. But they refer to him as everything else that such a body would imply.'

bro all i'm getting is the word 'girthy'?? if you want me to be a bitch about it, that's not a word i'd put with someone who is 'ripped'. if anything, they're implying he got junk in his trunk. i truly hand on heart. cannot see anything in the book 2 translations that imply or indicate to me that he does not have a tummy. that he is rocking a six pack. WHICH IS FINE. we can play with it and form our own opinions. but you're THIS IMPLIES .... is wrong??? it doesn't imply anything dude????

all we can infer from any of the book two stuff is that he's a man who is larger than the other men around him - literally? metaphorically? we dont know. (which is all horseshit anyway cause priam later goes on to say he's a short arse which is helpful). and that he shares qualities with the gods. again, literally? metaphorically? bit of both? we. don't. know.

TIME FOR BOOK 3. the priam and helen thirst.

PETER GREEN

“and to put a name for me to that huge warrior down there, that Achaian leader, of such stature and so strong: others there may be taller still by a head, and yet so fine a man have I never set eyes on, nor one so majestic in bearing—he looks to be of royal blood.” helen later calls him a 'strong spearman'

CAROLINE ALEXANDER

tell me the name of this gigantic man, who is this Achaean man, good and great? To be sure there are other men even greater in height, but I have never beheld with my eyes a man so handsome, nor so majestic; for he seems a kingly man. helen later calls him a 'powerful spear-warrior'

ROBERT FAGLES

“ tell me the name of that tremendous fighter. Look, who's that Achaean there, so stark and grand? Many others afield are much taller, true, but I have never yet set eyes on one so regal, so majestic . . . That man must be a king!” helen later calls him a 'strong spearman'

ROBERT FITZGERALD

Come, tell me who the big man is out there, who is that powerful figure? Other men are taller, but I never saw a soldier clean-cut as he, as royal in his bearing: he seems a kingly man. helen later calls his a 'formidable warrior'

RICHARD LATTIMORE

“You could tell me the name of this man who is so tremendous; who is this Achaian man of power and stature? Though in truth there are others taller by a head than he is, yet these eyes have never yet looked on a man so splendid nor so lordly as this: such a man might well be royal.” helen later calls him a 'strong spearfighter'

STANLEY LOMBARDO

Now tell me, who is that enormous man Towering over the Greek troops, handsome, Well-built? I've never laid eyes on such A fine figure of a man. He looks like a king. helen later calls him a 'strong warrior'

STEPHEN MITCHELL

“Tell me now, what is the name of that splendid man who is standing down there, so powerful and so tall. To be sure, there are other men who are even taller, but never before have I seen a man so majestic, so splendid in form and bearing. He must be a king.” helen later calls him a 'mighty soldier'

again. in all of these - nothing. all that's consistent is that he's not the tallest man at troy. which means ..... very little ASDFGHJK. there is Nothing concrete here. nothing that points us more one way than it does the other.

ultimately, dude, what we've got is.... nothing. nothing concrete. nothing definitive. i can't say you're wrong and you can't say i'm wrong.

i saw the phrase 'wine sack' and interpreted it my way and you saw it and interpreted it differently. but books 2 and 3 certainly don't back either of us up more definitively.

and in regards to his age. same thing. you can't say i'm wrong and i can't say you're wrong. but i've explained my reasonings for aga's age using sources HERE

idk man. if you're looking for an EXPLICITLY YOUNG CHISELED ABS LEGEND MALE CHARACTER. look elsewhere.

[trashogram]

He Chose You (Pt. 10)

Lucifer/Reader: Lucifer chooses you to be the mother of his child. Rated E for Explicit.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

Everything was white. Pristine white. 

You couldn’t be blind, but no one would blame you for entertaining the idea as nothing but white stretched beyond your gaze.

Unending white. 

Uncanny. White. 

“Hello?” You asked the white abyss. Your call echoed out and back in, the way you imagined sound would echo in a canyon. 

“Hello!” 

You screamed, jumping up at the new voice coming from somewhere high above you. You tried to pinpoint where it came from, staring up at what you hoped was the sky before things slowly materialized. 

Pastel pinks, oranges and soft blues bled into the white, adding definition to what had once been literally nothing. The whiteness remained in the shape of buoyant, fluffy clouds pillowing all around you. 

“Over here!” The voice chimed. “Oh no, here! You’re getting warmer! Almost there!”

After circling around like a dog after your own tail, you finally found the source. Behind you rose a ginormous golden gate, gleaming beneath an electric-looking, all-seeing eye.

 And at its entrance towered a gold and platinum podium. 

A very… well, there was no other way to say it — a very white man with swooping blond hair eyed you from the top of the podium, grinning from ear to ear. 

“Hiya! Welcome!” The man said. “You’re right on time!” 

“Uh, okay…?” You replied. 

Without a hitch, the blond lifted up a large tome and began flicking through the pages. In the meantime, you stood there awkwardly, a question on the very tip of your tongue. 

“Wh-um, where am I, exactly?” You finally asked. 

“Why, you’re in Heaven of course!” He stated jovially before turning the book around and tapping on a name. “This is you, correct?”

Your name stared back at you in a glowing golden font, all pretty and shiny — 

And underlined? 

“Yeah.” You blinked. “Wait, did you just say Heaven?”

“Mm-hm, yep! And if I could just get you to stand right here at the center of the platform, that’d be great.” 

An elevated slab of pure gold rose from the clouds beneath your feet a little ways ahead of you. Timidly, you made your way over and onto the platform as instructed. You were pleasantly surprised at the instant warmth that met the bottoms of your bare feet. 

“Pe-rr-fect!” With a flap of suddenly conjured wings, the gatekeeper floated down to hover right beside you. “Now, we just wait for Emily. She should be here in 3, 2, 1… .5 — ”

A loud clang startled you out of your skin for the second time, and you whipped around to face the woman that had spontaneously appeared in front of you.

She panted. “Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry! I didn't mean to be late!” 

The golden gates pulled back to reveal the white-haired newcomer in all her splendor. This other angel was bedecked in a floor-length white gown to match her downy-white hair and periwinkle-grey skin dotted with white freckles. A halo hung over her head, casting an eternal light over her large, bluish eyes that sparkled with mirth. 

Like the gatekeeping angel, her wings flapped behind her, but you noted how they seemed to flutter nervously. Or perhaps excitedly? 

“Welcome to Heaven!” She opened her arms toward you. “We’re so glad you’re here! I’m Emily, but you can call me Emmy, or E, or Millie. Whatever you want!” 

You waved dazedly. “Hi.” 

Emily stopped short of touching you, despite looking like she was about to wrap her arms around you in a hug. Instead, the angel bit her lower lip as she stared at you. 

“I really am sorry I was late. I got caught up talking with Sera, making sure everything was all ready for your arrival.” She gushed. “Thank you for greeting her, Peter!” 

Peter brightened. “Of course.” 

Emily turned back to you, buzzing with anticipation like a bumblebee. “Anyway, I’m sure you have tons of questions! No worries at all! I’m here to give you a tour and show you around your new home!”

You cautiously took the hand offered to you, and let yourself be led through the golden gate. 

— 

Heaven was very beautiful, and very clean. The polished golden floors and beautifully-crafted architecture, complete with smiling people of all races, sexes and species didn’t unwrench you from a nagging sense of confusion however. 

“Um. Emily?” You asked your companion — well, one of your companions. Peter had elected to join the two of you on your tour, commenting that he’d gotten someone to cover his eternal shift at the gate for the next few hours. 

“Yes! Yes?” She smiled at you encouragingly. No doubt, your silence, while it had not stopped her constant chatter, had been a downer in as far as engagement. 

“I’m… dead. Right?” You asked. “I mean that’s how one gets to Heaven, so obviously I am… right?”

The mood turned down at that, with Emily turning morose. “Yes, I’m afraid so.” 

“Okay, good. I mean — I’m dead, but I’m having a hard time remembering h-how it… happened.” You admitted, embarrassed. And a little afraid, if you were honest with yourself. “Is that… normal?”

Emily and Peter stopped on either side of you, twin looks of confusion on their poreless faces. 

Peter was quicker to recover. “Oh that can happen sometimes! Dying can be a very traumatic thing for the soul.” 

Emily seemed hesitant for the first time since you’d met her, but with a look from Peter, she seemed to gain resolve. “Yes, yeah. Lots of people forget… but you’ll remember in time, I’m sure!”

“But wait!” Emily gasped. “We could ask Sera about it!” 

She clapped her hands together joyfully, while Peter’s expression teetered on uncertainty. 

“Uh, Em? I don’t think —” 

“We were headed her way anyway.” Emily nodded as if affirming her own plan. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to help us figure this out!”

The angel yanked you forward in her quest to get to Sera (whoever that was) and had you stumbling on pure fluff to catch up with her. 

Many angels raced to get out of the way as Peter called out in alarm, but apart from shouldering a particularly tall angel clad in a chasuble, you were unable to stop or slow down. 

—

“Hello child.”

The Seraphim (“Sera.” Emily had urged) was so large that you had to crane your neck up to see her face. 

She was beautiful in the most ethereal way. To look upon her was to look at a celestial body and feel your own insignificance dragging you down and swallowing you whole. 

Your surroundings — a gold and white antechamber with delicately carved archways and a grand war table in its center — did not help. 

Emily laid a hand on your shoulder with concern before you realized that you’d been paralyzed by the scene before you and had yet to say a word.

You stuttered a hello, and Sera’s stoney face softened into an understanding smile. “Be not afraid, my friend. I mean no harm.” 

You returned the smile, albeit shakily. 

Emily squeezed your shoulder. “Sera? We have a question.”

The Seraphim gestured with open palms. 

“Well, we were going around Heaven, and just kind of talking before um… well…”

“Emily, dear. Please speak up.” Sera’s command was gentle but firm.

Emily bounced in her spot, unable to keep herself from floating up from the ground. 

“Shesaysshedoesn’trememberhowshegothere!” She blurted out.

You and Sera both stared at Emily for a long moment, trying to process what exactly she had said. Sera had opened her mouth once more before the grand entrance into the committee room was slammed open and all heads turned to the unwelcome sound. 

The angel with the chasuble came barrelling in, and the omnipresent sunlight that touched everything around you glinted off the sharp black horns winding down from his skull. Or was it a skull? The face of this particular angel looked odd to you, with its smooth, glassy surface and flickering pixelated expression that replaced natural features like lips, cheeks and a nose. 

Their appearance looked at odds with everything else you’d seen in Heaven, regardless of the holy garbs they wore. Everything, while somewhat fantastical on the basis of it actually existing, resembled the organic and natural, and this figure stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison. 

“What the actual fuck? She’s actually here?!” The abrasive, aggressive voice that came out his digitized face shook you from your musings. 

You shrunk back toward Emily and Sera, instinctively trying to get away from the rapidly approaching figure that also towered over you. He glared in your direction, as if you were an insect he wanted to squash, and only when you lost the nerve to meet his gaze did you realize there was another angel behind him. This one wore a similar face, though they were smaller, slimmer and straight-backed. They wore darker vestments and jet-black horns as well, with wings nearly as jagged and hardlined. 

“Adam,” Sera greeted hesitantly. “I don’t believe you were summoned.” 

“Why is she here?” ‘Adam’ demanded, as if the Seraphim had never spoken. His companion stood firmly just a pace behind him, arms behind their back. 

Their combined presence was so off-putting, and your brow furrowed with mounting confusion. Sera’s shoulders slowly rose and fell as she sighed, disapproval in the hard line of her mouth. 

“That was part of the agreement.” 

“Uh, yeah — with the Devil!” His demeanor completely threw you off, so much so that you didn’t catch the full extent of what he’d said. “Who the fuck keeps their end of the deal with that asshole?”

You couldn’t hold back a scoff of disbelief, even as your confusion deepened. ‘The devil?’ 

A hand wrapped around your forearm, making you turn to look at Emily, who’d once more moved beside you. Her ire was clear, though much less contained than Sera’s. “Who are you to question Divine Judgement?” 

Adam laughed condescendingly. “Do you know who you’re talking to? I’m the fucking CEO of Divine Judgement, kid!” 

“We are literally judges, juries and executioners in Hell.” The other angel chimed in, flat and resolute. The smirk that curved her stitched lips gave away some covert sense of satisfaction in that statement. 

“Executioners?” Emily’s voice rose a few octaves. “What’re you talking about?” 

She was legitimately bewildered. 

“Enough.” Sera stepped in. “Adam, this has never been, nor was it ever, a debate. If you have a grievance, you can take it up with the counsel at a later date.” 

“My ‘grievance’ isn’t gonna fucking wait for this bitch to fuck shit up!” Adam pointed at you with a poisonous claw. 

“Excuse me?” You demanded in sheer disbelief. “Who do you think you are?!” 

The grin Adam shot you was more a bearing of one’s teeth, which further threw you for a loop as, again, his face was completely digital. “I’m fuckin’ Adam. The First Man. The Original Dick. I’ve been here since the fucking beginning. I earned this shit.” 

“Who do you think you are?” He asked, advancing on you. “You think you can whore yourself out to the worst being in all of Creation and still take up space in Heaven? Are you fucking kidding me?” 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Your gaze narrowed, a stark contrast to the whirlpool of thoughts swirling in your mind at his accusation. 

“HA! Seriously?” His face was mere inches from yours. “What? D’you open your legs for fuckin’ everyone? Have a hard time keeping track of all the brats you pop outta that used vag? Guess so, if even dying for one doesn’t ring your fuckin’ bell.” 

“ADAM!” 

Adam’s sharp grin dropped, expression dawning from stunned to petulant as Sera’s thunderous exclamation reverberated through the vast space between your unusual group. You swore the clouds trembled beneath your feet, but it was hard to care too much with the insinuations that had been thrown at you rattling within your being. 

Dying for… 

“Charlotte.” Your eyes widened to the size of saucers. Air escaped your lungs - which shouldn’t have been possible, but you were already dealing with one crisis upon the epiphany of what you’d been missing this whole time. 

A blitz of images and sordid emotions saw you struggling, legs falling out from under you as the weight of how exactly you’d died forced you down. Emily’s distressed cry sounded from above you, melding with Lucifer’s frantic pleas for you not to go as life drained from your body. 

The Seraphim’s shadow engulfed your broken form while you panicked on Heaven’s floor. 

—

Lucifer sat hunched in his chair, your cold, lifeless hand hanging in his. 

Charlotte had stopped crying and presumably gone to sleep. He hadn’t put up any fight when Cass took her to a crib set up beside your… your bed.

That was who knows how long ago. And apart from Cass coming over the check on his daughter, the elderly worshippers had left him to grieve in peace. 

The King had tried to convince himself to get up. He needed to take Charlotte and leave. Go home. The sight of you in death was unbearable — but he could not move. 

He couldn’t leave you, even if you were no longer there in spirit. The You he loved the most, your soul, was gone and had been gone for some time now. 

You had gone to the one place he could not follow. 

Lucifer’s hanged head slowly rose. His thoughts were starting to become more coherent — what if you hadn’t gone where you were meant to? 

Heaven was a paradise bound by rules, but it was also a cold bureaucracy where things could fall through the cracks. 

And any dealings with him — Heaven’s sworn nemesis — were likely to be one of those things. 

Slow-building anger replaced the gold in his veins as Lucifer considered that his own Deal was not met. If it wasn’t, that meant you were down Below, alone and afraid and suffering. 

The Devil’s claws cricked, fist clenching as he glared at the wall opposite him. 

He would not let you Suffer. Not you. Never you.

And you weren’t here anymore. He needed to know where you’d gone. Now. 

Rising from his seat, Lucifer laid your hand at your side and ignored the tears that stung his eyes at the sight of your ashen face. 

He touched your brow, lingering only to memorize the way your lashes rested against your sinking cheeks before turning to Charlotte’s cradle. 

She was sleeping peacefully, unaware of his anguish, of the great loss that not only he had endured but she as well. It made Lucifer’s heart ache. 

He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. 

Then, with a sudden snap of his fingers, Lucifer conjured the presents he’d made especially for her. 

The twin goats appeared, suspended in the air behind him. Lucifer didn’t bother to turn until their bodies were triple their original size, fur changing from felt to coarse fiber, eyes glowing as they were transformed from button to bonafide, and their bat-like wings began to beat at the air, blowing back the gossamer of Charlotte’s bassinet. 

Lucifer looked between the two magicked goats after kissing his daughter’s fragile head. 

“Stay here and protect the baby.” He ordered. “Charlotte is your top priority, do you understand?” 

The two creatures nodded simultaneously, determination set in their naturally adorable maws. 

“If anything happens, just bleat, and I’ll be back in the wink of an eye.” Lucifer’s wings extended and propelled him upward with a great stroke. 

The King of Hell disappeared through an enormous portal, sparking and swirling reddish-gold before vanishing behind him. 

*** Tag List: @crescent-z, @for-hearthand-home, @undertale-is-sansational, @loslox, @navierkalani, @yaimlight, @ivoryviness, @crystalplays28, @flowerempress, @wally-darling-hyperfixation, @altruisticradiodemon, @moonlight-readings, @halparkebitch, @charliecharlie65, @sockgoblin, @cocomollo, @caniseethefourthsword, @squeegeeclean, @crow-twink, @an-emovision, @marydragneell, @lafy-taffy, @fandom-imagines1, @loquacious-libra, @glowymxxn, @avadakadabra93, @froggybich, @hamthepan, @ukor02, @adaizel, @boogiemansbitch, @vinillies, @lbcreations-blog, @thesoundresoundsecho, @serenity-loves-red, @alientee, @aquaamythest96, @0strawberrysorbet0, @fluffy-koalala, @washeduphazbin, @rebecca-hvnstn, @velvette3, @kermitdafroggy, @wpdarlingpan, @apatcheworkofproblems,

[artbyblastweave]

Okay, Time for that belated Shrinking Rae post-

In the comics, Shrinking Ray's "arc" (bearing in mind an extremely liberal definition of that term, they had exactly one scene showcasing this) was that he was implied to be developing an inferiority complex; he's not necessarily incompetent, but he's out of his niche, his clever shrinking-based plans kept getting upstaged by brute-force solutions from the more conventionally powerful heroes like Invincible. He's the scrawny, nerdy little guy with the joke powers, he never gets a win, and in most fights he literally isn't visible. In the fight with the Lizard League his death is framed as pathetic and ineffectual- there's one or two panels between "I'll make you pay!" and getting eaten alive by Komodo. All of this is doing a couple of things- it's emphasizing that again, this is in fact a story and setting where superheroes sometimes just die really badly with limited fanfare- a thing that IIRC hadn't happened since the original Guardians team wipe in issue 7. Second, it's an indicator that the new Guardians are structurally kind of on the ropes. They're heavily staffed by second stringers, they exact second they have to split their forces they suffer a 66 percent casualty rate, and that's with backing from two capes who aren't actually part of the team. Grim! Anyway, when they do the adaptation Shrinking Ray becomes Shrinking Rae, because they want to tweak the gender balance of the cast and the pun is too good to pass up. But I think that there was a reasonable reluctance to transfer the "arc" from the comics one-to-one, because to be blunt, "Ineffectual Nebbish Glasses-wearer who whines a lot and dies pathetically," paired with absolutely nothing else, is gonna read as misogynistic if the character is a woman now. So in the adaptation Rae is markedly more competent. We're introduced to her taking down a much larger opponent by fucking around inside his ear canal, which becomes a favored trick of hers. There are traces of the self-esteem thing- the visual gag where she physically shrinks about a foot when getting chewed out in the briefing- but the overall throughline isn't "look at this loser who somehow ended up on the guardians." In the Lizard League fight, she doesn't get eaten- she's deliberately trying to execute a Thanus maneuver and just fucks it up, seconds after successfully killing a different villain the same way. And there's a second where it looks like it might work, too, before hope is cruelly yanked away. Which makes for a markedly cooler death scene- but who died? What was actually going on with her? Anything? In some sense she's cooler, but it's kind of an undifferentiated cool. She had what, Six lines? Seven? On balance I think Rae is still doing her fundamental job in the story, which is to pad the Guardians roster for a while and have someone who actually dies and stays dead as a result of the Lizard League fight- but I think they definitely missed an opportunity to give her some more texture than her comic counterpart had. Part of me thinks that the show would have been a good place to go even harder on Shrinking Rae being in over her head, but in a considered way, to emphasize that the Guardians aren't well managed- maybe tie it into the tensions between Robot and Immortal regarding sustainable team management practices. Part of me thinks you should go the other way, that if you're gonna do away with the idea she's underwhelming you should blow up her role, have her actually say and do some things that affect the story or the team dynamic in any noticeable way, because as it stands she's kind of visibly siloed as the designated mauve shirt. I'm definitely of one mind that this showcases something I suspected was gonna bite the show in the ass, which is that they're (laudably) diversifying a secondary and tertiary cast whose main role in the source material is often to die badly or fade out of focus.

[myfandomrealitea]

saw ur post about going incognito into spaces and stuff and i wanted to add my own thoughts about my experience of basically being stuck in places where proshippers r hated (not against wut ur saying! i definitely agree that theres no benefits and honestly its not that fun)

the fandom that im currently in is.. very toxic. someone got harassed to the point of having to delete their account bc they "supported" a proshipper (it was literally just them saying that u shouldnt harass this person just bc theyre proship-). a lot of my friends were very supportive of this person and agreed that ppl shouldnt be harassed over shit like that and many of them seem to have similar viewpoints as me (anti harassment and all that) but prefer to stay away from that stuff

the fandom is basically ran by antis. theres a small corner that some ppl have made where they talk about proship stuff freely (love those ppl so much theyre genuinely so nice) but overall its. not the best place to be if ur proship. which is interesting to me bc theres actually a shocking amount of proshippers that just... dont say anything. on my side blog ive had multiple ppl interact that i thought were anti (or at least just. not proship in some way) but would literally go and like all my posts about incest ships of the characters.

and sometimes i think about it and how theres actually a bunch of proshippers but we're so heavily harassed and silenced that we just- dont say anything. but the fandom is small and we cant exactly separate ourselves from it if we really like the show. and i feel especially bad for some of the bigger blogs that ppl love and adore bc i know wut would happen if somehow ppl found out and made some big post or wutever.

i dont pretend to be antiship but i dont outright say im proship unless i really trust that person

im currently trying to make my own lil space with some friends so at least if anything goes wrong i at least have a few ppl but its a bit scary to think about honestly-

Although it can be full of snot-nosed superiority complexes, I do recommend using the AO3 Subreddit in order to find likeminded people for your fandom. The very vast majority of the AO3 Subreddit is proship or at least proship neutral. Antis are generally eviscerated on sight whenever they try to poke their nose into it.

If you have any other fandoms that you are active in or have friends within, there's also no harm in introducing them to your small fandom.

From what I understand the Marvel fandom did kind of the same thing you're describing with the Starker shippers, but they flourished and supported each other anyway.

I know its easy for me to simply say 'do it anyway' as someone who generally could not give a fuck about anyone's opinion of me, but honestly. Do it anyway. Form your little collective. Support each other. Learn how to write and draw and make GIFs so you feed your own portion of the fandom. You physically do not need those people, it just unfortunately takes a bit of effort and means potentially a bit less content until you start really generating your own.

Fandom spaces do not start out from nothing. Promote the shit out of your fandom. Draw people in. Comb through the proship tags and send asks to blogs like mine asking other proshippers to check out the source material.

People in small fandoms are easy to bully because you're so enclosed into this circle of the exact same people. They happen to be the majority in the room and they're weaponising it.

Force them into a bigger room.

[tg-pilled]

Let's discuss: Queerness in Tokyo Ghoul!

To start off, I just want to mention that these are things I have noticed. Nothing is necessarily canon (or non canon) but it's something I'm very interested in. I've been learning a lot in the queer horror club I'm in and it's been really fun dissecting Tokyo Ghoul in the same way!

This will go character to character. It's not going to be a complete list as there's SO much to cover but...

Kaneki: Not to state the obvious but his friendship with Hide surpasses a Lot of what heteronormativity usually allows. I don't think he's even fully aware of his attraction until after he meets Touka. Because Hide had been such a permanent fixture in his life growing up, they never really had ever been apart. Their bond is deep and strong and definitely can be looked at from an extremely queer perspective. (I'm not trying to say that all men who show affection to one another are queer because that is simply not true.) Once he becomes a ghoul and he has that separation from Hide, I think that is when his sexuality is fully recognized. Especially in the manga, his bond with Hide runs deeper than with almost every other character. I'd say the exception to that rule is Touka in :re. In the manga during the death kiss, he didn't even know if Hide was real or not. He was in such a state of disorientation and confusion but Hide was still the one that he saw. Of course, Hide was actually there with him. But because Kaneki was in such a delirious state, surely he could have hallucinated the death kiss to be with Touka? Or anyone else? Why specifically did Hide come to mind during that time? Again, he was in a moment of crisis and Hide had always been that stability for him but it's just curious to think about...

Hide: I've seen and read so many different rumours about how Sui Ishida intended for Hide to be canonically bisexual. However, I can't find that interview or confession ANYWHERE in a way that makes it clear that Sui Ishida actually said that so we will disregard that for now. Setting that aside, Hide has a very intriguing point of view of Kaneki. His insight on Kaneki's life is the closest we get to an outside perspective of Kaneki's behaviour from an intimate view. Obviously we see other ghouls, CCG members, etc. studying the way Kaneki behaves but we never see it in the same way that we do with Hide. That boy has been taking notes on Kaneki since he first started acting odd. He caught onto Kaneki being a ghoul with ease (ofc this depends on the version as well. We are ignoring the live action version because it screws up the source material.) No matter how hard Kaneki tried, he could not get Hide to stop caring and stop observing. Hide went undercover in both the CCG and ghoul world to make sure Kaneki was okay. His life centred around Kaneki. That in itself is a confession of love and not in the platonic way.

Uta: Setting aside the way he looks at Renji for a moment, his entire being breaks the norms which is what queerness and queer history has always been. Uta quite literally makes masks so ghouls can create a whole other identity surrounding their otherness. His entire presence screams queer-coded.

Tsukiyama: I don't think I need to explain this one much tbh but his obsession with Kaneki cannot be overlooked. It is obviously super creepy in a lot of way and he crosses a TON of boundaries. However, that level of obsession is definitely not in a "you're my guy pal, let's go lift weights at the gym" (idk what cishet men do I'm sorry). His fascination with both the male and female ghouls feels very queer to me even though it is to an extreme that needs to be observed and dissected with caution.

Nico: He is the embodiment of a gay stereotype. Obviously not all rep is good rep but he definitely fits the mold and he is definitely queer, no doubt about it.

Mutsuki: Without a doubt, he is trans. Many people argue "oh he only transitioned so he could become a Quinx Squad member and change his identity better blah blah blah." HOWEVER. I raise you: once Urie found out his assigned gender at birth, why did he feel so deeply uncomfortable? Obviously, he was worried that Urie would tell everyone and their mom but even after Urie kept that a secret, he was still nervous. It's almost like he didn't want to be treated differently because of his assigned gender at birth and transition... There is a lot about Mutsuki that could have been handled better but I also think that him keeping his preferred name, pronouns, etc. is so important. Not once did Urie question it, he just wanted Mutsuki to keep doing his job well. Mutsuki is a very complex character and you can dissect his storyline from a million povs but I think first and foremost that he is trans and that there isn't really a question as to whether or not he wants to be referred to as a man or not

Overall, all these characters are only a small part of an even LARGER queer analogy! Tokyo Ghoul is about a man learning to grapple with being both ghoul AND human. Taking this into account, a ton of queer people have to be worried about being 'found out' or 'outed' because we live in a world where it is dangerous for queer people to exist still (much like it is dangerous for ghouls to exist). Kaneki is coming to terms with the fact that he might not be fully human (or the societal norm). Learning to deal with that, especially when you feel like you're the first EVER because you have no prior experience or relationships with other members of the LGBTQ+ community is terrifying! That feeling of 'otherness' or 'monstrosity' is unfortunately something a lot of queer folks have to go through. The CCG has a very religious/governmental parallel to it and could even be used as a metaphor for the hate that queer people receive from institutions that benefit from our suffering. However, Akira AND Amon both empathize with Takizawa eventually and are subject to abuse and rejection because they love and care about someone in the 'other' community. Haise's transition and morphing with Kaneki is a beautiful metaphor for how many queer people will try to be 'normal' or conform to society for protection but you always kind of know your identity is there. As mentioned earlier, Uta makes masks for other ghouls so they can create a separate identity to protect themselves when trying to exist. That feeling of two separate identities, two separate worlds that you think cannot combine is SO common in the queer community. Kaneki feeling like he isn't enough of ghoul OR human to fit into the world at all is often how queer people are treated too. Being told you're not enough of something and being rejected by communities who allegedly were there to protect you. To conclude, I'd like to say thank you for reading all this (if you did) and also feel free to add on, debate, or include things I'm missing! Also I wrote this very very sleep deprived so I'm sorry about my grammar. Okay goodnight oomfies

[crystal-lillies]

A Rambling First Thoughts Review + Critique of "Peter Pan and Wendy" (Disney+ 2023 movie) Spoilers ahead.

Okay for being called "Peter Pan and Wendy" I think aside from prequel iterations, this movie had the least bit of connection and bonding between Peter and Wendy that I've ever seen.

Wow okay, not even sure where to begin on the rest of my thoughts but certainly that was the first one. I didn't feel much connection between Peter and Wendy at all, and the story had very little justification for the emotional moments between them it tried to eke out, which is actually very difficult to achieve since the original source material has it baked in that all the adaptations, even the ones that twist the formula, have been able to adapt and grow off of.

Oof and I gotta say the movie rushed the beginning to really crawl through Neverland. I was shocked at how fast it was that they were already going, and it didn't really seem like an urgent event. Just like, oh yeah Peter's just gonna show up at your window and take you to Neverland one day kthxbai. Rather than it being a motivated decision for Wendy to say "I'm growing up tomorrow" (leaving the nursery, going away, etc.) but I don't want to, so I'm going to go and never grow up.

Also sidebar, Wendy my love, being an ass to your brothers is not endearing to your plight and is definitely new for this adaptation which was a Very odd take. And it could be argued by the end...or even the middle...she realizes her responsibility to take care of them and look after them in Neverland but that's a weak sauce character arc for someone who HAS one built in that's just as valid.

A really odd take for them NOT to double cast Jude Law as Mr. Darling and Hook. I actually would have liked to see his take on Mr. Darling. But RIP Mr. Darling had barely a personality at all or anything to do here.

And RIP Nurse Nana. Now you are just a dog with nothing to do, and no reason to be put out in the dog house.

And then Neverland, oh my dear place of literal dreams, what they did to you! Now, I am somewhat a fan of the Home Under the Ground being a castle ruin in this version, that's actually something close to how I've seen Neverland at least once. But it felt very empty, both the Home and the island. It was too...empty. And even though every iteration we know only the pirates, Lost Boys, Peter, the Indians, the fairies, and the mermaids live in and around the island, plus animals, all the other versions haven't felt so barren. Is it because Neverland became one large same-y landmass rather than a place that has mountains and lagoons and tropical forests and literally anything children dream of? Maybe that's part of it. But it's hard to place precisely. It doesn't feel lived in. The castle ruins didn't have beds or a table for meals. It had a neat rope swing and a fireplace yes, but it still just looked visually and felt empty, when a badass castle hideout could be so cool!

And regarding Hook and Peter having a history, having a tragic background. First, I'm not opposed to the friends to enemies take. Saw it done pretty well in the prequel special Neverland, though it was from a Fagin+Snape-like mentor to an orphan Peter who looked up to him, rather than two kids and one who grew up. But again, it may have worked with a different story. I don't think it was the right choice here, or at least it was not properly executed. The voice in my head kept saying, if Hook was a lost boy and Peter's friend and he KNEW where Peter's hideout was all along, then WHY hasn't he tried killing him before? The whole sticking point in the source and other adaptations was that he had NO IDEA where Peter's hideout was, otherwise he would kill him there!

Tiger Lily being a badass is never bad in my book, but once again, her service in the story feels unearned. I don't feel the bond between her and Peter, honestly. She had more of a connection with Wendy (and it caught me off guard how I immediately thought, "okay I would ship that" after their conversation en route to the hideout.) And then her tribe is just sort of there. Without much connection to the island, or to Peter. Tiger Lily calls him "Little Brother," but taking the movie as it is without reference of any other Peter Pan media, it doesn't feel earned from what we are given up to that point. It just feels like Tiger Lily being Peter's deus ex Machina, which really historically has been Tinkerbell, and that made sense given Tink and Peter's shared history and friendship. (Something that's also sadly toned back in this movie as well)

"Peter Pan and Wendy" is not even a poor live action adaptation of a Disney animated movie, it's just... a strange and lackluster adaptation of Peter Pan, which had been done successfully as a Disney animated movie. And I think that feels a bit more disappointing.

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

what i also find baffling about their take on the tf2 comics is how they don't get the "spirit" of the game??? not even expiration date is good enough for them apparantly??? im sorry but if everything was kept exactly the same as it was when the game first came out, with the characters remaining one dimensional stereotypes, it would obviously become stagnant and stale after a while and they probably would not be nearly as beloved as they are. At this point do you even like tf2 if nothing that came out 2013 onwards is good enough for you lmao

TBHHHH this is just a very like. "all old things are good and all new things are bad and change is bad and everything should stay the same way forever" take that is Extremely common among gamers (look at like. people who pretend like tfc is actually better than tf2 basically "because it's old" LMAOOO). I think it's an extremely boring and sad way to look at tf2 if you want it to remain how it was at launch forever and misses the "spirit" of it more than any fanfiction ever could. I think people kinda just refuse to realize that the extremely silly, extremely lighthearted nature of a lot of fan content is literally just the tone of the source material, and has been the tone of the source material for Ages. If you like wholeheartedly believe that the tf2 comic is representative of "bad media literacy" bc it's too historically inaccurate and makes the comedy hat men be too nice to each other, you genuinely don't actually like tf2 and like the version of tf2 that exists only within your head and in the competitive servers you play Anger Sniper on. There is a specific subgenre of poster on this website who rants about Le Cringe And Lame Fandomites With No Critical Thinking Skills while at the same time showing that their idea of "critical thinking" means "being negative" and that they don't actually understand or even LIKE the thing they're talking about. Like I'm sorry but if the mainline comic, the update comics, Expiration Date, the Meet the Team videos, like half of the cosmetic items, and a good portion of the canon voicelines that the characters say in the game aren't up to your standard of what "the spirit of tf2" is, you don't actually like or "get" tf2 at all. Tf2's willingness to not take itself seriously is what makes it stand out in a sea of like very Hardcore And Serious shooter games, it takes the trademark Valve touch of humor and runs with it as far as it can (it's Definitely more overtly "a comedy" than something like Portal or Left 4 Dead in my opinion) in ways that I KNOW will not be to everyone's taste, I know some people will just read it as "lul randuhm", but that's the nature of the source. That's the point of what tf2 is. You don't have to like it but at least don't pretend you do and that ur the only one on the planet to understand it properly LMAO

[oddygaul]

The Hunger Games Cinematic Universe

To preface, it does feel a little weird to critique these movies as if they sprung from nowhere. They’re all pretty faithful adaptations, which is relevant because many of my problems with this series are structural / worldbuilding issues, and so aren’t necessarily the fault of the adaptation as much as the source material itself. On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to rattle off some adaptations that took risks and made something fairly transformative - Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, or anything Masaaki Yuasa has adapted come to mind  - so fuck em, they’re fair game.

(I’d seen the first two movies a decade ago, and read the trilogy after that. Ballad and the Mockingjay films were new to me.)

The Hunger Games

Okay, so the original holds up as far as I’m concerned. What sets it apart from much of the post-apocalyptic or action YA that I’ve seen is ultimately how grounded it manages to keep its portrayal of all the kids. I think a lot of fiction with a similar premise tend to falls prey to Anime Syndrome: yes, all the characters are 16 or 17 or whatever, and the authors will make them do some classic teen angst things like get into stupid arguments and be deeply hormonal, but they fail to have the kids react to the horrifying situations they find themselves in convincingly. This is the plight of any battle shounen: the characters are literally fighting to the death against some manner of horrible supernatural monster, or even other human beings, yet will be written like a little devil-may-care badass, or even be stoked about getting to tEsT tHEiR LiMitS! If you’re going for a fun action show, that’s fine, but if you’re trying to sell it as a drama, you’ve already lost your biggest chip.

The Hunger Games (the first one, mind) never forgets that all its characters are young as hell. The absolute shaking terror of the cornucopia, the wide eyed panic as Katniss and Foxface come face-to-face and realize that neither of them wants to do harm, even Cato’s eleventh hour realization that his entire life and persona are ultimately meaningless*, all fill the story with a pathos that makes the movie work, despite some inherent YA cheese.

*Probably my favorite addition to the movie.

I really love the stupid-ass beard they gave this guy

Catching Fire

Yeah, this is where it starts to fall apart for me. The first act prior to the Games is pretty compelling; our look into Katniss’ PTSD, her and Peeta’s inability to reintegrate into society as if nothing happened, and the acute, sudden horror they’re slammed with upon realizing they’re being forced back into the games are all handled incredibly well. The first half hour of this movie feels like slowly waking up from a bad dream, only to realize you’re still asleep.

After that, though… eh.

I think what bothers me about the Games themselves in this one is that everyone taking part is an adult now. Part of what makes the concept of the Hunger Games so brutal is the age of the contestants - and not merely in a pearl-clutching, oh-jeez-it’s-so-horrible-to-see-this-violence-done-upon-the-youth sort of way. There’s just a special abhorrence tied to watching a bunch of children, who ought to have their whole lives ahead of them, slowly have the dawning realization that their whole world is now this mere microcosm, in which their only options are murder or death. Watching this emotional turmoil play out differently for each character is what makes the setup compelling; horrible, wrenching, but compelling.

So, having the idea for this one be that these grown-ass adults, each of whom has (by definition of being a victor) gone through this incredible trauma before, is willing to go back again and fight like it was the first time? I dunno, it feels goofy to me. And I’m not saying they have a choice to participate - I know it’s mandated - I mean that once they’re in the arena, half of them seem to go “oh well, here I go killin’ again!” like they’re clocking in for a job. It’s not like they’re sliding back into their old psychology by force once they’re in the arena, either - even in the training center, the careers are doing their usual sneering badass routine. You could make the argument that successful careers are the most likely to have child actor syndrome - that they stopped emotionally maturing after the Games and are stoked to be back in their element, Football Player That Peaked in High School style - but that feels so reductive.

I guess the fact that half of the tributes get in on the Secret Rebellion Plan kind of addresses this - they are working toward a goal in the background - but it still feels off. I wish the movie spent more time exploring the mindset of all the contestants before the games started to flesh out their motivations. As is, the Games here no longer feel like blood sport exploring the psychological response to trauma - they’re just blood sport.

Also, the violence feels very sanitized. Say what you will about the shakycam used in the first movie (it is undoubtedly excessive at times), but the confusion it provides combined with the blood makes the 74th Games feel absolutely terrifying. It gives the sense that no one is prepared for how primal things are becoming as the situation descends into a barbaric haze of violence. In Catching Fire, meanwhile, the bloodbath feels like it’s by-the-numbers for everybody - Katniss and friends group up and just start killin’ Bad Guys** right off the bat like it’s nothing, barely even watching their backs as they talk to each other. I read that the director of #2 and on made an intentional decision not to show blood, because he doesn’t like ‘glorifying violence’... I truly don’t understand how showing a bunch of characters cleanly and effortlessly killing other people like they’re in a Marvel movie is any better.

**This is just a symptom of my larger issues with the worldbuilding, but I really think the careers and their motivation get such short shrift in these movies. They explore it a bit in the first movie, but in Catching Fire they’re fully content to have the careers be easy Evil Bad Guys that the viewer isn’t supposed to feel bad for when they die. It’s another touch that betrays its YA roots, and reminds me of Harry Potter - “Welcome to Hogwarts! We’ve sorted you into the evil house for evil, no-good children, which exists because we need to have antagonists.”

This is also where the rebellion bits start popping up, but I’ll talk about those in a moment because…

Mockingjay I & II

…that’s what these entire movies are about and it’s so, so dicey.

Honestly, to me it feels like Collins had a great idea for a standalone book, but then, by dint of it being YA, was obligated to have the characters eventually band together to take down the big bad Capitol, and just didn’t have a great grasp on how the wider world worked or what a strong revolution story looks like. I think this story worked the best when it was only a small snapshot of the world, with all the periphery implied; the more it’s forced to get into the real nitty gritty of how the setting works, the more ramshackle and unbelievable everything feels, and Mockingjay is where it hits a breaking point. It’s not that there are plot holes, exactly, it’s that we see so little of the wider world that everything feels grossly oversimplified.

I think this is where these films’ dogged adherence to the source material really screws them over. While the books are also lacking in worldbuilding and context from the perspective of other characters, it makes sense there because the books are all first-person POV. Of course we don’t get cutaways to citizens in the Capitol ruminating on their role in all this, or seeing the inner workings of the Peacekeepers to give them any characterization whatsoever outside of being blank plastic suits, because Katniss doesn’t see that. Since the movies have fully done away with this conceit, though, the omission of these supporting scenes feels glaring - especially when the movies are trying so hard to push this theme that everyone has their own fight, and both sides have a reason for their actions.

So, on that note, thematically it’s a fucking mess. It dips its toes into a dozen different themes without really firmly exploring any of them, leaving it feeling indecisive and tonally inconsistent. For example, Mockingjay I spends its intro showing the effect Katniss’ PTSD is having on her, and challenging the idea that just because someone has gone through trauma, they’re a hero and ought to be set up as the mouthpiece of the revolution - how can you ethically put the responsibility of leadership on someone who gets the shakes every time they hear a bang? …but then, not to worry, show her a cool superhero outfit and she’s out there shooting down gunships with fuckin Hawkeye arrows by dinnertime.

And the wider revolution story has many similar issues. What’s your message? Dictators are bad? Wow, what a take. Both sides committed atrocities, so they’re both bad? Politics are hard and messy, and you just gotta keep your head down and hope you can retire to the country? Yeah, way to really take a hard stance on that one.

If I put all that aside, it generally works as a character piece - Katniss and Peeta’s development over the course of the story, in particular, is well done through and through, and it feels rare to see a broad appeal series like have the nerve to take its leads to such dark places. There’s also a lot of surprisingly great character acting throughout; my personal standouts are Hutcherson, Stanley Tucci, and (surprisingly) Woody Harrelson, but there’s honestly not a bad actor in the bunch, which is impressive. Still, with the subject material being so heavy, it’s hard for me just to take it at face value like that, and I wish they shored up the weaker elements a bit.

I’m just saying, if you spend that much of your screentime showing crowds of children being murdered by IEDs, I think you ought to be building towards a strong statement. 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Yeah, this one felt like a waste of a movie in a really weird way. The execution was incredibly well done - lots of solid acting, production design, etc, which is a huge waste because the basic premise of the movie is fucking worthless.

So, the whole point, I would say, of doing a prequel is to flesh out interesting parts of your universe that you didn’t have time for in the original work. Unanswered questions, a character’s past that you want to learn more about, a deeper dive into parts of the world or lore that weren’t touched on but caught people’s imagination. The Hunger Games series has plenty of gaps that need to be filled: I said above how incredibly small the world seems due to barely exploring any of the capitol, other districts, etc., so it was ripe for a prequel or spinoff! Let us spend some time in other districts, see how other people live and feel about the whole thing. Even if we’re not going post-war, and are going back to the era of the Games (which of course we would), there’s 75 years worth of questions to explore.

Instead of focusing on any of that, the premise of this movie (/book) is “Hey, you know the villain from the original story that seemed like a huge, irredeemable piece of shit? Let’s spend a two and a half hour runtime telling you his backstory, which will show you that actually… he’s always been a piece of shit”. Wow. Spellbinding.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a main character being a bad person. Particularly, if your character is charismatic, they don’t necessarily have to be right or good to be interesting to watch; there’s a certain magnetism to watching that for a lot of people. It’s never been my cup of tea, to be honest; whether pegged as comedy (Always Sunny) or drama (Breaking Bad), I get fed up really quickly when I hate everyone in a piece of fiction. But done correctly, it can still be interesting - showing how a character ended up where they are, showing you a rare good side of them you’d never seen, or showing that they used to be moral, but just happened to be tested one too many times and fell off the deep end.

Snow is none of these. He’s a piece of shit from the first time we see him, he consistently acts like a piece of shit to everyone around him, and then he ends up, in fact, being a piece of shit***. What’s interesting about that?

***I think the most generous interpretation I could give of his character is a piece of shit who briefly dabbles in transactional friendship after Lucy Gray saves him from the rubble, then shortly thereafter returns to being a piece of shit. Which I still do not find especially compelling.

Even outside of that, it’s one of those prequels that does nothing but make the world feel smaller - rather than expanding on any of the dozens of untouched ideas in the series, we spend a bunch more time in District 12, and show that, actually, it turns out Snow and his hangups are the only reason anything happened in this universe for nearly 100 years. From Katniss’ name to the Hanging Tree song she sings, turns out half the things we learned in The Hunger Games resulted from this one particular guy’s life story. In a series that already felt like the world was too small and was in desperate need of expansion, further narrowing the scope feels like such a misstep.

Why yes, I did need to know exactly what the Kessel Run was!

Odds & Ends

I mostly blocked out my memories of Mockingjay the book from the single time I read it back in the day, because I thought it was booty, but the one thing I remembered liking that they changed up was Finnick’s death. In the book, he’s just there one moment and gone the next, without any fanfare or time to grieve, which serves to make his death feel especially cruel. I suppose it was inevitable, but counter-intuitively, the Big Hollywood Death Scene they gave him here felt a lot less impactful.

-------

A point about the series in general: boy did the costume design bother me. It’s interesting, because all I remembered about it from when this series blew up was the gaudy Capitol style and how crazy the internet was about it. Watching these movies again, I feel like that success was a total fluke, because everything else is goofy as hell. The way that every district has their own bespoke fucking Civil War re-enactment outfits is wild - look, the ‘District 11 is just one big Southern plantation’ thing was always really obvious, but seeing each district dressed up like they're from competing historical re-enactment groups was wild.

The prequel turns this up to 11. I feel like someone on the team though they were real clever - this one’s set 60 years earlier, so let’s make all the outfits and design retro! What? People in flapper clothes, the lake scene with their 1940s swimsuits, even the logo and graphic design in the Hunger Games broadcasting room looking like it’s from the 50s - it doesn’t make any fucking sense. Yeah, they’re set decades before the original books - in the year, like, 2300. What, everyone just forgot how to do graphic design again after the war? Fashion is cyclical, but not like this…

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Also, movies 1 and 2 in particular definitely have some uncomfortable racial dynamics going on. I was already weirded out that a lot of the districts seem to be separated by ethnicity, but as you go on, it’s hard to ignore how nearly every Black person seems to exist solely to help Katniss along in her quest before dying horribly and usually on-camera. Rue, Thresh, Cinna, even that old man that flashes the salute in District 11… it’s remarkably consistent.

[ariminiria]

You know...even the live action Scooby Doo movies from the 2000's were MUCH more enjoyable then the crap that Hollywood throws at us now. Those people who worked on the LA Scooby Doo movies totally went all out!

They were a little bit bad in some ways, but at the same time they were so charming. And they weren't trying to be edgy, or anything more or less than the source material. They set out to strictly make a live action Scooby Doo, and they did.

I also think that Scooby Doo is a better candidate for live action than many things that have been adapted as such recently, because of the "monster of the week" nature of the show. Most of the episodes were unrelated, unconnected, and rarely referenced each other, except to sometimes mention old cases. But there wasn't a huge overarching plot to drag the pacing down and detract from the main focus, aka whatever case they were currently working on.

That's why I personally found the Mystery Incorporated reboot to be severely underwhelming. Definitely my least favorite iteration thus far. They focused too much on a "big" mystery instead of just. Ya know. Monsters. And they added too much supernatural element. I'll get into why the live action one gets a pass for that later, but the original cartoons and the What's New Scooby Doo phase only ever winked at supernatural realism. Like the cornfield episode where the creepy cat disappeared except for its red eyes at the end. But it was never really taken super seriously.

The live action movies came out to do their own thing and they set the bar from the get go. So sure, we're having Scrappy Doo try to eat Scooby's soul and the gang gets their bodies all swapped around, why not. They kept the tone consistent with the original material and that's what matters. And you didn't have to watch the other movies to understand whichever one you were watching, much like the original monster-of-the-week setup of the series.

Mystery Incorporated tried too hard to be dark and gritty, yet it still pretended it was being faithful to the original. But they reduced all the characters down to the most one dimensional cardboard cutout caricatures of themselves, taking one trait and blowing it up into their whole personality. Fred is a dumb jock who knows nothing but how to make traps. Velma knows nothing but books (and also she's a controlling emotionally abusive girlfriend now??). Daphne is overtly obsessed with Fred and that's her whole personality.

And then they tried to add an overarching plot in the background of each season. They imply that its similar to the cases they've solved this far - ie realism - but just a bigger threat pulling the strings. They're never ever clear of what is supposedly going to happen. Some vague and generic bad guy is planning something. What something, you might ask? What is the culmination of three seasons of insulting material and vague hints? Maybe a real estate scam? An inheritance scheme?

No. Quite literally out of nowhere at the end of the last season, they go through a portal into a shadow dimension and a whole bunch of people get eaten by a shadow demon that can only possess talking animals (for some reason) and it wanted Scooby but only managed to snag some pathetic bird. But it still wants Scooby tho! Anyways the shadow demon is literally consuming their town and the people in it (including the gang's parents cause yeah let's give the kiddies some nightmares) and somehow the power of friendship defeats the shadow demon but also sends them back to an alternate reality like Back to the Future and they all have really cool, better lives now. For some reason.

Honestly, it was insulting that they tried to even call that a Scooby Doo show. If they had made original characters and done their own new thing it would have been kind of interesting. But nah. Just something else where you can tell the creators hated the original material and were determined to twist it into what they wanted to watch instead of being faithful to the source.

The movies understood what they were doing and they didn't try to make it something that it shouldn't be.

[meetmeatthecoda]

hey y'all. i'm just sitting down to type this out. it's something of a rant, i guess. i just have mixed feelings about writing for lizzington right now & i'm trying to organize them via blog post... here's the thing: i always want to write for lizzington & i've had tons of fic plans for a while... but then everything went down the crapper & i accidentally wrote myself into a pretty perfect ending with my last series. and while i absolutely could write more, i guess i just wonder if anyone is still around to read. bc while sharing is one of the best parts of fandom & fic, & i consider even one reader to be worth it, AND i know i should also be able to write for myself maybe even as practice for an original book someday LOL yea right, i can't help feeling sometimes that it's all a little redundant to continue. even tho the show will technically continue for season 10 (lmfao) i certainly will not be watching & the show is definitely over for me & has been since season 8 ended. i know a fandom community & activity can continue long after the source material has wrapped, so there's nothing inherently wrong with continuing to post, but i'm still so sad about how things ended, that our passionate little corner of fandom was so unceremoniously, cruelly ended & things have just fizzled out from there. it seems like almost all our amazing writers & lovely community members have moved on to bigger & better things (which i fully support!!) but i miss them all so much & i'm still so sad about it all. everything about the unexpected end was - & continues to be - so unfair. while i love the hobby of writing & i can't imagine writing for anything but lizzington & i do think i'll need the outlet in the coming months of my Real Life, it doesn't feel the same & i'm sad about it. so idk, i guess i'm just vomit-typing these feelings to see if anyone is still out there & feels the same way & will be around to read if i continue to post. and i probably will regardless, or at least i'll try to, (i don’t mean this to be some kind of dramatic fic-writing retirement post or something lol & i certainly don’t want to upset or alarm anyone) but i just miss my lizzington peeps... i wish i had the reach & coordination & confidence to organize some sort of reunion or fic fest or rewatch - if only out of spite lmfao - but i literally have no idea where to start with something like that. anyway, i love & miss you guys a lot. and just... let me know if you're still out there. cause i am. much love always ❤️

[natsspammityspamspamham]

I wonder if it's even possible for Romantic Killer to get a second season since the anime already covered the manga in it's entirety.

Yeah! I reblogged someone's post on that:

My thoughts on a possible season two (+ ideas for season two):

TL;DR: Conclusive endings and decisions can change the show entirely. Many romance anime have taken different routes to combat this issue to varying levels of success. I personally think that either Anzu has no clear romance route in the end or they portray all of the routes (all or nothing). Because of this, I think it would be risky to make a second season (although I really want one). Maintaining the balance between entertainment and progress is a difficult one, but if they can do it, by all means, I want another season!

I wouldn't want another season if it ruined the first one. Personally, I wasn't in favour of making Riri a love interest. I found them to be unnecessary. In fact, I'd be more okay with making Saki a love interest instead. Riri just seems too out there. I don't mean the gender-fluidity. I mean the fact that they are LITERALLY A MASCOT IN THEIR NATURAL FORM. I mean, I get why people would get behind it though. I just find it odd.

Prepare for a tangent...

Edit: Another thing I'd need if a season two were to happen is an episode with just Tsubasa and Junta. The reasoning will be put below the cut since it's part of the tangent.

The thing is that this premise gives rise to a problem similar to most other harem romcoms. This is the problem where you can't really end it conclusively without feeling like you're losing a part of the show. It can change the whole tone of the show if you want to continue after the MC has chosen the love interest they like the most. Ranma 1/2 had him choose a girl at the very end of the manga, but they never officially got married or anything because that would ruin the tone of the hi-jinks. In contrast, Kaguya-sama, although not a harem, arguably took a gamble because of the confession potentially getting rid of some of the tension. Gotoubun no Hanayome had him choose a girl (arguably the wrong one) to the dismay of most of the fanbase (and man, they were LOUD). Or you have the route that I personally think is the superior one to all of these will-they-won't-they which is to make paths for each of the main love interests. It's definitely the most costly, and it would be a waste of time for those love interests that are definitely not of the same caliber as the others. We saw this done with BokuBen. This option is not polygamy at its core (although, poly-relationships are a-okay when consensual). These are presented as alternative universes in their own right like paths in an RPG or dating sim.

If they were to make a second season, I think it would need the same wackiness as before. I don't think the show would be able to pull off a tonal shift as it is right now. I know that if they picked one guy, it would default to Kazuki since he was the first one to show up and be introduced to the audience, and it's heavily foreshadowed in the opening. This leaves all the Junta fans in stitches, and I always have a soft spot for the childhood friend who has loved the MC for a long time.

To continue back to the edit point, I'd like to reference that in other harems before it (like BokuBen or Gotoubun no Hanayome), there have been episodes or even arcs where the main concern is the relationship between two members the harem (I get that Gotoubun is because they're literally quintuplets, but it still counts!) I feel like this adds more depth to the characters, and it focuses on relations outside of their relationship with just the main character. After all, real people are more than their relationship with their significant other. Plus, I really appreciate how this Romantic Killer doesn't use their two options against each other. Tsubasa doesn't harbour any ill will towards Junta, and Junta is just not capable of harbouring ill will 99% of the time. In a ton of other romance anime, Junta would've gotten mad at Tsubasa for "putting Anzu in danger by association" which is stupid, and I'm glad they skipped it and even had a conversation about it. Anyways, I think there is just a bag of potential.

Of course, the opposite is also true when it comes to building platonic relationships between the MC and others. We have OreSuki (can't believe I'm referencing that hot trash show that was too enjoyable for me to drop) that showcases that you can have an MC who has a ton of girls vying for his attention just up and choose his best friend because "bros before hoes". If they're not going to make Saki a romance option (which I think is a completely valid option), they should at least give her a "best friend ending" option. Heck, I thought they were going to go that route with Riri until they kind of shoehorned the romance option onto that puntable fricking potato blob.

Do I want a second season? Yes, but I would want a lot of thought to go into it since it's a very tricky balancing act between being entertaining while maintaining some sort of progress (it's possible to entertain without progress, but even that gets tiring after a while).

[marshiestars]

Tag 9 People You Want To Get To Know Better

thank you @scrawnytreedemon for tagging!! let’s begin, shall we? :3c

Three Ships: ughhhhh this is real hard because I JUST invented the most horrible, wonderful “why does it work” crackship a few weeks ago, but if I want to include it, I have to ignore one of my three big zelda ships :C

1. Ghiralink. because of course. I feel like it’s illegal to leave this one out or put it any lower. it’s the good food. it’s well-established. I can afford to be picky with my content. it’s great :D

2. Astlink! sorry Kohlink, but Astlink is less likely to scare half my audience away 😔.

tbh I’m still VERY surprised that Astor and Link aren’t paired together nearly as often as Zelast (Astor / Zelda). don’t get me wrong, both are rare pairs, but somehow Astlink is even *rarer* shksjhdjhsshs, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. either way, it's 'moody goth bitch rejected by society (or maybe he rejected society first, it's a chicken or egg situation tbh) with the perfect golden person that everyone admires who secretly has their own issues'!! and it's about how they're on the complete opposite sides of this huge conflict and yet they find unexpected parallels in each other! and having everything fall apart but deciding to be a better person, even when the rest of the world says it's too late, because that one person believes in you and is willing to give you a chance! darkness and light! it's GOOD FOOD

(...man, I really gotta finish chapter 3 of swordsman and the seer.)

3. ...fuck it. scrawny, I hereby challenge you for the title of Weirdest Fucking Crossover Ship. Ghirahim x Godrick? Sephiroth x the Hollow Knight? I'm intrigued, but not crumbling to ash at the thought.

and so I give you this in place of gushing about Kohlink, which is unbelievably rare, but damn it, at least they're from the same source material! besides, I wasn't the first person to pair them by a long shot, no, no, no.

but there’s a special, lonely sort of pride in knowing you’re probably the first of 8 billion people in the world to ever even think of a pairing. ready? here it is:

R*x D*ng*rv*st x S*np*i from FNF.

(censored their names like that because if this shows up in the tags I’m gonna jump out a window)

yeah, man. I don't even know either.

I mean, I do know, somewhere, and my original train of thought is buried in the memory slush of a few months ago, gone forever. so now we're here. fuck. kill me. why am I writing shit for these two. girl what the hell is this

everyone who reads this post, I want a brick emoji in my inbox to simulate getting one through my window

First Ever Ship: ANYWAY, fuck, I don’t even remember at this point, I've been in greater fandom for so long. wait... oh, son of a bitch, nevermind, I do.

*sigh*

it was Billdip.

DO NOT COME AFTER ME, I DON’T SHIP IT ANYMORE. haven’t for years. I was 12. but I loved Bill Cipher (still do, he's my funny meow meow blorbo <3) and was very upset when the finale happened even though I knew that was how it had to be. but every time Billdip art came across my screen, I saw cool art where he: # 1. was still around and # 2. was more often than not a pretty human / humanoid (this was at the height of his sexymanification). hell, I didn't even give a shit about Dipper honestly, I just wanted more Bill content. and again, being literally 12, I didn’t really stop to think abt any moral implications. but yeah.

(also nowadays I hc Bill as ace sooo)

Last Song: 'She Had The World' by Panic! very nice to sing to, it's right in my range <3

Last Movie: does ‘My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas’ count? it’s a childhood film and practically tradition for me to watch it every year for christmas lol. although this year I’ve been replaying it for... research purposes. yeah. totally not for a lethally cursed fanfic, no sir.

if that doesn’t count, then ‘The Lego Movie’!

Currently Reading: nothing atm!! even as my 'to read' pile gets taller by the day, hhhh

Currently Watching: Minty Christmas, again, but definitely not so I can copy the dialogue verbatim to use as the base for a coked-up christmas crack fic

Currently Consuming: soup <3

Currently Craving: instant ramen, good god, especially if it’s spicy. they have cups for sale in vending machines around campus but they’re all beef and chicken flavour :C

I won't tag anyone else in this because nine people is a lot; far too many to bother with this wall of personal nonsense shdhdj but thanks anyway for tagging me scrawny, my beloved mutual!!! <3

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

Hello there! I saw you posting about Arcane. I'm considering watching it (even though I've never played LoL lmao). If you have a while to spare, can you, like, sell it to me? Give some best things about it (or some bad things to consider)?

Thanks, have a great day ^^

Ooh I can definitely try!!! I fucking love Arcane, it’s SUCH a cool show with incredibly complex characters and a really awesome art style to boot. It absolutely dragged me in, even though I knew nothing (and still know nothing!) about League of Legends lmao and gave a full story and experience without really needing to know anything about the source material.

The best thing about it in my opinion is how much agency every single character has. Literally everyone on screen has so much narrative force in their actions; an individual person can change the entire course of the story at any moment just because of the choices they make, and it’s so cool to see the story get pushed and pulled in different directions because of that. I especially love this because of how many women (and people of color) are the ones making those impactful choices!!!!!

Every action has echoes and consequences, and although that frequently leads to tragedy, it still feels SUPER narratively satisfying because of how it’s all executed. And that’s another thing, the narrative of arcane is just. fucking incredible. It’s such a complex story about grief and arrogance and relationships and class disparity and it weaves everything together with such grace it’s just OUGHHHHHF absolutely delicious.

And have I MENTIONED how well all the women are written!!!! How they’re all allowed to be super different and vastly complicated people with glaring flaws and incredible strengths and they’re allowed to have prominent noses and unique facial features and also the buff women actually have muscles it’s incredible.

All that in consideration though there is some stuff to watch out for in terms of content warnings!! For example there is significant focus on police brutality and class violence, fantasy drug abuse/forced addiction, economic disparity, messy familial relationships that at times do get violent, and also some intense child death sequences (ESPECIALLY in episode 3), and the first season as of right now Does end on a very tragic note, so all of that is good to keep in mind going in.

I will say for the record though that none of the violence ever feels meaningless or glorified: it always leaves a very profound mark on the characters/situations and carries narrative weight, so while some truly horrible things happen, they do feel like they matter, if that makes sense. There’s a sense of closure/significance in what you witness.

I personally don’t usually love tragedies or media that’s designed to make you sad but GOD it’s so artfully done in this show that I’ve literally rewatched it like four times because as much as bad shit happens it all feels so cathartic at the end (despite it ending on a cliffhanger) and I love it so much hghnhngnnn

Anyways TLDR I fucking love this show and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy and/or steampunk, wants to see well written characters, or who likes animation even a little bit. I hope this helps!!!

[dans-den]

Velma Review

How's it going everyone? Happy MLK Jr day, unfortunately what I'm gonna be talking about today is anything but happy. Today I'll be giving my review for the...much anticipated disaster that is...Velma.

I honestly did not think I could find something even worse than the Fairly Odder show.....but once again, life finds a way.....to prove me wrong. While Fairly Odder is the worse variation of a beloved franchise in the form of a kids show, Velma is definitely the worse variation of a beloved franchise in the form of an adult show. There is so much wrong with this show that I don't even know where to start, guess I'll dive into this dumpster fire and hopefully come out the other side with my sanity intact.

I guess we should start with how Scooby Doo started. This property goes all the way back to 1969, All the characters have been established since 1969. Now I don't have a problem with modernizing the characters, I honestly don't. There have been several attempts to make them up to date and each decade has had one iteration or another of the Mystery Gang. Now some can argue those old direct to video Scooby Doo movies from the 80's with Red shirt Shaggy and Scrappy Doo is a notable exception where the gang wasn't present and that's true. Some argue that they're great some argue that they go against the source material it's kind of mixed. I personally thought they were entertaining despite that the gang wasn't whole and that it focused on wacky monster adventures rather than solving mysteries. While that is the case, they at least kept the main character Scooby Doo in the movies and they kept in spirit of the franchise. It is a Scooby Doo project that's trying to mix up the formula. Velma feels completely opposite, it feels like it was meant to be something else, but someone at WB decided to slap the Scooby Doo characters names on it because no one had faith in the show. This is the exact same reason the Halo TV Show failed. They made something generic and used a beloved property to make sure its watched to a certain degree. Velma pays no respect to the franchise its "supposedly" based off of. All the characters are different and given either architypes that don't fit them at all like Shaggy (or Norville as he's called in the show. guess they wanna use Shaggy's real name to make him less stoner...idk it doesn't work) or cliché architypes like Fred who of course was given the rich white boy who's dumb and slightly racist. Velma and Daphne are basically self inserts of Mindy Kaling and Constance Wu.

Now the characters/cast, no disrespect to any of them they're all just doing their jobs. However, it does not excuse how the direction given to them is nothing short of a...not so much a slap to the face of the Scooby Doo fandom, but more of a sledgehammer to the face. Mindy herself is an executive producer and I really feel she wanted to make this show something else but someone told her "Use the Scooby Doo franchise, that'll make your show great!". As I mentioned, the show is so far from the source material that it doesn't feel like Scooby Doo. In fact, Scooby Doo, the main character and mascot of the Mystery Gang, is not in the show. To be honest that is probably for the best so they don't ruin him. How can you have a Scooby Doo show without Scooby Doo? It's not a spinoff it's its own thing. I mentioned what types of characters they are, and each one is just...unlikable, especially Velma. Again, no disrespect to the cast for doing their jobs but none of the characters are likable in any way shape or form. Velma is cocky, know it all, rude, mean spirited, a basic bitch. Daphne is a cliché popular girl who is just inconstant yet has her moments of character development but it feels so forced that it's hard to enjoy it. Norville (aka Shaggy) is suppose to be the opposite version of Shaggy where he anti-drugs, bland personality, he's a literal simp for Velma (who treats him poorly), and is just boring to watch. Fred is the preppy rich white kid who looks down on everyone under him and his gag is that he has a small penis...no jokes its a gag that just doesn't go away. Daphne is by far the least bad but that's not saying much. I can't enjoy any of them, they're just hard to watch and mean spirited overall. As I said, I don't have an issue with reimagining's of characters, I'm not bothered by the fact that they're different ethnicities and backgrounds. It's a bit jarring because why not just make original characters with these designs? If you want representation then created new characters that can set that trail. But even if you change these established characters backgrounds, it wouldn't been an issue if you were able to maintain the key aspects of those characters. This show just straight up replaced their character aspects with something different. All the lovable traits of the gang are all gone, they've all been replaced with just generic high school tropes.

Damn, I'm barely getting to the actual episodes just now? That should be a telling sign. I tried to watch the first episode and I could not make it pass the ten minute mark. I have not raged out of a show that fast since Fairly Odder last year. The first episode tried to real Meta and poke fun at movies/tv shows tropes but it doesn't land. The humor feels so forced and nothing builds up to it. A show can at least be watchable if the humor makes it so bad its good, but the humor is such a miss 99% of the time and its so bad...its just bad. They make fun of tropes and try to be meta but none of it works, there's no real set up for the humor and the jokes feel more mean spirited like the 420 joke they told in this show, jabbing at adults who like animation. It doesn't feel like it was made for fun, it felt like it was meant to resent the audience and alienate the fandom. The locker room scene with the dead girl had the joke "She has no brain!" that joke felt like it was AI generated or something a 10 year old could have made. I also find it odd how they talk about the nudity tropes while there's high school girls nude in the shower. If this is meant to appeal to an adult audience...why have high school girls naked? This show is trying to be woke and PC yet you went with a cliché that I strongly feel is outdated and unnecessary as well as just alarming. I understand these are fictional characters, but it doesn't make it any less creepy and unnerving. They also make plenty of pop culture references that just feel....lame. None of it is funny or delivered in any fun or funny way.

Do I think a Scooby Doo show with more mature themes can work?

Yes! It can work and its been proven to work. Mystery Incorporated proved it can work with dark mature themes and fleshing out the characters for modern times. If Velma took a page out of Mystery Incorporated, it could have actually been an entertaining adult cartoon. The Velma show had the potential to be good, I'll admit the animation isn't half bad at times. For the most part it looks average, but the animation has it's moments especially when Velma has her ghoulish anxiety episodes, the animation is actually pretty cool I wish it was more like that style. Even if they didn't want to take inspiration from Mystery Incorporated, I still feel that they could have gone about this show in several ways.

First off, age the characters up. Make them like young adults in college or just in general that way the nudity and raunchiness has more justification to stay rather than sexualizing high schoolers (which has been done to hell and back and is just outdated).

Secondly, there should be more focus on Velma's mom. That may be the one element that could save the show. I don't know if they're saving it for later on or as a finale type deal but I feel that had they established Velma's mom as a main plotline in the show, it would make it more interesting, more of a Mystery/crime solving show.

Third, why couldn't these characters be their own characters rather than the actual mystery gang? I think these guys would have done better if they were a new batch of meddling kids that would be successors to the original mystery gang. In fact there is gonna be a Scooby Doo show about that for preschoolers called Scooby Doo and the Mystery Pups coming soon. It is exactly what I'm suggesting for the Velma show. This should have been new characters brought in to take on the mantle of the mystery gang rather than being cheap imitations of the actual gang.

Final suggestion, DONT MAKE A SCOOBY DOO SHOW IF THERE IS NO SCOOBY DOO!

Overall, This is yet another show that was trying to build off the name of a beloved franchise and failed completely. This I feel is yet another instant of handing beloved properties to people who do not like or respect the source material in the slightest and made whatever they felt like and alienated the fanbase. Velma is down there with Animaniacs (2020), Powerpuff Girls (2016), Teen Titans Go!, and Fairly Odder. There's talks of a Season 2 coming out and I encourage everyone to not watch it. Don't give it the time of day because if you do, WB will continue making shit like this and the only way for them to stop is to hit them where it hurts, profit. If you wanna give Velma a go then by all means but I'm not gonna keep watching it. If something happens that makes it suddenly good then I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I highly doubt that.

Rating Velma I am giving it:

0.5/10

I know this may seem premature to rate it this early on in its run but I do not believe it will get any better. If by some miracle it does, I will come back and reevaluate it with a firm apology. I'm open to be proven wrong but I stand by that this show is beyond saving and I do not recommend anyone watch it whether its Ironic or Unironic. Never thought there could be a show that would beat out Fairly odder.

First review of 2023, off to a good start....Hopefully the next pieces of media I cover won't be as horrendous.

See Ya!

[callgespenst]

Best of 2022 Media Post

I read/watched a whole lot last year! Here’s the summary of what I enjoyed the most.

Sing a Bit of Harmony: The best new anime movie I saw last year. Usually I try and watch everything I can subbed, but I caught the dub showing for this and it was really well done. Very lived-in and real-feeling near future setting, some wonderful stuff about AI, and just a really good coming of age story. A year later it’s apparently finally getting a US BD release so I’m excited to finally watch it subbed.

Dress-Up Darling: Found this show oddly relatable (or at least, the parts about making the costumes). Wholesome in a roundabout way, and has a very true to life portrayal of how horny teenagers can be, without being weird or gross about it.

Everything Everywhere All At Once: I haven’t been hooked by a trailer for a movie like that in a very long while. Just seeing the preview I knew I was in for a great time, and it delivered. A lot of other people’s favorite movie of 2022 as well, but it’s just that good.

Creamy Mami: One of the earliest magical girl shows, and yet, goes in directions completely untouched by any of its successors. Excellent funny little mascot characters, bopping tunes, and some of the funniest episodes of anything I’ve ever seen. An absolute must watch. Still have some OVAs to go through at some point.

Thrilling Bloody Sword: the summary said “a martial arts movie based on Snow White” and while that’s technically true, it’s so, so much more from that. When the opening credits played and the movie’s main theme turned out to -literally- just be a stolen reindition of the Space Battleship Yamato opening, I knew I was in for a good time. Bonkers battles, a completely unpredictable plot, and special effects that weren’t even good at the time combine into a flawless package. Also, the male main antagonist is weirdly hot and also an incredible actor. When the special effects are that bad, you gotta really give it your all to sell them.

Glass Onion: Another popular pick, but it’s damn good. Needs every second of its two and a half hour runtime. Has a great core message, a superb female lead, and the best use of celebrity cameos in any media I’ve seen in a good long while. Hope there’s many more Benoit Blanc mysteries to come.

Spy X Family: The first anime adaptation in a hot minute that got me to read the source material. A perfect mix of comedy, action, and good old fashioned spy thrills. My only complaint is that there’s not nearly enough Yor getting to do what she does best, but I think the next part of the manga I have to read will fix that.

Dragon Ball Super Hero: Went to go see this twice! Wasn’t sure how the 3DCG would go over, but it was really well done. Got me to finally re-read Dragon Ball all the way through like I’ve wanted to for ages, so that was good too. The action’s great, but it’s really the good ol’ Toriyama humor in full force.

Symphony of the Night: Not sure what I can say about one of the most acclaimed video games of all time, but it was a lot of fun! I could feel myself getting better as I went along, especially when I got into the Reverse Castle. Had to start using my entire toolkit to get by. Think I’ll definitely play another Castlevania game for Halloween this year.

Flying Phantom Ship: Like Creamy Mami, a massive inspiration for a lot of series that have come since, and yet, I saw almost nothing that happened in this movie coming. Only an hour, but with at least three hours worth of twists and turns. Nothing I say about this film can really do it justice.

Phantom of the Paradise: Tremendously well put together movie. Great music by the legendary Paul Williams with a story you probably already know, but put together in a captivating and engrossing way. Knows it’s a story and who the main characters are, and has them interact in ways that really show off all their strengths and flaws. That said, my favorite character might actually be the man only known as Beef, I think about him a lot.

That’s everything for 2022! I have no particular goals on the media front for 2023, but I’m excited to see what it brings.

[curestardust]

Dust Watched: The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2

Genres: Isekai, Fantasy // 13 episodes // S01 (x)

Zzzzzzz.....

✧  story  ✧

The first season of "Shield Hero" pissed me off to an insane degree and this one almost put me to sleep multiple times.

I actually was interested in this season. The last one ended with the most interesting characters showing up, some stakes, whatever. But then the 1st episode doesn't even mention that. Naofumi is back in his village with some of his party members, doing nothing, preparing for the next wave.

Despite this season being 13 episodes long, they managed to force 2 arcs in here, both of which could've been a 1 cour by themselves with some padding. The first one is the Spirit Tortoise Arc. It's some legendary creature and that's as much as I remember. It woke up for some unknown reason, is on a rampage, the other 3 heroes besides Naofumi decide to peace out immediately because they know the outcome, which they decide to not tell him because???

Anyway they fight it, it's quite boring. There's a sprinkle of interesting lore in one episode I guess. Here we meet Kyo, an unhinged idiot who came from the other world as L'Arc and gang. He also holds a Vassal weapon. Anyway, after a really shoddy ending to the Spirit Tortoise Arc which lasted like 4 episodes, Naofumi and gang decide to follow this dude because they want to take revenge for a character they've known for about 2 days.

Second Arc plays out in the other world which frankly looks much more interesting than the cookie cutter "European Medieval Fantasy Land" we've seen a million times. I actually read some posts on the forum and apparently they cut out and reorganised a lot from the original Light Novel making it somehow... worse? An incredible feat considering how low the bar was.

The only thing saving this arc is the new characters, otherwise it's incredibly rushed and disjointed and soooooo booooringgggggg.

✧  characters  ✧

The worst and best part of the season. Kyo, the main villain, is the MOST stereotypical villain. He just laughs. Evilly. Oh and there's another dude who has the exact same personality.

Middle ground is Ost, who really could've used some more conflict with her character and definitely more time so we could get more attached to her.

Best is the heroes of the Other World. Kizuna is fun and so are the other Vassal Weapon holders (not Kyo) even though they really don't get to do much. More important is the way Naofumi can bounce off of these characters.

Filo was done dirty and at first I thought Raphtalia had some highlights but hearing how much better the source material treated her, I changed my mind.

EDIT: I completely forgot that Rishia was even in this anime despite her having the most screen time after Naofumi and I think that by itself explains everything you need to know about her. She had one cool scene.

✧  art  ✧

Abysmal. The art was one of the only positive things in Season 1. This looks like literally every generic isekai out on the market, sometimes even worse. You could say they were saving for the "final big battle" and while it looked better, it also was just 2 characters standing in one place then a building blowing up.

✧  sound ✧

OP/ED are bangers. The VA's were obviously struggling with the script, especially Kyo's, the poor dude. The OST is really weird because by itself it's good... but it doesn't fit with the scenes? I don't know what that was about.

✧  overview ✧

I know *some* of the quality drop is due to COVID. But the rest? Just bad. Unsalvageable. Boring. If the source material for this was so bad that they had to butcher it, just make this into an OVA or short movie or something.

My Rating: 2/10