#its like 'you rated this thing well and this other thing poorly so I actually know what you LIKE and DISLIKE'

[sloshr]

After watching through Side Order... I have a Few Thoughts.

[Spoilers ahead]

My Review of the Side Order DLC - Its little more than Gameplay.

Initial Opinion

- - - - - - - - - -

Overall; I like the gameplay mechanics initially, but the story absolutely feels lacking to me, imo. It feels like they were really banking on Side Order being Hard but... multiple of my friends finished it on their 2nd or 3rd run through the Spire.

That in itself isnt a problem! But... everyone felt sort of unsatisfied? There were no developments in the story, as we, Agent 8, were just assigned the task to Get to The Top of the Spire -> The Player Does That -> You beat a Boss -> Credits Roll (?)

On my watchthrough I literally said Please Say Sike 😭 because, dont take this poorly, but they were advertising Side Order as;

• Difficult (stated Multiple Times in basically every Trailer)

• Story Driven (You Uncover things as You Climb)

• Character and Lore Intensive (as shown by the trailers with all the concept art as well as promo art)

I dont feel like it was wrong to expect more based on how it was advertised.

But... if you complete the DLC in 1-2 runs, which is Very Much Possible, no buildup happens at all. The story was banking on the player struggling, and putting all the content behind repeat runs, which falls through and Doesnt really work/feel satisfying if the main goal is achieved in such a short time. I Feel like anyone who regularly plays Salmon Run will likely have a similar experience. And I feel kind of cheated? Because what we got was something that was Tell Not Show rather than the Show, Not Tell formula. And in my opinion, it really doesn't work as well at all. It puts all the major lore that the game has set up behind repetetive climbs (which never change btw, despite each climb being generated differently, its the same after a while) and you get about 1 Sentence of Exposition, with a Modlog from Marina if you are Lucky.

Side Order was (to me), after watching it all;

• Not Difficult, But Repetetive Gameplay (This easily runs people down, which would be fine if the tower had more than 1 setup or phase)

• Inital Story Setup with no complexities or stages. You climb the first Tower, Save Marina, Climb the Second Tower, Beat Order, and the credits Roll. In its most complex, you could fit what Side Order's Story is in 2-3 Sentences. Rather than Lore being revealed During the story, it feels Pushed to the Side as all of it is either in Text the player may never see (different climbs) or care to read (Marina's Mod Log)

• Use of Character Drops with no explaination / mention (The Agent 4 Boss, Anyone?) (This felt very Bait-y, with No Payoff)

Rating

- - - - -

If I had to give Side Order a Rating

4/10. At Best.

I am a bit disappointed with this as I feel like I was promised more, Storywise, and honestly a bit gameplay wise. I think it fails where other DLC has succeeded Due to being Built in such a way where anything engaging is stuck behind barely changing gameplay. It is not built in a way where the experience cant fail to show you whats important to the characters and the worldbuilding. It relies too much on telling you whats happening rather than the world showing you. Its too Simple, and It Doesnt Work, personally, in a series that contains Octo Expansion.

Which is Sad to me!! It had so much wasted potential and I really hope this isn't the last we're going to see of the concept, we get to see ideas actually built into the story, and... maybe find Agent 4.

Conclusion

- - - - - - - -

Tldr; Side Order had a good concept, but failed in execution for being simple and gameplay dependent, which was ultimately disappointing due to it being advertised as something more for all involved.

It was an alright attempt. The experience will just be known to me as... well. Baby's First Rouge-like. Nothing worldbreaking.

(PS, this isnt meant to be mean spirited or overly critical, I just love the Splatoon Series so I give it Tough Love. This is just my personal view on the DLC)

Thank you for Reading! Feel free to share or add any thoughts!

[ihopeinevergetsoberr]

the counterpart

chapter 6 — done it warning, done it now

art cr: @zaunitearchives our most faithful viktor lover <3 (can you guess which one of the inspo pics belongs to me?because i wasn’t joking when i said i might start using my pictures for these silly frames — I‘M DEDICATED to this fic okay)

word count: 2,2k

VERY nsfw, horny idiots in love, dialogue dialogue dialogue, explicit language, public masturbation, vehicle sex if you will. some porn to prepare you for the chaos i may or may not cause in the next chap 🫣

part 7

—

“Do you ever feel like a pawn?” 

He turns around and his weary head tips deeper into what little comfort an old bus seat could provide, honeyed eyes a confused reproach pointed at your sheepish smile — had you dawdling over the halo of sun rays slipping prettily into the dark scatter of his hair, turning chestnut into rich, warm bourbon. 

“Since when are you interested in philosophy?”

It makes you stumble over an innocent chuckle; fingers grow flush and hot against his, threatening to slide out of the warm press of hands — to satiate the sudden whim of cradling his face and dipping your thumbs gently into the sharp lines of defined cheekbones. 

“Answer the question, Viktor.” 

Oh the forwardness. Always gives him the urge to comply no matter how ridiculous the request is — be it a hypothetical silly ‘what if’ or an actual firm demand. 

“I don’t project on inanimate objects, milackú,” he maneuvered smoothly out of your prudent trip, placing a cheeky kiss on the curious arc of your mouth. “But, in order not to digress — yes, I suppose I do. Quite occasionally. In your arms.” 

“Smooth. Bravo, Viktor — that was so sweet I might have to see a dentist now.”

“Don’t forget to send me the bill.” 

You gawked at the tooth gap in his proud grin with a hopeless sigh, leaning closer to tuck your face into the crevice of his slender neck. Couldn’t care less about the other passengers — nor did they care about you, to be frank: your seats were hidden in the back corner securely enough. Lips pressed to the fresh love bruise, so poorly covered with a mess of his unbuttoned collar — a not so humble possessive remnant of the morning tryst in his room. You craved a change of scenery: ravishing only one bed quickly becomes boring and unfair to its just as much ravished owner. 

“No, but seriously,” you kept prying, words a muffled mumble against the slim of his skin — had you smiling when you caught the subtle scent of soap on the barely exposed collarbone, and his hand found tender leverage in your hair as thoughts drifted to the delicious things he did to you in that bathroom this very morning. Even longed to hold him there for a little longer — if not for the damn bus, that was now rapidly moving towards your opportunity to flaunt. Or to become a pitiful disgrace. Unfortunately, so far you were only leaning towards the latter. 

It was Viktor’s idea. To play a local tournament — a somewhat silly for a person of his rating gathering, that he had no valid reason to attend. And yet he was so insistent on taking you there, held your hand so securely tight as you tried to fruitlessly convince him of your incompetence. Well, not incompetence, per se — you were simply a tad bit rusty, with a long forgotten dream of ever turning your passion into something professional. Endured a lengthy back and forth filled with his soft persistence and your capricious reluctance (which was secretly just a failed attempt to cover your incitement). 

Because you loved the competition. Used to live off the thrill of having people at the edges of their seats, consumed their defeated groans alongside each captured piece, and forcibly swallowed the spiteful comments spinning at the tip of your tongue during each bitter post-defeat handshake. Adored the elegant gall-spitting on the checkered board, and loved hearing people whisper malicious things whenever you entered the room. 

What happened to that version of you? Was it still there — a sharp tiny warrior, or ‘that pretentious little cunt’ — a title you wore proudly after a certain querulous opponent had revealed it to you generously all these years ago?

Well, certainly. Angry girls grow up shaped into furious women, but your fierceness is now only imposed on men, poetry and lechery. Anything but tournaments. 

And — while chess still owned your heart — you had to bow your head to the countless obstacles of life, aiming for stability; fed the vigorous child inside you countless books and analyzed hundreds of games, hoping that, eventually, that stupid yearning will be sated. 

But now you had him — your bright opponent, rated strong intermediate and highly respected in narrow circles. A player of great potential — he was everything you could’ve been by now, a living proof of one’s passion and major coexisting peacefully. Your personal Czech serpent, the gentlest hangman of your fortitude — eager to get you rated, to make you see your skills through his meticulous eyes.

So here you were. Entwined with him in the contentious privacy of this backseat, harried with occasional chokeholds of your nervousness. Viktor was waiting for your point, all flushed ears and uneven breath. 

“What I mean is,” you sighed again, tongue dancing skittishly over the front row of teeth, “don’t you ever feel so small and utterly unimportant? Like everyone else is so much more valuable?” 

“But pawns are very important,” he protested, coaxing you to quit hiding from his acute eyes, “I delivered checkmates with pawns countless times before. And so did you.“

You couldn’t argue with that logic. Just sank deeper into his arms and watched the light run through his dilated pupils — the slipping boredom of the city both of you were getting out of today. 

“Yes, but would you rather lose a pawn or… say, a rook? Or a knight? Or quite literally any other thing?” reluctant to bend to his attempts at soothing your restless mind, you refused to retreat and sweetly troubled him further. His smirk curled atop yours in a curt little touch — but one can’t kiss away a worry that excessive. Even as determined as he was to try. 

“Depends on the circumstances. Surely, choosing to lose a powerful piece over a less significant one sounds unreasonable when you put it that way — but we both know it doesn’t exactly work like that.” 

His sigh — or was it the rough scorch of the sun? — was making you melt; took care of your misery like the acidic little thing it is. Big palm stirred over the hem of a cotton dress, tracing it with a tremble, then slipping cautiously underneath — to curl around your thigh and pin it to the seat like a gentle shackle. You could still make out the grip through the sheer restraint of fabric; had your legs clenching together to trap it viciously into a crate of skin and soft little hairs: they stood on their ends oh so treacherously, each shiver palpable under the calluses of Viktor’s fingers. 

“Moje laska.” There it is again. Turning you into a dumb pile of freshly discovered weaknesses — he could burn you to ashes that very moment and you’d gladly let him get away with it, as long as that hand stayed so close to home, damp from your sweat and whatever beads of slick seeping through the soaked ruin of your underwear. If only he could reach down and throw а quivering thigh over one scrawny shoulder, tongue a trail chasing the wet deliciousness of your lust after him — just how he likes it: sweet, slow and salacious. The holy trinity of your fervent undoings.

“You’ll make them all feel like pawns,” you felt him sting the shell of your ear in a tortuous whisper, his caress tenderly cruel against what little composure left between tense legs, “I can promise you that much.” 

“We have a tournament to play, and that’s what you’re thinking about right now?” you tried to snatch the power out of his hands, but tripped over his long middle finger — so viciously close to the swollen folds. He could’ve grasped the shape of them through the obstacle of fabric if only you approved of the mischief. 

“We have a tournament to play, and you’re wasting our precious time on baseless self-consciousness. I am merely providing a pleasant distraction,” he explained, then resigned to offer you a moment of hesitation. “Unless the setting is too public for you, of course. I don’t mind proceeding in private, with less prying eyes nailed to your potential, eh… agony.” 

“My, you’re shameless.” 

“You’re one to talk. So? May I?”

Gaze quickly flipped through the row of potential witnesses, failing to notice a single giving a fuck one. Viktor waited for your permission with patiently bated breath, watching your throat move when you gulped, slightly strangled. 

“Please.” 

Lips protruded into a line — a show-off of a smirk at the eroded crumbles of your sanity. Because, indeed — your writhing was needy to its very core, legs tumbled in to coax your salvation out of him. Impatient, fitful, stubborn — your demand was impeccable in its tacit delivery, emphasized the urgency when a single fingertip brushed the entrance soft and languid, then found the wet, laced at the edges barrier. White and see-through, with a silly bow sitting prettily right on top — he watched you put them on fresh out of shower, all damp-skinned and weak-kneed, the swift slide of light fabric over the divine thick of your thighs. It’s a shame he couldn't see the mess he’d made out of them. 

A well-rehearsed route: a casual slide inside the delicate garment, a timid swipe over each plush fold. Immutable, but you liked it — begged for more into his rouge under the white shirt shoulder. It matched you so effortlessly. Though his attire was sticky only from sweat. 

Torturous. Purely, perfectly, obscenely tortuous — that’s how his finger felt, hot and slick, in a precious little roll against the swell of your clit, and you found hold of his lean thigh, nails a sharp anchor in the gentle flesh of it — squeezing hard enough to cut through his pants. And his little chuckles —  these warm brisk spurts of muffled laughter. They had your free from gnawing at him hand pressing tight against your mouth, pushing the debauched whine back into your throat until it was practically strangling you, swallowing hard to keep everyone present unaware of the stage of bliss you were going through in that damned seat. As tempted as you were to scream at the top of your burning lungs — it was best for your audience to remain unconcerned. 

Don’t get caught, don’t attract attention, don’t fuck it up — but god was it difficult when you needed so much more than just these restrained, demure cirles against your aching clit. Glassy-eyed and so tense, you silently pleaded him to keep going — a second away from rolling into his lap to fall strung up on his just as much aching cock and have him thrust your heart out in that very grimmy seat. And he would do it, always so happy to please — no doubt muttering swears towards the oblivious handful of other passengers, mourning the urge to tend to as you deserve it — full-course and thorough. 

He probably won’t fuck you in public ever again. Not where he couldn’t pay you every last neck kiss and every last lewd little word, at the very least. 

But for now he tormented you meticulously towards the sweet climax — clockwise, calculated, gentle. With an occasional flick of darkened eyes over each potential witness: to make sure he’s the only one to savor your collapse, the ever thoughtful protector of your pleasure. And there he was in your ear again — with a filthy helping of pleasantries spoken softly to ensure you get what you want. 

“You’re so beautiful.” Voice satin, motions timidly flawless. He had a bit of a hard time pronouncing it, choked on a humm so utterly awe-struck. “Oh, the things I’d do to you if only we were alone. The things I’m tempted to do to you — to hell with privacy. Being quiet doesn’t suit you, milovaná.” 

And you finally spilled. Heavy head dropped back in what could’ve been a loud lustful moan — mouth formed an eager O under the slam of your sweaty palm. Buckled knees and tiny convulsions — you came not nearly hard enough in comparison to what he usually puts you through, yet it still lanced through you and turned limbs numb, clit was sore from the remnants of your dissolving arousal, throbbing under the generous stroke of his fingertips. 

A slow orgasm — both in delivery and departure, a taunting treat that left you delightfully dizzy. You captured the warm sight of him through the fluttering cover of lashes, myriad white dots biting roughly at your vision, rubbing rudely into a sunny line that melted the ends of his wild hair into a lighter shade. His hand slid away, tremulous. Left a glossy trace all the way up to your shaking knee. Thin wrist caught a little cramp. 

“Breathe.” A sultry reminder upon the slope of your shoulder as his lips found some skin in a brief kiss. Cheeky. Self-pleased. Had you nearly sobbing in fresh desperation when he wiped two glistening fingers to a fetched out handkerchief ostentatiously. Absorbed every drop of you and tucked it back into his breast pocket — to wear you there lewdly next to his heart. 

You’ll need a few cigarettes back-to-back to recover from this.  

The bus needed fifteen more minutes to spit you out gently into the hostile arms of the competition.

—

tags: @thehistoriangirl @zaunitearchives @blissfulip @queen-of-elves @vyshnevska

[gabessquishytum]

Dream is obesssed with his neighbor.

The man is gorgeous, and he knows it -- so do all of the people he regularly brings back to his apartment to service his, frankly, amazing sex drive.

Dream and his neighbor, R. Gadling, share a wall,,,,a bedroom wall. And let Dream tell you, city construction is sh*t because Dream can hear how poorly all of his neighbor's "dates" pleasure him.

Oh, it sounds like "R" comes, but obviously not well enough for repeat performances.

In as non-creepy a way a possible (but totally creepy & obsessed), Dream wants to tell his neighbor that he, Dream, would dedicate his life to making sure R had nothing but the best pleasure; that Dream had nothing but time for R to use him.

Oh my god. I'm envisaging Dream accidentally becoming so stalkerish and creepy about this. Like he's got a notebook where he makes a note of R's hookups, if he can discern whether they're male or female, what kind of sex it seemed to be (oral, anal, piv, handjob), and a rating out of ten on how much R seemed to enjoy it. He's just... really interested in what R likes and he wants to know all this stuff in case he ever gets a chance to actually be on the other side of the wall. As a result he knows an embarrassing amount about R's preferences, and he has a thousand ideas about how much better he'd be than the usual "dates" passing through his neighbour's bedroom.

I like to imagine that they do in fact get together, and Dream predictably blows Hob’s brains out so magnificently that they fall quite quickly into a real relationship. Hob is finally getting satisfied, Dream is so proud of himself... and then one day Hob is looking for something, and comes across Dream’s notebook instead.

Hob has quite a hearty chuckle reading through each entry. It is a little (lot) creepy, but Hob knows Dream well enough by now to see the good intentions. In fact its quite a turn on to see Dream’s longterm investment in Hob’s pleasure. He went above and beyond to make sure that Hob would enjoy their first hookup, and isn't that really quite lovely? Of course Dream is mortified that Hob knows now, and it only encourages Hob to be more of a demanding bratty pillow prince, but that's not such a bad thing. Dream likes him that way. And he'll work every day of his life to make sure that Hob is more satisfied than he ever has been before.

[pixelheartthrob]

A post from reddit:

*Sigh* Here we go again... Let's go through each of these "points", shall we?

"Poorly written" - Um, no...she's not. Elise's character is simple. She has the same desire for adventure as Sonic, but because of her status and responsibilities as a princess, she can't fulfill that desire. Her arc was about Sonic teaching her to open up, enjoy life, and inspiring her through his love of adventure. Despite how scared she felt when being kidnapped by Dr. Eggman, Elise states that she enjoyed the time she had with Sonic on their adventure because it allowed her to see things she had never seen, do things she'd never done, and be herself.

I think it's kind of tragic how some of the things Elise shows excitement and joy about are rather small, such as seeing flowers or running in a field. It just shows how lonely she is and that she didn't get to have a normal childhood. It's clear that she doesn't get out much. Elise may not have the most in-your-face personality but she's not poorly written. She's a kind, reserved, and selfless princess that cares deeply about her people, but she gets called "bad" because female characters whose main personality traits are kindness or selflessness are considered "boring" nowadays.

"Poorly designed" - I know this is subjective but I find Elise's design pretty. They could mean her in-game character model, but the way its worded sounds like they mean the design itself. The bright orange leggings are a bit weird, but her design is meant to be reminiscent of a bird.

I will say the soft peach color of the leggings in the CGI cutscenes looks much better though. I have no clue why they're bright orange in the game. Her actual design: the dress, hair accessories, heels, etc. are well-made. I also think it's unfair that people dismiss it as a "Final Fantasy design". She's a Sonic character and it's a Sonic design. It's safe to say that there's no standard as to what is and isn't a Sonic design. There's been many unique and crazy-looking Sonic characters. Final Fantasy is far from the only franchise to have realistic-looking humans either so I don't understand why people say this.

"Contributes nothing to the plot" - Besides reviving Sonic and snuffing out the Flame of Disaster, which effectively got rid of Solaris and allowed everyone to live in peace. Yes, Sonic, Shadow, and Silver did the fighting but it was ultimately Elise who had to deliver the killing blow to Solaris and put out the flame to truly defeat it.

"Molests Sonic's corpse" - ...Is this one even worth addressing? People still say this in 2024? Sonic fandom and the internet as a whole, I'm begging you, PLEASE learn what the words beastiality, necrophilia, and molestation actually mean instead of throwing them around because you're just repeating what YouTubers say. Thank you. Were they looking at some other site and somehow miraculously confused it with Sonic 06? Because there are no X-rated scenes between Sonic and Elise in the game. The dreaded kiss scene is a second long and obscured by a light. People keep trying to apply a sexual element to Sonic and Elise's relationship when literally nothing about it is sexual. Also, Sonic wasn't dead, but likely in a coma. Elise even says as much:

So yeah, a lot of the criticisms thrown at Elise don't really hold up and much of it is exaggerated to a ridiculous degree. It's time for people to let it go and put this to rest.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

Women leading superhero films has a long and troubled history even before losers online decided to make it their life’s mission to bully Academy Award-winning actress Brie Larson for the crime of being in a mediocre MCU movie. 2004’s Catwoman is the film that is usually pointed to as the movie that poisoned the well in regards to superheroine blockbusters, but it takes two to tango; the following year’s Elektra is just as much to blame for the negative perception of these sorts of films.

And how could it not be? It was rushed into production, Jennifer Garner really didn’t want to do it but was contractually obligated, it was supposed to be rated R until more contractual obligations nipped that idea in the bud, and on top of everything else it was a sequel/spin-off to a movie that was already extremely unpopular (Daredevil vindication was a long way’s off at that point). With all that in mind, is it any wonder that it’s one of the lowest grossing films to ever be based off of a Marvel comic? The only films that did worse were Punisher: War Zone, Man-Thing, and The New Mutants. Even the Howard the Duck movie did better than this shit!

The career of director Rob Bowman as tanked because of this film, with his credits being relegated to TV. Garner, meanwhile, fared just as poorly, with her career cooling off and leading roles not being a thing for her after that point. But worst of all is the career of the poor boat house in this movie, as it ended up appearing in Fifty Shades of Grey. And obviously this film dragged down the idea of a woman headlining a superhero flick for about a decade until Genocide Barbie Gal Gadot stepped into Wonder Woman’s boots. And while Catwoman would receive better adaptations on the big screen, Elektra would get no such chance…

...Until it was revealed that Garner was reprising her role in, of all things, Deadpool & Wolverine.

While the film isn’t out as of the time of this review, the announcement of her presence in it really got me intrigued about the last time she donned the red ninja outfit. I’m a huge apologist for early to mid-2000s superhero garbage, so it only made sense to check it out in preparation for the massive Marvel crossover Deadpool was about to deliver. And you know what question I always ask when going in to an infamous film like this: Is it really that bad?

THE GOOD

This film is just hilariously corny when it wants to be. I think when it does stupid stuff other superhero films of the time did, it tends to do them at least a little better. For instance, like Ghost Rider it has a quirky miniboss squad full of boring flat characters who exist for Elektra to kill. But while the ones in Ghost Rider are completely forgettable and bland, this film at least has some striking visuals with Tattoo and hot forceful lesbian murder smooching with Typhoid Mary, something I’m sure awoke things in the five people who watched this.

Garner herself is really, really trying, and to her credit most of the action scenes she’s in are pretty ok when they aren’t being edited to death. As I watched the unrated version, the brief glimpses of insight into her backstory are nice, and I do love that bright red costume on her. If nothing else, she does sell how cool Elektra is supposed to be with how she carries herself, even if the writing isn’t doing her many favors.

The final act is where things really get fun, because we have a big stupid battle against magical tattoos, teleporting ninjas, and genuinely the funniest possible way to kill a villain ever. I legitimately burst out laughing when I saw this:

THE BAD

Unfortunately, no matter how funny Typhoid Mary taking a knife to the forehead after saying her only two lines in the movie, two lines that actually give her more character than every other villain in the film, it can’t really completely save the film from its two massive, crippling issues.

Literally everyone in this movie is a fucking moron. The biggest moron is easily Elektra’s buddy, who sacrifices himself so Elektra can escape from the bad guys… but his sacrifice is pointless because they pull the info from his mind with psyhcic powers. He would’ve been better off running away with them! But it’s not like the villains are much smarter; one of them chops down a tree, and then almost immediately forgets this and walks into its path before getting crushed to death. It is genuinely absurd how dumb these characters manage to get. The dumbest of them all, however, has to be Stick. I genuinely have no idea what the fuck this man is trying to accomplish at any point, because he is recklessly gambling with people’s lives here.

But hey, dumb decisions are fine in a trashy 2000s superhero movie as long as they lead to some enjoyably dumb scenarios, right? Well, about that… Barring a couple of ridiculously goofy action scenes, this film is pretty bereft of memorable corniness. Remember how I said the minibosses in Ghost Rider were not as good as the ones here? Sure, maybe it’s true, but no amount of murderous lesbian smooching makes this movie more memorable than Ghost Rider, which features over a dozen insane Nicolas Cage moments. But maybe that’s cheating, it’s not fair to compare a Jennifer Garner vehicle to a Nicolas Cage one… so how about Catwoman? As absolutely shoddy as that movie is, there are a bunch of cringey, campy scenes that have helped earn the movie at least a handful of ironic fans. There’s just nothing like that in Elektra. It’s trashy and stupid in safe, unimpressive ways for the most part, and it doesn’t do anything at all to really stand out from the crowd.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

Yeah, I guess it’s bad, but the level of bad that it is is greatly exaggerated.

The movie I’d most compare this to is, of all things, Morbius. I love Morbius more than most people, and even I’m willing to admit it’s multiple bright spots of trashy charm are interspersed with the dullest shit imaginable, and Elektra has a similar issue. It’s just so goddamn unmemorable and dull for the most part, with only the final act being packed full of silly nonsense to latch onto. But even that comparison isn’t great, because Milo was sprinkled throughout Morbius and was genuinely hilarious the whole way through, while Elektra just plods along until it remembers to actually be a little cool for the finale.

I guess really the film is less “bad” and more “not good.” Like if you throw this on in the background as noise while you do something else, it’s not the worst you could do, though even then something like Black Adam would probably be better. If you want to watch a trashy 2000s superhero film, I guess it’s not unwatachably unpleasant, but why wouldn’t you watch Catwoman or Ghost Rider instead? It just is in such an unenviable position where it’s the bottom of the bottom of the barrel, the least engaging super-schlock ever made, a movie not good enough to be vindicated but not bad enough to deserve the hate it gets. Elektra is just a film that exists. That’s all there is to it and aside from the single funny death, I have no strong feelings about this movie. I think a solid 4 is where this belongs. Not good enough to be average, not bad enough to be awful, it’s just there.

All this being said, I’m honestly very excited to see Garner become a teleporting ninja assassin again. Every comic character who was in a crappy adaptation deserves a second shot, be it as a new character (Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger) or as a reprisal that improves on the untapped potential that was there (Jamie Foxx’s Electro in No Way Home). I’m rooting for Garner to get her due, and for Electra to get the respect she truly deserves… But I just don’t really think this movie’s going to be getting a reappraisal no matter how good she ends up doing.

[vacantgodling]

holds microphone up to u

may i hear about tmc

gimme your thoughts

WELL <3 since you asked so nicely <3 (jkjk but thank you eeeee)

so-- surprisingly atm i'm trying to figure out The Plot. i wasn't sure if i was ever going to make ?? a proper plot for tmc just because like. i love tmc and the kiddos so much but bc i know i want it to be a webcomic style thing that's just scared me off from working on it. basically bc art hard. But i should do it because i want to have fun and i had a few like. lingering dream-thoughts about some things so i thought i'd try and push it more.

rn i'm toying with the idea of expanding what's going on with society. because right now basically, there's the "city thing" that chidori and co live in which is dominated by trains. but i don't think anyone knows the kinda Back Drop for tmc?? cuz i never talk about it?? but basically this is a futuristic wip where humanity had to adapt to earth's sea levels rising WAAAAY up (in a way that is totally improbable but like i'm not hard worldbuilding this world at all bc this is supposed to feel shonen anime like PFFFF. basically anything goes cuz i said so energy). so they use train rails and special train types to get around. tm.

this is old art from an old ask but this is the gist basically LMAO im sorry its so shit PFF

i was originally thinking of making wholly different societies that have something different instead of train masters BUT TBH, i think everywhere has train masters like its a global thing but chidori's city is just a big ass city and governments are still different like how bangkok, nyc, and paris all have different currency pff. basically my scope of the world is just expanding.

anyway tho, chidori's city has the largest population and by virtue of that its the one most prone to diseases, struggling, and economic stagnation. rich people gotta rich so they hate this.

my thought for the plot is actually around the strength of the sturgeon dollar. tl;dr the money in chidori's city is called "sturgeons" like the fish (and is colored similarly) but its actually got a poor exchange rate with the other cities. this is something that is concerning to the herme family who bellamy is the youngest child of. (bellamy below--the diamond prince and one of the s-rank train masters tm)

bellamy is technically the "odd one out" of the herme family and is treated very poorly behind closed doorsaside from his illustrious and beloved image by the public. his family is full of law makers and politicians, but they also have heavy ties with crime (which is what i'm kinda developing now) and they have links to crime various other syndicates across the flooded world. the problem is, because the sturgeon dollar is so weak it puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiations with other politicians and syndicates. so with the under-the-table go ahead from the government, they have begun operations to start working towards destabilizing pretty much every city society (at the expense of civilians obvs) to try and either make the sturgeon dollar stronger, or to introduce an entirely new method of currency only for the elites.

me playing with the idea of yagmur being a double agent has to do with the fact that yagmur is a secret train master branch basically akin to the fbi or z-rank. they're covert ops. he's technically been assigned to work for the government of chidori's city to help with whatever tf this plan is but at the same time, he and bellamy are in a not-so-secret secret relationship and despite coming from money, bellamy hates his family. so yagmur is loyal to bellamy before anything else. but at the same time, bellamy isn't necessarily concerned with citizens--he's concerned with revenge and tearing down his family. so if i were to classify things as they currently are:

chidori and his main friend group (amehana, solange, bev, folami, and markis) are on the side of their city and protecting it from like everything.

bellamy and yagmur on their own side trying to take down the herme family.

the herme family and government (and some other entities) are on their own side trying to sabotage other cities to strengthen thier own dollar and since yagmur works for the government he's also kind of involved in this too.

so that'sssss currently where i'm at. i still need to figure out how the train academy works, what's up with these semi-magical weapons, redesigning folami (AGAIN but thankfully i think i have a good idea this time) and just other stuff to uhhhh make this make sense. maybe figure out the city situations as well?? just a lot tbh LOL

[weaselandfriends]

What do you think Madoka Rebellion adds to the original in terms of the plot or the themes ?

A few years ago, back when I was writing Fargo or Chicago, I noticed the MyAnimeList scores for Madoka the show and Rebellion the movie were virtually identical. At the time, one had an 8.51 on MAL, and the other had an 8.50. These are user aggregate scores, meaning that after hundreds of thousands of individual reviews, each work averaged to a figure within 0.01 of the other.

At first, this similarity might seem to make sense: They are two works within the same franchise, people who like one will like the other, many people probably give both the same score. However, if you take a cursory look into what I'll dub the "psychology" of aggregate scores, this isn't actually a salient explanation.

Outside of severe and noticeable drops in quality from one entry to the next, most franchises tend to increase aggregate score in later entries, especially in anime or other longform works that require significant time investment. The explanation for this pattern is obvious: People who dislike a series don't continue to the next entry in the series, while people who like it do continue, so assuming the series quality remains relatively stable, the next entry will have more people positively inclined toward it than negatively. An observable example of this trend is Attack on Titan. A mega-popular series, its first season currently sits at a respectable 8.54 on MAL, rated by nearly 2.7 million users. Meanwhile, Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2 (the Attack on Titan anime going to the Homestuck school of subdivision granularity) has a 9.05 on MAL, rated by about 1.5 million users. By shedding 1.2 million users who either disliked the original season or were too lukewarm on it to continue, A3A2 managed to propel itself to be the fifth highest-rated show on the entire site. People who rated Act 1 highly didn't suddenly rate A3A2 more highly, they are simply no longer encumbered by people who rated Act 1 poorly.

In this context, the almost exact uniformity of aggregate reviews between the Madoka show and Rebellion actually suggests a significant aggregate decrease in opinion from fans of the show. You can find evidence for this theory in the current standings of both works on MAL. The show has, since the 8.50 twinning days, actually decreased fairly significantly: It stands now at an 8.36, having dropped a full 0.14 in a few years. (For those who don't think a 0.14 seems significant, I'll remind you that pretty much all scores on MAL except for obvious dogshit and misunderstood classics like School Days range from 7.00 to 9.00). Rebellion, meanwhile, has only dropped 0.03 points, to 8.47. As it currently stands, Rebellion is the 138th most highly-rated work on MAL, while the show is the 199th.

Why has the show plummeted so much more strongly than the far more controversial sequel movie? Well, look at the most popular negative reviews of both works. First, the show:

One of the most Overrated, edgy and pretencious shows, who pretends to be "Deep and Mature" just for having blood on it. [...] The story makes no sense at all, and gets Lots of plotwists all the time to make you think that things are actually happening, when it isn't exactly like that. There is a major threat, but by the final episodes it has no importance since you know there are no consecuences at all. Specially on the ending. [...] If Cute Girls being tortured is all you want, you might be just watching Elfen Lied instead. At least that show is clear about what is going for. Madoka pretends to be a Magical Girl just to surprise people. The fact that people reccommend it just because of that, says a lot about how superficial people are regarding this genre. There have been countless of Magical Girls that handle super mature themes and have more impactful stories, without showing a single drop of blood or tortute porn. [A cursory glance of the reviewer's MAL reveals that the only other magical girl show they have seen is Princess Tutu.]

Over time, Madoka has become the posterchild for edgy magical girl anime, and as such has received increased blowback from people, alien to me, who think "edgy" is a criticism. As the entry point of a well-regarded franchise, it is also the prime target for your standard litany of contrarians (definitely not alien to me) who feel the need to say "I didn't like this popular thing!" As time goes on, Madoka's status as a classic has only become more cemented, and its influence on other edgy magical girl shows more pronounced, making it an increased target for blowback.

Then, the movie:

If you liked girls themselves in the original Puella Magi Madoka Magica, then do not watch this one. It just ruins everything there is to love in the original, undoing the whole sacrifice of Madoka as well as ruining Homura's character beyond repair. As one guy on this forum put it: 'it spits on everything Puella Magi Madoka Magica is. This is a good example of how you do not make a sequel.

Unlike the previous reviewer, this one approaches the film from a starting position of good faith. Their dislike of the film comes not from a general outward revulsion to what the film intends to be, but from a position of betrayal. "This is a good example of how you do not make a sequel."

I argue, however, that these two reviewers are actually far more similar than they first appear. That both of them are writing a review without having truly "seen" the show Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

For the first reviewer it's obvious. Consider how often they talk about how much "blood" is in Madoka the show, when in actuality the show is very rarely visually graphic. They are writing a review against a Madoka that exists solely in their mind, a Madoka that they want to exist in the form they choose to perceive. Some bloody Madoka on the level of Elfen Lied. In the anime landscape, where Madoka is a ubiquitously known classic, it's inevitable that many people will enter the series having already, in their mind, seen it. Believing they know exactly what it is and refusing to pay attention to what is actually being shown them.

For the second reviewer it's less obvious, because their review is not about the thing they are misperceiving. They are not reviewing a culturally-constructed vision of Rebellion that they have prevented the actual Rebellion from superseding. They are perceiving the Rebellion that exists. But they are reviewing Rebellion while remembering a constructed, fictionalized version of Madoka the show.

"Ruining Homura's character beyond repair." This is the most common sentiment I see expressed by fans of the show when criticizing Rebellion. Homura was a hero in the show, they often say; indeed, Homura was the hero of the show. Madoka herself, despite being the titular character, is passive and uninvolved by comparison. Homura's love for Madoka is the redemptive moment at the end of the show that provides catharsis for all of the suffering endured; for Rebellion to turn around and depict Homura as toxic, self-destructive, and just regular destructive is a complete reversal. It "spits on everything Puella Magi Madoka Magica is."

Actually, though, Homura is a real piece of shit. And Madoka always was the true hero of the show.

People seem to have this view of Madoka as a Shinji Ikari-type character, a wimp who runs away from all her problems. This interpretation of Madoka is not supported by the show at all. Madoka is constantly throwing herself into incredible danger to try and help her friends, running into witch labyrinths without any means to defend herself or jumping between Sayaka and Kyoko or tossing Sayaka's soul off a bridge (oops). Madoka's problem is not her will to risk her own life to help others, it's her capability. As long as she remains human and not a magical girl, she lacks the power to do anything to help anyone.

For the first 9 episodes of the show, the person preventing the protagonist from reaching her goal, from gaining the power to help people, is Homura. Homura is thus framed as the show's antagonist for most of the show's runtime, and she does her damnedest to lean into that framing by being a weird, standoffish asshole to everyone, at one point telling Sayaka point-blank to her face "I don't care if you die." In Episode 10, we get a flashback episode that reframes Homura's actions, lending her significant sympathetic traits. And while this does, at first glance, change her antagonist role entirely, many of her actions toward the non-Madoka characters remain unabashedly cruel, and some become even crueler in retrospect. For instance, in one flashback, we see that Mami has survived until Sayaka's transformation into a witch, at which point Mami has a psychotic break and starts shooting people. With this context, when one looks back at how Mami manages to tie up Homura in Episode 3 before charging to her death, is it not plausible that Homura allowed Mami to tie her up and then die to prevent Mami from becoming a problem later?

That line of thought requires more interpretive speculation than perhaps the anime has enough time to give us on its lean 12-episode schedule, so I'll let it go without belaboring. But it's no mistake that Homura is actively disdainful of Mami and Sayaka (she seems to abide Kyoko at least), completely lacking in empathy toward either of them, and focused solely on saving Madoka.

But is there not, then, something redemptive in her love of Madoka? Well, partially.

There's a part in either Episode 11 or early Episode 12 that heavily suggests that Homura is nearing her own breaking point. That if she ever gives up in her belief that she can save Madoka, she will succumb to despair and become a witch herself. After her umpteenth failed fight against Walpurgisnacht, she is reduced to a blubbering, pathetic wreck, a trickle of that oh-so-edgy Blood running down her face. And then, before she gives into despair or otherwise resets the timeline to fail once again (because she only fails, no matter how much she knows, no matter how much cool competence she exudes; she can only ever fail), Madoka saves her. And saves everyone.

Which is what Madoka wanted to do, was trying desperately to do the entire show. What she only needed the power to do, and what only one person was stopping her from doing. The antagonist: Homura Akemi.

It's a miracle! Madoka has saved everyone, has rewritten reality to save everyone. Dead characters come back to life, the world is altogether better, there are no downsides whatsoever. And Homura is upset. Homura is upset because Madoka is now a god and Homura can't talk to her anymore.

That's how the show ends. And I think for many fans, it was tantalizing to hone in on the elements of the story that involve frustrated love, a happy relationship denied, and to buy too thoroughly into the emotionally-manipulative trick that is Episode 10's flashback episode. To allow that episode to eliminate the nine episodes before it and turn the story into Puella Magi Homura Magica, a tale of a courageous hero suffering through time loop after time loop to save the damsel in distress. But that was never what the story was, and that was never who Homura was, except perhaps in Homura's own mind.

Rebellion is set inside Homura's mind. It is as much a study on Homura as a character as it is, seemingly, on the innate audience desire to see these girls happy, to pluck them from the tragic story they're trapped inside and transport them into a coffee shop AU or something similar. The film opens like it's an AU; without context or explanation, the familiar characters exist within an unfamiliar but far happier setting. The Madoka Magica that some saw but which never existed, not the Madoka of egdy blood but its equally imaginary opposite: the Madoka of uncomplicatedly courageous heroines, of sapphic innocence, the Madoka that would have existed if not for that pesky interloper Kyubey, the story's only true antagonist.

Of course, in Rebellion, it is not Kyubey who slowly unravels this placid, ideal AU. Nor is it Mami or Sayaka, those incompetent bunglers who only ever make everything worse. It's the same person who reacted so negatively to Madoka's miraculous new world at the end of the show; it's Homura.

Rebellion provides the perfect avenue for a deep dive into Homura's psyche, something that was impossible in the show due to the unconventional structural purpose Homura provided. For the first time the audience gets to see fleshed out fully a character who before was only seen through a distorted lens, and the character study we get builds upon that distorted basis in an ingenious and delectable smorgasbord of visual delight. We see a picture of a girl on the brink of suicide (suicide imagery resonating throughout, from Homura shooting herself in the brain for a tactical advantage to her painfully detailed fantasy of her witch self on long parade toward execution by guillotine), a girl who cannot find happiness even in paradise, exactly like the girl at the end of the show, or the girl at the beginning of her chronological journey who rejected the catharsis of Madoka's heroic death to defeat Walpurgisnacht. We see a girl who cares about nothing and nobody (one of my favorite moments in the movie is when Homura, who is literally on the brink of despair and in the process of transforming into a witch, sneers at Mami for being emotionally weak) except Madoka, Madoka, Madoka. Then, at the end, in a perfect callback to how Homura's time looping journey started by her seizing onto one out-of-context request from a dying Madoka ("don't let me become a magical girl"), Homura manipulates Madoka into saying "Yeah gee I guess I wouldn't like it if I went away forever for whatever reason" so as to justify her new turn into Satan, the archnemesis of God, the antagonist of God.

Homura has always fought for a vision of Madoka that was not the real Madoka. She has always stood counter to Madoka's true goals, both in the show and in the movie. Exactly how, as time goes on, more and more people react to a Madoka that is not its true self, a Madoka of blood or a Madoka of cotton candy, a cultural conception of Madoka increasingly divorced from its real text.

Homura, at least, by the end of Rebellion, realizes this fact and accepts it; only through this acceptance of herself as the villain does she escape the suicidal finale she previously envisioned. I do not know if I can say the same for those haters and fans of a show that does not exist.

[bengiyo]

Eternal Yesterday Ep 8 (Finale) Stray Thoughts

It's time to say goodbye to a show about letting go. I'm getting in my feelings and I haven't even pressed play yet. This show is a prime example of what I love most about Japan. If anyone is going to handle difficult topics well, I trust them to do it. This show has such a surreal premise, but it's been one of the mostly thematically cogent show I've watched all year.

We left at Koichi hiding from Mitsuru, but now they're back and about to have their first time together. I am prepared for my typical Japanese disappointment.

"It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes."

Oh no. Have the hoses spraying in the intro been about how these two have their major intimate moments in the rain?

I've been a fan of boys talking before their first time since Four Moons (2014).

It is so poignant, and so much like Japan, to layer the first real bed scene MBS has attempted (and I think the only one from Japan this year) with the grief that in so many ways this is a goodbye. Koichi gets to break down in the shelter from the rain again and lament that he can't stay with Mitsuru anymore. They finally explicitly share deeper physical intimacy with each other, but it only affirms how much they meant to each other in the past tense, because Koichi can't stay. I'm feeling an intense melancholy coming on.

Though, props to Kamiya Rio and Sora Inoue for doing the best job with kissing from MBS this year. It pales in comparison to what Taiwan and Thailand are willing to do, but I respect it from two Japanese actors.

Emotionally overwhelmed by the table talk with the dad.

I was not prepared for the reveal that the mother lost her own battle with ideation, and then hung around as a walking corpse. That's so messed up.

I like the gentle way the dad acknowledged that he knew that Mitsuru and Koichi were more than friends, and crossed the boundary that separates them to offer his son some physical and emotional comfort. "You don't need to force yourself to heal," is such a gentle thing to say to someone grieving the loss of a loved one.

And now we're on a camping trip alone five years later.

I am actually okay with hand waiving the discovery of Koichi and everyone forgetting the supernatural. We don't need to revel in the grotesque there.

I am deeply saddened by the realization that Mitsuru may never find a way to reconcile his feelings for Koichi and experience another close connection. That is unfortunately a very familiar experience for me.

Oh no, we're getting the story from Koichi's perspective. I'm going to cry.

JFC the reveals in this finale. Koichi was adopted by his uncle because his mom abandoned him.

We're going to need to have a real reckoning with Japan about how the couple I've believed the most this year were genuinely mutually attracted to each other had one of them dead the whole time. I am aching.

This was such an emotionally gut-wrenching experience. I haven't unpacked feelings this show yanked out in fourteen years.

Final Verdict: 10, Recommended for fans of poignant queer cinema. I suspect many others will DNF or rate this show poorly for its themes about sadness. However, I assert that this show never tricked us about that at all. This entire show was a meditation on grief and how certain losses stay with us. This is not unlike 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us for me. Few BLs have made me feel as intensely as this show has, and I will be thinking about it for a long time.

[seat-safety-switch]

My cousin recently came by the house with the ‘72 GMC pickup truck that he’d found at a storage yard auction. Turns out the previous owner put it there, presumably intending to get around to finishing it, and then stopped paying the bills for whatever reason. Over the years, the indebted truck began to sublet its space to a group of rodents, and then eventually the yard owner decided he would rather be renting that space to someone who could pay.

The hammer decided that my cousin would get it for five hundred smackaroos (an audaciously large number; he works in technology) and then, after a couple bug bombs in the interior, he drove it home. Everything was decrepit and poorly-maintained, with a variety of parts-store wiring hijinks on full display inside the cabin. One valve cover – and only one – had been replaced with some gaudy chrome bullshit, which wasn’t even bolted down properly and was seeping oil. There was no way any reasonable mechanic would rate the vaguely banana-shaped frame, which gave the truck a depressing lopsided angle to the cab, as “extant,” let alone street-legal. I was in love.

Of course, he wouldn’t let me have it that easily. In my family, we were raised to do things the hard way, and that didn’t include cutting deals for slack-assed cousins who already have a shitload of unfinished, non-running Mopars stuffing their yard and neighbourhood and never call Grandma Switch to talk about spaghetti sauce anymore. We decided that we would instead call upon our other family tradition, the Christmas Day heads-up, no-prep drag race for pinks.

I hustled out whatever I could get to run. This time, my fearsome steed was a ‘70 Scamp with half of its grille missing, and the other half hole-sawed to make room for a 63-millimeter ball-bearing turbocharger that probably used to live on a Komatsu heavy excavator. Somewhere inside the engine bay was the world’s angriest four-cylinder engine, whose make and model I could no longer remember after having driven over the shattered crankshaft of so many on my way to a thirteen-second quarter mile and subsequent ejection from the venue because I couldn’t bother to even put in a chintzy bolt-in roll cage.

You might think that a stock ‘72 GMC pickup (horsepower: not much) does not have a snowball’s chance in Hell against the screaming ferocity of Chryco’s finest feature-lightened sedan for the impoverished. And you’d be right, especially after I had a friend slink over to his truck in the parking lot and cut two of the spark plug wires. Sure, my cousin’d blame the packrats in the yard, and maybe even his own lack of attention to the vehicle’s integrity, but ultimately the truck would stay within the family, ensconced within a protective radius of broken cars in my back forty. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing, betraying a family member for a small monetary gain and all.

Friends: hubris has its cost. You might remember earlier that I mentioned this took place on Christmas Day. Well, it turns out that when you spin a little bit on ice, and rev the whatever-it-is engine to the moon as a result, all that spicy air from the turbocharger really wants to escape out the oilpan. On the plus side, the momentum from the horsepower generated up until that explosion, and the reduced friction from my 17-year-old all-seasons drinking up the oil cascading from the shattered wreckage of the engine, carried me at least an eighth of a mile to victory. At least until the violently misfiring truck passed me at a snail’s pace, slowly plodding its way to the end of the block.

My cousin even gave me a ride home after, which he went to special pains to point out was actually my gift for this year. Nothing like family.

[submalevolentgrace]

Hey, just fyi ESRB & PEGI don't screen specifically for medical abuse so media isn't required give warnings for it, you could try to petition ESRB/PEGI to add that to their rating system, but currently you won't get any warnings for that content from official sites. It may sometimes fall under violence/fantasy violence/gore so if a piece of media has any of those warnings it might mean theres medical abuse

For now I really recommend doesthedogdie.com to get specific trigger warnings for media, usually you have to wait a week or two after something comes out for the warnings (its based on votes by users), but they include warnings for ableism, amputation, & body horror, along with like 100 other things

Sorry people are being shitty to you, hope you're doing okay <3

honestly fascinated by why you decided to send me this

i never even mentioned ratings boards because i know they're useless when it comes to actually codifying or describing what's in media that might be upsetting. there were a bunch of people in the notes arguing about ratings boards though, maybe that's what made you think to say this to me, except i am not those people

i also don't trust any aggregate site like doesthedogdie or unconsentingmedia, because honestly, ableism is baked so deep into every aspect of culture that the only people who know how to recognise what might be triggering for medical abuse are people that have experienced it or inflicted it... everyone else is, at best, obliviously desensitised to it

i can't pull up the original text of my post now since i've deleted all my branches of it to stop the notes, but i'm certain that i framed it as making a trigger warning known for other disabled people that have experienced forced treatment or surgery, and any reference to it happening 'without warning' is in the sense that, it's extreme body horror in a context that doesn't prepare the audience for it; ie, going into a horror game franchise like resident evil, dead space, soulsbornesekiroring etc, the audience can be reasonably assumed to be prepared for horror elements including fucked up body shit... i don't think any reasonable person could be expected to start up the latest installment of 'the legend of brightly coloured elf boy saves the magical princess from a big demon pig with a laser shooting sword' and be met with mummified cross species unconsenting arm transplant - and i say that as someone that was bracing for the worst possible outcome since the first trailers, based on my own arm issues. it never once occurred to me that they would go that batshit insanely horrifying with it, because it's a zelda game.

and also like - i really don't actually want to pile on you personally kind stranger, i can see that you're making a gesture you believe is helpful from a place of compassion and that's a positive even if it lands poorly - but i'm absolutely fascinated by the schema, the mental and perceptual framework, that has to be in place to see this kind thing, to see someone implying their direct experience with the hospital system willfully inflicting graphic body horror on them in violation of their autonomy, and to think in response: "well, you could petition industry groups to put more specific warning labels on games"

like, doctors are out there right now doing horrific surgical abuse on disabled people because society at large doesn't view us as human, abled people are in denial that it's happening or supporting the "mercy" and "compassion" of the doctors that do it, and that dehumanisation and denial runs so deep that it casually makes its way into family entertainment without a second thought of the authors.... the problem isn't "ratings boards aren't specific enough" and i cannot fathom the chain of thoughts that led you to that idea

so, incase it isn't obvious, no i am not doing okay, and i never will be again because of what was done to me..... but... i do appreciate that you hope i am doing okay all the same

[dopscratch]

FNAF MOVIE THOUGHTS BECAUSE I CANT SLEEP

non spoiler version: solid 8/10, beautiful animatronics, glorious set, wished for a bit more horror/tension but overall it was entertaining and enjoyable and surreally awesome to see

(spoilers below)

for my rating,

scares were very lacking, the only time i jumped was when i heard matpat, and there werent any moments that made me feel uneasy. i think my standards got sent sky high after watching battington so much though hahah. i feel like making the lighting darker/more desaturated at some points and a few more moments of quiet tension and good ambient sounds could have fixed this, though overall this doesn't bother me TOO much and i still enjoyed the movie immensely, still, point docked.

spring bonnie looked amazing and he did NOT get enough screen time, point docked (this also refers to the lacking buildup for his reveal and the fact that afton doesnt even wear the spring bonnie head most of the time)

no phone guy :(

overall though i loved this movie and there were so many points where i was sitting there pointing at the screen excitedly slamming my armrest. it wasn't perfect, surely not the best movie ever made, but it was a solid and entertaining start that made me happy and i hope to see more.

anyway, now for other thoughts

for most forms of media i hate it when there are lore inaccuracies between adaptations but for fnaf it works so well? like with the games and the books and even the eras of games you have various continuities and they're all different and unique but also contain similar themes and motifs and you can use some to infer things about the others and i absolutley love it

like right now the movies makin me think about if game mike ever had to do some of williams dirty work?? has game mike ever made a misjudgement or rash desicion when confronted with something suggesting child abduction (or maybe to extend it more, bullying/abuse?)

also if movie mike & his family are actually related to the henry emily equivalent?? like we have garrett who like charlotte gets captured and killed by afton at a DIFFERENT point in time than the missing children's incident and afton presumably went out of his way to go get him too- you cant convince me afton came across the schmidts by chance and the way he LOOKED at mike reading his name like he was ANALYZING HIM dang i could feel that stare it was crazy. i feel like there has to be more significance to this. a father who takes a death in the family poorly?? a kid abducted before the missing children's incident? sounds familiar... (also i just really like mike in all of fnaf and the way he was characterized in this movie was so interesting and i am probably just desperately telling myself this because i really dont wanna see him sidelined for vanessa, who i always found as a sort of mid character)

does movie william have multiple kids or just one? if the schmidts are the emily parallels (which is. just my speculation and hopes.) and theres multiple kids maybe movie afton only has 1 child??

parallels parallels galore too!! like how vanessa being aftons daughter rationalizes her appearance in the movie a lot so she's still that reluctant follower without all that crazy ai business! mike's negligence leading to guilt over something bad happening to his lil bro! abby nearly getting stuffed into the possibly circus baby suit!! its just so wild to me

expect more speculation from me because I am goin nuts over this movie. so many unanswered questions and so many ways to take this and apply it to concepts in other facets of the franchise. love all of this new material and how its going back to the roots of just old supernatural stuff, ghosts in grimy old machines business. i just love the simplicity of it and the many ways it can be executed

[vampirezogar]

I see myself as not a trend follower, but more of a hobby follower. I like something bcuz it interests me and it fits my taste. Example: The Soulsborne games,they fascinate me with their creations and interesting concepts

Sometimes when I discover a new genre and I know there are many works made with that very genre, I would try to see many of them or check them out like browsing goods in a store

But recently,in my latest favourite genre, I found a story. At first I like it,bcuz I didn't look closer I didn't know,then when I took a bigger closer look, I realise what absolute garbage it is: Stereotypes,obvious character favouritism,the characters don't even make sense, prejudices,all the things I don't like in a story

It feels like the author is trying their hardest to force down the "you must like my main character" into my throat with how obvious they're trying to make the characters look good while in fact, they're terrible

Hell even the ones I'm supposed to hate are more interesting I'm supposed to like, it's confusing. She's/He's obviously terrible but why do I feel like the narrative is trying to make them into some poor, unfortunate, mistreated victim?

Literally the main blames their situation every single second and I do not like being reminded of such thing every second, "I'm not listening to your sob story for the nth time Carol"

This story is like the most basic shit ever made which everyone is bored of these days yet somehow it got a best rating in a nationally used social media in its home country

I'm honestly suprised, when I heard the rating I thought it was good if it got such high votes,after consideration I decided to stop reading, it's for the safety of my sanity and my fury

I tried to have an opinion on this story: I almost got executed for saying a word, literally I said one thing I find bad and they come at me like missiles, trying to cut down my point with stupid arguments when I just started to open my mouth,this is why I'm afraid to have any criticism at all sometimes, it's like they're trying to cut your throat when you say one word they don't like

Personally why I'm so angry is because I'm so deep into this genre so I know the general points one see in this particular genre,for example the settings,the character types. It's because I've sampled so many stories that I have come to easily find the ones I would find good and bad

My motto is: You read one thousand bad stories in order to find a good story

It's like trying snacks to see which one you like!

I tell you this is becuz well, I kinda want to talk about the current situation of fiction these days with someone,even though this is just one story of one specific genre is enough to tell me there are true problems in the fictions industry like toxic trends, problematic topics poorly executed

How they're letting very problematic writers into the writing jobs and they aren't doing much of a good job from what I see

I myself spotted an author who wrote stories with very controversial, problematic plots and obvious overused tropes that are just migraine-inducing. I'm trying my best to avoid that author now, they're a very prominent writer in this genre unfortunately, I think they do make good stories but from what I see of the bad stories is ugh it gives me goosebumps when I think about it. Maybe I'm too quick to judge but let's say that if half of their works have the same things with different names, I wouldn't like it much either way

I don't really have an issue with problematic stories, if I do I wouldn't have gone through my Elden Ring brainrot phase. I think the main issue is the problems aren't being treated like problems, but accessories you use to pretty up the actual truth

I mean look at Miyazaki,he treated the problems in the narratives of his games like actual problems which badly affect others,he even worsened them and that's obviously acknowledged

Writers these days won't even admit they have problems in what they made,you say one bad word and their fans are trying to murder you or they themselves are trying to get rid of you. A wise reviewer I like was technically harassed by the authors of the works he criticised and they were literally trying to get rid of him, he's a good critic at that too

Sorry if this is too negative,if you don't like rants you can ignore this

The thing we must remember about authors, and indeed all artists is that they are human. Lacking a healthy maturity, humans will always struggle with criticism. In art, it can be hard to tell who of us is ready to be shown a deconstruction of our work until after it has happened.

Fans are. Something else. I guess, maturity here still applies of course, we don't have the gigachad *x media property* enjoyer meme for no reason. But I think there's more going on there. I have seen enough "community cultivation" to suspect that an author's lack of maturity, reflected in the work, gives their fandom implicit license to act like shitheads.

🔥🔥🔥AND BOY AM I GLAD YOU BROUGHT UP HIDETAKA MIYAZAKI, DIRECTOR OF THE SOULS FRANCHISE.🔥🔥🔥

So our boy, Miyazaki, frequently draws inspiration from the late Kentaro Miura's manga, Berserk. Berserk itself is a story of it's own author maturing. The beginning is edgy tough-guy schlock that had to be retconned around in order to make the more controversial aspects worth anything. Muira grew as a person, his interests expanded into psychology and esoteric theology and those aspects worked their way into the world building to the point where nothing feels like pointless gratuitous violence even when that's still exactly what it is. There's meat.

Miyazaki... I don't know what immature Miyazaki looks like. Armored Core 4A and 5, maybe? I can't really say if he ran the series into the ground and then resurrected it with 6 to resounding applause, or if that was the rest of the team. FromSoftware is a studio, he has to work with a team, he makes compromises so that the game they make doesn't suck.

A lot of people treat him like some kind of Auteur, single-handedly making difficult sword guy games. But we all know the story about gwynevere's tits. That wasn't him. But it made the game as a whole, straight up better. Her gigantic, illusory bosongas, sold the narrative in a damn instant.

The little I know about this guy tells me, he gets it. He's good at a thing and if he has to do it again he'll do it better than we could have hoped for. As a director he does provide direction.

The community is less hostile than it used to be, but still when someone asks for an easy mode, "git gud" and "skill issue" are used, often unironically, in response. True enough, if one cannot engage with the piece on its own terms, they are not the intended audience. Perhaps maturity in this regard comes in how politely they are to be eviscerated.

To one diatribe, I offer one of my own. Thanks for the message! 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

[snowleopardcatdragon]

I have been GMing various tabletop rpgs for ten years now. I’ve had players make some incredibly clever decisions. Ive had players make some incredibly bad decisions. But this one. This one was a… choice? A Thing One Could Do.

Gather round children, this is the story of the single most confusing decision I have ever had a player make.

We’re playing Shadowrun 4e. This is not my first Shadowrun campaign. This is not the players first campaign. We’re going to call him Charlie, as that was the characters name. Now Charlie has been one of my players for as long as I’ve been a GM, and he has been a dumb ass the entire time. This is not his first ttrg. This is not even his first Shadowrun campaign.

The campaign is set in Las Vegas. He decides to play Charlie Delcoix, pick pocket, con man, failed stage magician. A character whos backstory is so problematic, we really don’t have time to unpack it. He’s 30 years old, yet remembers the Awakeneing? Which in Shadowrun 5e happened over 60 yrs ago. He thinks actual magic has replaced the market for stage magic, despite the fact that it clearly very much has not, and resents mages, despite being an adept himself? He’s a recovering drug addict? Something something self hate? We dont have time to unpack any of this.

The team had been tasked with recovering data sticks, that, through a series of fuck ups, ended up in the food fed to exotic vulture griffins housed in a rich woman’s private zoo. The run is going ok, but a series of minor alarms has accumulated and put the guards on alert.

The team has almost finished recovering all the data sticks when one of the guards notices the team infiltrator, who is on the other side of the compound, planting bombs to cover their escape. The alarm is raised. The rest of the team attempts to bail with what data sticks they already have.

They run into a group of guards. The team mage put up an illusion to make the team look like they are also guards. Charlie, the teams social infiltrator, proceeds to lie poorly. The guards surround the team and tell them to come back to the command center.

The team is surrounded, but its not an un winnable fight. Now Charlie is primarily a social infiltrator, but he’s still an adept. He’s no primary combatant, but he’s decent in a fight, and in this one, the team is gonna need him.

Charlie palms a tranq patch, intending to slap one of the guards with it. The guard notices him. I tell him this. And then:

Charlie: I slap myself with the patch.

Me: You do what?

Charlie: I slap myself with the patch.

Me: Are you sure?

Charlie: Yeah, they won’t be expecting that.

Me: oookay, well you dont need to roll to hit yourself, so you slap yourself. Would you like to roll to resist the tranq.

Charlie: Nah.

Me: ??? Ok, well then you take stun damage equal to the rating of the patch, so 6.

Charlie: I slap myself and fall to the ground.

The ensuing fight didn’t go well for the team. They were captured, and Charlie was killed when instead of surrendering as the guards ordered he yelled “bing bong, fuck ya life” and was promptly shot in the head.

I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, this is the same player nearly got the whole party eaten by vampires.

[otnesse]

Replying in a separate post since, aside from the original post no longer existing, it also was reblogged initially by ****IrisHatersSay, and I've been blocked by her:

"Anonymous asked: I'm not an XY fanboy but you're an Iris fangirl who sees nothing wrong with her being handed a PSEUDO LEGENDARY because she's your Mary-Sue self-insert. She has no development and rarely got called out on her crap. You wanna talk about a Black Hole Sue, why didn't Ash put her in her place? He has more experience, yet he regressed. Ash had NOTHING going for him in BW, he should be badass after beating 2 legendaries. Ash never beat Alain and struggled with Ash-Greninja, not a Gary-Sue."

"azelmaandeponine answered:

image GIF by fireheartaw Wow, I can’t believe you brought this garbage into my inbox. Actually, this fandom is riddled with misogyny and racism, so I can totally believe it.

First of all, Iris was not “just handed” Dragonite. She found a wild Pokémon and bonded with it over the course of the episode. Also, good of you to ignore that Dragonite didn’t even obey Iris right off the bat, meaning she still had quite a bit of work to do as its trainer. They didn’t just hand her a perfect win button.

You know who was “just handed” a Pokémon? Dawn. Funny how no one calls her out on this (Note: I don’t dislike Dawn).

And there is no such thing as a “pseudo-legendary” in the anime. Pokémon ARE NOT bits of data with stats in the anime, so they have no BSTs. Dragonite is just another Pokémon. Or are you just ignoring that time in the anime when Ash’s Pikachu defeated a Dragonite?

And while I won’t deny I love Iris, she isn’t even my favorite female companion. That’s May (though I haven’t caught up with SuMo, and Lillie’s giving her competition). Favorite female character? Jessie.

Iris literally has tons of development. She learns to apologize and not prioritize winning over her partner, she gradually opens up and trusts her friends more. Her teasing of Ash gets more affectionate as the series goes on. It’s more akin to family squabbling. Also, Iris is on the immature side herself, but she IS correct to say Ash is just like a little kid. Anyways, my dad and I call each other kids all the time. My younger brother calls me a kid a lot, too. I’m an adult. It’s not a big deal. Iris’s arc is about learning to empathize with others, which makes her a better trainer.

She’s an empath who has trouble empathizing with other people and Pokémon.

And her catchphrase is a direct result of her past. She was ostracized at the Academy for her wild behavior, so she internalized that was desperate to be not be seen as “such a kid”.

She’s certainly not a Mary Sue, not is she my self-insert.

And seriously, “put her in her place?” Good to know that you’re a misogynist who thinks that girls who dare to call out their male companions on their mistakes need to be “put in their place”.

“He should be badass after beating two legendaries”

No. He leaves all his Pokémon at Oak’s except for Pikachu, who always gets reset at each saga. Guess what? You are not the target audience of this show. Children are. That’s why each saga is self-contained. and not to be that person, but XY’s rating in Japan took a huge plummet.

“He lost to Alain”

image That is irrelevant. He can still lose and be a Gary Stu.

And Ash-Greninja itself is bullshit. It adds to Ash’s Specialness™ points, because he and Greninja are the only ones in the entire anime able to do this. There aren’t even other examples mentioned in passing. Ash and Greninja are the first. It also comes out of nowhere and is poorly developed. That’s the hallmark of a Gary Stu."

I'm willing to side with the second user on Iris (she might have gotten Dragonite early, but 1. she did still have to struggle to train it as well, and 2., she's already established to be something of a prodigy, so she really doesn't qualify as a Mary Sue especially regarding that bit. If anything, Dawn came closer to that with Togekiss. As far as her catchphrase, I may have my issues with it, but Iris herself isn't the reason I have issues with it [I agree with her on that front if anything], it's more that they royally screwed up with Ash that saga by turning him into a colossal idiot.). But not in regards to Ash.

Look, even when I was an actual kid, I genuinely hated continuity problems or bad writing (enough times that if anything my parents often got annoyed at my nitpicking and told me to just enjoy watching something), and I know if I watched some of the stuff that was mentioned at 8, for example, I'd be pretty ticked off at seeing Ash lose against characters who he shouldn't even be able to lose against by this point. Ash's Pikachu beating Drake's Dragonite and losing to Gary at least worked due to it being more of a team effort that Ash took down Dragonite, with Pikachu merely landing the final blow. Ash and Pikachu single-handedly one-shotting a Regice (which, freshly caught or not was STILL a powerhouse of its own level thanks to it being a full-fledged legendary, which even in the anime is nothing to sneeze at), however, definitely can't work for having Pikachu lose and/or struggle in the manner he was shown doing in DP (it's still bad writing no matter HOW you slice it). If they REALLY wanted to keep Ash struggling in DP, at least have it be so that, I don't know, Charizard managing to inflict burn status on Regice before being taken out and then Pikachu taking out a softened Regice. At least there, Pikachu struggling would make more sense since it indicated Pikachu merely took out a legendary that was already softened up a bit. So saying Pokemon was a kids show marketed towards children unfortunately isn't enough to make that work (Dragon Ball was ALSO a kids show as well, yet they still made an ACTUAL effort to maintain continuity). And quite frankly, if they really wanted each saga to be self-contained, they really should have just replaced Ash with the main character from the actual games at AG rather than waiting until recently with Horizons. At least there, we wouldn't have to worry about it breaking continuity. Besides, people could still access DVDs back then. I'd know because I have the entire Kanto League as a DVD set, maybe also Orange Islands as well, and I'm pretty sure Japan had a similar means of accessing them in video format.

And while I have my issues with XY, I wouldn't call Ash's rendition there a Gary Stu. Even ignoring Alain, he DID end up losing to some of the Gym Leaders, even was genuinely challenged by them (a stark contrast to AG, where he pretty much mowed them down starting with Flannery). In fact, one of the few good points about XY is that it restored the Gym Leaders' reputations of being obstacles rather than essentially JJM clones in a manner that actually WAS believable after AG and BW crapped on them (DP came close, but considering that also was the result of Ash and Pikachu taking a nosedive in competency despite taking out a Regice, and not even with help unlike with Drake's Dragonite, that really wasn't a good example ultimately). If ANY incarnation of Ash came close to being a Gary Stu, it was his AG incarnation, especially after he took down the Gym Leaders WAY too easily starting with Flannery (and to make matters worse, he ended up staying in place at Hoenn that he did in Johto, meaning his winning streak was downright pointless, and thus comes across as EXTREMELY poorly developed as well.). And don't get me started on how Ash in AG ALSO got some of the other bits pertaining to Gary Stu in an arguably more blatant manner (like Ash using Aura in Movie 8, or how he ended up being a Spotlight Stealing Squad in Movie 9 and having to save the day in a movie that otherwise starred May, and May herself literally being reduced in overall character despite that [and if anything, how she was handled in that movie literally ended any chance at my liking May as well].).

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here my friend, back after a couple of weeks visiting family and refereeing family drama (I love them but visits remind me why I physically live far away from them). Anyway I'm sorry your work is being super shitty and you have to walk a fine there right now, that sucks and I'm reviewing them poorly on your behalf 😤.

So instead of indulging in the salt this time I am here to get super excited with you over the upcoming RWRB movie!! After seeing the trailer I immediately went and read the book and I am now aggressively glaring at the calendar waiting for August 11th to fucking get here already. Its been too long since since we've gotten to flail about our blorbos on here and I am ready 🤩🤩🤩.

And do you know the best thing bestie?? There's no self-indulgent showrunner behind the scenes to force out-of-character narrative or unneeded and unwanted side characters on us because they think it makes good drama (okay maybe this will be mildly salty). The story is set, the director seems to excited about the chance to do the actual source material, and everything we've seen from clips looks on point. And its not that I don't enjoy the prospect of seeing a story unfold in new and unexpected ways that a good procedural can do, I love that anticipation and love it even more when it pays off well, but its been awhile since that's happened. It feels like all the shows we've indulged in have just disappointed and I'm so ready to have the story of my blorbos have a happy ending that makes some fucking sense for the characters, that's been built up to and not "earned" through pointless drama but through a real journey that shows the characters discovering the ending they deserved from the start.

So let's get excited about this!! And if we're going to be excited about this do you think we should be song level excited?? Let me know!

Hello my friend! I'm glad you had time to visit family, and then time to be away from family. I know that feeling for sure! Sorry I'm so late getting to this. Work is stressing me TF out, so to relax, I spent the weekend camping (RV-ing) which was nice but also did not involve a lot of good sleep (it's just...so hot. and some people like to play music until 2am). Then I nearly spent this evening on a 4 hour round trip to see my brand new nephew but that was blessedly cancelled so I have time to finish the last few rows of his baby blanket and also answer this ask before it somehow ends up being already Friday and time for RWRB!

I keep going back and forth because on the one hand, there are things from the book I know for sure have been cut and I'm going to miss (whyyyy was this not a 6-8 episode mini-series?!) or things that are going to play out differently than the book which is always a little sad when you're waiting to see how these actors deliver a particular scene only for it to never happen, or the scene to happen differently, or with different dialogue. On the other hand, everything, even if it's not exactly what I would have pictured, just looks SO good and SO funny and fun, and like it all has SO much heart and love and joy behind it. It's like...it's going to be different, but out of necessity for run time/rating, not because someone got tapped to make a story from source material they didn't particularly enjoy or respect and therefore don't really care how they butcher the source material to meet runtime, as long as the studio can make merch with pretty faces. (No, of course I haven't been burned multiple times by books I loved being turned into movies/shows by people who scorn the source material and the intended audience. Why would you think that? 🙃) So I think I can leave space to mourn the changes and missing characters (Cash my absolute beloved! The June/Alex sibling relationship forever relegated to my re-reads and my dreams, the fact that I've seen several mentions of "the/a sex scene" strongly implying we aren't getting as much spice as one would hope given the source material etc), while still being REALLY excited to see what we get and to enjoy a movie so clearly crafted with love and respect of the source material. It's going to be a wild ride of emotions for sure!

And bestie you are sooo right, that after a long string of disappointments, it's going to feel soooo good to win! (Also, the director going back and adding more f-bombs because he found out about the R rating is hilarious and I love him for it.) It's going to feel so good to not have everyone bending over backwards to push just enough subtext to keep people saying "surely this HAS to mean something!" and then turning around and telling fans they're seeing things and it doesn't mean anything. 🙄 (oops! My own salt slipped out there a bit 🤣) ALSO!! There is something that really stood out to me and it was one of they guys saying how great it was they were friends because it was important for the love to be "real". Which struck me because it was almost word-for-word what Vlamis and Tyler said about playing Malex, and the love between them needing to be real, and we all saw how that turned out! Chemistry wise, it's unmatched (even if the show squandered it at every turn) and it's getting me really excited to see how it translates to screen for Henry and Alex with TZP and NG working with the same theory of the love being real. I think they are going to blow everyone away and I can't wait to see it!

I ABSOLUTELY think we should do a song if you're so inspired and I will do my absolute best to respond before Friday and also convince my mom that we don't need to out of town to see the baby until Saturday morning so I can watch it as soon as I get off work Friday.

Cheers bestie! We finally have something to celebrate!