#joss whedon cw

[mightyisobel]

Wearing the floppy ears -- A 1910 antecedent to the Meereenese Knot (repost from 2018 r/asoiaf)

Daenerys Targaryen in Meereen is not the first ruler of a fantasy realm to chafe under the burden of ruling rabbits while wearing unsuitable headgear.

You may know that that the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz was an adaptation of Book 1 of a 14-book series by author, playwright, and filmmaker L. Frank Baum. The series was extremely popular and their author became famous from writing them.

Book 6 of the Oz series, The Emerald City of Oz (1910), is a great read. It follows two converging point-of-view narratives with Dorothy on a cutesie-pie walkabout through the realm while the Nome King, Roquat the Red, prepares a subterranean invasion of Oz. The invasion story is wholesome fun, but I want to focus on one of Dorothy's encounters, during her visit to Bunnybury.

Here's her description of the place:

Dorothy now found herself in a city so strange and beautiful that she gave a gasp of surprise. The high marble wall extended all around the place and shut out all the rest of the world. And here were marble houses of curious forms, most of them resembling overturned kettles but with delicate slender spires and minarets running far up into the sky....

But the rabbit people were, after all, the most amazing things Dorothy saw. The streets were full of them, and their costumes were so splendid.... Silks and satins of delicate hues seemed always used for material, and nearly every costume sparkled with exquisite gems.

Yes, Dorothy goes to the land of the rabbits, and lunches with their King (Chapter 20).

And check out what he says to her:

"I've often thought," said Dorothy, who was busily eating, "that it would be fun to be a rabbit."

"It is fun—when you're the genuine article," agreed his Majesty. "But look at me now! I live in a marble palace instead of a hole in the ground. I have all I want to eat, without the joy of hunting for it. Every day I must dress in fine clothes and wear that horrible crown till it makes my head ache. Rabbits come to me with all sorts of troubles, when my own troubles are the only ones I care about. When I walk out I can't hop and run; I must strut on my rear legs and wear an ermine robe! And the soldiers salute me and the band plays and the other rabbits laugh and clap their paws and cry out: 'Hail to the King!' Now let me ask you, as a friend and a young lady of good judgment: isn't all this pomp and foolishness enough to make a decent rabbit miserable?"

So many elements of Dany's desolation in Meereen are laid out right here. The complaint about uncomfortable showy clothes and of feeling confined in splendor befitting a ruler. Also the fatigue with ceremony and attention, all "pomp and foolishness" making the monarch "miserable".

By the way, after luncheon, the king presents an acrobatic dance show for his guest (Chapter 21):

"It is our royal duty, as well as our royal pleasure," he said, "to provide fitting entertainment for our distinguished guest. We will now present the Royal Band of Whiskered Friskers."

As he spoke the musicians, who had arranged themselves in a corner, struck up a dance melody while into the room pranced the Whiskered Friskers. They were eight pretty rabbits dressed only in gauzy purple skirts fastened around their waists with diamond bands. Their whiskers were colored a rich purple, but otherwise they were pure white.

After bowing before the King and Dorothy the Friskers began their pranks, and these were so comical that Dorothy laughed with real enjoyment. They not only danced together, whirling and gyrating around the room, but they leaped over one another, stood upon their heads and hopped and skipped here and there so nimbly that it was hard work to keep track of them. Finally they all made double somersaults and turned handsprings out of the room.

Compare their frisking with this moment from ADWD Dany III:

As the drums reached a crescendo, three of the girls leapt above the flames, spinning in the air. The male dancers caught them about the waists and slid them down...

On second thought, best not. L. Frank Baum was definitely not thinking of topless dancing bunny pornography here and neither should you.

Look, I'm not saying that GRRM was explicitly or intentionally referencing this scene or that we can know for sure he ever read it, without Word of GRRM one way or the other. But I do think the books can be read as a delicious gumbo of all kinds of cultural influences beyond his deconstruction of Tolkien-inspired epic fantasy like Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn tetralogy. Reminders of ASOIAF scena are everywhere; some of my personal favorites are: The Godfather, The Court Jester, I, Claudius (short version), I, Claudius (long version), and Gone With the Wind.

GRRM has an uncanny ability to remix motifs from across multiple genres, formats, and cultural eras into something that feels both familiar and startlingly original, something with the capacity to constantly reinvent itself anew. It's an ability that he happens to share with the original Wizard himself, an entertainer and storyteller writing over 100 years ago about strangers in strange lands and the magic and wonder that they find there.

What do you think? Have you noticed other elements borrowed or referenced from the original American fantasy realm, the marvelous Land of Oz? Or other cultural references that seem underappreciated?

originally posted at https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/8laanv/spoilers_adwd_wearing_the_floppy_ears_a_1910/

[fictionkinfessions]

I found out why my memories are so far separated from joss’s cannon. It’s 'cus he hates spike and didn’t want any “good” vampires in the first place and anything further was just fan coercion(I think that's how you spell it). I mean he sucks for real like reasons and 99% of the actors involved have disavowed him for much more serious reasons. But like I'm sorry you paired me with fucking WESLEY just 'cus you hate your vampires. The man I have no chemistry with even when magic drunk I called a friend. (Sorry this is a numbered list, I copied from a discord post. Might wanna tag this that poie thing)

[samasmith23]

Lol! Armor calling out & mocking Wing for being an abelist nice-guy dude-bro towards Kitty Pryde is absolutely priceless!

Yeah, in an earlier issue Wing called Kitty the r-slur when she said that “mutants are a community,” and she rightfully punished him by giving him massive amounts of detention.

Serves Wing right!

From Astonishing X-Men (2004) #3-4 by Joss Whedon (unfortunately...) & John Cassaday.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Came across a bad take from super-hero-confessions defending Thanos and claiming Loki is "literally Hitler" on the loki tag and now I am slightly pissed off...

Loki-haters, stop calling a queer comic book character a Nazi. It's disrespectful and reductive to compare a comic book villain's half-assed alien invasion to a real life genocidal dictator's methodical torture and murder of Jews, Romani, disabled, and queer people. You're all fucking annoying and you are all acting like your families died in the Chitauri attack in NYC (That Thanos wanted Loki to do, and is implied to at the very least coerced him) or Jotunheim.

Thanos kidnapped and tortured children. Stop acting like he's noble and had no choice.

[theemmtropy]

One of my least favorite writing tropes is when a female character has been forcibly sterilized, and they say tearfully "they did ☹️☹️something☹️☹️ to me" like bitch you were given a hysterectomy! An oophorectomy!! A tubal ligation!!! These are real actual medical procedures that people get. The female reproductive system isn't some mysterious, never-to-be-understood thing!!!!!! Let female characters talk about their own body with knowledge. Just because a cis man is leading the writer's room doesn't mean the female character should be just as ignorant.

[fromthedeskofcripslock]

She’s a hero, you see: BtVS, Whedon, and Sincerity

{Prefacing this with: I strongly dislike Whedon as a human being. I’m engaging with his writing style in this post, not his moral character. Parts of that character definitely show through in some of his work, not particularly in what I’m talking about here}

So, in my BtVS rewatch I’ve made it to the Gift. It is one of the only (if not the only, have to double check)* s5 episodes both written AND directed by Whedon himself. And my god, the man can write. I knew that. I knew he created vivid characters. What I had forgotten were two things. One, the ability to really assign a voice to each character. Spike-as-written-by-Whedon is particularly Spike-ish; Buffy is particularly Buffy-ish, etc.; he gives each character dialogue  that could only be said by that character in a striking way.

The second thing I’d forgotten is  his actual ability to do sincerity. So often Whedon is held up as the source of today’s trend towards making glibness the order of the day. And yes, that is a habit of his. But I think that it is more a fault when he’s writing for the Marvel Universe and is writing for characters that he DIDN’T create. {More on this later}

BtVS as a show holds up twenty-five years on  because of the emotional sincerity of the big moments. Because it takes itself seriously when it really matters.  I give huge credit to SMG (and ASH, AH, etc)  for her ability to carry a character like Buffy without crumbling under the weight of the one-girl-in-all-the-world nature of the role (until, of course, that becomes the story line in S6). But it’s also in the strength of the writing, and especially when it’s Joss and he’s writing the characters he created in the world that he created (vs MCU.)

“She’s not like you and me. She’s a hero, you see.” is one of the most moving, sincerely written (and delivered)  lines in television history.** There is absolutely no nod or wink following it, nor do we expect one.  Buffy is a hero: we know this, the characters know this, the story knows this. And that sincerity of writing and storytelling is what Whedon can do at his best (and a skill which makes his failings all the more devastating to someone who was a fan since early teenhood imo.) 

*the other is, OF COURSE, The Body. Which...christ, you want sincerity? that episode makes a character sitting on a blue sweater enough to bring the audience to tears

**to say nothing of “The hardest thing to do in this world is to live in it/I know I’m a monster. But you treat me like a man

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PRELIMINARY ROUND - BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL THE SERIES

PROPAGANDA

Fred Burkle

1.) She is chronically a damsel in distress in the canon even though she has demonstrated her intelligence and ability to use weapons. The canon consistently takes away her agency over her body and ability to make decisions just to further plot. Why does she die because she gets possessed by a god for no reason </3

2.) ok I promise I'll be more normal about the other ats female characters than about cordy. fred was introduced as a genius physicist who had spent five years stuck in a demon dimension where humans were persecuted, surviving on her own and trying to somehow find a way back home. after being rescued from the demon dimension by the show's main characters, she joins the main cast and starts trying to readjust to the normal world. the setup for her character is really interesting, with her having a lot of trauma from her time in the demon dimension, feeling helpless, and struggling to become comfortable living in the human world again. but I guess because she's a Woman the show instead reduces her to just being at the centre of a love triangle with two of the other main characters, which she has almost no agnecy in and gets stretched out over like two seasons. and then after she breaks up for good with one of the guys and it looks like MAYBE she'll at least be freed from love triangle hell, the show introduces a NEW love interest for her just to keep the love triangle drama going. she basically never gets any focus or to be an active player in the show's plot aside from in a couple of episodes, pretty much being reduced to just a damsel in distress. and as if all that wasn't bad enough, fred's story ends with her being killed by a demon that takes over her body and destroys her from the inside out in a way that isn't Technically a mystical pregnancy but is like. close enough to one and presented close enough to one for it to count. (if you read the cordelia submission and are perhaps thinking to yourself jesus christ did they actually fridge both their main female characters in exactly the same way? Yes. Yes they did.) the demon in fred's body then allegedly becomes a new member of the main cast but the show does pretty much nothing with this character and she doesn't play any important role so it really does just feel like fred died for no reason other than to make her boyfriend sad. This is because fred died for no reason other than to make her boyfriend sad. It fucking sucks but I guess it's not like she got any agency or development when she was alive either

3.) Poor Fred. Amy Acker is a fantastic actress and Fred had the potential to become a truly wonderful character - a brilliant scientist who goes through intense trauma and finds her purpose in helping other people. I have a lot of love for her. Unfortunately she was the victim of a lot of really misogynistic writing. For starters, a lot of her characterisation falls into the ‘quirky weird girl who’s hot but doesn’t realise’ camp which Joss Whedon is fond of. Like other examples of this, her trauma is turned into something quirky which fades away once they get bored of it. Also, she becomes completely sidelined and silenced in a love triangle where the feelings of the man pining over her are given all air time, and her own opinion is never mentioned. Additionally, she’s constantly sidelined in the final season after being made the token girl, and is finally killed off unceremoniously to generate drama and pain for the aforementioned man who was pining over her. And you know what the worst part is? She still gets off more lightly than Cordelia.

Cordelia Chase (CW: Pregnancy)

1.) (downs an entire bottle of vodka and slams it back on the table) SO. CORDY. Cordy started off as a supporting character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At the start she was your typical high school mean girl character, but as the show went on we got to see more depth to her character: her insecurities, her courage, her capacity for incredible acts of kindness. Then after the third season she moved into the show's spin off, Angel, where from the beginning she was basically the show's secondary protagonist. Her and Angel were the two mainstays of the show's main cast, she gets the most episodes centered on her out of all the characters aside from Angel (and yes, I've checked), and we really got to see her grow from a very shallow and self-centered and kind of mean person to a true hero who was prepared to give up any chance at a normal life to fight the good fight while still never losing the basic core of her character. There were some… questionable moments like the episode where she gets mystically pregnant with demon babies and things got a bit iffy like halfway through season 3 where the writers seemed to run out of ideas for what to do with her outside of sticking her in this romance drama/love triangle situation with the main character but overall, pretty good stuff right? THEN SEASON 4 HAPPENED. In season 4 she gets stripped of literally all agency and spends pretty much the entire season possessed by an evil higher power, and while possessed she sleeps with Angel's teenage son (who BY THE WAY she had helped raise as a baby before he got speed-grown-up into a teenager it was a whole thing don't worry about it) and gets pregnant with like. the physical manifestation of the higher power that's possessing her. it's about as bad and stupid as it sounds and also is like the third time cordy's got mystically pregnant in this show and like the fourth mystical pregnancy storyline overall (you will be hearing more on that note in other submissions I'm so sorry). after giving birth she goes into a coma, in which she remains for the rest of season 4 and the first half of season 5. SPEAKING OF WHICH DON'T THINK SEASON 5 IS GETTING OFF SCOT FREE HERE. yeah so in season 5 the show just FULLY starts trying to erase cordy's existence. she gets mentioned ONCE in the first episode and then never again until halfway through the season where she wakes up, helps out Angel for a bit and encourages him in his fight against evil, and then goes quietly into that good night and dies so it can be all sad and tragic. I'd call it the worst fridging of all time but even THAT feels generous because the whole point of fridging is killing off a female character so a man can be sad, and after Cordy dies basically no one's even sad about it because the show immediately goes back to pretending she never existed. she is not mentioned ONCE in the two episodes after she dies. in the whole stretch of time between her death and the end of the season she gets mentioned exactly four times. again, I counted. anyway the fun twist to all of this is that all of this happened because the actress who played cordy got pregnant before season 4 and joss whedon was so pissed off about this affecting his plans for the show that he decided to completely fuck over her character and then fire her and write her out of the show. so cordy's a victim of both writing AND real life misogyny!! good times!!

2.) OH SO MANY THINGS they menaced by giving her terrible hair cuts, making her seem like she'd get together with the guy she loves (and who loves her back) but instead she was killed and when she was brought back, she got possessed by an evil entity who used her body to give birth to itself. afterwards she was in a long coma and died. her character was so throughoutly assassinated

3.) She got demonically pregnant TWICE - there was this real sense of a womb/ability to get pregnant as like, a place for evil to get in. She got positioned as femme fatale and evil mother. The actress basically got fired for being pregnant, and when she agreed to come back for a single final episode she specifically said they could do anything but kill off the character. Guess what happened

[anhed-nia]

I just finished a barely-interrupted binge of all four seasons of this show, and now I hardly know what to do with myself. A while ago I began research for a project on true crime television, which brought me into contact with an unscripted show veteran who strongly recommended UnReal, a drama about a field producer on a Bachelor-like program who is both extremely good at her job, and extremely mentally ill. It was way better than whatever I expected. I don't watch a ton of TV--which is not a declaration of my superiority in any dimension, it's just that I need to spend most of my time on movies, and I'm kind of particular (not due to "good taste" necessarily, just particular). UnReal initially comes off like a regular old cable show--to me it looks more or less like a CW product or something, with no hint of auteurship like there is with Fargo or Better Call Saul or whatever else usually lures me to television--but the writing pulls absolutely zero punches and I could not take my eyes off it. There is an occasional lull where things are more predictably soapy and I'd think "OK, well that was nice while it lasted," and then as soon as my guard was down something legitimately shocking would happen and I'd be back in my seat, watching unblinkingly.

The show is based on actual experiences of co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, a one-time producer on The actual Bachelor, which I only found out after the fact but I was thinking all along, "This is so grotesque that I'm sure it (or something like it) really happens." UnReal's other mastermind is Marti Noxon, who has credits on a lot of dark and/or construably feminist shows that have met with more success (don't ask me, I thought Sharp Objects was OK and I've never been attracted to Buffy, I just can't handle anything Joss Whedon-flavored), and she seems to have a real knack for telling psychologically realistic stories of seriously disturbed women. Which I appreciate a lot. My main complaint about UnReal was just that I wanted MORE, of all of it. Parts of the core mythology are just so fascinating that I craved a deep dive into all the details and consequences that I guess was just not in the cards for something with a large cast and a ton of moving parts. I'll just have to luxuriate in the intrigue since this ended in 2018.

...On which note I'll say that I think UnReal is colored significantly by Trump-era anxiety in ways that are more and less obvious. The show's chief concerns are more generally about the contributions of reality TV and social media to a culture of widespread bullying, but there is definitely something more specific in there about living under the reign of an unapologetic rapist who validates and empowers rapists at large, and feeling like the only way to preserve yourself in that world is to become a predator yourself. But anyway, the one question that is still burning my brain is about the fact that some of the set dressing features Silver Saaremaeel and Kaya Saaremaeel's gothy webcomic Run Freak Run. Which I've never read, actually I specifically found out about it because of posters hanging on office walls in UnReal. I really want someone to tell me how a gothy webcomic made it into the scenery of a major Lifetime drama. My pathetic websleuthing skills have failed to turn up active accounts for either of the comic's creators, so if anyone has a line on this information, please let me know! Meanwhile, you can watch UnReal on Tubi, the king of streaming sites.

^^^ Run Freak Run

[liesmyth]

8, 9, 10, 11, 13 abt John

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

tbh quite rarely! the highlight was when I wrote a Cancellable Fic and I woke up to my email inbox full of angry comments and I made a video montage set to twenty one pilots.

Please imagine being in the despair-filled depths of the first lockdown and waking up to THIS. Priorities, folks!

(cw I guess — don't watch this if you're sensitive to fandom harassment, I'm very very over it and I make fun of it, but it's probably a bit anxiety-inducing ig)

A more recent memorable one was a long rant about Alecto that I don't really remember in full but said something like "I bet you're one of those people who gets off to Joss Whedon's sad barefoot beaten-up women"

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

If we're talking TLT... this is sooooo hard but I'm gonna have to say Palamedes. Because he's a reasonably popular character that I mostly vibe with in specific ways, so when I check out Pal fics I never know if I'm going to love them or backclick right out.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

The Study of Doctor Sex because it's my least favourite of the short stories (& also I think the Sixth come out looking creepier than most of the fandom thinks)

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

IDK who counts as unpopular in my little lyctorfucking cave, so I'm gonna go with Silas. Teenage Pope! He never had a chance! He is THE ONLY person in the Canaan House group who looked at the Lyctoral process and said, undoubtedly and without even thinking about it "If God asked me to I'd say sorry God you're wrong." Can't wait for him to get back in AtN

13. Unpopular opinion about [John]?

This post I reblogged this morning says it better than I could, but in general I think fandom analysis doesn't engage enough with his identity as an indigenous man. I do have others :D but this is the most niche I think!

[salty asks list]

[bromcommie]

🤩🎯

Hi, thanks for the ask! :) 🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

Oof, boy. So, I mean, I was a geeky little kid and grew up loving the Spiderman and X-Men comics, so my interest kind of naturally progressed with the MCU boom of 2009 or whatever. As for Cap, I have to admit I didn't like him all that much at first - I'd only seen him in The Avengers and I think like many other people I kind of just viewed him as The Square Old American Imperialist Guy (thanks, Joss Whedon😒). It was only after seeing CATWS and retroactively CATFA that the floodgates opened. The interest was kind of on and off for a while, but it definitely spiked with time and I got into the Cap, WS, Black Widow and some other comics as well after that.

Idk when exactly I got into Stucky, because I distinctly remember having a phase of "why can't guys just be really really really good friends???" (I know, I know.) but between then and CA: CW I definitely fell in love with both characters and a) kind of went through my own awakening lol, b) started rapidly developing an unrelated but helpful interest in early and mid-20th century history and c) watching a shit ton of Cap edits on YouTube because I've always liked vidding. I eventually started making some of my own vids and fanart when my brain just woke up one morning and clicked into "oh shit. oh, not only is the premise of this story compelling on several levels, but these motherfuckers are in love in love" mode, and inevitably that also led to me starting to read fanfiction.

And that was just...a fucking revelation and a half. Because suddenly here were all these people writing heartfelt, compelling stories—sometimes heavy as shit, sometimes downright hilarious and sometimes just publishing quality—about everything ranging from grief and guilt and trauma to bodily autonomy and disability and queerness and self-worth to relationships with faith and nationality and community and intersectional identity to beliefs and morality and perseverance to violence and war and systems of oppression to different kinds of love and devotion etc etc etc I could go on literally forever. All set to a sprawling love story, all in a historical context I was interested in, all with about a million different perspectives you would never actually get to see on screen or on the page. I also fell in with a bunch of very passionate, nerdy queer people in college after, all of whom loved comics characters and shared these interests and had a lot to say on the overlap of the two, and well. I never really stood a chance, after that.

I guess ultimately what really drew me to it was the potential of taking material that was (I'm sorry, but let's be real) sometimes painfully mediocre-to-plain bad but with a great premise, and then projecting and exploring some really interesting and grounded and even vulnerable topics through the very fun sandbox that the more fantastical, epic aspects of these stories present—often in a subverted way and with mouthpieces (read: Stereotypical Empowered Bulky Macho Men) that you don't get to see in that light in mainstream media. And the Cap fandom really had (and has to this day!) an abundance of talented, curious people throwing themselves into that wholeheartedly and with such wonderful passion and creativity and care. So engaging with that as a hobby can be really lovely and inspiring and cathartic. And sometimes it's just plain lighthearted fun! I think the older I get the more I can really appreciate that.

Also, not to be super sappy or make it sound more serious than it is, but stories about goddamn superheroes overcoming painful, fucked up real life situations and aspiring to do and be better were a great comfort to nerdy Little Me, and so was getting to talk to people about the things I saw in them that meant something to me. I think Steve's character and origin—and the perspectives on it I got from other people—were just a big deal to my baby teenage brain during a time when I was starting to develop a real life social and political awareness and a sense of all the ways in which the things we do and say and how we stand up for each other matter. And as a grown-ass adult today, I still cherish that. And I cherish that even though I've matured and evolved and so have my other interests, I still got to come on here in the year of our lord 2024 when this particular hyperfixation suddenly came out of its long winter slumber and indulge in a comforting, creative hobby and stretch my writing muscles, and that I still got to find people to play in that sandbox with in a way that is extremely satisfying.

So there you go, and I'm so sorry. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on this. Make of that rambling essay what you will.

🎯 Do you have a writing milestone you’re working towards?

In terms of fandom works, I really don't. I started writing fic just as a fun hobby for myself, and I never really thought of it in terms of goals like I do the original work I try to write, just because I think that'd probably take some of the fun out of it. I'm in a bit of a rut at the moment though, so I'd really like to be able to break out of it soon and post the next few chapters of orpheus I've been trying to work on, if that counts!

[rootbeerrex]

Shakespeare wants what my dad has: a list of the incredibly specific Green Arrow traffic based jokes my father has made while driving in the past week

1. the setup

"Call me Black Canary the way I took down that Green Arrow"

2. the sequel

"Call me the DC universe under Zach Snyder the way I completely ignored that Green Arrow"

3. the comedic rule of threes

"Is this intersection the CW's extended DC universe because it's heavily favoring a yellow flash over a Green Arrow"

4. the "there cannot be this many possible green arrow puns"

"Is this me in the early 2000s after watching a season of Oliver Queen take down villains because I'm waiting a long time for another Green Arrow"

5. the "he actually took an entire fucking detour to make this one"

"Is this intersection Joss Whedon's ill fated attempt to finish Zach Snyder's Justice League because it's a mess and a Green Arrow would help"

[why485]

Wargaming's The CW game is honestly, really good actually, but I cannot stand the "heroes." Games built around quippy psychotic Marvel's Joss Whedon hero characters with superpowers and increasingly ridiculous FOMO outfits are just a complete non-starter for me. In any game. I cannot overstate how much of a turnoff this is for me in a game.

It's such a shame too, because I think the game, as it currently stands (an important qualifier) is really fun! It's basically every casual MP shooter mode like Battlefield's Conquest, Counter-Strikes Defuse, and Halo's King of the Hill, but seen through a World of Tanks lens.

Unfortunately as a F2P game, it will inevitably get worse through a feedback loop of self-destruction in order to keep players playing and whales spending.

I know it sounds like I'm being really down on this game, but it really is a lot of fun right now. This is probably as good as it's going to get, so if you want to check it out, now's the best time!

[jedusaur]

this is probably the least discoverable of my vids, because it's both multifandom and not on youtube, so I'm sharing it again in case folks missed it the first time around.

this is "Ship to Wreck," a vid about Joss Whedon being a joy-killing emotional sadist who knows exactly what he's doing. (cw violence, death)

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: The Flash

Oh how the DCEU has had its ups and many downs. Each character for the most part has taken a turn in the spotlight and now we finally get a solo film for our favorite scarlet speedster and it was as fun and exciting as I hoped it would be. The excellent opening sequence sets the sometimes quirkie and hilarious tone of the film that is very reminiscent of Back to the Future. I was especially surprised by the emotional depth the film carried for not only the titular character, but the supporting characters as well. If you know The Flash's history through comics, animation or the excellent CW series, don't worry. This film follows a familiar plot point, but takes a fresh approach to it. The consistent pacing of this multiversal adventure was great and I loved when it actually slowed down to deliver the thematic elements of choice and living with your past. Not all the characters worked but the ones that do, steal the film and get you excited to see how they react as the story progressed.

Ezra Miller came off more as Wally West humor and personality wise in earlier films but in this film, he finally plants his feet firmly in the role of Barry. Ezra takes Barry on the familiar emotional rollercoaster of his origin story and it was fun to see a fresh take. I loved his balanced amount of humor and heart in many great moments with his father Henry, portrayed by the wonderful Ron Livingston. The chemistry between them really hammered home the motivation and emotional turmoil of Barry's decisions. Ezra does double duty as Barry deals with a younger alternate version of himself and it was a great mirror for him to look into. Their interactions made older Barry more mature and centered. Ben Affleck reprises his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman and I enjoyed the mentor nature of their friendship the most in this film. It carries over from both Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon's versions of the Justice League film so well and it was great to see Ben again. The great Michael Keaton returns as the 1989 Bruce Wayne / Batman and he hasn't skipped a beat. He has evolved the character in a fascinating way and I liked what he became. It answers the question that many have had. What would retired Bruce Wayne / Batman be like? When you finally see him move and fight in his new batsuit, he shines and is as badass as you remember. I couldn't get enough of him and I loved that he acknowledges his mortality in many great scenes. Sasha Calle was fierce, strong and a massive standout as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl. I loved the much darker and violent take on the character as we get to see a more stoic version of the character through her intense eyes. There is so much more to mine out of that character and it is a shame that we will never get to see her interact with Henry Cavill's Superman. Now the one person that stole my heart as the emotional core of the film, Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen. I loved every second we got of her and especially the grocery store scene. It is the emotional peak of the film and both her and Ezra delivered in spades.

The score by Benjamin Wallfisch was good and kept the sense of speed and tension alive during the many action sequences and the emotional core alive in the more tender scenes. It was great to once again hear Danny Elfman’s iconic Batman theme and I loved Benjamin’s use of it. I did have a bit of a problem with the pacing in some scenes. The pacing of the film was great as it moves at a brisk pace as expected, but I would've loved for it to slow down for a few more seconds toward the last 20 minutes of the film. You could almost feel the amount of fat that was trimmed off the film in some scenes. Visually the film was stunning and of course most will comment on the CGI in the film. Some of it was really cartoony in the still shots, but it worked the best while in Barry's speed vision. The cameos all are amazing and one in particular made my heart flutter with joy as I know the late filmmaker Jon Schnepp would've approved and loved as well. This was a quick paced and action packed story that featured an emotional core that shines bright over the impressive visuals. There is a fun end credit scene that conitnues that connectivity that Barry has with the rest DCEU. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

If Joss was handling CACW, the movie would've played the divide between the Avengers a lot differently. I feel the airport battle would've been played more seriously, with more emphasis on the fact that the Avengers are fighting people they consider as close as "family", rather than have something where everyone seems more focused on trying to updo each other in one-liners.

I like to compare this with the Guardians. Imagine something happens and they're all fighting one another, do you see something like the airport scene happening? I don't because I see them as not only a more cohesive team than the Avengers, they're more like a family. The fights wouldn't be a list of one-liners one after the other, I feel there would be a lot of heart and deep emotions, something akin to what Gamora and Nebula do in Vol 2.

The issue with the battle in CW is that we're supposed to feel that separation as heartbreaking but they didn't do a good job of portraying the team as close enough to make that divide hurtful. What we have is separate characters having close relationships with one another but as a team? Not so much.

That's why Stark's line of "so was I" doesn't stick the landing. Steve and Stark were never that close to begin with, at most they were coworkers who tolerated each other in order to do a good job in the missions, that's it.

Whedon did a pretty good job in AoU by showing them as a close-knit team but iirc he had to fight the studio and/or Feige in order to keep the farm scene in. That was the last time we saw them as an actual team so imo CW fails at making that airport battle meaningful for that reason.

[facepalming-since-chernobyl]

RIP CW, I guess? - Well, yes and no. It's complex to explain it fully in an askbox (also when I'm dead tired) but the CW as you know it is yes, RIP. However the CW in general isn't dead till Nexstar sells it, shuts it down, etc. But the damage is done either way. It's truly the end of an era. I'm old enough to remember the time when it was first created, way back when it was a new network called the WB, then merged with UPN years later to become the CW. Back in WB times it had shows from creators that put those people on the map: Joss Whedon, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Rob Mars, Eric Kripke - all of whom are very successful showrunners, etc. now. Then of course post-CW there came the Arrowverse, another flagship franchise for the network. Now it's nothing but reality shows, sports no one cares about and foreign shows of which I do watch Family Law but most of those foreign shows have flopped/already been cancelled. And CW has stopped pilot season/making its own shows so yeah. In a sense, RIP the CW.

Sigh. Had some good memories about a few shows from them. But for the past few years nothing caught my interest. I'm sad for people who will/already lost the jobs, but can't say I will miss this network.