#like its SUCH a complex issue with really high stakes and it ties into like 20 other societal problems

[aropride]

the state of the gun control debate in america is so crazy cuz it's viewed as this false binary where either youre a blue-haired liberal who hates guns and wants to restrict all Hardworking Americans from owning one and hates basic human rights, OR you're a gun-toting racist conservative who drives a pickup truck and drinks beer and wants children to die from gun violence more than anything in the world.

and personally i really think that when it comes to an issue as complex as gun control, where people's lives are in the balance, creating two opposing sides and trying to sort everyone into one or the other so we can make fun of the Group Of People Who Are Wrong And Bad is unhelpful and diminishes the conversation thats actually important.

and instead of actually talking about the causes behind gun violence and how it could be stopped, and also the closely linked conversation about cops & police brutality & abolishing the police, people are too busy sorting people into the Red Box or the Blue Box and then getting mad at them than actually thinking about the issue. or people choose a box without fully considering their opinions because theyre not aware that you dont have to fall into either of those categories. and i think arguing about Red Box Vs Blue Box is possibly the Worst way to address gun violence and is helping absolutely nothing

[mejomonster]

Now that I have given Sherlock Holmes Chapter One more time to unfold. I really love the writing. Like just cannot get over it tbh. I want to wrap myself in it. I'm having euphoria after the pains of (what moffat did once upon a time) and my villaineve girlies (and the ending after so much solid stuff beforehand).

It feels 1 like i real Sherlock Holmes story (as in written well, flawed growing characters, respectful to source material AND respectful to us the audience) while also feeling fresh (its a prequel so a lot of freedom to show a new young sherlock with flaws turning into someone more recognizable as he heals and grows, cases i dont know the answer of, and a pretty damn grounded childhood trauma emotional pains fucking relatable heart thread through a wilder more dramatic murder cases arc). The only game i can think ti compare it to is the Ryu Ga Gotoku games, specifically Judgement if you took just the detective gameplay. Like? While I think Judgements gameplay is a bit funner, I think Sherlock Holmes Chapter One has more in depth side cases so if you're a mystery lover it balances out (now Judgement's main case appears more in depth a bit, but its a huge fucking game so its to be expected). What I think they both do Right, is make u feel like ur the detective

In SHCO case the moral dillema of how well or sucky u solve a case and the consequences and the fact u CAN be wrong and arrest an innocent party make the stakes feel very high, the fact most suspects are guilty of Some cruel stuff but not always the murder means ur also debating morally what u think is gonna be the best thing to do out of multiple imperfect options even if u feel sure you know who the killer is... i am truly IMPRESSED with how well SHCO handles morally grey suspects and the choices u make about the outcomes, i havent seen it in many games and its made me question myself in Even Less games. The opening tutorial case is a basic example of whats to come: if u dont collect all evidence, u may not be totally sure who killed the victim, and can justify accusing either suspect. Then once u accuse them, u have to justify to Yourself if u are going to advocate they be punished severely or given some leniency. The rest of the cases play with this but go deeper.

Also like Judgement (and all yakuza games), it just does a very good job of building a realistic world (as much as budget allows anyway). Judgement is in Tokyo, so theres OLD people! Kids! Americans! Koreans! Countryside people! Rich, poor, middle class etc. Criminals, police, civilians, politicians, celebrities! illegal immigrants. There's east asian people, white people, black people, south asian people, there's people with mixed heritage, there's people that speak or don't speak various languages. Basically Judgement feels more like how you'd actually expect interacting in a city to feel, compared to a significant chunk of games (especially if u go older) where there is just no thought put into immigration or class or the myriad of real complexities of life for the variety of people that exist in the real world. There's some game simplifications like repeated npc lines, and then side quests and main stories flesh out various characters more (and SHCO uses case notes and info to flesh out in the way RGG game side story cutscenes and mini game plots do). Those are budget and time constraints. But like. SHCO has this grounded sort of game feel where you run across a city that feels like a realistic city of various people, and the social issues affecting people in it, where the characters in cases are a more fleshed out reflection of the people in the city, and where the social situations impacting everyone play out in more detailed ways as part of the case stories. Like fuck, I'm in the case with the painting now and. Its both got a lot to say about 1880s british empire and effects on a myriad of fucking people (and systematic abuses and damaging power structures), and as with much of history its got a lot to say about now. From the way power and social position influences ability to abuse and lack of remorse, immigration, international trade, colonization, racism, patriarchy, the extreme differences in personal background in how everyone involved acts and reacts and considers whats going on. Or the elephant case, where sherlock both in some ways reflects the society he exists in (sexism wise) and is also growing from that (self aware that the daughter is a person with as much decision power or more than him, unlike her own father's view of her, respecting Paul's situation while navigating a society where they both know the norm in comparison, recognizing that he's driven by his own desire to understand his Mom as a person when for so long he's had her on a pedestal and convinced himself of lies to himself about meek/strong Mothers and how it clouded his actual understanding of Violet as a person possibly struggling mentally in many similar ways to how he is). Like the elephant case is so simple in a lot of ways... but how many storiea have i seen where women just wouldnt have been written as equal, or as fleshed out characters, where Violet wouldnt be considered this in depth? Not just set in this time period but any time period tbh (it wasnt until the last maybe 10 years that movies and shows, sometimes, got a lot better with this to the point i could find it easier to avoid media that wrote women like lamps). I remember reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and how THRILLED i was to see realistic women in that time setting for a story (phenomenal novel btw). So like, starting SHCO i didnt know how fair the story would be to all inhabitants in it, and so far its wonderfully gone for a realistic grounded approach with characters that feel thoughtful in a world that is fleshed out and feels solid.

[spoofymcgee]

the thing about the star wars prequels is that they don't work.

and, look, disclaimers: i have nothing against the fandom of the sequels, the characters, or anyone who likes either. i think, actually, that the sequels set up the perfect situation for a fandom in that they, the characters specifically but also the setting, has such an incredible amount of wasted potential.

additionally, most of this has been said by smarter people than myself in more clear, concise ways, but look.

the original trilogy is a series of hope. it's called that. it's about reminding people that rebellion is possible, that potential can come from the most unexpected places and that anyone can make the changes that need to be made in the world.

on a story level, it's not that detailed. it leaves a lot of questions not... unanswered, but answered with 'because'. why are we rebelling against the empire? well, on a metatextual level, because it represents the world 'empires' of the time (*cough* america *cough*) but within the story, well, because they're an evil empire. why does luke have magic powers? to represent the fact that power comes from unexpected places, because it's a tool that lets him demonstrate the power of the changes a single person can enact, but also because that's just the way the world works.

the original trilogy has a message, and the story they use to tell it is complex and engaging enough to keep the audience interested, but there's not enough subtle exposition or relation to reality to immerse the audience in the setting in a way that ties it intrinsically to the story.

the prequels are different. the story they are telling is a tragedy, and, as a tragedy, it has to be very closely connected to its setting and characters. the nature of a tragedy is that if any other character were put in the same situation, their choices would differ and it wouldn't be a tragedy.

for all the issues i have with various parts of the writing (phantom menace did go way too hard on world building that wasn't relevant to anything else, the end of padme's arc makes me want to shove a piece of rebar through the screen, etc) it did a fascinating thing. it took the setting of the original trilogy, which we wouldn't normally consider to be particularly tragic or depressing, and retroactively made it part of the tragedy.

the evil empire is evil because it's the result of a corrupt and degraded democracy taken advantage of by a horrible, manipulative person.

the rebellion is only happening now because the empire is so recent and it's so small because the empire did not conquer, it existed for years under the skin or democracy and only tore that facade off eighteen years ago.

luke didn't know about his magic space powers because everyone else who had them is dead, hunted or evil. he is the last of his kind.

beyond the given of a) the fall of the republic and b) the more personal tragedies of the jedi and anakin, padme and obi-wan, the prequels make the original trilogy into a tragedy too. and i think that's their most interesting quality.

but back the sequels.

okay, so star wars has already told the stories of a triumph and the tragedy that set it up. what's next?

well. if i'd been writing it, i'd say the story of rebuilding, remaking and restoring the world. but even i can recognize that that is the connective tissue of the universe, and belongs more to the area of episodic shows and the like.

alright, in that case, you might ask, what stories are there left to tell with stakes that high?

and the answer is. not anything, really.

the stakes of the originals work because they were invented to serve the story. the prequels work because they show us why the stakes of the originals are important, beyond having similar things at risk and showing us what happens when you don't save the day, thereby reinforcing the importance of the stakes of the original trilogy.

but by the time the sequels roll around, there aren't any stakes like that. nothing is at risk. the world's been saved, and it's not the end, but there's nothing left to tell that compares to the intensity of the original and prequel settings.

any statement that there is, any reintroducing of similar stakes will cheapen the victory of the original trilogy, which is what the entire universe of star wars is built on. you cannot put the world at risk again so soon without making people feel like all the work they did the first time around was pointless.

and that's the main problem of the sequels. in order to create a story of the same magnitude, they return the universe to the situation it was in at the beginning of the original trilogy, essentially erasing 4,5 and 6.

you cannot remove the foundation of a building and use the bricks to make the walls.

tldr: the original trilogy is good, the prequels are great, actually, because they do fucking fascinating things with tragedy, and the sequels don't work because they're basically a clone of the originals, set after the battle's been won already.

[superborb]

Why you should watch Qi Hun (Hikaru no Go cdrama)

I have trouble expressing just how close to my heart hikago is. Beyond just being a great anime and manga, it was my first real fandom, so tied up in my memory of the story are all the layers of long nights of discussing character motivations, reading fic, and making friends. Coming back to fandom after a decade away, it really feels like fate that the cdrama started airing right after.

Luckily, the cdrama is good both in its own right AND in contrast to the animanga. I therefore whole heartedly recommend Qi Hun to both fans of the original hikago and new folks alike.

The premise: As a small child, Shi Guang (Shindo Hikaru) finds a go board where the spirit of Chu Ying (Sai), an expert go player from thousands of years ago, has been trapped. At first, Shi Guang is uninterested in this boring game, but the dedication his friends have to it intrigues him. Eventually, he too learns to love the game and aims to become a pro.

The major themes:

1. Friendship!! There are two main friend groups for Shi Guang: the go club at his high school and the fellow students of Yi Jianghu Club. (The Yi Jianghu students are aiming to become pros, and yes, the jianghu in the name is that rivers-and-lakes Pugilist world, and yes, there are a lot of jianghu jokes in the show.) The friendships within the groups and with Shi Guang are just so caring and mature. They have arguments, especially once they're in the high stakes go games, where losing means losing their chance at fulfilling their dreams, but they never forget how important their friendships are. In some ways, they're a little unrealistically good at friendship (and feelings in general); who has the maturity to take care of their friends so well in high school?!

2. More to life than just go. This is one of the most important adaptation changes, in my opinion. From the director's interview, the drama meant that they needed to dig deeper into the characters' motivations as compared to the manga. The result of this is that Qi Hun is an exploration of what it means to dedicate your life to a game, how to enjoy go instead of just wanting to win, and learning there is more to life than just go. And sometimes, how real life is more important than go and they have to move on. I don't think they lightly treat this as just a metaphor for enjoying life though; go is still central to the characters! Just, not go alone.

3. Growing up and past your parents / mentors. This is the other big adaptation change, bringing more of the older generation into the spotlight. Fang Xu (Ogata)'s character is significantly expanded and placed in a very much shixiong / big brother type role to Yu Liang (Touya Akira). On the less cute side, some of the parents and mentors do really edge that line of emotional abuse. I personally think this issue was handled in a complex way, showing how teenagers want to break free of the constraints set on them, while also wanting to respect and show filial piety. It never went too far in either direction for me, though YMMV. And, of course, the major Chu Ying plot line that is the same as the animanga, which I will not spoil.

4. Rivalry. Don't worry after all those adaptation changes: Yu Liang and Shi Guang still have their passionate rivalry and chase after each other. Everyone around them knows! So many cute moments that I will not spoil because they're so good.

I think most of the adaptation changes were good: there are some new subplots, both of the fanservicey kind (valentines trip let's goooo) and of the more serious kind. Some adaptation changes were well, being produced in China, there are some obvious effects: the Hong Kong handover is used to set the time at the beginning and end of episode 1 (never mentioned after) and the whole ghost thing has to be retconned into a handwavy science thing.

As a result of aging characters up, everyone is a bit more mature. As mentioned above, the director clearly took a lot of time to consider how the relationships would work in real life, so in some ways, the characters feel more grounded and realistic. Some characters are significantly expanded (see theme 3), and I also want to call out that they make Shi Guang's mother an Actual Character in this!! And she's so great, a single mom who really loves her kid and supports him.

I do think they sometimes veer too far into making the unspoken spoken, but I think that's just the norms of cdramas. (See above the complaints about how they know their emotions a little too well for teenagers.) Also, when real people are acting, there are of course a ton more subtle implications you can read off facial expressions and set design than in an animanga.

The acting is really great here too; I really felt that they were awkward teenagers (or small children in the first two eps). While at first, I thought Chu Ying didn't embody the "cute" aspects of the character well, he really did grow on me! (Wish his eye makeup was more consistent though lol.)

OK I have a lot more thoughts, but they start to veer into spoilers!! I love Qi Hun a lot, and I hope you'll watch it and come back and talk with me about it!!

You can watch on iQiyi or dramacool. It's 36 eps long, and the last four eps are still unsubbed, but they should be subbed by Tuesday at their normal rate!

[sometipsygnostalgic]

wanna see you keep talking about AT: what's your biggest criticism with each character in the series (as in a writing failure/something you didn't like about them, things of that sort)

Aww fuck! Now you’re asking. 

Everyone: Sometimes they went a bit too far with making the characters act dumb, sociopathic, etc. The show would usually be pretty consistent with having them react humanely. It was season 5, when the show had started taking itself seriously, that the characters acting sociopathic felt like a bit too much. 

Finn:  In his “jerk arc” he went too far. He had no empathy for the lemon people, he had even less than PB, who was already acting pretty sociopathic. He legitimately harrassed both FP and PB. He touched FP’s shoulder and made her uncomfortable. He stroked PB’s hand after the high five in Too Old, which by the way has actually been cut in many countries due to how gross it was. He got super weird in Rattleballs where he was a total simp and told PB about the robot even though he knew she’d kill him, just because he wanted to impress her.  Then in The Tower, he had tunnel vision and legitimately KILLED like a dozen candy people with his tower, which was hilariously referenced in Hot Diggety Doom when he said the candy people don’t trust him anymore.  I didn’t like that they made his arm grow back. Or that he kissed a million princesses in Breezy, which is a poor reflection on the crew’s treatment of girl characters in the show :P I know we ended up with the awesome Fern arc, and Finn got over his romantic hangups in a satisfying way, but the amount of people the episode alienated is unreal. It did a lot of damage to the fandom.  

PB: I hate the entire way they baited her having feelings for Finn. If you remove that kiss in Too Young, her character makes much more sense. Reading her around it makes the ep seem like a massive inconsistency. I don’t like they waited four seasons to work on her as an actual character.  I feel like they went a bit too far in making her cold and pragmatic or sociopathic. Just a smidgen. This is because some of her actions verge on irredeemable. I’m mostly thinking about her relationship with Flame Princess. It doesn’t seem right she’d have no feelings about ruining the life of a fairly innocent child. Also she totally got a bunch of flame people killed in The Cooler. At least in The Cooler, she demonstrated a modicum of doubt before taking apart the sacred Fire Giants. She’s certainly not like the Diamonds, but FP was right to say she was a bad person, and I’m glad she was horrified by what she was becoming, but couldn’t immediately turn off her paranoia or bad instincts - it’s something she works on for the rest of the show and post-canon. (It’s also why shes a million times better than the Diamonds) I think her character in season 10 could have been better handled. For start we got no followup to Elements. It’s pretty significant she became a giant candy monster and brainwashed all of Ooo, no???? It did take them two seasons but they eventually showed she was impacted by having been possessed by the Lich. I was hoping we’d get exploration with Elements too, especially because of how much she unintentionally hurt everyone, like Marceline. They tied her actions in the series far too much to her character for it to feel like something that could be brushed off.    But what was weirdest was that she wanted to go to war with one of her creations. That didn’t seem right. Pb has a complicated relationship with Lemongrab, shown right up through to the same finale (even exploring how they would currently interact in Diamonds & Lemons), and she didn’t want to go to war with him, but she did want to get him usurped by Lemonhope. If she is willing to stoop to war now, why didn’t she just... yknow.... have Gumbald executed? Stealth plan? It seems far more up her alley, and he even tried the same thing. The season finale tried to say she felt under pressure to go to war, but I don’t think it does a good job at communicating why. Why wouldn’t a secret mission work? Would it count as a war crime? If it did, who would sanction her? Gumbald in general sucks. There are better “dark reflections” of Bubblegum in the series, and Patience was a much better villain. I wonder how things would have been different if the season could conclude at its intended pace? 

Marceline: My criticism with Marceline is a lot easier to summarise, because I’ve thought about her less and she’s less involved with the show.... which is the WHOLE PROBLEM!   

1. Put Marceline in the show more. She was barely in the first six seasons at all! She’s such an awesome and fun character when they let her be. More eps like Go With Me would have been awesome.  Even more eps like Princess Day or Be Sweet, where she was LSP’s bestie. 

2. Her character’s personality, for a long time, revolved around being a source of angst. She wasn’t demonstrating her fun side at all. I guess they didn’t want to write her continuing to be a big jerk, but it meant she paled when pitched against the rest of the cast - especially PB and Ice King, who were always great, and if they were in an ep with Marceline, their characters always outshone her. This could have been repaired by having her go on more adventures with Finn and Jake, and developing Marceline’s reactions to various situations. Give her more complexity.     I really love Obsidian because Marceline demonstrates her wild side in this ep and goes on an adventure which is very personal to her. She has some cool action scenes near the start, and this episode connects her more serious personality with the comedic representation at the start of the series. I think this is the best Marceline episode, followed by Varmints (she was so fun but mature in this ep). I like how she was during and after Stakes too. She had far more personality when they were putting her in eps with multiple other characters.   

Ice King: I have no massive thoughts here. I think some of the things he did were a bit too messed up. He killed a bunch of cloud people and furniture in season 6. His actions before that point were far more innocuous, though he did accidentally kill PB those two times, and he did threaten to kill princesses after kidnapping them in season 1. I LOVE Ice King season 7 and up though. He’s so good. I was shocked at the finale when they “killed” him, had him revert into Simon with very few consequences, like all those years as Ice King had vanished. I was so glad to see Simon struggling with his past identity in Obsidian. “This is how I cope!” 

Jake: Like the others barring Marceline, I thought that Jake occasionally did stuff that was too messed up. But because he’s a less serious character, who is already verging on chaotic good/neutral, it isn’t as impactful. I don’t have any major issues with Jake. Maybe I’ll change my mind on rewatch? But I love how he can be so self-contradictory. 

Flame Princess: Last one I want to bring up. This character is a mess. Rebecca intended her to be this very innocent person, having new experiences. This was how she was characterised right through to Earth and Water, but after that episode, her character got... an unfortunate reset. Suddenly a mature and BORING ruler who barely appeared anymore in the show. I felt a lot more could have been done with Flame Princess, and they shouldn’t have made her so dull later on. They played her as a virtuous character who got over her breakup with maturity, and led her kingdom with honesty, to further the development of two entirely different characters rather than to make FP interesting in herself. 

[aion-rsa]

How The Mandalorian Gave Fans a Different Kind of Star Wars Story

https://ift.tt/2Miy7FO

This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

Technically, Disney+’s The Mandalorian is part of the biggest franchise on earth. But it doesn’t always feel that way.

True, it’s a Star Wars property, and it rarely lets you forget that fact. The show is rife with references to the films and animated series that have come before it and it enjoys padding out existing lore in ways that only the most hardcore of fans will care about—or possibly even notice. (Did you remember there was a krayt dragon skeleton in A New Hope? Be honest.)

The Mandalorian isn’t a story that requires a tremendous amount of Star Wars knowledge to follow or enjoy. And that’s because its central tale is one that follows rules and patterns we’ve all seen before. A mix of tropes from classic spaghetti westerns and samurai adventures, the show offers a broad look at life on the edge of the galaxy that exists well beyond the world of Jedi Knights, Sith warriors, and space princesses. And its tale of a lone bounty hunter and the supercute Force-wielding toddler he is charged with protecting is proof positive that there is space for every kind of story in this franchise. (As well as every kind of fan.)

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

In a universe that has become increasingly dense and self-contained, The Mandalorian still manages to feel like a breath of fresh air. Sure, its second season finale includes a surprise appearance by Luke Skywalker, because no property in this universe can apparently escape that family and their seemingly never-ending daddy issues, but the Disney+ series doesn’t seem concerned with him as anything other than a vehicle to further the story of Din Djarin, a good man who is trying to do right – by his faith, by his people, by the tiny creature whose life has suddenly become intertwined with his own.

Though the eponymous Mandalorian has run across a bevy of characters that have made longtime fans shriek with delight (Boba Fett, Bo-Katan, Ahsoka Tano, Luke himself), and the series ties in rather neatly with other franchise properties like The Clone Wars and Rebels, it still understands that its greatest strengths stem from its smaller stakes, more realistic worldbuilding, and the emotional connection between two vastly different creatures.

The Mandalorian isn’t an epic adventure, a space opera about the future of the galaxy as we understand it, or a tragedy about a single family’s apparent inability to keep from making the same mistakes from one generation to the next. It’s a story that’s deliberately limited in its scope and modest in its ambitions and, at the end of the day, the show itself is all the stronger for these choices. 

In comparison to other Star Wars properties, The Mandalorian’s story is almost painfully straightforward, if perhaps a little bit darker in places than we’re maybe used to in this universe thus far. Set in the galaxy’s Outer Rim following the fall of the Galactic Empire, it generally deals with characters – including its own lead – who are not terribly complicated people. Their lives are simpler, rougher, and more focused on the everyday challenges of living than the Jedi and characters like them that populate the films. 

Even the Mandalorian himself is simultaneously an avatar and a real person, and we get to know him as much through his struggles as his successes. He is, after all, the most reluctant of saviors. Yet, as many lone warriors before him, he is also a man with a code, and he holds tight to it, even in the lawless outskirts of the galaxy. 

Occasionally Mando will have to rescue someone or must join forces with an uneasy partner in order to kill a monster or pull off a heist. But no matter how that particular adventure goes, by the end of the hour, he’s back on his path and moving toward his next goal. The show doesn’t really have “arcs” so much as stories that occasionally take place over an episode or two—see the transport of the Frog Lady back to her partner that begins in “The Passenger” and ends in the subsequent installment—and its most dramatic set pieces generally rely on Mando fighting something, ranging from a furious mudhorn to ravenous, gross ice spiders.

In the world of genre storytelling, serialized stories with twisty plots and puzzle-box mysteries are all the rage right now. Just look at shows like Westworld, a drama that—as much as I love it—spends much of its time tying itself into complex narrative knots it doesn’t really know how to get out of. So, a show like The Mandalorian, with its linear narrative, clear-eyed storytelling, and refreshingly basic plots suddenly feels like a revelation.

And maybe it is.

Read more

TV

The Mandalorian Season 3 Predictions: What to Expect

By John Saavedra

Books

What Star Wars: The High Republic Reveals About the Galaxy Before the Movies

By Megan Crouse

The fact is, there’s still real value in a simple story about a man doing his best, no matter what circumstances he finds himself in. Maybe we’ve forgotten that fact in a television landscape that’s conditioned us to always be looking for a trick or a surprise reveal, but The Mandalorian’s largely straightforward narrative proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. And the show is as satisfying as any series that requires complex fan theories to enjoy or in-depth explainers to fully understand. 

The explainers are nice, don’t get me wrong, but in all honesty, the show is doing just fine introducing existing canon characters like Ahsoka to new audiences on its own. You don’t need to have watched Rebels to enjoy her presence here, but if you have, the satisfaction is all the greater. Truly, we don’t give The Mandalorian enough credit for the delicate balance it strikes in the age old struggle between storytelling and fanservice. It’s a difficult thing, and the show walks a fine line both carefully and well.

Even the appearance of Luke, probably the ultimate moment in Star Wars pandering, exists not for its own sake so much as it does to advance the series’ main relationship – that between Din and young Grogu. (If you didn’t get a little emotional watching them say goodbye to one another, then you have no heart, I’m sorry.)  

There’s little of the narrative baggage that usually comes along with a Skywalker arriving on the scene here – it doesn’t appear that anyone else even knows who he is beyond the fact that he is a Jedi – and though he’s meant to teach Grogu the ways of the Force, there’s no real indication we’ll see Luke again. After all, he has to start off down the path that leads him to The Last Jedi, and Grogu will  undoubtedly return to his Mandalorian’s side at some point in the not too distant future. Disney knows where its money is, after all. And it’s not in Pedro Pascal merch, much as we all love him. 

The Mandalorian’s  first season occasionally drew criticism for what naysayers deemed a “flimsy” or “barely there” plot, but this underestimates the power inherent in the series’ simple framework. Not only is it an emotional balm for those of us who are, quite frankly, tired of hour-long installments that require a significant amount of work to understand, it actually serves an important narrative purpose. The slower pace and simpler story allow us to get to know Mando and his culture, and gives the Star Wars universe a chance to take a minute and breathe.

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The Skywalker films are so full of big, potentially galaxy ending stakes and consequences that we as viewers get little time to simply take the universe in on its own terms – let alone get to know the people that inhabit it. We’re usually too busy worrying about how it all ties back to the family at the story’s center or the Jedi they serve. 

The Mandalorian has shown us what the Star Wars world outside of all the Skywalker drama looks like – even though it briefly includes one of them – and it lets us take our time to gawk at its sketchy bars, enjoy its colorful characters, and travel through run-down desolate towns at a slower pace. It’s allowed us to invest in the emotional connection between a lonely man and a lost creature who may be the last of its kind. And quaint though all that might seem, it’s certainly turned out to be a journey worth taking.

The post How The Mandalorian Gave Fans a Different Kind of Star Wars Story appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Mh7mS7

[ifeveristoday]

Thanks for keepin up your Boom! Coverage, I was surprised to see how much Xander's storyline is pulling from Angelus- its interesting even if groan Robin implied XanderBuffy is more than friendship. I had always assumed any buffy version would feature the tragedy of Buffy and Angel - hellmouth, early Angel issues indicated that, but VampXander combined with the soul Mara-Kate silliness has me doubting. What new ground would be covered with an Angelus Buffy crossover?

I can't be the only one yelling into the void about how much I enjoy the Boom! Verse, so I figured I'd take you all with me. 🤣

I've posted before while I'm not excited about the Xander - Buffy storyline, I knew by all the clues that littered past issues that they were going to have to do *something* about it. And yes, Robin pressing Buffy on her 'true' feelings for Xander seems rather out of left field for him. Especially on a date - why is he so intent on pushing the girl he likes into admitting she has secret buried feelings for her as-far-as-he-knows, dead best friend? Way to stall a potential romance. (Though he was right to call her out on her martyr complex.)

Then Buffy extrapolating from Kendra's conversation that she would know when she knows re: Xander - I'm interpreting it as Buffy being in a particularly vulnerable position. A lot of traumatic things have happened within the span of a month - the Hellmouth opening then closing, Xander's apparent 'final' death, Willow leaving, Rose getting hurt, Kendra's arrival and disruption of Buffy's status quo. And she can't talk to anyone about it - her mother can't know her secret, she believes Giles is more impressed with Kendra, and Ms. Calendar is out of the loop. And Rose and Cordelia aren't really *her* friends. She's really alone like she said she wanted to be at the start of the series, and she tries to fix that by throwing herself into a relationship with Robin, because he assures her he's on team Buffy. (And Buffy wants to be liked and needed.) And then that stops before it even could start.

And with her unsettling slayer dreams and reluctance to share ("It's personal"), it's a very lonely place to be for Buffy. Xander coming back from the dead, sort of - well he's a charter member of Team Buffy, so I can see why she's conflicted. He's one of her best friends and even though his feelings for her are terribly twisted by the demon, he's a reminder of when she wasn't lonely. Willow is gone, but Xander is back.

Buffy's loneliness is something that hasn't been brought up much in the Boom! verse. At least not in conversation with the other characters directly. Willow and Xander had their mini arcs dealing with depression and their childhood bond, but Buffy was absent for a lot of that, as she was fighting on another plane of existence. Angel had some camp counselor like advice about loneliness, but then got possessed by the personification of an ancient evil, oh and omitted telling Buffy he was a vampire until the worst possible second, so her tentative trust in him is gone.

Which brings me to your point about how Vamp! Xander's obsession with Buffy is reminiscent of the Angelus story line (and boy is there a whole essay that could be written about how in TV canon, Angelus adopts Xander's nickname for Buffy, "Buff" and his manipulation of her and Xander's feelings and how eerily similar the toxic aspects of the men in Buffy's life can be drawn back to Angelus, etc.) and how it seems like the early hint of Buffy and Angel now feels like a red herring. I think while there are similarities, it's more aligned to the Jesse/Ford plots.

I can only wildly theorize from what print canon says - Buffy and Angel had to meet, and Buffy is going to change Angel's life. Just not now. The timing is off plus they have so much other stuff going on, though Buffy's got more internal chaos while Angel's is more focused on external forces.

And just by the characterization and consistent reminders that Buffy and her friends are sixteen and seventeen year old children - not CW/WB sexy 20 something teenagers, but awkward, messy, traumatized, occasionally shitty to each other children. Angel clearly is not a child.

In Jordie's interviews she's been clear that she wants to bring Buffy into a more modern time, embellishing what we loved about the show, and updating stuff we didn't - Jenny is a character outside of being Giles's girlfriend! Kendra exists and is shown to be a capable and dedicated slayer without Buffy needing to be all white savior about it, the queerness is explicit (Willow, Rose, and Kendra), Black and POC characters get to have lines and motives of their own, mental health is portrayed mostly sensitively and with compassion, and oh, Anya is a full adult demon woman and doesn't have to fit in with the gang to their comfort. And have I mentioned Dolly the cat?

Having an Angel and Buffy romance in that timeline now doesn't make any emotional sense. Also, Buffy seemed less than enthused with him by the end of Hellmouth, and we never get to see Angel's opinion about her at all. Buffy only exists as a prophecy in Lillith's convenient magic 8 ball of foreshadowing - and I also get the feeling that the creative teams just weren't talking that closely. With the new creative team coming in, it's another unknown quantity.

And yes. Kate as Mara/Marius just feels lazy and a complete scuttling of any attempt to make Kate a character of her own and one that isn't tied to Angel by some prophecy. Angel. Use Demon Craigslist and undead tindr or something. Just because Lillith is an omniscient power who can see what could be doesn't mean she's always right.

I think the only Angelus coverage will be in regards to Mara, because Buffy has no emotional connection to Angel. There's no devastation/conflict possibility for them currently, and honestly, Buffy would probably stake Angelus easily.

I can only speculate that these initial relationships are setting the stage for a future rematch between Buffy and Angel, but for now their writers are content to build their separate journeys.

Sorry I took so long to reply! It’s been in the mid to high nineties here in California and I mostly want to sit by a fan and disconnect.

[elliepassmore]

Empire of Storms Review

5/5 stars Recommended for people who like: series, ToG, fantasy, magic, high stakes, battles, multiple POVs, strong female leads, scheming Oh wow, I have such a love-hate relationship with this book. On one hand, I love how it’s written, how the characters and overall situation evolves, and, for most of the book, what happens. But on the other hand, I hate what happens. If we can read this and pretend it ends 30 pages before it does, that’d be fantastic, thank you very much. For those that have not read this far in the series, Chaol isn’t in this one; ToD tells what’s happening with him while this book is going on. Also, I realized as I was writing the review that I talk a lotmore about Manon and Elide than any of the other characters, so be prepared. Aelin has a lot of character development in this one, growing from someone who is a queen to someone who is queenly. In QoS, it was obvious she cared about Terrasen and her Court, that she was a queen and had accepted it, but within the first couple of chapters with her in this one, there’s a slow change. She begins acting with more calculation, more cunning, and more of a willingness to sacrifice—both herself and others—to get done what needs to be done. She felt like a queen in this one. But more than that, I felt she became a more mature character in this one. As much as I love HoF and QoS!Aelin, she was still acting like that young, wicked 19-year-old assassin. Throughout this book, she slowly develops a sense of stillness and a greater understanding of how the world, and people as a whole, tend to work. I really, really like her character progression and magical rise throughout EoS. There were definitely some sketchy parts—like when she was willing to bring the Valg into a city and leave its occupants to their doom, or when she and Rowan were talking about potentially conquering more countries in the future—but as a whole, I felt Maas did a really good job of showing how the Crown, Terrasen, and Terrasen’s people impacted Aelin and her decisions. Not to mention, Aelin became a fiery powerhouse in this one, and that’s always a fun journey to see, regardless of who’s undergoing it. And, I know some people have complaints about this next bit but, I love love love all of Aelin’s scheming and secrecy. It’s cunning, it’s wicked, it’s a Power Move, and it’s one of my favorite things throughout this book, even if it does get her into trouble and isn’t always the best move on her part. Dorian…poor Dorian. He really can’t get a break right now, can he? First there’s a Valg prince in him, then he kills his dad and shatters half his castle, then all his friends leave to go do Very Official Things, and then his city is sacked and burned. What a great summer. Dorian’s definitely close to some of that darkness we saw in Aelin/Celaena in HoF, but he’s already got a country to run and can’t afford to delve into the depths of his despair the way Aelin/Celaena was allowed to. It creates this interesting combination of a king who almost resents being king, but also recognizes there are no other good options at the moment and someone’s got to do it. The plus side of this is that we get to see a darker, more devil-may-care version of Dorian…ya know, the one who flirts with a witch. On top of dealing with all of this, Dorian also has his own magical journey and we get to see him gain more control over his powers and use them to his advantage in dangerous situations instead of having them adding to the dangerous situation. Despite these things, Dorian definitely feels like a side character in this one instead of a main character, and I think even Dorian points out something to this effect during one of his narrations:“For a heartbeat, Dorian felt like a useless fool as they all, including him, looked to Aelin.” (367). I suppose it’s not exactlyan admission of side-characterness, but it’s pretty damn close…and accurate. With all the growing and changing Dorian experiences in this book, I really wish we 1) got to see more of it from his POV, and 2) had more attention on him in general, he is, after all, one of the Original 3 (Dorian, Chaol, Celaena/Aelin). Manon continued her developmental arc from the last two books into this one, which was nice to see. With everything she’s learned and seen, especially during the course of QoS, she’s wary of what’s going on in Morath, and she’s wary of her grandmother. Manon has some interesting decisions to make regarding who—and I suppose what if you want to get into what she believes—she’s loyal to. We’ve seen inklings of her budding rebelliousness in previous books, but it really comes out in this one, and she draws a stark line in the sand, a huge development for the witch who once valued “obedience, discipline, brutality” above all else…though, I suppose rebellions can be disciplined and brutal, just not obedient ;P Of course, Manon also shows more of her caring nature in this book. In HoF, we saw her risk her position to have Abraxos and to keep him safe. In QoS, we saw her take Elide under her wing to the point of breaching Morath’s dungeons. Now, we see all that come to a head, with her releasing Elide into Oakwald and telling her to find Aelin, and then later being extremely protective over Abraxos, and, of course, that dawn when Asterin—and by extension, the rest of the Thirteen’s—life is on the line and Manon decides to draw an even bigger line in the sand. Manon has always cared, but I wonder if she always would have acted upon it like she does in this book. Or to the extent she does in this book. One of my complaints with how Manon is handled in this story are that she goes with the flow more than I feel she normally would, and I don’t know if it’s because she’s outnumbered or injured or what, but I felt she should’ve fought back a little more before relaxing her stance. And then the other one, which I know not everyone will agree with, is that she and Elide have more chemistry than she and Dorian. From the way I’ve read the story, it makes more sense for her and Elide to enter into something romantic than for her and Dorian to. I’m pretty happy with how Elide’s path goes in this story. From QoS, we know she’s cunning, clever, and observant, but with her having a larger narrative role, we get to see just how much she is those things. I mean, if you want a measurement for it, she lies to Lorcan, one of Maeve’s famous Fae warriors, and does it so well he doesn’t sense it. More than that, she also manages to buff her way past some of Morath’s worst creatures, which she does by delving into her memory and mimicking the behavior and attitudes she’s seen from the Thirteen in order to fool the creature. There are other instances too, when she changes herself and lies to get stuff done, and she does it with such ease, it’s impressive. Her observation skills continue peaking as well, with her sensing danger before it’s upon her multiple times. Perhaps part of the reason I love Elide so much in this one is that we really get to see the extent of her mental abilities, and that so often, especially in fantasy, when girls and women are badass and strong characters and beat the bad guys, they do it physically, we so rarely get to see them do it mentally like Elide does. Not to say, of course, that Elide doesn’t also get into scuffles, because she does, and she’s pretty good at those too. She kills some of Morath’s creatures with a broken nose while on her period, and that’s a bit of violent fantasy I can get behind. But most of the time, Elide uses her head to get herself in and out of situations. Perhaps not unexpected, but loyalty stays a huge part of her character as well. She’s loyal to Aelin, loyal to the promise she made to Kaltain, loyal to Manon and the Thirteen, and, when it comes down to it, she’s even loyal to Lorcan, which brings me to my next point. I like Manon and Elide as a romantic pairing, but I can also see where people are coming from with Lorcan and Elide, however, the latter pairing is not nearly developed enough in this book to warrant their kissing. Elide was furious with him like, two chapters before they kiss *with passion* and it feels rushed. If Maas was planning on having Eide and Lorcan be together (well…they are, but whatever), I think there should’ve been more of a buildup. They have mutual respect, they have aesthetic attraction, but they still need that deeper connection. Rowan feels younger in this one, though I thought he felt younger in QoS too. He’s freer and more playful in this one than he has been in the other ones, and I felt he was more tied to Aelin in this one too. That doesn’t stop him from getting shit done, though, even if it takes him, say, back to Adarlan for a spell. He’s definitely fiercely protective over Aelin, willing to throw down anyone who insults her past with Nehemia or Sam, or just letting her fight her own battles and scheme her own schemes. In terms of scheming, Rowan and Aelin definitely rub off on each other. For all the credit given to Aelin for her brilliant, complex schemes, Rowan does his fair share of scheming in this book too. He tricks their alliance target into meeting with them when he doesn’t want to, tricks Gavriel and Fenrys’ blood oaths to not attack Lorcan on sight, and schemes a way to get more allies for them. Despite this, despite how old and powerful he is, he definitely has some...self-esteem issues in this one, believing he has nothing to offer Aelin once she takes the throne, as if being one of the most powerful Fae males in the world is nothing. He brought it up every couple of chapters, mentioning he only had his heart to give…and then ignoring when it was exactly that that got the tide of a battle to turn (I love his cousins, by the way, very dramatic). Lorcan got narration in this one, which was interesting. He is not as much of a dick as he’s been made out to be, I’ll tell you that right now. Yes, he’s vicious and cunning, but he’s not horrible. He undergoes a lot of character development in this book, and I wonder if that contributed to it. I thought it was really funny how he went from “I’m going to torture and kill this girl (Elide)” to “well maybe I’ll just get her to tell me the information by tricking her” to “she is now mine to protect.” I suppose, though, that Elide has that affect on people. But even without that transition, Lorcan gets to see Aelin and her Court in action in this book, and he begins to realize that things with Maeve are…not the way they should be. Unfortunately, small realizations and a couple weeks (months?) worth of traveling with someone and being away from the blood oath are not enough to stop hundreds of years’ worth of training and instinct. Not entirely, at least. I feel like Aedion is in this one less than he’s been in the others, I’m not quite sure why, since he’s with Aelin and Lysandra for the entire book, and with Rowan and Dorian for most of it. He is a bit of a dick in this one, for reasons I can understand. For one, he lost his cousin once and all of her scheming just about stops his heart in his chest, not to mention the fact he’s literally fought battles and knows more about them in theory and in practice than Aelin does, despite her intelligence. While I love Aelin and her schemes in this one, I agree with Aedion that she should maybemaybe consult with the people around her before and while she’s making decisions. Him snapping at her about their lack of allies was a dick move, though. So Aelin hadn’t had time to get allies…I didn’t really see Aedion getting them either. Despite any disagreements he has with people, when it comes down to it, he’s still willing to fight beside them and protect them. Poor Lysandra, she has such a shitty situation. She’s mastered her shifting more, and everyone’s been giving her lessons in different things necessary for survival and fighting, but she still gets the short end of the stick. For starters, she has to leave Evangeline in Terrasen while they go traipsing around for allies and Wyrdkeys. It makes sense to leave her where she’s safe, but Lysandra has been the one protecting her for the past couple of years, and the two have grown close, so it’s definitely a hard decision that Lysandra makes. Later, she gets to battle five water-wyverns as a sea dragon, which nearly kills her and nearly gets her stuck in sea dragon form. (view spoiler). I think the situation is especially interesting because Lysandra is not fighting for her own country. She is not a King, Queen, or prince fighting for Adarlan or Terrasen. She is not a Witch fighting for the Wastes. Lysandra is fighting because she believes in Aelin and Dorian, and because she knows that if Erawen wins, things will get a lot worse for a lot of people. It’s the ‘right thing to do’ to fight in this war, but the right thing isn’t always the thing that keeps you and your loved ones alive, as everyone in this book knows, and it’s often easier said than done to go “I’d do the right thing,” yet Lysandra still chose to stay and fight for her friends, for the world, even if it means wearing a different face for the rest of her life, or dying, or never seeing Evangeline again. This book was side-character salad. Remember Assassin’s Blade? A lot of those characters make a comeback. We get to see Rolfe, Ansel, and the Silent Assassin’s back at it again, to varying degrees of willingness. Ansel coming back was, I feel, heavily and obviously foreshadowed in QoS, I definitely called it before I read the book the first time. Despite what she’d done, I really like her character in this one and was…not touched, exactly, but felt something like that when Ansel revealed she’d tried to go to Endovier to get Aelin/Celaena out. Rolfe was just as colorful and fun as in Blade, but less of an asshole, potentially because he wasn’t trading in slaves anymore. Maas included a plot twist with him that was entertaining, and I wish had more attention brought to it in KoA. The Silent Assassins come back toward the very end of the book, so we don’t get to see a lot of their interactions with everyone, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that virtually all of them turned up to aid Aelin and co. in defeating Erawen and winning their countries back. We also get to see more of the cadre, with Gavriel and Fenrys chilling with our heroes for a bit. Gavriel, perhaps unsurprisingly, causes some tension with everyone, most notably Aedion, who is more than a little rough on him. I get the instinct, and with Gavriel still being blood sworn to Maeve, I probably wouldn’t’ve let Gavriel anywhere near me, but I also don’t know if anyone had much of a choice. Fenrys was the wild card one of the two, and definitely managed to piss people off more than Gavriel did, but he was funnier, so that’s a plus. I felt…odd about Fenrys. It’s obvious he’s only sworn to Maeve for his twin and would rather be free or with Aelin and co, but he ogles Aelin, which feels slimy to me and I’m not a huge fan of, no matter how funny he is. Galan Ashryver also shows up toward the end of the book to aid the group in their journey, but like the Silent Assassins, since he showed up at the end, we don’t get a lot from him. Unfortunately, with that mix of awesome, we also have to suffer Maeve and Erawen turning up in this book too. I can’t really say a lot about Maeve without giving a bunch of stuff away, but Maeve is a bitch and I hate her more than Erawen, who briefly shows up to wreak havoc and spy. We don’t see a lot of the Thirteen, but they play such a big role in Manon’s decisions and arc, that I thought they should be included here as well. They’re so loyal to Manon, despite the threat of it, but they’re also not blinded by loyalty. Asterin, especially, is one of my favorite characters. She’s wild and free and fierce, and she isn’t afraid to get in Manon’s face and tell her like it is, but she’s also not afraid to die in Manon’s place. Sorrel is calmer about her anger, falling true to Manon’s idea that Manon is ice, Asterin is fire, and Sorrel is stone. Sorrel’s anger and questioning falls more into the line of “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” which anyone with a parent knows is so much worse. Abraxos is worth mentioning as a member of the Thirteen as well, since he also plays such a vital role in Manon’s development. He was the one to first break that icy exterior around her, and he’s the one she’s with for a majority of the book. Abraxos takes care of Manon and makes sure she’s safe, and when he can’t, for a couple reasons, he does the next best thing and finds someone who can do those things. Ah, the plot. The plot foreshadows aspects of itself, I’ll say that right now, but outside of that, there’s a shit ton of foreshadowing in this book, and this book also answers a lot of previous books’ foreshadowing. Erawen’s on the rise, creatures are coming out of Morath, and now nobody’s on the throne. The group is running out of time to get everything they need, and there’s so many twists and turns and foreshadowing going on that just about everyone ends up relying on one another at some point. Stuff from previous books connect into this one with more than just characters, and um, it’s a little fucking devastating. I love it and all the threads it connects, though, bringing everything around again and relating the history of Erilea to it, literally explaining why things are happening now, and sort of why they’re happening the way they’re happening. Some of the characters start to pick up on it, to realize that things bigger than coincidence and ghosts are guiding them down this path. Of course, there’s the issue with representation in this series. The characters, except for some of the Thirteen and Ilias, are all white. They are pretty much also all straight. Aedion is hinted at being bisexual, one of Rowan’s cousins is gay, and two members of the Thirteen are lovers. That’s four people, three of whom we barely/don’t see, and the fourth whose sexuality is only really hinted at. I love these books (and ACoTaR), but they are seriously lacking in diversity.

BONUS

The Visit

4.5/5 stars

One of the copies of EoS I have has a short scene at the back detailing a visit to Mistward while Rowan and Aelin were training there.

 I’m going to say from the start that I think Rowan and Aelin are shown being closer in this scene than we see for the entirety of HoF. They’re friends, we know they care about each other, they’re carranam (though they haven’t realized it at this point yet), but in HoF they didn’t act in the light, playful way they do now, and this scene feels more like QoS/EoS!Rowaelin than HoF!Rowaelin, hence the dropped half star.

I liked what happened in the story, though. Aelin’s temper is, naturally, on a short leash and it erupts toward Lady Remelle from Doranelle who acts a little too territorial over Rowan. Maas does a good job making sure we don’t like the Lady, so it was just desserts to see Aelin snap fire at her and earn her nickname ‘fire breathing bitch queen.’ Benson was just creepy and rapey feeling, and barely had any lines of dialogue. Essar was the only Fae from Doranelle I liked, again by design, and she was also the only one to realize who Elentyia/Celaena/Aelin really was.

 So, cute little short that gave us the background behind Aelin’s bitch-queen nickname, but also a short that’s a little OOC for the book it’s supposed to be set in.

Entering Terrasen

5/5 stars

The other copy of EoS I have has a scene at the back where Aelin, Rowan, Lysandra, Evangeline, and Aedion have just entered Terrasen and are in a small village where they meet a water user.

 I’m not really sure why this scene wasn’t just in the book, since it takes place during the timeline of the book and it would’ve only added a couple pages (which it did anyway, just at the end). I think it would’ve been nice to have it included because it shows the rebuilding of Terrasen, not just physically, but also mentally. It involves magic and laughing kids, that’s something that should be addressed within the book because of what it represents against the backdrop of a land recovering from being conquered.

 The scene was super cute, with the magic user being a little 9-year-old. She has, for the first time, access to her magic and is using it to play with the other kids to no one’s objection, showing that despite Adarlan’s tight-fisted stance on magic and magic users, the people of Terrasen are not about to throw stones at those gifted with it. It also shows that, despite the wariness the girl has for the Adarlanian accent, she’s still willing to talk with Aelin and have their magics play together.

 Overall, cute scene, should’ve just been in the book instead of a bit of extra content.

[elenajohansenreads]

Books I Read in 2019

#132 - The Mad Ship, by Robin Hobb

Mount TBR (84/100)

Rating: 5/5 stars

I love it when a sequel is better than its predecessor. I'm not always the best at figuring out mysteries and putting together two + two to equal a plot revelation. But Hobb has spun out the whys of her world-building with such grace that I can see the "what" of things without always understanding the "how." Even before the revelations were explicitly stated, I knew them, on some level, even if I couldn't have explained them in detail beforehand. Yet one major reveal at the end was still a complete surprise, even though it made utter sense in retrospect, and has left me with half a dozen new questions to ask the final book in the trilogy. Another strength of this story is that Hobb knew which characters to let diminish and which to strengthen. Kennit is a more complex character now with a stronger presence, while Wintrow's importance wanes. Kyle is blessedly absent after the loose ends of the previous book concerning him are tied up--his only importance becomes his memory, in how it motivates Malta, who also gains greatly in complexity and importance in this story. Paragon and Amber, who were likable oddities in the first book, are now more fleshed out, while Brashen and Althea take smaller roles. In many cases, it seems that we're not following individual character arcs, but rather arcs of story relevance--not everyone is going to remain useful for the entire length of the trilogy, and some characters serve to introduce us to others later, like passing off a baton in a relay. I can see it happening (potentially) here at the end of the book--Keffria has never been of much import other than being Malta's mother and Ronica's daughter, but she's handed a bit of intrigue to accomplish in the next book, and who knows if Ronica has even survived? Her importance to the plot might be passed along to Keffria. That brings up my only real quibble with this book, and it's not major enough to ding it a star, because it's an issue of personal taste more than style--but with two books down and the stakes really high, our characters do seem to have pretty serious plot armor. Only one named character of any real importance has died, and he's minor at best. Pirates die, slaves die, cities burn or crumble under earthquakes, but our important characters always seem to survive, though there has been some grievous bodily harm. In fact, most of the main cast, at this point, is wounded to some degree, but it was one in particular, Wintrow, who truly seemed like he should not have survived his ordeal, that really brought this point to my attention. Important characters simply won't die. While I'm not bloodthirsty by nature, and I certainly don't want any given character to die, there's enough danger going around that I feel like the possibility should be available. And it could be that someone will die in the next book, maybe even early on, maybe even from the events at the climax of this book. But I wouldn't bet money on it.        

[nonsterpsubri1987-blog]

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[recentanimenews]

Treading Moral Ambiguity With Golden Kamuy

What makes Golden Kamuy so enthralling? One could say it’s the setting and history, taking place after the Russo-Japanese war. Another could say that it’s the mind game of finding gold, with characters left and right having different motivations to retrieve it. Or one could say it’s the brutality, as the series never shies from violent battles, harsh nature, and high stakes. I would argue that in many ways, these are all traits that make the show good, but what makes Golden Kamuy great isn’t just its plot, but rather, its fascinating insight on moral ambiguity and what factors drive a human being to act desperately and cunningly.

One thing that makes Golden Kamuy stand out from other shows this season is how it construes the idea of “good vs evil.” Many shows tend to have a straightforward moral alignment: we have the heroes, who persevere and stand for good, selfless motives, and then we have the villains, who have insidious motives and are selfish. This isn’t an inherently bad idea: it makes the plot more digestible, and characters easier to group together. Golden Kamuy however, takes this stance a little differently. All of our character are united in one goal: to find the lost Ainu gold. Therefore, the playing field is leveled, as no overarching hierarchies are formed amongst teams. All rules are fair, and no one has a terribly unfair advantage over the other.  This is important, because it means that playing dirty is a mechanism that any—and every— character will use to survive, which ties deeply into Golden Kamuy’s central thesis about overcoming odds. The only difference in characters is the extent to what they will do to retrieve the prize; anything other than is completely fair game.

What this does mean for our characters is that they all are scattered on a moral compass scale. To help understand this on a more visual level, I have here, the favored Dungeons and Dragons Alignment chart.

As you can see, very few characters in Golden Kamuy alone fit the “lawful good” nature that most idealistic character have in anime. Most seem to go towards the “true” or “chaotic” behavior. This make sense, after all, concepts like lawfulness, honorability, and virtue mean little in the stakes of this journey. That said, our “heroes”, or group of Asirpa, Sugimoto, and Shiraishi, are probably the closest thing we can find to being “lawfully good”.  While they’re not afraid to wound or kill if it’s absolutely necessary (their survival is at stake), they would prefer not to kill anyone but animals for hunting purposes. It’s still safe to say however, that their motivations for retrieving the gold are somewhat selfish and personal. Asirpa wants the gold for revenge against the people who overworked her father and people for the gold. Sugimoto wishes to use it to help provide for his dead comrade’s wife. Shiraishi wants it for himself alone.

On the more neutral ground is Hijikata and his crew. At first glance, Hijikata seems like a Lawful Neutral kind of guy: his morals and beliefs embody heroism, as he is willing to put away his own personal issues for a greater kind of good. He tries to avoid bloodshed if possible, and in his past, he even was once a part of peacekeeping soldiers during the war. However, this deception slowly crumbles away when you realize what his ultimate goals are: to find the gold for nationalistic and political purposes. Hijikata strongly believes in the vision of Japan becoming a superior nation, and is willing to do whatever it takes to survive and achieve this goal. While he may not always want to kill everyone he sees, he’s absolutely in love with battle itself. Any engagement to him is similar to a duel to the death, and in his mind, what makes a cause worthwhile is how many people are willing to die for it to happen. It’s a similar drive that’s shared amongst his group: Ogata for instance, seems rational and clam, but it’s really pragmatism to a disturbing extent; he has no issues slowly wounding people and taking them apart.

Last but not least is the completely other side of the chart. I’m talking about pure, chaotic evil; the ones that make no sense, and are all the more exciting for it. No one else comes better to mind here than Tsurumi and the Hokkaido 7th Division. While Golden Kamuy’s moral alignment is already skewed in favor of chaos, Tsurumi and his minions take it to a completely new level with their bloodlust and irrationality. Sure, Tsurumi has no problems torturing his enemies to death to get what he wants, but he also enjoys the heck out of it. His bloodlust is easily apparent the first time we meet him, and it only seems to grow more sinister as time moves along and he becomes more serious about getting the gold. It’s precisely this cold but gleeful attitude of his that makes him terrifying to not just our main characters, but his own team. Because Tsurumi is so unpredictable to foes and friends alike, he’s considered the most dangerous opponent in the greater scheme of things, but it’s also this fact (plus many other qualities, like his manipulativeness and ruthlessness) that makes him absolutely fascinating to watch.

Sure, we’ve got morally fascinating characters, but cohesively, how does that make Golden Kamuy so captivating? The show sets a standard for how inherently good people that you root for doesn’t necessarily equal a fun, compelling story. More often than not, people with complicated motives makes for a more complex and colorful story. It also brings up the question of whom to root for, and not just because there are more than one good group. Are these people worth rooting for? And why so? In watching Golden Kamuy, we in turn, look at our own moral standards and how they are in comparison with the characters. It’s a perfect example of how fiction can be a mirror, reflective of our own behavior and mindsets, and it’s that kind of dynamic that makes me want to get up and watch every episode as it comes out. Last but not least, these characters make the story unpredictable. We don’t know who will get the gold in the end, but it’s far more than that. Who will turn sides? Who will die next? Golden Kamuy’s narrative continues to weave in and out, keeping us on our toes as we too, try to figure out what comes next.

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When not finding ways to doom all her ships, Natasha can often be found on her twitter as @illegenes, or writing more about anime on the blog Isn’t It Electrifying! Feel free to swing by and say hi.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[lechelaiteux]

Real Estate Marketing

As the land showcase in the U.S. gradually keeps on recovering its balance, numerous operators are seeing this time as an opportunity to reclassify their market. With such a large number of specialists deserting or possibly fundamentally curtailing their advertising frameworks to set aside some cash, others are hopping in to exploit the promoting void. At the end of the day, they are attacking methodology with the end goal to place themselves in prime position when the market begins to rise.

In many parts of Canada, then again, the market keeps on remaining hot and operators are searching for the most ideal approach to develop their business. They are hoping to grow the span of their showcasing and amplify pay openings. Regardless of whether it be in the U.S. or then again Canada, various specialists we are conversing with trust that this is the ideal opportunity to make the progress into the ultra top of the line advertise.

Customarily, extravagance land is one of the hardest market sections to attempt and break into. Why? There are a couple of basic reasons. It may be the nearness of an overwhelming operator previously tucked away in the network or the way that everybody as of now has a companion in the land business. It might be on account of the operators themselves don't have the persistence to work in a by and large slower-paced advertise (less exchanges to go around, harder rivalry and slower deals process). It may be the case that they are essentially not set up for the one of a kind difficulties a top of the line showcase presents.

I would say, it's typically a blend of these reasons that keeps most operators from getting to be fruitful in extravagance land. There are numerous things you have to know before you make the quantum jump into the following value run. We've assembled a rundown of five factors that will enable you to choose if a move to extravagance land is appropriate for you.

#1. Realize What You Are Getting Into

Specialists regularly make a visually impaired jump into extravagance land since they feel that is "the place the cash is." obviously, it's straightforward math. In the event that you get a similar part, it pays to list homes with higher offering costs. In principle, you can make more cash by doing less exchanges. On one hand, that is valid, however in the event that you go into extravagance land with this attitude, you are presumably bound to fall flat.

Truly, your salary per exchange goes up altogether. That is extraordinary, yet there is regularly another arrangement of difficulties presented when working a top of the line advertise: the focused stakes are significantly higher, groups of friends are considerably more shut, governmental issues are unique, and there are numerous different elements which I will detail all through this article. Moreover, showcasing and adjusting costs are for the most part more when managing extravagance homes and customers. The two purchasers and venders expect increasingly and request progressively and the properties themselves require considerably more consideration (showcasing, organizing, photography, and so forth.) to speak to a more refined group.

Ditty Barkin of Toronto, Ontario has been a fruitful Sales Representative for a long time, yet it set aside her some opportunity to fabricate her business in her top of the line markets (both in the city and in a lakefront recreational market around a hour outside Toronto). "For me, the greatest test was making that first association," she says. "They as of now have tight social associations and realize how to get what they need, so assembling connections involves trust. It's vital to identify with customers as a companion and a supportive associate, not simply introduce yourself as a specialist co-op."

#2. Tolerance, Patience, Patience

Obviously top of the line land is an unexpected creature in comparison to customary private markets. It will in general move much slower. By and large, there are less homes available at some random time and there are less purchasers out there with the way to buy such costly properties. The stakes are higher for everybody included. So all things considered, it takes essentially longer to offer one of these homes. Moreover, there is a considerable measure of rivalry out there for a set number of properties, so it regularly requires more tolerance to break into the market and fabricate a solid customer base.

This is really a situation where the end as a rule legitimizes the methods on the off chance that you have the correct comprehension and duty going in. In spite of the fact that postings are harder to stop by and it takes more time for them to offer, the expansive check toward the finish of the exchange is advantageous. In any case, not all operators have the stomach to hold up longer in the middle of commission checks. In many cases, this is the obstacle that leaves them speechless.

"I would say in top of the line land, a half year available is nothing. By and large, it's more similar to nine for a leaning to offer," says Robin. "Likewise, on the off chance that they are not really spurred to offer, you will squander a great deal of time and cash on showcasing. Sometimes, I will alter my bonus rate so the advertising costs are secured by the dealer. It counterbalances the time it takes to offer. You additionally shouldn't go into extravagance land without cash in the bank. It's a long haul procedure to assemble your business and on the off chance that you are not readied, it can break you rapidly."

#3. Know It. Live It. Keep It Exclusive.

Another reason that a few specialists battle to discover their balance in a ultra top of the line showcase is that they can't identify with the customers or impart successfully. You're managing a much savvier and generally all the more requesting group who recognize what they need and are accustomed to getting what they want. Presently, you don't really need to live in the extravagance network you are focusing on, however you need to introduce yourself as you do. The manner in which you dress, your capacity to organize inside their circles, the manner in which you speak with these advanced people, the nature of your advertising materials-you must have the capacity to make an individual association and build up a solid expert picture. In the event that they don't become tied up with you as an extravagance home master who's taken advantage of their locale, they aren't as prone to work with you.

Jack Jeffcoat III is an operator who is progressing his market center from top of the line golf networks in Central Florida to ultra top of the line waterfront properties along Florida's Space Coast. From his showcasing nearness to his own introduction to his adjusting systems, all that he does is to help his picture as an extravagance land pro. He's regularly striking and unfaltering in his methodology since he never needs to lose validity.

Consider it like any top of the line item that is sought after on account of its shortage and restrictiveness. So as a land operator represent considerable authority in top of the line properties, you, your showcasing picture, and the administration encounter itself need to mirror the most extreme quality. In the event that you look and act like the best operator around, individuals will seek to work with you.

"When I take a posting introduction, I lead a meeting with the merchant to ensure they will pursue my suggestions," Jack says. "At each chance, I need to remind them why they are procuring me. They realize I am an extravagance land master that just works with a restrictive gathering of customers. From the earliest starting point, they are ingrained with the conviction that on the off chance that they need to have an effective deal, they have to pursue my lead. It gives me the high ground and keeps me situated as the market authority."

Additionally, remember that top of the line land isn't really going to be the equivalent from locale to area. A waterfront network in Florida will have an alternate arrangement of difficulties than a mountain resort network in Colorado or a downtown skyscraper in Toronto. In a few spots, "top of the line" might be $400,000 and up. In others, costs could be in the multi-millions. So with regards to your own introduction and the manner in which you advertise yourself, make certain to appropriately display your specialty and look amazing.

"Continuously look greater than you are," says Robin Milonakis. "You must have uncommon advertising materials. They need to make individuals like contracting you. It bolsters their sense of self realizing they are working with the best."

#4. Picture is Everything, Especially in Marketing

With regards to your showcasing materials, quality is vital. You can't position yourself as a top of the line operator if your materials look unsophisticated. A top notch individual handout and dynamic site are significant. Your own pamphlet should replace your business card at whatever point you meet a potential customer. It needs to look sharp and feel amazing at the plain first look (extraordinary photography, pleasant gleaming paper, complex composition, clean plan). It needs to mirror your identity, yet additionally identify with the extravagance advertise you are focusing on. As it were, you are an agent of this way of life and your advertising ought to pass on that. It demonstrates your one of a kind ability and features the administration/learning benefits that make you a pro in this particular market.

For more information please visit our woobound: www.woobound.com

[operationrainfall]

Title Chasm Developer Bit Kid, Inc. Publisher Bit Kid, Inc. Release Date July 31st, 2018 Genre Metroidvania Platform PC, PS4, Vita Age Rating T for Teen – Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Alcohol Reference Official Website

I’ve been following Chasm since I first played it at PAX back in 2015. It certainly made its mark on me then, and I’ve been not so patiently awaiting the release date ever since. The game has been delayed a few times, and it totally caught me by surprise when I learned of the release date a day or two before it came out. Thankfully, I was able to talk with developer Bit Kid and and they were kind enough to provide a review copy, which brings us to today. It’s a major challenge for a project to live up to its potential, that wealth of expectations thrust upon it by eager fans. Was Chasm able to deliver on the promise of quality I played in the demo 3 years ago?

While it’s true Chasm is a Metroidvania, I would go a bit farther to help narrow down which sort. In my opinion, it’s most styled after the Castlevania Metroidvanias which released on the Game Boy Advance, specifically it felt like a mixture of Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. To the uninitiated, that means it has complex, seductive graphics, challenging bosses and some very linear exploration. That last point isn’t a complaint necessarily, just something fans of the genre should be aware of. To be fair though, there had to be some exploration that felt a bit blander since the layout of the dungeons are procedurally generated each time you start a new game.

That’s not the only way Chasm reminds me of some great Metroidvania titles. It also manages to capture that air of menace and mystery so crucial to those games. While it’s not very dialogue or plot heavy, you will have important revelations narrated by Professor Baden as he navigates the sprawling corridors you discover. You’ll also find journal entries that do a good job of coloring the world of Chasm and setting the stakes for failure. (This aspect of the game really reminded me of La-Mulana.) The only downside to this approach, at least for me, was that the main character you play is a blank avatar. You can name him whatever you like (I went with Hoss), but other than that he has no distinct characteristics, dramatic backstory or even any dialogue. He’s just a blank canvas you can paint whatever you want onto. While that’s not necessarily a problem, it became a niggling concern for me later in the game.

The premise of the game is that you’re sent to investigate a mining town called Karthas where a giant hole opened up and spewed forth monsters which captured most of the villagers. Your job is to investigate what’s going on and try and save the day. Though things are kept relatively open ended, and you’re mostly left to your own devices, you’re essentially exploring, fighting monsters, saving villagers, rinse and repeat. This pattern is spiced up with a handful of quite challenging boss fights, but other than that it’s pretty predictable. And while you are left to explore on your own terms, the layout is always pretty linear, and you’re unable to proceed past certain points without the proper abilities. These are acquired by finding arcane artifacts, and result in skills most fans will be familiar with – double jump, wall climb, hover etc.

One way that Chasm keeps things interesting is that whenever you rescue a villager, they’ll offer their services for you back at Karthas. (Not unlike the system in Order of Ecclesia.) Thankfully the game has a smart teleportation system, and once you find the proper nodes you’ll be able to effortlessly explore and return to safety when needed. Which is good, since every service found in the game is only accessible in Karthas. By rescuing the villagers, you’ll unlock an item shop, blacksmith and even be able to buy magical spells from an old woman. That last part was especially helpful, since every sub weapon in the game can be unlocked in whatever order you please, for the right amount of gold. (I just wish there was a way to control which sub weapons you have ready to throw, since instead you’re forced to cycle through everything to get to the one you want.) And that brings me to one complaint I had with the game – I never seemed to have enough money. You’ll find most items are relatively expensive, which often leaves you to decide between buying healing potions, new equipment or magical spells. To be fair, you will find item drops from foes on occasion, but the drop rate is quite unpredictable and thus unreliable. Even when you find the villager who will buy gems from you for a hefty price, you’ll still be cash starved most of the time. Thankfully, you’ll always be able to restore your health at save points, though your MP can only be restored back at Karthas, by shattering lamps or with the aid of a tonic.

Make sure to save frequently!

As far as controls, I was very pleased with Chasm. Everything felt tight and intuitive, other than the dash move being tied to the Y button instead of a shoulder button on the XBox 360 controller. It’s effortless to jump around, wall climb, and slash your foes to ribbons. And that’s a good thing, since the combat is fast, furious and somewhat unforgiving. The saving grace is that enemies have lots of visual tells for all their attacks, so once you learn what to expect, you can anticipate and avoid their most devastating moves. This goes double for the challenging boss battles, though don’t expect to get through any of them unscathed. I found the bosses to be the highlights of the game, though there’s plenty of memorable minor enemies, such as the recklessly charging Meatman or the explosive Mushboom.

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Visually, I was quite impressed by Chasm. This is retro done right, with gorgeous pixelated art and tons of details that make this world come to life. Enemies range from comical to homicidal, and nothing feels out of place. I also appreciated smart and efficient use of the screen to display your stats, a clear map screen and even a pop up that appears to show you your current experience when you defeat enemies. This is a game that has done its research and knows what fans of the genre demand, and they delivered. Likewise, the music is wonderful and atmospheric. Each dungeon has it’s own score, and it can range from somewhat Western to downright Medieval. The sound effects also do a great job of grounding you in the game and helping you react intelligently to combat. Put simply, this is a Metroidvania that looks and sounds like what fans have come to expect, and does so with style.

I wish I could end on that high note, but now I feel compelled to mention some areas where I feel the game dropped the ball. Yes, visually the game is beautiful and the controls work quite well. But there’s more to a Metroidvania than just those features. One issue I mentioned earlier was the main character’s lack of personality. This became a problem for me late in the game when I realized his lack of emotion made it harder for me to care about the late game plot elements. Sure, horrible monsters threaten everything, but it’s hard to care when your hero seemingly has no nuanced reason to want to save the day. That may sound a bit critical, but there are other more relevant areas the game becomes problematic as well. About halfway through my 9 hour playthrough, the game started to throw up roadblocks without any clear way how to progress. Multiple times I was forced to look online at FAQs to figure out what I was missing, and oftentimes it was something I wouldn’t have guessed on my own. An example is when you reach the Keep but need the Parachute to progress. Problem is, to find that you need to get a black feather and then return to the Catacombs, find a specific chamber, and then proceed. Unfortunately, given the rogue nature of the dungeons, I was unable to check any online maps for clarity, and had to wander around til I finally found the right room. Which would have been a breath of relief, had it not led me to a pitch black labyrinth full of buzz saws, hideous new monsters and poisonous traps. This was easily the most challenging gauntlet in the game, and unfortunately it was only a sign of things to come. Later on you’re forced to beat what I thought was an optional area just to get an artifact that allows you to proceed past watery depths. Without it, you can’t reach the final area at all. I realize a Metroidvania is partially about exploring the unknown, but getting lost in this sort of game should be a temporary trial followed by a quick eureka moment, not wandering around aimlessly without being sure if you’re even properly equipped to proceed.

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This brings me to another complaint – some things are entirely unexplained in the game. While I don’t necessarily want my hand being held through every hardship, basic mechanics should be clear. However, I was never able to figure out how to level up my magical spells, despite them apparently being capable of leveling up. I also never figured out how to move some stone gates in a couple of areas, even after spending a lot of time exploring every nook and cranny. But perhaps most frustrating for me was that Chasm didn’t live up to it’s rogue nature. Sure, dungeons are different every game, but it’s always playing through the same dungeons with the same items. After playing another Metroidvania called A Robot Named Fight, which does a good job of constantly unlocking new features for progressive runs, the procedurally generated elements in Chasm felt bland and lackluster by comparison. It left me wishing that the game hadn’t embraced rogue at all, and had just tossed in a couple more dungeons and even some alternate endings instead.

I never did figure out how to get past here…

For $19.99, you could certainly do much worse than Chasm. While I don’t feel it entirely lived up to my expectations, it does a lot of things right, and looks and plays quite well. Unfortunately, the decision to make it rogue and the lack of a developed main character prevents it from making its mark as a true Metroidvania classic. But if you enjoy Metroidvanias and are looking for a fun if flawed experience, you should give Chasm a chance. If nothing else, the highlights of this game makes me anticipate whatever project Bit Kid does next.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Developer

REVIEW: Chasm Title Chasm

[violent-optimism]

My Ranking of all the MCU films so far

Hey guys! So now that I have finally caught up and watched every single film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (to date) I will now rank them from worst to best!

Just an FYI: Some of you will probably not agree with some of my choices, and that is perfectly fine. This is just my personal opinion.

Here we go!

#19: The Incredible Hulk (2008)

The Hulk has always been one of my favourite superheroes, and as far as I am concerned this movie completely ruined him. The CGI looked like a video game, the narrative was terrible. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. Just not a good movie at all in my opinion.

#18: Iron Man 2 (2010)

I actually saw this one in the theater, and I kinda wish I hadn’t. However, unlike the previous entry I wouldn’t say it’s a completely awful film. There are a couple decent/funny moments. But for the most part, it’s not great and I don’t think I’d watch it again.

#17: Thor: The Dark World (2013)

I seriously cannot believe I wasted my money TWICE to see this in the theater. I was pretty disappointed by this movie. The villain had no clear motivation. The romance was so awkward and the majority of the humor just didn’t work. The only redeeming qualities are the performances of Hemsworth and Hiddleston.

 #16: Iron Man 3 (2013)

Now, I don’t think this movie is actually that bad, but it’s just not quite as good as some of the other high caliber MCU films. I liked that they addressed Tony’s mental health issues and the film has a pretty good ending. This movie won’t exactly waste your time, but there are other films more worthy of it.

#15: Thor (2011)

While not NEARLY as bad as its sequel, the first Thor film is a bit cheesy, clunky and predictable. That being said, it’s a visually impressive movie with some pretty fun and hilarious moments. At this point I feel kind of neutral about it. It ain’t no Ragnarok but it’s not as terrible as the second installment.

#14: Iron Man (2008)

For the very first film in the MCU line-up, this one is pretty good. Right away we know exactly what kind of person Tony Stark is, and the first half of the movie is surprisingly suspenseful and emotionally charged. It has a few humorous and bad-ass sequences. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really stand up in comparison to some of the later MCU films. That being said, it’s still a pretty good time.

#13: Ant-Man (2015)

Now the only reason I put this above Iron Man is because of how much it exceeded my expectations. I really didn’t think it was going to be that good, but it was. Not a perfect film by any means, but I was surprised at how entertaining and funny it was. I suppose my only complaint would be that unless you are really into Ant-Man as a character, it’s not that memorable of a film.

#12: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Don’t get me wrong, I did think this film was very enjoyable for the most part, I just don’t think it was as good as the first one. I think what I liked most was the development of the relationship between Gamora and Nebula. I did think most of the humor was good, but there was so much of it that it ended up feeling more like a comedy rather than a super-hero flick.

#11: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

There is no denying that Chris Evans was cast perfectly as Captain America/Steve Rogers. He is someone you can really root for, which is what makes this movie so successful. However, the film is very cheesy at parts, and some sequences are slowly paced, but overall it’s a very entertaining movie and a great introduction to one of the MCU’s most important characters.

#10: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Personally, I do think this one is better than the sequel. All of the characters are introduced perfectly, and their interactions are written in such a clever way. I also think this movie has the better soundtrack when compared the sequel, and the humor is not as overblown. I guess my only complaint would be that it kind of feels like the film makers were trying to copy the Avengers with the whole “team doesn’t get along at first but then they do” scenario. It definitely works, but it’s not the most original idea. Overall, very well done.

#9: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Although the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films (excluding the 3rd one) will always be close to my heart, I have to admit that this movie was really good. I really enjoy Tom Holland’s portrayal of Peter Parker. He has an innocence about him that makes him so likeable, and you really want him to succeed. I also thought the humor in this movie was perfect, and Michael Keaton was not just another boring Marvel villain. Overall, I would definitely see it again.

#8: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

To be honest, I don’t think this movie is QUITE as good as the Tumblr community thinks it is. However, it is pretty darn good. Some of the action and fight choreography is absolutely stunning. I love how it feels like a spy/espionage film while also displaying themes that the MCU is known for. I love the developing relationship between Steve and Natasha, and how this film exposes their true colours. Really well done.

#7: Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Again, I don’t think this movie is as incredible as the Tumblr fans say it is, but overall I did enjoy it quite a bit. A lot of the issues I had with the previous Thor films are not in this one.The Director must have realized that the previous Thor films just weren’t working, and decided to give this one a fun, energetic spin that I think was the perfect choice. Of course, I have to talk about my favourite actress, Cate Blanchett, who KILLS IT in this role (no pun intended). With a brilliant aesthetic and motivation that makes sense, she might just be my favourite MCU villain yet. In my opinion, this is the best Thor film so far.

#6: Black Panther (2018)

Alright, now we’re getting to the really good stuff! This movie took the world by storm, and it’s not hard to understand why. With a cast full of talented and diverse actors, Black Panther is unlike any Marvel movie we’ve ever seen before. I can’t tell you how unbelievably refreshing it is to see a film that is not 90% white people, it’s the other way around! Although the story is a tad predictable if you’ve seen The Lion King, the action is superb, the visuals are beautiful, and the script is very well written. Wakanda forever!

#5: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Without getting too much into spoiler territory, I will say that this film is probably the most ambitious cross-over I have ever seen in all of cinema. The crazy part is that the directors actually managed to tell a clear and concise story despite the fact that they were dealing with something like 30 characters in one film. Emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking and hilarious, this one hits all the marks that it should in the most surprising ways.

Still not sure what to think about that ending though....

#4: The Avengers (2012)

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I first saw this movie it totally blew my mind! It truly is an epic movie with some of the best writing I’ve ever heard/seen. While I feel that fans obsessed over Loki a little too much, he is a fun villain with a pretty clear motivation. This movie also introduces Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner who I think is by far the best actor to portray the character. I feel like this is the movie that started the trend of MCU films that were actually really good. It’s a really entertaining ride from beginning to end.

#3: The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

I know exactly what some of you are thinking: “Oh my god she thinks Age of Ultron is better than the first one are you freaking kidding me”. Yes, you are correct. I do think that Age of Ultron is better than the first Avengers, and I seem to be very very alone in that opinion for some reason. Basically I think that this film has everything that made the first Avengers film good with a couple things that make it even better:

1) The character interactions are more complex and interesting

2) The stakes are a lot higher and the heroes suffer more

In a nutshell, that is why I think it’s better than the first one. To be perfectly honest I’m not really sure why Tumblr hates this movie so much. I get that nobody really likes the Bruce/Natasha pairing but is that really a valid reason to hate the entire movie? I guess I’ll never know.

#2: Doctor Strange (2016)

Unless you’ve been counting, I doubt you saw this one coming up so high on my list. It wasn’t until I started thinking about my ranking that I thought: “Wow, I LOVE Doctor Strange!” Not only is Benedict Cumberbatch an incredibly talented actor, I always liked this film because it was a marvel film that didn’t feel like a stereotypical “marvel” film (if that makes sense). Aside from having a visual style I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, I think my favourite part about this movie is the progressive character arc that Stephen Strange goes through. By the end of the film he’s not a completely different person, but his priorities have shifted and he wants to help make the world a safer place. Also I can’t talk about this movie without mentioning the SOUNDTRACK, oh my goodness the soundtrack. Here’s the link, listen and be amazed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc0KNrpFka8

#1: Captain America: Civil War (2016)

It took me a little while to figure it out, but I definitely feel that this movie is my favourite in the MCU so far. Sort of a scaled-down version of Infinity War, this movie has a lot of characters, but the story is balanced so well that you barely notice. The comedy is really good, and is countered with scenes of irreversible emotion. Everything ties together so wonderfully, and despite the long run time, the movie is extremely well paced. Although it has one of the more darker endings in a marvel movie, it still manages to end on fairly positive note, which I love. I don’t know what else I can say to praise this movie, so I’ll end it right there.

Wow, that took a while! There you have it folks, my personal ranking of all 19 MCU films so far. If you took the time to read all of this, thank you so much for doing so. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

[feelingsdusk]

BH can't survive without competent protection (Derek/Scott isn't it). So, Stiles makes a deal with Peter: He'll make Peter an alpha in exchange for protection/turning for Stiles' dad, and Stiles stays with Peter as emissary/human packmate.

The difficult path.

It’s raining heavily and Stiles is soaked to the bone, his clothes sticking to his frame like a second skin by now. The wind is so cold that it feels as if it’s cutting into his skin and it doesn’t look like it’s going to ease up any time soon. He wants to leave, he wants to go home and hide under the covers… he wants to go back in time and be blissfully ignorant again.

As always, he can’t have what he wants and has to settle for what he needs.

(And hope he gets at least that.)

Stiles, as a whole, is trembling. His body, his breath, his mind, his soul, everything is shaking violently and he can’t make it stop. Even his resolve is faltering and he can’t afford that, because he has weighed the odds and they aren’t good. Because he may want the complete opposite to what he’s about to do, but he needs this. Because the stakes are too high and he can’t afford to fail.

(Because having his dad hate him is better than having him six feet under and unable to feel anything at all.)

He grunts as he drags him across the parking lot. Stiles hasn’t cried ever since his mother stopped being his mom and became a stranger in her own home. He thinks he should want to cry today but he doesn’t. His dad is in the hospital, any goodwill that was left in Stiles after all the shit that has been happening since the supernatural became public knowledge four months ago, died a swift death when he received the call from the deputies.

He hoists him into the jeep and closes the door. He rests his face against the cold metal and tries to make everything stop shaking once again. He fails but that’s not a surprise.

He hasn’t been able to calm down ever since the supernatural world, tired of the oppression, exploded outwards and took control of everything. (Hell, who is he trying to trick? What a joke. Stiles wasn’t calm even in the womb, but certainly things were easier before creatures that could kill him with their pinkies alone entered the picture.) And that with an ease that should be insulting but wasn’t even surprising at all.

Stiles suspected they had been planning it for a very long time. They had people in very high places and the transition was way too fast for the circumstances at hand. In little over two months, the world changed irrevocably. Hunter families fell, rules were enforced and territories were defined with alphas to rule over them. Effectively, a new world order was established in fifty-six days.

As far as world orders go, the new one wasn’t a bad one, even if humans had been knocked off first place on the podium. Life should have gone on relatively normally after that, except it’s Beacon Hills, so of course it didn’t.

Beacon County had been Hale territory for centuries before it ended up in the hands of the one true alpha, Scott McCall.

Scott, as the alpha of a mismatched pack of mostly teenagers, was an average alpha. Not too good, and not too bad, with enough good luck and support to get by. As the alpha of Beacon County? It was a disaster and he was in way over his head. In the space of a few hours, he essentially became the king and ruler of around 300.000 people, both supernatural and human, and he was hopelessly lost. Which, sure, it was understandable. Scott had no training whatsoever and suddenly Beacon County (which was for all intents and purposes like a small country) and a whole load of expectations were dumped into his lap. Who wouldn’t be lost?

But what were also dumped in his lap were advisors of the supernatural tribes from all around the county and human leaders. All of whom wanted the best… for their people. One thing led to another, and after a while Scott stopped listening to them because “they were only looking for the good of their own tribes”. When the pack tried to convince him to at least listen, to take the good from their advice and ignore the bad, he started avoiding them too.

Things deteriorated quickly. Without the proper training, knowledge or support system (though not for the lack of trying on that count), Scott made many mistakes. He looked at the small picture too much and left really important issues unattended. It was like a domino effect. In the end, the economy fell and no other territories wanted a trade treaty with them. The crisis worsened when people started committing crimes to survive. Scott stepped in but the ones that didn’t follow the law only got a slap on the wrist and were let go. In less than two months, Beacon County was like the wild wild west and the police was stretched thin, trying to do its best and being scorned and hated for it.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, alphas that wanted their own territory to rule started trickling in not long after that, bringing a new set of problems. And then, the outside territories began making noise about intervening to control the situation. If they actually followed through that plan, Beacon County would be divided and absorbed into their adjacent territories after who knows how many casualties.

No, Stiles hasn’t been able to calm down to his normal levels for a while.

He gets inside the jeep and lets his head rest against the wheel. His hands clench around it for a moment before he forces himself to let go. He notices detachedly that he’s dripping blood everywhere. There are gashes in his arms and chest that are bleeding sluggishly but he can barely feel the pain. He suspects that will change once the adrenaline has run its course but he doesn’t really care. He supposes that the pain and the scars will be his penance for what he’s about to do, no matter how justified it is.

He drives in silence for a while.

When he’s almost at his destination, he gets stopped. Not many people dare to drive at night these days. The deputy asks about his dad before she notices the tied man at the back. Her hand flies to her service weapon as her flashlight zeroes in on Stiles, but he doesn’t react. Then she spots the red eyes and she stills for a long minute. After a deep breath and a compulsive swallow, she motions to her partner to get back inside the car, transmits her well wishes for his dad and let’s him go with a nod.

Stiles pulls back onto the road and they follow behind at a respectable distance. When they cross another patrol car much later, they flash their lights briefly and Stiles doesn’t get stopped again. Before long, he reaches Peter’s apartment complex. The patrol car parks just outside and makes no move to follow Stiles inside to the parking lot.

Stiles remains inside the jeep for a while, his stomach in knots. Is this the right choice? Was there any other way he’s overlooked? Should he do nothing and let Beacon County be absorbed into other territories?

He takes a deep breath and rubs his face tiredly. He wonders if this is what Peter planned when he followed Stiles to act as the enforcers Scott needed but refused to have. (He has so much blood on his hands that he’ll never be able to wash off. Sometimes that’s all he sees.) Not even once did he try to take the alpha spark when their opponent happened to be one. He’d step back and let Stiles take the killing shot. Did he expect this to happen? Did he do all he did to prove how he could be the better alpha so that Stiles would come to him when the time came? So Stiles would choose to bring him an alpha tied with a bow to his doorstep? So Stiles would choose him above others?

He takes a deep breath once again. His hands keep shaking and he wishes he could hear his dad’s voice right now, before everything changes. (Before his dad learns what he’s done and refuses to talk to him ever again.) But that’s impossible because his dad hasn’t woken up yet, because he’s still under the effects of the anaesthesia after the major surgery he had to go through.

Stiles trembles. He closes his eyes tightly and just breathes for a bit. Then he forces himself to get out of the car and put one foot after the other until he’s at the door to Peter’s apartment.

Peter opens it, polished as ever even though it’s only about one hour before dawn. He leans against the door frame and takes in Stiles’ appearance, unperturbed. Stiles shakes even more violently. Not because he’s afraid of Peter, but because of the magnitude of what he’s about to do.

Peter’s hand lifts slowly, his eyes never leaving Stiles’ face. Stiles follows its path until it disappears under his own jaw. He then looks Peter in the eye and waits. The hand closes around his neck loosely but firmly and Stiles swallows but makes no move to get it off him.

“So this is how far your loyalty goes,” he muses thoughtfully, his hand tightening minutely around his throat.

Stiles bristles immediately, his mouth opening to let out the most scathing retort he’s ever spat out in his life. Does he think Stiles would do this lightly, that he wouldn’t avoid it if he could? That he hasn’t tried to the very end? Doesn’t he notice that he nearly died tonight because of it? Peter’s pleased expression halts his tongue. Clearly, this is the reaction the man wanted to get, but why?

“Loyal to the end,” Peter murmurs, his eyes studying Stiles’ face intently.

“Yeah, sure,” Stiles scoffs, averting his eyes. “Because exe-”

“Don’t lie to yourself, sweetheart,” Peter cuts in firmly, tightening his hand once again. “It’s beneath you.”

Stiles swallows and closes his eyes tightly. Unbidden, a tear slides down his cheek slowly. The hand lets go of his throat and travels upwards to cup his jaw. Lips flutter down and gather the tear tenderly between them.

“Fuck you,” Stiles whispers brokenly, because tenderness isn’t something he can take right now. What he can take is pain, just like the searing one of his wounds. He’s stupidly grateful Peter isn’t taking it away. “Fuck you, Peter.”

—

“What are you doing here,” Isaac hisses, outraged. His hands are tightened into fists and his nails are cutting into the skin.

Stiles doesn’t answer, his eyes zeroed in on the coffin that’s about to be lowered into the ground. He isn’t surprised that there are few people here today. Only Scott’s former pack is mourning him because his own mother is in the grave right beside them.

He takes a step forward and Isaac growls threateningly. Again, Stiles pays him no mind as he reaches to place two identical Batman action figures on the coffin. Both birthday presents to each other from when they were kids. The very first present they gave each other, in fact.

Because Stiles isn’t here for alpha McCall’s funeral. Alpha McCall, the omega alpha that refused to step down and was driving them all to their deaths, Stiles overthrew. He’s here for that little boy that played with Stiles in the sandbox when no one else would. He’s here for the asthmatic boy that once threw Jackson into the swimming pool for being a douche about Stiles’ mom and then ran with him to hide. He’s here for the sweet kid that stood there, silently, when Stiles refused to talk for weeks after his mom’s death. He’s there for the boy that followed him into the woods that night.

(He realized some time ago that his friend never really came back.)

“Peter, Stiles?” Lydia snaps. “What were you thinking? Don’t think we’ll let this go. If he steps out of line-”

“What, you’ll do nothing?” Stiles snaps back viciously and she takes a step back, startled. “That’s no surprise. Don’t worry, if he steps out of line, I’ll be the one to take care of it. We’ve already established that I’m capable of it and you’re not.”

Her mouth snaps shut and suddenly no one can look at Stiles in the eye. Because it’s Stiles who has the scars to prove that he stubbornly kept going back to Scott again and again, not them. They are here today, but for a long time they weren’t. Stiles can’t get the smell of blood out of his nose because of what he did for Scott in the shadows, not them. It’s Stiles who had to…

Because Stiles tried, he really did. Right until the end, he tried to talk him into stepping down and he nearly got killed for it. Scott was going to be killed one way or another. Be it by the adjacent territories’ alphas or by the rebelling tribes, it was going to happen. Stiles just took it in his hands and made it as painless as possible. He’ll carry the weight of his decision forever, but he doesn’t regret what he did.

In short, these people have no right to throw anything in his face.

He turns back to stare fixedly as they slowly lower the coffin. He stays until the last shovel of dirt has been thrown over it. Then he leaves and doesn’t look back.