#like the animation is dramatic and amazing and then i go watch the scenes its based on

[real-life-senshi]

10 (Mostly) Spoiler-Free Reasons to Watch Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 2003 Live Action

A countdown to the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

Reason 5: The captivating story!

Ultimately, I would say the live-action stayed true to the essence and intention of the original source material when concerning the Dark Kingdom arc.

I’m choosing to use the word “essence” though, because it is also factual that in multiple aspects, the story does diverge from its source material, but with the intention of further amping up the stakes and angst for drama, and possibly even pulling in elements from story arcs beyond the manga’s Dark Kingdom arc into the one season we (sadly) only have.

Sometimes those differences could be due to limitations of CGI and execution methods in real-life filming, while others could be due to updating the content to appeal to the newer generations of viewers in the early 2000s.

Regardless of what's faithful or not faithful to original source material, I think PGSM did really well striking a balance of making it a kid’s show, and also adding some complexities to appeal to viewers who were kids or teenagers that grew up reading the manga or watching the '90s anime, who would be in their late teens or adulthood or even parenthood by the time the live-action aired.

Warning: Going forward these series of posts will contain minor spoilers to introduce some live-action only elements. It will only be at the introductory level though!

Staying true and delving deeper into source materials

Personally, I can’t speak much to the ’90s anime, but I can confirm the live-action pulls many elements from the manga source material where possible. Here are just a few:

Introducing the Sailor Senshi!

The story of how Usagi and Ami discovered their Senshi power largely follows the same story, while Rei and Makoto's intro episodes heavily reference the original manga chapter and use the same theme behind the attacks that lead to them accessing their transformation. There's no magic bus to whisk victims away in Rei's case, and there's no wedding dress ghost story in Makoto's, probably due to the feasibility of recreating those scenes.

The Forbidden Love & the Past Life lore

The live-action definitely deep-dived into the 'forbidden love' concept when it came to Usagi and Mamoru, and further created a whole complexity of the storyline to justify WHY it's forbidden. In the manga/anime, it felt like the idea of their forbidden love was purely political and mostly glossed over since the past life kingdoms were dead, but in the live-action, there were actual stakes and consequences to consider even for the present.

And the ABSOLUTE MOST AMAZING THING and by far my favourite twist to the live-action storyline is they actually ventured into exploring the impact of making teenagers soldiers of war! There is actually ample screen time and dialogues AND monologues dedicated for us to see individual Senshi AND the team together grappling with the pros and cons and exploring both extreme sides of the need to follow the past life mission to avert tragedy regardless of the sacrifices made, versus the necessity of making one's choice and finding ways to live in the present in spite of the past life lore! Do they support Usagi's and Mamoru's love for each other or not???? Do they know for sure whether their love WILL cause misfortune again or not or can they trust Usagi to know what she's doing????? FASCINATING AND ANGSTY STUFF RIGHT THERE!

Rei’s Personality

More as an FYI, but Rei’s personality is much more similar to the manga Rei’s personality, instead of ‘90s anime Rei. More cool beauty and calm, less aggressively hotheaded and abrasive. And very importantly, NOT boy-crazy.

New, original dramatic elements

On the other hand, here are some live-action exclusive dramatic elements that I'd like to highlight:

Aino Minako the idol

Even many who haven't watched the series would have heard about how Minako's character is drastically changed in the live-action. Indeed, Minako is an acclaimed teenage idol and singer with best-selling songs in the show!

It's basically as if the live-action screenwriter pulled in the Outer Senshi elements from the Mugen arc into Minako's character: she's famous, experienced, and serious. Minako has full access to past life knowledge and is ultimately mission-driven like Haruka and Michiru are in the Mugen arc, which causes some of her decisions to maybe not be as morally white as we'd expect her to be (I think her costume style of white and black is a nice nod to the idea of her double life and her sense of moral).

Now, that's not to say live-action Minako is completely a new character, you can certainly see manga/anime Minako's character traits here and there if you pay attention - pun-loving, prank-loving, mischievous. For god's sake, the girl named her album Venus, and one of her most iconic songs is called C'est La Vie, which sounds exactly like "Sailor V" pronounced in Japanese. Just imagine this girl playing a vigilante life, and having a chuckle every time she sings her best-selling song that basically announces her identity to the world and no one realizes. lmao

Basically, Minako's character embodies the extreme result of what happens if a teenager is burdened with all the knowledge of the Past Life war and has the weight on her shoulders while working alone.

If you can get past Minako's changed character setting in the live-action, you'll find there are still plenty of Dark Kingdom arc manga/anime Minako elements in there, just some more exaggerated while others are more subtle. (Coz to be fair, Minako didn't start becoming Usagi's twin until after the Dark Kingdom arc.) And her relationship with Artemis is absolutely heartwarming to see in the live-action.

Who's in the wrong? Who's an ally, and who's not?

While our Senshi team is clearly the heroine, and the Dark Kingdom the villains, the live-action takes a more interesting take on what's considered "good" versus "evil", and more importantly, who's in the wrong on how things ended badly in the past life. Who is actually the person the Senshi needs to protect the world from? And that drives the story into a direction that is more complex than what you'll ever find in manga or anime, and certain characters react accordingly and act more grey than black or white - from both the heroine side and the villain side!

Shitennou & Endymion

Something we didn't really get to see as much in the manga and anime, while we know who the Shitennou are, we don't really see the Shitennou and Mamoru interacting until after they... became their name-sake rocks (okay, technically, GEMS). And we don't get many hints on what their past live relationships were, so for many years fans have taken to pen/paper/tablets/keyboard and filled the gaps with their amazing imagination and creative work instead.

In the live-action, we get a much more expansive and interesting take in seeing the Shitennou - technically still under the Dark Kingdom's influence, interact with Mamoru as they all grapple with what happened in the past life.

How would the prince's ex-guardians act seeing their master again? How would Mamoru react? Choosing to accept his responsibility for his past life or not? After all, they had such fond memories of arm-wrestling each other! (Spoiler alert: Nephrite won.) :P

I must once again emphasize that I love what they did with the Shitennou's characters and gave each of them a different story trajectory. They are written so well they pull at your heartstrings!

If you want some canon-material for writing the Shitennou in the age of Elysion Kingdom, definitely give the live-action a go!

Power up! The Senshi Needs Training

Because the live-action only gets one arc, there's no room for us to see the Senshi team (conveniently) get upgraded transformation like they do in each arc in manga or anime. Instead, the live-action takes a different, and I dare say, a more realistic approach, where the Senshi learns that their initial access to their transformation isn't the full access to their powers as they expected. They are put through some legit, and some questionable training of the body, mind and spirit, and each of them has to overcome something within themselves across the series to access their power!

This approach highlights and solidifies each Senshi's strengths AND ties in really well into the girls' character development throughout the series. As well, it makes it feel like the Senshi did have to put in work to get strong and gain access to their power, instead of relying on the plot to get them new powers at the right opportune time, seemingly out of the blue.

Remember: THEY ARE IN SCHOOL!

Yep, sometimes in the manga and in the anime, it's so easy for us to forget that the Senshi are kids in school when they are in the thick of a crisis or fighting evil. Somehow, it always seems quite clean and convenient that the Senshi could separate their school life and their heroine life, doesn't it? How the responsible adults in the world may wonder... "Gosh, where did that kid go in the middle of [insert context]????" Or for a fellow peer in school to wonder - "How the hell did this random group of girls come together like an odd band?"

The live-action takes time to make room for some reality checks in their episodic storylines to explore all the different repercussions our heroine's double (or triple) life has on their normal life, and with that ties in personable and relevant topics and themes into their episodic plots:

Family relationship

Peer relationship

Romantic relationships

Moments that remind everyone how awkward and tough it is to be a teenager.

The toll of lying through your teeth to keep a secret, etc

I cannot emphasize enough that the screenwriting is superb in the series! Not one thing is referenced only once and left out the window, everything that happened builds up into a moment of learning or lasting impact for our characters!

To people who've not watched the live-action, PLEASE GIVE IT A CHANCE! At least give it 6 episodes, and you'll probably be hooked!

You can watch the subbed versions of the series at:

Miss Dream Fansubs

Sea of Serenity Fansubs

The series is also on other online streaming sites, but be cautious to only visit them with good adware and firewall installed.

6 days till the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

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

[chocomd]

ATLA Live Action Final Thoughts

So I'll start by saying that I went into this show with zero expectations (including the expectation for it to be any good at all) and focused more on questions like: How is the acting? Does the writing make sense? Is the story decent? Do we have emotional scenes?

I didn't care about sticking to the og ATLA's ships, lore, or any of the details really. Even changes to the characters were fine with me. But the most important question of all is: Does it work?

The answer:

No.

There are lots of well thought out NATLA critical reviews out there, so I'll try to keep this short. NATLA tweaked a lot of things, tried take elements of the og and make them subversive, changed the themes, completely nerfed Katara, watered down almost everyone else...and I could go on and on. But essentially, NATLA was a "remix" that stayed too close to the original in that the changes they made felt like empty imitations and clumsy efforts to improve on the og. They really should have created a completely different story while keeping maybe a handful of elements of the og. And even if they changed core traits of the characters, that would be fine. It just has to work...and it didn't.

So some main points:

The acting was terrible to ok for the most part. Overall stiff and stilted with almost nonexistent chemistry. Sokka, Jet, Ozai, and June (😍) were the standout actors. Katara had one facial expression and one tone of voice 95% of the time.

Ships I actually enjoyed: Sukka, turnip Jetara, sokka x hahn (hakka? sahn?) and ZUKAANG

The writing often contradicted itself and there was very little emotional resonance or depth. So many lines and moments felt unearned, or simply didn't make sense.

Telling. SO MUCH TELLING. The constant exposition killed so much in this show. I groaned almost every time an actor opened their mouth.

Katara. Why was she in this story again?

The only time the show felt fresh and interesting was the spirit world segment with visions and flashbacks in episode 5...the one time they took ideas from og ATLA and truly remixed them and it was actually decent to good.

The Blue Spirit episode (ep 6) was amazing (relatively speaking lol), and I think it's because Bryke co-wrote this episode AND it was pretty faithful to the og AND the Pohuai Stronghold fight was incredible AND the Zukaang was even more deliciously Zukaang.

The overall plot did not feel cohesive and felt like a disjointed imitation of og ATLA.

Even if I wasn't familiar with the og, I would not have enjoyed this show because it's not good or interesting TV. One person I was watching with (who didn't see the og) left the room because "this is so bad" and "the acting is really stilted."

In the end, I'm not surprised by any of this. Animated stories usually suffer when they're translated into live action, because animation typically has much more emotional and dramatic range. And while og ATLA isn't perfect, it very nearly is because even its imperfections still manage to work in the bigger scheme of the story. Adaptations of og ATLA are pretty much doomed to fail, unless they completely rewrite the ATLA story (and I do mean completely).

Do I regret watching NATLA? That's a hard question to answer. There's no way I was watching this on my own, so I got to enjoy the unhinged company of my friends. If nothing else, watching NATLA made me want more og ATLA and sucked me back into ATLA fandom again.

[ben-talks-art]

My 10 Favorite DreamWorks Movies

When I first joined Tumblr one of the first few posts I made was a "Best of DreamWorks" where I just pasted a bunch of images from the movies I liked the most.

After seeing the new Puss In Boots movie and seeing all the love it's been getting I thought it would be nice to revisit the list, but this time actually talking about why I like these movies so much.

Just wanna say real quick, If you're coming here wondering if "Shark Tale" will be on the top 5 and how I'm gonna defend my case about it, you lower these expectations right now. This is gonna be a super boring list. My favorites are everyone's favorites.

The only thing I can bring up is why I myself like them, and hopefully, I can bring up unique enough reasons for it. I've always been a fan of this company, mostly because I really respect how many risks they take with the premises of their stories.

I always like to believe that there is no such thing as a bad idea, only a bad execution, and DreamWorks proves that by never being afraid of giving a chance to the weirdest of ideas, and when the execution pays off, it pays off greatly!

So which ideas did I feel were executed the best?

10 . The Bad Guys

First things, first. "Good Tonight" is a freaking awesome song and everyone should give it a listen.

The idea of bad guys is "what if we tried to make the meanest-looking animals that people are familiar with into the heroes of our story?"

Animals like snakes, sharks, spiders, and so on, things that are known for being very dangerous and scary, but placed into the roles of bandits that go on heists while running away from the police.

I always call this the "Not Sly Cooper" movie, because that's exactly what I feel a Sly Cooper movie would be like. Tons of animal-acting-like-human jokes, fun cartoonish heists and car chases, and some nice morals about what it means to be a thief and what it means to be a hero.

Bad Guys is a very charming movie. The characters are all likable, many of the jokes are funny, and the way the movie looks with its blend of 2D and 3D is just amazing. The scene where they are escaping from prison with the help of a "mysterious ninja" being my favorite part.

The only problem I have is that I feel having both a shark and a piranha in the cast was kinda redundant. I would have replaced the piranha with a bat so they would have a scary flying animal instead of two scary water animals. Plus, imagining a bat singing "Good Tonight" just feels like a funnier visual to me.

9. Megamind

"Presentation!!"

The idea for Megamind is rather simple, show what happens when the villain does beat the hero.

I feel like this movie did a good job showing how the fun of working hard can sometimes feel more rewarding than the fun of actually winning, kinda sending a sweet message about the futility of cheating.

I also like how over-the-top Megamind himself is with how he treats all his evil actions as some grand spectacle. Doesn't matter if he's winning or losing, this dude always looks like he's having a lot of fun treating these hero vs villain battles as some sort of playtime with his best friend.

You're basically watching a kid's imagination of what these fights would look like from someone who grew up watching way too many cartoons. Tons of cheesy one-liners, tons of dramatic speeches, tons of last-second twists, and of course, tons of big explosive action.

And it's also fun seeing Megamind's fantasy of what a hero vs villain scenario looks like slowly dying once he meets Titan and how differently he treats this whole thing compared to MetroMan.

The one problem I had was the way the character of Roxane was treated. It felt like they were trying to make her more than just "the girlfriend" and give her more depth, but in the end, her biggest role in the climax was still needing to be saved and serving as emotional support for the main character. Also, the way she was basically catfished by Megamind always made me very uncomfortable, especially when thinking that kids might be watching this and learning from this.

It wasn't too awful, but I felt they could have done more with her.

8. Spirit

"What if we made a movie about the adventures of a horse?"

This one is kinda hard to describe why I like it. I think the reason is that it feels... How do I put it... Honest? Real? Genuine?

Whenever Spirit goes through an emotion it always feels earned. When he's sad, you're sad, when he's angry, you're angry, and when he's celebrating after succeeding in a daring escape, you want to celebrate too.

This movie to me just did a great job at making me feel what this horse was feeling, and most of it with the use of very minimal words.

I loved Spirit, loved his chemistry with the villain, loved the sense of speed whenever he is running through the fields or avoiding the cowboys... and most of all, loved the joy you get whenever you feel free.

It's not that this gives you a great sense of freedom, its that it gives you a desire to fight for freedom! It makes you feel you can be more, and do more and have the right to reject being tied down by others who want to limit your true potential and control you.

This movie makes you want to be free.

7. The Road to El Dorado

Do I even need to say anything besides the fact that this movie has Chel in it?

But for real, I think this movie was my introduction to the Maya, Inca, and Azteca culture, (I think my closest only other option at the time was "Mucha Lucha" of all things...), and they make this culture look fun and cool.

The architecture looked nice, the clothing looked nice, the people were so likable, and anytime they party you just want to party as well. I kept waiting for some big reveal to happen for the citizens to turn on the heroes, but they never do, and that was so refreshing, just showing people from different areas becoming friends AND staying friends.

I also love how funny Miguel and Tulio are, I was a kid when I first saw this so I was weirded out by the idea of two adults as the leads but I was sold on them very quickly. Even their horse was likable. everyone is just so likable in this movie. It makes you want to visit El Dorado and hang out with all these people.

Such a charming, funny, and friendly movie.

Also Chel. Chel was a big selling point.

6. Puss in Boots, the Last Wish

I already talked about this one over here, but, long story short, like many other movies on this list, I love how good this movie is at sucking you into the mood.

The way the visuals, the story, the dialogue, and the characters work together really succeed into making you feel what these people are feeling and making want to see more of them.

Didn't matter if it was the heroes, the villains, the antagonists, or what, I was 100% behind everyone's motivations and I couldn't wait to see all their goals clashing with each others'.

Also, the wolf is by far one of DreamWork's best antagonists, right up there with Shen and Ramses. He looks cool, talks cool, and even his motivation was cool.

This wasn't just a movie, this was an experience.

5. Shrek 2

I freaking dare anyone going into this movie blind to predict what the climax is going to be.

The weird idea of this one is that Shrek after marrying his wife needs to meet her parents... And that's it. It's just one long and uncomfortable reunion with people who really don't want to be on the same room together and all the things they try to pull of to make or break this relationship.

Hire assassins, request help from magic fairies, fake your appearance, steal a potion, it's all about seeing how far everyone is willing to go to do what they think it's the best for those they love.

It all turns into a glorious and creative mess and I can't help but love every second of it!

(Side note, anyone ever notices how often DreamWorks sequels focus on the idea of characters dealing with their parents?)

4. Kung Fu Panda 2

If it wasn't for Prince of Egyp, I would say that this was the hardest and darkest DreamWorks movie.

There is so much focus on feeling lost, feeling abandoned, feeling hopeless and betrayed, and just trying to understand what you're doing wrong and what you need to do right.

This movie was like a therapy session... Done with talking cartoon animals, yes, but a therapy session no less.

The themes of trying to understand yourself, where you came from, and where you want to go are all handled greatly as you watch the relationship between the hero and the villain.

Po and Shen have such an absurdly great chemistry. I love seeing them talking, fighting, and trying to one-up each other, and I really love how much their relationship changes the more they learn about each other, and it all happens so fast and so smoothly too.

It makes me angry whenever I see a movie and the hero and the villain barely talk with each other. That's one of the best things you can do with them! Why are you skipping it??

Luckily this one didn't, and in return, we got one of the best interactions ever. I love these two by themselves and love these to together. Just a pair of wonderful characters that work really well off each other!

3. The Prince of Egypt

Man... What do I even say about this one?

It's probably the riskiest idea DreamWorks has ever tried to do, tell the story of Exodus as an animated musical... And that was their second movie ever after freaking "Antz!" These guys have a lot of guts.

This was a movie that I didn't really get it when I saw it as a kid, but I just love trying to understand its themes and messages now that I'm older.

I love the main conflict between the brothers, again, bringing attention to how good a story can be when you focus on the connection of the hero and the villain. Showing both sides of people who grew up under an unhealthy ideology, one trying to grow out of it and the other trying to embrace it even more.

I love the imagery of Egypt, both as this grand epic kingdom built from the struggle and pain of the slaves and as this falling empire being attacked by God Himself. The visuals of the plagues being my favorites.

And I love the sense of calmness that appears whenever the chaos takes a break. Seeing Moses and his people getting out from the ocean and enjoying the dawn of a new era after all the struggle they went through just felt so rewarding. It's just such a satisfying ending for such a long journey... As long as you decide to stop there and don't look up what happens in the rest of the story.

I especially love the concept of Ramses, A person so deep into the teachings of his father that he can't even see why the things he's doing are so bad. I think my favorite part is when he's hugging his son while glaring at Moses and just asking "Why?" while he has this GIANT WALL SHOWING BABIES BEING FEED TO CROCODILES right behind him.

It's such an amazingly blind irony as the man cries for his kid's safety while the crying of all these dead kids looms over his shoulder. Just how do you have to be raised to turn into this kind of person?

It's so baffling but I just can't stop watching and wondering how far is this man willing to go. Such a sad showing of someone who doesn't see he's on the wrong side and trying to fight against the tides.

It's a beautifully sad, and yet hopeful movie.

2. Kung Fu Panda

Yeah, I put Kung Fu Panda above Prince of Egypt... I don't know what's wrong with me either. I don't know, for some reason, I just have a lot of respect for this movie? Prince of Egypt I liked a lot but I couldn't really fully understand it and enjoy it until I was much older. Meanwhile, even when young I could already enjoy Kung Fu Panda a lot.

It felt like it had a bigger challenge by being a good, deep movie while also being fun, funny, and cheerful.

It's easy to make dark stories have strong messages and depth, but it's hard to have no-so-dark stories also have strong messages and depth, and I have such an appreciation for that. They could have just made this a lame joke-fest about being an overweight character trying to learn martial arts, but they didn't!

They put a lot of effort into the lessons, the fighting, the motivations of the characters, the visuals, and even the jokes! I thought the jokes were going to be awful but they were all very charming!

I love the designs of the cast in how they each represent a level of kung-fu, AND, I love the Kung-fu itself.

I feel like this is the Kung Fu Panda movie that tries the most to be creative with combining martial arts in a cartoon setting. Like... I like Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3 but I don't really remember much of the action there aside from the stuff in climaxes with the "water dodgeball" section and the "giant energy dragon avatar in the spiritual realm" section.

But in here? I remember the bridge fight, the prison escape, the master vs student showdown, the hot-potato game with the scroll, and even the training sessions with Po and the five.

I feel like as the movies went on they focused more on the spiritual journey of self-discovery and toned down the cartoon action, while in here it's just perfect.

It's amazing how many elements this movie is trying to balance while still pulling it off each of them so well.

I just wished that Po and Tai-Lung had more scenes of interaction because they basically feel like strangers in the end even though the whole movie is building up to their fight... A fight that... Really doesn't feel as good as all the action that came before to be honest.

But still, that's just one small little problem in what's otherwise a perfect product. Besides... KFP2 covers the whole Hero vs Villain thing that was lacking in here by more than making up for it, so it's all good. 1. How To Train Your Dragon

Of course my favorite DeamWorks movie is the one with the dragon. I freaking love dragons! I have a comic based on people that become dragons for crying out loud!

Kidding aside, this is a movie with a message that I just respect a lot. I really appreciate the idea of teaching kids the importance of knowing how to stop, looking at what you're doing, trying to understand who you're hurting, and what you can do to change.

This isn't just something that holds value to kids, this holds value to everyone. We are always so focused on going after the things we want that we tend to forget the people we're sometimes stepping on to get there, and this movie shows that not only do we not lose anything for trying to be friends with these people, but we might even gain something even better.

I just adore the friendship of Hiccup and Toothless (God, I love these names).

One is a kid trying to make his father proud by following the family legacy, while also trying to do what he loves by studying and befriending dragons and the conflicts that come from trying to please both sides. This is such a great lesson for kids because they're always stuck into deciding on what's best for them and what's best for what their parents want from them.

And the other side is a pet slowly lowering his defenses and deciding if he wants to trust this weird stranger that tried to hurt him or give him a second chance to prove himself as a possible ally. What do you do? Put yourself at risk and give others a chance or remain safe and away from possible harm?

This movie reminds me a lot of Lake in that if you keep looking at it you can take away twenty different lessons and themes to talk about.

Again, it's the challenge of trying to be deep while avoiding being too dark and remaining all-ages-friendly.

Kids are gonna watch this, they're gonna love the dragons and the flying scenes, and they're gonna come back years later and pick up things they didn't see were there before and later realize that without noticing it, these lessons became a part of them and a part of what they do.

You can feel that there is a lot of love in this movie. I remember watching the commentary and looking at how the creators always would get excited when there was a silent scene or a world-building scene. It's clear they had a lot of fun working on this product, and this love really can be felt through the characters, their growth, and their emotions.

I freaking adore this movie, and I freaking adore DreamWorks!

[spishidden]

Rambling about Mutant Mayhem

Overall: AWESOME MOVIE! The animation and art style is to die for. If they release an art book I am preordering that shit asap. I was laughing so much throughout the entire thing. The emotional moments hit too (if yk yk). And the FIGHT SCENES. DAMN. The animators understood the assignment fr.

(Btw, there is a mid-credit scene that is veryyy important for the future of this universe. Don’t miss it.)

Highly recommend giving it a watch. Turtles fan or not

Spoilers under the cut:

LEO MY BOY ILYSM AKSHKSJS

He is so cringefail and lowkey pathetic (rizzless Leo is canon)

But at the end when he pulled through and he got all excited AAAA it was adorable

They comment a lot on how Raph is always angry, but he wasn’t rlly? It was more enthusiasm and aggression, not outright anger. Not a complaint just an observation

This guy can throw hands fr. Don’t mess with this Raph aksjsn

Mikey and Mondo are bestie goals you can pry these two from my cold dead hands

KPOP DONNIE IS REAL KPOP DONNIE IS REAL AKSHSKSH

The boys(tm) aren’t traumatized yet enjoy it while it lasts

These voices are THE SHIT! Perfect cast for the turtles muah!

I have so many positive thoughts about the dialogue +dialogue delivery in this movie it needs its own separate post

I did not expect them to actually get milked. I thought it was a throw-away line but they COMMITTED TO THE BIT. RESPECT.

April is awesome. Just amazing. Took all the best aspects of previous April’s and combined them together. (That throwing up scene was not for me tho no ty)

I also was not expecting attack on titan to be crucial to the plot but here we are

Donnie’s weeb-ness saved the say

If there’s one rule that every reboot of turtles has to follow is that no matter what Splinter always solos. They understood the assignment

About Splinter, I rlly enjoyed his storyline. It’s made rlly clear how much he loves the turtles and how hard he’s trying. But the movie actively called out his behavior without making him a villain. Bravo.

Speaking of villains, Superfly slapped. Mans was intimidating, cool, smart. Rlly liked his and Splinter’s parallel arcs

The mutant crew rlly were just silly guys aksjsjhs

Kinda iffy on the whole ‘they learned ninjitsu through media’ thing.

I hope that in the show they can touch on that. Maybe show that they’re training is incomplete and have them improve their skills with a proper teacher

But yea that didn’t rlly land with me.

I think my only other nitpick is that the other mutants don’t have enough moments to shine. They def make do with the time they have and it works, but I would’ve liked more ( Bebop and Rocksteady specifically)

Splinter making out with a mutant cockroach was not on my 2023 bingo card

I had tons of mixed feelings about that ending. But the mid-credit scene saved it

I think the turtles being “normal” kids has potential to be explored. I’m not against it

They’re still ninjas thank god

I thought when the mask came off they were leaving it behind

BUT NOPE they still kicking ass

That was my only problem with ending pre mid-credit scene

SHREDDER IS REAL SHREDDER IS REAL

FOOT CLAN IS REAL FOOT CLAN IS REAL

Wonder what they’re origins are gonna be aksjsj i crave new content

Does Hamato Yoshi not exist in this universe? Are they hiding him and are gonna do a dramatic reveal?? Questions questions questions

Also, Utrom?? KRANG??

Love the idea of all these mutants living in the same space

In Donnie’s clip, did that look like the purple dragons to anyone or was that just me?

Are we just not gonna mention that the TCRI technically has some mutagen blood from Raph and Donnie? No? Okay

Now lets talk about April and Leo

It’s not explicitly stated to be canon. April going to prom with Leo felt like it was framed to be a casual, just friends thing. And I rlly hope that’s what they were going for.

Do I ship it? No.

I’m glad that Leo and April didn’t rlly end up together. Because it would’ve been super unnecessary and forced. Nothing I got from the narrative or message suggests that a romantic pairing helps the plot. I despise the ‘girl is clearly not interested but ends up with guy anyways’ trope and I’m glad that it kinda wasn’t there?? Again, it wasn’t super clear. But nothing romantic between them was shown at the prom or anywhere else so I’m going to choose to believe it’s not canon.

IF THAT WERE TO CHANGE depends on the upcoming show.

If the show has a well written, healthy, and developed relationship. I’d be all for it.

Just please do not pull a 2012 again. I saw that meet-cute ik what you’re trying to pull writers you better tread carefully.

And speaking of 2012; when you’re gonna introduce Casey Jones (i say when because yes), if you’re going to try the whole April love triangle thing again, at least make it funny. You managed to make rizzless Leo entertaining I’m sure you can do the same here. Just don’t make it as annoying as Capritello was in 2012 learn from your mistakes

Better yet, pull a Spiderverse and subvert expectations by making Casey an absolute bro to Leo. Idk, be creative with it.

That’s everything for now. I’m optimistic for the future of this universe. Looking forward to that show even tho it could be effected by the writer’s strike but I don’t wanna think about that possibility rn please get ur shit together and pay writers and actors what they deserve

I’m gonna go make a Kpop playlist for Donnie. Ask box is open if anyone wants to add on or ramble about the movie. Have a good day!

(Tagging my bestie) @enlighten3d

[britcision]

Y’know what friends? I’m feeling mean today 😈 so for WIP Wednesday, once again we are reeeeeal close to the next chapter, and I’m going to give you just the scene I’m currently working on

Just the littlest bit to tide you all over

It’s something we’ve all been waiting for

Tag list:

@welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikoyuii @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @trickerdi @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @idkmrpianoman @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof @eonic @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids @peachesandcreamfemboy @jesus-camp-the-sequel @may-rbi @arandomturd @viyatrix @stargirl1331 @idfk-man10

——————

“Y’know, after all this excitement someone might be tempted to call the rest of the gala quiet,” Jason remarked with a soft chuckle, following Danny from the dining room to the main hall.

Danny shot him a wicked grin over one shoulder other hand checking a likely door.

“Why, were you hoping for a quiet night?” He teased and Jason grinned, shaking his head.

“And miss Sam’s well earned explosion? No fuckin’ way. Hang on, there’s a closet a little further down that’ll be a little easier to get discovered in,” he said quickly, pulling ahead to lead Danny to another, more obvious door that was visible from the main hall.

“Oh, do the others have their party clothes hidden in the other one?“ Danny asked with a smirk, clearly enjoying the way Jason’s step stuttered for a moment.

It was Jason’s turn to look back, a long, slow look was much more calculating. Assessing. Danny just shrugged.

“I’m not saying anything to anyone. Wild coincidence how many of your siblings have been touched by death though. Almost as many as the Gotham vigilantes.”

He might not have guessed by that alone-alone (Gotham was a dangerous city), but it wasn’t like Jason would know to call him on it. This might be his Robin reveal biting him in the ass.

Still, it wasn’t like Danny wouldn’t meet Bruce and Batman eventually. His family were nosey shits - tonight proved that. Better that Danny knew what he was dealing with.

Stomping the part of him that felt bad firmly down, Jason tugged Danny into a broom closet barely big enough to hold them.

Not like the bats would feel bad about sticking their noses in, and it’s not like he’d told Danny. Danny worked it out himself.

Not like they’d have had a chance in hell of hiding it if the Ghost King really could sense everyone who’d died. It wasn’t gonna be the biggest news on any day of the week that involved Danny.

Danny was still watching him, the faintest brush of amused-concerned-we good? sliding across his senses. Jason snickered and reached out to ruffle his hair.

“Yeah, there’s probably at least one set of party clothes back there. But they’re not the ones we want walking in on us, right?” He asked, pulling the door carefully almost shut behind them.

Danny settled, grin broadening again as he reached up to ruffle Jason’s hair back.

“Not that I don’t think they’re dramatic enough, but it’s way less suspicious if we’re exposed to all and sundry,” he agreed with a much to charming wink, and set about unbuttoning his shirt.

Jason hesitated for the barest second more, calculating again… but this time for a much better reason. His own little imp of mischief raised its head.

“Think anyone would notice if we swapped ties?” He asked with a sudden grin, tugging his blue tie loose. Loved the way Danny’s face lit up with manic glee as he tugged his own off and tossed it over.

“They’re not the exact same colour but close enough if we were “distracted”,” he agreed with a cackle, taking Jason’s tie and stuffing it into his jacket pocket.

Jason hooked Danny’s over a mop and began working at his own buttons. Stopped. He could undo them nice and neat. He could also…

He wasn’t against flashing a little skin for the rest of the evening.

Taking both sides of the shirt in hand, he yanked hard enough that Danny had to dodge a button shooting out at him. And abandon his own undressing to clap both hands over his mouth against laughter.

“Did you just fucking rip your shirt open like a caveman?!” He hissed in delighted glee once the giggles subsided. Jason smirked, completely sure the impressed look in his eyes was real.

Nothing else there to see, right?

“Not according to anyone else at this party, there’s not a soul in that room that won’t believe you ripped it off me after that display,” he pointed out smugly, and Danny had to stifle a cackle by shoving most of his fist in his mouth.

It felt good to be actively doing something after being sidelined for the entire attack. Good to see any traces of that worry, of that all too familiar burning rage in Danny’s face.

No one else should ever have to feel like that. Not for Jason.

Now, laughing until he couldn’t breathe and had to sag against Jason’s chest for support? That he was extremely comfortable with.

Steadying his shaking king, Jason hummed thoughtfully and ran his hands through Danny’s hair a few more times. It was already wild and unruly, so the step from there to sex hair wasn’t all that far.

Danny gave him a gentle jab with his elbow before straightening, tugging his own shirt open with nary a care for the last two buttons. Then he paused, reaching for his belt.

“So how far are you comfortable with this going?” He asked innocently, too innocently. In that sweet, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth tone Jason had already learned to suspect.

If Jason Todd had one weakness, he’d never backed down from a dare in his life. Why start now.

“I’ve never seen anyone arrested at a gala for indecent exposure,” he replied in his own best innocent voice, the one used when Bruce caught him hiding the bodies.

Danny snickered and pulled his belt off, kicking his trousers… yep, all the way down and off his legs, and in case any of his nosey bastard siblings were curious the boxers or briefs question was answered.

Not that any of them would be surprised, given the cut of Danny’s pants. Briefs today at least, but Jason very deliberately was not going to speculate.

“You don’t have to match,” Danny assured him quickly, still grinning as he picked up his pants to hang them artfully over an upturned bucket, “can’t have the man of the hour kicked out of his own party.”

Suddenly the closet felt a lot smaller. A lot warmer. A lot harder to breathe. Because. Yeah. That’s what they were doing.

They were staging a fucking sex scene, on their third hangout in their lives, and Danny had fucking said that.

Even the heady knot of tension suddenly in Jason’s gut couldn’t stand a chance against the wave of snickering.

It gave him a moment of distance, to catch his breath and remember why they were doing this, and tug his own belt open. Unbutton his pants, mind very firmly fixed on Bruce’s reaction.

“Danny, never fucking say that to me again unless you want me to streak through this hall,” he said as seriously as he could, loving the way Danny’s eyes darted down and then back up to his face.

He would love absolutely nothing more than to get kicked out of his own party… any night but tonight. Tonight, he had no fucking intention of missing out on Sam going nuclear.

[colorfuldream]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is genuinely the best version that has come out apart from maybe the game. It's funny, well-done, has the same themes but done better, it's fresh, anyone can watch it, etc. It's a better experience than the rest. Whatever you could criticize the original story and movie for, it's been "fixed".

If you were out off by the pacing of the first episode, it gets better and almost completely disappear by the second episode and never comes back! I don't know why it was paced like this. It didn't work. It felt like a drag and made the animation look and feel a lot worse. It wasn't made to be like this so it's at its worse for an entire half-hour. It's not even mimicking the strange pacing of the movie. It might have attempted to but if so, it utterly failed. It sucks because the entire thing is very, very good. It's like they weren't sure how to pull off the stylization and tried to do something new with the pacing again but messed up which dragged both down. At least, they figured it out almost immediately and fixed it early on!

Spoilers ahead:

The exes are also a delight and wonderfully dramatic and pathetic. They're over the top but in an endearing way and we get interactions never seen before and that would only be in fanfics and seem like a stretch but here they're seamless. They just make sense. Plus Ramona actually making amends and healing is amazing to see. She never got to have that. Now, she gets to go beyond the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope she's the poster girl of. We know she is one, and it's obvious in the way her exes see her, but she gets her own agency. She ends up being the protagonist and that somehow makes the plot function a lot better and interesting.

Knives also becomes her own character and grows into her own WITHOUT SCOTT. This time, she's truly past him for most of the anime.

The only thing that I miss, from the top of my head, is the "Scott has perceived his past and his previous actions wildly differently from what actually happened and is a bigger asshole than he and we thought" part that sort of paralleled Ramona who thought that everything was no big deal and that they had all moved on from the inconsequential thing that was their relationship with her too. Here, Ramona is a lot more self-aware, maybe because she's forced to be and is confronted with her past more directly, and makes quick amends. She might have been a terrible partner before but she's not bad at emotional stuff when she doesn't shrug it off. It's a neat detail that would have been even better if the Scott aspect remained and it bounced off the whole "Scott is a terrible partner who does care but is very stupid and would rather die than talk about feelings". Crazy how a simple flashback sequence, barely a few lines, changed a lot of things. Or maybe I missed the point of the scene only known to ultra fans and Kim was just being nice and graceful to Scott especially because she thought he fucking died. Liked how she seemed a lot more over him too, it always almost felt ambiguous before to me.

So yeah, it's a very good show and the best Scott Pilgrim thing. Bet people went crazy over the game and movie references too.

[msawesomegeek]

Little mermaid 2023 Movie Review

A/N; hey look at me reviewing movies! And the day it was release on streaming service because I refuse to give Disney too much of my hard earned money!

Now there were some changes to the story, which we otherwise know, and I will say I have not watched the original in years, so besides some musical moments that I of course know the music by heart I wasn't actively trying to compare the two.

To make things simply I will go over style/tone and animation. Character, some story, music and overall thoughts.

I both really loved and hated the style change, it felt like tonally they were kind of unsure about what they wanted. The ship/shark scene at the beginning was really cool and actually scary, showed Ariel adaptive nature and ability to think on her feet (something I would have loved in Mulan), but the intensity of the saturation of the lighting coupled with the very intense action music, that never returned even for the climax, made it, weird. I felt a little like that with the shipwreck scene, scary and realistic but almost too intense with the score. These two moments just felt, too adult, or too intense and scary to belong with the rest of the movie and honestly in a kids movie! And there was a bit of a tonal clash for the rest of the movie with it trying to be light and magical coupled with the realism of it all, which could have been blended better. It felt insecure, tonally. Like if it would have just leaned heavier into either the realism or the magic, and I would personally prefer the magical version, because I think it suits the most of the movie, then it would have worked. But because it tried so hard to be realistic as well it lost some of its charm and magic along with it. Because these movies were so harsh it was kind of hard to enjoy Scattles musical number. And it saddens me because for a lot of this movie I did enjoy it! Again we have singing and dancing fish in "under the sea", and it was cool, but, would I have liked it to go insane over the top like they did with be our guest? Absolutely! Because the movie is asking me to accept the fact that fish sing and dance! The lagoon scene had this as well, where it was cool and magical but then had to "prove" it was still real every now and then, and it kind of punctured the ballon of this charming scene that had just been build!

Last which is a great Segway into character I wanted to touch on the animation. Was it good for the most part? Absolutely! I adored Ursulas tentacles and the way they were used! And most of the movie did look great! However, I would have liked a little more expression from Sebastian, because they gave him sort of movable eyelids or something that made him be able to have expressions. They just needed to use what they had more! Because sometimes his voice actor was giving it his all while there was a deadpanned crab on screen! And it did not mesh well. But when they DID use it, it just reminded you of why you wanted it all the time!

I did love Sebastian, amazing voice actor, funny but not in a way that stole focus. Same mostly goes for Scattle and Flounder. I mostly liked the way they interacted with Ariel.

Where Sebastian lacked animation and Ursulas tentacles had amazing animation, Melissa McCarthy I was disappointed in. Good singing, sure! But Oh my god, she lacked as much if not more facial expression than the animated Crab! I think it bothers me because I know Ursulas look is based on a drag queen, and because her tentacles were so dramatic, and honestly she is so dramatic. I wanted her to be that all the time. I was honestly bored during poor unfortunate souls, purely because I felt like her expression was giving me nothing. Just evil grin! Not glee not dramatization, not over the top and clearly fake pity! Like her body movement was so amazing and over the top I just wish that had just translated in her face as well! That and as for character developement, it was fine to have her there, but I would have liked just an ounce of affection shown to her two eels like, one throwaway line about: "You boys are the only ones who understand me." Anything! Because I really did LOVE her monster transformation happening because of them! I would have just loved to have that seed of a relationship sown earlier.

Ariels character also lacked some expressions some times but it was overall well acted and she was cute. The only thing I was meh about was her during Under the Sea. Mostly because I would have liked her to play along but be rolling her eyes when Sebastian wasn't looking, anything to make her disappearance at the end of the song justified. That and I loved her putting things in her mouth at random, however could they not just, like, once have her spit out the soap or flower disgusted with the flavor? Like?! Are we encouraging people to eat soap? The humor is that she eats it, just have her spit it out!

Eric. Eric. Eric. Eric. I really did LOVE what they did with his character, and there were scenes, moments, in the hall way on the ship on the lagoon, on the carriage, at the final battle. Where he was amazing and charming and the perfect character perfectly acted! I loved him getting some motivation! Didn't mind his song, but I will get to that one. But there were just moments, and I understand some of them, where he was not meant to be the focus on the scene. But it was almost like the actor FORGOT he was still on the clock and was just kind of there. And it sucked because if he had just acted the way he did in all of those other scenes, given it an ounce more expression, and emotion. He would have been amazing! The scene that hurts the most, and maybe it was due to direction or editing, but he has just lost THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE, his mother tells him they can never be together. You're holding the one piece of clothing, a last piece of her. Do you A look sad for one bloody moment then drop it in the sea? Or B) look at it devastated knowing you can never be together fighting to let her go, but knowing it is a cruel fate you have to face hugging it one last time wishing it was her before letting it go knowing you have to and after your mother puts a comforting hand on your shoulder. Can you guess which option they went with in the movie? HINT: IT wasn't B.

And again maybe it is style, direction, editing, I dont know. but the climax of the movie, is their kiss! There is a song bloody dedicated to it. I would have liked it to last longer, maybe have it be a bit more wow factor? Maybe that is just me? It just felt like, wow, kiss, mwua, done! Like there was a song about it, can we maybe make it a bit more epic looking? And don't argue that people kissing can't be made interesting because I have watched K-dramas and I know about every angle in which that can be done!

Anyways.

Touched on some story elements with characters before, but I wanna get on two last details that kind of annoyed me. One was the vagueness of Erics fathers death, which is like, did he do something to piss triton off? Did he kill Ariels mother? They kind of hinted at it, but in a way where there was no answer so it just felt weird to try!

The other that really annoys me, is Ariel stearring the ship into Ursula. As a detail of women saving themselves, fine, do not give a shit if it is her or Eric! However. She is a mermaid. She ate a flower, she uses a fork in her hair. HOW does she know on her FIRST TRY how to steer a ship?! Just have Eric or anyone show her how to steer once! Use half a scene on it! Just show us that this is now a skill she has, because it will still be dramatic and her having to do it without legs, but it would make her master of both worlds and really show look I know how to apply my old and new knowledge! It is just a detail, but it kind of infuriated me, because it would have made the climax much more impactful and knowing it could have been done smoothly. Even with just Eric trying first and failing and then her understanding and doing it would have been enough! Doesn't even have to be earlier. But anything to show her learning this skill would make it more impactful because that means we saw her both emotionally and physically learn to defeat the villain!

The music, was good. I did not mind the new songs, I did love the gossip song. Ariels flexing her runs was a little eh for me. I understand that they probably wanted to make it her own and change some notes, but it just took from the emotion, which she nailed in some parts, and someone showing off in a vocal riff just pulls you from the emotion. Musicals are about singing emotions! Musicals music are about when emotions become so big you have to sing them. Musical artists flex vocals yes, but they NEVER do so at the cost of the emotion of the song, or they are singing and not acting as well.

Erics, song. Oh Eric, Eric, Eric. Can you tell I have a weird relationship to this guy? The end of the song, was kind of good, I will admit his song did grow on me. I dont remember if there was a reprise before Ursulas entrance, but shame if there wasn't. However, musically I think the gossip song fit more in with the rest. I understand it is supposed to be his Aria, and Part of your world is special, but it just felt very, Les Miserable. It reminded me SO much of Valjean's Seliloquy, down to the tonality while he ran reminding me of the ripping the papers scene. It was just. It was bad, then it grew on me. I was confused as to if it was actually him singing it, and it seemed not his tone (maybe to be pitched a bit higher), and he may be in agony, but the song was musically just too les miserables for me, and I love Les mis!

Overall it was an okay moments, a lot of missed opportunities and places it lacked. Especially Ursula and Eric could have been improved. Where Cinderella remake and Aladdin remake had some magic and made me happy, the Mulan remake made me angry, and the Lion king made me just bored, this movie makes me kind of, sad. I think because I can see some choices they made, and how they genuinely tried. There were some amazing moments between Ariel and Eric, there were some great things, but because there was only a few changes that had to have been made to make it great it just made it, mediocre. I really wanted to like this movie. I really did like parts of this movie. But most of the time, I was thinking about what should have been.

So I give this movie a sad 3 out of 10 Dinglehoppers.

Tell me if you agree or disagree with me! Or if there is something you want me to review next.

Geek, out.

[ferociousconscience]

Hi! Hope its ok to ask, and sorry if its already been answered before: Do you have fav Les Mis adaption? Or a few?

Thank you for asking me!! I've not watched all of them, considering how many there are floating around out there and how many are sadly lost, but. I have spent this year hunting down and watching every adaptation I could. A special thanks to @ueinra for a lot of help in that regard. I recently made a Letterboxd account and a List just for Les Mis. I've plans to go through and review them properly, (Currently I only have Shoujo Cosette reviewed!) but I'd be happy to try to coalesce my thoughts on my absolute favorite for you, that being the four-part silent* Les Miserables (1925) under this read-more! Hiyah!

It's... Hard to grasp my feelings on LM1925, considering how special it is to me. These films really made me love the idea of cinema again. I had never seen a silent movie before, and frankly I thought they were one of those things that were a bit out of reach for me, but wow I am so so happy I watched LM1925. Not only is it a fantastic adaptation of LM, it's also just a fantastic set of movies (miniseries??) in general. The casting, the acting, the sets, the locations, the attention to detail, the quality of the visuals (which often are just frankly stunningly beautiful), the pacing, the atmosphere. Everything just works and is faithful to the feeling of reading the novel. (I will say I watched it without the accompany music at first, but have since gone back and listened to it overtop on a rewatch, and wow what a cool oddity it is. The Sims 1 soundtrack but with a surreal and often nightmarish twist.) I adore Gabriel Gabrio as Valjean. He really captures the idea that Valjean can both be noble, kind, and fearsome all in one. And Jean Toulout as scrunkly and lively Javert...!! I truly love him. I think them and Sandra Milovanoff as Fantine (less so as her playing Cosette, too, wish they would have cast another person) give absolutely amazing performances. This is also a great adaptation for the Gorbeau part of the book, ESPECIALLY Suzanne Nivette as Eponine, wow! What an Eponine! Probably my favorite Eponine. Same with Thenardier, both the Eponine and Thenardier in this one are tied with LM1972 for me. I also just like the... what I'll call "Theater Acting" performances I've seen in this and in the other early films I've watched since. The thick makeup. The funny expressions. The dramatic poses. All this would be considered overacting in the modern day, but to me it just feels alive. It reminds me of a lot of animations, I suppose, and that delights me. I also love love love that they didn't attempt to make big changes to the material at hand (Hell, they even touch on Waterloo in a way I thought was cool!). LM1925 and Shoujo Cosette made me realise that the longer a Les Mis adaptation is, typically the better it is to me. (with. One exception off the top of my head...) I think by the time I had watched all the other adaptations of both the novel and the musical, I had grown fatigued over the different ways films would try to condense things into 2 hours, and leave a lot on the cutting room floor (even if that usually means they focus more on the J vs JVJ aspect that I always have a weakness for), or when they try to cram everything into said 2 hours and turns it into a pacing nightmare. LM1925 avoids all that!

I feel I'm rambling on, so I'll rapid fire some stuff off. I love that they filmed in the actual msurm. I love that they kept things really grungy when the film calls for it. I love the scenes of the barricade, especially the scenes with the national guards spilling in. I love the subtle changes to the valvert side of things, it's truly one of the better adaptations for the shippers. I need to get on making some gifsets. If you love Les Mis, or just film in general, I think you owe it to yourself to watch LM1925. It's free! It's on the Internet Archive! There are download buttons or you can stream it! Please do! And tell me your thoughts on it!

[sharpth1ng]

2/2

Stu sad watching horror movies and pining is great, definitely canon lmao. - yesss I have certain ones in mind I can see him doing this specifically to (Re-animator, My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler and Psycho were the ones that came to mind and I have specific reasons too lmao) I would love to know which ones you would imagine him watching in his sad boy mode too! Stu absolutely would buy multiple copies of that CD and he would give it to Billy as a gag gift on birthdays or holidays I reckon. the image of Billy smashing them with a hammer in an overly dramatic fashion and Stu thirsting but simultaneously bothering him even more like "There's plenty more where that came from" while pieces of plastic are flying everyfuckingwhere will not leave me alone.

SOMEHOW I FORGOT HIS DADS NAME IS HANK BAHAHAHAH GOD Billy would die. Such exquisite torture tbh. Artisanal. Bespoke. - IFKR it's perfect. Stu would never stop reminding him of it either like instead of referring to him as "your dad" or whatever he always says HANK.

Yo that’s so sweet Gah I’m legit so touched 🥰 my and my dumb lil fucked up fics thank you 🙏 you absolutely deserve it!😊 and thank youuu for blessing us with such awesome works.

Lmao and yeah Middle aged Billy absolutely destroying homophobes is my fav tbh. - saaame I love this so much for him! “You should be afraid of the gays because we’re fucking coming to get you.” YES God this is amazing and honestly so hot ngl Stu saying to the same victim "The bury the gays trope is over, now the gays are gonna bury everyone else!" (then Billy and Stu make out in front of said homophobic victim just to piss them off before they kill them together).

Thos are all great picks! And Stu would love reanimator. I think Halloween 1 is a big one, like its so obvious and they've seen it so many times but I think it was formative for them and I also think Stu had a great big crush on Micheal and parallels Billy to him a lot in a very romanticized way. Like he sees him as this quiet, unstoppable force who also has these fun silly moments occasionally and idk, I think he knows every line in the movie but still feels so tender watching it cause its just Billy for him.

Black Christmas is another- aside from the fact that I love the movie I think its one Billy liked a lot as well, like this slow building pace, the shooting style, and then the fact that it revolves around phone calls and everything. Like when Sid runs up into Stu's attic during the chase scene its set up like a reference to the movie up there and I can't imagine thats not because Billy and Stu were playing Black Christmas at some point.

Deep Red is another, It just strikes me as a Billy favourite and I think he gets really animated talking about his favourites, so Stu would have som really fond memories of that.

LMAO giving the CDs is a great touch, like theres shards of CD flying and Stu's like " aww babe you didn't have to make confetti, thats so sweet"

THE BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE LINE, YESSssss!

"this time the gays are going to bury you" would be such a good tagline for a movie someone give me a bunch of money so I can shoot a super gay slasher, thats the representation I need-

But yeah I do love a violently out Billy, (awww baby boy look how far you've come)

[everydaydg]

Some thoughts on 0080 (Spoilers)

(As per usual, this whole thing is just a huge ramble that may or may not be coherent so I apologize for that in advance)

I dont usually run into media that hits me like a brick.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is a heartbreaking story that brilliantly utilizes the concept of the "one year war", established in the main series, to truly bring a tale that perfectly complements the values of Gundam with an amazing critique on war.

Where do I begin...

It all takes place in a small neutral colony (A colony is like a small city earth in space). It’s a beautiful place.

0080 is a beautiful series to look at, the colors are so vibrant, the animation is great, the retro-future look everything has is a treat to the eyes.

It’s a normal town with normal people living their daily lives.

The main PoV in the whole OVA is that of an elementary school kid, Alfred Izuruha

and this is the thing that makes 0080 unique from all the other side stories

In making the main PoV that of a childs instead of a soldiers, we get to see how war has influenced the youth in this colony and how Al reacts to the reality of war.

The way "War in the Pocket" critiques the indoctrination of children into war is amazing and leaves you disturbed at the sight of a whole elementary school exited for a possible next war after witnessing the horrors of this one.

The pacing of the whole thing is a bit slow but it’s the good kind of slow. It sets up everything, the world, the characters, the factions and their roles in this story, the relations between some characters.

It builds everything slowly and then it shows you how it destroys it.

Seeing this lovely world with a dark side introduced in the first three episodes ONLY FOR THE LATER 3 TO HAPPEN... GOD...

(Start of Spoilers)

Seeing Bernie slowly treat Al like a younger brother and grow fond of him is so sweet.

Bernie and Chris being cool around each other.

The Zeon team hanging out, they are not good people but they all feel like drinking friends

they deserve a better life than fighting for the war.

Alot of time is spent with the characters, its a very personal story.

I apreciate the restraint on action on the entire thing.

Every time there is action, something horrible happens.

Heres some thoughts I had in the middle of watching the final few episodes

-I fear -What will happen -Yknow -I have seen some of UC before -But the fear that comes every time a MS is brought up here -Every time... every time something horrible happens

My thoughts haven't changed.

The action is brutal.

Everything is brutal.

and after those peaceful days... everything happens.

The wipeout of the Zeon team

Bernie's resolve to fight for the colony, to protect for Al's home from the nuclear threat... ONLY FOR THAT THREAT TO BE TAKEN CARE OF OFF SCREEN.

The heartbreak of seeing this young guy throw himself to death for no reason anymore.

Seeing Bernie's recording that scene... it’s everything 0080 stands for



"Don't hate the Gundam pilot and don’t go hating the feddie soldiers because they are like us, you and me. They are just people simply doing what they think is right, that’s all. I know that it’s hard but try not to hate them".



Everything ending with the dramatic irony of Bernie asking Al to say hi to Chris and Chris asking Al to say goodbye to Bernie.

and back at the elementary, hearing some of the most chilling words ive ever heard at the end of a show.

"Al don't cry, cmon! You know another war will start soon and when they close the school we'll be able to check out all the cool stuff! it'll be more than this time!"

It hurts.

I will never forget this. what a cruel way to get back into gundam.

10/10

Thats all I got in me atm. I know its a incoherent mess as is most of the things I write about media. I deeply apologize for this wall of text

[regarding-stories]

Didn't expect that: "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai"

There are shows on Netflix that I notice, then don't watch at first, remain confused by their descriptive text, then watch after all. It kind of was like this with the amazing Romantic Killer, and it was definitely like this with the Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.

I somehow stumbled about some online comments disliking the series, and let it sit for a while. But somewhere down the line I was casting about for something to watch, and frankly, it completely surprised me.

(I will do some spoilers, but I try to keep it light. Also, looking for an article I wrote about Romantic Killer I found I haven't written one - talk about being backlogged!)

My Little Science Mystery

At its heart, the show looks at consciousness and self partially from a perspective of quantum physics and mathematics, focusing on aspects like attention, observation, strong wishes, parallel selves, and branching timelines. To get such topics into the story it invented "Puberty Syndrome / Adolescence Syndrome," a mysterious condition most people believe to be an internet urban legend. Except that almost everyone that loner and high school 2nd year Sakuta knows or ends up knowing will end up having it - if they're girls, that is. Or himself.

To explain what that is, let's go with the opening scene. Future heroine Mai, an extremely good-looking third-year (and hence Sakuta's senpai in high school), walks around the library in a Playboy bunny costume, unnoticed by most everyone except our protagonist. This seemingly eccentric scene from the trailer has a serious background - an increasing number of people cannot see Mai anymore.

Sakuta teams up with Mai and his hot science geek friend Rio to solve the mystery, digging into the relationship between the observer and the observed from quantum mechanics - or rather the idea from philosophy: If a tree falls in the forest without anybody seeing it, has it indeed happened? (And what sound does it make?) This leads of course to also very practical problems: You need other people to observe you to interact in daily life. And it begs the question - if our reality is a consensus, do we need the acknowledgment of others just to exist...?

The show, behind its science-y techno babble, actually has a lot of heart. The problems all root in emotions, interpersonal problems, and their resolutions are often very dramatic and touching. This is true of Mai's story as of the other ones to follow.

Some things to note

First of all: the series name. Each book in the light novel series has a title starting with "Rascal Does Not Dream Of" - but somehow the anime series got named after the first installment. This is most apparent once the money-making train rolled out of the station - instead of continuing the apparently successful anime series, the very dramatic events of two volumes were packed into two animated movies (mo' money! kaching!) - Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out. I had not access to these so I read the books.

The books, in turn, are very readable, and given their content, these two movies are some heavy, dramatic shit, no doubt. The series heavily escalates its dramatic impact towards these two titles. In fact, you could say the books rolled into the anime series are actually a setup of characters and ideas that will culminate in these movies. (Which will also invest you into watching them. Well played, studio, well played indeed.) Sakuta's own Puberty Syndrome, that of his sister Kaede, the mystery stranger Shouko, all of that is set up long before you ever really pick up on it, revealing a series that had a long-term plan.

The books are good reads, solid prose, too. The pacing of these two particular books is kind of dragging, but the author really wanted to transmit the heavy emotions of the protagonist. They certainly had me near my limit! The story of Mai, Sakuta, and his first love Shouko is beautiful, sad, dramatic, and ultimately very, very satisfying - and I don't want to spoil it for you! Just know that if you only watch the anime and I guess the movies, you're probably in for feeling very rewarded and satisfied - after a certain amount of suffering. (Again, couldn't watch the movies, but the book version is already top.)

Having started with the anime, I can only guess that the term "rascal" is what they translated differently when Rio keeps calling him a "pig." Somehow she always insults Sakuta (throughout the anime series), and admittedly Sakuta has a pervy side - but unlike most protagonists he seems to be a bit of a happy masochist when it comes to his love interest.

Anyway, the show and books are well worth it, the cast of characters is built over time and well done, and innocuous background details presented in the start will be the seed of more stories to come. The series is going strong, there are still untranslated light novel volumes, and so I will keep on reading.

[shygalaxygirl]

Gotham's destruction (Edward Nygma x-reader) (Prologue)

I hope you guys, enjoy! (^.^)

Warnings: mature content, descriptions of blood, gore, violence, & drug mentions.

    (Y/n) had just arrived in Gotham city about an hour ago for a job at the GCPD under Jim Gordon's, her father's, guidance. She wants nothing more than to follow in his footsteps and become a forensic examiner as another way to withhold his impressive legacy of being an amazing yet intimidating homicide detective.

    Besides, she wants the opportunity to put her criminology, psychology, and forensic science studies that she took in college to good use. She also had accepted the job at the precinct sometime ago under Lee Thompson's, her mother, recommendation without Jim even knowing it too. 

    She confidently pushes the metal double doors to Gotham city's police department open with her college bag slipped over her shoulder as she wanders into the outdated two-storied building like she owns the place, immediately noticing that everything is very chaotic, dramatic, and somewhat messy among the police officers and criminals.

    The atmosphere is painfully intense with officers trying to do their taxing jobs while the criminals that were arrested or thrown into the holding cells are acting like bloodthirsty wild animals, ready to commit any crime to escape.

    Another police officer aggressively emerges from the integration room with a beat-up criminal who's causing quite a ruckus about his drug operation being shut down. The environment also reeks of coffee, baked pastries, alcohol, smoke, and leather mixed with gun oil. 

    She watches one last crazed criminal drenched in dried bloodstains being dragged into the precinct by two officers as she continues moving past the GCPD's daily hustle, swiftly climbing the metallic stairs leading to the comminsor's office and where she knows her father is. 

(Y/n) slowly walks toward the somewhat opened office door while wondering how her dad will react or how he'll feel about her working in a city full of supervillains and insane criminals. She fiddles with a loose strand of (h/c) hair that's fallen from its braided ponytail, stealthily hiding herself against the wall nearby. She hesitantly leans slightly forward to get a better look at whatever he's doing right now.

Her (e/c) gaze instantly locks onto his familiar figure sitting behind his almost paperwork free desk, her expression softening at the sight of him going through another case file like usual. A look of mischief crosses her face at the realization that he's in a good mood despite the daily chaos just outside of his office, and she makes the decision to remain at the GCPD as a forensic examiner no matter what.

"Hello, daddy. Guess whose decided to come back to Gotham for the forensic examiner position? I can't wait to start investigating the crime scenes left by Gotham's criminals! Everything here is so much more exciting, intense, and scientifically intriguing than my boring college campus."

(Y/n) greets Jim Gordon cheerfully with her signature carefree smile as she casually enters his office, examining his slightly messy workspace with curiosity, before finally standing directly in front of his desk. His gaze shifts from the opened file in his dominant hand to her while he focuses on whatever she's talking about instead of his difficult case.

"It's great to see you again too, sweetie. Your mother called me earlier about your arrival in Gotham and already arranged a dinner for the three of us with Tom, your boyfriend, at our place later this week. What are you doing here? I thought we had agreed that you would work the forensic examiner job at another district?"

He reminds her of their conversation they had right before she finished her last college semester sometime ago, an exhausted sigh escaping his throat at her poutful reaction to his stern words.

"Yeah, I know we had agreed that I would work at another district in Gotham. But, I really want to do my job here instead. The GCPD gets the most active cases than any other precinct and I can be more efficient among people I already trust. Besides, I have to uphold yours and mom's reputation."

(Y/n) responds quick-wittedly as she arches an eyebrow challengingly, before leaning slightly over the desk and snatching the opened case file from his somewhat loose grip.

"I suppose, there's no way of talking you out of your decision. You're just as stubborn as I was when I first joined the GCPD and you'll never give up until you achieve your goals just like your mother too."

Jim shakes his head slightly while chuckling at the same time, watching her scan through the case file with concern.

"This case is pretty basic. Your criminal stole from this rich upper-class family and brutally beat one of the victims to death, after shooting the others multiple times."

She explains everything she had figured out within the short time she's been reading the file, finally noticing her father's prideful gaze locked onto her. She avoids looking directly at him in slight embarrassment while nonchalantly tossing the folder back onto the desktop.

"Thanks for clearing some of that case up for me, but I have another task in mind for your first day on the job. I want you to head toward the forensic laboratory and get settled in your new office. You'll also be working as our forensic examiner's, Edward Nygma, assistant."

He announces what she should be doing right now as he winks at her, letting her know that she'll be working at the GCPD under his guidance just like she had wanted.

"Thank you so much, daddy! I promise I won't let you down. I'll do my absolute best and keep the Gordon legacy alive."

She says excitedly while quickly hugging him tightly before rushing out of his office, greeting Harvey Bullock, her father's best friend, on her way out and heading toward the forensic laboratory.

[navysealt4t]

hi blue (explodes in your ask box)

i provide letters with the intent of seeing your opinion on fandom things, please enlighten me

I / O / S / Z

thank you 🙏

HAUNNTT HI

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

not really? for the most part its just made me get deeper into fandom lol. like ive started reading botw fics bc of the tumblr fandom and its been very fun

O - Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of

ooo i shuffled my liked songs and got the song "after the war" by reinaeiry and. :( it reminds me of lizzie and ayva if they had gotten the chance to be together without any pirate or navy bullshit . oughhh now im sad :( they are so tragic like waghhhh i know u dont know them but. shaking my lil gremlin hands at you they were so in love and ayva just haunts riptide's story sm i love them... daily propaganda go watch jrwi riptide for tragic lesbians..... :(

on the other hand it could totally be about albatrio or polypirates. wagh.

oh and speaking of lizzie/ayva cafe 1930 is a them song. it has no words but. them.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

RANDOM HEADCANON TIMES jay was taught the flute & violin as a kid and while she can play them super good she prefers playing random chords on the ukulele that sound good together :]

gillion he/she and neos pronoun user i will die on this hill sorry . speaking of this genderfluid chip & trans girl jay always. and butch edyn

chip loves singing he sings so much random words while he's doing chores and singing sea shanties arlin taught him or singing ollie to sleep. jay teases him endlessly about the lullabies he sings to ollie

animal lover jay is canon but. she loves animals so much. just adores them so much she will pet any animal that comes up to her she doesn't care about rabies. she's tried to make them get a pet other than pretzel so many times. im sooooo tempted to write a fic where jay smuggles a cat on board and yes it will be navyseal

jay loves sketching like mundane scenes in her life rlly colorfully and dramatic and with a lot of meaning behind it. like u know that one drawing that's like "i realized something about human connection but im too drunk to write it so i drew it" ??? thats how she draws. she dips her toes in landscapes :)

gill loves drawing ppl. his family, his sister, random ppl on the street, etc etc !!! he has gotten really good since when he first started but he goes through random bouts of self doubt where he refuses to draw

chip doodles random shit really and he does it on EVERY piece of paper he can find the corners of their map is covered in tiny doodles. these include angry doodles of niklaus looking very mischievous and pretzel with a big knife.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

I CANT THINK OF ANYTHING BUT UUHHHHH OH im working on a thingy that im hoping to turn into a youtube video :DD basically i love the game unpacking and the way it tells it's story is phenomenal and the casual representation and the art style and music and relatability and everything about the game is amazing !!!! i have been doing so much research and typing in google doc im so excited to get working on it :3 ive played the game at least 10 times i lveo it. this is fan related bc i am a fan and i say so <3

[knackeredforever]

So this is it the end. I won’t be able to watch WAD live as I live in the uk I know there are ways to watch it live outside of the Disney channel but I’d have to stay up to 1 am and I don’t want to watch the finale while tired. So I’ll have to watch it tomorrow instead on YouTube.

I’m so not ready I don’t want the show to end no one does it wasn’t supposed to finish this early and the shows incredible enough to deserve double the seasons it’s gotten. The characters are amazing ,the story and lore are brilliant ,the action and animation is breathtaking the representation is the best in any piece of media I’ve ever seen. The owl house is not just the best animated show in years it is in my opinion the best animated show of the decade although considering we are only 3 years into this decade there’s a chance it could get supplanted from that position in the future but for now I absolutely consider the owl house to be the best show of the decade.

It’s funny how I originally got into the owl house because of its similarities to gravity falls as well as being made by most of the same people. Due to my nostalgia for GF I would never have imagined that through me watching the episodes of this show over the years I would genuinely start to prefer TOH over GF I relate to TOH’s characters more. TOH’s art style is more beautiful than GF especially the fight scenes which GF doesn’t really have to the extent TOH has. While bill cipher is still one of my favourite villains of all time and absolutely the funniest and most chaotic. Belos is so insanely evil and a complete bastard while at the same time completely in the belief that he’s the good guy. While I can’t say I prefer one villain over the other as they are so different the both of them are easily the best villains of all time (and no I don’t just mean just animated villains, best villains of all time period.) while both being really funny I still think GF is funnier overall but TOH is still really funny and plus even not being as funny it makes up for it with how dark, dramatic and emotional it is going to places even GF wouldn’t go.

TOH is a show that is not just a masterpiece but a show that helped me realise things about myself and I’m sure helped many other people realise things about themselves too it’s beautiful, it’s terrifying ,it’s full of hope and full of despair. I love it and it inspires me in my own work. It is a show that like GF before it I will rewatch and will keep recommending it to people for years to come

I’ll be watching this show forever and dreaming for more content from this universe.

Goodbye owl house I’m really gonna fucking miss you.

[agentnico]

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) Review

Oh. My. Gosh.

Plot: Miles Morales catapults across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. When the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles must redefine what it means to be a hero.

2018′s Into the Spider-Verse was a surprising hit that featured some of the most amazing animation ever put to screen, as well as being not only one of the best Spidey films, but also one of the top comic-book movies of all time. Additionally the inclusion of Nicolas Cage propelled that film to all kinds of new heights! Now following a successful box office run of that movie and a well deserved Academy Award win for Best Animated Feature, the first of two sequels is gracing our screens, and I am always weary when it comes to sequels to great movies, as one wonders if the creative team can retain the magic from the original.

At this point there should be a rule made in Hollywood to never bet against the duo that are Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Every time we find ourselves shocked whenever films involving these two come out and end up being some of the most superb cinema experiences. 22 Jump Street - a hilarious comedy. The Lego Movie - a uniquely animated movie that turns out to be much more than a simple cash-grab. Mitchells vs. the Machines - again another ground-breaking animation style with a wholesome story of family in the middle of it. Cocaine Bear - it’s a movie about a bear on cocaine, need I say more?! The list goes on, these two consistently deliver quality content and we should learn to accept this. So with Across the Spider-Verse I am happy to report that it’s another hit from these producers/writers, however not only is it a hit, it may just be a bloody masterpiece!

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is, put simply, brilliant! It’s everything that made Into the Spider-Verse great dialled up even more, and the result is honestly fantastic. Look, I watch a lot of movies. And yeah, movies are great and I love them deeply. But in watching so many films I have in a way lost that magic of being in awe every time I go to the cinema. Cliches and repetitiveness in films stick out like sore thumbs to me. However with Across the Spider-Verse I felt like a kid again, purely stunned in amazement at every single frame, engaged with the characters and story-line, not knowing where it will go next. Like I cannot reiterate how much fun I had watching this movie!

The animation...where do I begin? This is a gorgeous movie that retains that graphic novel look from the first movie, however due to the narrative being set in various universes, the animation team go a step further by having each reality animated in a different way. There are so many various art-styles used, and each one is absolutely gorgeous. Yet it never comes off as pretentious, instead all used in benefit of the story. There’s a certain sequence involving two characters having a dramatic emotional exchange of dialogue, and the use of watercolours and the changes in the background as the emotion changes throughout that scene was honestly some of the best and most powerful piece of animation I’ve ever seen. Not only the animation though, but the music. The music!!! Anyone seen that meme online featuring a guy playing a piano that’s on fire? Well that’s how hard composer Daniel Pemberton went with the musical score of this film. The way it amplified the action, embodied the tenderness of the emotional scenes, and played up to each character’s unique style, the music and sound design were absolutely spectacular! From a technical standpoint Across the Spider-Verse is a marvel.

There’s a lot of going on in this movie. It’s relentlessly fast paced, with lines of dialogue spilling out like Niagara falls and so many jokes, Easter Eggs and references thrown all at once that it’s easy to miss things on your first viewing. So I imagine this movie will serve well as a rewatchable one, so that you can catch the details you’ve missed before. However through all this content thrown at you at 100 miles per our the movie never forgets to stay focused on telling its story, and fleshing out all the main characters. And yes, there are lots of characters in this movie, yet every single one feels unique with many layers, and that’s due to the writing and the superb voice cast. Shameik Moore is freaking amazing as Miles Morales. That tone of vulnerability, this maturity but still immaturity cascading and once more evolving the character from the first film... you can’t help but root for him and also believe in him. Hailee Steinfeld is wonderful as Gwen Stacy, that is both vulnerable yet strong, trying to navigate her way through life whilst dealing with the dysfunctional relationship with her dad and having to be the hero she is meant to be. Also it’s always impressive when actors can portray good chemistry using only their voices, yet Moore and Steinfeld have that to a tee. Oscar Isaac (who was but only teased in the credits scene of the first film) is appropriately moody with a dark edge, showing hurt, anger and fire in every line he delivers as the anti-hero Miguel. Jason Schwartzman as Spot has that usual comedic every-guy demeanour to him, however his character is then revealed to be more reckless than expected, and Schwartzman is easily believable as the psychotic villain wanting to dominate to prove his worth. Brian Tyree Henry as Miles’ dad, Daniel Kaluuya as a punk Brit Spidey, Shea Whigham as Gwen’s father....the list goes on. Honestly every member of the voice cast does incredible work. You end up caring for these characters, and are fully invested in them.

In terms of negatives there aren’t really many. I’d say to the beginning the movie focuses a little too much on exposition of bringing everyone up to speed on the events of the first movie, and I’m just there like “I’ve seen the first movie, get on with it already!” and also the fast pace delivery means certain lines of dialogue are thrown so quickly they are easily missed, yet again though, I feel that in rewatching the film multiple times I will find enjoyment it catching out those missed details. In the end though, Across the Spider-Verse is a fantastic Part 1 to a story that is left at an expected cliff-hanger ready to be picked up by next year’s Beyond the Spider-Verse, however as a middle movie of a trilogy it stands strong along the likes of Empire Strikes Back or The Two Towers, in that it continues to flesh out the characters in a meaningful and powerful way, the animation and music is ridiculously good, and overall it’s one of the best superhero films I have ever seen. Also, it manages to deliver the idea of a multiverse much better than anything the MCU is currently attempting to do, so yep, also a solid multiverse movie. There’s plenty of fan-service thrown in throughout though I never thought it felt forced, and overall this is simply superb filmmaking. Can’t wait for Beyond the Spider-Verse!

Overall score: 9/10

[stuff-diary]

My Hero Academia (Season 6)

TV Shows/Dramas watched in 2023

My Hero Academia (Season 6, Japan, 2022-23)

Original creator: Kohei Horikoshi

Writer: Yosuke Kuroda

Mini-review:

I have to start this review by saying this has been the best season of My Hero Academia, without a doubt. The action parts were breathtaking and the dramatic parts were just pitch-perfect. It amazes me that, after such a long run, the show is still finding ways to top itself. Most of the action scenes are gorgeously animated, and pretty much all the emotional moments we got (which were many) hit me like a truck. But, as always, the characters are this show's strongest element. There are exceptions, obviously, but most of them are incredibly charming and you can't help but root for them in every situation. Seriously, I would watch absolutely anything that involves this set of characters.

In terms of plot, this season was really eventful, and we got some highly-awaited moments that delivered in every possible way, like Dabi's reveal and the whole Dark Hero arc. The show has been slowly spinning together a lot of fascinating themes and storylines, and I loved the way they all came together during these two arcs. The stakes are higher than ever before and I can't wait to see where it all goes from here. It kinda feels like the show will reach its ending in the near future, and I'm pretty sure it will go out with one hell of a bang. We are certainly in for a ride.