#matt doesn’t get a lot of screentime in this like he really is just a love-interest

[sparklyseblos]

matt cornett on my screen again we are so back

[autistic-robin]

more dynamics i need to see in st5 for my mental wellbeing

1. el and dustin. that’s it send post. they were genuinely so sweet in season 1 and i miss their mad scientist/test subject vibe immensely. i know el and lucas are going to be paired up this season because of their shared connection (polyamory) to max, but i would love to see more scenes between dustin and el— maybe some lighthearted bonding over their matching leg injuries or daddy issues.

2. mike and robin. i don’t think you understand i need this like i need air. will has already had his gay awakening he doesn’t need a queer life coach!! mike on the other hand is out here in the TRENCHES. this man is down critically horrendously morifyingly BAD for will but is convinced el needs him and that will could never reciprocate his feelings. he needs robin’s gay intuition and advice if anyone does.

3. steve and jonathan. HELLO??? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELLO???? i know this is pretty much guaranteed to happen in st5 because full-circle character development and hammering in themes and blah blah blah but i’m still gonna talk about it because listen. steve got his shit rocked by jonathan one (1) time and immediately decided “fuck my idiot friends” developed a moral conscience and SHOWED UP AT HIS HOUSE to apologize. he wasn’t there for nancy he had no idea nancy was there!!! he bought jonathan a new camera!!! he was so respectful of nancy and jon even when nancy dumped his ass a season later!!! yet we never get closure between him and jonathan or even a conversation and i’m PISSED about it. matt and ross duffer rectify this or else.

4. hopper and jonathan and will. you see the vision. these kids have never had a stable father figure who truly understands them (i love bob but he was only there for st2 and was sweet but naive) and everything they’ve been through. jonathan DESPERATELY needs to be de-parentified and released from the emotional burden of constantly putting will and joyce before his own needs and dreams, and hopper desperately needs to feel like he can protect his family instead of “cursing” them. will needs a loving father figure who supports his queer identity, and hopper only had a fire lit under him in s1 when joyce mentioned it could have been a hate crime. this is like textbook recipe for healing and closure for these characters.

5. joyce and karen? i just think it would be neat. we know karen’s getting more involved this season and i think she should get to be a little gay for joyce as a treat. we had crumbs of their dynamic in s1 and on a more sincere note i honestly think joyce could help give karen the courage to leave ted or demand better from him moving forward.

6. nancy and mike. if they don’t have a genuine conversation i’ll actually be fuming raging pulling my hair out. i get it i get that they’re both emotionally repressed but GOD i wish we had more moments with them talking about their trauma or empathizing with each other’s survivor’s guilt and crippling savior complexes. all the “max and mike are the same character in a different font” business is very valid and i agree madwheeler is like ten shots of espresso injected directly into the bloodstream HOWEVER, nancy and mike’s traumas and emotional issues are so so similar please let them talk about it!!!!

7. steve and robin???? please for the love of god????? literally what the fuck was happening in s4 they were NOT given enough screentime together. not cool. i want them BACK on their queerplatonic bullshit in s5, fully codependent disgustingly clingy like god intended.

8. jonathan and el. i just want them to be siblings together!!! we got a lot of willel sibling vibes in s4 and some sweet jon-and-will moments, but i would love for them to delve into jonathan and el’s dynamic. this girl is a big reason why will was saved in s1 and we just… never really see the byerses address that? jonathan has a lottt of self-blaming tendencies when it comes to will and i’d love for el to help remind him he isn’t responsible for protecting and saving his brother all the time. conversely, i’d love for jonathan to remind el that she’s just a kid and that the weight of the world shouldn’t be on her shoulders. they’re both really soft-spoken and sweet characters with hard veneers and i feel like they’d pair well together for more emotional scenes.

9. literally the entire byers-hopper family they are the heart and soul of the show and i will never forgive the duffer brothers for losing that in s3-4 in favor of expanding the scope of the story. i miss them.

10. steve and el. i would maim and kill for this dynamic actually. both of them are involved in love triangles and have arcs centered around independency and platonic/found familial love, and steve has his whole mom-of-the-group shtick that could be really endearing paired with el’s plucky weird-little-girl vibe. idk i just think they would be a cute team, maybe paired with dustin or lucas.

11. stoncy and robin. literally give me this team or give me death. i miss stoncy’s iconic end-of-season-1 monster-hunting trio dynamic SO MUCH i would give anything for them to go on a sidequest and really just hash it all out with each other. and robin could offer steve moral support and comic relief— while we’re on the subject i would also kill to see her and jonathan interact!! like they are so similar in that brooding-noncomformist way and i feel like they would either immediately gravitate toward each other based on values OR immediately clash due to their personality differences. jonathan is all quiet and avoidant and robin can be… A Lot (said with love) when she’s not masking like s3. i just think they’d be funny together.

12. this is devolving quickly so scott clarke and the party. no i will not elaborate. thank you for your time

[notexactlyrocketscience]

Alright y'all, let's do this.

Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022)

(no major spoilers!)

If you missed my long hate-rant about the book, here you are.

Jenny Han is a great contemporary author, I just feel like the book focused on the wrong (and often problematic) themes, and therefore didn't age well. Naturally, I was excited about the 2022 Amazon Prime adaptation for that reason—I binged it in one go, and I wasn’t disappointed!

What I disliked:

🥀 There's nothing particularly special or distinctly high-budget about the show (perhaps other than the marketing)—It definitely has that same old teen drama ambience with a generic original background music score, and sometimes doesn’t linger long enough on important scenes. The flashbacks are kinda eh because the characters just look like adults dressed like kids, so I'm glad they kept those to a minimum. (Some book fans were disappointed but tbh most of the flashbacks in the book were just depictions of Belly being bullied by the boys and then idolizing them for the bare minimum.)

🥀 Love triangles involving siblings are just icky, okay? I was hoping they'd tone it down a little in the show, maybe limit it to just a confession scene, some chaste and awkward dating, and then a heartbreaking rejection for the second lead, but ohhhhh no. ಠ_ಠ

🥀 Y'all ... it should be ILLEGAL for teen shows to depict PARENTS having sex or steamy makeouts. Look, I fully respect that all parents are individuals with their own lives, sexuality, et cetera outside of their roles as parents, but even for me as a grown adult it’s uncomfortable and traumatizing to watch, okay? WHY is it necessary??

🥀 It's looking like they're going to bring out further seasons, but man I hate the icky trash-drama plots of the sequels. I hope they heavily diverge from that, but really I wish they'd neatly wrapped up in one season while they were still ahead.

Okay, onto things I liked 💫:

🌻 THE CASTING?? The books made it seem like everyone was white, but the show is sooo inclusive! They made Laurel, Steven and Belly Korean-American just like Han, which I appreciated so much. ❣️ They're all amazing actors, perfect for each role and really brought the characters to life.

🌻 There's so much more content about the parents! (Aside from the unnecessary makeout/sex scenes) Laurel is an author (!! like Han!) and Susannah is an artist. The dads are around, too, and we get to learn so much about all the adults' dynamic!

🌻 BISEXUAL JEREMIAH! BISEXUAL JEREMIAH, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!! This was so perfect for his golden retriever-like character, like a missing puzzle piece. 💖💜💙 There's also a side-character sapphic couple, and a bi middle-aged man main character. The queer inclusion is perfect and never feels artificial.

🌻 THE MUSIC SELECTION?! Sooo high-budget and inclusive of POC and queer artists: Lots of Taylor Swift, plus Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Baby Queen, HAIM, Japanese Breakfast, Phoebe Bridgers, BLACKPINK, Bon Iver, Matt Maltese, Doja Cat, Hayley Kyoko, Tame Impala, and so many others. Amazon Prime does such a phenomenal job of matching specific lyrics and vibes to a scene, but again sometimes the fade-in/-out is abrupt, probably because of screentime limits.

🌻 THE BOYS AREN’T ASSHOLES!! Applauds wildly Steven is sometimes bossy, insecure and mean, but he's quick to see sense and apologise. Jeremiah is only reasonably protective and rarely immature; for the most part he's so, so selfless and adoring. The show does a MILES better job in portraying Conrad NOT as a selfish asshole, but as a usually gentle and attentive person who is very bothered (for GOOD reasons) and not himself this summer. He doesn't have the headspace to indulge in serious romantic pursuits, but his emotions often get the better of him and he acts impulsively, letting people down. He eventually realises his wrongdoings and always makes proper amends. Cam is the gentleman he always is, and the other boys respect that—any jibes they initially make at him are significantly more light-hearted. Toxic masculinity is NOT romanticised like it is in the book.

🌻 Belly is the exact character I wanted in the books. She knows what she wants—personal growth and respect from others. AND she stands up for herself several times. She is not a pick-me girl and calls out bullshit. Most of all, she doesn't mistreat Cam.

🌻 Women in general are portrayed better. There are many complex teen girls in the series, all with their own individual backgrounds. Taylor and Belly have their fights but then they talk things out like real friends. It's really refreshing and more accurate to real life.

🌻 New scenes were added with all the important conversations and communication between the characters that never happened in the book. It made the series so much more comforting and wholesome, and didn't leave me with that uneasy feeling.

🌻 The new plotline additions were highly appreciated! They're nothing ultra-original, but they subtly enriched the narrative and removed the overly serious focus on the romance that the book had.

🌻 The theme (or at least, one of the major themes) was the correct one!—That all teen girls (and anyone!) deserve to feel both pretty and independant whenever they want to, regardless of what they look like, what they're wearing, where they are. This does not make them less worthy of respect, and is not an excuse to infantilise or dismiss them. A true coming-of-age.

🌻 The summery beach setting really is soothing and lovely. 🌅

🌻 This time, I totally shipped Belly with whoever the show was going for. The sparks were there, and it felt warm and bright. It just worked and made sense, every time. They definitely did that part right. ✨

That's all from me, folks! It's not a must-watch show by any means, but definitely more worth your time than the book, especially since Jenny Han was involved in the writing process. 🌸 Have fun!

[vethbrenatto]

I guess it’s just interesting how differently people saw their “perfect” or just “good” endings. I’ve seen a few people disappointed who saw C2E140 as the height of amazingness and C2E141 as a real letdown. I feel like I’m on the other side? I didn’t really love C2E140, mostly because of the ending, but adored every minute in the 7 hours of C2E141. Even the decisions getting most of the heat, I really adored.

RE: Kingsley. I really, really liked Kingsley. Honestly, he might be my favorite Molly iteration. But regardless of his personality, I just liked the direction that Taliesin went with this. I was so heartbroken (ironic, I know) when Caduceus reversed the Nat 1, because even though it was the fate of the dice, Molly’s death in permanence felt so poetic. How could he come back after so much of the campaign was about grieving him? And I believe I even said last week, I’d like it if he came back, but it wasn’t quite him, and well... that’s what happened. The Nein brought him back, but Molly is still gone. They brought back someone new, someone who got to grow into his own person. And I think the beauty of it is that Kingsley was willing to see Molly as a brother. Willing to get to know him, even though he knew Molly wasn’t really him. Where Molly only had his “Fuck him. He’s gone,” attitude about Lucien, Kingsley is willing to get know his brother, even though his brother is gone.

RE: Shadowgast. Now, I’m going to preface this with the fact I’m not much of a Shadowgast shipper. I think they have great chemistry and I’ve enjoyed many of their interactions, but I never got too into the ship. That said, I thought their endings, both individually and together, were beautiful. I completely understood what Matt & Liam meant by “together for a while,” and I’ll defend that for a while too. The fact is that Essek is an elf, who’s going to live years and years. I personally don’t want to see the angst of Essek watching old-man Caleb on his deathbed. I found the beauty of their together for a while relationship great, a few years together in their prime- who knows how many: 3? 5? 10? 20? Getting to be together and happy and studying magic and herding cats. I love that. And then beyond that, they have a friendship that never ends, that lasts Caleb’s whole life. 

RE: Fjord & Jester’s ending. This was... perfect to me and I think I kind of already spelled out why. I’ve said for a while that if I felt like anyone wasn’t ready to let adventuring go, it was Fjord & Jester. While the rest of the Nein was all clearly getting haggard with the daily grind of adventuring, Fjord & Jester never lose that luster. An exciting life on the high seas is exactly what I wanted to see for them. Fjord gets to go back to the water he loves, and Jester gets to live her life of adventure that she so clearly has wanted. I think people who are saying Jester lacked agency in this... don’t really get Jester? She was locked up her whole life, of course she still wants to adventure and why on Exandria wouldn’t she do it with the man she’s in love with?

I think my only gripe with the whole finale is that I would’ve liked more Caduceus and more Veth. I think for Veth, Sam had already known her ending for a good while (I mean, think about how long Veth has been “almost” leaving the Nein), so he doesn’t have a ton of specifics. She goes back to raise her family, of course, but I would’ve loved a few more details. Things like if the detective agency ever happens and the like. I really liked the Adventuring Summer Camp detail (and think it fits really well for Veth in particular), but it did kind of feel like a throwaway line. I would’ve liked just a teeny tiny monologue about what she’s up to with the fam. As for Caduceus, I think, unfortunately, Kingsley sort of cut into his screentime. Taliesin didn’t want to screenhog and playing two different characters, he really had to prioritize one. Kingsley had so much unexplored, there was a lot more ground to cover in the time spanning the finale, and unfortunately, I think that meant that Caduceus kind of got sidelined. I loved the detail about him dragging out Calliope on his escapades, but I still wanted more Cad overall in the finale. Again, love Kingsley, but Cad was the one who we had for so much of the campaign, and it felt like he was playing 2nd fiddle just a bit in this episode.

[captainsspnanon]

C3E22 - reaction

Using Critrolestat’s liveblogged tweets to make sure I cover everything I wanted to, because I went to sleep pretty much right after watching the episode and need to remember.

First things first, I can’t tell if I am shipping Fearne/Orym or not.  Either I am shipping them, or I’m just desperate for Liam and Ashley interactions.  There was nowhere near enough Pike Vax conversations, nor Yasha Caleb.  So I’m jonesing hard for that pair to get more screentime together, PLEASE.  I love it so much!

Okay, into the episode proper.

Having Ashley back definitely cemented that only the PCs can really play the PCs.  Even when Matt does his best, it still never flows as well as the actual player.  Same with his bit of Dorian at the end of the episode, it just doesn’t work without Robbie.

Fearne’s exploration of Ashton’s head is so in character I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.  There’s a lack of boundaries with her, but the staring and touching is so true to force.  I know Fearne/Ashton is starting to get popularity as a ship, and while I’m not shipping it, I can see it.  I’m glad that Ashley and Taliesin are getting the ability to have good interactions in C3, I know that having Molly die really put the breaks on their RP together, at least for closer PCs.

MEMRIEEESSSS!  I love how we got a lot more about Ashton this episode.  I’m glad that I’ve been enjoying them regardless, this new level, while it adds intrigue, doesn’t suddenly make me go ‘okay, now I’m interested’.  I’ve been interested after the first few episodes, and it just adds depth to their characterization. LOL at missing memories again though.  It doesn’t actually remind me of Molly and how his schtick worked, and I’m pleased with the separation between the two PCs for me now.  I know there was fanbase speculation on Ashton missing memories, and I still disagree with most of what I was seeing early game.  The missing memories seem to be just related to this one job, not some ongoing thing.

Controversial comment, but we are now four for four, so I just need to accept that Taliesin is not interested in roleplaying more vulnerable emotions.  Anger, lashing out, sarcasm, stunned silence, sure.  *shrugs*  I just need to get over my disappointment, and enjoy what Tal puts out for me to see, rather than want him to show more. This is where I’ve always held true – as much as it’s a show that we see live, I still want the players to be playing for themselves.  And if Tal doesn’t want to play those emotions, I need to not want to demand it from him.  He’ll say his PC is having a panic attack or a heart attack or whatever, and I need to just take it from there and not want further RP into it.

I’m really enjoying Jiana Hexum and I hope she keeps coming as a reoccurring NPC.  As proprietary as she was over FCG, she’s also shown that over Ashton while he was still in her debt, so it seems to be more her treating of people that she deems herself above.  I would love to see how the relationships with her would change or have impact on the story as the game progresses and the PCs grow.

Going with that thought, I’m glad to have real solid confirmation now that when FCG is being snarky, it’s not Sam doing it OOC.  This, more than anything, I think is helping me connect more with FCG as a PC.  When they were all just ‘smiley day’ therapy bot, it felt very shallow, and as much as knowing that Sam for sure had something planned, I just wasn’t connecting as well, and FCG was at the bottom of my favorites list.  Now that we’re seeing more of varied emotions and thoughts coming through, it’s lending more depth to the character and I’m excited to see where it goes, not just what the mechanical glitches would mean.

(BTW- I do like everyone from C3, so the favorites ranking is just how I’m vibing with them, no one is in a ‘dislike’ status!)

Okay, the fact that the ladies are thirsting hard after Eshteross is amazing and I don’t want it to stop, EVER.   ...that’s a crack ship I’d be down for, ngl.

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPP!!!!!!!!  I love how excited they always get over maps, it’s such genuine delight, but also WE NEED TO GO EVERYWHERE ON IT which I’m sure Matt truly appreciates.

Speaking of though, a big difference I’m seeing between C2 and C3 is where the PCs stories are taking place.  C2, every story was spread out across the continent, and while some would have overlap, the individual aspects still took place all over.  C3?  Everyone seems to be converging in the same areas.  Bassuras is Ashton and FCG and Eshteross plot, Aeshanadoor is Orym and Imogen and Chetney and is very close to Bassuras.  It’s giving the world still a bit of a sandbox feel like C2 was, but there’s much more obvious pointed signs saying ‘you want to go here’.  Plus, it’s keeping the group together, because it’s not just an offshoot trip for one person, it’s multiple people being impacted by one trip, so of course why wouldn’t the group go together?   I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it, I think because I like it and am a little disappointed at the same time?  I like it because it IS providing that structure to the campaign, and it’s keeping things moving more fast paced and tied together.  On the other hand, Marquet seems like a large continent.  And everything they need it all nicely grouped together?  I really enjoyed how much the C2 gang actually ended up traveling and going all over, but I’m wondering if the C3 gang is going to feel more like the C1 gang.  Traveling a bit, but here are your main hubs that you come back to all the time.  Way too early to judge now, so I’m still excited to see how it goes!

AIRSHIP!  Oh, I don’t know how I feel about this either!  On the one hand, yay they can easily get to their destinations that they want to go to!  On the other hand, boo, they can EASILY get to the destinations they want to go to, so we lose out a bit on the journey aspect.  You gave us a map full of sinkholes, but now you’re just gonna fly over it.  (I fully acknowledge that I’m speaking on this WAY too early.  This is one of the things you can’t even really judge til mid or late campaign.  For all I know, Matt’s planning on having the airship downed, or they have the airship for ONE trip there, but then need to go back and will need to go the long way.  Or if they DID go the long way, it wouldn’t be as played out as much.)

FINALLY they talk about Chetney attacking Orym.  The whole scene with Ajit was great and really added a lot of plot threads for Chetney to cling to, as well as a direction.  I fall in a weird boat with Chetney, especially while rewatching C2.  I adore Chet and he’s great, but oh man he’s no Fjord.  And bits where Fjord would learn where to go just hit better to me than with Chetney.  I don’t know, I do love Chet, but I can’t wait to start getting in depth stuff from him.  A lot of what we’ve seen with him is humorous, even when it leads into deeper backstory stuff (the Ultgar mention standoff).

*snerk*  Oh Ashton, you wanted to keep everyone using your buddy at the stalls rather than go into the Trove of Marwa, and then as soon as the group went there no one wanted to leave.  XD  I still wonder if this is going to have impact down the line or not.  Either way, Marwa’s amazing and I love everything about her.  Considering we have Gilmore shirts and Pumat Sol shirts, I wonder if Marwa is going to end up being the C3 storekeeper shirt.

Fearne and Chetney both taking a dip into Rogue.  I look forwards to seeing where this goes!

@suicidallyreckless

[alittlesliceofcucumber]

Shoutout to the comfort characters of 2021!

(in sort of chronological order)

Vision (WandaVision)

RIP yet again king, please come back ASAP.

Launchpad McQuack (Ducktales)

HE DESERVED HIS BIG FINALE MOMENT I MISS HIM Also shoutouts to Gyro and Duckworth!

Joaquin Torres (TFATWS)

For such little screentime, he sure did manage to steal my heart.

Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney)

Along with Gregory Edgeworth. Happy 20 years since DL-6. Stop updating that damn autopsy report.

Eric & Deborahbot 5000 (The Mitchells Vs The Machines)

Listen, you can’t give me funky little robot characters and expect me not to adore them. Do not separate them.

Papyrus (Undertale)

LET ME IN, TOBY.

...

and so the madness begins...

Satoru Hosonaga (The Great Ace Attorney)

MY BELOVED, I’M SORRY FOR EVER DOUBTING YOU, YOU SOLO EVERY OTHER ACE ATTORNEY CHARACTER. FEMINIST ICON. PLEASE GO TO A HOSPITAL.

Susato Mikotoba (The Great Ace Attorney)

High-key the most intelligent character in the game. She deserves the world. I love her with every fibre of my being. Just as she loves...

Herlock Sholmes (The Great Ace Attorney)

So he appears at last... No joke, this fictional character has taken over my life. Not just my life, but the lives of my friends too- his influence is that big lol. We mention him in every conversation. His theme song has become a meme. Herlock Sholmes. Did you know there was a time where I laughed everytime I read his name? That’s not the case anymore. Now, it’s weird to read “Sherlock Holmes”. This character carried the second half of 2021 almost exclusively on his shoulders for me, and made some very difficult moments a lot more bearable. I genuinely hope I never get tired of him and I’m dreading to finish The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles just because it means there will be no more Sholmes content.

right, let’s step away from the madness now:

The Captain (BBC Ghosts)

SIR WHAT IS YOUR NAME

Swatch (Deltarune)

I really like butler characters, ok.

The Forger Family (Spy x Family)

Surely you didn’t expect me to pick one! I’m really excited to see them animated and obliterating anyone who stands in their way!

Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

There might be a year where he doesn’t take over my brain. This was not that year.

Matt Murdock (Daredevil)

He’s just a really good lawyer, guys.

[charlieconwayy]

D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) is the best Ducks movie and a flawless coming of age movie

It’s no secret that The Mighty Ducks are a beloved trilogy. The three films spawned a professional NHL team named in their honor, 2021 sequel series, as well as many knockoff films released in the 1990s. But with any movie series, fans tend to rank the films and have passionate opinions on which is the best. For most Ducks fans, the answer is simple: D2. It has the Bash Brothers, Team USA dominating, the iconic “Ducks Fly Together” scene and two Queen songs. What’s not to love? But upon a rewatch of the trilogy, I came to realize that it’s not D2, or even the original, that is the best in the series.

It’s the criminally underrated 1996 D3 that for me, is the most mature and has the most heart. Perhaps it’s that the Ducks are now old enough to carry their own weight on screen. Perhaps it’s that the film takes a look at trauma, specifically trauma in teenagers, and how that manifests itself. Perhaps it’s that the film is maybe ahead of its time, in the way it discusses classism, racism and sexism. There is so much about this overly hated film that makes it the best Ducks movie and a perfect coming of age film.

The movie starts presumably a few years following the Ducks’ win against Iceland. They all look noticeably older - definitely older than the middle schoolers we left behind in 1994 - and all of the male Ducks’ voices have dropped a few octaves. Gordon Bombay, played by Emilio Estevez, is presenting the team (except for unfortunately, Jesse Hall, a leader among the Ducks who would’ve made for a strong presence in this mature film, as well as Portman, but we’ll get to him later) with scholarships to his alma mater, Eden Hall, a preparatory high school in Minnesota. Charlie Conway, played by a young, pre-Dawson’s Creek Joshua Jackson, is the Ducks’ captain and unspoken leader. There’s been much debate over the years over whether or not Charlie is the true captain of the Ducks. Adam Banks, played by Vincent Larusso, is far and away better than practically every Duck combined. Fulton Reed, played by Elden Henson, has shown more maturity and leadership at this point. It’s probably true that the Ducks as a team think that Charlie is Captain because of Bombay’s favoritism towards him (and his mother), but I think that this film makes it abundantly clear why Charlie is the captain. 

D3 is Charlie’s story. We see that in the opening scene, when Bombay tells Charlie he will not be following the team to Eden Hall, accepting a job instead in California. We learned in the original Mighty Ducks film, that Charlie and his mother left a bad situation in Charlie’s father when Charlie was very young. We also hear about Charlie’s mother, Casey’s marriage to a new man in the D2, who we can assume from what Jan says, that Charlie doesn’t like. We see in that first film, Charlie’s reaction to Bombay announcing that he is leaving the Ducks after the two of them have formed a bond. It is very clear that Charlie deals with abandonment issues, stemming from trauma in his early childhood. Charlie freaks out when a D3 Bombay announces the same thing, and storms off. 

Change is the biggest theme in D3. We see how change affects each of the Ducks, even those who don’t get many lines. Some, like Russ Tyler, played by SNL’s Kenan Thompson, think it’s a good thing. All of the Ducks don’t come from good neighborhoods and we assume that most of them don’t have the best home lives, especially when Charlie tells their new coach, Orion, played by Jeffrey Nordling, that the Ducks are the only good thing that any of them have had. Going to a preparatory school should be a good thing for them. But for most of them, it’s not. The new Ducks (who by the way, three of which are people of color, and one of which, is a woman) are immediately told that “their kind” is not welcome at Eden Hall. The Varsity team claim that they feel this way because the captain’s younger brother was not admitted onto the JV team because of the Ducks’ scholarships, but it’s very clear what they really mean. Russ commented that he’s the only black person on the whole campus earlier, and he, Luis Mendoza (The Sandlot’s Mike Vitar) and Ken Wu (Justin Wong) are the only people of color we see in the film. Change takes a toll on each member of the team. We see it the most in Charlie, but we also hear from Fulton on how the separation from his best friend, Dean Portman (Aaron Lohr), who decided not to enroll at Eden Hall, is taking a toll on him. Connie (Margerite Moreau) and Guy (Garrette Henson) have presumably broken up, as the two small scenes we get of them, they are arguing. It’s a transition period, one that the first year of high school often is. But it’s also a look on how a rich, white privileged world is vastly different than the one that the Ducks are used to. 

Coach Orion seems like a hardass, especially when he tells Charlie at their first practice that he will no longer be “Captain Duck” (as coined by D2’s Gunnar Stahl, played by Scott Whyte, who now plays the level-headed Varsity goalie Scooter). This, to the Ducks, is a line in the sand. Ever since Bombay turned District 5 into the Ducks four years previous, Charlie has been their captain. They’re in a whole new environment, where the man who gave them so much happiness and so many friendships isn’t, and their “little Duck tricks” won’t work anymore. Orion thinks Charlie is a showoff, and perhaps he is. This Charlie is vastly different than the sweet, shy Charlie we see in D1 and D2. But this Charlie is older, has just been abandoned by a man he considered a father, and is being harassed on a daily basis for being, as Varsity Captain Reilly puts it, “white trash.” I find it hard to believe sometimes that fans can look at Charlie from the outside, and not see who he is on the inside. All of Charlie’s closest relationships that we see portrayed in this movie, are with women. His mother (who he, as a teenage boy, says “I love you” to in the final scene of the movie), his teammates, Connie and Julie, who he gets a lot more screentime with, and with new love interest, Linda (Margot Finley).

I think now is a great time to talk about the shockingly impressive way all of the female characters are portrayed in this series, particularly this movie, especially for a 90s sports film. Connie has always been a leader on and off the ice. She’s in a relationship with Guy, but it’s not her only character trait. Dubbed “the Velvet Hammer” by Averman (Matt Doherty), she stands up for herself, and for her shy teammates (she literally shoves Peter Mark - a character cut out of D2 and D3 for good reason - in D1 when he insults Charlie) and stands up to the entire Varsity team despite them telling her that they hope they can “fight” with her later. Julie “The Cat” Gaffney (Columbe Jacobsen) is the second best player on the Ducks, despite the little ice time (thanks, Bombay) we see her have. She is the first person to tell of the Varsity, telling Captain Reilly that his little brother “just wasn’t good enough.” She’s a huge facilitator in the fire ant prank and despite the very weird and out of character game she had against the Blake Bears, shows that she deserves the number one goalie slot that Reilly gives her - despite what Goldberg, and the obvious underlying sexism there, have to say. I’ve also always been very impressed with Charlie’s mother, Casey (Heidi Kling). Although she has a romance with Bombay in D1, she makes it clear from the get go that her first priority is Charlie. We know that she took the two of them away from an abusive situation, and she’s a goddamn hero for that. Her scenes in D3 are limited, but they always show her chastising Charlie’s antics and encouraging him to stay in school. It goes unsaid, but it’s clear that she knows that he’s not going to get an education this good in the problematic public school system. But according to Linda, Charlie’s love interest, the private school system is no better. The first time we see Linda, she is protesting the “outdated” Warriors team name. This was in a 1996 kids movie, no less. She holds her own against Charlie, calling him out when he’s wrong. No one aside from Charlie, and maybe Fulton, get much screentime or lines aside from Bombay and Orion, but her presence and the point of her character is clear - not every rich person agrees with the horrible things that wealthy people do. 

Back to the plot.

When the Ducks receive their positions, they learn that Banks, as a freshman, has made Varsity. From an outside perspective, they seems obvious. Banks is the best player we see in any of the films, definitely miles better than the losers on Varsity, so it seems obvious that he would be promoted. But Banks is unhappy with this. Adam Banks is a fan favorite character, definitely due to the sweet, understated performance by Larusso, but we don’t see much of him. From what we do see of him though, he underwent a huge character arc from D1 to now. In D1, Banks goes against his father’s protests and joins the Ducks, claiming that he “just wants to play hockey.” Here in D3, we see that Banks is utterly miserable despite playing with some of the best players in the state, purely because he’s not with his friends. At the end of the film, he makes the (questionable) decision to rejoin the Ducks and go against the Varsity. But Varsity seems to feel that Banks fits in with them, for obvious reasons. He’s the only Duck who comes from an affluent background, and he’s definitely the most clean cut. Captain Reilly is visibly angry in the final showdown with the Ducks that they no longer have Banks on their side, as if he’s betrayed “his kind.”

The turning point of the film comes when after Charlie has quit the freshman team (no longer the Ducks), Hans, a father figure to the Ducks and Bombay, suddenly passes away. It’s an insanely dark moment for a Disney film, especially when Bombay returns to the funeral and reminds the Ducks that it was “Hans who taught them to fly” and Charlie storms off, crying. I think Joshua Jackson, in the Ducks films, as well as in Dawson’s Creek, is phenomenally good at portraying teenagers who wouldn’t normally be seen as leading men. Who let their emotions overtake them, who have anger issues, who deal with familial problems. Characters like that in leading roles were almost unheard of in the 90s, and in the upcoming scenes, it reminds us why this side of Charlie that we’ve seen throughout the movie is not the only side of Charlie.

Bombay takes Charlie to the rink to see Orion skating with his disabled daughter, who was injured in a car accident. He reveals to Charlie that Orion quit the NHL to take care of her, and this immediately changes Charlie’s opinion of him, but he’s still unconvinced about rejoining the team. The next scene is without question, the greatest and most important scene of the trilogy. The last two films spent way too much time telling us how great of a person Bombay was, how he was the Minnesota Miracle Man,despite us seeing so little of that onscreen. We see him making mistake after mistake, hurting the team, being an unjustified dick to those around him. But this scene more than makes up for all of that. I’ve put the quote from this scene below.

Bombay: I was like you, Charlie. When I played hockey, I was a total hot shot. I tried to take control of every game. I wound up quitting. So I tried the law. I ruled the courtroom, but inside, I’m a mess. Start drinking. Man, I was going down. But then this great thing happened, maybe the best thing ever - I got arrested and sentenced to community service. And there you were - Charlie and the Ducks. And as hard as I fought it, there you were. You gave me a life, Charlie, and I want to say thank you. I told Orion about all of this when I talked to him about taking over. I told him that you were the heart of the team and that you would learn something from each other. I told him that you were the real Minnesota Miracle Man. 

Charlie: You did?

Bombay: I did. So be that man, Charlie. Be that man.

It’s a callback to D2, when Jan tells Bombay “Be that man, Gordon. Be that man.” This scene is flawless. Every good thing that has happened to the Ducks, came because of Charlie’s heart. It came because of that game when Charlie refused to cheat, and made Bombay see his wrongs. It came because of when Bombay first tried to quit the team, and seeing how hurt Charlie was, agreed to stay. It was Charlie who stepped out of the game against Iceland so that Banks could play. It was Charlie who found them Russ. Giving the credit to a young, emotionally unstable teenager, rather than their Emilio Estevez, hotshot Bombay, is the best thing this series ever did.

This movie, in my opinion, is nearly flawless. Every moment has been planned to make the same point - change sucks. Especially when you’re a teenager. Even more so when you’re a teenager with trauma.

[cinenthusiast]

dynamite thoughts: 2/9/22

just going to post aew thoughts here as a kind of livejournal-esque revival. this is really just for myself, but i wanted some way of keeping track of reactions as a fun kind of record!

- this was maybe my favorite episode of dynamite that i’ve seen. genuinely thrilling top to bottom. khan is, for better and worse, very good at bringing hype to the table. when it delivers it’s magic. this had such an event feel to it. is this how people feel about their superhero shit? it must be. keith lee coming in was very much predicted, but no less fire. he got a great pop, and the match was an excellent showcase for him. dude just oozes charisma and is so agile for his size. this was my first time seeing him and i was grinning ear-to-ear the entire time. isiah kassidy was great here too. jeff hardy will definitely be coming in once that clause is up and i assume the hardy boyz will have one last run together on aew, which could and would be beautiful

- the punk/mjf feud has been so hit-or-miss for me. the match was really excellent and such a journey, but the promos have often been way too drawn out and repetitive. but i really liked this week’s for a few reasons: it actually moved the story forward by having punk put it out in the open to wardlow that he should break from them. mjf got to have his coronation bit which was entertaining in the cheap heat way it ate up screentime. “*twice*...in chicago” was genuinely funny, and then finally, aew did something they never ever do in their promotion which was to have a match materialize in the course of the show. there are a lot of tropes they overuse (interference, backstage interviews get interrupted and turn into a brawl, roll-up finishes in the women’s matches, etc etc etc) but they never do this one, and so it was really really exciting to not only have punk need to find a tag partner as the show went on, but to then have it culminate in a barn burner with punk/mox teaming against ftr. all of that made this segment work for me more uniformly than some of their others (although punk had a really lame line at one point, i can’t even remember it, i blocked it out).

- wardlow rules, total star

- inner circle team meeting (lol). i’ve hated this lame faction since i started watching, but this turmoil within the group has been really compelling and i’m hoping hoping hoping it leads to them actually breaking up. everything santana & ortiz lay out in the promo is shoot true, and they deserve a real push and not to just continue to be folded into inner circle antics. sammy has risen to a real standing place in the company but S&O haven’t gotten their proper time to shine. Santana in particular is a star who cuts a great promo. everyone did a good job here (except, as always, jake, who has no idea where he is). it will be such a damn shame if jericho doesn’t use this tag match to put santana and ortiz over. i don’t get what jericho gets from this if he wins, and all it would do for S&O is prove to the audience that, see, you really do need the inner circle, which would be such a shitty thing for their careers. so i hope they book this smart and have S&O get to really shine and be put over in a big way.

- so excited to get to know jay white, and i love that bringing him in is story development for kenny even in his absence

- matt leaving a la jeff and the “erratic behavior” comment

- they seem to be building to rosa and britt for revolution which i can’t wait for

- i’ve gone from being lukewarm on FTR to absolutely loving what they are all about. they are the most reliable workers out there, and their moveset is so much more filled out and fluid than, like, most others on the roster. i feel like i’m always guaranteed, worst-case scenario, a good match from them. and their new theme is the best. they have so much chemistry together and i just love those guys. this match built up into something genuinely exciting and desperate feeling. off the rails but not chaotic, just very ALIVE. some great false finishes there too to get all of us even more worked up

- really hope we see more of AQA, she was great. really enjoyed this Jade match. her gimmick act is so well-polished but she’s also making improvement as a wrestler as well. i’ve genuinely enjoyed her last several matches for the most part instead of being let down by the way they go about getting her reps.

- main event was tremendous, another bloody match for page. the blood was so THICK wtf. lance is such a fabulous heel. i still think having lambert involved made no sense and was weak, but having jake the snake in there was perfect. i also loved the spot they gave him and that his whole thing was he just kept wanting to be let in for a taste while lance is like pls get out of my fight lol. and his disappointment lmao. expected lance to get in offense first and then page to come back but they really switched it up in the best way here. having it already starting before they can even do entrances, having it feel like we’re coming in in the middle, and then having page get in some sick shit first. they both put on such a show, seriously gnarly stuff. that steel stairs spot hurt ME just watching it (seriously, wtf, how is he alive) and then the final buckshot off the ref into the table was INSANE. this just ruled.

- then having adam cole come out right at the end was the cherry on top. i’ve been waiting to see cole get serious. he has such a natural comic presence but he’s been beefing with the best friends for so long (combined with certain recurring bits like the kiss, cutler, etc) hat it has come to feel like the goofy portion of the show when they have a match. which i enjoy a lot and has its place, but i’ve wanted cole to switch gears for a couple of months now. so i’m excited to see him get down to more business. i’m also waiting to get some sense of fish & o’ reilly as a tag team. i know other people know them from nxt etc but i feel like they just brought kyle in and have done zilch with him yet. i’m not into bobby fish but i’d like to get a sense of what kyle can do and of them as an active tag team presence instead of them just hanging around cole and the young bucks with all the untapped tension that comes with that. but yeah, great moment to leave off on

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

So what’s your plan for your gleewrite? Like, for every season?

Ok so I have some notes for every season. Also some notes I may have just come up with right now lmao.

Though, it’s only notes and we will see if it actually gets into the plot.

Season 1:

Highkey Brittana moments no one notices because heteronormativity ™️

Lowkey Faberry moments everyone except Rachel and Quinn (and Finn) notices because suddenly heteronormativity doesn’t exist

Who’s Mr. Schue?? A character on a preschool morning show??? Or what?

Distraught and pregnant Quinn

Matt gets more screentime yay

Something happened in freshman year with Rachel and Quinn and we might find out what or we might not

Puck sings the into to Phineas and Ferb as his audition song

Season 2:

Quinn is feeling down for obvious reasons and this girl needs therapy

Ok everyone needs therapy but she needs it the most

Baby gays pre-couple cutie scenes

Keeping that Faberry scene the writers cut in 2x16 like i’m gonna write it word for word from the leaked script

Kurt and Blaine met on an online roleplay forum and it turns out both of them randomly reference it irl without any of their friends understanding and that’s how they bond??????????????

Kurt does not switch schools to Dalton and Sue Sylvester is actually taking big responsibility to make sure Kurt is not bullied

Brittana is more lowkey after santana realised she’s a lesbian and now people seem to vaguely understand what’s going on

Mike tries to make Sam the new Matt bc he misses Matt and Sam is like *does a voice impression and takes his shirt off randomly*

Season 3:

Either Finn outs Santana and gets hell of a lot of consequences for it or he does not out her and is supportive without forcing anyone out of the closet

Undecided: Blaine moves to Mckinley like in canon or he does not and klaine continues as usual

Skank Quinn is here but it’s more like a look and attitude rather than ”I want my baby back fuck you imma join a gang”

No finchel wedding but just like Rory said: Quinn texts and drives in every timeline

Though she is in a wheelchair for atleast the rest of the season, but still stands up once in prom because that was a too cute moment for me to not include

Maybe letting Joe do more stuff not only in this but in the upcoming seasons too because what did he really get to do ? Also when was he in Glee and when was he not?

Doing ”you were singing that song to Finn and only Finn, right?” scene justice.

Even though Brittany was great in s4, I still want her to graduate with her class and maybe like. Struggle a bit but eventually passing.

Season 4:

Oohboy most changes are happening here

I’m switching the s4 and the s6 newbies except for Marley and Unique who get to stay

WHICH MEANS 1,5 SEASONS WITH CHAOS TWINS CHAOS TWINS

Madison is a lesbian, the end

All breakups happen but they are more resonable and healthy

If Blaine does not switch to mckinley in s3, then he’s still hanging out with the kids there and the Blam content is wild

I don’t know if Marley would have an eating disorder now that Kitty isn’t there, but if she does then it’s handled much better

Wemma wedding is happening and they get married bc I can’t deal with Will’s drama

Quinntana sleep def happens!! And it makes Quinn... realise some stuff. If she could do it with her best friend without problem, then she could...

Rachel is actually pregnant - does not keep it - lots of emotions for her bc of it - makes her relationship with Quinn stronger - also makes you want to root for her to get Fanny Brice

Giving Finn a proper and satisfying storyline before... yeah.

Season 5:

Saying goodbye to Finn... 💔

No one has seen Brittany for months and then she just shows up and was like ”I was kidnapped by scientists but i’m good now”

Klaine wedding happens in this and all season is to prepare for it

Rachel slaying it on Broadway and does not quit

Sure she can find it tiresome in some episode but she does not quit

While we don’t follow the newbies after graduation we do know what happened to them

Season 6:

Guess what: The old newbies has not quit!

So the New Directions are now Jane, Madison, Mason, Roderick, Spencer, Alistair, Marley, Unique, Kitty, Jake and Ryder. Later also Myron

Tho they don’t have very big roles anymore but they are happy to have a Glee club again

Rachel did not quit Funny Girl, but something happened at the production that made them cancel it or smth

So she and Kurt decide to help Mr. Schue (who still works at Mckinley) to reinstate the Glee club again as their NYADA job thing

Brittana’s wedding is mostly exactly like canon except that it’s just them.

Since Klaine is not broken up anymore, and neither is Brittana, you know who Sue is gonna ship? That’s right: Faberry

Quinn and Rachel have both been busy with school and Broadway and stuff and haven’t really been seeing each other but Sue has seen enough alright

Faberry in an elevator is gonna be chaotic guys

Last episode is gonna show how it went for all of them and not only like. Klaine and Rachel and Tartie.

[prettygraceful]

magnus & the main characters interaction count: a study

an interaction counts as magnus talking specifically to 1 main and that main character responding, or vice versa. (you know like alec does with jace/ clary/ izzy in 95% of the episodes throughout the whole series and luke/ simon in half of s1 and s3.) an interaction is NOT where magnus addresses the group in general with no one responding to him directly, or him being in the same room with all of them, but they only talk to alec or to each other.

this count starts from 2b. s1/ 2a did NOT have anywhere close to an adequate amount, but at least there wasn’t so little that it was total joke like after that. the sad truth of this is so glaringly obvious when it’s listed.

plz take note this post is about magnus/ MAIN character interaction ONLY

and obviously this count is about the 6 mains other than alec

SEASON 2B

2x11: NONE

altho clary/ jace are in the room, they only talk to alec

2x12: NONE

2x13: NONE

2x14: 1 scene with luke

2x15: NONE

altho jace/ izzy are in the room, they don’t talk to him

2x16: NONE

he was not in the episode. he also was not in some episodes in s1. luke and maia have also not been in some.

clary, jace, alec, izzy, and simon have been in every episode. just saying.

2x17: 2 scenes with luke

2x18: 1 scene with luke

2x19: NONE

altho the shadowhunters/ luke are in the room, they don’t talk to him

side note: making literally everyone be against magnus/ glaring at him/ shading him behind his back after all he’s literally done for every single one of them was… a choice. they all didn’t seem to care that he was hurting.

2x20: 1 scene with izzy

final count:

6 episodes (over half the season) with NONE

2 episodes of only 1 scene interaction

only 1 episode where he interacts throughout, yet still only with 1 other main

only 3 scenes where he gets to talk to another main without alec there

no scene where he talks to another main and alec isn’t mentioned

SEASON 3A

3x01: NONE

3X02: NONE

altho shadowhunters/ luke are in the room, they only talk to alec

3X03: 1 scene with izzy

3x04: NONE

altho clary is in room, she only talks to alec

3x05: NONE

3x06: multiple scenes with clary

3x07: NONE

altho clary/ izzy/ simon are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x08: multiple scenes with izzy

no, owl!jace saying alec would chose jace over him doesn’t count

altho luke/ simon are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x09: 1 scene with izzy

3x10: 1 scene with jace

altho should a scene of him telling the parabatai he gave up his magic for them and them not saying anything count?

final count:

5 episodes (half the season) with NONE

3 episodes of only 1 scene interaction

only 2 episodes where he interacts throughout, yet only with 1 other main

only 1 episode where he gets to talk to another main without alec there

no episodes where he talks to another main and alec isn’t mentioned

SEASON 3B

3x11: 1 scene with izzy

altho jace is in the room, he only to talks alec

3x12: NONE

altho jace/ luke are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x13: 1 scene with izzy

and 1 single line to clary, i guess

3x14: NONE

3x15: NONE

aside from 1 single line to simon, i guess

no, clary/ jace/ izzy unkindly questioning him being there doesn’t count

side note: making magnus be surrounded by a room full of racist-coded shadowhunters in s3 was… a choice. what was the point of that? it showed that apparently only laws have changed but not societal sentiment- outside of the main foursome- since s1 in their mindset towards downworlders. and then they had malec get married amongst these racists a few weeks later?? to show him being treated so disrespectfully (again in s3, so nobody’s mindset progressed outside of the 4) and be made so uncomfortable and then never have them show him any love or treat him as an equal later on (as an individual and not just as half of malec) was… a choice. a bad choice.

3x16: NONE

3x17: NONE

3x18: NONE

altho clary/ jace are in the room, they only talk to alec (and then when he’s sad over something that their 3a choices caused, they leave. in the same episode the writers have maryse say “we’re all here for you”…what a joke.)

3x19: NONE

3x20: NONE

altho izzy/ clary/ jace are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x21: NONE

aside from 1 single line to simon, i guess

no, saying only biscuit doesn’t count

3x22: NONE

altho it’s his wedding day, they don’t let jace/ izzy welcome him into the family but instead irrelevant max.

and altho it’s literally the finale, the ONLY person he gets to talk to is his rival. (side note, but lorenzo and underhill should NOT have been at the wedding after their awful treatment towards him. such two-faced people.)

final count:

10 episodes (the length of a normal half season) with NONE

2 episodes of only 1 scene interaction

0 episodes where he interacts throughout

1 scene where he get to talk to another main without alec there

in his 1 scene in 3x13, he talks to another main and alec isn’t mentioned

i think the point i’m making is obvious: the 3 white showrunners and mostly white writers almost never ever let magnus even talk to any of the other main characters. (he also goes three seasons without a single story arc with another main that lasts more than 1 episode. (no, the writers using luke as a mouthpiece to justify alec’s mistake in 2b does not count.) you know, like how alec had big long arcs with both clary and jace in s1, 2a, and 3a and izzy here and there. even maia, the most neglected character on this show, still got to regularly interact with simon and luke- 2 mains. even luke with his limited screentime, still got to regularly at least talk to literally all of the mains in all his group scenes.

and what about the 3 downworlder mains and alec?

well, altho alec and maia only had 2 scenes together, that’s still twice what magnus/ maia got, seeing as they only had the 1 scene together in 2a.

alec and luke had at least 3 scenes together in s1 that i can remember vs magnus/ luke only having 2 lines in 1x06. both duos had about equal in 2b.

in 3a alec/luke had 5 scenes together. magnus/ luke had none where they actually spoke to each other. in group scenes magnus only talked to alec.

in 3b alec/ luke had 3 scenes. magnus/ luke had none. plus luke told alec that he couldn’t go to his wedding, instead of telling magnus.

in s1 magnus/ simon had maybe 1 line. alec/ simon were interacting constantly throughout, i don’t remember how many scenes it was.

in 2a magnus/ simon had 2 episodes together. in 2b they had 1 scene but i don’t really count it since it was only to have it be literally everyone vs magnus. alec/ simon had 1 scene in 2b and none in 2a.

in 3a alec/ simon had 3 scenes interacting together. magnus/ simon had none where they actually spoke to each other.

in 3b all the fans complaining really paid off! 2 scenes in 3x15. 1 scene each in 3x17, 3x19, 3x20, and 3x21 for a grand total of 6 scenes. plus no talking- yet still in a scene together- in 1 other scene in 3x15, 3x17, 3x18, and 2 others in 3x19, for a grand total of 5, not counting the edom finale scenes. magnus/ simon only said 2 lines to each other in 3b.

not to mention alec stood next to simon in a nice two-shot in 4 separate scenes. it really reminded me of what they do with clary/ alec in group scenes. the writers don’t always give them a lot of dialogue together, but they’re sure to get that dynamic in at least visually. alec always has at least crumbs vs magnus getting nothing. where is that energy from the writers, directors, or fans with magnus and literally any main? really, where is it?

i mean, there was no reason for alec/ simon not to have scenes, but i’m so truly disappointed that this is where the fan effort was spent instead of lobbying for magnus to get to interact with even one main character other than alec, seeing as alec always already get to constantly have many, many, many duo and group scenes and big arcs with the 3 other shadowhunters. and now he gets to be more bonded with all of the main downworlders too instead of magnus with his own people. the writers are so so so wack.

also obviously magnus interacts with alec on a regular basis. the point is that’s it. malec is the main reason why i watch the show, so it matters a great deal, but when every other main is getting vastly more interactions, it’s a problem. also in nearly all of the episodes when alec has scenes with other mains- and magnus is not there- magnus is not mentioned. not so when it’s vice versa.

why not count any supporting characters you may be saying? because that’s not what i hear everyone demanding for alec or the others, is it? because he didn’t interact with raphael, his supposed son, in s1, or at all after 3x01 to the actual finale. because aside from her bringing madzie over in 3x11, catatrina and and him didn’t speak in 3b. she wasn’t even introduced until 3a (so 2 seasons w/o any friends.) they only spoke in 4 scenes total in all of s3. she was his best man, yet that’s not important enough to show on screen. ragnor was literally only 1 episode. who’s left- his jealous, bitter pathetic rival or his father who has obvious gross, creepy incestuous, jealous feelings for him. or alec’s mother, who only had scenes with him for the same reason maia/ jordan had all those scenes- to give them something to do away from the group/ main plotlines. why couldn’t magnus and maia had scenes together also or instead? and being bffs with his bf’s mom but not getting to even TALK to his parabatai, the person alec’s closest to platonically, let alone be friends, is truly beyond words. and also harry and matt are only 5 years apart (kat/ dom have more of an age difference) so i’m tired of the writers/ fans keeping alec in the playpen with his younger co-stars while magnus is separated to only older ones.

and also i just really don’t care about supporting characters. i see them as just taking screentime away from the mains, specifically the downworlder mains, who are already running on limited time. look at 3x13 when they want to do a whole heidi arc, who gets cut- magnus. or in 3x17 when they want to introduce helen and aline, i resented them right off the bat for getting twice as much screentime than magnus, a main character, in that important episode for him. throughout the whole show, whenever supporting characters are getting screentime, it always means magnus, maia, and luke are not. that’s not good.

some final thoughts, nearly every single malec fan spent the entire 9 month hiatus from 3a to 3b relentlessly saying alec needs interactions. as if he didn’t get huge bonding arcs with clary and jace in s1 and 2a and 3a. as if he doesn’t talk to and go places and do things with clary, jace, and izzy nearly every single episode, every single season since the beginning. mighty handy to not count the 3 of them when you want to cry “alec has no friends” every single day, as if he hasn’t had an enemy to friendship arc with clary 3 times in 3 seasons. as if he hasn’t had a dying, can’t live without you arc with jace 3 times in 3 seasons. as if he doesn’t hug jace twice more than magnus per half season. as if he doesn’t have izzy there to lean on and talk to. funny how siblings don’t count as friends when it’s mighty convenient that’s they’re the only mains to have siblings. i would kill, KILL, for magnus to be even talk to jace and izzy let alone be real friends, yet fans are taking their friendships with alec for granted, while simultaneously saying they’re robbed of the parabatai dynamic. that’s rich.

if alec having scenes every other ep, and melodramatic arcs every other half season, wasn’t such a guarantee the fans have learned they could count on, nobody would say that his siblings and clary don’t count. but everyone knew they could say that because we know it wouldn’t be taken away. i mean, look at the stark siblings in game of thrones. they never interacted, and the entire fandom cried about that being the most important friendships to show, but it wasn’t shown. this fandom needs to put things in perspective and stop taking the lightwoods sibs and the shadowhunters squad dyamic for granted and realize that magnus and maia don’t get even a minuscule fraction of that. also want to add that simon got plenty of constant sturdy dynamics too, with clary, jace, luke, maia, and izzy. and fans got their alec/ simon content and yet still so ungrateful. i beg the malecs to compare what magnus gets before complaining.

[steve0discusses]

The Live Action Fullmetal Alchemist Movie Part 6: Let’s Kill Hughes

Hey guys, I’ve been having some issues with the blog not...updating my drafts. So in case you’re wondering, that’s where I disappeared to. Give a round of applause to the support team for finding a solution until it gets fixed but as of right now I’m on like a private window with my extensions turned off and writing this from both tumblr and a LibreOffice document. Hello ads, nice to see you back.

Last we left off, we were a hop and skip away to lab 5. In the anime, this was a sequence where there was a bunch of fighting with suits of armor, and they kept that in this movie, but...not the people you think would be fighting are going to be fighting.

Listen I’m not like super knowledgeable about the world of Matte painting, but I like that they’ve unintentionally made this world building where whoever is in charge of making these red bricks basically owns everyone’s nuts. Everything is made out of the same red bricks. Like I know this is a show about homunculi ruling the world but I feel like the red brick guy is hellllllla more egregious. Freakin Monsanto over here.

I assume they had a 3d model and was like “we can just keep using it” and damn, they sure did. And inside of this brick building is, unsurprisingly a lot more red brick (although I think this is partially, if not entirely, an actual real life set.)

This next part is...such a lesson in pacing. Not necessarily a lesson to follow, but definitely a lesson to learn from maybe their non-example.

(watch Hughes die under the cut)

And what’s interesting is that there were a lot of good lines in this upcoming segment. There were a lot of good moments—bu there’s just so many. Maybe too many. You gotta prune your script occasionally, it’s like a tomato plant.

Like I’ve been doing a stress garden to cope with quarantine and Covid and 3+ months of life endangering wildfires, and I learned that you gotta prune the sucker vines off your tomatoes, although sucker vines can also make tomatoes. It sucks to do because I love tomatoes, and I want as many tomatoes as possible, but when you prune the plant, you get bigger better tomatoes that are more worthwhile than the suckers that can infect your plant and make it really sick.

Sorry that made me sound like 5000 years old with that gardening analogy. If you need me to solve your small town murder mysteries, I’m ready.

So it’s like...kind of tragic that it came together as kind of nonsensical when you can tell that it’s so close to being something better.

Like we have some reason up to this point to believe that Ed would have a freak out here...but like...a sobbing on the floor screaming at the walls type of freak out? Was there enough time devoted to this blow up, or did he walk into this room and immediately start screaming? Because he sure did walk immediately into this room and start screeching like a broken bird.

Like last recap, which was about 2 minutes ago in screentime, was this fun and quirky montage with Hughes. Now we’re sobbing into this rusty factory.

And I know what’s going on because I’ve seen the anime, but if you haven’t seen it—would this emotional break down make any sense? We were told by Dr Marcoh, “check out lab 5,” but we were only going to this factory on kind of a wish and a prayer. I really wonder if people who don’t know this show could follow past this point.

And then while we’re still adjusting to “yo, Ed just took it from a 2 to a 10 like immediately” Al is like “Hey I noticed no one is paying attention to me, and I have to lay a wicked fart:”

and then both brother’s just have a freak out. Gotta all be freaking out in this random ass Unity asset that was probably also used for some college grad’s first battle royale.

Pacing is just everything. And what’s SO HARD about Full Metal Alchemist is that there really is a lot of content to cover, there’s a lot of emotions to go through, and when you only have about 7 minutes to cover what was about 3-4 episodes, if I remember correctly, it’s kind of a zany mess.

And if you were going into this movie hoping they wouldn’t illustrate Al as a large idiot baby, then you share the sentiments of most people who saw this movie. Al is like...kind of reduced to a whiny big baby and is...not cute. Like Al is low key kind of menacing throughout this movie, not just because he has this CGI armor thing going on, but also because Al is...so impressionable and unhinged.

Something that I didn’t appreciate enough when I watched the anime was just how important Barry the Chopper was for Al’s logical character development.

Yo...These bangs…

...I’ve realized that every show I recap here just has the worst hair styles. I honestly never thought much about hair at all until I watched like 200 hours of Yugioh and all of this movie and also 6 seasons of Once Upon a Time which featured some LOOKS (but only recapped like 3 episodes, sorry if I got some of y’all excited. That was when we had no reason to cap everything because the capping community for Once was very alive and very exciting.)

By hitting him with a wrench (Al does not feel pain, ps, so he doesn’t need to be hunched over like this) Winry reminds Al that Ed would not risk his life for a fake brother (which may be a line from the anime or the manga but I don’t remember) and crying just...a lot.

Like it felt as if she had to shoot all of this out of order. Same with Ed’s freak out here. Movie’s aren’t really shot in succession and it’s up to the director to make it feel coherent and logical...this felt scattered, like the actors really didn’t know what was happening in the scenes leading up to it so they just cranked it to 11.

And then I guess Ed was either so insulted that Al punched him or was so upset that Al made Winry cry (again, this movie really tries to sell the EdxWinry ship and from me that’s a really big compliment), that Ed just started laying punches to extend a fight scene that was kind over before it started.

But symbolically there is a lot nice things going on here, Ed only uses his fleshy hand so he bleeds all over Al, hurting himself as much he’s hurting his brother. Implying more than just this fight, but suggesting that their whole journey of trying to find this sorcerer’s stone is just going to hurt both of them in their quest to save the other.

And then Al says something along the line of “it hurts!” to infer that he’s got this broken heart which is when they both finally just freakin stop.

Such a shame the pacing, which was a mix of too quick, and too many tomatoes, kind of made it hella blindsiding.

Again this was so many episodes of FMA and they stuffed it into so few minutes, it’s wild.

Especially since Ed is like...he’s cast as an adult! He’s an adult! At no point in the movie so far have they called him a kid, and they’re not pretending that he is one. But like...he acts like such a child because in the original, he was one. And, while this movie steps so far away from the source material, if should have committed and either stepped completely away or committed completely. Of course “should” is one of those things where we’ll just never know. A wish into the ether of hindsight being 20/20.

But lets get to the thing that you all came here for. This is where this movie gets BONKERS:

So Hughes actually draws out a pentagram between the different places in Armestrias, including Ishvaal, leading us to think that he’s figured out the whole dealio of turning the country into an alchemy circle. But, for some reason only helps him find the real lab 5.

It didn’t...that’s a different thing.

And it has been a long time since I’ve seen the ending of this movie—and maybe it was so offhand that I forgot if they actually do bring up turning the country into an alchemy circle--watch me eat my words, it could happen—but yo, we are finally killing Hughes—but we’re over halfway through this movie. And you may wonder...so uh...what...then what could possibly happen? There’s too much anime left!

Now I’m glad they kept this scene really close to the anime, although I haven’t watched the anime in a hot minute. It’s kind of an iconic scene so you don’t forget.

Like I do genuinely enjoy the campy parts where they were bringing up some of my favorite nostalgia of the original.

and then when you are like “ah, this is exactly the same as the anime. I can relax and watch as all my expectations are fully realized.” This twist happens.

YAH.

It’s a change!

So in the anime we had a really fun arc where we were trying to save Lieutenant Ross for being framed for killing Hughes. It’s probably my favorite part of Full Metal Alchemist, actually, it was so clever and a really thrilling chase. It was also like...half of season one.

Anyway, they cut it. They reduced half a season into 7 minutes. I know that, because each of these recaps is about 15 minutes of the movie.

You may look at this recap and be like “wait...this all happened in 15 minutes??” because yeah, this all happened in 15 minutes.

The same squad of people we see in every single scene of soldiers comes up to arrest Ed, which is weird, because I thought this band of soldiers was the military under Cl. Mustang’s command so like…shouldn’t they be arresting themselves? Mustang was over the command of more than 2 people. If we are suspicious of Mustang’s buddies then everyone in this movie would be in trouble.

And that’s when I realized that these guys were just unnamed soldiers and not a part of Mustang’s band. They only had like this many extras and just hoped we wouldn’t keep track of who is who, but I KNOW I’ve seen these guys this whole time. There are only like 6 people in this army. I see you movie magic—I see what you’re trying to do.

Anyway, Ed gets thrown into an old timey opera house that occasionally gets to be used for Middle School graduations. Or maybe also a mortuary where they charge you for funerals.

Like I know it’s supposed to be the capital building but like...this looks so weird when it’s live action. I remember the anime had this kinda feel to it but in live action it’s like…

...this is a weird ass capital building…Why do they have curtains like a Granny Holiday Inn in Reno, Nevada?

Thankfully, Hawkeye is here to explain to Ed what just happened because we, the movie viewers, were kind of surprised by that plot twist.

Like there were many ways you can condense half a season into 15 minutes, and I dunno if I would have just changed the murderer. It is a solution you can do. You can just point blame on Mustang and skip that whole Ross segment but like….

…then why write the movie?

Obviously, they had to make the movie, it had already been funded, people were really excited about the idea, and I do not envy the people that had to hack and slash with the Full Metal Alchemist script, but it is interesting what they decided was important to the original content, and what was unimportant. All that stuff that showed how Mustang was brilliant and two steps ahead of everyone else? Unimportant. All that stuff we had that showed how Mustang cares a lot about protecting other people and also cares about Ed and Al? Unimportant.

It really changes the dynamic, and it’s kind of fascinating to go into this cold because it’s been like...a year for me since I’ve watched it...and just see how different everything is without all those supporting characters that when I watched the anime I just assumed were mostly useless (Though fun). Turns out they all had a pretty significant part of making me care about Ed, about Mustang, about Al, about all my main characters.

FMA is very character driven, and this movie is mostly just...plot driven.  There’s kind of a great debate in literature about plot driven vs character driven. Movies and TV tend to be very plot driven, because they are very expensive to make, so they follow pre-formatted plot beats like “Save the Cat” or “The Heroes Journey” and other ones (there’s several to choose from).

They’ve made a fine science out of at what point a TV show should introduce the main, at what point they should suffer doubt, at what point they should shun their hero’s journey, etc etc. They know it down to the page number of the scripts they are writing. I know this, because it’s readily available on the internet and people fight about it all the time. This is why a show may suffer developing a character—because they just don’t have time and they just don’t have the resources to do something out of the box. Movies doubly so, because every minute of film can cost thousands of dollars.

What’s interesting about this is that FMA, the original FMA, does follow these beats. It was a manga sold by a huge publisher so it had to follow those beats. But, it has managed to do it while still being character driven. Yo, that’s so hard to do. This story was already written to be hyper condensed and structured when it was made into a Manga, and then it was condensed again for an anime, and then it was condensed yet again for this movie. It’s like a game of telephone, and at one end you have a very character driven story, and then at the other, it’s just totally plot.

Like it’s just a really huge risk to take. This was really, really risky.

PS did you miss Shou? Did you think we’d be done with Shou Tucker? No. Because this movie is gonna end at some point and rather than introduce other people...we’re just gonna stick with Shou and only have one miniboss.

(It has a freakin radiator in it?)

So then this next part happens and it’s low key hilarious.

The whole time.

Mustang and Hawkeye knew what lab 5 was this entire time but Ed just never asked for some reason despite working with those two for what is inferred to be YEARS since his childhood.

Hey PS, did you miss that brick building? Because it’s back.

Anyway, Mustang decides to take this underground where we can recycle the tech crew posing as extras that we used in the shot above us. Would not be surprised if a few of these are someone’s husband or wife on set.

Usually when I watch a movie I don’t get this feeling so much. But this movie...the latter half is like...EMPTY.

...this is going to be all movies made during Covid, I just realized…

Mustang is stopped by an angry Lieutenant Ross, and then we get this series of events.

And when you’re like “...Sorry?” Mustang’s like “I can make it weirder.”

And he just, without any warning or anything, lights Lieutenant Ross on fire. Multiple times, and it’s pretty intense and everyone who’s holding a gun just watches it happen is like…

...well I guess it’s too late to just shoot the guy...

…and like do you seriously not carry around a fire extinguisher when you are trying to manhunt Mustang? This is the one guy you want to wear fireproof clothes around. You have the technology. You at least have the technology for buckets of water. Like no one want to throw a blanket on her?

Just want to...watch? I guess?

Mustang just looks like a nut from this series of events instead of a genius--which is what I think they were originally going for. The pacing does that, youknow? Pacing.

And, out of the corpse pile stands Envy.

Envy has a pretty good look, I appreciated his whole look and that unlike the anime where you only find out Envy is a guy because someone told you on a forum somewhere and you were like “wait WHAT?” the movie is live action so you won’t make that mistake and embarrass yourself online.

Ed has only ever seen Lust once, and she walked in from off screen, stabbed a guy, and walked off. He’s just like...having a time because he’s done zero research into homunculi, and really, at no point in this movie are we going to give him time to figure it out.

Also, there’s this shot where Lust and Gluttony just walk in from behind them in the tunnel and it’s like…

….so no one noticed these two just hanging out back there?

It’s so freakin funny. This movie is gold. I love it.

Now If you just got here, this is a link to read all these recaps in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/fma/chrono

Have a good one, and stay safe! 2021 has been...weird nuts...and it’s still January somehow??? Weird times. Overall, please stay safe, it’s weird out there.

Also, if you’re like “I don’t remember this scene actually” here’s the original Hughes dies scene that inspired the movie (since the movie definitely was like “we’re only going inspired for this one nerds, get mad”)--some shots were inspired cut for cut.

And obvi this is on Youtube so it’ll probably get taken down eventually, but that’s why it’s flipped.

[differentnutpeace]

'Jupiter's Legacy' Decodes The Superhero Genre Without Subverting It

You'd be forgiven for wondering how Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy compares to other recent entries in the glut of "Wait, what if superheroes ... but, you know, realistic?" content currently  หวย บอล เกมส์ คาสิโนออนไลน์

 swamping streaming services. (To be fair, this "realistic superheroes" business is something we comics readers have been slogging through for decades; the rest of the culture's just catching up. Welcome, pull up a chair; here's a rag to wipe those supervillain entrails off the seatback before you sit down.)

So here's a cheat sheet. Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy is ...

Less cynical and empty than Amazon's The Boys

Less bright and blood-flecked than Amazon's Invincible

Less weird and imaginative than Netflix's The Umbrella Academy

Less funny and idiosyncratic than HBO Max's Doom Patrol

Less dark and dour than HBO Max's Titans

Less innovative and intriguing than Disney+'s WandaVision

Less dutiful and disappointing than Disney+'s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Less thoughtful and substantive than HBO's Watchmen

Less formulaic and procedural than the various CW super-shows (which I include here only out of a sense of completism, not because they're aiming for the same kind of performative faux-realism that drive most of these other series).

It's unfair to make these comparisons, sure. But it's also inevitable, given the crowded landscape of superheroes on TV right now. And in every one of those comparisons, Jupiter's Legacy doesn't necessarily come up short (it's far better than The Boys, especially), but it does come up derivative.

Makes sense: "Derivative" is a word that got slapped on the comics series it's based on, by writer Mark Millar and artist Frank Quitely, which kicked off in 2013. Millar and Quitely would likely prefer the term "homage," of course, and after all, the superhero genre is by nature nostalgic and (too-)deeply self-referential. So the fact that so many story elements, and more than a few images, of Jupiter's Legacy (comics and Netflix series both) echo those found in the 1996 DC Comics mini-series Kingdom Come is something more than coincidental and less than legally actionable.

Showrunner Steven S. DeKnight and his writers' room have carved out only a thin, much more grounded slice of the comic's sprawling multi-generational saga, but they've retained certain elements of family tragedy and Wagnerian recursiveness, wherein the sins of the father get passed to the son. They've also, smartly, retained the multiple-timeline structure of the comic as a whole, though they've pared it down and stretched it out over these eight episodes, clearly hoping for a multi-season pickup.

Readers of the comics will likely grow impatient at how little of the overall saga is dealt with here, but this review is aimed at those coming to the series fresh, who will find more than enough in this season to satisfy — it's a whole story that hints at what's to come without slighting what's happening now.

The now in question switches between two eras. In 1929, immediately before and after the stock market crash, brothers Walter (Ben Daniels) and Sheldon (Josh Duhamel) are the sons of a successful steel magnate. Walter's the diligent numbers guy, Sheldon's the glad-handing optimist. Sheldon's rich, smarmy friend George (Matt Lanter) is going full Gatsby, and muckraking reporter Grace (Leslie Bibb) runs afoul of Walter and Sheldon following a family tragedy.

Sheldon becomes beset by visions that will put him and several other characters on a path to their superhero origin story. Be warned: The series doles this bit out even more slowly than the comic — settle in for seven episodes' worth of Duhamel clutching his head and shouting while trippy images flash by, hinting at his ultimate destiny.

In the present day, Sheldon is the all-powerful hero The Utopian, who is married to Grace, now known as Lady Liberty. Walter is now the telepathic hero Brainwave, and George is ... nowhere to be seen.

The series has fun playing with the disconnect between the two timelines — characters from the 1930s story are either missing, or drastically transformed, in the present day, and while later episodes connect some of the dots, many of the most substantial changes are left to be depicted in future seasons.

The present-day timeline instead focuses on the generational rift between heroes of Sheldon and Grace's generation and those of their children. There's the brooding Brandon (Andrew Horton) who strives to live up to his father's impossible example, and the rebellious Chloe (Elena Kampouris), who rejects a life of noble self-sacrifice and neoprene bodysuits for a hedonistic modeling career.

At issue: Sheldon's refusal to acknowledge that the world has changed, and that the strict superhero code (no killing, no politics, etc.) that he lives by — and forces others to live by — may be obsolete, now that supervillains have escalated from bank robbery to mass slaughter. Younger heroes, including many of Brandon's friends, feel compelled to protect themselves and the world around them through the use of deadly force.

Clearly it's a fraught cultural moment to have fantasy characters who can fly and zap folk with eye-lasers deal with that particular all-too-real real-world issue; several scenes land far differently than they were originally intended.

But unlike other entries in the superhero genre, Jupiter's Legacy is prepared to deal overtly, even explicitly, with something that films like Man of Steel and shows like The Boys too simply and reflexively subvert: The superhero ideal itself.

The notion that an all-powerful being would act with restraint and choose only to lead by example is what separates superheroes from action heroes. Superheroes have codes; that's the contract, the inescapable genre convention, the self-applied restriction that tellers of superhero tales impose upon their characters; navigating those strictures forces storytellers to get creative. Or at least, it should. The minute you do what so many many "gritty, realistic" superhero shows and movies do — dispense with that moral code, or pervert it, or attempt to argue it out of existence by portraying a villain so heinous and a world so fallen that murder is the only option, you're not telling a superhero story anymore. You haven't interrogated or inverted or interpolated the genre, and you certainly haven't deconstructed it. You've abandoned it.

Say this much for Jupiter's Legacy — it's not content to wave the concept of a moral code away, or nihilistically reject it. It instead makes its central theme the need to inspect it, unpack it, and truly and honestly grapple with it.

Which is not to say it doesn't stack the deck by portraying a fallen modern world not worth saving — it does do that, usually through the lens of Sheldon's daughter Chloe, who throws herself into a world of drugs, alcohol, sex and general narcissistic monstrousness. The show attempts to explain her sullen self-destructiveness as a reaction to her father's unrealistic ideals, but in execution, her scenes prove cliche-ridden and bluntly repetitious. It's one of several examples where the show's choice to focus on and pad out one small part of the comic's overall tale results in leaden pacing.

But even though it takes seven full episodes for the characters in the 1930s timeline to get to the (almost literal) fireworks factory of their superhero origin, it's hard to argue that it isn't worth all that extra time, as Duhamel, Bibb, Lanter and especially Daniels have a great time with the period setting. (There are two other actors who get brought into the superhero fold in this timeline, but they 1. aren't allotted nearly enough screentime to really register and 2. represent spoilers.)

The period details of the 1930s timeline (Lanter was made to wear a waistcoat; Daniels' pencil-thin mustache should win its own Hairstyle and Makeup Emmy), and the brewing conflict between the younger selves of Sheldon and Walter can't help but make those scenes much more intriguing to watch than those set in the modern day.

The ultimate effect is a lot like watching the 2009 film Julie and Julia, in that sense. If you imagine that Julia Child could fly and shoot lasers out of her eye-holes.

And, really, who's to say she couldn't, after all?

[klanced]

What’s so wrong with Pidge man? Rant accepted

A lot of this is personal opinion, and I also haven’t touched VLD in a while so my perception may be skewed lol. This also isn’t a comprehensive list because I would forget my brain if it wasn’t already in my head.

A lot of what I dislike abt Pidge is like, 70% me just hating VLD’s writing lol, so it can be kind of hard to separate the Genuine Problems I Have With Pidge from my General Problems With Voltron. That being said, before I get the “well Pidge is just a product of the writing so u can’t really blame her for being a sub-par character”, consider this: I can and I will.

Pidge’s story + character arc about her family takes up an unbelievable amount of screentime and it doesn’t always pay off.

Like at first I was cool w her searching for her dad and brother but the writers…… stretched it out for so long……… and then when we DID meet Matt and later Sam, both reunions felt shoe-horned in + rushed and also had little to no impact on Pidge’s character development.

Like why TF was Matt found in the first couple episodes of season ¾/whatever like NARRATIVELY SPEAKING why would u ever conclude ANY character’s arc at the BEGINNING of the season it makes no SENSE. You save that stuff for the end of a season bc it’s a Resolution so you group it with the Other Plot Resolutions like hello. It’s not that hard.

Also Matt’s character is just… super bland and this is more of a criticism of Matt than Pidge but imo Matt wasn’t needed. Like at all. That post where OP says Matt should have been replaced with Adam? DELICIOUS AND SO TRUE.

And Dad Holt’s rescue was also so goddamn boring and like. Inconsequential. Mainly because it happened in the episode where Zarkon was MURKED (which WHAT?????????????????????????) so it’s completely forgettable. And then he just leaves fhskjghqahfhksf

We spent SO much time on the Holt family and maybe it’s because I’m not white or straight but I wasn’t attached to Matt and Sam’s characters at ALL. Which is a huge failing on the writer’s part considering how much story time was devoted to them like if you’re going to make me sit through five episodes of Pidge’s backstory rehashed you damn well better make me at least LIKE the characters introduced. But no.

Speaking of which the number of times they rebooted Pidge’s backstory was like. Ridiculous shdgkjdshkghsdkjgsd

That one episode in the first season was GOLDEN you literally didn’t have to elaborate anymore Voltron. Please. We get it she loves her family. That’s reason enough we get it PLEASE move on PLEASE I’m begging you.

Also as a result of the Home Alone sub-plot a lot of Pidge’s personality revolves around 1) her family and 2) being smart. Which is like… an okay start, but Pidge’s character never grows?? Like Pidge straight up never changes imo she’s the same pre- and post-Kerberos just add familial motivation. It’s weird.

The introduction of family is imo one of the best ways to highlight character growth and development bc your family is supposed to get whiplash over how you’ve changed since they saw you last but that. Doesn’t really happen with either Pidge & Matt or Pidge & Sam. 

Pidge is honestly a really static character. Which is saying something because Voltron only trips into character development once in a blue moon but she still stands out as being particularly Unchanged.

Speaking of which Pidge has been getting more & more obnoxious as the show progresses. Like I get the staff wants to hype up their Inclusionary Feminist Win! by highlighting how smart Pidge is but they always, ALWAYS do it at the expense of characters like Hunk and Lance. 

90% of Pidge and Lance interactions are her making fun of him, and Hunk is often overshadowed by the Pidge&Matt Show or his abilities are thrown into direct competition with hers.

SPEAKING OF WHICH……………………………….

My absolute, biggest beef with Pidge is her treatment of Lance. Hunk also gets some bullshit but it’s more of a passive side-effect to the Pidge Phenomenon, whereas Lance bears the brunt of it.

Like Pidge is a WHITE girl and you’re really gonna have her tease & call Lance, a BROWN teenager who is one of the show’s main draws + visible rep, DUMB on MULTIPLE occasions and always gets away with it. It’s a gag! It’s a running joke on the show! We’re supposed to laugh and agree with Pidge! No one ever calls Pidge out on it, Pidge never matures and 1) quits that shit and 2) APOLOGIZES, MAYBE, and I’m ghdskjghskdjghkjdsghskgdgjsdghkdsjghkdsjgsdg

The whiteness. It just jumps out.

And going back to my first point, Pidge takes up SO much of the overall plot of Voltron (tbf so do Shiro and Keith but I’ve bitched abt that before and will bitch about it again) and like can we mayhaps… take some of that screen time…. and give it to Lance and Hunk and Allura perchance? Perhaps? Can we pause the Pidge train and switch lines maybe? Just for a while? Can I get a balanced narrative? Can I please get a balanced and shared narrative.

Anyway yeah. I waver on what I actually like… feel towards Pidge (i.e do i love/like/dislike/hate her) but in general I do kind of resent her because of the amount of screen time she sucks up and then fails to do anything with (Keith? Is that you?) and also her treatment of Hunk & Lance is super shitty and I’m like, automatically wary of any story/character that boosts white characters at the expense of characters of color. And Pidge does that through her direct actions, but she also reaps the benefits of the story by being a favorite character of the writers.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

It’s been a long while since I’ve talked about Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure; the last time I talked about it was when I reviewed Phantom Blood, which makes this review even weirder. How on earth could I skip over Battle Tedency?! Well, the thing with Battle Tendency is that that part is almost universally loved, especially in the West, and at the moment I feel like I can’t say much more about it than “Yeah this was a good part of the show.” But Stardust Crusaders? There’s a lot to unpack with this chapter of the Joestar’s saga.

Stardust Crusaders has had a divisive reputation in America as opposed to its status as generally beloved that it has in Japan. Some people really enjoy this part, and others really don’t like it much at all. I think a lot of the ire this part draws comes down to character focus and the overall story and how it flows, though I do think overexposure may have at least some part in it, as this was one of the few parts widely known in the West back when the franchise was a cult classic. To be frank, I find the divisiveness a bit unwarranted, though at the same time I do think that this part of the series does have some issues with it that I do think need to be addressed.

Probably the biggest point of contention is how the story progresses. The story is a very simple one: Jotaro and a ragtag team of misfit Stand users travel to Egypt to kill Dio once and for all, and they have to fight through an army of Stand users to get to him, with all of their foes in the first half of the series have Stands named after tarot cards and then all the Stand users in Egypt having Stands named after Egyptian gods. It’s your standard “monster of the week” anime, for better and for worse. While I do like how fun and creative most of the Stand battles are, the issue is that a lot of the enemy Stand users are entirely forgettable, especially the tarot Stand users, who tended to be rather boring, with Arabia Fats being the worst on the merit that he’s only ever seen after being knocked unconscious. 

Most of the others don’t really rise above being mediocre, with a few exceptions. The best of all the tarot Stands is, without a doubt, Hol Horse, the gunslinging cowboy Stand user whose Emperor allows him to control the trajectory of the bullets from his Stand gun… and yet, he never once is able to hit anyone other than himself. He’s the sort of bumbling idiot villain I love to see, and the fact that he also frequently mentions how he respects women and also has no qualms about kidnapping oracular children makes him even funnier. He’s definitely a standout of the first half of the series, and Stardust Crusaders as a whole. Aside from him, the Geils tend to be the better Stand users of the first half, as well as Forever and Mannish Boy if only for the weird factor.

Egypt, however, is where the show picks up the pace, with every single Egyptian Stand user being an absolute blast. Mariah, Alessi, N’Doul, Anubis, the D’Arby brothers… all of the Stand users encountered in the latter half of the show are wildly entertaining and have some truly creative fight scenes. Perhaps the most memorable of all of them was the sadistic hawk, Pet Shop, who gave Iggy an excellent battle right before the steps towards the finale. But special mention also needs to go to the utterly hilarious Oingo Boingo brothers, perhaps the greatest moron team in all of anime, or even cartoons in general. They’re so amusing they even get their own special end credits (and Hol Horse gets to join in when he teams up with Boingo.

Now, while I do love all of the Stand users in Egypt, I have to admit that the old 90s OVA did have a pretty good idea in trimming the fat and only keeping the most plot relevant Stand users while cutting out the more unneeded ones. Forever, Hol Horse, J. Geil, and Enya are the only tarot Stand users fought, and only Daniel J. D’Arby, N. Doul, and Vanilla Ice are the only Stand users in Egypt fought. While I am generally a bit iffy about cutting out a lot of the more fun stuff – the lack of Pet Shop and Oingo Boingo bros is really depressing – the general idea of trimming some of the fat to get to where they need to be sooner probably would have helped this a lot. It really feels like a slog to get through this, even though there’s plenty of fun to be had, mostly because things start to get exhausting right around the time they actually get to Egypt. By then, you’re so fatigued by watching all of the enemy Stand fights that you really just want to see them pulverize Dio. 

So frankly I do think the OVA had the right idea, I just think it cut too much of the fun stuff. A lot of the reason Egypt was such a good part of the arc is because the Stand users danced the line of being fun and being serious, with all the pervert and blowjob jokes in the Mariah episode and the juvenile and child endangerment jokes of Alessi’s episode; if there could have been a way to get to that sooner or at least change up the first half to make it more fun would have really helped. We really don’t need to see Captain Tenille or Devo or Rubber Soul or whoever, as they are mostly plot irrelevant and serve only as the obstacle of the day. 

Of course, the OVA also cut a lot of the fun and lighthearted battles, leaving mainly the most intense ones, and part of what makes Stardust Crusaders good is that it swerves into darkness after comedy. The way the OVA is set up makes the whole thing dark and bleak, which is just not the case. I do think there’s a balance between the two, but it’s definitely not achieved in the anime and it’s easy to see how anyone could become fatigued by some random Stand user of the week showing up and then never being referenced again, only serving as an obstacle to hinder a hasty arrival to Dio’s lair. I think cutting out a good chunk of the tarot Stand users would have really helped the flow of the arc.

Now, onto the characters; one of the most contentious parts is the Jojo of this journey, Jotaro Kujo. Jotaro is a stoic stone-cold badass, one who uses his Stand Star Platinum in numerous ridiculous ways to achieve victory over his opponents. Some see him as a boring, invincible hero, but I don’t find this to be the case. He’s really no more invincible than any other shonen anime protagonist, and he gets beaten down even if he always comes ahead in the end. And yes, while I will admit that Star Platinum does have a tendency of pulling new powers out of nowhere, I don’t see it as much different than, say, Yugi drawing exactly the card he needs to win the duel in Yu-Gi-Oh. It’s just part of being a shonen series, I suppose. That sort of writing off of Jotaro also ignores that most of his victories are won through his decisive wit and quick thinking rather than just Star Platinum punches; that’s usually the finisher after Jotaro pulls off a flawless plan. One of his best victories, in the poker game against D’Arby, doesn’t even feature any ORAORA-ing at all.

As for the stoicism and his unflappable demeanor, as well as his rude and arrogant attitude towards the start of the series, the whole of the show shows Jotaro growing out of this and developing real bonds with his companions, to the point that his rage at the harming of his friends drives him to fight with every ounce of his power against Dio. Jotaro is a very cool and worthy protagonist when it comes right down to it, and Matt Mercer’s voice definitely helps Jotaro ooze eve more cool than he does on his own. While even I’ll admit he has some less impressive moments, the fact of the matter is that he does develop quite a bit as a character, certainly more than the bland hero figure of someone like Jonathan.

Polnareff tends to draw a bit of ire as well, mainly due to people wondering if he deserves all of the screentime and development he gets. The short answer, from my perspective anyway, is yes. The long answer is yes, but at the same time there is a lot with him that could have been done better. He’s easily one of my favorite Jojo companions out of any of the first three parts, but I feel like after his original motivation – finding the killer of his sister – is concluded only a few episodes after he’s introduced, he almost feels superfluous and he really gets shafted by being reduced to the butt of a lot of jokes, though all that being said it’s clear that Polnareff is a man driven by honor as well as vengeance even from the start, so the fact he’d stay on to help in the fight against Dio is completely unsurprising. And while I love Polnareff, I do wish that any of the other characters got as much screentime as he did.

One of the big issues is that a lot of the other characters get pushed to the side, with the story heavily leaning towards developing Polnareff and Jotaro at the expense of every other character. This isn’t much of a problem for Joseph, as by this point any viewer is likely to know that character quite well from the previous season, but Iggy, Avdol, and Kakyoin especially get hit pretty hard with irrelevancy, especially later on. Avdol is one of the more interesting cases, as he “dies” halfway through the tarot Stand user arc, only to be revealed as having survived a few episodes before the gang reaches Egypt, where he then proceeds to do very little until he is killed for real. This is interesting because Avdol has far more of an excuse than the other two, as Araki originally was going to have his first death in the manga be permanent; it’s clear Araki had no idea what to do with the poor guy after he came back, but regardless, it’s still sad he feels all wasted.

Iggy only ever gets one major solo fight before he’s killed, though it’s one of the best in the season and it gives us some insight into who Iggy is. Still, Iggy just ends up feeling like a sacrifice to tug at your heartstrings, one that works of course but one that feels at least a little cheap and needlessly cruel, especially after all the other cruel dog deaths in the season. Kakyoin is perhaps the most depressing, as he ends up getting sidelined for almost the entirety of the Egypt arc before returning in time to go fight Dio and then getting brutally killed by the vampire. It’s even worse because he’s portrayed by Kyle Hebert, who you may know as Ryu of Street Fighter fame; his performance in Kakyoin’s final moments is so genuine, powerful, and heartfelt that you really wish Hebert got more time to shine and Kakyoin got more to do.

These issues aside, though… I really do love this arc. This is mostly because this here is the part where you can see things come together to form the series we all know and love. Up until this point, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has been fantastical but not too out there; sure there were cyborg Nazis, ancient Aztec vampires, and a man name Robert E. O. Speedwagon, but all of that seems a bit grounded, even when it got more fantastical. Even with the introduction of Stands, it’s not really anything too out there, they’re physical manifestations of the wielder’s fighting spirit.

And then you come to the porn addicted orangutan who has sapience and whose Stand takes the form of an ocean liner, and all bets are off.

Forever really marks the point where these adventures truly became bizarre, and set the precedent for all arcs to come, eve Egypt to some extent. Notice how most of the tarot Stands have rather simple abilities, even ones like Star Platinum and Hierophant Green which., while versatile in what they can do, have obvious areas they excel at. Strength, Forever’s Stand, is really a standout with how out there it is, a feat that wouldn’t be matched until the Egypt Stand users came on the scene with their wackier powersets. Nothing reaches the insanity levels of something like, say, Heavy Weather, Bohemian Rhapsody, or Dirty Deeds quite yet, but this was the transitional period between the more narrow-usaged Hamon and Stands, so it makes sense that the waters would be tested with simpler yet still creative abilities at first. Stardust Crusaders really does a good job of easing people in to a series that eventually has hand-collecting serial killers who get boners from the Mona Lisa and a United States president who wants to collect the pieces of Jesus Christ’s corpse to make America invincible, and let’s not even get into the whole situation with Gappy’s testicles. All I’m saying is that if you want to get people to accept a turtle with an interdimensional hotel room inside it… you gotta start with an orangutan.

This is also where all the musical references kick into high gear. Obviously they were there before; Dio, Wag Chung, Speedwagon, Whammu, Kars, and Eisidisi did not escape my notice, after  all. But here they became far more pronounced, with characters like Oingo & Boingo, Enya, J. Geils, Captain Tenille, Pet Shop, and perhaps most ridiculous of all, Vanilla Ice and his Stand, Cream. Vanilla Ice actually, ahem, stands out as being the first example of what would become the standard naming convention for all Stands to follow, that is to say, named after a song or band. Ironically, this makes him stand out in the very arc he appears in.

While in general the Stands were a bit less wacky than later Stands would be, there was a lot of creativity in the battles for what limited powersets they had. J. Geils and Hanged Man, Forever and Strength, Mannish Boy and Death 13, and Midler and High Priestess stand out among the tarot Stand users, while just about every single one of the Stand users with Stands named after Egyptian gods stand out as creative and exciting battles. Daniel D’Arby’s battle in particular is one of the best in the entire arc, as there is not a punch thrown and instead the entire thing boils down to an intense poker match. And, of course, I’d be remiss to not mention the multi-episode final duel against Dio and his Stand, The World, which is so utterly epic and filled with badass moments (as well as Matt Mercer getting to say “It’s high noon”) that it’s impossible not to love it.

Stardust Crusaders is definitely an arc with some serious flaws. It’s incredibly long, its format is a bit unrefined, it has a lot of filler characters, it doesn’t evenly distribute screentime, and a lot of it reeks of growing pains and early installment lack of direction. Considering the point in the series the anime is based on, it was kind of destined to be this way. And yet, despite the flaws, it’s still an incredibly fun, exciting, and funny adventure. Even if underutilized or overexposed, all of the main cast is enjoyable and likable; even if there are far too many to the point of exhaustion, most of the enemy Stand users are fun; and even if the arc drags on to the point where it gets frustrating and tedious, things always eventually swoop around and the show becomes as absorbing as it ever was.

While Stardust Crusaders is definitely not the best arc of the franchise, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and it’s easy to see why this part in particular is so popular and influential. A 2010s anime based on an 80s manga series has no right to feel so fresh and exciting, and yet here we are. It likely manages to work so well despite its shortcomings because, frankly, most other series like this have kind of vanished in this day and age, which helps the show stand out more despite the manga it’s based on helping define its genre back in the day. It’s basically a case of it being the right thing at the right time. Sure it’s not perfect, but it doesn’t need to be, so long as it can suck in and inspire new generations of fans the way the original manga did. It’s a great watch, though honestly, there are quite a few episodes you could skip over if you want to have a faster, cleaner viewing experience, namely most of the tarot Stands.

Whatever the case may be, I think all of us can agree on one thing:

This arc is WAY better than Phantom Blood.

[allexche]

s7

I actually wrote a whole superlong essay about characters’ weird behaviour after S7 and it was just to rant, I can’t hold it(( And I miss Keith tbh. Everything is just my personal opinion and I don’t try to convince anyone, etc etc

There are many things I didn’t like in S7, and the plot holes (as usual) or putting too much action and new characters not having actual screentime to introduce them are one of them. And to be honest I’d be glad to say that VLD is about the plot, the story is important but can’t say it genuinely bc the plot didn’t surprise me in general but made me confused with the ways it was executed, like... basic why what & how are still there lol

But the thing which I’m frustrated the most with is the characters who act as if they weren’t themselves. We were given enough in previous first seasons to get an idea about their behavior and potential actions and this is why I feel deceived. 

Keith made me confused by his sudden step back to S1-2 and S3 when he was that edgy and kind of rude to the others. Here we’re supposed to see 2 y older than the other paladins Keith who was taught by his Mom to become a good leader. And then we see that he actually makes a very sarcastic line towards Allura about her dead father who she’s very proud of and misses as hell. And who’s known as a great warrior btw. I mean, look, it’s Keith and he fought with James back at the Garrison for a bad bully joke related to his passed parents. No way Keith actually thought Alfor was bad. So, do I have to take it like he just knew it would hurt her and did it just because he was as stressed as the others, not that supposedly mature? No way he wanted to hurt her. So, they can tell us it was because of becoming mad in the outer space but sorry. He lost his composure and just made it up at that moment? Is he really that bad in nature? We were shown him being nice, gentle and caring inside and so grown up. What was that? And I really hope that Lance taking Allura’s side wasn’t meant to be romantically coded, otherwise, the idea of defending a person only being romantically interested in them makes me sick.

Next. Hunk & Lance being close friends? I guess I remember that somewhere in S2 where I could actually see and feel it. Last season I watched Hunk making fun of Lance and getting distanced at the moment he needed some friends support. This season I see that Lance, this selfless and caring sweet boy who knows pretty well how bad it feels to be separated from his family doesn’t even flinch and never shows any sign of just feeling some sympathy to his supposedly close friend. What? And it’s suddenly Keith who finds his kind words and supports Hunk helping him. Wow.

Pidge, oh my. I have a lot of questions about her behaving like this last season. Shiro felt pretty bad and sick in front of her eyes and the only thing she did was creating a programme to prevent potential damage from him because “she had some feeling it could happen”. Shiro, her brother and Dad’s close friend, a person who was kind to her and moreover, “legend” as she said. Yes, it was Kuron but she had no idea. And this season she was like “hey Dad, is Matt with you?” Because we were told that we spent 3 years outside of this reality and didn’t find him (or tried?) in the coalition, maybe he just managed it himself lol. Without and lions or other things. Yes, thanks, she even recalled of having her brother who she was so desperately searching for over the seasons. Nice.

Allura! She’s so kind, always ready to sacrifice herself (Balmera arc, saving Shiro in S2, ready to die in Oriende), and so serious most of the time, obviously not having a habit to crush on every handsome man she meets. And trying to be a better friend (admitting being wrong abt Keith etc), she actually was sad learning abt Lance’s feeling. And chose Lotor with this knowledge. And also just crying on Lance’s shoulder after being heartbroken. It’s kind of cruel towards him and yet she’d done it herself, he wasn’t the first who initiated this hug. And yes! She’s over Lotor so fast. There were 3 years in the Universe which paladins hadn’t actually lived, for her it was not that long ago. Woah. It’s so Allura.

Shiro, well. We were told he loved Adam back but wasn’t capable of the romantic relationship (yet Adam still 100% ready to be by his side until the very last end. Okay, the fact he had no any memory about him is really clear that the writers made up Adam rather late, but this time we see that he didn’t think of him coming back and the only moment he expresses his emotions about his death takes 1-2 seconds. And it’s just like I’m sorry, okay I have a lot of errands for today, I gotta go. Really? No single thought about him in the battle with Sendak who actually killed Adam. Like, he didn’t really care and according to the info we were given from the crew Adam was actually a good person and tried to support his bf as he could. So, this indifferent Shiro is suddenly portrayed as not that saint and good as we were shown all the time and it makes me uncomfortable too. Well, Shiro was attacked as usual and didn’t win, and was rescued by Keith again (can’t recall what time it was).

Needless to say that this 3 years thing and shoving Adam to the show (with such a HYPE) just for killing him as fast as it was possible were confusing. And yes, I can’t recall anyone who hadn’t snapped or being rude with Lance by this moment. And he was still the one who tried to protect Pidge (called hideous by her the episode before) despite the handcuffs and being weaker than galran generals. TV show called him DUMB tons of times, Shiro mocked him, Krolia snapped at him, Allura yelled, and even his sister called him an idiot casually (which would be okay between some siblings but summing up all these things it was the last straw for me). Accidentally Sam Holt’s well written arc and Romelle’s cuteness, as well as two Keith & Lance’s really good interactions didn’t cover it for me ((

P.S. animation is stunning and amazing! and the characters I was shown in S1-3 are so so dear to me <3

[shiroallura]

I wanted to rant a bit cause I was put off by this interview with LM and JDS (gosh when I'm not) and in regards to an allur@nce question, Lauren says "she’s starting to look and realize that there are good people around her" and dude, I wasn't never on board with the rebound thing in the fandom but moving from Lo//tor to Lan//ce just cause "she realized he was good" does sound like a rebound. And it makes me... sad (1/3)

In the current canon, I can’t see a rewarding romantic relationship between these two. And we never saw a turning point for Allura’s feelings towards Lan//ce (not even before Lo//tor shows up, which is what Lauren wants us to assume), it feels so odd that it seems almost intentional. I just can’t believe they wasted sm animation showing us their one-sided relationship to just go and make Allura magically fall for him out of nowhere, it’s just too ooc. (2/3)

Even if they don’t end up together, even if this thing they’re doing is just to develop A and L and give them some sort of lesson, they’re just making it worse, if they had deepen their friendship on s3, s6, heck even on s7, the message would have been so much powerful. (3/3)

I’ve always found Allur@nce’s credibility as a romantic relationship to be weak, quite simply and perhaps peculiarly enough, because Voltron so often highlighted its growth. In seasons one and two, they’re one of the only relationships to be left largely stagnant. Lance flirts, Allura’s annoyed. For 26 episodes. As sloppily as Keith and Allura’s arc in the back end of s2 was developed, at least they got an arc that ultimately ended on good terms. Allura was shown attempting to bond with Pidge in 1x04 and whenever they did speak to each other, it was fine. 

And I’ve written pages of meta on the subtle development of Shiro and Allura’s arc in the first two seasons, but even stripping all that subtlety away: their interactions are always positive, and whenever they’re not, the audience is supposed to sit up and take notice. I still remember watching 1x10 and seeing them disagree for the first time, and being so struck by that, because well… that’s just not what they do. 

Meanwhile, whenever Lance disagrees with Allura (continual flirting even when she’s not interested, being needed to be convinced the Red Lion is calling for him, annoying her when she’s trying to prepare for a conference in 5x01, being jealous about Lotor, shutting down Oriande, being even more jealous about Lotor in s6, blaming ‘Shiro’ in 6x06 when she doesn’t; I’m sure s7 has more, but as you can see, it’s a lot) it’s never really addressed. He either changes his mind or someone else steps in to support her, and that’s about it. It’s also worth telling that a lot of the things he disagrees with her, such as Oriande, don’t actually involve him, or things that are solely her choice (ie. her continual lack of romantic interest in him, pre-s7). 

So when I say “Allur@nce’s weaknesses is how its highlighted,” what do I mean by that? The first is that Lance’s flirting with her even when she was clearly annoyed was always given screentime, and that’s the major mark that causes me to really dislike them as a romantic ship. Same thing goes for Lance’s, quite frankly, possessive jealousy in s4 and s5. If it had only been made known to the audience that he liked her, and then left it at that, the ship dynamic would be vastly different. Because from the start, he would have had to have contented himself first and foremost with being her friend, genuinely, and sincerely. That’s not the dynamic we have with the repeated emphasis we got on him liking her, even when she repeatedly didn’t want him to.

The only season I possibly liked Allur@nce was s3 and s4. Both were seasons where their relationship was more lowkey, they talked to each other and Lance supported her, and besides a silent jealous look at Matt, Lance didn’t say anything to dissaude him. It was just understood that they were growing closer. There was no fuss.

And then season five came. Not only did that season for me prove that Lance was still too immature to not let his emotions get in the way, nor did he know how to support her professionally, but it did two other major things as well: first, it highlighted his completely unwarranted jealousy and thereby immaturity (seriously, wanting Lotor to ‘die’ just because he’s speaking of an alliance with Allura?) because his behaviour would have been unacceptable even if he and Allura had been a couple, and even worse because they weren’t and he had no claim on her. The second was their talk in 5x03. “Speaking with you has actually made me feel better.” Allura is genuinely surprised, as the people she confides it probably went, pre or post s3, Coran, then Shiro, and then (more of a personal headcanon, but they do mention Hunk teaching her earthling road trip games, and they’ve always got on rather well) Hunk. This conversation, this one line, tells us that this is largely the first time she’s confided in Lance about something.

And then, beyond this scene in 5x03, we don’t see any real scenes between them for the rest of the season. Lance attempts and pushes to shut down her desire to go to Oriande. Then, s6 shows us that she’s been spending the majority of her time with Lotor. If 5x03 is supposedly the first time they’re actually confiding in each other as friends, five seasons into eight in total (especially when Lance is the only team member she has prominent development with, unlike Keith who left willingly, or Shiro who was forced to despite his will) and then we see she spends the next months or so with someone else… and then s7 gives no moment when her feelings apparently change?

It’s bad development. It’s a bad timeline. And quite frankly, they have a weak relationship. Lance sacrifices his safety for her, but he would have done it for everyone, and then even after that would have been the perfect moment for Allura’s feelings to change, we see her react disheartened and uncomfortable when she hears of his feelings from the mice the very next episode. Furthermore, Lance is very supportive of her, but Allura doesn’t really return it the same way. Yes, she compliments him, but so does everyone else (namely Shiro and Keith) and not in any way that cannot be defined as platonic.

The main issue with Lance and Allura is that their relationship is not unique with each other. They never choose each other over everything, or anyone, else (the way Shiro and Allura do in 1x10/1x11 and 2x03, respectively, or either Allura or Lance in the Game Show ep). Lance willing to risk his life for Allura, and her reviving/saving, is something that Shiro did five seasons earlier, with Allura then reviving him the exact same way Haggar revived her husband.

Everything with Lotor proves that when push comes to shove, Allura doesn’t trust Lance’s judgement. The one time she really tries to cheer him up in s3, or in 5x03, the team / Shiro’s lack of similar thinking over powers her positive comment, which sends the message, subconsciously, that he values other people’s opinions over hers.

And nothing the show can do will change that in s1, Lance saw her as a prize that the hero gets. 

And we still haven’t fully seen him let go of the ‘hero’ fantasy he holds himself to, as something he has to achieve, so it’s regressive to his character growth. So is staying in the Red Lion, but that’s a post for another day.

As for Allura, with Lance she’d get a partner who, quite frankly, can’t match her. He’d enjoy the social life, parades and parties of a king, but he wouldn’t have the patience / knowledge for dealing with all the political things coming along with it. He also wouldn’t want to leave his family again. Allura would get frustrated with him easily in competitive or high pressure circumstances, when she needs him the most. She’d also grow tired of him being goofy to try and distract her / get her mind off things. I have an upcoming meta that talks about this more in depth, I believe, but Allura doesn’t need a partner who says, “Hey, take a break,” as their default. She needs a partner who says, “What can I do to help,” who will take half the weight on their shoulders. And it goes back to that weakness of Allur@nce, that they don’t have a unique relationship to each other, especially on Allura’s side, because look at these questions, hard and honest: what defining decisions has Allura made to support him? What has she sacrificed for him? When has she chosen him over everyone, or everything, else?

Because I can think of five damn things for each question in regards to how Allura treats Shiro, and no other character even comes close.

So I guess, in summary: Lance is a teenager who thinks he knows what he wants, and as he grows up, he needs to realize how to be content with what he has. But if he’s with Allura, that message and lesson are ultimately discarded, and it diminishes her character to an unhappy partnership with a boy who someone else could easily fall in love with, but not her.