#may or may not be controversial but i genuinely don't understand the hate characters get in mk

[sirfrogsworth]

These folks watched a whole ass movie not realizing the main character was transgender and it was a 2 second kiss between men that made them lose their ever-loving minds.

It's amazing to me that if it weren't for those 2 seconds, many of these folks would have given this movie a 4 or 5 star review. But two seconds of the most vanilla, non-sexy, yet genuine and loving kiss somehow ruined every moment of enjoyment the previous 90 minutes brought them.

Imagine if they realized the trans allegory. I wish I had a way to tell them. I wish I had a way to make them realize they related to a trans character. That they rooted for them. That they accidentally empathized with a trans story.

This was a beautiful movie. In every sense. I really hope between this and Spider-Verse, we can have a moratorium on every 3D animated movie using this style of character design.

It's time to let go of the rubber toy look.

I love Toy Story, but its success kind of doomed 3D animation to never take any risks. I thought maybe it was just a limitation of the medium, and perhaps it was for a time... but after seeing Love Death + Robots and Arcane...

I realized they can make 3D animation look however the hell they want now.

The rubber people were just risk avoidance.

"That's what people are used to and so we're sticking with it."

But the real beauty of Nimona was the story. I won't spoil it but the plot is pretty much, "If you get to know a trans person, you probably won't hate them anymore."

Not knowing any trans people is one of the biggest factors in anti-trans bigotry. And so this movie uses allegory to let an audience get to know a trans person. And you get to experience someone slowly start to understand what it is to be trans from an outside perspective.

It's sad that will probably be lost on those folks above because all they will remember is the kiss. Seriously, it was such a harmless, mundane, blink-and-you-miss-it kiss. But I'm hoping that others will take the lesson of this movie to heart. That you should get to know people before you judge them.

Part of me does wish we could tell trans stories without allegory. That we could just have overt trans characters. But I think this is the best representation possible right now.

It's crazy that Supergirl was one of the bravest shows as far as modern trans representation. It wasn't an edgy HBO drama trying to push boundaries. It was a family-friendly superhero show and they were just like, "Here is a transgender woman with superpowers and it's fine." And I loved that it was part of the character but it wasn't all the character was. Though I think they just missed the manufactured "moral panic" window where that choice would have been extremely controversial causing boycotts of Warner Bros. and whatnot.

My only complaint about Nimona was a small penis joke. It went by very quickly and many may even miss it. But I was surprised to see it in this movie in particular. Especially since those jokes can have collateral damage toward trans folks. With all of the positive messages, wasting a joke on body shaming was a tad disappointing. I mean, it was a fairly lighthearted "Is it cold in here?" joke. I don't want to make it sound worse than it was. But it still registered on my Richter scale of things that bother me.

Anyway, I wholeheartedly give Nimona a 5 out of 5. It helped me understand my friends on a deeper level and it was warm and funny and entertaining. There was a scene at the end that was so beautiful and heart-wrenching and I was crying my eyes out. The animation and the symbolism and the acting were just so perfect.

It's a shame Disney tried to kill this movie. But I am so glad it was allowed to exist despite that.

[3hks]

SEVEN Interesting Concepts for Villains

Antagonists are fascinating to write about because there are so many forms they can take on! Their only role is to get in the way of the protagonist, which means you have a lot of freedom when it comes to their character! So with that being said, let's look at some interesting and specific concepts for villains/antagonists!

The Doomed-By-Storyline Case: This is an instance where the antagonist and protagonist don't actually wish to fight but are doomed to do it regardless. They may not hate each other, but given their environment and roles, there's no other choice. (A good example is Gojo and Geto from Jujutsu Kaisen!) --

The Half-Hearted One: This is a role where the character didn't actually choose to be a villain, but was forced into it. Therefore, they aren't passionate about being the "bad guy" yet have no option to back out. --

The "We never even met" Trope: This is incredibly rare, but the "We never even met" (or so I call it) antagonists are those who don't conflict directly with the protagonist. You can see this in HunterxHunter, where the protagonist (Gon) and the antagonist (Meruem) didn't actually meet despite how hard they struggled against one another. --

The Absolutely Evil One: This may be controversial, but I also don't see a lot of villains nowadays that are genuinely evil. Ones that aren't justified at all and want to cause pain/destruction simply because why not? Thus, these characters can come off as truly terrifying. --

The Part-Protagonist Villain: The Part-Protagonist Villain is the idea that the protagonist and antagonist aren't actually that different. Maybe they have some matching goals or traits, which can turn this conflict into, in a way, man v.s self. The main character is forced into fighting someone like themselves. --

The Mastermind: This character is the one pulling the strings behind the show with another person, usually also a villain, covering their name! They normally get revealed to be the antagonist much later and make a good plot twist! --

The "I Hate You" Character: This is an antagonist that seeks out SPECIFICALLY to shut the protagonist down. There's no other goal. Usually, the two will have an extensive past with each other so the readers can understand what happened and why. Interestingly, if you do this right, there can be supporters for both sides!

If you made it all the way here, amazing! What do you think of these ideas? Antagonists are quite interesting, don't you think?

Happy writing~

3hks :)

[nyerus]

Hi! I would love to hear your thoughts about classism in TGCF, but specifically regarding XL. It surprised me to see people hating on XL for not knowing or doing better during his teenage years of luxury as the crown prince and making XL a complete villain because he didn't take down classism and restructure society despite still being a kid himself. It struck me as odd that the fandom is well aware of his 800 years in poverty but also not really addressing the fact that XL, too, is a victim of classism albeit a little different from someone like MQ.

Hi there! So sorry it's taken me this long to get to this ask, I've just been in sort of a funk for a few days haha.

But yeah, this is definitely a topic that comes up from time to time, with lots of discussion about. It surprises me that despite that, there are still people (maybe just newer fans? idk) who still hate on Xie Lian for his naive views as a 17yo. Especially since, despite being a naive 17yo, he still really wanted to help people less fortunate than himself. He didn't quite understand how to do this in the most effective ways (because he was a teenager), so it came off as somewhat patronizing as he was a person in a position of power compared to everyone else. Yet his desire to help people was genuine, and he didn't personally think of "common folk" as being any lesser than "royalty" -- even though in this case, there kind of literally was a difference. (E.g. when Lang Ying goes from being a commoner to a king, he gets a "kingly aura" that protects him!) So it's honestly kind of incredible that Xie Lian is willing to say things like "I think people are equal, even gods and humans, and if the Heavens disagree with me, then it's the Heavens that are wrong" with his entire heart.

I imagine a large part of the hate Xie Lian gets from certain fans is jealousy or resentment, due to the fact that Xie Lian was "born privileged." But on it's own, "privilege" is not "the great enemy" -- it's what said privilege means in the context of society, and what someone does/doesn't do with it that merits judgement. Xie Lian doesn't fully understand the privilege he had until he loses it (again: because he was 17!), but he still understood it enough to use it to protect and help people. That's more than many other characters can say. Him starting out as a prince doesn't automatically disqualify him from class struggles or the horrors of poverty. It's nonsensical to think so, when this is a character who literally spent almost 800 years busking for scraps, while sleeping in dirt outside and eating garbage….

On the flip side, as you mentioned Mu Qing -- yes, he was a victim of classism. But he's a very strange figure to use as the poster boy for that, though he often is by people who are critical of Xie Lian. This may be a controversial take, despite it being something I think that makes the character of Mu Qing really interesting: but he's a very "typical" guy within the concept of classism. He's someone who started off with a bad lot, but then ended up ascending to the highest point you pretty much can in that world/society. Which is great! He did that through hard work, and it paid off! But now, since he got his "happy ending," that's kind of it for him. He doesn't do anything to materially improve the lives of those less fortunate, especially those he has no personal connection with. This doesn't make him a bad person -- it's not really his job to that, even as a god. He's a martial god, so he's there to subdue threats and all that. Yet you can clearly see, that's exactly the type of person society values because such "rags to riches" stories give legitimacy to the whole system, and because they don't rock the boat once they're on top.

So then it's odd to be angry at Xie Lian but not Mu Qing (or others) for the lack of some "grand revolution" that some readers seem to want.

Ironically, Xie Lian used what power he had to try and help people -- and he was worse off for it. If he had done nothing, he would have been able to live a happy and carefree life. He would have lived and died as a rich prince/king with no troubles. Like, that's the point! The societies we live in punish those who want to broadly help others or make meaningful change, while rewarding those who quietly play the game for themselves -- because it helps keep the wheels turning. It doesn't matter at "what end" of the spectrum you start out on, the rules apply the same way. If you go against the establishment, there's a price to be paid.

Throughout Xie Lian's long journey, he learns this lesson the hard way. And the fact that in order to change it, he would somehow have to change the hearts and minds of pretty much everyone -- which is an impossible ask. How is he even supposed to that, or restructure society as a whole, without vast amounts of collateral damage? In the end, Xie Lian discovers that he was not wrong in his desire to help people, even if he cannot help everyone. He can still help people he meets in whatever ways he can, and that is still important. To show kindness, mercy, and empathy towards your fellow man is worth it. Helping your neighbors or complete strangers you meet once and then never again -- all that is still worth it.

I wish I had the time to sit down and really talk about this in a more organized way, but these disjointed thoughts are all I can manage at the moment! I hope it was still valuable to you in some way, and thank you for sending in the ask!

(Also, I recently reblogged a post that talked about something similar if you wanna check it out, Anon. It's right under the manhua highlights I think!)

[mf-headcannontap]

DREAMWORKS TROLLS: SUPER UNPOPULAR AND CONTROVERSIAL OPINION!!!

DreamWorks Trolls Opinion #1:

Branch's dynamic with Cloud Guy could have been great, if not for how they severely mishandled it for the sake of making Branch the punchline in the show.

Now hear me out!

Cloud Guy is an absolute menace to Branch who loves to prank and humiliate him, but in the end somehow makes Branch overcome something. This is putting a very toxic relationship on screen and making it seem like it's fine when it 100% is not. Now, I've never been a fan of Cloud Guy, but I do know the turning point of where Cloud Guy went from being a character that mildly annoyed me to a character I genuinely hate, and that was Apple Of My Ire. To understand this, let me give you a rundown of my feelings every time Cloud Guy is in an episode.

Laugh Out Cloud: This wasn't too terrible, seeing as how Branch was sort of intense in that episode, but that whole flood thing was really unnecessary.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Hugs: This was just funny. Only thing was Keith in the end. I love Keith, but Branch worked really hard, and Cloud Guy may have been the most annoying wingman ever, but he still got the job done. Although, he really needs to not break into Branch's house and respect his personal space.

Rainbowmageddon: This was just Cloud Guy unnecessarily humiliating and undermining Branch, but honestly I'm more upset with the Trolls because THEY'RE the ones the rainbow is affecting the most, and they're the ones who aren't taking anything seriously. Also, they were fine with just leaving Branch up there? Laugh Out Cloud was fine because I do think Branch was way too uptight about the drought, but here he was rightfully worried about the rainbow, and Cloud Guy and the gang were just goofing off. What's worst was the whole deathbed confession that proved unnecessary. In Laugh Out Cloud, it wasn't exactly a deathbed confession (and it would have been way better if Cloud Guy wasn't faking being scared) and Branch really didn't suffer all that much over it. But here, that was just mean. But honestly, it was the Trolls (Snack Pack in particular) that were the most frustrating.

Two's A Cloud: Now, this episode had potential. It was SUPREMELY irritating when Cloud Guy just moved in. It was also equally horrible when he was being an inconsiderate roommate, purposeful or not IDK but IDC. But them working together to get Cloud Guy's parents to leave was great. And even if Cloud Guy decided to ultimately not move in the bunker, it was still a pretty sweet episode. The Trolls just randomly bursting in his home, though, was awful.

Apple Of My Ire: This episode had me just screaming, and not in the good way. I don't know what in the world Poppy was thinking in finding someone new for Cloud Guy to harass, when she should’ve talked to him about reevaluating and changing their dynamic into something better. You know, something more healthy, or borderline brotherly. Because Branch is so little brother coded, and Cloud Guy honestly seems like a guy who would definitely mess with his siblings out of love. Not to mention, the last time they interacted was to team up to fend off Cloud Guy's parents. That's basically a brotherhood right there! But no. This episode ruined it. Because Branch was emotionally growing, and Cloud Guy pulled him right back to his old ways. And Poppy did NOTHING!!! What's worse is that the other Trolls were also in on this! Like why??? Do Trolls not understand harassment? They have a holiday dedicated to pranking one another, but constantly being bombarded by pranks seems like that would be terrible. Like, in Prank Day, POPPY was getting fed up with the pranks. And sure, she may have planned the prank she pulled on Branch, but she really wasn't taking being pranked constantly well, so why would she be okay subjecting anyone else to that treatment on a day that isn't a day dedicated to pranks? Better yet, if she cared so much about finding Cloud Guy a troll he could annoy, why didn't she volunteer herself? There have been multiple instances where Poppy has proven to be just as temperamental and easy to annoy as Branch, so why couldn't she be that Troll? She already had some practice when she was trying to help DJ with wrangling CJ's wooferbug. But what really took the cake was when Cloud Guy just openly admitted to planting a tracker INSIDE Branch, and no one did anything. Also, was that bit really necessary? When has Cloud Guy ever had to use the tracker? Rainbowmageddon aside, he always first interacts with Branch near or in his bunker. This episode turned their dynamic from frienemies-that-can-be-potential-brothers who annoy each other, to outright bully-victim where the victim gets shamed constantly for defending themselves. This episode made me hate Cloud Guy, and gave me such an ick, I can't even watch any of the previous episodes with Cloud Guy in them without feeling rage.

I have not seen Trollstopia. I do not have access to it. But I have seen people discuss the show online. More specifically, they discuss the episode Cloud Control. And what they discuss... I thought Apple Of My Ire was bad, this episode was infinitely worse, and I haven't even seen it yet.

The takeaway here is Branch's and Cloud Guy's dynamic had so much potential, but then Apple Of My Ire came along and every episode with Cloud Guy after that just cemented Cloud Guy as an antagonistic bully who gets away with it due to victim blaming and finding ways to make it seem that he was "helping" his victims all along, as well as a large dose of full on guilt tripping.

It all comes down to DreamWorks and their love of making Branch the punchline to everything. Even his trauma isn't taken seriously, as evidenced by Trolls: Band Together. Branch deserves better. Cloud Guy's character arc was brutally murdered so I guess he deserves better, too. Poppy and the Trolls need more character development and a crash course in healthy character dynamics. And DreamWorks needs to stop making Branch needlessly suffer for the sake of a joke.

[concreteparasite]

WAIT, IM SORRY IF THIS IS RUDE BTW, I'M JUST A BIT CONFUSED

I thought kin meant that you relate to the person or character or something????? Does it mean something deeper???

Not rude at all 💕!

To my understanding, most-ish people use kin as a 'he's just like me fr!' In a light-hearted and joking way. I don't care if people do that. I find it a little silly and fun too 🙂. Relating to traits of my characters is fine too.

I have a problem with the term "kin" or "kinning" in the sense of relating to the character so much that someone may feel that they embody them or ARE them in some form or were them in a past life ...ect.

I genuinely feel that putting this level of 'humanity' or value on a fictional character is very unhealthy (mentally) and should not be done under any circumstances. People may say it's harmless escapism, but I do not agree.

On a side note, kind of related, I also hate it when the owner of a character gets in controversy and people say shit like "We need to take this character away from (x) creator!" Or " (X) creator doesn't own (Y) character anymore! We are adopting him" this kinda talk cringes me out of my fucking mind. A character is a vehicle for plot or feeling or art BY the creator, it is a peice of them. You can't just 'yoink' it away when you dislike the creator wtf 💀

At the end of the day, I just kinda dislike the internet's consumption and defense of 'characters' at the expense of real living people. I hope that helps make a bit more sense.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

I am LIVING for the Chris reblogs. He truly is one of my favorite whumpees of all time. You have mastered the art of a subtle “perfect victim” with him. I may be dead wrong but realistically, what has he done that was even controversial through his whole storyline, you know what I mean? Like just as a few examples of your wonderfully written Not Perfect victims and (this isn’t to victim blame or shame at all,) Jameson did sign up for WRU, his and Kauri’s recoveries were FAR from smooth or perfect, and don’t even get me started on Antoni, yikes! Even Nat, who is doing the lords work now, has a shady past! But Chris genuinely perfect. Even the things he thought were his fault weren’t. And like I said it’s not his main character trait is being THE perfect victim, it’s one of those things that was nicely left not outright said, and for the readers to use critically thinking and I LOVE IT. I think that’s a really difficult feat to pull off and you did a fantastic job.

Also like I said I may be dead wrong but I genuinely can’t think of one true misdemeanor committed by Chris.

Having said all of that I also love all of the character flaws you bestow upon the rest of the gang! Either them being fucked up before, or the aftermath of all of the traumatic experiences leaving them fucked up and with significantly poorer judgements that lead to them getting in situations they maybe would not have if it wasn’t for having a new and definitely not improved way of thinking! Okay, yap over. Keep up the great work!!

So this is kind of an interesting thing for me, because I really do try as much as I can to steer away from that "perfect victim" archetype, but Chris kind of fell into it despite how hard I tried not to have him do that.

His basic disposition was always going to be a sweet kid who had been absolutely tortured and who had nonetheless come out of it with a resilience that would allow him to start rebuilding from that shattered foundation.

Unfortunately, it does mean that he didn't end up with a lot of the more kind of exciting to write and interesting faults and imperfections and occasionally outright malevolence that I have in other characters who are not bad guys, they're just people who had to do bad things to survive horrifying situations.

But of course, the biggest impact there as far as Chris's story is that he never saved himself. He didn't do anything against his own moral code to escape. He was saved by a woman who realized what she was looking at, driven several hours in the middle of the night by a man he'd never met before, and dropped on the doorstep of a whole new group of strangers he had no idea whether or not he could trust.

So Chris does hit that damsel in distress archetype in a way that I don't normally like to go for in main characters. But he really insisted on it, and I think there's this thing about archetypes where we see them so often that we get kind of tired of them, but one of the reasons we do see them so often is because they resonate. And there really are people like that in the world, not everybody of course.. probably not even most people put in the same situation would react the way that he reacted to things. But people do.

And what Chris did to survive was pull back inside of himself so thoroughly that when he started to come out of his shell, all the basic goodness in him was more or less intact and untouched. They could destroy so much of him, but they could never make him anything less than inherently a good kid in a bad situation.

If you were to ask chris, he would probably tell you that the biggest character flaw in him is cowardice, because even as an adult he doesn't really fully understand why he has the freeze and fawn, and hates himself a little for never having been able to fight in any real way. He would call himself a coward, not just for not fighting back but also for the times he's been too afraid, like when he walked away from Rafael the first time they met. That he was able to screw up the courage in the museum to talk to him then was an enormous feat of bravery for Chris. He was absolutely wrecked for days afterward. It took everything he had in him to do it.

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Warren Kepler from Wolf 359 vs Karma Ashcroft from Faking It

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. please be normal in the notes, i will not hesitate to block if you harass people)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Warren Kepler:

LOVE: - "Absolutely NO ONE can be normal about this guy. Some people despise him. Some people want to fuck him. Some people want to study him like a bug under a microscope. Anyone who listens to the podcast has some sort of very strong opinion on Warren Kepler" BOTH: - "i despise this man. he is an incredibly well-written and fascinating character. i want to grind him into dust. i want to study him like a bug. the idea of him makes me sick. he Is middle management. my blood pressure spikes when i hear his voice. he's a genuinely fascinating study in girlbossing too close to the sun except hes not a girlboss hes a girlcrony. i want to beat him over the head with his stupid fucking whiskey. hes like if a landlord was in paramilitary and was obsessed with secrets. he was in a funk band. he is genuinely genuinely so layered and developed and even dare i say tragic in a sexless unpleasant dessicated way. people in the w359 fandom seem to either use him as ship fuel and love him or despise him. but i understand. i understand hes a workaholic pitiable power-hungry attack dog freak whose identity and very humanity has been consumed by his job and his role and his need for control over other people and thats so sad because he thinks it means he can save himself. he thinks it means that he means something. and it doesnt so lmao get fucked idiot"

Karma Ashcroft:

LOVE: - "Karma did nothing wrong but the fandom hated her because she put their precious Amy in the “friend zone.” Karma was the best and i love her."

[p-r-e-s-t-o]

Long ass rant bc i needed to spill into the void, dont mind me.

My otome game hottake if I've ever had one is that it should be kept as is honestly. Can't explain the happy-giddiness I felt when I downloaded some admittedly poorly done otome games on my phone in like 2013 and realizing they're intended for girls like me instead of boys for once. I've always thought of the genre as a girlie safe-Heaven and honestly believe part of girlhood is playing some silly small otome games and trying not to smile at ur screen. Obey Me changed it up a bit although I personally don't see it as an otome game, ik others who do, by making the Main Character Gender neutral and that was chill, cool cool cool, innovative. Recently with the release of a big game like Love and Deepspace for instance I've noticed a demand to make it have a Male Main character for example because guys wanted to play too and it kinda iffed me personally because women/girls/fem identifying people are the target audience for Otome games, it legit means Maiden Game. I don't know specific identifiers for them since I don't play them, I do know BL games exist, they're out there, and I see no reason for them to breach the otome genre. I mean, I've never personally felt entitled to be included in a genre of content not intended for me at all even if what it presented appealed to me, like i may see some character and think "Wow he is hot" and then find out he's from a BL game, my first thought wouldn't be "Yo can you make a female main character, even though you honestly dont have to because you are a game/category intended for MLM and not Het or Bi women/fems? Thanks, i will wait on that". It's probably nonsense or me being young and immature but I feel irritated at the suggestion of sharing a space that was super unavailable to me when I was a kid and even now with men or male identifying people when so much of content has and does aim at them, but nooo the girlie little romance games have to suddenly accommodate men too because they feel entitled to it. Why can't something just be for girls? I don't get it. I feel like men get to be willy nilly in their spaces and games not forced to accommodate nearly as often as anything meant for girls, whenever something is intended for a female audience, it doesn't get to just be for a female audience, that really annoys me. I keep seeing "But obey me" as an argument for inclusivity bur frankly as an user on TT put it, having such options is a privilege, not a must. Otome games don't have to present themselves to everyone unless they choose to give players the privilege of it, because they've had an intended audience from the start who consume it frequently. That and Obey me isn't an otome game in mine and others opinions, it's more akin to Twisted wonderland, a rhythm game of sorts, especially nightbringer. Yeah, rant over, I just needed to speak into the void. May be controversial, but I genuinely don't hate anyone, I just feel irked at the expectation that me and others have to always make room for more because we aren't enough of a player base somehow. I've seen guys on tik tok say stuff like "Can't men just be attracted to men?" I understand you can't help who you're attracted to, I'm Bi personally, but just because you're attracted to some character doesn't mean an entire standalone genre has to change because you demand it imo, I don't get the sense of entitlement that comes with making that demand, and saying stuff like "Male MC?/No male mc?:(/ why isn't there a male mc?" is pretty mind boggling like do you know which genre this is rn pook. Do you know what otome means. Sigh but like, why can't something just be for the ladies? Genuine question smh

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Alright it's time to out myself in front of the entire HTTYD tumblr fandom. I like this movie. A lot. Ok? Like I think its really fucking great and I will not deny that. Is it as good as the first two entries in this franchise? No, but it's still damn solid in its own right. So let's get into it.

We pick up a year after the last movie, with the arrival of another new threat to Berk, the "Night Fury killer" Grimmel the Grisley. To protect his people and their dragons, Hiccup moves the entire tribe to a new island while in search for the Hidden World, an unreachable utopia for all dragonkind. Meanwhile, Toothless is allured by the arrival of a new, mysterious female dragon, the Light Fury, which complicates matters even further as Hiccup begins to worry that he and Toothless are growing apart.

So yeah still a pretty good plot, though not as solidly cohesive as the first two. Still, I enjoy the ride here a lot; we still get a lot of great scenes of the riders fighting their foes, lots of great flying scenes (especially that one between Toothless and the Light Fury, man that scene is just gorgeous), lots of action and strangely enough, a bit more of a focus on humor here than usual? I mean it's ok, but a little strange given this is the final entry in the franchise and the stakes are supposed to be higher than ever.

Speaking of stakes, let's talk about that. Grimmel is by in large the only real new character here (aside from the Light Fury I guess, and she's fine, I don't understand the hate towards her design, I think she's cute). And he is... probably the lamest fuckin villain in this franchise, there I said it. He's just... some dude. He's nowhere near as unhinged and intimidating as Drago, nowhere near as smart or interesting or even just fun to watch as any of the villains in the HTTYD shows, he's just... idk man, a really boring villain. Certainly not what I think the "ultimate" challenge for a protagonist as well developed and interesting as Hiccup should be imo.

I know there are plenty of complains thrown around about this movie, the other riders are poorly-characterized, Grimmel is a lame villain (as I just said, I agree with that one), and of course, it's biggest controversy, it's ending. But here's my take on the ending. I think it's actually pretty bold of them to have the dragons leave? Like yes, there is a heavy sense of finality to it, but that's sort of the point. There's a massive change to the status quo, it feels like a genuine ending with little in the way of Dreamworks doing what they always fucking do in trying to bait any unecessary sequels. And then of course, there's the epilogue, which may be one of my favorite scenes in the entire franchise. I literally cannot watch it without crying, I'm such a fucking wreck for this boy and his dragon oh my god.

As usual, visually and audibly, this movie is absolutely wonderful. The animation here is especially impressive, the lighting took my breath away in some spots with just how realistic some of it looked, while still maintaining the series' usual style. The Hidden World especially, we don't see it for very long, but it is so damn pretty to look at. The music is, of course, also absolutely lovely, once again drawing on familiar themes from throughout the series to send it off one last time.

There's lots of other little things I love about this movie too, like the flashbacks to Stoick and Hiccup when Hiccup was little (I cry), any cute Hicstrid moments, especially the wedding (I cry), Toothless being an absolute mess while trying to impress the Light Fury (I die laughing), just... god, it's more How to Train Your Dragon, man, I fucking love this franchise, how the hell can I possibly hate this movie when there's still so much of what I love about the first two in here?

I do understand, this movie is flawed in some pretty big ways. And yet... it's still so beautiful all the same. I adore it, even if others don't, and I think that's ok? We can all enjoy different things and I just so happen to enjoy this. No, it's certainly not the best this series can do, and maybe the HTTYD franchise does deserve a better conclusion. But for what we got, well... I think it's pretty damn great all the same.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Verdict: How to get your dragon some rizz bc gottdamn he needs some

Previous Review (Captain Underpants: The Epic First Movie)

Next Movie (Abominable)

[lesbiandarvey]

In response to your post about Donna/Harvey moving to Seattle, i actually controversially support it for my own reasons and character interpretations but I completely see your reasoning 😭😭

I think the biggest issue is just what we don't see, so we have no idea how this conclusion is reached. The only detail we have about Harvey consulting Donna about the situation is that he makes sure theyre on the same page about offering to leave the firm so that Faye will GTFO. We know they discuss this as a team, so it raises the question of how long the Seattle thing has been on their mind or a topic of conversation, if at all. I truly feel like them moving would have been a more reasonable and understanding pill to swallow if 1) we saw more of a longing between Donna and Harvey to be with Mike and Rachel and an actual discussion about it, 2) if there was more emphasis on Harvey being disillusioned with corporate law work and actively expressing a desire for a change, and 3) clarity on what would happen with Donna's career!! From my interpretation I genuinely felt like this may have been her idea or something that she supports, but I do wonder what her position would be with the new firm or if she would find other admin work for a company that Harvey isn't involved in so that she could have her own thing. She really worked her ass off to be COO, and whether or not she continues to do that she really should have had a more filled out ending as a character that didn't leave so much up in the air for her because she deserves the career she worked for.

While I totally think the Seattle plot could have worked, the writers failed to expand on it as an ongoing discussion between Mike, Rachel, Harvey, and Donna, so the effect of it is so sudden. We never even hear Mike talking about liking it in Seattle, which would have at least helped sell it a little!!!! If Harvey and Donna wanted to slow down a little and shift gears with a fresh start, we do need to be informed of that before we're just told they're moving across the country with like ten minutes left in the episode. I just hate how it was presented bc I feel like it could have worked so much better if the writers were more with it or had more room in the episodes to do so. I know USA only greenlit ten episodes for the ninth season so they were working on a way different narrative timeline for s9 than any other season of the show. anyways. Sorry to hijack and leave this huge message I just have so many thoughts on how the Seattle thing could have been successful

OKAY YES. TRUE. YESS ALL OF THAT !!

1) we saw more of a longing between Donna and Harvey to be with Mike and Rachel and an actual discussion about it, 2) if there was more emphasis on Harvey being disillusioned with corporate law work and actively expressing a desire for a change, and 3) clarity on what would happen with Donna's career!! <- ALL OF THAT YESSS EXACTLY EXACTLY!!

and really yeah exactly it all just comes down to the fact they had to wrap things up quickly and we just couldn’t see the characters discuss it in front of us so the audience is left going wait WHAT

also my mom reminded me the whole leaving the firm (/moving to seattle thing) was part of the deal to get faye out of the picture but tbh i feel asleep everytime faye was onscreen so i didnt pick that up

WE NEVER EVEN HEAR MIKE SAY HE LIKES SEATTLE YEAH!!!!!

and yeah exactly like it could have worked if they put like any foreshadowing into it all lmao

(altho tbf if they had said were moving to chicago to help jessica with no warning i would be totally fine with that lmao)

[liliallowed]

okay I read a bunch more about the controversy and like...

yeah...

starrail messed up.

then again hoyoverse in general kinda always does half-ass every research they do with other countries and cultures so... I'm actually not that shocked. I don't think it's racism. at least not intentional. it's negligence and a lack of research... or just simply pushing the implications under the rug.

if it was all a made up thing and made up words and language? that's fine! this is not.

(sumeru in genshin was so fking uncomfortable for me to explore. it's one of the reasons I hate genshin.)

yeah I totally get why people are upset now.

STILL. I don't think hsr is a bad game or story.

it's pretty cool. but yeah

I understand why people are upset.

I'm not angry at the game or characters. I'm just a lil disappointed in the writers. well... a bit angry too but like... idk.

c'mon man. so better. don't just shove a cameo of a different race/culture for plot or empathy... or just for inclusive points to check off. it's IMPORTANT to handle those stuff correctly.

SPECIALLY when it's related to reality.

that immersion break? to hear the name of your own native tongue used in a different context? that feels shitty. I FEEL that.

I may not understand it from their perspective but I can relate.

so uhm. yeah. that's my take.

it's not intentional but hoyoverse in general has that half assed vibe to me of not actually CARING about other cultures.

then again I should probably trust the words of the people who SAY it is. because they know better than me.

idk if that's actually racism or not. I do feel a certain bad vibe or discomfort from hoe hoyoverse handles other culture "inspired" stories though. like it's not genuine.

[petalsmooth]

Have to disagree with Nicola

Colin's love confession is going to remain considered the carriage, not the one line in front of the mirror.

The show didn't use, likely because of vanity thinking they could do better but did not, that Colin's love confession from the book and should have. He may not have used the word love in the carriage but it's more descriptive than the one with the mirror which amounts to he loves her and one line than transitions into seduction. Which is fine for that moment but they really did misstep not taking the lines form the book on this. I'm a little disappointed about it in fact because I thought that at least was too good not to use when they were taking lesser lines.

Not really sure how I feel about taking Colin out of the equation entirely in announcing Whistledown either. Although I suppose did tit for tat in taking Penelope completely out of the equation for his idea to publish a travel book. I preferred the book's way though, more partners than separate in both events and I can't say as I understand how the show thinks everyone knowing who is publishing the gossip is a good device. If they know it's her, wouldn't you shut up around her now? And if she says something controversial or cutting etc..I dunno. How can you maintain the same bite along with wit with identity known? We'll see but I think they let the air out of the balloon metaphorically going this route.

I don't really mind the show depicting Colin's real issue was jealousy over purpose because the book does too, in fact I wanted that in there. but the book doesn't have them basically marry and live in separate rooms until sorted. Either should have sorted before the marriage or not dragged it out so long. They basically dampened the feel of engagement dinner and wedding and aftermath for no good reason.

I guess what I am saying is when they try to go against the grain of the book, I think the show is worse off. Writing original storylines or directions is not a strong suit of theirs imo.

I didn't hate part 2 btw, I think it's actually more cohesive than part 1 but I don't know if the reception will be as high as part 1 because darker than it needed to be in last eps. I do see why Nic and Luke prefer eps 5 and 6, I do too. I'm just wishing they hadn't drained the last 2 eps of the charm the book had because the writers decided w.d. was something that needed apology rather than celebration. Then try to somehow make us all excited there is a "Penelope Bridgerton" edition of gossip and expect it to have same weight now no longer anonymous.

I LOVED the Whistledown plot device but I could have care less about the pamphlet in the epilogue because of this turn. Whereas I did enjoy news of Colin's book and Gregory trying to steal it and Benedict taking it away because I was afraid they were going to rob us of that after the line if his only purpose was to be lucky enough to have her love than that was fine. I was so relieved not the case.

I do love Cressida did not get redeemed. I do like they finally admitted Eloise DID strike up the relationship because petty. I hate they wasted most of the season on it though and Eloise needs to be redeemed from the mess took her this season. I don't think I was ever happier than when Benedict noted the real Eloise's return on the swings.

I love John. I'm apathetic about Francesca. And I didn't really take to the casting of the actress for Michaela in brief scene. So this is not boding well for me since John dies and he's the only one I genuinely smiled when I watched onscreen. I preferred him really with the rest of the family. His scenes with Will, Colin and Benedict were my favorite with his character.

I did LOVE the show allowed Pen and Danbury a moment where she admitted she suspected who L.W was and her conversation with the Queen trying to lay the groundwork to go softer on Pen. I was disappointed removed her from scenes prior so this was a welcome surprise to see still involved in some way.

I did love the show admitted Colin's feelings had been there for some time and basically was oblivious. Confirms what I always thought.

I love the lighter Pen/Colin moments and I did not hate the love scene mind you. I am critical the book love confession was not used on the show, but not of those scenes. That's entirely different.

I have no idea why Anthony is still Viscount. The show had him on honeymoon. Then second honeymoon. Then go back to India. At this point might as well renounce the title and hand it to a younger brother since their idea of writing Jonny out for films is to have him travel more than Colin ever did at this rate

Hyacinth and Gregory were great all year.

Much more, will have to discuss later though. Overall part 2 was fine but I think the show would have benefited from releasing with part 1 to balance it out with one's lighter elements.

[zorilleerrant]

okay this may be a controversial opinion but I don't think Jason Todd actually counts as a problematic fave. that's like calling Punisher or Dexter or Lord Vetinari a problematic fave.

I really think the term is only correctly applied if you're very much not supposed to like that character. like feel sympathy to them or get where they're coming from, maybe, but not actually like them. certainly not say 'you're all wrong and I'm the only one who truly understands my beloved fucked up evil little hate machine' and then try to invent a whole personality and logic for them.

this includes pretty much characters that are transparently there to have the same motivations/origins as a protagonist, but with a terrible, obviously morally wrong conclusion. and characters that have absolutely no complexity whatsoever and are purely there to be narratively functional as a villain.

which Jason was, in UtRH! Jason's return was very much with him as a relatively shallow and underdeveloped foil to Batman, purely to show that trauma can push people one way or another, and not all of those ways are good. and the people who started liking him when that came out, sure, he was a problematic fave. but he was the comics writers' problematic fave, and they wove a whole new narrative for him to have all to himself. and so he became a very unproblematic very prominent character that you're supposed to like, identify with, and cheer on.

and you can argue that any character can really fit this if you look at the bad things they do but still like them, but I would argue it's actually much more problematic if they do something horrible that the narrative doesn't acknowledge is terrible, either because the creators genuinely believe that's a good thing or because they totally didn't notice. presenting awful things as if they're normal and fine is unfortunately common in comics. whereas all of Jason's stuff is very, like, well he probably shouldn't have done that that way.

I mean you're supposed to see him as the good guy! you're supposed to agree or disagree with what he does but fundamentally think his heart is in the right place and he's got good morals and he cares about what happens to people. so I think he can't be a problematic fave. I think no gray hero or gray villain or character just doing their best to struggle through their circumstances can really fall into that camp. only characters the author would be horrified to find out that you're very attached to. characters that are only there to be evil.

[hyperfixationtimego]

Ah saw the terf thing tweet finally. Yeah as a trans Jewish person I can totally see that tweet supporting transphobia on Mindy's case. If not the transphobia then it looks like she is supporting the racism and antisemitism, which she does have a history for. In context of JK's post, I don't know how else to interpret it other than she's being snarky about losing the "sensitive sjws", and why would you like something like that? I doubt at this time Mindy was simply unaware and if she was. And if she was that tells me she isn't that connected with us. Also not all of us are the same. You choosing one Jewish person to represent all of us is not a look. You deciding that you speak for trans people here, also is not a look. Context matters and I don't know why you say this by not including other voices and context. Like what other context can you get by a show that has their character make a "joke" of nazis killing their Jewish friend?

yeah see this is why I hate discussing serious shit on here. this is an absolute wild misinterpretation of what I presented, my dude.

You not having a critical understanding of what it means to consider another person’s perspective, regardless of whether or not you agree with it, is not my problem, my guy. You “not knowing” how to interpret the tweet incident as anything other than a premeditated statement of transphobia is kinda just……telling me you’ve never seen a well-meaning cis person accidentally use incorrect terminology, or a cishet ally not understanding why a certain term, trope, or stereotype might be offensive or harmful to queer people. Like my dude, have you ever loved or cared about a cis person irl. They don’t share our experiences. They don’t share our history or our knowledge, because a lot of them have never had to consider it - that still doesn’t make them bad.

and lol you obviously didn’t even bother to read what I posted, either, cause u didn’t acknowledge her support of Josie Totah but like……whatever lmao

and. sighs. I genuinely do not think Kaling’s thought process with liking that tweet had to do with complaining about the “sensitive sjws” because that. literally does not make any sense whatsoever. if anything, I propose that she was more likely comparing the “lost audience” in that tweet to all the racist assholes who immediately shit on everything about the show from the concept, to the animation, to the character designs from the exact MOMENT it was confirmed the show would be reimagining the characters as POC.

perhaps I am insane, but I do not think it’s a bad thing for her, as an Indian woman, to indulge herself by projecting her own experiences onto a character she loves & to give that same opportunity to other people working on the show. like it is very strange to me that y’all are calling this “pandering” and “forced diversity,”…. they’re literally just having fun I think lol

And lmaooooo ur second point of “choosing one Jewish person to represent all [Jewish people]” LIKE MY GUY THAT IS NOT WHAT I DID AKSHDJDBFB I provided a LITERAL SCHOLAR’S OPINION on the controversy & supposed antisemitism in Never Have I Ever SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT DR. SKINAZI DOES FOR A LIVING. SHE IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LITERATURE AND CULTURE, AND SHE FOCUSES A LOT ON JEWISH REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA BECAUSE SHE HERSELF IS JEWISH 😭

I would love to see another scholar’s argument on the issue! If happen to find any other media analysis-focused Jewish professors who’ve discussed the topic, I’d love to check it out and compare the two! /gen

But until then, I am going to (tentatively, as I still have not had a chance to watch the show for myself) trust Dr. Skinazi on this topic because it is quite literally her field of work!!!! You may be Jewish, anon, but you are still just some rando in my inbox demanding me to listen to you without proper cause - I’m not going to simply ignore the literal scholar’s opinion on this one for you, my guy, that’s not how this works 😭

[mrstsung]

How come anymore they make raiden so weak? Are people really that against raiden being the overworked,underappreciated,older brother of earthrealm? Are people that against the fact raiden could do everything and anything to help people. And yet.....absolutely be given the short end?

Raiden isn't supposed to be this,no offense to NRS and mk fans. Weak as fucking all hell.

Even in mortal form he was supposed to be an expert fighter with the highest level of whoop ass. The only reason why he kicked more ass is because of his godhood. But his godhood...LIKE ALL THINGS PEOPLE. Has some form of self responsiblity and honor.

Not to mention he cares extremely deeply for mortal lives. That's what made him the protector of earthrealm in the first damn place. Because he related so much to them.

He wasn't like other gods. The only other one closest to that was his Younger brother fujin. Who in turn. Also became a protector.

They kinda take turns between each other to watch over earthrealm and also the kombatants/earthrealms warriors too.

Like good lord some people obviously don't pay attention. But it's ok. It's a game. We too busy throwing hands and having fun to pay attention to story.

But thats also a double edged sword because this unfortunately makes the storylines bland af

But hey that's what blogs like these are for. So you can fill in the gaps better and dust off the unwanted bull.

Again ugh. Sorry for all the raiden rant posts of late.

But i can't stand to see one of my faves get so much slander and horrible writing.

Like raiden was my boy. I had many other crushes n faves(sassy hatbae kung lao and of course our favorite local bih sorcerer). But rai? Oh he was special.

He was comfort character,the easiest for me to play with,i loooooved his character,he was better imho when he was sarcastic and gentle but when push came to shove. Dont fuck with the god of thunder! He was indeed the older,wiser,and more reserved of the storm bros. But he was just as loving,passionate for life,and gentle as his brother fujin. (It's just older sibling problems ya know?) Like Raiden is the dude i would honestly go to talk to when i felt i needed advice or a shoulder to cry on. I feel he understands human emotions on a deeper level than most wanna believe. But he doesn't let them control him. Instead he feels them. And then lets it be. (Zen that shit mofo) he sits with them,be's their friend instead of going against the currents,he flows with them. He's definitely a "let me sit with you and let you talk,i will listen" or "sit with me a while and ease your burdens for a bit" type guy. Like i feel like they went hella backwards with raiden so much.

What is it with people making the most human,fun,and compassionate gods so to speak. Nerfed and weakened to all hell?

Do people not believe in compassionate gods or characters in general? I blame the worlds state and suffering for this terrible influx of writing. Which is sad. Because this should make people write even more compassionate characters,to bring light to the irl problems we see every day. But hey,it is what it is brah.

But anywho. I need sleep. No need to get too deep. Lol.

(Don't worry the shang tsimping will be back I'm just trying to give some love to my boy raiden because i see too much hate on him and it hurts my heart.)

[high-dragon-bait]

hey, i saw your post and i'm truly so, so sorry this happened to you. i'm a sexual abuse survivor myself and i understand how you feel. your opinions are really valid but i also think that when you post an opinion like that, you have to be prepared for dialogue and people who ask for clarification of what you meant, y'know? something like that can be upsetting for the other party as well and they have no way of knowing your reasons just like you have no way of knowing their reasons for asking what you meant by your post that may possibly confuse them. especially when you post it in the main tag where a lot of people will see it. i truly wish the best for you and i will continue to follow you but i also think that what i said is important to consider. <3

Hey! I do think you're absolutely right, people do have the right to ask for clarity and I knew this making that post, and meant to mention it and just. Forgot. Whoops

I do think there is a difference between a dialogue/"asking for clarification" and an accusation veiled as a question. Tone matters. I'm more than happy to clarify what I mean and to have a conversation with someone, that is the point, but when someone is seemingly trying to bait me into saying the wrong thing to start a fight...

(For people who didn't see it, I'll try to paraphrase: I said that Fenris drawn as significantly shorter/smaller than Hawke is cute but the part of me that thinks it's cute is fistfighting with the part of me that hates infantilization of Fenris. Someone responded with "Why does the feminization of male characters make you uncomfortable?" which read to me as accusatory rather than clarifying)

I realize maybe they didn't mean it that way, and now that I've had time to settle and sleep on it, I might've overreacted. I'm stressed in general rn, so little things set me off. (For further context: I was sitting in my dad's hospital room trying to distract myself with Dragon Age thoughts on my phone. I wasn't thinking super in depth.)

I can't always anticipate how a thing I post will be taken, and I can't always anticipate how I'll respond to certain comments. Sometimes, when I post things like that in the main tag, I am prepared for a controversy, but I wasn't this time around.

I really, genuinely, did not think my original post was controversial. I really really didn't. I made it in two seconds, and didn't think about it. I probably should have, but I didn't.

But I think I'm getting off topic, but my point is: You're right. People have the right to ask for clarity, and I may have jumped the gun. I could've asked what they meant by their question first, I didn't have to get so wound up, I don't regret making the post I did, I stand by it all, but I may have assumed too much too quickly from the original question.