#michael bay why did you not have character personality

[myfandomprompts]

Hey, I saw you did what Ewan's characters would be like with a girl daughter. And I admit that my curiosity was: What would each of Ewan's characters react to an unexpected pregnancy? Or announcement of a pregnancy

Or, opening new horizons, what would each person's relationship be like with their wife/girlfriend when they were pregnant? (if you want to use the reader for this part)

(I'm sorry if you're not accepting requests or something)

Hi! Thank you for the ask and it's truly okay and wonderful!

Headcanons: How would EwanVerse characters react to unexpected pregnancy?

Abraham

He hadn't even planned to stay with you, his only focus was on earning his place among the gypsies. Yes, he lied to himself about liking you, about being obsessed even, but at least he had managed to keep his emotions at bay. Until now. When he learns of your pregnancy, he gets mad, takes time for himself to think. Then he sees how miserable he had made you and his turmoil quickly turns into guilt. He can't stay away from you for long, let alone hurt you. You could be together after all, happy, and hell, that baby is his. What other beautiful manner to make his claim on you is there?

Aemond

War was raging, and he took you as his companion because he could, because as Prince Regent, no one will dare say a word against it. He had needs, impulses both of sinful nature and quiet affection, and you were meeting each of them perfectly. But when you don't bleed for two moons, he finally realises why he chose you, why he didn't 't care about being careful: he wanted you for himself, and having you round with his child would be the ultimate prize. You and the baby would be untouchable.

Billy Taylor

He feared it was going to happen. He had heard the stories so many times : people around with too much passion which caused unexpected things to happen ruined their lives, even reputations. It had scared him as much as elated him when he got to be with you, to touch you everywhere. And now, with the news of you pregnancy and amidst thinking of a way to tell his mother, he finds out that he would do it all again, thousand times over if life allowed it. He would be so very happy with your child.

Billy Washington

He wasn't supposed to have met with you again, or even to hook up. You, the ex he had a hard time forgetting about. But he guesses that once you harbour feelings for someone, it never really goes away. When you tell him, he is awestruck, not believing it, even asking you if it's his. It takes weeks for him to wrap his head around it, thinking what the hell he's going to do then he decides. Decides that he was delusional thinking he could live without you for a while, and that he won't let you go again. He never stopped loving you, and that baby will make everything right.

Ettore

You're just his neighbour, the only one who gets him, who sees him for what he is. He actually doesn't care about what people think of him, or what you think about him. Or maybe just a little. But he likes how you let him do things to you others wouldn't. When you tell him, he stays silent for a while, expressionless. "So?" he tells you, and when you slam the door in his face, he tries to convinced himself that he doesn't care. But in truth he can't stop thinking about it. About what it would feel like to have something as... precious with someone. How foreign it seems to him.

Genyen

He doesn't understand: you said you were fine with him being "just a friend", that you didn't want more, and it suited him fine. So why were you telling him that now? He can't do anything for you, he has nothing, even if he would like to. He would, truly, he finds himself thinking, provide for you if he could, for the baby. But it's the way you look at him with those shiny eyes and a hand on your belly that make him abandon any idea of disappearing on you. He'll stay, whatever you say he is to you.

Michael Gavey

He is euphoric. You're the girl of his dreams, and it seems surreal. He can give you everything you want, provide for you like you've never been cared for before, you don't need to be anxious about it all. He reassures you at once, already scheduling how you'll manage to graduate and have a beautiful baby at the same time, your baby. He won't ever let you go, and is already planning for the second one.

Osferth

You're the lady he can't believe he has, and when you announce that you're carrying his child, he can't help but feel guilty. He has promised himself never to sire a child, a bastard's bastard, and now he had brought shame on you. You would have been better without him, really, better with someone worthy of you. If only he had been more careful. What if you died in labour? What if the baby died? It's with those dark thoughts that he snaps out of it and decides that he will look after you until then. He will pray for you and the baby, be there for the both of you until life takes him.

Tom Bennett

He isn't even surprised, you're his girl after all. It's not like he had planned it, but it was bound to happen at some point. Deep down, Tom is a family man, always taking care of his folks, a fact he is finally brutally made aware of when you tell him the news and a warm feeling fills his chest. Now he just have to find a way to get you a ring. Maybe he'll have to steal it?

Will

It wasn't supposed to happen. You were supposed to get sick of him like everybody eventually did, and he was supposed to remain detached. But then here you are, saying you want to keep it and he allows himself to hope. Hope that maybe you truly love him, that maybe he'll finally have something of his own, something to share with you. Maybe he'll be able to let his guard down, like he always longed to. With this news, he felt like he wouldn't be hurt anymore.

I excluded Hoodie, Jack, Jason & Poacher.

[teaboot]

Now I want to know which transformers generation is your favourite. And your favourite transformer. Please tell me about your blorbo.

egcuhfYDYGGUJGUHFYH YOU ARE DOING THIS TO ME????

Starscream: The Transformers (1986-1987): This whole show was SUPER corny tbh but I really loved Starscream's personality and character arc. I feel like a lot of the newer series just make him shriller and whinier, which is fine I suppose, but I always kinda felt like he had the potential for more depth than that. He's still a huge bitch but he's the huge bitch I love

Jazz and Prowl. Just in general. I'm BIG on that "straight laced lawful good and his subtly scarier chaotic neutral friend" and when I was in middle school and deeply into the bayverse I was super upset they left Prowl out and didn't show them interact. Prowl is a bit of a Ross here and there and unfortunately is a literal police car but idk

Drift: Transformers: DRIFT Comics version. Because giant robots, swords, and underdog 'bad guy' redemption stories all kick like fuck. Michael Bay can once again kiss my lily white ass about it

Ratchet: All Versions. Ratchet is my grandpa. The Leonard McCoy of this enterprise. If you don't like him you're objectively wrong. I cried real tears when I saw what they did to him in the live action run. Repeat: Michael Bay, my ass, etcetera.

Sideswipe: Bayverse. No real reason, just that teenaged Teaboot thought giant robot with knife arms was hot and adult Teaboot agrees. Would have been interesting to see Sunstreaker too, I love those big stupid jerks.

But you know at the end of the day beyond lovable characters I think this part may have had the strongest impact

Obviously this was a cover-your-butt moment for not having enough female characters and explaining why robots have ""genders"" but explicitly saying "gender isn't real, it's a human construct, and our bodies don't reflect our reality" was not the worst way they could have gone with it. (Talking in transmasc)

Thanks for the ask!!!!

[theygotlost]

i know the discourse for it is long dead but now that ive finally gotten around to watching barbie and had some time to sleep on it I have my two cents to put in. this is probably the exact same as every other critical thinkpiece but I didn't really read those so this is my genuine opinion.

first of all, this is a two hour toy commercial. it's the same thing as a michael bay transformers movie. mattel sanctioned this to sell you a toy. I'm a firm believer that any message of social activism is inherently disingenuous if it's coming from a multimillion dollar corporation: a corporation's sole purpose is to make money, and they will use whatever political or social zeitgeist they think will be the best vehicle for that. the depiction of the mattel executives in the film is not a critique or satire, it's mattel openly admitting, "this but unironically".

second, I have very little interest in any message of "feminism" or "female empowerment" that does nothing to include women who aren't traditionally feminine. the closest the movie gets to this is weird barbie, so she was decidedly my favorite character (if I could convince myself that I care about the movie enough to have a favorite character), but she's "weird" and "different" in way that's still palatable to the masses. the human girl's mom (did she have a name?) makes the argument for a "normal barbie" who is not extraordinary or an overachiever or sets an impossible beauty standard, but still asks that this barbie gets to wear "a flattering top".

what I'm getting at here is that the type of "female empowerment" on display in the barbie movie is not one for gender nonconforming women or women who simply have no interest in performing femininity or adhering to feminine beauty standards. barbie may have an illustrious career as a doctor and astronaut and president and scientist and and and but in every iteration she's Pretty. she always wears makeup, has long, carefully styled hair, is almost always thin, and wears cute, form fitting outfits, usually with skirts and dresses. she can do anything she puts her mind to, have any career she wants, accomplish anything, just as long as she's also Pretty. if barbie is supposed to be a role model for little girls, what message is that sending them?

the stereotypical barbie falls into depression because she's "not pretty anymore", at which point a narrator cuts in to say directly to the audience, "margot robbie is not the right person to cast to make this point". as if acknowledging it somehow fixes it? like, you still did that. you still cast the thin, blonde, white, conventionally attractive margot robbie as the star of your feature length barbie doll commercial. telling me you realize how silly it is to say she's not pretty doesn't change that.

there will never be a butch barbie because that's not marketable. there will never be a barbie who doesn't wear makeup or has body hair or acne or is fat but not hourglass shaped. this is why we can't base our notions of feminism off a mass marketed plastic toy for children. the movie itself is like, fine. it did make me laugh. it has some endearing elements in it. but its sociopolitical messaging is totally lukewarm, and not by accident.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

ARCEE (TRANSFORMERS) (CW: Transphobia)

1.) Transformers has had a troubled history with female transformers as a whole. They didn't really even exist until Season 2. And while they've all gotten the short end of the stick until recently, Arcee, who kinda ended up The Main Girl (sorry Elita) has gotten the brunt of this mistreatment. Mostly talking G1 here.

Toys kept getting cancelled over and over even though she's a main, important character of Season 3. She didn't get a decent widely available toy that actually resembled her G1 version (first one was a Botcon exclusive Blackarachnia redeco which I disqualify because convention-exclusive spider is not what I was looking for, and Binaltech is just kinda a pink and white robot who looks nothing like her, just with her name slapped on) until 2014. I wish I could use bold here, because there's no such thing as uppercase numbers. Before that, you just kinda had to look at the toys from other canons and squint because Hasbro doesn't think the pink girl toy will sell well.

And misogyny present in the fiction? A lot can be summed up in a couple words, namely, "Furman, why?" While most people go with his excuses of not believing in Cybertronian gender, it really comes across as him seeing men as the default, neutral state of being, and women as something that must be explained. Poorly. Explained very poorly. Not to explain things in Tv Tropes terms, but I have to, it reeks of the 'Men Are Generic, Women Are Special' https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial trope.

Let's get us started with Prime's Rib. Oh my goodness, Prime's Rib. So, Furman doesn't believe in Cybertronian gender (and male is seen as default), and this has reflected in his writing. He's going along perfectly fine writing his dudes in the US run of the Marvel comics, Arcee entirely ignored… but what's this? The connected UK comic has her. He can't just ignore her. So, well. He needs an explanation. Explaining a plot hole isn't bad. It's how he did it. Arcee was created in response to a feminist mob who was mad Cybertronians were all guys. I don't think I need to explain this one.

I'm too tired to explain her treatment in IDW now. Something something unnatural attempt to introduce gender into a genderless species, something something, really weird uncomfortable treatment, it's a long story and I'm not an IDW expert, read the TFWiki page for Spotlight: Arcee.

I'm sure there's more in other media, but I've blathered on way too long and I'm starting to get frustrated and tired and AGH FURMAN WHY. He's gotten better, too, definitely not judging his present self over comics that are from many years ago, but asdfghjkl

Ok fine, one more thing. This isn't G1 but Michael Bay stated in interviews that he gleefully killed her movieverse version off specifically because he didn't like her. It's not NECESSARILY misogyny motivated. I wouldn't deem it misogyny coming from a different director with a different film series. Transformers writers have had personal beef with random characters which they wished to unceremoniously kill off before--Animated Beachcomber comes to mind, even if the writers never got the chance. But it's also Michael Bay's Transformers we're talking about here. Can you blame me for thinking that?

Arcee has gotten better treatment in recent years. Furman's clumsy attempts to explain Arcee's gender in tbe IDW run were slowly retconned into some pretty decent trans rep by other authors, she's really just come into her own as a character. But it was a long and rocky road to get there, and I believe we all need to acknowledge that.

2.) Was initially introduced in the 80's transformers movie only after being strong armed by Ron Friedman, being the first female presenting robot to be seen in the show. bright pink, cause, ya know, female. has the most romantic involvement of any transformer ever across all transformations media, cause, ya know, female, and god forbid she be her own person when hasbro can stick to her to Some Guy. she was made trans in the 2005 continuity and was immediately made berserk as a result. marvel made her a freak science experiment to shame feminists. why does the robot have curves when no one else does istg

i love her too much to stand by idly while she's treated this way

3.) hasbro keeps trying to convince people that her and elita-one (another pink fem character) are actually the same. "who cares same lore different names. what do you mean they're different characters?" and constantly flips their lore, designs, and names around with every single FUCKING continuity ie transformers rise of the beasts where they use arcee's design but call her elita-one SMASHES MY HEAD INTO THE WALL bro there's a whole group of autobots called the "female transformers". i don't. there's so little female representation in this series that hasbro decided the best way to fix it would be… segregation, ig. arcee is apart of it obviously. elita-one leads it. reminds me that i should (and maybe sick a couple friends on this poll) make a submission for elita because JESUS CHRIST hasbro fucked her up also apparently in some continuities arcee is trans. upon getting bottom surgery it fucking. idk how turns her berserk?? it's so weird. mind controlled/sleeper agent in like half of the fucking continuities for some reason. in every single one of these continuities she either gets with Springer or Hot Rod and ends up betraying them. every single time why does the robot have boobs

NAOMI MISORA (DEATH NOTE)

1.) I know everyone is gonna submit Misa but honestly she had it worse.

She gets introduced as this competent lady who's gonna help find Kira but then she just, decides to show some teenager her real ID as a show of trust and whoops that's Kira.

Also part of her introduction was her fiance going "You don't need to worry about this tracking down the killer nonsense, you're gonna be my wife, you should just be worried about raising kids in the future :)" or some shit. And it's barely addressed, because she just fucking dies.

2.) She was the only woman in the series to show any level of competence. She figured out more about how the death note works from some small context clues than L did in considerably less time. She was apparently so competent that the author decided to kill her off despite initially planning to make her a main character, fearing she would distract from the L and Light rivalry.

3.) the victim of “writer doesn’t understand women and also hates them” disease. Like, seriously, the author of Death Note could only imagine a female FBI agent as the fiancée of another, more senior FBI agent. The main character Light kills her fiancé Raye Penber (in honestly a really tightly written and cool episode) and so she tries to figure out who killed her husband. Unlike Raye who only figured out that Light was Kira as he was dying because Light basically told him, Naomi figures it out a lot sooner so oops guess she’s gotta die because she’s too good at her job.

[prince-toffee]

So, I rewatched the trailer over and over again, I stepped back, organised my thoughts, and I think I get it.

So first the Bad, then the GOOD, because there's actually a lot to like here.

The Bad:

So, the trend of companies kicking actual voice actors onto the curb and replacing them with celebrities continues. I remember being really angry when they first announced the voice cast, and I still am. It's quite literally the most boring, generic casting possible. You can not get much more white bread, milk toast than a Chris and Scar - I want to play an Asian woman and trans man - jo. Also, why is Chris Hemsworth here? Do he really need the money? Did Thor 4 damage his pockets that bad? There are so many talented voice actors that could've been Orion, David Kaye is a prime example Animated Optimus and Beats Wars/Unicron Trilogy Megatron, beloved by fans, if he was announced people would've been over joyed. I love Brian Tyree Henry, and he actually has some experience with va work as he voiced Jeff Morales in Spider-Verse, my original criticism still stands.... And Kegan, oh Kegan, I love you so much, Key and Peele was my childhood, and the Toad performance was perfectly fine, endearing even. But as Bee? I'm sorry, but no, that's not BumbleBee that's just actor/comedian Kegan Michael Key, I can't hear anything else. And it doesn't help that he's handed the worst lines.

Which brings us to the comedy. First impressions are EVERYTHING. And if you fumble that that hurts your film, and the perception of your film. I think that's really the problem here, it's a bad trailer not necessarily bad content. Packing the trailer with jokes for the sake of jokes and having that samey Hollywood liscensed music cringey feel to it. Like the guitar riff that played when the 'This Fall' card came up just made me turn off the video immediately. That's why I recommend watching the trailer without sound. Bee's jokes don't really land for me, I'm sure kids with love it tho, and that's good. But I'm sure all the jokes won't be bad, the final door gag is actually really funny. So I think it was just a bad joke that soured out feel of the tone at the beginning, which is unfortunate because like I said first impressions are everything. Because this is Josh Cooly, of Up, Inside Out, Toy Story 4 fame, I'm sure the film will have an emotional core to it.

A minor thing I don't much care for is having Bee be in the same age range as Orion, in my mind he's always constructed during the war at like the half way mark or near the end, he's the little brother of the group, and now he's old enough to remember Op and Megs before the war. Also he sounds way too old.

Oh, also I don't like Orion's personality.

Good:

Now for the good; I think the animations style is gorgeous. Would have I liked something Spider-Verse/Mutant Mayhem-esk, of course, but what are you gonna do? The stand out here is the environments, a visual feast. This might already be my favourite Cybertron, it's so different yet reminisant of the Cybertron we know. The fact that the surface transformers and shifts and changes is genius, very IDW Phase 2 inspired. And the fact that Cybertron is a techno-organic hybrid world ala Beast Machines is crazy! I love that, and wildlife! I bet that's how we get the cassettes. The character models are great too, you can actually tell what emotion is happening on a person's face. Gone are the days of faces being made up of razor blades and mandibles BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT INSECTS FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY. THEY'RE PEOPLE! There's the nose, the lips, the eyes, and I can tell where one begins and ends. The eyes are gorgeous and detailed, and the face surface detail has smuges, wear, specs of dirt, metallic texture. Like, you nailed it! It's a person but a robot, you got it!

We see what we assume are the 13 Primes, Alpha Trion being the only survivor, maybe they were killed by the Quintessons and they took over. D-16, a ref to IDW and his toys designation in the toy catalogue, he'll obviously name himself after Megatronus ala TF Prime. He seems to have the Decepticon insignia before meeting The Fallen so maybe Megatronus' face is some sort of religious iconography, the Primes are a religion on Cybertron after all. It's all so fascinating, I can't remember the last time I was so excited to learn more about a new TF continuity.

Orion and D-16 are both miners and or workers, that's a refreshing take, no coptimus here. They've suffered the same way together, I bet story will be about dealing with that pain, what justice means, how far one is willing to take it and where justice stops and injustice begins. I know people are mad that the origins are a little different, but I ask you, different from what? Which continuity are you talking about? TF has never had a consistent singular timeline, and that's what I love about this franchise! It builds on itself with each new continuity! Take a bit of the old, mix it with new ideas and create something fresh, then that old guard leaves and a new team takes over and does the same and the franchise continues to evolve or should I say transform. Like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get, and new incarnations always give second chances to improve apon what came before. No Reboots, no risks means no Skybite, or Nemesis Prime, no Stasis Pods, Sparks, Protoforms, Energon ore, no Star Saber, Hot Shot, Knock Out, Airachnid, no All Spark, no Sari, no Bulkhead, no old grumpy Ratchet, none of that. Reboots are a part of this franchise's DNA. I sense the people that are complaining are the people who only value one continuity and discard all others.

It's really neat this universe's version of The Cast System is lower class worker protoforms being denied a Transformation Cog, it seems like it's reserved for the higher classes, the very thing that makes their species special and unique is denied to them. Also I didn't notice it the first time, but Alpha actually pulls the t-cogs out of the dead Primes which kind of signifies a passing of the guard, the old Primes failed, now it's your turn, and of course history repeats itself with the downfall of Megatron.

I like how Trion is covered and intertwined with moss and vines and has a beast mode, showcasing that he's of an older era now gone and forgotten.

Some other smaller stuff:

The sun looks like a holographic simulation, which makes me wonder, Cybertron doesn't usually have a sun, but there's plant life now, so what's up?

The cave that the dead Primes and Trion are in kinda looks like a Dweller.

Megatron's black helmet is a ref to Marvel G1.

That spin kick where Elita twirls her entire waist around is sooo satisfying. I love it.

AIRACHNID!!?!!!! MY QUEEN HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!

I think that's a good point to end on. So, yeah, v excited.

[saxandviolins88]

Transformers Skybound #12 spoilers below cut

Yeeees! Final issue of the arc! I thought it was pretty neat, nothing dick-blowing, but I did like some of the things it touched.

This is such a cool sho-

...

...

Why are you a motorcycle...?

HE'S SO FUCKING AWFUL OMG!! I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM LOVE HIM!!!

GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

(^ This is the sound of a well feed autistic)

Enough about my six awful sons

Nice seeing OP and Elita working together and especially nice seeing Devastator getting fried next panel HA HA.

Do... do these guys have nothing to do when Shockwave isn't there? Like I don't think it's supposed to be interpreted that way, but my first thought was: "Damn you guys just standin' there since SW left? Get a job."

"I'LL TELL MY MUM ABOUT THIS AND THEN YOU'LL BE SORRY FOR BREAKING MY TOYS!!"

Sorry, Skybound Shockwave is a blast to read, fucking cartoon supervillain hahaha.

No comment, just appreciate the art, insanely in love with how anime this is.

Absolutely in love with how Skybound Optimus is written.

He doesn't value life quantitively, he values ALL life and wants to save everybody, this will be coming back.

Michael bay?! Nooooooo!

Joke.

But like, what was that? People are saying Megatron's essence in the arm took over him; I don't know about that, the purple eyes don't exactly convey that for me, but I also have no option but to believe it was (or waiting for a reveal, like a normal person.)

Also, what was that about "Not being like that anymore"?? Guess you don't become Autobot leader without taking a few faces. Speaking of that... urgh Shockwave's death was sooo good, thank Lord they extended that shit through a few panels and it wasn't just a "you blink and you'll miss it" type of death.

OOF! The debacle comes to a boiling point!

Elita wants to save a dying planet using Earth ("The Earth has so much to give, look at all the Energon we already have.") vs Optimus, who cares about life, point. All life is important and Earth needs PROTECTION.

I do think both of them have a point; Elita has been fighting NON-STOP while Optimus was basically in a coma, she can't just abandon Cybertron to die like this, but using Earth is a bit uh... Shockwav-y of her. But I'll give it to her, I'd also be desperate and a little bit pissed if I protected my fucking planet for ages and my husband (Leader of the movement I fought and sent soldiers to die for) disappeared in search of a way to save it and then came back like: "Y'know maybe we should protect this random ass planet you never saw, there are people there too".

Ultimately, none of them are right and none of them are wrong. Optimus's decision was his and now he has to live with it, and Elita too, I'm glad she survived so we get to see MORE of her. (Please DWJ don't forget her too.)

They cut Cybertron's foreskin out.

Optimus had a "Planet of the Apes" moment at the end there so that was cool enough to point out.

OOOH BEACHY SAVES THE DAY, AWESOME!!!

I'm more excited to see how he'll affect the main cast as this goes on, I feel he'll either become an important character or at least bring in an interesting discussion.

.

I quite enjoyed this arc a ton, it gave us a look into the Decepticons and I absolutely love how their whole mentality is getting written, I can only hope this gets explored more in the whole Starscream prequel thing (oooh boy I have a funny anecdote for when we read that, based on the preview pages).

Optimus is the character who gets more focus, yes, but he's so well-written and DWJ takes such good care of him I barely feel like complaining; most characters and scenarios that happen serve to challenge his conviction or show another side of him and I really can't complain about how this has been done.

What do I want more of this comic? uuuuuh, more characterization for side characters (come on DWJ, I'm not asking for a fucking arc for every-single nobody; just write Jazz like a person and we're set!)... Hmm... more Constructicon page time would be nice too, but I guess you already knew I was going to say that...

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Gestation 1.6 Live Reactions

(This is me, writing reactions as I read, because why the fuck not. They're not complete, mature thoughts taken after I sit back and evaluate what I've read. Consider them as such)

I didn’t want to be seen fleeing the scene of a fight, and risk being labeled one of the bad guys by yet another person,

Ooof. Again I say. Oof.

All this girl wants is a purpose. She tries for that to be hero, and it ends up not working out for her.

If you’d asked me just a few hours ago about how I thought I would feel meeting a big name superhero, I would have used words like excited and giddy.  The reality was that I was almost too exhausted to care.

I do like this touch, both for the character, and because of how it sets the tone for this universe. Who cares who you're meeting? The world's falling apart, and you're fucking tired. Taylor is about to get virtually no rest in the next two years.

When the core group of the top Protectorate members from around Canada and the States assembled in that classic ‘v’ formation for the photo shoots, Armsmaster was one of the guys in the wings.  This was a guy who had his own action figures.  Poseable Armsmaster with interchangeable Halberd parts.

I like how... practical, Worm worldbuilds the existence of superheroes? Like, yes, it's not as if Wildbow invented the superheroes in-universe being commodified like this, but there's something about this phrasing of it here that really works for me in painting the picture.

Stepping closer to me, he tilted his head, “You don’t look like one.” That stung, especially coming from him.  It was like Michael Jordan saying you sucked at basketball.  “That’s… not intentional,” I responded, not a little defensively, “I was more than halfway done putting the costume together when I realized it was already looking more edgy than I’d intended, and I couldn’t do anything about it by then.”

Ooof, Armsmaster. Man. Foot. Mouth.

On the other hand, I think Taylor is just overreacting a bit. It's less 'Michael Jordan saying you suck at basketball' and more 'Michael jordan saying your uniform sucks'. And Armsy isn't exactly wrong, is he?

 I had considered applying to join, but the notion of escaping the stresses of high school by flinging myself into a mess of teenage drama, adult oversight and schedules seemed self-defeating.

You know, one thing I see in the fandom is to what extent Taylor going the villain/Independent route was actually essential. Some people think it was vital, some people seem to think not so much, in the end the same effect could be achieved if she'd joined the Wards...

We'll see what I think when we get that far.

But I do understand the impulse for some fanfics that want to explore some what-ifs to feel like Scion is actually an inhibitor to storytelling freedom. Because whatever AU they write, no matter the changes they explore, sooner or later, the golden idiot is gonna try to destroy the world.

Then again, what happened in canon wasn't the only way to beat him, and yet... no one else was coming up with anything that worked by the time Taylor pulled a Khepri, so... who knows.

“I’ll try to look at it that way,” I said, struck by how he easily he was able to employ the whole ‘take a negative and turn it into a positive’ mindset I’d been trying to maintain.  I envied that.

Easy to do from his position. I don't know what his trigger was, or if it's ever given, but it was presumably some time ago. I gather from some commentary that there's at least some notion one never moves entirely past their trigger event, but age and distance has to play some role in it.

Taylor is 15. Everything seems like the end of the world at that age.

Really, who the fuck authorized teenagers to be given this sort of power? :P

“Lung has an extensive gang throughout Brockton Bay and neighboring cities.

Really? That's never come up in fics, though it's always made sense. But then, it did make sense that something like E88 wouldn't only be in Brockton Bay, and yet, it never seems to have figured into things.

Granted, everything I know about superhero media is that it does tend to make 'the city' where the action happens seem both incredibly small and incredibly large, and weirdly isolated from the rest of the world.

I gather Worm averts some of that, but probably not all of that. It is still trapped by certain conventions of the genre.

“You’re saying I shouldn’t take the credit,” I said. “I’m saying you have two options.  Option one is to join the Wards, where you’ll have support and protection in the event of an altercation.  Option two is to keep your head down.  Don’t take the credit.  Fly under the radar.”

The wikipedia summary (and large chunks of the fandom) presents this as Armsmaster stealing credit out of being like, a glory-hound, and he's sure being... not ideal in how he presents this whole thing, but equally, again, he's not wrong.

And he's not being that bad. Doesn't come off as glory hound. But I suppose this, paired with some of the other stuff coming down the pipeline for him really colors his perception.

“Please keep my involvement in Lung’s capture secret,” I told him, painfully disappointed to have to say it, even as I knew it made the most sense.

Again, I think Armsmaster has a point, but honestly, I think he forgot what it was like to be a teenage hero, assuming he was one. He really should have considered how much the recognition would have mattered to her.

It could have gone worse.  Strange as it sounds, those words were a  security blanket I wrapped around myself to keep myself from dwelling on the fact that tomorrow was a school day.

In this scene alone, Armsmaster doesn't come off that bad. Yet. We'll see how he comes off when Taylor calls him about trying to go undercover. I've heard he's a bigger ass then. But then, he was supposed to be a huge ass here, and he's just not.

[kingbryancroidragon]

Darkness Rising Part 1 Commentary

I felt like I'd be using the account to comment on things, so why not? Now, I will be sharing my own little head canons, so if that's not your thing just a heads up.

Right off the bat we are introduced to our first Cybertronian and it is Cliffjumper. Now, I once considered writing up my own story to send to Hasbro, something that is doomed from the start because why would they ever accept it, but with all the spotlight Bumblebee has been getting, I'd switch things around and have Cliffjumper as a member of the main cast. Red is my favourite colour after all. As for Dwayne Johnson, I personally find him an average at best actor and I haven't seen a ton of his stuff, but I have seen a fair number of portrayals of Hercules and he isn't one of my favourites, but I don't hate him either. For the record, my favourite actors are Nigel Green ("Jason and the Argonauts") and Lawrence Bayne ("Mythic Warriors"). As for Cliffjumper, I don't know, you just can't beat Casey Kasem, but on the subject of Shaggy Rogers, another Kasem role, I find Matthew Lillard to be a superior Shaggy, something that is no doubt going to get me a lot of hate, and in general I consider him a superior actor to Johnson, so maybe I think he would have been a better Cliffjumper, but at the same time I think it would have been a disservice to have such a great actor be brought in only to die in the pilot episode.

Then we get introduced to our second Cybertronian and of course, it is Arcee. I say "of course" because I love the characters who were introduced in the 1986 film. She, Hot Rod/Rodimus, Springer and Ultra Magnus would so have been included in the story I would have submitted to Hasbro. As for her altmode, it has typically been either a car or a motorcycle, but with the Transmetal 2 Maximal version of her having been a spider, I kind of feel like there was another direction to go, especially since at that point her screen appearances had two points for a car and this series brought it to three for a motorcycle and it could have been a good mirror for Airachnid, but I don't know, that's just me.

The energon on earth is a nice return to "Beast Wars", my introduction to Transformers. I really like that. I also really like seeing the Vehicons return in some form since I loved "Beast Machines."

Peter Cullen returning as Optimus is a real treat. I know we had gotten him back in the live-action films, but seeing him return to Optimus on television is just fantastic. He was actually at FanExpo last year alongside Frank Welker and I wanted to get both of their autographs, but I was not regularly working yet, I was only a call-in for a rare bookstore, and I did not know you could bring something in to get autographed, so instead of paying one hundred dollars to get an autographed picture of Megatron from Frank I could have brought in the Ultimate Guide to Transformers and gotten them both to autograph it. Maybe one day I'll have Peter's too.

Now we are introduced to Starscream voiced by the great Steve Blum. If you haven't seen the English dub for "A Cat in Paris", I highly recommend it. Blum is just fantastic in it. As for Starscream's design, I remember watching this and have no idea what I was expecting. Until the Michael Bay films, Starscream had always been recognizably Starscream. He might not have always had the same altmode (Yes, he was always a jet, but never the same kind, especially strange in my mind since I've looked it up and the F-15 Eagle is still in service, meaning unlike some characters, his altmode isn't exactly dated), then the 2007 film came and he has this head which is just not Starscream and it is the same here. I don't have the same problem with characters like Megatron because he hasn't always had a consistent design. Thankfully, Starscream's character is in tact with some variation.

Four minutes in and we have our first named casualty. Oh, God, I love it. I remember watching the 1986 film during lunch in high school with some friends and me being the only one who could actually identify them because I was such a big fan I watched the G1 episodes, I was on Unicron.com quite often. There were questions of how I knew all their names and an exclamation of "The medic?!" when I went "No! Ratchet!!" To me it hit more because I knew the names of these characters, but to someone who didn't they were just nameless casualties.

I kind of feel the same way in regards to Soundwave's design here as I do with Starscream's. It takes someone referring to him by name to know its him. I know he hasn't had many screen appearances, but his design is still recognizably him while this isn't, but on the other hand it looks so alien that I actually kind of like it.

The establishment of there being only five Autobots on earth now really makes you wonder how many others were lost. Its a nice touch.

And we are introduced to one of our human protagonists: Jack Darby. For obvious reasons, I head canon him as having gone dressed as Spider-Man one Halloween when he was younger, but for another head canon, just because, I have it that he eats shrimp with the tails. It drives both his mom and Miko crazy, Raf is indifferent and Fowler also eats the tails, thinking it adds a nice crunch.

I wonder if Arcee is the only who named their hologram driver.

While I do ship Jack and Miko, I had this head canon since before I started shipping them. June was asking if Jack was going to the dance because she'd heard someone was hosting a foreign exchange student, a girl, and thought Jack would go, meet her and hit it off. Miko was actually briefly at the dance, only to realize she felt like she didn't belong there without any friends and left soon after.

In regards to the "This is Jasper" line when Jack is told to be careful, I have the head canon that Jasper's most notorious crime was when its bank was being held up by a man wielding a taxidermy stork in the 1950's. For people who have lived there all their lives like Jack, June and Raf it is just a funny little story, but for someone like Miko she just has "WTF" flying through her head in big red letters. Sure, it sounds weird, but when your most notorious crime is some lunatic wielding a stuffed bird trying to rob a bank, what do you think is the worst that could happen?

Jack is so a motorcycle afficionado.

Ah, yes, Sierra (No Last Name) and... What was her name again?

And now we get into the action. A nice motorcycle chase, Bumblee gets into the action (my dad loved Bumbleebee) we are introduced to Raf (I have a soft spot for the glasses-wearing characters as I require them myself), it is a really good climax.

I would say robots that turn into cars is more accurate.

I actually don't have a problem with Bumblebee's more Bay film-inspired design. That is probably because due to a lack of screen appearances, unlike some characters, he didn't really have a set look. With this and "Animated" making it two for two, I'd say he has two looks.

Bumblebee accidentally stepping on Raf's toy car never fails to make me laugh.

Love how the Vehicons just call it them moment Bulkheard shows up.

And Optimus creates the Autobot Witness Protection Program.

Jack doesn't know what is going on. For all he knows, he and Raf are getting kidnapped by robots disguised as vehicles.

And now we are properly introduced to Miko, admiring the same motorcycle Jack was the day before. Fellow motorcycle aficionado?

And then Miko volunteered for the Autobot Witness Protection Program.

I love how indignant Ratchet sounds at the concept of someone having made the Autobots.

Having Megatron return is just the perfect way to end the pilot, especially since it heralds the return of Frank Welker as the character to television.

And that is the episode, great start. Thank you for reading this if you did.

[mdhwrites]

Another question for advice 👉👈

In a story, whats the difference between torture porn and tragedy? I hope it makes sense the question.

A LOT of this comes down essentially to tone. It's also admittedly a kind of subjective thing because what some people might see as overwrought might be genuinely appealing to others. There's also one more element: How is it framed?

This last one is kind of the only one that isn't going to be case by case and even that is iffy. See, the reason something might be labeled as torture porn isn't actually just that it's overdoing it on tragedy. The more correct label for that is melodrama, where you're just kind of shooting the moon when it comes to how awful things can get or overblown reactions. No, torture porn is put the way it is because of, well... Being akin to porn.

What is the difference between a PG-13 shower scene and an X rated one? Framing. In one, you focus on the narrative purpose of it, the character's thoughts, etc. like that. You're using it to advance elements of the overall work and not just for titilation. In an X rated shower scene though, it focuses on the body, lingers on the most erotic areas, has the person pose for the camera for the best angles and shots, regardless of if such behavior makes sense for the character, because the point is to provide titillation to the audience. It is meant to be the main attraction.

This is where the difference between a bad thing happening to someone and torture porn lies. When you find out some awful part of a character or something bad happens to them, it should make you more deeply sympathize with them. It should progress the plot. That is because tragedy like this is a narrative tool. However, if you look at say the Saw movies, there is technically a point to the self mutilation but much more of it is meant to be exciting and disturbing for the audience as part of the draw to the movie. We want to see how far these people will go in trying to survive because it's exciting and wild and that is part of why those movies get called torture porn. The torture is at least as much there for the sake of the audience as it is for the sake of the narrative, if not more.

This also extends to how things are labeled. I'm pretty sure I've heard someone label some runs of Spider-Man as essentially misery porn. Is it actually framing Peter's misery this way? Potentially not BUT going back to regular porn: If you're not getting off on this, what's the appeal? This is why this sort of labeling is used derisively. Oftentimes something being called this is just making up for a lack of story or compelling elements with big spectacle. Michael Bay's works come to mind for that and I'm pretty sure I've heard people give them similar titles to this because yeah, the point is more often about providing spectacle than it is a proper story.

BUT.

This is why I think you need to be aware of what you're going for. LOTS of people enjoy Michael Bay's movies. A lot of people feel a connection to Peter Parker's unending misery. The Saw movies are considered a horror movie staple for a reason. Even porn itself is enjoyed by many because hey, when the goal is to satisfy and entertain your audience, doing that in shallow but dramatic ways is not exactly a failure. In fact, it's a success. Is it best to manage this satisfaction while also providing deeper elements? Of course but if all you did was leave a dumb smile on someone's face and give them something memorable to think about in a positive manner...

For most entertainment, that is more than just success. That's the whole point. See you next tale.

======+++++======

The final paragraph is essentially why most critics will agree that a boring product is worse than a bad product. At least a bad one is unique enough to talk about and think about. A boring one will wash away in a week and just make you acutely aware of how you're wasting your precious time on this planet.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[away-ward]

wow, your latest qna about DN made me think, who is the most and least aggressive person in ranking? What do you think KO? How would you rank them? I think my top three would be damon/ emory/ michael. Now that you've mentioned about damon and emory, it reminded me of your past posts about their personalities and collaboration, how well they could work together without having any problems because they probably are pretty much on the same level of aggression and level-headedness, and only until now, i never actually realised that emmy IS pretty aggressive and dominant?

I dont think PD executed em's character well, but because of that qna, it made me zoom out of my understanding of DN and compare and contrast these characters, and surely, emmy really was pretty aggressive. Like why am i even shock, lmfaooo. I think other than PD not executing it well, emmy was also dealing with a lot of doubts and fear when it comes the "thunder bay" part of her life. We dont see her hesitating afterwards right? But then we dont see much of her overall. This also made me think thats why the train exchange between emmy, michael and kai had to happen. Or she will just leave again lmao.

like In comparison to banks who is outwardly pretty aggressive, but in actuality, she is more of a good follower of damon, her mom, gabriel and even kai in that hideaway bonus than a good enforcer (like you mentioned) or a pioneer, i feel like emmy is more aggressive in spirit than banks, i guess? Naturally, not just because of survival. Which also made me find banks & emmy's dynamic to be so interesting because on one hand we have emmy who looks laidback (we're talking about after nightfall) and banks who has piercing eyes, but in reality if push comes to shove, emmy would lead banks, not the other way around? Oh, wow? Or am i wrong? Like, do you get my vision, KO? It made sense right? And i feel so much headcanon can be done with that where banks could possiblly and finally get a close friend who she can follow who would catch her and lead her well rather than try to cage her all the time like everyone who's dominant than her in her life rn? Damn! We could've had that!!!

like the cocky laidback dominant nerd and her very prickly piercing submissive rule-follower/enforecer best friend? Like this friendship will be the first time where the use of the word "submissive" and "dominant" dont sound condescending because both banks and emmy can feel safe in their dynamics because they saw nothing wrong being either role, because! Theyre! Besties! And! Would! Kill! For! Each! Other! And put! Others! To! Jail! For! Each! Other! Omg? Noooo, like can you see the vision, KO? AHHHH! I remember watching larryreads's reaction to reading nightfall and she mentioned something about emmy being a shy nerd and i was like what? Did we read the same book, because the word shy or blush didnt even exist in nightfall. I remember emmy being described as ready-to-fight, cocky and stubborn, and quite flirt/spicy when she let go too (hence why emmy overpowered alex in their friendship dynamic, or even between emmy and aydin/damon), as oppose to banks who's very beautiful, prickly, super great boxing fighter, outwardly aggressive, steady reliable great worker who can also work in the dark, very loyal and honest. Im not saying they both dont possess these traits, im just saying one is more dominant than the others when it comes to these traits, especially in decision making. Emmy dngaf much about being shrewd or use lies and manipulation in a bigger scale, but banks did grew up being forward, straightforward and honest. And omg, another contrast!!

OMGGGGG If DN is famous, AO3 writers wouldve written them as that powerful feme duo, frfr. Ngl, banks and emmy really reminds me of Tristan and Dante from the dark verse series by runyx, where tristan is banks, and dante is emmy. Tristan is that dark, broody, killer and dante is the mediator and decider. Remind me of lana myers and jake denver, jake is emmy and lana is banks in terms of the do-er and the mastermind. Submissive and dominant. Not in the temperament all the time, but in overall characteristics and actions? And i just noticed too that We just dont see because emmy as being aggressive or pioneering because of side characters overtaking her povs in nightfall + her being introverted. But even then, i feel like emmy's voice still surface above them when it comes to decision making whether anyone agrees or not, which is why emmy can also be very divisive in the fandom, Which omg!!!! This brings back to that MBTI test, emmy really does sound like an INTJ, haha! And banks, ESTJ? ISTJ? Anyway, didnt emmy took a lot of control in fire night? From her conversation with will, her going after the evil guys, and talking to the cops. Yeah.

Like tbh im just running off with these ideas, that qna opens up a whole new discussion for the emmy x banks best friends agenda that i never thought of before. It also made me consider different types of aggression, like physical, emotional and thinking. And i feel like inner aggression (in spirit) would still dominate others. No matter how i see, i cannot see anyone being ranked above emory, damon and michael in terms of aggression. i feel like even kai ranks below them, because he can be neutral and passive sometimes. But thats the thing, theres no right or wrong or whos better or worse like emmy was better because shes dominant and banks was worse because she was submissive; theres just only the ranking, and it actually does open up to a deep dive of these characters' traits, and how they shape each others' dynamics. And if they really are family who fight for each other and cross anybody who comes after them, they were bound to trust each other with their temperament, strengths and weakneses sooner or later right? Rather than everybody doing whatever they want, the task divided by the the keader would be more efficiently done.

so what do you think of these? I dont rank will, rika and winter because i feel like theyre more on the submissive side. And i believe they fully enjoy their roles and have no priblem doing whatever works for the sake of their family. Not every one can and HAVE to be dominant, what one cant do, the others can. Thats what found family does right?

This ask is so exciting! Let’s get right into it. I’m going to save my ranking for the end, but I did have to spend some time thinking about it.

i never actually realised that emmy IS pretty aggressive and dominant? I dont think PD executed em's character well, but because of that qna, it made me zoom out of my understanding of DN and compare and contrast these characters, and surely, emmy really was pretty aggressive.

I’m not really sure why people started thinking about Emory as a smol shy bean, because she’s not passive in the least. In the past scenes, we met her when she’s quitting the swim team, and she says this is because she can no long wear the swim suit but she knows this is going to piss Martin off.

The thing is, she pisses Martin off on purpose on the regular as a way to rebel. She’s quiet about her abuse because she wants to remain close to her grandmother, and I’m not implying that she enjoys it by any means. Still, she knows Martin expects perfection from her, so she purposefully doesn’t brush her hair or iron her uniform. She lets the buttons fall off her cuffs. You can’t tell me Emory couldn’t figure out how to sew a button. She quits band, too. She does these things to intentionally irritate him.

She goes to her first period class; a senior class because they moved her up from the junior level because she wouldn’t shut up and stop challenging the teacher. Of course, there she doesn’t speak up much, but considering the subject matter, can we blame her? She still walks out without the teacher’s approval.

Emory likes showing off. She likes feeling like the smartest or most skilled person in the room. She thinks of herself that way, for the most part. Even when she gets to Blackchurch, and she doesn’t know anything about anyone there, she still thinks of herself as better simply because she’s not a criminal (which is funny for someone who previously watched a murdered happen, and helped bury a body, and vandalized a grave, and nearly committed grand theft auto, and so on, but the self-awareness is difficult when you’re in an unhealthy mental state). And despite being in a room full of criminals, she shows no hesitation in trying to best them because it’s what comes naturally to her.

I don’t think that PD told Emory’s story in the best way possible. However, a lot of what makes Emory who she is, is subtle and takes some digging and examining to understand. This could be said for all the characters, it’s just that I don’t like most of the characters enough to try to examine them this deeply. There is one bonus with PD not giving Emory a lot of attention – there’s less time to make her contradict herself as we see with Damon and Rika. As their characters get more and more light, some things make less and less sense.

Regardless, I agree with her that Emory is one of the most aggressive characters in terms of personality within the main crew.

We dont see her hesitating afterwards right? But then we dont see much of her overall. This also made me think thats why the train exchange between emmy, michael and kai had to happen. Or she will just leave again

At this point, I don’t think Emory had any plans of leave which is why she agreed to stay so easily. But it’s interesting that Michael said she was going to stay at St. Killian’s where they could watch her and she immediately refused that in a way that made it clear she would still be doing what she wanted.

Michael has to decide if it’ll be worth the effort it’ll take to exert his dominance over her, knowing she won’t go down easily. He backs off because it’s enough that she’s playing along.

I think he knows that he could overpower her if he wanted to. It’s just not worth the effort when she’s cooperating, which means he knows how much it would take to get her to do what he wanted. It’s an interesting dynamic.

In comparison to banks who is outwardly pretty aggressive, but in actuality, she is more of a good follower of damon, her mom, gabriel and even kai in that hideaway bonus than a good enforcer (like you mentioned) or a pioneer, i feel like emmy is more aggressive in spirit than banks, i guess? Naturally, not just because of survival

This is an excellent contrast.

Banks, in my opinion, is great at getting things done. She’s capable of calling the shots and making decisions. However, she’s also interested in maintaining the established order of things.

Maybe that’s why she wanted to be Senator, or was at least willing to go along with it. Coming into the group, there was already a dynamic at play. Michael was the leader, Kai his second, Rika his girl. She’s coming in under Kai and Damon. There’s a structure to the way the group works.

She isn’t afraid to call it how she sees it, which makes her useful to Michael. Kai is much to interested in keeping things agreeable. For instance, in the Hideaway deleted scene when he almost doesn’t tell Will why they’re meeting without him. He doesn’t want to alienate Will or make him feel bad for his behavior, even though his behavior has been pretty undesirable from a business standpoint. Banks doesn’t have that issue.

Still, she doesn’t want to disrupt the order, so she sticks to her role and doesn’t challenge it. Being a Senator gives her a space where she’s the one in control. It’s a different structure than what she’s walked into with the Horsemen.

In terms of how aggressive they are in getting their opinions across or getting their way, I do agree that Emory is more aggressive than Banks.

if push comes to shove, emmy would lead banks, not the other way around? Oh, wow? Or am i wrong? Like, do you get my vision, KO? It made sense right?

I think what we’re talking about is a battle of wills. Banks is straightforward, while Emory is more reserved, but both are loyal and value their relationships, so it could be that with each other they’d bend a little.

What you’re saying does make sense, but I think the way I’m interpreting it is that Emory, insisting on her idea and visions, gets her way if only because Banks doesn’t want to fight it. It’s not something she’s motivated to do, and she’s fine giving Emory the room to be the lead in their relationship.

because both banks and emmy can feel safe in their dynamics because they saw nothing wrong being either role, because! Theyre! Besties! And! Would! Kill! For! Each! Other! And put! Others! To! Jail! For! Each! Other! Omg? Noooo, like can you see the vision, KO?

I agree that there’s nothing insulting about they’re dynamics. I really do thing that they work because there’s nothing negative about the way they approach each other. They’d support each other undoubtingly, but give each other room to be themselves.

When they���re at they’re best, I think Banks is more subdued and accepting than Emory is. Like I said above, Banks is more outgoing and straightforward, but Emory’s opinions on things are stronger, so I think Banks would let her have her way.

However, if it did come to a point where they were on opposite sides of an issue, Emory would probably hold out longer than Banks. Unlike Michael, I don't think Banks would be able to subdue Emory if she wanted to. I also just don't think Banks would ever want to.

Additionally, regarding what you said at the start about my analysis of Damon and Emory’s relationship – I think if a difficult situation arose, Banks would seek out the others before acting, whereas Emory and Damon would know what needs to get done and silently do it without involving the others. They’re not going to wait for confirmation, or for the crew to debate, or wrestle with their conscience. They know what the hard decision is and they’ll make it without needing to discuss it. Banks could make the difficult choice too and be confident in it, she would just talk to the others first. That's the difference.

If DN is famous, AO3 writers enver written them as that powerful feme duo, frfr. Ngl, banks and emmy really reminds me of Tristan and Dante from the dark verse series by runyx, where enver is banks, and dante is emmy. Tristan is that dark, broody, killer and dante is the mediator and decider. Remind me of lana myers and jake enver, jake is emmy and lana is banks in terms of the do-er and the mastermind

Unfortunately, I don’t know any of these references. I mean, I know where they come from, but I haven’t read any of those so I can’t confirm. However, if someone else has thoughts you’re willing to share, please jump in.

This brings back to that MBTI test, emmy really does sound like an INTJ, haha! And banks, ESTJ? ISTJ?

Ah, yes the MBTI. I never heard back from the person who asked me to clarify, but I guess I’ll take the chance now.

When I started looking at my original answers, I was overcome with this feeling that Banks was an Extrovert. But that didn’t make any sense; Banks as an extrovert? So I started reading scenes with her exclusively, and I realized that… yeah, there’s a good chance for it.

What I did from there was go to MBTI-Notes, which is a blog here on tumblr, and instead of going directly to the types to see which one “fit”, I went through the functions and through process of elimination, narrowed down which function seemed to be expressed through the character’s POV chapters. From there, I built a stack that formed a type. I then went to the type to see if it worked.

Understandably, most worked… if you take into account the types when they’re in “grips” or “loops” (are we really surprised that all of the characters fall in the unhealthy range for their type). Anyway, being stuck in a grip or loop can change the way you’re personality presents outwardly.

Through this method, I determined Banks was an ESTJ, and here is the page for that. With Emory, I came to the conclusion she was INFJ.

But I encourage you to go through the functions and see what you come up with. There were definitely times I was on the fence for all the characters, so it’s up for interpretation.

Like tbh im just running off with these ideas, that qna opens up a whole new discussion for the emmy x banks best friends agenda that i never thought of before.

That’s really the reason why I continue to post these asks. It opens up the conversation, allows people to see a different interpretation and think about it. Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t. But it gets the conversation started.

No matter how i see, i cannot see anyone being ranked above emory, damon and michael in terms of aggression. i feel like even kai ranks below them, because he can be neutral and passive sometimes. - theres no right or wrong or whos better or worse like emmy was better because shes dominant and banks was worse because she was submissive; theres just only the ranking, and it actually does open up to a deep dive of these characters' traits, and how they shape each others' dynamics

Exactly! It’s only natural that people have different strengths and weaknesses. I love when it’s clear that a group works because they rely on each other and make up for each other’s lack, and no one is made to feel ashamed for it.

Anyway, my ranking of characters in terms of how aggressive their personality it:

These three take the top, as you said. The way that I see it, them wanting things they're way is a driving force in all they're stories. They’re competitive, and hate losing. In fact, I think they feel the pain of losing more than they feel the satisfaction of winning, and that's what drives them.

Damon

Michael

Emory

Damon comes first for obvious reasons, Michael comes second because he keeps Damon in line, and then Emory because while I don’t think she can control Damon, she won’t be steamrolled by him either. And that says something. And since these three can handle each other, we know anyone else is a breeze.

Banks because she’s upfront about it. Then comes Will because he can be aggressive when he’s pushed to it. But also the whole Blackchurch, faking being subdued while he was actually waiting for the moment to take control, which he was planning and preparing for… he’s not as submissive as he wants people to believe he is.

Banks

Will

Kai

Also, the moment in Emory’s house when he tells her that Martin needs to know about him, that he’s her man now? All Will wanted was to get Martin in the same room so he could stack his claim on Emory. There's something about that assertiveness that gives Will and duality the other's don't have. His in the middle of assertive and passive, but he knows what he's doing and he isn't ashamed of it.

Kai is sixth in line because he can be aggressive, but he likes to do it in secret. It's not something he utilizes, and I think in a situation where the others above him might become aggressive, he might still choose to take a passive approach for reasons only he knows (or perhaps doesn't).

Rika has more aggression than Winter, but she’ll bow to any one of the others if they were to go head-to-head. I think it’s probably clear that any battle she wins, is because the other person decided it wasn’t worth the fight.

Rika

Winter

Same for Winter but I think she knows that, where as Rika honestly believes she’s dominating at times.

This was an interesting topic and I hope there's more to come! Thank you!!

-ko

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: Fast X

By now we know what to expect from the Fast franchise. We expect it to be entertaining while absolutely physically impossible for the majority of the stunts and action sequences on screen to practically be done. I believe the last time anything on screen was particularly grounded in reality was Fast Five and then it officially started going off the rails with Furious 7. At this point this franchise has gone from the classic street racing of exotic and flashy custom cars to now international special operations. This "family" should just honestly just open up their own private security or private military company. Fast 9 truly went too far in trying to deliver a spy thriller that was truly too much and teetered on the level of a Michael Bay film. Luckily, this film learned from the mistakes of that film and actually tried to focus on a story. The insane action and ridiculous amount of family quotes are there, but this was dare I say, more toned down than the last few entries of the franchise. The cast of characters continues to grow and some were fun and some others felt shoved in for no reason. Also, there is an abundance of magic that happens in this film where somehow a character just appears without any explanation or origin.

Like I said the cast keeps growing in these films so I'm just gonna highlight the ones that actually stood out. Vin Diesel continues to lead the franchise as Dominic Toretto and I liked that he starts to actually show some worry this time around. He takes to the role of fatherhood very well in a number of scenes, but he can't help himself and somehow gets back in the action. Michelle Rodriguez is always fun and as Letty, she gets to have her moments to kick ass in the last half of the film. Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson and Nathalie Emmanuel return as the fun hacker trio Tej, Roman Pearce, Ramsey and they continue to have the best chemistry in the more comedic scenes. Sung Kang returns as Han and he doesn't really have much to do until he finally faces off with Jason Statham's character, Deckard Shaw. Its not the fight we dreamed of, but a decent fight and eventual team up.  John Cena returns as Dom's brother Jakob and he is a far step away from the tough and stoic nature he was from the previous film. He was still fun to watch though and did what he does best in the action and comedic set pieces. Alan Ritchson was so much fun and excellent as the new Mr. Nobody's Agency leader, Aimes. He isn't as predictable as he may seem and he fits in the fold of the franchise so well. Brie Larson was good as the daughter of Mr. Nobody, Tess. She reminded me why I like her as an actress and she was definitely having fun throughout the film. Charlize Theron returns as the fun and villainous vixen Cypher. She continues that cunning and quiet sinister charm to her personality and I loved that she wasn't the only villain on the roster. Jason Mamoa was a complete maniac of a rockstar as Dante Reyes. If there was ever a villain that felt shoe horned, but then evolved into something memorable, he would be the very definition. He is flamboyant yet unpredictable and vicious in his devilishly playful nature. I loved that he played mind games with Dom and others as his words always had multiple meaning. He is too good for this franchise and he lets you know it with all the genuine fun he is having.

The score by the great Brian Tyler keeps the adrenaline pumping in all the action scenes and brings back all the familiar themes he created throughout the series. The action in this film is on par with the absolutely ridiculous and over the top nature this franchise has turned into. Even with that said, I couldn't help but notice that there was an actual effort to tone it down this time. Yeah sure you have the pinball machine sequence in Italy and then the Dam sequence, but for the most part, it was actually believable. I think the team behind these films realized the problem and are slowly going back to basics maybe. There was an actual race in this film and it was the most tension fueled race I've seen in this franchise since the fourth film. There are so many moments where people just show up out of nowhere and the pacing of this entry was very quick which was a plus. Overall, I found this entry to be easily entertaining and without the amount of idiocracy of F9. There is a character that returns and you'll ask yourself how and I hope in Fast 11 they actually explain it instead of the nonsensical way they did with Han. Do stick around for the mid credit scene that has a surprise, but with the launching point of the story of Fast Five, you'll know who it is immediately. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

[technodromes]

Excuse me, I know that it's Bishop's day, but can I just say how much I love how you portray Bebop, Rocksteady and their bond with each other?? It's so wholesome, but at the same time it doesn't hide the problematic / destructive parts that they both have. They stick to each other's side and stand with the other no matter what, down to the end. That's real fucking relationship goals, even the part where they encourage each other's bad sides, and no one can convince me of the opposite u-u

// Aww thank you! ❤ ❤ I will always have a soft spot for Bebop & Rocksteady. I wrote them already last year for quite a while and established a couple things about them as I went during that time. No matter who they serve or how bad things go, they always have each other at least. They had a big fight once in the IDW comics that separated them for a whole year, but they apologized to each other and are tighter buddies ever since. There's a couple more plot points about them that I yoinked out of the comics that I cherish tbh. Just like they adopted N'sho-v into their gang. But it always annoyed me how little love they got from most writers in the past. Especially the '83 series, unfortunately. No individual personalities to distinguish the two, no character developments, they were just the big bad punching bags for the Turtles. And the writers completely left them out in the 2003 series (another reason why I might have slight beef with the '03 era actually) But credit where credit is due, they have been written okay in a bunch of IDW's issues and had great personalities in the 2012 series. Michael Bay did Bebop & Rocksteady great as well (they were the best thing about that second movie and the only reason I would rewatch it again tbh). I'm not sure how Seth Rogen goes about them in his movie this year, but considering he voices Bebop, I have high hopes that they don't just get cheaply beaten and swept under the rug afterward.

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Ok so I watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (SPOILERS)

I guess this is Michael Bay’s soft retcon of the Transformers franchise since this is meant to be a sequel of sorts to the Bumblebee movie. Which I did really enjoy. This one was like a 7/10 if I put it all together.

The whole arbitrary angry robot alien coming to take over Earth with his equally angry main henchman doing his dirty work is kind of how all the transformers films go in terms of plot lines so that was kind of whatever. You don’t really come to a Transformers movie for the plot anyhow. You hope for some good action sequences and maybe some fun character moments.

I feel like a lot what of the individual characters in RotB had going on was a lot of fun but the character relationships felt a little lacklustre to me.

Like in Bumblebee you could see the connection between Charlie and Bee but that’s always been something Transformers has done well. Bumblebee is a staple and has often been the main Autobot and so we all hold affinity towards him. He’s the robot we can relate to and is our tie in to the story. Optimus isn’t quite that. He’s more a tie in to the world building, the sage mentor-instructor who expositions everything, and also gets to have his badass leader moments and epic speeches.

But regardless there’s always a really strong human-bot relationship, usually between MC and Main Autobot, which previously has almost always been Bee (I confess I have not seen the Mark Wahlberg Transformers movies).

This time it was Noah and Mirage (I see y’all with the shipping tags, I salute you but for right now I’m sitting in a more bros vibe XD). Noah and Mirage and to an extent Noah and his brother, had the most chemistry in the movie. Each of their scenes had fun, had natural banter, and then they brought down that banter to something sweet and heartfelt and I genuinely felt sad when Mirage “died”. Part of that was because we see Noah and his brother’s bond, and Mirage gets to see that bond, and so we kinda see Noah’s brother through Mirage. And we all know we love to see a goofball who has a serious moment. Mirage parroting back the same words Noah always said to his brother just ties in that bond and makes Noah feel that much closer to Mirage. So yeah the “death” scene was sad. It led to a goofy ass moment where they got Mirage to turn into an iron man suit for Noah and I was honestly like wtf is happening.

But I would argue they were the best dynamic in the movie.

They kept trying to have Noah and Optimus be mirrors of each other but it was a lot more showing not telling. They sacrificed a lot of that good storytelling of demonstrating their similarities in favour of big explosions. If they had axed the exposition at the start, and made the Maximals like a big surprise later on that hey we’ve been here all along and now we’ll exposit some info on you, that could’ve given them a lot more leeway to building those mirrors between Noah and Optimus.

Like again you’re not going to a Transformer’s movie for the story, but I will say the first couple of movies did a lot in the way of demonstrating the chemistry between Bee and Sam Witwicky and why Optimus saw potential in Sam and why Mikaela was drawn to Sam.

Like I could see how Optimus’s personality had subtly shifted. He was still wise and delivering banger lines. But he was also tired, frustrated, angry, distrustful and I genuinely found that so interesting given how we’ve known him in the past. They’ve kind of paired down on Optimus’s visual scale. Like he used to be freaking huge, as tall as buildings. Like Sam was like half the height of his head. Which I do miss. They really make you feel the size and majestythat are the Autobots in the earlier movies, specifically Optimus Prime, who is a living legend by all accounts. But if that means we get more depth to his character outside of knowledgeable and understanding old veteran, then I’m all for it.

And again we see a lot of Noah’s home life but they just don’t quite go far enough to make it home how difficult he has it, and leave a lot to be assumed. But you see enough of how it is and how tough he has it. But then he’s suddenly raring to go in saving the world and yeah I guess they tie that in to wanting to keep his family safe but it did feel kinda abrupt. And that’s definitely a scripting issue. Some of the lines and line delivery was very stiff and uncomfortable. I think the cast tried their best but some of the more heartfelt lines or intimate moments felt very monotone. When it was Noah on his own kinda just reacting to the situation, it felt much more natural. But the exchanges between characters didn’t flow as smoothly as they could have.

That said, we got enough of two characters to understand them. But you can’t pit them against each other as being similar to each other without banking on more dynamic interactions between them or demonstrating how they individually mirror each other.

Like I said. The individual characters were enjoyable enough. I liked Optimus’s tired dad vibe. Noah was a decent MC. But there could have been a few different avenues they could have taken in letting Optimus and Noah see eye to eye.

Show Noah not immediately trusting Mirage and the Autobots but slowly building that rapport. He was taken aback by Mirage at first and then immediately made peace with his presence. Show me how that dynamic shifts so that the sad “Mirage dies” moment feels earned. And while you’re doing that show Noah going out of his way to save an Autobot when he could’ve escaped. Show Optimus placing trust in a human BEFORE the trans dimensional space key thing gets stolen. Then they have the big apology moment where Optimus says he should’ve trusted Noah and yadda yadda big team up moment ensues.

Also just a weird side bar. I’m sure they talked like this in the 90s (I’m a 98 baby) but the part where Noah goes “squad up!” Kinda took me outta the immersion for a second. Also it felt so awkwardly placed. Like potentially adlib but idk. At no point had I seen Noah having demonstrated leadership skills or authority where he can just order around the Maximals/Autobots like that. I mean he wasn’t, but there was no gravity to his words. Like if he had said that to me, I wouldn’t immediately jump into formation. Not to mention it was followed up by really poor line delivery where he said something like “there’s gotta be something we can do. Just think” and it had no urgency to it… then in comes Optimus Primal who delivers his line so much better like “it’s too late” and I’m out here like I believe him.

Tbh the action moments were fine. Could be desensitisation to big scale fights bc we’re so over saturated with them now. The whole iron man suit moment was just goofy as hell and when he somehow managed to catch Optimus and stop him from being sucked away?? Like Optimus Prime. The dude as big as skyscrapers?? The dude who was carried by helicopter??? That part was absurd.

Bringing it back to Bumblebee. I think the best thing they did for this story was to take Bumblebee out of it so that a new Autobot could have his time to shine they wanted this to be about Mirage and Optimus interacting with Noah and they got that chance. Now don’t get me wrong. Even if I knew it was a fake out death, Bumblebee dying made me upset and him coming back brought a lot of joy back to the story. Like we love a comeback moment (cue that song XD). The moment could’ve been a touch more devastating to make his come back more powerful. But it was a lot of fun when he did come back and there’s a reason he’s such a compelling character and a staple fave of Transformers.

But had he been there, it would have taken away from what I have already said to be the best character dynamic in the movie which was Mirage and Noah. It would have turned into another Bumblebee movie. I do like the tie in to the Bumblebee movie and mentioning his history with Charlie. That was cute.

I didn’t mind Alana/Elaina/Alayna (I have no clue how her name is spelt). I enjoyed her most in her initial intro showing her historical knowledge and then she was given some of the driest lines to deliver. Idk if it’s her acting but her dialogue was clunky and uncomfortable.

All in all. Average action movie. Some nice moments. Wasn’t expecting a GI Joe tie in but sure. 7/10

[steampunkforever]

13 Hours was a movie I only watched because I read the book, and the book was frankly better.

Part of this comes from the lack of nuance in the movie. The book delivered a brief but informative background for the motivation behind the Libyan conflict that led to the murder of the ambassador and attack on the US Annex in Libya, the movie did little to explain it other than “Gadaffi gone = unrest, see also: Somalia.”

The movie definitely tried to drop into the shoes of films like American Sniper where you ignore the larger scope of the conflict and stay glued to the personal development of the characters, but unlike American Sniper, it failed to attempt artistic elevation, instead choosing sensationalist Michael Bay action. Which makes sense because it was directed by Micheal Bay himself.

The Bayhem is what really made it unenjoyable for me. Not that I dislike guns-blazing action at all, but having read the book first the action star treatment felt overdone and tacky considering that Benghazi was a tragedy stemming from poor government leadership and dismal security protocols that allowed for the murder of a US Ambassador who was actively trying to help the country recover. What part of that situation calls for lensflare and overblown tough guy performances? There are ways to make an action focused film that respectfully commemorates those who lost their lives heroically, but this just felt tone-deaf about it.

I recall on the films release hearing someone mention how the movie was a moving portrayal of the attack and how everyone who watched it would condemn the US government for throwing the entire Benghazi delegation under the bus and laud the heroism of the handful of private military guys who stepped up to do what the Government wouldn’t and save American lives. I don’t disagree with the sentiment (Benghazi itself was a clearly preventable trainwreck) but this movie is not what would wake me up to that. The only way I’d look at this movie and question anything would be if the film made me read the book.

Nowhere in the film did it question why six mercenaries were the best hope for the Ambassador’s security, nor did it ask why the mercenaries were there in the first place. It didn’t even think to ask why the attackers were attacking, and its only condemnation of state dept. waffling was solidly placed on the shoulders of the CIA handler and didn’t even begin to question why things were so bungled higher up the chain. For a “condemnation” it seemed happy enough just showing bearded muscle men shooting scary looking foreigners and then crying when their guys got killed. Considering the comprehensive account of the debacle in the book, the whole movie feels empty.

Speaking of social impact, this movie was released in 2016, and calculatedly omits any mention of Hillary Clinton’s name in any part of the script, despite her involvement in the administrative decisions that resulted in the deaths of American citizens under her watch. I completely agree with the choice to shy away from making explicitly political art on an election year (always feels like a hack job) but I also think Bay’s a coward for not committing to the bit and going all the way. He was going to release it in 2016 anyway, why not take it one step further and do something REALLY funny? Instead we got an annoying military movie that wasn’t even about enlisted soldiers.

In the end, the movie isn’t even remarkable enough to impact an election and the biggest contribution it has to society is making people more aware that Mercenary “Operators” and special ops units are allowed to wear cool beards into combat. It’s a forgettable action flick that plays too loose and sensationalist with real world events to make me care.

The worst part of the entire film was the Mercedes Benz sponsorship that found them replacing all the interesting BMWs and Toyota Land Cruisers with shiny looking Mercedes sedans. I want my interesting cars gosh darn it! A single Land Rover Defender in the beginning doesn’t make it any better, and I feel robbed. Go read the book, the movie isn’t worth it.

[mrstransformersfanfiction]

Heroes season overview:

Season 1: (10/10)

I have absolutely no complaints on this season. I love how they come together.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

• Claire Bennet being related to the Petrelli huge family tree.

• Noah Bennet being Mr Bag and Tag.

• Nikki Sanders should not have been killed in season 2. She was so good with Jessica Sanders split personality was fun to watch. Altar ego personality is whew.

Season 2 is: (1/10) 🌟

• There's something about this season that's a little bit off putting. It could have been just me to be honest.

• Bob should have been kept alive in my opinion. He was actually a good character and definitely keep people in line compared to all the original founders.

• Maya's ability was very off putting and the script is very off as well. Maybe is just me but definitely least of my favourite movie.

Season 3: (7/10) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

It's a pretty okay season, average.

• I was definitely gutted when Daphne Milbrook was killed. They could have kept her alive. Do you notice how the writer likes to kill off good characters like a Michael Bay? 😂

Daphne suit being best friends with Ando Masahashi and Hiro Nakamura and Matt Parkman.

• Meridith meeting Nathan with Tracy Strauss, whew! 💜

• Hiro Nakamura getting called Pikachu twice 😂 I died laughing so hard! Never gets old. He does look like one! 💜😂

Tracy Strauss: Sorry, I got plans for this little piece of paper, Pikachu.

• Not a big fan on time travelling past when Hiro tried to save Charlie's life.

• I did not like how they make Peter Petrelli can only hold one at a time. Couldn't they have make him be able to take it back just like Arthur Petrelli?

• The future of Claire Bennet was wicked and scary. How she killed Peter Petrelli. 😳

• I did definitely like the idea of Gabriel Grey turning good. That was epic in season 4 how he was ten times powerful than Samuel Sullivan.

• I definitely like the background of Gabriel Grey and how he fought off against all the agents. He's the most powerful little shit and power stealer.

• because Mohinder Suresh became inhumane and I did not like the way the writers wrote how he became like a monster, like a freak.

Season 4: (8/10) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

• Definitely did not mind the fact Claire Bennet was kissing Gretchen.

• Gabriel Grey's background is absolutely blown away. Very well written of his past and why he's like that. They actually should have brought his dad and make Gabriel fight against his father in season 2. Join the good side. 💜😂

• Samuel Sullivan was a weird villain. 😳

• Why did they make Claire Bennet jump off the cliff?

I know is not a lot. But my it's my thought out for whole seasons.

[duckyfruitbat]

Spongebob: Cosmic Shake

There I was in the store when I spotted a copy of this game on the discount shelf and with baited breath I said out loud "yeah sure why not."

The Cosmic Shake is the first Spongebob game by Purple Lamp studios since Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. The story being that Spongebob bought a bottle of bath soap mixed with mermaids wishing tears from a mermaid who is described as a "snails oil saleswoman." She didn't think it would do anything until Spongebob started using it to try and grant as many wishes as possible. All these wishes create massive rifts in the fabric of reality that starts sucking nearly all of Bikini Bottom into multiple different worlds. Thus Spngebob and a now balloon Patrick must enter each world to save their friends and restore the town.

The game is set up like a metroidvania, each level has a main quest and many collectibles and challenges. There are multiple characters with set fetch quests in each level, there are challenges that can only be accessed by abilities learned later on. It gives you reasons to go back to each level, in a couple you actually get an optional quest after completing the story portion.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward and fairly easy to get into. For the most part it is building off of Battle For Bikini Bottom with some tweaks. There's the gliding move, which is a box of Krusty Krab pizza, a ranged bubble attack that stuns enemies, and a targeted karate kick that also acts as a way to move between platforms. The bosses are pretty fun, even if they are a bit simple and easy, King Gary forces you to use some strategy as he's sugar rushing. The final boss is a mutated Squidward that I'm starting to suspect was made using the scrapped Squidbot from BFBB. The most difficult one was against Pom Pom, a prehistoric Pearl, she has massive attacks that spread out across the entire arena and enemies spawn all throughout, things get busy.

This game does have a performance issue, at least on the PS4. There were many times when I'm going through a level, with no pop in, frame rate issues or glitches, when suddenly it freezes for a couple of seconds. This always made me very concerned, I was worried my play station was about to pop. It never crashed during those moments, so that was a relief, but it did like to test me with those freezes.

Writing wise, It is more of a piece of modern SpongeBob media, or in layman's terms, it's pretty up and down in writing quality. There were a few lines that made me laugh out loud, in the Halloween level there is some gag writing on a tomb stone for the persons famous last words, being "watch this!" A moment at the end of the western level had Mr. Krabs trying to stay until he started facing consequences for his actions and he turned on a dime.

You may have noticed that there is a lot of parody in this game, each level is parodying the genre it's themed after. For example there is a level that is a movie set for a karate movie, and each level also has its own version of the characters. The Squidward in this level is just Michael Bay, it fit his character really well. Each level does this in some way where it uses the setting to work off of the characters. It doesn't always succeed but when it does it's a lot of fun.

One place I want to point at where the writing falls a bit short is with the Glove World level. Here Glovy the park mascot is going a bit crazy from the isolation of falling into an alternate dimension. He kid naps Patrick in an attempt to get a friend all the while losing it. The level is full of pictures of SpongeBob and Patrick with Glovy's face pasted over SpongeBob's. My issue is that Glovy doesn't feel very unhinged. He's a bit too calm for someone who's supposed to be going insane. There are more scenes of SpongeBob going batshit insane in the actual show.

There are plenty of other writing issues like the continued flanderization of the characters, but the game is also very dependent on references. Sure all the games have plenty of these references, but this is getting a bit much. Sure they do stick out quite a bit, but they're gone as fast as they arrive, so it is not a deal breaker by any means.

It's not as good as Battle for Bikini Bottom, but this game is still pretty easy to pick up and play with plenty of fun to be had. If you can overlook some of the writing issues, enjoyment can be found here.