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jade-marie · 4 years

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GG 2x04 Rewatch

Not gonna lie, this is probably going to be the only episode I rewatch. The rest has been kinda tainted by 2x13 and s3.

Generally, my opinions tend not to line up with the majority of the fandom - sorry, not sorry.

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

It’s a tie between the bathroom break and the vette smash. Bathroom break - for obvious reasons - I’m a hoe and I live for that shit. The vette smash - I just vibe with Rio’s petty energy and the way you could see how much he was enjoying himself, Dean being metaphorically castrated by the guy who just fucked his wife... chef’s kiss.

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

I WISH beth would’ve bit back when Dean brought up the shooting. It irks me so much that she contnually rolls over for him. She spitefully gets payback, but rarely puts him in his place (if it were up to me, his place would be by boomer-jeff’s side in the dumpster)

3. This episode starts with each of the girls trying to make amends in their own way – Beth through her family, Ruby through charity and Annie through Marion. What do you think this tells us about each of them?

I feel like Beth and Ruby’s attempts at making amends always feel incredibly shallow and I can never tell if it’s down to shitty writing or if its because they genuinely don’t feel guilty. If’it’s the former - I’m not surprised. If it’s the latter - I hope the girls own their lack of remorse, in future.

Annie strikes me as the one who feels genuine guilt over a lot of this, and it’s been pretty consistent - even when Lucy died in S3. I think it makes sense for her to be the most cut up about it because she always struck me as someone who’s ruled by her emotions - she doesn’t exactly think before she acts, and is typically pretty impulsive.

4. Rio offers Beth the keys to the kingdom! This scene is always hotly debated in the fandom! What do you think he meant in the moment of it? Do you think he ever actually saw or even wanted Beth as a partner?

Straying from the general consensus, as usual - I don’t think he was playing her and I don’t think he planned to take a cut of whatever Beth came up with.

Personally, I don’t think it makes much sense. He’s already learnt that he gets further with Beth through praise and reward, as opposed to intimidation - more flies with honey, yada yada yada.

If the whole thing was just a manipulation it would have made more sense for him to convince her that he had faith in her and offer her a 25% cut of any cash washing operation she could come up with. She would’ve bit his hand off at the opportunity.

I think he was telling the truth when he said that he was done, I think he was genuinely flipping his game from cash to pills. At this point, Turner was looking closely and so it would make sense for Rio to want to distance himself from the counterfeit operation. He literally explained back in season one that it’s how he avoids being caught, he flips his game before the feds get too close.

I get the feeling that he probably didn’t intend to have much contact with Beth going forward and was going to leave her to do whatever she wanted with the rest of the money. It’s not that I think he wouldn’t manipulate her, he absolutely would. I just don’t really think it makes sense in this context.

5. Do you think Marion had any idea that Boomer was taking advantage of her?

I think it was probably similar to the situation with Beth, regarding Dean’s cheating: the thought was there, but she never really confronted the idea and lived in a comfy little denial bubble.

6. Dean’s attachment to the corvette is played in many different ways in s2! How do you interpret this?

I think it’s the perfect display of his narcissism and toxic masculinity. The car is as grandiose as his ego and he thinks it’s going to save the dealership, much like he thinks he’s going to be the one to save his family from ruin.

7. Why do you think Beth kept the money from Ruby and Annie?

I think she’s hugely manipulative and likes to be the be the one holding the cards. She only wanted to rob the store when she had her own problems to worry about and then convinced the girls to go along with it, she went to Rio to ask for more work back in season 1, she asked him to up their drops, the list goes on.

She tends to call the shots and drag them along for the ride, so it seems consistent with her personality that she’d keep the money to herself until she needed it, and then inform the girls.

8. The birth of the cars for cash business! Is this Beth’s best idea? Her worst? How do you rank it, both in general and among the girls’ other schemes? And do you think it could’ve worked longterm if Turner wasn’t so fixated on Beth?

Probably the best idea she came up with tbh. The others were pretty poorly thought through, as far as long term strategising goes. It could’ve worked really well if they had an accountant keeping the books looking kosher.

9. The Beth and Dean arc this episode is perhaps one of their most frustrating (in spite of the extremely cathartic resolution, haha). Do you think Dean’s belittling of Beth and his feelings of Beth emasculating him are new to their relationship or have been around for a long time? How do you think they really see each other?

I think they lived in a state of blissful ignorance and their initial interaction (love you, tunafish) was really indicative of that. Him belittling her was probably prevalent in the beginning of the relationship, but I think she probably just placated him and got on with her life. Now she’s clearly growing tired of his shit, just not. fast. enough.

I don’t think they’re in love though. I think Dean’s feelings for her are fuelled by narcissim. She’s obviously good looking and from the outside, he has it all. The house in the burbs, kids, hot wife, family business etc. That’s what he cares about - the image. I don’t think Beth is too dissimilar. I think she probably looked up to Judith as a teenager and idiolised that life, which Dean could provide. I don’t think she ever had deep, romantic, feelings for him. But she probaly does care for him, to an extent.

10. The Annie and Beth arc is also pretty telling of the characters’ history. It’s also one of the few times we’ve deliberately seen Beth seek out Annie for comfort (often it’s incidental that Annie’s there). What do you think this tells us about their relationship, both historically, and where they are at this point in the series?

I think it’s one of the few moments that their sibling bond is believable. It’s pretty accurate that, as Annie is maturing, she becomes less of a fuckup baby sister who needs everyone to clean up after her and grows into someone that beth can turn to for comfort/advice. Makes sense that this happens later in life, considering the significant age gap.

11. Ruby’s scene at the Quick Cash with JT is really significant – both in terms of it being a generally delightful scene, but also as a touchstone demonstration of Ruby’s increasing unwillingness to swallow her pride. Do you think Ruby prior to the series commencing would’ve reacted to JT’s goading in this way? And how do you think this scene compliments the scene earlier in the episode with Stan admitting he’s taken another loan too?

I thinks she would’ve wanted to, but literally couldn’t afford to. She had the means and opportunity to give him a dose of karma. But it’s always been in her nature to talk shit - diner dickweed in season 1. She refused to swallow her pride and apologise.

That, along with Stan taking another loan, seems to fit in well with the Hill’s entire arc of trying to be good people and being consistently shit on for it.

12. THE. BATHROOM. BREAK. That’s it. That’s the question. Please elaborate on your thoughts and feelings.

Am i supposed to be able to form thoughts or sentences that adequately express my feelings?

Petty king is also king of consent, he let beth take the lead - love it.

Judging from the papertowel dispenser, stroke game was strong.

Penis levitation is now a part of my vocab, thank you for your service, Rio.

10/10 - would definitely recommend being railed in a bathroom by this man.

13. Greg and Annie have what’s their last break-up in this episode (at least up until now). Why do you think this particular one stuck? And do you see any sort of future for them?

I feel like the key difference was Annie putting her foot down and saying “no”. Idk if I can see them getting back together, becasue I don’t think she’d have another affair when there’s a child in the mix and he’s too much of a pussy to divorce Nancy unless he has a guaranteed backup plan aka Annie. Still kinda ship it though.

14. Annnnd lastly, what do you make of the final scene at Boland Motors? What do you think Rio thought following both the bathroom break and this moment?

I think that Rio was genuinely flipping his game and moving away from cash and, in turn, Beth. But the bathroom break changed his mind, so he got curious and wanted to know what she came up with for the money, only to find out that she gave it to Dean. Given how possessive Rio is of his money, in combination with the feelings for Beth which had just been stirred up, I think his jealous side came out and he took back the money.

Up until this point, the entire Brio dynamic was him holding the power and exerting it whenever he saw fit. The second he followed her into that bathroom, he gave up whatever semblance of control or power he had left. The man is a very obvious control freak and so I don’t think he does well or feels secure in those situations. Him smashing up the car was basically an attempt to re-establish dominance and convince himself (and Beth) that he was still in control; with the added bonus of emasculating dean and making money.

And daaaayyyyyyyuuuuuuummmmm if I don’t enjoy watching that scene. The emasculation of Dean, Rio being petty, Beth malfunctioning at the possibility of Dean finding out she got dicked down in the bathroom, while he sat outside trying (and failing) to get the waiter’s attention. I DIE

#4am thoughts #rio's stroke game is obvs fire #would def care to experience it #dean is trash #hate him #die bitch #stan deserves the earth #petty ruby is iconic #annie is way smarter than anyone (including the writers) gives her credit for #gg rewatch 2x04 #gg rewatch

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torru369 · 2 years

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A Study of RWBY’s fallen weapons

Well with Volume 9 of RWBY on the way I would like to take a look at the fallen weapons of the titular team. The symbolism of each weapons status is likely going to run parallel with the team’s quest for identity in the coming Volume. That said lets start from the top.

1. Crescent Rose

Crescent Rose’s fall is unique in that it wasn’t intentional. It simply fell as Ruby failed to use both her weapon and the Staff of Creation at the same time and in the end lost both. The symbolism is quite clear, Ruby is torn between her belief in what a Huntress is and the burden of being one of those tasked with stopping Salem from gaining the Relics and it is destroying her mentally and physically. This distinction is made more important because just prior to this Weiss uses both her own weapon and the Staff to stop Neo. Weiss also has the distinction of not being separated from her weapon, showing that her duties as a Huntress and her own ambitions to restore the Schnee family are not in contention.

2. Hush

Neo’s lost weapon shares a fate with its master, discarded by Cinder when Neo’s drive to kill Ruby for Torchwick had run its course for Cinder. Rather importantly Neo was separated from Hush by Ruby when she outmaneuvered Neo when she had so confidently had her at her mercy. This point is rather important, showing that Neo has forsaken the real reason she fights for petty vengeance and it has left her with nothing. The Volume teaser shows Neo attacking Ruby with her bare hands, sacrificing her own identity and still having nothing to show for it. If Neo does not see herself for what she really is and what she wants to become I don’t believe she will be leaving Ever After.

3. Gambol Shroud

Lastly Blake’s signature weapon has a rather depressing new feature, its once iconic ribbon has been burned in half. This has rather dark implications for the Faunus princess, as the ribbon symbolizes Blake making connections and reaching ever farther. Now her connections have been severed and even those who have endeavored to fight in her stead have fallen, proven by the fact that it does not fall as a consequence of the gateways closing but Weiss being unable to hold onto it while fighting for her. Importantly Blake has not lost all of Gambol Shroud, the sheath still remains with her. Most weapons sheath’s are supposed to be places where one can leave them in peace but Blake’s have a blade integrated within them giving the impression she is never truly at peace and expects combat in the most pristine of areas. A sentiment that has actually wrung true for her, as every place she has called home thus far has come under attack. I believe that a change in her sheath may be incoming for her.

And that’s that for the fallen weapons. And I may as well take a look at Yang. Ember Cellica has not been broken, even the artificial limb has kept together despite everything Yang has been through. This is likely because the reason that she became a Huntress has not turned and broke her. While her adventures have taken her many places that she would rather not have gone she still believes in tomorrow and rushed in to be the protector and guardian she envisioned herself to be without hesitation, just more aware of what may happen to her. Right now a break in her weapon or artificial limb would take more then her being in a strange land with no idea how to leave. What that may be we will wait and see.

#RWBY #rwby theory #Ruby Rose #crescent rose #weiss schnee #blake bellodona #Gambol Shroud #yang xiao long #Ember Celica #neopolitian (rwby)#Hush (RWBY)

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thefairyletters · 3 years

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HOLY SHIT DID YOU HEAR SASUKE RETSUDEN IS GETTING ITS OWN MANGA ADAPTION PROMISING PLENTY SS?!!!!!

It's all over Twitter!

Look at them!!! Sakura and Sasuke fighting side by side ❤️😭 there'll be romance in prison and iconic moment where sasuke makes a ruby ring because he is petty and jelly

As announced in Jump Festa 2022 event, Sasuke Retsuden will be made into manga by Shingo Kimura. Alongside, Konoha Shinden is also getting its manga adaption, by Natsuo Sai.

#sasusaku #ss family #haruno sakura #uchiha sasuke #sakura x sasuke #manga #sasuke retsuden #i would be lying if i say im not excited

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gracy-simsie · 2 years

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Tagging game

I was tagged by @queenofvraquin ♥ Thank you !

Why did you choose your URL?

Well, my name is Grace and I wanted something similar to my name, so here you go! But I've felt like changing it back to one of my old names from my old blogs!

How long have you been on Tumblr?

Poe I've had this blog since 2021, but... I've been on here for a while, I looked it up and it since 2013! I was so smoll when I started here, I was a little shocked when I found out haha. My previous names were @ambrosiay @lagraziasims @lagraziana maybe someone knows me when I went by those blogs haha! The reason I changed blogs was mostly due to me being sad a lot of the blogs I followed were inactive (because I was gone for a year for example), so started fresh and new felt like the right thing to do! No worries, I am not gonna change anymore :P.

Do you have a queue tag?

No, I do queue my posts, but no tag for it ;).

Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I don't remember so well - cuz wel 2013 haha - I believe it was because I used to post ingame pictures on the sims 3 website and then somebody on there said something about a simblr and tada I found my place!

Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

Because Ruby is my currrent obsession ♥

Why did you choose your header?

What's your post with the most notes?

I really didn't know so I used an online counter >.<! It was a post I made about looking for story telling simblrs, and ofcourse people love to find new stories and share their own!

How many mutuals do you have?

I am ... I am really not sure, so I counted them 63! :)

How many followers do you have?

268! Thank you for being interested in my stories and gameplay guys! ♥

Have you ever made a shitpost?

Oh Yes, when I see something I posted a long time ago, I am like fhghjjgfgh did I really think it was good? But well, on the positive side I like to keep those shit posts, because they remind me I grew a lot! Also nostalgic !!

How often do you use tumblr every day?

A lot haha, I have it on my phone. I use it more than my instagram or any other social media, because they just don't interest me as much :P.

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

You won't believe this, but no. When I was younger I ignored hate anons, because I thought why would I take the time to answer some petty ask when I could interact about nicer and more important things ;). TBH I don't know if it's because I notice different things now I am older, but I do like that people stand behind certain opinions or facts as of late. It is really interesting to read and I feel like I learn more, you know? I am not gonna interfere with it myself though, I am not certain I would be able to fully explain things in English. Sometimes I just need my passionate and harsh dutch words and phrase haha!

How do you feel about 'you need to reblog this' posts?

I see it more as a nudge than as a real obligations. It's still your own blog and I think people should post what they feel like. But I do confess I always read them, because most of the time those are very interesting real cultural, political etc. topics.

Do you like tag games?

Yes I do!

Do you like ask memes?

Haha, yes. As I said in other posts I like to talk. I have no filter in the amount I comment to people. I hope you are all okay with that, because that's not gonna change anytime soon! ;)

Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

I need a picture of a meme I saw rolling on my dash as of late...

Do you have a crush on a mutual?

No! I need to actually get to know someone before I can crush on someone! But I do sometimes crush on some of their sims for example @buglaur Theo , @gothoffspring Jet & @simgerale Sheridan 🥺🥺

I tag @simgerale , @buglaur, @alicesimblr & @gerbitfizz ! No worries of you don't want to or have already done it !

#tag game #text #saviorhide

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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Nitpick Number 11 - In honor of Red (Taylor’s Version) dropping in ten minutes, let’s talk about the music in RWBY.

You know, I might consider this *not a nitpick* considering that the music can make or break a scene, but I do remember seeing a post talking about how RWBY critics who criticize the music in the last couple of seasons clearly just don’t understand it, so yeah, I’m counting this as a nitpick out of pure pettiness.

So! The music is one of the first things that made me like RWBY, it was used well, it was super iconic, and most of the songs were enjoyable, with none that I just out and out didn’t like. Admittedly, from the start, there have been moments where I thought “they tried way too hard here,” like the rap in Burn or... Dream Come True, which is my least favorite song in the first three seasons, but the occasional hokey-ness and cringe kind of weirdly fit the show? Like, it wouldn’t be RWBY if you didn’t occasionally go “Oh no, what is that?”

But, there were some annoying things about the music from the start, like Red Like Roses being so Summer-centric while the writers forgot to make Summer matter to Ruby for six or seven years of show, or all of Pyrrha’s songs being centered around Jaune, or making From Shadows hit hard when they had no intention of properly addressing the mistreatment and oppression the Faunus had dealt with forever. But on the whole, great music that I still love listening to! Season four had some really good songs too and I think they’re all good, even though bmblb makes me annoyed, so I skip it every time. Season five? More good songs, though sometimes used weirdly or not quite fitting situations or with the occasional line I didn’t like, but on the whole, good. I’ll tell you what, though, at this point I’d started to get annoyed. How come there were at least four clearly Weiss centric songs and all Ruby had was still the Red Like Roses songs, one of which was clearly just about all four mains and the other one heavily featuring themes that at the time still didn’t connect to Ruby, because we’d had no reason yet to think she even remembered Summer and they were even neglecting her in Yang’s storyline? How come so many mains like Jaune, Ren, and Oscar still hadn’t gotten a song of their own, and Nora’s only song was just tied to her romance? And then there were songs I didn’t really care much for, like the Triumph and Ignite that were fine and I liked well enough, but weren’t anything special.

And then season six hit. And I liked exactly three songs that weren’t remixes of old songs. Miracle, One Thing, and Forever Fall. And ‘Forever Fall’ bugged me even though I like listening to it because it was still a Pyrrha and Jaune song when neither of them had gotten a non-romance centric song. And One Thing and Miracle were good, but not great, nothing extraordinary, and I might’ve just liked One Thing because I was so happy to get Neo back and it was tacked along to one of the better songs we’d gotten in seasons. The other songs? Not so much. I hate Big Metal Shoe, Lionize just makes me mad, Nevermore is ugh, and Indomitable and Rising are just... There.

And guys, I swear, I’ve tried and tried to listen through the whole volume seven soundtrack and every time I try, I end up bored, annoyed, missing the old RWBY, and turning it off to listen to something that isn’t going to grate on my nerves. I can’t think of one song off the top of my head that I really enjoy, and I especially dislike all the ‘fun’ songs. And as for volume eight, I actually haven’t heard any of the released songs in full, because I haven’t liked any of what I have heard but for Awake, and I was so put off by volume seven’s music that I can’t find it within me to care about anything but that one song that my sisters listen to still. I can’t care about Nora’s first none romance driven song, I can’t care about Penny getting a song that I’ve heard is heavy on the Pinocchio references and Ruby worship, I can’t care about the possibility of a new Qrow song, I can’t care about whether or not Ruby actually gets a song that matters to her or if Oscar or Ozpin or Ren or Jaune finally get a song that’s about them... This show managed to kill my enthusiasm over the music, and while I had eagerly looked up RWBY songs trying to hear what was new in season six before the album dropped, now I’m just...

I’ll also point out that some of the songs are a bit out of place in volume seven I feel like. For example, why is Trust Love the theme song in the volume where they abandoned and betrayed their allies after distrusting one of them for the better part of the series, going behind his back, and still showing nothing but coldness, disinterest, and a complete lack of sympathy towards Ozpin? Also, that song is grating. Why is Brand New Day allegedly a song about Blake and Qrow becoming better when Blake was pushed to the sidelines and made into nothing more than ‘Yang’s potential gf’ while Qrow’s actual recovery was rushed and then he was just thrust back into despair?

Also can someone please rescue me from the song ‘Celebrate?’ Gross. And I also would like to formally say, on the record, that Let’s Get Real makes me upset. The music in RWBY used to be one of the things I liked best about the show.

#rwde #nitpick november #rwde nitpicks #rwby nitpicks #anti rwby #crwby hate #rwby bashing

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laufire · 2 years

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May Stuff

Writing progress

-frostbite blues. The Snow Queen; Gerda & Robber Girl & The Princess & The Snow Queen. Written for the Once Upon a Fic exchange. 1.5k, T.

-snapshot. Supernatural; Miriam. Written for heaven-ecologist’s angel appreciation week. 300 words, T.

Excerpts:

-Silver & Max introspection. Black Sails, Petty Silver WIP.

Edits:

-Various icons: Bangel in the Buffyverse, Dutch/Yalena Yardeen in Killjoys, Lola in Reign, and Helly R in Severance.

-Apocalypse!Michael + true form / powers / vessel, for @heaven-ecologist angel appreciation week. Supernatural, gifset.

-Anael + masks & facades / secrets / lies, for heaven-ecologist’s angel appreciation week. Supernatural, animated graphic.

-Naomi + home / family / tradition, for heaven-ecologist’s angel appreciation week. Supernatural, graphic.

-Anna + torture / betrayal / orders, for heaven-ecologist’s angel appreciation week. Supernatural, animated graphic.

-Miriam + apocalypse / civil war / the fall, for heaven-ecologist’s angel appreciation week. Supernatural, animated graphic. Comes with a ficlet.

-Flagstaff + redemption / sacrifice / faith, for heaven-ecologist’s angel appreciation week. Supernatural, gifset.

-Serafina + new experiences / wishes / heaven ecology, for heaven-ecologist’s angel appreciation week. Supernatural, animated graphic.

—

FOR REFERENCE:

List of all my WIPs.

I’m mainly putting it here for whenever I post an ask meme about WIPs (although feel free to ask me questions about them whenever). I’ll update it if there’s any changes.

books read + shows watched + films watched in 2022

Previous months:

January | February | March | April

Finally, this upcoming month I'm organizing a little event for my birthday, Because:

[Caption: gif from Supernatural. It shows Anna and Ruby sitting in the backseat of the impala, seen through the front mirror, looking uncomfortable. The gif is edited as if the image is seen through a camera recording them, with time running and a low battery.]

See more here.

#talking to the void #me me me #writing woes #spnfanevent #spn events #spncreatorsdaily

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tumblezwei · 3 years

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While Roman isn't exactly my favorite character I did like how he served as a challenge to Ruby's morality at the time, this is why her fight with him and Neo on the airship is a favorite of mine, the constant back and forth questioning of why someone chooses to do the things they do and of course her iconic "We will stop you, and I will stop you, BET ON THAT!" line

I think Roman worked well as a starter villain for Ruby because of how he fit into the larger narrative.

Roman was what Ruby thought she was up against. The leader of a crime syndicate is the perfect final boss for someone who wanted to be a hero but never considered that she'd be fighting anything bigger than a horde of Grimm and petty criminals.

So that final confrontation with him hits really hard. Her stubborn determination to make the world a better place clashing right against his stone cold cynicism. In that moment, Roman was the final boss in her story, beating her down and shattering her worldview. And then he got eaten, and she realized that the world and her role in it were so much bigger than she had ever wanted.

And yes, that is is absolutely iconic and one of Lindsay's best line reads to date

#ask #anon

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kob131 · 2 years

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UoW’s Volume 8 Rewrite Overlook 1: “Volume 7 Notes” and “She’s Here”

So...considering that UoW is apparently going to do another rewrite, the only other person to publicly finish it is a biased ass and I’m still riding off the high of beating the Demi-Fiend-

I figured I’d take a crack at his first one.

Okay so ground rules here-

1. UoW must be trying to stay within the themes and purpose of the original.

Any yahoo can claim a work is better by selling it to a different audience. We see it all the time with Hollywood and reboots. If they don’t get a pass, neither does Thomas.

2. UoW is restrained to the same length/number of episodes as the original (meaning 14 episodes at a runtime of 4:26:39)

All creators are limited by time, resources and manpower. This can actually cause iconic moments and changes (like how the Super Saiyan transformation was made blond in part because it meant Toriyama wouldn’t need to color in Goku’s hair). So I expect Thomas to understand this and work within these limitations.

These are effectively the key points in making a rewrite. Breaking these are effectively cardinal sins that can’t be excused. We know this because when Hollywood shits on the original- we collectively call them out.

So with that set up- Let’s begin.

-UoW is rewriting parts of Volume 7 too. So the title isn’t even really correct.

-Clover’s alive. So UoW looked at everyone saying there were too many characters and dug up one that was put to rest. Yay...

-Ciel is now in her mid-20′s and Pietro’s daughter. The reasoning for the later is, and I quote- “There’s the issue of Pietro, a black man, building a white girl by default” alongside some talk of ‘potential’ (read: Ciel is a blank slate). He goes on about inserting Ciel into Volume 7 and have her support Penny (all of which was already done by RUBY) so we have yet another character inserted but with the most racist reasoning I have ever seen. Fucking yay.

-Cinder’s backstory is cut. ... She later has a scene that has Salem letting the Hound beat the shit out of Cinder for no reason so the explanation for why Cinder works for Salem is thrown out and a giant reason to NOT follow her is raised. ...Great. All because ‘it was pointless.’

-Cinder practices her speech to Salem. ... Cinder’s anxieties have never been directly shown. She is not the type to rehearse a speech. She is the type to put on a strong mask until it breaks. Much like Ruby.

-Neo is basically scared throughout this whole endeavor, from general unease to freaking out about a Grimm on the ship to letting a comment about Torchwick slid from Cinder to being scared inside the Monstra. Neo is a character who has only ever shown outright fear in one situation: vs. Raven, a Huntress on par with Qrow, after fighting Yang. While she does show unease in episodes involving Salem, Neo almost never shows outright fear since that would be a real ‘oh shit’ moment.

-Cinder blows up said Grimm, causing Neo to be covered in ash and Grimm goo. Neo. The one who is piloting the airship. Cinder can and will act dumb but that is due to a character flaw in desiring power and control. This...doesn’t fit that flaw. It’s just dumb.

-Also there was a windshield between the Grimm and Neo so she should have been showered in glass shards. Unless the ash was from the windshield which in that case Neo would likely get her face roasted. I know this sounds petty but the reason this is a different point is that this is just a symptom of the overall problem of UoW’s writing frustrating me which means I will occupy my attention with pettier details.

-Cinder fixes the windshield magically. ... I dunno how, this is not an ability the Maidens has been shown to have and it’s just rendering a dumb scene moot. It also highlights how Thomas is being detailed about describing the rewrite scenes but doesn’t catch these details. Says a lot huh?

-Cinder sees the Monstra and knows what is. Then inside of it, she knows where to go. This despite the Monstra never being seen or mentioned before. Again, UoW goes into detail about this episode (like talking about the symbolism of the waning cresent moon) but it only draws attention to the details that smooth out the actual journey.

-There’s an extended scene of Neo getting lost trying ttio escape, meeting Tyrian who arrives via Nevermore, a fight happens, Hazel steps in and tries to fight, Emerald fucks with them to protect Neo, Mercury comes in to protect Neo and Emerald and it gets interrupted by the Monstra signaling them to go meet Salem.

1. The fight scene is completely superfluous. Neo isn’t really interacting with Tyrian or Hazel, the conflict isn’t very engaging, the fight scene as described doesn’t fit the horror atmosphere and it amounts to nothing.

2. Emerald and Mercury are not the protective types. Emerald is of Cinder but not Neo and Mercury certainly isn’t. I know that Mercury himself says that it’s because Salem needs the help but this is a common excuse used by characters to protect people. It makes more sense for Emerald and Mercury to make a comment that interrupts the flow than actually stepping in.

3. This whole scene is superfluous. It doesn’t really do anything that the canon iteration did in a few seconds (introduce Neo to the villains). Nothing here is really needed and while the Tyrian stuff sounds cool...remember what I said about Thomas being restricted by the same time constraints? Yeah, the length of this explanation of an episode, logically shorter than the theoretical episode, is longer than the finale of Volume 8 (23:31 vs. 23:16) which includes the end credits. ...Yeah, Thomas is going to be consistently breaking the second rule.

-Salem speaks to Neo in sign language when she sees Neo is mute. Not only is sign language really weird here because Salem is an ancient witch but Neo has been perfectly capable of communication through her expressive body language. This is just a weird moment for out of nowhere sign language.

-... “I may be gaudy but at least I don’t need to win trust with lies.”

Salem says this. Salem, a woman who blames her ex for her own centuries if not millena long temper tantrum, tried to trick known GODS into breaking their own rules and got the world destroyed because she manipulated people- said this.

And it’s suppose to be a shot at Cinder, who is getting shat on by Salem more here than in canon while having her reason for following Salem removed.

... And this is not meant to be ironic. ...Yeah, I’m not going to explain unless prompted. I choose to believe you are smarter than this.

-Salem apparently can give her followers marks that protect them based on how much Salem likes them. This has never been shown before and comes right the fuck out of nowhere. It also contradicts Salem’s character, as she wouldn’t care about her underlings. This is just dumb.

-Salem sets up Cinder, a woman who lived in an abusive home until she snapped and killed everyone, to be abused and beaten for a demonstration after noting that she wants Neo to geniunely serve her and not have a treacherous servant. ... I’m starting to think Cinder’s backstory wasn’t ‘pointless’ but rather ‘inconvenient’.

-The Hound sniffs Ozma’s staff to find Oscar, not the Lamp. Either she is using his physical scent which makes no sense or magic where since it was until recently hanging off Oscar the Lamp is would provide BOTH.

-Ren tries selling out Penny to Ironwood. This despite having just fought AGAINST Ironwood instead of being a result of Ren hitting his lowest point. And this is going to be a reoccurring thing with Ren.

-They try arguing about how to use the Staff despite how said Staff is in the heart of Atlas, Ironwood’s stronghold and they have other options. This is an attempt at trying to create a divide within Team RWBY like in canon but it’s not about their individual beliefs clashing like what was shown in Volume 7 but a generic ‘team discord’ plot that wasn’t built up. This means that Thomas will waste time for a more generic setup that wasn’t foreshadowed instead of canon. ... This is suppose to be BETTER than canon remember?

-Ciel comforts Penny during all this. Nothing specific is given and her one other scene (supporting Penny in a fight) isn’t specific either. Ciel could be replaced with Ruby and we’d lose nothing but an extra character and racist reasoning. ... No I will never forget that.

-Grimm horde happens, Penny gets benched and the solution, I kid you not, is to have Jaune boast Weiss’ Semblance so she summons dozens of her own Grimm.

...

1. Weiss is never shown to be able to summon more than one at a time. Even in Volume 7 after supposed training she never does more than one. Jaune can amplify a person’s Aura yes but this is fucking fandom meme levels of bullshit. Yeah it’s cool but it’s also way beyond anything we’ve seen.

2. The CRWBY have a nasty habit of being overworked. This scene would involve more Grimm in action onscreen than any other time in RWBY’s history. The last time they tried something like this (Volume 3), it broke all the time. ... This would not end well.

And 3. Part of the reason why we don’t just jump straight into action is that we needed some quiet time before doing so, to emphasize the feeling of dread, unease and uncertainty. This is not fucking Dragon Ball where you need a fight every single episode. RWBY works heavily off of atmosphere. It is in part a horror series. It also shows us that the heroes do care about the people as people in opposition of Ironwood. Individualism vs. Collectivism.

All of that is gone now for a shallow fight scene. And I do mean shallow- Monty’s fights had more depth despite being awkwardly fit into the story. And this sure as hell can’t measure up to him.

This is the worst of both sides of RWBY.

-Oscar’s in the slums. Now we’re gone. Bye Oscar.

-...James Ironwood regrets shooting Oscar. One of the people who lied to him. After all of his sacrifices and compromises get shat on, this confirmed stubborn man just starts regretting his actions immediately.

And as if to show what complexity RWBY does have will be removed, he outright SAYS that Mantle must be left behind and that he doesn’t like it. Whereas the show only needed his body language, word choice and cinematography.

... MOVING ON-

-If you thought the writing would get better, let me tell you about the worst part.

So, that fight scene I just mentioned? In it, issues with Team RWBY arise. Is it issues related to how they all have differing philosophies and thus have different priorities in combat much like how the split was caused by Ruby’s own hypocrisy and Yang’s own focus on the individual people rather than the big scale which has been a part of their characters for a long while given Ruby’s more idealistic and heroic character vs. Yang’s more personal and self assured character?

... No. It has nothing to do with that.

It has to do with Ruby trying to order Yang to fall back while Yang pushes ahead...because. And when Ruby tries ordering Blake to assist Weiss, Blake ditches her for Yang...because. Meanwhile Penny (and Ciel i guess) step in with Penny’s attempts to help backfiring. Oh and Nora is ‘handling herself fine’ but Ren steps in to ‘steal her thunder’ when it looks like she’s in danger.

Does this sound familiar? This is every ‘The team is in disarry’ plotline begging. A plotline that the show already did in Volume 1. A plotline that is not the focus of Volume 7 and does not come from Volume 7′s conflict. UoW is ditching the philosophical struggle in Team RWBY that comes from their conflict with Ozpin and Ironwood in the past and helps distinguish their characters...for generic bullshit.

... This is the better Volume 8, remember?

-There’s some bullshit about Oscar getting thrashed by the Hound and the Grimm defending it before Salem from the Monstra goes-

“Give me the Staff, Maiden and Ruby or else I’ll kill you.”

... So now the motivation for Ironwood is no longer his own personal issues going out of control (like a REAL PERSON) but ‘uwu he’s forced to do it!’

... I hate all of this fanfiction.

That is my thoughts so far. This is not a professional rework of a flawed product. It is a rewrite selling fans what they want to hear at the cost of a good product.

And this is the first fucking episode. Fucking great.

#Unicorn of war #uow volume 8 rewrite

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katsidhe · 4 years

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Ranking Every SPN Midseason Premiere

15) 10.10 The Hunter Games. Wow, this one is real bad. Has not one, not two, but three subplots I either don’t care about or actively despise: Claire bonding with Cas (uh, he’s wearing her dad’s corpse), Rowena’s petty infighting with Crowley (bleh why), and Metatron smugly egging on Dean’s violence (why would he care?). This is deep in the slog of s10 episodes that go nowhere fast.

14) 13.10 Wayward Sisters. Is it clear yet that I really don’t like Claire episodes? Sam and Dean roasting lizards is the only real moment of fun here. I liked Kaia, so I hated that she gets used as Claire’s insta-friend/retconned love interest in order to immediately fridge her for the backdoor pilot… so that Claire, who was orphaned young, can understand loss, I guess? Pointless and unimaginative. I also resent the deeply, deeply directionless magic spear/Alt!Kaia subplot that eats up, like, four other episodes in s14-15 and accomplishes exactly nothing.

13) 3.09 Malleus Maleficarum. I like this episode for the insight we get into Ruby’s backstory, and the frank conversation that she and Dean have about demons and his impending Hell tour. But other than that, there isn’t too much to recommend it.

12) 8.10 Torn and Frayed. The next several episodes are all good, and are difficult to sort. In 8.10, Sam and Dean choose each other over Amelia and Benny, in all-or-none ultimatums. I truly enjoy how miserable they both seem to find themselves about this, about how their relationship has grown more and more isolating when tbh it needn’t be. Naomi’s control of Cas in this episode fleshes out the chilling implications we got in The Rapture: Heaven is best when its dark AF.

11) 6.12 Like A Virgin. Monsters, dragons, and Eve: the reveal of Purgatory kicks off a brand new chapter of the show’s mythology. But more importantly, Sam is fully back now! Watching him navigate this brave new world while no one will tell him anything is fascinating and more than a little sad.

10) 4.11 Family Remains. Actually frightening! I like it when the show does the ~it was just humans~ twist. And this episode has great commentary on Dean’s emotional state after his reveal about Hell last time. It’s a good MOTW.

9) 15.10 Nihilism. Dean’s bar mindscape. It’s no Sam mindscape, but it’s definitely the most interesting thing that’s been done with Dean and possession. It’s kinda fascinating that Dean’s uncomplicated happy place exists in an underdog Americana limbo without either Cas or Sam. Also gives us, at last, a good take on Alt!Michael’s motivations—he’s hunting down God. Loses points because the idea of managing to lock Michael in Dean’s mind for any length of time is still extremely unlikely.

8) 1.11 Scarecrow. Meg’s iconic introduction, Dean and Sam’s first breakup; emotional clashing over Winchester family dynamics: what’s not to love?

7) 12.09 First Blood. We’ve got Sam and Dean coping with prison very differently, then using their deaths to escape, and an action sequence through the woods: it’s just real fun. Cas breaks their deal with Billie, which ends up having, uh, no consequences whatsoever. It’s a strong kickoff to a regrettably weak second half of s12.

6) 7.11 Adventures in Babysitting. A quiet, emotional breath after Bobby’s death: Sam and Dean are deep, deep in terrible misery. The potent psychological suffering of season 7 is a delight, and 7.11 doesn’t shy away from it. Plus, it’s got Sam volunteering to get bit in the neck, and a rare example of a Plucky Teen (tm) done right.

5) 15.09 The Trap. This is just a worse 11.10. But 11.10 is amazing, so that’s still a compliment: Chuck tries both torture and the promise of various bleak futures to get Sam to cave. Even if the various futures aren’t staged that well, there is so much stuff here that’s ripe for analysis: especially on the broader stage of s15, this episode is plain interesting.

4) 5.11 Sam, Interrupted. Sam and Dean in a psych ward! They’re dealing with the extreme stress and grief of season 5, and they’re doing it badly—this episode provides a great way for their respective coping mechanisms to be forcefully stripped away. In a delightful microcosm of the show, Sam confesses his anger and gets consequently wrestled down and tied down to a cot.

3) 2.10 Hunted. Gordon Walker, whose old-fashioned absolutism is only matched by his competence, is one of the most memorable early seasons antagonists, and for good reason. We also get Ava, the queen of season 2, who has taken it upon herself to warn Sam and save his life. Then Sam and Dean using code words to disarm Gordon’s trap, and the fallout from John’s final words: quality television.

2) 9.10 Road Trip. Oh my god, what a horror show. This is an exemplary episode. Just incredible. Kinda unfair that it has to compete with 11.10, because it would take the gold by a mile in most other matchups. It’s got a fascinating character study of Gadreel, which also serves to inject interest into the s9 angel conflict; it’s the violent, hypocritical lengths to which Dean is willing to go; it’s got needles in Sam’s brain and a nauseating, horrific picture of possession; it’s got That Bridge Scene. The payoff for 9.01 begins to come due, in spades.

1) 11.10 Devil in the Details. Season 11 gets two D-tier ranks and two S-tier ranks; this is the duality of man. Do I even have to explain why I love 11.10 so much? It’s Sam and Lucifer in a room in Hell for an entire episode, nuff said. It gets better with every rewatch—there are so many great tiny moments, so much history. Lucifer’s combination salespitch/dressing-down is threatening and fascinating and mostly accurate; Sam’s rigid terror and courage and heartbreak and anger and resignation and determination are intoxicating. I want to watch them talk in a room forever.

#1.11 #2.10 #3.09 #4.11 #5.11 #6.12 #7.11 #8.10 #9.10 #10.10 #11.10 #12.09 #13.10 #14.10 #15.09 #ranking

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sunnydaleherald · 1 year

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, April 13th and Friday, April 14th

ANGEL: "I had to sing Barry Manilow." FAITH: "You're kidding." ANGEL: "In front of people." FAITH trying not to laugh: "And here I am talking about my petty little problems." ANGEL: "Just wanted to give you a little perspective." FAITH: "Copa cabana?" ANGEL: "Mandy. I don't wanna dwell on it." FAITH: "The road to redemption is a rocky path."

~~Judgment ~~

Happy Birthday to Sarah Michelle Gellar! (April 14)

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Late Night Talk by badly_knitted (Buffy, Joyce, PG)

Love Me Like You Do by kerk_hiraeth (Faith/Tara, E)

Indulgence by SomeKindOfADeviant (Angel and Spike [ambiguous], T)

Who Am I? by BlakeStorm (Anya, Xander, Wandavision xover,T)

Weapons by FromAnkyra (Buffy, Dawn, Scoobies, G)

By Ruby and by Blood by Anonymous (Buffy/Faith, M)

[Chaptered Fiction]

[German] William „Der Blutige“ Shakespeare - Ch. 1-2 by Lilith464 (F/M, E)

Charming Sunnydale - Ch. 1 by QuillBard (Buffy/Faith, M)

The Wolf Slayer - Ch. 2 by Ravel991 (Buffy/Oz, E) COMPLETE!

Found family ties - Ch. 30 by julikobold (Buffy/Spike, G) COMPLETE!

Wedding Drabbles - Ch. 8 by AJ Fields (myfanfiction) (Xander/Anya, T) COMPLETE!

No One Asks For Their Life to Change, Not Really - Ch. 3 by Paskeleton (Spike/Reader, M) COMPLETE!

north star - Ch. 34 by The_Eclectic_Bookworm (Buffy/Spike, T) COMPLETE!

Those 2 again - Ch. 2 by Julikobold (Buffy/Spike, G)

Belonging - Ch. 6-10 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

So One of Us is Living - Ch. 4 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

A Slayer's Fortune - Ch. 2 by VoronaFiernan (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Trying - Ch. 13-18 by Pet35 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

And Then, Spike Was a Girl - Ch. 4 by Harlow Turner (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Twice Broken, Thrice Burnt - Ch. 2 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, R)

In Another Life, I Still Fall for You - Ch. 3 by DeamonQueen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

42 - Ch. 13 by Dynamite (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Key Saves Spuffy - Ch. 13 by Dynamite (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Mostly Harmless - Ch. 11-13 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Under The Rubble - Ch. 16 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, R)

Better the Devil You Know - Ch. 21 by SlayrGrl (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

You're the One - Ch. 17 by BloodyThorn (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Long Khan... - Ch. 10 by CrazyDan (Xander, Star Trek, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure xover, FR18)

Darkest Before the Dawn - Ch. 81 by Luna (Buffy, LOTR xover, FR15)

The Home Invasions - Ch. 1-2 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Those 2 again - Ch. 2 by Julikobold (Buffy/Spike, G)

Sparks - Ch. 2 by Dusty (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Twice Broken, Thrice Burnt - Ch. 2 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, R)

The Butcher - Ch. 14-15 by Grief Counseling (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The World After - Ch. 18-24 by TheUnexceptionableQuinn (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: A cute artwork of one of my favourite Buffy scenes + I love Darla by JoeGrant250 (Darla, Angel, worksafe)

Gifset: Giles in every Episode S01:E3 - The Witch by thecrazyknight (Giles, Buffy, worksafe)

Gifset: Giles and Xander + Incorrect Quotes by teatimewithgiles (Giles, Xander, worksafe)

Headers: Buffy Summers + BtVS Season 5 headers by onegirlinallthewrld (Buffy, worksafe)

Icons: Potentials icons by onegirlinallthewrld (Amanda, Kennedy, Rona, other potentials, worksafe)

[Recs & In Search Of]

ISO: Lobothehobosexual seeks comics of younger Giles (Ripper)

[Fandom Discussions]

Which song from OMWF most stands on its own? updated by various

Question - What Was Buffy's Most Important Year? updated by TamsinValencia

Xander and Anya were the only ones not to interact in Tabula Rasa updated by Sinmerina

The cookie dough talk updated by various

Poll and discussion: Tara or Oz? updated by various

Spike's character arch in Angel/ Angel's ending. updated by Killjoy

Sexuality [of] Spike ? updated by Killjoy

does [Riley] actually deserve the hate? updated by Killjoy

Poll and discussion: Does Riley cheat on Buffy on Into the Woods? updated by Killjoy

Question on Dead Man's Party updated by KaitKat

"Can I have you?" [awkward teenage lines] updated by various

Buffy canon battle, kill, and supernatural encounter log [4x09 Something Blue] by famicommander

Are there any Spike fan who don't ship him with Buffy? updated by various

Was Wesley abusing his power as the boss by telling Fred and Gunn to [stop dating] after they get together in season 3? .... by jdpm1991

Do you think Buffy mourned Spike after the destruction of the Hellmouth? by aeryn1227

Buffy sequel [pitch your ideas] by annabeaumontxxx

[Buffy included in cover of LIFE magazine Vampires special] by Tuxedo_Mark

I think we should’ve seen more of Ethan and Giles by Buffybitchslay

I realized that Willow and the Scoobies probably saved the world by resurrecting Buffy by sr_edits

What Buffy related thing lives rent free in your head, but is rarely discussed among the fandom? by Johnnystation

Who had more one-on-one screen time together, Angel and Buffy or Angel and Cordelia? by Tuxedo_Mark

Faiths return [3x22 Dawn referenced in shared dream] by meeeee01

POLL: Who do you think "David Boreanaz" had better chemistry with? by Cr7-Cr7Real

How does the whole school know Xander cheated? by loveofGod12345

I really wonder how things would’ve happened with Faith if Wesley hadn’t turned her in. by loveofGod12345

You’re him. [Angel] What would you do differently if you get to be in his place? by Buffvamporigfan

I think Season 4 [ATS] is incredible by MoreGull

Can lawyers dictate what goes and doesn't go into a police transcript? by Tuxedo_Mark

The difference between Spike versus Angelus by aeryn1227

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

James Marsters on Twitter: "Here’s a first look at Casa Grande, my new series on Amazon FreeVee..." via dontkillspike

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

#ats #angel the series #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #fan fiction #meta #fan art

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disregardcanon · 4 years

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rwby julie and the phantoms au featuring dead girl band rwby and jaune as the conduit. but like, jaune who just half-way cheated his way into music school

the year is 1995 and the girl band RWBY is a rising power in the indie music world. composed of four talented, each with a rich and interesting backstory for the public to latch onto, they’re well on their way to becoming LGBT icons- if not actual stars. weiss, blake, and yang are twenty and ruby is eighteen.

weiss schnee is the daughter of silicone valley tycoon jacques schnee, who made headlines when she cut off all her hair and ran away from home to join a queer girl band. she’s the second schnee daughter to leave home, winter having joined the military back in 1992. she’s the band’s lead vocalist, though she occasionally plays violin in tracks that they write it into.

blake belladonna is already a famous singer. she sprung onto the scene in 1992 in a duo known as “bellataurus”. acting as the full sonny and cher package, adam taurus served as both older boyfriend and older manager until blake broke from him and helped to form RWBY in 1994. she took her vocals, her piano skills, GUITAR skills, and her songwriting skills with her.

yang xiao long and ruby rose are legacies of the highest order. summer, raven, qrow, and tai formed a band when they were kids and they became some of the biggest rockstars of the seventies and eighties- and later some of the biggest scandals. raven and tai’s messy, public breakup after the birth of their daughter signaled the band’s death- but then the birth of tai and SUMMER’S child signaled an even bigger scandal. the tabloids had an absolute field day over the new baby.

yang learned lots of instruments, but mainly took up the drums from her dad. the same went for ruby, but she mainly stole qrow’s guitar and made him teach her to shred.

unfortunately, the media never stopped following the two kids around, even through ruby’s transition. in a mixed bag for the remnants of STRQ and their children, the media circus that followed ruby rose coming out as a girl in NINETEEN NINETY TWO. the remaining members of STRQ still had a lot of clout and fully put their support behind her, but transmisognyny’s a bitch and it still followed them everywhere. yang coming out publicly as a lesbian neither helped nor hindered the situation, but it did make ruby feel a bit less alone.

the girls formed their band about a year before their- uh, UNTIMELY deaths in 1995. this came 3 days after a confrontation between blake and adam, where she promised that she would never, EVER date him again. she wouldn’t even work with him again. she and her band were going to become stars and actually help make social changes, instead of them just bullying her into going along with whatever THEY want from her and keeping her mouth shut because politics kills careers.

they’re playing the ORPHEUM! the theater where so many bands have gotten their big break! she doesn’t need him now and she didn’t need him then.

eating bad street hot dogs after the warm up for a performance that blake promised adam 3 days ago would be the best that she ever gave- well. that’s just a weird coincidence, right?

cue 2020.

jaune arc has recently gotten into his first semester at a prestigious music college in the LA area, close to his family’s home where he still lives. the garage/studio out back remains largely untouched. half of that’s because cleaning the place out would be a lot of work, but half of it’s because his parents feel bad about the idea of cleaning out all of STRQ’s old recording equipment that both summer and tai promised they “didn’t want anymore” while selling the house in the wake of their daughters’ deaths.

it’s not like the area is really suitable as a garage, and the arcs can spare a little room just in case those people ever change their minds.. even though they haven’t in twenty five years.

jaune’s house isn’t completely empty because he still has one of his older sisters going to college in LA at the same time, but it’s preeetttyy empty. his parents are hands off at this point and don’t even wonder how their baby who never even took any music lessons has gotten into a school like this.

it’s not like he doesn’t sing and sing pretty well, but they’re not even certain he can read music. spoiler alert: he can’t.

jaune is actually VERY good at working by ear and performing, but his music education growing up was lacking. on all levels. his parents encouraged him to do sports as his primary activity and he had no time for anything else and his public school music ed did not get him what he needed to go to music school.

frankly, he doesn’t even know what a treble clef is called. so. he’s a bit behind when going into his college classes. he was only able to fake the paperwork to get into music theory II, but considering that he’s. uh, completely unaware of what those notes mean he’s a bit fucked.

he’s always just been able to pull the song out of his ass because he listened to enough music to learn stuff by ear, but now he’s supposed to work through all this stuff with notation and he MIGHT BE DYING

he’s assigned to a group project with ren and nora and pyrrha and, well, thank god pyrrha notices and is kind enough to try to fill in the cracks.

but there’s a lot of cracks, you know? he’s barely pulling the grades that he needs to not get kicked out of the program at the moment, and he’s not entirely sure how to go about getting an accompanist for his end of semester showcase and ren and nora are already working together (they both play guitar and sing together) and pyrrha’s a soloist and -

oh god, he’s going to get kicked out of this program, isn’t he?

pyrrha keeps talking him down out of the anxiety because she is very kind and has a very big crush because jaune still has noticed that she’s a pop star that wanted to (but is failing to) have a normal college experience.

she lets him borrow her copy of RWBY’s first and only album and lets him take it home to listen to it. he decides to listen to it in the studio because he knows that’s where music, at one point, happened.

and it of course summons the souls of all four girls. they have ghostly mischief as they try to figure out how to make things work, and realize that while people who aren’t jaune can’t see them- people can HEAR THEM. and then when they play along with jaune for his end of semester show case- they realize that people can SEE THEM when they play with him.

pyrrha is confused about why jaune’s hologram band looks so much like RWBY, and she’s a little jealous and hurt that he’s been keeping this from her while letting HER bear the brunt of helping him with his struggles. jaune doesn’t know how to say that yeah, those are the actual ghosts of RWBY.

petty drama, petty drama, the girls are feeling suffocated by the fact that they’re actually dead and can’t interact with anyone who’s alive. ruby decides to go clear her head and meets another, very sweet and enthusiastic ghost named penny who likes to skateboard.

penny is very sweet and ruby has what is known in show biz as a CRUSH. ruby learns a bit about how this ghost stuff works from her (some powers, about the unfinished business being what’s tying them to the land of the living, that she is VERY GAY) and she comes back to her friends to say hello yes i know things now and am also gay. wasn’t positive about that before but it’s a fact now

here’s where i lose my thread and am too tired to find it again but other things

1. ironwood is the villain of this. if you’re familiar with jatp, he serves the same function as caleb covington if not the exact same motives. he seals souls to him by a contract but with the express purpose of building a safe afterlife for ghosts... by making sure that all of them are under his control. winter, who died in one of the united state’s middle eastern campaigns is his right hand ghost.

weiss is majorly conflicted by this because. it’s winter, you know? it’s winter. and it seems like this guy is trying to make things better for ghosts, right? he’s got a homebase and he can make them visible sometimes and make it so they can eat food and lots of stuff. but it comes with a heavy level of control.

he doesn’t go after the girls until later because he thinks that they’ll come back, but when he DOES... the fact that he owns penny’s soul and doesn’t see her or any of the souls under his control as full people comes up in an ugly way.

2. adam taurus is the trevor wilson of this, but waaaayyy worse. he did in fact kill the girls and pillaged what he could of blake’s songs to record and put out under his own name. he‘s a big star, but a fading one, and he has a few vengeful ghost coming for him.

3. winter is a ghost, but whitley is a ghost of himself. at this point he’s forty and still doesn’t even know what he wants because he’s molded himself into what his dad wants so thoroughly. getting him to realize that he wants more and wants things for himself definitely comes up. winter also helps take down ironwood and free the souls. eventually

4. jaune IS a necromancer. he’s going to be able to see penny and others and eventually can give ghosts the power they need to be seen whenever they want. RWBYJNPR eventually becomes a big band that plays together sometimes

5. raven only came back for a few days for yang and ruby’s funeral before disappearing. qrow fell from grace quite dramatically when he accused adam taurus of murder with no evidence and became the laughing stock of america. he kept trying to find something that would fill the holes in his life, but he hasn’t lucked out with that yet... except the alcoholism, maybe.

tai and summer are still together, but they’re pretty miserable and they moved far away from LA to get out of the spotlight.

RWBY gets summer, tai, and qrow back together on purpose... and raven shows up when she sees her dead daughter singing on national television. the STRQ reunion is awkward and stilted, but things get better from there.

strq instruments

summer: vocalist with some piano

raven and qrow: bass and standard guitar respectively with some vocals

tai: drummer with some vocals

6. pyrrha and jaune eventually actually become the great duo that adam tried to market himself and blake as. sorry not sorry

7. not sure how they do it but they DO prove that adam murdered them and all of them including qrow get Vindication TM

8. the bumbleby isn’t a big plot point but they were dancing around getting together when they died and it happens slowly once they’re back <3

#rwby aus #jaune arc #team rwby #team strq #arkos #nuts and dolts #bumbleby #ruby rose #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #schneeblings

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dani-the-mark · 3 years

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AEW Dynamite 01/16/21 Review

Malakai Black vs Dante Martin

Wow. I was not ready for the intensity. I should have been, looking at these two, but this was something on a different level. I pure fight of the flights.

Inner Circle Promo

I hate this but love Jericho. It’s all just gone too far, while at the same time being just the same thing. Petty elementary insults. I’m over it.

Lucha Bros vs …FTR

Uh, I, what? It wasn’t bad but I spent so much time just trying to process what was happening. After the reveal, it got easier and the work was incredible and by extension, this match was just overall nuts. The end was bad It just...no. I need more build-up in my title changes, or at least a higher shock value.

Wheeler Yuta vs Jon Moxley

I blinked at it was over. Fun while it lasted, but I really wanted more.

Superkliq vs Dark Order

Lots of energy here. Both sides were good throughout, and they got some iconic spots. The stolen kiss and socko spots were especially fun. Jungle boy’s run-in was very welcome. Just one big fight powered by friendship.

MJF Promo

The usual for MJF. Good, but nothing special for him. At least Sting was looking out and got a full atmosphere without having to say a word.

Kiera Hogan vs Penelope Ford

A slow start, and much shorter than I would like. Sure we got to see Ruby, but I think I’ve had enough run-ins for tonight.

Hangman Adam Page Promo

Full discloser. I was so enamored by him I forgot I was writing. It’s just so good to see him, and this felt very real. He’s ready to get going and I’m excited about it.

Bobby Fish vs Bryan Danielson

This was a tactical showcase. A very good end to a chaotic Dynamite. A little calm for Danielson, which I think is a good thing. It can't always be a thousand miles per hour, and that’s fine by me.

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inspector-montoya-fox · 4 years

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here’s why Thieves in Time is a bad game

before y’all try it, i just want to say that i’ll be as unapologetically petty and sarcastic as i want and fucking rip this game to shreds. yes, this is how i’ve spent my days since Thieves in Time came out. sitting alone in my room, staring at the wall, crying and complaining. because it has since been my life’s aim and dream to think about it every day, state the negative things about it, and become an evil essay witch on this half-dead website. *evil laugh*

Story:

References: i want to start with the smallest problem, but one that annoys me to this day. in the original trilogy, there weren’t a lot of references but the ones that were included were meticulously researched and well thought-out (i’m specifically referring to that Neil Diamond Carmelita vinyl gag, but can’t find the original post). the references in Thieves in Time however, were obviously just the creators’ interests. Turning Japanese, Clan of the Cave Bear and Bentley’s “hacksona” presented as Rambo just scream 1980s (which i’m assuming is the decade the creators grew up in), and Of Mice and Men is classic literature about the Great Depression, which subsequently started being taught in school in the US during the 1980s. it feels like the creators just went ‘let’s discuss what our lives had in common during our teen years and put that in’ instead of researching it first. and, here’s the thing: when you’re adding references, in order to make them funny or interesting, they have to fit in with the property or the character that’s connected to them in some way. Don Octavio was an opera aficionado so his episode’s title card pays homage to the Phantom of the Opera, young Muggshot was influenced by the movie “The Dogfather” because he’s a gangster, etc. these were funny because they were so spot-on with these characters. if every character in the Sly Cooper universe references the same type of stuff (from the 1980s) and shares the same interests, it’s just claustrophobic and uninteresting. i’m pretty sure i’m not the only one who had to look up these ultra-hetero, scrotum references when the game came out. that’s because they were specifically tailored to be funny to them, and not their target demographic which were kids in 2013.

Narrative: now that we got that out of the way, let’s look at the narrative. at the end of Sly 3, Bentley says he’s building a time machine. Sanzaru took that joke and decided to run with it as the premise for their game. ok, not the best idea, but i get it - you’re literally picking up where the last game left off. since all the storylines were wrapped up, they could’ve done something different like Sly’s kids or Bentley and Murray’s families, but this isn’t an essay about suggestions so...... time travel (i want to say that it’s, again, an 80s reference but whatever) was pretty ‘out there’ in 2013. i mean, even Plants vs Zombies 2, which was released that year, had to do with time travel (yes, i’m referencing an app). but Sanzaru had the advantage of applying this premise onto already established mythos and lore. the story had definite potential: someone is threatening Sly’s lineage so he has to travel back in time to save the day. the player would get to explore new locations and iconic eras in history, and, of course, the main selling point: playable ancestors. how could you screw that up? welp.... let’s think about the plot holes here for a sec. Bentley’s device would take the gang back in time when given an item from the specific era. stop. this right here is called ‘over-complicating’. how did they know the items would take them directly to the point where the specific ancestor was in danger? the Feudal Japan period lasted for 700 years: how did the machine know when and where to drop them off? and if the gang could return to the present at any time, why didn’t they do so when they were in trouble? oh right, the machine was broken. so how did they return the baddies to the present after they defeated them? i mean, why did they use the Grizz’s crown to travel to Medieval England if they went back to the present to drop him off to Interpol first? and on that note, how did they drop the baddies off to jail without getting caught and without Carmelita being around? i can already hear you thinking but these are total details that aren’t important, you jerk! well, yea, they truly are details and i truly am overthinking it. and yes, i truly am a jerk. but let me tell you something: when Sanzaru chose to make a new Sly game, did they not think ‘oh we’ll have to follow up Sly 2 and Sly 3′s stories’ which were well thought-out narratives with depth and various themes and didn’t have huge plot holes (as seen by my analysis through the episode project) ???? and did they also not think that their game would come out eight years after the last one, having expectations at an all-time high???? yea, that’s what i thought.

Characters: i’ll make a different section for Sucker Punch’s characters, so this is for Sanzaru’s original ones. name one iconic original character from Thieves in Time. i’ll wait... nope. not one. that’s because all of them were absolute shit. and here’s where i want to touch upon Sanzaru’s over-reliance on the trilogy. Ms Decibel (perhaps the most obvious copy) is a mix between Don Octavio, Miz Ruby, and the Contessa. El Jefe is Rajan if he went to the gym. Toothpick has Sir Raleigh’s temper and tendency to grow in size. and the Grizz is... whatever the fuck he is. (don’t worry i didn’t forget Le Paradox and Bob). there’s a difference between studying & creating similar characters and blatantly plagiarizing older characters because you lack the creativity. oh, boo-hoo this evil jerk’s telling it how it is. this set of villains is so lacklustre, i don’t even know where to begin. El Jefe is a tiger, even though we’ve already had two major tiger villains and one tiger flashlight guard. ok. Rajan could summon lightning because of the Clockwerk heart but El Jefe can do the same, how exactly? Toothpick is an armadillo (good) from Russia (better) with an obsession with the West (excellent) who can also grow huge (very bad). it’s never explained how or why. why?????? just tell me why. i want to know. i really want to know. Ms Decibel is an elephant who got into a tragic accident which left her with the power of hypnosis. music and hypnosis have already been done, but ok, i’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. so how do we use this character? spend the entirety of her screen time making jokes about... wait for it... her weight !!! this is top-notch comedy... really? like... really? the creators’ humor is a crime, at best. fart jokes and fat jokes all around. oh, and then there’s the Grizz. what the fuck where they thinking? just, what the fuck. i guess the guys at Sanzaru thought black people speak in rap? is that it? apart from it being extremely offensive, it’s also a blatant copy of Dimitri’s backstory. like, his introductory cutscene even has his paintings thrown at him and into the trash, like the intro cutscene for The Black Chateau. honestly, all of these villains caused me several types of pain, but not as much as...

Bob & Le Paradox: the absolute worst. i can just imagine the meeting going something like this: Sly’s ancestors are awesome! i wish we could fit them all in the game... here’s an amazing idea! what if we use one of the game’s few levels to introduce a brand new ancestor! yea! let’s make him dumb as fuck, strip him of any athletic prowess, and retcon the entire lineage by having him be the first Cooper ever! the kids will love a prehistoric level! ..... could you kindly point out where and when did ANYONE ask for this? i remember @ironicsnap saying something like the game is good until Bob. no, it was already bad - Bob just lowered the standard. like, a lot. people love Murray and his gameplay is neat, but no one ever thought ‘oh i wish we had a Cooper character with Murray’s game style’. why would they waste the opportunity to bring in Henriette, Thaddeus, Otto, literally any ancestor? why??? but they went ahead and created their own Cooper, and that wasn’t even the end of it. they had to make him dumb. they had to make him unbearable. they had to ruin the Cooper ancestry by adding this mess to the lineage. Sucker Punch made sure that all the ancestors were unique, but at the same time made all of them suave and funny and slick and you wish you could be them! well, fuck that. also, his name is Bob. Bob Cooper. it’s been 7 fucking years and i still can’t wrap my head around it.... so now, let’s talk about Le Paradox. i don’t have to mention the previous main villains, but i will. Clockwerk killed Sly’s ancestors and father, and was seemingly an eternal threat. Neyla was a psychopath who fooled everyone on her journey to becoming immortal by resurrecting Clockwerk. Dr M opened up the possibility for Sly’s dad to be a jerk instead of a hero, and died trying to unlock the Coopers’ legacy. how does Le Paradox compare? well, he’s a sleazebag skunk who was mad because of his dad’s downfall to the Coopers. that’s it. no twist, no depth, no clever dialogue. nothing. there’s nothing there. this is a new character, unfamiliar to everyone, who was hyped up for 5 levels and defeated in the conclusion. why was he a match for Sly? i don’t know. how did he fight for his life and ultimately tricked Sly into helping him? i don’t know. how the hell did he kidnap Carmelita? i don’t know. was it the power of persuasion? no, he’s revolting. so i literally don’t know. there’s no backstory, no fleshing-out the character, nothing. all we’re given to work with is a brief info-dump about his dad and how he escaped prison. i don’t know what else to say apart from how big a humiliation this was for Sanzaru and their team of writers. you had 8 years to work on something and this is what you came up with? anything would be better. anything would best this utter cliché of a villain, a distasteful misogynist, crybaby, idiot with an accent. literally anything.

Arcs & Themes: let’s take a look at the formulaic subplots for the gang’s members. apart from dealing with Le Paradox, everyone had a small arc. Sly had to deal with his break-up with Carmelita. Bentley had to deal with his break-up with Penelope. Murray had to deal with playing second fiddle to Bob. Carmelita was a damsel in distress and sex bait for the ancestors. the ancestors had their own mini storylines along with reacting to Sly’s presence. there you have it. i summarised it all for you, nice and neatly. are there any themes like in the previous games? nope. i promise you i’m not lying when i say that i tried hard to come up with something, even some speck of a detail i could use to over-analyse the story and come up with some ideas on themes. nothing. there are no themes. the subplots are character-driven and the player gives it 0 emotional investment. there is nothing to analyse, nothing to talk about. maybe even a theme for each level, like a spooky level or something? nope. the levels are dependent on eras and historical periods. the variation here is ok. Feudal Japan, Wild West, Prehistoric Australia, Medieval England and Ancient Arabia - pretty good selection. i’ll give them credit for it. but that’s it. due to the absence of themes, the hubs feel empty. there’s no replayability factor. after you collect the bottles and masks and treasures, there’s nothing. i would spend hours revisiting the trilogy’s hubs, just roaming around. the hubs here are huge and empty. there’s nothing to reminisce about. nothing to recall. oh that’s where this mission went down. no, nothing like that. the aforementioned subplots are resolved during mission cutscenes and then they’re gone. you don’t have to explore spooky Prague alone as Bentley to have him overcome his fears, you don’t have to find out miners abducted Murray’s beloved Guru and search the Australian outback for him, you don’t have to hold back your tears when you’ve reached the end of the Cooper Vault and Sly asks his dad for help. nothing.

Gameplay:

Controls: as soon as i laid my hands on the controller the first time i played the game, that fateful afternoon, i knew something was up. Sly would respond 1 second late after you pushed something on the controller. it felt clunky, is what i’m trying to say or, as my sister put it, it felt heavy. and she was right. the controls were clunky and heavy and didn’t feel light, like playing as a thief should feel. i don’t know shit about game mechanics but this definitely didn’t feel right. the hubs are also chunky in design, the cliffs are huge and so cyclical or hexagonal, that when you parachute your way to them and are just an inch close, Sly will automatically just drop because he can’t grab onto them. running as Sly doesn’t feel fast, silently obliterating guards from behind feels slow, and swinging, grabbing, pickpocketting, and hanging aren’t fun anymore. presentation-wise, @designraccoon goes into detail here, in an absolute gem of a post. in short, the gameplay animations make Sly look less sneaky. Sanzaru didn’t even consider a thief’s movements.

Missions: why the fuck would you remove the player’s option to choose between which mission to do first? why would you do that? the game lays out what goes first, sometimes having only one mission available in the hub. and the missions aren’t even enjoyable. firstly, the loading screens take up to 5 minutes, maybe even 7-8. secondly, there’s hacking every 2 missions. the missions don’t have any dialogue to make them fun, lack in interesting puzzles, what more can i say? they’re overly easy and lack any challenge whatsoever. at least there’s variation in gameplay (hacking, RC car, fishing, costumes, ancestors, turret etc.) but because of the controls, even these get tiresome. the missions are solely there to progress the story and that’s why the operations are merely ‘storm the main baddie’. the trilogy had some pretty interesting missions which made sure to complete jobs required to take down the big bad. e.g. kidnap General Clawfoot to take down the security, hack Contessa’s computer to make sure Carmelita will be freed, steal voices to tempt Neyla, and then take down the Contessa. the missions in Thieves in Time lack substance and variety. and the hacking (all three styles) sucks.

Collectibles: here’s another fantastic idea: have players collect costumes in order to collect bottles in order to collect treasures in order to collect masks in order to unlock funky Sanzaru logo-themed merch! what was the reason for the collectibles? in previous games, collecting all bottles would unlock special abilities. that was it. it’s the same thing here too, but there’s less incentive? i mean when you have to collect 1000 things, what’s the point? the treasures are random and very few are references to the trilogy, so whatever. and the masks unlock... superhero costumes for what reason exactly? oh, and then there’s also the achievements for your Playstation account, like ‘open the map in every single location you visit’. what fun! if the reason for collecting the treasures is to play godawful hacking minigames in order to get masks, what’s the point? decorate your paraglider with the Sanzaru logo? or have Bentley dress up as discount Robocop? i mean including masks in the interior locations was cool, but the bottles were always supposed to be something you could do whenever your soul desired. sometimes i left them last before the operation, sometimes i collected them before the first mission. so i was pissed when i found out that, in some cases, you had to unlock the episode’s costume in order to get the all the bottles. so, fuck off.

Animation: i’ll keep this short. the animation was terrible. do you remember that tumblr blog from a while back, where she dedicated the posts to pointing out the mistakes in the animated cutscenes? yeah. point is, there were lots of them. the animation style was bad, the character design was ugly, the characters’ movements were unnatural. everything about it was shit. looking past the bad decision to drop the trilogy’s comicbook-style animated cutscenes, couldn’t they have hired someone better? someone with more experience? their concept art was awesome. couldn’t they hire that guy and have it be comicbook style if he wasn’t trained in animation?

Legacy:

The Players: let me ask a genuine question: who was this game made for? kids growing up in 2013? maybe so. because it feels like Sanzaru didn’t even consider the fans of the trilogy. actually, it felt like a huge fuck you. Sucker Punch made their trilogy for whoever. there were great stuff for kids, but adults would pick up and appreciate the references, the real-life setting (e.g. tobacco use, existence of nightclubs, spice instead of drugs, etc.). that’s why all three games are timeless classics. judging by Thieves in Time’s humor, the game wasn’t targeted for adults. so, it doesn’t make sense to use an already established property, beloved by its fans, to attract a new audience consisting of nine year-olds who’d laugh at Murray dressing up as a woman. if they really wanted to appeal to the fans of the original, why retcon everything? why change who the first Cooper was? when the gang’s stranded in Saudi Arabia, why have Sly say ‘i couldn't remember a time since we've teamed up that we felt so defeated’? the gang’s been in way deeper shit before. why the ‘Sly’s dad vs Le Paradox’s dad’ deus ex machina? Sly’s dad wasn’t famous because of stealing the world’s largest diamond, what the fuck are you even talking about? do the guys at Sanzaru have such big egos and bravado that they needed to change the original games’ lore? were they so preoccupied with leaving their signature on a property which was never their own? i don’t know who needs to read this, but i’m stating FACTS.

Characters: now let’s talk about Sanzaru’s treatment of the Cooper gang and the ancestors (female characters will get their own section). why would you change the characters like that? if it wasn’t for the voice acting, i’d say this is a completely different Cooper gang. there’s no wise-cracking band of best friends, going on heists and being proud of their brotherhood and bond. all that is replaced with the formulaic story arcs for each member. the trilogy’s cutscenes and dialogues made sure to establish how Sly, Bentley and Murray have lived together since they met at the orphanage, play videogames all day and order chinese food and pizza and whatever. through missions and their adventures, they face obstacles they have to overcome as a gang, and when Sly 3 came around, their friendship was put to the ultimate test when they almost disbanded. Thieves in Time was too lazy to add to this. Sanzaru thought ‘oh the trilogy showed how they’re best friends so we might as well have them focus on their own stories separately’ and if this is truly the case then i ask again: who was this game made for? because new fans would never know how tight the gang was just by playing Thieves in Time. there’s a lack of genuine friendship moments. like, what happened when Sly came back after faking his amnesia? that’s completely ignored. where’s the witty banter? the ‘wizard & sitting duck’ type of jokes? nothing of the sort. what we get is fart jokes and Murray wanting to dress up as a woman. on that note, what was that all about? ok, have him dress up as a geisha to get in. fine. have El Jefe slap his ass, have him perform in a painfully lengthy dance sequence, have him dress like that during the rest of the episode, and then have him be persistent about getting the belly-dancing gig? the hell? Murray was always kinda goofy but this just feels kinda homophobic? it feels dragged out and unfunny. and then there’s the ancestors. i said it once before and i’ll say it again, Sanzaru deprived me of a buff Arab daddy Salim Al Kupar and gave us that elderly shit instead. all jokes aside, the redesigns were uninteresting. why take away Tennessee Kid’s facial hair and give it to Galleth? i legitimately think all the ancestors were boring. i mean, their gameplay was cool, especially Tennessee Kid’s guns, but in terms of character, they were just some dudes. did they believe that Sly was their descendant from the future? maybe. did they care? nope. they all had the same storyline of dealing with Sly’s arrival, flirting with Carmelita and getting their canes stolen. that was it. the fans waited for so long to get even a glimpse of the ancestors in action, and Sanzaru downplayed all of them. they reduced them to useless idiots too occupied with women and food, incapable of getting their canes back from stupid Le Paradox. and they didn’t even stick to the lore. no ma’am. let’s make Rioichi the inventor of sushi !! because that makes total sense and would defo fit in with the character and the property! why. just, why. you were handed the lore !!! you were given all this rich backstory and you threw it all away to replace it with trash !!! complete trash.

Changes & Inconsistency: i want to briefly mention some changes that pissed me off. where’s the laser glide move? it was an important turning point at the end of Sly 3, so why did they get rid of it? Sly is a master thief who’s traveling back in time, so you’d think they’d actually make him a master thief. also, the changes in the binocucom and Bentley’s slideshows in order to modernise them. if Sucker Punch managed to place the mission starting points at locations where the binocucom would show the objective clearly, so could Sanzaru. instead, they chose to have it be a moving camera, floating around the hub. and Bentley’s slideshows were absolute classics, opportunities to include gags and have Bentley show off in his own way. you just had to change it into a tablet, didn’t you. omg you’re still looking at small details like these? yes sweetie, i consider the details because i think they shape the game more than anything. if i didn’t consider the details, then my opinion on the game would be incomplete. when i praise the trilogy i don’t only look at story and gameplay. because i’m unbiased like that. here, i’d also like the mention Dimitri. what a fucking waste. you either include him in the game or you don’t. but don’t give me some half-baked shit on how he’s working for the gang back in present day. Dimitri staying home, waiting on the gang to call him in order for him to give them details on the villains. how does that even slightly resemble anything about Dimitri’s character? they didn’t even include his voice, some greasy sweet Raccoonus Doodus dialogue.

Female Characters: you know it’s all been leading up to this. this is the crux of the Thieves in Time hate. i don’t want to say the game is misogynistic so i’ll call it anti-feminist. why? just answer me. why? why did you have to disrespect Carmelita like that? right off the bat, they swapped the pants for the skirt. in what world does an active inspector who’s always on the scene wear a skirt? Carmelita now wears a skirt because her only role in the game is to be the love interest. Carmelita now wears bright red lipstick and has a new hairstyle, which would be ok if only it wasn’t Carmelita. Carmelita now plays up her inner sassy Latina because she’s pigeonholed into the ‘angry ex girlfriend’ role. they compartmentalised her, tried to sexualise her because she couldn’t possibly be one of the boys. nope. let’s take a respected woman, high in rank and as physically able as Sly, and turn her into a cliché, an angry ex girlfriend for comedic relief, strip her of her abilities and have her be kidnapped twice, have every exchange with her be about how attractive she is, have almost every male character in the game flirt with her, have her boyfriend be jealous of his own ancestors because they’re flirting with her in order to create purposeless love triangles, and then, after all that, dress her up as a belly dancer and distract some guards while the rest of the gang do the heavy lifting. that last one was really the nail on the coffin. did Bentley have other ways to enter that door? absolutely. so, what the fuck? why did i come back for a good Sly game 8 years later and receive a game where you have to shake your controller to have Carmelita shake her ass? why did they have the guards’ eyes pop like that? why did no one stop them? and it isn’t just Carmelita. it’s Penelope too. god forbid we have a female character who doesn’t have a waist smaller than my finger, and a voluptuous physique. why was the redesign so drastic? the story stuff is also nonsensical. why did she leave? wasn’t she happy with Bentley? i watched her speech about turning on the gang about a thousand times and it still doesn’t make any sense. like, i literally don’t understand. what was her motive? and why reverse her story of overcoming the Black Baron persona and the connotations of a meek woman hiding behind a man’s disguise? why repeat it, shamelessly? do the guys at Sanzaru only know women who have recently broken up? why does Carmelita, Penelope and Ms Decibel all go through break-ups during the game? why does Penelope go against Bentley before they even break up? why waste the opportunity to introduce a new, well-written villain and use it to repeat something already done? why???? no woman is safe from Sanzaru because Ms Decibel... boy, did i feel bad for her. apart from continuously reminding us that she’s haha fat!! she’s also presented as a blind lovefool. love? what a silly concept only women believe in! Ms Decibel had a crush on Le Paradox (for some reason i can’t even fathom) and for that she must pay by being utterly humiliated. and what do ALL women do when a guy breaks up with them? they get so angry! yikes, stay clear guys! ....why does Sanzaru hate female characters? i’m genuinely curious. i mean, what forced them to depict women like this? i’m sorry, i can’t take much more of this.

Ending: and how do you end a disappointment that came 8 years late and didn’t even have a sequel guaranteed? yeap, you guessed it! a cliffhanger. but not just any cliffhanger - a total fuck you to anyone and everyone. with a single move Sanzaru instantly screwed over the franchise. the fans, the creators, the characters, anyone looking to continue the series. everyone. WHY would you trap the protagonist in the past? WHY? did you feel defensive about something that wasn’t even yours and went ‘well you can continue the series but the sequel will have to do with time travel’. why did you think it was a good idea? how does it even slightly resemble a good ending? someone fill me in please. because i don’t think i’m being unreasonable, i’m just telling it how it is.

Conclusion:

i did it. i fucking wrote it in all its motherfucking glory. the idiots at Sanzaru could’ve given us an amazing game but instead of working on how to make it better or including extra levels, they wasted their time on deciding what killable baby animal to include in each hub or what the backstory for each treasure should be. how fucking distasteful. and to think i’m an idiot myself for trying to force myself to like it because i was so in denial about how bad it was. i’ve just outlined everything wrong with that cursed game. i’m exhausted.

#yOu'Re rEaLLy pEttY ! sOrRy hAd tO UnFoLLoW #i think i covered everything #THIS IS AN AMAZING ESSAY #this is the crown jewel of my time on tumblr #i love myself so much #sly cooper #anyone who even remotely comes for me because of this WILL get blocked #the birds really think i care about my rep on this fucking hellsite #HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

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isaacthedruid · 3 years

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Steven Universe’s Representation and Music: an informal essay

As the first animated Cartoon Network show created entirely by a woman, Steven Universe’s run lasted for five seasons, a movie and a sequel-epilogue series. The show was far from perfect and its fandom wasn’t the best either but there is something so special about a show that followed lesbian space rocks and a young boy saving the world.

More specifically Steven Universe is about a young boy named Steven, who is half-Gem, half-human who protects the town of Beach City from evil. Gems are a kind of alien who take on the form of pastel-coloured women, to better assimilate with the rest of the world.

Rebecca Sugar, the creator, explains her colourful characters in a behind-the-scenes promo:

“I always dreamed of making a show that would have this mix of fantasy and reality. So, I wanted to make these fantasy characters that enjoy being with Steven as much, if not more than they enjoy being fantasy characters. The characters aren’t perfect and that’s what makes them so great.”

Steven’s family are known as the Crystal Gems, a group of rebels who fought against their government thousands of years ago and now live on earth. Steven’s mom, Rose Quartz was at the forefront of the fight, she did extremely terrible things and when she gave up her gem—-so Steven could be born—-she was left unable to form a body ever again. Steven, with only his dad and three alien women, must attempt to fix her messes and deal with the repercussions of his mother’s actions.

One of the main mechanics within the series is known as fusion, in which two or more Gems become a single being who is stronger and more powerful. The fused form takes on the physical, mental and emotional aspects of those who are part of the bond. As mentioned and discussed many times within this blog, fusions are a physical embodiment of different kinds of relationships. And for a show starring a primarily female cast, they do not shy away from using this mechanic to tell queer stories.

So explicitly that in 2018, the show had the first-ever lesbian wedding in a cartoon. Of course, representation wasn’t always as accepted in Steven Universe. Just two years before the big wedding, higher-ups at Cartoon Network told Rebecca Sugar, they not happy with the multiple queer relationships, so much so that they were ready to threaten cancellation.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she expressed:

“If this is going to cost me my show that’s fine because this is a huge injustice and I need to be able to represent myself and my team through this show and anything less would be unfair to my audience.”

Being LGBT herself, identifying as bisexual and non-binary, representation is important to her. For many queer people, especially grown-ups, they hope to see themselves represented in kids’ media today as they never had growing up. They want nothing more for children’s shows to say that being “different” or not fitting in with our heteronormative society is actually normal.

Within Steven Universe, you can find woman-loving-woman relationships, non-binary and intersex characters, woman-loving-non-binary relationships, asexual coded characters and basically every other letter in the acronym.

Rebecca Sugar even acted as the exciting force for LGBT inclusion within Adventure Time, originally working as a writer and storyboard artist before leaving to create her own show. She pushed for making the ex-romantic queer couple to be canonically part of the story and for it to not just coded into the dialogue.

A few years later, she returned to the show, multiple times, to compose over 20 songs that would air over the series 10-year-long run such as, “I’m Just Your Problem” which had lesbian subtext that would be confirmed later.

Some other iconic songs including “Fry Song“, “Remember You“, “Good Little Girl“, “Everything Stays” and even the finale song, “Time Adventure“.

Much like the show as a whole, there is something so special about the music she writes. In total, there were over 160 songs written for the franchise, some being short little tunes, no longer than a minute while others were full-blown musical numbers. No matter, all of them have their place within the show. Often when the character can’t express lines through speech, music is utilized to provide a more raw and poignant portrayal of their emotions.

Why Steven Universe is so widely loved is due to the music, as the overall story is not even close to perfect. Yet, everyone can agree on one thing, the music is unbelievably good. What is interesting is the different styles of melodies and backtracking used in the various songs, even more impressive is that every character has their own instrumental motif.

Steven’s motif is the ukelele as he is often seen playing the instrument himself, performing short little melodies and even writing the in-show version of the theme song. Additionally, Steven’s music uses a large amount of Chiptune synth, electronic music which is created using a programmable sound generator. Both instruments have a very childlike feeling to them, Chiptune especially as it is normally used in video game music like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the main musical inspirations for the show. As Steven is the lead, most of the music has Chiptune somewhere in the score and fun fact, the first song in the show, sung by Steven, “Cookie Cat” was actually written on an old Gameboy.

Amethyst is very loud and fun, her motif is electric drums which is extremely reflective of her character. As she can be angry from convincing herself that she is not good enough to happy and giggling from pranking Steven, her instrument can be used in so many ways as she is not a simple character. No matter what, for the few songs Amethyst has on her own (or in the score), her drums provide such an interesting emotional response to the situation.

Garnet is a fusion, so her motif is actually the combination of two instruments. Ruby is a drumbeat as she is a fiery and loud character, she is chaotic while Sapphire is her opposite. Sapphire is calm and collected, she has ice-related powers and is represented by Synth music. The characters together have a perfect unity, expressed by Garnet’s synth bass sounds, she is the equilibrium of two very contrasting characters. The music associated with Garnet, uses primarily the synth bass but Ruby and Sapphire’s individual instruments can be heard throughout her music. All three instruments are also heavily representative as Garnet’s main dancing style is Hip Hop which clashing with others’ softer dancing styles.

Despite, not being alive during the show, Rose Quartz still has her own musical motif as she plays a large part in Steven’s growth throughout the series. As well as being in many flashbacks, she is represented with strings, more specifically, the violin. Rose’s story is rather sad which quite is visible within her associated music, yet, she was also an extremely powerful character as she led the fight against the Homeworld government. Her strength can be heard with strong uplifts and swells in the music. She is never seen playing an instrument unlike the rest of the main characters but one person who plays hers is Pearl, a character Rose was possibly in love with.

For the complex and beautiful character, Pearl, her motif is classical and swing piano. She is visually represented as a ballerina for a large majority of the series, dressed in a leotard, a small skirt and ballet shoes. Apart from Garnet, she is one of the calmest characters in the show. She is a perfectionist and is knowledgeable on many topics. She has a dark past and her fair share of trauma, all of this is wrapped up in her music. From her traumatic past with Rose Quartz, the violin had been heard throughout her music, yet, when she finally dealt with everything, the violin was lost. Swapped out for a new instrument, a bass guitar which she learned how to play at the end of the series. Pearl is a character who has been through a lot and her music reflects it. As she grew, her music changed with her, becoming her own instead of something built off of Rose’s.

My personal favourite song is “It’s Over Isn’t It?” which is this heartwrenching and emotionally painful ballad sung by a broken woman. Pearl was in love with Steven’s mom. Yet, the feelings were not mutual or at least ended being reciprocated as Rose left her for Greg, Steven’s dad. It hurts because Rose didn’t just leave her, Rose Quartz also passed away. As the song goes:

That they didn’t really matter until you I was fine when you came And we fought like it was all some silly game Over her, who she’d choose After all those years, I never thought I’d lose … You won and she chose you and she loved you and she’s gone It’s over, isn’t it? Why can’t I move on? … Who am I now in this world without her? Petty and dull with the nerve to doubt her What does it matter? It’s already done Now I’ve got to be there for her son

Without Rose, Pearl has lost her place in the world as all she ever knew was her. Yet, now she is left to help raise a half-human baby and go on with her life. It makes it more difficult as this baby is the product of Rose and the man that she left Pearl for.

Pearl doesn’t want to hate Greg, she is angry at him but she doesn’t have hatred towards him. They may not be the best of pals at the start of the series but in the song called “Both of You“ has Steven, finally, begging for Greg and Pearl to just talk to each other.

Why don’t you talk to each other? Why don’t you talk to each other? Just give it a try Why don’t you talk about what happened? … You might not believe it but you got a lot in common, you really do You both love me and I love both of you … I know you both need it Someone who knows what you’re going through

An interesting thing about this song is that Steven is this to them, the person with Rose’s gem is singing to the two people who fought over Rose. It makes me wonder if this could be Rose speaking through Steven to her two loved ones. Whether it is or not, doesn’t really matter to the overall story but it is a fun idea to look at.

Overall, these songs are a literal representation of dealing with ones’ emotions in a healthy way, something that Steven Universe actively tries to teach their younger viewers about.

To say Steven Universe is a good show only for its music would be a false statement, it’s one of the strongest aspects but without the story or the characters, the music would fall flat and not have any of its passion.

#isaac rambles #steven universe #lgbt #steven universe music #cartoons #cartoon network #rebecca sugar #cartoon review

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