#re-execute

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[lucabyte]

I don't know how everyone isn't also always constantly thinking about how burial rites seem to be potentially one of the few things Siffrin instinctively remembers about their culture. But rest assured. I am in fact always thinking about it.

Textless version where they're just hanging out. It's fine!

[babe-heffron]

i feel like i should make a disclaimer that i don't think tom hanks was the god-emperor of the band of brothers set. i am very much aware that there were lots and lots and lots of people involved in the making of the show. i do think its very funny to say that this was tom hanks' personal rpf project though so i'll keep doing it.

[knifefightandchill]

[brotherdusk]

I just looked at re: dracula's cast on imdb for the first time and are you fucking kidding me

MINA MY FRIEND MINA??????

[laylakeating]

You pierce my soul.

[beresaad]

Here's my little treat with their cheeks all flushed. You will come to my bed tonight, won't you?

[...]

But you... you I'll remember. Have a fine evening, dear.

[allgremlinart]

avatar fandom will watch Korra and go "this villain makes some salient points... which means the point of the show is that everything the villain says is wrong 😟" like. no... the point is that people who make very salient points dont always have the best of intentions, or your best interests at heart, despite saying/doing things you agree with... close enough though... I guess....

[danidrawsstuff]

playin with the rake brush and using the dysfunctional brothers as my test subjects

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[ilynpilled]

funniest part about jaime’s friendship w his bestie addam is that they dont have a single meaningful conversation or any indication of actual deep friendship and addam beats him to near death once

[recurring-polynya]

I have always loved this shot from the Very First Captains' Meeting we see in Bleach. Between some combination of Early Kubo Art Rizz and the fact that he hadn't exactly nailed everyone's aesthetic yet, everyone looks sublimely scrungly.

Anyway, I was delighted to find that the anime gave us a companion shot for the lieutenants, a loving pan over These Sure Are Some Individuals.

Bonus! The manga panel this is based on doesn't have quite the same degree of charm (or the full roster) but they did Mike Wazowski my boy Iba, and I am incredibly charmed by this.

[mariocki]

Cape Fear (1991)

"Let's get something straight here. I spent fourteen years in an eight by nine cell, surrounded by people who were less than human. My mission in that time was to become more than human. You see? Granddaddy used to handle snakes in church, Granny drank strychnine. I guess you could say I had a leg up, genetically speaking."

[majorbaby]

be it a black comedy or a workplace comedy or a satire or a dramedy, MASH is first and foremost a comedy. MASH needs to be a comedy. the point being made is that setting a comedy during a horrific and pointless war is absurd. point being that the war is horrific and pointless and absurd.

hence much of the dialogue in the early years, such as this bit from hawkeye in the pilot episode "throw away all the guns and invite all the jokers from the North and the South in here to a cocktail party. last man standing on his feet at the end wins the war". the Henry Blake character and on the flip side of Henry, the Frank Burns character and some of the others seem absurd and over-the-top because you're meant to ask yourself "how did a guy like henry end up in command??" or "how does a hack doctor like frank end up a major and constantly escape any formal consequences?".

this scene is hilarious - but it's also functionally anti-establishment. it's meant to drive home how stupid the whole thing is. hawkeye spells it out later in the scene, saying something like "if you wanna talk medical procedures, fine, let's talk. otherwise, this is a waste of time and if you're gonna make me be here i'm going to be as silly as disruptive as possible". and then he and trapper do just that, manipulating the "rules of order" which bring structure to the staff meeting, so that they become rules of disorder, and the meeting quickly devolves into chaos as the laugh track plays.

it seems obvious that a show about war would be gritty, tragic and at points, hard to watch. MASH also has those moments, and they easily convey that war and any attempts we make to justify war, are bizarre and hellish and immoral. the funny moments are doing the same thing, in a more unexpected way.

[crimescrimson]

Red's Favourite Alternate Resident Evil Costumes [5/?]: Leon S. Kennedy's Noir Outfit in Resident Evil 2 (2019)

[femininomen0n]

i’m obviously thrilled about benvi endgame but like. let’s be real here it wasn’t ever in question 💀

[whitmore]

really actually kind of enjoy how the big lore moments are sort of quiet on a singular stream (or a small group!) instead of the events solely being the lore; i think there would be this hesitation to develop anything solo if the server reinforced this idea that Big Lore could only happen during scheduled events and days. instead the more narrative-progressing moments (take the baghera hybrid experiments revelation or the philza birdnapping for recent example) are very low-key and almost unhyped up— there’s no expectation for that kind of lore necessarily at the time which makes it more rewarding to experience as a viewer. big fan of how they do the events as player bonding time rather than serious narrative progression because it allows all the players (especially the ones who don’t engage in the rp side that much) to participate and get to know each another more; it’s very neat it’s really smart it’s nicely executed