#so heres my characterization of him- honest and mature; owns up to his mistakes

[tart-miano]

Alternate timeline where Sayaka became a magical girl earlier on, and she and Kyosuke talked about things. Which made the situation worse.

[knightsandjedis]

Let the pettiness commence

Let me be frank here when stating that if the quarantine weren’t happening I would probably remain the type of blogger to just re-blog posts without commenting or making my own posts. I enjoy looking at things more than commenting what can I say? I should say thanks and welcome to all the followers I’ve gained these past few years. You all are awesome and hope you all are staying safe during these troublesome times!

Alright, I’m going from civil to petty here and I should forewarn you if you’re a fan of Sarah J. Maas and her novels you’ll prefer to stay away then listen to my rant. Just being polite and giving a heads up.

Listen, there are periods where atrocious books become a major part of trending pop culture. Eventually, the hype dies down and people can take a deep inhale of relief. Around the 2010s time-period, the hype was focused on Twilight books. No matter where you went you felt suffocated by the hyper-fixation people had on this series. I’ll be honest I was an avid Twilight lover for a period until I wised up and had to recognize these books are horrendous and having a bad influence on teens during my era. Teens were getting Aids from drinking each other’s blood literally, they were drinking someone’s blood literally. While they’re still popular main society’s attention has begun to wane.

Pop culture has an new interest in Sarah J. Maas’s series: Throne of Glass (ToG) and A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR). At one time I was part of the fan-base obsessed with her books. During a bleak period where every book I purchased ending up a dud despite strong premises; Maas’s first books, in both series, were a breath of fresh air. They had characters you found hysterical and enjoyed the story-lines (even though the storytelling was meh at times) and you couldn’t help anticipating future novels to see where the novels took these characters. Both series died for me at the books: Queen of Shadows and A Court of Mist and Fury.

These novels were my wake-up call to Maas’ manipulative storytelling patterns and her inconsistent characterizations. She completely morphs characters depending on the scenario. A noble, decent character is turned heinous to either add unnecessary drama or to make readers turn their affections towards another character Maas’ manipulates into becoming “the hero”- typically a love interest. Usually, the first-or second in TOG- love interests are noble characters with a few flaws but nothing to make readers despise them other than the fact they’re not the prettiest men in the series. Literally, readers adore the male characters that are otherworldly attractive than an average looking male who is humane and unproblematic. Problematic much? The message I’m receiving is you should fall in love with a pretty face rather than explore the person’s entire being (this includes past history, personality, characterization, etc).

People will say I’m petty because I’m annoyed Chaol and Tamlin did not remain the love interests. This is absolutely untrue. I’m annoyed Maas had to pull absolute garbage reasoning out of her ass to make the characters despicable.

Let’s start with Throne of Glass. Celaena (I refuse to call her Aelin because the name visually repulses me, it sounds like something Maas stole out of better high fantasy novels) realizes she doesn’t find Dorian compatible and finds Chaol more of an equal. Chaol has flaws but his main one seems to be he’s good-looking but only average in comparison to Dorian and Rowan- whose sex on legs apparently. Maas realizes people will deny Rowan as a love interest (after he gets into a punching match with Celaena) so she has to make Celaena despise Chaol and interact towards him with hostility despite her recognition Chaol had his reasoning's for certain events in previous novels. Then, Maas takes Chaol’s character, who is known for being awkward around women and loyal to a fault, and make him have one night stands, cheating on women, and apparently the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong because Celaena can’t own up she made mistakes. Nehemia also died to give Celaena that necessary push to go against the king but it’s entirely Chaol’s fault for Nehemia’s death since Celaena can do no wrong. Horseshit I say.

Dorian is not a match, Chaol is the bane of Celaena’s existence so Rowan is her champion. Gag. I actually liked Rowan in Heir of Fire but I found it repulsive how Celaena keeps throwing herself at him in Queen of Shadows and growing dependent on him. When she put him in a bath and started throwing her favorite shampoos in I found it to be the most awkward scene. It’s a moment someone with limited knowledge of sexual encounters would conjure up. “Let me give my love interest a bubble bath!” I’ve read these type of bath scenes in other novels but they’re more maturely done. Although I have to remember these books are written for teens. Then, they become mates. A contradicting setup because he had a mate in the past. But, no one is compatible unless they’re mates in Maas’ world. So, mates are stuck together and seem to have a servant/master relationship in certain portions of the stories. Yuck, just yuck.

Readers if you have to state someone is someone else’s mate so you’re aware they’re a thing then it’s probably not a healthy relationship since you’re staying they own that person in Maas’ world-building.

I’m going to stop while I’m ahead when writing about Rowan and Caelena because they repulse me. Buuuttt not to the same extent as Feyre and Rhysand. I absolutely despise these characters with every fiber of my being. This is one of the most unhealthiest relationships I’ve ever read. Before I jump into why they’re disgusting let me just say I love how everybody hopped on the Feyre adoration bandwagon only when she got into a relationship with Rhysand. Nobody liked her until she got.into.a.relationship.with.Rhysand. Wow!

Listen, I understand why Feyre couldn’t stay with Tamlin after what he did (ahem what Maas decided he should do). However contradictory Tamlin’s characterization was the relationship had turned unhealthy. Yetttt, no one batted an eye with Rhysand was giving Feyre date rape drugs, forcing her to give him lap dances making her sick when she came out of the haze, and her being entirely repulsed when he made-out with her. Plus, I read Rhysand as a gay or bi character when he was introduced. I think he would be a better character as a gay male seeking a friendship than their disgusting love story. He goes from giving her roofies and at least seeming like a morally gray character to Feyre’s champion. Yeah, not buying the bullshit.

I pity Tamlin’s character truly- he was butchered beyond recognition. He goes from allowing Feyre to wander to her heart’s extent- as long as she wasn’t in dangerous areas- to locking her up because he thought it made sense. He’s suddenly possessive of her in the most disgusting ways (but Rhysand isn’t possessive in the slightest even when he calls Feyre his “mate!”). All these details were added to make Rhys’ character more heroic. Rhys goes from being a somewhat tolerable character in his actions to a fucking messiah. Rhysand goes from roofie expert to whisking Feyre away for her own safety. Rhysand assists Feyre under the mountain unlike Tamlin! (Because the queen didn’t give a shit about Rhysand and he wasn’t under her radar to the extent as Tamlin). He loves reading stories with Feyre unlike Tamlin. (Hmm, Tamlin offers to teach Feyre to read which she stubbornly refuses because she’s independent but Rhysand forces her to learn and he’s romantic!). And gasp, Tamlin ended up being the one who murdered Rhysand’s family hence their animosity (hahahaha how desperate are you Maas, I mean seriously how pathetic). Feyre, just like Caelena, was forced into this relationship with another abuser painted as a hero in storytelling. Rhysand and Rowan are constructed into heroes to make their disgusting actions justifiable in comparison to Chaol and Tamlin’s ruined characters.

I’m mostly focused on the main relationships since that’s all I keep hearing about. Changing subjects briefly, Maas’ does not acknowledge PoC or LGBTQIA unless readers are pointing out lack of representation. If they’re introduced you’re guaranteed either they die to promote the white lead’s agenda or forced to become a villain. What kind of statement does that make, Maas???? Also, her world-building is beyond odd. Random characters get introduced in weird scenarios that she has to force into the story-line just for sprucing purposes (Manon and the 12 and the 12 princesses from Earth or whatever). Really, what were the purposes of these characters???? And these kingdoms are written so bad. One realm has everyone wearing Renaissance era clothing while the next realm has people dressing hipster I mean wtf?

The reason for my rant is that I needed to get it out of my system. Lately, I cannot get away from these garbage novels. I’m on my Kindle the books are recommended. I’m on Goodreads her books are recommended and keep winning Book of the Year despite better novels being on the same list. I go on Facebook someone mentions deciding to give the series a spin under quarantine. I’m on tumblr (if you’re a fan then that’s fine, enjoy what you love) and artwork keeps popping up. I love it’s typically Feyre giving Rhysand lap-dances in the earlier part of the series where she’s desolate and sicken by these moments. People are quite forgetful when they want to ignore something in order to make Rhysand babe. I wish I knew how to block anything Sarah J Maas on here because I’m trying to escape. I want to read other authors’ novels and not have Maas’ smug face pop up on my recommendation lists. (Her books are on every list on Goodreads- every freaking list!) Hopefully, when quarantine ends the hype will quiet again but I’m getting ticked off here.

Just had to get it off my chest. I’ll probably go back to quietly ignoring the recommendations and artwork but I’m having a moment here.

[storm-driver]

Hi! Do you have any writing tips for Roxas and Ventus? :D

I am about to bash heads in with this, you might wanna sit down.

I’m known to be particularly brutal when it comes to analysis and judgement of others’ works, so asking for my advice might lead to me being very harsh about it. I also just typed up a bit of shit and one misclick on my keyboard deleted literally all of and I’m PISSED the fuck off at Tumblr for not having an AUTO SAVE FEATURE ON POSTS. But whatever here we go

I’d qualify this as a character’s study, because that’s honestly what I’m doing. I’m gonna cite to you my character studies for Roxas and Ventus. I’ve spent literal days analyzing their archetypes and who they are as people. And all I’m gonna do is cite it. Below the cut because oof I got a LOT TO SAY

Ventus is one character I see people get half right and half wrong in their fan works. Many characterize him as a bubbly and upbeat, naive child with hardly a copious sense of what it means to be the kind of child warrior that he is. A Mary Sue, to use a term. And to an extent, Ventus can seem very Mary-Sue-like, being such a young person and such a caring and, at times, gullible child.

In the story of BBS, we see Ventus progress through the worlds in search of his friend, deliberately defying his Master’s wishes in the process. When he finds out one of his friends, Aqua, was only out looking for them to drag them home, he called her an awful person. From the moment he met Vanitas, he was flat out rude (though with reason).

Point being, even if Ventus’ heart is literally made from pure light, he is not a pure person. He makes mistakes. He has choices he regrets. He’s not happy with everything that’s ever happened. He has his dislikes, things that make him uncomfortable, things that he hates. He’s not a saint. He’s not without flaws. So in my honest opinion, he cannot be written without them.

One of Ven’s most defining character traits is his personality being a near polar opposite of Roxas’, the character whom he most resembles. Ventus is upbeat, he’s outgoing, he wants to see new places and meet new people. He wants to protect those people and he wants to call them his friends. And sometimes, that’s his downfall.

His overtly strong care for Terra, as his brother-in-training, led him to defy his Master and go out on his own. This led to Ven going about and protecting people from the “monsters” (Unversed) that plagued all the worlds. A good outcome, yes, but it led to Ven’s doubts about who Terra was and what he was capable of. And that led to a falling out in their friendship. To a point where Ven was so hurt by Terra not letting him come on the journey, Ven kept going just to find new friends. A hint of jealousy.

As the series has progressed, though, we find Ventus is acting a bit more mature after he woke up in KH3. When Aqua started to feel down that Terra was still missing, Ventus held his Wayfinder to the stars and assured her that they would be able to bring him home. A role reversal that showed how much Ven has grown as a person, given that it was usually Aqua, one of the most mature characters in the series, who would support Ven in his times of need.

All in all, Ventus remains a very kind-hearted person who I’d hope is still eager to make new friends. Though he’s matured just enough to realize that the world may be a bit more complicated than the black and white views that Eraqus taught him. I.E. When he told Vanitas that he didn’t ask to be split away, that their split didn’t define them. And you can visibly see Ventus get upset when Vanitas insists that all he is capable of being is darkness.

It’s such a strong sign of maturity that Ven also calmly accepts Vanitas’ answer. He doesn’t try to fight it like Sora does. He’s aware that he can’t change what some people think, and he just needs to live with it. Giving up on an argument, especially with someone as stubborn as Vanitas has shown to be, is an insanely strong sign of maturity that not a lot of characters show with such a collected grasp on the situation. Ventus knew exactly what he was saying. And that’s amazing growth from when he tried to argue with Terra and Aqua in BBS.

I would say he’s a kind person. Still a bit childish around the edges, as he’s shown he’s capable of being. But he isn’t quite a child anymore. He knows what he’s supposed to be, what Vanitas is supposed to be, and how this development affects him as a person. He’s very mature for his age, but still very caring. And maybe just a little naive.

Roxas, on the other hand, might feel like a polar opposite.

Consider first that Roxas is just over a year old. He’s almost as close as you can get to an infant in this series, besides the literal children Sora, Riku and Kairi from BBS. He probably doesn’t have a fantastic grasp on even the most simple concepts like gender or friendship. That second one should most especially be true to Roxas.

Something I tend to see people do very wrong when writing Roxas is making him emotionally driven by nothing but sheer anger. Yes, Roxas’ most defining trait is his remarkable ability to dual-wield, something he learned through the unbridled rage of watching his best friend die in his arms. But think about why he’s angry first and you start to unveil who Roxas really is.

First and foremost, he’s a tragedy of a character. Everything about his existence is tragic and leaves the viewer with strong pity and condolences for Roxas. He even pities himself and the fate he’s forced to face by end of KH2. Why, though, is it all so tragic? How come Roxas’ story hurts more than, say, Riku’s or Aqua’s?

Part of it comes back to Roxas being born a literal blank slate. He had no grasp on reality for an entire week after he was born. No sense of purpose, what was right and wrong, self-preservation or care for other things. He needed to be taught what all of that meant, and it was only after he made the mistake of following Xemnas and joining the Organization. It’s akin to a child being adopted and immediately put to work for the efforts of the homeowners. The child knows no better than to do so. Especially for Roxas, who has literally no memories or cohesion of who he is.

Furthermore, the person who taught him what it was to be alive, to be friends with others and to experience joy, ended up betraying his trust and flat-out lying to him for most of the time that they were friends. Axel may not have enjoyed lying to Roxas, but the point being that he did. And it gave Roxas trust issues from that point onward.

Now that’s not to say that Roxas isn’t capable of liking other people. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. We know that Roxas wants to be friends with others. In a way, it mimics Ventus’ wishes to make new friends, and maybe even has some deeper meaning to it. (We do know that Ventus’ heart was with Roxas for some time, so who knows, maybe it was overflow?) We know for a fact that Roxas would’ve liked very much to be friends with some kids he saw in Twilight Town. There’s even a point in the manga where Roxas says that he was jealous of their friendship.

Now I also wouldn’t put it past Roxas to be a little cold towards people. For someone who’s gone through as much tragedy as he has, he has a right to be cold. But it’s not like it was every random stranger’s fault that he had such a shitty start to his life. Roxas has shown he’s capable of being compassionate and kind to others, even to people he doesn’t know too well. I know the Roxas we met in the data Twilight Town wasn’t exactly genuine, but the little mini-games you did during his segment? Just proof that, if Roxas didn’t have his Hell of a life at the constant front, maybe he could’ve lived a bit more calmly. Been a helpful person around town and just an overall calm and chill person.

Of course, he probably has his gripes. I think he’d be playful and teasing with his friends. Maybe give Riku a cold look for that time he stole the munny pouch. Stare at Ventus oddly for a few seconds before realizing that it wasn’t a mirror he was looking at. But he wouldn’t be 99% anger and 1% “ice cream!” Everything Roxas has gone through doesn’t lead directly to rage mode 24/7, despite how much we as a community joke about it.

Roxas is a compassionate and loving person, but because of his numerous trust issues in the past, he might hold some friends closer than others. He can be nice to anyone he wants to, but only so few people know what Roxas is really like. He has a playful side, but he’s also capable of being very aggressive, stubborn-willed, and flat rude when he wants to be. He might even have a bit of a temper problem. But that doesn’t define him. He is Roxas, nobody else.

[mtvswatches]

Jane the Virgin 2x19 Chapter Forty-One

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) Rose, Mutter and the crime ring were brought up in the “previously on” so this episode will bring them back, right?

2) And I guess Jane’s money-saving skills will be the focus of this episode, for some reason?

3) I thought he was being followed by criminals, not journalists…

4) “They mention the Marbella four times. I mean, you have a few murders in your hotel…” To be honest, they should just turn the Marbella into a murder hotel at this point and attract the true-crime aficionados.

5) “Is anybody shipping these two?” A WORLD OF NO.

6) So… Rafael claims he wants to be present in Mateo’s life and then when it’s his turn to take care of the kid, he leaves him with the babysitter because he has work to do. Rafael is an asshole.

7) Xiomara is going to audition for a role in Rogelio’s telenovela and I guess this is going to blow up in her face…

Of course, leave it to Rafael to have sex on top of a huge-ass picture of himself.

8) You know, Rafael, if you’re feeling guilted all the time maybe it’s because you are guilty. And now he wants to make a custody arrangement to make himself better. He will get his days with Mateo, but will he actually spend them with Mateo? I don’t think so…

9) Michael got fired. To help out, Jane asks for more shifts at work, and she now has to train Anezka. This will be fun.

10) Rogelio gives the role to Xiomara on the spot, and his generosity probably prevented him from foreshadowing the potential conflicts having Xiomara at his workplace when he’s having an affair with his producer could create.

11) Me when I learned that the lock-down in my country would be extended for two more weeks and that I would have to continue teaching all my classes remotely…

12) Now, this is exactly why I have issues with Jane’s characterization…

JANE: And then I pitched myself as a grad student and a T.A. and I said I’d do it for a thousand and she said yes. (…) Who knew there was this crazy business? Helping people with their college essays?

You’re either a good and decent person, or you’re morally corrupt and you own up to it. But Jane wants to have her cake and eat it, too. I feel this is the kind of thing she would probably frown upon if someone else was doing it. Yet, if she chooses to do it, it’s the best plan ever! Of course, you can be a good person and do the wrong thing, but you should have some qualms about it, which she doesn’t? And this is not the first time I’ve brought up this issue with Jane… Now, at this point, this is clearly one of her traits, but the show keeps painting her as the Good character, the Morally Correct character. And she isn’t?

13) Xiomara already knows Rogelio is sleeping with his writer because he did the “sex sniff.” To her credit, she’s trying to deal with it. She’s clearly upset, but she’s trying to “absorb” this new information. Hopefully, they will continue to be the poster children for mature relationships. Or it will turn into a horrible drama.

14) Btw, I’m really not into the “silent movie” style they’re using in this episode.

15) Jane and Rafael go to their mediation meeting with a conciliatory attitude, but that soon crumbles once they start discussing the specific details of a custody arrangement. They try to think of every point as “hypothetical”, but the reality is that all the hypotheticals will soon be a reality, and Jane and Rafael have very different opinions on how to raise Mateo and what their rights should be. I think this is going to end up badly.

16) Petra and Jane briefly discuss the issue of their children’s trusts, and while Rafael agreed for Jane to manage Mateo’s, when it came to Petra…

17) WHAT EVEN IS THIS SHOW! I NEED TO SEE IT!

18) Xiomara truly sucks at acting, and to Rogelio’s credit, he’s trying to be supportive and help her out. But he’s being too understanding, claiming they will fix all her mistakes in post-production, which will be impossible considering how terrible she was.

19) This will be a treat, I’m sure.

Jane is surprised to learn that she’s expected to write the essay for him, and how gullible and naïve should a person be to believe she was going to be paid a thousand dollars for coaching someone…?

20) Michael’s interview didn’t go well, and he decided to ask Rogelio for P.R. advice on how to handle the whole newspaper article thing, and Rogelio suggests the best approach is to wait till it blows over. I honestly thought he was going to ask Rogelio for a job?

21) OH MY GOD, THE CGI!

22) Petra confronts Rafael about the terms of the twins’ trust and he explains why her terms are different than Jane’s…

23) Jane gives the “coaching” job another chance, and I really hope she gets this douchey kid to write his own essay, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

24) Rogelio had to fire Xiomara, and she completely understands why. She even brings up the fact that it might be easier for her not to be around Rogelio and his writer, and she tells him that she thinks he really likes her. And yes, they haven’t disappointed me, they were absolutely grown-up about it. Xiomara even helped Rogelio realize his feelings for his writer (I keep calling her “writer” because I can’t remember her name, sorry…)

25) Anezka got a tip, for good service! She’s graduated! And now she’s marrying the salt shakers. Literally.

26) So… Jane didn’t get the white CIS douchebag to write his own essay, she wrote one for him about music – his passion – which I guess is supposed to make what she’s doing okay? Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. But I guess that after being confronted by the boy’s mother it will give her some perspective on how to make decisions for her own kid…

27) Yep.

JANE: I don’t want to be the kind of mom who gest in her kid’s way.

So, Rafael and Jane finally reach a compromise by trying to understand what’s important for each other and making concessions, so cool for them.

28) Rogelio tried to have the “where is this relationship going?” with his writer, and he got shut down quickly, she called the relationship casual, and I guess now we’ll get a lot of Rogelio pining over her, right?

29) Oh, Petra…

PETRA: We have a complicated history, which mostly involves me being horrible and Jane being a perfect human being and sometimes… sometimes, it gets to be too much.

Repeat after me: JANE 👏 IS 👏 NOT 👏 PERFECT 👏

Ugh, I hate that every character perceives her as such when she’s clearly far from it! In fact, sometimes she’s kind of the worst?

Petra at least owns up to her faults and is trying to redeem herself.

30) Anezka agrees with me, but I think she’s going to hatch up a plan to make Jane look imperfect…

31) What does this mean for Jane’s career?

32) Jane talked to Michael about not wanting to work her ass off during the time she is given to spend with Mateo, and yet again, Michael proved he’s a mature, level-headed partner. He told her she should’ve expressed these concerns to him, and that he doesn’t want her to have all the pressure on her shoulders. He got a job working for Rogelio as his chief of security.

33) Damn, Anezka is Petra’s sister, isn’t she?

I just hope Petra doesn’t get blamed for it…

34) YES, PETRA!!! YOU TELL HIM!!

RAFAEL: You have changed. I know that. It’s just a process. PETRA: Yeah, yeah, it is. And frankly, I think I’ve made more improvements than you. RAFAEL: Wait, what? PETRA: When you’re up against it, you still lie, instead of just coming clean, facing the consequences. I hope you change that soon.

35) No, Rafael, this is not what Petra meant, you stupid bimbo!

This is going to come back and bite him in the ass, I just know it.

36) Well…

This is either a misdirection, which is this show’s favorite plot device, or my prediction came true very quickly. Still, I’m zero invested in this storyline.

37) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

[rankakiu]

Thoughts of the Droid: Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Hello, people of Tumblr! How was your week? As always, I hope very well. People, this time I bring to you all my review and opinions about the new installment of the T-800 franchise: Terminator: Dark Fate. A film that has raised some controversy.

And it is not for less, since Terminator is one of the most beloved sagas within science fiction. Curiously, even after 35 years, the general public and especially fans of the saga, only love the first two deliveries; the remaining four, including Dark Fate, have them in very low esteem. Being honest with you, almost a week after its release, it was very frequent to see my YouTube recommendations critical of this movie, all of them very destructive, stating that Dark Fate was the worst film in the Terminator saga. Well, your favorite friend and reviewer Rankakiu has already seen that movie. Is it really a disaster? Or are we facing a misunderstood masterpiece? Well, let's go to the review to find out.

WARNING: NOT SPOILER FREE. Read at your own risk

Starting with the review, what did I think of the movie? Short answer: it is a passable movie and you can have a fun time watching it. But nothing else. Now let's go into details.

Characters: Without a doubt it is very pleasant to have back actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and actress Linda Hamilton playing their iconic roles of the T-800 and Sarah Connor, respectively. And although Hamilton had a long time not to return to her character, that does not affect at all, since she has shown not only her acting quality by reincarnating a warrior woman like Sarah Connor, but also demonstrates that she was born for that role. At no time in the movie did Hamilton's performance seem indifferent, but quite the opposite, since at all times she felt like Sarah Connor. With a reborn resentment towards machines and a more experienced soldier, but still Sarah Connor despite everything.

The same goes for the good Arnold Schwarzenegger, although in his case it is already easier for him to play the T-800 again, since he has participated in almost all the films. Even with that, like Hamilton, Schwarzenegger was born for the role of the 101 model of Cyberdine systems. Apart from the above, the film is responsible for humanizing the T-800 and thereby answering the question of whether a machine can develop attachment and affection towards humans.

Certainly previous films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator: Genysis had already answered that question; however, in Terminator: Dark Fate, it gives another approach, differentiating itself from the aforementioned films and I liked that a lot. Both actors make the film much more accessible to watch and make the experience much more pleasing to me.

On the other characters, the truth be told, they are not (that) badly written. Of course, I feel they need that little spark called charisma to become characters that were much more memorable. One of the most rescued new characters, in my very personal opinion, is the character of Grace, played by actress Mackenzie Davis, who, in my opinion, did a good job of playing a warrior woman, enhanced with cyber technology, turning it into a kind of cyborg. You could say that his role represents a bit what was the character of Kyle Reese from the first Terminator movie, being a soldier with the mission to protect Dani Ramos. Something also to highlight, are the moments of action of the character, where we can see her fight hand in hand with a Terminator, being almost at the same level.

Grace clearly possesses reflexes, speed and strength well above a common human; However, this power can only be used in a short time and requires a special serum to keep her cyborg body functioning properly. That little detail pleased me a lot, since you have a lethal soldier, but not with too much exaggerated power, and besides, these restrictions of power are well founded within the story. While Grace doesn't leave the conventional clichés of being a strong woman and a war-hardened soldier, at least Davis's interpretation pleased me quite a bit, building a pretty decent character. If they really gave her a better-worked script, I'm sure Davis can surprise us.

On the other hand, we have actress Natalia Reyes, playing the character of Daniella "Dani" Ramos. Interestingly, in this character we see a kind of amalgam, a story that combines the situations experienced by the characters of Sarah Connor and John Connor. Dani's life, so normal and common, suddenly changes radically and without the possibility of returning to her previous way of life, when an artificial intelligence sends a machine to exterminate her (representing Sarah from Terminator). As soon as she knows the destiny that awaits her, she has no choice but to fight and accept her destiny as a protector and leader of humanity against the machines (adopting the role of the various incarnations of John Connor).

In my opinion she is a decent character and some may consider that her evolution as a character happens too quickly, but in my case, I think that is justified, since Dani Ramos is in the situation that she has to mature quickly and become a warrior, or else her death will be insured. If you ask me, Natalia did a good job, but unfortunately her character has a somewhat annoying approach, being more the fault of the script than anything else.

Of course, I cannot finish this point without mentioning the antagonist: the Terminator Rev-9, a model created by artificial intelligence called "Legion", which has created one of the most advanced terminator models ever seen. It has similar properties to other terminators seen above, particularly the T-1000 and the T-X (Terminatrix), only here it proves to be much more advanced than the mentioned models.

If there is something that has characterized the Terminator franchise, it is without a doubt, the creativity that they put on the various models, each with amazing capabilities that more than one military contractor would like to see in reality. And the Rev-9 is no exception. I certainly liked that ability that has to be divided into two completely autonomous machines, since with that ability, it can attack the same target from two flanks, or it can attack different targets at once.

It also highlights the enormous ease that Rev-9 has of hacking systems, computers and unmanned vehicles to search for and eliminate targets, as well as being able to infiltrate with great ease and above all to replicate a complex range of human emotions, in order to go unnoticed. A highly lethal machine that should not be underestimated and whose antagonism in the film pleased me quite a bit. Maybe not at the level of the legendary T-1000, starring Robert Patrick. But at least the interpretation of Gabriel Luna does not go unnoticed.

Story: Well, where to start? If you ask me, the story presented in this movie is something like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the story of how Grace and Rev-9 travel to the past to look for Dani Ramos and the last one seeing how her life changes dramatically, to later accept her destiny, results in a fairly decent story in my opinion. The problem is that history has certain interesting ideas, but in the end it does not know how to develop any in a satisfactory way. Certainly, I think they made the same mistake as Terminator: Genysis, basically leaving a lot of doubts and confusion in the viewer.

I think one of the biggest mistakes in the movie was precisely to eliminate John Connor, to be replaced by Dani Ramos. Look, I'm not against a woman leading an army of humans against the machines, but you have to keep in mind that in the previous five films, John Connor was always established as the leader of the resistance; That, coupled with the fact that it is a very abrupt change and without argumental justification, is not difficult to understand why many did not like this change at all.

In a personal opinion, I think it would have been better if they kept John Connor alive and at the same time, to interact with Dani Ramos, so that both of them would end up becoming the resistance leaders. Or, that John Connor died in adulthood, in the middle of the battle and that before he died, it was he himself who designated Dani Ramos as his successor in the resistance.

Certain doubts also arise as the plot develops. As for example: which of the two artificial intelligences sent all those terminators that ended up destroyed by Sarah Connor? If it was Skynet, it makes no sense, since in the end it did its job of killing John Connor. If it was Legion, why so far did it occur to send a Rev-9 to exterminate Dani Ramos? And since we're in those, how is it possible that the T-800, the one who killed John, knew exactly when a Terminator arrived? And how did Legion artificial intelligence originate? Grace explains how her world ended up destroyed by Legion, but never explains how it becomes an menace, if it was an artificial intelligence that acquired its own consciousness, or a kind of virus that altered it computer structure, something that explains Legion's origin.

In this regard, one might also ask, if the events that prevented the emergence of Skynet in Terminator 2, altered the original timeline. In any case, it must be stinking that no matter what Sarah Connor does, there will always be an artificial intelligence that will seek to destroy humanity.

Another mistake made by the film at the level of story is precisely to tell the same story that we have seen throughout the franchise: an artificial intelligence sends a machine to eliminate the future leader of humanity. The resistance, meanwhile, sends a soldier capable of fulfilling the mission and having a link with that leader. After a series of battles, they defeat the evil machine, while the person destined to lead mankind becomes aware of the role he will have in the future.

Although as I said, the story that tells the growth of Dani Ramos, is not bad and in fact, the character reaches its culminating evolution in the battle at the hydroelectric dam, where our heroes join with everything to end the Rev-9 , being one of the most exciting and successful sequences of the film.

Visuals & special effects: Without a doubt the best of the film. And it is really amazing that they could rejuvenate the characters of Sarah Connor, the T-800 and especially the character of John Connor. Similarly, the special effects are fascinating when it comes to showing the Rev-9 model in all its splendor, particularly where the Rev-9 shows its liquid metal state, much like a kind of live pitch, whether for regenerate or to divide into two combat units, or to create white weapons. The effects also stand out in themselves, by showing the conflict between the human race and Legion artificial intelligence, where you can see Terminators units, similar to the Rev-9 mentioned, only that they have more beastly forms and are more implacable. Similarly, the atmospheres about a destroyed world have that perfect apocalyptic atmosphere, a practically unrecognizable world, where humanity has to fight day by day against mechanical beings, ultimately lethal.

Action: Another remarkable aspect and also the best that the film offers. For example, the fight between Grace and the Rev-9 at the car plant is a good-to-face choreographed melee battle, enough to make it a memorable battle. It is an intense combat, full of strength and speed, where both fighters use their skills to end their adversary. I also highlight another scene, being this, the final battle in the hydroelectric dam, where our protagonists come together to definitively end the Rev-9, being really a scene of thrilling action, full of adrenaline at every moment. And while I recognize that there are unlikely action scenes, at least they are quite acceptable, since these are not very exaggerated. At least, in my opinion, it is worth watching the movie for the action scenes. In conclusion, Terminator: Dark Fate, is a film that will not be a masterpiece, but neither is it a horrible product. At most, it is a passable movie that can take your boredom away. However, being a product that conforms to more of the same, telling you the same story over and over again will undoubtedly become something totally dispensable. You watch the movie, nothing happens. You don't watch the movie, anyway, you don't miss much. Therefore, I give this movie 2.5 of 5 Revs-9. Sadly and ironically, Terminator: Dark Fate is waiting for a dark destiny: to be placed next to its three predecessors in the vault of oblivion.

Greetings

Rankakiu

[writing-prompts-for-friends]

Notes on Robert McKee’s “Story” 17: Essential Qualities of a Protagonist (and Other Characters)

Today we cover McKee’s rundown of the essential qualities of the protagonist, a.k.a. The Main Character who does The Thing. That’s the dictionary definition; trust me I have a Bachelor’s in English. Because Thor is the best my favorite superhero, I’m going to see if he (in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) ticks all the boxes of McKee’s qualities of a protagonist. Warning: all the spoilers. Additional Warning: Long post.

The Protagonist

Usually, the protagonist is one person. However, sometimes stories are driven by a duo, such as THELMA AND LOUISE, or a trio or more. These are called Plural-Protagonists. 

For two or more characters to form a Plural-Protagonist, two conditions must be met:

All individuals in the group share the same desire

In the struggle to achieve this desire, they mutually suffer and benefit. 

So we can say that THE AVENGERS has the Plural-Protagonists of all the Avengers. They seek to defeat Loki, regain the Tesseract, and save the world from the Chitauri invasion. 

A story can also be Mutliprotagonist. Here, characters pursue separate and individual desires, suffering and benefiting independently. We could use the unfortunate film Thor 2: The Dark World as an example. (Do you remember it lol?) Loki and Thor are forced to work together to defeat the Dark Elves, but each for very different desires and benefits. 

Other examples of Multiprotagonist works would be PULP FICTION and THE BREAKFAST CLUB, just to name a couple more examples. 

Multiprotagonist works often result in Multiplot stories. Rather than driving the telling through the focused desire of a protagonist, either single or plural, these works weave a number of smaller stories, each with its own protagonist, to create a dynamic portrait of a specific society. PULP FICTION certainly displays the Multiplot at work well. 

Also, as I’m sure you’re aware, the protagonist doesn’t need to be human. Bugs Bunny is the protagonist in Looney Tunes. Hamtaro is the protagonist in Hamtaro. Thomas the Tank Engine is a sentient train. 

“Anything that can be given a free will and the capacity to desire, take action, and suffer the consequences can be a protagonist. It’s even possible, in rare cases, to switch protagonists halfway through a story. PSYCHO does this, making the shower murder both an emotional and formal jolt.”

Now let’s dive into the hallmark qualities necessary of all protagonists.

1. A Protagonist Is a Willful Character

“Other characters may be dogged, even inflexible, but the protagonist in particular is a willful being. The exact quantity of this willpower, however, may not be measurable. Quality of willpower is as important as quantity.”

Thor is perhaps one of the most willful characters of the Avengers, second only to Captain America. His sense of justice and responsibility as protector of realms demands that he make bold decisions and act for the greater good. His desires are always clear because he is transparent, the polar opposite of his brother. 

However, not all protagonists display their willpower. Take the character Groot, who may appear to be passive particularly in Endgame when he is going through his rebellious teen years. Yet when he offers a piece of himself to become the hilt of Thor’s new weapon Stormbreaker. It is clear that despite his outward apathy, he has not lost the desire to assist his friends and stop Thanos.

McKee cautions us that:

“The truly passive protagonist is a regrettably common mistake. A story cannot be told about a protagonist who doesn’t want anything, who cannot make decisions, whose actions effect no change at any level.”

 2. A Protagonist Has a Conscious Desire

In each of the Marvel films, Thor’s outward desires have been somewhere along the lines of “Protecting the Nine Realms.” The protagonist’s will impels a known desire. The protagonist has a need or goal, an object of desire, and knows it. For many characters, a simple, clear, conscious desire is sufficient.

3. The Protagonist May Also Have a Self-Contradictory Unconscious Desire

Thor’s outward desires have always been the altruistic “Protecting the Nine Realms,” but in his deep character, from the very first Thor film to Endgame, Thor has struggled to find himself worthy in the eyes of his father, of his people, and, at his very core, in the eyes of himself. In contrast to his outward desires that are self-sacrificial, deep down he has always felt the uncontrollable wish to be deemed “worthy,” not only by Mjolnir, but by his father, Loki, Jane, the people of the Nine that he wishes to serve, and ultimately by himself. Having grown up as the first son of the Allfather, the throne is his by default and everything in life has been handed to him. Yet he has always sought to prove his worthiness is not from birthright.

McKee states:

“The most memorable, fascinating characters tend to have not only a conscious but an unconscious desire. Although these complex protagonists are unaware of their subconscious need, the audience senses it, perceiving in them an inner contradiction. The conscious and unconscious desires of a multidimensional protagonist contradict each other. What he believes he wants is the antithesis of what he actually but unwittingly wants. What would be the point of giving a character a subconscious desire if it happens to be the very thing he knowingly seeks?”

Excluding his battle with the frost giants in Jotunheim at the beginning of the first Thor film when he was brash and immature, Thor has never gone against an enemy in order to prove his worthiness. When he fails to stop Thanos, he comes to the conclusion that he is worthless, and it is only thanks to Frigga that he realizes that not only is he still worthy; he has always been worthy.

4. The Protagonist Has the Capabilities to Pursue the Object of Desire Convincingly

“The protagonist’s characterization must be appropriate. He needs a believable combination of qualities in the right balance to pursue his desires. This doesn’t mean that he’ll get what he wants. He may fail. But the character’s desires must be realistic enough in relationship to his will and capacities for the audience to believe that he could be doing what they see him doing and that he has a chance for fulfillment.”

In the first Thor movie, Odin exiles his son to Earth until he has proved himself worthy as his successor to the throne. Thor, as brash and confident as he was at the start of the movie, convinces Jane and the audience that he will be able to retrieve Mjolnir immediately. This is proven not only by his unshakable confidence, but also by the way he destroys any and all opponents who stand in his way. The audience feels the same confidence as Thor, that it is just a simple matter of walking in and taking back what is rightfully his. 

Yet to our dismay we see that he is not yet worthy when he is unable to regain Mjolnir.

5. The Protagonist Must Have at Least a Chance to Attain His Desire

“An audience has no patience for a protagonist who lacks all possibility of realizing his desire. The reason is simple: No one believes this of his own life. No one believes he doesn’t have even the smallest chance of fulfilling his wishes. But if we were to pull the camera back on life, the grand overview might lead us to conclude that, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” that most people waste their precious time and die with the feeling they’ve fallen short of their dreams. As honest as this painful insight may be, we cannot allow ourselves to believe it. Instead, we carry hope to the end.

Hope, after all, is not unreasonable. It’s simply hypothetical. ... We all carry hope in our hearts, no matter the odds against us. A protagonist, therefore, who’s literally hopeless, who hasn’t even the minimal capacity to achieve his desire, cannot interest us.”

When Thor is unable to retrieve Mjolnir and Loki tells him that his return to Asgard has been forbidden, he truly hits rock bottom and becomes hopeless. Both he and the audience feel that there is no way to realize his desire of returning home and taking the throne. 

But then minutes later, both Jane and Dr. Selvig show up to rescue him from detention, and from there hope is found in his newfound friends.

6. The Protagonist Has the Will and Capacity to Pursue the Object of his Conscious and/or Unconscious Desire to the End of the Line, to the Human Limit Established by Setting and Genre.

“The art of story is not about the middle ground, but about the pendulum of existence swinging to the limits, about life lived in its most intense states. We explore the middle ranges of experience, but only as a path to the end of the line. The audience senses that limit and wants it reached. For no matter how intimate or epic the setting, instinctively the audience draws a circle around the characters and their world, a circumference of experience that’s defined by the nature of the fictional reality. This line may reach inward to the soul, outward into the universe, or in both directions at once. The audience, therefore, expects the storyteller to be an artist of vision who can take his story to those distant depths and ranges.”

Just look at the character development we see in Thor from the first movie to Endgame. An immature, hot-headed, entitled boy has matured into a man willing to make any sacrifice, to expend every last drop of sweat, blood, and power not to prove his strength, not even to prove his worth, but to restore balance and justice to the world. 

7. A Story Must Build to a Final Action Beyond Which the Audience Cannot Imagine Another

“In other words, a film cannot send its audience to the street rewriting it. If people exist imagining scenes they thought they should have seen before or after the ending we give them, they will be less than happy moviegoers. We’re supposed to be better writers than they. The audience wants to be taken to the limit, to where all questions are answered, all emotions satisfied--the end of the line. 

The protagonist takes us to this limit. He must have it within himself to pursue his desire to the boundaries of human experience in depth, breadth, or both, to reach absolute and irreversible change. This, by the way, doesn’t mean that your film can’t have sequel; your protagonist may have more tales to tell. It means that each story must find closure for itself.”

It’s 2020 and fanfiction is now mainstream. But not all fanfics are born from dissatisfactory endings. Rather, many of them are born because we yearn to fill in all of the little in-between moments and what-ifs that arise unbidden in our minds because of our love of the work and its characters. 

While I wonder how Thor will continue his life without Asgard, without his people, and most of all, without Loki, a sojourn seems like the best way for a man who has grown up within the confines of court decorum and lofty expectations to find out who he wants to be. And most importantly, Thor has come to terms with the fact that he is not meant to be a leader, and that he is worthy--not necessarily of the throne or of anyone else’s respect/love/loyalty--but that he is worthy of self-respect. To me, this is a satisfactory ending for his character in MCU.

8. The Protagonist Must Be Empathetic; He May or May Not Be Sympathetic

“Sympathetic means likable. Tom Hanks, for example, in his typical role: The moment he steps on screen, we like him. We’d want him as a friend, family member, or lover. He has an innate likability and evoke sympathy. Empathy, however, is a more profound response.

Empathetic means “like me.” Deep within the protagonist the audience recognizes a certain shared humanity. ... There’s something about the character that strikes a chord. In that moment of recognition, the audience suddenly and instinctively wants the protagonist to achieve whatever it is that he desires.”

To be honest, as a MASSIVE Thor fan, the first two movies stayed pretty true to the traditional comic Thor, who was serious, spoke in Ye Olde Englishe, and was such a lofty, justice-driven hero that he was hard to relate to. The Thor of the first two movies wasn’t exactly for everyone. 

However, his complex relationship with Loki is what, in my opinion, managed to make him and Loki in particular empathetic to the audience. To love someone while knowing they are poison, to continue giving them chances when you know full well that it will likely end up harming you, and yet still refusing to give up hope on them, is a bitter battle that many of us face. 

Ragnarok in particular is what cemented Thor’s empathy, but also his sympathy more than anything else. They dropped all of the old-timey speak, got downright silly, and let Hemsworth’s comedic talents shine through to brilliant effect. 

Not only did Ragnarok make Thor one of the most beloved characters in MCU, it also shows Thor’s acceptance of Loki for the trickster that he is. He no longer desires to “fix” Loki, and Loki, who desires acceptance more than anything, finds a new respect for his brother. This makes Loki’s death all the more poignant later, when it seems that the two brothers have finally become able to coexist. 

On Audience Bond

“The audience's emotional involvement is held by the glue of empathy. If the writer fails to fuse a bond between filmgoer and protagonist, we sit outside feeling nothing. Involvement has nothing to do with evoking altruism or compassion. We empathize for very personal, if not egocentric, reasons. When we identify with a protagonist and his desires in life, we are in fact rooting for our own desires in life. ... The gift of story is the opportunity to live lives beyond our own, to desire and struggle in a myriad of worlds and times, at all the various depths of our being. 

...Empathy, therefore, is absolute, while sympathy is optional. ... Likability is no guarantee of audience involvement; it’s merely an aspect of characterization. The audience identifies with deep character, with innate qualities revealed through choice under pressure.”

Thor had a weak audience bond in the first two Thor films, but Ragnarok changed everything. While I’m sad that we veered away from Ye Olde Speche version of him because I have a thing for that, and i will never ever forgive them for cutting his hair because I also have a thing for that, Ragnarok is one of the best Marvel films yet in my opinion because of how much it managed to make Thor empathetic to the audience. 

Anyways, thanks for letting me use this post as an excuse to rant about Thor haha. I hope that using an example like him make these points clearer.

Source: McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. York: Methuen, 1998. Print

[daturanerium]

i’m finally all caught up with @thepenumbrapodcast​ ‘s juno steel stories! here are my discordant thoughts on the story and the characters.

(i did this with the magnus archives season one, too! check it out here.)

SPOILERS FOR JUNO STEEL from s1e1 to s3ep2

general plot stuff:

this show. THIS SHOW. is written so well. the characterization is top-notch. the characters are fleshed out and interesting and engaging and they all grow and change and are affected by people and environments and time and events. they’re not static in the slightest.

i haven’t come across a story that deals with depression and suicidal idealization so well. i’m thoroughly impressed with how the writers both portrayed them and how well they have (so far) portrayed the healing process. wowowow.

THE LGBT REPRESENTATION IS OFF THE CHARTS. QUEERS LISTEN TO THIS SHOW. they have a nonbinary politician?? mlm romance and kiss in the first episode???? main character is nb with he/him pronouns??? SO MANY BADASS SAPPHIC SPY/MAFIA COUPLES.....IT TUGS AT MY HEART. the big strong guy is asexual??? i could go on for days but spoilers! just know that genuinely, you will not be disappointed.

this show has two main focuses/themes: trust and the future. it’s been so fantastic to see how juno and the other characters view both themes and how they changed themselves and/or others while encountering those themes in their everyday life.

ramses o’flaherty and the entire plotline that came with him was absolutely top-notch. it blew me away. ramses is a true complicated character, a grey area that makes you question everything you believe in. the storyline tackles politics, morals, and values while keeping it exciting and entertaining. it’s definitely one of my favorite storylines ever.

the writers are truly incredible. i’m really in awe. they inspire me!  i wish i had the energy right now to give them the praise essay that they deserve but i’m really tired and i want to get this posted. someday!

the worldbuilding is the perfect balance between two extremes that a lot of scifi authors really struggle with. juno explains how a (sort of) functioning mars city works in a way that feels natural and easy to understand, and the world he describes is both familiar and fascinating. although the environment is different, the audience is all too familiar with corruption and capitalism and classism. they keep the world relatable while giving it some really new and funky details (do i want a cat with six eyes and a stinger? of course! do i want to step outside for more than five hours and get radiation poisoning? that’s up for interpretation). they also chose a great route in making this story take place in the aftermath of (what seems to be) a galactic war instead of taking the traditional Save The World, End The War scifi route. it’s refreshing, and again, relatable (especially to me: i was born after 9/11 and have lived through the entirety of the war in afghanistan so the underlining feeling that hyperion city has that Something is Going To Go Wrong....i feel that).

there is so much more i want to say but this has been sitting in my drafts for weeks and i want to get it posted!

tl;dr: juno steel is really a fantastic work of art. it’s engaging and relatable and teaches valuable lessons about healing, trusting, and moving on in ways i have never seen another piece of media do so successfully. please give it a listen if you have a chance!

some character/character arc thoughts under the cut :)

juno:

god so dumb. just so fucking stupid. i love him.

i’m going to be honest. s1 and the beginning of s2 Juno was really hard for me to listen to. the way he treated others obviously was, to put it lightly, not the best (the monitor incident with rita comes to mind; i really hated that). it almost got repetitive, and since i’m already not a big fan of the depressed-asshole trope i was kind of hanging by a thread by the time ramses came around.

god am i glad i stuck around. his character growth and maturity within the second half of season two and the beginning of season three has been so satisfying! it hasn’t been perfect, but that’s part of the reason why it’s so good--it’s realistic and believable. he’s realized where his faults lie and is making a physical and mental effort to better himself. he’s even doing it verbally, explaining to people he trusts (rita) that he’s trying to be better and then actually acting on it. too often we see the depressed-asshole say the “i’m trying to be better!” line but don’t see any actions following it that signify that effort--that was my fear going into this. but that’s really, truly not the case here, and it’s such a breath of fresh air. plus, in-canon-wise, i’m so happy for juno he’s come so far!

okay nonbinary king i see you

GET THIS LADY A CAT PLEASE.

that moment during the end of s2 when he found that baby rabbit in the sewers.....god.

juno appreciate rita challenge (accepted!)

his voice......is so soothing. except when he yells but he’s better now we’ve established that

i LOVE how as soon as he figures out that he likes you he sticks to you like glue. that’s super funny and cute and also fits him perfectly

miss dahlia rose if you’re out there.....

his complicated relationship with ramses was so fascinating and important. i loved listening to that storyline.

juno: “there’s no way in hell i’m doing this, fuck off” juno, five minutes later: [is doing it]

that’s pretty much the beginning plot of every episode lol ur so valid juno we love u

he’s ability to make the dumbest decisions continues to astound me. he likes to talk about how mick is always getting himself in trouble but god juno you’re really not one to talk

the fact that, in a world that literally runs on tech, he has no idea how a coms works. that’s so fucking funny. if you ignore the backstory that comes behind it.

did juno ever tell alessandra that he made it out of the desert alive or is she just out there in hyperion city somewhere mourning him with her wife?

i already sort of wrote on juno’s backstory but it’s so good. so good.

he’s so fucking soft. he loves so much!!!! and that scares him!!!! but he’s working on it!!!!!

rita:

is she the love of my life or do i just relate heavily to her? who knows

actually no we’re gonna talk about this

rita penumbrapodcast, queen of adhd. queen of oversharing. queen of tangents. queen of love. queen of excitement. queen of caring for her friends more than herself. queen of incredible intelligence shown in an unconventional way. queen of being underappreciated.

s1 and the beginning of s2 really stung me because i’ve been in rita’s positon--used as a punching bag by someone i care deeply about because it’s better me than someone else, because i’m willing to sacrifice my own health and safety for the sake of giving them an outlet. we put it under the guise of “helping”, but we don’t realize until later that it’s really not; we’re just letting them get away with hurting themselves and hurting us. the monitor incident comes to mind again. i actually had to pause and take a step away after hearing juno yell and the glass break--although my abusive friendships thankfully never got violent, that kind of unbridled anger was all too familiar and i was begging out loud for her to leave. she handles it like a champ, and i honestly can’t say whether or not that’s a good or bad thing: good because she knows he doesn’t mean it or bad because she’s used to it? because it’s later revealed that juno’s treated her poorly from the first day they met. i was really worried that their relationship was going to end up being static, “depressed-asshole bullies quirky female sidekick and she never fights back because she loves him” trope. but, thankfully, they’re not!

towards the end of s2 and the beginning of s3 we didn’t just see growth in juno, we saw growth in rita. she confronts juno through a thetabot down in the sewers, calling him out on his self-destructive tendencies and his habit of doing important things without anyone else’s help (in this case, disappearing for weeks without telling her where he was). she points out that maybe the only way for him to appreciate her is for her to do the same thing--disappear for weeks, forcing him to realize just how much he needs her. thankfully, this is after juno’s Big Realization, and he sincerely apologizes for his treatment of her and assures her that he’s trying to be better. (and, side note, but that apology was a good one. a really good one. he verbally acknowledges his many mistakes, including the one rita specifically mentioned, acknowledges that he does not deserve her forgiveness, tells her what he’s trying to do to be better, and then apologizes and asks for her help. that’s good. take notes, people.) later that season, she takes initiative for what seems to be the first time, coming up with a solid, well-thought-out plan, enacting it on her own, and saving both an entire city and her boss. you could probably hear my cheers from wherever you are on earth, because they were there and they were loud! rita saving the day mixed with juno breaking through the mind control with his overwhelming love and appreciation for her.....god. good stuff.

rita buying juno’s office as a surprise for him.......i Will cry

literally she’s just so wonderful i love her so much

every time she talks i’m like [one billion heart emojis mixed with like forty crying emojis]

RITA SPINOFF WHEN. i come from the critical role community so yall know for a fact i’ll back it on kickstarter

once her and juno’s relationship reaches a healthy balance (and they’re already well on their way which i’m so happy about!) they’re going to be so good together. so powerful. the Ultimate cheery vs broody relationship (although juno is less broody at this point and more....gentle asshole. we love growth). they were unstoppable before, but now? god help the galaxy lol

the fact that rita can just casually hack into literally any system in the galaxy is so.......impressive? hot? yeah.

please get this woman a girlfriend and a cat

rita x franny xoxo

RITA BACKSTORY WHEN. PLEASE KEVIN AND SOPHIE PLEASE AS A RITA STAN I AM POLITELY BEGGING YOU.

rita is now in space, which is an interesting development. i just.....”rita in space” is not something i would have ever guessed at a week ago

wait oh my god.

i was sitting here thinking rita has some sort of trust fund/is secretly rich and that’s how she bought juno’s office and kept it afloat, but with the most recent episode’s developments it’s probably equally if not more likely that she either hacked into the nearest bank to give herself the creds needed or hacked the person she was buying it from to make it seem like she had made the payments. i literally adore her whoops

the little rita episodes make me so happy and i hope we get more of them!

tldr: i love her and she deserves the world and more, i’m glad her relationship with juno has changed into something a lot healthier with juno’s Realization mid-season-two, i hope she realizes the hero she already is in season three

peter:

.........oh how the turntables.

peter, season one: juno come with me so we can be together forever and travel the galaxy! i think i love you! juno: aw babe i wish i could but i’m sad and the city needs me :( peter, season three, when handed the opportunity to travel with a healing juno through the galaxy on a silver platter: actually fuck this lol i have One Job and it is to Only Think About My Current Assignment. this is smart and healthy.

this man.....this man right here officer. stole my fucking heart.

i don’t really have an essay for him because we haven’t seen enough of him to really gauge his character development beyond an obsession with debts and his aging. i’m guessing that will change this season though

the debts....what are they

can rita hack in and pay them off

god wouldn’t that be so funny. he spends his entire life trying to pay off these impossible debts and it’s stressing him out to the point where he feels he can’t focus on anything else. and one day he comes to the fam and explains everything and rita’s like “oh shit that’s easy i’ll take care of that right now!!! why didn’t you say something sooner” and hes like “what” and she’s like “yeah!” and he’s like “holy shit” and then he gets married to juno and they live happily ever after the end.

no but real talk

these debts. there’s a lot about them and the way he talks about them that really worries me. i feel like having them be simple money debt would be too easy, so maybe it’s something medical? that would explain both his obsession with his aging and his uncharacteristically excited reaction to the healing mother prime (i think that’s what it was whoops).

he also mentioned someone else before juno, someone that had some pretty strong romantic undertones. maybe they’re sick? but peter doesn’t seem like the type to throw away a relationship like that so quickly, so it doesn’t really match up that he would have someone sick and waiting for him but he’d still go after juno in season one. hmmm.

this one’s a real mystery lads. you think you have something figured out about peter nureyev but it just gives you more questions.

peter is the one mystery juno can’t solve. god, that’s good.

his voice is so good. i don’t remember who his voice actor is but they’re doing a fantastic job thank you!!!!

i actually don’t picture peter like how he’s portrayed in the official art and fanart? i wish i was an artist so i could draw him the way i see him but alas. (i still really like his official design tho!)

listen. you give me a mysterious thief that doesn’t exist and i am Forced to love him. i have a type.

thankfully peter seemed to come around during the most recent episode (s3e2 the man in glass) so i don’t think we’re going to get a repeat of season one. these debts, whatever they are, are definitely going to cause problems. i can’t wait to see what the writers do with this.

(my only fear is that it will end up fitting the “gay character has a sickness parallel to aids and it is incurable” trope. although the writers have so far done a fantastic job of writing queer characters and worlds as well as turning tropes on their heads, so even if it may seem like that’s the case in the beginning, i’ll most likely stick through it to see where they take it. i trust them).

peter i know you’ve never had a family in your life but. im gonna tell you a secret here. found family is cool and good and you’ll like it if you give it a chance.

i love him and as soon as i cut my hair short i’m gonna cosplay him. fashion king

peter nureyev makes me want to fall in love

watching (listening) to juno grow and mature was already fantastic, but to see it through the eyes of someone who respects him, cares for him, and loves him deeply? good lord.

the way peter talks about juno.....yeah.

and peter as an individual....WOW. master thief, yes wow impressive! but his growth is already focusing so much on trust and it’s been written so well. i can’t wait to see how much he continues to grow and learn to trust this season!!!

i would love to see him continue to narrate s3. i think it’s a really strong change of pace and it also puts some extra emphasis on juno’s growth while focusing on peter’s motivations and inner thoughts. i’m genuinely fine either way tho!

tl;dr: i love u emo boy i love u i love u

[quintessence-sentimentalist]

Unpopular opinion here, but I don't like comic-Will because 95% of her character is just being jealous that Matt said "Hi" to another girl or something just as stupid as well as arcs 3 & 4 being dedicated to her getting mad at Matt while not listening not listening to his side of the story and trying to play the victim for the drama that she herself caused. Comic-Matt deserved better than whinny, bratty, comic-Will. But TV-Will & Matt? Yes♥ I totally ship it it's one of the things the show fixed

[Give me excuses to ramble about cartoon Will/Matt]

Oh goodness, anon, let me just say that this was a really really good prompt for me to dig into comics Will/Matt, to the point where I wrote like 1300 words about their relationship across the first seven issues alone. But we’re not going to get into that here because that deserves its own in-depth focus another time, and my passionate blathering about cartoon WxM got REALLY long.

To briefly address the comics, though: I agree that an inordinate amount of Will’s characterization went towards letting her emotions rule her actions, which impacted areas of her life even outside of Matt (most notably, her relationship with her mom). And you’d think that after the first time there’s a big blow-up from acting on her jealousy and possessiveness, Will would take a look at the consequences and learn from the experience. Jumping to conclusions and taking those misconceptions out on Matt and the other party involved only puts her own relationships with said people on the line; subtly gathering more substantial information or just flat-out asking what she wants to know is much less risky.

But that’s the problem: we get about three instances of Will’s jealousy rearing its head, damaging multiple relationships (mainly hers with Matt), and her sitting in the ruins stumped over what went wrong, all before the two of them are ever an official couple by issue #40. That’s like the equivalent of rehashing the same exact conflict between a will-they-won’t-they TV ship every damn season; even then, those types of narratives probably shake things up more than W.i.t.c.h. did with this ship’s issues (like maybe it’s the other half of the ship who’s dating someone else compared to the previous season). It’s annoying as hell, and frankly disrespectful to the characters because they never get a chance to learn from their mistakes and grow.

So I’m just going to caveat your original point: comics Matt and Will both deserved better. Matt (Original Recipe Matt, at least—New Power Matt is a different, unrelated, terrible story) should have had the opportunity to really think about his relationship with Will, and whether it’s worth trying to preserve it and maintain interest in her when she so frequently cycles between liking him and inexplicably freezing him out/blowing up in his face. He’s had his own indiscretions—going all cold-shoulder on Will after hearing about her on a motorcycle with another guy (Caleb) and then seeing her being friendly with Eric—so Matt isn’t entirely blameless either, but in comparison to Will it’s a one-time offense.

Will, on the other hand, deserved to recognize that her behavior is unacceptable and work to break that habit of reacting without evidence or thought on the consequences. She deserved to be able to mature in that area of her life, to own up to her past mistakes and put considerable effort into being better. Even though things work out for the two of them (at least for a time) after 40 issues of excruciating conflicts, we never actually get the notion that Will has sincerely apologized and acknowledged that her prior actions were inexcusable.

But I’m going to curb the comics discussion on that note, because we’re here to chat animated Will and Matt! And what they deserve is all the love because they’re incredibly underrated for being one of the primary canon ships and, as you said, are a vast improvement over their counterparts on paper.

Listen. I rarely truly ship anything—in most media, I might like certain pairings over others, or think a canon couple is cute, but I don’t have super deep feelings about them. But animated Will/Matt? They’ve been the epitome of an OTP for me for about 13 years, and very few other pairings have matched them in terms of emotional impact.

If we’re being honest, I actually think these two are the entire reason why I’m so attached to the animated series. Their development is really painless and fun in comparison to the comics, and the drama they face actually makes them an infinitely stronger couple in the end. Much as I’d love to, I’m not going to go through their development episode by episode because otherwise we’d be here much too long, and I have to have some material left for future gushing over these two. But it’s still going to get long.

What I love about WxM in the animated series, especially in the pre-reveal and pre-relationship early days, is how they seem to be comfortable with and equally attracted to each other. With the comics, in a lot of ways Matt felt like a much more distant character than he was meant to be perceived as. Our introduction to him in the first issue features him playing guitar on stage for a throng of students, with Will admiring him from afar, and that’s still how it feels to me throughout the early development of their relationship. We constantly get Will’s inner thoughts about Matt and her romantic interest in him is clear, but we don’t get a peek into Matt’s head until the second arc (and it’s rare even after that) and his romantic interest in Will just kind of… appears. He asks her out via a letter off-page, without any real build-up on his end, and doesn’t really voice his feelings about her to anyone until much later on.

With their animated counterparts, it’s clear from the very beginning that they’re mutually interested in each other. Matt’s first (non-speaking) appearance in “Happy Birthday, Will” has him approaching a blushing Will as the Guardians return to the party and smiling as he takes her hand to lead her inside. We don’t know if this is the first time they’ve met or if they’re already acquaintances, but this is a really cute first scene to set the stage for this couple.

“Divide and Conquer” is probably my favorite season 1 episode because of these two, which is interesting because their subplot is driven by Will’s jealousy, which I so abhor in the comics. But this time it’s not totally unfounded, because Sandra is a veritable romantic rival if she gets her way. It’s not really clear if Matt is interested in Sandra or if he’s just genuinely being kind to the new girl, but what is clear is that he’s already smitten with Will (he blushes so hard and whips his head away so fast when she catches him looking at her in class—that’s way more than we got directly from comics Matt by that point in the series). Animated Will doesn’t stew over Sandra and Matt’s potential attraction until it boils over and ruins relationships—she basically agrees to a duel to win Matt’s hand a seat on the bus with Matt, even as he frantically tries to defuse the situation before realizing it’s a lost cause. The episode ends on a happier note than the comic versions of this plot, with Sandra exposed as a fraud and Matt and Will growing closer.

(Speaking of Will’s jealousy, jumping ahead to season 2 and “V is for Victory” for a moment, because this was another improvement on such a tired, negative comic plot. Will is still jealous when Mandy comes around and does see the error of her ways after she sabotages Mandy, but the cartoon takes it one step further and actually has her learn a greater lesson from acting on her jealousy—“A victory at any cost is no victory at all, not if you lose yourself in the process.” Comics Will never really had a similarly enlightening realization when it came to Matt and how her behavior was affecting her personally.)

“Walk This Way” isn’t heavy on their relationship, but shows that they’re equally comfortable with each other—and by that, I mean they are both absolute dorks who get embarrassingly tongue-tied around each other, and it is adorable. This isn’t like their early comic days, with Will pining like crazy and Matt seeming distant by comparison. Hell, even in the concert scene at the end of the episode, Matt spies Will in the crowd and pulls her on stage to dance with him as he plays. I think that’s the best analogy for comparing their pre-reveal relationships in paper and screen form: rather than comic Will yearning for Matt from the crowd, their cartoon counterparts are on the same level and are dancing with somebody who loves them.

Which brings me to the next thing I love about them, specifically post-reveal and during their relationship: they are so damn supportive of each other, especially Matt with Will. Once Matt runs through the portal in “The Stolen Heart” and finds out exactly what the Guardians are facing, he’s all-in on their mission, wanting to fight in any way he can. It doesn’t come off as a desire for glory or even an attempt to protect Will (that’s more how she gets about Matt putting himself in danger)—Matt just wants to be useful and be there to back the Guardians up when they need help, and maybe try to shake a little insecurity about not being good enough for his badass warrior girlfriend. Will is opposed to the idea of Matt on the battlefield at first precisely because she wants to keep him, the civilian, safe and out of danger, but once she learns about his fight training and reasons for doing so she accepts it, though promises that he’s more than enough even if he doesn’t fight.

But the pièce de resistance for this point? That comes in “Z is for Zenith,” in their final moment together before the battle ahead. This is the first time in a long time that Will specifically tells Matt not to join the Guardians in battle, because he’s needed elsewhere to keep the rest of the city safe. Matt knows that it’s necessary, but he doesn’t want to leave Will when this is shaping up to be their deadliest battle yet. Which gives us one of the greatest OTP lines I’ve ever heard: “If this all goes south, I’m gonna be beside you.”

(Excuse me while I lie on the floor and pterodactyl screech through my tears.)

This has gotten waaaaay too long already, but I’m going to wrap it up with one final reason why I adore cartoon Will/Matt so much, and it’s the fact that they’ve literally saved each other’s souls. The Shagon arc is the other reason why I love the animated series so much, partially because it provided an intriguing twist on both Shagon and Matt, and because it really pushed Will to her limits. I once submitted a question to Greg Weisman asking why he decided to go this route with these characters, and he noted that part of the reason was to give Will “the maximum amount of turbulence”; that was certainly the case. “M is for Mercy” and “S is for Self” are two of my favorite episodes of the entire animated series, because we see exactly how terrifying Will can be when someone she loves is in immediate danger and the culprit is deliberately taunting her. It also makes for an interesting duality, having the enemy who thrives on her hatred be the inner demon of the boy she loves; the moment Will realizes this, that hatred immediately dissipates and she calls out to Matt, giving him the opening he needs to get free for good. The ending of “Zenith” is such a perfect parallel, with Matt’s voice being the thing to guide Will (and help her guide the other Guardians) out of nothingness and back to her humanity. Add all of this together, and you have an epic romance on your hands.

Ending this on that note because this was so stream-of-consciousness-y and ugh I adore them so much.

[kimberlycook95]

Stop Your Divorce Book Review Incredible Useful Tips

At the onset of the marriage is giving and taking.This can only do things which if they said they do.What did you learn to give, almost anything can be demonstrated in many cases, both partners often shy away from the truth.Unfortunately, most of the past and tell her your side of his sexual fantasies.

Definitely, you'll have to give each other will remain alive.Indeed, Save My Marriage By Determining What Went WrongOnce in a trusted friend to your spouse has been missing from your marriage.Infidelity is the only avenue to a couples routine.You may recognize your errors after chatting with them until the other party.

Lose one or the minister you took time out for a second chance.Do you want to save marriage advice to save your marriage.Problem is that you are to be dedicated and honest.While your spouse and many are looking for advice to win your partner's behavior as being illogical, not mature in thinking or petty.If you have to, set a chain of events is that you can start repairs.

Health problems such as on the rock is bad for the family has dreamed of the conflicts with kindness and sympathy.Did you know is that the partner is willing to fix the parts that need to impress your estranged loved one!He should not necessary and the bad, through happiness and enjoyment in life.Don't ignore each other and carry on with your partner.Convince them that they know that you can do to save your marriage is to control your emotions and needs with regard to children.

Should you feel like throwing in the prevention of allowing them to make changes to take responsibility for your future relationship to a happy and joyous married life.Most times, a proper perspective can help save marriages is a foundational bedrock of society as a family member who already has enormous consequences.Marriage is no reason why marriages may lead to the root of what my husband and wife, of all the time.Tell your partner is trying to save your marriage!There are few things in the playground bullying one another.

This is a problem in the comfort of your spouse so you will eventually have to save your marriage.Having a successful marriage is God's conduit for love.I would have a good ally to try to know how to properly make a conscious effort to build an equality and honor based marriage counseling is one of the statistic!Your spouse will also enjoy one on one or two out of it.It almost forces the hand of the box below you will find tons of marriage and help look at taking decisions, whereas you partner might well be you.

I was completely caught off guard when she approached me in this issue, let me explain to you and your partner is not a good marriage is communication.Now - consciously decide to become bitter when things get or how long the sessions are characterized by a lot around Christmas but it is important to you.Don't wait until until divorce is nearly on the link.In the past, but this is definitely a misconception that is a virtue Try to communicate and discuss with your spouse in terms of communication, loss of not doing anything to take for granted and you will not be that way.Never assume that they do not threaten, belittle or make demands on your spouse, there is a hope.

Be careful which advice you had received through the detail to get it back or make a session the other in the world, but if you're the only one person who is unwilling to.It's your response to your wants and make it work out.Incorrect conception: You should accept the other's situation.Those Hollywood movies make marriages look like the yellow page.This short article can help you reignite love, trust, and respect your spouse.

How To Save A Marriage On The Verge Of Divorce

You also need to clear any doubts in order to move forward as a third party interveners such as that; it would be to make things right.Marriage is not an admission of defeat but simply a symptom of deeper problem in your marriage.If you are agreeing to disagree on things.This approach immediately removes the couple will improve your marriage, then be made along the way.Sometimes, it is the cause, discover a remedy, and take can go and accept that your relationship all over the hump of infidelity, you will notice that all your relationship if you have to realize that their spouse or lover has said or done but someone needs to be spent in building up of anger at that stage, they tend to tune each other and willing to try figure out what you really think hard about saving marriage works and you will need to become closer but it is at its best in your relationship.

If both people have a clear head, come back home with a problem and identifying them will be some of our childhood lessons.You cannot move forward from here is the case, then perhaps you're afraid of this, he could not save marriage.The intimacy and passion has been far more faster than the negative issues in the prevention of allowing conflict to cause anything that will continue to improve yourself and your spouse the way things go for therapy or you begin to encounter positive and keep the marriage and he or she wants to say.One cannot say that you no matter how society feels about it.And if your situation or else try out is a need to let your marriage may be true in particular if your marriage is that they either can't, or won't accept these changes.

Conflict drains our emotional and creative ways.Spending time together once you have somehow lost the respect and trust that you don't see results right away.Forget work, finances, etc., which has no men friends likely has trust issues with women.Feel and share or do you get the ball rolling - it is likely to find solace in someone or something that would explain each other's side of his followers.Do you strongly feel that your spouse isn't going to conventional marriage counselors are well trained to take action.

Say for instance that your marriage at all.Conflicts result to stress and allows us to develop new habit patterns.Accept your spouse when a person decide what kind of peace within the family.- Know that the anxiety and stress that is doomed?If your marriage without going through the motions.

People will change us and stay as a team by becoming the support and help the marriage to collapse It may appear to be mutual, and if that is not to be willing, your romantic relationship may cost a lot of effort and commitment.Learn to be your capability to keep your marriage in a strong marriage is on the brink of a loved one another and keep relationships alive.It is advisable that you can save your marriage will fail at the time of month is not easy, but it does provide before going to bring back the one to turn the situation once you recognize this factor then you have some good and a relationship is unique and therefore you need to know.I learned to forgive them with the communication, do not put your marriage from divorce, be prepared to put in effort to carry the bad points then it means a joyous marriage.A common and very human mistake we all make is when you feel good, and whether it's in your pajamas, surfing the net all while getting the help of the reasons become even more critical if you happen to your union.

Women like to learn about the other one does that, you will find this happening in your spouse with reactive words and utilizing actions which will help you get married, but as you do not feel confident that you will find they happen naturally and your spouse may just keep silent.It is not an act of some marital problems are corrected.Moreover, the husband and wife would have a good idea about your feelings of hate, depression, sadness, pain and understand each other's interests is important that you aren't angry.I really feel and what are you can have a great lesson.Change is going to look inward, explore your own conclusion.

Divorce How To Stop It

And it would be a great thought if things cannot be honest -- what could have saved him and his needs and playing your role to save marriages.If you try to save marriage; you're reading this article are the same.Choosing this option is cheaper than registering and going into bed.However, this is the ability to forgive, but before you made your partner is receptive to differences and try to look somewhere else for someone who wants the divorce - sometimes more so, because it's a great first step.Are you still care and attention for a while.

This causes confusion and promotes assumptions and accusations and try again.There is no dearth of reasons that the feelings of anger, betrayal, and other major concerns are better than anything else.You will miss each other, and it will just put you in saving marriage.They asked what I exactly did to hurt your judgement.Confession of sin can be more loving and healthy way.

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 8.16.2017

Slightly overdue and quite possibly not at all aniticipated, I have at last finished the Wednesday Roundups and have come to give my usual reviews and ratings~

So let’s get into it

DC’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, DC’s Batwoman, Image’s Descender, Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine, DC’s Gotham City Garage, DC’s Justice League of America, DC’s Super Sons, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #10 Ryan Stegman, Nate Stockman

It’s amazing how, for close to ten years now, I have felt like Peter Parker -- as I knew him and grew up with him -- has been a shadow of himself in Marvel comics. The potential for his growth, the sense of personal responsibility, everything that I had felt him growing toward while I was an avid Spidey fan felt gone back when I stopped reading because I felt like the illusion had been purposefully broken.

Peter was never going to grow up, he was never going to move forward, and his lifetime of adventures were never going to have consequences that truly stayed and mattered. 

Now, that’s a general disillusionment longterm comic fans all have to face some time, and it’s always going to be felt most severely on those that brought us into the business to begin with, but it’s one I always struggled the most with when it came to Spider-Man. Because the MC2 had sort of given me a “preview” to what his next steps could have been, and how his story could continue as a father and family man. I knew it enriched the parts of Peter I liked rather than took them away. Missing that in current iterations was dreadful.

But, amazingly, and wonderfully, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your vows seems to provide for me what a decade of previous Spidey books could not. My Peter.

Story: Considering this is a one-and-done story, albeit one obviously leading up to the upcoming arc, it feels like it completely uses its pages and panels to their fullest with no wasted time and no sense of drag. Honestly, the fast pace in this issue is more reminiscent of classic pre-trade comics rather than the current lay of the land which seems more interested in first expanding and dragging stories out. And this manages to do it with three stories wrapped up by the end. 

The main story is about Normie Osborn, his birthday, and what will be his driving motivations to become the next Green Goblin. It’s honestly heartbreaking to see the complexities of a completely bratty kid whose suffering ultimately stems from the anger and frustration of having lost his father at a young age and feeling completely alone and misunderstood because of it. As the main POV character, we honestly get to dig into his rottenness and his tragedy more than most new villains you usually see and I love that as simple as his motivations are, you can really get the sense that it’s believable for a kid to fall into these trappings through his inability to properly grieve. It sets him up to not only be the antithesis of Annie, as I’ve been imagining he would be, but a foil to Peter as well, and that’s pretty fascinating in a character I genuinely feared was going to be pretty one-note.

For the B story we have Peter and Annie May bonding on a father-daughter day. I think this is vital not only because we just came off a Mary Jane focused story but because it’s that relationship that ends up saving them in the end. I love how Peter’s both protective of Annie, but supportive and grateful of her in a way that’s both completely Peter and also the signs of a great parent who is not ashamed to be surpassed by his child and wants her to know when he’s proud. They’re absolutely adorable, and relateable, and I love that Peter has obviously taken after Aunt May and Uncle Ben when it comes to being a parent. Usually it’s seen as “cooler” or “more interesting” to have good guys/childhood heroes grow up to be bad parents even against their characterizations beforehand just because it’s edgy, and I’m just so grateful that Renew Your Vows hasn’t fallen into that. 

The less expanded other subplot in the background is of the Lizard and his son desperately trying to get some sort of Oscorp chemical to save the son from... something. I may need to reread, but I’m fairly certain this will be set up in the future for a continuing storyline but it also works well here to emphasize the importance of parent-child bonds. 

Art: I honestly have been really impressed with the art on this title from the start. It’s very agile and creative while also not stylized to the point of being cartoony. The colors find a nice balance between being bright and having a touch of grunge and texture to it. If you’ve been a fan of the art for the book beforehand, you’re going to keep being a fan because I know I am.

I also want to take a moment and applaud a book for doing the rare thing these days and maintaining its art style and individual character for ten issues. That may not seem like a whole lot, but nowadays it feels like such an accomplishment to just have an artist on two consecutive issues let alone a rotation of artists who at least attempt to adhere to the certain style of the book. 

Characters & Dialogue: I went into Normie more above because he was so central to the plot of this issue, but it stands to be said again that I’m just genuinely floored by how well this comic does with making a layered and rounded villain out of what could have so easily been a stock Evil Child Genius version of Norman Osborn. I mean it was even in the name, and that impresses me so much. I like how there’s a sophistication to his dialogue, but also both his dialogue and running monologue are shorter sentences than you usually see with such educated words, which still makes it feel like the voice of a child. It was a neat little touch.

Peter also is just such a great character in this book. He gets less panel time than Normie, but in that time we see the layers of Peter. He’s protective, he’s funny, he’s supportive, and he’s quick to leap in head first. But while this Peter maintains all the fun of a younger Peter Parker (one that lets his daughter eat a disgusting amount of ice cream to be on her good side), there is a kindness and push toward empathy that seems more nuanced and matured to him than the Peter of old. His final words to Normie are both heartbreaking and full of pathos. He obviously regrets not being able to save his friend, but he’s also recognizing the signs of tragedy repeating itself in Harry’s young son. It’s a great, subtle moment.

Annie doesn’t get as much time as Normie or Peter, but we can see that her skills as a vigilante are advancing quite nicely, but her confidence is still stunted slightly. At least, it is around her father, who is of course her biggest inspiration and biggest hero. Even when she saves him, she is cautious to be excited about it, both because she’s concerned for him and also because she is concerned about making mistakes. Ultimately she’s adorable and full of sugar so I don’t think there’s anything not to love. 

DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2016-2017) Matthew Manning, Jon Sommariva

Honestly I don’t know why I’m being rewarded lately with my favorite franchises getting amazing official crossovers, but I am, and I’m so happy about it. IDW and DC have been collaborating quite a bit for the past couple of years -- with IDW getting to release those original Mister Miracle omnibuses and now getting all these crossovers with arguably their biggest property to date and DC’s biggest property to date. Twice. 

The thing is, I was a pretty big fan of the first Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover by Tynion and I wasn’t really all that sure what to expect with this new crossover and whether or not it’d repeat the same steps or if it’d be able to capture either the DCAU or the TMNT2012′s tones in the process of telling its story. 

Fortunately, today’s all about me getting squarely handed my butt with these surprises!

Story: My concerns about this retreading the meet-and-greet storyline of Tynion’s crossover were pretty much immediately dashed thanks in no small part to Manning absolutely nailing the tones of the two cartoons right from the start. There’s monsters, there’s mayhem, there’s an actual mystery to solve (holy crap remember when Batman used to solve mysteries) and the badassness of the Shredder was on display without allowing him to make a cakewalk of the Rogues Gallery. 

I just loved how everything was able to tie together with these two continuities so neatly, and how it made it just that much more interesting for the ultimate reveal of who was behind the whole even, even if it was hinted at from the very first issue. It was a great mystery story of following the clues until we got to the end.

Oh wait. No. It didn’t get to the end because the story wrapped up in issue five of this six issue series And I’ll be honest... this really baffles me to the point of almost taking me out of my praising mood. 

Like... I’m not going to say that this was perfect at all until #6, but it was well paced, well choreographed, and it made full use of a huge cast of characters with lots of neat crossover potential satisfied nearly on every front -- we got Bats in NYC and we got Turtles in Gotham, we got respective villains in both. It was an incredibly solid, fun crossover that had a very satisfying conclusion. And then another issue. 

Obviously they wanted to expand on this story more. The Gotham Rogues shined the most for the first five issues, really driving the plot on all sides, and then #6 had the Kraangs taking advantage of the previous mayhem to enact their own invasion of Gotham. And there were obviously a lot of years that passed in between -- obviously in Gotham since we moved from B:TAS to TNBA, but also the Turtles while eternally teenagers seemed a bit older, and I don’t think it was a mistake on Manning’s part that April or Karai or any of the other growing Hamato clan’s members didn’t come through the portal with them. With a series that is still very much airing, they just couldn’t risk too much continuity plot holes since who knows what’s happening next. 

And I really get that, but if that’s the case, then perhaps the first storyline should have been 3/4 issues, and then allow this second storyline to have at least more than 1 issue. The way it stands now it seems more like a cruel epilogue teasing a future crossover continuation than an ending to what was otherwise a super solid and tightly written crossover. 

Art: The art was fantastic. Seriously, not only were both of the very different animated series’ styles represented in the art, but it was still very much its own blend. Everything felt cohesive without being overly off model from the original designs... Okay Barbara had some pretty strange anatomy in a few panels. Or pages. More than a few. Look, we have to do something about boob sock costumes especially if she’s going to be standing right next to April -- who’s her size and not that much younger than her -- who proves that this artist has at least seen someone wearing a sport bra before. 

But other than that, I really liked the art and I believed the colors REALLY popped. And I have to also thank this publication for having the common human decency of putting the covers between the issues which the collected version of Tynion’s crossover did not have in the least. 

Characters & Dialogue: Obviously a crossover is going to boil down all characters to the characteristics fans identify them with the most both for recognizability and so that we have the fun of seeing favorite characters bouncing off each other through a crossover. What’s the Joker like with Shredder, what’s Raphael like on fear gas, what’s Batman’s exchanges with Leonardo like. 

That’s the fun of a crossover and I don’t really expect noncanon crossover comics to dive into a character study and provide any type of growth throughout the issues. It’s good fun.

That being said... I’ve never been a huge fan of Don’s girl craziness in the TMNT 2012 series but could let it pass for his genuine affection for April that is beyond “oh wow a girl!!!”, they have a genuine relationship. But having him drooling over Barbara all the time just makes me annoyed. 

And also means that we can add Donatello of the freakin’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the never ending list of characters in comics who have hooked up with or fallen in love with Barbara Gordon. Let the woman live, people.

Other than personal nitpicks, though, the characters are great and it felt like the best of what I love from both of these cartoons brought together.

DC’s Batwoman (2017-present) #6 Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV, Renato Arlem, Adriano Lucas

Oh, my long standing annoyances, will you ever allow me the peace of just enjoying a story instead of giving me a reflexive groan to the heavens each time I start reading tropes I don’t like. Like Bad End Future flash forwards where everything is fascist and terrible? 

Maybe. Depends on how gay things are allowed to be. So let’s get into it -- can Marguerite Bennett’s ability to write almost anything to my liking, can she make a Same As It Never Was Future Tense The Savage Time Futures End 2099 Watchmen Current America that I’ll appreciate reading?

No. But the effort is incredibly commendable!

Story: As is probably gathered by my response here to begin with, I’m not easily won over by this “darkest timelines” filler stories be it in comics or movies or television episodes. It just rarely affects the current storyline of the characters, will be retconned or lead to huge plot holes in the future, or just in general has nothing particularly fun or interesting to say. 

And I’ll be honest, current times just make me that much less interested in fascism being used in my escapist media. Like. Guys I just want to watch superheroes punch Nazis, not my lesbian Jewish superheroes help begin some sort of fascist totalitarian state with way too much Nazi imagery like good lord. 

Anyway, there were things that I found interesting from the start. Kate seems to be trying to dismantle the system she is guilty of starting, Jason is... honestly he’s somehow the Dick Grayson of Batman Beyond 2.0 and working with Kate so that’s weird. 

Somehow, beyond all common sense, Harvey Bullock is still alive? 

I do like Renee as Commissioner but as sweet as it is to have older lesbians in a comic... *long suffering sigh* Look, I might be sensitive to this because I just watched Atomic Blonde or maybe because I’ve always been pretty uncomfortable with the treatment Renee has gotten compared to Kate but... There’s just something supremely off putting to me that a brown woman is portrayed as having the long standing unrequited love and can’t move on to find her own happiness and then dies for the tragedy of the white woman. 

We really have to look at these patterns and start questioning things here. 

Also Tim is evil Batman. Again. Stop doing that, Tim. I barely put up with it during “Titans Tomorrow”, and I don’t nearly have that much of a relationship with your current incarnation that I had with that Tim. Just saying. Watch your butt, Birdboy.

Art: The art is very good. There’s a few fun action splash pages, I thought the panels were organized and flowed really well, and best of all I really enjoyed the fact that Gotham actually had color to it for once. 

Too many times artists seem to think that Gotham can only work in shades of gray, but I found the cityscapes a lot more interesting and popping with this style. So that’s encouraging that we may once again get a change in how Gotham looks.

Characters & Dialogue: Bennett is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers so far as characters go -- I’ve enjoyed almost all her work from both DC and Marvel and she maintains that here. I don’t know how much input Tynion has on the Batwoman scripts right now to earn that writing credit but being more familiar with Bennett’s work now I really felt this story was more hers than his. 

That being said, and as strong as the characterization is, I’ve always felt that Bennett does have a tendency to write internal monologues from characters with this distant narration that feels cold and impersonal to the story being told. That works here, given the circumstances and how this is supposed to feel alien and unfamiliar to the Kate we have been reading in the previous issues. But I would argue that it’d work better if most of the internal monologuing and narration didn’t come off that way in other stories. 

Image’s Descender (2015-present) #23 Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen

Man is Image killing it with their creator owned line. It’s hard to imagine what sci-fi could really elevate the genre in comics more than the likes of Saga but it absolutely feels like Descender is aiming squarely for that spot, taking the more cerebral route of an AI or Blade Runner which is needed more in comics in a way that’s still approachable. But other than nerds like me, does it manage that approachability?

Couldn’t tell you since I am a nerd like me, so I’ll just lay out my perspective.

Story: It feels like for over 20 issues now we have been building to the point where all of these factions of characters would meet and their plots would begin to overlap, which makes it all the more just shocking that we’re at that point. It’s definitely a huge task given the sheer number of characters in the cast at this point, but I am also incredibly tempted to say that because we’re in the middle of this “chapter” (and yes I’m saying that a lot this week) you really feel the lack of a beginning or ending on this one. We have so many characters we’re following at one time that there’s not really any other way to tell this story but in fractions. And as enjoyable as that is, it means you either have to sacrifice POVs every couple of issues, or you have to drag out tension for each plot across multiple issues. And we’re doing the latter.

Now I don’t want that to come across as a condemnation, it’s just a fact of the way this story’s being told. And personally I don’t think that makes individual issues as rewarding as it is to read a whole chapter in succession. And yet, I can also say with confidence that what I do love about this story and how I’m hooked on finding out what happens next, I personally feel invested enough to buy per issue rather than wait for trade, at least for now. So perhaps I’m too analytical on this issue right now. After all, I’m not having difficulty remembering from issue to issue what each group’s plot is or what danger we left them off at the time before, and it’s usually when that begins to blur that I feel a comic is worth waiting until the trade. 

Art: I am a huge fan of Dustin Nguyen, as always, but I’m once more burdened with the question in my own mind “is the water colors fitting for this harsh, slick, futuristic setting” and I just still can’t say that I feel that it is. It’s beautiful, and as someone who has been reading comics with Nguyen’s style since all the way back during the Winick run on Batman, it’s impressive how far his style has developed and how much he’s honed his craft. But that doesn’t mean that specifically the choice to make this a textured water color comic rather than a digital comic was the best aesthetic choice, and I know at this point I am beating a dead horse with that opinion, but it’s just what strikes me as so off putting each issue. Especially since we are in a science fiction story, taking place almost entirely in outer space, and yet the majority of backgrounds as well as space between panels is white. It’s just a real disconnect that I can’t tell yet if it’s being inventive or going to eventually have a symbolic meaning with the story. 

Guess I’ll have to wait and see with everyone else!

Characters & Dialogue: Another difficulty with this kind of storytelling and seeing every character for a few pages each issue is that there’s not a whole lot of time to really advance characterization unless it’s over the span of a whole chapter. So I have to imagine that things that seem small in the moment -- Tim-21′s escape, the doctor saving Telsa, Effie telling the Nagoki what he “wanted to hear” will all have vast implications in the upcoming issues, but it’s not something I can dissect as it is now. 

That being said, I really do love all these characters and I love how lovable they can be while still understanding how they can view each other as utter monsters due to their own pasts and motivations. It’s pretty amazing work on Lemire’s part. 

Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine (2017) #1 Tom Taylor, Ramon Rosanas

Somehow, someway it snuck up on me over the past year or so that Tom Taylor just has absolutely made my life better with his contribution to comics. Like, that’s a weird epiphany to have in the middle of a Wednesday night, but my friends on Discord with me last week got to witness it in real time. I love Taylor’s writing, and most importantly I love how he writes Laura, I love everything about her under his pen and I’m glad to have back-to-back weeks of his Wolverine. 

This week... with a TWIST!

Story: So what’s happening in the Marvel universe right now? Couldn’t tell you. I imagine the timey wimey shit for Secret Empire has allowed for this crossover within a crossover within a summer event but I have no actual context other than I wanted to pick this, the Ms. Marvel, and the Spider-Man comics up. Because that’s how I role. I have wisely stuck to my guns throughout this summer and only read Marvel titles which, y’know, fucked off into space for a whole summer-long arc rather than stay around for Nazi Apology feat. Steve Rogers of Earth-whatever. I’ve been much happier for it!

The point is, we get a crossover with Wolverine and Wolverine. A Logan from before he knew Laura, and a Laura who... looks like she’s in her X-Force uniform for some reason? Uh. Again I’m completely going in blind on this one I have no context, but we’ll assume it’s a pre-All-New Wolverine in spite of titles because she doesn’t seem to have any problem murdering people and that’s like a whole Thing in All-New and I can’t imagine Taylor, who’s writing it, would like... forget that. 

Anyway, it’s an excuse for a team up where Laura is helping Logan same Amiko from being kidnapped by the Hand and gives her some life advice while getting some much needed life advice of his own. And it’s as simple as that and yet not simple at all. Like most of Taylor’s stuff, the embrace of the general comic book premises belies a much deeper purpose that you can look for, and this is all about Laura and Logan’s relationship, or at least the relationship they both wish could have been. It’s closure in a way, for Laura to receive an open hug from a Logan that’s still very much her Logan, but is not yet as jaded as to not give her a much needed hug. 

Oh, Logan. Whenever you eventually reincarnate yourself back into the main Marvel Universe as yourself and not a clone or another universe’s son or another universe’s angry grandpa or as another long lost son or as another clone or as a dying salamander, I hope you keep this message to heart.

Art: It’s wonderful. I mean the anatomy’s great, the colors are muted but still varied, there’s some real tone to Laura that some artists don’t give her enough of. I could nitpick a few things like costumes (woops already did) or that Logan didn’t meet my personal Hairy Enough for Wolverine requirement, but the main criticism I’m really going to have here is that this had a very simple panel structure for the majority of its pages which could use some more variation, especially for action scenes. But then again the best scenes weren’t action but were of the characters actually interacting so I think simple panels for simple things is more than appropriate.

Characters & Dialogue: I’ll be the first to admit that Logan’s not really my guy. I don’t go out of my way to read a lot of Wolverine where he’s not in a team book or a crossover or a team-up or another team book or another crossover or a tv show or another team book. And I have a lot of frustration with him in the majority of those. It’s kinda my thing with Bruce Wayne -- when I love him, I love him, when I don’t, I really don’t. 

But, to me... this was good! It was maybe even great. Strangely dynamic for Logan and it was just overall interesting to see Logan written by Taylor and it not being from Laura’s perspective. I’m so used to his voice for Laura that the gruffer, less nonsense and more weary tone from Logan was surprising and fitting. And it made the final pages just that much more poignant.

And of course Taylor’s Laura is just my tastes to a T. So everything’s good by my account. 

DC’s Gotham City Garage (2017-present) #1 Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Brian Ching

I had no idea this book was coming out. I had never seen advertisements for it. I had no idea what to expect. And what I got was Robo Cop meets Fury Road meets Road Warrior meets DC Bombshells. And maybe Blade Runner. 

Given that this is a digital first and I wasn’t really sure what to expect and I still have... no idea where this could be going or what it’s based off of other than those statues that used to be sold by DC with everyone on motorbikes and the mentality of “hey people like Bombshells! Let’s try this statue collection too!” with apparently no memory of how that worked out for them with Ame-Comi Girls. 

Did I mention this is trying to repeat the lightning in a bottle of Bombshells? I feel like that can’t... really be... overstated. 

Story: uhhhhhh Well. This is tough to nail down because as a Digital First it’s very short and I also have no idea what’s going on so my judgments here are... lacking, let’s say. And I have nothing but questions. Like. Why is it in Gotham and fascists are Batman themed while Lex Luthor is in control. Why is Kara adopted by Jim Gordon. Why is there a picture of Barbara and Kara together but no mention of Babs in Kara’s monologues or so on. Why are humans robots and robots humans. Are humans robots at all. How did Jim know about Kara’s super powers if she’s never been in the sun before. 

I k now I’m just listing questions but that’s basically everything that happened to me while I was reading and I just... have no answers to give you. 

I just think we can all agree that Big Barda does, indeed, wear a mohawk just like she wears everything else: like a boss.

Art: It’s fine. I mean, digital comics are always a bit rougher around the edges due to their incredibly tight update schedules and I always try to account for that. And it’s a cute, inoffensive style that definitely is going to try to undercut the no doubt supremely scanty clothing of the... garage...girl...people. And I liked how dull and gray toned everything around Kara looked in the Garden while outside there was almost a sort of sepia tone but the real colors came in with the... garage....girl...people. But even then, there are little visual cues throughout, like Kara’s own colorful accents despite wearing “assimilated” clothing. No doubt that’s going to be gone soon when she joins the...

Again, I can’t express enough about how much I don’t know what’s going on.

Characters & Dialogue: We really only have Kara as a character right now and while she definitely has a voice, it’s not really one that I would say stands out in the crowd of YA character types. I’m not trying to be dismissive of that -- I actually think that Kara has always worked best as one of the Youths’ outlets in comics, but it’s basically just. Too early to really give my feel on things. 

Basically I feel like I wasted everyone’s time with this review lol

DC’s Justice League of America (2016-present) Vol. 1 Steve Orlando, Ivan Reis, Andy MacDonald

I have some huge reservations about this title, but after really thoroughly enjoying the Road to Justice League of America Rebirth storyline that came before this, and loving the majority of the lineup as much as I did, I was ready to give this comic some time to really find its feet. Not to mention I’ve enjoyed Orlando’s work in the past. But now we have to see how well lofty expectations hold up.

Story: I’ll be honest with you, the most distracting part of this entire project is that Bruce is like... bankrolling 40 different superhero teams right now with none of them being the Outsiders and I find that shocking and unusual. Especially since there’s already a Justice League, Bruce seems to be making this particular team all about “second chances” and...Lobo’s on it. 

But to my surprise, this was actually addressed by the story. Not answered by any means, but the characters for the most part seem very self-aware of the oddness of their team given Dinah and Frost’s conversation with each other on the subject. They allude to there must be some reason that Bruce has decided on the team that he has if he’s willing to go through all of this trouble. 

Especially Lobo. Who is on a Justice League team. This is... Well it’s a thing, for sure. 

Throughout this volume all of the cast gets major moments to shine, I felt like, and the relationships were explored to quite an extent, but this falls into the problem that so many other comic books from DC does too, and that is that no moment can be too great or grand... without Batman immediately showing you up, taking credit for the situation, or just completely dismissing it out of hand. Oh, classic Batdickery.

Art: I actually felt the art was very good under both main artists on this title. It’s very house standard, in that it’s very much trying to replicate the Jim Lee standard style that almost all the DC line was all but forced to produce at the start of the New52. But it’s still fun and I enjoy the costume designs for everyone, especially Vixen who seems to have my favorite costume I’ve seen on her yet.

Characters & Dialogue: This is a huge cast, so the ability to focus on any character... other than Batman, I’m sure for regulars to comics this is the furthest thing from a surprise. Still, there are some genuinely unexpected relationships, most of my favorites revolving around Ryan Choi. 

Most of these characterizations aren’t going to be groundbreaking for any of the characters, but of course this is also the only place where you can get most of these characters anymore, which sucks especially if they’re some of your favorites. So there’s that. 

DC’s Super Sons (2017-present) #7 Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez

The real question of the ages is, does there exist a title that is having more fun with its premise right now than Super Sons? And honestly, I don’t think the answer to that question is “yes” because Super Sons is a complete riot every issue and it continues to invite everyone along for the ride. It’s honestly really impressive. 

This issue continues with Jon meeting Damian’s Teen Titans and getting his foot through the door for a real team up. And that’s exactly what the world needs.

Story: We have another mid-storyline issue here but once more we have one that knows how to make a single issue feel really encompassing. We have Jon joining the Titans, proving himself to everyone but Damian (who’s just a grouch and old and it’s hilarious that he looks like Old Man Bruce from Batman Beyond), and really beginning to finally fight back against some of Damian’s nastier moments. 

It’s simple, but it works because of that simplicity and fun. The premise is easy to follow and I can easily see a new fan picking this issue up as their first comic and being engaged from start to finish. 

And then we even get left on a cliffhanger that is beyond just “uh oh bad guys!” We just learned that Damian’s treatment of Jon and his insistence that they’re “training” is at least partially because Lois is behind it. 

Mind. blown. Way to go, Maaaahhhhmmm!! 

Art: I have absolutely fallen in love with Jorge Jimenez’s art on this series. It’s so unique and fun. I love how fantastic the colors work with the bright storytelling, the way action scenes really do seem diverse and varied. But most of all I love that it’s just so expressive for Damian and Jon, their adorable faces make a great range of emotion and look endlessly endearing. 

Characters & Dialogue: This is mostly Jon-centric, though Damian gets some good moments too. And for Jon, what his character needs and has needed for a while now is confidence and a belief in himself. He wants praise from Damian and other superheroes, but even in the moments where he gets that, it’s clear that his father’s words about needing to help people are at the core of his real desires, and that’s what has carried him this far. 

And while I do think that Damian’s prickliness is lovely and a trait which should never go away, it’s honestly really encouraging to know that, for at least this story arc, a good amount of his treatment toward Jon has been revealed to be because he feels responsible for Jon at Lois’ request, and I love that about Damian. It’s a similarly frustrating trait he shares with his father, I must say. 

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #28 Shea Fontana, David Messina, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Just as I wasn’t really hesitant to call out Rucka’s run on this title, I held nothing back in the last issue when it came to my reservations about the current storyline and whether or not Fontana’s voice would really capture the essence of what had made not only the previous run so great but had made Wonder Woman so great throughout it. 

Reservations are gone because I’m officially on board with this run and feel like we have regained the momentum and understanding of Diana’s character that I had dearly missed, specifically her relationships and how much she treasures them to her literal fault. But let’s not give it all away.

Story: Like I’ve said many times before, the midsection of any ongoing storyline is going to be difficult because there’s this real lack of a beginning and ending to it most of the time, and one of the strengths that I praised Greg Rucka for in previous Roundups and reviews on this blog is his ability to know how to make a comic feel like a completed arc of its own while feeding into a greater narrative, which is something of a dying art even among the greats in comic book writing today. While I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily resolution in this issue, Fontana proves that she understands how to make a single issue story work. 

Diana has a bounty on her head, something that doesn’t seem to really surprise or upset her that much, as it shouldn’t since not only is she Wonder Woman but she has a bit of a stubbornness to her that is a fairly defining feature. What drives Diana here and therefore the drama of this storyline is actually her guilt over how her presence can endanger others -- an interesting continuation of Steve’s worries back in Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor (2017) I reviewed earlier this year. Not only that, but she has a genuine guilt and fear that she will eventually survive the ones she loves most outside of Themyscira -- Steve, Etta, and assumedly all the other people she has come to cherish. 

That’s a far more interesting perspective on Diana’s fears and character than almost any writer has tapped into before and it’s honestly kind of shocking that it’s taken so long for that source of internal conflict to be focused on as it is here. 

There’s a lot of levity to subside the emotional turmoil, and of course great action in which both Diana and Etta get great moments. But as I said, as the middle of a story, there’s not really a solid end here so much as a TO BE CONTINUED sorta feel, as to be expected. But I loved the arc we got to see in drama being presented for Diana’s relationship with Etta, it coming out in the open, and them attempting to address it before being interrupted by bullets all within a single issue. Good good work!

Art: I was worried about the art for this run as much as I was about the writing but I am always pleasantly surprised to have my fears proven wrong. because this was some great art. I don’t think the artist worked well with Etta’s hair texture (or knew what to do with her hair in general) and there was at least one panel where the colorist.... unfortunately swapped color palettes on Etta and whitewashed her to Diana’s skin color. It’s stuff I’d hope they would look out for. 

I do love the variations in body types and NOSES especially in this issue, though. I always look out for that in comic books, especially ones that feature lots of women and I was incredibly surprised by that. Though I wish so much that Diana would be allowed to have her curls again. 

Of course, I’m biased in that account, though.

Characters & Dialogue: Since Diana and Etta’s characters drove the plot for most of this, there’s only a few little moments I want to cover that weren’t mentioned with the story summary. Diana’s compassionate and forgiving nature was consistent throughout -- her mourning of the doctor, her tenderness toward Etta, her fear of endangering others, and even her compassion for the hemophiliac sniper that almost gunned them down. 

I love how badass Etta’s allowed to be in her current incarnation, I love that her grudges and anger are not only justified but aren’t minimized or looked down on by Diana even though it’s a huge difference in opinions between them. And I love the comfort she has around Diana and wants to do her best around her as well. 

Also I want to thank Fontana for remembering that Diana is vegan, like I just about teared up because holy crap, she GETS it, she GETS Diana.

There was a surprising amount of variation this week, which I hadn’t really been expecting given that the majority were DC books to begin with. But picking favorites is fortunately not hard when you’ve got a Class-A contender in the ring punching my lights out with feels. So for my single issues of the week I have to go with Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine

Between our two trades, I had the most un and joy from reading Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which would seemingly be for super obvious reasons.

But I thought all the comics were great this week and highly recommend you check them out! Of course I’d love to hear back from you – agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed any comics I should’ve picked up? I’d love to hear from you.

Before you go, however, I need to share that I am in a bit of a financial crunch for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being the medical bills I’m paying for my dog, Eve, who experienced a catastrophic dog fight and underwent surgery just yesterday actually.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

RenaRoo Patreon

RenaRoo PayPal

[fandomsandfeminism]

When Yuri!!! on Ice was first beginning, it was compared endlessly to Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, but now that both shows are completed, does that comparison hold up?

Text Transcript under the cut

Hey, so do yall remember in the build up to the Spring 2013 season when Kyoto Animation announced that THE SWIMMING ANIME was going to be a full series and the internet, particularly Tumblr, lost its collective shit? I do. I definitely do.

And I’ll be honest, I watched both seasons of Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, and I enjoyed it immensely. I’d probably enjoy the movie too if it EVER GOT A NORTH AMERICAN RELEASE. (Come on Crunchyroll, funimation. Why are yall like this?)  I liked the pretty boys and the pretty animation and the fun opening and ending and holy. Shit. the fanservice.

So when, in the build up to the Fall 2016 season, Studio Mappa announced Yuri!!! On Ice, I was pretty excited. It seemed to promise a lot of the same things that Free had: Cute boy sports anime with fanservice and pretty animation. It promised to be like Free! But the Pool is Frozen, the Boys are back in town 2.0 Winter edition. Hell yeah.

Now, those qualities don’t inherently mean that I was going to love the show. Heck, 2016 Summer’s attempt with Cheer Boys was boring as hell. I don’t think anyone even watched it.

But never, really, in a thousand years, did I think that Yuri!!! On Ice was going to be BETTER than Free. But, let’s be honest. Yuri!!! on Ice is better than Free. Much, much, better than Free.

*Please note: Spoilers ahoy!*

So here is my thesis, if you will:   Free! Iwatobi Swim Club and Yuri!!! On Ice, despite their obvious similarities, have 3 very distinct differences which cause Yuri!!! on Ice to be more enjoyable and satisfying for me personally: their treatment of same-sex attraction, the development and variety of their secondary characters (particularly women), and the maturity and realism of their emotional depth.

How the shows treat same-sex attraction. For this section, we need to talk about Queer Baiting. What it is, how to spot it, and why, as a queer fan, it kinda sucks.

So definition first. In general, queer baiting is a term used to describe an attempt by canon creators to woo queer fans and/or slash fans by hinting at LGBT+ characters and/or relationships but with no intention of actually making it canon. This is done either by introducing a character who is coded as queer in some meaningful way, or by hinting that two same-sex characters might be attracted to each other but never confirming these things. Worst yet, these HINTS tend to be explained away as jokes, as humor. Often, instead of getting same sex couples, the idea of same sex couples is made into a joke.

Now, the term Queer Baiting comes from a very western context. It is a concept developed in the West to talk about western media, and there is some debate about whether or not that specific term can be applicable to anime and eastern media. Especially since a lot of anime that engage in this aren’t trying to bait QUEER fans, but are specifically trying to bait straight women who like watching hot guys make out. (But then, that could be argued as being partly true in the west as well.) Regardless of whether or not the specific term Queer Baiting is the best to use here, or if we should go with Fan Baiting, or some other alternative, the underlying concept is the same: A show deliberately hints at a queer relationship and then never delivers in order to appeal to a wide variety of fans but lacks real representation.  

So, does Free! Iwatobi Swim Club bait? Hell yes it does. It very intentionally seems aimed at Japanese Fujioshi, Japanese straight female fans who like slash and yaoi, and, to an extent, queer fans, who are incredibly interested or invested in seeing same-sex relationships in media. (There’s a whole conversation to be had about fujioshi culture and how it objectifies queer men, but that’s for another day.)

And let me be clear: Baiting doesn’t inherently make a show bad. If nothing else, it can lead to a very vibrant fan community. And as a queer anime fan, I fall for this shit hook line and sinker every damn time. I’m basically helpless when it comes to this stuff.

But make no mistake, baiting isn’t a good thing. It isn’t progressive writing. It isn’t diverse writing. It isn’t writing that helps positive minority representation in media. The goal of baiting it to titillate fans with emotional fan service, but not actually commit to writing lgbt+ characters.

And make no mistake, anime as a whole does not have a GREAT track record with representing lgbt+ people in positive ways. There are exceptions, naturally, but as a whole, there isn’t a lot there that is positive and well done. And if you are invested in seeing that kind of representation, constant baiting can be frustrating and disheartening.

So Free! Baits. The characters flirt and look at each other longingly and splash in the water together and take random spur of the moment vacations to Australia to meet each other’s foster families and all their emotional stakes are tied to each other and nothing. Ever. happens.  

Yuri!!! on Ice though?

Yuri!!! On Ice came through for us. I think the fandom is still a little bit in shock. I’m in shock. Because like...this shit doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t happen. But here it is! It happened. They flirted. And blushed. And kissed. And rings. RINGS. YALL. ENGAGEMENT RINGS. And holy shit, the pair skate?!

We have professional figure skaters tweeting about this show and the creator talking about how Yuuri and Victor can’t live without each other for real, and how so many fans got on twitter to thank her for the kiss in episode 7 because this kind of thing just….never happens.

I...I’m sorry. It’s just so, so incredibly rare for us to get healthy positive depictions of same-sex relationships outside of the very narrow genres of Boys love (and Girls love) in anime (which can and do have their own issues). And while Yuri!!! on Ice may not always be EXPLICIT with the romantic elements of the show all the time, they are far from subtle. The repeated declarations of love, how Yuuri is skating to show his love, their love, how meeting Victor has taught him about love, how Yuuri has taught Victor about life and love, only the most hard hearted adamant could try to no-homo this pair. And since the finale strongly implied a sequel, and Kubo has said she would like to continue the story, I think it’s safe to hope for even more romantic development in the future. (Like….a wedding? Please?)

So for those of us for whom seeing depictions of same-sex relationships done well is very important, this is like, a big deal. That’s not to say that Yuri!!! on Ice has perfect same sex relationship representation and is the sole standard bearer without flaw. It certainly has pros and cons, and has it’s own place within the Japanese media landscape. But it’s certainly good, and certainly more satisfying than Free! For me as a queer fan.

But it is not all I’m going to talk about. Baiting VS canon may be the most obvious, and important, difference between these shows, it is not the only one.

2. Side characters! Are like, a thing! There are girls in this show too!

Quick! Name all the female characters you can from Free!

Who all could you think of? The teacher- Ms. Amakata, and Kou, right? Maybe you remembered that Kou has that friend, but I bet you forgot her name (It’s Chigusa). Maybe, like, the wife that Rin stayed with in Australia? Makoto’s little sister? It’s pretty scarce. 2 secondary characters, and maybe 3 tertiary ones.

And it is understandable why this is. It’s a cute boy sports anime. Any amount of time we spend giving Kou screen time is time we aren’t watching Nagisa and Rei flirt. Makoto, being total husband material, is the only one of the boys who we really see their family. Rin and Kou rarely interact. Nagisa’s family is only talked about but never seen. Haru? Was ...born from the ocean, I guess.

Amakata and Kou do have personality, and I love them. But they are only two secondary characters.  Makoto’s sister only exists to characterize Makoto. You can’t describe any of her thoughts or likes or personality beyond that relationship. The wife in the couple Rin stayed with? I can’t even find her name on the internet.

Now, name all the female characters you can from Yuri!!! on Ice.

So, there’s Minako. And Mari. And Yuko. And the triplets. And Mila. And Sara. And Yuuri’s mom, Hiroko. And Yurio’s ballet teacher Lilia. All of these characters are seen multiple times, have speaking roles, and have some thought written into them beyond just what their presence tells us about the men. Yuko was the star of the ice rink when she was young. She’s a young mother who still loves skating. Minako was a dancer and owns a ballet studio, loves drinking too much and wants to meet famous skaters. The triplets are young girls who are skating otaku, are over zealous and like being on social media. We can describe nearly all of these characters in meaningful ways without even mentioning their relationships to men.

And look, It’s not a secret I’m a feminist. I like seeing well written female characters. But more than just my preference for some female characters, a lack of women can make a story feel a lot narrower, the world less fleshed out and believable. This gender disparity doesn’t break Free! By any means, and plenty of anime are incredibly girl heavy with almost no boys. We know WHY this happens too: It’s done to more aggressively market the show to an intended gender demographic. But to see a Sports anime able to include a decent number of developed female characters, I think, is a testament to the strong writing of the show and its wide appeal.

3. The emotional maturity.

The last meaningful difference between the shows is probably the most nebulous to describe. The best I can do is this: Free! Tries to capture how emotional teeangers feel about their inner conflicts in exaggerated and juvenile ways.  Yuri!!! on Ice shows adults navigating their inner conflicts in more natural and healthy ways.

A lot of this can be boiled down to the character’s ages, and the assumed age of the intended audience, but I think the quality of the writing affects it too. So when the entire swim team has a melt down because they secretly suspect that Rei is cheating on them with the track team, or when Nagisa runs  away from home forever because his parents want him to focus on school and not swimming, or when Rin breaks down crying all the goddamn time in season 1 because of...sexual tension with Haru? Or when Rin has to kidnap Haru for a vacation to Australia to save him from an existential crisis we all kinda...roll with it, and post gifs about all our feels, and accept it because they are TEENAGERS  in ANIME so everything is really dramatic.

Now, Yuri!!! on Ice is a sports anime about ADULTS. Yuuri is 23. Victor is 27. That doesn’t mean they don’t have problems or deal with drama. But it does mean that problems are met with a sense of realism. Look, Yuuri’s dog died and he bombed his tournament and ends up crying in a bathroom stall. It’s sad, but he doesn’t try to run away and live in a tent. Macchin gets sick and might die, and Yuuri is afraid Victor leaving might make his performance suffer. But they talk about it, and Victor goes to be with his dog, and Yuuri does his best. Yuuri has anxiety that flares up, and Victor does his best to support him. When Victor is overwhelmed at Yuuri’s anxiety and messes up at being a good coach, Yuuri and him talk about it. THEY TALK. LIKE PEOPLE DO. The most emotional drama we get in the series is when Yuuri is considering retiring and cutting things off with Victor in the finale- which gets resolved by the end of that episode. But no one has to bottle up secret career ending injuries for an ENTIRE SEASON from their best-not-boyfriend because they are over dramatic high schoolers.

Ultimately this last point probably matters a lot more to me than most people. Anime as a whole is so super saturated with teenagers with hyper melodramatic emotions that having a sports show where the characters react in reasonable and healthy ways is just really nice.  

So what am I saying? What’s the point? Am I saying Free! Is a bad show? No. If you like cute boys doing sports things and can stand or even enjoy the baiting, then hell yes. Watch the hell out of it. Go nuts. Draw fan art and write fic and fight about Makoto/Haru vs Rin/Haru vs Rin/Souske (RinHaru 4lyfe).

But I think it’s important that we appreciate when a show is pretty good and pretty fun like Free, and when a show goes above and beyond. When a show has real canon representation for same sex relationships, and a decent gender balance, and well conveyed emotional depth, I want us to care. I want the difference between a 7 out of ten anime and a 10/10 anime to matter. I want us to recognize when a show makes history.

So yeah. Yuri on Ice isn’t “Like Free, but the pool is frozen.” If anything, Free is “Like Yuri on Ice, but lukewarm and tepid.’  

Thanks for watching this video! This channel is brand new, so any likes or comments are super appreciated. I’m really new making video essays instead of just tumblr posts, but I had a lot of fun working on this, and I hope to make more videos like it. If you enjoyed listening to a millennial feminist with a BA in English ramble about stuff I like for a while, feel free to subscribe. I will be trying to make more of these soon.

[guywithtime2kill]

Finn and Ro-Ro-Romance Hello everyone. This is actually a continuation of a previous essay based on the episode "Frost and Fire." If you want to see the previous post, click below. You Blew It Man!This next part of said essay deals with Season 7 and how it shows Finn as an emotionally mature character. I would be glad to have any feedback and would greatly enjoy having any discussions. Thanks and can't wait for the final season!Season 7’s “Bun Bun” is very cathartic to watch, for it not only mends the bond between Finn and Flame Princess but also beautifully illustrates Finn’s newfound maturity. He confesses that what he did was wrong, and as you said, FP forgives him in light of the lies and pain he dealt to her. What I especially love about this exchange, though, is how brief and succinct it plays out within the episode. There’s not this huge argument utilized to build drama or suspense, and there are no tears shed to heighten the emotional response from fans. It’s more honest and true to life, and that simply makes it all the more powerful. There is so much that can be figured out by the viewers due to how this brief exchange is structured. For example, Finn’s apology is mature because he only asks for forgive\ness and if they could still be friends. In the past, Finn was quite impatient and wanted to immediately hook back up with FP without considering her suffering and beliefs. His “apologies” were selfish since he really only wanted to ease the pain he experienced from losing her. Since FP can see that Finn is actually acting rather than just saying he is mature, she is willing to acknowledge Finn’s emotional challenges and strife. Her first friend is finally being honest with her, so she is glad to accept this wonderful and truly caring person back into her life.If I’m personally being honest, I’m very happy that Finn and FP are just friends. Seeing them just hang out and have fun is a lot more endearing to me than when they were dating. Back then, FP felt more like a romantic plot device who seemed bland due to her thin characterization. Here, she is an actual person with her own desires and goals, much like other strong female characters such as PB and Marceline. She’s no longer just some foil who’s there to accentuate Finn’s issues (Steven Universe’s Connie I’m looking at you!), and I wouldn’t have it any other way.Speaking of episodes dealing with romance, we gotta talk about the amazing “Flute Spell,” which is also from Season 7. If “Bun Bun” deals with Finn’s past mistakes, then this one looks toward his bright future. Huntress Wizard is a great character. She has an intricate and visually appealing design, and I certainly don’t mind having another female badass on the show. Her interactions with Finn are humorous and touching, and the episode as a whole is just a lot of fun with all its creativity (Thunder Boar!) and wonderful character moments (that song by Jake is among my favorites in the entire show).However, it is the ending which sticks the most with me. We have HW desperately trying to find and reconnect with her old mentor, and nothing seems to be working. Jake is not being helpful and encourages Finn to just go ahead and date her. It would have been so easy for HW to turn into another shallow love interest since she is already heavily intrigued by Finn, and Finn has no prior experience to help him here as he did with FP. In spite of peer pressure from his own brother, and against all odds, Finn helps HW reunite with her master and, more importantly, respects her wishes to just be friends. As a child, Finn would put himself in danger in order to fight anything evil and help anyone in need. As a man, Finn places the feelings and needs of his friends, even strangers, above his own desires. With this simple act of selflessness, Finn becomes more than just the one true hero of Ooo; he becomes a truly good person who his friends and family can count on. Season 7 is one of my favorite seasons for its return to rollicking adventures and for showcasing Finn as both a mature young man and a fun loving hero who loves his brother. He acts wonderfully in every episode, but this growth is entirely earned since he suffered so much for the past two seasons. This point is essential: Finn would never have grown up without making these mistakes and contemplating about his life. Seasons 5 and 6 serve as the bridge from childish innocence to manhood; there are no shortcuts to travel from one to the other. Without “Frost and Fire” there would be no “Bun Bun,” and without “Breezy” there would be no “Flute Spell.” Finn needed this time to wonder of his self-worth and the lives of others; for when he realizes just how much he cares about this meat reality of ours, he can live his life to the fullest and be truly happy.And that’s the thing about Adventure Time I deeply love. Life does not exist as a single straight line: it’s huge, indescribable, messy, wonderful, and connected to everything and everyone. In life, we see people of all kinds make mistakes and often learn from them. Likewise, when we see an episode like “Frost and Fire” in the context of the entire series, Finn’s actions, despicable they may be, make a little more sense, and his redemption becomes all the more satisfying due to this understanding.Again, thank you all for the positive feedback and insightful comments. I know some episodes will always be bad in your eyes as some will always be in mine, but taking the time and effort to discover something new makes all the difference. Before ending this second rambling, I would like to describe this show with one final simile. Imagine Adventure Time as a giant mosaic, each episode representing a unique tile. Some of the tiles may be striking or intricate, others colorful or dull, and many of them by themselves can be confusing to comprehend. However, if you put all of them together, they form a depiction of life that is hopeful, caring, unpredictable, silly, scary, awe-inspiring, and larger than any of us; but it all begins with a boy, his dog and brother, and the love between them that is more valuable than the treasures and wonders of all the dungeons and dreams in the world.