#the arcs! the depth and weight every character is given without ever feeling forced!

[novelconcepts]

Paper girls was one of the most honest genuine portrayals of being a 12 year old girl I've ever seen. Even apart for them fact all this shit is happening around them they are still 12 year olds with 12 year old problems.

The period scene in particular was one of the best, truest scenes I've ever seen. It was beautiful, funny, awkward. It was perfect. 

It is so fucking authentic. Everyone rightly leans on how powerful the performances are, but you also get such a range in the writing. The period scene, the sleepover scene, the gentle bickering, the in-your-face meltdowns, the gremlin run up the stairs--it's all so perfectly tuned to what kids are like. And it never talks down to them; the rare time an adult tries to imply a situation is over their heads, they're instantly shot down. Because kids around that age are smart. They're learning who they are, how the world works, what their individual moral compass looks like, and it means they don't get things right every time, but they're capable. They can in one moment be reassuring and kind, and the next snappish and closed-off. This show allows room for that without ever feeling like a deviation from character, which is...frankly really impressive.

It always strikes me--in the best way possible--that these girls are all allowed to be mean. They're allowed to be catty, to be vulgar, to say the wrong thing with good intentions (Tiff pointing out KJ's missed her puppy's whole life), or the barbed thing because they're just being a dick (Mac's "you don't have to talk all the time" followed by KJ snickering). They aren't forced into stereotypical boxes, true, but they also aren't forced to be Sweet and Pretty and Kind. They can be those things, sure; when Erin's falling apart, everyone's there to catch her, and when Tiff's walkies are stolen, Mac's got her back, and when Mac is facing mortality, KJ won't let her do it alone or give up on herself. But they're also not always gentle with one another. A lot of the time, they butt heads. Sometimes they punch each other in the face. Sometimes they have to apologize and mean it for the friendship to continue, and it strengthens their bond every time. Sometimes they're stupidly reckless, lobbing the single brain cell from one girl to the next: Tiff running after the backpack, Mac going off on her own in the middle of the night, KJ stealing the motorbike, Erin getting drunk at a party. And sometimes they're so level-headed in the face of panic. They are all allowed to be incredibly nuanced, so full of life and hope and fear and anger. They're never dumbed down, even when they act like dipshits. I cannot remember the last show that not only took into account what historical periods were actually like, but what young girls are actually like to this degree. I will be gutted if we don't get a pickup, because, Jesus, imagine the growth in coming seasons.

[asha-mage]

Missing the Mark: Graendal and the Forsaken

One of my favorite things about Jordan as a writer is this neat hat trick he has, where every time he enters the PoV of a new character, from random one offs to Our Heroes to the most Dastardly of Evil Overlords, he sits down, sets aside his own biases and feelings, and makes them come alive as a fully realized human person.

This especially what makes his villains, and the Forsaken in particular, such memorable antagonists. Jordan has this remarkable ability to step into the point of view of people that we the reader are predisposed to hate and want to simplify and flatten, and force us to confront the fact that their multilayered and nuanced. Their still bad people, but their actions are presented with context, their personal narrative given weight. We see their foibles and their strengths, the ways they delude themselves and the ways that they sometimes see with far more clarity then the heroes, and we see motivates and drives them. Their personal narrative, the story they tell themselves where they are the hero, is given weight and heft, and we are even on occasion allowed to root for and sympathize with the Forsaken (Moghiden in Mind Trap, Asmodean during his time Forcefully Reassigned to Team Light, Dashiva/Osan'gar trying to talk reason to Rand during the Seanchan campaign), all without ever letting the reader forget that these are horrible people who have committed atrocities against humanity that are still felt three thousand years later.

This is entirely possible only because of Jordan's ability to set his own biases aside when writing these characters. The Forsaken are engaging entirely because they are human beneath all the mythology and horror and awe inspiring power, and Jordan works to portray that humanity.

Contrast with Sanderson.

All of the Forsaken get a degree of flattening underneath Sanderson's writing, with the exception of Demandred (who has appeared so seldom up to that point their isn't much to flatten or work with), though the one who gets the worst of it is Graendal. And if I had to wager a guess, it's Sanderson's biases coming into play, affecting how he depicts members of the Forsaken.

Graendal, from her appearances prior to TGS, is a incredibly nuanced and interesting character. A former ascetic who dedicated her life to helping the mentally ill, only to loose faith in humanity after years of service, and abandon her ideals in pursuit of total carnal pleasure. She remarks during ACOS that her first steps to the Great Lord where 'full of pain' and that she dosen't like thinking about them. And yet....when we see inside her head she's still using the terminology of a psychologist, still regarding people as patients and thinking in terms of disorders and neurosis. The implications of her skill at Compulsion- that it descends from her attempts (and failures) to use the Power to heal broken human minds-, and of her need to be surrounded by adoring servants consumed by overwhelming love for her paint a fascinating portrait of a woman attempting to bury her trauma and pain deeply, and using any means at hand to accomplish it. Notable, despite her instance of not being willing to die even for the Great Lord of the Dark, she is one of the few members of Team Shadow who truly seems to buy the party line that the Wheel needs to be broken, and suffering stopped, and in accordance with the old rule of thumb she is one of the most devastatingly effective as a result.

And then Sanderson takes over, and she just gets flattened into puddy. Which is WILD, because based on the structure and set up, where Rand's personal character arc was meant to come to head around the same time he was confronting Graendal, based on the fact they have so many parallel issues and problems, their is so much juicy stuff to dig into with that face off that just...dosen't get dug into. And that's partly because Graendal looses a lot of her nuance and depth under Sanderson's tenor. Graendal becomes squarely about the carnal pleasures she peruses and the control she exerts over her victims, and nothing else. Her tendency to use psychologist terminology in her personal monologue is lost, her ability to sharply read people and gain insight into their motives is reduced to guess work about where Demandred and the others are hiding, and what their plans are. The fact that her sultry hedonist persona is a persona used to fool her enemies (something Demandred himself noted back in Winter's Heart) is forgotten and instead she is written as just a sultry hedonist.

Their are a lot of reasons this could be the case, but as near as I can tell it boils down to bias, and Sanderson's inability to set aside his own biases. Graendal is inherently sexual, and Sanderson's works are somewhat famously rather sexless. His strong Mormon beliefs about Free Will will later crop up in how he re frames the 13x13 trick (being unable to mention it without mentioning that actually no these people probably weren't turned to evil against their will, but rather just soul murdered and replaced with an exact evil duplicate) and it's no mistake that Graendal's Compulsion is treated as On Another Tier of Monstrosity entirely, while other Forsaken atrocities: the subjugation of an entire continent's worth of people by the subversion of their Prophecies, so that they can be used as an army for Team Evil, or the mass torturing of waves of innocents to turn them to Team Evil, are minimized somewhat minimized, still treated as bad, but considered less bad because after all the Sharans choose to follow Demandred, and Semrihages victims to be give in to the pain. (This is particularly egregious, where Messana's worst crimes: creating schools to the Dark One and raising an entire generation of children to cruel, hateful, and monstrous thugs- something that's noted to have made the Breaking worse go largely unmentioned in the rundown of Why She is Bad in ToM). But Graendal's use of compulsion, which leaves no room for the illusion of free will or choice, is treated with a level of abhorence by both the narrative and the characters- the later of which might make sense, but the former of which is something Jordan never really stooped to.

While Graendal gets it the worst, all of the Forsaken are flattened to a greater or lesser degree, along with other key Darkfriends. Moghieden's steely courage even in the face of overwhelming odds is largely lost, Messana's twisted motherly/teacher nature become simple arrogance, Alviarian completely looses relevance showing up in a few cameos, even Moridin feels more shallow: becoming more generally sad and sinister, loosing much of the anger that had always paralleled Rand's.

The main exception? Sanderson's self professed favorite among the Forsaken, Demandred, which shows the pendulum of bias swinging the other way. But I'll save talking about that for when I actually get to AMOL.

[genderbinaryisforlosers]

everyone on the carte blanche for the ask meme

everyone? oh boy this is gonna get long ajfhdsf

JUNO

First impression: i, like a lot of people who get into the podcast without knowing a great deal about it, was expecting at most an ambiguously bisexual angst machine with a closely-guarded heart of gold. juno being an explicitly bisexual genderqueer angst machine is perhaps the most pleasant surprise of my life. the angst machine heart of gold characters were kind of my type at the time, so i loved him right away

Impression now: every time i think about juno’s arc from depressed mess held together by bad coping mechanisms, safety pins, and a few good strong puns into someone who can talk about his feelings, feel comfortable about being happy, and recognise when he needs to change, i want to cry about it a little bit. the depth of my love for juno steel has only grown along with him

Favourite moment: juno has a lot of great one-liners and i’m still a big fan of the “on the other hand i wasn’t wearing a watch” bit and who can forget such classics as juno finally deciding to stop moping over nureyev and move on only for him to open the door to his apartment and find nureyev sitting in the dark dramatically, but honestly nothing will ever hit me harder than his sudden, pissed-off declaration of “i can’t die yet, i still have shit to do!” in promised land. god.

Idea for a story: oh i have so many and i want to write most of them so no spoilers, but juno accidentally kidnaps a baby during a carte blanche heist and shenanigans ensue

Unpopular opinion: obviously we all know he’s dummy thicc but i feel like a lot of people forget he’s an actual genius, like the stuff he notices and how he strings it together is sometimes so obscure and he’s almost always right. oh, also juno is not skinny and i will not be taking criticism on that

Favourite relationship: this is so tough because every dynamic is so good, but i think it has to be juno and rita. those two are so good! the best best friends in the world!! i’m really a sucker for any dynamic that’s ridiculously in-sync so i loved these two as soon as juno saw rita’s notes in prince of mars and went “makes perfect sense to me” (which it probably didn’t, because rita, but he trusted that she knew what she was doing which is the important part)

Favourite headcanon: this isn’t really a headcanon but i still think about how juno is (was?) deathly afraid of heights but when he heard rex glass coming he still attempted to climb out of the window. either his aversion to working with dark matters/other people in general was so strong is overrided his fear, or his office was actually on the ground floor. not sure which of these is funnier.

NUREYEV

First impression: we’ve all seen the memes about nureyev knowing juno steel for one (1) day and deciding to Risk It All by leaving him with his name, look at this Hopeless Romantic, this utter DISASTER of a homosexual. the fact the very next time we hear from nureyev (at least directly) he’s patiently waiting in juno’s dark apartment to surprise him with a heist definitely supports this image.

Impression now: even after literally being inside peter’s head, i feel like we didn’t get a real sense of who he is until man in glass, where we find out he aggressively compartmentalises everything that causes him stress. he’s also distinctly someone who’s had his heart broken before, i think, which makes those first appearances of his very strange. but it does remind me of what juno says about diamond, and how he decided to provide the trust first and wait for the trustworthiness to grow in (only to get severely hurt), and i think that’s exactly what nureyev did. i am also... very uneasy with how suspicious he’s behaving this season because obviously i want to believe he’ll sort it all out and not betray the crew but... oof

Favourite moment: the beginning of what lies beyond pt1 where he’s affectionately bullying juno into taking care of himself? cleared my crops watered my skin etc etc etc

Idea for a story: i’d love to hear more about his past as a young thief idolising buddy and vespa (i can’t actually remember if that’s canon or fanon but anyway i wanna read it!)

Unpopular opinion: i think people often cling to an image of him that more resembles his first impressions in season 1 instead of seeing the depth that we’ve been given about his character in season 3

Favourite relationship: him and juno but honestly it’s a close call between them and his budding friendship with rita. even though she learned it by accident, his name is still a point of intimacy and it’s one less secret to keep around her which has to be a weight off his shoulders, at least a little? they seem like they could be really good friends once ultrabots is out of the way. juno steel love (and also bullying) zone activates whenever they’re together

Favourite headcanon: i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again - nureyev has never done a household chore in his goddamn life. he doesn’t know the water needs to be hot when you wash dishes.

RITA

First impression: honestly i’m not sure? i don’t remember having a big awareness of her in murderous mask but i remember loving her “note-taking” in prince of mars, i thought she sounded really fun and cute

Impression now: rita is really fun and cute, she’s also an extremely hardworking and dedicated woman who had the guts to throw in with a detective fired from the force and then invest all of her time and money into helping him help people.

Favourite moment: Rita Gets A Knife. enough said

Idea for a story: i don’t know honestly! i really struggle to write rita because her thought processes are so wild and i don’t think any story i could come up with would match mega ultrabots of cyberjustice.

Unpopular opinion: this shouldn’t be unpopular because juno steel himself shares this opinion but all future-jupeter headcanons are incomplete without rita also being a huge part of their lives

Favourite relationship: rita + franny 4ever obviously.. jk it’s juno & rita have you heard rita minute 3 they’re too adorable for this world. im still Soft over their conversation at the end of soul of the people when he said he couldn’t stay in hyperion anymore but he wouldn’t leave with the carte blanche if rita wasn’t coming because he was done leaving her behind, and she threw out all her hesitations on the spot and said call the big guy. speaking of, rita & jet are a close second. instant best friends i love them.

Favourite headcanon: i think this is basically canon now but rita being literally half the height of jet is so good

JET

First impression: “haha lorge funny man puts juno in the trash”

Impression now: jet sikuliaq is one of the dearest characters to me out of anything ever. he is a huge, menacing, polite, kind, sincere man who i would very much like to give me a hug. he’s the best aro ace in outer space and while being generally very levelheaded and straightforward, also takes every opportunity to fuck with juno because it’s very easy and very hilarious to him personally. he is everything my autistic acearo ass needed and i’m so glad to have him

Favourite moment: all of them every single one. him putting juno in the trash is of course a classic and every moment jet chooses to be funny makes my heart happy, but also every piece of genuine advice he gives. i’m a particular fan though of buddy recounting her years in the lighthouse and him saying he became concerned when she didn’t come downstairs at the usual time. “you took the door off its hinges.” “i was deeply concerned.” king of understatement

Idea for a story: again no spoilers for you but..... tools of rust time loop au

Unpopular opinion: this isn’t “unpopular” as much as it is unknown but jet is buddy’s queerplatonic partner and i will keep saying it until everyone believes it

Favourite relationship: jet and buddy,,, just everything about them. the way he suspects when she’s lying, the way she makes tea for him when she expects him to drop by. the fact he comes to check on her when she is 41 seconds late to the family meeting because it’s unlike her to be late and the last time she was late for something her brain was turning to radiation soup. but most especially the way she snaps at him to stay out of her business and he said he could not because he made her promise eight years ago to never stay out of the business of her health, no matter how many times she asked. they r literally in a qpr

Favourite headcanon: i don’t think this is true but i still think it would be funny if the ruby-7 used to be painted red but when jet got it he had it painted green because he Just Really Likes Green (as evidenced by his hovercycle). it’s very funny to me.

BUDDY

First impression: it’s been a minute since i relistened to time gone by but i’m pretty sure the first thing she ever says in the podcast is sliding up to depressed accidental whiskey thief juno and say “that’ll be ten million creds,” scaring the shit out of him, so needless to say i was in love instantly.

Impression now: my love for buddy aurinko has only grown and if it sounds like i already said that in this post it’s because i did about juno and it’s appropriate because the parallels are astounding. the heart of it all gave us such depth to buddy’s internal monologue and why she always sounds like she knows exactly what to say and what that’s like and honestly will i ever be over the heart of it all as an episode? unlikely. i think i’m gonna have a little piece of it in MY heart forever.

Favourite moment: everything she’s ever said is iconic as hell i especially like “in an impressive fit of hubris i’ve decided not to prepare my words for this vow” which made me laugh out loud but once again i must give it up for her iconic “I WANT TO LIVE” moment. honourable mentions to her taking rita out for ice cream and giving juno shooting lessons while she’s in her actual wedding gown. i love her

Idea for a story: buddy and vespa as sun/moon dieties.... that’s all

Unpopular opinion: stop drawing her with a fancy high-tech eye like the theia!! it canonically looks like garbage and it’s described in detail, please, i’m dying, also don’t minimise her scars you bastards

Favourite relationship: buddy and vespa invented romantic love and the entire carte blanche crew’s relationship to her is great but you know by now i’m a slut for buddy & jet out-of-this-world queerplatonic partners. the way she checks in on him during tools of rust to make sure he’s not relapsing and he comes to find her when she is 41 seconds late in the heart of it all to make sure she’s not having a heart problem!! it’s the trust,, the devotion,, the mortifying ordeal of being known

Favourite headcanon: she can sing. absolutely tears it up at karaoke. i’m right

VESPA

First impression: knife lesbian goes STAB. she will heal your wounds but she will be threatening to give you more the whole time

Impression now: she is extremely strong, heart-rendingly tender, and despite being in the older half of the carte blanche crew somehow has unmistakable little sister energy which makes her downright hilarious. i’m so glad she got to marry buddy and they’re official space wives now they’re so good for each other

Favourite moment: both from shadows in the ship, either “GUN!!” “KNIFE?!” (iconic) or when she clocks the dark matters drone pretending to be juno because it called her crazy and juno wouldn’t call her crazy. i’m always a sucker for “shapeshifter fails to fool mark because they Know Each Other Too Well” and it was just *chefs kiss* so good

Idea for a story: i really want to write something about when she was first staying at the lighthouse with buddy post-reunion, and getting to know jet and stuff. i think it would be cute

Unpopular opinion: i know vespa doesn’t canonically have lots of scarring but people who don’t draw her with scarring? cowards.

Favourite relationship: once again, although buddy and vespa invented romantic love, i just love the dynamic between vespa and juno so much. they’ve come so far with each other and their weird sibling dynamic gives me life. at the end of what lies beyond when juno says “we’re not gonna kill her, vespa” and instead of sounding full of Rage and Suspicion she’s like “whyyy notttt?” and he’s like “because i said so!” and that’s just good enough for her even if she’s a bit grumpy about it. i love it.

this took.. a hot minute to do! jshkfjsdgsa thank you dyl ily <3

[eternalthenas]

what bothers me the most about tros and what i’m most unable to accept is how jj managed to destroy and disrespect EVERY single character. even the ones who technically had “happy endings”🤡

ben - i feel like this one doesn’t even need to be said, but i’ll say it anyways. after years of emotional abuse from palpatine, it’s disheartening to see that jj gave no explanation as to why palpatine wanted ben (personal vendetta against the skywalkers i guess??) when it semed like he only needed rey AND that ben never really triumphed over palpatine in any way. it hurts to know that leia straight up had a vision about her son’s death but that she still seemingly gave up on him despite knowing that he was struggling and that she sent him off to train to be jedi with a luke, when apparently she could’ve done that herself. it’s disheartening that luke who believed even vader could be turned back to the light also gave up on his nephew, when he was just a boy no less. it’s disheartening that although he was the last skywalker (a fact only palpatine acknowledged!), none of his family nor his namesake reached out to help him. instead of telling the last skywalker to rise, they ignored him (as they had apparently done his whole life) in favor of a palpatine. ok. even though as the last skywalker, he really should’ve been the one to have the final kill against palpatine since it was HIS family that palpatine destroyed, he doesn’t. he’s motionless in a pit for the whole final battle. ok. that will never not leave a bad taste in my mouth. his whole family (except for han apparently i love him) gave up on him and clearly so did the writers. as a fan of the skywalkers and their story, this isn’t the ending i wanted for them. especially when luke and leia and han had given their lives to see him turn to the light. and for what? so he could be used as a plot device to conveniently bring rey back to life and then promptly die (even though they’re a force dryad and, according to jj’s own fucking canon, supposedly one) without any fanfare, emotional reaction whatsoever, or later mention? wtf? it’s disrespectful not only to ben solo, who is easily the best character in the sequel trilogy and one of the best characters in ALL of star wars, but it’s disrespectful to the entire skywalker line!! (and to adam driver, who deserved so much better than this shit. go get that oscar)

rey - by making her a palpatine, jj completely disregarded her arc. whatever your opinions about rey nobody, once they went with it, they never should’ve retconned it and turned her into a legacy character in the final film. it felt cheap. in my theater, there was no cheering about this reveal. because jj had never properly set it up and he didn’t even bother to reveal it an impactful way. but what’s most annoying about rey suddenly being a legacy character is that it completely disregards the fact that she was powerful on her OWN, without any famous blood making her that way. furthermore, by turning her into the chosen one and giving her the entire skywalker legacy (which felt like a slap in the face to the skywalkers imo), she did turn into a mary sue, one of the biggest complaints about her since day 1. she was overpowered, morally perfect, and never faced any failure. i struggled to root for her as the “hero” because i felt everything was handed to her on a silver platter. so not only did jj turn her into a mary sue and take her power away from her by turning her into a legacy, but he also destroyed the fact that her whole arc had been “seeking belonging” and a family. rather than having her final scenes be with her new found family, she ends the movie with her canon soulmate dead and no one but a droid by her side on a desert planet of all places. to add further insult to injury, she also disregards her family name even though they supposedly loved her and sacrificed themselves for her (despite the fact that they sold her but whatever) in favor of a last name of a guy she had barely known. she had more emotional connection to han or leia, but she didn’t take their last name. she took luke’s, the guy who had refused to teach her and who she had come to view in a more negative light towards the end of tlj. in this house i will not EVER be calling her rey sky- i can’t even say it🤢

finn - in all honestly, they screwed finn’s character arc in episode 1 when jj turned him into a lovesick sidekick who served as comedic relief. as a deserted stormtrooper, he could’ve had the most interesting storylines. and he should have. but apparently the writers forgot about him. although they mention his past BRIEFLY, it’s paid no real weight or attention. instead, he spends the whole movie once again trying to (possibly) confess his feeling for rey. and for what? probably just to bait finnrey fans and prove the character’s heterosexuality bc it goes absolutely nowhere. although we find out he’s force sensitive, that too is glossed over and has no lasting effect. he’s also made co general, which okay cool, but then he does nothing?? so while finn could have and should have been a main character with an interesting storyline, they turn him into your average run of the mill action hero with an occasional quip. john boyega, sweetie, i’m so sorry (but i guess that’s kind of what he wanted since he hated tlj, the only movie where he actually had a main role with any character growth?? idk)

poe - it’s once again evident that they originally intended to kill off poe bc he has no arc whatsoever. he gets a little backstory as a drug smuggler now ig, which really came out of left field considering the already established canon with his past as a pilot. he’s more of the same in this movie, except more unlikable than usual (imo). he’s still stubborn, occasionally funny, but mostly he just bickers with rey, which isn’t funny, at all necessary, and doesn’t add anything to the “trio’s” dynamic. he’s at his best when he’s with finn but then, of course, jj has to remind us of how straight he is every single scene so. another character like finn who could have been great, but with the lazy writing, he has no arc, no backstory, no character growth, so he’s just mediocrity personified and just kind of there.

zorii & jannah - both could’ve been awesome. both are just there for a brief introduction and to help the heroes with maybe one thing and that’s it. both deserved better.

the skywalkers - yeah jj really said a big fuck you to luke, leia, and anakin most of all. the WORST part of tros is the fact that it basically makes the previous six episodes useless. anakin’s redemption arc? what does it matter now? he didn’t successfully bring balance to the force. he didn’t successfully kill palpatine. and now his entire bloodline is dead. ok cool😎 thank you jj!!!! what a hopeful end to the skywalker saga!!!! i love seeing that anakin failed and wasn’t REALLY the chosen one. i love that luke and leia gave their legacy to a descendant of the guy who tried to tear apart and terrorized their family. that’s really nice. i love that anakin NEVER reached out to help his grandson who struggled with the dark just like he did. but that he came in just in time to tell palp’s granddaughter to rise😍 really hopeful, lovely ending. thanks again jj! thanks for making leia seem like a bad mother who sees visions about her son but just throws in the towel and doesn’t really try to help him?? wtf??? not my princess leia. also tros luke? truly the worst luke. i really have no other words, i’m just disappointed. jj let me down in every single way possible and ones i didn’t even realize he could.

palpatine - jj also managed to ruin the best star wars villain, a feat i didn’t even think possible. palpatine had always seemed scary to me because of his inhuman qualities. but in this one, he’s back with no explanation whatsoever. he just is. he somehow managed to survive (ok🙄) and furthermore he had a kid. what in the fuck? jj clearly read harry potter and the cursed child, but he clearly also forgot to read the reviews. NOBODY LIKES IT WHEN THE PREVIOUSLY UNTOUCHABLE/SCARY VILLAIN HAS A KID OUT OF NOWHERE. NOBODY. i seriously spent the entire movie wondering who the heck would sleep with him? that’s it. he didn’t seem menacing or at all like a threat. this movie genuinely had no stakes whatsoever (that’s why ben’s death feels so out of left field bc literally for what?! but i digress) also the final “fight” where rey kills him??? very lame. he supposedly survived all those years to be taken out like that?? no thank you, i’d like a refund.

in conclusion, thank you to jj for ruining my favorite franchise by killing off every last one of my favorite characters, destroying the skywalker legacy (& killing them off), ruining seriously every character, and leaving me with despair!!! while i’ll continue to watch star wars without including episode 9, it sucks that some of my joy is zapped from my favorite series. because this is how future generations will know star wars. with this shitty ending. and any future movies will have this canon. and that really fricking sucks. thanks, i hate it.

anyways feel free to message if you’re also in the depths of despair about how this all ended!! bc the more i think about it, the sadder/angrier i get.

[kinneys]

long post of my tma thoughts just to get them on the page

ok so context ive only been into it for just over a year, and I binged s1-4 quite quickly last year. i dipped out of s5 for a few months this autumn/winter, it definitely slogged in the middle for me. in feb i caught up on s5, relistened to all of it in one go around 197 airing, then in the last 3 weeks (!) i managed to relisten to all of s1-4 which was an Experience. 

anyway i will firstly say i think s5 had the weight of insane expectations and the slow release + delays from covid definitely dampened it. s5 was MUCH much more engaging to me on a binge relisten, and unless you just fully despise the ending, i would really suggest anyone on the fence do that.

i will secondly say i think tma suffers both from an audience that wants it to be much darker than it is and an audience that wants it to be much happier than it is, the latter of which has extreme parasocial relationships with the RQ crew and seems to aggressively try and cancel them constantly for very minor issues lol. tma is a horror tragedy podcast but its always been VERY clear that you’re supposed to see jon and co as The Good Ones and root for them to succeed at preserving their humanity+love in the face of Evil Forces. im absolutely fascinated by all the parallels between jon and elias and all the attention given to the fact that this IS something jon chose, he IS culpable, the delicious tension in s4 where he’s stealing statements from people without their consent, etc, but ultimately i dont think its really fair to the overall mood and clearly telegraphed arc of the podcast to have expected it to have an utterly hopeless jon is an evil monster ending or to have the relationship with martin ever be anything but wholly loving. it IS not something i think fully works narratively because it requires a big suspension of disbelief; it’s hard to believe someone who had undergone the things jon had could still be a loving and good person and partner, but that is pretty firmly established as the universe of the show. 

so i dont think it is fair to say that the relatively happy finale and its intense focus on jon and martin’s love for one another is something the teenage fans bullied them into because they couldn't stomach Full Horror. the ending is still pretty horrific - the Web is strongly implied to have like 100% won, and Jon’s been cowed into helping it grow immeasurably more powerful in incomprehensible ways, ultimately his agency was denied to him re: choosing an alternative: that ‘oh no’ realising he let go of the lighter is a very bad moment for him. i think jon would have loved to make the ultimate sacrifice, and was prepared to kill all of humanity to kill the fears for good and redefine *his* place in the story, as selfish and awful that is, but his love for martin did tear him away from that. because he loved martin, he gave in to what the Web wanted, allowing himself to potentially doom innumerable worlds, forever, because he couldn’t let go, and because his other choice involved killing Martin, which he couldn’t bring himself to do. to me that is still a pretty tragic ending, but my personal criticism of it would be that it absolutely does feel like trying to have it both ways re: being tragic but not so tragic they get yelled at on twitter. 

overall s5 is mixed-to-good for me. its really hard to compare it to the other seasons - really it is only vaguely comparable to s4, and even then, its just so far removed that its hard to. i thought daisy and basira ended perfectly. martin got so much added depth as a character that was executed very well. a few of the episodes are definitely series-best for me, like Helen and Scalesa. so much of the character exchanges between jon and martin i really really enjoyed, i have never been that into them at all as a pairing but I got so much more invested. but there are absolutely balls that they dropped and the pacing was definitely inconsistent. some statements were great, others not. 197 was a high it never hit again.

i am very obsessed with elias, he is a fantastic villain, and I do think he was underused, but I do think they kind of wrote themselves into a trap if he is the final boss - of course you’re not gonna see him until the very end. i was sooooooooooo glad to hear his snide little voice saying ‘that we serve’ to Jon, it’s always been so important to me that he forces Jon to acknowledge his complicitness and their shared lust to Know and the way they are paralleled that way. but jon is clearly nothing like elias fundamentally - he has clung desperately to his humanity where Elias has severed every inch of it (except his gay marriages) and I think a climatic showdown between them was only ever gonna read as Good vs. Evil. i liked seeing elias be pathetic at the end, not a king of anything after all, and beg for his life and jon get to deliver the final blow.

so tl;dr....I don’t think s5 was as successful as the other seasons in sticking its landings but I do think the ending still is notably horrific in a big existential way and I don’t think we were ever gonna get the intense traumatic tragedy some people seem to feel cheated out of. i think if you want just imagine it ended at s4 lol

[sicklyscribe]

hey so if you wanna hit me with that sweet sweet elijah’s characterization meta anytime please feel free. or direct me to any previous posts because my dumb ass is using this time to re-obsess over vampire melodrama.....

It appears that most of my non-tag and non-petty-casual commentary is still in drafts... so instead of finishing the ‘What the hell is wrong with season 4: an itemized list’ meta and finishing answering the ‘What would you change if you could rewrite any of the show?’ ask from a while ago, I’ll just pick out the Elijah bits and add on to them for garnish. (Those posts might exist at some point. But honestly not soon enough for me to worry about people getting annoyed with copy/paste so PREVIEW TIME: ELIJAH FLAVOR)

This is way sloppier and un-cited than I usually meta, by the way, but what the hell, The Fandom is Dead and I Only Have Friends to Entertain Now, so if anyone gets angry and tries to step into my asks then it’ll just be nostalgic rather than annoying.  Here’s the starter, which is from the F*CK YOU SEASON 4 meta and quite a few of these points will be repeated later because you asked for it technically so.

The cracks in the narrative began to show as early as season two, and believe me when I say I’m not saying this because I love him - it began with Elijah. I can make a lot of arguments to this effect, but the only one that I am certain is not propelled by my very strong bias concerns the presentation of the Red Door.

Initially, I was ecstatic at the opportunity to explore Elijah’s past, his perspective, his darkest moments. I was a bit wary in that it seemed as though the narrative wanted to Explain Everything about Elijah through this device, but he was finally getting some attention so I tried to hold back judgement.The result was pretty promising. One of the most gorgeous moments on the show occurs when Klaus enters Elijah’s mind and tells him how much he needs him. It showcases the main pillar of the show - the structural trifecta of Hope, Klaus, and Elijah. And afterwards, as usual, Elijah pushes the experience away.Until it’s convenient. 

Elijah begins to be erratically vicious. At first, I felt as though it wasn’t handled poorly, I could explain away my worries easily, and that was all I needed. But it happens over, and over, and over again, with the same excuse - protecting the family, protecting Hope. Elijah’s triggers, once so crucial, begin to break down, but we don’t see why or how that process occurs. He begins to be the character that is level-headed when it is convenient, and a violent one-track-mind when it’s convenient. Eventually, in order to maintain balanced tension with a softening Klaus, Elijah became violent without nuance in every situation. His continued development is no longer possible, since his character no longer displays depth.

Which is annoying, as a fan. But as a person who loves to analyze narrative, it’s a huge red flag. Elijah is necessary for this story. His love for Klaus, and Klaus’ relationship with him, is one of the things that holds the narrative together as it goes forward. The two of them need each other in order to experience growth, but cannot grow from each other any longer - and that friction is what provides energy and substance that can help drive a multi-year melodrama. This is why I mentioned above that Elijah’s violence was likely intended to balance with Klaus’ changing heart - but there is no balance in the level of development the two brothers experience. It has been shoddy in many places, but attention has been given to Klaus’ journey towards peace and kindness, while Elijah has been given a single metaphor, a single psychosis, and is expected to carry half of the narrative weight. The story has no choice but to make a plot device out of him - he simply does not have the required depth to be anything else, which is made obvious by the attempt to do so in the ritual to bring Inadu to the material plane, which I will discuss later.

When his development is ignored, when he is used as a tool to get from point A to point B time and time again - that’s when the pillar starts to crumble.

Zooming back in on s1, this was actually my only major structural gripe with season 1, so it comprises the entirety of the ‘what would you change’ for that season:

The poison that rotted the whole dang show started very small — casting Elijah too strongly as a white hat, to offset the darkness of the rest of the main family. This was the right move, of course, but it was pushed a twinge too far and it was the tiny weight that set everything wobbling. As an offshoot of that, this was also done with Hayley to a degree. I would have had them bond very similarly to the way they do in the show, but I would have had them connect at least once over the skeletons in their closets. (Only once or twice, again, since their ship relied in this season on the fallacy of each other being saviors). In fact, this was one I felt so strongly about that I actually did rewrite their scene in 1x07 ‘Bloodletting’.

Then season two when it gets more pronounced: 

The rift in the show widened with the swing-and-miss that was The Red Door arc. Elijah became a Problem when it was convenient for the plot and A Fixer/Sounding Board when it was not. They used probably the most INTERESTING and INTEGRAL part of his characterization -- which had been a mystery for YEARS counting The Vampire Diaries appearances -- and Elijah discovering that either from trauma or his mother’s magic, he has repressed the moments which forged him. This lack of knowledge, this lack of control, should have been something much more cataclysmic and its effects should be clear when comparing ‘Elijah Before’ to ‘Elijah After’. Instead, it kind of served to take off Elijah’s ‘White Hat’ that he’d been illy-fitted with in S1, and allow him to accessorize with it or whatever version of Elijah fits the episode at hand.

This tension, and this chaos should have been much stronger and much more messy than simply putting the Suit back on and being Pretty Much Okay (barring one plot-insignificant diner massacre) only a few episodes later. It would make the therapy scene later with Camille even more gorgeous than it already is and it would then place Elijah’s moment of catharsis, and the beginning of his attempts to move on, with Klaus’ monumental forgiveness in 2x11. I think this is what was intended, but it was not at all achieved, because Elijah is such a tricky character to write, and it is so very easy to use him for whatever the scene requires. Because of this, Elijah’s struggles got dropped just long enough for Klaus’ forgiveness to hit powerfully in viewers for Klaus, but not for Elijah. The writing began to lean on Elijah as a Drama Everyman more and more throughout the show, and it’s just tragic to me that The Red Door wasn’t utilized to its potential. (And that we didn’t have a Klaus/Tatia conversation, but hey, I have an unfinished fixit for that whole saga on Ao3, you’re welcome and I’m sorry).

In season three, we got a few good glimpses of the kind of complexity that Elijah should live in -- the way he kills Arianne, for example, I’ve linked what I called a ‘headcanon’ but in retrospect it was pretty explicitly canon -- and we see the youth and terror and involuntary power in him in the flashback where he discovers that Klaus killed their mother. But the relationship between Tristan and Elijah? The man that he made, and that made him? That was far too pedestrian to have produced either of them. If Elijah learned ‘nobility’ from Tristan, learned what ‘superiority’ looked like, and this was the time that he began to change... we should have had words between them, or a scene highlighting just them, at least once in the flashbacks. 

If this season was supposed to be about the creation of the Trinity, the First Children (because Finn didn’t tell no one that Sage is actually the oldest ‘cuz he’s an ashamed little bitch) why did we see only TWO of the THREE transformations? Klaus turned Lucien accidentally, trying to heal him. Rebekah’s sympathy and love were used as Aurora’s tool to turn herself. When and how did Elijah turn Tristan? It is explained that Elijah turned him in order to create a third vampire for his plot to trick Mikael into chasing them instead -- it is explained that Tristan, Aurora, and Lucien were compelled to believe that they were in fact Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus in order to make their decoy impeccable. But when this compulsion was shattered -- when Lucien learned that he had been used and made monstrous as a tool for a monster who wasn’t even noble -- did he confront Elijah? Did they ever speak, or was their next meeting the day Elijah learned that Tristan had taken over Elijah’s coven? I would argue that Elijah needed equal weight in the France flashbacks even though he didn’t have a flashy romance (though if early press release rumors were true, he and Tristan could have had one and that would have been perfect) 

Season four is really where you can pick an episode and Elijah will put on the stage makeup and play any part. It’s also -- BIG COINCIDENCE -- where the plot deteriorates completely. Here’s just one example from my Excuse You What the Hell? Season Four meta: 

On to the next moment that showed major neglect (I know this has been Elijah-heavy so far, but again, this is where the problem started so I want to carry this thread through for a while before addressing other issues) - the ritual to bring Inadu to the mortal realm. The purpose of this ritual was to scare viewers with the risk of Hope’s safety and hype the Hollow’s “bad”ness, but also to make the first move in the ‘Letting Go’ thread between Hayley and Elijah. Elijah was supposed to be forced to choose between children's lives and letting the Hollow loose upon the world, and decide to kill the children. That was the dramatic point of placing this ritual in the narrative, but it isn’t mechanically sound.

It is stated outright that the ritual has to end with the death of the children linked to the spell. The children were linked via their totems found in 4x03 - placing Hope definitively in this group.

But we only ever see four of the five in one place. Maybe it was worth it to the Hollow to reach as far out as Hope was to bind her via her hairbrush, maybe it was worth it to the Hollow to drain her from afar, I’d buy that easily. But they made no attempt to kidnap her and place her with the other four children during the ritual. The ritual that required the deaths of five children. Unless it required Hope to be there only on standby, which is absolutely ridiculous. They had the kids on an alter, even if it was just for show. But why not all of them? If the real goal of the ritual was to lure Klaus and/or Marcel, wouldn’t kidnapping Klaus’ child be a more surefire way to accomplish that rather than just hoping the Mikaelsons would come to the right mystical diagnosis in time?

The reason why Hope wasn’t there was because the ritual was never thought through. The reason she wasn’t there is because it didn’t make sense for Elijah to want to kill Hope to stop the Hollow, which is what this ritual actually demanded if it actually worked the way Vincent claimed. In actuality, all that was desired was for Elijah to display a willingness to kill innocents in front of Hayley, and in doing so it demanded that Hope’s life both be at stake and not at stake at all. This failure to coherently execute a single-episode arc is plainly poor storytelling. It displays not only disrespect to the narrative structure, but a blatant flippancy towards one of their main characters and arguably the most complex one on the series. The sloppily contrived tension here between Hayley and Elijah does eventually contribute to the supposed theme, yes, but at what cost?

Elijah was neglected because he was hard to write, and even harder to write well as a ‘light’ foil to Klaus. Marcel should have fully owned that role, and not been similarly jerked around as a plot-serving every-man once the mystery of season 1 and the reasons behind Marcel’s ‘senseless’ cruelty were revealed. 

Elijah was always the cornerstone of the family’s narrative, because he was complex enough to carry it. Camille provided an additional column of support to Klaus’ individual journey as a person/father, but she was bulldozed for Allmighty Plot as well. By the end of season three, both she and Elijah had effectively been thrown in the garbage one way or another, and the show tried to go on without them. It couldn’t. 

I will say that Elijah’s conversation with Hope in that ludicrous backdoor pilot did make me feel things. I did also see the clip where Elijah and Klaus have a heart-to-heart in some sort of european flashback, which was touching, but felt incongruous for their relationship/dev at the time. Hope asking Elijah how old he was when he made his promises to Klaus, though? Elijah offering carte blanche to Hope for how to punish her friend’s bullies? TWO OF THE THREE SCENES INVOLVING ICE CREAM? 

SOME of season 5 is valid but ONLY because it stole scripts from my headcanons.

[applecherry108]

first of all hooooooooolyyyy shiitttt

FUCK tungle. it took like 30 tries to log in on desktop. admittedly, i was using the wrong password at first, BUT, even when i remembered the right one it kept giving me shit. This is what i get for being L337 i guess... -_-

anyways, im only on desktop so i can add a readmore to say:

i just,,,,,hate voltron. okay? It sucked. it fucking sucked. i watched the first season and it was like, okay yeah, this has potential. and then s2 was like, okay yeah not as good but maybe s3 will pick up...

s3 didn’t pick up. it was just one long death spiral by the same idiots who fucked up the atla sequel. i hate their writing, i hate their story plots, i hate how they butcher any good ideas they have, and i especially hate their inability to have good character AND plot development happen at the same time.

I got swept up in storm of klance and that’s about it. i have soft spots for other ships but at the end of the day i don’t care. i just don.t fucking,,, care???

the fandom is a mess, the crew was a mess, everything was a fucking mess from the get go.

Like who tf is this show written for?? it has to be for like, 8-10 year olds. It has to be. Everything is just so....stupid. Nothing is ever properly explained, motivations never really given, everyone is just a 2 dimensional cardboard cutout of a trope. And that pisses me off so much bc like??? other shows aimed at young kids can still have great world building. they can have good world building and characters and overall story and still be cheesy and a lil dumb. cheesy and a lil dumb is completely fine!! but voltron is just so...godammn... BORING!! it’s like i WANT to like the characters but its just so goddamn hard when everybody is so fucking flat. by all rights, i should want to marry allura. shes everything i loved when i was little, from her color pallet to her princesshood to her white fucking hair!! i should LOVE allura but i don’t!! i kind of hate her. why?? i don’t know!! shes so...boring! and flat! and fucking PASSIVE! everything in this show lands so fucking flat holy shit.

pidge at matts “grave”? yikes, that was second hand hard to watch for like.... “oooh this is so serious!” but the buildup wasnt there...it was kind of funny tbh... and HELLA awkward...

don’t get me started on lance and hunk. bolin was my favorite look character for the first few episodes and then he got knocked to Comic Relief and had maybe two (2) importantish moments. he/they may be part of the main cast but they’re not main characters. they feel like background props to the Actual Main characters.

which brings me to keith.

FUCK keith.

that’s my reaction after every! new! season!! is just,, FUCK keith. god the show functioned SO WELL without him. he’s just so...idk. i also don’t care. what was his character arc anyway? it SHOULD have been about learning to love and trust others but we only get that in lip service and speed run character development (i hate the quantum abyss...so much... like yeah, who cares about SHOWING our characters mature, let’s just tell that it happened in afucking montage.) if keith were a properly developed character he shouldve remained PASSIONATE and idk, run support?? that boy SHOULD have piloted red, end of story. period. keith doesn’t need to lead he needs to learn to TRUST others and that insludes trusting other WITH HIS LIFE. i won’t rant about how we should have had black paladin lance, but keith should have never ever been black paladin. even after he “matures” he still sucks at. he’s this awful,,little,, Shiro 2.0. and I hate it. i ahte it and i hate shiro just a little bit. even though he was arguably the most likeable character, he shouldve stayed dead. or missing. or whatever. he didn’t need to come back and they didnt need to make keith a little offbrand clone of him. i ESPECIALLY hate that they aged keith up 2 years for no goddamn reason other than to make him the Adult (tm). keith’s dedication to others was gre4at, but it should have, and im failing for this word here so forgive me, climaxed? cresscendo’d? whatever. /resulted/ in him playing support. not leader. lone wolf keith doesn’t need how to lead his pack, he needed to learn to HELP his pack. to be a TEAM PLAYER. he didn’t want the responsibility of leading bc guess what?? some people hate leading!! there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be support! keith’s entire arc is a huge mess of missed opportunities and a grand illustration that he is lm’s and jds’ favorite, just like fucking mako.

i won’t rant about mako, but just know i fucking hate him and the special treatment he gets, and good LORD does keith take over mako. keith isn’t space zuko he’s space mako and it fucking SHOWS.

okay, i’m losing steam here, but like.... so apple, why tf where u voltron 24/7 if you hated it so much? because homestuck was over and i needed a new hyperfixation. and i really had to force it for vld tbh. and at the end of the day, it wasn’t so much about the show itself as the potential of klance (or sheith, up until s3). between the interviews, the coding, the fucking EVERYTHING--it really felt like it could be canon. i knew in my heart it was queer baiting but i had HOPE dammit. hope that this could be killer representation, hope that these characters would delvelopment into something incredible. again, there was so much POTENTIAL. and all of it was wasted. everything really came to a head during the fucking game show episode. it was like lm and lds giving everyone who likes lance the middle finger, really driving home that “no no, he IS just stupid. he’s the comic releif. there’s nothing deeper about him and no one will stand up for him bc they all think of him as such.” and that just....broke my heart. we were so...SO close to lance actually mattering but nope! bolin’d again! and what was his purpose in s8? why to be an accessory to allura of course!

i’ve seen a lot of people really divorce themselves from canon and live solely for fanon, esp fanon klance but like.... i can’t. i just can’t. it’s so fucking hard to work with these cardboard characters. you can only draw so much depth onto them, you know? until the very last moments they had potential, but then it all got snuffed out. but who cares about canon? why bother with it? because! we don’t have a solid consistent fanon version of them! no one sat down and delivered the ten commandments of “here’s what we agree k and l are actually like” it’s stupid and it sucks because everyone has their own little differences and its so so tiring to basically be interacting with minutely different ocs all the goddamn time. canon matters bc it gives everyone the same base to work with. like a cooking showing with the same basket ingredients, but now it’s like.... ya’ll don’t wanna use the mandatory ingredients (and why would you? those canon ingredients are like, a century egg and spoiled sardines, they’re awful.)

okay, and im at work and just came back to this and dont remember my train of thought so like... what really threw all this into sharp clarity was the recent steven universe episodes. they were so...GOOD. so fucking good. so much plot and foreshadowing coming to a head. it was such a wonderfully satisfying payoff that it made me remember what a GOOD show is like, how vld is so very very /bad/. the difference is fucking striking. where one is an intricately woven tale with excellent character development and clear story AND character arcs, that can progress AT THE SAME TIME, one is a hacked together flaming dumpster firing that constantly falls flat and doesn’t know where its going or why. and it s so BORING! like fight scenes can be amazing! they can be well coreographed and tense! and we as the audience can be anxious about the outcome! and vld just wasn’t that! it was boring repetetive action in the least exciting way. and where su set up a lot of potential, holy shit they DELIVERED on that potential. not just for rep, but for characters! for story! for plain ol simple character interactions! and then, again, two dimensional cardboard cutouts.

and now with this difference in good vs bad show so very clearly highlighted for me, i just.... i can’t, anymore, with vld. it sucks. it sucked and i can’t pretend or force a fixation with it that just isn’t there, and truthfully, probably never was. maybe that’s why i’ve been struggling to finish my fic, struggling ever since i posted the last chapter, ever since s7, which, again, that game show was really the nail in the coffin as far as holding onto any hope that this tire fire would ever pick up. like a physically feel ill trying to finishing this stupid fic bc i don’t care so hard. i don’t care and i just... really want to be over it. im sick of seeing it everywhere, im sick of the drama, of the Discourse. like all fandoms have their issues, but hold fuck does vld fandom have a massive Purity problem. like, god, let people ship whatever. who cares. die mad about it.

like homestuck, idk if i’ll ever fully ween myself off vld but i want to move on. i want to enjoy Other Things without having this lackluster weight on my shoulders. and more than anything, i want to stop feeling like im obligated to like the same shit as i did two years ago, or last year, or hell, last week! feel free to unfollow, but yeah i just.... really needed to let this out in a proper post and not in the misc tags somewhere.

[cherettes]

the hitchhiker’s guide to getting shit done

so, when i’m lounging about and then my laptop screen blacks out to reveal my shame-filled reflection in an inky black pool of you-sat-down-to-write-and-now-you-haven’t-moved-for-twenty-minutes, my expression looks to itself and seems to mutter, “put up or shut up.” and... sometimes that works. other times I have to leave and pour a water bottle over my head and turn on Fall Out Boy really loud to try and motivate myself. sometimes that doesn’t even work and then i’m cold and tired for no reason.

i see these posts all the time about “calling yourself a writer when u ain’t touched a pen in ya life” or “man i love being a writer... should would like to write someday” and stuff. they’re all so fucking relatable i’m making a sticker out of one to put on my laptop. it’s all so true. 

sometimes (an unfortunate amount of the time), writing can be like putting a space shuttle on your shoulders. so... as someone with a backpack full of executive dysfunction and 8 other textbooks, here’s how i get writing done -- even on the worst days.

okay firstly always have something to write with. notepad on your phone? cool. handy journal? trendy. legal pad in your front pocket? very Daniel Handler. i dig it. just as long as you have something to be able to scribble on whenever those finite, golden moments of inspiration/motivation hit you like Valentine’s goddamn arrow. the second you notice the motivation is there, it’ll be gone, so don’t be afraid to get shit done (no matter how small, no matter if it’s one thought or one sentence, just a thought or an idea) while you can. i deadass stopped a meeting with a financial aid officer because something he said hit me like a tonne of bricks, and all i could think was “oh jesus, i have to write that down.” and then i couldn’t stop. i knew if i didn’t get everything down right then, i wouldn’t be able to maybe ever, which wasn’t a fate I particularly wanted for myself.

he was kind about it, thankfully. i didn’t even end up going to that school. 

what you can do with your notes is separate them by any category you like -- i keep my notes separate by POV, for example. also, title the note. don’t forget that part. it’s the only way you’ll know what the fuck’s going on. i keep one note for all my story ideas (it’s about 11 miles long, but at least they’re all in one place!), one note for character names/traits/tropes/ideas... and then drafts are separated by POV. it literally doesn’t matter when or where I get the inspiration, as long as I’m able to get something, anything, down... you’ve done something. you’ve put your foot on the next stair step, and while lifting your weight’s the hardest part, you’ve still made progress. 

you don’t need to have it so fleshed out you can fork it like a steak. you can take time to develop it. the more you practice and absorb the world around you as things you can output into your own universes, the better a writer you become. this leads me to my next point.

secondly, and this is so fucking important, absorb content like a writer.  as you watch something for the first time, critically analyze it. why is the story being told this way, why from this POV, why these details and not others, where could this be going? what would you have done as a writer here, why do you think the creator/s made these decisions (differently than you would, if at all)? authors don’t do anything without purpose, so how can what i’ve seen and learned thus far tell me about the future of this story? what tropes am I familiar with that can be applied here, and what do I know about these characters?

Why are these characters this way? Are they fleshed out, can I hold mental conversations with them? What makes them so 3-D? What can I take from this depth (or lack thereof) and apply it to my own creations?

I’ve been doing that shit for so long. The reason it helps me actually sit down and write, though, is because... okay, like, you know when you leave a pitch-black movie theatre after seeing a production that poked and prodded at your guts a little to hard? you know how blinding and unnerving it is to return to this reality? that feeling. poke and prod at it harder. why are you feeling like that? what about what you just saw/read/whatever is making you feel so skinless? because that’s material. 

i’m not telling you to, like, exploit yourself for content. that’s not what it’s about. i’m saying that if you take realistic depth from your own life, from things that are impactful, you need to understand what happened to make it so impactful and genuine. every grain of rice. that way you can take it and apply that very same authenticity to whatever you’re creating. give yourself familiar language to write down when you have those experiences, and then return to them when you’re lost in the sticky pitch of writer’s apathy. relive those words and moments, and use them for your gain. 

my roommate planted me on the sofa to watch Coco for the first time a few months ago, and I sat there and told myself, “I’m going to dissect this as it happens.” and do it with everything. everything. commercials, even. it doesn’t matter without that tactic, i would have never 1) come up with the ideas for my first two novels and 2) had something to work with from the beginning. world-building is fucking hard, okay, don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from other places. it was also particularly fun to watch their face as I guessed plot twists.

that’s another thing -- you can start to see why/how creators implement their ideas and what it means for the future of their story. it doesn’t mean they’re being shallow or predictable, it just means they’re developing an arc in a way that allows readers and viewers to be able to inject themselves into the universe. You’re no longer sitting in a living room and just... watching a separate life play out before you. You like... become Miguel’s meta-conscience. And with those new experiences in someone else’s reality/ies, you can pull it like a blood sample for your own. there’s no shame in being inspired.

as a side note... there’s no shame in struggling to pull ideas/inspiration from content. for me, barely anything gets me worked up to the point of “i want to remember this/use this/etc.” it’s not the content’s fault and it’s not my fault, it just happens. if you’re really struggling, return to something you know evokes something out of you. i’ve watched the same television series eleven or twelve times to pull ideas, because it gets me every time. every time, i find something new to hang on to. content can be analyzed endlessly, so don’t be afraid!

thirdly, don’t pay attention to progress that others make. can’t stress that enough. this day and age treats everything like a competition, where if you’re not the best then why try at all, where the success of others is somehow inherently your failure. it’s such bullshit i can’t even begin. having a multitude of societal deterrents in your head isn’t helping you.

sure, habits don’t go quietly into that good night, but here’s how it can help you... well, as my brain is helpfully supplying, “keep the stork flying.” it’s like a blinking neon sign. anyway.

one, return to your notes and your ideas. they’re all your own. no one can take them from you. you’re the only one who can develop them the way that you intend, with the way you want to tell the story, with the meaning that you’ve given them and want to portray. you’re the only one who can do that. even if your friends or family or peers are writers and they’re making the progress that you feel like you’re lacking, then just remember: you’re the only one who can write your story. it’s yours. it’s yours. if you’re not ready to write it, that’s okay. that’s okay. but if you are, if you want to sit down and write it more than anything else, then you can return to your notes. always look back at them. and build on what you have. 

if you’ve juiced them to pulp, reflect on what happens before and after what you’ve written. nothing has to be linear, it doesn’t have to be directly before and after. if you intend for a moment you’ve created to have a specific impact at any other given point, then elaborate on what impact it’ll have and maybe draft that. fill in the gaps when you want to, not when you’re forcing yourself to. if you do that, you won’t produce anything you’re proud of, and you’ll inevitably start over anyway. if you’re not ready to give it everything, then maybe come back to it later. if you’re determined to write right now even if your brain feels like it’s just crawled out of a swamp wearing a wet blanket, see if you can turn that feeling into something that can be reflected/have influence on your story. is there any situation that could reflect the mood you’re in?

two, it... man, saying this makes me hurt, but use your own experience with being discouraged and put off as inspiration for something a character faces. who cares if it’s self projection. if you’re going through it, someone else is going through it, and maybe they’ll read what was originally a chicken-scratch in the back of your notebook one day, about how shitty you feel for not being able to make progress. maybe they’ll read it and be so fucking relieved they’re not alone in this... void, really, that it alleviates their discomfort. isn’t that kinda worth it?

fourthly, when you feel like shit, write it down. when you feel it, write it down. i know i kind of chipped off layers of this in previous points, but I wasn’t done. 

people like relatable characters. people like seeing themselves in external works. not because we’re shallow, or... anything. it’s because we like to feel like we belong, like we’re not alone. you see it all the time -- headcanons! you see it everywhere. you’ve probably made up your own. you’re doing it for a damn reason. pull from it. 

exhibit a: i have OCD something foul. a facet of that is that i ruminate like a motherfucker. my brain never gets anything done. you know who else experiences that? a startling amount of other people. when I write characters who ruminate, who check endlessly, who find themselves scrabbling over contamination, who... are completely aware how exhaustive their habits are on them, but they fucking have to, because otherwise, x/y/z horrible, horrible thing is going to happen... it’s because i’ve dealt with those things. it’s because i know people who deal with those things, and find relief in seeing fictional characters experience it. because they’re not alone. because someone else gets it. because it helps them feel better. because it’s so immeasurably impactful to see it. 

so when... i have a thought spiral, i start ruminating, i start shaking because i try to only lock my car door three times instead of four, i write it down. and let myself deal with it in the notepad of my phone. and... use it.

exhibit b: some of the greatest and brightest people in my life are transgender and/or gay. i can list so many characters they’ve since penned on those spectrums in the time I’ve known each of them. it’s the same thing i mentioned before. if you’re... like, struggling with something specific to those identities, to something specific with your mental illness or financial situation, to your race or religion, write it down. use it in your stories. only you can provide those insights, and when others see them, they’ll be able to take them in for benefit. 

self-projection unto your own characters/favorite characters isn’t always a bad thing. i refuse to accept that self-projection is a negative thing. it’s good for you and for your readers. my only recommendation here is that you don’t intentionally continue to carve out those negative feelings when you’re drained, because you can end up hurting yourself. take care of yourself first. your work can wait. just take this:

standing closer to the fire doesn’t mean you should be burned. 

fifth, writing is just a slow ass process. asking to speed it up is like asking the earth to spin faster. Stephen King said some bullshit on Colbert about how he writes a shit tonne of words every day, and I don’t believe it for a second. it always takes a horrid amount of time to make progress, and getting yourself to make that process in the first place is... fucking drawing blood from a stone. like some Excalibur-level shit.

so, if you can’t make it go faster, make it go for longer. 

i wish i was talking about just having Google Docs open in a tab while you idly scroll social media sites all night. if writing happened that way... i don’t even want to dream it. 

i used to do this thing where everyday was 500 words. it didn’t matter what kind of words (rough drafting, planning, or actually revising... sometimes literally just “i know i want to use this word later, so i’m putting it at the bottom of the document”), but as long as there was 500 more to count, i could count that as definable and measurable progress. if i did that every single day, every week was a new 3500 words for me to work with. that made at least 14,000 words a month minimum. it was progress. 

it doesn’t have to be rushed or done all in one sitting, either. i almost recommend that none of those 500 words be your final draft. leave it rough. revision is worth taking your time. 

if you’re like me though and that sweet, sweet executive function bakes you like a cake on a regular basis, sometimes forcing that 500 out of yourself is hard (read: “fucking impossible, why do i even call myself a writer, jesus christ”).

so here’s my remedy for that: address your audience as you write. not for a final draft or anything, but if you make yourself as a writer or a character break the fourth wall, it’s suddenly... kind of hilarious and easier to move on with. nothing has to be beautiful, either -- write one sentence about what you’re planning to do, beginning with something ridiculous like “all right motherfuckers, buckle up. no, buckle your fucking seat belt, i’m about to tell you how [x]’s car gets totaled on a Tennessee highway.” and write it like you’re ripping someone a new one. then make it pretty. maybe not in the same day, but you’ll make it pretty. 

that not working? make your character tell the future. how would they react if they knew what was about to happen to them? make them tell the story like it happened 20 years ago, or something. and then take out all the insights to make it present. 

that not working, either? act like you’re being interviewed. like, let’s say your content is soon to be released to the public, you’re at a convention to promote it, and people are asking you about it as you stand at your booth. suddenly, you’re pulling a Tom Holland and accidentally giving something away that... maybe wasn’t supposed to be out yet. only write your part of the dialogue/situation, though. you’ll have a scene scribbled before you. even if you don’t particularly like it right then, you can fix it later. it’s okay.

you can always fix it down the road. that’s the thing, too -- if there’s something you’re unhappy with in it’s current form, make it a problem for yourself. if you’re able to attach some urgency to it, maybe that’ll help too. you don’t have to have the one perfect solution immediately, either. just brainstorm solutions in your notes, and something will fall into place one of these days. trust me.

on a side note but equally important: i say used to do this because sometimes you need to take breaks. sometimes those 500 words everyday was overdoing it and wringing the dry sponge of my mental capacity for the day. it’s still a practice i hold dear to my heart -- but right now i’m in a place where 50 words a day is miraculous. sometimes life’s that way, and there’s no shame in that. take care of yourself first, and push yourself when you’re ready.

also, be your own devil’s advocate and your own greatest cheerleader. 

don’t let yourself think poorly about what you’re creating, that’s not what I mean. you have great ideas and they’re worthwhile, they’re important. they are. i promise. what i mean is that... like. if being talked to in an aggressive way gets you hyped, then that’s how you get hyped to write. if you like being given generous validation, then that’s how you get hyped to write.

me, i like it when people validate what i work on. it makes me feel excited and good enough to write and produce content when people tell me they like it. some people have to be told they “can’t do something” to find the drive to do it -- that’s the “devil’s advocate” part. sometimes you’re the kind of person who can give yourself those messages but have to receive the positive kind from others.

i always imagine my ideal self on the other side of a boxing ring taunting me, my current self, that i’ll never get to my ideal-self’s level. they tell me to “put up or shut up,” otherwise i’ll never get there. so that’s what i have to do. i can’t have anyone else do that, though. that’s just an example.

there’s a billion rearrangements of this idea to make it work for you. maybe giving yourself encouragement -- or, like, imagining it coming from someone you deeply admire -- could help. maybe it’s the reverse situation, with the reproach. once you find it... fucking squeeze it until it’s not helpful anymore. if it’s not helpful in the first place, then you haven’t found the right language yet. if words don’t help you at all, work on your bite instead of the bark. what actions get you going instead of words? 

and maybe this tip is completely meaningless for you. that’s okay too. i just figured i would include it because it helps me, so maybe... it’ll help someone else, too.

maybe lastly... do you know how many creators quit working on their content and made unbidden returns to it? Jordan Peele wasn’t sure Get Out would ever be finished because he quit working on it 20 times, and now he’s got an Oscar for it. James Patterson is a worldwide bestselling author, and he dropped out of Vanderbilt’s writing program. JK Rowling was famously rejected by a dozen-or-so agencies before someone gave Sorcerer’s Stone a chance. you can fucking do this. i believe in you, even if you don’t. it’s gonna take time and maybe it’s gonna suck, but you can do this.

like, maybe this guide wasn’t helpful in the slightest. that’s fine. it happens! if that’s the case and you need encouragement or anything, you can always hit me up, too. i’ll listen and offer what i can, because sometimes having a shoulder is what you need, too.

take it from someone who ended up backing out of a book deal at Harper Collins. you can do this.

[briangroth27]

Solo: A Star Wars Story Review

Solo, like Rogue One before it, didn’t seem like a story I absolutely needed to know. That said, it’s also like Rogue One in that it’s an entertaining and well-made movie, while being quite fun and deepening several aspects of the Star Wars canon as well. Solo does lose a bit of momentum at the end, but I still think it’s worth a watch! Full Spoilers... Alden Ehrenreich was likable and charming as Han, pulling off the iconic Solo demeanor with a more optimistic twist. He doesn’t play the character exactly like Harrison Ford did, but there’s enough of Ford in the performance and writing to believe this is the same person. I'm glad they didn't make him a suave ladies' man like a lot of fans seem to think he was in the Original Trilogy: Han’s always been an overly confident guy who relies more on luck and improvisation than his actual capabilities, but he’s extremely devoted to the people he loves (and not smooth about his feelings; he’s totally thrown by Leia). I loved the layered performance Ehrenreich gave, where you could tell Han isn’t always quite as good as he needs to be about disguising his insecurities despite boasting about what he can do; if there’s a moment of silence, he starts to break. Han’s arc must’ve been a difficult path to tread here, since A New Hope already covers Han’s transition from selfish scoundrel to hero, so Solo should’ve taken him from some origin point to at least the beginnings of his scoundrel nature. While they got him there plot-wise, sending him and Chewie (Joonas Suotamo) off to do jobs for Jabba, I’m not sure his character changes much at all, because he was already a boastful scoundrel when he was stealing to survive at the beginning of the movie. That’s the only issue I had with Han’s arc in this film: I wouldn't say he changes very much at all, except he's jaded by love and slightly less optimistic by the end. I do wonder if Val’s (Thandie Newton) dedication to getting a heist done—even at the expense of her own life and despite the fact that they don’t succeed in that heist anyway—was meant to show us why Han is so willing to “dump his cargo at the first sign of trouble.” If so, I would’ve liked to see more of a reaction to her death from him, though we do get to see Han see Beckett’s (Woody Harrelson) reaction to her death. Combining this with Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) leaving Han at the end of the movie, I wonder if he simply figures that no score is worth dying for when not even love lasts.

At first I didn’t mind one way or another about the revelation that “Solo” isn’t Han’s real name, just something given to him as he was enlisting in the Imperial Navy to get off Corellia, but this Mary Sue article changed my mind by pointing out that he continued using the Solo name and was so proud of it that he passed it down to Ben. I really like that choice now! It’s also cool that Han is so much a nobody that he has no last name, giving him a connection to Rey that deepens the instant recognition and familiarity he sees in her in The Force Awakens. He takes to her so quickly not because he secretly knows who her parents are, but because he’s been exactly where she is: a nobody who’s waiting on someone who will never come back. Han having been an Imperial officer who washed out in the face of war and disagreed with the Imperial stance that they were not hostiles also makes him a parallel to Finn, giving some more weight to Han seeing right through him but working with him anyway in TFA. That was a really cool, stealth strengthening of that trio’s bond in Episode VII.

I liked Han’s friendship with Chewie and enjoyed seeing them meet and build their relationship. Chewie doesn’t get much to do here, but I did enjoy the comedic banter between him and Han. If there are sequels to Solo, I hope Chewie gets an arc of his own instead of just being Han’s backup like he’s always been. I’d also love to see his partnership with Han grow and deepen into a true friendship. I could’ve done without Chewie actually ripping a guy’s arms off in this movie, though. In A New Hope, Han’s threat to C-3PO about Chewie doing that always felt like he was screwing with the droid, not that Chewie was actually that violent. There’s nothing in the movies to suggest Chewie would tear people apart either (even strangling Lando in Empire isn’t as brutal as ripping people into pieces). Oh well; this was one of the few moments in the movie that felt like they were compelled to pay off a throwaway line or bit of lore when they really didn’t have to. Another was Han getting his iconic gun, but that one didn’t feel as much like a Moment so I didn’t mind it. Also, I know exactly why they had Han shoot first here, but that sorta doesn't make sense if (officially) the older, more jaded Han doesn't.

Donald Glover was far and away the best and most charismatic part of the movie and he owns every scene he's in. While Ehrenreich’s take on Han was more like what Chris Pine did with Shatner’s Kirk—incorporating small things that captured the essence of the original version while feeling new—Glover used Karl Urban's approach to McCoy: a pitch-perfect recreation of the original without feeling like he was doing an impression. I could see Billy Dee Williams' Lando throughout Glover's at all times and it was great! Lando and Han becoming frenemies was really entertaining to watch I'd like to see where this contentious friendship goes in a potential Solo sequel. Their cat-and-mouse partnership was a lot of fun, and I also liked the context the movie gave to Lando mispronouncing Han’s name in Empire: years later, he’s still ribbing him for mispronouncing Sabacc. I’ve never needed to see how Han won the Millennium Falcon from Lando, but this movie grounded it in their characters—Han was savvy enough to know how Lando was cheating at Sabacc and his first attempt to win it was based on betting a ship he didn’t own—so I was pleasantly surprised. I was also surprised to see Glover get a chance to show off his dramatic chops here as he struggled to carry as much of L3-37’s (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) body back to the Falcon as he could despite the firefight going on around him, and he knocked it out of the park. The two of them established an easy partnership and there were definite feelings there on both their parts, so the change in Lando after her death was palpable (at least until he had his defensive charm up again when Han and Chewie caught up to him at the end of the movie). I do wish that they had addressed Lando’s pansexuality head-on instead of just alluding to him wanting to sleep with L3-37 and calling Han “baby.” The sorta-flirtation between Lando and L3 was a little odd given she’s a robot, but then droids are sentient in this universe (and cultural norms could be entirely different there: Qi’ra’s only question is how the sex would work, not that it’s weird to even consider), so I don't know how I feel about that. In any case, since L3-37’s CPU is still connected to the Falcon by Return of the Jedi, Lando telling the ship to hold together has a lot more meaning now: he can’t lose her twice (not to mention the fact that she was literally falling apart in Solo). I liked L3-37 and her growing rebellious cause. I’d never considered that there needed to be a droid uprising before and this movie certainly paints them in an entirely new light across the saga (or at least anything pre-Episode IV). I always knew they were sentient and not just disposable tools, but now it looks as if they’ve always been slaves in large sections of the galaxy. I wish L3’s droid rebellion had lasted beyond where it does here (or at least that it was mentioned to have a larger impact), but I guess the breakout on Kessel was more of an isolated opening salvo, not the flashpoint of a larger resistance. Either way, the state of droids shown here absolutely colors a lot of their interactions with the main characters across the saga: how many of them wanted to be working in those roles and how many were forced into those positions? R2 and 3PO being sold by Jawas to moisture farmers absolutely has darker connotations now: even though the Skywalkers weren’t hosting droid death matches, they were still buying thinking servants. Perhaps the droids the Rebel Alliance will later use have come to them willingly and are hoping to win their freedom as well, rather than having been stolen from the Empire or brought to the cause by their respective Rebel pilots. It seems like the state of droids in the Star Wars universe is a surprisingly rich topic for exploration! Qi'ra was good for what they gave her, but I'm not sure we saw enough of her relationship with Han to really feel the depth of his devotion to her or the impact of losing it for either of them. It’s clear from their performances they loved each other on Corellia, but I never got the feeling this was an ill-fated eternal love, particularly after the relatively cool reception Han got from her when he met her years later. I definitely liked that he was far more enamored and lovestruck than she was, though; that was a cool reversal of what you’d expect in most romances and followed Han’s character perfectly. Unlike other bits of context Solo adds, however, I think this love story makes Luke giving Leia a Force Projection of Han's dice in The Last Jedi even weirder. Ever since I saw TLJ, I’ve thought it was an odd choice to make the dice such a connective touchstone when we’ve only seen fleeting glimpses of them in the Falcon (if you could pick them out, as they were never even a momentary focus. Now, since they're so closely tied to Han’s relationship with another woman, it’s downright bizarre for Luke to give them to Leia as a memory of her dead husband. Even if they’re meant as a way for Luke to tell Leia “good luck”—since that’s how Han views them—that’s still creepy because the only thing Leia has ever given Luke “for luck” was a kiss before they knew they were siblings. I still think Luke should've given Leia a projection of the medal she gave Han at the end of ANH instead. Han, Luke, Leia and the audience would've been emotionally connected to the revelation that he’d kept it all these years. Oh well, back to Solo.

I wish Qi’ra had been revealed as the true crime lord the whole time. She takes over the role in the end and my guess is Solo 2 will have her and Han as enemies, but it felt like we would’ve gotten a more compelling hero/villain standoff here if she and Han were openly at odds. Qi’ra leaving Han would’ve been more impactful coupled by the revelation that she’d been pulling the strings all along as well, since Han wouldn’t have been able to see that coming. I don’t believe heroes always need a personal connection to the villain to make for compelling drama, but Han’s relationship with Qi’ra developing into enmity would’ve been far more interesting than the threat of Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) killing them all because of a lost shipment. Not only is that a less resonant argument with Han’s character and outlook, it’s something we’ve seen from countless crime lords in the Star Wars galaxy before. Qi’ra having been shaped by her experiences since Corellia into a woman who uses her head to survive instead of her heart as a guide (like Han does) is definitely a setup brimming with the potential to make her more interesting than “the woman who doesn’t love Han anymore.” However, I would’ve liked to see her more active side at the forefront instead of her past experiences just providing a reason why she’d choose crime over Han. Maybe she could’ve been planning on stealing the fuel shipment they stole from Kessel to start her own crime empire and overthrow Dryden—and using Han’s love for her to do it—all along; something to make her more than a damsel needing Han to save her from servitude to Vos. I did like that she, not Han, got to eliminate Vos in a pretty cool fight, though. I’m also interested to see where her new partnership with Darth Maul (Sam Witwer, Ray Park) goes.

Maul’s cameo was great and I'm very interested to see how he’s reincorporated into the film side of the universe. He had a cool visual and thrilling fights in Episode I, but his appearances on Clone Wars and Rebels have made him one of my favorite Star Wars characters—the fact that he willed himself to stay alive after Obi-Wan cut him in half is fascinating!—and I’m very excited to see where he goes from here. I have no idea when this is supposed to fall on the timeline, though: I would think he’d be in his "Old Master"/obsessive hunter phase from Rebels by now and not trying to build his criminal empire like he was during Clone Wars.

I think the weakest link in Solo is Dryden Vos, unfortunately. He didn’t interest me as a villain at all nor did he come off like a major threat, and that made the last act of the movie (everything after the Kessel Run) feel slow, like the tension and momentum dropped out of the film (though never to a point where the movie or the experience was ruined for me). A galactic scramble for hyperfuel is a fine idea and it’s a good McGuffin for a movie about smugglers, thieves, and pirates, but playing Vos as a run-of-the-mill space gangster fell flat for me. Perhaps there’s a parallel to be found between Vos and Beckett in terms of their training Han and Qi’ra only to be killed by them, but Vos’ implied brutality and threats of death still came off as less than imposing. Speaking of Beckett, I liked the guidance he gave Han in setting him down his smuggler’s path, but I think the movie rushed Han’s reaction to Beckett betraying him. I wish Han had been hurt more by Beckett turning on him, even if he did see it coming (I do like that he was clever enough to outwit Beckett): Han could’ve been hoping he was wrong and that moment could’ve been a bigger gut punch than it was. The revelation that pirate Enfys Nest (Erin Kellyman) isn’t actually a villain at all, but is trying to prevent the hyperfuel from falling into the wrong hands so she can turn it over to the Rebellion isn’t a problem for her earlier attack on Beckett’s crew as they try to rob a train (a very cool sequence), but it does hurt the standoff with Han at the end a little. I imagine on a second watch, that scene will feel significantly less tense. Despite the movie dragging a bit at the end, it has a great balance of big action and chase scenes, humor, heart, and emotional weight! The tone was especially impressively consistent, given the directorial shakeup during filming. I do wish the movie had a more vibrant color palette: it looked too dark at times and pretty washed out for the rest. The scope of the universe was great and it was nice to have a small story that didn't involve a superweapon of some sort, even if a galactic fuel shortage could lead to cataclysmic events and inhumanity we haven’t seen in the other films. As much as this is being sold as a western heist movie, I kinda wish the Kessel theft was slicker or more tied to Star Wars technology like the train robbery was. It quickly devolved from a planned heist to a frantic scramble and it would've been nice to see the former instead (even though the sequence we got was great on its own terms). Perhaps we’ll get to see more polished thieves at work in Solo 2. When this movie was announced, I absolutely did not want to see Han win the Falcon from Lando or do the Kessel Run: both are world-building throwaway lines only necessary for setting up the uneasy friendship between the guys and establishing that the Falcon is famously fast, and neither needed to be more than that. However, since both were done well I don’t mind that we saw them here. The Run was far better than I expected it to be and I loved the inclusion of space monsters; I wish there had been more of them. I liked John Powell’s score a lot and it tied in iconic bits of John Williams’ work perfectly. All the shout-outs to bits of Star Wars extended canon were fun; even that 90s video game Masters of Teras Kasi got a mention!

Despite my misgivings about the momentum of the third act, by no means did this film put me off the idea of solo films (or Solo films). I’d love a young Leia movie and I’d absolutely watch a Lando film. I wouldn’t want it to be a prequel to Solo, though: I don't need to see how he got charming or how he won the Falcon in the first place. Just watching him scam his way across the galaxy (and maybe spreading L3’s message of droid freedom?) would be excellent. I also hope we get a direct sequel to Solo, but if we don't, this didn't feel unfinished or rushed.

Solo’s a fun thrill ride with heart! It features engaging depictions of characters we already know and love, introduces new ones with interesting potential, and adds a lot of context to moments and character relationships in all three Star Wars trilogies. It’s definitely worth seeing!

Check out more reviews, opinions, theories, and original short stories here!

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: "Berserk and the Band of the Hawk" Review

A disclaimer before we begin, this review will be 100% biased due to my love of, bordering on fanaticism toward, Berserk. If that doesn’t make how hopelessly slanted this review is going to be, know that I can consider Berserk to not only be the greatest work of fantasy in manga, but one of the greatest ever created, possessing the philosophical introspection of Conan The Barbarian superimposed upon a world with the historic weight and realism of A Song of Ice and Fire. To say that I’m eagerly anticipating the next season of Berserk is an understatement. Since the recent anime only gave us a taste of the Berserk since the original 1997 anime, any medium willing to take a deep dive into the later chapters of the story earns some major points. That is precisely what Berserk and the Band of the Hawk does, providing several years worth of anime with surprising fidelity for the player to personally cut through.

  Berserk and The Band of The Hawk is the latest project by Omega Force, who have spent the past several years adapting the Warriors formula across anime’s most storied shonen franchises. This should tell you a lot going into the game, if you never enjoyed or fell out of love with the Dynasty Warriors then this game might not be for you, despite the surprising ingenuity with which Omega Force has brought in new gameplay elements to give each of their titles a distinct personality the resonates with its source material. Visually, Berserk, especially The Golden Age’s large-scale medieval warfare, is particularly suited to the Warriors model, even elevating it by replacing the glamorous attire and iridescent particles of Romance of the Three Kingdoms with gallons and gallons of blood. This is easily one of the messiest games I’ve ever played. One swing of Guts’s sword in the middle of a group of enemies and he’s instantly drenched from head to toe in red. You can practically see the stuff dripping off his chin when the camera zooms in during his Berserk mode and Deathblow.

  For a story that moves between mass combat, duelings with hulking monsters, politics, and personal moments, Omega Force did an admirable job of adapting the plot to a gameplay system that primarily supports taking down armies. Berserk and The Band of the Hawk makes use of footage from the recent Berserk: The Golden Age movie trilogy for its more cinematic and personal moments to lend the proper gravity to each battle beyond its hack n’ slash mechanics. Expecting a slog through The Golden Age, which felt the most relevant to the Warriors formula, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the game paces well through the story. The only real hitch in the plot was an awkward expansion of Guts’s lonesome travels between his departure from the band and the Eclipse to include a non-canonical subplot about his one-man war against a small army of bandits. For those who are picking up the series with the 2016 anime, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is a decent way of bringing yourself up to speed with the events leading up to the Conviction Arc, which is an accomplishment in itself.

What makes Berserk and The Band of The Hawk really feel like a love letter to Berserk fans, however, is its reach into the far corners of the story that are explored. While many diehard fans would be happy to simply see any media covering the post-Eclipse portion of Berserk, Omega Force went the extra mile by finding ways to incorporate all the little details that built up to create the epic. The minutiae of Guts’s personal struggles and the developing relationship and ultimate division between Guts, Griffith, and Casca is given plenty of screentime. Minor scenes and interactions that don’t make it into the main story mode are covered in a number of optional side missions and event cinematics, minor antagonists like Silat and Wyald make prominent appearances, and even noncombatants like Erica and the blacksmith Godo get their own 3D model despite relatively brief appearances.

  The gameplay is standard fare for a Warriors title, with progressively unlocked light and hard attack combos. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk ups the carnage factor by providing a two-step process to the its ultimate system. Combos and kills fill up your Berserk guage which is activated with a spray of blood, increasing your damage. During Berserk mode, killing enemies fills up yet another bar that allows you to use your Death Blow, a huge area of effect attack. Guts is notably stronger than every other human character except maybe Schierke, capable of easily delivering multiple deathblows in a single Berserk phase and hewing through groups of enemy officers which might give characters like Casca or Judeau trouble. Keeping true to the series, most humans don’t really give Guts much trouble. Later on Berserk Armor Guts, Femto, and Zodd also become playable, trivializing even monstrous troops. Apostle fights are a mixed bag of boss fights ranging from engaging battles to frustrating gimmick movesets, usually requiring dodging around slow haymaker attacks or trying to close against keep away enemies whose every attack throws you back out of reach.

  Like any Japanese title with RPG elements worth its salt, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk offers a ton of extras to ensure there's nothing to stop you from spending hundreds of hours in Midland. Story mode missions include optional objectives that offer Behelits for completion which allow you to slowly piece together artwork such as Guts and Griffith having a naked water fight. An Infinite Eclipse Mode is probably the biggest replayability enhancer, a survival mode in the depths of hell which hits you with a number of missions and boss fights while fighting off hordes of demons. Then, of course, there’s RNG item collection and crafting! I can’t say for sure just how long this trend has been going, but it’s not quite dead yet. You can supplement the already immense amount of time you can invest in the game by trying to optimize your build by perfectly distributing fairly invisible statistics across your accessories. This, of course, means spending a lot of time in fairly clunky menus accompanied by confusingly discordant music that makes the entire experience as unpleasant as it is lacking in tangible rewards.

While Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is by far the most Warriors-like title rolled out by Omega Force in recent history, it’s hard to argue that the series doesn’t fit the bill. The hyper-detailed models capture Miura’s aesthetic and the visceral visuals of the series lend themselves perfectly to the Warriors design. Berserk fans are likely to be more than satisfied with the story coverage and presentation, extending all the way to the conclusion of the Ganishka without skimping on any of its finer points. Look, feel, and story are where the titles strongest points lie. Although Infinite Eclipse mode is fun, it rapidly wears and becomes a numbers game along with the item creation system. At the end of the day, its greatest value is as a means of experiencing Miura's world in motion. Omega Force has shown a great intuition for identifying the strengths of a property and throwing their creative weight into exaggerating that aspect to fit their model and their emphasis on story in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is no exception.

REVIEW ROUND-UP

+ Has the look, feel, and blood of Berserk

+ Covers a huge amount of the story

+ Plenty of replayability

- Frustrating boss movesets

- Clunky menus

- Equipment management

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Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll and author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com