#this actually makes me furious

[existentialcrisis-24-7]

Winx Season 1 Outfits

This was finished in February. It took me half a year to post this, and I'm procrastinating something else rn too.

Season 2 Outfits

Anyway! My reasoning or whatever

The biggest factor for picking these outfits were "What would they realistically pack with them to go to magical boarding school?".

Tecna's outfit is because there is no way that in season 1, she would wear anything not from Zenith. She's used to the fabric and sewing style that is common there, and the fear of Bad Textures™️ is enough for her to have the second-biggest wardrobe on Day 1.

Nearly the entirety of Musa's wardrobe consists of old merch from her mam and dad, hand-me-downs, and whatever second-hand clothes she could afford. She's had many years of experience making them look good and like an active choice, though. She has one of the smallest amount of clothes.

Flora went with comfort, much like Tecna, but they both have very different definitions of comfort. She didn't really think to pack much "nice" clothes under the assumption that she wouldn't be too close to her dorm mates and wouldn't be going out much. Her wardrobe is nearly entirely pastels, and it's a pretty average size, all things considered.

Stella's outfit is that of someone who's done this already and, if she has to do it again, is at least going to look fabulous doing so. She's the only one who regularly wears jewellery, and she wears the sunglasses nearly everywhere (she's sensitive to light, but most just take it as her trying to look cool). She, naturally, has the biggest wardrobe. An outfit for every occasion, including some of her own designs.

Bloom's outfit is nice, but thrown together last second. After agreeing to go to Alfea, she didn't have much time to pack and has the smallest wardrobe along with Musa. (I mentioned in some previous post about giving her a bomber jacket (I believe this was the sketch version of this), and she will get one, just not right now.)

Extra info: Alfea gives students an allowance. It isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it's enough to get Bloom and Musa a few more clothes down the road.

[a-romantics-guide-to-life]

𝜗𝜚₊˚⊹ ᡣ𐭩 𝓫𝓲𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾 ᡣ𐭩 ⊹˚₊𝜗𝜚

trigger warning, there is a lot of descriptions of depression, not eating, sadness, grief, and just generally angsty feelings BUT I PROMISE THERE IS COMFORT just please be cautious and just know that if this felt a little too real, you are not alone (more notes at the end)

Your very being felt like it was being ripped out of your chest. 

Invisible claws marring your chest as they hungrily are away at your happiness, making you feel empty and cold. Leeches ate away, sucking love and kindness out of your very soul, worming their way through your every vein. Your eyes burned with the scalding hot tears of your fury and sorrow. 

However, it was your heart that cried out in agony the most. It was as if all the warmth of life had been ripped, shredded, torn, and massacred from your life.

The pain officiated the marriage between your soul and utter despair.

Your father had found out about your ‘little affair’ with Billy yet ,it was nothing of the sort at all. Your love and being had been devoted to Billy, clinging onto his every word, breath, and moment with him for dear life. You felt the butterflies fluttering in your belly every time you even dared think about those sapphire eyes and his warm hands. You felt the cool scales of desire slither up your back and around your legs whenever Billy kissed you. You felt the pounding of your heart with every deep chuckle Billy let slip past his lips and boisterous laugh that left your painted mouth.

For once in your life, you had a reason to smile. 

In fact you had talked and laughed your throat as rough as sandpaper whenever you found yourself with Billy. You couldn't hide the bright smile you had lost with your mother or the same curious eyes Billy’s lil brother had. 

Of course, Billy loved you for it. He never wanted you to hide yourself from him. He wanted to be a man worthy of your attention. He wanted to be a man you could be yourself with. He yearned to be a man you could open up too or lean on when things get rough. And most importantly, he wanted to be a man worthy of your love.

That’s all Billy had sought out in his life, love. He desperately screamed out for anyone to hear, pleading and begging to find love, to be loved, to love. He loved his Pa so much that it hurt to lose the memory of his face smiling at him. He loved his lil brother Jo so much that it hurt to watch him grow weaker and weaker with every minute they were in that damned house with Antrim in New Mexico. And Billy had hurt the most when his own loving Ma had been stolen away from him last. Her death had hit him the hardest because in truth, she was all Billy had left.

He had felt so empty after losing all he held dear. He started struggling and hurting people that didn’t do anything to deserve his anger and depression, his wrath and grief. He drank the nights away and even sometimes forgot to eat until his skin was so sickly and his stomach ate away at his bones. 

His world had lost all its color. His days blended into brown and gray, each leaving him with nothing but a cold desolate plain where his heart should have been. 

Sometimes, he’d beg the stars, the moon, anyone to take him next. Sometimes he wished for a death so swift just so he could remember the sound of his Pa’s full laugh, fall asleep with Jo once more, and finally tell his Ma of all his adventures.

Yet that all changed when he had met you.

Billy started praying that he won’t be taken by the Reaper tomorrow just so he could greet you good mornin’ and good evenin’. He started to find his will to live again and he found that his days were no longer cold and bleak but rather bright, filled with warm oranges and reds. 

Being with you had brought his heart back to life, beating every single time he thought of you whether that was alone in the comfort of his bed or with you in the fields where you often met. 

His heart beat with life as you laughed, prancing around the field, picking flowers and fashioning them into a crown which you always placed delicately onto Billy’s hair rich as ripe wheat hung in loose, tousled waves from his weathered hat. He cherished and kept each sticky flower crown in his place until they were frail and decaying. 

You cherished every single moment together, kissing each other breathless, cuddling underneath giant trees earning respite from the harsh sun that freckled Billy’s face.

Yet, every high has come down.

And your world had come crashing down as your father bore down upon you the full might of his fury and unadulterated anger. He had called you a whore, meaningless hoe, he took every single thing you had considered dear and flung them at you as if they were burdens. He screamed at you for being so reckless and childish.

Worst of all, he told you that no one would ever be able to love you.

And what did you do?

You believed him.

You believed every single venomous lie he spouted at you. You curl further and further into the valley of your mind as he shreds your skin to shreds with his words as sharp as shards of glass. They nicked your skin as your happiness and joy seeped out of you like thick red blood, wounds you would never recover from.

You ran away that night. Stole one of his horses and rode off into the distance. You rode and rode through the cover of night until you reached the only other place you could, the tree.

You sat underneath it, the sky blanketed by the starry night sky. You screamed and sobbed, scalding tears flowing from your red cheeks. You wailed your voice hoarse, weeped until the tears dried up. Your head pounding from crying the night away. You rubbed your eyes as you shook from the waterfall of tears that fell onto the pillowy earth beneath you.

It wasn’t until the morning when Billy would find you. He had been riding, taking his stallion on a trot which he usually found himself riding to your little haven away from the prying and judging eyes of those in town. 

Billy was surprised to say the least when he found you curled up under your tree. Billy’s heart raced, what had happened to you? You were still in that darlin’ little dress you had been wearing before, meaning that you had to have been out here all alone for some time.

As he moved closer to you, he noticed the slow rise and fall of your chest with each small breath you took. His aquamarine eyes roved over your face as he took a seat next to where you lay. His hand instinctively brushes your hair away from your face. Your face was red and eyes were rubbed raw. His thumb ran slow circles on your cheek. Have you been crying? Why? Had it been something he said? He did?

As if you could feel Billy’s presence, you started to stir, your nose twitching amongst the tall blades of the grass. Your arm hurt but the pain was nothing like the tsunami of remembrance that crashed over you. 

“G’mornin’ darlin’,” Billy smiled, hand resting on your cheek.

Cold hot shame washed over you next. Billy had found you? How? How long had you been out?

You straightened up, combing your fingers through your hair, looking down at the grass bed you had slept in last night. Your stomach dropped, your skin going sick as you felt tears well up in your eyes threatening to cascade your still damp cheeks. You bit your lip and shut your eyes, willing the tears away. Naturally, that didn’t work as the tears started to well up even more. You crushed your lip even harder to stop yourself from sobbing. You hated crying and showing weakness, you hated that you cried always turning your head away or crying in the solitude of your pillow. 

Billy immediately sensed your distress, bringing his large hands to your shoulders to comfort you. You shook his warm hands off, mourning the feel of his hands on you.

“‘Ey, pretty girl, what's the matter?” He brought his hands to your cheek as he carefully tilted your head up to look at him. 

You let out a soft whimper as the tears ran down your cheeks, your nose red. You shook as you cried more and more, using your sleeves to wipe the tears away, praying they would stop. 

“Aw, darlin’, come here.” His deep whiskey voice crashed into your ears. You opened your eyes, hazy from the tears that continued to cascade down your face.

Billy opened his arms, inviting you into the warmth of his embrace. You sobbed crashing into him. You buried your face into his shoulder, shaking and sobbing even more. You wrapped your arms around him, his warm body enveloping you. He gently brought his arms around you, cradling you against him as he soothingly rubbed up and down your back.

Billy stayed quiet as you let all of your sobs and weep out. He knew that he couldn’t know how you were hurting, opting to just be there with you. God knows that it was all he needed when he had lost his father, brother, and mother. He didn’t need their words of condolence or their optimistic words. All he needed was someone to lean on, which is all he wanted to be for you.

And so you sat there, as Billy heard your wails and cries, vowing that he would replace them with laughs and smiles later. But for now, he was there to feel with you, after all, that was all he needed. 

Billy held you tightly and lovingly that day, and that was all you needed, to know that someone was there for you, that someone knew how it felt. Most importantly, you and Billy knew that there were no words that could comfort you, but you felt the love Billy felt for you as he sat with you there underneath the tree, as he sat with you as you told him what your father had said, as he lay there with you that night vowing he would never leave.

And Billy had understood your love as you kissed him that day in church, as you vowed to love and to cherish in sickness and in health, until death do you part.

this has absolutely been influenced by my own struggles and everyone copes differently, but writing is one of the ways that i cope with not so happy feelings so I just wanted to share a little glimpse at my experience with sad-der feelings

i hope that this has brought some comfort to you because writing this has absolutely helped me work through some of my own struggles even if i find solace in writing fantastical stories such as these and again, just know that you are not alone

thank you for reading! - emi

[justanotherwriter140]

Kung Fu Panda 4 - The Movie

The last really, really long discussion post (for now).

Major spoilers ahead!

This review is full of spoilers, so please refrain from reading through it until you've watched KFP4. I would highly suggest doing so, as I want everyone to form their own opinions without my influence. The movie has its flaws (some of which admittedly being a bit distracting), but it's a fun film that has things to offer.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is a fun movie (take that as you will) that takes its audience on an action-packed, surprisingly funny, yet relatively contained adventure on which Po doesn't really do much. It's an inconsequential, safe sequel that doesn't really hurt the franchise but adds close to nothing.

I had a good time watching the movie. It was obviously produced with its theater experience in mind and the action scenes especially reflected that priority. The humor was actually funny sometimes and I enjoyed Po and Zhen's dynamic. During the film, I was able to put most (most!) of my grievances aside and take the movie for what it is. I've discovered that the best way to watch KFP4 is with low expectations and an open mind.

I have a lot of things to say about KFP4, both complaints and compliments (though the former might be taking the forefront in this review), and I hope this review can help those of you who have seen the movie organize your thoughts. I've been having a lot of trouble with that specific aspect of things myself. Those who get it get it.

With that said, let's get into my full review of KFP4! I've been waiting for nearly 2 years to write this and I'm so excited to share every single thought.

I'm going to follow the format of my first discussion post and curate a bulleted list of my thoughts, followed by an analysis of each of these points. Keep in mind that everything I say is IMO and this is more of a rant post than anything else.

Here are my main points:

The Furious Five's role is comically minuscule in the context of the film. Their actions are inconsequential and add nothing to the plot (a confirmed last-minute add), and they have 30~ seconds of screen time. Shifu is also largely irrelevant.

Mr. Ping and Li's presence has little to no effect on the movie (though I won't complain too much because they were pretty fun to watch and this movie has bigger problems). In almost any scenario, I am adamantly against having characters present that don't add anything to the narrative; however, Mr. Ping is an exception. I love Mr. Ping. James Hong is a gem.

Zhen's screen time is not utilized well and her character is underdeveloped. She definitely wasn't annoying, but I didn't find her either compelling or funny enough to warrant the screen time she was given, especially considering it wasn't used to establish a backstory/strong motives. This makes me feel bad for the character because the movie kind of screwed her out of any substantial development.

The Chameleon, while complimented greatly by Viola Davis, is an underwhelming villain. Viola Davis is amazing in this film and I would suggest watching it for her performance if for nothing else, but the Chameleon is underwhelming considering the super cool concept behind the character.

The film feels very rushed. Apologies to those who disagree, but I think the pacing is atrocious and the final fight is anticlimactic. The movie felt like a word-vomit with no discernible intermissions that stops abruptly when the film ends.

I felt as though Po didn't change/grow as a person and the audience never had a chance to either bond with or relate to his character. His internal struggle is kept to a minimum and we don't spend a moment alone with him as an audience, which is disorienting and distracting. Watching the film felt like running into an old friend at the store who's too in a rush to have a real conversation.

The action scenes were strong with few exceptions. Creative art direction was utilized and I thought the martial arts choreography was entertaining and dynamic. I love the color palette of the film and many scenes were very impressive visually.

With my main points established, I do believe it's ranting time. Strap in, folks.

Let's start strong with the Furious Five: I'm gutted. Chagrined, despondent, crestfallen, etc.

The lack of the Furious Five negatively affects KFP4 so much, because not only does their absence hurt the atmospheric integrity of KFP as a franchise, it also forces KFP4 to bring in a slew of different characters—all while still noncommittally including the FF at the very end because I believe the marketing team required it—that clog up the cast a bit. It all goes to show how important strong, established side characters are.

The Furious Five are side characters, but the role of "side character" does not equate to being irrelevant, expendable, or exchangeable. I recognize that the Furious Five aren't super developed as characters beyond a handful of lines that allude to traits sprinkled sparingly among the members; however, I believe that the tiny bits of development we have been given have proved impactful in the past. Tigress's development in KFP2 is a prime example of how much narratively conscious changes (however small they may be) can positively affect these movies.

Because of limited runtimes, the Furious Five often operate as more of a singular unit than five individuals. Even so, I don't think discarding them is valid. They're so important to the KFP universe (to Po's universe!) and not having them with him feels so wrong. The Furious Five are fully integral to the heart of Kung Fu Panda, which is why I believe a lot of those who have seen the new movie have expressed something feeling "off" or something being missing.

I agree with this sentiment. To me, KFP4 didn't feel like a KFP movie. I don't need a Furious Five spin-off movie and I can be fully content with a KFP5 centered around Po's journey as an individual as was intended from the beginning, but he can't carry an entire movie on his back. As strong as he is in every sense of the word, he is only one character. He's the centerpiece of the franchise, but a centerpiece can only go so far without the rest of the design, so to speak.

For me, the Furious Five's absence is one of this film's biggest faults. It's huge and glaring. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, either, because the friends with whom I saw the film refused to talk about any other aspect of the movie after seeing it. Seeing them at the end was better than nothing, of course, but it was a disappointing culmination after eight years of waiting.

That all is to say I feel robbed. Despite all of this, though, I understand that there were reasons why the Furious Five weren't included in the movie. I don't believe the production team would exclude the Furious Five unless they weren't given a choice.

Shifu and Po's dynamic continues to be thoroughly delightful but their interactions are short and simplified. I would have loved to see more of them in this film, especially considering the extreme relevance of teacher-student relationships in KFP4. I (somewhat) digress, though, because the idea of Shifu having to live at the Jade Palace with only Po for an extended period of time is hilarious enough on its own. Maybe that's what the short film is about!

The comedy is odd but has some jokes that stand out. Po maintains a healthy relationship with his inner sass, which I think makes him more fun to watch and kind of eradicates the man-child verdict. Some jokes don't land, of course, but I genuinely thought KFP4 had some funny moments. Mr. Ping was consistently awesome and Po had some good lines sprinkled throughout the film.

As for Mr. Ping, he and Li Shan are the subjects of the film's B-plot as they follow Po to Juniper City out of shared concern for their son's safety. In my mind, they don't add anything to the story that couldn't have been brought about by other characters, but they had their moments of being entertaining. I enjoyed their silliness and thought they had a cute dynamic if nothing else.

Speaking of other characters, I want to discuss KFP4's deuteragonist and why I genuinely feel bad about the way her character was treated.

I want to let it be known that I'm still not on board with Po passing the Dragon Warrior torch to another character. While I agree that his arc is now calling for him to have a student, I disagree with the notion of him retiring from his DW role.

As I stated in my first discussion post:

Didn’t the initial significance and nuance of the title come from the fact that there is only one person who can be the Dragon Warrior, because the concept of the “Dragon Warrior” isn’t so much a title as it is Po himself? The universe (Oogway) must choose the Dragon Warrior because they are a singular being of legend. It is one person, and that person is Po. Wasn’t the point of the first film that the title ultimately doesn’t really matter because there is no “secret ingredient,” so to speak? The title doesn’t actually give Po anything. “It’s just you,” Po says, and that was the resolution.

When it comes to Zhen as a character, contrary to what I predicted I would think of her, I thought she was okay. While I was still a bit distracted by how out-of-place her design looks, I wasn't truly annoyed by her at any point and she and Po had some cute moments. Even so, I think their relationship could have been a bit more refined and developed.

While it's evident that Po and Zhen are meant to have a teacher-student/mentor-apprentice dynamic, I think their relationship feels half-baked. There were parallels that contradicted one another and ended up being confusing come the film's conclusion, and the nature of their relationship seems to vacillate depending on the scene. Additionally, the strength of their bond goes from zero to one hundred within thirty-ish minutes and left me with a bit of whiplash.

We're shown that Po and Zhen care about one another, but we're never shown why. They have a brief conversation during which they bond over being orphans, and Zhen says at one point, "You're actually a good guy," but that's it. This obvious lack of development is a bit disorienting because we're later led to believe that Zhen and Po care very deeply for one another when there's almost nothing to back it up.

A scene that sticks out to me when discussing this is when Zhen attack-hugs Po in a way that explicitly mirrors Tigress's hug from KFP2. This happens around the beginning of the third act, and while it had the potential to be an endearing moment, I think it fell flat.

The impact of Tigress's hug was brought on by her character's hardcore nature and reputation of being heartless, further strengthened with the knowledge that she was hugging Po (which was obviously way outside her comfort zone) as a show of companionship and fundamental understanding. Tigress hugged Po because he needed someone to recognize his strive for closure.

Zhen's hug had little to no impact because she had no reason to do it and it didn't indicate growth. She hugs Po because she's sorry for betraying him and doesn't want him to be killed by the Chameleon, but neither of these things are newly-established via this hug; we have already gathered by now that Zhen regrets betraying Po and doesn't want him to get hurt.

The hug is far from the movie's weakest point, but I think it's unnecessary given the context. I'm big on hugs in movies (an underutilized form of platonic affection, in my opinion), but it didn't fit here. I don't hate it, and I see it as an honest effort to bring emotionality to Po and Zhen's relationship, but it seems arbitrary.

Zhen and Po's relationship has a lot of potential and I'd be open to seeing more of them in the future, but I think some more thoughtful development needs to occur before I can humor it further. Even so, I can see myself featuring Zhen in some future post-KFP4 one-shots—sparingly, of course, because we have a lot of Furious Five content to compensate for.

Overall, they had a cute dynamic and some sweet moments but I'm not attached. I'm on board with Po having a student but I think their relationship needs a lot more development, something that this film unfortunately didn't give them time to either accomplish or earn.

Now, onto the Chameleon!

The concept of the Chameleon's character is admittedly super interesting. She's the deuteragonist's fastidious mother figure who feels that Zhen owes her a debt and as a result holds her to an impossible standard. That dynamic had the potential to be so interesting but I didn't think it was explored at all. There is no indication of Zhen having any internal conflict about fighting the Chameleon, no emotional complexity between them at all; it's disappointing because I think it would've added a bit of earnestness to the film.

Additionally, the idea of a shape-shifting villain is versatile. A shape-shifting villain gives those telling the story a lot of room to experiment with the protagonist and different ways in which the main character can be challenged and tested. It's yet another good idea utilized poorly. Just one idea: the Chameleon could have disguised herself as one (or several) of Po's family, friends, etc. and brought to fruition a new arc with his character (seeing as he arguably doesn't have one in this film), but she only disguises herself as Zhen very briefly in the movie.

Furthermore, the Chameleon completely relies on the powers of previous villains to pose any sort of threat to the main characters. She summons Po's former nemeses from the Spirit Realm (despite there being little logic in doing so considering Kai's literal evisceration) and takes their kung fu abilities for herself.

An excerpt from my first KFP4 discussion post that I think is relevant to the point I'm trying to make:

I don’t think it would be in the best interest of anyone if the past villains were to come back in any way that’s not a flashback (even then, I’m not sure I’d see the point). In all honesty, I thought that the whole point of the villains was that they died and stayed dead. They were defeated by Po once and for all as a testament to the idea of establishing Po's character growth and journey as a person through the bad things he’s able to overcome. It’d be highly contradictory to the messages of the other films if these villains were to suddenly come back.

While there was an honest effort made to portray the Chameleon as intimidating, I never felt as though any of the characters were endangered by either her or her army of lizard henchman. She's a visually appealing character (aside from her eyes, which I thought more resembled those of a gecko than a chameleon) and I greatly enjoyed Davis's performance, but overall I don't see the Chameleon as a notable villain.

The return of Tai Lung (had he been on his own) had the makings to be an excellent story, especially considering the importance of teacher-student dynamics in KFP4. To see him interacting with Shifu would have been incredible and could have led to further closure on Tai Lung's end (because I think that's kind of what the team was going for anyway), but it didn't happen.

It was nice to see Ian McShane reprise his role, but I wish Tai Lung's characterization had been more reminiscent of the way he was in the first film and more complimentary of his overall character arc. Tai Lung isn't a one-dimensional villain with a singular goal and motivation, and I couldn't help but feel as though the complexity of his character was simplified for the sake of KFP4's narrative.

Tai Lung's presence in KFP4 may be odd, but Shen and Kai's appearances are even more so. Kai, if I remember correctly, was fully obliterated by Po, reduced to literal particles on screen (which is kind of wild now that I think about it). Shen being in the Spirit Realm makes sense all things considered; however, Po and Li had no visible reaction to his presence, which seemed a bit unlikely considering Shen's deeds. This plot hole can likely be attributed to the fact that Shen and Kai's cameos (to my knowledge) were last-minute additions to the movie.

I have to talk about the pacing. I have to. I'm sorry, bear with me.

To me, the film's pacing is erratic and disconcerting. While I can appreciate a quick-moving narrative that doesn't dawdle on storylines that aren't interesting/important, KFP4 kind of flings itself too far in the opposite direction and ends up being frighteningly fast-paced. Once the credits began, I felt like I had been holding my breath for the entire movie.

KFP4 is confusing because while the runtime is standard for a KFP movie, it feels incredibly short. At the same time, the film's story moves at a breakneck speed and leaves little time for heart and development. These things culminate into a barreling boulder of a movie that simply doesn't have time to let its characters, story, or audience take a breath.

A fast pace is not inherently negative, but I don't think it worked in the favor of KFP4. The KFP franchise has always been very emotionally grounded (and just very grounded in general), so to see a film in which emotion/heart takes an aggressive backseat in comparison to action and comedy is jarring. While I think it's unreasonable for fans to expect the same emotional integrity as the original films to be present in the current and upcoming ones, I still think there's room for Po to grow and I felt as though the notion of him developing further was brushed aside in this film.

As for Po's growth, I felt it was nearly nonexistent. The previous trilogy wrapped up his character's journey beautifully and I know that KFP4 was bound to struggle with this particular aspect of making another KFP film; however, just because the strongest pillars of Po's character are established doesn't serve as a valid excuse to reverse his development and repeat what he learned in KFP3.

In KFP3, Po learned firsthand that he is capable of spreading wisdom and teaching kung fu. He also learns that he is constantly growing and that change is inevitable; there is always something more to learn.

"If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now."

"I don't want to be anything more, I like who I am!"

In KFP4, Po pushes against this narrative despite fully accepting it in KFP3, actively reversing crucial parts of his character development achieved in the latter. KFP3 was non-ambiguously about learning to cope with change and responsibility, and I can't help but feel like KFP4 is simply copying this message while not adding anything to it.

Additionally, I felt that KFP4's Po generally felt less personal than he has in the past. In every KFP movie up to the franchise's most recent addition, I felt very connected to Po as an audience member. I felt like I was truly seeing the world of KFP through his eyes. I consider this to be one of the franchise's most impressive feats; it's incredibly difficult to build a universe around a character without making the audience feel limited to one perspective and one part of the world.

With KFP4, I felt both limited and disconnected. The world didn't feel as vast and all-encompassing as it has in the past and Po didn't seem fully like himself. This could be me nitpicking (as I'm prone to do), but I can't recall a single moment in the movie in which Po was alone on screen. Scenes like these are crucial for me because I see them as a meet-cute between the character and the audience, a moment for us to cross the bridge into their world in a way that's silent and intuitive. These little bonding moments are absolutely integral to feeling connected to a character.

Po's dream sequence in the first KFP movie is one of the best examples of this. It presents his aspirations, alludes to his way of life up to the point of the movie, and showcases his personality. During Po's dream sequence, the audience is quite literally inside Po's mind; we're there with him, seeing what he sees, subsequently feeling what he feels. Po is a dreamer at heart and makes the audience feel like dreamers, too.

In KFP4, I felt like I little to no point of reference when it comes to how Po was feeling. I didn't feel immersed in him and his world.

I know I've been very "doom and gloom" throughout this post, which is an exhausting mindset for everyone involved. I want to end my critique with something positive because I think some praise is deserved. Let's just say the movie could have been a lot worse, the details of which I'm sure you're all well aware.

The color palette of the movie is beautiful and somewhat reminiscent of the first film. While the animation style of KFP4 is far more simplistic than its predecessors, I was very impressed with its use of shadow and light. Po's many faces were also hysterical, props to those who helped make him as expressive as he is.

Additionally, the movie's action sequences were clearly thought out and discussed in great detail. The experimentation with camera angles was really fun to watch and I enjoyed the majority of the film's fight scenes. They were fun, bouncy, and entertaining, and quite likely reinstated audiences's love of watching a cuddly panda kick butt.

Congratulations, you've reached the end! Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to read this unnecessarily long and detailed review. As long as I help someone translate their conflicted feelings into coherent thoughts, I'll call it a win.

I want to reiterate that I don't hate Kung Fu Panda 4 and I had fun while watching the film. It has its flaws and there are a lot of aspects that I dislike, but the effort of the crew is obvious and I greatly admire and respect the hard work put into the film by those who worked on it. This does not at all excuse my issues with the movie, but it's worth saying.

As for the future of the series, I only hope that the next installment is more considerate of the franchise's origins and why Po's story is being told in the first place. I fully believe that another sequel could be good given a strong, passionate crew with a great understanding of the characters and world (and I wouldn't be averse to some previous directors returning, just to put it out there).

Thanks again to those who took the time to read this crazy excuse for a movie review. Feel free to either disagree with me or add things in the replies/reblogs, I'm always looking for more thoughts to think.

Until next time!

[hella1975]

it's been pointed out on here before that a lot of terf arguments are actually rooted in sexist idealology that feminists fought and died to unnormalise decades ago and that's its own kettle of fish but one thing i also find very frustrating about this so called 'radical' feminism is that it's so... defeatist? like the moment you categorically label an entire section of society as Bad and Inherently Evil then there's also the implication that nothing can be done about it, and it completely takes all accountability away. saying all men are evil is just another way of saying boys will be boys. he raped her because he's a man. he hit her because he's a man. he didn't listen because he's a man - it's almost offensively oversimplified. there's no point trying to fix this issue in society because men are just Like That, okay! so now what? it's not like they're going anywhere, so you just accept that 50% of the population are evil and will forever treat you terribly and there's nothing to be done about it bc they're biologically predisposed to it? like is that fr the argument here? you're soooo radical for that

[petrichor-enthusiast]

Crying alone in my silent room at night bc of old politicians that are fucking up the world with their greed just cause they won't be here to see the consequences of their actions and are dooming the next generation is such an autistic sense of justice slay for me.

[drawbauchery]

ok i hate this because i can hear it. so. fucking. clearly.

[unovaslankiite]

Prolly gonna be my one and only rwde post (cus the fanbase is rancid and I'm not rlly a rwby fan, just a person who watches the show): some of you rwby fans are too comfortable using your queerness as a shield to silence BIPOC voices about the racist writing and your 'precious' bigoted CRWBY. You guys unironically act/think that just because you have to deal with queerphobia; you are IMMUNE to being bigoted yourself and you are INCAPABLE of parroting bigoted beliefs. Cus I know there will be a dumbass ant1-rwde posters who will try to drown out this post by saying its 'lies from the EVIL RWDE!!!': You would rather weaponize your queerness to bash on BIPOC voices, while claiming to care about our voices. You would rather be complicit with the racist writers and their racist writing, just because your racist writers gave you a queer ship. There is no shame nor issue in projecting the abused you suffered onto the characters, however you refuse to see through the characters and their writing through a BIPOC lens. You do not get the right to impose your perspective of the characters at the expense of BIPOC voices, you do not get to twist our voices to be alt-right bigots because we called out RWBY's rampant racism. You do not get the right to say you give a shit about BIPOC and have #BLM in your bio when you fervently defend your bigoted company. You do not get to pretend to care about racism when you buy merch off of your bigoted company. My fellow BIPOC (especially the queer BIPOC): why are you guys so comfortable dismissing your fellow poc about their discomfort with RWBY's racist writing? BIPOC are not a monolith with the same opinions about racism in media; but some of you guys are weirdly comfortable with turning a blind eye to your fellow BIPOC getting dogpiled by the white fandom. We can and will disagree, you not agreeing as a BIPOC about RWBY's racist writing is not what I take issue with. The issue lies within you upholding the racial colourblindness in the fandom; like how the fandom was ok with throwing the racism under the bus in favour of queerness, you are ok with throwing your BIPOC peers under the bus for white queerness. Sincerely, a POC who has been watching the fandoms rampant racism problem ever since 2019.

[sepiamestus]

It always rubs me the wrong way when people characterize atsushi as too much of a sweetheart. Like he IS a sweetheart but he's also snarky and sarcastic and most importantly he's very very angry. Do not forget this.

[thepromisedbride]

i don’t talk about bridgerton on here but just to clarify. i will not be having ANY eloise hate on this account. i will bite.

[allmyandroids]

Raymond Reddington

In Season 4 Episode 2 - Mato

[reallyhardy]

Sorry what’s up w the Ethan slater stuff? I know him only from your posts / SpongeBob stuff

HI HELLO please buckle in

yep -- the same guy from the spongebob musical, and my posts abut the spongebob musical.

he blew up completely and now the general public knows him as 'ariana grande's new boyfriend' - their relationship seems to have started off the back of co-starring in the upcoming wicked musical film adaptation.

it's just been like. a monkey's paw curling sort of a way for him to get catapulted to fame, as i had always really enjoyed him as a performer (as spongebob, yes, but also in the other roles i'd seen him in,) and my biggest hope back around 2017 was that he would continue in and be really successful in theatre, get a lot of broadway roles, maybe take on some existing parts i thought he'd really suit, like seymour in little shop or ogie in waitress.......... but instead he booked the role of boq from wicked in a massive hollywood film production instead, where he met ariana grande. THE ariana grande.

and then yeah. at some point, he and grande broke up with their respective partners, (slater leaving both his wife AND newborn son) jumped into a new relationship, and now the whole wider internet knows who he is but certainly not for the right reasons.

there's been speculation regarding whether or not grande and slater had cheated on their previous partners before their relationship began with various sources coming out of the woodwork saying "yes they did" and others saying "no they didn't" -- humans are all perfectly capable of making stuff up, the media especially, so i simply don't know who to trust and i admit it had completely shattered my whole good impression of him - PLUS it gave the wider internet an absolutely awful first impression of him, resulting in, yeah, the (frankly, unflattering, sometimes downright cruel) memes of him popping up on twitter and, as i discovered yesterday, in non-theatre youtubers' videos who would literally never have heard of him if not for the slater-grande romance 🥲

FULL COVERAGE of the situation as it was happening can all be found on the lovely @notasimpleslater's blog under the tag 'ozgate' if you want to delve deeper!

[colfy-wolfy]

i think we should sentence convicted felons to challenge 64 rain world downpour.

MY GAME CRASHED RIGHT WHEN I FINISHED THE CHALLENGE AND IT DIDNT COUNT I HAVE TO DO IT ALL AGAIN IM SERIOUSLY AT MY LIMIT !!!

[shannonallaround]

After pondering on it for several days, I have officially decided I did not like the direction of KFP4 and have banished it from my brain. It is no longer canon. KFP4? What's that? Don't know what you're talking about.

[100blocks-archived]

sorry for still talking about this but it’s so fucking funny how tommys “q” literally said out loud that they could both do their servers. real life q never said that. if he had said that he could’ve prevented so much fucking bullshit but he didn’t

[shadelorde]

“Actually autistic people can read social cues we just ignore them because they’re stupid” …do you not fucking know what autistic means

[novelconcepts]

D’you ever just draw something so fuckin’ stupid