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bigmeatymudcrabchitins · 4 years

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A not-so-brief overview of my Skyrim Dova OCs bc i need to scream to the digital void about my ideas

Freyora Lind, more commonly known by her strange alias “Bjorne Icepick”

A Nord-eventually-turned-werewolf who orphaned during the Great War and taken in by a Dunmeri mercenary whose residence was in Windhelm’s Gray Quarter. Grew up in a cramped boarding house setting among desperate mercenaries of varying backgrounds. Many of them would all come and go, but there was always some sort of a familial bond between them all.

From a young age she got in a lot of fights against people who insulted her for living in the Gray Quarter among the dark elves. Eventually she took a fight too far and was jailed for murder around 14, but was broken out shortly after by a band of masked vampires. Turns out some of her mercenary comrades unwittingly caught vampirism during a contract to clear out a vampire den and had to skip town, but not before ensuring one of their own wasn’t left to rot.

Lived in Cyrodil for about 15 years, but returned to Skyrim pursuing rumors surrounding a cure to vampirism, as her adoptive father would be nearing the end of his elven lifespan and had wished to die a normal death.

Seeing as she was literally a fugitive, and her long-belated parents were somewhat renowned for their battlefield prowess, she took on a false identity. AND an act to match it.

She’ll eat raw meat, chase prey with swords instead of using a bow like a normal person, harp about irrational conspiracy theories, and more. Everyone’s foul reactions to her outlandish act are plainly hilarious to her and only encourage her to act even stranger.

The alias “Bjorne Icepick” was simply the most ridiculous name she could think of.

Not the most morally outstanding. Besides drunken brawling, she’ll steal from anyone who angers her, even if it’s things she literally won’t ever need such as all the goblets in a household. It’s the pettiness that counts. “Try drinking your damn high-end wine now, jackass.”

Calls Dwarven Automatons “Gundams.” Including she herself, no one knows what that means.

Joins the Companions out of homesickness and a desire to fill in a gap that leaving home left.

Hasn’t bothered curing herself of lycanthropy because her whole schtick is being incredibly resourceful, and that includes using any means of power necessary. Still doesn’t fancy Hircine’s Hunting Grounds as her desired afterlife, though.

As her journey goes on, however, her lightheartedly eccentric face starts to fall off as a number of events push her to begin to question the legitimacy of her actions up until that point.

Some of which include the eventual death of her adoptive father (and how she was indirectly responsible for it even if it was what he wanted), Delphine’s ultimatum, the civil war as a collective, learning the tragic history behind the Falmer and the original Companions’ role in it, and killing of Vyrthur (no matter how much he genuinely deserved it).

She grows disgusted by herself down to the core. She takes to skooma to cope, and starts to be plagued by serious skooma-induced side effects. She ends up shutting herself away from all her responsibilities and distancing herself from her friends.

Does she get better? Maybe. I haven’t thought up anything past this point lol

Moureneris Alta

A very, VERY ancient vampiric snow elf, (though it’s notable she was born a considerable amount of time after the razing of Sarthaal)

Survived many atrocities. Stayed in isolation with a band of vampires for countless years out of sheer disgust for the nature of the sapient races. (I’ll explain her full story some other time. It’s pretty complicated)

She was abducted from her isolated lifestyle by a certain person i’ll talk about later. She managed to free herself south of Skyrim, and uh, walks right into that Imperial ambush. The rest is history.

Super ignorant to modern society as a result of centuries of isolation. Exploited for comedic relief. (“What in the name of Oblivion is a Cyrodilic Empire? Are you messing with me? And please, how does levitation magic simply get outlawed by this hypothetical Empire? What are you to do when you fall down a crevice? Just... let yourself perish? How degrading.)

She reintegrated herself into society with vengeance in mind under the belief that all humans are savage bloodlusting murderers who had to answer for their treachery. (And she was royally angry there was no Dwemer left to spite, but partially satisfied at the same time). But she grows conflicted after being shown genuine kindness, even as early as being freed from her binds in Helgen.

Subsequently has a very muddled redemption arc. Queue Dragonborn hero stuff

She has impaired vision, but she cultivated detect life magic to aid her in daily life and combat (think Hyakkimaru from Dororo ‘19 and his soul detection or Toph Beifong from ATLA and her seismic sense). At her peak, she can detect life from about a kilometer away.

She can just barely read, but only if she holds the text incredibly close to her face, not to mention her Cyrodilic lessons were left unfinished after her abduction, making reading a very taxing process. Weary travelers are often spooked at the sight of a floating, ghastly looking elven woman with her nose pressed up against crossroad signs, and it has become somewhat of an urban legend.

Isn’t as nearly as skilled with detecting the dead and tenses up in burial crypts or around other vampires for that reason. Unfortunately, being the Dragonborn and all, she finds herself in a lot of crypts...

When questioned about her background due to her unique appearance: “Oh, yeah. My mother was one of those mer from the east. You know the ones. Dark elves, I think? And my father was one of those er, tall elv- no, sorry, HIGH elves. Yeah. They both died in a big fire or something though. It was horrible. I can’t get the noxious smell or the deafening screams out of my head. Good talk, but never ask me about that again.”

Queue sheltered old immortal antics: “Wow, you’re THAT old? Enlighten me on how it felt witnessing the fall of the Dwemer. Or perhaps the rise of Tiber Septim’s Empire. The Gates of Ob-“ “Oblivion if I know. I lived in someone’s basement for thousands of years. And I still don’t know what everyone means by Empire. You all are messing with me, aren’t you? That really annoys me.”

She ultimately returns to faith in Auri-El and makes it her life’s purpose to help the Betrayed find peace, as well as to seek out any remaining snow elf groups. Probably good friends with Gelebor or something.

Had a crush on Serana. We all know how THAT went. Damned temples.

Was originally gonna spiral into a much darker corruption arc (another ATLA comparison being Jet or Hama) but I just felt bad for her. Moureneris can have a little found peace. As a treat.

That’s her preliminary design made. I’ll need a mod to properly play her, because that right there was made by choosing Dunmer as her race. But I can’t do that. I’m on console, and while I got the Steam port a month ago, my PC’s stone age specs can’t handle Skyrim yet and I’ll need to wait until I can afford a better graphics card (thanks economic inflation)

Alexandre Armasi, jokingly nicknamed Alexandre the Curious

A complete and unapologetic export of my character from a dead and unfinished DND campaign. Except there are no Aasimar in Skyrim, so he’s half Altmer half Bosmer. And his initial last name was Armas but I thought Armasi suited his Skyrim counterpart more, as subtle a change it is.

He’s mainly Bosmer in appearance and constitution, save for his hair and eyes, which are more similar to that of his Altmeri father’s.

I can’t really export his original backstory though because the campaign wouldn’t translate well into TES lore at all.

He’s a writer who came wandering into Skyrim in search of inspiration. While he mainly writes dramatic fables, he wanted to divert his focus to crafting his own bestiary and herbal compendium surrounding Skyrim’s fauna and flora. The ones at home are simply too vague to him!

He’s very altruistic, wishing to spread cheer wherever he goes, through the art of song (even though he was a cleric in DND and not a bard. My bad.) However, many of his verses are just blatant self promotions of his published fables.

But he’s too naive for his own good. Dangerously so. In fact, he says what’s on his mind with little forethought, with little grasp on the consequences of his actions, which lands him in lots of trouble. “I don’t favor him myself, but you guys kill people over Talos worship? That’s not very cool. A bit scary, if you ask me.” or “A Stormcloak rebel? Didn’t your leader kill a bunch of Reachmen rebels years back, or so I’ve heard. By the divines that’s not a man I’d make a symbol of nonconformity.”

He’s also insatiably curious. The type to ACTUALLY shove alchemic ingredients in his mouth with no knowledge of their properties, experiment with dangerous rune spells, throw rocks at pressure plates, and more. Needless to say he’s very accident prone.

Doesn’t know common curse words. People exploit this for laughs. Think that episode of Spongebob.

Everyone is a little baffled that HE of all people is the prophesied Dragonborn of legend. This agonizingly imbecilic writer who has absentmindedly wandered into burial crypts, troll dens, bandit forts, and more, too busy juggling his manuscripts to pay attention to his surroundings.

His past doesn’t exactly reflect his outlook on life. His mother and father fought in the Great War aligned with the Imperials despite their elven background. Both managed to live to see the war’s conclusion, but his father vanished without a trace shortly after, and it seems his mother knows something she won’t tell him.

With plenty of exposure to bad influences, his innocence is slowly lost throughout the course of his journey, and his altruism begins to grow twisted. But nevertheless, he maintains his jovial, social persona, except this time with much darker undertones. Kinda like a creepy dentist or something.

Whoops. He winds up becoming a feared Dark Brotherhood assassin. (Haha get it “Innocence Lost”???) He somehow deluded himself into thinking that the life of an assassin was the right thing to do. But he’s a funky little guy so he gets a pass for his heinous crimes against society

#skyrim #skyrim oc #dragonborn #dovahkiin

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xfadingstarx · 4 years

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A Bleach Retrospective: In defense of Bleach

These are opinions, please respect that.

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My Journey with Bleach (please skip if you want to go straight to the analysis):

On September the 8th, 2006 YTV’s weekend evening anime programming block (Bionix) aired the first episode of Bleach. I, unfortunately, did not catch this episode, instead, I caught the second episode on September 15th the following week. I was ten and from then on, Bleach fascinated me. It had an interesting concept, tight pacing, catchy music, a good story, and unique character designs. I also really enjoyed how Bleach lacked the same kind of emotional labour that Naruto demanded (as child who survived off of constantly seeking validation from others because of absentee parents, Naruto is way too much work).

My fascination with Bleach got me started in the fandom communities of yesteryear, for I was a child with zero internet supervision. My introduction to fanfiction was because I loved Hitsugaya Toshiro.

Bleach was my entry into poetry (poem at the start of every volume).

But alas, all good things were not meant to last and by the summer of 2009, I was officially done with Bleach. It had felt stilted for some time before then. Over the years, I would gradually revisit bits and pieces of Bleach, but I would not read it in its entirety until months after its finish, about a decade after I had first saw Bleach on my TV. Between the time I stopped reading and the series ended, I became friends with people who didn’t think highly of Bleach and I also started seeing criticism I had made about Bleach in 2011 being repeated by fans on the internet, I started to think that maybe Bleach was bad, but I knew what bad writing looked like —I started reading fanfiction through Bleach fanfiction AMVs on YouTube — and somehow Bleach didn’t sit right with me in the “bad writing category”.

I sit back now, a decade and ahalf later from when I first started and ask, “was Bleach really that bad, and if so, why do I keep coming back to it?”

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What Made Bleach So Good?

Unique story and aesthetics: When Bleach first started in 2001, it was one of the first manga series to talk about souls and death in a poetic way and with such coherence. Bleach clearly knew what it wanted to say about life and death. It also had a very unique aesthetic, very similar to that of “The World Ends With You” or “Persona 5″ — an urban Japanese take on R&B kind of vibe. Also, Bleach had the most “realistic” and minimalist art style amongst the Big 3.

Cool Music: Bleach had cool music, from very solid rock’n’roll and R&B style songs in its OPs and EDs to very funky OST music with lots of pizzazz. Many singers feature by Bleach ended up successful (to varying degrees) outside of anime, eg: Orange Range, UVERworld, YUI, sid, etc.

Versatile tone: Bleach was edgy, there’s no doubt about that. It was willing to show a lot of blood and bodily violence, especially in the manga (eg half of people blowing up and bits of bone still attached). Despite this though, it was not pretentious about its edginess — it didn’t revel in it. To contrast the edginess, there is a lot of humour in Bleach with character interactions. It was able to be laid back enough with its strong characters that it would rely on the characters’ relationships for comedic relief. The post-credit skits and the fillers really helped to add to this overall feel as well.

Maturity of the Story: Bleach was very willing to handle topics that made people think. For example, the Ulquiorra - Orihime subarc was treated with a sense of carefulness about it, as if to reflect Ulquiorra’s own cautious curiosity about the heart. A less emotionally mature story would’ve gone for the cheap rape/torture porn, but instead we are treated to determined strong Orihime, who has found strength through the heart after the death of her brother, clashing with the nihilistic hollow who wants to know if there is happiness outside of emptiness. It’s a very loaded question and one that requires both perspective and life experience to fully understand both parties. As well, Bleach always knew what it wanted to say about life and death as the final conflict of Bleach is between Ichigo, who has accepted his transient life and Yhwach, who is scared of death. And ultimately, underneath all that action, Bleach produced takes on its themes that were hard to relate to unless the reader themselves had a certain level of emotional maturity (eg: 12 year old me got nothing out of the Ulqui-Ori arc, but 20 year old me spent a good 10 mins crying after)

Strong characters: Contrary to popular belief, Bleach does have quite solid characterization. In fact, Bleach is the journey of Ichigo as a character, from grappling with his weakness and pain to finally accepting all the parts of himself and his history in order to defeat Yhwach and protect those he cares about. Even the secondary characters of Bleach receive a sizable amount of backstory and/or development. Bleach also managed to have more proactive female characters. Even the damsel in distress Orihime stands up to Ulquiorra and slaps him. As a result of these strong characters, Bleach was able to rely on them and their relationships to drive aspects of the story (eg Ichigo crying in the Fullbringer arc).

Willingness to Deal with Emotion: Given that Ichigo is an internally motivated character, it was obvious Bleach would deal with emotion at some point in time. Making Ichigo just a normal high school boy also relives the previous edginess. Bleach also clearly too the time to make its readers feel in its early years. We are treated to beautiful panelling and very real displays of strong negative emotions. Bleach is also very good at giving its characters room to breathe and be sad. Eg: moping Orihime, moping Ichigo, etc. As well, Kubo went to extraordinary lengths to break Ichigo down during the Fullbringers Arc.

Interesting Character Designs: Every character in Bleach feels vibrant and unique with their personality showing through in their designs. For example: Shunshi’s sloppily tied up hair, visible stubble, and overcoat-hidden-haori show that he is both easy going and not looking for a fight; meanwhile Byakuya’s neatly pulled back hair and neck covered by scarf show that he is both someone who likes structure and is conservative.

Poetry and Symbolism: Kubo manages to weave poetry into Bleach in the beginning of each volume. The poem was said by the character on the volume. It gave the reader insight to this character and it gave Kubo a chance to flex his poetic chops. Further proof of this is the fact that many people don’t realize that the name “Bleach” refers to the bleaching of soul that is key to the story. Kubo loves to use rain to set sad scenes. It rains when Ichigo fights Grand Fisher, Zangetsu tells Ichigo that he hates the rain, etc. Kubo also specifies that he wishes for the reader to read certain volumes on stormy, rainy nights.

Panelling: Many people like to criticize Kubo for the lack of effort with the Bleach manga, but Kubo has stated that he uses negative space (i.e., foregoing backgrounds) to focus more on his character’s expressions. This not only further proves that Bleach cares a lot about its characters, but it’s done well enough that the average reader likely doesn’t notice the lack of background on the first read through. As well, Bleach has very cinematic panelling. Kubo uses the format of manga well, utilizing the human mind’s ability to fill blanks in with clever panelling to create tone and build tension and the feeling of movement through a scene.

In fact, in finding pages for this analysis, I found myself noticing that Bleach panels very similarly to slice-of-life shoujo but with a boy MC manga like "Horimiya": focus on expression through intimate angles and use of panels and breaks to create mood and the feeling of cinema; whereas something like DBZ panels like a shounen action manga with many hard lines and action shots, instead of a focus on subtle details and emotions.

Some Examples:

Notice now in Chapter 197: The approaching danger, Kubo uses a gradual zoom to build tension and the black background to add intensity and signal to the reader that Hitsugaya is relaying important information.

Here in Chapter 234: Not Negotiation, the immediate close up to Ulquiorra’s eye from the full body shots creates a sense of intimidation and unease with its sudden intimacy. As well, the immediate zoom in from Ulquiorra’s side full body shot to his facial profile creates tension and the change from the dark background to the white face with Orihime releases this tension (very fitting with considering the line for this panel is “but not you”). (This scene also ties into Ulquiorra’s central dogma of “that which is not reflected in my eyes does not exist’.)

Again in the same chapter, this gradual zoom in on the two creates tension that is then release in the next panel and summarily cements Ulquiorra as a terrifying BAMF.

In Chapter 262: Unblendable, Kubo uses the negative space to create a feeling of isolation, similar to how Orihime is supposed to be feeling.

In the same chapter, notice how Kubo creates a sense of intimacy (not in the romance sense) with the relationship of Ulquiorra and Orihime. He creates tension gradually with the zooming into Orihime’s eye and releases it with the zoom out to Ulquiorra. Through this scene, Kubo has shown us that Ulquiorra and Orihime have a tense relationship and with the implication of eye contact through the shots and panel breaks creating both the intimacy and showing Orihime’s defiance.

(Interestingly, I’ve noticed that Ulquiorra and Orihime have a lot of these intimate zoom shot-reverse-shot eye panels)

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What are the Bad Parts of Bleach?

Okay, so by now, you’re probably thinking that I’m ignoring the massive amounts of critique that Bleach gets and don’t get me wrong, while Bleach does have a very special place in my heart, I’m also not maudlin enough to pretend that Bleach was all good.

Pacing:

Pacing in the First Half of Bleach (Karakura Town - Arrancar)

When Bleach first started out the pacing was excellent. Kubo showed great mastery of pace to control the tone and highlight the emotions throughout the first two arcs. Mid-way through the Arrancar arc, the fatigue sets in and it was hard to keep up with, especially since Kubo would interrupt one exciting fight set up to go set up more plot elsewhere (eg Fake Karakura town right as Ichigo and Ulquiorra were about to battle). Whilst looking back and reading it all at once does help with the pacing, it was frustrating if you were reading/watching on a weekly basis.

Pacing in the Anime:

I don’t ascribe to a simplistic belief of “fillers bad” simply because I think that sometimes fillers can be a good thing, for example, since every chapter is ~15-20pp, some character interactions have to be cut for the sake for space, so filler is a great opportunity to add those moments back into your story. For example, a lot of early Bleach fillers are just the people of Karakura town just hanging out. That being said, Bleach does have an unfortunate amount of fillers, with some of them even interrupting tense fights (eg the Beast Sword Arc interrupts Ichigo’s battle with Ulquiorra). However, the padding that the fillers provided did wonders for the transition between Soul Society to Arrancar Arc in the anime. Ultimately, the Bleach anime adaption was a long-running anime made for syndication and that’s okay.

******* Brief Aside: many people like(d?) to point out that Bleach has a very cyclical plot structure. I used to think this way too; however, this is not the case. There are many other long running stories that repeat similar goals. The problem lies not in the idea, but the execution. The main complaint about the Orihime rescue was not that it was uninteresting, but instead that it felt a rehash of the plot of the previous arc. This is largely because the story was not given enough time to breath between similar character arcs. For example, in One Piece, Luffy and Co have to save Nami and by extension, her home village so she can join them; however, the next time a Straw Hat needs to be saved is 227 chapters (2 whole story arcs) later. In between saving Rukia and Orihime, there is only a really an arrancar encounter, a bit of training, cheering up Ichigo, and a Grimmjow encounter before Orihime goes with Ulquiorra, thus making the goal of this arc “save Orihime” in only ~59 chapters vs 227. These two similar arc goals so close to each other does indeed create the sense of repetition.

Pacing from Fullbringer to End:

This is where Bleach really lost a lot of people. If you weren’t gone after the Ulquiorra fight, you probably were by this arc.This arc went at breakneck speed, and ngl, during my first full read through I almost gave up here too. I mention earlier that Ichigo had been broken down in this arc, but it was hard to feel his despair and the weight on his shoulders because there wasn’t enough for the reader to take a beat and breathe. The Thousand Year Blood War, similarly suffered from sloppy pacing, with many readers feeling like story lines of Squad 0 and the Soul King were anti-climactic. As well, this arc started with a massacre and feature the deaths of many fan-favourite characters, and unfortunately due to the pacing, their deaths were not given a sense of gravity.

Missed Opportunities and Forgotten Story lines: Many people felt that Kubo forgot about a lot of his characters after the Aizen arc. Many thought the Fullbringer Arc was going to be a Chad/Orihime Arc. Whatever happened to Uryuu lolol? We all just collectively forgot about him for a large portion of the last half of Bleach. At one point in time, there was a rumour going around that Kubo had written out the story for Bleach and lost it. Idk if there is any credibility to it. However, in a 2017 interview, Kubo did say that he did end the series exactly the way he wanted to.

(If anyone wants to see me write an entire ass text post about Orihime and her treatment in Bleach, please let me know because I will do it)

Too mature:Even though above, I praised Bleach's mature handle on its themes, an unfortunate side effect of this is forgetting that the characters are only 15 at the beginning and for the first half of Bleach. This unfortunately, leads to some readers feeling disconnected from Bleach.

Epilogue: THE DESTROYER OF SHIPS!!! A lot of people hated this ending. Many people felt like the romance was shoe-horned in, others didn’t like the pairings, and there were some people who actually liked it. Personally, I didn’t like it too much, but it was a cute conclusion nonetheless. Since it didn't add anything to the story except for a "where are they now" look and because of that, I low-key felt like it was unnecessary, but w/e.

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Perspective

Making a long-running weekly serialized story is hard and doing it for 15 years is gruelling (obligatory “fuck capitalism” here). Like many artists of long-running manga, Kubo destroyed his health for the sake of publishing Bleach weekly. Kubo on his health after Bleach (photo from AshitanoGin on Twitter):

Given this insight, I think it’s only fair to be respectful and grateful for Kubo’s contribution to the anime-sphere. Also, through his work, Kubo seems to be a very understanding person and artist. I’m sure he knows better than anyone where Bleach went wrong, but there’s nothing that can be done now. Despite him having a twitter, he is not Joanne and doesn’t feel the need to constantly hemorrhage out word of god info about Bleach (and thank god for that).

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Final Thoughts

It’s hard to forget my happy memories when I think about Bleach. It had my first adolescent crush and first OTP. As a result, I think the best way to enjoy Bleach is to take what you want out of it. People always think that something has to be 100% without flaw for it to be good, but that is not true at all. It is totally okay to just like the parts that you like without engaging with anything else. It’s special to you for a reason, you know?

There’s no use in fretting over what Bleach could’ve been, besides, very rarely is the reality better than the fantasy in your head.

I do think though that a lot of Kubo’s issues could’ve been fixed if he planned the story better but not all of us can be “I've been planning One Piece since elementary school” Oda Eiichiro.

Other voices on this issue: here

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Wow. I can’t believe you made it this far down. Congratulations! Thanks for reading my 2:30am non-sober take on Bleach (it only took me 7 hours to write). Here's a cookie <3

#bleach #pro bleach #analysis #writing #characters #ramblings #pro orihime #orihime #ichigo #ulquiorra cifer #hot take #quarantine thoughts #late night #weebshit #criticism #critique #anime review #manga #i'm still bleach

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totallyfrandom · 5 years

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I've recently watched the 2019 "The Lion King" movie online, and I'm glad I didn't pay to see it at the cinemas because it wouldn't be worth the ticket price. It was lame. (record-lengthy rant below; not really spoilers as it's basically the 1994 animated movie again with a few minor changes)

”The Lion King” from 1994 is one of my most favorite Disney animated classics from my childhood and I was interested at first when the remake was announced. I was impressed by the gorgeous realistic animation in the first previews and trailer, but the more I looked into the last trailer, the more concerned I was about one thing: the expressions. Their faces lacked emotions. My biggest concern was Timon who's the most expressive comic relief character, and Scar who is this mischievous character with a very wide range of sly expressions on his face showing his scheming. Will the scenes of emotions and comedy suffer from this realism?

So I didn't have great expectations of the movie when I started watching it but other than the impressive CGI, it's really telling if at the end of the movie I go ”Finally it's over!” which is in this case.

My concern was confirmed: the characters lack so much of the expressions and emotions, which was a huge sacrifice for the sake of realism. That was my biggest problem with the movie. Also, unlike ”Beauty and the Beast” remake and ”Maleficent” for example, it felt more like they only made this remake to cash in on people's nostalgia. It didn't fool me, I felt no nostalgia whatsoever. Just disappointment over how lame it felt.

Below are some scenes and character critiques that I particularly want to mention.

First up, Scar. I didn't like his voice. I'm not saying that Ejiofor did a bad job, it just doesn't fit his sly character. And just like the rest of the characters, the realistic animation sacrificed the facial expressions and emotions of Scar which was a huge part of his character. His voice didn't really replace that sacrifice. He didn't feel intimidating at all.

Speaking of intimidating, now we come to the hyenas. The only character who somewhat comes close to intimidating was Shenzi. She felt more of a threat than Scar was. I noticed two changes in this remake: one is the other two hyenas Banzai and Ed got a rename. Now they're called Kamari and Azizi. Ed, or now Azizi, even speaks and doesn't act as stupid and giggly as before. But none of them are any funnier, they've only become duller. None of their attempt of ”comedy” made me laugh, not even crack a smile. This change had no reasoning behind it (none that I know of) and feels pointless. I have no idea why they'd change two old fan favorites like that. But I do have to give some credit for the other change that was a bit more interesting – or it could just be my interpretation or simply a misunderstanding: Scar's alliance with the hyenas. In the original movie, Scar was portrayed as the leader of the hyenas from the start, even over Shenzi, but in this adaptation it seems more like Shenzi is the leader over the hyenas and Scar is the imposter who got them on his side because he promised them to enter the Pride Lands with food for the taking. Shenzi even dared to question Scar as if she challenged him (I would pay to see a cool backstory for remake-Shenzi instead of this movie). Shenzi is also the one who picked adult Nala as her opponent in the final fight for an actual reason. So yeah, Shenzi is good. But she didn’t save the movie, unfortunately.

While the hyenas weren't funny, the only character who are somewhat funny (despite the sad sacrifice of expressions for most comedic scenes) were Timon and Pumbaa. But I still have mixed feelings about them (which I'll mention below in the songs section) so they weren't my favorite characters in this movie, but more like they--along with Shenzi--were the better characters of the entire cast. At least the duo are the only ones that made me chuckle (which was my only close-to-laugh during the entire movie) and that was near the end of the movie. Not impressive when it took that long for me to laugh.

Then we have Rafiki. There are two things I'm bothered about this remake of him: he didn't have his iconic staff like in the original and I thought that maybe they removed the staff for the sake of realism (I would've expected that the staff would be gone anyway) but then near the end of the movie he pulls out his staff from the tree calling it ”old friend”. It feels like the staff was originally removed but then was forced in for the last scenes just as a nod to the fans, as it was a last-minute addition. That was my problem with the staff situation: first it wasn't there but then BAM! Rafiki brings it up calling it ”my old friend” as a last-minute nod to fans who'd hate to see it go, maybe to avoid a riot. It felt a bit tacky, Imo. But what made him into a less sympathetic character is that instead of mourning for the loss of his old friend Mufasa and the prince like in the original, he goes ”tsk-tsk-tsk”. Yeah, when my dad dies I'm gonna sit there during his funeral and go ”tsk-tsk-tsk”. Wtf Disney? I guess this is what they do instead of being able to show any emotions in the realistic animal faces.

I don't know what I can say about the other characters, even about the main protagonist Simba. They were just lame when they lacked the emotions and expressions that was part of the characters so I didn't feel any connection to them. They were just... there. Same name, same personality, but that's all. Even with James Earl Jones returning for voicing Mufasa didn't help (did Disney bring him back just to add to the nostalgic value hmm?), partly because I grew up with the Swedish dub so Mufasa's English voice didn't give the same impact to me as it may give to fans who grew with James Earl Jones as Mufasa.

As for scenes, we'll start with one with Rafiki and it was the most unnecessary and time-wasting scene I had to endure. I mean, I can't believe we have to watch an almost 3-minute long journey of a tuft from Simba's mane. It's the scene where Rafiki learns that Simba is still alive: Simba shakes his head, resulting in a small tuft of his mane gets loose and floats in the wind. But instead of a smooth transition and then within 15 seconds reach Rafiki like in the original, we see it be in various places and picked up by various animals that contributes to its progress, even being eaten by a giraffe before the scene fades to black... which is pointless when it just continues the journey but now we see the tuft in a ball of giraffe dung being rulled by a beetle. Eventually, which felt like ten long minutes, the tuft reaches Rafiki's tree with the help of an ant. It's almost like this prolonged scene is just there to fill more minutes of the movie. Also, that tuft of Simba's mane has been inside a giraffe and then pooped out, presumably smelling, and Rafiki was holding it so... ew.

Due to the realism in the animal faces which limits their expressions, there are a lot of emotional scenes that I used to love that lacks that emotion. No scene made me shed tears or fill me with a heavy heart, no scene made me feel that hope and warms my heart. A couple of examples:

The scene where Simba finds Mufasa’s body didn't give me any emotions, which is a disappointment as this is one of the saddest scenes in animation history. But I admit that JD McCrary who voices young Simba did a good job in delivering the sad voice and sounded legit like he was close to tears. That was the closest to real emotions in the film. Too bad the facial expression of the CGI lion cub didn't give what McCreary's performance deserves.

Another scene I find a lot of disappointed in was my favorite from the original movie; when adult Simba was talking to his father in the clouds. It always used to touch my heart because of how amazing it was with the music and the visualization in the sky and the emotions of awe in Simba' face. But this one was such a lackluster. It didn't move me in any way and I could barely see Mufasa (I guess his face appeared just with a blink of an eye a few times when lightning struck in the clouds but that was way too quick). They didn't even play one of my favorite instrumental music when Simba was running back to the Pride Lands. Sure, it's fine that they have at least one new song that wasn't in the original soundtrack before, but they did sacrifice such a motivational piece of music for it.

But the worst scene in the entire movie (if we don't count the songs) is when Scar betrays Mufasa and pushes him off the cliff. Instead of Mufasa saying "Scar! My brother! Help me!" with a pleading tone in his voice (this was a literal life and death situation), he just says "Scar! Help me!" as if it was an order. Then instead of whispering to his brother, Scar almost yells out "Long live the king!" before he literally bitch-slaps Mufasa so that he looses his grip. Why not shove him off like in the original movie when Scar was already digging his claws into Mufasa's paws like in the original movie? Also there was no zoom-in on the eyes of Mufasa when he realized the betrayal just before his death... but then again, those eyes would've been lifeless from expressions.

By the way, Scar is stupid when he's talking loudly about secrets, like before the final fight scene he gave away that he was responsible to Mufasa's death which convinced Sarabi of Simba's innocence despite Scar desperately tried to lie his way through. You really messed this up, Scar.

As for the songs in general, they were just... there. Only the opening song ”Circle of Life” is good enough for me. The rest both feel and sounded duller.

I was so disappointed in "I Just Can't Wait to be King". Due to the realism, there's no colorful background that complements the song and it feels bland (”Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and ”Hakuna Matata” suffers the similar thing). Even the song itself doesn't give any nostalgia to me. It looks kinda off to see realistic Simba sing, it's like an uncanny valley vibe. Again he lacks any expression, same with Zazu. When Timon sings ”Hakuna Matata” and ”The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with a wide-open mouth, it looks... odd. I don't see Timon singing, instead I see an animal screaming. For food or for help, either way works, but not singing.

However, the worst song in the entire movie was "Be Prepared" for so many reasons. One, I’ve already mentioned above that I think Scar's voice doesn't fit his character so his singing clearly can't top the original song (which is why I think it had to be changed a bit which I'll mention soon). Two, it doesn't have the dark and dramatic shadowing. Three, Scar's mischievous expressions are gone for the sake of realism so Scar just looks flat and awkward. Four, the song was changed and is now shorter so I was just sitting here getting confused of where it was going and thinking when the powerful chorus and the xylophone(?) instruments are gonna start and then you hear that final "Be Prepaaaaared!" from Scar before it zooms out without the echoing laughter of Scar and the hyenas, instead the last "Prepared" echoes before the scene fades to another scene. It just ends like that just as quick as the song started. Like, the heck was that? I get that they had to get rid of the army of hyenas marching, but this was just lame and lazy. This brings to the fifth reason: they just ruined one of the greatest Disney villain songs ever made. After watching the movie I've read that there was a rumor or concern that ”Be Prepared” wouldn't be in the movie. I'm kinda wishing it didn't make into the remake when they didn't even try making it look or sound great. Definitely not memorable.

...

This is just a half of everything I wanted to say about the movie, but I think I'll stop here after having said the more important bits that I wanted to rant about.

All in all, under all that gorgeous realistic CGI animation lies a lazy attempt at the remake with most scenes being shot-to-shot copies from the original, half-assed attempt at most songs when it comes to the visuals (or barely an attempt in ”Be Prepared”), lifeless expressions of the realistic animals and ruining the emotions of powerful and most memorable scenes just to cash in on people's nostalgia. Only Shenzi was the character who had some potential for something new and interesting but like I said, she didn’t save the movie for me.

At least they TRIED a lot more with ”Beauty and the Beast” remake and ”Maleficent” where they actually did good new changes that contributed more to the story. With ”The Lion King” remake they just upgraded it to look good but had to sacrifice the most important thing which is the expressions of colors and reactions in characters' faces. Even Beast's facial expressions had more emotions through all that makeup.

As for recommendation, if it wasn’t obvious enough I personally wouldn't recommend it. It's better to go back watching the 1994 animated classic instead of wasting time and money on it. Unless you’re a true nostalgic, then go ahead and enjoy it. I’m not judging anyone who likes or loves it. It was just personally a disappointment for me when it didn’t live up for my childhood favorite classic.

One final thing: you feel like reading my lengthy rant wasted your valuable time? That’s what it felt when I was watching the movie and finally came to the end, hence the “Finally it’s over!”.

#big kudos if you've read all the way to the end!#(honestly I don't think anyone has the time or patience; this is more like a script guide for a YouTube review <_<; )#(I just don't do YouTube reviews)#Char watches movies #personal

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opalgelance · 6 years

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HOLY FUCKING SHIT BATTLE OF HEART AND MIND WAS A LITERAL MIND FUCK

- WHITE DECOLORING GEMS

- THE DIAMOND FAMILY WAS REALLY FUCKED UP

- WHITE FUCKING BROKE STEVEN AND PINK LOST HER FUCKING MIND

- ROSE CAN NEVER COME BACK

- EVERY CRYSTAL GEM HAS A NEW OUTFIT I HAVE NO FAVORITE BECAUSE I LOVED THEM ALL

- EVERY CG + STEVEN FUSION WAS STUFFED IN HERE AS WELL AS MY TIED FOR FAVORITE WITH OPAL FUSION, OBSIDIAN

- FUCKING LAVA FUSION I LOVE HER SO MUCH THE CRACKS IN HER HAIR AND HER MAGMA SPIT THAT BECAME A FUCKING SWORD KILLED ME

- RAINBOW FEELS VERY FAMILIAR WHO VOICES THEM???

- SUNSHINE IS LEGIT A LOVE YOURSELF COMMERCIAL FROM THE 90S IN A CORPOREAL FORM

- FUCKING PINK STEVEN STILL SCARES THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF ME HOLY FUCK

- WHITE HAS A WHOLE CHARACTER ARC IN 5 MINUTES

- SO DO BLUE AND YELLOW

- JASPER NEVER FUCKING TALKS BUT

- WE SEE A WHOLE FUCK TON OF GEM DESIGNS INCLUDING JASPER, BIGGS, CENTIPEEDLE, THE BEETLES, THE PUFFERFISH, AND A LOT MORE

- IM STILL NOT OVER THE PINK STEVEN THING IT WILL LEGITAMaTELY HAUNT ME FOREVER

- EDIT: I forgot to add how mindblowing the animation is in the Pink Steven scene?!?! I was just so stunned by the scene itself that I didn’t mention that the lines are SO clean and crisp, and the animation literally looks 3D, and that seems to be because the legendary James Baxter did it, and from what I saw from his work on the Adventure Time episode, he’s an absolute master in the art of animation, and I feel like I’ve been blessed seeing that animation with my own damn eyes

Ok, now that I’ve calmed down a bit, I have to say it felt really REALLY rushed but I still enjoyed it a lot! I do have a few gripes with it though:

- I wish we could have seen Sunstone, Rainbow 2.0, and Obsidian before this, or at the very least seen Sun and Rainbow before, with Obsidian being this big stressful event because as we’ve seen 4+ Gem fusions like Alexandrite can be very hard to keep stable, and they had one chance to fuse and keep it together

- Steven said one sentence to Pink Pearl, and White didn’t recognize CG Pearl, which is really weird. Pink didn’t even react to Steven, or realize that he had Pink’s Gem. We don’t learn what happened to Pink Pearl either. Steven seems to already have connected that White’s Pearl was once Pink’s, and when talking to White, it seems like he is understanding what his Pink dreams really meant, which is weird bc it seemed like he didn’t understand that they were memories before.

- I felt like with the exception of the Pink Steven scene, the Diamond fight at the very beginning and the confrontation between all 4 Diamonds, it didn’t really feel like the characters were reacting as much as they should have? Like, it takes a second for Pearl to figure out that she and Steven fused, and her reaction is kind of cut off, but Garnet doesn’t really react to fusing with Steven? I also feel like Obsidian should have been a bigger deal to everyone, but it felt like Garnet was like “ok, lets form obsidian then” like they’ve done it a thousand times?? Yeah, they’ve fused with Rose before, but Steven? And Alexandrite has always been a big deal, since she’s so unstable, while on multiple occasions in season 1 the Gems were pretty clear that fusion was for emergencies only. Obsidian is literally a White Diamond only level emergency, but while it was a big deal for the audience, the CGs (including Connie, Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot) weren’t as shocked by this as I would have thought? Peridot says “they’re huge!” or smth like that, but not much else. For me it was really frustrating when Blue and Yellow, and ESPECIALLY Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl, were drained of their color, it felt like it SHOULD have been a Keeping It Together level of horror, but it wasn’t on the characters’ faces, which was disappointing. It took me out of the action on my first viewing because it looked like the CGs weren’t that bothered by it. WHITE IS LITERALLY MIND CONTROLLING THE DIAMONDS AND YOUR FAMILY STEVEN WHAT THE FUCK I have to say that the Pink Steven scene was legitimately disturbing, and I applaud the storyboarders for that, I just wish it could’ve continued throughout all of the horrifying scenes.

- Steven didn’t tell anyone about his Gem being ripped out, possibly because there wasn’t any time left in the episode, and that was really weird to me. Like, you got HALF OF YOUR SOUL RIPPED OUT STEVEN. Like, White and Connie HAD to have said something, right? Was it just not shown?

- That brings me to how ridiculously rushed the ending was, because here’s what happens in the last 5 or so minutes (seriously, I’m looking at the time the ending starts)

- Steven gets home while Sadie’s having a concert on the beach

- WITH THE FUCKING DIAMONDS

- Lars also gets home with the Off Colors

- Sadie and Lars say hi for an awkward amount of screentime

- THE DIAMONDS HEAL THE CORRUPTED GEMS INCLUDING JASPER, CENTIPEEDLE AND A LOT OF THE GEMS WE’VE SEEN OVER THE SERIES AND THERES NO DIALOGUE BC STEVEN IS SINGING A SONG OVER THIS WHOLE PART

- The Diamonds leave, seriously, after less than a minute of screentime on Earth

- The CGs are on the beach, with NO recently cured corrupted Gems to be seen, and it’s kind of like the theme song, with Greg grilling hot dogs, and the CGs sit on the beach with Steven (just Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl now) and Steven sings a song. The End.

It just felt really rushed? So were the Diamonds’ “redemptions”, but this was insane. Every plot line in the whole series is supposed to be solved in 5 minutes? I mean, there’s a lot left unanswered, but it felt like they were trying to tie everything up with a nice bow, and it was rushed. Also, you know how everyone said that the Gem designs at the ball were lazy and that we only saw a few new Gem types because the crew didn’t have time to design new Gems? (I personally really liked the cog Gems bc I love gear designs but I know a lot of people didn’t like them and that’s valid) BULLSHIT LOOK AT ALL OF THE UNCORRUPTED GEM DESIGNS THEY LOOK AWESOME. But why could they not have done that before? They designed at least 10 new Gems for a minute or two long scene. Yeah, they were based on the already done corrupted Gem designs, but that’s fine! We could have easily seen Ocean and Biggs Jaspers at the ball, or even at the Zoo, in a flashback (like We’re Only Falling Apart, the war scene in Single Pale Rose, Your Mother and Mine), the ending of Legs From Here to Homeworld, but we didn’t, and I can’t understand why. Now it’s strange that we didn’t see any uncorrupted counterparts on Homeworld. What, is every single corrupted Gem part of a super rare Gem type? Yes, we’ve SEEN Jaspers before, and we HEARD about Nephrites, but even at the start of this episode we had some cool silhouettes of Gems, just like in The Answer, and they were never fleshed out into actual Gems. It’s just kind of strange that they had all of these templates but never used them. Plenty of fans have used the silhouettes and corrupted Gem designs to make Gemsonas, but the crew couldn’t? Just paste the color palette of Biggs or Ocean onto a Jasper base and you’re good! That’s essentially what happened this episode but I STILL LOVE THEM SO MUCH I will protect Ocean, the Beetle, the Centipeedles and the waterbear Gem with my life, BUT they could have appeared MUCH sooner as background Homeworld Gems

- EDIT: Since I’m always criticizing the animation and character models, I feel like I have to note how impressed I am with a majority of the animation in this episode. I felt like during the Blue vs. Yellow scene in particular though, Yellow’s expressions felt... odd. LET ME EXPLAIN FIRST PLEASE. See, for me, while I don’t like exaggerated facial expressions most of the time, I can get past them as long as it’s for comedy relief or to express raw emotion. The problem for me was that Yellow’s expressions were drawn as if she was supposed to be in a comedic scene instead of a heartwrenching, emotional outbreak uncharacteristic of Yellow, where you are supposed to feel with her, to feel her pain. But for me, it felt like she was pulling faces like she was trying to make a crying baby laugh, and I felt like Patti Lupone’s expressive, heart-wrenching voice acting didn’t match up with what I was seeing on the screen.

- As I said above, James Baxter’s Pink Steven animation slayed me, I’m still dying haaa

- OBSIDIAN WAS THE BOMB/COM THO her hair is so amazingly detailed, it had to be hard to animate that.

- Most of the lines were crisp. One of my main criticisms is how starting in season 3, while the animation and art quality went down, both were hindered further by the blurry lines, which I KNOW is because they resized the art. When I’m resizing an arm, or the head when it’s out of proportion, the resized lines become blurry whether you’re shrinking or expanding a section of a piece. But in this episode the lines were pretty crisp for probably 80% percent of the episode? And I’m counting all 44 minutes, and considering how bad it usually is, I’m very pleased.

tl;dr I LOVE THESE EPISODES TO HOMEWORLD AND BACK but there are a few issues I just can’t see past and some of these issues just threw me out of a great episode to ask myself why??? But also I’ve rekindled my love for Steven Universe and FOR ONCE I can see past some of the bad character models and animation because this episode was just so good!!!

#battle of heart and mind #steven universe spoilers #su critical #not all of it but some of it #I’m so nervous to post SU critical but I have a bunch of positives too so please don’t kill me with fire??

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smilingperformer · 6 years

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SM077 - Thoughts

The end of Ula Ula Arc is here. It’s time for Satoshi to face the Grand Trial against Kuchinashi, the Dark Type Specialist!

I kinda realised I never mention episode titles in these posts, so starting today, I’ll write them down! It’s actually something that I want to talk about later during this post. So, time for the 77th episode of Pocket Monsters Sun & Moon: Kuchinashi’s Grand Trial! Lugarugan Awakens!!

We’re first shown Acerola taking some gifts to Kapu Bulul’s altair, while she wonders if Kuchinashi would be there doing his duty as well. Well, we’re not shown him to be there, but...

The bowl with flowers if left there as a gift by Kuchinashi. Acerola brought in the bowl of food. Acerola then finds Kuchinashi in the Battle Field, and says how he’s like a different man, having done his actual Kahuna duties. Kuchinashi just seems to imply he wanted to get it over with asap. Heh. The sunrise they’re looking at after the conversation (first screencap!) is so beautiful.

I must say, I like how each Grand Trial starts with the Kahuna/Island King/Queen going to pray at their specific Island Deity Altairs. It shows nice lore consistensy, and how it is Kahuna’s duty to follow specific traditions when starting out a Grand Trial. The Lore Nerd in me is pleased!

What’s also interesting about the first 2 mins of the episode is that they specifically show Satoshi putting the Rock-Z crystal on Z-ring. This immediately made me think of this as a small foreshadowing of Lugarugan-Z. I think it may have been an intentional choice from the storyboarding team!

Satoshi arrives at the battlegrounds, and Kuchinashi starts the opening speech to Kapu Bulul. Honestly, I find his pray monologue very interesting.

Y’know, if I understand this dialogue correctly (I’m not native so I might understand it wrong), it’s actually a foreshadowing of Lugarugan’s role in the episode. It really fits the Dusk form specifically, that has the righteous heart of Midday form, and malicious heart of Midnight form. And when the two hearts blend together perfectly, one becomes more powerful. At least, that’s how I intepret this dialogue. Quite interesting.

It could be seen as a description of Kuchinashi as well. I mean. We’ve been shown how savage he is, while also a caring person, towards Acerola specifically. And if we consider some of the future events, it kind of describes Satoshi as well! It’s like, that prayer briefly explains the theme of the episode!

Kuchinashi tells the rules of the Grand Trial after the prayer, which is defeating three of his pokemon with just one of Satoshi’s! Even Rotom calls him out on the rules being unfair, and judging from his body language and face expressions, he expected Satoshi to give up. He clearly doesn’t want to battle the boy. Rude. Well, Satoshi consults Lugarugan about this, and they decide to take the challenge. Kuchinashi of course is suprised. :D Well then, time for the battle, round 1!

And it’s up against the opponent from SM074, Waruvial. Again, its ability Intimidate is activating, and while last time it caused Lugarugan to get intimidated, it doesn’t this time around! The doggo has grown! I really like the animation on Satoshi’s hair here, I’m not sure what it is, it just looks really nice ;v; Anyways. Battle analysing is not my expertise, so I’ll skip ahead to important bits of the fights.

Waruvial tries the same tactic as last time, using Sand Tomb with Mud Slap. While it initially is working the same way, something is different.

Lugarugan actually changes the color of it’s eyes during this, and Satoshi is shown worried. However, the moment Lugarugan gets out of the tomb, thanks to apparent increased power...

It’s eyes slowly turn back to normal.

Kuchinashi actually notices this, and I think this is where he’s starting to realise that wait, it’s probably controlling the mode now. He is the Island King, he’s kind of smart on analysing pokemon. Or so I’d imagine. Satoshi is sighing with relief, and Acerola notes that the training with Kapu Bulul paid off. And I agree! Lugarugan is shown only slightly more angry during this mode, but the fact that it wasn’t consumed by anger already says that it’s actually in control. Well, Satoshi hasn’t realised it yet. : D

Anyway, as battle continues, with Kuchinashi trying to intimidate Satoshi himself with bait words, Satoshi commands Accelrock. Or does he?

Before he could finish, he remembers Waruvial’s Counter, and it’s clear that he’s actually scared of facing it again. I mean, I get why, it was a very scary experience. We’re actually shown a quick flashback of the move, and how devastating it felt.

The way he changes the move based on his feelings is kinda interesting. I wonder when was the last time he was that scared of facing a certain move? He’s not showing that optimistic side of him right now. And that’s quite human. Thou, the fact that he keeps on commanding Rock Throw here is kind of... odd. Some people have pointed this out, but he somewhat forgot Stone Edge exists. Althou it kind of works to his advantage later on. Anyway, this behaviour is normal for a human being, since when your thoughts start running with trying to avoid fear, you don’t think too well, and well, not having clear thoughts while figuring out battle strats is bound to cause some ‘memory loss’. It’s kind of why I’m not bothered by him forgetting about Stone Edge at this stage.

Hell, when Kuchinashi calls him out on this, being the savage guy he is, you can see it actually sort of gets into Satoshi. Kuchinashi is analysing him during the battle. I think Gym leaders did this alot? It’s about helping the challenger grow, so even if he is shown as savage, it’s kind of what he’s supposed to do as well.

Hell, even when he tells Satoshi that he and Lugarugan don’t have the guts to face Counter head-on, and how battles are about putting the moves at each other on full power, Satoshi is sort of flinching there. Althou, he also takes note with the words, because after Lugarugan makes noices at Satoshi, sort of like telling him that he can face it this time, Satoshi get’s his optimistic side back on again!

Kuchinashi of course answers to this with Counter, but oh boy does the following taste so sweet!

Lugarugan actually defeats Counter with its speed, causing Kuchinashi’s focus to falter. One Rock Throw later, Waruvial is out of it! Round one of Grand Trial, complete!

Well, Kuchinashi ends up congratulating Lugarugan, which Satoshi thought was for them both. That reaction is so funny. However, Satoshi thanks Kuchinashi anyway, because if it wasn’t for Kuchinashi’s words earlier, he wouldn’t have faced Counter head-on. Well. Apparently what Kuchinashi was saying was actually him trying to lure Satoshi into Counter by any means, and he even straightup said that he thought lying would be a good strat. Let me just do a count of the total times this man has lied to anyone during Ula Ula Arc: To Rocket Gang, to Satoshi, to Junsa, to Sakaki, to Rocket Gang again, and now this. Kids, don’t learn from this man, he’s the worst. Thou as a character, he’s absolutely amazing and well written for a Pokemon character! Totally loving how they managed to make his comedic part about lying, while still staying very convincing as a Dark-Type Specialist with savage personality. Very well done.

Also idk why, but when Acerola does sort of an awkward sounding laughter here, telling Kuchinashi to call out the next Pokemon, Satoshi’s face in the background is sort of funny to me. I really don’t know why!

Next battle is against Yamirami, and I have actually never seen Yamirami used in a battle before this! And I think this episode also debuted the move Shadow Sneak, and it looks so cool in Pokeani! I’ve used it couple of times in Ultra Moon/Moon, so I knew what to expect, but it still looks nice!

The spookiest part is when Yamirami uses a combo of Mean Look (which somehow also roots the target... I don’t think that’s what it does in the games? :D Then again I have no idea how root moves works in the games, never used such moves) and a flurry of Shadow Sneak. Lugarugan is in bad trouble here.

But the most important part here is the fact that the Red Eyes activate again, and the moment Satoshi sees this, he shouts at Lugarugan to calm down. Satoshi really is scared of this mode. I would dare to say that considering the past experience, it’s probably scarier than Hikozaru/Goukazaru’s uncontrollable Blaze. Satoshi tells Lugarugan to calm down and dodge the Shadow Claw move, but hey...

Kuchinashi actually tells Satoshi that it doesn’t need to calm down, it is actually dodging the move already. He’s also finally explaining to Satoshi that Lugarugan’s power actually increasing during the Red Eyes mode, when it’s just a bit more angry. Note thou, Kuchinashi didn’t use the word a bit, just angry. : D When Satoshi says that whenever Lugarugan gets angry, it stops listening to Satoshi, Kuchinashi actually drops a hint to Satoshi.

He doesn’t seem to understand it thou, and before he can ask, Kuchinashi takes the opportunity and orders another attack. Y’know, it’s already clear that Kuchinashi’s battle style involves getting under the Challenger’s skin and getting them unfocused. Satoshi is still somewhat able to stay focused, thou he’s quickly trying to think of a move that would work with a rooted Pokemon, and then it hits him!

Kuchinashi’s face is gold! He didn’t know Lugarugan has Stone Edge, he thought he’d win now for sure! I mean, last time they fought, there was 3 close range moves instead of just 2. Now there’s 2 close-range, 2 long-range! He did not count in the possibility of Lugarugan learning a new long-range one! This K.Os Yamirami, and Satoshi & Lugarugan are now one round closer to victory!

Lugarugan shakes of the Mean Look and Red Eyes, and is shown really tired. No wonder, this round was physically tiring for it, being under attack for so long with no way to attack back!

Meanwhile Bebenom is busy playing with Pikachu. XD

Well, next happens the scene I talked about earlier in another post, where Kapu Bulul comes and gives Lugarugan an Obon Berry to restore its energy! Apparently Kuchinashi can’t deny Island Deity’s will on the matter so, Lugarugan gains its energy back to normal and is ready to face the final round!

Final round is against Alolan Persian (why of course, it’s Kuchinashi’s Ace!) and Rotom points out how it’s big like a Totem Pokemon. That’s actually an interesting detail.

The Second half of this episode is sooo good, as in, lots of dialogue that really fleshes out why Kuchinashi is a Dark Type user. I’ll try to not put out the whole dialogue here, because lots of it is so good, but like, damn.

After Satoshi makes a first hit at Alolan Persian, Kuchinashi compliments Satoshi on training the doggo well, but then claims how Lugarugan could have done it without him as well, and how he’s not really needed. This right here is playing on mental ground. Dirty as hell. Satoshi’s face when Kuchinashi does the claim is not a happy one. Also, Kuchinashi keeps on taunting him, and we actually gradually see Satoshi getting more and more taunted by it, actually not focusing on the battle anymore! The Geezer continues on, and when he says the following line:

That really triggered a button in Satoshi! We know how he values friendship when training Pokemon. His style as a trainer is being mentally challenged here!

Oh boy did Kuchinashi push the right button with this line, because Satoshi really gets mad about that line. And because of it, Kuchinashi actually manages to make a quick call for Alolan Persian to attack! And it hits!

I know Rotom! It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen Satoshi so angry at a non-villain! And for him to get so distracted from battle could be said to be a rookie mistake, but considering how this is actually mostly a mental battle, it really wasn’t. He hasn’t been against a savage trainer like Kuchinashi before! It’s probably why I actually sort of like this battle after understanding the dialogue. While the animation is definitely not same level as last week during battles, it’s clear to me this episode focuses more on the mental game than battling itself. Intriquing choice!

Actually, the following scene is interesting, because you could intepret it in few ways. Kuchinashi’s ordering Alolan Persian to use Dark Pulse constantly.

...Oh fuck!

This was his goal with his tactics all along!

...Will it? : D When Satoshi calls Kuchinashi out on his plan for making Lugarugan angry...

...I actually think he’s lying here. Why? Because he noticed earlier that Lugarugan can indeed control the mode. But he also noticed that Satoshi hasn’t realised it yet. So while he’s using this to get under Satoshi’s skin, he’s also trying to teach the boy about the true power behind the Red eyes! He’s secretly educating Satoshi! But Satoshi is too angry himself to realise it, and focuses too much on telling Lugarugan to calm down, when it really doesn’t need to!

Just look at Satoshi getting angry at these words! My reaction is a constant Holy Shit.

This really triggers Satoshi even more, and Kuchinashi gets another chance to attack an unfocused Challenger. God damn it. Satoshi calls him out on doing such distraction as unfair, but what does Kuchinashi say?

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Whoever worked on ‘translating’ Kuchinashi’s character to Pokeani’s style, well done mate! It’s so well done, it fits him so well, and he’s self-aware! I’m clapping my hands here!

That face Satoshi makes is heartbreaking! But the thing is, the moment itself isn’t! But this shows that Satoshi is still scared and unknowing of the power behind Lugarugan’s Red Eyes. And now I’m gonna applaud at Lugarugan, because hoo boy.

Lugarugan tackles Satoshi! And hard! He flies a long long way off the battle arena. Everyone is actually suprised about this, even Kuchinashi! But after this? The scene becomes so sweet!

Satoshi finally realises it ;v; Finally! Staring at a standing, Red-eyed Lugarugan made him finally notice that wait, Lugarugan is actually in control of itself, and is hearing Satoshi’s voice clear and loud! Also how its power level actually increases! (Must have realised it by getting hit so hard :D) And he’s the most calm he’s been in the whole episode now!

Such a calm voice when he says this ;v;

You certainly did! And let this be a lesson :) He actually got some new character progression in this episode, didn’t he now? Someone more knowledgable can pitch in on this. But this is honestly beautiful for Satoshi’s character and that’s why this episode works so much better when you understand the dialogue fully!

Man I love it when Lugarugan does the signature “I like you so I’ll rub you with my stone collar“ thing ;v; And it makes the scene extra sweet. Awwwwww I love this doggo so much.

With the Red-Eye mode mastered! Nice nice! This looks really cool! And I’ll mention it now, the Red-Eye mode is sort of like Dusk form’s inner Midnight heart surfacing! Very much liking how this mode’s learning arc ended up going!

Battle against Alolan Persian continues, and Lugarugan finally learns Counter! Which is Midnight Form’s signature move, so this is like the ultimate reward for being in control of that side of the Dusk Form! Excellent!

And now’s the time for Kuchinashi’s version of Black Hole Eclipse! While the animation is kind of boring here compared to how it was done with Rocket Gang, it could be intentional? I mean, even in the games Kuchinashi looks bored while doing it, and not really doing it with the spirit.

That face is something else, wow.

Ok, time out, he turned his back on the move? Some people are saying this being like, he’s too cool to look at the z-move, but... I see this as a reference to how he teaches the pose to the player in the games. Remember? He shows the move, then turns his back on us. It’s a clear reference to it, and I’m glad they managed to make it part of him actually doing the Z-move. : D

Well. Satoshi now knows what Dark-Z move looks like. Rocket Gang has no chance of suprising him with another Z-move lol.

!!!!

OH MY GOD THEY’RE PLAYING MEZASE POKEMON MASTER!!!! The song made the scene so god damn epic and oh my lord, answering Z-move with a Z-move! AMAZING!!! Rica’s voice is amazing here as well!

And seeing the Red-Eyed Lugarugan in this sis so god damn cool!

The “Battle“ of two Z-moves is something you cannot do in the games and I’m so glad Pokeani explores that possibility!

While I would love to see Satoshi lose to a Z-move at least once (he really hasn’t), this was too cool to be mad about.

Even Kuchinashi is surprised! Take that!

And Alolan Persian is out of the battle! Satoshi wins his third Grand Trial!

Congratulations! That was a great battle, esp. after you realise how mental it was! It’s nice to see some mental game in Pokeani, that’s rare! And Kuchinashi did his duty on educating the Challenger, even if he possibly didn’t fully intend it.

He can finally stop being bothered by Satoshi! XD Time for Satoshi to get the reward, which is Dark-Z crystal!

Just kidding! What he instead gets as a reward...!

Is Lugarugan-Z! The foreshadowing worked. Satoshi now has access to Lugarugan’s own Z-move, Splintered Stormshards, or as it seems to be in japanese... Radial Edgestorm! Quite the name : D

Also, this scene is actually quite the upgrade from earlier Z-crystal Getto Daze shots. Could be they wanted to update it since it’s been so long since the last time!

Another Grand Trial theme seems to really be the fact that Island Deities are always watching over them. Makes me curious on how Tapu Fini/Kapu Rehire will be showcasing itself more properly.

YES DO!

A MILLION TIMES AGREED! It’s time to say goodbye to Acerola and Kuchinashi for now, and I’m so sad ;A; I want Acerola to be explored more, since right now she acted more as a guide and judge. She had excellent characterisation in SM073 and SM074! I want to know more about Gengar! Mimi-tan! The relationship between Sakaki and Kuchinashi-. Oh. That has nothing to do with Acerola. Krhm anyway I really do.

This scene is lovely in a way that it actually caused Kuchinashi to not focus on Kendama. He really does listen to Acerola well, huh?

...that’s actually true, he did seem to somewhat enjoy it! Especially on mental stage!

That says a lot about Satoshi, now doesn’t it?

The end of the episode! (Or well, there’s still Satoshi saying the usual “Let’s get Stronger for the next Grand Trial” speech but I like this shot as the finish!) Overall, while the animation in the battles itself wasn’t as good as say, last week, the animations on character emotions and such were darn good and beautiful to look at! And seeing the subtitles made me appreciate the episode way more than I initially thought of it! Shows how dialogue can make a huge difference in one’s opinion!

Edit: Forgot to talk about the title! I feel like it was bit of a miss, because Lugarugan had kind of already awakened the power within, it was more on Satoshi not realising this! Bit weird, but maybe it’s just me and my non-native english skills making the title hard to understand with the contexts of episode itself. Anyway. Otherwise good episode.

Poke-problem shows us Satoshi asking about the Lugarugan-Z move, and for some reason Rotom is trying to teach it the move, when it’s the same as Rock-Z pose? XD Silly Rotom. Don’t confuse Satoshi.

Next week, we have not one, but two Ultra Beasts appearing at the same time! Blacephalon/Zugadoon and Xurkitree/Denjyumoku. And it looks to have both comedy effect and some seriousness involved, since the two UBs are actually battling each other! Oh boy!

SM078 - Ultra Beast Clash! Operation Boom Boom Crackle!

Cya all next week! And sorry for this extra long post, holy god damn there was lots to talk about!

#aleira watches sumo #pokemon #pokeani #pokemon sumo #ula ula arc #ub arc #sm077 #jesus why are these posts so long #xddd #why do ula ula arc episodes have so much to talk about #long post #under the cut!

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annadesu · 7 years

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Voicing the Gems - Steven Universe Podcast Summary

Voicing the Gems with Rebecca Sugar, Deedee Magno Hall, Michaela Dietz, Shelby Rabara, and Jennifer Paz

(For those of you without itunes, lol) Go listen to the podcast on itunes, if you can! It’s very interesting... and FREE!

Apparently Michaela scared Deedee when she entered the room for the podcast. (There’s an instagram vid of it floating around)

Michaela did voice overs in the past, but SU was her first "cartoon". Deedee also did a small amount of voice over work (Princess and the Pea), but it was so long ago she can't even remember it. She would like to hear it again. She did do film and TV, though.

They like the fact that they don't have to memorize lines. They are very active while doing their lines in the booth. Deedee thinks she "messes up" a lot, even though she actually doesn't.

Rebecca doesn't really have "voices" when giving line direction, but Ken tries to sound like everyone (his Pearl sounds like a donkey trying to sound like Pearl). Deedee knew that Pearl was "maternal" from her original character description, and was excited about that because she has two kids of her own and could relate to it.

Michaela thought Amethyst was comedy relief at first, but once she was told to "tone it down" and be more "chill" in the booth, that changed. Amethyst has developed so much over the course of the show, and experienced so many different layers of emotion, Michaela is very proud to voice her.

Michaela and Deedee recorded "On the Run" together, and were moved by the fighting scene (especially when watching the episode later after it was completed).

They love how the show can be deep, and serious, but also very funny. They love the art style for it, and the music. When they do the voices in the booth it's just one element. Seeing it later with all the visuals adds a lot of context. Sometimes the drawings change because of how the lines are voiced, and vise versa.

Deedee started out more calm, but over time her voice and lines became "bigger" to match Pearl's emotions and personality. She's pleasantly surprised at how deep the show has become. She plays the show’s music in her house, and everyone sings it.

Michaela thinks the personalities have grown and changed over time. Once Deedee started showing her more comedic side in the booth, that started showing up more in Pearl’s character. The same goes for Amethyst. They sort of take from the actors, and add on to what's already there in the characters, and they grow as a result.

Michaela joked about her mom saying "boodles" of fun at some point, so Pearl ended up saying that in the show after Rebecca added it.

Zach use to stand in front of the mic, and put his arms out like he was trying to raise the roof. It was “helpful to his process”. Deedee does a lot of exaggerated facial expressions while doing her lines, and Ken laughs at her behind the booth.

Michaela doesn't think she's much of a singer, she's more into "beats". She gets really nervous when she has to sing. She gets to watch Estelle and Deedee sing live, and she likes to soak in their talent.

For Deedee, one of her favorite parts of the show is the music. She loves listening to Rebecca sing the demos, and Michaela says she has a playlist of them.

~~~~~

Rebecca is very involved with voice recording, and casting. It's ideal for them to have everyone in the booth at the same time. However, Estelle and Deedee are on tour sometimes, and it’s not always possible.

"Hit the Diamond" was the first time everyone (including the voices of Ruby/Sapphire) were together. Charlyne (Ruby) was also voicing the entire Ruby squad at the time, so everyone got to witness it.

The first time they did a scene with Yellow Pearl, Deedee was told she was a lot more like a secretary than CG Pearl. Blue Pearl is a lot more quiet, and fragile. They wanted them to contrast to each other.

At first, Rebecca was more interested in how a character's personality was, and the voice came afterwards. She would have drawings with her during auditions, and was looking for someone that matched the drawings. She was very open to different voices.

Everyone needed to be able to sing. She went to the musical theater world because they could also act in a wide variety of emotions, as well as sing.

Jennifer (Lapis) was almost Amethyst at first, and Shelby (Peridot) was almost Garnet. Early thoughts for Garnet were that she was very "smooth" and "controlled". Shelby's early reads for Peridot were like that too, but higher pitched. Erica Lutrelle was also considered for Garnet, but she ended up being PART of Garnet (Sapphire).

Rebecca had everyone sing the intro song at their audition, but Jennifer also sent her a demo of a Bruno Mars song.

Zack Callison was one of the first auditions for Steven, and Rebecca thought he was perfect right off the bat.

When looking for Pearl's voice, Rebecca was looking for someone who could "crack" easy, and sound neurotic. She thought it would be hard to cast Pearl, but when they found Deedee she was immediately done looking.

In the pilot, Pearl wasn't particularly maternal. Deedee was very maternal, and that influenced Pearl's character development in the final show. Michaela's personality has very much influenced Amethyst, as well. Estelle and Zach have influenced their characters even more so. Steven's maturity over time, and emotional intelligence, is taken a lot from Zach.

Zach is studying Italian, so in "Steven and the Stevens" he spoke a little Italian. Grace (Connie) knows Japanese, so Connie says a little Japanese in one episode because of that.

Rebecca tries to stay open to how a character can sound, even if it's not something she imagined herself initially (especially with new people/casting).

~~~

Jennifer's background before SU was musical theatre. She did a little voice over work, but SU was her first big role. Shelby was a professional dancer in TV and movies, and is still currently an actor. SU was her first voice over work ever. Shelby found out she got the role of Peridot while cooking lunch with her friend. She put the phone on mute, grabbed her friend, and started jumping up and down.

Jennifer found out she got the role while in Chicago, while feeding her newborn son, and described it as being a "blur".

Jennifer tried to sound more "gruff" while auditioning for Amethyst, but it hurt her voice. Lapis was more natural and organic to her.

Shelby auditioned for many characters, including Stevonnie. She liked seeing the drawings of the characters during her auditions. When she got to Peridot's audition, she seemed very cold and stern in the pictures. She thought she was a drill Sargent/solider. Shelby has loved watching Peridot's development over-time.

Jennifer's audition for Lapis was very "angry" and "intense", and she was pretty nervous at the time. She also loves seeing how Lapis changed over time.

"She controls water, but her sense of humor is very dry".

Jen has loved watching her find her way, and find trust with the other characters. She gets to relax a bit, for now.

Shelby re-watched "Message Recieved" recently. There's a part where Steven kind of touches/bear hugs Peridot, and Shelby realized that it was this kind of contact that really changed Peridot in the end. She had never noticed that connection before re-watching it.

Jennifer is physical in the booth, slapping her hand during intense scenes, and things like that. Shelby is the same. She had to learn to back up from the microphone a little bit, because her readings of Peridot are very loud. It was like shouting directly in someone's ear, so she had to remind herself not to do that.

The staff was already pretty established when Jennifer came into the picture, so she kind of felt a lot like Lapis (outside looking in). But now she's more comfortable with everyone. When Jennifer came back to voice after a couple months, she was shocked to see that Peridot had shrunk in size and demanded to know what she missed.

Shelby was nervous when she first started doing Peridot’s lines, but everyone was very welcoming. She is very hard on herself while recording in the booth.

Both Shelby and Jen kick themselves after recording, thinking they could have done things differently. However, they have learned to trust Rebecca and the others when they tell them "That's great".

#su #steven universe #steven universe podcast #su podcast #fandom

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jewishaxelwalker · 7 years

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Axel Walker, as a character, is a real mess. As he was pretty much only written by one person prior to 2011, and that one person was Geoff Johns, it’s no real wonder why. My complaints regarding every book Geoff Johns has ever worked on could fill a book roughly the size of the bible, but that’s neither here nor there right now.

Of all the new villains Johns created during his underwhelming run on the Flash, Axel is the one that’s lasted longest. Hunter Zoloman’s Zoom is a close second, but all bets were off with that guy once Johns was given the go-ahead to bring back Eobard Thawne, who hasn’t gone the hell away since 2009. But despite showing up regularly throughout his Flash run, making an appearance in his Teen Titans run, and just generally existing in Rogues’ Revenge, Blackest Night: The Flash, and the Brightest Day Flash series, Geoff Johns never actually bothered to give this kid a personality. No, really.

Axel has personality traits, most prevalent among them being annoying and young, but seeing as Johns was pushing 30 when he created Axel...the “youth” aspect of the character seemed overly exaggerated. For instance, here’s the panel that gives us the best guess as to how old he is:

“Dropped out of high school a few years ago” is a real shitty timeline. How many years is a few? Did he drop out as a freshman, a junior? Between how damn small he is (DC Encyclopedia cites him as being 5′7″, but I’ll eat my hat if he’s over 5′2″), the rest of the Rogues referring to him as “kid” all the time, and the way he kept being set up as one of Bart’s villains in the short time he was Kid Flash, I feel like we’re supposed to think of Axel as 16 or 17. However, Axel is shown being sent to Iron Heights on multiple occasions. That’s big boy prison, not a juvenile detention facility. So it’s entirely possible he’s 18 or 19. But we will never know.

So okay, back to those character traits. Early on, it was established that in addition to being young and annoying, Axel was also highly inventive, having created a bunch of tricks and gags that James Jesse, his predecessor, hadn’t used. He also utilized modern technology in a way that only someone written by a 30+ year old in 2005 could:

Is this even possible? I know about as much about computers as the next Amish person, that is to say, next to nothing, so I can’t tell you. But it’s possible according to Comic Book Hacking!

Anyway, when he first hit the scene, Axel was working with Blacksmith’s new Rogues. That didn’t last long, and he eventually jumped ship with Mark and Evan, who vouched for him with Len for whatever reason, and then Axel was a true and proper Rogue.

And here’s where it all goes a bit hinky.

During Crossfire (183-188 if you want exact issues), Axel had a glossy sheen of “golly, gee whiz!” about him. He was new to this whole villainy thing, eager to prove himself, and ready and willing to cause some chaos. Chaotic Neutral, if you will. The Identity Crisis tie-in issues (214-217) and Rogue War (220-225) introduced a weird little quirk that hadn’t been present before: sadism, and a need for said sadism to be corrected.

In 214, Axel obliviously offers to whip up some poison gas to lace the flowers Len wants to send in sympathy to Ralph Dibny. Not knockout gas, or some other harmless gag, poison. We’d already seen that the other Rogues had a habit of insulting Axel in previous issues, but in 216, Len one-punches him to the floor for making fun of Digger when news of his death was reported.

The next panel shows that he is deadass unconscious. 220 gives us another fun panel of weird sadism that comes out of left field:

Now, where did this come from? I like to trace it back to a couple of panels from 188:

-words of advice from Weather Wizard, which are later parroted back in 221:

Again, it has previously been shown that of all the older Rogues, the one Axel is closest to, sees as a sort of mentor even, is Weather Wizard. Which brings me to Rogues’ Revenge.

Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge is possibly my least favorite comic of all time. It’s the one that paved the way for the return of Eobard Thawne (my least favorite villain) and killed off Thad Thawne (my absolute favorite villain)...but it was also the place where my favorite version of Axel was born.

Axel’s part in Rogue War ended when James beat the hell out of him, stole his mask and shoes, and tossed him in a dumpster. Between Rogue War and Rogues’ Revenge, Axel showed up in all of one comic, where he murdered a quartet of college students in the Detective Chimp: Helmet of Fate issue:

It’s one of those comics that really doesn’t make a ton of sense out of Axel’s characterization, what little there was to begin with. When we next see Axel in Rogues’ Revenge #1, he’s put together his own little gang. While his Trickster gang dresses like him, Axel is the only one who actually uses tricks, the other guys use guns. They’re disposed of, and Axel is folded back in with the Rogues. After Len beats him up a bit, of course:

But what else is new, right? After a whole rigamarole about the Rogues going to Gambi’s workshop to give their costumes back, but they find him beat all to hell by a group calling themselves the New Rogues, who’d also kidnapped Len’s father. The Rogues find them. There’s a fight. And then, this:

Followed very closely by this:

And quite literally immediately after, this:

And this is it. This is my favorite version of Axel, born from what might be the shittiest comic of all time. My favorite version of Axel is the underutilized “scared rabbit covering it all up with false bravado” version, which we would now see in everything following this issue, up until the New 52. After Rogues’ Revenge, Axel’s speaking panels were cut to practically nothing. He lurked in the background of scenes, helped out, had a one-liner or two, but did Johns ever again attempt to give him any kind of depth? Nope. All his character development from this point on would come from Scott Kolins:

This page baffled me for the longest time, when it came out. Len has just had Mick kill his father for him. Third panel, Axel’s expression is very neutral, not giving away anything. Fifth panel, peeking out from behind Len, his expression borders on worry, but by panel six right next to it, he’s schooled himself back to neutrality. Then we get this page:

“Us”, Axel says. As if he actually did any murdering of his own. That’s why the past sadistic streak and the Detective Chimp issue never sat well with me. Where did these traits spring from? I know I said earlier that the whole “no conscience” thing might be to blame, but it was never consistent.

Scroll back up. Look at those facial expressions. Kolins might draw Len craggier than a mountain peak, but his Axel is definitely the most expressive. Look at the page with Mark causing faux-Abra Kadabra to explode. Look at that bottom-right panel. You can literally see him being terrified of the people he’s with, finally understanding exactly what they’re capable of, and realizing that he’s in too deep to get out unharmed. But at the same time…he doesn’t want out, because these guys are all Dad now. He idolizes them and he fears them. So he digs deep for the set of balls that got him into Blacksmith’s circuit, and uses the fact that none of the others have really tried to get to know him to his advantage. Bad jokes, ignorance, bratting it up…hiding his fear. After the page above, Axel spends the rest of Rogues’ Revenge making some of the silliest expressions he ever has in a comic when he’s in focus, but out of focus, he’s all frowns and neutral faces. He does end up aiding in Inertia’s murder...somehow

Seriously, what the hell is he shooting at him, a spring? It’s coiled too loosely to choke him, and though the shot of Thad’s corpse shows it still wrapped around his throat, there’s no bruising there like on his face and body.

The next place Axel, or the Rogues for that matter, show up is in Blackest Night: Flash, another Johns disaster. There, he’s the comedic relief from start to finish. He’s not particularly interested in fighting zombies, so his expressions tend to range from a very fake-looking full-face grin to straight up terror:

And of course, the pit. I’ve got a whole other laundry list of ways comics failed Owen Mercer, but that’s not for here. When the horribly out of character Captain Cold confronts the even more horribly out of character Owen about his actions in trying to bring back his father, it’s bad. But is it “copying every line and forehead wrinkle from Mark’s face onto Axel’s face” bad?

Bam. After Blackest Night, the Rogues would show up only once more before Flashpoint, in a couple of issues of the Brightest Day Flash series. Here, he actually has a few panels of dialogue and is actually shown to be doing things for a change.

One of his only panels worth mentioning, though, is this one from issue 6:

So...if Axel is a millennial, then that means he was born between 1981 and 1997, making him at most 29 and at least 13 back in 2010. Release this kid’s age, DC. The world wants to know.

So. You’d think a character study on a Trickster would end with a bang, but I don’t really think it can. Axel is honestly a pretty weak character, whose goals and motivations are either bland or entirely nonexistent. We never got a real backstory for him other than a few thoughtboxes in the Flash 1/2 issue, we never got to see how he’d blossom under a competent writer pre-New 52, his entire existence seemed to be one of those famous Johns dropped plots. He feels like he should have a bigger role than he does, and is in fact the legacy Rogue with the least number of pre-New 52 appearances. Which is ironic, because he’s the only legacy Rogue that escaped erasure with the rest of the old universe. His few appearances in the New 52 Flash title, the Rebirth Flash title, and non-canon books like Injustice have given him more of a character than all of his time under Johns, and he’s better off for it. Except for the Injustice universe, where he’s dead.

I guess all I can say is, the kid was interesting enough to deserve better, but it took his old universe being wiped out and replaced for him to get it. Bummer.

#Axel Walker #Trickster #Flash Rogues #long post #image heavy

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