#+ with themes of them being A Team

[kiapet2]

I’ve been thinking about the significance of names in GotG 3, and how it plays into the movie’s themes of intelligence and a being’s intrinsic worth.

Each of the test subjects’ names shows a different level of abstract thought:

Floor, seemingly capable of only very basic associations, named herself based on where she was while picking the name

Teefs named himself after a distinctive personal feature, and didn’t quite get the grammar right

Lylla picked a “real” name that she decided fit for her

And Rocket named himself aspirationally, using his name as a metaphor for the kind of person he wants to be

And the great thing is that all of these names were enthusiastically accepted by the group of friends, regardless of the complexity of thought that went into them. Because unlike the High Evolutionary, who places all living things on a spectrum from least to most evolved with only the most developed and “pure” being judged worthy of life, Rocket and his friends loved and valued each other for the beings they were.

This theme is then carried over to another naming scene at the movie’s climax: when Rocket declares himself to the High Evolutionary as “Rocket Raccoon”.

Throughout the series Rocket has taken offense to being referred to as a racoon, not wanting to be seen as “just an animal”. But in the climax he looks at a cage of baby raccoons and sees himself, not as the intelligent creation of the High Evolutionary but as the baby animal he once was, who never deserved what was done to him. And he looks at the other animals (the camera lingers in particular on a rabbit) and sees his friends, who were never as intelligent or “developed” as him but were no less valuable and important in his eyes.

And so he accepts the moniker of “Raccoon” alongside his personal name of “Rocket”, and insists that every creature on the ship be saved, not just the “higher lifeforms” as the other Guardians said. Because the truth he comes to realize is that there is no such thing as a “higher life form”: every living being has value, regardless of how intelligent, “developed”, or “evolved” they are.

While we don’t have sentient raccoons in our world, this is still a message that is so important, and so relevant to issues we face. It has takeaways for environmental stewardship and animal welfare (not as much separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom as we like to think, and it’s important to treat all living things with respect and care), as well as for issues of fascism, eugenics and disability rights (there are no types of people who are inherently superior to others; a person’s intelligence and/or level of functioning has no bearing on their status as a human being deserving of dignity, respect and self-determination).

It’s a lesson I hope we all can learn someday. Bless Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for portraying it in such a clear and meaningful way.

#Guardians of the Galaxy #gotg #gotg3 #gotg3 spoilers #guardians of the galaxy 3 #rocket raccoon #meta #my meta #there's other expressions of this theme as well #like how the guardians are completely committed to saving rocket #despite gamora's incredulity at them doing this for a 'badger' #or them giving Adam a second chance #which saves Peter's life #or even Drax being an important part of the team despite being considered 'stupid' #but this essay was long enough already #gotg3 good is what I'm saying

[longelk]

if p03 was a pokemon gym leader would his type be electric or steel

#i feel like a 'technology' theme fits better with electric but steel feels on par for a factory/robotic thing #i think him being able to use a rotom tips the scales towards electric for me #but revavroom and iron treads are also soooo good #what do you think. yea i am asking for a potential art thing #oh actually you know what? maybe the scrybes should be elite four not gym leaders. cuz theres 4. better reason to give them a powerful team #kc is the champ obviously(: she might be a dork but she whips ass #imagine challenging the league and being able to FEEL the choking cloud of toxic interpersonal drama between them all

[istadris]

Just remembered that in addition to all the Weird And Unexplained Powers Luigi possesses, "prophetic dreaming" is apparently one of them, and no one ever mentions how he dreamed of Antasma (which he had never met) and his way of fighting (which he had never seen) BEFORE going to Pi'ilo Island.

#super mario bros #mario & luigi dream team #mario & luigi #for real that game was great but didn't deliver as they could have with its theme of Luigi being the Perfect Dream Host #what is it with you and your connection to the spiritual and immaterial green boy?? #new theory Luigi is Very Anxious because he dreams about many scary things and several of them come true but he never knows which ones

[v-arbellanaris]

I have no idea why but I absolutely hate how Ameridan' story was handled, they basically dumbed it down to him worshipping both the creators and andraste/chant of light, which kind of proved Cassandra's dumb (and incredibly disrespectful) point of an inquisitor having "room for another god". It's also so unfair how they made the evanuris to just be power hungry slavers and tyrants, my only hope is that if the creators were disproving then I hope it would be the same for the chant of light and maker (seeing asnit was solas who made the veil and not the creator) I really hate how centrist the game has gotten, like flat out, whenever I hear the words grey morality and nuance I can't help burn cringe, that's how much dragon age has ruined it for me.

It's also so incredibly funny how the devs are genuinely surprised that most of the players are pro mage, like of course we are?

i think it's particularly extremely aggravating, the way bioware writers write about a pantheon as if polytheistic religions are simply a thing of the past and dead and some kind of mystery/mythology. according to bioware, this kind of writing for polytheistic religions is fine because no real religion these days would everrrrrrr worship multiple gods /sarcasm. (note that the links are just some examples and not comprehensive in the least)

there's a lot of writing choices i quite simply disagree with in dai, and there's some that are just... i don't even disagree with them because that implies it's something to argue about. some of their writing choices are just wrong. after borrowing so heavily from ethnic groups to shape their fictional histories, the disrespect of writing their fictional oppressed minorities as being responsible for their own oppression because they were not "open" enough to include/absorb expy christianity into their religious beliefs and fought back against violent colonialism. the resulting clumsy collation between isr*el and the indigenous people of the americas wanting to reclaim their lands stolen from them by white colonisers makes my blood boil.

ameridan is just another piece of the puzzle that makes me seethe. we have a man who apparently ~existed before hostilities between the elves and the humans~ which is now the fault of drakon's son who invaded the dales after ameridan was long gone. that's already absolute bullshit because ameridan lived in the fucking dales. elves only started living in the dales AFTER ANDRASTE'S REBELLION. after the fall of arlathan, and hundreds of years of enslavement at the hands of tevinter humans???

additionally, the battle of red crossing happened in 2:9 glory, but tensions between the elves and humans had been building up since the second blight. drakon the first died in 1:45 but the elves apparently did "nothing" to help montsimmard when it was overrun by darkspawn in 1:25 divine - twenty years before his death, there was already simmering resentment. additionally, it was drakon the first that expanded the orlesian empire and the orlesian chantry - wotv2 notes his battles against the darkspawn did more to spread the chant of light (specifically, the orlesian chant of light which he, yknow, fucking made up) than any of his other attempts. by the time the exalted march on the dales happens, over three quarters of thedas is under orlesian rule. maferath himself handed the dales to the surviving elves from andraste's campaign in -165 ancient and the elves lived in the dales peacefully until the orlesian chantry was salivating at its borders. and the orlesian chantry has a history of wiping out "cults" - i.e. other sects of their own religion that differ from belief, no matter how minor, to their own. including, notably, the wholesale genocide of a non-violent sect centered around fertility rituals and, later, the dragon worshipping sect in haven off their own land. (and i'm willing to BET MONEY that they were originally alamarri themselves, considering that andraste was brought there to rest, and considering how cultural variance in religion usually occurs [i.e. through the blending/adoption of folk beliefs or the cultural/religious practices from Before]. so the andrastians slaughtered the cult AND THEN TOOK THEIR FUCKING LAND.)

the entire way andrastianism is treated in inquisition makes me violent. and unfortunately, it does not look like it's going to change - there's been multiple statements about how the maker's existence will continue to remain "a mystery" out of a reluctance to confirm or deny the existence of a One True God which, coupled with how they've shat on every other religion in the game - the tevinter chantry, the qun, the stone, the elven pantheon, every other sect worshipping the maker/andraste - gives me absolutely no hope that the writing team is going to get their heads out of their asses about it.

#asks #bioware critical #dai critical #and tbh at this point i really think anyone acting like the writing team is being geniuses or whatever is kinda racist and deluded lmao #most polytheistic religions surviving today are inextricably linked to ethnicity and culture and rich histories of surviving and resisting #colonialist attempts to wipe them out. i feel like comparatively there's fewer polytheistic religions in ''the west'' (more specifically #rooted in white culture) as a result of that. but bioware didn't borrow from THOSE white-rooted polytheistic religions and cultures #they borrowed from native; jewish; roma; even hinduism when it came to the dalish elves but people want to act like the only thing bioware #is pulling from is fucking norse mythology. borrowing character archetypes from norse mythology and planting them onto your #fictional ethnic minorities based off real life religions and people. IS NOT ACTUALLY GOOD WRITING. when you dont CONSIDER the implications #like Gods Not Being Good or having Separate Morals To Humans is a huge theme for norse mythology #but not so much afaik in other polytheistic religions TODAY??? #fucking bioware SHOULD HAVE JUST USED NORSE MYTHOLOGY AS A BASE FOR THE ELVES FROM THE START #and NOT brought other ethnic groups into it??? #the moment they did they SHOULD HAVE been considering the implications of their writing. and that they didn't and continue NOT TO #is actually something people are allowed to be fucking upset about!!!!

[justanotherfanartist]

i got the kind of autism where I make theme songs and leitmotifs for my characters that I haven’t written anything about but have a complete fuzzy image of in my head

#online synthesizer my beloved #I have a couple for characters and I’m trying to figure out these two brothers rn (Campbell and Carnegie) #(their names are because I thought they sounded cool but weird enough to be considered stupid by other characters and in the vein #of rvb style humor they get bullied for this. Campbell especially cus he’s the younger brother with a cooler older brother) #so now I’m working on a theme that’s kind of supposed to be them coming together and working really well as a team or pair #but they still have their own little leitmotif moments that are somewhat combative or jarring with eachother to show #that while they work very harmoniously together in song and via characters #they’re still very different people and there is still tension between them #cus they’re both kinda showboaty and dicks about it but it just presents in different ways #so Campbell is reprimanded for it and gets pushback socially where Carnegie is rewarded for it #just because the behavior manifests differently #god I have sooo many thoughts about the Bennett twins (technically not twins I just call them that) you have no idea (my guys) #they’re kind of inspired by the potential in the relationship that north and south could have had #with north being the good one and south being the bad one #while they both have problems #in the Bennetts case it’s the same problem #it’s just rewarded by militaristic higher ups very differently based on skill #so yes #they’re both arrogant insecure assholes who think very highly of themselves and are quick to frustration #and are often very sensitive to outside opinions and words rather than literal meaning or action #but Campbell turns softer and much more emotionally volatile form how he gets socially rebuffed for it especially because he’s not #a great soldier #and his perfect older brother Carnegie gets all the privilege and trust because he’s seen as ruthless and ambitious and skilled when #hes just as if not visibly more petty than Campbell is #god they run circles in my head at night

[billdenbrough]

i keep thinking about rocket’s “there ain’t no thing like me ‘cept me” and how it’s presented initially as an indicator of who he is—his mouthiness, his independence, his absolute lack of knowledge of what a raccoon looks like—and like. it is those things! it is! but it’s also — yeah, so, the first time we hear it, there’s a hint of story behind it, like: who or what made rocket this?

and now we know it’s the high evolutionary, and now we know the other layer to that statement: yeah, rocket’s confident when he says there’s no thing like him, because a) they were all individual experiments for the same cause but b) because rocket, and therefore the ones ‘like’ him, were classified as defective, and he knows the high evolutionary killed them all

#gotg3 #gotg v3 #rocket gotg #mcu #gotg spoilers #i watched this movie twice in two weeks and i keep thinking abt starmora and nebulantis #but also for obvious reasons the question of identity and agency #rocket obviously being the central figure in that but it’s the theme for literally every character arc #it’s not many trilogy finales that are about characters discovering who they are but here we go #actually it does fit the mould of mcu trilogies #normally the third one takes away the crutch #im3 takes away tony’s suit; ragnarok the hammer; cacw the shield and the team #mcu final acts of trilogies take away the wrapping and ask you who you are at your core. what makes you a hero #it’s kinda fascinating that for the guardians‚ it’s ostensibly rocket #given for five years he didn’t have any of them except nebula #ofc it’s more than just him—they all are grappling with loss even less tangibly than the time bomb in his chest #but he’s certainly a significant element. which makes the ending hierarchy soooooo like. Needed

[erumai-maadu]

you know, i think tenten will also give them good luck charms for protection like how she gave her tsunade-sama one in sd.

she totally would, with her penchant for fortune telling, she’d handcraft three good luck/protection charms and give them to each of them.

I like to think she gives them to each of her team at different times.

Lee gets his first, after Tenten overhears him telling Gai-sensei about how he has almost lost hope in his dream to beat Neji.

“Perhaps just hard work isn’t enough,” he sobs to Gai-sensei as Tenten walks away, her heart heavy. She hands him a little good-luck charm at training the next day, a carved dragon, quietly telling him that he should never lose hope.

Neji may be a genius, but Lee is a genius of hard work, and she will protect his boundless hope until he achieves his dream. Perhaps it comes from a place of selfishness. After all, Tenten is no genius herself, and Lee’s hope is her hope too.

Or maybe it’s not selfishness, but relatability.

Whatever it is, Lee thanks her with a huge hug and many, many tears. Tenten protests loudly, but deep down, her heart swells.

He always keeps it in the hidden pocket of his jumpsuit, and never forgets to take the charm out before washing it. He shows it off with pride to everyone, much to Tenten's chagrin.

Gai-sensei receives his next, after both Tenten and Lee end up in the hospital after the Chunin Exams.

After Tenten is healed, she finds her sensei standing over a sleeping Lee, tears rolling down his face. He immediately puts on an act when Tenten walks in, but she knows what she saw, and it weighs on her.

The next day, when Gai-sensei pops into her physical therapy to check on her and offer some good old Gai-sensei encouragement (motivational shouting), Tenten pulls him aside. She hands him a small charm she’d made the previous night, a little wood turtle carved with the symbol for luck.

“Don’t worry sensei, the people you care about will always be okay!” She smiles brightly at him as she sets the charm in his hand. “It’s for protection—”

Gai-sensei’s thanks is also in the form of many, many tears and shouted declarations of his sweet lotus flower’s kindness and compassion. Tenten’s response, as usual, is loud and embarrassed protests, and a secret smile muffled in Gai-sensei’s broad shoulder as he hugs her tightly.

Gai keeps his charm in the safest pocket of his jounin vest, going as far as to ask Genma to give him a seal to make sure it never breaks or gets damaged. After all, his lotus gave it to him so he could protect her and her teammates, and he would rather die than let her down.

Neji is the last to receive his charm, after his fight with Naruto in the final round of the Chunin Exams. He sits in the hospital room and tells her about everything, his clan, his uncle apologizing to him, his restored faith in the future.

"I will change my clan," he insists to her. "I will better it, for all of the Hyuuga."

The next morning, through the rubble of a torn-apart and betrayed village, in the wake of the Sandaime Hokage's death, Tenten walks to the Hyuuga compound dressed in her mourning clothes and deposits a small carved phoenix charm in his hand.

"What's this for?" he asks, turning the charm over in his hand and studying it.

"Good fortune, protection." Unlike the rest of Team Gai, Tenten always keeps her stories to herself. For some reason, she finds the words tumbling out of her. "My mother used to make them for me. They were for protection and good luck."

Neji nods. He runs a thumb over the carved bird's wing. "Protecting what?"

"My hopes, my well-being, whatever it was she thought needed to be protected."

Neji finally looks up at her, understanding filtering through his gaze. Tenten turns around, ears burning. "Come on, let's go. They'll kill us if we're late to the funeral."

Neji stows his charm in the pockets of his clothes and jogs after her.

Several years later, when Lee surpasses everyone around him, his taijutsu a shining beacon of his hard work and dedication, he is ever aware of the wooden dragon in his pocket, the way his hope is a reflection of Tenten's. He vows to work harder, to prove to her that she can do it just like him.

He will protect her hope too.

On the battlefield facing down Madara Uchiha, Gai quickly moves the little turtle charm to the pocket over his heart. To protect the village, to protect his precious students, he can do anything.

"Eighth Gate of Death, release!"

As medics work to stabilize Neji in the emergency tents, they find a blood-soaked phoenix charm clutched in his hand.

His full recovery is nothing short of a miracle.

#asks #tenten #neji hyuga #rock lee #maito gai #team gai #erumai writes fic sometimes #can't ever keep a consistent spelling of hyuga/hyuuga huh #yes the charms DO have symbolism behind them hehehehehe #this whole thing lowkey makes no sense but also. thats ok. #it's about the strength that comes from the feeling of someone else caring about u idk #cause each member of team gai knows what its like to be lonely. to lack love. #gai lives with the void in his heart from watching his father die #lee was bullied for his whole life about not being able to do ninjutsu and taijutsu and hes probably an orphan too #neji's clan doesnt give a shit about him except for as death fodder when they need to protect the main branch #tenten... we dont know anything about her but we can sense that her need for approval comes from a lack of love in some capacity #maybe shes an orphan too. i like to think she is #ANYWAY all of this team lacks love in some capacity. so when they get it it's gonna stick with them for sure #honestly i coulda thrown nart in here for orphan solidarity or themes or sumn but. this is about team gai. #they ARE each others family dont u see #im gonna shut up now lol

[shoutsindwarvish]

what if i brought my magen david rainbow flag into work but also buy a desk-sized palestinian flag to put next to it so that people know to stop wishing me merry christmas but also don’t make any other assumptions

i’m almost definitely not going to because it’ll be striking a hornet’s nest but getting so fucking tired of how much my team is openly assuming everyone is christian (complete with multiple explicit mentions of the church and jesus himself in our last meeting of things/people that coworkers were grateful for)

like yeah it would be inappropriate for me to bring politics to work and will probably make people uncomfortable but THEY STARTED IT

#i thought i could let it just roll off my back but it’s wearing on me #the sheer unabashed double standard #honestly should just harness the spite for my job search #but like. at least ATTEMPT to claim it’s a generic winter holiday celebration #they’re not even bothering to file off the christmas label #my team meeting yesterday was a full hour of explicitly christmas-themed activities #christmas trivia #then guessing whose christmas tree belonged to which coworker (they assumed we all had one and asked us to send them in on friday) #then christmas pictionary #i was going to mention at the end that hanukkah starts thursday night but we ran out of time #i don’t begrudge festive cheer. genuinely. #i AM annoyed by the assumption that being christian is the default #when i KNOW they do not see being any other religion as neutral #from some unfortunate experiences during last pesach #[screams] #my posts #work adventures #…i’m not going to because it’s not fucking worth it

[s0fter-sin]

shepherd saying, “war isn’t about friends, it’s about enemies” when friendship is the main reason the 141 find all the missiles and take down hassan just scratches a lovely itch

laswell is able to find out hassan’s in mexico and working with the cartel bc of her friendship with price and gaz, who are already in amsterdam. they’re able to get the jump on him and find out about him shipping the missiles over the atlantic bc of her friendship with alejandro. price and gaz are able to fly to al mazrah in time to intercept aq bc of price’s friendship with nik and they’re able to get laswell back bc of their friendship with farah. soap makes it through las almas and eventually kills hassan in chicago bc he successfully befriended ghost, who stayed behind at his own risk and kept giving him advice he wasn’t required to give

the real treasure was literally the friendships they made along the way

#i didnt expect friendship to be such a core theme in call of duty of all things yet here we are #and its even a personal character arc for ghost #he goes from literally being alone in the games intro to having a team named after him #a team that he trusts with his face #from being so obviously unhappy at having to work with soap to opening up and letting himself get closer to him #and even to a lesser extent alejandro and graves #just to be betrayed by graves #his utter panic at seeing soap injured after being so annoyed by him in al mazrah just hits so hard #and going back to his old behaviour and leaving soap behind just to feel guilty and stay to help him get out is just 🤌🏻 #letting soap lead him through the cameras is an olive branch and apology all in one #just him going i trust you to get me through this alive just like you trusted me #like i shouldve trusted you in las almas #just dozens of tiny moments that all boil down to friendship and trust and shepherd only seeing enemies completely blinds him #and ultimately leads to his downfall #‘we dont bury each other do we’ thats the throughline of the entire campaign #even graves not trusting his shadows enough to tell them theyre transporting missiles #maybe if they knew that theydve been more cautious and not been caught off guard by the russians #and hassan never wouldve gotten his hands on them #coming out of my cage and ive been doing just fine.txt #call of duty #cod mw2 #simon ghost riley #ghost cod #ghost mw2 #soap mactavish #soap mw2 #soapghost #general shepherd #kate laswell #we’re a team. ghost team

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

"there is no escaping that you are a woman!! just as there is no escaping that I am a man!! use what you have to your advantage!!!! just as anyone else does, man or woman!!! it is no more complex than that--so do not make it so!!!"

#maybe this show actually DOES have some good and nuanced and interesting things to say about gender????? #also good grief Eliza really does like to overthink and over-complicate everything huh #......it is INTENSELY relatable jdshksjdhkfh #and a large part of what makes her and William such an effective team (personally as well as investigatively) #is her tendency to think about things in weird convoluted out-of-the-box ways #and HIS tendency to see things straight-on and *not* over complicate them #this difference of thinking is often what sets them at odds but it's ALSO where #when they let it #they have a SERIOUS advantage when they work as a team over either of them working alone #another point for the overarching theme of the series being about the duality of men and women and how they really need to learn #to get along and use each other's strengths in concert with their own instead of constantly competing!!!! #miss scarlet and the duke #gurt says stuff

[moonscape]

also the pokemon in the voidlands being apparitions fits well with ttb lore teehee

#bwark #so historically as of psmd in the timeline it was believed that the pokemon found in dungeons were real #so after going to the voidlands and learning that every pokemon there is a phantom it's proposed that more research is done on existing #dungeons in the real world #and espeon and umbreon being the top dungeon researchers that they are learn that the pokemon in regular dungeons aren't actually real #either and they only become tangible forms after bonding with rescue teams through shared aura from battling #the leading theory is that dungeons are sentient and do this to protect themselves #and this is all common knowledge as of the ttb era #also before anybody says anything i was catching up on the rogue team last night and now i am aware that something very similar was done in #that comic and i promise it's just a coincidence LMAO #ive had this idea for a few months at least and i hadn't read those pages before last night #it was my way of avoiding the town vs wild conflict that's a theme in obt. respect to obt for tackling that but i'm personally not #comfortable with doing my own take on that and i feel better about them not being real at first #tbh it fits more with ttb's themes of connection and identity #like pokemon like dexter despise the way they were created because she feels she has no identity #but the pokemon that come from dungeons are a lot more humble and are just grateful to be alive

[oofouchstovehot]

i don't know if it's fate or math but near every fandom i've ever been in can somehow be linked to an Undertale AU i was into

#Dreamtale I still love you #I have fannons about dream tale that i think go mad hard but would be so weird to my followers #..... #because I'm mainly fnaf/dp poster #feeling nostalgic though #Maybe I'll redraw the cringe Nightmare Sans Kitsune AU design i made for an amino user once #It was a whole samurai japanese culture anime themed Alternate Multiverse #(yeah that's how crazy we got) #I was on a big kitsune kick at the time #(also wanna show yall the kitsune oc named after a minecraft mob who was supposed to be named after an emotion) #So naturally I ate that thing up #only ever saw it on Amino tho.... #Anyways #big fan of the 'Murder Sanses' #The Mafia of the Multiverse #Horror really didn't deserve to be grouped in with them but what can I big scary guy with an axe do #always headcannoned they sorta seudo-adopted Lust #who heals for them #And at some point or another they're less of a Mafia and more of a Friend Group #they're biggest schemes as of recent being How Are We Going to Beat Dream's Team #When Swap Can Play Dodgeball in Heels? #Also Swap Sans > Blueberry Sans #only the real Gs get that #undertale au

[juleteinthrum]

Its been a few month since I've been out of headspace why is everything like That. /half joking

Like i knew things would be different but damn, like my arms? My hair? Even my smell is. Off. Everything is off. Its okay, i know whats going on im not disoriented or anything mostly its all surprise but im just. So this is what its actually like to not be out for a while and see things change

System stuff hits a little different sometimes

#actually plural #zims stink #fictive #invader zim #rant #osdd fictive #like. mitten is still in charge in fact shes been cocon for a week almost now? #GOOD for her when i was out before she couldnt even do that for some reason and its real nice to come back to her thriving #my relationship with kiba is firing back up bc im not a mopey bitch anymore and being in this form doesn't suck like it used to #its really nice #im getting over Cincinnati. the thought of it isnt crippling like it was last time i was out so thank you team for working with that omg #its sunny and warm and fall out and im going to a party at my uncles as a pirate im very excited #i havent dressed up in like a decade and ive never had contacts. my family is about to be introduced to me having them. #trying to think of a new name for myself #something nature and universe themed but quiet and small and about growth #something like limabean but .idk maybe bean IS perfect its mine now? it always was. but. they. made it ours. idk. #it stings still dont get me wrong the whole thing is aggravating and painful regardless of position but. #yeah i can think about it without that pit or anything

[j-ellyfish]

Team Skull was so cool that GameFreak has been trying to replicate that for the third time in a row.

#and not succeeding ever again if you ask me #Team Star is too much in your face with the bullied becomes bully thing #because in a way that's also most Skull grunts' motive #((they were isolated and frowned upon for not managing to complete the island trials)) #((which made them develop a found family dynamic with other peers in a similar situation and feel frustration and sense of revenge)) #but Skull is more show-don't-tell which is VERY good storytelling #Team Star's subplot is too much dialogue too much lines of text too much of giant sparkly arrows saying 'HEY THESE POOR BABIES GOT BULLIED #FEEL BAD FOR THEM COME ON COME ON!!' #which is something I really hate in fiction #when a piece of fiction keeps being redundant and blatant about a theme because it begs for the audience's attention #it's like they think we'd be stupid and no be able to figure it out on our own #so yeah Team Star's subplot got on my nerves it becomes so fucking redundant having to go through the same thing for like 4 times #yes i got it they were bullied and then became bullies yes sure #ary spoke #team skull

[wall-e-gorl]

Very excited for once upon a crime. To prepare for it I think I'm gonna watch leverage over again

#unprepared casters #once upon a crime #'vic whats lever-' IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED #its a show about a group of criminals (hitter hacker theif grifter mastermind) who hit the jackpot and never have to steal again #but they quickly get bored and decide to work together and get revenge on corrupt billionaires for people wronged by them (for free) #its kinda like cop shows in the constant predictable format but a thousand times better cause leverage is not copaganda #its great. there are some moments that you go uhhhhh at cause it is from 2008 #but other than those few and far between bits its great #its great #theres a poly couple as canon as 2008 could allow. theres so much growth in all of the characters. everyone is like so pretty #in the human way not the everything-photoshoped-perfect way #they steal a mountain twice. different mountains. #they do a bank heist WHILE its being stood up AND frame the bad guy they had alreadly did a con on for it and also for doing meth as bonus #they land a hacked plane while 4/5 of the team is on the plane and the 5th fixes it while pretending to be an office worker so convincingly #that the office throws him a birthday party #they do a The Office themed epsiode and the subplot of the hacker eating the hitter sandwich is a metaphor for their relationship #the asshole on the team gets forcibly adopted AND shot several times. about once a season. #its a great fun time. the reboot is great too its very gay in the 2021 way #also if you need anything else to convince you that its good #i stayed up for like 3 days straight only watching it start to finish all 5 seasons and started hearing the background music while paused #and do not regret it #pretty sure i started a rewatch later that same week

[perenlop]

team rocket went from being a nice simple way of extending episodes to a 22 minute runtime to characters that just unnecessarily bloat and derail the episode as of xy tbh

#sm jn era where they show more restraint w them please. please. please. youre nothing #ik i keep complaining abt them but they are literally insufferable in this arc theyre not even funny villains anymore #bc now theyre apparently respected and need to be more serious for that to make sense #it’s literally the issue i had with them in bw (them not being funny) combined w them being crammed into every episode #and again w xy its even more offensive bc its no longer a requirement to have em in each episode #and they dont. but now theres like 3 villains in xyz to juggle #and they STILL have to be crammed into the conflict bc…. its team rocket and people love them #which like i get i love them too but its at the point i literally groan when i hear their theme now #go away!!! just let there be a natural conflict between the characters!! #let team flare just be villains on their own!! let one off threats like the ninja gang just take over for a bit!! #like i actually cant wrap my head around why theyre here at ALL besides ‘’uhhhhhh we like them so they have to be there’’ #echoed voice #pokeani lb