#but then they cast him in roles that don't acknowledge that at all as shit like 'generic gross asshole'

[reachexceedinggrasp]

Ever since I first found out he was specifically down on this performance, I've been bummed about it because the film remains my overall favourite of his movies.

Although I've been bingeing interviews lately and it seems like he was just massively down on and dispirited about his entire acting career in 2006 when he said this, so maybe he'd look at it differently now. I know he was in a bad place at the time, but I'm sad how depressed he seemed. He offered to reimburse Henry Rollins for having seen Walking Tall and like... that movie is fine, honey. It's crap, but it's serviceable standard Hollywood action crap and he is one of the better things about it. He's funny and natural and helps a lot to carry the film by single-handedly creating one (1) believable, dynamic relationship in it, which it badly needed since the Rock is fun to watch but can't act and never has chemistry with anyone. When Rock movies work it's because he has co-stars who can bounce off him so well you can't tell he's immobile. Anyway.

Like I was blathering about in my post about his career, a lot of the reason I like Grand Theft Parsons or think that it works well is that this is one of the few times Knoxville was cast perfectly, in a part which instantly makes sense with him in it, and by someone who clearly understood him as a screen presence. Kaufman is a shady character, but we're meant to love him and see him as basically good. He's maybe an anti-hero at best in his life in general according to the film, but his intentions in this story are purely noble. It's a wild stunt anecdote on the surface that's actually a touching statement about brotherhood and loyalty; there's a lot of warmth underlying the comedy. As our hero, Kaufman is a messy guy using cheek and charm to con people for a questionable but good-hearted cause.

Which, you know, right in the wheelhouse of what Johnny is great at. The film is not working against his charisma or asking the audience to buy an image of him they're not seeing, it's using his magnetism to sell the character. Seeming miscellaneously dodgy but very likeable, bullshitting his way both into and out of trouble with affected confidence, drifting through bizarre adventures with a laissez-faire attitude, and reacting to hysterics with wry sarcasm are all totally natural on him. He excels at this tone, he's in his element. Rough edges with a heart of gold is an archetype that fits him like a glove. Playing a jack of all trades and a savvy underachiever who seems like he could have conquered the world if he would just get his shit together also gels perfectly with the gung-ho, half-cocked energy he always gives off.

He also has a quality of slight world-weariness as Kaufman which gives proceedings a pathos that really brings the movie together as the lowkey and ultimately very sentimental black comedy that it is. There's a subtle sweetness to his performance that allows you to believe in the spiritual purity of this insane mission. I fully think it wouldn't have come out nearly as well with Hugh Jackman, whom he replaced last minute. It's no masterpiece, it could certainly have stood to develop its characters a lot more and vastly tighten up its pacing, but I like it a lot. It imparts the warm nostalgia of memory even though it's set before I was born.

#trivia I enjoy: the jacket he's wearing is the real Phil Kaufman's real jacket worn during the actual events depicted in the film #which explains why it's too small bc Johnny is about a foot taller than the real guy #(who has a cameo at the end of the film) #I just like knowing that idk #johnny knoxville #grand theft parsons #I just typed a whole essay in these tags about why he's better as a lead and why he wasn't cast as one more often #and tumblr fucking ate it I'm so upset right now #punchline: literally the only times he was cast a romantic figure or a figure of desire was in films directed by women and this says it all #unless you count A Dirty Shame which I don't and also John Waters is not typical and should not be included in the sample #it is a tragedy and a crime he was never in a romcom as the lead guy #they put fucking Dane Cook in a romcom! #this & the Ringer are his only lead roles (Daltry Calhoun he is not the lead- June is- but that was also good casting and good use of him) #but yeah all those profiles about why is this incredibly handsome charismatic man out endangering his life and getting covered in sick? #he should be a movie star! #and then he became a movie star and they were like 'we can't cast him as the object of desire he's the gross dangerous wacky guy' #something something leading man masculinity under threat bc of 'humiliation' stigma something somethig this is why they don't know he's hot #the woman who directed Daltry Calhoun and the woman who directed Rosy understand that he is hot #men acknowledge that he is handsome but do not understand that he is hot #and this masculinity shit is the real stigma from jackass that held him back not not being taken seriously as an actor #anyway I don't know what the point of this post is- I lost it somewhere in my struggle to get the video clip working #it probably should have been about how he is in fact much better as a lead than as a sidekick #he actually has a kind of gravitas and a compelling quiet to his presence that works way better in lead roles #there's a stillness to him on screen that's typical of classic leading men #he feels slightly out of place in funny sidekick roles #and he's consigned to them mostly for bullshit reasons men should explore with their therapists

[paragonrobits]

its suddenly occured to me that as soon as Simon Petrikov makes an official return as feeling like a member of the main AT cast in his own right, Jake is no longer present. It's still unclear how much of it is Jake having retired prior to his death, or if he was already dead by the events of Obsidian, but it feels like Simon has taken up the role Jake originally occupies.

Essentially when you look at Simon's events in Obsidian and the apparent role he seems to have among the bigger Finn-PB-Marceline-Simon party and group dynamic, he shares a LOT of surprisingly similar traits with Jake:

EXPERIENCED PARTY MEMBER: Jake isn't the oldest member of the group by any stretch, but the other characters TREAT him like he is; he's generally considered to have the most life experience, and he is often treated as being the wisest one. How much of this is objectively true is up for debate and a question for how much of it is just character viewpoints coming in, but Simon definitely has the most life experience. It's arguably one of his more defining traits, since having so much of it against his will is one aspect of the crown. Simon is also a pretty dang smart and emotionally intelligent person, though he doesn't acknowledge it.

THE DAD GUY: In the sense of 'being an older guy that the other characters talk to for advice and reassurance that can be relied upon to solve problems'. Jake isn't precisely a father to Finn in particular by any means, but he IS an older brother who can sometimes come off as having raised Finn, and he is definitely a dad. (Admittedly only for... well, a day because the Pups age weird, and it clearly bothers him, but it still counts.) As for Simon, him being a Dad is probably the thing that most hammered down his characterization and redefined him to such a colossal extent that Simon Petrikov overnight went from being the tragic origin of the Ice King to 'HOLY FUCKING SHIT HE WAS MARCELINE'S REAL DAD!!!!!', with all the implications of his character since. Simon is a dad, and his role as a dad underpins so much of what he seems to value and want more than anything else.

HYPER COMPETENT IN SPECIFIC FIELDS THAT FEEL MORE MUNDANE THAN THE OTHERS: Finn hits things and does Dungeon Adventure stuff. Princess Bubblegum is practically a text book mad scientist alight with the maddening light of GENIUS ITSELF. Marceline, interestingly, comes off very heavily as a parallel to Finn and Jake as a combo package, but the thing that characterizes Jake and by extension Simon for this argument is that they don't do the fancy stuff the other characters do. Jake hits stuff with his magic powers, but in practice he's a pretty blunt force person who doesn't do much of anything outside that, and Simon is notable in that he comes off as being kind of a useless weenie who THINKS he's a useless weenie... until the call of danger comes, and he abruptly shifts into overdrive and almost effortlessly solves the problems he faces without hesitation or any self preservation. In Obsidian he arranges a big calvary team completely on his own, off screen and without prompting, and in Fionna And Cake we see more of this. Simon THINKS he's useless while Jake doesn't care, but both of them are startlingly hyper competent in the narrow field of 'its kinda boring compared to the others but they do it'.

MORAL AMBIGUITY: This is probably the most potentially contentious one, but bear with me. Jake has an established history as a thief and general Dude Doing Crimes, and its not particularly clear if he stopped because he regretted it or just because he became more responsible for Finn. He doesn't SEEM like he regrets it in the slightest, either. Throughout the series it's a running theme that while Jake is generally wiser he's also way more prone to saying messed up stuff or suggesting iffy things for comedic purpose or just on a whim; taken seriously, it can feel like Jake is straight up Chaotic Neutral without much interest in the ethics he does, just about caring about specific people and not much else besides that.

Now let's look at Simon. The current fandom vibe is 'academic weenie with a bubble butt that screams in danger a lot', and this IS technically true, but its not the whole story. Ice King WAS a villain, and genuinely the most recurring threat throughout the series, and while that was part of the crown, the other wearers show it doesn't come out of nowhere. The potential to be Ice King, the callous and destructive brute force, is part of Simon in a whole 'there's two people in the mirror, the one you see and the one you DON'T want to see' kind of way. But during the course of Fionna And Cake we see Simon abducting someone he hates to use them as a magical battery and when they die from it he's more upset about losing his chance and not that someone DIED, when he watches a parallel version of himself wither away he brushes it off as 'oh they were a bad Simon'. It's not implausible Simon did some... STUFF back in the days of the post-war world to ensure he and more importantly Marceline survived. He has a history of revealing that underneath his weenie exterior, he's a solid mass of cold metal that's like biting on tin foil.

All in all, it feels that as Jake has implicitly left the narrative, Simon has been neatly dropped into fulfilling roughly the same role Jake originally did to the rest of the group, or at least that Jake's general narrative purpose of 'does more wacky things for giggles' has been generally split between Finn and Marceline, while Simon has taken on some of his Experienced Family Member and Moral Ambiguity bits.

#adventure time #analysis #simon petrikov #jake the dog #jake and simon being around both at the same time would present interesting complications in the family dynamic #they probably take turns being Wacky and Responsible #or have very specific roles at both

[likecrapthroughagoose]

Godzilla x Kong gets... probably a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 from me. I liked it a lot, but the last act felt like it was rushing (which should never be the case for a 2+ hour movie). The action was really good though and the visual effects, while dwarfed by Minus One, were excellent.

Spoiler-y opinions below:

Okay so- Kong's portions of the movie were actually really strong. Granted, I'm easily amused by anything that involves monkeys falling down a lot. But in all seriousness, you can tell they had the most story ideas for Kong. His fights are good, the monsters his arc introduces are cool, and the way they've aged his design is also pretty nifty. You will believe a gorilla can be daddy.

That said, the strength of Kong's part of the movie brings me to my main complaint. The other two focal points, Godzilla and the human cast really didn't feel like they had as much to do. Less so for the human cast, which I'll get to in a moment, but it kinda felt like Godzilla was sidelined.

Weirdly, that isn't to say he wasn't in the movie. Godzilla's scenes are almost as plentiful as Kong's, if not equally so. The movie, to its credit, does a pretty good job of giving everyone equal-ish screentime, so Godzilla does get plenty of scenes. The problem is that most of them are just him going from point A to point B to point C and so forth.

In fairness, Goji's scenes are at least entertaining. He gets some superb city destruction and the best fights in the movie (and it has plenty) are his. Though speaking of fights, I am disappointed that we didn't get to see any new-old monsters. Scylla is a cool enough design on its own that I don't mind it, but Tiamat is similar enough to Manda that I felt like SOME acknowledgement could be made. I mean shoot, just have them be called Titanus Ebirah and Titanus Manda on the computer radar thingie they keep cutting to. Problem solved.

At least we get Godzilla sleeping in the Colosseum like a cat. It's a cheap pop, but I'm still here for it.

The human story is decent, if nothing special. The only returning cast are Rebecca Hall, Kaylee Hottle, and Brian Tyree Henry. Dan Stevens joins them as... I guess Kong's veterinarian for lack of a better word, rounding out the quartet of focal characters. I don't know if I enjoyed his character or if he annoyed me. Hottle and Hall deliver more of the "constantly mildly uncomfortable deaf girl who just wishes everyone would leave her pet gorilla alone and her overprotective adopted mother" stuff. It was fine in the last movie, it's fine here. Henry's conspiracy theorist character is... less irksome than he could have been. While in the previous film he was a surprising amount of depth for the archetype he was portraying, here he's firmly in the comic relief role. It never quite veers into annoying, but there are parts where it does leave you going, "okay, but why does he need to be here?" He at least makes it out better than Stevens, who may be the world's first example of a token white guy.

All that said, the human plot was actually kinda working for me. The whole "lost civilization deep within the hollow earth that harnesses mysterious natural powers and also worships/summons Mothra" thing felt like a really fun tribute to the kind of story you'd see in the classic Showa Era films without being anachronistic.

As much as I complain, there was something I noticed beyond the movie itself that made me happy. The theater was packed, which is great to see, but more than that there was a ton of kids in there, right around the same age I was when I was first getting into Godzilla. The same age I was when I got picked on for liking it. I couldn't help but look around the theater after the movie and feel vindicated. I was right, this shit is cool as fuck. Suck my ass, Samuel from fifth grade.

Anyway yeah it's fun. Worth seeing.

#godzilla #godzilla x kong #godzilla x kong: the new empire #kong #movie review #ramble #kaiju

[danggirlronpa]

Not the Pekoshima anon who originally talked about the ship, but I am so Invested in pekoshima my god, I have to talk about it. Okay so - with both Ultimate Despair's we see (discounting DR3 because. I don't like it), Nagito and Mikan, I find them very interesting. Mikan in chapter 3 obviously isn't behaving well - murder and all - but she also seems to recognize for possibly the first time ever that how people treated her was wrong (questioning why they treated her this way, acknowledging it wasn't fair, even calling the cast a bunch of bullies in scorn). Which is... such interesting characterization! It's one of the reasons I can't exactly buy how Junkan is presented in DR3 - in her FTEs, how people treated Mikan was normal to her, and she didn't seem to fully realize it was wrong. In the third trial, Mikan talks as if she knows how she was treated was wrong, and singles out Junko as being different, having forgiven her. In her final FTE, she says that Hajime has forgiven her too, implying to me that Junko did the same thing as Hajime did during their FTEs together, just with malicious intent (strengthening the Hajime/Izuru and Ryouko/Junko parallels and solitifying both Chiaki and Hajime in SDR2 as "the kindness the remnants never had" - kindness that ultimately leads to them triumphing over Junko this time). So in DR3, it didn't make much sense to me that Junko treated Mikan just as everyone else in Mikan's life has. Kicking her and berating her. Of course, with brainwashing she didn't need to be kind, but before DR3 came out, I always thought Junko operated more like... she would make you go one step forward, and two steps back. She would present herself as if solving your problems and helping you, but that was just to her own ends. We see this in Nagito too - when he's in DR:AE as a remnant of despair, his ideals have changed drastically from SDR2, and I'd go so far as to say what he preaches in DR:AE to be a better philosophy - though how far he's willing to go for it, still bad. So, the conclusion I reached was that every remnant would have some sort of ironic twist - something they improved upon, only for their other behaviors to be worse, like Nagito and Mikan.

So Hiyoko wouldn't be bully - but maybe it would be too much in the other direction, where she was obedient to a fault. Never talking without permission, sitting still like a doll, only doing what she was told.

Kaizuchi, perhaps, would no longer be obsessed with Sonia, someone who didn't like him back, and instead fixate on Junko, who welcomed his obsession...

And Peko, who used to think she was a tool... perhaps she would finally realize she was human. Perhaps she would realize this, and despair at such a fact.

Because it would mean she failed. She failed to become a tool for Fuyuhiko, and suddenly everything done to her wasn't "training a tool" but a tragedy. Her life was a tragedy. The very fact that she is human is despair, but that despair itself proves she is human. I imagine she could get very twisty and turny in her thoughts about this.

I also have the headcanon that Peko and Fuyuhiko during the despair times switches roles. Fuyuhiko always took on too much responsibility, and hey, here's your old pal Junko here to set you straight! You don't need to take so much onto yourself! It's painful, isn't it? Taking the burden of making choices. Being human. Who wants that responsibility? Why not give it to someone else? Oh hey, look at that, it's your old pal Peko! She'll take the brunt of responsibility from now on! From now on, Peko is the master and Fuyuhiko is the tool!

I just love the idea of Junko doing these ironic little twists. Helping them in some way only to fuck them over in others. Junko makes Peko realize she's human, and because of that, Peko cannot help but both love and resent her. Real toxic yuri shit going on.

(TW this gets a lil gory at the end)

This is a really good take on Junko's strategy!! My Junko analysis is similar but not quite the same. I've always viewed Junko as a monkey's paw. Whoever you are, she gives you exactly what you want, in its totality - but at the expense of your happiness.

Mikan's desire for someone to care for her becomes excessive dependency and blind devotion. Ryota's desire to become a successful animator who doesn't have to think about talking to others or existing in the real world becomes the complete destruction of that world, and his animated work as the most influential to ever exist. Nagito's desire to become a force which others can step on to find hope becomes Nagito ensuring the legacy of the greatest despair he possibly can, so that no 'fake' hopes can bypass his rigorous test - only a True Ultimate Hope can overcome and finally lead the world to victory.

Despair - for Junko - is the knowledge that you have succeeded, and everything is even worse than if you hadn't. Because Junko is Always succeeding, and she's Always in despair. Nothing challenges her. The only thing that she can't predict is pure dumb luck, which Makoto leverages against her both in THH and SDR2 to enable her defeat. Junko, like Izuru, is one of the most successful people to ever exist, and it SUCKS. So of course she is dragging people down the exact same way she herself is dragged down. Of course she shows people obvious, glowing success, in such a way that it tears down the entire world they once knew. Because this way - if one day unimaginably, they break their bonds - they will never, ever experience true hope again. Because their hopes are what destroyed them. Their hope brings about despair.

So from that perspective, I think you're dead on the money with Fuyuhiko, who loathes his position and wants to be free of the burden of responsibility (wouldn't it be easier, to be a tool, too? Aren't you tired of telling people to die? Shouldn't you take responsibility yourself, if there's killing to be done?). But Peko's desire is to be a tool. Rather than teaching Peko how to become her own person, I personally think that Junko would put Peko through the paces of both physical and psychological torture to turn her into a complete unfeeling instrument, exactly like Peko wanted. Once you've been in a 1-foot cell with no other people for a week, once you've been given Pavlovian training to receive an endorphin rush when holding your own spilling viscera in your hands - affection, agency, memory all fade away. There's just the next order. Exactly like Peko wanted.

#ask to tag #pekoshima #headcanons #peko pekoyama #junko enoshima #sdr2 #dr3 #talk to the mod #asks #anon #we dont talk enough about junkos on-screen propensity for ruthless physical torture #lets go back to that time she scooped out a member of the steering committee's eyes with a spoon. thats the type of shit she inflicts

[kafus]

ok i am gonna share that nightmare i had yesterday actually. tw for a variety of topics including cults, attempted murder of a young child, kind of barely an age gap relationship between a younger child and a teenager, gun violence, listen it was crazy i have no idea what my sleeping brain was cooking. i should not have to say this about a nightmare i had while unconscious but to be clear i don't ENDORSE any of these topics IRL or some bullshit like that

also this nightmare involved pokemon horizons characters for some reason so if you watch the pokemon anime and don't want to hear about hypothetical nightmare scenarios of very AU things happening to them i would also avoid

so i'm setting the stage here. as far as i can tell i was just normal me in this dream (notable because i am usually Not "just me" in my dreams) but i was a teenager again instead of a 24 year old. i was living in a large multi-story house with the main cast of pokemon horizons (everyone on the brave asagi), and like a few other people not from horizons but they don't really matter. the dream timeskipped through a lot of years of me living there, like i had been there for a while.

despite me saying the cast of horizons was there my brain was very pick and choosey with what actual character traits or recognizable features remained of these characters other than their names/general appearances. importantly liko was a good bit younger than her anime appearance, not sure of her exact age but like, elementary school. she was Extremely chronically ill with some sort of undefined illness my brain made up, i guess. she lived in the basement of the house and was totally bedridden Most of the time, as to survive she had to constantly be hooked up to a somewhat bulky machine. she could be off of it for very brief periods but to get around anywhere, that machine had to come with her. she was generally way more timid and also way more woozy and relied on everyone for care.

^ like imagine her but even smaller and very sickly constantly. if you have never watched pokemon horizons lol

^ the main other person i interacted with was amethio who was probably the most recognizable - similar personality, though it was probably what i'd imagine him to be like after a hypothetical redemption arc, still irritable and brooding but like, he has a soft side. me and him were around the same age here (14?) and we were the main two watching after liko. he was like?? in love with liko??? my brain really never acknowledged the age gap here it was just normal and no one thought anything of it. that being said that's not something he expressed directly to her and they weren't in a relationship

anyway so the major thing here is that this household was pretty much a small cult. isolated from the outside world, general actual cult shit, but also we had some sort of belief we were all indoctrinated into by the higher up adults that liko had to Die at a specific time and date, i don't remember if it was for sacrificial reasons or if a reason was even provided in the dream at all, but tldr me and amethio were expected to unplug her life support stuff without her knowing and let her die with the assumption that she would be too woozy or confused to do anything about it herself. after a lot of implied bonding with her i was expected to pretty much murder a child. suffice to say this was horrifying

we actually did the deed and like halfway through watching liko's energy fade i started thinking like. wait. why am i doing this. i know that liko is supposed to die, but is she really? am i really doing the right thing? watching her die is awful. i've cared for her so much for years and i don't want her to die. so in the middle of all of this i take amethio aside (he was off in another room because he didn't want to watch liko suffer, i was taking the role of making sure it happened) and i'm like. amethio why are we doing this. you love her right. you love liko so you don't want her to die. i don't want to kill her. and he's like. Fuck you're right this is insane i don't care about the past however many years i cannot let liko die. so we agree to plug her life support stuff back in and confront the rest of the house

after ensuring liko was hooked back up and starting to recover, i made my way upstairs to confront the adults in the house while amethio worked on getting her out of there safely, and like. holy shit.

NEVER THOUGHT I'D HAVE ANY SORT OF DREAM/NIGHTMARE WHERE FRIEDE FROM POKEMON HORIZONS TRIES TO LITERALLY KILL ME, but i GUESS this is the life i'm leading now. i was like dude why are we killing liko you can't just make me kill a child i'm sorry and his positive demeanor quickly turned sour and the rest of the dream devolved into a blur of confusing violence, one because i was being chased after multiple fully grown adults in the body of a teenager, both by violent pokemon and like, literal guns, i was being shot at, and also because from here on out the dream started heavily deteriorating, like it became more weird and less linear and stuff that didn't make sense was happening. i never knew what ended up happening to amethio and liko because in a particularly close bout of violence i suddenly woke up sweating/shaking/heart pounding. and then after i caught my breath and realized i was awake i was just like. HELLO???????? WHAT THE FUCK?????

idk the last time i had a dream this vivid much less one this off the walls. i keep thinking about it cause like, due to Reasons if i'm dreaming about liko, especially as someone in such a vulnerable and awful position, that probably means something/pertains to my personal real life trauma, like the general aura of this dream read as a ptsd nightmare to me, but fuck if i'm gonna be able to parse all that today i have no idea what the fuck any of this means. i'm just losing my shit. especially because i went back to sleep afterwards and had another dream about pokemon horizons characters but it was literally just cute shit where i was liko and in a relationship with dot high school AU style and we were hanging out after class. like the complete tonal whiplash is so fucking funny. why on earth did my brain make the most wildly contrasting pokemon fanfictions of all time while i was asleep. helpppp

#kiki was here #kiki.txt #I HOPE SOMEONE FINDS THIS INTERESTING #AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS DREAMS ARE JUST SUPER INTERESTING?? ANYWAY

[mdhwrites]

Have you ever felt like the fandom makes Luz steal Amity's roles/positions?

I saw many headcanons with Luz being some expert cap in grudgby or other sports (proly because of the jacket she wears all the time) or be top in classes for her wider acknowledge of magic than mere witches... which I still consider it stupid both canon and fanon. Or treating this whole "depression" (rather the reason for it) as something to make her a tragic character too because she had no reason to be one before, all those "edgy" fanarts including beta are just so cringe I can't take them serious, it's pathetic and Amity is rather just there used as a tool to emphasize this bullshit, how "cool" Luz is 🙄.

So I don't think this is a fandom problem as much as it is the fandom wanting to tell stories without the show providing the personalities to enable it. Because... TOH just doesn't have many character types, let alone the sort that are at least easy to write stories about. In S1, so the good part of the show that wasn't affected by the shortening, here is your list of personalities. Eda: Lazy thief and criminal who would rather stay in bed than actually do anything. Learns to be a little nicer. King: Has one joke about wanting to be a ruler, people respond with one joke about him being small, and he's a lazy fuck as well. Feels out of character during his two episodes because they try to have him be a real character but poorly. Willow: Has no personal motivations of her own, her issues are resolved immediately, appears to be shy but more so is just a plot device who's willingness to stand up or stand changes depending on if the episode needs to wrap up now.

Gus: Is comic relief and constantly shit on for being weaker or for doing dumb shit despite supposedly being smart enough to jump up two grades and has an interest in human stuff that is just kind of awkward to include when Luz is RIGHT THERE.

Amity: Smart, overly driven girl who puts way too much pressure on herself and has a crush on Luz. Also has a good heart that even by the end of S1 has easily surpassed her goal oriented thinking for the most part and the show itself never does anything with her smarts but she IS claimed to be smart.

Luz: Happy ball of energy who used to be bullied back home but has a good heart with her head in the clouds. Wants to be a witch. Of those SIX main characters, you have TWO real personalities that are of any use from a storytelling perspective and only one that is more compelling from an angst perspective because Luz being in the Isles effectively resolves her bullying. It's part of why between S1 and 2, there were people outside the fandom who thought AMITY was the main character because of her design and how much everyone did with her. Other than that, most of these characters would live REALLY boring lives if left to their own devices. Which... S2 doesn't fix. In fact, it gets worse. Even by the end of S2A, it has been established that Amity no longer cares about her studies and her actions aren't of a smart person anymore. They are that of, like 90% of the cast, just a generically good person. Maybe a quirk here or there but also interchangeable versus anyone else in the cast because there's so little dividing them except for what moveset they have. By S2B, the Amity replacement of Hunter, who had less personality than Amity to begin with, will also just be a generically good person with an angsty backstory but at least that backstory is still WAY more than any other supporting character. So... What the fuck is a fandom supposed to do? They make shit up effectively. Luz is shown as physically strong far more than she's claimed 'weak nerd arms', the show broke its own magic in ways that are INFURIATING so as to let her have a smart win against Belos even though she doesn't show particularly high intelligence normally, etc. like that but it is enough for the fandom to take it and run with it, especially while the angst arc and the human realm allowed angsty Luz and most fandoms run a quarter on angst, a quarter on fluff and half on shipping.

It makes the fact that Lumity stuff got so boring post S2 not surprising. It makes the fact that a lot of people were leaving the fandom during S3 not surprising. These just aren't engaging characters and you no longer have a storytelling powerhouse out of Amity because they've slaughtered most of her potential even by the end of S2A.

It frankly is almost embarrassing that for how many trios are in this story, they never manage ONCE to even have the smart guy, strong guy, and the heart. The absolute most basic trio and the closest they ever come is in S3 with Gus, Hunter and Willow because Hunter is a sad boy dating Willow so I guess the heart, Gus is FINALLY allowed to be considered at least actually smart and impressive in that way, and strength has defined Willow's character for most of the series. Other than that, the show so quickly makes characters plot devices rather than characters that none of them can be engines of storytelling. You can't really come up with something interesting for a lot of these characters to do on a normal day without outside intervention because at least half of them would do literally nothing.

I mean... Even when I was most invested, between S1 and 2, I had to bring in BOSCHA in order to make a proper trio out of Luz, Amity and Boscha who could all feed into each with stories. That's why Willow, Gus, Eda and King just aren't really a part of The Power of Love because... What the fuck were you supposed to do with them? As characters, they're likable, they have some good jokes, but they're just lacking an interesting personality that makes for a good story.

And even the show admits to that with how much all four of those characters faded away the longer the story goes on. At least with major retcons to their characters. It's kind of why I assume a longer Owl House would not have been a good thing because they were grasping for straws for at least one season. Why should I think that a full S3 wouldn't have struggled to fill the time? Let alone the extra seasons that would be required for a full S3 to not have had an almost identical S2 to what we got?

============

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#the owl house criticism #toh critical

[ghostkingdoesstuff]

Hey you're the ONLY person I have seen complain about whitewashing of Percy and you are so valid for that lol.

There's absolutely nothing weird about Black Annabeth, it's her race that is never stated in the books.

But whitewashed Percy is still pissing me off; and no, I'm not mad at the kid for getting a job - I hope he has fucking fun! But Riordan and whoever else was in charge of casting are ABSOLUTELY the ones whose fault it is that the main character of a book based on Mediterranean mythology is.... a blond white boy.

Dark-haired, "bronze skinned" Percy that looks like "a Roman God" was like. A giant part of the story. They could find an actor who looks like that, but now it looks like they casted a bunch of POC for secondary roles only to center - yet again - a white boy that Percy Jackson never was.

I feel you.

I can't find anyone else talking about it either, but I think it's fair to acknowledge Hollywood's pattern of casting white actors in leading roles, even when it doesn't fit the sorce material (looking at you Ghost in the Shell). And it's always supplemented by filling the supporting cast with POC actors (Looking at you Netflix Death Note live action), which is great and I love that POC actors are being given job opportunities, but it feels like you only see a POC lead when the story is about them being POC.

Don't get me wrong, from what we've seen, Walker is playing Percy really well, and the cast is great. Aryan as Grover, has captured my heart (and him singing Rolling in the Deep as a kid is impressive as shit GIMMI THE INEXPLICABLE MUSICAL EPISODE). Percy Jackson being "sunshine" white isn't going to ruin the show, and it shouldn't. The cast and crew have put so much love behind this production to let what's likely Disney overlords looking out for the bottom line ruin this show for me. It's just frustrating when you see the same thing play out time and again in these kinda productions.

My proposed solution, you might ask? Watch media with diverse casting to show the overlords that diversity and representation matters. Or just burn it all down. Idk, this tumbler blog will not be held liable for your acts of arson.

#percy jackson #pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo fandom #pjo tv adaptation #pjo disney+ #pjo cast

[lesbiancolumbo]

(if you dont want to answer this then def dont) I am really curious about your thoughts on the latest scorsese. I've mostly been avoiding all the responses because I'm Inuk and I just don't have the fucking energy for another article churned out by a white person who doesn't give a shit. But I guess my current view is that if this is a story Scorsese really wanted to see told, he should have just supported a Native director to make it from their perspective. Hasn't he directed enough movies lmao

i'm not really going to wade too much into the "scorsese should have just supported a native director" debate since i'm not native and that's not my lane, but i think it's a reasonable desire albeit a little devoid of the unfortunate realities of this industry, which is that even a guy like martin, who is one of the most well-known and well-regarded filmmakers ever, struggled for years to get this made and that films that are from a native filmmaker's perspective are getting a tenth of the budget and buried in release (lily gives a better performance in a film called fancy dance, which i saw at sundance and is a wonderful film, and as far as i can tell, it literally does not even have US distribution yet). so i get it, i don't disagree per se, but i also get why he wanted to use his name and his clout to get this particular project off the ground.

staying in my own lane, my criticisms are mostly with the ways the film looks and how it's adapted from the source material. i think the story is compelling and it's a point in history that needed telling, but the script really takes a lot of the wind out of its own sails by giving the answer to its key question away almost immediately. i haven't read the source material but from what i do know, i think this is kinda the inevitable conclusion of wanting to have your cake and eat it too (having the dicaprio and deniro characters as the primary relationship featured in the film). the structure and pacing of the film are very messy, and i'll be honest.... i expect more visually from a "master" like martin. i expect better from the man everyone compares to a god. his last two movies look flat and boring visually. i also think dicaprio is in a different movie from everyone else, performance wise. he gives way too much at all times, it's distracting and feels tonally off with what everyone else (aside from the recent oscar winner in the cast, who i'm not even gonna dignify with a name lol) is trying to do.

the positives for me are that lily and all the other indigenous actors are insanely good in their roles, but comparatively their roles are just not as weighty compared to dicaprio and de niro. but i'll be honest..... mostly i'm just annoyed in the ways that like we seem to put our head in the sand where martin's work is concerned. like we can't acknowledge that he's not a god, he is merely a man and a flawed one at that. he can stumble and make movies that are flawed, that are (gasps) not that good. but it's the way that the critics and community are just putting their hands over their ears and going this is a masterpiece i don't wanna hear otherwise it's marty, that's pee paw, argue with the wall...... like ok. i hate the way we talk about him, it has grinded my gears for a really long time, and to be honest i'm not shocked that mollie's presence in this film is minimal compared to her male counterparts because marty's track record for women in his movies is..... no one wants to say this but i'm not afraid of the losers on film twitter who prop up two (!!!!!) movies with women who are exceptions to the rule, PISS FUCKING POOR.

so to summarize.... i don't hate the movie at all. it's definitely worth a watch, it has a lot of good things in there, but it's not a masterpiece, it's not his masterpiece, and if you really love scorsese you have to grapple with his failings and his shortcomings. i think they're very apparent in this movie, and it's neither good nor bad. it simply is.

#asks #there's a video going around right now of one of the consultants of the film grappling with his own mixed feelings #and i'd rather let them speak for themselves on this subject. i'm really more focused on the fact that people just don't wanna hear critiqu #about a movie by a stupid old man they're all in love with. as if he's infallible and has zero blind spots or shortcomings lol

[stanleyl]

noooo why are so many in the fandom so delulu like he did give a great performance and it's good to have some hope but we...

Is it delulu to be hopeful for Tom???? Even if you are right and let's say he has no chance, why are you so mad??? This industry is about connections, so him campaigning for an emmy allows him to talk to people he hasnt spoken to before. The best episode was 8, and if Tom is proud of his work on that episode and wants to campaign, let him be. Alit of ppl loved Barbie, whereas I thought it was boring, but it didn't stop Margot robbie campaigning it a whole yr despite it not winning any awards outside its box office.

the worst is in the scenario where he doesn't get a nom and fans make a big deal on twt further embarassing him/us...

I'm sorry, Anon, but maybe you are chronically online because how does him not get a nom a direct perception of you a fan? How are you feeling, secondhand embarrassment because of a few tweets from losers. Unless you are in the comparison wars that only exist on Twitter, that's the dumbest, main character opinion I've read in a while. Tom is doing what any actor does for their project. He's not the first actor to promote his show with low critical reviews, and trust me, he won't be the last. His performance as Danny was deeply grounded and amazing, and you are entitled to your opinion, but to call fans delulu for acknowledging his work is crazy I'm sorry.

Also Twitter is not real fucking life!!!! I'm sick of you fans that are on that app and then come here to cope becaue you saw a tweet that offended you from strangers online. I rarely have that experience because I pick and choose to care, and trust me, he's not the only actor to have projects that don't pan well. Paul Mescal had Foe come out last it was panned critically, but I didn't think his fandom online felt embarrassed because of it. They didn't internalised and then project . Paul also had all of us strangers and was filming gladiators next. He literally got that role because a casting director saw him on stage in A Streetcar named Desire. Filmtwitter loves him and yet he hasn't even achieved any boxoffice success yet...

Also, I don't think anyone cares unless you search for tweets about it. Maybe you are frustrated with Tom's pace of work and I can understand the frustration but at the end of the day, he's gonna do with his career what he wants to do, without any input from you, unless you have his number lol😭😭😭😭

Nobody is mad but you, sorry lol. The other person literally just said it's good to have some hope, but in this case we need to be more realistic, he was only nominated for a critics choice, he was snubbed twice after that. You're the one writing a whole essay for no reason. The "embarrassing" part is when fans keep crying and yelling how he was robbed, when it was never that deep.

And since you mentioned Paul...

He is an Academy Award nominee and has been recognized for being an indie darling in acclaimed projects. Why would his fans care about one single project with terrible reviews when their favorite isn't constantly being the target of comments about his career choices, how his agents are bad, people (including so-called journalists & 'critics') diminishing him to uplift others, and downplaying/trying to erase any career accomplishments he has achieved. Yeah, if I was a Paul fan, and I was chronically online, I wouldn't give two shits about Foe RT scores either 🤷🏽‍♀️. That was terrible example if you ask me.

[whenthechickencry]

Last Note of the Golden Witch Part 2

Piece gives away more of her heart, she starts talking about how of course she didn't know who Ange is, how she had so many lovely conversations with Sayo and Battler. Battler starts crying and bawling from not having it figured it out earlier, I was going to give him shit if he didn't realize it after all her hints, I am not going to lie, so I am glad he did... it seems Asumu was at the end of her patience as well as that monologue seems to be flipping between Asumu and Battler (I assume since Battler wouldn't say do you not know who I am, so I assume statement 3 and 5 are made by Asumu)

Ange wants to be able to understand everyone in the Ushiromiya family as part of her role as the witch of the future, haha...

I figured Ange was brought here in order to be mean to her, I mean, she's a complete stranger to Asumu otherwise... It's interesting how we are both seeing the good and the bad simultaneously, from a character we were usually only allowed to see the perspective of people who think she's all good or all bad.

The act this arc allowed Ange to understand and love someone who wasn't a part of her life at all, and if she was she probably would have hated her, anyways, is really cute.

I have noted the translation seemed kind of... not great at times but this line made 100% it was a cleaned-up machine translation, so I looked up who was the translator and, lmfao?

Of course, Kinzo wouldn't approve of cheating, he is an upstanding man of good values.

Of course, this is a bit of a self-important fantasy, reality wouldn't have been that simple even if she had stayed alive. But she wanted to write a tale where her being part of the family left to a far better future than when Kyrie did, affirming that she was a better person than the person who (she blamed) for making her life shitty (it was actually Rudolf really, but).

The fact Ange was brought in the first place in order to hurt her and then she's frantically trying to make it NOT hurt her is very interesting. Makes me kind of imagine Asumu as someone who heavily tries to suppress her bad sides, which would line up with Battler and Rudolf thinking she's an innocent, naive, innocent flower.

Battler doesn't want to accept that her mother wanted to hurt Ange but also like, Battler how happy do you think Asumu would be about being replaced in her family by someone who literally had plans to murder her? Of course, Ange doesn't have anything to do with it, but Asumu knows that too! She hates herself for feeling like that, too! Even though it's perfectly understandable.

"Spit on and forget about me"... I don't know Piece, I think Ange can acknowledge your existence and your pain while not having to do that.

Asumu solves this whole thing by literally erasing herself, by erasing memories of her, by eating herself alive in order to ensure the happiness of Battler and Ange, and... I can't help but find this ending extremely tragic. Piece erased herself, thinking she was an evil monster for the thoughts she had, even as she was fighting those thoughts the entire time and before they were even revealed she was trying to make sure they wouldn't hurt Ange...

Battler is grumpy about the fact he didn't get the fun the Higurashi cast had, haha. Unfortunately, I don't think those kinds of tea parties would fit the atmosphere of Umineko, really. I wonder if what Battler is saying is implying that r07 originally planned for something like that.

Erika is fucking DEAD.

I remember Virgilius but they mentioned they are 3 and I don't remember the other 2, actually..

No. 1

Oh that's the original form of the goat servants, haha. Making them headless is kind of interesting...

Bernkastel and Beatrice make fun of Battler for being too horny, but it's kind of funny to imagine making characters just having a fuck golf club-sized crotch, haha.

I can see Natsuhi fitting the image of a mistress, but it's a little hard to think of her as a witch roaming the halls, haha.

Lambda agrees! Haha.

I think you are your own witch with your own magic already, Natsuhi.

That line huh.... I guess it is a line that is extremely significant to Beatrice as a character, so it makes sense to make someone trying to play the role of Beatrice to try it out.

Virgilius is the other one, though Beato mentions she actually hadn't designed anything more than a couple sketches.

Virgilia does the opposite of this, funnily enough... you can tell why R07 rewrote having a character meant to mislead you to be introduced in ep3 when a lot of people gave up on ep2, it's kind of unfortunate, but Virgilia is cool as well.

That's what Erika does in EP5, mostly, but in further episodes her role and character drifted in other directions, I feel.

It's kind of funny because like. I think EP1 is a harder Episode than Ep2 to solve? Eva's involvement is a lot less obvious than Rosa's, and Kanon is more obviously suspicious in ep2 than Shannon's death was in Ep1

Wow, that's rude Lambda, I think Erika's post-5 character is actually more and more interesting every ep.

I am not really sure what exactly they were referring to here, from all the post-Umineko WTC projects, I haven't read any so ...

Anyway, I really liked Last Note. The mystery was a little simple, but I did enjoy having to revisit another character Battler had written off as more simple than they were. The ending felt a little rushed, I would have liked it if the episode had been a little longer. All the characters had really strong moments so I would definitely recommend to read this one! Asumu was an interesting character to explore in more detail, especially since all the information we get from her in the main story are from very biased sources. This also served as a showcase for how Battler, Ange, and Beatrice would act after their EP8 development which is very neat to see. Overall I really enjoyed it. I wish the translation was better, hope to finish learning Japanese at some point to read it like that.

#umineko #umisaku

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

how were engines 87546 and 98462 were sent away beside being spiteful , do you have any headcanons?

Eek, very sorry to respond to this one so late. Hope you see this.

I have several incidents I favor, but the problem is that whenever I come up with another idea I immediately think "oh hey that'll make a really good fic." And I live in the possibly deluded hope that I will actually finish the fics one of these days, ssoooo... I don't want to discuss really specific ideas for the chain of events that led to 87546 and 98462 getting the boot.

But, generally speaking, there are a few angles that I favor:

1.I have doubts that they were both sent away as early as Thomas the Tank Engine/1925. I think they stuck on for a while, perhaps a long while. They just didn't get speaking parts in the books and there was seldom any reason to show them. (In particular, if they stayed on I think the Fat Controller had a specific policy of leaving them "behind" in the boonies Vicarstown to keep them and their bad influence separate from the rest of the fleet.) I also tend to imagine they played a significant role during the strike, but again, there was just no reason to include that in the books.

2. In general, I don't headcanon them as acting with any dramatic evilness. I sometimes write them that way in fic but that's because it's more fun to read. But I reckon they were really mostly just your run-of-the-mill "ill-mannered" engines, as we see later in all the Mean Boastful Diesels who fail their Sodor trials three or four decades later. And they're not even notably more ill-mannered than, like, Gordon was originally. They just never changed.

3. My most idiosyncratic take: I suspect that in some ways FC1 used these two as a scapegoat for his own shortcomings tbh. Like I think he grew remarkably as a human being and as a manager in his early years in the job, but I'm not sure he realized the extent to which he had grown and changed. Which is a very human thing to do.

Like, I headcanon Awdry saying they were "rude" as taken directly from how FC1 himself explained who these two engines were and why they were sent away. (Coz, like? We've seen the engines he didn't send away, lol. They can be very rude to their fellow engines too.) And I imagine FC1 first began to construct this useful little narrative when he realized that, like, Edward and Henry and James in particular were to varying degrees just bundles of anxiety in 1925. And when he noticed this (hey, in fairness to him, he must have been real busy until he signed that agreement with the L.M.S. that same year) he instinctively tried to help.

But—what? A powerful white guy, acknowledging that his shortcomings as a manager directly contributed to his underlings' distress? Hey, it happens sometimes, even a hundred years ago! But is that likely to be his first hypothesis? Nah. That's not how successful business people work—with hard-hitting introspection and shit.

And then there's 87546 and 98462, like, right there. No doubt visibly and audibly being right dicks to his troubled iron children.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself well, but I do headcanon FC1 being like "a-ha. now that i'm paying attention i see that they're bullying the other engines. they must be the sole reason some of my other engines are so tense and fearful whenever i see them! and, indeed, now that i've sent them away (or even just arranged that they're kept at a distance), the others are growing more confident. definitely not because i'm making more of an effort to be consistent and fair, and i'm no longer casting engines aside for long periods of time or threatening big punishments for relatively minor infractions. nah. it was all 87546 and 98462. what rotters. so insidiously toxic."

87546 and 98462: *just sitting there, pretty normal jocks whose braggadocio is not otherwise noteworthy*

#fc1 con't: '... and. of course! my masterly handling of gordon has also kept a lid on any problems *he* might cause.' #gordon: *at that very minute a mere half a mile away recruiting other engines for the strike in broad daylight* #chatter #ttte #ttte headcanon #ttte analysis #early n.w.r. #87546 and 98462 #the railway series #the fat controller

[lokislytherin]

do you think ptj will do jaeyeol/jay’s character any justice? 🥲 i’ve read so many comments on reddit saying that ptj will just throw jay away because he’s served his purpose (attracting a large enough fanbase through queer-baiting) because jay’s potential to be a great character is just going down the drain (he’s the son of steve hong, he should he able to step in and help right? also big daniel is kidnapped and jay used to have such a strong “daniel is in trouble i gotta go help him” sensor so where tf is he?)

okay, but excluding all that, i think jay should be developed further as a character because he has so much potential that’s being wasted so far. i really hope ptj hasn’t forgotten about him and pulls an eli jang arc for jay because he’s super interesting to me, like i wanna know why he doesn’t talk, why he isn’t acknowledged by his family (?), where tf is he when all this is going down, what does he do in his free time, what are his likes (besides daniel lol)??? i just want to know more about him as a person IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK PTJ???

ahem, sorry for the rant, i just caught up to the latest chapter and i am FUMING because the last time we saw jay was in chapter 300+ and he wasn’t even that prominent in the chapter? i just miss when all we had to care about was daniel having to hide his 2 bodies from people, crystal being a snoop, jay and joy fighting over the same man, zack and mira’s relationship, zoe’s inner conflict not knowing she likes the very same person, etc. like what’s with all these new characters i do not give a single shit about? i loved the hostel chapters though but once they got to the worker’s arc, man…. pls just bring the original cast back.. this story is getting too much man..

so what do you think? 😅🥲

hello anon, thank you for the ask! hoo boy this is a big one so imma break it down into bitesized chunks if you don't mind

jay as the queerbait character: honestly i see where those redditors are coming from? insert a hot male character with a good, interesting dynamic with the mc who is also male, and you have the interest of women and queers! even if we don't count me being a jaeseok ship fic writer, i still really enjoy the dynamic they have, the only one that comes close for me is vasco and jace but to me jay's queer energy is too strong to see them as solid bros yk. as a queer who is horrible in social situations i kinda see myself in jay sometimes and it's really nice to have that TT

jay's potential as a character: anon you're so right. jay is the son of steve hong and honestly he could have a much bigger role to play not only as a character who can fight (because hello?? maybe jay's not the best in a dirty street fight but systema and kali are deadly in their own right) but also as a Plot Relevant Character? i've probably mentioned this before in other posts but he reminds me of khun maria agnis from tower of god: both were shown in early chapters and had a decently big impact on at least one of the main characters, both have long bangs and eyes that have not been seen in 300+ chapters, neither character has been seen in 200+ chapters i swear to god. maybe i'm on copium but i still believe that this is bc they're preparing for their comeback as an insanely OP character

more on jay's potential: dear ptj, where is jay's 1) backstory 2) CURRENT SELF. WHERE TF IS HE. as i've said before my predictions are 1) med school so he can be the 'call an ambulance! but not for me! oh wait i am the first aid' guy 2) preparing for his OP character arc

I MISS EARLY LOOKISM CHAPTERS TOO ANON. WHEN ARE ZACK AND MIRA GOING TO GET TOGETHER FOR REAL. LIKE WHERE'S DANIEL'S MOM. unless daniel went 'i'm going to get myself into a shitload of trouble do you mind looking after my mom for me in case things go wrong 🥺' and jay said yes at the cost of his canon appearances bc he's whipped. pathetic gay little man (affectionate)

i hope that answered things? i feel like you sent me a rant and i just ranted back with more speculations and headcanons LMAO

anyway join me let's hold hands and start a prayer circle for hong 'jay' jaeyeol's reappearance in canon anybody who misses jay is more than welcome to join bc i'm p sure jay's fandom is almost as big as samuel seo's tiddies and they're pretty damn massive, so ptj's bound to notice us and bring jay back as an Important Character... right...?

btw i'm not caught up with the manhwa oops. i'm only up to ep 394 but i'm speedrunning the latest chapters and my urge to punch eugene increases every chapter.

#rinanswersthings #lookism #hong jaeyeol #jay hong

[comphetkoncass]

superboy man of tomorrow 2 liveblog lets GOOOOO

obviously spoilers ahead

the cover is exactly how i feel about this guy. yes. squish him. he is pocket-sized. i will pick him up and squeeze him like a stress toy <3

every panel of kon getting hurt tbh (and for fellow kon whumpers. its a fucking FEAST.) <3 but also - that post going around that says ttk cant deflect energy, this is delightful acknowledgement of that. all my homies love when the ttk shatters like an old coke bottle.

obsessed with all the panels about him talking about trying to do this with ~style~, but also getting his ass beat and feeling like this is actually a workout. yes my child. tell me it's difficult. overcome <3

"this is what i wanted. me, on my own, against the scum of the universe" baby no

"no one is coming to save me. not clark, not tim, not cassie, not bart... not even kelex." BABY NO but also. prettiest boy in the galaxy. look at this shit.

the argument about not letting innocent people get hurt. kon you are . such a good person. i love you. u just never falter

intergalactic cloning lore!!! kon finding people who share shocking similarities with him!! i dont often like random characters but i'll admit i'm a fan of these guys. i'm even bothering to remember their names unlike how i treat most side characters (sorry. im a bad comic fan. however. there are so many fucking side characters. do you really expect me to remember everyones name who stays in a comic for less than 3 issues). anyways go pira! these guys are already bonding, i love them and want the best for them. thats right babes you take down that empire. maybe listen to kon about uhhhhhh not letting everyday civilians die in the property damage though. pls.

also there seem to be similarities with some of starfire's backstory? what is it with these alien races who want to clone, splice dna, and/or genetically alter existing races fr. kon and kory should bond over this i think.

kon has sooo much respect for his friends. i love that he keeps mentioning them :') this boy is a bonafide bff. ALSO. HAVE SOME RESPECT FOR YOUR OWN RESOURCEFULNESS HONEY... YOU GOT THIS!!!

"they think i'm just a weapon? well, if both sides are looking for a fight, they're in luck -- i'm just itching to show them what the house of el has to offer." YEAH BABY YOU ARE A PROUD PART OF THE HOUSE OF EL. YOU HAVE A FAMILY. <3 <3 <3

his dorky awkward little grin. ohhh my goddddddddddd. hes so fucking proud of himself. hes teaching them :') he thinks hes such a good role model. im going to squeeze him to death.

"i start to think about what conner kent would do AND ITS INFINITELY COOLER" YOU GO BABY. im so fucking obsessed with this. im having so much goddamn fun with this issue actually. they saw kon stans and they gave us exactly what we wanted. i feel so seen

whos ready to punch through a space fleet. me. im ready. im ready to watch you have the time of your goddamn life next issue.

overall i REALLY like this issue! i don't usually love the whole, "solo series in space" thing because it seems like an excuse to separate characters from the main cast and isolate them and make any growth happen outside of their friendships on earth, which often ends up pretty meh. however. this is fun and engaging and kon references his friends enough that i'm cautiously optimistic.

i do hope kon runs into other mainline characters at some point in this series though; anything to ground this more into main canon and make sure character development ties back to the main series.

#superboy man of tomorrow spoilers #kon-el #my SONNNNNN

[jess-moloney]

"Such an odd change has come over Jamie since Jess. Not for the better."-I wonder if Jamie is having some sort of identity crisis. He is getting older and possibly things are not going the way they should. We know his relationship is toxic crap but if he is not getting the roles he thought, and music is not going as planned then that could be weighing on him. Yes, he is getting cast but who is to say those are the roles he is looking to play. The fans love any music he puts out. He is highly talented but you can tell he is confused where to go. None of the people he covered country songs for or posted acknowledged him. Morgan Wallen didn't even give a thank you. He is busy hanging with Drake while both are getting dragged. This is why Jamie needs better people around him to give advice or say "hey, it is a good idea to unfollow or not post about X,Y,Z as they are problematic". Jess allegedly manages him so the advice or input she provides is straight s***. You would think since she is an alleged "expert" that Jess would be of some help to her partner. Especially knowing he may be naive when it comes to certain things or need help with picking the right projects. I will be honest, as much as I love Jamie being himself there are some things which he posts or people he follow that may prevent roles or projects coming in. If I see S&M pages or problematic country singers, why would I cast you in my movie? Why would I put you in my play? It may sound harsh but this is what people think. Your girlfriend has a reputation for plagiarism. Next.

I am saying this because Jamie needs to take control of his own life and career. Not letting a girlfriend be the sole focus. Learning to trust the right people. Most importantly, learning to trust yourself. Whether it is movies, tv, music or love Jamie has to place the focus on and believe in himself. The past couple years I think he has forgotten that. He is not some cowboy taking any type of work. He needs to be himself. Part of that is to let go of things that don't suit him and that includes the plagiarist fake manager.

I wonder if Jamie is having some sort of identity crisis. He is getting older and possibly things are not going the way they should.

I think this is exactly what happened when the band broke up and the Ruby thing happened simultaneously. It probably shattered him and made him wonder who he was, what he was, how he was handling his life if he was making the right decisions, all of that. Then Jess came along and took complete advantage of it. They were dating covertly for a year and a half.

He clearly didn't want people to know and since we are all very well aware that Jess wants the attention, there has to be a reason why she would be silent for that long. It was probably to get in his good graces, earn his trust, and manipulate him into whatever she wanted to be when he was completely broken and confused. If things were going well for him in any capacity back then or currently, he'd have never aligned himself with someone like Jess to begin with and I'm sure she took advantage of an identity crisis he was having well before this point. That's the only possible way she got herself into his life to this level.

If Jess officially manages him she's incredibly shit at it. If she's not officially managing him then she should be advising him that his current managers (whoever they are) aren't doing him any favors because she is the alleged expert, she allegedly loves him, and she is his partner. Why is she doing anything but looking out for him?

There is absolutely no proof Jess is any of the things that she's claimed to be, certainly not right now. Maybe at some point, she worked with a team at multiple talent management companies. Maybe when she left Donna Management she poached a handful of clients but she didn't manage to maintain them (which says all it needs to say). There's no proof of any marketing skills and no way to verify her story about going to or even graduating from LCF. She's said in interviews "you don't need to go to school" to do what she does but then also says that she got this degree from this prestigious university.

Her behaviour doesn't match her stories, her talent in management and marketing is utterly lacking, and no one acknowledges her outside of a very small circle of people...it's absolutely concerning what she's done (or currently doing to Jamie). We can only pray that he sees the light and eventually gets out of it before she does something that he can't easily escape from.

#jess moloney #jamie campbell bower #jamie bower #mail #apologies for the long reply

[juneviews]

[Re: ask about the Krist thread] 

Nooo I didn't mean you who ‘blindly joined the hate train’. I'm so sorry that my wording caused the misunderstanding. I only meant to say the thread was made to those who did, to at least offer other perspectives into the issues.

I did see your views on Krist and this pairing, which you have your own reasons for and are definitely entitled to. I only wish to say that while you do know more about him than many others and have seen him irl on stage too, I still don't think it's justified to use personal views to interprete or predict so surely how he'll act towards anyone in any given situation. The same applies to me as a fan of Krist (i.e. biased), I have expectations but can't say with certainty how the interactions between the two will be like, since I don’t know Gawin that well and it's a new environment I've never seen Krist in: a less familiar and also younger male co-lead, while having more experience compared to sotus era and an already established cp fandom. All of us don’t even know how the casting/recasting went, or if they’d met or talked before that. My point is, Krist should be criticised/educated for his wrong actions, and can be disliked for how he appears, but it doesn’t seem right for him to be judged or made fun of(?) by something people don't know the full context of (e.g. the casting decision, his teary eyes in G’s igs), or for something he just may or may not do in the future.

I mean yeah I can see your point anon. but tbh in almost every comment I've left about this situation, I've talked about the option of the show positively surprising me, even though I have very low expectations for it. but I also know from experience, from having seen krist in bl roles & straight roles, that he just seems more comfortable with a female co-star than a male one. can he surprise me with be my favorite? sure. I've also acknowledged the fact that gawin was likely chosen after krist did multiple screentests with other actors to find his best match, so who knows, maybe they're gonna have the best chemistry in the world. and if they do, I'll admit it. just like I've said that I think krist is talented before. but yeah at this point I am trolling about this project bc it's such a fucking mess & it brings me joy, so yeah. I really don't think it's that deep but I definitely won't tag krist's name in any of my posts about the series from now on.

edit: this anon sent me a second ask

[from Krist's fan anon]

I thought about it and realised it was rather impolite for a stranger to send anon ask on a topic not very relevant to you and your blog. I probably acted on a protective impulse sending the first ask, and I'm sorry that I've bothered you.. You don't need to reply to my second ask if you don't want to, I genuinely only needed to clarify that I didn't mean you who did that 🙏

I’m glad you realized this anon, and it’s okay. in fact I’m glad that we were able to have a polite & eloquent conversation on this topic bc I understand that it must be hard to be a fan of someone that people constantly shit on (though imo it is most of the time justified to a certain extent.) so it’s all good! I’ll probably continue memeing be my favorite bc once again that shit is too funny to me, but I don’t go around talking about krist every day of my life either. thanks for this third ask clarifying the situation!

xxx

#answers

[bougiebutchbitch]

I know the Sak/ura stuff happened hours ago, but I just happened to see it, and I have a couple Thoughts (along the same lines as you & the other anon were talking about - i'm not trying to convince you of my opinions or anything, i'm just casting them out into the world)

When I was first watching the original Naruto series, I honestly thought she was pretty annoying - but in fairness, I thought they ALL were annoying. And that's okay! Because they're all like 13 during that series, and who isn't annoying at that age?? I know I was for sure

But I think the reason I love her is mostly from what she could have been. And I think the scene from the chunin exams where she cuts her hair could've been the perfect turning point, where she could have realized that while she loves sas/uke, she's not IN love with him (no hate to people who ship them, I just don't) and could have moved on to being her own person

And I loved that she was at least slightly more mature during shippuden (and had the first akatsuki kill!!), but it seemed like every time sas/uke was mentioned, she almost reverted back to how she was at 13, and I think that's unfortunate

And obviously everything ends up coming down to the writing and the story, I just think that it's unfortunate how it ended because she seemed to have so much potential, but every time the story provided the perfect opportunity for her to fulfill it, she didn't and I just think it's unfortunate

Now obviously, she's not perfect, and did some kinda fucked up things (the way she treated nar/uto during the academy & while they were genin, and even during parts of shippuden, among other things), but I feel like that honestly gives her more potential or possibility for growth that she never gets

because that's the thing, people aren't perfect, good people do bad things sometimes, and bad people can do good things. Nothing is ever truly black and white

Anyways, I didnt mean for this ask to be so long, sorry about that

Nah that's super valid!

She had so much narrative potential as a character. Sadly, it felt like she was always made to play second fiddle to Naru/to and Sas/uke - whether she was fulfilling the in-universe acknowledged role of 'girl specifically put on a team to make boys fight over her, so the boys can become stronger', or only getting one badass boss fight against Sas/ori, while Nar/uto and Sas/uke have SO MANY AMAZING FIGHTS.

But y'know what? This could've been a REALLY INTERESTING THING TO EXPLORE.

Obviously, it's a bit cringe that so many of the 'main' women in Naru/to are medics (Sak/ura, Shi/zune, Tsu/nade, and In/o, I believe...). There comes a point where it's just feeding into the 'healing and nurturing support-class women' stereotype, even if medics are badass and they can Punch Stuff HardTM.

But if Kishi/moto had truly committed to giving Sakura more screentime and delved deep into what it's like to be a battlefield medic, the trauma of not being able to save everyone, and how she formed her own identity separate to the boys that wasn't centred around fighting... I would LAP THAT SHIT UP.

I mean, sure, she starts a therapy centre in Bor/uto... but I want more on-screen development!

I want her to slowly realise her own self-worth, and stop comparing herself to her two literal god-level teammates!

I want her to make a name for herself among civilians! Of Team 7, she's the only one born to civilian parents, and that's a link I'd love to see explored.

Of course, that's not possible, because Nar/uto is a shonen manga and the focus is always going to be on Wham Bam Big Fight Scene. Sak/ura could've had an incredible arc, but she's hampered both by the writer and the genre. I understand, but I think there were ways that the manga could've kept its shonen feel without doing her character such disservice.

Give me a Sak/ura arc where tensions between civilians and shinobi in the village are rising, and Nar/uto, Sas/uke and Kak/ashi are blind to the problem, because they're all so entrenched in the shinobi world. Give me a Sak/ura arc where she gains her own super badass technique and has her own boss villain to fight. Give me a Sak/ura arc where - maybe even after having Sar/ada! - she starts to question her relationship to Sas/uke and how she acts around him, and starts demanding more respect!

Obligatory note that I haven't watched much of Bor/uto so maybe Sak/ura and Sas/uke have a vaguely healthy relationship now and they've worked out all their issues... idk slkdfjhgksjdg

But just - yeah. She deserved better. As a result, I can understand why people disliked her in the anime, and loved her - for all the reasons you said.