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jakethesequel · 5 months

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My Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Review

From a long-long-time Scott Pilgrim fan.

Quick-form style:

PRO: The animation is stellar, does a great job at both adapting and upgrading the original artstyle with a bunch of motion.

PRO: I especially love all the little background references. Not just the ones related to the original comics or whatever either, there's a lot that are just aesthetic references to gamer stuff or Toronto landmarks (Honest "Ed's"!). Does a lot to make it feel more like it's really set in late 2000s/early 2010s Canadiana. I think you could fill a whole wiki just categorizing all the little connections they fit into every episode.

PRO: Truly a once-in-a-lifetime voice cast, I'm actually amazed they got the whole cast of the movie to come back after thirteen years.

PRO: Extremely funny with the jokes, as the comics and the movie both were, but even more concentrated, especially if you're sharp enough to catch all the background details and references.

CON: The main storyline feels rushed. More on that later.

PRO: Both the licensed soundtrack and the original compositions go fucking hard, rivalling the movie's already impressive album.

PRO: A lot of characters who didn't get a ton of development in the comics or movie get extra screen time and are seen in a new light that really fleshes them out as complete personalities where they might have been one-note before.

CON: A lot of the characters who were more important in the comics or movie have underdeveloped arcs in the anime, so they feel half-baked.

PRO: The scene-to-scene dialogue, and the way the characters socialize with each other, often feels fresh and real the way they were in the comics. It's cartoonish, of course, but they talk like long-time friends talk.

CON: Lisa Miller, my favorite tertiary character, was not included. Unforgivable.

Overall? Takes Off was an enjoyable addition to the series. Even with all its glitter, it's not as good as the original comics, but that's a high bar. I would say that Takes Off is equal or even better than the VS The World movie, and that's a good ass movie! The attention to detail and production quality is substantial in both. I personally think that the story in Takes Off had a little more substance, but I think opinions are going to vary strongly on that, and I can easily understand the other side. In any case, if you're new to Scott Pilgrim, Takes Off is a lot of fun, and if you end up liking it, the comics are even better. If you already enjoy Scott Pilgrim, Takes Off is a strong spin-off and worth watching.

Points heavier on spoilers below, and heavier on details as I slowly forget what "point form" means:

PRO: From the start, the first episode is bursting with love for the original series. There are multiple scenes that are shot-for-shot recreations of the comic, and it's a real treat to see the comic panels animated and voiced by the movie cast.

CON: Knive Chau's introduction is kind of brushed over. They basically say "Knives Chau: Scott's 17-year-old fake girlfriend (more on that later)." Except: There's never really more on that later.

PRO: A lot of the first episode's changes are done in a really funny way that fits the vibe. Obviously the Amazon -> Netflix change is just corporate politics, but delivering Netflix DVDs makes it feel like even more of a period piece. And changing Scott's awkward infodump from Puckman to Sonic cartoons - "one guy playing two versions of the same character" - is a cute lampshade hang.

CON: A lot of people are going to be turned off by the show's central twist. Everyone expected this to be an adaptation played straight, since that's what was advertised. It sure as hell shocked me when Scott "died"! I have no doubt some people are gonna have a more intense reaction and feel shitty about the rug-pull.

PRO: However! I came around on it pretty fast myself once I figured out what they were doing. While I would have adored a direct adaptation from the comics, I cannot complain about getting a brand new story by the original creator, and I think the whole AU idea of "what if Scott lost to the Seven Evil Exes" is a really fun one to explore! Regardless of execution, it's a cool concept and I kind of admire the balls of sucessfully pulling a bait-and-switch on such a major production. Managing to keep your main plotline a secret while working for a major production company and hiring box-office-topping actors is no small feat!

PRO: Again, the AU-fanfic-type stuff is a lot of fun. It's great how the League of Evil Exes finally gets to do their whole evil plan, and succeed in killing Ramona's date, then fall apart when they realize this didn't actually get them anywhere.

PRO: Also, while their fight does kind of unfairly nerf Gideon compared to his other appearances, it rocked seeing Matthew Patel clean house. I'm just a sucker for when a weak early enemy managed to usurp power through some bullshit. And of all the Evil Exes, he needed the glow-up the most, he got the least scenes out of any of them.

PRO: METRIC'S BACK!

CON: Even though he comes back to life, the funeral scene has weird vibes. Scott's friends and family reacted more emotionally when the comics did the "extra life" gag, but this is to their knowledge an actual permanent death. Even if she feels responsible, it's jarring that Ramona, who knew Scott for like two days and has an established habit of running from difficult feelings, seems more affected by grief than friends Scott that had known for years like Wallace, Kim, Stephen, even Envy. Hell, Knives was "dating" Scott for longer than Ramona's one-night stand, but she moves on quicker from the death of her fake boyfriend than her comic/movie counterparts do from just a breakup.

PRO: The casket just having spare change in it is a fucking great visual gag.

PRO: KIM PINE YURI???

CON: Kim's backstory and character arc gets shafted, and Scott's backstory loses complexity. More on that later.

PRO: There's less typical-late-2000s-loser type jokes about lesbians, and less catty bodyshaming, which is good. It might have been realistic dialogue at the time but it'd probably feel out of place in a modern production, even a period piece.

PRO: Related, Ramona has less internalized biphobia and doesn't make "experimenting in college" excuses about her sexuality. Some may feel like this simplifies her character, because her treating Roxie like an experiment is an important flaw, but I think it's a positive change. I'd rather her character be a bisexual girl with relationship issues than a comphet girl with relationship issues. The latter just reinforces bi erasure too much for me.

CON: Ramona inexplicably feels more loyal towards missing-presumed-dead Scott who she has had one date with than comic Ramona felt towards comic steady-boyfriend-of-several-months Scott, despite anime!Scott not getting to apologize for two-timing Ramona and Knives like comic!Scott did. I think this oversimplified her character and weakens her arc. More on that later.

CON: There's obviously an issue of balancing plotlines with runtime, but Roxie has a much more involved and interesting role in the story in the comics. She even moves in with Ramona for a while. The drama!

PRO: It's very cute seeing Knives hang out with the Sex Bob-omb crew on her own terms. She does that in the comics too, after she and Scott break up, but it's mostly offscreen unless Scott or Ramona also happen to be in the room. It's also a good addition to have her involved with the music herself rather than just be a fan.

PRO: Dead Kennedys needle drop. Fuck yeah.

PRO: In general, spending time with all of the Evil Exes is a lot of fun and does a lot of work to make them feel like well-rounded, fully realized characters. For me, I think this is the biggest benefit Takes Off brings to the series, and something that genuinely makes re-reading the comics more enjoyable. The Exes' scenes in their books pop more with the added detail to their personality from this anime.

PRO: Each Ex (sans Gideon/Gordon) gets their artstyle-shift backstory with Ramona lifted right from the comics.

CON: Even so, the Exes' appearances aren't totally even. Particularly Roxie, Todd, and Gideon/Gordon. Matthew, Lucas Lee, and the Twins benefit the most from the extra screentime, but every Ex has a few of their bumps shined off. Mostly in their backstories: while I love the flashbacks, they're all a lot less confrontational with Ramona about her own faults than their other appearances would suggest, again simplifying Ramona's story and weakening her arc. In previous appearances, many of the Exes were a lot less "fight Ramona's new BF to win her love back" and a lot more "fight Ramona's new BF because she broke my heart and I want revenge."

PRO: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost guest cameos!! That's how you KNOW it's an Edgar Wright project through and through

PRO: Young Neil becoming a cinephile and an accidental screenwriter is a great storyline, and the ongoing lampshading of adapting existing storylines makes room for a lot of good jokes at the creators' own expense.

PRO: WALLACE WELLS YAOI? Well, that much was more expected. But Todd Ingram/Wallace Wells yaoi? That's new ground!

CON: Again, it's a question of managing runtime and work-hours, but the Envy->Todd<-->Wallace love triangle isn't as interesting as the "taking a full page out of this volume for a relationship chart" love lattice from the comics, though it's still hilarious and a delight to watch. It would be fully in-character for Wallace to steal Envy's boyfriend, but that's nowhere near as juicy as the web of jealousy and desire between Scott+Ramona+Envy+Todd+Lynette+Knives(+Gideon, later on).

PRO: I'm glad they didn't re-cast Kieran Culkin, but I'm also grateful they wrote in a mea culpa about casting straight actors to play gay characters.

CON: Envy herself has very little character in the anime besides being Scott's bitchy famous ex-girlfriend, where the comics paint a much more sympathetic picture. Maybe an issue of Brie Larson being busy with Marvel, but unfortunate all the same. More on that later.

PRO: "Edgar Wrong"

PRO: Narration by Weird Al Yankovic

PRO: They have a lot of fun joking about Scott Pilgrim VS The World thanks to the set-up. I feel like every time there's an in-universe joke about adapting Scott Pilgrim (real life guy) into Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (movie) it also works as a fourth-wall joke about adapting Scott Pilgrim (graphic novels) into Scott Pilgrim VS The World (movie). If the writing was less tight I think it'd be grating and either feel too meta or too avoidant, but I think they walk that line with talent and make most lines work on both levels. It's nice to see the creators take a good-natured jab at themselves for the issues the real movie ran into adapting a not-yet-finished 6-volume comic into a sub-2-hour super-overbudget studio movie with a professional soundtrack from several major indie rock stars. That joke about the movie not being able to make up its losses didn't come from nowhere, unfortunately, but I'm glad they can laugh about it.

PRO: The Chau/Stills songwriting team is great. They develop their own friendship in the comics, too, but it comes to life way more here. It does see them relegated to more of a comic relief role, rather than their more complicated arcs in the comics, but more on that later.

PRO: Gordon Goose from North Bay Ontario is an inspired choice, as is him friendshipping it up with Lucas Lee after they're both broke, as is especially him hooking up with Julie. I could honestly even see them getting together in the comic or movie versions too, if the story had gone a little differently. They've got great chemistry that I never even considered.

CON?PRO?IDK: Gordon Goose from the anime is an entirely different character from the comic's Gideon Gordon Graves. Some parts could fit: him originally being a loser from North Bay, him hanging out with Julie and Lucas Lee, even the anime-binge depression spiral could fit if events conspired for him to lose everything. Other parts, though, are trickier. I mentioned that he was a far weaker fighter than in other works, but that's minor and idk maybe it's a rock paper scissors thing (Scott is stronger than Matthew, Matthew is stronger than Gideon, Gideon is stronger than Scott). The BIG changes are that he doesn't seem to have any of his evil genius plots going on besides the League of Evil Exes. In the comics, he infected Ramona (and later Scott) with the Glow, a kind of emotional infection that enables and encourages avoidance; and in the movies, he stuck a mind-control chip in Ramona. (Also in the comics he kidnapped and cryogenically froze his 7 ex-girlfriends sans Ramona in a giant machine to "save" them until he could convince them to take him back, because he's a massive fucking asshole.) He did both long before Scott and Ramona met, so it's odd that there's seemingly no counterpart in the anime. It's also super different that after losing his wealth he stops being obsessed with Ramona. Where the other exes might have been more revenge motivated, Gideon was the one who really did want to try and win Ramona back by any means. His main character trait is that he's pretty much incapable of letting go when women reject him. There's echoes of that when Julie talks about his high school years, which I think is a good addition, but it makes it odd that in the final few episodes he's almost entirely uninterested in Scott and Ramona. Maybe that's Julie's influence, but that's a hard sell without actually showing it. (Plus, Julie didn't want Scott and Ramona together either, so almost a shared goal.) All in all, this makes Gordon Goose feel way more divergent from comic/movie Gideon Gordon Graves than any other character is. Still, I'm hesitant to commit to calling this a negative. It's different, but it might have been a difference needed for Takes Off to do what it wanted to do. Part of me wonders whether a Gideon played a tiny bit closer to norm would have been better, but I'm not confident in that, so decide for yourself.

CON: Gideon/Gordon never mentions his fetish for dressing people (Envy in particular) up like dolls.

PRO: While I know time travel plots get tiring, I much prefer it to Scott just being dead, or someone having just kidnapped him regular style.

PRO: The aesthetic for future-Toronto - and especially Old Wallace's sugar daddy's Nintendo mansion - fucking rocks.

PRO: Old Scott's character design, both in his time travel gear and his street clothes, totally nails the "Scott Pilgrim from a Bad Future" assignment. No notes.

PRO: He keeps his X-Men jacket (of course) while literally playing out his own Days of Future Past storyline. You absolutely know he's loving that fact. He wants to be Cable so bad.

PRO: Lots of characters in the future timeline wear masks, and the bus has a little disinfectant machine. These are already kinda staple tropes for dystopian futures, but there's another layer that makes it even better: If you look at the timeline Old Scott lays out, saying that about 13 (or maybe 15) years have passed since Young Scott's era, it seems pretty clear to me that they're referencing the 13-year gap between the movie and final book releasing in 2010, and the anime releasing in 2023. Suggesting that Young Scott is from around 2010, and Old Scott is just from... this year. So it's entirely possible the masks and disinfectant aren't for ANY kind of cool futuristic reason, that's just how alt future Toronto dealt with Covid-19. Personally I find that detail clever and also hilarious, it really got me when I realized.

PRO: Old Scott, subtitle: 37 years old, looking a solid decade older than that. I know red hair can go gray quick but he is not looking great for his age. Which isn't at all surprising considering his lifestyle.

CON: Some people, especially those who were heavily invested in the Scott/Ramona relationship from the comics or movie, are going to be upset over Old Scott and the divorce/separation reveal. I get it. Especially in the comics, they go through a hell of a lot of growth, and learn to genuinely love each other in a way they never had with anyone else. It sucks to see them fall back to their worst habits, Scott turning a breakup into a neurotic attempt to fix anything except his own behavior, and Ramona running away from a relationship with zero communication or closure and creating another resentful ex.

PRO: However, I'm not one of them. I have my gripes with the time-travel plotline in general that I'll get to, but I think Old Scott and Old Ramona going through a separation and a rough patch after several years of marriage is realistic and an interesting place to go. The comic had (still has) the most deeply developed relationship between Scott and Ramona, and left them on the strongest footing possible for their happy ending. Even the comic, though, never really promised them "happy ever after," it just said that they had all the skills they needed to make their relationship work, and left it up to them to traverse that long journey. Now, maybe you disagree with me and you think that comic Scott/Ramona should have been able to handle a rough spot better than anime Old Scott/Old Ramona. Thankfully, the anime gives you an out here: Old Scott's VR photo album has a couple details that show his timeline isn't exactly the comic or the movie storyline, so we can avoid stepping on the toes of existing endings, and explore new possibilities without overwriting your old headcanons. Personally, I think that even with all the growth they've had at the end of the comic, it's believable that Old Scott and Old Ramona could have a big argument that leads to them temporarily separating. Even when you've got good interpersonal skills, big arguments happen, and even when you've worked on them, your gut-reaction coping mechanisms still come up. Whatever the argument was, it's not hard for me to imagine avoidant Old Ramona to put up space between her husband instead of dealing with a stressful argument. It's easy to imagine dumbass Old Scott interpreting their separation as a call for permanent divorce, and no matter the age Ramona Flowers is never the kind of person to proactively call up an ex to resolve a misunderstanding. I think it's a really interesting and juicy narrative choice. If they had really landed the execution with this, I would outright love it and think it was a great addition to their love story.

PRO: DP input for the VR vault which is a giant Game Boy. Sick.

PRO: THE VIRTUAL BOY! (Or "Virtual Guuy")

PRO: For some reason Old Scott bro-ing it up with the Old Katayanagis and making retro throwback music in the garage works really well? Like for some reason I could see it happen even in the comics continuity if they (a) came back to life and (b) did a redemption arc for kidnapping Kim Pine.

PRO: Callback to episode 1's sugar daddy joke, and they genuinely had me wondering if they were going to make Wallace hooking up with Scott on the rebound a thing.

CON: Honesty I think they should have just committed to the (not really that old) Old Man Yaoi! Live a little!

PRO: Silver Fox-y Wallace Wells living up to his destiny of being a rich drunk trophy husband. And aging more gracefully than Scott despite going fully gray.

CON: You've got to wonder where the rest of Scott's friends are. Again, we've got to consider the runtime, and that he's in an unusual life situation, but in the comics when he gets into a similar depressive funk, a lot of his friends and family reach out to him, and he tries to reach out to them. A "17 missed calls from: Stephen Stills" or a "Kim doesn't talk to me anymore" line might have gone a long way to excuse their absence. It's also notable that despite his extremely unsuccessful music venture with the Old Katayanagis, Old Scott seems to still be unemployed, which is an example of his character development being cut short compared to the comics. More on that later.

PRO: Old Ramona's character design is as stellar and on-brand aesthetically as Old Scott's, plus the benefit that Ramona actually knows how to dress cool. Fucking baller.

PRO: Also she looks exactly her age (not given in the show but likely 38). Not surprising given she's got a healthier lifestyle than Scott, but I guarantee her natural hair color has gone completely white by now. You cannot be doing a full bleach and dye job every morning ma'am! Those follicles are stone dead!

PRO: It's incredibly endearing seeing her try to undo Old Scott's time travel plan through giving Young Neil the screenplay, and even more endearing when she calls Scott her one true love. The contradiction between her thinking of Scott as her true love and going through this massive effort to stop his time travel plan, but not being willing to go to Old Wallace's house and actually talk to Old Scott, is great. It's the closest the anime has gotten so far to giving Ramona her original character arc, which really got sidetracked by Young Ramona playing Columbo. More on that later.

PRO: For those who weren't keeping track of the meta Scott Pilgrim story, it now goes: Scott Pilgrim (real guy, old timeline) -> Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, a memoir by Old Young Neil (memoir) -> Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (movie script adapted by Old Ramona, credited to Young Neil) + Scott Pilgrim (real guy, young timeline) -> Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (failed movie and making-of documentary) -> Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Musical (adapted by Stephen Stills and Knives Chao). It's also entirely plausible that all of these versions eventually inspire Old Young Neil to write his memoir and create a bootstrap paradox. Incredible. Plus, the musical part continues the metacommentary by being roughly analogous to the real-life anime!

PRO: Delorean rollerskates, need I say more?! Actually, the choice to use this kind of Back to the Future "one timeline that corrects and adjusts when time travel happens" is really smart. Especially when Old Scott says he doesn't want to send Young Scott back because he seems to always end up marrying and separating from Ramona regardless, or when Old Ramona's script doesn't stop the eventual divorce and Old Scott getting unstable. In this part of the story, it's a great way to show how them trying to literally change the past instead of resolving their current issues will never get them anywhere.

PRO: Old Ramona and Young Ramona failing to synchronize on a vibe for their photo

CON: This is where I started to feel the ending getting rushed. Over the final episode, it felt like all the existing plotlines sped on to a quick resolution to make room for the very sudden AK field and Even Older Scott climax, which itself felt in a hurry to finish.

PRO: Scott apologizing to Knives and taking responsibility for being an asshole creep.

PRO: Knives saying she's glad he's not dead but she's glad that it broke them up. Get his ass, Knives! He's earned it!

CON: While these are super important scenes to include for both Knives' and Scott's character arcs, and I'm super glad they made it in since it'd be weird if they left it unspoken, it does feel unearned. Scott has barely been away a couple of days, and it doesn't seem like either he or Knives have had the time for serious introspection they would need to get to this point. Scott could have been inspired to be better than Old Scott's example, I guess, but he clearly thinks of Old Scott as a different guy and doesn't feel responsible for Old Scott's actions. Even if the memoir/movie/musical/VR robot experience showed him Old Scott apologizing at some point, I don't buy that he's emotionally intelligent enough to internalize doing it himself, and if he did it would still feel unearned because he'd basically be following a walkthrough rather than understanding it himself. And Knives? From her perspective, in a couple of days her inappropriately older fake boyfriend introduced her to his band, cheated on her, and then died. Since then she's been hanging out with his old band rather than any friends her age, and writing a musical about the life of her dead ex. She has not been in a position to realistically process that their relationship was fucked up. Both the apology and Knive's response, though necessary, feel rote rather than genuinely felt.

CON: Likewise, Ramona and Scott being so madly in love when reunited. They've known each other for one and a half dates, 1.75 at most. Scott is slightly ahead because of the VR memories and meeting Old Ramona, but not by much. Now, Scott is honestly the kind of guy to fall headfirst into a romantic fantasy with a woman he's barely met, but Ramona is not, as shown in the anime when she decides to pull back and not have sex on the first date. In the comics they take things pretty slow to accomodate her needs there, not moving in together, not saying "I love you" for a while, taking a break from each other midway through, they go for a couple volumes before she even tells him how old she is. It's super out of character for her to go head over heels like this without hesitation. She has been trying to solve his disappearance for a while, but that hasn't really caused her to get to know him any better. Someone might argue it's because she's seen how their lives play out in Old Ramona's movie, but that has uncomfortable elements of predestination and denying free will that I'd rather not think about. If I was trying to fix this, I'd maybe say that talking with her exes and making peace with them while looking for Scott helped her get over her issues, or that being more impulsive than comic/movie Ramona is actually timeloop-style the reason their future marriage is unstable. But that would all be fanfic, it's not present in the actual text, so I've got to call this one against the anime's favor. In general, the anime tends to take a very love-at-first-sight ("sparks") view on love, which is in opposition to the comics' more mature view of love as an ongoing practice. More on that later, maybe.

PRO: AK (Anti-Kiss) fields taken visually and conceptually straight from Evangelion's AT (Absolute Terror) fields. I'm a sucker for eva! This and a few other references seem to make clear that the creators are gunning for Takes Off to be to Scott Pilgrim as the Rebuilds are to NGE.

CON: I genuinely don't think Old Scott is smart enough to come up with this. I know the Old Katayanagis are said to have designed the nanomachines, but I don't mean the technical side, I mean the strategic side. Scott is pretty stupid, bless him. Old Scott is still not very smart. Scotts Pilgrim are just not the kind of guy to ever consider a Plan B. I just don't buy that Old Scott would ever think to himself "I should have a backup plan in case my first doesn't work," he's too confident and too stupid for that. The AK field feels like a red herring for Gordon Goose going evil again, since it's similar to the Glow and mind-control chip, but it ends up going away without much fanfare. Even Older Scott even admits they would always figure out a way to get rid of it, so it's kind of a lackluster final mystery.

PRO: All of the evil exes showing up the musical but being totally uninterested in fighting Scott is a fun reversal of the norm. Especially the Katayanagi twins being totally fine acting on prophesies of bro-ship from their special little vegan robot oracle.

PRO: Despite being a downgrade from megalomaniacal genuinely evil ultimate villain to greedy but affably evil Saturday-morning-cartoon villain, seeing Gordon Goose get back to sinister plots is a big plus, and "It wouldn't hurt any of us! ...Maybe some cast and crew," is a great line for him. Even when he tells Even Older Scott that he has no interest in what's going on and wants to go back to the play, though it's an unthinkable sentiment from obsessive comic/movie Gideon, the line goes out with enough confidence and disrespectful disinterest that for me it actually makes up for it!

PRO: In general, I love when a show gets an opportunity to bring the whole cast to the event, putting all the personalities on display. Especially a formal event, because then sometimes you get fun new outfit designs! In Takes Off it feels even more special because this isn't just all the characters getting together at Scott Pilgrim the Musical for a last hurrah, it's also metatextually all the creatives from previous Scott Pilgrim projects reuniting against the odds in Scott Pilgrim the Anime for a last hurrah.

P: Speaking of all the characters getting together, there is - by technicality - an appearance by Lisa Miller, one-hit-wonder extraordinaire, in the finale. She's in the crowd of graphic novel characters drawn in to populate the musical's audience, face partially obscured. I do not consider this a proper appearance and will still count the lack of Lisa against the anime. However, in the sprit of fairness, I will offer a partially obscured PRO for this cameo.

PRO: Even Older Scott has clearly given in to the Satsui no Hado! Design elements like the hair, bandana, raggedy gi, wrist wraps, and inexplicable tan all call to mind Akuma and Dark Ryu from Street Fighter. I wonder if the Shoryuken input for Old Scott's vault was intended to tie in to this?

PRO: Even Older Scott acts like Master Roshi even though he's only 47. That's only like, Bulma in Dragon Ball Super years, man! How are you that buff but aged that poorly?

CON: Even Older Scott's plan makes zero sense. You've seen Back to the Future. You can't kill your younger self, dude! Total paradox! You'll cease to exist and therefore can't have killed your past self and therefore your past self should exist blah blah blah.

PRO: Even Older Scott is absolutely stupid enough to have tried it anyway. Especially after 10 years isolation.

PRO: "Even Older Scott VS Everyone" and "The World VS Scott Pilgrim" are nice wordplay, I'm here for it.

CON: The confrontation between Young Scott (and associates) VS Even Older Scott lacks emotional stakes, since it kinda came out of nowhere. There's the AK field, but Even Older Scott says they would figure that out anyway. There's the barebones stakes of Even Older Scott turning everyone into spare change, but nobody really seems to be afraid of that as a threat, and it's confusing what that would even mean with the time loop. Their dialogue suggests kind of a philosophical conflict between Even Older Scott trying to control Young Scott's life, and Young Scott wanting to make his own choices, but that also seems undercut by the time loop: if Young Scott was actually going to make different choices, Even Older Scott wouldn't exist. Maybe this is just the dialogue having some trouble getting the conflict across? They could be going for Even Older Scott futilely trying to change the past, VS Young Scott wanting to have the freedom to make those choices even if it causes him to suffer in the future, "better to have loved and lost" and all that. That's thematically cohesive so I think it was their intention, but I don't think it was communicated well in the fight.

PRO: Nevermind anything else, the fight scene itself is fucking fantastic. Expressive and punchy animation everywhere, banger music, and a chance to show off just about every character's personality as they contribute to the fight! Even some characters who haven't had major animated sequences yet get a shot in the spotlight, and often with a bonus to boot, like Knives finally getting her trademark knives from the comics/movie! We get even more chemistry between the characters when they team up and work together for combo moves, so not only does it give a moment of glory to everyone's individual personality, it gives us a spectacle to the relationships they've built, too. The circumstances surrounding the fight might not make a lot of sense, it's unclear why they're fighting or what they're fighting over, but in HOW the cast fights this whole sequence evokes an astounding amount of character.

PRO: Even Older Ramona. Gets another great design. Actually looks her age, and good for it. Actually looks like Bulma in Dragon Ball Super.

PRO: Even Older Ramona, to her credit, returns her original character arc. She stops running away from the romantic messes she's left behind, and comes back to fix it. A+

CON: I don't buy that Young Ramona has internalized that message enough to mind-meld about it. Ramona after 13 years of marriage and 10 years to think about it, sure. But not Ramona on her third actual date with Scott, 3.25th at best.

PRO: Human Instrumentality Quantum Super Reimona I'm drowning in Evangelion references here

PRO: Super Ramona finalizes Ramona's missing character arc! It might be a bit rushed, but it is a complete character arc. It might have taken her 23 years longer than the comic, but hey, this is a different story working at a different scale. They got there in the end.

CON: Even Older Scott never really gets his character arc. Super Ramona gives him a second chance and reverses his villain arc, but he's really at the same place at 47 that he was at 23, which kinda sucks. But, more on that later.

PRO: Super Ramona's "it's never too late to try and mend what you've broken" ending still leaves open the possibility of a rekindled Scott/Ramona romance, and at the very least implies they stop isolating themselves and develop a healthier, friendlier relationship. As far as I can tell, this fully resolves the timeloop AND gives a relatively happy ending to a complicated romantic relationship, both of which are hard as fuck to write. I salute the writers. Even if Scott and Ramona are destined to have a falling out 13 years down the line, they're also destined to forgive each other after 23, and who knows, maybe they've got a chance to get back together again in after 24. It's a messier narrative than the comics to reach the same basic message, but in it's own special way it's still beautiful.

CON: It does kinda leave Scott and Ramona's non-romantic relationships in the lurch, though, after a decade-long absence. Even Older Wallace deserves a thousand apologies and a foot massage for putting up with these two.

PRO: I love a good "where are they now" sequence! Matthew, Gordon, and Julie settling their differences and sharing the evil plots amongst themselves. Young Neil driving the mario karts on movie sets. Stacey getting some eye candy at the café and resolving Julie's joke from earlier about Luke getting a job there. Good stuff.

PRO: Knives fully joining Sex Bob-omb is a particularly genius choice.

PRO: It's true. As an anglo Canadian, our French does suck. (Our schools can never decide whether to teach us Parisien or Québecois and we end up speaking neither)

CON: Is it bragging if a Netflix show includes a scene of a video rental place shutting down? Feels like... when a cat wants to show off the mouse it killed lol

PRO: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost eating Cornettos. Magnifique.

PRO: Also hey! It's Mobile! Wallace's boyfriend from the comics! He's also psychic! And I guess works for Nintendo also? Damn, he's the total package.

CON: No real representation for Lisa Miller, the world's best D-list failgirl! 0/10

CON: NO STEPHEN STILLS YAOI! I joke, but I do consider it a major flaw that Stephen Stills never gets to come out. The movie got a pass because he hadn't come out in the comics yet, but there's no excuse here. The subtly concealed subplot in the comics of him breaking up with Julie and coming out of the closet in the comics is one of my favorite parts, and in the anime all he gets is an ex-girlfriend with no reference to him coming out at all.

CON: In fact, almost all of the original supporting cast gets this treatment. Scott, Wallace, Stephen, Knives, Kim, Envy. Even arguably Ramona, despite being the new protagonist. While their jokes are fun and it's a treat to see their personalities on screen, their pre-existing character arcs get neutered, disappeared, or straight up reversed. Sure, though I hate to admit it, it makes sense to cut Lisa's character, since she has no reason to show up in the first place if Scott's gone. But the rest of the supporting cast were the heart of the original comics; Their complex development over the books is what made the comics so special in the first place, and it's a heart all adaptations and spinoffs since have mostly lacked. I want to go into more detail on how these characters got done dirty, but I'll save it for another post. I'll link it here if I ever finish it.

PRO: Through the whole show, it's clear everyone loves Scott Pilgrim in all its forms: comics, movie, video game, anime. Bryan Lee O'Malley, Edgar Wright, the entire movie/voice cast, Metric, Anamanaguchi, and now Science SARU clearly have a lot of passion for these characters. There's a ton of work put in to bring this to life that wouldn't happen if they didn't genuinely care for the series. You think Chris Evans isn't getting better offers?

PRO: THE FUCKIN PLUMTREE SONG THAT STARTED IT ALL. FUCK. YES. WHERE MY HALIGONIANS AT

A NOTE IF YOU'VE GOTTEN THIS FAR:

I know I've written a lot about how the anime doesn't compete with the comics, or where it's fallen short, but I want to be clear that I actually really really like the anime. I think it's great! It's clearly a labour of love. It's just a lot easier to write a lot of words analysing parts that fail than parts that succeed. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off succeds at A TON OF THINGS!

I would honestly say that it succeeds far more than the movie, and people love that movie, myself included! It's a cult classic! The Scott Pilgrim graphic novels are just that good that it's hard for spinoffs to match up. If you ask me they're some of the best comics ever made, but I'm long biased by my personal history with them. You can never really be neutral about a high school favorite.

I think "spinoff" there is the right word, despite the show's marketing. It's not an adaptation by any means. It's not a sequel. It's doing its own thing, and it did it really well. If you expected an adaptation, I understand your frustration, it's shit as an adaptation. But I'd encourage you to give it another chance as a spinoff, it has a lot of value to add to the whole Scott Pilgrim experience, just as much as the game, and just as much as the movie.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim takes off #scott pilgrim vs the world #ramona flowers

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borderchess49 · 2 years

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egg-emperor · 2 years

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I think I’m mixed on whether Eggman is more popular or not. On one hand I think he is since he’s talked about more and I see more fanart of him than in the early 2000’s, but then there’s a lot of misconceptions and wishing he was no longer the villains of games. He definitely was more popular when the 2010’s first started out. I remember a lot people happy to see him be the final boss again, but after the 2010 games began to lose favor people began associating him and him beinga finalboss withit

He is definitely more popular than he used to be, at least from my experiences. I've been a Sonic fan since Heroes and I've been looking up Eggman content online for years. Both Eggman haters and fans have always existed but he's become a more popular subject over the years as both sides have gotten louder. It's a good thing on the side of more people recognizing how great of a character he is, but not good for the way misconceptions and misinterpretations have become more prevalent.

I never saw a whole lot of talk and content for him but there was some on places like forums and fan sites, which was something. There was some great art on DeviantART and I found a couple of fics where he wasn't terribly written but that especially was very rare. Compared to the anthro characters, he's always been one of the more forgotten and ignored and that's still the case today, even if he is more popular than he used to be. Not too much has changed when it comes to classic/modern Eggman.

Unless I wasn't looking in the right places and you really had to dig for it, there wasn't a whole lot of Eggman related talk or content on most sites. Definitely not more than today, probably less. There was hate for him around that was easy to find, like misconceptions that still exist today, his mistreatment in fics, those that put him down compared to SatAM Robotnik and other villains, those that drew crude joke/hate art, those that redesigned him to be a young skinny anime boy or anthro, etc.

The 2010s is definitely where I started to see more talk and content for him arise. I did used to see more people that were happy that Eggman was the main villain again in games like Colors and Generations. But now so many wish he wasn't the main villain and they're somehow blaming him for recent final bosses being copies of the Nega Wisp Armor. They're also starting to get tired of him being the main villain because they favor the 'cooler' typical edgy and monster of the week villains.

It seems those that overlook and ignore his qualities have been much louder more than ever though, especially on Twitter as discussion of him that involves more hate than praise has been enough to get him trending two times within the past four months. As Eggman has gotten more popular over the years, the haters have sadly also increased and it doesn't help that the misconceptions that some hate him for have been supported by a certain piece of official media for a while now.

He still doesn't really have a whole lot of fans to defend him in comparison to those that hate on him, or at least the latter are the loudest and easiest to find. He's also always been much less popular than all the anthro characters and still is. And I mean classic/modern Eggman, not Boom and Jimbotnik, as I've found those tend to be the more popular versions in the fandom spaces I've been in. But even in 2021, while he is more popular than before and it's good, game Eggman still doesn't get as much praise and defense as I've always wished he would.

I always contribute as much as I can in my own way as he's very important to me as my favorite character ever! When people are shitting on him and spreading misconceptions, I'll always be one of the fans that appreciate and defend him as the brilliant character he truly is. 💜

#asks #dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #my post

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mrdrhenwardhykle · 3 years

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So, I had this thought process

I've been thinking a lot about that Adam Sandler movie "Pixels", and I think I just wrote a summarized alternate plot for it in my head and I need to write it down.

Okay;

Let's start by brainstorming on writing better and more relatable protagonists. For many, this movie is very hard to watch because it almost feels like a bunch of middle-aged guy's writing in nice-guy self inserts of themselves to feel better about whatever mid-life crisis they're having. And maybe this wouldn't be too bad if their characters were just a bit more than "middle aged creep who lives in his mom's basement is secretly a romantic warrior when put in the right scenario".

At least for me, it's very hard to relate to that kind of protagonist; given how that character is usually the most developed out of all the characters in this type movie. I often find that it's hard to relate to nerdy nice guy characters who often get away with the lack of likeable qualities just because "life should have treated them better". It comes off more as a pity-party more than anything, and their unmotivated dynamic with the "out of their league" love interest, who always comes off as nothing more than a trophy and\or act as an excuse to get the climax rolling in the last 20 minutes after getting captured by the big bad.

So then, how would I write an 80's nostalgia themed adventure movie? What, say, would you think would be a practical way to write the main cast in a way that audiences new and old can relate? Easy; If your intention is to give your entire audience a wave of nostalgia, but to still keep it relatable, then why not make your main cast kids? (credit to Black Nerd Comedy for that idea) I would probably suggest between the age of 12 and 16, and maybe with the occasional big brother\sister type characters and some of their friends . Kids often have a ton of freedom, a large imagination, basic priorities, and a lot less worries than adults. Just about anyone should be able to relate to that, since everybody either was or is a kid at some point of time. And I'm not saying that you can't write for\relate to older protagonists, but you don't want to alienate your audience, especially when making something that might catch the eye of a younger crowd.

Not to mention that ever since the 80's, kids have always been a major player by the impact of technology. For some reason though, the plot of Pixels doesn't really have to do with technology. There's guns and contraptions that are specifically made to destroy the pixels, but it doesn't really go much father than that with the tech. The plot more focuses on going on the "alien invasion" route (which I would think would be more 60's sci-fi based than 80's, which was more experimental in cosmic horror with its alien media)(not including Space Invaders. Shush. That does not count). Honestly, I think 80's nostalgia can be replaced with just about anything when it comes to a "shape-shifting aliens who mimic earthly cultures" plot. It's very basic, yet it doesn't really fit in with the theme of arcade games. It just comes off as a poor excuse for pandering to 80's kids, instead of using that element to bring up interesting concepts and world-exploring in this universe.

So I have two solutions for this, either;

A. Do not do a time jump, and keep the story in the 80's. Make it an alternate universe where different forms of consoles and computers are being developed. Maybe the adult characters are very unfamiliar with these changes, but allowing for the kid characters to have more of an advantage because that stuff would be more relevant to them. Because this was before a time where kids often thought about becoming programmers, it will also work as a disadvantage to the kids because they won't have an excuse to suddenly know how the opposing side works.

Or B. It takes place in a modern era, with Virtual reality, game consoles, and laptops, but it doesn't overly modernize itself with teens on phones, saying outdated things like "lemmie just take a selfie" saying "hashtag" out loud, or any junk like that (Because guess what? Teens and kids don't usually act like that). Maybe make the environment time neutral by making it a mix between the 2010's, 2000's, 1990's, and 1980's. I don't really think it's relevant enough to work in a present setting.

And lastly, let's talk about the big bad of the movie.

Really in Pixels, it's more of a self-struggle either projected upon others, or manifested into it's own being for the protagonist to succeed. There's not really a lot of leg space for anyone else to develop other than the main character (and perhaps something happens occasionally to the comedic reliefs\mascot characters). I imagine maybe this version doesn't have just one central character\plot, kind of like Stranger Things. However, unlike Stranger Things, I would also like a compelling and intriguing villain. Sadly, Pixels doesn't really have that; i has Donkey Kong, but he's nothing more than an alien catering to the protagonist's inner struggles (and nostalgia). There's nothing really more to DK other than that, so there's not a lot of difference between him and any of his previous minions.

And there's nothing really compelling about DK; because at least in canon, he's just a scared circus animal. There's not a lot of reasoning behind his actions other than to just invade. It's basic alien stuff like I said before, it can basically be replaced with some other theme than arcade games.

So what would be a compelling antagonist? Foils to the main group of characters (such as an older school bully, or maybe twisted programmers), create conflict, but if we're keeping the theme of attack of the machines and videogame characters, there has to be a bigger bad than that.

Oh! If only there was an already established villain-coded, tech-based, 80's icon with the ability to control almost all technology!

....

Trust me, I'm onto something!

Max Headroom was always presented as an egotistical talking head. He had multiple shows in the 1980's, as well as guest starred on multiple shows. Perhaps Max survives off of his viewers, and constantly strives to expand his audience. Max does not tend to care about other's well beings, and just wishes to use them as a way to gain publicity for his shows. Max also has a tendency to step over whoever he needs to to gain popularity, including his own film crew.

Max also has multiple canon abilities such as:

Being able to transfer to any screen (including arcade games)

See and interact with the people watching him

Control more than one screen

Interact with himself from one screen to another (multitask)

Turn on and off lights (and likely other outlets as well)

Manipulate the visuals of the screen that he's controlling

All of these abilities can be expanded and explored enough to set him up as a powerful and unpredictable villain.

I've also came up with a couple motives as well;

A. If this is in a modern era, Max could be suffering from a long hiatus since he hasn't been that active since the 80's; causing Max to seek as much attention to thrive off of as possible. To do this, Max hijacks as many outlets as possible to air his show. He might also use this as a way to repel audiences away from all other media; making it easier to turn to him for entertainment.

B. This takes place in an alternate universe where Max Headroom became more popular than it originally was. He starts taking over half of ads and television shows on air, getting more power hungry with each channel he takes. However, in his media take-over, ratings take a slight drop due to uninterested children who have turned to other outlets like toys, videogames, and arcades. This inspires Max to take a full takeover over everything electrical, causing a full invasion of all things electrical.

(I also forgot to mention that Max very likely hates children, and has canonly protested the execution of all of them)

Bam! And there you have it. A slightly more efficient plot for Pixels.

This was rotting in my head for a while and I wanted to let it out. Sorry for the ramble.

#pixels #plot ideas #movie ideas #1980s nostalgia #rambeling #80s nostalgia #ramble #max headroom #pixels inspired #goonies inspired #tropes #arcades #pixels 2015 #goonies #adam sandler #writing rant #rant

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mahou-queen · 3 years

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⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚lolita fashion then vs now: how the fashion has changed over the last decade ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

I started getting into lolita fashion in 2010 and so much has changed in the fashion since then. Trends, websites, community opinions, etc. So I thought we should take a look into the past and reminisce about lolita fashion since 2010~~

Everything below is based on my personal experience and perceptions in the egl community. These are not necessarily facts, and other lolitas may not agree or relate to everything stated below.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

✿❀Rectangle headdresses:

At the height of 2010-2012 sweet these types of headdresses were not in style. They were considered ita and absolutely taboo for new lolitas. At the time the community was trying really hard to separate themselves from lolita cosplay and maid cosplay which were both really popular at the time especially at cons where a lot of lolitas would also be. In recent years with the resurgence of old school lolita, rectangle headdresses are back in style and I personally couldn't be happier as I have always liked them.

✿❀Animal ears:

Also considered ita and taboo for its associations with cosplay. Today we see a lot of animal ears, particularly bear and bunny, sometimes cat but not as much. Even big brands like angelic pretty are releasing animal ears regularly. While they can definitely still be ita if they are costume quality or irrelevant to a coord, they are definitely back in style and looking very cute

✿❀Chiffon half blouses:

The 2010 sweet era was all about cotton blouses. And while cotton blouses are still alive and well, these days we have the wonderful chiffon half blouse. Very comfortable, more size inclusive, light and pretty. These were not in style/ not widely available when i first got into lolita.

✿❀Low collar blouses:

Absolutely existed, but were not as in as they are now. Peter pan collars and high necks were all the rage, these days with the prevalence of chiffon blouses, we are seeing a lot of slightly lower neck lines.

✿❀Chocolate explosion:

Around 2013, it seemed like every release was chocolate themed. All these chocolate prints came out in 2013:

Angelic Pretty started transitioning into “sweet classic” around 2014 which was when I took a break from the fashion.

✿❀Split wigs:

Split wigs were super popular in the early 2010s both in natural and unnatural color varieties. These day some people would say they’re ita but I think the fashion has come to a really nice place of balancing old and new styles so many loltias still wear split wigs and wear them well.

✿❀Circle lenses:

When i got into lolita it seemed like circle lenses were almost mandatory. They were a part of every makeup tutorial, every popular lolitas coord, circle lenses were everywhere. I could never wear them due to my astigmatism so I was always upset about circle lenses. I am glad to see they have not been prominent in recent years.

✿❀Replicas:

It seemed like replicas were everywhere, everyone had one, they were generally accepted, and promoted by other lolitas. Dream of lolita was making replicas of all the major AP prints and filled the pages at clobbaonline, oo jia was a facebook based brand that made the most convincing replicas available. Replicas still exist but since 2011 major bans have been placed on reselling them and reputable resellers stopped carrying them for the most part. They are not celebrated and most lolitas are against them now.

✿❀RTBU:

Refuse to be usual was a taobao reseller on ebay in the early 2010s. Idk if they are still around but i know they up-charged more than twice the price of the item. Secret shop tea parties were going for $95 on rtbu. They had hit or miss reviews and a lot of people didn't trust them. I never bought from them but i did window-shop

✿❀The only real resellers were clobbaonline and qutieland:

Clobba did not have a full website, only a gallery where you had to place your inquiry and order via email. These days clobba has a fully functional website with a wishlist and shopping cart feature. Qutieland no longer exists. These days we have seemingly endless taobao reseller options of varying quality

✿❀Egl comm sales:

I never figure out how this worked because lacemarket took over not too long after i got into the fashion. But it was an entire second hand market being run out of livejournal. It seemed very Intricate

✿❀Bodyline:

Ohhh bodyline in the early 2010s. The lace monsters, mr yan, the sundries department, the items never restocked, good times. I have 3 bodyline main pieces these days and I love them and plan to keep them for as long as i'm in the fashion because they are cute, comfortable, and the prints look good. There was a time in the mid 2010s where bodyline and people who wore bodyline were scoffed at and everyone who had only burandoo thought they were better than everyone else. But these days with the booming lolita industry in china (on taobao) and even western brands getting bigger, the emphasis on brand is becoming less and less and what makes good lolita is based more upon actual quality and coordination skills and less on the tag.

✿❀My old dream dress list:

I never got any of these and many of them would never fit me anyway. I did get sweetie violet but in lavender as I no longer like the sax colorway and I don't know why I ever did.

My favorite lolita online at the time was @herajika-blog

✿❀bonus:

Sweetrococo.com, does anyone remember this place? You could allegedly design a lolita dress yourself with any colors/prints/images from the internet and they would make it for you. I remember designing a my little pony skirt on the site for fun and not getting it because it was $200 LOL. I swear that site was a fever dream.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚as we can see a lot had changed in the lolita fashion community and trends over the last decade. Do you remember any of these things? What is your experience? I really enjoyed this trip through memory lane. And while sometimes i miss the times when i was just starting out, these days the lolita community is so much more accepting, more accessible, and more experimental. It doesnt even seem like there are trends right now, just that any trends are ok as long as theyre lolita. What do you think?˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

#lolita fashion #egl #j fashion #egl fashion #sweet lolita fashion #egl community #jfashion #sweet lolita #kawaii #then vs now #lolita history #op ed

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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Why I (Want To) Love Amphibia

Salutations random people on the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. If you've been paying attention to my posts, you would have known that I made a top twenty list of the best-animated series of the 2010s. And if you read my Honorable Mentions list, you would have known that I consider Amphibia one of those shows that, while I like it, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's one of the best. Don't get me wrong. It's good. But there are issues that I have with Amphibia, and I can't recommend it without being hesitant. I still like it fine, but I doubt some people will be as forgiving as me. So I'm going to explain the quality and faults that the show has, while still being considerate to those who do love it. Because unlike some people who would make a two-hour-long video essay about how much they hate something, I can at least acknowledge that while something doesn't entirely work for me, that doesn't mean it won't work for everyone else. Because there is a reason why this show has such a following...I don't think it's earned, but I won't knock people down when they love something I find passable. And I hope that respect goes both ways as I explain why I (want to) love Amphibia.

Also, this review is going to contain spoilers for the entire series. So if you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend you do it to form your own opinion. Season one is on Disney+, and you're on your own for season two. And I suggest you find a legal way to watch it if you can, because I'm not going to leave a link to a pirating website filled with every animated series and movie you can find. And I'm definitely not going to insert that link into a random letter in this review with the thought that if you have to pirate something, then you might as well work for it. Because that would be crazy.

...

Stop being crazy.

....

Anywho, let's start with:

WHAT I LIKE

The Comedy: Let it be known that this show is funny. Like, really funny. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's funnier than Gravity Falls, which got me chuckling with every episode, but Amphibia definitely hits more than it misses. There are occasions when the jokes aren't really character-oriented and could be said by anybody in the Plantar Family, but if they're still funny, then who am I to complain. Although there is one issue that I have with the comedy. But I'll save that for when I talk about what I don't like. For now, I can assure you that if you're hoping for some laughs, Amphibia has plenty to offer.

Warnings Against Toxic Relationships: But even the best comedies know when to offer some substance. Because I won't lie, when Anne described what is clearly a toxic friendship in the second episode, I was hooked. I love it when kids shows breach topics that can be important for children down the line. And for the most part, I think Amphibia does it well. There are so many instances that the writers' point out the several red flags that a person should avoid when it comes to a friendship and when it's time to either cut that person from your life and stand up for yourself. One of my favorite episodes is "Prison Break," where Sasha explains how she manipulates people and shows zero remorse for it. Then there's the episode "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers" that shows how a person's influence can affect others and how much it changes perception as Anne and Marcy still believe they need someone like Sasha in their lives...At least I hope that's what the intention is. Because if the writers are trying to say that Anne and Marcy really need someone like Sasha...Well, I'll save that for my dislikes. Because even though it could use a little polishing, warning kids about toxic relationships is what keeps me hooked into seeing what happens next in this series.

It’s Not Afraid to go Dark: On top of breaking borders with morals intended for kids, I just gotta respect a show for playing around with what's considered "too dark." Especially if that show is on the Disney Channel!

The writers are not afraid to imply that death happens in the world of Amphibia, primarily because it is like a swamp ecosystem filled with predators and food chains. And I feel like because the characters are mostly amphibians, the writers can get away with an entire cave filled with the bones of victims as long as they're not humans. But frogs? No one gives a crap about them. There's a reason they're the ones who get dissected in schools.

Plus, a good majority of the monsters that Anne and the Plantars face are pretty horrifying at times. The crew who work on the show do a great job balancing the line of making these creatures look scary, but never go too far that they'll scar kids for life. Except in the Halloween special...How the f**k did they get away with the monsters in the Halloween special? And while they don't ever show what these monsters do, the implications honestly make things much worse, which again, I kind of respect. It's good to have shows like Amphibia that can scare kids a little bit. Getting through something fictitiously dark helps make kids feel braver and prepare them for the real horrors in the world. Especially since most of these creatures are just exaggerated versions of real-life predators...google them.

The Season One Finale: It was "Reunion" that made me realize that Amphibia has the potential to be amazing...it's also the last episode of season one, so let that sink in.

Joking aside, I honestly do love this episode. It's funny, it brings in elements from other episodes, nearly everybody does something useful, and it all ends with a satisfying and equally gut-wrenching climax. A climax, by the way, that is so perfect that I'm going to do a scene breakdown for why it's so good...so, you know, add that to the to-do list (I have so much s**t to make -_-). "Reunion" has so many elements about what makes a season finale so good that I feel like future writers should take notes for their own series that they plan to make. While I wish every episode of Amphibia had this level of quality, the writers know that the last impression is one of the most important. Because I will defend this show if this is the episode people use to trash it.

Marcy: I will also defend this show if someone trashes Marcy. Trust me, the best way to tell that someone is just hating on Amphibia for little to no reason is if they utter the word, "Marcy is a bad character." That is not true. Marcy is a great character, and I'd go so far as to say she's the best character in the series. She's sweet, adorable, and has a story ten times more interesting than Anne's. Anne learns what a sincere relationship is like through the Plantars, where Marcy falls victim to another manipulative relationship through King Andreas. It's her co-dependency that has the chance to get fleshed out more, and I can't wait to see if she has a moment to break out and form her own path.

Also, in the mass expanse of the multiverse, there exists a world where Amphibia is about the adventures that Marcy had in Newtopia as she uses Dungeons and Dragons logic to get by. And I want to see that universe! Because this clumsy nerd is already a blast to watch with the briefest of cameos. Imagine how much fun she would be if she had her own series!

Sprig: I don't know how much love Sprig gets within the fandom, but I got a feeling that it's not enough. He's funny without being annoying (most of the time), there's a whole lot of heart and sincerity to his actions, and above all else, he's the best friend that Anne needed. When Anne explained her very flawed views about friendship in "Best Fronds," it is clear how essential someone like Sprig is as he teaches Anne what friendship really means. It means caring for each other, supporting each other, making equal sacrifices for one another, and just being on the same page as each other. It is genuinely sweet seeing their friendship bloom, and I honestly hope the Amphibia fandom gives Sprig the amount of appreciation he deserves. Sure, he can be annoying sometimes, but for the most part, he's easily up there as one of my favorite characters.

Wally: Same with Wally! Who would have guessed that a character who appears as an dumb source of comic relief has a level of depth and lovability to him? "Wally and Anne" shows that while he is a nonsensical goofball, he doesn't really care what the frogs of Wartwood think of him. What matters is what he thinks of him. And that is just an incredible lesson to teach kids that just makes me love Wally more.

(It also helps that he's probably the funniest character in the show. I know I said that he's dumb, but when he works, he works.)

Kermit the Frog Cameo: ...It's Kermit the Frog, y'all. I physically can't hate him. Especially since this is the perfect show for him to make a cameo in!

WHAT I DON’T LIKE

Anne’s Character: I don't have a problem with Anne. I think she's a serviceable protagonist, and I love the fact that she's Thai, offering a form of Asian representation other than Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. But here's the problem with Anne: After a season and a half, I still don't know what her character is. If you were to ask me to describe a Disney show protagonist within one sentence, I could do it effortlessly. Watch:

Star Butterfly: An adrenaline junky of a warrior princess who slowly learns to be responsible with each passing season.

Luz Noceda: A generous nerd that obsesses about fantasy and fiction, who still understands when to take a step in reality when the moment calls for it.

Scrooge McDuck: An old Scottish miser who has the heart of adventure and is a duck that almost loves his family as he loves his money.

For Anne, I don't know where to start because her personality is so inconsistent. Sometimes she makes friends with others without even trying, and other times, she gets on others' nerves easily. Sometimes she's a thrillseeker with the heart of adventure, and other times, she's a person who prefers to hang back and avoid doing work. And sometimes she's the only sane character with logical advice, and other times she's the most insane character who needs advice. Now, you could argue that these are all character traits that make Anne multidimensional. But if you ask me, it seems like her personality is dependent on what the writers want her to be for the episode. Someone like Luz going back and forth between two traits only works if there is a dominant personality trait that takes over the other. If Luz spends an entire episode being angry and serious, it proves that there's more to her than just a character that's nerdy and optimistic. But it's clear she is still that lovable nerd by having her say a corny line like, "Talk to the glyphs, Witch!" But because Anne has so many personality traits, it's hard to tell which is the norm and what is out of character. Case in point: Having Anne obsess over hang-gliding in one episode and doing a puzzle in the next is off as neither correlates with each other. Nor do they tell me who Anne is, other than the fact that she's clearly a character lacking a singular identity. And seeing how she's the main character, the one audiences are supposed to root for and identify with, it's probably not a good thing.

The Story: For the record, I have no problems with the story itself...the way it's written, however...

First off, there's too much filler. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as filler episodes have the potential to be fun when written well. The problem is that relying on filler instead of telling your story can leave some people (me) uninterested and angry. And the thing is, there is a perfect way to avoid filler that doesn't involve telling the overarching narrative: Introduce personal plotlines. Look at The Owl House, for example. There are several character-oriented narrative threads that get introduced within the first few episodes. Such as Luz learning magic, Eda's curse, her relationship with Lilith, and Amity's redemption. Therefore, The Owl House avoids any filler episodes just as long as it focuses on any of these plotlines and even introduces new ones. Amphibia has the plotlines, but it rarely focuses on them. Especially since the story takes way too long to develop.

Every time I think the show is finally going to start moving forward and we can continue the story, there are like ten more filler episodes where everything comes to a screeching halt. Now, to be fair, there is an explanation why we're forced to wait for the story to move forward, and it's because the characters are forced to wait as well. But, even then, there could have been better ways to pad out that waiting than just adding filler. For example, I may not have been forced into an alternate universe where nearly everything wants to kill me, but if I was, I WOULD SPEND EVERY WAKING MINUTE I HAVE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A WAY BACK! In the first season, how many episodes does Anne spend trying to figure out the mystery of how she got there and how to go home? Two. There are two whole episodes, out of thirty-nine, where Anne tries to figure things out...That is insane to me. But to be fair, season two is doing a much better job at moving things along...but it doesn't change the fact that the writers are kind of bad at telling their own story.

There are two episodes, "Anne Vs. Wild" and "Lost in Newtopia," where the story continues, but it's only in the last few minutes. The problem is that if you take those endings out, the episodes themselves do not change a bit. BUT because those are significant and essential moments for the plot, you can't take them out. Resulting in scenes that, while intriguing, come across as awkward in the long run. So now, my question is why. Why is the story handled so poorly? And I have one theory.

It Feels Like the Writers Can’t Decide What they Want the Show to be: Sometimes it seems like Amphibia is written as a pure slice of life series like Big City Greens. However, there are times when the show seems like it's intended to mix slice of life with fantasy like Gravity Falls. Now here's the problem: Big City Greens and Gravity Falls are two very different shows in terms of storytelling, tone, and character work. Big City Greens is an episodic comedy series where character development is unimportant, and the adventures rarely go beyond just being wacky. As for Gravity Falls, it is a show that is semi-serialized where the character development is constant, and the fantasy-adventures are always prevalent in every episode. And there are several episodes of Amphibia that could be a part of either show. Episodes like "Stakeout," "Lily Pad Thai," and "Little Frog Town" have plots that I can see being in Big City Greens. Then there are episodes like "The Domino Effect," "Toad Tax," and "Marcy at the Gates" that I could see being in Gravity Falls. These two groups of episodes are vastly different from one another that it causes Amphibia to feel disjointed in the process. Usually, I'm a fan when a series mixes different genres together, but do you want to know why something like Gravity Falls does such a great job at mixing slice of life with fantasy-adventure? Because, as I said, fantasy-adventures are always present in every episode. "Dipper vs. Manliness," "Boss Mabel," and "Roadside Attraction" each have the most basic slice of life plots of the show, but there is always a fantasy element or a monster to fight. There are entire episodes of Amphibia where there is no monster, and even when there is, it doesn't have the same amount of tension and weight that the creatures in Gravity Falls have weekly. A show like Big City Greens doesn't have to worry about monsters or evil villains every week because it doesn't need to. It's a show about the wacky adventures of a family of farmers adjusting to city life. Why would they have to worry about a monster every week when they just have to worry about each other. If Amphibia was the same way then there would be no issue. But because if it wants to be a mix of slice of life with fantasy, then it does need to worry about a monster every week. I usually try to defend shows that try to play both sides, but this show has to be the one occasion where I have to say pick one or the other. Because the writers tried hard to be both, and personally, I don't think they did a good job.

Characters Don’t. Stop. SCREAMING!: It's here we move on from what's objectively wrong with Amphibia to the things that just bother me personally...and this is one of those things. I get it. An over-the-top reaction to something minimal can be funny on occasion...but it's never "on occasion" with this show. Nearly every episode has characters screaming to get a laugh, and most of the time, it's more annoying than it is funny. It's Hop Pop who does this the most, and I just feel so bad for Bill Farmer. That voice already seems like it's hard to do, so being forced to scream and yell with it for the sake of comedy can't do him any favors. Other shows, especially ones on the Disney Channel, have characters overreact for the sake of humor, but it's Amphibia that I feel like it relies on this the most. I'm sure some people aren't bothered by this, but I am, and this is my review, so I'm mentioning it.

Poly: Speaking of things that probably don't bother other people...I feel like I'm making some enemies with this one. Because, boy, do I not like Polly. Her voice is annoying, she mostly causes problems for the family, and to me, her entire character seems pointless. No, really. Think about it. Anne is the main character, Sprigs acts as her emotional support, and Hop Pop acts as the voice of reason. What's Polly's purpose? Because all she adds are unnecessary jokes, character traits that could have gone to anybody, and acting more as a plot device than an actual character. The only justification for her that I can think of is that she adds gender balance to the main cast. Which would be more than acceptable if there was a point to her existence. But I think it's pretty evident with her exclusion from the original pilot pitch for the program that Polly's personality is practically pointless...that is most likely the only alliteration I'll ever do for a review, so you have better appreciated it.

If you like Polly, then more power to you. For me, I just don't enjoy her.

Sasha: Oh, nelly. I can already see the hateful messages I'm gonna get from this.

Now, as a character, I actually do like Sasha. I think her personality is interesting enough to dissect, and I think she acts as a perfect antagonist to Anne, the Plantars, and even Marcy if you want to get into it. My problem relies on how much the fanbase is already jumping on the "Forgive Sasha" train. Because, "Aw, she's just like Catra and Amity! So sweet, tortured, shippable with the main character, and--" STOP IT! Stop it right now...and think. With Catra and Amity, you see the environment they grew up in, you feel the abuse they deal with, you understand the reasoning of their actions, and you come to forgive them for who they are...At least for Amity, you can. For Catra, it requires more of an argument. But Sasha? Did we see the same cruel mistreatment to her friends? Did we hear the same coldness in her voice as she describes how to manipulate people? Did we witness the same damage she's done to Anne and Marcy in how they perceive healthy relationships? Apparently not! Because while everyone else is already on the same page that Sasha deserves redemption, I'm sitting here thinking that maybe it's for the best to be a little more hesitant. So far, we have yet to see any way to understand her reasoning and have yet to see how she deserves forgiveness. Sure, Sasha was willing to sacrifice herself for Anne, but did Sasha really earn that? It works as a sudden realization that Anne deserves better, but Sasha has yet to do anything that proves she can be better. Especially since the next time we see her, she's trying to help a fascist ruler get back up on his feet...THINK ABOUT THAT!

But, sure, she's meant to be forgiven. That can work. Because while Sasha shows kids the type of people they should avoid, she can also work as a warning for what kids should avoid becoming. That is a great thing to teach...but it can also be potentially dangerous. Because if incorrectly interpreted, Sasha can show kids that every person who seems toxic just needs a chance to change. And that is the last thing you want to teach, given how very few toxic people actually change. You want to know why The Owl House gets away with an equally dangerous lesson about how not every bully is awful? It's because it shows two sides of the spectrum by proving why someone like Amity did the things she's done while also saying that characters like Boscha and Mattholomule are just a-holes for the sake of being a-holes. Sasha has no one to compare to. Sure, there's King Andreas, but he's a government figure. They're built to be manipulative. Sasha needs someone that's on her level of cruelty to prove that while some people can change and have reason to do so, others don't. And seeing how I don't think she deserves to change, at least not yet, that is an issue. It's the biggest issue out of all the issues I have with this show.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, yeah, I think it's pretty evident how I feel about Amphibia when I can write paragraphs about the stuff I don't like while barely being able to talk about the things I do like. Because I do enjoy this show. It's funny, most of the characters are enjoyable, and its discussion on toxic relationships still has me hooked to see what happens next. My issue lies with inconsistency. The main protagonist, storytelling, genre, and thematic purposes are all inconsistent. I'm interested enough to watch more, and who knows, maybe I'll make a final verdict review once the series comes to an end. For now, if you had to ask me what I’m excited to make a return, I don't know if I'll be willing to hop to it by saying Amphibia.

(Also, if you're still looking for that link for that pirating website I mentioned, now would probably be a good time to tell you that I really never did put one in. I told you, that would be crazy...That should teach you to try to break the law.)

#amphibia #what i thought about #why i want to love #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #sprig plantar #polly plantar

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instantelephantmix · 2 years

Text

How weird cat books shaped my life: a personal Warriors essay

I think we all have something we got into at a young age and we're still a fan of today. Sometimes that thing is way, way more important than you even realise.

When I was a young child, I had pretty stereotypical interests - I liked doodling, watching cartoons, and reading books about animals. I always did like animals a lot, especially cats, I was always living with at least one cat while growing up. The first two I remember were Moët, he was fluffy and timid and ginger-and-white, and Hemingway, or more commonly called Hemmy as nobody wants to shout "Hemingway" up the street when they want their cat to come home.

Above: Hemmy looking dumb.

When I was around 7, I was taking a look around the children's section of my local library and saw something I'd noticed my older sister reading recently. Warrior Cats: Into the Wild. I just wanted it because I liked the cover and I liked cats, and my parents allowed me to take it despite it being rated 9+. I think that, if they'd been stricter, I might have been an entirely different person - who knows though? I just know that those Warriors books hugely impacted my interests and hobbies.

I started reading and god, I was obsessed. There was something about the culture and history of these fictional wild cats that was so intriguing to me, but still simple enough for my young mind to digest. Being a homeschool kid who hadn't fully accessed the internet yet, I had no friends at all, so my family had to look at all my terrible drawings of fighting cats and endure me talking about them.

Below: a bad drawing of Sol from long, long ago. He has a giraffe neck.

There was something I always wanted though: a Warriors TV show or a movie. Ten years later we still don't have that, despite all the talk of a movie being in production. Where the hell did that go? But luckily, fans of the books had started making their own adaptations. Enter the late 2000s and early 2010s, the time of SSS Warrior Cats - an animated Youtube series based on the first book. I asked my mum if I could watch it and she allowed me to, opening up the door to a whole new portion of the internet.

youtube

Gone were the days of playing Flash games on the Cbeebies website, I had youtube! This was a massive inspiration to me, I decided I wanted to be an animator. Obviously I wasn't as skilled as the SSS team, I still don't think I am - but I tried.

Above: a run cycle animation from around 2015. My older animations are all sadly lost to time, the program I made them on was discontinued so I have no way of opening my old files.

Below: a new run cycle, 2021.

But over time, each member of the SSS team quit, and the channel became a wasteland with the series left unfinished. What was I to watch? How would I satisfy my desire for edgy animated cats? That was when I found Dimstar's Past, a series based on Warriors OCs, which also inspired me a lot. I think the creator turned out to be homophobic, which is a massive shame - but "separate the art from the artist", as they say.

I'd now seen these OCs, and I'd seen my sister writing stories about characters she liked, so what if I were to create my own Warriors and tell their story? While I'd written a few short, low-quality stories in the past, as most kids do, I think Warriors fully inspired me to write. I created "Rootstar's Past", a complete and obvious rip-off of Dimstar - but the story still exists in my mind, albeit very altered since then. I never even finished the first version. As I learned and became a better storyteller, I created better characters and more thought-out stories. Eventually I moved on from cats and wrote about more "human" characters - a lot of the time they aren't actually human, but they act like it.

Above: Rootstar's 2013 design, and his 2020 redesign.

Warriors also got me into roleplay, through playing Roblox and exploring forums, which further developed my writing and "impulsive storytelling" skills. I really miss the old Warriors Roblox games, like Lake Territory - morphs and maps may be better these days, but they don't hold the same charm at all. (For those who don't play Roblox - a morph is an object that the player can take the appearance of, though a button or GUI, to create looks that wouldn't be possible with the regular avatar editor.)

Above: Forest Territory, an old Roblox game. Notice the very cylindrical morphs that I still love.

I remember how I met my first real friend through Warriors roleplay. She was older than me, I was only around 9 when she was 16, but we got on surprisingly well. Me and my sister have the same 7-year age gap, so I was used to it. We shared other interests too; Five Nights at Freddy's, Undertale, and later Harry Potter. Sadly she was banned from Roblox and I never saw her again. I hope she's okay, whatever she's doing nowadays. I fondly remember our extremely angst-ridden characters - poor Soul, she could never get a break.

I made so many memories in those games. Playing in "Fan Clans" with magical powers, laughing at newbies who'd never read the books (don't get me wrong, I wasn't a rude person, but I was badly influenced by those who were), making the most complex morphs possible, creating cat romances, making drama... I want something like that again, but unfortunately roleplays don't seem to have any heart to them these days. Or maybe I'm the one who's changed? I don't know for sure.

There's one more interest that Warriors brought to me, although it's a very childish one. I won't go into too much detail because of that, I don't think anyone will care that much, but it does belong in this post.

As well as animation, there was another thing I saw people making short films and series with - Littlest Pet Shop toys, those stylised animal figures that Hasbro makes. They're not everyone's cup of tea, but I have to admit I fell for them and ended up collecting them. With the cats I made several Warriors fanseries and posted them on my mum's youtube channel, where they remain to this day. They're all unlisted or privated though, and I don't plan to show them to anyone, they were genuinely terrible. Maybe if I'm very drunk one day, or I don't care about my reputation, or someone pays me for it.

Below: my Littlest Pet Shop cats.

These days, Warriors doesn't hold quite as much significance in my everyday life. It still means a lot to me though - I like learning about the new characters, making my own, and doing art and animation for the community. It was my first fandom, and still my most consistent. I imagine its importance to me will only decline over time as I grow up and find new interests, but who knows? Maybe it'll stay with me forever.

Warriors probably made me into a furry, at least indirectly. I can never forgive it for that.

So what else am I doing? What fandoms am I in? I like Doctor Who, vampires, and I'm studying Digital Media in college, if that's of any interest to anyone. I still play Roblox and collect LPS, and I animate (very slowly).

Oh, and it's my birthday. Happy birthday to me. I'm 17 now.

#warriorcats #warriors #ramble #nostalgia sort of #artist journey

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todofinno · 3 years

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Hi! May i request a written ship for EXO, Block B, aespa and Speed (aespa and Speed weren't on the rules list, but i saw that they were under your 'about me', so i hope that's okay) also could you please keep all my information private.

I usually don't approach strangers unless they seem friendly or nice. That's when I'll observe them for a bit, so i can talk to them about something we have in common. My friends and family say they love my sense of humor and it's one of my favorite qualities about me. My friends and family also come to me for advice or to vent. I tend to daydream a lot, especially when I'm bored. If i daydream around other people, i hope they don't notice bc my face must've looked so stupid. When I daydream alone i don't really care what my face must've looked like. I don't mind being teased and I actually kinda like it, as long as they don't go too far. Ironically enough, sometimes my teasing can go a bit too far. It doesn't happen often and i don't do it intentionally, so if they or someone else points out that i went too far, I'll apologize and not do it again. My main hobbies are listening to music, playing videos games and reading. I especially like playing animal crossing and mario games, but I'm always down to try out new games (if it's a horror game, I'd want to have my s/o near me just in case I get scared). I like listening to variety of music and I'm also always down to to new artists/songs. I'd like to share my taste in music, tv shows, movies, etc with my s/o and I'd like them to do the same. It's weird bc with a male s/o, at first I'd be shy to initiate pda, but as time passes by I'd be more comfortable initiating it. However with a female s/o, I'd have no issue initiating pda. Regardless of gender, I'd like to know how much pda they're comfortable with. My love language is gift giving and making a playlist for them with songs that remind me of them or of our relationship. I really like watching movies before the 2010s and some of my favorites are: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Mean Girl's, North by Northwest, Superbad, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Not Another Teen Movie. Gilmore Girls is like my fav tv show and i relate a lot to Rory (for example, we both share a love for reading, have similar eating habits and are the intelligent ones). Some of my other fav shows are: South Park, Gossip Girl, Glee (don't judge me for this 🙈), The O.C and Lace (although it's a miniseries). Let me know if you need more info or if I messed anything up

↳ EXO: Baekhyun

oh boiii don’t even fret about whether or not you should approach first--

this man will just casually walk up to you and start talking his head off

...what did you expect from such a shameless man such as baek himself,,,

when you daydream he finds you quite cute tbh

he’ll just gaze at you and giggle and sometimes take photos of your dazed state

video games as a hobby???

say no more fam--this man will be pouting and begging you to duo with him in games--

don’t worry about being shy abt initiating skinship--Baekhyun finds it endearing, and he’s usually the one initiating first anyways :’)

he’ll be internally screaming (in happiness) when you hug him, or hold his hand first, for the first time in a while--

you best believe ya’ll are about to binge watch SO many TV shows together when the two of you are free!

↳ Block B: Jaehyo

lmao ngl on the topic of skinship it'd probably be a bit awkward in the beginning

jaehyo just kinda has,,,an innate reaction to flinch away because of his past experiences with his touchy members RIP

but once he gets past it, he'll start to initiate it first

he's extremely patient with you, since he's also the same way when meeting someone

tbh he finds you cute when you yelp and/or flinch while playing horror games

also music,,,you two would be in your own universe as you recommend new songs to the other

in the wise words of mr. mark lee himself: "oH dUDe--he'S fLIRtING--"

honestly jaehyo will be flirting with you quite often and it's kinda ??? like huh???sir??? have you seen yourself???

he will give you random pecks on the cheeks

the others of block b always gag whenever they see you two being lovey-dovey but tbh in the end they're happy that jaehyo found such a reliable partner like you :^)))

↳ Aespa: Karina

you two are lowkey the responsible couple (who occasionally go wild...but no one needs to know that lmao)

the other members of aespa are always excited to interact with you!!

funny story: you and karina were at the dorms and the others weren't supposed to be back early, but they did come early for whatever reason,,,

spoiler alert: screaming ensued

"wOW KARINA-UNNIE ARE YOU FINALLY DATING SOMEONE???" -ningning, probably

anyways, she'd lowkey be constantly caught off guard whenever you initiated hugs or hand-holding with her

but she shyly reciprocates it while smiling brightly at you

....cafe dates!!

karina would always insist on paying for you and honestly iconic

listen karina is such a good listener and soft for you--

positive relationship: 100!!!

hONESTLY WHAT A SOFT COUPLE--I STAN ewqrjhwekj

↳ Speed: Taeha

Taeha finds it really cute whenever you make playlists for him

He finds your shy side endearing, and he relates to it a bit

....gifting giving always tends to get out of hand since it ends up becoming a competition somehow--

“nO aCCePT THE GIFT TAEHA!”

“tHEN ACCEPT MY LOVE THRU THIS GIFT???”

also movie nights MMMMM you both sit close to each other, blanket wrapped around one another

halfway through, he leans his head on your shoulder and you flinch in surprise

hEADPATS!!

he would always give head pats or ruffle your hair and smile at your reactions!!

anyways--ya’ll are kind of like the cc! (campus couple)

#kpop #Kpop ships #EXO #Speed #Aespa #Block B #fluff #Written Ship

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randomnameless · 3 years

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what annoys you the most with 3H? The fandom or the missed opportunities from the game?

Oh.

The fandom takes the first place, because while it was funny to craugh seeing those bad takes, 2 years after the release of the game those takes are still endorsed and built upon and it’s just impossible to discuss about FE16 without being sure that the person you’re talking to is talking about the game, or the redshit takes.

Still, I firmly believe fandom wouldn’t be that cesspool of incessant drama if the localised version (especially NoA?) didn’t take wild directions with the game. It’s incomprehensible how a game in its OG version can be saying green but the localised version everyone talks about “corrected” it to “blue”.

Scripts are more or less the same, but the directions given to the VAs?

rant under the cut about directions, voice acting and people arbitrarly pushing an agenda despite the media they’re supposed to translate/bring to non-jp crowds.

I pointed it in an earlier post (or earlier posts?) but as a french person I grew up with the 4Kids dub, which was infamous for, uh, “translating” things for western audiences, even at the cost of coherency and let’s not even talk about the source material this thing doesn’t exist. Remember the Shadow Realm from YGO? .

I watched a short anime a few years ago about the anime industry (Shirobako?) and I remember a character trying to become hired as a voice actor/seiyuu - she had to learn and to feel the character - she has to know the character as much as the author who created them.

A few years ago, I didn’t feel as if the dubbing cast worked on their characters as much as the OG!voice actors. For a recet exemples I was rewatching a certain anime with the fr dub - basically a former underling fights against his superior who became a traitor, and even if his superior doesn’t regret turning into a traitor and ultimately became a giant fly, the underling always respected his superior and treated him with proper forms of adress. In the “early 2010 dub” I watched yesterday? Yeah no, guy’s talking to him as if he is talking to his friend in a pub.

Even now, while the quality of the voice acting has improved (and I feel like people take their jobs way more seriously for the dubbing industry) - i was the first surprised with SoV’s VA - we have now directions. Because the manga/anime/game isn’t, uh, good enough or whatever, the dubbing team decides to go off and do its own thing, regardless of coherence or, worse, what was the intent/core of the og game.

I am playing MH:Rise, the game is set up in a more or less traditional “ninja” village, with a lot of old japanese (? feudal? idk) aesthetics. The devs said they wanted to return to the roots of the saga and based new monsters on Yokais, mythological monsters from the japanese folklore. When you meet a new giant monster to hunt, you have small cutscenes to introduce said monster sung with a Noh theater aesthetic (i just looked up on wikipedia i thought it was kabuki but kabuki isn’t the only form of theater whatever the more you know).

NPCs in the MH series speak their own language, often called the MHese (a bit like the sim language). IDK if it is because this opus has a japanese aesthetic, but you can pick a jp voice acting instead of the MHese (same voice actors but talking in a different language). Or you can pick the US/ENG dub, with, I suppose, US VAs. I’m not complaing about the lack of FR dub, I’m rather happy with it tbf. But, for some reason, despite the aesthetic, the yokais, the pagodas in the background, the samurai flagship cat, the katanas and whatever, I thought the Noh style cutscenes weren’t going to change, or maybe someone would try to sing in English. But it isn’t the case, the US/ENG version of those cutscenes aren’t Noh style sung, they were completely revamped, so no traditionnal songs and instruments in the background, instead have a dude describing the monster you’re about to face in a cheap National Geographic imitation.

Why remove this? Was it because US!Capcom thought the western world wouldn’t understand the Noh references (but could still understand the general “aesthetic”, just, ban on the songs?) or some shit? They couldn’t remove the flagship cat’s samurai armor to swap it for a GI uniform, so they banned the Noh cutscenes? Why?

It is the same shit NoA pulled out with the Fates localisation, Suzukaze became Kaze because... reasons?

Maybe I’m biased because I’m french, and apparently Wonder France is one of the biggest consumer of anime/manga outside japan, but the mere idea that something can be changed because it’s not “western enough so the audience wouldn’t get it” pisses me to no end, and this is why, in the beginnings of Internet (YT videos with 4 parts, megaupload etc etc) everyone I knew who watched anime ditched everything dubbed to watch the very same episode but subbed (one of my friends even worked on her english with subs!).

Back to FE16 because this is your question and I ranted enough, I cannot stress it enough regarding Rhea, but while I do not doubt Cherami Leigh made a great effort and worked her best with the tools given to her (to this day I still cannot fathom how she managed to dub Mae and Rhea, they’re so different or not seiros is genki!rhea if only leigh was given that script) Leigh!Rhea isn’t Inoue!Rhea. NoA (I harp on NoA but I suppose NoA oversaw the dubbint process/effort, NoE is inexistent) had an agenda and a reading of Rhea that isn’t the same as NoJ.

“You worthless piece of garbage” doesn’t exist in the og!script - but more importantly, delivering this, Inoue!Rhea isn’t furious, she is upset and desperate. Leigh!Rhea is furious, Cherami Leigh does an admirable job at conveying NoA!Rhea’s fury - but this is not the same character NoJ wrote. If NoA gave the same directions NoJ gave Kikuko Inoue to Cherami Leigh, I’m pretty sure the “Rhea BaD” crowd, the eating babies takes and whatever shit redshit comes up everyday would be way reduced.

Maybe @nilsh13 has redshit take saved talking about this, but if we’re not talking about the same character, what kind of discussion can even happen? (I’m sure someone someday pulled the “well i played the localised game so i’m not talking about the og script with you but with the localised script” to defend some smelly take)

Missed opportunities can be fuel for fanfics.

Discourse based on fandom drama (at this point NoA itself is part of the fandom with their “religious extremis/zealot” take)? Nothing can salvage it. I genuinely like to talk about FE16 (especially lizards), but since every topic became a landmind because of the fandom drama, even making posts in good faith can be used as a fuel for drama, or completely diverted from their original goal to suit, again, some faction war between lizards and a certain someone.

Tl; dr : Fandom.

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a-dinosaur-a-day · 4 years

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Melanorosaurus readi

By Tas Dixon

Etymology: Black Mountain Reptile

First Described By: Haughton, 1924

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Bagualosauria, Plateosauria, Massopoda, Sauropodiformes, Anchisauria, Melanorosauridae

Time and Place: From 210 until 201 million years ago, possibly into the Jurassic, from the Norian through the Rhaetian (and possibly into the Hettangian) of the Late Triassic

Melanorosaurus is known from the Lower Elliot (and, maybe, the Upper Elliot) Formation of South Africa

Physical Description: Melanorosaurus was a later Sauropodomorph, the group of dinosaurs that includes Sauropods and their close relatives (aka, “Prosauropods”). Melanorosaurus was technically not a Sauropod, but it does highlight how these quadrupedal behemoths evolved from basic dinosaur precursors. It was quadrupedal, but with awkward front feet still retaining hand-like qualities of its forefathers. The hindlimbs were more sturdy, and in general the pillar-like proportions of the limbs helped to hold up its great weight. It was probably up to 8 meters long and 2 meters tall, making it one of the heaviest animals in its environment - weighing about 1.3 tons. It had a pointed, triangular snout, and teeth like earlier Prosauropods rather than proper Sauropods. It had a short neck and long tail, with a very thick trunk. As for external appearance, there is a question - it was small enough, just, to still have fluff, but it also was big enough to have lost it in the interest of keeping cool. Given it lived in a particularly hot climate, it makes sense that some - if not all - of the warm fluff of its ancestors may have been shed off. That said, it also lived southward - so it’s possible that the Elliot had a cooler environment than other places of the Late Triassic. All in all, the fluff status of Melanorosaurus is a question, so here we present it fluffy to some extent, since most interpretations of it are scaly.

Diet: Melanorosaurus would have been an herbivore, but it may have fed occasionally on small animals to supplement its diet, especially since Melanorosaurus had the teeth of its omnivorous precursors.

By Ripley Cook

Behavior: Melanorosaurus was a smaller Sauropodomorph, so it probably would have taken care of its young (like its close relative Massospondylus) in nests and potential family structures. These nests are hypothetical, however, so we can’t say what sort of lifestyle Melanorosaurus would have lead in this regard. It probably would have stuck together in herds for safety from large contemporaneous predators, and moved together across the dry landscape of their environment looking for new sources of food. Given they managed to survive the end-Triassic extinction (probably), this was clearly a successful strategy to some extent. Their short necks means that they probably would have had to feed mainly on low-lying vegetation, though it is entirely likely that they could have reared on their hind limbs in order to reach higher sources of food. Since they still had some traits of bipedality (likely vestigial), this seems more likely than not.

Ecosystem: The Elliot Formation was a highly arid sub-tropical desert, filled with hearty conifers (which did a lot of the desert-plant jobs before cacti evolved) lining seasonal rivers that would dry up come the long harsh season. It was cooler than other places in the Triassic, but still quite hot and harsh, making it a baking environment for the creatures that lived there. The exact composition of each environment - the Lower Triassic part of the environment and the Upper Jurassic part - is difficult to determine, because the levels tend to be hard to define, but some work has been done on this in recent years. Other Sauropodomorphs included Plateosauravus, Eucnemesaurus, and Bikanasaurus - so, some not very well preserved species, making Melanorosaurus an exception in this region. There was also the Mammaliaform Elliotherium and the Dicynodont Pentasaurus. However, literally every other example of creature seems to be from the Upper Elliot, so it is uncertain what the predators of Melanorosaurus would have been.

By José Carlos Cortés

Other: Melanorosaurus is such an almost-Sauropod that its description and study often threatens to redefine exactly what it means to be a Sauropod or… not. As such, Melanorosaurus is literally defined out of Sauropoda, with Sauropods defined as those members of the sauropod-y group more closely related to Saltasaurus than to Melanorosaurus. That said, Melanorosaurus has a significant amount of similarities to later Sauropods, one of the weirder and more magnificent experiments of Triassic dinosaurs - and a sign of the scale of dinosaurs to come after this period of experimentation ends.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources Under the Cut

Fabrègues, P. C. d., R. Allain. 2016. New material and revision of Melanorosaurus thabanensis, a basal sauropodomorph from the Upper Triassic of Lesotho. PeerJ 4: e1639.

Galton, P. M., P. Upchurch. “Prosauropoda”. In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, & H. Osmólska (eds.). 2004. The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 232 - 258.

Galton, P. M., J. Van Heerden, A. M. Yates. 2005. Postcranial Anatomy of Referred Specimens of the Sauropodomorph Dinosaur Melanorosaurus from the Upper Triassic of South Africa. Tidwell, V. & K. Carpenter (eds.)Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press.

Gauffre, F. X. 1993. The most recent Melanorosauridae (Saurischia, Prosauropoda), Lower Jurassic of Lesotho, with remarks on the prosauropod phylogeny. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte. 1993 (11): 648 - 654.

Haughton, S. H. 1924. The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series. Annals of the South African Museum 12: 323 - 497.

McPhee, B. W., J. N. Choiniere, A. M. Yates and P. A. Viglietti. 2015. A second species of Eucnemesaurus Van Hoepen, 1920 (Dinosauria, Sauropodomorpha): new information on the diversity and evolution of the sauropodomorph fauna of South Africa's lower Elliot Formation (latest Triassic). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35(5):e980504:1-24.

McPhee, B. W., E. M. Bordy, L. Sciscio, J. N. Choiniere. 2017. The sauropodomorph biostratigraphy of the Elliot Formation of southern Africa: Tracking the evolution of Sauropodomorpha across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 62 (3): 441 - 465.

Paul, G. S. 2010. The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press: 170.

Yates, A. M. 2007. The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur Melanorosaurus Haughton (Sauropodmorpha: Anchisauria), in Barrett, P. M. & D. J. Batten. Special Papers in Paleontology 77: 9 - 55.

Yates, A. M. 2010. A revision of the problematic sauropodomorph dinosaurs from Manchester, Connecticut and the status of Anchisaurus Marsh. Palaeontology 53 (4): 739 - 752.

#melanorosaurus #melanorosaurus readi #palaeoblr #triassic #dinosaur #prosauropod #sauropodomorph #reptile #prehistoric life #paleontology #triassic madness #triassic march madness

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar

https://ift.tt/3jvPBwC

The latest take on Toho’s iconic, building-crushing lizard comes in the form of Godzilla Singular Point, an anime series now available in dubbed form on Netflix. Taking place in the not-too-distant future, this reimagining of the King of Monsters involves a group of human characters becoming aware – through rather bizarre ways – of a coming apocalyptic event. Now the only thing that can save them is a behemoth out to punch monsters and look out for the little guy.

No, not Godzilla. He’s actually the apocalyptic event. No, our hero is none other than Jet Jaguar.

Yes, it’s finally time for Jet Jaguar to get his due.

A concept nearly 50 years old at this point, Jet Jaguar is one of those characters who was initially doomed to fail, but lives on due to nostalgia and the golden notion of, “I realize most people hated that thing from my childhood, but I bet I could make it good!” At best, he was a rad addition to the Godzilla mythos. At worst, he was a dumb idea from a dumb movie. For the most part, he’s remembered as something goofy that gets laughed at, despite having some genuine earnestness.

Jet Jaguar was created from both a fan contest and a corporate game of telephone. Back in 1972, to jump on the bandwagon of tokusatsu giant superhero/robot shows, Toho asked fans to design their own superhero design. The winner was a half-man/half-bird robot with a lengthy neck resembling a stack of rings named Red Alone. The concept was turned into a full-on rubber costume, but they changed the color scheme, which upset the young winner. They later decided to just scrap the whole thing, keep the color scheme, and make their own new design. And so, Jet Jaguar was born.

The superhero made an entire one movie appearance in 1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon. As the urban legend goes, this was initially intended to be a standalone Jet Jaguar movie that the studio just didn’t have faith in towards the end and they hastily threw in Godzilla and recurring Godzilla villain Gigan. While the claim is dubious and unproven, it certainly is easy to understand where the allegations come from.

Everything about the movie feels rushed. As the last-minute replacement for another Godzilla film that didn’t pan out, filming took several weeks and production was a mere six months. Even the Godzilla costume was whipped up in record time. As for the story, outside of the intro, the preexisting elements (Godzilla and Gigan) aren’t thrown in until about 2/3 into the movie. Up until that point, it feels like a Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon movie with the production team hitting the panic button.

The plot of Godzilla vs. Megalon is that a scientist Goro Ibuki is working on a robot called Jet Jaguar, along with his little brother Rokuro and his best friend Hiroshi. They get wrapped up in a plot involving a group of beings from Atlantis-But-Not-Really, who are annoyed at all the nuclear bomb tests going on in their neck of the woods. They steal Jet Jaguar and use him to guide their insect god Megalon to different cities for the sake of smashing them up and punishing humanity.

Goro and friends get their hands on Jet Jaguar’s controls and use him to lead Godzilla to where Megalon is. Then the Seatopians call some alien friends for a solid and have them send in Gigan. Jet Jaguar is able to break away from all control and becomes fully sentient, as well as revealing the ability to turn into a giant. It becomes a big tag team battle, mostly remembered for Godzilla doing the silliest dropkick you’ve ever seen, followed by a second one for good measure.

The villains escape, Jet Jaguar and Godzilla shake hands, they go their separate ways, and Jet Jaguar reunites with the humans heroes after shrinking back down. He gets his own snazzy theme song to close things out.

In Japan, the movie wasn’t all that successful. As the thirteenth title in the Godzilla series, it brought in the worst returns yet. Between public burnout and the movie’s lack of quality, it just wasn’t grabbing people. That said, it came out at just the right time in the United States. Released in 1976, it came out months before the anticipated King Kong remake. The American movie poster for the movie even bit on the King Kong poster by featuring Godzilla and Megalon duking it out while each standing on a different Twin Tower, even though the movie at no point took place in the States.

A year later, the movie would be cut down into 48 minutes so they could broadcast it on NBC in prime time, across an hour with commercials. The only reason I mention this at all is because it was hosted by John Belushi wearing a Godzilla costume, which is sadly somewhere in the abyss of golden lost media.

Getting back to Jet Jaguar – the topic of this article – I feel the need to bring up Germany’s handling of the movie’s translation. Rather than call him “Jet Jaguar,” they referred to him as “King Kong.” I mean…sure, why not. Even weirder, when the next two movies introduced fellow giant robot MechaGodzilla, Germany once again referred to the robot as “King Kong.” Guys, I know what you’re going for here, but it doesn’t work that way.

Anyway, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla and Terror of MechaGodzilla followed Godzilla vs. Megalon and closed off the classic Showa Era of Godzilla movies. Not only did Japan need to rest Godzilla as a concept for nearly a decade, but this also meant that whenever Godzilla would come back, it was going to be some kind of reboot or new “only the first movie counts” installment. Jet Jaguar was never high on the list to be brought back, especially since MechaGodzilla completely overshadowed him.

He would at least get a little more exposure in 1991 when Godzilla vs. Megalon was featured in the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. While much of the episode is spent making fun of one of the Seatopians for looking like Oscar Wilde, they toss plenty of jokes at Jet Jaguar. Most memorably, they “translate” Jet Jaguar’s ending theme, which notes that his mother never loved him and he looks a lot like Jack Nicholson.

Due to rights issues, Godzilla vs. Megalon is one of the few MST3K episodes that is no longer legally available for viewing. This does make the original MST3K Collection Volume 10 box set (which included Godzilla vs. Megalon as one of the four movies) a collector’s item, as it was later discontinued and rereleased with The Giant Gila Monster taking its spot.

A stranger use of Jet Jaguar comes in the form of Certain Distant Suns’ music video for “Bitter” in 1995. While there’s not much of a narrative outside of the band playing, footage of Godzilla vs. Megalon being shown, and a few shots of guys walking around in Megalon and Jet Jaguar costumes, I really insist you give the video a look due to the ending. It certainly goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting.

In 1997, Jet Jaguar made his next official appearance in another frankly bizarre spectacle. In Japan, a series called Godzilla Island appeared on TV in three-minute increments. While it only lasted a year, there were a whopping 256 episodes, meaning almost 13 hours of footage. If you’ve never heard of Godzilla Island, you might be thinking, “Wow, almost 13 hours of Godzilla stuff? Why isn’t this more well known?”

Well, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that instead of using guys in rubber suits, the kaiju action was done with action figures. Yikes.

Not only did Jet Jaguar show up during these adventures, but they gave him the 90s superhero action figure treatment. Much like how they released as many figures of Batman as possible for different crime-fighting scenarios, Godzilla Island gave us Silver Jet Jaguar, Medical Jet Jaguar, and even Fireman Jet Jaguar. Collect them all!

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Writer Talks About Spending 8 Years in the MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong Director and Writer Talk Future of The MonsterVerse

By Don Kaye

In the early 2000s, Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee was released for the GameCube and Xbox under the Atari brand. It was a fighting game featuring various characters from Godzilla lore and though Atari wanted to include Jet Jaguar, Toho refused. Still, at least Megalon was included in the game. There would be two sequels in the form of Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed. FINALLY, Jet Jaguar was playable, because if there’s anything you can count on, it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel when you’re working on multiple installments of a nostalgic who’s who project.

He’d also return in 2014’s Godzilla game for PlayStation 3 and 4. The producer of the game didn’t even plan on putting him in there, but he saw that the programmers already were working on him and just shrugged it off. There was a special trick to summoning Jet Jaguar as a boss character. By ending up in three different Godzilla vs. Jet Jaguar scenarios and winning all three times, you would then unlock a special cutscene of the two shaking hands while a confused military woman would wonder about their history.

Around the mid-2010s, IDW Publishing was all about releasing a bunch of comics with the Godzilla license. Their mainline series was Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth, which went on for 25 issues. Early on, Jet Jaguar appeared out of nowhere during a fight between Godzilla and the team of Gigan and Orga. In human size, Jet Jaguar flew into Orga’s mouth, then expanded into giant size, causing the beast to explode. Especially awesome was that it came with the cliffhanger text, “Next: PUNCH! PUNCH! PUNCH!” a reference to Jet Jaguar’s theme song from the movie.

Jet Jaguar showed up regularly in the series, coming off as Godzilla’s designated driver friend and handler. What I mean is that he seemed to be out to protect Godzilla, but that meant having to keep his violent ally on task (ie. pointing out that Gigan was nearby to stop Godzilla from attacking Jet Jaguar) and throwing punches when the situation absolutely called for it.

This continuity played up Jet Jaguar as more enigmatic than anything, as although he was mechanical, the only human character who knew his origins was killed off before it could be explained. Even one of the invading alien villains saw him on a screen and basically went, “Oh crap. It’s THIS guy!” Regardless, he still came off as a total badass, winning fights against Godzilla, Gigan (the chainsaw-hand version), and Destroyah.

Then again, at one point he needed to be saved by the 1998 American Godzilla, which at least proved as a reminder to the robot hero that there are Toho characters far more hated than him.

Toho started using Jet Jaguar again, albeit in sillier ways. In 2019, as an April Fool’s Day prank, they put up a teaser on YouTube for a Jet Jaguar movie. They also had him appear a few times on Godziban, a Godzilla web series for kids that, once again, used dolls and action figures to tell its stories.

Now Jet Jaguar is a major part of Godzilla Singular Point. To get into specifics on the plot would be like explaining advanced calculus, but to keep on-topic, Jet Jaguar is the creation of Goro Otaki as both a way to ward off monstrous threats and as a company mascot. Considering King Kong’s role in King Kong vs. Godzilla was “kidnapped to be a company mascot,” maybe the Germans were onto something with the rename.

Anyway, this version of Jet Jaguar is more mechanical in appearance instead of having to rely on making him look like a human in a costume. Jet Jaguar is there to protect the heroes from the endless supply of monsters, usually taking some extensive damage. Still, the robot gets rebuilt stronger and stronger and becomes advanced enough to become self-aware and speak in…well, the voice of a teenage girl.

I don’t know, I guess I just figured he’d sound like Astro Guy from King of the Monsters.

There’s a big hard-to-explain twist, but the main thing to know is that Jet Jaguar becomes a full-on badass by the end of the series, turns out to be a huge key to the plot, and has a completely kickass showdown with Godzilla. In a way, Jet Jaguar’s journey in Singular Point is a lot like in real life, going from a lame idea that appealed to kids and gradually being understood as a respected part of the Godzilla mythos. Something initially representative of the worst of the franchise, proven to be something genuinely cool in the right hands.

Now it’s time for America to return the favor. Once again, timing is on Jet Jaguar’s side. The Monsterverse was on its way to the graveyard after the box office intake of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but Godzilla vs. Kong came out at just the right time in the tail end of the pandemic to be a big success and keep the series going a little bit longer. There aren’t too many names in the toybox left to pull out, but at this point, Gigan and Jet Jaguar have to be high on the list.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Make it happen, Hollywood!

Godzilla Singular Point is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Godzilla Singular Point: The Weird History of Jet Jaguar appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3h787JV

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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littlebabycrybtch · 3 years

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bro..... im sooo tired of ppl being whiny freaks about ppl liking fictional shit ‘~too much~’. like bitches are literally fully convinced if you prefer acting out certain ideas in fiction but not irl, thats not your normal preferential boundaries but rather your brain is a mental illness BOMB and you need to be fucking hospitalized for being imaginative and having autonomy. like yall if its not taboo or smth shut uuuuhp man you’re not ‘concerned for their health’ or w/e you’re fully just tryna get away with being a nihilistic asshole who lacks sympathetic reasoning skills. listen to me. fiction is valuable. the thoughts we have on it are important. the personal lack of value you happen to put on a media is next to worthless. its not a fuckin waste of time dude, creators are people, who live in the real world, they experience it and have ideas through it and about it, they form and tweak their ideas while still definitely existing in the real world, and then put that back into the world with a new angle and new perspective, to share with other people definitely encountering it in , you guessed it , the real world. thats not disconnected. its not nothing. these things do not magically appear from fairytale land, they are created. stories mean smth, people tell them for a reason, its ok to feel smth for any story, why would we even tell them if not with the intention to impact others emotionally somehow i mean??? fiction does not Just affect reality, it is valuable to real life society, it is a functioning thriving part OF reality.

humans have told stories since the dawn of our existence. it is literally all but an inherent species trait for us to imagine things, its tied to each and every one of us, and to reject ‘fantasy’ as smth worthless to human life is frankly just fuckin wrong and weird of you. bitch we are Supposed to get outside the box, the fandom ppl you cringe your pants over arent thinking abt fake shit too much, you guys very often just arent exercising abstract thought and imagination enough, which actually hurts your ability to engage with it critically in all the ways its meant to be. if you dont see the value in fiction its because you put in no effort to form the analysis skills. in other words, you idiots dont get the hype bc you’re too stupid to get how you're supposed to compare a book to the real world it came from. ‘uu but cmon not everythings valuable what about [tumblr designated cringe media]-’ 1. ok! somehow you havent come to this conclusion yourself yet but thats not real, whatever ppl get to enjoy is not all abt you, your bias means less than dirt to others outside of hivemind social medias, you can keep it to yourself, ppl shouldnt care about it bc it means nothing outside of ur own space, its literally funny to me that you’re so elitist you want me to cater my interests to you, Your Standard Of Quality Isnt Universal, 2. ranking the values of fiction is the waste of time here, if you compare mlp to pride and prejudice ill dissect your teeth, different emotional impacts from tragic to funny to Just A Vibe are all able to be assessed as ‘valuable to somebody else so leave well enough alone’ if you dont have 2010+ funnyman brainrot disease that makes you incapable of reflecting on anything you can find a way to joke abt first.

i mean seriously like. whenever randos start engaging with medias you ppl dont like or in ways you dont get, the strawmans yall make up to get to be cringe culture vultures abt such benign shit, and almost Always at the expense of neurodivergent people with a deeply rooted undertone of extreme ableism might i add..... its just so selfish. u have a brain ok, you’re manipulative but we both know you dont Actually think ppl automatically default to being a waifu obsessed incel rotting away at their basement computer, stagnating their social skills and straying further and further from reality with each passing day, a poor disturbed wretch that you just HAVE to save from themselves, all bc they say they. prefer fictional porn or w/e to having sex irl. buddy thats not a big deal, theyre normal, just different from you. theyre fine, you’re just uncomfortable. as a functioning adult you’re gonna have to try and recognize that sometimes that feelings gonna be 100% on you, and you cant always just lie abt the validity of it to make ppl feel obligated into agreeing with you. this is gonna be one fragment of their personhood and your self obsessed brain imploding over how unrelatable that is doesnt fucking matter, grow up bitch like. how detached do you have to be to think thats so unstable or morally wrong.... its just a completely inconsequential preferential decision that only affects them and isnt a wrong choice at all cuz nobody has to get their dick wet if they dont wanna for any reason ever and thats gotta be that tbh.... and it kills me cuz they still inherently experience the real world and are capable of thinking abt it critically,,, even tho they... masturbate to drawings or w/e the fuck ppl think is unhealthy ???? like? imagination is just fun we dont need to moderate it anymore than we moderate other fun activities i mean lol ksdjfsd this is the DEFINITION of ‘just vibing’ no one FUCKING cares and it deosnt fucking matter the way you desperately try to make ppl think it does just so u get to be loud abt ur shortcomings as a decent understanding person.

‘uuuuuu im sorry but thats unhealthy :///’ you sound like a goddamn maniac dude stories are not unhealthy having feelings abt them is not unhealthy thinking some anime bitch that was DRAWN TO BE HOT , IS HOT, is not UNHEALTHY and you clowns arent convincing anybody you ‘care’ abt that concept anyways !! im losign my mind here skdlsdfsd medias are literally DESIGNED TO DO THIS TO PEOPLE... WE’RE SUPPOSED TO FEEL THINGS FOR IT.... IT IS WHAT MAKES THE ART WE’VE TAKEN PART IN FOR CENTURIES, “ART”.... ITS JUST... HAVING IDEAS AND EXPERIENCING IMAGINATION..... whats wildly unhealthy actually is yalls toxic obsession with ‘harsh truth’ and validating your stupid ass cwinge feewings to the point where everything that gives your underdeveloped selfish ass hives has to be a matter of health and morals and whats ‘best’ for everyone. u dont know that shit!!!! ur a petty brat and im not ur mommy ok i wont baby you so u dont feel like the shitty whiny person you are, you need to grow and do better and think outside urself already, dont put the responsibility of making u feel right for judging somebodies benign hobbies on me. i wont bc its wrong and unnecessary. you’re not a savior no ones falling for that lmao you’re just a bitch girl xoxo get over it shit truly does not matter. let them write nsfw self insert fics instead of banging !!

to make it real do yall really not Get that basic consent kinda doesnt just mean ‘no when im not in the mood at the time’ but it means ‘no if i just dont fuckin feel like having sex ever for literally any reason at all bc i choose what i do’ and pressuring them, even with what your warped brain translates as the best of intentions, is inherently disgusting? especially with the ‘i know how to help you’ attitude like......... ohhh die soonly ew lmao! lay off this nasty shit already please it doesnt matter! stop trying to make it matter!! its not hurting you or them you stupid tumblr phd ass!! and like again yeah some media shits just truly gross but tbr now its like even That kind of shit, the Real social issues caused by Actually problematic media that ppl should discuss Genuinely without ulterior motives, is being used more and more rampantly as just a stepping stone to get to the needless mockery of other harmless things in the media they want an excuse to bag on.......... like a bitch cant just be grown and talk about problems at face value without getting a bully jab in. smhhhhh you all fuckin suck please just stop talking already. so anyways yeah being attracted to fictional characters instead of real people or w/e IS funny, funny how many boyfriends they have when u have none xoxo theyre having fun and you can die sad abt it they get to die 5 times in an angsty fantasy fic and be brought back with mouth to mouth by fuckin kakashi every time and then they go get lunch irl while ur updating tinder bitch ... different fucking strokes ig !

#long post//#i would like one free ticket to pop off please. thank you #can i cash it in immediately if you dont mind

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dailytomlinson · 5 years

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After Louis Tomlinson’s recent show in Madrid, some fans got the chance to meet him. One girl wanted to talk to him about his song Two of Us , which he had written after the death of his mother. The girl had lost her dad, and wanted the singer to know how much his lyrics had meant to her. He’d never had that in his band One Direction, he says. “We wrote cool songs, but they were love songs. It only goes so far, and to have someone say that I could help them with my…” He pauses. “It blows my mind, that shit. I was proper proud.”

It has been a hard few years. Tomlinson’s mother died in 2016, just as he was about to launch his first solo single. In March this year, his 18-year-old sister was found unconscious at her flat in London and couldn’t be revived. We will come to that, but, professionally, Tomlinson was struggling too. One Direction – that supernova of a boy band – broke up in 2015. Or announced they were taking a break. Or “‘hiatus’ or whatever word we use”, he says with a smile.

At the time, Tomlinson, now 27, was finding his place as a songwriter. “I wasn’t singing a lot, I wasn’t the frontman. Without being a sorry little bastard, I thought: ‘How do I do better, how do I make something of myself, an identity?’” In the last 18 months of One Direction, he says, “I felt like I knew who I was in the band, and I felt a real worth for who I was.” The break up, he says, “rocked me. I wasn’t ready for it. I felt like I was getting to be a better songwriter, singer, a more confident performer, and all of a sudden, when I felt I was finally getting some momentum …”

We meet at a bar in north London. Tomlinson greets me with a hug as if I am one of his fans (I am not, particularly, although I am by the end). He seems open but not vulnerable, and more self-aware and modest than you would expect from a man who was once part of the biggest boy band in the world. He is friendly and relaxed, dressed in a black tracksuit, with a beer in front of him.

Tomlinson’s personal tragedies also meant his solo career has had a bit of a stop-start quality, but now it looks as if there is focus and momentum. He released his single Kill My Mind earlier this month; an album will follow next year. Kill My Mind is an indie-pop delight, not so huge a departure as to alienate his fanbase, but it sounds like the music he grew up listening to – Oasis and Arctic Monkeys – and his South Yorkshire accent brings more than a hint of Liam Gallagher-style northern vocals. He sounds confident on them, more so than on the previous singles he put out, a couple of fairly forgettable collaborations. “I think, in hindsight, that was me trying to find my place in the industry and making music I thought I had to make to get on radio.

“I had this epiphany when I was thinking about the music I grew up with,” he continues. “I kind of had a bit of a word with myself and worked out what I want – to be happy and proud of what I’m doing. I love those early singles, but I never really felt proud of them, because it didn’t feel too true to me.”

As a child, growing up in Doncaster with his mum Johannah, who raised him alone until she married Tomlinson’s stepfather, he loved performing. “I liked to be the class clown, I liked to make people laugh, to show off, all that.” When his younger twin sisters were cast on TV dramas, he would sometimes go along as their chaperone, earning £30. “Where I’m from, we don’t have anyone who’s been on TV or anything like that, so it was super-exciting,” he says. He ended up picking up work as an extra. “The pinnacle of my acting career was one line on an ITV drama. I don’t even know if they used my scene,” he says with a laugh.

When he was 15, he joined a drama group in Barnsley, which his mum would take him to when she could afford it. “I think I was confused, thinking I wanted to act when actually what I wanted to do was perform.”

At school he joined a band, where they sang Oasis and Green Day covers, and when The X Factor came up, he made it on to the show in 2010 on his third attempt. He queued from 3am to make sure the producers wouldn’t have audition fatigue before they saw him, and he got his goal – to get in front of Simon Cowell “and just have a professional opinion on how I am as a singer. I was so flustered. Going from school performances to performing in front of professionals, TV cameras, a 3,000-strong audience. I wasn’t present. I sang terribly. I remember coming away from it thinking: ‘I wonder if I’ve got through as one of those lads who looks all right but isn’t really a good singer.’”

Yet he ended up in One Direction, the band the show put together in its 2010 series. For six years they sold tens of millions of records, broke America and each made a rumoured £40m-plus fortune. Their fans, Directioners, are another level of devoted. I don’t know how he coped with the attention, or the pressure.

There were really only a few times when it got too much, says Tomlinson. They were in Australia and a local news station had got a helicopter and a photographer was trying to get pictures of Tomlinson in his top-floor hotel room. “I think I was naked, or just in my boxers, and even in my hotel room there was no escape. I could feel the pressure.” He tweeted about it – “your standard bratty celebrity tweet” – and was attacked. “At times it did stress me out but never was I allowed to whinge, allowed to be a human and say: ‘Today has got too much for me.’ I found that difficult at first.”

But he is keen not to sound as if he is complaining. “There was much more positive that outweighed that.” And he never blames the fans for their intensity. Theirs is a special relationship, he says. “So many people have bullshitted about what they feel about the fans, but they’re like family to me.”

Even when Directioners have got a bit too ardent – there is a conspiracy theory, for example, that he and his bandmate Harry Styles have long been in a secret sexual relationship – he seems more bemused by it than annoyed. Although he is wary, he says, of adding “fuel to the fire” by talking about it. “I know, culturally, it’s interesting, but I’m just a bit tired of it,” he says. The HBO drama Euphoria recently showed an animated sequence of Tomlinson and Styles together, as imagined by a smutty fan-fiction writer. Was it annoying that a show had taken something fairly niche and given it new mainstream life? “Again, I get the cultural intention behind that. But I think …” He trails off, trying to work out what he wants to say. “It just felt a little bit … No, I’m not going to lie, I was pissed off. It annoyed me that a big company would get behind it.”

Why does he think he never went off the rails during the band’s heady period? “My mates and my family, really. It’s from my upbringing and where I come from. If I went back to Doncaster and I was dripping in Gucci or whatever, I’d probably get whacked. I’m always very conscious of not acting too big for my boots. It’s the people around me who keep me sane and normal, because they give me insight into real life. Some celebrities, in pop in particular, only surround themselves with amazingness, and all they see is good, good, good, which is lovely, but you don’t understand the real world then. I have the luxury of my mates around me, just reminding me how fucking good I’ve got it, really.”

The day of One Direction’s final concert in November 2015, Tomlinson and his bandmate Niall Horan sat together “and had a little cry, because it was such a journey we had been on. That day in general was so poignant. As much as you try and prepare yourself, it’s a whole other thing when it comes.” Because they had worked so much with few days off, he assumed that a break would be exciting. “But it wasn’t like that. When you’re used to working however many days, it’s all that more evident when you’re not doing something. Especially in the first six months. My life became –and I don’t mean this to sound derogatory – very normal, from being a life of pure craziness.”

At the same time that Tomlinson was trying to work out what to do with himself, his mother, to whom he was intensely close, had been diagnosed with leukaemia; she died in December 2016. He performed his first single on The X Factor just a few days after her death, then seemed to half-heartedly continue with his solo career, releasing another single in 2017. It would be another two years – during which he became a judge on The X Factor – before he released Two of Us, a raw and beautiful (and under-rated) song.

“After I lost my mum, every song I wrote felt, not pathetic, but that it lacked true meaning to me,” he says. “I felt that, as a songwriter, I wasn’t going to move on until I’d written a song like that.” He knew he needed to get it out of him, but there was a lot of pressure – he felt he should be an experienced songwriter before he attempted it. Two songwriters he worked with played him the chorus. “It was like the song I always wished I’d written. I went in and put my personal touch to the verses. It was a real moment for me in my grief, and as part of the creative process, because it felt like it was hanging over me.”

Earlier this month, an inquest found that his sister Félicité had died of an accidental overdose; she had been taking drugs, including anxiety medication, since the death of their mother. He has been through some terrible times, I say, which must put a perspective on a pop career. “Exactly,” he says, a little quieter than before. “That whole dark side I’ve gone through, it sounds stupid to say, but it gives me strength everywhere else in my life, because that’s the darkest shit that I’m going to have to deal with. So it makes everything else, not feel easier and not less important, but, in the grand scheme of things, you see things for what they are, I suppose.”

His fans have been crucial, he says. “I’m sure every artist says this, but I do believe it. We’ve been through some dark times together and those things I’ve been through, they carry a weight, emotionally, on the fans as well. And I felt their love and support. I remember really clearly when I lost my mum, that support was mad.”

What have the experiences of loss he has been through taught him about himself? He thinks for a second. “I keep going back to it, but I don’t know if it’s a combination of where I grew up and my mum’s influence, but I just have this luxury of being able to see the glass half-full no matter what.” He is the oldest of his mother’s seven children, which is grounding and means, he says, “there’s no time for me to be sat feeling sorry for myself. I’ve been to rock bottom and I feel like, whatever my career’s going to throw in front of me, it’s going to be nothing as big or as emotionally heavy as that. So, weirdly, I’ve turned something that’s really dark into something that empowers me, makes me stronger.”

He gets up to go to the toilet, which I think is his polite way of asking me to move on, although when he gets back he says, by way of a final word on the matter, “I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. That’s not how I feel for myself. Somehow it fuels me.”

One Direction will get back together one day, he believes. He still speaks to the others. “We’re not texting each other every day, but what we do have, which will never go away, is this real brothership. We’ve had these experiences that no one else can relate to.”

Styles has become quite the superstar. The others seem to have steady solo careers. Tomlinson says he’s embarrassed to admit that, when he first went solo, he would have been devastated had his album “only” reached No 3, so used is he to everything he did with One Direction going to the top. Is it hard not to measure himself against his former bandmates? “Oh, naturally,” he says. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. I’ve never been competitive like that, but, naturally, you think: ‘If they’re getting this then I deserve that.’ I think, the longer time goes on, I can see it for what it is and just be proud of them.” And success means something else to him now. “It means I’m happy with what I’m doing.”

#louis tomlinson #pop and rock #one direction #music #the x factor #press #240919 #kmm press #the guardian #Guardian Life & Arts #tw death #stunt mention

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frecklystars · 4 years

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Ok so....how good would you say the TFP series is? Because when it comes to Starscream...I am looking respectfully

OOH... WELL

Short answer: It’s good but it makes me HURT as a Starscream lover. If Starscream weren’t in it I wouldn’t have loved it as much as I did, but if Starscream weren’t treated so terribly I would have loved it WAY more.

Long answer: There’s a part of me that has mixed feelings abt it ESPECIALLY because of how Starscream is written and how he’s treated... moreso in the third season than anything else... it hurts, that’s all I can say, as an abuse survivor it hurts to watch this show because u will see him get abused/manipulated both physically and emotionally and he will not get closure for it, not a single soul will reach out and say “hey are you doing okay”, he gets treated like a joke bc “teehee isn’t it funny that he has feminine qualities + wears high heels and gets beaten up all the time!!” like YIKES bro 70% of my self shipping with him is just me drawing us giving each other wholesome validation for our respective traumas lmao

However I enjoyed most of the series and I feel like (my whole novel I could write on Starscream’s abuse and his dynamics w/ other Decepticons aside), if the writers were given 26 episodes in the third season instead of suddenly cutting it down to 13, it wouldn’t feel so rushed. Oh my God, don’t even get me started on the movie...!! Arrghh ANYWAY

TFP is always gonna be my main/fave continuity since it was my first, and despite its flaws, I would give it a recommend just for the sake of enjoying the first couple of seasons. I love the characters, I love the show, I LOVE THE FIGHTING SCENES you can really tell the animators had fun with those fighting scenes!!!

The animation from the first season takes some getting used to since it’s from 2010 so it’s like a wholeass decade old, but honestly for a (starting) low-budget animated series, it’s pretty awesome! Season three’s animation is top tier, I swear to God they put ALL of their budget into Starscream’s wings and eyebrows, he was SO. EXPRESSIVE. Anyhoo!

HERE is a link to watch the second and third season!

The FIRST season is on Netflix but if u don’t have Netflix u can find it on Solarmovie.id !!! Along w/ the movie!!! It will just be in piss poor quality because ~capitalism~

#but if u love starscream/bee/optimus i would NEVER recommend the sequel series robots in disguise 2015 #i would not. i will not. not only did they butcher bee as a character #but they took away everything OP really stands for and hhHHH #DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON RID2015 STARSCREAM IT HURTS IT HURTS #it hurts me so badly i just call it my 'bad timeline AU' when i use it to self ship w/ starscream god fhfhdfhdf #anonymous #asks

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 4 years

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Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt, and legacy can be an fascinating thing in regard to animation. Since cartoons are made with the intent of being seen years or even decades after they're created, it can be interesting to see how the general consensus people have about a series can change over time. One day you can be on top of the world, and your series is loved by critics and audiences alike. But then, something happens. Sometimes it's a specific episode. Other times a season. Maybe it's a controversy within the fandom. But whatever it is, something happens that causes peoples opinions to turn. And suddenly your show has gone from being universally praised to becoming much more divisive. And when something like that happens, it can be hard to recover. It happened to Steven Universe. It happened to Rick and Morty. And it happened to Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

Created by Daron Nefcy, Star vs. The Forces of Evil premiered on the Disney Channel and Disney XD in 2015, and quickly became one of the hot cartoons that everybody was talking about. It makes sense, as it came outright around the time where more continuity based fantasy series were really starting to take off, so it's natural that it became a hit. While the series was generally well regarded upon its debut, as time went on the series became much more of a "love it or hate it" type of show. And while that's not too uncommon for any show that amounts a large flowing, what makes Star vs. so interesting is that it seems like nobody can seemingly agree when the show got bad, if it did at all. Some people say the quality dipped after the first season. Others say the third. Some say the fourth. Others say that the show was good until the finale. And some say that the show was solid throughout. This divide among fans is why I feel confident calling Star vs. The Forces of Evil one of the most divisive shows of the 2010's, even if the debate around it isn't nearly volatile as other series. But now that the series has ran its course I have to ask, does it hold up? Did the show really go down hill, or is the hate undeserved? That's what I'm here to find out.

I feel like I'm in an interesting place to talk about this series because, while I tend to try to keep up with all the big name animated show coming out, I actually didn't watch most of Star as it was running. I watched the first season until my family cut cable right before the finale of season one (You know, around the time people started to care about the show.) And only caught up with the show in the last year or so while doing research for my "Top 30 Cartoons of the Decade" list. So I went into the series mostly blind with the exception of a few spoilers. I just felt like this was important to point out as I feel it may have an effect on my view of the show.

Also, while I usually try to go spoiler free when I do a general overview of a series, for this review I may have to go into some spoiler territory. Since this series features an ever changing status quo, as well as a lot of major characters who aren't introduced until late in the series' run, doing this review completely spoiler free would be difficult. So I'm going to be doing this review under the assumption that anybody reading this has already seen the show, and are just curious to hear my take on it, or don't care about being spoiled. So if you wanna go in blind I suggest you sign out now.

But to everyone else, let's dive in and talk about Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJ5ecrpp8k

Star vs. The Forces of Evil stars (He, get it. I'm funny.) Star Butterfly. A princess from the dimension of Mewni who, upon her fourteenth birthday is given a wand of unbelievable magical power. However, after causing nothing but trouble with her new found powers in her world her parents decide to ship her off to Earth, where she can be somebody else's problem. There she befriends a human boy named Marco Diaz and the series mainly follow these two as they go on all sorts of magical adventures as they battle all sorts of evil monsters and ne'er-do-well who want to take the wand and use its power for themselves. Or at least that's how the series goes at first. As the series goes on it begins to focus more on the world building, as Star and Marco discover that the kingdom of Mewni isn't as great as they first believed, and are forced to battle political corruption, conspiracy within the royal family, and the generation spanning systemic racism against monster kind.

The best place to start when talking about the show are the characters. Lets start with the main leads.

We got Star, your typical fun-loving, ditzy, hyperactive action girl. Which seems to be a common trend in Disney Channel cartoons now that I think about it. But she does enough to stand on her own. She's a fun character, and an overall good lead for the series. I admit that her bratty nature and general stupidity could turn some people off, and there are times where it can get a little annoying, but I never minded it all that much. I think that's kinda suppose to be the point of her character. She's a royal, and spent her whole life with a silver spoon in her mouth. So it makes sense she would be a bit selfish and be unaware of the world around her. And she does improve over the course of the series, as she begins to take her job as a princess more seriously and spends much of the series actively fighting against monster prejudice. Though I'd be lying if some of these less desirable elements of her character don't continue to pop up every now and again, even later in the series and especially in the last couple of episodes. Also she's kinda a sociopath. Like especially early on in the show there are like...a lot of casualties to Star's antics. I'm kinda surprised Disney let them get away with that.

Also, can I just say that I am sick and tired of people asking "When is Disney going to include their first LGBTQ+ princess, completely ignoring the fact that Star is bisexual as fu*k. Like, come on now!

Marco is also a good lead. He's a neurotic, responsible, karate student who often acts as the straight man to Star's antics. However, I like the fact that he's not a total stick in the mud. Sure he's more cautious than Star is but he's still capable of getting in on the adventures as well. He comes across as a realistic teen with his own set of flaws. Namely his insecure nature and general social awkwardness. I also like that due to his expertise with karate he's able to hold his own in a fight even without magic. He always feels like Star's equal and never like a sidekick. He and Star have a great dynamic in general, and the two play off each other well. They contrast with each other and It feels like the two really cover each other's flaws. And it's kinda refreshing seeing two characters who are so different manage to genuinely get along with each other.

But of course, we also have the forces of evil that the shows title so clearly mentioned. Each season focuses on a different villain, and something that I really like is how all four major villains are introduced relatively early on. So the show doesn't suffer from that "Dragon Ball Z" type thing where it's like "Haha! I know you just defeated the villain, but now's there's an even BIGGER villain who we just haven't happened to mention until now!" They've always around in the world, and many of them even start out as joke villains only to become more serious later down the line. And they manage to do that in a way that feels very believable.

The best example of this is the shows first villain, Ludo. Who upon introduction is portrayed as a completely comedic villain who Star could easily take in a fight. But things change when a new more serious villain, Toffee, usurps him as the season one antagonist. Stealing his castle and army in the process. Come season two and Ludo is left alone, having lost everything, and is forced to toughen up in order to get back what he once had. He builds a new army, stronger than his first. He finds a new castle to form his base in, and becomes a genuine threat to our cast. Scrappy underdogs villains who lost everything might be one of my favorite tropes in fiction. Other examples of this trope used effectively would be Peridot in Steven Universe and Jamack in Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeast. However, while those shows use this trope as an opportunity to have these villains go through a redemption arc, Star goes the other way and uses it as an opportunity to make a character become more of a threat. That said, he never loses the comedic charm that made his fun to watch in the first place. Part of me honestly kinda wish that Ludo stayed the main villain of season two, instead of being usurped Toffee yet again. That said, the episode "Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell" does a good job giving his arc a satisfying conclusion.

Speaking of antagonist, let's talk about Tom Lucitor. Star's demon ex-boyfriend. While not a season spanning villain like Ludo or Toffee, he has several appearances early on as a recurring antagonist only to go down the more traditional "redemption arc" route later on. And I just want to say upfront, Tom is one of my favorite characters. Not in the show, but in fiction in general. It would of been so easy to make Tom your generic "toxic boyfriend" arch-type but even early on it's made clear that even though he's an antagonist, he isn't pure evil. His love for Star is genuine, but the problem is that he hasn't earned it. He tries to improve himself and become a better person but his own anger issues and jealousy keeps getting in the way. Specifically jealousy of Marco because he seems him as a romantic threat. But as time goes on, he does become better. He learns that he and Marco have a lot in common and eventually accepts that he can't make Star love him, and lets her have her space. And that, ironically, causes Star to becoming willing to open up to him again. They become friends and eventually get back together. But what I like is that while he has gone through efforts to improve and work through his problems, they still persist throughout the series. He's still very insecure and is looking for constant approval from Star. He still is jealous of how close Star and Marco are even though he has become friends with both of them. And it's shown several time that Tom tends to put his own problems above the problems of others. It shows that even though he wants to change and is willing to change, that doesn't mean that change come easy. It takes time and can be a long process. These are realistic character flaws that make Tom such a more complex and relatable character in my eyes. I relate a lot to Tom with his desire and constant struggle to improve as a person, and I feel like it's a struggle that's easy for a lot of people to relate to. Also...he's just such an edgy dork. He's...he is good boi.

Another fantastic character is Eclipsa. Introduced about halfway into the series, Eclipsa was a former Queen of Mewni who was imprisoned in crystal due to dabbling in dark magic and for running away from her arranged marriage and marring the King of the Monster, Globgor. The show builds up mentions of Eclipsa early on, with characters talking about how evil and dangerous she was. Eventually she becomes free from her prison (cause lets be real, whenever there's a villain sealed away somewhere you KNOW they're going to get out.) But surprisingly, when we see her she actually doesn't seem that evil. She's polite, kind, and is even willing to go through the proper legal channels to prove that she isn't as bad as people say she is. She is an excellent example of a morally ambiguous character cause for the first several episodes we the audience don't really know if she is actually a good person who's just been judged too harshly by society or if she is actually evil and this is all an act. As even as the show goes on and it becomes clear that Eclipsa is a good person at heart they still manage to keep the audience guessing. Much like Star, Eclipsa can be kinda selfish and impulsive, making her a bit of a loose cannon. Despite the shows title "Star vs. The Forces of Evil" Eclipsa goes to emulate one of the shows major themes. That life isn't that black and white.

The show deals a lot with shades of gray when it comes to its characters, as all characters have there own motives and backstories and relations with each other that can make them either allies or enemies depending on the circumstances. An example of this is the Magical High Commission, a group that monitors magic across all the dimensions. throughout the series it is shown that they stand on the side of Mewni. So in season two when Mewni is being conquered by Ludo and Toffee they're good guys. But just like most most people in Mewni they hate monsters and believe that Eclipsa is evil. Making them antagonist in seasons three and four. Their motives stay the same, but their role in the series changes.

However despite my praise not all the characters are great. In fact the show can be kinda hit or miss with their cast. The characters that are great are really great, but then you get characters like...

(Art by JelloApocolypse)

You know what, I have to be honest. I kinda like Pony Head. I know a lot of people say she's annoying and selfish and contributes next to nothing to the plot...and they're right. But I also just kinda like her. I think what makes her more bearable to me is that she's kinda disliked in-universe. Even Star, who is Pony Head's best friend, often times get sick of her crap. Real talk though, can we all agree that Pony Head is basically just a discount Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time? Like, they're nearly the exact same character.

A character who I don't like as much though is Glossaryck, the magical spirit guide that lives in Star's spell book. I never really got his deal. Sometimes it seems like he likes Star and genuinely wants to help her become a better magic user, while other times it doesn't seem like he really cares. He dies in the beginning of season three only to come back a few episodes later acting like a wild animal and yelling "Globgor" over and over again without any explanation as to how or why. Than at the end of season three it's revealed that it was all an act and he was fine the whole time. Like...why? We later learn that is a highly recognized historical figure in Mewni. Why is he yelling his name? And why does nobody question why he's doing this? I can buy that Star and Marco might not know who Globgor is but most everybody else seems to. I keep expecting that moment for his motivations to click. Where it's revealed how everything he's done was all an elaborate ploy to help Star or something, but it never really happens. Though my opinion of him does slightly increase in season four, but that's just because Keith David took over the role of voice actor. And adding Keith David can make anything better.

Some characters can even change in quality between seasons. Janna is this edgy punk girl who joins the main cast in season two as a new friend to Star and Marco. I liked her well enough in season two even if some of her more abrasive elements could be somewhat obnoxious. She's more or less absent for most of season three. Then come season four she returns and I found her more annoying. I don't know if her character got worse or if it was just the fact that her character didn't work as well in later episodes after the show had become more dramatic. But near the end of the season, they give her some long overdue character growth. Not a lot, but some. And I found myself liking her more.

There are other characters in the series as well, and they tend to vary. Star's mom, Moon is a BAMF and I like Buff Frog a lot. Jacki and Kelly are fine characters, though I admit there's not that much to them outside of being love interests for Marco, though they still have there own personalities. King River's kinda annoying but I've seen worse examples of the "dumb dad" trope and Alan Tudyk gives a great performance.

And since I don't have time to go over my thoughts on EVER character in this series, I'll do what ever online review does when they don't have time for nuance. Create a tier list!

If It's not apparent by now, the characters in this show run the gambit. With the best ones being some of my favorite characters of all time, and the worse one's just being generally annoying. However, if there's one thing that this show excels at is not painting things as black and white. No character is evil without a reason and all the heroic characters have un-heroic flaws to their characters with unique motivations that make sense for their characters. (For the most part anyway.)

The shows animation is also really good. Featuring thick outlines and a lot of nice coloring on the characters. (Even if some of the background colors can be a bit drab at times.) Most of the first season is done in flash, but it's good flash, which does well to accentuate the character expressions and the fluid action scenes. Part way through season one though the show's animation changes to more traditional animation. I think there is a bit of a divide on which style people consider to be better, but I personally prefer the look of the later seasons. The bouncy look of the early season one episodes look good, but I don't know how well that would of worked in the more dramatic and somber moments that happen later on.

I also appreciate the world building. The first two seasons are set mostly on Earth in the town of Echo Creek, but the last two seasons changes things up and focus much more on Mewni, allowing us to explore both settings. I know some people don't like the change as it resulted in several of the characters introduced earlier being written out of the show but I never really minded that. I think Mewni and the cast of characters who inhabit it are on the whole more interesting than the people of Echo Creek. (I mean does anybody really miss Sensei Brantley?) Plus the change in setting allows us to get a bit of a role reversal with Marco being the fish out of water, and Star having to show him how her world operates. And even if you do prefer the Earth setting we still cut back to it on occasion. And when you add it all up the total series runtime between the two setting is fairly evenly.

I like how characters can kinda come and go in this series, as it shows that the world doesn't revolve around Star and Marco. And it allows the writers to see which characters people gravitate to and focus on them while keeping less interesting characters out of the way. It also allows for character arcs to actually have conclusions, without the need for them to be drawn out just for the sake of keeping characters around longer.

Let's talk about themes for a moment. Specifically the main theme of prejudice and systemic racism in the show. It's handled...okay. It's kinda standard stuff and it doesn't go super complex on the issue, but for what it is it works though. That being said the show can be a bit confusing in terms of what counts as "monsters" and what are just regular races in this world. Which can make the metaphor a little muddled. I get that the idea is that there is no difference, and that monsters are only deemed as bad as an excuse for mewmans to justify their mistreatment of them, but it can still be confusing as to who's oppressed and who isn't and to what extent. I feel it would be even more confusing for a younger children watching who might not understand all the nuances of this stuff. However, the way the show tackles this isn't bad either. And the fact that the show tackles this element at all is admirable.

But who cares about systemic racism! That's not the real reason people are watching this show! We all know that everybody is really here for the shipping!

Yeah, as the series went on the shipping seems to become a much more major element within the series. So much so that to many the increased focus on the shipping is often cited as one of the main elements that caused the show to go down hill. However I never really minded it. I mean Star vs. has always been a bit of a love letter to the shojo/magical girl genre and romance is a very important element to those types of shows. So it makes sense that it would be used here. And I think it's used pretty well here overall. These are just kids struggling through these types of feelings for the first time, So it makes a lot of the stupid decisions that they make feel a lot more believable. But if this kind of thing isn't your cup of tea, it might end up bothering you. Because they do devote a good amount of time on it.

But you're probably wondering, who do I ship? Am I team Starco or team TomStar? And honestly, while shipping has never been something I've ever gotten too invested in, if I had to pick I would probably have to say team Starco. Which may be surprising as I previously went on and on about how Tom was one of my favorite characters of all time. But this is the way I see it. Tom's whole arc is about learning how to get over his jealousy and controlling nature regarding his relationship with Star. And it's shown that even after he's dating Star, and has everything he thought he wanted, he still couldn't fully get over his hangups. Even though he loves Star and Star loves him, it's clear that the relationship still isn't exactly the most healthy. And it's clear that they are going in different directions in their lives. Tom knows what he wants. To be with Star. But Star doesn't know what she wants. Not all relationships have to end because one person does something wrong or because one of the parties involved is a bad person. Sometimes two people just aren't compatible in that kind of way. And seeing Tom be the one to break up with Star shows just how far he's come as a character. Plus, like I said earlier, Star and Marco have great chemistry. And I do genuinely see them working as a romantic couple, beyond the fact that there the two main leads.

Besides, StarTom is technically incest so....

*record scratch!*

Oh wait, you didn't know about that.? Yeah, according to the official "Star vs. the Forces of Evil Magic Book of Spells" Star's Great Great Great Grandmother Rhina Butterfly was in a relationship with John Roachley, a second cousin to the Lucitor's. Now granted that would mean that Star and Tom aren't THAT related. But still. Incest none the less. Not that it even matters anyway since all of the Mewmans are descended from like five random people!

Seriously, this is some Ishigami Village levels of incest we got going on here.

But despite how heated the flames wars can be, I think we can all agree that Tomco is the best ship anyway. Like come on now.

So yeah, even the shipping elements didn't bother me. To be completely honest, while the show did have some problems here or there, I found myself enjoying the show well into the fourth season. But I knew it was coming. Since I was watching the show months after the series had concluded, I had heard things about the finale. A finale that figuratively "cleaved" the fan base. But in order to talk about the finale we have to go a few episodes back and talk about the episodes leading up to it. Obviously spoilers ahead.

To briefly recap, at this point in the series Eclipsa had become Queen of Mewni along with her husband Globgor after Star relinquished the crown to her. And many of the Mewmans are upset by Eclipsa's new "pro-monster" policies had left to live with the former Queen Moon. Meanwhile Mina Loveberry, a legendary monster fighter from generations far gone, had begun building up an army to invade Eclipsa's castle and take Mewni back from the monsters. A lot of people I hear don't like Mina as a final villain, but honestly I was surprised by how threatening they were able to make her despite how goofy she is. And her backstory about basically being a magically altered super solider driven to the point of insanity really helped to make her sympathetic. (Like I said, in this show everyone is painted with shades of gray. Even genocidal lunatics.) She invades with a Solarian Knight, a giant magic powered mech and it takes all of our heroes working together to barely defeat it. Until it is revealed that it was only one of many. It's an amazing twist that really leaves you wondering "How are or heroes going to get out of this one." Up to this point I was digging this final arc. But that's when I finally got to it.

To me, the moment where Star vs. the Forces of Evil got bad was the moment it was revealed that Moon was working with Mina to reclaim the thrown from Eclipsa.

It just doesn't fit Moons's character to do this. While it is shown throughout the season that Moon does not agree with Eclipsa more extreme policies, It was still shown that while Moon may be against Star's decision to give the crown to Eclipsa, she acknowledges that since Star was queen at the time and was within her right as queen to decide what was best for the kingdom. And in previous episodes she seemed generally happy not having the responsibility that comes with being queen anymore. But now she suddenly wants her kingdom back? If she wanted it back, all she had to do was say so from the start. At the start of the season most Mewmans still hate Eclipsa. It would not be that hard to stage a coup if she really wanted, especially since the magic high commission and all of Mewni would be on her side. Why would she work with Mina, who Moon knows is insane and racist even by Moons standard? Sure Moon and Eclipsa definitely don't see eye to eye on a lot of things but Moon still wouldn't want her dead, and Moon knows that Mina wants to kill her. I know she thought she could control Mina's army but that's still a big risk. It seems uncharacteristically reckless for a character as intelligent as Moon to make these choices.

So then, after it turns out that Moon can't control Mina's army, our heroes are basically screwed and are forced to hide out in a special tavern located at the edge of the universe to wait things out while Mina begins rounding up all the monsters in Mewni. They are all trying to figure out a plan on how to possibly defeat Mina's army when Star suddenly goes on a rant about how magic is bad. And this idea had been brought up a few times in the series, but overall had never really been portrayed as a major aspect. But suddenly the show treats this as if it's all the magics fault, and that everything would be better if it was gone. And that's when Star comes up with the genius plan to use go to the magic dimension to destroy all the magic. Thus making Mina's forces useless. And while I admit that yes, they are very much been pushed to a wall here, this has to be one of the most overkill ideas they could of possibly think of!

Now, I've seen a lot of people online saying that by doing this, Star would be committing mass murder on a multiverse scale, potentially destroying many universes. And I think that is a bit of a reach. From what we see in the series, it seems to me at least that magic is kinda a rare thing in the universe. That's why so many villains are trying to steal the magic wand away from Star. And I see very little implying that there are whole universes that are reliant on magic outside of Mewni. THAT SAID THOUGH, this would result in the deaths of a lot of innocent people. But Star really only seems concerned with the fact that once magic is destroyed, all people who come from parallel universes will return to their home universe, meaning she won't be able to stay with Marco. Which makes Star seem beyond selfish and generally pretty horrible.

Hekapoo, one of the high commission members, despite being made of magic and knowing that she will die from this, is totally on board for this plan because plot. And our heroes travel to the magic dimension to destroy all the magic. Which they do. Defeating Mina's forces and leaving her powerless. She still manages to escape however because nobody decides to actually, you know, try to arrest the person who just committed a political coup and nearly whipped out an entire race. They just let her walk off, because she's powerless now. I mean what's the worse she could possibly do, right?

So yeah, Mina is defeated, but everybody is sent back to their home dimensions. But somehow, through the power of love I guess, the universes of Earth and Mewni begin to merge. Thus allowing Star and Marco to be together. Happy ending, I guess? I don't know. Like Star and Marco being together is treated as a good thing. But we also see humans screaming as there world have now been overrun by monsters. Is this suppose to be a joke? A bittersweet ending? I'm not really sure.

In concept the idea of a universe merge is actually a pretty interesting idea. As it feels like a natural progression of the shows themes of racial tolerance and mutual understanding. Now that we've gotten semi-tolerance between monsters and mewmans we could now have an arc about trying to bridge the cultural gaps between the humans and the mewmans. Plus it would be a good way to appease both the people who enjoyed the earlier seasons focus on Echo Creek, and fans of the later seasons who preferred the stories set on Mewni. It's not a bad idea, but it needed to A.) be set up better and B.) needed more time to be fleshed out. I get that it's designed to be a sequel hook, but it's not like this is something that the series had been building up to to the point where we the audience can put together what happens next. As is, it's just weird.

So yeah, the last couple of episodes of Star vs. where a total mess. It's fitting that the finale to Star happened to come out the same day as the finale of Game of Thrones. While I'm not going to act like there weren't some parts I liked or some good ideas sprinkled throughout, this finale was pretty bad. How do you have a show that preaches acceptance and equality and end it with a genocide?! But hey, genocidal problems call for genocidal solutions am I right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ufmrn7BCuA

My God, It's Dragon Ball Super all over again.

And the worse part is that the series didn't have to end this way. Cause the show actually had a pretty good episode about half way through the season, "Cornonation" which would of acted as a great series finale! With the series ending with Eclipsa as Queen and ruling with Globgor by her side, with the mewmans finally accepting monster kind. You'd have to change a few things, like rap up Mina's plot and put Star and Marco together, but other than that it could of really worked. Admirably it may end up feeling more like a finale for Mewne as oppose to a finale for Star but it would thematically fit with the message of the series. Or if you really wanna keep this finale more in tack just don't have Star destroy the magic. Just have Star, Moon, and Eclipsa go off and do the one thing the three of them had never tried doing. Working together. And have them defeat Mina the old fashion way. They even allude to this idea in the tavern episode before Star goes on her whole "We gotta destroy the magic" kick.

It is a bit ironic to think that a show that's whole message is about unity could end up being so divisive with it audience. I genuinely believe that had the show ended on a better note, people would look back on the show more fondly. Despite the flaws. To the people who don't like Star vs. The Forces of Evil, I can understand where you are coming from. Even if you ignore the finale there are things to not like. A lot of things aren't very well explained and the show has its fair bit of plot holes. The series can be repetitive with its frequent shipping and "racism is bad" episodes. And some of the characters can be a bit annoying, including our main lead at times.

That being said though, I have to say, I can't bring myself to hate this show.

I don't know what it is, but I just found myself getting really invested into this series. Maybe it was due to me hearing so much bad things about the later seasons that I had low expectations, and while that may be part of it I don't think that's the whole reason. When you watch as many cartoons as I have, and for as long as I have, it becomes harder for things to impress you. Sometimes it can feel like your just checking shows off of a box, which is something that I've been trying to improve upon. But watching this show, it brought me back to the way I felt back in the early 2010's when I first started getting into these types of series. For all of Star's flaws, and trust me there are many flaws, it felt like it was doing something unique. Like it was in it's own little world that wasn't quiet Adventure Time and not quiet Steven Universe. And the series stuck with me after I finished watching it, which is surprisingly kinda rare. It's why I became interested in doing this review in the first place.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a flawed show. Very flawed. But I'd rather have a flawed show that's unique than a perfect show that's something I've seen a million times. And while I may not be a fan of how it ended, I don't think that should completely take away from all the good that this show has to offer. This show isn't going to be for everybody, and If you somehow made it this far into the review without seeing the show than I hope I've said enough to help you figure out if this show is right for you. But for me, despite everything, the series still has it's magic.

What did you think of Star vs. the Forces of Evil? I really genuinely want to know on this one. Did it go downhill and if so than when? Leave those thoughts in the comments down bellow. Please fav, follow, and comment if you liked the review. And have a great day.

#Star vs The Forces of Evil

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