#i do however understand the take in critical analysis. he is very pathetic in this regard

[aroacehanzawa]

"victor is self-absorbed" to YOU. to me he just has low empathy and i get him

#i do however understand the take in critical analysis. he is very pathetic in this regard #frankenstein

[irontragedyreview]

Well after the analysis or attempted analysis of Tomura, it's time to talk about Izuku. As I said with Tomura, many men who read shonen should be prohibited from making interpretations about certain character traits or even commenting the manga. Seriously, since the leaks came out and began to be commented on, a large number of men have commented on the recent events about Izuku and his arms as a kind of punishment for wanting to do a talk no jutsu (Guys, please let Naruto rest, I love Naruto but even I know when to blurt out certain things and this complaint in different fandoms is already pathetic).

Before doing any analysis of Izuku, I want to make certain points clear. 1) Izuku and his fight aren’t over yet, there is still fight in that boy and we are talking about Izuku who fought to rescue bk without his two arms too, so yes I don't think this will take him out of the fight; 2) I can't guess what will happen to Izuku's arms, the truth is that there are two possible ways for his arms to be returned by a quirk I doubt it's Eri, she doesn't have enough energy, either Chisaki, since as far as we know he can’t use his quirk without arms, perhaps Tomura when he returns can do so considering the original nature of decay, but considering that the quirk implanted in him was modified in a laboratory, I don't know if it can evolve like that. Another option is for Horikoshi to go for what we already know prosthetics after the war, so far no character with lost limbs has recovered them; 3) Tomura isn’t dead, he is there and he is going to emerge to kick AFO's ass along with Izuku; 4) Sorry to all Aizawa fans but the truth is I'm not very interested in his plot with Shirakumo, honestly the most interesting thing about seeing Kurogiri again would be to see if Shirakumo had recovered his true identity and know if there is any part of him that he cares about Tomura beyond Kurogiri's programming.

Having said that, let's start with Izuku. One of the things that led me to write this analysis of him was the number of times I saw that the loss of his arms is a kind of punishment for not wanting to kill Tomura (seriously, men get out of your edgy phase and stop of thinking that characters with compassion are inferior who don’t accept reality) and on the other hand that this was a chronicle announced by Midoriya's recklessness, on this point I don’t disagree with the idea that Izuku losing a limb hasn’t been mentioned more than once in the manga also he was obviously going to get physical injuries outside of the OFA with gearshift , but I disagree with comparing this moment to Midoriya being reckless.

I’m not going to deny that Midoriya tends to be reckless, many of his fights and his trip with the OFA were him pushing his body to the limit, but this wasn’t out of pure recklessness, no one who reads the manga and understands Midoriya's character can’t ignore the way he’s always trying to be enough, above all Izuku fears failing the people who gave him a chance. His first meeting with All Might when his hero tells him to see reality and leaves while walking home Izuku tells himself that he shouldn’t cry, that he knew it was a fantasy. I say this because one of the main points that many forget when they criticize Midoriya is that he never prepared his body, but the truth is that he was always realistic for what society told him he should expect, his notebooks and his desire to be a hero were a desperate attempt to deny that reality that everyone wanted to mark him, but when All Might his hero tells him to abandon, there is no reason to deny it anymore and it’s in this first chapter where Midoriya considers accepting his reality twice, the first once with All Might and the second time with bk before AM offered him OFA.

With All Might everything changes, for the first time someone gives him the opportunity that he dreamed so much however, we see for the first time the carelessness he has for himself, in his training he overexerts and reaches a fatigue that makes him makes him faint, AM notices the overdemand and scolds him but Izuku knows that he´s at a disadvantage against others, it’s unhealthy but he understands that everyone there has been born with quirks and has been training for longer than him, so he really wants to take this change, he’ll have to put in the effort. Here AM should have insisted that Izuku focus on his health, but again AM also doesn’t know how to set a limit to his own demands, and therefore he is not the one to set a limit, if he adjusts his routine but doesn’t prevent the overdemanding of Midoriya continued his development.

Throughout the manga, Izuku has taken his body to unexpected limits, his first fight with Muscular, Eri's arc where to stop the advance of the rewind he took the OFA to its maximum so he destroyed himself at the same speed Eri healed, the entire first war arc where his fight with Tomura is literally fierce, and his solo arc where he is pushed to the limit of standing. I say all this because Izuku's recklessness comes from his own conception of heroism that leaves aside his own well-being, but above all because Izuku separates his own self between Deku who can do it and the useless Deku who can't save anyone, He sees himself this way because he hates his old self, the quirkless, defenseless part, the one that AM saw at first and told him that he couldn't be a hero, even today no one has told Midoriya in his face that he can be a hero without a quirk, which is more than enough, no one told him that, class 1A told him that they were friends, Ochako said that he was special for himself not because of his quirk and when Aoyama introduced himself as a traitor and Kirishima said something like "what does it matter that he doesn't have a quirk", none of these are words of encouragement for someone who lived much of his childhood being bullied and attacked.

All this brings us to chapter 419, some say is the result of recklessness or in the case of many others a punishment that Midoriya deserves for wanting to save a villain, seeing compassion as weakness and harm as punishment is so stupid about all because there is something much more interesting and devastating. Izuku during all this time is sacrificing every piece of himself to reach Tomura, he sacrificed OFA and now his own arms because he really wanted to reach him, he’s fulfilling his own words he wants to know, he needs to understand so that their confrontation isn’t just senseless violence and the saddest thing is that trying to reach Tomura and finally take his hand, refusing to let him go even if it could disintegrate him, is the act that allowed AFO to take control again.

All this time Izuku is doubtful, he doesn't have a certain plan because the situation is difficult but he also can't ignore that crying child, that's why when Tomura screams that he’s beyond salvation or no longer human, Izuku continues to insist the opposite and the moment where he finally catches up to him is the moment where he loses, because Izuku's actions weakened Tomura and allowed AFO to take control, but one thing should be clear Izuku wasn’t reckless when he took Tenko's hands, he knew the consequences and he still wanted to reach him, he wouldn’t regret it because if there is something that characterizes Izuku as a character, it’s the great capacity he has to feel compassion and his kindness.

#izuku midoriya #deku #bnha meta #bnha 419 #Tomura shigaraki #Tenko shimura #All Might #just to be clear this isn't All Might bashing #I Can't belive that I finally do it

[memecucker]

sometimes you say things about reading Chuck Jones' writings that makes it sound like I'd really enjoy reading what he has to say. do you recommend any books/collections in particular

Chuck Jones: Conversations (edited by Maureen Furnis) is probably a collection of various interviews and transcripts with Jones and probably the most useful source for his comments on aesthetics and animation. Most of the stuff I say that has to do with him I got from this book which is just really invaluable. It’s hard to summarize the contents fully but it’s just a really great text

Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist by Chuck Jones is also really good. It’s essentially his memoirs combined with various illustrations in an oversized text since there’s plenty of art and Chuck Jones talks about his life and evolution in his own words. One of the cool anecdotes he says which plays a lot into his stuff about realism vs believability is when he talks about how his first gig as a professional artist was as a sidewalk caricature artist. He says something he realized on his own is that caricatures of people have to strike a balance between silliness because that’s the whole point and not wanting to have the person feel insulted (since it’s a profession that depends heavily on tips). Jones realized the best way to do a caricature of someone was as a sideways profile because if he did a head-on caricature striking the aforementioned balance became quite tricky because people are very familiar with their direct reflection (and may feel self conscious about certain aspects) so exaggerating or distorting some of those features may make a person feel ugly. However if he did a sideways profile caricature that’s an angle people aren’t used to seeing so it’s easier to have the drawing come off as a silly cartoon counterpart of the person rather than a mocking distortion of their reflection

Music and the Animated Cartoon by Chuck Jones. Published in the “Hollywood Quarterly” in 1947 which despite the name sounding like a gossip magazine was a serious academic journal dedicated to analysis of Hollywood art and cinema (and which would later be targeted by the McCarthy’s blacklist). In this essay Jones is at his most directly theoretical and provides a critique of what he sees as errors in the adoption of sound music in animation. Essentially Jones says that when cartoons use sound and music simply as secondary signifiers to what is visually on the screen. Basically imagine a silent era cartoon with a character whistling and this is shown by having music notes come out of their mouth and according to Jones the adoption of sound and music has done little more for most animations than simply substituting the visual music notes with an actual whistled tune. However music and sound is so much more than simply a epiphenomenon of the visual and Jones calls for people to take seriously the freedom of animation and that audio can be used not simply as a representation of the visual but rather as a creative expression itself. While Jones is critical of some aspects of Disney animation (such as an early overreliance on rotoscoping which Jones disliked because why not just film actors in costume if you want things to “look real”) he gives Fantasia as an example of a cartoon that knocks this out of the park and iirc specifically the Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor segment as an example of how visual animation can be used to represent the feelings that are invoked by a musical piece

And of course check out his cartoons! I’m with Deleuze when it comes to how cinema theory shouldnt simply look at how cinematic films shouldn’t simply be reduced to abbreviated essays (and I imagine Jones feels similar) but looked at as works of theory in their own right! Duck Amuck is probably my favorite short of his and it’s actually quite fun to try and analyze but he also directed the operatic shorts such as What’s Opera Doc? and The Rabbit of Seville as well as Duck Rodgers of the 22nd 1/2th Century (I used to be confused and thought Bob Clampett did Duck Rodgers because Clampett did The Great Piggy Bank Robbery which features “Duck Twacy” and i wonder how they’d feel about that bc Jones and Clampett did not get along) You might be surprised to see how many things you recognize were done by Jones such as How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Jones was a longtime friend of Dr Seuss and the Chuck Jones Art Gallery has a large supply of Dr Seuss sketches) and several Tom and Jerry shorts (Chuck was one of the T&J directors who was fully aware more people found Jerry the mouse more sympathetic and liked making shorts which were in his words “tragic” in that it’s not the desired outcome of the audience but he knew that there’s more to art than producing what the audience consciously wants to happen plot wise) and even some abstract stuff like The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics which is a short that I think really benefits from reading his essay about music and cartoons.

Also what I also love about Jones is he was such a.. theoretical person. Like a lot of this stuff sounds like grad school overanalysis but the “maybe the curtains are just blue” crowd would have their minds blown if they saw what Jones had to say about things as seemingly vulgar as Looney Toons. Like with Wile E Coyote (a character Jones created) he talks about making him a coyote because coyotes are the most pathetic looking type of predator which if you’re from the Western US or at least area where coyotes aren’t cross breeding with wolves and getting bigger you definitely understand. Or how the reoccurring gag where Coyote runs off a cliff and keeps running on air for a few seconds before turning to the audience and holding a sign that says “Help!”before plummeting hundreds of feet and in Jones’ own words what’s ‘going on’ is that Coyote is a representation of neutroticism and anxiety and when he holds up the sign and looks at the audience, Wile E Coyote is showing a greater fear of being judged a failure and is asking for some kind of mercy or sympathy and places that fear above that of self-preservation (since part of the gag is that Coyote is not using his suspension in air to try and go back to the cliff). And that’s a freaking animation director for Looney Toons!

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 204

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 06 - “King Donuts Awakens!” Date watched: 8 January 2021 Original air date: 9 March 2008 Screenshots Transformation Gallery Project info and master list of posts

mood

The character re-introduction arc reaches its epic conclusion and shows us where Rin has wound up after her moment of self-realization in the Y5 finale. It turns out, she wound up constantly tired. Relatable. Let’s dig in!

The Plot

Nozomi and Rin are on their way to Natts House to prepare for the grand re-opening. Rin is visibly very tired and confesses that she was up late the previous night.

images with sleepy auras

As they arrive at the store, they run into Syrup.... or more accurately, he runs into them, carrying an urgent letter from Milk. (Remember this, because Syrup sure doesn’t) However, just then, a brilliant light erupts from inside of Natts House, so they all rush in to see what’s happening. They find everyone gathered around a table with the Rose Pact in the middle, glowing, and then it opens up and King Donuts emerges, fully awake. Then he yells at everyone to stop staring at him.

blinded by the light...... how does that song go again?

After the opening, the gang tries to introduce themselves to King Donuts, but he assumes it’s another Eternal trap until Coco and Nuts reveal themselves. Instead of being relieved, however, he just pivots his anger onto them for being incompetent and letting him get attacked by Eternal. So yeah, not off to a great start here. While they watch the goings-on, Rin yawns, and this further annoys the already irate king. Growing frustrated, he tries to leave, but finds that there’s a barrier around the Rose Pact that’s trapping him until he fully recovers. As you may imagine, this does wonders for his good mood.

I’m not yawning because I’m bored, I’m yawning because I’m bored AND tired.

Cut to Eternal’s headquarters and a very fatigued Scorp drops a huge report on Anacondy’s desk, mentioning he hasn’t slept for six days while writing it. However, she dings him on numerous minor errors, deeming it unusable, and tells him to combine it with the previous report and redo it. Exhausted and holding a stack of paper half his height, Scorp collapses and the pages fly everywhere. I have to say, Koyasu acting tired is a fun change of pace for him.

these are the eyes of a man who has lost all hope

Back at Natts House, everyone is still trying to appease King Donuts. He insists he’s fine already but in attempting to demonstrate this, he wears himself out quickly. Karen offers him the apple she snapped a few episodes ago, but he refuses to eat it because he doesn’t trust them. The girls give up on him for now, because they need to get to work opening up the store, but they notice Rin has fallen asleep.

Nozomi advises them to just leave her be, trying to get Syrup to help them pass out fliers instead. He refuses and wants to know why they don’t wake Rin. Nozomi explains that Rin was busy all day with sports clubs, tending to the family shop, and watching her siblings, so she stayed up all night designing accessories because it was the only free time she had. (I am very familiar with this concept.) She also admits that Rin didn’t tell her this, she deduced it because she knows Rin and how she works.

With that settled, the remaining girls, as well as Coco and Nuts, get to work handing out fliers. Syrup, however, stays behind to look over Rin, because he refused to help any other way. He muses over his situation.

At that moment, Rin wakes up, and Syrup asks if she really was up all night designing jewelry. She realizes her old friend Nozomi has read her like a book. She admits to feeling guilty that she not only stayed up late working, but she couldn’t come up with any ideas, and now she’s missed out on handing out fliers as well. She feels useless (big oof) and contrasts herself with Syrup, who she says is working hard to get to the Cure Rose Garden. Syrup disagrees and insists she works way harder than him. At this point, King Donuts, who has been listening in, interjects and commends Rin for being critical and analytical of herself, saying it’s the key to self growth. I feel like there’s a missing line in here about not slipping too far into self-doubt, but regardless, Rin remembers she’s supposed to be at futsal practice and runs off before the end of the King’s speech.

“Gah!” - Natsuki Rin, 2008

After she’s gone, the king and Syrup discuss how hardworking she is, along with the other girls. Also there’s a gag where King Donuts didn’t recognize Syrup until he turned back into his fairy form which further establishes that Syrup has a bit of a negative reputation far and wide.

Meanwhile, at the practice field, Rin isn’t doing a whole lot better at futsal than she was at jewelry design. As a result of staying up late, she’s still tired, so she’s missing passes or overshooting goals. She even accidentally kicks the ball over the fence and into the woods, so she goes to retrieve it while yawning some more.

It’s here that she is confronted by an equally sleepy Scorp, who asks her to hand over the Rose Pact so he won’t have to write up his report, and he can sleep. It’s kind of pathetic, kind of comical.

Scorp turns the futsal ball into a hoshiina, so Rin transforms as well. Syrup swoops in to save her from Scorp but drops the Rose Pact, so King Donuts tries to talk down the villain. However, Scorp is undeterred and even sees more value in having one of the monarchs inside the Rose Pact. The other girls show up and transform, temporarily distracting Scorp (as well as the king, who is surprised that they’re the legendary warriors) but he then continues his advance until Rouge punches him away. Then she hears Lemonade screaming as the Hoshiina tries to fling her off, so Rouge rushes in to kick it and rescue her friend. Scorp once again tries to capture the Rose Pact, so Rouge separates from the team again to protect the fairies, but Scorp captures her instead and taunts her about trying too hard to do too much by herself and says she’ll only ever be halfway finished. This hits Rin at her core and she is unable to resist an attack from the Hoshiina, but at the last moment her teammates jump in front of her to defend her. They remind her that she’s not alone, they’re there to help her, and then Dream gives an inspiring speech about how Rin always challenges her situation and works harder than others, so they’ll always support her. Scorp is unimpressed, but Dream rushes him with a Shooting Star. Feeling newly motivated, Rin also performs her new finisher on the Hoshiina: Fire Strike! She summons a fireball at her feet and then kicks it into the monster, which of course dissolves back into a normal futsal ball. Scorp flees, muttering about how he’ll have to include this in his report as well.

As the dust settles, King Donuts admires the Precures, and then has a seemingly random realization about the Rose Pact and the Red and Blue roses, or rather, the lack of blue rose. In case you had forgotten that plot point.

the answer will surprise you

Back at Natts House, King Donuts opens up a bit more to the girls and they chat back. However, he quickly reiterates that he doesn’t acknowledge Coco and Nuts as rulers yet. When they ask Syrup to help them with the shop, he reminds them that he’s only here to deliver a letter from Milk, and he finally hands it over to Coco. (took him long enough) It turns out the letter says there’s an emergency in Palmier Kingdom and everyone needs to come there quickly! They want to go but aren’t certain how.... until they remember Syrup has the convenient ability to travel between worlds. He initially refuses, but King Donuts cleverly appeals to both his pride and his kind-heartedness, causing him to think about the conviction all the girls have shown in their solo outings thus far, and he agrees to take them. So just as quickly as it opened, Natts House is closed again and the gang boards Syrup to fly to the Palmier Kingdom. As they rise into the air, they soar forwards into a watercolor warphole, surrounded by floating  lights. They fade to white and the credits start.

The Analysis

Something I truly appreciate about this episode is that it picks up from the first series finale, and shows that Rin hasn’t magically become a top tier accessory designer, she still has moments of artist’s block, and she really struggles with just finding time to create, which impacts her social responsibilities. (sounds familiar) Rin’s struggle is a recurring theme, and I'm always glad that unlike certain later shows, they don’t glamorize her sacrificing sleep, they just portray it as something people sometimes do even if it’s not in their best interests. Contrast with that episode of Go Princess, you know the one. It’s a straightforward cause and effect: Rin stays up late designing, so she’s tired the next day, and that influences her interactions.

It has some positive responses, such as getting King Donuts to recognize how hardworking she is and swaying his opinion on the girls; and some negative impacts, like kicking the futsal ball too hard and over the fence. With all that said, I must once again remind you all not to sacrifice your well-being for your goals, even if I’m bad at following my own advice.

King Donuts (or Doughnuts if you prefer) is an interesting character. At first he’s paranoid that he’s in another Nightmare trap, but as he grows to accept his circumstances he warms up a bit, especially when he hears about how hard Rin is working. He remains critical of Coco and Nuts, understandably so, since their negligence led to him being attacked previously. However, he doesn’t dislike them, he is sharp-tongued because he wants to make them better kings. Physically he resembles a diminutive dragon. It’s not the most apparent visual but when all four Rulers are together the pattern begins to become obvious. More on that ~eventually~.

although they’re all in the OP so, ya know, clues

A secondary theme throughout this arc has been to show Syrup starting to acclimate to the girls and begin appreciating their hard work and way of doing things. He’s still stubborn and wants to do his own thing, but it takes less arm twisting to get him to go along with the girls’ requests. Usually. As he admits to King Donuts, he respects their work ethic and their devotion to the causes they love. He entered the picture as a loner delivery boy who just wanted to do his job, but getting roped in with the Precures’ misadventures has opened his eyes somewhat. He’s going to be fun to watch as the show continues. However, he has a reputation, as we’ve seen. We don’t know exactly what the details are but several characters seem to have a low opinion of him, and we’ll find out more about that in coming episodes.

The fight in this episode is interesting in how..... not interesting it is. It kind of fools you into thinking more is happening than actually is. There’s a lot of talking and not as much action as you would expect. The Cures and Scorp or the Hoshiina will exchange a few blows and get thrown around, then one of them starts lecturing the other side about their beliefs. Sure, all Precure shows have elements of this, I can remember a few other fights that were more talk than combat, but it seems particularly egregious this episode. I do like how Scorp’s mocking has an effect on Rouge though. She’s already feeling really unaccomplished and then he goes and tells her she’s useless without her friends. It starts to weigh on her heart, but her friends quickly step in and say hey, we love Rin, she has us to support her, it’s okay if she can’t do it all by herself. As a result of this quick pep talk, she unleashes Fire Strike, her new finisher, and boy does THAT shine. It’s the first soccer-themed Precure attack in the series, and more will follow in subsequent years.

Compared to some of the other finishers, Fire Strike is more straightforward. Rouge creates a ball of fire and kicks it directly into the Hoshiina. It’s less over the top than her teammates attacks (flying into the enemy, twin whips, flying discs, or an arrow made of water) but the animators manage to punch it up a bit with some suitably dramatic effects that sell how fast, hard, and powerful this kick is. Also I have to say, the shot of Rouge bringing her leg all the way back to ready the kick is really cool.

Her leg is cocked and extends past her head. If you’ve ever tried this you know it’s hard, so even if you can make a drawing do anything, it still looks impressive, and the next shot where she’s kicked it is gorgeous. The flame walls, the way she’s lifted slightly off the ground, the way the ball is warped, all convey a sense of power and motion. Yeah, she’s just kicking it straight ahead, but you get the sense she could kick it through a brick wall.

I do have to say, on the negative side, the framing device of the episode feels a little forced. If this letter from Milk was so important, Syrup probably should have pushed it on the girls a little sooner. Maybe just dropped it off with Nozomi when he first met her in the morning. They still could have seen King Donuts awakening but they would have made moves to go straight to the Palmier Kingdom instead of doing all that work advertising and opening the shop only to have to close it again right away, and skipping Rin’s moral quandary. Since those are at the root of the episode, it might be hard to cut them, so alternatively, to keep them, the episode could have been written such that Syrup could have received the letter at the end, so he wasn’t holding onto such an important and urgent letter all episode long. It’s the little things. And on that topic, I find the third act (fourth act?) after the fight to be a little too goofy. Syrup finally hands over the letter, then they all hem and haw about how they’re going to get to Palmier Kingdom and they beg and plead Syrup to do it until he finally agrees. The only truly funny part to me is Nuts lamenting that he has to close Natts House after he just opened it.

Also there’s this ending sequence.

This is the single worst thing I have ever made in the name of this project.

It’s overall a well-thought out episode and it smartly moves between story elements, smoothly concluding the character reintroductions and setting up the Blue Rose arc that follows. I appreciate how seemingly unconnected events flow into each other and they lead to the King seeing that the girls are legitimately good people. It’s probably the most cohesive episode of this arc, although I still think the character reintroductions peaked with Urara’s. The others have been good in different ways, but there’s a deeper bit of heartfelt emotion that episodes 2, 3, 5, and 6 just haven’t been able to match.

Next time, Milk’s emergency turns out to be largely imagined, and we meet a new villain. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 kettei!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! #YPC5GG06 #PCD204

[quixotic-dragon]

Kokichi Oma’s Crocodile Tears   (MAJOR DRV3 SPOILERS)

Ah, good ol’ Kokichi Oma. The Ultimate Little Shit- and a controversial little shit at that! I’ve recently played v3, and Kokichi is the one character who always seems to be on my mind (aside from my fav, Keebo, of course) because he’s such a mystery. We never get to know what’s going on in his head, at least not openly, and many players are led to assume that he is a malicious troublemaker, or even an outright sadist. 

I’m going to take a moment to analyze Kokichi specifically during that infamous scene at the end of Chapter 4 because that is all that’s been on my mind as of late. 

Underneath the Keep reading, there WILL be major spoilers for the entirety of v3. There will also be a very long essay, but I will do my best to break it up so it is easier to read. Read at your own risk.

So without further ado, here is my analysis of and my thoughts on Kokichi, his actions, and his character circa Chapter 4:

INITIAL REACTION:

Before I go into how I feel about Kokichi now, I’m going to have a discussion about my thoughts on him while this scene was playing out. (I know my exact feelings because I was liveposting in a discord server as I played, haha)

At this point in the game, the player does not yet know that Kokichi is not the true mastermind, nor do they understand what Kokichi means by “winning” the game. 

I had personally been spoiled of who the v3 mastermind was (thanks a lot danganronpa wiki), so I recognized that Kokichi wasn’t the mastermind, however I did not recognize that he was trying to win the killing game via unconventional methods. So from my point of view, Kokichi had just intentionally murdered Gonta (and Miu) just to increase his chances of winning and had the nerve to shed fake tears over it. I was furious! (behold, my fury!)

Kokichi sobs over Gonta’s death, and I interpreted this as entirely fake tears. One of my friends suggested, “i feel like there was a difference between like his / crocodile tears and this.” 

I was enraged at this suggestion and stood beside my initial reaction because I felt that there were no signs that Kokichi never cared for Gonta as anything more than an asset, so I could not trust Kokichi to have any real remorse for his death with such a manipulative relationship having existed. (Massive disclaimer that this is my interpretation of their relationship; if you have a different interpretation, that is totally fine and valid!)

At this point, I considered why Kokichi might be crying so intensely even if it was an act, and came to the conclusion that if there was any sort of truth in those tears that Kokichi would be upset for a different reason than Gonta. He would be upset because he was truly alone. Not a single living person wanted to spare him the time of day besides Gonta. And now that Gonta is dead, nobody wants Kokichi. Even though I was fully convinced he was a sadistic, evil bastard at this point, I still figured that he must’ve felt some sort of sudden and crippling loneliness realizing that the only person who cared about him in the slightest was dead.

This interpretation of Kokichi I had really didn’t change much until after I had finished the entire game and stopped to think about Kokichi a bit more; his heartfelt final words to Kaito felt like lies to convince him to play along (blackmailing Maki certainly didn’t help with that much either), and his whole trick felt less like him trying to help and more like him just trying to cause chaos for the hell of it in my mind.

So, in conclusion, my initial reaction to the Kokichi scene? I thought Kokichi was a heartless bastard whose only remorse could be crippling loneliness. Although my initial analysis while I was still playing was quite interesting, I have some different opinions on it now that I’ve taken a step back and viewed the game as a whole.

KOKICHI ONLY WANTS YOU TO THINK HE’S EVIL:

Surprise! Kokichi isn’t a sadistic fuck! Crazy right? 

Well, not really if you’ve watched/read any Kokichi analysis ever. However, Kokichi’s act seems to be a common thing that many casual players of v3 fall for. I certainly fell for it when I played, as you saw above!

It isn’t until far later in the game that it is revealed that Kokichi is the “supreme leader” of a pacifist prankster club (DICE), and it isn’t revealed until the end of Chapter 5 that Kokichi actually had good intentions in setting up his mastermind persona (although, as seen above, those good intentions are still very easily interpreted in a bad light).

So why does he bother to so obviously cry wolf at Gonta’s death just to double back on his persona ten-fold as soon as he’s called out on it? Because he’s just trying to sell his mastermind persona, not only to the other characters and the mastermind, but to the player themself. This is intended by both Kokichi and the writers themselves, made obvious by the fact that we get no real evidence of Kokichi being a benevolent person until long after this scene. (There are many moments in earlier chapters where Kokichi is trying to be helpful to the group or to a specific character, however every time he attempts this, it is painted in a negative light because he is either going against the protagonist’s will or achieving things in a more underhanded manner via lies or provocation). 

When I saw Kokichi crying for Gonta, my first thoughts were, “I am going to THROTTLE this fucking BASTARD.” Because even if those tears were real, Kokichi was still the one fully responsible for Gonta’s death, so I felt that he had no right to shed tears over it. If it weren’t for Kokichi’s crying during this scene, I would have been very suspicious of how suddenly his evil villain act amped up. If he hadn’t shed tears that were so obviously fake, I would not have been nearly as enraged with him, and therefore not nearly as willing to just accept the fact: “Well. Guess he’s evil now.”

Whereas I would’ve chalked the scene without crying to bad writing, the viewers of the killing game, and by extent the mastermind, would garner suspicion towards his actions. Although Kokichi was not aware that Keebo had direct contact with the outside world, he was very aware that the killing game had to have been broadcasted to somewhere. He had to ensure that he was as convincing as possible; that meant no “bad writing” mistakes could be left anywhere.

I stand by what I said before in that Kokichi’s crying in this scene is just a bunch of crocodile tears. However, with new context and information surrounding the situation, they probably weren’t devoid of emotion. Kokichi only allowed himself to cry here in order to properly double back on his new mastermind persona, however, unlike what I believed before, he most likely did feel remorse at the deaths of Gonta and Miu. He just broke his last standing moral code: don’t murder people. And he broke it by indirectly causing the deaths of two people he may have considered to be his friends. That’s heavy stuff! 

Kokichi is faking these reactions to the trial because he has to if he wants to deceive everybody. But... the best acting comes from the heart.

LONELINESS AND GUILT:

As I covered in my initial reaction to Kokichi’s breakdown, I felt as though he couldn’t possibly have any remorse for his actions, so he must have been devastated knowing that he would now be truly alone. This view was heavily influenced by Shuichi’s words after the trial... because they were true. 

After Kokichi criticizes the group for coming to Kaito’s aid, Shuichi turns around and tells Kokichi that he is the pathetic one because he will always be alone. There are no lies to these words. Now that Gonta is dead, and now that Kokichi has gone so far into his persona, not a single person wants to even be near him.

Now that I’ve established that Kokichi’s actions post-trial were most definitely an act and not representative of his true feelings, we can discuss what his true feelings may have been. I come back to the idea of Kokichi fearing being alone because, hey! My past ignorant self was actually onto something!

The acknowledgement that Kokichi feels remorse for his actions just makes this situation even sadder for him; not only did he just indirectly murder two people and has to put up with the guilt of that, but now, nobody cares about him either. Not that anybody in the cast cared for him all that much in the first place (aside from Gonta), but Shuichi’s words to him here seal his fate as the permanent outcast and assigned villain of the group. He had already been struggling with loneliness throughout the beginning chapters of the game, and now Shuichi - the only person he finds truly trustworthy (according to his little whiteboard, at least) - is confirming to him that nobody wants him. Ouch.

I am personally led to believe that a large part of the reason that Kokichi ends up sacrificing himself in Chapter 5 has a lot to do with the broken feelings he would’ve had under the combined guilt of his actions and the crushing reality of loneliness.

Would Kokichi have offered to sacrifice himself anyways given the circumstances? Probably, yeah. However, the way he was so accepting of his death reminded me a lot of Kaede in Chapter 1; she couldn’t allow herself to take the First Blood Perk because she felt that she had to atone for her sins, or she could never live with herself. Kokichi seems, in the moment, to be more than willing to die, perhaps for the same reasons. Not only would be feel like he has to make up for the deaths he caused, but he would also feel like he had nothing left to live for, at least not within the academy anyway.

Or maybe he was just tired from the poison, not from life. But who’s to say? We can’t see inside of his head.

FINAL THOUGHTS / CONCLUSION:

OK, so some final thoughts before wrapping this up: Holy shit, Kokichi is an asshole.

Even knowing the emotional turmoil Kokichi must have been going through, it was still infuriating to see him treat Gonta so poorly in Trial 4. Perhaps it was just a part of his act as well? Regardless, it really just did not sit with me well. Under no circumstance should Kokichi be continulessly yelling at Gonta while he’s crying from the insults, for real. But hey, at least if it was just another act from Kokichi, then he can rest easy knowing he certainly had me fooled.

...

So, in my opinion, Kokichi’s infamous breakdown was entirely fabricated. He had to fake both his tears and his sadism in order to fully convince the world that he was a force of pure malice in order to get away with what he had planned. However, despite his apparent change in personality, he never really was sadistic, and may have even cared for the people around him till the very end.

That’s all I guess  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#danganronpa v3 #danganronpa #drv3 kokichi #kokichi ouma #kokichi #v3 spoilers #danganronpa spoilers #danganronpa v3 spoilers

[the-desolated-quill]

A Stronger Loving World - Watchmen blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. if you haven’t read this comic yet, you may want to before reading this review)

When people read Watchmen for the first time, I’d be surprised if any of them expected the story to end like this.

A Stronger Loving World opens with the aftermath of the fake alien arriving in New York and slaughtering millions. Three splash pages of harrowing artwork by Dave Gibbons. Corpses littered everywhere. Blood in the streets. Giant tentacles wrapped around various landmarks. It’s an extremely unsettling opening and lets the reader know that Gibbons and Alan Moore are not fucking around here. Doctor Manhattan and Laurie arrive to see the carnage and deduce that Adrian was behind it before heading to Antarctica to confront him. After several confrontations involving Manhattan getting disintegrated again and Laurie pulling a gun on Adrian, it’s revealed that Ozymandias’ plan has worked. The nations of the world have put aside their differences and decided to cooperate for fear of an impending alien invasion.

This then leads to the big moral dilemma. What Adrian has done is despicable, but he has succeeded in bringing about world peace, and revealing the truth behind the giant squid runs the risk of dooming the world all over again. So what would be the heroic thing to do?

Well there’s no point asking these characters because as the graphic novel has been emphasising again and again, these guys are not heroes.

This is an extremely complicated moral conundrum with no real right or wrong answer, and I very much appreciate how Alan Moore doesn’t try to shove one down our throats. I also like how each character comes to their decision. Doctor Manhattan is of course a godlike being who sees beyond our world and so shares a somewhat similar view to Adrian’s. That the deaths were justified because the end result is peace. Rorschach on the other hand cannot square what just happened with his own rigid morality, and refuses to keep the secret, vowing to tell everyone the truth, which leads to Manhattan killing him. Nite Owl meanwhile, being weak willed and pathetic as ever, decides to go along with Adrian’s plan, but it’s less to do with him agreeing with Adrian and more to do with the fact that the moral implications are so hard to comprehend that he doesn’t even want to try, instead taking the path of least resistance. Finally Silk Spectre, so shocked by everything she’s learned and witnessed, clings to the one stable thing she has. Dan. The two then have sex, serving as a dark inverse of the sex scene in A Brother To Dragons. In both instances, sex is used as a metaphor for power, but whereas the motivation in the first was Dan overcoming his own inadequacies, the second is both Dan and Laurie desperately trying to retain whatever shred of power and independence they have left after such a shocking and twisted act of mass murder.

It’s great because it demonstrates just how well Moore understands his own characters and how well we’ve come to know them. They behave exactly as we would expect them to and there’s something oddly satisfying about that despite the moral ambiguity of their decisions.

In fact lets discuss Rorschach for a bit, considering he’s the only one that refused to keep the secret. Bit surprising considering the horrid things he’s done throughout the graphic novel. What’s so different about this? Well it could be the sheer scale of it. Could be that he didn’t believe those who died truly deserved it according to his own strict moral code. Except I’m not entirely convinced. In the extra material provided in The Abyss Gazes Also, there’s a letter written by a young Walter Kovacs about his father. Or rather the person he imagines his father to be because he never actually met him. Apparently his parents split up because ‘he liked President Truman and she didn’t.’ Interesting in and of itself that Rorschach, a right wing bigot, was fathered by a Democrat. But wait, it gets more intriguing. He then goes on to write about how he believes his father was an aide to President Truman before talking about the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the US dropped atomic bombs, killing millions. Except here he expresses that he believes that Truman did the right thing because it ended the war and saved millions more lives. Curious, wouldn’t you agree? So, in Rorschach’s mind, what made the nukes in Japan morally justifiable while Adrian’s giant squid in New York wasn’t? We can only really speculate at this point. Some think it’s because Rorschach has realised that there is no place for him in Adrian’s new world order, which I guess is kind of true, but I think it runs the risk of romanticising the character again. It could be that the nukes were a last resort whereas the squid was preemptive... maybe? Personally I think it’s just good old fashioned racism. Rorschach had no issue with the millions of Japanese lives lost because they were Japanese. The enemy. This is different. This time millions of American lives have been lost. To him, this is more than just mass murder. It’s an act of treason.

We may never fully know the reasons behind Rorschach’s actions, but it’s nonetheless interesting to discuss.

I also appreciated that we do get a moment where Adrian questions whether he did the right thing, expressing his doubts to Doctor Manhattan, to which he receives a cryptic response about how ‘nothing ever ends.’ (does Manhattan know what happens in the future? We’ll never know). It’s a nice moment that helps to humanise Adrian a little bit and remind us that he’s as flawed as all the other characters. The arrogant bravado he displays when he succeeds in achieving world peace could easily have slipped into pantomime villain territory if there wasn’t just this small moment near the end, possibly as the scale of the things he’s done dawns on him. Like the pirate captain in The Tales Of The Black Freighter, Adrian means well and his intentions are noble, but his actions are either highly questionable or just downright villainous. This is basically what Watchmen has been talking about since the start. Once you start taking more frequent steps outside the bounds of what is legally and morally acceptable, it’s not long before you’ve effectively joined the criminals yourself.

There’s a lot to like about A Stronger Loving World, however I do have a few complaints here and there. Yes, lets talk about that giant squid.

If there was ever a moment where Watchmen jumped the shark, this is it. And quite frankly I have no idea what Alan Moore was thinking at the time. So Adrian wants to unite the world together using an outside force that will encourage everyone to put aside their differences and team up with each other. Okay. Makes sense so far. But the plan itself requires so many leaps of logic, it kind of loses all credibility. Take for example the idea that it was cloned from a psychic’s brain. Well that came out of nowhere, didn’t it? Yes this is a world where a giant naked blue guy can manipulate atoms, but the story explained to us how this was possible, allowing us to suspend our disbelief. Now suddenly we’re supposed to believe that human psychics exist with no build up whatsoever. It’s just dumped on us, which makes it feel more like a convenient excuse than an explanation. Yes they do kind of foreshadow it with Adrian’s pet lynx Bubastis, but it’s a bit of a leap, isn’t it? It’s one thing to genetically alter an existing animal. It’s another thing entirely to create an all new creature with psychic abilities as though this was Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Not to mention, in order to explain how in God’s name someone can go from inventing electric cars to creating aliens, Alan Moore has to resort to a gigantic infodump in order to make sense of the bloody thing. The initial teleport incinerates people, then the psychic ‘death throes’ or whatever cause others to go mad and start killing each other, and then those even further away have bad dreams or something. Presumably the person furthest from ground zero probably has a moment where they forget where they put their car keys and leave the gas on. It’s just overly complicated and way too daft.

Also I can understand Adrian kidnapping scientists, but why artists and writers? And why tell them the creature is for a movie? Was no one a tiny bit suspicious of the amount of work, resources and effort being put into this supposed ‘special effect’? What about the fact that they were taken from their homes and put on a tiny island? Don’t they have families? Are any of them concerned about how ridiculously secretive this film production is? And more to the point, why let the rest of the world believe them to be kidnapped? If you’re going to go with the Hollywood movie cover story, why not just tell people that’s what they’re doing? I guess you could argue that Adrian was concerned this would draw unwanted attention to his plan, but... what?... them getting kidnapped wouldn’t have drawn attention?!

And then there’s just the sheer randomness of it. Why aliens? He doesn’t even plant the seeds for this anywhere. Maybe have some fake UFO sightings or something. He just dumps a dead alien on New York’s doorstep. Also, if genetic engineering is common knowledge, why would people assume it’s aliens? Surely government scientists testing the thing will discover it’s of terrestrial origin. Which leads to the biggest flaw. Would this plan really have worked? Killing millions of people in one city? Would that be enough to unite the world? Perhaps in the short term, but there’s no way you could possibly sustain that lie for so long. Plus, call me cynical, but considering how quickly Russia mobilised when Manhattan left the planet, surely it’s more likely they would take advantage of the situation while America was reeling from this act of carnage. If Adrian is supposed to be the smartest man in the world, I’m amazed he didn’t consider any of this. Maybe he has contingency plans in place, but I don’t know. It all seemed pretty final to me. He genuinely believes that this will fix everything. It just makes him look a bit stupid.

The whole giant squid plot has got more holes in it than a colander. Which is why (and I know I’m going to get some flak for this) I much prefer the version in Zack Snyder’s adaptation than I do the graphic novel. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I’d rather save that for when I review the movie, but I do honestly think Adrian’s plan in the movie makes more sense than the source material does.

Another side effect of having to explain the alien is that Silk Spectre’s story never gets proper closure. There’s a moment where Laurie confronts her mother over the fact that the Comedian is her father, but it all just feels a bit rushed and unsatisfactory. Especially when she starts talking about wanting to change her costume and start using guns, implying she’s going to be more like the Comedian in the future. It’s just too big of a leap in my opinion. One minute she’s distraught that her father was her mother’s rapist, the next she’s following in his footsteps. It’s such a sharp turn, it practically gave me whiplash.

That being said, I did like the little detail of Dan taking Sally Jupiter’s porn magazine, which I think implies how superficial their relationship is. They’re together because of the power and sexual rush they feel in their superhero identities, not because they actually love each other. Maybe that was what drew Sally to the Comedian despite everything he did. Who knows?

I also really like the ending. I haven’t been talking about the New Frontiersman in these reviews because it’s largely been inconsequential up until now, which is kind of the point. Seymour, a downtrodden, inconsequential man working a soul sucking job at a right wing newspaper, is suddenly given the power to change everything. Will he reveal the contents of Rorschach’s journal and thus expose Adrian’s plan or keep quiet in the name of peace? I want to believe it would be the latter, but considering his livelihood depends on his racist editor having material to rant and complain about, it would seem the world is truly doomed. 

As Doctor Manhattan said, ‘nothing ever ends.’

Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading these blogs. It took longer than I thought to write them, but honestly I think it was worth the extra time because there is just so much about Watchmen to unpack and I really enjoyed analysing this story. I’ve been wanting to review Watchmen for ages now and I’m very proud how these have turned out. I personally think it’s some of the best stuff I’ve ever written. Next I’m going to be reviewing the movie adaptation directed by Zack Snyder and then after that the HBO TV series. In the mean time, please feel free to like and reblog and share your own thoughts and feelings about Watchmen. Which character did you find most interesting? Do you think Adrian did the right thing? What would you do in Seymour’s shoes if you found Rorschach’s journal and discovered the truth about the giant alien squid? I’m genuinely curious :)

#a stronger loving world #watchmen #alan moore #dave gibbons #dc comics #review #spoilers

[chemicalmagecraft]

The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 2

A/N: Wow, thanks for all you guys who left nice reviews and stuff. Sorry it took me so long to update, but I had a play I had to go to a lot of practices for, which was especially annoying because of the four scenes I was in, I only had an important role in one.

To LadyCalus, I have no idea how to do that.

To the user known as Iliekfishes, I would like to say that, while I do not appreciate your tone, I do appreciate that you gave me some criticism. Now, to address what you said, I said that I hadn't seen any My Hero Academia/Gamer fanfiction, which was at the time true. I have, however, checked some out after you pointed that out to me. If it bothers you that much, though, I can edit it if you ask nicely. As for the formatting, I do admit to using Ryuji's The Games We Play as a sort of reference for the formatting, as I remember that that fanfic was very faithful in formatting to the original webcomic and I couldn't remember how exactly it went. Now, while I can deal with you insulting me to a certain point, I would prefer you not call the other viewers names. I also have no clue what "almost all the tension is midigated by cannon" means. Finally, while I didn't mean to make it seem like I was anyone's gift to fanfiction aside from my own, much less God's, I do apologize if I unintentionally gave off that vibe. If you can possibly think of any tips to not sound like a jackass, I would be willing and grateful to hear them out. Sorry for putting you on the spot like that, but you did call people who were nice to me dumbasses, which I very much do not appreciate.

To Voltrasin, I understand your confusion, but the reason why Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady had ? for titles is because Izuku can't see the titles and levels of anyone fifty or more levels over his. Should've made that more clear, sorry. And yes, all heroes will have their hero names as their titles.

Also, I forgot to include map and quest log to the main menu. Fixed it, but I figured I should let you know

Now, on with the story!

xoxoxo

I stared at the pile of sludge in front of me. "Well, kid, seems like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately for you, I need a disguise." Ping. I looked at the new text box.

A new skill has been created through special action! Repeated exposure to bloodthirst has created the skill 'Sense Bloodthirst' to sense ill will.

Yeah, no thanks. I jumped out of the way as he lunged at me. "Observe"

Name: Kurosawa Shou

Title: Sludge Monster

Level: 26

HP: 1600/1600

MP: 500/500

STR: 30

VIT: 39

DEX: 34

INT: 16

WIS: 6

LUC: 6

Quirk: Sludge Body

Emotions: Grateful, bloodthirsty

Status: Sludge body

"Itadakimasu!" the slime said as part of his body shot out and stuck to my ankle. I gasped and quickly bent down to try and tear him off of me before he could do anything more to me. Unfortunately, my fingers slipped through him with little resistance. "Get over here!" he yelled, and I was yanked into him. As I was painfully dragged across the ground, I heard a ping, but I was a little too distracted by the sludge villain trying to eat me or something. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get away from him before he submerged me in himself and started trying to force himself down my throat. It was at this moment that I noticed something in the corner of my eye that I could somehow see perfectly fine.

HP: 184/250

MP: 275/275

And the HP was slowly going down as I struggled with the sludge villain. That was not a good sign. I struggled harder, but I couldn't get out. I thought I was going to die there. I heard another ping and looked up, hoping it was something I could use.

A new skill has been created through special action! Through repeatedly enduring damage, the skill 'Physical Endurance' has been created.

Due to struggling while unable to breathe, your VIT has raised by one!

Crap. Normally that would be good, but I couldn't use them to escape. My HP was still draining and my vision was starting to go dark. "Am I going to die here?" I thought. Just before I blacked out, though, I heard something.

"TEXAS SMASH!"

xoxoxo

When I came to, someone was lightly slapping me on the cheek. "Hey! Wake up!" a familiar voice said. I groaned and looked up to see... "Whew! Thought we lost you there!"

?

LV?

Toshinori Yagi

The name wasn't familiar, but there was no mistaking who the large, muscled, blonde man was. "ALL MIGHT!" I scrambled to my feet, now aware that I had been rescued by my idol. "Can I have your autograph?" He grinned and pointed at my hero analysis notebook, which must have slipped out of my backpack during the struggle. I opened it to the All Might page and beamed at the autograph that he'd written on it. "THANK YOU!"

"Good to hear it, kid! Always great to see a fan! Nowifyoudon'tmindmeIhavetogoturnthisvillainin!" He rushed out that last part while pointing to two soda bottles that the villain was stuffed in and then jumped away. Of course, by then... "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, KID?! LET GO!" I had stupidly grabbed onto his leg.

"If I let go I'll die!" I yelled back over the wind.

"GOOD POINT!" he said. He landed on a nearby roof and let me off. "I have to go now! Knock on the door and someone should let you down!" He made to jump again.

"Wait!" I yelled and closed my eyes. "All my life, I've looked up to you. I've wanted to be a hero just like you. But... my Quirk has only just surfaced. I'm sure it has potential, but it's going to take a lot of training for me to be able to use it as a hero. Even with potential, though, the exams to get into Yuuei are in ten months. Do you think I can still get into Yuuei?" I looked at him for an answer, but... "WHAT!?"

All Might

LV 9

Toshinori Yagi

If it weren't for the title confirming it, I'd have thought that he was a different person. Sure, he was blonde and very tall, but he was almost literally skin and bones! I guess whatever the hell just happened to him to make him a scarecrow was also what lowered his level, but... "Observe"

Name: Toshinori Yagi

Title: All Might

Level: 9

HP: 500/500

MP: 1100/1100

STR: 11

VIT: 4

DEX: 19

INT: 52

WIS: 35

LUC: 9

Quirk: One For All

Emotions: Annoyed, concerned

Status: Totally Fucked Up

"What happened to you, All Might?"

He sighed, then coughed up some blood. "Before I say anything, I need you to promise me you won't say a word of this to anyone. Don't go blabbing about this online, don't tell your friends, don't even say anything to your family. Got it?"

I nodded vigorously. "I won't tell anyone. It's obviously a big deal."

He sat down and raised up his now-baggy shirt, revealing a giant wound on his... everywhere... that could only be described as "Totally Fucked Up." It looked like someone took a fusion between a sledgehammer and a blender to his chest. "I was in a really bad fight five years ago. Took the villain down, but not before getting this ugly thing in return. By all rights, I should've died by now. Luckily, I 'only' got off with constantly coughing up blood and only being able to do hero work three hours a day."

"Toxic Chainsaw couldn't do that do you!"

"You really know your heroes, huh? No, it was another fight. I made sure nobody would hear about it, otherwise there'd have been a lot of panic. Kid, if you wanna be a hero, maybe you should wait a bit. Put it off 'til college or something, when you can actually use your Quirk." He got up and left through the door. I just stood there, stunned. Then I saw a giant explosion. "That's either a villain or Kacchan snapped," I said. "I wonder which one." Ping. "What's that?"

A quest has been created!

A quest?

What Now, Kacchan!?

You just saw an explosion! Maybe you should investigate.

Time limit: 30 minutes.

Well, I had nothing better to do... I looked down to see what I assumed were the rewards.

Completion: 2000 EXP, ?, ?, ?.

Failure: Bakugou Katsuki dies.

Okay. Definitely doing that now. Even if it could be considered vigilante work, I really didn't want Kacchan to die. I decided to run for it.

xoxoxo

When I got there, I saw a crowd of people standing just outside of the safe area. I pushed my way through the crowd to see the sludge villain from earlier in the middle of a flaming street, struggling with someone who was inside him. "Did he get loose when I grabbed onto All Might?" I thought. "Is this my fault?" I looked at the titles.

Sludge Monster

LV 26

Kurosawa Shou

Lord Explosion Murder

LV 14

Bakugou Katsuki

It was Kacchan in there! Before I knew what was happening, I was running in there. Ping. I looked at the text box.

New objective! Save Bakugou.

Welp. Looks like I made the right call. I focused back on the sludge villain in time to see him turning towards me. "You came back for some more, huh, kid? Well I'll kill you if you want it so badly!" The sludge villain looked like he was about to lunge, so I threw my backpack at his face. He flinched and yelled at me. I ran up to him and started tearing at the sludge around Kacchan's face. I heard a ping but didn't stop to look at it. I managed to get the sludge off of Kacchan's mouth. He gasped, coughed a bit, and then yelled, "GET AWAY, FUCKING DEKU! YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" That was either a death threat or he was actually concerned about me. Either way, my response was the same.

"What kind of hero would I be if I let you die?" I would've said something else, but my Sense Danger activated and I jumped back just in time to not get hit by a gooey punch.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" The sludge villain yelled. I would've done something but then I heard a pair of pings.

"I'M PATHETIC! DETROIT! SMASH!" a familiar voice yelled. A rush of air extinguished all of the fires and somehow blew the sludge villain apart while leaving Kacchan untouched. A few seconds later it randomly started raining. I looked to where the blast originated and saw All-Might standing there. "I'm sorry, boys."

xoxoxo

"What were you thinking!? You could have gotten yourself killed!" The heroes were not happy I rushed in there. I didn't really want to pay attention to their lectures, so I just looked at my text boxes. One of them congratulated me on how I made some sort of ripping skill my tearing the sludge off of Kacchan. It didn't look too good, but maybe I could work with it. The other one, though...

Congratulations! The quest What Now, Kacchan!? was completed!

Completion Rewards: 2000 EXP, Increased closeness with Toshinori Yagi, Access to the Skill Grimoir system, 3000 Skill Fragments

Your level has increased by one!

That... was something. At least I was level six now, even if I had no idea what a Skill Grimoir system was. Or what the heck I do with Skill Fragments. All I knew was that a bunch of balls like Munny from Kingdom Hearts swirled around me before getting absorbed into my body after All Might hit the villain, which apparently everyone saw and I had to explain that I had no idea what the heck happened there to the heroes. Turns out that random balls getting absorbed into the idiot kid who stupidly ran into the villain attack is normally a red flag of some sort. Specifically that, apparently. That is a really specific scenario to be wary of. At any rate, they eventually let me go when I promised that I wouldn't do anything too stupid without adult supervision. I was walking home when...

"HEY! DEKU!" A fuming Kacchan shoved himself at my face. "I DON'T EVER NEED YOUR HELP! IF YOU EVER TRY TO BAIL ME OUT LIKE THAT AGAIN, I'LL KILL YOU!" Just to make his point, he let out an explosion aimed at the sky as he walked away. I sighed and continued along my way... for all of five seconds before All Might ran out in front of me.

"I AM HERE!"

"All Might! What are you doing here? Weren't you speaking to the press?"

"HA HA HA HA! I STAND FOR JUSTICE, NOT SOUNDBITES! FOR I, I AM ALL MI-plghght!" He started to go on this big speech before spewing out blood and shrinking down to his civilian form. I gave him a few minutes to clean himself off before he said, "Young man, I came to thank you and apologize. If you hadn't told me that you couldn't use your Quirk, if you hadn't ran in there... I would've been a worthless bystander, too afraid to do anything. So thanks."

"All Might, I-"

"I'm not done. You told me you couldn't really use your power, so when I saw this boy who might as well be Quirkless try to save a life, it inspired me too. There are stories about every hero, how they became great. Most have one thing in common. Their bodies moved before they had a chance to think, almost on their own. And today, that's what happened to you." I'm not going to lie, I teared up at this part. A lot. "Young man, you too can become a hero!"

"I-I don't know what too say! Thank you!"

"And I'm going to give you my Quirk, too!"

"Wait, what?"

"My Quirk. It's called One For All. It's a special power that can be passed on from one generation to the next, cultivated by one user then given on to a successor." He patted the OH GOD wound. "I won't be able to be a hero much longer, so I've been meaning to find someone to give One For All. It's actually why I came here. So, kid. Whaddya say? Wanna be the next All Might?"

midoriyaizuku.exe has stopped working. Reboot? Y/N

Y

"WHAT!?" I yelled.

"I want you to be my successor. I'll also help train you to use your Quirk even if you don't want my Quirk, so don't worry about that."

I bowed. "All Might, I'd be honored!"

"Great, kid! Let's trade phone numbers." All Might asked me for my phone number. ALL MIGHT ASKED ME FOR MY PHONE NUMBER! I gave him my phone number and he gave me mine. "I'll call you when I get everything ready. See you then!" He then walked off. I spent the rest of my walk home in silence, contemplating what just happened today. It was so crazy! But one thing was for sure. One thing that I had to do the second I got home. I walked in the door and immediately said, "Mom! I have to tell you something!"

Mom immediately came running and said, "What is it, honey?" She looked a little nervous.

I gulped. "Mom," I said, "I have a Quirk." The look on her face, that look of relief, joy, and excitement, was something I knew I'd cherish for years to come.

xoxoxo

A/N: Oh, snap! Ain't this a twist! Yeah, I'm way too much of a wuss to deal with the implications of Izuku being able to print money and I didn't know how to get Izuku magic without flat-out introducing magic otherwise, so I just combined the two problems into one solution. Izuku's going to figure out what that Skill Fragment and Skill Grimoir thing does soon, and I won't say anything more until them. Also yes, Izuku is going to make progressively more video game references if I can remember to do it. Seriously, the Gamer needs game shout-outs!

Anyways, I'll see y'all next time! Let's hope I manage to update this thing sometime within a month next!

#The Gamer Hero Deku #Gamer Hero Deku #fanfiction #GHD CH2 #BNHA

[2nd-rate-film-school]

Why Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Is Actually a Masterpiece of Modern Blockbuster Cinema

This is a review written by my friend and fellow filmmaker, @kubrickking. It’s a bit long, since she is a huge fan (and good film critic, imo), but it is definitely worth the read.

Since my sisters and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, we have all shared a sense of undying loyalty to the franchise. As BIG Disneyland people, the ride was a staple in our short lives long before we even understood how the concept could become a movie. Thus, we’ve enjoyed going to the midnight premieres, viewing the ride updates, and gathering pirate merchandise through the years. At this point, however, I think it’s fair to say that while we will see whatever film they release, we consider ourselves more fans of the original trilogy than what has followed with Dead Men Tell No Tales and - what was that fourth one called again?

To that point, this review is going to be biased as shit. I was an impressionable kid when I first saw these films and I will always remember them fondly. That being said, I just rewatched them at the age of twenty and feel my reaction is very similar. I was only fourteen when I saw the fourth film and was able to admit that it was terrible. In addition, know that this is not a reflection on Johnny Depp or any of the recent publicity he has faced. I am, and would hope you are as well, able to separate his work as an actor in this series from the recent revelations about his personal life.

As a side note, I am operating this review under the information given in the films, not the historical accuracy of pirates during this time. I don’t know if pirates regularly helped transport slaves and I acknowledge that the themes related to pirates having duality as both savage criminals and good men shows undeniable moral ambiguity regarding the historical truth. Jack, along with Will, is a romanticized version of a “good” pirate for the sake of a family-friendly protagonist in a story about pirates. And this analysis operates under a full awareness of that fact.

Regardless, one of the things that has always bothered me is the dismissal of the third film subtitled At World’s End. Common criticism of the film labels it as too long, too odd, and too exaggerated with little at stake and even littler sense to it. I do agree that any viewers expecting a simple, enjoyable action flick will be undoubtedly disappointed with the third Pirates offering. However, if you’re the part of the audience that is at all invested in Jack’s dive into the Kraken at the end of Dead Man’s Chest and is smart enough to realize the film is only truly 15 minutes longer than the other two, At World’s End delivers more than you could ever ask for as a conclusive chapter.

While the first film is obviously the most efficient and coherent on both a plot and tonal level, the third film acts as a bridge for cohesiveness between the entire trilogy without shying away from taking risks. And I firmly believe these risks pay off. Unfortunately, a majority of viewers feel it is more madness than brilliance. And to them I say, “It’s remarkable how often those two traits coincide.”

The film begins on such a dark note that it’s easy to see how people get the initial impression that it will not be a “fun ride.” A montage of hangings with a somber pirates hymn that ends with the murder of a child who can’t even reach the noose without a barrel to stand on is quite a way to open a film. And those are the kinds of risks you will see taken throughout the entirety of the movie’s 169 minutes. And I intend to prove to you that they are worth it.

From that first moment onward, you are given a direct association for the villain which up to this film is still underdeveloped and has done the majority of his evil actions off screen. The actions of Lord Cutler Beckett - or the pathetic cousin from another Keira Knightley film: Pride and Prejudice - now have tangibility. He’s no longer just the plot device for the evil Davy Jones, but a bastard in his own right. While Jones did senselessly murder sailors with the Kraken, his actions were motivated by a personal and justified search for Jack. But he never murdered children during a crackdown on pirate conspirators. Beckett’s actions serve as a power play, but also as revenge for Jack's refusal to transport slaves for the East India Trading Company; okay I’ll admit, Beckett’s motivations are still a little glossed over. But the film is juggling so many of the series' villains, anti-heroes, and “bloody pirates” with selfish motivations that a further explanation just isn’t necessary. Let me clarify that. Beckett’s specific personal motivations beyond greed for fucking everything up would simply distract from what we all really care about: Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Fucking Swann.

The film proceeds to build characters and set up future plot efficiently as the setting moves to Singapore, which is not a “random” or “meaningless” choice as some would have you believe. Dialogue from Jack in the first film and during the search for him in the second have previously established Singapore as a hub for a significant band of pirates. Their journey there serves a two-fold purpose of procuring mythological navigational charts that will provide a course to Davy Jones’ Locker as well as a ship and crew to get them there. They do all the pirate-y things like misdirect attention to allow an alternate plan of stealing the charts including a crew below the floorboards ready to provide weaponry and the secondary motivation of enlisting Sao Feng in the meeting of the Bretheren Court. It also gives just a glimpse of the assertion and decisiveness that Elizabeth has carried over from her choice to sacrifice Jack to the Kraken at the end of Dead Man’s Chest.

The number one thing I love about the romance at the center of Pirates is that Elizabeth and Will still have their individual character arcs, motivations, and plot. Even after the revelation that Elizabeth indeed left Jack, they do not immediately fall back into the simple conflicts related to their affections. A confrontation below deck parallels the scene from the first film as secrets and feelings are once again revealed. But instead of making this the focus, they both decide to carry on their journeys making their own choices. In fact, the root of their individual character arcs can be traced back to the first twenty minutes of the first film, Elizabeth’s being a more internal struggle and Will’s a more external one. Elizabeth continuously evaluates her own evolving moral beliefs and desires for her life; does she condone, participate in, and forgive the actions of pirates or does she condemn them. Meanwhile, Will must focus on the familial promise and connection with his pirate father Bootstrap Bill Turner that has been a source of conflict for him since the opening sequence of the series.

Just as it has always been, their love story at the heart of it is pulled apart and put back together by the choices they make and, thus, the people they choose to become. Neither needs the other for fulfillment per say - this is why Will always waits until the last moment to profess his love or insist they marry - but they work better together than they do apart. And that is why their ending is both ironic and essential. Their marriage being officiated by Barbosa in between sword fights with cursed pirates is the only appropriate setting for the unification of the two and one of the best damn scenes.

Call me dumb or sappy, but this romance still feels honest and emotional to me in its restraint. Even though I know it was cooked up in some board room meeting of Hollywood execs, I still genuinely feel invested in it. I think it comes down to the fact that they don’t hit you over the head with it. They allow the female character room to breathe and grow independent from the romance; which is perhaps why you can interpret her ending as either the greatest or worst conclusion to a character arc. Elizabeth’s speech to the crew of the Black Pearl before they enter into battle with the Flying Dutchman gives me chills every time. Because of her heart, dedication, and true duality, she is able to understand and act on the conflict with a decisiveness and purpose that none of the other pirates can. She has allegiance to her beliefs unlike the fickle criminals around her. She fights with and for values and a purpose, enjoying the adventure and adrenaline along the way.

In a similar way, Jack Sparrow’s character is fairly consistent through this film. There is justified criticism about Depp’s performance becoming a parody of the original idea as the series has progressed, and I would agree that it has never been as pure as it was in the first film. However, I don’t feel that Sparrow becomes a full caricature until the fourth film onward and I will tell you why.

Sparrow has always been defined by equal parts wit and luck. The details of his plans or the existence of them at all has always been left up to the interpretation of the audience, with rather blatant characterization from British soldiers about if he “plans it all out or just makes it up as he goes along.” While we can assume he gets lucky a lot and doesn’t always win - i.e. the mutiny that is ingrained in his character’s history - there is obvious intelligence lurking underneath all his actions. He’s persuasive and charming in the way a dirty, murderous pirate shouldn’t and doesn’t need to be. For example, Jack spends most of the second film convincing others that the only way to get what they want is to help him first. He weighs their desires and presents ultimatums, using whatever he has as leverage against them. Jack’s long-winded dialogue scenes where he talks someone around his finger function in the same way that deduction scenes do for Sherlock Holmes.

What makes this most impressive, or the laziest writing ever, is that the people around him are often not unintelligent people. Elizabeth, Barbosa, and Will have all outsmarted Jack on screen by the beginning of the third movie, Elizabeth’s trickery even proving fatal for him. Because of this, Jack’s character is only half what’s written for him.  He is also half Depp’s performance, which does not feel strained in the original three films. Some classic Jack Sparrow moments you may have forgotten actually take place in this film include the canon firing springboard onto the pearl with Beckett’s toy figure in the mouth of the barrel, the discovery and following flipping of the ship to return home, and the manipulation of the Bretheren court to approve a vote for pirate king and subsequent battle with Beckett.

Also, if your argument is that Jack became the main character when he should only be a strong supporting character, HE DOESN’T EVEN APPEAR ON SCREEN UNTIL THIRTY-TWO MINUTES INTO THE FILM. He is a supporting character in this movie. That is tremendous restraint considering the major draw for most viewers, which was heavily capitalized upon by Disney, was Depp’s performance as Captain Jack. And when they finally do show him, it is a lengthy eight minute sequence of him arguing with himself, eating peanuts, licking rocks, and rocks becoming crabs that roll the Pearl over sand into an ocean. Not necessarily the audience-catering character re-introduction you’d see in a Marvel film. Jack is in a mythological purgatory or hell that represents the silly and truly odd essence of pirate lore, and the filmmakers honor that. From the moment Jack is back with the crew on the Pearl, his comedic moments hit every time - with the exception of the angel and devil shoulder Jacks. His interactions with everyone from Barbosa to Will to Davy Jones to Beckett are spot on. Jack is witty, wily, and wondrous as ever while twisting the desires of those around him to spare his life time and time again.

But it’s not just the comedic moments this film gets right, it also nails the emotional and dramatic ones. Particularly Will’s final moments after being stabbed by Davy Jones and Jack’s confrontation with the now dead and beached Kraken hit perfectly. Still, my favorite scene of the whole film has to be Elizabeth’s speech which leads the Pearl into battle with the Dutchman. Dialogue from three male characters plays out in the background as the camera circles Elizabeth, in solemn reflection over the release of Calypso and the impending fight. “Then what shall we die for?” she questions Barbosa. Then she continues with the fiercest fifty second monologue, throwing Barbosa’s words back at him and using them in a way he never could to inspire the pirates aboard the Pearl to rise to the occasion and “hoist the colours” - effectively answering the plea of the chain gang in the beginning of the film.

As with many blockbusters, there is a dramatic scene where the audience typically laughs out of turn. So let me be clear: if you even laugh a little bit during Elizabeth’s desperate attempts to bring her ghostly father aboard, you have no heart whatsoever. It is quite obvious to the audience, who has already been told the people in the boats are dead, that Governor Swann is beyond help. However, to the eye of someone who has seen the mythical Kraken devour the living person beside them, it may not seem so impossible that her father can also be saved. As a matter of fact, why couldn’t they save him?? I am still crying during this scene ten years later. Not because I loved his character, but because I can easily imagine my own parent afloat in one of those boats and my own hysterical attempts to reach them. Take a moment, please, and imagine your parent in this position. Not so stupid now, is she??

And this brings me to my favorite thing about the film: the visual language. Working with supernatural fables and period piece restrictions, At World’s End utilizes an array of solid and effective visuals that stimulate on levels of both the studium and the punctum. An Asian pirate ship floats on still water like glass that reflects the starry night into a mirror image, as they travel into a dimension of suspended time and space at the world’s end to retrieve a dead soul from eternal purgatory. Jack Sparrow gazes into his own reflection in the dead eye of the rotting beast that killed him and contemplates the true nature of freedom in relation to immortality. “The world used to be a bigger place,” says Barbosa and Jack responds, “The world’s still the same. There’s just less in it.” The wrath of a scorned lover materializes into a swirling maelstrom that becomes the setting for the separation of another pair of lovers. Jack holds the heart of a monster in his hand, blade at the ready, and hesitates in completing the task for fear that he faces his own future cruelty. These images as well as others in the film elevate interesting and elaborate themes into dynamic expressions of consciousness. Don’t even get me started on the coloring. And you get all those layers with an amazing dose of action and thrills.

Also, the effects in this movie still look great because they are 90% practical. Wait, you mean the series with skeleton and fish pirates has practical effects? Yes, you asshat, CGI was only used to supplement the majority of the special effects you see. While certain settings and the crew of the Dutchman are obviously computer generated, all the scenes involving ship effects were either done with the built-to-scale, fully functioning set pieces or models before receiving any post-production visual effects aid. The scenes underwater were actually shot underwater with all the lead cast and the final twenty-minute storm battle was shot on the ship decks with manufactured torrential rain for 10 weeks straight. Not cool enough yet? They also actually blew up Beckett’s ship and layered the shots of him and the other soldiers on it. That Singapore set they blew up was indoors with at least four feet of water and an entire series of buildings on stilts. And honestly that’s almost nothing compared to the shit they actually did in the second film.

Okay. I think I have to wrap this up now because if I even get started on Hans Zimmer’s score, this could double in word count. If you can’t tell already, I really enjoy this super under-appreciated film and I absolutely adore this series as a whole. It has flaws, it can be stupid at times, and sometimes moments fall flat. But the code for a “good” film is "more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules." I still feel my love for this series has been well-founded and well-intentioned for 14 years strong (nearly 70% of my life). Now if you remember "Pirates 3” as being a dud, I encourage you to rewatch and rediscover the magic within. If you were waiting for the "opportune moment," this is it!

#pirates of the caribbean #at world's end #potc 3 #film review #jack sparrow #will turner #elizabeth swann #davy jones #cutler beckett

[libertariantaoist]

If the New York Times is to be believed  – a problematic proposition – then it looks as if Trump  Derangement Syndrome has gone international. In a front page article  headlined “As Trump Era Dawns, A Sense of Uncertainty Grips the World,” we are  told:

“The Germans are angry. The Chinese are downright  furious. Leaders of NATO are nervous, while their counterparts at the European  Union are alarmed.”

Oh heavens-to-Betsy,  whatever shall we do?

So what’s the source of this latest Trumpanic?  It’s an  interview with Tory mandarin Michael  Gove and Kai  Diekmann, a former editor of the German newspaper Bild, in which  the President-elect reiterates what he’s been saying to the American people  for the past year, and on the basis of which he won the election: US foreign  policy is going to change, and in a big way.

However, to Times reporter Steve Erlanger,  this all comes as a big revelation, evidence that “Trump has again focused his  penchant for disruption on the rest of the world.” Oh, the poor babies! Perhaps  they need to find a safe space in which to park themselves for the next four-to-eight  years.

This being the Times, there’s the requisite  Russia-baiting:

“No one knows where exactly he is headed  –  except that the one country he  is not criticizing is Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin.  For now. And that he is an enthusiastic cheerleader of Brexit and an unaffiliated Britain. For now.”

If this reads like a paragraph torn out of one of the Hillary Clinton campaign’s  strategy memos, well then consider the source. And speaking of the source, what  exactly did Trump say in this supposedly “disruptive” interview that has the  Powers That Be in such a tizzy?

They ask him about Brexit, and he endorses it, as he has in  the past. They ask him if he’d vote for Angela Merkel in the upcoming German  elections, and he demurs: “I don’t know who she’s running against.” Besides  which, isn’t it a bit unseemly for an American President-elect to endorse a  candidate for office in a foreign country? It surely would be in bad taste if  the situation were reversed. They press him on Merkel’s open invitation to the  entire nation of Syria to emigrate to Germany: was it “insane,” as he said during  the campaign? Or has he changed his mind for some reason? He reiterates his  often-stated view that “it was a big mistake for Germany,” and then broadens  out his answer to include an analysis of the regional chaos caused by the administration  of George W. Bush, whom he doesn’t mention by name but it’s clear where he places  the blame:

“Look, this whole thing should never have happened. Iraq should not have  been attacked in the first place, all right? It was one of the worst decisions,  possibly the worst decision ever made in the history of our country. We’ve unleashed  – it’s like throwing rocks into a beehive. It’s one of the great messes of all  time. I looked at something, uh, I’m not allowed to show you because it’s classified  – but, I just looked at Afghanistan and you look at the Taliban – and you take  a look at every, every year its more, more, more, you know they have the different  colours – and you say, you know – what’s going on?”

Those pathetic Republican “foreign policy experts” who are now complaining  about being on an “enemies list” kept by the Trump transition team deserve to  be on that list: they, after all, were the architects of the ongoing disaster  described by Trump, and he clearly doesn’t care to reward failure. This is precisely  why the GOP foreign policy Establishment campaigned so hard against him: that  these losers are now locked out of the administration is good news indeed.

More good news: Trump is  taking direct and very public aim at their patrons, the Military-Industrial  Complex that Dwight David Eisenhower so presciently warned us  against. Even as he pledges to upgrade the US military, the President-elect  clearly knows who his enemies are:

“Boeing and Lockheed Martin are you know big contractors for this country  and we have an F-35 program that has been very, very severely over budget and  behind schedule. Hundreds of billions of dollars over budget and seven years  behind schedule. And, uh, they got to shape up.”

Employees of both Boeing and Lockheed-Martin  gave record  amounts to the Clinton campaign: indeed, the entire industry went for Hillary  in a big way.

Asked about his top priority as commander-in-chief, Trump had one word to say:  “ISIS.” Asked how he’d deal with ISIS, he demurred. Yet it isn’t at all hard  to imagine what his strategy will be: he’s not saying we should “get along with  Russia” because he’s a secret Putinite, as our crazed conspiracy theorists would  have it. Clearly he means to enlist Russia’s support in what he envisions as  a short but effective campaign to eliminate ISIS entirely, at least when it  comes to the Syrian “Caliphate.” After all, Russia is already in Syria in a  big way: and Trump’s hostility to the Obama administration’s campaign to overthrow  Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad indicates he’s likely to align with both Syria  and Russia to restore some sort of order to the region. As to what degree he’ll  farm out this task to the Russians and the Syrians, we’ll see. We’ll also see  how “quick” this joint campaign will be: history does not bode well, in any  case. Yet it’s clear he wants to minimize our involvement.

This segues into what is the most controversial  part of the interview:

“Q: Talking about Russia, you know that Angela Merkel understands Putin  very well because he is fluent in German, she is fluent in Russian, and they  have known each other for a long time – but who would you trust more, Angela  Merkel or Vladimir Putin?

“Trump: Well, I start off trusting both  –  but let’s see how long that lasts.  It may not last long at all.”

Oh, how the “experts”  and the political  class went ballistic over that one! How dare Trump equate our “ally”  Germany with our evil “adversary,” the perfidious Putin! And yet the reality  is that neither Germany nor Russia is inherently either friend or foe: they  are simply actors on the world stage whose relations to the US are based entirely  on what is in America’s interests. As George Washington warned in his Farewell Address:

“[N]othing is more essential than that permanent,  inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments  for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable  feelings towards all should be cultivated.”

Trump’s “realist” value-free characterization  of our relations with the leaders of both Germany and Russia represents a return  to the foreign policy of the Founders, from which we have strayed to our great  detriment. It is, as Trump proclaimed so often during the campaign, a foreign  policy that puts America first.

As he’s being interrogated by a Brit and a German,  much of the interview deals with Europe, and specifically policy toward Russia.  Asked if he can “understand why eastern Europeans fear Putin and Russia,” he  says “Sure, oh sure,” and then goes very quickly into a critique of NATO, which  he says is “obsolete.” It’s obvious he thinks the fears of the east Europeans  are vastly overblown, as indeed they are. Trump complains that “the countries  aren’t paying their fair share. So we’re supposed to protect countries but a  lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which  I think is very unfair to the United States. With that being said, NATO is very  important to me.”

Yes, but how important is “very important” in TrumpWorld? Europe’s welfare  cases shudder as they contemplate the answer.

Gove avers that “Britain is paying,” and Trump agrees, but says: “There’s five  countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much, from  twenty-two.” And as Trump no doubt realizes, the costs of NATO involve more  than money: we are obligated to defend twenty-two countries in case they are  attacked. That’s twenty-two tripwires that could set off a major war: the price  of that is incalculable. Is it worth it?

Trump clearly has his doubts, and it’s this that has the Euro-weenies in an  uproar. After all, they’ve been coasting along on Uncle Sam’s dime for all these  years, financing extensive welfare programs for their own citizens as well as  a horde of migrants: the idea that the gravy train is going to dry up has them  up in arms.

And of course the issue of NATO is really about the Russian question – is Putin  really intent on annexing his “near abroad” and re-establishing the Soviet empire?  This nonsensical fantasy, based on nothing but rejuvenated cold war hysteria,  is clearly doubted by Trump and his advisors. So when he’s asked if he supports  the continuation of European sanctions against Russia, Trump replies:

“Well, I think you know – people have to get together and people have to  do what they have to do in terms of being fair. OK? They have sanctions on Russia  – let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I think  nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part  of it. But you do have sanctions and Russia’s hurting very badly right now because  of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna  benefit.”

In short: sanctions can be ended as part of a grand bargain with Russia to  reduce nuclear weapons arsenals on both sides and guarantee European  security. Ambitious? – Yes. Praiseworthy? – Certainly. Can he do it? Only by  overcoming the War Party’s opposition in Congress, led by Mad John McCain and  joined by the now-Russophobic war-crazed Democrats out to obstruct anything  and everything Trump does, even at the cost of world peace.

It’s absolutely wonderful how Trump’s offhand remarks rub the commentariat  the wrong way, especially because what he says is indisputable. Asked which  number he dials if he wants to talk to Europe – a riff off a remark by Henry  Kissinger – he names Merkel on the grounds that “you look at the European Union  and it’s Germany. Basically a vehicle for Germany. That’s why I thought the  UK was so smart in getting out.”

Zing! Poor Angela Merkel – she can’t get no respect!

Elaborating his view of the EU, Trump averred:

“People, countries want their own identity and the UK wanted its own identity  but, I do believe this, if they hadn’t been forced to take in all of the refugees,  so many, with all the problems that it, you know, entails, I think that you  wouldn’t have a Brexit. It probably could have worked out but, this was the  final straw, this was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I think people want, people want their own identity, so if you ask me,  others, I believe others will leave.”

We can’t forget that the interviewers are Europeans who have been sucking at  the American teat since the end of World War II, as one of the final questions  makes all too clear:

“Your policy platform of America First implies you’re happy to see the rest  of the world suffer. Do you?”

Spoken like a true dependent, and yet Trump lit right into them with the unvarnished  truth:

“I don’t want it to be a disruption – I love the world, I want the world  to be good but we can’t go – I mean look at what’s happening to our country  – we are $20 trillion [in debt] – we don’t know what we’re doing – our military  is weak – we’re in wars that never end, we’re in Afghanistan now 17 years …  it’s the longest war we’ve ever been in.”

Endless wars, endless payments to feckless “allies,” endless hectoring by these  ungrateful wretches who accuse us of wanting to “see the rest of the world suffer”  – Trump would put an end to all this, and I have no doubt that the American  people support him wholeheartedly. Shall we take a poll on the popularity of  the US bearing the brunt of Europe’s “defense” against an enemy that disappeared  in 1989? Shall we have a national referendum on the prospect of going to war  over whether Montenegro – a nation the size of the metropolitan New York area  – shall have a “pro-Western” government?

If you wonder why our “intelligence community” is waging open warfare against  the forty-fifth  President of these United States, you have only to look at  this interview. He is challenging the “liberal” international order which has  paid out liberal amounts of moolah and unearned prestige to a whole class of  government contractors, thinktank poobahs, useless spooks, and their ancillary  business enterprises for decades.

Without this “international order,” we’re told, the world will be plunged into  “uncertainty,” if not complete chaos. This is a lie. The only uncertainty that  Trump’s America First foreign policy imposes is uncertainty as to where the  war profiteers’ next meal ticket is coming from. And that, dear reader, is a  cause not for panic but for celebration.

#justin raimondo #anti-war

[mytrumarareviews]

Fire Emblem Awakening vs. Fates

Fire Emblem Awakening came out at a time when the future of the Fire Emblem franchise was on the line. The game was a make or break for the franchise and honestly, it was a really risky move to not only spend money on making a new game in the franchise, but they also had it translated and localized, effectively doubling the company’s work load and cost. But the game succeeded due to the character creation and much better support system when compared to other games. There was also the addition of the casual mode, which allowed players to play a little less safely and opened the franchise up to a broader demographic of gamers, it also brought in a fairly large female demographic when compared to other games (about a 11:8 ratio of players, or 55% male and 45% female).

And you know what, the games are fun. Though I’ve recently been seeing people going back and saying that Awakening was better than Fates on all levels, and honestly. I don’t really understand that all that much. I really loved Fates, it was probably my favorite game of the last year, which is a close battle with Pokemon Moon (it was a shit year in gaming). So to explain this let me do a small analysis of each of aspect of the games.

Fire Emblem 13: Awakening

Story:

The first act is at best decent, the second act is pretty good, and the third act is terrible.

What? You wanted more? Okay, here we go.

I’ll be referring to acts by the villains we see throughout them. So I’ll be starting with Gangrel’s act.

Gangrel’s act is fine if you look at it as a standard good vs. evil act rather than looking for anything thought provoking. The biggest thing that bothers me about this act is that Gangrel is just evil, he’s not so much Saturday morning cartoon villain (I’ll get to Validar later) as he is just the stereotypical, crazy character. I can’t even hate him because he’s just so laughably pathetic and poorly written. So many people hate him because he laughed at Emmeryn’s death. But Emmeryn’s death was extremely forced and really unneeded. I know it caused Gangrel’s armies to stop fighting, but the thing is, his entire act could be cut out and the game would be better. You could say that there was a rebellion in the neighbouring nation. You could even have levels where the Pelagians are fighting against you and keep in the attempt on Emmeryn’s live. Gangrel was an unnecessary character in a game that already has way too much going on. Hell it’s revealed in a DLC that Gangrel didn’t actually die during the fight with him when he joins the main cast. He was a completely pointless villain. Honestly I found this portion of the game extremely poorly written. Even if Chrom uses violent methods to win wars

There are other things in this arc that I could heavily criticize. For instance, it’s later revealed that Virion is a lord from another nation. He even acts like he doesn’t know any of you when he’s been fighting along side you against the Pelagian army. This even happens if you married him. Virion has no point in being a playable character until Walhart’s act. In fact, the only reason he’s even around is to hit on Sully. Meaning his entire purpose boiled down to chasing tail until later in the game.

Okay, it isn’t all bad though. There’s one level that’s really good. It’s chapter 10, named Renewal. Mustafa is portrayed as sypathetic and a soldier doing his job for the sake of his family instead of being portrayed as just another one of the many commanders you fight in this game. I always try to go through this level killing as few enemies as possible because they’re all fighting for Mustafa instead of for Gangrel and you can spare most of them if you go straight for him. You still kill him, but he begs you to spare his men, who no longer have a reason to fight Chrom and his army. There’s a very human aspect to this level, unlike literally ever other level in this act of the game.

Well, I suppose we should move on to Walhart’s act now.

Wallhart is a good villain. He holds very similar beliefs to Chrom and is a foil to Chrom’s character. He should have been the villain for the entire game and they really shouldn’t have made the game about killing some Fell Dragon that we don’t even see in a flashback until the final act of the game. Walhart stands on what he thinks his is moral ground. He knows that the quickest way to gain unification is to conquer, so he takes on the title of the Conqueror. He’s even fighting against the same evil forces you are. There isn’t a single level I felt was out of place in this part of the game nor do I think that any character, with the exception of one, is a poorly written character. I really actually like this act. That said, there’s not too much I talk about within it. With one exception. Excellus. Because they just had to have one evil character in this group. Yeah, that was pretty bad.

If anything I would suggest the game just for this act. And hell, you can actually download DLC to have Walhart as a playable character. Meaning that Chrom didn’t actually kill his foil and finish off a character arc. Well fuck off Nintendo.

Now let’s move on to Validar’s act.

Oh, sorry wrong villain. I can barely tell these two apart when it comes to their character.

Validar is extremely poorly written. Not only is he a cultist, to a dragon of death that eats souls at the table like everybody else, but they try to pull this Vader like thing with Robin and him in Walhart’s arc. I pulled a Skeletor voice with him when reading the dialogue out loud and it fit really well, too well. A lot of this stuff sounded like something a Saturday morning cartoon villain would say. The same could actually be said about Aversa, though she’s more of a lackey to Validar than his superior. She does however show more of a human side as she attacks you for having killed Validar, somebody she had respect for. For a character who has a weapon named after her, she sure doesn’t have a lot of character.

And then we get to Grima. Who’s also Robin from the future. And you’re literally fighting yourself. So, there’s one thing that can’t happen at this point and that’s Robin dying. Why, because Morgan has even been conceived yet, and Morgan has to potential to be a character, given that you married somebody. This is why i hate time travel plots, there’s often no tension because you know how it’s going to end. Robin can’t die, there for there’s no tension to see them die. 

But, like Gangrel’s arc, I did like one thing about this act. When Lucina finds out how and why you kill Chrom in her future she confronts you. If you’re her mother then she’s extremely reluctant to do so. Telling her to kill you so Chrom won’t die only makes her more reluctant and later Chrom comes by to reassure Lucina that their bond is stronger than Validar’s magic. It gives all three Robin, Lucina, and Chrom very human qualities. But that’s only if you’re her mother, if not she doesn’t have any reservations about killing you. Chrom has to stop her.

The Ending:

It’s shit. Chrom gives a speech about how they either killed Grima or put Grima into a slumber. And yeah, that’s it. People reassure Robin that her death would detrimental if you put Grima into a slumber but she’s just depressed.

In Conclusion (of this part):

The game doesn’t actually have a really good story. It has a massive up to it with Walhart’s act but the rest of it just kind of sucks. It basically felt that they had ideas for three different games starring the same characters but instead only created 1, which was to their detriment.

Gameplay:

This game is way too easy. It really speaks to how broken the combat system is when you can get any character to 80 health without bogging them down with items that raise their health. Not to mention that you can actually use a second seal with your character to go back to a base class from an advanced class with only minor detriments to your abilities. this means that if you put enough time into it you could potentially max out nearly ever stat on the Avatar character. Second Seals and Master Seals are broken in this game. See both of them send you back to level 1, but you still have most of the stats that you had earlier and there’s no limit to how often you can use them.

I don’t actually mind the idea of breaking weapons, it serves to slightly nerf your character, so you can’t just constantly use a single overpowered item.

In other words, this game has a lot of major balancing issues.

I was capable of beating the entire game using only Chrom and Robin. Playing the game on Lunatic mode would be a lot harder and it’s a welcome challenge.

They do have a good reason as to why Chrom and Robin can’t die in casual mode, which was a great addition in this game and was the reason I picked it up. Chrom is basically the motivational centre of the group while Robin is their tactician, if either were to leave the battle field their army would be at a detriment. It’s a nice bit of subtext to go with the sub-par story.

Music:

It’s great and fits the tone of the game. It’s nothing special, but it doesn’t distract from the game. Yuka Tsujiyoko did a decent job on.

Characters:

Well, I already talked about the villains, and Virion. But this game has a decently interesting cast of characters if you’re willing to use them. Though I never really gained an attachment to any of the characters, I can see why a lot of people would. 

Though there are a few characters I don’t like.

Tharja is a yandere, though she doesn’t really have any reason to be. It feels like there was a cut scene where Robin saved her, but it would make more sense for her to after Chrom, whom actually convinced her to change sides.

Henry doesn’t need to exist and only serves to be an annoyance. He shows up out of nowhere and has no bearing on the plot what so ever. I honestly don’t see the point in his character when every character has a comedy relief side to them.

Gaius is a thief who was looting Emmeryn’s castle as part of the Pelagian army. He likes candy, that’s his entire character.

Both Tharja and Gaius can be easily accidentally killed because they’ll attack you.

In Conclusion:

This game was fine, it was decent. A good 5/10 for me and that’s not a number to really sneeze at, it’s a middle of the road game with a lot of problems to it and that’s about it. If you don’t want a really complex story with complex characters and a shade of grey morality, then go ahead and buy it.

Next time I’m going to do an analysis for Fates using the same material.

#fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #review #decent #comparison #part 1 #fun #nintendo #5/10

[theomegakitty]

VSWID and Character Comedy

Playlist link:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRceUcRZcK1zbWYtY6BZHQg4sE3_macD

Disclaimer: I’ve never met or spoken with Jim Sterling in any capacity. This is just an opinion/analysis I need to get off my chest.  

     I’ve seen most episodes of Jim Sterling’s brilliant series ‘The Video Game Show What I Done’ at least a half-dozen times, and the only reason that doesn’t apply to them all is because the ‘Nioh’ episode is too new for me to have repeat-watched as many times as the others. If life had many instances where jokes from this show could be fittingly quoted I would be the first one quoting them. Any time I watch an episode I marvel at the timing, technique, and invention displayed throughout it. It’s clear that Sterling has been honing his abilities over years and hundreds of scripted videos, and VSWID (as I will refer to it from now on) may be my second-for-second favorite work of his. If you’re willing to go along with the crude yet ultimately harmless sense of humor it’s a riotous, deceptively well-crafted series that takes less time to watch than an episode of ‘Twin Peaks’ and is just as bizarre.

     Yet I feel alone in this opinion. Maybe alone is a strong word, but the dislike bars on these videos are always proportionately higher than they are on the less controversial Jimquisitions, sometimes much more so, and dissenting comments are less comprised of the random fury that a lot of highly viewed (relatively speaking) videos get than they are made up of confusion and even frustration, questioning if the series is “centered around a private joke [they’re] not privy to” or feeling the joke just didn’t click, despite them noticing the “sarcasm” at play. And that’s cool. A series as intentionally malformed as this one is going to leave some people stumped, especially when done by someone who frequently comments on the business of video games. When he makes a joke involving ‘Overwatch’ it makes sense to assume that the joke is directed at ‘Overwatch’ itself, since criticisms have been made by Sterling toward the game’s loot crate system and other elements of the game and its business practices. It’s a logical way of thinking, but it’s not one I agree with. The joke of VSWID is not at the video games it is focusing on. The reason VSWID works is not because it’s satire, as some believe it is, but because of Rory Fingers.

    Rory Fingers is the fictional host of VSWID as played by Sterling. Rory, as a character, is difficult to summarize because of the dimensions present in the writing. At first glance Rory is rambling and unprofessional. He’ll stumble through a poor a capella version of Vampire Killer from ‘Castlevania’ for over forty seconds before being rudely interrupted by the death of Simon Belmont onscreen. His videos are slapdash (the zoomed in screen cutting off the score counter in ‘Mega Man’), his gameplay footage is terrible - he rarely understands anything about the games he plays - and his puns capping off videos/segments are given such half-hearted delivery that it’s as if he came up with them on the spot and isn’t sure if he should say them. This is to say nothing of how he gets names wrong and twists words around (Robot Nick is an example of both), but the main takeaway here is that Rory is not very good at making videos. That alone is probably enough to hang a video on. After all, many of us have tried our hand at making Let’s Plays or other types of videos without realizing how feigned our charisma is and how little polish the video itself has, and that can be easily parodied, which is what he frequently does. In the aforementioned Vampire Killer gag the joke runs longer than you expect it to, and it veers dangerously close to anti-humor before the end of the bit and the end of the player character’s life are connected. He was singing until he died, and by having that clear, motivated end point the joke hits. That’s Sterling’s attention to the principles of comedy but there’s more to Rory than parody. He’s a character, not a punching bag, and Sterling understands that the bar must be raised beyond concocted incompetence in order to keep the viewer watching for more than a single video. That’s why the dark side of VSWID is so crucial to its working as a series rather than a one-off.

     Rory is unwell. He throws tantrums, has to take “yellow pills for a year” to calm him down, and has a life coach - allegedly not assigned to him by the state. The videos imply much but only state the essentials, leaving the viewer to make up stories or piece together exactly what happened to, say, go from clarinet lessons to “many many scorpions so many scorpions”. The point is completely separate from the topic he was initially talking about (that being the requirement to pay for Skyrim DLC). It’s there for two reasons, the first being that implanting disturbing imagery in a semi-innocent way is a good way to get a reactionary laugh but its primary function is the second reason, which is to provide the viewer with understanding of how Rory sees the world around him. The incest joke in the ‘Doom’ video works as shock humor but what makes it land is that Rory genuinely seems like the kind of character who would believe that wanting to do “deep-kissing” with his mother is just another part of being a person. Him making the connection between violence in Street Fighter and his father’s violent assault (which I won’t spoil) is funny because the act itself is ludicrous but also because the connection makes sense in Rory’s head. But shock humor can become tiresome if not grounded in an attempt at empathy, which is why the third dimension to Rory’s character (the first being incompetence and the second being his disturbed nature) is the most important reason for why the show works as well as it does: Rory is an innocent .

    Whenever Rory does something wrong I’ve never felt it was out of ulterior motives or actual malice. If it were the character would sour the whole show. Instead, Rory is a creature of childlike instinct. He throws chicken legs at people when he’s “sad” (a perfect word choice to convey how simple and blunt the character is) and gets mad when his grandparents give him socks instead of video games for Christmas. None of this comes from a place of hatred, just a place of childish selfishness. He hurts others without realizing it because he hasn’t developed the empathy that Sterling’s adult voice (and therefore supposed adult age of the character) would suggest. And yet, though he speaks from a current perspective of PS4s and emulators, he still speaks as though he’s a child, despite the ‘Street Fighter II’ video stating that he’s been playing the game since at least 1998*. The way he both resents and idolizes his brother’s ability at video games. The way he’s seemingly cared after by others. The way he makes jokes that everyone on Earth has made with zero sense of irony (from the character, not Sterling). His penis is a constant source of enjoyment and he doesn’t care who knows it, and though that’s true of a good number of people the character’s obliviousness of that taboo (however mild) indicates Rory’s lack of understanding of the world around him. He’s Norman Bates with Open Broadcast Software and a microphone, and the unfiltered nature of the internet means he’s free to say whatever he wants without consequence.

     Rory reminds me of Mr. Plinkett, which considering Sterling has used RedLetterMedia content in his videos is not an unfair comparison to make. Both are disturbed personalities let loose via internet critique, but I think I prefer Sterling’s approach. Because Rory is (unwittingly) just as much as a victim as those affected by his condition Sterling invites the viewer to laugh at his behavior while finding his affliction pitiable. Plinkett, meanwhile, is disturbed without there being a point of empathetic entry for the viewer. He does such terrible things (and the RLM guys show enough disturbing imagery) that the viewer can’t understand his plight and the gag comes off as mean-spirited as a result**. He’s just too much of a monster. Conversely, Rory’s actions are unwitting, meaning that when Sterling asks the viewer to laugh at how pathetic this character is we are able to because Rory, though a victim, is a little shit. 

     And we’ve all been little shits at some point, right? We’ve all done stuff in our childhood that we’ve regretted, despite it being because we were kids, so Sterling uses that truth (at least for me) to invite us to laugh at ourselves. Though maybe not to the extent of Rory we’ve treated family members and friends like garbage at one point or another, and Sterling uses that fact as a jumping off point to create a character who is this inclination heightened to the point of ridiculousness. Because none of us are perfect, especially when we’re kids. Rory simply never grew out of that mindset because the world around him was so sickening, so he retreats into his comfort zone online and posts videos with the delusion of competence. If you’re reading this then maybe there’s some part of that idea that rings true, and Sterling understands that. We need to find humor in our natural awfulness lest we forget about it and pretend it doesn’t exist. VSWID is a show about an uninformed, disturbed, child-like, easily upset manchild who vents his frustrations through Youtube. Even if that’s not you then it’s likely you know someone like that. And, let’s be honest, that person is kinda funny. But Rory is a creation all his own, and Sterling knows that by heightening the awfulness to absurd levels it becomes easy to laugh at human folly. I can’t wait for the next episode.

* I realize that this may just be a continuity error or something. I still think it’s worth commenting on.

** I love RedLetterMedia to death and I’ve seen the Plinkett videos several times, but the story segments of those particular videos are my least favourite RLM content and I skip them when I can. Just wanted to clarify before people call me a hater.

[newstfionline]

Trump the Disruptor

By Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, January 17, 2017

If the New York Times is to be believed--a problematic proposition--then it looks as if Trump Derangement Syndrome has gone international. In a front page article headlined “As Trump Era Dawns, A Sense of Uncertainty Grips the World,” we are told:

“The Germans are angry. The Chinese are downright furious. Leaders of NATO are nervous, while their counterparts at the European Union are alarmed.”

So what’s the source of this latest Trumpanic? It’s an interview with Tory mandarin Michael Gove and Kai Diekmann, a former editor of the German newspaper Bild, in which the President-elect reiterates what he’s been saying to the American people for the past year, and on the basis of which he won the election: US foreign policy is going to change, and in a big way.

However, to Times reporter Steve Erlanger, this all comes as a big revelation, evidence that “Trump has again focused his penchant for disruption on the rest of the world.”

This being the Times, there’s the requisite Russia-baiting:

“No one knows where exactly he is headed--except that the one country he is not criticizing is Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin. For now. And that he is an enthusiastic cheerleader of Brexit and an unaffiliated Britain. For now.”

If this reads like a paragraph torn out of one of the Hillary Clinton campaign’s strategy memos, well then consider the source. And speaking of the source, what exactly did Trump say in this supposedly “disruptive” interview that has the Powers That Be in such a tizzy?

They ask him about Brexit, and he endorses it, as he has in the past. They ask him if he’d vote for Angela Merkel in the upcoming German elections, and he demurs: “I don’t know who she’s running against.” Besides which, isn’t it a bit unseemly for an American President-elect to endorse a candidate for office in a foreign country? It surely would be in bad taste if the situation were reversed. They press him on Merkel’s open invitation to the entire nation of Syria to emigrate to Germany: was it “insane,” as he said during the campaign? Or has he changed his mind for some reason? He reiterates his often-stated view that “it was a big mistake for Germany,” and then broadens out his answer to include an analysis of the regional chaos caused by the administration of George W. Bush, whom he doesn’t mention by name but it’s clear where he places the blame:

“Look, this whole thing should never have happened. Iraq should not have been attacked in the first place, all right? It was one of the worst decisions, possibly the worst decision ever made in the history of our country. We’ve unleashed--it’s like throwing rocks into a beehive. It’s one of the great messes of all time. I looked at something, uh, I’m not allowed to show you because it’s classified--but, I just looked at Afghanistan and you look at the Taliban--and you take a look at every, every year its more, more, more, you know they have the different colours--and you say, you know--what’s going on?”

Those pathetic Republican “foreign policy experts” who are now complaining about being on an “enemies list” kept by the Trump transition team deserve to be on that list: they, after all, were the architects of the ongoing disaster described by Trump, and he clearly doesn’t care to reward failure. This is precisely why the GOP foreign policy Establishment campaigned so hard against him: that these losers are now locked out of the administration is good news indeed.

More good news: Trump is taking direct and very public aim at their patrons, the Military-Industrial Complex that Dwight David Eisenhower so presciently warned us against. Even as he pledges to upgrade the US military, the President-elect clearly knows who his enemies are:

“Boeing and Lockheed Martin are you know big contractors for this country and we have an F-35 program that has been very, very severely over budget and behind schedule. Hundreds of billions of dollars over budget and seven years behind schedule. And, uh, they got to shape up.”

Employees of both Boeing and Lockheed-Martin gave record amounts to the Clinton campaign: indeed, the entire industry went for Hillary in a big way.

Asked about his top priority as commander-in-chief, Trump had one word to say: “ISIS.” Asked how he’d deal with ISIS, he demurred. Yet it isn’t at all hard to imagine what his strategy will be: he’s not saying we should “get along with Russia” because he’s a secret Putinite, as our crazed conspiracy theorists would have it. Clearly he means to enlist Russia’s support in what he envisions as a short but effective campaign to eliminate ISIS entirely, at least when it comes to the Syrian “Caliphate.” After all, Russia is already in Syria in a big way: and Trump’s hostility to the Obama administration’s campaign to overthrow Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad indicates he’s likely to align with both Syria and Russia to restore some sort of order to the region. As to what degree he’ll farm out this task to the Russians and the Syrians, we’ll see. We’ll also see how “quick” this joint campaign will be: history does not bode well, in any case. Yet it’s clear he wants to minimize our involvement.

This segues into what is the most controversial part of the interview:

“Q: Talking about Russia, you know that Angela Merkel understands Putin very well because he is fluent in German, she is fluent in Russian, and they have known each other for a long time--but who would you trust more, Angela Merkel or Vladimir Putin?

“Trump: Well, I start off trusting both--but let’s see how long that lasts. It may not last long at all.”

Oh, how the “experts” and the political class went ballistic over that one! How dare Trump equate our “ally” Germany with our evil “adversary,” the perfidious Putin! And yet the reality is that neither Germany nor Russia is inherently either friend or foe: they are simply actors on the world stage whose relations to the US are based entirely on what is in America’s interests. As George Washington warned in his Farewell Address:

“[N]othing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.”

Trump’s “realist” value-free characterization of our relations with the leaders of both Germany and Russia represents a return to the foreign policy of the Founders, from which we have strayed to our great detriment. It is, as Trump proclaimed so often during the campaign, a foreign policy that puts America first.

As he’s being interrogated by a Brit and a German, much of the interview deals with Europe, and specifically policy toward Russia. Asked if he can “understand why eastern Europeans fear Putin and Russia,” he says “Sure, oh sure,” and then goes very quickly into a critique of NATO, which he says is “obsolete.” It’s obvious he thinks the fears of the east Europeans are vastly overblown. Trump complains that “the countries aren’t paying their fair share. So we’re supposed to protect countries but a lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States. With that being said, NATO is very important to me.”

Gove avers that “Britain is paying,” and Trump agrees, but says: “There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much, from twenty-two.” And as Trump no doubt realizes, the costs of NATO involve more than money: we are obligated to defend twenty-two countries in case they are attacked. That’s twenty-two tripwires that could set off a major war: the price of that is incalculable. Is it worth it?

Trump clearly has his doubts, and it’s this that has the Euro-weenies in an uproar. After all, they’ve been coasting along on Uncle Sam’s dime for all these years, financing extensive welfare programs for their own citizens as well as a horde of migrants: the idea that the gravy train is going to dry up has them up in arms.

And of course the issue of NATO is really about the Russian question--is Putin really intent on annexing his “near abroad” and re-establishing the Soviet empire? This fantasy, based on nothing but rejuvenated cold war hysteria, is clearly doubted by Trump and his advisors. So when he’s asked if he supports the continuation of European sanctions against Russia, Trump replies:

“Well, I think you know--people have to get together and people have to do what they have to do in terms of being fair. OK? They have sanctions on Russia--let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it. But you do have sanctions and Russia’s hurting very badly right now because of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit.”

In short: sanctions can be ended as part of a grand bargain with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons arsenals on both sides and guarantee European security. Ambitious?--Yes. Praiseworthy?--Certainly. Can he do it? Only by overcoming the War Party’s opposition in Congress, led by Mad John McCain and joined by the now-Russophobic war-crazed Democrats out to obstruct anything and everything Trump does, even at the cost of world peace.

It’s absolutely wonderful how Trump’s offhand remarks rub the commentariat the wrong way. Asked which number he dials if he wants to talk to Europe--a riff off a remark by Henry Kissinger--he names Merkel on the grounds that “you look at the European Union and it’s Germany. Basically a vehicle for Germany. That’s why I thought the UK was so smart in getting out.”

Zing! Poor Angela Merkel--she can’t get no respect!

Elaborating his view of the EU, Trump averred:

“People, countries want their own identity and the UK wanted its own identity but, I do believe this, if they hadn’t been forced to take in all of the refugees, so many, with all the problems that it, you know, entails, I think that you wouldn’t have a Brexit. It probably could have worked out but, this was the final straw, this was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I think people want, people want their own identity, so if you ask me, others, I believe others will leave.”

“Your policy platform of America First implies you’re happy to see the rest of the world suffer. Do you?”

“I don’t want it to be a disruption--I love the world, I want the world to be good but we can’t go--I mean look at what’s happening to our country--we are $20 trillion [in debt]--we don’t know what we’re doing--our military is weak--we’re in wars that never end, we’re in Afghanistan now 17 years … it’s the longest war we’ve ever been in.”

Endless wars, endless payments to feckless “allies,” endless hectoring by these ungrateful wretches who accuse us of wanting to “see the rest of the world suffer”--Trump would put an end to all this, and I have no doubt that the American people support him. Shall we take a poll on the popularity of the US bearing the brunt of Europe’s “defense” against an enemy that disappeared in 1989? Shall we have a national referendum on the prospect of going to war over whether Montenegro--a nation the size of the metropolitan New York area--shall have a “pro-Western” government?

If you wonder why our “intelligence community” is waging open warfare against the forty-fifth President of these United States, you have only to look at this interview. He is challenging the “liberal” international order which has paid out liberal amounts of moolah and unearned prestige to a whole class of government contractors, thinktank poobahs, useless spooks, and their ancillary business enterprises for decades.

Without this “international order,” we’re told, the world will be plunged into “uncertainty,” if not complete chaos. The only uncertainty that Trump’s America First foreign policy imposes is uncertainty as to where the war profiteers’ next meal ticket is coming from. And that, dear reader, is a cause not for panic but for celebration.

#Donald Trump #Trump foreign policy

[the-desolated-quill]

The Angels Take Manhattan - Doctor Who blog (The Statue Of Liberty is a WHAT?!?!)

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Remember when the Weeping Angels used to be scary? Good times, right?

Blink was one of the few Moffat stories that I genuinely liked. It was a simple story with a simple gimmick. Statues that could only move when you weren’t looking at them. It was ostensibly a most lethal version of Grandmother’s Footsteps, and it was bloody terrifying. There was however one problem with the Angels. A problem that soon became apparent the more the Weeping Angels reappeared in the show. They’re really just one trick ponies. Once you’ve seen Blink, you’ve literally seen everything they have to offer. From that moment on, the Angels suffered from the law of diminishing returns. They just weren't scary anymore, and I believe even Moffat was semi-aware of this, hence why his timey wimey crap became more ridiculous and why he kept changing the established rules of the Angels in an effort to keep them fresh. Of course it didn’t work. All it did was mangle the Angels beyond repair and now they’re a shadow of their once scarier selves.

Which brings us to The Angels Take Manhattan. The complete polar opposite of Blink. Whereas Blink was simple, clever and scary, The Angels Take Manhattan is convoluted, stupid and about as scary as a basket full of kittens. As far as I’m concerned, The Angels Take Manhattan serves as a very harsh lesson on learning when enough is enough. Some monsters just don’t work as recurring villains, and the Weeping Angels are most definitely one of them. If Moffat had learnt to keep his massive ego under control, he wouldn’t have turned his greatest creations into the limp, nonsensical and utterly pathetic non-threats they are now.

Let’s stick with the Angels for a bit. Aside from their lack of scariness due to us knowing their MO off by heart now, Moffat also can’t help but change the rules again. Remember in Blink it was established they would turn to stone if anyone looked at them, including each other? Well we’re supposed to forget about that clearly as there are loads of moments where Angels are clearly looking at each other, but can still move. There’s also a really odd moment where a Cherub manages to blow Rory’s match out, but... the Cherub is frozen as a statue. How the fuck was it able to do that? Odder still, Amy and Rory get zapped by the Angels at the end, but on those occasions people were still looking at the Angel, so how did it manage to do it?

And then there’s by far the weirdest part:

The Statue Of Liberty is a Weeping Angel?!

This raises so many puzzling questions. Isn’t the Statue Of Liberty made of copper, not stone? How the fuck did it get from Liberty Island to Winter Quay without anyone noticing? And what is even the fucking point of that?! It’s not as if it actually does anything. It doesn’t even look like an angel. Nor do the statues of the woman and the boy who come chasing the guy who had the Angel chained up (and what was the deal with the guy who had the Angel chained up? We never find out what that was all about).

And we’ve only just scratched the surface here. There are loads of things that don’t make sense here. Take this ‘farm’ the Angels have made. So they send people back to a hotel in 1938 and send them back in time repeatedly to feed off of the time energy. But... why hang onto their victims afterward. Once they’re done feeding, they keep the victim locked in a room until they die of old age. What for? What’s the point? Why not just feed on them and let them go like they usually do?

Rory ends up becoming the latest victim and vows to escape, creating a paradox that will kill the Angels. But for some reason the Doctor doesn’t want to do that and I honestly don’t understand why. He says Rory’s death has been predetermined now, but that’s never stopped the Doctor before. It certainly didn't stop him in the previous series when he himself was destined to die. So why is saving Rory suddenly impossible? And I definitely don’t buy all that bullshit about how once you’ve read something, it’s destined to happen no matter what. That’s just bollocks and the show has contradicted that loads of times in the past. Moffat is once again just making shit up as he goes along and it’s not even consistent. Just look at the whole wrist breaking scene. The Doctor says River needs to break her wrist in order to escape (I don’t even understand that. The Angel has its hand wrapped around her wrist. The only way she could possibly escape is if she were to crush her entire hand down to a circumference smaller than her wrist) because the book says so. Except the book doesn’t say so at all. It just says the Doctor breaks something. Her wrist is never even mentioned and the Doctor doesn’t even break it in the end. (Also why would River lie about her wrist later on? I understand the metaphorical significance of hiding the damage, but it’s just plain daft).

Since I’ve brought up River Song, let’s talk about her. She reappears in this episode wearing a really stupid hat that’s pulled down over her eyes presumably in an attempt to make her look cool and mysterious, but in reality just makes her look like a tit. You’d think considering this is post Wedding Of River Song and we now know everything about her, she might behave a little bit more like an actual human being, but nope. She’s still just as smug and unlikeable as she was before. Actually The Angels Take Manhattan really highlights all the problems with her character, especially her relationship, or lack thereof, with the other characters. They keep insisting she, Amy and Rory are really close now, but I can’t see any evidence for that. It still feels just as strained and awkward as ever to me. As does her relationship with the Doctor. I just don’t buy the supposed ‘romance’ between the two whatsoever as their dialogue only seems to consist of bad sexual innuendo. There’s no genuine emotion or chemistry whatsoever.

Early on it soon becomes apparent how Moffat actually sees her:

Amy: “She’s got ice in her heart and a kiss on her lips and a vulnerable side she keeps well hidden.”

Yeah, turns out Moffat views her as being a noir dame. That’s something that never occurred to me, and that’s because ever since her first appearance in 2008, she had absolutely nothing in common with a noir dame. I mean come on! Ice in her heart? Since when? The Silence In The Library two parter alone contradicts that completely. It’s about as accurate a description as calling her a psychopath, which Moffat does again here by the way. He also describes her in the Melody Malone book as ‘packing cleavage that could fell an ox at 20 feet’. Okay, two things Moffat. One, no woman would EVER write something like that, and two, stop perving over Alex Kingston’s boobs, you colossal fucking creep.

But of course the big thing about The Angels Take Manhattan is that it’s Amy and Rory’s last ever episode. Is it a good farewell?

Credit where it’s due though, the scene on the roof was extremely good. It’s both tragic and emotional in equal measure, and both Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill really go for it, giving truly incredible performances. It’s hard not to be moved by Amy’s decision to jump off the building with Rory and if Moffat and everyone had just left it at that, it would have been an extremely powerful ending. Instead they seem to go out of their way to ruin it. For one thing, rather than just have Amy and Rory jump off the building and have the performances of the actors be what drives the shock and tragedy of it all, they decide to over-egg the pudding by having Amy and Rory fall in slow motion whilst Murray Gold’s stupid choir performs a slushy melody, which just made the whole thing feel mawkish.

Also it’s hard to be emotionally invested in their sacrifice when it makes no sodding sense. I can understand the paradox killing the Angels, but un-making the hotel? How does that work? What’s Rory got to do with the construction of the hotel? How would his death affect it? And if the hotel never existed, it would mean Rory could never jump off the roof of it to create the paradox in the first place, so wouldn’t we just end up right back to where we started?

Then it just gets worse when we’re suddenly pinged back to the present day and a lone Angel zaps Amy and Rory. Hold on a fucking minute! I thought the paradox killed the Angels! Where the fuck did this one come from?!

The biggest problem with this is that it doesn’t have nearly the same impact the roof scene had because we’ve already done all this a few minutes ago. So why are we doing it again? As far as I’m concerned, it would have worked so much better if Amy and Rory had just plunged to their deaths and that was the end. This just doesn’t make sense. The Doctor says he can’t visit 1938 New York again or it’ll destroy the planet or some such bollocks, but then River says she has to visit Amy in order to write and publish the Melody Malone book. Why not just use her Vortex Manipulator to get them out? Or get them to drive to New Jersey or somewhere and the Doctor can pick them up. It doesn’t make any sense.

And then, as the final turd in the water pipe, we see on the gravestone that Amy has changed her last name to Williams, showing that at last she’s fully committed to her marriage in a way no woman who kept her own name could ever be.

The Angels Take Manhattan is fucking awful. The story makes no sense, the Weeping Angels have been completely and utterly defanged by this point and what could have been a really emotional farewell for Amy and Rory is utterly botched thanks to Moffat putting more emphasis on outsmarting the audience rather than writing a satisfying goodbye.

So let’s end with my final thoughts on Amy and Rory. I’m not going to lie. i wasn’t very impressed. Rory faired slightly better I feel. While his character arc is pretty much the same as Mickey Smith’s from the RTD era, at least Rory actually got to grow and evolve during his time in the TARDIS and Arthur Darvill did a good job overall. Amy on the other hand is definitely one of the weakest companions I’ve ever seen, not just in New Who, but in general. I’ve made it no secret over the course of these reviews how much I dislike her. She’s selfish and obnoxious, and she exhibits a lot of the problems present in all of Moffat’s female characters, namely her lack of agency and proper characterisation. Over two and a half series, she hasn’t actually grown or evolved in any meaningful way and we’ve learnt basically nothing about her outside of her relationship with the Doctor. This was most apparent in Series 6 where she gives birth to and loses her child and at no point does Moffat ever address how she feels about that, and the reason for that is because he doesn’t view her as a character. He views her as a plot device in a mini-skirt whose sole contribution to the story is her legs, her sass and her womb. That’s not to say I don’t like Karen Gillan. I think she’s a great actor and episodes like Amy’s Choice and The Girl Who Waited have demonstrated that when you actually give her some good material to work with, she can give a truly amazing performance. It’s just such a shame that Moffat never fully utilised her.

So goodbye Amy and Rory. You could have been so much more, but at the end of the day... you just weren’t.

#the angels take manhattan #steven moffat #doctor who #eleventh doctor #matt smith #amy pond #karen gillan #rory williams #arthur darvill #river song #alex kingston #weeping angels #bbc #review #spoilers

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The Vampires Of Venice - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

People occasionally ask me why I write so much negative criticism about Doctor Who. Aren’t I supposed to be a Whovian? How can I call myself a Whovian if I don’t like the show. Well that’s the thing. I do like the show. Very much. That’s why I criticise. Yes I moan and nitpick and complain, but it all comes from the deep rooted affection I have for this barmy old sci-fi show that I’ve been watching since I was 6 or 7 years old. I love Doctor Who, warts and all. And it’s episodes like this that remind me of why I started watching this show in the first place.

The Vampires Of Venice was written by Toby Whithouse, who previously wrote the excellent episode School Reunion where David Tennant’s Doctor was reunited with the classic series companion and fan favourite Sarah Jane Smith. While I don’t think this episode is quite as good as his previous outing, it’s still hugely entertaining in its own right. 16th century Venice is a beautiful setting. Yes it’s a shame the canal is clearly CGI, but the rest of it looks good. And as for the villains.... Oh Whithouse. You know how I love a good villain. Now you’re just spoiling me.

Helen McCrory and Alex Price damn near steal the show as Rosanna and Francesco. I LOVE them! They’re both pretty intimidating at times, but they’re also delightfully camp. The dramatic twirling of capes and the almost orgasmic gasping they make after they’ve drank blood, it’s all so enjoyably silly. One scene I found very amusing in particular was where Rosanna and Francesco are sitting on the floor and she’s stroking his hair while his head rests on her lap. I just had the biggest grin on my face throughout. But as funny and over the top as they can often be, I never felt as though I was laughing at them. It certainly doesn’t diminish their threat or, in Rosanna’s case, the emotional drama surrounding their characters. If anything I felt it actually brought me closer to them. In fact these villains have something that has been sorely lacking this series. Character and personality. Francesco is this loyal, but petulant mummy’s boy and Rosanna is the doting mother that will do anything for her 10,000 offspring. They’re a ton of fun to watch and both McCrory and Price really throw themselves into it and are clearly enjoying themselves immensely, which just makes me love them even more.

It also helps that Rosanna isn’t the typical evil megalomaniac that often plagues this show. There’s a lot of effort to give her some depth and complexity. She’s trying to save her race from extinction and clearly spoils her children rotten. ‘What’s that? You want some wives? Okay. Mummy will go find you some.’ She’s still evil. She doesn’t give two shits about humanity and even tries to guilt trip the Doctor into helping her by mentioning the extinction of the Time Lords, but she’s not evil just for the sake of being evil. She’s motivated by self preservation and a strong maternal love for her children’s future. So when her plans ultimately fail and she sacrifices herself to be eaten by her children, thus dooming her race, I couldn’t help but feel slightly sorry for her.

I love how they incorporate all the traits and cliches you’d come to expect from vampire stories. A perception filter tricks you into thinking they look human, but it doesn’t work in mirrors, hence the lack of reflection. The vampire teeth show because your subconscious is trying to alert you to danger. They don’t drink blood, but rather drain you of your moisture because they’re aquatic beings who need water to survive. One thing I’m slightly confused by is their aversion to sunlight. Okay, they live at the bottom of the ocean so I guess sunlight would make them uncomfortable, but enough to disintegrate them? That doesn’t make sense. It’s also really inconsistent. One minute they’re hissing and cowering from sunlight and the next they’re just wandering around in broad daylight.

As much as I love Rosanna’s motivations and character, her plan is a bit weird. We’ll skip past the bit where they convert women into aliens by draining them of blood and filling them with alien blood. Doctor Who often plays fast and loose with science, and frankly I’d rather not go there. Instead let’s talk about her ultimate plan. She wants to sink Venice.

Um... why?

There’s clearly room in the canals for 10,000 of the fuckers. Why not just live there? Also the world is covered in 70% water. Couldn’t they just up and move somewhere else?

Still, at least I have an emotional connection with this setting, unlike with the previous episodes. Lucian Msamati and Alisha Bailey are both great as Guido and Isabella. Not the most interesting characters in the world, but they were likeable enough. I did feel slightly sad when they both died and I liked the parallel Whithouse draws between Guido and Rosanna. Both care deeply about the future of their children and both end up sacrificing themselves when they can no longer provide for them. That was a nice touch.

While I enjoyed the plot and villains, it’s the main characters I feel that really let the side down. Let’s start with the Doctor. I’m still enjoying Matt Smith’s performance for the most part. His scenes with Rosanna are absolutely electrifying and I love the subtle flirting between them. Can you imagine any other Doctor making that work? I’m also captivated by his silent menace. He’s clearly partially sympathetic to Rosanna’s predicament until she reveals that she didn’t even know Isabella’s name (who she executed a scene ago), demonstrating her own cold and ruthless efficiency, and motivating the Doctor to take action. And yet despite everything, he’s still devastated when she kills herself at the end. All very complex and multi-layered and so on. What I’m less fond of however is the humour. Something just feels very off in this episode. Like it all feels a bit too forced. For example, when him and Rory are talking about Amy kissing him:

Rory: “And you kissed her back?”

Doctor: “No. I kissed her mouth.”

That just seemed a bit too glib for my liking. Same goes for all the ‘mine’s bigger than your’s’ gags between the Doctor and Rory. But my least favourite joke was right at the beginning when the Doctor bursts out of a stripper’s cake. See I didn’t find it funny because I was too busy questioning why the Doctor couldn’t have just walked into the pub and talked to Rory like a normal person. I mean I know the Doctor is an eccentric, but this is taking the piss. It doesn’t feel like something the character would do. It just feels like the writers are trying too hard to be funny.

Rory is... okay, I guess. I did grow to like him in the episodes to come, but here he’s a bit weak. He seems like a nice enough guy and I do like the scenes where he confronts the Doctor about his behaviour, but he comes across as a bit pathetic. Plus Arthur Darvill gives a very wooden performance I feel, particularly in the sword fight with Francesco where he has this ‘I’m acting now’ kind of vibe to him. Again, it just feels like he’s trying too hard to be funny. Thankfully he does get better as time goes on, either because he grows into the role or he gets better direction, so I won’t complain too much.

However, while I do like the scenes where he confronts the Doctor, it feels as though he has more foreknowledge about the Doctor and his behaviour than he ought to have. They do explain that Rory researched the Doctor after what happened in The Eleventh Hour, but that doesn’t account for lines like this:

“You know what is dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around.”

You got all that from a Wikipedia article?

I’m not saying Rory isn’t right. He absolutely is. I’m just questioning how he’s able to make such informed and authoritative judgements considering he’s only known the Doctor for five minutes.

And that’s not the only weird line of dialogue. Take a look at this one near the end:

“All I can hear is... silence.”

Obviously this is meant to continue the series arc surrounding Moffat’s crack (God I’m so immature), but... who the fuck talks like that?

Finally there’s Amy, who I really didn’t like in this episode. You may recall that in the previous episode she tried to have sex with the Doctor (how could you not recall it? I’m still having nightmares about it. Family show, Moffat. Family show). The Doctor invites Rory along in an effort to revitalise their relationship, and apparently it works... though I don’t understand how. First off they keep trying to downplay what happened at the end of Flesh And Stone to a simple kiss, which is most certainly not the case. A woman runs off on the night before her wedding and tries to have sex with another man. This isn’t a trivial thing guys. Second, there’s no effort to explore how Amy feels about all of this, the episode instead focusing on the Doctor and Rory’s dick measuring contest. Why is she so reluctant to marry Rory? It’s not as if he’s abusive or she’s being sold into a life of domestic servitude. If she’s not attracted to him, why is she marrying him? And third, Amy and Rory barely spend any time together. There’s never a moment where the two talk about what’s going on or try to make sense of their current situation. So when they do finally reconcile near the end after they kill Francesco, it just feels very forced. Rory clearly loves her, but she shows no interest in him until he clumsily fights off a vampire, at which point she’s suddenly trying to eat his face off. It just makes her come across as extremely shallow (and that’s hardly surprising considering she’s a Moffat creation).

As a continuation of the Doctor, Amy and Rory’s story, it’s incredibly flawed, but as a standalone adventure where our favourite time traveller battles a bunch of vampires from outer space, it’s very enjoyable indeed.

#the vampires of venice #toby whithouse #doctor who #eleventh doctor #matt smith #amy pond #karen gillan #rory williams #arthur darvill #steven moffat #bbc #review #spoilers

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The Defenders - The Defenders blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Well that was dumb and pointless. And I’m not just referring to this particular episode.

Yes it’s hard to feel suitably tense and excited for the final climax when you’ve basically been bored out of your fucking skull for the past 7 episodes. I wasn’t worried about whether our heroes could defeat the Hand. I was just impatient to get to the end credits so that I could move on to something else and never have to watch this show ever again.

As I said, there’s been no satisfying buildup to this finale, so I’m not in anyway invested in what’s going on onscreen. I just sat there, pointing my face at the TV’s general direction and prayed it would be over very quickly. I don’t even understand what the threat is. They keep saying New York is going to be destroyed by the Hand, but they never say how or why. Two things that might help in creating intimidating and three dimensional villains. We never even get to see this substance they’re craving. They just stumble across a dragon skeleton (which they try to avoid saying to an almost comical degree because I think even the writers know how fucking stupid this all sounds) and then suddenly Bakuto is bulletproof now. Oh and guess what? The Black Sky. What she can do and what her purpose is. Still never explained. Perhaps Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez should go back to writing class to refresh their memories on how a fucking plot is supposed to work.

The episode as a whole is just utterly monotonous. The fights are dull and repetitive. Colleen and Bakuto’s fight could have been interesting if we hadn’t done it already in Iron Fist. Claire seems to have forgotten all of her martial arts training from iron Fist as we see her stand there pathetically swinging a pipe around. The scene where the Defenders fight a bunch of ninjas could have been dramatic and exciting if the ninjas posed anything resembling an actual threat. Not only do the characters bowl them over as if they’re skittles, the fight is then completely undermined by quite possibly the most inappropriate use of music I’ve ever heard. They might as well have just had the theme to the Adam West Batman TV show playing in the background.

I’m still not buying any of the Defenders so called camaraderie because there’s been so little effort to actually have them bond over the course of this season. Even the characters themselves are aware they haven’t actually bonded that much. When Daredevil tries to tell Luke and Jessica how he appreciates their help, they basically just tell him to shut up.

You know, it speaks volumes that Misty Knight (possibly my favourite character in the Luke Cage solo series who got the most growth and development in that storyline) gets her arm chopped off in this episode and I felt absolutely nothing. No shock. No gasp. Nothing. That’s how disinterested I’ve become in all of this. (Also did you know Misty and Colleen form a partnership in the comics? i didn’t. You’d think Marvel would want to take the opportunity to maybe set that up, but the two characters have barely interacted with each other over the course of this show. And people still think Marvel are meticulous planners as opposed to a bunch of clowns making this shit up as they go along, the poor saps).

I’m not going to dwell too much on this episode. It’s boring, nonsensical and I don’t care about anything that’s happening onscreen. I am however going to talk about the ending because it has got to be quite possibly the most annoying and most stupid thing in this entire season.

So the building is primed to explode and the Defenders rush off to the elevator to escape. But then Daredevil decides to stay behind. Why? Because he wants to try to convince Elektra to come back to the good side.

For fuck’s sake Matt, will you get it through your thick skull that Elektra isn’t doing this because she’s under mind control. She’s doing this because SHE’S AN EVIL PSYCHOPATH! She even blatantly admits this to him!

Matt: “You forget, i know when you’re lying.”

Wha- HOW IS SHE LYING?! When has she ever demonstrated to you that she is anything other than a selfish homicidal maniac?! What the fuck are you talking about?!

This is the strangest thing about Elektra. The writers clearly think she has some redeemable qualities, but they never actually show us any. They clearly want you to empathise with her and want to see her and Matt get together, but she’s so fundamentally unlikeable and so morally repugnant that I legitimately don’t understand how Matt could possibly find her attractive. I just can’t wrap my head around what the writers were thinking when they came up with this. It’s mind bogglingly preposterous on every level and displays a jaw dropping scale of incompetence I’ve never witnessed before.

So after spending all this time trying to kill Matt, she suddenly makes a U turn so massive you can see it from space and confesses her love for him. He does the same, and the two make out while they’re crushed under debris. I’m hoping this means we’ve finally seen the last of Elektra and the Hand and that we can finally get back to some decent writing in future Netflix shows. But of course we know Daredevil isn’t dead because Marvel announced they were doing a third season. Except the characters don’t know that, so we have to go through all the  eulogies and the tears and the mourning (they even light the Empire State Building in red as a tribute to him, which was so cringeworthy that I instinctively reached for the nearest sickbag), but of course I don’t feel a single thing because a) Daredevil’s sacrifice was monumentally stupid on every conceivable level, b) his sacrifice wasn’t a noble gesture. He just wanted a chance to get his leg over with his mass murdering girlfriend, and c) we know he’s not dead. I just sat there, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for them to get the fuck on with it and show us the oh so surprising reveal. And do you know what the worst thing about this was? This wasn’t like a 5 minute thing like in Batman V Superman. Oh no. We have to sit through 20 fucking minutes of this bullshit.

20... fucking... minutes.

In other words, The Defenders ends the same way the season began. By wasting my time.

The Defenders miniseries as a whole has been a crushing disappointment from start to finish. Whereas the first Avengers movie explored the characters and their relationships fully, and it felt like a culmination of all the previous movies’ hard work and achievements, The Defenders just feels hollow and shallow by comparison. There’s no sense of passion or artistic integrity. There’s no thrill in seeing these characters come together. It just feels like Marvel are going through the motions. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for this crossover to exist and there’s virtually no substance to it whatsoever. In fact it feels like most of this season has been comprised entirely delaying tactics and time wasting rather than actual plot or character progression, and at this point it’s become abundantly clear why. The Defenders has only the bare bones of a story. It’s not even a story. It’s a concept. So, to disguise it, they plug the gaps with scenes that give the illusion that stuff is happening, when in reality nothing is happening at all. Time that could have been spent fleshing out the characters and their relationships are instead given to reiterating origin stories that we already know or bickering about random shit. The Hand too are treated the same way. We’re told basically nothing about them, but we’re given concepts like the Black Sky, the substance and so on, which hints that there’s something interesting going on, but in reality it’s just a load of smoke and mirrors to mask the fact that the Hand are just utterly shit villains.

Basically The Defenders is a show that isn’t really there. The moment you look at it under any close scrutiny, it all crumbles and dissolves into nothing. To watch an episode of this show is like staring into the void.

The deep, dark, empty void.

#the defenders #marvel cinematic universe #netflix #review #spoilers