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freedomaddict · 7 months

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my own personal opinion on the rottmnt turtles in hogwarts houses:

Miguel: Ravenclaw. Mikey is SUPER creative, it's kind of his thing. Ravenclaws also value wit, and all of Mikey's jokes are well-timed, he's got a mental sharpness and has an inventive way to make a joke. He's also really smart - the episode with the mystic metal? he says to raph "we're not saying you never have good ideas, we're just saying that sometimes we do to!" he's got street smarts and creative smarts, and strategic smarts. (he could really be any house, i think

Ravenclaw would be the best fit tho) he's the ravenclaw who you think doesn't belong there, but once you get to know the house you'd never be able to imagine him anywhere else.

Big Red: Hufflepuff! Raph is like ... the definition of Hufflepuff. Loyalty, patience, trust, strong sense of justice, hard-working. Literally Raph. I think he could be in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, but Hufflepuff would suit him best (in my opinion.) Plus, he's always trying to better the team by doing team building exercises (at least i think he does that often, seems like something he'd do) and teamwork is a big part of the hufflepuff house. he's the stereotype of the house - looks open and friendly, who's hugs are warm and safe.

Von Ryan: Slytherin. Before anyone yells, I'm both a donnie kinnie and a slytherin. Donnie belongs here lmao. The way he always tries to improve himself and is extremely goal-oriented. Slytherins value resourcefulness, and Donnie has had to learn to be resourceful when living in the sewers. He gets all of his stuff from a junkyard. Plus, dry humor? perfectionist? big on cost/benefit analysis? donnie fr. he seems like the stereotypical slytherin, the one who's quiet and everyone thinks is evil. (he'd also excel at potions.)

Leon: Tbh, he's pretty hard. I think he could either be gryffindor or slytherin, but also ravenclaw and fit almost perfectly in those houses, but I think he belongs in slytherin. im also a leo kinnie (heh) and honestly? Sarcastic humor, confident (or pretends to be,) competitive and charismatic? literally both signs of gryffindor and slytherin? it's so hard but he has a practical eye and the ability to quickly adapt when needed. he also has a lot of common sense, instead of taking on things he knows he can't do he results in something achievable (paper theives) and he's incredibly persuasive, a trait valued by slytherins. he seems like the slytherin who thinks they're better than everyone else, and once you get to know them you realize they actually are.

April: Hard one! She's so spunky and full pf personality (i love her so much) but i think she belongs in gryffindor. The first episode alone shows me that. Gryffindor traits are bravery, honor, loyalty, boldness and have strong moral centers. I think this is mostly shown in her interactions with the boys. (which is like the only interactions she has ok i know) She's willing to dive head-first into a conflict if it meant she could help her family somehow. There's no doubt that she would go to the ends of the earth for them, and if you think she'd turn her back her boys, you're crazy.

Cassandra: Gryffindor. Don't argue. When reading her wiki (it describes the characters way more in depth than i could) it talks about how much she values being loyal to the foot clan and how energetic/enthusiastic she is. She's courageous and stands up for what she believes is right, just like a gryffindor. She's always wanting to better herself and is quite stubborn.

Casey Jr: I know what house he's in, but i almost didn't want to sort him because it meant someone would be alone...he's a hufflepuff, through and through (i feel bad for leaving mikey alone, but he'll make friends soon enough.) Casey is hard-working and loyal, as we can see in the movie - taking on the mission leo told him to, and not once complaining, just worried about how he could complete it. He has honest the whole way through, not sugar coating anything to beating around the bush. and unafraid of being direct. He's also very polite and kind (i love him guys) and listens to other's input and ideas.

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the-soul-of-a-morningstar · 30 days

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Hello! Thank you so much for doing a matchup trade with me :3 you seem so cool btw. here I go!

Also just @ me when your done!

my name is jaxrel! i also use "jax" for short, I also use other names like lan, himawari, eden, etc. I use he/him pronouns and im a trans man who's bisexual with more of a male pref. and thanks to the testosterones I have a deeper voice :D im a aquarius and i have a lot of mental discorders which l'll get to in a bit.

PERSONALITY: I'm a ENTP, 4W3 (or 3W2) Ravenclaw. I'm very extroverted but I also have some introvert traits which l'll get down to in a minute, my personality is very unique but also hard to describe. I'm very confident, straightforward and I have a sense of justice for myself (I have a urge to correct someone of faulty information), uses "big" words, good sense of humor, playful, entertaining, optimistic, mischievous, curious(l'm nosy and I love gossip), I can be a rule breaker(sometimes don't mean to). l'm extremely independent, when comfortable talk about a lot of stuff for hours, loud talker, emotions come off as sarcastic or silly due to autism). As for my sense of humor I can be sometimes crude. l'm a very chill and intelligent person but some people would say I have some "repressed anger issues, get a reallyyy overractive Brain, tend to get deep and philosophical when I'm left on my own for to long, I can be verbally aggressive when prevoked. Usually when I meet people I come off as awkward and shy, even distant but l'lI get comfortable with them soon enough. I'm very polite and sweet btw! I may look scary sometimes (*cough* that's what I get for being emo *coughs harder*) but l'm always there for someone no matter what. I'm the dad friend. When I go out I always bring water bottles, first aid kit, chapsticks (pretty much anything you can think of). I have a lot of social awareness but i often intentionally act in a rash and unapologetic way because personally i do not care at all for social norms or rules. As l'm the dad friend (also the therapist friend too) l've been told give a lot of good advice and im also a very good listener too. English isn’t my first language either since I was born in the Middle East and speak Arabic more, basically my English isn’t the best and I’m much more fluent in Arabic, Spanish, Korean and Japanese. Here's more information linked here about me. (which I suggest reading)

I've been diagnosed with a lot of disorders such as Autism, ADHD, Schizophrenia, BPD + etc, it's hard especially with my Autism, sadly a lot of these run on my mothers side of the family and I gotten a lot of them, I'm prone to psychosis/ delusions and sometimes it happens in episodes that can last for months. I also get really mad if people piss me off which goes for my repressed anger issues.

When i'm talking to people I get very loud and unhinged, just very silly like i'm spamming cursed images and telling my friends i'm going to eat their skin and shit like that (AS A JOKE......), just being very neurotic. a lot of my friends describe me as a feral creature HELP. I also use a lot of memes to react to things (which is usually anime, kpop, or just random ones)

I'm very flirty towards people sometimes, sometimes even tease a little but it's not mean spirited or anything. I'm still a friendly person. And I spend time and effort on the people I like and the things I find interesting but I find pretty much anything interesting hehe.

I've been told I act a lot more like victor nikitorov from a lot of my friends and I kinda know why because of how cheerful can be and from what I know I don't seem to understand -or even care about-conventional social norms. I also have that rock star charm. And as an extra I can always dazzle woman and men alike without a single glance). And I also act like Elysia a lot too which you can find more here from her personality.

MISC.: clumsy; accidentally (+purposefully) misuses slang or common phrases ; enjoys skin care and hair care ; I also tend to enjoy makeup routines to be more masculine; able to pick up new skills relatively quickly; studied french, korean, japanese + etc; l'm very good at doing my outfits (probably because I got a lot of help from chinese people...) ; prone to being a bit directionless in life ; prone to bad luck but tries to find the humor in most situations ; life approach: to live a life of varied experiences, to not take life too seriously, to not dwell too much on the past.

KINS: hiyori tomoe (enstars), yoosung kim (mystic messenger), jumin han (mystic messenger), hanako (tbhk), felix kranken (twf), albedo (genshin impact), shoya ishida (a silent voice), tom (eddsworld). eridan (homestuck), karkat (homestuck), shu itsuki (enstars), miyamura izumi (horimiya), michael afton (FNAF), lolbit (FNAF), mangle (FNAF), natsume sakasaki (enstars), sora harukawa (enstars), urumi akamaki (alice in borderland), V (mystic messenger), hagumi kitazawa (bandori), matsubara kanon (bandori), shinji ikari (neon genesis evangelion), minami kotobuki (oshi no ko), lain iwakura (serial experiments lain), hajime hinata (danganronpa), k-angel (needy streamer overdose) and more.

KINS I RELATE TO THE MOST: Victor Nikiforov (Yuri On Ice), Tei (Nameless), Cutthroat (Akudama Drive, Except the Bloodlust cutthroat has.), Elysia (Honkai Impact 3rd), Ranpo Edogawa (Bungo Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu (Bungo Stray Dogs), Space Ishtar (Fate), Okita Souji (Fate), Langa Hasegawa (Sk8 The Infinity), Sherlock Holmes (TGAA), Zack (Final Fantasy 7), Vash The Stampede (Trigun), Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist), Otonashi Yuzuru (Angel Beats), Karma Akabane (Assassination Classroom), Vanitas (Study Case of Vanitas), Zoe Hange (AOT), Shinoa Hiragi (Seraph of The End) + more

(psssst, my kin lists will help you know more about my personality:))

LOVE LANGUAGES: physical touch, quality time. (giving) gift-giving, physical touch, quality time (receiving)

(I really like physical touch the most and I always get called a "clingy koala" because I love hugs sm, and also because I cuddle my plushies for HOURS on no end)

IDEAL DATE(S): Usually if I was the one to chose a date it would be at dinner or at a picnic outside somewhere nice and maybe we can either go to the movies, arcade or mall. I wouldn't really care what my partner would like to do, and if they wanna do something and wanna buy something l'I have so much money on me. I would also die (not rlly, I would feel my SOUL go out of my body) if my partner were to ever get anything I liked (which is plushies, energy drinks, chocolate (AND) strawberries, etc) ILL LITERALLY HUG THE SHIT OUTTA THEM.

HOBBIES: gaming, anthropology pathology, theology, zoology, music, dancing, filmmaking, art (drawing, painting, pottery, digital art, etc), learning different instruments/languages, cosplaying, skateboarding, tabletop RPG's, taking pictures of things that I think are pretty, collecting figurines/stuffed animals and puppetry, science/history, soccer(football)/volleyball/ basketball, skating and swimming, cooking/baking, art is definitely my main hobby I dedicate a lot of time to it, I can play 5 instruments which is the piano, cello, koto and bass/electric guitar, I know 6 languages and I'm learning more right now (which are hindi, german, cantonese and chinese if your interested).

I love gaming a lot and I play a lot of survival horror games, role-playing games, visual novels, etc, spent a lot of my money on games for my nintendo, Ps5 and computer. I play too much on roblox and basically during my freetime when I'm not studying other things I like/OR for school I'm usually in my gaming seat playing away and eating junk food. The games I really enjoy playing is roblox, class of 09, honaki impact 3rd, omori, any rhythm games and etc…

I also like writing and reading a lot, including with a studying new things with history, languages, etc. I love taking naps too and I also enjoy watching youtube (my favorite youtubers are flamingo, berleezy, kub scoutz, markiplier, benoftheweek, funkyfrogbait, etc). This also includes with me liking to watch movies as well, same goes for tv shows, asian dramas, etc.. (I also tend to rewatch a lot but not too much; like watching the harry potter movies, any of the marvel movies, horror movies, etc.)

I've been told I'm a very good dancer! I do belly dancing and I also do hiphop dancing as well. I've been in a lot of sports for years now since I was little (thank you to my mother for forcing me :,D) and now I'm in so many! and l've won a lot of rewards and I've been to a couple championships all because of me.

I'm also very, VERY skilled in cooking, baking, etc and I'm always happy to share what I baked with my closest ones.

Likes: Chocolate, Strawberries, Pizza, Iced Coffee and Boba Tea, Anime/ Manga, Music, Food, Winning in arguments online or irl, Reading, Cats, Sharks, Animals in general, Cold/or Rainy Weather, Shopping, Action or Romance movies, Kdrama(pretty much any asian dramas), Spicy & Sweet Food, Ramen.

Music: | like (too much) music a lot. I'm a k/jpop stan, I listen to metal/rock a lot, I listen to vkei and vocaloid a lot too, this is also another genre I enjoy listening to but idk what to call it but it's similar to 6arelyhuman, Odetari, Kets4eki, etc (I make similar music to them), I also listen to a lot of indie pop, rap music and scene music. I've been a really big lemon demon fan and I really like listening to any sad music too. my spotify is here

Apperance: l'm pretty tall l'm 5'8 right now and l'm on the very skinny side (I literally get called a twig everyday I'm half Polish and Half Middle Eastern (Iraqi) / Filipino. People usually get confused and a lot I get questions if I'm from North Korea, Hawaii, Brazil or Mexico (it's mostly north korea though HELP idk why people think that), I have dyed black hair. My hair is pretty short (but a little long only going down my neck a few inches) but I get a lot of compliments for it. When I get out of bed from sleeping my hair is always looking like a mess (psst I also have bangs too. Ive been told I look both masculine and feminine. I have piercings (one in (?) my nose, two on the bottom of my lips, and a couple more on both of my ears). I want a tattoo so bad, If I ever get one it would be on the side of my belly and it would be a spider tattoo. I have a dimple on my chin and I have hazel almond eyes.

Aesthetic/Clothing Style: Ok so this is definitely what makes me unique to people other than my personality, my fashion extends to gyaru (hime gal, himekaji, agejo, gyaruo, rokku, manba, banba, kogal, tsuyome, and kigurumi), goth (trad goth, romantic goth, mall goth, cyber goth, and victorian goth), scenemo/emo (ofc), & Y2K, jirai kei, vkei, ouji and lolita, suits + dresses (+ MORE) I usually wear these fashion outfits whenever 'm in school, when i'm out somewhere, during my job, or just to look cool. Whenever I'm not in my crazy outfits I'm usually dressed in my "IDGAF" outfits by that I mean are like pj pants and a black shirt, usually I look like I'm alternative whenever I'm not dressed, I wear a lot of jeans, sweatshirts, etc.

Accessories: Usually when I'm in my outfits I bring a lot of accessories with me, I have tote bags that I use to carry things I wanna carry INCLUDING with purses, back packs, etc. I'm a big kpop and jpop fan so you'll see me carrying photo cards or any kind of merch of my favorite groups/ group members. I also have anime keychains/etc, and I also have like hazbin hotel/helluva boss merch too. you'll always see me wearing rings around my fingers a lot, and whenever I'm feeling "girly" I wear a lot of earrings. I also tend to bring perfume and cologne with me, but it's usually any good smelling sprays like mint hot chocolate or strawberry short cake.

Thank you so much! Have a good day!

a/n: Lowkey forgot to not do this with the ask attached but I started yapping in my drafts and forgot to not do it with the ask so mb 😔 But thank you for doing this with me! Here are your results, dear!

Angel Dust

There’s a lot to touch on here, but personality wise I think you and Angel’s personality’s clash a lot (in good way!) Like, you both are very similar yet very different to me, and that helps balance things, I guess? Like you both know how to get eachother back on track or get the other one to see the other side of things, but with an understanding of the other, since you’re both similar yet different, you know?

Another way you and Angel Dust bond is over fashion, despite your varying tastes in clothes, Angel loves every item of clothing you wear. One of your favorite things to do (especially if one of you is leaving for an extended period of time) is picking out each other outfits out of each others wardrobes

Since Angel also has a language he speaks (Italian) if you don’t already know Italian, he will teach it to you, in hopes that you teach him your language(s) as well. He likes being able to talk with you in another language because it feels like there’s no one else in the world but you two, and it feels more private if people are around, y’know?

Runner-Ups: Lucifer, Vox, Charlie

@the-soul-of-a-morningstar : please do not copy, repost or translate onto any other platform.

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oreolesbian · 2 years

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kenobi thoughts episodes 1-2

- goes to show you how good a star wars project can be when the creators behind it actually acknowledge what fans want while also crafting a cohesive, thought out storyline that fits the pre-established canon, huh?

- god it’s so nice to be bitten by the star wars bug again

- when the trailer dropped and they showed obi off tatooine, my first thought was that he was only off planet for leia. i literally saw no other feasible reason for him to leave tatooine unless leia was in danger. i fucking love being right. (also! yay! not stuck on tatooine for a whole season! lol)

- i do desperately want more baby luke screentime, but i am still deliriously happy with what we have. also i want more beru screen time. but OWEN!!! i love him. put respect on his name!!

- super nerdy thing here: but when that one lady on tatooine told the inquisitors that they have no rights in the Rim because the Empire doesn’t officially have control...yeah baby, attention to canon details. it makes me so happy when they do that lol.

- temuera morrison cameo! not cody but still just as fucking heartwrenching! saw someone describe it as “one of the many ways anakin haunts obi wan” cause he was a 501st solider and i can’t breathe…

- the way the show balances drama and humor so well...you know...LIKE STAR WARS DOES. i’m literally crying...the best i can describe it is like a clone wars episode arc. it knows all the right places to put the charming jokes, but they aren’t jokes for the sake of like...dumb mcu-esque meta stuff or whatever the fuck (like what the sequels were doing, *cough*), but actual star wars humor. it’s kind of hard to put into words, but like...iykyk

- BABY LEIA. i literally could not have asked for a better representation of the headcanons i have had for baby leia for literal years. not only does this version capture the spirit of leia so well—but you can feel anakin and padme in her. her interactions with obi-wan aren’t just adorable and charming (reminding you fondly and achingly of obi wan and anakin of the past), but it’s a reminder of what could of been if obi-wan had gotten to be a real uncle. it’s adding context to leia and obi-wan’s relationship in anh that we could only theorize about. having leia be self-conscious about being adopted into the organa family! BREHAAAAAAAAAAAAA. leia’s use of the force being subtle in her sharp wit and mental manipulation skills. i’m literally losing my mind at just how right they got this. i think it’s so shocking after years of them writing luke wrong, lol.

- they also characterized obi-wan so well. i’m literally vibrating. the second i saw ewan’s back i started ascending into a new plane of existence. but like—the way he dismisses that other jedi, not because he doesn’t care, but because he genuinely can’t help him without risking luke. the way he initially can’t make himself help leia because he’s so frightened of failing another skywalker. his sense of justice winning out despite it all; the hopelessness he feels; calling out to fucking qui gon ahhhhhhh; the nightmares we all wanted; the fact that he’s grimy and old and bitter and tired. THAT FAMOUS OBI WAN EXASPERATION. just the scene with the jawa alone had me sobbing on the floor because—that’s obi-wan. and yes, most of this is attributed to ewan’s performance and familiarity with the role, but i mean...i gotta give kudos to the writing as well.

- oh yeah…btw…how??? is the grand inquisitor dead? i never watched rebels but i know he’s a major character in that show (and eventually dies in that show)…and swr takes place canonically after 9 BBY…so…maybe he’s not dead?

- reva is such a fascinating character to me already, and i have so many thoughts about what her story might be about. on the surface it seems to be just about proving herself to vader to gain power and notoriety. we can tell she comes from “nothing,” so moving herself up in the world is important to her. but there feels like something more...and here��s why:

- i cannot emphasize enough that literally no one in the galaxy knows that anakin skywalker and darth vader are the same person. in fact, no one knows this until YEARS AFTER RETURN OF THE JEDI—because luke and leia agree that there’s no reason to make that information public, only for it to become public on accident later. the only people we know, 100% who know about anakin being vader (in this time period (9 BBY) only, so obviously excluding ahsoka, luke, leia, etc.), are obi-wan, yoda, palpatine, most likely bail (and in that case, a high chance breha), and still up for debate owen and beru (but i highly doubt it, in fact i have always doubted that they knew that much). the public story is that anakin skywalker, a very famous and well-known public figure during the clone wars, died in the purges along with the rest of the jedi. vader is assumed by the public to be on the same level as the inquisitors—just one of palpatine’s many little assassins. hell, most of the galaxy believes vader is a droid—that’s how inhuman he comes across. there is literally no way to make the connection between anakin and vader, because anakin falling to the dark was a small contained moment that only a few people witnessed. obi wan left anakin on mustafar under the assumption that he had killed him. but to be fair, anakin never addressed himself as darth vader to obi-wan in those moments, and obi-wan was not present when palpatine rescued anakin from the fire and put him in the suit, meaning that even if obi did know that anakin was alive, he wouldn’t have known what he looked like. so, obi-wan not making the connection between vader and anakin is fine—i can accept that into a canon mindset. however, what I am curious about is how reva knows about anakin. there is literally no way she should know this unless: 1) vader told her (which seems highly unlikely given that we know vader considers anakin skywalker to be a completely different man..plus i don’t believe he’d just be telling that to just anyone); 2) she came to the conclusion based on research due to vader’s intense desire to hunt down kenobi (although i don’t know why she just wouldn’t assume vader would want a very high profile jedi dead. i’m sure vader would be just as adamant about yoda...and no one makes the assumption that luke is vader’s son just because vader later becomes obsessed w/ him); or 3) (my personal theory) she somehow knew anakin prior to becoming vader. whether in passing or personally, i don’t know, passing seems more likely. she’s a force-sensitive so it’s not that shocking to think she wouldn’t be aware who anakin is and maybe put two-and-two together. after all, she was able to track down information about bail and obi-wan once working together in the clone wars. either way, i’m very curious to see how they explain this (someone theorized that she could somehow be involved in that opening order 66 scene?? 👀)

- HOLY SHIT OBI WAN GOT LUKE THE TOY SHIP HE HAS IN ANH. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. HOLY FUCK. OH MY GOD. I WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED.

#kenobi spoilers #obi-wan kenobi #star wars

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paddingtonfan69 · 3 years

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Poison Ivy in the Harley Quinn animated series

Why I like them —

Oh man where to begin!!! I feel like Poison Ivy as a character across all media has aged remarkably well, like her philosophy is “fuck men and fuck billionaires they are destroying the planet” like... ahead of her time. I love this particular version of Ivy sm because she also has this sharp and biting sense of humor, and love the idea of this infamous supervillain being the sole voice of reason amongst the chaos of the Harley Quinn crew. Also she has that perfect balance of sort of sardonic humor but also so clearly cares immensely about Harley that she’s willing to change her whole life for her from the start.

Why I don’t like them —

Girl could learn a bit more emotional communication! And put herself first once in a while! She deserves!

Favorite episode —

Oof so many but I think 2x06 is such a good one for that backstory and just seeing the origins of how she opened up to let someone in, and that first instance of the Harley and Ivy relationship, which has been the central relationship of the show long before it’s romantic, oof it gets me!!!

Favorite season —

Like, season two for gay reasons but season one is also so good for Ivy as both the comically dry commentator and the emotional heart of it! Mayhaps season three! A girl can hope!

Favorite line —

Honestly I feel like I’m not going to do her justice, and I wish my memory could accommodate all the ZINGERS, but one that sticks with me is when she’s a bit possessed/evil and says -

“This is so dramatic. It’s like a CW show if the cast was less hot.”

Which is so funny on several levels, especially this inner franchise burn of all the DC CW shows, it gets me! I’m sure Ivy has even better lines though, truly everything she says is gold!

Favorite outfit —

Though she wears the same out fit ninety percent of the time, I gotta love that baseball tee that says “tree hugger”

OTP —

Harley ofc and I thing a really love is just how from the start they have been each other’s ride or dies and the first season was about Harley learning that Ivy has always been there for her and that she more important than any ex than any accolades — and then the second season is about Ivy learning that Harley has grown into someone who will love and prioritize and cherish her and it’s okay for Ivy to have that. ANYWAY I fucking love these two, love the emotional heart of this show being the evolution of the love between two queer women in a show that also makes jokes about sharks shitting underwater. That’s high art!!!

Brotp —

Okay I kind of love the idea of Ivy reluctantly becoming best pals with Clayface and King Shark and I would like to manifest that for season three!

Headcanon —

I have a half a fic on my google drive about Ivy pulling off murdering j*ff b*zos and I don’t know if I will ever finish it, but that idea warms my little heart.

Unpopular opinion —

Idk if it’s unpopular but I kind of love how it took a season and a half for Ivy and Harley to become romantic! I just love the deep regard and respect for their friendship and then using that as a foundation!

A wish —

I want her to fully become a member of the team which also has to do with my brotp answer but her sort of detached attitude combined with the earnestness of Clayface and king shark and then the utter chaos of Harley is SUCH a fun dynamic and I want Ivy to be a bigger part of that next season.

An oh-god-please-don’t-ever-happen —

Kind of obvious, making Harley and Ivy break up, after all they’ve been through! I sincerely doubt that will happen but that would be just a big ol gut punch

5 words to describe then —

Deadpan, superior, revolutionary, secretly soft

My nickname for them —

Not mine, but I do love her being called “Ive” an iconic shortening of an already short name!!

#past-donuts #ask #poison ivy #harley quinn #harley quinn the animated series

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matt0044 · 4 years

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The Anime Community has a FUNimation Problem. Full Stop.

In Prison School’s seventh episode, Anzu Yokoyama’s dialogue with Shingo Wakamoto has her calling out his attempt at talking to a woman and kicking starting a fairly obligatory romantic subplot. The English Dub, up to that point, had all the hallmarks of FUNimation’s script writers playing off the already existing comedic aspect of the title. Some disapproved while other embraced it.

However, the dub would go a step further by having Anzu’s emasculation of Shingo involve a reference to the then ongoing Gamergate controversy. If anybody knew of the movemen then, you’d know this wasn’t a good idea. Every geek and their mother took offense to it right out the gate, claiming that it was FUNimation “shoving politics” where they don’t belong and insulting their fans.

To play devil’s advocate, Prison School as a whole is all about young men being integrated into a formerly all-girl school with all the sleazy shenanigans that the title’s become infamous for. It’s already pretty provocative in terms of visuals and how it pushes the envelope on its fan-service element. Something the dub team were keen to embrace with all of the dialogue reflecting this tone.

Yet Tyson Rinehart was raked over the coals for what was suppose to be an edgy joke for the sake of it, not unlike a lot of Prison School’s humor. Bare in mind that it within was one scene in the seventh episode out of a twelve episode Anime. We don’t get any other references to Gamergate like Anita Sarkeesian or the like in any other scene of any other episode. It’s just... this.

Yet even now when the line was redubbed to remove the reference for the home release, you’d think that this one line is all the dub is. That it’s akin to Shin Chan or Ghost Stories where the dub team wrote their own story and made jokes out of every kind of current event controversy because that’s what gets the lulz. Yet, again, it was just one scene in one episodes out of the twelve.

Of course, the cycle seemed to begin again with Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid which had a more... small scale kerfuffle in regards to the titlular human character claiming that, “I’m not into women or dragons.” Ironically, Jamie Marchi claimed she wrote that line since something like, “But I’m a woman,” came across as homophobic to her. However, I wrote my piece on all that.

What really got the wider community all up in arms was in regards to the character of Quetzalcoatl AKA Lucoa, specifically a single scene where she and Tohru exchange dialogue for less than ten seconds at most over her more conservative attire. Lucoa is pretty much THE fanservice character with breasts big enough to nearly suffocate a little boy in his sleep. Yes, that did happened.

Lucoa explains her more conservative attire as feeling uncomfortable with everybody looking at her in her other revealing outfits with the official subtitles by both Crunchyroll and FUNimation at the time. The dub would take it a step further so to speak by having her claim that she changed clothes because of “pesky patriarchal standards” getting on her nerves, something a tad different.

Well, I say, “different,” in the sense of what she’s referring to in regards to why she changed her clothes. The sub has it come out to “everybody” in a general sense like men, women and children alike while “patriarchal” is more specific in referring a societal phenomenon. However, that’s not what fans got in a tizzy over. The word, “patriarchal,” is the real focal point for this scene’s controversy.

It’s not secret that this word is thrown around most Feminist circles to the ire of geeks who “just wanna have fun” and hearing this word alone set off all the alarms. Like with Prison School, FUNimation was accused of trying to push a political agenda using Anime as Lucoa’s line was spread across the community.

By now, I’d like to be frank in how this all feels overblown. Using a word that’s common in the Social Justice lexicon can stick out but the idea that it turns the dub into political propaganda never made sense to me. I mean, it’s one thing the entire scene was rewritten to recite some kind of feminist manifesto but it only mentions the “patriarchy” and... that’s about it for this one scene alone. :/

I’d bring up “My First Girlfriend’s A Gal” but I feel like the points I made with Prison School largely apply here. However, I feel like some fans are hypocritical in how they claim that the dub’s dialogue is “inaccurate” when most enjoyed the dub for how it nearly went full Ghost Stories. Many felt that the dub was spicing up an otherwise by-the-numbers Ecch Fest that people would’ve written off. :P

Yet along came Episode 7 and the usage of the words of “SJWs millenials” among others was enough to make the dub “propaganda” in the eyes of many. Despite the fact that the script does convey the spirit of the original with the cafe manager trying to get the female cast into reading smut to nerd without their consent. What does that matter when the dub uses terms like “cuck?” :/

What about the voice acting? Doesn’t matter. Anzy referred “Gamergate.” That’s all that matters about Prison School’s English dub now and forever.

How well does the dialogue hold up on the whole? Doesn’t matter. Lucoa mentioned the “patriarchy.” That’s all that Maid Dragon’s dub amounts to.

Is it enjoyable in any way aside from said foibles? Doesn’t matter. The mention of “SJW millennials” in that one scene has now tainted the dub. Oh, the shame.

Starting to get the picture? I don’t want to be the guy who says dubs should go off doing as they please with not consideration for what the original’s narrative was trying to convey. Even if the occasional liberty can be intriguing, it’s always better for an English dub to keep the story in line with their source material. I, of course, type this for those who actually approach any dub in good faith at all. :/

The problem comes when the examples described above are weaponized by those who never had good faith in dubs and/or had it out for the likes of FUNimation to begin with. It’s not about discussion. It’s about propping up their bias of dubs being trash at best and trying to falsely villainize a company for making mistakes that ultimately amount to a handful of off-sounding dialogue.

By all means, discuss how those like FUNimation could improve on things such as where their streaming services are available region by region. Discuss how dubs like Danganronpa and Phoenix Wright recast the characters from the VAs in the games. Discuss how good or bad their script writing can be when it leans more loosely. All this fearmongering and vitriol does nothing but poison the well.

But weren’t these choices in adaptation politically motivated? Hell no? There’s a different between humor made in fairly poor taste and trying to brainwash your audience into believing, what, that women have problems? It’s not propaganda when you recognize it right away. And while Tyson Rinehart and Jamie Marchi responded rather rudely to the backlash... can you blame them with all of this?

I say this not to “kiss up” to FUNimation. Much as I admire their script adaptation process like the nerdy nerd I am, there can be times where I do feel they might’ve missed the mark. Particularly with their earlier dubs of the Dragon Ball franchise where they were borderline 4kids. However, dubs such as Fairy Tail and My Hero Academia are modern examples of how far they have come.

This mentality of holding grudges over fairly small potatoes that personally offend you gets us nowhere. I mean... isn’t it like the stereotypes SJWs are known for. A piece of media does something offensive, however big or small, and is deemed problematic forever by purity crusaders. Can’t we take a joke? It honestly gets to the point where I kind of have to quote Anzu Yokoyama here:

“Do you have a stick up your ass or are your one of those Gamergate creepshows?”

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adamwatchesmovies · 3 years

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Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006)

Released in 2006, you might initially confuse Superman: Brainiac Attacks for an early installment in DC's long-running series of Direct-to-Video Animated Movies. It isn't. Not even close. The villains are not interesting, there are gaping plot holes, the story is not original. After it's over, you'll wonder “Was that it?” and yet, I didn't dislike it.

Rocketed from the dying planet of Krypton, baby Kal-El was raised by a kind, elderly couple and as an adult adopted the identity of Superman, Earth’s greatest hero (voiced by Tim Daly). When danger isn’t present, he masquerades as Clark Kent and works as a reporter alongside Lois Lane (Dana Delany). When his greatest enemies, Brainiac (Lance Henriksen) and Lex Luthor (Powers Boothe) conspire together to take down the Man of Steel, can Superman overcome the odds?

This movie tricks you. It uses the same animation style as the DC Animated Universe (prominently featured in Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited) so you think it's connected, and therefore has value. It isn't in continuity. You can tell from the characters' behavior. Instead of a cool, calculating villain, Lex Luthor is a buffoon. A coward and fan of bad jokes, no one would ever describe him as a threat. Brainiac? Little more than a generic alien invader who wants to destroy stuff. Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen (David Kaufman(, and Superman fare a bit better because they have moments here and there where their personalities shine through but all have forehead-slappingly bad moments.

“Hey! Come on now.” Lex Luthor’s been kind of a bumbling supervillain before. Even the darkest comic book characters have had their shares of lighter storylines. Can’t you let that go?” Fine. I’ll humor you. Maybe this is destined for small children instead of teens and young adults. It's still a bad story with big plot holes. When Brainiac and Luthor ally themselves, the alien takes control of a satellite orbiting earth and reconfigures it into a new body. Do satellites normally contain kilometer-long metal tentacles, rocket boosters to allow them to fly around, mechanical hands, and an outer shell made to survive Superman's punches? I can't discuss in detail the portals to other dimensions that can open up anytime, anywhere or the dozens of buildings that are either always empty or contributed to a monstrous body count during the film's climax - that would give away the ending - but you see what I'm getting at.

There are a few moments here and there fans of the character will find cool. There's an interesting twist halfway through that deals with Superman and Lois Lane. The initial battle between Brainiac and Superman is exciting. If you look hard, you'll find some neat bits of dialogue. I'm trying, guys. Ultimately, Superman: Brainiac Attacks does not feel like a movie. Not even a direct-to-video movie. It's a bad episode of the Superman Animated Series, made worse by the fact that it isn't actually part of the series. (On DVD, April 12, 2015)

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pjstafford · 4 years

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The Bad Boy/Good Guy public personality dynamic of David Duchovny

Written as a birthday gift (with her blog prompt) for Charmion @grungekid84

Dedication: Charmion and I are of different generations; separated in age by over twenty years. I was the age she is now, about, when the X-files was new and she watched it first as a child. Yet today we share similarities in thoughts related to our celebrity crush. To both Charmion and David Duchovny I say, I hope this blog does the love the justice it deserves.

Why are women 20 to 70 years of age fan girls of the 59 year old David Duchovny? Not simply fans! Fans might watch a movie because an actor is in it. They might rewatch a series a half dozen times. Fan girls like Charmion have an Xfile room and paint pictures. Fan girls like myself write blogs, fan fic and team up with fan girls like Cathy Glinski to present at academic conferences. Why do women who have no other celebrity crushes have this need to celebrate this one celebrity in these ways? It seems significant to me the age range of women who are fan girls. I have stood in an audience surrounded by women barely old enough to meet the 21 age limit who knew every word to each of his songs. I heard one such woman say that this is an experience she would tell her grandchildren about. I, also, know women closer to 70 who have traveled to a meet and greet or comic con because they wanted the opportunity to thank this celebrity for the years of joy. Just today as I start to write this a woman I do not know tweeted @hearteyes4david an open letter to the world with a life wish to meet and thank this man. There are so many of us who just want to say thank you. And I won’t say none of us are not, but most of us are not crazy. We are lobbyists, store managers, attorneys, emergency room nurses, church secretaries of different ages and nationalities, many happily married, most normal women ( and some men). So many of us eager, compelled almost, to meet a single specific man and say thank you.

Some of it, people will say, is lust. Yes, it’s possible that if he was a less attractive man we would wish to thank him in person less. Still, can you truly look at the picture at the end of this blog and say his looks are so much more Adonis like than any other man? To say it’s purely a physical lust for a handsome man is dismissive of the intelligent, thoughtful women so moved to want to thank him.

His talent? “Sweet baby Jesus” he gave us Mulder and if that wasn’t enough, Moody. Whether he is playing a man who has lost his wife in Return to me, a drugged out doctor in Playing God, or a Russian operative determine to see the US nuked in Phantomn he makes every character seem so real that he gets a reputation for only playing himself. He is so good of an actor playing such diverse roles that folks can’t believe is truly acting. Still, I think most of us would just be fans and not fan girls if good looks and talent was all he had going for him

He is multi-talented and many love the rock star with romantic, heart breaking lyrics. For me, as I have often said, he is my favorite living novelist with three novels published and a fourth to come out soon. He writes intelligent, funny, heart breaking novels with an unique style and characters that again seem real (even the talking animals). In a recent interview he said something to the effect that his kids could read these novels and know who he was a man. I think that’s why I love his writing so much is because lyrics or prose they are authentic expressions of an artist’s personality; which brings me to Charmion prompt...the personality of David Duchovny.

I have met the man briefly a handful of times. I like the man I have met, but I can’t pretend to know more anymore than his public persona. I know how he comes across in interviews, what others who know him say about him, and all I can possibly gleam from his public art...from the things he has acted in and from his written art- the XFiles the Unnatural, the movie “House of D”, the novels, the lyrics, the distorted selfies in the mirrors reflections he tweeted when he used to tweet. This is how I know what I know about the man...and the fact that the few times I met him he was soft spoken, polite, humble and kind; taking time to answer my questions intelligently, joke a little and write kind words.

I know he is flawed. It is impossible to be a fan and not know about some of the faults which have been well publicized. As he himself says in my favorite of his songs, “I got skeletons in my closet which time ain’t forgot...”. They will never be forgotten. They will be included 20 or 30 years from now in his obituary. His flawed character is a fact, it has been aired, it is part of who he is.

I have written that what I love best about his writing is the combination of darkness and despair with the lightness of the human spirit and resiliency (mmm...the ability to believe?) rising out of darkness. He writes about the most depressing subjects on earth realistically and the fairy tale quality which rises to fill our hearts, to make us laugh and cry, is as real. It is either or both n amazing technique and/ or a result of a world view. I choose to believe it is the latter.

David Duchovny is no saint, but God Damn, he seems like a remarkably good guy with enough of a bad/boy mischievous side to make his personality as sexy as fucking itself. See how I just got a little different in my language there. David puts fucking in a book title, god damn in a song, gets bleeped on air record breaking number of times. God damn, fuck you if you think this is a man who is afraid to swear. He is not really Fox Freaking Mulder but he is David Fucking Duchovny

He is a good guy. He is intelligent. His ability to reference the high brow literary comes across in all his works. His second album title is from a Shakespeare quote. Walt Whitman shows up throughout his novels (and his dog’s tweets). He is well read, it quite well known. If you don’t get that reference, he would, as a Dylan fan and a fan of many other musical artists. He is also happy to talk about and reference sporting heros.

He is a bad boy. Oh, but the lowbrow humor! Early interviews have fart jokes, bathroom humor. He has a knack for intermixing the profane and profound. His novel, Miss Subways, has the elementary teacher leaving the classroom in tears when an assignment (write a letter to a Shakespeare minor character) results in an innocent boy reading “My dearest Fellatio...”.

He is a good guy. He is a romantic. He gave the XFiles fans the shippy Mulder and Scully baseball scene. He believes in his heart that Californication was at heart a love story. He writes lyrics for his ex wife who loves the rain saying “ It will always be raining in this song.” In his novel are real people having real sex type of scenes...no great erotica with flowing hair and heaving bosoms for this man, but discussion of lights on or off or an older couple off screen and an adult son hearing and embarrassed.

He is a bad boy. The man has no fear of nudity. . In his first movie he was filmed completely naked. In the commentary to the rapture he admits that he told the director he thought the character slept in the nude. (Hence the balls shot). It was his idea to wear the red speedo. He improvised the moonshot in evolution.

He is a good guy. He believes in causes. He volunteers and donates to protect the planet, for animal rights, for music education and for planned parenthood. His was the only story in over 200 XFiles episodes that truly dealt with racial injustice and segregation.

He is a good guy. In House of D the thirteen year old boy’s best friend is a forty year old janitor with special needs. He is a bad boy. That boy and janitor told each other a lot of pee jokes.

I can go on and on and on about the bad boy/good guy public personna of David Duchovny, but I am going to close with a subject that might tempt fate and bring forth the haters. I want to end with thinking about David and women.

In Red Shoes diaries David was in the forefront of the soft porn explosion. In an interview this year Brigitte Bako describes her experience in filming the movie as the “worst experience of my life”; but has nothing but complimentary things to say about David, how sweet and nice he was. They became close friends and she later appeared in an episode of Californication.

In Californication, David was the star of one of the raunchiest series in television history. Tits and ass, fucking and punching. I love the show but it would likely not be made today although, to be fair, it demonstrates women having agency over their sexuality. Nevertheless, actresses who appeared on that show have recently been asked what it was like. Over and over again they talk about how comfortable the environment was and how polite and respectful David was.

Much has been made over Gillian Anderson being paid half of David Duchovny’s salary. This is hardly his fault and something he argued against once he was made aware of it, but, as a fan of the show, I love hearing him talk protectively of Mulder and of wanting to protect that relationship. I love that he was responsible for rewriting an ending to one of seasons 11 episodes which end not with Mulder objectifying Scully and not with him in his under wear, but with Scully opining the door and him standing there. As David said, Scully being in control of her own desires.

Finally in Miss Subways, I find a female character written with such realism and authenticity that I have to go back to the 19th century to find a female literary character so relatable to me. She is a reader, beautiful to some men, a little eccentric in some ways, vulnerable, strong but without a great belief in herself or her talent. She’s just fucking real in a fucking real world despite being in a surrealistic fantasy novel with Irish banshees and African spider goddesses, parallel timelines and phones that can alter reality.

We, the fan girls, love this celebrity, David Duchovny because of his looks, his talent and his personality; because he is a bad boy and a good guy; because he inspires us, because he is flawed as we all are and goes through his life trying to be present in the day. For all the fan women who have yet to meet you, Mr. Duchovny, I say thank you and we love you, until they can meet you and tell you themselves.

Happy Birthday, Charmion. If you should meet him someday when I am not there give him an extra hug for me.

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a-method-in-it · 4 years

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No, she wasn't. Hillary defends rapists, makes jokes about children being raped, and violently attacks countries just to make more money. She's not perfect, she's a genocidal monster.

Oh boy. You are allowed to hold whatever opinions you want about political figures, but you are not allowed to spread misinformation. So to take these things in order:

First, Hillary Clinton, so far as I can tell, has represented one rapist as a criminal defense attorney. She was assigned to the case by the judge after the defendant, who had been accused of raping a 12 year old, requested a female defense attorney. This was in 1975. Clinton (who was at the time Hillary Rodham) was 27 years old and working as the director of a criminal law clinic at the University of Arkansas. She apparently requested that the judge reconsider appointing her. Honestly, if I was going to criticize her for anything about this whole episode, it would actually be that. People accused of crimes deserve a defense attorney, no matter the person and no matter the crime. If they have that right, then the government can essentially throw people in prison without giving them a fair chance to defend themselves from an accusation. And we already don’t do a great job about making sure court appointed attorneys have real resources, which helps fuel our mass incarceration crisis in this country. As a criminal defense attorney, trying to back out of a case is a big deal. But also, defense attorneys are human, and I’m not going to fault her for not wanting the case. The judge refused to reconsider, and she eventually negotiated a plea agreement that involved one year of prison time and several years probation, which either speaks to her skill as an attorney or the prosecutors’ lack of interest in providing justice to rape victims in Arkansas in the 1970s. Probably a little of both honestly. Second, Clinton never joked about the crime in question. In an interview in the 1980s, she did describe the case and did so using a few…I guess you’d call them jokes. She talked in a humorous way about trying to force prosecutors to turn over evidence to the defense (which they are legally required to do, but often try to get out of because prosecutors are often willing to play fast and loose with ethics if it means improving their conviction rate), about her client passing the polygraph test, and about bluffing a prosecutor about an expert she was still trying to get. Talking about such a serious case in a lighthearted manner was possibly not in good taste, but it was also not “joking about rape.” You can decide it’s a reason to hate her 30+ years later if you want, but you don’t get to mischaracterize what she said. Third, I legitimately have no idea where you got the idea Hillary Clinton has profited personally from any foreign military actions, and I can find no evidence for this claim. Fourth, Clinton is not responsible for genocide – hell, the Obama administration isn’t even responsible for genocide. Genocide has an actual definition and is not a synonym for “mass death” or “war crimes.” Words mean things. But more to the point, Hillary Clinton has, at no point in her career, ever had the ability to authorize specific military action. She did vote for the Iraq war, which was bad and I don’t like that about her, but senators have no role in military strategy. The Secretary of State is similarly not part of the military chain of command. She weighed in on possible military actions by the Obama administration, including advocating for the regime change in Libya and endorsing the raid that killed bin Laden, but she herself never had the ability to authorize any of that. At most – at most – you could maybe say that she was one of several parties culpable for war crimes because of her role in the Obama administration. She is categorically not guilty of genocide.

And look, I could criticize Hillary Clinton a lot. I have done so in fact. There are things about her and her record that are plain bad. There are even more things that are some flavor of not ideal. There are any number of real things that you can say about her if you want to critique her. You don’t have to resort to things that aren’t true.

#you don't have to like her #but my god #if you're going to hate her #at least hate her for things that are real #there are plenty of options #why people feel the need to spread misinformation #i do not know #truth matters people #marinarascova #method speaks

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spiftynifty · 5 years

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On Let’s Voltron, the showrunners, and fandom

On Thursday an interview came out on Let’s Voltron, the ostensibly final interview with the showrunners of this now-completed show. Within an hour a few tweet threads appeared and incited a new wave of hatred and anger towards the showrunners, mostly by people relying on these tweet threads rather than listening to the interview themselves.

I don’t like secondhand info that sparks outrage; and having watched both AB interviews and seen how outraged people got over them, without having seen either, I strongly suspected that this interview was nowhere near as incendiary as the tweet threads suggested.

And lo and behold, I was right. Much of what was reported in tweets was misconstrued, or lacking the additional information that listening to someone’s tone provides. I didn’t hear two snarky showrunners smugly enjoying the chaos that their truly lacklustre season provided. I heard two people who were exhausted and beaten down by both the expectations of the fandom and the limitations placed on them by people with more money and power. They didn’t call Shiro “boring”, they referred to their initial vision of him as boring. They didn’t say he was repetitive, they said his backstory was repetitive of other characters’ in the series and was cut. There was one salty comment from JDS about how Voltron and Atlas merging was cool but everyone was too bummed about s8 to appreciate it, but there’s a dark humor to it that reads to me like a man struggling to joke about something neutral and positive in a season that was poorly received by fans and many critics alike. The vast majority of the interview is not much we haven’t already heard, though there is a very telling segment that lasts about 5-10 minutes where they discuss the heavy limitations on representation in cartoons. Ezor and Zethrid were allowed to exist, they say, because they were secondary characters. And female. The words “main heroes” with an S, are repeated several times by LM when describing who was and was not allowed to be LGBT. She explicitly states that wlw is one thing, but mlm is a whole other battle.

As disappointed as I am in the mistakes JDS and LM made, I find myself feeling very defensive of them as I see the people who once defended them from ants now begin to exhibit ant-like behavior themselves. “They should never be allowed to work in animation again” says one tweet. “They never gave a shit about this show” says another. “S8 was their explicit revenge on fans.”

It makes me unbelievably sad to read this. JDS and LM made mistakes. S8 was objectively terrible. Their attempt to shoehorn in “bonus” representation backfired terribly. They’ve been upfront about Voltron never having been planned with a happy ending in mind, and buckle down hard when confronted with the notion that killing Allura was a bad move.

But as they’ve said many, many times, this show was a labor of love for them. They worked their asses off to pitch something grand to Dreamworks because they were fans of the original and wanted to do it justice. But then they got the show and proceeded to get buffeted around for 4 yrs by dreamworks and the rules of a pre-existing IP and half the story ideas they come up with get shot down by execs for any number of reasons. People have latched onto the fact that the last third of the series wasn’t properly planned from the beginning, but I’d like to remind people that the plan they had for s3-6 was completely upended by one (1) executive call. The showrunners have said that they purposefully left things out of the bible to make it harder for execs to say NO to something well in advance. They were, as my director frequently calls it, “playing the game”, the careful balance of trying to tell a good story while also pleasing the client demands for a robot toy show. It’s a fight. Part of playing the game is leaving decisions so late that it becomes far too late to be changed by executives. But the downside of this is sometimes running out of time to do the things you want to do.

I’d like to point out too that in the interview at one point they actually say, “we knew who our audience was. They [the marketing people and higher ups] didn't.” So for 4 yrs they struggled to make the story they wanted to tell, they lost directors and writers, because the demands were way too high and people were burning out and leaving in an industry where being overworked is so par for the course that burnout is just a constant state of being. In other words, it takes extreme amounts of stress for people to burn out, and there is a certain mentality in this industry of burning out being a sign of weakness. When 2/3 directors left (one of them without the safety net of another offer) they put a bit of their reputation on the line-- and left anyway. And through it all JDS and LM, like any creators, were just trying to tell the story they wanted to see, scrambling to manage executive demands, working on multiple episodes at once and trying to maintain the storyline through them, losing people to burnout, having to rewrite entire scenes when voice actors weren’t available, and fighting for the show to be better than it was.

I'm not absolving the showrunners of guilt, I'm just feeling bad that this is where they ended up because at the end of the day they genuinely were coming from a place of good intentions and a desire to tell, from their perspective a good story. And they did fight for rep, to the point that when initially Shiro was not allowed to be gay, they considered getting up and walking away and ending the project but they stayed because of the crew who would have been summarily put out of work. They weighed the importance of having that representation vs the jobs of 100s of people. That’s how important it was to them.

Obvious, they didn't stick the landing, and it’s fair to say they outright screwed it up in a massive way that’s going to be remembered for a very long time. On the Shiro front they didn't have time to, in a way that would have felt genuine and agreeable for everyone. Keith was never ever going to be allowed. Maybe if Shiro and Keith had both been women, it would have been, which is a sad thought on the state of this industry and the kind of gendered homophobia that still exists in media both animation and otherwise. JDS and LM didn’t think far enough ahead on this, didn’t think outside of their pool of internal knowledge as non-LGBT people. As terrible as it is, it’s important to note they did this not out of a place of malice or vengeance, but an earnest, if misguided attempt to try and diversify the landscape. It did a lot of damage and they should not be rewarded for this move; but they also shouldn’t be being painted as the mustache-twirling villains so much of the fandom tries to make them out to be.

I hope this has been a huge lesson for them on the importance of stepping outside of your own situation when creating minority characters and properly discussing these characters with multiple people in real life who fall into those categories. No one LGBT person can or should speak for the entire community, as we’ve well seen with certain crewmembers.

Killing Allura is a much harder act to forgive because that was something they had time to think about and plan for and it should have been the more obvious lesson. There was ROOM to ask someone outside of themselves, “does this work”. There was room to be educated on why this was a terrible move both socially and narratively. There is room and time now, and dozens of articles about this very issue, that both showrunners should be reading and absorbing especially as their next projects involve a host of diverse characters. Their insistence to buckle down on the Allura Issue to me reads as; they haven’t learned anything from this, or taken the time to understand people’s pain about it. This is something that desperately needs to change especially as they continue to make movies and presumably TV shows. I do hope it’s something that will.

All this to say, please listen to the interview yourself before adding to the hate mob. If you’re still angry after listening to the interview yourself, that is your prerogative but I encourage you not to transform that anger into venomous hatred against the showrunners. The show is over; as fans we can transform this space into whatever we want it to be since Voltron is effectively ours now. Is attacking the showrunners, as ant1s have famously done for years, the image we really want to hold onto going forward?

#voltron #salt #sorta??#i just want people to be mad while also maintaining compassion towards other humans #the animation industry is a brutal one #especially for creatives #vld

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drink-n-watch · 5 years

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Genre : Action, comedy, crime, science-fiction

Episodes: 13 + 3

Studio:

One thing that we can pretty much count on is that as long as humans have working brains, they will try to find ways to mess with them. The latest and most potent way is the designer drug Anthem, which goes way beyond just altering your perceptions, it alters your actual DNA. In fact, if you’re not careful, you could end up as something which is no longer quite human…or just dead. That’s why it’s outlawed! But how do you deal with criminals that are literally superhuman? You send in your “best”! The detectives of the Seven 0 unit risk their lives every day to keep the citizens safe and Anthem off the streets. Don’t call them heroes, they are just doing their jobs. And starting now, Kirill is one of them!

First Anthem is a great name for a drug. It’s poetic, symbolic, easy to say and remember, positive in connotation. I am putting way too much thought into the marketing applications of illegal drugs. Second, that synopsis I just wrote is very accurate and super boring. Don’t go by it. Double Decker is a fun, often very silly show. I kept thinking of Brooklyn 99 if that can give you an idea. But then also of Breaking Bad a little… It’s not as funny as Brooklyn 99 or as well written as Breaking Bad but it makes up for it in weirdness and colour! Double Decker is just a queer little show in the best way. Pun intended!

why did this image seem to fit?

I have to say, the first thing that hit me as soon as I started this series was: whoa the colours! I haven’t been taken by such a sumptuous and prominent colour palette since No Game No Life. I figure this will probably divide viewers somewhat. The colours are rich and bright but they could also be called loud and potentially headache inducing. For me, that pop art palette is a selling point though and I must say my screencaps do not do it justice.

With such an in your face element, it’s sort of difficult to get passed the colours to the rest of the production. If you do though, the second thing you are likely to notice is the CG. The CG is… well, it’s ok. Some episodes are pretty CG heavy and it’s not incorporated as smoothly as it could be. But when used more sparingly it actually creates some very interesting dynamic effects that work well with the high action scenes. It’s actually heavier in the first few episodes and I was worried that it would end up being distracting but the 3D team seems to have found the proper balance as the series wore on and later episodes, which use it more sparingly, actually have some very good CG integration.

I never get tired of the gorgeous skyline

Wow, I really didn’t think I would talk this much about production. Fact is, Double Decker has a very distinctive look to it. Not only for what I’ve mentioned above but in actual design as well. Thankfully, I think the screencaps do a better job of showing those. Like anything that’s unusual, that can be a plus or a minus. I liked it, so it worked for me, if you don’t you may actually find it enough of a turn off to drop the show. This said, the sound is in fact quite good and the voice acting has a lot of chemistry even if individual performances don’t stand out as much.

Alright, so it’s a cool looking show. What else… I’ve come to realize that I am not the best person to review these types of series. What I mean is that I have a real soft spot for goofy action comedies with a criminal element. For instance, I rated much higher than average last year’s Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens. I’m also a big Archer fangirl. It’s a very specific niche that happens to speak to me, so I’m by no means objective in this review.

My review doesn’t make it clear but Travis sort of rules

I enjoyed this show a lot more than the average viewer, so my review is going to show that. But let me tell you why. The underlying organized crime story is in fact pretty solidly thought out. The organizations are described in enough detail to give you a real sense of everything that’s going on and the tension and danger are present despite the generally humorous tone of the series. If you like crime procedurals, there is enough groundwork in the storyline to keep you interested.

This said I started the series firmly believing this was a mecha show, and for the longest time, I had no idea why. There is a pretty drastic tonal and genre switch that happens in the last few episodes that I did not see coming. It’s not exactly seamless, there is a reason I called this show messy in my title. There are some plot holes and a few contrivances. The story could have used a bit more background to really evolve naturally. But it still works.

An effort has been put in to tie all the disparate genre elements together and give decent explanations for all the events of the series. Some are a little contrived but the whole thing holds together rather well and when you consider just how nutty things get, that’s pretty impressive, to say the least.

self-awareness is important

Although this isn’t an important element, I feel I should drop a line for all the nontraditional gender and sexual orientation representation in this series. A lot of characters and relationships do not follow social norms but both gender and sexuality are presented as incidental character traits rather than defining ones which I really appreciated. Double Decker is a very accepting show and I found it refreshing. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Kirill, the main character gets mistaken for a woman very regularly and although he is occasionally annoyed and corrects the misconception, in general, he never gets mad about it or considers it an insult or even a joke. It’s more of a catalyst for later events than a running gag. As for the clearly more traditionally masculine female character, it’s never even brought up and her femininity is never questioned despite her imposing physical strength.

That’s a long paragraph for something I thought was barely worth mentioning. I watched Double Decker in June when questions of sexuality and identity were all around me and I just thought the series presented it particularly well while keeping its sense of humour about it. Kudos.

it’s a long story

The three extra episodes are side stories and slice of life events that happen in the course of the main storyline that for some reason weren’t included in the official season. I actually enjoyed them more and wish there had been more of those asides in the show as they fleshed out the characters beautiful and were just generally fun to watch. This is probably the first time I enjoyed the extras this much.

Overall, Double Decker is a well-made show with more than a few good moments. It’s not perfect and overreaches now and then but it succeeds more often than it fails. In my opinion, it’s worth a look. As the season stays fairly consistent throughout (the two background episodes on Doug and Max are particularly touching though), you should be able to get a good feel for the show from the first few episodes and decide if you want to see the rest. I would watch a second season in a heartbeat.

Side note : the frequent exposed brickwork and apartment interiors in this show were really beautiful. The hipster in me wanted to move there so bad!

so cool!

Favorite character: the narrator

What this anime taught me: modifying a bacterial shell with a virus’ DNA rewriting potential could yield a very powerful drug

Whenever the brain and the heart fight, it’s always the liver that suffers

Suggested drink: Double Decker Daiquiri

Every time Kirill talks to the narrator – take a sip

Every time there are comic book panels – take a sip

Every time anything is censored – gasp!

Every time anyone says Athem – take a deep breath

Every time someone gets called an idiot – get some water

Every time anyone mentions Derick – pour some out

Every time we see a cat – take a sip

Every time we see the King’s Kane – raise your glass

Every time someone gets drunk – join them

Every time anyone calls Kirill feminine – stretch

Every time Doug taps his temple – pay attention

Every time we see a chocolate bar – get a snack

Every time Doug talks about/does laundry – take a sip

Like I said, Double Decker is a very striking show. As usual, I have some more screencaps on imgur or Pinterest. I’m adding just a few here to get your interest!

Double Decker is a Little Messy and a Lot of Fun Genre : Action, comedy, crime, science-fiction Episodes: 13 + 3 Studio: One thing that we can pretty much count on is that as long as humans have working brains, they will try to find ways to mess with them.

#action #anime #comedy #crime #Double Decker #sci fi

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slothcritic · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Episode 5 Review

Weird yet creative cutaways with strong overarching momentum.

Vegeta: Kills Bugs Dead opens with Goku finally reaching the end of Snake Way and the end of his journey to reach King Kai. The "nice job, jackass" as Goku literally craters into the planet sets the tone for this character in a big way. We're also treated to the incredible hijinks of Vegeta and Nappa.

[Title Sequence]

The pit-stop at Arlia at least receives a well-fitted and rather hilarious incarnation in this series. Even though the episode alternates its focus between King Kai and Arlia, I'm going to talk at length about Arlia first, and then move onto the King Kai segments.

I'm already going into this scene with some personal bias, as the "stronger guy playing along with the weaker guy because it'd be funny" trope is one of my favorites. And here we have exactly this. Vegeta and Nappa allow themselves to be captured and thrown in jail by the Arlians, where they meet an assortment of varied bug characters.

"Don't drop the soap" seems a little outdated for the modern style of TFS, as I feel they've leaned away from really older, cruder, less PC subject matters like calling someone retarded or insinuating prison rape, etc, but it fits Nappa's character completely as someone who is childish, crass, annoying for the sake of being annoying, and kind of a jerk. TFS has at least acknowledged the idea of possibly re-dubbing Season 1 with better equipment and perhaps a more refined script, and I dearly hope they keep this line unedited simply for the sake of nailing Nappa’s character identity.

After very nearly becoming a prison bitch, Vegeta decides he's had enough and promptly kabooms his way out of prison, landing smack-dab in the middle of a coliseum with the king of Arlia and his queen.

Nappa's blunt manner of introducing himself with simply "Hi." will never age.

It’s noteworthy that scene is also the first moment we get a good look at Vegeta as a character. Nappa was firmly established as the goofball from the start, but Vegeta's portrayal has more depth to it than could be conveyed in one-liners. Most of which is just sass, smug pride, and anger, but still.

It's also made clear very quickly that despite their bantering idiocy and gruff talk that they're not just for show, as Nappa no-diff's the thirteen elite Arlian guards with a massive shock wave that we later see level a city.

The king and queen are then more or less blackmailed into fucking. Nappa's eager fascination during this whole scene, the descriptions, visual edits and sound design are... Well, there's no other way to put it, it's fucked up. And it is hilarious! These are some very creative takes and decisions that were made entirely for internal experience of the show itself rather than as a parody of something else. Nappa even takes a photograph of it and sends it to Vegeta, since he's abstained from watching.

The comedic jabs don't stop there either, as Nappa tries to adopt the Arlian Rancor, but just like the kid who can't sit still, Nappa ends up breaking everything he plays with. Just as Vegeta is about to kill the king, rocks begin flying around the coliseum.

"What are you doing?"

Vegeta smirks. "I'm about to rock you, like a hurricane." And then boom, he hurls a rock into the king and kills him. Let's put a pin in that brick joke for later.

The long flashback scene doesn't play any music, which feels like a weird editing misstep after a series of home runs. They leave the planet as heroes, and Nappa sets Vegeta up for another predictable bit of mood whiplash, where Vegeta obliterates the entire planet. This is a huge escalation in power scale compared to everything else we have seen thus far. But then, this is Dragon Ball Z. We've already reached “destroying planets” at only the fifth episode, and everyone knows that it only goes well past 11 on the dial from here on out.

Granted, there is controversy in the official version about whether or not this would’ve been possible for Saiyan Saga Vegeta, considering Arlia is not canon, but I will not be considering that simply because DBZA contains no filler. Everything shown in the flagship series (not counting movies, DBZA Kai, or other shorts) is presented as being canon to DBZA. Also, Vegeta and Nappa are shown standing outside of their pods... in the vacuum of space. Series veterans will understand the massive can of worms this opens. I'm looking at you, Battle of Gods.

Once everyone, including the people that they JUST SAVED from a tyrannical king, have been reduced to space dust, Nappa closes off this scene nicely.

Now that we've discussed Arlia, let's focus on King Kai's role in the episode.

He explains to Goku that the planet has high gravity due to it's small size. Gregory from off-screen pipes up that this doesn't make any sense. I suppose "higher planet density" wasn't considered when writing the script - or perhaps it was, and they just decided that the easy answer wasn't the funniest one. Maybe “there’s an incredibly powerful pirate trapped in the core of the planet, which is why the gravity is so strong" was deemed better for a parody.

Honestly, I agree. Bojack works as an in-the-know reference, and is also fleshed out enough within the show that a newcomer would understand what's being discussed.

At the time of this review, the Bojack Abridged movie has not yet been released, but this is easily one of the longest brick jokes in all of DBZA, since Episode 5 was released in 2008 and it is my expectation that Bojack Abridged will be released within the year, leaving in its wake an 11 year old callback.

When King Kai asks Goku why he had been sought out, Goku explains that the Saiyans are coming to Earth and he requires training. Excellent fade-in and musical choice for Goku's uncharacteristically serious speech to King Kai.

Of course, it gets cut off at the peak swell with King Kai's indifferent "sure", leaving Goku gobsmacked.

In this series, King Kai's indifference and easy acceptance of Goku is attributed to the mind-numbing loneliness of only having a monkey and a grasshopper (cricket, sorry) to talk to for the last 500 years. Goku agrees, as he couldn't imagine anything more boring.

Major flash-forward to Namek. Just this scene being here at all is a major instance of a sequence break. But it is the introduction of another exceptionally interesting character in the series.

In terms of placement, this works as a long-term cutaway gag and reminiscent humor but not much else. We're still about half a season away from even considering Namek within the story, and the Saiyans haven't even arrived on Earth yet. The decision to slide this segment into the middle of this episode leaves some serious questions in my mind. But at face value, it's not that bad.

We're treated to a solid ten seconds of just staring at a massive fat green alien while birds chirp in the background. We hear a fish go "plonk!" in the water, and Lord Guru calls for someone named Nail, who looks a lot like Piccolo, to approach him.

"I saw a fish. That was all, you can go back outside now."

Definitely reinforces the point of boring. And while Nail is lamenting how boring his job is, Lord Guru tells him that he saw a bird and then promptly instructs him to "kick its ass."

But we’re not Nail, are we? We’re the viewer, and for some reason in the human mind, segments of extremely boring content usually pique our interest even more, because we have it drilled into our psyche that something is going to happen to break the tension sooner or later. That notion, the idea of slowly leaning closer to the monitor during the ten long seconds of a single still image, both conveys the boring tone of Namek, but also leaves the reader waiting in anticipation long enough for these dull scenes to just fade from their perspective and only latch onto the climatic moment. In this case, Guru commanding his apparent servant/bodyguard to assault a fish.

Not to overstate the obvious, but if it’s not the viewer’s own sense of tension and curiosity, it’s the pure absurdism and characterization of Guru that carries this scene. Disregarding source material, the design of Guru is meant to make him look old, wise and compassionate. Making him a lazy, annoying, verbally violent fatass is a near-infinite cash cow of writing material. It’s very difficult for me to judge this scene unbiased, knowing what comes next, but I imagine this would be a tryhard non-sequitur at worst, or promising potential for the future at best, with regards to this scene on its own, within the context of this episode and nothing more.

This episode also saw the genesis of perhaps not the first, but one of the most popular jokes in all of DBZA: Piccolo just jobbing the shit out of Gohan. DODGE! The scenes chosen and the delivery are outstanding compliments to this cheesy, simplistic joke. At this point I feel it's important to address that my editorial reflections or descriptions of these skits are relative to the context of these episodes. Even with the best of what this episode has to offer, we're still in peak 2008 internet humor era. The use of the word "outstanding" here will not carry a similar significance should I use it to describe a later episode.

Also the most random cutaway in all of DBZA, full-stop, is the brief look into the Hall of Justice, as Superman, Batman and Aquaman debate how they will stop the approaching Saiyans. This is humorous only in its absurdity, but less-endearingly than Guru was. Even if this scene makes zero sense, and relies upon an almost lower form of comedy than slapstick, Aquaman's voice is still just Krillin's voice. At least Superman and Batman sound different than the main cast. I'm really tempted to dislike this more, but the lackadaisical attitude and context of the whole scene definitely draws your eye more than a lot of the sensible but base-line plot progression of the story. I don't know if it belongs. To me, this scene just screams out that TFS is flinging spaghetti wildly at the wall, any and everything that might be funny, and while some of it sticks for one reason or another, (Jadoshin as Solid Snake, Antics on Arlia, even Guru's abrupt cameo) some of it flops. If anything, this show builds upon the corpses of its failures, and learns what works and what doesn't work surprisingly quickly.

Conclusion

Bizarre, but I liked it. Nothing in this episode that's bad is memorable. I might criticize the Namek cutaway for being out of place, but after letting this review sit for a few days, I just remember Goku saying "Man, nothing could be more boring than that!" and the immediate cut to Namek, and Nail pleading for the love of his sanity for something to happen. I might criticize the Justice League cutaway for being wildly out of the place, but I just remember "WHAAAAAALES!"

The meat of the episode was also decent, as it establishes Goku training under King Kai, and Piccolo's continued training of Gohan, the origin of DODGE! and the realization that Gohan can transform into an Ozaru. And you can nod your head and say that these may be necessary to the story all day, but they're also presented with... let's call it a clumsy grace. It's not bad, but it's miles away from official dub quality. This is in essence what the benchmark or gold standard was for early abridging back in 2008. The quality that TFS will continue to evolve the series into simply defies all logic or explanation, and in comparison makes these episodes look downright crude.

But let's face it, if Episode 1 began with a person lying on the ground and shot in both kneecaps, Episode 5 shows that same person at least hobbling down the street to the hospital.

It might not look pretty on the whole, and some of the dialogue might be clunky, but it seems like a lot of the flaws in this episode are simply caused by being products of their time.

Whether we're looking at Namek or The Hall of Justice, even the most outlandish oddities of this episode have still made me laugh. That's really the end of it.

Score: 75

Passing Thoughts

"I hope something exciting happens around here soon. I don't care what it is." - Ominous!

"You're surrounded by my thirteen elite *KABOOM* ...dead guards."

"SUMMON THE RANCOR!"

#slothcritic #DBZ #Dragon Ball Z Abridged #TFS #teamfourstar

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dracox-serdriel · 5 years

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Tumblr Horror

If you want to skip this post, tap the ‘J’ key to jump to the next one. You can also tap the ‘K’ key to jump to the previous post.

(Note: This post contains spoilers for content from various media of the X-Files, Hannibal the TV show, and Grimm.)

I’ve had this blog for years. I started off (a long, long time ago) on LiveJournal, and moved to Tumblr when I realized the platform had more interactive functionality for building online communities and general dialog, which made the site very appealing.

The lack of censorship for public posts with so-called “adult themes” was also highly appealing to me because my favorite genre is horror. When sites start to censor “offensive” content, horror is always on that list. If it’s not directly stated as “offensive material,” then the ever-widening gray area of censorship swallows it up bit by bit.

Want an example? Here’s a post from earlier this year where Tumblr expands its content restrictions. I don’t remember hearing much uproar about these new restrictions... and at first glance, it seems to focused on things like hate speech and threats of violence. Yet take a good look at this excerpt:

Don't post content which includes violent threats toward individuals or groups - this includes threats of theft, property damage, or financial harm. Don’t post violent content or gore just to be shocking. Don’t showcase the mutilation or torture of human beings, animals (including bestiality), or their remains. Don’t post content that encourages or incites violence, or glorifies acts of violence or the perpetrators.

One could argue that horror doesn’t have violence or gore “just to be shocking,” but it’s also 100% possible to argue that horror does exactly that, particularly horror subgenres like slasher, splatter, and torture (just to name a few), but it also impacts pretty much everything under the horror umbrella.

It also puts a lot of things that aren’t considered under the horror umbrella but are... horror-adjacent. For example, dramas about serial or spree killers, including procedural dramas like Mind Hunters and Criminal Minds, as well as true crime based on them.

Where does the line fall here, exactly? If I had tons of posts about how cool fictional character George Foyet (aka The Reaper) is, does that qualify as “glorifying” acts of violence? If I had tons of posts about the character’s crimes, complete with screenshots from the show and maybe a few fan illustrations to fill in the gaps, would that qualify as “glorifying” acts of violence? Would it qualify as “showcasing the mutilation or torture of human beings”?

Let’s move away from the spree and serial killers for a second. Let’s assume that Tumblr views anything other than their mug shots qualify as “offensive” or “adult” content, despite the popularity of shows/fiction/general content.

What about shows like the X-Files? In the second movie, X-Files: I Want to Believe, there’s a two-headed dog that exists by way of unethical science experiments. It’s also killed in self-defense by a main character. Animal mutilation and torture? Check! There are countless episodes that focus on illegal human experimentation by the government, including the discovery of mass graves (02x25 Anasazi), testing infectious diseases on prison inmates (02x22 F. Emasculata), TV-induced mind control (03x23 Wetwired), and stealing/experimenting on human embryos (05x08 Emily). And that’s just a few of the things perpetrated by the government. That’s not including the town of cannibals (02x24 Our Town) or the more selective cannibals, like the guy who killed people for their fat (03x06 2Shy), the guy who ate people’s brains (07x03 Hungry), or the guy who drained melanin (04x03 Teliko). Don’t forget the demon who slaughters people - including having one eaten by a giant snake (02x14 Die Hand die Verletzt), weaponized bacteria-turned-killing-machines (05x18 The Pine Bluff Variant), and even a crocodile (03x22 Quagmire), which is an episode where both a beloved pet dog (RIP Queequeg) gets eaten and a crocodile is shot and killed.

Then there’s shows like Grimm, which has plenty of violence with the added bonus of the mythology of the show blurring the human/animal line. It’s got everything from the main character mailing two decapitated heads to Jack the Ripper possessing a main character to continue his killing spree. And that’s the “mostly human” violence... let’s not forget the animal-like violence from wesen characters fighting each other with tooth, claw, venom, etc.

I probably shouldn’t even touch the TV show Hannibal, even though it handles violence so beautifully and in such a creative way. It still contains tons of gore, violence, psychological manipulation/trauma/abuse, and, of course, cannibalism. One could easily argue that many of the crime scenes depicted on the show are “just to be shocking,” such as the totem pole of bodies (01x09 Trou Normand), people disfigured to look like “angels” (01x06 Coquilles), and people who have been savaged by what appears to be “some kind of animal attack” (02x09 Shiizakana), and people who are still alive despite being sewn into a giant corpse mural (02x02 Sakizuki) or having part of their brain removed to accommodate a beehive (02x03 Takiawase).

Now, before we get much further, there’s this question that people always ask that I know I’ll need to answer. So let’s get it out of the way.

What’s the point of horror?

When it comes to most genres, people who don’t like a certain genre often regard it as “boring” or “hard to follow” or, well, just not their cup of tea. But for a genre like horror, people who don’t like it often regard it as “gross,” repulsive, or maybe just plain cheesy (depending on what’s being discussed).

For example, a person who doesn’t like historical documentaries will almost never describe them as “offensive” or “gross”; whereas, many people who don’t like horror describe their dislike in exactly those terms (e.g., “that’s gross!” or “all that violence offends me!”).

I understand the response. My point here isn’t to criticize the responses of others when it comes to horror - there’s nothing wrong with being grossed out by a slasher flick. My point is that many people don’t simply dislike the content - they’re offended by it. There’s also a strong general tendency (regardless of personal opinion) to draw assumptions about the people who like “offensive” content (including porn-level sexual content).

For example, people who like horror “like” to be scared... that the unrealism of horror (meaning, the fact that it’s fiction - or a fiction-ified version of a story) gives us the distance we need to enjoy and process the gore/violence/other elements of horror.

I can’t speak to why anyone besides than myself likes horror, but look at how the topic is written about and even studied. Type “why people like horror” into a search engine. Open another tab and type “why people like comedy” into that same search engine. Compare the articles from the top results. For me, most of the horror results are from psychology or psychology insight sites; whereas, the comedy results have less technical papers and more, well... humor. There’s only 1 article about people who don’t like comedy (framed as a joke), compared to over half the horror results also mentioning people who dislike/hate horror.

This small example can show you how different the conversations about horror are from comedy. But feel free to compare other genres - documentaries, for example - and you’ll see a very similar trend in terms of contrast. Keep in mind that many documentaries include plenty of disturbing content, such as the details of war crimes.

So, when it comes to horror, conversations tend to be polarized. It’s reasonable to classify most horror as “adult” content because, yes, it often includes gore, violence, murder, etc. But people will often brand horror-related material as “offensive” and will sometimes even argue that it “encourages violence” or “glorifies violence,” especially for horror materials that defy traditionally codified aspects of horror (e.g., movies or stories that don’t contain “poetic justice” or the antagonists being caught/stopped/punished).

So... what’s the point of horror? The question is annoying because there’s a ton of answers - and of course, it varies by person - but it’s also annoying because people often ask it to support the idea that horror is superfluous and/or gratuitous (aka “just for shock”). Much of modern censorship focus on “the gratuitous” - if the violence is “important to the story,” then it passes muster. If not - or if there’s just too dang much of it - it’s described as “gratuitous” (and thereafter, often censored). Sometimes, the act of answering the question “what’s the point of horror?” in a way plays into this kind of censorship... because it operates on the idea that you need a reason/a point for horror for it to be valid.

Related questions: Does viewing violence “inspire” or “encourage” it? Doesn’t seeing so much violence desensitize us? Even if a catharsis - a release - is experienced, doesn’t horror doing more harm than good?

Returning to the new content restrictions, check out the post A better, more positive Tumblr:

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr.

...

We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

(emphasis mine)

I had been holding out hope that horror would not fall into the “offensive adult material” gray area on Tumblr, but if these changes are actually about creating “the most welcoming environment,” then horror is definitely on the chopping block, regardless of whether or not it has sexual content.

After all, plenty of people view horror as gratuitous and/or “offensive” and/or gross. Which means horror posts are (and will continue to be) reported as abuse/bad content.

Tumblr is saying that sexual content (which people could choose to ignore and choose to block with a number of tools) is being banned because its inclusion has an “unwelcoming” or “uncomfortable” affect on the community of this platform, that’s ultimately rooted in the fact that Tumblr sees sexual content as gratuitous. This is backed up by the fact that, despite the popularity of adult content on this platform, Tumblr believes that cutting that content out will have more positive affects than negative ones.

I haven’t found solid numbers on how many people like horror, but a lot of sources suggest that approximate 1/3 of the population has an inclination toward horror, but nearly 2/3 of the population dislikes horror... Even if these numbers aren’t entirely on-target, I feel confident in arguing that, statistically, more people like sexual content/porn than horror.

If cutting objectionable (yet popular) material will benefit Tumblr, I doubt they’d worry much about cutting objectionable and fairly unpopular material.

To be clear: for the moment, I’m not going anywhere.

But I have a feeling that many of the things I use Tumblr for will soon be gone and/or fall under the constant eye of censorship scrutiny. From my experience, this results in content drying up (why post material to a platform you have to battle to keep it live and public?).

According to Tumblr, there are a lot of sites that “feature adult content,” which means relocating shoudn’t be a big deal, though I’m not sure if this applies to other similar platforms. But, of course, it is a big deal. And it’s a pain.

Exporting content to sucks pretty much all the time, regardless of where you’re going. Especially for those of us who’ve accumulated thousands and thousands of posts over the years. Sure, if I export it from Tumblr, I’ll have a record... but all those records will point to Tumblr URLs - many of which will be defunct in two weeks because “private” posting will be engaged, making the URL no longer visible/accessible. That’s not even talking about all the defunct blogs that will be dotting my dashboard and posts because the users have moved on...

#tumblr #horror #woes #yes I'm pouting deal with it

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brendancorris · 6 years

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Thundercats Roar thoughts...

So a friend of mine showed me this trailer a few weeks ago, and for a second I didn’t believe it was real. But, before I get further into my thoughts on this thing everybody else on the internet has already covered, let me go into my history with Thundercats.

Despite never drawing much fan art for the series, Thundercats is a property I love, and one of the biggest parts of my life in my earliest years. Born in ‘86 with three older siblings, I was just in time for the original Thundercats. My family already consisted of die-hard fans, so it was naturally one of the first franchises I got into. From the time I was born to when I was about 4, Masters of the Universe and Thundercats were what it was all about. It wasn’t until ‘89 that I got my first TMNT toy, and about a year later that was literally all I cared about.

But before my TMNT obsession, there was Thundercats. While I do have many fond memories of watching the show, my most beloved memories of it are simply being a fan. Collecting the action figures, listening to my siblings talk about the show, and playing Thundercats. Not a video game, though. On nights when my Mom was out, my Dad would host He-Man or Thundercats games where he’d be either Skeletor or Mumm-ra, my oldest sister and brother would be She-Ra and He-Man or Lion O and Cheetarah (while my other sister would be... somebody) and I, being the baby, would always get stuck being Orko or Snarf. All us kids would wrestle our dad and beat up on him as he’d try to defeat us. Epic stuff. Some how the younger of my two sisters would usually end up horribly injured after each game, though...

Simply put, Thundercats was the real deal with my family when I was little. The action was great, the evil beasts were awesome, the toys were a blast, and Cheetarah, along with the He-Man girls, made me feel things my tiny self wasn’t yet ready to feel.

It wasn’t until I was in high school that I revisited the show, and, honestly, I was surprised how much it held up. Especially considering in high school I was “too cool for everything” yet I still acknowledged its quality. Yes, it was corny in the way all old children's’ shows were at the time (I have nothing but love for that tone, but I can see how it would be hard to digest for later generations), but it still had great, smart, sophisticated writing for its time, amazing animation and artwork, good characters, and one of the most hype intros ever.

In 2011 a reboot was made. This reboot was far darker and more built on political commentary. It was an understandable progression. The fans had grown up, so the franchise did too. While I wasn’t a huge fan, I can respect the quality of the writing, art, and over all work that went into it. It was a sophisticated piece of art. I felt it went a bit too extreme with the tone it was pushing, and as a long time fan of the original, found lots of the changes and design choices hard to digest. But again, it was a good show, and I respect what it attempted to accomplish.

However, the show was canceled before season 2 could air. This left a lot of fans mad, confused as to whether it was low ratings, low ratings as a result of its switched time slot that was far from ideal, or just a business decision to sacrifice a popular show just to make way for a potentially more popular future show. While I can understand the upset from fans 100%, I didn’t feel it as I wasn’t a regular viewer.

So, fast-forward to earlier this month when my friend shows me this trailer. As I said, at first I thought it was a joke, like College Humor or something. Then when the realization sunk in that it was real, I hated it. But, quickly I told myself that I don’t know enough about it yet to fully judge. I haven’t seen an episode. Sure, it looks awful from what I’ve seen, and I can clearly see the “monkey see monkey do” going on here with the copying of other successful modern cartoons. But, again, I haven’t seen it. Before I get into my final thoughts thus far, I need to address the elephant in the room...

...the similarities everybody has seen in this and Teen Titans GO!

While I wasn’t a die hard or anything, I did watch the entire first two seasons of the original Cartoon Network Teen Titans series when it was new, and I did like it. I thought it was very well-written, well-acted, had great characters, great character development, great stories, and great action. The characters worked off of each other beautifully. However, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I had some issues with it.

UNPOPULAR OPINIONS AHEAD - PREPARE TO HATE ME

Since its release I have always found the art style to look very under-developed and unappealing. It looked like an awkward imbalance of the (already bland in my mind) Justice League cartoon style and a newbie anime style. The best way I can describe it was it resembled the artwork of a junior-high kid who just started drawing anime. Also, I found a lot of the anime-inspired elements to feel forced. When characters would mutate into chibi disasters or tropes like sweat drops scrolling down their faces would happen, it was always a bit cringy and out of place. It felt like it was shoehorned in rather than rightfully fitting in.

But the most notable thing about the show was it was a pretty huge departure from the original DC comics. Gone was the realistic art style of the comics. Now the characters all had big, round heads, twig-like limbs, huge hands and feet, and big anime-eyes. Everything was very simplistic, sharp, and jagged. There was far more comedy, some great, and some that cringy chibi stuff I mentioned. The integration of anime tropes and far more kid humor was a huge departure from the comics. So, basically, despite being a good show, Teen Titans, the show, was a huge departure from its source material.

Then comes Teen Titans GO! and overnight it becomes one of the most hated (and most popular) cartoons of this age. I didn’t quite hate it, but wrote it off as crap without seeing it. It is a shame that the original show was canceled before it got to be finished, but putting fans’ anger towards that aside, the creation of TTG makes perfect sense. The characters proved extremely popular and marketable, largely because how comedic they could be when bouncing off each other (and the original show had been canceled. Continuing a canceled show years later is a difficult task, regrouping the team, dancing through the legal BS, and finding enough staff and people to fund it to be on board, as well as a network to accept it). More simplistic art styles were becoming more popular, and after the post-Adult Swim days, hyper, wacky, odd comedies have become the norm.

To be honest, any time I have seen Teen Titans GO!, which has only been about three episodes or so, I laughed. I don’t care what people say, the show is legitimately funny. Is it the greatest show ever? Not by a long shot. Is it better than the last TT show? Probably not. Is it a shame it exists while the original never finished? Kinda. But is it a bad show? Honestly, no.

TTG knows exactly what it wants to be and delivers. It may not be the sequel show old fans wanted, but if you put aside the hatred, you’ll see it’s not only a funny cartoon bursting with energy and very well-defined and appealing character designs reminiscent of shows like Dexter’s Lab, but also a huge love letter to the Titans, the last show, and all things DC. It is clearly made by DC fans. I may be biased because I love Weird Al and The Golden Girls, but, man, this is funny right here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ICmOMLX3rQ

Admittedly, even the movie trailer looks funny, and I’ll likely see it, despite not really being a fan of the show. Just like the 2011 Thundercats, I see what the TTG team is intending to do, and I appreciate how well they do it, despite not being a regular supporter of it.

And, well, that brings us back to ‘Roar’. Will I like it? Based on what I’ve seen so far, likely not, but who knows. It could end up being the next Sonic Boom. I do strongly dislike the art direction for Thundercats Roar, and the footage shown thus far did not make me laugh (except Mumm-ra learning about the cats being on Third Earth by reading it in the newspaper. That actually got a chuckle from me). But, as much as my gut is telling me to hate this show, I won’t pass judgment until I’ve at least seen a couple episodes. It’s definitely not the Thundercats I love, but to be honest, I didn’t want a TC reboot. I was fine with it just being as it is. So if somebody’s going to reboot it for a new generation, I’ll be glad to see my favorite franchises get passed down, so long as it is done lovingly. If the show truly is a love letter to the history of the franchise as it claims to be, and if it’s a decently quality product that obvious care went into, I’ll be fine with it.

It would be so easy to tear it apart and hate it, but as I get older I find myself growing more accepting of such change. I’m not EXPECTING to like it, but who knows, I also wasn’t expecting to like Sonic Boom. Basically, so far I’m not digging what I’ve seen, but I’ll keep an open mind and stay hopeful. Here’s hoping they can change my mind with the final product.

The End

#thundercats #thundercats roar #reboot #Brendan Corris #BrendanCorris

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Star Trek’s Jeffrey Combs On Why Enterprise Deserves More Love

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Mild spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 7, “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie.”

Jeffrey Combs is Star Trek royalty. There’s just no other way to say it. Prior to 2021, Combs played eight distinct characters across three different series. But now, after his turn in the latest Star Trek: Lower Decks episode — “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” — Combs has now played nine characters across four shows. If you loved Combs as Shran in Enterprise or Weyoun in DS9, you’re gonna love him as the voice of an evil and hilarious A.I. in Lower Decks. Den of Geek had a chance to chat with Combs about returning to the Trek universe, why he’s glad he didn’t get the role of Will Riker in 1987, and his firm belief that the prequel series Enterprise contains some of the best of Trek ever.

In the latest episode of Lower Decks, Boimler and Mariner have to transport a rogue A.I. via shuttlecraft, to a secret Starfleet storage facility where, apparently, little evil computers are all stored. The twist is, that along the way, their shuttle crashes on an inhospitable planet — very reminiscent of Ceti Alpha V from The Wrath of Khan — leaving Boimler and Mariner stuck with the evil computer, who is trying to get in their head.

“I’m constantly just trying to get someone to plug me in,” Combs explains. “I cajole. I threaten. I charm. Just help me get off this planet! I’m the solution! It’s just a delicious note to play. I just keep trying to get them to do it. Then I can take over the multiverse.”

Star Trek: How Dr. Pulaski Helped The Next Generation Find Its Feet

By Ryan Britt

Star Trek Canon Wants Justice For Tasha Yar

By Ryan Britt

Before playing the voice of this little evil computer, It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Jeffrey Combs in the Trek universe. His last appearance was in the Enterprise season finale in 2005, playing the cranky Andorian Shran, a role which Discovery’s most recent Andorian, Noah Averbach-Katz, said was his “template for the Über-Andorian.” Depending on your favorite era of Trek, you might have a different image of Combs in your mind. In Deep Space Nine, although he played the Ferengi Brunt his most affecting role was probably Weyoun, the duplicitous and scheming Vorta clone.

“With Weayoun, everyone was a snarling gravelly-voiced villain,” Combs says. “And I thought: ‘hmm maybe I do something different and play a different note.’ I always try and find that. It’s not always there. Shran was a little more of a serious take. But even he can get a dark joke in there, every once in a while.”

When asked, Combs jumped at the chance to do Lower Decks, saying “After I hear the word ‘Star’ followed by the word ‘Trek,’ I’m completely enamored of the idea and eager to be a part of it.” That said, Combs admits that the tone of Lower Decks was, at first, tricky.

“My biggest challenge was meeting the tone of the script,” he says. “I hadn’t seen much of Lower Decks, so, at first, I didn’t have much of a frame of reference. It was a completely different kind of tone from what I’m used to with Star Treks. It’s a little sassy. A little irreverent. But it does have some honesty about it and some issues that people are dealing with. But I just kind of like the fast-paced sort of wry humor that’s mixed in. I think I hit their music. I tried to keep up with the very talented pack of actors.”

In 1986, when Lower Decks actors Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid were still young kids, Jeffrey Combs was in a “crowded room,” waiting to audition for the role of Commander Will Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Combs laughs off the memory, saying “Everybody auditioned for Riker. It was a cattle call. It was a room with a ton of guys and in a corner, in this big room, they would call you up and you’d read for 20 seconds. When my agent called me with an audition for a new Star Trek series and described the role, I said, ‘I am not right for that role. There must be something else in there I can do.’ It was described as a tall, leading man — hey hello! So I showed up in my cowboy boots, trying to get as much height as I could. Futile. I have to say… they chose the right person: Mr Frakes!”

Of course, Combs reunited with Jonathan Frakes several times throughout his various appearances on Star Trek, starting with the DS9 episode, “Meridian,” which was directed by Frakes. And of course, Combs appeared onscreen with Frakes in the Enterprise series finale, “These Are the Voyages…” These days, the most misunderstood Trek series of them all is having something of a renaissance. 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the debut of Enterprise, reasserting the enduring power of the series that was supposedly the one that fans liked the least. When I ask Combs what he thinks of the newfound adoration of Enterprise, his love of the series is unequivocal.

“Well, it should be praised. People were ambivalent about it at first. I really don’t know why. Let’s not forget The Original Series was canceled after three seasons,” Combs says. “I feel like Enterprise’s sea legs, and its voice, were just starting to happen when it was canceled. It did hit its stride in that last season. And I think the same thing can be said for DS9, Voyager, and maybe Next Generation. These things take some time to find their music. They pulled the trigger too fast. I feel strongly about this.”

The notion of a fifth season of Enterprise in the year 2006, would have certainly created an alternate universe of Trek production history. Had Enterprise lasted seven seasons, like its three predecessors, it would have gone off the air in 2008 or 2009, which certainly changes the trajectory of the reboot films. It’s a tough world to imagine, but if you love Star Trek, Combs does have a point. The third and fourth seasons of Enterprise are utterly re-watchable, and some of the episodes in those seasons, like “Demons” and “Terra Prime,” represent just how powerful and intelligent Star Trek can be.

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

“I think it holds up quite nicely,” affirms Combs. “There’s no marked difference in any of them, and in fact, some of the best episodes of Star Trek are on Enterprise.”

The post Star Trek’s Jeffrey Combs On Why Enterprise Deserves More Love appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3kw9GCW

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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izzyovercoffee · 7 years

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Mandalorians and the Force

I had begun a series about this on my star wars blog some time ago, and never continued it. Because it’s only tangentially related, as it deals more with the Jedi Order and how the Jedi may view Mandalorians, I’ll include a link to the tag, and may refer to posts from time to time.

musings: mandalorians and the force tag on the old blog

Overview

This has been something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, as ... early materials, particularly in Legends, dealt a lot and often with Mandalorians and their relations with Force Users of all kinds --- but most obviously with both the Jedi Order of the old republic, as with the Sith Empire.

The starting off point of between 3000 to 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin only had one conflict after another, after another, after another, involving Mandalorians drawn into galactic-scale wars by the fault of one of the two major bastions of Force warriors.

That kind of history shapes opinions. It shapes culture, and beliefs, and attitudes --- both personal and cultural --- towards the Force, as a religion, as a spirituality, and as an affliction in the form of Force Sensitivity.

History matters when it comes to understanding what those underlying attitudes may or may not encompass --- not just in and through a history of war, but also an understanding of mando’a as a language, and the sheer reach of the Mandalorians at their height of power during the Mandalorian Wars.

It also serves to understand what and who the Ka’ra are, and why they matter --- especially in the terms of Mandalorians and their unique understanding and relationships with the Force by a different name, or no name at all.

These attitudes, that history --- and Mandalorians are very much steeped in as much of a bloody history as one intermittent with peace, and venerate a type of ancestor worship through armor, and legends, and art --- then informs how a Force tradition may or may not arise.

The Big List

So, for organization, I’m making a bunch of bullet points and we can consider this a masterpost until such a time as I make a page for it, if I do.

The Mandalorian Wars

Conquest, Conversion, Conscription

Integration vs Assimilation

Force Traditions are a complicated, complex thing --- and something that can and does exist outside of the schools of the Jedi, and the Sith. The Clone Wars showed us, at least, that force traditions absolutely can and do exist without interference, and helped set a precedence that an unknowable number of unique cultural traditions exist in universe.

But what does that mean for Mandalorians? Well ... at the height of the Mandalorian Wars, the Mandalorian people had conquered most of the galaxy outside of The Core. The Republic very nearly fell, if it weren’t for the interference of Revan, Alek (later Malak), and the Jedi Exile.

Mandalorians, on the whole, are huge on adoption --- and are a culture that can take others in with ease, without requiring a total assimilation. What I mean by that is that ... it’s easy to be both a Mandalorian and, say, a Mirialan, when the requirements of “be mandalorian” are, essentially: “Education and armor, self-defense, our tribe, our language, our leader—all help us survive.”

It meant that anyone, literally anyone, could be a Mandalorian.

Throughout The Mandalorian Wars, the Mandalorians conquered a great number of systems and people. Mirialans among them, for one example --- a people for whom the Force plays a large role even in the mundane parts of the culture. Thus, Force traditions could be shaped in that way --- through a trace of history, and shaped by Mandalorian influence from that point onward.

Modern Attitudes Towards Force Sensitivity

The Jedi Order throughout history

The Sith Empire over time

Discrimination against the Force

Throughout various Legends sources, from KotOR i & ii and expanded materials to Star Wars: Republic Commando and on, Mandalorians are written as holding a strong bias against Force Users --- from as quiet and benign as a general distrust to as extreme and threatening immediate violence.

This begs the question: Why?

Are they just hateful against the Force and “supernatural” beings, or is there an actual reason for it?

For the most part ... on the surface, it certainly looks like there’s no reason for it except for fantastic racism and xenophobia. But, if you dig deeper, there is a repeated theme throughout Mandalorian history: the abuse of Force Users (predominantly Jedi and Sith) that manipulate, use, and lead the Mandalorian people into galaxy-wide war and repeated, imminent total destruction.

In light of that history, it makes sense for Mandalorians to, generally, distrust and dismiss Force Users as dangerous and not to be interacted with.

But how, then, might that bigotry also extend to children born within the population who begin to exhibit Force Sensitivity? Would they be accepted, or shunned and thrown out, and is that something easily predicted?

And despite that history, can there be clans with long-standing Force Traditions extending back through several millennia? And what might they look like?

Mandalorian Cultural Beliefs

The Creation Myth, and how that informs concepts of Alignment

Chaos vs. Stagnation; Change and Growth (above all things)

Alignment conflicts juxtaposed against Light vs Dark

In the meantime, I offer my short answer to a complex question: Do Mandalorians view a Light/Dark side interpretation of the Force?

Yes, and no.

It’s made complicated by a belief system and foundation of cultural values that don’t recognize Light and Dark as “good” or “evil,” nor do they view them as separate ends of a single spectrum. This is why, I’m guessing, Mandalorians are often viewed as “all dark siders” to the more pious Jedi, and only “pawns never to be given too much power” to the more extreme Sith --- Mandalorians cannot commit to an extreme because that way leads to stagnation.

Extremes are a suffocation of growth, and Mandalorians’ cultural foundations, down to their very creation story, venerate growth above all else --- and see stagnation often as a sickness, something to fight against. To then adhere to either extreme suffocates chances for change if change requires moving against an extreme.

Another thing to understand is this: Mandalorians do not demonize the dark, just as they do not worship the light.

As I’ve said before, to mandalorians: Black, the color of darkness, is the color of justice. The real, genuine, understanding of capital j for Justice. And at the other end of the spectrum, white is a deception --- white, as in a field of snow, or a fresh start, is not so much a purity as it is a mask to hide flaws, and traps. And if one cannot see one’s flaws (whether it be age upon the armor, or a truth in plain sight) then one must be wary of deception.

And, as spoken in a recent episode of Rebels, the dichotomy is not good vs evil, or light vs dark, but something far more simple, and far more important:

“Hope, or Fear?”

Growth, or Stagnation?

Do we pursue the promise of a future, or do we lose our way imitating the past?

Mandalorian Spirituality

The Stars, the Ka’ra, the Mand’alore

Destiny, Luck, and The Force

Symbolism, History, Blood and Armor --- From Mandalore’s Mask to The Darksaber

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that in the Star Wars Universe, “Destiny” is a real, palpable thing that exists through the Force. Mandalorians may or may not be agnostic as a people, but they are not remotely ignorant and willing to indulge in willful blindness to facts --- especially ones that have and continue to affect their history, their livelihoods, and their continued survival in as real and dramatic ways as The Force has time and time again.

The Mandalorians are also an incredibly sarcastic people, who crack ironic jokes and puns and indulge in gallows humor --- because that’s just how they are, and describes what they do and how they feel about “destiny.”

When talking about Destiny, and Luck, in Star Wars? You’re also talking about The Force --- whether you like it, or not.

So. What is "Destiny,” to Mandalorians? Destiny is synonymous with good luck. And good luck? Jate’kara. Luck, Destiny - literally: good stars, a course to steer by.

What are the stars? Ka’ra. Stars. From ancient Mandalorian myths, also known as the ruling council of fallen kings (not gender specific, gender doesn’t exist in mando’a).

Who are those fallen kings? The Mand’alore of history. Every. Single. Once-ruler of the Mandalorian people --- all dead, but were once alive, once mortal, once real. Made unreal in death, and each became a star in their passing. Each became a light for luck, for destiny, to steer by. Still alive, still living, through cultural values, in beliefs, in armor, in blood, in masks and sabers.

How Mandalorians view the Force, then, is shaped not by existing views (as the Jedi Order, or the Sith Empire), but very much steeped in a unique form of ancestor veneration and a complicated spirituality that avoids gods of worship in exchange for stars to favor, ancestors for guidance, and a never-ending need to strive, continuously, to “become better than we were.”

#mandalorians #izzy talks mandalorians #izzy talks mando'a #kind of #meta: mandalorians #meta #v: star wars #i guess maybe i should tag rebels in here too #eh it's like a footnote nevermind #meta series: mandalorians and the force #i will most likely update this post in the future with links to each post i make #for now it's just bullets bc lol #this is in no way shape or form the order of posting future blah blah #but you can reblog if you like #but for now this is a brief overview of each section and then ... hopefully i can actuall lmao finish this series this time #but anyway #long post for ts #B')

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