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#in a disney cartoon she killed people
wanderinginksplot · 10 months
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What to watch during the writer's strike:
Don't pay attention to companies who blame writers for delayed movies and television shows! The WGA strike comes from people who are trying to make things better - not only for themselves and other writers, but the films and tv shows we all love.
While we wait for a resolution, I thought I would share some existing television shows that I enjoy. I didn't bother with too much well-known stuff. Instead, I focused on shows I feel many people missed because of the glut of content that all premiered at once over the last few years. (I may make another one of these for movies later on, but this one is about tv.)
[Update: Movie version here]
Feel free to add on! Just try to give a quick, spoiler-free synopsis for the show and the streaming service where it can be found.
List under the cut!
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Netflix:
The Good Place (2016-2020) - A 'bad' woman is accidentally sent to heaven. She and her moral philosophy professor of a soulmate try to save her soul by making her a better person. Genre: Comedy with deeper implications and one of the best endings in television history.
Russian Doll (2019-2022) - When Nadia dies at her birthday party, she's more than a little confused to come back. Especially when it keeps happening. Genre: Time loop drama with a wicked sense of humor and a dash of theoretical physics. Potentially not ended?
Narcos (2015-2017) - The fight of the American DEA and the Colombian army against cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar and his reign of terror. Genre: Drama with thrilling elements. Lots of violence, some sex and language. Lots of subtitles. Features Pedro Pascal and Boyd Holbrook, if you need some extra incentive.
Derry Girls (2018-2022) - Five teens grow up in Derry, Ireland in the 1990s, amid the final years of the Troubles, a low-level war that lasted roughly 30 years. Genre: Comedy. Some sexual content, some religious content, less violence than you would expect, and the best nun ever to appear on film.
Arcane (2021-?) - Two sisters are alienated when one accidentally kills their adoptive father. Their different paths threaten the fragile peace of a city already on the breaking point. Genre: Drama with elements of action-adventure. Though it's animated, Arcane's animation is beautifully done with tantalizing steampunk elements that will keep you invested.
Disney+:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020) - If you haven't seen any of the Star Wars animated series, this is a good place to start. Set in the time gap between Episode II and Episode III, this series helps flesh out Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi. It is also a great introduction to some of the characters and plots of The Mandalorian. (Star Wars: Rebels is another good choice.) Genre: Adventure with some drama. Violence and death are a large part of The Clone Wars, but it's usually appropriate for children. The clone troopers will steal your heart!
Gravity Falls (2012-2016) - Dipper Pines and his sister Mabel are sent to Gravity Falls, Oregon to live with their great-uncle for their summer break. But when Dipper finds a mysterious book in the woods, the pair find that Gravity Falls is far more mysterious than it seems... Genre: Adventure with a lot of comedy. Though it's billed as a children's cartoon, Gravity Falls is an intriguing watch with mystery subplots that will keep anyone guessing. It also features a famously strong and cohesive series ending. I was in my late 20s when I first watched this and I was still invested!
Daredevil (2015-2018) - After being blinded as a young boy, Matthew Murdock trained his other senses to replace the sight that he lost. He uses his skills to protect the helpless in the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. Genre: Action and superhero. Features a lot of incredibly choreographed violence. (Jessica Jones is also an excellent show to watch, especially if you think of David Tennant as the consummate 'good guy'. He's got range!)
HBO Max (Just 'Max' now, I guess):
Ghosts (2019-2023) - Petty roommate squabbles don't stop just because you're dead! Alison and her husband Mike inherit a house, then a near-death experience allows Alison to see its ghostly inhabitants. Chaos and humor ensue as the ghosts try to adjust to the house's new owners. Genre: Humor. Ghosts is a British sitcom, but since the writers are comedians (writing and performing in Horrible Histories), the show is done in a style that feels more natural to American viewers. Hint: watch the BBC version, not the American one. They're fairly similar, but definitely not the same!
Pushing Daisies (2007-2009) - A pie-maker with the ability to bring back the dead helps to solve murders. He's helped by his once-dead childhood sweetheart. Genre: Comedy with some dramatic elements. Some of the CGI-heavy moments haven't aged particularly well, but the show has a unique premise and an incredibly talented cast!
Hulu:
Abbott Elementary (2021-?) - This mockumentary series showcases an inner-city elementary school in Philadelphia. The teachers and administration do their best for the kids, but they're constrained by budgets and the limitations of the educational system itself. Genre: Comedy mockumentary. Though Abbott Elementary is fictional, some of the issues brought up are all too real. This is a funny and incisive look at the American public school system.
Amazon Prime:
Fleabag (2016-2019) - The unnamed protagonist of the show struggles through life on her own with limited support from her alienated family and the memories of her recently deceased best friend. Genre: Comedy with lots of dramatic elements. Lots of sexual content and references, some language, breaking the fourth-wall, and several characters you just long to hit. I watched the second season in a single day, that's how good this was.
Unknown Streaming Service:
Black Sails (2014-2017) - This prequel to Treasure Island features elements from the book, original characters, and real pirates from history in a setting that emphasizes realism. Captain Flint and his crew search for a legendary prize... one that might allow them to claim Nassau for their own. Genre: Action and adventure. Think Game of Thrones, but with pirates. Incredibly well-written and well-acted with gorgeous scenery, LGBTQ representation, and just enough historical accuracy to keep things grounded. Black Sails also boasts one of the best endings ever given for a television show.
Like I said, please feel free to reblog and add your own television show recommendations onto this list! There are plenty of things to watch and plenty of ways to support the WGA strike that don't involve giving in to big studios.
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Gay wrongs tournament, finals of the minor bracket
Propaganda:
For Root and Shaw:
Canon queers. They start out as enemies (Root even threatens Shaw with a hot iron during their meet cute), they even both kidnap each other at some points, but they end up ready to sacrifice everything for the other. Shaw is a self diagnosed sociopath, who is only on the side of ""good"" because she's bored and they've got a cute dog. She has no qualms about killing or even torturing people. Root is kind of unhinged, torturing and killing people in order to find and then protect a Machine that she thinks is a god. Eventually the Machine teaches her the value of friendship and life (kinda), but she's still a psycho at heart. They work so well together, even if they're like a four alarm fire.
For Lord Hater and Commander Peepers :
Lord Hater is the self-proclaimed "universe's awesomest evil-doer", an immature, attention-seeking manchild with electric powers and a short temper. He rules the Hater Empire with Commander Peepers as his second-in-command (technically third, after his beloved pet spider-xenomorph, but who's counting), however it soon becomes *very* clear that the cunning, remorseless, hardworking Peepers is the *real* brains behind the empire. Peepers might be frustrated at Hater's incompetence at times and isn't above manipulating him to reach an end goal, but he'd never dream of usurping him because, well, he's really gay and in love with him (as much as he can be in an early-10s Disney cartoon, anyways). Hater might take Peepers for granted a lot of times, but as his oldest friend and closest confidante he's the one who Hater is closest to. Whether it's invading other planets or kicking puppies for fun, these two are *delightfully* terrible jerks and the epitome of gay wrongs. 
Commander Peepers is both Lord Hater's right hand man in villainy AND his jilted stay-at-home-wife-guy (Also in villainy. Hater is really good at getting distracted from productive and efficient villaining.) Lord Hater was the greatest villain in the galaxy thanks to how well he and Commander Peepers worked as an evil team to run the Hater Empire!
Lord Hater conquers planets and is such an edgy bastard. Peepers is the actual brains behind the operation. Peepers is often pushed aside by Hater, they are besties and yet Peepers is always pining for this guy who will never notice. Peepers is so horribly gay for him if you watch the show he wants his stupid boss so bad. Peepers is so scared of him season 1 but then starts yelling BACK in season 2 and has to deal with him like a babysitter or something and yet STILL idolizes him and that’s just such a fun dynamic. His password is H8RNP33PRS43VR (Hater and Peepers forever). They are so evil and everyone fears them and they are villains and they are gay and the side of the fandom that draws them as a married couple that needs counseling is absolutely correct. The fanart of Hater openly liking him back is wonderful but I swear you don’t even need that. They are so gay and villain you have to love them they are
Villains that conquer planets and do evil stuff, my favourite characters, not really canon but they are the best :)
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maxwell-grant · 3 months
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thoughts on Tekken8 so far ?
Not too many, I have mostly mixed feelings on Tekken stuff but:
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Okay this rules, this is a killer fucking idea for a fighting game story mode. I was actually just thinking the other day about how a lot of modern fighting games with big story modes can't really integrate the tournament structure into the story, so it's either not there or it becomes a schrodinger's tournament. But here there's no mistaking it, there is a King of Iron Fist tournament being held and fighters the world over are invited to join with their lives and with the lives of their ENTIRE COUNTRIES riding on the line. This rules, this fucking rules, I'm pissed Street Fighter didn't do this first because this is the most M.Bison idea that is also a way better plot than anything M.Bison ever did, fuck yeah.
I've heard this described as Tekken doing the Cell Games and having never watched Dragon Ball I'll have to take their word for it.
Don't care about Jin, never have really, but I am at least marginally curious as to how they'll square "Jin you are the light and hope of this world you are the hero of everything you must save us all" and "you totally fucking killed millions of people for no reason with that WW3 stunt dude". Love that Kazuya throws this in his face like, you weak little shit, you think you're putting me down? You think YOU have some kind of body count? Well it's just gonna keep growing watch this *BWOOOOOM
Tekken has spent a loooot of games running in a loooot of circles around the Mishima bloodline drama so this game promising to blow things out of proportion, with Heihachi dead (so far) and Kazuya cutting loose and the entire world seriously on the line, well okay that has my interest.
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Gotta be honest folks, up until now I actually hated Azucena. Decent design, Peruvian representation is extremely rare and I was super on board for that, really liked for a beat how her fighting style's meant to abuse Tekken's 3D space with a lot of dodging and swaying... but then the character started talking and, oh great, she only talks about food, she's a gimmick character that only talks about her gimmick, here comes the next annoying latin-american stereotype that the gringos just find sooo charming and sexy and funny, here comes the next El Fuerte/Laura/Zarina, and all my interest died.
And then the latest story trailer revealed that she's happily teaming up with the G Corporation (and by extension Kazuya, you know, the guy currently raining fire and murder on the entire planet) because they make for "better brand optics for my coffee" and, huh. Well. Turns out she's a total piece of shit! The "beloved for her innocent personality" thing was a dead giveaway looking at it now. Turns out she's a business major cracking winks and poses while tanks and soldiers steamroll the land and people around her. You hear a lot of stories growing up here about plantation owners being cutthroat ghouls and I must admit, it's pretty great seeing that as the twist on a typically obnoxious Disney inclusivity cartoon person, feels very topical. Maybe it is just a rehash of Lucky Chloe's twist but Lucky Chloe wasn't that inspired to begin with where as this feels a bit more thought out. I expect to be ultimately dissappointed but it sure got me almost kinda liking her a bit.
Big year for evil women in fighting games.
Feels like Tekken was just bound to have a Nick Fury at some point with other fighting games elevating characters to that position, but it is pretty weird that this a thing, right? I guess when they're going more into world-threatening stakes and characters teaming up being treated like an Avengers gathering you kinda need a Nick Fury or several to glue that nonsense together. Anyway, Victor's pretty cool. Kinda shocked that he's the first French character in Tekken apparently.
It's not easy to make me like espionage-themed characters in fighting games but he's got enough style to him that I appreciate. He's just Vincent Cassel if he was a John Wick guy with a weird Final Fantasy sword but that's not like a bad combo by any means, really just seems like Harada really wanted to put a guy he likes from da movies in there. It's the Kojima impulse but hey, if it works and the voice acting isn't terrible (like a certain other studio, seriously how do you manage to get such lackluster material out of J.K Simmons doing Omni-Man), I'm cool with it.
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I'm not too sure what to think of Reina? I feel like that's gonna be entirely dependant on her role in the game, because the other two are fairly throwaway characters where as her they seem to be putting a lot of stock in. I kinda like her design although I appreciate it better in fan art that lets her actually emote and look mean, the in-game face is just way too dull for what she's doing. I like the ego she's got and that she can back it up, that she's this new mystery newcomer with potential arriving to shake up the scene. I think a lot about her would be very generic and forgettable if it wasn't backed up by her mean punk personality and power, which I really appreciate. She kinda feels like if Asuka wasn't a joke. I'm just curious as to what her actual role is gonna be, and while I don't think she's gonna be a full blown villain the way Kazuya is, I'm gonna be pretty dissappointed if she just immediately slides into being a hanger-on hero. So I'm just waiting for more on her with cautious optimism.
I hope Heihachi never comes back because A: it's just wrong to have him without Unsho Ishizuka to voice him, and B: I hope they never ruin the humor of "Yeah he's dead dead but he has at least 20 bastard children all over the world and at least one of them is gunning for the throne so if you thought he was done causing problems or that the Mishima Bloodline would end with Jin, lmao"
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ducklooney · 4 months
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Wait, Daisy wanted to kill herself?! WHAT?! WHY?! I never understood that part.
I assume you mean the classic short "Donald's Dilemma" from 1947? And to this scene:
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Let me emphasize right away that it was just an imagination, not a real event and a pure projection, because Daisy Duck lost the only person she loved, and that is Donald Duck. In that classic short, a vase of flowers fell on Donald and he became a different man, even a very talented singer and drove Daisy away from him. Daisy tried to get him back, but to no avail. Donald treated her very coldly. Helpless, Daisy went to a psychiatrist for help and finally realized that she had to hit him with a vase to get him back. And in the end she succeeds and Donald returns to Daisy Duck.
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Admittedly, I don't understand why they call it Donald's dilemma, when it's more Daisy's dilemma and it was about her, but I guess they called it that because Donald was much more famous then than Daisy Duck.
And yes, I think this classic short did a good job of showing Daisy's feelings where she wasn't a bitch, as unfortunately it was shown in other classic shorts as well as comics where she behaved worse so I understand why people hate her. But this classic short showed how much Daisy really loves Donald and I wish they would show that in the comics and new cartoons where Daisy would feel guilty and try to get Donald back in any way possible, not Donald. Certainly no scenes with suicides. Although I doubt Disney will ever do that, given the current disastrous state they are in. Maybe comic book artists and writers can do something about it.
I hope that I have answered you and that you are satisfied with these answers. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me. :D
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finisnihil · 1 month
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Heyo ATLA fan over here I keep seeing people praise the live action remake for being darker than the original and citing that the original cant be darker because it's animated and. I have thoughts on this.
The original ATLA couldn't get super gore type dark because of its RATING not its MEDIUM, it was being produced by a kid's channel. Animated media CAN be dark and NO i'm not talking about "adult cartoons". Look at shows like Blue Eye Samurai. Any DC animated movie. Animation is constantly associated with being childish just because its most often used in children's media and I mostly blame Disney for that because Disney is my arch-enemy.
Regardless, ATLA IS STILL DARK. IT'S STILL SUPER FUCKING DARK. The entire plot of the show and it’s themes center around really heavy topics like war, genocide, the rewriting of history, child abuse, oppression, deconstructing societal roles, the place of mercy in extreme circumstances, redemption, death and grief, trauma, and so so so much more ATLA was never subtle about its themes it just communicated them in a way that wasn’t overtly gore based and didn't have cussing.
Hell just look at Kyoshi she's literally documented as being ruthless in her persuit of peace, a foil to Aang and his ideals, and when you read her spin-off books you see why. Her childhood friend and crush who was raised under the false belief that he was the Avatar was fucking sacrificed in front of her face and later came back as a shambling husk of his former self that she had to put down like a rabid dog. She survived getting hit with lightning by a crime lord. She spent her early days as Avatar being hunted down by a man who raised her, who’s nickname was the Gravedigger because he buried his enemies alive after making them dig their own graves. That’s not even the full of it either. Kyoshi NEEDED to become ruthless to survive and you see that mindset in the Kyoshi Warriors and the Dai Li because those two groups are her legacy, she trained them, the darkness of her life bled over into that worldbuilding. When Aang asks her advice about Ozai she tells him to kill the bastard no questions asked because in her time hesitation on such things as mercy over justice is what got you killed.
I have so many thoughts about ATLA and it feels like many people miss the point. ATLA did not need to be given a “darker” medium to excel because it already excelled in its original one because live action is not adult media and animation is not child media and from what i’ve heard about the series it feels like the show forgot this is a story of children growing up in a hostile world that rests it’s fate on their shoulders.
The tone of the original show was childish despite it's incredibly dark themes and content because we were seeing the world through the eyes of Aang, Katara, and Sokka and later, Toph. Toph and Zuko's perspectives are way more jaded and darker because that's how they see the world and it's around when they become more involved we start seeing things with more weight than before. We don't need the show to be darker to be greater, it was great as it was because it was build on dark themes but did not let itself become drowned in them.
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fairytale-poll · 22 days
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ROUND 1A, MATCH 3 OUT OF 8!
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Propaganda Under the Cut:
Ariel:
Ariel is basically the Disney version of the tale, but with a bleaker ending of sorts. (I haven't yet watched past season 4, I'm planning to get to the rest of the seasons soon.) She saves Eric and gets help from someone she thinks is the sea goddess Ursula - who tells her mermaids can go on land once a year - to be able to go to a ball that's being thrown. She still has her voice and is able to speak with him and they fall in love. Unfortunately, when he invites her to travel with him the next day, she realises that she can't go with him because he'll find out she's a mermaid. But, when Ursula apparently returns to her, she's given a bracelet to be able to walk again - in return for putting another bracelet on her new friend Snow White which turns Snow White into a mermaid, something Ariel thinks is a good thing because Snow White can then escape the Evil Queen. But, when Regina reveals herself as masquerading as the sea goddess, Ariel pulls the bracelet off Snow White to save her and turns back into a mermaid. Afterwards, she tries to speak to Eric, but Regina turns up to reveal that she's taken Ariel's voice and she's unable to attract his attention. That's why she's like the Little Mermaid. But she features in Once Upon a Time after she's been introduced. She helps them when they're in Neverland, fetching something from Storybrooke. And she's pretty badass after the characters have returned to the Enchanted Forest after the first curse. She can't find Eric and she accosts Hook while trying to find him. And she gets her happy ending! Until she gets trapped in a bottle and taken back to Storybrooke... She's got a spunky personality and the same innocence of the cartoon version but she learns from her mistakes and is wary of people after she'd been wronged. I don't know, I just like this version a little better.
Ursula:
Now, I know this Ursula is considered the villain she is in the original Disney film, but it turns out she started much more like Ariel. She's the daughter of King Poseidon. And she sings beautifully. In fact, after her mother is killed by humans, the king makes her use her voice to lure sailors to their death. When she spares Hook's ship, she leaves home so that she can sing without using it in such a horrible way (by wearing a magic bracelet that gives her legs). Her father hires Hook to steal her singing voice in a conch shell in exchange for squid ink. At first, Hook warns her and Ursula steals the ink for him. But Poseidon turns up and takes it back, so Hook uses the shell to steal Ursula's voice so she can't be used against sailors again. That betrayal breaks Ursula and she goes down a dark path. Steals magic, becomes part octopus, becomes the sea witch. Eventually, she regains her ability to sing and reconciles with her father. I suppose she's a version of Ariel who is deeply traumatised by the way she's treated and it's fascinating to see how she manages to become empowered, even if she takes it out on innocent people.
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mdhwrites · 1 year
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I still like TOH, but your comments have made me notice something about reviews praising it: namely, a lot of the elements praised are specifically described- Belos’s character, Luz’s depression, the dark themes, the serialization, etc- as being amazing for a kid’s show, and I think that’s a factor in why critical reviews tend to match fandom opinion. Namely, kid shows having understandable limitations leads to attempt at darker themes/big stories being praised as standouts as long as the execution is competent enough to not be noticeable. So while some people do acknowledge TOH’s flaws, they point out it’s still admirable the show made the attempts it did, especially with Disney’s public stance on what it pushes for in its cartoons.
So... I want to be kind first before I somewhat lose it because I am so SO TIRED of it being stated that TOH is different from other kid's shows. The Owl House is perfectly competent and entertaining in just its base elements. The animation is good, the voice acting is amazing, the feeling of teenagers is well captured, it's a lot of fun when it's interested in being fun and S1 has a lot of great ideas that earn a lot of good will with an audience and the plot line with Eda in S1 is genuinely amazing. After all, usually you don't have a character who is actively dying.
A theme they never actually address in detail. Eda doesn't feel like she's being held back by the curse very often and there's even one episode where it's used to re-enact a family guy episode of King trying to murder a toddler who won't let him be ruler of the playground. That... Isn't serious. In anyway. It's only serious when it's first revealed and the big sacrifice moment. After S1, it's barely a thing outside of Keeping Affearances.
This is the fundamental problem with The Owl House... And why it's so easy to praise. Yesterday I talked about how it screams its themes at the top of its lungs. How it is very blunt about how it wants to be perceived. Whether this is perception is earned or not is secondary to what it can easily state.
Which makes making an online article about how it's so different from other kid's shows, how it's the kid's show for those who don't like kid's shows, very easy. If you don't actually know much about kid's shows and how shit like Static Shock way back when was already addressing racism, having serialized content, etc. like that.
I mean, if we look at recent kid's cartoons, we have Steven Universe and Steven Universe Future. Gravity Falls. Amphibia does a lot of the same themes as TOH, with honestly about as much meaningful serialization, but also while being good, consistent and enjoyable. It earns its themes... But you have to dig for them.
So why have to scrape the barrel when the soapbox preacher is right there? This is part of the character arc problem too. Do you know how EXHAUSTING posts about "Look where they were and are now" by the end of S2? Where Amity would be a distinct, interesting, unique character in S1 but all they care about is that now she SMILES!
If you don't actually have to talk about the substance of her arc, if the show actually tackled any of its potential, complications, etc like that, it looks impressive. Then you talk to them about Winging it Like Witches or Understanding Willow, both frankly very much so kid's show episodes that something like Danny Phantom, My Little Pony, or Kim Possible would have and could have done, and suddenly it sounds less impressive, doesn't it? Not when you're describing episodes where Amity's past doesn't match her introduction at all and are obviously wiping away what makes a character arc interesting for "SHE'S ALWAYS BEEN GOOD! It's not her fault."
Sure. That's why she was willing to kill someone who didn't even lower her grade but instead just got someone else to be praised. And that's still S1.
Luz's depression is similar. You can have her make big statements that sound like they may imply she wants to die but they're still not willing to use the actual terms. Have Luz only suffer the absolutely loudest but worst stereotypes of depressed people like being constantly suicidal, pushing others away and not caring about them. 'But it's depressi-" No. As someone literally crippled by it, I don't want it being used as the excuse for literally the worst thing Luz does in the whole series, which is to just abandon an entire world to whatever fate she claims to believe she inflicted on it. I myself and a lot of other depressed people will tell you that it is FAR easier to help others, especially if you've hurt them, than any sort for yourself. But Luz's depression is used as an excuse for her to claim to keep caring about others when she is actually only serving herself and lying constantly to everyone around her while doing it. If that's great, depression representation, something most kids are still going to miss what it is, then fuck that noise.
But depression is a big topic right now so going "DISNEY'S FIRST MAIN CHARACTER WITH DEPRESSION!" sure is a headline, isn't it?
And let's quickly talk about the fact that TOH is very morally weird. It's not willing to do many big lesson episodes, hence why Episode 2 stands out so much to me, and a lot of its main cast has dubious morality. And... Then it doesn't really touch on morality either. It has no interest in it, even to the point of bad actions maybe getting a line or two said about them but then moving on.
As an example: Amity just wants to invade Luz's privacy. Period. She has Luz's phone and wants to be given an excuse to look into it. Talking to Willow, they could have a very real, very human conversation about how Amity's parents have taught her that such measures are okay because trust doesn't matter as much as control and how that's not okay. It could be a genuinely very adult moment for the series and maybe even have Willow talk about how Luz finding out so much about her past during Understanding Willow makes her uncomfortable sometimes because even if nothing bad surfaces, that was information given. By making all that a real conversation, which yes would have taken more time but let's face it, TOH honestly doesn't spend enough time setting its characters morals and letting them have conversations where there's real conflict between the two. And none of this is explicit or so dark or so boring that there's no reason a kid's show couldn't have it.
And do you want to know what you gain by making it a conversation like that? A real lesson to kids. A lesson that will prepare them for not only their own loves but for just how to handle others in general. TOH is still a kid's show after all. It should in theory be considering its audience and while not talking down to them, remembering they do need to still bring them into the conversation.
OR, YOU KNOW, HAVE WILLOW SHRUG AT THE QUESTION! And I could do a full breakdown as to why that's a real, human reaction to that question, even for someone like Willow. But I have to bring the real world, my life experiences, my sister's life experiences (and she's 30 while I'm almost 27) in order to explain why Willow is not blatantly being a TERRIBLE person by not calling Amity out.
And yes, that's when TOH is at its worst. It commonly just brushes off immoral behavior that isn't the end point of the plot as just a thing happening, like how Edric and Emira don't actually suffer consequences for their plan against their sister or how Luz is made to feel bad for stealing Amity's wand but then isn't attacked by Amity but put into a protective circle by her. A time out, sure, but one that leads to the ice glyph and her getting to save everyone.
A kid can learn the wrong lessons by the lack of consequences in the show and they're not going to learn a lot of good lessons from what is there. There's a reason why kid's shows are blunter than other media and they have morals. They're remembering that, especially in our modern age where one income households just DON'T EXIST that they have to pick up the slack and modern cartoons are doing that better than old 90s cartoons.
But do you know how much TOH reminds me of older cartoons like the 80s or 90s? With their villains who are evil for the sake of evil? With characters that can change on a dime, or the blatantly comic relief ones who don't have much character outside of that? The plotlines that are more about spectacle or statement which led to all those terrible PSA cartoon moments? Or hell, with how Amity ended up: The character who is blatantly only there to be the pretty girl that gets with the main character?
That's the thing: You want to say TOH is better than Teen Titans Go? Fine. That is obviously true. Who actually cares about and is praising Teen Titans Go though? When you compare it to the shows that people do praise, like Amphibia, Gravity Falls, etc., shows that not only teach and make kids better but also tell an engaging, full story with real themes, characters, developments, etc... What does TOH actually have? How much more serialized is TOH than say, the first season of My Little Pony? There were two episodes of build up for the Grand Galloping Gala before the finale and in TOH S1, you technically only need to see The Intruder and Covention, besides the pilot obviously, before you will understand almost everything going on in Young Blood, Old Souls and Agony of a Witch. There's more in S2 but most people agree that it's done competently at best, which is why people keep screaming about the shortening and I made an entire blog pointing out that S2 is bad because... The show is bad about serialization effectively.
And as a final note: I lived with a Star Wars and Star Trek fan for two years at the peak of Discovery being out and as wind up for Rise of Skywalker was going on. I lived on their couch and when they put on an almost 24/7 reel of 'reviewers' for these franchises, I heard a LOT of shit takes. A lot of the same shit being repeated with no real thought behind it, it being what was popular said (which goes into what makes people popular online versus being a mouthpiece for the popular opinion) and showing no thought or care about the actual system of production for things or the people behind it. A lot of people just blaming issues on one creator, or praising a single creator for all the good in something without talking about why they were attributing the problem to them. And yes, I know how hypocritical all of this is coming from some white dude on the internet no degrees, experience, etc like that. I just hope that my blogs show a little bit more real thought to storytelling to make it not as bad.
So a show where the popular, fandom consensus is that it's amazing, it states its themes making 'deeper' analysis easier and is very loud about its statements like they're original is going to be very popular to this type of review. Does this mean it's all disingenuous? Of course not. I started this blog by saying a lot of the reasons why the show is easy to like. Does it mean it has none of the depth people give it? No because a show trying this hard is going to manage successes sometimes though a lot of the times it then shoots those successes because it doesn't realize it's doing them.
But this statement that it is somehow better than things that have come before, is somehow truly groundbreaking while shows clearly paved the way for it so that it's just at the front of a wave it didn't have to make, and ignoring its flaws for all of these reasons, especially with "It's special because it's on Disney" or "It's only bad because of the shortening" is... REALLY tiring. To put it mildly.
A thing should be good because it's good. Not because it says it is or because you have to put modifiers on it to make it special. Shrek was groundbreaking not because it was made by someone other than Disney. It was groundbreaking because it genuinely looked at how it could parody the landscape around itself while making a genuinely good adventure and love story. Did it help that the creators wanted to give a middle finger to Disney? Maybe but I don't have to bring that up with what makes Shrek amazing. I can just say it's very good. In or out of its time.
The Owl House will only become increasingly less special and interesting as time moves forward and its big statements have to be yelled louder and louder to be properly heard. =======
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adrianasunderworld · 1 year
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So I was thinking of a HoM!AU rewrite of that episode where Pete tries to shut down the club by tricking the staff into eating poisoned apples (only these apples only put you to sleep instead of killing you).
In this version he gets the apples from a vault or forbidden archive or somewhere where Mickey keeps the villainous stuff locked up because there is no way Queen Grimhilde would give Pete something dangerous if it could possibly get to Yuu since he doesn’t exactly hide his dislike of her.
If I recall correctly, Pluto was also punished because Figaro made it look like he misbehaved or something. Well, I felt really bad that no one was willing to hear him out, considering he’s usually so responsible despite his mischievous and vindictive nature, so there would be a scene where Yuu tries to convince Mickey and Minnie that Pluto shouldn’t be punished so hardly and it was only a small mistake so he should be given a special chance to make up for it. She tells Pluto that he’s a good boy and she’s sure that everyone will come around after a while before she’s called away to a table. Pluto then goes and discovers Pete sneaking into the club with a basket of apples but he gets kidnapped by the cat before he could warn everyone.
And the story goes the way you’d expect except Pete just leaves the apples as ‘gifts’ for everyone like he did for Mickey and Minnie because his disguise was way too obvious and Yuu was just hanging around the princess table so she’d be able to tell that Pete was an imposter just like Goofy did. Everyone, including Yuu, takes a bite from the apple and it’s up to Pluto to save everyone from the sleeping potion.
Pluto rallies all of the Disney dogs to help him with the club as they try to figure out how to help everyone. Grim and him keep on butting heads with what to do but the fire cat reluctantly ends up sulking in the sidelines like Figaro (though he just sits in the staff room, guarding Yuu’s sleeping form) as he grumbles about how dogs aren’t even half as magnificent as The Great Grim whilst he watches the dogs put on their performance and Pluto put on cartoons that star him.
Luckily though, Snow White was able to piece together what happened and she comes to tell Pluto and Grim that everyone can be woken up with a kiss so Pluto goes around giving kisses to the Fab Five and Grim is the one to wake Yuu because no one is going to kiss his henchman except him! Don’t worry, though, after she’s saved, she gives him the biggest hug and tells him how proud she is of him as Pluto licks all over her smiling face.
It all ends with Pete getting rewarded for saving the day (and Grim getting an extra can of tuna even though he did literally nothing) and even our sweet and loving heroine, Yuu, who forgave every wrongdoing the overblot boys had done against her, can’t help but smile when Pluto and the dogs start chasing a terrified Pete out of the club. She also ends up in a dogpile of the remaining dalmatian puppies that didn’t join in on Pluto’s revenge as she begs persuades the villains not to go after Pete on her behalf (she completely forgot about the princes, princesses and the other characters who were not happy with what Pete did to their favourite sister/daughter/niece waitress)
Grim won't admit that he was scared when Yuu wouldn't wake up. But she knows, and shes thankful to him for guarding her while she was knocked out.
Meanwhile Pete is on everyone's shit list, especially Queen Grimhilde because how dare he use her apples? On Yuu of all people! Unacceptable.
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greatwyrmgold · 2 months
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After watching Hazbin Hotel, YouTube recommended a video about it to me a few times. Its thumbnail had "The Hotel Doesn't Matter" written on it. I didn't click, but that sentence stuck in my mind.
I can't speak for everyone, but for me, the appeal of the Hazbin Hotel was seeing an optimist triumph in a cynical world. The pilot set Charlie up as a Disney-princess-esque character who wanted to find and nurture the good in everyone...in a world where nearly everyone indulges in cartoon vice before getting caught up in cartoon violence.
I find this premise appealing for two reasons. First, if Charlie proving that any of the people in her world can be redeemed if they want to is a more powerful thematic statement if the people in said that world are almost uniformly a caricature of vice and villainy. Second, cartoon violence with a garnish of peppy music is funny.
In this context, Adam moving up the date for the next Extermination could just be a soft deadline. If Charlie can't redeem her tenants within six months, they're at risk of being exterminated! You know, plot stuff. Giving demons an external motivation to reform could be a thematic weakness, but not a crucial one.
That said, the devil's in the details. Or the...angel? Look, there are two details I'd like to address.
First is the way that "Hell Is Forever" smashes any hope of Charlie getting her plan off the ground. Adam doesn't want to let sinners be redeemed, he doesn't care about negotiating, and it's pretty clear that Heaven is in a dominant position over Hell.
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On one hand, that's obviously a joke. On the other hand...everything we see about the dynamic between Heaven and Hell in this series fits with Adam sending a formal decree to infernal royalty saying "Fuck you, I do what I want!!"
Second is the episode 1 stinger. You know, the bit where Adam and his assistant talk about the single dead angel. The bit where Adam says "When we come back, there won't be a demon left alive to pull a stunt like this again."
Either one of these would be enough to shift the focus of the show away from Charlie redeeming the sinners. The former says that her plan as it stands is impossible; for it to have any effect, she'd need to find some way to force Heaven to agree to her plans. The latter says that redeeming a trickle of sinners is pointless in the first place, because Adam plans to kill every demon in Hell, so the characters need to find some way to stop Heaven.
All else held equal, I think I'd prefer a story about changing or destroying a harmful institution over one about letting a handful of people escape it. But all else isn't held equal.
Focusing on a grand conflict between Heaven and Hell negates the reason I was interested in Hazbin Hotel, the reason I found Charlie and the way she contrasts with other demons compelling. In an epic fantasy series about violent conflicts between Heaven and Hell, an optimistic infernal princess who wants to prove that even demons are good on the inside feels out of place. In turn, her contrast with the caricatured cruelty of other demons loses its purpose, which means that that the characterization of Hell and demons starts to bother me in ways it wouldn't before.
I haven't watched past episode 1 yet; maybe future episodes find a way to make this work. But I'm not very interested in looking. As it stands, the hotel doesn't matter, and the hotel is why I cared about the series.
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sp00kies · 1 year
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How Disney has neutered their villains, an essay by a bored pumpkin
We all love Disney villains, they’re why some of us have a tumblr in the first place. A way to express our favorites to other people and/or give love to underrated villains. They’re also one of the most memorable things about Disney: their ability to create dark villains.
Many villains are so iconic that they show up at the theme parks and especially during October, with the Halloween season. However, I feel that ever since the 2000s, the villains have been toned down to the point where you can’t call them villains, only antagonists and bad guys.
So today, I’m gonna explain why I feel like this and why it’s kind of gotten sad too. Also, this is just my personal opinion, y’all don’t have to agree with me.
Anyways, rambling is below the cut.
First, let’s discuss the difference between a bad guy, an antagonist, and villain, as these terms get confused as being the same due to being similar.
A bad guy is the word that “antagonist” and “villain” namely tie into as they’re similars of it. But the definition that’s commonly used for it is your average criminal you see on the street.
An antagonist, while similar to a villain, is actually what the protagonist lacks and are the creators of conflicts. Think Abuela Alma from Encanto. She’s not the villain, but she’s an obstacle and brings conflict to Mirabel.
Now, a villain is what we’re all familiar with. Their actions are important to the plot; Ernesto poisoning Héctor, Maleficent cursing Aurora, etc. These are the most common of bad guys in media, and over the years, the Disney villains are starting to become the antagonist slightly.
The 30s up until the 90s was where the villains had no chill. The first Disney villain, The Evil Queen from Snow White, literally tried to poison her stepdaughter and also made a sort of blueprint for how villain should be.
Their design needs to be somewhat iconic, their voice needs to be menacing and cool, their deaths are horrifying, and their actions need to drive the plot along with downright brutal.
Exhibit A: Maleficent cursing Aurora as a baby
Exhibit B: McLeach having no issue with attempted child murder
Exhibit C: Scar literally murdering his brother in front of his nephew
And so on and so forth.
Each of these villains have something iconic about them, and their actions are memorable while also very dark. But the villains are also both funny and menacing. You only really need a dark villain when the story asks for it, and in my opinion, there are two villains who do their job right of being a dark as fuck villain.
Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
We all know about Frollo so I’ll give a brief summary of him. Basically, this dude is fucking insane. He also represents three of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Wrath, and of course Lust. He lusted after the gypsy, Esmeralda, basically set Notre Dame ablaze, and tried to kill Quasimodo once as a baby and when he was an adult.
With HOND being a dark story, it makes sense as to why Frollo would be dark and it checks out. He also checks out the blueprints set by Grimhilde: his actions are dark, his voice and design are iconic, and his death is horrifying; literally showing that he’s going to Hell.
Now what about Judge Doom? Why is he so dark?
Well if you remember correctly, Judge Doom is technically a toon. But not just any toon: he is the toon that murdered Eddie Valient’s brother by dropping a piano on his head. And that’s not all.
Doom made a liquid that can permanently kill a toon: The Dip. It’s made out of paint thinners, which are used to erase a cartoon on the drawing board. And when we see that Doom is a toon, you realize: “Holy shit, this dude made something to kill his own kind.”
Doom had NO issue with destroying ToonTown. He wanted money AND to him, he thought it was funny.
And like Frollo, Doom immediately checks out with the blueprints: iconic design, iconic voice, actions are horrifying and drive the plot, and lets just say that, in my opinion, Doom’s death (and Doom in general) traumatized a generation of kids and adults.
These two villains are perfect examples of having dark villains for dark movies. And all of the other Disney villains are perfect examples of being funny and dark for kids movies. However, I feel like the moment the 2000s rolled around, things changed.
The 2000s and so on was definitely a time where people started to get more sensitive and kiddish, and Disney was no exception. Of course, they did make movies that are somewhat hardcore, but the same cannot be said for their villains.
Alameda Slim, Captain Gantu, Bowler Hat Guy. They all fill out the blueprints like their predecessors, but something felt off. They felt more toned down. Dark, yes, but it was definitely very kiddish than what we’ve been accustomed to the previous years. And it should be noted that this was when Disney started to slow down on killing their villains.
The two villains I feel that are like their predecessors are Dr. Facilier and Rourke. Their actions were dark, their whole aura was iconic, but their deaths were also pretty hardcore too.
Rourke was turned into a crystal and was literally shattered onscreen, and Facilier was dragged into Hell/the Loa ONSCREEN AND WE SAW HIS GRAVESTONE.
So, you see where I’m going with this? These two villains felt like they were from the 30s-90s, while everyone else felt like they were just PGd into oblivion.
The 2010s and forward was where the title of “villain” was completely lost. Of course, there are exceptions. King Candy/Turbo was a great comeback and Mother Gothel was awesome too, but that was it. Disney instead turned to Pixar’s motive for villains: twist villains.
The unholy trilogy of Disney’s twist villains are obviously Hans, Callaghan, and the sheep from Zootopia. And this is also where the blueprints set by Grimhilde were lost.
So let’s do this. Ignore Gothel and Turbo and only think of the villains after them. Can you name a single memorable thing about them? Any iconic lines? Can you remember their designs? Yeah, it’s pretty hard. Well, that’s my point.
These villains can only be called “antagonists” and “bad guys” because that’s how Disney sets them up to be. They’re so toned down that it kind of feels wrong to call them villains because what they do, while still dark and drives the plot, is just so kiddy.
Of course, you don’t need a villain with every movie. Encanto and Winnie the Pooh are good examples. YES, Abuela Alma was an ANTAGONIST, but she redeemed herself in the end and that movie was namely focused on the family trauma and Mirabel.
You might be thinking, “Sp00ks. Is this really necessary? Disney is just trying to make things appropriate for younger audiences.”
I’m sorry, but for the past 90 years, if this company has been showing their villains to be dark as Hell and have them be evil evil, yeah I’m gonna notice these changes.
So that’s why I believe that, in my opinion and based on what I’ve been seeing, Disney has been neutering their villains.
I haven’t seen Strange World, so I don’t know if that movie has a villain or not, but at this point I don’t care, which is disappointing.
Disney Villains are so memorable and it’s saying a lot when you can’t remember their villains from 10 years ago, but you can remember their villains from almost a century ago.
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onyx-archer · 11 months
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I Don’t Really Like Sasha Waybright: A Look Into Redemption Arcs
Oh boy, it’s time for me to make another analysis piece based on some dumb Disney cartoon. This time though, it’s about the Frog Show™ and not the Owl Show™, because I also like Amphibia, warts and all. (yes, that was an intentional toad pun)
As the title would suggest though, we’re going into territory about a character I’m not particularly fond of, despite how much the fanbase seems to collectively like her, and that’s Sasha Waybright. I’ve never really been a fan of her, which some people I know have found somewhat amusing given that I tend to like similar characters. While that is sort of true, I’d argue it’s not quite true either. It’s complicated. In order to really get into it, I’m going to have to talk about spoilers for several shows... so spoilers for Amphibia, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, and The Ghost and Molly McGee. As always, it’ll be under the cut.
Oh, and before I get under the cut, I just wanna say one thing real quick for the people who see this under the Sasha Waybright tag: I’m not trying to shit on your good time, I’m tagging the post with her name because it’s largely about my opinion of the character (and to a lesser extent, Sasha ships, but I won’t be tagging the ships because that’s not relevant enough for the bulk of the post).
Anyway, onto the meat of the post:
Watching Amphibia is something that came about for me because I enjoyed The Owl House immensely, and because Matt Braly also worked on Gravity Falls (which was, until TOH wrapped, my favorite show). The show has a charm that took a little bit for me to really “get,” but I’ve since come to really appreciate the show in a lot of ways. Particularly, I think “The Hardest Thing” is singlehandedly one of the best finales of all time, and I’d personally rank it higher than both The Owl House’s AND Gravity Falls’ (though I don’t really like GF’s finale, which I’m gonna make a post about eventually). I think Amphibia’s emotional moments are genuinely better than the ones in TOH, but the show is still not quite as good over all. This isn’t meant to be a dig at Matt and his team, I still love Amphibia, but it’s not my favorite show, y’know?
As far as the cast of Amphibia is concerned, I grew to like Anne a lot as the series progressed, and she exhibited a strong character arc from a bit of an entitled brat that shirked responsibility into a responsible person who is empathetic to the needs of others. Her and her found frog family are a highlight of the show, and lead to some great comedy and emotional moments. When Marcy debuted, I was instantly like “yes this is my favorite character” because she’s just a genuine delight to watch, and I’m really sad she didn’t get used more as the series went along.
Sasha, on the other hand, was a character that I just never clicked with. The first impression I had of the character was that she was going to showcase the opposite end of the development spectrum, where she would gradually become a worse person, or that her negative qualities would be highlighted more so than her positive ones. I wasn’t entirely wrong by the end of Season 2, and when we got to her sort of redemption in Season 3, the show kind of lost me a bit.
The problem I have with the character is basically rooted in the fact that she enters the show a kind of toxic person, and then she just kind of decides to change because one of her friends got mortally wounded, and she feels guilty over stuff that happened as a result of her treacherous actions earlier in the story. She was willing to do whatever it took to get home, even if it meant manipulating people and killing those who stood in her way. She had no issue with the idea of killing the Planters, and often showed she didn’t care if she hurt people until it was too late. I get this was done to emphasize that Sasha needed to grow up, change, and become a better person... but I still think the way it was done leaves a lot to be desired.
The issue is more so how it was built up. For basically two seasons, we get to know this girl who is all kinds of toxic, and the show works hard to showcase that she’s not above lying to her close friends about her intentions to get what she wants. She learned nothing from the events at Toad Tower, despite suggesting Anne would be better off without her in the end of that whole thing. The next time we see her, she’s pissed that Anne didn’t side with her, and that she sided with frogs, which she has been told are lower on the societal/racial hierarchy by the toads. There’s a racism allegory in there somewhere, but I’m not particularly interested in getting too deep into that can of worms.
She then shrugs off Percy and Braddock’s desire to leave when facing the Narwhal Worm in “Barrel’s Warhammer,” despite saying she would leave if they wanted to. She then basically plays Anne and Marcy for fools by inciting a rebellion in Newtopia in “True Colors.” She put up the front of being better to Anne and Marcy because she wanted control, because she’s made to be the toxic “friend” that craves control. Sure, she has moments where she clearly feels a bit bad for being like this, but she doesn’t learn her lesson until one of her friend is nearly killed in front of her. She only cares about the consequences of her shitty behavior after she has to face losing someone she cares about for real.
Now, I know someone would likely point out that a lot of characters that can come off as mean or toxic have similar moments of revelation... but I don’t really think this is the case.
Let’s take one of the biggest points of comparison for Sasha from The Owl House, Amity Blight, and compare elements of their arcs from “jerk” to “good person.”
Amity obviously starts the series as something of a bully character, with a need to be seen as “the best,” and is willing to humiliate Willow to remind everyone how great she is. It takes her being humiliated by Lilith and Eda’s cheating during her and Luz’s duel, and Luz showing how determined she is to be a witch for Amity to soften up. She recognizes Luz is doing her best, despite being a magicless human in a world of witches and demons, and softens up. She’s still wary of Luz until after Luz helps her deal with the corrupted Otabin in “Lost in Language” for her to really see that Luz is a good person. From here, she gradually continues to become a better person, because Luz’s positivity has that effect on her.
By the time she has to face the consequences of trying to uphold her reputation nearly causing Willow to lose all of her memories, Amity realizes that she’d become a bad person, and actively begins to truly improve. She attempts to mend the rift between her and Willow that was caused by her parents demands as a kid, and she eventually distances herself from Boscha during the events of “Wing It Like Witches,” saying that she made her social life better by cutting Boscha out of it. Her growing feelings for Luz culminate in her finally standing up to her mother’s abusive ass to save the person she’s grown to love, who is also the person that lit the fires of change within her. She accomplishes this in a way that is organic. Seeing her go from stuck up to a girl doing her best to make her girlfriend happy just makes me smile.
Let’s use another example: Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls.
Pacifica starts her time in Gravity Falls as a foil to Mabel, serving as the bratty rich girl who thinks she’s above everyone. She gets humbled a few times as part of a gag, but when “The Golf War” and “Northwest Mansion Mystery” (which is my favorite episode of the show btw) take place, Pacifica begins to showcase some added depth. We see first hand that she has a lot of expectations placed on her by her parents, and they have a Pavlovian response to an abusive method of control via her father’s bell that she is conditioned to see as “you’re acting out of line for a Northwest.”
When she learns that her family’s current situation (the Lumberjack Ghost) is a result of the family’s poor attitude about “common folk” and lies told in the past, she is visibly shaken that her family is as bad as Dipper said it was. She then decides she wants to break free of her family’s twisted values, and while we don’t get to see that pay off much, she’s still seen as a better character by the end. This is one of the reasons I’m bitter that Gravity Falls only has 2 Seasons, as I feel like this would have allowed us to see Pacifica become an even better character, among other characters. To briefly mention shipping, part of the reason I love the idea of Dipcifica is because it highlights how Dipper had a profoundly positive impact on Pacifica’s life, even if just for that one episode, because it’s through her interactions with him that she was forced to confront how her family truly is, and how she desires to improve as a result. It’s kind of like... a straight prototype for how Lumity panned out, ironically enough.
To use a more modern example: Andrea Davenport from The Ghost and Molly McGee.
Andrea’s not really a character with a full blown arc, but she is far from the worst person around. She’s a girl who has her moments that reflect Pacifica’s early days, but with a more livestreamer mindset, and she has more compassion from the outset than Pacifica. She does things so her parents will praise her, much like Amity, but is also fully committed to helping people who are nice to her. Even though her and Molly got off on the wrong foot, the fact that Andrea is shown to be Molly’s friend when things get bad for Molly and her family around “Home is Where the Haunt Is,” Andrea uses her social media influence to help raise money to save the McGee’s house.
Season 2 of the show, thus far, has shown Andrea to be a good person, and is super supportive of Libby during “A Period Piece,” despite their past history. In the most recent episode of time of writing, “Davenport’s On Demand,” Molly gets Andrea into coding, and makes an app to help her family’s business. When she learns how the app is threatening the livelihoods of the other businesses of Brighton, she decides to delete the app, and works with Molly (and, unknowingly, a reluctant Scratch) to do so. It’s at least somewhat clear that Andrea actually values Molly’s opinion at this point, and seems to be positively influenced by Molly’s chipper vibes. While it’s not the most drastic character arc or anything, and actually feels like it’s missing a little bit of context, it still works because Andrea is has more room to grow, as the show is not finished yet.
Something the three I just mentioned all have in common is a positive influence on their lives. While it can certainly be argued that the positive impacts aren’t super comparable, insofar that they have varying degrees of depth of impact on said characters, it’s undeniable that there’s a moment where, because of a positive influence in their lives, the three girls begin to change for the better. Think of it like a sort of Olive Branch to become a better person, and they take it. How far they get in that journey of self improvement is not important, because they got the chance to improve and took it. They all feel earned to some extent, in my opinion, because there’s a bit of a gradual curve to seeing how they act.
Sasha, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like she earned her sudden chance at redemption. While she certainly puts on a good show, and makes good on her desire to change for the better, I find that because we had two whole seasons of her being a pretty crappy person, only to have the show give her one episode to improve as a person before Anne gets back to Amphibia and works with Sasha again... it just feels like Sasha got replaced at some point, and while the character looks and sounds like her, we didn’t really see much of the transformation, and I find that extremely jarring.
Pacifica is a character that, in basically 2 episodes, managed to get the depth needed to make her shift into a better person feel like we got to see her improve in real time. We even have a comic where we get to see Pacifica improve a bit more helps too.
In the case of Andrea, we see how her need for validation from her parents has affected her, and that’s why she’s so obsessed with the instant gratification of her online following’s praise, and why, after Molly helped her like, once, she was so quick to call Molly her best friend. Plus, there’s still more time for her to improve even more, as The Ghost and Molly McGee is currently airing it’s second season at time of writing.
Amity is the one that has the best arc of the ones mentioned, because we see her gradually change. They showed a gradual shift in her character, and the reason for that shift being Luz also lead into the best lesbian romance we’ve ever had in almost anything ever, period. We get a full display of how Amity grows as a person, and that helps make her shift feel believable and earned.
Sasha doesn’t really have that moment. She changes as a result of a bad thing happening to her. While you could say that is a realistic response, we don’t really get much in the way of a change. One day she decides to be a better person, and then we see her as a better person. While I’m not saying we needed a whole ass season dedicated to Sasha improving as a person, it’d have felt a lot better from a writing stand point if she was given more than a single episode to actually turn over a new leaf.
While one could easily argue that Sasha had moments throughout the show of expressing some semblance of doubt in regards to how she was acting, and that she showed signs of regret for being the way she was, she continued to be that kind of person anyway. She continued to manipulate people, and try to control things, until Marcy got a sword shoved through her chest. And while that’s not the worst reason for a change, people don’t just change who they are overnight, or even a few days. She needed more time to show that the change was something that she had earned, rather than just tell us “Sasha’s gonna be a better person starting... now!”
As for me mentioning ships... I feel like this is one of those instances where I know I’m going to get a little heat for saying it, but like, it genuinely feels like some people give Sasha a pass because she’s confirmed Bisexual, and we are sorely lacking positive queer characters in popular culture as a whole. I could make a whole ass post about queer characters (because man, as a queer person, I have a lot to say on how we view queer characters on the whole), but that’s for another time. I’ve never really liked Sashanne, Sasharcy, or Sashanarcy (I’m 10000% fine with polycules and polygamy, and if you aren’t, you can fuck right off), largely because I feel the romance well is too poisoned by Sasha’s past actions. I don’t really fuck with the idea of enemies to lovers much, and while they weren’t “enemies” persay, I feel like Anne and Marcy having dealt with Sasha’s more toxic side for as long as they did would make them wary of entering a romantic relationship with her, even if she didn’t regress into that mindset during said relationship. The shipping thing is totally a personal opinion though.
Anyway, hopefully I got across my feelings on Sasha as a character, and why I’m not the biggest fan. If you have anything you need me to try and clarify, then by all means, ask away via reblogs or replies. Otherwise, I look forward for the shit I’m gonna get for disliking a popular character. I guess I’ll see people in my next post lol.
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shadysadie · 1 year
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Prediction for Watching and Dreaming
I’m not going to kid myself into thinking I can predict how The Owl House will end, honestly, I have no idea how everything will end up. But I am pretty confident that Luz is going to get impaled some how, probably by Belos. 
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I’m not the only person to notice this foreshadowing, not by a long shot, but I am genuinely surprised that more people aren’t talking about it. Considering how much of the shows major events are hinted at in the literal shadows, I can not believe that this silhouette is an accident. And yes, I know this is the shadow of her baseball bat, but there are an infinite amount of ways she could have carried that bat that would have made more sense that wouldn’t have cast this shadow. Remember, in animation every detail that is drawn is drawn for a reason. 
Add to that the fact that the shadow of Belos towers over the shadow of Luz in spite of the fact that the height difference between Hunter and Luz is not that dramatic. Of course, Hunter is taller than Luz, and of course shadows are elongated, but the height difference still shouldn’t be this sever. So I think we can pretty safely conclude that while these shadows belong to Luz and the newly possessed Hunter, they are actually depicting a future scene between Luz and Belos. 
Now, I don’t think Luz is going to die, but it’s not for the same reason I see a lot of people saying, “Disney wouldn’t kill a kid” Disney has killed kids in the past, Disney has killed a lot of kids in the past, I’m working on a master list of the ones I can remember growing up but a few notable mentions come from Suzy Q, Tarzan, Miracle in Lane 2, Hocus Pocus, So Weird, Boy Meets World, and most notably Bridge to Terabithia (does this list make me seem old as hell, yes, yes it does, but I digress) Disney has killed kids in the past and considering the Owl House has gotten away with showing stuff like flesh rotting off bone, and actually having red blood on the dagger hanging above Caleb’s head (seriously I have never seen red blood in a kid’s cartoon before, for sure not in connection with a fatal injury) I am not banking on “Disney wouldn’t kill a kid”.  Because I do think a kid is going to die, I just don’t think it will be Luz.
Instead I think in the final battle, Belos is going to expose himself and try to attack the Collector, and Luz being the self-sacrificing little martyr-nugget that she is, is going to jump in front of them and take the blow herself. Everyone is going to absolutely lose it and just WRECK BELOS’S SHIT killing him all the way dead. Meanwhile Luz will be left dead or dying, surrounded by her friends and family. The Collector, touched by the fact she saved him, and seeing everyone’s grief will sacrifice himself to bring her back kind of like Flap sacrificed himself to save Hunter. With the Collector gone, the Isles will revert back to normal and all the puppets will become people again. 
There have been multiple parallels drawn between Luz and the Collector through out the show from the color scheme, to the story arc, to the fact the Collector is basically Larping Luz’s life in FTF, though in my opinion the least subtle moment of connection is this shot from TtT
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So I think it is inevitable that they are going to become integrally connected by the end of the series. While there are a lot of different ways that could happen, I think the Collector giving Luz his life-force would make the most sense.
But hey, that’s just my theory, what do y’all think?
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iamdeltas · 1 year
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In light of TOH's finale actually letting its protagonists murder the big bad, I want to make a list of what kids' shows let their protagonists actively kill their big bad, which ones had the bad guys die without the protagonists' involvement, and which ones didn't have the baddies die at all.
Big Bad killed by Protagonists:
-The Owl House: Luz let him die in the boiling rain and Eda and King (and Raine though they're not a main protagonist) stomp on his goopy remains
-Amphibia: Anne vaporizes the Core and the moon it hijacked. Bonus points for pummeling Andrias even after he surrendered after having a breakdown of guilt. Brutal lmao
-The Ghost and Molly McGee: Molly murders the Chairman using the power of joy. Hell yeah.
-She Ra and the Princesses of Power: Adora expelled Horde Prime's spirit from Hordak's body.
-Gravity Falls: Stan Pines killed Bill by mind wiping himself. Also he punches Bill in his mindscape. It was dope.
-Tangled the Series: Rapunzel killed Zhan Tiri, an actual demon btw, in the finale. Queen shit right there.
-Elena of Avalor: Okay so I can't remember the exact fate of Ash or the four Big Bads who Esteban was helping, and I think Esteban was redeemed. But I do know Elena fully murdered Shuriki. She definitely belongs on the Disney Princess With A Kill Count list alongside Mulan.
Big Bad killed without Protagonists' involvement:
-Centaurworld: The Woman killed the Nightmare King iirc. And good for her!
-Legend of Korra: Amon was killed by his brother via murder-suicide, rather than by the Krew.
Big Bad not killed at all:
-Ducktales: I can't recall what happened to Lunaris. Magica de Spell just got depowered. Can't remember who ultimately did that. And Bradford was turned into a nonanthropomorphic vulture... by Magica, so this doubles as The Bad Guys Do The Dirty Work.
-Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Mandu may have tripped Dr Emilia (good for Mandu) but Kipo still tried to save Dr Emilia from falling off the cliff. Dr Emilia rejected her help though, and fell into Fun Gus, who gets to play with her forever and ever and ever.
-Avatar the Last Airbender: I mean. This has been discoursed to death, hasn't it? Pun not intended. Aang refused to kill Ozai. Lots of people in the fandom thought this was stupid, and lots of other people in the fandom thought it was fine.
-Steven Universe: This has also been discoursed to death. I don't think I need to explain but yeah, the Diamonds didn't die.
-Legend of Korra (again): Kuvira was redeemed and Zaheer was imprisoned but not killed. Unalaq was also not killed.
Unsure because I forgor 💀:
-MLP:FiM: I know Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and Tirek were imprisoned in stone but I can't remember if it was the Mane 6 who did it.
There's definitely cartoons I'm missing.
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eelfuneral · 2 years
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This “Disney Adult” Thing is Getting Out of Hand
Recently, I saw a thread on Twitter with stills of a TikTok video depicting a woman crying and hugging a Goofy mascot at Disney World. It was captioned “we need to do something about Disney adults” and the replies were a minefield of people wondering what was psychologically “wrong” with this woman, making jokes about her wanting to have sex with Goofy, and on one memorable occasion, discussing sending Disney adults to a Mickey Mouse themed gulag. In between these vitriolic replies were screenshots of a video caption that OP had conveniently cropped out, which provided some much needed context. Apparently, her late father’s favorite character was Goofy, and she was emotional because hugging the Goofy mascot was like hugging a part of her dad. Yes, all of this vitriol was aimed at a woman healing from the loss of a parent. I wish I were joking.
“Disney adult” used to be a term that described a specific breed of over-entitled, grown Disney fan. A Disney adult would be the sort of person who would insist on going to the parks during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic or shove children out of the way in order to get that Instagram-worthy photo op in front of Cinderella’s castle a bit sooner. The term was once a way to describe a particular brand of selfishness, but it has warped into a way to mock people for having an “age inappropriate” or “intense” interest in Disney in general. Now, an adult singing songs from The Lion King in a car with friends, watching Encanto multiple times, or visiting Disney World without children is in danger of having the “Disney Adult” label, and the nastiness and snide remarks that come with it, thrust upon them.
One defense of this mockery that I have seen stems from Disney’s many misdeeds as a corporation. People bring up the fact that Disney’s corporate leadership is ethically bankrupt, and from there they reason that making fun of people with what they perceive as a slavish devotion to the corporation is a way of fighting consumerism or helping Disney’s ill-treated park employees. But what about other unethical corporations and evil conglomerates? Mars had a recent, high-profile scandal wherein it was made public that the candy company sourced its chocolate from suppliers that used child slave labor, and Coca-Cola is infamous for apparently funding a death squad to kill union leaders in Columbia. In spite of these horrifying violations of human rights by these mega corporations, I still have yet to see a substantial amount of vitriol lobbed at Coca-Cola drinkers or M&M eaters. On top of that, people who engage with Disney on a more “adult” level by watching sports on ESPN (which is part of the many-headed entertainment hydra that is The Mouse) are not perceived with the same level of scrutiny as adults watching the cartoons or visiting the parks. We live in a world where, in many cases, corporations have more rights than individual people and are able to get away with downright evil practices, and as a result, we all have to wrestle with the ethical implications of our consumption, and it is nigh impossible to never engage with a brand that is run by crooked, corrupt individuals. Most people have come to terms with the fact that ethical consumption isn’t a thing that one can easily do, but they are willing to afford more grace and understanding to people who consume problematic products in a manner that doesn’t violate established social norms. A person eating chocolate or watching football isn’t doing anything taboo, but an adult enjoying something aimed at children often is. This observation brings me to a concerning conclusion: many of the people crowing about Disney adults being the absolute worst people aren’t concerned about corporate greed, rampant consumerism, or workers’ rights at all, they just want a convenient excuse to feel above others and to have a taste of the power and social clout that a high school bully might enjoy.
The treatment of the girl in the Goofy mascot video brought back a torrent of memories of my time in high school, a time in which I was subject to intense bullying that still stays with me fifteen years later. I was in no way a normal kid, and a paid for this fact dearly in social situations. I was the over-emotional autistic kid obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh, an anime series ostensibly aimed at elementary school boys, and I wore a home made Crayola Model Magic Millennium Necklace modeled after the one in the show a’ la Chris Chan. I was seen as immature, as clumsy in everyday conversation, and as an acceptable target for cruelty. I endured all sorts of insults and ridicule for my special interests, Yu-Gi-Oh and beyond, for the mere crime of loving them with the passionate intensity with which only an autistic child could. My difficulty socializing and dealing with my too big, too painful emotions gave my classmates more of an incentive to go after me, and it got to the point where my entire science class would spend the period mocking me (often to the point of tears) while the teacher would sit there, watch them, and do absolutely nothing. Perhaps he thought that the bullying would somehow turn me neurotypical or make me less weird, but that never happened. Instead, I learned to make myself small and avoid showing too much childish happiness in a world which sees cynicism and being oh so above it all as virtues. I still tense up when I hear people laughing near me and still apologize for talking about what I love for longer than a minute. I wasn’t normal, and I probably annoyed a lot of people, but I don’t believe that warranted making my school life hell on earth. I was psychologically tortured by my peers for being weird and all I got was this crappy social anxiety diagnosis.
The mocking of the perceived weirdness of the girl in the Goofy TikTok mirrors my experience with bullying in a lot of ways, and my heart aches for her. No human being should have to walk a daily gauntlet of cruelty for doing something that harms no one, much less in the never-ending panopticon that is social media. I don’t think that she is autistic, but needless cruelty for harmless eccentricity is always wrong, even if the target is 100% neurotypical. That said, many of the, shall we say, eccentricities that people bring up when making fun of Disney adults just so happen to look an awful lot like autistic traits. There are plenty of autistic people who have a passionate interest in something and who get excited about it in a “socially unacceptable” manner in public. Many autistic people, adults included, also have an interest in “childish” things. When we give people a green light to mock people, autistic or not, who do these things, then we are creating an precedent for ableist bullying of autistic people, regardless of the original intent.
Seeing this moral panic surrounding Disney adults makes me feel borderline unsafe as an autistic person. What harmless-yet-eccentric passions will people ridicule others for having next? If some asshole with a smartphone captures a video of me getting excited about a special interest in public and posts it to TikTok to mock me, will it go viral? Can mocking an autistic person be deemed as attacking an acceptable target or even as a form of praxis if the bully uses the correct combination of social justice or anti consumerist buzzwords?
Bullying a random woman on TikTok out of going to Disney World is not even going to put a noticeable dent in the conglomerate’s multibillion dollar earnings, but it will make a very real person feel like garbage and open the door for so much more bullying and nastiness going forward. So what do we do about Disney? Well, for starters, donating to the GoFundMe of a cast member struggling to make ends meet will have an immediate, material effect on the life of someone being mistreated by Disney. For a bigger impact on more people, you can put pressure on politicians to create legislation that protects workers and consumers while holding The Mouse and other corporate entities like it responsible for their actions. No bullying of grieving daughters, autistic people, or random eccentrics is required.
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salarta · 8 months
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I wanna say some things.
I've been a Polaris fan for almost 15 years now. Fans just tuning in, and some that may have tuned out, may be frustrated with how the X-Men comics keep failing/refusing to do right by the character.
I want to give you all a look from my view, so you can see the progress.
Back when I discovered Lorna, it wasn't because of a TV show. Or social media. It was because, by pure chance, I ran across her entry on the Marvel wikia. She wasn't promoted enough for me to know she exists except by accident.
In terms of the landscape: she was in a bad position. The Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon had just been canceled after the Disney buyout, which meant any plans for her there went out the window. In the comics, she had been reduced to Havok's supporting character girlfriend again, only this time exiled to space for his Starjammers team. It was shortly after I learned of Lorna that she was put in space limbo for over a year, no appearances anywhere at all.
No place in comics. No involvement in mutant events on Earth at all. Stuck as Havok's supporting character girlfriend when last seen. No origin story. Magneto as her dad was still a big question mark, and it wasn't clear if she was even a mutant.
Here is a list of gains since I discovered the character.
Restored as a mutant
Restored as Magneto's daughter
Not stuck in relationship as a supporting character for Havok
Back on Earth, taking part in X-Men comics
Breakout role on Gifted played by Emma Dumont
Multiple good video game appearances
Has an origin story now
Led a team of her own (despite Jordan White undermining her and killing the book)
Won the X-Men fan vote
Interacting with Jean Grey again after decades of nothing
Has a PhD now
Yes, I do complain about the X-Men comics. A lot. I have good reason to be. Within that same time frame, we still have these problems that keep coming up.
Havok keeps getting forced into almost everything Lorna does
Her surviving the Genoshan genocide keeps getting treated like it never happened
Keeps getting forced onto teams named X-Factor, clearly due to Jordan White's nostalgia for 90s X-Factor
Different writers treating her like she either has no history before or after the 90s, never a full accounting
OOC depictions in various places, most notably in the recent X-Factor #4 and Trial of Magneto
Lorna is a work in progress. She spent decades getting treated poorly, with people at Marvel thinking that poor treatment was appropriate. Some of them, like White, even think that poor treatment was somehow actually good and want people to think like they do. Because of this, Lorna has ups and downs in her overall trajectory.
The first thing I want to emphasize is that as a work in progress, it's going to take time for her to get where she should be. You can't undo decades of damage in a single month or year. It's taken almost 15 years to get her where she is now, which is much better than where she used to be despite all the things still wrong.
The second thing is her profile.
Back in 2018, I talked to Jordan White on Twitter. He said Lorna didn't deserve anything. He claimed Lorna didn't have enough fan interest or star power to warrant getting the respect she deserved. He cited nothing for this view other than his general attitude and claiming he'd have more tweets directed to him about Lorna if she had enough fan interest.
The X-Men fan vote proved him wrong. In the past 5 years, we went from Jordan White writing her off as a nobody, to White clearly understanding that he can't ignore her anymore. He knows now that she has way more interest than he was counting on.
That's progress. And while it may not feel like it, poor treatment is also progress in this case. We went from White insisting Lorna doesn't deserve a miniseries, to White greenlighting a 4-part Infinity comic clearly meant to push his personal whims.
Of course, I would vastly prefer Lorna get an actual mini that treats her right instead of something that amounts to a drawn fanfic paid for out of company money. But at the end of the day, her profile and public awareness of who she's actually supposed to be as a character has grown enough that White decided to devote company resources on trying to make people think of Lorna the way he does.
That's a victory for Polaris fandom. It's part of the fight to get her where she should be. Or rather, should've been all along. Don't look at it as end of the road. Look at it as a stepping stone to a brighter future for the character.
P.S. - Jordan White didn't read the original run of X-Men comics until COVID. That's not a problem for the average person. Fans usually don't go that far back. I haven't read the original run, just Lorna's intro issues. But as senior editor of the X-Men comics, you would expect him to have read those issues much, much sooner than 2 years into being senior editor.
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pluviatrix · 1 year
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Why do you prefer ‘03 to Brotherhood? (genuinely curious)
i actually used to loathe 2003. thats obviously changed. but
in short, i watched 03 when i was young and green to non-children's media, and it totally shook up what i expected of stories. it rewired my little child brain and made me so fuckin weird
fmab/manga is a shōnen series. fma 2003 is a deconstruction of a shōnen series. if you like tragedies and you like the characters you could give it a shot.
in long...
i am not the person to get into how fma 03 handles fma’s themes of racism, fascism, and war as opposed to how fmab handled them. there are people far more qualified to talk about that and have done so in great length, so i’d direct you to them. now, it’s not perfect. there are some really questionable choices made in the movie. 
beyond that, from a story standpoint, there are so many choices they made that honestly work better. in fma 2003, the homunculi come from failed human transmutations. and the writers fucking milk this. it gives every homunculus so much more depth -- someone loved them enough to try and bring them back. there are so many emotional conflicts because of this -- i mean, shit dude, lust in 2003 is incredible to watch. she has so much depth and she’s genuinely interesting. not to mention, obviously, the repercussions of ed and al’s human transmutation.
one thing that stuck with me though was ed and al arguing over what to do with their homunculus -- al thinks their mother is still inside the homunculus, deep down. ed thinks al is being naïve. they do not resolve this conflict before ed kills her.
and that leads us into the characters -- one of the many things about fma 2003 that stuck with me for going on ten years now. fma 2003 is a character study. alphonse is his own character. he has so much depth to him and actually feels like a deuteragonist as opposed to a side character -- in fmab at least, al has so much less screentime which is a crying shame because he is my little guy and i love him so much. he has done nothing wrong ever.
beyond just alphonse, other characters that were sidelined in fmab have so much more depth to them because the writers took the beginning of the fma story and sprinted with it. 
ed was my favorite character, so obviously he’s the thing that sticks out in my mind a lot. fmab ed and fma 03 ed are diametrically opposed characters. fmab ed is supposed to be a hero first and foremost. and that’s fine. but fma 03 ed is supposed to be human. he has character flaws and he makes terrible choices and he tries his best and the story kicks him in the gut when he’s down.
while his english voice actor can eat asphalt and choke on it, his performance as ed in 2003 has this marked quality of rawness, vulnerability and softness that fmab ed doesn’t. fmab ed’s performance, for a good chunk of the time, sounds like a canned anime hero. part of this is because his voice actor is a one-trick pony lmao, but. yeah. i can’t speak on the japanese dub because i still have yet to watch it (i want to though!! i know romi park is an iconic voice)
fma 03 ed is this melancholy, quiet, sad character surrounded by tragedy just trying his best to make up for his mistakes, in universe that seems dead set on fucking him over. and he still tries to do good despite it all.
a list of scenes that, when i was twelve years old straight out of disney movies and cartoon network and nickelodeon, were like an electric shock to my brain:
1. 12-year-old edward elric beating shou tucker to a pulp in dead silence
2. 12-year-old edward elric trying to resurrect nina tucker’s dessicated remains in an alleyway, choking on sobs the whole time
3. “I killed Sloth while she was wearing the face of my own mother.”
4.  Ed digging up his mother’s grave with his bare hands in the sunset light. You can’t see his face. all you can hear is his breaths shaking and him apologizing to his mom while clutching something (one of her bones!!!!!!!!!) to his chest
5. him murdering Greed and then curling up in a ball on the floor and fucking screaming and breaking down because he just killed someone
6. Him getting impaled and choking on his own blood and then fucking dying. Like for real.
This scene ^ is the one that really did it for me when I was little. I had never, never, never seen a main character die. He was my favorite. It was so sudden too. And I completely hated it. I was so mad and so sad and refused to watch the 03 series for years. the bittersweet ending cemented this series in my brain. I liked fmab because it had a happy ending for characters I had grown to love. However, all of this above is what made me revisit it as I got older and had more media literacy and appreciation for tragic, grey narratives. 
also the soundtrack FUCKS and bratja never fails to make me cry to this day.
end note: i am not saying this series is perfect, it’s NOT, no way, it has its moments and it has places where it definitely stumbles and falls flat on its face. 
there are certain elements of the story that i won’t get into that aren’t in the best taste and should be warned against when going into it. it has pacing issues. it has some contrived and stupid ideas. it could handle some of its themes better and make better choices with its narrative. but also yknow. gesticulates above.
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