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wadey-wilson · 5 years

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Essay essay pls! I actually enjoyed the TASM films but I watched them when I was like, 10, so my actual perception of them is super skewed

re:

I usually never talk much about things I hate because I don’t wanna care about things I hate. it’s a waste of time and nerves. but given that you asked nicely, and that I have a lot to say, and that I should sleep but we all know it never plays out, let’s go.

right off the bat, I want to say that I believe you can change some things about characters or stories if adapting them for the silver screen either requires it, or the director has a really good idea as to how the character should be done. that being said, I also believe there’s a line you can’t cross. you either change the character to be more appealing and to have them resonate with the audiences more (see: Thor in Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of The Galaxy), or to have it fit the story better (see: Mandarin in Iron Man 3). I have no problem when a director goes ‘I have an idea for this character’ and he actually has, let him do it. however, when you change too much about a story (see: Civil War) or a character, they become unrecognizable and completely off. you ever read Superior Spider-Man? they become that. a shell of someone we know but with completely different behaviour, manners, mind, and character for that matter. you can’t change a character to this point, because it ruins them. say Iron Man doesn’t drink alcohol at all, he’s a granddad of a random kid taken from the streets, and kills innocent people. doesn’t really sound well, huh?

and that’s the huge problem with that small series of films. the producers don’t understand Spider-Man (don’t @ me with Spider-Verse, Sony didn’t touch Spider-Verse, it was written by the ever great Phil Lord and Chris Miller), and they never will because they frankly don’t give a shit. they ruined Spider-Man 3 by forcing Raimi to put Venom in there despite Raimi not being able to handle the material and not being interested in that character. reason why they made the TASM films? money. reason why they keep the rights to Spidey? money. so since they don’t understand Spider-Man, they can’t make a good Spidey movie as long as it’s them making that movie.

I also want to add that I like crap movies. Spider-Man 3 is half a solid movie, but you can’t have a bad time while watching it - it’s hilarious, has great action scenes, the characters feel like characters, and the tone is consistent. Venom movie wise is like 4/10, it has 2 prologues, and 179 plot holes and/or stupid choices, but it’s entertaining, funny (even when unintentionally), has some very good dialogues, and the Venom/Eddie relationship (right along with Tom Hardy himself) saves the movie. so I like crap movies when they’re fun, comedy gold, or just so stupid that you can’t help but laugh (see: Twilight). but when a movie is shit, and does none of those things, I can’t sit through it.

with all that said, here goes: reasons why The Amazing Spider-Man movies suck balls and are offensive towards the character of Spider-Man:

comic wise:

- Peter Parker - let’s google Peter Parker.

caring. kind. loyal. brave. scared. worried. intelligent.

that’s the basic core aspect of Peter Parker. you can’t change the core of a character or else they become a different person. the core aspect is what makes them them. Peter Parker is ‘with great power comes great responsibility’, he’s a struggling one because he made a choice to save lives and that choice often ruins his day-to-day life, he’s constantly trying to be a better man, but all while bad things are happening, he remains kind, loving, caring, loyal, respectful, and worth of the powers he’s carrying.

TASM Peter Parker? that dude’s a selfish dickhead. i could go scene by scene to prove my point, but off the top of my head, he:

stalks, creeps, breaks (important) promises, is rude 24/7 towards his aunt and uncle, risks people’s lives, damages public property and doesn’t even say sorry, sneaks into Oscorp by stealing someone’s righteously earned intern badge (plus literally laughing at the guy who got kicked out bc of him, what the hell).

other than that, Andrew Garfield does not look socially awkward or nerdy in the slightest. the movies are really trying to portray him as one and terribly fail. he’s not a good fit for this Spidey. Superior Spidey? yeah, that asshole, sure. I’m not saying he’s a bad actor, he’s an amazing actor. he’s just not good for the role of Peter Parker.

I mentioned Thor before and how making him a goofball actually worked out fine, and that’s because the core aspect of him never disappeared. he’s still Thor, courageous, righteous, loving, kind, but with more jokes. Peter Parker is a nerdy outcast, he’s socially awkward like 95% of the time, and doesn’t even know how to walk straight. Andrew’s Spidey? obnoxious-skateboarding-cool-looking-Edward-Cullen-like-tall-and-model-like cute. I have no words.

to add to his terrible traits, Peter’s only motivation to put on the red-and-blue spandex is revenge. revenge. I don’t care about that scene where he’s sitting with his mask wondering if he should go after the Lizard. that doesn’t mean a thing. it would if his behaviour changed, but it never did. he made a mask and then a suit so people wouldn’t see who commits the crimes (assaulting at nights while looking for Ben’s killer, that’s crime), that’s down-right fucked up. this is not Spider-Man. speaking of…

- Spider-Man - he doesn’t care about people’s lives at-freaking-all, and it just wounds me. he jokes around while people are being murdered (see: TAMS2 scene with the Rhino where he didn’t stop Rhino when he had the chance, instead letting him run over tens of people and kept. on. joking., or putting on a fireman’s hat while people are being killed). jokes? what jokes? that guy’s a jackass. he threatens a man saying he’d kill him if he’d be the one who killed uncle Ben. he publicly humiliates a guy, I don’t care if he’s a criminal.

see this:

(the amazing s-m #797)

vs this

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

- Ben Parker - he’s 100% useless in the movie. in the comics and in the Raimi’s movies, he plays a huge role. he’s Peter’s moral compass right along with May Parker, which…

- May Parker - her presence in the movie is pointless. she’s got no impact on the plot. cut out all the scenes with her, and it changes nothing about the movies. her presence only makes Peter look more like an asshole bc he’s one towards her 99% of the time. she’s there to be… I don’t even know. she’s useless. oh, no, wait, she’s there to make Peter break his promise to Captain Stacy. amazing.

movie wise:

- tone - inconsistent, all over the place. TASM1 is dark, silly, dark, lighthearted, funny, dark, funny, dark. why can’t it be just dark or funny? same goes to TASM2, except TASM2 is way worse due to the unconnected subplots. examples of well-toned movies: Homecoming (a comedy starring Spider-Man), Iron Man 3 (consistently cartoonish with balanced humor and action), The Avengers (consistently funny and cheesy).

- character arc - there’s none. Peter learns absolutely nothing. at all. he’s selfish and remains selfish. puts people’s lives at risk all the time. breaks promises, not learning any lesson. I mentioned Venom before and how it’s a dumb movie, but even that one has Venom have an arc. rushed one, yes, very rushed, but still an arc.

- music - stock music + bad pop music + elevator music + something that tried to sound like dubstep but wound up being what comes out when you scratch your nails across the board ft. growling dying dragons from bad cartoons. I’m really sorry for Hans Zimmer that his name is in the credits bc the amazing Pharell Whilliams literally ruined the TASM2 soundtrack.

- directing - it’s shit. the movie’s shot with no life to speak of. boring shots, lower than average. there’s no scene that makes me ‘whoa’. there’s no scene that makes me ‘this is a really good shot. I very much like this shot.’ ok, I’m lying, there are two shots in the entire 2 movies. there:

these are the only shots that I like. out of 2 movies. please, take all my money.

on top of that, the colors are just ugly. Deadpool has greasy colors but they’re consistent and fit the creepy tone of the movie. TASM movies can’t decide what the hell they are so they are just a mess.

- villains:

x the Lizard. he wants people to be lizards, and that’s it. he wants his arm to regrow but then he goes ‘forget arms, now I want people to be lizards.’ and it’s sad bc he’s a very good villain in the comics.

x Green Goblin. motivation is weak, plus why did he crawl towards the suit? if he crawled towards the Doc Ock arms, would he become Doc Ock? how did he know hot to fly the glider? ‘you took his picture, so you know him’ - first of all, that shot was taken from 64508098 meters away, and second of all, how does this make Harry think Peter knows Spider-Man? he’s still better than Connors, tho.

x Electro - quite an odd one, weak motivations, what the hell was that with the corny speeches pulled out of his ass and completely out of the place? why did he even have shorts? where did he take his suit from? that’s a PG-13 movie, I get it, we don’t wanna watch an electric p*nis swing, ok, we get it still, bad motivations, makes no sense 80% of the time, and... he’s just off. he’s such a badly-handled and poorly-written character I want to cry,

- other characters:

x Gwen Stacy - so called generic love interest. that’s it.

x I don’t even care.

- stupid bullshit - when a movie is good, I don’t care about plot holes or stupid stuff like visible reshoots (see: Tony’s hair in IW) or just idiotic moments (see: Black Widow knocking a guy out with her hair in The Avengers).

however, when the stupid bullshit takes over a movie, you can’t help but notice. why did the Lizard want everyone to be lizards? why did the electric eels fix the gap between Max’s teeth? what’s with the subplot with Peter chasing Ben’s killer? is Peter so stupid that he brought his camera with his name on it to Lizard’s secret layer? why are Peter’s parents so focused on? they’re 100% irrelevant and have no impact on the movies besides making them even stupider (that calculator scene, I’m-). why did Ben jump towards the gun? how did scrawny and skinny Harry Osborn overpower two armed, grown-ass guards? if Peter is smart enough to make web-shooters and web fluid, why did he have to look up the basics of electricity on YT? why is Gwen so stupid to grab a metal bar when there’s an electricity-fueled guy murdering people? why did even Electro become bad? why do people stand around very dangerous fight scenes like it’s a spectacle with fairies? run! the plane scene. the plane scene no2. the crane scene. how did the cranes happen to be perfectly in line across the way to Oscorp? even Raimi wouldn’t put this corny shit in his movies, and he made his trilogy corny for purpose. train? coming? out? from? the ground??? a video coincidentally waiting for Peter to be played in that train? Gwen Stacy happening to be the interns’ tour guide at Oscorp? how did Gwen get to the fight with Electro scene sooner than the police? why did the web get cut by two solid objects, simultaneously making a ‘cut’ sound, what the fuck was that? why were those movies even made? (money)

I want to add that I don’t care about deleted scenes. put them in the movie if they’re important. I really don’t give a damn there was a scene with Peter’s dad (which is just stupid) or some stuff with Connors. I don’t judge deleted scenes, I judge the movies.

and that’s it. I feel like I can talk more, but it’s like 11pm, and I have to get up early and go to work, so… I said what I said. you can’t change my opinion. if you like these films, I don’t care. they’re trash. if you can watch them and think ‘that’s a good movie,’ I’m glad you can, and I wish you a happy life with that bad perception.

to add to all of this, I’ll have you know that even Andrew Garfield is mad/sad that Sony compromised the character of Peter Parker for the sake of money.

before I go, the only good things about these movies:

- TASM2 suit is cool. I like it a lot,

- that scene where Peter wakes up and accidentally breaks things,

- that montage with Spidey after he breaks up with Gwen, it’s really nice and in-character, looking like it was written by someone completely else,

- they didn’t make a third movie.

P.S. if you want some good videos I remember seeing about those movies, visit yourmoviesucks and TheCosmonautVarietyHour on YT. also ScreenCrush explains what’s wrong with those movies basing on one scene, and it’s great.

P.S. 2. there was this comment on YT under the TASM movies review that I really like, and honestly what a mood:

#roll credits #i said what i said and you can't change my mind #when i was younger i thought i like those movies #but then i thought about them again #and wondered how could i ever think they are good #they're a waste of money #they're a waste of time #and effort #that's me and my opinion #i usually don't speak much but well #the amazing spider-man #long post

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morningmoon · 7 years

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Overall thoughts of Arc V

posted on NAC, figured i might as well share it here too. It’s a long one.

Setting Maiami City is great. The first we see of it is a modern and post-contemporary design to the city, there's a lot of commercialism on display taking iconic imagery of YGO and plastering it as billboards. You Show and Yuya's house are shown to be pretty unique in their architecture, but still very grounded in reality. It's a world that's probably not more than ten years ahead of us; it's a mayor city but with a very nice housing region. As the first season goes on, we see more of it, we see how important and varied the schools are, we see the not-so-pretty parts of the city. There's just enough depth to Maiami to feel more alive than even Neo Domino did. Then we leave it. The City is up next, and it's just a more surface level approach to Neo Domino. There's the shit part of the city and floating shit that's fancy. Before we can really dig into the latter, we're stuck in the former, then a prison and the rest of the season is the same hotel, racetrack stadium and a bit of the Duel Lanes before going back to the same shit parts. Oh and the trash mines. While 5D's included early on how the trash stuff works and how it's an insane way to fight your way to the nice part of the city, AV's just has this stark contrast that doesn't feel truly connected. If you walk long enough in a direction, you'll reach a nice part of town apparently. The mines and the prison exist, but you can't really pin their location or anything. They're stark contrasts that do not feel connected beyond lore. Heartland... is just some bits of ZX's heartland, but in ruins. There isn't much to the setting at all. Fusion has that sorta venice place we see for a couple of eps and then we go to Academia, which is just a series of corridors with 4 rooms. It doesn't feel real, there's a courtyard but I have no idea how you reach it beyond "go to a corridor and eventually it'll connect" Yuya going Odd Eyes Raeg happens in a room that I cannot fathom where it is compared to Leo's place because it's so hightech it should either be right next to it or buried underground, but the show just has it nebulously inside of academia.It's disappointing. We start with a strong location, a strong setting, and then we ditch it for the next and the next and the next and each is shallower than the last one. Duels You know me. Y'all know my shallow ass don't really care for the yugiohs. Hand me a Yuma vs Gauche once or twice a cour and i'm good. I'll meme that YGO was better when it was about zombire and paint mazes. Arc V promised me something that made me want to care even in my shallow level: Dynamic Duels. The premise of 5D's bought me over when I saw the first riding duel moving all over the streets into an abandoned factory and maneuvering crazy locations a bike shouldn't be able to do. Arc-V then promised me that mobility would be even more important because it's not rigid bikes, it's fluid monsters, able to chance the monster you're riding on the fly and interact with them. All for a goal that is a buff during the duel. You bet your ass I got hype when Yuya got on a pink hippo in that first PV. ACTION FIELD MAGIC CROSS OVER. FUCK. Dynamic places became less common during the first season, but they were still a thing! There were at least entirely different fields in every duel. Then came in Riding Duels and my god. MY GOD. Yugo suddenly makes me nostalgia hard for 5D's, he goes so many places, the scenery changes so much, the time of day the state of the city, it's so beautiful. Cross Over. Duel on the stadium. crossover accel. cross over cross over cross over. fuck. The duels lose intensity as it goes on, they often become duels of two duelists standing in places as if it was DMGXZX and every now and then Yuya will jump and run to get a card. Cross Over Accel usually involves picking up a card from the floor and every other duel will have a sick bike stunt. But yeah, for the most part, the concept's just burnt and interesting navigation is pretty much gone. Yuya is so tied to this. The ultimate thing of the show, is that entertainment is the greatest power, but Yuya can't muster the confidence to use it. Therefore, his duels are directly tied to his state of mind. Is he egaoing? then maybe there'll be some dynamic movements or, if we're lucky and it's a blue moon, Yuya will setup a big set piece act where the game straight up changes to let a big fun and dynamic moment happen. But if Egao is what solves everything, then your main character can't be holding that power, ergo, Yuya's duels have to be gimped most of the time, so stand over there like it's Gx, Yuya, but with less varied fields.It was just so promising, that duels would be a spectacle. But gameplay wise that deteriorated rather fast, with spectacle it got nearly dropped after year 1 and it's ultimately tied to Yuya believing in himself, which is the thing he struggles with the most. Themes and Message I love egao. The idea that smiles make the world better is great. If you are positive and you can pass that positiveness to others then you are improving the world. To look at all the issues around you and decide you can tackle them while also keeping a smile is a noble thing, I love heroes that can stay positive through adversity. A lot of people take issue with Yuya "forcing this down people's throats", but to me the problem is that Yuya needs it fored down his own throat. He's got some doubts here and there in Standard, then in Synchro it is offered that, much like Kattobing with Yuma early on, Yuya doesn't actually know what it means to bring smiles to people: he's parroting his dad and acting as he did. This breaks Yuya hard and he goes back and forth during the rest of the season until he gets a rematch with Jack and shows his answer... is that he believes in his dad, but will also throw in the dimension dragons. uh. Before that point there's stuff like Kachidoki shaking his resolve, and after that there's stuff like Yuto taking over so he cannot use smiles. There's stuff like getting so pissed he can't even think of using it against BB until JACK points it out. There's the fight against the mind control bugs and facing Yuri. And then the final act is him trusting himself all over again. Yuya Sakaki is smiles. If he is not believing at 100% then that's that. There are only, like, four other characters that implement that mentality into their duels. It sucks because it is explicitly shown time and time again to be the answer to the show's conflicts. A whole city is turned, Kachidoki gets happy and stops punching dicks, Yuya becomes more capable, Heartland is brave and starts dueling again. But it's so strong, Yuya cannot be allowed to use it or else show ends too soon. Other characters can't use it or the show ends too soon. To duel for smiles is to have a golden gun. It becomes more and more insane an OP until it reaches a climax: You Cannot Use Smiles On Zarc Because That Would End The Show Too Early. The dragon king is defeated, but not really because the blatant message wasn't used on him. Individualism beat him, but egao will Really beat him. Egao OP pls nerf so it can be a presence in the show. Then there's individuals vs groups. I also dig this a lot, and we see it far more consistently. Yuya gets laughed at by society itself bc daddy. His first foe is an opinion leader. His dad is looked upon fondly not for being a pro duelist, but for being a pioneer. A big, strong corporation is trying to take over You Show, the smaller school run by a single guy. Yuzu realizes her dad, a teacher, is not enough for her to learn what she needs so she seeks out a tutor who is shown to be a bit of a rebel. Yuya duels wacky schools. After Yuto becomes egao.wav, Yuya's first foe is a guy who got messed up by the institution he's at. Obelisk Force are goons running the same deck, trained to be little more than soldiers with their individuality stripped away. Yuya's pushed forward to continue being a pioneer even when pendulums become normalized. Synchro Year is all about big capitalistic society fucking over the poor. Prison, the defense force and the government are all evil and abuse their powers. Roger is shown to have power but overestimates his own intelligence. Serena, in this time, gets pointed out that her dueling is too by the books and Yugo's unique style can trample her so she needs to adapt and be herself. Reira gets a donut by Shinji, so she doesn't want to blast him, she's starting to not become a child soldier. Jack's entire thing is that he himself crawled out of his hell life. Academia is up next, and, yeah, more of what you'd expect: school's evil, society supports it, individuals have to escape it and form their own place to survive. BB, much like Kachidoki, is ruined by his own school. Doktor creates parasites that strip people from their free will. And finally, we are told via ham-hands that Zarc was made who he was because Society demanded more violence. oh my god. Oh and Ed and the others also escape the school's mentality. It's a neat message, the bit with Zarc is just. It's thematic, it doesn't substitute showing the character and explaining the escalation. But then in Synchro Year there's that bit where Yuya gets the egao gun and destroys the societal norms of Neo Domino 2 in one blast and now everything's better. Kachidoki is back and saved, but like, what does that mean? did he bail out of the physical abuse school his parents put him in?? The conflict is rich and interesting, and yet the payoff is so sudden, escalated beyond belief and never explored. Another bit is what the show actually tells us "take a step forward with courage" or something. Pioneering goes with that, Yusho and Yuya start something new and it can't end there, those two have to keep evolving and lead the way. That message then ties into the war conflict in a cool way, to keep moving forward and not wallow in the past. Academia may have destroyed Heartland, but Shun and Yuto are objectively in the wrong for trying to use violence to get revenge. Leo is later on shown to be bad, not because he committed war crimes (those are retroactively forgiven) but because he is doing all of this to get his daughter back, when that will only tarnish her efforts and legacy, thus bringing Zarc back. Yugo & Shun Vs The Molesting Bugs From Out Of Gx has Yugo staying in the past and only remembering the Rin he loved while Shun remembered Ruri but then pushed forward and claimed how he's changed since. Yuya keeping with his dad's style and not fighting with his own is also a way of this. Every member of the resistance is shown with this problem, every left-party member of Synchro is also basically mourning themselves instead of trying to push forward if you're viewing the show in right-wing eyes I guess. Yuya being sad for pasts mistakes is shown 100% to be bad and he should continue moving forward to solve the issues. It sometimes feels gross because the groups are evil, but only Roger gets comeuppance. Leo caused war crimes, but he's a tragic hero, Zarc is a demon but he's a tragic figure. Meanwhile Shun and the resistance lost it all, Shinji lives in an unfair world and they are presented much more palpably as in the wrong because they are fighting with violence. The makers of war are never punished.The messages are all very, very interesting... but they tie kinda badly to the plot. It basically turns smiles from a philosophy that empowers Yuya and saves people from spiraling into drones of society or revenge hunters, to a golden gun that kills society and sedates the lust for revenge. Villains Now here's Real Problems. The show mismanages its villain cast. You have Himika, basically leader of LDS and actively running a child soldier program and... eventually she's very sad for Reira and turns into a motherly figure. You have Kachidoki, who is the first to awaken the second level of Zarc in Yuya and... he leaves the story for almost two years, only to get a quick defeat so Yuya can have a win. LDS Trio, rival our main trio and have some deep personal beef with Shun, a new comrade to said trio... they never show up again. Shinji argues with Yuya for a bit and is gone forever. Roger is let to sit far and above everyone else, he gets his butt kicked by Reiji and is gone forever. Barret fleshes out Academia, could possibly be an anti-hero fighting for Serena and then he is gone forever before we knew him. Anyone else from Synchro just doesn't show up for the last third. We are introduced to Grace, Gloria, Ed and Kite and they all turn to Yuya's side at the same time in the one-cour half-arc. We finally reach Academia... there is BB, a one-and-done villain for five eps straight. There's bugs that have a loose thematic connection and are gone forever. There is Doktor who only did that bug shit before being banished. There's Yuri with the better killstreak and then there is Leo who is shown to have only been acting out of love, and has enough honor to remove Doktor's facehole. There are all these villains.. and their role is minimum or they are so far from the heroes they don't get to actually Do much before their upcoming defeats present them as weak-willed all along. Then we have fucking Zarc. Hitotsu Ni and all them memes. Basically He's a dragon dick. All along everything was his plan bwahaha except he couldn't see the individuality theme hitting so hard via Reira and Yuya teaming up with Ray. But who is Zarc? ... anyway, Zarc's duel is the biggest in the show (wait, is it? did it have more eps than BB?) but ho boy ho boy. His duel is shite. He just sits three 2v1s in a row without taking any form of damage, then slowly loses enough composure for an admittedly cool finisher, but, just. Eh. He encompasses the show's themes of individuality vs group via the group forcing him down a path of evil. He wallows in his past and his attempt to move forward via the creation of Pendulum and manipulation of his parts puts him in the same shoes that society had back when he turned evil. Then he saw the value of true smiles while inside of a baby. The problem here is... we never saw the individual crumble. Zarc's biggest failure as a villain is, well, the duel actually, it's just terrible, but his other failure is that we don't see enough of him. He's a thematic concept, but a linchpin of it is him as an individual losing himself for the sake of entertainment. We never see who he was, which worked when he was in a rampage so we'd see him as a monster, but once Yuya is crying at hsi backstory, well, it just feels trite and lame. We cannot feel bad for Zarc, we never knew him, he might've been a huge asshole and that's why things escalated.A big problem with the show is its use of villains. There's just two types, the ones that get disposed of ridiculously quick and the ones that are master planners so far above the cast that they hardly actually interact (or even act) in the story, and whose defeats just end up as underwhelming. There's outliers here and there, but they're not interesting either and ultimately any payoff from the conflict they bring is either too small or not interesting enough. Zarc, the final villain, suffers from all those issues. Characters Reira is god-tier. She begins shy and meek, we instantly assume she is a Mokuba. She gets a few duels here and there but we don't see them, so she's a dueling Mokuba that's strong bc her bro's the strongest. There's something offputting of her, but we just don't see her enough. Then we enter Synchro and she's away from Reiji, she is panicking, stressed and quiet. Shinji gives her a donut and that seems okay, kids like sweets. Then comes Yuya thinking of defending her and the big stuff drops: a) she's not afraid of dueling, she's afraid of having to harm others with duels and thus doesn't want to decimate Shinji and put him in the apple factory. b) legit child soldier shit. JACK offers her advice because he sees his own sadness from when he was a child, Yuya also saw that in her, but ultimately Reiji is right: it's not pity what she needs, it's a drive to make her own choices. It's why not wanting to fight Shinji is so big. The show keeps going, and next she goes further and acts to Defend Serena, she helps her friends now via dueling, fighting her PTSD and it culminates in the last bit to her wanting to save everyone that she's willing to sacrifice herself to get Ray involved, even when her brother tells her that would not work. And she does, and at that point we get her maximum Individuality moment: she defied Reiji by bringing Ray, and she defies us by defining herself as a woman. "Fuck all of you, even the viewers, this is who I am" and she stands tall, she gives one last sacrifice because not even Ray is good enough and she seals Zarc away herself. Fucking badass. And her reward is just being a baby. It's interesting in that it means she will not have the traumatic past anymore, but it also seemingly means that Zarc will always be with her now and that the Reira we knew simply ceases to exist forever. For the character that I rooted on the most, that sucks, i want the characters I like to be happy and exist! Still, her journey is easily the best in the show. JACK ATLAS fits this show like a glove. "It doesn't matter how bad Arc V or 5D's get, JACK ATLAS will always be a good character." Him as King puts an interesting pressure, he pushes characters in interesting ways and is ultimately just an entertaining and good addition. Hiragi Yuzu, well, she was really good that first year! Her arc was great, how she knew more of Academia leading into her interactions with Serena, which ultimately motivate Serena, are pretty great. Her time with Yugo's fun, her role in the tournament is great. It is gross that she was a flagpole for Yuya to reach and kept being yanked away over and over again. After that beautiful motorcycle parry, she just feels wasted, and before that her interactions with the cast were direly limited. Serena was interesting, she only really existed for One season, but her role and relationship with the Lancers was fun while it lasted. I really wish they'd explored her dueling more. Ruri and Rin were waifus. Welp. Rest of the cast, just likeable, not used well enough, Gongenzaka hilariously has an ED where he is one of 3 characters on screen and during that ED's run he shows up less than ten times to interact with Yuya. Sawatari is my man, but yup, not much for him. Shun has an alright arc, not much feeling for him. His end is bonkers. Kite, Ed and Asuka just feel tacked on. They don't offer stuff that only they could, in fact you can fancast many other characters to fit their roles better, I personally would go with Shark, Misawa and Tyranno (maybe Asuka over Tyranno). Ed's duel with Yuya was pretty amazing, tho and I love it, but again, just feeling like you coulda slapped other characters in to better fit the roles they play out in AV. Yuri, he's a fun villain. I went on about the use of villains and why his Pro MLG Killstreak is kinda bad, but he was fun during it. The structure deck stuff was great. His finality is... "we don't have time, or ideas, to make him turn to good. Uhh, shonen shonen shonen, thematic thematic and shonen tropes." He just happened. Yugo, one of my boys. Love his fun attitude, love his blatant crush, his gags are great, he's just overall fun but it didn't feel like they went deep enough for him, specially with how the bug stuff ended. Yuto. That kid is a mess. There's a fairly easy to follow line for his attitude, but he switches as hard as Yuya does from egao, but whenever he is Actually Showing Up, he instantly does a switch in alignment. He doesn't feel consistent. He's messed up and actively ignores all his relationships except the one time he told Shun to trust Yuya. I feel there's an interesting, cowardly, character in there that we just don't get to see because he's more of a crutch to guide Yuya's hips over how his alignment shoul be in the current part of the story. Sakaki Yuya. Wiat, no, there's others i can talk about. Leo's a dummy. I don't mind him too much, but he is a super dummy. I love seeing Reiji get owned. Uh uhhh. fuck. Okay, so, Yuya. Not a great hero. I tolerate heroes that doubt themselves, I do, but jfc the kid changes minds far too often. And like I said, when he egaos right, it feels like he holds a magic gun. He's OP in dueling, therefore he gets nerfed via self-confidence because that's directly tied to his magic gun. That means he needs the help of others to regain confidence, these others include: Yusho, Yoko, Yuzu, Reiji, Jack Atlas and Reira. All yelling at him into his ear that he should believe in himself. Two of these are basically rivals, who should be sources of conflict, but instead they are major supporters of Yuya. The harshest conflict Yuya gets is himself. That's not that interesting when it's hardly himself who overcomes it, it's his massive support network getting through his thick skull. Over and over again. I like Yuya when he is confident. I don't like him when he's not. I hate him when he is becoming confident all over again since that means it's someone else pushing him.Cast is great. Reira is my favorite for very good storytelling happening with her. A lot feel wasted. The Core Conflict Badly paced, basically. Synchro Year feels wasted in retrospect, 50 eps to tell what 2 cours could, and Yuya isn't allowed to keep his development at all times for it. Leo is built up too much, and Zarc too little. It just feels like not enough build up, too much buildup and the villains getting shafted in both ways. There's a lot of exciting series of fights when years end, but it just doesn't pay off nearly as good as it promises. The Finale Confusing. But not intentionally so. We're not left to wonder what the world is, we are told by Leo what happened and we simply don't get to see it. It's not clear what happened to Zarc besides he smiled. Sad. But not intentionally so. Reira smiled, that means everything's good for her while the audience is sad that she's stuck as a baby. The Yugirls and Yubois are gone forever, but Shun accepted that and anyone that might miss Serena and Rin just aren't there, the people who see them are just shocked but never knew them. Shun is happy. Us, the audience, being sad isn't something being played with here. If Barret looked at an empty dorm room, then this would be a bittersweet ending. If the orphans started reading books Rin had marked, that'd be bittersweet. If Shun Showed Any Emotion That He Should Have Then That'd Be A Sad Ending. But it's not. Everyone accepts what happened with an egao. Us being sad isn't intentional, it is the show misinterpreting how we would react to 6 people fucking dying. Duel was alright kinda. Gates are bad. I love Yuya comboing into summon methods, but the gates don't do that, they just activate, use a monster in the grave and extra deck and summon a hybrid. That's not XYZ, that's not Synchro, that's kinda Fusion I guess. That's just not a combo into summon method,t hat's a cheap way to get any monster out. The final action duel race is a very neat concept. The duelists don't interact for the most part, feels like a waste. The pacing in it is also not great, stops too much. Catapult monsters fireworks is fun, I like that it's a final ATK manipulation because BUT YOU'LL STILL TAKE THE DAMAGE. Already talked about the worlds combining and NAC killing Serena in cold blood. Reiji is a terrible final opponent. Yugi vs Atem: Atem is the best duelist ever and is testing Yugi in a test of skills as those two have never fought and we still don't fully know Yugi's skills. Judai vs Yugi/Atem: Judai still needs to get his fun back, he loves fighting strong people and Yugi is The Strongest. Yusei vs Jack: those two have a lonstanding rivalry and the fight has futures at stake Yuma vs Astral: those two have never fought and relied on each other the whole time. Astral puts everyone's future on the line. These are all great back-and-forths, the opponent has an edge, the characters have chemistry and only Yusei vs Jack features rivals that have faced each other. Yuya vs Reiji... is Reiji sitting on his opening hand and denying Yuya's combos until he gets a big enough one. There's no real back and forth, Reiji is basically a rock. Those two have fought a bit, we return to their first fight place... like how the start of the arc also reused duel fields. Feels lazier than it does bookendy. Atem's goal is to see if Yugi is strong enough, and he's ready to stay with his friend if not. Yugi's goal is to beat down Judai's asshole and have fun. Jack's goal is to shatter Yusei's asshole so everyone can follow their dreams. Astral's goal is to have the greatest fight with Yuma ever. Reiji's goal is for Yuya to make his sister smile. Reiji blatantly and explicitly set this whole thing up for Yuya to win. He's loved Yuya's antics since forever, he supports him and he knows only Yuya can save everyone. While everyone else is like a karate master goign "lets talk with our fists!!", Reiji is more like a dad playing baseball with his kid and hoping loudly that the kid will bat the ball he's about to throw. And in doing so, the kid gets to the major leagues immediately.The duel's just not that interesting in setup, the plays are not well executed, the animation doesn't make the final action duel setpiece any justice, the resolution of conflict is confusing and relies on telling rather than showing and hoping the audience loves the themes enough and the fate of the yugirls and yubois is a grossly miss-communicated message. The Pro Test feels like an early concept since the pun is so good. I legit feel that Reiji's laugh suits Sawatari better. Imagine if his almost-mayor dad actually went "That Yuya duel was amazing!", Sawatari then laughing would be such a good way to end his character arc by accepting all that Yuya is. All in all? Disappointed. I like a lot of things, but the execution is ass. There's good bits, but as a whole the show falls apart. BB and Yuri, and Sergei and Yugo and Yuzu and Masumi and duel schools and fight club class and splatoon. So many good bits, but they do not flow well. They don't link to each other. They do not build up. The show fails to use its 3 year runtime. Disappointed.

#arc v #arc v critiism #yugioh

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